Even Super Heroes Need Their Sleep

Yesterday we went Trick or Treating at Expedia with Terence and my Mom.  It was really fun to meet all of Terence's and my Mom's coworkers and see all the Halloween decorations.  They went all out!  There were pirate ships and spooky ghost and spiders and TONS of candy.  (Ironically we have determined that Corey is no longer aloud to have any form of sugar as we are thinking that is causing his sleep issues.)  I did not get any pictures at Expedia because I left my dang camera in the car but I did capture these gems after we got home.  I guess they were exhausted!

Connor's Birthday!

I remember the day Connor was born like it was yesterday.  I can remember things people did and said but I have never written it down.  So for his birthday I thought I would actually capture what happened that day. 

The night before I went into labor with Connor was a Saturday.  We had our good friends Dan and Susan over for dinner and games.  I was feeling huge and tired and very anxious to meet our new baby.  After our friends left we got ready to go to bed.  I told Terence that I felt weird but I could not put my finger on why.  I was so restless that he ended up sleeping on the couch because I was keeping him awake.  The next morning I woke up about 6:00am.  When I got up to use the bathroom I thought I had either peed my pants (yes it happens to pregnant women) or that my water had broken.  The more I walked around the more I felt like later was the case.  I went and woke Terence up and told him “don’t get excited but I think my water broke”.  He was instantly up and out of bed asking me what we should do.  To be honest I was not really sure what our next move should be so I did what any girl would do, I called my mom.  She was excited but also told me since I was still almost two full weeks out from my due date to not get my hopes up just yet.  She told me to go for a walk and see if I started having any contractions.  Terence and I got up and walked around the block from our house.  It was POURING rain and I remember the bottom of my pants getting soaked.  As we were walking I did start having contractions and a couple of them were hard enough that I would have to stop walking for a second and breathe.  When we got home the contractions continued.  Terence and I talked about what we should do and I ended up calling the hospital to let them know I thought I was in labor.  They told me to take a warm bath and see if the contractions continued.  If they did I was probably in labor, if not it was a false alarm.  The bath did not stop the contractions and they were progressively starting to get more painful.  After I had gotten out and dressed we headed towards the hospital.  By now it was around 8 in the morning.  The entire time I was at the hospital getting checked in and hooked up to monitors I was thinking to myself am I crazy?  Is this a false alarm?  Am I just another crazy person who comes in thinking they are in labor when they’re not?  Once I was on the monitor it was clear that I was having regular contractions but they were not very hard.  I had dilated from a 2 to a 3 so I was making some progress but they would not admit me yet.  They did a fern test to see if my water had actually broken and the results came back negative (even though looking back on it now I do think my water broke).  So sadly after all of this they sent me home and told me I just was not ready yet.  They said if the contractions got to the point where I could not talk through them and they were coming at regular intervals to come back in.  We were both disappointed but headed back home.  I very clearly remember on the drive we were on 405 almost to the I-90 interchange when I really started to feel the pain.  I had to move in my seat a couple of times because they made me that uncomfortable.  I even said to Terence I know I’m in labor; there is no way I’m not.  When we got home I had some dishes in the sink from the night before and I did not want them to be there when we got home from the hospital with a new baby so I cleaned the kitchen.  Then I made Terence a quesadilla and he put on a movie for us to watch (Eloise at Christmas Time).  I don’t remember watching a second of the movie.  I was having pretty intense contractions so I spent most of the time moving between sitting on the couch and crouching behind the back of it trying to get comfortable.  My parents got home from Church at noon and I called them to let them know what was going on.  My Mom told us to come over to their place so we headed that way.  When we got there My Mom and Terence took turns timing my contractions while my Dad watched some form of racing on TV.  At one point I remember my mom mouthing something to Terence about me not really being in labor and Terence saying I know.  I guess she thought that because I was not acting like I was in that much pain.  To be honest, I did not know if I was or not to me it did not hurt that bad, at least not nearly as bad as they make it out to look in movies.  By now it was probably around 1:30 in the afternoon and I decided that I needed to go back to the hospital.  When we got there they checked me and told me to walk around the maternity ward for an hour or until the pain got so bad I could not walk.  I think I lasted about half an hour before we went back.  When they checked me again I was dilated to over a four which was enough to admit me.  YEAH!  I was having a baby!  That was when reality set in.  Once they got us into our room the first thing they asked me was if I wanted an epidural.  My answer was yes, I had no intentions of having babies naturally.  Why would you when there were other options?  They made a call to the anesthesiologist but he was in a C-section so I would have to wait.  In the mean time they tried to get the IV started on my arms.  That was crazy!  They poked me three or four times but could not find a good vain.  They put these huge soaking wet hot wash cloths on my arms to try and get a vain to pop up.  While this was going on they also had me hooked up to a heart rate monitor for the baby and a monitor to measure the contractions.  They heart rate monitor was not working very well so I had a nurse sitting there holding it while I had another nurse working to try and get the IV started.  All of that going on while I was having pretty hard contractions was the only time that I was in labor where I feel like I lost control a little bit.  I remember saying to no one in particular that I needed those wet wash cloths off my arms NOW!  The nurses finally were able to get the IV started and they gave me some pain medication while I was waiting for my epidural.   I don’t remember what it was but I do remember that all it really did was make me fall asleep in between contractions which made the next hour or so pretty fuzzy.  I remember that LOTS of my Aunts and Uncles came to the hospital to be there which meant SO much to me!  That is probably one of my favorite parts of the whole day.  I also remember the nurses telling me to get comfortable and that is was going to be a while before I would have this baby since it was my first and it’s usually slow.  Around 5:30 the anesthesiologist finally came in to give me my epidural.  That was like the heavens opening and a choir singing HALLELUJAH!  What a difference!  Terence said I instantly went from mean Jacki to nice Jacki.  They had been telling me all along that after I got the epidural they would check me to see what my progress was and break my water.  When they did I heard the nurse go “OH” which is never good, but in this case it was.  She was surprised by the fact that I was at a 10 and ready to push.  Had they checked me before they had given me the epidural they never would have given it to me.  I was too far along at that point.  It worked out amazingly well though.  It took just enough of the edge off that I was able to do the really hard part without too much pain but I was not so numb afterward that I could not walk or move.  The room was cleared with the exception of Terence, the doctor (who was not my regular doctor but she still did an amazing job!) and of course the nurses.    I pushed for somewhere around half an hour and at 6:32pm on Sunday October 29^th 2006 Connor Terence Keenan made his appearance in the world.  Words cannot describe that moment and yet I know every mother out there knows that feeling.  Connor was very gray when he was born which kind of freaked Terence out at first.  But the second they laid him on me I said “oh my baby” and that was the moment it clicked for Terence.  Then he cried a lot (Terence not Connor)!  After we were all situated they let everyone come in and see the baby.  I remember lots of people holding him and lots of pictures being taken but I was in such a daze that that is really all I remember.  After everyone had left and things died down we got to spend some time with just our new little family, it was amazing!  We were both starving since we had not eaten at all that day so I remember ordering a pepperoni pizza from Pizza Hut (which at the time tasted like the best food I had EVER eaten) and we just sat and looked at Connor.  I don’t know how long we did that before Terence finally fell asleep.  He was totally exhausted.  The best part about Connor being born on October 29^th is that it is my Best Friend/Cousins birthday.  When I was pregnant with Connor, Linda and I joked that if he was born on her birthday then his middle name should be Lindo.  We ended up going with Terence instead but to this day there are still those in our family who call him Connor Lindo.  I don’t know, she’s not such a bad person to be named after.

I know this was long!  I am sure very few of you got all the way to the end.  But for me I really enjoyed writing it.  It’s seriously in my top 3 best memories of all time and was such a great day.  I’m glad I was able to capture it before I forget even more.  

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CONNOR!  You are such an amazing kid and we love you so much!

Forgetful Jones

I remember growing up watching Forgetful Jones on Sesame Street.  Forgetful Jones is a cowboy, so named because he always forgets everything. He has two horses -- Buster, and Buster's brother Whatshisname. Forgetful's longtime girlfriend is Clementine.  Lately I have felt like Forgetful Jacki.  I have felt very scatterbrained!  Today Terence called me to ask what the password was for our log in to Zune.  I told him what it was he typed it in and it was wrong.  How could it have been wrong?  I told him again, he typed it in, still wrong.  The password for our Zune music is also the password for my email so Terence went there and tried typing it in with no luck.  At this point I am sitting there thinking how could this possibly be?  I was in my hotmail this afternoon and had no trouble logging in.  Terence jumped to the conclusion that my account must have been hacked and some one changed my password.  He was in the process of sending an email to the Hotmail support team when I realized I what the problem was.  I was giving him the wrong password.  I was close with what I was telling him but it was not right.  Anyway I thought it was kind of funny, I don't think Terence was as amused.

Exactly

Four years ago to the day this is what I looked like.  I know, nice picture right?  It's the only one I have that really shows me pregnant with Connor.  This picture was taken about 12 hours before I went into labor.  More on that tomorrow.  I like this picture, I like Terence's face and him pretending like he has any sort of a belly to stick out.

just a game?

Last night Terence and I were playing Halo together.  I almost never play video games but in an effort to spend some time together we thought it would be fun.  We were playing online with a bunch of other people and apparently I accidentally killed a guy on my team (I don't know how I would have done that since I could not kill ANYONE to save my life).  Anyway he betrayed me and so I kicked him out of the game.  A minute later he sent me a mean message via Terence's headset that basically said that I sucked and I should get better, blah blah blah (add a couple vulgarities for good measure and you get the gist of it).  I thought this was pretty humorous that some guy playing xbox live somewhere was so annoyed with my game play that he took the time to send a message.  Of course I am not one to let someone else get the last word so of course I replied.  My response was something a long the lines of get a girlfriend, get a job, stop living in your parents basement playing video games all day.  Yeah, I pulled out all the cliches.  I mean come on guy, it's just a game.  Aside from that little incident Terence and I had fun playing together and we are going to do it again tonight.

Halloween Party

Terence and I had a Halloween party to go to tonight and were having a hard time coming up with what we should be.  We were watching Willy Wonka last weekend with the kids and I said to Terence you could be Willy Wonka and he said it would even better if I went as a Oompa Loompa, so it was decided.  I love Terence's costume and pair that with my orange face and green hair and it was a match made in heaven.  I did take some poetic license when putting my costume together.  I was a girl Oompa Loompa so I had longer hair and did not wear suspenders.  I did take home prize for best costume and won some Team Jacob conversation hearts for my efforts.  The only downer to the night was the fact that the baby sitter called not once but twice to tell us Corey was throwing up.  Hopefully it's just a quick bug and he gets to feeling better soon.  All in all it was a great night, thank you Josh and Felicia for a great party!

The Grumpy Old Troll...

Last night before we went fishing Terence was playing with the kids at the park.  The boys were sliding down the slides and giving T high fives on the way.  Then he was hiding under the slide and popping out scaring the boys.  Anyone who watches Dora the Explorer knows about the Grumpy Old Troll who lives under the bridge and that is what we called T.  Connor was even singing the song to T.  I love watching my boys play together!  Probably one of my all time favorite things.  By the way I love how the kids are blurry in these pictures, it makes them look like they were moving really fast down the slide.  In reality we just have a really slow camera.

One heckofa fish

We went fishing on the Sultan River again tonight with Jared and Emily and SUCCESS!!!  Terence caught this guy.

 and this guy although he is not nearly as impressive.

I made this...

Tonight I was faced with the situation of having to come up with something fun to do with a bunch of 12 and 13 year old girls for an hour.  My sister suggested that we do haunted houses.  She and her husband make them every year around Halloween.  Sounded like a good idea so I got a bunch of candy and some chocolate graham crackers and let the girls go for it.  They all turned out pretty cut.  I am not crafty at all so for me this is pretty good.  Connor and Corey really like the "baby" ghost in the attic.

Good Friends

I am so very blessed to have such amazing friends.  Today was kind of a tough day for me.  Work has been really crazy lately and we were told something today that will affect my immediate future and cause some more disruption to my job.  It's nothing too terrible, just stressful.  I also had a doctors appointment today that was no fun and all together I just felt kind of crummy.  I posted on my Facebook that I was having a rough day and tonight one of my amazing friends from my ward brought me flowers, tulips no less (I wonder if she knows how significant Tulips are to me?) Rocky Road Ice cream and a card that says

Rocky Road can be an obstacle 

or an ice cream 

and I'm willing

to help you

make either one

disappear

It was just what I needed tonight.  Thank you for the flowers, the card and the ice cream Julie!  It was very thoughtful!

Halloween Costume!

We got the boys Halloween costumes in the mail today.  They could not wait to try them on and I could not wait to post pictures on the blog.  I know it's early but they are just so stinking cute, so here they are with their pumpkins.

part two

After Jared and Terence got a taste for the huge fish in the river on Sunday they both decided they had to come back and try again.  Monday night Emily had taken Benjamin to piano lessons so Jared came out and met us at the river.  We walked back to our regular spot and the guys began fishing.  Before too long Jared had hooked a big fish unfortunately it shook the hook before he could do much with it.  I could definitely tell he had hooked it because it made one big leap out of the water before it got away.  Not even two minutes later Terence hooked a big fish as well.  I rolled video of it on the camera, you can't really see much except how much his pole is bending.  His pole and line were just not strong enough to get it in and it snapped the line.  They are getting closer and I am sure it won't be too long before one of them lands a big one.

Fishing

There are some big fish running on the Sultan river right now.  Our family and Jared and Emily came out with us on Sunday evening and threw some lines in the river to see what was in there.  It was a beautiful evening and Jared actually caught something!  I also had fun taking pictures of one of my favorite nephews.

Pumpkin Patch

On Sunday after church we went to Craven Farms with Terence's Mom and Dad.  The kids are just getting to the age where stuff like that is getting really fun.  We all went through the corn maze and the boys had a great time running around all the twists and turns.  Once we got out of the maze we went over and picked out our pumpkins.  In years past we have always picked too many pumpkins and then they just end up going bad so the plan this year was to pick out one family pumpkin and that was it.  As we walked into the pumpkin patch Connor went over to a small pumpkin picked it up and asked me if he could take it home.  How could we say no to that?  If Connor was going to take home his own pumpkin we had to let Corey get one as well.  He picked one out quickly and we were ready to go.  On the way out Terence picked up a couple of gallons of fresh apple cider.  It was such a fun day and we really enjoyed being able to spend some time with Grammy and Pop.

Cabelas

We took a day trip down to Cabelas on Saturday.  We like Cabelas because it's more then just shopping.  The kids love seeing the fish tank and the animals and we can always find something we can't live without.  Saturday Terence found a really nice Under Armour jacket.  Our next trip to Cabelas we will be looking for a fishing net and possibly some waders...more to come on that.

Am I a terrible mother...

for finding this hilarious!!!!!!

\

g

Fun Weekend ahead...

I have been sick since last night.  For the last couple of days my throat has been getting progressively more sore.  I literally laid in bed last night contemplating every swallow to determine if it was worth it or not.  Today I stayed home with the boys and tried to take it easy, that's hard to do with little kids.  Terence emailed me around 10 this morning to tell me that his stomach was killing him!  By the time he got home he felt like he was going to throw up and has pretty much been doing so ever since.  I had no desire to cook tonight so I just got the kids some McDonald's which they love so that worked out well.  The kids are now upstairs in bed, Terence is reading Corey as story and I am trying to catch up on my blog.  Hopefully all this sickness passes quickly and we are able to have a fun weekend. 

Costume Update

So after a lot of brainstorming and suggestions Terence and I have come up with an awesome costume combo for Halloween.  I'm not going to give it away and hopefully we can find all the elements but lets just say, it's good!

Halloween Costume?

Let me preface this blog by saying I really dislike Halloween, Heather says it's because our Mom brainwashed us growing up.  She never really liked Halloween so we don't really like it.  Terence never really enjoyed it when he was little either, he hated dressing up, he hated knocking on strangers doors.  Needless to say it's not a huge holiday in the Keenan household.  We do dress the kids up and do the traditional pumpkin patch thing but that is about the extent of it.  This year we were invited to a party where everyone is dressing up.  I think the last time I had a costume was in 6th grade when my Mom made me a flapper costume.  The theme of the party is notorious so we are supposed to dress up and people who were for whatever reason notorious.  We have some good ideas for Terence but I am at a complete loss as to what I should dress up as.  Any ideas?

Spongebob Squarepants

This video makes me laugh for a lot of reasons.  I love Connor singing along to the music, him eating his pepperoni, Enzo trying to steal the pepperoni from Connor, him playing his nose at the end of the song and finally Corey saying "hi" to Connor at the end of the video.  I just think it captures everything that is great about kids. 

Weight Loss (or lack thereof)

It's time to get serious about weight loss here at the Keenan house.  As I have blogged about previously I have gained A LOT of weight recently and I know Terence is stressing a little bit about his as well.  I guess once again the goal is not so much weight loss as it is just getting healthier.  We were on a role for a while, Terence was running a ton and I was working out daily.  With Terence going back to work our schedules have gotten extremely hectic again and there is just not as much time for the gym or cooking healthy food for that matter.  We are going to have to figure out a practical way for both of us to get a good workout in and be able to eat healthier.  I mean I know how to do it, it's just finding the time and motivation to get it done.  My sister has been running and actually ran in a 5k a couple of weeks ago, I have been thinking about signing myself up for a 5k so I have something to work towards.  Anyway just something I have been thinking a lot about.  I have done it before and I can do it again just need to find a way.

Haircuts!

We did haircuts tonight.  Corey laughed hysterically the entire time because it tickled.  I love the way all my boys look right after a haircut!