Chaos, Part 1

As I sit here writing this post, I can think of a million other things that I could be doing. Giving the kids showers, doing laundry, cleaning the house, the list is endless. We are just wrapping part 1 of what can only be described as a joyful sort of chaos. Last weekend, James was baptized. We had a houseful of family who shared this beautiful occasion with us for several days. James slept through the first half of the ceremony then woke up and got REALLY mad when the holy water was being poured on his head (the picture above is right before he lost it completely!) So the second half of the ceremony was full of screaming and crying and an explosive diaper incident. Besides my concern that the incident in question was going to leak all over his gown, it was a really beautiful and special ceremony.

Two days after our baptism guests departed, our Thanksgiving guests arrived. I was so glad we were able to spend a few days with our friends from New York and Virginia. The meal was excellent, thanks to JM and Shawn (deep-fried turkey is excellent!) And we have TONS of leftovers, so hopefully that means no cooking for a couple more days! So our turkey-day guests departed this morning and the house is relatively quiet (ok not really, but a little more quiet than it has been!) There is much to be done to get things back to a relatively normal state, all the while gearing up for Chaos, Part 2! That entails 5 Nutcracker performances, Christmas preparations and a trip to Disney! (which we will return home from on Christmas Eve!)

With all of this craziness there is much that I could probably find to complain about. Instead, I am taking the time to remind myself of all of the things that I have to be thankful for. My husband and beautiful, healthy children; family and friends; the ability to live comfortably; the list is endless. God has blessed us in so many ways. So even though this holiday season is going to be a little crazier than is typical for us, I feel better when I have a sense of gratitude. With so much to be thankful for, it is a little easier to find some joy in all of the chaos!

Isn't it pretty?!?!

I want to say a big THANK YOU to my friend Jen for the complete blog makeover! I think it looks FABULOUS! She is starting up her own blog design business so if you are in need of a great blog designer, let me know and I will put you in touch with her!
It has been a long week here in the Insetta house with daddy away for work (Is it really "work" when you are in Hawaii? I don't think so!) We will be very happy to have him back on Sunday! James had an appointment with the cardiologist today, and everything with his heart is looking great! We go back again in 3 months for a follow-up. He now weighs 9 lbs 1 oz!
The other big development here today is that we had to break out the footie pj's because it has been so cold here at night (plus I haven't caved in yet and turned on the heat!) We might have to start doing jumping jacks to keep warm! On second thought, turning on the heat works much better for me.....

Beautiful Baby James

Wow, I really am a slacker with keeping our little blog updated! We certainly have had MAJOR CHANGES since my last post! James Matthew made his entrance into the world on Sept. 21 @ 4:45am (he just knew how much I LOVE early mornings, haha!) weighing 6 lbs 12 oz (the exact same weight as big brother Michael!) By the grace of God, he is completely and perfectly healthy! We spent 5 days in the hospital, just to be safe. He really has amazed everyone! Little James has blended right in to our family, and we are all totolly in love with him! Though Michael did say to me one day "Mommy, isn't it so nice when baby 'Janes' doesn't cry?" But big brother and sisters seem to be handling the extra noise just fine. And they are generally good with helping out with him, which is really nice for me!
I am surprised at how fast time is flying by, can't believe it is the beginning of November already! All of the Christmas commercials on tv are a shocker! Speaking of Christmas, we are planning a trip to Disney World the week before Christmas (our present to the kids!) So we are all SUPER excited about that!
JM is enjoying his job, especially this week because he is in HAWAII!!! No spouses allowed, so bummer for me! so on that note I will say ALOHA for now (does that mean hello AND goodbye?)

The Countdown Begins!

I just realized how neglectful I have been updating our little blog. I have to admit, I have become semi-addicted to Facebook updates instead! We have been plugging along here in NC for the last couple of months. Baby James is still in utero and doing amazingly well! His heart rate has been within normal limits for quite some time now, and his hydrops is completely gone! He is growing well, and weighs somewhere between 6 - 6 1/2 pounds right now. The doctors plan to induce labor on the night of Sept 30 (3 weeks to go!), and if all goes according to plan, he should be born October 1 (which just happens to be Grandpa Insetta and Aunt Jessie's birthdays!) So we are doing our final preparations to get ready for his arrival! It has been so long since we've had a baby that we are pretty much starting from scratch! But it is a lot of fun! We have been told that James will have to spend at least a few days in the special cardiac ICU that they have for kids, and then we will take it from there. Hopefully he won't have to stay at the hospital for too long.
In other Insetta news, the kids started school a couple of weeks ago. Kiera is in 4th grade, Nicole is in 2nd, and Michael is in Kindergarten. After an initial adjustment period (mostly on the part of myself and the 2 little ones), all seems to be going well. We are now in a nice routine and everyone is generally happy. Michael has his first soccer game this Saturday, so we are all looking forward to that! The girls both got parts in the local production of the Nutcracker, so they are very excited! We are keeping busy and enjoying life in NC. The weather here is nice, still in the 80's. I have to say, I will definitely miss the Fall weather in NY. That is my favorite season for sure. I will miss the leaves turning colors and the apple and pumpkin picking. But on the flip side, I won't miss it when the snow starts flying!
So that is it for us for now! Hopefully the next time I update the blog, we will have a brand new baby to talk about!

Miracles Do Happen!

It has been a while since our last post and we have certainly had an eventful couple of weeks! Our first week down here was fairly uneventful, just some unpacking and getting situated. On July 4 we had a little barbeque with a few of JM's coworkers. Throughout the day I became a little concerned because I hadn't really felt the baby move. I decided around 5:30 to take a ride to the hospital and just get checked out to ease my mind. I thought I would go in and everything would be fine, I would feel a little silly but at least be reassured. Boy was I wrong! They hooked us up to the monitor and immediately something didn't sound right. They they did an ultrasound and discovered that our son had developed a condition called SVT (Super Ventricular Tachycardia). Basically his little heart was beating twice as fast as is considered normal, and his heart was rapidly losing its ability to function properly. He had also developed a condition called hydrops. He was retaining a whole bunch of fluid because of his heart failure. They quickly decided to send us to Duke University Medical Center in Durham, which is about 2 hours from where we live. They are better equipped to deal with these types of high risk situations. They were basically telling us at that point that they were likely going to have to deliver the baby and that he had a very low chance of survival. So that was a really bad time for us. We were taken by ambulance to Duke and were given a little glimmer of hope when they told us they wanted to try a medication regiment first before considering delivery. He was just too young and sick at that point to have much of a fighting chance. So they started the medication, which I had to take at much higher doses than is normal so it would have a better chance of crossing over to the baby. They had to monitor us both very closely to make sure that my heart rate wasn't badly effected and also to make sure that his was getting better. After severaly days of worry we started to see some progress. Eventually over the course of the next week his heart rate was able to convert back to a normal rate! So after 9 days in the hospital they released us with an intensive outpatient after care plan. So we now see a cardiologist 2-3 times a week as well as a maternal fetal medicine specialist. The baby's heart is making slow but steady progress. They hydrops is still there, but they say that may take several weeks to resolve. We are seeing the MFM doctor tomorrow to check up on that. I truly believe that God has given us a miracle with this baby! When we were sent to Duke, we were basically told that our son wasn't going to survive. A little over a week later we were being sent home because of all of the progress that was made. The doctors and nurses at Duke are wonderful, but I firmly believe that God has held our son in his hands and given him the miracle of healing! We still have a way to go on the road to recovery, but we are very thankful that we have made it to this point. He is moving around like a little maniac, so that lets me know that he is feeling better. (He was barely moving when he was sick.) I have to continue to take the meds until he is delivered and he will have to be on medication and closely monitored for at least the first year of his life. Will update again when we have more info!

ARE WE THERE YET?

HOW MUCH LONGER?
STOP TOUCHING ME!
ARE WE THERE YET?
I HAVE TO GO POTTTTEEEEE!
So these were the most heard phrases Thurs and Fri as we made our way to our new home (though I have to say that the potty stops were more often for me than the kids). Really the trip was uneventful. Long, but thankfully, uneventful. I would like to send a special shout-out to the man or woman who invented the in-vehicle-DVD player! We did look a bit like the Griswald's driving down here. We had so much stuff in the van that you could barely see the kids! Poor Kiera had to do quite a bit of climbing, stretching and contorting her body to get herself into the back seat. We made it here safely Friday, mid-afternoon. It was so sad to leave our NY friends, Thursday morning saying goodbye was definitely really rough for all of us. But we were all happy to get here and be together as a family again. All of the kids are really happy to be with daddy, but especially Michael. There's just something about a dad and his son....Also we are very happy to have cousin Kasey with us for the kids to hang out with. I think it is making the transition easier for them and takes their minds off of missing their friends. We haven't really done any major unpacking this weekend. We have been busy doing other things like going to WalMart (3 times!), running other errands, going to church and doing other things around the house. We definitely have to get serious about unpacking tomorrow! There are certainly a lot of boxes! I did find time this weekend to check out the local nail place to get my toes done! So much more motivated to unpack when I have pretty toes! We have had some yummy family dinners together, which is so nice after not having that for the last couple of months.
So in a nutshell, everything has gone well so far. We are all happy to be here and slowly getting used to our new surroundings. And let me just say that it is really HOT here! Nothing like NY hot! Everyone says that we will get used to the heat. At this point, I am definitely thankful for central air!

Our Life in Bins

It's funny how life can go from one extreme to another in a matter of days. For weeks we have been in high gear, overdrive, craziness, etc. getting ready for the "big move". It culminated with the "big weekend" of the dance recital and birthday party, then 2 days of the movers. Then.......nothing. Quiet. Somewhat bored. Nothing much to do really. We seem to not know what to do with ourselves. The 2 days with the movers were interesting. They sent a team of 4 people here Monday for the packing. They were really fast with the packing, and it was nice to not have to worry about that. But very strange watching other people pack up all of our belongings! Then Tuesday they sent 5 or 6 people here to load everything up on the truck. It was a huge truck! Then once they were gone we were left with a pretty-much-empty house! We have our sectional couch, which the girls are sleeping on. Then our friends let us borrow a mattress, which Michael and I are sleeping on. We also have 2 tray tables and a desk. All of our clothing is in bins. I told the kids it is like a campout (not so much!) We are all having our struggles this week, but we are getting through them. Now that we aren't busy, we have time to think about the fact that we are moving so far away. The kids are each expressing their feelings in very different ways. I think it will be easier for them once we are down there and getting settled.

The girls dance recital was beautiful. They did wonderfully in all of their dances, especially their duet (they are in their duet costume in the picture). The birthday party was great and the weather was gorgeous. It was really nice to spend the day with our friends and family. The kids loved the bounce house!

Oh and our remaining tadpoles didn't make it. They all died within a 2 day time frame. Very strange, but the way that I look at it, that's less that we have to worry about taking with us! The kids don't seem too bothered by it.

So now we are just counting down the days until we leave. It is definitely a time of extremes. Stressed to relaxed. Busy to bored. Happy to sad. But we are definitely looking forward to the adventure that lies ahead! Our next post will be from North Carolina!

The Countdown Begins!

Enjoying my oj and a few minutes of peace before household duties call....
I have known this move was coming for several weeks now but, in typical me fashion, I of course wait until the last possible moments to kick it into high gear! (those who know me well are nodding their heads in agreement.) So this past week has been really intense preparation for the big move. You wouldn't think it would be that difficult. The Army is sending us movers that will actually PACK our house for us before they move everything out. So you would think that I could just relax because they will take care of it all for me. Not that simple, I'm afraid. It seems that our humble little house has turned into a magnet for STUFF. And by stuff I mean a whole bunch of useless crap! Our 2nd (yes 2nd) dumpster is virtually full. They say that as long as they can throw a tarp over it and haul it out of here that we can fill it as high as we think we can. Oh I plan to take full advantage of that. The kids actually fight over whose turn it is to run out to the dumpster to throw something away. It's like it has become part of our family. How sad is that? We have made so many trips to the Salvation Army to donate over the last couple weeks that the kids are starting to think that is their new home. And the volunteers there are asking me what time I start my shift. And God bless my dad, he has been here on and off trying to help me navigate through the black hole that is our basement. And also the other black hole, the garage. So over the next several days we will continue on our mad mission to get this house ready for the movers to pack us up and move us out. I am pretty much hoping to have our belongings "pack ready" by the end of Thursday (This does not count several disaster areas that belong to my husband, those are completely his responsibility. I'm good, but not that good.)
Because after this Thursday starts what I have lovingly started to refer to as "the crazy weekend". Friday evening is the rehearsal for the girls dance recital and after that I need to tend to a Tastefully Simple party. Saturday is hair and makeup appointments for the girls to get ready for their dance recital Saturday night. They are in a total of 4 dances, 1 of them being a duet which is so precious it brings tears to my eyes! They actually look like they like each other when they do the dance, and it is about 3 minutes of them not fighting! Then Sunday is our big combo bday party for the girls. We expect lots of family and friends, and to the kids extreme delight, we have rented a bounce house. Last check of the weather forecast there was a 30% chance of rain that day. Every day I go to check the forecast a vein starts throbbing in my forehead....
Then a week from tomorrow the movers come! After they move everything out on Tuesday, the next week or so should be a breeze while we wait for school to finish. The stress of cleaning will be over. The only posessions we will have to worry about will be a couch, a couple of tray tables, an air mattress and some clothing. We will need to find things to do to keep us occupied like going to the park and out to play with friends. Not so bad! Our belongings are supposed to arrive in NC before we do, so hopefully JM will get a good jump on setting some things up for us. I am hoping by the end of July to be totally unpacked and settled in the new house. I am sure by August and September I am going to be so big and hot (by that I mean sweaty!) that I am not going to want to deal with any more unpacking! We are very excited that our niece Kasey will be spending a good portion of the summer with us. She has found a dance studio where she can take classes and we all love having her around. So we are looking forward to a fun summer! Probably the next time I post will be when we are in a virtually empty house!

Nicole turns 7!

Nicole turned 7 last week and we had a great time celebrating her birthday in North Carolina! For her special dinner we took her to a Japanese steak house. She was thrilled when they sang her "Happy Birthday", gave her special chopsticks, and took her picture! Then a couple of days later we hosted a cookout at the new house to celebrate with Aunt Brandi, cousin Camryn and a couple of JM's friends. It was a great trip and we can't wait to go back for good next month!
While we were down there we met with the people on base that arrange our move from NY to NC. We were surprised to find out that it will take 2 weeks for our belongings to travel from here to there! So we had to arrange for the movers to come about 2 weeks earlier than originally planned in order to make up for that time. So it is now crunch time in the Insetta house! (more like panic time for me!) The dumpster arrived today, and I'm sure I'll have no problem filling it right to the top!
And we have acquired some new "pets", tadpoles! The last time Melody was babysitting, they went into the cul-de-sac and discovered some tadpoles swimming in a big puddle. So we adopted 8 little tadpoles (which are now down to 6, 2 of them didn't take the trip to NC too well). They like to eat frozen lettuce, and the kids are just fascinated with them. JM wants to know what we are going to do with them when they turn into frogs, I'll be amazed if they make it that far! Nicole and Michael really love frogs, so it would be cool if at least one of them made it that far.....
So that's about it for now, hopefully will have time to post again before we move!

Sonogram results!

We had our 18-week sonogram today and everything looks great. The baby is healthy and growing well, and our due date remains Oct. 8. Nicole and Michael were there and their first question to the sonographer was "is it a boy or a girl?" She tried to take a peek but the baby wasn't being cooperative! So she went about her business taking all of the necessary measurements and showing us all of the various organs, etc. It was great to see the baby's face and moving all around. The kids persisted with "is it a boy or a girl?" and "are you almost done?" God bless this woman for being so patient! So after she ran down her checklist of what needed to be checked, she went back to trying catch a glimpse of the anatomy that we were all so curious about. She froze a picture on the screen and pointed out a little appendage to me. Dumb me asked "Is that what I think it is?" When she said yes I asked her if she was sure that's what it was, and NOT the umbilical cord. I explained to her that a certain someone would certainly have a heart attack if he was told we were having a boy and subsequently gave birth to a girl. She (again very patiently) showed me that the umbilical cord was clearly a very separate entity from our little appendage in question. Nicole was visibly irked that she was not getting her little sister! Michael said "Really? My very own baby brudder?" It was so precious! And of course daddy is thrilled! So much for "mother's instinct" because I would have bet money that we were having a girl!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day! I just love being a mommy and I love that there is a day to celebrate it! Some people might question the value of not having a job that has a paycheck attached to it. Well I'm here to tell you that my much-loved full-time mommy position is way better than any other paycheck-earning position I've ever had! (I know my husband is cringing as he's reading this!) Oh I get paid, that's for sure, just not with money. (Again, the husband is cringing.) Michael will tell me "You're the best mudder in the whole world!" Nicole will rub and kiss my rapidly expanding tummy. Kiera writes in a letter that I am the best mother because I do everything for her. Sure, it's not all peaches and cream. I do my fair share of yelling (by fair share, I mean a lot!) I lose my patience. I say and do things I quickly regret. I have things about myself as a mother that I want to improve. But I love my "job" and wouldn't trade it for anything in the world! I feel very blessed to be where I am in life, and today is a day that I spend a lot of time reflecting on that. I also think about all of my other mommy friends, and those in my family, and especially "Mimi" up in heaven. I keep in my prayers all of those who ache so deeply in their heart and soul to be a mommy. I am also amazed to think that next Mother's Day I will have another little blessing to be grateful for.
We have had a nice day, we went to Mass this morning and then went to brunch with our friends. My husband got me a nice bouquet of roses. Kiera made me a lovely beaded bracelet and all of the kids made me cards. A very nice day for mommy! The rest of the day is "back to normal" - cleaning, packing, tossing, etc. Seems like a never ending process! I have to keep reminding myself that we didn't accumulate all this stuff in a day, so it will take a while to get it all sorted out. Yesterday we went to the zoo and had a nice time, the storm came in just as we were leaving so it worked out well! Tomorrow is the sonogram, which we are all looking forward to! Michael and Nicole will be coming with me to "see" the baby, and they are just as excited as I am! So the news on that tomorrow!

Mommy Loses to Elmo

Tonight I had a date planned. Not just any regular date, a date with the most special little man in the world. Michael and I were going to take advantage of the 1 hour of alone time that we get each Tuesday while both of his sisters are in dance class. So we decided to engage in one of our favorite pasttimes (especially mine!), eating! Tummies rumbling, we headed to Moe's (happy Cinco deMayo!) Imagine our surprise to walk in to find Elmo mingling with the customers! Michael got excited and ran right up to him to say hello. I thought that would be the extent of it and we would continue our date in peace. Michael hasn't watched Sesame Street in years, and we don't have any Elmo toys or books lingering around the house. Imagine my surprise when my son proceeded to "stalk" Elmo all around the restaurant! He followed him around while I stood in line and ordered our food, and continued to do so all throughout dinner. Sure, he came back to the table intermittently to grab a bite of food, but that was about all I got. So I spent most of our special "date" alone at the table, staring at my son's half-eaten dinner. Mommy loses to Elmo. But all was not lost. After dinner, as we were driving back to the dance studio, Michael asked me "Mommy, do you think that was the real Elmo or just someone in a costume?" I said I didn't know and asked what he thought. He said "the real Elmo". I told him that I thought he was right. He then said to me "Mom, you're the best mom." Maybe I didn't lose to Elmo after all.

Welcome to our blog!

Hi everyone and welcome to our first ever family blog! Since I am extremely "blog-challenged", I need to give a big thanks to my friend Karen for helping me set this up! I figured this would be a great way to keep all of our friends and family updated and in touch as we get ready for our big move to NC!

Right now we don't have too much exciting news to report. We are (or rather, I am) starting the unpleasant process of packing/throwing away/donating the entire contents of our house. You wouldn't think that would be too much work, our house is not all that big. But I have apparently become quite an expert at fitting a lot of useless stuff in a relatively small space! So over the next 2 months I need to sort through everything we have accumulated here in the last 5 years! Our new house is much bigger than this house, but it doesn't have a basement or an attic! (Apparently folks in the South just put all their extra stuff in storage facilities!) Since we won't be doing that, we really need to take just the important stuff with us. So I guess the garbage men will hate me and the Salvation Army will love me!

We have had a pretty low-key weekend. I hosted a Cookie Lee jewelery party last night. I was glad to see a lot of my friends and Kiera and Nicole had a great time picking out some jewelery for themselves! We went to church today and the kids have been playing outside most of the day. Our sonogram is scheduled for next Monday, so hopefully the baby will cooperate so we can find out if it is a he or a she! I have a feeling it is a girl, but the boys in the family disagree. Michael says that if the baby's a girl, he'll "stuff it back in til it turns into a boy"! I don't think so buddy!