Oh my heavens, it's been a while since I've blogged. And, boy howdy, has life moved along quickly since then.

1) First off, we got Netflix. We're pretty much behind everyone else when it comes to technology. Our phones don't go on the internet and our TV gets 3 channels. On a good day. So our commitment to Netflix was no small thing. So far, we're loving it and are wondering why we didn't do this sooner. Eleanor LOVES Yo Gabba Gabba, and we can get access to it 24/7. I know I vowed that my child wouldn't watch TV, but that was before I had a child. The reality is Yo Gabba Gabba has saved my life many times. It calms her down and even makes her eat food. She's almost a year and isn't even 17 lbs yet. We try anything to get her to eat. For a few weeks, she flat out refused to eat anything.

But, if DJ Lance Rock is on screen, she zones out, her jaw drops, and she'll eat whatever we give her as she stares at the screen. I kid you not.

We've also been enjoying a variety of TV shows like Freaks and Geeks, Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Twin Peaks, and 30 Rock. It's been awesome.

2) We bought a house. It's great. I park in a garage. We have a guest bathroom, a piano in the front room, and a room for my sewing and James' music equipment.  Downside: We don't know how to fix or repair anything.

3) We got pregnant again. I know. A mom in my new ward asked privately "How exactly does that happen?"after I mentioned that it was "not on purpose." My answer: Birth control doesn't always work.   So there you go. Oh man, it feels as though I've been pregnant forever. I ran into the mom of a girl I grew up with and she was like "Oh, I heard you were pregnant with your first!" I then sheepishly explained that I gave birth to my 1st and managed to get pregnant before she went onto solid foods and that this baby bump would be her little sister. I'm due end of May. They'll be just shy of 15 months apart. If I think about it too much, I start freaking out and have to focus on breathing deeply.

4) Due to number 3 (see above) and our needs as a family, I went back to work in the classroom. Teaching high school French. HUGE BLESSING. I love it. For the most part. It's hard not to be there all day with little E, but when I am with her, I can focus on her 100%. When I was teaching online from home, that wasn't the case at all. Life actually feels more balanced right now. We've got a great sitter. And I only work 6.5 hours a day, but get full benefits and all summer off. I work in the same district as J now so we have the same school breaks.

people are bad

While I really wanted to post about my new serger and the fabulous world it has opened for me, sadly, I have a tale of woe and a word of caution to pass on. Garlic cheesy biscuit in hand (needed a little comfort food given the day I've had) I'm prepared to embark on my sad journey.

The joys of serging will be forthcoming.

Money is tight for most people these days. If it's not for you, good for you cause every day must be Christmas, but for the rest of us, we need every little bit in order to pay bills, diaper our children, and eat.

If your employer was sending you a check, and you are like most people, you can be sure that you'd be looking forward to it. Standing by the mailbox, even. And I was. Trust me. I'm a teacher. Our pay has been frozen since 2008 (and it wasn't that much to begin with).

A paycheck from my employer (301 money for all you educators out there) was sent through the mail. Normally, all my checks are direct deposit, yet this particular one was a live check and my employer sent it throughout the mail rather than contact me to pick it up. It was stolen out of the mail (or out of my employers office) and cashed. A check for $923.15.

I found this out this morning from my employer as I was inquiring about the check I had been expecting for weeks now. She called her bank to find out what happened. Initially, everyone--my employer, her bank, and the bank that cashed the check--refused to take responsibility.

My employer reassured me saying "This has never happened before. None of our checks have been stolen from the mail before. There's nothing I can do about this."

Wait a minute, this sounds familiar. OH WAIT, I heard all this before when in my 3rd week teaching at said school, a student took out a whole lotta rage on Mazda3. She said the same thing. This never happens and there is nothing she can do to help me. Luckily, I'm no pushover and I was not about to let over $900 that I earned while keeping teenagers from committing felonies slip through my fingers.

After 2 visits to different banks, dealing with about 5 bankers, making about 10 phone calls, and breaking down into tears at the Bank of America and sobbing to the banker about my crying 4 month old at home, trying to buy a home, and sad story I read in the news (hormones suck), I finally got somewhere.

 I found out that the person deposited it into their own account through an ATM. The person banks with Wells Fargo---as do I---and was able to deposit it. Ironically, once we knew the check was cashed but before we knew which bank cashed it, we went to our bank, Wells Fargo, to ask about what they recommended for us to do. They spoke about how the bank that cashed it should take responsibility and by the way could we interest in you in fraud protection. Well, turns out we need protection from Wells Fargo's ineptitude.

Long story short--and trust me, it's long--I should be able to get the money. My employer has to file a claim through the bank that issued the check. They then will have to go after the money from Wells Fargo. They will then give my employer the money back and she can then re-issue the check. But that wasn't enough for me.

I filed a police report because I want the jerk to pay and I would like to stop said person from doing this again. The police officer came, took down our info and gave us some bad news. Basically, this happens ALL the time and the fraud detectives are buried under thousands of claims. People actually follow around the postal delivery workers to steal mail from unlocked mailboxes. Also, banks usually refuse to hand over any information to the police unless subpoenas (usually issued by a judge) are involved forcing them to hand it over. Wells Fargo straight up told me they know exactly who did it because they deposited my check into their account, but that the info was confidential and they would not give it to me. The officer told me that if he walked in, badge and all, they would do the same thing. Police request fraud info from banks and rarely get it without extensive legal action.

The take home for me all you folks:

1.) Banks are kind of evil. 

2.) People are bad and they can and will steal your mail.

3.) It's easy to commit fraud using ATMs. People can deposit checks using ATMS without even needing any information about the person to whom the check is actually written. They will get away with it from the banks unless you go in and freak out on them.

4.) The po-po's can't do much. Fraud is so rampant that unless it's a huge amount of money, the police's hands are tied. Banks will not actually give the police information about people THEY KNOW are thieves without a subpoena and police CAN'T get subpoenas for everything given the sheer amount of fraud. Banks would rather pay out the cost of the fraud than take more money and time to stop them.

Be careful, guys.

P90X

I've just started my 3rd week of P90X. Weight lost: ZERO POUNDS. But hey, apparently I look better. At church on Sunday, a lady in her 80s commented on how I lost all my pregnancy weight. I responded that, alas, there was 10 lbs that refused to budge. I blamed breastfeeding (but all those DQ Blizzards can't be helping). 

"Well," she said, "the rear looks just darling!!!" 

So yes, I felt pretty dang good after that, 10 lbs and all. But good grief, I've never had such a hard time losing weight! I am loving P90X, though. It's intense and awesome. I'll keep you updated. 

But having my stomach stretched like pizza dough was worth it for this little lady.

 She's turning over both ways and is SUPER active. I'm gearing up for her to be all over the place. 

 Oh my gosh, don't you love that face?

If you'd like to cry a little...

...just watch this video. I admit, I pretty much always cry when watching soldier coming home videos. But I don't know if it's being a mom or what, cause I was crying even before the video came up. The title alone drove me to tears.

Watch. And tear up.

Cold Case

Here's some updated pictures of my little lady. She's adorable and is just a little miracle.

In other news, I've been watching a lot of TV these last 8 weeks of Eleanor's life. I guess that just happens when you're suddenly home all day spending hours nursing. I've become totally obsessed a few programs. Like Dr. Drew's Lifechangers. Obsessed. I love Dr. Drew. I also think Kelly Ripa is adorable. I have a few guilty pleasures like Cheaters. Oh my heavens, that show is awful. Awfully awesome. It's basically a bunch of trashy people who suspect their significant other of cheating so they send out private detectives to see. Well, spoiler alert, they're always cheating and it's usually someone particularly gross. Like I need to wash my hands after just watching them. Then they catch them in the act and confront them with a camera crew and Joey Greco. Punches, swearing, and tears inevitably follow. It's 30 minutes of trashy fun. 

But my all-time favorite new show is Cold Case Files. They are real cold cases that get solved and serial rapists and kidnappers from the 70s end up in prison. It's making me a scary parent.  Like, I automatically assume everyone is a serial killer. Like the old people on walks while I push El in the stroller on runs--all drug pushers and serial killers. I swear, I'm never letting Eleanor out of my sight.

So in Love

Okay, I could hardly help it. She is just so darn adorable. Just a few more pics. I just can't get over how fabulous she is. And don't hate, you other mothers out there, but she is a ridiculously good baby. I fear having more children who are less lovely and easy to take care of.

Our little Nora

I said I'd update once I started wearing clothes again. Well, I haven't. Though I did actually manage to put a bra on halfway through my mom's visit today, so there's been improvement. With a c-section incision and breastfeeding for the first time, it's been a struggle to wear much of anything.

Well, without going into many details (because I know I certainly don't care about all the details of other people's births) I'll briefly outline our little adventure that brought baby Eleanor home to us. Man, I love that little lady.

Here I am at about 2:30am Tuesday the 28th. We're about to go into the hospital to be induced. This was the last time I was fully dressed.

I reacted really badly to the IV (heart rate and blood pressure plummeted) so they had to wait til 6:00 to start the pitocin. It was the worst vagal response my nurse had seen in a healthy adult. I felt ridiculous. My nurse worried the epidural would do me in. But it didn't. Twenty-two hours later, after not having a progressing labor (I've inherited some body parts that don't work well with labor, hence this ending up a 3rd generation c-section) I went in just after 4 am on Leap Day for a c-section.

The c-section was scary. Not going to lie. And it was really hard to be the last to see and hold my sweet little baby. I had started shaking because of hormones about 30 minutes before the surgery and was shaking horribly through the entire thing.

After getting stitched up really quickly, I was whisked away to post-op where my little peanut breast-fed like a champ. Anyone who says that epidurals and medically assisted (c-section) labor do not produce babies who latch on and suck is beyond ridiculous. I was pumped so full of crap and that little miracle got to work right away--the nurses said she was easily a better nurser than 85% of babies they see born. So there. Since then, she's wreaked absolute havoc in my nipples. TMI, maybe. But really. Painful. We've since had a heart-to-heart and she's being kinder to them. Or perhaps she's destroyed the nerve-endings.

Here are some more pics. We need more of them while she's awake. But I promise not to put up too many. Cross my heart.