Lost Highway

Well I've had the new Bon Jovi cd for a week and a half now and while I don't LOVE it, it's not half bad. It's a little too mellow for me. I just wish it had a couple rockin pop tunes. The closest rockin song is a duet with Big n Rich.

Of course, the ballad (You Want to) Make a Memory is great and I love the video, well that goes without saying because every time I see Jon's face I just grin and grin. He's still so damn sexy. Now I just have to convince Chuck to get tickets to see them again in concert. We saw them in 2005 and in 1996 (I think). In 2005 we took Zac, it was his first concert, he was in awe; he loved the concert and enjoyed watching his mom get all hysterical over Jon and cry and scream, but he decided I wasn't as bad as some of the fans. He also was amazed I knew all the words to every song. WELL DUH!

Cassidy is a Messy Eater

She loves food, we started on rice cereal. She did ok, didn't push much back out. We then tried green beans, which she liked, moved to peas, squash and carrots.

We don't give her too much, because she wasn't eating enough formula. But now she's back eating about 32 oz. and sleeping about 9 hours a night.

Also we stopped swaddling her and she does fine sleeping through the night.

She's also not spitting up nearly as much as she had been, but she's started drooling. Zac is enjoying the summer so far, he's been invited swimming a couple times. He thinks Cassidy cries alot, this is hysterical because she hardly cries, just when she's tired.

School's Out

Let summer begin! We are puppysitting Pepper, my parents' dog. (pictured w/Zac and Cassidy)

Zac is going to struggle this summer, he's used to us going to the pool and hanging out, but I didn't buy season passes this year, because I don't plan to take Cassidy in the pool, so I'm not joining. I will get him 3 day passes and he can tag along with some friends.

My dad plans to take him fishing and golfing, so that will make him happy. And I hope to get out with him fishing a few times. He also likes to go yardsaling with me. He likes finding bargains for himself and Cassidy.

It hasn't been too hot yet, which is lucky cause our AC wasn't working and had to get new fan--cha-ching.

Baseball season started off rough, Zac's team was 1 and 8, but they won the last 7 games to finish at 8-8 and made the playoffs. They won the first game of the playoffs, but lost the 2nd. All in all we were all proud of how the kids finished their season.

Baptism

Cassidy Jane was baptized on Sunday, May 20. She was baptized in the same church as her daddy. She started getting fussy toward the end, obviously taking after my side of the family, can't spend too much time inside a church without getting antsy.

We had a small gathering at home afterwards. Which was nice, we don't get together much anymore with Chuck's family, there are just too many of them. Lots of goodies to be eaten, Chuck's mom and sisters baked and we had a cake. We still have leftovers!


Monday morning I dressed up Cassidy in her gowns (she had a baptism gown and a party gown, LOL -- the party gown is way fancy, blech, but my girlfriend bought it for her cause she knew I'd never buy something frilly for Cassidy).

I am going to post the pics so please take a look. I'm so proud of myself for being creative -- I put my purple lavender gown down her boppy and took a bunch of cute pictures. You'll also see a couple pics of when she's had enough of "modeling".

Cassidy is really starting to change, she is such a smiley girl. For the most part she is a very happy baby, but if she gets overtired--LOOK OUT! crabbbbbbbbby! takes a while to wind her down and help her settle and soothe. She is no longer sleeping 8-9 hrs at night, but she is sleeping 6-7 up for about a 30 min bottle and then back to sleep for 3 more hours so it's not too bad.

She naps in her swing most days, or if we are out and she falls asleep in her carseat we leave her sleep in there.

There are less than 3 weeks left of school. It has been a different year for Zac, he had to work harder at some subjects. Things got turned upside down here at home, and he started acting up in school (class clown and silliness). The battle with Zac and school is if he doesn't like his teacher it doesn't matter what the subject is, he doesn't bother with that class. UGGGGH He still gets good grades, but he slacks off in the homework department. I'm hoping all this is just dealing with the upheaval that has been our world since late last August til now and for next year things will get back on track. We stay on his ass, but I'm ready for summer!

I hope everyone in the states has a wonderful Memorial Day weekend, looks like it's going to be a beautiful one here weatherwise!

I hope all the Mom's had a wonderful Mother's Day!!!

I enjoyed my day immensely this year. I've been a mom now for 13 years, but this year was extra special because I now have TWO kids. I still can't believe it sometimes.

My presents were a gazebo/tent for the yard, 10 ft x 13 ft. I asked for one since we don't have much shaded areas in the yard and I wanted a shady place to take Cassidy outside during the day, plus it's a nice place for us to relax in the evening.

Zac picked out two stepping stone kits. One for him and one for Cassidy to make and put their handprints on. It was extra special because it was a surprise and Zac thought of it himself.

Chuck had a miserable week, it was one of those weeks where if something was going to go wrong, it did. It started last week with the riding mower. Zac was mowing the grass when the tractor stopped, a belt shredded. OK, Chuck started using the push mower, the neighbor came over and offered their riding mower, so Chuck started cutting with that one; only to run out of gas, and of course he had emptied all our gas into our tractor.

Then our pull down attic stairs had a piece warp and break. Next was a tire blowout in my van as we were headed to buy Mom's Day presents for our Mom's. Then after spending 3 hrs putting a new belt on the tractor, Zac started mowing the lawn again, only for the frikkin belt to shred again. So now we have to take it to a dealer to figure out WTF is wrong with it. Lastly, we took my parents out for mother's day, when we came out of the restaurant we were approached by people from the local fitness club who had been in the parking lot under a tent soliciting customers, well their tent blew in the wind and landed on the hood of my van and scratched the hell out of it and bent my antenna.

So Chuck's been moping around! Oh well, things can only get better right ?

Happy Anniversary

16 years ago Friday I married the man of my dreams, hell he's better than the man of my dreams since he cleans, does dishes, laundry, spoils me rotten, works his ass off so I can be a stay at home mom.

This past year has been a roller coaster and I could not have imagined last year when we celebrated our 15th anniversary that we'd have a new baby to love.

Chuck surprised me with a babysitter (our best friends and Cassidy's godparents) and took me out to dinner. I'd be a complete liar to say that Chuck is perfect, but at the end of the day that man is perfect for me. Anyone who has put up with me for almost 20 years is pretty darn near a saint.

Everything else is going great. Cassidy spoiled us with a couple weeks of sleeping through the night, the last two nights she's been up at about 3 a.m. and starving, so I'm thinking she's having a growth spurt.

Zac's baseball team got smoked their first game by an older team. It was freezing, I bundled Cassidy up and we went to watch about 40 mins, and then I brought her home. I had to go tho, the field is only 2 mins away and I have never missed one of Zac's games and I don't want him to be resentful of her if I miss a game. (the pic is of her all bundled up for the game)

OH well I'm rambling on again, everyone take care!

Poor Baby

Well today was her 2 month checkup. Everything went well. She was diagnosed with reflux, which is just a fancy way of spitting up more than normal, but luckily it is not ACID reflux and she isn't uncomfortable, in fact she's usually grinning pretty big when she'll spit up. I hate having to have a bib on her all the time, covering up her cute outfits, but oh well, better than her being wet.

She met all the milestones and showed off her neck strength. She now weighs 12 lbs, 11 oz, and is about 22 inches long. Of course it was a miserable end to the appt with the shots, four of them .

Daddy held her while the nurse gave her 2 quick pinches in each leg, while I stood across the room all teary eyed as Cassidy screamed and screamed. Thankfully, it didn't take long to calm her once Mommy held her, but oh my goodness it's so heartbreaking.

Luckily she had no side effects from the shots, except for about 30 minutes of fussiness before bedtime, but tylenol quieted her down and she slept through the night and today is as happy as ever. Unfortunately, we get to do this again at 4 months and 6 months.

Two Months

Cassidy is doing awesome. She started sleeping through the night last week; we put her down around 10 pm (give or take 30 mins or so) and she sleeps til about 6 am. She's also napping longer during the day, but only in her car seat, swing or bouncy seat. For some reason she only catnaps in her crib during the day. But hey, I can't complain too much, she sleeps at night in the crib, so that's good enough!

She's really smiling and cooing now. Also she is starting to be interested in toys, we lay her on a play mat and she watches whatever is dangling above her. She doesn't bat at them yet, but I'm sure she will soon. OHHHHH and she LOVES mirrors. We have a mirror on the car seat in the van and as soon as we click in her car seat she sees her self and starts to giggle. SO CUTE. Zac's thrilled because it was his idea to buy the particular mirror (it has a bright orange monkey on it). So he's taking the credit. LOL

Zac's baseball season will start next week. Chuck is head coach and looks like we'll have a pretty decent team this year, on the younger side there are only four returning 7th graders (Zac is one of them). The only downfall is the frikkin weather has been so whacked they haven't been able to practice as much as Coach Chuck would like, but at least it's been miserable for everyone so other teams have had the same disadvantage.


Cassidy weighs 12 lbs, 6 oz, which is the exact weight Zac weighed at 2 months. Now he was smaller at birth and one month, so she's not gaining as fast as him, but she's a girl. She still spits up alot and I'm going to ask the pediatrician about that next week, when she goes and gets FOUR shots, poor baby. I'm not too worried about the spit up, she's gaining, and she's outgrowing her clothes, so I know most of it is staying, it's just annoying! It's sad packing away her clothes that she's outgrown already.

I miss the trivia rooms, when I get a chance to log on, I can't find anyone. Feel free to say hi, if you see me online, if I'm here I'll reply!

Two cuties

I love this picture, Comet always sits with us when we play on the floor. Cricket comes in the room, but keeps her distance, she's still unsure of Cassidy. She'll sniff at her when she's in the swing, but that's about it. Comet is always after her, of course (and yes this is gross) he is always waiting for her to spit up, so if some lands on the floor he can lick it up . . . ewwwwwwww.

Happy Easter

OK, WTF it's colder for Easter then it was for Christmas. I mean seriously, it's been flurrying for the last 2 days and tomorrow we could get a dusting to an inch of snow! So much for Easter Egg hunts. Well not that we're too worried about it, Zac's too old and Cassidy's too young, although they'll be eggs to hunt at Grandma's on Easter. Zac helped Grandma paint some eggs today for the other 3 grandkids.

Zac wanted to go fishing, but it was too frickin cold. Zac is anxious to get out fishing cause he wants to try out the new hip-waders Grandpa got him. This weather is also playing havoc with Coach Chuck scheduling baseball practice, he canceled Thursday night's practice and is hoping to have a shortened practice tomorrow since it's not supposed to get too much above freezing (and with the wind it's downright bitter!)

I was told the other day that Cassidy will not have good sleeping habits because I don't have an early enough bedtime for her, this woman suggested I put her down between 6:30 and 7 pm. What kind of world does this woman live in, Chuck would only get to be with her for about an hour or so before she would be in bed plus Zac's baseball games won't be starting til 6, I guess she figures I have to bag those games. Not likely. Zac spent his first summer being hauled to all of Daddy's games.

It is so pathetic how people try to tell you to raise your kid. It's not like I'm cutting up a steak for this little peanut or don't use a carseat, things that are downright DANGEROUS. Most moms I know do what is best for their family and what's right for my family may not be right for theirs but to have the audacity to say something like a bedtime will ruin my child for life is kind of lame. OK I'm gonna step off my soapbox now.

HAPPY EASTER! May the Easter Bunny bring you lots of CHOCOLATE.

6 Weeks Old

Wow those 6 weeks went fast. I'm still unbelievably and pathetically happy, I smile constantly when I'm snuggling with my little girl. Zac has become quite the mouthy teenager, he's just like me, God help Chuck, now he has two of us.

The picture above is when she was lying on our bed last weekend and she found her thumb, so far that's the only time. She's gotten her fingers and loves to suck on her fist, but hasn't found the thumb again. Which is fine, she also has a pacifier, but doesn't use it all that much. Helps calm her to sleep sometimes and then falls out.

Sleep is going much better. We bought a "snuggle me" and it a piece of material with velcro and when you wrap her up she looks like a cocoon. This has helped her keep her "crazy arms" from waking herself up and she's averaging about 6 hours of sleep a night, a quick feed and goes back to sleep for a 2-4 more hours.

Nights aren't bad, both Chuck and I get up when she does. Chuck's only rule is if she gets up after 5 a.m. she's all mine cause he has to get up at 6:30 for work. But that's ok with me, I certainly can't complain. I know there aren't many men who'd even consider doing night feedings if Mom doesn't work. My allergies have kicked in so last night Chuck took both feedings. I don't know how I got so frikkin lucky, he truly is the greatest, I mean after all he puts up with all my crap.

Cassidy is doing well, she is eating more at one time so she's not "snacking" all day long, which helps to sleep longer. The only quirk is that she won't nap during the day in her crib, she'll be asleep and if you lay her down in her crib she'll wake up within 30 minutes, but if she falls asleep in her carseat or the swing she'll sleep for HOURS. So that's where we put her, what the heck, she's happy. The dr said she's looking good, she weighs about 11 pounds now. Babies grow too fast, yesterday was probably the last day she wore her "coming home" outfit, she's just about out of the newborn clothes, I have to start packing stuff away already.

I hope everyone has a great weekend, and is ready for the Easter Bunny to visit next weekend. Take care.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Well I think we got about 8 inches of snow, it's kinda compacted now cause there was sleet mixed in with it. Figures it took to the middle of March to get a decent snowstorm, the only other storm we got this year was Valentine's day, so there was snow on the ground when Cassidy was born, just like when Zac was born. Guess both my kids are snowbabies!

I had to take the picture posted, because my mom bought her this absolutely GORGEOUS snowsuit, but she never got to wear it, it's too bulky to wear in her carseat, and seriously when are you going to take the newborn out in the snow, so we dressed her up quick and took a pic.

She has taken to liking her swing, she fell asleep in it last nite and slept for hours, I had to wake her up to feed her. And she's in it now, dozing. Which is great, it's nice to know I can put her in the swing and get some stuff done, granted it's not usually fun stuff, it's stuff like laundry, dishes, sweeping up dog hair, etc. And if I'm lucky I have time to pop online, like now.

Oh I need to add the laugh we had the other evening. Apparently during the fall a couple bugs decided are home was the place to winter and raise a family. Anyway we saw a box elder bug in the kitchen and the next thing you knew it flew, well apparently it flew onto Zac's flannel PJ pants and he couldn't find it, fearing it crawled in the button down fly, he proceeded to quickly push his pants off and was flipping his pants up and down, now his shirt was long enough to cover most of him, but it was too frikkin funny to see the bottom of his butt cheeks hanging out as he was flipping out over this bug! Laughter is such a wonderful sound in the home

Oooops, I guess I should have typed this in green, I forgot it's St. Patrick's Day, so HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!!!!!

Hockey scuttlebutt

Zac's scholastic coach was arrested for having child porn on his puter. Anyway the good thing that came out of this is that Zac is now petrified to do just about anything on the computer because now he is worried about the "cyber police". So while I am disheartened that we even had to have a conversation about child porn with Zac, it might not be all bad. We have him petrified that not only do mom and dad check out what he's doing on his computer, that he is also being watched by others. At this point everyone on the team knows, so all us parents who tried to keep it quiet, kids will be kids and they love to dish the dirt as much as the parents do apparently. LOL Well his scholastic team finished up the year with their only loss, which sucks big time. Zac's school has the largest hockey team in the league and they had so many kids at the middle school level they had to split into two teams. Well we started off great, then had some teams in the league bitch about our team and we lost 3 kids (made them move up to JV where unfortunately because they are older but can't skate they don't even get to play) and then we lost the aforementioned coach's kid so we went 12 players to 8 and then picked up to younger kids who aren't too bad, just new to check hockey. So anyway we had to play the other team from our school, we had played them earlier in the season (when we had our original team) and tied, which was PERFECT! I mean afterall these kids go to school together and then there were no bragging rights. But we played again, the other team had 13 players, we had 8. We hung in with a 1-1 tie through 2 periods, but by the 3rd we were beat, Zac was out constantly as they played 3 defensemen instead of the usual 4. The other team scored 2 more goals and with 40 seconds left we scored our 2nd, but we couldn't get the third goal. Zac's team has the better record between the two teams from his school, but it was still a hard loss. Oh well, no one ever said life was fair, for being so shorthanded I thought they played well -- but that's a MOM's perspective, the DAD's certainly have other ideas!!!!!!! Well I wrote a book, I need to go wake my snugglebug up, she's been sleeping for 2 1/2 hrs. I took her shopping and she's been sleeping in her carseat since I came home. It's finally nice out, and since the clock's have been turned, I think we'll break out the stroller tonite!

Winter's Last Gasp (3/6/07)

Well, lucky me! I have a houseful again today. Just a small Alberta clipper whipping through, only dumping a couple inches, but it comes at prime rush hour time, so the schools closed and Chuck decided to work from home.

It's nice when Chuck works from home cause then he gets to see what kind of schedule Cassidy is on -- which is NO schedule as of now. But she is taking longer naps, which leaves me more time to do chores and actually take a shower w/o rushing.

I cannot wait for spring, if it were just me I'd be out and about, but it's been so frigid, today's low is 4 with windchills of 10 below or so, so no taking baby outside in that without a good reason. It's supposed to start warming up in a couple days. I remember being housebound with Zac as a baby too, his birthday is Feb 8, so it was the same deal.

Chuck and I have decided that Cassidy looks like my mom as a baby, I have a picture of my mom at 6 months framed in the living room and she has the same round face and big eyes. My mom says she looks like her dad, which makes sense cause that's who my mom looks like. I miss my Grandparents so much, yesterday was the 9th anniversary of my Grandpa's death. I think of him often, how much time we spent with him and how much he taught me I now have taught Zac. I hope this little girl likes to fish, cause that's how I keep the memory of Grandpa alive in me, and Zac remembers him a bit.

Oh well enough of the sappiness!

Happy Birthday Jon!!!! (March 2, 1962)

Happy birthday Jon. You still make me melt. 45 never looked so good!

Can't wait for the new cd. My Bon Jovi playlist is always playing on my ipod, over 350 songs, never gets old.

First Day Alone

Cassidy is 11 days old today and it's the first time we get to spend the day trying to get into a routine. It's great that Chuck gets to work from home and he was home all last week with me. Yesterday he was around half a day cause Cassidy had a dr. appt. and I can't drive til after this weekend. All is going well. She's doing great, she gained 11 oz. since last Monday. She does pretty good at night, last night I woke up a bunch of times cause she just kept sleeping, a little over 6 hours, then I get nervous and have to check on her!

First Week Home

Well once again I have no complaints about having a c-section. I'm getting around normally. Making sure I don't life anything heavy, my only complaint was not being able to drive for 2 weeks, BAH!

The bonus of having Cassidy on a Friday was that Chuck didn't have to take any vacation days. He had several days of comp time saved up so that's what he used on Friday, Monday was a holiday (although he worked a few hours) and the rest of the week he worked from home.

I got my staples out on Thursday (piece of cake). Chuck always gets up, he did with Zac too. He always says I'm home all day with her, he'll do the middle of the night. Plus I think he just knows what a bitch I am if I don't get enough sleep. So I get up, get the bottle, he changes her, and sometimes I go back to bed, most times I sit with him in the living room while he feeds her. I LOVE my man!!!

Zac is still a big help, but he's ready for his lil sis to start playing, we told him he's going to have to wait a few months til she's more interactive.

Going Home

Sunday! Chuck and Zac come in around 8. I had already showered and changed. The doctor came in and I asked if I could go home today, he said well I was planning on releasing you tomorrow. I said please!! I'd feel better and more relaxed at home. So he said as long as Cassidy is released by the ped I could go home. YIPPPEEE!

Cassidy got the OK. So we started packing up. They technician gave us two diaper bags, she made a big deal of giving one to the "Big Brother". Zac was thrilled to be included. Cassidy got her picture taken and we bundled her up and headed home. HOME SWEET HOME!

We were home by 10:30 on the 18th. Zac had the "it's a girl" sign in the front yard and balloons in the window. The dogs checked out the baby, but I don't think they realize she's staying yet!

One Day Old

I woke up at 5 (because they took my blood pressure Again). So I took a nice shower and boy did I feel better. I put on my own pajamas and went down to the nursery to get Cassidy. Chuck checked in with us at about 6 and came in to visit at about 7.

Zac was at Grandma's again. They came in around 11 and Zac stayed with us all day, even when Chuck left to take care of the dogs. My brother came in to meet his new niece.

Zac loves the cafeteria food (insert eye roll) and he also loves going across the hall to the "goodie" room and getting me goodies. From ice chips and water, soda or jello packs and crackers.

It's very quiet in the maternity ward. Chuck said when they brought Cassidy up from the OR yesterday she was the only girl in there with about 9 boys. Today there is one other girl. I get up and walk around every hour or so. I have no pain, just a bit sore. I slept much better, they only woke me once for blood pressure. YEAH

Mommy's Angel

There are no words for how I feel today.

Big Brother

My mom said Zac couldn't sit still, waiting to come to the hospital. Visitors weren't allowed til 11, I'm sure they could have come sooner, but we enjoyed the quiet. My mom took Zac to the balloon shop and he picked out 3 big balloons. I don't know if I've ever seen him smile so big as when he held her for the first time. He wasn't even nervous.

At 6 pm I they took the pressure wraps off my legs and took out the catheter and I was allowed to get out of bed. It felt good to walk to the bathroom and to sit in a chair. I also got a light meal, broth and jello and such. The broth was yummy, but nothing else tasted that good.

Karen and her boys also came to visit on her birthday and she took Zac home with her, til Chuck left me and Cassidy and went home for the night. I had a rotten night in the hospital. I couldn't sleep, I didn't have much pain, but I was too wired to relax and fall asleep. Of course they came in a couple times to take my blood pressure, that didn't help.

8 lbs, 2 oz. --- 21 inches

In the recovery room, I felt great and could wiggle my toes almost immediately. It was sure a weird feeling tho, I saw them moving but I couldn't feel them. I had a little nausea and would dry heave occasionally but nothing terrible. Chuck came down and sat with me, and we made our phone calls.

Within an hour of delivering our little girl we were reunited in our private room. I still had bouts of nausea that came and went til about 11 or so, but other than that everything was perfect.

She felt so good in my arms. She has such a round face and chubby cheeks, you can tell she was a c-section baby (that's what everyone says). The three of us enjoyed our time alone.

Well she couldn't wait

Well Cassidy's birthday is Feb. 16, NOT Feb 19. She couldn't wait.

I woke at about 2:30 a.m. Friday morning and when I rolled over I felt "something". So I got up to go to the bathroom and as soon as I stood up, gush. WOW! So I wasn't sure yet (yes I can be slow). So I thought before I wake up Chuck I need to see, well I didn't even make it around the bed before an even bigger gush. I must have made some noise cause Chuck woke up and said what's wrong? I said "my water broke!" He said "your kidding". I head to the bathroom to attempt to clean up.

I compose myself and call the on-call nurse and she has the on-call dr call me (of course since I'm not delivering on the scheduled date it's a dr I hadn't met before) She calls back and tells me to head to the hospital. Well since we thought we had the weekend to get ready I had nothing packed. So I start packing and Chuck gets dressed. Meanwhile Zac wakes up and comes in the bedroom. We tell him to get dressed he's going to grandma's. Chuck calls my mom and tells her we're dropping off Zac and heading to the hospital.

We were all very calm, I wasn't having any contractions, so it was easy to remain calm. We dropped Zac off at my mom's and got to the hospital at about 4. They hooked me up to monitors and everything looked great, things moved so smoothly and by 5 I was being wheeled to the OR. I got my epi and then we just had to wait for the dr to get to the hospital.

Once the dr came in, they let Chuck in, he sat next to me and held my hand. The dr felt my belly and said "about 8 lbs." Then she started cutting and before I know it they were telling Chuck to stand up so he could watch, the dr said wow look at that hair (surprise surprise) I expected another bald baby.

It took a little while for Cassidy to cry, and Chuck and the nurses were watching til she finally let out a big wail. They cleaned her off and wrapped her up and brought her over to me, I got to squeeze and kiss her for a couple minutes before she went to the nursery. Chuck went along with her. It took about 15-20 minutes for them to stitch me back up. The people in the room were great, they had a great sense of humor and included me in their joking around. We had just had a major snowstorm and roads had been closed so a couple of the operating staff had been at the hospital for a few days because they couldn't get home.

February 2007

Well on the 8th my baby boy became a teenager! YIKES!!!! He's certainly got the attitude and mouth at times of a teenager. But for the most part he's a pretty good kid.

Hockey season has pretty much ended. It was a better season than last year, but there's always room for improvement.

Anxiously waiting for the 19th!!!

January 2007

Happy New Year. It's so exciting. One month to go til our new little peanut is here. We have picked out a name. Cassidy Jane. We could only come up with two that both of us liked, Sydney or Cassidy. My brother says I picked Cassidy since I had a crush on Shaun Cassidy when I was like 12. MMMMM Joe Hardy! LOL I said well since I couldn't come up with a girl's name from Bon Jovi I had to settle for Shaun, NOT.

We haven't had much snow this winter, maybe it's waiting til my due date gets closer.

Hockey is going well, they won their tourney at Thanksgiving and are looking forward to the President's day tournament. Zac is going to miss that tournament because I have scheduled a repeat c-section for Feb. 19. He is so excited about the baby, he doesn't even care he's going to miss the tournament in Pittsburgh.

Anxiously waiting. Oh Cricket came home and Comet has to share again, hehehe.

December 2006

It's my favorite time of the year. Christmas (and my birthday). I love the holidays, I love shopping for everyone. Trying to find the perfect gifts for everyone.

Zac's big present this year is Playstation II with guitar hero. He wants Wii, but there's no way I'm spending that much on a video game that doesn't have that many games yet.

We are getting the nursery ready. We got Zac's crib down, I needed a new mattress. I got some pictures from goodwill for the wall, they match the yellow perfectly. I got a changing table with shelving above it and drawers for clothing. It's a nice piece of furniture, I hope to get lots of use out of.

Cricket is off back at the breeder having her puppies. We miss her, and without Annie :( Comet is the only dog at the moment and he's enjoying it.

Judi and Janet came to town for Xmas, it's always so much fun at his Mom's house with a houseful. We spent xmas eve there and after my parents came to watch Zac open presents, we spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon at his mom's. His mom made Zac a fleece robe from hockey material, Zac loves it. She got me a cozy lavender robe for the hospital, it's comfy!

The rest of the day was spent at my Mom's with my family. I was exhausted by the end of the day. I got spoiled again as usual. It's exciting to think that there is going to be a little one again next Christmas.

We spent New Year's Eve with Jim and Karen and the boys. But we didn't stay til midnite, I was too pooped! And Chuck's been working in the middle of the night doing all kinds of conversions and such to get a new program up and running. But he doesn't mind, he's socking away comp time to use when the baby comes.

November 2006

Really starting to feel her move around, belly is getting bigger. It's so wonderful to rub my belly and know there's a baby inside. Everything is going along great, I feel wonderful.

Zac's hockey team is doing ok, they are doing better than last year. He's having fun as always. I sleep alot on the way to games this year. I sleep great and this little baby is like a built in furnace, she keeps me nice and toasty.

My sister in law, Donna and my best friend, Karen threw me a baby shower. It was supposed to be a surprise, but I kinda figured it out. It was great. I got some very nice things. Baby things have changed a lot in 13 years, swings are battery operated now instead of winding up, the infant car seats let you get the baby bundled up inside instead of outside! Jogging strollers, bouncy seats, wonderful stuff. I also got a lot of girl stuff, so it better be a girl. Zac was excited about the shower and helped me open the baby stuff.

Well we had our last u/s at the hospital after Thanksgiving, once again Zac got to go along. They got some great pictures of the heart this time and everything was perfect. The baby had her legs spread and there was no missing the fact that YUP it's a GIRL!! Zac asked the doctor some questions from the u/s pics. It's amazing everything you can see on an u/s although some of it just looks like blurs to us, the techs now exactly what everything is.

October 2006

So now its decision time--do we wanna know the sex. It didn't take us long to decide, YES WE DO. Nothing could ever be more of a surprise than this pregnancy itself. I was hoping for another boy, guess that's the tomboy in me. Both Chuck and Zac were hoping for a girl.

Zac got to come along to this u/s. The tech took lots of pictures of the spine and brain again, the baby wasn't being too cooperative in the beginning, and finally the tech said I think it's a girl. Of course we were all thrilled. As she continued the ultrasound, she moved and the tech said yup it's a girl (how she could tell I'll never know). Once again everything looked good, but still didn't have very good pics of the heart so I have to go again next month, but that's ok with me, I love seeing her grow.

We have no names picked out for a girl. We had a boy's name, Zander. The only thing I'm pretty sure of is that the middle name will be Jane after my mom, that's her middle name.

Zac's hockey season has started up. So that's about to get into full swing.

And on the job front, Chuck is once again employed!!! He is back as a contractor at a job he lost about 20 months ago. He's working with the same guys he was before. He's happy, which is always a good thing.

September 2006

Well I have been poked and prodded enough this month. It was an exciting month tho. Chuck got to hear the heartbeat at our first appointment. Everything is going along well, the bleeding has stopped and I'm looking forward to an uneventful rest of the pregnancy, especially since the first trimester was pretty darn easy considering I had no clue!

Because of my age (38) I was asked to consider an amnio, but we decided against that I just going to have the extra blood work (Quad screen). I had a level II u/s scheduled at Maternal Fetal Medicine at the hospital the end of October, so everything was going along smoothly. Well until I got a call on a Wednesday saying that I needed to go for the Level II u/s tomorrow because my AlphaFeta Protein results came back high. Luckily, my nurse practitioner had forewarned me that due to my heavy bleeding in the first trimester this indicator might come back high.

So the u/s took over 30 minutes, they took pictures of everything, paying special attention to the spine and brain. It was still too early to get a good picture of the heart. But we have another u/s scheduled for next month. Nothing abnormal appeared. Thank God!

We are still in shock, and I think we will be for a long while. We now have to empty out the spare bedroom which was a storage room/office. The room is yellow with white wainscoting and we are just going to freshen up the yellow and leave it the wainscoting.

On a good note, Chuck has had some promising job leads. He might even wind up back where he was left go about 20 months ago. That company realized they can't have all their help in India and are starting to hire more people "onshore".

That's all for now.

August 24, 2006

What a roller coaster of a day. At 9:30 a.m. the phone rang, the caller ID showed it was Chuck calling from his cell phone. I had a weird feeling as I answered, it was Thursday, his company always lays people off on Thursdays. I knew the second I heard his voice that that's why he was calling. After receiving that call two other times in the last 18 months it was really getting old. At least this company had a good severance package.

So he came home and loafed around the house for a day, he still had a few weeks left at the job, but they let him come home for the day. Well Zac and I had plans for the rest of the day, Zac was off to our best friends' house to go swimming while I went to the dr. I had made the appointment last week, after miscarrying in July, I never even got to the dr after finding out I was pregnant before I miscarried. I didnt want to go to the dr because I hate them so, so the nurse said as long as I miscarried naturally and didn't bleed for more than 3 weeks I didn't need to come in. Well I bled for over 4 weeks before I called the dr and they had me come in for an ultrasound.

So I get to the office and find out Joy of Joys it's an internal ultrasound "BLECH!" So the tech starts the u/s and says yes you have blood collected above your cervix, let's see if we can find where it's coming from. Then she says, how long ago did you miscarry, I said about 5 weeks and she said well there's a baby. WHAT???? You gotta be kiddin. But nope there was the head. She then got the regular u/s out and there was a baby, moving and dancing around. Talk about SHOCK. As they continued the u/s the tech said it looked like I lost a twin, there was still some indication of where the other baby had been attached on my uterus.

Well, I was on cloud 9!!! 13 years, 13 years I was never able to get pregnant again. We had given up about 5 years ago ever thinking we would have another one. The doc said it looked like everything with this little one was fine and then I set up my next appointment.

NOW WHAT? Now I have to go home and tell the man I love that we are having another baby FINALLY after all these years. The timing was quite bad, I think God has a warped sense of humor sometime. I called my best friend who had Zac and she told her, she was so excited and kept saying I told you so, LOL. I picked up Zac and went home.

I just walked in the house and handed Chuck the ultrasound. He was as dumbfounded as I had been. He was like "you got to be kidding me". But he was ALMOST as happy as me. Then Zac was like "WHAT?" Chuck handed him in the ultrasound and he looked at me and said "Really?" I said yup and he gave me the biggest hug, he was thrilled. He has wanted a younger brother or sister forever.

We then spent the rest of the evening traveling and around and showing off our ultrasound pic. Everyone was thrilled for us cause they know how badly we always wanted more.