But things are much different now, as my children have a TV, DVD player, DS and who knows what else. I have memories of playing Mad Libs with my brother, listening to my fathers music (which became favorites of mine) and reading books to pass the time.

These things seem long gone now, as technology has replaced finding eye spy with your children. So are my kids lucky? Yes and no. I think I was lucky to not have the technology and just have my family as entertainment. I mean you’ll never hear “I remember back in 09 playing this great game of Mario on my DS…”

So far I like it a lot. One cool feature is that I might be able to blog remotely. I guess we’ll see if that actually works well or not.

With the three kids now, it should be easier to blog if I do it on the run!

Nesting is said to set in within the 5th month of pregnancy. This is a natural instinct that a mother is said to have where they end up cleaning a ton or organizing. Mainly it is said that it is a way for the mother to get things in “order” within her life before the baby comes.

I honestly did not have this when I was pregnant with my son. I think I cleaned really good one day a few weeks before he came, but that was about it. With this baby, as I’m now in my 35th week, I can see some of these “instincts” coming out. The interesting thing is that they have come out in my husband more than in me!

During Christmas I remember sitting on my couch, looking around our cluttery Christmas home and thinking “after Christmas we are decluttering and this place will be immaculate”. I even called my husband and told him that, I remember that his response was basically “whatever”.

But the funny thing is that since Christmas, my husband has rearranged our bedroom, cleaning it all up and making quite a nice nursing space for me and the soon to be little one. He cleaned up our basement, making about a quarter of it into a play room for the kids, complete with play tents and a TV with cable. He went through all of the “stuff” in our basement and threw a ton out. This weekend he cleaned the garage, even switching the sides of where we park our cars in order to give more room to get the baby carrier in and out of the van. He got both of our bassinets ready to go and has been doing weird things like cleaning our kitchen. So is it contagious?

I, on the other hand, seem to be cleaning all the time. I’m on that weekly cleaning schedule (which I’ll be posting downloadable sheets for here on Mommies Home) so it feels like everything I touch needs to be cleaned. Now our stove is on the fritz, so we’ll have to look for a new one. Now not only do I need to do the 5,000 things before the baby comes, I’ll need to shop for good prices on a range.

So is upgrading appliances in your kitchen considered nesting? I think it might be. They say that tying up loose ends is also a sign of nesting. We have a LOT of loose ends in our home to tie up, so I would think that would qualify.

Am I nesting this time? Sure, I think so. I sit down at my computer and get nothing done because I immediately think of the 5,000 things that I need to do. I’m always doing something, rarely sitting down and taking it easy. Not only am I cleaning but now I’m also making massive amounts of food to freeze for when the baby comes. This, of course, leads to the need for a freezer that can hold all of my cooking and the bulk grocery shopping we do. Our freezer is packed as it is, I don’t quite know what I’m going to do!

Nesting, at least for me, is gratifying and frustrating. Nothing is ever clean enough, nothing is ever done. But it is nice to have a somewhat clean house, especially when my husband is nesting too!

A couple bags of fluids later I felt great, all of the contractions had stopped. So we were hoping I was on the mend.

But, sadly, a day and a half later my stomach was messed up again (and it’s still messed up). They want me to stay on the Bananas, Rice, Applesauce, Toast (B-R-A-T) diet. Ya, seven days on that and I’m about to go insane. There’s not enough applesauce in the world to feed a pregnant woman!

There’s my update, hopefully I can kick this thing fairly soon! Ugh.

Let’s look at it this way, the economy won’t always be bad. Just like the sun will rise, the economy will bounce back. When that happens, you’ll want to be ready. You can get your bachelors now and by the time your done, you’ll be ready to jump into the market, which will be in full swing by then.

Options available to you are getting your bachelors, or masters if you’ve already hit that hurdle. Go back and get your MS nursing or MBA. Both will benefit you greatly.

Just keep it in mind during this time! Better yourself.

Once I figured out the dog issue was happening, I got him upstairs and gave him a bath. One large problem is the fact that I’m pregnant and have a horrible gag reflex, especially around poopy dogs! So after I struggled through giving him a bath, I called my husband and asked if he could clean out our dog crate when he got home, as I couldn’t handle anymore poop and I still had to make dinner, take the screaming 7 year old to karate while towing along a less than happy 20 month old. He said sure.

So after my cooking, running the kids around, then a late night grocery shopping trip, I still smelled like dog poop (I swear that smell seeps into everything, ugh). I just wanted to take a long hot shower and go to bed. I go upstairs and enter our master bathroom. Go to get in the shower and realize that all the bottles have been moved in our small shower. We just have one of those shower enclosures, we end up calling it a stripper shower because it’s just a small box, probably made from one of those shower kits.

Come to realize that my husband has cleaned out the diarrhea in our master shower, my haven, my getaway, MY ONLY SHOWER. So now I’m tired, smelly, and my whole bathroom has that dog poop odor. I have no idea if it really smelled like that or not, but in my head that’s truly all I smelled. After a heated discussion on why he decided to do that, and the still less than satisfactory answer of “It’s the only place that it would fit”, I went to bed without a shower. Even though he said he cleaned it out afterward, it made no difference to me. In my head the smell was still there and unless it was overpowered by some cleaning product smell, I wasn’t going in there. Honestly, it made me want to look into how much steam showers were going for, as I could only imagine steam getting that stench off my body.

I guess poop happens though!

1. Batteries – Come on now, the thing has to be able to run

2. Games – I was suprised that many gaming systems don’t come with at least one game, so definitely get a game to go with it.

3. Holders – If you’re going to get a phone, you’ll need a way to carry it!

4. Flash memory- Come on now, you have to have this for cameras and computers. Trust me, you’ll need them!

Usually ADHD and ADD are treated with a combination of medication and behavioral therapy. These, used in conjunction, help children thrive to be the best they can be. But there are ways to treat them both without medication, if indeed that is the route you want to go. Instead of treating these with medication and behavioral therapy, many are recommending treating ADD without medication and instead treating with behavioral therapy and then medication only if needed.

While there are many different views on this, I’ve seen the way that a child with ADD can act when left without any medication and no therapy. He or she is like a tornado, ripping through life. But I’ve also seen that same child with treated symptoms, and he is a completely different boy. The choice is a personal one, so do your homework on all options before jumping in!

My thoughts and prayers go out to the worker who died. I’m so sorry that occurred and I hold Walmart as responsible as the people that trampled the life out of that man.

Here’s the full story from the Orlando Sentinel via the NY AP:

Wal-Mart worker dies after being bulldozed by bargain-hunting Black Friday shopping stampede

By COLLEEN LONG | Associated Press Writer
8:30 PM EST, November 28, 2008

NEW YORK (AP) _ A Wal-Mart worker was killed Friday when “out-of-control” shoppers desperate for bargains broke down the doors at a 5 a.m. sale. Other workers were trampled as they tried to rescue the man, and customers shouted angrily and kept shopping when store officials said they were closing because of the death, police and witnesses said.

At least four other people, including a woman who was eight months pregnant, were taken to hospitals for observation or minor injuries, and the store in Valley Stream on Long Island closed for several hours before reopening.

Shoppers stepped over the man on the ground and streamed into the store. When told to leave, they complained that they had been in line since Thursday morning.

Nassau County police said about 2,000 people were gathered outside the store doors at the mall about 20 miles east of Manhattan. The impatient crowd knocked the man, identified by police as Jdimytai Damour of Queens, to the ground as he opened the doors, leaving a metal portion of the frame crumpled like an accordion.

“This crowd was out of control,” said Nassau police spokesman Lt. Michael Fleming. He described the scene as “utter chaos.”

Dozens of store employees trying to fight their way out to help Damour were also getting trampled by the crowd, Fleming said.

Items on sale at the store included a Samsung 50-inch Plasma HDTV for $798, a Bissel Compact Upright Vacuum for $28, a Samsung 10.2 megapixel digital camera for $69 and DVDs such as “The Incredible Hulk” for $9.

Damour, 34, was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead about 6 a.m., police said. The exact cause of death has not been determined.

A 28-year-old pregnant woman was taken to a hospital, where she and the baby were reported to be OK, said police Sgt. Anthony Repalone.

Police said criminal charges were possible in the case, but Fleming said it would be difficult to identify individual shoppers. Authorities were reviewing surveillance video.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., based in Bentonville, Ark., called the incident a “tragic situation” and said the employee came from a temporary agency and was doing maintenance work at the store. It said it tried to prepare for the crowd by adding staffers and outside security workers, putting up barricades and consulting police.

“Despite all of our precautions, this unfortunate event occurred,” senior Vice President Hank Mullany said in a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of those impacted.”

Kimberly Cribbs, who witnessed the stampede, said shoppers were acting like “savages.”

“When they were saying they had to leave, that an employee got killed, people were yelling ‘I’ve been on line since yesterday morning,’” she said. “They kept shopping.”

A woman reported being trampled by overeager customers at a Wal-Mart opening Friday in Farmingdale, about 15 miles east of Valley Stream, Suffolk County police said. She suffered minor injuries, but finished shopping before filling the report, police said.

Shoppers around the country line up early outside stores on the day after Thanksgiving in the annual bargain-hunting ritual known as Black Friday. It got that name because it has historically been the day when stores broke into profitability for the full year.