And I'm Back

Wow, it's been a long time since I've blogged about anything. We've been busy with life for the past few months and I just haven't had much motivation to write (obviously the holidays weren't motivating me since I missed Addison turning 18 months old, Thanksgiving, Christmas, our Anniversary (6 yrs) and New Year's). Here's some bullet points to cover the past few months.

* Addison turned 18 months (and then 19 months) and I didn't write about what she's been up to, so here goes...Addison is such a sweet girl! She loves to hug and kiss you or her baby dolls/stuffed animals. She went to the doctor in November for her 18 month appointment and is a healthy little girl; her weight is in the 25th percentile, height is in the 50th percentile and her head circumference is in the 80th percentile. She talks non stop and entered a "NO!" phase but fortunately left it behind after just a few weeks. She now has the cutest little "Yeah" and knows that she is super cute, which she totally uses to her advantage. It's so hard to not give into whatever she wants with her big eyes and sweet smile! Addison got TWO baby strollers for her baby dolls and she will tell you all about them if asked. She thought that all wrapped presents were baby dolls so she was slightly disappointed to find out that some of them weren't. She's starting to talk in short sentences and can call all of our family and friends by name. It's very cute.

* We've been staying busy with the car lot. I finally figured out how to make a facebook page for it, (it's PAY HERE AUTO SALES. Feel free to LIKE us). Lots of cars have been sold and the business is doing pretty good. We have fun hanging out with our friends (and business partners) Kirby and Dustin. Addison is in love with their two boys!

* I'm having a hard time coming up with bullet point topics...(sad considering I'm covering 2 months of my life)

* I got a bad cold (immediately preceded by the stomach bug) in the beginning of November and I'm still dealing with it (although it is not bad at all now compared to what it was). Addison had been sick off and on for the same amount of time. She just got over a horrible cough that also coincided with teething. (She has 16 teeth now. Next up? 2 year molars)

* Christmas was lots of fun. We celebrated with Mom and Dad and Kyla on Christmas Eve. I got Kyla a bed pillow which are called "husbands". We had a lot of fun telling people that I got her a husband for Christmas. Lunch on Christmas Day was spent with Mom and Dad and Kyla again (impromptu lunch at the Chinese Restaurant. We waited for the "Fra Ra Ra's" and the turkey with the head still attached, but it never came. :) Gotta love that movie!). It started snowing around noon on Christmas and kept snowing until the next day. We ended up with about 6 inches of snow and it was so beautiful! We had Jordan's family over for dinner and had a great time.

* I'm going to be a New Employee Training (NET) Instructor for my work. I'm kind of excited and nervous about this. It's only for once or twice a year and I'm set to start in February. We'll see...

Here are some pictures from the past few months:

Addison in November wearing an adorable little outfit that my sister and I wore we we were little. My mom made it. She really didn't want her picture made in this one.

But once she got a cracker she was just fine!

This is from Thanksgiving day. She was not liking the camera this day either.

Dena and Ellett on Thanksgiving.

Me and Addison. This was the best we could do for a Thanksgiving family picture. She was screaming by the time that Jordan joined us so we just gave up.

Lori, Jordan and Dena. His two sisters.

The Collins family. Lori, Ellett, Conner, and Brent.

Christmas Eve at my parents house. Addison was loving the baby dolls!

Addison had a pen cap that she was using as a tool to "fix" the Ferris wheel. She really kept herself entertained with it and was very intent on "fixing" it.

Sisters

Not so great family picture!

Addison with her grandparents. Her face in this picture cracks me up.

All of us. Glad Kyla knew how to use the timer on her camera.

Addison on Christmas morning in her new chair that "Santa" brought her. Can you tell she liked it?

Cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning. Yum!

Addison was really impressed with the purse from GranDee. It came with a wallet, debit card, cell phone and lipstick.

She also really liked the puzzle.

My dad really liked the hat and mittens Addison got! :)

And the both really liked the snow!

Ellett being so sweet and cute later that night!

Lori and Addison (who was trying to wiggle away)

Jordan, his dad and Grandparents with a still wiggly Addison.

Me and my Baby girl!

Christmas family pictureOur house in the snow. And the tree Jordan created with lights.

Just thinking

I've been meaning to record some of my always random thoughts that float around in my head. so here is another all-over the place post (the only kind I can seem to come out with these days).

*When I was pregnant with Addison, I had a hard time remembering that my "condition" was only temporary. Obviously I knew it was, but it was hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that I would in fact lose a lot of the weight I'd gained and wouldn't permanently stay two sizes bigger. I couldn't fathom there ever being a time when I'd be able to tolerate wearing high heels again much less being comfortable in them. It seemed impossible that I'd be able to wear my pre-pregnancy size bras again (so I gave them as well as most of my smaller clothes away). I knew that I wouldn't be pregnant forever but I thought I'd have more lasting conditions, that becoming a mom would not only change forever emotionally but also physically.

Of course my first pregnancy left some toll on my body through stretch marks and um...less firm body parts but for the most part I was able to bounce back and quickly. I don't really know why I'm saying all of this now. I guess I'm just feeling differently with this pregnancy because I know that almost everything goes back to the way it was. Physically anyway.

*I think I'm getting sick. My throat has been sore and I've been sneezing and sniffing all day. Now I just want to drink some hot tea with honey. Too bad I don't have any.

* I saw a new Vera bag today that I love! I don't know what style it was but the color pattern was Very Berry Paisley. The website does not do it justice. The colors were much more vibrant and pretty in person. I also stumbled upon a color pattern that I think I like even better called Hello Dahlia. There's also Hope Garden which I've liked for a while since it came out. It's so pretty and bright and girly!!

*I just heard this guy say that he couldn't think of any good reason for summer!! HELLO...SANDALS!!

I guess that's it for now. All out of thoughts (other than wanting to go home and go to bed).

Oh, one more thing. I tried to pay for a snack from a gas station with my drivers license. The clerk was like "um, I don't need your ID to sell you potato chips". Why does my debit card keep hiding from me??? And why do I always think I have pulled out my debit card when it is in fact something random and not a method of payment??? AAHhhh!

This and That

Aghh... I have been so slack about blogging! I don't know why, but I just don't feel like writing anything. It's not like I don't have anything going on. It's not like I don't have a beautiful 11 month old crawling around doing all sorts of cute, funny things that I could tell about. It's not like I didn't just move into a new house that we've repainted and are currently decorating trying to make it our own. It's not like I'm not trying to plan a huge birthday party for 2 weeks from now. I have so many things I could write and share about but I have no motivation to do it. But then again, maybe it's because of all these things I haven't been able to make time to write... Oh well I'm doing it now, so here goes...

I was sick about a month ago. I was diagnosed with everything from strep throat to mastitis to a sinus infection to pink eye. All I know is that I felt like death with a fever and no voice and gunky, swollen eyes. I tried to blog-ument my illness and multiple doctor visits but just never finished the post. I had to miss 3 days of work with a weekend in between. I finally am better. The first antibiotic the the first doctor I saw prescribed made me vomit and extremely nauseous. I will never take Keflex/cephlexin again!!

The second doctor I saw told me that I had to stop breast feeding for the 10 days I was on the antibiotic/eye drops. I was so, so upset when I left the doctor's office. It's not that I want to breastfeed forever (quite the contrary, actually. I'm ready to be done nursing and pumping.) but I want to make to Addison's first birthday so that I don't have to use any formula. I want to ease it out instead of simply being cut off. He was just so definite and harsh about it, I felt that I had no options. And I was so scared that Addison wouldn't adapt well to changing her diet. When I got the meds filled, though, I asked the pharmacist about it and she said, without hesitance, that neither medication was unsafe to take while continuing to breastfeed. I was so relieved to hear that. I know most people don't understand why this was such a big deal for me, but I just wasn't ready yet.

Since then (It's been 3 weeks) I have started the weaning process. After being bitten a few times I decided that it was time to stop nursing. I'm still pumping, but Addison is getting bottles that are mixed with whole milk to ease into taking no breast milk. So far it's going well and I'm feeling better about the whole weaning process. After she gets used to the whole milk (we'll start upping the whole milk to breast milk ratio little by little) I'm going to start phasing out her bottle for a sippy cup. They make transitional sippy cups that have a soft top instead of a hard plastic top and I think those will be good for her. Addison will take either kind now, but only for her juice or water. She doesn't seem to like it when we try to put her milk in the sippy cup. It frustrates her for some reason.

Addison is such a sweet little thing! Yesterday when I got home with her, I was getting all her stuff ready to go upstairs and give her a bath (The only thing we use the upstairs for is to give her a bath and for her overflow closet usage...girl has a lot of clothes. :) ) and Tripp was acting really playful. I was carrying Addison and she kept leaning around me to see Tripp and she would just cackle at him. So then I started chasing him around the house and jumping out around corners at him (all while holding A) and she was loving it! She laughed so so hard and I was laughing right along with her (in between huffing for air, that is. Running around with a 20 lb baby on you hip for 10 minutes is hard work!! Totally, Totally worth it, but hard work!) I just have so much fun with her and she has so much personality.

Another Addison funny: Little Miss Thing has discovered Tripp's dog food bowl. It's right down the hallway from the kitchen leading into her bedroom and across from the laundry room. A few weeks ago I was working on some laundry and had A on the floor playing in the kitchen. She got really quiet, so I started to listen for her. After a moment I hard the dog food move around and realized she was playing in it. I ran over to her (she was just out of my sight around the doorway) and got the 5 pieces out of her clinched fists. Ever since she discovered it, her goal when in the area is to get to the dog food. Now she knows that I'm going to tell her "no, no!" so as she crawling toward it she will pause and look over her should and smile at me while I tell her "no" then giggle and go faster. It's really cute and I can't help but laugh at her. Sometimes I forget for just an instant what she's going to do and when I find her there, she's licking the food. So gross! She just looks up at me with the biggest smile on her little face!

Addison's birthday is on May 17th!! I cannot believe it's already here!! We're planning her party for the 22nd. It's going to be big with a lot of people but I'm trying to keep it low key, mainly in order to keep my sanity and to not go into debt for a birthday party. A party for someone who is too young to remember it! Yes it is a big deal, but I'm not losing my head over it! We celebrate her on a daily basis! :)

So I'll try to get some pictures up (been a little slack about taking pictures too, surprise, surprise...) and do better with my blogging regularity!

Sick of being sick!

So I haven't posted in a while but I promise I have a good excuse! About two weeks ago I started feeling pretty snotty and ended up sick with a sinus infection. I went to the Doctor and got antibiotics which I preceded to take for the next 4 days. On the forth day I woke up feeling really sick to my stomach. By lunch time I was feeling really bad and by 3:00 I had thrown up in the break room at work. This worried me significantly. Here's why:

(phone conversation with Jordan)
me: I just threw up
Jordan: Oh. Okay.
me: I can't remember the last time that I threw up and I wasn't pregnant. I'm hoping this was it.
Jordan: (after long pause) What are you saying?
me: I don't know. I don't think I'm pregnant but I never throw up. Unless I'm pregnant.
(this was pretty much the end of that conversation.)

(30 minutes later)
Jordan: Go buy a pregnancy test, and take it now.
me: I'm at work!
Jordan: So leave and take a test now.
me: I'll get one when I get off. Chill!
Jordan: Fine. Call me when you take one.

I ended up leaving work early (not because I was anxious about being pregnant, but because I felt some more vomiting coming on) and I made Jordan buy a pregnancy test at Walmart and bring it to me in the parking lot because I didn't feel like walking. or moving. or living. I felt pretty horrible at the moment. I took the test when I got home and could just see the positive mark coming up. I continued to stare at the empty circle for the next ten minutes.

Nothing.

The control line showed up so I figured that meant it worked, but neither one horizontal line for negative or one cross mark for positive showed up. So I made my way back to the floor of my room where I had thrown the box on my way to the toilet to read the instructions. Yes, I know, I should have read them first but I was too impatient, and Hello? I've done this before! Box says something like this...pee on the stick...control line in one box...empty circle for negative...one vertical line for positive. (Equate has changed their pregnancy tests, just so you know.) Ahhh, so the test was negative.

I texted (the blogger spell-checker is telling me that texted is not a word) Jordan because I was still feeling horrible and felt like I shouldn't open my mouth to talk or I would...well, you know. I ended up vomiting all night until about 3 AM. I have never felt that sick from the stomach bug. I continued to feel extremely nauseous for the next 3 or 4 days (to which every one's remark was "Are you sure you aren't pregnant?"). When I thought I could be pregnant I was more freaked about the fact that I would being feeling that horrible for the next 3 months than I was about the fact that I would have another baby in 9 months. I'm just finally starting to feel better and become friends with food again. I have hardly eaten anything which is COMPLETELY unlike me. I lost 5 pounds in 3 days. Not how I would recommend losing weight to anyone (although it puts me 3 pounds away from the weight I was when I got married 5 years ago. I'm 12/13 pounds down from my pre-pregnancy weight!)

Anyway, I'm NOT pregnant and I am feeling better! Next time I take a blogging break, I really hope it's for a different reason!