This Post Made Possible By Aldi's

Before going any further, I received no compensation or other incentives from Aldi's....just a really good deal on produce. Ok. On to the post.

Now that the pain meds are out of my system, it might be possible to put together some sort of coherent post. I'm not saying that it will be, but it's possible.

The last couple of weeks have been full as always. Our little girl has continued on her impressive growth spurt. She managed to gain almost 2 pounds in only about 3 weeks and is now long enough that when she's sitting on my lap, I can no longer type on the laptop without her having the range on her feet to kick at the keys and buttons. Not too shabby! Other moments and milestones include: "discovering" her feet and that she can move and grab them, a whole bunch of new (very loud) squawking sounds that are oddly reminiscent of what you would hear from cats yowling at one another, beginning to learn about the fun of splashing in the bathtub, and the beginnings of maybe allowing us to have a somewhat regular nap schedule instead of the "go until you crash and pass out" routine that she's employed to this point. She's getting the hang of assisted sitting and standing and loves doing both, and she absolutely loves to making Daddy's character die on his video games while Mama gets stuff done in the kitchen. (Mama thinks it's pretty funny too.)

In non-baby related events, thanks to some fantastic sales on produce and some cooler weather, I've gotten a chance to get some yummy food stored away without having to swelter to make it happen.

First off, we now have plenty of dried tomatoes for making sauces and other delicious dishes. I know that tomatoes have a ton of water in them, but it's still mind blowing that 20 some pounds of tomatoes that completely covered one of my counter tops don't even fill a gallon plastic baggie. Next up in the dehydrator will be some fruits and possibly jerky.

Even more fun than the tomatoes, I started working this year's jams. So far, we have strawberry, strawberry/rhubarb, and strawberry/raspberry. Yes. Strawberries were on sale, and I wanted to make sure that we had enough jam to get us through until next year. I remembered the number "20" from last year, so I got 20 pounds of strawberries. As I was hulling and crushing them for jam, I remembered that last year I got $20 worth of berries and it was about 9-10 pounds. Oops. So I guess that we're going to have plenty for PB&Js this year. I also was given the mother load's worth of rhubarb. We're going to need a lot of peanut butter.

Charlie had been really nervous for awhile now about taking the compass test for school since it's been so long since high school. While I kept telling him that he was more than capable, we both knew that his test anxiety might mean that he might struggle with the test. However, he was able to calm himself about it and did fantastic on the test. Now all that is left before he can start classes next month is for his high school transcripts to arrive. The program is expected to be full, and they use a first come first served basis, so we'd love prayers that those arrive post haste.

Murphy Strikes Again

It's amazing the changes that can happen in a couple of weeks. Starting about three weeks ago, my stomach started having arguments with my food after I ate it. I was hoping that whatever it was would clear up on its own in time. Looking back, I should have realized that our life NEVER works that way. Murphy practically lives at our house.

The Cliff Notes version is : two trips to ER Saturday, lots of tests, and then emergency surgery Sunday morning to remove what the surgeon called a "really bad gall bladder." Then two more nights in hospital recovering to the point that I could go home yesterday. Apparently, it's possible for gall stones to not show on either the ultrasound or the CT scan but still be jam packed inside that little balloon. I'll get to see/keep them after my follow up appointment in a couple of weeks after pathology and everyone else does their thing.

Elska is still a bit upset about having limited access to Mama and the Milk Things. (We won't even go into how upset her tummy was with the small bit of formula that she got during the turmoil. That won't be happening again if we can help it.) We've been doing lots of extra snuggles to ease her mind about it, and she was thrilled to have both Mama and Daddy to snuggle this morning. Ok, she wasn't the only one thrilled about it. Mama and Daddy thought that it was pretty awesome too.

We are incredibly grateful to all of the folks who prayed for us and who helped with all that needed doing these last couple of days. Thank you for helping get me back on that road to health as quickly as possible!

Heathen No More!

The big event from last weekend was that Pastor Dave Hatch baptized Elska at Our Saviour's Lutheran in Green Bay. Elska listened to Pastor Dave explain all about baptism while she played with her dress and looked expectantly at him when he did the baptism - no fussing at all for the entire time. She was definitely a happy little girl up there.

The rest of the weekend, we got to spend time catching up with family and friends - and some got to meet Elska for the first time. Additionally, we were able to spend a couple of days to have fun sightseeing with Elska's godparents. They hadn't even seen the sights of Green Bay, so we some fun touristy things.The guys even managed to get to Cabella's for a couple of hours. (The gals decided that a nap sounded more appealing.)

In other news:

Four generations!

• Elska had her three month birthday last weekend! 
• Our little lambie discovered that her hands can pick things up, move them, and stuff things in her face. She is quite impressed with herself and how much more fun blankets are now. Spoons are not nearly as much. Both Mama and Elska took one to the face while playing at the Pancake Place. We will be finding softer toys.
• We learned that not all hotels have bathtubs nowadays. This was more than noteworthy since it meant a rather significant disruption to the bedtime routine. We will be traveling with a little plastic bathtub from now on just in case. Three hours of screaming until finally passed out is more than Mama and Daddy want to have to do again.
• Our little girl is quite the trooper on the road. She doesn't really like that she can't see anyone's face, but she is starting to get the hang of traveling. On the way home, I did have to pull over at one point just so she could see me and calm herself back down. Not too bad though considering how much of the weekend was spent bouncing all over the place and totally off her routines

Maternity(?) Leave

Chilling at the DMV

Around the time that Elska was born, Charlie and I had some long discussions about his taking time off from work. He could get up to six weeks of leave from work, but it would all be unpaid time off since he was part time and didn't have any vacation time. With the house in Green Bay still unsold, it just wasn't going to be possible for him to take anything more than the few days when she was born and in the hospital. Less than a week after she was born, he was back at work with the hope being that after the house in Green Bay finally sold, he would be able to take some time off before starting school as sort of a delayed leave to spend some quality family time, work on projects around the house, and maybe even go on a family vacation. Last Friday, it all finally came together, and Charlie had his last day at Best Buy.

Daddy snuggles are the best!

This last week has been some fantastic family time for us. (Errands are much easier to accomplish with two adults to tag team the "anti-meltdown" responsibilities too.) Elska loves the change of scenery for her snuggles (and the fact that there's even more of them), and Charlie is getting to spend more time learning her emerging personality. This is one fantastic upside to the delay in his time off....instead of just eating, pooping, and sleeping, she is now smiling, "talking" and even laughing at her own poop and fart jokes. Ok, so she gets a giant grin on her face every time she makes a stinky mess in her diaper. Next up: learning "pull my finger." I'm sure that all of her uncles and gruncles are very proud of her.

This week, Elska went on a "Daddy and me" adventure to Menard's - their first adventure of just the two of them taking on the world. They had fun checking out all the cool stuff that Daddy would love to have at our house. (I'm sure that it was a coincidence that she got her first nightmare that night.) I was left out of this adventure. Poor me. I had to read a book in a bubble bath and then take a nap in a quiet house. It's a tough life, but I might somehow learn to adjust to this sort of thing. I'm going to get spoiled.

Maybe if it ever stops raining long enough to dry things out, we can have some family outdoor adventures.....

Elskapades

What mischief can I cause?

A new word was needed to describe the mischief and shenanigans that are starting to happen around the Sheffer household. One might look to experts' claims that infants don't really know any better. However, they haven't seen the grin that this girl gets when she's being sassy. Think that I'm exaggerating? Check out that look. That's just before she started kicking her Mama's laptop buttons and messing up my attempts to type a post. I just wish that I had photo or evidence from last night's midnight giggle fest or the follow up at 3:30 am. Unfortunately, experience tells me that the lighting is too low for the phone's camera unless I turn all of the lights on and really wake us both up. You'll just have to take my word for it until you visit and can first hand witness it.

Look who's a local celebrity!

Yesterday, we went to the baby shower event at the Children's Museum. A little someone was a bit overwhelmed by the noise (the fact that admission was free instead of $6 each definitely brought a few families), so she was a bit fussy for a fair bit of the time. We got to check out the vendors who had booths as well as a number of info stations from Mayo's baby related departments. The coolest part was getting to see Jamie who did some of our prenatal classes and was one of the nurses up at labor and delivery. As you can see, the reunion was caught by the local news station.

Well, someone has decided that they need completely undivided attention, so I must bid you adieu. It may be a long day....

Elska = Mary Poppins

Ignore the laundry drying
in the background and just
focus on the cute baby.

Practically perfect in every way. That's our little girl. It's not just us saying it either. Her pediatrician said so at her two month appointment. He also called her alert, responsive, and right on track. She's getting big too.....23 3/4" and 9lbs 9oz. This puts her in the 80th percentile for height and the 9th for weight. Apparently she got her mama's build. She was also a real trooper with her shots - even with an extra one. (The normal combo vaccine isn't ethically produced.)

In other news, we may have found our new (to us) vehicle. Charlie likes it, and I love it. We're having the service shop do an inspection on it today since we would be purchasing from a private party. Here's to hoping that it's in as good of condition as the seller has told us.

Finally, we have the gardening projects update. The celery? It was doing well but growing slowly. I planted it in a pot with some nice potting soil. It died a couple of days later. Go figure. The green onions are growing still but not thriving. I'll be moving the pot outside this week to see if that helps any. The lettuce? Dead. Since last post, I planted some sweet basil that I got in a kit from the Tar-jay dollar spot area. It's growing nicely, and we've harvested a few leaves to dry and use. I attempted to start two packets of tomato seeds. From them, I have one small sprout that may make it. I'll be getting a tray or two from the store this week, so I can actually have tomatoes this year. The two cherry tomato plants in the front planter are growing nicely. Having them visible from the front walk is helpful in remembering to water them. I have a tray of hot peppers that I started from two packets of seeds, and the majority of the seeds have sprouted and are growing. Hopefully they'll be ready for transplant soon. Last but not least, the raspberries have started to flower, and I can't wait for them to be ready. We managed to stretch out last year's harvest, so we're still eating frozen berries from last year, but it'll be nice to get fresh ones again.

I Washed All of the Dishes. How Come There Are Dirty Dishes?

With lots of rain and even thunder today, there will be no going for a walk or time in the garden to use as an excuse for not finishing this post that I've been trying to get done for two weeks now. Most of these last couple of weeks, we have been doing a lot of the little things like washing dishes and laundry, cooking meals, paying bills....you know - life. It's definitely trickier to get things done with three of us now in the house and SOMEBODY doesn't really pull her weight doing chores around here. We are starting to finally get into a semblance of a routine though, and there was even a night when all of the dishes were washed before bedtime.

There have been a few of the other highlights that merit mentioning:

• Charlie and Elska did a great job for Mothers' Day this year. There is a Doctor Who poster in a frame and waiting to go on the wall thanks to Elska, and Charlie found the Firefly board game for family game night. Yay for geek family time! Unfortunately for me, the bar is pretty high for Fathers' Day. I'm sure that us girls can come up with something awesome.
• Elska sleeps through the night now - at least when she feels like it. Even when she does decide to wake up in the middle of the night, it's normally only once, and it has improved the overall sleep levels for her mama. (And made it possible to go shopping for groceries after she goes to sleep for the night. What did people do before grocery stores were open 24 hours per day?)
• Our house in Green Bay is finally sold. A huge weight has been lifted with that bit of news.
• Elska got to have her first evening at Grandma and Grandpa's house without Mama or Daddy....we went out for dinner and a movie, and she got to hang out with Grandma for the evening and even got to try out having her dinner from a bottle. A good time was definitely had by all.
• Charlie has put in his two weeks' notice at Best Buy. He will be getting ready for school to start. After he knows what the workload will be, he will probably look to find something for a few hours a week that will be fun for him to do. We are both very glad that his time in service earned him veteran's education benefits that are making it possible for him to not have to work nearly as many hours while going to school. It's a reminder that while that season in our lives was very difficult, it was worth it.
• We got a great deal on a couple of ceiling fans that we will hopefully be able to get installed this week. Sure, they'll help keep cooling costs down this summer, but the best part is that in addition to looking cool, we should now have a light fixture in the living room where ALL of the bulbs will be able to be turned on. I know; it's the little things though.