Back to the Land of the LIving and Goodbye 2008

Our family and extended family has been passing around that nasty stomach virus that everyone seems to be getting lately. Jeremy had it last weekend and finally got better Sunday night. Monday everyone felt great and I went to bunco and won "Most Wins," woohoo!
Tuesday morning rolled around and Gracie started vomiting after breakfast. She has never been one to spit up and it has probably been months since she has spit up at all and the only other time she has been sick was with two ear infections, which really don't bother her that much. Needless to say, it was so hard to watch her suffer as she vomited NINE times throughout the course of the day. We both went through countless outfits (and Dad even got puked on once too), crib sheets, and three baths. I was so worried that she was dehydrated so I packed her in the car and headed to Locust to the dr. at almost 5 that night. Turns out, there was nothing that they could give her and I just had to go buy Pedialyte and start trying to get her to keep it down. Anyways, after many shed tears and prayers she has not thrown up at all today and hopefully the diarhhea that everyone else has gotten will not be bad if it starts tomorrow. Now I know why moms are such worriers, it is so hard to watch your child suffer like that and this was only for one day. I can't imagine having a child with a serious illness or disease. There are days when I feel like I have it all together on this "Mom" thing and days like yesterday when I was clueless as to what to do.

As my mom would say, I am getting "back to the land of the living" and finally getting caught up on housework and laundry on this New Year's Eve night. Hubby is of course at the church until well after midnight so I am going to be reading one of the fabulous new books he got me for Christmas. Anyone else out there a Karen Kingsbury fan? I am on the 4th book in the "Redemption" series. You won't want to put them down once you start.





Happy New Year everyone!

A short list at 2008 for our family:

• God watched over us in January as a man ran a stop sign and t-boned us on a country road on our way to church. My Malibu was totalled and I spent the night in the hospital to make sure the baby was ok. Thankfully, we both walked away with only minor bruises and scratches.
• We became completely debt-free in Feb.
• We were blessed with FOUR baby showers and everything we could possibly need to welcome our baby girl into the world.
• We found out a week before Gracie was born that our house would no longer be "provided" for us and we would have to pay rent or buy it.
• Gracie surprised us with her debut into the world 3 wks. early and completely changed our lives forever.
• I said goodbye to a job I loathed and co-workers I had grown to love.
• Super Summer, Falls Creek, and the usual summer youth activities
• We decided to stay in our home and closed on it in July.
• We put a new roof on the house and new windows.
• Enjoyed our first holidays as a family of 3.
• Continuously counting our blessings that God provided for us in 2008 and looking forward to what will happen in 2009.

15 Random Facts

15 Random Facts About Myself (in no particular order)

1. Every week I read online in the paper the legal notices that shows who got married, divorced, sued, ticketed, sold their home, etc. I'm not sure why I find this interesting, but I do.

2. Other than our house we are completely debt free and proud of it (maybe a future post on this).

3. I have 3 sisters who are 26, 11, and 6 and think the term "half sister" is completely ridiculous.

4. My husband works at a church. I do too, but the check is made out to him :).

5. I am already planning Gracie's first birthday party and know what I want to buy her for Christmas next year.

6. If someone leaves me a comment on my blog with a question I always try to answer them back and I wonder why some people don't when I leave them comments.

7. I miss wearing maternity clothes.

8. I might have a temporary part-time job soon but don't want to jinx it by saying what yet.

9. My favorite local restaurant is Las Fuentes.

10. I want to start training for 5k runs again next year.

11. I miss college life.

12. I don't think I ever want to go back to working in Social Work again.

13. I want to go to Hawaii for my 10th anniversary.

14. I had a Pog collection in elementary school.

15. My husband is my best friend.

Ok, I tag whoever wants to do this-that way no one feels obligated :)

Merry Christmas

I just wanted to say a quick "Merry Christmas!" to all of you as I probably won't have time to post in the next few days. May you feel the beauty of this season as we celebrate His birth. Also, if you wouldn't mind saying a quick prayer for my family as my mom is making tough decisions concerning putting my 84 year old grandma in a nursing home. Thank you and God bless!

Baby Survey

I stole this from Lisa.

MY FIRST BABY
Here you go Moms - a different kind of survey for a change - it's all about you and your first baby.
Were you married at the time? yes
How old were you? 24
How did you find out you were pregnant? I went to Wal-Mart at 2 in the morning and bought a pregnancy test because I could not sleep not knowing.
What was your reaction when you found out you were pregnant? a little surprised and so excited
Who did you tell first? Jeremy
Did you want to find out the sex? yes, I can't handle suspense like that
Due date? May 9
Did you deliver early or late? early, at exactly 37 wks
Did you have morning sickness? some, but mainly just bad migraines
What did you crave? mexican food and ice cream
How many pounds did you gain throughout the pregnancy? about 45
Did you lose all the weight? yes, and then over 10 more, thanks to breastfeeding and quitting a stressful job
Did you have any complications during your pregnancy? not really, but I did have to stay overnight at the hospital for observation at 24 wks. because we were in a bad car accident and my blood pressure got a little high in the end
Who drove you to the hospital? actually I drove myself-my mom went with me to the hospital to turn in my 24 hr. urine test and my water just happenned to break on its own while we were at the hospital
How long were you in labor? almost 9 hours total including 2 hrs. of pushing
Did you take any medicine for pain? loved that epidural
How much did your child weigh? 6 lbs. 12 oz.
What did you name him/her? Gracie Rayne
Was he/she named after anyone/anything special? nope, her daddy came up with it
How old is your firstborn today? 8 months tomorrow
Does your firstborn have any siblings? nope
If not, how many siblings do you want your firstborn to have? the jury's out-ask me again after I have one more

Neighbors

Do you know your neighbors? Let me introduce you to mine. When we moved here we hit the neighbor jackpot. We have several fantastic neighbors but our next door neighbors are the best.

Before we moved in, (well technically it was just Jeremy because it was a few months before we got married) we worked on the house for a few weeks first painting and just trying to make it liveable really. Our neighbor would bring us and our youth group workers over sandwiches and drinks. How nice is that?

Their children are grown and they don't have any grandchildren yet so they have sort of adopted Gracie. When we brought Gracie home from the hospital they met us in the driveway taking pictures and with a homemade chocolate cake that said, "Welcome Gracie."

She is an excellent cook and enjoys all things decorating. If her husband is at work and she needs something heavy lifted or nailed in the wall she calls for Jeremy and I send him over. In October she organized a block party and we hosted it in our front yard. We thought we might have a few people and they might stay long enough to eat. Well I think we had about 25 people and it started at 3:00 and when I put Gracie to bed after 8 some people were just getting ready to leave. We had such a fun time getting to know one another.


jam session at the party-we have some very musically talented people on our block (husband included)

Yesterday afternoon, she called me to see if I had made dinner yet. Of course I had not because we were running extremely low on groceries and I did not want to leave the house in this icy weather. She said she had some homemade stew and rolls for us if we wanted it so I jumped at the offer. She does this frequently when she makes a big dinner.

Well, I have rambled on enough so if you do not know your neighbors what better time than to take them a Christmas card and some homemade goodies.


our wonderful neighbors-note: Pepsi in hand-not beer :)

Ornaments

I have been meaning to do this for a while and have just now gotten around to it so here goes:

I have quite a few of these brand new ornaments in my attic and would like to get rid of them and make a few bucks in the process (don't ask how I got them-long story). They are Partylite ornaments that are brand new in the box. Some of the boxes may have some wear due to storage but none of the ornaments are damaged. The names of the ornaments are: Father Christmas, Snowbell Boy and Girl, and Snowbell Mom. I believe that they are "retired." The boy and girl come in the same box and the Father Christmas and Snowbell Mom are by themselves. I am asking $1 per box or will make a better deal if you buy a lot. You could use them as fillers for your tree at home, office, or last minute gifts.



Let me know if you live in my area and are interested in some. Thanks!

Culturing my Husband

Today at my Mom to Mom group we played a fun game of Dirty Santa. I normally just buy a cutesy Christmas decoration at Hobby Lobby for these games, but knowing our tight budget this year I was thrilled at the instructions for the game for this group. Our leader said that we could buy something if we wanted to or if we had something at home we wanted to bring that was fine too and we also had to write out why we had brought that item. I had some good ideas of what I could go buy but decided to spend my $15 getting Gracie's Christmas pictures done at Wal-Mart instead. So I came home empty-handed and at the last minute remembered the cute Christmas picture frame that my husband's aunt had given me last year. I think I have probably re-gifted a lot more in the past few years than I care to admit. Anyone else out there a re-gifter?

Anyways, on with the story. I ended up getting some DELICIOUS Lindt truffles (I already ate 3 today! Woops!) and the Michael Buble Let It Snow CD. When Jeremy came home I showed him what I won and he says, "Who's Michael Bubble (like the gum)?" I thought he was joking but it turns out he really has never heard of him. I think I need to get him out more.

Cord Saver???

Random Poll: Does anyone think it is odd to save the baby's umbilical cord after it falls off to put in their baby book? I told my family that I did this and they thought it was so weird!

Later my dad tells me that after I left they were talking about it and my dad and my grandpa's wife had my cousin convinced that I also had the whole cord saved in my freezer because of the life-saving capabilities in the cord blood. I guess she had heard of how valuable the cord blood was but didn't realize you had to do that at the hospital, because obviously I do NOT have anything like that in my freezer!