Long Time, No Post...

Well, it sure has been a while and I can't keep giving my procrastinating blogger friends a hard time if I am also an offender. Not too much blogworthy stuff has happened, but this is our life the last few weeks nonetheless:

• Garth Lee has had his first 2 soccer games for the fall season and I must say, they are all MUCH better. There are a couple of newer kids that will take some time to get up to the level the other kids are at, but it was actually pretty fun to watch them play. Garth Lee is a very good hustler, he will chase the kid that breaks away to score and almost always overtakes them and gets between him and the goal, we just need to work on him being more aggressive. Daddy (who is also assistant coaching this season) keeps telling him "no more Mr. Nice Guy" and I see Garth Lee out there banging his fist and mouthing it to other kids...
• I found me a great OB that I really like a lot. I think we will be a good fit, he was horrified at my labor and delivery experience with Garth Lee (as was I) and he assures me that this time will be much better, so here's hoping...I'm not quite to the point where I have realized I am actually going to have to give birth to this baby, so it will probably hit me soon. I remember with Garth Lee actually panicking when I realized that this thing in me was going to have to find a way out, that there was no turning back...I guess I might stay optimistic this time and just believe my doctor that everything will go better this time...only time will tell. We should find out the sex of the baby October 16th...if baby cooperates.
• My future part-time counterpart at work, Amanda, started this week and I couldn't be happier about it, she should be GTG in the next month or so, then towards the first of the year, I will be cutting WAAAAAY back on hours, so I am obviously looking forward to that.
• My friend had a 9lb, 9oz baby boy at 3:51 (3+5+1=9) on 9/09/09. Mom and baby are doing well. The named him Enin...just kidding.
• My 10 year high school reunion is next weekend...yep, I'm officially old now. At least I have a good reason to look fat...

Hopefully I'll be a better blogger ;)

School lunches, you know you miss them...

Well, today's choices for Garth Lee's cafeteria lunch were either chicken fried steak or "Mexican" baked potato. So...unless making a baked potato "Mexican" turns it into a hot dog and french fries, there really was no point in having him eat the cafeteria lunch today, it would simply be a buck fifty thrown in the trash can. So we got some lunchables and Daddy got Garth Lee an insulated lunch bag to take to school. I packed him the lunchable, a gogurt and a banana and the report after school today was "that was a spectacular lunch, the best". Spectacular and stunning have been his adjectives of choice lately and it is pretty funny (he watched Pinocchio for the first time and told me it was a "stunning" movie), anyways, Garth takes him into the house after school and he headed straight to the fridge and started packing his lunch for tomorrow. He was disappointed to learn that he has to eat in the cafeteria tomorrow, but luckily, his choices for Thursday are chicken fried rice or broccoli and cheese baked potato, so another stupendous sack lunch it is.

Thoughts/Gummy Bear Update

Here we go back to music again, but I have been listening to this older Sugarland CD and I have really been enjoying it for a lot of different song reasons, but one in particular has really touched me lately. It is called "Happy Ending", there is one verse that points out that people come from all walks of life and we all have dreams even as young children. It reminds me that it is very important to not push aside the dreams of children (or anyone else) for any reason. We know the odds of becoming the next world-changing leader or even professional sports players are low, but you know what...those were all little kids that grew up with a dream too and they followed it and saw it come to fruition. The song goes:

Cowboys ride into sunsets
The good guy always gets the girl
Cinderella has just fit
A glass slipper that changed her world

We all know the story
We all know the fairy tales
We all get the glory
Of making it for ourselves

From the beginning
We're all looking for a happy ending
Every dream of winning every love we've been in
Right from the beginning, we're looking for a happy ending

We've come here with nothing
And take it with us the day we leave
The first and last breath don't matter
It's all the ones that are in between

It's the reason for living
It's the reason the caged bird sings
It's why we see it in the movies
All the way to the closing scenes

From the beginning
We're all looking for a happy ending
Every dream of winning, every love we've been in
Right from the beginning, we're looking for a happy ending

And for all those dreamers who have come and gone
Who have reached for the stars, who have overcome
You're the hope, you're the wish, you're the truth
Baby, here's the proof:

Baby's born in a ghetto (background "I have a dream speech" spoken by MLK)
Baby's born with a silver spoon (background recording of the first lunar landing)
One tells his mama, "I have a dream"
One tells his mama, "I walk the moon"

I guess I am thinking about this more moving further into this pregnancy. It actually makes me think more about Garth Lee, not really daydreaming about the baby, but all of the possibilities that lay in front of our children if we work hard to help them instead of standing in their way or building obstacles or boundaries that don't really exist.

We had our "big" ultrasound today, our last with the fertility doctor and I have been released to the OB/GYN. I don't see him for another few weeks, but my RE said if I needed anything in the mean time that I could still call them. It was possible (although unlikely) that we could have found out the sex at the ultrasound today, but the umbilical cord was hanging right in between the legs, so no luck, but to be honest I wasn't expecting to find anything out today anyways. It was just pretty great to see the little "guy" jumping around in there and moving all around, it was pretty amazing and touching. The HB was right at about 170, so according to old wives tales, over 140 means girl, but the RE said she has almost never seen a HB under 140 unless it was right at about 6 or 7 weeks, so there ya go. So now we probably won't find out the sex until October...oh well a year ago, or even six months ago I would have given ANYTHING to be bummed that I have to wait a short month or 2 to find out the sex of our baby. We are so blessed in so many ways. They recorded the ultrasound on video (VHS) and if we can find out a way (I've been told it is possible), hopefully we can put it on something else so I can post it here--but that would require quite a bit of technological know-how and a lot of unkowns, so only time will tell if that actually happens ;)

So I added a fuzzy cellphone camera picture I took of one of the ultrasound pictures. In all honesty, that is probably the closest thing we will get to the video on the blog ;)

First Day of School

Thank goodness for cellphone cameras...notice the sleepy eyes in the first picture. I think that is what we are going to have to work on the most (besides eating cafeteria lunches) is the whole getting up in the morning. Up until this point I have felt blessed with a child that sleeps in, which subsequently allows mommy and daddy to sleep in which is nice...until you HAVE to get up for something, then not so nice when all you want to do is curl up back in bed and that is all he is doing too. I can't complain too much, once he is actually out of the bed he does pretty well, it is just getting him out of the bed that is the hard part.

Garth Lee is going to Honey Elementary. His Kindergarten teacher is Mrs. Scoggin and he really seems to like her a lot. Garth and I both got a bit choked up at the open house when we saw his little name on his locker and saw his classroom, but I was OK the first day of school. My mom and I walked over to pick him up after school the first day and I did tear up a little watching him walk out with his class and his teacher. He is having such a fun time and it is fun to see that. Everyday I get a report on the "slimy" peaches or "gross" french fries (sweet potato fries) that he has tried, but at least he is trying it, I guess. I wanted to just pack his lunches but Daddy overruled me since he feels like he really needs to learn to eat other things, even though I am sure all he is having is a milk (most likely chocolate) and maybe a bite or 2 of the main course and possibly a bite of dessert. I guess he needs to learn sometime and now is as good a time as any.

Anyways, Garth Lee is loving school and we are loving it too!

Our Little Gummy Bear

Well, we got an improptu ultrasound today because of my progesterone levels (everything was fine). Garth had to work last night and doesn't get off until 8am and the nurse wanted me to come in at 7:50 so I had to take Garth Lee with me to the doctor's office. He woke up pretty well because he was excited to see the baby in the "microscope" and we went to the doctor's office. He got to see the little baby, it was really cute, as soon as he could see my uterus on the screen, he was like "I see it" and when he saw the actual baby he said "Awww, it's so cute". I asked him if he thought it looked like a girl or a boy and he didn't say it looked like either, but I feel like it is a boy more after today's ultrasound. I'm not sure why I feel that way, I think maybe just because I remember seeing Garth Lee in an ultrasound when he was that size and so maybe I correlate it with him having been a boy...I guess only time will tell. The only thing that Garth Lee remembered from the visit and what he is telling everyone is that "There is no blood around the baby". He is right, the nurse did say that, but it is kind of gross that is what he is sharing with everyone. "He" still looks like a little gummy bear (I mean, he is still only the size of a small strawberry), but he was moving all over the place and shaking his head from side to side. The placenta is looking like it has taken over production of hormones and we could see the amniotic sac was fully formed around the baby. We have another ultrasound in 2 weeks and then we are released to a "regular" OB/GYN, so then I probably won't have another ultrasound for another 2 months, so I am enjoying it while I can. I'm glad Garth Lee got to see his little brother/sister and I am also glad there was "no blood around the baby".

Mom Of The Year

You know you're not going to win any parenting contests when...

1. A random commercial flashes on TV and your child starts singing "Nationwide is on your side" 20 or so seconds before the actual commercial sings it. (Too much TV time anyone?)

2. You ask your child to walk 20 steps to the fridge to get you a cold soda and he looks you straight in the eyes and says "Mommy, I really feel like you are taking advantage of me"--maybe not so horrible if your child is 12 or 16, but mine just turned 5 today and told me this last week.

3. You drop your credit card in a fishy smelling mall fountain and you actually try to use your kid as a fishing pole to get it out.

Come on, you know you have some too...share!

Name Them One By One...

Garth Lee's surgery went very well. I was upset a little because the anesthesiologist did not premedicate him before taking him back (an anesthesiologist friend told me that they really just need to give the versed to the parents--I certainly would have taken it). It was very sad when he was taken back away from us as he reached out for me and cried, I could barely hold myself together. The surgery took about an hour and a half (much longer than we thought it was supposed to take). When Dr. Britton came in to talk to us, he let us know that this "little" hernia was no such thing, that is was quite a complex case for him. This defect had been there since birth and it has been exposed to increasingly daredevelish acts by my well mannered although at times a little on the hyper side wonderful son. Anyway it was quite a hard repair, but he should do just fine. He woke up well and he wanted to pee more than anything because that is what everyone had told him that once he pees he can go home so that was the first thing he did was disconnect himself from everything that should be connected so that he could pee...and pee he did and almost just walked out the door when our sweet nurse caught us and told him that we would have to lay down for at least and hour and a half before we could go so we showed him on the big clock what to look for to tell him when it was time for us to go. He was very calm and quickly began the hamming up of the injury, but honestly as his mom, I thoroughly enjoyed holding my baby and my baby wanting to be with me. That's the best part. Now, less than a week later the little toot is all over the place. He is a trooper, I know that he really hated his medicine and took it anyways. He's a good and healthy boy and we are so glad that he came out of this even better than before. Thanks to everyone at the Women's and Children's hospital for being so kind and helpful. We had genuinely wonderful people taking care of us. We were quite impressed.

My Best Friend

My little family has been going through quite a lot lately, the least of which is my purse being stolen. We have also had some pretty wonderful things going on as well, unfortunately they have been overshadowed by the bad things, but you live life and move on...ANYWAYS, in any sort of turmoil you are forced to look at and scrutinize those relationships affected. Through the last while, I have realized that more than anything in this world I love my son, pretty much anyone else can come into or duck out of my life and I know that life will proceed with or without them. Not that I didn't realize that before, but I realize it now more than ever. I am learning that no matter how deeply you let things affect you, you have to do everything you can not to let other people's problems creep into your life and affect your own relationships because that gives someone else control over your life which is never a good thing.
(stepping down from soapbox)
Last night while I was laying in bed with Garth Lee (after I had asked him several times to be quiet and go to sleep), he said "Mommy, you know what I wish I was?", I said "What?", he said "A contact for you." I kind of chuckled and asked him why he would want to be my contact. He said "So you could wear me and I would always be close to you." I thought that was just about the cutest thing I had ever heard and oddly profound because without realizing it he knows that I don't see anything clearly without him to provide me the prospective I require. He is such a sweetheart and he is my life, EVERYTHING else is just small (blurry) potatoes.

No More Pictures

Well, no pictures from the trip. My purse was stolen from my car last night and among everything else monetarily valuable to me (credit cards, gift cards, and some cash), my camera was in there and was also stolen. I had started carrying it around so that I could catch some more "Kodak" moments. I also had taken pictures of the Cub Scouts bowling Wednesday night and we were going to do some stuff with the pictures in Cubs. I'm sure (hoping) it was just some punk kids, hopefully not some druggie since my State Board of Pharmacy license, my work badge and my business cards were in there, so they not only know I have access to drugs but they know my exact location and my schedule. Of course we have cancelled all of our credit cards and there haven't been any fraudulent charges. I only had about 15 bucks cash in there and that just gets me more than anything--These kids didn't even gain anything out of this, except maybe a camera with pictures from the Grand Canyon and of lots of little kids having a good time, they just wanted to break into someones car and steal something. There was a $50 bill in the console right beside the purse that was still there. Seriously, who does that kind of thing. I'm still really upset about it and I am usually a private person in a lot of ways and I feel really violated. It was also the Mickey Mouse purse I got at Disney World (I know it sounds really "classy" but it really was a cute little bag) so that really bums me out too. Also, something that might be good to know, the divisions of the police department that investigates burglary and identification in this town are not open on the weekends. I guess during regular business hours you are good, but after that you are on your own.

Surgery Tuesday

Well, somehow, this time being right holds absolutely no satisfaction. Last time I at least had a couple of weeks to mentally prepare, but not this time. Garth Lee's surgery is scheduled for Tuesday morning. Garth said the doctor was really very nice and personable which always helps. I know that Garth Lee is going to be very unhappy when he realizes what is happening, but luckily kids are resilient creatures. Last time he was running around the house about 6 hours later, hopefully things will go just as smoothly this time. I'll keep everyone posted.

It's Back :(

Last night, Garth Lee's hernia was much bigger (these pictures are from the first time we went to the doctor--the last one is after pushing it back in) and we were not able to completely reduce the hernia (which is not a good thing). At least this time, they just sent us to the surgeon instead of having us come in. We have an appointment with the urologist in the morning, so I guess we will know more after that. I hate to say "I told you so"...oh wait, no I don't--"I TOLD YOU SO!!!!"

P.S. Those are my fingers in the pictures, I was trying to make sure I didn't inadvertently produce some sort of prosecutable photographs, but they ended up still looking questionable...

Public

Sorry for the whole "going private" scare. I have found it to be way more of a hassle than I thought, so here we are back naked for the world to see. I just have a really hard time believing the world is really that interested when I only have a few friends who are remotely interested, kwim? Anyways, I actually have lots of stuff to blog about, but I want to get my pictures downloaded first. Please bear with me, hopefully I will get them on here tonight and blog about them tomorrow. I know you will be waiting anxiously...mom :)

Well, I guess I could go ahead and post this picture:

If you have never tried REALLY hard to get pregnant, you may not even really be able to see these lines very well, but if you have tried REALLY hard, then these lines are VERY obvious to you. I stopped taking pictures of them when they were darker, but we have already had 2 ultrasounds and have seen the heartbeat (one of the few advantages of being fertilly challenged), so it is actually for real and hopefully this little one will stick. We are of course very excited and are looking forward to our March baby.

P.S. Yep, you are totally looking at a picture of something I've peed on...that is so gross!

I'm Pretty Sure It's ESPN...

Or ESP, or maybe even PMS, but I had a dream last night. I dreamt that I got online and checked the Texas State Board of Pharmacy website and I saw my husband on there, with a license number, a for real pharmacist. I got up this morning and got to work, checked the website and what did I see...you can probably guess (or already got a call this morning at 8 am) that he WAS there, he IS licenced FOR REAL!!!!!! Can't you hear the HUGE sigh of relief (and the jumping up and down) coming from our house?!?!?!?! Garth is officially official. He has a license number and everything. He called CVS and they already want him to come in to cover for them, surprise, surprise. YAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!! The last 6 years of our lives has been consumed with pharmacy school, and that isn't even counting the 4 years of undergrad before that. Wow, 10 years, I can't believe it's over (or just really starting). As Sarah said, we are "like" real grown ups now.

I would just like to add that I would not trade these years we spent in school, together, struggling with a young family, for ANYTHING. We have learned so much about one another and we have learned to lean on each other and count on each other. Thanks for all the support and encouragement from everyone.

ROTFL

I just added a new blog to my blog list that is too funny for words. I actually saw it because one of the other blogs I frequent is in some contest for the funniest blog and I clicked on this one because it was FAR in the lead, and after reading it, that distinction is well deserved. The blog is called cake wrecks and it has actual professionally (sometimes that term is used loosly) decorated cakes that somehow have gone wrong. The cakes themselves are really funny, but her captions are HILARIOUS! Here are some of my favs.

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/2009/07/and-so-fourth.html
http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/2009/07/taking-liberties.html
http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/2009/06/tassel-hassles.html (I esp like the Yoda cake description)

More to come, it's time for me to go home now.

Over Halfway There!!!!!

My husband (and I) got some excellent news in the mail today. He got his letter from the Texas State Board of Pharmacy that he passed his law exam! The law exam is BY FAR more difficult than the NAPLEX so...knock on wood...we are so close to being in the clear. We so needed some good news this week and we are very excited. Thanks to everyone who has supported us through this looooooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggggggggg journey. We are almost finished, I can hardly believe it. I am so proud of him (but secretly glad that he scored one point lower than I did on the law exam, heh heh). I truly hope he blows my NAPLEX score out of the water!