It's here! It's here!

Wish I could be telling you about our baby being here. Although if I have had the baby then I would not still be referring to it as an it. Even though I'm anxious for the pregnancy to be over, it is a tad too soon for baby to make an appearance. Little one needs to simmer just a bit more.


I'm talking about Pepermint Mocha coffee creamer by CoffeeMate. Nothing gets me more excited and worked up than a good coffee creamer. They only put out Peppermint Mocha toward the end of the year & then it quickly vanishes after the Christmas holiday. I believe it was only last year that I had discovered this flavor.

I'm a good old fan of French Vanilla and am one to not like change. However, once I ventured outside of my comfort zone there was no turning back. Now a bottle of French Vanilla will last me months as I have 3-4 other flavors to sweeten my coffee (Chocolate Raspberry, Cinnamon Vanilla, Vanilla Caramel, Blueberry Cobbler). I really wish they would stop making "limited edition" flavors as well, because just when I get hooked on a new flavor they stop making it (there is one in particular that I LOVED, but can't for the life of me think of what it is called). GAAAH! So it came as a great disappointment when I realized that I could not buy Peppermint Mocha year round.

So it was an average Sunday morning a few weeks ago that I ran to the store to buy some essentials.....milk, eggs, etc. I had no intention of buying any creamer. I had already seen that Pumpkin Spice was out, but had yet to see the Peppermint Mocha. So when I passed the creamer I cruised on by not giving much thought. But you know when you have that nagging feeling, just that unexplainable urge to do something even though it makes no sense? As I'm cruising I look over anyway and behold what do my eyes see. I seriously think I rubbed my eyes to make sure I wasn't just seeing things. I let out a squeal and chanted "it's here, it's here....yes, yes, yes". And yes, I'm sure I got some looks from other customers, but who cares, I was in total bliss at the moment. I am determined to buy a big bottle everytime I go to the store, reguardless if I even need any or not. I've been told that I can freeze the stuff and then use as needed. Just what I need in my deep freezer, a dozen or so bottles of creamer.

I was so thrilled of this occasion that I had the kids take pics of me enjoying my coffee that morning. Yep, curlers & all, completely enwrapped in my happiness. It really can be the simplest things in life that bring happiness.

MIA!

I've been missing in action here on our blog. It's been a crazy couple of week here at home. Jim's work schedule went bezerk due to some employee's retiring and then many others getting very sick.

I've already wrote about my nesting habits. It seemed to be magnified even more in the last week or so. And yet, there remains so much to still do. I've chosen to have some action filled days that have then left me in utter misery due to physical limitations. My body is more often protesting the fact that I am 33 weeks pregnant. I can't seem to get it through my thick skull that I need to slow down & take it easy.

I keep thinking of blog entries along the way. Even have taken some pictures just with that in mind. The few times that I have sat down here at the computer either leave me drawing a huge writers block or simply not enough time to write what I want to.

A few more days or non-stop action and I should then be able to spend some more time here. I might even come up with 3-4 entries all in one day.

Welcome October!

Just a "regular" week here at the zoo. October has arrived and we anticipate the cooler weather. This is my (Carmen's) second favorite month of the year. The leafs are beginning to change color outside and the scenery all around is just beautiful. I can't wait to get the camera out & snap some pictures of the kids.

Angel won a FISH award at school. The school picks 2 students per grade every month to receive this award. They did explain it to us parents at orientation, but I couldn't tell ya the exact specifications for it. In general they base it on outstanding students who go the extra mile. I expected that at some point Angel would be picked for this award. She is quite the special girl. But the first month & out of 100 or so other 6th graders. WOW! She will be awarded by picking another student & a teacher to join her for lunch off campus. All at the expense of the school. I told her (jokingly) to pick the Packing House, which is one of the most expensive places to eat here in town. She quickly reminded me that she only has a 25 minute lunch time and didn't think that would work into the schedule. She's picking Subway, her favorite place to eat. Yes, that child can eat a WHOLE 6" sub by herself. (I can barely eat a whole one myself). Way to go Angel on your FISH award!

30 weeks

I have yet to post about my pregnancy, other than my nesting habits right now. I am currently 30 weeks along and doing quite well. I had a horrible first trimester. My second trimester hit right smack in the middle of the summer heat. By then I felt better, but preferred to not be out battling the heat all the time. Now as I'm down toward the end I'm feeling better than ever. At least for being this far along. My back is beginning to ache all the time. My size is much more noticeable. I'm starting to really stick out. At the Y when I go to fill up my water bottle, the fountain turns on before I even get my hand on the button. I figured out that my belly hits the button before I come to a stop & move my hand to push it on. (Look Ma! No hands!) I even had someone tell me recently that I'm beginning to waddle.

In these last few weeks the baby will double, maybe even triple in size. You think I'm looking big now.....just wait!

Crazy Hair Day

It's spirit week at the elementry school where 3 of the kids attend. Monday was pajama day. Can I say how WONDERFUL it is to have that day to start off the week. They get up & they're "ready" for school. I love it!

Tuesday is crazy hair day. Normally my girls take care of & fix their own hair. Today took a lot more help from mom. Mandy DID want her hair standing up in complete spikes all the way around (like the Statue of Liberty). I talked her out of that & she liked what I did instead....something crazy, that didn't involve a full bottle of hair gel.

Brianna is always the more simple one & very easy to please. She just wanted pig tails with straws sticking out of them. I had a flash back of the 80's when I pulled out the can of hairspray to add that special craziness of teasing her hair & making it big & foofey. (yes, another one of my words)

John got a mohawk. Normally this would be a no-go in our household. I had a hidden purpose in letting him do this. School pictures is on thursday. I was wanting to give him a buzz cut for pictures. Lately, he hasn't been wanting it cut at all. So I proposed to him that I'll cut him a mohawk just for crazy hair day. Then when school is done for the day I have to finish buzzing it off. Wah-lah, I get my buzz cut and he gets his crazy hair. You should've heard the expressions & exclamations that came from his classmates as he stepped out of the van this morning. He was "waaaaay coooooool". (Does that make me a "cool" mom then too?!?!?!)

IM

I recently installed an Instant Messanger program on our computer. If you have IM through yahoo or msn (hotmail) then you can reach us. I can also add other programs (aol, gmail, etc), but won't until I see there is a need. Our user name is the same old same....petefamzoo. Pretty universal around here. I should have it copyrighted just for us (lol).

I'm still nesting quite a bit. Purging through room after room. I've always thought we were pretty simple people with pretty simple lives. I'm not big on clutter at all. Yet I've managed to haul out 2-3 bags of stuff from the toy room & game room. At least one bag FULL of trash from each room. We also down sized our living room and got rid of the ginormous (I know, not really a word, except in my dictionary) entertainment center we had in there. It made me go through the cds, dvds & videos we had on all those shelves. There is still plenty to keep, but also plenty to get rid of. I don't usually have a fall yard sale, but am considering having one to cash in on all of our "treasures".

School seems to be going very well with all the kids. Andrew & I really enjoy our days together. Work is the usual for Jim. Perhaps the calm before the storm, I don't know. We're down to adding our newest animal in 11 weeks or so. That happens to be right at the time that Jim will get slammed with his pre-Christmas season. Actually it usually starts shortly after Columbus Day, with the biggest pick up right after Thanksgiving.

Nesting & MySpace

So it's wednesday. I'm not sure I have too much to proclaim or tell you about. Life is just poking along at normal speed. It's been a rare & quiet stretch of not too much activity. It used to be uncommon for us to home a lot. Now I can give you several days & times at which we are at home. Perhaps it's the calm before the storm. Reguardless I'm rather enjoying it.

I've entered into a delightful stage of nesting. I'm tearing this house apart from top to bottom with little projects that need to be done. I am saving the washing windows for last, just in case, ya know, I run out of time. (giggle, giggle)

It's not unusual for me to be knee deep in a project that requires several hours of my attention. The other night I tried to sit & watch tv, but was just not intersted. So I tried reading. Nope not cutting it either, not to mention my almost 2 year old son trying to crawl on my lap as I attempted to read my Reader's Digest.

It was only 6:30 p.m. I already had the family fed, kitchen cleaned, floors vacumned & laundry presorted for the NEXT day. What could I possibly do? I set my sights on my bedroom & closet. I took everything out. Moving all of my I couldn't possibly fit into clothes into a bin downstairs and moved in all my moo-moo can this strech any bigger maternity clothes. Jim walks into the room & sees about 10 stacks of clothes completely covering our bed. You'd think he had just entered a war zone with his bewildered look on his face as he asked "what is going on here?" Of course I'm slightly ocd in these types of things and I can't do this simply. I had to stack them in their places not only according to color groups, but according to style of clothing and fabric weight. Not to mention they have to hang on the same type of hangers that belong in that group.

I just got an email from Jim and the lightbulb goes off in his head. He "gets" it.....I'm nesting. Well, I'm glad he noticed.

Aside from the numerous jobs to do around the house I also spend plenty of time on the computer. I knew that soon after created this blog that my next step would be MySpace. So I've created a page there. It's much more tricker than this blog. So if you get over to it there isn't too much too see. It's another work in progress. I'm working to make it a family page, not just a Carmen page. MySpace isn't set up for that though. I could make a page just for Jim, but then I'd up keeping up-to-date two pages instead of just one for our family. Our MySpace name is (drum roll please) petefamzoo. Ooooh, betcha didn't guess that one! If I do this right I'll put the link here at the end and include the link of this page for future use. http://www.myspace.com/petefamzoo