The Reeves V Family

One month in....

2012-02-06T18:27:00.000-08:00

Yes, it's been awhile, but it has been a bit hectic here in the lowcountry. I absolutely cannot believe we are already one month in to being a family of FIVE. Here's the newest member of the Reeves family just a few hours after he was born exactly one month ago:

Jacob Thomas Reeves joined our family at 9:44am on 1/6/12 weighing 7 lbs 14 oz and measuring in at 19.75 inches long. This kid has been through a lot so far in his short 4 weeks with us....we spent only two days in the hospital as we were eager to get home and get at least some rest. He met his sisters in the hospital and they were absolutely in love with him from the very first time they met. Of course, he's not mobile yet so they are still in love with him...just wait till he starts screwing around with their toys.

Starting around 6 days old, he started sleeping at night. And not just short little bursts. Like 7-8 hours at a time. It was HEAVEN. As my mom said, it was making my transition to having another infant in the house much easier. I was honestly afraid to tell anyone how he was sleeping for fear that it would stop. He kept it up until last Friday, at which point he started getting snotty. I expected this would happen, but it just kept getting worse and worse. I took him in to the doctor on Monday afternoon, at which point the pediatrician told me he had RSV. I vaguely knew what this was, then did what you shouldn't do and googled it and within minutes was convinced my child was going to get pneumonia and die. I kept having horrible flashbacks of watching Anna get a spinal tap at his age when she got sick as a baby. I spent the next 48 hours a complete basketcase, which wasn't made any better when I had to take him back on Tuesday and was sent home with a nebulizer and two different medicines we had to give him every 2-3 hours. Jerry and I took him back to the pediatrician Wednesday morning, where it was determined Jacob had improved, but not as much as they would have liked, so we were told we needed to take him to the children's hospital in Savannah and we'd be spending 2-3 days there. I packed a bag for the both of us and we headed in. When we arrived one of the first things they did was the actually RSV test...which came back negative. Really?!? And we didn't do this at the pediatrician's office WHY? Moral of the story - if the pediatrician wants to have your child admitted to a hospital because of some virus or something, ask if there's a test that they need to run first to determine whether or not your child actually has that virus. It will save you a lot of stress.

So here's the little man on his one month birthday:

He had his first real smile on Saturday while playing with Anna. She kept holding up a Winnie the Pooh to him and talking to him about it and he smiled. At first I thought it was him having gas :) But then she did it again and he smiled again, and I thought I was going to melt.

Like I said, I still have a hard time believing we are a family of five. It's no secret that Jacob wasn't exactly a planned baby. Now I think of him as the baby I never realized I wanted until I had him. I cannot imagine life without him. I am convinced that there is a larger reason as to why I had this little man brought into my life. We thought we were done after Anna, but we ended up with a surprise. He fought through adversity while he was in the womb to make it out healthy, and he keeps fighting. Before I thought our family was complete; now I know we are complete. It's freaking hard with three kids, there's no doubt about that. And I get totally frustrated sometimes when I think about how close we were to being out of diapers and the girls being a tad more self-sufficient. But having Jacob in our lives makes all of us better I think, and I can't wait to see what life has in store for him.

Nine Years (and four weeks)

2011-12-09T05:48:00.000-08:00

I can hardly believe it's been nine years since Jerry and I got married. We had a funny start to our relationship as many of you know. I mean, who has to go to the other side of the world to meet their significant other, even though we'd been on the exact same college campus for 3 years and had never run into each other (well, maybe we had, but we never knew it). Whenever anyone asks us how we met, Jerry LOVES to tell the story of how he saw me in Hartsfield Atlanta Airport (at least, that's what it was named back when we did study abroad), then started asking my sorority sisters that I was traveling with about me until he finally worked up the courage to come say something to me. He called me by name and since I knew I had never talked to him in my life, and me being the cynic that I am, immediately responded "How in the hell do you know my name?" Good way to start off a relationship, right?

Thankfully he continued talking to me, we hung out in Berlin, then I saved a seat on the bus for him when we were riding from Berlin to Dresden. That's right - I was almost a senior in college, and here I am saving a freaking seat on a bus for him. Whatever, it obviously worked, right?

Our first date was in Paris and the rest is, as they say, history. I've always told him it was a mistake to have our first date in Paris because, really, how do you top that?? But he has...he's been the most amazing husband and father I could have ever asked for. We've been through so much in the past 13 years we've been together.....

5 moves (dear Lord, really?!?)
2 little girls
1 little boy on the way
a Crohn's diagnosis
two bad Crohn's surgeries
two long distance years
a dog (who is currently on my bad list for developing a taste for eating gross stuff out of the garbage....I think he's got an attitude about the impending baby too).
Two jobs for him, four for me (I hope that doesn't sound as bad for me as it looks)

I'm sure there are other things that I am missing. He still likes surprising me in little ways. Like last night - he wasn't supposed to be home until about 10pm from my calculations since he was driving back from Florida, but he appeared in the kitchen around 6:30pm, well after I had resigned myself to a night of solo parenting and had just decided that the girls weren't really dirty enough for me to have to bend over the tub for a bath :) It was a little thing, but still made me and the girls very happy last night.

So Whizzy & Pop Pop, thanks for raising an incredible son for me to get to marry :) He still does some things that drive me over the edge (is it REALLY so hard to call and let me know if you are going to be late, cause that goes over much better than saying you are leaving at a certain time, then when it's well past the time you should have already been home and I have dinner waiting, then you call to say you are just now leaving....not that that particular scenario happens EVER or anything!), but I know just how lucky I am to have snagged him :)

And today marks, at max, four more weeks before we are a family of FIVE. I started washing Jack-Jack's clothes last night, and it suddenly hit me how real this is all becoming. Not that it hasn't been real with all of the ridiculous pregnancy issues I've had this time around, but organizing and washing up the tiny 0-3 month clothes again for the third time around hit me like a ton of bricks last night!

Five weeks and counting

2011-11-30T05:18:00.000-08:00

So if Jack-Jack stays put until his predetermined arrival date, then I have exactly 5 weeks from this Friday to get ready for the little guy. (No, his name is not going to be Jack, or even Jack-Jack....it's the name the girls have come up with based on the movie The Incredibles, where the baby boy in that movie is named Jack-Jack. I've said throughout this whole pregnancy that it's not going to matter what we name this poor child, he will always be Jack-Jack to the girls....and probably me too!) And that's a big if too - we all know Anna decided she needed to arrive three weeks early, which would make Jack-Jack a Christmas baby (well, close to Christmas, at least).

I've never had a panic attack, or at least I don't think I have, but I sure feel like having one right now. There's a lot to do....get the nursery ready, wash clothes, pack my bag, get the house in order since it probably will never be in order again for the next 18 years, and then there are the holidays in the midst of all of this. The girls are acting like wild Indians, and I know it's because of Jack-Jack's impending arrival, even if they can't verbalize that's why they have lost their minds. I have to come up with a contingency plan in case this kid does come early and we're in the hospital for Christmas eve/Christmas (Lady & Whizzy - be expecting an email from Santa soon on where he'll be hiding the gifts in our house in case Jerry and I aren't there!!)

And this whole being pregnant while 35 thing? It's for the birds. I can't imagine being any older and doing this, cause I already feel like I'm falling apart. I mean, I usually am having some sort of health issue anyways, but this is topping the cake. Between the original issue of the SCH, sciatica, horrible carpal tunnel in my right hand, and a sinus infection that's been hanging around for SEVEN weeks, I'm done.

I know I am just anxious about life with three little ones, how to make the finances work, and all that entails.....but I really wish I had enough vacation and sick time to just take off work for the next three weeks and have time to get ready and relax for 5 minutes before this baby arrives.

I guess I'm "that" mom

2011-10-25T07:15:00.000-07:00

But at least I know there's one other mom out there just like me in this case....

Carrie got a permission slip sent home with her a few weeks ago to go on a field trip to a pumpkin patch. It sounded like lots of fun and I was ready to sign her up, until I read how they were going to be traveling to the pumpkin patch. It was by the little school bus they have for their school....which meant only lap belts and not car seats. This immediately made my mommy radar go up and I was like "do they really think I'm going to let my tiny little kid, who at her rate of growth will probably still be in a car seat at 16, get on a school bus with nothing but lap belts?" I hemmed and hawed about this for a few days, and then was talking with one of my friends, Kathy, who's daughter is also in Carrie's class and is Carrie's current BFF. Before I even said anything she echoed my sentiments and felt the same way I did about letting the girls ride in a school bus with only lap belts. Thankfully she has a work schedule that's much more flexible than mine and was able to volunteer to drive two children (mine and hers!) to the field trip. Crisis averted - Carrie got to go on the field trip and I didn't have to be the mean mommy and not let her go because I didn't feel comfortable letting her ride in the bus.

I know thousands of kids do the school bus thing every single day going to and from school, including kids not much bigger than mine. Maybe I'm just a giant worry wart, but I'm okay with that :) I only have one Carrie!! I guess that's another bonus to having her and Anna (and eventually baby boy) going to the school that they do - no school bus service since it's private, so her only option is to ride in a car seat in our car :)

So....

2011-10-10T05:48:00.000-07:00

I'm sure many of you have heard that old saying "Make plans and God laughs"??? Well, that seems pretty indicative of my life thus far this year.

I "planned" to get back into running and do a half-marathon this coming November at the inaugural Savannah Rock n' Roll marathon event. Instead, I ended up having surgery on my knee, promptly bringing any and all thoughts of getting back into running out of my mind for good.

I "planned" on getting Anna potty trained and out of diapers this year, never to buy another package of diapers ever again in my life, unless it was for someone else.

WRONG.

Instead, I sit here writing this at 26.5 weeks pregnant. Wha??? This was not in my life plan, having a third child. We were getting so close to no diapers, getting out of the terrible twos (although from Carrie's recent behavior it seems that the age of 4 is more terrifying), and fully moving on from the baby stage of raising kids.

To say I was surprised to find out we were having a third is the understatement of the century. I mean, the irony here is undeniable: I had to go through hell and high water with fertility treatments to get pregnant with Carrie (thankfully not having to go all the way to IVF, but we were certainly researching it), to managing to be apparently one of the 1% of the population that manages to get pregnant while on the pill (word to the wise, ladies - it DOES happen!). Seriously?

When I went to my first prenatal appointment I met with the nurse practitioner, standard procedure for the first appt in a pregnancy (at least at my practice). She came in at about 28 weeks pregnant herself, with the exact same story as me - was perfectly fine with her two little girls, not planning on having another, and then BAM! Guess what?!? She and I both could hear God laughing at both of us at that point. It didn't ease all of my apprehensions about adding a third little person to our family, but it certainly helped. I remember her saying to me "it'll all work out somehow! and just maybe this will be a boy for you like it is for me!"

About the time I started getting somewhat more comfortable with the idea of having another munchkin running around I started having some problems. Guess that comes with the territory of being of "advanced maternal age." As it turns out I had a subchorionic hematoma. Let me save you some time - DON'T GOOGLE IT; you will come away from it, as you do if you google pretty much any medical condition, convinced that everyone involved was going to DIE. That's not to minimize it, cause it was disconcerting and upsetting, but it managed to resolve itself by the time I was about 21 weeks along (hence why I have not, up to this point, mentioned anything about this pregnancy on my blog!) Thankfully, as of my last ultrasound scan, there was no sign of the stupid hematoma, and that's after literally about an hour of both the ultrasound tech and the high risk doc looking in every nook and cranny to make sure it wasn't hiding anywhere.

So now I feel like I've really settled into the idea of having three kids. I am under no pretense that it's gonna be easy or anything like that. I know that our lives are going to be thrown upside down yet again. I know that it's going to, yet again, be a giant pain in the butt trying to figure out do we do nanny vs. daycare for this kid. I'm not looking forward to having to get up multiple times in the middle of the night to nurse, or get up at the crack of dawn before going to work so I can pump enough for the baby to have each day. But I also know that once I get to hold that little baby in my arms in about 12 short weeks (as long as he stays in there until he's supposed to come out, on or about 1/6/12!!), that it will all be worth it and somehow, someway, in the immortal words of Tim Gunn, we'll "make it work."

Oh, and the crazy part? This time we elected to find out the gender of the baby. And when I say "we" I actually mean "I" and I convinced Jerry that for my own mental health I needed to know if it was going to be a girl or a boy.

As it turns out, the nurse practitioner was right - it is a boy this time around. :)

Our big girls

2011-08-23T10:37:00.000-07:00

I know, I know...it's been forever. What can I say? Lots going on, as usual!

This has been a huge week in the Reeves' household. Two big milestones. First was Carrie's first day of Pre-K on Monday. She had been going to her new "big girl" class for a week, but without the curriculum and without the uniform. Monday was the first day of at least the uniform ("official curriculum" doesn't start for another week, but you could have fooled me!). Here's a picture of the newest member of pre-K:

I can't get over how freaking grown up she looks. Boo. And here's the rest of her class as well:

Love that they have such small class sizes compared to some other schools! What's crazy about this class is how calm it is.....Anna gets dropped off first, and of course the 2 year old class is chaotic at best. But even Carrie's old classroom, which had pretty much the same children in it, was nuttiness at times. This class, not so much. You go in at any point in time, morning or afternoon, and they are CALM. I don't know how her teacher does it. Benadryl, maybe? I kid. But seriously, another mom and I were talking about this the other day. Just two weeks ago they were running around like wild banshees, and now they are acting like they know what they are supposed to be doing in the classroom setting. It's amazing. Too bad that doesn't carry over to the home environment, where Carrie seems to forget how to use her ears!!

Anna turned two as well, and we had her birthday party over the weekend. I still can't believe she's two!! I don't know why - she certainly has the attitude to go with her age :) I think she tries to overcompensate to be sure to be heard over her big sister. We had cupcakes in her classroom on her birthday to celebrate the big day, and they were a big hit:

The birthday party was great fun, and it was nice to see my family from Atlanta who made the trip. Today we had to take both girls in to get them up to date on their vaccines. Never a good trip. Carrie knew what was coming, and she had to get two vaccines. Anna only had to get one. Both girls were unhappy to say the least, but the tears magically disappeared when the stickers came out. Turns out Anna has grown three inches since her last visit in March. I knew she was hitting a growth spurt, but good grief! I told the doc that at this rate there's a very good chance we'll end up passing on hand-me-ups instead of hand-me-downs between her and Carrie!

Hug your kids tight

2011-07-05T12:20:00.000-07:00

I think I'm in a bit of shock right now. I just learned that a co-worker's 2 year old grandson drowned last Friday in the family pool. This just absolutely breaks my heart. My co-worker used to tell me all sorts of stories about his grandchildren, and how this particular little one kept getting into so much mischief because, after all, he was a 2 year old boy and mischief is in his job description, right? He was so proud to talk about his grandchildren and it was easy to see how much he loved them.

My heart breaks for his family. It also makes me realize how quickly loved ones can leave us. Give your kids (or any other family member/friend, for that matter) an extra squeeze tonight at bedtime.

What the.....?!

2011-06-23T11:53:00.000-07:00

I either should have paid more attention in my developmental psych class, or taken more of them, so I would know when to expect certain things to come out of my childrens' mouths and know when they can make certain connections. We were sitting at the dinner table last night and I had forgotten to turn off the TV, which we usually do. The nightly news was on, and a story came on about Glen Campbell, who was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. The anchor was delivering the story and mentioned something about the fact that Glen had been noticing he had short term memory loss for awhile, but that the Alzheimer's diagnosis had been in the last six months.

I kid you not - Carrie stops mid-chew and exclaims "Short term memory loss!!! That's what Dory has in Finding Nemo!!"

I texted Jerry to tell him what had just happened (he was at a business dinner...at Lady & Sons....which I have been begging to go to since we moved here.....but that's another story). He called me back and thought I was making it up. No, m'dear, not making it up. Can't make this kind of stuff up!

Huh?

How do they remember stuff like that? Especially since I can't really remember the last time we watched that movie, as everything is all Princess, all the time right now.

Complete Photo Gallery!

2011-06-16T06:58:00.000-07:00

Kate emailed me last night to let me know all of our family pics are up!! Here they are if you are interested....

I've said it before and I'll say it again - Kate is a great photographer and I love that she's now done pictures for us 4 times. She's soon moving to Atlanta, but perhaps I can convince her to do some shots of us whenever we come up to visit family!

Family Pictures

2011-06-13T11:26:00.000-07:00

It's always LOADS of fun getting everyone ready for family photo shoots. It generally involves someone pitching a fit, clothes not looking right, and overall confusion (and not necessarily all from the children!). We had our pics taken this past weekend with Kate Carmack, who's been taking pictures of Carrie since before she turned 1. I am always happy with her work - she is an amazingly talented young lady, and I hope she'll keep coming back to the Lowcountry once she moves to the big city at least once a year so she can chronicle our little family growing up.

She's posted a new picture of the fam on her blog:

There's also a couple of pictures of the girls sprinkled into her home page slideshow (and one of Anna from last year, so that's entertaining!). You can view the slideshow here.

I'll be sure to post when all of our pictures are available!

Dear Beaumont

2011-05-25T08:05:00.000-07:00

Dear Beaumont,
It's so very hard for us, but today we had to say goodbye to you. There aren't really words to say just how much you were loved, and still are, but I'll try....

It all started when Jerry decided that getting a dog while a freshman in college was a GREAT idea! I don't know all the details since I hadn't yet met him, but I know he had the best of intentions (as well as a goal to meet more girls while hanging out with you at the park!). I'm also sure that this idea was probably met with some groans of "what the heck are you going to do with a lab puppy while at school?" but he went ahead with his plans anyways, and made the adoption that would change the Reeves family....for the better, I might add.

I'm not sure exactly how long you lived in Atlanta, but thankfully Whizzy & Pop Pop took you in at Cedar Bluff. The big city was no place for a dog like you, Beau. You needed a place to run and play, and Cedar Bluff was just the place. Tons of room to run, your very own river to swim in - what more could a pup want?! I know Jerry was sad to leave you behind at Cedar Bluff, but it was the right thing to do, and you have been there ever since.

You weren't too sure about me at first, buddy. Jerry and I joke about it now, but I really do think you thought I was trying to take your spot, literally. You were so used to Jerry sleeping in his own bed at home, so whenever I came to visit and slept in that bed, you would just sort of stand beside it for a few minutes like "Look lady - I think you got the wrong place. That's my bed with my dad; beat it!" Thankfully I think I grew on you, and you realized I was pretty good with the belly rubs and throwing the tennis ball for you too.

Your love of tennis balls is legendary. We even brought our dog, Bailey, to Cedar Bluff so you could hopefully teach him a thing or two about playing catch. I'll never forget watching you and Bailey race around for the tennis ball whenever we'd throw it. Bailey didn't have a prayer those first few years of catching you - you would outrun him every single time. I think it was good for Bailey to get schooled a little bit! To this day, even though you couldn't run around much lately to catch the ball, you seemed to have one nearby at all times. It's sort of like your security blanket I guess.

One of my own fondest memories of you was when I was training for the marathon. We were visiting Cedar Bluff one weekend, and I was scheduled to do a 13 mile run, so Jerry and I took you along and thought we'd let you go as long as you wanted, then Jerry would take you back. Jerry was on his bike and I was just pounding pavement....and there you were, running right beside me the entire time. There were several times that Jerry would bike farther up the road, and even sometimes disappear, but you stayed right there with me the whole time, like you were taking care of me. You did 8 miles with me that day. I sort of think of that as the "turning point" in our relationship, Beau. I like to think that was your way of saying "Well, okay, if you're gonna be sticking around for awhile, I guess I'll hang out with you."

Our girls really love you, that's for sure. Whenever we were over visiting, they loved coming up to you and laying on your belly and scratching your ears, which you took in stride. To be such a big dog, you sure were a gentle giant.

Even though you haven't been able to move around too much lately, the other pups at Cedar Bluff still recognize you as the alpha dog. Tucker would try to steal the ball from you sometimes, but we always tried to sneak another ball to you when he wasn't looking....

Beaumont, I know you lived an incredibly long life, but it's still incredibly hard to say goodbye. We know it's time, though. It's not fair to you for us to be selfish. You have been an amazing friend to Jerry, but I promise to take good care of him for you. Know that any dog we ever have will always be compared to you. Goodbye, buddy.
Love,
Kristy

We're all here!

2011-05-23T05:35:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's been awhile since I posted.....I went back to work in the office full time last week, so that was an adjustment to say the least. I've been doing the work at home 3 days/week thing since early March, then was at home for two straight weeks after the surgery. While I certainly enjoyed my time away from the office, I have to admit it is nice to have some adult interaction during the day again.

The knee seems to be healing nicely, at least from what I can tell. I am still using my crutches (for the most part!) and using the brace. I go back to the doc on June 1st, and I am really hoping he tells me I can ditch the crutches and just use the brace. PT is going well - my therapist is a good friend, so that makes the torture at bit better.

So things are just moving along as usual in the Reeves' household. I did come across this fun little critter on my way to the grocery store the other day:

You may have to look closely at the photo to see our little gator friend, but let me assure you that he was NOT small....brought 4 cars to a stop on the main drag of our neighborhood as he was ambling slowly across the road. Of course all the stupid humans are snapping pictures as quickly as possible (at least I stayed in my vehicle, unlike the others who were actually getting out of their cars to get a closer look - NO THANK YOU).

Here's another funny picture:

I swear she is a little boy in a girl's body. Besides the fact that she has the scraggliest hair ever seen (or at least since I was growing up, cause she's definitely got my hair), this is the dirtiest kid I've ever seen. You turn your back for five seconds and she's diving in the dirt in the backyard. And utterly happy about it.

Like New

2011-05-04T08:45:00.000-07:00

Well, that's what I am hoping my knee is now - like new. I went in to have my knee surgery on Monday morning, bright and early. We had to be there at 7am, so Whizzy came to stay with the girls that morning to get them off to school (and she managed to get them fed, dressed, and to school by 7:30 that morning...Jerry and I are in awe).

Once we arrived I got all settled in the pre-op area, complete with my IV and then Jerry could come back. He got to meet the doc, who again explained the possible treatments he may do once he got into the surgery. After that we just had to wait a bit, so we looked like total geeks with our phones playing games and Jerry taking pictures of me with my little temperature sticker on my forehead. Eventually they came back and gave me some "I don't care" medicine (their words - not mine!), and it truly made me not give a damn. About 10 minutes afterwards they took me back to the OR, I scooted over to the other bed, and that's the last thing I remember.

Next thing I knew I was waking up being offered some coke. Anesthesia is an amazing thing. They brought Jerry back and he wsa the one that broke the news to me that they did in fact have to do the microfracture procedure. I was reeeealllly hoping they weren't going to have to do that, mainly because it just sounded like it would be painful. There was a pretty significant portion of missing cartilage on my bone (not sure which one, if it's the femur or tibia, but will ask today at my doctor's appointment), so hopefully this surgery will do the trick. Apparently if it doesn't, I'm in for another more involved surgery...but I'm not even going to go down that road yet!

So for the past few days I've just been hanging out on the couch watching trash TV, reading books, cross-stitching....doing stuff I normally don't have much time to do when I'm healthy! I wasn't having too much pain until last night. I think all of the meds finally wore off completely last night and even the percocet wasn't doing a great job of keeping the pain at bay. But I go back to the doc today so perhaps he'll have some more advice on how I can manage it better.

Carrie has been too sweet through all of this. She always wants to bring me my crutches and will come over to me and hug me and say "it's okay, sweetie." I mean, how cute is that?! Anna, on the other hand, is just as silly and crazy as ever...I just have to make sure my knee is out of her path of destruction!

Like I said, I go back to the doctor today for my post-op follow-up. We'll see what he has to say about when I can go back to work, how long I have to use crutches, and all that good stuff!

Funny Conversation

2011-04-25T07:47:00.000-07:00

Me: Carrie, do you know what tomorrow is?
Carrie: Sunday
Me: Yes, but it's a special Sunday.
Carrie: EASTER!
Me: Very good! And what does it mean that it's Easter?
Carrie: EASTER EGGS!
Me: Well, yes, but what else does it mean?
Carrie: Jesus died on the cross.
Me: Yep, but do you know why he did that?
Carrie: Nope. Why?
Me: He did it for our sins
Carrie: Oh. What are sins?
Me: Bad things we do that we may or may not really have meant to do.
Carrie: Oh.
Me: Because he did that, one day we can go live in Heaven.
Carrie: Cool! (then silence.....) But what about our house??

Gotta love the logic of a four-year-old.

Plica bands, microfractions and arthroscopic surgery, oh my!

2011-04-22T18:48:00.000-07:00

I had my second opinion today. It's not that I didn't like my other doctor, but let's get real - in the same breath he tells me that my plica band will almost definitely need to be taken out due to the pain/swelling....but let's wait ANOTHER 6 weeks before we decide on anything. I realize I'm not usually a patient person anyways, but I've been doing this hobbling thing for 2 months now...not cool when you have two children under the age of 5, a job, and the desire to actually do something other than sit on the couch all day long.

I immediately really liked this doctor. He came highly recommended from the wife of a board member at work who has just had knee replacement surgery, so the guy has to know his knee stuff, right? He came in and immediately put me at ease, looked over my chart, asked me all sorts of questions and torqued my knee in all sorts of directions (um, OUCH.). He took a couple of new x-rays to make sure my alignment was as it should be and that I wasn't causing myself the problem by walking funky (although by now I think I really am walking funky to compensate). Alignment was fine, so he presented me with the three possibilities of what he thinks could be wrong:
1) Plica band - an odd little band in your knee which is apparently a lot like your appendix or spleen. It doesn't really do anything to help you, but if it gets hurt it can cause problems
2) Cartilage problem - he best explained it by likening my bones to an M&M. The hard candy coating shell on the M&M "protects" it, but if there's a chip in it (i.e. chip or missing piece of cartilage on my bones), then that needs to be resolved
3) Nothing - that would suck because then I guess that means the pain is in my head??

Then he presented me with the two options:
1) Brace my leg/knee for a month or so, which may or may not help and he's not entirely sure what he'd be bracing my knee against
2) Surgery. Scope to be exact. If he gets in there and it's the plica, then remove it and I'm looking at a week or so of recovery. If it's the cartilage, then do a procedure called microfracture and everything heals up and I'm looking at another 6 weeks of crutches. If it's nothing, then they stitch up my incisions and I go home, probably with a brace to see if that can help.

I chose option 2, based on his recommendation. After talking it over with him, it does seem like this is the best option. I've tried the wait and see thing for 2 months, with my right knee completely healing and the left one getting worse. We've had MRIs and x-rays, but the problem is with the things that he thinks it may be, they don't show up on those diagnostic tools and the only real way to know what's going on is to get in there and take a peek.

So there you have it - I'm signed up for a diagnostic scope a week from Monday.

Good thing I've got great health insurance.

Oh yeah - and I've already met my deductible for the year, and I imagine I'm pretty damn close to the out of pocket max too.

And it's only April.

An Ah-Ha Moment

2011-04-18T08:30:00.000-07:00

I promise I will post on Carrie's birthday festivities in a day or so (once I download the pics, which I know will make my mom happy!!), but I've just had this post rolling around in my head since yesterday afternoon now, and I feel like I'm going to explode if I don't get it out.

****MASCARA ALERT********

I had to add that in there for my mom, cause I'm pretty sure it will make her tear up. And I'm not putting this out there to make my mom & dad feel guilty about having to leave yesterday!!

So my mom has been here since last Saturday, and my dad came on Thursday. We had a great week. I know the girls were testing Mom's patience at times (heck, they test mine on a regular basis). Ken showed up on Thursday and we all took Carrie to gymnastics and just had a wonderful time together. Jerry got back into town late Thursday and we spent the weekend getting ready for Carrie's party and enjoying the company of family and friends.

Then after the party on Saturday came the time I knew was coming - I knew Mom would get sad at the idea of having to leave the girls. Carrie didn't help things because Mom was telling her that she had to leave to go back to Atlanta and she said "I love you Lady!" My mom told her she loved her too, then Carrie responds "I love you SO MUCH." That's enough to make anyone get sappy. So both of them are teary-eyed, which made me teary-eyed. It's a domino effect I think.

We got my parents off and headed back north, and all hell broke loose. Anna was clearly tired but thought a nap was optional, and Carrie was still getting upset that Lady and KnowMan had to leave. I knew one of the gifts she received from a friend was the movie Tangled so we broke that out and popped it in the player.

For the rest of the day, she'd be fine then all of a sudden she would bust out in tears saying "I want Lady & KnowMan!" I was trying so hard not to get sad myself in front of her, but I wasn't doing a very good job (you are NEVER too old to miss your parents!).

They finally went to bed around 7:30-8. Anna started crying because she was just exhausted, and then Carrie joined in. I went into Carrie's room and laid down with her and asked what was wrong, already knowing full well what it was. She missed my parents, and nothing I did or said was helping, so I just let her cry some to get it all out. And that's when it hit me - this is the beginning of what I can only imagine is one of the hardest things about being a parent - seeing your child hurting and not being able to do a damn thing about it. I mean, Carrie's been upset before, but it's usually because I won't let her do what she wants to do, or she's scraped her knee or something like that. Nothing like her missing a person and not understanding why she can't just see my parents whenever she wants to. I felt like my heart was being ripped out when she was crying. I wanted so badly to make everything right and make her feel better, but I knew nothing was going to help her right in that minute, and it sucked.

All I can say is I may not be able to get my parents' jobs moved down here so they can be around all the time and Carrie can see them whenever she wants, but God help the boy that breaks my baby's heart :)

Scariest Day of My Life

2011-04-13T08:58:00.000-07:00

That was yesterday - the scariest day of my life. Why, you might ask? Because I had to drive this:

That would be my mother's car. She is down visiting to help out with the girls while Jerry's away (and thank goodness, cause I think they are figuring out finally that Mommy can't possibly chase after them). I had to stay at work late yesterday because of some meetings, which meant she would need to pick up the girls. She already had one car seat in the back of that beast, and we, being apparently as ridiculous as we are, thought we could shove another car seat in the back of the Mustang.

It didn't work.

I probably didn't even need to tell you that, huh?

I am sure it was quite the sight to see my mother and I taking turns at trying to wrestle another Britax into the back of that car. After about 15 minutes of sweating and wrestling, we gave up and came to the conclusion that I would just drive her car to work and she could use the Expo. I have always been terrified of driving my mother's cars. She doesn't get new ones very often....as in the last car she had she drove for 20 years and is still in the garage at home (I think it was 20 years - correct me if I am wrong Mom!). She takes EXCELLENT care of her cars, so that she can drive the wheels off of them. And besides that - this friggin' car is a beast. I mean, you crank it up and everyone within a 5 mile radius knows it. And it has a lot of get up and go, obviously. I was scared to death I was going to have an accident or someone was going to ram into me. Before I left she said "why are you freaking out? It's just a car!" Um, okay :) I didn't want to make that phone call to say guess what? Just wrapped your car around a tree!!

It's been awhile since I called or texted my mother to let her know whenever I arrived at my destination, but I did that yesterday. "Made it to doc - didn't bend your car!" "Made it to work - didn't bend your car!" "On my way home now - hopefully won't bend your car!"

I have to admit - while I felt like I was riding about 2 inches off the road, it was quite fun to drive something other than the Mommy SUV for a change. But I am also quite glad to have my giant SUV back today so I can see everything going on around me!

A Favorite Hangout

2011-04-08T18:34:00.000-07:00

The girls and I were on our own tonight while Daddy is hanging out for work in San Diego (rough life, huh?). I was chatting with a friend today and she said she was taking her and her sister's kiddos to Island Playground and asked if we wanted to go. I initially told her no since I can't really chase the girls around (and by girls, I mean Anna, cause she is all. over. the. place), but she offered to keep them wrangled. So I stopped by Starbucks, got us some java chip fraps as a thank you for keeping my kids in line, and the girls some milk, and off we went. Carrie's been many times, but this was really Anna's first time where she knew what to do and could play in all of the bounce houses. I think Anna spent the first 10 minutes just squealing at the top of her lungs checking everything out. She had a great time playing with all the other kids. It was so nice because it was practically empty. Most of the times we go it's either a Saturday, raining, cold, or some other variable that means every other child in HHI and Bluffton are there. Literally there were only our 7 munchkins and two other kids. It was great to just get out and hang out with a good friend I haven't seen in awhile and let the girls burn off some toddler energy. And the fact that I captured this little picture definitely topped off the trip:

Thanks Ms. Anna (not to be confused with my little Anna!) for helping wrangle my kids and getting me out of the house!!

Mommy Guilt

2011-04-07T10:46:00.000-07:00

Um, did someone actually provide funding for a study like this??

Cause I'm pretty sure this is a little common sense...but then again, common sense ain't common.

Like a different kid

2011-03-30T09:42:00.000-07:00

Last night Carrie spent the night with Whizzy & Pop Pop, so it was just me, Jerry & Anna. Anna is like a totally different child when Carrie isn't around. I guess maybe it's because she's not having to compete for attention with Carrie, who knows? She was so lovey-dovey, handing out hugs and kisses to us both, and just not acting like a 19 month old typically acts.

I obviously love both of my children very much, but it is nice to revert back to only having "one" kid for a night!

Well that's confusing

2011-03-25T11:42:00.000-07:00

So I'm on my second physical therapy appointment. They are going well so far - a few exercises for me to do, but the best is this treatment called ionotophoresis (I think that's how you spell it, but then again I'm not an MD). It is basically where they hook you up to what looks like a car's jumper cables to more effectively deliver medicine to the affected area. This works well for me since, given my Crohn's, anti-inflammatories and I don't get along very well. It feels really weird since they can amp up the juice on it and you start to feel little tingles where it's connected. Here's a picture of it (no comments about my bird legs):

But here's the confusing part - everyone treating me seems to have differing opinions on what the hell is wrong with me. The orthopedist says yes, I definitely have stress fractures on the tops of my tibias. The physical therapist says nah, it's more your bursitis that's bothering you, so those crutches probably aren't as necessary as you think. Then there's the PT Assistant who jumped on me today because I was hobbling around the PT office without my crutches, telling me I shouldn't be putting weight on my knees unless I'm doing the prescribed exercises. Orthopedist says my running days are over; therapist says I'll definitely be able to run again, but it will just be about 6 months before I can even think about starting again.

So what's a girl to do? I'd of course love to believe I'll be able to run again, but somehow I don't think that's probably my best move. Maybe I can pick up cycling after this is all said and done and eventually do some of those long cycling events (Alston, you'll have to give me pointers!). Right now I think I'll just rest the ol' legs as I've been instructed and not make anything worse! Although this whole "rest" thing? WAY overrated.

Thank Goodness for Technology

2011-03-21T12:51:00.000-07:00

Cause if not for it, I'd probably just have to stay at home for the next couple of months and burn through all of my sick/vacation time and then just not get paid! My boss has been generous enough to let me work from home part-time while my knees are healing. For the next 2-3 weeks I'm going to work at home M/W/F and be in the office T/Th. After that I'll re-evaluate and perhaps go to 2 days at home a week for the remainder of the three months it's supposed to take to heal. Keeping my legs propped up really does make a huge difference.

All this laying around starts to work on my head, though. I hate not feeling like I am contributing. Chasing after the girls is next to impossible, and Anna's not really feeling like listening to me when I ask her to stop running away from me these days :) Carrie is being incredibly cute; every day when I pick her up she asks me "Mommy are your legs still hurt?" and she'll sit beside me on the couch and rub my knees to make them feel better.

Oh yeah, and I start PT on Wednesday. I have a feeling that should be interesting!

On the flip side....

2011-03-16T11:47:00.000-07:00

I did actually have a very encouraging visit to another kind of doctor on Monday morning - the allergist. I've had allergy problems all my life (gee....what sort of health problems have I NOT had would probably be a shorter list. Sorry, just a little pity party I'm having today). I actually had sinus surgery a number of years ago which really helped significantly cut down on the number of sinus infections I've had, which has been a blessing. But from what I remember I don't think I've ever visited an allergist for a true testing of just what triggers me and what we can do to fix it.

So off I went Monday morning, hobbling along (and managing to take both sets of keys with me, leaving Jerry stuck at home with the girls - another long story). By the time I left there an hour and a half later, I had already gotten the whole skin test thing done on my back where they roll those little needles along your back which have small doses of allergens in them. I now know exactly why they put it on your back - because if something does trigger you, you want to scratch profusely. Anyways, as it turns out I am allergic to dust (aren't we all), several different types of tree pollens and some other random weeds. Oddly enough, cat did not show a reaction and I've always thought I was allergic to cats (maybe there's just lots of dust in cat people's homes? who knows?) Based on the results I go back in two weeks to get a more in-depth skin test done, but the doc thinks I'm probably a good candidate for allergy shots.

However, he did give me a shot on Monday, and I swear to you - I have not sneezed once since then. And let me tell you, if you step outside here in the lowcountry, you can see the pollen swirling around in the air. Everything is coated in that nasty yellow stuff, and normally I'd be a giant sneezing mess. But nothing!!! Hopefully I'm on the right track to being able to not worry about carrying around a big ol' box of tissues with me everywhere I go.

I just hope if he does decide I should do allergy shots that it's something I can give myself. Unfortunately I'm pretty adept at giving myself shots, so I don't really want to waste time driving back and forth to Savannah if I can help it!

Tibial Plateau Stress Fractures

2011-03-15T11:29:00.000-07:00

That's my latest diagnosis, and it's a mouthful.

Seriously? Seriously. This is crazy. I was just minding my own business, trying to get back into running, and this is what it gets me. A recovery time of 8-10 weeks, and you know what they do for stress fractures? Nothing. You have to rest. A lot of rest. And elevation of your affected leg, or legs in my case. Did I mention rest? And just how does one who has a 4 year old and an 18 month old do that?

I have a friend that's a PT and she saw me at birthday party on Saturday and she had made me feel a little better when she said it was highly unlikely that I had bilateral stress fractures, since that's pretty rare in the "normal" population. Apparently I'm not normal. The ortho doctor this morning assured me "Oh, it's actually more common than you'd think, especially in army recruits."

Um, don't know if you've noticed, but I'm not exactly wearing cammo, my friend.

And someone explain this to me - I'm not an Olympic athlete by any means, but I'm also not 100+ lbs overweight, so how is it those jokers on Biggest Loser don't come up lame like this more often???

So now I'm trying to figure out just how I'm going to get all my mommy/wife duties handled over the next three months. We are looking into getting someone to clean the house on a regular basis for us (thanks Mom!). But just the simple things like cooking dinner, laundry, and grocery shopping are all of a sudden a big pain in the ass....or knees as the case may be.

If anything, let this be a lesson to anyone who's taken steroids for prolonged periods and/or is a Crohn's patient. When I was originally diagnosed with Crohn's in May 2002, my doctor immediately put me on steroids. Like 30 mg or so a day, for months. Works like a charm while you are on them, but dear Lord it can wreak havoc on your body. Stay away from long term steroids! Because of these steroids, I managed to develop osteopenia at the ripe old age of 33 (I think that's when I was diagnosed). That means my bone density is lower than what it should be, but not low enough to be classified as osteoporosis. After I told the orthopedist this, he was 99.9% convinced this is why this happened.

So yeah, good times right now. I know I could have something much worse going on, but it's still a pain in the butt!!

Well, that's one way to cure my OCD....

2011-03-11T08:44:00.000-08:00

So you know how I was all gung ho about running the half marathon in Savannah in November? So much so that I already went out, got fitted for new running shoes and started my training?

Yeah, not so fast....

I was running around campus last Monday. It's quite convenient since the circle around our campus is exactly 1.1 miles. So I was trying to do one measly little mile and about halfway through, my knees started to feel like someone was stabbing the inside of my leg right at my knee. Interesting feeling, no doubt. So I stopped, hobbled back to my office and told myself I'd take a day or so off.

Four days later, yesterday, I could hardly walk without having pain. Both knees were hurting, the left one more than the right one, but still both hurting. I decided it might be a good idea for me to get it checked out, and it just so happens that the best ortho docs in Savannah have an after hours urgent care clinic. I begged Jerry to pick up the girls and take Carrie to gymnastics, and I drove myself to the clinic. The nurse came in, took history, and within about 5 minutes I was getting all kinds of x-rays done. The PA came in a little after that, started pushing around on the inside of my knee, and I started coming off the table. Turns out he thinks it could be one of two things:
1) Prepatellar bursitis - inflammation of the bursa near where my hamstrings connect to the knee (I think, I don't have an MD people). Apparently this can be remedied through rest and aspiration of the affected bursa.
2) Stress fracture(s) - more likely on the left side since I almost involuntarily kicked the hell out of the PA when he was poking around. What the hell do they do if it's a stress fracture? I've tried to stay away from looking this up on the Internet cause I'm sure someone will tell me I'll have to get my leg amputated or something. I know rest is involved, but how in the hell do you keep your knee rested for a long period of time???? And please don't tell me a cast.

So I walked (hobbled) out of there with a new set of crutches, a prescription for pain meds, and a promise that I'll have an MRI scheduled for next week for both of my knees. I hope to get this figured out soon, cause I can't really sit too well without them becoming stiff and painful. And while the PA gave me a script for hydrocodone, something tells me I probably shouldn't take it while at work.

Seriously? How old am I?

I think I have some sort of sickness....

2011-03-01T05:38:00.000-08:00

And I think it's called "OCD." Or maybe "Type A personality." I don't know the correct diagnosis, and don't really care. All I know is I function much better with a tangible goal. When I think about it, my whole freaking life has been chasing after some goal. When I was in high school, I wanted to graduate with a 4.0. (when I was in college I think I had flashes of wanting to do the same thing, but that first D in calculus I quickly got me over that and I was happy with the whole "D for Done" in that arena). When I was in college I wanted to get into a good grad school, and I got into a few and settled on GT. I then wanted to get my PhD....then thought better of it because I didn't want to spend the rest of my life struggling to get grants approved. After grad school I was focused on planning our wedding. That took a year....Got married in December and then in January decided I needed a new goal which happened to be running a marathon. That was over in June, so by August I was enrolled in my MBA program. That was over in December 2005....by July 2006 I was pregnant with Carrie. Had Carrie April 2007....then ran a half marathon that November. In 2008 we decided to uproot ourselves and move to SC and I started a new job and later that fall I was studying for the PHR exam. Passed that in December 2008, which just happened to be the same month I got pregnant with Anna. Very convenient for Jerry since he was leaving in January for Portugal for 8 months :) So I had that to focus on throughout 2009. 2010 brought the bright idea of me now studying for my SPHR exam, which I thankfully passed the very last day of January, which was also the very last day of the testing window.

And now? Now I've decided that it would be a good time to pick up running again and I'm contemplating doing the Savannah Rock n Roll Half Marathon in November.

WHY DO I DO THIS TO MYSELF?

Does anyone else out there do this? Jerry always teases me and says I am physically incapable of just being in the moment and going with the flow. I really wish sometimes I could do that. But every time I do it my mind goes into overdrive of "well, while I'm sitting here watching this show on TV I could be reading my magazine and filing these papers that need to be filed and perhaps also do a little scrapbooking."

I think I am just better at managing my time when I know I have some sort of goal hanging out there. If I know I have to get X number of miles running in this week, then I know I have to schedule the rest of my time around that because if I don't get the running in I'll look like a total fool (or hurt myself) come November.

I haven't actually signed up for the half marathon yet....taking my new running shoes for a test drive for a few weeks first to make sure I don't hurt myself. At any rate, if anyone would like to join me in November, just let me know....that would give me even more incentive to make sure I meet my goal :)

Blech.

2011-02-17T08:26:00.000-08:00

That's how a few of us in the Reeves home are feeling these days. Just blech. This weekend Lady came to visit us, which was lots of fun for the girls....apparently so much so that Carrie got so excited and gave herself a tummy bug. We went to dinner on Saturday night to Jim N Nicks, normally one of her favorite places because of the cheese biscuits they bring out for you to munch on while waiting on your food. She ate one of them then wanted to lay down in Lady's lap. Not a good sign. She ate maybe two bites of mac n cheese and that was it. We got home and she snuggled on the couch with me while Lady gave Anna a bath. Then poor Lady came out to sit on the couch with us, Carrie crawled over there, and within about 30 seconds threw up in her lap. Pretty sure it might be awhile before Lady comes back down to visit!

So once we get Carrie feeling better, Anna starts feeling puny. Thankfully she doesn't have the throw ups, but definitely has a fever. She was feverish Tuesday but fine Wednesday morning, then I saw the school's number pop up on my cell around 2:15 and was practically packing up my stuff before I even answered the phone. So she's hanging out with Whizzy today while Mommy & Daddy went to work.

Of course, I'm not sure how much longer I'll be at work on Thursday....I've been feeling a sinus infection coming on for a day or so now, and not sure how much longer I can keep it at bay! Guess I really do need to go find an ENT/allergist like Jerry's been hounding me to do....

New Favorite Place

2011-02-10T10:32:00.000-08:00

Anna has a new favorite place to visit - the library. She's been there a couple of times before, but back when she probably didn't really understand books all that well. These days she absolutely LOVES books and will quite literally come over to you, open your hand, and place a book in it for you to read to her. So when we entered the kiddie section of the library yesterday she thought she was in heaven. It was so very quiet in the library, as libraries tend to be, but then my kid came in. I put her down she looked around and just screamed "BBBBBOOOOOOOOKKKKKKKSSSSS!!!!!!!!" After I got over my initial embarassment of her breaking the silence, I was so excited that she was that excited. I could let Carrie wander off a bit in the kids section to go pick out a few books, which was good because Anna wanted to take every book off the shelf, flip through it, then toss it behind her and keep going.

Hopefully we have another little nerdlet in the making ;)

I'M BACK!!!!

2011-02-09T08:29:00.000-08:00

It's been a whole freaking month since I posted. Bad Kristy!!! I know I always say this, but it's been pretty busy! One of my new year's resolutions was to post more. Guess I already fell off the bandwagon on that one, huh?

I feel like I do have a good excuse though - I now have some more initials behind my name! I took and passed the SPHR exam (Senior Professional in Human Resources). It was a loooong road - I started the class to prepare for it back in October, and just took the exam on 1/31. The very last day of the testing window, I might add. Gotta love waiting till the absolute last minute. I'm sort of proud of myself for passing - it's not a given that everyone that takes it passes. The exam typically has about a 50% pass rate (according to the governing body of the folks that put out the test). And what made me even more nervous was there wasn't anyone from our study class standing up and saying they had passed yet. Eek. But my geek gene must have kicked in and so I PASSED!!! Now I just have to keep up with the recertification credits - 60 hours over 3 years. I'll take that any time over having to study and take that exam again.

So now that I have all this "free" time, I'm embarking on new projects. You know, like cleaning my house since I feel like I haven't in a few months (not true, but you get the idea). Setting up a budget. Getting organized. You know, all the fun stuff :)

Now I'll leave you with a pretty cute picture I got from Jerry today. Carrie had to have a shoe box covered with solid colored paper for her Valentine party, and it had to be at school today so they could decorate it. I totally forgot to do it last night since I passed out around 8:45 because I was not feeling great. I got a text this morning asking me where the construction paper was, so I told him and check out what he made! :

Check out the perfect corners....I told him I thought this box was probably the most stable, well-constructed Valentine's box since an engineer made it. I don't think I'll be doing the present-wrapping in our house anymore!!

Ch-ch-ch-changes

2011-01-06T12:31:00.000-08:00

Well this has been an interesting week in the Reeves' home. First week since I went back to work after Anna being born that we haven't had a nanny in the house. Read: first week of utter chaos. I don't think it's really that bad, but at times it's felt like it!

We said goodbye to Lizzy on 12/16 with tears, hugs, and promises of keeping in touch. So far we have done so, I am happy to say! She was such an amazing nanny to the girls, and she's due to have her own little bundle of joy in 3 days, so we can't wait to meet little Elijah. Lizzy had really become part of our family and we were quite sad to see her go, but glad to still have her right around the corner. We really did become friends over the 9 months she worked for us, and I am sure it will continue. She came over the other night to bring the girls' Christmas gifts and Anna just screamed out "LIZZY!!!!" when she saw her at the door. It was too cute :)

Anna's now at the same school as Carrie, which Carrie thinks is quite cool. She likes to remind everyone that she's the big sister and that her little sister is in the "baby" room. Anna has done pretty well, all things considered, her first few days. Monday she had a few crying spells whenever the door would open and it wasn't Mommy or Daddy, Tuesday just one, and yesterday none. However, now she's gone to not really batting an eye when Jerry drops her off to letting it be known that she's not terribly thrilled about it all. Of course, once you drop her off and get outside the room to look through the one-way mirror they have so you can spy on your kids, she's happily playing with the other munchkins. I get the arguably better job of picking up in the afternoon, which means I am greeting with full on hugs and squeals of "Mommy!!"

Christmas was great. We spent it at home which is so nice after years of traveling back and forth. The girls got a ridiculous amount of stuff. It's obscene, really. Perhaps for the future I should just hand out their 529 account numbers and call it a day ;)

And the rest of the cookies....

2011-01-05T06:25:00.000-08:00

Not bad, if I do say so myself!!

Martha freaking Stewart

2010-12-13T06:50:00.000-08:00

I love to cook. I would rather bake than cook a meal anyday, so I love the holidays. It's my excuse to bake things to give away as presents. But for all the baking I've done I've never tried to do a traditional sugar cookie where you make the dough, chill it, roll it out, cut with cookie cutters then frost. So I decided that this year is the year to do it. You know, since I don't have anything else going on like studying for a major certification test, finishing out year end stuff at work, two small children who's idea of helping is to create a disaster in the living room....nothing like taking on a major baking project.

Carrie and I made the dough on Saturday night. Trying to explain to a three year old why you could only make the dough and not actually bake the cookies was a bit challenging. So first thing Sunday morning we got out some of the dough and rolled it out and Carrie used the cookie cutters to cut out bells, angels, candy canes, gingerbread men and Christmas trees. She thought it was great, I had so much fun watching her have fun, and Jerry loved the trimmings of cookie dough that were left over.

We baked the cookies and I took on the task of frosting them. This was a first for me and even though they may not look as nice as hers, you can just call me Martha Stewart. :)

Stay tuned...I still have to frost the bells, angels & trees so I am sure I'll take more pictures of my handiwork!

Update on the experiment

2010-12-09T10:32:00.000-08:00

Operation Real Christmas Tree seems to be a success so far. Thought I'd put that out there since I know all of you have been dying not knowing whether or not it was working ;) It's odd....I think I sneeze more at work than I do at home sitting two feet away from the tree. Perhaps there's something to that....think I can claim worker's comp and get some down time away from the office? Sick building syndrome maybe? Hmmm....

Now if we can just manage to get the ornaments on the trees we'll be doing well. I imagine that will happen this weekend, along with trying to finish Christmas shopping, starting the Christmas baking (with these cookies and my attempt to make them look like the picture), trying to find something to wear to the annual Playgroup party...oh yeah, and somewhere in there I'm supposed to be studying for my HR certification exam!!

The $21 Experiment

2010-12-07T08:33:00.000-08:00

Pretty much everyone who has spent any time around me knows about me and my infamous allergies. I swear I am allergic to myself sometimes just because I sneeze for no apparent reason. My sinuses are, as a general rule, congested and miserable. I've had surgery to help this little problem out, which actually reduced my problem somewhat, but it's definitely still around.

Enter the real Christmas tree.

This has always been a bone of contention in the Reeves V house. As I've mentioned before I am freakishly allergic to the things. If I get around them I start sniffling, then sneezing, then the eyes get swollen, you get the picture. It's not fun to be around for anyone. Because of this my family always had a fake Christmas tree. I see absolutely NOTHING wrong with this. Actually, I think it's way easier than the real version - you can get the damn thing pre-lit for crying out loud. You pop that sucker out of the box, set it up, plug it in and WHAM - you have a beautiful 9 foot tree with gorgeous white lights all aglow. A real tree means unraveling a thousand feet of lights, seeing which ones need to be replaced, then stringing the suckers on the tree. And then you have to reverse the whole process once Christmas is over. Yes I sound like Scrooge but for someone who's allergic to these things, none of that process is fun. Jerry's family has always had a real Christmas tree. And don't get me wrong - I love the tradition they have of taking the whole family to pick out the tree and cut it down at the tree farm, etc. They have some wonderful family memories and pictures from those experiences - just ask Rhett ;) It was a lot of fun this past Sunday to take the girls there for them to run through the tree farm and look at all the trees, but literally within about 5 minutes of riding home with the real tree I told Jerry I could already feel the tickle in my nose.

So Jerry's been doing some research and apparently Leyland Cypress trees are hypoallergenic. While we were at said tree farm on Sunday I said "Fine. Let's do a little experiment and get a small one and see what happens. Worst thing that can happen is we put the thing on the back porch because I can't be within 20 feet of it. Needless to say we now have our very pretty fake tree in the living room and our "kid" tree in the den. It went up last night and I have to say that I didn't sneeze once while we were in there watching TV.

Perhaps we'll be able to have a live tree next year after all.....I'm just not sure I'm ready to give up my pre-lit tree though :)

Christmastime

2010-12-03T07:00:00.000-08:00

I love this time of year, even though it feels like the stress level shoots through the roof! Having kids at Christmastime is the best. They are in total awe and wonder at the lights, the trees, presents, etc. It's so much fun! Of course, we have yet to put up our tree....that's this weekend's project! We just got back into town the Sunday after Thanksgiving, then I had to turn right back around and drive back up to Atlanta Tuesday for my class on Wednesday. So there's literally been zero time to decorate for the holidays. Hopefully we'll remedy that soon....

I had a GREAT time shopping with my mom on the day after Thanksgiving! She recently had shoulder surgery so I wasn't so sure she'd be able to go all out like she usually does, but she was a trooper and hung in there all day long (with the help of a little Lortab I think!). People think I'm totally nuts going shopping the day after Thanksgiving with all the other nutjobs out there...but for me it's more about having uninterrupted time with my mom than marking stuff off my Christmas shopping list (although everyone that knows me knows I LOVE being able to mark stuff off a list!). And a huge thank you to Jerry and Ken for watching the girls all day long while we were out running around!

All that shopping got me to thinking, though....exactly how did we get from Christmas being a religious holiday to one that we go out and spend gobs of money on the people in our life? This in no way is a religious rant or anything...I'm just truly curious as to how it all evolved. I guess I could Google it and find out. But it just made me think that it was sort of silly to go out and spend all this money at this one particular time of the year. Don't get me wrong - I love buying stuff for my kids and seeing their eyes light up when they get the toys they've wanted. And I enjoyed a very blessed upbringing where I was never left wanting for more, and so did Jerry. And we have the means to buy pretty much whatever Carrie or Anna may want/need (at least for now....get back to me when their wish list starts to include things such as "new car") I love buying things for the people in my life that I love. I do it to show them that I care about them and I love the feeling of giving to others. But there just seems to be so much pressure to buy, buy, buy, spend, spend, spend that it gets a lot of people in trouble financially, not to mention the whole premise behind Christmas gets lost.

My family decided this year to only buy for the kids in the family rather than even swapping names of the adults and buying for just that person. I thought this was a great idea. Maybe in the future we'll take it one step further and perhaps adopt a charity or a needy family in addition to the kiddos and "pay it forward." I know it sounds cheesy, but it's just how I'm feeling these days. I am planning on setting aside an afternoon very soon to have Carrie help me go through her toys that she no longer plays with or has outgrown and pick out some to donate. It's important to me that she grows up learning that not everyone has everything they need or want and that we have a responsibility to give back. I'm not sure how this whole process will go....I'm thinking probably not so well :) But I figure if I start now perhaps it won't be so "painful" for her in the future.

I know this post is a little all over the place. Sorry! That's what happens when I have a bunch of stuff rattling around in this head of mine....

Priceless

2010-11-26T19:08:00.001-08:00

I've got no words for this....

Feeling renewed

2010-11-08T13:17:00.000-08:00

I feel like I just won a hard-fought battle....I just officially submitted my first grant proposal application to the National Science Foundation. I never thought I'd really get to do this sort of thing since I didn't go the PhD/faculty member route. I don't think I'd want to do it full time or anything, but it really is a lot of fun as far as work goes (yes, I am a nerd. I fully admit it). I'm not under any delusions of grandeur that it will actually get funded; I am sure the competition is fierce, and this is my first stab at this, although my boss is also the co-PI with me on it. It would be awesome if we did get funded - it would mean almost $750k over five years, which we could definitely use. And it would give me an outlet for the research/dorky side of me to continue doing that type of work.

Woo hoo!

You just never know....

2010-10-28T14:01:00.000-07:00

What sort of emails you will get from Carrie's teacher on a daily basis....here's today's:

FYI
Your daughter is the mom and Joshua is the daddy and they have one kitty, Lauren but no kids! :) they have been holding hands all day today! :) it is so cute!

Oh dear lord. I thought I had a few years before this!!

so tired....

2010-10-22T11:45:00.000-07:00

And amazingly it's not because Anna's on a sleep strike. She has actually been sleeping quite well this past week (cue the reversion back to no sleep). I was terrified she was going to not sleep on Tuesday night. As it turned out Jerry and I both were scheduled to be out of town at the same time, so Lizzy was a rock star and stayed with the girls. I was a complete and utter wreck. Not because I wasn't confident in Lizzy - that girl can handle my two girls no problem (after being in a room with 16 three year olds even my two kids seem tame I would imagine). I was afraid they were going to act like total freaks while she was there. As it turns out they were both quite well behaved :)

No, I'm just tired and worn out from life in general. I know that sounds whiny. I get that. Work is just incredibly stressful right now. UGA & Georgia Southern are trying to get three new engineering programs....which of course just happen to be the same ones we have at GTS. Everyone's running around totally stressed out and part of my responsibililty here is to try to talk everyone down from the ledge. It's a little exhausting playing psychologist all day then having to do my normal work at other times so I don't fall totally behind.

Then there's the SHRM class. It's definitely something I need to do professionally, but trying to read 200+ pages of material each week and take notes on it and do the practice exams and so forth is a little daunting. There's a reason why I haven't scheduled my SPHR exam yet - and I probably won't tell anyone when I do schedule it so if I don't pass it's not such a public failure :)

I'm just glad it's Friday. Maybe the girls will let me sleep in till 7am tomorrow.....

Busy busy

2010-10-15T12:42:00.000-07:00

Things are hoppin' in the Reeves house, as usual. Jerry's travel seems to be out of control (and by that I mean he's gone at the most inopportune times which conflict with my schedule). My travel is about to ramp up; I'm going to be heading to Atlanta once a week through the first week in December for a test prep class for my SPHR certification (that's Senior Professional in Human Resources for you non-HR people). I passed the PHR test in 2008 so it's about time for me to go ahead and get the next level. And besides, as one of my friends said jokingly, I need to add a few more letters after my name. I suppose credentials can't hurt in an economy like this! It will mean more study time for me, which starts this weekend. Not only do I just want to get it done to be done, but I also don't want to have to pay the $375 fee for the exam more than once!!

Anna seems to be sleeping better, thank goodness. Of course now that I've said that I've jinxed myself. We've been trying to put her down a little earlier and she's responding to it for now, so we're going with it. She does have her two molars on the top coming in, so I'm sure that won't be without some fuss. She's finally started saying "Mommy!" too!!! It's so cute, and nice to hear after months of nothing but "Daddy daddy daddy..." (no offense, Jerry!)

Carrie's just being Carrie these days...I just got an email from her teacher that had me crying from laughing so hard in my office. Here it is....

Kristy,

I just wanted to give you a heads up about Carrie today at lunch. She refused to eat any of her lunch. She told me she didn’t like soup or grapes. I was like well you had them yesterday and you ate them all up. It was so cute. I felt bad and told her only this once would I make her a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. She was so excited and ate all of it and was very proud of herself for doing so. She wanted me to write you an email to tell you that she doesn’t want soup and grapes anymore. But then again it might change by Monday! :) I hope you have a great weekend!

I truly have zero doubt that my child actually said to her teacher "Miss Stephanie, will you send my mommy an email telling her I don't want soup and grapes for lunch anymore?" What a goober!

Ugh

2010-10-01T05:39:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I've obviously been quite remiss in updating my blog. It's been a whirlwind these past few weeks. So much so that I've barely had time to sleep...oh wait, I don't do that anymore because ANNA DOESN'T SLEEP THROUGH THE NIGHT ANYMORE. I don't know what this is. She started waking up literally 4-5 times a night again right around her first birthday. I was still nursing her at that time. Granted, we backed off of that and are now no longer nursing, which probably didn't help the situation, but DEAR LORD. I cannot operate well on 1.5 hours of sleep, which is what I had last night.

I literally just called the doctor to schedule an appointment for her this afternoon. I was sure that they would laugh their heads off when I told them why I was bringing them in....I believe I said something like "I want to make 100% sure that there's no medical reason why she is acting so crazy. If there isn't, then I honestly don't know what we'll do. Jerry suggested perhaps letting her sleep out on the back porch, which, after last night, isn't sounding like such a bad idea.

On a good note, work's going rather well. I got a new title - Assistant Director, Human Resources & Career Services. I'm a little overwhelmed at everything that I am now responsible for, but hey, it's a little more job security, right?!

Big day

2010-08-13T12:26:00.000-07:00

Lizzy took Anna to the pool yesterday and she apparently had a very large time:

That's Anna asleep in the wagon on the way home....

Annnnnnd here's the dirty look Lizzy got when they arrived and she woke up:

Did I have twins and someone forgot to tell me?

2010-08-04T06:17:00.000-07:00

Anna at 11 months:

Carrie at 11 months:

Long time no post

2010-08-03T06:13:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I haven't posted here in almost a month. Shame on me!!

There's been so much going on in the Reeves household. Anna started walking about two days after she turned 11 months. Granted, it's not like she's sprinting around the room just yet, but she will take 10 or 12 wobbly steps then either do a face plant or plop down on her bottom. Carrie was all "MOMMY! Anna's walking like a big girl!" Yes, yes she is Carrie - and you have ZERO clue about how this is going to totally turn your world upside down once she does get the hang of this walking thing.

We are busy preparing for Anna's first birthday. I just cannot believe it's been almost a year. Sniff. She's growing up too fast people.

Anna has also started drinking whole milk. This is met with mixed emotions for me. I am so very glad that she's drinking it like a champ, especially since I'm heading away this weekend for my girls' weekend. However, on the other hand it makes me sad to think that our nursing relationship is quickly going out the door. I know this is probably my last child (notice I just cannot bring myself to say that Anna's definitely my last child), so I know this will be my last nursing experience. I have to say that I never in a million years thought I would be so committed to this. Before Carrie was born I just kept saying "Lord please let me at least make it to three months!" Being able to make it a year with both girls has truly been a blessing, both emotionally and financially. I do have to admit that never having to buy a single can of formula has been good on the wallet! More than that though I feel like I've been able to provide my girls with a great start, one which will hopefully keep them from getting Crohn's. I know that there's no guarantee that they won't get it just because I breastfed them, but reading several medical journal articles that cited the relationship between nursing and incidence rates of Crohn's was enough for me to commit to it for as long as I could go. It will be oh so nice to get my body back, though, and not have to get up at 5am to pump!!

Carrie just started her new three year old class yesterday and loved it. This transition went WAY better than the transition to the two year old class last year. I think a lot of that had to do with Jerry being gone, me about to give birth to Anna, and just chaos in general. There was so much going on in Carrie's life at that time; it was a lot of change for one little girl. She is truly a little girl now - no more baby. She continues to have meltdowns on pretty much a daily/every other day basis, but we still love her for it ;)

That's about it for us these days. I am heading out of town this Thursday for my girls' weekend. I am looking forward to some bonding time, some drinking time.....and some uninterrupted, sleep as late as you want time!

Holy Meltdown, Batman

2010-07-07T10:22:00.000-07:00

Lizzy had the pleasure of witnessing one of Carrie's best meltdowns to date yesterday afternoon. I was simultaneously amazed at the sheer anger that was coming out of the child and also somewhat embarassed because Lizzy wasn't the only one witnessing the meltdown - I think the entire neighborhood was out at that time and just kept staring at the little girl in the driveway who's mommy must be ripping her toenails out with a plier because really, that's the only thing that could cause such an uprising, right?

Nope. Apparently me picking up Anna can do that as well. Who knew?

I had just been thinking the other day how it seemed that Carrie's jealousy seemed pretty tame. Apparently I spoke too soon. When I got home yesterday she came running to me and I picked her up and said hi, gave her a big kiss, asked her how her day was, etc. She then wriggled out of my arms, moving on to the next thing on her agenda. When she did this I went over and said hi to Lizzy and grabbed up Anna who, by now, was about to blow her top because she had seen me and if I'm not immediately sitting down to feed her the instant I get home she flips her lid. That was the wrong thing to do I guess because Carrie came flying back over to me screaming at the top of her lungs "I WANT TO HOLD YOU MOMMY!!!! I DON'T WANT ANNA!!!!" After that no amount of talking, holding, cajoling was gonna work and she was in full scale meltdown mode for the next 15 minutes. No joke. Poor Lizzy was sort of speechless, but did ask me if there was anything she could do, to which I replied "I don't think there's anything anyone can do at this point - gotta just let this one run its course." She was eventually fine but made it very clear that she didn't like the idea of me paying any attention to Anna when I first get home.

While it's sort of funny to think about the tantrum now, it really does rip my heart out when she says stuff like that. It gives me a severe case of mommy guilt. I would love nothing more than to have loads of dedicated time for each girl but it just doesn't happen that way. And do I usually go right to Anna when I get home? Yes. That's probably because she does start freaking out when she sees me, and I'm sure Carrie's picked up on that and has thought "You think you can freak out and get Mom's attention little girl? Watch this." I try to make a conscious effort to do things just me & Carrie because I know it's hard for her to understand why a lot of Mommy's time is taken up with Anna now. It's just hard to balance everything, you know?

So go the trials of parenting two kids I guess....

10 Month Pics

2010-06-30T07:46:00.000-07:00

My mom noticed this before I did....I called to let her know I updated the pictures on our Picasa site last night to include the beach photos, but it also included Anna's 10 month picture. She sent me an email today telling me to look at the two girls' 10 month pictures because they practically have the exact same facial expression. Take a look for yourself:

Um, yikes?

Hilton Head!!

2010-06-29T05:01:00.000-07:00

So I am FINALLY getting around to writing about our very first family vacation.....a whopping thirty minutes away from the house :) Seriously, I think that was probably a good starter vacation for us. I have zero clue how our friends Anne & Ryan did it with two children in tow, one being brand new. They came all the way from TN!!

At any rate, we started off on Monday morning attempting to get 4 adults, 4 children and 1 dog out the door. I think we started doing this around 7am when our two munchkins got up....and I think we were all 8 successfully at the beach house around 2pm. Sad, I know. It's utterly ridiculous just how much STUFF you "need" for a week at the beach.

Once we were finally there, though, we had a great time! It was nice that Carrie and Cora had each other to play with...until they both thought it would be great fun to bolt from the tent to the water without any warning. Good times. Seriously though, those two girls had so much fun in the water. Later in the week Jerry got a boogie board for Carrie and she was riding waves by the end of the week! She was such the little surfer girl, carrying around her boogie board with the leash attached to her wrist.

Anna loved the beach and the water too. She'd just crawl all around, eat a fistful of sand, and keep going. She loved playing right at the edge of the waves and wasn't shy about letting you know how she felt about you picking her up out of the water.

Lizzy came with us to the beach - thank goodness!! That meant that we actually got to sneak in a few minutes here and there of actually being able to enjoy the beach. And she babysat for Carrie, Cora & Anna one night so the adults and Greta went out to eat. It was so nice to get some adult time with our friends without having to explain for the 5,000th time why someone couldn't go in the water alone :)

All in all I think it was a great first attempt at a family vacation. Perhaps next year we'll be a little more adventurous and go somewhere that takes a bit more planning....and perhaps not!! I will post pictures to Picasa soon!

Family Photos!

2010-06-22T05:57:00.000-07:00

I will soon blog about the adventure that was the Reeves Family Vacation 2010 to Hilton Head, but I had to go ahead and link over to Kate Carmack's website. Her family lives near Jerry's parents and during the summer between her junior and senior year she babysat for us on a number of occasions for Carrie. Unbeknownst to me, she took pictures of Carrie to practice what she loved - photography. AMAZING pictures of Carrie. When I saw them I immediately had her take some 2 year old pics of Carrie last year, and now she's taken more. So far only Anna's pictures are up, but they are just so good....if I can say that about pictures of my own daughter. I can't rave enough about Kate; she has clearly chosen a field that she loves and is great at.

So take a peek and enjoy!!

Reeves Family Dance Party

2010-06-02T11:34:00.000-07:00

This is a new tradition in the Reeves' household, as in just started in the past week or so. If I am recalling correctly it started when one night when Jerry was desperate to entertain Anna while I was bathing Carrie. I come out of Carrie's room and hear Black Eyed Peas "Boom Boom Pow" blaring and my 9 month old be-bopping on Jerry's lap. The kid was having such a great time. So now it's been a nightly ritual:

Last night was no different. Jerry was entertaining both girls while I was doing laundry or cleaning up or something....I went over to the kitchen table to see what they were listening to, and this is what I found:

Too much party for the littlest Reeves

Truly ridiculous...

2010-05-26T10:18:00.000-07:00

I don't usually write about non-family stuff on here that often, but here goes....

I consider myself a fairly intelligent person. Hell, Georgia Tech let me earn two degrees from there so I can't be half bad, can I? I am also not a true tree hugger in every sense of the phrase. I do my part by recycling, being cognizant of electricity/water use, etc.....but I'm also the first to admit I refuse to switch to cloth diapers or the more environmentally friendly disposable ones because let's be honest here - my time can currently be better spent in ways other than washing out and sanitizing cloth diapers or cleaning up the messes that the environmentally friendly diapers can't contain.

So what is it about the oil spill and BP not being able to get it under control that I don't understand?

I don't even live there and this is just pissing me off more and more every day. I mean, it seems to me that prior to drilling for oil a mile below the ocean surface that they should have had a plan in place in case something like this happened. And from my limited knowledge of the situation I understand that there was a part that was supposed to kick in and turn it off - but that malfunctioned?! Where's the redundancy? Then I got even more mad when I saw a link yesterday and one Jerry forwarded to me today that shows freaking video feed of the oil just gushing right out into the ocean. If they can get live video feed why can't the fix the stupid leak?

I am sure there's a reason that it's taking this long. Probably not a good reason, but a reason nonetheless. And I'm also sure there's tons of science to be considered when attempting to fix this without causing even more damage to the environment. BUT COME ON PEOPLE.

Of course, Jerry's using this as the perfect excuse to lobby for a Tesla...

Sibling Rivalry

2010-05-25T06:43:00.000-07:00

I knew it was coming but I guess I didn't anticipate it to rear its ugly head so soon! The interactions between Anna and Carrie are truly hilarious for the most part. I am always catching Carrie saying stuff to Anna that we've said to her. For example the other day she was pitching a toddler fit to end all toddler fits, so Jerry calmly removed her from the family room and put her in her room and told her that when she's ready to listen she can come out....well, the other day I'm cooking dinner and the girls were playing in Anna's room and I hear "You aren't listening to me!" from Carrie, then the door shuts. Five seconds of silence then "Are you ready to listen now?" I thought I was going to pee in my pants....

All of these funnies seem to happen when I'm trying to cook dinner. I suppose that's a function of me having to turn my back for 2.8 seconds to do something. Last night Carrie and Anna were playing in the kitchen with stuff while I was cooking, and Carrie happened to have some paper and crayons and was sitting in the floor happily writing letters and drawing bugs. Anna was playing with some books but decided Carrie's paper looked way more entertaining so she crawled over and started yanking up pages. Carrie didn't take kindly to this at all - "ANNA! Stop messing up my paper!!" She'd get up and relocate herself and start coloring again, only to have Anna keep following her to various parts of the kitchen and continue to screw with her stack of papers. Anna was laughing the entire time, and Carrie was very obviously getting pissed. "ANNA! STOP FOLLOWING ME AND LEAVE MY PAPER ALONE!"

I didn't have the heart to tell her that she'd better get used to this cause she's got a life full of this coming, and it's only just begun.

And am I a bad mommy for thinking this was hilarious?

Bittersweet....

2010-05-21T09:38:00.000-07:00

I am having a tough time with the idea that Carrie and Anna are so "grown up"....keep in mind they are only 3 and 9 months, people!! I don't know what I'm going to do when they actually do hit some major milestones like graduation, wedding, etc....ugh.

Carrie had her spring pictures made at school and they are ADORABLE. They are also proof positive that she is no longer a baby....she's definitely a little girl. I already knew this - heck, you should hear some of the conversations we have. They are a riot and she makes me laugh every single day. And she has opinions on EVERYTHING. I even got an eye roll the other day - she asked me what we were having for dinner and when I said pork tenderloin she definitely rolled her eyes at me. I suppose the eye rolling thing is genetic cause I'm pretty sure I shot my mother more than my fair share growing up (although not about what she was making for dinner - sorry Mom, I had to!)

Then there's Anna. Ugh. I feel like every day when I get home she's grown more and more. She pulls up on everything in sight and refuses to sit still other than to eat, and even that's hit and miss sometimes. I really think she'll be walking before she's one. She does the whole "Mamamamamama" and "Dadadadadada" thing although I highly doubt she knows what that means. My goal with her was to at least make it to 6 months with just breastmilk and I've far surpassed that. I really didn't think I'd be able to given that I'm working outside the house 5 days a week this time around instead of 3 days a week like I did with Carrie, but amazingly enough I've been able to keep up with my little piglet. Jerry said one day to me "You're almost to a year then you can stop!" That's going to be a sad day for me....yes I'll be glad to get some more sleep in the mornings since I get up at 5am to pump before going to work, and I won't have to lug the pump to work with me anymore, but still.....

I think it's just getting to me because I'm 99.9% positive that we're done with the babies thing. When you are a teenager you think life moves at a snail's pace and you just live to get to the next milestone. Then when you have kids you start looking for the pause button and it's nowhere to be found.

And now I think I'll step away from the computer since I have tears in my eyes while sitting at my desk during lunch :)

Craziness

2010-04-28T11:05:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted here in awhile, and it's largely due to all the nuttiness that has been our lives lately! Just before my last post we had traveled to Atlanta for my mom's birthday. We attempted to surprise her, but that didn't work out :) She wasn't buying Ken's story of "but I need to get the AC in the van fixed so you need to work from home" story, so we caved and just told her the munchkins were coming for her birthday so she'd better work at home that Friday!!

The next weekend was Carrie's 3rd birthday party. Whew. That was exhausting. We had a great turn out, complete with plenty of kids and bounce house and tire swing madness. I was seriously questioning why I even bothered with the bounce house since the kids seemed so excited about the tire swing. However, as only 4 of them could fit on the tire swing at a time, the bounce house was tolerated until they could get their turn. There are pics of the party on our Picasa site. My grandparents even came down for the festivities, and I was so excited to show them the new house and have them there for Carrie's party.

Anna's doing all kinds of things these days. We've gone from sort of crawling around to "OH MY GOD I HAVE GOT TO GET FROM POINT A TO POINT B AS FAST AS POSSIBLE OR CARRIE'S GONNA LEAVE ME BEHIND." She's pulling up on everything in sight and does not want to sit down at all, any time. More than once she's gotten herself stuck underneath our main coffee table in the living room because she's trying to crawl on the boards underneath it and explore. Jerry and I predict she'll definitely be walking before her first birthday, if not before. Solid food continues to improve. Bananas are always a favorite. She'll tolerate carrots, but also really likes apples, broccoli & avocado.

Carrie's in a baking class on the weekends with some of her friends from school and she seems to love it. The woman that is doing it is also a teacher at her school. I say she is a very brave woman to have these toddlers in her home to cook and paint. Not sure I have the patience for that, but Carrie loves it. And, double bonus - the parents get to drop the kids off and then head over to The Dispensary for a beer or two! We're also going to sign Carrie up for a gymnastics class for the summer. I was so excited to hear they had one where the kids go in the early evening instead of smack in the middle of the day, so I can actually enroll her and take her myself. I can't wait to see how this goes :) Stay tuned...

In Love (Again)

2010-04-12T10:31:00.000-07:00

Yes, I'm in love again. This time with our new nanny, Lizzy! She's been with us two weeks and I'm once again in heaven :) Not that there was anything wrong with Joan; not at all. She was great with Anna....it was just the combo of dealing with both Anna and Carrie in the AM and PM that was going to be dicey. She had a hard time carrying Anna in the car seat, and that was without trying to make sure Carrie didn't fling herself out into the street at the house or school. Kayla and I both have been known to have to go darting across the yard, Anna in hand, behind Carrie who's decided it's a fun game to try to run away from whomever's watching her at the time. NOT COOL. But we are keeping Joan on our babysitter list for date nights and so forth, so we were able to end on amicable terms.

Back to Lizzy - the name may sound familiar because she used to be Carrie's teacher. As in on March 26th she was Carrie's teacher and on March 29th she became our nanny. Yes, it provided for a tiny bit of drama at school, but everyone's over it now (I think!). Lizzy made sure everyone there understood that it was her idea to approach us regarding a nanny position once she heard we were looking. I personally think they were just sad to see her go, and who wouldn't be? She's been an amazing teacher to Carrie this year, and now will be hanging out with Anna teaching her all kinds of things. Yes, Jerry and I did stop to ponder the idea that "hey....if we hire Lizzy we're basically taking from one kid to provide for another." We have full confidence in the other teachers in Carrie's class to carry on the quality care Carrie was getting in her class, not to mention Lizzy was already spending half the day in another classroom.

I feel like we are getting settled back in and can mark the nanny thing off our list, hopefully for good! Heck, Lizzy did a far superior job to me in packing the girls' things for our trip this past weekend than I ever could have. The house looks amazing when I get home (I'm sure Lizzy gets frustrated when she comes the next morning and finds we've undone all her hard work!). Both girls are happy as can be (or as happy as a three year old can be) And remember what I said when Kayla left that I doubted that we'd find another nanny that would text me during the day and send cute pictures of Anna? Perhaps I spoke too soon:

Welcome to the family Lizzy!!

Bedtime conversations

2010-04-03T15:37:00.000-07:00

Some of the best/funniest conversations we have with Carrie happen at bedtime. Take last night for example. Jerry was messing with me and telling Carrie that I had to go to "school" today....this was actually my driver improvement course for getting in that wreck (if I took the class the ticket was dismissed and no points).

Carrie: You're going to school tomorrow Mommy?
Me: Yep.
Carrie: I want to go with you!
Me: The school I'm going to isn't much fun, honey. You'll have more fun staying here with Daddy & Anna.
Carrie: It's not fun? Don't you have any friends?

Another new thing she's doing at nighttime if I'm putting her to bed is running through all the usual procrastination tricks - one more story, gotta go potty, I need some water, etc. By the time I finally get her tucked in and am just at the door and telling her Sweet Dreams, I hear a little voice say "Mommy, will you rock me like a baby?" How can you say no to that? So I go to her bed and sit on the edge, pick her up and rock her like a little baby for a few minutes. Those are some of the best minutes of my day.

Mover and shaker

2010-03-25T08:05:00.000-07:00

That would be Anna, who's now crawling a full two months before her sister ever even thought of crawling. She's not full-on crawling, but is doing the military crawl, which has proven to be enough to send Carrie into fits of "MOMMY!!!!! SHE'S STEALING MY TOYS!!!!!" Sure, Carrie, like she's going to round up all your toys and you'll never see them again. No, m'dear....that won't happen for at least a few more months. Ah, the joys of sibling rivalry. I never got to experience that - I was the only child so I didn't necessarily have to share my toys/books/etc with anyone else (at least until my cousin Brandy came along and we grew up so close to each other that we may as well have been sisters).

It's so much fun to see Anna and Carrie interact with each other. Anna just looks at Carrie like she hung the moon. Carrie, not so much, but she does have her moments of just giving Anna kisses for no reason other than she loves her little sister. And they really have started to play together, as much as a 7 month old can play with anyone. I have no doubt that it will just get more and more interesting as the days go on!

Solids

2010-03-22T08:05:00.000-07:00

Anna's starting the process of eating solid food, but not without a fight. It's weird territory for me because pretty much as soon as we put food in front of Carrie she ate it like she'd been starving her entire life and there was no looking back. This kid has a clear preference for milk, though, and so it's been a little more slow going. We've tried bananas which were met with a lukewarm reception, sweet potatoes were met with a weird face, and squash was just plain spit out. Jerry, Kayla, and I have all tried different ways to get her to eat and she'll take at most 2 bites and be done. Joan (the new nanny) did get her to eat an entire cube of sweet potatoes but over the course of an entire day. Then all of a sudden last night it was like she decided this eating solid food thing wasn't so bad and ate all of her bananas, even opening her mouth up wide for another bite each time. Hopefully this is the start of a trend and not a one time event!

(and yes, she has clothes - this is just the easier way to do food these days!)

I'm making my own food again this time around which is way easy (and way cheaper). This website is a wonderful resource for anyone looking to do the same. Super Baby Food is another great book to help get started. And my sister-in-law gave me a few wonderful books when I did this with Carrie that have all kinds of yummy recipes for kiddos just starting out on the solid food track (thanks Aunt Alston!), which I am happy to report I've managed to keep up with throughout all the moves we've had since Carrie was born. I dusted those off this weekend and will be putting those to good use very soon. For now I think carrots or apples are up next on the list of foods to try.

Oh, and we finally made a decision on Carrie's third birthday party. This castle will be in our backyard, along with potentially 16 other screaming 2 and 3 year olds. Invitations will be going out shortly. Everyone please say a small prayer for us.

"That" moment...

2010-03-15T10:30:00.000-07:00

You know how you always hear about someone's kid making some sort of really loud, highly embarassing remark out in public? Well, we had one of those on Saturday....

It was a nice day so we were sitting outside at Jim N Nicks, a yummy BBQ place near the house. We were out running errands and Carrie just busted out with "I want some lunch. Let's go to Jim N Nicks." (and that's not a joke - I think that's pretty much verbatim what she said). So we went.

Now, I am the first to admit I watch a lot of crap TV when given the opportunity. Hey, I could be addicted to a lot worse things. One of the guilty pleasures is The Biggest Loser. If you watch anything on NBC then you've seen the promos for it, and apparently so has Carrie. And she's been paying attention. There's a guy on there that is, obviously, overweight and has really curly hair.

Anyone want to guess where this is headed?

So we're sitting outside and she spies a man coming up the front walk that is, yes, a bit overweight, but has the exact same hair as Daris on The Biggest Loser. So she busts out with "Mommy!! He's on The Biggest Loser!!!"

I'm pretty sure the guy heard what she said, although I can't be totally sure since I had pretty much slunk down in my chair as far as humanly possible. It takes a lot to mortify Jerry, and I could tell by the look on his face that he was just that.

She keeps us on our toes, that one.

Ya think they're related?

2010-03-11T12:04:00.000-08:00

Carrie at 6 months

Anna at 6 months.

Yikes.

Whoa!

2010-03-09T10:23:00.000-08:00

How is it possible that my baby is almost three years old??? I cannot believe this and actually am in pretty strong denial about it. She does things that I still don't think she should be capable of doing yet - telling me a stop sign is an octagon, the bed is a rectangle, counting to 20, singing her months of the year song, you name it. Of course, then she goes into full on toddler mode (aka pitching an almighty fit) and I'm all "yep, she's three!"

So now I must get started on the party planning. I'm thinking of just doing it at Island Playground and inviting her friends from school. It's a one-stop shopping sort of thing. I write a check and someone else does all the work. Sounds great to me. But then I sent this link to Jerry and he's all excited about doing this instead. I wonder if he realizes this is a toddler party and not an adult party?! I know she'd love to have her very own bounce house in her backyard, but it just sounds like extra work for Mommy & Daddy to host people at the house (not to mention make sure the house is looking decent).

I looked at the options and I know she'd love the Disney Princess one, but then read on there "your princess won't want this to end!" Yeah, no joke. It'll be like WWIII when they come back to tear that thing down and I am left to try to explain to her that no sweetie, we don't get to keep the Disney castle as our own personal play yard.

What to do, what to do?

M&Ms and potty training

2010-03-05T12:51:00.000-08:00

Let this be a warning to parents everywhere about the pros and cons of using M&Ms as a reward for going to the potty...

We started in earnest to potty train Carrie around the Christmas holidays. I had high hopes of it happening before Anna was born, but that was a bit more than I was willing to take on while Jerry was gone. So Christmas seemed like the perfect time since we would be home more than usual and could throw her in big girl undies and see what happened. And that's precisely what we did, basically. Put her in them and said "Okay kid, tell us when you need to go!" It took a few times, but honestly after a couple of days she really got the hang of it. The big thing was getting her to poop in the potty. She wasn't really having any of that, at least until I decided to do what I didn't really want to do and offer M&Ms as a reward for pooping in the potty. I didn't want to go down the path of giving food as a reward....but I also didn't want to continue buying two sets of diapers.

The M&M trick was an instant hit. Overnight she decided that pooping wasn't that bad. She would announce to us "I need to go poop and then I get 5 M&MS!" This was before her butt even hit the toilet. It got to the point she was obsessed with it and wouldn't let anyone else in the house go to the bathroom alone (and I am not kidding). We had a cheering section each time one of us had to go to the bathroom and she'd run into the kitchen afterwards and announce "You get 5 M&Ms Mommy!" Thanks, Carrie.

I told her teachers at school about this one day and they decided to implement this at school as well (only the kids would only get 1 M&M). So while we've slowly backed down on the M&Ms and are now not doing any, the school is still doing them.

Flash forward to the past few days of daily reports for Carrie. They indicate on the report whether or not she peed/pooped on the potty. The girl was pooping like FOUR times a day at school, but not at home. Then yesterday Miss Lizzy wrote this on her report:

"We've had to limit Carrie to one M&M a day because she's trying SO HARD to poop each time she goes to the bathroom :)" (and yes, the smiley face was on the report)

That's my overachiever. Kid's gonna blow her colon out because she's determined to get a freakin' M&M. I want to tell her that, with her mother's history in this arena, she'd better not be doing anything to screw with her GI tract. I fear the pull of the M&M is far stronger than that, though.

Oh what a night(s)...

2010-03-04T04:12:00.000-08:00

The past couple of nights have been WEIRD around the Reeves V household. Tuesday night/Wednesday morning Carrie decided it would be a fantastic idea to come snuggle with Daddy at 5:45am. I wasn't even aware that she was up and at 'em until I left the bathroom after getting ready and heading out at 6am. Apparently it only got more crazy yesterday morning because Jerry was telling me all about how Carrie and Bailey started wrestling each other and chasing each other around our bedroom at about 6:05am. All the while Jerry's trying to go back to sleep and convince Carrie to come back to bed and snuggle with him. From the sounds of it, it didn't happen. Good times :)

Then last night Anna went to sleep at 8:30, woke up at 9, went to sleep at 10, woke up at 11, then went to sleep for good at 11:30. That's not the weird part for last night. The weird part is the 2am "Daddy I'm done with my nap" discussion between Carrie and Jerry. Really? This is the first time she's ever done this, this getting up truly in the middle of the night and padding all the way down the length of the house to our room. I don't think she even realized I was still in the bed; I think she really thought it was time to get up and start the day because she went straight over to Jerry's side and was all "I'm done with my nap!" (in a whispered voice, of course). Jerry gently explained no, you are most certainly NOT done with your "nap" so let's go back to bed. He took her back to her bed, tucked her in, and when I left at 6:15 they were still asleep. You know it's been an interesting night when you tell your husband bye and he just says "Where are they?" As in - where are the kids? Are they in their beds where they should be???

sigh.

2010-03-01T11:49:00.000-08:00

So I know I haven't posted much lately. I've spent the better part of the last two weeks or so trying to convince our nanny, Kayla, that she'd be making a ginormous mistake by leaving us to move to Greenville. It's my own selfish reasons of course that I don't want her to go. But family duty calls for her, and I can't help but respect that. I hate that it's happening now and not in January when Anna would be enrolling at Carrie's school, but still :) So she'll be moving soon and her last day with us will be 3/12. I haven't told Carrie yet...I'm just not sure how to break it to her. With Carrie this could go one of two ways - she could either act like nothing's wrong when Kayla doesn't show up on the following Monday morning....or all hell could break loose. There could also be a combination of the two, which is probably the most likely scenario. Kayla has, in the short time she's been with us, really become like part of the family. I can't explain how Anna lights up when she sees her. For awhile there, there were only two people that could even think about touching Anna - Mommy and Kayla. Anna's gotten better now and even handed out some smiles while we were interviewing potential nannies this past weekend (of course, she also pooped all over Jerry at the same time, but oh well!). But will the new nanny send me texts every so often to let me know how Anna's doing, every now and then throwing in a cute picture to help me get through my day? Probably not unless I specifically ask. Will I want to go out to dinner with the girls and the new nanny if Jerry's not in town? Who knows....

So we're on the hunt again for a new nanny. Hopefully this will be the last time we have to do this since Anna should be at Carrie's school in 2011. Everyone cross your fingers for us!

My thoughts exactly

2010-02-09T04:24:00.000-08:00

I usually take a quick glance at CNN and Fox News in the morning to see what sorts of news stories are going on so I can sound at least halfway knowledgeable should any of the topics come up in casual conversation throughout the day.

This morning I came across this article

It literally brought tears to my eyes. I was having this exact inner conflict last night after Carrie went to bed and Anna was hanging out with Jerry. I was putting away toys, freaking that I couldn't find any more of the barn animals that went with Carrie's little barnyard or all four cupcakes that go with her cupcake set (chances are, they are in one of her many "purses" that she's commandeered, which are really Clinique bonus bags, but that's a whole separate post). I kept thinking "Anna's not going to have all the pieces to play with these toys when she gets big enough!" And I was also thinking, good Lord my living room looks like a Toys R Us showroom gone horribly wrong.

Who freaking cares? I bet they don't, so why should I? I have to keep reminding myself that in a very short period of time I'm going to wish that I had all that clutter in my living room. And for you moms out there, if that article wasn't enough to bring tears to your eyes or at least make you stop and think, take a glance at this. I dare you to watch it without having a full on breakdown :)

Carrie's Book Club Selection for February

2010-02-08T05:51:00.001-08:00

Every night Carrie gets to pick out a book or two for one of us to read to her before bedtime. She has a ton of books to choose from on her desk, including some from Jerry's childhood, although there are a few tried and true ones that she generally sticks to.

Last night I was cleaning up after dinner and hanging out with Anna while Jerry was getting Carrie ready for bed and doing the bedtime story duties. I just poked my head in there to see what they were reading, cause it's just really cute to me to see them both cuddled up on Carrie's bed reading together.

Then I saw/heard what Carrie had picked out for her evening book.

"Bicycling and Bicycle Maintenance"

Needless to say, this would be one of those from Jerry's childhood. She had insisted on being read to from this particular book last night, and I almost peed in my pants when I heard him reading to her from that book. In fact, it was so hilarious that Anna and I hopped up on the bed and joined in. I learned some very valuable lessons, such as "if you see exhaust coming from the back of a car, it's probably about to move so watch out!" And do you know both of those kids sat so still and listened to every word that Jerry read? I guess that's just proof that it doesn't matter what you read to your children, you just need to read to them.

Two of my new fav pics

2010-02-02T04:15:00.000-08:00

From Anna's christening on 1/10/10:

Can I just keep her and Carrie at the ages they are at now please?

So yeah....

2010-02-01T07:27:00.001-08:00

Just in case anyone wanted to know what almost $10k worth of damages to a Ford Expedition looks like, here ya go:

(I am choosing not to insert here what I think Jerry's saying when this photo was taken!!)

All I can say is at least the car did it's job and crumpled in the front so I didn't get hurt, and thank goodness for insurance!!

However, my car looks good as new now:

Ew....

2010-01-21T07:02:00.000-08:00

Our house has been a germfest for the past few days. It all started on Saturday. It's about 8am, Anna's still asleep, Carrie's snuggling in bed with me, Jerry, and Bailey (yes, the 85 lb dog still sleeps in the bed with us). About 8am, Carrie turns to me and says "Mommy, I don't feel really good" followed by throwing up in bed. Fun. A few hours later and we find out Anna has it. Thankfully both girls got over it after a day of rest, relaxation, and Disney movies.

Then came Monday. Both Jerry and I came down with the crud. Jerry was feeling better by the end of the day Monday, but I ended up being out Tuesday as well. Not fun.

Then today....Carrie wakes up with a totally crusty nose which sent her into hysterics because she thought it was bleeding (not sure where she got that) and coughing her head off. Got a call from Kayla....she's been throwing up all night with this crap, so she won't be in today. Jerry graciously decided to run interference today since I had meetings at work. So right now I believe he's at home with one sick kid, one well kid that had shots today, watching Lion King at last check-in. He's such a great daddy/husband. And just to give you an idea of how great he really is, here's an excerpt of my last conversation with him:

Jerry: You didn't tell me what I was getting in to

Kristy: What do you mean?

J: Anna just had the biggest poop of her life. Not only did it fill up her diaper, it ran down her leg and filled up a sock. A SOCK. How does one fill up a sock with POOP?

K: (laughing) I don't know honey. I'm sure you handled it just fine though.

J: Yeah, but while I was wrangling poop I had Carrie yelling at me "Daddy, I want a snack!" I couldn't believe she could think of food at a time like that.

K: Well, she does have a one track mind about food.

J: Oh, and then after I finally got Anna halfway cleaned up and we were in the middle of bathtime, cause after an explosion like that I didn't have a choice, Carrie tells me she has to go poop. Really? REALLY?!

K: (laughing again) So did she go?

J: Yeah, I just let her go on her own and she did fine. There's too much poop in this house.

K: I'm sure you are doing great, dear. I have no worries.

J: Yeah, well I promise they'll all be alive when you get home.

Something tells me Jerry will be more than happy to go to his client dinner in Savannah tonight!!

Feeling Like a Heel

2010-01-14T04:17:00.000-08:00

So here I was whining about not having time to get my house in order, finding places for all of my material things, when the earthquake in Haiti hits. Nothing like a real tragedy for you to get your priorities in order. Perhaps that was God's way of telling me "Quit your bitching - you are alive, you have a wonderful family and a roof over your head that's not crumbling around you."

This weekend will be spent with a little more focus on family and a little less focus on the mess in the house...

Chaos Part II

2010-01-13T05:40:00.001-08:00

I. Do. Not. Like. Feeling. Out. Of. Control.

There. I said it. Not like those that know me don't already know this about me. I'm a control freak. I admit it. But I just feel so freakishly out of control right now and that freaks me out further. Sometimes I wish I could just go with the flow, but then would that really be me? Jerry's much more that type, which is probably a big reason why we get along so well.

We don't have anything going on this weekend so I'm hoping to take some time just to sort out all of my stuff and get back on top of things. Although....are you ever really on top of things after having kids???

Chaos

2010-01-08T05:16:00.000-08:00

I feel a little bit like I'm living in a lot of chaos right now. It's not a bad problem to have, since I think the majority of the chaos is caused by the fact that we moved, but still....my OCD tendencies do not lend themselves well to this feeling of being out of control. Jerry just called me and said he couldn't find Carrie's hat and mittens anywhere for her to take to school for when they go outside to play....they are sitting in the Envoy from when I picked her up yesterday and they never made it from the car to the house. So now I have visions of my poor child freezing her petunias off outside. Thankfully the coat she has today has a giant hood on it, but still I feel like a bad mommy. I'm sure the teachers at school are wondering just when we're going to get our act together (or perhaps they are just used to it and I'm not the only one? Who knows?)

There are still a bunch of boxes in Anna's room that may or may not actually need to be in there. I haven't been able to find a spare minute to go scavage through them to see what's in there, so there they sit. I'm sure Kayla's wondering what the hell they are still doing in there (perhaps I should have her scrounge around in them to find out what's in there!)

The kitchen counters drive. me. insane. Only one counter, really. I've dubbed it the "Command Center." There was, at one time, about FOUR laptops on the counter. Thankfully that's been reduced to one, but there are all these wires everywhere. Wires for the external hard drive. Wires for the camera to the computer. Wires for charging our cell phones. I've designated an entire drawer in the kitchen for nothing but wires.

Our Christmas tree is still up. Not that big of a deal since there were never any ornaments on it (just had to have it up for the kiddos!) and it's artificial, but still. Ready to move on from Christmas.

I have a feeling a lot of these things will be rectified in the next 24-48 hours seeing as how Anna's baptism is on Sunday and we'll be having a lunch gathering at our house on Sunday afternoon. I just hope no one opens the doors what will be the office, cause if they do it'll be like the cartoons where all the stuff comes flying out and buries the poor unsuspecting soul.

Bye Bye Cedar Bluff

2009-12-18T04:20:00.000-08:00

The past few weeks have been really bittersweet for the Reeves V family. On the one hand, I am so thrilled to tell you that we are now once again homeowners!! Yes, we were crazy enough to attempt moving with two small children at Christmastime. First order of business in the new house - get everyone's beds set up. Second order of business - get the tree/stockings up! We managed to get the important stuff put away in the past two weeks, but it's been interesting. The kitchen's pretty well in tact, as are the girls' rooms (sorry Anna, I have a few more boxes hanging out in your room right now, but you can't go through them like your big sister, so that's why they are in your room!) Our room is definitely on its way - I get distracted going through all these boxes because I literally haven't seen some of this stuff in two years since we left Gainesville. Part of me says that's a big clue that we could get rid of it if I've been able to live without it for two years, but the other part of me feels like I'm re-opening all my wedding presents again! :)

Of course, with the move comes leaving Cedar Bluff. We've been there for almost right at two years. There's been a LOT that went on in those past two years as well:
-Leave Gainesville, which was way harder than I ever thought, seeing as how I pretty much hated the place when I moved there
-Move in with Jerry's parents (literally - we were in his childhood bedroom for the first 7 months!)
-Start a new job
-Have surgery for Crohn's
-Carrie started her school and has really thrived there
-Jerry got a new job that we knew would require him being in Portugal for EIGHT months
-Moved from Jerry's room to the cottage on the Reeves' property
-Went to China for two weeks
-Was back from China for about a week and a half and found out I was pregnant!
-11 days after finding out about Baby #2, Jerry leaves for Portugal
-Sold our house in GNV! My poor father in law - he had to go with me (on Valentine's weekend, no less, and help pack up the remainder of the stuff in GNV)
-Had to go to ER because of my Crohn's acting up (and my wonderful inlaws came to rescue me since I couldn't drive!)
-Had to go to ER because I fell down chasing Carrie in the Bluffton post office (she accompanied me that time and still to this day says "Mommy fell down and had to go to the doctor")
-Went to Portugal to visit Jerry while 28 weeks pregnant
-Jerry returned home; 8 days later Anna Sophia made her early arrival!
-Finally bought a house of our own
-Got into a car accident (that actually just happened this morning and I had to throw that in there - it's an attempt to laugh to keep from crying about it, folks)

Whew! That's a lot of stuff for two years. I don't think Jerry and I will ever be able to repay Whizzy and Pop-Pop for all the support they've offered throughout this entire experience. When we were first considering a move we knew the only way we could do it was to either sell the house in GNV immediately (yeah, right) or move in with them in the interim. They never once hesitated and have driven car pool, babysat, and the list goes on. I know part of them loves to do this since it means more time with the grandchildren, but still - that was a huge commitment to take on when they were about to reclaim their house as their own when Rhett went off to college!

My parents have been amazing as well. I know my mother has to be tired of me calling with real estate questions. Too bad she didn't get a commission off every single call I made to her asking fifty thousand questions :) They made trips to SC during the time when Jerry was gone to entertain me. I always called my dad whenever I had an IT question since my usual IT department was 6 hours ahead of me. They really supported our decision, even if attempting to sell a house in the current market wasn't the wisest decision ever (hindsight and all that).

So we will soon have all of our stuff out of the cottage at Cedar Bluff and be busy finding a place for it all (or sending it to Goodwill!) in our new home. We'll clean out the cottage one last time and close that chapter of our lives. I know Jerry will never believe this, but the other day when I was over there and I walked into the cottage I was surprised to find myself a little sad. It represents a pretty significant point in our lives, and I will miss being able to walk out the back door and go have a glass of wine with Whizzy & Pop Pop and chat about the day or borrow their roasting pan to make BBQ.

Bye bye little cottage!

In Love...

2009-12-11T05:51:00.001-08:00

I think I am in love with our new nanny. She is A-MAZ-ING. Literally. We were a little wary of trying to get another nanny because we had such a great experience in FL with Hayley for Carrie that we weren't sure that could be topped. Not to mention the pool of nanny possibilities here is considerably less than it was in a college town of over 40k students (mostly women from the looks of it). But Kayla has met and exceeded each and every expectation. It's only been two weeks, but what a great two weeks.

She takes excellent care of Anna. I have yet to come home to a crying baby, and that is saying something because usually by 4:30 she's on the verge of what my mother in law appropriately calls "hurricane hour" for kids, meaning that they've just had enough of the day, thank you very much, and are gonna be cranky! When Anna sees her she just lights up and smiles and giggles, and that does my heart good.

Carrie loves her too. I've always considered Carrie a pretty good judge of character, as are most little kids. She's very social and will say hi and smile to just about anyone, but she won't immediately jump into someone's arms unless she's sure about them. When we interviewed Kayla we could hardly get a word in edgewise because Little Miss Bossy wanted to play Ring Around the Rosie the entire time. Kayla took it in stride, answering questions while twirling Carrie and taking care to make sure she didn't slam her head into the corner of the table.

She gets Carrie ready for school in the morning so we don't have to wake her up at an ungodly hour to get her out the door (this may of course change once we move!). She asks me if there's anything I need/want her to do around the house while Anna naps. She volunteered to help pack up the cottage in anticipation of the move. She does the girls' laundry. Yesterday she put some semblance of order into our pantry which, if you had seen it, was quite the job. Did I mention that these are all things she's just seen that need to be done and she does them without me giving her any sort of task list? The only things I've explicitly asked for are items related to child care....the other stuff is just a bonus.

It's hard being a working mom of two - every day when I walk out the door I have this little twinge of mommy guilt which, as any mother knows, is the most powerful stuff in the world. But I know Carrie loves her school (and yes, it really is more of a school than a daycare....the kid is writing her ABCs already people!) and the people there love her and take care of her as I would, so that makes a huge difference. And now I know that Anna is well taken care of and loved while I'm not there as well. Not only does it put my mind at ease, but it feels like a physical weight has been lifted. Whew.

Happy Anniversary!!

2009-12-07T05:53:00.000-08:00

Today marks 7 years of being married - can you believe it?!? Who would have thought that an innocent study abroad trip the summer between my junior and senior year at GT would lead to all that we've experienced in the past 11 years? Between the two of us we've experienced 5 degrees, one very tiny apartment in Gainesville FL, (almost) three homes, 5 moves, 5 jobs, 3 really cool vacations, 1 dog, and 2 kids. I can't imagine a better person for me to have experienced all of that with either :)

So what does one buy one's spouse for their 7th anniversary? Hopefully, fingers crossed, this:

Back to work

2009-12-01T04:59:00.000-08:00

So I'm back at work now. Boo hiss. I actually did better this time around than I did when I returned to work after having Carrie. I seem to remember being reduced to an absolute puddle of tears several times that first day back. This time I had some tears as I left in the morning since I don't get to see either Anna or Carrie in the morning before leaving for work (I'm now working 7-4 instead of 8-5), but managed to make it through the day without any further meltdowns. Anna was so excited to see me when she woke up from her nap and I was there last night, so that was great. Carrie goes to sleep around 7:30-8 so I unfortunately don't get to see her too much after work, but Anna still doesn't go to sleep till about 11 so I have plenty of quality time with her :)

It was so weird last night....we had ZERO meltdowns from either girl last night. Which was nice, don't get me wrong, since Jerry was at a function in Savannah so I had them both last night. But it was a little like "who are you and what did you do with my children?" Perhaps it was as one of my friends put it on my facebook page, that it was just a lot of fun when I got home and so they weren't interested in mucking it up by pitching a fit! It is nice and quiet at work as compared to home, but I already find myself waiting for the weekend so we can have all day together. Wonder if I'll still feel the same by 8pm on Sunday evenings :)

Things I am thankful for

2009-11-24T08:31:00.001-08:00

This seems an appropriate time to reflect on what I am thankful for, not only because it's Thanksgiving, but because I'm going back to work on Monday and I think I'll need to remind myself of all the wonderful things in my life when I have to leave Anna at home that morning!
-My wonderful husband (and not only because I think I've just about got him convinced that he can handle both girls on his own for at least part of the day after Thanksgiving so Mom and I can go out in the fray of Black Friday shopping). He is an amazing person and I am so glad to have him in my life. He is the best dad ever (right up there with my own dad!). I love watching him interact with our girls. And he is my biggest cheerleader, constantly pushing me to believe in myself more than I ever have.

-My girls. I can't believe that I have two daughters now! Sometimes I have to pinch myself and remind myself that they are indeed my children....still seems odd to use the plural form of child, but I'm getting used to it. Carrie is such an amazing little girl - truly not a baby anymore. She's 2 going on 20 if you ask her. She constantly amazes us with what she's learned in her two short years, talking about how her favorite dinosaur is the T-Rex, and that Thanksgiving is all about the "Penguins" (that would be Pilgrims for those not well versed in toddler talk) and Native Americans. No joke, she really did tell me all about the Native Americans on the way home yesterday. And Anna just is growing by leaps and bounds every day, getting her own little personality. On the one hand I can't wait to see how they interact as they grow up, and on the other hand I want so badly to keep them just as they are right now so they'll never grow up.

-My parents. They have made me into the woman I am today. They love my children as much as I do. I'm finding it so hard to put into words how I feel about them as I'm sitting here typing, so I'll leave it at the fact I hope I am at least half the person they are, because I'd consider myself successful.

-My inlaws. Don't think I would have made it through the past year if it weren't for Whizzy & Pop Pop!! Whizzy runs car pool just about every single day for Carrie and while Jerry was out of town and I was growing more and more pregnant by the second, she knew just when to offer to hang out with Carrie for a bit so I could have some down time. Pop Pop has dealt with our crazy house search and helped us out tremendously, and barring any catastrophes we'll close in about three weeks on our third house!! And when we move out I can honestly say that I truly love my inlaws as much, if not more, than the day we moved in (and I would dare say that not many folks out there could say that!) This also includes my sisters-in-law, which are really more like my sisters :) I've known them for about 11 years now, and they are amazing young women.

-My family. I don't get to see all of the members of my family very often now that we live in SC and they are in GA/MS/FL, but I think about them often and know that, if anything happened, they'd be here for me in a second.

I think that about covers it for now!

Thanks honey!

2009-11-09T07:52:00.000-08:00

I have such a great hubby :) He is very conscious of the fact that, in order for me to be a great wife/mother I too need my "Mommy time" which is what we call it when I get to actually leave the house sans children. Yesterday was my weekly "mommy time" and I went all over the place and did all kinds of errands without any little helpers and it was great. Don't get me wrong - I obviously love my kids - but grocery shopping with a two year old and a two month old is not high on my list of favorite things in the world to do. So even though Anna still gets a little cranky whenever I'm not around, he sent me on my way yesterday morning. I immediately went to Starbucks to get my java chip frappuchino (yum!) and started marking things off my list. I was only gone for about 2 hours or so, but it's amazing what two hours can do. I was surprised at how much I got done in that timespan...I managed to go to Starbucks, Target, Petco, Blockbuster, Publix, and get gas all in two hours. Jerry was amazed when I came back home because he thought I was going to be gone for the better part of the afternoon. Be careful what you wish for, dear.... :)

Sign that your newborn nurses too much (or that your husband needs to watch what he says around your two year old)

2009-10-26T20:16:00.000-07:00

So the family had a nice get together yesterday at Cedar Bluff in honor of Alston's birthday and her visit to the lowcountry. There were aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, you name it. I was talking with a few of these folks when Anna started getting a little fussy and my darling first daughter Carrie is right there beside me. I ask her a question I've asked a million times since Anna was born.

Me- "Carrie, Anna's upset, huh?"
Carrie - "Yep."
Me - "Yes (we're trying to get her to say 'yes' instead of 'yep' or 'yeah'). What do you think she needs?"

Now, 99.99% of the time when I ask her that question she says "She's hungry" or "she needs food." This, apparently, was the .01% that she busted out with a different answer.

Carrie - "She needs the boob!"

Thanks, Carrie. Appreciate that.

And Jerry - if that's not proof that Carrie is listening to EVERY SINGLE WORD that is said, I don't know what is.

My Inner Chef

2009-10-26T08:28:00.001-07:00

One good thing I've discovered while on maternity leave this time around (other than having fun hanging out with Anna), is I've been able to actually cook. Not the "It's 6pm what the heck are we having? Tacos sound good" cooking, but flipping through my recipes and cookbooks and trying new recipes out that I haven't been able to try before now. I really love cooking, I just don't seem to have enough time to do it during the week while working and doing the kid thing. I've discovered some great cookbooks that focus on cooking in large batches at once and then freezing, which actually got me through a lot of the time Jerry was in Portugal. We always have homemade spaghetti sauce at the ready in the freezer, and now some homemade chicken pot pie, chicken enchiladas, and some yummy lasagna.

Before Jerry headed to Chicago yesterday morning he said "You know, I'm going to really miss your cooking this week." I think that was the biggest compliment on my cooking I've ever received :)

Time flies

2009-10-14T09:55:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been awhile since I've posted here!! So much has happened....Anna's doing much better these days. Eating like a champ, as well as sleeping like a champ. We seem to be in a routine of sleeping for 8 hours at night now, regardless of what time we go to sleep. Last night it was 11:30-7:30; the night before it was 10:30-6:30. I think I can deal with any going to bed time if I know there's 8 hours of sleep to be had afterwards :)

Carrie's doing fabulously with her little sister. As soon as she gets home in the afternoons she runs straight over to the couch where Anna and I usually are (sleeping 8 hours at night means pretty much eating non stop during the day), hops up and starts rubbing her feet and talking to her. She's really taken to the role of big sister very well. Much better than I ever anticipated she would. She still has her moments, to be sure....just ask Jerry about bathtime last night :) Let's just say she never really got a bath. I wasn't in there, but all I could hear was crying from Carrie because Daddy wasn't using the right soap. When he switched to the "right" soap, it magically turned into the wrong soap. I guess that's the prerogative of a two year old (and a female to boot!). She still loves school - learning to write her letters. She comes home and loves to show us how to write A, B, C, D, & E, as that's as far as they've gotten so far. It's crazy to me that she's already writing out letters and so forth.

I'm really making an attempt to truly savor my maternity leave this time around. I think with Carrie I was anxious to get back to work to "regain" some of my identity outside of being a mommy to some extent. This time I am not as concerned with work or making sure the house is just so. This could very well be our last kiddo, which means the last time I'll ever get to experience this time in a child's life. Sappy, yes, but it's how I rationalize not always getting the dishes cleaned before Jerry gets home, or accidentally leaving a load of laundry in the washer :) So if Anna eats then wants to nap in my arms, so be it.

Our miracle baby

2009-09-09T13:53:00.000-07:00

I was already contemplating a blog post with this title prior to this weekend's events, but now I have two reasons to post here with this title....

My first is because I really do think of Anna as our little "miracle" baby. It's no secret anymore that me getting pregnant the first time required medical intervention. Not being able to get pregnant the "normal" way was a blow to me - as a woman if you can't do that, then what can you do? That's what women are supposed to be able to do, and I couldn't. Thankfully we lived in a town that had excellent medical care and I was able to get in to see the necessary doctors rather quickly (I guess it probably didn't hurt that I worked in the department of medicine, either!). It took right at a year for me to get pregnant with Carrie. At the time that seemed like an eternity, but in the field of infertility, that's nothing.

So imagine my surprise when, just two days before Christmas 2008, I took a pregnancy test and it was positive. I wasn't supposed to be able to get pregnant without medical help....yet there it was staring me in the face. I distinctly remember when I took the job with GT-Savannah sitting at the kitchen table crying my eyes out because their medical insurance didn't cover infertility treatments. I had thought to make sure that their insurance covered my Remicade treatments prior to accepting the job, but I didn't think to check on the infertility treatments. I remember thinking it was going to cost us about $10k a month that we "tried" to conceive child #2, and thinking we'd never be able to do that. So both Jerry and I were a little shocked when I took the test and it came up positive. Jerry was elated; this was what he had been hoping for (me too!), that I'd somehow be able to get pregnant without help so that it would be a big surprise. And yes, it WAS a big surprise!! To top it off, Jerry also got his wish in that, although Anna's delivery date was scheduled, she decided to come early. He got to do the whole "honey, it's time!" deal and scramble around the house making sure we had everything we needed and rushing to the hospital for the baby to be born. I will never forget having contractions in the car and him driving like a lunatic from Okatie to Savannah. I remember telling him "well, it looks like you got exactly what you wanted with this kid - he/she was a complete surprise AND we're doing the rush to the hospital routine!"

And after this weekend, Anna's my miracle baby once again. She spiked a fever of what we thought was 100.4 from our thermometer at home on Friday morning at 2:30am. By the time we got to the hospital at 3:30am, it was at 100.7, which earned us an automatic 2 day stay in the hospital. The doctors explained that with newborns they had to be extra cautious because their bodies could be overwhelmed by infection within a few hours and could die from said infections. This meant Anna had to get an IV straight away so they could administer antibiotics and draw blood for blood cultures and samples, she had to get a catheter to collect a urine sample, and worst of all she had to get a spinal tap to check her spinal fluid to ensure she didn't have meningitis. I truly hope that I never have to witness either of my children ever getting a spinal tap ever again. Jerry tried to keep me from seeing it, but as I was walking back from the restroom at one point I could see her out of the corner of my eye, and it will probably be awhile before I get that picture out of my head. I know there are much worse things that she could have, but this was a first for me and something I hope never to repeat.

Everyone's home now and on the mend. We're attempting to get back to normal. So, if anyone has any tips on how to get little Anna to go back to sleeping on her own and not with me, they would be much appreciated :) She was just a little spoiled when she was sick, and now we're attempting to get back to everyone being in their own beds!

Which is which?

2009-08-28T14:28:00.001-07:00

Do these two kids look alike or what?

Okay, okay

2009-08-22T15:39:00.001-07:00

Cut me some slack people! I've finally updated our Picasa site to include pics of Anna's early arrival :)

Life with two kiddos is interesting to say the least! All I can say is thank goodness my mom's here to help out for a couple of weeks!

Carrie seems to be adjusting as well as can be expected. Some times she just wants to love all over Anna....and others she gets a little mad that Anna takes up so much of my time. All expected reactions from her; it's just hard as a mommy to feel like you aren't able to fulfill the expectations of both kids at the same time. I'm sure it's something I'll figure out when I've had more than a few days under my belt of being a parent to two children!

Anna's 1st Full Day

2009-08-17T18:46:00.000-07:00

Today was a great day! We had a very routine night last night as well as today. Lady (Carolyn) came to help out and bring clothes to Mom and Dad. Anna went to the nursery and passed her hearing test! We had Larry's Subs for lunch. Yum! Mommy's first cold sub in 9 months! Whizzy, Rhett, and Carrie came in this afternoon to so that Carrie could meet her little sister for the first time. "That's my little sister" ! Carrie also announced to her friends at school that she had a little sister. Everyone was very excited! Papa Johns for dinner and now we are off to "bed". Here are a couple of good pictures from today. It looks like we will shoot to go home on Wednesday morning.
Good Night All!

2009-08-16T18:16:00.000-07:00

Welcome Anna Sophia!

At 6:14pm this evening we are please to have Anna Sophia join our family! 6lbs and 10.2 oz and 18.25". As of this writing Mommy is great and Anna is hangin in the NICU working out some fluid in her lungs. We should have her with us in a couple of hours. Yea! Here are some pictures of todays adventures. We look forward to introducing her to you all...

So what's a few days....

2009-08-16T12:48:00.000-07:00

Sorry everyone but I (Jerry) will be handling blog duties for the next few days because today is the day! #2 has decided to make his or her grand entrance 12 days early! Stay tuned b/c we will be heading to the OR this evening for the delivery. Yea! For those of you who have been keeping up, the wait is almost over as we will let you know the name and sex ASAP!

Stay tuned... Only a few hours to go!

HE'S HOME!!!!

2009-08-14T11:14:00.000-07:00

Finally! Jerry's been home almost a week, and even my co-workers have noticed a difference in me....they say I'm laughing more, looking more relaxed, etc. That's cause my partner-in-crime is finally back on the correct side of the pond, silly people! (Well, that and the fact that I can say "honey, i'm really exhausted....can you give carrie a bath tonight?")

Welcome home, Daddy! We missed you terribly and are so excited that you're back and we're so close to starting the next exciting chapter in our life, growing from a family of three to a family of four!

Please excuse the fact that I look like the broad side of a barn in this photo. This is what 36 weeks pregnant looks like. Taken moments after our reunion!

Random updates

2009-08-03T07:14:00.001-07:00

Hi there! I'm waiting on all of my guidebooks on Portugal/Spain to make their return trip to the states before finishing up the blogs on my trip there since I can hardly remember my name these days. In the meantime....

Went to the doc on Thursday and got a great report! Well, great in that fluid levels are going in the right direction - up. She still wants me to rest and drink gallons of water, which I've been doing, and it seems to be doing the trick. While there I thought they had forgotten about me....they hooked me up to the non-stress test machine to measure contractions and baby's heart rate - and left me there. For like 45 minutes. I finally knocked on the wall and another nurse came in and apparently no one realized I was in there. Fantastic. Luckily she ran to get my nurse who had forgotten about me and also brought me some sweet tea & a brownie to encourage the baby to move around a little more. I do what I can in the name of helping my baby.

Jerry will be home on SATURDAY. I can hardly believe it. Some times it feels like it's been forever that he's been gone, and sometimes it feels like it's been 5 minutes. More often than not it's the former, but oh well. It's almost over! Jerry keeps saying he's going to mess up the "routine" Carrie and I have going. I say come on home and mess it up all you want :)

Carrie went to the "big girl" class today at school. She's obviously been two for awhile now, but the school waited till now to move her and several other kiddos from her 18 month old class over to the two year old class all at the same time to ease the transition. Thankfully there's a total of 6 kids going over there starting today, and one of them is her BFF Lauren. I'm not kidding - these two are like super glue on each other. They always have to sit right beside each other whenever doing crafts, story time, lunch, you name it. The teacher did say she had to separate them at naptime or otherwise they'd keep the entire class up chattering. I just find it utterly fascinating that this sort of social structure has started so early in life. I guess it's the psychology training coming out in me, but I'd love to spend a day just watching like a fly on the wall to observe all of this!

I am having a little bit of mommy guilt over the fact that I didn't take her on her very first day, but I will be picking her up. I didn't take her because getting her out the door and deposited at school and me at work by 8am is never going to happen and I had a meeting this morning at 8:30. I feel horrible not taking her on her first day of big girl class, but also felt silly asking to come in late on one of the only three days I'm in the office each week. I will take her in tomorrow, though. And my mom got to take her in today, so that was a "treat" for mom as well. Apparently as soon as they pulled into the parking lot Carrie announced "No Miss Lizzie class." Uh oh. She wasn't terribly happy from what I hear about going to her new class, but she waved like crazy to my mom from the window (I'm glad that this classroom has a window just like her old one does, so we can do the ol' "wave bye bye to mommy!" trick if necessary).

There are lots of new things going on in her class - no sippy cups, just regular cups (um, let me know how THAT goes) and stand up diapering in the bathroom to encourage potty training. I have to admit I've been terribly lazy on the potty training thing. I had a lofty goal of having her trained by the time Jerry got home. Obviously that hasn't happened. But seriously - have I had the patience and energy to go through that little process in these past few months? Absolutely not. Jerry seems quite committed to getting her potty trained himself after he arrives home, so I say go for it buddy. I am hoping that by seeing all the other kids in her class doing it she'll want to speed up the process. It may all go out the window in 3.5 weeks, but that's okay. At least she'll have a vague idea of what she's supposed to be doing.

Three days a week

2009-07-27T12:36:00.000-07:00

That's how often I'll be in the office from now until 8/21. Just three days a week. It feels weird - I haven't done this since I left UF (my boss there was an absolute angel and allowed me to work from home two days a week after Carrie was born....I could only dream for such a set up this time around!). I'm not good at admitting I'm exhausted and run down and can't keep up my usual go, go, go pace, but this time I don't have much choice. I am exhausted and run down :) Plus the OB ordered me to only work three days/week. The amniotic fluid around the baby is lower than she'd like, so it's her hope that with some extra rest and fluid intake it will right itself. I'm not sure of the other alternatives if that course of action doesn't work....IV fluids? Deliver baby early? I didn't really want to get into all of that last week at my appointment because I was a little wigged out about the low fluid levels. I go back on Thursday for another ultrasound (yeah - more pictures!), a non-stress test and check in with the doctor. The only good thing out of this is that Jerry *may* get to come home a week early. I at least had the presence of mind to ask the doc to write a letter indicating it might be in my/baby's/Jerry's best interest to come home earlier than expected. Well, that and the fact that I can watch Food Network all day Tuesday/Thursday if I so desire! ;)

Jerry's Fifteen Minutes (or seconds) of Fame

2009-07-17T13:53:00.000-07:00

Jerry will probably KILL me for uploading this video to our blog, but I just couldn't resist!!

Movie Madness

2009-07-17T12:45:00.000-07:00

My parents and Jerry have all heard me whining as of late about the filming of a movie on our campus. Miley Cyrus & Greg Kinnear are currently filming "The Last Song" on our campus, and it's been nothing short of a circus. It's been in the works for awhile now. I've been involved in getting all the different sides to play nice and get the lawyers to sign all the necessary paperwork. Then some of the folks in charge of shooting the movie got my phone number and let's just say I've been hopping pretty much non stop for the past two weeks, and especially the past two days as that's when the actual filming has been going on. Yesterday was pretty quiet, amazingly enough, but that was before the Savannah Morning News came out to take photos and then had a huge article in the paper this morning about how Miley was filming on campus. Some family drove from freaking Augusta this morning in hopes of seeing Miley. I hate to burst their bubble, but even on campus that kid's not allowed to walk around - whenever she's going to/from the actual set she's shoved into a giant black Tahoe and shuttled around. One of the local news stations showed up and tracked me down to see if I was interested in being on TV and talking about the effect the filming has had on campus life....no thank you, I value my job and therefore couldn't really say what I wanted to say!

It has been pretty amazing to see the transformation of our campus building into a hospital scene. I did get to sneak a peek at both Miley and Greg Kinnear yesterday afternoon while checking out the chaos (with the blessing of my boss, thank you). Now he and I are scheming to get some GT Savannah merchandise into the hands of Greg & Miley. It would be pretty darn cool to see a photo snapped of Miley Cyrus at some point down the road wearing a GTS t-shirt.

Portugal Day 3

2009-07-14T11:30:00.000-07:00

So this proved to be one of the more 'exciting' days on the trip, depending on your definition of exciting....

We had to wake up fairly early because we decided to go hang out in Lisbon all day instead of Porto since the weather in Porto wasn't all that great. This meant catching a 9:30am train so we could get to Lisbon at a reasonable hour and have a good portion of the day to wander about before boarding the hotel train at 10:30pm. So we were up and at em, packing all our stuff up (I wasn't going to be back in Porto again before heading home) and heading to the train station. We took a taxi because, although it was "all downhill" as Jerry promised, I really didn't care and wasn't interested in lugging my bags downhill to the station. Good thing cause the taxi ride took about 10 minutes (which means it would've probably taken me an hour to waddle). We get to the station with about 20 minutes till the train leaves and Jerry gets this panicked look on his face. All the money that he's been so diligently saving up for our trip from his per diem that he hasn't spent....left back in the hotel safe (and it was a pretty darn good amount). He immediately takes off, ON FOOT, back to the hotel. I'll never know how he did it, but he managed to get back to the hotel, get the money, and get back to the train station inside of 15 minutes.

We hop on the train and get settled for a two hour or so ride. We're in "first class" which just means you get a little snack on the train. It was so funny though - they give us a menu that has choices on it, but then just brought us something else entirely that wasn't on the menu at all. Not that we really cared, but it was like "here's what you COULD have, but we don't really feel like serving that, so you'll be getting this instead."

The train ride was somewhat uneventful until I noticed Jerry's got this weird look on his face. I ask him what's wrong, and he tells me he doesn't feel so well. Seriously? This guy NEVER gets sick, and when he does it's like the world's coming to an end. I won't go into all the gory details of what was wrong with him, but let's just say once we were in Lisbon we got to see a Portuguese ER in action. I must say that from start to finish we were only there for about an hour and a half. It was impressive. And always fun to try to navigate the medical community in an entirely different language from your own. Stuff like this would usually send me into a tailspin, but I just sort of went with the flow and we were making jokes about it the entire time. Thank goodness we had switched Jerry from my medical insurance to his company's for while he's overseas. I don't know this for a fact, but I'm pretty sure it helped minimize the pain of the entire process.

After that little side adventure we decided to go get something to eat since we managed to miss lunch altogether. By this time it was around 4 or so, so we were running out of daylight in Lisbon. We had grand plans of all of the fun things we were going to go see, but only managed to hit the Santa Justa elevator and do some general wandering around in the city before heading back over to the train station.

We could board the overnight train from Lisbon to Madrid at 10pm, so we were at the station around 9:30 anxiously awaiting when we could board. Jerry was just so excited about the concept of an overnight train....I myself was not sold on the idea, but went along with it because I knew Jerry thought it sounded like fun. We got on the train and were directed to our cabin. Honestly it should be called a very tiny hole in the wall, because that's what it was. It was pretty much exactly as I had anticipated; I think Jerry was a little surprised. When the beds were let down out of the wall, you could barely get around (especially if you happened to be 28 weeks pregnant). The bathroom was a joke, but at least we didn't have to stumble down the corridor to go pee in the middle of the night. I could tell Jerry was truly disappointed because it hadn't lived up to his expectations, but we just repeated our motto of "it's an adventure" and sucked it up. They served dinner at 10:30 (normal for Portugal, although by this time I'm beyond starving) so we headed to the dining car, ate dinner, then went back and attempted to get comfy in the little cracker jack box of a room we had. I have no clue how these other people that didn't get the sleeper cars did it. This was definitely one of those experiences that I'm glad we did and can say we've done it....but I do NOT care to repeat it in this lifetime, unless it's the freaking Orient Express or something.

Funny School Story

2009-07-08T10:19:00.001-07:00

So Carrie's not a big fan of me dropping her off at school in the mornings. I'm not sure if it just throws her off since Whizzy usually takes her, if she's just extra clingy right now, or if some other force is at work, but it usually involves a full-scale meltdown to the point of her gluing herself to my leg. This happened this morning and after me trying everything I possibly could think of, it came time for me to just kiss her goodbye and trust that Elisabeth could handle it when I left (although believe me, I'd much rather have hung out all day and played than go to work!). Elisabeth calmed her down a bit by suggesting that she come over to the big window in their classroom and watch for me and wave when I left the building. Carrie seemed to think that was a good idea so off she went. I slipped out of the room and headed out of the building. I rounded the corner and was immediately greeted with the cutest sight I've seen in a long, long time - an entire line of about seven toddler faces all peeking out of the window waving bye-bye to me just as hard as their little hands would wave. And yes, Carrie was indeed one of the smiling faces, thank goodness.

That was definitely a good way to start the day.

Portugal Day 2

2009-07-06T09:37:00.000-07:00

Day 2 of our vacation started off late....as in, I didn't wake up until 10:15am!! I literally thought I had forgotten how to sleep that late, but was soooo glad my body remembered. We hopped up, went to have breakfast downstairs before they shut down the buffet, then headed out for our day...

We decided to take a trip up to the area near Porto where all the wineries are. Not that we could really go on the wine tasting tours (well, we could have, but wouldn't have been too much fun for me), but it was supposedly a nice drive and pretty country, according to Jerry. It's only after we set out that he tells me it's through pretty windy roads and he and a bunch of guys got lost the last time they tried to do this drive. Great....

Having me serve as navigator is a horrible idea since I'm doing good to get back and forth to work each day without incident, but I certainly couldn't drive since it was a stick shift. He wasn't kidding - the roads were VERY windy, and I definitely started feeling woozy about an hour into the drive. And we got lost. This is about the time we came up with our two mantras for the trip: 1) "We're getting there and 2)It's an adventure. Luckily we made it to Regua safe and sound after a few wrong turns and near misses of me almost having to hang my head out the window. Regua is a cute little town along the river Douro, so we just sort of wandered up and down the streets, found a place to have a bite to eat, and wandered some more.

Things got really interesting when we tried to go home. Jerry was trying to find the short cut back to the main highway to avoid all the twists and turns....well, we ended up on some teeny tiny roads that I was sure we were going to get into a head-on collision on through these tiny little "towns" if you can even call them that. One of the funniest things we saw was this little old lady shuffling along the side of the road chatting away on her cell phone. These towns didn't have any good signage for stupid Americans that got lost, but they had cell phone service??? After a few choice words on both our parts and driving alongside what we knew to be the main road we were looking for, we finally got to a point where we could actually get on said road and head back to Porto. I tried to get Jerry to just drive through the vines and undeveloped land just to get to the road faster, but I guess he was concerned about messing up the rental or something :)

When we got back to Porto we walked over the bridge that connects Porto to Villa de Gaia (where Jerry's actually staying). It was really beautiful as it was just at nighttime and everything was lit up. We went down by the river and had dinner at a great restaurant called Chez Lapin. It was recommended to Jerry by one of the Portuguese he works with (it was where he took his wife on their very first date). It was SO good. Jerry had the veal (which I'm not a huge fan of, but still tried and it was pretty good), and I had pork in a mustard sauce. Yummy! After dinner (which ended around 11 or so...these people eat LATE) we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the next day. We decided during the day that we were going to take the early train to Lisbon, knock around there all day, then board the hotel train for Madrid at 10:30pm. Little did we know what was waiting for us in Lisbon!!

Come ON!

2009-07-02T11:11:00.000-07:00

Small break in the Portugal/Spain action....

Had to go to the freaking eye doctor today. My eyes have been itching like crazy, tearing up and looking like I'm hung over on and off for a week now. I finally broke down and went to the doc today because it started to look suspiciously like pink eye. Thankfully it's not that, but some allergic reaction to something. That's about as specific as he got - "it seems you are definitely allergic to something in the environment." Gee Doc, that narrows it down. Thanks.

Good thing I recently got a nice pair of glasses that I don't mind wearing out in public.

Portugal Day 1

2009-06-25T13:21:00.000-07:00

So my trip to finally get to see Jerry after 2.5 months of separation began on June 5th. I had originally planned on flying out of Savannah at around 3:30 and then catch the flight from Atlanta to Madrid at 6:40. Well, after a quick look at the weather on Friday morning I realized I needed to get the heck out of Savannah earlier if possible. At the slightest hint of bad weather either here or Atlanta, and that flight is the first to get cancelled. It would not have been pretty had my flight been cancelled! So I called Delta on the way in to work and sure enough, I could get on the 11:45 flight to Atlanta (for what was supposed to be a $100 change fee....but they never asked for my credit card at check in!). I had to go in and do a few things before leaving the office, so Mom took Carrie to the Barnes & Noble to check out the books and get some Starbucks then picked me up around 10:30. Love flying out of Savannah - even if your flight is at 11:45 you can pretty much guarantee it won't be hard to get through security or anything. Of course, when I got there and got to the kiosk to check in, the stupid machine had no record of my reservation. Panic ensues (it's what I'm good at), but I finally flagged down an agent and told her what was going on. She was able to pull up my reservation and got me all checked in and ready to go!

By this time it was about 11, so I needed to scoot through security and get settled at the gate. Carrie was fine til I tried to kiss her goodbye and she lost it, which made me lose it. I'm walking down to the security line and I can hear her wailing :( I got through security with no problems, got my Java Chip Frappuchino and got settled at the gate. I called my mom to check on Carrie and she says "Oh yeah, she's fine now. As soon as we left you she spotted a dog in the airport and was totally fine." Gee, glad I'm so easily replaced!!

The flight to Atlanta was fine. Got there and had some lunch at Chilis while sitting next to a rather rude woman. She engaged me in conversation and, when I told her where I was going, she couldn't quite comprehend why on earth I wouldn't quit my job and move to Portugal while Jerry was there. Gee lady, as great as that sounds, I can't really abandon my job and uproot Carrie and all that. I just finished my lunch as quickly as possible and got the heck out of there!!

Let me say that I am spoiled for life now....anytime I fly anywhere as far away as Portugal I'm gonna want to fly first class. It was so amazing!! I actually slept on the plane, quite comfortably actually, and it was just a really nice experience. I mean, it doesn't really make me love flying by any stretch, but it did help the anxiety level.

Got in to Madrid around 9:30am their time (that'd be 3:30am east coast time), and had to do the whole customs/recheck bag thing and went to wait on my flight to Vigo where Jerry was going to pick me up. That flight was uneventful, and I landed around 1pm their time. I was SO excited to see Jerry that I managed to walk right out of the secure area...without retrieving my luggage. Great. I found Jerry and he was like "Um, glad to see you, but didn't you bring any clothes for the next 10 days?" So we had to track someone down that would take pity on the poor brainless pregnant woman and let me back in to get my bags. Retrieved my bags and we were off!

Jerry warned me about the rental car before we even got to it. It was a nasty shade of brown, so I'm sure you can imagine the nicknames he gave it. We piled in and started to head back to Porto. We did stop in one little town (Jerry - what was the name of it??) and saw a really pretty church on top of a hill that had great views. We also managed to see a bride while there. We were there for about an hour or so, then headed off to look for some food. These people eat at weird hours. I think it was like 4pm or so when we stopped at a restaurant and had some pizza. I was pretty impressed with Jerry's Portuguese; that is, until the waitress stopped him at one point and said "You can speak English." I think Jerry felt a little put off, but I think he was doing a great job :)

We made it back to Porto and I have to say his accomodations are actually pretty good. Good thing since he's been there for 6 months. He's got a kitchen area, a TV (with mainly Portuguese channels, of course), a sitting area, and then the bedroom is separate. We pretty much just dropped off my stuff then headed out to attempt to secure reservations on the hotel train from Lisbon to Madrid for 6/8. We got to the train station and that particular one had already closed their international counter, so we had to go one stop up to the next station. Got there, Jerry didn't have his passport so we couldn't get the Eurail passes validated. Go back to original train station to get Jerry's backpack out of the car which has his passport (all the while me doing the mommy thing saying "Why don't you have your passport on you ANYWAYS???"), go back up to the other station and get our reservations and then go back to original train station. Oy.

Then we go park the car at the hotel and start walking. Not really my idea of fun after a long day of travel, but okay. It was very interesting to see everything that Jerry's been talking about for months. We went to the grocery store which was an experience and an education all in one, seeing the different meats/fish they eat. After that we went back and had dinner at the hotel. By this time it was about 10pm! Very late to me, but apparently very normal. The only good thing was that this certainly got me on track for not having jet lag the next day!!

Panic & Separation Anxiety

2009-06-24T07:45:00.000-07:00

I know I know...I promised to give blow by blow updates on what happened in Portugal/Spain, and I will. I just had to get this out before I exploded though.

I have those lovely little ticker things on my iGoogle home page. You know, the ones that count down to whatever event you program into it. I have one that happily announces that Carrie's 3rd birthday is 299 days away...and another that says it's a mere 72 days until Baby Reeves #2 arrives. SEVENTY-TWO DAYS, people. And that's assuming this child does not try to make an early appearance (please don't, little one - your daddy isn't back yet!!) Can you say that panic has officially set in? There is so much to be done from my perspective and not nearly enough time to do it (what with me all but collapsing on the couch after Carrie goes to sleep in the evenings). There's so much crap in storage that I need to haul out and start getting cleaned up and ready like car seats, baby bathtubs, swings, etc. Carrie's big girl bed isn't in yet, but when it does come in we'll have to do that little transition which hopefully will go well (note to self - I still need to get some sheets for the poor child to put on the bed). There's all this stuff that I had planned on getting done while Jerry was gone that hasn't materialized yet, like making sure Carrie's baby book is all up to date, photo albums are current, etc. And oh yeah, there's the little thing of us still not having bought our own home yet. I seriously thought we would have by now after selling our FL house in February, and we had several prospects, but we honestly just lost steam on it for awhile and had so many other things going on it got pushed to the side. Plus it honestly freaks me out a bit at the idea of buying a home without Jerry actually seeing it with his own two eyes (yes, I know I can email pictures and video, but it's not the same!) I know all this probably sounds silly to many, if not all, of you, but these are the things that keep me up at night so don't make fun. I just know that two children does not equal twice the work - from what I hear the work grows exponentially instead (how's that for a GT dorkism?). I can't promise I won't have an anxiety attack before this is all said and done! ;)

On another note, poor Carrie does NOT like for Mommy to take her to school apparently. She had a meltdown on Monday for whatever reason when I dropped her off. I think it was a combination of me waking her up early, her not being used to me dropping her off in the mornings, and the final straw was when we got to school and realized Miss Elisabeth (her favorite teacher) was not there. Cue gigantic tears from the wee one, and it broke Mommy's heart too. Yesterday was "water day" so she didn't hesitate at all about going to school since she knew kiddie pools and sprinklers were in her future. Today we had more tears before I even tried to give her a kiss goodbye. She just glued herself to my leg and when I sat down with her for a minute she plopped right in my lap and stuck her thumb in her mouth. Thanks to some quick thinking from Miss Rita, some snacks and a sticker the morning was saved. It just breaks my heart to see her crying like that when I know it's because I'm about to head out the door. I'm not sure if it's just typical toddler behavior or if she's afraid Mommy is going to disappear for awhile again like I did when I went to visit Jerry. Either way it sort of stinks (even though I know she'll be fine)!

Made it back!!

2009-06-16T10:38:00.000-07:00

So I've made it back safe and sound from my whirlwind Portugal/Spain trip. I will provide more details later (i.e. when I can upload all of the pictures that will help me to remember what I did on this trip, cause there was a LOT!), but I just wanted to say hi to everyone and let you know I'm back on this side of the pond. It was sooooo good to see Jerry. I hold it together fairly well these days with him being gone, but I miss him more than words can say. There were definitely tears in the Madrid airport (and not just on my part, although I was responsible for a marjority of them...sorry Jerry!)

Two transatlantic flights gives you a lot of time to think, and one thing I realized during this trip - I am one incredibly blessed and lucky person. I mean, I already knew that, but trips like this really bring it back into perspective for me, you know? I have one amazing husband and one really cool kid (about to have one more really cool kid!!) My parents and in-laws are the greatest people on the face of the earth to pretty much drop everything they are doing to take care of Carrie so I could go have this experience of visiting Jerry and getting to mark two more countries off my "to visit" list. I have a lifestyle such that I can go to all these great countries and have all of these wonderful (and not so great) travel experiences (just wait till I blog about the hotel train, folks). I have been to many more countries than most people will ever get to go to in their lives, and I'm only 32. For the most part I have my health. There are people WAY worse off than me, although I confess that sometimes I have to remind myself of that when my Crohn's is flaring and I feel like whining. I still have a job in this economic climate, and Jerry was able to land one.

All in all, I think I'm a pretty lucky gal.

Random thoughts

2009-06-03T19:14:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since I posted so there's lots of random thoughts running around in my head. Here goes!
-I hate flying. HATE. IT. Like, so much so that I tend to generally try to take benadryl or something similar when flying so I can just hopefully fall asleep and wake up on the other side. It never happens that way, but if I take the benadryl I generally don't have a panic attack at every slight turbulence. I got the go ahead from the doc today to take some benadryl or tylenol PM for the upcoming flight should I need/want it. Can someone tell me again why I insist on wanting to visit all these places that require such long flights? I never regret it when I get there, but man....the getting there part sucks sometimes. I'm not sure where I got this irrational fear from, but maybe first class seats will help me get over it :)

-I finally finished up most of my packing tonight. I was halfway done on Sunday, but got derailed by Carrie. She was "helping" me as she so often likes to do these days, but disappeared for a minute and came back dragging her little rolling backpack announcing that she too was going to pack for Portugal. Can you say Mommy turned into a puddle?

-Got another dose of Remicade last Friday. This stuff works crazy well. My last GI doc in FL used to joke with me and say it's my version of crack. Why yes it is, and I'm not afraid to say it. I hadn't gained any weight at my last two OB appointments which was starting to concern my doc, but I went back today and I'm finally up to having gained 10lbs so far for the pregnancy. Never thought I'd be excited about gaining weight people! I also got to have another peek at the little guy/gal, which was great. Everything's measuring right on, so yeah for that!

-Work's been tough this week. Staff reorganizations are never fun, especially when they include eliminating positions. It's times like these I really don't like being in HR.

-Carrie and I took our first solo road trip to Atlanta over the Memorial Day holiday, and I am excited to say it went quite well! We didn't have any major breakdowns (vehicle or Carrie-wise), and it was great to see family. We were supposed to have a repeat trip last weekend for a friend's baby shower, but alas, it was not meant to be. Carrie got snotty and coughy on Friday, then on Saturday thought it best to get some sort of stomach virus....which I apparently picked up starting Sunday night/Monday morning. Ugh. Thankfully both of us are done with the getting sick thing, although I'm still hacking up a lung.

I think that's all for now folks. I can't make any promises to post while I'm in Portugal/Spain, but I'll try :)

Here goes nothin'

2009-05-15T13:39:00.000-07:00

So I got my first pregnancy Remicade today, which went quite uneventfully, thank you very much. I think I had all of the poor nurses freaked out though - nothing like a pregnant lady waddling in to get an IV infusion to set folks on edge! Got my tylenol & benadryl, then the Remicade and took a nice 3 hour nap. My nurse said she kept coming in and checking on me and I was sound asleep until the pump beeped and I was out of juice. I'm in "negotiations" with my GI right now as to the schedule of treatments....when a person first starts this medicine, you have what's called an induction phase where you go once, then go two weeks later, then four weeks after that, then every eight weeks. I contend that I didn't have to do that when I came back on it from being pregnant with Carrie (a lapse of 10 months), but current GI thinks it's been too long and I have to go through the entire induction phase again. Hopefully once the PA relays the info to him that I've already been down this road once and came back on it after a 10 month hiatus I won't have to do that, but we'll see. It would only mean one extra treatment than what I was already expecting, but still...only want to have to to do this the absolute minimum number of times! Baby's still kicking around in there, so that's a good sign. The plus side of these treatments is definitely the built in nap during the day though. Nothing like it :)

Also, I was able to eat my very first meal with NO stomach cramping AT ALL for the first time in about 2-3 months (mmmmm.....Moe's). Coincidence? Placebo effect? Perhaps. I choose to believe the meds are already kicking in, though.

On a fun note, one of my very good friends from my college days is making her way down to visit as I type. It should be lots of fun! Nothing exciting planned for this evening, but I've got a babysitter coming tomorrow to hang with Carrie while we go out to dinner and a movie. Not sure what we'll go see, but I told her I didn't care as long as I got some movie-theater popcorn :)