They go from this adorable, not yet walking, short haired, big blue eyed baby.
January 2010
To this spunky, adorable, dancing, singing, long haired, big blue eyed toddler.
July 2011
I can hardly believe that’s the same child. MY child. My BAYBEE!
In the blink of an eye I am amazed at the girl who stands before me.
If you haven’t checked out the Summer Block Party – get on over there before Midnight tonight!! You can win some REALLY cool stuff!!
We TTC for about 9 months before we got pregnant with Gianna. It sucked as much as one would imagine, but we had no idea how awesome the outcome would REALLY be, so while it DID feel like a long road, it wasn’t one that we necessarily were ready to race down.
This time? I know how awesome being a parent is and just want to do it again. Now.
I am feeling very impatient over the whole process. Maybe it’s because most of my good friends have recently (or will soon be) having new babies. Or because G interacts SO well with said new babies. Or who knows why, really – I just am!
I am , however realistic and I didn’t think for a minute this would happen quickly, so far we’ve had 2 unsuccessful cycles which isn’t a big deal.
I feel like it took me those 2 cycles to dig out all the information about TTC I had stored in my brain somewhere – and last month I was in a different state than my husband when I ovulated [making this week’s BFN/AF visit not so damaging]. As much as I HATE the line “it happens for a reason”, I have to kind of lean on that right now for my own sanity.
Or at least use it to ease my growing impatience because in all reality – the past 2 months were not ideal in terms of conceiving. I have a better idea of my cycles post-mirena and feel more ready to actively TTC. In other words, it’s time to get serious!
Gianna will be a great big sister some day, and as much as having another baby scares the shit out of me – it is starting to really excite me.
Praying for patience to carry me through this journey, as long as it takes, because I know no matter the path the prize at the end is better than I can even begin to imagine.
Just a reminder to check out the AboutOne Summer Block Party – still going strong through 7.31!!
Invite your friends & don’t forget to visit my neighbors:
Saturday was the big Just Relax EVENT.
This event, that started out as a statement about wanting to do SOMETHING for a friend when words just don’t cut it and morphed into a full on EVENT, was more perfect that I could have ever imagined.
The venue was gorgeous once our decoration crew got finished with it.
The décor was made and sent to NEO from amazing, creative individuals from across the country and put together by a friend [& decoration crew!] locally.
There was a lot of food [thanks again, Mom!]. A table PACKED with awesome dessert.
Drinks.
Music.
FIVE tables full of items waiting to be won.
Reverse raffle action that led to lots of smiling faces.
Everyone had a great time coming together for a cause like no other.
Most importantly?
These 2 people had the biggest smiles on their faces all.night.long
We raised upwards of $10,000.00 for the Knepper family – thanks to all of YOU. Your numerous paypal donations, donations for auction items & event necessities, bids on the online auctions and event attendance.
I learned so much about how deep love runs through this whole process – it truly has no boundaries, no limits. When a community comes together in the way that they have for this family – it shows you that people ARE good.
We did this to give hope, to provide smiles, to just relax.
To acknowledge that while we can’t take away the loss and pain of the past, that there is hope for the future.
This whole event is what friendship is all about – providing love, support and strength to whenever a little extra is needed.
*additional photo credit to L. Berger, M. Coumos & T. Schimpf
More summer camp fun coming your way:
Day 23 – What are your favorite activities to do on-line? Is there more to do beyond blogging?
Since I do most of my blogging “off-line” thank you windows live writer, I say yes! there is more to do. Like shopping! And blog reading! And FB Stalking!
No really, I find myself really BORED with the internet lately, it’s a strange feeling.
Day 24: What is your dream date? Have you ever dated anyone you met from the internet?
I have no idea what my dream date would be – isn’t that totally lame? What is yours? If it sounds good maybe I’ll borrow it!! I started dating the hubs in high school, so no internet dating for me. I know quite a few people that are happily married to their internet dates!
Things in my life have always been very uphill-battle-esque – like trying to climb out of quicksand – as soon as you think you have your footing, something slips out from underneath you knocking you square on your ass. Of course there have been some happy valleys thrown in there, too – I am an overall happy person despite the shit that gets thrown my way.
But that’s life, and we just deal with it and move forward smiling.
I lost my job, I figured out a way to make ends meet. Not always an easy task, but you do what needs to be done.
I finished my Master’s degree and searched for a job with my new found education. Frustratingly.
I had interviews and thought for SURE this is going to work out.
And you know what, it finally did.
On August 1st I will start a new position, one that has potential, one that I wasn’t sure I would even want but the more I think, learn and open my mind – the more excited I feel about this opportunity.
Financially, this is going to mean the world to us. As we all know, financial stress can suck the life out of a person, consider us on our last bar of life because we ARE the poster children for financial stress – so to feel secure in that aspect of life, I honestly can’t imagine what it is going to feel like but I can’t wait to find out!
The uphill battle part of this whole change is going to be that I have a 40min or more compute each way and will be gone 5 days a week. Which means my family time has gone from all.the.livelongday to about 60 hoursish a week.
From someone who didn’t ever want to stay home with her kids, to one that was forced into that role – I feel so blessed that I had that experience. That I have had the last 9 months to spend with Gianna, it was the most wonderfully challenging gift I could have been given.
That adjustment is going to be hard for me, I hope it’s not hard for her. But it is just that – an adjustment, soon enough it’ll be no big deal. I enjoy working, so I am sure [I hope!] it won’t take long for a new normal to set in.
We have a lot of scheduling issues to work out, like when I am going to still work my Jewelry biz, Mike’s varying work schedules, potential part-time preschool for G and hopefully a dance class for her as well!
It’s a new adventure, one that I didn’t think I was ready for, but am feeling much better about as it all sinks in. And feeling very thankful and blessed for a change in the right direction this time.
I have totally been a slacker with my Summer Camp posts – but I am going to do a quick & dirty catch-up
Day 13: The best job I ever had was when I was in high school/college – I worked at a group home for DD adults and it was the most rewarding thing I have ever done! And I had awesome coworkers who I am still friends with, BONUS! I am sure I blogged/read blogs at my last job – I really disliked it.
Day 14: I normally dress in a dress during the summer – I am a dress whore. In the fall/spring – jeans and a cute top. Winter – I try not to go anywhere, I hate the cold! I think bloggers are cooler than everyone else, so that naturally means they dress better!
Day 15: College was a whirlwind – I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 20 months, worked part-time & still had a good time with my friends! I went out with my friends a lot, but I wasn’t really involved in much besides research. [SUPER NERD!]
Day 16: Not a whole lot of my “in real life” friends blog or tweet – isn’t everyone active on facebook?! The one thing that I can say – social media has impacted my friendships in that if they read, which most do, I sometimes feel I have to be careful what I write – or they read WAY into something they don’t know all the details about. That can get annoying sometimes, but in general, it’s not a real issue.
Day 17: I love the weekend!!!! Even though our weekends are usually PACKED I still love them. The weekends are actually when I catch up on blogs because my husband works most weekend nights.
Day 18: I could care less about astrology!
Day 19: He likes PDA more than I do, but we aren’t groping each other in public or anything! He knows I blog – I think the only time he has blogged for me is after we had G!
Day 20 – I really don’t know the kindest thing that has ever been done for me… is that sad? I am sure I would blog about it if I could remember!
Day 21: I am a huge name-phobe, that needs to be a whole separate post! I love my name actually. My blog name? I have been wanting to change it for a while – what do you think? Opinions? Thoughts? Suggestions welcome!!
And HIIIIIII to all the ICLWers!!
Don’t forget to stop by the Block Party & the Just Relax Online Auction
I spent the last week in Texas
It was a GREAT time
But now that I am home there is lots to be done for The Event on Saturday!
Including reminding you to head on over to the Online Auctions!
And!! Don’t forget about the Summer Block Party either – one of my readers needs to win those cookies! And the AboutOne membership! [Keep the summer-soundtrack ideas coming, I love them!]
It's summertime in the blogosphere and most of us are running around enjoying the extra day light and (hopefully) a vacation or two. Soaking up the sun, hanging with the family, making memories etc.
This can be a pretty quiet time on the interwebs so we decided to let you guys know that we are blogging this summer by throwing a summer block party. (Who doesn’t love a good party?) Since parties are always fun with gifts we decided to have a giveaway with lots of prizes and lots of chances to enter.
Six bloggers teamed up with each other and AboutOne (you can read my review about their service & how much I adore them here) to bring you:
So bring your favorite shades, pull up a lounge chair and join us at our block party!
THE PRIZES:
5 winners: will receive a one year subscription to AboutOne
1 winner: $25 Gift Card to Amazon.com compliments of AboutOne
1 winner: custom 125 x125 "blog bling button" from the blog loving world of Plaid House Designs
1 winner: one dozen {kind of cookies. OMG I WANT THEM RIGHT NOW!!!} Frank's Big One's cookies
1 winner: adorable custom embroidered print shirt from Little Star Shop
1 winner: custom designed and made necklace from I'm Not that Pregnant
The giveaway runs July 15th – July 31st & is open to US residents only and you must provide a valid e-mail address. Each winner will have 72 hours to respond. If you win the cookies you must mail them to me (they are the best EVER!)
HOW TO ENTER:
• MANDATORY ENTRY: Check out AboutOne's site and leave a comment telling us what feature looks the most interesting to you.
1 BONUS ENTRY: Follow my blog on Google Friend Connect and leave a comment letting me know that you do.
1 BONUS ENTRY: Leave a comment telling me your favorite summer time song – it is a block party afterall, and what would a block party be without music?!
2 BONUS ENTRIES: Sign up for AboutOne's totally free trial and leave us TWO comments letting us know you signed up. {Seriously, how can you pass this up? FREE!!} {{Also, besides AboutOne – ya’ll NEED to win those cookies!}}
Now!! Let's get this party started!!
But the fun doesn’t stop here - there are 10 (TEN!!!) more ways to enter!
Go to one of the other Summer Block Party Neighbor Blogs and find out how!
Meet my neighbors:
**This contest is sponsored by AboutOne and the participating bloggers. All participating bloggers were given a free one year service but all opinions in their posts are their own.
You know what I love about summer?
Drinking in the daytime. Since we can’t actually DRINK together – I’ll just tell you about it.
Day 12 – Tell us about the first time you got drunk or tipsy (as far as you can remember…) Do you ever stop yourself from telling too much when you write on-line or do you think you tell too much?
I was in high school the first time I got tips-ay, at a friend’s brother’s apartment. It was probably off of something ridiculous like wine coolers, and I am sure I felt all kinds of cool for sneaking around. But, that’s about as much as I can remember.
I like a good beer. or a good wine. or whatever. I’m not all that picky.
I am not a drunk-dialer or texter. But I am a talker. WOAH look out.
I do sometimes top myself online, but not really usually. This is my special place on the internet, you don’t have to read it but writing whatever I want is like therapy for me. My mom FOR sure thinks I overshare sometimes, but again, my internet my choice!
What about you? Tell me about your tips-ay experience and your oversharing abilities!
