Hey Hey Hey!

Ahhh, I'm so horrible, I know! I haven't been on here in over 3 weeks. Crazy! School finished up, thank the Lord! and then I had a week of professional development meetings that followed. Then dh and I packed up and went to the bay for a little R&R and there we have no internet service. I've been pretty lazy these past two weeks and it has been wonderful:):) Now I'm back in town with a stupid sinus infection or cold. Blah!

Have I mentioned I miss y'all!!! Random: Did or do any of you play music for your baby in the womb???? My sister was all about headphones and classical music. What is your take????

Novena girls: I am in the process of saying St. Gerard Novena's for Julie, Rita's Roses, Patiently Waiting, His Perfect Timing and Christy. They all signed up for the Novena prayer list and I just wanted to let you ladies know that I have not forgotten and you are ON MY HEARTS!!! Along with you other sweet friends too:):)

Anyway, life on the homefront is great. DH and I are loving life and each other, obviously:) I am 14 1/2 weeks and happy as can be:) Our 12 week appt went fabulous:):):) I praise you Lord:):) Many of my food aversions have gone away pretty much...except grilled or baked chicken and broccoli....puke!!! I'm not nauseous anymore either:) Oh and have I mentioned I have gained 7 lbs! haha. What! I must admit, it is very hard to accept the fact that you are gaining weight and not turn into a freek. I know I know I am supposed to and I am SOOO happy to have the reason too but it is sill a little mind game that I have to remind myself not to play. No worries, I have never not eaten...I eat all the freeking time. It gets tiring but I swear I can't help it. It's not cravings...it's an all of a sudden starving pain and I have to eat or it doesn't go away. They have gotten better and less often but still occur.

The hospital here where I go to my dr provides free gym membership for pregnant women who are delivering at that hospital:) GREAT! Love it! So I have joined and plan on becoming a little swimmer:) They have huge lap pool and no children are aloud:) Meaning no swimming classes, etc. to get in the way. All I have to do is by me some goggles and I am good to go! Now of course, I will be using a kicking board b.c my booty can't swim one lap without pure exhaustion!

I have picked out all the nursery stuff...a little early I know, but I want to get the nursery done before I start back with school in August. I'm taking on an extra load this next semester so I know I am going to be crazy busy and won't want to have the stress of all that on me. But it's been fun picking out and playing around:)

Here is where I got my idea for my color scheme. I wanted neutral b.c we aren't finding out the sex and also b.c I thought neutral would be easy to throw colors in with...plus, I love these colors together and have always wanted these for some reason. Now of course it's not going to look exactly like this but it's a start. I will post pics as I go.

I got 3 of these for the nursery wall. It was my splurge prize for me:) I have eyed these for the past year and have loved them. I don't like the color so I am going to paint them with some sort of antique brush in mind but they are def going to be lighter color.

I ordered this crib from overstock with free shipping. They also have it at Walmart for about $20 cheaper but that doesn't include shipping...but you might be able to ship to a store near you. I plan on spray painting the wheels white b.c I think the gold is blah. Don't like it! 

Anywho, enough about me. I'm off to read about you. HUGS and glad to be back in touch!!!

MIA 2...Not for long!! Oh and a Novena for you!

I can't believe my life has become this busy. Whoa to the May school life of a 8th grade teacher!!! ONE MORE WEEK AND THEN FREEDOM!!!!! This week has been good but full. I of course have had something every night and am about to collapse. Tonight we have NOTHING!!! I am going home, going for a walk, taking a nap, eating cereal or chicken n stars for dinner (what's new) and crashing!

Random: I totally smell like Chinese food and it makes me want to puke. I teach World History. My fun twist to my class is that if the class makes a B average on the chapter tests (I have a wide range of learners), then we will have a themed lunch. Well, they did this for the recent Ancient China and Ancient Japan tests and sooooo today we had our Chinese/Japanese lunch. Each kid brought in $5 and I ordered what they wanted. It was split pretty evenly....half wanted Chinese and the other half wanted Sushi. So I ordered it, my sweet momma went and picked it up, and we just wrapped up our lunch. They LOVED it!! What a great incentive for them:)

This weekend I am dog sitting a little Maltese puppy named Raindrop! haha. A family here at my school has asked me to dogsit...their kindergartner named the dog...how cute is that. I am thrilled about dog sitting b.c I dream of having a little dog! My dh hates small dogs and claims we are fine with our dog in our lives...our lab, Tide. Which is true...I love Tide, but there is nothing like a little hand held puppy. One day I will get a small dog...maybe when my kids go off to college and I cry, the dh will feel bad and get me one. ha!

I am 11 wks tomorrow! Big deal:):) I'm super stoked! On Wed we have our 12 wk checkup (two days early b.c dr is out of town next friday). I absolutely cannot wait to see how much my little gummybear has grown. Next Wed happens to be the feast day of Our Infant of Prague....a special one to my family. My mom has been so fond of the Infant for years. I went to Prague over Christmas when I lived in Italy and was able to visit the church of the Infant and see the real one....BEAUTIFUL! I find it quite Godly that my dates throughout this pregnancy are falling on special days that relate to my personal life. We found out we were pregnant on St. Gerard's bday, this appt is on the Infant's feast day, our due date is on or near the feast of Our Lady of Guadeloupe....all of this confirms the Lord's wonderful plan and hand in this.

I am continuing daily mass and praying for my sweet blogger girls...esp those suffering with IF. I think of you daily. One of my students gave me a novena packet for St. Gerard. I am going to do a novena for you!!! My plan is to do one for each of you starting this summer. Doesn't that sound like a good idea. If you want, please comment and request and I will write you name down and begin a list. This makes my heart happy to do this for y'all.

I must admit I am slacking on the reading of blogs b.c I have had zero plan periods these past few weeks. Every spare moment has been taken. THIS IS MY FIRST ONE IN FOREVER!!!! And i reserved time to catch up with you!!

Hugs, love and blessings.

MIA

I know! I have totally been MIA (missing in action...for you slow people! haha). Being an 8th grade teacher, May is the busiest month of the year. I swear, I don't have one free moment. AND when I do have have a free minute, I have a major lack of energy and I am taking a nap! haha.

Is it pathetic that I feel as if I am missing out on the blogs! hahha. I miss reading up on you ladies. I feel as if I am missing out on things....and I know I am. When I do have free minutes, I try to check blogs but then I don't get enough checked and then I get behind again. AGH!

Even though I am behind, you are not far from my thoughts. I prayed for all of you yesterday on Mother's Day...especially those who are struggling with infertility. You are so close to my heart. I pray for you daily at mass but yesterday I said some extra special prayers. I hope you are feeling them:)

Life is going pretty well. Still having major food aversions and some nauseousness. I swear, I still cannot eat meat or veggies...just typing those words make me want to puke! ha. I'm going later this week to get an ultrasound. I don't have to but they told me if I wanted to I could do one when I wanted...I decided I didn't want to wait till 12 wks to see my little gummybear...so I am going this week which is around 10 wks.

I have to go again. Class in 5. It's exam preparation time! agh! Hugs to all of you.

We are back:) Prayer buddy announcement finally!

We are back safely, thank the Lord! We happened to fly back on the day that horrible storm was passing through the south. We ended up staying overnight in the Atlanta airport till 4 am then finally arriving home at 5:30a.m.. It was crazy but we were just happy to be on ground and safe. Please please keep in mind all the people in Tuscaloosa, AL and in other areas surrounding, who were affected by the tornadoes. Y'all, it's absolutely horrible. Over 250 people killed just in Tuscaloosa, including Univ. of Alabama students. It's just so sad. The worst part was that it hit in one of the busiest areas of town where tons of shops, restaurants and apts were located and there were people all over that area who weren't able to really get to coverage. So sad. Please pray.

As far as our trip went, it was fabulous. DH and I got to SF a day early and did a biking tour of SF along the water, over the Golden Gate Bridge, and over to the bay town of Sausilito. That was one of our most fav things about our trip. Whenever we go on trips, we always do biking tours...they are great and you get to take in so many more things than you can in a car! Napa Valley was absolutely gorgeous. We felt as if we were in a completely different countries. Rolling hills, mountains and vineyards galore! It was perfect sunny weather too! And most of all, we had the best company. My DH's brothers and their others are easy to get along with and very enjoyable. It was great!

We had another ultrasound after we got back:) Our little blueberry has grown into a gummybear!!! I was seriously so surprised to see how much it had grown in just a week! (Go back and look at last post and you can see the growth difference!) No wonder I was feeling queezy at times:) haha. I haven't thrown up though, so that's great. I don't mind the queeziness too much...as long as I have crackers or granola bar near by, I'm good. But I am having some major food aversions. I can't look at broccoli or certain veggies. I can't eat much meat or fish at all without getting that yucky feeling. I am all about the starches...greattttt! ha. But I am loving me some fruit and acids so that's good. Oh and chips, crackers, granola bars, et. We (practitioner & dr.) confirmed a more accurate due date of Dec 10. Yippee!!! Can't believe it still. Oh and my boobs are huge! I love it! hahaha.

My little gummy bear:)

And finally! I feel so bad my prayer buddy has had to wait so long. Sorry prayer buddy:) She probably thought she didn't have anyone praying for her but she is wrong!! I had the honor of praying for Ask and It Will Be Given. I went to daily mass throughout all of Lent and she was the first prayer upon entering the church. I hope so much that she felt my prayers. It felt so good to be able to pray for her and see God working in her life through her posts on her blog. What a sweet one she is! If you haven't met her, please visit her page. She would love your support:)

I miss reading up on all your ladies. I'm sooo behind! I plan on catching up tomorrow. Hope all is well with you:):):)

Little blueberry & San Fran:)

So I had a bit of a scare but all is good. On Sunday, after a 3 hour nap (yes I am experiencing the lack of energy), I started having what felt like ovulation pains on my left side. It felt like pain was in my left tube. They were very consistent...every 2-3 minutes for 24 hours. I was so scared that the baby was in my tube BUT I remembered from my past ectopic that if that were the case, my back would ache terribly and I would see spotting. So far I was in the clear.


I called PPVI and they called my dr here and had me do an early ultrasound. That was yesterday and THAT was amazing!!! Y'all, we were so scared. The last time we went for an ultrasound over a year ago we saw nothing...and that was when our drama all started. It was so sad. This time I took a deep breath, she did the ultrasound vaginally and THERE IT WAS!!!! My little blueberry:):):) And then we heard the heartbeat...utterly amazing to see such a little baby with a heartbeat. How could anyone ever abort...they are crazy!!!


I have been ravenous lately. I mean RAVENOUS. I mean like I eat and then not 5 minutes later I am starving...not hungry...starving! I can't stand vegetables at the moment so thank goodness for Juice Plus...no lie, even my ob here in town sells it to his patients. I would be worried about my baby if it weren't for that b.c I swear, I can't even look at a vegetable right now! ha I have been sucking on Preggie Pop candies in the morning during mass....I know that sounds bad but it gets me through the mass without puking! BUT no worries, I'm thankful for the nauseousness!!!


We leave for San Francisco on Thursday:):):) Happy Holy weekend in San Fran, then Napa:):) I'm super excited. God sure does have a sense of humor doesn't he. Pregnant the month we go to Napa! Haha. AND even though I am preggers, I can still taste the wine and spit it out in the spittone things:) Which means I'm going to be a true wine taster:) No worries...I won't let anything go down:) Gonna protect my little blueberry. Shoot, I'm only gonna be tasting at a couple places...not all.


I will miss keeping up with y'all over the few days. I will be able to check blogs at certain points but won't be able to respond that much. For my special IFers, I am going to light candles for you at Easter Mass on Sunday. I hope you will feel my prayers.
 
By the way, what is that big black space below? My uterus??? It's shaped like a banana????

Baby blueberry:)

A very special 14 year old boy

I don't think I have ever told you about this special person in my life. His name is G. G is an orphan here at the orphanage in town. He is also a student of mine:) He came to our school in the 6th grade not speaking. He was very bashful, quiet, and awkwardly uncomfortable. It was so sad. Since day one, G stood out to me. For some reason he was extra special to me. I didn't know why. At the end of 6th grade year, the orphanage signed G up for summer school. I happened to be teaching summer school that summer and it was a blessing:)

G continued his silence throughout all of 6th grade. Keep in mind...he didn't talk to us and he rarely talked to his classmates. I knew that he was taken from his mom recently and I was anxious to know more. That summer of summer school, I saw G laugh for the first time. WHAT! I freeked out! In a good way. My heart just bounced! That summer he started to communicate with me and with some of the kids in the summer school...it was a small class. My heart expanded with care and love for this child.

At the start of his 7th grade year, I decided it was time to get to know more about Gs life. It was October and I knew that Thanksgiving was approaching. I asked G what he did for Thanksgiving at the home and he told me that alot of the kids left to go spend Thanksgiving with their mentor families or other relatives. G, however, didn't have anyone close by so he would be staying with his house parents at the home.  I called the home (the orphanage) and set up a meeting. I talked to DH and felt compelled to have G for Thanksgiving with our family. I met with a couple of the ladies there and they informed me more about Gs life.

G had lived in and out of cars for the past 7 years. His mom was a drug attic. He didn't speak b.c his mom raised him to believe that he was the son of the devil...so any words he said were words of the devil. That is why he chose not to talk. There is much more to the story of his life but basically it was HORRIBLE! The home (which is an Episcopal orphanage) decided to take him up to see the Episcopal priest. The priest spoke with G and ended up freeing him of his thoughts of the "devil in him" and baptized him. I swear to you that next Monday, G started talking....YES! At school....to his teacher and classmates:)

I was attached! So Dh and I decided to take him to Thanksgiving with my family in Birmingham. Even though I was his teacher, I was approved through DHS and was allowed to officially be G's mentor:):):) That weekend in Bham with our family was awesome. G opened up in ways I had never ever ever thought he would. He was in heaven!!! Loving life and loving being surrounded by family.

Since then, G has been a part of our family. He is always with us for holidays and special events. He sometimes is just around for dinners. It's so great. Y'all he is so grown now. He is in my 8th grade class and is taller than me and now he won't shut up!!! hahha. He is definitely the class clown but honestly, I don't care! I, of course, have to discipline him at times but most of the time it is just sooooo great to see him laughing and joking around. He has this deep laughter that is soooo contagious...it cracks my dh up!

G came to me a couple months ago to tell me he had decided to become CATHOLIC!!!!!! Being here at our school made such a difference in his life and he wanted to be confirmed this year with all his classmates. Well, we made it happen. He took some extra classes with our priest and joined in on the classes with the 8th grade. AND GUESS WHAT....Tonight is is Confirmation and I AM HIS SPONSOR!!

Y'all I was so honored. I teared up. To see this precious child of God come this far in his life is absolutely unbelievable. Really, it is. If you knew details of his life, you would expect him to be a child making bad decisions. I know some of you are probably thinking about that movie the blindside. haha. It reminds me of that too. Although that came out a year after G was in our life, it was still awesome to see. G actually looks like the kid on blindside...except that he isn't that tall and he has a huge smile that is so big and bright! G can't be adopted without his brother and sister, so that will probably never happen. Plus he loves his "family" at the home and he is so happy there. They are amazing! BUT G knows he is a part of our family and will always be. I remember last Christmas morning when we were all opening presents, G got more presents than any of us!! To go from having nothing to having so much is just awe inspiring to me. He inspires me. A 14 year old boy. I can't wait to tell him soon that he is going to be an "uncle!" That is what he told me one day...he said I want your kids to call me Uncle G:)

Wow! Please pray a special pray for him tonight:)

Great points on suffering/A little setback/Smiles

Friends, all 48 of you who commented (WOW), thank you soooo much for your love and support. I praise God for you daily...I mean that so much. I hope you know that. Also, I have to say this b.c it has been on my heart. I hope my announcement didn't hurt anyones feelings yesterday. Instead, I pray that it brought you hope. Please know, my sweet IF girls, that I am constantly drawn to God through all of you. I will continue to pray for each of you and your struggles. I pray so much for you who are struggling with IF and I want more than anything for your happiness. Don't think for one minute that you are out of my heart or mind:) I LOVE YOU WOMEN!


I have really been thinking a lot about this journey through infertility and I truly believe that God needed me and dh closer to him in ways we weren't before. So, He showed us this through suffering....drawing us closer to him through our own sufferings. And it worked. I have grown more in spiritual life these past two years than I have in my whole life. Speaking of suffering, it just so happens that on the day DH and I found out we were pregnant, we had already planned to go to Theology on Tap to hear a speaker on suffering. She had 5 reasons she thought as to why we suffered. Three of those really hit me hard.
1) Suffering unleashes love: When people around us suffer, we suffer. We pour out as much love upon them as possible. Suffering helps us grow more in the appreciation of the love that surrounds us. SO TRUE!
2) Suffering helps us be a witness to others: Y'all is this true or what! If it weren't for my suffering, I would have never discovered Y'ALL.  If it weren't each others suffering, we wouldn't be able to understand each other's sufferings. We sure as heck wouldn't be as strong as we all have become. Thing of how much our witnessing to each other has been a positive impact on our lives. This fact honestly makes me appreciate suffering. 

I started crying in the middle of her talk on this. My suffering is still there. IF will always be

 apart of me. It is part of who I am and but it never defined me. It actually helped me become a better person. Crazy thing...suffering brought me one of God's greatest gifts to me....an angel in heaven:)

3) Suffering helps us to grow in our spiritual life: This pretty much speaks for itself. We have all hit rock bottom...so much that the only thing, THE ONLY THING, that kept us going was our faith in God and His will..


I just wanted to share that with y'all b.c the whole time I was listening to her speak, I was wishing y'all were there listening too:) Speaking of suffering, I suffered a bit last night. I'm ok now, no worries but it was a hellasish night! At about 10 pm I started throwing up. YUCK! Hate throwing up. I would rather have surgery again and have to recover for 10 wks than have a night of throwing up. NO LIE! Well the throwing up wouldn't stop. It went on every 15-20 minutes. No big breaks in between. It was one after the other. By about 11:30 it was all bile...stomach lining. HORRIBLE! I decided I had enough. Nothing was working. Sucking on ice cubes, eating bread, nothing! I called PPVI emergency line. Especially with having found out I was pregggers, I didn't want to mess around with dehydration or harming my sweet little grain of couscous (it's probably smaller than that! ha). Dr. called me back and told me ER, IV, MEDs. I waited to see if maybe I would stop. Nope. Three more times. So off we went. Got to ER at 12:30 and was there till 4. Luckily I was one of the only people in the ER....I got in quick! They put me on an IV drip and gave me nausea meds that thankfully worked. I obviously didn't go into work today. I'm resting up and feeling ok. What the heck was it? Either chicken which I ate for dinner (but so did DH) or a bug? Who knows. I am still a little blah with weakness, gas and my throat has been eaten by acid but I'm doing much better than last night. Just gonna take it easy. 


Dh and I found out we were pregnant on St. Gerard's birthday and PPVI and I guesstimated my birthday to be Dec 12th which is the Feast of Our Lady of Guadeloupe!! Talk about wow here. I was reading a post earlier by this lady friend and she mentioned St. Gerard and Our Lady together and it just struck me how amazing it was that my news went along with these days. WOW! I'm still in WOW mode and probably will be from what you others say about not even believing it when your holding your baby.

Our first ultrasound is scheduled for April 28th:):):):) Now the last time we went for an ultrasound, we had a horrible experience. I don't want to go back thinking about that day. SOOO I am trying my best to be positive. Honestly though, I feel soooo good about this one. I didn't with the first one. I didn't feel right doing the IUI and I didn't feel right about the pregnancy. This one...FEELS SO RIGHT! THANK YOU LORD FOR DR. HILGERS AND NAPRO!!!!  Supposedly I'm about 5 weeks.  We leave for NAPA  April 21st (YES I PLANNED A TRIP TO NAPA AND SAN FRAN...PERFECT TIMING HUH!! Actually I would rather be pregnant any day over a trip. I'm just gonna be a true wine taster and taste and spit it out! haha). The nurse at PPVI was a bit worried about me having the ultrasound too early and maybe not hearing a heartbeat yet so we decided the day after our trip would be best.  What an exciting month ahead:):)


I'll quit blabbing now. Just wanted to catch you all up:) Now I am off to meet these new blogger friends who posted on my last post. Thank you so much and I really look forward to meeting your blogs:) OH AND PRAYER BUDDY, I AM PRAYING FOR YOU AT DAILY MASS EVERY DAY! HOPE YOU ARE FEELING IT. AND FOR THE PRAYER BUDDY WHO IS PRAYING FOR ME, YOU HAVE SOME KIND OF POWERFUL PRAYERS FRIEND:):) KEEP IT UP! 


LOVE YOU LADIES:)