The time Jay gave me a mini heart attack

We took Jay to the fair last month.

It was a fun time, for the most part.

Hubby and I had our regular fair food favorites - boy scout baked potatoes, boy scout sweet corn, Merry Maids ice cream... etc.

We spent time walking the exhibits and booths, Jay refused to go near the petting zoo, we caught the end of some dueling pianos and watched a magic show.

Eventually we headed over to the midway to play some games and ride some rides.

Jay won a ball from the pick-a-duck game and then I decided to try my luck with the quarter betting game where you pick a color and they let a mouse run around and pick the winning color. I had a dollar or 2 worth of quarters and decided to spend them. Hubby stood a few feet away with Jay in the stroller while his sis and her friend watched behind me.

I played my last quarter and looked over to hubby to see if he was ready to go. Then I looked down at the stroller and there was no sign of Jay. I looked at hubby to see if he had picked him up, but nope. I looked over at hubby's sis and her friend to see if maybe they had picked Jay up... nope! I asked hubby where Jay was - he got this puzzled confused look on his face, looked down at the stroller and had the same panicked look I had. I asked his sister and her friend if they saw him, when I said no I told them to start looking. They both were on the verge of panicking too.

Fortunately I had dressed him in a bright red shirt for this exact reason - to make him easy to spot if he wandered off! Well, that's exactly what he did - something caught his eye, he climbed out of the stroller (as we didn't bother fastening him in as he was doing fine all evening) and took off. Hubby found him a few seconds later wandering back behind one of the booths, grinning when he saw daddy coming towards him.

He gave mommy a mini-heart attack though! So glad he was safe and unharmed though! I don't even want to think about what could have happened!

Update!

Just realized I haven't posted much lately...

We've been keeping busy though!

Since hubby lost his day job I've been busy picking up extra hours at work wherever I can, averaging now 20-30 hours a week instead of my usual 12-15.

We went to the fair this past weekend - next weekend we're going to Day Out with Thomas in Union, IL.

My father-in-law and sister-in-law are still staying with us. They recently went to sign/fill-out paperwork regarding a home equity loan so hopefully we hear some good news from that soon so they can get a home of their own here in town while we wait for their property out in the country to sell.

My sister-in-law got to go to a sleepover last weekend though, which was really neat as before all this, with them living over an hour away in the country, she never got to get together with her friends and do things like that (actually, prior to this past year, she never really had a lot of friends her age, as they were so far away for her to really get to do much with them outside of church - being in junior high youth group this past year though she's gotten more opportunities to be involved). I picked her up Saturday morning and we stopped by Toys R Us on our way home as it was the last day for their BOGO free Crayola sale and I wanted to get some markers for Jay - she went nuts over the Hunger Games stuff they have there, it was quite amusing! And then she showed me all the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic stuff they have there too - definitely gave me some ideas for her upcoming birthday present! It's been nice getting to chat and hang around with her a little more - last week my father-in-law had *the worst* panic attack he's had while here (he has them most nights) and my sister-in-law had to get up and help calm him down... we stayed up and chatted for a few hours til hubby came home from his night job (now his only job).

Hubby's still looking for another day job - part-time, full-time... anything really. Considering what he was taking out of his paychecks and what we were putting in savings, really there's only about $1100 we need to make up for... if I'm able to keep getting 20-30 hours a week at work I can make up the bulk of that but we'll still be a little short... hubby's started donating plasma again as of last week so that's an extra $50/wk there... things are just going to be real tight for awhile though until he finds something to help make up for the remainder of what was lost (like I've said previously though, we have enough to be okay for a good month or 2 so we have some time til it hits us). Ideally though, we *really* hope hubby can go full-time at UPS (his night job) sometime soon - he's been in the running for it for years now, but the process is so long and drawn out... he's at the step in the process where he's basically waiting on them.

In other news... I'm going to be an aunt again! My sister and brother-in-law announced last week that she's pregnant! They're estimating late-March or early-May. Originally they had talked about waiting a few years, til she was like 22 and he was a little more settled with Navy stuff, but I guess they talked and right now he's stationed at Great Lakes for at least another year and a half so they thought it made more sense to go ahead and start now, that way they'll be around the area and not too far from family and he won't be deployed anywhere quite soon either so he'll be around to help out as well. Plus they thought it would be neat for Jay to have a cousin, nearby (for now) somewhat close in age (they'll be about 2 years apart). I've already started an Amazon list of what I want to get them - a lot of it is stuff we ended up using a lot with Jay but hadn't planned on getting originally!

I got all of Jay's fall clothing bought - he's got plenty of short sleeves and long sleeves shirts, several pairs of pants, 2 pairs of sneakers and 1 pair of dress shoes, a few dressier shirts and a pair of khaki's and a new Thomas hoodie as his other one he had last spring is getting a bit small on him. Most of this stuff he can wear into winter as he's currently in a 24 month top and we bought it all 2T.

Currently I'm about to finish the 1st season of Gossip Girl (ya'll talking about it in Blogland & Twitter got me interested!) and hubby and I are almost done with the 2nd season of Breaking Bad - the "Better Call Saul" episode (the first episode with the Saul Goodman character) had us cracking up! We also watched the new season of Dallas on TNT and were hooked... OMG about Rebecca! Can't wait to see how that plays out, as I found her character a bit annoying until this last episode when the truth about her was revealed... fortunately the next season starts in January so we don't have to wait til next summer!

What have you been up?

Talk about one heck of a month!

July has been such a crazy, crazy month that I'm glad it's over!

The domino effect of my mother-in-law up and leaving the family at the end of June continued into July (yeah okay, she left her husband, but since she made the choice to up and leave with no notice to any of her kids and has been residing down in Florida ever since with little to no contact aside from stalking us on Facebook, yeah, she left us all as well).

My little sister-in-law and I barely avoided what could have a been a major and possibly deadly accident when the entire wheel of my dad's SUV flew off the car on I-90 after we went into the suburbs to hand off their puppies that they couldn't continue to take care since my mother-in-law had left. We moved my sister-in-law and father-in-law into our house indefinitely until they can get their property out in the country sold and smaller purchase a house here in town. Because of this, we've had to move Jay's crib and changing table/dresser into our room so my father-in-law has a room on the main floor to stay in. Jay keeps waking us up early because my father-in-law keeps waking him up early in the morning. It kinda sucks, although since Jay's been getting used to waking up early, he did wake Grandpa up early, babbling and carrying on, a few mornings lol... it also drives me nuts as they have a bad habit of leaving trash and used dishes all over the house. They seem to be doing better, but still... my little sister-in-law has been making an effort to help pick up and clean around the house though, which has been nice!

We took a mini family overnight vacation up to Madison, Wisconsin where we visited some fun local restaurants and took Jay to the free Henry Vilas Zoo where he enjoyed seeing the monkeys, tiger, giraffes and bears! He also got to ride a carousel for the first time and he LOVED it! It was a nice little getaway!

Jay's starting to hit the "Terrible Twos" early we think, as he's been throwing some epic(ly funny!) tantrums lately over the dumbest stuff! He had a complete meltdown when we refused to change the DVD he was watching every 5 minutes - throwing himself down on a pillow on the floor, kicking and screaming, among other hilarious tantrums. He'll be working a puzzle and get frustrated and scream and throw the puzzle piece across the room.

He's still not talking much, but his non-verbal communication is crazy good - he wanted his water bottle filled today so he walked over to hubby, took his hand off the computer mouse and handed him his empty water bottle! He's also learned how to shake his head no, so if you show and ask him about something he can tell you 'no' if he doesn't want it. He has this weird habit now though where if he's thirsty and wants a drink but his mouth is full he'll spit the mouthful of food out just to drink from a straw! Kind of annoying...

He's also starting to climb, as he can get himself up on the couch now and he's been getting a bit more adventurous at the playground these days!

Last week we visited my sister out at her place in Waukegan and we spent the afternoon at the Gurnee Mills outlet mall. Jay made out like a bandit - we got several books for $10 that normally would have cost us at least $30 at Barnes and Noble, and he got several long sleeve shirts for fall as well as a new pair of play sneakers at Stride Rite where they measured his feet and he's grown an entire shoe size since last spring (he was measuring a 4.5w and he's now a 5.5w). We had our employee sale this past weekend at work too so Jay's pretty set on clothes for fall - he just needs a pair of overalls my mom said she'd get him as well as a new Thomas hoodie that we're trying to find online as he loved the one he had last spring but it only goes up to 24 months so he's on the verge of out growing it.

In other news, hubby got fired from his day job Monday. It was complete BS too - the reason he was fired for was because they said he wasn't doing tasks he should have been... however he was NEVER told about these tasks nor were they ever sent to him in a memo or in writing or anything so he had no idea that he should have been doing these things they say he should have been - they were never even in his job description! How does that work? We're sure there has to be some ulterior motive for firing him and that this was just the cover excuse... we're expecting them to call him back and renegotiate his return in a matter of weeks - the job really requires 2 people to do all the work he was doing, but since he's awesome at multi-tasking he could do it. The guy they're dumping it on, well, he can barely manage his own job let alone hubby's entire position! They're screwed! Unfortunately this job paid almost twice as much as hubby's part-time supervisor job at UPS, but at least it was the job he hated and was eventually going to quit when he got a full-time position at UPS, and it wasn't the job that our healthcare benefits are through either, so that's good.

In the meantime, I'm picking up extra hours at work while hubby tries to find anything else during the day. My boss is thrilled - she was a little concerned when I walked in Monday afternoon and told her we needed to talk, but I assured her that it was good for her, despite being sucky for me. We recently had the 2 other girls who had been there 2nd longest after me quit recently so there's plenty of hours for me to pick up right now and my boss loooooves me, mainly cuz I'm the most seasoned employee she has left not to mention I know what I'm doing and don't need to be micro-managed. I went from having 10 hours this week to at least 30. My boss declared today that I'm now their unofficial full-time associate. Hubby thinks we'll be okay for awhile - he had some money stashed away "just in case" so if hubby doesn't find something soon we won't really feel the hit for at least a month or 2.

And as if the last few days of July couldn't get any worse...

I came home from a late night at work Monday to my mom calmly telling me she thought everything was now "under control" and continued to inform me that while she went in the kitchen to get Jay's bowl of bedtime yogurt, he had climbed up on the couch (something new he can do now as well) and pulled down a baggie that had some allergy pills in a bottle with a faulty lid that was on the ledge above the back of the couch and they had spilled all over the couch cushion. By the time she heard and came running, Jay was sitting there with the pills, making a face. She did a swoop of his mouth and didn't get anything out so she cleaned them all up asap and called poison control. We think he might have swallowed 1 or 2, which the poison control guy said wouldn't hurt him, but said to keep him up for an hour and a half and monitor him, saying to watch for excitability/bouncing off the walls energy or extreme drowsiness. He did get a burst of hyperness and then he started getting sleepy near the end of the waiting period (which was an hour and a half past bedtime). The poison control guy said he sounded like he was going to be okay and said we could put him to bed and just let him sleep. He slept in til 1pm, but it's no surprise as I had to keep him up til 1230am! I was furious though - it's one thing for my father-in-law to leave his trash and dirty dishes all over my house (although Jay did knock one of his empty glasses on the floor, breaking it in pieces and being shocked at the cause and effect), but it's another entirely serious matter when medication is left within Jay's reach. As it is, my mom has to refinish my wood kitchen table I inherited from my grandma - they left a bottle of rubbing alcohol just sitting on the table, with residue that had leaked down the side of the bottle and underneath it ><

Bring it, August!

How I spent birthday #27!

Well yesterday (Monday) I officially entered my late-20s as I turned 27, an age I actually don't mind and a number I kinda like, lol...

Anyways, we celebrated.

I requested Sunday and Monday off work as 1) I didn't want to work on my birthday and 2) we invited family over for a cookout on Sunday.

Usually we cookout at my parent's house for my birthday on the Sunday before or after (whichever is closest) however since we have a house of our own and a grill hubby and I decided just to invite everyone over here for it. My parents came over, as did my sis and her boyfriend, hubby's parents, his little sis, and all 3 of his brothers that live nearby came too (which is a rare occasion getting us all together on a non-major holiday!) and my little cousin came over too although my aunt and uncle were both sick.

Earlier in the day we went to Old Navy to spend my $30 in "Super C-A-S-H" I had and I ended up getting another pair of jeans, a pair of lounge/active pants, a cute dressy shirt, 2 cami's and hubby got himself a pair of cargos too. Then we went to Walmart to pick up some corn and other cookout stuff we needed last minute and then stopped at Dairy Queen to get an ice cream cake for us to eat!

We started boiling water for corn on the cob around 445 and hubby started up the grill around 5pm. By 630pm we were ready to eat!

It was a pretty fun time however Jay is a bit scared of his Grandpa J (hubby's dad) as he hasn't seen him that often compared to everyone else (minus his uncles) and Jay's at that age where he's scared of being alone with people he doesn't know or recognize. He made up for it though by giving Jay some of the ice cream cake (which made him literally jump all over the place well into the night, lol...).

In addition to my HTC Thunderbolt hubby got me earlier this summer, he also told me he got me the Tony Romo navy jersey I wanted and it'll be here before the regular football season starts in just under 2 weeks. My parents got me Nickelodeon's Hey Dude season 1 on DVD and Lego Pirates of the Caribbean for Wii. My sis and her boyfriend got me The Mask on DVD which also has the terribad Son of the Mask on it as well, lol...

Monday (my actual birthday) I spent the 1st part of the day snuggling with my favorite little snuggle buddy for a bit before going to the chiropractor for my weekly adjustment and physical therapy on my back (which includes an ultrasound which feels like a mini-massage, then I get an actual massage and they do this electrical stimulation thing that feels good too). After that I went to Gamestop and got Smash Brothers Brawl for the Wii using a $25 gift card I got from doing surveys along with a 20% off birthday coupon and then I looked around Target to see if I could find Super Mario All-Stars for the Wii as Gamestop didn't have any copies for sale in our area and my aunt, uncle and cousin gave me a giftcard for there. I also stopped over at Borders to see if they still had any good Bestseller's left (ie: The Help and One Day as I heard both were good!) but unfortunately they didn't. I did stumble across the Elmo's Christmas Countdown DVD for 50% off though which I grabbed, as the lowest price I've seen it for was $14 and I was planning on getting it for Jay to watch this holiday season anyway (little dude LOVES watching Elmo and any shows that have puppets in them!).

After my little shopping trip I went and got a much needed pedicure as my toenails were a mess (my big toenails *always* get ingrown somehow) before meeting hubby at home to take me out for dinner.

We went to Olive Garden where I got their stuffed chicken marsala with a glass of their new Moscato wine which tasted *really* good (and I'm not much of a wine person). It had a bit of a sparkling taste to it and the chicken was really good too!

Conan = Khal Droggo minus facial hair
Jason Momoa is sooooo typecasted now, lol...

After dinner we went and saw Conan the Barbarian in 3D for FREE! When we saw Cowboys & Aliens last month they gave out free passes afterwards as I guess the movie started kinda late (although hubby and I were both late as he missed his exit on his way back into from traveling for work and walked in right as the movie was starting) and I did some research and found out our passes were good for 3D movies too, so we decided, why not? Not to mention Conan's the only movie in theaters right now I could get hubby to go see with me, plus it's Jason Momoa (aka Khal Droggo from season 1 of Game of Thrones - yum!). Yes, the movie was bad - very bad - but it was entertaining to say the least (assuming you go into it knowing it's going to be bad), lol...

We took a quick trip to Walmart on the way home before being reunited with Little Man who was thrilled to see us (he got passed back and forth between his grandmas today!). Since it was still my birthday hubby (who took the night off work) took care of putting Jay to bed for me, since I usually do it during the week.

So... that's how I celebrated turning 27.

Not bad, not bad at all... the only part I could have done without was Jay being difficult while I was changing his poopy diaper earlier and getting some of it on my arm, lol...

True Life: I'm a [General] Blogger

A week or so ago Tara from Fabulous But Evil & Mrs. Monologues came up with the idea for a "True Life: I'm a ____ Blogger" series where by linking up we all get to discover various blogs from different genres that interest us.

Today kicks the link-up off with the 1st installment: "True Life: I'm a General Blogger."

As those have followed me for awhile know, I now run several other blogs in addition to this one - a baby/family blog chronicling my pregnancy and experiences being a new mommy, as well as my movie review blog with reviews going back to when I worked at a movie theater in college and got to screen movies beforehand (or see them for free in the days after release).

Anyways, this is my general "catch-all" blog - sometimes I post surveys/memes, product thoughts/reviews, rants, raves, odd/interesting art, funny videos/songs, and pretty much anything! I used to do weekly series Flashback Fridays, Warcraft Wednesdays and Music Shuffle Mondays. While it has taken a backseat due to having a baby (I honestly can't get near an actual computer during the day as I'm too busy with the kiddo) I still try to update this blog when I can with fun or interesting things!

I can also be found tweeting regularly on Twitter, as my smartphone seems to be my main way of communicating with the online world 90% of the time!

Some things you should know about me:

• I'm approaching my late-20s this month
• This September marks 3 years of being married to my hubby
• I first met my husband back in December 1997, however it was 9 years before I gave him a chance and we started dating!
• I'm a mommy to the most awesomest, cutest 6 month old baby boy!
• I have a kitty who will be 3 in October named Tiger - she's pretty awesome for the most part.
• I tend to ramble - sorry, but me "writing novels of a post" is a pretty common thing!
• I'm gamer girl - been playing consoles since the late 80s and played World of Warcraft for nearly 5 and a half years straight (with a 9 months hiatus near the end of the WotLK expansion), I pretty much quit when my son was born and haven't had much time to play since, although now that he has a regular schedule I've been toying with the idea of reactivating my account... We currently have a Wii and PS3 hooked up, although we also own a PS2, Sega Genesis and NES.
• I'm a graphic artist - I have a Bachelor's Degree in Art with an emphasis in Graphic Design. I did page layout & design for 5 years straight for my college's daily award-winning newspaper and spent a summer interning at my hometown's newspaper. I also have had work published in national magazines such as Furniture Today, Furniture World, and the Morgan Connection as well as various newspapers throughout the USA.
• My hubby is an Android addict and that has poured over to the rest of the family.
• I am a Christian and while I don't "push" my beliefs on anyone, please keep in mind, this is my blog and I do occasionally post my views and opinions on things. If you don't like it, don't read it. It's that simple - no one's forcing you to read what I have to say on here.
• I enjoy movies, music, TV and books. I love the True Blood/Sookie Stackhouse series, but am not really a fan of Twilight (and yes, I read the books before there was even talk of the movies being made). My favorite genre of music is Rock - modern, classic, metal, industrial... but I do occasionally listen to a little bit of everything, with the exception of R&B, country and most rap - just not my cup o' tea!
• I'm a bit of a nostalgia junkie, hence Flashback Fridays!
• I loved Netflix until they decided they wanted to double the price of my package =(

In addition to Flashback Fridays and Warcraft Wednesdays, here are some of my favorite and/or more popular posts I've written:

• Bands Like Nickelback & Hinder Should Stop Making Music
• Our Big Announcement & How We Spent Father's Day
• The Forgettable 2010 VMAs
• Why I'll Never Buy Another Apple Laptop
• Thoughts on the Supreme Court's Recent Ruling on Video Games
• How I Met My Husband - Part 1
• How I Met My Husband - Part 2

Life or something like it...

Looking at my blog archive and the fact that I went from 33 posts in January to just 10 in February... you can tell something major happened!

Baby facepalm

Right now I'm blogging with a baby snuggling on me - poor kiddo, I keep putting him down to sleep and he keeps waking up. I don't mind the snuggling all that much though, I enjoy it cuz Jay's just too darn cute!

Anyways, I feel like I've been neglecting this blog, as I've been updating the family/baby blog more as more stuff related to Jay has been going on lately.

My apologies!

I hope you enjoyed the Flashback to First Kisses series the past few weeks - I'll be sure to try and blog over here a little more than I have, it's just been a crazy month!

First we had the Snowpocalypse, then we ended up having Jay several weeks earlier than expected. The first week or so was rough what with all the adjusting to life with a newborn and the lack of sleep and being able to do much anything... the 2nd week was a little better but still rough... the 3rd week and into the 4th was spent practically living at the hospital as Jay wasn't growing and they couldn't figure out why and yeah...

Speaking of which, since I last mentioned it, he's doing much better now and gaining about an ounce a day as we try to "catch him up" so to speak - thanks for all your thoughts and prayers! Other than just basic Failure to Thrive they couldn't figure out anything that was wrong with him. But with the continuous feeding for several days he was able to get used to having food in his tummy and I guess it stretched his tummy out a bit too to get used to having x-amount of food in it to be full. By the time we left the hospital he was eating at least 2oz easily every 3 hours. They have him on high calorie formula and he always eats at least 2.5oz per feeding if not more like 3oz and sometimes he'll drink 3.5oz if he's really hungry. We have a visiting nurse visiting us twice a week for 2 weeks (this is her last week) just to weigh him and we had our follow-up from the hospital at the doctor's office today and he said he feels a lot better about him now, as his weigh is up to 7lbs, 6oz (from 6lbs, 1oz 2 weeks ago) and he just looks better in general not to mention most of his clothes fit him a lot better now.

I can't believe my baby is already a month old! Granted being in the hospital for a whole week kinda "lost" that week, but still...

He's such an ornery little stinker!

He's got his eyes open all the time when he's awake now, he's getting pretty good at holding his head up, loves sucking on his binky (pacifier), likes to look and stare at things, and tries to crawl when we put him down for tummy time (which we usually have to cut short as he gets too frustrated and red in the face because he can't crawl yet despite him trying and having the leg motions down as he doesn't have the upper arm strength).

I also canceled my WoW account again just today - my last day is the 21st. Honestly, the last month I just haven't had the time to even login, let alone actually play. My freetime, when I'm not out doing something for the sake of getting out, I'm either trying to catch up with stuff online (thank you for having a smartphone!) or I'm napping every chance I get. No point in paying $15/mo for WoW when I don't have the time for it right now. Maybe once Jay is on an actual schedule and sleeping in his own bed for more than an hour or so (he doesn't like sleeping alone - he prefers to snuggle) I'll reactive it and finish leveling up my alts, but for now I'm done - I barely had a chance to even check my Facebook the first week or so, friends thought I had fallen off the face of the earth as said it was weird not seeing me on and posting regularly!

I'll save our news about the house in the next post, as well as an update on my 101 in 1001 list!

2010: A Look Back

*note* I started typing this up last night but didn't get a chance to finish and post before we had to head out for dinner

Since tonight is New Year's Eve and tomorrow marks the beginning of a brand spankin' new year, I figured I'd take a quick moment to reflect on my 2010.

In 2010, I...

Went to my first hockey game (January)

Hubby and I attended the Pink in the Rink Icehogs game with my Mary Kay unit as all proceeds went towards breast cancer awareness. It was neat because the players were wearing pink shoelaces and they dyed the ice rink pink too. We won the game - it was pretty cool and I'd like to go again sometime in the future!

Earned us a Wii (February)

I was fortunate in the months prior to be lucky enough to get VIP of the Month on my VH1 focus group forum multiple times within several months. The prize each month is Amazon.com giftcards - the VIP gets a $100 giftcard while 5 Honorable Mentions get $20 giftcards. I had decided that rather than get a bunch of smaller stuff, I'd save up my giftcards and get us a Wii along with some accessories (ie: a 2nd controller and a dual charging dock) and extra games. Nothing like free stuff for just sharing your opinions!

Experienced jury duty for the first time (February)

It was an interesting experience to say the least. Spent a February morning sitting around in a large waiting room at the courthouse with a few hundred people. They would call us in groups of 40 to go to different courtrooms. I got called shortly before lunchtime and made my way to the designated courtroom where they swore us all in and then began the jury selection process - I was one of the first selected (as they needed 11 jurors plus 1 alternate). They dismissed us for lunch and started the case later that afternoon. The first witness kept making references to another case that the defendant was involved in and I quickly realized that the other case he was involved in included relatives of my good friend. I mentioned it to the bailiff and the next morning they dismissed me from the case, afraid I might be biased towards the defendant knowing what I knew.

I made a whopping $26!

Attended a Mary Kay conference (March)

I went to the annual Mary Kay Career Conference which is held in March. My unit went to the location just over the Illinois/Wisconsin in Madison at Monona Terrace which was built by Frank Lloyd Wright and is located right on the lake! It was really neat experience and helped get me pumped up for my Mary Kay business. I also enjoyed the overnight with the girls as I got to know some of them a lot better and really enjoyed our dinner at the Great Dane Pub and Brewery. We also had an awesome hotel room too!

Decided to Quit my Mary Kay Business (April)

As inspiring as Career Conference was, it motivated me to put more effort into my business as I had been a slump after the holidays with hardly any sales. I tried and tried and it just seemed like it was getting me nowhere despite my best efforts. It was a hard decision to come to, but I really felt like maybe it just wasn't for me and after 6 months I decided to give it up and move on. I miss the weekly girl time, but I still feel like this was the best decision to make. Don't get me wrong - I love the products, and the company and it's foundation is great (I've seen and heard testimonies of how it changed some women's lives) however it just wasn't for me.

Got excited over the latest Sookie Stackhouse book (May)

Book 10 came out in May and having gotten caught up on both the book series and TV show near the end of 2009, I was sooooo excited to get my hands on the next book in the series. Okay, so it was mostly a filler book wrapping up things from book 9 and bridging the way to events that are going to happen in book 11, but still - it was a fun and entertaining book!

Checked out Chatroulette (May)

Here's a detailed post about my "adventures" with this particular online chatting fad (do people still use it? I haven't hear much about it in months!). I didn't have a webcam so it made things even more interesting as not everyone likes to "chat" with a green box, lol...

Made it past the 1 year mark (May)

Something happened in May 2009 that totally turned my world upside down. I refuse to publicly go into details about it as it was/is a personal matter between me and the other person it involved but it really shattered and hurt me deeply. But, a year later, we made it through that. I still struggle occasionally with what happened and the emotional issues it caused - even a year and a half later - but only when something triggers that particular memory and emotion. They say time heals all wounds and while I try to keep this one covered, it's one of those wounds, or scars if you will, that will ultimately just take time for me to be 100% completely over and moved on from - when you have years and years of trust built up with someone very close to you and that trust is completely broken by a major act of "I wasn't thinking", things don't just "go back to normal" that easily or quickly. It takes time.

Tried Sushi (May)

Hubby and I both had never tried it before and were curious so we made a lunch date to finally cross this off our bucketlists. It was alright - I was more hesitant than he was (he ended up eating most of the sampler platter we ordered) but I did LOVE the California rolls!

Got a Smartphone (May)

Hubby got his his a few months prior and while I was hesitant at first and didn't see the point, I quickly fell in love with the idea of a pocket computer (as I dub smartphones). I was originally thinking of waiting until Verizon got the iPhone, but after playing with hubby's for a good bit, I fell in love with the originial Motorola Droid and ended up getting myself one as soon as we had an upgrade available on our family plan with share with my parents and sis. I can't imagine having any other phone!

Attempted to Walk Tiger on a Leash (May)

Yeah, we've tried it twice and neither times were successful! The first time we got her out our hallway and up to the stairs towards outside, but when we opened the door she freaked out and did backflips down the stairs to get back to our apartment! The 2nd time we got her outside and she freaked out - she didn't like it one bit! Seems she got a bit traumatized from outside when she had her little adventure out there in 2009!

Announced Our Pregnancy (June)

After talking about it when hubby's biological clock finally kicked in around early April, we decided to start trying to have a baby. I started charting my cycle and doing the temperature thing and it would seem we conceived at the very end of May. We found out via 3 positive home pregnancy tests just over a week before Father's Day and waited until then to break the news our families (via "Grandpa" Father's Day cards to our dads and a "Grandma" birthday card for my mom since her birthday was 2 days before Father's Day).

Started Playing WoW Again (July)

While I technically quit playing at the end of 2009, I didn't actually cancel my account until January. I picked it up again in July and a few weeks later I got a Beta invite for the upcoming expansion. I started playing the Beta a good bit, and then returned to play my Boomkin some... it was a love-hate thing as some months I'd play more than others. I've been enjoying the new expansion though - everything seems "fresh" and "new" and "fun" again, although I'm playing more at my own pace, taking my time and enjoying it for once than rushing through it.

Turned 26 (August)

The only thing really "memorable" about turning 26 is that it means I had been driving for 10 years... which means I not only had to get my license renewed but I had to retake the written test too! I aced it, after having read through and did the quizzes in the Rules of the Road handbook the week before. I got a lot of fun stuff for my birthday though - a few books, movies, Wii games, and the super cute WoW Windrider Cub from hubby.

Got my 1st Pedicure (August)

I had never gotten one before and my mom treated me and my sister to one with her (mom and sis were going to an out of town relative's wedding over labor day and decided she'd take me to get one too as part of my birthday present!). It was a neat experience and I hope to go a few times throughout the year as a seasonal thing.

Celebrated our 2 Year Wedding Anniversary (September)

Considering how rough our 1st year of marriage was, year 2 was A LOT better!

Found Out We're Having a Boy! (September)

We found out at our 18 week appointment (a whole 4 works prior to our scheduled "big" anatomy ultrasound) that we're having a boy - Jaydran Alexander. It was during one of my cervical ultrasounds, where they were checking on my cervix length since I had the LEEP done at the end of 2008 and wanted to make sure there wouldn't be complications. The ultrasound tech asked if we wanted to know the gender in the event she could see anything and of course we said yes! And kiddo was cooperative enough for us to find out! We're calling him Jay for short and it's been nice knowing as it's made bonding with him already a neat experience - I *hated* referring to him as an it.

Went to the Apple Orchard (October)

I honestly don't recall having gone to the big local apple orchard since I was just a young kid in grade school and we took a field trip once upon a time. It was neat to go though and I hope to make it an annual thing for us. A few years ago it had gotten destroyed by a tornado (there was an area campaign to get Extreme Makeover involved as it's sort of a community/area landmark) but they had rebuilt it just a year or so ago and reopened recently.

Became an Aunt Again (October)

Hubby's older brother and his wife gave birth to their 2nd son, Lucas Sky, in October - Jay's going to have a cousin close in age, how neat!

Went to Dallas, Texas and saw a Dallas Cowboys game at Cowboys Stadium (October)

 

It was a really nice, relaxing and fun trip! My college roommate had moved down to Dallas in summer 2009 and she had mentioned having friends from Illinois come visit her down there. I've always wanted to visit Texas and hubby's been a huge Cowboys fan since way before I met him in December 1997. When we talked about doing a vacation to visit my former roommate hubby was game, so long as we went in the fall during football season and could catch a Cowboys home game at their stadium. We made it happen! We drove down there (which wasn't a bad drive at all considering it took us about 16 hours) and had a relaxing time in our hotel, fun hanging out with my former roommate and her now-fiance, seeing some sights down there and going to Cowboys Stadium. The game we went to was the Monday Night Game against one of our major division rivals - the New York Giants - and just happened to be the game where Romo broke his clavicle. It was still a fun experience though, especially for hubby as the tickets were his birthday present and he had never been to an NFL game before. We did the stadium tour too which was really neat as we got to go to all different areas including Jerry Jones' private suite, the Cowboys locker room, the cheerleader's locker room, and got our picture taken on the field too!

Got in a Car Accident (October)

 

Unfortunately our awesome vacation had a not so awesome ending, as we were making good time on the drive home but ended up hitting a buck at about 1130pm just as we were nearing St. Louis! It did about $7500 worth of damage to our car we had gotten in early 2009, but fortunately insurance took care of us (yay Progressive!), hooking us up with a tow and rental car first thing the next morning. I went to the ER as soon as we got home just get checked out since I'm preggo and all, but everything turned out to be just fine and we're all okay!

Got My Hours Cut at Work Again (November)

Found out soon after vacation that I was getting my hours cut at work again, this time down to 1 day a week and I'd be paid hourly. Kinda bummed me out, but there's not much I could do about the situation - we've had little business most of the year and didn't have anything on the calendar for the rest of 2010.

Got a Seasonal Job (November)

In light of getting my hours cut at work again, I immediately went and started applying for seasonal jobs just to give myself something to do and contribute a little to our income still. I ended up getting hired right away by The Children's Place, which I love all the cute clothes they have for kids and have used my 25% employee discount several times already. Unfortunately though, the mall hasn't been all that busy this Christmas shopping season so I've had at most 2 actual shifts a week, some of which they even called and canceled on me because it was so slow out there, and lately all I've been schedule for are "call-in" shifts where you call an hour before the scheduled time and see if they're going to need you or not - so far, I haven't had to go in for any of my call-in shifts. Kinda bummed about that, as I'd prefer to be working more, but again, not much I can do about it - it's the economy.

Found Out We're *Very* Close to Being Homeowners (November)

This has been an ongoing thing since fall 2009, as we first went to the bank to get pre-approved for a home loan back then, only to learn that hubby had *really* bad credit. We've spent a good bit of 2010 cleaning it up, paying some old stuff off and it weren't for a glitch with my Mary Kay Chase Visa card we would have gotten approved this last time we went in in November. We made a few purchases on it this past month that we'll have paid off in January so we should be able to go back in the next month or so and get it!

Got a New Laptop (November)

 

I got a Mac Powerbook back in spring 2004 and since then it's been through a lot! In 2009 I started having issues with the part inside the laptop where the powercord plugs in not reading it half the time. We've tried ghetto fixing it as it would cost around $300 for the part and labor, but it was just getting annoying and I knew it was time for a new laptop - it was pretty out dated too as far as the drivers, videocard and OS. Hubby got himself a new "toy" (the Samsung Galaxy tablet) and I decided to apply for a Best Buy card and get myself a new "toy" as well, however I figured a laptop would be a good purchase as it's something we (me, hubby and eventually Jay) could all get use out of. I love my new laptop though - it's a Dell Inspirion AMD and it's fast and snazzy and plays WoW and surfs the internet just great!

Waited in the Cold for Black Friday Sales (November)

Yep - hubby thought for Christmas this year, instead of gifts for each other, since we needed a new TV anyway, that we'd get ourselves this 40" LCD flatscreen HDTV that Target had on sale for $298 on Black Friday morning. Since it was pretty much one of the best Black Friday bargains out there, we had to camp out for it, taking turns in the cold for nearly 4 hours. But we were able to get one, so it paid off!

Found Out I Have Gestational Diabetes

For those not in the know, gestational diabetes is a type of diabetes that isn't uncommon for pregnant women to get. Turns out, I have it. If left untreated it can have negative affects on baby (such as him being huge/fat, as well as possibly be born with hypoglycemia and develop diabetes), so we tried controlling it with diet and exercise by putting me on a low-carb diet and monitoring my glucose levels by pricking my finger when I first get up and an hour after each meal. Recently they put me on medication to help with it as my fasting numbers were a bit high.

 ***********

And there ya have it - my highlights of 2010. I must say, in retrospect, it was DEFINITELY a MUCH BETTER year than 2009 was... sure we've had a few mishaps this year, but it was like one thing after an other like it seemed to be in 2009 - we had a lot of good, fun times and just rolled with the punches. Everything seemed to work out.

2011 is here now... while I know there's plenty of exciting things already in store for us, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little scared or nervous as we have some pretty big life changes coming up this year! But here's to hoping it's just as good to us as 2010 was, if not even better!

A look at this past week

So I realized I've been kind of scarce with posting this past week (I blame WoW) so here's a brief update on life.

Mom and me are on the left.

Saturday morning I got up and went up to church for the annual Christmas women's luncheon they have every year called The Prepare Him Room where we eat a yummy dish, some dessert and listen to a guest speaker or 2. My mother-in-law and a friend of hers always put together a table for it each year as that's one of the highlights - a woman or a set of women each get a table to dress and decorate all Christmas-y. This year though, we had a decent snowfall Friday night and into Saturday morning (we got like 6 inches) and my in-laws live out in the country with a quarter-mile driveway that's a pain to shovel out in the snow. All my brother-in-laws were in town Friday staying with friends so the only one around to shovel was my 12 year old sister-in-law. They said she made a good effort, but they just weren't able to get out of their driveway, that's how bad it was out by their house! My mom and I still went to the luncheon but our table didn't have a centerpiece as my mother-in-law was bringing it into town with her - oops!

On Sunday, hubby and I attended his Verizon company's Christmas party which I had found out that afternoon I was allowed to go to too (previously they said no "dates" but an email went out Sunday afternoon retracting that). It wasn't great but I had fun getting dressed up nice and going out - it definitely beat sitting at home! I gave hubby my free drink tickets since I obviously can't drink (everyone got handed 2 tickets for alcoholic beverages). I did try a Virgin Bloody Mary but ugh, it tasted way too spicy and I couldn't drink more than 1/4th of it - Jay didn't seem to like it either. They also gave out door prizes - hubby (and  I) won one of several $50 Visa giftcards - they were also giving out $25 BP gas cards and the grand prize was a phone.

Monday was kind of a crappy day for me.

Last week I had my glucose screening to test for gestational diabetes which is a form of diabetes that pregnant women can develop although it usually goes away. I "failed" the 1 hour version of the test so they had me come back in and do a 3 hour version (where you fast the morning of and they draw your blood and then draw it again every hour for 3 hours). Monday I got the results from that and turns out I have the gestational diabetes. It wasn't too much of a surprise as it seems to run in my family on my mom's side (my mom was borderline while her sister and mom both had it like I do) and they said at my last appointment that Jay is measuring a big bit for his gestation age which is common for women that have the gestational diabetes, but still... it sucks. I got a call today from the Maternal Fetal Medicine ward at our hospital to set up an appointment for next week to meet with a dietitian/nutritionist and schedule an ultrasound so we can get my gestational diabetes under control. I've started watching what I eat even more than I was going off outlines for it that I found online and started keeping a food log too so they can go over with me what I'm eating that I shouldn't. I keep telling myself, I only have to deal/suffer with it for 10 weeks or less... I just need to get past the holidays and all the sweets/cookies I have to miss out on this year =(

On top that, I was frustrated as my mom's been busy the last few weeks doing all the costuming for our church's Christmas production of A Christmas Carol this weekend and it seems I've been having the worst time trying to reach her lately and The Children's Place didn't need me to come in again - I guess things have been so slow out at the mall that they've called and cut my last few shifts and didn't need me to come in for my on-call/call-in shifts, which is a little frustrating. To top everything off, I couldn't find the shirt I was looking for and broke a nail in the process. Hormones got the best of me and I had a little bit of a breakdown (I hate when that happens!). Fortunately hubby came home from work soon after and insisted I snuggle with him, which helped me calm down.

The rest of the night turned out okay - we went to Best Buy to pre-order the new WoW expansion and I bought a wireless mouse for my laptop since I figure if I'm playing WoW on it, I'm going to need an actual mouse as the Dell trackpad is different than the Mac one I'm used to playing on. I ended up getting WoW later than night and taking advantage of the Expectant Mother parking they have at Best Buy and played the new expansion well into the morning, sleeping in late Tuesday.

A few packages arrived Tuesday and Wednesday. I had ordered this Holly Lites aroma melt warmer from Partylite as it's normally $20 but was listed as an internet special this month for $10 and goes great with our Christmas decor - now I'm just waiting for my Iced Snowberries aroma melts to come in so I can start using it. My dad's Christmas present also arrived too so I got that wrapped and put under the tree.

Speaking of the tree... I think Tiger's retarded this year. This is her 3rd Christmas with us and she's acting like she's never seen the Christmas tree before and won't leave it alone! She keeps knocking ornaments off (none of the breakable ones, thank God!) and stretching up into the tree... I don't get it! She was so much more behaved around it last year, this year she's a complete terror! And she doesn't listen or learn as we keep spraying her and putting her in "time out" in her crate/cage/kennel when she keeps it up!

Today was a so-so day. I was up late last night/this morning as I've been playing WoW while hubby is at work and he's been getting home about 4am lately. I was going to go to bed at 430am but made the mistake of checking Facebook one last time and got to chatting with a friend and yeah... time flew and next thing I know it's already 530am! I was in bed by 6am and I needed to get up by 930am as I thought I had work, however it took me a good hour or so to fall asleep (Jay's been kicking A LOT more lately, as it's clear he doesn't have a lot of room in there now). Anyways, I got up around 930am, ate something quick and showered and drove all the way across town to work. They didn't call me yesterday so I took that to mean it was okay to go in. Well, I was wrong - I walk and one of my bosses is like "Didn't we tell you last week we didn't need you to come in this week?" What she had said was that they weren't sure if they would need me and since they had called all the weeks before when they didn't, when I didn't get a call I took that to mean it was good for me to come in. I left promptly, a bit annoyed, but whatever. I had errands to run anyway so if anything it just made me get out of bed and dressed to get out and get em done.

Stopped by my mom's house for a bit to pick up tickets to the church Christmas program tomorrow and we ended up going out to hubby's Verizon store so my mom could look at a few phones she was interested as our plan has 2 upgrades available, Best Buy has some 6 day special where you can get decent smartphones for free or $1, and we have some promotional thing hubby put on our family plan where everyone gets the $29.99 data package for $9.99. My sister is getting the HTC Droid Incredible (it's $1 at Best Buy right now) and while my mom was planning on getting the LG Octane, the price on that one went up from $29.99 to $69.99. While she can use the internet on it, we learned that the GPS on it is through the VZ Navigator (since it's not an Android phone) which costs extra to use, so I got her looking at the LG Ally since she really wants a phone with an actual full QWERTY keyboard (she's iffy about full touchscreen phones like I originally was), would like to be able to use the Google Maps Navigation  (she thought it was neat that I used my phone as a GPS when we drove to St. Louis and back to pick up our car after the accident), and would like to be able to check her email and Facebook from her phone since she doesn't always have time to get on the computer to check that stuff so she sometimes doesn't get an email or message for days at a time. She also wants a decent sized screen as she's getting old and wants to be able to store baby photos on it to show off to people and put her music on it too. It's currently free at Best Buy too. Hubby agreed with me, an Android phone would be best for her and the LG Ally is about the size she wants and has the keyboard too, so he showed her one of those. While he wouldn't recommend the Ally for someone more tech savvy, he said for my mom it would work just fine for her and her needs. He said she'll need a car charger if she's planning on using the GPS so he said he would get her one at cost for $5.

I stopped into Hobby Lobby to see if they had any Christmas-themed coasters as our Vegas ones don't really match our Christmas decor and I only found 2 in sets of 3 and wasn't thrilled about either. I found one I like on Zazzle, but they're sandstone ones and cost $9.99 EACH! A set of 4 Christmas-y coasters for under $10 is ideal... I guess I'll check Walmart next week. I also picked up my paycheck from The Children's Place and learned that I actually had 2 checks to pick up AND they totaled more than I was expecting to get! That was pretty sweet! Also, the mall was REALLY dead/slow for being 2 and a half weeks until Christmas - no wonder they keep canceling my shifts out there! I stopped by the bank on my way home and got stuck behind some guy in a truck doing 25-30mph in a 45mph, I'm assuming due to the snowfall that started this afternoon. Granted, the snow was covering the roads so you couldn't see icy patches as easily and was coming down pretty steady, but it wasn't THAT bad to be going THAT slow!

RIP Boy =(

In hubby news... he got a mini-promtion/pay-raise at Verizon - he's now an assistant to the executive administrative of their company, although really he's not doing much more than he already was, he's just getting paid for the extra stuff he's been doing. He also found out this week that he got the 2 week Christmas overtime shift at UPS he was hoping to get. Sadly though, we learned tonight that one the dogs at his parent's house (they have multiple dogs and cats - it's like a mini zoo out there! lol...) suddenly died - it was their smaller dog named Boy and he was only 7. When we've talked about getting a dog of our own in the future, hubby always says he wants one that's a lapdog about the size of Boy. One of his brothers is pretty bummed out.

And that's been my week.