Baby shower! And a car kerfuffle

This time change has kicked my trash!! All week I've felt like I could barely function in my half-dead zombie state. But I'm happy for the extra light and for springtime, so whatever. I just wish we'd stick with this time and be done with it. I'm getting too old for this nonsense.

 Last Saturday, my mom and sisters planned a fun birthday lunch/baby shower for me! It was so nice to get together and eat and visit--it had been a long time.

 We met at the Pizza Factory in St. George. Madelyn came with me, and my niece Hattie and my sis-in-law Monica.

My sister Maria came from Kanab, my sister Meg came from Orem, and my mom and sis-in-law Lori came from Hurricane. It was my mom's birthday earlier that week, and mine is next week.

 Lori had left already but I thought we'd get a picture with all the brown haired "M" girls: Mom (okay, her name is Carolyn), Megan, Melissa, Maria and Monica (and Madelyn was taking the picture). I want to give Baby QQ an "M" name, too, but I don't think Mark is going for it.

 It was such a nice day that Madelyn had to do a little frolicking!

So, while we were lunching, Mark and Luke had taken my car over to the dealership where we had bought it three years ago. They'd kept sending us recall notices and said to come in for a free repair. It was to reprogram the main computer in the car to fix some sort of engine vibration. My car had never had that specific problem, but we figured we'd get it checked out just to be safe.

Biiiig mistake.

I called Mark to tell him to come and pick us up, and he said, "There's been a problem....." I guess while the mechanics were trying to reprogram our computer, it froze up and could not be rebooted. The car was completely crippled and it needed a new computer--TO THE TUNE OF ALMOST $800 DOLLARS. "They offered to do the labor for free--once they find a replacement part--and they've given us a loaner truck to drive in the meantime." 

Ugggghhhhhhhh

So, what else were we supposed to do? I drove a red 2014 Chevy Silverado for the week.

 This truck would not even fit in our garage. Maybe if it had been completely empty--but as it was, the bed stuck out by 2-3 feet when we pulled in. I was in constant fear of sideswiping someone, or running them over, or of smashing things with the end of the bed as I tried to maneuver around.

But it had a bumpin' sound system and XM Sirius satellite radio so I drove around Cedar City blasting girl power songs by Gwen Stefani and Beyonce, feeling like this:

source

Or more accurately, like this:

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 Because I was FINALLY A TRUE SOUTHERN UTAHN, Y'ALL. Big trucks are a THING down here. The guy at the dealership was so pleased to have this giant pickup to loan us--and was 100% sure that it was our dream come true. You can't go 5 seconds down a southern Utah road without seeing a truck. There are ELEVEN such trucks just on our tiny little street--I sat at Madelyn's bedroom window and counted them.

Anyhoo, Luke was totally thrilled with it, as you can imagine.

 Madelyn had Mark drive her to school in it every day until we had to give it back. I'm glad they enjoyed themselves...

Well, Mark and I lost sleep all week about how on earth we'd be able to pay for repairs on my car--because even though they offered to do the labor for free and even got the company to write off half of the cost of the part--$437 was still more than we could afford (not to mention the unfairness of it all--the car had been fine until they messed it up).

Mark told them flat out that we could not afford to pay that much, and waited nervously until Thursday morning, when they finally said we could get our car back for $100. We figured that was as good as a deal as we were going to get and drove down and picked it up before they could change their minds!!

Good land!!

Yesterday, I finally got around to taking some pics of the baby shower presents I got:

My sis-in-law Monica knows I love Baby Magic lotion and I had literally just made a mental note to buy some more when she gave me some! And a gift card to Walmart, which will come in super handy because the car seat/stroller I want is from there.

We don't currently have a baby car seat anymore, or a crib. Yeah, you'd think we would, but our old ones were either recalled or expired. We also don't have a dresser for the baby's clothes yet. I have everything picked out, I just don't have the money (it's going to add up to about $500) to get all that stuff. I'm pretty sure that in about a month from now we can buy it all, but in the meantime, Mark has his surgery coming up and we are still paying for medical bills we incurred last year, etc. (And the car kerfuffle was so not helpful.) I know that as long as we at least get the car seat, we can get by without the other stuff for a while, so that will come first. We already have clothes and blankets and gear, mostly Madelyn's old things--thank goodness for that.

My mom gave me this adorable outfit and velour blanket. Sooo cute! She also gave me a Target gift card and I got this:

A little outfit (will probably be what we take her home from the hospital in) and about 10 pairs of baby pants for this fall/winter. I also bought diapers, nursing pads, pacifiers and bottle liners. I've been trying to stock up on supplies like that whenever I can.

My sister Maria painted these ADORABLE peg dolls for me--I requested that she make two mermaid sisters that could represent my girls--and she threw in a Pirate Luke, too. I love them!! She also gave me cash to go towards getting the car seat, which I'm very grateful for.

 Megan decided to give me my birthday present early and got me this super awesome Star Wars window shade for my car. It earned her a high-five from across the table. I can't wait to use it! The first Star Wars movie (Ep. IV) was the best and how can you go wrong with Chewie, Luke, Obi-Wan and Han Solo??! I LOVE IT. Nerds unite!

P.S. Madelyn has just discovered the animated Star Wars Clone Wars series and "only has 115 episodes to go!" on Netflix and I'm sorry, but they are just terrible. TERRIBLE.

Then a couple of days ago, I received a package in the mail from Mark's sister Sheila, who made me this gorgeous handmade baby quilt:

 I mean--WOW--what a gift!! Her workmanship is so impeccable and I can't believe she takes the time to make them for all her nieces and nephews.

She actually made quilts for my other kids, too. This was Madelyn's:

 

 I just remember being blown away because she had intuitively chosen all the colors I was going to decorate Madelyn's room with. And she did the same with Luke's!

 She made this Irish chain quilt with all these teeny one inch squares in gradient shades of blue and green. And then hand quilted it!! I am not worthy.

 

Sheila's daughter, also named Sheila, threw in this hand knitted baby cardigan with her mom's quilt. ISN'T IT PRECIOUS! Holy talented. I guess I have come to accept that I am not the crafty queen of everything because all that stuff is way beyond me.

So happy to have such nice things for my baby! :) Thanks, everyone!

Mark's Manly Projects

I don't know why I never got around to posting about this, but Mark spiffed up his arcade (like, 6 months ago.......).

This is how it was.

He'd always planned on redoing the control panel (or whatever you call it). He put the buttons in a different configuration to begin with.

 

 He bought a poster to go on top of the panel and cut out holes for the buttons, and then cut a piece of clear acrylic to go on top of everything.

 Reinstalling the buttons, joysticks and trackball...

  

 The buttons light up and the whole thing looks awesome! He wants to add some retro arcade art to the sides but "has no motivation" since it's just stuck out in the garage for now.

 Around that same time last September, he started buying new computer parts. The last computer he built for us was about 7 years ago, and it was outdated (for gaming....otherwise it was fine). He got the new case first but then all plans to finish buying parts came to a screeching halt when we ended up with thousands of dollars in medical bills for my pregnancy.

 Skip to now....when I told him he could keep any money he earned working for my dad (helping to build their house) to put towards the computer. He got enough money for about half the parts that way, and then when we got our federal tax return he bought the rest. 

 

He is giddy about this new gaming machine. Ask him about the specs sometime, he'd love to talk to you about them.

And then in addition to the ladder he just built for his shed loft, he ended up with a free window from my dad last week and decided to put it on the east side of the building.

 

 It casts a ton of light on his workbench, and it opens!

 

 Luke loves the shed.

 

 He still loves watching daddy play games and bossing him around, too.

If you're a friend of mine on facebook, then you probably saw the news that Mark needs surgery. He had decided to finally get his seasonal allergies checked out this year and so went and did a physical and then met with an ear, nose and throat doctor (ENT). I'd been bugging him to get checked for a deviated septum, since he always has trouble breathing through his nose and that problem runs in his family. So at the end of his ENT visit, he said, "My wife wants you to check me for a deviated septum." And sure enough he has a SEVERE one that definitely needs surgery. 

This doctor works downstairs from Mark and is always getting referrals from him, so he agreed to cut Mark a deal for his part of the surgical fee--basically about 1/4 of what we'd normally have to pay. So we decided to go ahead with it, and he is scheduled to have his deviated septum fixed and a "sub mucous resection of both turbinates" on April 3rd. He said he is not looking forward to the pain of recovery, and I told him that I was not looking forward to going through childbirth for the third time either, so there.

He also had an allergy test done today:

 

 Ouch.

To our surprise, he isn't allergic to cats after all! He is extremely allergic to all the weeds they tested him for, so his reaction to cats is probably more from them roaming around outside and getting stuff in their fur. After we get his surgery done (and meet his insurance deductible, hopefully), then he can get allergy shots. He is looking forward to breathing this year.

Sleepy Luke, and CPNL

Luke likes to watch people come and go from his window from his new bed. Tiger (the cat) does, too. He spends the night sitting there, staring out the window. He used to do it in Madelyn's room but usually ended up on her pillow, clawing and biting her hair, so we don't let him in there now.

And now for a bunch of random pics of him napping with Luke:

 Tiger: "A crevice in the couch?? I must shove my head into it!"

 LOL

I'm glad to know that even though Luke pesters Tiger all the time, he still appreciates him as a warm body. Luke has taken up the alter ego of "Fluffy" and meows at you and acts like a cat and will get upset unless you cooperate and go along with it.

And then there was this, on Wednesday night after his bath...
 

Reading Green Eggs and Ham--Happy birthday Dr. Seuss!

Reading some BOB books to his teddy bear before bed

The other night, he grabbed a pile of alphabet stickers we got for Madelyn's science fair board and he said, "Mama, let's play a matching game" but since you can't play a matching game with things that don't match, I didn't win. (He is preoccupied with winning, and coming in first--except he says, "I'm one-th! You're two-th!" Instead of first and second.)

Anyway, he says to me, "I'm win, you're fail."

Another quote for posterity! Thanks!

Poor thing has bronchiolitis again. He got a cold from his friend in preschool this week and of course it's gone to his lungs. We had a very rough night last night, no one got any sleep. But now he asks for his "machine" (nebulizer) to help him breathe. Thank goodness for modern medicine.

Oh, and see that pile in the background?

Last night around 10:30 or 11:00 pm, I suddenly decided that I needed to go through ALL TWELVE YEARS of papers that had been accumulating in our file folders. We have two big drawers of them and they had gotten so full that it was next to impossible to shove any more papers in. So this is my shred pile.

This is just the latest in my Crazy Pregnant Nesting Lady (CPNL) phase. In the past two months, I've gone through 30 bins of clothes and toys, both kids' closets, two scary junk drawers, my entire pantry got an overhaul, as did my cookbooks and spice racks.....my sock drawer....my jewelry drawer.....went through all 94 bottles of nail polish I had shoved in there and threw out half of them.....AND my lotion drawer AND my body spray drawer.....(what--do you not have whole drawers dedicated to Bath and Body Works and Victoria's Secret Garden smelly products??) plus I have been stocking up on toiletries and trying to get Easter taken care of two months in advance.

The only thing I can think of left to sort through is my wrapping paper stash and pajama drawer. Then maybe I can focus on getting things done that are actually important, like finishing my sewing and mending and finally putting away the dang laundry and getting ready for the baby. But at least when she finally comes, my file cabinet will be immaculate.