The Flower Girl at the Wedding

I'm still here - everything is going well. I've just been really busy for the last week.

Last Wednesday, Hannah and I went to dinner with some of the ladies from work. She loved going to dinner "with the girls" and they loved seeing her. It's so nice when I get such confirmation that she is just such a good little girl! She also loved that Cindy brought her some coloring and sticker books and markers!!

Thursday, I had book club. We went to dinner at Long Horn and had a good discussion about our book The Wednesday Sisters which I liked real well. I guess I didn't read it with quite the perspective that the discussion was around, but none-the-less, we had a good review. Then we got into a political debate - that's never good!!! But really, that went fine too. We decided on a new book and a meeting place for next month and we'll figure out which world crisis to solve at a later date!!!!

I took a vacation day Friday. I had to get us all packed and do laundry and clean up the house before we left for Columbus. We hit the road around 2:30 and made good time just until we got close to downtown, but still made it there in plenty of time. We checked into the hotel. We met up with my sister & Will who were here from Florida. She loved that she could get Hannah all wound up and it made me totally crazy that she was so hyper! I guess that's an advantage of being the Aunt!!! We got changed and headed to rehearsal with my Aunt & Uncle. Hannah was loving the taxi rides!!! I thought they were rather gross, but she thought it was great. Rehearsal went well and Hannah did just what she was supposed to do, but I wondered how she'd do with a room full of people looking at her. Then we took another taxi ride to dinner. That went well and was very good, but it was getting late, so we called for another cab and went back to the hotel. Everyone was there, but Hannah needed to go to bed (well, I did too), so she and I went to our room and went to bed. Tony decided to stay out all night and rolled in around 2:30!

We got up early Saturday and had breakfast. I painted mine & Hannah's nails and then she and I took a little nap. I knew I had to fit that in or she'd never make it through the night. When she got up, I took her to get her hair done - in another taxi ride. The girl did a nice job and Hannah loved getting her hair done at the beauty shop. I do have to say though, other than the experience, I'm not so sure it was worth $52!!! She did exactly what I had planned to do myself, but I was too afraid of it not working out and then getting frustrated that it didn't look right, so I just figured I'd have it done. She loved it though and it did look good! I was glad that the thing I made for her worked out so well - I really didn't think I liked it, but it ended up working perfectly!

We got back to the hotel and I started to get ready. Tony got Hannah all dressed and ready and the two of them headed over to the hall. I went a little bit later with everyone else. We took lots of pictures and the day was just perfect. Hannah was so excited and happy!!!

These are my two favorite of her:

Here are a couple of us:

My sister and I:

Courtney, the Bride - she was beautiful!

Bo & Courtney - isn't the skyline great?!

And some of them with Hannah:

The ceremony went well. Hannah did a great job coming down the aisle dropping her petals along the way! She wasn't scared one bit! She got to the end of the aisle and still had a load of petals left, so she stayed up there until she had sprinkled them all!!!

My pictures of the ceremony aren't that great since the room had floor to ceiling windows - I couldn't get the right setting on my camera.

Then we had a cocktail hour and then the reception started. Hannah had an absolute BLAST! She danced (ran) around that dancefloor for about 2 hours. She was too busy to dance with anyone.

One of the ring bearers was chasing her for a while, but then another little boy caught sight of her and was just smitten with her!!! He chased her and his grandma was determined to set them up!! They did get a little dance in, but Hannah perferred to just run around and have him chase her!

She hit the wall around 10:30, which was pretty good. We called for the shuttle and headed to bed. It was a great wedding and a really fun day!

We got up for breakfast Sunday and bid Bo & Courtney farewell to their honyemoon.

Then we packed up and headed home. I was exhausted!

Yesterday, Hannah started her gymnastics class again. It went OK, but there is a CRAZY boy in her class and his sister isn't that much calmer! I sure hope the two of them start getting the hang of waiting their turn and listening or their mom better pull them out!!! The were a bit disruptive, but it was the first night, so maybe they were just excited!!! I was alseep by 9:00 last night! It's been hard going non-stop for days!

On the pregnancy front - all is going well again. I feel the baby moving quite a bit. I'm getting quite a belly now and starting to need my maternity clothes again. I've been more careful about lifting things and taking it easy. I'll be 16 weeks this Friday. Here I am a week ago.

Lot's of Nothing

I guess it's right in line with Seinfeld or something, but there's not all that much to blog about these days, which is part of the reason for the lack of, but the other part is sort of a busy/lazy thing. Too busy doing stuff and too lazy when I'm not doing something to bother with blogging, I guess.

So let's see....since the last post, we're all adjusting to life in our house without Roman. Cody's been sad and mopes around a lot. Hannah asks why Roman had to go to Heaven a lot, but asks Jesus to take care of him each night at prayer time (on her own). Tony misses him and so do I. We got a surprise from the vet's office a few days after he was put down. They had made a plaster plate of his pawprint. That opened up the flood gates again when it came, but we're so, so very glad to have it! I made a shadow box with the plate, his collar and his picture. Tony doesn't like the letters, so I'm still searching for new ones, which for some odd reason isn't that easy to find the right size not-sparkly kind of letters....and besides, the numbers need to be fixed since one of the 9's is really an upside down 6. But anyway, here it is.....you get the drift. It's a nice memorial for us to remember him by.

I acutally really like my new book from Book Club for this month. We're reading The Wednesday Sisters. I got it last Tuesday and I'm about half done, which is really good for me since I don't like to read. I like the story so far, so it's a pretty easy book to get through. So much better than the first 4 dreadful chapters of The Sportswriter!!!

Last week, we took Hannah to the county fair. I only took one picture. Guess I wasn't in the mood for picture taking. Maybe it was because we got to hear and see some kid puking all over the place after a ride....yeah, sort of ruined the the fun of the fair. And the worst part was his mom hardly reacted. She took her good old time cleaning him off - only shaking a water bottle all over him. It was so gross, he had puke literally hanging from his eyelashes and she didn't wipe it off for at least 4-5 minutes. Poor thing! So yeah, the fair was fine, but I'm glad we went on 1/2 price wristband day for kids!!!

I had my 13 week prenatal visit last Thursday. I've only gained 4 pounds so far and we got to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time. That was great! Pretty simple visit.

Saturday, we went to gymnastics and then to a few furniture stores to get Hannah's new bedroom furniture when she moves into the spare bedroom. We went to 3 stores and then found something that we all seemed to like. It's a loft bed. One side of the bottom part is a bookshelf & drawers and the other side is a desk. I love it and it will be a great use of space for us (since that's not plentiful in our house), but I'm having a little bit of a hard time getting used to the idea that her bed will be 4 foot high up. It's plenty safe, there's really no way to fall out of bed, unless she jumps off, which luckily, she's not that daring. But I feel sad because I feel like I can't tuck her into bed the same way I do now at night. And I think changing the bed may be a bit of a pain too, but other than that, I think I will like it. We also got her a chest of drawers. I guess her toy box will make it's way to her room, despite my objection to it, but our limited space says that makes sense. We chose a natural color wood so I hope she'll grow with the furniture for a while, especially the desk side of it! Here's a picture, but we obviously aren't getting the bed on the bottom - that will all just be open space to play or store stuff in. That's the chest we ordered also in the picture.

I also found bedding for her which I didn't want to spend much money on since you will hardly see it now. I found a quilt at Burlington for $40 so we're definitely going with pink and green for her room. I'll find a lighter shade of pink from the blanket for her walls and we'll go from there. Here's the quilt:

Then I guess the only other update is our pregnancy scare from yesterday. Around 1:00 in the morning Sunday night, I woke up because I actually thought I had wet the bed. I was more embarassed than anything, so I ran to the bathroom to pee. Well, after I was done, I realized I was bleeding. I woke Tony up since I didn't know what to do. He asked if we should go to the emergency room and since I didn't have any kind of cramping, I didn't think that was necessary and told him that I'd wait for the morning to call the doctor unless it got worse. We made it through the night- sleeplessly, but in the morning, I was still bleeding. I didn't go into work, but called the doctor at 8:00. She told me to go to the hospital, which then scared me. I wasn't expecting that. So Tony took me to the hospital and we checked into labor and delivery and they started checking me out. The did an internal exam and found the uterus & cervix seemed fine, but there was definitly bleeding. I had to get a catheter - yeah, that part sucked - well it all sort of did, but that really sucked, they drew some blood and then wheeled me down for an ultrasound. The tech reminded me that she couldn't tell me anything and just as she was starting I asked if she could tell me if there was a heartbeat and she said no. So she did her thing and we could clearly see the baby, but it didn't seem to be moving at all. After she took a ton of pictures, she measured heartbeat and all we saw were a bunch of perfectly straight lines across the screen - my heart sunk. Then she zoned in on part of it and in a few minutes, she said, "heartbeat is 158".....I was so relieved! Then you could see the baby flopping all around all over the place! She said it was very active for this stage....no wonder I felt him/her moving at 11-1/2 weeks!!!! So then we went back up to my room and waited for over an hour for them to tell us that everything on the ultrasound looked normal and OK. I had to get a Rhogam shot because there had been the bleeding, but then they discharged me after that. I went home to rest for the rest of the day. I did go back to work today, but walk real gingerly and sort of have some pressure in my abdomen and still have a little bleeding. I go see the doctor tomorrow morning at 8:00. I imagine that everything is going to be OK, but I definitely have to start taking it a bit easier and not over-do things, which will be very difficult for me. Thank goodness Tony's going to be watching me like a hawk, but I feel so helpless too because he doesn't let me do anything even when I can. But we'll see what the doctor says and I'll follow her directions! I was glad to get an ultrasound that I wanted, but not like that!! And really, now that I already feel the baby and have heard the heartbeat, I was OK with waiting until 20 weeks.

So that's about it....I'll try to start blogging better lately. You know it's bad when your husband asks when you're going to put an update on!!!

Heartbreaking Loss

We've had a very sad few days at our house this week.

Monday, we had to say good-bye to our buddy, Roman.

It had been inevitable over the past couple of months that our days with him were winding down. He had arthritis (or maybe even bone cancer) so bad that it was becoming really difficult for him to get around. Standing up, sitting down and walking were becoming such a struggle, although he never complained or cried. Each day and week were getting progressively harder on him and last Friday, Tony made the decision that it was time. He made an appointment for Monday morning at 11:30. We had the weekend to spend with him, knowing we were down to a couple of days. That was good, but it made us REALLY dread Monday coming. I went into work Monday and then came home around 10:30. It was such a tough morning.

Leaving the house with him was probably half of the battle. It was so hard to walk him out the door, put him in the car and know where we were going. We spent about a half hour in a room with him waiting, which was nice quality time, but also so very sad. The vet was so caring and sympathetic. They gave us as much time as we needed with him. Both Tony and I layed on the floor with him as they gave him something to first make him go to sleep. He did, very peacefully. After we spent a little more time with him, they came back in and gave him the final shot and within a couple of minutes, he was gone.

It was gut-wrenching to go through this and to leave the vet with just his collar and leash. Sometimes I wonder why we put ourselves through this - it's just about the worse thing to have to do. We had one more very difficult task for the day, which was to tell Hannah. We brought her home from daycare and sat her on the couch to have a talk. I asked her if she remembered how Roman's legs weren't working so good and he was feeling hurt all the time. She said yes, then I said, "well, today his legs stopped working and he went to Heaven to be with Jesus". The second I said that, she burried her face in the couch and started sobbing. All three of us were crying so hard - it lasted for a good 10-15 minutes. She asked to go to her bed and after a little while, I went up to check on her and she just kept saying, "my Roman buddy". Later she said she didn't want to share her dog with anyone else in heaven and asked if he'd be coming back in a few days. I had to explain that once he goes to heaven, he doesn't come back to live at our house. It was so, so sad. That night, it was just very empty at the house.

Tuesday was also hard and it became clear that this is now affecting Cody too. He's so depressed that he just layed his head down as we left in the morning without making a sound. Usually he barks and runs around like a mad-dog. He was like glue to us all evening. Today, he seemed sad too. As I was looking through pictures tonight, I found so many of Roman and Cody laying together. I sort of forgot just how close they really were to each other. No wonder he's so sad - he's never been without Roman.

It's going to take us all some time to figure out what the new normal is around our house. Hannah asks questions so far every day and tells Jesus to take care of her Roman Buddy each night when she says her prayers.

Here's a few pictures of our beloved buddy:

Spring of 2005 - he loved to lay in the grass and feel the sun. He seemed so big back then, compared to more recently.

He loved to lay on our bed to cuddle - Cody's actually on the other side making a daddy sandwich!

Here they are laying on our bed again together. If you can see closely, Roman has his "baby" in front of him. He carried that thing for probably 2-3 years!!! I stitched and sewed it back together a million times before it finally was just about shreds! He was so gentle, loving and kind!

Here he is laying on "his bed" looking out his window - this was his favorite spot!

He used to sit in Hannah's room before she was born - he was her protector from the beginning!

Here they are after an afternoon picnic last summer

And she had a tea party with him a few months ago

This was from just a couple of weeks ago when he was outside with Hannah and I in the sun and pool.

And this was from this past Monday morning....his last day in the grass and sun....I'm so glad he doesn't hurt anymore though. I'm sure he's being a loving buddy to lots of lucky people in heaven now.

Thank you Roman, for the many years of joy you brought to our family....we'll miss you!!!!

I'm back again

Ok, so I've been a terrible blogger - I know. But I DO have a good excuse!

As most of you already know (at least the blog readers that I know - not sure how many lurkers I may have?) I am pregnant again! I'm now 11 weeks. It was a rough first 9 weeks or so, at least compared to my first pregnancy, which was a cinch. This time, I was nauseous every day and pretty cranky and just didn't feel like myself. Luckily, all of that seems to be getting better, I'm still just pretty tired. The being tired could also have to do with our crazy busy schedules lately also.

So this is how we told everyone that we were pregnant again!

Hannah is pretty excited about being a big sister. She has informed me that she will be taking care of this baby by herself (what a relief!!!) although I will get to change the poopy diapers (gee, how thoughtful!!) My due date is February 19th and I'm actually hoping it doesn't come early (crazy, huh?) because it's already so close to Hannah's birthday on January 30th. I would like to space them out a little bit more, but I have a feeling, that's not really up to me!!!

So we're getting excited now that things seem to be getting better and I'm progressing along. For now, despite Tony's complete objection, we think we're going to wait until the baby is born to find out the gender.....we'll see if an ultrasound in October changes our mind or not. I'm not sure why I want to wait, other than this is our last chance for this sort of surprise of a lifetime. I think it'll be fun to not know and pick a boy's name and a girl's name (which we're working on now). And to be honest, this goes against everything about my personality (must have a plan), but hey, I think it'll be fun and give us something to look forward to the second half of the pregnancy.

The one big bummer so far, other than not feeling well, is that I had to switch doctors and I'm not very fond of my new doctor. She's just a different personality and I really liked my old doctor. I got really mad at her at my 9-week visit when she didn't order an ultrasound. I had one with Hannah at 9 weeks where we got to see her heartbeat for the first time and her little arm and leg buds.....I so wanted that again. But Mrs. New Doctor said there was no need to do one, so instead, I left mad and had a rotten rest of the day - one of the other pleasures of these first 10 weeks (one little thing wrecking my day - yeah, I've been fun!!!) Tony's been GREAT! He's learned to just stay away from me and let me be, very understanding that I didn't feel good and trying to just get through it the best we can. I think it's getting better.....wonder what he thinks???

So anyway, that's the big news.

And an update on the other happenings for us lately - SUPER busy! Like, really, stuff all week long! No wonder I'm exhausted all the time!

Last weekend, we took Hannah to our little fair here in town. She had fun riding the rides most of the time. She must have super sensitive hearing because she has always hated loud noises. She walked into the fair holding her ears and actually rode a couple rides that way!

But then she also had lots of fun riding other rides too.

Then last Saturday, we drove down to Columbus for Bo & Courtney's wedding shower.

That was a nice time, but a long day. We're looking forward to the wedding now at the end of the month. Hannah's all set too. Everyone liked her dress just the way it is and didn't think I needed to have it altered at all, which is great. And I totally lucked out with shoes! I was so worried where I was going to find her a pair of ivory sandals at this point in the summer (now that we're surrounded by back to school stuff already everywhere). I went into Kohl's last week to get their gift and just happened to walk around the shoe section. I found a pair of pearly looking Carters sandals that I thought would work perfectly on clearance for 10 bucks! The only problem was that they had size 7 and size 9 and yes, I needed an 8. I knew the 9 would be too big and I thought I could get away with the 7 since they were open toe. I tried them on her after work and they would have fit, but she's got a wide foot and the straps were too tight across her foot. I freaked at the thought of my bargain not working out. I started calling all the Kohl's around and the third store had an 8!!! WOW - couldn't believe my luck, so I ran out there and picked them up and they worked perfectly! So anyway, the only dilemma left is what to do with her hair. My sister and I were talking the other day and we think we came up with a way to do it and get it done in the timeframe we have to work with. I'm sure it'll work out just fine!

Last Sunday, we hung out at home. Tony changed the air filters in our cars. He was so proud of himself for doing something "mechanical"!! And, he even got his hands dirty!!! Dad, aren't you proud?!!?

This past week flew by since we were so busy. Wednesday was my dad's 61st birthday!!! We met Dad & Julia for dinner, which was great. Thursday I had book club. Consensus among all of us was that our first book was awful! We read "The Sportswriter"....well, only 2 people actually read the whole book. One skipped the entire middle and read the ending. I got to chapter 4 and Laura didn't get past page 8! Yeah, not one I'd recommend, although I have a very gently used copy if anyone would like to borrow - or keep - it! Thank goodness our book club is really just an excuse to get out once a month! At least dinner was good! We've dubbed our book club "reading optional"!!! Right up my alley!

Yesterday, we went to Tony's sister's house for Kendal's 14th birthday party. Cannot believe she's 14! Totally crazy! She's going to be a freshman in High School this year. Oh, boy!

Today was a much needed free day. Hannah had gymnastics in the morning. We came home and ate lunch and then took a nap. Loved it! We hung out in the yard for a while. Tony washed his car. And then we went to dinner. It was a great, nothing-to-do day!

Tomorrow, we have to go out to my mom's for dinner. They've got family in town to visit with, so we'll probably be there all evening.

And that's it! There you have it....my big announcement and the update to the past couple of weeks of our busy life! I love my busy, yet simple life - we're so blessed!!!

Yes, I'm still alive!!!

Yikes, I guess I've been away from the old blog for a couple of weeks now. I guess we've been so busy with life that I just haven't had a chance to talk about it. Hmm, let me think.......Oh, I almost had a major catastrophe. I dropped my camera into the dog's water bowl. It was submerged all the way. It was on at the time it fell in and as I grabbed it out, it sort of flickered and flashed and then died. I was so mad and worried that it was ruined. I took out the battery and memory card and shook it real hard and then dried it off with the blow dryer. At one point, I put back the battery and it flashed like twice and then shut off again. The whole time, the lens was out from being turned on and I couldn't get it to close. After fooling with it for a while, I just set it on the desk upright and let it sit overnight. I really didn't want to have to spend another couple hundred dollars on a new one. The next morning, I put in the battery and it turned on! It asked to reset the time and day, so I hit the OK button and it died again. It did that twice. Later that day, Tony turned it on and it worked! Like it really worked - took a picture and saved it and could view the memory card and when I got home from work, it was totally fine! I was so relieved!

Then it was the 4th of July weekend. We h ad two calling hours services to go to that weekend, which was no good. Friday, we went over to a friend's house for a while. It was fun to hang out there and the kids had fun. We left around 10:00 and when we pulled in our driveway, I realized I had left my purse on their deck outside. How Annoying!!!! I didn't want it to be left out there all night, so we called them, but couldn't get a hold of them. I had no choice but to drive back over there (20 minutes each way) to get it. What a pain!!

Saturday, the 4th, we went to a party over at another friends house. That was fun too. It turned out to be a nice day - not too hot and no rain, kinda perfect for a party. There are a ton of kids now between everyone. It's so funny that they have multiplied like they have! Here's a picture of the group of most of the kids.

Then we watched as they put off a few fireworks. Hannah wasn't afraid this year. She still doesn't like the loud noise, but at least we were able to watch them outside without a freak out session. Here's the way she watched them:

Then that Sunday was hot and sunny, so I got out Hannah's pool and we hung out in the yard most of the afternoon. I got sunburned again...I think that'll be about the last time I sit out in the hot sun without using any sunscreen. I have a feeling my skin has had enough!

My mom's been in Italy for a couple of weeks now. She actually gets home late tonight. I'm anxious to hear about the trip and see her pictures. From the few check-in's she's made, it sounds like she and my aunt are having a great trip!

I got Hannah's flower girl dress. It's a little too big, so I'll have to get it altered a little. The good news is that she seems to like it pretty well - and it does spin!!!! I'm also going to look for some fabric to make (or have made) a colored sash and bow to match the bridesmaids dresses - if I can get a color swatch and then actually find fabric to match. My dilemma now is where the heck to find her ivory shoes! I've looked online a little and I"m not so thrilled about spending $60 for a pair of she's that she'll most likely never wear again! I'm definitely going to have to keep looking around.

I really can't remember much of what happened last week - I guess nothing that noteworthy. I had my NAWIC meeting on Thursday. I really like going to those. I hope to get more involved this year. I've already been asked to help co-chair the holiday social, so that will get me involved for sure and keep me sort of busy.

And then last weekend was really busy. Tony went down to Columbus for the weekend for Bo's bachelor party. I dropped him off on 71 Friday night where Randy picked him up. Hannah and I stopped for ice cream and then went home. Saturday, we went to gymnastics and then back home for lunch and naps. Then we went grocery shopping and to dinner at her favorite place - Applebee's. Not sure why she loves going there so much? Then Sunday, wen drove down to my dad's. We picked Tony back up there by the highway and then went to this tractor show down by my dad's. The weather was great for the day! (I used sunscreen!!!) Hannah had a blast! There was this tractor-train that pulled a whole bunch of cars made out of 55-gallon drums. She loved riding that!

Then she participated in the kidde tractor pulls. She was one of the only 3 year olds. I think she only went about 7-1/2 feet or so, but she tried really hard. Her legs weren't quite long enough to push the pedals, especially with the weight of the sled behind it. She also went for a horse & wagon ride and rode around with Grandpa on the Gator.

It was a good afternoon. We headed home and had pizza for dinner.

Oh, and one more thing I need to brag about. My 3-1/2 year old (at the end of this month) can now count to 100!! It's crazy! Just about a month ago, she finally got to 30 and now she counts to 100 - all the way and doesn't miss a number! It's amazing, she's so stinkin' smart! The first few times we did it, I had to give her all the 10's (40-50-60-70-80 & 90), but then yesterday in the car, she did it all by herself! The only number I had to help with was 80 because she said 100 after 79 (in a hurry to finish I guess) It's so cool!! She can write all of her letters, which she's been able to do since last fall. She's finally mastered riding her two wheel bike (with training wheels of course) and she can hop on one foot - both legs. The left leg took a lot of practice. She's so amazing!!!

I guess that's about it for now. I may have something else blogworthy to post soon, so maybe I won't be gone for so long next time.