Brad is Back!!!

He’s been in Portugal for the past 2 years, and it was SO GOOD to give him a nice, BIG hug!! more later once I have pictures…

My Monkeys Were Stolen!

When I was working on the latest post, I noticed that my monkey background was GONE!! So I used my very limited blogging skills and revamped our look. It took me forever! Luckily, Jeff brought me our laptop this weekend so I can lounge on the couch while I am online. I still have no idea where my monkeys went!

While I languish on the couch…

 
…Jay gets cuter!

The title to this post sounds like it should be in a Robert Frost poem to me. I’m feeling pretty UN-creative these days, so that’s about as interesting as this post will get, except for the pictures. Here’s what’s been going on around here:

1. Jay and I are still living with my family (a 3 hour drive from where Jeff is teaching summer school), and Jeff still visits us on the weekends. Jeff has one week left of teaching summer school, and then…hopefully he gets a full-time teaching job somewhere….anywhere…
2. I am still a rollercoaster of everything: emotions, food aversions, barfing, and the whole glorious package that is early pregnancy.
3. Yesterday, baby and I reached the 12 week mark, and to celebrate, I took my 3rd trip to the ER for 3 more liters of IV juice. Things just suddenly got out of control again and I heaved every 45 minutes all night. That’s all the details I will give. It was awful, and it is really hard to mention it in my light-hearted writing style.
4. I realized that in the last 5 Sundays, I’ve been to church zero times and to the ER 3 times!! Something is wrong with that picture. BUT, they did the little doppler heartbeat jelly rolly machine on my wizened tummy and Jr’s heart is just a-thumping away in there. Somehow I didn’t vomit him up, even during my all-night puke-a-thon! Relief.
5. Enough about my patheticness, except let me use it to emphasize the AWESOMENESS of my Mom and sister Mel. They have taken over 99.9999% of Jay care (I contribute the occasional nighty-night kiss). Dirty diapers, meals, entertainment, baby-proofing, you name it—they do it!!! Also: Mom is a champion at dreaming up and preparing  random bland foods for me to nibble. I am SO thankful for my sweet patient family. They rock! (Jeff takes over on the weekends except when he spends hours on end in the ER with me.)
6. How I feel emotionally: all over the place. I have teared up in nearly every movie I’ve watched—from Narnia to Star Trek to Disney cartoons. Pathetic but what can I do? I feel helpless and sort of guilty/sad/bummed that I can’t take care of myself and Jay at the moment.It’s still hard to ask for help, even though that’s why I’m here! I miss Jeff during the week. I’m anxious for him to get a real job so we know where we’ll be living for the next few years. Even though I see Jay all day, I don’t get to interact with him that much because I’m  so stationary. It makes me feel like an observer more than a participator, when I’m used to being the center of Jay’s life. What can I say, I’m selfish!
7. Jay loves loves loves his Grama Meri and Aunt Mel! He loves playing with them. He is really good at walking now, and he just figured out how to climb on to the couch by himself. He also now loves raw sugar snap pea pods.

On to the pictures (Jeff took most of these, of course):

 
Jay LOVES going outside on trails!

 
Nature boy

Jeff took this sequence of  PB-Jay:

 

 
That’s my boy.

I took these next 3 pictures. From the couch.
Uncle Kyle is FUN! One day last week it was just Kyle, Jay and I at home, and Kyle made Jay lunch. It was so cute-he’s a good “Unc”

 
Piano-climbing with Grama

 
Story time with Mel.

Boy in a Bun

 
Jay is big enough to fill up 36 buns, (he finally moved into size 3 Huggies this week!!), but we think he’s cuter than anything you can buy at Costco…

Proof:
 
Jay loves loves loves it when his Uncle Kyle plays the piano!

FEEL the joy!

Hyperemesis Gravidarum

Sounds pretty serious, huh? That’s what I have right now. It means that I can’t stop puking without medical intervention. Joy. Things got pretty horrible again by last Sunday night—by then I was waking up every hour to hurl. By 3am I felt closer to DEATH than I’ve ever felt before, and I woke Jeff up with my moaning. He drove me to the ER. They stuck an IV in me AGAIN and I got 3 liters of fluids this time.

I got back to the White home around 7am and right when I walked in the door, all of the smells (dog, etc.) just hit me like a wall and nearly put me under again. That’s when Jeff called my mom and told her he would be driving me up to stay with her for the next few weeks. (well he did ask nicely) So Jeff quickly packed a laundry basket full of clothes for Jay and I, and we were on the road in no time.

Jeff is living and working in Grandview from Tuesday-Friday, and then he will drive up here (3hrs) for the weekends to be with us. I must aknowledge the huge sacrifice it was for him to be away from Jay and I for 4 days each week. He misses us. We miss him. But I think he’d rather have a living wife than a puking skeleton, so we’re dealing with the separation.

Now my Mommy is taking care of me and Jay (she rocks) and I have more magic Zofran medicine and I haven’t barfed since Sunday. Eating is HARD, but my Mom is a wizard at finding the right foods to tempt me—my little baby-pooch is returning! Mom cheerfully changes poopy diapers and feeds Jay yummy food and plays with him. He loves her. So do I!!!

Jay does miss the dogs Zeke and Toby, though…

…so we dug out my old huge stuffed dog. He calls it “Zeee!” and he climbs all over it and pulls its ears and tail (just like he does with the real doggies).

Amazing Grape

Dear faithful viewers: aren’t you grateful that I’m using today’s nausea-free hour to update this blog? I call it a nausea-free hour, but that isn’t entirely accurate…so I think my creativity will suffer. I had my first ultrasound this week, even though I was only 8 weeks along at the time, and they even gave me a picture!!!

I’m glad she labeled the baby blob because I can rarely tell what’s what in ultrasound pictures. I heard the little one’s heart beating and I saw the teeeeeny tiny pinpoint of the heart pumping away on the screen. Even though the levels of my nausea left me with little doubt that things are going just fine in there, it was still reassuring to SEE it and HEAR it.

I called this post Amazing Grape because it’s pretty amazing that this baby manages to grow at all with my no-food menu! I have been subsisting on white grape juice, apple juice, Carnation Instant breakfast mixed with soy milk, and the very occasional Wheat Chex. All of these things look/taste about the same going in as going out, so they are on my “safe” list.

You may be wondering what happened to the magic Zofran anti-puke medicine that I got at the hospital last week. Well, for some reason I have been barfing it up before it can start working right. Bummer! I call my mom every other day with my pathetic-ness and she reminds me that this won’t last forever. One of my few comforts.

As for Jeff and Jay, they are being so patient with my stay-in-bed- most-of-the-day scheme. Jay plays happily all over the house, and he loves tackling the dogs. Jeff takes good care of him.

Jeff got a summer job this week!!! He will be working as a “math expert” at a summer school for the month of July. The program called to offer Jeff’s dad the job, but he will be gone a lot this month, so Jeff went on over to apply, and randomly walked in on the training. He answered a complicated question like the genius he is, and they hired him on the spot! The school only meets Tues-Fri, so that is nice for Jeff’s invalid wife—I only have 4 days a week to fend for myself and care for Jay. Another random perk from this job--they are all high-tech, so each teacher was given an iPad!

Jeff’s latest photographic prowess:

Mt. Adams

Mt. St. Helens

The opening to Ape Cave, a huge 1.5 mile long lava tunnel near Mt. St. Helens. Jeff and His Dad visited it last weekend.

Dan in the Ape Cave tunnel!

OK, I usually try to make a nice conclusion to each post, but my barf-free hour is nearly up so I’ll just say adios, amigos!

PS Happy Independence Day!!!

Nosedive

Right when I thought I had things all figured out....

...I landed myself in the ER with an I-V for dehydration and anti-barf drugs! Now that you know what this story is going to be about, I bet you're glad this is the only picture on this post.

STORY TIME:

Tuesday of last week, Jay and I drove up to visit my family. Based on the last time I was pregnant, I thought I still had a good 10 days till the real nausea/vomiting started up. So I had a doctor appointment all lined up for July 1st. Last time the "morning" sickness came on gradually, but last Friday, I suddenly found myself in 100% misery: puking or heaving 10+ times a day. Jeff kindly came to my parents' house to help me. Thank goodness for my husband! The plan was to call the doctor and get my appointment moved up to Monday.

Well, by Sunday I hadn't eaten or drunk anything since Thursday, and I was fading fast. Blech. The memory is disgusting. I had a priesthood blessing and then it was off to the ER. They stuck an I-V in my arm and gave me 2 bags of fluids plus some medicine. It all took about 3 hours. Now I have the magic anti-barf medicine and I'm slowly sort of recovering a little. My next dilemma: What should I eat now?

Blueberry

Guess what, people?? I have a little blueberry-sized baby in my tummy right now! I’m 7 weeks along, and the due date is February 6th, 2011! I wasn’t going to say anything for a few more weeks because then it would be  a pain to say bad news if anything went wrong. But yesterday, morning sickness kicked in, and I was desperate for some sympathy so I wrote on my Facebook status “I’m trying not to puke but just want to get it over with at the same time.” Can you believe that 4 people have already asked me if I’m prego yet just because of that? and I thought a generic nausea comment would go unnoticed. Oh well!  I’m one of those people that can’t really hide it very long anyways because I do get all barfy and pathetic forEVER. It’s a relief to just SAY it: I’m pregnant!

 
This is what my stomach already looks like, at only 7 weeks! AHH I’m going to get huge! Good ole babycenter.com claims that right now the little embryo is the size of a blueberry. I’d say it looks more like I’m harboring an apple or something!

If you’re interested in details, here’s THE STORY:
A few days before we moved, I randomly decided to take a pregnancy test. My reason is silly but valid: If I was pregnant, I wanted to find out BEFORE we moved in with my in-laws. At first I thought the test was negative, but then the faintest little second pink line seemed to appear:
Can you see it? I couldn’t trust my eyes, so I woke up Jeff and he said he saw it too!!  It still didn’t seem real, especially because the line was so faint. So, I went in to get an “official” proof of pregnancy (for insurance, etc.) the next day. The lady came out and said that the test was negative! I was kind of bummed and confused, (why would my cheap-o dollar store test show something and not the “official” test?) so I stopped and got myself a super-sensitive test on the way home.

When I walked in the door at home, Jeff was BEAMING. I thought, “oh great, now I have to tell him…” but he informed me jubilantly that the lady from the office called and said that after I left, she saw the test in better light, and it was positive after all! Whew!  That was an unnecessary emotional rollercoaster. So yes I’m pregnant. Jay will be about 21 months older than his sibling. How exciting!!!

 
We got Jay a booster seat last week. He seems so grown-up when he sits at the table without his high chair. I think he looks old enough to be a big brother!

Week

1. Happy Father’s Day!! I made Jeff a breakfasty dinner (fluffy biscuits and a thing called “Eggs Days Ahead”—just like last year). We’re both still full.
2. Jay loves having stairs to play on: he finally learned how to go down stairs yesterday, but he still has issues remembering to slither down backwards, but we’re getting there.
3. Jay loves climbing and whapping, and plucking the 2 dogs here, Zeke and Toby. Zeke hides from Jay, but Toby soaks up the love and attention. The only thing I don’t like about it is when I pick up Jay, he gets dog hair on me!
4. I miss Walla Walla/College Place! It’s only 90 minutes from here, but it feels farther!
5. Jeff should have his teaching certificate in the next week or so!! He has already applied to every school district within 20 miles of here. Bring on the jobs!
6. Jay got diaper rash and now my hands smell like Desitin.
7. Jeff’s parents have a small collection of Berenstein Bears books, and he loves reading them to Jay. He uses the goofiest voices for each character, and it cracks me up—I think I enjoy it more than Jay!
8. Speaking of reading, in the last week I have plowed straight through the first 3 Twilight books. There’s nothing like reading all about an insane head-case teenage girl’s heartaches to put things into perspective!

9. Jeff pooled his birthday and graduation gift $$ to buy his dream camera. It’s called a Pentax K-X and I think it’s #3 on his list of favorites…Jay and I are just barely above the camera on that list, probably because he needs subjects for his pictures…

 
10. It is really quite hard to baby-proof someone else’s house. Jeff’s parents are being good sports for all of the inconveniences posed by having Jay here.

And that’s more or less what’s been going around here at the White house this week!

We Moved!

It happened. Jeff finished his M.A.T. at Walla Walla University. Since he is no longer a student, we had to leave our student housing apartment. Needless to say, it has been quite the busy, exhausting week! I’m going to miss good ole Walla Walla.

We were planning to move on Saturday, but our borrowed pick-up truck plans fell through. So we decided to just get going. Over the past 2 weeks, I had been collecting a mountain of boxes from the produce section at Super 1 Foods so we were prepared (I’m good friends with the produce guys there now). Fresh Express Salad boxes are the best!

We took apart bookshelves, chairs, tables, stools, and any other non-square items and put everything in boxes so Jeff could load the tiny storage unit to maximum capacity (I still don’t know how he squeezed it all in there—it is only a 5’x7’ unit with a 10 foot ceiling). Helping Jeff with our couch just about killed me! I am NOT made for heavy lifting! Luckily Jeff did most of it, because as much as I like to gloat over my mom-muscles, they aren’t very useful for anything above 20 lbs!

To keep Jay out of the way while we were packing, I put him on the couch. He loves playing on the couch for some reason, so he was happy for nearly a whole hour up there! [see picture above]

We rented a small U-Haul truck so we could bring our bed, Jay’s crib, our sweet purple desk, and a few other things with us.  Now we’re in Grandview, WA staying with Jeff’s parents until that glorious (hopefully soon) day when Jeff finds a REAL job!!! I am very grateful to have a place to stay during this icky time of transition, but I will still be very glad to have my own little place again sometime soon! 

If you survived that long monolog, you deserve something sweet:

 
Toss the baby! GramaDear (Jeff’s mom wants Jay to call her that…but we’re still working on Mama, so it may be a while…) got a family swim pass for the summer! So we all went swimming last night. It was Jay’s first time in a pool, and he loved it! The water was cool and refreshing. I realized I hadn’t even been in swimming pool in 2 years!!

Jay liked kicking and hitting the water, too

 
Jay got cold and his chin started shaking, so Grampa helped him warm up. Swimming is hard work. Tired cheeks!

I’m going to miss these kids

Today was our last Sunday here in the wonderful Walla Walla Second Ward, and my last day teaching my dear Primary class of 7 yr olds. They are an energetic, enthusiastic, loving bunch. I love them. They love me. Since 4 of them all want to sit on my lap during singing/sharing time in Primary, I started doing 10 minute rotations so they could each have a turn.…I think I might sometimes be more fun than what’s going on up front…not sure that’s the best example…

When Jeff and Jay came in to take our class picture today, it was Jay’s first visit to my class. He was a tad overwhelmed (it was nap time).

Some of my favorite quotes from my class:

“I’m getting my muscles out” --Brennan, while rolling up his sleeves

“Teacher, he stuck his TONGUE out at me!” –Crystal

“Teacher! Teacher! Guess what!!!!  …..umm I forgot.” –Addison

“Please help Sister White and Jay and Brother White to drive safely when they move.” –Brennan, while saying the closing prayer today. I almost cried. Why are we leaving again?

Our Recent Discoveries:

Jay can climb onto this box by the window! He is also pretty good at falling off of it.

This dresser was just sitting out by the dumpster, so we snagged it! Of course, right when we are about to put all of our stuff in a teeny tiny storage unit for the summer, we decide to start a furniture collection…

Isn’t this desk SWEET?? I was out running one day and I saw this partially purple pupitre on the curb about 8 blocks from our home. I stopped to examine its structural integrity, and then went home for Jeff. It didn’t exactly fit in the trunk of our Honda Civic, so Jeff wedged a corner of the desk into the trunk and then trotted behind the car carrying the other corner while I drove very slowly home. Yep, we’re crazy scavengers. Who now own a purple desk. [para los non-españoles, pupitre=desk in Spanish]

And now on to the not-exactly-free stuff: We got a new laptop a while ago (mine is ancient) so Jeff could take it to school. It’s a tiny little netbook and it’s a good one! And yes, after 3 1/2 years without a cell phone, we finally got one of those too, since we won’t have a permanent residence this summer. We got a sweet T-mobile no-contract plan with unlimited anytime minutes! And that last little black speck up there is the newest electronic addition: an MP3 player! We only have CDs but no way to play them, so we figured a refurbished MP3 player was a good idea. Jeff used his birthday $$ for it! It’s no iPod, but it was about $150 cheaper than those guys.

It is insane how far laptops have come since I got mine back in 2004!

Jeff woke up on June 1st and discovered that he had turned 28 over night. Happy Birthday, husband! This is what the birthday dinner looked like: he requested homemade pizza, as usual. We had mushroom herb white pizza and bacon apple pizza, our own tasty invention. I made him a birthday treasure hunt leading to his present (a nice, big messenger bag). The clues were all lines from Disney songs. My favorite was: “Think of instead, a girl worth fighting for” –answer: Shaina’s back pocket. hee hee hee

You’ve heard me say how perfect the weather always is here in Walla Walla. Maybe that’s why we’ve had SO much rain lately! We discovered that Jay really hates rain. He’s only ever seen it a few times in his whole life, I guess. Plus he loves going outside. He spent TONS of time at the window whimpering on all of the many rainy days we have had recently.

Why do pictures of my child in distress make me laugh so much??

Jay still knows where his “bee-bo” is, and he likes to show it off. He can usually find his toes for us too, and we’ve been working on “head.” (I think that one is harder because he can’t see it).

I love the small glimpses we get out our front window of the glorious sunsets here. Alas, the sun is setting on our time here in Walla Walla. Jeff officially graduates on Sunday June 13th, but he elected to “graduate in absentee” or whatever it’s called, so we can move on Saturday the 12th. We are putting our STUFF in storage like I said, and we will stay with Jeff’s parents in Grandview for the summer during Jeff’s joyful job hunting. If no full time job pans out, then we plan to find some place around Grandview to rent and Jeff will substitute teach and work part-time. We’re hoping and praying that soon we can add “Jeff’s New Job” to this list of Our Recent Discoveries!