Sprint & Marathon

We're busy, busy, busy getting everything ready for Thanksgiving.  As of 11:07 on Tuesday, we still have a houseful of painters and quite a mess on our hands.  We have no clue where we put our extra silverware and we just realized we only have dishes for 8 but 15 people eating.  Oh and that tree we had cut down is still in pieces in the front yard. But - the good news is - we're just fine with all of it.  Put simply, we will make it work. And it will be absolutely perfect. 

Quick Quotes

Josie to me in bed the other night:
"Awww mommy. You are so cute. You are my best friend. I'm going to keep you forever."

Josie to Louie and I the other night over dinner:
"I can't eat anymore of my dinner. My tummy is all full. I think I need some more of that Halloween candy."
Me: "If your belly is all full and you can't fit in anymore dinner, then you can't fit in any candy either."
Josie (looking at her belly): "Actually, my belly is loose. Can I have some candy now?"
(And do you think we could actually tell her no?!)

Josie, still insisting that the baby will be fine sleeping in her bed despite the fact that we told her babies wake up very often to get milk in the middle of the night:
"I have plenty of milk in my boo-boos mom so Roly Poly will be just fine!"

Ch-ch-ch-ch changes

Big changes are coming to the Schneider house. I think I'm starting to get used to the idea that I'm actually having a baby. (Just yesterday a woman asked me when my baby was due & my first thought was - "Oh, you can tell I'm pregnant? This early?" And then I remembered I was 25 weeks.)

In typical Schneider-family fashion, we've taken on way too much at once. So, we have a house full of painters, a piece of furniture being built for the entry, our dining room table on Craigslist, oh and and we're actively hunting for a full dining room set to replace said table since we're hosting Thanksgiving next week.

Add to that the big deadline I have for tomorrow at work, the fact that Josie and I are still coughing two weeks after initially getting sick, oh - and bedrest - and needless to say, things are bananas around here. Oddly enough, it's an exciting and not stressful kind of bananas so we're holding up just fine.

Goodness gracious - I forgot to mention we're having some trees removed this weekend.

I will definitely post before & after pics of the paint job. So far, it's an unbelievably improvement!!!!!

Losing a friend and gaining some perspective

This weekend started off like any other. Lou graciously gave me Saturday morning to sleep in since I was (still!) sick and we had plans to get things done around the house, spend some family time together, etc. Friday afternoon we had another ultrasound and doctor's appointment and saw our little lady busily dancing around in my tummy - now 25 weeks in utero. Scott put me on two more weeks of modified bedrest as a precaution and things are moving right along. Josie has adapted to a mama that's horizontal way more than she's used to and all is well in the grand scheme of things. Truth told, I was getting a little grumpy about a week lost to both Josie & I being sick and I was starting to stress big time about facing this week (and a big work deadline on Friday). Let's just put it like this - I was *thrilled* to sleep in on Saturday morning - and made it all the way to 9am!
Little did I know, that while I was sleeping, the unthinkable happened!!! Later Saturday afternoon, while Josie was napping curled up with me on the couch, I checked my cell phone and discovered horrible news!
Lori Morris was gone - "Super Mom" by all accounts, mother to four incredible kids, the rare kind of friend who is equally dependable for trust-worthy advice and a really fun night out, and the kind of parent every teacher begs to see on the classlist each year, (I had her daughter Nicole who is now in high school as a second grader & Lori was certainly room-mom extraordinaire!). Lori's van was hit on 275 Saturday morning when a 25 year-old girl crossed the highway and hit her head-on. Lori, two of her daughters & another mother/daughter were on their way to a cheerleading competition, like so many other Saturday mornings. And, in an instant, Lori was taken from her family and friends and everything changed.
Like so many people, I was lucky to have known Lori. She was so filled with love & light and one of the most generous spirits you can imagine. She always stood out as one of those "I wanna be like that" kind of moms when I was teaching. And, when I became a mother myself, she always had the best advice. (Usually some brand of "Carri, chill out" that reminded me it was all going to be alright - whether it was potty training, starting school, etc.) And, pure and simple, Lori was just downright FUN! She brought just as much humor & silliness to everything from a parent-teacher conference to a Bachelorette party. She just loved life, and that's why this is all the more tragic.
Fortunately, the kids are healing. So many people loved Lori and I have no doubt that a huge community will step up to protect her four children. (There are already 2000 people on her memorial page on facebook!) She touched so many lives through all the volunteering in schools, cheerleading, etc that this has just sent shockwaves through so many people.
All told, it's just horrible that something so tragic has to happen to remind us all about what really is important. Suddenly, a lot of things that mattered on Friday didn't matter at all on Saturday. And every minute seems that much more precious. And fleeting. Nothing is promised. Nothing is guaranteed and we all need to move through life with more gratitude.
For me, it's about letting people know just how much I appreciate them. These last couple of years have produced some unbelievable challenges for us, and I am truly blessed to have such amazing people in my life. And this was a tragic reminder to me to let people know how much I care about them. You just never know which conversation with someone is going to be your last. The last conversation I had with Lori was about cell phone companies. I wish instead that the last thing I said to Lori was about how much I respected & valued her. So, with that, I'm facing my work week with a little less anxiety. And I'm hugging my family extra tight. I'm not worrying about the details of Thanksgiving or the two-page long to-do list because none of it really matters. I just hope I can hold on to these lessons for awhile, because it shouldn't take something so tragic and so severe to create this perspective.
Love you all. Thanks for sharing our lives with us.

xavier montessori pride

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Iman...Tyra...Heidi...Josie

Over the weekend, I was doing my "side-lying" bedrest time on the couch. Lou (um - best dad ever) helped Josie organize a fashion show of all the winter gear they found. Sprinkle in the club music station on the TV and we had quite an event on our hands. Here are my three favorite passes down the runway.


Take One:


Take Two:


Take Three:

mentos to the rescue

josie scratched her cornea (how? no idea) and has to wear this patch today & tonight. she was so brave in the doctor's office; sweet little thing.

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40,000 reasons to smile

Just noticed that we passed the 40,000 visits mark sometime recently. Thanks everyone for being such an incredible part of our "extended" family. Love you all!

24 week update

I'm now 24 weeks pregnant - maybe not a huge milestone to all of you - but a big one for us. 24 weeks is the age where a premature baby actually has a decent chance of survival.  So, for us, that's a big deal.

My doctor's appt on Friday went very well. My cervix is measuring much better and it appears that the bedrest is certainly working! The "downside" of this is that I have to stay on bedrest for another week or so since it's obvious it is making a difference.  I will be re-evaluated at the end of this week to determine what the next week will look like. So, for now, I'm still on 16-18 hours a day of bedrest.  (Oh - the other update is he said those 16-18 hours are supposed to all be on my side. Not gonna lie - can't be religious about that one after the soreness of two days of sticking to that strictly last week - but I am otherwise following doctor's orders like a good little patient.)

Bedrest Update

First things first, here's a HUGE thanks to all of you who have called and emailed to offer help while I'm on bedrest. We really really appreciate all the kind words, calls and texts just to check in, offers to run errands, watch Josie, etc.  As I've shared with some of you, this "diagnosis" has been a pretty complicated thing - emotionally, physically, psychologically, financially and more. I'm so lucky to have such wonderful friends who have made this so much easier. Tomorrow afternoon we will return to the doctor for a repeat ultrasound and appointment to determine the course of action for the next week. Thanks for keeping us in your thoughts! I'll be sure to keep you all posted.
In exciting news - little Bunny (or Roly Poly as Josie regularly calls her) is moving around like a little jumping bean. She's very active and both Louie & Josie are now able to feel her kick.

To Josie from Liz

Last night we received the most special email. It was a wonderfully, perfect surprise from Elizabeth Mitchell about the blog posts that my sister and I both did about her the ways in which her family's music has touched our lives.  I decided to email her the links. I guess I just thought that if I were the coming off of a long (and likely exhausting) tour with my family that it would be nice to have a little extra reminder of why I decided to be a children's folksinger in the first place.

Here is her email (that Josie had me read aloud three times):

dear carri

thank you so much for writing!!! i am sorry i have not responded sooner-
we just got home from our tour late friday night, and i am finally
catching up!

the blog entries that you share are precious and really moved me! it's
incredibly meaningful to me to know that our music is part of your
families life. please tell josie (jojo!) and lyla that storey and i say
hello :)

thank you again for reaching out and sharing your writing...

take care!
liz

home office

and lunch specially-delivered by the best husband ever!

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Halloween Take Four - the real deal

After a full month of celebrating the arrival of Autumn and Halloween fun, the actual big day finally arrived. We had been warned for weeks by our neighbors to stock-up and be-prepared and they certainly weren't kidding.  All told, we had over 700 trick-or-treaters in less than 2 hours!!!! (And - we made it all the way to 7:57 before running out of candy, even if that meant one pixie stick per kid.)  It was a blast! Luckily we had the help (and Halloween spirit) of my parents, a very eager three-year-old, fun costumes and a Schneider Family Night to Remember.

The Cat in the Hat with her Things 1 & 2! 

 Grandma & DD (Ming-Ming that is) to the rescue!

 A mouthful of candy

 Swinging in the dark (which was probably the highlight of her night, to be honest)

Since I rested most of the day on Sunday, I was able to justify being up for a trip half way down the street and back with Josie and some time in a chair to pass out candy. 

 Truth told, Josie was a little overwhelmed by the trick-or-treating process itself. About ten houses in, she looked at us and said "I should really get back home."  She was more excited to pass out the candy than to go get it for herself. And at the end of the night, we took what candy she did have and left it out for the Halloween Fairy. I told Josie we should hang it on the doorknob, but she insisted that we had to leave a trail of candy so the Fairy could smell it.  She worked pretty hard on laying this all out just right.

 And even drew a picture for the Halloween Fairy to take with her as well - which she taped to the front door earlier that day so the Fairy could see it while it was still light outside. The next morning she woke up to find a thank you present from the Halloween Fairy sitting on the front porch - a new book and a game! The Halloween Fairy was so excited that Josie donated her candy to Fairyland where all the fairies could turn the candy into pixie dust!

Oh & I should also mention that the peanut allergy thing wasn't as big as a concern as we feared - mostly because Josie really has gotten so good about it.  Sure Louie and I cringed every time we saw someone toss a Butterfinger, Reese Cup, or bag of peanut M&Ms into her bag - but Josie gladly asked us to pull out all the peanut stuff so she could choose from what was safe. And we just passed the peanutty-stuff back out to other kids (or gave it to DD).

It was a GREAT Halloween! 

Halloween Takes Two & Three

Way back at the beginning of the month, we started off the Halloween season with a trip to the zoo - where Josie wore her first of four Halloween costumes for 2010.  As you know, Josie had lots of interesting ideas for costumes (veggie burger, parking meter, microwave, salsa, mop, windmill, nectarine, doorknob) but she ended up settling for some more traditional ideas (thankfully). She had two more opportunities for dressing up at her two best friends' Halloween parties. She was a princess for the first and a fairy for the second. Here she is with several of her school friends at the two parties.  (All this & it wasn't even Trick or Treat yet!)

 Oh, I should probably mention (before you all think I'm nuts) that we didn't buy Josie four Halloween costumes.  With the exception of the actual trick or treat costume (that came from ebay), she already had the rest of these things in her dress-up stash.

And can I just say that we are beyond-thrilled to be a part of such a wonderful school family.  It's so incredible to think Josie will grow and learn alongside these same kids from now until she's 9! (Three cheers for montessori education!)

Bedrest Report Day One

Even though I've officially been on bedrest since Thursday, today feels like the first "real" day since it's Monday, Lou's back to work, etc.  The weekend was great. I've already learned some very valuable lessons about what bedrest does & doesn't mean, and I do think I'm going to be able to pull this off. It just comes down to a totally new way to prioritize. Because when you only get a few hours a day up & moving, then you want to use those the best way possible. With that, I got to go to one of Josie's two parties on Saturday.  On Sunday, I had to spend the bulk of the day flat but that earned me some quality Trick or Treating time in the evening. Today was Josie's parent/teacher conference & I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to straighten out work details and get re-organized for my new career as an education policy writer with an office on the couch.  All told, there will be things that are easier about this than I expected and things that will be more difficult. (Like when Josie told me she would just carry me up to the third floor so we could play in the art room.) So, I'll leave you with that update & the promise of Halloween photos coming soon! Thanks for keeping us in your thoughts. My next appointment is Friday afternoon.  It's a pretty scary time - complicated by the realities of every day life - so we appreciate your patience/understanding/empathy/etc.