August 7, 2008 by veronica.

So it turns out that Dunkin Donuts is going to open stores in MN again. WAHOO!!! I can only hope they move pretty quickly, because I’m pretty sure heaven will be just like drinking a cup of their hazelnut coffee and eating an apple cinnamon donut.

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June 6, 2008 by veronica.

I realize this blog has very little to do with me, but I don’t care. This is important stuff.

So, the study kind of got lost in the hubub of a NYT article regarding some health insurance companies denying coverage (or charging more) for moms who have had Cesarean Births. But there was also a study that was just published that linked Cesareans with the increased risk of having a late preterm infant. Here’s the link.
Add another little “secret” to the consent forms for Cesareans, along with increased risk of maternal death, increased risk of infant death, increased chance of miscarriage in subsequent pregnancies, infection…and on and on….(and yes, I’m serious. Just do some homework. It’s all true.)

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December 23, 2007 by veronica.

We hope this letter finds you doing well and enjoying the holidays.

We are preparing to start 2008 in no way connected to where we were a year ago.

Chris spent most of the year working as a contractor at IBM. He had been handling repairs and upgrades of servers and systems for their Websphere group. He had friends who worked in his area and enjoyed his coworkers. However, in November he accepted a position with US Bank in Minneapolis, and started there at the beginning of December. He is not enjoying the commute, but we hope to be able to move up soon and cut down his drive time. Fortunately, he really likes his job and the team he is now with.

I made many job changes this year. I just found out that a long year of studying and working had paid off, and I am now a Lamaze-certified childbirth instructor. In August, I found out I passed certification to become a certified doula, and way back in April I studied my little tail off and passed the Series 7 exam with flying colors. I think I am done studying for at least a few more months and may hold off on adding more letters after my name for at least awhile. I had been working as an assistant to a team of financial associates with Thrivent, but I felt so pulled by the doula and educator business, I decided to leave investments and pursue starting my own business and teaching my own classes. I worked full time at the day care I worked at back when Chris and I got married until October. However, plans always change, and I started teaching classes at Olmsted Medical Center in September. I am officially .2, but it’s a very flexible job with great coworkers. I just finished teaching my first childbirth series on my own, and I am looking to teaching and being a doula for many years to come!

We did have some setbacks this year, though. In August, our basement flooded (along with a good chunk of houses in SE MN), and we had to gut the entire thing. We came home late one night to water coming in under the oh-so-ugly paneling. Chris and I pulled carpet until 2:30 am, which helped, but there was still a lot to clean up once the rain stopped. We have been doing work on it every free moment we’ve got, and it will be so much better. Too bad we have to leave! We are hoping to finish it up before Mid-January so we can sell the house and get moving.

Lily has had a fantastic year! She has really blossomed into a very fun, intelligent kid. She loves drawing and coloring, and likes to play with all of her dolls and pretend to cook for us. We were able to take her to Disney World in November; she dragged 6 adults around the parks in her endless pursuit of Cinderella. Even when she came down with the croup, she was only sidelined for a day or so. We are already looking forward to planning our next vacation with her!

We have been blessed this year, and it is exciting to think what the new job changes will bring and where we will be living this time next year. Have a wonderful Christmas, and a happy New Year.

Love,
Chris, Veronica, and Lily Jacobsen

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December 15, 2007 by veronica.

My sister Anna is so cool. She will be spending Christmas in Colorado, but to make up for mot seeing us, she sent me a set of doctored pictures that she took from various places. I guess the inspiration is a website called icanhascheezburger.com. So I’ll just put her renditions up. Enjoy!

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December 14, 2007 by veronica.

Tonight, I cried because the sink was full of dishes, and the dishwasher was full of dishes, and I had just washed dishes once already today.

As is my usual refrain, life has been pretty stressful. Yes, I know I was on vacation, and we had a lovely time. Yes, We had Thanksgiving the week after we got back. And yes, I should not theoretically be working as much as I used to (although that’s not true).

BUT….
Chris got a new job. In Minneapolis. So he’s commuting and he’s gone for a very long time each day and I’ve been teaching a lot and working 13 hour days and we had this (albeit very beautiful) wedding to go to and drive 2 cars and I had to take Lily up to the Cities myself and find this hotel….And there’s all this snow and it wouldn’t stop and I kept having to drive in the stuff…

Very Stressful.

We’ll be moving, just as soon as we can reconstruct our once-completely destroyed basement and make it beautiful. Until then, there’s so much schedule- juggling and it’s completely insane and I’m going insane from the stress. To make matters worse, Chris doesn’t have too much time for Christmas preparations so I’m doing it and, in general, I don’t really like Christmas all that much.

I know, poor me (sarcastic!), but OH MY GOD I had to get it off my chest. And yes I know I’ve been a really REALLY crappy friend and sister and whatnot, but at least I’ve been a decent mother…so there.

OK, I feel better.

Oh, and I passed the Lamaze exam. I’m an LCCE. Can you imagine how I would have felt if I failed? =)

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November 1, 2007 by veronica.

Lily was finally old enough this year to be a part of Halloween. The first year, she was 3 weeks old, and just too small to take out. Last year we thought about trick or treating, but since she didn’t have many teeth, she had just started solid foods, and it was very cold out Halloween night, we decided against any real trick-or-treating, and I dressed her up very simply instead.

This year was a different story. We let Lily choose her costume. She chose a Snow White dress at the Disney store, which was fine with me since she can wear it to the Magic Kingdom in a week and a half and be a part of the super-fun tradition of meeting the princesses while dressed like a princess. I had tried to keep a Snow White headband in her hair, but it didn’t quite work out, so this Snow White had pigtails.

Yesterday afternoon I explained to Lily the fine art of trick-or-treating. We went over how you knock on doors and what to say when they open the doors. We even did a practice run at our own door; Chris gave out the candy. Chris and I didn’t expect to have to take her out too much. We thought maybe 5 houses each, switching off halfway through.

The first house Lily and I went to was our neighbor Pete’s house. Lily is in love with the idea of playing on his driveway. so she was excited to ring the doorbell, too. When he opened the door, Lily froze. So I had to explain how this was the very first house she had ever gone to, and we were working on what to do. He gave her the magical candy goodness, and Lily was instantly hooked. She did manage a “thank you” before we headed down the street in search of more wonderful candy.

Each house we went to found Lily more confident and more vocal. She didn’t really ever say “Trick or Treat”, but she usually was able to get out a “Please”. As we reached the end of our block, we started to head home. Lily kept asking for “more trick or treat, please”. So we did head back to the house to get both Daddy and her mittens. I explained to Chris that Lily REALLY liked being out, so we put candy out on the porch and headed out as a family to visit more houses.
Lily loved going to our neighbor’s houses, and many of them commented on how big she was getting, and a few commented on how much work we were having done on our house. Lily insisted on walking the whole time, even when there were large gaps between houses. She repeatedly exclaimed “It’s dark out!” ; I don’t think she had even been out walking that late, so it was a very new experience.

We eventually made it back home with a bag full of candy (and let’s be honest–the candy was for us just as much as it was for her). We had been invited to visit a friend of ours that we hadn’t seen in awhile, so we loaded Lily in the car and went for a quick visit.

On our way home, as Lily gazed out the window into the cold, dark night, she suddenly looked at us and exclaimed something we had never heard her say before. Lily, in a soft, tired voice stated, “I’m so happy now. Lily so happy baby.” She had the best time, and I am so happy we did Halloween as a family.

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October 10, 2007 by veronica.

So now that I am done working full time I finally have some room to breathe again. I’m kind of out of the frying pan and into the fryer this week by teaching a bunch of classes at OMC, but it’s very fun. Very cool. Today was my first day in the office and I didn’t even feel nervous. It was a good time.

Last weekend Lily had two birthday parties to celebrate her day. She had a very good time. Chris and I were exhausted. Oh well. She at least appreciated it this year. So, in the interest of time, I will just have some pictures for all y’all. Enjoy.

Lily opens Anna’s card to her.

I help Lily blow out the candles.

She really likes those cards.

The kids they love the cake.

Lily’s tiny cake.

We had to modify her cake to add Kermit. It was her dream cake.

This is fun!

Anna used to to be Lily’s favorite. Now, she hearts Tore.

My sisters and Lily. Lily thinks this is awesome. Anna is not so sure.

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September 5, 2007 by veronica.

Life did not end when I became Veronica, CD(DONA). It ended when I went back to work full-time.
Since July, I have attended 5 births (4 in a 3 week span of time), taught my class, and had a bridge collapse (which just freaks me out when I drive in Hastings). I got a job at OMC as a Childbirth Educator (because heck, I’ve done most of the work on my own), and said goodbye to my live-in sister (whom we miss very much).

The worst part of the past month has been the floods that hit SE MN pretty hard 2 1/2 weeks ago. Sure, it could have been worse, but we did end up with water in the basement…which led to us ripping out the carpet…which led to ripping out the whole basement. At that point (this past Sunday), we found out that water damage had gone all the way up the walls to the ceiling panels, so it ALL came out. We then had mold to kill, paint to chip, and general crappiness down there. It REALLY has sucked. I keep trying to tell myself that we needed to do it anyway, but DAMN IT (Insert spectacular explicative here) , this SUCKS!!!!!!!! So, yeah, rain…bite me.

On the plus side…we met Al Franken on Saturday. I have a picture on my cell phone to prove it (oh, and he signed something for Lily, too.) He was very, very nice. He gave me a nice hug-ish squeeze. I liked him. I’ll vote for him. Not just because of the hugging, but because I liked the epilogue to his last book. If he meant what he wrote, I’m in because it sounds AWESOME.

But flooding? Flooding SUCKS.

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May 15, 2007 by veronica.

I tried to put in a link to our web page for the SE MN Childbirth Network, but it looks like the button is being crabby and won’t let me do it.  So our website is www.semnchildbirth.net

Check it out.

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April 17, 2007 by veronica.

That’s for you, Beane.

Well, this morning I took my test. It’s comprised of 260 questions, and you have 3 hours to complete each 130 question half with a hour break in between. I started the test at 8 and I was done by 11:30. So, yeah, I took it pretty quickly. The end result? I scored 82% on it, and I needed a 70 to pass. I did it! YAY ME! So all the practice finals (all 11 of them) I took paid off. Unfortunately, I do have my 66 to pass still. I’ll worry about that later, like next week. =)

We’re going out for dinner tonight to celebrate. And, as an added yay me event, I told myself I could get a massage if I passed. So I’ll get that scheduled soon. I’ll need it. I’m just glad to get my life back, and not spend every free moment studying.

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