36 hours of driving and we're finally home...

If it wasn't for the unexpected 18 hour trip down and the 18 hour trip back, I don't think we'd have anything to complain about. We were figuring 13 hours to get there, and it ended up taking a lot longer, especially with a tired mommy and a crabby baby! After eventually arriving, it was so nice to see our family that we haven't seen for so long.

My cousin Bobby's son Paul got married in Denver on Saturday to his beautiful wife Kathleen. The wedding was held in a gorgeous chapel downtown with the reception at the Browne Palace close by. The five course dinner was super good (especially when pregnant!) and taking part in the wedding festivities brought happiness all around.

My personal favorite part of the weekend was a first for us all... me, Maida, my mom, my niece Sadie, my aunt Pat, and aunt Dode were all on the way from the wedding to the reception. We were in the elevator and between the fifth and fourth floors when the elevator suddenly stopped. The door was open a crack, so we could see that we were obviously held up by something. We tried pushing the "door open" button and the "door closed" button. We also tried prying the doors open, but when nothing worked, we had to ring the red button, which sounded some bell alarms all over the hotel, officially stating to the entire Browne Palace that we were STUCK IN THE ELEVATOR! A pregnant mom, a baby, and 11 other people in a small confined place was not an ideal situation for us at the moment. The front desk staff asked us via elevator phone for us all to hang tight and they assured us that all they needed to do is use a coat hanger to pry the elevator off whatever it was hung up on. A coat hanger?!! After hearing this, I had fears of them causing the elevator to fall the five floors we were up! At that thought I started panicking a little, causing some stomach cramps in which I had to sit down on the floor of the already cramped elevator, with all 11 people saying, "Please don't deliver that baby in this elevator!" 20 minutes later and we were out safe and sound, awarded a free parking pass for the night, which was a great prize for getting stuck in their elevator since we had parked valet and it was going to be quite expensive.


Maida asleep in the car on the way to the wedding.


The bride and groom.


My sister kim, niece Sadie, me and Maida


Stuck in the elevator: Aunt Dode, Sadie, me and Maida (you can see that I was starting to sweat, my face got all shiny!)


My uncle Merlyn, Aunt Dode (Grandma of the groom) and my dad


My cousins Deb and Melody with their mom (my aunt) Dode and their daughters Kazeea and Katelyn


Me and Paul, the groom. We hadn't seen each other for years. He played football for the University of Colorado, he's so BIG (and I thought Erik's brother Brandon was huge!)!!!


Mom and dad dancing, Maida dancing with Uncle Tony in the background.


Maida loved to dance and kept pointing to the dance floor!

A Due Date is Confirmed!

---------- Gmail Message ----------
From: Erik
To: Jen **

Date: Tue, Jun 24, 2008 at 10:07 PM

Quoting Erik:

Yeah! It was nice to see you, too! Kara is doing well now, but she had a migraine earlier today (which she really only gets with pregnancy). We had our first appt today when we saw you and Rob, but we went back at 3:00pm for an ultrasound since her LMP was July 2006. It was fun to see the baby and it even moved a little for us! Kara said she thought she could feel the baby move ever so slightly a few days ago, but I was skeptical. Now I saw that it actually does move around (but who knows if it wasn't just her guts). According to US, she's 10w1d and due on January 19th.

Kara says (while Maida is eating a Nutrigrain bar): "Tell Jen, 'Thank you so much for...' Oh my gosh, a little tiny piece fell off and she's throwing a fit. IT'S NOT A BIG DEAL! It crumbles apart and that's fine. See. Then you can share it with a friend. (Maida still crying hysterically...) Maida, you are acting like a spaz. Don't be a little spaz. DANGIT! (Kara dropped something) Don't say dang it, either. Hey Erik, don't send that email 'cause I have to tell you something to say to Jen." And then I stopped typing. OK, really, she says, "Thank you so much for recommending Dr. Widstrom to us because I really wasn't comfortable with Northland OB. I loved, loved, LOVED St.Mary's and I really liked Dr. Widstrom."

------Unquote-------

** Sidenote: Jen is a second year medical student with Erik. She recommended our new OB, Dr. Widstrom, to us. We are so thankful!! Jen and her husband are expecting their first baby about four weeks before us and we actually ran into them at our doctor appointment yesterday!

I would try to post some ultrasound pictures from yesterday, but Erik -he's so cute!- asked to take them to school with him today. I think he wanted to show off his new little one. :) Oh, and a little explanation of above: Maida does NOT like it when anything she is eating breaks in half or crumbles. She gets so mad that she won't eat anymore of it and throws the biggest fits over it. I hope it's just another "phase"...

Internet at last!

Wow, it's been a week and I haven't posted! That's almost unheard of, for me to go that long without blogging. (For you that are new to our blog, I l-o-v-e blogging and usually update more regularly than once a week!) Last week our cable company decided to randomly turn off our internet, so finally after a week of going through withdrawals, they came over today and hooked us back up. Thank you! For the past two hours and 42 minutes I have been in heaven.

Not only did I have 195 blog posts to catch up on, I had 92 new emails to read. I should be packing for Park Rapids (Maida and I leave tomorrow for the entire summer), but instead I'm enjoying my time back on the internet. I haven't even checked Facebook yet or tried to reply to any emails. Instead I thought that maybe to save some time, I could answer some questions here that I have been getting in several emails and Facebook messages. (It's not that I don't want to reply to you each individually, I just thought this could save me some time so that my husband doesn't kill me for not cleaning the house while he was at school today... believe me, I'd kill myself, too! This place is a dump.)

How far along are you?
- We don't know! We will find out tomorrow (I hope!) at our first doctor appointment. If I had to guess, though, I'd guess about 10 weeks.

Are you going to find out if it's a boy or girl?
- That is still undecided. I really want to find out and I think that I've talked Erik into it, so chances are we will.

How do you think Maida will do with a new baby?
- That's debatable! Erik is convinced that she's gonna end up killing the new baby. Ha, it's not that she's mean, she just has too much love sometimes. Like when she gives her friends hugs, it usually ends up looking like she's trying to tackle them to the ground. She also likes to point out body parts and when she does body parts like eyes, she'll stick her finger half-way through your eyeball to your brain! Or when she does nose, her finger goes further up your nostril than you ever thought anything could! So, I personally think she'll do fine as a big sister, we'll just have to watch her close and teach her how to be gentle.

How will Erik have time for another baby?
- Many other medical students have asked this and I think it's because they know how swamped they get and just how much work it is to be a medical student. I think the difference between Erik and a typical medical student is that he never has to do laundry, cook a meal, do dishes, make the bed, clean the shower, or pick up after himself. I do everything around the house because I stay home and I don't mind doing it. That way when Erik's at home, he doesn't have to have any other responsibility other than hanging out with us. It works out nice. (And for the record, even though Erik doesn't necessarily have any responsibility, he does help me out A LOT!!)

Do you honestly think you'll be able to afford another baby when Erik's in school and you don't work?
- Thanks to the Army National Guard, I think we'll be okay... at least I hope! :)

Do you have any names picked out?
- I'm sick of trying to come up with a girl name that we like, so I really hope it's not a girl, only for that reason. If it's a boy, we'll probably use the name that we had picked out for Maida if she was a boy, which was Skogen Roux, after a famous skier. (Girl name suggestions are being taken - leave us a comment!!)

When is your first doctor appointment?
- Tomorrow, the 24th. I'm so excited I can't hardly wait.

How are you feeling?
- Better. At first I was really sick, but I'm coming around now.

Are you keeping an online baby journal like you did last time?
- Yes! I'm journaling on the same one I did before.

Have you gained any weight yet?
- Yep! 7 pounds.

How far apart will your kids be?
- I dunno yet, but I'm guessing about 21 months.

Will you have another c-section?
- I'm not planning on it. If any of you have any helpful information on VBACS, or any experience with one, I'd love to hear it!!!

Were you planning this one?
- Yes! We've always wanted our kids close in age.


I think those were all the questions I got. Thanks for asking! I'm glad so many of your are interested! :)

I've been behind on posting pictures, so here are some from the past month. Enjoy!
(You can look at them all at once if you click on the slide show and then "view album")

Happy Father's Day

Wow- 676 people have read our news so far. We can't tell you how much we've appreciated and loved reading all the email replies and comments on our blog. We love to share this part of our life with you and enjoy all the support and encouragement.

I just wanted to take today to pause and say happy Father's Day to my dad, who has been an amazing support line for me growing up and my best buddy, who was always willing to go play catch with me in the yard, or drive four hours at 6:00 in the morning to Minneapolis to catch a Vikings game on any given Sunday. Thanks for your unconditional love and support. I also want to wish a happy Father's Day to my father-in-law, who is a wonderful father-in-law, always supporting us and always happy for everything we do. He's really been a great influence on Erik in many different ways. Thank you for all you do! Lastly, I'd like to say happy Father's Day to Erik, who is a better father to my babies than I could have ever dreamed of having. He's an amazing dad who never thinks twice about sacrificing for his family, and especially for his little princess Maida. He's so LOVING, CARING, and such a GREAT EXAMPLE for everyone. Thank you, Erik. We love you!!

Today in Sunday School Maida made Erik a picture for Father's Day. She was very excited to give it to him and Erik was really touched by it. It is a picture of Maida's foot prints in blue on each side of a poem. I don't think Erik has read the poem all the way through yet because every time he tries, he cries. He's such a sweet spirited guy. I love you so much, Erik! Here's the poem...

"WALK A LITTLE SLOWER DADDY,"

SAID THE CHILD SO SMALL.

"I'M FOLLOWING IN YOUR FOOTSTEPS

AND I DON'T WANT TO FALL."

SOMETIMES YOUR STEPS ARE VERY FAST,

SOMTIMES THEY ARE HARD TO SEE,

SO WALK A LITTLE SLOWER, DADDY,

FOR YOU ARE LEADING ME.

SOMEDAY WHEN I'M ALL GROWN UP,

YOU'RE WHAT I'LL WANT TO BE;

THEN I WILL HAVE A LITTLE CHILD

WHO'LL FOLLOW ME.

AND I WOULD WANT TO LEAD JUST RIGHT

AND KNOW THAT I WAS TRUE

SO WALK A LITTLE SLOWER, DADDY,

FOR I AM FOLLOWING YOU.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

I hope that all of you fathers out there have had a great Father's Day! There are so many "father figures" that Erik and I have had in our lives over the years and we couldn't even begin to thank you for what you've done for us. HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

Maida's First Blog Post - Her Big Announcement

Welcome to our new website! We thought it was only right that we change sites from "scharrerbaby" to a more appropriate title when Maida made her big announcement...



Rumors are true! We're having another baby! Number two will make a debut in late January, if everything goes as planned. We were so excited to share this news with you that we just couldn't hold it in any longer even though we're only about eight weeks along. Feel free to make comments on this post, then not only will we know who's heard the good news, it will also be fun to look back and read what you all have written.

Thanks for sharing in our joy. We're praying for a healthy pregnancy and a healthy bundle of joy at the end.

[You can still read posts from the old blog by clicking here.]