Merry Christmas, with a side of near death.

Merry day-after-Christmas! I hope everybody had a wonderful holiday! For me this holiday has been going non stop from Christmas Eve.

Owen's parents got here at 1am on the 24th. They were supposed to get here at 7pm on the 23rd. We are just happy that they even made it with all the snow and ice we have been having.

In the morning we went and picked Owen's parents from their hotel. Then we took them on a tour of the post. They loved seeing and hearing about all the buildings on post.

Then we came home and I started cooking while they all watched Wall-e. For Christmas Eve dinner I made cranberry and orange glazed turkey, rosemary mashed potatoes, baked yams (fresh, not from a can) and steamed green beans.

The turkey took forever to cook. It was only supposed to be cooked in 3 hours... it took almost 5. I think our oven is leaking heat.

After our very late dinner (we ate at 9pm) Owen's parents went back to their hotel. As they were leaving I realized that I still had to wrap all of the presents. Owen would help with this, but he sucks at wrapping. I was up till 5am wrapping presents. I went to bed for the three hours of sleep that I was gonna get. Right around the time that we should have been leaving for church, Owen's parents called. They had slept through their alarm. We had too. They woke us up by calling!

Owen went to pick them up. When they got back we opened presents. This is the part of the day where things got interesting.

The kids tore through their presents. Then after their chaos was done, it was my turn. I opened a decorator rug that Owen's mom had originally bought for my mom. I was looking at it and my skin started to crawl. I didnt understand why, until I read the tag.

OH DEAR GOD!!!!!

The backing of the rug was made of Latex. For those of you who dont know, I am very allergic to latex. So allergic that I go into Anaphylaxis. That link will take you to the wikipedia description of Anaphylaxis, for those of you who want a detailed discription of what that entails. I will give you a minute to read it....

OK. Now that we are all acutely aware of what Anaphylaxis is... Now you understand why my post says "with a side of near death". That is right. All of a sudden I had a 2 foot by 3 foot rug of death in my lap, in direct skin contact with my arms. The itching I was feeling was my body beginning the process of shutting down. I imediately jumped up and ran for the bathroom, where we keep all the allergy medicine. See here is the thing. I do go into Anaphylaxis, but it takes my body about 20 minutes to start shuting down completely. So if I am fast I can sometimes get allergy medicine into my system fast enough to stop the reaction before my lungs and heart stop. So I bolted for the bathroom and downed the majority of a bottle of liquid childrens allergy medicine. Then I stripped down and started scubbing. It doesnt matter if I take medicine in time if I leave trace amounts of latex on my skin.

Right around the time that we were gonna find out if we had to call an ambulence cause I was dying, I passed out into the bottom of the shower. Thank GOD my husband is a medic. I was dying in the bottom of the shower, naked as a newborn, on christmas. Then Owen, in a stroke of brilliance, got me awake and yelled in my face that if I died,I was taking our unborn child with me. At 22 weeks, the baby wouldnt be able to survive on its own, assuming they could get it out fast enough. That shocked me enough that I started fighting to breath. I was certain they could revive me, but what about my baby. I was my babies only hope. Literally. Somehow, while Owen's mom was calling for an ambulence, Owen got me out of the shower and into a shirt and pj pants. He didnt want them taking me out of the house naked if he could avoid it. While we were waiting for them to show up, the medicine started to work.

I am gonna take a moment now to tell you how Owen was able to save my life. When a person goes into Anaphylaxis, they will generally receive a shot of epinephrine, which is an artificial form of adrenaline. People who know that they will go into Anaphylaxis gernerally carry an epi pen, which is a single dose of epinephrine in a quick eject syringe. I dont have an epi pen. If I did, Owen would have used it. Instead he scared me about the baby dying, which caused me to panic, which forced my body to release natural adrenaline. Adrenaline forces the heart to continue to pump past the Anaphylactic reaction until the allergy medicine can do its job. So yeah.

Back to the story at hand. The ambulence finally showed up, but by then I was breathing regularly. Still weakly, but not hyperventilating either. They took my vitals and decided that if I wanted, I could stay home, under the supervision of my spouse.

So I opted to stay home. I spent the rest of the day sleeping to recover from the day. Then I woke up around 4pm and started cooking christmas dinner.

I made salmon, steamed veggies (zuchinni, mexican squash, carrots and broccoli) saffron lemon rice, and leftover turkey for the kids, since they wont eat fish. I also made a cranberry apple pie.

A good time was had by all. Except that I got the impression that my inlaws feel really awful about the rug. I tried to explain that it wasnt their fault and that I wasnt even a little mad.... but I think they feel guilty. I just hope it doesnt ruin the rest of their trip!

It's A......

Baby! HAHA!

Ok. I actually know what it is.... but I am not gonna tell you yet.

First, I think you should get to know my baby a little bit before I show you the "money" shot.

So here is my sweet babies profile. Look at that cute button nose! That blob near the chin? That is the babies fist.



This is my babies feet. Aren't they cute! I love baby feet!



And this Ladies and Gentlemen is what you have all been waiting for! The gender shot.



Yep. Another boy!

Now to pick a name....

Finished Evangelines.... And a picture of my belly.

There you have it ladies and gentlemen! (Not that any guys besides my husband,and even then only him occasionally read my blog at this point)A picture of myself and a finished picture of the Evangelines I was telling you about.

First I think I will talk about me. I am 19 weeks and four days pregnant, according to me and not my doctor. Let me explain that. My doctor is trying to tell me that I got pregnant at the end of July.... but let me tell you something that is WAY TMI! I know when I was and wasnt getting down. At the end of July we were staying in a one room motel room and our kids were on beds that were less than 5 feet from us. Which means that there is no way (excluding immaculate conception)that I got pregnant any time before August 17th, which is when we moved into the house we just moved out of. Since I tested as pregnant on September 15th it means that the latest I could have conceived was September 1st, so the window for me to have gotten preggers is August 17th to the 30th. Now I tested inconclusive on September 1st. Which means that I actually am most likely to have conceived between the 17th and the 20th. IF it was later than that, I would have just tested negative since there wouldnt have been enough pregnancy hormone present to show up at all. Whew. That was a fancy way of saying this: I have been having babies longer than my Ob has been out of Med School. As a matter of fact.... Mikaela has been OUT OF MY BODY longer than he has been out of Med School. So (This is going to sound arrogant) I think I am probably better qualified to calculate when I conceived than he is. Plus I called the OB who delivered my boys and he agrees with me. He said I should be having this baby on or around May 10th. I win. According to my (newbie, therefore wrong!) doctor... I am closer to 23 weeks. Idiot. $5 bucks says I am right about timeline when they do my ultrasound on friday.

Now on to the Evangelines. Aren't they pretty? They have a big old cable on them right up the middle of the front... which I am sure the experienced knitters who read my blog can see... but it doesnt show in photographs because of the varigation of the yarn. The yarn is Doodlebirds Creations BFL in Goth Girl.



I love this pattern, so I altered it only slightly. I added an actual thumb gusset. I assume that this pattern was originally written for someone with smaller hands... cause my big old hands stretched out the cables till they werent pretty anymore. So I added gussets. I think I am gonna make another pair of these at some point in a solid colored yarn, one that will show off the cable better. I havent made up my mind yet. These keep my hands fantastically warm outside though.... and because they are fingerless I can still take pictures and knit in the car!

More knits and silly Bailey fun to come!

Aeddon turns 3.

Aeddon had his birthday yesterday. My baby boy (yes I realize he is not my youngest, but he is special, which I will talk about sometime) is now almost a "big boy". All that is left is for him to potty train and he will no longer be a baby boy at all.

Here he is looking down while we sing him Happy Birthday.



Aeddon doesnt like to be the center of attention very much. We called both sets of grandparents to let them sing happy birthday with us. That was the sum total of his party guests. We could have waited till saturday and had a real party, but it would not have been fun for Aeddon, so we skipped it. I dont throw parties unless they ask for them.

Here he is blowing out his candle. This part of being the star of the show makes him happy. He likes to blow out candles. He would do it for hours if I let him.



Then the eating.....



Then we all made silly faces at the camera:






Except for Owen. Owen wanted to photograph us making silly faces.

Then the presents. I think he was very happy with what he got!


My parents sent a card with a gift card inside. Aeddon is already excited to go pick out a toy all by himself at Target. Thanks Oma, Papa and Auntie Rachel!


Owen's parents sent a card and a present. I think they called to ask Owen what to get Aeddon, but I could be wrong.


Owen's parents sent some really nice diecast cars that are from the Pixar movie "Cars". They also sent an outfit with Lightening McQueen on it. Aeddon wanted to put it on right away. We are gonna save his first time wearing it for when Owen's parents get here. That way if he ruins it, at least they will have gotten to see him in it once. Thank you Gran and Grandad!

Our present was last. When Owen took Alexander to spend his birthday money from my parents, Aeddon fell in love with a Buzz Lightyear toy they had there. He was very sad when Owen told him he couldnt get it.... Little did he know that we were planning on buying it for him on his birthday!


He was so excited that he had to take the darned thing to bed with him... and an hour later we had to go take it away and tell him he could have it back in the morning. I think he would have stayed up playing with it all night if we had let him!


So that was all the fun and festivities for my little Monkey!

Owen's hat.

My husband has a big head.


Ok. Now that you are done snickering at that comment.... seriously. His head is massive. He can never find a hat that fits over his ears. So I told him I would make him a basic beanie when he asked me to. And I did. It was done back in November, but I just finally got around to taking his picture in it. Here it is:



See? That man's head is massive! The yarn is Doodlebirds Creations BFL in her colorway "Courage". Beth from Doodlebirds is a military spouse too, so I love to support her and buy her yarn. Plus it is really pretty stuff.

Now I am off to go finish the last 2.5 pattern repeats on my Evangeline (Ravelry link) fingerless mittens. I will post pictures of me wearing them as soon as they are done.

That is right! I just said I will post a picture of myself!

Guess what??????

The Tacoma/Fort Bliss area got its first snowfall of the season last night. It is not much.... but it did snow! Here is the veiw from the backdoor of our house.



I told you it was kinda sad.

We took the kids out in it... but they didnt have a good time. There was not enough snow to have a snowball fight, but there was just enough to give Mikaela frostbite. I need to knit these kids some mittens.

I am sorry.

I am sorry that posting has been infrequent and sporatic. Last friday we got the keys to our new home on post. So we have been moving. Plus I havent had internet on my computer and have been at the mercy of Owen allowing me to use his laptop to go online. It has been all I have to just try to keep up with my bloggy friends... let alone post my own stuff.

That being said, I promise to be a better poster from now on. Especially since the holidays promise to be filled with lots of craziness! Aeddon turns 2 on Tuesday and Owen's parents are coming up for Christmas on the 23rd. By train. So there will be lots going on here for me to tell you about. Maybe even some pictures. My poor camera is feeling neglected. I think I have taken less than 30 pictures total since Alexanders birthday. Unless you count the ones I took of him at his first day of tai kwan do... which I never got around to blogging about. Sorry. I will blog about that after the holidays when he returns to classes. I promise.

I will post again soon. This next week promised to be interesting.

Momma MC has a giveaway!

My good friend Ginger is having a give away on her blog! I love everything I have ever seen of hers that she makes. She is amazingly creative. You can get up to 5 chances to win her contest. I am about to score all 5 of my entries!

Not that I really want you to enter..... cause the more of you that enter..... the less likely I am to win! (I am teasing mostly! Go enter cause she rocks! then send me half of your winnings cause I rock you telling you how much she rocks!) ( I am mostly kidding about sending me your prizes! Mostly.)