It has now been a few weeks in our new home in Delaware, and we are all getting used to the more lavish lifestyle. Alixa has long been a fan of the ABC show Desperate Housewives, and now she is doing her best to become one. Her full time job here is baby growing, which leaves her plenty of free time for things like quilting, cooking, doing crossword puzzles, going to the mall, getting pedicures, etc… It has been really great for her until this week, because the rest of the Winn clan took off for the Bahamas. Jarom and Lix couldn’t go because of the new rat, so now when Jarom leaves for work in the morning Lix is stuck in a big house with nobody else and little to do. Anyone who knows Alixa will know that her vivid imagination doesn’t do well when left in an empty house, so she has managed to keep herself busy. On Monday she was hanging out with Annie, Adri, and Juliet at Longwood Gardens. Tuesday she went out to lunch with Karen and Lindy at the Olive Garden. Wednesday she has a doctors appointment, Thursday she is planning on visiting Annie at her house, and on Friday a friend from Lancaster is coming down for the day. So far nobody has tried to break in, so everything is OK.
Jarom is enjoying his new job well enough, although it has been a little slower than he would like thus far. He does get to do a variety of things, which he likes. The laid back nature of the job has come in handy thus far. Last week he received a call from his mother and a simultaneous message from JD that he was urgently needed at home. Somehow a full-grown bat had managed to get into the house and was sleeping in the family room above the fireplace. JD was the only male in the house, and none of the females were willing to touch the bat, not even with a ten-foot pole. And so Jarom was called, and left work a little early to assist with the wild animal removal. Fortunately, Bruce also has a cushy job that allows him to leave early, and his office is even closer than Jarom’s, so the situation had been successfully handled with no harm done to bat or man when Jarom finally walked in the door. Jarom also showed up for work late one morning because he had been pulled over by a cop for speeding in a 25 mph zone. As he usually does, Jarom batted his eyes a little, made some friendly conversation, and got away with nothing more than a warning. The cop did seem a little confused by the fact that it was a car registered in Ohio, a driver’s license from Utah, while driving in Delaware. Jarom chose not to tell him that his permanent residence right now is in Tennessee.
As for me, I am enjoying the constant attention that I get from the grandkids, and have even ventured out of my cage to tour the house a little bit. I have gotten mixed reviews from the singles who frequent this place, and got some not so warm looks from Nancy, who made it quite clear that she was making a sacrifice by letting me stay. But she is managing to tolerate me, if only because it means she will get to see a new grandbaby, which should be here sooner than seems possible. Whenever it comes, it won’t be soon enough for Alixa, who has entered the unenviable finishing phase of pregnancy, where you are always uncomfortable and in pain, and everything swells up and generally makes you wish you had never done this. Cross your fingers for an early baby. I would, but, you know.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Getting Ready for Baby!
Jarom, I mean Mitch, never writes enough about baby stuff, so I thought I would take up the slack and do a baby post. I can't even believe that I am due in less than four weeks. Pregnancy hasn't been as fun as I thought it would be, but it hasn't been as bad as everyone has told me it would be, either. After all, I hardly ever got sick and although I have gained a TON of weight, I am only now feeling slightly uncomfortable. Overall it has been an enjoyable nine months.
I went to the doctor last week and they said I am well on my way to delivering. I know this could still be weeks, but it makes me feel like I am progressing towards something. I have decided that I will just go walking a lot in the heat until I go into labor. I figure that should work. I have been walking 4-5 times a week for about two miles each time since we got to Delaware. It is tough because Jarom's parents live on a huge hill, but it is good for Jenna and me and I enjoy the early morning hours. It is funny, but I cant sleep in anymore. I wake up by 7:30 or 8 everyday and I wake up 2-3 times a night to use the restroom. I guess this is my body's way of preparing me to feed a newborn.
I am now going to the doctor every week which is kind of a pain in the rear because the hospital is now 30 minutes away from where I live and the parking is TERRIBLE. Last time it took me 10 minutes just to find a parking spot and I was even looking way far away. And although it isn't nearly as nice as the hospital and doctor I had in Tennessee, it seems nice enough so hopefully all will go smoothly with labor and delivery. I am not really scared of delivery, just petrified of having any complications. Pray for me!!!
Since we have been in Delaware, I have been keeping myself busy enough. I went to Baby's R Us and got some essentials for when Jenna arrives. We got a case of diapers, a car seat, a case of baby wipes, some bottles, and other necessities. All I can say is wow are diapers expensive. I almost considered using cloth diapers but then I realized that is disgusting and I don't know how my mother-in-law did it with so many kids but I guess disposable diapers are worth the cost. I do love my new car seat though. I wonder if it will look as cute when Jenna throws up all over it.
Well, I will keep you posted on the pregnancy and hopefully we will have pictures of our beautiful baby girl really soon!
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Been a long time
I am too lazy to actually check this out, but I think this is the longest gap between posts since I started this thing. The past few weeks have been very eventful for the Winn clan. Jarom finished up his classes with good grades and Alixa finished up her time at Rural Metro with a wonderful baby shower thrown by her coworkers, many of whom she had little or no contact with. She even got a present from the mail lady. I guess Lix just makes good impressions on people. But then it was time to go, so we packed up our clothes and a few basic supplies for the summer and hit the road for Richmond, where we would spend an enjoyable evening hanging out with Nate and Kenz. We met one of their neighbors on Sunday morning as we were leaving. He saw a young couple, one a pregnant lady, and assumed that we were the new people next door that he hadn’t met yet. Good people.
We made it to Delaware safely, where we found a wonderful setup. There is enough closet space for Jarom to keep his clothes in his own room, which is a treat. Lix is excited because the hot water lasts for more than 7 minutes. I get a spot next to the window, where I can enjoy the sunlight and keep an eye on what is happening. Jarom and Alixa aren’t the only ones who like the house, which means that I have had a steady stream of visits from grandchildren Allie, Madison, Adri, and Juliet. They all seem to love me, although there are varying degrees of braveness. Some touch my tail, some hold me, and some keep their distance. I’m sure they will all get used to me by August.
After pulling in on Sunday, Lix spent most of our first week here transferring from Tennessee Medicaid to Delaware Medicaid. It was a painful process that saw her put in three separate applications at three different locations. Then we started to get calls from people wondering why there were so many different applications put in. So she then had to go around and cancel them. But it seems as though things are all taken care of, and she has had two doctors visits at the hospital here. She is already dilated to a 1 (I don’t actually know if that is good/bad/unique/normal for this stage of the game, but I thought I would throw it in there) and is really hoping for an early baby.
After 4 days of his parents, Jarom just had to get out, so they jumped in the car and took off for Cleveland to see the Forest-Keepers. After an uneventful drive across PA, they got to OH just in time to see Mars and his rec-league volleyball team lose in the finals of their league championship. One day they went golfing with Mario and a couple of kids from his branch. It was a beautiful day, a wonderful course, and a great time, but the additional guests were not exactly quick players. It took 6 and a half hours to get through 18 holes, and by then even Jarom was ready to get out of Dodge. One morning they went to see Mikah at her art school, and loved the work that she does. Jarom wants to get her to do some art for our house someday. He is very jealous of people who can draw. Nights in Cleveland meant Settlers of Catan marathons with Mars. Unfortunately for everyone, Lix is both a good player and very sneaky, and she wins most of the time. Before leaving the state, they decided to renew the vehicle registration, which meant a quick trip to the shop for a new catalytic converter and an emissions test. It was a steal at only $450, plus they threw in a hefty batch of new cigarette smell that we are still trying to get rid of.
This week it was back to DE so that Jarom could start his internship at the University of Delaware. It’s been a couple of days, and it seems like it will be a good gig. He gets to wear shorts to work, and will get to learn a variety of systems and tasks that will hopefully be useful as far as future employment goes. Lix is struggling in her new role as housewife. She got a little bored one day, and was highly offended when Jarom asked her to do the laundry while he was gone. She has started quilting, played a little bit of piano, and done a lot of cooking.
This week Jarom got me a pair of feeder mice, since I hadn’t eaten for about 4 weeks and the pet store was out of rats. I only wanted one of them, so I graciously offered the extra to Chewie to play with. Jarom tried to get him to bat the little guy around, but the best he could get out of him was a steamroller. But it turns out that Chewie just likes a good chase, because today the little mouser turned up on the garage steps. Jarom is glad that even though he is getting old, his cat still has some killer instinct left in him.
We made it to Delaware safely, where we found a wonderful setup. There is enough closet space for Jarom to keep his clothes in his own room, which is a treat. Lix is excited because the hot water lasts for more than 7 minutes. I get a spot next to the window, where I can enjoy the sunlight and keep an eye on what is happening. Jarom and Alixa aren’t the only ones who like the house, which means that I have had a steady stream of visits from grandchildren Allie, Madison, Adri, and Juliet. They all seem to love me, although there are varying degrees of braveness. Some touch my tail, some hold me, and some keep their distance. I’m sure they will all get used to me by August.
Jarom loves the wallpaper
After pulling in on Sunday, Lix spent most of our first week here transferring from Tennessee Medicaid to Delaware Medicaid. It was a painful process that saw her put in three separate applications at three different locations. Then we started to get calls from people wondering why there were so many different applications put in. So she then had to go around and cancel them. But it seems as though things are all taken care of, and she has had two doctors visits at the hospital here. She is already dilated to a 1 (I don’t actually know if that is good/bad/unique/normal for this stage of the game, but I thought I would throw it in there) and is really hoping for an early baby.
After 4 days of his parents, Jarom just had to get out, so they jumped in the car and took off for Cleveland to see the Forest-Keepers. After an uneventful drive across PA, they got to OH just in time to see Mars and his rec-league volleyball team lose in the finals of their league championship. One day they went golfing with Mario and a couple of kids from his branch. It was a beautiful day, a wonderful course, and a great time, but the additional guests were not exactly quick players. It took 6 and a half hours to get through 18 holes, and by then even Jarom was ready to get out of Dodge. One morning they went to see Mikah at her art school, and loved the work that she does. Jarom wants to get her to do some art for our house someday. He is very jealous of people who can draw. Nights in Cleveland meant Settlers of Catan marathons with Mars. Unfortunately for everyone, Lix is both a good player and very sneaky, and she wins most of the time. Before leaving the state, they decided to renew the vehicle registration, which meant a quick trip to the shop for a new catalytic converter and an emissions test. It was a steal at only $450, plus they threw in a hefty batch of new cigarette smell that we are still trying to get rid of.
This week it was back to DE so that Jarom could start his internship at the University of Delaware. It’s been a couple of days, and it seems like it will be a good gig. He gets to wear shorts to work, and will get to learn a variety of systems and tasks that will hopefully be useful as far as future employment goes. Lix is struggling in her new role as housewife. She got a little bored one day, and was highly offended when Jarom asked her to do the laundry while he was gone. She has started quilting, played a little bit of piano, and done a lot of cooking.
This week Jarom got me a pair of feeder mice, since I hadn’t eaten for about 4 weeks and the pet store was out of rats. I only wanted one of them, so I graciously offered the extra to Chewie to play with. Jarom tried to get him to bat the little guy around, but the best he could get out of him was a steamroller. But it turns out that Chewie just likes a good chase, because today the little mouser turned up on the garage steps. Jarom is glad that even though he is getting old, his cat still has some killer instinct left in him.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Moving Day
Yesterday Jarom finished another semester of school and Alixa has about 1.5 workdays left until we head up to Delaware for the summer. I am not allowed to put our new location on the internet, because Alixa is terrified of strangers reading it and hunting her down and murdering her in the night. So if any of you find the urge to send cute baby girl clothes to us irresistible, you’ll have to contact us to get the address.
Despite the happiness surrounding school and work ending, the weather here in Knoxville has been a wee bit gloomy, with many rain showers. This is clearly not the way it is supposed to be. As Alixa wisely noted, “It’s April showers bring May flowers, not April showers bring May rainy-ness.” I couldn’t have said it any better. Fortunately, during a sunny week not too long ago Lix applied a coat of Rain-X to the Camry’s windshield. It was her first time and she was very proud of herself for doing a good job. Now whenever Jarom drives in the rain he gets the odd feeling of being trapped in a 1990’s Windows starfield screen-saver. Isn’t Rain-X great?!
Our last Sunday here in town was stake conference, only instead of the traditional format the stake was part of a SLC broadcast. Unfortunately, there were some technical difficulties that made it a little less watchable. There seemed to be some type of sleep-mode activated on the projector, which caused it to turn off after about 60 seconds of the movie. It took over an hour to fix the problem, so most of the conference was heard in 60-second sound bites separated by 30 seconds of resetting the system. You could tell that the speakers had themes, it was just a challenge to figure out what they were. It was all better by the time President Monson spoke, which was a good Festivus Miracle. As always, it was nice to listen to the prophet’s stories, even if some of them were repeats.
Jarom and Lix also attended their third and final birthing class on Monday. It is actually the third of five, but we won’t be here for the last two. It was a great class, covering such wonderfulness as episiotomies and tearing, labor pain, and unique delivery situations. Much of the class was focused on the variety of pain meds that can be used during delivery. Thanks to Coralie and a number of books that Lix has read, she is pretty set on having a natural birth. This puts her in the minority, especially in their class, where most of the women wanted an epidural as soon as humanly possible. I support women deciding for themselves how much to be drugged, but I am mildly skeptical of Alixa. Also in the class they ran a “contraction simulation” that really wasn’t. They guys and the girls had to hold a bag of ice for one minute while they practiced their breathing. Alixa made it about 12 seconds before she put the bag down because of the pain. She claims that labor cannot possibly hurt that bad, so she will be fine without drugs. I suppose we will see.
Despite the happiness surrounding school and work ending, the weather here in Knoxville has been a wee bit gloomy, with many rain showers. This is clearly not the way it is supposed to be. As Alixa wisely noted, “It’s April showers bring May flowers, not April showers bring May rainy-ness.” I couldn’t have said it any better. Fortunately, during a sunny week not too long ago Lix applied a coat of Rain-X to the Camry’s windshield. It was her first time and she was very proud of herself for doing a good job. Now whenever Jarom drives in the rain he gets the odd feeling of being trapped in a 1990’s Windows starfield screen-saver. Isn’t Rain-X great?!
Our last Sunday here in town was stake conference, only instead of the traditional format the stake was part of a SLC broadcast. Unfortunately, there were some technical difficulties that made it a little less watchable. There seemed to be some type of sleep-mode activated on the projector, which caused it to turn off after about 60 seconds of the movie. It took over an hour to fix the problem, so most of the conference was heard in 60-second sound bites separated by 30 seconds of resetting the system. You could tell that the speakers had themes, it was just a challenge to figure out what they were. It was all better by the time President Monson spoke, which was a good Festivus Miracle. As always, it was nice to listen to the prophet’s stories, even if some of them were repeats.
Jarom and Lix also attended their third and final birthing class on Monday. It is actually the third of five, but we won’t be here for the last two. It was a great class, covering such wonderfulness as episiotomies and tearing, labor pain, and unique delivery situations. Much of the class was focused on the variety of pain meds that can be used during delivery. Thanks to Coralie and a number of books that Lix has read, she is pretty set on having a natural birth. This puts her in the minority, especially in their class, where most of the women wanted an epidural as soon as humanly possible. I support women deciding for themselves how much to be drugged, but I am mildly skeptical of Alixa. Also in the class they ran a “contraction simulation” that really wasn’t. They guys and the girls had to hold a bag of ice for one minute while they practiced their breathing. Alixa made it about 12 seconds before she put the bag down because of the pain. She claims that labor cannot possibly hurt that bad, so she will be fine without drugs. I suppose we will see.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Cribs
Hello everyone! I know Mitch just posted, but I couldn't wait until next week to put this up. So, we are leaving next week and we thought it would be nice to have a place to put our baby when we get back from Delaware, so Jarom finally put together the crib. It is really a cute crib, I think. So then I got so excited to have a crib up, I just had to look at bedding for it. So, this is the bedding we got. I need opinions. What do you all think of my make-shift nursery? Do the browns clash? It really feels like we are going to have a baby now. Weird.
Also, while I have everyone's attention, I just wanted to give my friend Amanda some publicity. She just started her own online shop and makes really cute stuff. She will be adding a lot more items, but for now it is mostly cute crocheted hats and beanies for babies and headbands for little girls with big flowers on them. You should all check out her website.
He was much better at putting the crib together than at putting the mobile together
Also, while I have everyone's attention, I just wanted to give my friend Amanda some publicity. She just started her own online shop and makes really cute stuff. She will be adding a lot more items, but for now it is mostly cute crocheted hats and beanies for babies and headbands for little girls with big flowers on them. You should all check out her website.
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