Dear Weston

Dear Weston,

Any day now, your world is going to change.  Mama and Daddy are going to go to the hospital and have your brother or sister.  You aren't going to be the center of our world anymore.  You will be sharing that with the new baby.  However, our love for you will always be the same.  Our love will not be divided, only multiplied.  After all, YOU are the baby that made us a Mommy and Daddy. 

You will be a GREAT big brother.  I'm sure it won't be smooth at first, for any of us.  None of us have done this before; Daddy and I have never had two children and you've never had to share your attention.  I worry that since you have no idea what is about to happen, that you will act out and get upset more quickly.  I hope in a few years that you and the baby will be best friends and will grow up looking out for each other.  Daddy and I believe that, if God sees fit, every child should have a sibling.  This way, you have a buddy, a confidant, and someone to share inside jokes with. 

I can't wait for you to meet your sibling and watch your love grow for them.  I know you will be confused because for the last 10 months, the "baby" has just been my belly.  You have shown the baby love by kissing my belly and that was enough.  The baby hasn't made any noise, wanted any of my attention or wanted you to share any of your toys with it. That's going to change and I know you won't understand.  That's ok though.  I will do my best to explain everything to you as we go along.  I know you will be such a great helper for Mommy.  You can bring me diapers, help feed and soothe the baby and bring the baby toys.  You are such a smart boy, so I know you will teach the baby so much.

Yesterday, knowing that our one-on-one time is short, I let you come and watch a movie (Cars 2, your favorite right now) in my bed during naptime.  You were absolutely thrilled when I brought your blankie and pillow into my bed. About 5 minutes before the movie ended, you fell asleep.  I just laid there and watched you sleep and cherished the time we had together. You seemed to really enjoy having the opportunity to be in Mommy and Daddy's bed.  Babies don't get to take naps in Mommy and Daddy's bed, just big boys like you.  We'll definitely have to do that more often.  I hope you will want to continue having quiet time/naps in our room.

I hope you have fun at Mamma and Papa's house and enjoy playing with the puppy dogs.  Please don't be scared that Mommy is in the hospital.  You were born in a hospital too.  Hospitals are where it is most safe for your brother or sister to be born.  I will miss you so, so much while I am away.  After all, this will be the longest that I will have been away from you since you were born.  You can come visit whenever you would like and before you know it, Mommy, Daddy, brother or sister and you will all be back home starting our new life as a family of four.

Please don't ever forget that we love you very, very, very much and always will.

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

What Have I Done?!

I have a doctor's appointment this morning.  As much as I'd like the doctor to give me an induction date so that this long, painful, sickly pregnancy can come to an end, I don't want to know when the last day with just Weston will be.  I'd also like to go into labor on my own, since I had to be induced with Weston too.

Ten months ago, it seemed like a really good idea to give Weston a sibling.  However, now that I have a very short time left, I'm wondering how big this mistake is.

Now, I am NOT calling Baby #2 a mistake AT ALL.  The "mistake" I am talking about is all in my head, I'm sure. I'll bullet point and rationalize these thoughts, maybe it will help.

• Weston is not going to get all of the attention anymore.  How will he deal with that?
  Weston is two.  He won't remember the difference and after a few weeks with the new baby, he'll adjust just fine.
• Weston is only two and has no idea what is about to occur in his life.
  Weston IS only two, so he won't remember life before the baby arrives.
• Weston is and has been my and Doug's primary focus for almost 26 months now. How can I give him adequate time and attention, especially in the early weeks when I am so exhausted I can't even see straight?
  That's what teamwork is for.  Each parent focuses on one child.  One-on-one defense, I guess.
• What if Weston hates us for having another baby?
  Weston doesn't know what hate is and when he does find out what it is, the baby will be old news.
• I've been told parenting two children is a lot harder than parenting one.  It's not just double the work like one would think.
  If parenting subsequent children really was as difficult as people have said, there wouldn't be nearly as many siblings in this world as there are and there certainly wouldn't be families with more than 2 children.  If I go into parenting two children with no expectations of how our daily life will be, I will be neither happy, nor disappointed if something doesn't work out.
• Will Weston be scared seeing me in the hospital and unable to go home with him?
  When I was hospitalized for hyperemesis, he came to visit and didn't seem scared.  Of course, it was only one night and he's older now, but hopefully he'll still not care.

These are only a few of my concerns, but only time will tell how they all work out.  I'm also pretty sure that I'm not the first nor will I be the last mom/parent to have these concerns.  Everyone tells me to just breathe and enjoy having my children close together, because soon my fears will be dating, college and an empty nest.

Father's Day

I realize Father's Day was more than a week ago, but I am just now having time to post.

We started Father's Day at church.  When we got home, my parents brought over home-cooked breakfast.  After breakfast, my dad and Doug opened presents.  Weston, the dogs and I got Doug splatter screens for cooking, a DVD he wanted and made him a candy card.  We got my dad a movie theater gift card.  He really enjoys seeing movies.

When we finished opening gifts, we all took a nap.  It's our thing.  Ha. 

When we got up, we headed to an early dinner.  We then came back to the house to play games and then went out for dessert.  It was a very restful and fun day.

Memorial Day Weekend

For Memorial Day weekend, Doug, Weston, I and my parents went to south Georgia.  There we met up with my in-laws and went to an amusement park/water park.

We thought we'd get into the hotel around midnight, but it was actually around 3am when we got there. :-(  It made for an early morning when we needed to get up a few hours later.  Surprisingly, Weston was in a great mood all day.  

On Saturday, we went on a few rides at the amusement park, but it was 100 degrees and between my pregnant self and Weston's little body, we couldn't stay in that heat too long.  We ended up spending the entire afternoon in the water park area.  Weston LOVED the lazy river and the kids water area.  He didn't want to get out of the water.  It's not all that surprising, since his mom and dad are huge water people too.  Saturday evening, there was a concert in the park, so we stayed for that. The Band Perry was performing and even though he had swam all day, only had a short 20 minute nap and about 3 hours of sleep the night before, Weston danced through the whole concert, cutting up and entertaining the people around us.

On Sunday, we went back to the park.  When you buy a ticket at the amusement park, you get in a consecutive day free, so we figured why not go back?!  It was a little cooler on Sunday because Tropical Storm Beryl was heading in our direction.  We went on the few more amusement rides and then headed over to the water park area again.  We spent the entire time in the lazy river.  The only reason we got out of the water is the sky seemed threatening and we were getting cold since there wasn't any sun.  After we got dried off and changed into our clothes, the sun came back out (and stayed out).  Isn't that the way it always is?  Doug's parents and brother left to head back to Florida since they had work on Monday.  The rest of us wandered around the park a little longer, but as soon as we put Weston in his stroller, he fell asleep.  Doug went on a roller coaster and then we headed towards the gift shop to get Weston a souvenir.  When we left the park, we went looking for dinner and spent about 2 hours hunting down a non-chain pizza place.  There weren't any open, so we ended up at Pizza Hut.  While we were in there, it got very windy and started pouring.  Beryl had arrived.

On Monday, we headed back to Alabama.  We went through Atlanta and met up with my uncle and aunt.  We ate at the Varsity, which is so fattening, but so yummy!  We ended up getting home in time to go to our Monday night trivia game, where our team took first place for the 3rd week in a row.  

We had a fabulous weekend and hope you did the same. :-)

Mother's Day

Yesterday was my second Mother's Day (although I was pregnant with Weston for Mother's Day 2010).

Doug and Weston did a really good job of loving on me yesterday, as they do every day. 

*A disclaimer: I think that Mother's Day is another holiday thought up by retailers to make more money.  I feel that children are a huge blessing and there doesn't need to be a day set aside for mothers (or fathers).

We started the morning at church and then met my parents for breakfast.  Afterwards, we went home and all three of us took a nice nap.  When we got up, we started getting ready to go to dinner.  We decided to go early so that we could beat the dinner rush.  We pulled up to the restaurant before 4:30 and we were told it would be an hour wait (which it was).  Guess we didn't beat the rush. 

While we were waiting to be seated, I opened presents from Doug, Weston, the dogs and my parents.  We also gave my mom presents as well.  Doug got me a book I've been wanting to read, Weston got me the Beauty and the Beast DVD because I want to collect all of the Disney movies, and the dogs got me a new iPhone cover.  My parents got me a fan to help combat the hot Alabama summer since, lucky me, I will be pregnant until the end of August (or that's the plan).

We got my mom a picture frame from Weston that says "I love you Mamma".  I saw a deal on the frame and since we can't find anything with Mamma on it, I decided to order it.  And then it occurred to me that I should have waited until Grandparents Day in September.  Oh well, she enjoyed it.  We also got her a chaise lounge for her back porch so she could sit outside and read.

Mother's Day 2012 was a very nice day and I felt celebrated, even though I don't deserve it.  I'm just doing what I've always dreamed of doing- being a Mom.

Black Mold

I am VERY allergic to mold, mildew, microspores.  Every time I would go into the kitchen (which is a lot), but especially when I was near the fridge or sink, my nose would start itching and I'd start sneezing.  Doug looked in the fridge and he looked under the cabinet and he couldn't find anything either place.  I figured maybe it was just me and dropped the issue.

A month or so ago, I thought I heard trickling or water noise in or near the refrigerator.  I thought it was odd, since we don't have an ice maker in our fridge/freezer, so I mentioned it to Doug.  He again looked in the fridge and couldn't find a source.

Then, about 10 days ago, I noticed a leak under the refrigerator. It wasn't just water, but brownish muck too.  I wiped it up and went about my business.  Then it happened again and more water came gushing out.  We realized this was happening when we ran the dishwasher or sink.  My dad, who is a plumber, looked at it for us and realized that there was a leak in the wall.

Since we are renting our house while waiting for our house to be built, we called the property management company.  Today the guys came out (and are actually still here) and have had to remove the cabinets, sink and dishwasher to fix the leak.  At this point, they realize our kitchen is filled with black mold and that the leak has been happening since the house was built.  It's just now making itself apparent by leaking out of the wall.  The mold has been building up for some time too. Now, we have to have people come out and clean all the black mold out of our house.  This is so much more of a nightmare than I thought it was going to be!

All of last summer, I was really sick.  I went to umpteen doctors and specialists to try and figure out why I was remaining so sick.  Now with the evidence of black mold, the pieces are fitting together as to why the doctors couldn't find anything.  It's environmental. Doug, Weston and I have been living in mold hell the entire time we have lived here and just didn't know it.  I'm sure my OB would be thrilled to know I am carrying a baby in this environment.  Ugh!

Telling Doug

The October after Doug and I got married, I bought a Christmas themed scavenger hunt for me to send Doug on to find a gift with.  The first year, his gift at the end was a Mouse Trap game from the baby on the way.  

Since I really didn't have a gift in mind for this year, I decided I would take a pregnancy test after he left for work and that would be his final gift.  I wasn't going to wait until Christmas Day to let him do the scavenger hunt, so I thought about when a good time would be.  We got engaged on December 21, so I decided that would be a good day to test and give him the news.

The night before, I was so excited about taking a test that I didn't sleep. The next morning, I needed to go to the bathroom pretty badly, but I wanted to video the test result, so I didn't want to take the test until Doug left for work.  When Doug's alarm went off, he didn't get up.  When the second alarm went off, he still didn't get up.  I gently woke him up and explained he needed to get going. I then went and fed the dogs, let them out.  I basically did anything I could do to get him out of the house ASAP.

When he finally left, I RAN to the bathroom and took the test.  I then videoed the test until it turned to 'pregnant'. That afternoon, while Weston was napping, I set out all the scavenger hunt clues.  The final clue was on our bathroom mirror.  It said:

"Three years ago today, you gave me a ring

I wonder what THIS December 21st will bring.

Go get Weston for your gift."

I had put a "Big Brother" shirt on Weston and I figured right before Doug went in to his room, I'd hand Weston the pregnancy test, sanitized obviously.  Doug usually gets home at the end of nap time, so I thought the timing would work out well.  Of course, wasn't that the day that Doug got out of work late.  I made Weston stay in his crib until Doug got home, so needless to say Weston wasn't the happiest or most cooperative camper when Doug finally went in there.  I don't have pictures either.

Since we had been trying, Doug sort of suspected I was pregnant, but had no idea that was the gift at the end of the scavenger hunt.

Baby Details!!

Yesterday we went for our fetal assessment scan.  Because I have been so sick, there were days I wasn't able to take and/or keep down my prenatal vitamins.  Therefore, I have been terrified for weeks that the baby wouldn't be healthy.  I wasn't worried about Weston's ultrasound, but this baby has been different.  He or she is perfectly healthy.  Everything measured well and looked great. Praise God! That made me a very happy mama! 

I will be 21 weeks on Friday and I am due on August 24th.  We do not know if we are having a boy or a girl.  We didn't find out with Weston either. I have documented how much I would like a girl, since I already have a boy, but if I have another boy, I don't have a doubt in my mind I will love it like crazy.

When you have an older child, you don't need as much "stuff" as you need when you are pregnant with the first one.  When I was pregnant with Weston, I was dragging Doug with regular frequency 45 minutes each way to the closest Babies R Us from about 8 weeks on.  Of course, now that we have a Babies R Us 10 minutes away, I've only been once.  With this pregnancy, I didn't feel like it for a while and since I have felt better, I've found better things to do than be sucked into the baby store.  Because we didn't know what gender we were having the first time, we bought a lot of gender neutral things. We plan to re-use Weston's car seat/stroller combo, swing, bouncer, pack n play and crib.  Those are the big items that cost so much the first time around.

Here's an ultrasound picture of our sweet baby from our appointment yesterday.  Do you think it's a girl or a boy?

Trivia Night

Tonight Doug, Weston and I met up with my parents and went to a local Mexican restaurant for trivia night.  We had a lot of fun playing the game.  There were about 8 teams tonight and our team came in 3rd and won a $5 gift card to the restaurant.  Not too shabby for our first time.  We will definitely be going again!

We already have plans to meet up with a co-worker of Doug's and his wife.  Fun date night for the adults.  Weston can stay with his Mamma and Papa, which breaks all of their hearts.  LOL.

Happy New Year!

Happy 2012!!

Obviously I had trouble keeping up with the blog last year.  I think I set my own expectations too high, posting every day.  I'm going to try to be a better blogger this upcoming year.

I have several things going on this year that are exciting, beginning with a new pen pal that I was matched up with through Leslie's blog.

I'm not making any resolutions for the year, but I am making goals.

• Be a better blogger
• Spend more time "present" with my family and friends (less iPhone, computer, iPad time)
• Enjoy each day
• Eat healthier

I hope everyone's 2012 is better than 2011.  

Weston's Labor and Birth Story

On June 25, 2010, I had a regularly scheduled doctor's appointment.  Unfortunately, my doctor was at a delivery, so I saw the nurse practitioner.  However, it was in his notes to offer me a scheduled induction.  This was because I had Strep B and therefore had to have antibiotics for a certain amount of time before delivery.  By scheduling an induction, the hospital would be able to ensure the correct amount of antibiotics would be in my system before I delivered.

Doug and I decided that having an induction would be the best idea.  We were told it would be either on Tuesday or Wednesday of the following week and that they would call us and notify us of the day and time we needed to go to the hospital.  For some inexplicable reason, once we left the doctor's office, I became very emotional.  I think having a 2-day window for when we would become a family made this whole 10-month situation more real.  I cried for a long time wondering if we had made the wrong decision by scheduling an induction. 

Later in the day, I received a call saying that my induction would be on Wednesday, June 30th and that I needed to be at the hospital at midnight that morning.  I kept hoping that in the next 4 days, I would naturally go into labor.  Apparently my stubborn son thought better of it, because we made it to midnight on June 30th with no overly exciting progress.

However, knowing when this baby would be born did allow me to get a pedicure, spend quality time with Doug during our last weekend as a two-some and prepare a little bit more for what was going to come, like I knew what to expect (haha).

So, on Tuesday we spent our last day as a couple.  We left the house about 11:45pm for a 5 minute drive. What? We were excited! When we got to the hospital, since it was so late, we had to go through the ER to get to Labor and Delivery.  We pre-registered at the hospital a few weeks before Weston's due date, so when I went into labor, we wouldn't have to waste time (or me trying not to kill someone since I'd be in pain) getting to L&D. However, the triage nurse made me give all of my information again (name, ss#, blood type, etc.), which if I were in labor, I'd be pissed to be giving this information.

When the triage nurse was finally finished grilling me, she opened the doors to the ER treatment area and told us she'd call L&D and let them know we were on our way.  No wheelchair, no directions, just go. Our hospital was under construction at the time, so there wasn't a direct path to L&D.  Instead, Doug and I weaved our way through the halls like mice in a maze.  Except we couldn't find our cheese...and there weren't too many people roaming the halls at midnight to ask for directions.  We went to several elevator banks until we finally found the correct one.  I remember we had to push the call button outside the doors of L&D and tell them who we were and why we were there.  That really stuck with me because it meant we were not going to be leaving those locked doors until we were parents.  Oh My!!

Once we got into our LDR room, which was quite spacious, the nurse had me change into a hospital gown and then they kicked Doug out.  I was a little confused because I was sure whatever part of my body they were planning on working on, Doug had seen before.  I mean let's face it, I was there to deliver his baby.  The baby got into my belly somehow... Anyhow, they began asking me all kinds of questions, some of which included whether or not Doug abused me in any way while I was pregnant or if he tried to hurt the baby in-utero.  I thought those were the most bizarre questions and if you knew Doug, you'd know that the idea of him abusing me or anyone else is extremely laughable.  I'm pretty sure most people don't get asked those questions and when I mentioned to my mom that I had been asked them, she thought the OB might have asked the hospital to ask me the questions because Doug came to every prenatal visit and perhaps the doctor thought he was controlling me.  Weston was our first baby, Doug was excited to go to all the visits and hear our baby's heartbeat and on ultrasound days, see the baby.  I'm fairly sure he won't accompany me to all of the appointments for baby #2, but if he wants to, so be it.

Anyway, once Doug was allowed back in, the nurses finished my IV and inserted the induction medicine into (onto?) my cervix.  They then told me I had to lay flat for the next several hours and to try and get some sleep.  They brought me an Ambien to help out with that.  I've never been a great sleeper, but I've never taken sleeping pills before to help combat insomnia.  Let me tell you, I will NEVER take another sleeping pill in my life!  There was a bottle of Gatorade or something on a table across the room.  I saw it as a very pregnant hula dancer giving birth.

Before I was induced, the doctor said the cervix medicine would do its job and we would have a baby by lunchtime.  At 8am when the OB arrived, I hadn't progressed much past 3cm, which I was almost at when I was admitted.  He made some comment about how comfortable I looked and then he broke my water, which I have heard some people say was the best feeling.  I  hated it!! It felt like wetting my pants for what felt like a couple hours.  Every time I would shift in the bed, there would be another gush.  YUCK!!

At apparently the same time as breaking my water, Satan my OB also ordered the Pitocin (which I'm pretty sure I wasn't hooked up to previously) turned up, WAY up.  I went from perfectly fine, playing cards and contracting without much discomfort, to OHMYGOODNESSMAKEITSTOP!! in about 15 minutes. 

My goal was to go without an epidural.  I planned to walk around to both have gravity help the situation and to be in a different position to labor.  I had a normal pregnancy without any real complications, so I figured walking around would be acceptable.  However, the nurses wouldn't let me get out of bed to use the bathroom, much less to let me walk around.  Therefore, I had to do all of my laboring in the bed.  Between that and the intensity of the Pitocin, my labor was very strong and my contractions were one on top of the next from 3.5 cm on. 

I labored naturally for the next 6 1/2 hours in darkness and silence, during which time the nurses kept making me move out of the only position that was comfortable* because they couldn't monitor the baby.  At some point, late in the 6 1/2 hours, they decided to put an internal monitor on the baby's head so that I could be in my comfortable* position.  So smart those nurses were... Why I couldn't walk around at that point, I'm still not sure, but my requests kept getting denied.  There was one nurse that kept telling me "just breathe".  She almost found herself thrown out of the window!

*comfortable if you are going through the most intense pain you've ever felt but momentarily, it's one step down from that.

By 2:30, I asked for an epidural, not because I couldn't just muster through the pain, but because at that point, I'd had energy-draining contractions one after the other for 6 1/2 hours and I didn't think I would have the energy to push when it came time if I didn't get some rest.  The nurse told me that I would have to wait until 2 bags of fluids were pushed into me to get my epidural.  I had been on an IV for at least 9 hours at that point.  Why did I need so much more fluid before I could get the epidural?! When I heard that fun news, I thought I was going to lose my mind.  After finally getting the fluids, they called anesthesia to come give me my epidural.  The anesthesiologist tried 3 times before successfully getting my epidural in the correct place.  I didn't care, just give me some relief FORTHELOVEOFGOD!! Doug tells me before the nurse had finished securing the epidural lines and whatever else she needed to do, I was in a deep sleep.  Apparently I did need the sleep.

The next thing I remember is the nurse waking me up after what seemed like 15 minutes, but was almost 2 hours later.  She told me it was time to push, so I needed to wake up.  I remember thinking, just let me sleep, I'll push when I'm less sleepy.

I began pushing about 5:00. I truly believe this was the most difficult part of the whole labor.  As much as I didn't enjoy the intense pain I was feeling, I hated pushing.  My epidural was great, I felt the pressure of the contractions so I knew when to push and it didn't hurt.  However, I have exertion-induced asthma.  Therefore, as you can imagine, I had a lot of trouble breathing and getting enough breath to push.  They didn't give me oxygen, so I guess they figured if I turned blue, they'd give me some?

After 46 minutes of pushing (and not breathing) I gave birth to what my OB said was "a solid one".  Weston was born at 5:46pm on 6/30/2010.  He weighed 8 pounds 13 ounces and was 22 inches long.

I had a student nurse that had been one of my nurses since 7am and she wanted to see her first baby born.  She was supposed to be at a meeting at her other job, but stayed until he was born. :-)

At literally 5:47, a cafeteria worker came in with a cheeseburger she claimed we ordered.  I was thinking 'sweetheart, my legs are still up in stirrups, I haven't birthed the placenta yet and I've been pushing for almost an hour.  I didn't order any food!'

Shortly after he was born, a nurse came to get Weston to take him to the nursery.  I told them that wasn't happening, I had just had him, come back later.  The lady gave me a real attitude and I wasn't impressed. 

My parents met Weston that evening and my in-laws met him on July 5th.

When I have another baby, I will make sure I can move around during my labor to try and help manage the pain.  I also hope to not have to be induced so that I can avoid Pitocin altogether.

On This Day Last Year...

A year ago today, Doug and I knew that it was our last day to be just a couple.  That night at midnight, we were going to the hospital for me to be induced.
Doug went to work in the morning and met me at the doctor's office.  I remember that visit being exciting, scary and painful all at the same time.  I was excited because this was the last visit before meeting our baby and finding out if we were having a son or a daughter.  I was scared because this was the last visit before meeting our baby! A nurse practitioner student checked me for dilation, and I was pretty sure she was checking my tonsils and hadn't clipped her nails in many months, hence the painful aspect.

I don't really remember doing much that day.  However, at that point in June in Mississippi, and being 9+ months pregnant, I didn't feel like going many places anyway.  The previous weekend we had gone to try and find a newborn size "My 1st 4th of July" onesie, to no avail.  However, trying to get in and out of the car was torture.  In fact, we went to the movies and the movie was going to be starting soon, so I told Doug to go and get the tickets and I'd waddle my way up there eventually.

That evening, we had dinner at home with my mom.  What we ate, I don't remember.  Then, I took a shower, shaved my legs as best as I could and double-checked the bags for the hospital.  I may have taken a short nap and then Doug and I made a video for our baby about how we were feeling the day before becoming parents.  We then left for the hospital.  Within 24 hours, our lives would change forever.

High School Graduation

Nine years ago today, I graduated from high school.  I remember the day like it was yesterday. 
We graduated on the last day of school for the school district.  I felt like as seniors, we weren't getting any advantage over the juniors and underclassmen like previous senior classes had.  Every class before us had graduated at least a week before the rest of the county was released for summer vacation.

Since I was on the senior class board, the morning of graduation I had to go to the school and decorate the football stadium (where we graduated).  This actually worked to my benefit because those of us that worked in the morning were able to reserve the best seats in the stands for our families. 

*Side note to the following graduation day memory- one of my aunts worked for an airline and therefore is able to give "buddy passes" to family members, allowing them the ability to fly for free.  The caveat to that is those who fly on the buddy passes fly stand-by, so if the plane is full, since the passenger is not a paying customer, you wait for the next flight.

My aunt who lives in Mississippi was planning on using a buddy pass to get from Mississippi to Atlanta, where my airline aunt and uncle live.  Then, my MS aunt and airline uncle were going to fly together to Florida (my airline aunt was already in Florida helping my grandmother).  My aunt finally arrived in Atlanta after about 3 delays.  When she arrived in Atlanta, my uncle informed her all the flights were booked and they would have to haul to get to Florida in time for graduation, an 8 hour drive away.

Meanwhile, I'm calling the administration building at my high school to find out if I'm even graduating, especially since my aunt and uncle are having to go through all of this harangue just to attend. You see, although I had the intelligence to get good grades, I didn't have the motivation.  Therefore, I was concerned that I hadn't passed a class (or two), making me ineligible to graduate. 
Turns out I passed all of my classes (probably because the teachers didn't want to see me again, especially my French teacher) and graduated that evening.

Taylor Swift

Yesterday we went to a Taylor Swift concert in Nashville.  However, this was unlike a regular concert in that it was actually her last dress rehearsal before going out on tour.  She opened up her rehearsal to benefit the victims of the tornadoes that came through the South last month.  All the ticket sales and merchandise sales went directly to those affected by the storms.  I think she said towards the end of the show that $750,000 were raise and they hadn't finished tallying yet.  How awesome is that?!

The only drawback to the whole evening was that we parked in an enclosed parking garage.  When all of the concert-goers returned to their cars and got ready to leave, we realized someone had locked the gates in which to exit.  Therefore, everyone had the cars turned on and the exhaust running- inside a closed building.  The fumes were horrendous and very few people turned off their cars.  It took about 2 hours for someone to come and unlock the gate so we could all leave.  It was a very late night.

He's Home!!

My brother is HOME!! He was deployed for just about 2 months.  He would have been over there until Christmas, but he was injured shortly after arriving.  He is alright, but will have to have surgery.  I'm just so grateful that he's home and safe.  He will not re-deploy with his current enlistment, therefore he'll be safe for a while and hopefully he'll either get out of the military or the war will be over before he would have to re-deploy.

Atlanta Zoo

Since we were just in Atlanta and I haven't been in Atlanta in April since 1990, I was thinking back to that trip.

Twenty-one years ago, my mom's whole side of the family decided to meet in Atlanta for a small reunion.  During our trip, everyone decided to go to the Atlanta Zoo.  This thrilled my five year old self because I loved animals and there wasn't a good zoo near where we lived.

Early one morning, we all set out for the zoo to enjoy a good day of family, outdoor air and animals.  Everything was going well when we stopped at the lion enclosure.  My grandmother, who was 57 at the time, seemed out of breath and decided to sit.  Someone asked her if she was ok and she responded that she was "just looking at the lions".  No one thought much of it at the time and we continued on with our day.

After we all had eaten lunch together, some of the adults wanted to go to the Cyclorama, which at 5, I didn't care about seeing. Therefore we split up- I stayed with my parents and my aunt, my grandmother went with two of my uncles and one of my other aunts.  Towards the late afternoon, when we were getting ready to leave and meet the other adults out near the cars, those of us that stayed at the zoo were in the gift shop.

My uncle ran into the gift shop saying that there was something wrong with my grandmother and that we needed to hurry up and come meet up with her.  With that, we set down our purchases and we all booked it across the zoo.  My mom was pregnant at the time and even she ran.

When we got to the Cyclorama, my mom who was a nurse, quickly determined my grandmother was having a heart attack.  We asked an employee for a wheelchair and for a phone to call 911.  The employee declined both and time was wasting, so my uncle ran to get a car. Somehow, perhaps through being carried, my grandmother made it to the front of the building where my uncle picked her up and took her to the hospital.

We later found out that earlier in the day, someone else had suffered a heart attack and ended up dying on the way to the hospital since there was no ambulance.  Luckily, my grandmother didn't have the same fate and after spending several days in the hospital, she was released to go home.

Braves vs. Cardinals

Today we went to a Braves game at Turner Field.  This was the baseball game Doug gave me for Valentine's Day.  The Braves played the St. Louis Cardinals and this was game 2 of the 3 game series.  The Braves lost yesterday, so we were hoping the home team would win today. 

Our seats were in left field and we sat in the front row.  I held Weston and he did really well for being 10 months old.  The girl sitting next to us, who was probably about 20 and carefree, kept giving Doug and me the stink eye (I guess) because we had a baby.  She'll be a great mom someday.  He wasn't really interested in the game, but he did enjoy seeing the people around us and having the Braves Dippin' Dots we bought.  It was INCREDIBLY hot out and since it's April in Atlanta, we didn't expect it to be so hot.  We had sunscreen for Weston, but Doug and I didn't use it. Big mistake, big, huge! (Extra credit for knowing what movie that line is from.)

The Braves lost 3-2, but since neither Doug nor I are fans of either team, the outcome didn't matter.  The bottom line is we had fun.

Turner Field

Ever since Doug and I met, we have discussed going to all of the baseball parks in the United States (and the one in Toronto too).  Doug loves baseball and I love traveling, so why not?

We would have still taken our daughter on these trips, but especially since we have a boy, Doug and I are excited to get started on our goal to visit all the ball parks. 

I've only been to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, FL- which is the home of the Tampa Bay Rays.  Doug has been to Tropicana Field, Sun Life Stadium in Miami (Florida Marlins) and Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati, OH (Cincinnati Reds).  However, neither of us have taken a tour of any ball park.

Today, we went on the Turner Field tour.  Turner Field is in Atlanta and it's where the Atlanta Braves play.  Doug loved seeing the behind-the-scenes goings on of a ball field.  I just enjoyed the sunshine and hanging out with my guys. 

There are seats right behind home plate that are $25,000 a piece, you have to buy them in pairs, and you have to keep them for 3 seasons.  That's $300,000 of outlay before you ever get to the stadium.  Goodness!  This is the view from those seats.

We had a great time!  Since Doug is a Chicago Cubs fan and I am a New York Yankees fan, Wrigley Field and Yankee Stadium are definitely on our list to visit soon!

Horrific Storm

Yesterday, I said that tornadoes may be coming through my area.  I had NO IDEA just how big and devastating the storms coming through my area were going to be. There were apparently more than 50 tornadoes in Alabama yesterday, 10 of which were F4 or F5 in strength. 


Our power went off and on starting about 9am and then went permanently off about 11:00am.  About 11:15am, we started getting pounded with hail, which is a precursor to tornadoes. Doug was at work, so Weston and I huddled in the hallway with the dogs.  It's hard to contain a 10 month old and two rambunctious dogs in a hallway, in case you were wondering.


Since we had no power, I got weather reports on my phone. We hung out in the hallway for a while and when it appeared that the storms had passed, I decided to put Weston down for a nap. Since I am spoiled and need air condition to function, I had a lot of trouble relaxing in the stagnant house.  Therefore, I just read by the window until Weston woke up.  About that time, Doug got home.


Although we didn't have power, there was no damage to our house or fence.  We were really blessed.  We did not realize how badly our area was affected.


We decided to go look for dinner, (wrongly) assuming that it was just our area that was out of power and there must be areas around us with power and food.  We drove around for about 90 minutes looking for dinner.  NOTHING in our area had power and the damage we saw around was shocking.  Just north of us, a high school was torn up and a Piggly Wiggly was completely leveled.  We ended up at a Publix grocery store that was running on generators and bought sandwich items.  We sat in the parking lot and ate our dinner.


Doug, Weston and I were planning on leaving this afternoon to go to Atlanta for the baseball game, however Doug didn't have to work today (no power), so we opted to leave this morning for air condition, Internet and family.  My parents are at our house watching the dogs.


I feel horrible leaving my parents, neighbors and community right now.  I am SO very thankful that we were left unscathed from the storm and feel like I should volunteer, helping those who were not so lucky. When we get back from Atlanta, I plan to volunteer at shelters or a church helping in whatever ways I can.


As we left town, the damage in light was so much worse than what we saw last night.  My parents are hearing there will be no power for at least a week, if not longer.  A lot of the repair trucks are going to Tuscaloosa, where there was more damage and there's many abandoned college students down there.


After seeing the damage in our area and around the South the outbreak of tornadoes have done, I am sure that if we were directly hit at our home, we probably all would have been dead.  Our hallway would definitely not have held up, collapsing on top of all of us.  Weston may have been ripped out of my arms.


I'm not trying to be dramatic, but as we drove to Atlanta today, I was thinking about just how much worse it could have been and how my baby and I could have died yesterday.  I am so thankful to God for protecting my family and my immediate neighborhood. 


I will be praying for those families who lost everything and/or family members and hope you will be too.

College Graduation

On a warm Spring day three years ago tomorrow, I graduated from college. This was a bittersweet day for a few reasons.
*Back story: I hated college.  I wasn't the biggest fan of school in general.  (I know, I became a teacher). When my grandmother passed away, while we were waiting for the funeral home to come pick her up, I promised her I would finish college and I'd do it for her.

While I was waiting to go into the arena with my fellow College of Education graduates, I took masking tape and wrote "For Amie" on my mortarboard.  No one in my family knew I was going to do this, so they were all taken aback by my message. I really, really missed my grandmother that day and I knew she would have been SO proud of me for finishing school.

Since we graduated in alphabetical order by college, my college had a few in front of us, plus the Master's candidates.  After the Master's candidates graduated, they left, which I found very rude.  I felt as if everyone should have stayed until the entire ceremony was over out of respect for the fellow graduates.  After my college walked across the stage and returned to our seats, I noticed even more graduates had left.  I remarked to those around me how rude it was to leave and be so disruptive before the ceremony was finished.  Little did I know, I was about to eat my words.

About 10 minutes after I returned to my seat, my cell phone vibrated.  I had my phone so that my family could text me where they were sitting and so we could find each other after the ceremony.  The message said "come find us".  I looked up to where they had been sitting and there was no one there.  So I texted back "why?! that's rude to leave just because i've already graduated. y'all are no better than everyone else that has left." I was PISSED! I figured I'd just continue sitting there until it was over, but then various family members continued texting me.  The messages became more and more urgent.  When I got to the lobby and met up with my family, I found out what the hurry was all about. 

One of my aunts had flown to Florida for my graduation, leaving behind her husband, son and daughter.  My cousin had a baseball tournament that weekend and since my uncle was a coach, they decided to just keep my other cousin with them.  On the way home from the tournament, they were involved in a very bad car accident and were all taken to the hospital.  My aunt was understandably shaken and needed to make phone calls.  Everyone was wanted to support her, so it was just easier to leave the arena.

After taking pictures and verifying that my uncle and cousins were going to be alright (my uncle's parents live in Mississippi and were able to go to the hospital), we headed to the Embassy Suites where my parents were hosting a graduation party and dinner for me.  All of my mom's siblings came, along with my my third cousin Leona.  It was a very nice affair and all of my family members gave me items that helped me begin my teaching career.