tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25705535103394078072024-03-18T21:34:18.154-07:00A Baby? Maybe. . .Getting knocked up isn't as easy as they told you in 6th grade sex education class. After two years of trying to become parents we came to realize that things don't happen exactly how you hope, but maybe that makes it all the more worth it.Beverleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16473592184023240522noreply@blogger.comBlogger267125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2570553510339407807.post-78519636507706634192014-03-05T15:07:00.002-08:002014-03-05T15:08:01.350-08:00Oh. Hello.<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Oh. Hello.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Is anyone out there?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I am still here. Me, The Husband, Lucy, Zoe and Paddy. WHO?"Who is THAT?" you say. Oh that is right, in the long, long hiatus took from blogging I was busy and had...ANOTHER baby! My Patrick. Paddy. My boy. The easiest, happiest baby I've ever met. Don't get me wrong, I adore my ladies but they were challenging babies. Not much sleep was had. This time -- he sleeps, he eats, and that is it. Easy. Well, maybe not easy. I don't think anything is easy with 5 and 3 and 3 months! But HE is easy. He is lovely.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Is our family complete? I don't know. If you had asked me, at 39 weeks pregnant in November, I'd say "Oh hell yes"! Now, I'm not so sure.How do you know when its enough? I find it harder to turn the page and close this chapter of our life. But, that being said, damn are we enjoying ourselves!</span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">“Let the wild rumpus start!”
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">-Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are</span><br />
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<img align="left" src="http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj227/ewhites/babymaybesig.jpg" style="border: 0;" />Beverleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16473592184023240522noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2570553510339407807.post-31452467887212690942013-01-22T12:05:00.000-08:002013-01-22T12:05:29.599-08:00Where do I go from here?...<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Clearly I've become a fallen blogger. I've thought about it for awhile now. I loved blogging. Loved it. But I've felt like I don't fit in this space for a long time now. A Baby? Maybe...is obviously not me anymore, as my house full of diapers, tiny mittens, shoes that light up, Hello Kitty paraphernalia and Disney movies will attest to.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So, where does one go from here? Do I stay and update the layout and the description and freshen up this space? Do I start anew, as I've had a alternate blog name waiting in the wings for years now. Will you come with me? Where do I go from here?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Help.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>"I do know, where you go, is where I want to be</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>Where are you going, where do you go?<br />Are you looking for answers<br />to questions under the stars?"</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">-Dave Matthews Band</span></div>
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Beverleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16473592184023240522noreply@blogger.com30tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2570553510339407807.post-66104318736714107692012-10-30T15:41:00.000-07:002012-10-30T15:41:22.962-07:00Dinnertime...<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Sometimes it feels like this life is going by so fast that I actually have to stop and take deeps breaths and close my eyes because I feel dizzy from the speed of it all. It's overwhelming. It literally takes my breath away.</span><div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Life never moved as fast as it does now, now that there are tiny people involved.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I'm sure you agree.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I was thinking the other day, as I drove home from a long day at work and was racking my brain as to what we would eat for dinner, about when it was just Rob and I. When sometimes our idea of dinner was a huge loaf of fresh french bread, you know the ones that they put out at 5:00 pm in the grocery store? We would light a fire in the tiny family room of our little yellow house and eat an entire loaf of bread, dipped in balsamic and olive oil, for dinner. OMG, yum. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">How times have changed. Because, apparently, you cannot feed two small people a load of bread for dinner. Shocking? I know. Now we need a meat, a veggie a starch, a nice well rounded meal. Unfortunately, for my children, they have a more specific idea of a meal that is a chicken, a broccoli an a rice or...only pasta with butter. That's about it. Anything else ensures that I will spend my dinner pleading and threatening anything and everything to try and get them to try it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>"Four bites, just four. "</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>"How about three mommy? PHHUULLLEAASE THREE?" </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>"FOUR, OMG Rob the baby is smearing it in her hair. Lucy, FOUR. Zoe stop throwing the potatoes at the dog. Lucy sit down do not go under the table. Why are you crying? Four is only one more than three..."</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">You know what? I like chicken and rice with broccoli. But, every single night? It's a little ...redundant. And, for goodness sakes, why will they not eat a thing out of a damn crockpot? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Sometimes I long to just skip dinner, have some bread and oil and sit down after a long day. But, as I was driving home and thinking about it, not really wistfully, just thinking. I also thought about the fact that someday, in the not so far off future, there will be a time where a considerably older couple can still go and eat a load of bread with balsamic for dinner. Of course, by that time, we'll be older and more responsible that our young and reckless bread eating days, but regardless of what we're eating we'll probably laugh about the days when we had insanely noisy dinners of chicken and rice, where the baby would constantly throw the rice on top of the dog, who was valiantly trying to clean up after her. Where Lucy would chatter in my ear incessantly about her day and what she was going to eat for dessert and if we could pretty please watch Incredibles after dinner with popcorn, please please I'll eat all my dinner I promise. I know I'll wish for these days. I know it. I feel like they're slipping through my fingers, and I'm trying to hold on.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Can you possibly wrap your head around how BIG they are?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>"Let a joy keep you. Reach out your hands and take it when it runs by."</i></span></div>
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<span data-iceapw="5"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>-Carl Sandburg</i></span></span></div>
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Beverleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16473592184023240522noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2570553510339407807.post-36409497389039025232012-05-30T15:42:00.002-07:002012-05-30T15:43:32.182-07:00Here we go again...<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
BREASTFEEDING IS NOT CONTROVERSIAL.
For goodness sakes. It is getting downright outrageous out there. </div>
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This article <a href="http://moms.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/30/11955844-military-mom-proud-of-breast-feeding-in-uniform-despite-criticism?lite" target="_blank">here </a>discusses how, once again, a picture of a breastfeeding mother has sparked public debate. Except this time the picture is of military servicewoman who are breastfeeding...in uniform. GASP. The horror of it. Allegedly it has been compared to urinating or defecating in public in uniform.</div>
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I think it is disgusting how the media seems to be portraying breastfeeding as a controversy, even if it is, in fact, a controversial issue, the media is playing a huge role in are really fueling fire lately. And, if it is a fact, that the military prefers women NOT breastfeed in uniform, then I'm disgusted at them as well. Why must women be made to feel that breastfeeding is something to be ashamed of? That there is even a question as to when and where is "appropriate" to feed your child. I don't think it is ANY different that a woman in uniform sitting and bottle feeding her child. Same thing, different vessel.</div>
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I just don't understand it and I'm SO tried of it. What about you?</div>
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<i><span class="huge">"Controversy equalizes fools and wise men - and the fools know it."</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Oliver Wendall Holmes</span></div>
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<img align="left" src="http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj227/ewhites/babymaybesig.jpg" style="border: 0pt none;" />Beverleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16473592184023240522noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2570553510339407807.post-39442593313363848792012-05-29T15:43:00.000-07:002012-05-29T15:43:09.287-07:00We're so close...<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">To being HOMEOWNERS again! </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Almost 7 months of waiting...and waiting...and waiting for the short sale offer to be approved. 7 months of being jerked around by the sellers and their agent (there was A LOT of shenanigans going on there) and then by the short sale negotiators and the bank (damn you Chase bank, DAMN YOU)! And you know what? It was totally worth it, and not for the reason you think.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">We found a different house. Two weeks ago I happened upon a brand new listing and we decided to take a look, (since while you're waiting on a short sale you are contractually allowed to still make offers on other properties). So we went, on a hot Monday night after work when we were all tired and the girls were cranky and Rob only had 15 minutes until his softball game that evening. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">We loved it. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Big, beautiful, finished (no fixer here), perfect yard, great neighborhood, walking distance to school and friends and "Nanny" (my mom).</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Done and done. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Offer in. Haggle, haggle, haggle. Offer accepted. Inspection done. Appraisal done. Now we're just waiting for the sellers to let us know if they will do the repairs (they are total hagglers - I don't hate the players, hate the game). We close on June 14th. OMG! June FOURTEENTH! Only two weeks away! They needed some extra time to pack up so we get possession on June 24th.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">We are so FREAKING excited I cannot even begin to tell you.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Lesson learned, times that are hard sometimes make it all worth it in the end. I cannot wait to share pictures with you all! Although, with the other house I had a WHOLE Pinterest board dedicated to renovations and ideas...with this house, it doesn't need anything major. So, instead of major projects and renovations and all that, we'll just live our sweet little lives instead. Sounds pretty good to me!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In the meantime, here is a little photo snack of my ladies, growing up too fast:</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Zoe, being ultra-cool. I totally want to buy her these baby sunglasses (she's trying them on in the store)...even though they are $18.99...which is more than I spend on my OWN sunglasses...</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Sisters dancing at the Farmer's Market</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">She cannot take a picture without her tongue out!</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Someone is a Daddy's girl...BIG time</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Movie night with Mom and Dad</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Could she BE any cuter?</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Seriously?</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Heat = nothing a sprinkler can't fix</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Silly girl</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Swim lessons is serious business</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">She is so cool (wearing my glasses...which cost less than those ones I want for Zoe)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Piggies!</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>"Life is too short to wake up in the morning with regrets. </i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>So love the people who treat you right and forget the ones who don't. </i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>And believe that everything happens for a reason... </i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>if you get a chance, take it; if it changes your life - let it.</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>Nobody said it would be easy...</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>They just promised it would be worth it."</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">-Unknown</span></div>
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<img align="left" src="http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj227/ewhites/babymaybesig.jpg" style="border: 0;" />Beverleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16473592184023240522noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2570553510339407807.post-26786021523662546542012-05-11T10:03:00.001-07:002012-05-11T10:03:12.956-07:00Are you Mom enough?...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span><span style="background-color: #666666;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #666666;">Image Credit Time Magazine - 2012</span></span></span></span></span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
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So the internets are all a’buzzing about the picture from Time Magazine for a variety of reasons. </div>
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<i>OMG she’s breastfeeding a school age child! Disgusting! Outrageous! Scandal! Pervert! </i></div>
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<i>She’s going to scar that boy for life on the cover of a major news magazine like that! Child abuse! </i></div>
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<i>This is basically pornography showing a uncovered BREAST like that! ::clutching pearls:: </i></div>
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Me, I don’t give a flying fig about the picture. You breastfeed your infant, cool. You breastfeed your toddler, cool. You breastfeed your school-age child, cool. Your decision. I don’t care. I don’t care if you advertise it by way of sitting next to me on a park bench or on a national magazine. </div>
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I’m not going to be the only blogger to write about this, but… what I don’t like? The title...</div>
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<i><b>“Are YOU Mom Enough?” </b></i></div>
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Yes. </div>
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Whether we decide to breastfeed or formula feed. Work from home or stay at home. Cloth diaper or use disposables. Shop at Whole Foods and eat organic or from the bargain bulk bins at Winco. Home-school or send them off to the bus stop. Whether you read Dr. Sears, Dr. Green or Dr. Ferber. Co-sleep or cry it out. Whether you birthed that baby in a hospital with a sheet between you and a doctor who was slicing you open like a watermelon or whether you had them at home, au natural, in a plastic tub. </div>
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YES. </div>
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And when you feel the doubt creeping in. When the moms in your play group, your friends on Facebook, advertising, TV shows, news articles, Pinterest, BLOGGERS, all make you feel like you’re not enough?</div>
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YOU ARE. </div>
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What? You don’t’ craft and make elaborate dinners? Throw incredible themed first birthday parties? You don’t have your own organic garden? You aren’t making homemade baby food? You didn’t encapsulate your placenta? You don’t have a savings account for your child? A college fund? You’re not going on an incredible family vacation every year? You don’t save 80% of your grocery bills with an incredible coupon cutting strategy? Your home doesn’t look like the pages of Pinterest or Pottery Barn? </div>
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THAT IS OK. </div>
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Know one thing. The litmus test for the million dollar question, <i><b>“Are YOU mom enough?”</b></i></div>
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Do you LOVE your child? Completely, unconditionally and in a way that is so all-encompassing that every decision you make for your child(ren), your family, is based on that love. </div>
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If the answer is, yes, then yes, you ARE mom enough.</div>
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<i>“Motherhood is a choice you make everyday, to put someone else's
happiness and well-being ahead of your own, to teach the hard lessons,
to do the right thing even when you're not sure what the right thing
is...and to forgive yourself, over and over again, for doing everything
wrong.” </i></div>
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-Donna Ball, At Home on Ladybug Farm </div>
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<img align="left" src="http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj227/ewhites/babymaybesig.jpg" style="border: 0pt none;" />Beverleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16473592184023240522noreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2570553510339407807.post-43024321422651457072012-05-09T11:30:00.000-07:002012-05-09T11:30:01.219-07:00The Last Year...<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">...It's so overwhelming, where do I start?</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">Had the Zoe - She was beautiful and perfect and amazing and lovely. Although I will say, the hormones did a number on me this time. Rob brought Lucy to come see me in the hospital the second day and I cried like a baby when they left. I actually cried pretty much all night long (Rob was going home with Luce so I was alone). The next day I was fine, but that night alone in the hospital was rough even though Zoe was a dream baby.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">Miss Zoe continued to be a dream baby for about three weeks. Then Rob went back to work. Then she turned into a screaming banshee. An adorable banshee, but a banshee. She started screaming at about 8 pm at night and stopped at around 2 or 3 am. That is about 7 hours straight of screaming. She also screamed during the day, but not quite as much or as heartily. We thought, like Lucy, that she had colic. I thought I was going to lose my mind. Rob and I would take turns at night walking her around our room and watching re-runs of Food Channel shows on Netflix. To this day I cannot watch Man V. Food without the cringing.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">After a couple weeks of this torture I decided I wasn't writing this off as colic. I took her to the pediatrician who promptly diagnosed her with reflux and started her on Zantac, warning me that it could take a couple weeks to kick in. And just so you know, when they told me that my baby, whose baby screams lasted 10+ hours a day would have to wait a couple of weeks for relief, I cried, as much for me as for her because I knew she was uncomfortable but I was losing my ever-loving mind. Well, Miss Z decided to take full advantage of this waiting time for the meds to kick in and proceeded to scream all the way through them. I even took her to a chiropractor (on the suggestion of a dear friend who worked at the chiro's office and had seen some success in colic/reflux babies). However, I cannot tell you whether it was the chiro or the Zantac that did it but as quickly as she started screaming, it stopped at when she hit about 10 weeks old. I cannot describe to you the relief, for all of us! We loved that baby but I would hear her screaming in my ears even during the day when she was sleeping! Also something that helped, Colic Calm. That stuff is like black gold, even if it ruins every outfit we ever put on her.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">I'm not kidding when I tell you I thought I was going to lose my mind with Zoe's screaming, and honestly, I was alone pretty much every day. I had a couple visitors here and there but other than that I was alone until Rob came home at night. Not that there is anything bad about that, but postpartum anxiety + screaming baby + mischievous/rebellious toddler = my volunteering to go back to work right around 10 weeks post partum. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">As soon as I returned to work Z's reflux meds started to work and she was a sweet dream, as my mother tells me. She never screamed and an angel all day, every day. This is me, kicking myself now. Stupid Stupid Stupid.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">Let me tell you something about my old job. I worked like a dog. I literally did the job of what a whole team of people usually do for a company of that size. 12-14 hours a day and on the weekends. Everyone there in my department did it. It wasn't set as an expectation but when everyone else is doing it...yep, I was a sheep. I did it too. You would work all day, usually through lunch. Then go home and EVERYONE would log on late at night for several hours. If you didn't log on, you'd open your email in the morning to a gazillion emails from everyone else who was working last night and would feel like the ultimate slacker for not being one of them (rewards for performance were BIG and everyone wanted to be the top, including me). I loved my team, LOVED them and still do, but I couldn't keep it up. I happened across a job posting on Craigslist and, on a whim, applied for a HR Analyst position at a company literally two blocks away from my current company.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">I didn't think anything of it, until I was offered the job and had to give notice at my current job. Well, I don't know if you know this but sometimes, when someone does the work of several people, it's NOT a good thing for them to leave! Panic ensues. So, I offer to stay on, part-time, to help with the transition while they outsourced my (one) position to another company.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">There is something you should know about me, I CANNOT do anything half-ass. So, while I'm throwing myself into this new job I was also working full-time on my OLD job until the outsourced. So, let me break this down for you. Wake up, go to work - 9 hours at Job A. Come home, dinner, bath, baby snuggling then at 8:00, when they were asleep, I would log on to Job B until the wee, WEE hours of the morning, usually between 12-2 am. Would also put in over 10 hours each weekend. Total I would say I was working, on average, 80 hours per week. And yes, I still spent as much time as possible with the kiddies. Most of my extra work time was at night and amazingly, at first, I was able to function on an insanely small amount of sleep...for a period of time. At the end I really started to go downhill.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">I did this from July 2011 to March 2012. Something else you should know. I raked in the Benjamins. So, no, it was not all for nothing. Which leads us to, what was I going to do with that $$? </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">There was a purpose of why I continued to do it. We decided this housing market was our chance to get into something that better fit out expanding family. So, we sold our house. Oh man, was that hard. I looooved our little house, but it was just that, little. Bursting at the seams for a family of four, a dog and two cats. We thought it would be on the market forever with all the hype about the down housing market. Wrong! Listed in September sold by November 23rd. Granted, we took a loss and paid to get out of it, but it was what we needed to do to move on. The sale went so quickly that we didn't even have time to find a replacement property. So we moved in with my Mom who I love and adore but also REALLY, REALLY likes to give "advice" and REALLY, REALLY thinks that I should take EVERY PIECE of advice she every gives me and if I do not she immediately takes offense and gets all huffy and offended for extended periods of time and generally makes me miserable (not necessarily on purpose, it's just the way she is). Which is fine, when you don't live under the same (small) roof and feel like you're going to go all REDRUM on one another if it doesn't end soon.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">We found a Short Sale and made an offer. We thought, oh yes, we can wait because its an AMAZING house, GREAT deal, we're SURE those reports of people waiting 6 months for Short Sales is totally an exaggeration. Um, WRONG. Totally NOT an exaggeration. Short Sales are the devil. So started the waiting and waiting and waiting.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">Meanwhile, I'm starting to feel...panic. Sheer panic. I feel like I am drowning under the pressure of Job A, Job B, House, Kids, Mom, Husband, Animals. OMG. I call my doctor to let her know I've been short of breath lately and am shaky. Also, terrified that something terrible is going to happen. What if one of the girls falls down the stairs, what if they get cancer, what if we get in a car accident. Cannot. Breathe.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">I see the doctor and she, gently, suggests that I should probably 1. take this RX for Zoloft and 2. Speak to a Counselor. I do both.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">I'm going to be frank here. I don't think the Zoloft did me any good. Even after waiting a couple weeks I didn't see that much of a difference. On the other hand, the counselling was great. Honestly, the first time I went in it was like. Oh yes, I'm fine, everything is fine but... </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><i>I'mworkingamillionhoursandI'mworriedaboutmykidsandIcannotseemtostoptobreathandmymotherisonmelikeaheatrasheverydayandmyhusbandactslikeeverytingiscompletelynormalandittotallyisn'tandIfeelikeI'mlosingmyeverlovingmind.</i></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">And she's all "Um, Duh?". OK, not in so many words but basically:</span><br />
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<ol>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">I have what appears to be a history of anxiety and depression.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">Working 80+ hours a week is not sustainable and is detrimental to your mental and physical health.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">I am living with my lovely but HIGHLY opinionated mother in a cramped living space that is not my own.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">Rob, who also is lovely, is a totally oblivious to the fact that I am on the edge of a complete breakdown.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">I'm not sleeping due to work and the fact that Zoe wakes up every other hour at night. You can go for awhile on less sleep, but then you get to a point that sleep deprivation is TRULY a form of torture.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">See above - lather, rinse, repeat.</span></li>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">So, I nixed the Zoloft and continued the counselling. It felt good and finally recognized that we had MORE than enough money in savings and that Job B was more than ready to go on without me and that I needed to be done with all that nonsense like NOW. So, as of March 1 I had one job and it felt incredible. Because really, I hadn't had a normal work-life balance in years. I worked long hours throughout my career at my previous job, including through two pregnancies, and I could not backtrack away from the expectations that I had created for myself at that company. Even though I had been working, very successfully at Job A since July of 2011 I felt like I had a clean slate and man, it felt good.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">Fast forward to present. May 2012. Last week the offer on the Short Sale was approved by the major lien holder. We still need approval from the junior lien holders but luckily they are all at the same bank, so there shouldn't be too much haggling now that the main loan has accepted our offer. We're hoping to be IN THE HOUSE by the end of June. Hallelujah!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">I'm going to tell you why this house purchase was so worth every penny that I saved. Our old house - 1200 square feet, in a not-so-good neighborhood and a terrible school district (even though we loved it and I wouldn't trade our newlywed and new family years there for anything). New house - 2270 square feet, great, tree-lined neighborhood, solid school district. The best part about it...the difference in our monthly mortgage payments? Less than $100. AWESOME. Thank you terrible housing market and incredible mortgage loan rates! </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">Bigger house = more kids? Well I hate to disappoint but I'm not pregnant again...but I want to be. Am I crazy or am I CRAZY? Yes, I want more. At least two more littles hanging around. Probably in another couple years. First, I've got to figure out a couple things about work and being at home and all that jazz. I've got some thoughts up my sleeve, but they're a discussion for a later date.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">Some of you have asked about the Rob. My husband, though oblivious to the fact that sometimes I feel like I'm losing my mind, is also incredible. He gets the short end of the stick sometimes, because I'm damn busy, but takes it like a champ. And I promise I'll make it up to him when we're no longer sharing a room with a baby (living with mom, remember?) who decided that as soon as we moved into my mom's house she would STOP sleeping through the night and proceeded to wake up 2-5 times per night until last month (oh sweet relief). </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">Speaking of sleeping, we actually made a deal a couple months ago. I get up with the baby during the night and he would get up with her when she woke up at early every morning. Sounded like a good idea at which point she promptly stopped waking up early and then woke up multiple times at night (see mind-losing #5). I didn't say a word because I knew that there would be sweet relief soon enough and I was right. For the past two weeks Z has slept ALL night and gleefully woken up at 5:45 in the morning, at which point I jab Rob in the side with my finger and say "Rob, get the baby". Then I laugh evilly and go back to sleep. To his credit, he has only complained about it once or twice...to me. I'm sure he tell grumbles to Zoe every morning when she sees him and demands "UPPY!" at 5:45 am. But she's so dang cute I'm sure he can't be grumpy for long. He hasn't mentioned reneging on our deal yet, but I'm sure there will be an expiration of the deal at some point, but for now I'm going to keep it going for a long as humanly possible!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">And peeps, my girls. My girls are amazing. They are the lights of my life. Lucy is so, so smart. It's ridiculous how smart she is. Zoe too. I'm not just saying that. She can count to FIVE people. FIVE. I tell them that, every day. That they are so smart and I love them so,so,so much. Sometimes I feel like my heart could burst into a million pieces because it is just so full of love for them. I cannot even begin to describe them. They are THAT amazing. You'll see. Now that I've brought you up to date with this enormous, rambling post that possibly makes no sense to anyone but me I can start telling you about all their hijinks and adorable-ness going forward. I can't wait.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">Phew. That was a lot. Did I lose you all out there?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><i>"And remember that behind every successful woman......is a basket of dirty laundry."</i></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">-Unknown</span></span></div>
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<img align="left" src="http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj227/ewhites/babymaybesig.jpg" style="border: 0;" />Beverleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16473592184023240522noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2570553510339407807.post-66885175076604936712012-05-08T13:00:00.000-07:002012-05-08T14:33:36.138-07:00C'est la vie...<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">La vie...</span><br />
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">"<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">Il n'est rien de réel que le rêve et l'amour."</span></span></i></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">"Nothing is real but dreams and love"</span></b></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> -from <em>Le Coeur innombrable, IV, Chanson du temps opportun</em> by Anna de Noailles.</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">PS. Can I TELL you how much I love Instagram? You'll see LOTS of these in the future!</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<img align="left" src="http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj227/ewhites/babymaybesig.jpg" style="border: 0;" />Beverleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16473592184023240522noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2570553510339407807.post-91456120171902228972012-05-08T10:48:00.007-07:002012-05-08T10:48:54.822-07:00Can I ask your input on something...?<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">So, I would love to take the time to explain the last year of our crazy life to you all...buuuuut, it's a whole year people! That's a lot of backtracking and frankly, maybe you're not all that interested?</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I've got so much to tell you and I don't write it because I feel like I can't tell you about now when I haven't yet explained then. And, if you haven't noticed, I'm kinda long winded...so I feel like I can't catch up!
How about one long explaination and then we'll be good. Deal? </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>"Deals are my art form. Other people paint beautifully on canvas or write wonderful poetry. I like making deals, preferably big deals. That's how I get my kicks.</i>"</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">-Edward Koch</span></div>
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<img align="left" src="http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj227/ewhites/babymaybesig.jpg" style="border: 0;" />Beverleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16473592184023240522noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2570553510339407807.post-78577170887800713242012-05-08T10:30:00.003-07:002012-05-08T10:31:08.710-07:00Zoe's Birth Story Part 2...<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Time just flies by, doesn't it? Sorry for the delay!</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Onto part two...</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">So, after the nurse announced that she was a reader of my blog (awkward!) we headed on down to one of the delivery rooms so I could get checked. I changed into the oh-so-fashionable hospital gown and chatted to Rob as we waited for the nurse to come back.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">When she did she said to me, <i>"You're to happy to be far enough along in labor to be admitted."</i> She must have been joking. I'm sure tons of people get to L&D and aren't screaming in pain like you see in the movies (and like you would have seen my first go round with Luce). </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Wrong! She checked and I was at 6 almost 7 cm. So admitted I was. The contractions were completely manageable for about an hour, until I was checked again. At that time the on-call Doctor (mine was on vacation, again!) recommended that we break my water to get things moving along and asked if I wanted the epidural. Although still totally comfortable with my contractions, I knew what the water breaking meant after watching my contractions on the monitor with Luce skyrocket after they broke my water. So I accepted. The anesthesiologist came shortly after that and I chatted to him as he administered the epidural. In the middle of it I had my first really painful contraction, so I was pretty happy with our timing there!</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">They broke my water at about 8:30 pm and short after that my best friend Lindsay arrived. I love her. She is an incredibly busy businesswoman and she has made the time to come to the hospital for both of my labors. This time bringing my flip flops, since I forgot them for the shower. She even came when she was flying out for a business trip early the next morning. Love that girl! She stayed with me and kept me company while Rob snoozed on the chair until she had to leave to pack for her trip.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">At about 11:00 pm I was checked again and told by the nurse, "Well, you're ready to go!" Do you want this baby to have a March 3rd birthday or March 4th? </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I looked at Rob and he said, "Let's go for 3!" So the nurse bustled away to get the doctor and get ready. At 11:15 the doctor came in and three pushes later (just note I am a pushing MACHINE) Ms. Zoe Josephine arrived at 11:26 pm March 3rd, 2011! She was beautiful and perfect in every way. As soon as she was born my fears about becoming a family of four disappeared. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It was just the easiest birth and recovery. In all honestly, I probably could have done without the epi, but it allowed me to relax and and be comfortable, so I don't regret it. Next time (oh yes, there will be a next time) I'm THINIKING of going au natural...don't hold me to it though! </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<span class="huge" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>"You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star." </i></span></span></div>
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<span class="huge" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">- Friedrich Nietzsche</span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I know this is a year late but you know what? Even with everything that has happened in the last year I remember it as if it was yesterday.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">At my old work maternity leave started 2 weeks prior to your due date, so I went off work on Feb 18<sup>th</sup>. It was a relief, as for the last year my workload had just exploded and even with an easy pregnancy it still isn’t easy to work 12+ hours per day when pregnant (or not pregnant for that matter)! So, that Friday I left work breathing a sigh of relief.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I was thrilled when a week passed and Zoe will still safe and snug and with no apparent desire to arrive yet. It gave my time to clean, organize and, most importantly, spend time with Lucy. I was <u>so</u> excited for Zoe but a part of my heart was breaking knowing that things would never be the same again. It would never be three of us with our little world revolving around miss Lucy and I'd be lying if I told you the loss of that little version of our world was a little sad to me. So we spent every minute of those final weeks of pregnancy together and loved every minute of it.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">On the night of Wednesday, March 2<sup>nd</sup>, I work up in the middle of the night with contractions. Nothing too out of the ordinary but enough to wake me up. I remember lying there, with Lucy on one side of me in the bed and Rob on the other thinking,"hmmmm, this may be it." I ignored the contractions and cuddled up to Luce knowing, deep down, that everything was going to change very soon.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Very soon wasn’t very long after that. Ever 7 minutes the contractions came. An hour later, at about 4 am, I poked Rob and said, “hey, so…um…they’re like every 5 minutes now.” He, being the deep sleeper that he is, grunted something and rolled over. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">So I got up and got in the shower.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Still every 5 minutes, though not unbearable. So I came in and poked him again.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">“Hey you, I think we should call my mom to come over.” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">That got him up! My mom arrived at 5:30 am, just in time for my contractions to….end. Sorry mom! She fell asleep on our couch and we went back to bed.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">When we all woke up that morning there were no sign of contractions. So we went about our business as usual. We had a doctor’s appointment that afternoon so I mentioned to Rob that we should probably pack the hospital bag, just in case.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">So, we dropped off Luce at my mom’s house, with the promise that we would be back soon and went off to our 3:30 pm check up.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Of course, as usual when I’m due with a baby, my lovely doctor is on vacation. So I get checked by another doctor in her practice. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>“Oh, wow… you’re like 4.5 cm, almost 5…”</i><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Wait, WHAT?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In my last pregnancy,<a href="http://www.ababymaybe.com/2009/02/labor-story-part-2.html" target="_blank">as you may remember</a>, I went in to the hospital with RAGING BACK LABOR at like 2.5 cm… horrendous. And now this time I’m 5 cm without feeling a thing? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The doctor said, by the looks of it, you’re probably going to have a baby soon. I wouldn’t bother going home, maybe walk around for a but.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Shocked and excited Rob and I walked back to the car. Where I subsequently started crying because we TOLD Lucy that we were going to come home. Oh the GUILT. Honestly, I felt terrible. We called me mom and she assured us that Luce was fine so, we set about our new task at hand…walking.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">We walked the hospital floor and the outside grounds (in the rain, and yes, I totally jumped over puddles…while in active labor, wheee!) for about an hour and a half. The contractions started coming regularly then. Again, absolutely nothing like the last time around. These were totally manageable. The excitement was beginning to set in. I think part of my anticipation of labor, aside from my sadness about Lucy not being an only child anymore, was my fear over my last experience with labor. Back labor is no joke, but this time, this was easy.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Once they were coming at regular intervals, at about 6 pm, we headed up to L&D. I went to check in with the nurse who promptly said to me:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>“Ooooooooh! I know you! I read your blog!”</i><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Which was both flattering, as in “Wow, people do read the stuff I write” and awkward because girlfriend is about to become up close and personal with my business.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">And in we went….<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Stay tuned for the really exciting part, Zoe's arrival!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>"Of the rights of women, the greatest is to be a mother."</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">-Lin Yutang</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span> <!--EndFragment--><br />
<br />
<img align="left" src="http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj227/ewhites/babymaybesig.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px;" /></div>Beverleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16473592184023240522noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2570553510339407807.post-39451462723260404502012-04-04T19:25:00.002-07:002012-04-04T20:15:07.363-07:00The ladies...<div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Z and L -</div><br />
<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWRERBMXDuev497kVL-xDwxY9ub_JuQlCi84KMGDZvbunpbYsfMnCKm5QUBC6_jDdkaUC05oUCnTlrCOFbXudaJYWyPsh6gHgnakpghGqzXBoPfC8RbI-sXEiUV_muh4GH-niTWZSPuW8/" /><br />
<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglg96kr2m8iAzThMIPrto_dglPqoETG-7Wv8s0ldL6MLFwG86EyaN6Yq2LQgDvO7HKsZcGntIFnFx2C2K5ABx-doqh67C4NjizLq3qs5A9tsAmFZoXYFy5B6CZcZdRhrsMhJ-72vJLJLc/" /><br />
<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMT78W3G15BrLiaxB3UsXwkRZC-1A57xmJZVepHZRJtP4-qUD9XkOiqXO2X_P-iZZqZlbMs3CPgHrp5RwWXL0Jorm-Oiiijso3DLoPZnHB_H9d1UUxyhNs9q1XPqpo6DUkC4esCDRvYp0/" /><br />
<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFZ02uKOy_FwZqeJ_G0wbiHKpKpqDLybG7A2sprJmq9GtjbfHnNspSnATUWO29a8SJnrw1jBw3Ng2TnGuRDldk5NZjJ2V-8rlJ_8ygpcHhVVonxGy3wGcL6SvBvG_R4bEPZxxgB2cP5zk/" /><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic_QOS-oU5D0qzsMgq8h54pgkH0u7HpS4Rtk6EpoZqK6x-A6uQg1APTR9LqHpVjVJW4vF51dLZhLNKYgTvHHHtuhe2nupNcxDHR2qChh-zUKs68cxHwoSWpWdjkk2kGpK4lE9QXlA6tzc/" /></div><i><br />
</i><br />
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;"><i>"A sister can be seen as someone who is both ourselves and very much not ourselves - a special kind of double."</i></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;">-Toni Morrison</div><img align="left" src="http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj227/ewhites/babymaybesig.jpg" style="border: 0;" />Beverleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16473592184023240522noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2570553510339407807.post-34883034474308083112012-04-04T17:33:00.000-07:002012-04-04T17:33:01.131-07:00Recap...<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Things that happened in the last year that I totally meant to tell you but I kinda took a little, er, long break:</div><ol style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><li>Had Z, so you all knew about that, but you don't know all the gory details (and by gory I meant beautiful, amazing, thrilling, incredible, wonderful birth story). </li>
<li>Everything was wonderful and lovely for a couple weeks and la la la and the BAM! Reflux baby and I thought I was going to lose my every-loving mind for about a month. Seriously.</li>
<li>I went back to work, early. Reason, a.) money and b.) see above and reference "mind-losing".</li>
<li> Work turns back into 15 hour days, dislike!</li>
<li>Find new, shiny, prettier job with less hours.</li>
<li>Old job loves me so much that I feel bad for them (insert tiny violin for huge multi-million dollar corporation for losing little old me) and I offer to stay on part-time, for like a month or two, to assist in outsourcing my position (and by outsourcing I meant like 15 people are doing half of my job...super!)</li>
<li>Part-time turns into 9 months of insanity where instead of working part-time I work two full time jobs. This equals 1.) mega $$$ 2.) me almost losing my ever-loving mind, again. Ever try working 16+ hour days, and on the weekends, with a toddler and a (newish) newborn? Don't.</li>
<li>Then I decide that I don't have enough stress and we put our house on the market because duh! it will take like a year to sell. La la la, we have time.</li>
<li>Wrong, it takes 2 months and BAM! we have to be out in 20 days the day before Thanksgiving.</li>
<li>New house will be super easy to find so we'll move in with my mother temporarily while we're looking, wheeee! it will be all lovely and cozy and family-ish and we'll be together for the holidays and my mom watches the girls so we won't even need to drop them off in the morning. Will be SO convenient...for like a month or two. La la la.</li>
<li>Six months later, we're still at my mom's house and we're at each other's throats because she tends to dole out advice once in awhile, and by once in awhile I mean every second of the day that someone is awake to listen.</li>
<li>Postpartum anxiety rages, heightened by job(s) and living situation, give in and seek therapy and Zoloft.</li>
<li>Quit second job, quit Zoloft. Wake up and start to pick up the pieces.</li>
</ol><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">So...that is my life, to date, in a really quick condensed nutshell. Of course I'm going to go into detail on all the points above but...just wanted to let you all know what you're getting into in terms of a life recap over the past year.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Are you ready for this? What have you been up to?</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;"><i>"I can't tell if its killing me, or making me stronger."</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">-Unknown</span></div><br />
<img align="left" src="http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj227/ewhites/babymaybesig.jpg" style="border: 0pt none;" />Beverleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16473592184023240522noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2570553510339407807.post-10450690806814490532012-04-03T15:39:00.000-07:002012-04-03T15:39:29.342-07:00Oh, hello<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:DocumentProperties> <o:Revision>0</o:Revision> <o:TotalTime>0</o:TotalTime> <o:Pages>1</o:Pages> <o:Words>144</o:Words> <o:Characters>824</o:Characters> <o:Company>LAIKA</o:Company> <o:Lines>6</o:Lines> <o:Paragraphs>1</o:Paragraphs> <o:CharactersWithSpaces>967</o:CharactersWithSpaces> <o:Version>14.0</o:Version> </o:DocumentProperties> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/> <w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/> <w:OverrideTableStyleHps/> <w:UseFELayout/> </w:Compatibility> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It’s been awhile. Is anyone still out there?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It's like that awkward feeling when bump into someone at the grocery store who you haven't seen since like, high school, and you know who they are, and they clearly recognize you, but can't remember their name. In my case, as I've told the Mr. "this is when you jump in, once 5 seconds goes by without my introducing you... and introduce yourself, because CLEARLY I have forgotten their name." He never ever does it, damn him. Have you forgotten me in my hiatus? </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Let me re-introduce myself, "I'm Beverley, formerly hoping for just one thing, a baby, (which was a, at the time, very definite maybe)...and had my happy ending, or, happy beginning I should say--times 2." Nice to see you around these parts again. You can stay, or you can go but I won't be offended if you've forgotten me, there are so many of us in these parts these days.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I had plans last year, where I last left off. When I dropped off the face of the blogosphere. Plans to write. A year of birth stories and growing babies and toddling toddler-dom and life in general to share. But, as always, life gets in the way. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In my case it wasn’t anything dramatic, no getting hit by the proverbial mac truck or anything like that, but more of a steady layering effect until you couldn’t see me anymore. Smothered by the requirements that I put upon myself to be mother, daughter, provider, decision maker...the usual. I did it to myself, thinking I’m some sort of uber-super-mama-delux version of myself, but, much to my chagrin, I have found that I’m a mere mortal. Mortals fall apart, and I think, just maybe, I may be beginning to find myself again in picking up the pieces.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Interested? Hopefully. I'd like to be back to this world. I liked it here.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Zoe is 1 and 1 month. Lucy is 3 and 3 months…and I’ve missed you strangers out there. We’ve got a lot of catching up to do.</span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>"You cannot wait for the perfect time, sometimes you just have to jump."</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">-Unknown</span></div><!--EndFragment--><br />
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<img align="left" src="http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj227/ewhites/babymaybesig.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px;" />Beverleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16473592184023240522noreply@blogger.com28tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2570553510339407807.post-78458468746409623412011-04-25T19:26:00.000-07:002011-04-25T19:26:17.974-07:00Even If Only For a Short While...<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><i>"In the arms of an angel</i></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><i>Fly away from here."</i></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">- "Angel" Sarah McLachlan</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Thank you for your thoughts and prayers for our family/friends yesterday. Baby Arrayah arrived on this earth at 6:10 am this morning and had three amazing hours with her family to say hello and then goodbye, which is more than that the doctors had ever expected.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I got to hold her today, after she had already left this earth. She was truly beautiful.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><i>"We shall find peace. We shall hear angels,</i></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><i>we shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds."</i></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">-Chekov </div><br />
<img align="left" src="http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj227/ewhites/babymaybesig.jpg" style="border: 0pt none;" />Beverleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16473592184023240522noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2570553510339407807.post-72790330090847082952011-04-24T13:35:00.000-07:002011-04-24T22:05:47.777-07:00Do You Pray?<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I know I'm full of empty blogging promises, but I have my reasons. None of which are relevant to my post today. Today I'm going to ask you something. Something very personal. </div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
Do you pray?</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Because I have a family in need of your prayers, and they just happen to be a part of our family whom we love dearly. Pray on your own, add them to your church's prayer chain, share this blog entry. Anything. Please.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Rob's cousin Cadie and her husband Jamal are two of our closest friends. Their sweet daughter Sahara is only 6 months younger than Lucy, and they are the best of friends (even though Lucy told me today that Sahara is not allowed to play with her My Little Ponies).<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkSK0hQVtc_BAgk9CifnMKOlte4IQi_-Nt3r31WiWbmLbMNNNK-qRpcryax68rkBL56KIq-q-_t1dYJEgcX625axgulRq41RyFH4Yt3otf2cZFjEO5cCPbA6YJinfP0JyuxsCaQAblljQ/s1600/Zoe%252C+Lucy+March-April+2011+135.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkSK0hQVtc_BAgk9CifnMKOlte4IQi_-Nt3r31WiWbmLbMNNNK-qRpcryax68rkBL56KIq-q-_t1dYJEgcX625axgulRq41RyFH4Yt3otf2cZFjEO5cCPbA6YJinfP0JyuxsCaQAblljQ/s400/Zoe%252C+Lucy+March-April+2011+135.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> <span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(How sweet are our girls? The best of friends!)</span></i></span></div></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Cadie found out she was pregnant three months after I became pregnant with Zoe. We were thrilled that they were going to have another baby around the same time. Devastatingly, during Christmastime at their gender ultrasound, they received the news that their baby, a girl, had a fatal kidney disease. The doctors told the family that she would not likely survive for long after that. </div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Arrayah, the name they gave her as soon as they found out she was a girl, is a fighter. Now, months later and a month away from her due date, she is still holding on. The doctors have given her no chance of survivial outside the womb due to her lungs not being able to fully develop, they have told the family since it appears she will carry Arrayah to term that once the umbilical cord is cut that their time with Arrayah will end. But this family believes in miracles. They believe in the power of prayer, the power of hope and the power of grace. They are fighters too.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I cannot imagine being told that the child you are carrying is not going to survive. I cannot imagine having to go through the day, feeling each tumble and kick, knowing that the chances of bringing this sweet baby home is deemed medically impossible. The strength of this family, this mother, leaves me awestruck.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Please, please, I know you don't know them from Adam, but we love them so and even though we know the different ways that this family's journey may end, we want as many people hoping and praying for this family and sweet baby Arrayah as possible as her due date gets closer. Please. You can follow their journey at Cadie's blog <a href="http://cadie-onestepcloser.blogspot.com/">One Step Closer </a>and you can "Like" <a href="http://www.facebook.com/#%21/pages/Pray-for-Baby-Arrayah/162651253792379">Pray for Baby Arrayah on Facebook.</a></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Thank you.</div><br />
<img align="left" src="http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj227/ewhites/babymaybesig.jpg" style="border: 0pt none;" />Beverleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16473592184023240522noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2570553510339407807.post-13880278430234483662011-03-11T16:01:00.000-08:002012-05-08T11:22:18.465-07:00She has arrived!<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
Miss Zoe Josephine M arrived at 11:26 pm on Thursday, March 3rd, 2011 after about 6 hours of labor (so much easier this time around!). She weighed 6 lbs, 10 ounces and was 18 inches long. She is beautiful and apparently is the spitting image of her daddy when he was born! Lucy just adores her and is adjusting really well to being a family of four.</div>
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Birth story to come tomorrow (or the next day). Even a week later I'm still soaking this all in.<br />
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Meanwhile...pictures:</div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/43650347@N06/5517695037/" title="Lucy Feb- March and New Zoe Pics! 188 by bevjane24, on Flickr"><img alt="Lucy Feb- March and New Zoe Pics! 188" height="286" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5179/5517695037_d0bd0f0a50.jpg" width="500" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/43650347@N06/5517702263/" title="Lucy Feb- March and New Zoe Pics! 196 by bevjane24, on Flickr"><img alt="Lucy Feb- March and New Zoe Pics! 196" height="333" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5096/5517702263_d665947658.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/43650347@N06/5518310298/" title="Lucy Feb- March and New Zoe Pics! 213 by bevjane24, on Flickr"><img alt="Lucy Feb- March and New Zoe Pics! 213" height="333" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5171/5518310298_166ce71bb5.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/43650347@N06/5517714477/" title="Lucy Feb- March and New Zoe Pics! 212 by bevjane24, on Flickr"><img alt="Lucy Feb- March and New Zoe Pics! 212" height="333" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5136/5517714477_466c7ff4cc.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/43650347@N06/5518338872/" title="Lucy Feb- March and New Zoe Pics! 220 - Copy by bevjane24, on Flickr"><img alt="Lucy Feb- March and New Zoe Pics! 220 - Copy" height="500" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5055/5518338872_d28fe9dcc0.jpg" width="333" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/43650347@N06/5517732057/" title="Lucy Feb- March and New Zoe Pics! 229 by bevjane24, on Flickr"><img alt="Lucy Feb- March and New Zoe Pics! 229" height="500" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5134/5517732057_1c4a2a18e7.jpg" width="333" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/43650347@N06/5517751071/" title="Lucy Feb- March and New Zoe Pics! 245 - Copy by bevjane24, on Flickr"><img alt="Lucy Feb- March and New Zoe Pics! 245 - Copy" height="500" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5174/5517751071_267ecfc543.jpg" width="333" /></a><br />
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<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;">
<i>“Birth is the sudden opening of a window, through which you look out upon a stupendous prospect. For what has happened? A miracle. You have exchanged nothing for the possibility of everything.”</i></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">-William MacNeil Dixon </span></div>
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<img align="left" src="http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj227/ewhites/babymaybesig.jpg" style="border: 0pt none;" /></div>
</div>Beverleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16473592184023240522noreply@blogger.com30tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2570553510339407807.post-65989917010821491082011-02-22T20:46:00.000-08:002011-02-22T20:46:18.131-08:00"Why are you so fat around your stomach?"...<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Lucy and I ventured out to the library today. It's one of her favorite places to go because first we go feed the ducks at the pond and then go get books (which is basically all she does all day long, read books and dance to "Little Bunny Foo Foo").</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">So, even though I was exhausted from doing nothing all day, I thought that we needed to get out of the house so the five minute away library trip was perfect (and I just could not take any more Bunny Foo Foo). The car the entire trip Lucy will say <i>"Hold your horses ducks, we're coming!"</i> which is cute, no? Not so cute she also likes to rhyme a very unfortunate word with ducky, over and over again whilst on our way to feed the ducks. We try to suggest every other rhyming word under the sun: ducky lucky, ducky mucky, ducky bucky, ducky zucky...but to no avail, she insists on ducky f- well, you know. Something to work on.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">After the ducks were fed to the library we went. We had just started perusing the kids section when a 8/9ish year old girl came over to me. She stood in front of me and said:</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><i>"Why are you so fat around your stomach?" </i>and POKED me, repeatedly, in the stomach.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I said, as shortly as possible and starting to walk away, <i>"Because I have a baby in my belly." </i></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The child follows me and, still attempting to poke, says <i>"I came out of my mom's belly". </i></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I said, still walking away, <i>"Yes, we all do"</i></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">To which she replied, <i>"But yours is REALLY HUGE!" </i>and gave me another poke.<i><br />
</i></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I was just about give this child a piece of my mind when her mother waltzed up and said <i>"Ohhhh, I hope she's not bothering you."</i> She must have seen the look on my face because she ushered the child away quickly without looking back.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Now, I probably should have said something, because can you imagine how a person would feel if that child went up to them and THEY WERE NOT PREGNANT? But I think I was so shocked that I didn't say a thing!</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Someone did suggest that I should have said,<i> "Why is my belly so fat? Because I just ate a small child... that reminds me, I'm hungry".</i> Ha...wish I had thought of that one at the time! Or maybe just poked her back.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Lesson: it's one thing for your two year old to rhyme ducky with an inappropriate word (and hey, she'll be broken of that WAY before she's 8) but its a whole new ballgame when your 8 year old has no clue whatsoever regarding personal space and cannot grasp the most basic manners! Terrible!</span><br />
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<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: small;"> "</span><span style="font-size: small;">Children are natural mimics who act like their parents despite every effort to teach them good manners."</span></i></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">-Author Unknown </span></div><img align="left" src="http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj227/ewhites/babymaybesig.jpg" style="border: 0pt none;" />Beverleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16473592184023240522noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2570553510339407807.post-56014373772436276702011-02-19T14:04:00.000-08:002011-02-19T14:04:29.248-08:00:: Dusting Off Blog Page ::...<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Oh hello, you may remember me as the blogger formerly know as "A Baby? Maybe...".</span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I don't know if you know this, but several months back, right around the time I found out I was pregnant with soon-to-arrive Zoe, I received a new position at work. A promotion? Well, no that's being a little generous. It was more like:</span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> <span style="font-size: small;"><i>"Dear B, </i></span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>We're going to give you the job formerly done by multiple people and ask you to fix all the major problems and inconsistencies in by managing two major corporate-wide programs that set our multi-million dollar, international tech company up for huge lawsuits...all by yourself. Congratulations and good luck...</i></span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>PS. You're really not going to receive any training for this. </i></span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>PPS. You're not going to make that much more money either. </i></span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>PPPS. Be careful for the individual liability states, because there, people can just sue you personally instead of us. </i></span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>xoxo - Work"</i></span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">So, that's about the time I dropped off the face of the (blog and regular) earth. Through my pregnancy I worked like a dog, traveled almost every month away from my family, routinely worked 60+ hours per week. I lamely attempted blog posts here and there but...it was the first to go in order of importance. Every night that I was online, I was working...and that was pretty much every single night after Lucy went to bed.</span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">BUT, I'm happy to announce that as of today I'm OFFICIALLY ON MATERNITY LEAVE. You have no idea how good that feels. I feel like I've just been barely keeping my head above water the past couple months. Trying to continue some semblance of a normal life with the demands of working motherhood, working pregnant motherhood...er working like a madwoman, being a mother to an extremely bright 1 year old (I'm not kidding, the kid is a genius, which in turn makes her too smart for her own good, and for my own good) and being pregnant, and sick, all the time - yes, it was too fun for words I tell you!</span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">But now, I'm free. Free, free FREE for THREE glorious months. How do I celebrate my first day? Well, we woke up late, (as Lucy regularly sleeps until 8:00 am), ate cinnamon rolls, read a good book until noon while Lucy played, Lucy went down for a nap and I actually just washed and blow dried my hair for the first time in months (the blow-drying part, not the washing... I'm not that gross). Amazing. I feel like a new person. I look like a new person. I'm 38 weeks pregnant and feel better than I have in months, in a matter of one day. It's incredible. So now here I am, hoping to catch up on the writing that was something I enjoyed pre-new job (that and hair-blowdrying apparently).</span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In these catch-up posts I'll be sharing some of of the past couple months of photos while I've been incommunicado, here are out Fall Family Photo Shoot (photo credit to my awesome coworker <a href="http://jenniferlynnphotography.blogspot.com/">Jennifer Komp Photography, Portland</a>).</span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
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<h1 style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-weight: normal; margin: 0pt; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">“There's nothing half so pleasant as coming home again.”</span></i></h1><h1 style="font-size: 12px; margin: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"> - Margaret Elizabeth Sangster </span></h1><img align="left" src="http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj227/ewhites/babymaybesig.jpg" style="border: 0pt none;" />Beverleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16473592184023240522noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2570553510339407807.post-38985682930559969562010-12-07T08:11:00.000-08:002010-12-07T08:11:13.752-08:00I'm not perfect...<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Shocking I know. My 30 Days of Thankfulness fell terribly short, but that doesn't mean I'm not incredibly thankful for all that I have...it just means that my life gets in the way of blogging sometimes. Imagine that. I mother. I wife. I grow life. I work like a dog and, if I have a spare minute at the end of the day, I blog (or I used to). But honestly, in the past months those spare moments are few and far between. Ah, well. So goes life.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Someday maybe I will be back with regularly scheduled posting, but for now, I just try and get through the day in one piece. I don't know how you blogging moms out there do it!</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;"><i>"I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read and all the friends I want to see."</i></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;">-John Burroughs</div><br />
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<div id="refHTML"></div>Beverleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16473592184023240522noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2570553510339407807.post-81844531423071911732010-11-10T21:53:00.000-08:002010-11-10T21:53:41.311-08:0030 Days of Thankfulness<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I missed three days of thankfulness due to travelling for work-- I'm home now and ever so thankful for the health and happiness of the ones around me whom I love the most. </div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Thinking of those who have lost their battles, and of their family and friends during this difficult time. Cinn - this one was for you. <i>::Raising a ribbon wand::</i></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;"><i>For some moments in life there are no words. </i></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;">-David Seltzer, <i>Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory</i></div><br />
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<img align="left" src="http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj227/ewhites/babymaybesig.jpg" style="border: 0pt none;" />Beverleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16473592184023240522noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2570553510339407807.post-3246721459812904162010-11-06T11:38:00.000-07:002010-11-06T11:40:24.065-07:00Our Life In Pictures - Autumn and Halloween Fun (and Thankfulness - Day 6)<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I just love the fall. I just love this age. I just love it all...</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I'm (so, so, so) Thankful we get to make these kind of memories.</div><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">"</span><span style="font-size: small;">Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose. "</span></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia,bookman old style,palatino linotype,book antiqua,palatino,trebuchet ms,helvetica,garamond,sans-serif,arial,verdana,avante garde,century gothic,comic sans ms,times,times new roman,serif;"> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">-The Wonder Years</span><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><img align="left" src="http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj227/ewhites/babymaybesig.jpg" style="border: 0pt none;" />Beverleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16473592184023240522noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2570553510339407807.post-92221486055933490422010-11-05T21:01:00.000-07:002010-11-05T21:01:36.276-07:0030 Days of Thankfulness - Day Five<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Today I'm Thankful for TUMs....because I'm on FIRE with heartburn. Thanks Zoe girl!</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><h1 style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-weight: normal; margin: 0pt; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">“Being pregnant is an occupational hazard of being a wife.”</span></i></h1><h1 style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">-Queen Victoria </span></span></h1><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;"><br />
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<img align="left" src="http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj227/ewhites/babymaybesig.jpg" style="border: 0pt none;" />Beverleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16473592184023240522noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2570553510339407807.post-83069941999234791302010-11-04T22:59:00.000-07:002010-11-04T22:59:42.929-07:0030 Days of Thankfulness - Day Three and Four<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Day 3 (belated) - Thankful for a beautiful fall evening perfectly timed for when we get out family pictures taken friend and talented photographer (pictures to come soon)! The light was just amazing...</span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Day 4 Thankfulness that my computer is too slow to finish my work for tonight, ah....relaxation.</span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"></div><h1 style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-weight: normal; margin: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">“Laugh as much as you breathe and love as long as you live.”</span></h1><h1 style="font-size: 12px; margin: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">-Unknown </span></h1><img align="left" src="http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj227/ewhites/babymaybesig.jpg" style="border: 0pt none;" />Beverleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16473592184023240522noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2570553510339407807.post-7732034020511390342010-11-02T22:14:00.000-07:002010-11-02T22:14:12.680-07:0030 Days of Thankfulness - Day Two<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Tonight I'm Thankful that the elections are <b><i>over</i></b> and that my mailbox will no longer be stuffed with mud-slinging junk (I'm looking at BOTH of you, Oregon governor candidates) and I won't have to watch the incredibly irritating campaign ads on TV anymore (that's right Denny Heck, I'm talking to you, was the best you could do with a campaign slogan <i>"Give 'Em Heck"</i>...? Really?!) I actually counted and I received the SAME mailer from one candidate 23 times! I'm sorry Katie Eyre Brewer, I don't want to see your shining, smiling face in my mailbox TWENTY THREE TIMES in a month. </div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">That being said, I'm also incredibly Thankful that I live in a country where the citizens have the right to vote and have a say in our chosen representatives and laws. Though I don't agree with everyone that is elected and every law that is passed, I still exercise my right to vote in every election because I do believe that <i>my vote counts. </i></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">How about you, did you vote?</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;"><i>“Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.”</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">- John Quincy Adams </span></div><br />
<img align="left" src="http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj227/ewhites/babymaybesig.jpg" style="border: 0pt none;" />Beverleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16473592184023240522noreply@blogger.com3