Ugh, Leap Year

So all day I've been thinking...who the heck decided to put the extra day in the leap year during the month of February?! Does it really matter when we get the extra day? Couldn't it have been in July? Whoever in the world decided this must not have lived in MN!!

January went so slow for me...ugh, I hate to even think about it. Luckily February went whizzing by...even with the extra day! Now,I can hardly wait for March and what it will bring. Alix will be headed to Mexico for a fun vacation, Steve and I will be buying a new car (or so we hope!!), we will also be painting the baby's room, week 27 will arrive (and I'll be on to the third trimester--woohooo!), and ...only time will tell the rest! Hopefully it will be all good.

Happy March Everyone...hopefully yours will be good too!!

My Talented "Little" Girl!

Here is an excerpt from Alix's wonderful talent show...unluckily blogger will only let me put up a small portion of it. It was an outstanding performance of "I Don't Think About It" by Emily Osmet. Alix and her 3 friends performed it twice (the first time the mics didn't work...so sad!) Luckily for everyone we got an encore presentation at the end of the show and everything went smoothly...whew! I will say that I was pretty psyched when I first found out that the girls were set to perform 13th of the 43 acts (so I could sneak out at intermission...who doesn't love kids talent shows?! Well, I guess me...I can only take so much singing, dancing and playing by 6-11 year olds...I know, i know, I'm a bad mommy ;) Anyway, after the debacle of the first performance we found out that they'd get another chance to go on...as the grand finale of the show...act number 44! Well, despite the fact that I felt great that they'd get a second chance, I will admit that the idea of sitting another hour and a half was a bit of a *sigh* causing moment. It was all worth it in the end though (and I shouldn't lie...I did sneak home quickly and missed 10 or so acts ;) as the girls rocked the stage and ended the 2008 Groveland Elemntary Talent Show with a bang!!

22 week belly

here's some wonderful shots of my 22w pregnant belly. Unfortunately, I think it looks bigger in person...Oh well, what can a girl do?! I took them myself, so sorry about the poor quality.

Easy come, Easy go

Where oh where did my energy go?! It was here, then I went to sleep one night and I guess it got tired of the cold weather becuase the next thing I knew...it was gone. It's probably hanging out in Mexico right now...without me! I guess they say, easy come easy go.

an update to my last post on our burst radiator...$150, whew...that's not so bad! oh wait a minute...it was only $150 to take the raditor out and dump it on our front step, but it was another $80 when a couple of days later the sealed up valve that was left over in the room started to leak from a crack, drenched our wood floor, and needed to be removed. They say this should take care of it...I sure hope so!

Live and Learn

We are idiots...it is our own fault...um, now that I think about it, it actually makes sense that you can't just turn off a radiator on an outside porch (why would we do this anyway? well, b/c who wants to heat an outside porch in MN?!). Why can't you just turn it off you ask? Well, b/c now I realize there is still water in a radiator when you turn it off, and that water is bound to freeze when it's -10 degrees for a good length of time...especially when the radiator sits on an outside wall. Then one day you will come home to a radiator with icicles hanging from it b/c it has cracked in numerous places and the water has been dripping and draining for a while, the wood floor will be all wet, dirty water will be spattered across the room, and you will have to call an emergency plumber who will charge you hundreds of dollars an hour to come out and probably tell you that it will cost you much more than that to replace the radiator so you can once again start to heat your outside porch in MN. Ugh...live and learn.

Ummm, maybe I should quit posting about our stupidity...does it make us sound even stupider than you thought we were?!

Tax Rebate, Tax Schmebate and...today I'm oficially closer to 40 than 30!

what a scam...I seriously should have known better. Am I the only sucker?! I thought rebate meant...

rebate ( ) n. A deduction from an amount to be paid or a return of part of an amount given in payment.

I didn't know it really meant...cash advance to be repaid later.

"The checks are an advance on next year's refunds, and most, if not all of the money, will be deducted from taxpayers' refunds in 12 months' time."

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/08/economic.stimulus/index.html

Nice...

And to top it off, today I am officially closer to 40 than I am to 30...what kind of birthday present is that?! To celebrate I plan to eat a 750 calorie banana chocolate chip muffin for breakfast, a bar (or 6) from the teacher's lounge with lunch, and have pizza for dinner. It should be all right though, I've heard your metabolism speeds up after you turn 35, right?! ;)

5 fingers, 6 toes, and maybe a nose?!

We had our "big ultrasound" yesterday!! We aren't finding out Lou-lu's sex, so this was really just an opportunity for us to see how things were going in htere. It was great to be able to see growing Lou-lu and know that once again all is going well. This u/s is considered the "big" one because it comes at a time when they tech is able to see that development is progressing as scheduled (hopefully.) The u/s tech looked for the 4 chambers of the heart, 2 sides to the brain, all the important organs, counted the fingers (5!) and toes (I thought I counted 6, but the tech swore there were just 5--even counted them on the screen for me...but I still saw something a little extra there. He is the expert though. I figure better too many than not enough, so either way we're covered ;) And measured everything--leg bones, head circumference, rump to head, etc. All checked out as normal. Little Lou-lu was less than cooperative when it came to seeing his/her face though (so we could check for cleft palatte), so I will have to stop back for another quick look-see during my next appt...I'm secretly happy about this as I'll be able to see him/her again ;) If we learned anything from this u/s we know that much like Alix, this baby is not a mover and a shaker (Lou-lou sat still the entire time...I rarely felt alix move through my pregnancy with her)...and does not like to be aroused when sleeping...could it be as sign of another girl?! (Alix sure hopes so!) Or perhaps it just shows us that Lou-lu is it has inherited a little family stubbornness (from Steve of course ;)

Not much else is new in the Bellus-Penz household. I am busy with conferences this week Tues/Thurs evenings until 8 (YUK!) Nothing annoys me more than conferences!!!!! I hate that people come when they aren't scheduled (you are not my only conference you cannot just show up and expect me to bump someone who did come at their scheduled time), people who act helpless about their child who doesn't do HW/school work (ummm, hello...take something away...TV/Video Games/Computer...your child doesn't NEED these things, especially if they can't do what they NEED to do), people who don't come at all, people who do not follow through at home....need I go on?! I'm sure glad I have a nice dinner to look forward to on Saturday though--Cafe Maude here I come (it better be good Lammers or you're in big trouble ;)