Long Time No See

Holy cow! It's been a really long time since I last posted. Warm weather hits and I just don't like to stay inside anymore. We've been having a really good early summer so far. First and foremost, we have some very happy news to share with everyone. We're expecting little Schwake number 3 in January. Scott and I are really happy about it and so was Cate when we told her about it. However, she got a concerned look on her face after a bit and said, "So we won't need Clare anymore?" I assured her that we'd be keeping Clare and that we would now have 3 kids in our family. She seemed pretty happy with that and promptly named the new baby Ducky.

With my last two pregnancies I was fortunate in that I didn't really get sick at all in the first trimester. With this one, I have definitely experienced some queasy days. But over all, it's very controllable and not very bad considering I could be puking 24/7. The other thing I've noticed that's different is that I popped out right away. I already am in some maternity clothes and I'm only 9 weeks along! Quite depressing, considering I have to wear these same clothes for 7 more months.

Other than being tired and queasy, I've been trying to keep pretty busy. We put in some edgers for some new planting beds around the house on Memorial day weekend. They aren't done yet but we should be able to till in the grass and get planting soon. It will look really nice when all is said and done.

We were able to spend a long weekend up at Scott's folks' cabin a couple weekends ago. We all had a great time swimming, boating, fishing and sitting around the fire. And I didn't even freak out very much that the girls got to bed past 10:00 almost every night. We'll be going back up there the week of July 4th. Should be fun.

Some other great news...Dustin and Josie had their baby girl, Kallie Ann (not sure I spelled it right) on June 5th. She came in at over 10 lbs. Poor Josie!! But the positive thing about having a big baby is that they sleep really well! Cate and Clare were excited to have a new cousin and McKenna (Kallie's sister) promptly named her cupcake. And, as with all cute nicknames, they usually stick. That little girl will be called cupcake for years to come, I'm sure.

And for even more great news, we took Attley in for his 3-month post-chemo checkup and they gave him a clean bill of health. Chest X-rays were completely clear of cancer and he's getting around well and processing his pain meds just fine. We're looking forward to a fun summer with him.

That's about it from Schwakeland. Peace out!

Stickerchart Wonderland

Okay, at least one of my strategies for dealing with my "chillins" worked...for one night. I devised a sticker chart for Cate. From what I read, sticker charts are like magic vodoo juice for 3 year olds - they can get them to do anything. So the deal is, if Cate stays in her room all night and doesn't come hover over mommy's drooling dreaming countenance only to have mommy open her eyes to a little face inches from her own which sends her whole body one foot off the bed in 0.2 seconds, then she earns a sticker on her chart. After she gets 5 stickers, she gets to pick out an item from the dollar shelves at Target. I love that 3 year olds can be so easily pacified with cheap foreign-made toys. As we were going to bed, she was very excited about the chart and earning her sticker but I was fairly dubious that she would actually remember. But she did! Either that, or she was so overtired from her previous 2-hr plus awakening the night before that she slept right through. Either way, she earned her sticker. Mommy woke alert and happy and so did she.

Things are going a little better with the Bear as well. I'm giving her more choices which helps her feel a little more power in a house where she's surrounded by very big people and dog. And I've been trying to listen harder to her one-word garbled sentences to try to make out if she's hungry, tired or just plain frustrated. One word I can consistently make out plainly is Candy. She knows what's really important to convey. That's my girl.

Now we head out to Waterloo tomorrow morning. The sleeping thing will be shot as will the power I hold with Candy since grandma and grandpa will give them anything their little hearts desire. But we'll manage somehow.

Plus I get my sewing machine this weekend! Move over Martha!!

Did I Really Say That??

I was just re-reading what I posted a week or so ago and it all sounds so rosy and picture perfect. The last couple of days...not so much. My girls have been giving me a run for my money. Clare has been in a particularly annoying Jekyl and Hyde mode. She's been on a vengence to hit and pull the hair of her sister. She squeals with laughter when I try to be stern with her about it. She broke my brand new $400+ reading glasses while in Target the other day. Yesterday she was particularly touchy - any very slight admonishment I would give her would send her into tears. And randomly she comes up to me and gives me a bunch of sweet kisses. I'm having a tough time figuring her out. But I've got a strategy in place to deal with all these prickly practices of hers.


My eldest dear daughter is still waking up at night. And I foolishly have been taking her back to bed and laying down with her until she goes back to sleep. The original intent was that she would nod back off within 10 minutes or so and I could head back to my own bed. But, for some unknown reason, that doesn't always happen. Last night, for instance, the little minx didn't settle down for about 2 hours. I've devised another strategy to deal with her.

And really, these strategies are to train me to react differently and to actually be a parent rather than going on robot-mom mode. This morning as I struggled to awake and open my eyes on my way to the bathroom after being up with Cate in the night, I pulled out an ovulation predictor test as I sat down to pee. Scott looked at me and jokingly said, "Are you sure you want to do that?" For a minute, I did actually think, "What the heck am I doing?! I can barely handle these two." But the thought passed. My test didn't (maybe God is telling me something here??!!).

On a brighter note, I had a great birthday week. It started off with a fab trip to Arrowwood resort for the Westwood Women's retreat with my friend Paige. We gabbed the entire time up and back and a lot while we were there as well (her more than me - she's way more social than I am). We also met up with a couple of other friends and made it into a fun girls' weekend. Plus, I was totally inspired by the speaker to really set aside time to read my bible and pray. I've been meaning to do it for, oh, 3 years or so. But that was the gentle push I needed to make it a real priority. We got back home late on Saturday night. Sunday was a gorgeous day and I met up with my friends Amy, Sarah and Karyn for a walk and some munchies. Since we've all started co-habitating and 3 of us have had kids, we just don't get together nearly as much as we used to but we are always able to pick right up where we left off and have really good conversations. Tuesday night I went to a happy hour with Teri and Marti which was fun. Wed, we went to dinner at Fuddruckers with the girls. It was so cute. Scott had taken the girls shopping on Tuesday for my birthday. Cate came into the bathroom as I was getting ready on Wed. (my b-day) lugging a huge pair of loppers (gardening implement) that were almost as big as she was. Scott let me know that he did get me the sewing machine. We'll pick it up this weekend when we go to Waterloo. Thursday night was my MOPs night. And on Friday night my parents came over for pizza as we all sat on our deck and enjoyed the beautiful evening. It was a very good birthday week and I barely noticed that I turned 39. Until Sunday, when Sharla reminded me of it repeatedly. I had a great time with her and Nan when we went out for dinner on Sunday night. Action packed week. I think Scott is a little sick of carrying the load so it's good that I don't have anything planned for an entire week now.

As I mentioned earlier, we're heading down to Waterloo on Friday morning to help Scott's parents celebrate their last days at work. Cheryl is done on Friday and Ken is done on Monday. They are very excited and a little nervous about how it will all go. But I think Scott and I may be just a bit more excited than they are. We're looking forward to having them up for extended stays when they can watch the girls and don't have to rush back home to work. We're selfishly hoping to get in some more time together now that we have some willing and free babysitters at our beck and call.

That's all for now, folks. My theme for the next week...Wag more, bark less.

Welcome to Schwakeland

It's official. I'm am a Schwake. Not that I wasn't really before, but now my name has been officially, before a judge, paid for with good cash, changed from Michelle Teresa Guillemette to Michelle Teresa Schwake. I stood in front of the judge this morning, with Scott and my sister-in-law Marie there as my witnesses, to swear that I wasn't changing my name to get out of any bad debt, run from the law or to defraud anything or anyone. Thankfully, he bought it. : )

I see that I haven't updated my blog since March 6th so I will work backwards from this morning on my update. Tuesday night, the 10th, the Guillemettes got together to celebrate my mom, Terry's, 62nd birthday. We went to Lion's Tap for their yummy burgers. Although I guess my mom should fire me as her top (only) daughter because I didn't find out beforehand whether or not they had wine (they didn't). Mom, although technically not a whino, really likes her wine, especially with dinner, preferably boxed. So she had to make do with some pop. I'll have to be sure to check into that little detail next time. Anyway, we had a good time catching up and chowing. Mom is looking forward to her retirement at the end of May. So we were talking about trips we're going to take this summer and finding a way to get her and dad to move up to the cities.

This weekend we traveled down to Waterloo, IA to spend time with Scott's folks, Ken and Cheryl. We spent most of Saturday at a farm just outside of town that had pony rides, baby farm animals, hayrides, an easter egg hunt, and warm cinnamon buns and carmeled apples. The girls had a great time with all the animals and finding the eggs. They were a little leary of the easter bunny but pretty much took him/her in stride. Cate is on a little of the fearful side. I'm hoping its just a stage because I don't want her to always be afraid of things. She wasn't too keen on petting the animals, didn't like the tire swing in the loft of the barn and didn't want to ride the pony (but she did get on it for a little bit). Clare was gung-ho on everything.

Later that day, when the girls (and grandpa) were napping, Scott, Cheryl and I went to look as sewing machines. Yes the excitement never ends for the Schwakes. I had told Scott that I might be interested in a new machine since so many of the clothes that kids wear - espcially the summer ones - would be really cheap and easy to make. And if I had a machine that could do some fancy stitching, I could make them really cute. Well we did find a place that sold them and at a discount too. From the look of the guy selling them, you'd think the store had a side business of selling weed - who knows, maybe they did! The machine's nowadays have little computers in them, thread the needle for you and probably could wipe your butt too! Its crazy. And they aren't cheap. But I have a feeling that Scott will get one for me for my birthday and mother's day. Mostly because then he doesn't have to sprain his brain thinking of what to get me. That evening, grandma and grandpa watched the girls while Scott and I went to an underwhelming and overpriced steak place.

Sunday was Easter with church, a delicious ham dinner and another (more fun) Easter egg hunt for the girls as well as Easter baskets for the both of them. Now we can't get them to stop begging for jelly beans - I guess I'll just have to eat them all...and the chocolate bunnies too.


The week before we went down to Waterloo, Scott went on an ice fishing trip up north with his friend Brad and a bunch of other guys. He needs his times to thump his chest, kill something and scratch. I think he had a great time but he did get lonely for his girls. He was gone a total of 6 days and he called home every other day.

Two weeks before he went fishing we did a bit of puppysitting. We watched John and Val McCain's new 12 week old American Water Spaniel, Kona. She was super cute but very much a puppy. Attley definitely put her in her place a couple of times but toward the end of the week, he was becoming a softy and letting her share his spot on the couch. She was a loveable, sweet puppy, but she definitely reminded me how much work a puppy can be. We won't be getting a new one anytime soon.

Well, I think that pretty much catches us up on what we, the Schwakes, have been up to. Everyone has been doing really well. Cate's been figuring out some sleep issues. She woke up almost every night Scott was gone and came to sleep with me in my bed. After he got back I started taking her back to her bed to sleep, laying with her for a little bit. Thankfully, she's finally getting the hang of getting herself back to sleep quickly (except for last night). Clare is starting to talk up a storm. She can do small 2-word sentences and can understand so much more. She is definitely one who likes to get a laugh. She'll do almost anything to keep us laughing. Attley is on a new "diet" dog food and we're seeing really good results. He's lost almost 5 lbs since he's been on it. Which actually is a little too much too fast. So we need to up his food a bit to slow down his weight loss. But I really think its helping his foot to feel better. He's back to running upstairs to join us for bedtime and has more spunk overall. Scott is starting to work more hours in preparation for the busy summer. Hopefully he won't have to work any all-nighters.

And I am just hangin' in there. I've been thinking a lot about babies and getting pregnant, mostly because we started trying for Schwake number 3 last month. It didn't happen this time which is fine. I am getting older...I turn 39 next week. So it may not happen at all. And that will be fine too. I am absolutely in love with my two little girls so I will never ever feel cheated or that I missed something if we're not able to have another. And this weekend I'm going with my friend, Paige, to the Westwood Women's retreat which will be a nice little getaway. And then next week, it's my birthday week which is always a fun time for me because I usually get to spend time with all of my wide variety of friends and family.

That's all for this month's post. Schwake out!

Highs and Lows

Another month has gone by. I'm getting a bit behind on my blogging. But this fast paced part-time-mom suburban lifestyle is just crazy!! I can hardly keep up! Actually, I'm just lazy. Let's see, what has happened since the last post...

Scott and I took in a very fun Timberwolves game on Valentine's day. They trailed the entire way until the last couple of minutes when they pulled ahead for the win. Very fun. The only thing that would have made that night better was if Clare hadn't gone psycho on the poor 15-yr old sitter. She (Clare) started crying the minute we left and didn't stop until she was put to bed at 7:00 - wouldn't eat dinner, wouldn't let the sitter change her diaper or get near her in any way. Poor Katie (the sitter). And poor Clare. That had to be a little traumatic for her being in the throes of her stranger anxiety stage. She was happy as a clam when we got home and put her in her PJs after giving her a substantial midnight snack. Went right back to sleep too.

A few days after that, Scott and I took a marriage seminar. We (I) try to sign us up for one of these every year or two just to make sure we're on the same page and have a venue for venting any unsaid frustrations. Turns out the seminar was kinda lame. But we came to the conclusion that we don't have any major issues. The only thing we could come up to talk over was our ongoing dispute over the TV and I think we got that one pretty much figured out.

We had a scare with Attley in late February. I was sitting next to him on the couch and noticed that he was really licking his back foot on what is supposed to be his bionic leg. He had licked all the hair off of this one spot and when I went to touch it he licked me a lot which is his way of saying, "Ouch, please don't touch that spot." I thought I felt a lump there but the whole foot/ankle of a dog is very lumpy so I wasn't sure. We tried to get him up and it was obvious he was highly favoring that leg. I was instantly depressed assuming that the cancer was back in a new spot. And since dogs aren't meant to be bimodal, I was convinced that we'd be putting him down towards the end of the week. We took him to the vet the next morning where they took x-rays of his foot and of his lungs. Lungs were still clear but there was definitely some mass near his foot but it didn't look like it was bone swelling. They advised us to bring him in the next day to have a biopsy of the area. I felt so bad for him. If this was going to be his last week on earth, should we really be putting him through the pain and the anxiety of a biopsy?? But, we had to know. So in we went the next morning. The doc who was going to do the biopsy gave him a thorough exam and determined that it wasn't a mass at all. It was just swollen tissue from either a strain/sprain or, more likely, he had plantar fasciatis which is an overuse injury. Relief flooded through me as I realized that he did not have a life threatening cancer on his foot. The doc said a biopsy wasn't needed and recommended that we put Attley on a diet to alleviate the amount of weight that his legs had to bear. Since then, Attley spent a few more days laid up on the couch but then started walking fairly normally. He's pretty much back to normal, has lost maybe a pound (which is like 5 lbs for us) but is still favoring the foot a bit. Hopefully we can get him down another 5-6 lbs which would help out all his joints.

And that brings us to this last weekend. Scott was on top of his game and did all the booking for our ski trip out west. We were all set to fly out on Frontier on Thursday March 1st at 7:45 pm. Yep, that was the big snowstorm day. We were pretty apprehensive as the week started knowing that this big storm was coming. Not only were we worried about not getting a flight out, we weren't sure that Scott's parents would even make it up to watch the girls even if we did get a flight out. Knowing that the weather was going to get started on Wed afternoon, Scott decided to drive down to Waterloo on Tuesday night to get his mom. They drove back up here on Wed morning. So now we had childcare, we set our sights on getting outta dodge! We were fairly certain our late flight would be cancelled so we headed to the airport at 11:00 am in hopes of flying standby on the 2:00 flight. Cancelled. Then our late flight was cancelled. Then they started cancelling Northwest and Continental flights. Over 400 flights were cancelled that day. But miraculously, Sun Country was still flying. We got a refund on our Fronteir flight and bought two tickets for the 5:00 pm flight on Sun Country. We made it out without any problems. Sun Country just gained two new loyal customers!

We made it! We went skiing (Scott boarded) at Loveland on Friday in blizzard-like conditions. The biting wind, zero temperature and extremely low visibility was making us second guess our decision to ski. We prayed for warmer weather the next day and God was good. We skied at Copper mountain under sunny skies, light breezes and beautiful temps. That was about it for me though. My legs were like stumps the next day so I did some shopping while Scott went riding under even more beautiful conditions. It was about 50 degrees at the base of the hill. Gorgeous. We drove back to Denver on Sunday night and were able to meet up with some friends of Scott's from high school, Joe and Robin Hockey and their two kids, Nicholas and Jessica. They took us to this really great Italian buffet, Cinzetti's, where we gorged on all kinds of scrumptious pasta and italian fare. The Hockeys were great company, I felt like I had known them for a long time. Monday we caught our flight back home. Just in time, because we were both missing our little punks. They were a sight for sore eyes. They had just as much fun being spoiled by grandma and grandpa (who showed up on Saturday) as we did playing and eating like grown-ups do.

And that brings us to today. Back at work. Back at cooking and cleaning and blogging. My next big adventure? Painting the bathrooms. Yee Hawww!

Site Seeing

I know, I know. It takes me almost a month to get a new posting on here and then WHAM I post 2 days in a row. I'm crazy like that. But I just came across two mildly interesting sites that can waste a few minutes of time for you. These were sites listed in the Star Tribune today.

http://www.census.gov/genealogy/www/namesearch.html

This site allows you to type in your name and see where it ranks in the US (based on 1990 census data).

For another (and cooler) take on the name game check out this site that my dad sent me. Very cool. Just type in a name and click boy/girl/both. It shows the frequency of that name at different times in history.

http://babynamewizard.com/namevoyager/lnv0105.html



http://www.wheredidthetimego.com/

This site is actually for a broadband company in Britain but it asks you to plug in a few stats on yourself and then it tells you how much of your life you've spent doing certain things. Mildly interesting.

Enjoy.

Happy Birthday Cate!!!

I’ve been at this parenting gig for 3 years now. It seems like just yesterday and years ago all at once. Cate was born on groundhog’s day in 2004. I was in labor during Janet Jackson’s “wardrobe malfunction” at the superbowl. I can remember in vivid detail every moment of that night and morning, all the emotions and thoughts, all the physical sensations. She came into this world by cesarean after 2 hours of pushing couldn’t get her out. Her noggin was too big. The poor girl, to this day, never fits into the cute hats that come with all the outfits. Big head aside, we loved her beyond reason and still do. She is everything I could ever ask for in a little girl. But then so is her sister and they are both completely different. I’m just smitten with my kids. I saw a mom and dad talking today about cell phones and their son, maybe 7 or 8, was playing nearby. The boy came up to mom saying (as all kids do), “Mom. Mom. Mom. Hey mom. Mom. Mom, watch this. Mom.” After about a minute of this from him, his mom finally snaps, “WHAT!? You are being so rude. Mom is talking.” Yeah, that life and death cell phone conversation ranks right up there with the peace talks. I felt so bad for that kid. He just wanted his mom to watch him make a jump, to pay 2 seconds of attention to him, and she had the gall to tell him HE was being rude. Pay attention lady. He’ll be all “growed up” in the blink of an eye. How can you not pay attention to these little people – especially your own little people (because frankly there are some other people’s little people that I wouldn’t mind forgetting). For example, Cate told me her first ever knock-knock joke the other day:

Cate: Mommy, knock, knock.
Me: Who’s there.
Cate: ChuggaChugga
Me: ChuggaChugga Who?
Cate: Loppyslop.

The kid is brilliant, I tell ya! Yes, it made no sense, but it was still brilliant. I loved it. She’s cracking up Scott and me on a daily basis. She’s getting more and more expressive in the things she says and does. She’s becoming more loving too. Out of the blue I-Love-You’s that melt your heart. She’s top of her class in swimming (but that probably has more to do with the fact that she’s in a class with a lot of 20-month-olds.) She’s always stating the obvious. “Mommy, you’re big and I’m little. And Clarebear is little, too. But daddy is big.” And when she’s not stating the obvious, she’s asking about it. At the gym today “Mommy what is she doing?” “Well, honey, she’s getting dressed and I’ll bet she would like some privacy so why don’t you stop looking at her.” “ Yes, she wants privacy because she’s getting dressed. I’m all dressed. You have your swimsuit on mommy. Are you going to get dressed? Do you need some privacy mommy?”….all while still staring at the poor woman getting dressed. At least she didn’t start comparing our breast sizes which is a favorite at home for some reason. Even Attley’s boobies get assessed.

Anyway, we threw her a nice family party. All the grandmas and grandpas and relatives were over. I figured that this was the last year in which she wouldn’t care if other kids were there or not. Next year she’ll have friends that she’ll want to invite to her party. I think she had a great time this year though. It was the first year that she really understood that the party was for her and she would get presents all because she was born one day. And she did get lots of presents – many Dora-themed one’s. I made her a “Barbie” cake. I made it a little to shallow though so I had to pull off Barbie’s legs so she would look right in her skirt. I didn’t want to have to explain why her skirt only came up to her thighs. Anyway, we had a good time catching up with everyone. And in the aftermath I can’t stop thinking about how big Cate is getting and how fast its all going. I want more than anything for her to grow up healthy and happy, but just not quite so fast!! I need to enjoy all my time with her and Clare. Stay in the moment and don’t get caught up in the stupid stuff - like cell phones.

In other news, Attley had his last chemo appointment two weeks ago. He’s been laying kind of low since then but I think he’s starting to come back to his normal self. Apparently some dogs can lose some hair during chemo. We noticed that he had lost a lot of the long hair on his tail that always made it so swishy. Now it looks like a lab’s tail. He as a couple other bald spots too. I’m so happy to put the chemo behind us. His lungs still looked all clear too. We take him in for more lung x-rays in March and then every 6 months after that. Hopefully we get to spend a lot more on x-rays for him over his whole life span.

Clarebear is discovering the joys of speech. She’s starting to say a lot of words if you prompt her. She only has a few words that she uses all the time unprompted: No. Mine. Owie. Uhoh. Mama. Dad-deee. And of course, a plethora of unintelligible one’s that sound just like the cadence of regular speech. She’s just so darn cute. And so different from her older sister. Cate had a ton of patience and could keep trying something until she got it or gave up and gave it to me to do. Clare has a toy piggy bank with extra big coins. If she can’t get those suckers in within two tries, those coins are chucked across the room. No patience.

Well that’s about it from the Schwake household. Its about time for me to head off to bed – gotta work tomorrow. Until next time….

Swiper, No Swiping!!

Can that Dora chick be any more "exuberant"?! The girl who does her voice must be a real pistol because Dora is always shouting. I say all this because we are on our 4th episode of Dora right now. Cate is glued to the TV. Generally I try not to let her watch that many in a row, but Scott's gone winter camping right now and, frankly, its easier when she's fully occupied. I just pop that in, and I can get the dishes done, take Clare up to bed, get Attley fed and catch up on my e-mails and blogging. I tell my self that its okay, because she's leaning so much... counting, spanish words, how to read a map, but really I'm just teaching her how to be a couch potatoe. Oh well, one night won't kill her.

So, yeah, Scott's off being crazy again. He drove up to Grand Marais yesterday and they hiked in this morning. He called me before they went in and it was -6 F up there. Toasty. I always get a little worried about him when he's up there. They hike in pretty far and have no means of communication with anyone "on the outside". I envision him breaking his leg and not being able to get back out, dying of hypothermia. That would suck. So, I'm saying lots of prayers for him. I know he'll be fine. One year, one of the guys actually did get a pretty bad injury and they got him out just fine.

Speaking of my crazy husband, I just have to brag a little bit. He was just named Vice President of Engineering and a Principal in McCain and Associates! I couldn't be more proud of him. He really works hard for John and his company and this is well deserved. Way to go Scotty!!!

Last weekend we were in Waterloo to celebrate Christmas with Scott's side of the family. It was a fun time and the girls just love being doted on by Grandma and Grandpa. Other than me being stressed by the lack of sleep my girls were getting (a common theme with me), everyone had a good time.

I'm having trouble getting back in the swing of things at work. I try to buckle down and get some work done but I keep getting distracted. It seems like there are a ton of personal things that I need to do... sign kids up for classes, make doctor's appointments, get ready for Cate's b-day, etc. Now, if I would just be diligent and do some of those things in the evenings, I wouldn't feel so compelled to do them during business hours. But I suppose then I would just find something else to distract me. I'm finding myself being less and less invested in work as the years go by. Work is just work - in fact, its more just a social outlet for me than anything else. I don't love what I do but I have a lot of friends there. Next week. I will buckle down next week!

Tomorrow night is my company's annual holiday party. I bought a new black dress and shoes for the occasion. I think it will be fun. And, in anticipation of being in that dress, I've been dedicated to losing some of this holiday weight. I lost 2 pounds last week which is great. I'm hoping to get some exercising in tonight and tomorrow and maybe I can shed one more pound. Every little bit helps. Anyway, the party got me thinking back to last year at this time. It made me realize that I've lost about 25 lbs this past year! Even though I've been feeling bad about not losing any weight the past couple of months (okay, okay, I mean gaining weight), I shouldn't be so hard on myself seeing all that I accomplished since last year at this time. But I am still pushing to lose another 20 pounds by this spring. We've decided to go for kid number 3 this spring and I don't want to start out at this weight because as soon as I pop this kid out, I'll be rounding the corner to menopause. The big downhill slide!!!

Alright. Enough about that. I'd better go. Cate's getting that glazed look in her eye. Time for bed and time to shut of Dora. Thank you, Jesus!! Then its time for me to workout and veg after that. I've taken up crocheting and its worse than reading a good book. I find myself crocheting well past my intended bedtime everynight. Why in the world is it so addicting?? Every time I get to the end of a row I always say, "Oh, just one more row" and on and on it goes. Its crazy. Anyway, I vow to put it down tonight at a reasonable time. I've been way too tired lately.

Adios Amigos!

Hiatus

Merry Christmas!!

I just realized it's been a really long time since I've updated. I apologize to the two people who regularly check out my site (mom and my husband). But in my defense, it has been a fairly busy time of the year. Between my family and Scott's, we have 3 birthdays to celebrate in December, along with the cookie baking, present buying, and all things Christmas. To top it off, Attley is still going through chemo and we're trying out new pain relief drugs to help with his back hip. More on that later.

So, all in all, we've had a great December. Like I said, we filled up two weekends with family birthdays. Its great to see everyone but those events sure are hectic. On my side, we generally get together at my brother, Scott's house. Along with his family of 8, there's us with 4, my brother Jon and his girlfriend Liz, my parents and then Scott's wife, Marie, usually has her side at the parties too, which contributes another 10 people. Its always crazy but the foods always good and we have a good time. Scott's side is considerably smaller, but this year, our neice, McKenna, had her 2nd birthday at Chucky Cheese. Nuff said.

We had some good news this December. Attley went in for his 3rd round of chemo. Before his chemo administration they x-rayed his lungs. All clear! That means that the chemo is working and is at the very least keeping the cancer at bay, but hopefully its eradicating it all together. We also found a new drug to help with the pain in his hip. It doesn't just mask the pain like the Tramadol he was on, but it fights inflammation too which is what he really needs. We've been keeping a close eye on him because his liver doesn't handle the anti-inflammatories too well. But usually we see bad signs of it by now and so far he's been doing great.

Christmas was great. The girls are at a great age for presents and this is the first year that I think Cate actually understood the whole Santa thing AND the whole Jesus thing. I tried really hard to emphasize that the reason for Christmas is to celebrate the birth of Jesus. When I was a kid I always thought it was a cool coincidence that Jesus had a birthday on Christmas. So I wanted her to get it right from the start. Anyway, the girls got some fun presents. I didn't do too badly myself either!! Scott is a notorius grumpy gift giver. He hounds me for weeks asking me what I want and when I tell him what I actually want he calls it lame and won't accept it. He is also, however, fairly clever about making me think he got me something stupid and then he comes out with a really good gift. This year was no exception. You'd think I'd learn by now, but I totally got fed up with the whole thing again this year, totally expecting a super lame-o present. But the Schwake pulled through with a super cool Ipod Nano! Totally unexpected and super fun. We spent all of Boxing day loading it up. Its great!

So, here we are a couple of days after Christmas. The original plan was that we were both going to take the entire week off. I'm keeping to the plan but unfortunately Scott had to work today and, from the looks of it, will be pulling an all-nighter tonight to get something to a client by tomorrow at noon. We had decided a while ago that we would put the girls in daycare today so that we could get some stuff done or just hang out together alone. I could have kept them home considering Scott wouldn't be home but I decided to take advantage of it. I dropped them off this morning at Jamie's and went to the gym for a great workout. I haven't done that in ages. I was planning on going home after that and getting the house cleaned up. But it didn't take long for me to say "Screw that!". I decided to go to a matinee. I had a great time watching "Dreamgirls". It was a great movie. I had a ball!

Tomorrow, I'm going to take Clarebear to Jamie's and Cate and I are going to go to the "Happy Feet" matinee. It will be Cate's first theater movie. I hope she likes it. I'm just looking forward to having a "date" with my little girl.

All right I've blabbed enough. I'll try to post a little more often.

Happy New Year!!

Life in the fast lane

Does time go faster around the holidays?? It sure seems so. Thanksgiving has come and gone and we're already well into the Christmas season. I feel like the last couple of weeks happened in the wink of an eye. Part of that is that I've been traveling a bit. We went to Waterloo for the Thanksgiving weekend which was fun and went by fast. Then there were a couple of evening events that I had to go to that week. And after that, I flew out on Sunday for a couple of days in Louisville, KY for work. I got back Wed night and am taking a minute to unwind before cranking up for the Christmas season of parties, shopping and cookie baking.

Tonight is our first Christmas party at the Staffords house. They always have a fun party with lots of food. I'm looking forward to it. Saturday we have two parties, one at my new friend, Becky's house and one right next door at the Kjesbo's. Becky's parties (from pictures I've seen) look like they could get a little rowdy! But alas, we told mom we'd be home around 9:00 so that she could head back home (she has to work in the morning). After she leaves either we'll go to the Kjesbo's and bring out monitors (they should work - close range) or else one of us will stay home.

I also have about 1/2 of my Christmas shopping done so far. I'd like to get out this weekend and shop a little bit, but I don't know if it will happen. Sunday we have family birthday parties at my brother, Scott's house.

Before I know it, Monday will be here and we'll be one more week closer to Christmas! It just zooms.

Enough of me ranting about time going too fast. The girls are doing good and getting more fun everyday. Scott had the single parenting duties while I was in hillbilly country. He's such a good dad. He got a kick out of Cate one night when he said something to her and she responded with, "Okay Dad, whatever you say." She's not even 3 yet!! Clare is cruising right along. She has the walking thing mastered and is working on running and jumping. She also is working hard at talking. She is really starting to imitate sounds and rhythems of words. She tries hard and I swear I'm starting to understand some of her jibberish. She really likes singing along with Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. When you start the song she sounds something like, "kinko kinko da da da" and when you get to the "..up above the world so high.." she goes, "ba ba ba ba ba ba ba!" right in rhythem with it. Too cute! Here she is in the buff, her favorite state of being.


Both of them are having a hard time understanding that its really cold out. They both want to play at the park and on the slides. So I bundle them up and we go out there but they're both done and too cold after about 5 minutes. I'm sure we'll all have a bunch more fun once it actually snows outside.

We've got our tree up and all our lights. Scott channelled a little bit of Clark Griswald this year and went a little crazy with the lights. Well, crazy for Schwake, that is. Last year, he chastised me for buying more Christmas lights and made me take them back. This year he took 2 or 3 trips to Home Depot, Menards, Target and the CBC just to find the right kinds of lights. And he still wasnt' completely satisfied. But I think it looks really nice and festive.

Well, my time is about up. Clare is waking up from her nap and Cate has been down for about an hour tossing and turning - I think she won't be having a nap today. I can hear her on the monitor calling to Clare, "Be quiet clare." Now she's singing to her. No rest for the weary (that would be me).

Cate and I made a gingerbread house today. Well, I made it and decorated it and Cate ate candies and sprinkles. It was fun and easy since I bought a kit that already had the cookies in their correct shapes. Someday, though I want to buy the forms to make one from scratch. Maybe it can be a new holiday tradition.

Attley is doing really good. We take him in next Tuesday for his 3rd round of chemo. They will take x-rays of his lungs this time to see if they are still clear. If tumors have formed, then they won't do any more chemo since it obviously wouldn't be working. We're praying for clear lungs. I hope we have our big black mutt around for a long time.

Well that's it for this edition of the blog. Enjoy the holiday. Remember why we have it. Jesus was born and he came to take away our sin so we could be worthy to be in God's presence someday. How could we not celebrate that!!

Gobble Gobble

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you all have safe travel, eat tons of food and watch lots of football. Be thankful you're not a turkey, especially this one!

We'll be traveling to Waterloo to spend the holiday with Scott's family. I'm bringing 4 pies down - 2 apple, one pumpkin and a mystery pie. I haven't quite figured out what the mystery pie will be yet. Something easy and delish! Our plan is to stay there a couple of days and then leave our girls down there overnight on Saturday while Scott and I head home to put up Christmas lights and possibly do some Christmas shopping. Then we'll meet halfway to pick up the girls on Sunday evening. We'll see if that works out though. I think Clare may have an ear infection so I'm taking her to the clinic today so that if she does have one, we can get the antibiotics working and get her out of her misery.

Attley had his 2nd chemo treatment yesterday and seems to be more perky than after the first one. They also did an examination on his back left leg. He's not been as active as we think he should be and I've noticed him favoring that leg (as much as he can favor it considering he has hip problems on the other back leg and only one leg in front). They didn't find anything that warrented an X-ray which is good. Scott and I were a little worried that maybe the cancer was showing up in another bone. We'll just keep an eye on him in the meantime.

Can I just say, that I'm really happy that I'm not a workaholic! I've had two discussions in the last two days with workaholics. Being a workaholic has very adversly affected their lives. I made a decision when I had Cate to cut down to 3 days a week at work. It's been hard for me watching other people climb the ladder faster than me and to be getting smaller bonuses than everyone else. But the payoff is incredible. I do not want to become either one of these people who are having relationship troubles and health issues. My pride is nothing compared with spending time with my kids and husband, and being healthy so that I can be with them for a long time. That being said, I don't really think I'm in any danger of being a workaholic considering I really don't like to work that much. What, you say? You're not passionate about staring at spreadsheets all day crunching emission calculations and responding to last minute urgen client requests?? Um. No.

Well that's about it for this post. Remember these important words as you're imbibing this weekend: "You can't say you've been drinking all day if you don't start first thing in the morning." Thank you very much. I'll be here all week.

North Shore Getaway

Split Rock Lighthouse Split Rock Lighthouse is the North Shore's best known landmark.
© 1999. Minnesota Office of Tourism. Courtesy of www.byways.org.

Scott and I had a chance to get away for a little weekend retreat without the girls last weekend. Scott's parents came up to watch the girls. I'm not sure who got more of a treat, us or them. They absolutely adore all their granddaughters and relish every opportunity to spend time with them. Its so easy to leave your kids when you know that the people watching them love them as much as you do. Anyway, we didn't really have a plan. Well, we HAD a plan to go to Las Vegas but then the whole cancer thing with Attley happened and Vegas went out the window. So we were left without a plan.

We decided on Friday to head north, Scott called and got us a reservation for that evening at Bluefin Bay in Tofte on the north shore. We took off from home around 2:00 and headed north (after Ken and Cheryl almost kicked us out the door). We stopped for some ice cream on the way up and headed for Pizza Luce in Duluth for dinner. Mmmm. We had already decided that we didn't want to drive the rest of the way to Tofte that night (we wanted to keep drinking beer) so we moved the reservation to Saturday night and booked a room at the Hampton Inn in Canal Park. We stayed at Luce for a bit then walked around Canal Park looking for a fun bar but somehow decided to just buy more beer and drink it in the room. We were having a really great time just talking and laughing (plus we were fed up with the smoke - we are getting SO old!!).

Saturday morning we got up (late!!) and ate the continental breakfast before heading out to shop. Scott usually hates shopping unless its for outdoor-type stuff or for antiques. So that's where we shopped. But he was very accomodating if I wanted to go into another store. We walked around Duluth's skyway system and came upon some curling matches which we watched for a while. It looked like fun - we should try it sometime. We had a late lunch at Hacienda Del Sol (again, mmmmm!!) then proceeded up the north shore. We got to Bluefin Bay around 5:30 that evening and explored around a bit.
We had a yummy dinner at the Bluefin Grille (does the "e" at the end make it a more hoity toity place or what??!) then went down to the beach where they had a good bonfire going. But the wind off the lake was pretty strong so we called it quits fairly shortly and went back to our room to drink more beer. We got another good nights sleep with the sound of the waves on Lake Superior splashing against the rocks. The only bad thing about both nights was that the rooms were way too hot. We couldn't get the temp right - mainly because you couldn't turn off the heat. Scott and I are both very hot sleepers so I was a little restless. Scott can sleep through just about anything so he barely noticed.

Sunday we had lunch at the Coho Cafe (very yummy pizza) before heading back towards Duluth. We had a chance to see our friends Carrie and Matty who live in a very nice old house right in Duluth before making the final trek home. We called when we got within an hour away to see how everything was going and to make sure they kept the girls up so that we could see them before they went to bed. Turns out the girls had caught a bad cold that weekend and had been up quite a bit the night before with bad coughs. This, of course, made the last hour of the trip seem very long because we both just wanted to hold and hug our little sickos. Turns out they weren't nearly as bad as we had thought which is good. The girls were happy to see us and we them. Sometimes it takes a little time away for everyone to appreciate each other a little more. Grandma had managed to make them about 7 different baked good throughout the weekend so they maybe weren't super excited to see her go. But all in all, it was a great weekend for everyone. The girls got some good old fashioned spoiling by grandma and grandpa and Scott and I reconnected and remembered that, "Oh yeah, you're kinda fun to hang out with!"

Halloween happenings

Life has been cruising along. I can't believe we're into (well into) November already! Halloween was an event-filled day for us. Besides having Cate all excited to be a chicken and go trick or treating, it was also Attley's first round of chemo and Scott and my 4th anniversary. Busy day.

The day started out with an hour and a half commute in heavy traffic to bring Attley to the U of M and for us to consult with the oncologist about the chemo and how the day would go. Attley was very nervous (understandably) and stuck very close to us the entire consult. They went over the different types of chemo medication and what side effects we could expect with both. We decided on one and then asked a few more questions before we left. Attley would stay there the entire day, they'd do some bloodwork to make sure everything was kosher and then they'd administer the medication over 10-minutes by IV drip with two vet techs hanging out with him, loving him up and making sure he was comfortable. They would then watch him for a while to make sure he was doing okay before calling me to come and get him. They called at about 3:30 that afternoon so I wrapped up my day and headed out at 4:10 with hopes of getting home in time to take the girls trick or treating. Scott had taken Cate the two previous years so I wanted to take them this year. It wasn't meant to be. I didn't get to the U of M until 5:20. Attley and I left at 5:30 and didn't get home until 6:40. Scott already had the girls out so I turned on our porch light to hand out candy to the neighborhood kids. I only got one set of kids before Scott got home with the girls. They were so cute!! I took a bunch of pictures, allowed them both to gorge on some candy then took them up to get ready for bed. By the time I got back down, we only had one more group ring our doorbell. That was it for me for halloween. Bummer.



Attley was pretty cashed that night and the next day his appetite wasn't too good but he did eat when we spiced up his food with some table scraps. They told us that if he was going to show side effects, he would likely have them (nausea/diarrhea) 3-5 days after chemo. Days 2 & 3 he was laying a little low but was still totally interested in eating and begging. Days 4 and 5 he perked up and tonight he actually played fetch and tug with me - he hasn't played like that since this whole thing started. We take him in for bloodwork tomorrow to make sure everything is going okay and then his next round of chemo will be in a couple of weeks. They told us that the way he handles the first round of chemo will likely be how he handles all of them. If that's the case, then this will be a breeze for him.

Scott and I went on a date on Friday night to celebrate our anniversary (thanks to Mom and Dad who volunteered to babysit for us!!). We started out at Floyd's in Victoria, but sadly we are just too dang old or something. We couldn't take the smoke! So we left there and went to the Narrow's - a bar in Navarre. They had a good band playing, we got some good food and drank some good beer. It was a fun night out - we need to do more stuff like that.

Saturday I was fortunate enough to go out again with Karyn, Amy and Sarah to celebrate their birthdays (all within one month of each other). We went to Ichiban's. MMMMMM. Go if you ever get the chance. Its a fun place for groups and the food is so yummy.

Other than that, it was not a super exciting weekend - I worked about 10 hours on an unexpected request from a client late on Friday. Not fun. But the weather was gorgeous and I managed to get the Silver Bullet completely clean, inside and out. (That's our minivan, by the way - Schwake came up with the name.)

That's about it. Don't forget to VOTE!!!

The girls

With all that's been going on with Attley, I've fallen a bit behind on posting anything about the girls so I thought I'd just post a bunch of pictures. Oh, and Clare is walking now!!
Watching TV (probably Dora).
Our little fire chief.
Like my hat, Grandpa??
Apples and pumpkins day.
Cate with her "peeps" - (Grandma and Grandpa Schwake).
This is my juice!
Are we related??
9...10! Come out come out where ever you are!
The nightly ritual of picking out our water cup for bed.
Mmmm, mac n cheese!
Visit to the Fire and Rescue Station.

Attley pics

Attley has been recovering really well. He seems to be getting the hang of the 3-legged deal and does better and better every day. We also seemed to have gotten his medication dose and timing figured out so he seems much more comfortable and not so out of it. In fact, he's seeming more and more like the old Attley every day. Here are a couple of shots the day before the amputation.


And here he is one day and one week after amputation.
One day...
And one week...