Kansas Day got me thinking....

Here I am waiting on some farmers to call me back so I can finish up their claims, and I just realized I haven't done a blog for almost a month.  I need to be better about blogging more frequently...

Kansans celebrate Kansas Day on January 29th of every year.  As a kid in school, students know all about this day, but as a transplant to the state I have had to do some google searches to figure out exactly what this day means.  Kansas Day commemorates the admission of the state to the Union on January 29, 1861.  Teachers make sunflower cakes for their classes, kids learn all about our rich history, and it is a time for all of us to be thankful for our great state.  I really think it is a neat tradition.  I found a statement from our Senator Jerry Moran regarding Kansas Day. "“On January 29, 1861, Kansas was founded on the ideals of freedom and individual responsibility. The spirit of those early pioneers who settled our state and tamed the West still lives on today as Kansans work to improve our communities, our state and our nation."  Pretty cool stuff! Full link to comments can be read here: http://www.wibw.com/home/headlines/Senator-Moran-Issues-Statement-On-Kansas-Day-242611261.html

I have officially been a resident for 5 years now.  I really do love it here even though I have days when I miss my friends and family from home.  Looking back, it has been a good 5 years.  I have to admit though the first year was definitely the hardest.  I moved "out west" to be with a farmboy I met on the internet.  Sounds promising doesn't it?  We had dated long distance for 2 years but we still had a lot to learn about dating within driving distance of each other.  I had no friends or close family, a new family to get to know, a new job an hour and a half away from Dan that I hated, a new apartment, and a completely unknown environment.  We were also trying to plan a wedding which can be very stressful.  I have to admit that there were a few times I doubted my decision to move here but I stuck to my gut feeling that everything would work out ok in the end.  After all, how could you not have fun with this guy and fall in love with our rolling hills.

After some growing pains, things are all good now and I can hardly believe it's been 5 years.  Kansas has been welcoming for the most part: I have met some friends, have grown close to Dan's family, and I like my job, but it is still hard being so far away from my best friends from college and my family.  I think it will always be that way unfortunately.  Thank goodness for Facebook, cell phones, and modern transportation to get me back to Illinois.  I think my Subaru Outback is in for it...somehow I have racked up 26,000 miles on already in just 10 months.  Happy Kansas Day!

The Working Mom Struggle

Happy New Year to all my readers!  2013 was an exciting year for us.  I would say the biggest joys for me were having Lorena home and finding out I was pregnant again with our second daughter.  The hardest thing for me in 2013 was trying to find work/life balance.  I know all moms struggle with this but it is so much harder than I imagined it would be.  My job is slower during February and March so those months aren't too bad.  But other than that, it is a full-time job plus some weekends.  As any job in agriculture, everything hinges on the weather.  2012 and 2013 were drought years in Central Kansas so there were tons of farmers to visit and claim paperwork to complete.  I truly love my job, co-workers, and company I work for so I'm so lucky in that respect, but sometimes I just don't see how I can keep up with everything life throws at me.

I know my husband thinks I'm doing fine but I just feel like I fall short in every category right now.  I can't devote as much time to work as I did before Lorena so I don't feel like I'm the caliber of employee I used to be.  Lorena has had a rough fall with being sick, and when she is sick she just wants her mom, so I have missed a lot of work days taking care of her.  The house is constantly in disarray, toys littered everywhere, graham crackers crumbs stuck in the carpet, almond milk spilled in the kitchen, etc.  And the laundry...the dreaded laundry.  I feel like I'm pretty good at washing and drying it, but it usually ends up in a pile on the spare bed.  And who has time to cook?  I also do all the bookwork for our farm but I hate not having time to go outside and help the guys.  I also feel like my relationship with Dan is taking a back seat.  Lorena's current schedule works pretty well for us.  We get home from daycare around 6, eat supper around 7, then bath, playtime, and then usually she goes to bed around 9:30 or 10.  I can't imagine what it would be like if she went to bed earlier in the evening...I wouldn't have anytime with her! This schedule works best for Lorena but it means the only time Dan and I get alone is from 10 pm until bedtime.  I usually fall asleep on the couch after we put Lorena to bed and then Dan wakes me up about 11 pm and we both go to bed.

I just reread this and it definitely sounds like I'm complaining.  After everything we went through to have our babies, you think I would enjoy all of things that are thrown at me as a mom.  So now I feel guilty about complaining at all, and my head tells me "I just need to be happy that I'm a mom."  Pregnancy hormones play weird tricks on me so I think this could be part of my problem.  I just worry that if I'm having a hard time managing now with just one child, how will I manage with another baby?  I know I'm not alone.  Millions of moms have multiple kids and more demanding jobs than I do, but I'm just wondering if they struggle like I do?  Fellow working moms....do you have any tips for me?  How do you make it all work?

Black Cats

So the pregnancy insomnia has begun!  I have been waking up between 5 and 6 every morning and can't fall back asleep.  I usually don't get up until 7 so this is rather frustrating.  Therefore, I have been taking advantage of the extra hour to get paperwork done.  I also get a lot of inspiration from my blog during the early morning hours.

I have reached a point in my pregnancy where I'm feeling a little bit more comfortable that everything will be ok.  Random people on the street are asking me when I'm due which means I'm finally starting to show.  I do feel bigger earlier on during this pregnancy.  I have also started to feel the baby move around which is very reassuring.  It was probably a month later into the pregnancy before I finally felt Lorena move, which is typical for a first pregnancy.  I'm currently 18 weeks pregnant with Baby girl.

18 weeks

I'm a rather superstitious person.  If I see a penny heads up, I have to pick it up.  If I go in one door of a house, I like exiting out of the same door.  I don't like having umbrellas open in the house and I always throw salt over my shoulder if I happen to spill it.  I've broken a lot of mirrors in my 29 years and don't want to break anymore.  Apparently my Grandma Seely was like this.  Mom told me that if Grandma (she died when I was 1 so I never had the chance to meet her) put her panty hose or undergarments on inside out, she would wear them like that all day because it was bad luck to turn them right side in.  Sometimes I feel like if something has happened in the past, it will happen again if I follow the same sequence of activities leading up to the event.  Dan thinks I'm nuts.  I have done a few things in this pregnancy that I thought I would have a hard time during this time around.  First, I went into Motherhood Maternity a few weeks ago and second I bought a maternity dress this week.  I went into Motherhood Maternity when I was 26 weeks pregnant with Lorena and bought the cutest maternity dresses.  Everyone knows what happened just a week after that.  I had to take the dresses back to the store after I had her because obviously I wouldn't need them anymore.  I'm not saying that just because I went into a certain store and bought a dress, I will go into labor.  But the thought did cross my mind.

 As Christians I know we are supposed to give our worries up to God in the form of prayer.  Worry does nothing but bring us down.  I also know that in reality superstitions aren't real.  Why is this so hard for me?  Does anybody else struggle with this?  Perhaps this is why God put me with Dan.  He doesn't have a bone in his body that would ever worry about anything.  Dan does reassure me that everything will be ok, no matter what happens in the future.  He also is good about reminding me to be positive.  He also does think I'm crazy, but I'm using hormones as the current excuse for my behavior.

I have also seen a lot of black cats recently, and a few have even crossed in front of my car as I'm driving (this is a huge red flag for us superstitious people!).  Everything is still fine though so I'm hoping this is just God's way of telling me that all of these superstitions are nuts and that I just need to finally trust him.

Our Snow Day Tradition

Saturday night we had our first real snow of the year.  It continued through Sunday afternoon but tapered off by nightfall.  I would estimate we had 3 or 4 inches. 

This was the good kind of snow.  It didn't mess up our daily lives too much.  Daily chores moved a little bit slower due to the snow but no one really seemed to mind.  In North Central Kansas, we take all the moisture we can get!  Other than Harvestore (the big silo where we keep some of our cattle feed) malfunctions, tractors needing extra TLC to start, and pond water needing broken to get cows water, things worked like clockwork.

Watching Daddy clean off the porch after church

I know on snowy days like this I won't see Dan all day.  He reserves these days for "shop days" to work on his many projects.  He is currently taking a part his new to him 4-wheeler.  He always has to modify every peice of equipment to "make it work better."  He gets this from his dad Ernie...there is always room for improvement in their eyes.

I'm on the road a lot for work during the week, so on weekends I don't like going anywhere if I don't have to.  Since I knew Dan would be MIA all day, Lorena and I had a lazy day inside cooking and watching movies.

She doesn't look as happy as I do

We don't have a ton of traditions like some couples but we do have one special tradition we started the first winter we were married.  The winter of 2009-2010 was such a snowy winter.  In the middle of November 2009 we had a horrible ice and snow storm that literally snapped most of the power lines in the county.  We were without power for almost a week.  Luckily we had a wood stove to stay warm and a generator to run our appliances.  That winter I made Dan homemade chocolate cookies every time it snowed.  This contributed to my weight gain our first year of marriage (like I said it snowed a lot that winter!).  So now Dan has decided that every time we have a measurable snow, he must have homemade chocolate chip cookies.  I always use the recipe on the back of the Nestle Tollhouse Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chip bag...it can't be beat!

Lorena helping me in the kitchen

The finished product.

Exciting News about Hiesterbaby

It's been way too long since I blogged last.  We finally finished harvest on November 16.  It was a pretty average year overall.  Soybeans and corn were about average and grain sorghum was above average.  Our biggest problem this year was getting the crop out of the field, especially the grain sorghum.  The crops stayed wet due to the fall moisture which we are very thankful for.  I've been in Kansas for 5 years and this is the first year in my memory that we have used the dryer on the grain bin.  We usually take our crops to the elevator in town but this year due to the high moisture we decided to dry the crop with our dryer and put it in our bin.  Also the corn and grain sorghum price is in the tank right now so we decided to store some on the farm until the price increases (which probably won't happen). 

 

Like I mentioned earlier, I have been a Kansas resident for almost 5 years.  I moved here in December 2008 the day after I got my Masters Degree from Purdue University.  I can't say that all the days have been easy.  I do miss my Illinois family and friends.  I do like it in Kansas though.  I'm glad Dan is from Washington County and made me move here!  Everyone has been so nice and welcoming over the past few years...it's meant a lot to me.

 

Lorena has been getting into everything recently.  We had Halloween and she was a bee. 

 

 

 

She also helped with harvest.  She loved riding in the grain truck.  She is a true farmgirl.

Had to get a picture of my hubby driving the grain truck.  I know I'm weird, but I think he is hot!

Lorena has done a few new things the past month.  She had her first hospital stay a few weeks ago.  She has had several ear infections and came down with bronchitis.  She was hospitalized for about 24 hours to be under a mist tent and get breathing treatments every 3 hours.  We came home with the mist tent and are still running vaporizers in her room, but she is back to her normal self.  She also started walking on her own in Mid-November.  She started with just a few steps, but now she can almost walk down the hallway by herself.  She also switched away from a bottle and uses a modified sippy cup now.  I hate to admit but I had been really worred about her not walking and using a bottle for a few months now.  I guess I just needed to let her do things on her own!  Preemies do things when they want and on their own schedule.  She loves to climb on chairs and on the shelves of the refrigerator.  We also had a fun visit with Auntie Maria over Thanksgiving.

 

 

We had an ultrasound today. I'm approximately 16 1/2 weeks and so far so good.  Hiesterbaby is a girl!  Dan was preparing for another girl (he had predicted Lorena was a girl too) so he wasn't too surprised when they said it's a girl.  He just said, "I knew it."  We just pray for a healthy full term baby.  Dan is going to be way outnumbered. :-)

 

Exciting News :-)

Lorena is going to be a big sister!  I'm currently just over 10 weeks along with Hiesterbaby.  We have been blessed to see baby's heartbeat at 6 weeks gestation, hear it again at 8 weeks, and see baby bouncing around just a few days ago at 10 weeks.  Baby waved at me at our last visit.  Can you believe we have technology to see God's miracle in a mother's womb this early?  Such an amazing sight to see baby waving at me when it is is barely an inch long and weighs less than a quarter of an ounce.  

Hiesterbaby shown at 10 weeks gestation

We are excited and happy but scared knowing my history of miscarriage and pre-term birth.  Some people suggest waiting until after the first trimester to announce a pregnancy.  Supposedly you are good to go after 12 weeks!  I have friends that have suffered miscarriages in first and second trimesters, and our nephew was taken to heaven when he was four.  And after having a preemie of our own, I have realized there really is no "safe zone."  We are just excited and ready to tell our news in hopes that people will pray for the pregnancy. With Lorena being born 12 weeks early, we are taking every precaution possible.  We did plan this pregnancy and visited the same doctor in Omaha who helped us get pregnant with Lorena.  She recommended me to a High Risk Ob/Gyn also in Omaha for my pregnancy. My first appointment with this doctor is in a few weeks

Prayers are welcomed and appreciated for this pregnancy.  A previous preterm birth is one of the biggest risk factors for having another premature baby.  In my case, the doctors didn't really know why I started pre-term labor but assumed it was due to some sort of infection.  Every pregnancy is different so we are hoping that this baby stays in full-term.  I have to admit that having another preemie is one of my biggest fears...and keeps me awake at night.  All I can do is pray and have faith in God that this time around things will be different.  

Meanwhile, things have started to get a bit busier with work.  I have thoroughly enjoyed several afternoon naps because Lorena and Hiesterbaby have been making me very tired.  Here are some pics of Lorena while I was attempting to write this blog.  She is into everything and has started climbing. 

Harvest, Update on Lorena, etc

It's been a slow few weeks in the crop insurance world in Central Kansas...and I am very thankful!  Things will pick up once harvest is complete but for now I have had some days to relax, get the house organized, catch up on book work, and hang out with Lorena.  It's been a good September and October so far.

Harvest is always a busy time for farmers and this year is no different.  We are done with soybean harvest but still have milo and corn to go.  Dan drills the wheat for his family.  We had 2 1/2 inches of rain several weeks ago which slowed down planting progress, but Dan finally finished up Sunday night.  Monday we had more rain which gave the farmers a much needed break.  Lorena and I had been spending lots of time together in the evenings so it was nice to have Dan in the house at 7:30 last night.  He had been out past 9 for weeks so I think he needed some rest too.  Dan enjoys farming so I try not to complain about the hours.  Harvest is only temporary.  But then again, I know I will never have a husband that comes in the house at 5 pm and expects supper by 5:30.  I don't think I would like to have a husband like that anyway.  Dan loves to tinker in the machine shop on rainy days and during the winter and I'm glad he can do it.  I also like my alone time and enjoy watching my tv shows (Dan likes to hog the remote control).  But the time we spend together is extra special when it happens.

Lorena is still growing up so fast and doing well!  She has four bottom teeth and three top teeth.  She has more hair and is getting blonder by the day.  She leaves a path of destruction wherever she goes.  Some of her favorite hobbies include playing in the dishwasher when I'm loading/unloading it, pulling the stuffing out of my couch cushions, chewing on my couch upholstery, pulling clothes out of the dryer, etc.  She is getting ready to walk by herself but still needs to hold onto a table or chair as she goes.  She just started clapping her hands when I say "clap Lorena" and she will wave bye to people when I tell her to wave.  We still are using a bottle.  She doesn't like a sippy cup.  I've tried all the different transition cups and she seems to hate all of them.  She refuses to be fed with a spoon so she self feeds at every meal.  She still loves cheese, crackers, bananas, noodles, graham crackers, and puffers.

Being adventurous

At the pumpkin patch

My pretty girl in purple