Reflection and goals

It's been a good year. As I reflect on this past year, I focus on my daughter. I watched the video of her birth today. I can't believe it's been 5 years. It seems like this past year she has changed so much. She's grown into such a sweet girl, and I feel so blessed to have her in my life. I've been thinking about the fact that we're starting this process all over again with a baby due in August. Again, it's another blessing, and I'm excited to start this journey again.

My biggest prayers are for the health of my family this year. I pray for a healthy pregnancy, and a healthy baby.

As I mentioned in my previous post, the goal of paying down debt will continue to be important to me. I'm always looking at ways to do that effectively.

My other goal is to get my house organized. I feel like it's way too cluttered, and it makes me anxious. Maybe I'm nesting already, but I feel the need to clean it all out and start fresh. I plan to start working on that soon.

I wish everyone who reads this a healthy a prosperous new year.

Resolution Time

I don't think I've ever kept a resolution, but I still make them every year. It feels good to start fresh with goals, but they never seem to stick. I'm not making any big ones this year, but I do want to continue to work on paying down our debt. We've been pretty good this past year, and I want to do even better this year since we have the baby due in August. I've been reading Carrie's blog over at Money Saving Methods for a few months. I love to read blogs on saving money. I actually found her blog via Andrea at Mommy Snacks, who also has an awesome blog that helps me save money. Carrie is really all about saving and earning money with a variety of methods. For the month of January, she'll be discussing all of these methods and is inviting her readers to join, which I am doing. Go take a look at both of these blogs if one of your resolution's is to save some cash this year.

Why am I thinking about this now?

Abby woke me up at 4am to tell me she had to pee. "Well, go pee", I tell her. She used my bathroom and then went straight back to her bedroom and went back to sleep. She has a bathroom right outside her room, so I'm not sure why she did that. Anyway, I was awake for at least an hour after that. I don't know why, but I all of the sudden started thinking about when she starts kindergarten next year right after the baby is born. How am I going to stand at the bus stop with her with a baby every morning when it's freezing outside? Am I going to put the baby in a front carrier or do I roll the baby out in a stroller? What if it's raining or snowing? This is what I'm thinking about at 4am today. I've only been pregnant for a minute.

Gifts preschoolers can make

Please check out my Examiner.com article on gifts preschoolers can make. Thanks!

Pregnancy changes things

Thanks to everyone for the congratulations. That was sweet of you all. I went to the doc yesterday and my due date will be August 20th. He said lets forget about the mammogram for now. We both think the changes were due to the pregnancy. I'll just keep playing with my boobs to make sure nothing else concerns me. The thing is that my boobs (I love that word) are already bigger and quite sore. I don't remember things happening so quickly with my first pregnancy. I'm also finding that I'm feeling physically hungry more often. I don't think it's psychological, but I guess it could be. I've also had a couple of days when I got a little nauseous, but nothing major. I'm just praying for an uneventful, healthy pregnancy that ends with a healthy baby. Working at a children's hospital, I see things that could go wrong, and it scares the crap out of me. I have no preference on boy or girl, I just want healthy. My husband, of course, hopes to get a boy, but he'll be happy if it's a girl also. This is the last one, so I'm kind of hoping he gets his boy. He would be so stinking excited. My daughter, though, would be heartbroken if she got a little brother instead of a little sister. I guess we'll see what happens. I'm looking forward to lots of posts about all of the fun and not so fun parts of being pregnant.

Good news!

My profile says that we recently lost our minds and decided to try to have another child. Well, we started trying in August and I'm pregnant. I'm a little surprised. It took a year to get pregnant with Abby, so I just assumed that it would take awhile again. (Warning: what follows may be TMI for you) I started having breast issues with my right breast the week before last so I actually went to my OB last Wednesday to have him check it out. It was really sore and felt different. I was supposed to start my period on Friday and I told him we were trying to get pregnant. He went ahead and did a pregnancy test, which was negative. He decided to send me for a diagnostic mammogram, which I scheduled for Thursday. Wednesday night I started thinking I should wait before doing the mammogram because what if I ended up pregnant? I'd be paranoid about getting the mammogram. I rescheduled it and lo and behold, my period didn't come on Friday. Also, I started to have some clear leakage out of that right breast. I did some research and found that can be an early pregnancy symptom. I stopped and got a test on Friday evening and took it when I got home. I showed it to my husband, and he looks at me and says "Are you ok?" I'm like..."um, it's positive". What followed was hilarious. His voice got really high pitched and he covered his mouth with his hand and yelled "What?! But it didn't light up! It didn't light up!". I yelled, "What the hell are you talking about it didn't light up?" He says "that one line is not as dark as the other line". I say, "Honey, it doesn't matter as long as a pink line is there". He just sat there like a girl with his hand covering his mouth in shock. He didn't think it would happen this quickly either. Heehee.

So, I have to call the OB this morning and set up my first prenatal and find out what they want me to do about this mammogram.

My first giveaway

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

8

Heidi at Thoughts of Peace is the winner of my first giveaway. Thanks to everyone who participated. I hope to do another giveaway soon.

My first giveaway!

How many of you out there have ever collected Precious Moments figurines? I think we even have a couple of the ornaments on our Christmas Tree. The company is heading into it's 30th year. In September, the company launched it's Precious Girls Club book series and virtual world. It's centered around the main character, Katie, who recently moved to Shine, Wisconsin. She started the Precious Girls Club with the help of her mom and aunt. Girls can take part in the virtual world through the website, which focuses on positive life lessons. They have missions, which include things like cleaning their room and helping at the virtual pet shelter. For completing these tasks, they earn Precious Points and virtue charms. After a certain number of points, they have access to more features on the site. There is a parents section at the website and parents can send emails to their in-world computers, rewarding them with points and virtue charms as well. Standard membership to the site is free, but they also offer a Rainbow membership.The first book is A Little Bit of Faith, and you can download the entire first chapter at the website. There are products that tie into the storyline that are also available. The products can be purchased online here, or there is a feature on the website where you can find retailers in your area. Each item comes with a code that can be used in the virtual world. I'm happy to provide all of my readers with the code 8137-KTQ1-NZCG, which will give you one month of the Rainbow membership free.

Here is what you get with this giveaway:

A plush dog like that of the main character's puppy.
A charm bracelet with a charm.
An extra charm for the bracelet.
Friendship bracelets.
Instructions on how to start your own Precious Girls Club.
Your own Precious Girls Club sign for your room.
Certificates of membership for your members.
A cute Precious Girls Club bag.


The whole concept is great and the products are adorable. It sends a positive message to our daughters, and in this day and age that is important.

The contest will run from the time of this posting until Sunday December 14 at midnight eastern. It's not much time, but I'd like to get it to the winner before Christmas. All you need to do is leave a comment about who you would give these products to if you win. For an extra entry, please blog about the giveaway and leave another comment that you did so. If you follow my blog, I'll add another entry. The winner will be chosen via Random.org. Please make sure I have a way to contact you.

Every little bit helps.

Everytime we leave the grocery store during the holidays, I give my daughter some change and she puts it in the Red Kettle. The Salvation Army helps so many people every year. Even more are are having a tough time this year, and it's true that every little bit helps. Please consider donating as little as $5 to my online Red Kettle. You can even designate that it goes to your area if you'd like.

What happened to Michael?

I heard this song on the radio last night. It just makes me wanna dance. I guess there was never a video made, but I found a pretty good video on you tube that someone made with clips from other videos. Michael has always had so much talent. I just wish he wasn't so strange, and that he didn't like little boys so much...creepy. I dare you not to move some part of your body to the beat. You can't help yourself.

Really cheap holiday cards!!

Carrie at Money Saving Methods has posted an awesome deal for some really cheap holiday cards. I got 30 cards for $5.31. One of the codes didn't work for me, but some have gotten for even cheaper than me. Who knows how long this will work, so head over and order some cards!

A 5 year old's perspective

I let Abby take some pictures with the camera the other day. I thought her pictures were very interesting. She photographed life from her perspective. These are some of the things that are important to her.

Socrates the kitty. I thought this was a pretty good picture.

Goldy the goldfish in a dirty fishtank.

Mommy, looking pretty frazzled.

Abby, looking pretty frazzled as well.

Spongebob is her favorite.

Socrates and Aristotle (I know...it was my husband's idea)

She actually posed me for this picture (still looking pretty rough).

Tank taking a nap, which is his favorite thing to do.

World Aids Day

December 1st is World Aids Day. I've been researching statistics, and the numbers are quite staggering. There are an estimated 33 million people living with AIDS in the world, and more than 25 million have died from it since 1981. There are over 11 million orphans in sub-Saharan Africa due to so many adults dying from AIDS. I work in a children's hospital emergency room, and I see teenage girls engaging in lots of risky behavior. I try to help them understand the possible consequences, but these teens don't think it could happen to them. It's really frustrating.