Seriously this time...

I WILL BE BACK TO BLOGGING!! I PROMISE THIS TIME!

A lot has gone on in the past few months. My grandma was visiting for a couple of months, my schedule has been all over the place, Van's been teething like a mad man (which means no sleep for me), and my brother and his wife had a beautiful baby girl! Oh, and... I GOT A NEW JOB! No more nights, weekends and holidays for THIS girl! I will be working for a company called Gerdau (formerly Gerdau Ameristeel) in the office. It's monday thru friday, 8am to 5pm. Which means I can hit the gym down the street for 30 mins before picking the kids up and hopefully finally get myself on some kind of schedule. Yay!

I will post some recent pics right after this post. And speaking of pics, I have booked family portraits with possibly the best photographer in ALL of Georgia! She was booked on weekends for the next 2 months, but Sunday December 4th is our day! So excited, especially because she gives us the rights to reproduce anywhere we choose AND edits 20-35 pics included on the CD. If you wanna check out her website it is www.carissayorkphotography.com. She did some maternity pics for Ronnie and Yoxy and they were gorgeous! I'll post some of those too... She'll be taking Melody's newborn pics next Friday, and I start my vacation that day so I'll be here to see her work her magic!

Saturday Mornings

Even though my kids wake me up super early on weekends (6:30am this morning), I love spending the day with them. We played with toys in their room for a little bit then went upstairs for breakfast. Deagan had a bagel with cream cheese and grapes. I gave Van a bottle then he had oatmeal and applesauce. I had pancakes with sugar free syrup and a piece of sausage. (I'm not going super strict on the weekends...)


Deagan wanted to go outside so we did diaper changes and got into clothes for the day. I took Deagan outside while Van stayed inside with his aunty Yoxy and PawPaw. Deagan and I played with sidewalk chalk: we wrote the ABC's and numbers 1 thru 10, then I had him point to whatever letter/number I told him to find. He is so smart... he amazes me. We looked at the "back-berr-bees" (blackberries). The ones on the shadier side of the house are getting ripe, the ones on the sunny side are still mostly red. Can't wait to make some blackberry cobbler and jam! I'm determined to do it this year... I want the satisfaction of picking something from a bush on our property, and making something yummy completely from scratch.


Van still won't drink from a sippy yet, so I gave him watered down juice in his bottle before his nap, he seemed to like it. I'm glad I finally have another option now besides formula especially when it's just SO hot outside. He's still babbling away. I need to raise his bouncer up to the next notch because that little dude is tall!


The kids are both down for their nap, I still got a lot to do. #1 on the list is sort some laundry! So I will keep this short. Oh, I decided to get Deagan's hair buzzed short, it's just too hot. Even though I LOVE his long hair... sad face.

Crazy around here...

Wow, it has been a LONG time since I blogged last. I really need to keep up. Well, I guess I'll just give you the run down of the past 6 months since that's about how long it's been since I was on here last...

Me: I'm still working at Staples as the lead in the Copy and Print Center. I am really getting burned out. Something that started as a part time gig after high school is looking too much like a career at this point, and I will NOT be a retail lifer! Scary... I have decided that I do want to go back to school, however, unless Bobby gets a promotion or we win the lottery that won't be happening until the kids are out of daycare and in regular school. It will be so nice to have to only pay yearly dues instead of weekly day care tuition. Since January I have been working on my weight loss. I started in January at 196lbs and I am currently 171lbs. I am reading "The 17 Day Diet" by Dr. Mike Moreno and I really am enjoying the progress I see on the scale and in the mirror. The one thing I absolutely won't give up is my coffee! He does say no more than 2 cups a day so, I'm good. My travel mug is about 2 cups. I did 2 fit camps, each one was 4 weeks long. Had a lot of fun and sweated my booty off. It reignited my love for the gym...

Bobby: Bobby is still loving Best Buy. He closes a lot of nights so our schedules aren't really the most desirable right now, but hey, he gets paid the big bucks so can't complain too much... Bobby's been losing weight too, he packed on a few pounds with me during my pregnancies. He's looking very good these days. :o)

Dad: Dad is doing well. In February we found out he had prostate cancer. I couldn't believe it. I know cancer becoming more and more prevalent and sadly very common these days, but when it's YOUR family member it just sneaks up and punches you in the gut. My daddy is the sweetest man that ever lived... why him? He had surgery in April to remove his prostate, he's still in recovery, but is doing very well. Today was his first day back to work. I know his boss and coworkers will be very happy to see him!

Mom: I can't say enough about my mommy. She is the trunk of our family tree, she is the glue that holds all the pieces together and I love her more than anything. She has taken care of all of us; helping me with the kids ALL the time, taking off work to care for dad after surgery, being there for my brother and his wife as they experience the rollarcoaster of emotions during her pregnancy. She really is amazing. Currently she is in Alabama with her sister whose husband was hospitalized yesterday. His heart stopped beating and his lungs started filling with fluid and by the time they called 911, the ambulance took him to the hospital (all the while doing CPR) he had been without oxygen for a long time. They got his heart beat back but the brain scan showed no brain activity, his kidneys failed and he is on life support. I believe there will be some discussion today about taking him off the machines. Mom has been there the whole time trying to comfort her sister and her mom (who just had surgery last week and really doesn't need this stress).

Deagan: Deagan is doing amazing! He is learning more and more words every single day and he surprises me with something new. He loves to fwing (swing), look at hairpanes (airplanes), and eat i-keen (ice cream). I just LOVE that little monster! I would say he had a 3-4 month period of when the tantrums were just so random and brought on by anything, but lately his behavior is very good! If he gets upset it's usually because he's tired or hungry so I try to prevent him from getting overtired with regular nap times and feed him anything his little heart desires since he's still underweight for his age. My favorite time of the day is right after Deagan's bath, I get him out and dry him off then he runs out of the bathroom stark naked, into the living room and races to the door of the stairs. Then I come around the corner zombie style with the towel yelling, "I'm gonna get YOU!!!!" As soon as I make it halfway across the living room he squeals with delight and runs towards me. I wrap the towel around him, lift him up and smooch every inch of his face, then it's PJ time, night-nights, book and bed. It is the perfect ending to every day...

Vance: He is just the happiest baby that ever lived! I thought Deagan was a happy baby, which he was but Van is literally the happiest baby that EVER LIVED! Lol... He just loves being loved on and kissed and hugged. He sits up by himself and is eating baby food. No teeth yet but those bad boys will be in before we know it. He's working his toys over his gums pretty good these days. His little baby babbles just warm my heart. He says Da-da, but doesn't really associate it with Bobby yet, he just says it to repeat me. We're working on Ma-ma, but it's a little harder to say. He has the best laugh ever.

Sad Face

I got a WiiFit for Christmas! I've wanted one since I got my Wii for Mother's Day this year. I got Deagn bathed and in bed, mom bathed and fed Van, I got him in bed. I turned on the the tv and was getting ready to boot up the Wii and realized I was pointing the controller in the direction of a Wii that is NO LONGER sitting there! Bobby took apart the gaming and stereo setup so he could get ready to hook up his new 50" Panasonic tv. Booooooo! Of course, it is not hooked up yet, and we have to listen to the old tv through the tv speaker... so different than surround sound. I know what he will be doing on his next off day!

My Resolutions for 2011

5. Be more financially responsible, including paying all bills on time, paying extra on my car payment and starting a savings account.
4. Take more pictures and videos of the kids.
3. Read at least 4 books this year.
2. Get up when my alarm goes off instead of hitting snooze 3 times.
and this one tops many lists every year...
1. Lose weight and live a more healthy lifestyle.

The first 5k I'm signing up for is March 26th - 2011 Atlanta's Women's 5k

Almost here...

My due date is in 5 weeks and there's still so much to do. I'm still searching craigslist for a cheap dresser I can put in the boys room. I really don't wanna spend more than $60 since I'll also most likely have to sand and paint it.

I pulled out all the 0-3 month and 3-6 month clothes... just need to find a place to put it. They are sitting in a laundry basket at the moment, washed and folded.

I need to make my hospital bag... I was very unprepared last time. I'm getting nervous about the labor part. It was so fast last time I didn't get time to wrap my head around it. I'm actually really scared all of the sudden. I know I've done this twice before, but it just seems different this time...

Gotta get all the old bottles out and wash and steam them, just in case breast feeding doesn't go well again. Though I only plan to breast feed during my maternity leave. Once it's over I'll pump until my milk supply tapers off then on to the formula.

I have weekly appointments from here on out. Next Fridy they'll start checking my cervix for dilation.

So much to do... so little time to do it. I'm gonna go take a nap before I have to get ready for work.

Love my son... soon to be sons.

I love, love, love, LOVE my son's laugh... it makes my heart burst with joy. I can't wait to hear another little one's laugh soon.

I'm thinking Diaper Shower will be the first weekend in November. I'll still be on maternity leave and it's still far enough away from Thanksgiving so I won't be crowding the holidays. It'll also give me time to get some work done in the house. We still need pictures on the walls. My parents are getting new furniture delivered tomorrow, so we inherited a dining room table and chairs and also a 3 piece liquor cabinet. I have big plans for that... One piece is a two door cabinet which I will put on the bottom (will hold snacks, popcorn, things of that nature), then there's another piece that hold wine bottles/liquor bottles - this will become Bobby's new shoe rack. The spaces are big enough to hold his massive shoes and deep enough to fit both pair in there. The 3rd piece is a 2 drawer section that will go on top of the cabinet (for bottles, bibs, etc.), and to top everything off I'm going to get a small microwave to set on top of it. Our mini-fridge is currently in the garage, but it will soon have a home near the cabinet set and microwave. This house is WAY to big for me to be running up and down the stairs for middle of the night bottles.

Now if they would just get a new bedroom suite, I can steal their dresser and refinish it and put it in our room. I'm getting ready to steal their headboard, it doesn't fit their bed. It'll fit a queen or king, but my parents have a California king, and it does not fit that. Now if Kohl's would have a buy one get one free sale on home decor...

Oh, and we recently ran a 50% off wide format color prints at work. So I went ahead and paid for a 20x30, two 16x20s, and two 11x14s in advance (all for $25, yay!) We're FINALLY gonna do family pictures this year and I'll be using those to do the enlargements. Those will be going on the wall over the couch. I'm still unsure about how to decorate the pool table area. I'm thinking of doing it all sports themed (man-cave style). Tennessee for Bobby, Hawaii for me and Ronnie and Alabama for mom and dad.

BTW, I can't wait for college football to start back up!

Updates on Life and Loves

I LOVE THIS LITTLE MAN!!!

Ok, so the past few weeks have been pretty crazy...

WORK: Most schools are back in session now. Back-to-school at Staples is really hectic and crazy. We're open later and hire temps, the aisles look like tornados hit them by the end of the night. On friday our building was hit by lightning and our phones have been down ever since. We can't even send or receive a fax, so needless to say we've had some unhappy customers. Can't wait to go on maternity leave...

BOBBY: He is still loving working at Best Buy! His hours and schedule are SO much better than they used to be at Staples. His boss is great and they just hired in another manager that used to work for Staples. She was my Sales Manager in my store for a few months, she is loving her new job as well. Unfortunately this past Sunday Bobby dislocated his left knee cap playing softball against another Best Buy store. So that was fun ER trip. I got to the hospital as soon as the EMTs rolled him into the trauma wing. The IV they started in the ambulance wasn't put in well and the morephine they tried to give him poured out of the IV. It took the nurse at the hospital 30 minutes to get her ass in there and redo his IV and give him pain meds. He was shaking from so much pain and his eyes were bloodshot. I was really getting pissed at how slow they were moving. We finally made it home on Monday morning around 2am. We had a followup appointment with a orthopaedic surgeon, they took some more x-rays and they don't see any tears or chips that need surgery. He is very lucky... doc said looks like the tendons just stretched enough to accommodate the knee cap, so he'll be sore for a while and got a referral to do physical therapy. Hopefully he'll be off his crutches by the time Vance gets here.

DEAGAN: He is doing great! He was moved up to the bigger class on Monday. It was sad, I love his Room 1 teacher. I still pop in and say hi to her every morning though. I think he must get a lot more exercise and stimulation in the new room because he is pooped by the time we get home and get through dinner and bath time! I had to close tonight so my dad picked him up from daycare and they had him all night. He said after Deagan ate dinner he started to get a little fussy and said "Ni-nite". I wish I could've been there to see that! Mom said while she was putting his jammies on he kept pointing at his crib, she skipped rocking him and laid him down and said he was out within seconds. His vocabulary right now is: Mama, Mimi, Dada, "Oh me" (no idea what this means yet, we think Hold Me?), Baw (ball), Ni-nite, A-Oh (hello, as in answering the phone) and a LOT of gibberish that really sounds like Japanese. He turns japanese when he's pretending he's on the phone.

VANCE: I had another appointment with my regular OBGYN on Tuesday. Heartbeat sounded great. My glucose test came back normal and I've gained only 12lbs since finding out I was pregnant. (Though I started at 177lbs which is WAY too heavy for me...) Can't wait to get my WiiFit that my honey is going to get me! I was originally going to have a diaper party (since I don't need an all out shower because I have everything I need already) before Vance got here, but I think I'm going to wait until after he is born so everyone can see him and we'll cookout and have a blast. I can't wait to see what he's going to look like!

Well that's all for tonight. I'll get some more pics when it's not so hectic around here... Good night friend and family!

Connected to the "interwebs"** once again!

** "interwebs" - a Staples reference to some of the stupid things that customers say... inside joke between the Hubs and me.

So we FINALLY have cable and internet. It took them a week to come and bury the cable line since our house is 1503 ft. from the road. Then they had to install the "green box" and then come and run the cable from the "green box" to the house. We got everything set up inside the house this past Saturday, however we were having problems with it on Sunday and Monday. So Tuesday I spent most of the morning of my day off waiting for the cable guy.

Anyway... I know you guys are anxious for a Deagan and Bump update... so without further ado:

"Deagan, Deagan, DEAGAN!" - These are the words most spoken from my lips these days. Since he has been walking he has the busiest hands! The boy gets into everything! He is just growing so fast right in front of my eyes. His favorite thing to do is to act like he's talking on the phone. And everything is a phone; the remotes, his baby monitor, his toy phone, his toy remote, the remote to the massage chair... they are apparently all telephones and he knows something we don't, lol.

He had his 15 month checkup 2 weeks ago. His nurse practitioner was not happy with his weight. However I gave her a typical days diet and he's definitely eating plenty. She said it could be because he's so tall and just have a really fast metabolism. I'm not kidding this kid eats ALL DAY LONG! He only gained 6oz since his 12 month appointment. So we have to include high calorie foods in his meals and we replace one sippy of milk with Pediasure a day. Hopefully be his 18 month appointment he'll have at least 2 more lbs. on him.

As for the bump... we now have a name, finally! We've decided on Vance Nathaniel. We decided we wanted to somehow honor Brent other than just in memory and the March of Dimes walk, so Vance carries the middle name of his oldest brother. One day when they are old enough to understand we will sit them down and tell them about Brent. Anyway, I had a checkup yesterday. I had to do my 1 hour glucose test, ewww. Heartbeat sounded wonderful, all is well! I'm 29 weeks today, 2 weeks past when I went on bed rest with Deagan. I am still working full time, on my feet, but I try not to let myself get overly stressed and I take all of my breaks. I get a 15 in the morning, a 30 for lunch and another 15 in the afternoon.

Well, that's pretty much it for now. Blog ya later!

No internet... no blogging.

Well we are in the process of getting cable ran up to the new house but it could take up to 45 days... So I have to bring my laptop to work if I need the internet. We looked into DSL, but they only offer the slowest speed in our area. With 3 desktops and 6 laptops under the same roof, that was definitely NOT an option, lol. Well, back to work, break is over...