Appointment Update

Had a Dr's visit this last Friday. We actually spoke to the Dr about having a scheduled C-Section at 39 weeks!!! Wouldn't it be awesome to be pregnant for 39 weeks??? Blood pressure was perfect, babies growth from the ultra sound picture was perfect. So once again, another perfect pregnancy at this point!

First Haircut

The mullet and curls are gone!!!!

Ryland + Dry wall = Emergency Room

Ryland likes to play in the laundry room and unfortunately Tuesday night he had a left over piece of drywall fall over and bang him on the head and face and it cut his cheek open. It was not very wide but we were concerned with how deep it was. In the ER they decided to glue it up instead of stitch it up. It was almost comical at how relaxed he was and how upset we were. He did not cry as they poked his face to open his cut and he did not cry as they held his head and glued it back together. He is a champ...here are some pictures of his funny looking glue face :-)





This picture is proof that he does love to play in the laundry room and usually nothing very serious happens, he just gets stuck in some weird places!!!

Rylands Pictures

Ryland got his one-year pictures taken at the McCormick Railroad park. We are keeping most of them secret because they are Christmas gifts for our family so it would not be right to post them, then give them as gifts :-) But here is a sneak peak at a few....I couldnt help it because he is so darn cute!!!

oil changes

i HATE getting the oil changed in my car. you go in for a $30.00 service and leave paying double or triple that. i am always being told that everything 30,000 miles i need to have the transmission flushed and the steering fluid. then there is the engine flush which is recommended. have you checked your air filter? because i dont know ANYTHING about cars, they hold all the power because they have the know-how and i dont. i want to take good care of my car, i want it to last as long as possible. i hate going and having to pay so much money!

1st Birthday!!!

Yep, I know...Rylands first birthday was a little over a month ago, but I am just now getting around to getting some pictures up so you can see all the fun festivities. His actual birthday was spent at a Diamonback's game with the family. Then that weekend we had a baseball themed birthday party for him :-)

I'm Gonna Do It

So I made a mom's group on yahoo groups, since it is free. Now all I have to do is invite people since right now it is not private. So everyone who wrote me about being interested in joining the group please send me your email and I will send you an "invite" to the group. The way I am hoping it will work is that each month someone will be assigned the month and they will pick one free activity and one paying activity and schedule it on the group calendar. I think this will work because one of the the reasons I wanted to join a group instead of starting one is because I am at such a loss when it comes to activites to do with little kids so we will all get a taste of what is out there from all the other moms. I am thinking we will try to get it up and running in November, just in time for the crazy holidays!!!! I am really excited about this and thank you to everyone who has been patiently waiting to see what I finally decided about all of this. This has been hard to commit to but I think it is going to be so worth it.

update :-)

So someone was saying the other day that I was getting behind in my blog, which I do have to agree with and at first i complained and said I have nothing to really blog about!!! uhhmmm......oops, I guess I do. Matt and I are going to be having another baby!!! yeps I am preggers again. As of now we are due around April 30th. I am hoping for an early May baby but for all of those who know how I tend to go a little early instead of later, we'll see how that goes :-)

Mom's Group Anyone???

I am thinking of starting a moms group!!!!! Just for me to write that sentence is such a huge accomplishment. All I know is that I am really really not good at being a stay at home mom, but I do not feel that I should be working full time right now, since I have the opportunity to stay home. I have looked into the moms group thing and actually joined one when Ryland was a preemie and was not allowed to hang out with other kids. That group has disbanded. I have heard not so great things about the East Mesa mom's group and also have not had an easy time finding a group where there would be a good group of kiddo's around a year or younger. Many of them are composed of older kids. So for many of the women reading this, you have, or are having children in the near future and maybe are interested in heading up a group with me. So let me know what you think???

Maryland Pictures

So our family took a four day trip to Maryland and the only day I whipped out my camera was at Gettysburg, so I do not have a lot of pictures of our first family trip, oh well....Aunt Jill is going to have to send me some :-)

I AM HOME

We survived. I don't ever want to do that ever again and yes, I know that never is a long time. Ryland was such a trooper. He might even be a better traveler than his mom. On Friday, August 1st we had a two hour flight to Dallas/Fort Worth, then a three hour layover, then a three hour flight to Baltimore. Our three hour layover turned into six hour layover and after boarding the flight we sat on it (not even moving to the runway) for 48 minutes. So my 9:30pm arrival time in Baltimore turned into my midnight arrival time. I was BEAT!!! Ryland did not even cry on any of the flights. He was bored and squirmy but he managed.
On our way home, Tuesday, August 5th we left Baltimore at 3:50pm and arrived in Dallas/Forth Worth for our three hour layover. We did board the plane on time but again we sat on the plane, without AC for 45 minutes. We arrived into Phoenix at 10:15pm and had to wait almost an hour for our luggage because they would not let the baggage guys get the luggage because there was lightening. UUugggghhh.....and I know everyone has these airline stories, I have plenty...I was just hoping to not have any including my 11 month old son.
So on to FIRST CLASS :-) Ryland and I flew first class since I redeemed airline miles for this flight. First class is a whole different world and I am going to have a hard time going back to coach now knowing what goes on up there. You get complimentary alcohol, hot mixed nuts, fresh baked cookies and snacks. And by snacks I do not mean a bag of something. My options were a roasted tomato and turkey wrap or a bbq chicken salad with foccacia cheese bread. Give me a break. All the while, back in coach, they are charging for sodas. Now I was not able to enjoy any of the drinks or food because I had a squirmy child on my lap, but it sure was nice to "pretend" to be a part of that world for a little bit :-)

Traveling

Matt, Ryland, and I are off to Maryland this Friday. The bummer is that Matt and I will be on separate flights. Matt has an airplane voucher that he had to use and I used my airline miles so Ryland and I will be flying first class. I am so so so nervous about flying with Ryland right now. It has been the hardest two weeks with him. He has been cranky and fussy and fidgety. So I am really not looking foward to this. We will be traveling for almost nine hours and we have a three hour layover in DFW that hopefully will help because Ryland will be able to crawl around in some little dirty corner of the airport :-)I am hoping this is something that I do not look back on as a really difficult experience.

thank you to candace????

so i am going to participate in the "tag your it" thing-a-ma-bobby and list the 7 songs that are shaping my summer. i recently received notificiation that i was listed on candace's blog as a hostage participant! :-) what an interesting question and at first, really no songs were popping into my mind so i had to really ponder......

1. Jimmy Eat World: Let It Happen. I went to my fourth Jimmy concert this summer and once again I thoroughly enjoyed the music and the show and seeing my friend. I guess I am a true groupy!

2. Hillsong United: Mighty To Save. I love hearing Matt do this song on Sunday. This is one of my favorite worship songs right now.

3. Jennifer Knapp: Jesus Loves Me. Ryry's top lullaby pick right now. I sing this to him every night :-)

4. Linkin Park: What I've Done. Big fan of the group and love their new music.

5. Matt Redman: Never Let Go. I went through some difficult stuff at the beginning of summer and this song resonated with me and helped me to get through some stuff.

6. Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova: Lies. This song and group speaks for themselves!

7. Jimmy Eat World: Hear You Me. I always thought there must be an amazing story behind this song and I learned what it is this summer and yes, it is an amazing story!

Birthdays!!!

I am so at a lost trying to figure out how to navigate the world of first birthdays. I have no idea what to do. Ryland's first birthday is August 21st and all I know is that it is soooooo hot in August. So that really leaves no other option than a pool party if I want to have more kids over to help celebrate. Plus it seems really easy for these things to get way out of hand and the spending spree can begin. I mean for a first birthday that they wont even remember. So do I have a pool party? Do I not....do I do something just with family.....do I try to invite all of my friends with kids and those without kids that love ryry.....uuuuuhhhhhggggggg......this is only the beginning, huh?

I LOVE this man!!!!

I secretly turned 30 a few weeks ago. It was a secret because Matt and I snuck away to Jamaica for it to happen. Matt and I got to go on our second honeymoon and it was AMAZING!! We were kids again, oh ya...we left the little one with grammie and pappa and I am sure they had fun. For seven days we slept on the beach, read on the beach, drank on the beach, played on the beach. I just gotta say, my man rocks for giving me the best birthday present ever...a whole week away with him.

One Amazing Spring!

Tongue Ring

(my first post trying to type and holding my son at the same time). so i work very very part time for a christian organization and i have been told that i cannot wear my tongue ring to work. when i asked why, i was told....well what if one of your clients says to theirparents, i want my tongue pierced because my therapist has their tongue pierced. my response was...that is a great chance for that parent to do some parenting and say...well when you get to be her age you can get your tongue pierced, or to just simply say no. i was then told that this is not how this agency wants to represent itself (so that is the real reason). then it becomes a personal challenge for me. do i want to work somewhere were i need to represent something that i am not? people come to see me and i expect them to try to be truly who they are and to be as open and honest with me as they can....at the same time, i cannot be...because it is not what the agency wants to represent. i have been working in such a different reality for so long i forgot about places like this.

Home Sick

Well I have found something that does not change much even when you are a mom. I am home sick. When you have a job you get to stay home sick and even when you have a baby you get to stay home sick. My mom and Matt have been balancing taking care of Ryland so I dont get him sick. At this time I am also very frustrated. My in-laws came to visit and they came sick. I guess I assumed that people know you cannot be sick around an infant, especially a preemie who has a weakened immune system. But no, not everyone knows that. So we got to visit and catch up and one of them got to play with the baby, we told the other one they could not, because they were sick. And the morning they left I was stuck in bed with the shakes and a 102 degree fever. So I am very frustrated and trying to let go of it and move on. There are people in our lives who just seem to make things more difficult when they only desire to make things easier. It just doesnt seem to work out.

Mommyhood

I think I am going a little crazy and I am just going to put it out there. Being a mom is so freakin hard. I thought I had a hard stressful job but there is a part of me that just longs to be able to go back to work. And yet my "mommy" job is not stressful at all. It is just NEVER ENDING. I dont get lunch breaks. I cannot shut my office door and turn off the phone to get work done. I dont have the weekends off. And when I am tired from a long days work, I dont get to turn in early and catch up on some much needed sleep.
Having a preemie during cold and flu season has not made things easier. I have to keep Ryland away from people and especially from little kids. So that means during the day, the only people who are home are stay at home moms, but I cannot hang out with them because they have kids and the women who do not have kids are away at work. And then at night, when I can get out of the house without Ryland, all of my non-mom friends are too tired to hang out from working all day. It is amazing to me how every day I can love something so much and dislike something so much. I didnt know being a mom was so amazing and so lonely.
That is the one word that sums up so much of what I am feeling right now, very alone. I dont have many friends that are moms and the few I do went back to work which is incredibly ironic because I use to watch a few of them stay at home with their kids all day and wonder how they do it but knew that once I did at least I would have some good company.
Complain complain complain. I know that is all I am doing while having a job that many women long for. I am just trying to find MY place in this new life.