Nicolas woke up this morning so excited because he could look out his window and see snow!!! It's been very cold but no snow has stuck to the ground since we've been here except for today. We were all in AAAAHHHHH of such a cool site. Nicolas did walk to school this morning and did not complain about having to do so. He did ask that I pick him up from school though, in the car, as opposed to me walking to school to go and get him.

I went to the doctor this last week and I was told that I had lost weight. Some of you following this blog remember when I was pregnant with Nicolas and I think it's hard to forget how HUGE I was. I gained 45 pounds with Nicolas. With the last pregnancy I was bigger at five months then Vanessa was at nine months. I was pretty large then too. I don't know if stress has really kept me from gaining very much weight, 16 pounds so far, or just thinking of how hard it is going to be to lose the weight this time. Regardless I have not gained very much and apparently I'm losing weight. Who loses weight when their pregnant? Melissa lost a ton of weight after being pregnant but not while being pregnant. I have to start to go to the doctor every week now. I'm 32 weeks and so far I've been doing pretty good. A few scares here and there but nothing even remotely compared to the last two pregnancies. With Nicolas I went into labor at 32 weeks. If I can make it to 35 I will be very happy and relieved.

Some of you have been asking how the house is coming along. Here is a picture of the living room. We finally got our new furniture which was the last piece to the puzzle. We love our fireplace and we seem to use it often.

Halloween was great in "Mayberry." We learned they have trick or treat time lines, meaning kids are permitted to go out from 3:30 to 7:30 and not a minute past. The schools here had a half day which made the times easier, but it was still strange when kids were coming up in broad daylight saying trick or treat. Nicolas had a great time and the weather was fantastic here in the Midwest. It was the warmest it's been in 45 years on Halloween. One neighbor said last year she was trying to figure out how to put a ballerina costume on over a snow suit. She said it's usually very cold. Nicolas was sweating his fake fur off. Back at home, I wanted to dress up as Sarah Palin's pregnant daughter, but we soon realized we might have our house egged. There are a lot of McCain supporters in "Mayberry." Shocking I know. There is going to be a HUGE rally downtown tomorrow for Obama. They are expecting a record number of people to go to that. Nicolas has been an Obama supporter right from the start so I think he would really enjoy going to that. Too bad it's on a school night and we would have to be there pretty late to see the Obama man himself. It's great to see lots of younger voters but just people in general getting out and getting excited to be voting. Regardless of who you're voting for just get out and vote tomorrow.

Nicolas wants to play tackel football and I think he's too young. I put him into flag football instead and he thrived. He was a really good quarterback, in fact the coach told him to try to not throw it so hard. The kids weren't able to handle the heat. The other issue we found out about is flag football is close to $500.00. Which is a big difference to the $70.00 that I paid for him to play flag football. Tackel football practices three days a week for two hours plus they have games on the weekend which can be an hour away. He liked playing but I don't know he would like to be pushed, shoved and thrown to the ground all the time.

Having contractions

The last week has been very interesting. I am almost 31 weeks along and have started to have intense contractions throughout the day. Some are much more painful then others but to be having these at 30 weeks is a bit scary. I went into the hospital, with Nicolas, at 33 weeks and delivered him at 35 weeks. So I think both Nick and I are expecting me to deliver early, but it is still very scary. Nick is still traveling every week, although this last week he stayed home to make sure I stayed on my butt and did nothing. We went to the hospital last Wednesday and the doctor said no more working out and to take as many baths, to calm me down, as needed. Nicolas was very funny during this whole process. When I was having a really bad contraction last Wednesday Nicolas was downstairs and Nick was in the basement. I was calling Nick and Nicolas came running. I told him to go get Daddy. He went downstairs and came back up and said, "Daddy wouldn't listen." I told him to tell Daddy it was an emergency. He ran back down stairs and came back up and Nick came running behind him. I was upstairs, not being calm, Nicolas then said, "I'm going outside to play. Nick then informed him that we were going to the hospital and he needed to help me get in the car and get going. It was very cute. He did great when we did get to the hospital. Nicolas likes to try to make me laugh when I don't feel good so he was hamming it up. I think it was good for Nick as well for Nicolas to be at the hospital. Nicolas was a distraction for Nick who does not like hospitals at all.

Water, Water, Water

On Saturday we had a crew of people show up to help get rid of our little water problem that has been sitting in the basement for over a week now. We were on four different flood restoration lists and everyone had at least a one week wait. They came out and cut three inches of drywall, checked for mold and put four fans and a dehumidifier downstairs. They will come back on Wednesday to pick up the fans as far as everything else we get to fix it all now. We're trying to decide if we should put carpet back down there. I say yes and Nick says no. First things first is re-insulating the walls, putting up drywall, painting with mold inhibitor paint and then deciding what to put down on the floor. I'm just happy that we decided to add the correct sewer water coverage to our home owners policy. Two of our neighbors did not have this on their policy and are not getting any money. We got paid out the max and will begin the clean up now. The good part is we wanted to redo the basement we just didn't know when we would. Well guess what it's time.
The above pictures are of our sump pump, the walls that had to be cut and some of the water logged carpet that was still there after four days. Nick cut a lot of carpet and Nicolas and I did the rest since he had to then go out of town.

Getting used to being a stay at home.

I've spoken to a few of you already, but I am having a hard time dealing with what to do with myself as a stay at home mom. There's plenty to do when Nicolas is not at school, and I know I will be very busy when our little girl arrives. In the meantime I am going insane. I am SSOO bored. Of course there's always laundry to do but I'm don't want to be stuck in a laundry room all day either. I've been watching HGTV and the food network to see how I can update our wall space and get some recipes. I've been to the library a few times and I joined the YMCA so I could work out. I'm very used to getting dressed up and getting ready everyday. If anyone has ideas let me know. I need to try to keep my sanity in this new city with no "friends" to talk to in my neighborhood and my husband out of town all the time. I've also come to terms with not being able to go shopping all the time since I don't have a job. So what does relax really mean? Everyone says to just stay home and relax while I can. I just don't know what that means. I feel like I'm just being plain lazy.

Hi there,
I know I haven't written to so many of you after all of your questions and thoughts. For that I am so sorry. I feel like I now have a little time to sit and write to you all.
I arrived in Chicago on August 6th. Nick was already here and had been here since July 13th and Nicolas was making the trip across the US with Winston, the dog, and my Dad. Once in IL. we stayed at a Residence Inn until our furniture was delivered. Nick and I, being excited first time homeowners, came to our new house and painted the three bedrooms in one night. We didn't finish until 3:00 in the morning. We finished so that the wooden floors could be refinished in the morning. Although I will say that we would not be painting the rest of the house on our own. We sought out a painter to finish the living room, entry way, the kitchen the staircase, the upstairs bathroom and the hallway down to the basement. Nick had already pulled up the carpet in the bedrooms and pulled down all of the awful blinds in each bedroom before I arrived. Needless to say we were the new neighbors that had a TON of garbage out for our first garbage pickup. We've had a ton of garbage out every Wednesday since moving in. Our first weekend here it rained, but not too hard, and we had our first basement and water issue. We got it cleaned up but it was our welcome to IL. People wanted to know if our sump pump was working. This was all greek to a bunch of west coast kids. We found the sump pump and thought we had it working.
Nicolas started school on September 2nd and was very nervous although he wouldn't admit to that. He did not want us to walk with him to school. We let him know he could walk in front of us but we were going to school with him on the first day. The night before school two neighbors came over to let us know of the going's on in the area. At 8:00 am they would be taking pictures with all of the kids before school. We live on a cul-de-sac so all the kids on our cul-de-sac were taking pictures at 8 sharp. Another neighbor came by and asked if I would want to go to the back to school party. I said that would be fun and what time after school would it be, thinking it was for kids. She laughed and informed me it was an adult only back to school party. There would be alcohol and the Mom's were celebrating the kids were back in school and out of their hair. I of course said yes. So picture time came and went,
The 28th of August there was an ice cream social at the school. They had a DJ, ice cream sundae bar, popcorn, cake walk, face painting, snow cones and the PTA sign ups.
So far very typical suburb. Meanwhile Nicolas informed me he wanted to come home from school for lunch. I thought he was out of his mind. I didn't get to eat of campus for lunch until my sophomore year so why would they let third graders come home for lunch. Sure enough his school allows student to go home for the hour lunch. I was shocked!! I encouraged Nicolas that coming home for lunch wouldn't be fun. he would have a lot more fun at school and get to play with friends at lunch recess. So far so good he hasn't asked about it again.
Nicolas is loving this neighborhood. He's got boys to go outside and play with all around him. They are also teaching Nicolas that he can't get what he wants all the time and he can't maneuver the games so he wins every time. He loves getting to go outside and not relying on high school kids to give him attention or his parents/neighbors. In the mean time Nick is traveling a lot for his job. If he isn't in a hotel he's in the basement working. So what have I been up to. I've been trying to apply for jobs. What's so great is overqualified candidates are passed faster then under-qualified applicants. Yes I have a bachelors degree, yes I have a teaching credential but no I just want to work part-time at a local office as an admin assistant. It's shocking to people and had no luck in that department. Perhaps it's a blessing in disguise because I've been having a heck of a time trying to get into to see an OB/GYN. The last one I saw was July 31st in CA. I've seen two different doctors and for various reasons they've been unable to care for me. I am now having contractions throughout the day. This has been happening for over two weeks. I finally found a doctor that will take me but they are 20 minutes away. It's killer for me because we live less than a mile away from a hospital but I can't go there because they aren't capable of taking care of me or the baby. SSSSSSSSSOOOOOOOOOO
this weekend the Chicago area got the most rain it's seen in 137 years. 5 people died from the flooding. We were hit as well. It rained nonstop for two days straight. That run off is was started seeping through floors, windows, up into bathtubs, through drains in laundry rooms. Our neighbors, none of whom have sump pumps, had three feet of water in their basement and crawl space. We were at home depot at 9:45 am and they were already running low on
wet/dry vacs and sump pumps. One neighbor had four wet/dry vacs at their house running non stop. Everyone was trying to pump water out faster then it was pouring in. By 3:00 on Saturday we figured out why our sump pump wasn't detecting water. As soon as that was fixed our water started pumping out but by then our carpet was pretty saturated as were the walls. By Sunday the basement carpet was already turning black in areas from mold. We had tried calling Saturday and Sunday to start the claim process for insurance, but the call center was, "experiencing a high volume of calls," and was unable to speak with us. So we had to wait until Monday to file a claim and unfortunately every place I've called has a waiting list for work to be done. In the midst of it all a few neighbors came over to see if we were okay. They then invited us to a pizza and beer night at their house. It was nice to see everyone coming together and supporting one another.
So needless to say we've been very busy but we really like this suburb and the town. Elmhurst has been in magazines for number one suburb to live in. The schools are very highly rated and so far the people have been great. I appreciate everyone thinking of us and writing to see how we're doing.
Our new address is,