Well Hello Again!

Turns out, when I take on a full time job, life gets crazy! Now that it's the last week of March, I have a lot to reflect on and update. Back when I started working, Gary and my mom started off watching Joseph for the first week and a half. While it was great for Joseph (and us), we quickly realized that it's not fair to ask grandparents to spend full weeks watching a toddler who's usually going full steam ahead all the time. And due to scheduling, we spent the first three weekends of March driving to and from Columbia and St. Louis. It quickly started to wear on us as well.

I had spent a bit of time looking at day care centers when I knew this job was a possibility, so we went ahead and enrolled him for two days a week, to supplement his already scheduled Friday program. Gary has been watching him the other two days a week, which Joseph loves. At first he really enjoyed the new day care, but I think all of the time spent with fun grandparents really spoiled him, and now every trip to "school" results in some serious separation problems. Luckily he quickly gets over it, but it's still hard to deal with every other day. And I'm still working on trying to be a full time working mom. Meal planning, house keeping, laundry and all of the other daily chores is definitely way more difficult to schedule and stay on top of now, besides trying to stay up with making my lunch for work, exercising and getting enough sleep. While this arrangement works out ok for the short term, I'm looking forward to being able to stay home again and get back into my normal routine (at least what will be normal for a few more months, before everything gets crazy again with a  newborn in the mix!).

A few weeks ago, Joe put Joseph's play house together, and Joseph loves playing in it. Actually, being outside is Joseph's favorite thing, more so than playing trains! I snapped these pictures one afternoon when it was a little drizzly and chilly, and you can see Joseph decided he needed to wear his hat. He got this last year for Christmas, and when we pulled it out in the fall to see if it still fit this year, he saw it and wouldn't let us put it away. At least once a week he'll grab this hat and pull it on, and insist on wearing it around. And no, it doesn't really fit anymore, but try telling that to him!

His house has a mail slot, which is a constant source of fun. Typically he'll gather sticks from the yard and use those as his pieces of mail, which is what he's doing below.

This past Thursday I had the chance to serve as a model for a women's clinic that was training new ultrasound techs. A free ultrasound? There was no way I could pass that opportunity up! Because there were 3 techs training, plus the instructor, I spent a little over an hour getting to watch the baby. While I was there, the baby waved, yawned, and flipped around a number of times. We didn't get a chance to find out the gender, but all the techs had to take a variety of measurements and confirmed that I am measuring about a week ahead of what we originally thought. I'll be 18 weeks on Friday, and the baby's new due date is August 31!

Due to my health insurance/maternity coverage issues, my next doctor's appointment isn't for another week. I'm sure at that appointment we'll get the instruction to set the big anatomy ultrasound. So far I'm still feeling great, and getting better about exercising before going to work, since waiting until after work just wasn't cutting it. I've also been hitting up the area consignment sales, this time looking for clothes for Joseph and me. I forgot how expensive maternity clothes are when new and not on sale! And since this pregnancy has me getting bigger at exactly the opposite time of year as when I was pregnant with Joseph, I really need a lot of new summer clothes. So far, I've been really lucky at the consignment sales, finding two skirts, two pairs of capri pants, two pairs of shorts and two shirts, with the average price per item at $5-8. 

Today was the first day I opted to wear one of the pairs of capri pants to work, and while they are much more comfortable, I'd forgotten how easily maternity pants like to slip down! It'll be an adjustment getting used to wearing maternity clothes again, but I'm glad that I'm still able to wear normal clothes and supplement with the maternity stuff now.

We spent this past weekend at home, the first time since February, which was awesome. Saturday we walked up to First Watch for breakfast, then when we got home we started cleaning up the yard, porch and patio. Joseph was too cute picking up sticks from the yard and trying to copy Joe, breaking the "big" ones on his leg like daddy! He's really turned into quite the copycat. We also outlined the section of yard that I'll be working on landscaping in the coming weeks, including a special section just for Joseph. Joe picked up a RAV-load full of mulch, which covered a little over half of Joseph's area, and we dragged the playhouse out to its new spot in the yard. With spring arriving about a month early this year, I have to keep reminding myself that it's way too early to start planting, which is good since our next few weekends are already full. When Joseph got up from his nap, he helped us spread the mulch, dig for worms and generally had a blast. I can't wait to watch the area evolve into a fun special place for him!

Sunday was Joe and my 6 year anniversary. Hard to believe it's been 6 years already! After church, Joseph went to Nana and Papa's house so Joe and I could spend the afternoon together. We headed out to the Legends to do some shopping, grab a late lunch and watch The Hunger Games movie, since we were both excited about the movie. The weather was beautiful for wandering around outside, and Joseph had a blast with his grandparents. He's starting to realize that grandparents' houses are way more fun than ours, and whenever we are leaving one, he'll try to tell us that "Nana's house is Jo-Jo's house". Sorry kiddo, that's just not the case!

 So that's what's been going on around the Jeppson house this month. Sunday is the annual KC Track Club Brew to Brew, a 40+ mile relay race from the Boulevard Brewery in KC to the Free State Brewery in Lawrence. I'm running the first 4 mile leg and then acting as one of the team sober drivers for the rest of the day. Needless to say, it'll be an experience for me to be there and not be drinking with everyone. I'm still looking forward to a day of beautiful weather, and hanging out with a bunch of good friends.