Well, I went to the doctor again today. The pressure is down a little and we are waiting another week to go back in and see where it is then. I will continue to take the dose that I am on right now and hope for the best.

Sorry, you are getting all of this piece meal tonight. But I am back for a moment to write some more.

I just love this time of year, it is so fun for the kids. Joseph has his parade and party at school on Friday. It will be so nice to not have to stand outside and freeze like we have done it years past to watch the parade. The girls will dress up as well. They will parade outside this year around the school. Then Friday night we have our trunck or treat and then treak or treating around the street. The kids are so excited. The girls and I went to the library today for the reading group we go to every week. They were able to dress up and then go trick or treating around the library. They loved it. They only got like five things in thier pumpkins but they seemed really happy with that. They have played with the pumpkins the rest of the day. Juliana who is always wanting to take something to bed for the night insisted that she sleeps with the pumpkin. So that is what she is doing. Rachel informed me eailer that she loves Holloween and she cannot wait to go trick or treating. It is just so much fun, I love it with the kids loving it so much.

I went out for my good friend Melissa's birthday party/book club last night. We all had such a great time. Now that Melissa has moved up north to Federick, we met at the Northfield Stapelton Shopping area. We ate at a really great Mexican place there. I had the chicken enchalads Yummy! We then enjoyed some great desserts. By the time we were done, it was only 8:30, so the only place still opened after 9:00 was Super Target. So, guess where we went? Super Target. None of us wanted to go home yet. So, we "window" shopped at the Target and just kind of hung out there. Four moms hanging out at the Target. It was the happening place. We all had a great time. Happy 30 something to Melissa! We read a great book this month just in case anyone is interested it was called Whisteling in the Dark. I really liked it and recommend it.

Hello

I am back, I had to do dinner and get Joseph off to Cubs. Just your regular busy night. So, about the job, Mike is safe for the time being although they said that there may be more cuts in the future. But we will hope and pray for the best. He is so close to being done with graduate school so we are hoping he can hold out until then. He will be done this August with an MBA from CU Denver. He is not sure what he wants to do career wise, but at least he will have the degree and he will figure it out later what he wants to do.

The other big thing that we have been dealing with is the baby situation. The great news about that is that we were able to find out that it is for sure a girl. I have thought it may be a girl since the last ultra-sound four weeks ago. I just remember with Joseph it was so obvious that it was a boy. With this one, we could not tell, so I thought, maybe a girl. My two boys were so convinced that it was a boy I did not say anything until I knew. But the ultra-sound tech was sure and she has been doing this for a long time. She did Joseph's and the girl's ultra-sounds as well. I trust her when she says girl. So, we are excited. Joseph is disappointed. I told Mike that he is gender biased. He has been totally convinced that every pregnancy will be boys. This one was no exception. When I called to tell him, he said it was a boy and then I said Noooooo, its not. He was a little surprised. We are both really happy with the news. I think that the age difference between the girls and the baby will be perfect. I think that they will be good buddies when the baby gets older. She will be very well dressed when she hits 3T above. She will have plently of clothes to choose from.

The main concern of course is the naming situation. Ever since the Jacobfina incident we have not really discussed the girl names. This morning while Mike was eating breakfast he said that we should name the middle name for the baby Romney because that is what we had discussed with the name Jacob. I said are being for real?! Romney middle name for a girl?! Oh man! I said no, I love my maiden name but not for a girl name. Oh, please help me someone, anyone?! I guess I may have to pull out the name book that is where I found Juliana's name. He said that he wants a list to choose from. So, I guess here is the list I have so far: Katherine (after my grandma) Caroline, or Claire. So we will see. I had no idea that picking a girl name was going to be so difficult. I will keep everyone informed about it, but there is no rush. We have plenty of time before the baby comes.

My health has not been good. On Tuesday I was officially diagnosed with Preeclampsia. I have been on medication for almost a week and the pressure has not been regulated yet. I go back into the doctor tomarrow so they will deciede then whether to raise the dose or not. The medication makes me very tired, I am hoping that it does not have to be raised any more. The side effects of the medication and the complication is that it effects the growth of the baby. So, we are hoping and praying for the best. Just keep us in your prayers.

Well, I have to go pick up Joseph.

Hello

I have returned to the blog world after a brief absence. The last week or so has been very difficult for us and just a little bit crazy!

Late last Wednesday night, Mike came into our room and said that he got an e-mail from the CEO at Janus saying that they were going to cut 10% of thier work force in order to save 15 million over the next fiscal year. They said that it would be a unilateral cut and every department would be effected. Then we had to wait almost a week to find out the results of weather Mike had a job or not. We were greatly blessed and he still has the job. They cut out one of the other accounting departments and laid off several of thier empolyees. They are blending the rest of the department into Mike's in order to save money. Needless to say, we are very releived. But it was a long week and a long weekend not knowing what was going to happen.

I have a quiet moment on a Sunday afternoon so I thought I would write a little. I serve in the primary presidency in my ward and we had our program today. Yesturday we had our only practice and then a party after. I felt that everything went really well. The practice went good and then everyone loved the party. We had a carnival. The kids went to different stations and did various activities. We had a cupcake walk with hot chocolate to drink. (Eventhough it was 80 degrees outside). We had a fishing booth, face painting, pumpkin making table, and a bean bag toss. Then we ended it with the kids lining up for the limbo. My girls loved the limbo and Juliana was busting some moves out on the dance floor. The kids got nice and messy with the cupcakes/hot chocolate and went away with some fun prizes. They all seemed to have a great time. Mike was roped into helping with the fishing booth, he did great and as usual was a good sport about helping out.

Today was the program. We as a presidency printed out fliers to give out to invite people to come. There were several families who invited people and some who came. The chapel and overflow were very full, we seemed to have a lot of visitors. I noticed that there were lots of grandpas and grandmas there as well. We had a huge turnout. There were over 300 people there. It was a crowd. The kids did great. The music was beautiful. Everyone said their parts. I have to say it went off without a hitch. I think that the other councelor who did the program did a great job and I know she is pleased with how it turned out. It is always nice to get that over with. Then it is another full year until you have to do it again.

Well, I had better go for now.

About the crazy neighbors. Sorry I got a little distracted with the other information, but I thought that it was important.

To begin to fully understand the extent of the crazy neighbors I must begin my narrative by saying that the complex in which we resided was home to the students for the Denver School of the Blind. The school had a deal with the complex and must have given them a huge group discount because there were hundreds of blind people that lived there. We were were surrounded by seeing inpared people the whole time we lived there. For about the first six months that we lived in the two bedroom after Joseph was born, there was a blind family that lived right above us. I do not think that the father of the family attended school and I know that he did not have a job because he was home all the time. His music was so loud that it shook the walls of our apartment. The sad part was they had two young children who had to endure that. They looked to be about 2 and 3 years old. They hardly ever left the apartment, I think that the father was supposed to taking care of them. It was sad to see that. The father also either took drugs or was a drug dealer because one night around 9:00 a man would not stop knocking on our door. He was dressed in all black and wearing sun glasses. It was very scary and he would not go away. After about an hour of him knocking on our door about every 5 minuets to the point that he was banging on it at the end we had to call the police. He was found hanging out on the first floor and was arrested because he was found with drugs on his person. He claimed he was looking for someone and then realized after talking to the police that he was looking for the apartment right above us. Scary.

Another memorable neighbor was the drunk blind man that abused his seeing eye dog. He moved in right after this other family moved out. It was so sad to see him treat the dog like that. These dogs go through a lot of training and this dog just looked pathetic. He was clearly abused and not well grommed or feed. The man always reeked of alchol and was always yelling swear words at him. I finally called and reported it to the dumb freinds league, the woman that I spoke to there said that several other people had called recently about the same man and they were planning on taking the dog into thier custody. Sad.

Then after he left after six months, then came two women who lived above us. They were actually quite nice and quiet. Which was a relief following a year of loud music and really bad guitar playing from the former neighbors. The peace and quiet was disturbed when one memorable night we were eating dinner and heard the biggest crashing sound known to man. Our door was badly located right at the foot of the stairs so we always heard everyone going up and down them because it was an outdoor complex with concrete steps. So, there was a big crash and we rushed to the door and opened it. Upon opening the door, we found a metal King Soopers cart lying at the foot of the stairs. We then looked up to see our blind neighbor cowering at the top of the stairs. She had brought the cart up the elevator but did not want to walk back to the elevator which sat in the middle of the building so she thought it was a good idea to try and take the full size shopping cart down 15 concrete steps by herself while holding a cane. Needless to say it was very lucky she did not injure herself. Mike then offered to take it down to the elevator and then we called the store and let them know that there was cart for them to pick up. Crazy.

There was also a group that had a deal with the complex that housed people with very special needs. I think that it was kind of an outreach program that allowed disabled people to live alone but under fairly close observation from the people working with the program. It seemed that they were brought food and groceries by the people who worked for them. We had two of the disabled people that lived just below us. This was actually a positive experiance for me, it was neat to be around the people with special needs and sense thier special spirits. It was sad to see the people that worked for the program talk down to them and say bad things to them because I think they thought they could not understand them. It was hard to see that. But I did enjoy having them around they were always very friendly and just loved seeing Joseph. They always make a big deal about how cute he was and want to hold him. Some I would let and some I would not, just depended on who they were. It was a unique experiance. Uplifting.

When I thought I could not take the craziness anymore, and after much grief and lots and lots of fighting, we deicided to begin looking for a better place. This was very difficult for us, Mike did not want to move and I had to move for my sanity. I had to get out of there I was miserable. But, we pushed through and worked to resolve the fights and began looking for a bigger place.

More on that later.

I have a few extra moments, so I thought I would write a little more.

I had a really fun girls weekend this past weekend. My three friends and I went up to Estes Park for the night. It was myself, Melissa, Kristie, and Elizabeth. We had a great time. I arranged a sitter because we left around 4:00 that afternoon. Then we drove up north and picked up Melissa who lives in Frederick which is near Longmont. We then made the trip up the mountain into Estes Park which is north west of Denver. Estes sits at the foot of the enterence to Rocky Mountain National Park. It is a fun and beautiful town. We stayed at a hotel just past the main part of town, about a half a block up from that. So we were able to walk everywhere we wanted to go. We enjoyed a great dinner at Moma Roses's that night, I had pesto basil ravioli, it was great. We then got some candy at Safeway and made our way back to the hotel. We just talked and talked and then slept and slept. The next morning we got ready and did a little window shopping and then had a hamburger lunch. We then talked some more and then went on a walk and saw some elk. No trip to Estes would be complete without seeing some elk. We made it back down the mountain in time to go to Melissa's stake center to watch the women's broadcast. It was really great we all enjoyed it. It was a great weekend, very refreshing. I highly recommend it to anyone needing a little break.

I had my 20 week ultra-sound today. Everything looks really good with the baby. All the measurments looked great and all the organs measured where they need to be. The baby was breeched and its legs were crossed therefore I was unable to find out what we were having. It was a bummer, but I am not worried. I will be having an ultra-sound once a month so I will have another one in 4 weeks. I hope to find out then. We have a boy name picked out, so if it is a boy we are ready, if it is a girl we are in trouble. Mike said this morning that if it is a girl we need to name it Jacobfina. I am pretty sure he was kidding, but I informed him that this was not the time to be joking about stuff like that. He needs to suggest a name that I can consider. By the way the boy name we have agreed on is Jacob, so I am pretty sure that is where this Jacobfina is coming from. Then he said later that we should name the baby Rachel or Juliana because he really liked both of those names, I said sorry not an option. Oh help me if it is a girl. I guess I will have to wait another month and then hope for the best with the next test.

My blood pressure is elevated and if it does not go down this week I will have to go on the medication. I will watch it closly and hope for the best with that. Please just keep me in your prayers.

Have to go now, more later about the crazy neighbors.