Petting Zoo

We went to a petting zoo and pumpkin patch last weekend with my mom. This is not your ordinary petting zoo... or maybe it is, I'm not sure, I have never been to a petting zoo before. My parents had been before with John Patrick and since they have a pumpkin patch in the fall we decided to take the babies! My Dad, who had no desire to go back, told me to set my expectations very low... this type of petting zoo would only be found in Kentucky!! :o) Words can not do justice to this place, don't get me wrong, the people are very nice and they have a wide variety of animals that you can pet & hold. I will just have to let the pictures tell the story...

This is what greets you at the entrance, this is the name of the establishment (I will not write it for fear that I will be sued for this post) Is this supposed to be the Ark? I love the windows, and painting it brown, that makes it much more ark like. What you can not tell is that this is in a children's play area. It is a nice fenced in area full of jungle jims and slides and animals, who also play on the jungle jims and slides, therefore you have to wait for the goat to get off the playschool climbing thing before you can slide down the slide. Oh, and watch for the duck, chicken, rooster, poop at the bottom of the slide!

This is a picture of a chicken flying the coop! These birds did not look friendly, there were no less than 250 of them PACKED in this coop and we even saw at least 1 dead one that the others were just walking over!! I think they were trying to put them into a trance with the terrible bluegrass music that was blaring from inside the little chicken house. I would not let Elly get close or try to pet them for fear of returning home with one less finger. I did not feel at all safe with this chicken getting out of the cage, however I was excited that the chicken was free!!!!

Crazy sheep with a bad under bite!!
Weird Mohawk rooster... other favorites that are not pictured: ferret with hair missing from rear end, 10,000 lb pig,

I forgot to mention that they had decorated for Halloween with random frightening decor like this head off of a bugs bunny doll. This was stuck in a brush pile that looked like they were ready to set aflame at any moment... YIKES!!

The best part of the trip was the wagon ride to the pumpkin patch. Aunt Woody and I picked out Annie's first pumpkin. The price for small pumpkins was 2 for $1.00! What a deal, we picked out the smallest pumpkin we could find... to which the farmer yelled at me across the field that I had better be picking out another one because he wasn't going to deal with having to break a dollar!!!!!

I don't even know how to summarize this post...... let me know if you would like directions to this family friendly affordable good time!

A Love Affair

I feel I have to come clean, I have a new love affair with... my BED!!!

Its sick! I have never, ever been one to love bed, I like going to sleep at night, and I prefer to sleep in my bed, but I have never been in love with my bed. I am, or at least used to be, a morning person. I HATED laying in bed once I was awake and I never hit snooze.
Now I dont know if its due to lack of sleep or what but my bed is all of the sudden THE MOST comfortable place on the face of the earth. I climb into it (many times) at night and I fall in love all over again.
I just put our winter down comforter on the bed this week, and we have the "good sheets" on right now. The 600 count sheets we got for a wedding present that are the softest things in the ENTIRE world!
Problem: I dont want to ever leave my bed. It may be because mornings are a bit colder, or the previously mentioned lack of sleep but all I want to do in the mornings (like until noon) is lay in bed with my baby. Now I am a realistic person and I have only done that once this week... but I seriously need to get over this obsession!

On a good note, she is sleeping in her own room and although the first night I cried harder than she did (may have something to do with her Dad coming to her rescue and I was left to cry in my comfortable bed) we are all getting a little more sleep!

My tiny pea in her huge bed :o) I actually took this picture because she has a ridiculously small head but her huge cheeks are always hiding that! So this picture was to capture her tiny head :o)

Things I Don't Understand

I just dont get it. Maybe one of you can explain it to me. I don't understand why anyone would decorate their yard for Halloween! Since I was a small child I enjoyed Trick-or-Treating. Every year we would create costumes months in advance anticipating the day when we would be released in the subdivision to fill our pillowcases with candy (did everyone use pillowcases for candy collection?) We would literally run from house to house to make it to as many doors as possible before our time was up. Its not that I am not a fan of the holiday. I just dont understand decorating in morbid skulls and spiders and blood... i.e. my neighbors yard...

Why on earth would anyone put a headless bloody man in their flowerbed!??!

Especially when you have the opportunity to decorate with beautiful Autumn Orange, Red, Yellow, Brown i.e my house...

Then there are the blow up lawn decorations... but I will not subject you all to hearing all I feel about the blow up lawn decorations.

For Kentucky Kate

Have You Ever…
1. gone on a blind date? Nope, The only "date" I ever went on besides with Joe was with Owen Liske! :o) We were doing it for a friend and now I can't even remember who we were doing it for, but we agreed to double date so the other 2 wouldn't feel awkward. There ended up being like 6-8 couples who went and so we could have just called it a group outing. Anyway I think its funny because it was a Tuesday night and we went to the dollar theatre which cost $1.75 and then Steak & Shake where Tina and I shared a meal and Dave paid. So besides teasing Owen about it I don't think that $1.75 counts as a date.

2. skipped school? Not without someone in authority knowing. I got really good at coming up with reasons to not be at school senior year though (yearbook outings, stage manager for the play etc) This was dumb but I skipped class once, this was a class of 6 people and 4 of us didn't go... we went around the school taking pictures in places we shouldn't have been. I have a picture in my scrapbook of Nema and I in the principals office with our feet up on his desk!! Go CCS!! Oh yeah, we got caught and in some trouble... ;o(

3. been on the opposite side of your country? Hmm California, Texas, Florida, Michigan, South Carolina. That about covers each side I guess.

4. swam in the ocean? I Love Playing in the waves!!

5. had your booze taken away by the cops? Hahahahahahahaha... whats booze? Yeah I didn't really ever have those rebel years of Kate N.

6. lettered in a high school sport? Hahahahahaha this is even more foreign than booze. No really I did play soccer my senior year. But I think that in order to be "lettered" you actually have to have some field time.

7. cried yourself to sleep? Kate if you haven't cried yourself to sleep since you were 14 that is amazing. I have to say, yes I have cried myself to sleep numerous times.

8. played a musical instrument? Piano in Elementary and Middle School

9. sung karaoke? At my bachelorette party at Woodys! :o) Not ever in public.

10. cheated on an exam? Back in the Homeschool days (sorry mom but those answer keys were so access able... I didn't do it more than a couple times I promise... I have a career now so I guess it didn't dumb me down too much)

11. played spin-the-bottle? No.

12. laughed until some sort of beverage came out of your nose? yeah but I cant remember any time specific.

13. watched the sun rise with someone you care about? Well I cant remember any specific time.

14. ever been arrested? Nope

15. gone ice skating? Sure, the Roesslers have the BEST ice skating pond. I own my own skates :o)

16. been skinny dipping? He he, OK yes and my sisters will never go with me again. We were at Lake Barkley about 3 years ago and decided to go skinny dipping. We got into the water with our suits on and then took them off. Then we threw them up onto the rocks and if you have ever seen me throw you would know that was a bad idea. My suit didn't end up where I wanted it so when we were done I told the girls that I was getting out without it,. Well climbing out of a Lake onto big boulder rocks is not easy, so you can imagine the view that they got :o) One of my proudest moments! hey they didn't have to look!

17. been on television? Nope

18. thrown up in front of a date? Nope

19. been out of the country? Jamaica

20. Had sushi? I really don't see myself ever trying sushi.

Excuse Me?

Here is a reply email from my mother that made me laugh so very hard I thought I would share it with you all. Don't worry there is no inside joke you need to get, I had NO CLUE what this was the response to...

"Keep it bare! You will love the freedom!!"
Love Mom

Now how's a girl supposed to take this?

In reality it was a reply to me stating that my calendar is empty from my due date on. This evidently excited my mother ;o)

Most Amazing Week of My Life

I have to admit I am a little sad that last week has past. I am crying simply sitting here remembering it. The blessings that I have felt are too many to count however I will try because I never want to forget this feeling.

• Having Joe home from work all week. Laying by my side in bed as we stare at the face of the little baby between us for hours on end. Waiting on me seeing to my every need so that I didn't have to get out of bed. Providing for us by bringing me meals to helping Annie get hers (she was a difficult latcher and it took 3 hands to get her on properly) Taking his turn when I had been up with her trying to feed for 2 hours (it was a difficult night) rocking and changing diapers. He was understanding of my frustrations and was very gentle in helping me make decisions when it came to how to react to different new baby situations. And last but ABSOLUTELY not least he put up with my post-partum bodily changes and injures better than I could have ever expected.
  
• Having a content baby. She is sooooooo amazingly wonderful and surprisingly easy. She eats about every 3 hours. If she is hungry at 2 hours there is usually a reason (like last night when she Vomited up all of her previous feeding 5 min later) and when she sleeps 4 hours in the night I wake up amazed, rested and thanking our God! She is a little rooter after she eats and gets frustrated however she has taken a paci very nicely. She is content to be held, content to be laying in her bed and surprisingly humble knowing she is the most beautiful baby in the world!!
  
• Humbly receiving HELP!! I really truly appreciate everything that people have done for me so far. The meals have been soo good. Joe and I lost everything in our fridge and freezer 2 weeks ago, I worked 2 12 hour shifts thursday and friday and went into labor friday night, so I had no time to restock the fridge & freezer with more than milk, fruit & pizza rolls (i go for the important things :o) The laundry is 2 floors away so there is no way I could have done that, Joes mom took our laundry home with her and brought it back clean and folded what a nice service :o) My wonderful amazing mother who I can call at the drop of a hat in tears and request giant size nursing bras and nipple shields and she will drive all over earth to find you one because your sister bought the last one in the Maternity store (thanks Kris! :o) My baby sister who has come over most every afternoon to help me love on my baby and run little errands for me, she has done laundry, dishes, and who knows what else but I appreciate her coming by to check on us!!
  
• My faith in the Lord... oh no here come the tears again... To look at my baby and love her so much that I dont know what to do with it all. I have to turn it upwards because I know that it is the Lord who gave her to us and she is HIS!! I will try my best to teach her about her heavenly father for now it has been easy, she is a great listener and has never talked back in her entire life, did I mention that I have the best baby??

"It is no small thing, that those who are so fresh from God, love us" -Charles Dickens

I have no idea where to start, I have so many stories and thoughts twirling around in my hormonal head :o) I have decided that I need to write down blogging topics so that I can have fun things to Blog about when I have time. However, as promised, here is my story...

2:30 am Saturday Sept 20

Woke up with my water broken. Simply a slight leak and not wanting to show up at my place of employment where they consider me a professional with my water not broken I waited to be positive. By 3:00 I was contracting every 2-3 min and was certain that I was in labor. I woke Joe up really curious as to how he would react. Waking him was a little difficult (he was up until 1:00 fixing the shower) and when I told him my water broke he just said "OK"! I told him I was getting in the shower and that I would wake him up when I was ready to go.

4:00 showered and contractions getting more painful than cramps, I was actually doing something that resembled a "potty dance" as I got ready. I paged the MD and left a message telling her that I was in labor. The best part about this was that I had just worked a 12 hour shift with her at the hospital the day before and was just a little whiny about being tired and wanting to have the baby early! :o) She called me back and when I answered the phone she simply stated "wishful thinking really works for you girl"

Fun Fact: I can't get a hold of mom on the house phone, cell phone or Dads cell.....I call Kelly and she informs me that they are in Lexington for a board meeting! No worries right? Problem two, Kelly has no idea where they are staying and they have not been in touch at all...cell phones off... no hotel number left in case of EMERGENCY!!!???

4:30 Pulled over by Bellevue Police for speeding on the Avenue!! :o) Joe was a little upset however I simply told him not to worry he would not get a ticket. When we told the police man I was in labor he offered a squad to which I laughed and told him that I was an L&D nurse and I had everything under control just let me leave!!!! He wanted to know what hospital we were headed to and when we told him he said that his wife worked at Good Sam in the ER and if we were lying he would know!!!! First of all sir why would we lie about going 35 in a 25 at 4:30 am and if you wife knows I am at the hospital and tells you about it I will sue her for violating HIPAA!

5:00 Called Kelly when I arrived at the hospital to tell her she could come (she had to be restrained so as to not beat me to the hospital). She has in the mean time called every hotel in Lex looking for Mom! :o) However had not found them... she did however find a piece of paper with a confirmation # on it and called them all back using it and found them!

I was admitted and in triage, hooked up to the monitor my contractions are indeed every 2 min, and now much stronger. I knew this but its nice to see that the computer agrees with me. I am 4-5 cm and the nurse starts my IV.

6:00 In my room getting the terrible, horrible, worst thing in the entire world...Epidural!!! I would hate them except they make life so much easier. I would not EVER go natural because something tells me that if I didnt like the 5 min Epi process that I wouldnt do well with the 8 hour labor process. However, I freaked out during my Epi. I cried like a baby, I hated the feeling of it! However it took away the pain...so whatever.

7:00 6cm hanging out in bed with tingly legs from the epidural.

Story Kelly told me: she was so excited about coming to the hospital that when she finally got a hold of mom on the phone she jumped in the car and started off to the hosp. and lost connection with mom when she realized she was driving down the road trying to talk on the cordless house phone and not her cell phone!!!

11:00 10 cm 100% effaced and time to start pushing. Now being a L&D nurse I know how this first time pushing can go, I have done it with many of my patients, anywhere from 10 min to 3 hours long, most often at least an hour. I was very nervous about this, I had no idea how I was going to push for 3 hours!! However with my first push my moms face lit up and Joe mentioned something about seeing the head! I couldn't believe how blessed I was, this was not going to take long at all!

In the end I pushed for about 3o min! Joe was an amazing help when I was pushing, he was so intense. I benefited from his excellent coaching skills, I am not really the go get 'em, push yourself hard type, and I really felt myself drawing from his intensity.

11:39 She came out beautifully blue and limp and not really breathing..... she needed just a little help, I wasn't worried though, my RN friends are excellent and she was up and running in no time :o)

I can't believe how blessed I am to have had such an easy labor and so far on day 4 things are going fairly well. When things are hard (breastfeeding) I just have to look at my little girl and I am so in love with her that it is all worth it.