Merry Christmas Eve! Hard to believe it’s finally here. We can’t wait to see the Pearls’ excitement over all the holiday festivities. Miss Pearl may even be old enough to make it to Midnight Mass with Father of Pearls tonight.

So, this morning, Miss Pearl and I were attempting to pick up the pig sty that is called her room. Or more like Mommy was picking up and Miss Pearl was dancing around merrily, talking a mile a minute. You know, generally avoiding any and all work. So as my already uncomfortably pregnant body is crawling around the floor picking up 3/4 of the emptied bookshelf and I’m grumbling and mumbling to myself about how Santa would fall over dead if he saw this room, Miss Pearl, exclaims, “Mommy, you sound just like The Grinch.” OUCH. TOUCHE. Out of the mouth of babes.

Sadly, Miss Pearl isn’t too far off the mark. This difficult pregnancy & juggling holiday and home has taken it’s toll on me. And I’m sorry about that baby girl. I will try harder to see the wonder and joy in life through your gorgeous baby blues. If you can look past all these messes, surely I can?

“It’s my blog and I’ll cry if I want to…” You would cry too if you spent 4 long months fighting awful morning sickness, followed by a month of sinus infections on top of said morning sickness, followed by a UTI, followed by the brutal stomach bug circulating these parts. OK, maybe you wouldn’t, but I sure have. 

Moving along, we’ve somewhat decked the halls, somewhat shopped for gifts, somewhat wrapped some gifts, and somewhat attempted some favorite holiday traditions. Somewhat just has to be it this year.

Miss Pearl, in particular, dove into these festivites with as much gusto as she usually approaches life. I think she single-handedly decorated our tree for us. I had figured we would probably stretch it out over this long week doing a bit at a time.  Nope.  And Mister Pearl has been absolutely hilarious riding in the car admiring all of the Christmas lights! No matter how meager the display, they all get his accolades. “Look, Mommy a Cwiss-miss tree” “Look, Daddy a no Man!” This has helped pass many a nights by driving all over town looking at lights to the sweet request of ”See more! See more!” To which Father of Pearls and I chuckle and say “Feed Me, Seymour”. Truly the holidays are a time to count blessings and these two feed our souls with such innocent sweetness, it’s hard not to feel like a kid again seeing this wonderful time of year through their eyes.

I’d once read the letter “If I Had My Life To Live Over” from the beloved Erma Bombeck and one line in particular always affected me deeply. And I thought to myself, if we were blessed with another pregnancy, that I would follow that advice this time.

“Instead of wishing away nine months of pregnancy, I’d have
cherished every moment and realized that the wonderment
growing inside me was the only chance in life to assist God in
a miracle.”

Beautiful sentiment, Erma, and I sure hope one of these days I can live up to it. Until then, I’m fighting off my second cold in a month, all on the heels of the most miserable of first trimesters. Still, I feel hope and joy at the thought of what’s to come,… These sweet, intermittent flutters in the belly will soon turn into nudges, then kicks, and finally full-on kung fu assaults seen from the outside. I love the quiet time of night when you first lay down and baby takes this as his/her signal to communicate, “hey, I’m awake, let’s play!” Until then, I need some serious R&R.

I cannot believe how sick I’ve been with this pregnancy. How one tiny little bean in there could wreck wreak this much havoc. (I stand corrected, Father of Pearls. He had to pull out Webster’s to prove that I had misspelled the word.  It’s hard to have two spelling bee champions in the house!)  Could it be that I am years older than with the others? Mercifully, my doctor doubled my Zofran dose and it seems to have helped alot.  And I’m almost afraid to say a bit of the first trimester fatigue is lifting. It’s been an awful long couple of months. Hopefully I’ll be back on with some regularity. I’ve got some fun stuff to post!

Wow, it’s been far too long since I’ve updated here. Our trip to Walt Disney World with two Preschoolers took more out of me than I’d anticipated! We survived it and had a great time overall, but we don’t plan on doing that again anytime soon! I look forward to taking them back in a few years when we can appreciate it on an entirely different level.

And while I’m making excuses for my much-ignored site, I should mention the primary reason that’s kept me away. I’m pregnant and expecting in May! How can that be? Mother of Pearls & now an Emerald? Oh the lovely mother’s ring that’ll make one day. I’ve been terribly sick and exhausted during this pregnancy. So much so, I was worried we were expecting multiples. Luckily it’s just one healthy babe in there. I’m looking forward to kissing this awful first trimester goodbye soon! I had such high hopes for this pregnancy to continue eating healthy and be more consistent with exercising, but that will have to wait until I re-enter the land of the living. So, hallpass please?

…for a Pearls’ Family Vacation! Just a thought to ponder, what happens when you take the world’s grumpiest kids to the Happiest Place on Earth? We’ll be back with highlights next week!

You pretty much can’t go anywhere in the blogging community without seeing these lovely buttons. And after clicking on it and reading the story of a beautiful, young family facing a seemingly unsurmountable tragedy, my mind continually returns to their plight. Stephanie & Christian Nielson were in a serious plane crash and are hospitalized in critical condition with severe burns. They have four young children between 2 and 6 that are being lovingly cared for by her family in Utah. Stephanie is the author of the beautiful, creative blog NieNie Dialogues. Where many “Mommy blogs” are filled with the trials and tribulations and craziness of motherhood (that help us laugh & know we’re not alone), Stephanie chose to truly celebrate and embrace stay at home motherhood and marrriage. In reading through some of her posts, she’s truly inspired me with her words, images and strong faith. Her extended family, too, is amazing. They both come from large Mormon families and they have all stepped in to lovingly care for their sweet kiddos and all the affairs of the family. Her sister Courtney’s blog See Jane Run is where recent updates have been posted.

It is situations such as this that make you really ponder your life and think of all the What ifs? Motherhood alone brings about so many of these fears naturally-what if something happened to me/us? Our legacies we are leaving? Are we living each day to the fullest? It truly appeared that Stephanie did. And she counted her many blessings daily. In one of her posts she said “I believe my home is heaven on earth.” Thanks NieNie for the inspiration.

After our trip, I hope to organize an eBay auction to donate the proceeds to Nie’s Recovery fund. There are hundreds of such activities going on around the world/blogshere.

Words escape me at the moment. Perhaps it’s the ringing in my ears or the fog over my brain from two straight days of whining, whimpering, and wailing from Mr. Pearl. We first suspected teething (rolling eyes a bit here). He had a slight fever, was waking at night and has been drooling. He keeps yelling “owie” and grabbing his mouth. Now he won’t eat or drink much. We may be packing it in for one of those Sunday morning Urgent Care visits if he doesn’t improve. And Miss Pearl surely doesn’t like when all the attention is directed towards her brother, so she decided to get in on the late night act, crying and thrashing in her bed waking Mr. Pearl just after I got him soothed back to sleep. And we’ve got a full WEEK ahead of obligations and things that absolutely need to get done, crabby kids or not, right up until we leave for the Happiest Place on Earth. And a short memo to Hurricane Ike: Stay AWAY! We’re coming he$% or high water.Literally. 9/11 didn’t stop our Honeymoon Maui trip, so you won’t either. Thanks, the Pearls.

Lately, the Pearls have been in love with Play-doh, and at long last, they have been able to sit and play nicely together at the kitchen table for extended stretches, I know shocking isn’t it? For once, I was able to quietly get some household chores done, stopping by now and then when someone needed help. Except when I turned around from my task to see this… over Mister Pearl’s shoulder, I could see he was quietly heaping all of the colors of the new Play-doh we had just bought together in one big messy pile…

It brings to mind a funny article (don’t ask me where I read it now!) about you’re either a Clean Mom or a Messy Mom. In that, you can tolerate the messes that kids make all in the name of development and exploration, or you cannot handle it at all, much like Kate from Jon & Kate Plus 8 comes to mind. I think initially I was a Clean Mom, but have slowly moved towards Messy Mom (in so many more ways it seems…). If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em or something to that effect.

But suddenly seeing this conglomeration of Play-doh being lumped together, my Clean (Ok, somewhat formally anal) Mom instincts started buzzing at the sight of it. But then right out of earshot, I stood back to hear him crooning softly, “Birday too yoooo” And I snapped back to being Messy Mom just like that.

This time I’m only two days late! I just received my September Sales & Promotions catalogs and I’m so excited for all of the new 2008 Fall/Gift Seasonal products now available. I’ll be doing some more detailed posts highlighting this line, but you can see a summary of the Seasonal product line here. You can also view the entire list of September Sales items on the “Monthly Sales” page or by visiting Monthly Specials at WatkinsOnline.com.

Once again, our famous, fabulous Double Strength Vanilla is on sale as are the delicious Mexican Soup Base and Six Onion Soup Base. Perfect for Fall cooking/baking.

One new Seasonal product that I cannot wait to get is the Pomegranate Sink Set
Unlock the secret to naturally clean, soft hands with J.R. Watkins Pomegranate Sink Set. Rid hands of daily dirt and grime, then moisturize and soften with our natural hand & body lotion scented by this seasonal fruit with a hint of winter spice. This handsome caddy, made exclusively for Watkins, is sturdy, water-resistant and embossed with the J.R. Watkins logo. Perfect for display next to the kitchen or bathroom sink.

Set includes:
Pomegranate Spice Natural Hand Soap (325 mL /11 fl oz)
Pomegranate Spice Natural Hand & Body Lotion (325 mL/11 fl oz)

It’s on sale this month for $16.99. I think it would make a lovely Christmas gift for someone on your list!