The Joy of Hand-Me-Downs

One of my friends here in the neighborhood, Sonia, had a surprise blessing at age 43. After 3 IVF babies, she thought she was done and got rid of all her baby stuff. 3 years later she thought she was going through menopause, and turned out she was pregnant. She had this baby girl in April of last year. As soon as she found out I was pregnant, she asked me if I want Alyssa's baby stuff. Oh yes!

I will take hand-me-downs anytime! Most of the time, they are hardly worn and a different style or colors than I would usually buy. I love trying new styles or colors, especially when it does not cost me anything. It was so sweet of her to give me her Exersaucer, Jump-a-roo, swing, pack-n-play, pink bathtub and a plethora of clothes. I hope that I can bless someone else with all this great stuff once Claire grows out of it!

My Belly - The Magnet

A pregnant belly is quite a magnet. Not only to women, but children just as much. When I go to Cooper's class to read, over half the children come up to me to hug me, which happens to be right a belly level. I really think that they like to hug my belly. It is almost like they gravitate towards it. I'm sure there is a psychological explanation out there somewhere.

As for women,that is a whole other story. Some women cannot help themselves when it comes to another person's pregnant belly. They are just compelled to put one hand, sometimes both hands on my belly. Some ask beforehand, and some ask afterwards. Really? What is that all about? What if I said no? I am kind of trapped into saying, "oh, that's all right", when really, it is not. If I know the person, I do not usually mind. However, if it is someone I do not know or is just an acquaintance, it is a little awkward and I would prefer my person space not to be invaded. I should not be made to feel ill-at-ease by some other person's lack of couthe. I'm just sayin'....

My Failure as a Parent

Not much can make you feel like such a failure than your own child acting out.

I love my oldest son with all my heart, but he can break it with not much effort. As of recent, he has been a defiant, rebellious, hurtful boy. I do not know what kicks it off, but once he is full-blown into a fit, there is no turning back. The fit can last anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes, involving screaming, yelling, kicking, hitting, running to a different room, you name it. All the while he is saying some of the most hurtful words I have ever heard in my life. I know, I know that he does not mean them, but after you have heard something so many times, you begin to wonder. What have I done wrong? What did I do to deserve this?

John and I have finally agreed to address this destructive behavior with Mrs. Heisterkamp, the counselor at Cooper's school, to see what we need to be doing differently. This cannot go on. I am so frustrated with feeling like a bad parent. The scary part is, what will this behavior look like in 10 years if we do not fix it now? He is already too strong for me to physically hold or punish, especially being pregnant. Besides addressing this with Mrs. Heisterkamp, the best thing I cand do is to pray.

Pray Until Something Happens.

Sick, Sick, Sick

I do not like to be sick. It prevents me from working out and practically makes me bed-ridden. I do not get sick very often, but when I do, it is usually pretty bad. This time a virus made it's way around our family, starting with Natalie while we were in Steamboat. She was a puking machine! After 24 hours, however, she was done and felt all better. John and Cooper were next, with Cooper having the vomiting and John the other end. It was so bad for John that he stayed home. Yes, he stayed home! He only gets sick enough to stay home about once every 2 years. It was pretty bad. Cooper was puking for almost exactly 24 hours, then he was all ready, gung-ho to go back to school. I really, really did NOT want to get what either one of them had. I guess I was lucky, the next day I got the derivative of the virus where I felt light-headed, drained of energy and on the verge of puking ALL day long. Only one bout with diarrhea, and no puking. I cannot complain about that version of the virus, just 24 hours feeling like death warmed over. The next day? All better and ready to tackle the day of a sonogram and Natalie's birthday party!

Pregnant Workouts

I am one of those 'weird ones' who works out all the way up to the day the baby is born. It is humorous and a bit annoying sometimes, with the stares and comments that I get at the gym. When a stranger is talking to me and staring at my belly, I just want to snap my fingers and ask if they would prefer to talk to me or my belly? When I walk over to the free weight area and others actually stop what they are doing to see how much the pregnant girl can bench press. The best/worst? When I am on the stairmaster and someone walks up and asks if I am trying to 'have that baby' by doing the stairmaster. Really? I have been doing this stairmaster the whole pregnancy, why would it suddenly send me into labor? People, people, people...

Happy 6th Birthday Natalie!!

Today is Natalie's 6th birthday. I cannot believe that she really is 6, for numerous reasons. One, she is so tiny. She still wears size 4 jeans, a smaller shoe than Luke and weighs less than Luke. She is very slender, but has muscular quads for as little as she is. Another reason is that she is my 'baby girl'. I can still pick her up and cuddle her close. (and she lets me) I'm sure once Claire comes along, Natalie will suddenly seem a lot older!

Since we are in Steamboat for the week, Vanda was nice enough to schedule a birthday party for Natalie. It worked out so great, she had 2 of her cousins there, her 2 siblings and a little boy who lived in the same condo village that Vanda invited. Vanda got a birthday cake that had Natalie's picture on it! That was way exciting for Natalie. Vanda also hired a magician to come and do a magi show for the kiddos. They were awed and amazed by him (as well as the adults!). After the show, the kids had pizza, cake and ice cream. A great party put on my a wonderful grandmother!

Happy Birthday Sweet Natalie!

A Day of Travel

Our flight was at 8:25am. What time would most people leave for the airport? I am thinking NOT the 6am that we were shooting to leave by. Good grief! My alarm went off at 5:15am and I briefly thought about hitting the snooze, then thought WHY?!? Would an extra 9 minutes really benefit me? I went ahead and got up and made the bed before I changed my mind.

I headed down to the boys' room and started getting out their clothes for the day. All of a sudden, I hear a little rustling around and within 20 seconds, Cooper BOLTS out of the top bunk (scaring me half to death!). I ask him if he is OK and he says, "I was supposed to wake daddy up at 5:15 and I'm late!" He proceeds to run down the hall, into our room, into the bathroom and apologizes to John, who is already showered, shaved and dressed. He is so much like John it is scary!



We leave at 6:11, which I think is great. John is quite perturbed by the 11 minute delay (caused by me, because I had to do 3 kids' hair, tie 2 sets of shoes, THEN get me ready). Regardless, we got to remote parking, bussed to Terminal D and checked our baggage with plenty of time to spare. For once, I was the calm one and John was getting stressed over a whole slew of things.



We board with 1st class (thanks to John's 'distraught dad' act) and I am quite sure every one of those first class people were thrilled when we kept walking back to coach. The kids did pretty good on the plane, aside from Natalie's screaming fit. All because she wanted to help Luke turn the page and he did not want her help. Yes, that was worth 15 minutes of sobbing and crying, alright!



Once we reach Denver, we get the excitement of taking the TRAM! Whoo-hoo! It is so funny how such little things that we, as adults, do not even think twice about, are SO exciting for little eyes. Once we got to baggage claim, not only was our bag one of the last ones, we thought the car seats did not make it. Our 'helper' had to go to the oversize area and ask for it. That was one thing that we could not do without!



We left the Hertz rental place in our ~almost-fully loaded Suburban at 10:28am. Since it had a DVD player in it, we stopped to get 5 DVDs from The Red Box. Then, after 1 meal stop at McPlace and one bathroom stop, we arrived at Grandmother's condo at 2:35. I did not think that was too bad!

Packing or Procrastinating?

I must admit that I am very, very good at procrastinating. If I have something to do that is overwhelming or that I really do NOT want to do, the better at procrastinating I am. I should be packing right now, but instead I am finding tons of other things to 'do'. Nothing is really more important than packing right now, but I am feeling overwhelmed about even starting the process. Packing needs to be done in one fail swoop, or else I will start missing stuff. Then I get aggravated at myself when we get where we are going and I realize that I did not pack an essential item or items either for me or one of the kids.

Packing for 3 children AND me is what I am dreading. It's not bad once I get started, it's just that I have to take the FIRST step to get going. After that, I just run through a checklist in my head and try to make everything fit. My packing actually takes longer than packing for the 3 kids, because I like to be ready for any and all situations and/or occasions. Packing workout clothes, church clothes, daily clothes, regular and long underwear and shoes to accommodate each of those sets of clothes. Plus makeup, toiletries, emergency rations and lots of gum. I HAVE to have gum in every suitcase, backpack and the pockets of coats. (I have severe dry mouth with this pregnancy for some odd reason.) After the suitcase (in which John tries to sneak some of his stuff into), I have to get out 'the' backpack, then switch purses to something very small, yet functional.

THAT is why I am sitting here blogging (procrastinating) and not packing like I should be...

The Eye Opening Talk

We had the 'Intervention Specialist' from Martin High School come to talk at our PTA meeting today. What an eye-opening experience for us parents of really young ones. There are women at the PTA meeting that have high schoolers, so maybe this was not as shocking to them as it was to us. Yikes.

This 'specialist' started off with some statistics. Some statistics from our district! I never really knew how prevalent, common, etc. that drug/alcohol usage has become amongst high school age kids. Quite scary. She showed us drug paraphernalia and how it is used by the kids. And at what grade they start certain behaviors. I would not have ever guessed that 4th, 5th and 6th graders would even have access to some of this stuff, much less be experimenting with it.

The interesting thing about her talk was the role-playing that she does with the 6th graders. It is no longer training the kids to 'say no to drugs', because really, it is not a stranger coming up to them saying, 'try this or you are a big baby'. It is more like the child goes to a party with 3 friends. They all 3 go join in a group smoking ~whatever~, and leave the one child standing there alone. That child has to make a decision to stand up for what they believe in and walk away or feel the pressure, succumb to it, and join in because they just want to be part of the group and not stand out as different. The pressure that they feel is from within, but it is real. It has a lot to do with self-confidence and self-esteem and having the ability to make a good, strong decision on their own.

I walked out of there quite shaken up, but knowing that I need to start building the foundation for good decisions NOW. Also, keeping the communication lines open and alive between us and our kids, so they can bring their issues to us.

Rules are Rules

There is an ongoing saga about a 4 year old's hair in Mesquite, Texas. The BOY has long hair. The district has a rule about how long boys' hair can be. (The punishment is that he has to go to In-School-Suspension.) However, the parents of this boy seem to think that they are special and do not have to abide by the rules set forth by the district. The online video shows the child saying how he misses his friends and wants to go back to class but the school will not let him. The mom says she does not think that is an important rule, therefore she will not abide by it. The dad says that he does not want to 'hold his son down, kicking and screaming and cut his hair against his will'. The kid is 4 YEARS OLD! He is not Samson from the Bible. He is 4 and probably could care less about his hair if his parent's were not making such a big deal about it! I think the parent's are poisoning this child' mind (from an early age) that he does not have to follow the rules if he does not want to.

PTA- Nominating Committee

Seeing as how I am expecting a sweet bundle of joy here soon, I did not want a huge job with the PTA next year, but I did want to be on the executive board. I like to be 'in the know' and involved. I thought the best way to make sure I ended up in the right place was to be on the nominating committee.

I love going to a meeting and the person or persons who are running the meeting have their stuff together. I showed up for the first meeting and Beth (Ryan) was totally prepared. She was A-1 ready to go. She had the list printed up of what positions we needed to nominate for and the persons who had filled in their interests for the coming year.

In a matter of an hour, we had filled over 25 positions, made over 30 calls with 4 phones and even got to eat our lunch! There is just something great about meeting for a reason and actually accomplishing it. Proficiently. Gotta love it!

Jiggle Butt Run

Today was the 4th Annual Jiggle Butt Run.

4 years ago, the last Saturday of 2006, there were ~30 women who met at River Legacy park and ran a few miles. The goal, to raise some food for the Arlington Women's Shelter. Everyone brought a few cans of food and we ran around the park in the cold.

The next year (2007) there was a larger crowd of women, probably ~70, maybe 80 of us. This time we were donating shoes for the Women's Shelter and it was at River Legacy park again. We ran a different route, it was a little colder and a lot of fun.

The next Jiggle Butt Run had to be rolled over to the 1st Saturday of the new year, 2009, due to when New Year's Day fell on the calender. This year was grossly underestimated and after seeing 300 participants register, another 200 showed up to register the day of the race. It was a beautiful day for a run/walk through the park. However, many women did not get shirts, in fact they barely had enough paper to get every one registered for the race. They knew that the next year would far exceed the capacity that the park is supposed to hold. Bigger plans needed to be made. A bigger committee needed to support the planning of the next year if it was going to continue to grow at such a rapid pace.

This year, a larger committee was established: around 14-15 of us. Each person was designated a certain area: volunteers, wiggle butt, vendors, sponsors, donations, awards, t-shirts, teams, etc. Then the work began to be declared a non-profit group and trademarking the name. We started working on the race in October. It is amazing how much can get done when you have so many people working on the same project!

This year, we had a pre-event party at Teesie's Attic (a boutique store in the Highlands). We changed the venue to the Maverick Athletic Center of the UTA campus. We had a representative from Safe Haven at the run to accept clothes and other donations. We had over 30 vendors and tons of door prizes for the runners. We had 2 cops that rode the course ahead of the fastest runner to keep the streets safe. We also had a first aid area that (thankfully) did not need to be utilized beyond a band*aid or two. There was also a "Wiggle Butt" run, in which kids under 12 ran 1 mile. Since it was 27 degrees outside, we had the kids run 9 laps around the indoor track above the exhibition area. (Very cute!)The turnout? Over 1000 women turned out in the brrrr(!) cold to run and walk together. We had over 500 women register as teams. The teams ranged in numbers from 5-34 women. Safe Haven collected over 3 flatbeds of clothes and essentials. Overall, it was a raging success that was above and beyond any of our expectations. To God be the glory!

Natalie's 1st Lost Tooth

Natalie finally lost her first tooth. Pretty exciting times for a five year old! She actually lost it on December 18th, but I wanted to make sure I wrote about it on this year's blog. It had been loose for 2 or 8 months. On that Friday, she comes into my bathroom and it is sticking out at a 90 degree angle. Yes, a little gross. I asked her if she wanted me to pull it out. Of course! It is her first tooth! She has friends to tell, teachers to show and a tooth fairy to collect from! She gladly lets me pull it out and then runs to Cooper to show him. His first question? Did mommy pull that out? She happily says yes and runs to show Luke the tooth.

I kind of wish every tooth pulling resulted in such glee!

We Have a Member Down!

Paige and I were working out and one of the 'fitness managers' came over and asked (quite calmly) if we would not mind going into the women's locker room to see if there was a lady passed out. Umm, ok, I guess I could do that. Good grief! He was in no hurry and in no panic. They did not call a code or anything. I walk into the locker room and sure enough, there is a lady passed out, lying on the floor with 3 ladies huddled over her. I ask if she has a pulse (yes), if she is breathing (yes), if we need to call 911 (YES!). Can you believe between the 3 women, not one of them had the sense to break away and tell someone to call 911?

Then, after 2-3 minutes, she starts seizing. One lady is trying to hold her head in one place (wrong!) and another one is just shaking her arm. From behind me, Paige tells them to roll her over on her side. They kind of half-heartily roll her over, then she flops back to laying flat. At this point, I remembered that this man that works out next to me on the Stairmonster is a paramedic, so I go out to find him.

Thank goodness he was right there on the stretching mat. He comes into the locker room and immediately takes over the whole situation (quite subtly). Within 5 minutes the firemen finally arrive, in no big hurry, and stroll in with their 'over sized plastic briefcases'. After another 10 minutes they leave. OK. A few minutes later the lady walks out, gets into her car, and drives off. No calling anyone to come get her, nothing. Let's just let this lady that passed out for more than 5 minutes AND started seizing, just drive away in her car. Great idea!

I think back to our policies and training when I worked at Q-The Sports Club. A different story would have occurred. Everyone CPR qualified would have stopped what they were doing and gone to the member's aid. (Not leave it up to members!) Also, there would have been an accident report written up and she would have had to have someone come pick her up from the club. Quite a different scenario than the ridiculous excuse of 'care' these employees have for their members. I sure hope that they have their liability insurance current...

Reading To Cooper's 1st Grade Class

Every Thursday I read to Cooper's 1st grade class. It is only for 15-20 minutes, but they really seem to enjoy it and Mrs. Stone is so thankful every time I come in. Today when I went into Cooper's class, about 10 of the children came up and gave me a hug. Which seems a little awkward, because they are at the height that they are hugging my belly for the most part. Personally, I think they just like hugging a pregnant tummy!

While I am reading, inevitably, 2-3 of them will raise their hand so I will call on them. They always have this excited, I'm about to burst, expression on their face. I fall for it every time. I think that they are about to tell me something somewhat relevant to the story I am reading. No, not usually the case. Here are a few of the questions or comments that I get:

"Umm, Mrs. Nohinek? I saw a turtle on the sidewalk last week. It was green and brown and it went all into it's shell when I tried to pick it up and..."

"Ummm, Mrs. Nohinek? I saw 4 different Santa Clauses while we were out of school. Isn't that neat?"

"Ummm, excuse me, but I saw snow fall on Christmas. It was white and the snowflakes were so pretty. Did you see it too?"

Yep, every time I call on someone I think this time will be different. Not so much. They are an entertaining bunch of kiddos, I must say that!

My Car is in the GARAGE!

John promised me a few weeks ago that he was going to 'clean the garage out'. And my response? I'll believe it when I see it. I know not to get too excited about things until they happen, so I was holding off on jumping up and down.

Today, John said that when he got down with his deposition, he was going to come home and clean the garage until it was done (and hopefully get my car in). Well, he was not kidding. He worked, and worked and worked until 9:45 pm. Sure enough, I was able to pull all the way in (with a little room to spare) and still be able to walk in front of and behind the car. How about that? John really amazes me with what he can do when he puts his mind to it. REALLY!

A New CAR!

Really it is an SUV, but I wanted it to sound like the Price is Right: A NEW CAR! Anyways, it is a 2007 Denali. A complete gift from God disguised as a widow in Arlington, Texas.

Here's the story:

One of Lynn's clients is a widow and gets a new car every 2 years. (Lynn is John's racquetball partner and owns his own landscaping company.) She wanted to sell her Denali and get an Infiniti and asked Lynn if he knew anyone who wanted to buy it. Lynn told John about it, but we thought it was a long shot. We did not want to pay more than $25K for a vehicle. I really liked my Ford Expedition, so I was not even thinking of a new car. Well, over the weekend she found herself a new Infiniti SUV. She said she could still sell it to us if we were interested, but if not she could trade it in. The Infiniti salesman said he would give her $27K for it. After she called Lynn and told him all this, John said that he was sticking firm to the $25K limit. She said OK, no big deal, have him come look at it. So yesterday, (Sunday) John meets Lynn and goes over to her house, takes it on a test drive and comes home to tell me about it. He tells me that not only does it have back-up sensors, but it also has a back-up camera! Not only does it have heated seats all throughout the vehicle, but it also has a heated steering wheel! Not only can you open the trunk by pushing a button, but you can also start the car remotely! Fancy options that I did not even know existed! The color is champagne and the interior is all-leather. Wow. I mean WOW! A Fancy, dancy car! I might have to implement a NO drink, no food, no candy rule in my car!

To top it off, she completely filled it up with gas before she brought it to John. She had it professionally cleaned (though it did not need it, she kept it immaculate!). And the most thoughtful part? She left a note in the glove compartment that said, "John, Please take this $ and buy the kids a new DVD to watch in the car." And she left a $20 bill on top of the note. Is that incredible or what? I am filled with awe that such nice people still exist in this tumultuous world we live in. Complete awe.

After all the paperwork was all said and done, our car payment went up less than $30. Wow. God is good. In big and small ways and all ways, God is good.

New Shorts

I think that I will forever spend the duration of my active life looking for the 'perfect' pair of black shorts. It may seem like an easy task, but there are a lot of consideration to think about: the material (cotton, dri-fit, etc.), length (3-4" inseam is the best), how they hang vs. being too tight, how bulky they look, how easily they show panties. That is a lot to evaluate a simple pair of shorts on.

Case in point: since I am pregnant, my regular Soffe shorts are not fitting just right. The are too tight on my legs and do not seem long enough (with all the varicose veins that I have going). I asked John to take me shopping for some new shorts this weekend. We finally went this afternoon to Academy. It was all good and fine as I collected 12 pairs of shorts. I think I had every brand: UnderArmour, adidas, Bcg, Nike, Russel Athletic and Soffe. I thought for sure I would have 4-5 that turned out and that I would get to choose. Nope! I only had one pair that fit. Can you believe that? I was so disgruntled. Surely my body is not THAT different! John was so kind, he suggested that we get 3 pair of the same kind of shorts that fit.

I have to hand it to John, he has been pretty understanding throughout this pregnancy. He does not mind carrying things for me, picking up stuff because I do not want to squish my belly, putting the body pillow in the perfect spot when he goes to bed before me and so much more. I could not ask for a more compassionate husband!

Let the Nesting Begin!

I know that I 'nested' before the arrival of the other 3 children. However I do not remember being so driven like I am with this pregnancy. Maybe because there is SO much to do? Now there's an idea!

This whole Christmas break I have been on a mission to clean, organize, move, arrange, you name it! Almost every day I have a different agenda item. By only having one 'item', it keeps me from getting too overwhelmed. If I start to think about ALL that I need to get done before Claire gets here, I will just sit on the couch and do nothing. I have to break it down into bite-size pieces and get something accomplished each day. Here is what I have gotten accomplished so far:

*rearranged every children's book throughout 4 separate bookshelves.


*cleaned out the crib in the guest room


*cleaned out the crib in our room


*put away all the outgrown clothes


*stripped and cleaned all 4 car seats


*finished the 'girls' room - Claire's crib and Natalie's bed/comforter set


I am getting anxiously excited to meet Claire, but also realize that I have a whole lot more to do!

And the Tree Comes Down!

It was my 'job' today to take down all the Christmas ornaments off of the tree. I did not really mind, because what is the alternative? John do it? Yea, right. So John took the boys to Cabela's and Natalie stayed with me to 'help'. Help is a relative term when you are 5 years old. She was good for about 9 or 10 ornament removals, then she started complaining about everything. The tree was stabbing her. Her hand was hurting from holding the ornaments. Her back hurt from the tree sticking her when she turned around. And on. And on. And on. Finally I asked her if she just wanted a break. Oh yes, Mommy! And she flopped on the ground as if she had run a 10K. Good grief. Then it became my job to find her an activity to do that did not take more than 4.5 minutes. She just could not make it more than 5 minutes doing the same thing. Yea, well, I am a little ADD too, so I understand.

I had her put the nativity set back in the Styrofoam. I had her put together a puzzle to 'make sure' it was not missing any pieces. I had her stack books that had been collected in the living room. I had her unwrap some bubble wrap. Finally, I broke down and suggested that we make Claire's crib. That perked her up real quick. We put the mattress cover on, the crib skirt, the crib sheet, the bumpers, and topped it off with draping the quilt over the side. She was very excited to finish this task and have the girl's room completed. Once we get the new blinds and window valances up, then I will be excited that it is finished.

First Post of the New Year

I really wanted to make a post on the FIRST day of the year (yesterday), but I could not settle on a name. Since this is my 3rd blog, the name did not just pop out at me like it did for the 2 previous blogs. Plus, with the new addition that we are expecting in March, I did not want to base the name without her in mind or center it around her. Bottom line: I am abundantly blessed in so many ways and I want to share my praise of God himself with all who will listen (or read).