Dinner is served!

So the pregnancy cravings are still going strong. Last night for dinner I was going to cook barbecue chicken and mashed potatoes and broccoli, but every time I thought about eating it I felt sick. It also takes at least 35 minutes for chicken to cook in the oven and the kids were cranky because they were so hungry and I was nauseous because I was so hungry so I decided we would have chicken tomorrow, (tonight). I'd been craving homemade biscuits so instead I made homemade buttermilk biscuits so that we could have bacon egg and cheese biscuits and grits on the side. It was SO good. My craving was fulfilled and my tummy was quite happy. I was able to feel full for a long time too. For those of you that are more health conscious just ignore all of the calories and fat that me and the children just so happily ingested and we'll pretend that I don't butter and salt my grits and break little pieces of bacon in it. ;) It was so good I'm tempted to have it again tonight, but I know that the children need more nourishment than that and so does our unborn baby so I will control myself. Kenneth works outside a good bit too so he needs something healthy when he gets home.

Today has been one of those days that you feel like you just can't make yourself do anything so I called my very dear friend Morgan and packed up the kids and headed to her house. The children played joyfully...at times while we talked and she took a shower. It was nearing lunch time so we fed them and then packed them into the car and drove to McDonald's for ice cream and the play place. They had a good time but our poor Ashlyn and Morgan's poor little Hannah are just too afraid to climb to the top of the play place. Fortunately for the two of them they have each other at the bottom. Jade is more brave, unfortunately for me. She also really enjoyed running to the other tables where adults were eating while watching their children that did play all over the play place. One women stopped me and asked how old Jade was and I told her and she said, "Aww she's petite like her mother." That totally made my day! I know I'm not the size of a house, yet but it was still very nice to hear. I also had a man put a New Testament booklet on my table. I don't know what faith he was but it made me feel good that he wanted me to have it, like he was giving me a gift. Maybe he thought my children deserved it, either way I thought it was such a nice gesture. OH CRAP! WHY DIDN'T I GIVE HIM A PASS-ALONG CARD?? I keep several of them in my wallet for moments like this and I didn't even think about it!! Well great now I'm frustrated with myself. I can't believe the thought didn't even come to mind. I did think "I wish I had a Book of Mormon with me." Lets blame it on the pregnancy brain, it will make me feel better. Well Jade is sleeping and my nails really need some TLC.

A box of tissues and Walt Disney's Pocahontas

Yesterday I took Ashlyn to Wal*Mart to get a new movie. My Dad gave the both of us gift cards for our bdays and so we went shopping. She picked out Pocahontas which made me happy because I always liked it as a kid and we didn't own it yet. After we looked around for awhile we HAD to stop at Chik-fil-a so that I could get some of there delicious waffle fries and something to drink. So what if it was only 10:34am I have been craving there fries and Bo*Jangle's fries. For those of you who don't live in the South Bo*Jangles and Chik-fil-a are two different food chains that do not sell beef. They are chicken only! And I LOVE chicken! They are AMAZING! I wish I could send you all some of this delicious food. Anyway...when we got home we all sat around the TV and turned on Pocahontas and ate our food. I haven't seen this movie in years so I had forgotten a good bit of events in the movie. To make a long story short I cried like a little baby. Of course I was trying to hide it from Ashlyn to avoid a million questions since I was already answering a ton about Kocoum who dies. Anyway I had to keep getting up to grab a tissue out of the bathroom. You know you're pregnant when you can't watch a Disney movie without crying. I had to laugh while the tears were running down my face because I was getting to the point when my shoulders were shaking and I couldn't stop. I seriously couldn't help it. It was ridiculous. It's even more humorous if you picture it in your head. lol. Well enjoy my hormonal misfortune. lol.

Me and baby are doing well and growing just fine. Please if you see me and realize that I am only 12 and a half wks do not make the comment, or anything like unto it, "Wow! You're only 12wks along and you're already that big?" My sensitive pregnant feelings and I will greatly appreciate it. lol. I hope everyone is having a great week and ready for school.

Who's Pregnant?

I think that most of my followers know that we are now expecting baby #3. My due date is February 23, 2010. I have several feelings about this. Of course it was a planned pregnancy so nothing unexpected. We were going to wait until this fall to start trying, but our plans changed and I am now 11wks in. If you know me well you know how very sick I get. This time has been a bit different. I still get very nauseous when I don't eat and I do occasionally have to run to the bathroom to get sick. But it's nothing like before. I usually haven't gained any weight at this point yet, but this time is different. lol. I've gained 3lbs so far so we are doing very well. I feel so much more tired this time around too. Maybe that has something to do with a having two children at home already. It doesn't help that Jade wakes up at least once during the night because the beloved pacifier has fallen out of the crib. I am debating on when to take it away. Normally I would say at the age of two, but the baby will be born one month after Jade's second birthday and I don't want her to take the baby's pacifier and I don't want to overwhelm her with changes. Any ideas? I'm a little scared about the adjustment part after the baby's born. I know I'll be able to adjust, just as I did when we had baby #2, but it's still a process and not always the most fun. Jade was such an EASY baby, so I'm wondering if I'll get lucky again, or if the baby will be hard like Ashlyn. Only time will tell.

So how I told Kenneth...I found out I was expecting the Thursday before Father's Day. We were planning on going to TN with my Uncle and his family to there cabin and spending the weekend. I didn't want to tell him with other ppl, just he and I and the girls. So I waited and waited and waited. If you know me you know how difficult this was for me to keep a secret. Anyway, we were on our way home and since I am pregnant I had to pee a lot. I didn't want him to get any clues and I was doing so well so far so I pretended that I started my period and needed to stop. After waiting an hr in traffic we headed straight to my brother's house where we celebrated Father's day with my dad and siblings. I wanted to go home first to tell Kenneth and then to see my family so Kenneth could announce what he'd gotten for Father's day, but traffic just didn't allow it. So after spending time with my family we came home and I made Kenneth hide out in Ashlyn's room while I got everything ready. We sent him on a scavenger hunt. I made little poetic clues and hung them up in the house. After all of his clues he ended up coming to me to receive a card. I kept telling him it wasn't much that it was just something really small so when he got the card he had no idea that it would be telling him that he would soon be a proud father of three. He was very excited and told Ashlyn that she was gonna have a little brother or sister. She too was very happy about this news.

Let me just tell you how badly Ashlyn's wanted a brother. Before Kenneth and I even began discussing getting pregnant Ashlyn has been telling us that she needs her little brother. She kept telling me that she needed him so that she could teach him things. I thought that was quite precious. The day of my first OB appt I took the girls to Aunt Susan's house so I could go alone. When we got there she said, "Don't worry mom, it's a boy. It's a boy I promise." I tried to explain to her that I wouldn't find that out for awhile that they just wanted to make sure me and the baby were happy and healthy. Anyway she has since made comments like before snuggling up to me, "Don't worry mom, I'll be very careful with your baby." While rubbing my tummy one night she said, "This is his body, and this is his head. He has brown hair." Kenneth really thinks that she knows something we don't know. We will see what happens. We really want to have a boy, but we won't be disappointed if it's a girl. I feel like I'm somewhat of an expert with girls by now. At least up to the age of three anyway. Ashlyn just turned four on July 20th and I don't know who this little girl with the bad attitude is. lol. I hear it's just a phase. If that's true, it can't go by fast enough. Ashlyn has also informed us that she has a baby in her tummy. Her baby is a girl and her name is Ella. She won't share her food because she says that, "If I don't eat I'll throw up." Kenneth asked her who the father of her baby is to which she responded, "Don't worry daddy, we can take care of her." lol. Friday night I was getting ready to go to a friend's lingerie shower and Ashlyn was going to take a bath. After stripping down she said, "Look mommy. I have a big chest because I'm breastfeeding." You can imagine the shock on my face from that comment. Where does she get some of this stuff!? Next she then informed me that, "After my baby pops out you and daddy have to babysit so that I can do my homework." I almost said that she can't have a baby if she is still doing homework, but then I was afraid of questions that may follow that remark, so I just simply said, "Homework is important." What do ya do, or say? lol. She just cracks us up.

Not only am I expecting but my older sister, and two sisters-in-law are pregnant. We believe a few more siblings will have news to share soon too. At least we hope so anyway. =) So LOTS of babies coming to the family and we can't wait! My poor parents, all of these new grand babies. They are going to be so broke! jk. Well I wanted to spread our very happy news to those we love and adore. Hopefully I'll be able to download pics. soon. Let me know if any of you have or know someone who has the "Windows Professional XP" cd-rom.

The crown of my "rain"

Last Friday I was enjoying some much needed quite time. BOTH of my girls were sleeping peacefully in their beds so I turned on "Twilight" and grabbed some snacks. While eating a fruit snack, (oh yes. I love them too) I chomped down on something solid and hard. I pulled out my crown. The crown that has only been adoring tooth #30 for slightly over a year. After gathering myself together I called my sister Wendy, the dental hygienist of the family. Her former employer did my dental work so she had me call their office to get it bonded back on. Little did I know that they were going to be out of town from that Friday (July 3) until July 13! I was NOT going to wait two wks without having it fixed. I had to call the "on call dentist" covering for Dr. Meares' office. Thankfully they called me early Monday morning and asked if I could get there by 11:30. THANK GOODNESS! I showed up and after two hours of a little uncomfort they fixed it for me. Kenneth had taken Monday off so he was able to stay home with the kids so that I could deal with the pain without an audience. Ashlyn and I have a dentist appt. on the 14th and I don't want her to be freaked out. My crown is now happily back to it's place on the head of tooth #30. Luckily I didn't break it or accidentally swallow it or anything!

We had our family portraits done, FINALLY and I get to pick them up in less than two hrs. I'm so excited. They turned out REALLY well. I was nervous that the girls might not smile at the same time and that Kenneth and I might be trying too hard to get them to smile that we might not be looking at the camera but luckily everyone is smiling and looking at the camera. I was very pleased. I can't wait to get them and distribute them to all of our awaiting fans, or should I say Ashlyn and Jade's grandparents and aunts and uncles. =) These pictures have been requested for some time now and it finally happend. Thanks Mom!

I took Jade to her 18mo appt yesterday and our little monster, (as her daddy lovingly calls her) weighs a tiny 21lbs and 1oz and is 32in tall. She's a tall thin little monster. =) The Dr. was happy with her weight and height. When she was younger her weight was in the 10th percentile so he's happy with her progress. My mom says that she gets it from our side of the family being so little. After hearing that and seeing how we all turned out I quit worrying. We have a beautiful healthy little girl who is going to Nursery for the first time on Sunday! I AM SO EXCITED!!! She'll have a great time and she LOVES Morgan Webster, our new Nursery Leader. I think she'll do just fine. She may cry a bit, but those tears will go away soon I'm sure once she realizes she actually gets to play with toys at church.

We recently learned that our beautiful and amazing sister-in-law is going to have a baby boy! Congratulations Natalie and Jesse! They have a 4yr old little boy and a two yr old daughter. How exciting for them. We'll have to ask them for the little boy recipe so hopefully next time we'll get it right. lol. Not that we didn't want Jade to be a girl. That's not true. I wanted Ashlyn to have a little sister so that they could be best friends like me and my older sisters and younger sister.

We just enjoyed a wonderful 4th of July! We had our annual Bass Family Reunion and it was a blast. We had a great turn out and the food, as always was AMAZING!!! I'd been dreaming about the food days in advance. lol. Who wouldn't be satisfied with fried chicken, vinegar or mustard based barbeque, hash and rice, green beans, baked beans salads desserts, Aunt Lesley's awesome friscetta!?! That's just to name a few. There was so much food we all were asked to take some home. Well if they insist. It was really great getting to see my loved ones and spending the day with them. Ashlyn and Jade had a blast with all of their cousins and aunts and uncles. A HUGE thank you to Uncle Allison and Aunt Judi and Kristen. It was awesome y'all thank you!

If anyone has a "Windows XP Professional" disc I'd be MUCH abliged if you'd allow me to borrow it. It's the only way to fix my DL error so that I'm able to download pics. onto the blog or anything for that matter. I just have to let the disc run and it will take care of my problem. So if you recently bought a new comp. or were really great about keeping the discs that came with yours, you probably have it. Just thought I'd throw this in. ;)

Tips and fun, and no pictures?

So we have been quite busy lately. We have been to Myrtle Beach, Tennessee, and other fun things and I can't post not one single picture of our adventures. I'm quite ticked off to be honest. My computer has a "DLL error" so everytime I try to post a picture, only on my blog, it sends me to a blue screen with white lettering telling me that I have an error. Luckily I have a computer whiz of a brother-in-law and he is going to try to walk me through the steps of fixing it. So when I have some time and he has some time I'll give him a call. Until then, just imagine cute pictures of the girls playing in the water and building sandcastles with relatives. =)

I have found an amazing way to clean oven racks! I decided that my oven was long over due for a cleaning so I turned on the self cleaning cycle on the oven and took the racks out to clean them by hand. The racks weren't really getting clean so I decided to do some research to see if there was an easier way. I found one that sounded simple and I had all of the stuff I needed to do it. So naturally that's the one I picked. You place an old towel on the bottom of the tub so it doesn't get scratched and then you place the racks in bath tub. Use the hottest setting of water and run it until the racks are just covered. Then you add a 1/2 cup of granulated dish detergent, (i.e. powder cascade) and then you add about 1/4 cup of white vinegar. The directions say to let it soak for two hours but I did mine overnight. When I woke up in the morning I could see all of the yucky stuff just floating in the tub. I took the racks to the kitchen and just gently scrubbed off any residue. It came right off and my oven and racks especially, look brand new! I was so excited about this find I wanted to share it with everyone.

Well it's been quite awhile since I've posted anything. It's time to catch everyone up. We've been out of town a few times and we've been doing a good bit of swimming. Last week my AC line in my car decided to get a slit in it so I have no AC! We've been waiting on the guy that's supposed to fix it find the part we need. Today we decided we would find the part because he clearly does NOT have the same urgency that I do. I guess when you're not the one driving in your car that's reading 101 degrees in your car you don't really think about those that are suffering. Kenneth is looking for the part now and I'm praying they have one! I had to take Jade to the Dr and a big thank you to Jessica for driving us so we could have AC in the middle of the afternoon. Jade does not yet have an ear infection, but the Dr. doesn't trust her ears for a second seeing how it is that she gets infections so easily. She is however getting her two year old molars. She was also bitten by something on her inner ankle on her left foot. It was swollen yesterday and a little pink. This morning her foot is really red and more swollen today and I can see little dots that look like they have clear liquid in them. I called the Dr. again and they said give her more Benadryl and if she's not better by lunch or if it's worse to call them back. I gave her the Benadryl and she passed out in her high chair during lunch around 11:15. It was quite pitiful. When she wakes up I'll be able to check her little foot again. It's so swollen I can't get a shoe on it. She has a hard time walking on it too because her foot just leans WAY inward! Poor little baby just can't get a break. Her foot doesn't seem to be bothering her but I'm worried anyway. I guess that's just my job. Ashlyn had to be seen yesterday also because she smacked the heck out of her ear at my mom's house Sunday night. Her ear is completely dark purple and blue on the top and behind her ear. Luckily she's okay and no worries. Whew! What an awesome two wks it's been. I couldn't be any more sarcastic. Good news on my brother Jesse! He was able to urinate a little bit on his own last week. He still had to use the catheder to finish things up, but progress nonetheless. He has gotten a job since I last posted and he'll be able to do it sitting. A big difference from his old profession. He was an installer of car alarms, stereo eqiupment, tvs, etc. He can do anything with his hands! He's a big asset to the family. lol. My uncle runs the company that my Grandaddy started and he's been able to give Jesse a job. What a blessing. It will be a big adjustment to what he's used to but I think it's def. worth it. Well I don't have anything else as of now. I'll try to do better with keeping things current. Hope everyone's summer is going well! =D

Do I believe?

Two weeks ago I informed everyone of the trial my brother is facing with his Transverse Myelitis. Well before leaving the hospital two Sundays ago he was told that he has permanantly lost the ability to urinate on his own. He was also informed that he cannot work for a month at the minimum. They taught he and his wife how to insert the "in-and-out" catheder and sent them on their way. Jesse went to a Neurologist last wk and the Dr. was amazed that Jesse could walk. He said, "You don't understand. You should not be walking! This isn't something that people just bounce back from." He took Jesse off of his other pain meds and put him on one that has a high dose, and he's still on the steroids. Another Dr. believes that Jesse will regain control of his muscles again soon and be back to normal 100%, urinating on his own and everything. This Dr. told him to quit taking all pain meds and only take the steroids. He's weaning off of the pain pills and well on his way to recovery. On Monday Jesse felt the bottom of his seat for the first time. When he touches his arm he still can't feel his hand on top of his arm, but is soon approaching recovery.

So I ask myself...do I believe in the power of prayer and fasting? Absolutely without a doubt I believe that my father in heaven hears and answers prayers. I believe in the power of the preisthood and I know that we are heard. Our father is aware of us all and everything we are currently going through. I am so grateful to those that prayed and fasted with my family. Thank you to all of you, we have felt your prayers, and I know my brother and his wife have felt them even more so than the rest of us. Thank you. I will update everyone with things as they come. I'm sure he'll be making more progress each wk.

Long Stem Transverse Myelitis

On May 22 my big brother, (who is two yrs older than me) went to the Lexington ER. He was having severe pains throughout his body and hadn't urinated in two days. They gave him a catheder to relieve his bladder, gave him some pain meds, and told him to come back if he didn't pee within 8 hrs. He went back to the ER that evening as instructed if he continued to have problems. The Dr was SO rude! To make a long story short and keep me from gossiping he sent Jesse home with a "take home" catheder and told him to see a Urologist within two days. I don't know about you, but I don't know of any Drs. offices that are open on the weekends other than Pediatrics and Urgent cares. Anway...Jesse ended up going back to the hospital on May 23, (Saturday) and was taken to Richland Hospital this time. They definitely knew something wasn't right so they did an MRI and noticed that he had abnormalities on his spine and that it was inflamed. They did more MRI's a couple Spinal Taps. On Monday afternoon he was finally diagnosed with Long Stem Transverse Myelitis. TM is a neurological disorder caused by inflamation across both sides of one level, or segment of the spinal cord. The segment of the spinal cord where the damage exsists determines which parts of the body are affected. Damage at one segment will affect function at that segment and segments below it. So his inflamed spinal cord is putting tons of pressure on the nerves around it causing them to mis-fire sending excrutiating pain throughout his body. The Drs. have been great and he's been put on steroids so the swelling will go down. There isn't a cure at the time for TM. From the research I've done I've learned that the most critical part of treatment for TM is keeping the patient's body functioning and hoping for a complete or partial spontaneous recovery of the nervous system. The article also said that recovery usually begins within 2-12wks of the onset of symptoms and can continue for up to 2yrs. It also says that about 1/3 of ppl with TM experience good or full recovery from their symptoms. TM is a cousin to MS. People with MS can get episodes of TM, but you can't get MS from TM, thankfully. We're just waiting to see if there's any nerve damage. We were told at one point that Jesse may have lost his ability to control his bowels and urinate on his own. We will see how things go today when they take the catheder out again to see if he can urinate on his own. We pray he'll be able to soon! Please pray for him and his family. His wife is also 17 wks pregnant and I know she could use our prayers too!