Halloween

This weekend brought the end to October. After today, it's November! What? Where did the time go? Seriously, this month flew by way too fast. I remember thinking just 31 days ago "I have about 2 months and I am sure they will take the longest". I was proved wrong. D-day is rapidly approaching and I have no idea what to do! One day at a time.

Friday Jake stayed with my parents. They were watching Eli and Caleb overnight so my mom figured they would have all 3 and Jake and Eli could play all night long. That they did. We took advantage and had our probably final "date night alone" before #2. Our weekends are pretty packed and we have so much to do we won't have that much time for "alone" time. We went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse. I hadn't been there in about a year. I forgot how fantastic and reasonable it was. Those rolls are to die for there. I was glad we went because now Michael wants to go again! Plus they have "take out" service and they aren't far from us so we may be taking advantage of that come the baby! After a fabulous meal, we went to American to kill some time before our movie started. I will say, I love the Tempurpedic bed system. I could sleep on that thing all the time. I am not a fan of the sleep number at all. I know so many people that have had them and they are great for a while but then go down hill. We walked off what we could of our dinner and headed to the theater. We decided to see "Red". It is a total shoot 'em up movie that is completely unrealistic but I loved it! Bruce Willis has to be one of my favorite "action" stars. He still looks pretty good too. Take that Stallone, Van Damme, and Seagal! Seeing Helen Mirren use a giant machine gun just made my day. It was humorous and a feel good movie. I love John Malkovich. I really do. When he plays a corny, pshyco, off the wall man, he is at his finest. I laughed every time he spoke! It was fantastic. We then went late night shopping and didn't get home till about 11. Shockingly late for us! We didn't even go to bed till mindnightish. That needs to go in the record books!

Saturday Michael was gone most of the day. I woke up at the same time, got ready, and headed to the hospital to visit a friend. I then picked up the little squirt and came home. Jake was suppose to take a nap but 20 minutes in he started crying. I went upstairs and yeah, another Jake moment. He dumped an entire bottle of lotion all over our bed, including our new bedding we got the night before. He was crying because some of it got on him. Seriously? First he cuts up our sheets and comforter and now dumps lotion all over. Basically, nap time was over. Michael walked in about 5 minutes after his incident and we then spent about a half hour cleaning up. We then headed out, ran a few errands, and then got to my parents house just in time to order dinner. I finally got to eat them. 8 months later, I got to eat my Italian Fries. I love Big Tomato and I love their Italian Fries even more. I finally got to consume them after craving them for so long. Of course, I over ate but I didn't want to stop. They are so good. I did keep half for lunch the next day. We then took a few pictures and Jake went off for trick or treating. Two hours later of answering the door, watching a movie, and eating more candy then kids knocked, Jake returned. Full load of candy. Looking cute as ever! He immediately started to taking his costume off and wanted his pj's on. We headed home and the boy and us crashed from sugar.

Today has been a normal Sunday for us. Church, grocery shopping and football. I got a ton of things done though. We took a giant load to storage, cleaned out Jake's entire room, even the closet! Just threw a few things away and took some stuff to the dumpster. I felt bad because Michael had worked all weekend but we really needed to get some things done. I managed to get all the laundry plus some done and even got a few things ready for, you know it, Christmas. It has been a productive day and now I can relax for the rest of it. I am so exhausted and I think going to bed early is definitely in the cards tonight. I need it. Michael needs it. We all need it.

Another week is coming up! Tomorrow is my last of 3 Mondays I have at work!! Down hill slide! I am getting excited! Also, next weekend, our house is going Christmas. Get over it people. I have a baby coming and it has to be done by then! Tomorrow is the first day of November so the Christmas music will be blasting on the iPod!

1 week down, 3 more to go...

Surprisingly this week has gone by extremely fast. It has been a very chaotic week at work and I'm glad I survived with only receiving 1 zit as proof for living through it. Tomorrow (Friday) should be interesting. After tomorrow, I only have 3 weeks left of work until I leave for baby time! Let’s see...what happened so far this week.....

1) First week of Josie being gone. Complete downward spiral of depression on that one. Upside is she is doing well and now probably holds some super human power. It has been very odd not being able to roll over to her desk, get or send a random IM about life or thoughts I get, now being able to hear her man laugh or evil laugh when Ferry is around, not having someone stir things up with Eric, it's just been weird. I am so glad she was able to be fixed and hopefully it will improve the pain she has been having but I miss her. 'Nough said.

2) Jana left. Double depression. Monday night was one of those "perfect" nights and even though I only got 3 hours of sleep, it was so worth it. I was so glad we got to see her and spend some time like the old days. Ok, so it was 2 months ago but still. I will be counting down the days till December when she returns! Then baby Janzen 2.0 (seriously typed his name first...whoops) can meet her and her him! I am really looking forward to the fact that I will be off work that entire time. Sorry Jeff, but this vacation, she is mine. =)

3) End of month. This means, end of life as we know it. Every month it's the same thing. Last minute this, checking on that, people stalking every policy we are writing. It gets old. Really old. For some reason this month was the worst I have seen in a long while. Yes, we are down a few people. One due to getting a bionic hip and a few for sickness. It still was far worse then it should have been. We can only do what we can do, when our hands our tied, it's not our problem. Also, please don't ignore emails informing you when EOM is or when everything needs to be in by. I know I will show up to work tomorrow with a few "surprises" in my queue to get on the books. Well, sorry, that shipped passed at 3:30 today. If I could have a drink, I would have this week. I needed it. Instead I ate a piece of chocolate chocolate chip cake and watched Grey's. It will have to do till December.

4) Busy factor. I have no idea what is going on. I really don't. I feel like we are never home. Or, only 1 of us is. I was gone Monday, both Tuesday, Michael was gone Wednesday, then again tonight. Tomorrow night we are gone due to having a final date night before #2 makes his appearance. The boys are all staying with Nana and Papa on Friday. We are taking advantage to go out. It's been a while. We have been so insanely busy that we haven't had time for just him and me. Saturday morning, the busyness starts up again. Michael is working on a side job Saturday and Sunday morning. We have plans for most of Saturday afternoon and evening. Yet, I feel like our house is in shambles. It really isn't but there is so much more I need to do. Ugh. Maybe when I am finally done with work it will get done.

5) Storage space is now upgraded. Thanks to a gracious Steven and even more gracious Tina for letting us borrow her hubby for the night, Michael and Steve got everything moved. Michael said he was shocked how much room we have. That I am looking forward too. I would love love love to move some more things over this weekend, but I doubt that will happen. Maybe Sunday afternoon. I have about 4 pieces of furniture that I want over there soon! Free up some more space!

6) Sleep. Lack of or too much. I have no idea. I can say Monday it was lack of. Yet, Wednesday I passed out at 7:30 after Jake went to bed. The wind was a factor this week due to it woke Jake up at least twice each night. Michael never wakes up at night, ever. Just getting up for 2 minutes to put him back to sleep, pee and fall back asleep, really messed me up. Two nights in a row of that did me in. Plus last night our college neighbors across the street came in at 2:45 and would not shut up. Again, waking Jake up. Although, they did wake Michael up too so he put him back to bed. Sadly, I figured I should just pee while I was awake then. I would say instead of going on a date, I would go to bed at 7 tonight, but I need Michael time!

On a final note, it's almost November. Where on earth did October go? Also, where did the Fall weather go? I do not recall 20 degree weather being Fall weather. I expect that in December - February. I need to find my winter coat and scarf. We woke up and our thermostat was at 58 this morning. Yikes. My bad. I still don't have the guts to turn on the heat. I will say this thought. Next weekend the big C is coming to our house. I waited until Halloween was over but tree is probably going up next weekend! Prepare yourselves! =)

Storage melodrama averted

We have this issue. We want to move come Spring. Ok, let me rephrase that. We want to put our house on the market and hope it sells in Spring. Main problem: crap. When you have kids, I never realized how much junk you accumulate. None of the stuff you can throw away. Toys can be handed down, same with clothing and sleeping apparatuses from older sibling to younger. Yet, you keep collecting tons of it. It never stops. Just when I think I have something organized...BAM! Something new shows up. This is why a year ago we got a storage unit. Heck, I could basically fill it up with my Christmas decorations. Kidding! Actually, it is probably the truth. Currently it is filled with a piano, dressers, 2 desks, washer and dryer, a futon, and many upon many bins full of stuff. It's a 10x10 which you would think it would be enough space. No, it's not, especially since we want to move. You are supposed to make your home as de-cluttered as you can. Are you kidding me? I have a 3 year old and soon to be newborn. I think 50% of the things in my house belong to them! We love the company that we go through but they never have anything bigger available. That was until last night.

We were searching for a new place to hold everything and couldn't find anything that wasn't about a 50% increase in cost. Why is a storage unit so expensive? Man. I am in the wrong business. Charging $134.50 a month for a 10x15 unit is crazy. Not to mention most of these places have at least 10 units of that size. Anyways, I thought for fun I would check our storage unit. What? Wait...I'm I going crazy. There is one unit that is 10x15 available. What? No way. It's only $5.50 more then what we are paying now? Sign me up! Pronto! You can switch your options on line but due to our luck, their system was down. Michael then started reading our agreement and you have to give a 30 day notice if you are canceling or wanting an upgrade. That basically meant we will be paying for 2 storage units in the month of November. I had given up hope because these little beasts are taken fast. Once again, Michael came through. He gave them a jingle ASAP this morning and ta da! The bigger one is ours! Not to mention Larry (owner) told us we didn't have to pay extra. He was just going to adjust and pro-rate our next invoice. Rock on!

Now the fun part of moving everything from one place to another begins. Sadly and oh so unfortunate for me, I cannot help. Shucky darn! Michael will have to get some of his manly friends to help. I hope it goes smoothly and we have to do it pretty quickly. Not to mention the day we do it we probably will have to take a giant load from our house over there. Jake's closet has about 10 bins lined up full of clothing and miscellaneous things that need to go. It is a giant weight lifted though. I am so excited that we can get more of our stuff out of the house! It will also make more room for Baby J when he makes his arrival in December (still hoping he holds out!)

That was my excitement for the day. Yes it was about a storage unit. It's the small things in life.

For us, a low key weekend!

We had probably the greatest food day ever in the history of food days on Thursday for Josie's last day! I contributed Krispy Kreme's and my brownies. I didn't eat either one. I was so stuffed and I even had a doctors appointment that afternoon. His heart beat was 132 and I can tell you it was because he was in a food coma. I didn't eat dinner at all. It was a sad but good day. Sad, because Josie wasn't going to be there Monday morning and good because we didn't do a whole lot of anything. Always productive! Giving on your side service at all times! =) Thursday night we actually went shopping. Jake needed some new kicks extremely bad so we hit up Stride Rite for a nice pair and then headed to Kohl's for a pair of tennis shoes. The kids feet are huge. Janzen trait I think. JcPenney was having some wicked sales on children's clothes so Jake scored a new pair of Thomas pj's and a rad winter jacket with snow pants for only $30. It was 75% off. What in the world? Snow hasn't even hit the ground yet. It didn't matter to me, that was an awesome find! We got home just in time for Grey's and for me to pass out at 9:30!

Friday was even a better day! I was eating lunch with Jana (who arrived safely from Texas on Thursday) and Becky. Ferry and Derrick came along and I was looking forward to a good lunch at Centro. On my way there, I noticed a SUV that looked oddly familiar. Flatness. Who else has a Durango with the deer sticker in the back left corner? Derrick and Ferry swore it wasn't her but not too many others have that. Plus it was Warren county plates. I just blew it off and kept walking. We weren't sure if anyone made a reservation, then I saw it. Saw them all. I was the sucka on Friday. They had all planned a surprise baby shower for me. I felt completely embarrassed. I hate having attention on me. I really do. I get all nervous and turn red. I'm still blaming the small one on this (Josie, you are going down!) It was a perfect shower though. Wonderful restaurant, tons of adorable gifts for Baby J and of course, amazing friends! After stuffing my face with my favorite meal there, we had to unfortunately head back to work. Funny thing, lunch ran a little longer so we really didn't have much work time left. Oh well. It was Friday. Also, Beth gave me a call when I got back from lunch and we ended up deciding to go to Night Eyes and eat pizza for the night.

Night Eyes....every year I say the same thing. We will never go back. It's insane, you hardly get any candy and it's always so crowded you can't get through anything without running over the ankles of the person in front of you. It took us just a half hour to get into the place and park out in basically Pleasant Hill. We had great company that kept the comic relief up and the kids had fun! We then headed back to the Proctor's and ate some pizza and watched the Rangers beat out the stinking Yankees. So fantastic. I dislike baseball, but I loathe the Yankees. We got home and basically completely crashed at 10:30. 

Saturday we spent the morning at home, doing laundry and going through all the new baby things we received. We went to OTB for a late lunch with Jana her hubby and the Haines'. It was fantastic!! So good. I could eat Mexican food everyday. Especially chips and salsa. I cannot wait till I can have a Margarita once again. I love them every once and a while with my food. So delish! We went to my parents house afterwords to pick up the munchkin who helped my dad rake leaves while we went to lunch. The kid had a blast. He was covered in mud and frosting. They went to Dahl's and he got a pumpkin and a cup cake due to some even they were doing. We then took our car in for some general maintenance and hung out with Michael s folks and eventually made it home around 7:30ish. Michael was in a horrible mood due to the Hawkeyes losing so I went to bed early!

Sunday was the norm. Breakfast, Church, groceries. We did have to run and take Elmo out for Michael's parents so we made a pit-stop at Sam's for dessert for Bible Study this week and some other non-necessary items that sucked us in. We then have been at home since. Did a few loads of laundry, baked a ton of cookies, watched a movie with Jake, and basically did a whole lot of nothing. It felt so amazing. I need more days like this!!! I wish we had another few days for the weekend. It would be amazing!

Another busy week is upon us. I think we are only home on Thursday and Friday this week. Friday we are without Jake. He's spending the night at my parents house with Eli and Caleb so I am sure he will be having a blast. Michael and I just need to plan a date night! We are so tired we will probably go to dinner early and fall asleep! Ha! Such an old married couple we are. I am very excited for Jana and Becky time tomorrow night!!!!! Can't get enough of that!!! =)

Money Cash

Cash and Jake

 

 Our little engineer!!

Connor and Jake

I love him!

All the kids!

Yet another List

While cooking dinner (pasta bake), I was reminded of things that I can't handle very well during pregnancy:

1) Cooking hamburger meat. It makes me want to vomit just seeing it in the fridge. Not to mention the hundreds of times I have to swallow while trying to cook it.

2) Cleaning out anything spoiled in the refrigerator. I usually keep on top of this, but every once and a while one gets away. I resort to either throwing the container away completely or asking Michael to lend a hand.

3) Garbage. I cannot smell anything rotten. It is making my stomach uneasy just thinking about it. Luckily Michael usually takes it out. There have been a few times in the past 3 weeks I have had do. I just hold my breath.

4) Dog farts. Now not many people get to experience these wonderful moments in life, but Hawkeye....man that dog seriously has some rank gas. It tends to clear out a room. If he even lifts and eyebrow, I am out of there.

5) Certain foods. If it's a mix of food in general, I am screwed. Cafeterias and restaurants makes this extremely hard. Even just the mixture of people eating random food at their desks at work makes me uneasy. Especially if onions are prominent.

Now most of these I have to face and over come every day. I try to work through them and I believe the more I deal with them the better they will get. Well, I hope so. At least I have only a 48 days till this should go away!

In other news: Jana returns in 3 days. Sad part is when she returns, Jos ditches me at work. I'm the sucka now. For three weeks at least. I still have a lot to do. I have a feeling I will somehow get it all in with no time to spare. We will see.

Rest of the weekend....

Friday after spending the day at the orchard, some of the group and others joined us at our casa for pizza. It was fun just to veg out after a long day. After spending an hour talking with our "slightly" inebriated neighbors, I think we passed out by 10. Saturday morning we arose early and boy, I got a lot done. I really got to cross off quite a few things off my list. I finished washing and putting away all baby clothes per size for up to 6 months. That was a giant chore. I cleaned out Jake's clothes and his dresser. Another ridiculous task. The kid has clothes coming out of his ears. We got rid of the toddler bed and he is now sleeping in style on a full twin. Complete with Thomas the Tank Engine sheets. Honestly. Ugh. He finally allowed us to put a stinking pillow on his bed. Took over 3 years but he slept on it! Michael had to run over to a friends to help pull wire for about 2 hours and then we spent the afternoon cheering on Iowa (good job boys!!), routing for Texas (nice upset!), and laughing so hard that OSU finally got their butts kicked and were brought down off their high horse. All while, folding laundry, cleaning the kitchen, knitting, making out Christmas shopping lists, and getting our play on with Jake. We cuddles for a viewing of Iron Man 2 and then retired at midnight. All to wake up today to early church, grocery shopping and back to the orchard! Another gorgeous day! My pelvis will definitely hate me tomorrow but oh well. It was already mad at me for Friday and it will be out for vengeance tomorrow. It was so nice out and it was with great company! We spent the rest of the late afternoon watching the Vikings. That game had the most ridiculously ending I have seen in a long time. Then we took Gabby back to my parents house. I think she was ready to go home. Four days with Zoey and Hawkeye is just too much, even for normal people. My parents got home early so we got to see them after their long vacation! Jake was way excited! We are now crashing and it's only 7:30. Tomorrow I get the honor and privileged to go back to work. Barf. High point of the week...JANA COMES FOR A VISIT! That means dinners, OTB dates with Jana and Becky (I guess the men too) and other things! I have missed her so! Yes we may text an obscene amount but still. Sadly, this is Josie's last week at work. I think I might cry. Upside....that means only 3 weeks left of work for me. SUCKAS! 

Here are some photos from our orchard trip today!

Jumping

Hayride

Corn Maze

Orchard 2010

Every year we head up to Cambridge and every year we have a complete blast! Michael took Friday off work and we headed up in the morning to spend a gorgeous morning with friends. We of course stopped by Starbucks (our normal routine) and after making a quick detour to D and J's house, we were on our way. When we got there we could notice some major changes that they completed over the year. First off, the new main building. Can we say awesome?! I believe so. The store is larger, there are more things to purchase and the way to just pay and get in makes so much more sense. We spent a good two hours with the feeding the animals, playing the corn pool, riding the tractors, and waking around to all the little fun activities they have. Jake and Norah loved just being free and running around. Ellen and her kiddos arrived and we ate some lunch at the new restaurant barn. We headed over to the "big pillow" to let the kids (this includes Michael) jump around and burn off some more energy. The next stop was the big slide. Jake was too scared to go down. Bless his heart. Everyone else had a blast racing down the slide. We headed back up to the corn pool and let Jake and Connor run around for another hour or so. Those boys probably could have stayed there forever.

Here are some photos of our adventure.

The goats

Duck races

 

Norah petting the horse

Corn Pool!

Family of 3, about to be 4

I see you!

Kisses

Tractor rides

Animal feeding

Jumping pillow

Giant Slide

My BIG kid!

Gorgeous or what?

Completely love

4 days off...not really.

I have today and tomorrow off work. 4 day weekend! Score! We had a few things planned but nothing to huge. Now we literally have 2-3 things going on everyday until Monday. How does this happen? I have no idea. I am looking forward to spending time with good friends and just being able to act silly with our kids.

We also have a new member in the house for 4 days. Her name would be Gabby and she is the dog of my parents. It is a weird dynamic in the house. Hawkeye is way territorial. I think more of Zoey then anything. Zoey is super submissive to Gabby and then Gabby just pretty much keeps to herself. Unlike our dogs, she is a butt sniffer so she is always up in Hawkeye and Zoey's business. She is an older dog so the only downfall is she usually has to go to the bathroom around 3:30-4 in the morning. Just one more thing to get us ready for the baby!

I am sure I will have photos to post after this weekend. Michael took the day off tomorrow also so I'm way looking forward to that!

Lame blog, I know.

Finally did it!

We had to some training this morning and it gave me the opportunity to make my lists! I have a "to do" list before the big day. I have a list of everything we need to pack and bring to the hospital attached to this list is a list of everything of Jake's we need to take to my parents house. I then have a list of things I still need to buy and miscellaneous items that didn't fall under any of my other categories. After I finished it, I think I about had a heart attack. I think the "to-do" list was my shocker. I decided though, I will take it top to bottom (and same on the next page). I have the day off tomorrow and Friday so I hope that I will be able to kick start this list! We don't seem to have much going on so I really, really hope I can get a good start!

How many more days till Nov 19th?

Who needs sleep right? I think waking up 4-6 times a night is worse then just getting 7 hours of light sleep. They say you have vivid dreams when you are pregnant. I had a few with Jake. I think the most insane one I had was a T-Rex was reeking havoc on downtown Des Moines and somehow Lucas killed him. It was just way beyond anything I have ever dreamed before in my life.The people, the scenario, the hero, the villain, and half the time I think it was in 3-D. Well this time around, I get them at the least 3 times a night. They are all different. I wake up between each one and they never have a common link. I wake up for about 2-3 minutes in between, then they start all over again. If I could remember them and write them down, I would. I could make money on them. I tell you what, I have one crazy imagination. People appear that I haven't seen for 10-15 years. People I completely forgot about. I would love to just go to bed and wake up at 4:50 AM. No dreams, no wake ups, just sleep. I feel like I have only received about 2 hours of sleep. It is really causing me to dislike work. I think mainly because I am tired so my annoyance level increases for immaturity and stupidity 200%. There I said it. I'm constantly bombarded with both at work. I just keep thinking: "__ amount of days till break". That is what keeps me going. Sad but true. I loathe walking into that place everyday. The only thing that keeps me going is the people. Even then, Mrs Flatness is leaving me in 7 days. I am going to cry. I cannot manage that. I will explode. Who in the world is going to really get me? Just not fair! The amount of immaturity I have to deal with or see everyday makes me think that High School was never that bad. The circus we work in, it's just, mind boggling. Don't get me wrong, not everyone is "clown" material but there are days. I need a ray of hope! Also, it seems all our underwriters, okay, 75% of them are thinking they are the cats meow and can get away with walking all over everyone. They all think they are the most important and that they deserve all the attention. I feel like I'm working with a bunch of 2 year olds. I get a headache just thinking about it. Recently it seems like they want us to do everything for them, including wiping their butts. Now I will say it is not all of them. I love a few of them. They keep me going. Just the issues I have been dealing with recently are just insane. The "cheating" is becoming a little out of hand. If we are not competitive, just let it go. Stop trying to give it away. This will not work and will backfire!  Again, tiredness and hormones are probably making it sound worse then it is.

Enough said on that. I just had a horrible day today and needed to vent a little! I could have gone way more into detail and all that but I really don't feel like it. I just need to take it one day at a time and breathe. Just breathe. 

That and 10 days till Jana comes to visit! 

Where does the time go?

The days keep speeding by and I am getting nothing accomplished. 

Michael has been working on a side job for the past week and I'm becoming an Electrical Widow. I am exhausted from being 7+ months pregnant and all I want to do is go to bed when I get home but I do have a 3 year old that needs to stay up till at least 7:30 and needs mommy time. I miss being able to go to bed at 7:30. If Michael was home I could get to bed then. Now I have to wait till Jake's asleep to get multiple things done and then retire in my bed at 9:30 or so. I will say it is really having an impact on my day at work. My performance so far this month shows it. Honestly, I don't really care. I have less than 40 days and I have a good break. I need it!

With Michael being gone on the week nights and 4-6 hours on Saturday/Sunday, I have been trying to come up with activities to do with Jake. He has been making pumpkins and leaves, we have been baking cookies, and reading tons of books. I just feel bad because I have no energy so I can't run around with him outside and do all the things I am use to doing with him. Makes me sad! We are exhausting lots of craft ideas. He loves it though!

Jake and I took a break from our house on Friday and went to my parents house for dinner. We ate some amazing Chinese and I got to listen to my daddy play his guitar moves. He is getting better every time I hear him. He has been playing for what, 40+ years and it's still amazing to see the things he is learning. He played and sang a few songs for me! I love it. I could do that everyday, all day long. 

That was pretty much the highlight of my weekend. No joke! I did go to Story City tonight to visit my grandparents. Other then that it was laundry, cleaning and playing with the 3 year old. I still have not accomplished anything on my to-do list before the baby and it's not looking promising. I have Thursday and Friday off work so hopefully I can get something done. I need to. I need to just make a giant list of everything. Combine my 2 lists together and rank them. If I don't, nothing will get done, period. 

I also think I am off because we had no Hawkeye football. I dislike bye weeks.

Happy 10/10/10. Apparently it's cool or something.