Puppy pictures!

Don't ya love that belly!?!

Finally some news...

The doctor's office finally called a few minutes ago. They got Abby's chest xray back and nothing appears to be anatomically wrong with heart. That's super good news. We are still waiting for the EKG results to come back and she will still have to see the pediatric cardiologist.

I am relieved, but also still worried. I feel like I can stop holding my breath after we see the cardiologist and he gives her a clean bill of health. But at least I feel like I can go on with my day-to-day life now.

I am so lucky that I have such a wonderful husband. It's during the rough times that you find out how much you really love eachother.

And the waiting continues....

I'm *still* waiting for the test results and I'm basically going out of my mind. Josh called the doctor's office a few hours ago and they still didn't have an answer. We may not even know today. Ihhh, the waiting is killing me!

I'm trying to keep busy. Abby and I are watching Spongebob and I'm dinking around on the computer. We already went for a really long walk which wore out the puppy. So I'll probably be posting a lot of random things while I kill time.


Sweet Kitty
WOW!!! you are one lovely thing. You are cute and
adorable people can't help but look at you when
you go down the street. Well done you lovely
thing.


What kind of hello Kitty are you?
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I'm Sandy

You are Sandy! You're hard core and know karate!
You can handle almost anything, but sometimes
get a little carried away...


Which Spongebob character are you?
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Waiting and waiting...

I still haven't heard from Abby's doctor what is going on. The waiting is awful. I just want to know what we are dealing with.

Meanwhile, thank you everyone for your support. It's a time like this when I really need you to lean on.

I am trying really hard to keep busy and enjoy being with my little girl today. I have my phone in my pocket so there's no chance of missing the call. The day is dragging and I am willing that phone to ring. I can't wait until Josh is home so I don't have to wait alone. 3 1/2 more hours until he is.

Please send your prayers and positive energy our way.

This is neat

See your name

Here's mine:


Or:

Abby

Abby had her 3 year old check up today. I was expecting the usual "she drinks too much milk, she needs to be potty trained, etc". Instead she was diagnosed with a heart murmur. We spent the day at the hospital while they ran tests on her. She has to see a pediatric cardiologist. I am sitting here waiting for a phone call from the pediatrican to find out how serious this is.

I just keep thinking: this isn't really happening. Of course, no mother wants to accept that something could be wrong with her child's health. I just can't bear for something to be wrong with my little girl. Of course I love both my children. But Abby is special to me. She's the little girl I always wanted. And the pain I went through with my gallbladder so that she had a chance at life formed a special bond between us. I just keep thinking that I'm having a nightmare. But I'm not....

I can't go to class tonight. I know there would be no chance of my learning anything. Certainly not while I'm waiting for test results. All I want to do is hold my little girl.

Proud wifey!

I am so proud of my hubby today. Well, I am every day...but today more so. Josh launched a big deal thing at work today. I know he was nervous, but he looked so darn cute all dressed up in a tie this morning. He called me a little while ago to let me know that everything had gone off without a hitch. I'm so proud of my smart hubby!

Sunday morning bliss

I love my gray pajama pants. I would wear them all day every day if I could. They are loose and stretchy and comfy. I wearing them now in fact lounging around today refusing to do anything constructive.

Yesterday got better. We went to Cornfest with Matt. We ate lots of free corn and walked around looking at everything. We got some yummy Thai food too. Abby managed to lose 3 balloons. Every time she got one, I asked her if I could tie it on her wrist. She spazzed out, so I didn't and then she'd lose it. Ugh.

Later in the day, my parents came out and Josh and I went to Johnny's Charhouse for a really nice dinner. I had the crab stuffed shrimp...yum! When we came home, we put the kids to bed. Josh went over to Matt's for awhile and the puppy and I curled up on the couch and watched movies on TV. We watched Independence Day, Beaches, and Gone in 60 Seconds. Not all of each movie though. We flipped between commercials.

Today I don't think we'll do much. I am currently trying to think up a good reason to go back to bed with a book and be lazy in my pajama pants.

Helluva morning

It's been the morning from hell.

Evan woke up at 6:30 and then the puppy (Gracie) started barking because she wanted out of her crate. He didn't let her out, so she kept barking and woke up Abby. Since the cats heard all this noise, they decided it was time for us to get up and feed them, so they started mewing. Naturally Josh and I squabbled over who was going to get up and deal with all this. I felt that he should because he took a nap yesterday and then went to bed early. And he basically just didn't want to get up. This is typical of him, he never wants to get up.

Finally he got up and went downstairs. I fed the cats. He told Evan that since he decided to get up early, Evan needed to take care of Gracie. Abby whined for a little while but eventually went back to sleep.

We fell back asleep for awhile, but kept waking up to Gracie whining/barking. It turns out Evan put her back in her crate because he didn't feel like dealing with her.
When we came downstairs, we also found that someone had left ice cream on the counter all night and it melted everywhere.

Someone stold our Saturday morning paper. This isn't surprising because the paperboy doesn't throw the paper anywhere near our porch. We are lucky if lands somewhat on our lawn and not our neighbors.

It's 10:30 now, and we are supposed to go to Cornfest in an hour. I am waiting for Josh to come back from Walmart (he had to get cold medicine for us) so I can take a shower. I know that if I take a shower while he's gone, Evan will find a way to make Abby whine,scream and cry while I'm in the shower. So I have to wait. It wouldn't really matter we are so slow, but Matt is supposed to go to Cornfest with us.

If it sounds like I'm complaining, I am. I feel like I'm having a no good, very bad terrible day....or however that book goes.

But on the upside (yes there is one!), we will most likely get free corn today and eat some greasy fattening fair food. Bring on the fried candy bars! Also, my parents are coming later to watch the kids (and Gracie) so we can go out to dinner! Yay, a date!

Aaack!

I came downstairs after running upstairs for a few minutes and found Gracie chewing on the moulding on the wall! The new moulding on my new wall in my new house! Aaack! I wonder if I can tell the builder that it's a defect that is covered in our home warranty....

1 week down, 15 more to go!

I survived the first week of school! Woohoo! My Math class is not that bad so far. My Study of Africa class looks like it will be both interesting and light on work. The other two (Criminal Justice and Marketing) look to be interesting but possibly have a bigger workload. It won't kill me though.

I am just thinking of how wonderful it will feel to be done. Josh promised me a nice dinner out when I'm through and a party in May after my/our commencement ceremony. So I have those two things to look forward to. I also realized that after this semester I will have 8 months off before starting NIU. 8 months! That will be a very nice break that I will love! So when I start complaining about school and not having any free time remind me of all this.
I am still trying to figure out what I am going to do with myself after I get this degree. I know I'm going to NIU. I know I'm most likely going to stick with Political Science, but I'm not sure of what my end objective is. Is it Law school? Is it teaching? Is it just to say I did it? Hmm... International Politics is really interesting to me, but I don't know what I would do with it.

But anyway around it, one week down...15 more to go!

Finally feeling better

I am feeling a good bit better now. Thank goodness, I don't have time to be sick.

Love

I always thought it was silly when people would say they watched their loved one while they were sleeping. That is until I fell in love with Josh.

It's the little things that remind me of how lucky I am to have him. I can't sleep tonight because I'm sick and Josh and Milo are basically hogging the bed. But instead of moving them or going somewhere else to sleep, I feel loved. I feel loved that I have this beautiful man in my bed and in my heart. I feel loved that my big orange kitty wants to sleep sprawled out at my feet every night. So I watch them sleeping. And I fall in love with every curl on Josh's head again. And I look at how peaceful he's sleeping and I fall in love with him again.

I am so lucky. I mean how many men go out and buy their wives fuzzy pink blankets just so they'll have something cute to curl up with while they're sick? I don't imagine many would do that.
Josh loves me no matter what. He loves me whether I'm sick or bitchy, fat or thin. He loves me if I don't clean the house. He loves me even when I spend way too much money on stupid things like clothes. And I love him not matter what too.

This is what marriage is. It's watching him sleep, and fuzzy pink blankets, and taking care of each other when we're sick. I can't believe I ever had a life without him.

25% Bed

I can't sleep and I think this has something to do with the fact that I only get 1/4 of the bed. Josh takes up half obviously and then Milo (my cat) takes up 1/4 of my side. So I feel a little scrunched. It's nice not to sleep alone of course, but when I'm sick I just want to be left alone.

More sick today

Today I am feeling worse. This could be a good thing though because maybe tomorrow I'll be all better! *crossing fingers*

Despite feeling yucky I still cleaned the house, washed the floors and took the kids to the park. I tried to get some homework done but Abby was watching Spongebob and I couldn't help but get sidetracked and start watching it.

Josh is so sweet. He bought me this fuzzy pink blanket I'd had my eye on at Target. It feels like a stuffed animal. He also made me chicken noodle soup when he got home and let me take a nap. I just woke up a few minutes ago actually. He is going to make me more soup for dinner and a roast beef sandwich. Sounds yummy to me. When I'm sick soup and sandwiches are usually the only things that sound good.

1st day of school

I had my first day of school today and I survived it. In my math class we played with shapes. I felt like I was back in kindergarten. I also broke out into a cold sweat because I'm feverish and sick. Eh...

I raced home to my hubby who took care of me. He made me tea, snuggled with me on the couch and watched Law and Order with me. It made me feel happier. Hopefully tomorrow I'll feel all better.

Ouchy throat

I woke up with a really sore throat and stuffy nose today. It sucks because 1) Moms don't get to rest and 2) I have to be at school from 5 until 7:45 tonight. Hopefully Abby will take a nice nap for me soon so I can curl up somewhere with a nice hot cup of tea to soothe my throat.

Some people shouldn't mutliply

Courtney Love is pregnant again! Anyone who has seen her on t.v. recently knows she is definitely still using drugs. I watched her recently on The Roast Of Pamela Anderson and I couldn't believe how ridiculous she was acting for someone supposedly clean. I wasn't surprised at all when only a few days she admitted to using drugs still. I really hope that this is just a rumor. I'd feel terrible for any child she's been carrying while she's been high. She seems to have such a messed up life...what sort of life is that for a child. I think it's really sad.

How cute are these?

I need these mary janes from Torrid. How cute are they!?!?

Eeek, I'm about to be eaten by a praying mantis!

Ok, so there's a praying mantis of all things right outside my front door. And it really creeps me out. Evan had said yesterday that there was one outside his window, and I was like "yeah right"...sure. I didn't believe him. Well, today when I went to take Abby and Gracie out for a walk, lo and behold there was a praying mantis! It was sitting in the little window next to my front door. And it was looking at me. It's little head swiveled around to look at me. Don't eat they eat their mates or something? I think they do. Not the kind of bug friend I want hanging out on my front porch.

So, I asked Josh to move the praying mantis but he wasn't able to do it for some reason. So Mr. Mantis is still hanging out looking at us through the window.

Something about socks

Why am I up at 3:30am? Well, because Abby woke me up screaming something about her socks. When I went into her room though I couldn't figure out what the problem was, but she was freaking out about:

"Cover me up" (she was already covered up)
"Gimme another blanket" (Uh, ok...but it's hot)
"Music box!" (which apparently means I ought to wind her music box up)

Goodness....
And then she proceeded to whine and cry for a good 1/2 hour...so now here I am wide awake and she's fallen back to sleep. Doesn't that figure?

How come I am the only one to hear her in the middle of the night? It's always been that way too. Is that Josh tunes out her out, is he faking that he can't hear her, or is he just a really heavy sleeper?!? I think Moms are more in tune with their kids and instinctively know when something is wrong, so we wake up.

It was a very good year...

In 1976 (the year you were born)

Gerald Ford is president of the US The US celebrates its bicentennial, marking the 200th anniversary of its independence The Viking II sets down on Mars' Utopia Plains Promising, "I will never lie to you," Jimmy Carter is elected president of the United States Israeli commandos rescue hostages from Entebbe, Uganda The Concorde begins flights from New York to Europe George W. Bush is arrested and fined for driving under the influence of alcohol Cray-1, the first commercially developed supercomputer, is invented by Seymour Cray Freddie Prinze Jr., Reese Witherspoon, Colin Farrell, 50 Cent, Fred Savage, and Shannon Elizabeth are born Cincinnati Reds win the World Series Pittsburgh Steelers win Superbowl X Montreal Canadiens win the Stanley Cup Rocky is the top grossing film Filming begins on George Lucas' Star Wars The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins is published The Eagles Their Greatest Hits compilation becomes the first album in history to be certified platinum "Tonight's The Night" by Rod Stewart spends the most time at the top of the US chart Charlie's Angels and The Muppet Show premiere

What Happened the Year You Were Born?

More cool things for your blog at
Blogthings

Zzzzzz....

I have a Tylenol PM hangover. I took some yesterday afternoon because I had a headache and my nose was stuffy. Little known fact: the sleepy stuff in Tylenol PM is the same active ingredient that is in Benadryl. My hubby the amateur pharmacist clued me in to that one. While it's great that I was able to cure my stuffy nose and achey head, I also knocked myself out for the night. I took a nap and had one heck of a time trying to wake up from it. Then Matt came over and I sat and stared at the wall like a zombie. Hopefully I wasn't drooling. Eh... I wound up going to bed for the night around 10:30. Josh let me sleep until 9:45. But I still feel all weird. Darn Tylenol PM....

Books

I got my books today for school. I am taking 4 classes and my books came to $288! The sad thing is that I'll be lucky to sell them back for $20. But it felt good to be buying books for my last semester at Kish. Woohoo, I will finally be getting an associate's degree after only 11 years. To be fair, I haven't been going to school the entire 11 years...it's been off and on. But still....

Today was a good day

We had a really nice day today. Josh took today and tomorrow off. We were originally going to go to Lake Geneva, but we didn't want to put the puppy in a kennel. So, instead we decided to just do a bunch of fun stuff around home.

We had a lazy morning watching Spongebob, eating donuts and drinking coffee. And of course...playing with the puppy. Then we went to the pool where we spent the afternoon. It was a lot of fun and very relaxing.

After the pool, we went for ice cream...yum! Then we went to Chuck E Cheese in Batavia. The kids loved that. I thought it would kind of drive me crazy, but it didn't. It was a lot of fun. Abby didn't want to leave and she threw a fit. Then we went to Trader Joe's...love it there! We got some wine, cheese, and chocolates. Finally we headed home.

When the kids were in bed, Josh and I enjoyed our snacks from Trader Joe's and watched the Daily Show. It was a super nice relaxing day.

Calgon, take me away!

The construction workers have decided to blare talk radio today. I have my windows closed because the air is on but I can still hear it. How annoying.

Also, Evan decided it would be a good idea to shut both Gracie (the puppy) and Milo (the cat) in the dog crate together so they could be friends. OMG. I was writing my hubby a message when Evan came upstairs to tell me that Milo and Gracie were laying next to each other. I found this surprising since Milo had previously been scared of Gracie. Suddenly Gracie started barking in a way I'd never heard her do before. And Evan admitted they were shut in the crate together. Oh goodness! Luckily they were both ok. I think Milo may need some sort of cat therapy after this though. He's hiding under my bed. And honestly I could expect my 3 year old to think locking the animals up together would be a good idea, but not the 10 year old. We had a long talk after that....

Mommy is very worn out and has a headache (thank you construction workers!) and it's not even 10:00 yet. Ugh...this is going to be a L-O-N-G day.

6 more days till I'm a schoolgirl again

Josh and I start school next Monday. Eeek! We are going to get our books today when he gets home from work. I think it'll be real for me when I have the books. I'm trying to be excited about it, but really I'm just kind of freaking out that I'm adding so much to my already busy days.

I think it sucks that Evan doesn't have to start until the week after we do. What's up with that? I guess it's good that we don't start at the same time because it gives me a chance to get into the groove of school before I have to help him with his homework. But it's still sucky that he gets another week of summer than we do. Hmpf.

Greasy Gracie

It's funny how the name Gracie when said by a 3 year old comes out "Greasy!". It was rather interesting taking the new puppy for a walk today with Abby and having Abby keep calling her that. LOL

Meet the new member of our family!

We got a puppy yesterday! Her name is Gracie and she is 8 or 9 weeks old (the rescue wasn't sure which). She is a Golden Retriever/Australian Shepard mix and we absolutely adore her.

This is her picture from the rescue...I do not know who the hairy arm belongs too, LOL.

Does anybody even read this thing?

Or I am just senselessly babbling into cyberspace? Come on people, comment...make a girl smile!

I can't sleep and I need a dog

So it's like 2am and for some odd reason I'm totally wired and can't sleep. This sux because I haven't slept well for like a week now for one reason or another. So I'm sitting here listening to my hubby snore and a thunderstorm outside. You'd think these things would encourage me to sleep, but no...

And I need a dog. I have been wanting a dog for years. Seriously. And I always had my hopes that once we moved into this house, I would get one. Well we've been here since April 1st...and still no dog. In all fairness, I have to admit that up until about 2 weeks ago we could barely afford to feed ourselves let alone a dog. But now the tides have turned and I want my dog darnit!

I am not particular about what kind. I used to be stuck on having a really big dog. Like 100 pounds plus. I grew up with BIG dogs. First an Irish Setter and then a Great Pyrenees, so to me that is what a dog is. Josh on the other hand always had small dogs like a poodle. So to him, big is like a Cocker Spaniel. But I am able to meet him in the middle. Mostly because I realize that a giant dog wouldn't be happy in our home. We only have a very tiny front yard and it's not fenced in, so the dog's activity would have to be walks.

I have found several puppies on Petfinder that appeal to me. Josh has found a 2 year old dog that he likes. I'm hoping we'll find a dog that we can agree on soon. Evan really wants a dog too. I think he wants a puppy though. We stopped at the pet store in Sycamore tonight on our way to pick up a pizza (YUM, Italian Dreams!) and he was so bummed because he wanted to get a husky right then and there. I felt bad for him. A little boy needs a dog to play with, right?

*sigh* Somewhere out there is my perfect pup...I hope I find him or her soon. :-)

Mommies don't get sick days

Yesterday it would have been nice to call in sick. But, wait...mommies can't do that.

I had such a horrid headache all day yesterday. The worst of it was that nothing I tried made it better. I tried Aleve, Tylenol PM, laying down...none of it helped. And as you moms know, it's really difficult to try to lay down with a toddler running about.

Sometimes I hate thinking up a title

Or it could be that I'm feeling grouchy today because of the heat. :-)

Actually, life is pretty exciting lately and full of some happy things. First of all, I'm re-pinking my hair tonight and that makes me happy. Oh, how I love pink! Also, we just paid off our huge credit card...oh, that felt good! We also got two refunds we didn't know about-one from the electric company and one from our escrow account. Yesssss!

I'm also really happy for two of my friends because they have exciting things going on. My best friend from forever ago Amy is about to adopt a baby! And another one of my best friends from high school Alycia is about to get married! I am going to her bachelorette party this weekend...yay! It's so awesome to see the people I love having great things happening in their lives.

Eh, sick today

The heat is making me sick today. We did wind up going to the Taste (against my better judgement because I felt icky) and it *was* fun. However it was darn hot, I was sweating just sitting around. I also felt like I was melting into my shoes...yucko! But we did get to see our bellydance class...woohoo! They were awesome. Cassandra and I felt like slackers because we weren't dancing with them. I tried to get Evan to go up and dance when they invited the audience up for a "lesson", but he wouldn't. Abby got her groove on while we were watching though. LOL. We split a fried candy bar, yum!

Now I'm hoping for a nice relaxing evening. I am dying for Josh's baked french onion soup and a sandwich. Oh, and a little SIMS 2 wouldn't hurt either. :-)

Finally some peace....

We've had the lovliest weekend so far and I really feel that it was about time things went our way. I feel so peaceful now. (Yes, I'm still sad about the MIL incident but it's not foremost in my mind now)

Evan is at my parents' house for the weekend. My mom wanted some special one-on-one time with him before school begins. And apparently he's having a blast over there and behaving himself like a little gentleman.

So, it's just Josh, Abby and I at home. It's quiet since Abby has no one to fight with or tease. *phew* Last night we went out to Tiger Direct in Naperville and bought a new computer and new flat screen monitor. I feel so disloyal to my beloved lappentoppen when I say this, but I love the new computer. It's fast, it's quiet, and the 6 button works. Wooohoo! It's going to be a great help when school begins. So after we got the computer Josh took us out to Spaghetti Warehouse and we had the best time. I even won Abby a silly stuffed dog in one of those prize crane machines.
Today, we worked on cleaning out the garage. It was a mess! It's been sort of a wasteland for things we don't know what to do with since we moved in. Apparently it also doubles as a guest room for pissed off family members, LOL. (See, I *am* healing...I can joke about it now!) That was not fun of course, but I am pleased that it got done. Well mostly done, we need to take some things over to Salvation Army.

After we dealt with that, we went and picked up some Happy Meals and went over to the NIU Lagoon for a picnic. It was so nice to sit there and eat lunch and watch the ducks and geese. Abby loved walking around with them. She fed them some of her french fries too. While she took a nap, I got to play SIMS 2. I forgot to mention that it came around lunchtime today...wooohoo! How's the for service, I just bought it on Ebay yesterday! Anyway, I love it so far!

Tonight we are just staying in eating leftovers and taking it easy. Ah, what a relief. Tomorrow we are planning to go the Taste of Roselle. I am also looking forward to seeing some of our belly dance classmates preform. It should be a fun time!

I miss bellydancing....

I miss my bellydancing class. I feel like putting on my hip scarf and doing a shimmy while I clean the house. I just may...

I came across this cool belly dance site today. Get your shimmy on here!

Breakfast in bed...

There is something better than being alone in the morning, sharing my breakfast with Abby. I love the days when she wants to curl up in my bed and watch t.v. while we eat our toast. I know I *should* be doing something more productive, but I also know she's going to grow up fast. It seems like just yesterday that Evan was that small and now he's 10 and barely ever tears himself away from his Xbox.

Ah, peace and quiet...

I love mornings where I wake up before Abby. It's so refreshing to have some alone time before I start my day. It's silly, but I love being able to curl up in bed with my kitties and watch Good Morning America and check my email alone.

Keep on chugging along

Although I'm really hurt, I am trying to find my strength inside of myself and move on. Unfortunately I find myself with alot of time to think during the day and to replay bad things in my mind. But I know that that is not productive or healthy for me. So, I move on and I try to be strong.

"If your heart acquires strength, you will be able to remove blemishes from others without thinking evil of them."....Ghandi

I am so tired

I am so sleepy. I find myself falling asleep standing up. All the emotions of the past few days have really worn on me. I have had a hard time sleeping and as a result I'm super tired during the day. Goodness....

A Splash of pink

Somehow during the mayhem of this weekend, I felt inspired to add some pink. I'm glad I did because it makes me really happy.

Sometimes Ebay burns my biscuits!

I woke up to an email cancelling two of my listings on Ebay. The reasoning was for alleged key word spamming. Coincidentally I found 601 items for "lane bryant venezia" this morning. These are the same keywords that my listings were pulled for. Grr!

My pain comes from a bottle

Someone I love very deeply hurt me this weekend. The worst of it is that they didn't just hurt me, they hurt my husband and my children. They hurt us with their cruel words and actions.

This person may not remember what they said or did. They may not even have meant it. But we remember and it our hurts us. This person has broken my heart. I may be able to forgive them for what they said and did to me, but I don't know that I can ever forget what they said to and about my kids.

Please get help, if not for you, do it for those who love you.http://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org/

"Drinking makes such fools of people, and people are such fools to begin with, that it's compounding a felony."
Robert Benchley (1889 - 1945)