{organizing}

Recently I have started some small organizing projects. Some of them I have been thinking about for awhile and they've started to nag at me so I decided to take advantage of the time before NaNoWriMo starts and JUST DO IT.

One small project I did was go through my magazines. I had magazines from Martha Stewart Living, Country Sampler, Backyard Living, Creating Keepsakes, a magazine that we get through our banking/insurance company, and a few odd ones I picked up here and there. I also had several years worth of General Conference Ensigns.

I went through the MSL mags and tore out pictures/articles I wanted to keep. I did keep the entire March (gardening) and December (Christmas) issues. I did the same thing for the Creating Keepsakes mags. I kept all the Backyard Living issues as those were really thin mags and chock full of ideas/articles/etc. I wanted to keep. I tossed all the Ensigns (felt guilty about that but reminded myself that the current issue was the most important one, plus I could find all the articles online).

When I started, I had two 6.25 inch wide magazine holders full of mags and a few tucked in beside them. When I finished, everything I am keeping fit into one of those holders.

What I'm keeping:



What I'm getting rid of (recycling):

National Novel Writing Month

Also known as NaNoWriMo, it's a challenge for writers to write a novel of (minimum)50,000 words from Nov. 1 to 30. Steven has done it for a couple of years now and this year he convinced me to try it.

I'm still thinking about what I want to write about but I am thinking of writing a pioneer girl story.

We'll see how it goes.

I [heart] fall

I love fall! It is my favorite season! I mean REAL fall, not the sort of "fake" fall that comes when children go back to school. Around here, the end of August when school start is still really hot--all those nice jeans and long sleeve tops I buy at the back-to-school sales are too warm to wear, so my children go to school in shorts and t-shirts.

Lately the weather has been just gorgeous--cool (and even COLD!) mornings and evenings and very pleasant days. We've had a couple of rainy days and the mountain tops are dusted with snow and the leaves are changing colors. It really gets me in the mood to do projects around my home and yard.

I have spent quite a bit of time canning. I have made tomato soup, chile sauce, salsa, peach chutney, and peach jam. I have canned cherries and peaches. I have some strawberries in the freezer I bought early last summer that need to be made into jam. I want to make applesauce. A friend has asked to borrow my pressure canner to can beans--I would like to learn to do that. So apart from strawberry jam, applesauce and possibly beans, I am done with canning for this year.

Maceys had their big case lot sale and I stocked up. Right now all the boxes are in the garage. I need to re-organize my food storage room to move what's left from last year to the front and make room for the new stuff. I didn't buy everything I want to--some things (such as Swanson's broth, baking supplies, Jello, etc.) are cheaper in the holiday period between Halloween and Christmas. So I need to inventory those items and see how much I need to buy so when they do go on sale, I'll be ready! My big freezer in the garage is stuffed full. I've probably got three months worth of food in there!

I've been making a list of fall projects I want to get done around the house and yard before snow flies. Or at least before the weather gets REALLY cold. I need to change out the children's clothes; check and replenish our 72 hour kits; refill the propane tanks (our emergency cooking fuel--I used up all the tanks this summer with the canning and grilling); do final yard maintenance; clean up and organize the garage so Steven can park his car in there; and a whole list of other things.

And one goal among all the "to dos" is to simply step back once in a while (once a day at least!) and breathe in the fresh fall air and notice the colors and just enjoy the season.

One year ago....

One year ago…

I cannot believe that my baby is one year old today.

One year ago this weekend was General Conference. My doctor’s appointment was on Friday the 3rd. I was due on Thursday, Oct. 16th; scheduled to be induced on Friday, Oct. 10th. When my doctor checked me, I was 4 centimeters dilated. That surprised me because I had never been dilated that much that early with my other two babies. Steven was with me at the appointment and we all agreed I probably wouldn’t make it to my scheduled induction date.

Saturday the 4th we watched both sessions of General Conference. I was having some pretty intense Braxton-Hicks contractions all day but nothing unusual. I’d been having BH contractions for quite awhile. Steven and I both had the feeling the baby would come that weekend sometime. We had already arranged that Steven’s parents would take Christie and Jordan when it came time to go to the hospital. My parents were on their mission in Africa. Anyway, after the afternoon session, and having dinner, we decided to go do some errands—we were almost out of milk and needed some other things. So off we went. I think we went to three stores. I rode in the mobility carts because walking was so uncomfortable. Sometime while we were out my contractions became a little more intense. We started timing them and by the time we got home around 8, we decided maybe we’d better head to the hospital. While Steven helped C&J pack overnight bags, I called the Swains and the interpreter agency. Steven’s parents live in Draper and we agreed on a ‘code knock’ that would identify them so C&J would answer the door. After making sure they understood what to do, hugs and kisses, and a picture of me (practically the only picture taken of me while I was pregnant), we headed to the hospital.

I was admitted to triage, put on a monitor and then we waited. My contractions were still very uncomfortable but weren’t increasing in intensity or frequency the way I remember they did with C&J. We were there from about 8:45 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. We spent the time alternating between me resting in bed and walking around to see if things would get moving. Each time the nurse checked me, the dilation was the same. Finally, the nurse suggested we go home. She gave me discharge instructions and we went home.

I was hungry so I had a quick snack, then we went to bed. I don’t know if my contractions settled down a bit or if I was so tired I didn’t feel them or whatever, but I didn’t wake up til 10 am on Sunday. I only woke up because I had to use the bathroom very badly! Usually I wake up several times a night to go to the bathroom but I slept so soundly that I didn’t wake up at all! I was still tired, so I had a little snack again then went back to bed for another 2 hours. When I woke up at noon, I was feeling pretty good, so I suggested to Steven that we shower and get dressed and get over to Mom and Dad Swain’s in time for a late lunch and the afternoon session. He agreed with that so I went to take a shower.

I had barely gotten dressed when I started having back contractions. I had never experienced back labor with Christie or Jordan so that was really different! It was about 1:15 or so at this time. Steven was downstairs and I didn’t want to try to navigate the stairs, but he hadn’t showered yet so I was sure he would be up soon. So I lay down on the bed and started timing the contractions. Steven came upstairs and I told him what was going on. Over the next hour and a half, he got dressed, ate something, I tried to watch the Sunday afternoon session of conference on the internet, timed contractions and finally at about 2:45 I said we needed to go back to the hospital. So Steven called his parents and the interpreter agency, then he helped me out to the car and back we went. I was having pretty intense back labor
by this time and I knew that this was the ‘real thing’.

We got to the hospital and by this time there was no doubt at all that I was definitely in labor! The admitting nurse took so long to do the admitting stuff that finally I told Steven to ask if we could do all this later—I was sitting in a wheelchair practically doubled over. The funny thing about all this is that I don’t really remember having uterine contractions—I’m sure I did—but everything I could feel was in my back!

We got to a room and Steven helped me change. Then the nurse got me on the monitor again and called the anesthesiologist for an epidural and checked me. I was still dilated to 4 cm. The nurse had some trouble locating the baby’s heartbeat for the fetal monitor so she did an ultrasound and it showed the baby was transverse instead of being head down. So she called the doctor from my clinic who was on call (Dr. P) because if the baby was transverse, I’d have to have a c-section. Five minutes later Dr. P arrived, and did an ultrasound herself. In that time, the baby had flipped to head down! The nurse was flabbergasted and kept saying, “But he was transverse five minutes ago!”

We then had some time when nothing much was happening.

Then things got interesting. The baby’s heartbeat kept dropping low and then going back up. Finally it dropped so low that Dr. P got really concerned and decided a c-section was necessary. I was taken to the OR and given the heavy-duty meds while Steven and the interpreter got into scrubs. I don’t remember much of the time in the OR because the meds made me feel so out of it. I was awake and somewhat aware of what was going on but not really comprehending. We stayed in the OR for quite awhile—each time Dr. P was ready to drape and cut, the heartbeat went back up for a bit before dropping again. She did something to adjust the baby’s position and that helped the heart rate go up and stay up long enough that she was comfortable proceeding with a normal delivery. So we went back to our room where we waited out the rest of the time til I was 10 cm and ready to push. Pushing was fairly easy and not too long.

Our baby boy Alex was born at 8:40 p.m. on Sunday, October 5, 2009, weighing 8 lbs 2 oz and 19 inches long. After the initial exam and clean up we had our interpreter call some of our family members (we didn’t have phone numbers for everyone) to let them know and to pass the word along.

We then moved up to our hospital room on the maternity floor. By this time it was pretty late and Steven was exhausted from everything that had been going on the past 24 hours so he headed home. Alex got his first bath around midnight then we both went to sleep.