Tagged again!

See...this is what happens when I start blogging...I get tagged! lol

Shawna Taylor tagged me, so here I go. :)

These are the rules to play blogtag:
List 5 weird things about yourself or your pets.
Tag 5 friends and list them.

Those people need to write on their blogs about 5 weird things, and state the rules, and tag 5 more people. Don't forget to let the people you tag know by posting a comment on their blog! Here are my weird things:

1. It freaks me out to think of an unborn baby (especially mine) by her name yet...Seems like it is tempting fate to come and mess with me. I'm superstitious, I know.
2. Similarly, red and white flowers alone freak the crap out of me. Red and white flowers (without any other colors mixed in or greenery or whatever) mean death, so I get a little jumpy and nervous around Valentine's when it seems like red and white flowers are everywhere. hmmm...seems like I'm telling you that I'm superstitious. I blame it on my mom. ;)
3. I get all giggly over stupid things. Double entendres crack me up--there's nothing better than hearing someone say something completely innocently and just thinking to myself about what was just said. hehehe
4. I'm way too emotional these days. I know that I'm pregnant and hormonal, but jeez! I seriously feel like I'm a little crazy, too. It's one thing to get weepy about dropping off a crying kid at school, but when AT&T commercials bring on the tears...come on! lol I'm missing my goofy giggly self. Maybe I need more sleep. hehehe
5. and I don't sleep. Not enough anyway. My arthritis comes with insomnia, and late pregnancy has made it worse. Did I mention that my preschooler isn't exactly a fan of sleeping, either? She's not--though she's been much better about it lately and is getting into a more normal schedules. Oh well...I can sleep when I'm dead, right?

So who am I going to tag...How about:

1. Angela Spangler
   
2. Michelle Adams
   
3. Valerie Fowler
   
4. Mari Koegelenberg
   
5. Fee Jardine

***************

So I mentioned that sleep is getting better for Maggie, right? She's been doing so good about sleeping in her bed all night. Her wake up time is somewhere between 5:45 and 6:10--still early, but MUCH better than 4am. MUCH. Personally, I think 7:30 or 8 would be the perfect wake up time for her, but she doesn't seem to have gotten that memo. Oh well.

Now we have the school battle. I don't get it. She enjoys her time there (it's really Mother's Day Out, but who's counting). She loves her teachers. She has fun. Yet every school morning, she's in tears and screaming when I drop her off. I know she's just trying to get me to do what she wants, but at least the tears don't stop as soon as I go around the corner--then I'd really feel like she was manipulating me. No, it takes her 5-10 minutes (according to the teachers) to get acclimated to being in a new place and get interested in doing something other than crying. Now she's started asking every morning, "Is this a school day? I don't want to go to school!!!" On the way to school, it's "I don't want to go this way!" I'm just worn out from the battles and I can't get my head around the best way to get her through this. So far, I try to stay calm and just keep following through without faltering or giving in. Still, though, I have cried my little eyes out several times as I'm leaving the parking lot alone. Have I mentioned that I'm hormonal and overly emotional these days? lol I don't remember being this emotional when I was PG with Maggie. Maybe it all goes back to the lack of sleep. I'm sure it does. lol

enough from me. Can't wait to see what those I've tagged come up with!

I've been tagged!

Okie dokie, Christine Smith tagged me, so here goes:

List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether or not they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your LiveJournal/blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they’re listening to.

LOL--I read Christine's post about the music she listens to, and my choices are amazingly similar. Since Maggie is in the car with me most of the time I'm in the car, whatever I'm listening to tends to be what she's listening to...

1. anything from Cinderella--Maggie's versions, though. She sings "Sing Sweet Nightingale" as "Swing, Swing, Mom's in jail." Hey...it's kind of alternative, right? lol
2. anything from the Backyardigans. Lately she's been on a "High Tea" ("tea tea tea, we'll have the perfect cup of tea so lift your pinkies pip pip cheerio!") and "Viking Adventure," which also features Tasha as a mermaid ("cause I'm not only beautiful, I'm EXTRA EXTRA tough!")
3. Breathe...ok, how sad. I don't even know who sings it. It's that "breathe, just breathe" song that's on the radio right now.
4. Shake your body--is that by Shakira and somebody?
5-7. dude...I stink at this. Seriously. Whatever else I listen to is on an alternative/pop station. Gone are the days when I could list song after song that I played and replayed.

I love music but just haven't had much free time to listen lately. When Maggie isn't in the car (because I have dropped her off at school), I often just listen to the blessed silence. Lately Maggie has been on a "WHY" kick--meaning that I get 20 minutes worth of "whys"...why did you say, "Come on, dude, to that car, Mommy?" Because blah blah blah, "But why did he do that?" I don't know blah blah blah "Why was that not a good choice?" because it's not nice to blah blah blah "but why..." You get the picture. I swear, the only time the kid isn't talking is when she's sleeping, and I think she talks in her sleep half the time, too! Funny, when she wasn't as verbal as some of her friends at 18 months, I was really worried. Oh, I wonder what I was thinking now. lol Not really--she cracks me up with her observations and questions and comments. SOmetimes the silence is nice, though.

So who shall I tag...

1. Darla
2. Angela Spangler
3. Val
4. Rachel S (isaac&iansmomma)
5. Kimberlee (scrapandsass)
6. Hilary G
7. Charlene (berekah)

I've got 4D ultrasound pics!!

It's been a while, huh? I'm a slacker, aren't I? We've been busy. :)

Maggie started school last week--Mother's Day Out, but it's kinda like school. She had a good first two days and then a weepy third day. This week, she cried every morning when I dropped her off, but she had a great time once she was there. And, believe it or not, she has NAPPED at school every day this week!! Yes, the girl who hasn't napped in 2+ months at home has napped at school. Can't believe it! Her teachers are awesome and so sweet. I'm sure she'll be fine once she gets through this initial adjustment period. :)

My fall work schedule started up again, too, so I've been trying to get my new schedule all balanced out. I work two hours during the week days, so on the days that Maggie goes to school, I'm trying to get it done when she's at school so that I can spend time with her in the mornings and afternoons once she gets home. Then I work Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights for two hours. I'm not crazy about the night hours--I barely get to talk to Chris once Maggie goes to sleep and I'm not getting much down time these days. I'll get it all worked out, though. :)

And on to the ultrasound info...we had a 4D ultrasound today. Boy, we have a pretty girl growing in there! (Hope that doesn't sound like my head is too big! lol but she's cute!!) Everything looks good. She's measuring about a week and a half ahead (I'm 28 weeks tomorrow), but that's about where Maggie was at this stage. I figure we'll have another 9 lb baby (2 weeks early!). :) Thank God for c-sections! lol So she's got cute chubby cheeks and full and pretty lips. At one point she even had her hand underneath her chin like she was posing for a picture or something. Boy, how lucky would I be if I got a baby who could already pose! lol

Here are two of the pics:

So we're smitten. :) Maggie is so excited about the baby. Hopefully her opinion won't change when the real baby is here. I have a feeling we'll be in for some issues about sharing Mommy, but we'll see.

enough from me. Have a good night!

Exciting things at The DigiChick!!

Check out these two flyers! There are some exciting things going on at The DigiChick!

Check here for more information about The DigiChick CT call.

And look at this one!

Check here for more information about The De-Zine Logo Contest.

Great news and not so great news

I have some great news first...my new nephew is here!! My sister was scheduled to have a c-section this coming Friday, but apparently Grady (his name--isn't it cute!) wanted an earlier birthday. Her water broke at 4am on Monday morning and they did the c-section at 11am. Here's a pic of super cute Grady:

Ok, so the picture is sideways...work with me for a minute. My hands aren't cooperating and I thought it was best to just get the pic up. lol

Baby and Mom are doing well and the whole family is thrilled to have another boy around. Poor Will (my brother's son) was getting outnumbered fast. For a few months, the numbers will be even. Of course, then our 2nd little girl will be born and the girls will have the lead again. As it should be, right? lol

now...not so great news.

I went to the rheumatologist today to see what the plan is. Basically, he told me to start taking 10 mg of Prednisone in the morning and then 1 Extra Strength Tylenol every few hours. What that amounts to is that I'm not going to have much of anything to help me through the next 2 or so months. Tylenol is useless for me--it's no different than swallowing a Tic Tac--and 1 every few hours. uh, yeah, ok. Prednisone. Oh, Prednisone and I have a history, which is what sent me off the deep end today. Prednisone was the first thing they gave me when they finally realized (years ago) that I had arthritis. Because of Prednisone (not Prednisone alone, mind you--I know that I have a lot of responsibility there), I began the upward climb that led me to the weight that I am now. Not great. I had been feeling fairly good about myself--I've lost 13 lbs since getting pregnant...not because I'm trying but just because my body is freaky. I knew that it would reverse itself at some point (hello, I'm growing a person), but I was hoping that I'd at least be heading in the right direction after the baby comes. Enter Prednisone. I could easily gain 30-50 lbs in the few months that are left of my pregnancy, and watching what I eat while on Prednisone doesn't seem to make a bit of a difference. Not so thrilling. Yeah, I cried for at least 2 hrs of the 2.5 hr drive home from the doctor today. lovely.

Here's the honest to God truth (thank God for blogs...where else can I pour my heart out without feeling selfish or whiney or needy of attention? For all I know, nobody even reads my blog!)... Even though we had the ultrasound last month and I've been feeling the baby move lots, I've been worried sick. At around 24 weeks, NSAIDS (like the prescription Motrin I've been on and other anti-inflammatories) can close the hole in the baby's heart where blood goes in and out. Eventually, that hole will close on its own--when it's supposed to. That's not now. Even though both my rheumy and ob have told me that I'll be ok to take the prescription Motrin until 24 weeks (this coming Friday), I have been terrified that I'm doing something that will hurt my baby. All because I'm being selfish because I don't want to live in pain. Let me be clear--the Motrin definitely isn't taking away all of the pain...my left hand is barely functional. But it (the Motrin) lets me function, at least for now. So now I'm feeling like I've been selfish and horrible to risk something happening to my baby. Add to it now that I don't want to take Prednisone because I don't want to get any fatter than I already am and you've got a migrane and 2+ hours of crying in the making. I'm sure that some of this is being fueled by pregnancy hormones, the fact that I haven't slept much in the last month, the fact that Maggie has been difficult (to put it nicely) for the last month or so, and the fact that with my new nephew I'm much more aware of this little person growing inside me...it feels more real somehow. The reality is, though, that this has been building and coming and I'm just not sure what to do with it.

I know. What I have to do with it is accept it for what it is--yet another challenge...another way for me to reach for help where I can find it...and to prove that I am stronger than this. Look at all I've already beaten. Hell, it's not cancer--it's just pain. And potentially only 8-12 weeks of pain. Once the baby is here I can make different decisions about my medical care. All of those are logical things, though. Right now, there's an elephant in the room and it's making me want to just curl up in a ball and cry and sleep for a few hours.

Maybe I'll go do that. Maggie will be up early (as she always is lol), and I want to be myself for her. She's too important and too special for me to spend too much time wallowing in myself.

Thanks if you've read this far. Don't feel the need to do or say anything. I just had to get it out. Chris worries and nobody else really knows what to do or say if I ever share this stuff, so there it sits in my head. There's not enough room in there for it right now, though, so I'm glad that it's out, at least temporarily.

Have a good night. Hug your little ones. Be thankful for the blessings that you have been given--even though I'm struggling at the moment, my life is VERY VERY blessed. I'd be a fool not to recognize the bazillion blessings that I've been given. Perhaps the biggest one is the knowledge that I have someone bigger and better than me to help me through this--once I get over myself and get past the pity party. Tomorrow. It'll be a better day, right? Right. Most definitely. Good night.

Friendship Day stuff at TDC this weekend!

Make sure to check out The DigiChick this weekend!

We're going to have LOTS of fun, so clear out some time to work on some layouts this coming weekend!

I've been busy with Maggie and with planning for the Friendship Weekend at TDC, but we took some time out on Thursday to find out some good news:

It's a GIRL! All is well with Baby, and Maggie is right--she's going to have a little sister! Now we just have to think about names.

In other baby-type news, my sister's baby will be born on August 18 by c-section. We're excited to welcome a new little boy to the family...how much fun will that be?! For a couple of months, the numbers will be even--two girls (Maggie and Mary Maddox) and two boys (Will and the new baby...Grady). Of course, then we'll throw things off with the new baby. :)

A little more random stuff from me...this will be the last week that I can take meds for my arthritis. The docs (OB and Rheumatologist) have had me on an NSAID (Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory...prescription forms of things like Advil, Motrin, and Aleve), but from 24-32 weeks, those things can close the hole in the baby's heart where the blood goes in for now. That's an important thing, and we want to avoid risking that, so I'm off my meds on Sunday (2 weeks early just to be safe). I'm not sure what that means for me since I don't meet with the rheumatologist again until the 15th (about a week and a half). It could be an UGLY week and a half, though, so I might not be around much. I'll have to spend some time on the computer because of work (online writing tutoring), but my hands and wrists will probably not be very kind to me without any meds. We'll see, I guess. I'm hoping that the rheumy will have a plan for me (other than just doping me up on pain pills...who needs me more dopey than I already am?! lol), but it might be an ugly 8 weeks. We'll see what happens, anyway.

Ok, enough babbling from me! Off to work on another layout! Have a good night, everyone!

Grrr...blogger

I can't tell you how long I messed with that last post. I edited and edited and edited, but for some reason it won't let me center the pics or move the credits for that first layout down. Oh well--I give up.

:) Happy night again!

Black and white kick

I'm on a serious black and white kick these days. I'm not sure what has prompted this, but why fight it, right?

Here are just a couple of my latest...

Credits are Amber Clegg's Mismatched Alpha and Christine Smith's Rectangle Overlays and Freestyle Flowers kits. Font is SP Toby Unleashed. Peta's Color Pop and Lisa Neal's B&W conversion (both from iLP.com) on photo.

Credits: Sanded overlays by Christine Smith in Rectangular Overlays. Font is TK Doodle. Dave Jaseck's Duotone Dream v2 conversion on photo.Quote from Lewis Carroll.

Credits: Inked overlay from Christine Smith's Inked Overlays. Doodle from Leah Rioran's Gina's Doodles. Fonts are SBC Curly Outline and Journaling Hand. Used Peta's Color Pop action (from ILP) and Dave Jaseck's Dream Duotone Conversion on the photo. Based on mamakimberly's Leap of Faith layout (http://www.thedigichick.com/gallery/...p/photo/23026).

Credits: Overlay from Christine Smith's Inked Overlays. Doodle from Karen Hunt's Funky Doodles DIY Star (slightly recolored). Fonts are Taguettes Plus and Taguettes. Dave Jaseck's Duotone Dream conversion and Chip Springer's Paint with Light II action on photo.

Tomorrow will be a day of cleaning for me. We have friends coming over on Saturday night, and my house needs some serious attention! Thankfully, Chris is taking the day off (YAY!) and he's going to hang with Maggie while I work on the house.

Happy day, everyone!

4 am

Why oh why is Maggie trying to kill me? Her early wake-up time of 5 or 5:30 for the last month or so apparently wasn't good enough this morning. What time did she wake up, you ask? 4am. Yes, that would be 4 o'clock in the morning. 4 hours after midnight--which is the time my screwed up body FINALLY fell asleep, despite much effort on my behalf. 4 freaking am. And was she content to just chill on the couch and watch Dora or something (thank GOD for Tivo!!)? Of course not! She wanted to play and sing and dance. DH came out of the room at 6:10 and took her upstairs with him for a while while he ate breakfast, but other than that, she's been with me since 4am.

What the heck am I going to do about this?! I seem to be physically incapable of going to sleep before 11:30 or 12, and her wake up time gets earlier and earlier. and have I mentioned that she has napped maybe two times in the last 3 weeks? yeah. fun. She goes to bed at 7. We have tried for the last two night to push it back to 8 to see if that would make a difference. Obviously not. She's only 2.5...surely she needs more than 10 hours of sleep.

ugh. Somebody mentioned giving her melatonin, but I don't know if it's safe or how much or whatever. Oh and I've tried the taking her back to bed thing over and over and over. Screaming. She's just awake early. WIDE freaking awake.

off to try to salvage my morning. have a good one, folks!

Long day...

Gosh, it's been a long day. I love my child--she's exuberant, hilarious, imaginative, and energetic. Man oh man, though, when she's having a bad day or even a bad moment, it's UGLY. We had one of those today. She gets ideas in her head and wants to do things (like climb into her car seat) on her own schedule. Well, I'm sorry, but it was almost 100 degrees outside today and I'm hot and pregnant, and dang, i just want to get into the car and GO! ugh. I know how to handle it so that there isn't a battle, but she woke me up at 5:40am today (yes, 5:40!!) and I just got frustrated with her before I could run the normal plan. It was as much my fault as it was hers...she was just being a kid who wants to be independent and do things in her own time and I'm the grown-up who should know better, but anyway...

It all resulted in some time in the naughty chair, a bunch of screaming (from her), some pretty frustrating and tearful moments from me (while she was screaming in her room), and just an all-around ugly time. She eventually took a nap, which she desperately needed, and we had a better afternoon. Of course, just now we had a long drawn-out bedtime ordeal. Oh well. Tomorrow's another day, right?

Enough about that. It's icky.

Sooo...scrap stuff.

I did a little challenge at The DigiChick this week. I've got this picture of my niece Mary Maddox from Christmas last year:

It just stumped me and I wasn't really sure what to do with it. Several ladies have taken my challenge on so far. Here are their layouts:

From Karlana (hawaiianbrat96):

From Julie (lovesher2boys):

From Chris (Nonnie917):

From Charlene (berekah):

From Victoria (mizamigo):

From Jen (jenflo):

Great layouts, huh? :)

I think we're all going to try to do a layout with one of Charlene's (berekah) pics, now, so check out that thread and get busy! Here's the link: http://www.thedigichick.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6626 The new pic is on the fourth page.

Enough from me for now. Have a good night! I'm going to work on a scrap and then go to bed early. Hopefully Maggie will sleep a little later tomorrow. PLEASE!!

Night, all! Don't forget to say hi!

MMM frustrations

I thought I'd do a couple of posts tonight to make Hilary happy. hehehe Now you guys had better make sure to leave me some comments!

Anyway, I've been working on my layouts for the MMM contest (Making Memories Masters). I've got 3 layouts that I'm pretty happy with, 2 more that I'm not sure about or that need "something", and one that I like but I'm not sure about because it uses a pic from the same day as one of the other layouts. I'm in a small group for constructive criticism for these, but I think most everybody else is finished up and they haven't really been around for the last week or week and a half. So now I'm feeling stuck and not sure what to do.

Here's the deal. One of the layouts has to be on the theme of Celebrate Life. I used a pic from our trip to the water fountains at Centennial Olympic Park last week because Maggie was having such a great time. The other four layouts just have to have a picture, a title, and journaling. I put together a layout that I like, but it uses a pic from that same day (same swimsuit, setting, etc.). The papers are totally different and the feel is different, but I don't know if I'd be shooting myself in the foot by submitting two layouts with photos from the same day. Any thoughts?

I'm just stumped on the other one. I like the feel of it, but it's missing something in the upper right corner. That doesn't mean much to you, I'm sure, since I can't show the layout to you.

I don't know. Maybe I should just forget about it and not enter this year. We'll see. If I do enter, though, I'd better get over my block and get moving so that I can get them printed and sent out in time.

Enough babbling from me. Leave me a note to say hi! :) Thanks for reading if you've stuck with me this far!

So a real post

Baby Stuff
All is well with the baby so far. We're at 18.5 weeks, and I'm starting to feel some real movement--not just little flutters. Though I'm definitely showing, I've lost 12 pounds. Hey--I've got it to lose. Soon enough, I'm sure, it'll all start to go the opposite direction. Anyway, we go back on the 27th for the big ultrasound. Maggie is convinced that she's going to get a baby sister. Not sure how I'm going to explain it to her if that is not the case. We'll just take it as it comes, I suppose.

Other Stuff
I cut my hair! FINALLY! lol When I went in, the girl who cuts my hair said, "Sinead, have you not had your hair cut since the last time I saw you?" (Which was about a year ago...she is in my parents' home town and I'm a freak about letting just anybody cut my hair thanks to being scalped too many times by people who had no clue about cutting curly hair.) I'd had one trim in the time between, but still...

She cut 10 inches off. Yep--1o!! I've got it in a ponytail and I'm going to send it to Locks of Love. I figured that I might as well go all the way, right? Now my hair is right at my shoulders...yeah, my hair was THAT long (wet and pulled out straight, at least). hehehe I feel more like myself now, so yay!

Maggie also got her first professional haircut. It was really more like a trim, but I wanted her to have the experience without being too freaked out about all of her hair falling to the floor. As it was, she was really freaked out that my hair was "broken" and we couldn't fix it. Poor little kiddo. She was as good as gold in that chair, though, and she kept looking at herself in the mirror and smiling. Pictures soon, I promise!

Just for Hilary

LOL, Hilary called me out on TDC for being such a bad blogger. hehehe

So here's a little challenge:

I've got a challenge for you girls. I've got this photo of my niece Mary Maddox on Christmas morning staring at the tree that my sister put in the nursery (yeah, my sister's a nut about Christmas!). Anyway, I've loved the pic from the moment I saw it even though it's not the best picture, photographically (is that even a word?!). The problem is that I'm completely stumped with how to scrap it.


















So...the challenge.

I don't know if any of you are bored or want to try your hand with it, but here's a Yousendit link to the photo:
http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=39A420E772982347

If anybody wants to give it a whirl, I'd love to see what you come up with. Oh, and if there are more than one of you, I might come up with something fun to give ya just for humoring me.

So what do you say? Anybody interested?


I will try to come back later and do a real blog post. :) love you guys!

Life in the Oven

Ah, when I said "oven" I bet some of you were thinking about the baby, huh? Well, I meant the oven of Alabama. Man oh man is it hot!!! (Baby is fine--more on that in a minute.) It's been over 90 for a good two weeks now and it's been probably 3 weeks since we had any rain at all. To make matters worse, the humidity is really high, too. It was hot last summer, but I was able to deal with it. Man, I've got 2.5 more months (3.5, really, since it won't cool down til October) of heat and getting bigger and bigger and more pregnant. I predict that we will be spending lots of time at the pool at the Y this summer. Yick.

So, baby is fine. I'm just past 14 weeks, so we're out of that 1st trimester, too. I've had two ultrasounds so far. The first was because I was hazy on the dating, and when I went back in for my last appointment, the date was wrong in the file so the nurse tried to hear the heartbeat with the doppler and couldn't. I kept telling her that I was only 13 weeks. They did an ultrasound again just to be safe, and all was well. Baby was waving away at us through the ultrasound. :)

Maggie is still convinced that she's going to get a baby brother and a baby sister. Maybe she watches too much Dora the Explorer (since Dora has twin siblings--a boy and girl--she thinks she's getting that, too). Anyway, she even tells people that she's getting two babies. I'm quick to set the record straight--ONE baby. :)

Off to work on a couple of layouts. I've got one for Kathy Moore that is almost finished and I need to work on one for Valerie Fowler. My hands haven't been working well lately, so I haven't been getting much done. Oh well--there's always Advil (until I hit 20 weeks, anyway!). :)

Happy day, all!

Seriously--a slacker!

Ok, I've got an excuse for this weekend, but not for the week or so that has come in between my last post and this one. :) We had friends come to visit from North Carolina, so my spare moments have been consumed so that I could make the house livable. Then this weekend things were just busy. They have a 3 year old (5 months older than Maggie) and a 14 month old, so between them and their kids and us and Maggie, we had a busy house! lol The girls all played so well together, though, and it was terrific to see them again. We MISS our NC friends!!

So not much scrapping done lately, though I did throw together an ABC book for my niece's birthday last Thursday (and then promptly forgot to bring it along to her birthday party this weekend! Wouldn't you know it?!). I did it really fast and basically added titles to photos. Simple, I know, but those little ABC picture albums that I did for Maggie with her pictures are still among her favorite books. Maybe my kid has a vanity issue, though...hmmm, something to think about.

Speaking of my niece and really her mommy (my sister), I am SO jealous! OK, so I'm excited for her but jealous for me. Her husband is a CPA and just finished up tax season. He came home the other week with an end of tax season/Mother's Day/birthday/Christmas surprise present for her--a new digi Rebel! Ooooooh, I'm so jealous! I've been eyeing digi SLRs since I started digiscrapping, but they are so out of our price range (which is zilch at the moment) that it's not worth the hope. Oh well. One day maybe. I'm going to see if I can get folks to give me $$ for birthday (in November) and Christmas and see if that's enough for one. We'll see...

Work has started back up, too. I worked my first 2 hour shift yesterday. This summer I'll be working 2 hour flex shifts on Tues and Wed (which means I can review the essays whenever it is convenient for me), and I'll work from 1-3pm on Thursdays and Fridays. I should be working right now, though, since I picked up 2 extra hours today. Ahh, the joy of work. :)

Anyway, I'm off now. Maggie is sleeping and I should try to get a few things done before settling in to work. We'll see if I do or not--the couch is beckoning and my eyes are getting heavy. lol Happy Wednesday!

I'm a slacker!

Oh man, all my bragging about not being as tired with this pregnancy is catching up to me! I'm EXHAUSTED these days. It doesn't help that I'm not sleeping well, either, and that it's already super hot (whose bright idea was it to move to Alabama where it's already 90?! Wait, I think it was mine. Oh well). We're also having friends come visit this coming weekend, so we've been busy trying to get things sorted out for their visit.

I've also been busy doing layouts. My most complete gallery is here at The DigiChick. We're getting ready to put out the next issue of De-Zine (due out in mid-June), so be sure to check that out when it is released.

My month as a Guest CT member for Gina Miller is nearly up. I've done some neat layouts for her (I think). Here they are:
What Next, Mom? with her Get Creative kit, Flowers with her Get Creative (background paper) and Cherry Blossom (from Garden Treasures 2), Smell the Flowers 2 with Watermelon Smoothie (from Garden Treasures 2), Best Friends Hug with Teal Explosion, A Walk with Grandad with Citrus Brights, Those Eyes with Delicate Petals (from Garden Treasures), and Lace Cookies with Tomato Basil (from Garden Treasures). Wow! That's a lot--I didn't realize how many I had done. :)

My latest favorite layout, though, is one I did really quick Saturday night. I had already worked on another layout (Dancing Queen) with this same kit (Symphony by Laura Alpuche at The DigiChick), but then I got the idea for "Stop" and I couldn't help myself. It was really late, but I didn't want to lose the journaling that was already in my head. Check out STOP if you get a second. I'm really really proud of it. Every time I think of the journaling, I just get teary. :)

In non-scrapping news, things are going well with the pregnancy other than the tiredness factor. Maggie is still really cute about it. She asks me just about every other day if the baby is coming soon, and she's really excited about it. I don't purposely talk about it with her because it's still really far away, but she keeps bringing it up. I think she's going to enjoy being a big sister. :)

Hmmm...it's after 5 and I haven't started dinner. I'd better get a move on since I haven't figured out yet how to make dinner cook itself. Have a good day! If you get a second, give me a shout and say hi. :)

take 2

note the beer on the table. lol

  

This is what happens when you spend too much time scrapping

DH was bored with watching me chat on the computer for the DigiChick's NSD/Mother's Day celebration, so he had some beer and turned on the music channels.

 

LOL 

So...my news

I'm pregnant! :)

Some of you may have guessed this already, but I finally got in to see the doctor today and it's official. I'm 9 weeks--the baby has a good strong heartbeat and is developing right according to plan. The due date that they gave me today is December 8, but this will be a c-section baby, so it'll probably be about 2 weeks before that (right around Miss Maggie's birthday lol).

It was a total shock for us. It took over 2 years and several miscarriages to get Maggie, so we just counted our blessings and left it up to God. I just realized last week that it had been a while and I was feeling out of whack, so I did a test and what do ya know, it popped up right away. I still can't really believe it. :)

We told DH's parents today, and we're going to tell my family tomorrow evening. If any of you know my family--mum's the word until tomorrow night! We want it to be a surprise. I'm working on a really cute little shirt for Maggie ("big sister to be" with a little bumble bee instead of the word "be"), so hopefully they'll pick up on it right away. Here's the image:

That cool alpha is Gina Miller's Funky Basic Black and the font is MA Sexy. I downloaded the bee image from the web. I printed out the image on a photo transfer paper and I'm going to iron it on to Maggie's t-shirt, so hopefully it'll look good!

Usually they come to Maggie's side of the car first, so that should be good, too, since I'm already showing a bit--boy does it happen faster with the 2nd one! The doc thought I was 10-14 weeks, but the ultrasound said otherwise. We'll see if things change as the baby grows.

Anyway, I just wanted to share. :)

Dora show and other excitement

Ok, I had a whole post written and Blogger ate it. Oh well.

So the Dora Show rocked! Maggie was over the moon and fascinated by it. She was entranced by the stage from the moment the show started until it was over and has been singing some of the songs over and over since then. "Isa turn the wheel, turn the wheel, Isa!" lol It was totally worth the drive up to Atlanta. She had such a great time!

In other news, I can't spill my secret for another while yet. I was hoping to be able to spill this week, but because of scheduling, I have to wait until next week. Oh well. Soon enough. :)

So today tell me about your favorite month. I love October. I love how crisp and clean the air feels in October, plus it's the month that Chris and I got married. :) October in the South is a pretty nice time...you should check it out! So what's your favorite month? I can't wait to hear!

Have a good Monday!