So much to do, so little time...

Brady

2012-02-02T09:20:00.003-06:00

I'm on a super quick break at school right now, so I thought I'd write a quick post about Brady.

He's not doing well...at all. He's been struggling to walk recently. And not just kind of struggling, but like NOT walking. Nick carries him up the stairs at night and I have to help him get up to go outside. Nick took him to the vet a few weeks ago and got him some meds, and he did great right after we started those. He was like a whole new puppy! Running and playing. But after a week or two on those, and he's right back where he was. Worse even because now he's also throwing up. No walking, no eating, and now throwing up.

I hate to think about it. I love this dog so much. And we might have to put him down. We will never let our dogs suffer. When Yosha got really sick, we hated to do it, but we had to put him down. We thought it would be YEARS before having to think about doing that again. But here we are just 3 short years after putting Yosha down.

I think we need to sit down today and talk it out. But I won't let him suffer. Poor puppy.

Say some prayers for Brady! I think he really needs them...

Dommie's THIRD birthday!!

2012-01-28T21:22:00.002-06:00

Dominick is THREE????

How the heck did that happen??? My baby is getting to be so big.

He's amazing, first off. Completely amazing.

He's completely potty trained now. Even at night. He gets up on his own to go potty if he has to.

He's in school full time and loves it. His favorite thing to tell me about is what he ate for lunch. Haha.

He can count to 30, he says hundreds of words I swear, and he is just getting smarter every day. He's hilarious and constantly making me laugh.

Today, for instance, we were walking to the car and he has a bit of a cough. He was coughing the whole way down the front steps to the car and when we got to the car, the wind started to blow. He coughed and then stopped and looked at me. Then he said, "Mama? You shouldn't cough in the wind...NOT a good idea". I just started cracking up. He's a riot.

He loves his baby sissy more than anyone in the world and can't wait until she is big enough to play with him.

I took a few pictures at his party but haven't uploaded them yet, but I will soon.

Happy THIRD Birthday, Dommie!!! You are so amazing and I love you more every day. I'm so thankful to have you in my life. Even when I have a hard or stressful day, you make me laugh and make it all worth it. I love you!!

Exhausted

2012-01-28T21:10:00.004-06:00

I'm so tired...I hate just constantly saying it, but it's constantly on my mind. I'm exhausted. I just want to sleep ALL THE TIME. I know it's all for a good reason. I know it's all going to be worth it. But it's rough.

Every day I go to school.
Mondays from 8-2:30
Tuesdays from 8-5
Wednesdays from 8-12:30
Thursdays from 8-12:30
Fridays from 8-5

Three days a week I work.
Every Monday from 3-7:30

I work every third weekend Saturday and Sunday 7 am to 7:30 pm.
And if I don't work a weekend day, I work that Wednesday and Thursday from 1-7:30.

Did any of that make sense??

Anyway, I'm gone a lot. I'm tired a lot.

Nick is amazing through all this. He's home with the kids or dropping them off or picking them up. I've been trying to make dinner every night if I can, but sometimes it's hard. We have great team work going on right now and we have to keep that up.

I've already learned a ridiculous amount in just two weeks. This week I learned how to check blood pressure, pulse, respiration, and temperature. Just yesterday I learned how to test someone's blood sugar, how to draw blood, and how to insert a catheter. Next week I learn how to start IV's. I'm learning a TON.

I'm so thankful for this opportunity to go back to school and I'm loving my classes so far. I'm just scared. I know that it's a long way until December 15th (graduation day - And just 10 months and 16 days away, not that I'm counting) and that I have a lot of work to do in the mean time.

I hope that Nick and I can continue to be strong and work together so that I can get through this next year and do what I want to do. BE A NURSE! :)

Say some prayers. We could use them.

Bigger boy bed!

2011-12-27T21:11:00.002-06:00

We moved our old queen size bed into Dom's room. He's in heaven. He now has a queen sized bed all to himself...and he's not even three yet. :-)

What a lucky boy! I'll have to get a picture of him. He looks so little in it! But on the upside, Nick and I will never have to move in another bed. He can have that bed until he gets married and wants to buy his own! haha. But let's not even start thinking about that yet!

What a big boy. I can't believe I have a potty trained almost three year old sleeping in a queen sized bed. I am truly blessed.

No big deal

2011-12-22T22:22:00.001-06:00

but I got A's in both my classes this semester...

And Dom is doing AWESOME with potty training...

GOOD WEEK! :)

Finals Week

2011-12-14T21:35:00.002-06:00

So it's the end of another semester...I feel like I've been in school forever. Well I guess I kind of have. But there is an end in sight. If all goes well (KNOCK ON WOOD!) I graduate nursing school ONE YEAR FROM TOMORROW!

I had a final today (got an 81% on the final and a 91% in the class) and one more tomorrow (have NO idea what I'm getting in the class, but it better be an A) and then I'm done until all hell breaks loose on January 17th.

I'm so ready to be done and still loving every minute of school at the same time. Does that make sense?? I already know that I won't stop at my RN. I'll have to go back. I'll either go back for my nurse practitioner masters or a nurse anesthetist masters. One or the other. I just have to keep learning! :)

But for now, I'll be excited to get my BSN, RN.

One more year! :)

Time keeps on slippin, slippin, slippin...

2011-12-12T17:15:00.002-06:00

Some updates for y'all who are still out there with me!

I honestly don't know how time is moving so fast! It seems like every day is over in the blink of an eye, no joke. I'm trying to keep up with everything, but it's just not happening.

I don't have much to tell you other than I've been super busy with work, school, kids, Christmas and orientation. I start nursing school in a few short weeks and I don't feel ready. As soon as I'm done with this semester, I'll get going onto next semester. I'm supposed to read the first 26 chapters of my pharmacology book before the semester starts...so I guess I better get going!

Kids are good except for a short bout of croup in this house. Dom had it the worst. He had to go and get steroids. They didn't want to do steroids with him, so we made it three days without them. But then his breathing got so labored we had to do it. Annabelle just started the bark on Saturday but I think we are already over the worst part with her, which is great. I didn't want to have to do anything more invasive with her, as she's already been through so much, with her allergy testing and what-not.

I just discovered pinterest today...not a good thing. I have a feeling this will monopolize more of my non-existent free time, but I do love it. I'm finding lots of good recipes and craft ideas...

This current semester is almost over. I have a final exam on Wednesday and a final exam on Thursday. Then I'm done for 1 short month...and then all hell breaks loose!

Nick is doing well except for working non-stop. Literally. Non-stop. They keep moving where he's working and changing his shifts. He's switching over to 2nd shift tomorrow night. Poor guy gets no free time and now no sleep! But he's doing what he can for us since I don't make much and I have a great respect for that. He's definitely taking care of us.

I'm almost done with Christmas shopping. I have just a few gifts left to get or take care of. I was one of the crazies who did midnight black friday shopping and it got me off on the right foot. I"m happy that there won't be any scrambling this year. We have enough going on!

I can't believe that Annabelle is 9 months old. This year has literally flown. Dominick will be 3 in a few short weeks. How in the heck did that happen!?

I got the privilege to witness a vaginal delivery last week and it was so beautiful. I got to hold the woman's leg and be up close and see the whole thing. It was amazing. Our bodies are so amazing. I still have all my clinicals to do but that night reaffirmed that I want to be a labor and delivery nurse. I loved it. We shall see!

I guess that's enough updates for now. I have to shower and get dressed and go to the grocery store and go to work tonight...I'll be off at 7:30 am and then it will be time to STUDY! Wish me luck on my finals! And I'll try to update again soon!

SO TRUE!

2011-12-03T22:14:00.002-06:00

One of my friends had this posted to her facebook account and I have to say, I agree with just about ALL of these "adult truths"!!

Too funny....

I can't keep up!

2011-11-15T23:08:00.001-06:00

Time is just FLYING by!!!!

I realized today that if I do well in my classes (please, Lord, let me do well in my classes) then I will graduate with my BSN just 13 months from TODAY!!!

Holy cow!!!

13 months is NOTHING. That will fly by before I even know it...and then I'll be a nurse!

EEK!

Halloween!!

2011-11-08T23:12:00.007-06:00

One new post at a time!

So here we go, Halloween!!!

We had a great Halloween weekend!

Starting with Friday:
Dommie and Mommy day.
Dominick's been struggling a bit with me and Nick working so much, me in school, Annabelle not always with Dom at daycare, all kinds of things. So on Friday, I switched the kids and dropped Annabelle off and kept Dommie home. I had intended on going to the Magic House with him, but that couldn't happen (no comment on that) so we laid low. The one big thing we did do was carve our pumpkins!!

We went to the pumpkin patch (on a day Nick had to work...boo) and I forgot my camera (double boo) so I have no pictures of that, and we were planning on going back so I didn't get us a big pumpkin. Well we didn't go back, so on Friday, Dom and I went to Schnucks and got two pumpkins and then went to Target and got some Halloween stuff, including a carving kit. Dom picked out both pictures we carved and he helped with pulling out the goo (something he didn't like very much). Here are our finished products. I'm pretty proud! I think we did great!

How grown up is my baby??

Two ghosts on the left and a kitty bat on the right (and a handsome little man!)

Saturday:
We went to the Ketterer's house for a Fall Festival. There was food, beer, pumpkin painting, cookie decorating, haunted frisbee golf and other fun! Dom got into this costume for a bit but we didn't get Annabelle in hers for that night. I didn't want to risk getting it dirty since we had two more Halloween events to attend that weekend.

Dom did a pretty good job with everything but he's still struggling to listen sometimes. I guess that's just pretty standard for an almost two year old though. We're working on it. ;-)

Here are some pictures from the Fall Festival:

Dom and Celia on the hammock

Annabelle chillin' on a blanket

Our little fireman

Pumpkin painting!

A cute little kitty drinking her milk!

Sunday:
Halloween at Glen Echo Country Club.

I don't know when they started this but we went last year too and it was really fun! They had a lot of stuff like an amazing buffet, pumpkin painting, a haunted blow up house, a haunted hay ride through the golf course and more!

Dom and Celia had a blast. They spent a good 20 minutes just running around in the blow up house playing house. The haunted hayride was fun too. At the halfway point, the tractor stopped and there were 3 witches around a fire handing out bags of candy, so the kids had fun. The funniest part about the hay ride was that any time someone jumped out to scare us and everyone screamed, Dom and Celia didn't get it. They asked why everyone was screaming. We told them that it made the people in the costumes happy. They we asked if they could yell too. From then on, anytime someone jumped out, both kids would say (SAY, not yell) ahhhh. Very bored like. So clearly our kids weren't traumatized from the haunted hay ride!!

One of the best parts about this event was that my Grandma got to come! So Dommie and Annabelle got to see Great-Grandma for Halloween, something we weren't going to be able to do since Halloween was on a Monday this year. So yay for that! :)

Here are a few pics from there (with Annabelle in her costume!):

Dom, Celia and Aunt Angie painting pumpkins (yes, Dom's shirt got ruined during this process, but that's ok!)

Grandpa with his ladybug and kitty cat!

Daddy and his lady bug getting ready to go to the event (how cute is SHE?!?!)

Great Grandma and her sleeping lady bug.

Finally: Monday!
Halloween Night

This year (same as last year, and the year before, and the year before that!) we went to Nick's sister's house to do trick or treating with them. I do this for many reasons. 1) Dom is still too young to really have fun doing this by ourselves. It's more fun for him to do it with his older cousins. 2) He gets to see more family (cousins and his Nani) if we go there and I like to get to see some of my nieces and nephew. 3) Kate's neighborhood is a very private neighborhood so there aren't a lot of cars going through it and I feel like that's a little safer for us to be walking around there. 4) Last but NOT least, their neighbors hand out beer to the adults while trick or treating...who doesn't love that!?

This year, my mom came along. My sister's mother in law's birthday is Halloween so she was with her in-laws and I knew we wouldn't get out to my parent's house on Halloween day so she met us at Kate's house and walked with us. That was especially helpful because Nick (unfortunately) had to work this year during trick or treating and couldn't come. I needed the extra hands to have both kids this year.

So it was a great year. Dom even told his joke once!

Which was: Q) Why don't monsters eat clowns? A) Because they taste funny!
Or as Celia pointed out, an alternate answer could be: Because clowns aren't food!! (which is more true and equally funny when a 3 year old says it!).

Anyway, here are a few pics from Halloween night:

Cousins! (Dominick, Jilly, Sophia with Annabelle, and Henry)

Annabelle and Grandma

Dommie, our little fireman

The grandma's. My mom, Dominick, Jilly and Nick's mom with Annabelle

One more funny story about trick or treating. One man asked Dommie what he was. Dom told him that he was a fire man. The man then asked how many fires he had put out. Dom answered 2 fires! So the man told him that was worth 2 pieces of candy. Then he asked Jilly if she had put out any fires. She said yes. When he asked her how many, she thought about it for a second and then said, very proudly, "THREE fires!". Haha, smart girl. ;-)

Hopefully tomorrow I'll get another post done!

Time, time, time

2011-11-06T23:40:00.001-06:00

I wish I had more of it!!!

I have so many things I want to blog about!

Halloween
Girls weekend
School
My sister's birthday

So many things!!!!

But right now it's 11:40 (and feels like 12:40) and I'm going to go to bed...

I'll leave you with a funny Dom story.

Today I picked up the kids from Nick's mom's on my way home from the winery. I was exhausted so when I picked them up, I told Dom:

"Let's go home and RE-LAX!"

Dom looked at me and said,

"You said it sister!".

Where does he come up with this stuff???

Too cute.

I'll try to write more tomorrow or Tuesday!

Dominick

2011-10-31T15:36:00.002-05:00

I just read this about Dom's age:

Hello, Meghan!

Numbers Game

If your child can count to ten or higher already, is he a budding genius? Well, he certainly has a good working memory. Two-year-olds are just beginning to gain an understanding of numbers; they often learn to count by reciting the names of numbers from memory long before they understand the relative quantity of three or nine. Basically they start knowing the difference between "one" and "anything more than one." But hey, it's an important start!

I kind of find that funny because Dom can count to, understand and identify 1-20. He can count to 10 in Spanish. I didn't know that was something that most kids don't learn until now.

Not that I think Dom is super gifted or anything. I know all kids are different. We're still waiting on Dom to learn and enjoy the potty (any suggestions would be helpful!). But I'm proud that he has a good memory and is doing well in that department!

Go Dom! :)

Marriage Advice..

2011-10-21T22:06:00.002-05:00

If anyone here is a yahoo email user, you probably see the stories when you go to yahoo.com. You know, there are 4 stories at a time and they rotate.

Well one caught my eye. It was Marriage Advice. Here's what it said:

If you knew these things, you wouldn’t need a marriage counselor, would you? This insider info comes from psychologist Karen Sherman and from psychotherapist Wendy Allen, Ph.D., author of How to Survive the Crisis of an Affair.

Sixty-nine percent of all arguments between you and your partner will never be resolved. So don’t try so hard.
A couple that doesn’t fight is in trouble.
Having a “good enough” marriage is the most couples can expect and is actually quite an accomplishment.
Letting go is sometimes better than discussing everything to death.
Respect, not sex or money, is the most important factor in a happy marriage.
There are marital breaches worse than an affair.
A therapist cannot teach, train, or guide you to “be happy.” That is not a reasonable outcome to expect from therapy.

I'm just not sure how I feel about these...I agree that a couple that doesn't fight is in trouble...and I agree that some arguments will never be resolved. But a marriage that is only "good enough" is all we can hope for?...Maybe I'm reading that wrong but to me I picture someone shrugging and saying, "eh...it's good enough." when talking about their marriage. And not really thinking that their marriage is good at all. That makes me sad. And there are a lot of bad things that can ruin a marriage, I agree, but an affair has to be WAY up there on the list.

Every couple has their moments but I can honestly say that I have (for the moment at least, haha) a GREAT marriage. I'm extremely happy and I can't imagine being with anyone else.

So I guess I can sleep well tonight.

HOTY

2011-10-21T21:33:00.003-05:00

That stands for "Housewife Of The Year" and if there was an award, I'd get nominated today. :)

WHAT A DAY!

I felt like I didn't sit at all. From the moment I got up with the Bananabelles, I was working until I just put the kids to bed.

Today I cleaned the whole house, did 5 loads of laundry, did the grocery shopping, cleaned out the fridge, freezer and pantry, reorganized the pantry, made baby food for Annabelle (carrots, sweet potatoes, green beans, peas, blueberries, peaches and raspberries), and took care of Annabelle all day and Dom part of the day (he went to Ms. Stella's for part of the day), packed up the kids and as soon as Nick walked in the door, we went downtown to get our race packets for Sunday, and there has to be more, I swear. I literally didn't sit (except to feed Annabelle her bottles or to fold laundry).

I feel accomplished!

However, this does mean I didn't sit all day when I have the week from Hell ahead of me, which was kinda silly to be honest. Here's my schedule for the upcoming week: Work a 12 tomorrow, 1/2 marathon on Sunday, school Monday morning-early afternoon, work a 12 that night, work a 12 Tuesday night straight to school Wednesday morning-early afternoon, school Thursday afternoon and a 12 Thursday night...

But then I'm off next Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday! :)

Until then, I better make sure my work clothes are clean and get to bed! I have quite the weekend ahead of me.

PS - GO CARDS!

The Quest...

2011-10-19T13:28:00.003-05:00

As you know, I've been working on my quest to drink all 131 beers at Growler's Pub. It's a work in progress, but I'm doing fairly well in my opinion. I went to Growler's on Monday for lunch with a friend (Jimbo) and knocked a few more off my list. I was happy to get a few more beers crossed off but I was saddened to find out that they are getting ready to change the beers!

I guess I should've seen this coming. It's fall now and they'll change up some of the beer to more "in season" beers. But to me this was a shock and kind of a downer.

What if they get rid of some of my favorites?? What if they replace some that I haven't tried yet with something gross and horrible?? I will never have tried every single beer on the list and I'm not sure I'm ok with that. It kind of feels like cheating...

But I have no say in it so I guess I just have to get over it and look at the bright side. Even when my quest is over, there will always be a new beer to try at Growlers...

But before they change, so I have a record of it, I'm going to list the numbers and beers that I've tried so far. I won't have to re-drink any numbers, but they will be different beers, so if I've already drank a #10 and the new #10 sounds amazing, I'll be drinking it without it counting towards my quest. And let's be real, I won't do that. No point in buying it if it won't count towards the quest!

So here are the beers I've drank already on my quest:

# (number as listed at Growlers) - Name of beer, Point of Origin (type of beer)

1 - Churchills Draught Treat (I think it was a Summer Ale at the time I drank it - this one changes pretty frequently - Pale Ale)
2 - Hardcore Crisp Cider, MA (Cider)
6 - Avery White Rascal, CO (Wheat)
8 - Sam Adams Seasonal, MA (Another Summer Ale I believe - Pale Ale)
9 - Magic Hat #9, VT (Pale Ale)
14 - Grand Teton Howling Wolf, ID (Wheat)
19 - Schlafly Hefeweisen, St. Louis, MO (Wheat)
23 - Left Hand 400 lb Monkey, CO (India Pale Ale or IPA)
26 - Hofbrau Hefe-Weiss, Germany (Wheat)
29 - Affligen Blonde, Belguim (Blond or Golden Ale)
35 - Pabst Blue Ribbon, WI (Lager)
41 - Flying Dog "Doggie Style" Pale Ale, CO (Pale Ale)
50 - Abita Purple Haze, LA (Wheat)
52 - Pyramid Apricot Ale, CA (Wheat)
57 - Breckenridge Vanilla, CO (Porter)
59 - Founders Dirty Bastard, MI (Scotch Ale)
66 - Dundee Original Honey Brown Lager, NY (Lager)
75 - Sierra Nevada Kellervweis, CA (Wheat)
79 - Big Sky Trout Slayer, MT (Wheat)
82 - O'Dell's Easy Street Wheat, CO (Wheat)
84 - Samuel Adams Boston Lager, MA (Vienna)
85 - Samuel Adams Cheery Wheat, MA (Wheat)
90 - Point Cascade Pale Ale, WI (Pale Ale)
93 - Arcadia Sky High Rye, MI (Pale Ale)
100 - Woodpecker English Cider, England (Cider)
101 - Boddington Pub Ale 16 oz. Can, England (Bitter Ale)
102 - Young's Double Chocolate Stout, 16.9 oz, England (Sweet Stout)
103 - Spaten Optimator, Germany (Dopplebock)
106 - Warsteiner Dunkel, Germany (Dark)
110 - Fischer Biere Blonde, France (Blond)
111 - Estrella Damm Daura, Spain (Lager)
112 - Tona Cerveza, Nicaragua (Lager)
116 - Lindeman's Framboise, Belguim (Lambic)
117 - Hoegaarden 11.2 oz, Belguim (Wheat)
122 - O'Hara's Irish Red 11.2 oz, Ireland (Irish Red Ale)
124 - Pilsner Urquell, Czech Republic (Pilsner)
125 - Peroni, Italy (Lager)
126 - Red Stripe, Jamaica (Lager)
127 - Corona, Mexico (Lager)
128 - Chakra, India (Lager)

Breakdown of types of beer is:
Pale Ale - 6
India Pale Ale - 1
Irish Red Ale - 1
Scotch Ale - 1
Blond - 2
Bitter Ale - 1
Wheat - 11
Lager - 8
Cider - 2
Dopplebeck - 1
Dark - 1
Porter - 1
Pilsner - 1
Vienna - 1
Sweet Stout - 1
Lambic - 1

Breakdown of Countries:
US - 22
Germany - 3
Belguim - 3
France - 1
Czech Republic - 1
Nicaragua - 1
Mexico - 1
India - 1
England - 3
Jamaica - 1
Italy - 1
Spain - 1
Ireland - 1

That's 40 if I've added correctly, out of 131. So I'm making my way there. When you hit 50 you get a "beer tasters" t-shirt, so I'm close to that! :)

If you happen to go to Growler's, I have my name on a name plate there. It's on the right side when you walk in and on the overhead soffet on the left side of that part of the room. My name plate says "KONES" (which is a play off of my last name for those who don't really know me) and Jimbo picked it out for me. :)

One day I'd love to write about each beer and how good each one is and what I rank each one, but for now, here are the names and types of beer each on is. Happy reading! I hope I don't make you too thirsty (like I am!).

Being a parent is scary stuff...

2011-10-18T23:00:00.006-05:00

Dominick had another "episode" this morning. I literally had 9-1-1 on the phone. I was in tears and terrified...

Let me start from the beginning...

I worked over night last night. I got home this morning at about 7:45 am. Nick had to leave by 6:15 so Nick's mom was over until I got home. Both kids were still sleeping when I got home. After she left I climbed into bed for about a 10 minute nap until Annabelle woke up. It was really rainy and yucky this morning so I had already decided to just keep both kids at home today instead of bringing Dom in to Stella's.

When Dom woke up, he was unusually crabby. Just whiny and crabby and crying and you name it.

I tried calming him down and asking if he wanted to stay home with me and sissy today. He replied, "NOoooooo!". So I said, "Ok. Would you like to go to Ms. Stella's today?" and I got another "NOOOooooo!!". After talking for a few minutes and getting nothing but screams and whines, I told him I'd be downstairs when he was ready to talk and get up, or if he wanted to lay back down that was fine too.

He started screaming. SCREAMING. At first I just let him do it, but then I got annoyed. He's been going through some real bad days lately and we don't know what is going on. I'm thinking it has a lot to do with the fact that I'm gone a LOT right now (and unfortunately that won't get any better until NEXT December). Anyway, I had made up my mind that he was going to go to Ms. Stella's because I hadn't slept in over a day and I wouldn't be able to handle the screaming all day long, plus he loves going to Stella's, it just takes him a little time to get there in the morning.

When I went upstairs, he was hyperventilating at this point. Couldn't catch a breath and was trying to talk but stuttering the whole time while crying and gasping for air. At first I was calm. I picked him up (and this is where he started flailing his arms and kicking me) and tried to get him to breathe. He wouldn't breathe. Then his eyes started rolling back and he was gasping louder and his whole body was shaking.

When you're faced with a situation that you don't fully grasp at the time it's hard to say what you might do...reading this now, it's like 'of course, just call 9-1-1 or the on-call pediatrician'. But you don't know what you'll do and I did what I always do when I don't know what to do...I called my mom. She and my dad both got on the phone and they could hear him. They both said to do the same thing. My dad said, "Get those kids in the car and GO to the doctor. Your mother will meet you there and if you have to, CALL 9-1-1!!". So I got off the phone and ran in to get Annabelle in her seat.

At this point Dom was looking at me but still hyperventilating a bit and not calming down.

As I started toward Annabelle, I ran back to Dom because I was honestly afraid of letting him out of my sight. I thought he was having a seizure or something.

I finally got him to calm down while putting shoes on and he even took a deep breath and looked at me. I asked him if he wanted to go to the doctor and he said no very directly (both kids had flu shots done last week at the doc so that is very fresh in his mind). So I asked him if he could take a deep breath. At this point I'm still 100% sure I'm taking him in, but wanted to see if he could calm down on his own.

He did take a deep breath. And then he looked at me and smiled. For the first time, I smiled. Then he looked me straight in the eye and said,

"I love you Mama. Can I watch Bob the Builder now? And I want some juice".

Well OK. I guess you're ok!

I called my parents back and told them to sit tight and I'd keep them posted, but he had no signs of barely being able to breathe just a few moments ago and he had no signs of a stroke or any oxygen depletion so I was going to let him sit and see what happens.

The kid was all smiles watching Bob the Builder. He gave ME a heart attack, but he's perfectly fine.

No matter what, you can't prepare yourself for being a parent. As he was gasping and I was dialing 9-1-1, I had these horrible images flashing through my head. Your child is your life. You'd do anything to protect them and lessen their pain.

I had no idea what I signed up for when I decided to have my 2 babies. I don't regret it. Not for one tiny second. In fact, I'd do it again gladly, and I hope I get that opportunity. Every scary minute, every hard day, it's totally worth it. Ten Fold.

But being a parent is scary stuff.

TWO

2011-10-18T23:00:00.001-05:00

Annabelle has two teeth out now...no big deal. ;-)

NLCS CHAMPS BABY!!!

2011-10-16T23:15:00.003-05:00

So I'm a HUGE Cardinals fan, naturally. And tonight was a HUGE night for us HUGE Cardinals fans!!! WE WON THE NLCS, BABY!!!!!! Which means, WE'RE GOING TO THE WORLD SERIES!!!!!

Nick and I were extremely lucky enough to be invited to Game 4 of the World Series in St. Louis in 2006. Our best man, Mike, brought us as our wedding present. (Best present ever, FYI). We were supposed to go to Game 4, because I was convinced we were going to sweep the series and win in four. Luckily I thought that, and luckily I was wrong. We didn't sweep. BUT game 4 was rained out (a TON of fun though sitting at the ball park and drinking beer and talking with friends). Game 5 then became game 4 and the make up date/time became the 5th game, but for Game 4 ticket holders.

Does everyone remember what happened at Game 5 (game 4 tickets) of the 2006 world series?????

THAT'S RIGHT!!!! WORLD SERIES CHAMPS BABY!!!!

So this year was Nick and I's 5 year wedding anniversary and thus the 5 year anniversary of the Cards winning the World Series. I think a perfect anniversary present would be another World Series victory...

What do you think?!

Learn to READ!

2011-10-16T23:13:00.001-05:00

So apparently I can't read...

My eyes are still KILLING me and I'm waking up from sleep with my eyes still crusted shut. I told Nick that I was going to call the doc in the morning and get on some stronger stuff, because obviously this stuff isn't working!!!

Then, just to PROVE that I was taking the medicine right, I checked the label just now before bed. I was 100% sure that I was supposed to do ONE drop in each eye ONE time a day for FOUR days...

OOPS!

ONE drop in each eye FOUR times a day for FOUR days...that's *almost* the same thing.

No wonder my eye still hurts....

Learn to read MEG!

Gone With the Wind

2011-10-15T21:15:00.002-05:00

So there totally has to be a Gone with the Wind part II. Seriously.

It ends with Scarlett finally realizing she loves Rett and him leaving?!?! And not "giving a damn"??

I still don't really like Scarlett, but I do feel bad for her to a certain extent. She had her moments of being decent. She did get her home in Tara back on it's feet and she did lose a baby while pregnant and lose her young daughter. She lost two husbands, one to the measles and the other while he was trying to avenge her attacker. She was hopelessly in love with a man who not only didn't love her back, but was married (to his cousin, no less) and had a child with her. So Scarlett had some pain in her life, but she brought a lot of it on herself. And the one man who loved her for exactly who she was, she treated like crap until the very last minute.

The movie ended with her looking to the sky and being determined to go back to Tara and finding a way to win back Rett...but I want to know if it happened. Do you think he came back to her? Or did she find a new (and fourth) husband? Does she go to Ashley Wilkes like Rett thinks she will?

What else happens?!?!!? I guess we'll never know...

But still a GREAT film and I'm so glad I decided to watch it!

Let's Go Cards!!!

2011-10-14T21:06:00.003-05:00

So I have to admit that I'm completely obsessed with Torty Craig!!! I'm following Torty's Twitter page like it's a drug. I actually just had to run upstairs DURING THE GAME to see what he's saying. And Yes, I know he's a tortoise. :)

If you are a Cardinals fan and haven't checked it out yet, GO DO IT!

BIG news!!

2011-10-13T22:40:00.001-05:00

Annabelle has her first tooth!!!

It's *barely* poking through the gums but you can feel it with your fingers and I'm totally counting it.

Yay for the first tooth!!! At almost exactly 7 months old.

My little AJ is growing up so fast!!!

Are you serious?!?

2011-10-13T22:34:00.003-05:00

What am I, 4???

Seriously. I woke up this morning with pink eye...wth?? (and that stands for what the heck, people. No more cursing with Mr. Repeater living in our house).

At least I think it's pink eye. It might not be. I woke up with my eyes completely crusted shut and my eyes hurt so bad. I called the doc and got an antibiotic eye drop called in and I already feel better. There's no more pink, but my eyes are still killing me.

I worked over night Tuesday night so I was wearing my contacts for like 36 hours straight. After I got off work and then got home from school, I just slept on the couch in my contacts for like 8 hours so it's very possible it's an infection from that, but to play it safe I'm taking the antibiotics and the kids didn't go to daycare. Unfortunately, I had a presentation in school today so I just didn't touch anything and I kept to myself during that 3 hour class. I sure hope no one from school gets it!

I stirred up a lot of people's morning routine in my family though and I feel really bad about that. My mom usually watches my sister's kids and Annabelle on Thursdays and they didn't want Cecilia and Addie to get pink eye, which I understand, but then that put me in a huge pickle with Nick already being gone, me having to go to school and no one to watch my kids at all. Luckily my cousin Michelle was able to watch my sister's kids and my mom came out to help with my kids while I was in school but I was afraid I'd miss my presentation and lose out on a big chunk of my grade.

But all's well that ends well I suppose. Hopefully I got a good grade on my presentation after all that!

Gone With the Wind

2011-10-13T22:33:00.001-05:00

So I've watched ALMOST the entire thing. I have about 1 hour left. It's a crazy long movie (2 DVD's!). But I have to admit...

I LOVE IT!!!!

It's a GREAT movie! Why did I wait so long to watch this? If you haven't seen it yet, GO WATCH IT!

I'll let you know when I finish it.

PS - NOT a fan of Scarlett....just sayin'.

The Mac is Back!! (Again!!)

2011-10-11T15:12:00.000-05:00

So we had another problem with the Mac...but it's back again and this time they actually fixed it I think!

Last time, they told me they were going to replace the parts and then the computer miraculously turned on while at the Mac store, but this time they replaced the necessary parts and now we're back in business! Let's just pray it KEEPS WORKING this time! :)

Another 30x30 Check in

2011-10-10T14:28:00.002-05:00

Original 30x30 post

Another quick check in since I've completed at least one more of my goals. Maybe more...I tend to forget what's on my list...

Here's my updated and revised 30 x 30. I have the completed tasks in Blue. I added some in Green if I am signed up for them or have them started. :)

1) Run a half marathon - DONE!

2) Go back to Europe

3) Learn a foreign language

4) Have 2 of my 4 children - DONE!

5) Take up golf

6) Be debt free (except the house) - Thinking about changing this one...see last post. Since I'm picking up more student loans, maybe I should make this a 40 year old goal...

7) Complete an indoor triathlon - DONE!! See my last post, but I think I did pretty well!

8) Watch Gone with the Wind - Not done

9) Watch the Godfather - DONE!!! Did this a few weeks ago! Woohoo!

10) Play in a poker tournament in a casino

11) Get a new car (or newer car)

12) Shoot a gun

13) Go back to school - DONE!

14) Learn to drive a stick shift

15) Learn to french braid hair - KIND OF DONE! I'm counting it. I practiced on Cecilia a few weeks ago. I need to get better at it, but I did it! And it looked CUTE! :) I'm totally counting it.

16) Get into cooking

17) Finish the entertainment center - DONE!

18) Register to vote in St. Louis City - DONE!

19) Fly somewhere 1st class

20) Go on a cruise

21) Make my own recipe - Started practicing...needs more work. I'll keep you posted.

22) Go back to the Signature Room in Chicago

23) Go on a family vacation with my family

24) Learn photo shop

25) Be in the audience at the Ellen DeGeneres show

26) Get into exercising consistently three times a week

27) Reach my goal weight.

28) Try every beer on the list at Growler's . But I have started!! I haven't been there in a bit either. Hopefully I'll go back soon! And knock a few more off the list.

29) Read the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. - I am halfway done with the Fellowship of the Ring. My goal is to finish that one by the end of September. So I have one month to finish.

30) Become a nurse!! In theory this should be done in the next year and a half..we'll see!

So I really have a lot of work to do. I have a lot of laundry to fold so while I do that, RIGHT NOW, I'm going to pop in Gone With The Wind.

More updates soon I hope!

Indoor Triathlon!!

2011-10-10T14:20:00.004-05:00

I did it!!! I did my indoor triathlon. And I must say, I did ok! :)

The "official" results are no longer posted (why would you only post results for less than one day!?!?!?!) so I don't remember the seconds of each portion, but I remember the minutes.

My 500 yard swim took me 14 minutes and 30ish seconds.

My 9 mile bike took me 21 minutes and 15ish seconds.

And finally, my 3.1 mile run took me 34 minutes 30ish seconds.

So total for my first ever indoor triathlon, it took me approximately an hour and 10 minutes.

I'll take it!!

My goal this time was to finish. Pure and simple. I had no idea what to expect and I didn't really train much.

My goal for next time is to do it in less than an hour. I need to shave ten whole minutes off. I think I can do it.

But the best part of finishing this mini triathlon is I can knock another 30x30 off my list! :)

Go Me!

Time to get running!

2011-09-23T16:58:00.002-05:00

I realized last night that the half marathon is in just 4 weeks (well 4 weeks from Sunday but that's soon enough). It's really time to get in gear and get this booty running!

I'm now deviating from the original schedule since according to that schedule I should be doing 9 miles on Sunday, and yeah, I can't do that. So I made up a new one. It's a lot of running. Running pretty much every day. But I'll do one day with a lot of miles, then one with just a few. We'll see how this goes.

Today I ran 2 miles. I did it fine. I did 2.1 miles in 23 minutes, so just over 11 minute miles (which is what I averaged the whole half that I ran in September 09) so I'd be happy with that.

Next on the list is 3 miles tomorrow, 3 miles Sunday, Rest on Monday and 4 miles Tuesday. I think I can handle that...We shall see!

It's FALL!

2011-09-22T12:23:00.003-05:00

I love fall TV. I really do. My old faves come back on. I discover new ones to love. I just love it.

Today I've been doing laundry and playing catchup with the DVR. Here are a few of my faves this fall:

First, The Biggest Loser. I mean, what's not to love?!?! People making HUGE transformations, not only on the outside, but on the inside as well. This show gets me motivated to get off my (way too big) tush and get exercising!! Also, I love watching these people get their lives back. I do get annoyed with some of the product placement, but all in all, this show is definitely one of my favorites.

Next, Unforgettable. This one is new this season and I really like it! I'm really into those cop finding bad guys (and gals) shows. This one is another but with a twist and an ongoing story line. I liked the first episode and it's definitely getting added to the DVR for recording the whole series. Also, I love Sean McNamara from Nip/Tuck so this is a no brainer for me!

DWTS: duh!! I love this show. Some people don't like it and some people get annoyed with it. I love watching people dance. I wish I could dance like them! I wish there was a Dancing with the Regular People show and I would totally try to get on it! I want to learn how to do all the dances. And I bet it's a great workout too! And last, but definitely not least, Derek Hough and Mark Ballas? Yes, please. :)

Survivor: This show has been on for how many seasons?!?! Like 30 something?? This is the first season I've ever watched. And I'm hooked. It's kind of like Big Brother (another all time fave) but on an island with no comforts of home (except this week the red team won blankets, woohoo!) and LOST (yet another ALL time fave!), but in real life and no smoke monster. Gotta watch this one!

Parenthood: I love this one because I can relate to SO many of the stories on here. And the ones I can't personally relate to, I can sympathize with them. I get so emotionally into this show that I actually lose sleep because I think it's me and my family. On season 1 when the dad bought an investment property and lost all his money and was going to lose the house?!?! OMG, I couldn't sleep for a week because I kept having nightmares that Nick did this. :) Ok, I'm a little addicted to some of my shows...

Finally, Up All Night. This is a new one. I have to admit, I was a little disappointed with the season premiere. They hyped it up so much, I thought it would be funnier. And I forgot to tape it last night...but I'm giving this one another chance. It's now on the DVR to record every week so we'll see how next week goes.

This is a great fall!! There are more shows I'm not listing, plus my sports (GO CARDINALS, RAMS, AND COLTS!!!) but we only have so much time to watch TV...right?!

Welcome back Fall. I missed you. :)

New Bed!!!

2011-09-18T11:33:00.002-05:00

Nick and I splurged for the first time in a long time.

We bought a new bed. :)

We can't fit a king sized bed upstairs because the way our stairs are. There is a slant and there are only 5 steps, then a landing (with the slant) and then like 8 more steps. Something like that.

A few weeks ago though, we went to Costco and found a foam bed in a box. A KING sized bed in a box. Um, yes please.

So we looked and did some research and finally this weekend, we did it. (Well we had a $100 off coupon and that heavily impacted our decision).

I LOVE IT.

Already. I'm in heaven. We had a lazy morning this morning with the rain and what not and all four of us were in the bed. And NOT TOUCHING. Or we didn't have to touch. I was still snuggling my little man and baby girl, but we didn't have to touch and that's the point! There was plenty of room.

I'm not a cuddler. I like my space and I can't touch while sleeping. At all. So this is just so perfect for us.

Yay for a king sized bed! :) Oh the little things in life that make you happy.

Growler's Update

2011-09-14T17:28:00.001-05:00

I went again to Growler's today (for lunch with Jim and Leslie) and had 3 beers. So that brings my total up to 33 beers on my card and only 98 left to go!

Under 100 to go!!!

And I have 2 years and 4 months exactly from today to do it!

Bring it on...

AJ - 6 month check up

2011-09-14T17:24:00.002-05:00

Annabelle had her 6 month check up yesterday. She's doing great! :)

Here are her stats:

Length - 27" (96th percentile)
Weight - 17 lbs 7 oz (70th percentile)
Head - Don't remember the number - I never do for some reason (25th percentile)

So she is a BIG girl!

Her cold/whatever is still slightly here but no more coughing so we might not have to get rid of the animals! Yay! We're still playing it by ear though to see how she does.

She had 3 shots and an oral vaccine and she did great. She didn't cry at the first one, she screamed at the second one and she was calm again by the third. We go back in one month for her second flu shot and Dommie's flu shot. Then not again until her 9 month appointment.

She is still mainly in 6 month clothing but I put her in 9 or 12 month stuff if it's the only thing clean, haha.

So there you have it! A happy and healthy baby girl!

Remembering 9/11

2011-09-13T13:56:00.003-05:00

I just watched a documentary that I had taped on Sunday. It was a documentary by 2 guys who were following Engine House 7 in New York on 9/11/01. I had never seen anything like this footage before.

You could actually see the first plane fly straight into the first World Trade Center tower. You could see debris and dust and pieces of building or airplane flying everywhere. You could hear people screaming. You could see people running, crying, frantically calling family and friends on their cell phones. And, in my opinion, one of the worst parts, you could hear people hit the pavement as they jumped from the building 80 stories above.

I'm one of those people who actually don't remember too much about that day. I remember where I was of course, but I don't remember much about it.

I was a junior in high school and I was at home. My parents were out of town and my sister was "watching" me from her apartment. I felt very sick and had been up much of the night ill so I called my sister early that morning (like 7 ish) and asked if I could stay home from school. She said yes and called me in sick and told me she'd be over in a few hours. I went back to bed.

I woke up a few hours later to someone banging on the back patio door. It was my boyfriend at the time, Andy. He went to college pretty close to my house and I don't know how he knew I was home but he came over. I opened the door and he didn't even look at me. He went straight to the TV and turned it on. I started to go back downstairs to my room and he told me to come and watch.

I remember I didn't believe it. Not like I thought it was an accident or anything. I knew this was an attack. But I was in such shock.

My sister had just moved back from New York. She called me and told me that she wouldn't be out for awhile. She was calling as many people as she could in New York. She knew her apartment building was close enough to see the towers and wanted to make sure her friends were ok.

I just sat on the couch.

I remember trying to get a hold of my parents. I knew they were in West Virginia or something like that and NOT in New York, Washington or Pennsylvania but I still wanted to hear their voices.

I can't even begin to imagine what those people faced that day. The innocent people in the towers. The innocent people on those airplanes. Those brave fire fighters and police officers and all volunteers in those areas that were attacked. Those INCREDIBLY brave people aboard United Flight 93.

They are truly heroes.

9/11
Never Forget

General Microbiology

2011-09-12T17:36:00.003-05:00

I took my first Microbiology test today. I just checked on Blackboard to see if the results are posted yet...

TEST 1:
Last student activity: September 12, 2011 2:30 pm
Last instructor activity: September 12, 2011 2:30 pm
Grade: 92.0
Points Possible: 100

I'll take it!!!

Wedding Weekend!

2011-09-12T14:09:00.003-05:00

We had a wedding week/end!

We went to a rehearsal dinner on Thursday night and then we celebrated our wedding anniversary on Friday night (by doing nothing really!) and participated in a wedding on Saturday!

One of my besties married another of my besties! :) I was honored to be in the wedding and had a blast all day Saturday.

We got up early on Saturday morning to go get our hair done, then we went back to the bride's house to do makeup (well I paid to have mine done because I DON'T know how to do my own!) and then off to the church. The ceremony was beautiful. Even Annabelle thought so, as I could hear her "talking" the whole ceremony long! Sorry Jim and Les!!! She doesn't cry much but she LOVES the sound of her own voice.

Afterwards it was time for some pictures and then out and about to take more pictures around the Lou.

Finally it was time to go to the reception. Drinks were awesome. Food was fantastic. Speeches were hilarious. Dancing was amazing. And we got glow necklaces at the end.

What's not to love?!?!

Thanks Jim and Les for letting me be a part of your amazing day. I can't wait to see pictures!!!

Here are a few pictures I stole from facebook just so you can see a few!

Jim and Les after the wedding

Me, Julia and Ash in the limo on the way to the church

Jim and Les kissing after the ceremony

Congrats Jim and Les! You were both gorgeous and it was maybe the best reception I've ever been to (minus my own of course!). ;-)

FIVE YEARS!!!

2011-09-09T09:39:00.005-05:00

Five years ago today at this exact time, I was getting my hair and makeup done...

Soon after, I was putting on my dress....

I was putting on my shoes...

I was putting those finishing touches on like earrings...

And I was doing one final look in the mirror...

Because five years ago today, I married my best friend.

I can't believe it's been five years already. So much has happened in five years.

We've vacationed all over, including skiing in Park City, laying on the beach in Cabo, acting like kids in Disney World, laying low in a lodge at Big Cedar, and most recently, taking the fam on our first vacation as a family of four to Pigeon Forge, TN.

We've had two beautiful children.

We've bought our first house together.

We've done countless renovations on our first house. :)

So much has happened.

I don't say it enough, but I'm so lucky. I have the most beautiful children and the most amazing husband. I'm thankful everyday for the choices I've made and the chances I've taken that brought Nick and me together.

Happy five years Baby!! Here's to 50 more. :)

SuPeR WoMaN

2011-09-09T09:33:00.002-05:00

I fell like lately I'm trying to be super woman and it's NOT working out so well. I feel kind of like I'm failing all over and that is not a good feeling.

*I'm trying to work. Which I'm doing. So I'm ok there.
*I'm trying to go to school. Which I'm doing. I'm doing pretty good there but I have a test on Monday which might tell me otherwise.
*I'm trying to take care of the kids. Which I'm doing. They both seem to be happy so I'll take that as a plus.
*I'm trying to train for a half marathon. FAIL. I've hardly ran. I should've ran this morning which I didn't and now I'm getting ready to go get a pedicure and I don't want to mess it up! ;-)
*I'm trying to keep the house clean. Kind of FAIL. The house is actually very clean right now but any day is hit or miss.

So many things on my plate and it feels like some are starting to take a hit. Hopefully I can get my stuff together and get all these balls back in the air.

That's my new goal. Forget blogging every other day. Get my life back in order!

Rehearsal Day!

2011-09-08T08:40:00.002-05:00

So our friends wedding is finally here!!! I can't believe it!!

The rehearsal is tonight and the wedding is Saturday. Time sure does FLY.

I'm really excited about the rehearsal because the dinner afterwards is at a local bar/grill called Milo's. Our menu is hot wings, toasted ravioli, pizza, salad and buckets of beer. Oh and there's a boccee ball garden in the back.

What's not to love?!?!?

I CAN'T WAIT! :)

Holiday Weekend

2011-09-06T18:13:00.002-05:00

I spent this past lovely 3 day weekend WORKING.

I had to work Saturday, Sunday and Monday 7am to 7:30 pm. It was a looooong weekend. But I worked with some amazing gals so it was ok.

Monday we decided to celebrate Labor Day but ordering in some nice Chinese food! I haven't had Chinese food in forever so it was delicious.

The best part about working this weekend is now I get THREE weekends off instead of the usual 2! Gotta love that. And I don't work again until next Monday night. :)

I have school all week and a wedding this weekend but no work and that's awesome!

Hope everyone else had a great holiday weekend!

Are you ready...

2011-09-01T10:22:00.003-05:00

for some FOOTBALL?!?!?!?!

I'm so excited that football season is upon us. I can't wait for those lazy Sundays to sleep in and lay on the couch and watch NFL Red Zone ALL DAY LONG. Gosh, it's going to be great...

Tonight is my family's fantasy football draft. We usually do an automatic draft, but this year, we're doing a live draft just for fun.

I decided to not be so serious about it and switch it up.

Two years ago (our first year) I chose my team name from Bud Light's tailgateapproved.com website. There was a fantasy football team name slot machine. I pulled the lever and it said my team name should be the "Bitter Stinkin' Swarm". So I went with it. Last year, I shortened it to "The Swarm" and this year we're making things interesting. My team name will be "The Killer B's" and I have a plan for draft day (tonight, woohoo!).

Most of the players will have to have the letter B as an initial. There will be a loophole to pick a non-B initialed player but I'm going to try and avoid that and just stick with B's.

I'll let you know my team tomorrow! :)

Go Killer B's!

Annabelle Updates

2011-09-01T09:52:00.003-05:00

So we didn't get a lot of answers...or no good answers I should say. Although in light of what our friends just went through with their baby girl, anything we face is fine; blessed even.

Basically they don't know what's up with Annabelle but they have some ideas. First, they checked her out and of course she didn't cough once while we were there. Little stinker. But they could hear the congestion while she was breathing. They checked her temp (98.9 F - perfect) and checked her pulse-ox (99% - as perfect as you can pretty much be!) and then listened to her chest. She checked her ears (no excess drainage) and checked her nose (lots of mucous but all clear, which shows there's probably no virus).

The good news is that the congestion is on the surface and not deep in her lungs. So that's good. But the bad news is, we don't really know what's causing it. But they have a few ideas. First, we're going to treat Annabelle as if she has a sinus infection. They don't think that's what it is, but the antibiotic won't hurt her and it's the easiest solution. So we're hoping that's what she has. If she finishes this dose of amoxicillin and she's not better, then we're onto Plan B. Plan B is Zyrtec...And an appointment with an allergist.

Because what they really think this is, is an allergy to our dogs and cat... :-(

She told us that most kids who are born into homes with animals don't have an allergy to animals, but it still happens.

I'm really bummed if we have to get rid of our animals. No one wants to do that. But I'll be happy to hear Annabelle breathing normal and not coughing all night. So we'll just play everything by ear.

So far, the amoxicillin isn't doing anything. She hates the stuff, first of all. She tries to spit it back out. Then last night I tried putting the syringe a little further back in her mouth so she wouldn't spit it all up and I must have triggered her gag reflex. As soon as she gagged, I pulled it immediately out but it was too late. She threw up EVERYWHERE. All over me, all over Nick, all over the floor, everywhere. It was gross.

And she just started laughing. It certainly doesn't bother her to throw up.

Anyway, so this morning, I added the meds to her morning bottle and so far she hasn't thrown it up. She's sleeping now, but this is probably just going to be the way we give her these meds.

Hopefully she gets better in the next week and a half (we go back next Friday for her 6 month check up) and hopefully we don't have to see an allergist. But I'm prepared for anything at this point.

30x30 Check IN

2011-08-30T10:18:00.003-05:00

Original 30x30 post

Just a quick check in on my 30x30...I HAVE UPDATES!!!!

Here's my updated and revised 30 x 30. I have the completed tasks in Blue. I added some in Green if I am signed up for them or have them started. :)

1) Run a half marathon - DONE!

2) Go back to Europe - still not done, see last post

3) Learn a foreign language - not done, see last post

4) Have 2 of my 4 children - DONE!

5) Take up golf - for real! - not done. ok, still haven't even gone yet this year but I'll get there.

6) Be debt free (except the house) - Thinking about changing this one...see last post. Since I'm picking up more student loans, maybe I should make this a 40 year old goal...

7) Complete an indoor triathlon - SIGNED UP! I'll be completing this on October 9th. :) Wish me luck!

8) Watch Gone with the Wind - Not done - But I'm doing this one this week! I have the DVD. I just have to do it!!!

9) Watch the Godfather - DONE!!! Did this a few weeks ago! Woohoo!

10) Play in a poker tournament in a casino - Not done...probably going to do this one soon here in St. Louis.

11) Get a new car (or newer car) - Not done, but unfortunately probably doing soon. Stupid old cars...

12) Shoot a gun - Not done but soon. I'm going Target shooting with my neighbor one of these days.

13) Go back to school - DONE!

14) Learn to drive a stick shift - Not Done. Maybe I'll do that next week some time...or practice at least.

15) Learn to french braid hair - KIND OF DONE! I'm counting it. I practiced on Cecilia a few weeks ago. I need to get better at it, but I did it! And it looked CUTE! :) I'm totally counting it.

16) Get into cooking - Eh...getting there. Still need to get that oven fixed.

17) Finish the entertainment center - DONE!

18) Register to vote in St. Louis City - DONE!

19) Fly somewhere 1st class - Not done. Next time we travel, I'm looking into this!

20) Go on a cruise - not done. Hopefully we'll do this when I graduate too. Man, I have a lot of trips on this list!

21) Make my own recipe - Started practicing...needs more work. I'll keep you posted.

22) Go back to the Signature Room in Chicago - Not done. But we've talked about it! So hopefully somewhat soon.

23) Go on a family vacation with my family - not done. But soon. We've been talking about going to Kentucky Lake.

24) Learn photo shop - Not done. This isn't a hard one, hopefully I'll do this soon.

25) Be in the audience at the Ellen DeGeneres show - Not done. This will be a tough one, but I'm determined to make it to the show!

26) Get into exercising consistently three times a week - Not done. We had to cancel the YMCA to save money and it's so hot, but I really hope to do this soon. There's always tomorrow!

27) Reach my goal weight. - Definitely not done. But I have to do it...

28) Try every beer on the list at Growler's . But I have started!! I haven't been there in a bit either. Hopefully I'll go back soon! And knock a few more off the list.

29) Read the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. - I am halfway done with the Fellowship of the Ring. My goal is to finish that one by the end of September. So I have one month to finish.

30) Become a nurse!! In theory this should be done in the next year and a half..we'll see!

There is more blue on this post! Not sure if you can tell, but I can! I'm getting there. Slowly but surely. Just have to keep plugging away!

As always, I'll keep you posted. ;-)

Colds

2011-08-30T10:04:00.002-05:00

Annabelle has had a cold for seriously like 8 weeks now. (Holy bad grammar...don't judge me).

Every time I call in they tell me that she doesn't need to come in and to do the same old same old thing. Elevate the head of her mattress...Use the bulb syringe...Use a cool mist humidifier at night...Etc, etc.

But she's STILL coughing and STILL has a runny nose and I can't hardly take it anymore. So I called today and she's going in.

She also got a little bug yesterday and threw up about 6 times during the day. And she threw up more than she ate each time. I keep waiting for Dom to start, but so far we've been lucky. Hopefully he stays healthy.

I'm hoping to get some answers today. I hate that she's been sick for so long. I just want her to get better!

On a different note, while Nick was at his football draft last night when I texted him to go to Walgreens on the way home and get some Pedialite. He texted me back a recipe to make Pedialite at home. Our friend Colleen looked it up in a book she has and I made the recipe and I think it worked! Annabelle hadn't been going to the bathroom since all this throwing up started and I needed to get some fluids back in her. She drank the 2 oz bottle I made right up and had a wet diaper within an hour. Good girl!

Here's the recipe if you ever need pedialite and can't get to the store:

4 cups of water
1/2 tsp of salt
2 tbsp of sugar

I think they said you can add some gelatin powder for flavor but we didn't do that. We just did the water/salt/sugar combo and it worked great!

Hopefully we get some good answers today and she can FINALLY get better! I'm tired of hearing that poor cough all the time!

the iMac is BACK!

2011-08-29T17:15:00.004-05:00

I have my computer back!! :) :) :) :)

YAY!!!

Can you tell I missed it??

I'll be back to blogging at least every other day! Well, I hope I will anyway.

Just for being so patient with me, here are some amazing professional photos of my kids!

Heaven is for Real...

2011-08-25T17:19:00.002-05:00

Have you read this book?

If not, it's a story told by a little boy (through his father) about his trip to Heaven and back. He had to have emergency surgery due to an overlooked ruptured appendix and almost died. He tells stories about meeting God and Jesus and Gabriel the angel and all kinds of things. It's a beautiful story.

In all honesty, I wasn't sure I believed it all, but I'm starting to believe it all more and more. And I want to believe it. Especially now that baby Gwen passed away. I want to believe that she is in the special part of Heaven for children until they can be reunited with their loved ones.

In the book, the little boy mentions seeing lights coming out of people while attending mass. And seeing other phenomena that he explains as being part of Heaven or Jesus. I'm wondering how many kids see these things if they are real (which I'm hoping to believe they are).

I ask this because today was a special day for us.

This morning Annabelle fell. Not bad, and she landed on some clothes, but she fell and bumped her head. She screamed. I cried. And I called the exchange and talked to a pediatric nurse at Cardinal Glennon. They assured me she's fine. We have some things to watch, but she's been her happy smiling self all day.

That's not the point of this story.

I swapped the kids today at daycare. Dommie has been running a fever so I kept him at home and sent Annabelle in his place. I would've kept both of them out but I had class today at 1:30 and Nick's mom was willing to watch one child and I didn't want to TOTALLY abuse her and force her to watch 2 kids. (just kind of abuse her with one!). After dropping Annabelle off at Stella's (and explaining Annabelle's fall and what to watch out for), Dommie and I decided to have a good Mommy and Dommie day and go to Denny's for breakfast.

On our way home from breakfast, Dommie said, "Look Mommy! I see sissy!". I immediately turned around and said, "Where do you see Sissy?" thinking he was seeing a billboard or ad with a baby on it (he thinks a LOT of babies look like sissy). He pointed up. Well we are in a car. There's nothing up. Then he started moving his finger around the car. I asked, "What are you talking about silly? There's no one in the car but us!". He said, "Yes there is! I see Sissy! She's flying!!".

At this point, I'm remembering this book and thinking about Annabelle at daycare and knowing she hit her head. I'm kind of freaking out.

Then Dommie says, "Oh no Mama! She's flying away! We have to catch her! I can't lose Sissy!". I said, "Can we catch her? Where is she?". Then he started kind of crying and saying, "She flew away! I miss Sissy!".

So I called Stella. I was supposed to call her anyway, but this really freaked me out. She assured me that Annabelle was fine and acting normal.

Then I started thinking about it. Maybe Dominick just saw Baby Gwen.

He only met her a few times and wouldn't remember what she looked like, but maybe she remembered him for some reason. I'm not saying this is what happened. I know kids have crazy imaginations. But it was so odd.

I'd like to think that he saw Baby Gwen. And that she was happy and showing us that she's ok. Yesterday would have been her 1st birthday. Maybe she was telling all the families who prayed for her that she had a good birthday. I like to imagine that.

And I like to imagine that Heaven is for Real.

PS - Annabelle is still her happy smiling beautiful self. And her bump is gone. Thank goodness. :)

missed again...but

2011-08-25T12:42:00.001-05:00

our iMac is ready!! :)

I have to work tonight and I might have both kids tomorrow since Nick is off on his family golf trip but I will have it again SOON! :)

Yay! I need it. Our laptop is literally falling apart...I should take a picture and show you how bad it is. Maybe I'll do that tonight before work..

Until next time though, I'm off to school and work!

Missed a day...

2011-08-22T22:34:00.004-05:00

My goal for August was to blog at least every other day. I was supposed to blog Saturday to keep up with that...I missed it.

Our iMac is still at the shop and I worked all weekend. Hopefully I'll get my computer back asap and can get back to blogging consistently!

And another one!

2011-08-22T22:34:00.002-05:00

I french braided Celia's hair tonight! It wasn't perfect, but it was definitely a french braid! woot woot!

Another one Down!

2011-08-18T23:33:00.001-05:00

I just finished watching The Godfather!!

Another goal off of my list, thank you very much!

And I really liked it! Poor Kay...she has no idea what she got into. I have to watch the second one now!

But before that, I'll have to watch Gone with the Wind.

I'm getting there! Slowly but surely!!

"That's Awesome!"

2011-08-17T23:07:00.003-05:00

I was listening to the radio this morning (Mason and Remy on the Bull in case you were wondering) and they were talking about a blog they found online. It's called A Thousand Awesome Things. Or maybe 1,000 Awesome Things. Something like that. In this blog, the person just lists things that they think are awesome. And not boring things like Airplanes or something but like "Tripping and realizing no one saw you - Awesome". That kind of thing.

They had people call in and say what they thought were awesome things. One woman called in and said that her son was in bootcamp and she didn't get to talk to him often and last night she got a surprise phone call from him. That IS awesome. I agreed with her.

Another woman called in and said that when she was shopping and went to check out, the cashier forgot to ring in half her stuff and she didn't have to pay for it...I kind of vote for not awesome, but stealing on that one, but whatever.

But here is mine.

I was talking to my mom and she mentioned that my Dad knew my stove and computer were broken. When she asked my Dad how he knew those things, he replied that he had read my blog.

Now THAT'S awesome.

I love you Daddy! :) I hope you keep reading!

Computers

2011-08-15T17:37:00.002-05:00

It seems like everything is breaking lately!

First our oven stopped working. The stove part works fine but the oven isn't lighting. So it's just pouring out gas and not actually heating. So that's dangerous. Needless to say, we aren't using the oven right now.

We were getting ready to call to have it looked at the same day I brought my car to get an oil change. While it was there, I got a phone call that I needed two new tires. Great. So we put the oven on hold and vowed to not turn it on.

So far that's working. Except, there are only so many meals you can make on the stove. I'm ready to pop something in the oven!

Now, we tried turning on our iMac computer. We bought it in February. It won't turn on. I called and they said we have to bring it in. Luckily we still have 20 days left on our limited warranty. So we are doing that tomorrow.

In the meantime we are without our main computer. I'm typing this on our laptop that is missing buttons and has all kinds of problems.

Hopefully soon we will get all our crap working again.

It's always something, isn't it? I guess that's just life! :)

Night Shift

2011-08-13T23:54:00.002-05:00

So I had another 12 hour night shift last night and I have to admit - I love working nights! Of course I miss the kids bed time and sleeping when it's dark but I really like nights. And getting the bed all to myself the next morning is kind of nice too. :)

More about this later. Just had to get a quick post in so I didn't miss an every other day post. That's my goal for August and I can't fail this early!

Prayer

2011-08-11T11:53:00.002-05:00

This will be my last sad post for awhile. I swear.

We just left the Memorial Mass for Baby Gwen. It was beautiful. And sad. All at the same time. I won't dwell on that, but I will share with you this prayer that was on Gwen's prayer card.

God saw she was getting tired
And a cure was not to be,
So he put his arms around her
And whispered, "Come to Me"
With tearful hearts we watched
Her fade away.
Although we loved her dearly,
We could not make her stay.
A golden heart stopped beating,
Hard working hands to rest.
God broke our hearts to prove to us,
He only takes the best.

Rest in Peace

2011-08-09T11:07:00.005-05:00

Baby Gwen
Born on this Earth: August 24, 2010
Left to join God: August 7, 2011

We got that horrible email yesterday morning...the one that told us that Baby Gwen has left this Earth to be with God in Heaven. I've been crying since, I think. I know what I'm feeling is nothing compared to what C & D are feeling. I feel so horrible for them and I know that no words can help. There is nothing to say or do.

I can't believe how fast all of this happened. I remember April 23, 2011. It was a friend of ours daughter's 1st birthday party. Nick and I took the kids and saw C with her son Donovan. We asked where D and Gwen were and she told us that baby Gwen was cutting teeth and a little crabby. We smiled and told her we'd come over soon because we wanted to see Gwen again soon.

The next day was Gwen's 8 month birthday.

The next day was Easter Sunday.

The next day was the day that Gwen got diagnosed with Leukemia.

And here we are, just a few short months later and Gwen is gone. I remember when we found out that Gwen was sick. I wasn't worried. At all. That may sound horrible but I was so positive that she was going to get better. She was at a nationally ranked Children's Hospital for goodness sake. Of COURSE she was going to get better.

Then the diagnosis got a little worse. But I still was so 100% sure she'd be better soon and we'd all be telling these stories to Gwen someday.

Then the diagnosis got even more worse. And I got scared.

I have no idea why bad things happen to good people. And C & D are fantastic people. Great amazing wonderful friends. D told me when I went to visit them in the hospital last week that he has no idea why this is happening but he has to believe that something good will come of it. I have to trust him on that and believe it too. Because things like this make it hard to keep faith.

I do believe that Gwen is still in a loving place. I believe she is in Heaven. And I believe she will be Donovan's guardian angel. I have to believe that.

God Bless you Gwen. I hope He keeps you close and safe until you are reunited with your Mom and Dad, which I hope is a long way away.

30x30 check in

2011-08-07T21:51:00.002-05:00

Original 30x30 post

Just a quick check in on my 30x30...I don't think it's changed since I looked at it in January...but we'll see. Here we go!

Here's my updated and revised 30 x 30.

1) Run a half marathon - DONE!

2) Go back to Europe - still not done, but we are tentatively planning a January 2013 trip as a Happy Graduation present to me. :) We'll see if this actually happens and if we have money after me being in school for a year!

3) Learn a foreign language - Not done, but my parents are thinking of getting Rosetta Stone to learn Spanish (since Dominick and probably Cecilia will be going to the St. Louis Language Immersion School to learn Spanish) so I'm hoping they do this soon and I can borrow it! I'm too cheap to buy it myself! haha

4) Have 2 of my 4 children - DONE!

5) Take up golf - for real! - not done. Haven't played once this summer...haven't played since I found out I was pregnant with Annabelle actually...I'm sorry but it's been too darn HOT! Hopefully I'll get out there one of these days. I REALLY want to do this one!

6) Be debt free (except the house) - Went from ALMOST DONE! to Not Even Close...but don't worry, we're not going to lose our house or anything. Since I was planning on going back to my old job and that changed, we sure racked back up some debt. Not horrible but we're not close to being debt free...and I'm about to take on about $40K in student loans...hopefully we can be back on track after I graduate and hopefully even close to being debt free by my 30th but we'll take that one day at a time...my education is more important at this point. If I rack up some student loans, I'll take it.

7) Complete an indoor triathlon - I haven't found an indoor triathlon coming up but I'm hoping to do this soon. I'll keep looking for one to do!

8) Watch Gone with the Wind - Not done - But I'm doing this one this week! I have the DVD. I just have to do it!!!

9) Watch the Godfather - Almost done. Still have this DVD too!! MUST DO IT!

10) Play in a poker tournament in a casino - Not done...have to go back to Vegas...maybe another trip after I graduate. Or a trip in between semesters next hear...Or I should just look one up at a casino here in St. Louis...maybe that will be easier. I'll look some up tonight!

11) Get a new car (or newer car) - Not done, but will probably HAVE to do that soon. My car has 135,000 miles on it and won't last forever. But we have time. Now that I work approximately 5 miles from my house, we can afford to wait a little bit. I have until 2014 to do this so I'm pretty sure it will happen.

12) Shoot a gun - Not done but our neighbors and Nick and I are going rabbit hunting this fall so I guess I'll shoot one then.

13) Go back to school - DONE!

14) Learn to drive a stick shift - Not Done...but I have to do this soon.

15) Learn to french braid hair - Haven't done this...but I think I can. There's a great patient at the hospital who has long hair and loves having her hair done. I bet she'll be a guinea pig for me. Such a sweet girl. I'll try to do this one soon.

16) Get into cooking - Eh...getting there. I need to be more consistent, but I do love cooking. Our oven is broken so I guess we need to fix that first. Then I'll get more into it.

17) Finish the entertainment center - DONE!

18) Register to vote in St. Louis City - DONE!

19) Fly somewhere 1st class - Not done. Haven't thought about it. I'll do it though. Maybe not this year, but I'll do it!

20) Go on a cruise - not done. Hopefully we'll do this when I graduate too. Man, I have a lot of trips on this list!

21) Make my own recipe - not done. I have no idea where to start either...maybe I'll make a special pizza or something...

22) Go back to the Signature Room in Chicago - Not done. And won't happen this summer. Just too much going on. Maybe a winter trip before I start school full time in the winter.

23) Go on a family vacation with my family - not done. But I think we are getting closer and closer to this one. I'll have to convince them to do a cruise or go to Chicago or something so I can knock another one off my list!

24) Learn photo shop - Not done. I have to do this still and I don't think my sis has photo shop anymore...hmm, I'll have to call her!

25) Be in the audience at the Ellen DeGeneres show - Not done. This will be a tough one, but I'm determined to make it to the show!

26) Get into exercising consistently three times a week - Not done. We had to cancel the YMCA to save money and it's so hot, but I really hope to do this soon. There's always tomorrow!

27) Reach my goal weight. - Definitely not done. But I have to do it...

28) Try every beer on the list at Growler's . But I have started!! I have about 28 done I believe. My name is on the wall! (It says KONES in case you were curious and want to find it!)

29) Read the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. - This is a different one from before. I've tried reading them a few times and stopped. But I love the movies and LOVE to read and LOVE the Harry Potter and Twilight series and I think this is right up my alley. I just started the Fellowship of the Ring and I'm hoping to have that done by the end of September. We'll see once school starts how much reading I get done...

30) Become a nurse!! In theory this should be done in the next two years..we'll see!

So that's where I stand...not a lot of changes but I think it's still mainly doable. I'll keep you posted!!

Hopefully I'll get at least 2 of these done this week! (the Godfather and Gone with the Wind).

~Soul Surfer~

2011-08-07T21:46:00.002-05:00

Nick and I had our own little version of a date night last night. It wasn't very exciting, but it was just us. We stayed up late (for us) and put the kids to bed by 8:30 and rented a movie off of On Demand. We rented Soul Surfer.

For those of you who don't know, it's an amazing true story of a girl in Hawaii who was attacked by a shark. She lost her left arm and had to learn to do everything with just one arm, and I mean everything. It's amazing how many things take two arms/hands. I take for granted that I can just put my hair up in a ponytail anytime I want. In fact, it's a bad habit of mine to take my hair down and re-do my ponytail like once or twice every 20 minutes or so. I'm constantly messing with my hair.

One of the things that Bethany Hamilton was determined to do, was surf again. And it's such an emotional story. It's amazing the determination and faith that she has while adjusting to this new life.

I've been emotional lately so of course I cried. But it was a great story and a great movie.

I recommend it if you get a chance.

Happy Date Night to us! :) Hopefully we'll get another date night one of these days. Maybe we'll actually even get to leave the house!

"Old Grandpa"

2011-08-06T21:16:00.003-05:00

My grandfather refers to himself as "Old Grandpa" when talking to Cecilia and Dominick. It's pretty cute and the kids feed right into it, calling my dad "Grandpa" and my Grandpa "Old Grandpa". Well this past Thursday was "Old Grandpa's" 85th Birthday!

My dad put together a "small" (turned into 65 people I think!) surprise party for him at their country club yesterday. I had to work from 7 am to 7:30 pm but I made sure I was changed and waiting at the time clock at 7:30, ready to run to my car and get on my way to the festivities.

It was a blast! I got there around 8 and my grandpa sure can party. I ate a little food and then it was time for cake. Dominick was a bit of a stinker last night so I held him most of the time but when it came time to sing to Old Grandpa, Cecilia was in a great mood and Old Grandpa was able to hold her and she helped blow out the candles! I was exhausted pretty quick and so was Dominick but we hung out with the birthday boy until about 10ish and then headed home.

We all slept good last night! And slept in a bit this morning too!

Happy 85th Birthday Grandpa! We all love you so much and can't wait until next year to celebrate your 86th!!

Back

2011-08-04T14:46:00.003-05:00

My goal this month is to blog at least every other day. Or every day if I can.

I don't have much to report, but I'll tell you about my wonderful kids.

Dom is doing great. He's so smart and so funny. This morning when I brought him to Ms. Stella's, I was wearing glasses. He looked at my with a funny look when he got out of the car and I asked him, "Why are you looking at me funny?" and he replied, "Not looking at YOU Momma. I'm looking at your glasses!". I laughed and said, "Are my glasses ok?" and he said, "Yes. I think I like them.". What a goof!

He's HUGE! Almost 42" tall and running around like crazy. He plays great by himself and has a crazy imagination. He LOVES his sissy more than anything in the world and if she cries, he runs straight over to her to make it all better.

We are so lucky to have him.

Annabelle is perfect too. She's getting to be at such a fun age. She's smiling and laughing and putting EVERYTHING in her mouth. She is such a happy baby and we are shocked by that. We thought Dom was our good baby and that our next one was bound to have colic or something. Nope. She's just perfect!

Nick and I have been stressed a lot lately with money. I don't make much at the hospital and I'm going to school and everything. But we'll be ok. We just have to make it another year and a half. We've been cutting a lot of things out (like cutting back on cable and not eating out EVER) and we'll be fine. Just one day at a time.

I'm really enjoying working at the hospital and can't wait until May when I'll know enough and move from a unit secretary to a student nurse tech! Then I'll be able to get vitals and do actual medical stuff like that! That's not too far away!

Until then, I'll just keep working, studying and clipping coupons! :)

Life is too short

2011-08-03T22:48:00.003-05:00

I'm sorry I'm not blogging a lot lately. It's been tough. I'm getting used to a whole new life with two kids and a whole new schedule of working 12 hour shifts. I'm hoping to get back to blogging this month. But nothing I've been going through compares to what friends of mine have been going through and I have to tell their story.

This is a post that I have to write.

GREAT friends of ours C & D, have a beautiful daughter, Gwen. Her birthday is August 24th. This month, she'll be one.

So far in her short little life, she's learned to sit up. To crawl. She's gotten some teeth. She's learned to laugh and smile.

And she's gotten leukemia.

She was diagnosed with AML (Acute Myleocytic Leukemia) on April 24th, 2011, her 8 month birthday. She was admitted to St. Louis Children's Hospital, one of the best children's hospitals in the nation. Things were going great for her for a bit. But as of late, they've turned much worse.

C&D found out this past weekend that this cancer has turned from treatable to terminal and any further treatment would be more harmful than helpful. So it is with a heavy heart that they decided to end all treatments and just enjoy the little time they have left with their daughter.

They at least have the comfort of knowing that they did everything right. There wasn't a single thing to do differently. As soon as they noticed something out of ordinary with Gwen, they went to the doctor and got her diagnosed immediately with AML. They started fighting aggressively and started the chemo right away. They fought long and hard and unfortunately this was just something that couldn't be beaten.

It's so hard to think about; life is just too short.

It goes against the grain to bury a child. It's just not supposed to happen. I love my parents more than anything in the world. I don't want to ever bury them. EVER. But I can understand it. It's a part of life. People get old. They get sick. They die. But not 11 month old babies. I can't understand that. I can't accept that.

Hug your kids a little tighter tonight. Give them extra kisses. Let them eat that chocolate right before bed and let them stay up an extra ten minutes. Because life is too short. You just never know what's going to happen...

We are still saying prayers for you Gwen. Miracles happen every day and I'm a big believer in that. I'm still praying for C&D too. I believe there is a reason for everything. I have no idea what the reason would be for you two to have to go through this, but I believe there is a reason. Stay strong. We love you all.

Orientation

2011-07-05T23:01:00.002-05:00

I had my first day of orientation at my new job today. :) I started at Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. I won't go in to any details about what I learned today (partly because I can't and partly because it would just bore you I'm sure) but I will tell you this:

I'm totally PSYCHED to be working there! I can't wait to get started officially and learn and do more!

I continue with a half day of orientation tomorrow and then I'll be done with hospital orientation and on to my department orientation. YAY! I can't wait!

Rock 'n' Roll!

2011-07-05T22:50:00.002-05:00

I'm registered for the St. Louis Rock 'n' Roll half marathon!!! And I'm THRILLED!

Training doesn't technically start for a few more weeks but I decided to start my training early to add one week to the beginning and a few in the middle. So my training started today. I ran 1 mile. ;-) And it was tough. But I did it. And I did it without stopping. This is the fastest and hardest exercise (besides kickball and even that isn't fast) I've done since having Annabelle. I'm really excited and hope to start getting better and better. My goal is to beat my best half marathon time of 2 hours and 26 minutes. I think I can do it. My last goal was to beat 2 1/2 hours and I did it. This time I want to beat my previous time, but even more, I want to do it under 2 hours and 15 minutes. That's shaving 11 minutes off my time and my last time was average 11 minutes and 1 second miles. So I have to shave a whole mile off kind of. That will be tough. But I can do it.

The course looks AmAzInG!!! If you've EVER considered doing a half or full marathon, DO THIS ONE! It's touring all the major parks of South St. Louis (my hood) and I'm really looking forward to running it. It hits Tower Grove Park, Sublette Park, Tilles Park, Francis Park, Willmore Park, Carondelet Park, Lafayette Park, etc. It's going to be beautiful.

My sister, my mom, Nick and I are all registered. If you are interested, go to THIS WEBSITE and get registered! The cool thing about Rock 'n' Roll marathons (if you aren't aware of this racing series) is that they have different local bands playing at each mile. So by the time you stop hearing one band, you only have a little further to run and you are hearing another! It helps the time pass I'm sure and you don't have to stress about carrying an iPod!

Here's the course map:

I really think you should try it! Running is FUN! :)

Weight...

2011-06-30T09:31:00.003-05:00

So I've canceled weight watchers...I know! That's horrible. But we are still getting our finances straightened out and had to cut back on everything. So no more paying $40 a month for weight watchers. I've decided that until we are completely back up on our feet and until this wedding I'm in is over, I'm going to focus on less carbs. I'm not a huge fan of no carb diets but if you eat healthy I think it's fine.

The last few days I've eaten LOTS of veggies and tuna and fish and nuts. I'm ok with this. I'll start re-introducing fruit in a few weeks but until then, lots of meat and veggies and cheese. :)

Since starting to do this on Sunday, I've lost a little over 3 lbs. so I'm going to keep it up.

The main reason I have to do an extreme diet change is that I still have NO time to work out. Monday officially starts my half marathon training. Hopefully I can find the time then!

Until then though, I need to make this bridesmaid dress look GOOD! So diet on!

New Jobs

2011-06-22T21:55:00.003-05:00

Has it really been that long since I've blogged??

I guess it has. I have two blog posts written on paper that I wrote during Jury Duty and they just never made it to the computer and they are in my briefcase downstairs...I'll have to remedy that one of these days. But not tonight. This post is about my new jobs.

Yes, I said jobS.

I officially have accepted a job at Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. I will be the Unit Secretary in the Antepartum unit. I'm not gonna lie, when they first offered me this position, I had no idea what antepartum was. I was just thinking of post partum and they're obviously not the same thing. But then when I got to my final interview, they gave me tours and I realized what I'd be doing and I'm thrilled. It's the unit of the hospital where women are admitted if they are hospitalized while still pregnant. Like if they are put on mandatory bed rest and must stay in the hospital for it.

The antepartum unit is literally right next to Labor and Delivery and the Pregnancy Assessment Center. I get to work in all three units to a certain extent (like if they need extra help or something). I'll be doing a lot of secretarial work but a lot of that will be directly with the patient. I'm really excited to get to be working so closely with the patients. I have my drug screening this Friday and then my Employee Sign up on Monday and then my orientation begins on July 5th. I'm so excited and can't wait to begin!

My second job is working at a company called E&B Granite Inc. My cousin works there and got me a position doing sales. They obviously sell granite but also have cabinets, flooring, hardware etc. I've been training all week there.

Monday I worked in the shop and learned how much goes into cutting granite for a kitchen. I used to think that you just cut it and install it. WRONG! A lot goes into it and that's part of the reason the price is higher than other countertops. And if you are getting granite for a really cheap price, they are probably cutting corners somewhere that you don't want cut. To do it right, a lot goes into it and it's worth it. I learned about scanning templates into the machine to cut the pieces. I learned about cutting and reinforcing sink holes. I learned about polishing and creating edges. I learned about slab layouts and determining what looks best. I learned how to make beautiful, thin seams. I learned a LOT.

Tuesday I went out on a few installs and saw how they physically install it into a kitchen. I went to two installs and it's beautiful. I got to see how they make the razor thin seams with a special machine. I got to see how sinks were installed. I got to see a whole room completely transform with the addition of beautiful granite.

Today I did two things. I went on a few sales calls, which was scary but a very good experience for me. I also got to go to the slab yard and see all the different slabs of granite we sell. They are so gorgeous that I want to cut a few of them into 16X20 foot pieces and hang them on my wall as art work. No joke. After that, I got to go out and do a template, or measure. I got to see exactly what has to be done to measure a kitchen perfectly. It was a lot of work but now we know that kitchen will be perfect.

Tomorrow will be more sales calls and I'm excited. I can't wait to present myself and hopefully get a few customers. :)

I'm really happy right now. It's good to be out of the house again during the week and feels good to be productive. I'm hoping to keep all this up until school starts on January 17th!

Oh and if you know anyone in the market for some granite in the St. Louis area, please leave me a comment and I'll email you! We have amazing prices and only a 7 day turn around from contract to completion. That's impressive!

Man, I love being back to work!

Jury Duty

2011-06-09T23:32:00.002-05:00

So I've been doing lots of research about Jury Duty...I have to serve next week. And I'm still conflicted as to how I feel about it.

For those of you who don't know me, I'm REALLY into Law and Order. Most of the time SVU, but lately I've been getting into Criminal Intent and the original too. I also have been watching NCIS. So I'm very intrigued by our legal system. So even though every complains about Jury Duty, I'm kind of interested to see what it's all about.

Now I say that and when I actually serve, it will probably be horrible and I'll hate it and complain about it on here, but for the moment, I'm more curious than anything else. I just hope I don't get on a Grand Jury case and have to be there for 3 months! That does sound kind of awful.

We shall see! Stay tuned...

Keep rollin' rollin' rollin'

2011-06-07T17:59:00.000-05:00

AJ rolled from her back to her belly today!! I didn't see it, but Nick said she did it like 6 times in a row. He had to keep moving her back to her back! I'm so sad I didn't see it. I was upstairs and Nick said he thought she'd been doing that. I had to correct him and tell him that she's been doing her belly to back but not the other way around.

Now we have a MOVING baby! :) I'm so proud of her! Pretty soon, she'll be chasing that big brother of hers! Man, time flies!

Pictures - Random

2011-06-07T15:26:00.002-05:00

Pictures - AJ's baptism

2011-06-07T15:00:00.003-05:00

Here are a few from the big baptism!

Our family - Mama, Dommie, Daddy, AJ

Getting baptized!

Godmother - Angela, Godfather - Jim, Daddy and AJ, and Mama

"God Bless Annabelle!"

Happy Godparents!

We were lucky to have a great day! The whole party and everything turned out beautiful.

Pictures

2011-06-07T14:59:00.001-05:00

I've added the pictures to my computer!! And Facebook!! Now I just need to add some here...

Stay tuned! I'll add some pictures here of baptism, vacation, random-ness, my "quest" to 131 beers at Growler's and more!

Annabelle is baptized!

2011-06-06T00:10:00.001-05:00

Annabelle had her baptism last weekend (May 29th). I was so stressed about it and am so glad it's over and everything went smoothly.

We had so much going on at the house with the renovations and we luckily got that all done. Also, we didn't have to go to the preparation classes since we went with Dom and I was kind of afraid of forgetting what to do and say. Don't worry we did fine. :)

I'll get ALL my pictures on the computer tomorrow. This time I promise promise and I'll show you some but I wanted to post that Annabelle is an official member of the Catholic church! Go Annabelle!

Wedding Photos

2011-06-05T23:56:00.003-05:00

I'm finally scanning all my wedding proofs to have a digital copy of them...it only took 4 1/2 years. :) I'm very excited about this. It's like getting married all over again. haha

Here are a few pictures I have already scanned. I've only done about half, but I'm getting there!

Just a close up of our beautiful flowers (courtesy of Dooley's in Florissant, MO)

Walking down the aisle - we're married!

Largest Wedding Party ever. :)

Smiling in that silly forced smile pose, but I still like it.

My immediate family. :)

I'm hoping to get them all scanned within the next week or two. Maybe I'll add some more favorites on here every once in awhile. I just love all my wedding pictures.

Mini Vacation!

2011-06-05T23:46:00.002-05:00

Nick and I took the kids on our first family vacation last week! We've been on vacations with Dom before but we've always had someone else with us. Like Nick's mom or Nick's family or just someone. But this was a vacation, just us. It was tough, but well worth it.

We went to Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, TN and had a BLAST. Dominick loved it. Except the extremely long car ride part. That part he hated. Actually, but the time we got there, he was screaming to go back to "Dommie's House". It was sad. But the next day made up for it.

We left on Tuesday morning and got there Tuesday night at about 11:00 eastern time. We stopped a lot. A LOT a lot. I guess that's what happens when you drive that far with two kiddos.

So we didn't do anything on Tuesday really.

Wednesday morning we took the kids to the condo pool and Dom loved it. We just signed him up for swim lessons (which he starts on Tuesday) and he loves the pool. We actually couldn't get him out of the pool. Then I hit up the local "Food City" and got some groceries and we ordered pizza from Big Daddy's Pizzeria. We laid low for the rest of the day and then took the kids to a kid's amusement park in the evening.

Holy cow, it was the coolest thing Dom had ever done. He did swings and airplanes and a train and a sizzler and the carousel and the train again. Then Nick and I wanted to do the big 3 level go cart track so we each got a ticket and were going to take turns watching the kids and riding, but Dom wouldn't let us go without him. He rode the big huge scary go cart ride with Nick once and with me once. This kid is a little dare devil.

That was enough for one night. Then on Thursday we took the kids to "Splash Country" which is Dollywood's water park. I didn't do much but sit in the shade with AJ, but Nick and Dom did some rides. They did the Mountain Twist family raft slide and a few other slides. Then Dom and I did the lazy river. Then Dom played in the kids area for like an hour. After the water park we decided to drive to Gatlinburg and check out the mountains. It was beautiful. Their strip was awesome too. Hard Rock Cafe and other bar/clubs. It would be a place to go without the kids some time. :)

Friday was time to leave. We chose a short trip on purpose but then it seemed too short and the drive too long. So we packed up and left Pigeon Forge and drove to Louisville, KY and decided to stay there for the night. We got tickets to see the "Louisville Bats" play. They are the Cincinnati Reds AAA team. It was a fun night with the kids and nice weather. After the game (well we only stayed for 6 innings...the kids got restless) we went to Joe's Crab Shack on the water. Then we went back to the hotel and crashed.

We got back on the road Saturday morning and was home by 4:30 pm.

I had a great time but a family vacation with two very young ones and no other help is TOUGH. I'm SO glad we did it but we might need to enlist in some help next vacation, whenever that may be!

All in all, our first family vacation was a success!

Our House

2011-05-25T23:44:00.002-05:00

is a very very very fine house!

Haha, anyway! Our first floor is almost complete! And I'm THRILLED! Nick has taken two weeks of vacation and we are busy getting everything ready for baptism. We basically only have tomorrow to finish getting things ready.

Friday we are going with Nick's sister Kate and her kids to Six Flags. It's the kids school trip and we decided to tag along. We have season passes and haven't been to Six Flags in forever. I actually haven't been on a ride in over 2 years since I was pregnant last summer, so I'm really excited! We have both kids going to daycare so it's a fun Mommy and Daddy day for us!

Then Saturday, we have our best friend's Jim and Leslie's couple's shower to go to. I'm a bridesmaid so I want to get there early and help get things set up. It's pretty far away and we have to have a sitter so we'll probably leave pretty early for that.

Then Sunday is Annabelle's baptism and everything has to be done and ready!

So we're working like busy little bees!

Today we had a funeral to go to in the morning and then we ran a few errands, so we didn't get started until late. THEN we had the tornadoes and golf ball sized hail come and we took a break to hide out in the basement. But we still got some stuff done. The built in bookcases are stained and poly-ed. Some pictures are hung. Some areas of the house are clean...some.

But we can do more tomorrow!

I'm taking random pictures so I'll post those soon...along with all the other pictures I keep promising you!!! They're coming. Soon. I swear...

Work, or lack there of...

2011-05-24T17:51:00.003-05:00

A lot has been going on in the work front for me and I'd like to blog about it.

First off, since December of 2006, I've worked at a company that my best friend is the VP of and his dad is the President of. It's been great. I've worked in a very casual environment and gained a lot of experience since I was the main person in the office. It was a stressful but good job for me. I loved working there.

I had Annabelle 3 weeks early and kind of threw them for a loop. They had to figure out where I was with all my work and take over. Luckily, just that week I had been writing everything out and tell them things to do. But still, I'm sure it was an adjustment for them. Just as it was an adjustment for me to have a baby early; before anything was really done at home for her.

Anyway, we came home and got into our routine and I sent an email to my boss asking if it was still ok that I start when Annabelle was 2 months old.

I requested started on May 11th.

They asked that I start back on a Monday. So they proposed May 16th. I said ok.

A few days before I was due back, they pushed my start date back to May 23rd. I was upset by this. I had already been off for over 2 months and was eager to get back to work.

I said ok, but if I didn't have a job by May 23rd, I had to look elsewhere.

In the meantime, I started really considering nursing school again. I had been taking classes at night and had already applied to start nursing school. But I was using that as a back up plan. In case the economy hit hard and my company didn't survive or something. I wasn't planning on HAVING to use that back up plan.

On May 20th, I got an email saying that my start date was pushed back again to June 1st and that there were going to be changes made around the office.

I also got a phone call from Barnes College of Nursing that I could start nursing school in January 2012 instead of May 2012.

Nick and I talked. We decided that nursing was the best way to go. I didn't want to come back to work for 7 months and then leave them hanging, just like I did when I had my baby 3 weeks early. So I made the ultimate decision. To leave my former job.

I tried to do it in a professional manner. I sent my letter of resignation along with my thanks to the VP and President. And I am thankful. For everything that they have done. But this is what is best for me and my family right now.

I've been applying to jobs at all the hospitals around town. I've been applying to colleges too. I went on an interview at Wash U but haven't heard anything back yet.

Today I got an email from Barnes hospital that they think they have an opening for me. I'm ecstatic. I hope they do. I'm calling tomorrow to discuss it with them.

This is hard. I didn't want to leave my last job, but I think I'm doing the right thing. I didn't want to leave them in January and right now they've been handling everything on their own without me for almost 3 months. Hopefully this is as smooth a transition as it could be for them.

I'm really nervous about nursing school now. It was an idea, a dream, a back up plan and now it's my reality. I'm going to nursing school. I'm going to be a nurse. The idea both thrills me and terrifies me at the same time. I know school will be tough. Especially with two young children. But I'm very excited. I think I'll be an excellent nurse. And I can't wait for the opportunity.

Wish me luck on my call tomorrow. Hopefully this is a job and it gets my foot in the door at a great hospital!

Again, a thanks to Mike, my BFF, for everything he's done for me since late 2006. He's been an amazing friend and boss and I hope he is still my BFF forever. Love ya Mike!

2 month check up

2011-05-20T21:49:00.002-05:00

Even though this was awhile ago now, I wanted to post Annabelle's stats. :)

At her two month appointment on May 9th, 2011 she was:

24" long

12 lbs. 6 oz.

That's my big girl!!

Wow...

2011-05-20T21:37:00.001-05:00

I've been getting SO bad at blogging! I just feel like there aren't enough hours in the day. And that's weird because I'm still not working! So where does the time go?? Taking care of a beautiful daughter and resting. :)

I've been taking more pictures so I'll have an interesting blog post one of these days. I promise!

A funny

2011-05-05T22:31:00.003-05:00

I just saw this as someone's status on Facebook and it made me laugh. Hope it gives you a chuckle!

"Women are Angels.
And when someone breaks our wings,
we simply continue to fly...
on a broomstick.
We are flexible like that."

LOVE IT! :)

A few Easter pics

2011-05-05T14:15:00.002-05:00

Just a few pictures from my sister's camera. Mainly of Annabelle. Dominick wasn't digging the whole idea of pictures on Easter...we only got one HALFWAY decent picture with Dom in it...and then he blocked my Dad's head. Oh well!

Enjoy!

BOO!

2011-05-04T16:19:00.003-05:00

I just went to check the mail...I'm eager to do that lately because I'm still waiting on the second half of my Aflac money. I get so hopeful and excited when I go to the mailbox.

Did I get my check?!?!

NO!

Did I get a Jury Summons?!?!

YES!

Boo...NOT a happy camper today...

8 Weeks Old?!?!

2011-05-03T22:45:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow Annabelle will be EIGHT WEEKS OLD! Wow, time flies.

Things are going great. I don't have any pictures uploaded...SORRY! But she is just beautiful. Trust me. :)

Things are going really well. I'm still nursing (quit nursing Dom at 6 weeks, so I'm definitely happy with this!) and she is still thriving. She has some reflux and spits up fairly regularly, but I'm ok with that. Dominick spit up EVERY time he ate so she's definitely better than he was! However she is really starting to struggle with taking a bottle and I'm not too happy with that. I have to pump a lot for Nick to give her bottles when I go to school and lately she's basically refusing them and waiting until I get home. I'm hoping to be back to work in the next few weeks though so hopefully she gets over this pretty quickly.

I'll definitely take a picture of her tomorrow so I can have an 8 week shot of her, so stay tuned.

Happy 8 weeks Annabelle!

Class

2011-05-03T22:42:00.003-05:00

Today I had a lab practical in my AP2 class. It was my last practical and then next week I have my final lecture exam and then I'm done. Whew.

I hadn't studied AT ALL. In fact I didn't even go to class last week (I know, bad me). I tried. I drove all the way out there. But after sitting in traffic and not getting to North County until 5:45 (when class started at 5:30) and being the same day I heard the horrible news about Baby Gwen, I just couldn't go to class. I was so emotionally unavailable, that I couldn't bring myself to sit in a lecture. So I was NOT prepared for this test...as of this morning.

I got Dominick to daycare by 9:30 and then headed home to gather my stuff. After getting everything together, I headed to Kay Bee where I locked myself in their conference room and got to work. I studied, literally, all day long. Only took one break, and that was to drive down the street to Bread Co and get a sandwich.

But the good news is, I think all that paid off because I feel like I ACED that test! Now if only I can study enough that I ace the final lecture exam...I'll try to work on that for next week. I don't want to START studying on the day of the test again.

Still Here

2011-05-01T23:50:00.003-05:00

Hey blog world. Just a quick post to say (again) that I'm still alive and well. We've had a rough few days here.

Last Wednesday night, Dominick was doing his normal scream and cry temper tantrum before going to bed. We didn't think too much of it and let him cry for a bit. He usually cries for about 10 minutes and that's his bedtime routine. I'm not a fan of it. I'd rather he not cry. But he does and then he sleeps all night just fine. Well after screaming for about 15 minutes I realized something was up. I went in to see what was wrong and I gave him a hug and he felt CrAzY hot. So I ran upstairs to get the thermometer. I got it and came back down. It is a digital ear thermometer. I took his temp. 102.8

Yikes! So we gave him some children's ibuprofen and he came upstairs with me to sleep in our bed. Nick went to the basement to sleep and Dom slept with me all night. Anytime I got up, I took his temp. By morning it was down to 101, but that's still high. I kept him home from daycare and by noon his temp was down to 100. But by 2, it was back up to 104, the highest yet. I called the doc and brought him straight in.

He has nothing...well, they called it a fever virus. Said it has to run it's course but alternate tylenol and ibuprofen. So we did that Friday and kicked the temp for good.

But anyway, I had both kids home alone (with one of them sick) on Thursday and Friday. Then on Saturday, my little Bellie Belles decided to get sick. Fun! And today I decided to get sick. Yay!

And even MORE FUN. Nick is working like a mad man to get a job done. So Friday he worked from 6 am to 4:30 om. Saturday he worked from 6 am to 4 :30 pm. And today, Sunday, he worked from 6 am to 2 pm. Tomorrow and all week he's working 6-4:30.

So I've had a LOT on my plate. I'm still here, but barely. I'm hoping tomorrow is an easier day. Dom's fever is gone and he is on his road to becoming healthy. Annabelle has a humidifier in her room and I've been using little noses and the nasal aspirator to clean out her nose. I just started some Zicam to try and kick my cold.

I'm hoping by the middle of this week, we are all onto a routine and HEALTHY. That's my goal.

Anyway, not a great post, but there it is. I'm still here and I'll be back to blogging more regularly soon....I HOPE.

Prayers needed for Gwen

2011-04-28T22:50:00.002-05:00

I know it's been awhile since I've blogged but I'm taking the time to write now because I need a favor.

VERY close friends of ours just found out that their 8 month old daughter has AML (Acute Myleocytic Leukemia). She began chemotherapy last night and will be doing 4 weeks of chemo. Then they will do another bone marrow biopsy and evaluate the diagnosis then.

She is only 8 months old and already fighting such a huge battle. She needs all the prayers she can get. So do her parents. Dave and Colleen are such amazing people. They don't deserve anything but good things in this world and it breaks my heart that they have to go through this.

Please say many many prayers and ask anyone you know to say prayers. It can't hurt to have too many prayers out there. Thank you in advance.

Bridesmaid Dress and a Goal!

2011-04-21T09:15:00.010-05:00

So I ordered my bridesmaid dress for Jim and Leslie's wedding! And I'm really excited about it!

Leslie decided to pick a "separates" dress from Davids Bridal. So we will all wear the same skirt and then each bridesmaid can pick their own top of three that Leslie pre-picked out. So I went with my mom to try them all on and see what I liked.

It was tough since I only had a baby a few weeks ago and have NO idea what shape my body will be in come September, but I think I'll be ok.

Here is the Top that I picked for myself. It will be blue and I love it. I often feel very uncomfortable in bridesmaid dresses because I happen to have a larger chest. I don't like strapless, I don't like halters. I just feel very fat and ugly in those styles and I really think I'll LOVE the look of this one. It will keep me covered up and still feel pretty. I'm excited!

And here is the Bottom that we are all wearing. It's a simple long skirt. I think everyone will look very nice and I love the idea that we get to pick out what we want, yet still match in a way.

My friend Michelle let us pick out our own dress for her wedding too and I just love it. I actually tried to do this idea with my bridesmaids. I picked out three dresses that they could pick and they all picked the same one! Haha, oh well!

So the dress is ordered...

That being done, now I have to get my butt in gear and start working out and getting closer to my goal weight!! I have a number in mind, now I just have to reach it.

I'm going to go to the Y soon and start working out and looking into a personal trainer. I would LOVE to work with a personal trainer. I think it will make me work out harder and lose weight quicker and teach me the skills I need to keep it off.

Here's to hoping that will all happen!

Wish me luck!

Celia's 3rd Birthday!

2011-04-21T09:15:00.009-05:00

Cecilia had a fabulous birthday, if I may say so myself. :)

Nick had to work, so he couldn't come to the party, but Dominick, Annabelle and I all went and had a blast. One of Cecilia's birthday presents was a new swingset in the backyard and Dominick LOVED it. He wants one now, but there is absolutely no room in our backyard for one. So he'll have to just go to Cici's house a lot!

Cecilia picked out her birthday lunch, Hot dogs and brown cake. And it was all fabulous. My sister got the huge, jumbo, all beef franks from the Schnucks deli counter. Have you ever had those??? You need to. They are amazing. And like a quarter pound each. They are SO good. And there was other food too, don't worry. We had salad, fruit, and a TON of desserts.

Anyway, we all had a blast and Cecilia got some good gifts!

Happy 3rd birthday Cici! I can't believe you are already THREE!

Swinging on the swings!

The birthday girl

Opening some presents (which Dominick had to go outside
with Great Grandpa during this part because he got too jealous...)

Birthday candles!!

Eatin' some lunch

As you can tell, the swings were a HUGE hit. I guess we'll just have to go over there all the time and utilize those swings! :)

Easter Egg Hunt!

2011-04-21T09:14:00.015-05:00

We went to the Easter Egg Hunt at IWA again this year. Dominick had a good time, and that's what's important. It was a little rough in the beginning. Getting four people out of the house is a lot harder than just 3 for some reason! But we made it. We even managed to pick up a 'Nani' on the way!

Dominick and Cecilia had a BLAST collecting Easter Eggs. You were supposed to only grab 10 eggs, but Dominick found 11 and would NOT put any back. Luckily Cecilia got bored after collecting only 9 eggs so it worked out!

We didn't get to see an Easter bunny and I'm a little bummed about that. Dominick LOVED the bunny last year, but that's ok. We all still had fun.

Here are a few pictures from the hunt:

I love that Dom is getting older and LOVING this kind of thing now. In just a few short years, we'll have TWO kids running around and fighting over Easter eggs! I can't wait! :)

Kickball is back!!

2011-04-21T09:14:00.013-05:00

And I'm LOVING it!

I missed kickball...but we're back in season. We've only played one week, but we're back in the groove already. I love hanging out with everyone and getting some FUN exercise in.

Hopefully our team can kick some kickball booty this year and make it to the tournament in June. Until then, I'm just having a blast!

Dommie is still struggling...and other Dom updates

2011-04-21T09:14:00.012-05:00

It's still hard. Dominick REFUSES to listen. If we ask him to come here, he runs the other way. If we ask him to be quiet while AJ is sleeping or while we're on the phone, he starts screaming louder. He's stuck in this constant "opposite game" and it's tough. But we're managing.

He's been continuing to test us recently but I think the end is in sight. It's just to me and Nick. He LOVES his "sissy", as he calls her. He always wants to hold her and if I'm giving her a bottle (which is rarely as I'm still nursing), he insists on giving it to her. He's a great big brother. He's just a troublesome son right now. :) Which I know is completely normal. So we're just waiting it out.

On the other hand, he's doing and saying things that amaze us every day. Where does he learn some of these words?? We're never taught him them. I guess he's just picking them up.

Like for instance, last night we were driving. While we drive, Dom likes to play the "I spy" game, even though we don't call it that.

So he said, "I see a truck" and I said, "I see a tree" and he said, "I see a building" and I said, "I see a sign". Then he said, "I see a bus"...there were no buses around, so I said, "Really? I don't see a bus" and he replied, "Yeah, I don't see a bus either".

I was pretty impressed with his accurate use of the word, "either". We never taught him that. And that's a full sentence. I guess he just picks that up.

He knows WAY too many words to list, but believe me, this kid is SMART.

He can count to 15 in English.
He can count to 10 in Spanish (on his own).
He can count to 10 in Greek (with some help, Ms. Stella is from Greece, so she teaches him some things).
He knows how to say Hello, Butterfly, and Friend in Spanish.
He's starting to learn all his letters. He's got the beginning and the end figured out. It's those darn letters in the middle that he struggles with.

He's just amazing.

Now if we could get him to listen a little better, this kid would be perfect. ;-)

JUST KIDDING, he's already perfect.

Our little Dommie Salami. What a little guy.

Aj - 6 weeks

2011-04-21T09:14:00.009-05:00

A picture of Annabelle with her cousin Addison

I can't believe my baby girl is 6 weeks old already!?!? Where does time go...

She's not doing much more than before. I guess I never updates about her one month appointment, did I?

At one month, she was 10 lbs 10.5 oz and 21.75" long. I don't know how long she is now but she's almost 11 1/2 lbs. so she is a growing girl!

She's starting to discover her voice (and not just for screaming anymore) so that's pretty fun. I love listening to her coo and "talk" to us. She's also starting to smile a bit. Nothing drastic but a little smile here and there and it makes me happy.

I don't have a really new picture of her, but I'm working on it, I swear. I'm amazed at how little I get done during the day and how hard it is to get even the simplest things done. Two is definitely harder than one. But I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Today is my 6 week check up with my doctor. If everything goes well, and I have no reason to believe it wouldn't, then I'm heading straight to the YMCA to talk about getting a personal trainer. I CAN'T WAIT to work out again! I've literally been counting down the days. Hopefully today is it!

I'll keep you posted, and I promise I'll work on keeping up with the blog better (with pictures too).

House Updates

2011-04-13T14:17:00.004-05:00

So as you know, we've been working on our first floor for just over two months. Today, the painting got done. And I LOVE it. It's a little out there. Nick and I like some crazy things, but I'm really liking it.

The first thing we did was have our painter add a texture to all the walls and ceiling. We had replaced some plaster with drywall and needed texture to make it look uniform and to match the overall feeling of the house. We love what he did.

Here's a few pictures of it before any paint went on the walls:

He did that on Monday. Then today he came back to paint. We did two walls "Midas Touch" or a yellow-y gold color, then all the other walls "Dante's Ridge" or a bluish/grey color and finally we painted the ceiling "Wishbone", a brownish color. It seems like that wouldn't all go, but I think it does. In the mini-hall we have, we did the blue on the walls and the yellow on the ceiling to keep it lighter in there since there are no windows.

Here are the quick pictures I've taken of the colors on a few of the walls:

In the corner of the living room, showing where all three colors meet. The yellow wall will have our china cabinet against it.

The hall area, showing the yellow ceiling with the blue walls.

The area by the fireplace showing the blue walls with the brown ceiling and our white crown molding.

Tomorrow I'm going to try and have all the furniture back in place so Nick doesn't have to do anything. We'll see if I can recruit some help to get that done!

So, without furniture or any other pictures, what do you think?? Yay, or Neigh? :)

quick check in

2011-04-12T22:51:00.002-05:00

Just a quick post to say, again, that I'm still here and everyone is doing well. I'm hoping to start blogging again soon and to post some new pictures. HOPING being the key word of that sentence.

It's been crazy. CrAzY I tell ya. But we're still here and doing fine.

School is getting tough. I'm so glad I took a class this semester but it is tough. Even though I'm "off" work, I think I'm working harder at home than I do at work! It's non stop. 24/7. I'm loving it but I'm still working out the kinks and I'm just starting to learn my way again. Moving from one kid to two is hard work. Much harder than I thought it would be, but man I love having two beautiful kids! I had a test in class last week. I had a test in class tonight. I have four classes left to cover three chapters and I have two tests left. It's going to be tough all the way to the end.

Tomorrow is Annabelle's 1 month appointment. I get to see how much she's grown and how big she is. :) I'm very excited about that. On the other hand, she has to get shots and I'm NOT excited about that.

This weekend is Cecilia's third birthday party. I'll try to get some good pictures of that. She got a new swing set in her backyard and I'm sure Dom will be in heaven.

Our first floor SHOULD be done this weekend. The painters will be done tomorrow and then all we have left to do is move the furniture back, have Nick replace a few outlets, put on new register covers, and put up the baseboards. That's not too much at all.

I'll post lots of pictures soon. I promise.

Until next time (which will hopefully be this weekend at the latest) just know we're doing well. All FOUR of us. :)

Dom's Appointment

2011-04-07T07:43:00.004-05:00

So we went to a pediatric orthopedic doctor yesterday at St. John's. The doctor was very very nice. I made my Dad go with me. I was afraid that Dom wouldn't walk and I wouldn't be able to carry him the whole way from the parking garage to the office.

I "swapped" kids at daycare, dropping off Annabelle and picking up Dom and we headed out to my parents to ride with my Dad. We got to the doctor appointment right on time and waited to get called back.

When we did get called back, there were a few little things Dom wouldn't do. One was, we had to get him to STAND on a scale so we could get his weight and height. He didn't want to stand. So we tried having him sit and then guess his height. He wouldn't even do that. I had to bribe him with the M&M's my mom put in my purse "Just in case". :)

So we got his weight (32.8 lbs) and kind of guessed on his height (they said 36" but I know he's taller than that because he likes to carry around a yard stick and he's taller than the yard stick!).

Then we went back to a room. A different nurse came in and tried to check him out. He wouldn't cooperate. He didn't want to lay on the table so she tried doing her tests while he sat on my lap. He didn't cooperate too well there either. She did some movement and then left to get the doctor. Dom already looked like he was walking better to me. So I was kind of worried that we'd be at this doctor and still get no answers.

The nurse decided to send us back for x-rays. I was afraid we'd have to go somewhere else, then come back and it would be a really long process. But they had an x-ray machine there. A new nurse came and got us and we went back to the x-ray room. There were two nurses there. One to hit the button to take the x-ray and one to help me hold Dom down. He was terrified of the machine.

They took 5 x-rays. 2 of his hips and 3 of his left foot at different angles. He screamed the entire time and I felt awful. But once they were over, they sent us back to our room and told us the x-rays would be ready in 5 minutes. So that was awesome.

The actual doctor came in shortly and had him walk up and down the hallway a few times (which he did like a little puppy trying to get a sucker from a nurse). And luckily (or unfortunately??) she noticed the limp even though it was much less noticeable to me. She brought him back into the room and got him to lay on the table, she did movements of his hips.

She told me that she could feel that it was harder to move his left hip. His left leg was the leg he was dragging all day so at least we were on the same page there!

She told me that she thinks he has transient synovitis of the hip which is basically inflammation around his hip caused from a virus. So the plan is to watch him. Give him ibuprofen. And hope it goes away, like it did last time.

But we have to keep a close eye on it. Because if it keeps coming and going like this, it could be something called Legg-Calve-Perthes disease. You can read about this on that same website I posted above, but basically it's when there isn't enough blood supply to the leg and can cause limping. The doctor told me that if he does have that, it's basically the same treatment (rest and ibuprofen) but they add physical therapy to try and increase the blood flow to that leg.

So we'll watch. I gave him ibuprofen last night. Hopefully today there will be improvement. He was getting so frustrated last night. He kept trying to run and would fall. Or try to do the stairs and trip (which terrified me!). So we have to keep a CLOSE eye on him for now.

I feel so bad for him every time I see him trip. I hope this is the last we see of this and it's just the first problem and not the perthes disease! Keep your fingers crossed.

Back to Limping

2011-04-06T10:07:00.002-05:00

I feel like a horrible mother. HORRIBLE.

This morning when I got Dominick up, he was walking funny. Like his leg was asleep or something. We struggled up the stairs. But he came up to my room and sat on my bed. I turned on a Dora for him (on our new fancy computer :) ) and then I went to feed Annabelle. He stayed in my room watching and was having fun. Then I came in after feeding Anna and got him dressed. He was being perfect.

After he was dressed, I took Anna downstairs and asked him to follow me. He wouldn't. I brought her downstairs and got her in the pumpkin seat and ready to go. I called up to him to come down. No answer.

Now Dominick is one who LOVES attention. He would refuse to come up JUST to have me come up and get him. So I called to him again. No answer.

I called up to him and said, "If I have to come up there you are in trouble mister!". That is a completely empty threat coming from me, but he usually listens. Nothing.

So I went upstairs, kind of miffed because I was sure he was just wanting attention. When I got up there he was sitting on the bed smiling. I took his binky, another way to usually get him to listen and he just started crying. I went into the bathroom and when I came back he was standing next to the bed. I grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the stairs. He fell to his knees.

He does this sometimes too, just to be dramatic. So I picked him up and carried him downstairs. When we got to the bottom of the stairs he was crying for his binky. We've been having a hard time letting go of the binky so I told him that he doesn't get it when he doesn't listen. I got up and starting walking to the door.

He took a step and fell again.

Now I was worried. I sat down and asked him what was wrong and he pointed to his leg and said "It hurts!" and he cried. Well that's not good!

So we checked his feet and pulled his shoes off and re put them on. Everything seemed fine but he won't walk. We go outside and there are three city forestry trucks out front cutting down a tree directly across the street. I said, "Dommie! Look at the trucks!" and then he started walking fine.

However, once we got to daycare, he started limping again and it's only gotten worse. I'm waiting for a call back from the doc to try and get him in to see what's wrong but I can't help but feel horrible! He does a lot of faking around here, especially since Annabelle came into our lives, but he could really be hurt now!

I'm still waiting for a call back to get him in but in the meantime, say some prayers that he's ok...poor guy!

Back to weight watchers

2011-04-05T22:12:00.002-05:00

I've decided to rejoin weight watchers. It's going to be tough but I'm planning on sticking with it. I did pretty good last time and would have succeeded in reaching my goal weight I think but I let us trying to get pregnant stop me from being good. I had the whole mentality that "soon I'll be getting fat anyway"...not a good idea!

But here we are on day one of the new weight watchers program and I stayed under my points. Hopefully I can keep that up. I'll do my first weigh in on Saturday morning. I'll keep you posted! :)

Doing better!

2011-04-01T16:36:00.002-05:00

Today I feel like I got some things accomplished!

I dropped Dom off at daycare. Then I went to Costco and got a few things that I needed to get. Then I came home and did LAUNDRY. A LOT OF LAUNDRY. :)

I've been working on cleaning the first floor. Which is hard because there is still drywall dust everywhere, but we're getting there.

I think things are slowly coming together. Nick's been working a TON and I'll be very thankful for him to be home and helping out. Even if it's just to hold the baby so I can shower for Pete's sake!

But like I said, we're getting there.

Oh and FYI, I'm composing this blog post on my new Mac computer. A beautiful 27" apple that I LOVE. :)

Happy Friday all!

Trying to remember

2011-03-31T10:00:00.002-05:00

I remember things being easier with Dom...I blogged more. I had more free time. I don't remember being so incredibly exhausted ALL THE TIME. I guess that's just what happens when you have two kids. I wonder what it feels like when you have three!? My uncle said to me the other day, "Two kids aren't twice as hard...they are three times as hard." Amen to that. It's so true. But I'm trying to keep it all together. I'm trying to remember to pull food to defrost for dinner and clean up the toys and do the laundry and just recover. I'm still in some pain from the surgery. But we're making it. Dom was such a helpful boy this morning. He got me the boppy to feed Annabelle and grabbed a diaper for himself. When I dropped him off at daycare, I was so excited because I wanted to get him back into a routine, but when I left he was crying for me and that broke my heart. I think we're getting there. We're almost into OUR routine and I think just a few more weeks away from really getting it together. And then I'll have more time to blog... ;-)

Patience

2011-03-25T11:28:00.002-05:00

I'm really struggling to keep my patience lately. I try, but it's very difficult. Dominick is really pushing our buttons recently. He likes to do something that he knows he's not supposed to do and then when we tell him "no", he laughs and does it more. I still can't lift him and lately Nick's been gone during the day (at work) and gone at night (helping our friend Mike with demo at his house). It's really hard to be a "single" mom. I drop Dom off at daycare in the morning and the mornings are rough. Dom doesn't want to get dressed, doesn't want to have his diaper changed, doesn't want to get his shoes on, etc. It goes on and on.

Nights are even worse. He's been doing all kinds of things just to push us. He always needs something while I'm feeding Anna. Last night he found a straw and came over and just jabbed Anna in the face with it. When she sleeps, he goes right next to her and bangs on something to wake her up.

I know he loves her. She's all he talks about most of the time. He's trying to get MY attention and it has nothing to do with her. And I'm struggling with that.

I find myself closing my eyes and counting to ten with deep breaths a lot lately. I don't want to get too mad at him because I know that he's going through a major transition too. I don't want to let him completely off the hook though either, because he is directly ignoring what we are asking/telling him to do and I don't want to let him think that doing something that Mom and Dad say not to do is OK. It's really tough.

Nick and I thought that two years would be perfect in between kids. They would love each other and play together, etc. But I didn't think about how hard it would be NOW. I think we have a rough few months ahead of us. :)

It's ok. I'll take those rough months because I LOVE both of my kids so much and every second with them is worth it. Even if they are driving me crazy. :) But I need to have more patience. Hopefully I can find some in the next few months. For everyone's sake!

SLEEP! :)

2011-03-22T14:28:00.002-05:00

Annabelle is doing so good at night!! Now don't get me wrong, she's a stinker from about 5 pm to 9pm, but after that, she is so good! First off, I love our pediatrician. When we went for her one week check up, our pediatrician told us that since she was definitely growing, we don't need to wake her up for feedings at all at night. If she wakes up, obviously feed her, but don't wake her up. So we didn't. At first, it didn't matter, she was still waking up every 2 hours to eat, which was fine. But these last two nights have been great!

We've been staying up until midnight and then putting her down. Two nights ago she went down at 11:45 and was up at 3:30 and then 6:30 and then up for the day at 8:30. That's not bad!

Last night was even better! She went down at midnight, She got up at 4 to eat. Then slept until 7:50. Holy cow!! It was fantastic! :)

I'm very proud of my big girl!!

And Dominick is still doing GREAT in his new room in the toddler bed. My kiddos are so perfect right now!

♥ Annabelle's Birth Story ♥

2011-03-16T14:23:00.007-05:00

Wow. What a whirl wind.

It all started on Tuesday, March 8th. I'd been having contractions all day long. I had a big test on Tuesday night so I was trying to fight the contractions, as if you can do that. I went as far as emailing my teacher telling him I might not make it to class. I couldn't focus on studying at all. But I really didn't want to miss the test. Not that I was ready, but I didn't want to do the make up test, which is an essay test and sounds way harder than the multiple choice test. So I went to class. I actually felt better too. I failed the test...but now I think I understand why. Ok I didn't FAIL, but close. It was hard. (I just looked it up...I got a 74%).

After class, I headed home. Class went a little later than normal and I hit the highway to go home around 9:05. I called Nick to talk to him for part of the drive. I just didn't feel good. I almost stopped to get food, but decided I'd rather just go to bed. I got home about 9:30 or so and basically just got ready for bed. Nick came up around 11 or so and we both fell asleep pretty easily. For awhile.

I woke up about 1:30 with a sharp stomach pain. Much different than anything I had ever felt before. It felt like severe gas pains or something. It passed and I decided to drink a little water and go back to bed. But I couldn't go back to bed. The stomach pains kept coming. I started timing them. They were coming ever 4 minutes. I tried going to the bathroom. I tried all the "false labor" tricks. You know, the things they tell you to do if you are in false labor. Drink water. Empty your bladder. Walk around. Change positions. Etc. Etc.

Things were not improving. If anything, the pains were getting worse. Now 3 minutes apart. At 2:40 I decided to call the exchange. At this point I was sitting in the nursery. I didn't want to wake Nick up if it was false labor. I called and the on call doc called me back immediately. I told him what as going on. I got a contraction during the call and couldn't talk. I was almost in tears. He told me to come in.

I got up and went back into our room. I asked Nick to call his mom and see if she could watch Dom. Then I went to get all my stuff together and make sure my hospital bag was ready. I put my contacts in and straightened my hair. (For the record, I had showered that night and went to bed with my hair wet and it was everywhere and my hair isn't long enough to put in a ponytail...that's why I straightened it. It only took like 5 minutes...).

Then we went to get Dom's stuff together. At this point, the contractions are hurting more than ever. I now know exactly what active labor feels like. We got Dom up and headed to Sue's house. In the car, I had quite a few contractions. Every time I would try my breathing and squeeze Nick's hand and I probably sounded awful. Dominick was up at this point and he kept asking, "You OK, Momma??". I would tell him that I was ok and then he would ask, "I kiss it??". I told him yes, he could kiss it and I would hand him my hand. He would kiss my hand and say, "All better?". He's such a sweet heart.

Of course, right after we dropped him off I realized we didn't have a camera, so we went back to Sue's and borrowed her camera. Then we were finally off to the hospital. My contractions were now about 2 minutes apart and very painful.

We got to the hospital at 3:30 am and went straight to Labor and Delivery. They checked me in and brought me back to a room. They hooked up the monitors and saw that my contractions were 2 minutes apart and measuring around 90. They checked to see if I was dilated at all, and I was at 2 cm. I was in pain. I was already asking for the epidural. They called the on call doc and we decided to do a c-section. I had the option of trying on my own, but I didn't want to at this point. I was exhausted already and we had no idea how big the baby was. Unfortunately, I was the fourth person to come in that night in labor...and the fourth repeat c-section. So we had to wait for the OR.

The anesthesiologist came in around 5 am for the epidural. Not gonna lie, it was still a little painful, and didn't take effect right away. But after about 30 minutes, I was ok. She left and came back at 6 am to get me ready for surgery. They thought the surgery would be about 6:15, but we didn't get into the OR until 6:50.

I remember being wheeled in and "Here I go again" by Whitesnake was playing on the radio. They said Annabelle was going to be a Rocker! They got me on the table and started prepping me. I could hear the nurses doing their counts of tools and what not.

Then they started. It was so much better than with Dom. With Dom I was throwing up and in pain and he was stuck after pushing for so long and it was plain awful. This time I was alert and it didn't hurt. I honestly just felt the pressure. After what seemed like hardly any time at all, I heard the vacuum. She was stuck (although I'm not sure where!?). But then I heard them say, "Here she comes!" and then it was over. She was born at 7:06 am. They pulled her back and she was COVERED in the white goo since she was so early. She was crying and it was beautiful. They brought her over to the scale to clean her and do her APGAR scores and I just watched her. At first I was scared because she wasn't breathing as well as they'd like. Since I didn't push, the fluid wasn't pushed out of her lungs. But then they got a good amount out with the bulb syringe and she let out a yell! Her apgar scores were 7 and then 9. So very good.

Nick went over to cut the cord and they weighed her...8 lbs and 11 ounces. Thank God I didn't try a VBAC. I couldn't get Dom out who was 8 lbs 9 ounces so I'm sure I would've had the same result with AJ.

It didn't take long to get me put me back together. I think I was in recovery by 7:20. They brought her back to me almost immediately and I was able to try and nurse her. She latched immediately. It was such a different experience from Dominick's birth.

I recovered a little slower this time around and I'm not sure if it's because it was my second c-section or what it was. But I'm feeling much better now. And how much better it was has been worth every second of pain.

I still can't believe we have TWO kids. Dominick has been fantastic. He loves his "baby sissy". He likes to hold her and when she cries, he brings me her binky. He's already a great big brother.

I also want to mention how great our families have been. Nick's mom, Sue, basically kept Dom for Tuesday through Friday. Nick watched him Friday night and then my parents took him Saturday morning and kept him until we were ready to go home on Sunday. They even brought him up to the hospital since I wanted a picture of the whole family at the hospital and forgot to take one before then.

We are so lucky to have such great family and friends and I'm so in love with my husband, my son, and now my daughter.

I'll update more later with more pictures but this is a good start...for me. With two kiddos, I haven't been on the computer at all. Hopefully I'll get to update more again soon.

But there's her story.

Annabelle Jean

March 9, 2011 at 7:06 am

8 lb. 11 oz.

21" long

Playing Catch Up

2011-03-16T14:21:00.002-05:00

Hey blog world. I'm here. Barely. Just writing a quick post to say that I'm planning on doing lots of updates soon. Hopefully today even.

For those of you who don't know, Annabelle Jean was born one week ago today, which was three weeks early. We are all healthy and happy but very very tired.

I'm getting ready to start writing her birth story because I don't want to forget it! I'll add a few other posts soon too. So please keep being patient with me!

Be back soon. :)

Big Boy Bed!

2011-03-08T10:06:00.002-06:00

Dominick slept in his Big Boy Bed last night!!! I'm so proud of him!

Like I previously mentioned, we moved the crib downstairs over the weekend (on Sunday actually) to get him used to the new room. New look, new sounds, new light from the outside, etc. And on Sunday night we gave him the option of which bed to sleep in and he said the crib. So we put him in the crib and he slept all night. :) Our plan was working. He was in the new room and getting used to it. It was in the crib, but that was fine.

Well last night, we did PJ's, brushed our teeth and read our books. Then I asked Dom which bed he wanted to sleep in. He pointed to his toddler bed. I said OK and he climbed in. I tucked him in "snug as a bug" and then gave him a kiss. I left the room and shut the door. I listened by the door, fully expecting him to get up and walk around and I didn't hear anything. So I went upstairs and got the monitor. A few times I SWORE I heard him get up...so I'd check on him. Nope. Still laying in bed.

He did have two slip ups. He woke up once about 1 or 2 am. I went downstairs and he was crying because he lost his binky. It was on the floor by his bed. I gave it to him and he rolled right back over and layed back down. I recovered him up and gave him another kiss and he was back asleep in no time. He woke up again around 4 am. This time Nick went downstairs and he said Dom was walking around trying to find his binky. Nick gave it to him but he wouldn't lay back down. So Nick rocked him for about 10 minutes and then he layed him back in bed and that worked. He went back to bed until I woke him up around 7:20 this morning.

So I will call that a success! I know that doesn't mean he's made the transition and he'll never want to sleep in the crib again. But I think this is a great start.

We told him that when he's done with his crib we can move it and get him a new book shelf and some new books and he's very excited about that. So we'll see how this goes! But no matter what, he did it! We know he can do it! :) We'll see what happens tonight. I'll keep you posted.