15 More Days!

The days are really getting down there until the arrival of our new baby! Wow, its amazing how fast time goes when you get down to the very end! I think we're as ready as we're going to be though, so knowing that helps.
For those of you who plan on visiting us or are thinking on visiting. I'll give you a few details! We're going to be at Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital. That's the same hospital we were in when Kira was born. I get admitted EARLY Wednesday morning (Jan. 14th), and our c-section is set to begin at 7:15am. We welcome any visitors but please we ask that we have no visitors until 1pm on Wednesday. After that, we're open to whenever people want to stop up! We'd love visitors! Tom will be calling people after the delivery to let people know specific baby info. Our anticipated discharge date is Friday (Jan. 16th) sometime. If anyone has any other questions, just pop me an email.
We're currently battling a real big task with Kira. We've been trying to break her of her pacifier for quite some time now and it hasn't been working very well both because of us and her (we give into her too easy). Well, we're laying the smack down and cutting the pacifier out cold turkey! We're on day 2 and its going alright. It's been pretty tough, but Tom and I are staying strong and not giving in to her anymore. It's been really tough at nap time and at bed time. She cries quite a bit saying that she wants her "paci". I've read that it gets better but at this point, we're looking for it to get better...like...NOW. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know! We're looking for ideas or if anyone has any previous experience with this and knows good tricks, please let me know! I'm sure it'll get better soon though, so that helps. We've read alot online from other parents that have had some of the same experiences and its gotten better after a few days for them, so lets hope for that! :-)
I hope you're all doing well! We're doing pretty well on the Marlin end. I have one of my last OB appointments tomorrow, so I'll be sure to keep everyone posted if anything exciting happens!
Hope you all have a Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Happy 2009!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Haven't blogged in a little while...oops!

Hey Everyone! Goodness, I've really been slacking on this whole blogging thing. I apologize and really hope to get better!
Things continue to go well for the Marlin's!! Although things have seemed to be incredibly busy lately with all the holidays and doctors appointments and such, we've continued to stay sane and continue to feel incredibly blessed!
This past weekend we had the Marlin family Christmas. Although it got cut short because of the bad weather, we still had a great time. We spent some quality family time together. We had all the family here, ate a lot of food, opened lots of presents, told lots of stories and most of all had a great time. The snow kind of put a damper on our day, but we managed! We'll get more time together again soon I'm sure.
We're going to be celebrating Christmas with the Pollard and VanKampens on Christmas Eve this year. We're really excited to be hosting Christmas this year! I'm sure the day will seem to go by too fast, as they always do, but I'm sure we'll have a good time anyway! The plans for food sound fabulous, and that part really excites me!! :-D
The pregnancy is continuing to go well. I woke up on Sunday and Tom swore that my belly grew tremendously overnight. Then it was funny because then someone else said the same thing! It was kind of crazy. I just feel really big and don't really realize getting a whole lot bigger anymore. It was kind of interesting last night because Kira was sick so we were in the Maple Grove Urgent Care and goodness, the contractions were staying pretty steady. It was making us a little nervous for awhile but they slowly came to a stop and haven't had anymore yet. The c-section is less than a month away now and we're getting really excited! We recently received more baby gifts and I think we're officially ready! We got the date (unless it comes early!), names picked out (and sorry...we're not sharing the names, and for those of you who think you may know, trust me, you don't...they've changed!!), and now all is ready! WOO HOO!! :-)
We hope you're all doing well and hope you all are staying warm! Theres supposed to be more snow in the forecast today, so thats pretty exciting! (even though it can be quite the pain in the butt sometimes, I really do enjoy the snow!)
Hope you all have a happy holiday season!
Take Care and God Bless You All!!

-The Marlin's

A big day...

Hey all, how's it going?! As many of you know, if not all, we decided to get rid of our dog Bowzer. We quickly realized how much work he was and that we didn't have the time for him that he deserved. So we took a BIG step and decided to try to find a family that had more time and more room for him to run. We found the absolute perfect family for him, and they came and got him today. It was really hard, but we made it. The family was a family who lived on a farm near Waconia, MN, and they were a couple probably in their mid 30's with two young kids ages 6 and 8. They live on a farm with lots of land, 3 other cats, and cows, pigs and chickens. They were VERY nice and made sure we knew that Bowzer was in good hands with them. It was a good feeling. It's nice to have this off our shoulders, as this has been the main thing on our mind for the last week and a half. It was rough, but I know he's going to do awesome out there. The family said we could come visit and that they'd send us pictures and keep us updated on our little buddy.
We had an OB appointment this past Thursday and that was exciting as usual! :-) Well..most of it. I had to get a shot in my butt since my blood type is O Negative, and that didn't feel too good and I was thinking about it all day which didn't help (I hate needles with a passion). Anyways, all was well and the baby is doing wonderful! We did find out that my c-section is scheduled at 7am on Janurary 15th. We had the date planned before but not the time...holy cow...thats really early. We have to be at the hospital for check in at 4:30am! YIKES. Thats not going to be any fun at all, but we'll manage! :-) It just means we'll probably be out of hospital sometime on Saturday which would sure be awesome.
Halloween was pretty fun this year. Kira was into it a little more than last year which is always good. She was a cute little princess this year, it was so darn cute! We took her to the Eden Prairie Mall for awhile for indoor trick or treating. It was pretty cool. There were SO many kids there though, wow, I had no idea it was so popular. We were there for awhile and she got quite the heap of candy. Then we came home and went trick or treating to the neighbors, and then handed out candy ourselves. It was a lot of fun. We had quite a few trick or treaters come and got to see quite the variety of costumes.
I hope you're all doing well. We're onto a movie night with some popcorn and lounging tonight to help us wind down a little bit. Have a good rest of the weekend!
Just a little side note...A WEEK FROM TOMORROW, WE'RE GOING TO BE ENJOYING THE VIKINGS AND PACKERS GAME LIVE!! :-D It's going to be great, we're really looking forward to an awesome weekend!!

What a week....

Wow am I ever ready for this week to be over...It hasn't been the best week ever but of course, it could have been much worse.
My week started out on Monday with picking Bowzer up from a weekend at Doggy Day Camp and them telling us earlier in the day that Bowzer now has a sore on his back that has been bleeding and has puss coming from it. Hearing this was a bit disappointing but knew I was just going to have to bring him to the vet once I got done with work. Well, I got there and had to pay for our stay at the PetHotel and the Doggy Day Camp, and because he had a "wound" he had to be put in a "Special Care Unit" which ended up costing a lot more. Then I proceeded to ask what happened to Bowzer that he has this wound and nobody seemed to know. Hmm...riiiiiight. So I went on to his vet appointment for them to look at it and they came to the conclusion that Bowzer got bitten by another dog and that he needed to be on two seperate antibiotics. So then we left the vet with even more of an empty wallet. :-( O'well. Can't do too much about it I guess.
Tuesday rolled around and as many of you knew, our basement was supposed to get finished on Tuesday. Well...it didn't happen! The people that were supposed to do it just about doubled their estimate and that was a little too much for us. So we didn't hire them anymore. So now, all this time I had been looking forward to it just getting done, and done quickly, went straight down the tubes. Thats all that really happened on Tuesday but it was really disappointing.
Wednesday rolled around, which was supposed to be my first day off in awhile. It started out with me having to bring pies into work from Bakers Square for everyone to enjoy. So I stopped by there, went into work and dropped off the pies...not so bad right?! Well...it gets worse. Lets back up one quick second...late last week we had this little rash checked out that Kira had to make sure it wasn't anything serious or contagious or anything because Kira was going to be around some other kids over the weekend. At the time, they confirmed that it was little bite type things. So they gave us a presciption and we were on our merry ole way. Well...so Wednesday came and the rash had gotten progessively worse and since I was going to be at the clinic anyway, I wanted to ask our pediatricians what else to do for it since this one prescription lotion wasn't working. Well, the reason why it wasn't working is because the bites weren't the problem in the first place. Kira has the chicken pox! Yikes! So since Wednesday, it has gotten worse and worse, so we're currently battling that and hope it goes away real soon. :-( Meanwhile from such a busy day that was supposed to be my day off, that ended up being rather chaotic because of small stupid things, my hormones started to take over and the emotions ran wild.
Thursday came around and was at least a little better. I stayed really busy as usual, and worked the evening, and came home to a rather quiet house. It was nice.
Now, its Friday, and hopefully it goes good. My plan for the day isn't much, so hopefully it stays that way. Laundry and an oil change are my main priorities today, so that shouldn't be so bad. Then my weekend starts out working....unfortunately, its my weekend to work. I can't complain a whole lot though because I don't work weekends all that much.

Well, we only have 89 days left of this pregnancy! I'm very excited for it to be all over, but very nervous at the same time. My C-Section is already planned and names are slowly getting closer and closer to being picked out, so we're on our way to the end. All in good time! :-) We're starting to plan Christmas plans and getting more squared away too, so thats made it feel alot closer too. Woo Hoo! I'm starting to get a bit anxious about what the gender of the baby is, but know I have to wait! :-D It's the anticipation of not knowing before that got me through everything in the end.

Hope you're all doing well! Have a great weekend!

It's amazing how busy we've gotten over the past few weeks and how busy things are getting. Holy cats! We have another break soon so I can't complain! :-)
This week started out kind of eventful. I found out that I failed a test called a glucose tolerance test. What that is is if you fail it twice, you get diagnosed with gestational diabetes. So I failed the first time and had to come back for further testing. Well, I just found out this morning that I passed the second test! YEA!! It was a relief to know I didn't have that, that would have complicated things a bit.
I had a nice suprise for Tom this last week. We went to a Vikings game last year on December 23rd and had an absolute awesome time. We got the tickets from a friend of the family for a little bit of nothin and had a blast. I thought it would be fun to do that again this year, but knew it was going to be harder once we got into December. So I ended up getting two Vikings VS. the Green Bay Packer tickets for the November 9th game! Tom thought that was pretty awesome and we're both pretty pumped to go! We're going to make a whole date weekend out of it, no dog, no Kira, just us! I'm really excited! It'll probably be our last horrah before the new baby gets here, so I'm sure we'll have a great time.
A little bit more exciting news too that I forgot to share before was that I got selected to be our October Employee of the Month at work! I was VERY excited to be chosen. I got chosen among the other 100 employees we have there. It was quite the honor! So as you probably gathered, work is going very well too! :-)
I think thats all I have for now! Hope you're all having a great week!

Wow, this is a record for me, blogging twice within a week! Woo Hoo!! :-) It's not that I have a ton of new and exciting news but just little tidbits that is worth blogging I guess!
So Tom had his last softball game on Monday evening. The team won their first game by "10-running" the other team, then the second game came around... Tom did awesome and hit a in the park homerun! The team ended up winning the second game too, which led to the team clinching the 1st place spot for the league!! Good job guys!! We had much reason to celebrate and went out for dinner at Old Chicago with a few other players after the games, which was absolutely phenominal too! YUM!
As many of you know, Tom's parents have been looking for a house for quite some time after selling their own back in March. Well...they finally found a new house!! They close on it next week! We're really excited for them! Not only does it have access to the lake in the back yard, but also has a golf course across the way! It should provide much entertainment eventually, probably next year more than this year. We're really excited and going to go help them move next weekend.
I think I'm starting to get the "nesting" instinct with this pregnancy. Not so much getting the baby's room ready or anything (since Kira is still in the bedroom and because her room isn't done yet), but I've really been working on organizing and getting things all tidy and neat. I think it all started because I thought about how quick this pregnancy is going the other day and that maybe triggered it.
Halloween seems to be quickly approaching! Anyone got any plans for awesome costumes? Tom and I are planning to go out and find one again at some point but not sure what we're going to be. Kira is going to be a princess. It's a really cute costume we got from Babies R Us in Maple Grove. I don't think Kira is going out trick or treating this year besides to the neighbors but Tom's work has trick or treating around the whole office, and that is a lot of fun. So we're going to do that again this year!
Hope you're all doing fabulous!

Well..Tom and I got our much needed break. We had a little time away from everything, even Kira. Tom and I went to the Dells last week and had a great time. We were only there for a few days but had a great time and kept ourselves constantly going! :-) We got there on Tuesday after dropping Kira off with my parents in Albert Lea. It was a sad seperation for Kira and myself, but we both made it. On Tuesday when we got there we went on some Jet Boats that went really fast around this lake area but also had some slow time to show us some awesome rock formations. It was a lot of fun. Normally you get really wet on these things but we were actually 2 of 5 people on the boat, so the boat wasn't weighed down too much so we didn't get wet a whole lot. It was really nice and a ton of fun! After our boat ride we went mini-golfing at Pirates Cove Mini Golf. I'm happy to say that I beat Tom in a round of mini-golf, never mind the fact that he beat me the second time around. I was pretty proud of myself though! We had a good time at that too! :-) Then we went out for supper....Mmm....Pedros! We went to Pedro's Mexican Restaurant and it was SSOOO good! I ate way too much as usual but thats okay! Then we decided that we weren't quite done for the day and went bowling late that night too. And in and amongst all this we did some shopping too. Then on Wednesday we had reservations at a absolutely awesome golf resort near the Dells. It was about 20 minutes away, so we left for that and was very pleased with what we were getting ourselves into. We pulled up and it was one of those wow factors. It was pretty awesome. We got out of the car and just kind of stood there because we were a little intimiated by our surroundings because we were used to Albert Lea courses and the small Clarks Grove courses....no, this was a real course! We met Tom's brother and his wife there and all golfed 18 holes together. The holes were incredibly hard and very long. The golf course was made up of a bunch of replica holes of some PGA courses. It had the famous Island Hole course that many of you may have heard of. It was pretty awesome to see. Unfortunately, I over shot the hole and went into the lake and didn't make it on the Island. :-( But Tom on the other hand did!!!! He even got par on the hole!! I was very proud of him because it was quite the course to golf on! He made par on a few others too, while I didn't do as well. I didn't do terrible, but not great. I had a lot of fun taking turns driving the golf cart too!! The golf cart was pretty awesome, it had a GPS system and always told you where your ball was and how far you were from the hole, it had a menu ordering system from the golf cart (then they have people bring the food out to your cart), and goodness...it was pretty awesome. We're hopefully going to plan another trip there next year. Just enough for me to brush up on my golfing skills!!! :-D
Tom's softball season officially ends tonight. It's sad to see another season end. :-( Kira and I really enjoy going to his games! There's always next year!!!!!! Although softball is ending, volleyball will be starting up in the near future!! Normally I would play volleyball with them but obviously can't because of the pregnancy. Tom and the rest of our team will be playing and we'll be there to cheer them on.
Isn't it crazy how fast the seasons are changing!! I felt like just yesterday it was still 85 degrees and now it's in the low 60's! I don't mind the cooler weather but it definately lets us know winter is on the way. Woo Hoo for snow!! :-)
Well, it's been real! Thats all I got for now! I'm really going to try to get better at blogging more, it's good fun!

ah yes...loving the new car

So we found out last week that my car was dying, for real this time. We've gotten it fixed several times in the past but was told this time that we needed to get rid of it right away while it's still running because something really serious was going wrong. So we took their advice and started looking at reviews and the local car selection and figured out our price range and maximum miles and such. We went to the dealership on Saturday with not a clue what we were going to look for but feel it was made evident to us through a few different signs and we got a new car! We ended up buying a 2006 Chevy Cobalt. It's been a lot of fun to drive, and a whole lot different than my Grand Am. I wanted to get better gas mileage than I was getting before so I didn't even mind, I even prefered, to get a 4 cylinder engine instead of a V6. The best thing about the car though in our opinion is the color! Booya! It's orange! It's a deep orange color thats really cool looking. We both really liked it at the time and still really like it now! :-) So our first car buying experience went really good!! Yea!!
We've decided on a vacation destination and are going on vacation for a few days next week! We are REALLY excited to get away for a few days to kick back and have a good time. We're going to the Dells and don't have a whole lot planned, but do have one thing planned. We're going to this awesome golf course over there to play a fun long 18 holes, then stay overnight and get pampered by their wonderful "Couples Golf Package". The course is actually a pretty well known course. It has all sorts of holes from famous courses out there that professionals have played on and made it all into one course. It's pretty awesome. We decided to stay overnight there and soak up being pampered. The hotel room is about 1000 square feet and is absolutely gorgeous! We're in need of a much needed break, so Kira is actually going to be staying with my parents down in Albert Lea, so it's just going to be the two of us which is pretty flippin sweet! We're really excited and looking forward to a fun time away.
We went to the state fair again on Sunday with the Coopers. It was good fun but I tell ya, it felt so good to sit down, my feet hurt so bad. Cooper bought chocolate covered bacon and shared it with us. I have to admit, I wasn't impressed. It just didn't go together like I thought it would have. I think if the bacon was crunchy, it may have been better, instead the bacon was a bit chewy and not that great. But I did get a smoothie, a pronto pup (aka corndog), and some fresh salt water taffy. It was all awesome! I love fair time, although it does get pretty expensive.
Well...all is going well with the Marlin's. The pregnancy is still going well, the belly is definately getting bigger! We'll keep you posted with anything we find out! :-)
Take Care!!
Have a good week!

Hmm...thinking of a title for my blog is hard!

I've been kind of slacking on my blogging but hope to eventually blog more once I get more used to it and have more news to share. Things look as if they're going to get a bit more exciting anyway, so lets hope! :-)
This last weekend was really busy for us, wow. I got the wonderful privledge of making wedding invitations for Tom's brother Paul and his soon to be wife Steph. That was a lot of fun. I always enjoy doing that kind of thing. We drove down to Iowa and back for that and got home around 1am on Saturday morning after having to stop a few times on the way home. Then on Sunday, we went to the MN State Fair with my parents and my sister and her husband and little boy. That was good fun! I LOVE fair food but always dread how much it always costs. I got spagetti and meatballs which was really good! We're going again this weekend with the Coopers, so hopefully I'll try something new.
Then Monday rolled around and we had our 20 week ultrasound at the clinic!! Woo Hoo for getting to see the baby!! It was good fun! I love seeing ultrasounds and having the assurance that everything is just fine with our little belly monster! We did have the option to know the gender of the baby, but opted not to. We didn't find out the sex of the baby when I was pregnant with Kira and that was TOTALLY the way to go, hands down. I am excited for the pregnancy to progress and to have the baby come into the world!! We've started discussing names more and that has been really exciting. The names we're considering for girls is: McKenna, Mariah and Hannah. And for a boy, I think he'll be Benjamin (Ben) Thomas. Thats the name we had picked out for a boy when I was pregnant with Kira and we're probably going to keep that name. We both like it and it's cute, so why not?! It's been a lot of fun so far this pregnancy, and been a lot different, but a good different.
Monday night was also wonderful! Tom had a softball game and played awesome! He did really good! Kira is his #1 Fan! She loves going to the game to watch daddy play!
I think that may be it for now. Unfortunately, I have to go get ready for work. I always have a lot of fun when I get to work, but sometimes its just hard to get motivated to go.
Until next time...see ya later! Have a good week!

Ah yes, the first actual blog

As a few of you have noticed lately, I've gotten quite the "baby bump" over the last two weeks! My belly is finally starting to get bigger!! This is probably the best part of the pregnancy...when you're big enough to show, but not big enough to be miserable. This baby has been really good to me so far, so lets hope it continues! I also recently starting feeling the baby move so thats been a really exciting Marlin moment too! The only interesting thing about this pregnancy so far I guess is the fact that my belly is very decent sized, but I've only gained 1 pound!!!! I gained 49 pounds with Kira, 13 pounds of that within the first 12 weeks. I'm just getting a whole lot more exercise now than I did before, thanks to the dog!
So recently, I became aware that I am elligible for a new phone through T-Mobile!! How exciting huh?!, well...I can find one that I even like. I like blackberry phones but I don't want to pay all that extra money to put internet on it and stuff. I like the abilities they have and think I would like it but they also aren't cheap by any means even with my *new phone* discount. And Tim, no iPhone for me, sorry! Any suggestions? The free ones are just regular flip phones but are just kind of dull looking and don't have much pizzaz.(sp?) I don't know what I want I guess, but I indeed do what a new phone.
Also, does anyone have any suggestions on a good, cost efficient, vacation spot? Tom and I are going on a long weekend vacation to somewhere....who knows where. We're thinking maybe Wisconsin Dells but don't know for sure. I'm really limited on what I can do being pregnant and all. No water parks....no go-carts....no amusement parks....very sad, but thats alright! So we're looking for ideas! We've also thought about flying to Las Vegas. I've been there before and loved it and I know Tom would love it. They have a lot there besides casinos, where we wouldn't be dumping our money on slot machines or poker tables. But then again, with these flight costs being so high, it's not too cost efficient anyway. Hmm...
Enough for now....Hope you're all having a fabulous day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stay Tuned For Further Blogging!