Sappy Sunday

It has been an eventful week. Tornadoes have ripped through much of Alabama, Arkansas and Mississippi and killed more than 350 people. They have also been confirmed as having touched down her in Texas but fortunately did not kill anyone. Houses have literally been ripped off their foundations. My phone died, my job messed up a paycheck.

It's times like these that we are reminded of how truly blessed we are. Not to say that those people weren't blessed, but it puts things into perspective. Have bills that need to be paid off and that's why you work instead of staying home with the kid(s)? Have aches and pains that just won't go away? How about a job that doesn't pay reliably? Or being stuck in a monotonous job with nowhere else to go b/c the job market sucks?

Keith recently got into a job where there's more bonus potential. My job? Well, it's a job, but my boss and co-workers rock.

At least we have a safe home to go to. We are alive and healthy. We have jobs. We have a beautiful, healthy daughter with another on the way (who we hope will keep baking until at least June 23rd. ;)). Jessy walks, eats, talks climbs and is even in the process of learning to run! She's (*knock wood*) only been sick enough to keep her home literally a couple of times- pretty good for a kid in daycare from what I understand.

I have some creative juices that I just want to figure out how to apply, so maybe I can get out of the ratrace nice and soon. I will also be in the driver's seat as far as going back to work when this baby comes. That, however, is a whole other post.

Off to go enjoy my husband and daughters.

The Ride.

My heart began to pound as I stepped into the train and took a seat. What was I thinking? was the only thing crossing my mind as I pulled the lapbar down to my lap.

A flash of a t-shirt came running by me, quickly pushing and pulling on my lapbar, then another lapbar, and another and another... until finally, the teen at the control panel grabbed the mike and announced the golden words: "All clear, dispatching train."

Off we went. The sneaky train made a quick U-Turn to the right and we began our ascent. It felt like forever as the train's backstops loudly rattled up the hill with us, like heavy metal thumping on a hollow, metal pole. My heart began to pound even harder. Still climbing. It felt like we had been climbing for about five minutes, but in reality, we were only halfway there. Sheesh. Will we ever get to the top?

Finally, as I began to think my heart was going to literally pound its way out of my chest from all the adrenaline I had, we reached the top. Monumental. I looked around and could see clearly the Rangers' Ballpark in Arlington, a local hotel, and nothing but air. Suddenly my stomach was tickled and I screamed as we made a rapid, 85-mph descent into a long, dark tunnel. We were suddenly back in the air again as the cars took a U-turn then dipped again, careening us into a mangled-looking maze of track. 4 G's and two spirals later, we were back into the station.

The ride for which I had waited literally months to take on had ended. My adrenaline turned into endorphins as I exited the train and couldn't help but to jump up and down to release some of it. While the ride of my life was over, the rush was not. I had tackled the long-anticipated Titan, and it was everything I thought it would be, and then some.

There is something about roller coasters which has basically made me gaga. What it is exactly I can't quite put my finger on but whatever it is, I feel the bug to ride again beginning to wiggle inside me. Being pregnant last year knocked me clean off the riding roster, as did a chicken of a husband. And while K doesn't like roller coaseters, he is occasionally generous enough to get on one with me. The Titan was no exception. At over two centuries tall and breathtaking speeds, it had certainly proved its worthiness.

A roller-coaster fanatic friend of mine posted on Facebook about this Intimidator in Virginia this morning and it brought back the golden memories of the many adrenaline rushes I have lived through to tell about. But this thing appears to live up to its name- at over 300 feet tall and lashing speeds of over 90 miles per hour, it's definitely no joke, but I look very forward to the prospect of conquering it. One day.

I'm Back! :)

I know it's been a long while since I posted- almost a month. Yikes! But... I do have a little list of excuses.. C'mon! You know you wanna hear 'em!

So, without much further ado, I give you:
Top 10 Excuses For Not Blogging Enough Lately

10. Fatigue
9. Laziness
8. The dog ate my computer
7. The cat scratched up my back-up hard drive after #8
6. The neighbor's dog shattered my window and I had to move quickly to keep heat from entering our house
5. Sore Boobs
4. Vomiting
3. Doctor's appointment
2. Stress

And the #1 Excuse for not blogging enough lately is...



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TWO PINK LINES!!!

During the wee, wee (get it?) hours of the morning of May 21, AF was still MIA. Unusual. A little backstory here: My chart showed a possible O-related thermal shift a little later than the date that was actually flagged as O, so I allowed for that to possibly be O and waited it out a few extra days. Still no AF. So there I sat, test saturated with my two-hour-old "FMU," watching the dye move across. A skinny line immediately appeared in the "test" area, before the dye even made it over to the "control" area. "Nah," I thought to myself, "that's just the test developing.. it'll be gone here in a minute."

I set the test down on the counter and finished up. I looked at the test again (so much for waiting a minute) and there they both were- both lines sitting brightly in all their glory. Holy Sh*t! Shocked, I cradled my forehead in my hand, took a breath and stood up. I looked over at the test again. Even brighter. Wow. Still stunned, I washed my hands, grabbed the test and headed back to bed. Except, I couldn't get to sleep. Imagine that.

Keith was slightly awake and stirred when I got back into bed and set the test on the nightstand. "How you doing," Keith's sweet voice rang out. "Not too bad," I replied. "I'm pregnant."
"Are you serious?"
"Yup," I replied, taking the test to show him while using my phone as a flashlight.
"Oh wow. I can see that one from here!"

Needless to say the excited pair did not sleep for the next two hours. A doctor's appointment was scheduled the next day for the next week. At my first sono I would measure 5-6 w, with only a gestational sac showing. HCG was 19k. A week later a baby showed, measuring 6w1d- 5mm CRL, HB of 150!

Two weeks later (yesterday) the little bean we have nicknamed Snowflake now measures about 8w3d with a HB of about 167, CRL was 19mm. S/he nearly quadrupled his/her size in two weeks!! The doc said everything looked good on the u/s. M/S was kicking my butt and I had tried pretty much all the natural treatments so it was on to the phenergan, which I was convinced helped me hold down my lunch yesterday. Haven't needed it since then, so we'll see.

Because of our previous experiences, I had been sooo afraid to make an announcement on here about this, out of fear that Snowflake would fly off to Heaven as did the others. We're not out of the woods yet of course, but we're getting there and things are still looking good. I am now past the point of both previous losses. *crosses fingers on both hands* Needless to say we're praying it stays that way and Snowflake continues to grow and thrive until we meet him/her in January. Who knows, I just may have a Super Bowl baby!

Move Over, Mommy...

It's all about ME!!!

About three-quarters of the time I am on my computer, whether it be meaningless surfing, hanging out on iVillage or DAM or whatever else comes to mind, my little girl Keely will come join me, demanding I give her *all* of my attention.

Tonight, she came to me, demanding that I blog about HER.

 

Who could say "no" to a face like that?

 

Mommy, can I come to work with you and Daddy?

 

Daddy-Daughter chat

As you can see, this little lady is one of my off-the-chain furkids. But her sister is worse...

 

Refusing to cooperate for the camera. I actually caught her resting her pretty little head on the camera case, top left.

Please excuse the clutter in some of the pics. We're really bad about that. *blush*