sad things, transition, good things

Mom; March 4, 1936 – March 3, 2013
One day shy of her 77th birthday, the esophageal cancer won.

 

Mom wanted a gathering at her house as a memorial. I’m so thankful for my sisters who made it so beautiful. I was touched by everyone who came and there were people I  hadn’t seen in years that brought back such sweet memories.

Today we go to Mt. Diablo to scatter her ashes as she requested.

 

Transition…

Ron lost his job in October. Except for a job that lasted about 6 weeks that brought in less income than unemployment (oy!) he was, well, unemployed. BUT he got a job as an Account Executive… back in the mortgage industry! A real job with full benefits and everything! Obviously the previous 5 months were hard. But really, it’s been a hard five years since the mortgage industry crashed and we lost our house, savings, etc.  It will take awhile for things to get rolling and for the income to be what we need to get by, but at least there’s a good chance to make beyond the minimum necessary and it feels like a long time since that was even possible. I’m so happy that at least he loves what he’s doing now. And he’s working with and for such nice people. So thankful. And medical, dental, vision, life, and 401K? Yes please, and thank you.

Bennett is weaning. He is my last baby. And he’s gone the longest of any of my babies. Now that I know first hand how shockingly fast the kids grow (um… Drew is getting his DRIVER’S PERMIT!) it’s so hard to let this stage go. Nursing my babies has been hands-down one of my most treasured joys in this life. I will miss it. I will miss him being completely out of baby-stage and full-on into toddler-stage. Didn’t I just give birth to him? What is happening? Trying to look on the bright side… I am looking ahead to getting my body back. I have plans to get back in shape. I’m tired of being weak and flabby. I want to be strong and fit again! More on that later.

Good things:

Well, my kids are all healthy and amazing. No lie, they make me smile every day. Tonight Jaimee and Bennett were playing and doing this funny yelling/screaming thing. Bennett’s face is so cute when he does this and he and Jaimee go back and forth. It’s really so cute (even though it did get pretty LOUD, lol). I do love how Bennett is big enough that now he and Jaimee can be playmates:

 

And while it continues to shock me how fast this is happening, we did have a great day celebrating Jaimee’s 5th birthday:

(this was just the “cake” part of the day; the present-opening and Chuck E. Cheese parts were awesome too!)

And other holiday events since my last post:

Jaimee making Valentines for her pre-school classmates. SO CUTE.

And Easter:

 

My older sister did a truly beautiful job with everything from the decorating, baskets and toys for all the kids, the dinner… she really does have a gift. And it was a good day.

Looks like I need more photos of Drew & Holly. *mental note*

 

Just hangin’ in there, folks.

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Hello January 2013

It’s the new year, and we all know what this means:

and great football . . . (have the NFL playoff games this weekend not been AWESOME?!)

and . . . Season 3 of Downton Abbey airs in the U.S.!!

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Halloween was fabulous!

I’ve always loved Halloween and it’s even more fun with your own little ones.  For a few years there I was a little deprived since Drew and Holly wanted to spend it with their friends and Jaimee was too little. But this year was awesome because it was the first year Jaimee REALLY knew what was up. And she was so excited! For the last two years, she’d been a pirate:

 

And I must say… could she BE any cuter?! At that time, I was ten days away from giving birth to Bennett. I was having some physical issues and could only make it around the block and then Ron had to take over and do the rest of the trick-or-treating with her. Which they did for HOURS. She loved it then.

And she loved it this year too! She was so excited and loved every second of it. This year, she was Alice in Wonderland:

 

I thought she looked completely adorable.

I haven’t made the scrapbook pages about the actual night yet, which will include Bennett in his costume, but I didn’t want to wait any longer to share how fun our night was.

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He’s here, he’s here!

He came two weeks early. And thank God. Because the pregnancy was killing me. So let me back up…

In my last post, I mentioned my trip to the ER. Well, I had to go have another procedure on Nov. 9th. That one was even more severe and I spent 7 straight hours later that day in excruciating unrelenting agony. After spending months with a bad case of SPD pain and then this problem in my last month, it was just getting to be so much. I really think that spending those hours on the 9th in that kind of pain made my body say “ok, it’s time to get this baby out”. The following morning at 5:30am I woke up with contractions. Not Braxton Hicks, the real ones. So, at exactly 38 weeks pregnant, I knew that this was the day!

Ron took some photos of me that morning:

While we were waiting for the contractions to be regular and 5 minutes apart, I passed a pretty big blood clot, and that scared us enough to want to get checked out at the hospital, so we left around 10:30am to go do that. We took a photo in the parking lot by the sign (same thing we did last time when Jaimee was born):

I just love the trees in the background. It was a gorgeous fall day!

They checked me out & monitored me and determined that baby and I were ok and that we should go home until contractions were regular. So now it was 12:30pm and I was 3cm dilated and 50% effaced.

We went home and labored some more. My sister Missy arrived and brought us lunch (the yummiest caprese sandwiches from the Nugget) and we waited. By 3:00pm we were headed back to the hospital… the contractions were coming fast and hard! I went from 5 minutes apart to 2 minutes by the time we reached the hospital! In triage they said I was 5cm dilated and I wanted my epidural ASAP. By the time I got it and they checked me again, I was 8cm.

Me, happy and pain free, with Ron – we’re so excitied!

And ohhhhh, that epidural. I was so thankful. It was the first time in months I was feeling no pain. And there I was with my ideal birthing situation with Ron and my sisters by my side. I was so enjoying it, I was in no hurry for baby to arrive.

Me with my sisters Juli and Missy:

The epidural slowed the progress waaaaaayyyyyyy down. By 9:30 pm I began thinking that maybe the baby would wait until after midnight and have a birthday of 11-11-11. But at 10:40p my water broke (more like EXPLODED – it shook me and the hospital bed!) and Bennett starting coming. I let the contractions do the work, gave one genuine push, and there he was at 11:04pm!

I created a layout with a photo taken just before leaving the hospital. A family of six!

(using all Basic Grey digital)

and then a page with photos I took yesterday:

(using all Designer Digitals – click for larger view and details). I just love how those photos turned out!

So now we’re settling in to life with a new member in our family. He’s nursing well, yay! Now we just need to get his days and nights turned around. We’re so happy and feeling so blessed to have a beautiful healthy baby boy in our family. And I’m so glad I’m not pregnant anymore.

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CRAZINESS!

There’s crazy good and… well just plain crazy. Today, I share with you both.

Let’s start with some crazy good. Like how you can win a Basic Grey collection of your choice!! Check out today’s Basic Grey blog post. If you create a layout based on today’s “Basic Sketch”:

"Basic Sketch" Nov. 7, 2011

and comment in the blog post with a link to your layout, you will be entered to win. Here’s my layout on which the sketch was based:

I mentioned in my last post another Basic Grey blog post with a layout of mine, but couldn’t share the layout here at that time. Here it is now:

This uses the Lauderdale Collection from Basic Grey Digital. So vibrant and fun and perfect for Holly’s tropical-themed birthday party.

One of my favorite Basic Grey creations so far is this layout using a photo from when Holly and other family and I were at the mall… we turned around to see her being this adorable:

What a cutie!! She makes me smile all. the. time.

Ok, ready for some just plain crazy? First, I’ve got only about 2.5 weeks left in this pregnancy. That is CRAZY! My most recent page documenting the pregnancy:

(all supplies from DesignerDigitals.com, click image for larger view and details)

What’s even crazier… early in the morning on Saturday Oct. 22, Ron was awakened by excruciating pain. He’d had an episode about a week before with terrible pain in his back. Now it was worse and was radiating around his right side and a bit in front too. I finally convinced him he needed to go to the ER. If you’re one of my FB friends, you saw me post about the saga. Turns out it was gall stones and he had sugery that evening to remove his gall bladder. I spent the first night in the hospital with him and was so glad I could. He was able to come home late the following night (Sunday). He was mostly recovered within a week. Which is a good thing because…

Are you ready for more craziness?! That week, I starting having some outrageous pain myself. Thank goodness Ron’s mom was here for the week to help with meals and stuff since Ron and I were both incapacitated. That Sunday, it became so bad, I couldn’t take it anymore… the pain coming from a pregnancy-induced problem. Ummm… I hate to say the ugly word, but it was… hemmorhoids. If you’ve never had a serious case of these, you have no idea how painful and incapaciating these can be. There are actually lots of nerve endings there. Anyway, Ron took me to the ER. They couldn’t offer the full hemmorhoidectomy surgery since I’m pregnant, but they were able to do a smaller procedure. Within three days, I could tell it was a good decision as I was able to at least be up and around and take care of the kids. My OB has told me to stay resting for the rest of the pregnancy. Thank goodness it’s not too much longer!

I hope to be updating this blog within a couple weeks and share some wonderful baby news and happy just-had-a-baby kind of craziness!

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