another baby update

So we went to my appointment yesterday and they hooked me up to the NST again, which is the non stress test for the baby. I was left on the machine for like 45 minutes instead of 20 like normal so that took forever. Then they all rushed in and kind of scared me, but it was only because they forgot about me. LOL.. Isn't that nice to know. LOL.... I gave them all a hard time about that. You know how I have been telling you that they have been monitoring my labs really close to make sure that I am not in any distress, well what they look for is a increase in protein, they call it spilling protein. It is usually high when your organs are starting to get into distress well I found out that mine is not too high, but now it is low! LOL How funny is that. Everyone has been freaked out because they were afraid it would be elevated and I would have problems and now I do not have enough... God really has a funny sense of humor doesn't He!

My OB Dr. came in the room and did her exam and I am 2 cm dilated and ready to go, just waiting on my body to do its thing. She told me to make sure my bags are packed (which they are not). She also did not give me a choice on being induced, she said the baby was at least 6 1/2 pounds now and she did not want me to get any bigger so if I have not had this baby by next Wednesday they would induce labor then! I almost freaked out. LOL yes I got scared.

This morning when I woke up I found out just what she meant, I have lost the "plug" that everyone has talked about and well now the contractions are getting alot stronger and I find myself counting them a little more now. I do not know if I will make it through the weekend at this rate, but with baby's you never know.

For now I am off to go make sure Rauy isn't freaking out again. He, I think is getting a little overwhelmed. Its so funny!

Grains of Gratitiude

I keep forgetting to do this on Sunday with everyone else but I guess better late than never! I can't believe another week has went by.

1. So this week I am grateful for the fact that I can be honest with you guys on here and tell you about the drama that happened with my son's school and you did not think he was a freak or worse! So thank you all for that, it meant alot.

2. I am happy that things worked out like they did and all I need to worry about is making sure that the guidance counselor gets that off of his record!

3. I saw something new in my sons eyes this week. A new respect for Ray! He was afraid he was going to get into so much trouble over all of that and when he saw Ray standing up for him and making sure that he was not getting bulldozed, Nathan stood a little closer to him and had so much pride! It was cute!

4. I am now entering into my 37th week of pregnancy without major complications and I am very happy about that. I have the option this Thursday of setting a date of getting induced and I am not sure what to do about it. I am torn. I kind of want both. The convenience of knowing when I will be going into labor and then I want to know what it feels like to go into labor on my own. Ray wants the later of the two, (only because he is scared, LOL)

5. The most important one is that I found a church that I really like!!! I heard about some speakers that will be coming to the island and doing a conference next week and I really like them and thought maybe I should go check out this church since they will be there and it was awesome. The praise and worship was good, which is needed for me, and then the pastor was so real. I really liked it. So did Nathan so yeah!!!!!! My next task is to get Ray to start going to church. He needs some help from God.



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I have an urgent prayer request please!!!


I have a friend who is having to make some very hard decisions about her life. She was called to her kids school today and found out that there step dad has not been so nice to them while she is at work and they are starting an investigation on this matter. She is freaking out and has made her husband leave the house and she does not know what she is going to do!

Completely shocked

Last night my life changed. I got a phone call from Ray yesterday telling me that Nathan got into a little trouble yesterday for smacking his little "girlfriend" on the behind while on the playground. The guidance counselor would like to talk to us about this in a conference the following day. Ok so I kind of blew it off, because seriously come on now they are kids, she was kicking him in the shins (he has bruises to prove it) and he smacked her on her bottom while playing... At 8:45 last night I get a phone call from the guidance counselor. Nathan may possibly be getting kicked out of school, or worse for this sexual harassment case that they have started against him! He is in the 5th grade!!!!! He did this in plain view of everyone on the playground, I hardly doubt he meant any harm considering this.... Needless to say I am freaking out over this.... Anyway the meeting is at 11:00 are time. Please keep us in your prayers today!
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Well the meeting is over and I feel so much better about everything. When we got there the guidance counselor was being such a jerk, it was like he was really out to get Nathan at first, since he knows nothing about my son up until yesterday! The meeting involved just his teacher, the guidance counselor and the principal along with Ray and I.

Once we got in there and started talking to the principal I found out that protocol was not followed, and the guidance counselor did not inform her of the situation immediately and she was not informed until 2 hours before the meeting, strike one for him. So when he started talking about the situation that happened yesterday and he told them all that Nathan lied about doing it at first...I said yes he did because you told him that he could go to jail for touching a little girl on the butt.... he was too scared at that point to say anything. Which is completely against state policy when interviewing a young child. Strike two for him. We then talked about how all of the other students heard one of the little kids tell him to do it and that was addressed as well. (I do not make excuses for him, he did smack her on the bottom which was wrong and he knows that) I then asked them if they knew that the little girl was kicking him in the shins and that they were playing while she and Nathan were doing this. The guidance counselor did know about this but the others in the room did not. Strike three for him. His teacher said "he wouldn't tell me that yesterday because they like each other". I said exactly he did not want to get her into trouble. I was also told that the same little boy that told him to do it was the same little boy who told on him and is the same little kid that likes Nathan's little "girlfriend". Then the principal said so these two were really just playing and meant no harm to each other! She told us that she was really having a hard time understanding this because she could not see Nathan doing this because he was such a good kid and that it made more sense now that it was a completely different story now. He was not being rude or malicious at all.

By the end of the meeting everything was dropped and he would be getting into trouble along with the little girl, for "not keeping there hands to themselves and for hitting" which he did do and I was fine with that. But not the other.
The guidance counselor did put the sexual harassment referral in his electronic chart which he should not of done until after the principal was told and the investigation was completed and when he tried to take it out, he could not and found out that it would be permanently in Nathan's file. Strike four for him..... I was not happy about that at all and made it very clear. It is now his job to get it out of his chart and trust me I will be on top of that situation!!!!!!! I will not leave this island with that crap in Nathan's chart! It will follow him for the rest of his school days..

I was on line last night and it only made me freak out even more about the situation but when Ray read the forms we printed them out and we were ready for a fight if needed. It states clearly that the school must have signs posted in every building about sexual harassment and that they must provide classes to teach small children what the guidelines were. We knew Nathan has never been in any such class and that there weren't any signs at the school either. (We looked on our way in just to make sure, there weren't any in the office either) there were a couple other rules that were not being followed and we did bring those to there attention, since the guidance counselor was being such a jerk and this is one of his roles at the school. If kids at this age are going to be expected to follow these rules then they need to be properly informed about what is Ok in school and what is not.

As a parent I know to teach my child if someone touches them in there privates that this is never Ok. If someone makes comments that make me feel uncomfortable that this is not ok. But did I ever think to tell my son, that it is considered sexual harassment to smack a little girl on the butt while playing. Considering this is an every day occurrence in sports. No I didn't and until yesterday both of these little kids (well his whole class) had no idea that was a problem. To them they were just playing, which is what the kids told the teacher yesterday.

We were told that the principal was now in the process of setting up a class for this, she has plans on separating the boys and the girls so they could talk about this. Apparently this was not the first occurrence of this sorts that they had problems with this last year as well!!! No joke. So instead of addressing it last year they will now.

So there is the end to my stressful day! No huge battle, just a little hump in the road. Count it as a lesson well learned for my son!


Just a little side note, I read the comments about the young boys and the JackA@@ show, I have not found it yet but plan on reading it, but in our local news paper there was an article about how the this state has not been taking sexual harassment very serious and at one of the high school 3 girls were confronted by a boy and they went through the proper channels when each situation happened and nothing happened to the boy. When it finally got through the chain of command, it was addressed for the whole state. Which is why things are like they are at our elementary schools now. I guess the question is where do you actually draw the line?

Grains of Gratititude

1. I am grateful this week that Ray was so thoughtful where my son is concerned. The fishing trip was a flop. Three out of four of them got really sick, they spent most of the day puking off the side of the boat! LOL I will not share the stories that we were told when they got home, but oh my goodness, I have not laughed that hard in such a long time. But then the boat broke, they had a fuel leak. They had to call the coast guard and have someone come and get them. They were on the water for a total of 13 hours and other than the fact that no one could stand up straight without rocking back and forth, they had so much fun. (considering) they were all full of laughter and jokes on Nathan for the days events. They had alot of fun and he is ready to go again. LOL..

2. I love my son and I can not tell you what it does to you when you are in the kitchen and he is in the living room and he yells "MOM, I just want you to know your a good mom and I love you!" then you ask what was that for, and you get " just because, I just wanted you to know that" I hug him, tell him I love him and walk away thinking to myself, I must be doing something right with him!

3. I am forever in debt to the girls that I have become close friends with here. There husband's both work with mine and they decided to have a baby shower for me with all of the guys from work, so they called it a BBQ. LOL... The deal was the guys were told to donate money to one of the female marines in the unit and then the girls would go buy the gifts for them. LOL... The female marine totally dropped the ball and did not do her part. So the girls went anyway and bought everything that we need for the baby themselves and I mean everything. They made sure that all we have to do is go home and have a baby! I didn't know any of this until everyone had left and they told me if I needed to exchange anything to let them know they have all of the receipts but not to tell the boys how much they really spent. When we got in the car and I told Ray what had happened, he was just as touched by the friends that we had in them and did not even see it. It was a very tear jerking moment. Those of you in the military completely understand how important that is.

4. Oh and to the two guys who actually bought us gifts on there own. I loved the gifts. Neither one of them have kids and they are both in there 20's still and they bought us gifts. One got us a baby book that is so adorable, and the other picked out 4 outfits all by himself with no help from a girl! I was told that by them both. I love those guys, there great!

Listening to the birds chirp in the early hours

It is 1000 here and I have been awake since 0430. I bet you are thinking aww she couldn't sleep because she is pregnant. Well no not exactly. Ray and his friends had planned a fishing trip for today on the boat. So that means they wake up before daylight and get ready to leave here. I normally sleep through all of that but no not this morning. I get woke up by my husband and he starts like this:
Him: hey honey what are your plans for the day?
Me: I really do not have any why?
Him: because I am going to take Nathan with me if he will get up.

Uhhhmmmmmm ok. where did that come from? LOL See Nathan has never been out on a "big" fishing trip because we are not so sure how he will do. A. He gets sea sick while sitting in the bay, we have found out, which is not good. B. He still gets a little bored while you sit there and the guys usually stay for at least 6 hours, which is not good when he is bored.

But with that being said he was up out of bed, and in Nathan's room waking him up to see if he wanted to go. We all can imagine that he was. Nathan was up and dressed in less than 10 seconds. I made him a few extra sandwiches so they would all have something to eat. I ask him as he is taking the sandwiches out to the cooler if he was excited, and the smile on his face was just too much, all I got was Yes!!!!! and he ran out the door to get go get in the jeep. I hope he does ok out there with them. So far they have not come back, so that is a good sign.

I have to say that I sometimes worry about how Ray will be with our new addition, you know if he will be involved, be at home with us or will he still be out every weekend with the boys doing something in the water and leave me to do the rest. Then I have to sit back and look at how he is with Nathan. Nathan isn't even his biological son and he tries to involve him in everything that he does, so why wouldn't he be the same way with this one.
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Just a quick update on baby to be. I went to the doctor again on Friday and she things look good as far as the baby goes. They did a growth scan on him and said he weighs about 4 1/2 pounds now and that he over taken my stomach. His head is as far down and it can go and he has stretched himself out so that his feet are touching my sternum. I saw the pictures to prove it. So that explains why I have been in so much pain and had such horrible heart burn. I have been getting sick because of all the acid. The medicine and tums are not working and now I know why. All of my lab work came back fine and there wasn't any protein in my urine this time around so no more worries there since my blood pressure is still normal.
The down side of the appointment was that I got sick on the doctor when she was doing the growth scan. I had just eaten breakfast, she was pushing kind of hard to get the pictures she needed. The more sh pushed the more he pushed back, and then add the room was hot. Yeah well I so got sick everywhere. It kind of scared me, I thought that I was going to pass out on her. It was not good. But what do you do! We then talked about inducing me again and I kind of chickened out and decided that I would like to wait and see if I do this on my own, since I didn't do that with Nathan. She thought that was the best decision as well. But I still have the option again in 3 weeks and I will probably take her up on it at that point. LOL..
I am so miserable with this acid reflux thing. It really hurts. He should come out needing a hair cut if the old saying is true..... "if you have alot of heart burn, it means your kids will have alot of hair."

My first blog award!

I just found out that I received this award! I'm shocked I really do not know what to say other than... Thank you Michelle.....

Now I just have to figure out how to put it in my side bar. LOL..

Grains of Gratitude

1. I am grateful for the fact that I told you that Nathan was adjusting to his new school year only to find out the next day that he had been in school 4 days and had been moved 3 times to try to get him to stop talking... LOL.. Yes I know, what are the odds of that happening. But after being grounded for a week he has changed his attitude and is now part of the JPO at his school... Which is the junior police officer at the school...

2. I am grateful for not freaking out when I went to the doctor on Friday and she told me that I was spilling protein in my urine which means that I am starting to get pre eclampsia. I am far enough along now that I am not too concerned about it. I can always have him early now and he will be ok if my blood pressure or kidneys should start to fail.

3. I am grateful for new friends. Two of the female Sgt.'s in Ray's company along with 2 of the guys wives have planned a baby shower for me. Which will help out so much so we can get all of the little things that are needed for the baby. I think it will be funny to see all the guys at the baby shower too and it may not be a traditional shower but the thought was so nice and greatly appreciated!

4. Again I am thankful for my neighbors here they are all so great. They feed me when Ray is gone out on the boat. LOL.. My next door neighbors are always doing big dinners and if Ray is gone for whatever reason, they always make me come over for dinner or to just hang out with them while he is gone. Then they make me plates for Nathan and Ray. They are great. I love them. They have made moving to the island so much easier, with them being so close, I feel like I have family here.
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Just a little update from us: This weekend was full! All week the guys were here working on the boat, you know since that seems to be the main focus. So by Friday night the girls were tired of the boat. I was exhausted..... So when the did not finish until after midnight, needless to say I was not happy. I had to stay up with the girls since they were at my house and when Ray did come inside.....he got the look!!!! LOL I said my goodbyes and went straight to the shower (don't worry the girls were gone before I got into the shower, I can't be that rude to them it wasn't there fault). I was in bed and asleep before he even came in to take a shower.... So when he came in and tried to talk to me, I was not amused.... All I said is I am not in a race, I will not be second to a boat or his friends, I am tired please let me sleep... LOL... He laughed and kissed me told me he was sorry and he loved me.
I really wasn't mad just really tired.

Saturday the boys got up and was out on the boat by 6 AM. They were only gone for half of the day and they caught only one fish and it was a little one. It weighed 15 pounds. It was called a Po'opa'a I think. LOL.. It is a fish that is only here and the locals love it, I will not lie, I may be wrong about the name of the fish. We put the fish on ice and everyone was so tired that the three of us, took a nice long nap... Needless to say the dinner we were suppose to have was canceled and we made arrangements for that to happen on Sunday.

Sunday rolled around and the other two boys wanted to go out on the boat and Ray turned them down and spent the day with us instead. We had a nice day, we got the rest of the big stuff for the baby and then he spent the rest of the day building me some shelves for my laundry room. We really needed them. Our friends came over that evening and we went to our neighbors (told you I loved them) for dinner. They cooked the fish that the boys caught. It was so good. Everyone had such a good time. I am sorry to tell that you that we were all still very tired and my house hold was in bed and sound asleep by 9 PM.

Pregnancy is like getting your butt kicked from the inside.

Well the title says it all. I am by no means complaining today, it is more so funny to me than anything. I am kicked around today and there is nothing I can do about it. My little bundle of joy has run out of room to play so he is now resorting to kicking my rib cage at every given moment. I really think he is going to crack my ribs. Those of you who have been pregnant can completely understand this. I am having one of those days where the more I move the more contractions I seem to have but when I lay/sit down for a minute to rest he begins to play like there is no tomorrow. I love the feeling of him moving around but dang it hurts today. He has managed to get his foot up under my ribs and he keeps pushing, I push him back and it only gets worse! I have tried to reason with him but he will not move.

I can actually sit here and see his legs roll around, I keep getting a knee that shows itself, not a foot like the picture but the knee. I didn't get to feel all of this with Nathan. He never moved around like this not to mention I had already had him by now.

Enough of the baby moving!!!---------------------------------------------------------


I went to the doctor again on Monday for my scheduled visit. I had to take Gavin, the little boy that I baby sit. He is always so good for me there, mostly because he is scared to death and he will just sit with me and hold on for dear life. NO joke. Do you know how hard it is to get a 18 month old boy sit still for 30 minutes? Not hard if your him, just hook me up to the monitor and let him hear the baby's heartbeat and he will not move. He sat by my side for 20 minutes and did not move once. He was so scared. It was sad and funny all at the same time. No one could believe that he was doing that.. LOL...

but anyhooo the PA that I have been seeing came in my room after 20 minutes of me sitting on the monitors and said that baby looks good and that I am still having some good contractions and if I keep this up I will go early! While we were sitting there talking the baby's heart rate spiked up really high, so she decided to do another stress test on him, now I do not know if you remember but the last time we attempted to do this, he did not respond very fast. Well this time I think he almost jumped out of my skin. The doctor about fell out of her chair laughing because of how much he jumped. Needless to say he was not happy after the test and I got to feel the punishment! But he passed the test!

I go back again on Friday for another appointment to get lab work done and to see if my cervix's is starting to change and I so hope that it is. I want this baby to be here now. I am starting to get really uncomfortable, you know, the can't bend over very easy, the hurts to walk because he is so low, and the I can't breathe thing that happens. yeah they have all set in. Not to mention I waddle. I never did that with Nathan either. My husband likes to point that out that and I am getting big. (He is always very nice about it, he says it with a smile and then kisses me while he rubs my belly, he's not being mean he just thinks it's cute)

As for my boys and how are they handling it.
Nathan is getting excited about being a big brother, we went and bought a scrap book yesterday for the baby and he is so excited about putting it together for him. It is so cute, he is all into getting the right stickers and putting where they belong and making the page look just right! It's so cute to see him doing this.
Ray is getting really nervous about everything, it has definitely hit home that his life is about to change in so many ways. The other night we were in bed talking and out of the blue he says,
Ray: have you packed a bag for you and the baby yet?
Me: uhhhhh no, I haven't even thought about it
Ray: well don't you think we need to do that soon?
Me: not yet we still have some time for that
Ray: but you keep having all of those contractions and they said it could be soon


I then had to explain to him that by soon she means like two weeks or so not like tomorrow. That my contractions may be getting stronger but there is no sequence to them yet and my cervix hasn't changed at all yet. I wish you could of seen the look of relief on his face. He tries to act all strong and like it doesn't bother him but you can see something completely different on his face! So cute!
He has changed so much in all of this, he has went from, it can't be that bad, and there is no way you can be tired to if I get up in the middle of the night, he is sitting up saying are you alright, do you need anything, is everything ok.

Enough rambling. Sorry if you made it through all of that.

Grains of Gratitude

Things that I am grateful this past week:

1. I am thankful for the fact that Nathan finished his first week of school and enjoyed himself very much. He actually has alot of the same kids in his class that he met last year. And I am glad that he thinks that he got the mean teacher. He needs someone to be strict with him or he will wonder off somewhere and not stay focused on the task at hand. LOL...

2. For my new friends here on the island. Ray has 2 guys that he works with and they do alot together which leaves the wives to hang out as well. We all get along so well, and have so much fun together.

3. For my neighbors who seem to take the place of our family being so far away. They take Nathan under there wings and he hangs out with them and plays like he is part of the family.

4. For peace of mind that everything will be fine with this pregnancy and I have nothing to worry about.

5. For a husband and a son who are so willing to help me out when I get tired or just come in and kiss me on the cheek when they see that I have fallen asleep on the couch. I hear them say, "I love you mom" or Ray saying, "get some good sleep, I love you, I got dinner".

One Piece of Humble Pie Coming Right Up

I feel absolutely horrible. I was running around today doing all of my reading and commenting on others blogs when I stumbled across Sarah's blog and read her last entry. She is a mother of two and just found out that she was pregnant. They were so happy and then she realized she was having a miscarriage. She had such grace in telling her story and you can see that God is truly holding her hand through it all. Her husband was so sweet and bought her flowers and in such a hard time she was sharing her story with everyone.

All the while here I am complaining about my joy. I am truly sorry! So like I said here is my humble pie. My life isn't as bad as I have been seeing it. I still have my healthy baby, he has been trying to show me that by all the moving he has been doing and all I have done is complain about how I feel.

Please forgive me!
Michelle

Funny how God works, I had a dream that I started participating in the Grains for Gratitude on my blog and today is what confirmed. I have plenty to be thankful for. I just couldn't see it!

I've been putting this off!

If you haven't noticed, I love pictures especially the animated ones. LOL... I giggle when I see them and that makes me feel better. So I stand before you today and tell you this is how I feel. Like a little baby crying.

On Saturday my family and I along with 2 other couples took the boat out on the bay, so I could see Nathan tubing, and water skiing. Everyone had so much fun, and I didn't get bounced around too much on the boat so I thought that I would be OK. I was wrong. I started cramping and had some spotting when I got home, nothing big just a little bit, so I was not too concerned since, this seems to be normal for me and this pregnancy. No big deal right.

But then I noticed on Sunday that the headache that I had 3 days ago is still here and it won't go away with the Tylenol. I pull out the old blood pressure cuff, just to make sure it's not the blood pressure that is causing the headache and it was fine. Which made me very happy. I then convinced myself that I was just over reacting and everything was fine.

So I go shopping for Nathan's school supplies while the boys were back out on the boat. Nathan and a friend, who is older than him, were fishing from the boat while Ray and one of his friends were under the boat scuba diving. They all had so much fun. They ended up spending 8 hours out on the water. Nathan got sea sick for the first time ever, I got a good laugh out of that since he thought that he was immune to that. They went out to the sand bar and played around out there for a little while so they could eat and get out of the boat so Nathan would feel better. Ray then took Nathan back out on the boat so he could try to go scuba diving too... he had him use the extra puffer so he could breathe and they played under water for a little while. I do not know who had more fun doing that Ray or Nate. All in all they had a good day which I was glad for.

Me on the other hand not so much, I started getting really dizzy and couldn't sit up. I got real sick to my stomach and vomited twice and could not seem to get over being dizzy. It was worse when I tried to get up, I think what scared me the most was I was sitting down when it happened, I wasn't moving around or anything just watching TV. Did I mention that I was home alone too.

Monday was the doctor's appointment and I didn't want to tell them but I finally gave in and told her about how I was feeling, everyone freaked out on me because of my history with Nathan. They were convinced that I was started the preeclampsia again and that made me even more nervous. I started crying as they were running all the tests and the next thing I know I am puking at the doctor's feet!!! Not what you want to do when they think you are getting sick! LOL... I laugh now but it was not funny at the time. My blood pressure was up a little but not much, but I am still good on all of my lab work. After crying and begging her not to put me in the hospital, she agreed to let me go home as long as I agreed to take it easy and that I would come back to the doctor on Wednesday to be checked out again. So I agreed.

Here we are on Wednesday morning and Ray wakes up at 0430 to get ready for work as normal, he normally tries to get ready in Nate's bathroom so he doesn't wake me up (he's so nice about that) and as I am laying there my nose starts running. I do the normal huffs and puffs and then I go to our bathroom and blow my nose. That is when I notice that I am tasting blood, so I flip on the bathroom light to find my face covered in blood!!! I had blood all over my face, all over the bed and I could not get it to stop. I try to stay calm then when Ray comes back in the room to see why I am up, he freaks out. So now I have to calm myself and him down. There was alot of blood and I could not get it to stop.... He tried to stay home with me and I tell him to go to work because its just a nose bleed and I would call him if I needed him to come home. He agreed and went to work but was not happy about leaving me. (seriously he is in the marine corp. can you imagine him calling his gunny and saying "sir my wife's nose is bleeding I need to stay home with her" he would get laughed at! I do not want to be the wife that can not take care of herself.) He then came back home and told me he was coming to the doctor with me today so I had to wait for him, I laughed and agreed to wait. He gets so worried, I try to keep him calm so he doesn't freak out on me but I have noticed that the closer it gets to my due date the more nervous he seems to get.

But after an hour of my nose bleeding I finally got it to stop. My blood pressure was fine so that was not the problem. My nose wasn't dry or stuffy so that wasn't the problem either. I really do not know what caused it. But I am sure today at 1:00 I will find out.

This is why I feel like a baby crying because yes, when I saw Ray freaking out I did start to cry. I know what caused that tho, my hormones.....