Musings of a Blonde Mom

Writer's Workshop: 5 things

2011-12-01T14:13:00.005-07:00

I have not participated in quite a while, and thought this would be a good way to get back into the swing of blogging regularly again!

5 Things You Don't Know About Me

1. I'm not a natural blonde. Not even an unnatural blonde anymore. (Maybe I should rethink my blog title?)

2. I'm in no real hurry to go back to college. I rather enjoy NOT having the stress. (I quit....errr...took a break last fall to have Tristan....and now to be with him the first few years.)

3. I can read a 500 page book in a day. I read really, really fast. I have had to quit buying books because I go through them so fast that I'd spend a small fortune every month.

4. I'm currently on a cleaning strike. I refuse to be the only one cleaning up after 5 people. Especially when all but one of those 5 are capable of cleaning up after themselves and pitching in around the house. I'm about to go postal because no one is taking a hint. Or listening when I flat out say "I am not cleaning anything else until you all start pitching in."

5. I'm a smoker. I have smoked on and off since I was 15 years old, which was 15 years ago. I've quit a handful of times, but seem to always pick it back up when stress gets to be bad. I don't plan on quitting any time soon. Well, hopefully soon, but right now I have no desire to quit. (and I do NOT smoke in my house or around my kids)

5 Things I'm Knowledgeable About

1. Crocheting. Even though I just got back into it a year ago, I've become quite good at it. And have learned a LOT about it.

2. Art. It's my passion. My true calling. And something I wish I could make a living at.

3. Procrastination. Yep. Do I need to say more?

4. Interpreting Tristan's babbling. No one else understands what he's saying, but I do. Most of the time.

5. How to purchase a weeks worth of groceries for $35 WITHOUT using coupons. (just did this last weekend....the last week of the month is always tight!)

5 Things I Know Nothing About

1. Quantum Physics

2. The reason behind teenage attitude problems

3. Sewing. I've had several people try to teach me, but I just. can't. get. it.

4. Why my ex-husband is such an (idiot, low-life, asshole, POS, etc, etc, etc). Or how he can treat my kids the way he does.

5. Getting a one year old to quit climbing.

5 Things I Believe

1. I believe in God. And Jesus. And I love them.

2. Children are our future and should be treated as such. All the violence towards and killing of children by the people that were supposed to keep them safe has made me so sad and heartbroken.

3. International Delights Almond Joy coffee creamer is like heaven in a cup. Seriously. It's like drinking a candy bar.

4. All my kids are the best looking kids EVER!

5. I'm probably the most awesome person you'll ever know. :)

Tristan is 1 year old!!!

2011-10-14T11:20:00.001-06:00

Tristan is a year old now!!!! We had his birthday party last weekend and it was so much fun!! I cannot believe it's been a year since we welcomed our little miracle into the world. It has been such a blessed, fun year for us!

Here are all the pics from the party and a little video of Tristan eating his cake!

Tristan's smash cake:

The cake for everyone else:

Presents:

Cake time!
The after cake bath:

Here is the video of Tristan eating his cake!

I've been getting crafty!

2011-08-07T14:03:00.010-06:00

I've been filling up Tristan's nap time with a new hobby--crocheting!! I've been doing it for months now after not doing it since I was 12! I've made many things and have even started selling my projects!

Here's some of what I've done!

Little J's scarf:

Camo Scarf:

Bear Beanie:

Bear Beanie with flower:

Rainbow Beanie with flower:

Munchkin hat:

Tristan's blanket:

close up of edging on Tristan's blanket:
Hat and matching scarf:

Square hat with curls:

Square hat with curls:
Munchkin hat:
Diaper cover (front):
Diaper cover (back):

Newborn button front diaper cover:

Munchkin hat:
Double pom pom hat:
Those are just what I've finished. I'm in the middle of a baby cocoon with a matching hat and will be starting on a Dragon hat soon. Once I have that done I'm going to do some Converse baby booties!

Almost 10 Months/Summer Update

2011-08-04T09:41:00.006-06:00

I CANNOT believe that it's been almost 10 months since we welcomed Tristan into our family and our family became complete. We are all still just so in love with the little guy! I REALLY need to get better at updating here because there is just so many things that Tristan has been doing!

He is starting to walk. Like REALLY walk. He is still a little timid about letting go of the furniture, but will with the right motivation (usually the dog). He has also learned to turn to go a different direction while walking!

We have started to have to supplement with formula. He's still breastfeeding but only about half the time now. My body just won't keep up with his appetite.

We are also starting a little table foods too. Only the stuff that he can gum easily since he still only has 2 teeth!

Smartypants C. was here for the month of July and we all had a blast visiting with him. He just adores Tristan and misses him a lot when he's gone. We sure wish that he could just stay and NOT go back up to his mom's. ever. :)

Big J. has been having a LOT of problems. No details, but he's been in and out of treatment centers and in trouble with the law. Everyone is at a loss at what to do with him. He's not learning from his GIGANTIC mistakes and is throwing his life away and trying to take his entire family with him. And he's no longer living with us. He went back to his mom's by order of a judge. Just to get him away from the idiots he was hanging around here.

Little J. was finally accepted in the PEGS class (program for exceptionally gifted students) and will be starting that this school year! We are so glad and know that he is just going to thrive in that class. He's excited to start also. He knows that he won't be held back with the rest of the class, since this class is a self-paced learning environment.

Diva D. is a cheerleader now! She made the squad and has had practice every week all summer long and is just loving it! She's so excited for all the sports to start so that they can start doing something more than just practice! lol.

Now, it's time for the photo bomb! (and a video of Tristan walking too!)

Pic heavy update!

2011-06-07T10:38:00.003-06:00

Tristan is 8 months old today. Where, oh where, has the time gone?

He's such a joy!

He is in the screaming all the time phase. He's not upset, he just likes to scream.

If we yell at the other kids, he yells at them too.

He still loves his brothers and sister to pieces.

He's a total Momma's boy.

He loves his daddy. And loves to climb on his daddy.

He loves the dog and does not leave him alone all day. The dog doesn't care for that.

He crawls like a pro now.

He pulls up on all the furniture and walks around it.

He can sit up all on his own now, even when crawling around.

He climbs on anything and everything, even the coffee table.

If he can't climb onto something he moves something over to step up onto so he can climb.

He can wave bye-bye and hi.

He is starting to clap some.

He likes to smack you in the face and thinks it is hilarious.

He gives the BIGGEST hugs and kisses.

He says mama, dada, bubu, ya ya, hey, nana.

He LOVES food.

He's still breastfed.

We are all just so in love with him.

Using the dog to climb:

Tristan and mom:
Happy, happy baby!:
Big sister and Tristan:
ON the coffee table (got up there all by himself):
At Easter:
Big brother and Tristan:
I don't have any recent pics of Tristan with his daddy.....I need to get on that one!

HUGE update!

2011-04-08T12:52:00.004-06:00

Well, to say I've been busy would be a MASSIVE understatement!!!

Tristan is now 6 months old. Where has the time gone?

Tristan is mobile and keeping me SUPER busy!! He mostly army crawls now, but will get up on his hands and knees and crawl for short periods like that. He's just faster doing the army crawl, so he does that most often. He is also PULLING UP onto things!!! No joke. I can't keep him from doing it. And he falls a LOT! He is also getting into EVERYTHING!! We are baby proofing like crazy around here!

He's started solids. He's only had squash and carrots so far since we are taking it slow to check for food allergies (especially since I have so many food allergies). But he LOVES his food!!

He jabbers up a storm. Says ma-ma, da-da, bu-bu (which is what he calls his brothers, sister and the dog), ya-ya. He thinks it's hilarious to squeal VERY loudly and fake coughs to get attention. He's such a happy, easy-going baby. We feel so super blessed.

His brothers and sister absolutely ADORE him and they spoil him even more than we do!!! He loves his brothers and sister as well. He just lights up when they play with him!

Not to leave the big kids out, here is a little video I took of them yesterday playing Michael Jackson: The Experience on the Wii. (Diva D. is on the left, Big J. in the middle and Smarty-pants C on the right)

That's all I have time for right now. I'll try to update more often.....well, when I get a free moment, that is!

My Plea to You

2011-03-31T08:43:00.002-06:00

Hello Friends!

I come to you today, not for an update on my immediate family, but to plead all that read this to do something for my extended family.

My cousin, Shohn Huckabee, has been jailed in Mexico for well over a year now on false charges of drug smuggling. Shocking, I know, but if you could know my cousin like we all do, you would understand how ludicrous those charges are!

I am coming to you to plead for you to sign an online petition that has been started for his freedom! We need thousands of signatures. This is not only a petition for HIS FREEDOM, but it is also to shed light on the horrors that are going on just across our southern border to THOUSANDS of innocent people, both of Mexican and American nationalities.

I will not fill up an entire post of the details and background since there is a blog already dedicated to that, but I will point you in the direction of the blog so that you can read for yourself of the horrors that my family has been going through. http://freeshohnhuckabee.blogspot.com/

I am also asking you to visit the online petition NOW and sign and pass it on to others so that they may sign and pass it on. Share it however you can: Facebook, Twitter, email, word of mouth.....however you can!! If everyone shares this, and those people share it, and those people share it, and so on, and so on, then this can reach THOUSANDS of people VERY quickly! I am going to be putting a widget for the petition on my blog right after I post this but here is a direct link to the petition. http://www.change.org/petitions/freedom-and-justice-for-shohn-huckabee-3

We can make a difference!!

Thank you and God Bless!!

Tristan: 3 Months old.

2011-01-10T15:41:00.000-07:00

3 months old.

Rolling, tummy to back and back to tummy.

Scooting around on belly.

Talking (babbling, really) and laughing.

Happy MOST of the time.

12 pounds 4 ounces now.

Looking just like his Daddy.

Newest love of my life.

Blessing to our family.

Loved (and spoiled) by all.

Doted on by his older brothers and sister.

My little snuggle bug, chunky monkey, wiggle worm.

My little boy, Tristan.

Merry Christmas

2010-12-24T15:22:00.002-07:00

From my family to yours we pray that you all have a Merry, blessed Christmas!

One Month

2010-11-09T15:18:00.006-07:00

Can you believe that it's been a MONTH since Tristan graced us with his perfect little face? I can't believe it. It's been a blur of days and nights and I'm shocked that it's been a month since we added the newest blessing to our family.

A LOT has gone on in this last month. Here's the run-down:

1. Tristan now weighs 9 pounds 1 ounce and is 21 inches long. That's a 2 inch growth and almost 3 pounds added!

2. Tristan has found his voice. Here's a video to prove it:

3. Tristan has also learned to roll from his tummy to his back. I know, I know....hard to believe, but I swear it's the truth! He mastered this skill just a few days ago and I even caught it on video! Here is the proof:

4. Here are some recent pics of Tristan:

Well, that's all I have for now. Tristan is waking up and fussing for my attention!

Update: Prayers Needed-and answered

2010-10-28T17:56:00.002-06:00

WONDERFUL UPDATE:

a very ecstatic Alisa updated with the news that MAKINLEE DOES NOT HAVE CANCER! It is a benign tumor called hemangioma. NO CHEMO for Makinlee! She still will need treatment (with steroids) to shrink the tumor & then have surgery to remove it, but this is such wonderful news...prayers answered! Keep praying :)

God heard all the prayers for this precious baby girl and answered them!! Pray that this nightmare is completely over soon so this family can move on with a healthy baby girl!!

Update:

Makinlee has surgery tomorrow. Have her tumor biopsied and a central line put in for her future chemotherapy treatments. They need to shrink the tumor before they can remove it. It is in a bad spot near lots of major arteries and bile ducts. She will have 3 months of chemo in Bangor to shrink the tumor & then try to remove it in Portland. Doctors in Portland are optimistic, but they still have a long road ahead. Please keep praying!!

Original post: I'm posting asking for prayers for a good friend of mine.

Alisa is a friend of mine that had a beautiful baby girl 3 weeks ago (on September 25th). On October 7th that precious baby girl, Makinlee Faith, was hospitalized with an enlarged and failing liver. She was losing a lot of weight and the doctors were very worried. The did tons of tests on this tiny little baby and found a large cancerous tumor in her liver and found that the bile ducts in her liver were not functioning properly (either from not forming correcting in-utero or from the tumor). She is now extremely jaundiced and getting sicker.

Makinlee was scheduled for surgery early this morning, but the surgery team could not get a PICC line started so they abandoned the surgery and planned on transferring her to Boston, but that got changed to her being transferred to Portland and surgery tomorrow sometime.

This is so heartbreaking, especially with us just having Tristan! I can just imagine what this family is going through!

Please pray hard for this family!

And if you are on Facebook, there is a prayer page for this precious little baby. Please stop by there and show your support for the family. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Prayers-for-Makinlee-Faith/147559671954383

Update: Prayers Needed

2010-10-21T17:22:00.001-06:00

Update:

Makinlee has surgery tomorrow. Have her tumor biopsied and a central line put in for her future chemotherapy treatments. They need to shrink the tumor before they can remove it. It is in a bad spot near lots of major arteries and bile ducts. She will have 3 months of chemo in Bangor to shrink the tumor & then try to remove it in Portland. Doctors in Portland are optimistic, but they still have a long road ahead. Please keep praying!!

Original post: I'm posting asking for prayers for a good friend of mine.

This is so heartbreaking, especially with us just having Tristan! I can just imagine what this family is going through!

Please pray hard for this family!

Prayers Needed

2010-10-19T15:52:00.003-06:00

I'm posting asking for prayers for a good friend of mine.

This is so heartbreaking, especially with us just having Tristan! I can just imagine what this family is going through!

Please pray hard for this family!

Tristan's Birth Story

2010-10-12T20:12:00.000-06:00

Here is my birth story! Forgive any typos....I'm typing with one hand while feeding Tristan!

I had been having contractions all night Wednesday night. They were strong, but not close together so I slept as much as I could in between. Around 5:30 am I woke hubby and told him that we were having a baby today because the contractions had increased in intensity and were anywhere from 3 to 6 minutes apart. They got a lot closer together and were no more than 4 minutes apart so we called my mother in law to come and wait with the other kids until their bus got here. In the mean time i called my mother to come up since she was going to be with me and hubby while we were laboring and delivering.

We got to the hospital around 7:30 am and got checked in and went up to L&D. They, of course, hooked me up to the monitors and checked me....dilated only to a 3 at that time. The nurse that was assigned to me was a real bitch and wouldn't listen to me that she had the monitor on my belly wrong because it wasn't picking up all of my contractions. I mean, this is not my first baby...I know what REAL contractions feel like. The nurse came in and said they were sending me home because I had been there an hour and had no progress and the contractions weren't close enough (we were timing them still.....they were 3 minutes and less apart while I was walking around but slowed once they made me lay flat on my back to "monitor" me). The real deal was that they had no rooms available and i wasn't progressing fast enough for them. We left and got lunch and went home. That was around noon.

I labored at home all afternoon with contractions still around 3 minutes apart. At about 5:15, the contractions got super intense so hubby took the older kids across the alley to mother in law's house and we got back in the van and headed to the hospital. We got to the hospital with contractions only 1 minute apart and super intense. I could not even get from the van to the door so my mom went in and got a nurse to come out with a wheelchair. Hubby went inside and got me checked back in. We waited for 5 minutes for the nurse from L&D to come down and get us and the pressure got so intense that the check-in lady got nervous and called L&D again to tell them to hurry! lol.

We got up to L&D and into the observation room. The nurse told me to get undressed quickly so she could check me really quickly. She did and I was dilated to a 7 and having contractions on top of each other. I was also having TERRIBLE back labor (had been all afternoon). Decided that an epidural was for me. I could take the contraction pain, but the back labor for hours on end was just too much. They rushed me into a room where they are getting everything ready for delivery. They hook me up to the monitors while I stand and sway through the contractions, since that was the only thing that helped with the back labor.

Once the monitors were on, they saw that baby's heartrate went up to the 200s when I had a contraction so they had me get in the bed on my side. As soon as I did I had a HUGE urge to push, told the nurse and just as she went to check me, my water broke. She went ahead and checked and I was at a 10 and baby was starting to crown. They called the doc, who rushed in. She told me quickly that they will have to take the baby to the warmer and take care of him as soon as he came out because there was meconium in my water. I, of course, start to worry, but don't have much time to dwell on that. The nurse asked if I wanted pain meds and I, of course, said yes (I was hurting bad!). She gave me a tiny bit in the IV that they put in (since I had said I wanted an epi, they put the IV in....never got an epi, though). As soon as the doc got sat down at the end of my bed I HAD to push.

I pushed 2 times and my little man came FLYING out! (and OMG, I totally forgot about the ring of fire you get when they are coming out!! lol.) It took him a second, but he started crying on his own. He was born at 6:41 pm. We were only in the labor and delivery room for 11 minutes before he came! I had a tiny tear that didn't even require stitches.

Tristan weighed 6 lbs 4 oz and was 19.25 inches long. He was perfectly fine, no issues at all because of the meconium in my water (doc says that labor was so fast that he didn't have enough time to inhale too much of it to cause problems). He's an angel and taking to breast feeding like a pro after a little issue with not latching correctly for the first 12 hours (used a nipple shield to get him started, now he doesn't need it!).

He had his first appointment yesterday and has gained 3 ounces since we were discharged from the hospital on Friday. I'm doing great. Don't even feel like I just had a baby 5 days ago!! I did have a tiny bit of pain meds during delivery, but they didn't take effect until after baby was born, so I DID have a natural birth after all!! I didn't get a midwife either, because there was no midwife on call that day! But the doc I had was great!

Here is a link to all the pics we have loaded so far of Tristan. We didn't get ANY pics of the delivery because it was just so darn fast!

http://picasaweb.google.com/prettywoman030981/Tristan?feat=directlink

Introducing.....

2010-10-09T16:33:00.001-06:00

Tristan Kent!!!!

Tristan was born Thursday night at 6:41 pm. He weighed 6 lbs. 4oz. And is 19.25 inches long! He has a head full of brown hair and beautiful blue eyes. He came REALLY fast. We took the other kids to my inlaws at 5:30 Thursday night and headed to the hospital with contractions 3 minutes apart. By the time we got to the hospital (only a 10 minute drive) the contractions were a minute apart. Got up to observation and I was dilated to a 7 and had an insane amount of pressure. They rushed me to a room and 11 minutes after we walked into that room, Tristan was here! I only had to push twice!

There is more to this story and I will update that when I've had a chance to rest some more! We are all so happy he's finally here! He is precious and we already love him so much!

Updates

2010-10-05T17:30:00.002-06:00

Still no baby here. He's still hanging out snug and warm. We are making some progress on the dilation front, so I'm optimistic it will be soon! I'm getting anxious to meet him as the days tick by (BTW, we are down to just 5 days to due date!). I'm ready to meet him face to face and cuddle and kiss him! I want to see who he looks like, to see whether he has hair or not, what color his eyes are, just EVERYTHING!! I'm just ready to meet our little miracle baby!

I spent the afternoon in the ER with Little J. I got a call at lunch from his school that he fell off the monkey bars and his arm was hurting him pretty bad. Brilliant B. had to go get him from school since he had my van and I was car-less today. Once they got home I took one look at his arm and said we were going to the ER. Little J. decided to try and jump to the 3rd bar out on the monkey bars, missed, superman'd it and landed with his arm straight out (caught himself with his right arm straight out). His arm right around his elbow is swollen and was starting to bruise up (and it had been less than an hour since his fall). He got x-rays and sure enough, he fractured his arm about an inch or so above his elbow. It's not really bad, but he'll need a cast. He has a splint on for now and will get his cast on in a few days when the swelling goes down. I'm going to ask for a copy of his x-rays when we go see ortho in a few days. I'm really surprised that he's made it almost 7 years without breaking anything! He's such a dare devil and risk taker that I've been expecting this to happen since he started walking!! I'm sure this is not the last time we end up in the ER with a broken bone! lol.

Big J. has decided that he is going to stay here with us instead of moving with his mom at Christmas break. He's considering still moving there, but waiting until after this school year is over. We'll see how that goes. He is still having arguments with her when they talk on the phone. It's rare that they talk and don't argue. He's been doing ok at school. He did get suspended off the bus for a week for mouthing off to the bus driver, but from what Diva D. says (she rides the same bus he does) the bus driver is a jerk and tends to pick on kids. He has mostly As with a C and D thrown in there but he is working hard to bring those grades up. Still having a few outbursts at home, but they haven't been horrible so we are counting our blessings there.

Diva D. is finally adjusting well to middle school. She's getting the hang of things and starting to have fun. She's in band and marched in the fair parade yesterday! I was so proud of her! She's doing excellent with her grades. She's even made new friends at school!

Smarty-pants C. is also doing well. He's also adjusting well to middle school and he is also in band. He's having his first concert soon and I'm so sad that we won't be able to be there to see it! (since he lives thousands of miles away with his mom)

Well, that's all I have for now! Hoping that my next update will be loaded with pics of our little baby and a birth story!

Growing belly: 37 weeks 1 days

2010-09-21T14:53:00.000-06:00

Here I am at 37 weeks 1 day. ANXIOUSLY awaiting Tristan's arrival.

Dropping Babies!

2010-09-09T09:08:00.000-06:00

NOT literally. I'm not over here dropping babies, but my belly has dropped!

I wish I had a "before" pic to show, but just imagine it: the top of my belly was a shelf for my boobs just yesterday morning.

And this is what my belly looked like yesterday evening (at 35 weeks 3 days):

We have a dropping baby!!!

Update galore!

2010-08-12T10:30:00.005-06:00

I've been slacking a little on updating here. A lot has been going on. We have about 8 weeks left to go and it is just FLYING by! I can't wait for Tristan to be here and am so excited to be able to hold and love on my little man in a few short weeks!!

Here is my bump at 30 weeks 5 days:

We had an appointment last week that went well. I had to have an ultrasound to check placenta placement because at my 20 week ultrasound the placenta was really low. It has moved and is in a good place now! (WHEW) We only got 2 pics from the ultrasound, though because Tristan was moving around a LOT and was not in a good position. The ultrasound tech TRIED to get 3D pics of Tristan's face, but he had his face smashed into the side of my uterus and she couldn't get a good shot. We did get a peak at his nose and he is going to have a tiny little nose! They estimate that he was weighing 3 lbs. 10 ozs, so he is growing right on track! I go back next week for my next appointment.

Only issue we have right now is that Tristan is laying transverse, or sideways. He hasn't flipped to head down yet. We have time for that, but I REALLY hope he flips soon and stays that way! I DON'T want a c-section!

Here's the ultrasound pics we got:

We had Smarty-pants C. for a month this summer and had a lot of fun. Brilliant B. took all the boys camping while Diva D. and I had some mommy-daughter time with shopping! And I managed to remember to get a pic of all 4 kids together! This will be the last pic of JUST the 4 of them....the next pic they'll have, there will be 5 in it!

Here they all are:

School started this week for the kids. So far they are doing good. Little J. is having a fun time in 1st grade. He likes his teacher and has almost all the same kids in his class that he did last year. Diva D. is having a bit of a rough start of her first year of middle school (tear...my baby is in middle school :( ), but is starting to get used to it. She is signing up for band and want to play the flute (like her momma did in school). We will know soon if she got in or not. Big J. has started 10th grade at a small high school here and we are hoping the smaller size will help him not get into as much trouble. He's also playing football for another school since his school doesn't have athletics and is going to be a starter on the JV team. No clue what position, but we know he'll be a starter.

Here's Big J. on the first day of school:
Here's Diva D. on her first day of school (in the uniform she HAS to wear):
Here's Little J. on his first day of school (he picked his clothes out that he wanted to wear!):

Well, that's it for now. Still trying to get prepared for Tristan's arrival and have a lot to do!

Growing belly: 26 weeks 5 days

2010-07-12T19:59:00.001-06:00

Here's my growing belly at 26 weeks 5 days!! Just one week left in the second trimester now!!

Happy 4th!!!

2010-07-04T23:08:00.003-06:00

Just a few shots of the fireworks we got to see tonight!

Hope everyone had a safe and FUN 4th!

Oh, and we had a pretty good day today too. Smarty-pants C. flew in today and will be here for a month! Missed the little turd!

Time is flying!

2010-07-03T11:11:00.003-06:00

Well, this pregnancy is flying right on by. Our days left have now gone from triple digit numbers down to double digit.

We have 99 days left and I'm blown away that in around 3 short months we will get to meet our precious baby face-to-face! We still have a lot to get ready. Guess we should get on the ball with it all!

And I'm selfishly hoping for a baby shower so we can get the rest of the baby things we need! We will see, though. There is still time, though no one has shown any interest in throwing one. We just really need one, since we have NOTHING left from Little J.'s baby days.

Patiently awaiting the arrival of our little miracle,

Baby Stuff!!!!

2010-06-17T14:15:00.001-06:00

We got some baby stuff shipped over the past two days! I'm getting so excited to be getting ready for Tristan's arrival!! We got a bassinet and carseat brand new. We bought a used crib at a garage sale (for only $45!!). And we have received a playpen, bouncy seat and high chair/booster seat as gifts! We have almost all the BIG things we need for Tristan!

Here are pics of the bassinet and carseat. I'll get pics of the other stuff later on.

He's such a proud big brother. He's almost as excited as I am to be getting baby stuff!!!

Growing belly: 22 weeks 4 days

2010-06-10T14:42:00.000-06:00

Here's my bump at 22 weeks 4 days! (growing with NO weight gain!)

Belly button hasn't popped out yet!
My view:

Graduations, Shaving and Growing up too fast

2010-05-26T10:54:00.004-06:00

This month has been a bittersweet month for me and Brilliant B. Our children have reached a lot of BIG milestones and are growing up WAY TOO FAST!

This morning I had to teach Diva D. how to shave her underarms. She has needed to for a while now, but I've been in denial and have not taught her how. I promised her, though, that I would teach her how during the summer and I've now followed through on that promise. I almost cried while I was showing her how because it is just one more step for her in the direction of womanhood. I'm so not ready for this. Seems like just yesterday I was at the hospital giving birth to her. I blinked my eyes and now I'm teaching her to shave. *sigh* It is so hard.

Last week Diva D. also graduated from the 5th grade!! She will be going to middle school in August and I just can't believe it! She did so well and got quite a few awards for the year! She made the 3.5 honor roll, got perfect attendance FOR THE ENTIRE SCHOOL YEAR, an award for her participation on student council and, of course, her "diploma" for graduating 5th grade! Here she is at her graduation:

Little J. also had a big step taken last week. He too graduated, but he graduated from kindergarten! He got a little embarrassed during the presentation, though, and started crying while the rest of the kinder kids were singing and dancing their little songs. His crying, of course, made me cry because I can't see one of my kids cry without welling up with tears too! Even when I'm not all emotional and pregnant!! Here is my little man:

*sigh* My babies are growing up. Can't I just put a brick on their head and make them quit growing already??

It's A........

2010-05-21T13:50:00.000-06:00

BOY!!!!!

There is no doubt about it....we have a little man joining our family in October!!!

The ultrasound was wonderful! The tech was AWESOME and we got to watch our little guy for about 45 minutes while she did measurements and worked to get good shots of our wiggly guy! He was moving around the ENTIRE time and was even pretty active (and being a bit of a stinker to my midwife) while the midwife was listening to the heartbeat during my appointment after the ultrasound!

We took Big J., Diva D. and Little J. with us so they could share in this moment with us. We wish we could have had Smarty-pants C. with us, but he still has school at his mom's house and we won't see him until July!

Here are pics of our little man, Tristan Kent........

Nesting....THIS SOON???

2010-05-18T16:22:00.002-06:00

I do believe that I have started nesting! WTH????

Nesting at 19 weeks???

I'm not going to lie, our house is cluttered. We have stuff and not enough space. It sucks. And it doesn't help that I've been so immersed in school and exhausted from the beginning of this pregnancy that I haven't been cleaning. Brilliant B. cleans some, but he's a bit of a pack-rat, so things don't always get thrown away when they should be.

I started today with scrubbing some clothes to get the crayon out of them (we had an incident with a crayon, some clothes, and the dryer a few weeks ago). These clothes have been sitting for a few weeks, with crayon on them, waiting for me to figure out how to get them clean. I managed to get it out.

Then I moved on to my room....or the dump if that's what you want to call it because that is where everything seems to make it to be dumped! I have managed to get all my pre-pregnancy clothes that I was wearing packed into a plastic tub and cleared out all my "skinny" clothes to pack them up and put them in storage. I'm also making Brilliant B. go through all of his clothes so we can either pack up the stuff he doesn't wear or drop it off at good will! Hoping to get the clothes gone through and put in their proper place before bed tonight.

Tomorrow looks like I'll be tackling the rest of the junk in our room and having Brilliant B. moving the furniture around to make room for baby stuff we'll be getting soon!

Ugggggggg, nesting started too soon!!! Oh, well....maybe I'll get everything ready now while I still have some energy!! (secretly hoping for the cleaning fairies to find my house so they can do all this for me!!) Maybe I'll get it all done before the third trimester!!

Growing belly: 19 weeks

2010-05-16T14:51:00.000-06:00

Here is my belly pic for 19 weeks! Baby is growing like crazy and moving a TON!

Writer's Workshop: Ode to Stretchy Pants

2010-05-13T19:03:00.003-06:00

Well, I've been a little busy with a horrible semester and haven't had time to participate lately! Well, It's late in the day, but it is never too late to participate in Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop!

The Prompts:

1.) Describe a popular kids toy or show that you just don’t understand.
2.) Where were your shoes? Write about an interesting time when you happened to be barefoot. Begin and end your writing with a description of your feet.
3.) Whom did you hide from? Write about a hiding place you haven’t used for a while.
4.) Write a 20-line poem (rhyming or non-rhyming) dedicated to your favorite piece of clothing (could be a shirt, hat, shoes, etc.).
5.) Imagine your life is now a book. In 100 words, write the blurb for it. (It’s what people will read on the back cover.

I'm choosing to do prompt # 4! So enjoy!

Ode To Stretchy Pants

Stretchy pants, how I love thee...

You have never been a friend of mine

Until a man knocks up my behind.

You stretch and move

to fit my groove.

You flatter my shape

with a sexy drape.

You support my rear

without any fear.

And allow my belly

to become like a bowl of jelly.

You look discreet

when I'm down the street.

No one would guess

that you are the best.

I love your styles.

I'll wear you for miles.

Even though you aren't here to stay, maybe

I'll keep you around after the baby.

Oh, stretchy pants, how I love thee.....

FINALLY!!

2010-05-13T18:19:00.003-06:00

The semester from hell is OVER!

I finished up my last final exam today and am SO relieved to have this craptastic semester over with!

I'm really hoping for a C in my Spanish class because I don't want to take it again. I know I got a big fat F in my English class. I know I have a B in my Curriculum/Management/Assessment education class and am pretty sure I'll have an A in my Cultural and Linguistic Pluralism class!

So that is a tenative A, B, C, and F on my transcript for this semester!

I am so glad that I have a good 7-8 month break now to get ready for baby and to spend time with baby after s/he is born! I need it right now. I'm so burned out on college! (which makes sense since I've been going NON-STOP since fall 2004!!)

Whims....

2010-05-06T15:28:00.003-06:00

I was getting so sick of my LONG hair and did not feel up to bleaching my roots, so I decided to get my hair chopped off (over 9 inches of it!) and go brunette!!

What do you think??

Week 17 appointment

2010-05-03T13:49:00.000-06:00

I had my 17 week appointment today and all went well. Baby's heartrate was 168 this time! I have gained 2 pounds in the last 4 weeks, so I'm right on track with my weight gain and am now back up to my pre-pregnancy weight!

We scheduled our ultrasound finally!! We will know (crossing fingers baby cooperates) if we are having a boy or a girl on Friday, May 21st!!! We can't wait!!!!

That's about all. Feeling pretty good. Allergies are still killing me, but I'll live. After all, I have to deal with them every year about this time!

Major FAIL!

2010-04-26T15:52:00.002-06:00

Yep, I am going to have a major fail on my hands soon.

I am going to FAIL my English class this semester. I thought I could do it at the beginning of the semester, so I stayed in the class (when I should have dropped it and picked another class). But now that the semester is winding down I know that I'm going to fail.

No doubt in my mind about it. I just can't write a 10 page paper on something I don't understand. I do not understand Transcendentalist Literature, so I cannot write about it. Especially not 10 pages worth! This paper is 55% of my total grade....so you can see why I say that I'm going to fail.

This will be the first time I have EVER, IN MY WHOLE ENTIRE LIFE, failed a class. *sigh*

Oh, well. I gave it a shot. It's not my fault I'm not an English major taking a graduate course. (BTW, this class I'm going to fail is a mix class....it is a graduate/undergrad class and the instructor teaches it and assigns stuff geared to the graduate students...not the undergrads....I'm an undergrad.)

Growing belly: 15 weeks

2010-04-20T09:50:00.002-06:00

It has been a while since I've posted a belly pic! So here I am in all my preggo glory at 15 weeks!

Been MIA And Going To Be MIA More

2010-04-14T16:33:00.003-06:00

I've been MIA for a while and have only made short posts lately. Sorry. Real life has been occupying my time and school is winding down for the semester, which means the work gets piled on.

Just a few updates:

1. Baby is still doing wonderfully. I'm feeling more human and less tired. Baby is getting stronger and I'm feeling more and more flutters. Can't wait for B. to feel them too!

2. Little J. was tested for the gifted program at school and blew the test out of the water. They have to have an IQ of 130 to get into gifted and he has an IQ of 153. He is on a waiting list for a Program for Exceptionally Gifted children and will get into that as soon as a slot opens up. Oh, yeah and if you didn't already know...Little J. is 6 and in Kindergarten....so this is a BIG deal! He is at least one to two grade levels above Kindergarten level in EVERYTHING. We are so proud!!

3. Big J. is POSSIBLY going to be moving back with his mom for good. We cannot homeschool him another year and know that when we put him back into public school that he will fall into old habits and we just can't do it anymore (we've been doing it for the past 3 years with the crap with school....since his mom decided she didn't want him at her house because he couldn't behave at school). There are more options for school where his mom lives, so we feel that is the better place for him to go for a fresh start. And we honestly cannot keep having our entire lives revolve around him. We have other children in the house that are not getting to do the things they want to and do not get near the attention that they need because we have to focus so much on Big J. and his "issues". His mom SAYS she wants him to move back, Big J says he wants to move back, so we are going to let it happen. IF it ever happens. She wants to try small visits, then longer visits, then longer visits before she decides whether he can move up there or not. I know what I'm saying is harsh, but Big J is 15 years old and it is time he started to act like it. We are moving to a "tough love" approach with him. He knows the rules and our expectations...if he chooses to not follow them or chooses to break school rules or the law, then he will face the consequences of his actions on his own with no back up from us. We've backed him up and helped him out and it does NO GOOD, so now he has to learn the hard way since he seems to not learn the easy way. OK, enough of that...moving on...

4. I have decided to take some time off of college to have the baby. I plan on a year, but will go back next January if I need to (which I very well might). If I go back in January, it will be only for a class or two and will be a light load. I will start back full time in the Fall of 2011 and will graduate May 2012. I want time to enjoy the baby as a newborn and want to have as much breast-feeding time as I can get!

5. Diva D. will be choosing her classes for middle school soon. She is my oldest biological child, so this is a really SAD time for me. My baby is growing up!

6. Smarty-Pants C. is also going into middle school next year. Seems like just yesterday he was the size of Little J.!! He came down for his Spring Break last week and we had a blast hanging out! Going to miss him, since we won't see him again until July!

7. There was something else that I was going to put here, but I got distracted by a question from Little J. and completely forgot....guess it wasn't all that important if pregnant brain ate it!! lol

Well, I will be done with this semester the second week in May, so plan to not see me around much in the mean time. After that....who knows!!! I'll have some time on my hands for sure since school won't be occupying a TON of my time!!

13 weeks appointment

2010-04-05T14:34:00.003-06:00

Well, I had an appointment with my midwife this morning for a regular check up.

It went good and was short and sweet.

We heard the baby's heartbeat again and the heart rate is in the 160s, which according the the old wives tale indicates that the baby is a girl! We got to listen for about 2 minutes, then heard a big SWOOSH and couldn't hear the heartbeat anymore! It is so neat to hear the baby move!

My midwife gave me the ok to take chewable kid vitamins since the prenatals are causing me severe constipation and stool softeners do not work. My only other option was to take milk of magnesia a few times a week and I don't want to do that. So I'll take the chewable vitamins! She also told me to take claritin or zyrtec for my allergies instead of benadryl, since benadryl makes me very sleepy.

Oh, and I can finally dye my hair!! I'm saying BYE-BYE to my dark roots and gray hair!! I've been holding off on doing it until we made it to the second trimester because I didn't want to cause any ill effects on our rapidly developing baby!

I go back in 4 weeks for a regular appointment and we should schedule our BIG ultrasound at that appointment too!

Hello, second Trimester, nice to see you!

2010-04-04T19:35:00.001-06:00

WE MADE IT!!!! Today is officially the beginning of my second trimester of pregnancy!!

I'm so thrilled to have made it this far!

And what a blessing that the second trimester is starting on Easter Sunday! Totally awesome!

Houston, we have movement!

2010-03-25T17:16:00.003-06:00

I was laying on my bed today after I took a shower, just relaxing a bit before getting dressed and I felt something. Something moving. Something stirring. IN MY LOWER ABDOMEN!!!!

I waited for a few hours to wait and see if I was just gassy and would pass gas.....but I DIDN'T!!!!

I'm 99% positive I felt our baby move for the first time today!!!!!!

I'm on cloud 9 right now!!

Growing belly: 10 weeks

2010-03-16T15:19:00.001-06:00

Here is my belly shot at about 10 weeks. As you can see, the bump is really starting to pop now!

Happy Birthday.....

2010-03-09T10:41:00.004-07:00

TO ME!!!!!!!!!! I am 29 today!

Not doing much today for my big day. I told B. that all I wanted for my birthday was to go see Alice in Wonderland and we did that on Sunday with Big J. (since his birthday is coming up on Saturday).

I don't need fancy gifts, I have this:

And this:
What more do I need?!?!?

First OB visit

2010-03-08T14:23:00.001-07:00

I had my first regular OB appointment today and it was pretty uneventful. They just did a physical, did blood tests and tried to hear baby's heartbeat. My midwife did move my due date to October 10th.....10-10-10!! She moved it based on the ultrasound I had a while back, since that was the due date it said!

We were not able to hear the baby's heartbeat this time, but that was because of the doppler they use. My midwife said that they usually can't hear a heartbeat with that until between 10 and 11 weeks. Well, I'm 9 weeks, so it was no biggie. We heard it before and I'm confident that things are still going good.

I did gain one pound since my last visit a month ago. I think that is good, especially since the baby bump is getting bigger and bigger!

They asked if we wanted the testing for down's syndrome or cystic fibrosis and we declined those tests. It will not change anything and we will not terminate if those conditions exist. And really, they are not necessary tests. We will take whatever God gives us happily! Even a child with disabilities or health issues.

When it rains, it pours

2010-03-02T10:41:00.002-07:00

Well, if you read my last post, you know that I'm having to deal with ex drama right now. Not fun at all.

And now on top of all of that, it looks like Brilliant B. is getting laid off from his job. Work is EXTREMELY slow lately and right now, they don't even have enough work for one body man, let alone 3. He is still talking to the bosses (who happen to be his step-mom and grandfather) to see what can be worked out, but it really looks like he will be laid off. (in my opinion, I think the other two body men should be laid off. Neither of them have a baby on the way and children at home.) We will see what happens. The only upside would be that B. would be able to draw unemployment, meaning at least some income.

Just what we need. More rain.

I don't need this stress right now. Not at all.

Ranting Mad

2010-03-01T22:14:00.003-07:00

So, this is the deal, my ex has been calling EVERY DAY to talk to the kids. Normally this would not bug me, but the kids are not always available to talk, and I'm not always at home with the kids (I only have a cell...no home phone and won't give him my husband's cell number). I have class 2 nights a week and on those days I usually only get to say hi and bye to the kids on my way out the door.

Tonight, I tell him that the kids will not be available to talk every day and that it is inconvenient for him to call repeatedly on the days he KNOWS I'm in class. So the asshole hangs up on me. So I text him and say that if he wants to be more involved with the kids' life, then he knows what he needs to do (clean up and take his drug tests to get his visitation back...he has no visitation now because he refuses to do the tests).

He goes into this long rant, cussing me out, telling me that he's going to take it back to court and get everything changed and that he'll probably end up with the kids because I'm not following the order and allowing him daily phone calls at 7 pm. First off, our order says he is allowed REASONABLE telephone calls....not daily phone calls at 7 pm (that was the temporary order almost 3 years ago, we now have a permanent order that is different). And I do allow him to talk to the kids, when they are available. It's not like I don't let him talk to them. I never have refused to let them talk to him.

Second, I have followed the court papers to the letter, while he has refused to follow them the entire time we've been divorced. We have been divorced for almost 5 years now and he has not once followed the judge-approved court order.

I really do not want to go back to court, because frankly I've done nothing wrong. And I don't want to spend MORE money on a lawyer because he gets pissed he didn't get his way. I've already spent over $15,000 on this crap. I know that if we go back to court, the judge will chew him out and throw the case out, but that is just more stress on me and more money that we just don't have right now.

Will he ever grow up and realize that he is WAY in the wrong here? Or do I have to keep dealing with this shit for another 12 years (12 years because it is 12 years until Little J. turns 18....AND 12 years until I can tell the ex where I would like him to go)?

Recipe: Western Egg Strata

2010-02-27T16:34:00.001-07:00

Here's a good recipe for anyone who needs a new crock pot meal idea!

We modified the recipe a little. I don't care for ham, so we put in breakfast sausage instead and our kids don't really like onions and green peppers so we left them out.

Ingredients:
Vegetable cooking spray
8 slices white sandwich bread, cut into cubes
3 cups frozen diced potatoes (hashbrowns)
1 pound ham steak, diced
1 large onion, chopped
1 large green pepper, chopped
2 cups shredded Cheddar Cheese (about 16 ounces)
1 can (10 3/4 ounces) condensed cream of mushroom soup
8 eggs
2 cups milk

Cooking instructions:
1. Spray the inside of a 4.5 to 5-quart slow cooker with the cooking spray. Layer half of the bread cubes, potatoes, ham, onion, pepper and cheese in the cooker. Repeat the layers.

2. Beat the soup, eggs, and milk together in a medium bowl. Pour over the bread mixture in the slow cooker. Press the bread mixture down to coat with soup/egg mixture.

3. Cover and cook on LOW for 7 to 8 hours or until set.

Makes 12 servings

Growing belly: 8 weeks

2010-02-25T17:43:00.000-07:00

So I took this today. Going to call this 8 weeks, since I'll be 8 weeks tomorrow. I can't believe how much my belly has grown in just this short time!

Valentine's flowers

2010-02-25T15:33:00.003-07:00

Brilliant B. got me some beautiful flowers for Valentine's Day and for finally being pregnant (and I'm just now getting around to uploading them on my computer!)!!

He's just the most wonderful, loving, caring husband in the world!! I think I'll keep him!

(here's a hint: click on each pic to see the detail of each pic in it's true size!)

(this last pic is of my absolute favorite flower...Sunflowers!)

Ultrasound!

2010-02-22T19:12:00.002-07:00

Everything went WONDERFUL!!

The baby is doing great! It is measuring 7 weeks 1 day, instead of the 7 weeks 3 days based on my LMP.

We heard the heartbeat too!!! It is a STRONG 150 bpm. That was the most wonderful sound I have heard in a VERY, VERY long time!

Now I can relax and enjoy this pregnancy!

Here are the first pics of the baby!!

Nerves, Nerves, Nerves

2010-02-22T12:54:00.002-07:00

In about 2 hours, we will be getting our second ultrasound and hoping to see a heartbeat this time! I'm so damn nervous about this, it is not even funny.

I did not sleep well last night and when I did sleep I had horrible nightmares about the ultrasound results (and one weird dream where I cussed out the nurses and called them all morons and walked out of the office).

I know that my nervousness and worry is probably going to be for nothing, but after losing a baby a few months ago, I can't help but worry.

This baby is something we've wanted and gone through so much to have and I just don't want anything to go wrong! I want to meet this baby face-to-face in October!

I'll update when I get a chance to later tonight. Right after the ultrasound I have to go to class, so I won't be home until later tonight!

Friend Makin' Monday: Valentine's Day

2010-02-15T16:12:00.002-07:00

This week Amber is asking this:

1) How did you spend your Valentine's Day? What did you get? What did you do?

2) A list of your top reasons/things that would have made it even better.

We spent most of our Valentine's Day at my in-laws house. We started off the day at our house. We gave the kids their boxes of candies and little stuffed animals, as we do every year. We let them eat one piece of chocolate (even though it was morning and before lunch!). Then Brilliant B. gave me my gift. He gave me a sweet, thoughtful card, 2 big Reece's Peanut Butter Hearts (since I can't eat tree nuts he doesn't give me the box of mixed chocolate so we don't end up with an accidental allergic reaction on V-Day!) and a new, bigger wedding band. Mine had become tight and uncomfortable and he got me the same band in a bigger size! It was the best gift EVER!! Now I can wear my band during this pregnancy without fear of it cutting off circulation!

After all gifts were opened and everyone was dressed, we headed out the back door and across the alley to the in-laws house where we chatted and watched the Daytona 500. The kids helped their grandma fix the various things for dinner later that night. A few hours after we got there, my mother-in-law says, "I just can't wait anymore" and goes and gets the gift she got me for Valentine's day. I opened it and it was an outfit for the baby to wear next Valentine's day!!!! Of course, it is a little girl's outfit and my Mother-in-law says that she is putting in her vote for a girl!! She was just so excited about it all!! After the race was over, we all sat down to a dinner of grilled pork, grilled pineapple, loaded baked potatoes, green beans, and homemade bread and followed the delicious meal with homemade banana pudding!

It was such a wonderful day that really nothing could have made it better and I wouldn't change a single thing about the day filled with LOVE!

Baby is OK!

2010-02-12T22:48:00.001-07:00

The baby is where it is supposed to be.

They saw a yolk sac on the ultrasound and the baby is measuring 5 weeks 4 days.

No heartbeat yet, but not too worried about that since that comes anywhere from 6-8 weeks!

My beta hCG numbers were over 22,000, which is SUPER good for 6 weeks along! I am supposed to go in on Monday for a follow up beta hCG test just as a precaution.

They told me to just take it easy and drink more fluids and hopefully the cramping will go away.

Heading to ER tonight

2010-02-12T13:41:00.001-07:00

My midwife's office called today about scheduling my ultrasound (I've been bugging them with messages the past TWO days). The earliest they can get me in is February 22nd. I went ahead and scheduled that, but am going to the ER tonight because I can't wait that long.

I've been having cramps on and off for the past week and they are starting to get me worried. I can't wait a week and a half to make sure everything is where it should be. So, we're not. As soon as B. gets off of work, we are going to have the kids go to my In-Law's house and we are headed to the ER for a baby check.

I know it's not the best thing to do, but I'm worried and cannot take another day of the cramps and worry. I need to know that our baby is nestled comfortably in my uterus. I need to know that the cramps are nothing to worry about.

I will update when we know anything.

Hormones make me weep

2010-02-08T14:57:00.002-07:00

I have been so darn weepy lately it is not even funny. I just got through crying over an email that was forwarded to me that I've read a dozen times before. I couldn't help it. The tears came even though I was fighting it.

I saw a pregnant teenager leaving the school where Big J. takes his Math and English credit recovery classes and had to fight tears then. I know what that girl is going through. I've been there and done that and survived and it made me cry because I know all that she is giving up in her life and all that she will gain from that precious baby.

I forgot just how emotional I get when I'm pregnant. Now I remember. Going to have to stock up on tissues.

Quick update

2010-02-02T10:06:00.002-07:00

I only have time for a quick update.

Things went WONDERFUL! I am indeed pregnant. The baby is due on 10/8/10. How awesome is that!?!?!?!?

My midwife and I decided that we would not go through the whole drawing blood and checking beta levels, because, as she said, there is really nothing we can do if the numbers aren't doing what they should be.

I will be getting an ultrasound in a few weeks. I will get it scheduled as soon as I hear back from insurance, which should be soon.

My first "real" pregnancy appointment is March 8th (day before my birthday!).

I've been thanking God endlessly for this.

I will do a more in depth post when I have more time....for now, I have to head out the door for some errands and other appointments!

Nerves

2010-02-01T10:53:00.002-07:00

I have my first appointment with my midwife in about 2 hours and my nerves are SHOT! I am so scared that we will get bad news again and that we will lose this baby too. Even though I have a good feeling about this pregnancy, the nagging fear is still there.

Brilliant B. is trying not to get too excited until we find out everything is ok and that is bugging me. I want him to be as excited as I am right now, but he is a worrywart and is being cautious.

It has been hard to not just tell everyone that we are pregnant. I want to scream it from the rooftop, but we are going to wait until after the ultrasound to make an announcement.

We are going to tell the kids first and then our parents and then extended family and friends. I can't wait. I know that Diva D. and Little J. will be thrilled, not so sure about Smarty-pants C. and Big J. Big J. was not thrilled that his bio-mom has had 2 more babies since his parents divorced, so we are not sure how he is going to take the news that we are going to have a baby. Smarty-pants C. is not here all that much since he moved to Indiana and I don't think the news will sink in until he is here in April for Spring Break. I'm just nervous about Big J.'s reaction. He is not known for handling news he doesn't like well.

*sigh* can I just sleep until after the ultrasound tells us everything is ok?

Fantastic Friday!!

2010-01-29T09:24:00.001-07:00

'Nuff said.

4 weeks today. Going to call midwife on Monday and get in for blood tests.

Just pray this one sticks around to meet us in October!!

Writer's Workshop: Advised to BS

2010-01-28T10:20:00.007-07:00

It's that time again!! Writer's Workshop from Mama Kat!!!!

The prompts this week are:

1.) Share one piece of great advice you’ve received from someone who knows stuff…

2.) Write a series of tweets that ultimately end with a line that I actually tweeted on Friday night: “And then I sat on those remaining in the pack…and pulled the glowing sticks from under my ass.”

3.) Gregory MaGuire (author of books like Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West and Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister) is wildly popular right now (as is the musical Wicked). Write your own “re telling” of a classic fairy tale.

4.) Luck, or divine intervention?

5.) Muffin Tin Monday…on Thursday? Every week Michelle hosts a carnival where you’re invited to link a meal you serve your kids in muffin tins. It’s kind of cute actually.

This week I'm going to do #1. A piece of great advice.

This piece of advice came from an English instructor that taught my first ever college English class (which was a writing class).

He told us that when we write papers for various classes the best way to get a good paper is to bullshit our way through. To act like we are an expert on the subject we are writing about and BS, BS, BS, and BS some more.

Now, at first this seemed like, well, bullshit advice. But I tried it and IT WORKED!! And is STILL working!! (Don't think that I'm not learning here, because I am. I know my shit. But to make a paper what it needed to be, I had to bullshit my way through it and learn along the way.)

And EVERY instructor I've had has LOVED my papers. They just think they are brilliant. Little do they know.....**insert evil laugh**

Now get over to Mama Kat's place and choose your prompt!!!

NOW!!!

Post-it Note Tuesday: First time!

2010-01-26T15:02:00.008-07:00

Jenners over at Life With a Little One and More did this today and I just loved the concept so much that I checked out the blog the idea came from, Adventures of a Wanna-Be SupahMommy.

I'm feeling a little cranky today, so you've been warned.

**STFU=Shut the Fuck Up

Friend Makin' Monday: Daybook

2010-01-25T09:51:00.004-07:00

Head on over to see Amber to see more posts about this little meme!!

The Simple Woman's Daybook

Outside my window... I see a calm day. The first we've had here in about a week. No wind. No nasty looking clouds that don't drop any precipitation. Nothing. And it is nice. Maybe my allergies will calm down now.

I am thinking.... That I really need to get into the swing of homework again. This happens EVERY semester!! I get a nice, long, relaxing break and then when the semester starts again, I am dragging ass trying to get myself motivated again.

I am thankful... For everything and everyone in my life. I will not take a single one of them for granted.

I am praying... for lots of things. Praying that my cousin will be home with his family soon instead of in the hellhole he's in now. Praying for the family of an old classmate that passed away in a car accident last week...the funeral is today. Praying for a family member that is joining the TTC madness. Praying that my TTC journey will come to an end on Thursday with a wonderful word "pregnant". And so on, and so on, and so on--I could write a book on all that I'm praying. It has been a prayerful year for me so far.

I am reading... American Bloomsbury by Susan Cheever and will be starting The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson tomorrow. My English class (Transcendentalist Literature) is going to kick my butt. I have 8 novels to read (5 of which are 500+ pages long) and the longest I have to read one is 3 weeks. SOOOOOOO glad that I read super fast or I would have to drop this class and find an alternate Literature class to take.

I am creating... a schedule. We have soooo much going on right now, that I REALLY need to get myself into a schedule with homework, homeschooling, counseling sessions (for Big J.), extracurricular activities of the kids, and breathing time. I have to do this every semester, since I don't always have class on the same day/time, and it usually takes me 2-3 weeks to get into a scheduled routine.

From the kitchen... comes some yummy new recipes we are trying. We got tired of the same old, same old. It is hard to come up with new things when you are on a strict/tight budget, but I found some cheap/easy recipes that we are going to try. If they are a success, I just might share them here!

Around the house... I see disaster. A week into this semester and my family has already let the house go the crap. Guess that will be added into my list of to-dos. Either that, or I'll go off on a tangent to my family about how they need to pick up the slack around here/I'm not the only one making the mess, I won't be the only one to clean it/if you don't want to pick up after yourselves, then you'll just live in it. Happens about twice a year. The tangent usually works and they pick up a little of the slack around the house.

One of my favorite things... is vacation. I loved mine. I want more. And I want to take a family vacation and a "me and Brilliant B. only" vacation. Soon, very soon.

A few plans for the rest of the week... homework, homeschool, counseling sessions, karate, get a few BIG checks and pay off some credit cards, clean a little, and read, read, read, and then read a little more.

So, what does YOUR Daybook look like?

Have a GREAT week everyone!!!

Writer's Workshop: Weirdest Dream EVER!

2010-01-21T10:14:00.004-07:00

It's that time again. Time for Writer's Workshop from Mama Kat over at Mama's Losin' It.

Here are the prompts:

1.) I recently read all about the importance of us bloggers developing an “Elevator Pitch” via one of my new favorite blogs. Create one short (a sentence long) and one longer (100 – 150 words) Elevator Pitch describing what your blog is about.

2.) The strangest dream ever…

3.) Write a list of 10 things that can be done to stave off boredom.

4.) “How many homes have you had? Write a journal entry about ALL the places you’ve called ‘home’ in your life.”

5.) “Why wouldn’t they just start over? Write a story where a character refuses to go back to square one.”

I'm choosing to do #2, the strangest dream.

I had a dream last night that we owned one of these:
We kept it in a LARGE cage in our back yard and would let it out every once in a while to roam free for a little bit.

Well, Brilliant B. and I were in this tree house like thing where the controls to the cage were and we let the T-Rex out and were watching it roam around. Well, in the dream, Big J. was mad and being an ass and he let my dog out in the back yard, knowing full well that we had let the T-Rex out of it's cage.

Here's my little dog, Jack:

In the dream, I FREAKED! I started yelling at Jack to try to get him to come to me, but he wouldn't (nothing new for him) and in the process managed to get the T-Rex's attention on Jack. Now, in the dream, Jack was not killed by the T-Rex, but he did lose a back leg and his tail because the T-Rex was playing with him and bit them off. Which I had to just sit and watch in horror. (in the dream of course)

And that is where the dream ended. I woke with my heart racing and in a frantic mood.

I have been having these type of dreams lately. They are very odd and very realistic to me. Vivid dreams are weird to me and I rarely have them, but have been having one every night for the last week. Weird. Who knows what my mind will come up with tonight!

Family Photo Time

2010-01-20T15:59:00.003-07:00

Family photo time! Excuse the look on our faces. We were getting our pic taken by 3 different cameras and my mother-in-law did not warn us that she was snapping the pic. Hopefully I'll have a better one when my father-in-law develops his pics!

"Interesting" Award

2010-01-16T14:28:00.003-07:00

Trudy over at Third Time's a Charm gave me a new award! This award requires you to list 7 interesting things about yourself and tag 7 other blogs for this award! I've been racking my brain trying to think of 7 NEW things that you all do not know about me that are interesting and I think I have it.

I played 3 different instruments in school. I played the flute in the beginning and continued to play that as my primary instrument, then in 7th grade I began to learn the bassoon, and then my Junior year of High School I played the bass drum in marching band. I was also able to pick up almost any instrument and play with only a little guidance about what to do. Yes, I was a band geek, but I was a band geek when being a band geek was cool!

I am terrified of moths. I mean TERRIFIED. Like running away, screaming like a little girl terrified. Don't know why. Just am. It is an irrational fear that I can't seem to shake. Although, I am better about it now. Now, if there is a moth around, I just close my eyes and make someone else get rid of it (most of the time Brilliant B. gets stuck with that task!).

My ultimate goal in life is to become an Art Professor at a college. As much as I love children and I love teaching them, I want to teach adults to draw and paint and sculpt. I want to spend my days drawing and painting and sculpting. And I want to have my own studio at my house. I want to be able to tell people, when they ask what I do for a living, that I am an artist and an Art professor.

I can read a 700 page book in one day. It takes me about 2 minutes to read an entire page. And I can tell you what I just read, too. I can read fast and retain the information. I love being able to do this. It makes my homework go by REALLY fast!

I really want to have an IQ test done on myself. I am curious what my actual IQ is. I know I have an above average intelligence, but I want to know exactly how much above average it really is. And yes, I do believe that I am smarter than a lot of people. Hell, I believe that I am smarter than a lot of the instructors I've had in college. Some of them are just MORONS! But I do not convey this belief to everyone and I don't try to prove how smart I am to others. So, I'm not one of those smarty pants people that like to rub it in.

If we could financially afford to, I would have kid after kid (shhhhh, don't tell Brilliant B.). I love children and really would just take as many as the good Lord gave us. But, alas, we would not be able to financially support a lot of children so, I'm going to settle with one or two more. I want two more, Brilliant B. only wants one more. We'll have the "one more" discussion after we finally get pregnant with our first together. I think, though, that 6 is a nice round number....much better than 5!!

I'm a bit of a push-over and I hate it. But I always try to see the good in people and usually end up giving way too many chances. Hence why I stuck with a man for 5 years of pure hell when I should have left after I first learned of his drug use. I do not let my kids see the push-over side of me because I know they would jump on that and try and use it to their advantage (they are all too smart for their own good!). With them I stay consistent. It's just with other adults that I seem to be a big time push-over. It is something I have been working on stopping some. My EX is making it really easy to get practice in on NOT being a push-over.

Now here are the blogs that I'm tagging:

Crystal (my sis) at Just My Musings

Myda at Confessions of a Southern (Liberal) Belle

TMVM at The Scattered Mind of a Tattooed Minivan Mom

Susan at Praying For a Miracle

Tanya at Journey To A Miracle

Jenners at Life With A Little One And More

Tesa at 2 Wired 2 Tired

Writer's Workshop: 100th Post and a Broken Heart

2010-01-14T11:49:00.010-07:00

It's that time again! Time for Writer's Workshop from Mama Kat! (just click on the nifty little pic up there to go see her!)

I haven't done one in a while and figured I'd make my 100th post a special one!

Here are the prompts:

1.) Time for your tangent…what is your latest complaint?

2.) If you could have given yourself a snapshot five years ago of what your life is like now, what would the picture be of and how do you think you would have felt about it?

3.) What’s in YOUR name? What does it mean? Why was it given to you? etc..

4.) Write a letter to the first person who ever broke your heart.

5.) Welcome to the most shocking rose ceremony in writing prompt history. Please award roses to the ten people (or items) in your life that you’d like to continue pursuing a relationship with.

I figure since this is a special post....My 100th post...that I'd get a little deep and go for the letter to the first person who ever broke your heart.

Now, I've felt heartbroken before this, but this was truly the first time my heart was broken bad. And it is to my piece of shit ex-husband. Enjoy. (this is not going to be a rant...just read...you'll be surprised!)

Dear POS,

First off, I would like to thank you. Thank you for all you put me through. Not what you expected to hear from me? I thought not.

Thank you for forcing me to be a stronger person. Without the beatings, the hatred you showed me, the cheating, the worry, the fights, and the general lack of caring on your part; I would have never known exactly how strong I could be. I know now. I'm stronger than you know. I'm stronger than you, but you've figured that part out over the last 4 years, now haven't you?

Thank you for forcing me to become EXTREMELY good with money. Without knowing when we would have money to buy food and pay for a roof over our head; I learned how to shop for a lot of food for just a little money. I also learned what it was like to go hungry so that your children can eat. Thank you for showing me that. Thank you for showing me that I am not only willing but also able to do whatever it takes for my children and their well-being.

Thank you for fighting the divorce. Without that fight, I would have never known the level of determination I have within me. Thank you for showing me that.

Thank you for belittling me for going back to college and calling me a moron that would never amount to anything. Without your lack of support, I would have never worked as hard as I have to prove you wrong. I would not be sitting here, right now, 3 semesters away from being a REAL teacher. I would not have my 3.52 GPA or have been on the Dean's list as many times as I have been. Thank you for forcing me to give college my all and succeed in all I've done.

Thank you for my children. They are the reason I live, and as much as I wish it were not true, you gave them to me. I teach them every day to be the opposite of what you are today, so thank you for giving me an example of what I do not want my children to be. Oh, and thank you so much for continuing to use drugs so that you cannot be a part of their lives now. I'm sure they will thank you as well when they are older and understand everything a little better.

Thank you for showing me that I really am a good person. Compared to you, I am a saint. I learned that I'm not a bad person. I learned that, though I make mistakes, I have a good heart and am a good person. I learned the depth of my love for humanity and God. All because of the qualities I saw in you, most of which are not good. So thank you for that.

You made sure to destroy all the love I ever felt for you in the last 5 years we were married. But through all that destroying, I learned what qualities I wanted in a husband, none of which you possess, and that knowledge led me to find the man I WILL spend the rest of my life with. A man that is a father to my children, that loves them as if they were his own. A man that sees my worth and my flaws and loves them all. So, thank you, one last time, for giving me that.

Sincerely,

Random Tuesday Thoughts

2010-01-12T10:29:00.003-07:00

Trudy over at Third Time's a Charm does this most weeks and I thought today would be a good day to jump right on in and give it a whirl.

I'm really beginning to think that I need to start drinking water. I say this not because it is good for you, your body needs it, blah, blah, blah. I say this because there has to be something in it. Pregnant women are popping up EVERYWHERE and it is just driving me INSANE! There just HAS to be something in the water! Don't get me wrong....I am THRILLED for them....but it just serves as a reminder of what we have been having a difficult time achieving.

On the same note...I would have been due in mere weeks....next month to be exact...if I had not had the miscarriage in June. I know when that date comes up, it is going to be a difficult one to deal with. I can only hope that I get some good news before that, because believe it or not....I will (if we get pregnant this month) be 6 weeks along on the original due date. 6 weeks is when I get an ultrasound when pregnant because of my higher risk of tubal pregnancy. I have a good feeling. I really do. But I am also at peace with it if it doesn't happen this month.

I really do not like homeschooling Big J. NOT.AT.ALL. He's a complainer. Big time. He doesn't want to do homeschooling, but will not come to the conclusion that this was not our CHOICE...it was what we had to do because of HIS actions. No matter how many times we tell him that he HAS to do this and it is his own damn fault. We regularly get into fights that usually go like this: I tell him that he needs to read the work and really try to learn it, he tells me he is, I tell him that his quiz grades are showing he is not, he gets all defensive saying I can't read his mind...I don't know what he's learning or not, I tell him to not pull that AGAIN, he stands tall (trying to make himself bigger than me) and tries to intimidate me physically to back off, I tell him to cut his shit...yell a little bit back and forth, he goes to his room and calms down, comes out and apologizes for trying to intimidate me (which NEVER works) and we talk about strategies to help him do better.........which is what I started off trying to do. That is why I don't like homeschooling him. This happens once or twice a WEEK!

I'm cold.

I need a shower but am being lazy because I have the house completely to myself.

I just got my books for 2 of my classes and am shitting bricks at the size of the novels I have to read for my English class. I have 8 novels....some are close to 900 pages long. I can only hope that we are just reading parts of these books and not the whole things.

I've been clearing out our DVR for the past weeks and a half. By clearing out, I mean watching what we have recorded and then deleting it. It has been fun! But that time is coming to an end soon. My classes start in one week. One week!

I really should have been giving my house a deep cleaning over my Christmas break (which was 5 weeks long!), but I decided that my time was better spent with my children while they were home on their break, and by doing really nothing else. No deep cleaning. No reading all the books I was putting off until break. I did read one book, but I finished that in one day. Do I feel like I've wasted my time? NO. I needed this down time. I needed time to do nothing at all. Well, at least nothing productive. Unless you count clearing out the DVR productive.

I think that is all for now. Time for a shower and some more DVR'd shows!

We have a "big boy" on our hands now!

2010-01-11T15:07:00.003-07:00

Little J. lost his first tooth Saturday night! And the tooth fairy gave him a whopping $5. I've never seen a child so happy over $5 in my LIFE!

My little man is growing up.....

HGTV Dream Home Sweepstakes!!

2010-01-11T14:53:00.001-07:00

Just thought I would post this nifty little widget for all of you lovely readers! I enter this every year and I REALLY hope to win this year, since the house in in my BEAUTIFUL home state of New Mexico!

Man, I've been gone a while

2010-01-06T15:40:00.002-07:00

WOW! It's been a while since I've been here. I've just been busy spending time with my kids and enjoying my time off from school. And, boy, have I been enjoying it!

Just a little update:

We finally got Big J.'s homeschool curriculum just a little before Christmas. He's been going good on it. I've been having to slow him down because he was rushing through his work and not really learning anything....which shows on his quizzes and tests (which he has been failing). Since he has slowed down and started taking his time and REALLY reading, he's done much better.

Still no pregnancy. still. We are trying to be patient, but it is so hard. It has been 7 months since the miscarriage and nothing. We are going to give it until March and then we will be getting tests run to find out if there is a problem with me or B. I really hope we don't have to resort to that. I'm hoping my mom is right. She told me, with my luck, I will get pregnant in February and be due in November, just like I was with Diva D. and Little J. I'll take it. As long as we have a healthy baby, I'll deal with having 3 birthdays in one month very close together!

I start my classes on the 19th, and I am very glad to still have a little vacation left! I looked at my degree plan and I have 3 semesters left....THAT'S IT! I will graduate May 2011 with my Bachelor's of Science in Elementary Education. Let me tell you, I never thought this day would come when I would be SO close to being finished! I feel like I've been going to college FOREVER!

Well, that's a little update. Will try to blog a little more now that the kids are back in school and I have a little more "me" time.

WOW! It's been a while!

2009-11-23T11:13:00.003-07:00

It's been a while since I have posted anything on this blog. I just ~~haven't felt like it~~ have been so super busy that I just don't have the time.

What have I been super busy with? Short answer: Life.

Here comes the long answer.

School. Both mine and Big J.'s school.

My school is ending the semester soon and I have come upon the inevitable dumping of assignments that the instructor's do when they realize it is almost time to be done but they haven't covered half the stuff they should have. I LOATH this time in the semester. I always get stressed and pissy and I tend to yell a lot at the computer screen. But I am happy to say that in 2 weeks, it will be over and I have an ENTIRE month to relax. Oh, how I am looking forward to THAT!!

Big J. is still doing the homeschool thing. We still do not have a set curriculum YET, but we are waiting to see how something else (that I'd rather not talk about just yet) plays out before we spend money on a curriculum we might not even need. I have been keeping him busy with my own, custom designed assignments that directly relate to history and science so that we can say without a doubt he is doing school every week day. So far, I have taught him how to write a research paper on a historical figure (he chose Julius Caesar). A task that took almost 3 weeks! And right now he is working on writing a newspaper article about the discovery and uses of the first antibiotic--penicillin. He is really getting into this assignment, which thrills me because he is not into the whole "school/learning" thing.

Birthdays. Both Diva D.'s and Little J.'s.

Diva D.'s birthday is Nov. 11th and Little J.'s birthday is Nov. 12th. Bad timing, I know, but we get through it! *giggles* We had their birthday party--a double birthday party--on the 15th and I think I am still recovering from it! They had a great time, as we all did, and managed to get a TON of stuff (quite a bit of cash too!). The only complaint that I have is that their ~~sperm donor~~ bio-father showed up. I cannot stand to have him any where near me but ~~managed to not kill him~~ kept my mouth shut while he was there.

There are other things that have been keeping me occupied and away from blogdom, but ~~the lazy bug is creeping in~~ I have a major assignment to work on and need to get cracking on it!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Until next time.....

My Halloween-y post

2009-11-02T16:30:00.006-07:00

We had a fun Halloween weekend full of pumpkin carving, dressing up (for kids, of course), and getting TONS of candy.

This is the pumpkin we grew ourselves (on accident):

All the kids dressed up:
Diva D. dressed as a "bad cheerleader":
Big J. dressed as a whoopie cushion:
Little J. dressed as Hank from the G.I. Joe movie:
Diva D's pumpkin she designed herself:

Big J's pumpkin he designed himself:
The pumpkin Diva D. and I did at her school:
Little J.'s pumpkin he designed himself:

My pumpkin:

Brilliant B.'s flaming pumpkin:

The aftermath of the flaming pumpkin:

Hurry up and wait

2009-10-26T14:15:00.003-06:00

Ever get that feeling?

Like you have to hurry to do stuff, but then you have to just wait for the outcome?

We have been getting that a lot. It is like deja vu over and over again.

I'm really tired of hurry up and wait.

I want a hurry up and get results NOW.

We are now 3 days into the lovely (read: sarcasm here) two week wait. I'm ready to just be pregnant and stay that way for a LONG 9 months. I'm ready to hold a sweet baby in my arms again.

On another note, we got our tickets to go see New Moon. We will be going on November 21st. I wanted to go to the midnight showing on the 20th, but the kids have school the next day and we are not going to keep them out until 2 in the morning just to watch a movie (no matter how bad I want to see it). So we are settling for a Saturday matinée. It will be me, Brilliant B., Big J., Diva D, Little J., MIL, and nephew or FIL (don't know which one, but it will be one of them). The kids are excited about it. I'm ECSTATIC about it.

Let's all hurry up and wait some more!

Just a little update on all things ME!

2009-10-19T12:00:00.005-06:00

It has been a little while since I have updated, so I figured it was time.

***Just a caution: I go off on a little rant after the update on Big. J. Sorry :)***

Big J. is doing better since he is not in school. He started his credit recovery program last week and is doing well. He says it is fairly easy and he thinks that he will get through it with no problem at all. We are still hashing out the details about homeschooling. Making calls to insure that we are getting him into the right program. Going over particulars with Big J's mom so that we are all on the same page. We should be starting that by the end of this month, though. Things are starting to calm now. Big J. will be starting some volunteer work soon, which will hopefully give him some perspective on life and how real people live it. We hope it will help him to be able to start seeing beyond himself and look at the BIG picture of life.

We are still TTC. I have decided that I do not want to go through a battery of tests *just* yet. We are going to wait until March to do all of that if we do not get pregnant by then. I am really hoping the reduced stress level will help in this area.

It has been six months since the surgery. One miscarriage, one possible chemical pregnancy, and months of trying have started to take it's toll on my confidence in our ability to conceive and have a healthy pregnancy.

It seems that all the women around me are getting pregnant, and not always purposefully, and I'm stuck on the sidelines.

Trying to be happy for them, yet breaking down on the inside.

I wanna scream when one of the pregnant ladies bitches about being pregnant. I want to shake them and tell them that they should be thanking their lucky stars that they are pregnant because there are others (me) that want so desperately to be in their exact shoes right then. Sick, miserable but still LOVING IT. I would literally give my right arm to be pregnant and have a healthy pregnancy and baby. I will welcome, with open arms, the sickness, weight gain, swelling, and fatigue that come with pregnancy.

But I swear if I hear one more pregnant woman bitch about being pregnant I'm going postal up in this joint!

Whew, that felt good.

That is just a little of what is going on.

Going to be doing a photo post soon. Our home grown pumpkin is almost ready to be harvested and carved!

RPattz/Twi funny

2009-10-18T12:05:00.000-06:00

I saw this over at Thinking of Rob and just about died laughing it was too funny!!!

Hope you enjoy the hilarity like I did! Oh, give it a minute to load up completely to get the complete effect and so you don't have to look at the image strobing!

*RAWR*

Another update on Big J.

2009-10-09T11:00:00.002-06:00

We had our meeting before the school board yesterday and it went as we expected (maybe even a little better).

Big J. will be suspended for the remainder of the 2009-2010 school year (instead of the 365 days we originally thought he was going to get) and will be able, if we feel he is ready, to begin public school again next year. They recommended a credit recovery program that they have at one of the high schools here and we think that we will be taking advantage of that FREE program. The classes for the credit recovery are from 3:30-5:00 every week day and are a self-paced computer-based program. We will also be doing online high school homeschooling (does that make sense?) for some of his classes. We will be doing the homeschooling on top of the credit recovery because he will need something to do during the day and it will ensure that he ends up with his full 6 classes needed to move up to a sophomore next year.

Big J.'s counselor is recommending that he has complete social isolation right now since he has shown repeatedly that he cannot act in a "normal" way in social situations away from us. We agree. We will eventually be getting him into some programs for social interaction, but that is in the future and it dependent on him. We are looking into Boy Scouts, church youth groups and some other things around our area for kids his age. Trying to find groups that will have a positive influence on him and maybe help him see that you don't have to be part of the "bad crowd" to have fun.

We still have not heard from the fire marshall about the fireworks stuff. Don't know if we will. That could have been just a scare tactic to scare Big J. into thinking he not only messed up his life, but his father's as well. The PO (parole officer) told us that B. most likely will not get cited for anything since Big J. was already cited for it and that would constitute a sort of double jeopardy thing. But we are just waiting. We don't want to get too comfortable and then BAM! something blind-side us that we had dismissed as not going to happen.

Oh, and Big J. will be going tomorrow to do some community service with his life skills counselor. He will be helping at a community fair. He is going to be helping his counselor teach others how to juggle. We are hoping this is going to be a positive experience for him and that he may just have a little fun while he is at it!

Well, that is an update on Big J. and all the mess surrounding him now.

***Hoping to have another update soon...non-Big J. related of course***

Chance To Go To Premiere of New Moon!

2009-10-06T14:02:00.002-06:00

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!

You read that right!!! You can have a chance to win a trip to the premiere of New Moon in LA and get a chance to meet some of the cast of that movie!!

All you have to do is go to Amazon and either 1) make a wish list; and/or 2) add to your existing wish list. Once you do that, it will invite you to enter The Twilight Saga: New Moon Premiere Sweepstakes. Easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy!!

Want to know what you could win???? Well, here is what you could win:

***Round trip coach class air transportation for 2 to Los Angeles departing from the major airport nearest to Grand Prize winner’s home on a date that coincides with the premiere of the Picture;

***2 tickets to the premiere of the Picture which will be held on or about November 16, 2009;

***An opportunity for you and your guest to “meet and greet” some of the cast members of the Picture;

***2 nights’ standard hotel accommodations (double occupancy);

***Ground transportation between the airport and hotel in Los Angeles, CA;

***Twilight 2-Disc Special Edition DVD;

***A Barbie Twilight Edward Doll;

***A Barbie Twilight Bella Doll;

***The Twilight Saga Book Collection;

***The Twilight Saga: New Moon: The Official Illustrated Movie Companion (Paperback);

***The Twilight Saga: New Moon: The Movie Board Game

***A Twilight Hat, Glove and Scarf Winter Set; and

***The Twilight Saga: New Moon Soundtrack; and

***A Twilight “Lion and Lamb” Keyring/Bagclip.

For more details on the sweepstakes go to Amazon.

You have from now until October 11, 2009 (11:59:59 p.m. PT) to enter the Sweepstakes.

Thanks to the wonderful ladies over at Sigma Twi Omega for breaking this news!! You ladies ROCK!!!

An update on Big J.

2009-10-05T08:52:00.004-06:00

***I would like to apologize in advance about the language of this post. I am still just a teensy-bit pissed about this whole situation.***

Well, we had the meeting on Friday morning with the probation officer and it went well. Big J. got cut a HUGE break. He will just have to continue his counseling and has to go to a group counseling session for teens with drug and other legal issues. The PO and his counselor thought it would be good for him to see other kids that have gone down the same road he is going down but just kept going and got in deeper legal trouble. They are hoping that he can learn from his own mistakes as well as the other kids mistakes. He is also getting a more in-depth evaluation by a psychiatrist (or psychologist...can't remember which one the doctor is) to see if there is maybe something else going on that we don't know about. Once that is done we will know if he will need to go in for a full-blown psych evaluation to test for unknown mental disorders (if you knew his mother you would know that this is not entirely too far fetched...she is a walking mental disorder). We are just doing all we can to try and help him and if this ends up being something out of his control, then we will help him to get it under control in any way necessary.

We received the letter we were waiting on from the school that gave us a day and time we have to meet with the school board. We will be going on Thursday afternoon to find out what will happen school-wise with Big J. We are not holding out hope that they will let him go back to school this year. The PO told us that usually when they send a letter like we got, they have already made up their mind and the potential suspension is what they will decide on anyway. So it looks like Big J. will be out of school for the next year and will repeat 9th grade next year.

That also means that I now have to quit my job so that I can stay home with him every-single-damn-day. This is going to be a trying year and I really hope he makes it out alive and I make it out with my sanity. I was really looking forward to working this year and being able to work when I wanted to and not when I didn't.....BUT now I don't get that option. I am really not happy about this. Not. Happy. At. All.

We still don't know if B. will be cited for anything yet. We are praying he won't be. After all, he did not do this and sure as hell didn't encourage it. The PO seemed to think that they will not pursue B. in this matter that it was just a scare tactic to make Big J. think that he was fucking up someone else's life along with his own. Which he is. Which he will be reminded of often.

Now, that might sound mean and really fucked up, but let me tell you--this kid thinks only of himself and it is high time that he realizes that what he does effects more than just himself....that it effects those around him and those that care the most about him. It is time he starts growing up and getting out of the childish, self-centered way of thinking. He is not a kid anymore...he is a young man and it is time he started acting like it.

Oh, and I think that by the time he goes back to school he just may hate me, but he will be the model of good and polite behavior. I am determined to turn this kid around. Whatever it takes. Even if I have to turn into a wicked step-mother from hell. He will change.

That is where we stand for now. I will update when we know anything new.

And THANK YOU all for all your prayers! They help BIG TIME!!

My heart is hurting

2009-10-01T14:09:00.003-06:00

I am asking that you say some prayers for my family right now. Big J. messed up REALLY REALLY bad and the consequences are not just his now.

Today, in his 1st period class, Big J. lit a firework (one of those red fire cracker ones) in the middle of class. The security guards hauled him down to the office and did a search on him and he had marijuana in his shoe. The cops were called, he got smart with the officer and the officer put him in handcuffs. B. went down there (I was in class at the time). Big J. was VERY close to going to jail today, he might end up there soon. He is suspended for 10 days right now and we will have a hearing before the school board soon to find out if he will be suspended for 365 days or expelled for a year. If he is just suspended for the next year, we can try to get him into a school near here, but if he is expelled, he cannot go to school ANYWHERE in New Mexico. We have to go go juvenile court in the morning to find out what they are going to do to him for the firework incident and the drugs. We are going to make sure that he will be facing whatever they throw at him and are not going to fight it or try to make excuses for him. We are done standing up for him and defending him. Time for him to face the consequences for his actions.

B. is facing the chance of jail time because of the firework. They are saying because it is considered an illegal firework that it is a felony so therefore, since Big J. is a minor, the consequence falls to his father for the possession of the firework. We will not know if there will be any charges against B. until Monday when the Fire Marshall is back in town and at work. B. is looking at a fine of up to $1000 and up to a year in prison. All because Big J. thought it would be funny to set off a firework in class. And this was just a firework that we had put up that was left over from the 4th. We never in a million years thought he would get into them and take them to school. We had them put up. We THOUGHT he didn't know where they were. We were wrong. This is having a major ripple effect in our lives. If B. is convicted of this felony, he cannot teach EVER. He is working towards a degree in Education and with a felony of this sort, he can never teach. If he is convicted of this, his dreams of his future career are gone forever.

We are at a loss right now. We don't know what to do. We don't know where we went wrong and why Big J. is doing all that he is doing. I am terrified that my husband is going to be going to prison and I will have to be alone for a year. I am terrified that we will end up getting all of the kids taken from us. I am scared out of my mind that my ex-husband will find out about this and try to use this to take my 2 kids away from me. I am sick just thinking about losing my family.

We know for sure that he will not be going back to live with his mother. She already told B. today that Big J. cannot go back to living with her. We will be waiting to find out what is going on tomorrow and then going from there. Probably going to be looking into some alternative schools for kids with problems that he can go to. I cannot deal with him everyday. I cannot do homeschooling with him the way he has been lately. I just can't do it. I feel like a horrible person because of that, but I just simply cannot do it.

We love him so much but at the same time are so disappointed, frustrated, heart-broken, and flat out pissed off.

Please just pray for us. Pray that he will finally learn from his mistakes and turn his life around. Pray that B. does not end up in jail over this. Pray that our family can make it through this intact.

I guess I know now why we have been unsuccessful in getting pregnant. I don't think I could deal with this while pregnant without adverse affects on the baby or myself. This is just too much stress.

Hi, My name is Jennifer and I'm an addict

2009-09-24T14:49:00.006-06:00

Yep, I'm coming out of the closet in my addiction. My hubby knows now, my friends know now, my kids know....now my bloggy friends are going to know.

What is this addiction you ask???

The TWILIGHT Saga!!!!

Yep, you read that right. I'm one of those twenty-something-pushing-thirty ladies that are completely, head-over-heals OBSESSED with all things Twilight (and RPatz).

I have recently been adding blogs to my blog roll that are Twilight related which you can see under the heading "I follow these...".

Right now, I am waiting on Diva D. to finish up Twilight so that I can read it again. Big J. is currently reading Eclipse and my sis-in-law has borrowed Breaking Dawn from me(which I hope she is almost done because I will need it soon). I will NOT start reading them again until all of the books are finished by whomever is reading them right now, because I can finish one of the books in a day and will need the next book the very next day.

You could say that since I have come to terms with this addiction, I have been feeding it more openly and without shame. I am not ashamed to say that if RPatz (Robert Pattinson, for those that don't know who that is) were to say he wanted me now.....................I would go. But seeing as how that will only happen in a when-hell-freezes-over type of situation, I don't see that being an issue.

AAAANNNYYY WAY, I saw this oh-so-yummy-super-sexy video of the ever delicious RPatz over at Twitarded . I just had to share this with everyone on my blog. **warning** there is a song that goes with this. If you do not want "Sexual Freak" blaring to all your co-workers or family, I suggest a pair of headphones or no sound at all.

Now, tell me that was not AWESOME! Those smoldering eyes, those lips I just want to suck off his face, that jaw that I could nibble on forever.....ahhhhh. *fanning myself to keep from over-heating*

Well, now you all know. Plan on seeing posts about this addiction more often now that I've "come out" about it. I promise that not every single post will be Twilight related or RPatz related, but I will be posting about stuff. And plan on me getting to the midnight showing of New Moon and blogging about it afterward.

But, hey, we have a few months before that happens.

AND do me a favor, please let me know if you are a TwiFreak like me....we can feed our obsession together! And if you are a TwiFreak.....click on the button on my sidebar that says "Twilight Continues".....it is a fanfic (fan fiction) site that continues the story of the Cullens after Breaking Dawn!

Not Me! Monday!

2009-09-21T13:07:00.003-06:00

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Well, I haven't been doing Not Me! Monday! lately and frankly haven't been blogging much lately. Not feeling too inspired, been busy with school, been sick, ....I could go on and on about why I have not been blogging much, but I will not bore you with the details.

On to Not Me! Monday!

I am not the one that has only worked 2 days in the last month. Not me. I work as much as possible. Not as little as possible. Never. Not me!

I most certainly did not give Diva D. the "talk to the hand" gesture yesterday when she interrupted me while doing my homework for the tenth time in less than 45 minutes. I never do that sort of thing to my children. I am an attentive mother that drops everything (even homework) for my children's every question. Not me!

I was not secretly hoping on Thursday that my class would be canceled so that I didn't have to sit through a completely pointless, mind-numbingly boring lecture from a crazy cat-lady professor. I love going to class every week. I also did not do a little happy dance when class was actually canceled. Not me!

Well, that is a little of what I have NOT been doing. Head on over to MckMama's blog and see what everyone else has NOT been doing lately!

Haircut on a whim!

2009-09-17T14:58:00.002-06:00

I decided to get a haircut today on a whim. I think it turned out good. Don't know if I will ever be able to style it the way the beautician did, but hey, I'll make it work!

Here I am before:

And After:

Writer's Workshop: Mom Moment

2009-09-17T09:47:00.004-06:00

It's Thursday and you know what that means-----Writer's Workshop from Mama Kat @ Mama's Losin' It!! (btw, Mama Kat is having a giveaway!! Go check it out!!!)

I have been slacking some and not doing much of these lately. What can I say....I've been busy with school (who am I kidding, I've just been too lazy).

Here are the prompts:

1.) If You Give A Mom A Moment...

2.) What's the message you would craft

3.) Your Fall favorites.

4.) If your pet could talk, what would you want to know?

5.)If you could only focus on three things in life and pursue them fully, leaving everything else, what would they be and why?

I think I will do #1: If you give a Mom a moment.

If you give a Mom a moment,

She might take up drinking.

If you give a Mom a moment,

She might get some sleep.

If you give a Mom a moment,

She might throw a party.

But, mostly, if you give a Mom a moment,

She will spend it loving her kids.

That's what I do!

Friend Makin' Monday

2009-09-14T09:35:00.007-06:00

This week Amber is asking this:

What are some of your favorite fall shows?

In no particular order, here they are:

Heroes

Medium

Survivor

NCIS

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (only the original, not the wannabe CSI shows)

Chuck (not even sure if it is on this season)

The Big Bang Theory

Gary Unmarried

Fringe

Criminal Minds

And, yes, we do watch all of these, and more. The DVR is a wonderful thing!! We record everything and try to get caught up on the weekends when there is nothing on our 200+ channels!!

What are you watching this fall?? Head on over to see Amber and tell everyone what you are watching!

Testing signature

2009-09-13T15:41:00.001-06:00

Testing my signature out.

A Quote from my 5-year-old: Reading Minds

2009-09-07T20:29:00.006-06:00

The other day, little J. announced "I can read my own mind."

This is after he put his ear up to everyone's head (except mine because I'm sick) and tried to read their minds.

Ah, the imagination of that child.

Promise there will be more of these as he pops off with funny things (which is daily!).

Here the little silly guy is....doing what he does best....being silly!

I have a blog button now!!

2009-09-07T16:28:00.004-06:00

Check it out!! I have a blog button and a way to grab it for your blog!!

Grab it and display it on your blog today!!!

It's over there on the right, just below my twitter button!!

President Obama's Speech to the Students of Our Nation

2009-09-04T16:38:00.002-06:00

Now I know that there are some of you out there in blogland that might think that I am going to be one of those that is spouting to "keep your children home so they are not exposed to it", but I am not. I am writing this note because that sort of talk has me a little miffed.

I have seen the speech Obama is going to give to the youth of America referred to as "National Brain Washing Day" and comparing this speech to those that Hitler gave to the youth of Germany, and I am appalled. Now, I am not an adamant supporter of Obama by any means, but I do not believe that because the President of the United States is going to make a speech to the children of this nation to "urge students to take personal responsibility for their own education, to set goals, and to not only stay in school but make the most of it" ( http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/My-Education-My-Future/) that he is trying to brain wash our children.

Give me a freaking break. I'm sorry, but I have seen what the school system is like....I have seen first-hand how these children behave, and I have seen with my own eyes the parents taking up for the kids when the teacher has to inform them that their precious, can-do-no-wrong child does something very wrong or is not meeting the standards of their grade level. I have seen that there are children that are not held accountable for their own actions by their parents.

I know there are a lot of kids that are not like this, but it is the kids like this that hold the "good" kids back. It is kids like this that disrupt the class. It is kids like this that have an utter lack of respect for school personnel because their parent have the same lack of respect for school personnel. It is kids like this that the speech is aimed at.

Someone needs to hold these kids accountable for their actions and if their parents are not going to do it, then why not the President of the United States.....no matter WHO he is.

And I'm sorry listening to one speech about taking responsibility for your education, setting goals, and making the most of your education is not "brain washing" and it is not bad.

Are my kids going to watch this speech? Yes, if their school decides to show it they will. I think if nothing else it will give them something to think about and maybe discuss with us when they get home.

My own mother is considering not sending my little brother to school if the school he goes to decides to show the President's speech, so don't any one person go getting bent out of shape thinking I am aiming this at you. I have seen it ALL OVER THE PLACE and am really tired of seeing it and needed to put my two cents in here.

This is my opinion and my opinion only. You have your own opinion, I have mine. Let's be respectful of each other here. I don't mind a little debate over this, but will not tolerate any hateful comments. Thank you.

You can find more information about this speech at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/

Friend Makin' Monday

2009-08-31T11:02:00.006-06:00

I saw this over at Third Time's a Charm and thought this would be a fun thing to do!

This originates from Amber and is a type of 20 questions thing!

Sounds fun....right???

Well here are the questions and my answers. This will give you a bit of a glimpse of my OCD tendencies and how we do things in our home!

1. Do you cook every night?

Pretty much. We have not been going out to eat much at all, so we are kind of forced to cook in order to feed our hungry, growing children (and ourselves of course). Hubs and I tend to share the cooking duties, so it is nice that I am not the only one cooking meals for all of us!

2. What kind of laundry detergent do you use & why?

We use Gain. We use it because of my super-sensitive skin that tends to break out into a rash when we try other detergents (or sometimes for no reason at all). I hate not being able to get just whatever kind of detergent or dryer sheets we want, and forget about fabric softener....that stuff makes me break out no matter the brand!

3. Do you do laundry every day or loads at a time?

It sure seems like I do laundry every day, but I tend to leave most of it until the weekend and just do loads (MOUNTAINS) of laundry then. Sometimes it all gets done, sometimes not.

4. How often do you eat out per week?

Lately, z-e-r-o. We have been BROKE lately and just cannot afford to take 5 of us out to eat. But we are going to go out on Saturday night. We are taking my mom out to eat at Red Lobster for her birthday on Saturday.

5. Where do you usually eat out?

The kids love Chili's, Applebee's, IHOP (where all the one-legged waitresses work), and the all-you-can-eat Chinese joint we have around here. Usually we go where the kids vote to go (when we go out). Most of the time we opt for the all-you-can-eat joints because out two oldest children can EAT!

6. What is your favorite retail store?

Hmmm....we usually go to WalMart, simply because it is cheap and when you are on a budget...that is the way to go! I lurve (not a typo) Target and find that our budget does not, so I have been avoiding that store like the plague simply because I cannot seem to get out of that store for less than $50 (or $100....that sounds more like it). That store is like crack! You can't just go in for one thing, because you will come out with about 10.

7. What’s your favorite thing to drink?

Pepsi is my drink of choice, although I need to cut back and start drinking some good old H2O, since we are trying to get pregnant. I need to cut my caffeine intake WAAAAYYYY down so there will be no harmful effects on the baby (which I am going to be positive about and say is already there). This is going to be hard to do, and I am sure there will be some missing heads (from me biting them off), but I know it will be worth it.

8. Do you take vitamins?

Yeppers I do. I was taking a prenatal vitamin but have had to discontinue those due to some not-so-pleasant gastrointestinal problems they were causing. Right now I am taking a folic acid supplement and kiddie vitamins in place of the prenatal vitamin.

9. What percentage of the household chores do you do?

I would say about 50%. You wondering how I do that?? See the next question. *giggling maniacally*

10. Do your children do chores? (Or will they, did they, etc).

Yes. They. Do. The children do dishes, take out trash, feed the dog, clean their rooms, put up their clean laundry, and clean their bathroom. The teenager helps his dad with the lawn, since he is now old enough to operate a lawn mower.

11. Do you go to church?

I do not. I am a spiritual person, but not a church person. We believe in God and his glorious, divine creation and know that Jesus is our Lord and Saviour, but we do not attend church.

12. Do you have a housework schedule?

Pretty much. Dishes every other day, trash almost every day, dog being fed everyday, laundry in the hamper every day, and the rest is done on a need basis (when it needs it, it gets cleaned).

13. Do you keep a working budget?

We HAVE to or we get into deep doo-doo. We have been on a VERY strict budget for a few months now and we are hoping (with the addition of a size-able deposit I just made from my left-over financial aid) that we will be able to relax a little on it now.

14. What do you do at night as a family?

Homework with kids (for them and me), make and eat dinner, watch some of our favorite shows or a movie, kids get bathed and in bed, and hubs and I have some quiet time to do what we need to do.

15. How do you prepare yourself for a new week?

I go over what we have coming up for the week and make whatever lists I need to to keep track of it all (I'm all about the lists, baby).

16. What do your mornings look like?

Depends on if I am working or not and if I have class.

If I am working, I get a call at the butt-crack of dawn; get up; get showered, dressed, and primped; get my lunch together; fill out my work sheet; load up all my teacher goodies in the van; and head to whatever school I'm working at.

If I have class I get up, get showered, get dressed, grab my book bag, and head out the door to the college.

If I do not have class or work, I sleep until I wake up naturally, mess around on the computer for a few hours, get a shower, and by the time I am dressed it is usually lunch time.

17. What time do you get up in the mornings?

see above. depends. for class it is 8 am. for work it is 6 am. for a free day it is anywhere from 8 am to 10 am.

18. What time do you go to bed at night?

late. very. very. late. usually around midnight or later. I am a night owl, so is the hubs. Not a good thing when you have to get up at the butt-crack of dawn.

19. How do you manage all of the paperwork that floods into your household? (bills, school work, magazines, ads, etc)

ok. bills go into our bill notebook. my school work has a shelf all to itself on the bookshelf, magazines also have a shelf on a bookshelf, ads go straight to the garbage, kids papers have a place of their own, and all the rest get filed away in their appropriate file folders.

20. How do you keep your household organized? (calendars, charts, etc.)

This is where my OCD tendencies come into play.

I have iCal on my computer that has color-coded calendars for the different things in our life. My work has one, my school has one, and each child has one.

For my school work each semester I print off a paper that has all my classes listed, which week it is for, and has space to put in assignments for each class each week.

We have a whiteboard that is divided up into squares that has chores listed, days of the week and spaces to put which child does which chore on which day.

I also have a pad on the refrigerator that has a space for each child with days of the week to keep track of their activities.

I also have a day planner that I fill in.

I hate missing things, being late, or forgetting that I had something to do. I like to know what is coming up before it gets there and getting things thrown at me last minute is the equivalent of fingernails on a chalk board for me. I tend to get a little pissy when we are running late and I am the person that is A-L-W-A-Y-S early. If I am late it is someone else's fault and I can guarantee that my blood pressure is through the roof in those instances.

Well, that is it for me! Make sure and head over to see Amber to check out everyone else's answers!

Writer's Workshop: SWEET FREEDOM!!!

2009-08-20T11:27:00.004-06:00

It's Thursday and that means it is time for the Writer's Workshop from Mama Kat @ Mama's Losin' It.

The Prompts:
1.) What will you be doing now that the kids are back in school?
(inspired by Michelle from Honest And Truly)
2.) Things I have learned from my toddler.
(Inspired by Big Mama Cass from The World Through My Eyes).
3.) What would you put in your favorite things giveaway?
(inspired by Jill from Scary Mommy who is having a favorite things giveaway right NOW! Check it out!!)
4.) Hi, my name is ______ and I am a _______.
(inspired by Emmy from Emmy Mom One Day At A Time.)
5.) If these walls could talk...
(inspired by JennyMac from Let's Have A Cocktail)

This week I am choosing to do number one: What will you be doing now that the kids are back in school?

Well, my kids have been back in school for the past week (see previous post here.), so I have been doing the following:

1) Sleeping in until I am ready to get up, not when the kids start making too much racket and wake me up.

2) NOT watching cartoons all day

3) NOT having the Spongebob theme song stuck in my head EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. (shit, there it is....I shouldn't have said anything)

4) Having some peace and QUIET. I forgot what it was like. It is nice. very, very nice.

5) Eating candy for breakfast if I so please without six little eyes (6, because 3 kids live with us and they each have 2 eyes....get it) staring at me while I enjoy my not-so-nutritious breakfast of champions.

6) Getting ready for my college classes

7) Going to the bookstore for above classes without 20 (ok that's an exaggeration....there is only 3....sometimes 4) kids in tow.

8) Making threatening calls to the college because they screwed up something else without kids in earshot of my rage (ok, ok....they are not threatening....just angry).

9) Noon-ers with the hubs (sorry...it is what has been going on....I know it is TMI).

10) Eventually working (if they ever call me in).

11) Watching all the kid inappropriate movies I have had on our DVR for months and months (these are just movies we don't let the kids watch).

----------------------------------

Well, that is what I've been up to (and as of today....going to class as well) since the kids have been back at school.

Which prompt will you choose?? Head on over and visit Mama Kat and choose your prompt!

Musings of a Blonde Mom

Writer's Workshop: 5 things

Tristan is 1 year old!!!

I've been getting crafty!

*Almost* 10 Months/Summer Update

Pic heavy update!

HUGE update!

My Plea to You

Tristan: 3 Months old.

Merry Christmas

One Month

Update: Prayers Needed-and answered

Update: Prayers Needed

Prayers Needed

Tristan's Birth Story

Introducing.....

Updates

Growing belly: 37 weeks 1 days

Dropping Babies!

Update galore!

Growing belly: 26 weeks 5 days

Happy 4th!!!

Time is flying!

Baby Stuff!!!!

Growing belly: 22 weeks 4 days

Graduations, Shaving and Growing up too fast

It's A........

Nesting....THIS SOON???

Growing belly: 19 weeks

Writer's Workshop: Ode to Stretchy Pants

FINALLY!!

Whims....

Week 17 appointment

Major FAIL!

Growing belly: 15 weeks

Been MIA And Going To Be MIA More

13 weeks appointment

Hello, second Trimester, nice to see you!

Houston, we have movement!

Growing belly: 10 weeks

Happy Birthday.....

First OB visit

When it rains, it pours

Ranting Mad

Recipe: Western Egg Strata

Growing belly: 8 weeks

Valentine's flowers

Ultrasound!

Nerves, Nerves, Nerves

Friend Makin' Monday: Valentine's Day

Baby is OK!

Heading to ER tonight

Hormones make me weep

Quick update

Nerves

Fantastic Friday!!

Writer's Workshop: Advised to BS

Post-it Note Tuesday: First time!

Friend Makin' Monday: Daybook

Writer's Workshop: Weirdest Dream EVER!

Family Photo Time

"Interesting" Award

Writer's Workshop: 100th Post and a Broken Heart

Random Tuesday Thoughts

We have a "big boy" on our hands now!

HGTV Dream Home Sweepstakes!!

Man, I've been gone a while

WOW! It's been a while!

My Halloween-y post

Hurry up and wait

Just a little update on all things ME!

RPattz/Twi funny

Another update on Big J.

Chance To Go To Premiere of New Moon!

An update on Big J.

My heart is hurting

Hi, My name is Jennifer and I'm an addict

Not Me! Monday!

Haircut on a whim!

Writer's Workshop: Mom Moment

Almost 10 Months/Summer Update