My Sweet Girl is 6 Months Old!!

How have 6 months gone by already? My sweet girl is 6 months old! She amazes me every day and I am beyond blessed to be her mommy. Between work and spending every spare moment with her when I get home, I have very little time for anything else. Since there hasn't been a post here since October, I probably didn't even need to spell that out! And now, lets go bullet style so that this doesn't become a 4 page post!

At 6 months Caroline...

*is still exclusively breast-fed. We'll start solids sometime after the beginning of the year and her 6 month check-up. I'm in no hurry.

*does not sleep through the night yet. But I'm honestly not missing much more sleep than I was at the end of being pregnant. She's so easy in the middle of the night that it's no different than getting up to pee several times a night. When she cries I get her from her room, bring her to bed with us, she nurses back to sleep and I usually drift off too, then I take her back to her room.

* can roll anywhere she wants to go.

*is a tummy sleeper.

*We put her to bed awake, she rolls over on her tummy, grabs her blanket and sticks her thumb in her mouth. She's out in just a few minutes.

*sleeps best with a white-noise machine on all night. When she first goes down at night we play classical nursery rhyme music.

*can sit up all by herself.

*favorite toys are the ones that make crinkle noises.

*loves bath time. I can't wait till we can do some "mommy & me" swimming classes.

*has 2 pearly white monsters who have taken up residence in her lower gums.

*loves animals. Clover and Dolly love her back and she plays with the dog and 3 cats at the babysitters.

This girl is the light of my life! So glad we had a snow day today and I got to spend her 6 month birthday snuggling her at home!!

We got a new rug for the living room and Scoot and Daddy had to test it out before we moved the furniture back in.

Here I am practicing my sitting up in my Christmasy outfit.

Babies in hats make me swoon! And a baby in a hat with a big grin ... I'm mush!

not a bottle washing fan

Scoot's blood sugar was low when she was born and the nurses gave her a bottle of formula in the nursery right after delivery. Of all the reasons that I wish I hadn't had to have a c-section, this is the one that makes me wish I could change it the most.

I'm thankful that this was the only issue that Scoot had at birth and that it was something that was so easily fixed. I'm glad the nurses fixed it so fast and that the bottle calmed her instantaneously (according to Daddy who stayed by her side the whole time).

Despite taking a bottle first, we have had a very successful breastfeeding experience. Since that first feeding, Scoot has been exclusively breastfed and God-willing she will be for at least two more months before we start solids. Simply being able to breastfeed at all is something that I feel blessed to be able to do.

Obviously, she had to be taking a bottle when I went back to work. I pump at work and she happily takes a bottle for the sitter, or Daddy, or even me. Luckily she has adjusted her eating schedule all on her own to accommodate nursing as much as possible. She eats less during the day and then cluster feeds in the afternoon/evening until bed time to make up all the calories she needs for the day. I love it! It gives us an abundance of nursing/bonding time and means that I don't have to have as much pumped for the sitter each day.

Being able to provide this for my girl is something I'm very proud of and incredibly thankful for. But I haven't been able to bring myself to nurse in public yet. We always take a bottle (or two) with us whenever we leave the house in case we're still out when it's time to eat. And so far it's worked out just fine. Scoot can eat and we can stay out longer than two hours.

But one of the selling points of breastfeeding is the convenience. The milk is always ready and always available. I want to be able to cut down on all the pumping (and bottle washing!) by getting comfortable with nursing in public. It's just not a big thing around here. I've never seen anyone nursing in public around here and I don't know how it would be received. I don't know if I'm strong enough to stand up to someone if they made negative remarks to me. I don't know where I should start to increase my comfort gradually. But I'm going to work on it because the way I see it, between Scoot and her future siblings, I hope to have years of breastfeeding in my future!

First Game

On Saturday Virginia Tech hosted Wake Forest in an ACC match-up. Aaron has seen VT play & beat every ACC team except Wake and Florida State. This was the ONLY game he wanted to go to this year, and he'd been talking about it since last season.

I wanted to go too, but there was no way that I was leaving Scoot over night (and other obvious plans, like leaving her a mere hour and a half away with my sister did not occur to me -- mommy brain I suppose) so we decided to take Scoot with us.

I was really very excited about it at first, but as the time got closer, I got more nervous. We ended up having to buy 4 tickets because we needed 3 (can you believe a 4 month old needs a ticket?!) and couldn't find anybody selling only 3. Were we going to end up wasting all that money because we had a fussy baby? Would Scoot be too hot/cold? Would she get a sunburn? How was I going to nurse her in the middle of a stadium full of people?

Well, we went. And it was FABULOUS! We were sitting up high in the stands and with 4 seats we had plenty of room. The people around us were calm(ish), the sun was just going down behind the stadium, it was cool, but not toooo cold, and Scoot ate right before the game (nursed in the car) and during half time (a bottle). The loud cheering and cannon caught her attention, but didn't seem to scare her at all.

The most amazing part? She slept through the entire second quarter. I had her tied to me in the moby wrap. After looking outward to see what was going on for the first quarter, I turned her around to face me when she started getting a teeny tiny bit restless. It didn't take her long to find her thumb, tuck her head into the wrap, and fall asleep. Even amidst all the talking, cheering, and moving.

We left at the beginning of the 4th quarter. VT was already ahead by 5 touchdowns and the second string was in the game. It was starting to get cold and we wanted to beat traffic since we were driving 5 hours back home.

Overall it was a perfect introduction between Scoot and VT. I see many many many more trips in our future!

*Pictures to come once loaded on the computer*

All the A's

Amanda starts with A.

Aaron starts with A.

Caroline starts with C.

From the very beginning of time, when we started talking about baby names, I insisted that NONE of our children's names start with A. I'm a little bit (okay a lot) picky when it comes to names. And I'm even more crazy about starting and sticking to themes when planning the names of your children. I love a well thought out theme... even more so if you have to think really hard to find the connections... like literary characters or song lyrics. Letter themes can also work, but mostly for smaller (3 or less kids) families.

I'm the oldest of 6 cousins on my dad's side. We all have A names. Amanda, Alan, Allison, Alden, Ashley, and Aaron. Then I went and married an A man. Who has 2 A cousins of his own. Ashleigh and Abigail.

If we had 1 child and gave him/her an A name, we would be *required* to name all of our children A names. Not doing so would be risking irreparable damage to their self worth. We would be leaving them out of the "A" club. All of our children with their own letter means that we planned it. 2 or 3 with A names and one with a different letter means we're leaving you out.

With all that being said, I couldn't leave Caroline out of the A trend all together. Her middle name is Avery.

And now I feel torn. I like far more girl A names than number of children we'll ever have, but I don't like many boy A names at all. And we won't reuse any that are already used in our families. So do we continue the A middle name trend for our own children? Or do we leave it at what we've got and give the rest of our kiddos their own set of initials?

It will probably all depend on whether baby #2 is a boy or girl.

The Sitter Delima

Scoot's first day at the sitters was on her 10 week birthday. I get that I was able to stay home with her a lot longer than a lot of other moms get to stay home with their babies, but that doesn't change how I feel about it. I want to be the one taking care of her day in and day out. I want to stay home with her.

(All that being said, we are very lucky that we found a good babysitter with reasonable rates and a low child/provider ratio. I feel comfortable leaving her there every day. I just wish I didn't have to.)

Her first weeks were a little rocky. She's only a baby and she was staying with someone she didn't know. Carole didn't know what her sleepy signs were or how to hold her just so to get her to sleep. She had to take a bottle when she was use to breast feeding exclusively. They worked it out in short order and the fussy reports from Carole got fewer and farther between. The biggest thing was that Scoot started sleeping again during the day.

When I dropped Scoot off this morning, she looked at Carole and smiled. My head told me that I should be thrilled. Scoot likes going to the sitter. She's happy and comfortable.

BUT

My heart broke just a little. Those smiles that use to be just for me and daddy are now being shared. I thought about my parents and Aaron's parents. They are the grandparents, but they don't see Scoot as often as Carole. Carole knows Scoot better than they do. Carole gets the smiles and they don't. They're family.

It is a Monday and those are the hardest days to leave my sweet baby. I'm so glad I got to see that beautiful smile before I left for work. I just wish it had been directed at me.

It doesn't help that I have to wake up this sleeping beauty at an un-Godly hour in order to take her to the sitter and get to work on time. Here she is passed back out for her morning "nap" at 6:00am after getting up, diaper change, dressed, and nursing.

Back to Basics

Even though no one really reads this blog I feel pressure to write something meaningful and well put together when I do write. More often than not, that leads to me writing nothing at all because if I'm not going to write something that hundreds of people want to read, why write at all?

But that's not why I started this in the first place.

I started this blog to be my journal. Each and every single night during my sophomore year in college I wrote in a journal. I love having that to look back on now. The kicker is that while obviously that was an important year in my life, I doubt I'd ever look back on it and think it was anywhere near as important as my life is right now.

I'm raising a child for crying out loud!

And I want her to know that I think that she is the most important thing going right now. I want to remember all the little things. I want to know what day she started rolling over and when she cut her first tooth. I want to remember the way she sticks out her bottom lip and her sweet little dimple.

So from now on this space will go back to being what it was meant to be all along. My journal. At this point I don't plan to make it private, so those few people who do follow me are welcome to stay along for the ride. But I don't promise to be interesting to anyone but me.

Hopefully giving myself the freedom to write boring stuff with run-on sentences means that I'll keep better track of my life now!

aunt lucy is here!

My sister has been in town and I have not had time to do the rest of Scoot's birth story justice yet. It is also simply much harder to write than I thought it would be. I'll get back to it soon, but for now, I leave you with this picture of Scoot and Lucy.

Project Life Tuesday 7/26 - 8/1

Monday, August 2, 2010

Aaron and Scoot both fell asleep in the living room. Scoot is still easy to transfer to her crib. Aaron usually waked up grumpy and is not so easy to transfer to his room! HA!

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Aaron's attempt to keep up appearances in the neighborhood. He's hacking up the grass (ahem, I mean weeds) that's growing up between the sidewalk.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Scoot and I went to our best friend's house for a playdate. Bristol is only 2 days younger than Scoot, but look at that size difference! yowzers! Scoot is a little big for her age, but Bristol is also quite small for her age. They are laying on the quilt I made especially for Bristol.
Scoot's weekly growth photo. She's looking mighty long in this picture.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

I love watching storms come in. If we had a porch with a big swing and some rockers this would be even better! A porch is on my check list for our next house.

Friday, August 7, 2010

My car started acting up when I tried to go out this afternoon. I was positive that by the time Aaron got home it would be fine and make me look like a liar once again, but it was still broken so he called his dad to help him work on it. Luckily they were able to fix it and save us the time and money of taking it to the shop.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Clover tore up the dog bed that use to be making her crate comfy. I hope she doesn't mind sleeping on the hard plastic pan because it will be a few days before I can get her a new one.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

We got together with some of Aaron's family to celebrate his sister Catharine's (on the right) birthday. Abbie was thrilled with a chance to hold and bounce Scoot since she hadn't seen her since she was 2 days old.

Not Me Monday

In the months that I couldn't record my Not-Me-Monday confessions on this here 'ol blog, I occasionally told my husband what I would have written here. He thought I was crazy. Plain and simple. I'm so glad to be back in the world where people understand what I'm talking about!

*I do not have 5 loads of clean laundry on my bed right now waiting to be folded and preventing me from going to bed. This is not especially sad since folding clothes is one thing that I can easily do while wearing Caroline in the baby carrier.

*I have not been thinking about (and dreading) the fast approaching return to school so much that it has been keeping me up at night. Since I'm already getting up anywhere between 1 and 3 times a night, I'd really prefer not to be consumed with back to school worries when its still 3 weeks away!

*Caroline will be 8 weeks old on Wednesday, so I am certainly not already thinking/wishing/dreaming about having another baby. Good grief! That would be a little bit crazy. People would cock their eyebrows at me if I dared to tell anybody! So lets not talk about it now, kay?

*My sewing machine has not been sitting on my kitchen table for the last 3 weeks. With a baby I never know how much time I'm going to have to work on a project, so in order to steam line the process and actually be able to get something done once in a while, I don't just leave everything sitting out. That would be so messy and make my husband so frustrated!

* I did not ignore people I know in Walmart tonight. Just because I remember them from 10 years ago, doesn't mean they'll remember me. And it would be just great to go up and make small talk just to realize that they, in fact, do not remember me. Good times!

I'm starting to confuse even myself by talking in the negative, so I'll leave you with that for tonight and come back tomorrow with a week's worth of pictures!

melt my heart

Just about everything that Caroline does is precious to me. I could sit for days on end and do nothing but watch the many different faces that she makes. Getting up in the middle of the night for a feeding or two and cuddles doesn't seem so much like a chore as a privilege. Taking her in public and accepting compliments makes me glow with pride. Even changing diapers is an activity I'm not likely to pawn off on hubby or my mom.

But hands down the one thing that melts my heart each and every time is when she grabs on to us. It could be her little fingers wrapped around my finger, or her hand clutching a handful of my shirt as she nurses, or hanging on as she falls asleep. {I know its a reflex at this point, but that's where I believe God is amazing!}

Don't even get me started on seeing my husband with her!

Hubby's To-Do List is Getting Longer

Growing up we had exactly 4 TV channels that came in clearly enough to be able to follow a 30 minute show from beginning to end. My sister and I spent summer days watching movies while my parents were at work. I knew nothing different until I went to college. My dorm room, and later my apartments, came with cable. And suddenly there was too much information at my disposal. Too many choices. Luckily I moved back home before I became a permanent couch potato. Then Aaron and I got married and could not afford an expensive cable bill on top of a mortgage, car payment, student loans, and necessary bills.

Now apparently, we've come into huge riches. Since we were changing internet providers, we decided to go ahead and *save* lots of money by bundling services. We got home phone (which we NEVER use), internet, and CABLE. I won't mention that the *deal* we got by bundling all these services could have been even better by ONLY getting internet!

So while I'm nursing and cuddling my little Scoot I have 400 channels to entertain me. More often than not, my remote lands on HGTV. And Aaron is not happy at all! Since watching HGTV I've gotten ideas for how I want to redecorate our master bed room (I even went so far as to find the fabric to make a new quilt), overhaul our bathroom, completely gut our kitchen (this one may involve removing part of a wall!) and sprucing up our front yard.

We have no money or time to do any of this, but it sure is fun to dream! I probably will make that quilt - which will clash terribly with our sage green walls - but at least I'll be able to justify all the time I've spent glued to these home improvement shows this summer!

Project Life Tuesday 7/26 - 8/1

Project Life Tuesday! I've been keeping up with my picture a day habit through my blogging absence, but I probably won't be going back to do a post about all those missed weeks. I tried to post a Project Life Tuesday post right before our internet went belly up, but it was already on the fritz and I never got pictures up for that post. I'll have to go back and remedy that soon. For the last 6 weeks I've had some very good subject matter! My challenge now is to not take the exact same picture each day.

Hop over to The Mom Creative to see the pictures Jessica has taken each day and visit some of the other lovely blogs that are linked up.

Everybody does their Project Life differently. I decided to keep the weekend pictures together, so my weeks go Monday - Sunday. Here goes...

Monday July 26, 2010 It's been super hot here, so Caroline spent all of today in only a diaper. She really doesn't mind though, this girl loves to be nekid!

Tuesday July 27, 2010 Caroline prefers to take her naps in a lap, but I can trick her into sleeping in the swing if I swaddle her up nice and tight.

Wednesday July 28, 2010 Today is Caroline's 6 week birthday! Each week I'm taking a picture of her on this lamb blanket wearing only a diaper to watch her grow.

Thursday July 29, 2010 Aaron got back from a business trip at 2am. He got to sleep in a little this morning and Scoot couldn't resist taking a snooze with Daddy.

Friday July 30, 2010 Caroline has been trying super hard to get her thumb in her mouth. Usually she ends up cramming her whole fist in her mouth, but today she managed to get just the thumb in there.

(Please forgive the fact that these last 2 are out of order. I uploaded them in reverse and can not get them to switch places! It doesn't help that I'm working on my Mac from school and I'm much more familiar with our home PC.) August 1, 2010 Daddy and Scoot are enjoying a quiet rainy Sunday afternoon by watching some movies and snuggling (and Scoot is napping).

July 31, 2010 We took Scoot on a little outing all the way to Richmond. We ate dinner at O'Charley's and then indulged Daddy in a trip to Bass Pro Shops.

Introducing...

We finally got internet back at our house after 4

months of paying for non-existent service. I'm happy to say that I'll be able to stay in touch now! A lot has happened since the last time I posted. Most importantly, we became a family of 3!

Caroline joined us in the middle of June! We were truly surprised and thrilled to be blessed with a sweet little girl. I was absolutely, willing to bet money, positive that we were expecting a little boy. But we didn't find out before the birth so that we would be surprised in the delivery room, and boy were we ever surprised! I even asked Aaron to verify after the doctor announced "It's a girl!"

Life has been busy and amazing in the six weeks since Caroline arrived. I'm loving every minute of being a mommy and spending my days with her. I still have a few weeks, but I'm already dreading going back to school at the end of the month.

I will be filling in all the details slowly as I hope to be back in the blogging grove and posting every week day in August to catch up. There are so many unread posts in my reader that I'll never be able to catch up there! But I'll be popping in and commenting a whole lot more now! I'm so glad to be back!

Good to know the 5th graders have faith in me!

The very first thing my mother-in-law said to me when we saw her on Sunday was "I can see the baby!" as she touched, rubbed and patted my stomach. Maybe I wouldn't have minded it so much except that I'm actually not showing at all. I can still wear my regular pants to work even though I've had maternity pants since New Years Day! On Friday my boss commented that I could have still gotten away with not telling anyone, and there are still a few people who don't know. I want a little baby bump! I want to look pregnant! But when my MIL made her comment on Sunday I was a little offended and I'm not sure why!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Saturday I had an all day competition with seven 5th graders. After they performed but before the scores were ready we had a lot of time to wait. One of the girls came up to me and said, "Faith and I were discussing it and we think you'll make a good mom." (They only found out I was pregnant on Saturday during the competition.) Then they turned to the other coach and said, "We didn't discuss you. Since you don't have a boyfriend or anything." Kids say the craziest things!!

crying over dirty dishes

When I get upset (especially with my hubby) the thing that can almost always calm me down is washing the dishes. This is STRANGE to me since dish washing is my absolute least favorite chore. But since I hate to do it and put it off at all costs, that means there are usually plenty of dishes for me to wash whenever I do get upset. So I get a clean sink and time to think & diffuse which saves a fight (which is good since my frustration is almost always due to my own over reaction).

At least all these crazy pregnancy hormones are having one positive effect - I've been getting my dishes washed a little more frequently.

Wanted : A New Memory Chip

We walked into the grocery store with one goal: I needed supplies for the 'fun Friday' craft I was in charge of coordinating for 80 Kindergartners the next day. I had a list in my pocket.

The main ingredient of the snack was apples. In order to accommodate 80 kids I was going to need 20 + apples. Trying to do the division, multiplication, and addition to figure that out almost did me in! But we went straight to the produce section and found the apples in bags and picked out 4 bags that would get the job done.

Hubby and I took our heavy apples and trekked clear across the store to get bread. As we walked back toward the check- out Aaron asked if I needed anything else. Cutting my eyes up to look at the ceiling (because that's where the answers always are!) I think for a minute and say "I don't think so" and we find a checkout with no line.

About the time I lay all the apples down on the conveyor belt and the cashier starts to talk to me the gears in my brain start turning. In hyper drive I think 'apples are the MAIN ingredient - NOT the ONLY ingredient!' but the cashier is talking to me too and I hear her say "do you have any coupons?" to which I think 'when are there ever coupons for bread and apples?' but I answer "No, no coupons."

About this time Aaron gives me a weird looks and leans over me to answer the cashier's real question with "Plastic."

As Aaron pays and we start walking away he's asking me all kinds of questions which equate to "What in the WORLD is the matter with YOU!?"

I, of course, respond by laughing hysterically. Which earns me a more worried look. We are almost to the car by the time I am able to catch my breath and wipe away the tears that the laughter have brought on. Aaron opens the door and I put the apples in the car then reach in my pocket and take out the list.

-apples
-frosting
-marshmallows

We went back in to get the missing ingredients, but I did NOT go back through the same checkout line!

*****
Then this morning I forgot the apple cutter at home, turned around 3/4 of the way to school to go back and get it. Got to work 30 minutes later than I wanted to. And STILL discovered that I had forgotten a gift for a co-worker.
*****
Where can I get a new memory card?!?!

Project Life Tuesday - Week 1

I'm joining Jessica Turner at The Mom Creative and Becky Higgins in 2010 by taking a picture every single day of the year - at least that's the plan on this, the 12th day of the year!

Becky is the creator of this amazing kit, Project Life, that makes documenting your every day life easy and fun. Simply (well simple if I remember!) take a picture of something every day and write a little something about it on some super cute journaling cards Becky designed. The pictures can be of anything... the shoes you wore that day, your hubby/kids/parents/pets, a landmark you pass on the way to work every day, what you ate for dinner, a birthday cake... ANYTHING! It will all be an important part of your history in 50 years when your grandkids are looking through the book. Print your pictures and slip them into the page protectors. I love scrapbooking and watching the memories of my life take shape on a creative page, but I don't have time or space to drag out all my supplies frequently, so I get super far behind (think 5 years behind... yeesh)! Becky's kit makes documenting my life soooo much easier for me, which means it is more likely to actually happen!

Jessica is an amazing scrapbooker and I wish I had even a fraction of the creativity that she has. She firmly believes in telling your story. Since I already love scrapbooking and journaling, this is a great way to combine the two in an easy-to-keep-up-with project.

I'm going to be sharring my pictures for the week on Tuesday's (as will Jessica & many more! click over to Jessica's blog to be inspired by lots of creative people). The kit is very open ended and easy to adjust to your own likes & dislikes. I decided that I wanted to keep my weekends together so in my weekly layouts I consider my weeks to be Monday - Sunday. This isn't the same for everyone, but it works for me.

I started on December 31st with the first layout having 4 pictures (Thursday - Sunday) then the first full week layout started on January 4th.

~~~My computer would NOT cooperate and upload more than one picture, so I'm including only a picture of my entire first week layout instead of individual pictures. Sunday is missing because I haven't developed that picture yet, but amazingly - ok, so it's only the 12th day of the year - I'm caught up through TODAY on my journaling! Hoping I can keep it up for another 353 days!~~~

Mon., Jan. 4th, First day back to work after almost 2 weeks off :(

Tues., Jan. 5th, My Barnes & Noble deals - Christmas books for 60% off!

Wed., Jan. 6th, My 16 week prenatal appointment

Thurs., Jan 7th, Krispy Kreme free donut cupons - great for the wallet, terrible for the waist!

Fri., Jan 8th, Alllll the snow we got last night - and I was expecting a 2 hour school delay - HA!

Sat., Jan 9th, Dinner with my mom & pop

Sun., Jan 10th, 1st grocery shopping trip since Christmas - whoa!

*Since the weeks of my pregnancy change on Sunday, I also took a "belly" picture (nothing has really changed yet), printed it wallet size, and used it in the extra journaling card slot of the layout . This is the week 17 picture.*

It's catch-up time!

*Thanksgiving was low key this year and I loved it! We went to a Virginia Tech football game and had my side's Thanksgiving celebration the weekend before. That was also when we told my family that we are pregnant. That meant on the actually day of Thanksgiving we could relax and then make only one stop at Aaron's family's celebration. That's also when his family found out.

*Christmas was fabulous! I love being a teacher and having a week & a half off around the holiday. My sister & brother-in-law were able to come into town which was nice since we don't see them nearly as often as I'd like to.

*For New Years we went to Atlanta for the Chick-Fil-A college football bowl. The trip was so much fun, but way too short. We drove from VA down through Charlotte, NC and then into GA.
- We stayed a super ritzy hotel. I felt famous for a few minutes!
-The city was fun to explore for the very short time we were there.
- There was Chick-Fil-A food everywhere!!
-Virginia Tech won the football game!!!! :)
-The game was played inside which was a blessing since the weather was cold and drizzly.
-We missed getting back to the hotel lobby to see the ball drop by about 30 seconds. BUMMER! But I have it on good authority that the new year did indeed start that night.

*Back to school and work this week has been hard! I'm having a tough time getting back in the routine of things. Everything in the morning is taking me twice as long as it did before we went on Christmas break. My body just really liked an 8 am wake up much better than a 5 am wake up I think!

*There's a teeny-tiny chance that it could snow (about an inch) here on Thursday night. That would be BIG time snow for this area. hahaha so I'm hoping for atleast a delay in school on Friday morning. Don't really want to cancel since we'd have to make that up. But a delay is right up my alley!

*I'm on a decluttering, reorganizing kick lately. Just sitting in my living room I can look around and see about 14 projects I'd love to tackle to re-do the room. Maybe we'll start with some paint and curtains.

*I am seriously missing the Christmas tree and all the warm cozy feelings it gives me. At first I didn't even really care if we set up the tree this year, but I'm SO glad we did. Now I just wish we hadn't taken it down yet!

*The Biggest Loser is on and making me cry!

Now off I go to get some things done for school tomorrow. It feels good to be back!

looking ahead in 2010

It's been almost 2 months, but my internet service is FINALLY cooperating! Looks like we're going to eventually have to switch providers because I absolutely can not stand to pay for the internet every month if it's not even going to work!

I've missed keeping up with everyone and I'm going to do my best to go through my 1,000+ unread posts in my reader. It'll probably take a while, and I can't promise to comment on all (or more realistically - any) of them, but at least I'll be caught up on your lives. Now that the internet is kinda back, I'll be much better about reading and commenting in a timely manner!

With that little bit of housekeeping out of the way, there's been something I've been dying to get back here and tell you!

In June I'm going to be a mommy!

I'm terribly sorry for shouting, but we could not be more excited! I'm being seen by my regular OB and a high risk doctor and have a more appointments than an average pregnant woman would, and so far everything looks great. Being seen so often provides a lot of reassurance that I've very thankful for!

There will obviously be some baby talk to come, but I do not intend to turn my blog into a one track ramble. I am very sensitive to my friends who are struggling and wanting so badly to make the same announcement. I pray every night for you!

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and that you are already enjoying the New Year! I can't believe that it is already 2010. Wasn't it just a minute ago that everyone was worrying about what would happen in 2000?

I'll be back soon with more catch-up-updates, probably in a long bullet style post. For now, I'm off to enjoy the last 24 hours of this lovely break before heading back to work on Monday.