A Special Day

Today is a special day.

It's not only a special day because our new sliding glass door in the dining room is going in (YAY!), but it's special because Karlie and Brandon (Erik's brother and wife) are finding out whether or not they are expecting a girl or a boy.  Hopefully the baby cooperates with them so that their party tonight isn't for nothing!  :)  They are having a gender reveal party.  Of course since we live 1,000 miles away, we won't be making the party, but all the guests were asked to wear either pink or blue, depending on whether or not you thought it was a boy or a girl.  Just for fun, I decided to dress us today according to what we think the gender is.

Maida is totally convinced that it's a GIRL!

Skogen had no idea, but since he's a boy, I figured he'd want a boy cousin.

I actually went back and forth, but settled on a boy.  (Maida had to take my picture, sorry.)

Last week we purchased a family membership at the YMCA.  I really wasn't all that into it until we actually signed up and met with a personal trainer.  I really feel like we are making a great step in the right direction to becoming a healthier family.  The best part about the YMCA's family membership is that we get free daycare while we work out.  Erik and I never EVER have time alone.  Hopefully we can use our time at the YMCA as dates!  Even if we don't work out together, they have a hot tub that we can enjoy together after we work out.  There are also several children's programs that I hope to get the kids involved in.  Hopefully it will give the kids and I something to do when Erik is at work.

This last weekend Erik got a surprise weekend off!  This was perfect timing.  Lately I have been so concerned about how much Erik is having to work.  He goes to work at 6am and usually doesn't get home until between 11pm and 2am.  There have also been times when he doesn't come home until 4am, then he jumps in the shower, changes his clothes, and takes off for the hospital again.  He is literally sleeping an average of 2-3 hours per night.  I have no idea how he is making it.  Between work and studying, he tries to squeeze in time to play with the kids, check his email, and help around the house, but there is really actually no time for any of that.  I have tried to stop sending Erik any email forwards (sometimes it takes him over an hour just to read all the email forwards he gets),  stop expecting him to help with things around the house, and stop asking him to help with the kids.  Those are just little things that I have realized that I can do, to make his life easier right now.  It was so nice to have him here all weekend, though, to help a little bit with the kids (especially at church!).  It also felt so great to sleep and know he was sleeping next to me, instead of waking up every half hour, wondering when he would be coming home.

Hopefully I'll be able to share a little bit more about our life as a medical school family in future blog posts.  I read other blogs of medical spouses and it really helps for me to see that I'm not the only one going through these stressful times.  I've been hesitant up to this point to share personal struggles that we've had as a medical school family because in the past we've had readers get offended or too sensitive to what we were sharing.  It's all part of the our journey, though - my journey, Maida's journey, Skogen's journey, Erik's journey, and I want our blog journey to reflect our real life journey so when we look back in 10, 20, 30 years from now, we'll feel so good at how far we've come!  The picture on the right is Erik getting his white coat, over two years ago.  I can't believe our medical school journey is half over and that Erik is over halfway to being a doctor!  I'm so proud of him.

Since Erik had the night off last night, we were able to go to a Vikings party at church!  We had a devotional, watched the game, and ate some nummy lasagna that Wendy made.  It was Melissa's birthday, too, so she brought an amazing Vikings birthday cake (she's one of the biggest Vikings fans I know!).  We all had a great time until Brett Favre threw that interception with seconds remaining in the game (a game that we already had won).  It was the most awful feeling for me because I knew at that minute that we had lost the game.  Seven months seems way too long to wait for another football season to start again.

In ending this post, I would just like to mention some people that I have been praying for.  I believe in the power of prayer and know that many of you do, too.  If maybe you have a spare minute or two, you all would use it to pray for these people, also...

*  Kate (http://www.prayforkate.com/) - a little girl with a brain tumor.  I have no idea who this little girl is, but I've been praying for her for the past six months.

*  Jason (http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/stampers) - a minister from Minnesota in the hospital with a weird and painful infection.  Him and his wife have four little kids (the youngest being a brand new baby)

*  Jamie (http://lailahrafik.blogspot.com/) - the sister-in-law of a girl that I went to college with and was in Gamma with.  She was in a bad car accident while overseas in the Peace Corps and is now in a coma.  Her family flew overseas to be with her right after the accident and then they flew with her back to the US where they are now.

*  Dr. Maple (http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/johnmaple) - one of my professors from college battling cancer

*  Karlie and Brandon - Erik's brother and his wife have their big ultrasound tomorrow where they not only find out the sex, but they check over the baby to make sure that everything is good and normal.  Prayers that everything checks out okay.

Maida fell asleep on the way home from church.  After she woke up, we were talking at the kitchen table...
Maida:  Mommy, I think I had a dream.
Mommy:  Really?
Maida:  Yeah, it was a like a movie in my head!
Later on we found out that her and Daddy were in the dream, a long with an elephant who lost his underwear!

Today while playing in the living room...
Maida:  AAAAAACHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Mommy:  Maida, did you sneeze?
Maida:  No.
Mommy:  But I heard you.
Maida:  Oh, yeah, that.  You probably just heard that bless-you that was coming out of my nose.

Preschool/Toddler Open Gym

Today we went to an open gym with some friends.  There were TONS of balls all around and mats for the kids to roll and jump on.  Skogen was so so funny.  He just kept walking all over the place saying, "Ball!  Ball!"  His favorite ball was a big blue ball that was almost bigger that he was!

Maida enjoyed running around, too, and even got Skogen to chase her for a little while!

Skogen's friend Trey, from church, chased him on the mats!

Maida saw other kids with their shoes off, so of course she had to take hers off.

They were so worn out when we got home!  These pictures I took of them in their car seats before I took them out of the car.  They both slept for 2 1/2 hours after I took them out and put them in their beds.

Lastly, here is a video mainly for Daddy because Maida thought that he would be so proud of her jumping and jumping...

Healthy Eating

Erik's been really encouraging me to eat healthy lately and have healthy foods around the house.  I love that he wants us to be healthy, but I'm so confused as to where to start.  First of all, I don't really think that we eat very unhealthy.  We never have candy, cookies, cake, rice crispee bars, chocolate, Little Debbies, Doritoes, Cheetos, or anything like that around.  I try to give the kids at least two fruits and veggies a day, along with some meat.  For snacks we enjoy toast or string cheese.  Do any of you have any suggestions as to where to start with this healthy business?  How do I make our diet more healthy?   Any suggestions for some recipes?

Crash

When I left her, she was sitting up on the couch with the computer on her lap,watching a Dora movie on the laptop, and happily repeating everything Dora was asking her to.

When I got back into the room (less than 5 minutes later), I found her like this:

It's amazing how fast they crash.

Weekend Recap

*** UPDATE:  I fixed the video!  Erik tried to help out and apparently his computer wouldn't publish this post with the video.  The video should be attached to this post, now.   Sorry!  :)

This was one of the best weekends! It all started with Grandma and Bumpa coming down to our house on Friday night and bringing cousin, Natalie, to play! Maida was so excited to see her cousin. They babysat for us on Friday night so that Erik and I could go out with good friends, Kristin and Bryan. We had dinner at Biaggi's, which was really good, and had a great time catching up with them. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time!

On Saturday afternoon we had Skogen's first birthday party with a few friends and family (video below). It was so fun to make "#1" official. Skogen really enjoyed the pizza and cake and opening presents. His big sister helped him out with the unwrapping and he was very good at sharing his new toys with his friends.

After the birthday party, I was able to leave the kids with Erik and go to the hospital to visit my friend, Hannah, who just had baby Kenan. He was the same size as Skogen was when he was born. It brought back lots of memories to hold him. I love babies!

After seeing baby Kenan, I met Erik at church where we celebrated our friend, Chris's, 40th birthday. We had such good food and great fellowship!

On Sunday morning I had to go to church alone, but we surprisingly made it on time for class and church and I felt blessed by the worship. After church we enjoyed an awesome Vikings game (SKOL Vikings!) and then ventured out in the cold again to go to small group Bible study where we ate some baked potatoes and had a nice discussion and prayer time.

Today Erik and I both had off of work, so we stayed up late last night watching a movie, slept in until 9:00 this morning (well, E slept in until 10:30!), and have been on our computers ever since! It's nice to just sit together on the couch and enjoy watching the kids play while we get some work done. It has actually taken me all day to put together a video of Skogen's first birthday. It isn't even that great of a video. I'm not really sure why it has taken me so long! Hopefully you enjoy it...
(You may want to fast forward through the cake eating. I left it pretty long so that the grandparents and great-grandparents could see it!)

Princess Dance Party

Maida had to wear a pretty yellow dress and her high heels (we were pretending because we couldn't find them!).  She was pretending that Daddy was the prince and kept asking him to "have this dance."

HaPpY BiRtHdAy, SkOgEn!

Happy birthday, Skogen!!!

My life has been so richly blessed by having you in it.  You have a smile on your face every morning when I get your out of your crib and you fill my days with joy and laughter by the little things you do (like stand on your head just to get me to laugh).  You are the happiest, most easy going, loving, sweetest, little boy that I have ever known.  I have enjoyed watching you grow - I've seen everything from your first roll, to your first sit, to your first rattle, to your first food, first cup, first crawl, first word, first sign, and first steps.  I haven't missed a thing!

We are going to celebrate with you on Saturday, when some friends and family can come over and watch you eat your very own piece of cake.  Today we are just hanging out at home with Maida and N.  Maida and I are enjoying yelling, "Happy Birthday, Skogen!!!" every once-in-a-while and watching you put your "number one" finger up.  It's so cute!

One special thing that happened today was that you got your very first birthday card.  You have no idea what a birthday card is, but you have been carrying it all over the house all morning.  You are very possessive of the card and won't let Maida touch it.  You have taken it over to N a few times and showed him, but you won't let him get too close to it, either.  The funny thing is, it's the cutest card I've ever seen, and by "cutest," I really mean "funny" in a cute way.  The card is from your great-grandpa Fritz Scharrer Sr.  I can't believe that he remembered your birthday!  Here's a picture of the card...

On the front of the card, he crossed off all of the candle flames, except for one, where he wrote your name because you are one year old (don't worry about your name being spelled wrong, he spells all of our names wrong every now and again - he's old).

On the inside, he apologizes for not buying a one-year birthday card and says that he hopes this card makes you happy.  I'll have to write him and tell him that you wouldn't put it down all day!

Here is a video of some pictures that I put together from your first year of life.  We love you, Skogen and can't imagine life without you.

Baby Talk

Today I had my first prenatal doctor visit.  I've been in twice before, but just saw the nurse practitioner both times.  So, today I actually met the lady who I've picked to be apart of my perfect birth team.  She was great - funny, nice, caring, cool, intelligent, together, easy-going, and smiley, but I'm hesitant.  I'm hesitant to commit to her just yet.  There are so many options in childbirth, and I really want to have a doctor that wants exactly what I want in my birth.  So, we'll see what happens and where we decide to go from here.

(I have journaled more about my first doctor visit here, and I plan to keep most of our pregnancy story there, instead of putting it all over the blog, because I know that not everyone likes to read about these kind of things!)

This is a picture of a model of a baby at 12 weeks gestation.  I used this when I volunteered a few years ago to sit at county fairs and teach women about abortions.  Maida and I thought it was fun to put the baby on my tummy so that we could imagine how big our baby is right now and what he or she looks like.

I've put up a new poll on our blog!  Please go vote for if you think this baby is a boy or girl.  We will NOT be finding out the gender at our ultrasound in March, but I thought it would be fun to see what you all thought was growing in my belly!  Maida was convinced that we were having twins - a boy and a girl, just like Dora's mommy!  We've finally got her to understand that there is only one baby in there (ultrasound confirmed!) and so now she's super sure that it is a girl.

9-1-1-G-R-A-N-D-M-A

I went ahead and called 9-1-1-G-R-A-N-D-M-A last night.  I am so far behind on everything and I just can't get it together.  I don't know whether it's because I got backed up on everything when we were sick before we went to CO, because I've been dealing with a great deal of nausea (thanks to baby #3), because our bathroom remodel STILL isn't done and our bathroom stuff is spread out all over the house, or because I started "working" this week and didn't get everything accomplished before I took on too much.  Which ever the case, I'm hoping that my mom can help me straighten things out this weekend.  I know my husband would appreciate some clean underwear to wear to work and I also know he'd appreciate it if he didn't have to wear dirty dress pants to work, too.  Poor Erik has been leaving the house every morning at 6:00 and hasn't been getting home until 10:30 every night.  Then he has studying to do.  On average he gets three to four hours of sleep a night.  On top of his busy work schedule, he has to go to drill this weekend.  I don't know how he does it.  The least I could do is give the guy some clean clothes!  Luckily 9-1-1-G-R-A-N-D-M-A has great response time and she'll be here on Saturday!

Lately I've been really surprised at some of the things Skogen is doing.  I decided to document some of the cutest ones...
*  Yesterday Skogen spent some time in the bathroom squirting water out of his bath toys and onto the floor.  After he did this for a few minutes, he noticed there was some water on the floor.  Instead of swishing it all over the bathroom, like he'd normally do, he turned around, reached a towel on the vanity, brought it over to the water on the floor, and started wiping it up.
*  Skogen likes to touch my camera lens.  It's a really big pain to clean, so I usually try to not let him have the camera.  This morning when I wasn't looking he got the camera.  Before I knew it, he brought the camera up to his face and said, "EEEEEE."  He kept pointing the camera at things and saying cheese!  Then I showed him how we can take a self portrait and say, "cheese," together when we take it.  So that's all he wanted to do all morning.
*  He just started listening to and following simple commands like, "Skogen, go get your juice cup under the coffee table and mommy will give you more juice," or, "Let's change your diaper.  Can you go get mommy a diaper?"   It's so fun to see the transition between baby and toddler!

Speaking of Skogen, did you guys know that he's turning ONE next week?!!  Holy cow.

Prayers for Kate McRae

After Scott died, I didn't think that I'd ever be able to pray like that for anyone else again.  I was burnt out- burnt out from praying and feeling like God didn't answer.  However, as life moved on, and I've healed, I have to admit that I've been praying again!  And lately I've REALLY been praying for a specific little girl that I have never met.    I'd like to ask you to join me in praying for her.  You can jump in a live stream prayer vigil tonight at 9:30 EST at: http://www.livestream.com/brianwurzell.  You can also find updates on Kate here: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/mcraekate.  Please please go read up on Kate and pray for her and her family.

Monarch Ski Pictures

I just got these pictures from my mom last night.  My camera had died as soon as we arrived at the mountain (of course!) so I didn't get any pictures of us skiing.  Luckily my mom had her camera and took a few pictures for us.  I'm very sad that I didn't get any videos of Maida skiing, though.

Maida and Mommy ready to hit the mountain!

Papa and Nanna

We tried to take a family picture on the mountain, but Maida didn't want to stop skiing to take a picture, so she wouldn't look at the camera.

This is how Maida skied the first day because we forgot the harness.  It was a little tricky because she would get going really fast!  I don't have a picture of her with the harness on, but it went around her chest and waist, with ropes that went behind her that Erik held on to.  Then he could control her speed and help turn her.  She skied all over with the harness and loved it!  She also really loved the chair lifts and got really excited and silly when she was on them.

Daddy and Maida and Nana

Our whole family

These pictures make it look really snowy and icky, but actually it was only like this for a few hours this particular morning (the morning we decide to take pictures!).  Most of the time it was very sunny and good ski weather.

New Years Eve

On New Years Eve, Erik surprised us by getting off of work early and then took us out to dinner!  We tried several resaurants, but most places weren't taking reservations, and had an hour and a half wait to get in.  So, we ended up going to Granite City, which was only a 20 minute wait!  The food was GREAT!  We pigged out and didn't even have any leftovers.

Maida in her New Years Eve outfit, which she picked out herself:

And she insisted on wearing these shoes!  However, we battled with her to wear boots since it was waaaaay below zero out and we didn't want any frost bit toes!

She finally agreed and put her boots on.

Maida and Daddy having fun at the restaurant!

Skogen took a picture of me with food in my teeth!

Here is our little man pigging out!  It is so nice for him to be able to feed himself, now!

Since the kids had a late nap on the way to the restaurant, we let them stay up and watch the ball drop.  Maida thought that was pretty cool!  Then we all slept in until 10:15 the next morning.  It was GREAT!