It's a GIRL!!!!

Well my week just turned around and I think I'm still in shock.I had my ultrasound appointment this morning and found out the sex of our little baby! I'm so excited. Drew came to the appointment with me and the boys stayed with my mom. Everything looks great with our little girl. I think Drew was excited but I know he saw lots of dollar signs when we heard the big news. He had to leave the appointment pretty quickly to get Andrew to swim class so we haven't had time to talk about it but of course I'm on top of the world and I know Drew will be the first time she looks into his eyes. Now we need to think of a name! Suggestions? I'll post a picture of the ultrasound when I have time to scan it and get it on the computer. My sick one is waking up (he's much better today).

Addendum

In response to my confident title of yesterdays blog, my title today should be, "Not So Sure" we're going to survive. To explain, Matthew woke up at 3am like a furnace. Took his temp 103...HOT! We brought him into our bed and he could not get comfortable. I sat up with him in the chair. The he started acting like he was going to throw up. A little background on me...I know it sounds crazy, strange, weird, etc, but that is my biggest fear in the whole world. Yes, like some people have a phobia of snakes, heights, mine is vomit. It hurts to even write the words. So anyway, Drew knows this crazy fear of mine. So he took Matthew from me and took him into the bathroom. Thankfully he didn't get sick and Drew calmed him down and brought him back into bed. I of course grabbed a towel and covered our bed. Over the top, I know. So needless to say, crazy Liz didn't sleep the rest of the night. Andrew of course got up at normal time, Matthew never stopped burning up, and Drew had a meeting to get to, this is all before 7am. Needless to say, I had a breakdown. Let's just blame it on the pregnancy hormones. So when Liz has a breakdown, she calls mom! Mom, I love you. My mom cancelled the meeting she had, hopped out of the shower and rushed over here.

Of course, by the time she got here Matthew's fever had gone down to 101 and he actually started to look like himself. Then I felt really stupid and bad for having my mom miss a meeting. Well it ended up working out b/c she took Andrew to swim class and Matthew was able to nap. He woke up once again on fire. I decided to go ahead and take him to the doc. I was pretty sure he had what Andrew had but didn't want to risk it with as high as he fever was. So we got right in and my mom stayed with Andrew while I took him. And indeed, he had the sores in the throat, everything Andrew did...same thing. At least now I didn't have to second guess myself and knew the issue.

I got both of the boys down at the same time and was able to get a 45 minute, much needed nap in for myself. Thank you God! Matthew woke up feeling pretty bad. I just held him until Drew got home and then rushed to get on germ free clothes, clean hands, and a little bit of make up for my mom's birthday party at Pete and Jill's.

Side note: A few weeks ago we were watching Ace of Cakes with Andrew and the we came up with the idea of making a pyramid birthday cake for my mom. I knew this was a bit over my head but Drew is much more artistic and can always pull something like this off. So last night after dinner I started baking cakes, we put the boys to bed, baked some more cakes and then once everything had cooled, Drew began the hard work. Drew would probably be upset about this side note b/c he thinks it makes him sound feminine but I think it's cool and the main guy on the Ace of Cakes is a guy. Anyway, he pulled it off at about 11:30 last night and it turned out awesome.

So Andrew and I headed to the party and wonderful Drew stayed with poor little Matthew. My mom ended up seeing the cake when she was over earlier in the day (it's not easy to hide a pyramid) and had the best reaction. So even though it wasn't the right timing of seeing the cake, the reaction was priceless. We had a great time at the party and I think everyone enjoyed the cake.

Now I'm sitting up trying to decide what to do. Matthew woke up a few hours after Drew laid him down and they are asleep in our room. Should I walk in on the creaky floors and risk waking up a sleeping baby or should I sleep on the couch? Maybe I'll go in in a few minutes since he can have more medicine then anyway. Okay, I'm starting to sound crazy, I better go.

Oh, the contract on our house didn't go through. Back to square 1.

We will survive!

Well Thursday Andrew woke up from his nap feeling a little warm. Sure enough he had a fever. I gave him some Tylenol and prayed it would go away quickly. Drew had a softball game that night and by the time he got home, Andrew looked awful. I took his temp again (a few hours after the medicine) and it had gone up! That never happens. I was a little worried but knew if I called the doc they would say to just keep and eye on him and call if it got too high. So we got Matthew to bed. Andrew laid around and we finally got him to take a bath. I think he felt a little better. We let him watch TV in our room and he eventually fell asleep so we took him to his bed. About 3am he came in and said he wanted to sleep with us. Of course he was burning up so I got more Tylenol in him and brought him into our bed. Finally about 5:30 he fell back back to sleep and got up again about 7. He didn't seem much better so I planned on calling the doc as soon as they opened. In the mean time he started telling me his head hurt and was pointing to the back of his neck. That's when I really started to freak out, I thought for sure he had meningitis!

Once I talked to the nurse she agreed that they needed to see him. So they got him right in. Thankfully, it ended up the problem was his throat. The doctor said it was REALLY red, pussy, and his glands were REALLY swollen. Poor guy. They did a strep test, which he loved ;) but it came back negative. So it ended up being a virus that would have to run it's course. The doctor recommended switching to Motrin to see if that would help with the fever. So after the doctor we went to Walgreens and got that and a RedBox DVD. He was so pathetic all day. I felt so bad for him. I think this is the sickest I have seen him because he never got a burst of energy to play or even really sit up. Thankfully about 11PM he woke up soaking wet. HIS FEVER BROKE!

Saturday, he was still not himself but MUCH better. We were finally able to get him to eat a few bites for breakfast. Then it was back to our Saturday routine. We had to mow and deep clean the house for a showing Saturday. We left the house, grabbed lunch, napped at my parents then did the torturous task of driving around looking at different areas and neighborhoods. Thankfully, my friend Maureen let us borrow her portable DVD players for the boys which made the excursion much more doable than last time. As we were getting frustrated about one area not meeting our expectations we got a call saying our house was going to be shown Sunday as well. That's always good news. We decided the boys needed to get out and have some dinner. So we sat outside at a fun Mexican restaurant and tried to collect our thoughts but that didn't really happen with our two crazies:) Then as we were finishing up dinner we got a call from Kathy saying the people that looked at our house wrote up a contract! Drew talked to her and couldn't really hear so I took the boys out of the restaurant to let them run around and let Drew do the talking. He came out and informed me that the offer was REALLY low and they said it was their final offer. MAN!

Now the stress begins. We decided to counter anyway in case they are just playing the game. So we got their contract, look it over and discussed what to do. We decided to sleep on it since we had until 5 on Sunday to counter. I didn't realize how stressful this would be. But it was, we finally decided on a price and got the paper work in at 5 on the dot! Then we just had to wait.

Today, Andrew had his first swim lesson. I was way more nervous than he was because I knew the possible freak outs he could have. He was really excited and had no worries going in which was great. His teacher was young and nice and great with the kids. Once she taught them how to hold on to the wall and let them hang out he freaked out, got out of the pool and started to walk away like he was done. Thankfully she got him back in and made him laugh and even though he was pretty unsure, he stuck it out. The lessons are everyday for 2 weeks for 30 minutes so I think he'll get used to it. I hope! I promised him a big cookie if he did well, so we got that after class and headed home as he was falling asleep. I quickly gave the boys lunch and got them down for naps. The couple that put offer in on our house countered back (they said they wouldn't) but it is still too low. So we countered back again, as low as we can go and haven't heard back yet. We'll keep you updated. It sure would be nice to have our house off the market and move on.

6 Puppies

You may be wondering why the title of this blog is "6 Puppies". Well let me explain. Drew and I are beginning to go delirious with all of the houses we have been looking at on the interent. Usually after the boys go to bed we go through the new listings and either save it or reject it. Well Saturday night we were catching up. I was reading the description of one of the houses to Drew and I kid you not, the description said: "Backyard big enough for 6 puppies." I seriously could not control my laughter. I was in tears. I mean seriously, 6 puppies could fit in a play pen! You would not believe some of the pictures people take of their houses or the descriptions they give. It takes all kinds...and it's great entertainment.

Friday, my mom and I took the boys to the zoo. Once we were all loaded and in the car, I got a call confirming a showing of our house from 12-1. WHAT?! We never got the first call. Now keep in mind, my focus all morning was on getting ready for the zoo, not on making sure the house was perfect. I called Drew in my panic and be the wonderful husband that he is, said he would take a LONG lunch and go home to get the house ready and we could enjoy the zoo. Well we enjoyed the zoo with about 5 million other people. It was the first day it hadn't rained all week and it was the first day of summer for a lot of schools. So after a couple of hours we had enough and decided to call it a day. It was the best feeling walking into our house. It was immaculate! My mom was in complete shock at the transformation, she saw the before and after. Way to go Drew!


We had another showing on Saturday, our first repeat! So we tried to stay out of the house as much as possible considering we were having an open house Sunday as well. Besides naps we were gone most of the day. We went back to the zoo in the evening. The crowds were much more manageable and we were able to get into the new stingray exhibit and touch the stingrays. Matthew thought it was pretty cool and Andrew wasn't so sure. We told him over and over again that they had the stingers trimmed but he wasn't convinced. Drew and I thought it was really cool. The melt downs happened right as the zoo was closing so we rushed home and got everyone in bed.

Sunday, we stayed out of the house again. We went to church and the park. Then we brought Matthew home for nap. Then went to lunch and drive by a few houses. Then to my parents for naps. Then to drive by MORE houses. Oh boy was that an experience. We like these houses on the internet but knew we need to drive by to see the exact area. We saw some good, bad and ugly and the boys were pretty much the same:) They were troopers though. We decided buying and selling a house is not for the weak, or maybe just not for parents with 2 small kids. Oh and Max had to join us on all of our adventures. I'm sure he appreciated it. After all our driving around we grabbed some stuff to grill and came home to enjoy a beautiful evening.

Anything to keep him happy
]
Monday, at the pool with our neighbors, the Fitzpatricks

Busy Bees

Last week, my good friend Catherine was in town with her little girl Madeleine. We took all the kids to the zoo and had a great time. The funny story from the day was at the Children's zoo. Matthew was really enjoying petting the goats. There was one goat that was standing on a bench. He really liked this goat. Well I'm not sure the goat was in the mood to deal with kids on this particular day because as Matthew went back to pet him a second time he turned around and pushed Matthew over with his big head. Poor Matthew was devastated, but recovered quickly. Here's a picture right before the incident.


Thursday we had Andrew's end of the year picnic. It was so fun to see how much he has matured. We had a great time, and I think he may have his first crush! Mary Catherine is our neighbor and they have suddenly become great friends. It's so cute.



Friday was my grandma's 80th birthday! My parents had a cocktail party for her on Friday night at their house. Everyone had a great time. Poppa took a trip to Target before the party and bought the kids lots of bubbles so they had a blast. We had great food and drinks and enjoyed being together as a family.



Saturday we worked outside getting ready for our Sunday Open House. Then we took the boys over to meet their new cousin Josie before heading to another birthday celebration for my grandma. It was so good to see John and Christina at home with their baby girl. Everyone seemed to be doing well. There's nothing like the fear of being a new parent. I wish I could ease their worries but everyone goes through it. After our visit with Josie, we headed to my aunt and uncles for a Casino party for my grandma. She loves gambling so it was the perfect theme. Everyone had a blast.


Sunday we forced ourselves out of bed early to go to early mass then come home and clean, clean, clean for our Open House. Then we headed to my parent's for naps and then home for a quick dinner and bed. WE WERE WORN OUT. The good news is 8 couples came through. Drew and I were not sure what to expect since it was a holiday weekend so we were pleasantly surprised.

Monday, Memorial Day, was stormy so it was the perfect morning to just hang out and have some family time. We grabbed lunch ran a few errands then came home for naps. We planned on grilling an All America meal but the weather didn't seem too promising so we went with the All American Poppa John's instead.

Now it's back to reality. We had another showing tonight during dinner, of course. We are praying something comes of this showing. We've been lucky to have so many showings but are just praying for someone with real interest!

Andrewism of the week: "My owie (scab) looks like a snail that's coming uncurled, it's coming out of the covers."

WELCOME JOSEPHINE SARACINO BENOIST

We are so excited to announce that my brother John and sister in law, Christina had a baby girl yesterday at 4:07pm. They did not know the sex of the baby so it was an exciting day! Josie weighs 6lbs 7oz and is 19in long. When I left the hospital last evening both mom and baby were tired but doing really well. The boys are excited to meet their new cousin! When I told Andrew that Josie had arrived he said, "You know mom, babies need ALL their fat." Not exactly the comment I was thinking he would say but that's usually how it goes with him:)

Eventful Week

I'll just start from the beginning with a recap of our week.

Monday: Matthew decided not to nap while Andrew was at school so I decided to go look at a few houses and see what the area was like. Everything was going well until...I was in my own little world and speeding through "work zone". Sure enough, I got a nice little ticket. I knew Drew wouldn't be too pleased but he took the news quite well.

Tuesday: Drew left early to catch a plane for a business trip. This was the first morning I was on my own with the boys during the "morning sickness" phase. Luckily, I had Drew wake me up before he left so I could get up slowly before the boys and everything worked out nicely. We met my friend Lindsey and her little boy Bobby at the park that evening. It was great entertainment for the boys as well as me since I knew Drew wouldn't be home.

Wednesday: I set my alarm to get up before the boys so I could ease into the morning but of course they woke up early as well. Everything ended up working out. I got Andrew to school and Matthew home for a quick nap. I had my monthly check up so I had to wake him up but he handled it quiet well. I got to hear the baby's heart beat and was a very happy momma. As I was leaving my appointment, I got a call from Drew who was still out of town. He said, "an agent wants to show the house in a couple of hours". In theory a couple of hours may sound like plenty of time BUT I had to get Matthew fed, Andrew from school, and the house clean while keeping the boys entertained but not getting any toys out. You would think our house would be relatively clean considering it's on the market but with Drew out of town, I just couldn't keep up. I started to panic and told Drew he better pray for a miracle. I came home, got Matthew in the high chair and went to work. Headed to pick up Andrew and had no idea how the last 45 min before they arrived would go. THANK GOD, I pulled in and our neighbor Kelli and her son Timmy were outside. I went over and begged for her to watch the boys for 45 minutes. She said it would be no problem. THANKS A MILLION KELLI! The house was ready, Max was packed up, I got the boys, packed them up and headed to my parents for naps. After naps we headed home and went about our normal evening.

Thursday: I guess it was just a normal day b/c I don't remember what we did.

Friday: Drew's brother Mike was headed back to Oklahoma from working in West Virginia for 5 months so he stopped here to rest and visit. I wish we could have visited more but it was my friend Brittany's Rehearsal and Rehearsal dinner for her wedding. So we said hi to Mike, took the boys to my parents for a "sleepover" and headed to the pre wedding festivities.

Saturday: Drew and I had the whole day without the boys! This is the longest adult time we've had since Matthew was born. So needless to say, I was excited. We had breakfast with Mike and then he hit the road. Then I drug Drew with me to get my make up done. He was actually really entertaining. We had a nice lunch, alone, and ran a few errands that would have taken all day with the boys. We ran home, put curlers in my hair, threw on my dress and away we went. The wedding was absolutely beautiful. Brittany looked amazing. The reception was lots of fun and Drew and I danced the night away. Being the pregnant sober one, we decided to call it a night when things started to get a little crazy. And I hate to say it, I was looking forward to putting my PJs on and getting a full night of sleep (I'm getting old:)).



Sunday: We slept in until 7! Then I got ready and went to get the boys while Drew stayed home and started perfecting the house for our Open House. I got Matthew down for a nap and cleaned the floors while Drew mowed. He showered real fast and we headed to Kaitlyn's baptism. Then Pete and Jill had a really nice luncheon at their house. Before we got out of Pete and Jill's neighborhood, both boys were sound asleep. It worked out perfectly because we still had an hour and a half to kill before we could head home. So we drove around and I showed Drew some of the houses I had driven by. Then the boys woke up, we headed to get Drew's car from my parent's house and were ready for a quiet evening at home. Well on the way home, we got a call that an agent wanted to show our house which is a great thing. So we had dinner out instead of in and then called it a night!

I told you it was eventful!