Joan Ellen Cornell

Loong day today. Nannied from 7am til 6:30pm. Now i'm exhausted and ready for bed and it's only 7:45pm.

I only had the littlest all day, and the twins before and after school for a couple of hours. After they got home, we stuffed the robots and I sewed them up, and VIOLA, they're done :)

On the way to work this morning at 6:30am

The wind was blowing and the snow was falling...

Thanks to IROCKSOWHAT giving me the idea, I made Banana Ice Cream tonight :)

2 Frozen, Ripe Bananas

Milk

Peanut Butter

M&M's

Cut the frozen banana's into slices.

Blend banana, peanut butter, and milk in blender until smooth.

Top with M&M's.

DELICIOUS :)

I've also been working on Christmas card ideas. This is what i've come up with so far...

(will eventually add pics...and the one pic is just an example...I plan on taking x-mas pics especially for the cards!)

Click to Enlarge

#1

#2

The rest of the trip went well. Friday, Justine, Alex and I went to breakfast at the Swedish Pancake House by my mom's, and then hung out at my mom's house all day. Friday night, Joe took us to Red Lobster for dinner, mmmmmm.

While I was home, my aunt gave me some baby stuff she used that she no longer needs...a boppy and a couple covers for it, a sac the baby goes in in the car seat (lined with wool like material, soooo soft), a thing that holds the baby's head in place in the car seat, an all natural teether, and a baby name book! I still have been putting off the whole name thing, I'm waiting until we know whether it's a girl or boy to start seriously I think...I don't wanna research into something that will end up being a waste of time! I think I've finally decided on some nursery colors. Originally I was going to go with more earthy natural colors, but it keeps changing, haha. So now i've decided that if it's a girl, it'll be dark grey and bright yellow, and probably still gonna go with chocolate brown and sage green if it's a boy. We'll see, it could still change...but I really like the grey and yellow, so that'll stay if it's a girl :)

Time to catch up on the blogs that I usually read that I've been neglecting for the past week and a half. Going to take me foreverrrr, haha.

Well here's a recap of the last week:

Thursday:

I got all of the results for the down syndrome and spina bifida testing I had done and all came back normal :)

Friday:

I flew back to Illinois. My mom and sister picked me up at the airport and we headed back to my mom's house.

Saturday:

I went to my sister's and met her new dog! Then my mom, my nephew and I drove an hour and a half to my Grandma's house. My Aunt Colleen and her 2 kids, Grace and Reed were there, as well as my Aunt Ada and Uncle Pat from Florida. It was great to see everyone I hadn't seen in a while!

Alex :)

Chloe

Sunday:

We drove back to the town my Grandma lives in for my Grandpa's wake. What a looong day. The wake was from 3-8pm. We arrived at 2 to have a private viewing with just the family. Such a sad sad day :( I saw a ton of family and friends whom I haven't seen in years and years though. Lots of people asked questions about the baby on the way.

After everything for the day was over, my mom and I went to my Aunt's house in Chicago and stayed there for the night so that we had a shorter drive back to the funeral the next morning.

Monday:

We had to be back at the funeral home at 8:30am for a short service. My Grandparent's were very involved in their Catholic church so the entire thing was very Catholic oriented. After that, my mom, sister, both aunt's, my mom's brother, Grandma and I took a limo to their church. There was an hour mass there. While walking in and out, there was a bagpipe player, dressed in kilt and all, playing. My Grandpa was Irish and this was one of his wishes to have at his funeral. I think the tears flowed for all after hearing the first notes being played...but it was beautiful. After the service, we got back into the limo and drove to the cemetery, where there was another short service inside of the chapel there. After most everyone left the cemetery, we stayed to witness the burial :(

After that was done, a bunch of people met at a restaurant for a luncheon.

When we were done there, I went with my Aunt and Uncle back to their house in Chicago to stay with them for a couple of days. We were all exhausted when we arrived so we didn't do much...ordered dinner to be delivered and hung out with the kids for a few hours.

Tuesday:

My Aunt took my cousin Grace to school in the morning and her and I and my cousin Reed went shopping for maternity clothes on Michigan Ave. We picked up Grace around noon and all went home to nap for a while. After that, we went shopping again, and to the park with the kids. Uncle Eric got home and we had dinner, hung out for a while, and crashed early...again, haha. What an exhausting few days!

Michigan Ave.

Wednesday:

We left my Aunt's house around 9am and headed to my Grandma's house. We met my mom and nephew there. The kids played while we helped my Grandma clean out all of the planters my Grandpa didn't have a chance to himself. Andddd, we ate Portillo's (my FAVORITE italian beef EVERRR)!! We also got the crab that Grandpa used to scare us with :)

After a few hours, we headed home back to Rockford to my mom's house.

The crab!

Nephew and cousin Grace in the leaves :)

Today:

My mom and stepdad Joe went to work, I slept in and then relaxed all morning and part of the afternoon. I worked on the felt robots for the kids I nannied for so I can get them done by next Tuesday when I nanny for them again. Speaking of, that family just asked me if I want to take over for their current nanny whom apparently they are firing because she is unreliable. I agreed...so I will be working for them 2-3 days a week until the end of March, right before the baby comes :)