Life Or Something Like It

I am still alive

2008-06-02T21:58:00.002-05:00

And I need to get back into blogging. I've had several things going on in m life that has made it very difficult to get extra time to get into blogging. I don't even know if anyone even still reads me. I just added a thing to show me who is coming to my site to read.

I know several people have made their blogs private, and I may go in that direction also. If I do, I'll let you all know, so you can get invited if you'd still like to read.

My two baby girls keep me so incredibly busy these days. Morgan, is well, two. She's a strong willed, diva, princess, loud, demanding, creative, stinker of a two year old. No, really, she's cute and funny and so lovable and cuddly, but very much an instigator and keeps me on my toes.

Alyssa is now four and she is doing good. Her last day of school was last Thursday and she is so sad about it.

I'm back to work full time and have been since March. I'm not too happy about it and I'm missing raising my girls like crazy, but I'm doing what I have to do in my situation right now.

I'm not ready to get into the big details about everything, but just that life for me has turned upside down. There are a lot of things I'm not happy about, and there a lot of things I have no control over. (Which for me is a disaster in itself). I'm trying to live day by day and be the best mommy to my two princesses as possible! They are both my #1 priority and I live everyday for them!!

Hopefully I'll be back into blogging and re-acquainting myself with writing things out. I think I may be more comfortable if I know who is reading too!

And the time just keep ticking...

2007-11-01T19:58:00.000-05:00

I'm here for my monthly update...well, actually I'm even late on that! LOL!

In my crazy, hectic life...what's going on??

Alyssa - She is growing up so fast! She is still loving pre-school, even though she doesn't tell me much about it. When I pick her up, I always ask if she had fun. "Yes". Then I ask "what did you do today?" Her response "can I do this, can I have that, can we go here or there??" She never answers any of my questions. Sometimes if I ask a specific question such as "did you make a pumpkin today" she'll respond with "yes" or was there a birthday today and she'll tell me who's birthday it was. But she won't have that conversation about the day with me yet.

So, today I'm talking to another mom and she asks me about the "weather song" they sing in preschool. I said "I have no idea what you are talking about because Alyssa only tells me they sing the ABC song. When we got home I asked Alyssa what other songs they sing and if they sing a song about the weather. She then reciets to me word for word, the entire pledge of alligence. I almost hit the floor. So, she kept saying it over and over again for a while and we showed daddy what she knew. Then I asked her if there was a song about the weather and FINALLY she sang me the song about the weather. I was so impressed! I just wish she'd voulenteer what she learned or what she does at school.

We are working on a big girl chart for her to help her stay dry throughout the night. Last week we started great, and then I let her graduate to wearing undies at night and we had 3 nights in a row with accidents. So, we are back in pull-ups for bed, but this week, she's got 4 stickers!! I told her if she gets a sticker for every day of the week (7 days in a row), she'd get a big surprise!!

Morgan - Oh my gosh, Morgan is SO different than Alyssa ever was!! She is into everything. She can be such a little stinker. She wants to do EVERYTHING that Alyssa is doing.

She screams for Alyssa everytime she wakes up in the morning or from nap. She loves to tell me NO! She loves to sing songs and her favorite show is Jacks Big Music Show. Actually that is the ONLY show she will sit and watch! She is always on the go now! She has a set of lungs on her like you wouldn't believe. Whew...that girl can SCREAM! She screams A LOT too. Like if Alyssa take something aways, she screams. If something frustrates her, she screams. If she doesn't get her way, she screams.

She's been interested in letters. We have letters all over the place. We have those fridge magnets and we have letters for the tub. She has her name over her changing table. So, she'll point at a letter and she'll say another letter. Like she looks at a "B", but will say "I". It cracks me up, because she thinks she's so right. Then I'll correct her and say "no, it's an I" and she'll look at me and repeat "I" as if that's what she said to begin with.

She's also telling me when she pooped and asks to be changed. She takes me to the potty and says "poopy, potty". I'm not ready for this at all. I'm totally fine changing diapers (for her).

We all had a blast going trick or treating. Alyssa was Cinderella and Morgan was Minnie Mouse.

Morgan really got into it and even said "treat" and "ank ou" for getting candy. She'd tell Alyssa to "come on" if she was behind her. She was really interested in her loot, even though there were only a few things we could let her keep for herself.

I know I'd like to post pictures here, but I've just been so busy I haven't downloaded any into photobucket. Hopefully I'll get some up soon!!

Three babies...

2007-09-12T14:13:00.000-05:00

In the past two weeks, three new babies have come into my life.

On August 30th, my best friend, had her twin boys. Jordan and James. They are adorable. Jordan had to be incubated and given oxygen for the first 5 days. They came home on the 6th day and everyone is doing great!!

On September 7th, my sister had her baby girl. Lillian (Lilly) is beautiful and my sister is doing awesome. I remember being an emotional basket case after both my babies were born, and my sister is totally in her glory. I guess my hormones must be really strong. I'm so happy for her though. She's had such a rough road with pregnancies, Lilly is such a blessing and she deserves to be feeling great!!

Alyssa started preschool two weeks ago!! She's in a 3 yr old program for 2 days a week, 2 hrs each day. She LOVES it!! The first day, she didn't even say bye. She talks about her friend "Mrs. XXX" all the time!! It's so freakin' cute. Of course, I cried my eyes out on the first day, but really, Morgan and I are having a blast now. We go shopping (an attempt I never did with two babies), we hang out, play with Alyssa's toys. Just have a great time together. Second babies really get the shaft with the alone time, so I'm really glad that we have this time together. I think Morgan really likes it too!!!

Avon is still going great! I actually like doing it. It's nice little bit of extra cash too. Nothing to quit my job over, but hey if Avon ends up paying for a nice dinner or even extra gas or groceries every couple weeks, I'm happy!!! It's nice that I can do it at my leisure and I've got a pretty good base of customers so far. Every time an order is due, I think "there's no way I'm going to have a decent order"...and then I do.

Well, I better go. I know there is so much more that I'd like to write about, but Morgan is napping and this is the time I need to get some stuff done. Now that I've got a full blown walker (yep, she's everywhere and I can't express how HAPPY I am about that). But, it limits what I can really get done while she is up.

I guess I'll just have to have another baby...

2007-07-26T22:01:00.000-05:00

Maybe the 3rd time will be the charm and I'll get to see that baby walk.

Yeah, my baby girl walked this afternoon and I freakin' missed it. Second baby, second time missing the first steps. I'm a little pissed.

I think I'm pissed because both times I "could" have been home. The first time I was visiting a friend in the hospital after she had her baby. And this time, I had to run to my friends house to get some stuff for Avon.

I should of been home...damn Avon.

But on the happy, proud mama note, my baby girl took 6 unassisted steps for the first time today. Go, Morgan, Go!!

If it weren't for Dora...

2007-07-11T22:27:00.000-05:00

Alyssa wouldn't know how to count to ten in Spanish. I totally wish I could take credit for teaching her that, but it was the farthest thing from my mind.

And Morgan, finally walked with a push toy today!! The cart seemed to go faster than she was ready to, so it looked like she walked around with her bottom sticking out, but it was darn cute and she did really well moving the cart around too. We are on our way! I'm thinking within the next two months, I'll have a walker!!

I'm such a proud mama today!!

Where does the time go??

2007-06-19T22:33:00.001-05:00

Seriously, where has it gone, because it is flying right before my eyes and I don't even seem to have time to blog about anything anymore.

I hate waiting so long in between blogs because then I have so much to write about and I forget stuff that I want to write about and everyone gets board with the long posts...well bear with me...LOL!

FIRST, I just signed up to be an Avon e-Rep. That means that you can shop online via my personal website "store" and have Avon directly shipped to you. If you'd like more information on my site, let me know and I'll give you my e-mail address so we can get in touch with each other!

Ok, now for the run-down quick "month-in-review" of my family...

GARY - I just threw him a surprise birthday party this past Saturday!! It was awesome and he would have been completely surprised if I didn't start laughing when he started questioning me on some thing FIVE minutes before we got to the party. Dummy me can't look at my husband in the eye and lie. He's going to be the big 30 on the 27th and I wanted to surprise him a few weeks before. It was so much fun and even though I was tired of the sneaking around, I'm sad that the party is over.

ALYSSA - Oh this girl just cracks me up everyday. I love talking to her and hearing her thoughts and dreams and wants and wishes. It's amazing to watch her play dollhouse with her princess characters and how they talk and she puts them in time-out and gives them baths and uses her everyday routine to play with her dolls. She's been asking about school lately. She hasn't been to her therapy in a few months now and we passed the street the school is on the other day and she asked when she could go back to school. I told her she was on summer vacation and she'd get to go to a new school in a couple months. So now everyday she tells me she wants to go to her new school. Thank goodness I finally got her signed up!!

MORGAN - Is making amazing strides in her gross motor skills. She's finally mastered pulling herself up on the furniture (and well everything you can think of) and has even started a little table cruising along with it. She still has no interest in the walking toys, but we are taking it one step at a time, literally! To me it seems as if her vocabulary is amazing. We told Alyssa tonight they were going to have a bath, so Morgan was butt-scooting around the living room singing "bath, bath, bath, bath". Then we were in the bath and she picked up the little toy boat and starting singing "row, row, row, row"...which is for "row, row, row your boat"....She also likes to sing along with Alyssa when she sings Dora's "backpack, backpack" song. All food is "cookies" and all drinks are "milk". She knows who Elmo is and that a dog goes "ruff, ruff" and a duck goes "quack, quack".

Morgan has picked up the lovely art of screaming. She screams for everything. She screams when Alyssa takes a toy, she screams when she wants to do something she physically can't, she screams when she is tired. She screams a blood curdling, they are beating me, kind of scream.

ME - Busy, busy, busy. In the past month I've planned Gary's party and also did an Avon open house. Next month I'm hosting a diaper party for my best friends who is having the twin boys and the following month I'm helping throw my sister's shower. It seems like there is something going on constantly! I really want to get the girls to the pool sometime soon and had plans on going tomorrow, but it's only going to be 71. While I think that is awesome weather for playing outside, it's not much of pool weather.

I hope everyone is having a great summer so far!!

Avon calling

2007-05-12T23:11:00.000-05:00

So, I'm taking a plunge and have decided to sell Avon and Mark products. I really hope it works out because the extra money would be awesome for us!!

I'm truly excited and I've passed out a bunch of books. I've been organizing everything and trying to review the booklets to learn more about their products. I should be registered as a consultant by Monday and I can start taking online tutorials to learn even more about makeup and skincare and all that jazz. So, wish me luck on my newest venture.

My sister found out she is having a baby girl!! I'm really excited for her. I thought for sure she'd be the one to have a boy, but it's apparent that our family doesn't make boys. (Even though I know the sex is determined by the male, it's funny how my mom had 3 girls, I have 2 girls and now my sister has 1 girl on the way). She had a name picked out already...Lillian Rose. And she'd like her to be called "Lilly". I already bought her a cute little outfit. I can't resist. I love baby clothes and for my niece, I'd buy the world.

My best friend found out she is having two boys!! I guessed right with her. For some reason she had no morning sickness and everything seemed so laid back that I thought it had to be boys. My girls always made me so sick and when she was pregnant with her daughter, she was sick too. This time nothing...so I figured it had to be boys. So, her family will have 3 princes and one princess. Her daughter will be one very protected little girl!!

Well, I'm off to bed. I've come down with a small cold and a huge headache and I need to get off of this computer and get some rest.

I hope all you Mom's out there have a wonderful Mommy's Day!! We have no plans so far, but I'm sure we will be visiting both of our moms sometime throughout the day.

I did have other things to post

2007-05-06T10:36:00.000-05:00

I need to write this on the blog before I forget all about it...

On Wednesday, May 2nd, Morgan rolled over from her belly to her back. Yes, at almost 14 months, she finally did it!! She can roll over from her back to her belly in her crib because she has assistance of the rails, but it is so frustrating, because she won't roll herself back over and then she screams until we go and turn her on her back again. The other day it took me 1.5 hours before she finally fell asleep for her nap because of this.

Therapy is still going well, although the therapist is NOT happy with her butt scoot. She said that if she continues to do that for a long period of time, the bone growth in her knees and hips will grow funny and she will have problems in the future. I'm a little nervous about what she said, but I really don't know how to stop her from butt scooting. She's perfected it very well and can get anywhere fast now. We are working on giving her tummy time a LOT during the day, but she gets pissed if I prevent her from moving around the room now. The PT says that there isn't much you can do about it, but we just need to get her focused on the rolling over, and transitioning from sitting to standing, pulling herself up on stuff, so she can work on walking. And that is what we are trying to do, but I can't be on her all day. I've got to get things done and I do have another child to look after too, so it's tough to give my 100% focus on Morgan.

My birthday

2007-05-06T07:26:00.000-05:00

Last Thursday was my birthday. My first 29th birthday.

It really wasn't all that exciting. I had a PT appt for Morgan in the morning. Then I went to work for 5 hours, where a girl in my office bought me cookies. Ordered take away from Outback, came home, ate. Then my dad and my in-laws came over and we had cake. Gary had got me a happy birthday precious moment and a gift card to get my hair and nails done.

Today we are having our best friends over and my sister and her boyfriend over for a cookout. Nothing too big.

Speaking of my sister and best friend. They both get to find out the sex of their babies this week!! I can't even believe that it is time for that already. Their pregnancies are flying by. We started to discuss my sisters baby shower and we've set the date for August 5th. And I'm going to throw my best friend a little diaper shower in the beginning of July. I figured she's going to need all the extra diapers she can get with two babies on the way! This summer seems like it is totally planned out for me and it really hasn't even begun.

Blank Mind

2007-04-25T22:19:00.000-05:00

In the past few days, I've wanted to come on and write something good. Something interesting. Something new. And I feel like I've got nothing.

Morgan - Still going to therapy. We have an appt tomorrow morning. They may be impressed that she's trying to get to her knees and pull up. But that's about all the progress she's made. She still butt scoots her way around. I think she'd like to get up and starting running after Alyssa, but she gets so damn frustrated and screams every time she tries to pull herself up and then I've got to spend a half an hour calming her down. She's only got two more sessions before the summer break, but I think I'm going to go to some private therapy for her throughout the summer.

Alyssa - She's doing good. We need to start looking into preschools for her. I've even wrote the numbers down, but haven't called them yet. I really need to be on top of this if I want to send her in the fall. The one school we visited said that the 3 yr old classes are not usually a problem to get her enrolled as they don't fill up as fast, but I'd like this to be a done deal and have it situated before the school year is over. We did visit one place and I liked the school and the set up. I don't want to jump on it though, because it is the first school we looked at and I want to make sure we pick the very best for her. Plus, it is on Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 9-11. Those are the two days I work during the week. I'm sure my mom or my MIL would gladly drop her off for me, but I WANT to do it. I want to send her off and pick her up. I want to hear good reports and see her face and hear about her day right after. So, if we were to pick that school, I'd need to adjust my work schedule and I hate to do that too. I just need to get my butt moving and make some decisions and phone calls here very soon.

Me - I've purchased a spot of a flea market type of thing for the middle of May, so I've been going through all my stuff like crazy looking for the junk I don't need and can try to sell to some other person who will find it their treasure. I've pretty much emptied my closet to get rid of almost all of my clothes that don't fit me anymore. I've really got to go though some closets and start pulling out stuff that I KNOW I'll never use, but for some stupid reason, I'm holding onto. I think I've got four scales and I for sure don't need ALL of those. I also have not a clue as to how to price anything. So, how much do sell plus sized clothes that are in good shape for? And is it appropriate to sell lingerie-type pajamas? I have a few that are really nice that I hardly wore, but would be way to big for me know. And how much would I sell them for?

As Promised...

2007-04-07T23:22:00.000-05:00

Here are some pictures from Alyssa's third birthday party at Chuck E Cheese...

Alyssa's silly smile!

Opening some of her presents! She got lots of princess stuff which she loves right now!!

Alyssa and her buddy climbing up in the tubes!! She loves those things, especially going down the slide. We actually still have a ton of tokens left over because she didn't want to do much else besides climbing up there. She has recently become such a monkey. I don't know where it came from.

Morgan on the ride at CEC. Doesn't she just look thrilled?!?

And Alyssa's Ariel cake!! BE JEALOUS, because I did make this one. A friend and I spend two hours decorating Ariel. I'm so proud of how she turned out. I plan on doing more of these cakes in the future. Alyssa loved it and I really enjoyed making it too.

Alyssa's first professional haircut. I've officially decided to grow her bangs out, even though it is a major PITA doing so. Especially when she doesn't want me to put a clip in her hair to pull the bangs out of her face. The hairdresser assured me that I am at the end of the worst part. I hope so, because they drive me insane hanging in her eyes all day.

My little girl is growing up way too fast. Please someone, make it STOP!

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday tomorrow. We've already hid the eggs and baskets and now I should get some sleep before Alyssa wakes me up bright and early to find everything. Did I mention she is REALLY excited about the Easter bunny coming??

How can it be??

2007-03-29T09:03:00.000-05:00

My little girl is THREE!!

Today is Alyssa's 3rd birthday. I can't even believe that she is a whole three years old.

Later on we are having her party at Chuck E Cheese and she is so excited. This is all she has talked about everyday since Morgan's birthday. I'm excited too!! Last night I decorated an Ariel cake with my friend and it turned out AWESOME!! Alyssa is going to be so excited to see Ariel for her cake.

Today Gary took the day off and we are going to head out and just spend a nice family day together until we have to head out to Chuck E Cheese. And that means I need to get my butt off of the computer so that we can start our day!!

Pictures to come soon, I promise!!

The Big Bash

2007-03-16T06:46:00.000-05:00

Morgan's party went incredibly smooth and I didn't even stress about it once the entire party. (Which is a major accomplishment for me).

Here's mommy and the birthday girl pre-cake.

I can't believe she kept the crown on. I was so excited. Alyssa ripped it off in 2 seconds flat. Thank goodness I got to use it for a second time!!

Morgan did SO well throughout the entire party. She didn't get fussy even once. I thought she'd be overwhelmed by the amount of people or the excitement, but she did great!! She was happy the entire time and even for skipping her afternoon nap, didn't get crabby about it either. (Must have been all the sugar).

Morgan really enjoyed her cake. She didn't seem to want to get too messy on her face, but she had fun playing with the icing.

Alyssa got a little upset when it was cake time. I think she couldn't handle all the attention being on Morgan. Plus it was CAKE, which is Alyssa's favorite, so I'm sure that also played into why she was so upset. After Morgan had her fun with the cake, we let Alyssa stick her fingers into it a few times. That made her happy again!!!

Morgan had a great time opening her presents!! We didn't get overwhelmed with toys, but we got a lot of clothes. It will be nice that Morgan has her own summer wardrobe instead of having all of Alyssa's hand-me downs.

And the birthday cake. I designed it myself to go along with her theme. It turned out wonderful!! (I didn't make it though, I'm not THAT talented...LOL).

Overall it was a wonderful day and I'm VERY sad that it is over.

Since Alyssa's birthday is a hop-skip-and jump away, I've been busy making up her invitation and need to get them out in the mail. She is SUPER excited to have her party at Chuck E. Cheese. We have to talk about it numerous times a day.

My little girl is ONE!

2007-03-07T22:38:00.000-05:00

My baby girl turned the big number 1 today. I can't believe this year has flown by so fast. She doesn't even seem like she should be one. She still is in 6-12 month clothes, she doesn't move a lot (although she is starting to scoot on her butt...so cute!), she is just small to me. She just CAN'T possibly be one.

But, according to the date, she is.

Having a baby while having a toddler makes time go by so much faster than normal, doesn't it??

She is doing some damn cute stuff though. She is babbling a lot and actually says a few words. She says ut-oh (at the right time), ducky, doggie, dada, mama, kitty. I keep thinking she is saying so much more. I could have swore she picked up Alyssa's little Cinderella doll and said "rella". Now, my ears could be playing tricks on me, but I could've swore!

She is eating a lot of regular food now. I had Alyssa eating baby food forever and I swear up and down that is the reason why she is such a picky eater. So, this time when they gave me the go-ahead at 9 months to feed her our food, I did. She eats more than Alyssa usually.

She is now attending PT to help build her muscles and get her going with her gross motor skills. I know, call me crazy for saying this, but I'll be excited for her to crawl.

Morgan's party is this Sunday. It's going to be a huge birthday bash with over 80 people on the guest list. It is insane for a 1st birthday party, but our family is enormous and we did it for Alyssa, so we feel the need to also have a big party for Morgan too. Wish me luck that I don't need to check into a mental clinic before this party, because I'm already feeling the stress!

Here she is

2007-02-27T19:09:00.000-05:00

Sleeping Beauty...(or Sleeping Cutie as Alyssa calls her).

She is doing really well in her new big girl bed. Two days and she still hasn't climbed out. I know I shouldn't get too excited yet. I think the safety rails give her the illusion she is in a crib, so that may be the reason too. She loves her new care bear sheets too!!

My first baby is getting way too big, way too fast. Sniff, sniff.

Another Big Girl Moment

2007-02-25T22:15:00.001-05:00

Tonight was THE night we switched Alyssa to a big girl bed. We put her new Care Bear sheets on, put up safety sides (because I just don't trust that she won't fall out) and told her 50 times to NOT jump on the bed.

I think it's going well. We are into the 2nd hour now that she has been up there and I know now she is sleeping. We let her have all her friends in bed and for about 15 minutes I heard her telling Dora to "Be careful" and "Look out". But, then nothing. Silence. SWEET!

I hope every night is as easy as tonight was, because for a while now night time was a NIGHTMARE!! She would scream and cry and the one night she climbed out of her crib 20 times.
Here's my fingers crossed that the big girl talk and the big girl bed is the trick to a much smoother bedtime routine.

Going Crazy

2007-02-22T22:32:00.000-05:00

My head has been a bit frazzled this week.

In the past two weeks, we have had Alyssa evaluated, looked at a pre-school. Had Morgan evaluated and started her through a private PT for the time being. Got Morgan into the EI program through our county and that starts next week. I had to re-arrange my work schedule in order to make sure I was able to take Morgan to her appointments and find Alyssa a babysitter because siblings are not allowed in the parent-child classes.

But I think after today, I've got everything under control. My head really has been a mess and it was driving me nuts that I couldn't get all the schedules to fall into place.

So, to jump from one thing to another. I have a dilemma...

My sister is due to have her baby September 14th. I was supposed to go on vacation with my step-brother and SIL and their kids to Myrtle Beach, leaving on September 13th. Their hotel is booked, but we haven't booked ours yet. I was still thinking about going, but my sister made it very clear that if I miss her baby's birth that she'd be mad at me.

So, do I skip out on vacation this year, because she "might" go into labor then?!?

Plus the doctors she goes to is the same ones that I went to and I've heard numerous women say that they like to induce once someone hits 38-39 weeks. So, it's a possibility that she will go early because of that. But, I can't wait that long to book my hotel and make the vacation plans. I need to do that in the near future here.

I know skipping one year of vacation doesn't seem like a big deal, but I was really looking forward to it since I came back from vacation last year.

Now, I'm super excited for her and I really don't want to miss her birth either, so this should be a no-brainer, right?!?

Well I've switched

2007-02-19T23:31:00.000-05:00

To the new blogger?!? Hopefully nothing gets messed up, but we will see. I have heard of some people having problems.

So quickly to update news about my sister! She's pregnant!! And officially pregnant, meaning that she already had her first appt where she got to see my little niece or nephew's heartbeat. She is ecstatic and I'm so thrilled to become an aunt again (my stepbrother has two kids). The doctor claims that she has a less than 5% chance of having a miscarriage at this point, which seem like good odds in her favor.

And quickly to update about my really good friend. She is also pregnant. I know, babies everywhere!! But the exciting (or scary...whichever you prefer) news is that she is pregnant with TWINS! I can't believe it. She already has 2 kids too. Her life will be b-u-s-y here shortly!!

Both of them are due mid-September. And the funny thing was at our annual Christmas party, they were joking saying how it'd be great if they got pregnant together because they both work at the same office doing the same thing together.

So, just had to share the exciting news!!

Lost in Space...

2007-02-03T19:11:00.000-05:00

I guess that's where I've been. So, Choppz...you called me out and I decided that I NEEDED to take time to post.

The munchkins...

Morgan. Adorable, cute, funny, almost 11 months, STILL immobile. Yep, still immobile. At Morgan's 9 month checkup the ped said Morgan was now considered delayed in her gross motor skills and needs to be evaluated for this. In all the months that I worried about Alyssa's every move and milestone, I hadn't flinched a thought about Morgan. I really was enjoying all the "babiness" in her and the fact that she was immobile I was enjoying that too. But, the fact is that she is delayed and now being almost 11 months and still unable to roll or crawl is frustrating the heck outta her. She sees her big sis running around like crazy and she wants to be doing that too. So...we had her evaluated by the same therapists that Alyssa has seen and we are on the waiting list to get into the EI program. I've got to call the service coordinator next week to see how long the wait list is. We may have to seek private therapy for her until we can get in. In the evaluation they said that Morgan has low muscle tone which is exactly what Alyssa had. They also said that it is very common if one child has low muscle tone, for other siblings to also have it too.

She's babbling like crazy though. She actually started to say "Ut-Oh" a couple weeks ago and says it at the right time and everything. It is freakin' adorable. I totally think she is trying to say "kitty" and "duck" too. She says "mama", "dada" and "yah". So, her speech is doing great at this time. But if my memory serves me correctly, Alyssa was doing well with her speech until we started therapy and she started to put all of her focus on gross motor skills. Then, the speech took a back burner and she eventually became delayed in that. Who knows though, Morgan can surprise us and still thrive with her speech too.

Alyssa. Adorable, cute, funny, and almost 3 years old. She is going through some evaluations through our school district to see if she will still qualify for therapy services, since the EI program only runs until 3 years of age. I am highly doubtful that she will qualify, but it was still suggested that I get her evaluated. I agreed because I want to hear that she is completely caught up. And if she isn't then she will start the preschool program (in which we were going to send her to anyway) after her 3rd birthday at the end of March instead of waiting until the fall. Plus, it would be completely paid for. Honestly it would be nice for it to be paid for, but I think I'd rather hear that Alyssa is completely caught up more than that. The only thing I'd be bummed about is she isn't going to have "school" until the fall then. She absolutely loves her therapy classes and how they really treat it like a pre-preschool program. It is awesome and I can't imagine not sending her to pre-school in the fall because I seen how well she has thrived being there.

Other than the kiddos, I don't have much going on for myself. I need to post more about my mom, my friend and my sister, but I have to put Morgan to bed!! Please tell me how to juggle it all because I feel like I don't have time for anything anymore!

Merry Christmas to all...

2006-12-23T08:00:00.000-05:00

Alyssa and my conversation before we went to bed...

Alyssa: "Oh mom, that's Santa" (as she talks about the Santa she had just seen on the TV).
Me: "Yes, honey, that was Santa".
Alyssa: "Santa brings presents".
Me: "Yes, honey, Santa is going to bring presents really soon".
Alyssa: "Santa bring toys, and clothes, and presents".
Me: "Yes, honey, Santa will bring toys and clothes and presents".
Alyssa: "And cake, Santa bring cake too".
Me: "No, honey, Santa will not bring cake. This is Christmas not a birthday party".
Alyssa: "Oh, Christmas".
Me: "Yes, Christmas".

She cracks me up!

We are pretty much all set for Christmas. I still have a couple gifts to wrap and then that is it. I can't stop getting things for the girls though. They are going to be so completely overwhelmed by toys over the weekend. It's crazy!

Yesterday at work, a girl came up to me and said she had a TMX Elmo that she was going to take back if I didn't want to buy it. I stewed over the decision to buy it for 4 hours! I kept thinking that I am done with both of them and they don't need any more toys. But, on the other hand, I think Alyssa really will like it and I even think Morgan will get a kick out of him giggling and laughing. So, I bought it. Santa is going to bring it to both of them for Christmas.

I've already decided next year I WILL have a plan for Christmas. Each child will get a certain amount of money that we will spend on them and we will NOT go over it (too much...hee hee). I'm going to take more time to carefully plan out gifts and what I want to get for them. This year I didn't have a plan, bought too much, and spent too much.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!!!

I'm still here.

2006-12-07T21:31:00.000-05:00

So, has it really been over a month since I last posted?!? Oh my gosh, where is this year going?? I can't believe how extremely fast this year has flown by!

I'd love to come on here and tell everything that is going on and has been going on, but I just don't the time to write THAT much. So, I'll try to summarize everything.

My baby girl is growing up way too fast. She is 9 months today! NINE MONTHS! She has developed such an adorable personality. She loves to watch her big sister and play with her toys. Alyssa isn't so fond of sharing them, but Alyssa does love her little sister very much.

Morgan still isn't rolling over regularly. She has almost done it a few times, which makes me believe that she can, but she chooses not to. This time around I'm not too worried about it. I'm enjoying the immobility while it lasts. I know once Morgan is moving she is going to give me a run for my money. Alyssa was an awesome baby...never got into anything. I can already tell by Morgan's behavior that she is going to be a pistol.

Alyssa is also growing way too fast. She has the most amazing little 2.5 year old personality! It is so fun to have someone to communicate with and play games and cuddle and say "I love you mommy" all the time. She has her toddler moments, but she really is a good girl!! The potty training is still going. She doesn't want to go #2 in the potty, but most of the day, she is dry. She likes to roam the house naked though and really fights me to put underwear on. Santa is going to bring her some Ariel underwear, so hopefully she will be excited to wear those. When she roams naked though, she never has an accident. So, in that respect we are doing awesome!!

Here are a couple pictures we put on our Christmas cards this year. You know how hard it is to get two babies to cooperate for a photo shoot. Well, it's damn near impossible.

As for me...I'm going strong. I've been busier than ever trying to get everything together for Christmas. We heard some bad news of my mom having breast cancer. That was some hard news for me to take. She goes in for surgery tomorrow to have a lumpectamy and hopefully after all her treatments and everything she will be cancer free. She really is in good health, so I have faith that she will recover very well from all of this.

I continue to go to Weight Watchers and just hit my 50 pound mark. If you want to see a couple pics, check out my weight loss blog! I'm super excited to still be going strong with eating the healthy way!

More to come soon in the future!!

She's a Big Girl Now!!

2006-10-22T12:53:00.000-05:00

My BIG GIRL peed in the potty for the first time on Friday!! She didn't only pee one time, she peed 5 times!! Yay Alyssa!!!

Since we had no plans on Friday, I decided when she woke up on Friday morning, we would go bottomless all day (except for nap time). I put Alyssa's potty in the living room, so she could get more comfortable with it. She could sit on it and play or sit and watch TV. She would sit on it occasionally.

For the first three or so hours, nothing. I kept asking her if she needed to pee-pee. She would keep telling me "no". I was starting to think she was holding it, just because she didn't want to pee on the potty. Then she was playing, she looked up at me and said "Oh" and ran to the potty. She went pee-pee!! She was so excited, I was so excited. We danced and cheered. It was great!!

After her nap we left her bottomless again. Daddy came home and asked her to go potty for him to see. She didn't right away, but then she ran to me with a diaper begging for me to put the diaper on her. I didn't, but sat her on the potty and read her the "It's Potty Time" book a few times. She went pee again!! This time Daddy gave her a few marshmallows and she got so excited she went to the potty and did it again two more times. (She was pushing really hard...LOL). She went one more time before bed and once again begged for the diaper on.

Yesterday we left her bottomless in the morning before nap and she peed one time. We had a birthday party to go to, so we put her in a diaper. I kept asking about the potty, but she kept saying no.

I told Gary that I'd like her to be bottomless any time she is home. This is our first step in the right direction and I'm so happy!! Go Alyssa, you're a big girl now!!

Teeth

2006-10-20T08:25:00.000-05:00

I'm so irritated that one of my fillings fell out and today I have to go get it replaced. I hate the dentist. I hate everything about it. I hate the noise, I hate the shots, I hate the smell. I just hate it!! And to go back and get something RE-DONE. Pisses me off. I know your "suppose" to get your fillings replaced, but I hate that I HAVE to do it right now. Every time I drink or eat something I have to tilt my head so that it doesn't touch my tooth. Sucks!

Morgan got her first tooth!! I know that was miserable for her and I feel so bad. It is officially through though. We can see it and feel it!! My baby girl is growing up way too fast and I can't stand it!!

I also think Alyssa is cutting her two year molars. Yes, my house is very pleasant these days. Alyssa's molars seem to be taking their good 'ole time though and we get days where she is so crabby and drooly and then nothing the next day. I wish they would just get here and be done.

Ok, I'm done with my rant of teeth for now!!

It's been busy around here

2006-10-11T17:33:00.000-05:00

It has been so busy lately. I have so much that I want to write about and keep up on and I find myself having less and less time to blog. I haven't been keeping up on blogs like I used to either. I hope I can turn that around, because I miss all my blogger babes!!

So, what have I been up to in the past month...

Well our trip was AWESOME!! The trip went very well. Thank god for that DVD player!! That was the only way we would have survived the trip with a 2 year old, that's for sure! Morgan did great. She slept pretty much the whole way there and the whole way back. She wasn't able to see the DVD player, but she did so good even without it!

The trip itself was amazing. The weather was beautiful. Alyssa LOVED the beach. It was one giant sand box for her. Morgan sat well in her travel bounce chair and got to chill in the shade under our umbrella. Morgan LOVED the pool. She had one of those intertube floaty things and she had so much fun in the water. They had a lazy river ride at our hotel and Morgan would take a nap while I held her and we traveled around and around the lazy river. I never realized how much you really need a vacation with your family. It was so great to get away from reality and re-connect with your family.

When we came back we had to start planning for my dads big 5-0 surprise birthday party. I have wanted to write about all my ups and downs, stresses and irritations with the party, my family and most of all, my step-mom. But, the party was this past Saturday, my dad was totally surprised and even weepy. It was GREAT. He really deserved it and it was awesome that we pulled it off for him. So, now that it is over, it makes all my whining, complaining and outright bitching unnecessary on this blog.

Since we came back from vacation, Alyssa has been the temper-tantrum queen. She is throwing them mostly when she doesn't get her way. I hate those damn tantrums and wish she would get over them already. I know she is only 2 1/2, but they suck!

Morgan is getting big. Too fast! She just turned 7 months on Saturday. She is developing the cutest little personality. She loves to watch her big sister and she gets this huge grin on her face when she does. It is amazing to see the connection between the two of them already. I know Alyssa bugs the shit out of Morgan, but Morgan is usually OK with that. I hope Morgan can always be that laid back...LOL.

Well, I gotta get going and give the girls a bath. Yes, finally Morgan is big enough for them to have baths together. I LOVE that!!

I hope that my posts will not be so few and far between. I really want to keep up on everyone's life and little ones.

Holy Crap...We Leave TODAY!!

2006-09-15T07:57:00.000-05:00

I can't believe it is here!! It's time for our vacation. After anticipating this for 9 months, our vacation starts this evening with our 12+ hour trip down to Myrtle Beach!!

And...of course, I still have so much to do. I think I'm doing OK, since we aren't leaving until later on this evening, but I still feel not ready. I'm so worried I'll forget something important...like the camera (which I've already put in a bag). But, you know what I mean, that feeling of forgetance (is that a word?!?) I'm going crazy here. I'm on a limited amount of sleep, I've been running ALL week long and I'm so tired.

I am making time for myself this morning to get a manicure and pedicure. I really want to do that for myself. I think I deserve it since I have been running around like a mad woman preparing for 4 people to live in another state for 7 days!!

The weather is looking pretty good. It says highs in the 80's all week with only one day looking rainy. It has been so yucky here the past few days, I'm ready for some nice weather!!

Wish me luck on my 12+ hour drive and I'll talk to everyone when I get back!! Don't miss me too much...LOL!

Where has the time gone?!?

2006-09-03T23:15:00.000-05:00

I can't believe that at the end of this week, my baby girl is going to be SIX MONTHS OLD!!! This time has been flying by so quickly.

Actually, now that I think of it, my 2 year bloggerversary is here too!! I started writing on this blog when my first baby was almost 6 months old. Now I have something to go back to and compare...(as if I didn't do that enough already...LOL).

Morgan has finished taste testing all of her stage one fruits and veggies!! She is too cute eating off the spoon like such a big girl. She tends to try to "suck" the food off (as if it was a bottle) instead of opening her mouth and actually letting me put the entire spoon in there. She is still such a peanut compared to Alyssa. I put some 3-6 month pants on her today and they were huge on her!! She rolled from her tummy to her back a couple weeks ago, but hasn't done it since. She still hasn't rolled from back to tummy yet. At least this time around, I'm going to try not to freak out about that stuff (which I'm already not), and enjoy it more (which I feel like I already am). She has become such a little personality and I can no longer hold her and try to do anything anymore...LOL. She tries to grab the phone, papers or food out of my other hand if I do.

Alyssa has really been pushing my buttons lately. Anytime that Morgan decides to take a cat nap, Alyssa will SCREAM "WAKE UP" right in front of Morgan's face. That pisses me off to no end, because then Morgan gets startled, wakes up and screams her head off. Alyssa will just laugh at her. I see how these games are now beginning. She still loves Morgan so much and constantly wants to hug and kiss her, but she also likes to grab at her arms and feet and pull on them with all her might. She has become very rough with her (even though she doesn't realize). When I tell her to be nice to Morgan, she will look at me and say "Mommy, Sissa pay Morgan".....which translates into Mommy, Alyssa is playing with Morgan. But how can you play with her if you hurt her and she is crying. That equals no fun for anyone!!!

Alyssa starts her mini-toddler pre-preschool therapy program this Wednesday. I'm going to actually be dropping her off at her classroom and going next door to an observation room where I get to watch what is going on. There are 6 kids in her class and 3 therapists. The only one that will truly be dealing with Alyssa is the speech therapist, although they will all be involved with all the activities the kids do. I don't think that the amount of words Alyssa says is the problem anymore as much as is the annunciation of her words. There are a lot of words, that only Gary and I know what she is saying. And believe me there are plenty of times where I don't even know what she is saying. One day, she kept saying catapillar over and over again as "Bapiya"....If you can even figure out what I typed, but it is clearly NOTHING like catapillar. Finally one day she was pointing at the catapilliar that comes on before Baby Einstein and kept repeating that word. I was like "OH, CATAPILLAR"....silly mommy....LOL.

At her class she is going to have an organized day, have her own locker, do art projects and sing in circle time. Sometimes they will have snacks and sometimes they will have free play. It's an hour long two times a week. I know Alyssa is just going to love the class and I'm actually excited that I get to watch and observe everything without her seeing me.

One week and 5 days until we leave for vacation. The countdown has begun!!!

Any Advice??

2006-08-21T22:29:00.000-05:00

We were invited last Christmas to go on vacation with my step-brother, his fiance and their 2 kiddos to Myrtle Beach. After seeming like it would take forever for September to get here, it is already next month!!

We are going to be traveling by car for a little over 12 hours to get to our destination. In our car we will have Alyssa and Morgan. I'm hoping to borrow someone's portable DVD player so that we don't have to purchase one at this time. I'm really hoping that works like a charm, because Alyssa tends to get antsy in the car after like an hour.

We are leaving at midnight after my stepbrother gets off of work. So, we are hoping to get a few good hours in of driving while the babies are snoozing.

What do I need advice on?? Well, with a 6 month old and a 2 1/2 year old in tow driving 12 hours away from home, does anyone have any suggestions on making for a pleasant drive and a pleasant vacation overall? Any advice would be appreciated.

Where have I been??

2006-08-14T19:57:00.000-05:00

Alright, I've been a busy girl and now I get to finally write about it all!!

My sister did end up losing her baby. There was no heartbeat and her hormone levels dropped from her one visit to the next. I went with her this past Friday to get her D&C done. She seems to be doing alright, but I know inside she is having a difficult time. She is questioning a lot of things now even though the doctor has repeatedly told her she has just had incredibly bad luck with these last three pregnancies. I feel terrible for her and I have a hard time finding the right words to tell her for comfort. I just hope that she can have a successful pregnancy in the future!

This past Thursday I got to meet some women and their children from a parenting board that I frequently visit on the Internet. It is awesome to meet people that you feel like you already know because you share stories of your lives, your children, your spouses and just general discussions. I was so lucky to get to meet them and hopefully we will be able to get together again in the future. We drove 2 1/2 hrs to meet them and although it was a long drive with 5 kiddos in the car (I went with someone else who lives close to me), I'd gladly do it again!!

Morgan was baptized yesterday. It was a beautiful day and Morgan looked like an angel. She wore Alyssa's dress and that truly was so special to me. One big reason was I got to save the money on buying another dress (totally kidding). But really, it was like a bond was created by them both wearing that dress and the sap inside of me wants to preserve it in hopes that future grandchildren can wear that dress.

Here are some pictures of the day (before going to the church):

One of me, Gary, Alyssa, Morgan and the godparents (Alyssa just wanted down so she could run around the church more).

And one of Alyssa. She kept saying "cheese, cheese, sissa (Alyssa), cheese", so I took a picture of her and this is what I get...

Everything turned out so nice and the party afterwords was great. The weather was perfect and everything went without a hitch.

So other than having some back muscle spasms in my back, not much else is going on around here.

New Header!!

2006-07-28T22:22:00.000-05:00

Yay! I did a new header to have pictures of both my beautiful girls and I did it all by myself!! I am so proud that I have started to learn how to do things in photoshop!!

I had this video in photobucket from a while ago and I have been meaning to post it here, but I've been lazy. It's Alyssa saying her alphabet. You might have to turn up your volume, because she starts to whisper! And don't mind my messy house. It was a lazy Sunday morning!

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v494/linda53/?action=view&current=MOV01630MPG.flv

I hope it works!!

Have a great weekend!! We have my nieces 1st birthday party tomorrow. I can't believe she is turning one. This year has really flown by so fast!

And one last thing, please keep my sister in your prayers that her baby is still well and alive. She had her 1st doctors appt and they couldn't see a heartbeat. They are checking her hormone levels to see if they are accelerating like they should. She should get the results back by Monday. It's going to be a long weekend!

Blanking out here

2006-07-19T22:16:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I will sit and work and think about all the things I'd like to blog about. Sometimes I will think while I'm working out about things to blog about. But then I get on the computer I blank out.

So, I guess I will talk about the random things...

Morgan had her 4 month checkup last week. I was told to start rice cereal, but never got a chance to until just yesterday. She actually does pretty well. She gets pissed after about the 3rd bite that it isn't as instantly gratifying as a bottle is, but she doesn't have terrible tongue reflex action going on like Alyssa did at first. Morgan weighs 12 lbs and 2 oz. (Alyssa was 15.5 at 4 months). They were both the same height though. Both tall in the 75% for height. We think Morgan is teething, which I hadn't prepared myself for. Alyssa was 8 1/2 month before any teeth came along. I thought I had a few more months before those little buggers started popping up. We will see how long it take for them to actually poke through. So, my little peanut is growing up way too fast for me.

We got a date set for Morgan's baptism...August 13th and I am so excited about finally having this on the way. I am currently making up a personable invitation in photoshop for it. I think it is going to come out really cute too!! We are going to make a lunch tray and have different salads for our luncheon after the ceremony. Morgan is going to wear Alyssa's dress. I think that is very special that they get to share the same dress.

I went to my 10 year high school reunion. I was a little nervous about going. I actually almost didn't go, but a couple friends of mine said they were going and so at the last minute we decided to go. I had a really good time. I had wanted to lose a little more weight before I went, but decided that I am going to blow everyone away at the 15 year reunion!!

Gary is currently working with his dad on getting the electric installed in our garage. They put up the garage door opener tonight and I am so damn excited. I got one of the clickers for my car and in the winter I'm actually going to get to park in there! They did an awesome job and I am so proud of both of them for working so hard on this project. It looks like it is a pretty tough job. They have to hang the lights and then it is done! Then we will have to work hard to clean it up for the baptism party coming up. It is so exciting that everything is finally coming together.

Dreams

2006-07-09T13:40:00.000-05:00

I wanted to write about this for a week or so, but haven't had a chance.

I had a dream about my soon to be SIL (the one I was going to ask to be godmother). In the dream we had gotten into a huge fight. We were yelling and screaming at each other and I was so upset. I don't remember what had started the fight, but I do remember amongst our anger towards each other, she had made the comment that I probably wouldn't want her to be Morgan's godmother because her mom would have to put pictures of Morgan all over the place. (I know, silly, but funny in a way.)

I had gone to my step-brother and he stuck up for me, but my SIL still didn't want to have any part of the baptism. In the dream I felt stuck and I didn't know who I'd chose (since I already was having a tough time). Some time skipped in the dream and I realized that I had chosen one of my dearest, closest friends to be the godmother. She isn't Catholic. I believe she is Christian, (I'm not 100% sure). She does go to church on occasion and has since she was a little girl.

After waking up, I realized that the dream had happened for a reason. Subconsciously, I knew I should pick my life-long friend and not someone I felt I needed to settle for. Why did this not come to me while I was awake....I have no idea.

So, I decided and talked to Gary. We decided we would chose my friend. I asked her within 2 days of the dream and she seemed so excited. She seemed surprised (being that she is a different religion), but definitely surprised. I loved to see the look on her face as I asked her. It was such a joy to have picked the right person in my eyes. It was such a relief to me.

I did also ask my step-brother and he also seemed very honored and touched that I chose him.

I now feel so good about my choices. Don't get me wrong, I love my soon to be SIL, but I worried that my chose was out of necessity, not out of want, which proved to be true once I realized that there was someone else as an option.

Now, all I need to do is call the church and get a date planned. I need to get my butt moving, especially if I want to have the baptism in August!! This summer is already flying by!

So much to do...

2006-06-30T17:50:00.000-05:00

I've got so much stuff to do, but seem like I can get nothing done!

I am having a little get together tomorrow night for Gary's birthday and my to-do list is huge!! But, I can't seem to get anything done when the kiddos are around or awake. Someone always needs to be changed, fed or occupied.

I know you're thinking "what is she doing on the computer right now". But, I assure you I am feeding a baby at the moment and spending some time surfing the net while I feed her.

Hope everyone has a great holiday weekend. We have a pretty busy few days coming up. Gary's party is tomorrow. We have a birthday party to go to on Sunday. We were invited to an annual 3rd of July party on Monday night and cookout over Gary's parents Tuesday.

Enjoy the 4th!!

Happy Birthday, Gary

2006-06-27T21:22:00.000-05:00

Today is hubby's 29th birthday.

Yep, the big TWO NINE, which means next year will be the even bigger THREE ZERO!! LOL!

I can't believe that the first birthday I got to celebrate with Gary was his 21st! We had a huge party for him at his parents house and got a keg and had a bunch of friends over. It seems like forever ago we did that!

On his first birthday that I celebrated with him, I bought him a gold necklace. I don't ever see him wearing it anymore, but he wanted it really bad. This year I bought him new tennis shoes, 3 shirts and a professional pic of me and the girls. I think he liked them all. I sure hope so!!

I hope your birthday was a great day, sweetie! I love you!!

Baptisms and Godparents....Oh My...

2006-06-17T14:01:00.000-05:00

I must gather my thoughts on this because they are really scattered in my brain.

I am getting so frustrated thinking about Morgan's baptism. I don't want to, but I can't help it.

First, I wanted to have her baptism in July. That is when Alyssa's was and it was perfect. It was nice outside, for our after party. I kinda wanted to get them baptized at around the same age. I know, sounds silly, but I do lots of silly things that don't mean anything to anyone else but me. But, the time flew by so fast and we have several activities, gatherings or whatnot, to attend to at the end of June through the end of July. So, I have settled on having her baptism in the beginning of August.

That is OK too, because we can finish getting our back yard in more presentable condition. Taking down a huge tree and building a garage really does a toll on your yard. Even if it isn't that big. It gives me more time to prepare and more time to save now that I am back at work. So, I am OK with it being pushed back a little further than I would have like it to be.

Now for the godparents...
In the catholic religion, you have to pick at least one practicing catholic that has been confirmed and is at least 16 years of age. If you have the second person as a Christian witness to stand up for your child, he or she must be practicing in the religion they belong to. (My church asks for proof of membership from another church if they don't belong to our church). I was really bummed that they really enforce that 16 years old rule, because I wanted my youngest sister (who will be 14 in August) to be the godmother. She is already confirmed and goes to church every Sunday. Gary really wanted his best friend of 26 years to be the godfather. Problem is that he hasn't had any sacraments done and obviously doesn't attend church.

I was picked to be my nieces godmother this past February. My step-brother and his fiance chose me. I thought they would be a good choice to be Morgan's godparents. Granted, they are not married, and they already have children, but they are engaged and he is my family. Now, I was never really that close to my step-brother and even now it is his fiance and myself who do any planning to get together. Lately it seems as if we make plans and they always back out of it. I had been planning each time for us to ask them to be the godparents. We were supposed to get together tomorrow and now Lisa (the soon to be SIL), said she might not be able to get together because she has to visit her grandfather for father's day. (We were supposed to hang out while the guys went golfing for father's day). So, now I am supposed to sit alone tomorrow?? Gary called me and told me that if I didn't have anyone to be with me, he would much rather not go golfing and be with his family (go Gary)!! So, I am going to call and cancel for Gary.

I'm just irritated because all I wanted was the four of us adults and the kids to get together, so we could ask them to be the godparents and I feel like we keep getting the blowoff. I don't really have anyone else to choose to be the godparents. I felt like the godfather we picked for Alyssa has already disappeared off the face of the earth at times.

I am just getting frustrated. I just wish we could pick who we really want to be the godparents, but they are not religiously qualified. I totally understand the meaning behind a godparent, but really these days, who follows that?? I think it is more of an honorary person to stand next to your child while they are baptized into the catholic religion. Sometimes I wonder why there are even godparents to begin with. I mean, the parents are ultimately the ones responsible for the catholic upbringing. So, why bring someone else into it? I am sure there are plenty of reasons, but even my godparents (who are very religious) haven't really guided me in a catholic way. They always kept contact and sent presents and stuff, but just never did any "guiding".

I hope this makes sense. I am just rambling nonsense, trying to make some sense of it to myself. I don't know if I have done that or made it worse!

Hope everyone has a good weekend. And to all my blogger friends who have stopped blogging....YOU SUCK! Just kidding, you don't suck, but I will miss reading about everyone and their families!! I guess I have to go out and try to find some new blogger friends.

Where does the time go??

2006-06-02T22:31:00.000-05:00

Lots to talk about today, so bear with me (well if anyone is still around to read...LOL).

First of all this was my first week back to work. I went for a full day on Tuesday and Thursday. Tuesday was rough. I had tears in my eyes and knots in my stomach. I had to sit in the parking lot for like 10 minutes before I was able to actually go in. The day went incredibly slow and I had a headache by 10:00 am. I missed my girls terribly and I could hardly smile when everyone welcomed me back.

Thursday was better, not great, but better. My MIL came over in the morning. She let Alyssa sleep until she woke up and then took the girls to her house. Then she even came back to our house for Alyssa to take her nap here and so I didn't have to go and pick them up. That part was awesome. I really liked not having to take the extra time to take and pick them up. I was able to start dinner earlier and get things cleaned up a bit before Gary came home. My mom said she would pick the girls up on Tuesday too, but I would have to pick them up after work. That is fine because the part I hated the most was waking Alyssa up. She is a good sleeper and I hated to interrupt it.

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Morgan turned 12 weeks old on Tuesday! Unbelievable that she could already be here for that long. (Her 3 month birthday isn't until June 7th though). She is smiling, and starting to make those cute little baby noises! She is such a wonderful baby now. After we switched her formula, she has been such a happy baby!! She is very observant and her right hand is her most favorite toy! She also likes sitting under her butterfly toy and look at the dangling rattles.

We moved Morgan into her own room on her 12 week birthday. It was hard for me. With Alyssa, she was out of our room by 6 weeks! I was pretty adamant about making sure she wanted to be in her crib and room. This time, I wanted to savor every moment. What if she is the last one?!? I didn't want to rush her out. She was starting to get a little cramped in her bassinet, so I knew it was time to move her. She did wonderful. She still slept through the night which I was really worried about.

Yep, I said it, SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT!!! She had been sleeping through the night since she was 4 weeks old! She doesn't really have a daytime schedule, but she usually will have her last bottle between 9-11 and then go to bed for the night. She usually doesn't start to wake up until about 7. I LOVE it! I hope I didn't just jinx it though!

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Alyssa is continuing on her path of being such a smart little girl. Not only can she recognize all her letters and numbers up to 20, but she knows her shapes and colors now! Her favorite shows lately are still Sesame Street and now Teletubbies. I really could do without the "tubbies", but she begs for them and her face lights up when I turn them on. I think it is hilarious when I see her laughing at a show because they did something funny. She is particular on what diaper she wears. See, she wears the Pampers Cruisers that have the Sesame Street characters on them, so she has to pick out which diaper she wants to wear. Elmo, Ernie, Big Bird or Grover. Elmo and Ernie are the favorites. If she doesn't get to pick her diaper, she will refuse to be changed. Strange girl!

Her new favorite toy is this sandtable my sister bought for her. She wants to go outside everyday to play with her "box" (for sandbox). She loves it outdoors and I love to see her out there. Plus it exhausts her and she will take an awesome nap!

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I think that is all for now. I need to try to post more often, so my posts are not like novels! I also know that I say that all of the time, but it still doesn't happen!

Two weeks left

2006-05-13T11:35:00.000-05:00

Oh, where to even start this post.

First of all, my maternity leave is almost over. I have 2 weeks of it left. Which leaves me absolutely sad.

Sad because I have had the best time ever being home with my girls. Sad because I have kept up on laundry, cleaning, dishes, making bottles, and making nice dinners and I am afraid I won't be able to when I go back to work. Sad because I don't want to go back to work. AT ALL. Sad because I know we can't afford for me to stay home. It is impossible. Bills trump that. Sad because I will miss everything I do everyday with the girls.

Sad because I will be back on a real life time schedule. I will have to be at work by a certain time in the morning. Meaning I have to plan my showers again. Meaning I will have to pack up two babies to go to grandma's house 2 days a week. Sad because I will feel like my life is more rushed for some reason.

I know, I shouldn't complain. I do only work part time. (Two and a half days to be exact). And I know that it isn't too much time out of my girls life. But, I am still sad. I can't shake this terrible feeling in my stomach that I get when I think about going back to work.

Gary is sympathetic though. He even offered to work a part time job in order for me to stay home. I don't know if he was 100% willing, but he offered it because he knows how much I love being home. I absolutely could NOT have him work 2 jobs and never be home just so I can stay home. Plus, I make much more than he would at any P/T job and with my hours, we aren't losing time together in the evening, so it would be so selfish and silly of me to let him get a second job.

I am sure once I get back to work, it'll be fine. Maybe I will even appreciate the "break" from the girls, but right now I can't think of that. I just keep thinking how miserable I will be.

I am really going to try to enjoy these last two weeks as much as I possibly can. I need to stop thinking about the time left as it is only makes me sad. I need to positive in thinking that I was lucky to spend 12 weeks home with the girls. I just can't believe it is almost over.

This week sucked

2006-05-13T11:14:00.000-05:00

Alyssa had the rotavirus this week. The first couple days she was throwing up and the past three days she has had the runs. I have been washing and sanatizing my hands like crazy in any effort to try to keep that virus away from Morgan. At first it wasn't too difficult to keep Alyssa away because she was very tired and mopey. She pretty much layed around all day. Yesterday was the first day she was acting like herself again. She started to play with her toys and then all of the sudden she wants to give Morgan kisses again. Since she still has the runs, so I don't want her touching Morgan. It is so hard. I just keep praying that Morgan does not catch it!!

So, my fun week has been cleaning up the carpet, the couch and tons and tons of dirty diapers. Fun week....NOT!

Not much else going on around here. We have been busy trying to get Alyssa well.

I guess I am glad that it rained pretty much all week. That makes it much easier to avoid the outside with a sick kid. I don't think it is going to let up anytime soon though and that sucks. Especially since I wanted to have so much fun these last two weeks of my maternity leave. (Yeah, TWO weeks is all I have left). I am composing a whole other blog entry dedicated to that.

For my birthday...

2006-05-07T23:32:00.000-05:00

Gary treated me very well. About 15 minutes after I posted how I just wished he would do something special for me, he walked in the door with a dozen red roses and an ice cream cake. He also told me we could order out from anywhere and he would pick it up. So, we got Outback. Yummy. It was really nice to pick up a good meal like that and be able to eat it at home. So much easier than going to the restaurant with the kiddos. Plus, we didn't have to pay for Alyssa's hot dog and applesauce...LOL!

My birthday was really nice though. It came and went as usual and now I am just another year older. I got to spend it with my three favorite people in the whole world and that is what is really important. (But I did love getting the flowers, it was a wonderful surprise!!)

Needless to say, my diet has been shot this week. I am even too nervous to weigh myself this week and I don't even want to post on my other blog. These guilty feelings, but all I keep saying is "It's my birthday week, it's OK"...

My work friend didn't end up having the baby on my birthday. She went nowhere with dilating, and Thursday morning (5/4) her baby's heartrate started to drop. She went in for an emergency c-section. He was born on May 4th at 11 (something) am and weighed 6 pounds something. I know terrible. I can't remember the exact details. He was born on my nephew's 2 year birthday though, so it is still very special!! Congrats to them!!

I am down to 3 weeks left of maternity leave. Where in the heck did this time go?? Morgan just had her 2 month birthday yesterday. It is already flying by way faster than I want it to. I think she is doing better on her new formula. Now the only time she gets real fussy is when you are not holding her. So yeah, she wants to be held ALL.OF.THE.TIME! At least now when you hold her, she calms down. Before there was no consoling her.

It's My Birthday!!!

2006-05-03T08:24:00.000-05:00

Today is my 28th birthday.

I can't believe that I am 28 already. It seems like just yesterday I was 20. Now here I am 28, married, owning a house, and have 2 kids. Amazing how this time has been flying by.

I always said I would never say I feel old, because really 28 is NOT old!! (Even though you thought it was when you were 15...LOL). But, I am starting to feel not so young anymore.

I think I am in some kind of funk. I wouldn't say I am depressed, but sort of down. I am having a lot of mixed feelings lately that seem so silly, but really get to me. But, I am not going to go there on my birthday post.

I have nothing planned for today, which sucks!! I doubt Gary has anything planned either. He just found out today that he is on-call for work, which means late work nights for him for the next week. He isn't such a good birthday planner. Sometimes I wish he would do something special for me and totally surprise me. Like planning an evening out for us and do ALL the planning. Such as find a sitter, pick a dinner place and just sweep me off my feet and take me there. Or maybe just some cheap flowers from the grocery store. Something to surprise me.

On an exciting note, a pregnant friend of mine from work called me yesterday at about 4:30 saying her doctor told her to go to the hospital to be induced. Her BP has been high for a few weeks now, and she is finally at the 38 week mark. She isn't dilated at all, so they were going to start off with giving her some kind of pill. Anyways, I told her she is going to have her baby on my birthday. So, I am pretty excited about that. I am praying that her labor isn't too difficult, especially since she wasn't dilated. That makes me nervous. I have been telling her as long as I can remember that she would have her baby on my birthday!! So now I am just waiting on her phone call!

Bored and Broke

2006-04-29T13:12:00.000-05:00

I guess those two could kind of go hand in hand.

It has been a tough month or two since I have been on maternity income wise. Since I am only part time, I don't get paid for maternity leave. I know my hubby is so sick of hearing how broke we are that he probably wants to put a muzzle on me. I think it is hard to hear you don't have money for things when you are accustomed to being able to be more lenient. Granted, it isn't like I bring home tons of cash, but I have come to realize that I definitely bring home enough to make our living comfortable. We are using our tax returns to live off of while I am on maternity leave, and it is slowly dwindling away. The money I allotted us to get through 12 weeks, has only gotten us through about 8. It's not like we don't have any extra cash in our savings. But, I hate to use that up. We will have to dig into some of it though. So, I am going to try to be extra cautious on the money we spend in the upcoming weeks. Even more so than I have been. No more new shoes for Alyssa...LOL.

So, that brings me to bored. I am so bored today. It is a beautiful day and Alyssa and I spent some of it outside playing, but now she is down for a nap. I am so thankful for my two babies, but I dread going anywhere with the both of them by myself. So, I am sitting here thinking that I could go somewhere, but that would require LOTS of work packing everyone up. I like having plans and right now I have none. Maybe when Alyssa wakes up we can go for a walk. I'd like to go to the park, but I am nervous going to the park with both of them by myself.

I should get some more laundry done, but I don't feel like doing that either. I can't believe how blah I am feeling on such a beautiful day here. I hate that feeling.

And now I don't even know what else to type about. So I will stop typing...LOL.

Fussy Baby

2006-04-26T16:00:00.000-05:00

Yep, I have yet another very fussy baby.

Morgan has progressively been getting fussier and fussier. She likes to be held a lot and during the day, she will hardly sleep at all unless I am holding her. (Except at night I can swaddle her really tight and she will sleep well...it is strange).

She will eat and then about an hour later, scream and scream. Sometimes there is just no consoling her. No pacifier, no rocking, nothing. I was talking to a friend of mine who has dealt with silent reflux in two of her kids and she said that Morgan was showing some possible signs of silent reflux. First, she has bouts of fussiness. She sounds congested when sleeping. She makes gagging noises as if she wants to spit up, but then doesn't. I think she may be spitting up a little and then swallowing it. Sometimes when she is screaming, I will feed her again and she will drink the bottle VERY slowly. Almost as if the the liquid is making her feel better, not that she is hungry, but it is soothing for some reason.

So, I called the peds office about this and after the nurse made me feel like a silly, paranoid mom, set me up for an appt today.

After seeing the ped she said that usually babies with reflux will spit up a lot, but that doesn't mean Morgan doesn't have it. She wants to try her on a new formula (Enfamil AR Lipil). I am sort of surprised because it says that the formula is for babies who spit up a lot and Morgan doesn't spit up at all. I was reading about the formula and it says that it is a thicker formula with added rice starch in it. I guess this helps keep the formula down, but as I said, if she isn't actually spitting it up, I don't understand how this will help. I just hope it does, because I feel like Morgan cries so much. I went though this with Alyssa too and it is just so hard to enjoy these first few months of life when they are constantly screaming.

I did read that Enfamil has a formula called Gentlease and it is for fussy, gassy babies. I wonder if we should have tried that one instead of one for spitting up. But I guess the ped knows best and I will follow her orders. The only other thing that sucks is I bought a ton of Good Start Formula before I went on maternity leave. Plus Good Start starting sending coupons for buy one get one free cans of formula. I am all for the deals. Oh well, whatever is best for my baby.

Super Sweet

2006-04-25T11:02:00.000-05:00

My older daughter is the so sweet to her baby sister.

If Morgan is crying, she always runs over and wants to give her a kiss! She will demand to give her one until she kisses her. She will also try to stick the pacifier in her mouth all of the time (even if she doesn't need it).

Just now, I went over to the pack n play where Morgan is laying and noticed that Morgan's empty bottle, and her burp cloth were thrown by her feet. Alyssa must have thought Morgan needed her bottle and burp cloth. She is so thoughtful. It makes me smile to see Alyssa being so sweet and caring about her baby sister.

Being a mom of two might be hard and overwhelming, but little moments like this really make me realize it is the best thing in the world!!!

Pictures!!

2006-04-19T13:48:00.000-05:00

Since I signed up to be a portrait club member, I got a free smiles by wire. That means I got to view my pictures online and therefore, get to share with you sooner than when I get them back!!
I was so excited to get these done. These are the pictures we ordered:

Alyssa

Morgan

Alyssa and Morgan

And my favorite - Alyssa kissing Morgan

(Or as Alyssa calls it "Diss" instead of "Kiss"...too funny!!).

I love getting pictures taken. I can never do this good of a job at my house. I always get action shots. I always spend a pretty penny when I do, but it is worth it. I love having these pictures to look back on.

Linda Loses It...

2006-04-18T12:30:00.000-05:00

I need some big time motivation to eat well, exercise and lose weight. I need something to help me do this, so I have decided to start another blog entitled "Linda Loses It...My Weight Loss Journey".

I wanted a place to vent, record and ramble about dieting, exercising and weight loss and didn't want to clog up this blog with that type of stuff.

So, if you are interested in checking my progress and ramblings over there, feel free. I need all the support I can get!!

Happy Easter!!

2006-04-16T05:51:00.000-05:00

I have been on the computer since 6:00 this morning, anxiously awaiting Alyssa to wake up and search for her Easter basket and Easter eggs!! I know I am way more excited than she is.

Morgan is already awake, but I told her she has to wait for her sister before they can search for their baskets. Morgan doesn't seem to mind waiting...LOL!

Here is a picture I took of Morgan yesterday:

She is doing really well!! I think I have seen a couple smiles, but I don't know if it is really smiling or just gas. I love when she gets a big grin when she is sleeping. It just melts my heart.

We went to get their pictures taken last Tuesday. We got Morgan's 1 month pictures, Alyssa's 2 year pictures and pictures of them together. Yep, JC Penny made a small fortune off of me that day. I will post the pictures when I get them back.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter. We have a fun filled day of having the IL's over for breakfast. Then we are heading over to my aunt and uncles for an Easter egg hunt and then over to my mom's for dinner. Should be a fun day. I am about to start the coffee now...LOL!

Happy Birthday, Morgan

2006-04-07T22:26:00.000-05:00

Today is Morgan's one month birthday!!

I know, I am a dork, but I can't believe that she has been here for one whole month already.

She is doing so well and sometimes can sleep for a five hour stretch. It ends up being good if we can time it right at night. If not, then we end up waking up twice a night anyway.

Happy one month birthday, Stinkerbell (Daddy's nickname for Morgan).

Monday's Moments

2006-04-03T15:54:00.000-05:00

Today, Alyssa said her first official sentence.

I asked her this morning if she pooped and she looked at Gary and said "Daddy, I pooped".

So I am happy for three reasons. One, that she finally put words together that we actually understood. Two, that she asked Gary to change her diaper and not me. And three, that she knew that she had went to the bathroom in her pants. We always thought she didn't even know when she went. So, maybe she will be potty trained before she is five! Woo Hoo!!

Today we also went to her speech therapy "toddler time" session. Of course, I boasted to the therapist that she said a sentence this morning. She seemed happy. She proceeded to tell me that we are really focusing on Alyssa's listening skills and the ability to be able to complete one task before moving to another and participate in group activities.

Normally, I think I would have been somewhat offended. The reason being is because I thought that we were there for speech therapy and Alyssa is making amazing strides in her vocabulary and speech and then for the therapist to focus on what Alyssa needs to work on could have rubbed me the wrong way, but it didn't!!

I am actually loving the class that Alyssa is involved with now. To me it seems somewhat like an early preschool program. They do art projects and sing in circle time and then today they got to go outside for a little recess time. I really think it is cute what they do there. I don't know why it took me so long to see that. She has only recently been involved with the "toddler time", but I think she is really getting the hang of what it expected of her there. She still had two small tantrums when she wanted to do something else, but overall that is wonderful compared to the fit she would throw the entire time when we first started this program.

So, maybe it was my pregnancy hormones mixed in with "there's nothing wrong with my kid" attitude that made me think she really didn't need to be there. But, now I am impressed with the program and even if I don't think she "needs" to be there, it is wonderful that she can still be involved with a program like that and I know she will learn from it no matter at what level she is at with her speech skills.

Happy 2nd Birthday

2006-03-29T08:41:00.000-05:00

Today is Alyssa's 2nd birthday. I can't believe it, she is TWO already!!! It is amazing how fast time flies and it just makes me so sad sometimes.

These past two years have been amazing. I can't believe the little personality that she shows me everyday. Right now she is up in her crib singing "twigle, twigle" (twinkle, twinkle little star). She is such a smart little cookie. She knows her alphabet, she can count to 14, she can identify all of her letters and she can identify her numbers up to 14. She is starting to "sing" nursery rhymes and it is too adorable.

She really is an amazing person. Everyday I look at her and can't believe that I am her mom. I can't believe that I help create such a wonderful person. Everyday Alyssa makes me smile and laugh.

Every phase in life has always seem to get better. I hope it keeps getting better, because I am sitting here crying at the thought of her ever going to school or graduating or getting married. Why doesn't time stand still for us to enjoy these babies more??

Happy 2nd Birthday, Princess. You are such an amazing blessing to our lives and we love you SOOO much!!

He left me...

2006-03-28T12:59:00.000-05:00

Gary's vacation time is over and he had to go back to work today. He was with me for the past three weeks.

Today isn't so bad because my mom came and picked up Alyssa for a few hours. So, it is just Morgan and me for a few hours and right now she is sleeping (go figure...LOL). I probably should be too, since Morgan decided to break her good sleeping streak last night and was fussy from 1:00 am until 3:30 am.

It is nice to be able to get some things done around the house though. I am never home without Alyssa so it feels a little strange.

We gave Alyssa her birthday present yesterday. Gary put together the kitchen on Sunday night so when she woke up on Monday morning she would see it. She loves her kitchen and all her new fake food!! She especially loves the phone that came with the kitchen. She carries it around with her everywhere. I guess because it is a more realistic looking phone. Tomorrow is her actual birthday. I am going to make cupcakes for her and I invited over the grandparents. She has gotten to celebrate her birthday four different times...LOL!! Lucky girl.

Not much else is going on around here. Morgan is 3 weeks old today.

The past three weeks

2006-03-26T07:16:00.000-05:00

The past three weeks have been very overwhelming. It is definitely an adjustment to having a new baby in the house. When you have a two year old and a new baby, life is very demanding.

Morgan is doing wonderfully. Complete opposite of Alyssa (remember, I compare...LOL). With Alyssa, she would scream at the three hour mark to be fed and she would down four to six ounces at this point in her life. Morgan, on the other hand rarely screams to be fed. It is nice to actually be able to warm the bottle without the neighbors thinking that I am beating my kid.

Morgan will sleep anywhere from 3 to 5 hour stretches. Last night she slept from 1:30 ish to about 6:45. Even then, she probably would have taken the binky and slept a bit longer, but I felt that she needed to eat since it had been 5 hours.

Alyssa has been taking her time adjusting. When Morgan first came home, it was hard!! Alyssa was very clingy to me and very whiney. She would cry over everything (with real tears). There were times she didn't want me handling the baby and if Morgan was crying, so would Alyssa (while pushing me away crying "baby", "baby"). Bedtimes and naptimes have become more difficult too. When we would mention naptime or bedtime, Alyssa would take my (or Gary's) hand, walk us upstairs, brush her teeth, read our books and go to bed. Sometimes she would chit-chat with her animal friends in her crib before going to sleep, but she never cried. Lately she has been crying herself to sleep. She will go upstairs OK (because she wants to read books or play with her toys), but then when we put her in the crib, she is throwing fits. They are getting a little better, but she will still usually cry. It breaks my heart, but I know I can't cave in to her, or she will think I will do that all of the time.

Alyssa wants me all of the time. I can't leave without her throwing a fit and I have to be the one to put her to bed everynight. She will climb on me while I am feeding Morgan and make sure that I am giving her attention too.

She does love her though (I think)... She wants to point out her eyes, nose, mouth, ears and hair. She wants to kiss her all the time ("diss"...LOL). She likes to hold her bottle when I am feeding her. It is really cute to see Alyssa interact with Morgan. She won't call her anything but "baby" though. We tried "Morgan" and "sister" and she still calls her baby.

It IS getting better though. The first week was really tough. Especially since I was going through my "baby blues" period where I cried every five minutes. So, with me being an emotional basketcase and Alyssa acting out, I thought I was crazy for having another baby. Since my crying spells are fewer in between now, I can handle this. It is hard, but I am getting a better routine for myself and that really helps me.

Morgan is an absolute dream. She really is a good baby and we are so blessed to have two wonderful daughters. I had such a hard time picturing our family being a family of four and now I can't picture it without Morgan.

A long birth story

2006-03-18T22:07:00.000-05:00

The birth story of Morgan Elizabeth is amazing. It is not at all how I had thought it would be. Which means it was completely opposite of the way Alyssa's birth story was.

When we finally got to the hospital at about 3:00 pm on Tuesday, they broke my water and checked me. I was 6 centimeters dilated. They got my stuff going and I waited for the contractions to get harder and quicker.

I really debated trying to get the epidural. With Alyssa they had tried FOUR times to get the epidural to work and they thought they had got it, but I still felt ALL of the pain from the pitocin induced contractions. So, I was leary. The epidural hurt, I remembered and for it to not work, was it worth it again? Plus, the epidural must have hit a nerve because my right leg was numb for over 8 hours. I couldn't even walk on it to go to the bathroom the next day after having Alyssa.

Well, it was probably about 5:00 pm and I was getting uncomfortable. The contractions were not unbearable, but they were painful. The nurse checked me again and she said I was still at 6. So, I figured I mine as well get the epidural. I figured that I would try and if it didn't work, at least I tried to get it again. So, she called the anesthesiologist and I waited patiently. The anesthesiologist came in at about 6:00 and I got the epidural. One poke and it was in. It was still uncomfortable and I hate that feeling, but it only happened once so I was happy. They did the test run and my BP started to drop. It dropped pretty low and I was feeling very nauseous. I could see Gary's face and he was worried. But, they kept putting antibiotics in my IV and after about 15 minutes, my BP started to rise again. I could start to feel the numbness in my legs and I couldn't feel the contractions as much. The epidural had worked!! I was so excited.

The nurse then checked me and I was 9 centimeters dilated. What the heck?!? How did I go from 6-9 so quickly. The doctor came in shortly after and checked me...I was 10. She asked if I was ready to push and I said that I didn't know. I wasn't feeling anything. No pressure, no contractions. She told me when I was having a contraction and to start pushing. But then my contractions started to slow down. She actually waited over 8 minutes for me to have one. She ordered to put me on pitocin to get those contractions regular. I wasn't worried, because the epidural was working and I wouldn't feel those pitocin contractions much.

So, we waited another 20 minutes for the pitocin to kick in. Then she came back and we started to push again. I could feel the pressure more and I knew better when to push, but it really wasn't that painful. All the sudden at 7:34 pm, Morgan was born and the doc put her on my belly. I couldn't believe that she was here. It didn't feel right because when I had Alyssa, I was in so much pain, I couldn't wait for it to be over. I almost felt like I didn't deserve Morgan because I wasn't in much pain.

Completely different from last time. With Alyssa, I wouldn't look at ANYONE! I kept my eyes shut as I had one painful contraction after another with NO BREAKS! This time, Gary, the doctor, the nurse and I were laughing at stupid jokes as I was pushing. Last time, I had third degree tears and tons of stitches. This time first degree tears with a couple stitches. (Morgan's head is much smaller...LOL). Last time, I yelled at Gary and my mom all of the time. This time, we joked and laughed. Total labor last time was about 9 hours, this time 4 1/2 hrs. (Although I had been feeling cramping for days, which was probably labor. I didn't have that with Alyssa). I was able to shower only 2 hours after having Morgan, where I couldn't shower for a day after Alyssa (because of the numb leg).

And this just starts the constant comparison of one child to the next...LOL!

Well, if you got through this you are amazing. I debated posting the birth story, but I figured that I wanted to have it written down for myself, so that is why I wrote it.

Morgan Elizabeth is here!

2006-03-10T17:05:00.000-05:00

On Tuesday, March 7, 2006 at 7:34 pm, Morgan Elizabeth made her appearance to the world. She weighed 7 pounds, 14 ounces and was 19 1/2 inches long.

We came home yesterday afternoon and are trying to adjust to being a family of four. My mom has been here helping a lot and Gary has a few weeks off of work to help me too (thank god)!!

Here is Morgan, only an hour or two old:

Daddy and Morgan:

Mommy, Daddy, Big Sis Alyssa (notice her shirt) and Baby Morgan:

Baby Morgan:

Going home:

Baby Morgan again:

I will post the birthing story and all that comes along with that soon. I just have to gather my thoughts and feelings right now because they are all crazy at the moment.

I'm off to have a baby

2006-03-07T12:51:00.000-05:00

Last night I was having some really painful cramps, so I called my doctor this morning. She moved my appt from 4:00 to 10:45 to check me out. Well, my blood pressure was pretty high (158/94) and I am dilated 4-5 centimeters, so she wants me to head up to the hospital.

I asked if I could go home and get together some stuff before heading up there and she said that was OK. So, I am here waiting for Gary to get home, for my mom to bring Alyssa back (so we can take her to the IL's) and blogging away waiting for everyone else. I still have to get a few things together and we just put the carseats in this afternoon. I am so not ready for this. I guess my kids don't like to wait to be induced. They want to come when they feel ready. I guess that is the way it is supposed to be. I am glad that Morgan waited until the two big events were over before she made her appearance.

Speaking of, Alyssa's 2nd birthday party was a huge success!! We had 17 kids here and who knows how many adults. It was an absolute mad house, but it was a lot of fun. Alyssa had a great time and she got a lot of cool new toys to play with. Hopefully that will keep her pretty occupied when the new baby is here.

Some pictures from her party:

And after everyone left, she asked me to put on Sesame Street and after only 15 minutes, she was passed out...

Well, I am off now. I will post when I get home!

Morgan's room is done!!

2006-03-03T23:28:00.000-05:00

Morgan's room is finally done!! We put some finishing touches on it today and I am so relieved. This was going to be the design for Alyssa's new room, but since she didn't want anything to do with a new room, we made it up for Morgan. It is definitely a very girly room. I wanted to upload more pictures, but this is the only one that sized correctly. All the other ones came out way too huge.

I am still hanging in there!! At my last doctor's appt, I was at 3 centimeters dilated and 80% effaced. I am getting so uncomfortable, but I am trying to not complain too much since I have less than a week left for sure!!

The plans for Alyssa's birthday party are still on!! I have to run to a couple stores tomorrow to order the cake and get some last minute supplies. This past week I have been cleaning and getting everything together. Everyone says that I am "nesting", but I think it is just how I get when I am about to have a bunch of people over my house. Maybe it is a combo of both this time. Gary has his "to-do" list and he better get it done before the party!!!

36 weeks today!

2006-02-22T15:42:00.000-05:00

Today I am 36 weeks! I had a doctors appt on Monday and I am still 2.5 centimeters dilated and now 80% effaced. Hearing numbers like those make me think that I am going to go into labor tomorrow, but then the doc says "see you next week" and reassures me to not pay attention to those numbers.

And for good reason. I still have one baptism to attend and one birthday party to throw!!

We finally switched the cribs into the correct bedrooms and Alyssa did great with her new crib. I thought she might have a little uneasiness being that it was a different crib, but she didn't at all. I am so glad for that.

I have to brag a little about Alyssa. My little girl can count to 11!! I can't believe it. When we walk down the stairs, she will count each step. And I swear we were looking at her play phone and I pointed out a couple numbers and she told me what numbers they were. I am still shocked and I can't get her to do that again, but I swear she did it the one time. Now please tell me why she still needs speech therapy??? She has been saying all kinds of words lately and has been repeating things we say, but the therapist thinks she should be putting two and three words together. She must think she is behind enough to bump up her monthly visit to two times a month. I think she is crazy, but she has a degree and we are getting it free through early intervention, so I am not complaining. I just think she is a smart cookie and I probably wouldn't have thought anything of her speech if we weren't going to early intervention for the physical therapy (which she doesn't need anymore and the therapist will evaluate her, but every time she says Alyssa is doing perfectly for her age...well except for her kicking a ball - insert eye roll here).

My stepmom finally gave me the money for the double stroller. I have to admit, I was getting a little worried, since she said that she would given us the money weeks ago. So, I ordered it and it should be here soon...yay!!

I have been going crazy ordering things online. I ordered Alyssa a big sister T-shirt with her name on it. I ordered curtains for Morgan's room, Easter baskets with names embroidered, and shelves for Alyssa's bedroom. I never bought anything online before (well except for Alyssa's book club) and I have to admit it is awesome!! I am thinking about ordering a flower clock for Morgan's room with her name on it too. It is too much fun to come home and see something on your doorstep! It's like Christmas...LOL!

So, I guess that is my weekly update. No one will know if I have the baby or not, since lately I have been such an infrequent poster...LOL!

Another doctors appt...

2006-02-13T17:40:00.000-05:00

Since now I am on my weekly doctors appts, I had to switch to Mondays since that is one of Gary's days off. So, I had another appt today.

Doc said I was dilated another 1/2 centimeter (so 2.5 now). We scheduled my induction date for March 9th. I will be going in around 6:00 pm. I asked her if she thought I would even make it to that day and she said that she didn't see why not. She said my cervix is still pretty "thick", so even though I am dilated, it isn't that close yet.

My BP was a bit higher today, but she compared the chart with Alyssa and last time, my BP also went up around the same time. I have been getting cramps / contractions / braxton hicks...whatever...for the past few days on and off. Nothing consistent, but enough to be annoying and uncomfortable. Sleeping is getting very uncomfortable and I have to pee like 3 times a night.

I can definitely tell that it is getting close to the end! We got all of the baby stuff out of the attic and I washed all of the clothes. I made my honey-do list for my Gary. I am still going to plan Alyssa's 2nd birthday party. These next few weeks are going to FLY by!!

34 week checkup

2006-02-08T16:15:00.000-05:00

Today I had my 34 week checkup.

I am 2 centimeters dialated. I talked to the doc about the cramping I have been getting (although none since the weekend), and she advised me to try to take it easy. I asked her about going to Jazzercise and she advised against it. I am bummed because I wanted to exercise up until the end like I did with Alyssa. But, I don't want to have this baby too early, so I will definitely follow the doctor's orders.

She did give me two dates that I can pick from to be induced -- I can go in Thursday, March 9th in the evening or Friday March 10th, early in the morning. We will tell her next week what time I pick.

I don't know why I am having a weird feeling that I won't make it until then. And I just sent Alyssa's invitations to be printed with a March 5th date on them. Plus my niece is getting baptized the weekend before (Feb 26th) and I am the godmother.

I feel like I am not ready at all and this time is just passing me by.

My doc wants to see me for weekly checkups now so that she can make sure I am not dialating too fast. I can't believe that I am going to have another baby here soon.

Already a week?!?

2006-02-04T15:57:00.000-05:00

Ok, so it's been a week since I posted last. Well, I guess trying to post more isn't working well is it?? What am I going to do when I have two babies?!? I will NEVER have time to post...LOL!

Actually this week has been kind of slow. No new doctors appointments and no new news with Alyssa.

I have started to feel some cramping and it is damn uncomfortable! I don't think it is contractions because they linger around for a while. Right now they are really not that bad, but last night they were horrible. I actually skipped out on my exercise class this morning because I didn't want to do anything I really shouldn't be doing. When I was pregnant with Alyssa I didn't have this. I exercised up to the day before I delivered. I was hoping to do the same this time. We will see though. I won't push anything I shouldn't, so I will just wait to see how my body feels before each class.

My mom came over today and we painted the letters for Morgan's room (the letters spell out her name). We did them in pink and purple. Then we painted some wood flowers in the different colors so we can put those all over the room. I hope it turns out cute!

I think I finished Alyssa's birthday invitation!! I did it in photoshop and it has taken me a couple weeks to finish it. I am new at photoshop and didn't really know how to do anything. But, a friend of mine (who is a photoshop pro) explained how to do different things, so I was able to do the whole thing by myself. Thanks, Keri!! I am super excited about it!!

Tomorrow we are going over my step brother and his fiance's house to watch the superbowl. It will be nice for the kids to play. I love it when Alyssa gets to play with her cousins.

I think that is it for now. I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend!!

Just call me a slacker...

2006-01-28T15:09:00.000-05:00

Because I haven't posted in over a week. What the heck is wrong with me?!?! It's not like I don't have anything to say, because I DO!!

I have been busy lately. I have really been trying to keep up on cleaning the house and making dinners. You know, this cuts out on computer time. Also, Gary has found a new computer game that he can play with his friends online and this also cuts out on my computer time.

So, I had my second big u/s last Friday and it revealed that I am measuring about 1 week and 3 days ahead of schedule. The u/s doctor said that Morgan is at about 75th percentile. (And he said that it looks like she is still a she...LOL).

On Monday, I had my normal doctors appt and she said that everything looked great on the u/s. She said that the head is down (last time it was breech), so I was relieved about that. She said that she will probably follow in the same footsteps as Alyssa being on the bigger side, so we can induce anytime after March 7th. She said that she goes on vacation on March 12th, so at my next appt we will set a for sure date being somewhere from the 7th to the 11th.

That makes me less than 6 weeks away from being a mommy of 2!!! I can't believe how fast this time is flying.

And while time is flying, we have decided to throw Alyssa's birthday party early. I can't believe that I am planning a party for my little girl to turn TWO! Where has this time gone? We are going to do it on March 5th. We figured this way, I can throw a party without having to worry about being tired and exhausted from just having a baby. Plus, this way the party is all about Alyssa and there is no new baby to take the attention away from her big day. Now as long as Morgan doesn't come too early (that would be more than 2 weeks early), it will work out perfectly!!

We decided to do a Sesame Street / Elmo theme for her party, because the girl is obsessed with Sesame Street. Every morning she looks for the remote, hands it to me and says "steet" (for sesame street). She used to love those Disney shows, but not anymore...it is all sesame street over here. But, I think she is really learning from the show. We have heard her once count to 8 and she can say her alphabet up to "G". She doesn't do it all of the time, but both Gary and I heard her do these things. Now, if I could just get her to tell me what she wants instead of screaming and whining at me, we'd be great!!

I went through all of Alyssa's 0-3 month baby clothes. I can't believe that Alyssa was ever that small. Gary's cousin gave us some onsies from her baby girl a few months ago and after I pulled out all of Alyssa's onsies, we have way over 20 onsies!! It will be good, because that gives me some extra time to do the laundry...LOL! I also went and bought a couple outfits for the new baby last week. She needs a few outfits of her own and after going through Alyssa's clothes, I realized that I only had one or two warmer outfits. I know that Morgan will probably live in sleepers, but it is nice to have a few outfits to go out in if we need to. I also figured that if Morgan was a boy, we would have had to buy lots of clothes, so no harm in getting a few new things for her too.

I think that is all I have to say for now. I hope that I can on here to make posts more often. I don't want to lose any readers by not posting enough!!

Good News

2006-01-19T21:15:00.000-05:00

I called the doctor yesterday to find out the results of my 3 hour gestational diabetes test and they came back normal. She gave me the numbers and what normal range is, and I am not even borderline!! Yay!! I am soo excited!! Since I have been doing well with the suggested prenatal diet that the hospital recommended, I am going to try to stick with that. But, at least I can have a few goodies here and there and not feel guilty about it at all.

Tomorrow is my second "big" ultrasound. I will find out how big this babe really is. I am really hoping she is not extremely big. I thought Alyssa was big enough at 8 pounds 2 ounces!!

My stepmom said that her and my dad will buy us something big for the new baby, so I told her that there is a double stroller that I was going to order online when we got some extra cash. She said to not worry about it and she will write us a check for it when we see her next week. I am really excited that she offered to buy that. I hope she follows through. I know that she has told my step-brother and his fiance that she would get them a few things and has fallen through on what she says. I guess we will see after I see her this week.

We decided to not move Alyssa. We swapped furniture (well, except for the cribs, because we have to take them apart and re-assemble them) and left Alyssa in her old room. She still seemed a little nervous about having the other furniture in there, but it was NOTHING like how she reacted to being in a different room. She is now adjusted to the new furniture and we have actually adjusted to getting her changed on the floor (which she thinks is a fun game). Gary wants to look for another border and theme for Alyssa's room and make it more into a girly room, but I am not in a rush. Pooh is still cute and she has a lot of pooh stuff in there. If I find something that really sticks out at me, we will get it, but for now, we will just leave it Pooh.

I'm a mess

2006-01-14T12:14:00.000-05:00

We have been working like crazy to get together Alyssa's new room. We went from having a room filled with TONS of crap to a totally adorable little girls room. The border is up, the furniture is in, the crib is up and most of Alyssa's stuff is hanging up on the walls. I even started to put Alyssa's clothes in her new dressers. We put anything we have bought for Morgan in Alyssa's "old" room. Alyssa's "old" room sort of turned into the baby junk room until we can get it organized. But, Alyssa's room looks GREAT!

So we thought last night would be the night. We put Alyssa's blankets and 6 of her stuffed animals in her new crib (she takes attendance for them every night). We put her nightlight in and we kept talking to Alyssa telling her about her new room. So, when it was time to go to bed (which she is GREAT about), she grabbed her duckie and gave daddy a kiss goodnight and I put her in her new room. She cried the most pitiful, sad cry I have ever heard. I sat in my bedroom listening to her cry and after 10 minutes I couldn't take it anymore. I went and got her and sat on the floor and rocked with her. She was doing the hyperventalation cry trying to calm down, but then kept starting to cry again. I felt so horrible. So, I put her and all her animals back in her old bed and she went to sleep there. She did still cry for about a minute, but then went to sleep.

I am really starting to think we did the wrong thing. Maybe we shouldn't move her. My hormones are getting the best of me and I am feeling super guilty about moving Alyssa. Maybe we should have made the room up for the baby and not made Alyssa make this change.

I have been beating myself up over this all night and this morning. I keep thinking that with this room change now and then a new baby coming along in 8-10 weeks, it will be a lot for Alyssa to deal with. I don't want to lose the great sleeper we have and how well she goes to bed on her own.

30 week appt

2006-01-09T22:03:00.000-05:00

Today I had another doctor's appt. I only gained 1 pound...woo hoo!!

My doctor set up a second ultrasound for Jan 20th, because I am still measuring big. Now I am measuring 36 weeks when I am really at almost 30 weeks. My doc said that it could be because there is a lot of fluid in there, but we don't want to be surprised so that is the reason for the 2nd ultrasound.

My 3 hour glucose test is this Friday. I have been following the prenatal diet and been doing pretty good on it, and that is probably the reason I only gained 1 pound.

We finally got Alyssa's new room cleaned out and the border is up!! We got the crib from my mom and just have to assemble it and get the two dressers from my mom too. Things are actually starting to move along now and I feel really good about it. If all goes well, we might have Alyssa in her new room by the weekend.

I just feel like our room is a disaster area. We moved some things from the spare room to our room and all the sudden I feel like our room is disorganized. I need to spend some time this week organizing that stuff because it makes me a little crazy when things don't have places to go.

It will be nice to then be able to start going through the baby stuff and washing Alyssa's baby clothes. There are still a couple big things we would like to buy like a new monitor (it has three bases, so one can go in Alyssa's room and one in Morgan's room) and a double stroller. We just have to wait for some extra money to roll in before buying those two big priced items.

Our garage is almost done!!

2006-01-06T09:50:00.000-05:00

The only thing left is to put the gutters on and they are doing that as I type. Gary and I thought this garage would never get done. I know it is only a garage, but we are soo excited!!

I thought I would put all the pictures I have taken over time, so you can see the process.

The "before" picture...

After the first day of work.

Our backyard is now full of cement...

After the first day of building...

This was the one pic I took after they hadn't worked on it in two weeks...

And after they finally came back...

The finished product (minus the gutters)...

It snowed last night and we were able to put our cars in the garage. I have NEVER been able to put my car in a garage.

We also moved a lot of stuff from our spare bedroom (Alyssa's new room) to the garage over the past couple days. Today my mom is supposed to come over and help put up border in the room. I can't believe things are finally starting to move along. If everything goes according to my plan, Alyssa will be in her new room next week.

Happy New Year!!

2006-01-01T23:09:00.000-05:00

Here is to a wonderful 2006!!

Last night Gary and I stayed home and played Triopoly. It was a fun cozy night with just the two of us. We watched the ball drop at midnight and went to say Happy New Year to our beautiful sleeping daughter at 12:30. And then we went to bed. Doesn't seem like much, but it was the best way to ring in the new year for me to spend it with Gary.

Today we went to visit with my dad's side of the family to celebrate our Christmas. No one exchanges gifts or anything, (thank goodness no more toys came home...LOL). It was a nice dinner and visiting with all my aunts, uncles and cousins that I don't get to see very often. Of course, they just love Alyssa and you can never hear too many times how you have the cutest daughter!!

Tonight I started to take down the tree. I figured I would get a jump on it tonight so that tomorrow I won't have much to do. Hopefully Gary will be cooperative and put the stuff in the attic, so that it isn't cluttering the closet and we can start focusing on where everything else that is left in the spare bedroom is going to go. We finally found a cute border and theme for Alyssa's new room and I am so excited to start putting everything together. We also bought a new mattress for the crib we are going to use from my mom. My mom is going to come over next Friday or Saturday and start putting up the border in Alyssa's bedroom. I am starting to get really excited!!

The garage people say that tomorrow they plan on wrapping up the garage and Tuesday install the garage door. I can't believe that it is almost done. I have taken another picture to post, but I have been lazy about posting pictures, so that is why you haven't seen it. My only concern is that Gary and I don't think they are putting drywall in our garage. We were once told that because we were so close to the neighbor's house, that we would need to have fire-rate drywall (I don't know if that is the correct term or spelling) in the garage. We thought it was quoted with the garage, but now looking through our papers, it wasn't stated in the quote. The problem is that we didn't take out any extra money, so if the drywall is going to cost more, where are we going to get it from?? Tomorrow I am going to call the company we contracted and find out what the deal is with this. So, we will see what they say tomorrow.

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year's Day and continues to have a great 2006!!!

Christmas & Miscellaneous Thoughts

2005-12-27T21:48:00.000-05:00

Christmas was wonderful!!! Alyssa was into opening the gifts and wanting the presents out. I think she loved everything. Well, she isn't crazy about the sit n' spin yet, but I am sure once she gets it down she will love it! Once again, we are overloaded with toys!! We have so much stuff from all of our family plus what we got it is unbelievable. Yesterday Gary and I went through Alyssa's toybox and put away toys that she doesn't play with anymore or are more babish toys. We also put some toys in her bedroom. Can you believe in over a year and a half, we didn't have any toys in her bedroom. It is because we live in a colonial and we don't really play upstairs. But, we needed to make room, so I threw a couple things up there.

Alyssa got a bunch of "mommy & me" stuff. She got a baby cradle, bounce chair, high chair, push tricycle, and car seat. It is too cute, she will put the baby in the cradle and tell us to "ssshhh". But, she also has a hard time understanding that this is stuff for the baby dolls. She was trying to get into the baby doll's high chair and was really upset that she didn't fit. She tried to sit on the tricycle thing too. It is funny that she thinks it is for her, but we keep telling her over and over again that it is for the baby dolls.

I wanted to say thanks for everyone who responded with advice on temper tantrums. I will definitely be limiting my time out for a while. At least by myself. I realize that I need to be more persistent and consistent when disciplining Alyssa or she will end up walking all over me. I talked to my mom about it the next day and she started to giggle at me. I asked her why she was laughing as I was really upset about the whole situation. She said that Alyssa is acting the EXACT same way I was. She calls her my mini-me. I asked her when this stage passes and she laughed again and said that she needed to talk to Gary, but she thinks I still do it. Ha, ha, mom, so very funny...

I haven't gotten my paperwork in the mail to call for my 3 hour diabetes test yet. Today I decided that I would try to eat throughout the day similar to a diabetic diet. Let me tell you how friggin' hard that is. I did OK until about an hour and a half ago. I was starving and trying to think of something that would be OK to snack on and came up with nothing. So, I pulled out some chips and salsa. I am sure that wasn't the best choice. I was reading on the internet last night about some things I should really stay away from and cold cereal is one of them. Ugghhhh, you know how much I love to eat cold cereal?!? I need to have more examples of things I can eat instead of things I shouldn't eat. You know how it is when someone tells you not to eat something or do something, it makes you want it that much more.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!!! We didn't get a ton of pictures because we captured it all on video, but I think we got a few, so once I upload them, I will post them!!

Temper Tantrums

2005-12-23T22:35:00.000-05:00

I can't stand them anymore.

I want to know where my sweet, awesome, well behaved, never got into anything baby went! Oh, she turned into a freakin' toddler...

Alyssa has really been playing the temper tantrum card lately. If she doesn't get something she wants, she throws a tantrum. If something doesn't go her way, she throws a temper tantrum.

Today was a tantrum nightmare!! I decided to go to Target to look for a picture frame. I put Alyssa in the front of the cart buckled in. After only 5 minutes she started to fuss. I took her coat off because I thought she might be hot. She then started to whine and lean her body over the side of the cart. Then she brought her legs up and started to stand up as much as she could and try to lean over the side. So, I put her in the back of the cart, which is what she really wanted (thanks Gary). She got a hold of my purse and emptied everything into the cart. I decided to pick out the frame and get the heck out of there. So, we are standing in line and I thought I would start to put together my purse again. Um, that was a big NO, NO. She started to scream at me and take the things out of my hand and keep them in the cart. So, I grab my checkbook even though she screamed at me for about a minute and paid the cashier and we head to the door. Well, now I need to put together my purse and put a hat and coat on this toddler. So, I picked her up and she started to scream and flip herself back on me. My 13 year old sister was with me, so I asked her to grab all my purse things. Not one second after she got my purse together the fucking security guard grabbed our cart from us and put it away. So, here I am trying to put a coat on a toddler, who isn't cooperating and screaming her head off. I couldn't get the damn coat on her. I tried to stand her on the ground and she threw herself on the floor face first. So, I grab her, the tears are rolling down my face as I couldn't control my spastic 1 1/2 year old. We go and sit on a bench and I try to wait for Alyssa to calm down. I kept telling her to calm down and trying to hug her, but all she wanted to do was scream in my face and try to get off of my lap. She then starts hitting me in the face and pulling my hair. Then some old lady was trying to tell her that Santa was watching her. Yeah, lady, thanks for the help, but she has no fucking clue who Santa is right now. So, she is still not letting me get her friggin' coat on. I sat there for 15 more minutes with a screaming child who would NOT let me get the damn coat on her. I was staring at the wall and couldn't control the tears. I felt so stupid and helpless and the fact that I couldn't stop her from throwing this tantrum was so hard for me to handle. I finally got the damn coat on her arms. I didn't get the hat on and she didn't have the coat zipped, but we finally left the store. I cried the whole way home and am tearing up right now as I type. I just don't know what to do. Should I have left with no coat on the kid in this cold weather? Or did I do the right thing, by waiting at the store. I must have gotten a million dirty looks. I am glad that I was facing the wall, so I couldn't see them. It was a total nightmare today.

So, what am I supposed to do when she throws these tantrums? At home, I know I can try to ignore them, even though she will walk right in front of me and follow me around screaming her head off. But, what do you do when you are out?

In addition to the tantrums has come whining. She whines a lot lately. If I get on the computer for a minute, she will whine. If the phone rings and I answer it, she whines. She only does this to me. I feel so bad saying this, but I really can't take it anymore, it is driving me insane!!

Damn It

2005-12-21T23:33:00.000-05:00

Well, even though I resisted all temptation at work on Monday, I still failed the 1 hour glucose test. So, I have to now go through the 3 hour test in which my blood will be drawn 4 times. Did I ever mention the fact that I HATE to have blood drawn??

The nurse was trying to be reassuring telling me that even if I do end up having gestational diabetes, that it can be controlled with diet. And I keep trying to think of the positive that if I had to control my diet better, then I probably won't gain as much weight in the end like I did last time.

After I get the paperwork in the mail, I will call to make an appointment. I am glad that it won't happen until after the holidays, so I don't have to worry so much during all the yummy holiday goodies. I will worry about it after I get the test results. I know that sounds horrible, but I will try not to be that bad...

How's the Pregnancy Going?

2005-12-20T22:16:00.000-05:00

Well, tomorrow I will be 27 weeks. I can't even believe I am already in my 3rd trimester. I knew with the holidays, time would fly by. It did when I was pregnant with Alyssa at this same time 2 years ago.

My doctors appt was on Monday and I had to drink the very sugary orange drink. I have to admit the drink isn't terrible, but it isn't good either. On Monday morning several departments of my work decided to have a cook-off and bring in tons of goodies. I had to use every ounce of willpower in me not to eat any of it. I don't know if it is true or not, but I didn't want to throw off the glucose test with indulging in sweets all morning, so I restrained myself.

The doctor measured me and told me that I was measuring at 35 weeks. I so hope that is not true. I have some extra padding on top of my preggo belly, so I am hoping that has something to do with it. The doc said that I will probably go for a second ultrasound in a month or so, to see what the baby is measuring and we would induce at 38 weeks, if she is measuring big. This is EXACTLY what happened with Alyssa. Except, my water ended up starting to break the day before induction. That is Alyssa for you....you are not going to tell her when she is going to come....she will come when SHE wants to!!!

We still haven't started on Alyssa's room yet. We are hopefully going to start on it right after Christmas. Even if we have to store the crap in the shed until the garage is complete, we need to start working on it ASAP!! There are some cute things I want to order for Alyssa's new room. I am excited to do the room for Alyssa and hopefully get a few things changed around for the baby's room.

We have finally decided on a name for the baby. Her name is going to be Morgan Elizabeth. I keep trying to get Alyssa to say Morgan, but she still insists on calling my belly "baby". It is really cute. Although, she thinks there is a baby in her belly too. I just about died laughing when she pulled up her shirt to point to her belly and said "baby".

Other than worrying about the rooms being done and getting Alyssa settled into a new room, I have been feeling great. I feel Morgan moving around and I love it. That is absolutely my favorite part of being pregnant.

Year In Review

2005-12-17T14:48:00.000-05:00

I got this off of Beth (from her meme blog). It is a look at the last year in review. The idea is to post the first sentence from the first post of each month and review how your last year went. So here I go...

January 2005 - Happy New Year! Gary and I didn't do much of anything this New Year's Eve.

February 2005 - On Tuesdays and Thursdays when I work, my mom and my MIL watch Alyssa.

March 2005 - I am thinking about starting a scrapbook.

April 2005 - Alyssa's birthday party was yesterday. We rented a hall and about 50 people showed up. It feels as if Toys R Us has exploded in our house.

May 2005 - Yesterday was my birthday! Officially on May 3, I turned the big 2-7!

June 2005 - I called off of work today. No, not just because I didn't feel like going. (Although I never feel like going anymore).

July 2005 - The bad news is that my step-grandmother passed away the other day.

August 2005 - Garage Sale - Part II. It's that time again. We pulled everything back out for Part II of our Garage sale.

September 2005 - Gary and I keep having the same argument when naming our "boy" (which we don't know if it is a boy or girl yet).

October 2005 - Bye Bye Binky. For the last couple months, I have been saying that when Alyssa turned 18 months old, we are going to get rid of the binky.

November 2005 - Yesterday (11/03) was Gary's and my 4 year wedding anniversary.

December 2005 - It seems like this garage is taking forever to build.

Well, that was fun. I have to admit, I didn't use the first post if it was pictures or another "tagged meme game". Also, I may have used more than one sentence, if I felt the first wasn't good enough.

What is your year in review?? Leave me a comment and let me know if you decided to take a walk down memory lane.

How's the Garage Going?

2005-12-16T15:15:00.000-05:00

So, you really want to know how the garage is going? Remember how two weeks ago I said that I was too lazy to go and get a picture of what they did. Today I decided to take a picture of the garage from my family room window and it is exactly how the picture would have looked two weeks ago. So here ya go...

Yep, it looks like a garage. It looks like a garage we couldn't afford to finish. We are starting to think that they are never coming back. I told Gary to move the crap they put in the middle of the garage so we could at least park in there. Gary said it wasn't a good idea since there are nails and stuff on the floor and he doesn't want to chance us getting a flat tire.

We decided to use the extra driveway space. I guess that was money well spent...Can you tell I am frustrated with this whole thing?!? And ya know what else is pissing me off is that we usually don't get a whole bunch of snow until closer to Christmas, but this year mother nature decided Thanksgiving would be more of an appropriate time to dump a crap load of snow on us. Great timing...NOT!!

Santa Claus Has Come to Town

2005-12-14T16:35:00.000-05:00

Here it is...our 2005 Santa picture. I felt so bad because she cried the entire time, but was too afraid to move.

I was bummed that my work cancelled our annual lunch with Santa due to lack of children signing up. We decided to go to the mall, because I still wanted to get her picture with Santa, even if we did have to pay $13.00 for it.

Taking Forever!!

2005-12-02T23:51:00.000-05:00

It seems like this garage is taking forever to build. Maybe it is just that when we originally talked to the builder, he said one week for the concrete and one week to build the garage. Well, since they didn't start until the beginning of November, then we started to get hit with winter and snow and there have been days where they couldn't work on it. I just thought that definitely by December we would have been parking in a garage and we are not.

I still feel like they have a good 3 days full of work. They still have to do the shingles on the roof, put the siding up, put the windows and doors on and drywall the inside of it. There might even be more, but those are the most obvious things to me that still need to be done. Then, this company isn't doing the electric. Gary and my father-in-law are supposed to do it after the garage is done. But, Gary's dad just found out that he has to have surgery done and who knows if he will be able to do it anytime soon. I can picture me 9 months pregnant trying to lift the garage door by myself holding Alyssa in the middle of winter.

So, since the garage isn't done, we haven't moved anything out of the spare room, which is the room that we planned on making up for Alyssa. I really wanted to have her in the new room in January. I know that I have to be dreaming because with the garage not being done and Christmas around the corner, I know that we won't even be able to start on the room until January. I just hope the transition for Alyssa is a smooth one.

This is a picture of the garage on Tuesday. They came back on Thursday and did more, but I haven't gotten a picture of that yet. I was so lazy today and didn't want to go outside in the freezing cold.

And here is a picture of Alyssa with daddy's Browns hat on.

Happy Thanksgiving

2005-11-23T23:43:00.000-05:00

I cannot get over the fact that tomorrow is Thanksgiving!! Holy crap, where is this year going?!?

I am so thankful for so much everyday. I am thankful for my family -- Gary, Alyssa and baby peanut. I am thankful that we are all in good health and have a roof over our heads. I am thankful that we have food on the table and clothes on our backs. I am thankful for the love and understanding we share. I am thankful for my entire family. I am thankful that I can work part time, so I can be home with Alyssa more. I am thankful for my friends who have been such a support when I needed them. I am thankful for the internet -- without the internet, I wouldn't have "met" such nice people. There is so much more that I am thankful for, but I do have to get to sleep. (which I am thankful for that too...LOL).

We are supposed to be getting a bunch of snow tonight and tomorrow. I am hoping the roads are OK tomorrow, so we can go out and visit my dad's side of the family in the early afternoon. The gathering is at my aunts house about 45 minutes away and if the weather is bad, we are not going to venture out there. We are also going to my mom's house in the later afternoon. She only lives 5 minutes away, so we will go there even if the roads aren't that great.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!

Strange how things change...

2005-11-19T16:28:00.000-05:00

Alyssa had colic when in her first few months of life. I actually forgot about it until my sister-in-law told me that her new baby seems to be suffering from it. Then I remembered and of course freaked out already praying that this new baby does not get colicky. Ugghh, the horrible times of me crying because Alyssa wouldn't stop crying and wondering why I was such a bad mom that I couldn't even comfort my screaming baby.

Someone had told us that they had a colicky baby and the trick for them was a loud white noise, such as the vacuum cleaner or a hair dryer. Woudn't you know that worked for us too. We had even taken Gary's chargeable beard and mustache trimmer with us on the go in case of emergency (which happened). Those items were lifesavors for us, especially the vacuum.

Funny how things change when they get older, because Alyssa is TERRIFIED of the vacuum and today when I had to blow dry my hair with her awake and in the room, she cried tears. It is so strange how something that soothed her so much when she was little, she can't stand the sound of now.

Wind sucks...

2005-11-16T13:47:00.000-05:00

Wow, the weather has been sucking here the last few days. I know it is only supposed to get worse with snow, but this damn wind is going to pick me up and blow me away (and that is NOT an easy task).

Last night at 2:30 in the morning, Gary woke up to something banging against our house. What could it be? Some garbage cans? A patio chair? NO...it is our screen door banging up against our house. Since it is one of those full length screen doors, we never put the screen in, just leave the double paned glass in. Well, the problem with that is when the weather starts to get cold, it builds pressure between our house door and the screen door making it difficult to shut on its own. We almost always have to make sure the door is shut (and never assume). Well, we hardly use the front door anyways, but we did on Monday because they sprayed a chemical on our cement and Gary didn't want the fumes coming in the house through the side door, so we used the front door. Well, when I came home from Jazzercise on Monday, I must have forget to make sure the door was shut all the way. With last nights heavy gusty tornado like winds, it took the door and ripped the retractor (I have no clue what that thing is really called) right out of the frame, taking part of the wooden door frame with it.

So, at 2:30 in the morning, Gary brings up to me, the retractor and part of the door frame to show me what happened. He asked me to call someplace and see if we can get it repaired. Well, I have just called three friggin' places and no one fixes crap like that.

The same thing happened to our side door...twice. But, Gary was able to fix that one because it was just a piece of wood going down the side. Right now it isn't fixed again, because we have to buy another retractor thing. So, we have two broken screen doors that don't shut on their own. I don't get it, how is it that our house has this problem?? Does anyone else have problems like this??

The cement is poured

2005-11-14T21:31:00.000-05:00

Today they poured the cement for our driveway and garage. Of course, I took a few pictures!

It is so strange to look in our backyard and see this sea of cement. They are supposed to come back on Wednesday to start construction on the actual garage.

Fun fact - The cement is costing us as much as the garage is.

Notice, you can see our one neighbor's house in the first picture (next to where the garage is going to be). She is always telling us how excited she is for us to get a garage built. I bet she is cursing this garage when the door is going up and down at 6:45 in the morning when that is her bedroom right there!! That is terrible, isn't it...

Seeing pink again!!

2005-11-11T15:28:00.000-05:00

Yep, that's right...we are having another GIRL!!

We are all so excited!! It will be so nice for Alyssa to have a sister so close in age. We also have a ton of clothes that will get to be used again. What a financial lifesavor!!

The ultrasound doctor told me that I am measuring right on with my due date. Last time when I had my u/s with Alyssa, I was measuring a couple weeks ahead of schedule. So maybe this one will be my normal sized baby, as Alyssa has always been at the top of the charts. Although the u/s doctor said that pregnancies tend to repeat themselves and that this baby girl still has plenty of time to go through a big growth spurt.

Long Post

2005-11-10T21:13:00.000-05:00

I have been so busy lately, so I haven't had much time to write.

**The Garage**

Our garage is coming along. They haven't been able to work on it the last couple days because of needed to get our city inspection before pouring the concrete and weather. These are two pictures are after day 3 of work.

They actually have the driveway etched and put in the drain too. I haven't taken a picture of that. I hope to get another one tomorrow before they pour the concrete.

And I am so sick of hearing people say that we are not going to have a yard now that we are building a garage. Why do people feel the need to tell us something negative when we are spending a lot of friggin' money to build something that we really need. It was either this or move and I didn't want to have the stress of moving, plus, I love my house! Whatever...IF we ever go to sell this house, people are going to want a house with a garage rather than a house with a yard. AND we have a school at the end of the street that has plenty of yard room that the kids can play at. Ughh...ok, I am OK, really!!

**Baby Peanut**

We get to find out the sex of this baby peanut tomorrow morning!! I am so excited to find out this time. Last time we didn't find out the sex and I think I am more excited for tomorrow than I was at the end of my pregnancy last time. It is so strange.

Gary and I finally decided on a name for a boy and we are tossing a few girls names around. It was so nice to finally actually have fun with Gary and decide a name rather than when we would argue about what name Gary did want.

**Me**

I have been working a bunch lately. I have brought work home and went in for an extra day yesterday. It will be nice when the paycheck comes, but right now I am exhausted.

**Alyssa**

We plan on getting her pictures taken on Sunday again. I am really hoping she cooperates. I wanted to get those picture cards for Christmas to send out. Plus since we weren't able to get her 18 month pictures (since she threw such a temper tantrum), I was hoping to get these Christmas ones.

I think that is it for now. If you made it through this entire post...Congratulations...LOL!

Happy Anniversary

2005-11-04T08:10:00.000-05:00

Yesterday (11/03) was Gary's and my 4 year wedding anniversary. We didn't do a lot, we both worked all day and by the time I picked up Alyssa and came home it was already 5:30. We decided no cooking and got KFC. (I know...so romantic...LOL). We are planning our anniversary date night for Saturday when we can get a babysitter. We are going to dinner and a movie. I haven't been on a "date" with Gary in a long time. I am really excited about it.

Yesterday was so beautiful. I think it got up to 70, which is exactly how it was on our wedding day...perfect!! It was nice to see and feel the beautiful weather remembering how awesome our wedding day was.

(Sorry for the different sizes, I cropped the pictures to put in a collage frame and unless I re-scan them, they are all funny sizes).

Gary, the last four years have been amazing. These four years have flown by, but I can't even remember my life without you. You are the best thing that has ever happened to me (next to Alyssa and baby #2). I don't know what I would do without you!! Happy 4th Anniversary!!

Can you stand any more pictures?!?

2005-11-01T21:02:00.000-05:00

Introducing Minnie Mouse...

The first two pictures were from dress up at Gymboree. The third one was from Halloween night. I couldn't get her to look at the camera.

Alyssa had a blast trick-or-treating. She just loved running around outside and taking candy from strangers....um, yeah, I don't know if that is such a good thing...LOL! She wore herself out and got a nice stash of candy for mom and dad...hee hee! Of course we are going to share some with her. She just loved carrying her pumpkin bucket and Halloween light around.

And she learned a new word yesterday...cookie!! It is so cute and we kept telling her that she was getting cookies at the houses so she was running around saying "cookie", "cookie".

And finally I got a "before" picture of our back yard. It is kind of dark because it gets dark around here at like 5:30 now since the time change and I took it when I got home from work today. In case they come tomorrow to start working.

I keep thinking about how the last three years at this time we would have a 3 foot swimming pool of leaves in our back yard from the huge tree that we cut down. I am soo glad that we don't have to rake those up this year or any other year from now on!!!

Oh yeah, and I totally know we are going to have almost no yard left after we build a garage. But, my thoughts are, if we have enough room for a kiddie swimming pool and a small swingset, we are set. Plus, there will be more driveway room for riding bikes.

Garage Talk & Pumpkin Time

2005-10-30T22:21:00.000-05:00

Garage Update -

I talked to the builder for our garage and he said that he will be out sometime this week. I need to get a "before" picture of the back yard before he starts any work. I have been waiting for Gary to clean up a little back there before I took the picture. Hopefully he will do that before the builder comes and finds our backyard in unworkable conditions...LOL!

Pumpkin Time -

About a week ago, we took Alyssa to the pick pumpkins. She had so much fun. Of course, I have some pictures to share.

Alyssa picking out her mini pumpkin. Just perfect for her size!

She loved this wagon so much. She threw a temper tantrum when we had to leave it behind.

Alyssa and Daddy petting the animals they had there. Alyssa thought they were puppies and kitties. It was too cute!

I love this smile. It still melts my heart!!

Alyssa has been picking up words lately, but she still won't say the ones that I repeat over and over and over again...LOL. I don't know how many times a day I repeat the words "milk" or "juice" and she still refuses to say them. But I said "sausage" today and she repeated it without hesitation....what the heck is up with that...LOL! She also said "cheese" when Gary had the camera out and I said "say cheese". It was really cute. Today she was hugging me and cuddled with me for about 10 minutes. I really soak that up, because those moments are so far and few now. I just love hugging her and rubbing her back or playing with her hair. I cherish those moments!!

For Gary

2005-10-22T13:10:00.000-05:00

The other day while reading through all of the blogs I read, Gary was sitting on the couch and was asking why there were different songs on peoples blogs. I told him that you could pick a song and have it play every time you open the blog up. He asked me why I didn't have one on my blog. I told him that because every time I try to go and search for a song, I just can't find the right one to put on my blog.

So, today I went searching for songs to put on my blog...again. This time I thought with Gary and my 4 year wedding anniversary right around the corner, I would play our wedding song.

"From This Moment On" by Shania Twain was Gary and my wedding song. We both fell in love with the words and what it meant for us. Every time I hear this song, I always think back to our wedding day and how perfect everything was. I think back to Gary and I dancing our first song as husband and wife. And often times, I will get goosebumps and teary eyed. This song will always remain special in my heart. I hope I will always feel goosebumps when I hear it.

I love you, honey...I hope you like the song I picked for my blog!

Concerned for my father

2005-10-21T21:04:00.000-05:00

Wednesday was my dad's birthday. He turned 49 this year. I called him and asked him if he would like to go out to dinner on Sunday with our whole family (well, just our immediate family which includes my sister, her boyfriend, my 2 stepbrothers, my stepbrother's fiance, their 2 kids, Gary, Alyssa, me and my stepmom). At first he agreed and then later called me (about 5 hours later) and said that he really didn't feel like celebrating. I asked him why and he said that he has some things going on and he just didn't feel like celebrating. I felt really sad for him. I asked if he wanted to talk about it and he said he couldn't because he was at work. I haven't heard from him since. He is a busy man. He works 2 jobs and is involved with his AA groups.

My stepbrother's fiance and I are pretty close. About a month ago she questioned me about my dad and stepmom's relationship. She asked me if my dad had said anything to me. I told her no and that my dad isn't a very good communicator and that he really keeps everything to himself. I asked her what my stepmom had said to her and she was pretty quiet about it. All she did say was that my stepmom said that my dad is gambling again and it is not good. I think she had held back because she didn't want to get in the middle and have me go back to my dad, which I totally wouldn't do that to her or myself really. I have to admit that it is really bothering me that my stepmom is telling her all of this stuff and I know nothing. Granted, I don't have the relationship with my stepmom that my future SIL has with her. My stepmom actually hasn't seen Alyssa since June. I know the phone works both ways, but exactly, the phone works both ways. My future SIL did say that no matter what happens she wants to always stay close with us and that we will always do things together. She also said that it would be sad not to do Christmas brunch every year like we normally do with my dad and stepmom. So, my stepmom is talking about divorce, obviously.

I feel so bad for him and for them. I know they don't have a normal marriage. My dad works a lot and he is very busy. It is hard for me to get a hold of him half the time. My stepmom deals with depression and doesn't like to go to anything involving my dad's family. I truly hope that divorce really isn't in the cards for them, but if it makes them both happier, then I guess that would be the answer.

I have talked to my mom about this, although I knew she would have nothing good to say. And even though she didn't bash him like I thought she would, she just claimed, "that's your dad".

Another thing that bothered me about my dad is that I found out he isn't taking his diabetic medication. He said his doctor has moved out of state and he needs to find a new doctor and hasn't done that yet. So, he isn't taking his daily medication forcing to go to the bathroom about every 10 minutes. That worries me too.

I was tagged!

2005-10-15T13:14:00.000-05:00

I have been "tagged".

The instructions were given to me by Laina.

THE RULES
1. Go into your archive.
2. Find your 23rd post.
3. Find the fifth sentence (or closest to).
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.
5. Tag five other people to do the same.

Ok, my 23rd post was "Boo at the Zoo". The fifth sentence down says "The zoo did a really nice job of putting it together".

That is strange that my 23rd post was from about almost exactly a year ago. We plan on going to Boo at the Zoo again in a week and I am really excited since Alyssa will be older this year.

Now, for five people to tag...

Christina
Kether
Diana
Taylor
Julie

Have fun girls!

Picture Comparison

2005-10-11T21:44:00.000-05:00

I thought I would post some pictures of when I was little and of Alyssa. I don't have many pictures of me when I was little because when my parents got divorced most of my baby pictures went to my grandmother's house. Then when I was about 12, my grandmother and grandfather moved to Georgia and so did the pictures. She said there were probably boxes more, but she gave me a few to take home with me. I think she looks more like I do when I was a little older.

Here is me at about a year old:

Here is Alyssa at a year old:

Here is me again. I am not sure how old I am here, but I am thinking probably 3 or 4:

And here is Alyssa about a month ago:

He has left me

2005-10-10T09:34:00.000-05:00

Gary has left me to go on a 4 day fishing trip with his dad. I am very sad that he is gone for four days. He left this morning at about 9:00 am and won't be back until Thursday.

We have only been apart one other time when Gary left for one night. And that was before Alyssa was around.

Tonight my sister is going to spend the night with us and tomorrow my mom is making dinner for us. So, I think we are pretty well taken care of.

I just hope that I remember to feed the fish. I never feed them, so I am not used to doing it at any certain time. Once I killed my sister's fish a long time ago when I was supposed to feed it while she was on vacation. Hey, at least I remembered to feed the dog, right...LOL!

Bye Bye Binky??

2005-10-05T13:34:00.000-05:00

For the last couple months, I have been saying that when Alyssa turned 18 months old, we are going to get rid of the binky. We have successfully cut the binky down to naps and night-night only. We did that a few months ago and it has been working great. She even knows when she gets up from her nap or in the morning to hand me the binky so I can put it away until the next time.

Today, I decided what the heck. Let's see how Alyssa does if I don't give her the binky when I put her down for her nap. It was funny at first because I laid her in her crib and gave her a kiss and told her to have a nice nap. She sat up and looked at me like "aren't you forgetting something?!!?" I turned on her lullaby CD, gave her the blanket and walked out of the room. She did whine/cry/whimper for like 15 minutes, at which time I was in my bed laying down listening to her on the monitor. For the whole 15 minutes, I thought to myself, "I should just go give it to her" and "she does only have it to sleep". But, then she stopped and she fell asleep. Is it really her time to give up the binky, or was it just luck this time? I think we are going to try again tonight for bedtime.

I admit, this does make me sad. I like how she finds comfort in her binky. I like how babies have binkies and she was my baby. It makes me sad that this too is just another moment that makes her a little girl and not a baby. I also admit that I am happy. I hope that this can be this easy. I hope that Alyssa can find comfort in something else, like her blankie or a stuffed animal instead of the binky.

This is the latest picture that I have of Alyssa and her binky (and me)!

Hopefully it is bye-bye binky, bye-bye!!

Tooth Pulling Talk

2005-09-30T11:50:00.000-05:00

Today was my tooth pulling appointment. I think I was more nervous about having a tooth pulled than I was to have a baby.

Of course, I cried. I am such a wuss. My blood pressure was 120/80 on Wednesday. Today before they pulled the tooth, they took my blood pressure and it was 171/88!! The nurse said that she knew it was because I was nervous about everything.

Getting the tooth pulled SUCKED!! It wasn't that it was painful, because they obviously numbed the area, but the pressure and the noises and hearing and feeling the tooth being pulled out was horrible.

I had started to think that I should have opted for the root canal, but this doctor said that it was a good thing I got the tooth pulled because they would have had a real hard time putting a crown on my tooth with how my gum line was in the back. So I guess that made me feel better in my decision.

Thank god it is over and that is all I have to say about that!!! I pray that I have to never have another tooth pulled again...EVER!

A Million Appointments

2005-09-28T14:27:00.000-05:00

I feel like we have a million appointments scheduled recently or coming up soon. Here is the scoop on where we have been running to:

Last week I had an eye appointment and a dentist appointment. Got new contacts for my eyes, but have to go back in two weeks (on Oct 3rd) to make sure the brand is good.

Dentist appointment didn't go so well. I had to make a decision to get a root canal or pull a tooth. I opted for the pulling. I am very nervous about this. Anything with my teeth just makes me want to throw up. I figured I can deal with a pulling for 15 minutes as opposed to someone drilling for an hour. It is a far back molar, so I am hoping I won't miss it too much. Bad news is, I can't be put to sleep. (Which I would have done, if I was able to). I was worried about what I would be able to take afterwards and after confirming with my doctor, she said that I can take the medication they give me. She said as long as it is only for a few days, it will not hurt the baby at all. That was great news for me! So Friday at 11:00 am is my big day. Not looking forward to it, but at least it will be over with.

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Today I had my monthly doctors appt. That went very well. My BP is back to normal 120/80 and I am very relieved. I think it helped that I was there by myself this time.

I gained 2 pounds, so since last time I lost 2 pounds, I am back to where I started. I am good with that right now.

Baby peanut's heartrate was in the 150s. And they were able to find it with a doppler. I made a comment how last time (with Alyssa) they had to use the u/s machine on me two additional times after the first appt to find the heartbeat. I thought it was because I am a bigger girl. The doc said that Alyssa must have been stubborn. I told the doc that is the truth, even now...LOL.

We scheduled our "big ultrasound" for November 11th. We will then find out the sex of the baby. I am really excited this time to find out.

My next appointment is October 26th.

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Alyssa had her 18 month checkup today. (I know I can't believe she will be 18 months old tomorrow).

She got two icky shots and is now done with them for a while!!

She weighs 25 pounds 12 ounces - 90th percentile
She is 34 inches long - 95th percentile

They gave me a sheet on potty training, but I don't think she is anywhere near ready for that. And the pedi said she is marking her as not being delayed any more with her development...yay!

Garage Update

2005-09-23T05:38:00.000-05:00

We got approved for our loan!!! Yay!! The whole amount. So now we are going to get our garage and get to pay off all of our credit card debt. I am sooo excited about all of this.

We talked to our builder and he said that since he is extremely busy right now and that he wouldn't be able to start pouring the cement until the end of October. I was a little bummed that it wouldn't be tomorrow, but since October is right around the corner, I guess it isn't that far away. He said after the cement is poured, it takes about a week to settle and dry and be workable on, and then he will start on the garage. His estimated time for the garage to be built is one week!! So hopefully by the middle of November, we will have a garage. I am hoping before our first snowfall.

The condition of the loan stated we needed to close out the credit cards we are paying off, which is all of them. I told Gary that I didn't want to ever use the credit cards again and get into the situation we were just in. BUT...it is going to be VERY hard to adjust to a lifestyle without credit cards. We have become so accustomed to using them. That is what got us into that situation. I definitely don't want to be there again, but it is scary to think that if we don't have money for groceries, we can't just charge it. Or what about Christmas??!!? I guess we will have to learn how to set up a budget and work from there.

Miscellaneous Ramblings

2005-09-18T22:49:00.000-05:00

Last week Alyssa and I went to Stride Rite with Grandma to get Alyssa's feet measured and get some new shoes. When the lady told me that my little girl was in a size 5 1/2, I almost fell over in my chair. But her sandals are a size 2 1/2, how could she be a size 5 1/2??!!? So yes, the worst mama in the world is me...for shoving my little girls foot into a much too small sandal. (But in my defense, I put the sandal against one of her new 5 1/2 shoes and it isn't that much smaller...but I still felt horrible. But, Alyssa got two new pairs of shoes...yay!!

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We signed Alyssa up for Gymboree this past weekend. We decided not to do Wee Wigglers any more and switch to Gymboree. My reasoning is because #1 - We can go to an extra 2 open gyms a week for a total of three classes a week. We don't have to go, but it is nice to have the option to go. #2 - Wee Wigglers wasn't very structured. Alyssa would go there and play with a basket full of toys. She could do that at home. When we went to the Gymboree open house, Alyssa was interested in doing some of the obstacles they had. And she LOVED the parachute!!

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Tomorrow Alyssa has her physical therapy evaluation. I am so looking forward to them telling us that Alyssa doesn't need to see a physical therapist any longer. I can't wait until they see Alyssa walking! They will also evaluate her fine motor skills, speech, and cognitive thinking again. I am curious as to what they will say about her speech, since she really doesn't say a lot right now. It is probably nothing, but I would like to hear that from them! It seems like she tries to say a lot, but it doesn't come out like it is supposed to. She has the rhythm of words, but not the correct annunciation. I guess it is hard to explain.

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And lastly, hopefully we will hear from the bank tomorrow about the loan. Tomorrow will be 7 days, so I will be calling if I don't hear from them.

Garage Update

2005-09-12T21:26:00.000-05:00

We got the estimate back for having someone else build the garage for us and it was a little higher than I had hoped. But, that is the story of my life, so in a way I am not surprised.

We decided to go for it anyways. First of all, we need a garage. Gary wants a place for himself to hang up his stuff and a place to put all of our other crap. Second, if we don't do it now, it is just going to cost us more money in the future. We mine as well start paying on the loan and start enjoying the benefits of a garage now. Why wait?!?

So, today was our big day at the bank. We will hear back within a week if we are approved for the loan. We also wanted to get the loan for a larger amount in order to pay off some credit card debt. Hopefully it will all work out the way we want it. It is a pretty hefty loan, but the payments will be less than what we pay in credit cards each month, so it works out to our benefit, really. Lets just keep our fingers crossed that we get the amount we asked for.

Frustrated

2005-09-10T07:28:00.000-05:00

Gary and I keep having the same argument when naming our "boy" (which we don't know if it is a boy or girl yet).

Gary is stuck on the name Gary (the 3rd) for a boy. I do not want that name at all. Is that wrong of me?

After Alyssa was born and we found out she was a girl, I was relieved that we wouldn't have to use the name Gary the 3rd. I realized at that moment how much I didn't want there to be two Garys in the house and now I really don't want to even agree on the name this time around. I told him that I thought that we should come up with a name that we both agree on. He isn't so happy about that. He really wants to keep the name going and I don't. I don't want to call my son by his middle name and there is no other way of shortening the name "Gary".

Another thing I told him was last time when discussing girls names, I wanted the name Madelyn. He said that name was his grandma's sister's name and that nobody liked her and we shouldn't use that name. At that moment, I dropped the idea of that name and moved on. It is the same thing this time, we should both agree on the name.

Maybe I am being completely wrong about this whole thing, but I think that my opinion should matter in this too. I mean I am carrying this baby for 9 months, I should be able to have a say in the name we choose, right?

I thought that we had decided to pick another name, but then when we have a discussion about names, he keeps saying that his only choice for a boy is "Gary" and I end up getting really mad and frustrated. He keeps telling me that he gave me the wedding of my dreams and this is his dream of carrying on his name. I think that those are two totally different situations and when planning our wedding he NEVER told me that he didn't want a big fancy wedding or that he only wanted to go the the courts. If he would have, I could have taken his feelings into consideration.

I missed it

2005-09-06T05:48:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was my one year blogger anniversary!!

I can't believe that I have been blogging for one year now. I looked at my first post and think holy cow, my baby was only 5 months old one year ago. Time sure does fly by.

This blog has been a great outlet for me. It is a place where I can write down my feelings and sometimes vent. Over the course of the year, my husband has found my blog. He never comments, although sometimes he said he was tempted to (and I told him that he should). It doesn't bother me at all that he reads this, because I want him to know everything that is going on with me and what I am thinking. Sometimes it is easier to write it out and then for him to read it and then for us to discuss it (does that even make sense??). And sometimes I tell him things and he must not be fully paying attention to me, because then he will read it in my blog and think I didn't talk to him about it...LOL.

I hope that my blogging continues for years and years to come. I know I have been scarce these past few weeks, but please understand that I have really not been on the computer that much lately due to this terrible first trimester. Don't stop checking on me, I will be back to myself soon (I hope). My poor house has been neglected too. I know Gary is anxious to have his normal wife back and so am I.

10 1/2 weeks along

2005-08-29T15:58:00.000-05:00

Today was my first doctors appointment.

We got an ultrasound and saw our little peanut. He or she was scratching their head on the screen. It was really cute to see.

Everything looks good. The doc said that the heartbeat is strong. My blood pressure was a little high, but the doc said we won't worry about it unless it stays high at the next visit or two.

I am down two pounds, but that is probably because I can't eat very much and I keep throwing up. I am not complaining about the weight loss, but this morning sickness and nausea really has got to stop!!

I was relieved to only see one baby. I kept having twin dreams and thinking about twins a lot lately. Twins run in both sides of the family and for some reason I was really worried this time. But there is only one...yay!

My next appointment is September 28th.

Busy

2005-08-24T09:42:00.000-05:00

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I have been pretty busy and tired and not feeling well all at the same time.

Work asked me to work this past Friday and this coming Friday and I agreed. I know stupid, but it will be nice to have the extra money and I am really helping them out.

We did get an estimate for the concrete for extending our driveway and the floor of the garage. It was $4,000.00 HIGHER than what I had expected. I am so irritated, because everything seems to be so expensive.

Three years ago we had estimates to have a garage built for us. The garage we had wanted was a little smaller than what we want now (we were told go as big as you can or you'll regret it). So, I called the one guy back (he is actually a friend of my moms). I am waiting for his phone call. I am going to have him do another estimate for building the garage and suck it up and pay for him to do it. When he estimated it three years ago, it was only about $5,000.00 more than what our cement driveway was going to cost us. So, we are thinking it just might be a better idea to have someone else do it. It will cost a little more, but it doesn't seem like much more and this way Gary and his dad don't have to stress about getting a garage done by the winter only working on it weekends and after they get off of work.

I am just getting stressed about this whole garage thing and I think I will be much happier if a group of people come in and get it done in a month or two, rather than Gary busting his butt to get it done. I really want to work on making the spare bedroom into a "big girls room" for Alyssa right after Christmas (or sooner), so she can move in and get comfortable in there at least a month before the new baby comes.

So, that is pretty much it for around here. The weather has been really comfortable here. It was nice to be able to turn off the A/C and let fresh air in.

Gas prices are ridiculous

2005-08-16T22:16:00.000-05:00

Today I filled my gas tank up at $2.69 a gallon. It cost me $57.00 to fill up my 2002 Ford Explorer. I love my car, but damn it costs a lot to fill that beast up.

On Monday I needed to fill my tank and in the morning gas was $2.47 a gallon. I was running a little late for work, so I figured I would fill it up after I got off at 1:00. I should have known, it went up to $2.69. I was hoping between last night and today I would catch a break and it would have gone back down a little, but no such luck. So, I was stuck paying $2.69 a gallon.

I want to go to visit my SIL, my nephew and my new baby niece tomorrow, but they live about 45 minutes away. I can't believe that I had to debate if I wanted to drive out there because gas is so friggin' expensive. (Of course, I am going anyway).

I know they say that it is expected to be over $3.00 a gallon, but seeing those prices just make me want to get sick. (And it isn't from the morning sickness...which I still have by the way).

Alyssa is walking!!!

2005-08-13T19:21:00.000-05:00

Yay for Alyssa!!! She started walking today. For the past week she would only take about one or two steps and then fall to her knees. Today, she decided to walk across the room and hasn't stopped. She still hasn't figured out how to stand up without help, but once she is up, she is going.

Of course, I missed it. I was at the hospital visiting a friend who just had a baby and Gary called me to tell me that I was missing our daughter walking. I was so upset that I missed it, but I am so glad she is finally walking!

It looks so damn cute too. She is still really wobbly, but better than I ever imagined her to be on her first day walking.

Boring Post

2005-08-08T15:00:00.000-05:00

Well, the garage sale went a little better the second day. I made a total of $45.00. Better than I thought starting out the first day with a whopping $6.00.

Today I only worked an hour. Gary called me at about 8:00 to tell me he had been paged (he is on-call) and that he needed to go into work now. Well, Alyssa wasn't even awake yet and Gary didn't have a carseat or a car to take Alyssa anywhere, so I got to home home (secret yay for me). It was nice, but whenever I am home I am the laziest piece of a lump there is known. I always think, I am going to do a lot of cleaning today, and then nothing gets done. I am so sick and tired of being sick and tired. This first trimester is still taking too incredibly long.

And we were supposed to go apply for our loan today, but since Gary got called in to work, we can't do that. Bummer. I don't want to wait until the last minute (like we do everything), but we probably won't get another chance to go to the bank until next Monday.

Not much else is going on around here, but sometimes that is a good thing!

Garage Sale - Part II

2005-08-05T22:03:00.000-05:00

It's that time again. We pulled everything back out for Part II of our Garage sale. It was a beautiful day. Although I was super tired and didn't feel good, I still stuck it out the whole time. And guess how much I made today...$6.00! Yep, a whole $6.00.

A friend of mine also had a garage sale this weekend too. She opened hers on Thursday and made $200.00 on Thursday alone. I am beginning to think we are in a horrible location, in fact I know that must be what our main problem is.

Our house would be better location for the sale, but bad news is...no garage to store the stuff in.

I am not getting rid of anything big and I have no where to put this stuff if it doesn't sell. I guess it will all be going to good will after this is over.

We are open again tomorrow, but after that, I think we are done. I am hoping for a better turnout, but not expecting it, that is for sure!

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*Our Garage Update* I turned in the blueprints to the city and we are now waiting on the permit. Gary and I must go to the bank to start the loan process, so once we get the permit, we can break ground for cement. Yay!!