Christmas Days

So this morning Mat conquered what was left of Lego Batman and Indiana Jones. All I can say is Christmas is arriving just in time. Hopefully Santa brings Mat something to keep him occupied and his little brain in overdrive. I know several think video games are terrible for kids, but I can honestly say it was a great thing for Mat. His eye hand coordination improved greatly after his eye surgery, and his problem solving skills are fantastic. The key to it all is moderation!! Which is something he's still learning about as he pitches holy tantrums when it is time to stop playing. But those are starting to calm down as well.

I got an early Christmas present from Scott. We were fixing up our back 'storage' room to be a laundry room. Well, little did I know that Scott purchased a new washer and dryer for me and managed to keep it a secret til the room was almost complete. Now a new washer and dryer may not seem romantic, but we have a 10 year old washer and dryer that are on their final days. So to me, that washer and dryer are the most perfect presents ever! Plus with as much laundry as I do with a newborn...again, perfect!! AND THE WASHER IS A FRONT LOADER!! WOOT!


And here is a picture of Mat and Tempe:)

Home by Thanksgiving

So I haven't posted in sometime. Mostly due to the fact that I was highly cranky and uncomfortable! Now with the 'parasite' removed, and completing our family I feel like I can make a genuine post!!

Let me introduce you to Temperance Alhana Grant. She was born at 5pm on November 23rd. She weighed 7 lbs 11 oz and was 21 inches long. She already displays that she wants what she wants when she wants it and has an extremely loud cry to convey that message. She has her mommy's long fingers, (and toes:P). She looks very much like her big brother who is a perfect combination of Scott and I.
(Yes, she was trying to nurse the blanket. More pictures can be found here you may need to enter this "18492283113592" along with the first four characters of our last name "Gran". )

Today will be just as special as Monday was, as I get to see my little boy and introduce him to his sister. Due to hospital restrictions Mat had to wait to see his little sister. (They are not allowing anyone (even siblings) under the age of 14 to visit.) Mat was very upset yesterday that he could not see her. (This should be interesting as he believes she can crawl:P )

We will post pictures of the siblings together once that happens.

I have to give my thank you section too. First of all, I have to thank Scott for being so perfect. First of all, on Friday he sent me flowers 'For being a trooper' as he knew I was having a hard time being 9 months pregnant:) At her delivery, he was there beside me the whole time, and had to be told to go get something to eat as he did not want to leave. He also had to be told to go see his daughter when they took her to be weighed. I am so lucky to have a guy like him.

Next - a thanks to the moms, and the sisters:) The moms and Sara (Scott's sister) were at the delivery. They were fantastic. Though I did have to threaten my mom with removal from the room a few times (though she redeemed herself by bringing me some things I needed!!). :P Also, my sister took Mat for that day so those above could be there for the delivery and she kept that little man busy and overnight so Scott could stay with his new daughter and me. Another thanks to Sara/Dona for taking/offering to take Mat overnight last night and keeping his mind off his new sister. (Mat was so upset he couldn't see her yesterday that everyone felt it would be best if he not be home around her things to remind him that she wasn't there yet.)

And a thanks to the Dads for visiting, and their support.

It means to world to me to have a family that is so supportive and willing to help. I am a very lucky new mommy (for the second time:) ).

Bribery, waiting, Pokemon and Star Wars

So it's been awhile since I last posted. Mat's at day care full time now. He's doing well. He loves his little friends, and whenever Scott or I go in to pick him up he has to introduce us to all of them. Mat is doing better with drawing and writing. He now draws people, though they end up as a circle with two legs. I love seeing them. He didn't do so well at the start. They have a behavior chart that lists every child and their names with a color card. Green means that they had a great day, yellow means that they have been talked to, blue means they had a time out, and red means that they had multiple time outs. Well, lets just say that for two weeks Mat had no greens. So finally, we bribed him. $1.00 for every green, and 75 cents for every yellow. Let me tell you this has worked wonders. He's been excellent at school. So while it is not ideal, it works:)

Pokemon and Star Wars have become two of the biggest watched shows in the house. Mat has become addicted to them. It's so funny because he'll try to start acting it out, and performing the 'cool moves' that they do. So that has become my life.

Also...my life is now in waiting mode. I've hit that lovely level in pregnancy where every position, every move is uncomfortable...the maternity clothes start to not fit right, legs start to go numb, etc. So nine more weeks until the big due day. Six more weeks until Tempe is considered full term and I would then welcome her arrival any day. So the countdown is on. Diapers, wipes, diaper bag, diaper cream, burp clothes, and whatever else I have forgotten that I need to buy before she gets here.

Anyway, off I go.

So busy!

So of course everyone is busy, but for some reason it seems uber busy here at the Grant house. I'm trying to wrap up 5 more weeks of class. This will be the last class I take before Tempe is born. Tempe would be born 3 weeks before the end of my next class, so I thought I'd take a quarter off before jumping back into finish my masters. Makes it last one more quarter, but gives me a break to get everything all straightened out before Tempe arrives.

Work...so work seems to have picked up, the funny thing, I'm not on any huge long project. These are all, projects that are like "Jen we need this yesterday" but for some reason they seem to take an extraordinary amount of time in my day.

Nesting, yes being a pregnant mommy I'm freaking out about the house. We have to finish Tempe's room. We got her dresser all assembled. We are currently waiting on the crib/matress and bassinet. Scott and I will keep her in our room via the bassinet for a few months, then move her to a crib. (We don't want another Mat episode where he won't sleep in a crib...only in a pack and play...and only in our room.) You may ask, 'Jen? Why get a new matress when you had one.." Well it's because of this article. You read it, then tell me that when you have another child you won't get a new matress too! Even if it is not, I'd rather be safe than sorry. Anyway, those items should be here next week. Which means...that we have to finish painting Mat's room. The ceiling has been painted! No more old wallpaper paste stains on his ceiling, yay! But his walls need to be painted the non 'baby colors' as he puts it. His child desk needs to be removed, and his computer needs to be moved in. Then Scott's computer needs to be moved to our room, and the crown molding needs to be put up. Yea, all before she gets here. I think it's doable.

We're also working on finishing the hallway, which is to be scraped of old wallpaper, painted and the trim/molding put up there. I again want it done before Tempe gets here:) Man I'm a slave driver!

Scott was working on a surprise for me of finishing the back room that was used for storage. (We finally moved out all of the boxes from when I moved out of my Dad's house. We found some interesting things let me tell you!) That room will be used as a utility room when it's finished. It'll be one of those side projects. The main project is of course getting things finished for Tempe.

As for Mat, he's so excited. Everyday he asks, when is Tempe coming!? What is the baby doing?! He's excited about starting up big kids pre-school. He'll be on a kindergarden curriculum. I can't wait for him to start. He learns so much there. He'll start Sept. 8th. As for right now, he's running a 103 degree fever with no other symptoms than just the fever. Funtimes huh?

Well I better go check his temperature to make sure it's going down. I'd like to get to bed sometime tonight! :)

Ultrasound day!

So Scott and I just found out what we're having. But you get to wait. The ultrasound came out wonderful. It showed us that the little one is indeed human. Also, it has all of it's appendages, a great heart, and a brain. So all of the parts are there, and forming nicely.

Now for the details...the little one weighs about a pound, which puts it close to the due date, but most likely a bit earlier than 11/29.

And the drumroll....we are having a little girl. Scott and I already have the name picked out. She'll be named Temperance Alhana Grant. We'll call her Tempe for short. Mat is already 'talking' to her, and 'tickles' her:)

So I think I've had a good day:)

Recoup, relax, have fun

So Mat has bounced back from surgery very well. It's been almost a week since he went under the knife. His eye is still red, and looks like he was just released from an MMA fight. But, his eye has yet to wander since the surgery. It's absolutely amazing.

Once he got out of the surgery the doctor sat us down to tell us how it all went. He was like 'it went very well, but there was something interesting.' I about passed out, I see stuff like this on tv and it's always followed up with something terrible. Ends up, he told us that Mat had a birth defect. Mat's eye muscle was physically in the wrong location. Which is most likely what caused all the issues. So that was corrected with the surgery, and all is well. The doctor tried to stress his eye out at the post op, and was not able to. So I think we're on the up and up with that. Only one more week left and he can swim again, and be completely back to being a normal little boy.

As for the rest of us, we find out what this baby is on July 16th. I'm really excited to know, so I can stop calling it 'it' or the 'parasite'. I just want it to be healthy, I don't think I really have a preference. My morning sickness has been gone for awhile, now I've just hit that horrid, hungry all the time stage. Oh and cravings. I had my first -real- craving of the pregnancy. Shaved ice...yes, shaved ice. After 3 weeks of cravings, I had 2 yesterday, and let me tell you, it was like heaven.

So now all of us are trying to relax, and have fun. I have a crazy week ahead with Mat's birthday, then girls camp, then the reunion, but since Mat's surgery is done, everything seems to be much less stressful.

The most stressful day ever...

So tomorrow is the day. My little boy goes for surgery to correct his strabismus. I can tell you now that will be the most stressful day ever as well as the longest 2 hours of my life. I can't imagine what it must feel like for parents to have their kids undergo some really complex surgeries. This surgery is the third most common eye surgery to be completed in the US yearly... Success rates are fairly high, with minimal issues...And I'm completely stressed.

I think the scariest part is knowing that I have to put my trust and faith in the doctors and nurses in the OR. I always think the worst, what if he has an issue with the anesthesia, what if this what if that...

We're trying to let him take it easy tonight, and let him do what he wants, because he's stressed. He knows he's having his eye fixed, and the doctor will cut it while he's asleep at the hospital. But if you try to talk to him about it, he'll completely change the subject or act like he can't hear you.

I just hope everything goes well...I'll follow up when I can.

Where is all my free time!?

Okay, okay I know I owe everyone pictures from the AZ trip...but seriously when have I had time! I haven't even had time to play WoW! School is done for me until next month, whee! But I just finished that up Friday. I had a lovely term paper to do for it, and you know what, I got a 95%, not bad right? WRONG, I missed 5% points for not having a table of contents. Seriously...5%. How silly. Anyway so that's what's kept me busy til Friday. Then Sat. was yard work, lots and lots of yardwork. I mowed the lawn, and moved firewood around...Scott did the weed eater and such Then we put a door in Sunday. I say we, it was more like Scott and his Dad. I did my pregnant supervision deal. Scott got a bargain on a new front door since ours is probably from the early 1900s. Good news, we got the door for $8.00 (no I'm not missing any zeroes.) Bad news, it took forever and a day to get in. So in detail, Sunday, I did my church thing, then came home, then up til 11pm with the door.) Then Monday guess what, more of the door! Because yes, it wasn't finished. Finishing time...10:30 pm. But the door is done! Okay, this leads us to Tuesday, Tuesday was a crazy day full of hormonal mood swings and chaos. I went to work, and Scott went to town and picked up Mat's birthday present (bunk beds). He then rushed home, and took Mat to his 4 yr. check up. The kid has shrunk and is uber skinny. Good news, he's at least proportional. YAY 34th percentile! He weighs a massive 34 pounds...again. He had his pre-op physical done too. So yay for Scott for taking care of all those things. So Tues. night we put up the huge bunk bed of awesomeness...bedtime 10:30. (Note: Story of putting together said bunk bed will follow as it's pretty amusing.) Then leads to tonight. I'm up because I can't sleep without Scott, who is up making changes at work through his beloved terminal server. Also, we finished putting the bottom bed together in Mat's room. So Mat got his present early, but we figured that's okay because he goes in for eye surgery on Monday. So he may not enjoy his birthday too much the following Monday. Anyway, I'm hoping that tomorrow I can relax before 10:30...

Toodles.

Back to work, back to school, back to the doctor

So I owe everyone lots of pictures from the trip to Arizona. It was fantastic. Mat had an absolute ball with "Super Baby Jonah". Those two were adorable together. Anyway, vacation stories and pictures will be for another blog...(One I need to get to writing and editing!)

This blog is about getting back to work...school and the rest of life. Mat did really well switching back to Ohio time. He's staying up til about 10pm EST, which isn't terrible considering he switched himself to AZ time less than a week ago. I'm sure he'll be back to completely normal sleeping times by the end of the week. Work is work, I love my job but it keeps me so busy during the day. I guess that's a good thing as the time flies. But seriously, I'm weird I know, I really do love what I do for a living....

Then the last item from the blog...doctors...Mat went to the Ophthalmologist today...It was as we thought. Surgery to correct his strabismus. The degree of wandering is about the same but the doctor stated it would not get better by itself as some cases do...the severity is too much. The downside is that he's lost more stereovision in the past 3 months. So we're hoping he'll gain that back awhile after the surgery.

The good news is that he only needs to have surgery in one eye (two muscles), not both eyes as we originally thought. We will speak with the scheduler later this week for the exact date, but it will happen in the month of June. The surgery will take around two hours. The procedure is outpatient, so he'll come home that day. Scott and I will both take off to be with him. Mat does not understand any of this, so he just thought the doctor was taking lots of measurements (and interrupting his lunch for his own personal agenda) for no reason. We'll see once we have the date, if we can't explain to him about what will happen...but how do you tell this to an almost four year old (if you have suggestions, please let me know).

Other than that my mom goes in tomorrow for some tests on her heart. My sister will be with her, as I was told to not take any days as I need to save them for Mat and for the parasite that'll be here in November. So hopefully that will go well, though I will have my cell on me in case something goes wrong. (This isn't one of those nice tests like an ultrasound or CAT scan...they'll fill her with dye and do crazy weird tests where she can't be fully aware of what's going on.)

So yea, doctors, doctors everywhere....

Active Directory and SCCM, how I hate (love... no, hate) thee...

I never post here. I read it a lot, when Jen makes an update, or I'll take some pictures for it. I read Kimmy's (and it's also Josh's kinda, I guess) a lot, but just don't post here unless something really strikes me.

Recently, my loathing for AD and SCCM have struck me. They will be referred to as SA from now on (Stupid Apps)

SA: "Look at all the cool stuff I can do! Look at me! I can help you control your entire environment."

Me: :D OH YAY! You're so cool, SA. Let's do something together, like deploy some software to a group of users.

SA: ...

Me: You can do that, right?

SA: Oh, sure, yeah. Just click me there and there. Yeah, you like that?

Me: Uh, ok. Sure. Now we wait for the install!

** The next day **

Me: Why didn't the rollout happen?

SA: Oh, you forgot to click some random radio button deep within a random configuration setting under Site Settings. Don't worry, I wasn't going to warn you or let you know in any way that you needed to click it. You would have lived on in blissful ignorance if you hadn't checked.

Me: Yay.




In other news, however, I will be in Arizona with Jenny and Mat in a week! So nothing can keep me down! (yet... it's close.)

Zoo, Bugs, and Dirt...lots of Dirt

So on Saturday the Grant Family went to the zoo. There, Mat posed with a big gorilla... We saw awesome sights. We had an adventure with 2 birds...as they tried to eat Scott's shoes, and pants. They were also very interested in our water. Scott also held a HUGE bug from Australia. We also watched a cool 4-D movie. Though Mat got scared and Mat does not get scared often! We think it is because of the "4-D" action, where the seats vibrate, and water shoots at you.

After our busy day at the zoo, we came home. We finished the chicken tractor, and while finishing the chicken tractor, Mat decided to play with a huge pile of sand and dirt. Did he build sand castles...no! Did he build a moat and act like the pile was his huge empire...no! Did he do anything remotely clean...no. Note the outfit in the first picture. Now note the outfit and the face and skin in the last picture....Yes. The same boy, the same day...just after a huge pile of dirt, and sand.

Oh deck, you're so beautiful!

So this weekend was awesome. Scott got his deck...Here are some pictures of the construction. He also got a fantastic grill too. One of those new infrared things. I'll have to take some pictures of it. So the deck came just in time for the beautiful spring temperatures!

So to all of those out there....

I have something to say...is this an April fools joke, or not....

You decide..

Jen's Mosiac

So I stole this idea from Kim. It was pretty nifty! Everyone should try this! Thanks Kims!



1. totoro army vegan cupcakes., 2. Pepperoni, 3. "Bob Ross" paintbrush, 4. my son's eye., 5. Bones - Agente Seeley Booth, 6. Strawberry Milk Splash, 7. Cliffs of Moher, Ireland, 8. Hot Fudge Cake, 9. Executive baby, 10. Loarre castle / Castillo de Loarre (II), 11. Obey Propaganda., 12. Sunset at Jenny Lake

To do it yourself:
step 1: go to flickr.com
setp 2: in another window open http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/mosaic.php
step 3: choose 4 columns, 3 rows
step 4: answer the following questions in the search bar of flicker. pick your favorite one on the first page and paste it into your mosaic
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you.
12. Your nickname.

A spot of sun in an otherwise cloudy day.

So, as I made aware in an earlier blog posting. Mat has had a really rough time going to school He cries, and seriously, I feel miserable. It's one of those heart wrenching cries, where it looks like he just lost someone. He's having a terrible time with separation anxiety. Well, today, even though it was rainy, was very sunny for me. He did not cry as we pulled into the school parking lot, and he whimpered as we left. But much to my surprise and amazement, when we went to school to pick him up we peeked in the window and he's laughing and playing! And then, we had a note from his teacher telling us how well he did today. Seeing that note just made my day. I hope tomorrow goes just as well!

Back in business!

So I was out of online commission for a week or so. My lovely monitor keeled over and died. The noise it was making, should have given me some indication. However, I ignored the subtle hint it was trying to tell me by the noise and the flashing colors it would do every now and then. And finally last week, death. So now I'm back with an awesome 22 inch widescreen from Dell, and man am I loving it. Though, it's the same monitor I have at work:/ Not sure what that's saying about me.

Anyway, onto finishing the mom-in-law's homesteading site! And blogging, and all that fun before school starts back up in April...

A toute à l'heure!

School Days...

So after we found out that Scott's Grandma developed colon cancer...our babysitting schedules all fell apart. Scott's mom typically watched Mat 3 days a week...well, I'm not sure if anyone has known someone who developed cancer, but the amount of doctor visits, scans, tests, and who knows what else that occurs is crazy. So mom#2 is taking care of Grandma, as she should be. So we enrolled Mat into the Little Red School House. The first two days were great! Everyone was so impressed at how well he adapted and was doing...that, however, was the first two days. This would be his second week. Yea, his second week started out not so great. His teachers told us he was so sad all day. So he cried all day and didn't really participate much. Hopefully tomorrow is better!

YES, I believe Spring has arrived!

So, today it was an awesome 62 degrees outside, and guess what! It'll be 75 tomorrow! Isn't that so awesome? It makes me all excited to think about getting everything all set outside. The garden, doing some landscaping, letting Mat run around outside and get all that energy out!...Fixing the dirt pile where the water pipe exploded :/ Fixing the fence that the ice storm took out... Painting the wood parts of the house...Taking care of that sand circle where the pool was...mowing the lawn...weeding the garden...a certain little boy dragging mud created by the spring rains throughout the house :( Hrm, now that I think about it, maybe I want the freezing temperatures.

2 Sick Boys = 1 Tired Mommy

Alright, so my weekend was full of fun and exciting things. Mat took a downward spiral over the weekend (starting Sat. night). Sleep is something that is non existent for the child when he's sick. He sleepwalks, has night terrors, and does not sleep! So Mat was crying about his tummy hurting (constipation followed by post nasal drip, yay!) And then about his head hurting (sinus infection). So he's on antibiotics for his sinus infection. It's amazing how a kid can be perfectly fine one day then, lethargic and sickly the next. At least it was something that wasn't contagious, as we had Mat's buddy Alex over! So he should be doing better tomorrow...my mom was awesome as she's taking him over night tonight so I can get some sleep. I'm running on about 3 to 4 hours right now...It's not pretty.

So to continue the story...yesterday before we were to go celebrate my mom's birthday...Scott starts to not feel well. He had some nausea and stomach cramping...and that's as descriptive as I'll get. Needless to say, he was out of commission.

So both of my boys were sick, I was up for majority of the night tending to Mat while Scott was hrm indisposed. Scott watched over Mat around 3am-6am while I got some sleep so I could function...Then I went to work. YAY.

So yes, in summary, 2 sick boys, and one tired mommy.

Going home...

Okay, so not really, but in a way. Scott and I booked our plane tickets to Arizona today. In May we'll be chilling with the Mays family. Whee! This trip will be interesting, as the last time we went to AZ, Kims was pregnant with Jonah, and Mat was staying with the Grandparents. Now, Mat is flying to AZ, and Jonah will be a year old! This won't be the first time Mat has been on a plane, he went to UT for the family reunion when he was just over 2 years old. We did the whole get the red eye flights so the kid will sleep thing. This time, we think he'll want to be awake for it all, so we bought the "My child will definitely be awake during these time" tickets.

Anyway, I'm uber excited, because Josh and Kims are just like family to us, and we miss them terribly! Mat has been going on and on about how he's going to play with Baby Jonah and Uncle Josh. He's got to take all of his animals so they'll all have something to play with. Now, if I could just convince my boss to let me commute from AZ...

Welcome to the Internet Grandma!

So I found out that my Grandma has joined the Internet revolution. I hope she stops by to visit the blog. I sent her an email with the link...let's see if she can find it!! Hi Grandma!

Facebook

Alright, so I thought Facebook was dumb. Well I have to admit I've been on Facebook for a good 45 minutes if not longer now. Looking at music, catching up on what some friends, and some people who I grew up with are doing...all of those fun things. It's pretty interesting. If you happen to jump on face book, look me up...Jennifer Grant I think it is under Jennifer Follick too....Enjoy.

ZOMBIES

So I read the coolest news article today...I don't typically share things from the news, because I figure most people see them. This one however, was too awesome to pass up.

And we're back

Again...So the power is back again. We lost it completely overnight, right after I made my blog post. The house was around 60ish all night. Mat was a terror to sleep with (we all slept downstairs on the pull out bed that's closer to the wood stove). He kicks and talks whole conversations in his sleep. Upstairs was around 55ish. Once I woke up I got the house back to 68ish degrees. That is until the power was back...The power kicked on and boosted the house to about 80 degrees instantly with the woodstove blower. It was pretty crazy. Anyway, I'm trying to get onto work to sort some things out as I've been out of touch since yesterday with the work world.

IT'S THE WHITE DEATH!!

So yea, the white death came across the Ohio Valley yesterday and today. I worked from home yesterday, and the building closed today. I had all intentions of working an hour or two from home, but was thwarted by having no power! One of the lovely side effects of this thing called the white death is that every now and then ice is with it.


We were out of power since about 6 this morning. We got it back around 5:40pm. We were fine, thanks to our beloved Alderlea T6. I love that stove. The house was always between 65 and 75 degrees, and we cooked our meals on it as well. So yay for being prepared! We were warm, fed, and comfortable. Mat played with his animals, while Scott and I read. Though we heard the occasional, I WANT MY SHOWS. Ah well, he's watching Wubzy now!