Our New Running Joke

So at my last doctor's appointment, I mentioned to my doctor that I'd been having some really weird cravings recently. Not necessarily to eat, but it was slowly evolving into that. I mentioned that I'd been obsessed with rocks, specifically gravel. The sound wet gravel makes when you crunch it beneath your feet, and that in the last few days I had imagined crunching gravel with my teeth a few times, and I'd been crunching ice like crazy to mimic the sound. Anyway, she knew immediately what was wrong with me. She drew some blood just to be sure, and sure enough... Iron deficiency. It's SUPER common in pregnancy, so she sent me out to buy some Iron supplements (and extra fiber tablets!). Anyway, Nathan and I can't stop laughing about the fact that I actually was craving ROCKS! Anyone else out there crave something horribly weird during pregnancy (with or without the possible reasonable cause)? :)

Oops

Wow, I have been delinquent on updating this thing. Part of it has to do with it being the most busy couple of months EVER! Oh my goodness! March was crazy with my sister in law's wedding. I spent the better part of the last few weeks in February and first few weeks of March praying that my bridesmaid dress would fit me. Luckily, it zipped up on the big day with just a few centimeters to spare!! Derek was in the wedding too! He was sooo stinking adorable in his little tie! He walked down the aisle without a fuss and spent the whole rest of the wedding hanging out quietly and contentedly with Mimi and Grandpa (my parents). What a great boy! Nathan officiated the wedding, and the pastor at the church they got married at kept calling him Reverend Metcalf. Every time I burst out laughing. It was just so strange to hear him called that! I cracked up during the ceremony when he said it. I couldn't help it! Anyway, moving on into April...

Owen has been growing nicely. I'm actually gaining weight with this pregnancy, albeit, not much. I've only gained 8 lbs. so far. Whew! I mean, I know weight gain is good, but I really don't want to have a ton to lose at the end. Speaking of the end, it's actually almost here. I can hardly believe that. Thank God this pregnancy has gone by fast. It's been a bit miserable, but I am thankful that it's almost time to meet my new little boy!

Okay, now I'm going to keep more updated and constant with the blog (don't I always say that?). I promise! :)

Happy Birthday Derek!

My little man is TWO! I can't even believe it! Has two years really gone by?

Derek,
My son, what to say? You are an amazing little muffin! You are so articulate when you speak. Last year you were signing, this year you are talking! You are learning so much, it boggles Mommy's mind. You love to narrate your day for me, just like I used to do for you when you were a baby. WERE a baby! Not a baby anymore are you little man? Nope you're a big two year old. You love to play with your friends Grayson and Kadence, and your big kid friends from church. You still revel in the attention from Daddy's youth group teens. You know where "your baby" is and already love him even though you haven't seen him yet. At least that's what you told me the other day. "I love Baby" you said. Made Mommy's heart melt that's for sure. You look like such a big boy in your clothes now. No more onsies and adorable baby outfits. You love Thomas the train, and Veggie Tales, and "Lightning Car" and of course, Buzz and Woody! You're more of a shower kid now than bath, even though the logistics of it are difficult. You are such a helper too. You LOVE to help Mommy with the laundry and the dishes. I hope that lasts! You love Jesus too. I can already see the beginnings of a love for the Lord in your heart. You love to pray to Jesus, and to shout "AMEN" at the end. You remind Mommy and Daddy to pray all the time. You ask us to read the Bible to you and not just your little storybook Bible, but the "big boy" Bible too. When we ask you if you love Jesus, you always respond with a resounding "YES!" We love to see this growing in you most of all Derek. Never lose that heart my son. I love you with all my heart, and I can't wait to see what is in store for us in the next year as we cruise on toward 3!
Love forever and ever,
Mommy

More Adventures....

This one took place at 6:30am this morning! We have 2 cats, one is a kitten and he's crazy wild. I know it's a kitten phase, but I seriously cannot take one more night of my sleep being interrupted by Piper terrorizing our older cat, Calvin. So out of desperation last night Nathan kenneled Piper in the laundry room. We gave him a small litter box in his kennel along with a small bowl of water... (can you see where this is headed? When Derek woke up at 6:30 this morning, Nathan went to get Piper out of the kennel before getting Derek out of bed and, well, let's just say it was the worst mess he has ever seen. Piper had of course knocked over the bowl of water and gotten soaking wet, then slept in the litter box to avoid the water. Since we use the clumping litter he was caked in dried clumped litter this morning. I wish I had gotten the opportunity to take a before picture of Piper, but we were occupied with getting him into the bathtub and getting Derek up for the morning at the same time, so Here are pictures of the aftermath!

Adventures in the Life of a Pregnant Stay at Home Mom

Sometimes I feel like I have it together and like I can do this thing called being a stay at home mom. There are weeks, like last week, that I successfully run my household, cook dinners (or at least successfully get my hubby to volunteer to cook for me! Haha!), organize my home, and care for my son, all while working in a couple of shifts at my for fun part time job and hosting an old friend from high school! I was on top of life last week!!!

Then there's this week.... When this week started off with my mom letting me know that due to illness she wouldn't be coming to visit, I lost all my motivation. So, laundry is still crawling along, the floors well, I just did those tonight so I guess I can check that off my list. But just about everything else has gone out the window... Along with Derek's nap today... along with my nap today...

But it's all part of the adventure right? And on the bright side, I have more weeks like last week than I have like this week. Any other stay at home moms out there experience this?

Pet Peeves

I want to play the pet peeves game again!!!! This time the category is Facebook pet peeves!

Here are a few of mine:
-People who "like" their own comments or statuses. LAME-O
-couples who use their statuses or each other's walls to talk about all the physical things they are going to do to each other (usually in hidden terms). YUCK-O
-CONSTANT game invites from people even after you've hidden one app they attack your feed with a new one. STOP IT!
-When you post something seemingly innocuous as your status and someone finds a way to argue with you about it. My wall, my post, LEAVE ME ALONE ABOUT IT!

Ok, your turn!!!!!

Delta Airlines

If I could write a letter to Delta Airlines customer service, it would go something like this:

Dear Delta,
I have a few tips for you that might help you in the customer service department. I have noticed that you have ranked at the bottom for customer service among airlines out there, and seeing as I have spent several years in the customer service industry, I thought I might have a few pointers to help you out.

1. When you say that you have a flight at 2:25pm every day, it is helpful to schedule an airplane to be at the gate at 2:25pm to actually make the flight. One thing that will really make your ratings tank is when people check in two hours early for their 2:25pm flight only to get to the gate and realize that it is not actually leaving until 3:15pm, or 4:30pm, or worse yet, 6:30pm. That doesn't sit well with anyone. So, do yourself a favor and make sure there's an airplane available at 2:25pm to take these people where they want to go.

2. Staffing, staffing, staffing!! I can't stress this enough. Staff your airports adequately. Running 3 flights back to back out of the same gate because there isn't enough staff to run 2 departure gates is unacceptable. Also, unacceptable is when 3 spaced out flights become 3 back to back flights because of delays. See point 1.

3. When there is a gate change, for the love of God, announce it. And get the airport to change the gate number on the monitors, just in case someone missed your unintelligible loudspeaker announcement.

4. People are paying lots of money to check their bags. When the bag arrives with a wheel missing and the pull handle broken, it doesn't look good for you. Just sayin'. If I was paying $60 to check my bag and it was all busted up when it came back, I'd be pretty upset. (Not my bag by the way, although you did manage to tear one of the zipper pulls off my expensive Travelpro suitcase. Not sure how you managed that one.)

5. Passengers traveling with lap babies who check their car seats actually need those car seats on the other end of their travels in order to leave the airport. You see, we cannot just say "Oh, well, I'll come back and pick it up." Our babies need to be in those car seats in order to travel. Next time you leave my car seat behind you can babysit my child for seven hours at the airport while my husband and I go out to dinner and to a movie. We will be back later to pick him up after all. Another note on car seats... Having many different types of loaner seats will ensure that you don't end up with babysitting duty. Offering me an infant seat for my 25lb. 2 year old isn't going to cut it.

6. Standard Operating Procedure (as well as common curtesy) suggests that if you do perchance leave my car seat behind, it should arrive on the next flight. I should not have to request that you write a letter to the ground crew at the Minneapolis airport and ask them pretty please with a cherry on top to send the car seat on the next flight out. It should automatically be there. Just in case this isn't SOP for Delta, your baggage agents, or ticketing agents, or whoever handles the claim should be smart enough to realize that they need to request that the car seat be on the next flight. Many times the passenger doesn't know there needs to be a written request posted, so they won't ask for it. Don't assume that just because they don't ask for it means they don't want it. Again, common sense, people. I'm pretty sure the frazzled mother with the screaming toddler would LOVE to have her $300 car seat back as soon as possible.

7. Lastly, when something does go wrong, APOLOGIZE to your customers! Don't treat them like it's their fault the airplane had a mechanical problem in Timbuktu and so is 5 hours late getting to MSP. Because I'm POSITIVE that one of your passengers booked on the MSP to ICT flight flew to Timbuktu and sabotaged the aircraft. Doesn't everyone want to spend more time in the airport??

I hope this helps.
Sincerely,
Sarah

(Of course I could never actually write this letter. After all, I'm just a non-rev.)