All up in the kool-aid, dont even know the flava

Making your day just a little bit better

How can you not smile at this?

Emma had a doctor's appt on Wednesday to recheck her ears to see:

A) how the ear that Mommy probed with a Q-tip was doing

B) If her two ear infections, that underwent 4 types of antibiotics in the past 2 weeks were healed.

The answers?

A) The ear that endured trauma on Sunday night appears fine. I probably nicked the ear canal, not the drum. Either way, both bleed a LOT.

B) The ear infections are not gone. Nearly, but they should be GONE with all those drugs.

So, he gave us another prescription for a different oral 10 day antibiotic and said, "See you in a month at her 15 month appt!". Right, cause I'm sure I wont see him before then...

In other Emma news, especially since I totally neglected to write a 14 month letter on Monday. (FOR SHAME!) Some updates:

• Emma has 4 teeth on top and 3 on the bottom. The eye teeth arent fully in, some just peeking in.   
• Emma is up to 19lbs.
• We've gotten her a new forward facing car seat that she loves. (Don't worry, we make sure she's weighed down with 1lb of clothing before letting her ride in the new car seat. We would never want to defy the rules...)
• No recognizable words still. Although we get an occasional Uh! For Uh Oh. And the other day she may have said DeeDee for Daddy. I just don't know.
• My estimate is that she will be walking by Halloween. I wouldnt bet big money that she would walk much before then.
• She loves spaghetti and mac n cheese now. LOVES. And peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and grapes. I love that we have choices! For a while, she was being very picky.

And perhaps the biggest Emma news now is that as of this past weekend, I know longer nurse Emma. We made it to 14 months, and for that I am very proud of myself. For some time now, she just hasnt been interested in nursing in the mornings at all. She would roll away, or cry. So, we stopped that session. And at night, she often pulls away and seems distracted. Some nights we had simply been rocking her to sleep and that was working fine. So this past weekend, due to lack of interest on both our parts, we stopped nursing.

And I'm fine with it. If she had stopped before she turned a year, I would have been devastated. But lately I've been feeling uncomfortable still nursing her. I think its because Im pregnant. For those of you that are still nursing, that is GREAT! but it was just our time.

**********************

Well, today is my MIL's birthday and we will be celebrating later with pizza and root beer floats. Ahhh.....

Taco Night

Prepare yourselves. I am going to write a post....with pictures. I know, I know! It hasnt been done in a long time.

So, last night was Taco Night at the in-laws. We probably go over to eat dinner with them at least once a week, often twice a week.

Before going inside.

 

As I mentioned yesterday, they use corn tortillas for the tacos. They lightly fry them up on a griddle, basically just so they are warm and a glisteny.

Ingredients:

1. Taco seasoned beef (black beans for me and Emma)
2. Lettuce
3. Salsa
4. Pete's Hot Sauce
5. shredded extra sharp cheese
6. sour cream ( I dont use sour cream. It's not a "necessity" for me, so I spare myself the calories.)
7. peas!

Yep, green peas are tradition in tacos in their house. I dont know why it got started, but man! It was a great idea. It provides a nice texture to the tacos.

Here are Jason's tacos:

And mine:

Emma enjoyed black beans and cheese and peas. Well, only if the peas were sufficiently hidden amongst the beans. 

I ate about....6 tacos. Which was really two too many. I felt very bad afterwards. Very very bad. In a blessing in disguise though, I threw up about half of it later.

It's ok. It made room for a drumstick ice cream cone. :)

Bullet Form

I consider myself to still be on a blogging hiatus, as I dont feel like writing a "real post".

• BB8? The kiss btwn Eric and Jessica? Woohoo! I had already seen it on the spoiler site, and knew it was going to be a good one. They are so cute together. He mentioned he was only 5 ft 7! I had no idea.
• If you havent had a chance to participate in someone's Pay It Forward gift exchange, then go visit Christine. I would play along with hers myself, but then I feel I'd have to do another giveaway on my site, and MAN, I'm having a hard enough time coming up with something to make for my 3 winners.
• Tonight is Taco Night at the in-laws. I am very excited. They use soft corn tortillas.
• I am suppose to get a package of maternity clothes from Old Navy today. Just in time, as I am too small for my old maternity clothes, yet too big for normal clothes. There will be no wearing of my regular jeans as there was in my 1st pregnancy.
• Speaking of jeans, its hot as BLAZES around here (like 90-100 degrees) and students at the local college are walking all over campus in JEANS. Lots of them are wearing jeans. I am totally baffled by this. When we were younger, did we really sacrifice our comfort to look good?

Stress? Chocolate!

Someone brought in a bowl full of Hershey's Special Dark nuggets with almonds.

I've eaten 4 in the last 5 minutes. Thank goodness they have almonds, because this indulgence can totally be justified as "getting my protein".

Right?

Hiatus

I logged on to my work computer for the first time today at 3pm. Meetings people, meetings until now. CRAZY.

I'm going to go on a brief blogging hiatus. It might be so brief that I am back up and running tommorow, but it might not.

There were some great things about our weekend, but they were all overshadowed by the last minute trip to the Emergency Room with Emma last night. It was a scary time. Important to note: Emma is Fine. Perfectly fine. In daycare, normal,  fine.

Basically, I used a q-tip to clean her ear out and something horribly wrong happened involving  mass amounts of blood. Way to end a good weekend.

So, I need to take a break from a few things, however brief, to get my pulse rate back down to normal.

Emma is fine. Mommy is not.

THe Details

Alright. So you want The Details.

Well, it was Saturday July 14. Approximately 10pm. I had a Lemon flavored Smirnoff Ice. I don't think Jason had anything to drink. He had just come home from two weeks of being away for his yearly Reserves commitment. I missed him.

What? Not the details you wanted? Oh...sorry....My bad.....

I found out Friday August 3rd. I had a "feeling". While we were away at the wedding in Charleston on the 27th, I started what I assumed was a period. But it only lasted a short short time (hours) which was ODD for me.

So my suspicions grew. I've since learned that that was "implantation bleeding".

I took only one pregnancy test. A cheap Target brand one that doesn't even do anything fancy.

See? A positive result doesn't even warrant a cute pink plus sign or anything. While I did have "a feeling" I was pregnant, had I of really known it would turn out positive, I think I would have sprung for 2 pack of nicer tests. I know. I'm silly.

My due date is April 5th, 2008 and I am 7.5 weeks along. (If you care to play along, every Saturday starts a new week. So I am almost 8 weeks.)

I'm sick. Grossly sick. Hungry all the time, yet sometimes get overly stuffed by just one lone bean burrito. Nauseas often. Thrown up 3 times. Once on the side of the road after church, once at work. That's when I told my boss I was pregnant. Didn't have much choice there did I?

Just like last time, I cant stand the idea of cooking a meal at home. It make my stomach turn. So, we've given up that idea and are just eating out. Pizza, LOTS of Taco Bell, and sub sandwich's mostly. Mostly I crave Taco Bell, or Mexican food in general. (Thank God for those extra bean burritos at home! LUNCH!)

I am also getting big FAST. I've always heard that with your 2nd, you show sooner. And holy heck is that true! Honestly I think a lot of it is that I never got my abs back from having Emma. I still had/have a pouch/protruding area in my belly region. As if the abs never settled back into place. Obviously, I wish I had been better at working out before getting pregnant a second time, but that's life.

( On a side note, remember by fitness goals?  Well, I never made it to running 1.5 miles without stopping, but I did make it to 1 mile without stopping. It was a VERY proud moment.)

I do still plan on going to the gym. Jogging some, but mostly walking and doing some free weights. I have my hopes set very high on having a Vaginal birth this time, and I know being in better shape will help my chances of that being a possibility. In the end, it might be genetics that prevent me from that, but I am going to try with all my might  to have the delivery I want.

I had my first doctor's appt on Tuesday. Sadly, around here, I only get one ultrasound, and that will be at 19 weeks. I didn't get the 8 week ultrasound I got with Emma that let us see her tiny tiny little heart beating away. They took about 5 gallons of my blood, to run all sorts of normal tests. And then they told me that, while YES! Their office is located in RH, by the time my due date rolls around, they will no longer be delivering at the local hospital! I'd have to drive 23 miles away! Which, with a little one at home, and 3 dogs, is a BIG BIG deal.

Big enough, that I am switching doctors. (And that is NOT a fun process. Release forms, medical records, new appts, insurance crap) But, I want the delivery process to not be made more stressful for me, my family and Jason's family, being farther away from home. I want him to be able to run home real quick to grab an extra pillow or something if need be.

Were we trying? Well, kind of. See, we don't use any form of birth control. I don't like mind/body altering drugs if I can help it, and any other form just didn't seem right for us. So we weren't trying but we weren't doing much to prevent it.

Am I freaking out? Yes. Did I cry a lot at first? Yes. Do I realize that the week long vacation in the Bahamas I had dreamed of taking with Jason next summer is OUT and not likely to happen...EVER? Yes. Am I gravely upset that we own two houses, and the one we're living is cute and nice and all that but not made for 4 people and 3 dogs? Yes.

But you know what? I'm also very excited for Emma. I'm an only child and that is very lonely. I want Emma to have someone that she can become great friends with. I've long been envious of Sandy's relationship with her sister, and I want that for Emma. I don't know what I'm having, but I want a girl. If it's a boy, fine, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it, but I want Emma to have a sister. And yes, this will be the LAST TIME I AM PREGNANT EVER.

And I'm also excited about the free hospital food. Come on! It's Food and it's Free!

Shocking Discovery

Well, I about thought that I had dug myself quite a hole with that last entry. It seems as though many of you crave large quantities of junk food from time to time, and my binge eating this week doesnt seem all that odd to you.

To those of you that do the same, I commend you for opening up and sharing that with me. Junk food is good! Eat it proudly.

There was a larger message in that post, one that apparently was not relayed by me describing my constant need for last minute fast food trips. Or the negative weight gain involved.  Perhaps I should have been more obvious, and simply stated the facts like some bloggers.

So, mad props to Bunny, who could easily moonlight as a detective.

But for the rest of you:

Heads Up!

Brain Teaser

What I failed to tell you about my weekend was:

Sunday I had Burger King for lunch (veggie burger and fries), Taco Bell for an afternoon snack (two soft tacos, beans no meat), and a chocolate milk shake for dinner courtesy of McDonalds.

And since I (quite obviously) have abandoned my Summer Diet Plan, yesterday Jason and I went to the store and spent $82 on JUNK.

Lest you think I am kidding, here are just some of the items we bought.

(In my defense, the Swiss Cake Rolls are not mine. )

And, just to top things off, I had Jason pick up a Grande Meal from Taco Bell last night.

That's right. I've got 5 spare bean burritos hanging out in my fridge. Don't you wish you were me!

BUT! The good news is, my new diet regiment has helped me drop 4 lbs this week!

So what's going on?

Pay It Forward

I won a handmade gift from Punchy over at PugPossessed! She's a part of a new blog craze called Pay It Forward (PIF). Im excited to see what she sends me!

I will now pass my good fortune on to others.....



"Here's how it works! I'll send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange! I don't know what that gift will be yet, and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week...LOL... but you will receive it within 30 days, that's a promise! The only thing you have to do in return is "pay it forward" by making the same promise on your blog"

Play along if you like! Just remember, Pay It Forward!

Surveys Survey

I regularly participate in two online survey programs for cash and rewards.

The first one is MySurvey. I don't even remember how I found this one, or maybe it found me, but I love it. They email me maybe once or twice a week with a new survey about products we use, or might potentially use. I get a lot of surveys for new grocery items, new diapers and baby products, bath products, places we shop and brands we trust. All kinds of topics really.

For every survey you complete, you get a certain amount of points. It varies depending on how involved the survey is. Sometimes, I will just get 10 points, and sometimes I will get 100 points!

Points can be redeemed for cash, prizes or charity donations. So far, I have redeemed my points for only one prize. I got a an insulated casserole keeper. It's plastic, so you cant cook in it, but its great for transporting desserts or salads. I've been saving up my points for a long time now, and the next time I redeem them, I will be going for a portable DVD player for Jason. I have 2300 points and that requires 13000, so I'll be waiting awhile!

Sometimes, they will ask you if you would be interested in trying out a new product at home and then taking a survey on what you thought. A few months ago (maybe several months ago) they sent me a new type of Head and Shoulders full sized conditioner and shampoo! Free! They asked me to use it every day for a month and then take an online survey. I think I got 250 points for that!

If you are interested in joining, you can go here to join or leave me a comment and I will email you a link to join. If you join via my email, I'll get extra points. No pressure though, join however you like.

THe other survey program I am involved in is Partnership Plus. This one Jason got involved in WAY back in college. They track your clothing purchases. Every month they will send him a survey to fill out what new items of clothing he has purchased, what they are made of, sizes and where he bought them. If you finish the survey within the first 5 days of the month you get 250 points. Otherwise you get 200. YOu can redeem your points for cash or prizes. About once every year and a half or so, we've been redeeming our points for a check for $60!

Not everyone can join this survey program. They are looking for a certain demographic. I've tried to join myself in the past but they werent interested in me, only Jason.

I've really liked both of these survey programs! They arent pushy, I feel involved in product decision making, and I get prizes!