Smart As Allison

Exciting changes heading our way...

2012-02-06T19:12:00.000-06:00

There are exciting changes heading our direction. Don't really want them all on the internet quite yet, but I do hope that as things change around here that I will also be a little more motivated to keep my blog up to date! (and we are NOT pregnant...that seems to be where everyone's mind goes first!)

Other things going on in our lives: Bethany is turning ONE this month. Crazy. We've had some drama lately with her weight. She was not gaining weight like she was supposed to. I ended up deciding to wean her...that was a very difficult decision for me. After having nursed Bruce for 18 months I was feeling a lot of guilt about weaning her, but in the end it was the right decision. She just wasn't gaining weight. She has been dropping percentiles and at her 9 month appointment she had dropped to the 5th percentile for weight (still in the 95th for length). Our pediatrician was concerned so we started supplementing all her bottles, but she still nursed for most of her feedings. When we went back for a check up at 10 months she had dropped to the 3rd percentile. Red flags and alarms were going off. I started crying that the drs office, asking if I had to stop nursing. He said no, but that I had to record every ounce she ate so I'd need to pump exclusively. Um, no. So, we used up what was left in the freezer and supplemented with formula. All of her bottles were double strength...

When we went back for her 11 month checkup she was up TWO WHOLE POUNDS! Yay! That shot her back up to around the 45th percentile. The dr was thrilled and I was so relieved! That being said, we're still watching her calorie intake very closely, but are hopeful that she'll maintain this weight gain.

Other news, Bruce is growing like a weed and seriously funny. He says so many silly things and likes to talk about his brother "Rica". Not sure about that, but supposedly imaginary friends are good things. He loves preschool and comes home every day telling me that he had fun!

'Til next time...hopefully not 6 months from now...but I make no promises!

Silly things to remember about Bruce

2011-09-04T14:35:00.000-05:00

He only likes to pee in the backyard...yeah...weird. He asked to do it one day and now thinks he has to. We have at least established that other "eliminations" have to take place in the potty, no matter what Kaya (the dog) does. Little boys still do that in the potty...Boys are weird.

He says "don't a-get" all the time. He's really saying "don't FORget", but it is usually interpreted as "don't get" which makes him very confused...and us.

He LOVES his baby sister. He's very sweet to her...almost all the time. Except this morning, when she was crying and he was tired of it and I overheard him say "be quiet or put your head down, if you don't do it I'll do it for you." Um, what?

He has a very strong love for instruments and a very good memory for names. I bought him a shirt with a drumset on the front. He loved it and remarked, "this is my 'Ray' shirt". We had no idea what he was referring to and upon questioning more he told us, "um, you know, like the drummer at my wedding." He was referring to my sister's wedding, also known as his wedding, in which she had the very awesome Walt Wilkins and his band. None of us could remember the drummer's name, but I looked it up and sure enough it's Ray!

He can remember "movie" quotes as well as his dad. Every day he speaks in multiple movie quotes (or TV) and we have to figure out where on earth it's from. Its humorous and strange all at once....again I say, boys are weird.

And as I'm typing this he's eating a frozen waffle...no really, frozen as in straight from the freezer. I have no idea why, he told me he likes it that way. And he sure did eat the whole thing.

Today, one year ago...

2011-07-04T11:26:00.000-05:00

I finally got a very very faint second line on the pregnancy test! So faint, I wasn't completely sure I wasn't just making it up! We were at Greg's sister's house in Arkansas so they got to know first and then we drove back through east Texas and shared the news with our friends the Bowers. What a great memory, can't believe it was only a year ago and now we have our little cutie! Four months old, rolling over, and keeping life interesting!

Bruce's funnies...

2011-06-26T16:30:00.000-05:00

Here are a couple of Bruce-isms from the last few days. Today at lunch he was talking about thunder and Bruce told my mom he was "scared a little." He then asked her if she was "scared a big." I love the way their brains work...makes sense that you can be scared a big if you can be scared a little!

In the car I was asking about church and what he learned. He was talking about Jesus and we started talking about how it was because of Jesus that we'll get to go to heaven someday. He was very curious about how Jesus was going to get him there. I was trying my best to explain in 3 year old friendly language and he was getting frustrated. He finally just said, "I think Jesus will just get me there in my carseat, it's okay Mom."

My favorite thing he does is start every sentence with "Iiii hink..." translated to mean: "I think"...and then he spills out his theory on what's going on.

Of course there are more that I can't think of, but I'm going to try and do better about updating these things!

Mr. Bruce

2011-05-24T09:38:00.001-05:00

Yesterday was the memorial service for my very special friend's father. I have been so emotional about the whole thing ever since I found out. I keep putting myself in her position and her mom's position and my heart just hurts. When she told me that he'd passed away, the only things I could think of to say were that I was praying for her, and that my heart hurts for her.

The memorial yesterday was beautiful. I cried a lot. Thankfully Bethany did not. She was all wrapped up in the Moby wrap and slept the whole time. Greg and I spent the three hour car ride home talking about it. How beautiful the service was and how inspiring it had been. We talked about how being there motivated us to be stronger in our faith and stronger in our marriage. Seeing how many people were truly impacted by this man's life was incredible. Hearing how humble and loving he was, was inspiring. I would venture to say, that in my coming years, yesterday will be a day I look back on as something that reshaped me as a person.

I'm so thankful for my friend and for the life that her dad gave her. I'm so thankful that he played a large part in shaping her into the special person that she is. I am also thankful I had the opportunity to know him only briefly and that his life will continue to bless many more generations.

Swallow Study

2011-03-14T14:39:00.000-05:00

Whelp, looks like Bethany gets to go for a swallow study on Thursday. She started showing some signs of the same things Bruce had/did. Bruce used to aspirate fluid, hold his breath, and then have to be stimulated to start breathing again. Well since Bethany's been home we've already had to stimulate her to start breathing multiple times. She'll either be eating, choke, and then hold her breath and start going blue...or post feeding, she'll cough a bit, choke, and hold her breath.

She's been by Greg or my side pretty much every second, so it hasn't been a huge deal. That and we were already kind of fine with all of the "blue baby" stuff...but I did bring it up with the pedi when we went for her first visit. He was concerned enough that he felt we should go through with the swallow study. We'll see what that shows and go from there. Bruce had the swallow study done when he was in NICU, it showed he had silent reflux, so that's what I'm guessing is going on here too. Hopefully we just get prevacid or something and NO monitor.

Other than that, life is going pretty well around here. I'm mostly recovered from the csection and Bethany is doing great feeding and sleeping and all that. She's actually sleeping between 5-8 hours at night, but of course I'm not because I keep checking on her! She's in a co-sleeper right next to the bed so at least it's easy to check on her. Bruce is still adjusting, we're still dealing with LOTS of whining, but he is getting better. He definitely loves Bethany and wants to hold her all the time...we also just bought his "big boy panties" (his words)...we'll start the potty training process soon. Yay.

Bruce-ism's

2011-03-03T17:01:00.000-06:00

I need to document some of the cute things Bruce has been doing...since I currently kind of want to stick him outside and shut the door. Oh man, the whiny-ness might kill me. Seriously.

This morning Bruce walked in the bathroom and told me he needed a quarter for the toilet. When further questioned he told me he needed to make a wish. Apparently toilets are very similar to fountains or wishing wells.

When Bethany cries, he comes running and asks "what's up baby? Why is my baby crying?"

He keeps wanting to "carry you me" AKA carry Bethany...it's hard explaining he's a big boy in one breath and too little to hold her in the other.

His two new words of the week: "adiculous" and "atusting" AKA ridiculous and disgusting. Both words have been used multiple times...in the correct context. No idea where they came from!

While on bedrest there were multiple episodes of Toy Story watched. Bruce now likes to pick up his foot and tell me it says Andy on there. He has also picked up a few quotes such as "I have good news and I have bad news." "I'm calling you a 'wire'" (liar) "If the boot fits" and one that we're not sure where it came from: "Um, Mom, I'm double booked tomorrow."

Beth's Birth

2011-03-02T21:06:00.001-06:00

I actually get to write an UN-eventful birth story! Bethany arrived March 23, 2011 at 14:14 weighing in at 9 lbs 6 oz and measuring 21 inches at 38 weeks. I got to the hospital Wednesday at 11:00 having not eaten anything since midnight and waited and waited...they were behind. I finally got prepped for surgery and headed in. Right before they were getting me ready, I totally freaked out. I was getting super scared for the spinal and having a mini panic attack. I told Greg we were done having kids...and then I actually had the surgery...

Yeah, it's not that bad. The spinal is seriously not that bad...the actual pain is about 5 seconds. And they give you all these warnings about pressure and such, but again, not that bad. Recovery, not so great, but manageable. For any future c-sectioners, here are my tips:

1) Seriously, it's not that bad.
2) Make sure they do the catheter after the spinal.
3) Ask for a binder (or bring your own) and wear it as soon as you can. Seriously, makes a WORLD of difference.
4) Ask your nurses to write on your board the next time you can take your pain meds. They won't come and tell you it's time, it's up to you to ask and stay on top of it.
5) Take all pain meds offered and take them at the right times, don't wait until you're in pain....that's with one caveat, I will NEVER take morphine again. I itched and itched for 2 days after that stuff, NOT fun.
6) Seriously, it's not that bad.

Having Bethany in my room was incredible. I had no idea it was supposed to be that way. It was so fun having her there! Getting to feed her soon after birth, getting to hold her all day, letting guests get to see her, all the stuff I didn't get to do with Bruce. By the time Saturday came around, I was ready to get home and see my family.

Bruce is adjusting well. He LOVES Bethany, but is definitely acting out. He's not really had specific jealousy issues, but he has started referring to me as "my mommy" and he is having way more fits then he used to. He's getting better though...

And as for me, I'm recovering. Still in some pain, but getting markedly better every day. I've completely weaned off all narcotic medication and now just take mega Ibuprofen. Also, I am officially below my pre-pregnancy weight. Yay! Nursing is going well, Bethany sleeps a lot so she has to be woken up to eat, but otherwise, life at home is going well. I will enjoy my 10 weeks off from work!

Here are a few pictures:
Before:

First picture:

Bruce is a big brother!

Arriving home to our sweet sign!

Bruce getting to hold her:

It has been an eventful week!

2011-02-19T12:06:00.000-06:00

I went Wednesday for my 37 week appointment. I was scheduled for a sonogram and an appointment. I was already prepared for the "holy cow, your baby is huge!" talk that I would get from the sonographer (she was measuring over 10 lbs and the sonographer said she thinks that was even on the low side because she couldn't get all the measurements as big as Bethany was). I got that all the time last time with Bruce. I was not prepared to hear her say, "whoa, her heartrate is really high, I think the dr might make you deliver today!" Of course Greg was not with me because he had stayed home to watch Bruce...I told him not to worry about coming because it should be a pretty routine appointment...should have known better!

Next comes waiting FOREVER in the waiting room with "chatty cathy" telling me all about the wedding of a mutual friend. I really didn't care about the wedding, and it was just an annoying conversation...especially since I was typing out emails to my parents on my iPad, texting my sisters on my phone, and emailing work on my blackberry all while trying to act somewhat interested (AKA be polite) to this lady sitting next to me. They finally get me back in a room and take my blood pressure and it is super high. I did tell the nurse that it likely had something to do with the fact that the sonographer had just told me I would probably be having a baby that day...she agreed to let me lay down and come back and take it a bit later. When she came back it had gone down a lot, but was still really high.

Then comes in Dr. Askew. She's concerned about the blood pressure and more concerned with Bethany's heartrate. She then tells them to get me all hooked up to the non-stress test machine. I get all hooked up and Bethany's heartrate continues to hover in the 190's...but she is moving like crazy. Eventually she settles down some and her heartrate goes back down to the 160's/170's. And then...I get forgotten about. I'm sitting in a little closet (AKA NST room), in what basically looks like an dentist's chair with stirrups just waiting and waiting. Luckily Bethany saved the day by getting hiccups which were so loud on the machine they remembered me! Askew made it back in, agreed to let me go home as long as I promised to be on STRICT bedrest. Yay. Oh well, at least I got to go home! I also had to do the 24 hour urine collection again. Yay. Again, just glad I got to go home. She also said we'd move the csection date up to 38 weeks instead of 39.

Then yesterday (Friday), I called the office because I realized they never actually scheduled my csection...they just scheduled my followup appointment on the day I was supposed to have a csection. The nurse was pretty rude and just brushed me off saying they'd call me back, I pushed her and made her guarantee someone would call me back that day. Well then I started realizing I wasn't feeling great and took my temperature. I had a low grade fever, and I took my BP again and it had gotten pretty high (167/90), and I had the dull headache and squiggly eye things. So I called the office again and they told me to head over to labor and delivery. I first took a shower (in case Bethany was making her grand entrance), we got Bruce all dropped off at Mom's (she came back early) and got all checked in at the hospital. They got me all hooked up to the machines. Bethany's heartrate looked good, my BP was high but not outrageous, and I still just had a low grade fever. I was having contractions, but not steadily. Askew came by and we chatted, she said she was happy to deliver her today if I wanted. I did not. I do not want to do the NICU thing again if we can avoid it. Ultimately we spent about 3 hours at the hospital, but the good news is they sent me back home. I also felt better because we got my csection all scheduled at the hospital and I'm all ready to go!

So, very long story to say: Bethany will be making her grand entrance on February 23rd at approximately 1:00 pm! (all assuming I don't go into labor...)

Still here, still pregnant...

2011-02-13T16:29:00.000-06:00

I'm almost to the 37 week mark, just a few days away! Can't believe it's getting so close! The plan for now is still to go to 39 weeks (March 2nd). I go Wednesday for an ultrasound to look at her weight again and we'll go from there. I'm definitely feeling d-u-n...ready to have her and be done with work and all that. I guess that's the only silver lining in the mandatory bed rest from last time around! At the same time I guess it might be better to wait a little longer since my parents decided to take a trip to Germany and don't get home until right at the 38 week mark! Yes, interesting timing! Oh well, will post more after Wednesday!

Thanks to those of you who came to my shower. It was a lot of fun, and I was very touched by your thoughtfulness!

33 weeks and friend's new blog

2011-01-20T22:10:00.001-06:00

Whelp, I had my 33 week appt today. Things went SUPER well! Blood pressure was completely normal! Who'd have thought? I was super happy and so was Dr. Askew. I also had an ultrasound before my appointment to see how big "baby Beff" is (how Bruce refers to her). She's apparently not wanting to be shown up by her big brother. She weighed in at 6.5 lbs...and she's breech and I still have technically 7 weeks to go. The breech part is no big deal since I'm having a csection anyway...it just explains A LOT in terms of what I'm feeling. It also explains the enormous amount of pressure I'm feeling and why its so dang hard to bend over. The 6.5 lb part is pretty par for the course for my babies, but still...yeah.

Dr. Askew said as of now she wants to let me go to 39 weeks. I did then remind her that Bruce was almost 11 lbs at 37 weeks and told her I did not want to be setting any new San Antonio records for huge babies. She laughed and agreed that we could consider going earlier if we needed to. That being said, I am officially on the calendar for a c-section March 2nd. I like March 2nd, the birth date being: 3-2-11. Kind of fun. I think I might not be so fond of it in a few weeks...may be thinking a date starting with a "2" sounds a lot better! Oh well, we'll just see how it goes. I also showed her the picture of my "hotdog feet" from my blog back in the day. That was only a few days away from where I am now...and I am no where near that this time! Yay! Overall, a great day and great appt.

In other news, my friend from high school started this fun blog: http://dinnerparties101.com/. She has lots of cute ideas for dinner parties, decorations, food and such. I'm excited to see where it goes. She also has a fun giveaway for you wine drinkers out there. Feel free to go look around!

Update

2011-01-11T14:21:00.000-06:00

Life is going well, we've all calmed down a lot since the holiday's. The pregnancy is still moving along fine. I'm 32 weeks tomorrow so only 7 weeks until c-section date! I had a slight scare the other day when I hadn't felt the baby move all day. I drank a Dr. Pepper, waited a while longer and called the dr. They told me to head to labor and delivery...it is kind of annoying that that's their default response for everything. My former dr would at least just have you come on in and not do the emergency room route. Oh well, we got Bruce dropped off at my mom's and headed towards the hospital only to have her start putting on a big show...belly moving all around and all that...so all the panic for nothing.

My blood pressure was actually only in the high "normal-ish" range the other day at the dr...so the pre-eclampsia is still holding off. I also haven't had nearly the swelling of hands and feet like I did with Bruce, but I guess there's still time for all that! I'm still measuring 3-4 weeks ahead so I have an ultrasound next Thursday to get a size estimate. I do have to laugh a little at those...they never seem to be that accurate. I mean I know they tell you there's a variance of up to a pound, but they notoriously seem to be really wrong. I mean they were really wrong with Bruce...had him a whole pound and a half less than he was the day before he was born! Oh well, still happy to get to have another U/S...it seemed like I had tons with Bruce, but not nearly as many this time. That's okay though, I'm kind of enjoying the lower level of panic this time around.

Things around the house are good, Bruce is so funny. The things he comes up with crack us up all the time. He got a new Little Tikes truck (like the Cozy Coupe, but a truck) from my brother in law for Christmas and it is definitely a hit in the house. The other day he told us he was going to "pick up chicks" in his truck. We know where he learned that, but still funny that he associated his truck with his "Uncle" Tom's truck... Poor kid is being hit hard by this crazy cedar we're having, we went to see Dr. Gulde yesterday and he was cracking me up. First, he's been asking to go see him for a few months now...I told him we had to at least wait until he was sick! Then he was so excited when he came in the room, you'd have thought it was his long lost best friend. Ran right up and climbed in his lap, I joked with Dr. Gulde that we were working on his shyness... Well turns out he has an ear infection, but after our long string of ear infections this is the first one in a long time, so that's good!

Other funny things he's told us recently: "Mommy, I spilled my boogers" referring to his dripping nose. "I just don't wike (like) it..." referring to whatever it is he doesn't like (socks, carseat, food, the couch, and other random things). Putting on his "wobble goggles" to "take a closer look" like Scott in Imagination Movers. Greg telling him they should call Auntie "L" and Bruce yelling out "Ohhhh Toooodles" to bring a tool. And there are more, but I wanted to get down a few so we don't forget them someday!

Update

2010-12-29T15:16:00.001-06:00

Well it's been a while. Not for lack of stuff, but more out of sheer laziness. I have not been nearly as good at updating or quite as cynical this pregnancy as I was last time. I just went back through and was reading about when I was pregnant with Bruce. Really I was trying to remember when everything started going south in the pregnancy.

Looks like I'm heading down the "pre-e" (preeclampsia) road again. I went to the dr a couple weeks ago and my blood pressure was elevated, very elevated and I had trace protein in my urine. Yay. So I got to do the 24 hour urinalysis...only good thing was I got to do it from home this time instead of in the hospital. So I stayed home from church a few weekends back since I couldn't get very far away from my bathroom. Yay again. Well those results came back normal, for real yay now! :-)

Well I went back last Thursday (right before Christmas) and my BP was still high, even higher now. But I really do have bad white coat syndrome, plus I was stressing myself out about how I really needed it to be lower and of course that doesn't help. Well luckily I had bought a BP monitor and have been taking it at home and it's been significantly lower at home so Dr. Askew was cool with letting me postpone bedrest/modified work schedule a while longer. I am officially 30 weeks today, only 9 weeks left until scheduled c-section (March 2nd), but we may have her earlier just like Bruce. Here's hoping she stays in long enough to avoid the NICU.

Oh and since I never updated after my last post about GD, I don't have it. Passed the 3 hour with no problems.

I FAILED!

2010-11-04T11:19:00.000-05:00

The one hour glucose test that is. Boooooo! Now I have to find a minimum of three hours of my life to dedicate to the next one. I forgot to ask how much I failed by so I have a call in to the nurse to see if I failed by a lot or a little...not looking forward to the three hour. I did have to do it multiple times with Bruce, so I know it goes, but I also know I DO NOT enjoy it! Oh well, now I'm just praying I don't actually have GD...

We have a name!

2010-10-21T21:57:00.000-05:00

Her name will now be:

Bethany Gray

We're excited about it. We realized later that means they'll both have the same initials, just different orders. (Gregory Bruce). Elizabeth is my maternal grandmother's middle name and Gray is my paternal great-grandmother's maiden name.

I just wasn't sold on the Nora "Nibe" part. I loved "Beth" and it's always been one of my favorite names, but Greg said we can't name her Beth because we know someone named Beth. I reminded him of his flawed logic given the name of our son, but apparently that's different.

I'm heading to bed, it's been a long couple of weeks of getting Bruce to go to sleep. We went from having the "put him in bed, sing a song, close the door and he sleeps 12 hours" child to the "screams in his bed, doesn't sleep more than a few hours, sometimes climbs out" child. It has NOT been fun. It all started with those stupid molars. I think we're finally making headway, but bedtime is definitely far from an easy process. It's been taking around an hour to hour and a half to get him to sleep and naps have been about 20-30 minutes. He whines all the time that he's tired, but he just won't sleep. We put up blackout curtains and a noise maker/night light in his room. That helped last night so hopefully it will continue. We were contemplating moving him to his big boy bed, but now we're just waiting. I told Greg, worse comes to worse, I'm fine with buying another crib for baby #2, I need sleep! :-)

Any suggestions/ recommendations/ commiserating is welcome.

Freezer cooking class

2010-10-18T22:08:00.000-05:00

Don't know how many of you like to "freezer cook", but its one of my favorite ways to "cook". I tend to do MUCH better when I have a freezer full of meals or half meals. There are far fewer McDonald's drive through runs when I can pop something out of the freezer and into the oven.

I ran across this website where she's offering a free freezer cooking class. I don't know what to expect from it, but it intrigues me and its FREE! :-)

Just thought I'd pass it along to anyone else that may be interested.

www.FreshFromTheFreezer.com

Stay tuned

2010-10-18T09:23:00.001-05:00

The baby name is likely changing! We're not 100% sure what its changing to...that's still being discussed! If this was a boy we knew exactly what the name would be, and since I was so sure it was a boy, we didn't spend as much time on the girl name. So, stay tuned!

Also, my dr. appt. went great on Friday. I know I say it every time, but I seriously love my dr. so much! I was talking about the nausea and how I freaked out Sunday thinking I'd left my meds in Abilene and how I was going to have to wait until Monday and she gave me her personal cell number and told me I can call her or text her if I have a problem, that she's happy to help!

Also, Greg got to feel baby girl yesterday. Just wanted to document that because I couldn't remember when Greg could feel Bruce. So at almost 20 weeks Greg was able to feel her wiggling around. It also dawned on me the other day that I'm over half-way done! Can't believe it, I know she'll be here in no time! I also get to have another US on Friday. When I went in at 18 weeks she wouldn't move into the right position to get all the pictures they needed. Specifically she wouldn't move so the tech could measure her spine. So I get to go have another US Friday to check it out, also this week I'm supposed to go in and do the gestational diabetes test. Yay....

It's a...

2010-10-12T22:56:00.001-05:00

GIRL!

I know I put it on FB, but I forget that not everyone looks on there. Plus I wanted to capture it on the blog too. We went last Friday and had the big ultrasound. I was absolutely sure it was a boy. I really have no reason why. This pregnancy has been completely different, but I always just thought I was going to have all boys! I also had a dream the night before about all my boys playing together and it was so vivid that I was just positive. I totally didn't believe the tech at first.

It didn't really hit me for a few days that this one is a girl, but once I started shopping it became super real! :-) I definitely already started the clothing collection and here's hoping my SIL wants to pass some of her hand me downs this way too since my niece dresses super cute!

Things are going well. I'm still taking my nausea medicine most days, but I have been keeping significantly more food down lately. Although, sorry to anyone who visited the "Staples" parking lot last Friday or the Chicken Express parking lot last Sunday...that was not pretty. I have also officially gained a pound now so hopefully the dr will be happy when I go in Friday for an appt.

Things are progressing right along and we're super excited about it all. We have picked a name out and we're happy to share: Nora Elizabeth to go by Nora Beth. Nora is just a name we like and Elizabeth is my grandmother's middle name.

Yay for movement!

2010-09-21T17:54:00.000-05:00

Just because I want to remember when I felt the movement, I officially felt somersaults yesterday! That would be at 15 weeks 5 days.

I've felt flutters for a while now, but I have been having a lot of muscle spasms in my uterus ever since my c-section so I was never completely sure if it was that or the baby. That being said, I always thought that I could end up being on of those "I didn't know I was pregnant" ladies since I would never know if it was a baby moving! But seriously...I don't know how people go nine months and don't know they're pregnant...but I will admit to watching that show all the time on Discovery Health! :-)

Dr. Appt. Update

2010-09-17T11:19:00.000-05:00

Went to the dr this morning. Had a nice long chat with Dr. Askew about both the pregnancy and her financial planning. I teased her as I was leaving that I don't usually go to the dr. to give advice! :-)

Based on my last U/S I was measuring nine days ahead, she decided that was accurate and changed my due date. She also changed my status to high risk due to my humongous babies! She said she'll schedule my c-section at 39 weeks assuming everything keeps going well. That puts me at around March 2nd. If this baby gets super big that might change that date. She said she'll probably schedule the c-section either March 2nd, 3rd, or 4th. I told her I'm fine with any of those, but if we can somehow swing it so Misty and I are there at the same time, that would be pretty fun! (Misty being my friend here in SA who's only a few weeks behind me, but pregnant with TWINS!)

She mentioned that its time to start gaining weight. So far, all I've done is lose weight. I've NEVER been told to gain weight...how fun! :-) If only I felt like eating more, the gaining would be easier. I did tell her I'd been having really bad vertigo and she asked if I'd called the office to ask for medication. I told her I honestly hadn't even thought about it! I grew up with parents that would tell you "oh you'll be fine" when you could see organs hanging out...I just figured it would go away. She prescribed me some medication to help with that and also told me to STOP all my other meds. WOO HOO!!! I'm so done with all of the other meds.

Basically, it was a great visit and I'm having a great birthday so far! Oh, and the best part...I get to have my anatomy scan three weeks from today!

We're okay...

2010-09-01T08:57:00.000-05:00

Since I know most everyone that reads this has heard about ISD's troubles, I figured I'd share our spin on it and what this means for us.

We knew ISD was having financial problems due to a lack of work which can most definitively be attributed to the dragging economy. ISD has done well to keep its head above water for a while now, but as of yesterday the operating budget far exceeded any predicted money coming in. This meant major cuts and unfortunately the San Antonio office was one of the major cuts. Many many people both here and in the Baton Rouge office are being impacted by this.

I'll admit, when I first found out, I was SO overwhelmed. Its a stressful thing to think that we're losing one of our sources of income. Greg has put many many hours into that company and its unfortunate that this is the position ISD has been put in. I know they did their best for a long time to prevent this. We'll be okay, I have a great job and we'll survive. We've been trying to live on less and have both cars paid off so we're in a better position today then if this had happened a year ago. Greg's deciding where he wants to go from here, and that will likely be school. He knows he wants a different industry, but needs additional schooling to make that happen. He has an appointment today to figure out what that means for him.

We're thankful for what ISD provided to us the past 4 years and pray for the other families who are in far more stressful situations this morning.

Few more "Bruce-ism's"

2010-08-21T12:24:00.000-05:00

Just because I don't want to forget...

Bruce loves to wear "eyes" aka sunglasses. He's started popping them up on the top of his head. So cute!

Today we were in the car and from the backseat we hear: "Hey guys, I want a drink"...umm, what?

Also, the other day when he drooled, he told me: "Mommy, I spilled my tongue..."

Dr. Appt.

2010-08-20T13:01:00.000-05:00

Had a dr. appt today, everything went well. Got to hear the heart beat and she's happy with the way everything's going. I get to wean off one of my medicines this week and start weaning off another one in a couple of weeks. Yay!! That's great news.

I do have to have an early screen done for Gestational Diabetes since one of the meds I'm on can cause GD. Yay...I already had that test multiple times with Bruce since he was so big and never once failed, so hopefully no failing this time either!

Other than that, life is continuing on around here. Bruce starts back to pre-school in a week and a half. He's excited, he's been asking about his friends from school. I think he's ready to get back into that routine again...I'm ready for school to start because it means we're closer to fall...which means we're closer to cooler temperatures!

Bruce-ism's

2010-08-08T10:25:00.000-05:00

I'm home from church this morning, Greg and Bruce went. I just have not been feeling well and the idea of being sick at church didn't appeal to me. It's bad enough at work! So, since I have some alone time, I wanted to capture some of the Bruce-ism's that I don't want to forget! This is going to be a totally random list, no need to read if you're not family!

First, he loves the baby in my tummy. He often asks to kiss it, but yesterday he asked for the baby to sit in his "yap". Um, not really sure how to work that one out for you honey!

He also loves to push "butts" AKA buttons, but I laugh every time he says he wants to push the butt on the fashwight! (flashlight)

He LOVES Towie (Tori), my parent's dog...but he's apparently overheard my mom say a few things and the other day he flops down on the couch and says "That's enough Towie!" He also likes to say "Uh, uh Towie!"

He refers to my parents other dog, Robin, as Wamin...so she now also goes by Noodle (AKA Wamin Noodle).

Francie is Ifrie, and Pops has been variations of Pots and Boss at various points. He has now firmly grasped Pops and loves to ask when he's coming and also thinks pops is on every.single.airplane. Any time there's an airplane, Bruce tells me that it's Pops' airplane!

He loves Auntie "K", AKA TK or sometimes Auntie Case, and for some reason is very obsessed with her car. He always asks to ride in it! He also asks about Case and Auntie L a lot, and lately has been telling me that he misses them!

Poor Kaya, takes a lot from the two year old terror. She's so sweet though. Bruce wants Kaya in his wap at all times. He also frequently kisses her and hugs her. She's a good sport.

He LOVES bicycles and motorcycles. We bought him a little plastic one from Target and he loves it. His favorite part is wearing a helmet! He wears a helmet frequently...to lots of places...often paired with his fireman rain boots...yeah, I'm that mom at HEB.

Speaking of HEB, he loves to go. He often asks to go to HEB. He really just likes getting a sticker and a balloon...but when we drive by he almost always asks to go. The other day Karen asked if he wanted to go swimming and he said he wanted to go to HEB...silly boy!

Karen also called me the other day because she was trying on a jacket at the store and asked Bruce what he thought and he said, "hmm, it's cute!" Don't know where they learn all this!

I asked him the other day if he wanted to be a big brother, and his answer was, "Ummm, no, I want tacos."

I know these are all super random and not interesting to most anyone else, but I want to make sure I remember them!

Houston we have a heartbeat!

2010-07-23T12:38:00.000-05:00

Yippee! Thanks to those of you who sent notes and texts and calls. I really appreciated it! I wasn't trying to be cryptic, there were just some problems with my hormone levels that caused Dr. Askew to be concerned about the viability of the baby. Today's ultrasound was really important to determine next steps and make sure the baby was still viable.

That being said, baby was great, measuring a little smaller than originally thought, but other than that just great! Heart rate was 132, and my hormone levels seem to be responding to the medicines I'm taking. I will continue taking a few different medicines through at least the 1st trimester and some to continue through 20 weeks. And I should also note there was only ONE baby in there! :-) I was a little worried since I seem to be showing a lot more this time than last and I was taking fertility medications...

Thanks again to everyone. I know there are so many of you who have been praying for us as we got to this stage in our journey.

Prayer Request

2010-07-22T23:03:00.000-05:00

If you happen to see this before 9:30 tomorrow (Friday), please say a prayer for me. Going in for my first ultrasound and feeling anxious. Some things have developed and we're going to get some things tested and figured out tomorrow...don't feel like sharing with the entire blog world, but as I said...please say a prayer for us.

Will try and update after the appointment tomorrow.

Can I just say...

2010-07-15T11:48:00.001-05:00

that I love, love, LOVE Dr. Askew! She's such a great doctor, if you're in San Antonio and need a new lady doctor, see her. I had the pregnancy confirmed last week and went in this morning to have a check up and schedule my sono. She was so funny, she came in and gave me a big hug and just sat down and talked to me, answered all my questions, and didn't make me feel silly for my neurosis! :-)

I go next Friday for the sono, definitely excited to do that. I'm continuing to take Metformin at least through the first trimester and potentially through the first 20 weeks. I talked with her about the mega gastrointestinal issues I've been having so we're lowering the dose of Metformin to hopefully combat that a little. Overall this pregnancy has been a lot different then last time. While I've had some pretty bad food aversions, the mega morning sickness of last time hasn't shown up yet. I've also been tired this time, but not like last time when I couldn't even stay away past 7:00...that's been a welcome unexpected change! I have no witty banter (or more often than not, "un"-witty banter) today, but I do have an awesome sewing project I'm working on that I'll hopefully show off soon!

Surprise!

2010-07-08T08:52:00.000-05:00

If your ISD husband (since Greg's told the whole office) hasn't already called and told you...the big news is...I'm PREGNANT! Yippee! I'm barely pregnant...just about 5 1/2 weeks. Last time around we waited until after the first ultrasound to really tell people, but this time my pants are already tight and I already have morning sickness so I don't think its going to be a secret much longer. Plus it was easier to wait last time around since I was further along when I figured out I was pregnant! :-)

Looks like all the medicine kicked in! Would appreciate all of your prayers, I tend to be a bit of a nervous wreck during the first trimester. I'm just so worried something will go wrong and we'll start this whole process over again! I also didn't want to tell people because in my twisted little brain, if we tell people then we might jinx it. Strange, I know. Greg was the one that decided he wanted to tell his office, and since most of my readers are married to people Greg works with it was only a matter of time before all of you knew too!

Pants

2010-06-14T10:37:00.000-05:00

Kids are cute, my kid is super cute. I know, I'm biased. Bruce has always been super cuddly, would much rather sit in your lap or give you hugs than do most anything else. His new thing is to ask if he can sit in your "wap"...all the time. If you don't respond or act like you don't understand he then clarifies..."Mommy, I was sit on your pants!" I love when he asks to sit on my pants...cracks me up how literal they are!

He also knows that cuddling will get him out of trouble. When he's being corrected and I get down on his level and talking to him face to face more often than not he'll lean over and kiss me while I'm trying to talk to him! He also likes to ask if we can go get in his chair, the recliner, and sit. He's so sweet, just want to have this documented when he's a teenager!

2nd draft...

2010-06-06T13:42:00.000-05:00

I had a whole post written about how I'm tired of "trying"....trying to get pregnant that is. After re-reading I decided its a little too close to my heart to just put out there for everyone on the internet to read. If you are going through a similar battle and don't have friends around you to talk to, call me. I like to talk about it...to people who "understand". Even if you haven't gone through it all yourself, I encourage you to empathize with those around you who are. Its a crazy roller coaster that I can't imagine many people enjoy being on. I'm now on my highest dosage of Metformin. Its not fun, but if it works, well then its worth it. While that's not all that's going on in my life, it often feels like it has take over.

I'm not good at taking pictures, but lately there has been lots of zoo and Sea World time...Bruce loves visiting the "namils" and especially loves seeing "mychamu" AKA my Shamu "chumping...in the watttter". I need to get him saying that on video, its super cute. Karen (my youngest sister) is watching Bruce for the summer and I'm super excited about it. He's heading to VBS tomorrow and I'm hoping to get him enrolled in swim lessons and have Karen take him. Well, it's Sunday afternoon and Bruce is asleep and I can feel the couch calling my name! :-)

Bluebonnet Pictures...

2010-05-13T12:00:00.000-05:00

A few pictures from Bruce's recent bluebonnet photo shoot! Trust me, there were SO many more that I could have posted! Jenny did an awesome job yet again! If you're interested her website is: synergyphotographysa.com

Metformin...

2010-04-28T22:42:00.000-05:00

I'm really writing this post for any of you who ever have to take this or the random person who happens upon this after an extensive google search! :-)

Metformin has been very interesting. It has some pretty intense side effects. Because it was developed to treat people with diabetes it targets insulin levels (PCOS also effects insulin levels). Because of that, it has some pretty unpleasant GI (gastro-intestinal) side effects when eating excess carbohydrates/sugar. That has been interesting. I am slowly building up my dosage, but the first night I took it I wondered what the heck I was getting myself into, the stomach cramps were almost unbearable! Beyond the GI side effects have been the crazy hot flashes, mood swings, fatigue, and headaches. I know, when I put it like that you're all wondering how you can get your hands on this little bottle of gold! I'm told almost all of these should lessen as my body gets used to the medicine. I'm also hoping to drop some of the pounds that I gained very rapidly due to various other factors including medication and PCOS (this darn PCOS thing!).

Other than that, life is quiet. Bruce is living up to his two year old status which includes tantrums when leaving the park and super cute games and phrases. He is definitely a sponge...there is nothing to be said in front of him that you don't want repeated. He definitely used "crap" in its correct context the other day. While funny, it was also a little bit of a wake up that he will likely repeat other things! In case you didn't already see on FB, below are a few pictures of Bruce's party.

April 22nd!

2010-04-22T17:11:00.000-05:00

Its April 22nd...that means a number of things. Its my parent's 32nd anniversary, its Earth Day, and its Bruce's 2nd birthday! Can't believe he's two! Karen (my sister) and I made some super cute cupcakes for him to take to school today, but of course I forgot to take any pictures!

Also, today I went to the dr again to get some test results and see what my course of action is. To give you all a little history, I have been on Clomid for three months now and no pregnancy, but at least I was ovulating which is something I had not been doing before. The Clomid was prescribed by my previous doctor who said he couldn't do anything for me after he tried some hormone treatments and told me I just had to go to the fertility clinic. I had an appt set up at the fertility clinic, but when they called to confirm it they informed me that my insurance wouldn't cover anything, not even an initial consultation so that would be $350 out of pocket every time we visited. That day I felt SO overwhelmed! I called a few friends to calm me down and started trying to figure out what out what my course of action was.

I called my regular OB/GYN back and asked if there was anything he could do so he prescribed 3 months of Clomid. After month two I was getting very overwhelmed again because I didn't know what we were going to do if I didn't get pregnant in those three months. I happened to talk to a friend at church who started going to an OB/GYN that attends our church as well. I made an appt with her and LOVED her. She said to try the Clomid one more month and then if I wasn't pregnant, come back in. Well I wasn't pregnant so that's why I went in this morning. Wow, that was a lot of information and not even all of it, trust me I really did leave out some stuff! :-)

Well, today marks the first day I'm starting Metformin. Metformin is typically medication prescribed for people with diabetes, but is also used to treat PCOS pretty effectively. It has some unpleasant side effects, but so did Clomid so goes life. It can take up to three months to truly start working so we'll just wait and see what happens! That was probably way more information than any of you wanted, but I figured I'd go ahead and get all that out there! Feel free to ask questions, I really don't mind answering!

No guarantees...

2010-04-16T10:06:00.000-05:00

I make no guarantees that I will continue to update my blog, but I will at least attempt...I kind of stopped because I got bored reading my own blog posts so I figured there was no point in boring y'all. Life around here is pretty run of the mill and we are very content. When I get content I tend to get bored...I called Greg yesterday saying we should move...he said no. I called Greg yesterday and said we should buy a new car...he said no. I called Greg yesterday and told him I was going to see a movie...that he agreed to! :-) Don't get me wrong, I'm very thankful for all we have, but I'm just ready for a change. I know part of this comes because I want to be in control of my change and the one change I want I can't seem to control.

I know I've mentioned before that I have PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome). We have been trying to get pregnant again and it has certainly been a struggle. I don't really feel like sharing all the details on here, but I'm certainly open to discussing with anyone that has questions. Basically I feel like since I can't control this aspect that maybe if I find something else to change I won't feel so restless! See there I go again, being boring! :-)

Anyway, new in Bruce's life:

He's almost 2...CRAZY!
He loves Veggie Tales and asks for "Nonah" (Jonah), Wawee (Larry), and Bob every day on the MeeBee (TV)
He likes to watch Glee with me because he likes to dance during all the songs. I have a video I shot on my phone that is super cute.
He likes to "tease" now. He likes to call things by the wrong names and then giggle hysterically when you tell him he's wrong. Silly silly boy.
He is most content when he is the center of everyone's attention and he likes to do that by goofing off.
He FINALLY says "Francie" (my mom) which sounds more like TeeHee. He still calls my dad "Pots" (Pops). He thinks every man over the age of 55 that's tall and wearing a hat is "Papa" and the other day at Target there was a women in her 50's who'd had a signifigant amount of work done wearing a short skirt and extremely low cut shirt and Bruce starts yelling out "MaMaw, MaMaw" (Grandma). If you know my MIL at all...there is not a single thing in that whole description that is anything like her!!
He must wear shoes at all times...and does not handle change well. He did not enjoy when he outgrew his old shoes and kept asking to wear them!
We were talking the other day about the things we will probably continue to say even when he grows up. His favorite thing to say is "GUCK!" for anything he doesn't like or doesn't want to do.

That's all I got. I will attempt to update more, but I know better than to make any promises!

Go Broncos!

2009-10-06T19:55:00.001-05:00

They beat the Cowboys! And in their honor here are a couple of pictures... (see below for more updates).

Updates on our lives

2009-10-06T19:26:00.003-05:00

See below for a post about New York.

Greg and are I both in school. Grad school is KICKING my behind. I am quickly approaching the end of this term and will be taking a hiatus until at least the new year. I just do not have time (and/or motivation...you pick...). I am also training for the Rock n Roll half marathon that's coming up, YIPPEE! (read sarcasm). It's something I'm excited to do, not so excited to train for. At least it's getting cooler, finally! Work is work. Bruce is big and growing bigger by the day. We finally have some molars coming in, boy has that been fun. He has two more that are going to break through any day. That's pretty much my life in a nutshell!

And now, some pictures...these are in a random order, but Blogger's annoying and not worth messing with.

Bruce on his first day of school. Yes, his bag is a Bronco's bag.

Different day, same shirt...he "asked" to eat lunch in his play room at his table. I made him a sandwich and he kept pointing to the playroom so we went in there and he wanted to eat at his table.

Bruce at the beach...okay so in the condo. We went with the Bravenec's and Jonathon's parents were there for a day and got out some coloring supplies for Bruce. It was his first experience with markers and he just looked too cute not to take a picture!

Bruce on his "meet the teacher" day. He LOVES the sensory table, they trade out it's contents weekly and that and chapel are apparently his two favorite activities. Okay, and lunch...

When Greg's mom was here I made a chocolate sheet cake (I had to prove I can cook...) and we gave Bruce the spatula. He LOVED it. He kept signing "more please" afterwards, he didn't want it to end!

Bruce loves to give hugs (his teachers always talk about it too) and when we went to Dallas to visit our friends from college Bruce kept giving Jacob hugs. It was super cute.

And from Colorado, a cute pic of Bruce, one of the only pictures I actually took.

New York

2009-10-06T19:04:00.005-05:00

I know, I'm a bad blogger...and I started off so good. Well that's the story of my life. Just ask Greg how many started projects we have lying around the house!

So because I'm so behind, here are some pictures of my trip to New York from LOOOONGG ago. I'm trying to be a teenager...did you know that in order to be cool you need to have as mannnnyyyy leeetttttttterrrrrsss as posssssibllllleee???? Oh and multiple forms of punctuation??!! I digress.

Pictures below for your viewing pleasure.

In Vermont, did you know in other states you can just quickly pop on over to a different state? Crazy huh? :-) Us Texans don't know what it's like to get to another state when it doesn't take us 5 hours!:

At a lake (name has escaped me...):

Also in Vermont:

At an orchard (it was cold...Lindsay should have told me to take my hands out of my pockets....ummm awkward...):

Dinner at a brewhouse, good food, cool atmosphere, awesome decorating!:

So we're back at the lake again (still the same day, pics out of order, not worth re-ordering.)

Awesome restaurant close to Lindsay's house...SUPER good sandwiches:

Bruce's 15 month appt

2009-07-28T09:05:00.003-05:00

Bruce had his 15 month appt yesterday. Things are rolling along! He weighed in at 29 lbs and measured just shy of 35 inches.

He's so much fun at this age! He just "learned" how to use his "pointer." He points at everything! And follows the point with "uh uh uh" meaning he wants to go to it. He signs the words: please, more, all done, and occasionally food, drink and thank you. Unfortunately the last three are all very similar to blowing kisses so it then becomes a guessing game...is he signing or blowing kisses. He also loves to walk around yelling on his cell phone.

He's super silly, and currently loves to run into your arms and give big hugs. He has begun mimicking everything...which includes the hand slap game my 22 year old sister and 28 year old husband were playing. I don't know which one of us talks loudly on the cell phone...ahem...Malinda...ahem...but he's mimicking someone! He definitely loves to be the center of attention. Someday there will be a big wake up call whenever a second sibling arrives (no I'm not pregnant, no one go starting that rumor!).

Well I'm procrastinating, my mother in law comes in a few hours and I need to vacuum and probably take a shower... but let's be honest, sometimes showers are overrated!

So behind as usual...

2009-07-15T09:17:00.001-05:00

I have all kinds of pictures to post, maybe someday I'll get around to it...

We just got back from Colorado and had a great time! I also went to New York a few weeks ago and need to put up pictures from that...not to mention that I never bothered to put up pictures of Bruce's first haircut which was, oh, about 2 months ago...

Bad mom...oh well! What can you do?

I have on the other hand been a busy "bee" (ha ha, pun intended...yeah, I'm that cool...) and put a few new things up on the "littlebeesdesigns" blog. Check it out if you get a sec!

Homemade Lara Bars...

2009-05-22T08:00:00.002-05:00

I found this recipe on Oh She Glows. I've been trying to find a way to make a nutritious bar because we eat Kashi bars like they're going out of style and they get really expensive after a while. Well I tried these out and they turned out really great!

They kind of look like bars of, well, something else...but they taste good!

I edited the recipe a bit to stretch it and to make them lower in WW points so here's my recipe:

1/4 cup dates
1/4 cup bananas
1/4 almonds
1/2 cup Quaker multi-grain cereal (could just use oatmeal too)

- Slice up a banana and put it on a greased cookie sheet and bake for about 2-3 hours on 175 (or until the edges are crispy). You could also use a food dehydrator if you have one.

- Put the cereal into a dish and bake for the last 30 min to an hour that the bananas are baking.

- Coarsely chop the dates and add those and the bananas to a food processor or blender and chop for about a minute.

- Take the mix out of the food processor.

- Put the almonds and cereal in the food processor with about 2 tbs of water and blend for about a minute.

- Now put both mixtures together in the processor and mix together.

- Divide into four sections, put one "blob" on a piece of Saran-wrap and shape into a bar.

- Store in the fridge.

I promise it's a lot easier than these directions sound...

Oh the dog door...

2009-05-21T17:00:00.000-05:00

Here's a cute video! It's already on Facebook, so if you watched it there, it's the same one. This is really for the grandparents!

Little Bee's Designs is born!

2009-05-20T13:11:00.003-05:00

Please head over to Little Bee's Designs and take a look around! I plan on getting my etsy shop up and running soon!

Cute beach picture

2009-05-20T12:29:00.001-05:00

Here's a cute picture from our not so recent trip to the beach! It
was too cute not to post!

Bruce's Birthday!

2009-05-20T12:16:00.002-05:00

Well now that I've figured out the easiest way ever to get pictures up here you may get to see them more often.

Here are pictures from Bruce's birthday (only a month late...)

We had it at the park down the street, there was a little while that we had no idea where we were going to go because it kept storming here, but the rain stopped long enough to have the party. Here is our rugby themed party, and yes I made the cakes...

Step aerobics...

2009-05-08T13:18:00.002-05:00

So is it a bad sign when the aerobics instructor comes up to you after class and says, "have you thought about taking our Thursday class? We teach a lot of the steps in that one..." ummm right. This is after she had to tap me on the should since I was facing one way and she was facing the other...it's not like it was a huge class. It was the instructor, one other severely overweight lady (who was definitely more adept at step aerobics than me...) and myself.

Oh well, I burned lots of calories even if I did look like a spastic noodle...

One more thing, this blog is going back to my "witty commentary" (snicker if you must...witty is in "") instead of pictures because as it turns out, I'm just no good at updating pictures and if I keep waiting to post to do that this blog will never be updated!

So, on the homefront, Bruce is walking...okay stepping (not like the ACU SHADES kind of stepping...just "stepping"). He walks about 4-5 steps at a time. Yippee! One more reminder of how UN-childproofed our house is. That kid's a fast one, I tell you! The other day Malinda (Bruce's rockstar babysitter) was washing dishes and looked over and Bruce was staring at her from the back porch. He's been playing with Kaya's dog door for a while now and apparently now knows how to get outside!

Oh, and you guys, he is SUCH a ham! He looks around constantly to make sure someone's watching him and then starts showing off! He has all kinds of silly "tricks". His latest is rolling over...I'm not kidding. Hey we started with a dog! We're learning this kid stuff as we go! :-)

Maybe someday I'll post videos, but who am I kidding, we all know it won't happen!

In case you've forgotten, Mother's Day is Sunday. Go out and buy your mom something good, and if you can't get good, go with the chocolate!

Read this, it's good for you...

2009-04-28T11:15:00.003-05:00

Learn some history. Anyone ever heard of DB Cooper? I had not...someone saw my dooney and bourke wallet and said, oh is that for DB Cooper? Um, no, good try. Then he started telling me about DB Cooper and it sounded pretty interesting so I googled him.

You should read the wikipedia article about the one and only US plane hijacking that's never been solved. It's outrageously interesting...but then that could just be me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._B._Cooper

If you don't already...

2009-04-23T09:18:00.000-05:00

Read this blog: "little april rose"

God is so good.

5 k pictures...

2009-04-13T14:10:00.000-05:00

There are pictures from the race on my fitness blog! No point in posting them twice, so head over there if you're interested!

Our beach trip...

2009-04-13T14:03:00.001-05:00

Here are just a couple of pictures from our recent trip to the beach. Bruce's friend Jude has some more pictures so when I get those from his mom I'll post those too!

Here's Bruce sitting on the balcony...

And here's Bruce pitching a fit! Just thought it was cute...

Here's Bruce and his daddy at the water. Bruce did not like the actual water, but he loved walking along the beach!

Post 1 of 3 Misc pictures

2009-04-13T14:00:00.002-05:00

We went to Lufkin a few weeks ago to visit my grandmother. Here's Bruce and Grandmommy at the church potluck.

When Greg's mom was visiting we went down to the riverwalk for lunch and Greg got this cute picture of Bruce!

Ideas?

2009-04-07T10:12:00.005-05:00

I'm going to start an etsy account to list my embroidery crafts, but I want a unique name.

The two ideas I have so far are: "Nibe's Designs" as in the pronunciation of my last name and "Little Bee's Designs" as in my own "Little B". There's a poll to the right with these ideas... Please vote! Despite my sewing creativity, this kind of thing is definitely not my forte!

Anyone else have anything better? Heather? Lindsey? Lindsay? Anyone else creative??

And ignore the messed up background, I'm at work and can't mess with fixing it right now...

I can't think of anything to title this post...

2009-03-30T10:14:00.005-05:00

We went to Dallas this weekend for a friend's baby shower. It was a very nice shower with AWESOME food! :-)

I decided to try something new for the gift and was pretty pleased with how it turned out. So, in order to toot my own horn I'm going post pictures here! I'm hoping at some point to start selling these, but I need to get a few more under my belt first.

I made a "flower pot" out of hand embroidered onesies and bibs.

I started with this:

Then I dyed the onesies and embroidered them and the bibs and got this:

Then I put it all together into this:

I wish I had taken better "after" pictures, but it was 4:00 AM when I finished it and I just wanted to snap some pictures and hit the sack for a little bit! It was a hit at the shower so I'm excited to make another one!

Whelp, I did it...

2009-03-15T23:18:00.004-05:00

I started a fitness blog. Now this starting of the blog did not come easy. For some reason losing weight is not something that people like to talk about and honestly it kind of makes me uncomfortable knowing that there are people who I haven't seen in years that read this blog. I'd like everyone to just think I'm tall and skinny and what have you. Well I'm not, okay so I'm still tall, but not so skinny anymore. I'm working hard to get there though!

I started this blog in conjunction with a challenge from another blog I like to read. I decided it was just time to do it. Who knows, maybe it will help someone... at the very least it gives me one more blog to forget to update frequently!

So here goes! http://c25kchick.blogspot.com/

I know, I'm horrible...

2009-03-12T22:21:00.003-05:00

Okay, I've been a bad blogger! I'm one of those people that when something starts overwhelming me I just put it off and put it off. I knew I had a ton of stuff to put up here and as that list grew longer and longer I procrastinated more and more. So to get over the hump I'm going to do a quick flash by of all of the recent events and someday I'll upload the corresponding pictures!

Here goes:
- Went to my grandfather's funeral. It was an emotional event, but very touching. My cousin Katie read a wonderful story about him that touched us all, and I don't think we'll ever get the song "On the wings of a snow white dove" out of our heads. Not to be forgotten, Bruce definitely let out a big fart right in the middle that had the whole family section cracking up... he also ate practically an entire container of puff's just so I could keep him relatively quiet. Despite the fact that we were there for a funeral, it was nice to see all the family and tell some of our great memories of a man who has left a big impact on this family.

- Bruce went on his first airplane ride to Colorado. He did marvelously! He slept the entire time...granted he was under the influence of Benadryl. He was horribly congested and I was really worried about him on the airplane so the pediatrician told me to give him Benadryl 30 minutes before take off.

- Bruce got kicked out of his first casino! We went up to Black Hawk while we were in Colorado just to take a look around. Bruce being under age and all, got escorted out along with his parents and grandparents. After that, we went on down to the blue collar gambling also known as Central City where Bruce hung out in the restaurant with his grandparents while Greg and I played some nickel slots. Fun times! I love Wheel of Fortune slot machines!

- Bruce went to his first of hopefully many Sing Songs in Abilene. For those non ACU'ers, Sing Song is an annual student production that is way too hard to describe, so maybe I'll put a video up someday! Again, he did beautifully and slept through the whole thing!

- Next, I got a text from Bruce's babysitter saying that she suspected teeth within the next week. She was correct! After 2 weeks of horrible sleeping, I was about to lose it. Next thing you know, Bruce has the beginning of a tooth popping through the bottom. We're still on only one tooth, but ever since that tooth has popped through Bruce has slept through the night! Woo hoo! Especially now with daylight savings time, we've had even more success with him sleeping until around 8:00!

- Bruce then got to spend the night at his Francie and Pops' house while mom battled the stomach flu. Greg had gone on the Survivor retreat with our youth group, and I couldn't handle the little one all by myself while being so sick. So we both got to spend the night. It was nice to have a mom take care of you again!

- Bruce went to his very first birthday party. His good friend Skyler turned two so he went to help her celebrate. He was the only non-family invitee so he felt pretty darn special. He also got his first sampling of cake, and was a BIG fan.

- And Bruce being so lucky, now gets to have his Colorado grandma all to himself all week. His babysitter is on vacation in Cali with her daughter, so Bruce's grandma came in for the week to watch him. He's had lots of fun going on walks, baking pies, and helping unload the dishwasher!

Okay, that's about all folks! Someday I'll upload pictures, we got some really cute ones in Abilene along with some cute videos of Bruce's "tricks". He's currently up to three words: Mama, Uh oh, and Up. He's a cutie!

He's just not that into you...

2009-02-05T17:24:00.001-06:00

I'm really excited to see this movie. Who am I kidding, I'm excited to see any movie! (although I am going to the movies with a friend tomorrow...woo hoo!)

From another blog I read (cough, cough, bachelor recap blog, cough, cough) I came across this video. I thought it was pretty funny, so I'm sharing the love!

Economy troubles...

2009-02-03T13:20:00.003-06:00

I'm a nerd...we could just stop there, but we won't.

Here we go again: I'm a nerd, and the economy very much interests me. My morning ritual includes going to fox news and seeing what the day looks like.

This article is really interesting: http://tiny.cc/uahZU

I've always considered myself to be a pretty good "deal seeker." Albeit a kind of lazy one, but a deal seeker none the less. When I put effort into it, we can keep our grocery bill exceptionally low, when I don't put effort into it... well, we just eat out! I can get to the checkout line at the grocery store and usually tell you what my total will be before it rings up.

I find it interesting that everyone is so on board with being frugal (finally!) because of this uncertain economy that now we are hurting the potential regrowth! That being said, go out and spend people! Just kidding, who am I to talk? We just paid off our car! Woo hoo!

I have pictures of our time in Lufkin that I'll get up here at some point, that is when I locate my camera... hey I can tell you the total at the cash register, can't that replace some of the judgement on my lack of organization?

Random musings by Allison...

2009-01-20T21:43:00.002-06:00

So as I was making my nightly chocolate milk with soy milk and sugar free Nesquik I had a random thought. When do you become "grown up" enough that you don't just wipe off the spoon you used to scoop out the Nesquik and put it back in the drawer? I mean, maybe some of you already are, but to me that spoon was perfectly clean...only I can't imagine/remember my mom ever doing that. Along those same lines are drinking the milk out of your cereal bowl and making your bed. Maybe I'm alone and am the last 27 year old, married mother of one that does those things... oh well, drinking my cereal milk makes me happy! (don't worry dad, I don't do it at the table, only in the kitchen)

Another random musing, though not quite as light-hearted: Death doesn't really make sense at any age. My grandfather died Sunday. While he was old, the fact that he died two days ago was a surprise. It hasn't really sunk in. We are leaving for east Texas for the funeral and I kind of feel like we're just going to visit them. Like we're packing up for one of our typical family trips. Growing up is strange. You wait your whole life to do it and yet when you're here there are so many times I'd rather go back to being a kid.

I have so many good memories as a child hanging out during the summer in east Texas. My grandparents owned a country store/gas station that was on the property next to their house right off route 69 in what I lovingly refer to as "Podunk, TX." The water tastes funny, the air is thick, the humidity is crazy, the whole place smells like a wonderful mixture of fresh dirt and pine trees, the dirt is red, life is simpler, it's a magical place to a child. We spent our summers making pottery out of the red clay, running through old deserted saw mills that backed up to my grandparents property, wandering through pine forests collecting pine cones, running back and forth to the store to get cokes, ice cream, and pecan pinwheels, learning to sew, playing with cousins, and most importantly: watching satellite TV! :-) What a life!

My grandfather is one of the holiest men I have ever known. With a limited education he was not one of those PhD Bible scholars. He was Dail McGuire, faithful servant and follower of Christ. He could quote almost any verse in the Bible. He had STRONG faith. While I didn't always agree with his extremely conservative view points, he was always willing to listen to my opinions. He would tell me how he felt, but never straight out tell me I was wrong. About two years ago, my sisters and I took a trip out there by ourselves. I spent over six hours sitting in the living room discussing the Bible with Grandaddy and listening to his life story. He told me all about growing up, how he didn't really realize they were poor, how he dropped out of school to work, how he met my grandmother, how he became a Christian later in life. It is one of the best memories I have and I will treasure it forever.

Losing him this week has made me miss my granny that died right before Bruce was born. It makes me so sad that Bruce won't get to know either of them. They were both wonderful people who I look forward to reuniting with in heaven again someday.

If you've made it this far in my novel, please pray for my family. While thankful that my grandaddy is no longer suffering, it's still hard for his family left behind. Thursday will be an emotional day. I'm not completely sure what my grandmother will do now.

I make homemade yogurt...

2009-01-19T10:52:00.002-06:00

Who does that surprise? I just thought I'd post on here how I do it. It's really really easy and WAY cheaper than buying it. I started making it a while ago, and now that Bruce has started eating it, it's a skill that's coming in handy even more. All of the baby yogurts are loaded with sugar, and I like to feed Bruce organic foods. The whole milk organic yogurt is OUTRAGEOUSLY expensive for the small quart you get!

So here's what I do/have done. I now have a "yogurt maker" which is a pretty big misnomer since it doesn't do any of the "making." Basically the yogurt maker I have is just an incubator, but I've made it in the past in the oven and in the crock pot.

The "recipe" is as follows:
4 cups (1 quart) milk (I use whole/organic milk for Bruce's yogurt and skim milk for mine)
1/2 cup instant dry milk powder (helps make it thicker)
1/2 cup PLAIN yogurt (you can either take some from the previous batch you made, or buy it at the store, just make sure it has live, active cultures listed in the ingredients.)

Instructions:
- In a pot, combine the dry milk and milk and heat on medium to just below boiling. Basically when you start to see all the bubbles and know the boiling point is right around the corner. Make sure you keep stirring it to keep anything from burning to the bottom.
- Remove from heat and either put in a bowl of ice water or in the fridge for about 10-20 minutes to bring the temperature down to luke warm. (you want it to be cooler than 100 degrees or else it will kill the active cultures, but still warm).
- Add in the 1/2 cup of yogurt

Then you can do 1 of 3 things:
1) put it in your yogurt maker and let it sit for 4-10 hours depending on how firm/tart you like it. (it will continue to thicken when you put it in the refrigerator)
2) Pre-heat your crock pot on low heat, unplug and let sit for about 20 min to cool down a bit. Once you've done the above steps, pour in crock pot and wrap in a towel for insulation. Let it sit for about 8 hours away from drafts so that the inside stays warm.
3) Preheat your oven on the VERY lowest heat setting. Put a lid on the pot from above, wrap it in a towel and put it in the oven on a cookie sheet. Turn off oven and make sure the door stays closed for at least 8 hours. (MAKE SURE THE TOWEL IS NO WHERE NEAR THE HEATING ELEMENT!)

And there you have it...

To make it sweeter you can add sugar, artificial sweetner, or honey (no honey for babies though...).

To add flavorings you can add: baby food (even for the adult yogurt!), fresh fruit chopped or put through the blender, vanilla extract for vanilla flavored yogurt, cinnamon, or anything else you can think of!

6 of 6: Finally the end! Christmas Morning

2009-01-14T14:14:00.005-06:00

NOTE: There are SIX new blog posts here...feel free to scroll through them all or ignore, but they go back to Thanksgiving because that's how far behind I am!

Bruce's first Christmas morning. There are more pictures on my parent's camera that show him by Santa's cookies and milk and some other classic shots, but those will have to wait. I'm sure I'll get them posted by next Christmas!

Pops holding up his present. Matching South Aftrican rugby shirts for Big Bruce and Little Bruce.

Bruce posing in his McGuire cap that you can't see. No the picture's not sideways, he's laying down.

Bruce took a nap for a little while Christmas morning and when he woke up all that was left was his "big" present. He got a leapfrog activity table that he's a very big fan of!

Phew! I'm done! That's all for now folks... I need to quit these marathon postings! But why be organized about this, it's not like anything else is. Might as well run my blog the way I run my life...by the seat of my pants! :-)

5 of 6: More Lufkin/My very favorite pictures EVER!

2009-01-14T14:08:00.004-06:00

Here are some pictures we took at the farmhouse we stayed at in Lufkin. I LOVE these pictures!

Karen AKA Auntie "K":

Lindsay AKA Auntie "L"

Posing in front of the long horns.

More posing... and me testing out my phostoshop abilities trying to make parts in color and parts in black and white.

And now, my very favorite pictures EVER! We just took all these with my regular old camera! I was so excited with how well they turned out!

4 of 6: More Thanksgiving/Christmas

2009-01-14T14:07:00.002-06:00

Just some cute pictures! Bruce posing in his camo hat!...okay really dad's camo hat.

I love this picture! Greg's mom took it and sent it to us!

I had to put this one in. You can't really see what he's chewing on, but it's his Grandma's bracelet. Greg's mom had this gold bangle and Bruce was OBSESSED with it. He chewed, slobbered, and played with that thing the whole time they were visiting!

3 of 6: Lufkin

2009-01-14T14:05:00.002-06:00

Just a quick picture of the WHOLE extended family (minus Grandaddy who was in the hospital and Greg who had to work). We had our Christmas celebration with everyone the weekend before Christmas and had a really good time. Unfortunately this was still during Bruce's extreme attachment phase so I was never able to put him down or pass him off. It made for a long weekend, but overall it was fun.

2 of 6: Misc

2009-01-14T14:03:00.002-06:00

First off, here's Bruce with his good friend Jed. Jed is a few weeks younger than Bruce and they are really good friends. They even spent New Year's Eve together. This picture was on a Sunday after church where they chowed down some burgers!

This is my parent's dog, but I put this picture on here because it's a funny story. We left Bruce with his Auntie "K" for some babysitting during the youth group Christmas party. This was during his extreme attachment phase. He wouldn't even let me put him down for two seconds. It was AWFUL (thankfully we are quickly outgrowing this...). Anyway, he screamed the majority of the time she was babysitting and Robin (the dog) got so upset she went and got her toy from her room to try and calm him down. SO sweet!

It's kind of hard to tell in the picture, but since Bruce has so much hair, we are always having to wet it down! He took a nap and his hair went all crazy so this was trying to capture it. We'll have to get a better picture another time to really represent his crazy bed head!

1 of 6: Thanksgiving

2009-01-07T21:45:00.002-06:00

I realized I was REALLY far behind when I saw that the Thanksgiving pictures hadn't even been posted. Better late than never right?

Here's Bruce with his Grandma opening the presents they brought for him. He got all kinds of fun stuff!

And here's Bruce with both of his grandmothers! I LOVE that Greg's parents come down here for Thanksgiving. This is the third year they've done it and it's so wonderful to have both sets of parents together. We always have a really good time. During dinner we always go around the table and say what we're thankful for. This year, we even called Lindsay's boyfriend Case on speaker phone so he could feel like he was part of it too. That was definitely entertaining!

Want a background/header too?

2009-01-03T16:36:00.002-06:00

Since I'm just starting this whole thing out, and since I don't think I have a terribly huge blog following, if one of you wants a "custom" blog header/background let me know. I'd love to start messing with other people's blogs instead of just my own all the time! :-)

Don't worry, I can help you upload it all... Just shoot me an email or leave me a comment.

I know what you're thinking...

2009-01-03T00:02:00.003-06:00

Why is she changing the background on a blog she keeps forgetting to update...well I haven't forgotten. I have quite a few posts in queue that I'm just finishing up and then it will be SA Allison overload!

In the meantime feel free to admire my background! It's a hobby that has taken on a life of its own. My husband claimed he was a G1 (the google phone I got for Christmas) widower, but in reality, photoshop is my new spouse...

Some of life's mysteries

2008-12-13T16:13:00.001-06:00

Why are kids obsessed with "toys" that aren't theirs? And that being the case, why don't toy manufacturers make all baby toys look like dog toys and McDonald's cups?

Boys beware...

2008-12-13T12:19:00.002-06:00

Someone sent this to me and it's too funny not to share!

The Dog House

Oh snap!

2008-12-09T21:03:00.002-06:00

We've got some milestones going on around here... first off, and most importantly, Bruce is saying "Mama". Now, not on demand or anything, but those are still sounds coming out of his mouth!

We've also got some waving and "snapping." Okay, not really snapping, but if you snap he wiggles his fingers all around trying to figure it out. I just wanted to pretend like he was all advanced so you'd all go "dang, how'd that boy get so smart...oh right, look who his mom is."

Most entertaining is the "forehead crawling" where he digs his forehead into the ground, gets his big old booty up in the air and tries to push with his feet. This is, as it turns out, a highly inefficient way to get around (I tried it...not really, but I wanted you to all get that visual!) The only downside to this, is he now tries it in his crib and gets himself shoved all into a corner and cries until I un-stick him. Not cool Bruce, not cool.

Word of advice...

2008-12-07T17:32:00.002-06:00

Never play "peak a boo" shortly after a feeding...I just got projectile spit up all over my face. This has got to be one of the grossest things that's ever happened to me. Probably only second to having a bird poop on me. Yay for children!

Diapers savings...

2008-12-03T13:02:00.003-06:00

Just wanted to let you all know...there are major diaper savings at Amazon right now. Just click here and it will take you to the Amazon website where you can get 30% if you sign up for "subscribe and save" (which you can cancel anytime...) and use the promotion code: PMPRSDO8

This is available until the 7th. I figured it out and here's the breakdown:
Price per diaper based on the biggest box sold in Pampers Cruisers (the best ones we've found in terms of value for your money) in a size three:

Diapers.com (with no tax and free shipping): $0.27 / diaper
Target: $0.26 / diaper
Babies R Us: $0.25 / diaper
Amazon (with 30% off, no tax, and free shipping...): $0.21 / diaper

We interupt this broadcast...

2008-11-25T15:08:00.002-06:00

To get something off my chest. I'm not really sure why I'm writing this out, mostly to be cathartic for myself and partially because I can't be the only one feeling like this, but a lot of times it sure feels like it!

Does anyone feel like they're reliving high school again? That feeling that you just don't fit in and everyone else does? First of all some things about me: I'm loyal to a fault, I can be overly sensitive, I'd do anything for anyone (driving miles upon miles to change tires, deliver suitcases, etc.), I hold grudges, I have a strangely good memory for events(I remember when my sister was born...I was two years old), when I say I'll do something I do everything I can to do it, I'm scatterbrained and disorganized.

That combination of things makes for someone who gets hurt easily and doesn't forget it. And before I go further, this grumpy soliloquy (Definition: noun; the act of talking to oneself) is not based on any specific event so no one go thinking that I'm writing this about you...I'm not.

Anyone have that feeling like everyone else has their friends, their lives, everything together, and you're sitting on the outside wishing you had your friends, your lives, and everything together? To explain, my sister is the life of the party. Everyone loves her. She has lots of friends and is the most fun person to be around. Actually both of my sisters are a lot like that. I am not. I am witty and can be hurtful with my wit. I say inappropriate things. I hurt people's feelings. I like a few really good friends, and not lots of semi friends. I am awkward around people I don't know. I can fake emotion really well, hence I can appear outgoing when I'm actually really shy.

When I look at my youth group girls I see the girls that were me and I see the girls I wanted to be friends with. When you're living through high school you think the "cool kids" are limited to that, high school. It's strange when you realize life always has the "cool kids" and that maybe God didn't mean for you to be one of them. It's strange, and strangely hurtful. I'm an adult, I have a husband and a child, and yet, I'm still not mature enough not to be hurt over trivial things. I don't know what the solution is other than to do my best not to be hurtful and put my big girl panties on and grow up a little when I get hurt.

Big Boy PJ's and Race Day

2008-11-21T19:27:00.005-06:00

First off, a few pictures of Bruce in his big boy pajamas. We finally retired the swaddle blankets. It took some adjustment for Bruce, but I think he's a fan of the freedom! And for any former Oak Hill's readers the shirt that Greg's wearing in the background is definitely my basketball shirt when I played on the church league...um that would have been middle school. I think that's a good sign that I need to throw stuff away more often...that and I wore my clothes WAY too big back then.

Next, my sister Lindsay, ran the half marathon last weekend here in San Antonio. This was her first one and she did really well. It was SUPER cold that morning (well super cold by San Antonio standards) so we had to bundle up.

Here's Bruce all bundled up waiting on the sidelines at mile marker 5 to cheer on his Auntie "L".

After that he got all worn out so his Daddy carried him for a bit while he napped.

This is the sea of runners coming out of downtown SA. It was pretty amazing to watch. This was the first time we'd ever been to watch a marathon.

Here's Bruce with Francie and his Auntie "L" after she finished the race.

Ignore the constant changing background...

2008-11-17T20:47:00.002-06:00

I've gotten a little obsessed with digital scrapbooking and making blog backgrounds so I keep trying them out on here because I'm too lazy just to start a new "test" blog. If you happen across it at a time when there's a random background with a clashing header, links, or whatever just ignore it and read the good stuff...and if you can't find any good stuff, check out one of my friends' blogs! :-)

Free Photo Book...

2008-11-13T10:36:00.002-06:00

Well I'm home from work sick so I'm getting caught up on some TV. I saw this today... If you go to www.snapfish.com/freebook2008 and make a book before midnight Friday you can get a free photo book.

While I'm blowing my nose every two seconds I'm also making a photo book. I made one when Bruce was first born and I LOVE it. I put in all the pictures of his birth and NICU time and documented all the different things we were feeling during that time. I will never be a scrap booker...I don't have the organization or patience to do that. If I ever start, I'll make two pages and never touch it again... much like Bruce's current baby book. BUT, since it's on the computer, I can make these books all day long. I figure as long as I make them every six months or so I can keep up to date on the pictures, of which there are A LOT.

Pretty proud of myself...

2008-11-09T12:24:00.004-06:00

Okay, first off, I have to say...I'm pretty proud of myself. I added my new background and created my new title. Bruce has a cold, so we stayed home from church this morning and while he napped this is what I did.

I took Friday off and got my hair cut and hung out with Bruce. Bruce and I also went up to Pops' office so he could show little Bruce off!

It was a lot of fun and here are a couple of pictures:

Busy weekend...

2008-11-05T18:02:00.008-06:00

Friday was Halloween and those pictures are posted below...Then on Saturday we went to Greg's cousin's daughter's tennis match. Say that three times fast. They live in Corpus and were up here for regionals so we headed that way to cheer Kemper on!

Here's Bruce with Kemper after she won her doubles match:

Here's Bruce with Paige (Greg's Cousin):

Here's Kemper holding Bruce while he tries out his first apple slice. He just sucked it and got himself sticky, but he enjoyed it.

Bruce had a big football weekend. First he went over to Francie and Pop's house Saturday night to watch the UT/Texas Tech game. Despite the orange shirt, Bruce was cheering on Texas Tech in honor of his good friend Case. Despite his parent's utter dislike for the Red Raiders, Bruce insisted he cheer them on because he likes Case so much. (The random things on the couch are bean bags that Karen had to sew for school...I don't ever remeber having to do that for a finance degree...apparently elementary ed majors get to take classes in juggling.)

Next he's been cheering on his favorite D2 school, ACU! They're doing really well...ranked Number ONE! Go Wildcats! In their honor he wore his ACU outfit to church on Sunday.

Then the Bronco's played Sunday afternoon so of course he had to have an outfit change. We won't discuss how the Bronco's are doing...

Finally, I put Bruce in his bouncy seat whenever I need some time without him attached to me... I was trying to get stuff done in the kitchen and could hear him fussing. I kept calling out to him, "Bruce, you're just fine..." After a minute or so I went to see what the fuss was about and this is what I found. In case you can't tell, he'd gotten his foot stuck in the ring. Silly boy!

It's ELECTION DAY!

2008-11-04T09:08:00.002-06:00

No matter who you are choosing to vote for, just get out exercise your RIGHT to vote!

"...the land of the free..."

Post 3 of 3 Happy Halloween!

2008-11-02T14:11:00.002-06:00

Okay first off, there are three new posts because I'm SO far behind...

Here are some pictures from Halloween the other night. Bruce was a Starbuck's Barista. I made him a little green apron that was only slightly higher quality than a Sing Song costume. :-) I couldn't find him a good black cap so he had a beanie. Kind of made him look like a bandit so I referred to him as the Starbuck's Bandit.

Here he is with his good friend Indiana Jones...AKA Spencer at the Trunk or Treat at church.

Afterwards we headed over to Skyler's house to do a little Trick or Treating. After a few houses it was back to Skyler's house so the husbands could set up and scare kids. We've gone to their house every Halloween that we've been in San Antonio. The boys dress up and sit out front with the fog machine and scare kids as they come to the door. It's fun!

Here's Skyler saying "Cheese!" She was so sweet playing with Bruce. She was getting out her toys to share with him.

Bruce is definitely rollin' now! Here he is getting to the toys!

Post 2 of 3 So you think you can dance!

2008-11-02T14:04:00.001-06:00

So I know...I'm a complete nerd. I'm okay with that. As my five year anniversary present from Greg, I got tickets to go see "So You Think You Can Dance" in Austin. My friend Misty and I watched the show the whole season so we went together to go see the tour afterwards.

I'm going to solidify my nerdiness when I tell you that I had an AWESOME time. It was so much fun! We didn't exactly have awesome seats, but it was still really cool. It was also nice to have a whole day with a great friend. We left after church and drove to Austin. We had a good time walking around IKEA and looking at stuff. After that we had a great dinner of some great Mexican food and headed to the show.

The show didn't even start until 8 so we got out pretty late.... but not too late to stop by and get some Tiff's Treats. I have a new love for this wonderful place. I was happy that Misty introduced me to it! Then we drove home. I didn't go to work until lunch on Monday, but Misty definitely went in bright and early Monday morning! I have to say, it was worth it!

Post 1 of 3 New Exersaucer and Baby Blessing

2008-11-02T13:55:00.002-06:00

So we had a baby blessing at church, but of course I left the camera in the car so this is the only picture of Bruce from the day. He's reading with Francie. He's a big fan of books!

Here's a relatively updated video of Bruce in his Exersaucer. He's funny, he really likes to play in it. In this video he was way more interested in getting his hands in the pocket on the front of his outfit. All day he'd been messing with it and I finally realized he was trying to get his hands into the little "fake" pocket on the front. It was pretty funny.

Happy Belated Birthday to Francie...

2008-10-07T22:44:00.001-05:00

Well I'm behind...of course. Here are a few pictures from a few weeks ago when Greg and I took my mom out for her birthday. Bruce has outgrown his carseat carrier so it poses quite a problem when we go to restaurants. He can't sit up yet, so the whole high chair thing doesn't work out so well. We usually just bring the carrier with us and let him sit in it while we're eating, but we forgot to grab it. We tried to prop him up in the high chair, but that didn't last too long. We still caught a couple of pictures of it.

We ended up getting the stroller out of the car and using that. But of course Francie had to get some holding time in too!

Bruce gets solid food!

2008-09-22T20:33:00.001-05:00

Bruce got his first taste of solid foods over the weekend. He wore his special "I love my Grandpa" bib since Pops is in Japan for the next couple of weeks. He looks like such a big boy sitting up in his chair! The first few are at my parent's house and the last couple are back at our house.

This post is probably boring to everyone but me, but if I didn't post this kind of stuff I'd never remember!

Why can't dust be good?

2008-09-17T23:30:00.003-05:00

As I am feverishly cleaning my house so that my coworkers can come over tomorrow I'm wishing that dust was something people liked. I mean, why can't people come over and say, "Wow, all that dust on that fake tree looks so good! You must have been saving for years to get that much!"

I am by no means a hospitable person, but I'm trying to be. We're trying to have people come over so that way I'm forced to keep my house clean. It's kind of working... I can't wait until Bruce is big enough to do the dishes. That's why you have kids right? That's why my parents had us...to clean the kitchen! Just kidding...kind of! :-)

Go Sooners!

2008-09-14T22:22:00.002-05:00

My dad is an OU fan so I grew up cheering on the Sooners. As a result, Bruce is also an OU fan! His good friends Tammy and Spencer (and Cricket), the biggest OU fans, provided this awesome attire for him to wear during OU games.

Last night he was really getting into it, cheering them on. Okay, I'm lying, he was asleep...but he looked really cute! Robin wanted in on the pictures too!

Bruce LOVES Robin...and well Robin loves Bruce back. Last night Bruce "kissed a girl, not sure he liked it..." (side note, I hate that song, but it gets stuck in your head worse than any song I've ever heard!)

Bruce's new trick...

2008-09-11T19:01:00.001-05:00

We always joked that my niece was showing off her tricks...kind of felt like we were talking to a puppy. "Gracie, roll over...Gracie, show us your muscles"...etc. So Bruce has his own new trick. He can officially roll over. Our babysitter called today and said he'd rolled all the way over on the bed. He's trying to get to the cat. We caught these pictures the other day as he was rolling over in his bouncy seat. He's funny, he can roll from back to front, but not front to back. That means once he's on his stomach he's just mad and can't figure out how to get back!

Also in these pictures, you'll see he's all the way at the bottom. He's figured out if he scoots himself down all the way then he can grab the toy and get them in his mouth. If I put him up too high he just gets mad.

One other thing. I just have to say I LOVE our babysitter. She's so awesome. I got a text from her the other day saying she decided her and Bruce were going to start having Bible Class every day. So they sing kid's songs, read the Bible, and pray. How awesome is that? What a wonderful woman we get to have in our lives. Bruce is very lucky!

I'm addicted...

2008-08-30T12:30:00.002-05:00

To Nintendo Wii. I have even been caught nursing Bruce with the Boppy while playing Nintendo over his head. No, not Wii Sports, MARIO BROTHERS! Oh how I've missed Mario!

That's my dirty little secret. I'm in love with Mario. It all started when my parents bought one of the original Nintendos way back when. From there we all got Gameboys and it's been history since then. I'm ashamed/a little proud to admit that I've owned every version of the Gameboy.

There, I've said it, now you all know my dirty little secret!

We're DONE!

2008-08-27T11:57:00.003-05:00

Bruce is officially off his monitor. I honestly have no idea what those people are doing. I'm pretty sure their right hands don't talk to their left hands since one day we're hearing two more months and a couple days later they say he's done! Who knows...all I know is we can take him off and I feel really good about it!

Woo hoo!! Bruce is officially wireless! :-)

Here's a picture of the monitor for posterity.

Bad Mommy...

2008-08-26T20:49:00.005-05:00

So Bruce can almost roll from back to front now. If there's something for him to use as leverage he can do it with his legs. He demonstrated this the other day on the recliner as he proceeded to fall out. Now that's not even why I'm a bad mommy...from what I hear it happens to most moms at least once. I'm a bad mommy because I took a picture of it! I saw it happening and grabbed the camera and not Bruce. Luckily I did catch him right at the last moment and kept him from hitting the ground (the wet spot in the other corner is where Bruce had been before and I moved him). He can also flip out of his swing if he's not strapped in. He hasn't done it yet, but he's come close when he got really mad the other day.

Here's a video of me trying to catch him blowing raspberries. Warning: Don't watch if you get motion sick...the swing is moving the whole time! :-)

Finally, here's Bruce in his swim diaper. He tried swimming this week at his friend Leyna's house. It lasted all of two seconds before he started screaming his head off. He preferred lounging in the sun...

Tomorrow is round two of immunizations. Woo hoo! Not very excited at all! Also, Bruce has two more months on his monitor. After setting it off for three nights in a row, all night long, we went to the doctor. Ultimately they decided nothing's wrong with him, his alarm limits were just too high. They've lowered them and it hasn't sounded since, but our two months still starts over...

So much to update...

2008-08-22T09:08:00.014-05:00

I'm way behind on the pictures so here goes!

First, my college roommate's wedding in Abilene, TX a few weeks ago.

Jordan and Greg:

Heather, Lauren and Bruce:

The girls and Bruce:

My awesome hair creation that Heather did:

Eating Taco Bueno in the hotel after the wedding and being way too ridiculously silly and having a WONDERFUL time doing it! Bruce slept in his pack'n'play at the side of the bed through it all. He's such a good sleeper!

Joking about all of us (Josh, me, Heather) spending the night together (Greg included...he was taking the picture):

Bruce post-bath:

Bruce headed to East Texas (Lufkin) and met his his GREAT-grandparents for the first time:

Funny story about this picture. We got back to the hotel after visiting with Nanny and Pops (great-grandparents) and Bruce was fussy so his Francie thought we should calm him down with a nice bath. We got it all ready and Francie stuck him in and Bruce FREAKED! He was screaming the loudest I have ever heard. The water wasn't too hot or cold, he just wasn't having it that day. I'm sure other hotel guests thought we were abusing him! As soon as he got out and was wrapped in his towel he was just fine. He's just too modest I guess. :-)

Bruce's awesome EMO church outfit that he wore in Lufkin:

Karen, Francie and Bruce...I had to include this one just because of the look on Bruce's face! Despite the face, Bruce really is quite enamoured with his Auntie K...she kept him quiet most of the way to and from Lufkin. They shared quite the special moment the other night as he was whispering sweet nothings to her and then started laughing! I wished so much I had the camera!:

Bruce rocking Pops' hat:

Bruce, Francie, and Pops at the Flying Saucer...officially our family's hangout spot. We're pretty much there every weekend. It reminds us of hanging out at beer gartens in Germany.

Bruce playing with his rattle...which he has recently discovered he can hold (please ignore the awful sheets and mismatched bedding...it was a quick sheets change made by my dear husband who apparently doesn't know that we own matching sheets! :-) ):

And finally, Bruce singing "Head 'n' Shoulders, Knees, and Toes!":

Five years down...

2008-08-16T09:39:00.004-05:00

Today is Greg and my five year anniversary. It goes by quickly. Well most of the time it's gone by quickly! There have been times I have wondered what I got myself into. I'm not trying to be negative, just honest. My parents are awesome, my dad is undoubtedly forever dedicated to my mom and my mom fully trusts and relies on my dad as the head of their household. I grew up never seeing them fight at all. The first time Greg and I had a major blowout I honestly thought we would be getting a divorce.

I really didn't know you could have major fights and stay married. I called my mom and she said, "of course you can have major fights and stay married, look at Dad and I." To which I responded, "but you guys never fight." She told me that they do fight, they just make up too. The best thing my dad ever did for me was force me to stay married. Those first couple of years are really rough. Greg and I went through some stuff and I was ready to run back to San Antonio and kiss it all good bye. I called my parents and my dad got on the phone and told me unless I was in physical danger (which I by no means was) then I had to stay there and work through it. At the time I was really mad at my dad...how dare he think he knew. He reminded me that marriage isn't something you take likely and that I had made a commitment to Greg and to God.

I look back on that time with fondness of all things. I think about how faithful God is to us. To think, if Greg and I had called it quits we probably both would have just thought we were doing what was best. And now, five years later, I still love being married to Greg. We are still in love and now we have a beautiful son.

So here are my top five things I love about Greg:
1) He can make anyone feel at ease. He has a natural ability to be able to talk to anyone and everyone.
2) He is an AWESOME dad. His love for Bruce was apparent from the second he was born. He would go down and sit in the NICU and just stare at Bruce.
3) He cleans the kitchen! :-) Silly but true, I love that Greg is man enough to clean the kitchen!
4) He loves my family. My family is very important to me and he loves them. He loves my sisters as his sisters and he enjoys hanging out with my parents as friends and not just inlaws.
5) He loves God. Greg has the uncanny ability to appear as though he's asleep during church and then recite the entire sermon back to you. He has such a knowledge of the Bible that far surpasses what I know. His insight can be staggering and he interprets things in ways I've never heard. He's my iron constantly sharpening me.

Happy Anniversary Greg!

The exersaucer

2008-08-05T17:15:00.003-05:00

Here's a cute video of Bruce in his awesome Exersaucer. He's a big fan and it's super cute when he's in it! I was looking back through his old pictures and he's changed so much just in his past three months. It's crazy how fast they change.

I was looking through his pictures since I was posting some on his Facebook account. His good friend "Aunt" Heather created a Facebook page for him so go out and ask to be his friend...he's wracking them up fast!

Pictures, pictures and more pictures

2008-07-22T21:18:00.009-05:00

Ahhhh, I'm so behind! Stuff has been happening and I'm not posting because sometimes I just get behind! First things first, congratulations to Bruce's two new friends arriving in the world: Jude and Isaac! Yay! We're praying for a quick homecoming for Jude and super excited that Isaac joined the world!

Second, silly Bruce set his monitor off again over the weekend. We'd really like to be done with this thing, but obviously if he's still setting it off then we still need to have it around.

Finally, PICTURES! If it didn't take so ridiculously long to upload pictures these posts would get up a lot faster. That's why pictures tend to show up on Facebook long before here because it's super fast.

Here are some pictures for your enjoyment! There are more to update from this weekend, but those will come later.

Greg with his "two favorite people"... at least that's what he told me. Uh, thanks!

Bruce in the "battery eater" AKA swing. For those of you thinking you almost never changed out the batteries in your swing, you have to keep in mind it takes a lot more power to keep an 18 pounder moving!

Greg and the babies.

There are tons more cute pictures to upload, but I'll finish up after a while...

The good things...

2008-07-12T11:18:00.003-05:00

So I've spent a lot of time on this blog bemoaning the fact that pregnancy is not fun... I read other people's blogs who are happy and LOVE being pregnant the whole time and all I think is, "my blog is way more entertaining..." I want to make it known officially (because blogland is about as official as things get right? Well blogland and facebook...) that I didn't HATE pregnancy. In order to prove that I've come up with a list of my favorite pregnant moments. I mostly wanted to write this so I don't forget them all.

1. Getting to tell my parents we were pregnant...screwed up scavenger hunt and all it was very exciting getting to tell them.

2. Getting to tell Greg's family. I put family becuase you never actually tell one person anything when you're with that bunch. It's almost instantaneous. Here's my funny memory about that (remember, MY blog...I get to write what I want. :-) ) Anyway, so we were planning on waiting a little bit after we got to Colorado, but we just couldn't. We were way TOO excited. We bought them a picture frame and bibs that read "I love Grandpa/ma." We give them the gift and Martha (MIL) opens it. She sees it, gets all excited and hugs us. Phil (FIL) takes it from her, looks at it, gets a confused look on his face, and then asks "wait, is this stuff for Grace (our neice)?" Martha swings around and pops him on the shoulder and says "NO, they're PREGNANT!" Greg and I started cracking up. I will say Phil got the same look on his face as he did the day I showed him my engagement ring. Not exactly happy...more like he might throw up!

3. Telling Lindsay. Man, what a nut! So I had been planning to wait until she got to SA, but I just couldn't because I stink at waiting. So we're talking on IM while I'm at work (through my cell phone mind you...) and she says she has to go so I quickly put "oh btw I'm pregnant" and then get offline. I was hoping she had to go to some meeting or something, but she was just going so she could go open her daily can of tuna for lunch! She immediately calls me and starts SCREAMING! I was SO surprised that she was so happy...I mean she doesn't even really like kids!

4. Karen telling all the DT's to pray for me when I specifically asked her and Lindsay not to tell anyone. It's funny now because having gone to ACU myself, there's always someone that knows us in most groups.

5. Okay and grouped together is calling Carrie (the very first person other than Greg and I to know) from work the day after I found out while sitting on the blue couches so that I didn't let everyone at my office know. And then following that would have to be calling Misty at 11:00 at night while Tim kept telling her "I know something you don't know!"

6. Hearing "It's a boy" at our 20 week appointment. I started crying. We really wanted a boy...we both really wanted to name him after Greg and my dad. I can't explain it.

7. Stretchy pants...enough said.

8. Having strangers help me get stuff like charcoal, cokes, etc. at HEB.

9. Strangely, getting to go the doctor's office. I REALLY liked all my doctors and it was always "fun" to get to go. Fun is in quotes because I'm sure you all remember how fun it got towards the end!

10. Getting to meet all those super cool nurses when I spent all that time in antepartum. I can't tell you how nice they were. Greg would go home to sleep and I'd still be there and they'd come talk to me and hang out. Super super women! The night before my c-section my favorite one came in and asked if I wanted her to get me chocolate cake, a milk shake, whatever so I could have something good as my "last supper." She was SO sweet. She'd always bring me chocolate milk every night (I had her during both hospital stays) to help with the heartburn since she figured out I didn't like regular milk.

11. My friend Amy bringing me tons of magazines and checking on me every day and updating my office when I got put on bed rest. Along with that is all my other friends calling, texting, emailing, coming by. It's so nice to feel loved. I got that a lot both before Bruce and after. That feeling of people genuinely caring about you and for you is overwhelming.

12. Watching Skyler "sit" and "lay down" when she came over and brought dinner. We were instructing Kaya (the dog) to do those things and out of the corner of our eye we realize Skyler's doing it! HILARIOUS!

13. Watching almost an entire season of Friends with Greg the night before Bruce was born. I was SO anxious and so he brought that up from home and we just laughed along and focused on being with each other. It is a very special night in my head.

14. Getting to actually see Bruce. I can't explain it... it really is a crazy feeling. (of course following all that is getting to hold him, love him, kiss him, touch him, etc.) It's just that very first time seeing him that will always stick in my brain.

And finally...

15. Telling all the people who told me I looked HUGE or that I was having twins that there was a reason why! Not many other people can say they had a 10 lb 10 oz baby. In fact I have yet to meet one...I hear a lot of, "oh my friend had a 19 lb baby" but no one's beaten me in person yet! :-)

Almost two weeks down...

2008-07-10T19:26:00.003-05:00

So, I never posted how work was going. Being back at work is kind of fun. I mean, for the most part I like working and I really like who I work with. I have a very nice boss who made my transition back to work very smooth and we have a very awesome friend who watches Bruce which makes things so much better.

So, to tell you a little about our rockstar nanny (she says it sounds more sophisticated than "babysitter" ha ha) here goes. Her name's Malinda and my family has known them for a LONG time...I guess we became good friends with them when I was in 4th grade. They went to Oak Hills with us and when we moved to a new house we were just a neighborhood over from them. Our school bus went by their house so whenever we'd see my mom's car there (at least a few days a week...) we'd get off the bus there and hang out with them for the afternoon. They were also my first babysitting job. She has four kids, three of which are now in college with the youngest going into 11th grade.

She's a super awesome CRAZY lady. Here's a funny story about their family that we were retelling the other day. First, my mom (who is also a "super awesome CRAZY" lady) has had two kitchen fires (well one very near kitchen fire and one grease fire). When my mom caught the kitchen on fire my sisters and I were in the other room and heard it happening and went in to see it...my dad comes running through with the fire extinguisher yelling at us to get out of the house. Okay, flash forward some forgotten amount of time. Malinda leaves a tupperware dish on the stove with the burner on and it catches fire. We're at her house and she calls all the kids in to look at it! No "run outside" business...she wanted us to get to see it! I then tell her about putting flour on it that I'd just learned in girl scouts (she did already know that little trick, but she humored me into letting me be the know it all that I was, ahem, am...). She then dumps the ENTIRE thing of flour onto the fire. Tom (her husband) said there was so much flour in there he was sure we'd stopped midway to go pick up more at the grocery store!

She's also an incredibly strong Christian woman! Her oldest son has Cystic Fibrosis and she has been so strong about it. She knows she can't control it and it's all in God's hands. Her having dealt with this also made me so relieved to put Bruce in her care. I knew that she wouldn't be freaked out by his monitor and that she would definitely be in control if a medical emergency happened.

She takes him around town, and texts me when he does cute stuff, and posts pictures of him of Facebook! She truly loves him and is such a blessing to us!

Here are some of her pictures:

First her family (the little girl at the bottom is a cousin...):

Bruce showing off his muscles:

Here's Bruce smiling looking just like Greg:

She also took some more cute ones today of Bruce with her father in law. It should be mentioned that Bruce has also won over "Bapa's" heart. He fed him his bottle today and wants to hold him all the time. SUPER CUTE! I'll post those pics once she gets them off the camera.

Finally, please keep them in your prayers. Her oldest son is in the hospital right now. He's had his fair share of hospital visits, and it looks like this one isn't a super serious one, but no one wants to be in the hospital... Pray for a speedy recovery for him so he can head back to Abilene!

I'm behind...

2008-07-06T16:14:00.009-05:00

So this is going to be a mega post!

First: San-Abil-Stin

Last weekend we did the grand tour. Friday night we went out to dinner at our favorite Thai restaurant (Jasmine Thai here in SA) where we got halfway through dinner and realized we'd left ALL pacifiers at home. From that point on we inhaled our food and got out of there as quickly as we could. Bruce was actually really well behaved, but we knew that could change in an instant and without a plug we could have been in big trouble. There are now about 8 pacifiers in the diaper bag! :-)

Next was Abilene. We drove up Saturday morning for Abilene to surprise one of my college roommates. It was her bridal shower so Greg, Bruce and I headed west. This is a big deal since Greg has only been to Abilene once since we moved (my sister's graduation). He's just not a fan of the city anymore... it's a long story. Anyway we had an AWESOME time surprising Lindsey and getting to see some of our other closest ACU friends. It really was a great time reminiscing and retelling all the stupid/funny things we did in college...most of them were stupid/funny things Greg did during college. I'll quickly share a favorite: Greg went through the campus center window one evening as he was headed to the cafeteria for dinner. That story lives on in infamy!

Here are some pics:

Heather with Bruce (AKA the one who made him famous in my previous post). There are some great college stories about Heather too...wrench through window...stove on all of spring break...tomato soup and green beans...all for another occasion! :-)

Here's Lauren with Bruce. She doesn't have quite as many funny stories...well she does but most aren't appropriate for the blog! :-)

Here's the group! First a comparison shot from when we were in college and then the shot from five years later!

Here's Josh with Bruce. Josh is Greg's longest friend that he still keeps in touch with! They knew each other back in high school and stayed friends all through college and now. That says a lot for Josh!

Next came Austin! Lindsay asked if we could stop through Austin on our way home. I mentioned this to Greg and he said, "oh, so she wants us to drive to Austin and then to SA." Yeah, Austin's not exactly on the way, but we love Auntie L that much! :-)

In order for Greg to make it he needed a drink and this is what he ordered. A MASSIVE iced tea from Chicken Express that forced us to stop 5 minutes from Lindsay's house because he couldn't make it all the way there. It was so big it had a handle! Ugh BOYS!

Here's Auntie L with Bruce. Important to note in this picture is that Bruce is swaddled in his car seat. We decided to try out the feature that allows him to be swaddled and buckled in and it worked! Big success...kept him quiet all during our nice dinner!

Next is Greg's birthday. We went out to Red Robin with Tim and Misty and then ice cream at Cold Stone. The best part of the evening was when they came to sing Happy Birthday to Greg. All the waitstaff was there and Bruce was asleep so we asked them to be quiet...they definitely whispered the happy birthday cheer while doing "golf claps" (y0u know, the ones where they aren't really clapping...also known as Vanna White clapping)! It was super funny, we were all cracking up!

Here's Tim feeding Bruce...see Tim, you can do it...you can have kids!

Here's Misty with her current love affair:

This video is Tim trying to get Bruce to do his new trick. I read in a magazine that if you stick your tongue out then babies will mimic you. I thought that was total BS, but as it turns out...Bruce does it! It's just bizarre!

Finally is 4th of July. We went out to Boerne to watch their fireworks which is always an awesome show. It was BEAUTIFUL weather (after torrential rain hit...) and we had a great time with our friends April, Jason, Ciera, and Chase! Unfortunately we forgot to take pictures while it was still light out and this picture was taken after the torrential rain plus I forgot to put makeup on that day...Just preparing you!

Bruce is famous!

2008-06-26T17:07:00.002-05:00

He made it on my college roomate/really good friend's blog! Just wanted to share... oh and she's a super talented writer if you want another blog to read!

http://hmamend.blogspot.com/

HE SMILED! And "New Baby Dinner Club..."

2008-06-20T20:55:00.008-05:00

Well after all that drama Bruce decided he'd had enough and just opened up and smiled. He was looking straight at me and started smiling and then the real test was whether or not he'd keep doing it...and he did! Yay! And, we managed to catch it so take a look.

Also, we had the first of what I hope to be many "New Baby Dinner Club." Basically we invited two other couples who had boys within a few weeks of Bruce. It was a big hit...the boys loved it! Here they are posing for the camera.

Dr. Appt. Update/Prayer Requests

2008-06-19T14:37:00.003-05:00

Well Bruce is up to 14 lbs. 9 oz. and almost 25 inches. The weight part is crazy, but what seems even crazier to me is that in 8 weeks he's grown 4 inches! I mean think about if one of us grew 4 inches in 8 weeks...it's really amazing to me how all this works...the whole baby thing that is!

On the prayer request list goes a few things though. He still has to be on his monitor. I was really hoping we'd go in today and he'd say we could be done with it, but in actuality he said Bruce would probably have it for at least another 2-4 months! Grrr...he has to go an entire month without setting it off at all. When he's setting it off now, it's just a blip and by the time you get there it's stopped. Well, we can't even have any blips... The monitor itself is not that bad and it sure as heck beats Bruce having had to stay in the NICU longer, but it is a big old pain in the butt! It means he has to stay in whatever part of the house he's at...it's not terribly fun to lug it all around and set it up every time I move him so he stays in whatever part of the house I set him up in every morning.

Next prayer request. He apparently always lays on one side and so his head has started flattening and his ears are becoming "off center" (for lack of a better word) from each other. They are currently about a centimeter off from each other, but if they get an inch off we get to do the whole cranial band thing...meaning he'd wear his X-men helmet for 23 hours a day for a specified period. For now, we're supposed to try and make sure he's always looking over his left shoulder when he's lying down to prevent further flattening and see how it goes.

Final prayer request. Bruce is right on cue for his growth, but developmentally he's a little behind. They had warned us this might happen since he was early, and in most things he's right on. He holds his head up well, he can push himself up, he's getting close to being able to roll over, BUT he's still not smiling! He has the occasional flickering smile, but he's definitely not doing the whole "oh look, there's my mom, I love her so I'm going to smile at her." Doctor says he needs to start doing it in the next three weeks or come back in so we can look into other things. Never thought my child would be behind in his smiling!

Bruce also had five shots today which was not fun. I started crying...that horrible "I'm in pain" cry was a little too much for me. And finally, to round out my Debbie Downer post, my office called yesterday and told me that I needed to come back to work yesterday. So I called them back and said, no I don't I'm taking 10 weeks and they said, fine, then take 10 weeks, but this week and next week will either be unpaid, or I have to take vacation time. Uhhh, that's not how they had explained it to me. Of course I got it in writing and of course that email is gone. Office email gets deleted every 30 days and since I got it the day before I went into the hospital I forgot to save it...so I got to spend a couple of hours on and off on the phone only to be told that I have to burn vacation/sick leave to stay home. It's been a frustrating/stressful couple of days. Debbie Downer signing off.

New Pictures

2008-06-16T16:43:00.004-05:00

Here are just a few pictures from our last few days.

Here's Bruce taking a little snooze on his "Uncle" Tim...or as Tim put it they were just "farting around..."
Bruce visiting Francie (Grandma) at work.
Bruce taking his Saturday afternoon nap with Francie over the weekend.
Bruce was hanging out playing with his cool play gym that he got from his Aunt Sarah and family while chilling laying on the cool boppy he got from his Aunt Nikki and family.

Pretty much the only part he was interested in was himself...aka the mirror!

And I'm in the process of uploading a lot of past videos to his video site if you're interested!