You get what you pay for...

Except for a package of diapers I bought while we were gone evacuating, I haven't had to buy diapers until this week. But it hit at the time of the month when we don't have a lot of extra money, so I took my coupons to the grocery store to see what kind of deal I could get. Even with the coupons, the store brand of diapers was cheaper. The package looked so nice with quotes on it from moms about how great the diapers were. So I bought them instead of the name brands. And I learned again that you get what you pay for. Campbell's leaked on two outfits since yesterday. I have realized there are some things you can get by with buying the cheap store brand. But there are some things you should spend the few extra cents (or dollars when it comes to diapers) to get the better quality. Like speghetti sauce. I only buy Prego Organic. I have tried the cheaper brands but they just aren't as good. So I will go back to spending a little extra for Pampers or Huggies. My first two boys really only wore Huggies, but someone bought us Pampers this time, and I really like them. Back to cutting coupons!

My observations of facebook...

Ok, first of all, I am addicted to facebook. Its ridiculous! I walk by the computer, and it calls to me, "Come see who added you as a friend. Come see what random people were thinking 5 minutes ago!" and I have to stop and sit down and look. So silly. But it cracks me up this whole friendship thing. I see a friend that I know and I think, I know there are people we both know, so I look at their friendship list and find at least one person to connect with. But I have to say, I see lots of people that I have known at one time in my life, but I think, if I asked them to be my friend, they would think I was weird because we really weren't friends. But apparently other people do not have that filter because I have gotten requests from people that I honestly do not know. I looked a few up in my college yearbook and there they were, so I confirm their friendship because I'm too nice not to. Jason said he denies people all the time. I asked him if they get a message that he denied them, and he said he doesn't care, that's the point. But I'm too nice. But last night, I actually deleted three people that I honestly don't know. It said they don't notify them, which is good. And then I had a horrible thought. I am waiting on about 20 people to confirm my friendship, and what if they don't want to be friends with me, and they denied me and I just don't know it??!!! Is that possible? Do people really not want to be my friend? Were there people who accepted me, but they were too nice to say no, and deleted me later? Jason said a lot of people just try to get as many friends as possible. At first I thought that was ridiculous, but I have to say, I am proud of myself as my friend count goes up. Just what I need is another avenue of testing my low-self esteem.

Well, I did it.

I joined facebook. I have a friend who moved to Singapore and joined facebook and asked me to, so I did. And within two hours I had so many people who found me. Crazy. People who have had my email address for years, but suddenly on facebook they can chat. I didn't realize how behind the times I was. I thought I was all with it since I had a blog, but apparently not. Its kind of fun I must say to see so many people I haven't seen in years. Grant it, its a 1 by 2 inch picture, and most of them aren't good, I hope. I don't want to post one of myself, because I'm sure it won't look good either. And since I am still way behind the times at home with dial up, I'll have to find time to go to Jason's office to post a picture. Just what I need is another way to waste my time! I kind of feel like I'm cheating on my blog.

Things here are fine. Busy week. Jason was out of town and my mom was here. Then we had a family conference at church this weekend, so a good friend of ours came in to teach at it. So my house is really clean. Campbell is doing great. The easiest baby of the three, knock on wood. I started working in childcare last week. Tuesdays are bad, but Wednesdays are fine. I'll go into that another time. I just keep telling myself, "this is for Cade." I'm only working to pay his tuition for preschool. Of course its selfish too, that's two 10 hours a week he's out of my hair.

Happy Birthday Campbell!

Today Campbell is 2 months old! How did that happen?! So I took him to the doctor for his check up, which was an adventure. I have thought the last two years since we have been using this doctor that they needed to redo their offices, and Hurricane Ike pushed them into it. Apparently, they had a lot of damage, so they had to move to a temporary location for 4-6 months while their offices are getting redone. Well, this temporary office was soooo tiny. And there are 4 doctors in the practice, it was a mad house! People walking all over each other. Anyway, it wasn't fun. But he looks great. Weighs 12 lbs 7 oz, 75 percentile. Then we got the dreaded shots, 3 shots and an oral vaccine. I had been thinking for awhile about the vaccines, I have heard so much in the media about the link between them and autism, etc. My mom is getting her doctorate in natural medicine, and really didn't want me to get them (from my translation of comments she had made.) But after the storm, Dr. Dave the pediatrician, ironically enough a good friend of my parents, stayed at our house one night while working on his beach house in Galveston. And I asked him about vaccines. He made me feel so much better. He said that the committee who decides the schedule is pediatricians, not pharmaceutical companies, so they only want whats best for the children. And yes, you can spread them out, but that only makes the child have more painful visits, and opens them up to get the disease while they are waiting for the vaccine. He said there are no studies that prove the link between vaccines and autism, but its one of those things you really can't prove cause and effect. But the best thing he said, that really made me feel better, was that there are risks, but there are risks in everything. Children die in car accidents because they are trapped in their car seats, but are we not going to use car seats because of that risk? Of course not. The benefits far out weigh the risks. So he got his shots today. And yes, he is grumpy. But he won't remember it. He's already forgotten I'm sure.

The trucks came through today and picked up most of our debris in our neighborhood, and all of our traffic lights are working now. Things are getting back to normal. We are waiting for our insurance to tell us how much money we get for repairs, probably a new roof.

OH YEAH! Campbell is celebrating his two month birthday by sleeping through the night! The past three nights he has gone 7-8 hours at night! Yippee!

Cereal

I realized last night at 4 am when I was nursing, that Cooper had a bowl of cereal before he went to bed. "So what?" you might be saying. Well, if memory serves me right, that was his first bowl of cereal, and yes, he's six. We found out about his extensive food allergies when he was 14 months old, and at the time, he was allergic to every grain except the strange ones you can only get at health food stores, and at the time, they didn't make kid cereals out of the strange grains he could eat. So no cereal. I remember giving him a bowl of cereal when he was two, and I can remember the look on his face, as if to say to me, "why Mommy, would you ruin perfectly good milk by pouring on that stuff, and expecting me to eat it?" So no cereal. Then Cade was born who has no food allergies (how does that happen) and when he started eating cheerios like all good babies do, Cooper would gag at the smell of them and tell me to get them away from him. Cade starting eating bowls of cereal with milk when he was old enough, for a few months, and then he realized big brother wasn't eating it, and that was the end of that. He loves dry cereal, but not in a bowl with milk. Well, I have gotten really into eating Cinnamon Toast Crunch, because its lower on sugar than most sweet cereals and its made with wheat, not oat or corn which I am allergic to. And Cooper decided he likes it, and last night when he got home from baseball and soccer practice, asked me for a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch with milk, and scarfed it down. And it didn't dawn on me until 4 in the morning, that I think that was his first bowl of cereal with milk. A major milestone!

Picks of the week... FOOD

Stouffers Express Lasagna, the great tasting lasagna that has really good ingredients for a processed food, cooked in the microwave in 17 1/2 minutes. Fabulous.

Mom's Best Natural Cereals... I bought a box at Walmart last week. Its the basic cereal flavers we eat, I got frosted mini wheats, but made with natural ingredients. No matter what the corn refiners association commercials are saying, corn syrup is not a natural ingredient in my family's diet.

I miss being pregnant...

I miss being pregnant. Not the throwing up, getting kicked in the ribs, not being able to sleep on my stomach, being exhausted parts, but the other parts. I miss that feeling that I had that I was the sole carrier of some huge big secret, that no one else had a part of, that I was carrying an angel. I miss that feeling of anticipation where I wondered what he would look like. I selfishly miss the attention I got when I was pregnant. When I had the baby, people no longer look at me, they look at the baby, which is fine, because I feel ugly. No matter how big I was when I was pregnant, and how much I complained about being big, I secretly felt cute and pretty and special. Don't get me wrong, I love and adore Campbell and he is so precious, and I have no regrets at all. And don't get me wrong, we are done. But there is that sad part of me that its over. I gave most of my maternity clothes away today, minus a few shirts I am still wearing. And as happy as I was to pass them on to my dear friend who needs them more than I do, when she asked if I needed them back, and I said no, I had a sad moment. But I can look in Campbell's beautiful eyes and be thankful that I am holding my angel in my arms.

Two more observations...

11. How many people did not take driver's ed. Most of our traffic lights are either blinking red, or not there at all, and people are trying their best to take turns, but it gets a little dicey.
12. The Texas Baptist Men's Disaster Response team whose travel trailers are in our church parking lot. These men, and their wives, travel all over the country from one storm to the next just cleaning up people's homes, mostly the mud out of homes that flooded. They are amazing.

We figured out the water in our kitchen came from roof damage over our bay window, which was a relief because we thought it was plumbing issues.

Observations...

1. Piles and piles of yard debris in front of almost every house you pass by. The paper said the company they hired to pick it all up has 180 days to get it done. For you math majors, that's 6 months. I really don't want to look at it all or worry about the fire hazard for 6 months.
2. The small water spot on Campbell's ceiling, and the really big water spot above our kitchen table. We have a two story house. How is there a water spot on the bottom floor. Something bad is happening up there.
3. The Red Cross pod in our church parking lot, not passing out water or ice, but bleach, plastic containers to keep your stuff that didn't get wet, mops, brooms, rakes and shovels.
4. How much a street light helps when you go to get the mail at night. Its not there anymore, and its a little scary.
5. The school buses running again tomorrow. YEAH!
6. Campbell's first day in Sunday School today. I wasn't as emotional as I thought I might be. After I got the three kids here, I was ready to hand him off.
7. Campbell's cute smile. He and I had a chat a while back that I should get the first smile, since Daddy would probably get the first word. And I did. The Sunday before we evacuated, I got it, and I cried. No one believed me because he didn't smile at anyone else for awhile, but now he smiles a lot and I know I had the first one.
8. The calender flying by. How is Campbell already 7 weeks old!? When it was Cooper, I couldn't wait for him to grow up, but Campbell needs to just stop. It's very sad.
9. The crap all over my house, yes, CRAP. The FEMA lady came by this week to look around, and I had 5 minutes notice, and I was horrified as she walked around the house. Yes, I have good excuses, evacuating, kids at home, and a new baby, but most of it is just without excuse. I'm just lazy.
10. Dancing with the Stars, The Biggest Loser, House, Survivor, Project Runway, Numbers, I think that's it. Those are my favorites, and three of them are on the same night. Hence, the crap around my house.

If I just focus on Campbell's smile, its all ok.

Update #3

School is out for a whole other week! But our church is using the opportunity to minister to the community by having Camp Ike, a day camp for school age children, and our preschool is starting back again. So I will go home Monday. The cool part is that our weekday director has to go out of town Tuesday night, and she asked me to direct for her while she's gone. She said she knew she could really relax while she was gone knowing I was there, and I was one of the only people she could really trust to take care of it. A huge compliment. I'm not bragging, but as adults there are really few times when people really try to give compliments. I try to catch my kids doing good things and comment on them to encourage them to do well, but as adults we really don't do that often with each other. Some people are better at it than others, but as a whole, we don't hear compliments like that often. All that to say, it made my day.

I forgot that while we were in Bryan, Coop lost his first tooth. Very exciting. I told him the tooth fairy would leave it for me to keep since it was the first. So the next night, he wanted to put it under the pillow again to she if she would leave another dollar. The sinful nature flaring up! Jason and I actually forgot to put money under his pillow, so we had to sneak it into his pillow case while he was looking all around his bed for the money. Very awkward but funny.

Another Update...

Tuesday we decided to make a change. Not that we weren't very comfy and cozy in Bryan, but when I realized that school was out for at least a week, it seemed like a good opportunity to go to Shreveport. Mom got power back on Monday night, so the boys and I left after lunch on Tuesday and came home to rest. Jason went back to Clear Lake and stayed that night with someone who did have power, and ours came back on Wednesday morning. Yeah! He got a better look at our damage. There is a roof leak because there is a water spot on Campbell's ceiling, and water came in our front door and did some damage to our floors in the entry way. Only a small part of our fence was down. Our trees didn't uproot, but he said the tops were sheered off, so we don't know if they will live or not. But we are very thankful. Our church's power came back on Monday I think, so each morning people are meeting and going out into the community to help with clean up. Jason said parts of town look like a bomb went off and parts don't look bad at all. School is probably starting back next Tuesday, which I am very thankful for. My kids are bouncing off the walls! We will probably go back on Saturday. Our church normally has three services, but we are only going to have one on Sunday, very casual and community building. We are hoping that people will come who wouldn't normally come and can be reached by a helping hand. I'll post some pictures some day, but I may have missed the worst of it. And that's ok.

Update...

We had a friend go back to Clear Lake and he went to all of our houses to check on them. He said out of the five houses on our cul-de-sac, ours was way the best. Just damage to our fence and probably our roof, both of which needed to be replaced anyway. But no windows out, no trees down, no flooding. Our neighbors lost most of their trees and some siding from what we hear. But no electricity, and because our school district covers so much area, we don't have school all next week at least. We are hoping that we get power back soon so we can go home, although I have no food in my house and there probably isn't any in the stores. But we are so very thankful that God kept our house safe. It could have been so much worse. I'm sure when we get back home we will hear lots of stories of people who didn't fare as well as we did. I am sure there will be many opportunities to help people, both physically and emotionally.

You can also pray for Jeff and Heather and their two boys. They are neighbors of Lee and Colette who also came with us. They just moved here from Michigan in July. They aren't believers, but after being with all of us for a few days, decided to go to church with us this morning. They said we all looked like the Waltons to them, but we just said it was Jesus. So we will see how that goes over the next few days. Thank you for the prayers as we wait for power to come back. My mom in Shreveport also lost power.

Pray for us...

In case anyone is checking on us, we are in Bryan/College Station. We left Wednesday night at 10:30 and are staying with our friend Lee's parents. Its us, Colette and Lee and their two kids, and Colette's brother Chris and his family. There are 8 kids under the age of 8. Yikes. Each family has a bedroom. When we left, we were thinking it was just to be safe in case the wind blew enough that we wouldn't have power for awhile. Now we are not sure what we will come back to. Its very scary. I realized there is a fine line between saying that you are trusting God and are not worried, and just being in denial about how serious the situation is. We are trying to stay calm so we don't freak the kids out, and trying to get them out of the house alot today since we'll be stuck the next day or two. God has taken care of us so far, gave us wisdom of when to leave (we had no traffic) and provided us a place to stay with wonderful friends. So we have to keep trusting Him. He is in control, and I know years from now we will remember this time hopefully fondly. We are all safe and everything else is just stuff. So besides praying for the Clear Lake area homes, pray for us in this house with 16 people! I'll keep you posted.

Big Weekend

Thursday night Campbell took his first bottle, sucked it down like nobody's business. Very exciting. It helped him sleep 4 hours! I remember with Cooper that he had a bottle at two weeks and then we didn't give him another one until he was 4 months and he wouldn't take it. Took trying for weeks before he would take another one. I don't think bottles were an issue for Cade. At the hospital with Campbell, the lactation nurse came in and explained to me that there is no reason for a baby to have a pacifier or bottle for the first month so they don't get confused. She even put a card in his bassinet that told the nurses not to give him a pacifier. I let her, and promptly preceded to give him the pacifier the first night home. He likes it, it helps him fall asleep, and both my other boys had a fine relationship with their pacifiers until they turned two, and they went bye-bye.

Saturday Cade had his very first soccer game, and as he said, "I am the best soccer player ever." Doesn't have a big head or anything. Of course, I spent the first quarter in the car nursing, and while in there, tried to start the van to get air, and the battery was dead, so I spent the last quarter in the parking lot with a very nice stranger jumping the van. Cade didn't seem to notice my absence.
Cooper then played his soccer game and later in the day, his first machine-pitch baseball game. Mom was more scared of the 42 mile an hour pitch than he was. Yes, we had three games in one day, and will from now until Nov. 8. Cooper has always played one sport at at time, but Cade has joined the sporting scene now, and Jason (and Cooper) really wanted Cooper to play fall baseball to get better since that appears to be his favorite and best sport. I told him I was not going to that many practices a week, so he agreed to be the head or assistant coach of all three teams so he would be at practice, and he is. So he scheduled the practices back to back, so two nights a week they are gone. Not so bad on my part, except the two weeks he'll be out of town later next month.

Sunday- Campbell's first Sunday at church! I really wasn't ready to come back yet. Most people are back the first week or two, but they have husbands to tote the carrier around all morning or hold the baby, and I don't. My husband leaves on Sunday mornings before we are even awake, and I usually don't see him until lunch. But Cooper was getting his 1st grade Bible, so we needed to go. I just knew that Campbell would sleep the whole time, but nope, first song, eyes popped open, and he preceded to fuss for a long time, no matter what I did. Jason even got up to do the opening for worship and I was hoping he would hear his voice and calm down, but I think it made it worse. So I had to go out in the hallway, leaving Cooper by himself in church, which terrified me. Luckily, our preschool director came by, and carried Campbell around for me until the service was over. That's one advantage of being a minister's wife, everyone is willing to help. Cooper is very proud of his Bible and we read the first chapter of Matthew last night (skimming over the genealogy). I hope he continues to have a desire to be in the Word.
Big weekend! I am tired!

Christy's Picks of the Week

Pick One... an Empty House

Last night was the first night, other than two random nights, that we didn't have any guests since Aug. 4. We had anywhere from one to five people here. It was odd, because as much as I appreciated the help (I now have a sink full of dirty dishes and loads of laundry to do), I really wanted my house back to myself. I am a hermit, and an introvert, and even though people tell you that you don't have to entertain them, I still felt rude staying in my room all day. The best was Jason's grandmother (there is no danger of her reading this) who lectured me on how to do laundry, and talked horribly about the people who come into her Walmart in Tulsa where she is a greeter, with newborn babies with no socks. I didn't tell her Campbell had already been to Walmart twice by the time she arrived. She also complained about another grandchild's spouse who stays in the bedroom the whole time she is there. So, even though I don't blame them and wanted to be in my bedroom, I didn't want her talking bad about me, or talking worse about me than she already does. I also had to hear more than once about a family in Tulsa who's baby was eaten by their dog. I really didn't want to hear that story the first time. Anyway, all that to say, I am so glad that my house is mine again, regardless of the dirty clothes and laundry!

Pick Two... Sid the Science Kid
It premiered today on PBS here, and it is the cutest, most educational show I have seen in a while. Check your local listings and check it out. You will love to watch it with your children, an oddity in the preschool television world, for me anyway.

Sunday morning...

I took my boys to church and dropped them off and have been enjoying a few hours by myself... doing laundry, cleaning out leftovers that people have brought us, and giving sweet Campbell a bath. When I was checking out of the hospital, the baby nurse was giving me directions, and she talked about giving him a bath. She said with her first baby, he got a bath twice a day, second baby, once every other day, third baby was lucky if he got one once a week. So true. Luckily they don't get too dirty.
A few months ago I blogged about maternity clothes. Again, I need to vent. I'm three weeks out, and still can only fit into my maternity clothes, but now I'm not cute and pregnant, I'm fat and sloppy. Very depressing.
It looks like we are safe from Gustov, but I know my mother was so hoping we would have to evacuate to Shreveport. Sorry, Mom.
My first baby is in first grade and has his first loose tooth. Such a big moment. I think that Cooper and especially Cade have grown three inches since Campbell was born. Some of it is perception now that there is a baby in the house, but we swear Cade has grown some this month.
Totally random thoughts, but I had a minute, so I thought I would share.

PICTURES!

Sorry, no pictures this time

I have tried 4 times to post a picture for you of my beautiful baby, but until I can get to church to high speed, its just not going to happen. So to tied you over, I will tell you the birth story. Some people may not like birth stories, I love them, so please do not feel obligated to read it if its not your thing. I promise I won't be graphic!
I had been 4 cm for over a month, so my doctor said we would induce in another week, and to call her when the contractions were 8 minutes apart for an hour. So the contractions started that day, but they were really random. On Tuesday night, I had them consistently for three hours, 10 minutes apart, then 9, then two at 8. We got our bag ready and prepared the boys, and then, they stopped. Nothing.
Wednesday something else happened that is probably too graphic for some people, but I really thought it was a sign that we were ready, but nothing.
Thursday, contractions all day, 20 minutes, 15 minutes, 10, 20, nothing for an hour.
Friday, we ran errands, took the car to get the oil changed, hair cuts, ate lunch out, contractions all day, again, totally random times. Friday afternoon, I realized they were stronger, but still not consistent and I couldn't keep up with how long it had been, so I started writing down the times on a piece of paper with a crayon. I was doing things around the house and actually cooking dinner. Here are the times: 4:30, 4:42, 4:57, 5:34, 5:52, 5:57. WHAT! 5 minutes! That must be a fluke! We sat down to dinner and I had Cooper get my actual timer and as we ate, I watched the timer and how surprisingly, every 3 minutes I was having one. At this point I began to laugh.
I had told people for months that I wanted Campbell to be born on the 7th or the morning of the 8th so that I could be in the hospital by myself the night of the 8th to watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympics in peace. That is the highlight of my life every two years. I remember in high school having an Olympics party to watch it with my friends, and I realized no one else was watching but me. So here we are, 30 minutes from the start of the ceremonies and I am in labor. So we called the doctor, set the DVR, and headed to the hospital.
I had a great nurse, had the ceremonies on for most of the time, although listening to it through the little box that sits by your head on the bed, didn't quite give me the grandness of the event. Pain wasn't too bad. I got my epidural at some point, and had a little scare when it caused my blood pressure to drop drastically. When I was checked, I was only at a 5. My contractions were consistent but not really strong enough.
At 11:30, my nurse said the contractions were better and she would come back in 30 minutes to check me again, and I would probably be at an 8 by then. So I put on my Ipod and tried to rest... for about 10 minutes. Then I called her back to check me, and sure enough, I was complete. We were hoping he would be born by midnight so his birthday would be 8-8-08, but didn't happen. I pushed for more than an hour. My doctor said his head was a little crooked and she was close to getting out the vacuum. She didn't tell me that until the next day. It got pretty painful towards the end. But Campbell made his entrance at 1:03 AM, kicking, grabbing things, crying, so beautiful.
Mom had taken the boys to Ms Colette and Mr Lee's house and was in the waiting room. Jason's parents had driven for 6 hours and made it to the hospital at 1:20, perfect timing for them to be there when Jason came out to tell them Campbell had arrived.
Didn't get much sleep that night. Apparently neither did my older two boys. Colette said she could hear Cooper moving around most of the night, and at 4:30 she heard a noise and found them both up and dressed, packed, and ready for breakfast so they could come to the hospital. How cute!
So that's the story. He is doing great. Was 7lbs 10 oz when he was born, 7.2 when he left the hospital and 7.15 when we went the doctor this week. That is big for me. Cooper was 6.13 and Cade was 6.9.
At another time, I will describe my feelings about it being my last. I am sadder than I thought I would be. But I am not admitting that to my husband! I will post pictures as soon as I can.

He's Here!

Joshua Campbell Gadman was born Saturday morning, 1:03 AM, weighing in at 7lbs 10 oz, 19inches long. I went into labor around 6 officially, so it wasn't too long. We just got home, so when I have more energy, I will post some pictures and give more details. He has a little jaundice, but other than that, we are all happy. I am in love! Thanks for the prayers.

Another update

People are apparently checking my blog with baited breath, waiting for some huge announcement. No huge announcement here! Went to the doctor yesterday, still 4 cm. My doctor said that is just ridiculous, its been about a month at 4 cm. And she could tell when she walked in the room that I was miserable. So she "stripped" my membranes, which I had never heard of. Basically she weakened my bag of water hoping that would spur things along. Nothing so far. She said if I haven't had him in the next week, we will induce next week. I would rather not do that, but its fine if we have to. So today we are riding out the overly talked about Tropical Storm Eduard, going stir crazy just waiting around for Campbell to come. My mom came last night to beat out the storm and Jason's parents' bags are packed. I'm really tired of people asking me if I'm feeling any change. I promise I will tell you if I feel something worth talking about. My mom and I, who both have master's degrees, just took a really long time to put together a pack-n-play that I borrowed from someone, even with the instruction book. Stupid people would have never gotten it together!

The boys got home last night from Paris. It was good to see them. There were moments last week where I wondered if I was a good mom because I really didn't miss them as much as I thought a good mom would. But I guess I had other things on my mind. I was very excited when they got home last night, so I guess I'm not terrible.

So I guess keep checking in. Hopefully it will be soon. Although, when I think about it, these are my last days of pregnancy for the rest of my life. So maybe I'm not quite in such a hurry for it to be over. Wait, no, I am ready.