Happy New Year!

Hello Dear Readers,

It has been way too long and I apologize for that. Part of it was morning sickness and not wanting to sit down in front of a computer. Can't blog from my phone, that would take forever! The other part was once I stopped blogging, it was hard to get back into it. Another part is I was afraid if I talked to much about baby, something bad would happen again and I didn't want to jinx it. So we will starts with baby and then move on from there.

We nicknamed the baby Razz. Since we aren't finding out the sex of the baby, we needed a nickname. Ayden was Bean when he was a fetus, so this one needed a nickname too. As of today, I am 20 weeks and 1 day pregnant! Razz is half baked! Last Tuesday we had our anatomy scan and Razz was doing good and everything checked out normal. That was a relief and I think I am finally getting excited about his or her arrival in May. Now I need to make a list of everything that needs to get done before then.

Our Christmas was good. Ayden was so curious this year and loved the lights on the house and tree. He loved unwrapping the presents too. While I don't think he got what was happening, I'm guessing next year he will and it will be a lot of fun to watch him and teach him about the meaning of the season. We also hosted dinner for 10. It was a fun, wild and crazy time. For New Year's Eve we just had a quiet night at home. I made it until midnight, so that was amazing, since I am usually in bed by 10pm these days.

Now it is January and a new year. A fresh start with so many possibilities! I haven't made any resolutions per se, but I do have some things I would like to accomplish. In no particular order:

1. Plan weekly meals and cook more at home.
2. Use coupons and spend money wisely.
3. Enjoy these last five months as a family of three.
4. Make a stick to a cleaning schedule.
5. Read more.
6. Blog more.

To start off number 5, I have a book I've been wanting to read and the chapters go by months. I figure I will start and blog about the book as I read it. I've heard good things from those that have read it, so I'm excited to start. Here is the book:

What resolutions have you made?

I hope you are all having a wonderful start to 2012!

Baby #2 Update

Today I am 4weeks and 2 days pregnant! We found out on Friday and were overjoyed. I am trying to be optimistic, but it is hard to not think of the miscarriage and worry at every little twinge or pain. Yesterday I had a backache all day and it is back again today. I am telling myself to breathe and that the outcome is out of my hands. I have prayed for the chance to have another baby, and hopefully that prayer has been answered. Now I am piecing together the milestones I need to make it to, for a hopefully positive end result. Here are the first four:

Milestone#1-3 weeks from today, I will be 7w, 2d pregnant which is a day past when I miscarried last time.

Milestone#2-October 12th, my first OB appointment. Also the day after milestone #1.

Milestone #3-TBD-next OB appointment, where we can hear baby's heartbeat.

Milestone #4-20 week ultrasound.

More milestones will be added as the pregnancy progresses. I promise this will not turn into a baby blog, but you have been there for me in the rough times, and I wanted you here for the good times too.

September Musings

I can't believe it's September already! I know I say this every month, but come on, September already? The beginning of the month has been quite busy. David took Friday off, so we had a four day weekend together. It was great. Friday we went to the Natural History Museum. It wasn't crowded, so we let Ayden walk around and he had a blast being able to walk around this huge space. He loved looking at the dinosaur bones and wanted to touch a prehistoric shark on display. He also loved this elk I took a picture of:

After the museum we went to an area of town called Little Italy. Ayden got his first taste of Mamma Santa's pizza, which is delicious! Then it was nap time and he had a nice dinner together.

Saturday was a stay at home kind of day, David and his brother put carpet in the playroom, so Ayden has his space back and we have our living room back. It is wonderful! Sunday we went for a walk and then had David's brother over for a cookout. Monday was another walk and dinner at my mom's. A great weekend and it was so nice to spend time with David and not have him get called into work.

On baby #2 news, this cycle we finally have no interruptions and are back on board. I am excited and nervous and hope this cycle works out. If not, we'll keep trying (that's the fun part), isn't it? I am remaining optimistic and positive and hopefully in a couple weeks, we will get that positive test.

Monday we started having cooler weather, I mean jeans and sweatshirt weather. We go from 90 to 65, what a joy-not! Another sign that fall is coming, are the return of Pumpkin Spice Lattes at Starbucks! I heard Tuesday was the first day they would be out and I just had to go to Target to get one. It was quite delicious! They also have a Salted Caramel Mocha out, which is new. I am curious to try that as well. What are some of your favorite fall things?

Happy Sipping!


Another thing I love about fall, the new TV season starts again. I know some shows start next week and then the season kicks into high gear the week of the 19th. I'm curious about a couple new shows, namely Up All Night and Revenge. Up All Night is with Christina Applegate and Will Arnett. I love Will Arnett and really hope this series works out for him.



Revenge stars Emily VanCamp (Rebecca on Brother & Sisters) and is set in The Hamptons. Here's a synopsis courtesy of E!:



"The series follows VanCamp's Emily Thorne (formerly Amanda Clark) on her mission for revenge against the people who framed her father (played by James Tupper in flashbacks) for a crime he didn't commit 17 years ago, destroying her childhood in the process. They say time heals all wounds, but we're pretty sure Emily would tell whoever concocted that expression to go to hell.
VanCamp is outstanding in the role, making you question the sincerity and objective of Emily's every move, facial expression and word. She's charming and charismatic one minute, cold, calculated and slightly crazy the next. She's a less homicidal, female version of Dexter Morgan: Though you might not agree with everything she does, you can't help but be captivated by her."

What fall shows are you looking forward to?

Hope everyone is having a great week!

What a week!

It has been a crazy week here! I am still trying to wrap my head around it. Here we go:
Monday: Great normal day. I cleaned some, did laundry and we went to the park. I was looking forward to my friend Carrie Ann coming over with her kids for breakfast on Thursday. Went to my Mom's for dinner and we came home.

Tuesday/Wednesday: Repeat cleaning, laundry and walk in the park. Dinner at Mother-in-law's, we came home and were relaxing and then the phone rings. David's work phone that is. This is David's week to be on the duty phone and any after hours calls go directly to him. Around 10pm he gets a call, tries working on it at home and realizes he needs to go in to the office. Leaves around 10:30 for that and gets home at 6am. I stay up until 11:30. I woke up and looked at the clock and it was 5am, I did not fall back to sleep until I heard the garage door open. Ayden thankfully woke up at 7:30, so I got a little bit of extra sleep. David didn't have to go in to work Wednesday. After Ayden and I had breakfast, we left to run errands in anticipation of tomorrow's fun with my friend and to let David sleep. We came home, went to lunch and had a good day.

I also couldn't wait to try out one of my new OPI colors, so during Ayden's nap Tuesday afternoon, I painted my toes Honk If You Love OPI, and I love it! Here's a look:

Wednesday night/Thursday: We get a huge wicked rainstorm. At 1:30am David wakes me up telling me we are getting water in our basement. We bring all of Ayden's toys upstairs, the carpet is soaked. Ayden's playroom is no more. David calls his boss Thursday and he works from home and cleans up the mess. The carpet needs to get ripped up and our living room is now Ayden's play area. The positive out of this is we were going to get carpet professionally installed, and we didn't. David and his brother went to Lowe's got some carpet and padding and installed it themselves. I was so upset seeing the carpet that we put down two months earlier get cut up and thrown out, if we had it professionally installed, I would of been sick thinking of all that money going down the drain. David also had a comp day on Friday and we were worried he would have to go in since he was off Thursday. His boss said no, take your comp day.

Our get together was also cancelled seeing as our house was a mess. Next week we can hopefully get together.

Playroom before:

Playroom after:

Our living room now:

Friday: We go to the zoo with Mother-in-law and one of David's brothers. It was a perfect day and the animals were really active. This was a great way to end the crazy week and start our weekend.

Today: David and his other brother are fixing the sump pump which failed in the rainstorm. Hopefully it will fix the problem and we won't get water again. Tomorrow we're celebrating David's brother Jerry's birthday.
Here's to hoping we will not have a wild week next week.

Have a great weekend everyone! I hope those of you on the East Coast are staying safe!

Catching up

It has been a busy couple of weeks. August 4-7, I left my two guys and went to a convention. It is for my mom's group, MOPS. MOPS stands for Mother's of Preschoolers and is for mom's who have kids from infants to Kindergartners. We meet once a month from September to May and there are outings throughout the summer. My friend who invited me to join the group also invited me to the convention. Her husband travels frequently, so the hotel room was free. I figured why not go and get away with my friend. The convention was in Nashville, TN and the Opryland Hotel, let me tell you, it is gorgeous! We didn't stay at the hotel, but our time spent there was fun. There were four general sessions with music and speakers and two breakout sessions. It was amazing to see all these women from all over the United Sates and 13 countries. I am glad I went, but I missed D & A terribly. I think four days away was a little much for the first time leaving, but I did it and everyone survived. I think it was good for me to leave and give D & A some time together and I know I returned refreshed and D & A were glad I was back home.

A milestone I missed was A walking for the first time. He was gradually taking steps before I left and sure enough Saturday he was walking. Fortunately, D caught it on tape and sent me the video. When I got home Sunday A got a huge smile on his face and walked to me. It was awesome! I can't believe this little person is growing and changing so much. It is amazing and humbling to be raising him and seeing all the progress he has made from being a tiny helpless blob dependent on you for everything, to slowly growing and testing the waters of independence. Now I know he's only 15 months, but before I know it, he'll be going off to school. I am getting all my cuddles in now because I know someday soon it will end and that makes me sad.

The following week was getting back into a routine and celebrating my mom's birthday. Her birthday was on Thursday, but we celebrated Friday. We went to the zoo and then I made her one of her favorite dinners, chicken enchiladas, Spanish rice and of course margaritas! Saturday we had date night and saw Harry Potter 7.2. It was good and I'm sad it is all over. Now the next big movie I'm looking forward to is Breaking Dawn, come on November 18th! Then Sunday we took A to his first Cleveland Indians game. It was great while it lasted, stupid rain! He had a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to the make up date to get the whole experience in.

While out shopping for my mom's birthday gift, I thought I should pick up a little something for myself. I needed a treat. The new fall OPI colors are out, have you seen them yet? I love them and had to restrain myself from only buying two. The collection is titled "Touring America," and has a bunch of fun colors. The two I got were "Honk If You Love OPI," a deep purple and "Get In The Expresso Lane," deep brown.

     

                                  
                   

Now I am not trying to rush fall, but I cannot wait to try out these colors. I feel like I need to wait until September though, so come September 1st, one of these colors will be on my nails.

Here's a look at the whole collection, which ones do you like?



Other than that, I've been getting back into reading. I have read four books in the past month and a half, Water for Elephants and The Hunger Games trilogy. All four books were great. I can't wait for WFE to come out on DVD, so I can see the movie and compare. HG is being made into movies, so I can't wait for them to come out. I am looking forward to discussing HG, with my online girls who have read it as well. Hopefully that will happen soon!

I am participating in a gift exchange with some of my fellow June 2009 brides, whom I consider friends, and my first package came today! I loved what was in it: my favorite candy, a new book and a special note that put a huge smile on my face. I was having a rough day and when the package arrived, it made everything better. So thank you to my Covert Cutie, I really needed this today!

Well I tried to put a picture in, but it is on my iPhone and I can't figure it out. I am technologically challenged. Here's pics of what I got:

               

I can't wait to read the book. Hope you are all doing well. Have a wonderful weekend!

August, really?

I can't believe it is August already! How do these months keep passing by so quickly? July was a pretty busy month for me. We went on vacation to Colorado to visit my brother-in-law, sister-in-law and her kids. The girls loved seeing Ayden again and we saw some pretty cool sights. It was also nice to see something other than flat land. The mountains are amazing and really make me want to move to another state someday.

After Colorado we had a family reunion for my side of the family, down where my mom grew up. It was really nice to see everyone and catch up. My cousin from Poland even came and many people got to meet Ayden for the first time. He was such a ham for everyone.

The following week we relaxed at home and got back in a routine. Then this past weekend, we had David's work picnic at Cedar Point. I haven't been there in about three years and I know why. Don't get me wrong, we had a lot of fun, but it was hot and standing in line sweating was not my idea of fun. I hate being hot and sweating on top of that makes me cranky, so until we went to the pavilion for the raffle and ice cream social, I was not the best company. Sorry D! The Corkscrew and Magnum were fun and after the raffle we rode the old cars and carousel. We tried to win a huge Papa Smurf, but no luck. Then we decided to leave and go get dinner on our own, since Ayden was with Grandma. Due to construction and horrific traffic jams, we did not have dinner out, but once A was in bed, we had some subs we picked up and watched Limitless. It was a really good movie. There was one scene I thought was cheesy, but for the most part, the film was good and the musical score drew you in. Plus Bradley Cooper isn't so bad to look at.

On the baby front, this month we will be seriously trying again. Last month with vacation, was not conducive to baby making since there was no privacy. I am going out of town at the peak time though, so I'm not sure if this will be our cycle or not. Fingers crossed!

So now it is August and the summer is winding down. This makes me sad because I feel like our summer didn't start with nice weather until the end of June. We have a few fun things planned, but this month is much more low key than July. Thank goodness!

Hope you Arugust is off to a great start!

Holiday Weekend!

I can't believe it is July already! It seems like summer just began and now it is half way over. David is off today and Monday and I am so looking forward to spending the long weekend together. Today has been nice so far. We went out to breakfast and ran a couple errands. When Ayden gets up from his nap, we're going to see and buy tickets for the YMCA Dream House. Every year out local YMCA builds a house you can tour and buy tickets for a chance to win. Every year we by tickets and tour the house. They are gorgeous and mybe this will be our year to win. Here's the link to check it out, YMCA Dream House. Tonight I am going out to dinner with a few girlfriends. I am excited to see them and have some adult time.

Saturday I need to clean the house, do laundry and David will do yard work. Then we have date night! I am so excited for that as well. I think we're going to see a movie and go to dinner. Maybe afterwards grab a drink somewhere. Sunday we are hosting a cookout. It will be my mom and David's mom and two, possibly three brothers and families. It should be a fun time.

On the 4th, we have no plans, and are deciding about fireworks. We want to go, but Ayden goes to sleep around 7:30, so I don't know that we want to mess with that. I also need to figure out all that we need for vacation. I cannot wait to go but need to start making my lists so I can figure out everything we need.

Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!

Big Fat...

Negative : ( I couldn't wait and I tested Wednesday. It was negative and this morning my period came right on schedule. Yay for predictability I guess, but what a let down. My body was just messing with me. All the nausea, exhaustion and boob fullness was for nothing. I was so disappointed and even cried a little (okay, a lot) this morning. This cycle is a bust and I know there is always next cycle, but I am still sad and wondering why it didn't happen this time. For whatever reason it didn't and I want to look toward the future and the next time we can try again. So today I can be sad and disappointed and tomorrow is a new day. That's all I have for today.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Big Week Ahead

Two posts in one day, crazy I know! Since there's only 10 days left in the month, I figure why not? Each month I say I'm going to get better at blogging and each month happens by and I don't. What is your secret? How do you do it? I certainly enjoy reading other's blogs, but can't seem to discipline myself enough to write my own. Maybe July will be different?

This week is most of the usual, dinner tonight at my mom's, dinner Tuesday at mother-in-law's, running errands, cleaning, laundry and possibly taking a home pregnancy test (HPT)!!! I say possibly because my period is supposed to come on Friday and if it does not, I will take the HPT. I actually want to take it right now, but am afraid. What if its negative? What if its positive? I am 10 days past ovulation today, so it really is too soon (or so I am telling myself). I have been experiencing nausea since Saturday, but am also wondering if my mind/body are playing tricks on me.

If it is negative and I get my period, then we try again next month. If it is positive, I will be excited, but also cautiously optimistic. I think until our baby is here, in our arms, and we get the all clear, I will be guarded. I will do my best not to stress out because I know that is not good for baby, but I think it is a natural reaction for anyone who has experienced loss before. To want something so much and know you might not get it this time either is tough, but I will deal with it the best way I can. By surrounding myself with a great support system and remembering to breathe and relax. Wish me luck and I'll keep you updated!

We Have a Playroom!

After some talking we decided to turn our theater room into Ayden's playroom. His toys were taking over our living room and we wanted a safe area for him to play in. David was a bit sad at having to say goodbye to the red walls and black ceiling, but he was a trooper and I'm glad we made the change. Having an area for Ayden where I can leave him to do laundry, fix dinner and not have to worry he'll get into something he shouldn't is so nice!

Here's the room before:

It took three coats of primer on the ceiling and walls, red & black are not so easy to cover up:

We chose a color called Surfer Waves at Lowe's. I thought it was a nice calming blue color, then it went up on the walls:

It isn't horrible, but not the color I was expecting. I love the mat we have down on the floor. Now I need to decorate the walls. Any suggestions?

June Already?

I can't believe the year is half over. How does time go by so fast? At the end of the month we'll have been married for two years! Not sure what we'll be doing on our anniversary but hopefully a vacation will be in our future. We haven't gone anywhere since our honeymoon, so I think we're due.

A lot has happened in the last month. I have walked faithfully at least four days a week and usually it is five. I am loving it! It is so nice that three days a week I have someone to walk with and then the other two days Ayden and I get out and walk. We have had a lot of rain lately so some days were a wash, but it looks like the weather is making a turn for the better. Hopefully the sun will keep shining and the weather will stay warm.

I have also been better at eating healthier foods. I am really trying not to bring junk food into the house and if I do want something I make sure to buy a small portion not a big bag of candy or cookies or whatever I may be craving. We have an East Coast Custard store at the end of our street. David and I have said if we want to go there, we will walk. I don't know how far it is but I'm guessing at least 3/4-1 mile. I am trying to get all the processed food out of our house and once it is gone I am going to start us on a healthy fresh food track. Now that it is summer, it should be easier to accomplish this with all the farmer's markets and fruit/veggies that are in season. I need to start cooking more meals at home. D is always asking when I'm going to start cooking, well D, it will begin soon! The payoff for all of this change? I've lost 4 pounds! I'll take it.

The other exciting thing is that this is our first month we will be trying for baby #2 again. I am nervous and excited and have a bunch of thoughts running through my mind. I'm trying not to stress about all the ifs, but its hard. I will just take one day at a time and put my faith in God that it will all work out the way it is supposed to.

I also had a birthday this week. Another year older and I am having a hard time with this one. I had a wonderful birthday weekend though. I got a mani and pedi, we went to the wineries with some friends, had dinner with my mom, grilled out and I got to sleep in on my birthday. That was heavenly! All in all, life is good and I'm ready to see what the month of June and the rest of the year will bring.

Sock Monkeys!

Wow, I've been a neglectful blogger. Hopefully I will get back in the swing of things soon. I said I would talk about Ayden's Sock Monkey themed party, so here we go. We have always called A "monkey" & knew I wanted that to be his theme for his first birthday. I figured monkeys should be easy to find in stores, guess what it isn't. They have zoo animal themes and farm animal themes (um hello-I didn't know monkeys were part of a farm, but was told about this theme when looking for monkey items). So I began my search online. I found Curious George themed items but wasn't crazy about them. Then I went to Etsy and what do you know Sock Monkeys came up on my radar and I loved the colors (red, brown and cream) and of course the sock monkey.

I decided to make the invites myself. That was easy enough: Jokerman font and clip art and you have an invite:

Then I needed to find decorations to match the theme. On Etsy I found this shop: PartiesByHardie and she had a printable sock monkey party that she sends you the pdf file and you print and design what you want. The perfect thing? The clip art I used on the invite was in the package. All I had to do was buy cream card stock, ribbon and a circle cutter. I had the rest of the supplies at home. Here are some of the things I did:

Banner:

Goody bags: How cool is this? Target had mini sock monkeys so that is what the kids who came to our party left with. I put the thanks yous on.

We also got Ayden a big sock monkey:

Some other pictures from the party Ayden's birthday cake:

Ayden has his mommy's sweet tooth!

We also got A a birthday plate on Etsy from thewildbaby

I still can't believe A is one! The past year has been amazing and I love watching my little guy grow.

Update

How is it May already? I can't believe it! It has been a busy week and a half. So I will just do a little catch up. First of all I was a bit optimistic that I would just snap out of the fact I miscarried the next day. What was I thinking? I knew better but was trying to be optimistic. Friday (April 22nd) was a rough day and for most of the weekend I felt pretty low. Easter Sunday though I woke up, the sun was shining and I knew we'd have a good day. We went to mass and then my mom came over and we ate the food out of the blessed basket. A tradition we have every year. Then we relaxed for a bit and went to my brother-in-law's house for dinner. It was nice to be around family and Ayden had a great day.

Then last week I was gearing up for Ayden turning one! I still can't believe he's a year old. How did that happen and how did time go by so quickly? He turned one on Wednesday April 27th. We had a great day. We went to a mom's group where they had cupcakes for Ayden. Then we chilled out at home and when David came home we went out to dinner and then came back for cupcakes. Ayden loved it. He definitely got a sweet tooth from his mom.

Friday was another important birthday in our household, David's. David took Thursday & Friday off so we had a four day weekend with him. It was so nice. For his birthday we hung out and then went over to his mom's for dinner and cake. Then Saturday was Ayden's party. I'll do a separate post for that since I am waiting on some pictures from other people. It was a lot of work and a lot of fun and everything turned out great.

Other stuff that has been happening, I got my period on Friday. It was bittersweet. I am glad it came but at the same time it reminded me of what we lost. The good news is now we can try for baby #2 again, although we are going to wait for another month. David and I talked last night and trying again right now seems too soon. So we will wait until I get my next period and try again. Which seems so surreal. I am excited and scared.

Waiting also gives me a month to get back on track with eating and exercising. I am 30 pounds up from my pre-pregnancy weight. I know this and looking in the mirror I am not happy but I think I had a skewed sense of how I looked. Seeing pictures of me from Easter and Saturday, I NEED to do something. I can't keep doing what I am doing. I am definitely doing better with eating, it is the exercising that is my problem. I want to be outdoors and unfortunately all it does here is rain and is still cold some days. I joined a stroller walking group that I can go to 3 days a week, so I just need to exercise myself the other 2 days. I can do that. Plus weekends with the family will include walks. So today I am starting to get my mind and body in a better place and work towards a healthy lifestyle for myself and my family. Wish me luck!

Closure

This morning I had my two week follow up appointment and as I expected I did miscarry. I think there was a tiny part of me that hoped this was all a bad dream and things would be fine but seeing an empty uterus put an end to that quickly. My doctor was great and supportive, said no surgery was needed and as soon as I get my first period, we can try again. That was my silver lining to what has been a long two weeks. It is kind of ironic that today was a bright and sunny day. It has been raining here since Saturday and today I woke up to blue skies and the sun shining. It was also raining the day I lost the baby. I'm taking it as a sign that things will get better and we will get pregnant again.

I was doing pretty good this week until last night. I was at a meeting for a women's group I belong to and as my friend and I were walking out she says to me "So when are you due?" I lost it and told her I had a miscarriage. She had a miscarriage when she first started trying to have kids and now she has two beautiful babies, a boy and a girl 15 months apart. She just hugged me tight and let me cry. After I pulled myself together, she told me to let her know how the appointment went. I cried some more on the way home and got a pit in my stomach about today. I emailed her and let her know what happened and she wrote me back and said her little peanut greeted my little peanut when he/she arrived in heaven. I lost it for a bit and she even sent me beautiful flowers with an angel in them. I will put pictures in at the end of this post.

So for today I am allowing myself to cry, get angry and figure out what I am feeling. I bought myself some of my favorite cheese and a bottle of wine. Tonight when Ayden goes to sleep, I will enjoy a glass with some cheese and crackers. Tomorrow is a new day and I will begin the process of moving on.

We have shades

We've had our new window treatments for awhile now. I just haven't blogged about them yet. Now that it will hopefully be spring soon (it is only in the 30s today). I am getting motivated to get some stuff done around the house. Back in Novemeber we had new windows put in our house, you can read about it here. Along with the new windows, we needed to get some blinds or shades in the house. We decided to go with Roman shades and we love them! Here's some pictures:

Our living room:

Ayden's bedroom:

Our bedroom:

Now I have two more rooms I want to get in order. Our lower level we want to turn into the playroom. It used to be our theater room until a flood back in 2007 ruined it and we had to tear the carpet up and we haven't done anything to it. As you can see , it is now a storage room. Here is what it looks like now:

This next room is our guest bedroom and I can't believe how bad it has gotten. Obviously no one can stay in it right now. I just began putting clothes Ayden grew out of on the bed and it has gotten out of hand. Can't figure out a place to put something, throw it in the bedroom. My mission is the get this room in tip top shape ASAP. I have more pictures of the disaster area but for right now this is all you get. Wish me luck!

Anyone else doing some major cleanup in their house?