sniff sniff...
my first modest child
kept his/her/it's legs crossed tightly the entire time.
dr.'s best guess is a girl, but it's just a guess.
better luck next time.
i guess this will be a surprise baby, in more ways than one...
ultrasound
i'm off for our ultrasound...
hopefully Treeleaf will cooperate. :)
i will update tonight if he/she/it does.
dustin update and a little photo love
thanks so much for all the sympathy, it's been a little rough. Dustin was doing well, and today he got worse. His symptoms came back full force, complete with vomiting (he has vomited 1 time since we've been married, well...2 times, if you count the time in Mexico when a friend put Mescal in his punch...but we won't talk about that...). The dr. said to go back to the ER if his symptoms came back (especially b/c of his spinal tap) and they did a cat scan (i have no idea if that's how it's spelled). They are at a loss...they know something is obviously wrong, just not what it is. It could be anything from a viral infection to a really bad migraine. This could turn out to be the most expensive migraine in the history of the world...
On a happier note, I did a photo session for my sister's family this weekend, and I just love some of the images we got. I will share a few, if blogger cooperates ;)
sick days
julian was sick a couple of days ago. he came to my bed around 5am and shortly after, threw up everywhere. tons of fun.
a few hours later, we were up and the kids were playing. julian would just randomly start crying. when i would go to check on him, he would be shivering and he said, "mamaaaaa.....juju's cryin! i wanna rock." (i wanna rock, meaning, rock me in the rocking chair, not i wanna rock, as in "buy me an electric guitar, i'm gonna join the rolling stones")
shortly after, we were sitting at the table, and bella was at our feet, pretending to be a puppy. julian started crying and then just threw up EVERYWHERE. all over the kitchen floor, all over me and him and annabelle.
Annabelle jumped up and shrieked, "
DISGUSTING!!! JUJU!??!?
WHY ARE YOU DOING THAT????"
little miss hospitality, took it as a personal attack.
fortunately it ended as quickly as it began, and we are all well, once again. well, all of us except for dustin...
he was rushed in an ambulance to the er yesterday. he said it started out as a horrible migraine, then he lost most of his vision. he couldn't drive (we try to avoid that when we have no vision ;) ) his mom called an ambulance, she was so worried.
they did an iv, a spinal tap (who knew they still did those??) lots of medication. apparently too much, his blood pressure decreased very rapidly and then they had to pump lots of fluids and stuff back into him to get his blood pressure back up. if you know dustin at all, you know that just drawing blood is an ordeal with him.
he said that they put a needle into his spine 8 times. i can't imagine. i talked to him late last night, and he was still in pain, despite the vicodin, morphine and whatever else they had him on.
in the end they weren't sure what was wrong. they feared it was some type of viral issue, possibly meningitis? he's not supposed to walk, much less work for 3 days (b/c of the spinal tap) but we'll see if he sticks to that. he's hoping to be back to work by Sunday.
i don't like that feeling, of everything being up in the air, and not being able to do anything about it. it's quite unsettling.
sugar rush
more random little quirks from my OCD children. Annabelle has to separate everything by color. Like how the red skittles are with the red starburst, orange with orange. It was quite disturbing to her that there weren't pink skittles and purple starbursts.
Julian makes a "train" out of everything. EVERYTHING. At our apartment, we kept all of my shoes in a basket by the front door, b/c I always lost my shoes and would be late for work. Typical. Anyways, Julian would line my shoes up on the coffee table as a "train" and play for hours. So it only makes sense that his Starburst candies couldn't be eaten until he had made them into a train.
grape tomatoes
Mom brought home grape tomatoes for our salad last night. Julian was curious and tasted one and LOVED it. He probably ate 6 or 7 little tomatoes and we bragged on him for being such a big healthy eater. Annabelle said, "I want one", so we gave it to her and she spit it everywhere. "Gross, that's disgusting" she declared.
Trying not to let Julian realize that it wasn't the most popular snack among kids, we kept pumping him up, "what a big boy you are, Juju! I'm so proud of you for eating all those tomatoes!"
Finally, Bella had had enough. She threw herself dramatically across the kitchen table, and declared, "IT'S NOT FAIR!!! It's not fair that my mouth just doesn't like the way they taste!!!"
how did you find me?
i have this little blog counter that keeps track of people that visit this site, how they find it, where it is linked.
about once a week, i go to check it out, make sure i'm not linked to anything dirty, and i check "TOP KEYWORDS"
These are things that people type into Google, Yahoo or MSN Search, and somehow find me sometimes. For instance, apparently lots of people are looking for fruity cheerios online. So they type "fruity cheerios" into google search and on page 9, there's a link to my blog, b/c i mentioned fruity cheerios recently.
I get found a lot for the
"My name is Chubby" joke that I posted on here months ago, and people searching for
Waterdeep songs, since I have somehow managed to blog at least 5 times about their music. What can i say? i'm a fan.
So today, I log on, and somebody found my little blog here by typing in "
Poop Stained Undies".
Whaaaaaat?????? and there on page 5, in all it's glory, is a link to
this, ONE of my most embarrassing stories ever. I don't drink, otherwise I would have assumed that I was drunk when i thought it was a good idea to share this with the world. this time, i have chocolate to blame. i've eaten 2 pieces of german chocolate cake, and i'm kind of thinking, "hey this would be funny." i'm sure tomorrow i will regret it. i mean, who wants to be known as "Mindi, that girl who crapped her pants in Nicaragua"???
apparently, i do. maybe i need professional help.
Every year, English teachers from across the country can submit actual analogies and metaphors found in high school essays. Here are last year's winners: 1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master 2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free 3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it 4. She grew on him like she was a colony of E. Coli, and he was room-temperature Canadian beef 5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up 6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever. 7. He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree 8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine 9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't. 10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup 11. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. Instead of 7:30 12. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze. 13. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease 14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. Traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m., at a speed of 35 mph 15. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan's teeth. 16. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met 17. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she was the East River 18. Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut 19. Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do. 20. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work 21. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while. 22. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something 23. The ballerina rose gracefully en Pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant 24. It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools. 25. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.
I finally went to the doctor yesterday. First prenatal visit and i am 21 weeks pregnant. I've heard lots of nagging, even from people I don't know. So everybody be at ease, little "Treeleaf" is doing wonderfully.
The heartbeat sounded perfect, though it took a few minutes to find it as the baby was apparently wiggling around. I was afraid that he was hearing twins, but fortunately, there is a single baby in my womb and all is well. The heartbeat was a strong 154 bpm. Annabelle's was always around 155 and Julian's was always between 130's and 140's. Which makes me think that this is a little
girl "Treeleaf".
We will hopefully find out within the month.
I've only gained 3 pounds, but to look at my belly, you would think it was a lot more than that. Okay, i'm lying. What I should have said was, "to look at my BUTT, you would think it was a lot more than that."
Dustin left for Austin today. We had lots of discussion this week, over moving vs. staying, but in the end, we both knew it would be better for us to move. I will be sad to leave, but for strange reasons.
#1 i love my doctor. After having Julian, I told Dustin I wanted to have a third child, just to use Dr. R again. I was still a little wacked out from those endorphins. Apparently, God took me seriously.
#2 the hospital just renovated and built a huge, gorgeous new women's facility with birthing suites and i was looking foward to experiencing agonizing, horrific pain in the comfort of a suite the size of our old apartment. Not to mention the comfortable leather couches that could easily seat 50 of my closest friends, while watching me in the most embarrassing positions possible. Anybody up for watching me use a bedpan? Come on, it could be fun, right?
#3 i love this area in the fall. it's my favorite season ever, and there's nothing like driving up the mountain in November, with a mug of hot chocolate and a book. I know there's going to be lots to love in Austin, but i miss my hometown in the fall.
Things I'm really excited about:
*a 3 bedroom apartment. we so need it.
*ACL next month!!!! the tickets are in my bag right now and everytime i open my purse to search for money that isn't there, i smile at my ACL tickets. who needs to buy diapers when you are going to get to see Willie Nelson next month, right??
*my first 4 "Friends and Family" photo sessions are this weekend. I'm pretty excited and hope everything goes well. Tomorrow is the last day that I can book any more sessions (due to moving date) so email me ASAP if you are interested.
good night :)
new photos
i've finally got the wedding album on my photoblog. it's been a lot of fun, and even after all the work, i think i may want to do more weddings in the future.
i guess time will tell...
taxi
julian loves this little NYC taxi that dustin brought home. he's played with it for hours and hours.
i'm a fan of anything that keeps this little tiger occupied for hours and hours. :)
we're hopefully having a picnic tomorrow. i'm so excited for a fun family day. hopefully there will be no rain, but no scorching heat either.
just for fun: go to google.com and type in "(your name) looks like" and see what you get.
i got "Mindi looks like a walking carnival."
dustin's home!!!
a little eye candy for this happy thursday :)
i made another last minute trip last night, this time to fayetteville. dustin is home!!!!!!!!!
yeah, i'm pretty excited about that. he was gone for just over a month, and seeing him again made both of us feel like when we were first dating. when we first met, he was in a band that travelled quite often, 2-3 weeks at a time. it was hard, but kept things fresh. we rarely fought, because just when we started getting annoyed with eachother, he had to go on the road again.
we've matured a bit since then, so i don't need him to be gone for long periods of time so that we get along, but reunions are always so sweet. :)
i've received a few more emails regarding photo sessions, so i'll try to get back to all of you tonight. now that my hubby is home to keep kids occupied while i get a few things done, everything should go much faster.
legal question
i have a legal question for you guys...
this is the copyright message that i have on my photography site.
© 2006 Mindi Bartell
Please do not use any text or images from this site without permission. Don't make me hurt you. Have a nice day.do you think it's still all legal and everything if i make a threat in the middle of my copyright message?
while i was driving furiously to memphis last night, amy and salomon kept my kids. salomon went to pick up a pizza and saw these tattoos at the check out counter. he bought one for each of the kids and bribed them with the tattoos to get out of the bathtub. (they LOVE bath time and i usually resort to screaming "Juju!!! There's bugs in the water!!" and he'll hop right out, a little shaken, but whatever)
anyways, he told annabelle that hers had ponies on it, but upon closer examination, there wasn't a single pony on her tattoo. amy said, "well, he said he couldn't see them very well, they're so small and it was dark in the pizza place."
i said, "Oh, is that why Julian has a fairy and flowers on his tattoo?"
she said, "Oh no, he knew that's what was on it. he thought it was funny."
i have the coolest brother in law ever.
<---this little girl is sleeping over tonight. :) my bed always smells like baby jocelyn when she goes home. i love it :)
i made a last minute trip (10+hours roundtrip) to Memphis today. I am so tired and sore and I came home to an inbox full of people that are interested in having a photo session with me this month. I am overwhelmed (in a good way) and so excited about the possibilities...
I am off to bed, just wanted to update and let you know that I will email everyone tomorrow evening with some details.
**Tonya, can you email me (
mindibartell@hotmail.com) and give me your email address?
**Betsy, if you email me (see above) I will get back to you as soon as i can about a possible date that I could come to your area.
**Emily, I will email a couple of pictures to you tomorrow evening also :)
tomorrow looks like a day full of email love :) If anybody else is interested in a photo session this month, let me know as soon as possible, because dates are filling up pretty quickly and i'm trying to find an organized way to fit everybody in.
click here if you missed the original post and want more info.
more random little quirks from my OCD children. Annabelle has to separate everything by color. Like how the red skittles are with the red starburst, orange with orange. It was quite disturbing to her that there weren't pink skittles and purple starbursts.
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