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Friday, December 30, 2011

Keevia's funnies of the week

I don't have the energy to post the other posts I have planned in my head. K has been sick since Christmas night and I'm dead on my feet. She's up right now (at 1:43 am) after puking all over the wall beside our bed... so I thought I'd write down these little funnies to keep me going.

Carl was laying on the couch in just his PJ pants. Keevia came up to him and pointed to his chest and said "What's this?" He responded with "Daddy's booby" She then pointed to his nipple and said "What's this?" and he said "Daddy's nipple." She kind of squeezed it a little, then walked away. He then began talking to me about how she would now need therapy, etc. She came back a moment later with a bottle nipple she's been playing with for a few weeks and laid it gently on his nipple. We DIED laughing.

Keevia threw up all over her bed and herself late last night (after 10pm). My mom (who lives beside me) has always told me that if I need her at night, to call. Carl usually has to be up at 5 am, but since Mom and I are both "stay-at-home" people, we can sleep in if need be. I basically have the best mother in the world. Anyway. As I was stripping her off in the bathroom, trying to get her in the bathtub, and she was screaming every breath, I called Mom and said 'I need you.' So she headed over (literally two minutes away). I had K in the bathtub, hosing her off when she walked in. Keevia (who HATES to throw up) was screaming BLOODY MURDER every breath, but when Mamaw walked in, she never stopped screaming, but she raised her little hand and waved. So adorable, and so funny.

Keevia started off the week of sickness with a stomach virus on Christmas day. She would throw up, be screaming, and go "I sawwie, I sawwie, I sawwie". She was so miserable, but she was still worried she was upsetting us.

I have the best toddler in the world.

Please keep her in your prayers. Not only that she gets over this sinus infection she has right now quickly, but also because she has another boil forming. If you don't remember, or didn't follow us then, she had to have outpatient surgery at 18 months to have a non-MRSA boil drained. They told us she was much more likely to get another one, and she did. It's in a different place, but still in her diaper area. I plan on hardcore trying to potty train her once she gets over the fever/sinus infection thing to try and reduce the wet/moist area, and we're trying some home remedies (oregano oil, tea tree oil, etc). Plus they put her on Bactrim today for both the sinuses and her boil. Just pray it comes to a head and we can drain it, and that it requires NO surgery to do so. It was literally the WORST day of my life last time, I'd rather not repeat it. Pray and pray hard, PLEASE!!!

Alright, going to snuggle my sniffly baby now. Babywearing & Hairbow review post coming SOON. Promise.

Friday, December 16, 2011

Desires

And no, this post isn't about those desires. Get your head out of the gutter.

I've always had the desire to be a mother. It was always the strongest desire that I held. In fact, when Carl and I got married, we didn't get the usual "Wait a while!" speech from any family member, because I think they knew it would fall on deaf ears. We both desired children SO much.

Now I have my girls (well, almost the plural), and I couldn't be happier. But I've noticed some other desires creeping up in my life.

1. I want to write a book. This is a desire I've had for a while, but it's really been surfacing recently. I have SO many story ideas, from science fiction to chick lit. I have a hard time sitting down to write though, even when I WANT to write. I had a professor in college named Dr. Starr, and he always said that when the story was right, you wouldn't be able to ignore it. Maybe my story just isn't there yet.

2. I want to have a restaurant. This one has been popping up in my head even more, especially when I'm out in town and hear people lament how they wish we had a good, sit down restaurant where they could get GOOD country cooking. That's exactly what I want to do! Make country food, from scratch. Seasonal food that changes with what's fresh. Home-made pastries and desserts, hand breaded chicken fingers, hand cut french fries.... I'd be open five days a week with a limited lunch menu, and two-three days a week with a dinner menu. Can you tell I've thought this out? I have a lot of issues cooking when I'm pregnant, so I haven't been in the kitchen a lot recently, but I'm starting to itch to get back in. Food calms me, and I don't mean that EATING food calms me. I mean that cooking it calms me. It mellows me. It makes me happy. I love coming up with recipes and cooking for crowds. I hate dishes though, so that might be a problem. I know nothing can happen on this desire until my girls are older though!

3. I want to be a doula. This is something I've held close to me for a while. I LOVE the idea of helping someone through this amazing time in their life. I LOVE the idea of using my knowledge to make someones journey easier. I LOVE the idea of being there to see beautiful babies enter this world. I didn't use a doula with either of my pregnancies, but if we had lived far away from family, I probably would have. My momma acted as my doula (in addition to my wonderful hubby) as far as being supportive and being my advocate. Before I determined that nursing was not a career choice for me, I wanted to go as far as becoming a midwife. Now I'd be more than happy to settle for being a doula!

4. I want a farm. This is one that could be achievable in the next few years with a little investment. We have the land for it, and my mother shares my desires. I would love have a cow,  a few goats, and chickens. I'm so very intrigued by the idea of raw milk and would LOVE to serve it to my entire family, but we have no dairy producers anywhere near us. I'd also love to make my own cheese (see desire #2!), both cows milk and goats milk. I would ADORE to be as self-reliant as possible. It may be something we try and achieve (especially as the economy continues to tank) in the next few years.

I have desires, but I have my biggest desire already. I'm the Mommy to an adorable, hilarious, loving little two year old, and soon-to-be Mommy to another darling little lady. I think it's good to have desires, or dreams, that keep you learning. Education isn't about academia, it's about learning. I want to continue to learn as much as I can about each of my desires and implement them as I go.

What are your desires?

Oh! And if you leave a comment, PLEASE make sure your email address is listed in your profile or list it in your comment. I want to respond to you, but if I don't have an email address, I can't! I need to make the switch to Wordpress....

Thursday, December 15, 2011

The Stresses of Christmas

I love Christmas. Really, I do. It's when we celebrate the fact that God sent his son to earth as a human to save us from our sins. Christmas is awesome.

But Christmas stresses me out.

For starters, my mom and I run a quilt business. This quilt business gets a LOT of Christmas orders. The majority of December is filled with us being in the shop 8-10 hours a day. We have customers who call repeatedly to make sure that they get their present. We have machines that break down and issues that arise that add to the stress. I understand (at least partially) how stressful the Christmas season must be to someone who works in the retail field. I really don't feel like I can "enjoy" Christmas until Christmas eve, and by then it's basically over.

Then you have to add in the shopping. I hate buying gifts. Okay, that's not always true. I really, really enjoy buying a present for someone when I KNOW they'll love it. But I hate the feeling of "I have no idea what to get this person". HATE. IT. I've tried my best to "shop small" this season, for two reasons. Number 1 is that I want to support local businesses and crafters/artisans. I've also handmade a lot of different presents (Thank you Pinterest!).  Reason number 2 is that I just haven't seen anything in the big box stores that has appealed to me to give. There are exceptions (when it's something specific I know the person is wanting), but overall nothing has jumped out at me. I greatly despise those "gift baskets" that you can purchase for $20 that have 2 bottles of lotion, a candle, and soap in it. A) It's way overpriced and B) It's not in the least bit personal. Even if I make the same gift for several people (which I'm doing this year) I make SURE that it can be personalized for the individual I'm giving it to.

Something that has helped SO much on my husbands side of the family (he has, no joke, around 30 relatives that come to Christmas) is that we've moved from drawing names and buying presents from that specific person (which I HATED because Carl was sometimes clueless as to what to get, and at the time I didn't know them well enough to have any idea) to getting a white elephant gift. SO MUCH LESS STRESS! Now a girl gets a "girl" present and a boy gets a "boy" present. I've already got one present picked out, and I think it'll go over well for both. Now instead of trying to figure out something for a specific person, I just have to get something that I think is nice (and useful!) and we trade around. I love it.

I don't know if it's  the pregnancy hormones, or the overwork in the shop, but I'm having a hard time getting in the Christmas spirit this year.  We decorated our house, and that seemed to help quite a bit, but still, I seem to be getting more stressed and more aggravated. What about you? Has this been a stress free Christmas? Are funds tighter than normal? Have you decked your halls?

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

26 Weeks!

Yowzer! I'm 26 weeks pregnant!

I'm feeling really well. I still HORRIFICALLY tired after very little work, but hey, I'm growing a human. A human that seems to be very feisty! She really is very strong (my whole stomach moves when she kicks) and she seems to be thriving!

A few weeks ago I was having kidney pain (low-level), but thankfully that has mostly went away. However, it's replaced itself, and the replacement SUCKS.

Last Tuesday Carl and I made a trip to Lexington to do some Christmas looking and shopping. For whatever reason he didn't sleep at all the night before (he couldn't turn his brain off he said), so I ended up driving the entire (1 1/2 hours) down there. We did our shopping, a good bit of walking, etc, then we headed home. His lack of sleep caught up with him, and I ended up driving the majority of the way home. Not unusual at all when I'm not pregnant, but its the most driving I've done in some time (I usually have pregnancy induced car narcolepsy... at least that's what I call it. ha!).

The next morning I was tired, but nothing too bad. I ended up going to the shop (my mom and I run a quilting business out of her parents old house, which is two houses down from mine) with her. As I left the shop to go back to her house, I slipped a little on these rugs that are right outside the front door. I was already having a little bit of pain in my groin area, and it seemed to intensify some then. So, we headed to my chiropractor that afternoon.

She didn't find anything out but a jammed hip (not unusual with me) and she ended up working the muscles and such around my pubic bone area. It didn't really help. The next day, as the day went on, the pain came back... so I started researching it.

Symphasis Pubis Dysfunction (SPD) is so super fun. It's generally caused by your body making too much/reacting to too much of the relaxin hormone. One article I read thought that it might be a chiropractic issue, which makes sense. I went back to the chiropractor about two days later, and still didn't have much of anything out, although my sacrum was tilted a little bit. I have little to no pain (usually no pain) when I first get up in the morning, but as the day goes on it gets worse. Yesterday Mom and I went shopping for 6 hours, and I overdid it, so I had a lot of pain today. I did discover that her low back brace works well to stabalize my pelvis and keep me from having TOO much pain while quilting.

Generally I only have pain when I first get up from a seated position, and the first 5-10 steps I take. Last night, however, I was having it rolling over in bed, and today it's been semi-constant. If I move one leg out suddenly it hurts a LOT. Again, managable, but sucky.

I keep doing pelvic rocks and such to ensure that this little Princess is NOT posterior like her big sister was, and it seems to get better after doing them. Some nights at about 11pm, I think I'm not going to make it through the pregnancy with this pain, but then I get up the next morning pain-free, so its kind of just a day-by-day, hour-by-hour sort of thing.

BUT, other than that superfun 'complication', this pregnancy is going swimmingly. I feel great (albeit tired) now, and just anxiously awaiting her arrival!


I did buy her a "stash" of newborn & small fitted cloth diapers off of my FAVORITE website in the entire world, Spots Corner, for a whopping $45 plus shipping. I'm SO excited. I had plenty of medium and large diapers, and several one-size, but no small or newborns (as I didn't start with Keevia until she was over a year old).

I also managed to score (look out for reviews coming in the next few months!) two babywearing giveaways in the last month. I won a Onya baby carrier through a Twitter party, and I won a Boba 3g Carrier through Mothering Magazines contest. SO ecstatic (especially about the Boba!). I'm currently awaiting a waist extender for the Onya, and then hopefully I can wear it. I can report that I can comfortably wore the Boba 3g with a 28 lb toddler last night while 26 weeks pregnant!