Am I There, Yet?

…that five of my friends are coming to visit me in 10 days?  Girls’ weekend…wahooo!

Did I mention that we’re going to The Chocolate Show?

What’s The Chocolate Show?  This is The Chocolate Show.

 

I’m not going to take this anymore. I’m arming myself with all the secret weapons out there and I’m going to fight this stupid morning sickness to the death.  I’m through with this nonsense.  Morning sickness will no longer control me.

This past week has been the worse.  I haven’t been able to eat much more than toast and I can barely swallow water.  This cannot be healthy for me or the baby.  I’m no longer the martyr…I’m going to combat this with everything in my power.

I went out yesterday and bought some sea bands, vitamin B-6 and Unisom (the secret here is ½ a tablet of Unisom before bed each night.)  If this doesn’t work, I’m going to take my doctor up on her offer for medication.  So far, so good.  I’ve had a few short waves of nausea, but nothing I haven’t been able to manage. 

Please, please, please let this work!  I have more important things to do than  sit around and let morning sickness defeat me.  I have to eat a healthy and well-balanced diet for me and the baby.  I need to be able to grocery shop for my family and feed them meals other than frozen pizza.  I need to nurse my cold and make sure my family doesn’t get sick.  I have to pack a house and move.  I have company coming soon and I refuse to be a handicap to their fun.

So that’s that! 

 

I’ve had a bit of blogger’s block lately.  I could blame morning sickness…but, to be honest…I just haven’t been able to think of anything interesting lately.  Our life’s been pretty boring…LOL!!!

Titus had a great birthday.  Josh and I took him out to lunch before dropping him off at pre-school.  We brought some Dunkin’ Donuts donut holes to his pre-school so he could celebrate with his class and he wore a button that announced to the world that he was the birthday boy.  After school, we took both kids to Chuck E. Cheese’s and ate bad pizza and let the kids run around with a bucket full of tokens.  They were in heaven.  Afterwards we came home, ate cupcakes and opened gifts.  He got a total of $35 in the mail from friends and family, so on Saturday we took him to Toys ‘R’ Us to pick something out.  He picked out a Spiderman digital camera.

Anyways…I’m just glad he had a great day.  I love to see my children happy.

It started raining this week.  I think our Indian summer is officially over.  I’m a little concerned because it’s supposed to rain this weekend and we have plans to go to that pumpkin festival in Central Park on Saturday for Lilly’s birthday.  I talked to her about it this morning and warned her that it might be raining and that we may not go to the festival if it is.  I told her we’d do something else special if we can’t do that.  Maybe we’ll take her to Build-A-Bear or something.  She’s never been to Build-A-Bear.  She seemed O.K. with that.

I had a great day on Monday.  It was the first day that I felt good this entire month.  I only had two tiny waves of nausea and I was able to easily manage those.  I was ecstatic…I was hopeful that this pregnancy would be easier than the last two.  Well…Tuesday I started to feel a little crummy again and yesterday was my worse day ever.  On top of the morning sickness and other unmentionable pregnancy symptoms…I’m fighting a cold.  Ack!  Somebody please knock me out and wake me up after the baby’s born!  O.K.  I’m being a bit dramatic…sorry!

Gratitude Time!

I’m thankful for my beautiful family.  My 5-year-old son has the best dimples in the world.  This morning he’s helping me sanitize the house.  He has a Clorox wipe and is cleaning all the door handles and TV remotes.  He offered to help when he saw me doing this.  He’s such a sweetheart.  My 7-year-old-in-two-days daughter has the biggest heart.  Last night she came home with a UNICEF box and emptied out her piggy bank and scoured the house for more spare change to help needy children.  She’s very sensitive to other people’s needs and last night came and checked on me a few times (I went to bed early) to make sure I was O.K. and if I needed anything.  I’m grateful for the baby that will arrive in our household in just a few months.  This is an unexpected gift and I can’t wait to meet him or her.  I have a wonderful husband who adores me.  We have a house showing this afternoon and last night he let me go to bed early while he did the dishes and picked up some of the junk that has been lying around and helped Lilly with her homework.  He’s fighting a cold, too.  I’m sure he would’ve rather been in bed himself.  I have wonderful parents who love us and pray for us.  They’re a great source of encouragement and a fantastic example of how to live a godly life and keep a happy marriage.  I have fabulous friends.  Even though I live 3,000 miles away from most of them…I still feel close to them.  Thank God for email, IM, text messaging, blogs, etc…  Technology has been an instrumental part in nurturing those friendships.  Two weeks from today, five of them are coming out to visit.  I’m so excited!  We’re going to run around Manhattan for a few days and I imagine there’ll be lots of laughter, fun and chocolate.  We’re all ready for an adventure and I hope they have a great time.

I’m also grateful for God’s provision.  We have a roof over our heads, food in our refrigerator, no debt and health insurance.  My kids are both going to fantastic schools and Josh is able to finish up his master’s degree…2 more classes to go!  We are facing some other unmentionable difficult circumstances, but I can’t focus on those right now.  I need to give those circumstances to God and focus on all that is good in our lives with a grateful heart.  I’m also choosing to be grateful for the difficulties…because they shape who we are.  We learn and grow through the difficulties in life.

It’s that time of year again!  This is birthday season for us.  Titus turns 5 on Friday and Lilly turns 7 a week from next Saturday.  We’re not big on birthday parties with lots of screaming children hopped up on sugar.  We’d rather do something special as a family.  Sure…my kids don’t get as many birthday presents that way…but is that really such a bad thing? 

Lilly’s birthday is planned.  She was very decisive about what she wanted to do this year.

My mom told me about this place called Camp Sunshine in Maine.  It’s a camp for families of terminally ill children.  It’s a really amazing place offering free services for the families…including lodging, food, activities, counseling, medical services, etc…  Since everything is free for the families, you can imagine the camp relies on volunteers and outside financial support.  They have a big fundraiser coming up in Manhattan.  It’s a pumpkin festival in Central Park with face painting, games, music, etc…  All the proceeds go to help Camp Sunshine.  The highlight of this festival is that they’re trying to break a world record.  Last year Boston hosted this same festival and they broke a world record by carving and lighting over 30,000 pumpkins.  This year Boston is challenging New York City, so both cities are going to compete against each other to try to break the record from last year.  I told Lilly about the camp and about the festival and she decided that she really wanted to do this for her birthday.  She loved the idea of going to a pumpkin festival and helping out children who are really sick.  She asked if we could go to ESPN Zone for her birthday dinner.  I asked her why and she said, “Because it’s really cool and it has lots of sports stuff and the food is really good.”  She’s right…they have the best children’s menu I’ve ever seen.  Josh was quick to agree, of course.  He proudly said, “That’s my girl!”

So…Lilly’s birthday is planned.  Titus’ birthday is not.  I have no idea what we should do for his birthday.  I know that he would be thrilled if we took him to Toys ‘R’ Us and let him pick out his own birthday present and then take him to Chuck E. Cheese’s for dinner.  This would be heaven for him.  This gives me a headache to think about because Mr. Cheese and I are sworn enemies.  There’s something about Chuck E. Cheese that brings out the worst in people.  (Wal-Mart has this same problem…do you ever notice that people seem extra-grumpy there?  You can always find somebody yelling at their kids at Wal-Mart.)  The last time we were at Chuck E. Cheese’s we witnessed a grandma catfight break out.  One grandma was screaming at the other because the other grandmother’s grandson was climbing up the slide when the first grandmother’s princess was trying to slide down the slide.  It was ridiculous. 

Anyways…it is not about me…it is Titus’ birthday and I want to plan a day that he is thrilled with.  It’s his day and I want to help him feel special.  But, if I can think of an alternative to Chuck E. Cheese I will fully embrace it.

My little serene friend from yesterday may have had a run-in with my back tire this morning.  Oops!  My bad.

We were on our way home from karate tonight and I had the country music radio station on.  Alan Jackson was singing It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere when Titus asked, “Mom?  What time is it?”  I answered, “It’s 8:00.”  He asked, “Is it 8:00 everywhere?”  I told him it wasn’t and continued to tell him about the different time zones and how his grandparents in Iowa were one hour behind us, his aunt and uncle in Phoenix were sometimes two hours behind us and sometimes three hours behind us because they don’t have daylight savings time and how his grandparents in Oregon were three hours behind us.  I told him it was 7:00 in Iowa, 6:00 in Colorado and 5:00 in Oregon.  He said, “Wow…this song is right!  It really is 5:00 somewhere!”

I think it’s important to stop and notice beauty around us.  In the midst of dealing with my daughter’s broken heart today (long story) I noticed this in my front yard and had to take a picture to share. 

Ends:  We got a phone call from a realtor on Saturday at 1:00 trying to make an appointment to show the house sometime between 1:30 and 3:00.  New Jersey doesn’t have the 24-hour notification to enter a rental property, but there is a clause in the lease that says “reasonable notice.”  A half hour isn’t reasonable notice but, I guess it’s all subjective.  Anyways…we didn’t want to make a big deal out of it so we told them they could come.  Josh had to leave for work, and instead of making myself scarce for 90 minutes to give room for this realtor who may or may not show up…I decided to hang out at the house and take the kids across the street to the playground when the realtor showed up.  A few minutes after Josh left, I was in the kitchen and heard the key in the lock and the door open.  I figured it was Josh coming back because he forgot something.  I then heard a strange voice say hi to my children and I walked out of my kitchen to find a realtor and several people standing in my entryway.  He didn’t knock or ring the doorbell…just walked in without warning.  He came over and handed me his business card and I thought it was ironic that his last name was Butt…no joke.

Odds:  Saturday night we were given tickets to go to the Rutgers football game.  It started at 8:00, so I picked up Josh after church and we took off to New Brunswick.  We showed up at the game a few minutes after it started.  Josh took a bathroom break while I went into the stadium to find our seats.  I got to our row to find an overly crowded row with no extra room.  I found a couple sitting in our seats.  The people around them were accommodating and helpful, but the couple who took our seats acted as if they didn’t even see or hear me.  I literally squeezed in between two people and didn’t know how to handle the situation.  When Josh got down there, he assessed the situation and then looked around for some other empty seats.  He found some seats two rows ahead of ours and we got up and took those seats instead.  They were great seats.  We were in row 4 on the 10 yard line.  We could see the zits on the cheerleaders’ faces.  Well…not really…they all had flawless skin…but, if they did have zits we would’ve seen them.  Anyways…we had a really great time in spite of almost not having a seat to sit in.  After the game, we got up to leave and I glanced over to our old seats, making eye contact with the girl who stole my seat.  She flashed me a big, fake, toothy, condescending grin.  How odd is that?

 

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Pregnancy talk warning:

Speaking of odd…on of Josh’s friend/co-worker’s wife is pregnant.  I don’t think they’ve told a lot of people, yet…but, I’m going to “out” her on my blog.  (I don’t think anybody from here reads this.)  Anyways…the really weird thing about it is that she’s due on May 19^th.  I’m due on May 19^th.  What are the odds?

I’m still very sick.  Yesterday I made plans to take Lilly to school and then run to the grocery store with Titus.  I was so tired that I came home and took a nap instead.  My son woke me up an hour later with a Gatorade mustache asking me if we could go to Burger King.  Josh called later that morning and asked how I was doing and I told him I was trying to get to the grocery store, but that I was so tired and sick that it was hard to motivate myself to go.  Since he’s such a wonderful husband…he told me to email the grocery list to him and told me he’d stop at the store for me after work.  But, by the time I got Titus ready for pre-school and dropped him off I was feeling a bit better, so I decided I could handle grocery shopping.

I was wrong.

I got to the store and was able to make it through the produce section, but when I turned the corner to the meat section, my stomach lurched.  I couldn’t even look at the meat.  I decided to go to that section last and get the rest of my groceries.  I figured maybe I could handle it better later.  I got everything else on my list and went back to the meat section.  I had the same reaction.  I couldn’t buy meat.  I couldn’t even look at it.  So…I came home with no meat.  My poor family.  They’re just going to have to put up with frozen pizzas for awhile.

 

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I’ve run out of things to talk about…so I’m going to chat about the weather for a second.  It is so stinkin’ hot!!!  It’s crazy.  I cannot wait for fall to get here.  The leaves are slightly turning, but it’s still mostly green.  It’s O.K. because we have company coming and I want them to be able to see the fall brilliance when they arrive.  The longer the leaves wait to turn…the more beautiful they’ll be when my friends get here.  (30 days, 10 hours, 58 minutes)

Not much new to report.  I did go to the doctor and we discovered I’m only 7 ½ weeks pregnant (kinda far from the original 12 weeks guesstimate!)  My new due date is May 19th.

I’m already feeling crummy and have had some major food aversions.  The only thing I’ve been able to eat is wheat toast with butter and orange juice for breakfast and Campbell’s tomato soup with saltines for lunch and dinner.  I did have some chips and salsa today and that hit the spot.  But, every time I open my refrigerator I gag.  My poor family hasn’t had a home cooked meal all week because I can’t stomach the smell of food.

I’m already having clothing issues.  I only have one pair of jeans that fit me right now and a few pair of sweats.  I never thought I’d say this…but, I really wish it would cool down!  It’s 83 degrees today and we’re all still in T-shirts.  The problem is that my T-shirts aren’t fitting very well and I really want to start wearing some of my over-sized (albeit unflattering) sweatshirts.

This is going to be a long 32 ½ weeks.

I really like my doctor…she’s great.  I brought the picture of the ultrasound home and Titus said, “It looks like a fish!”  I could see his point.

Thanks for all the congratulations.  We’ve had a couple of weeks to get used to the idea.  The kids are still excited.  Lilly seems to think that it’ll be a girl and wants us to name her Claire. 

Other than that…all is well in our household.  We haven’t had too many realtor interruptions in the past two weeks.  Good for us…bad for our landlord.  The kids are doing great and both got their third stripe on their karate belts which means they’ll soon graduate to high-white belts.  They’re both doing well in school.  Lilly’s a little over-achiever like her dad.  She got a 98 on a spelling test and was really upset…she’s determined not to let that happen again.

O.K.  That’s it for now.  Thanks, again, for all the sweet congragulations and all that.