Tuesday, March 25, 2008

5MinutesforMom

Click, go, enjoy....
Because who doesn't love the perfect pair of jeans?

Baby Fever


So, yesterday in my post I mentioned that we have decided to start trying for another baby.  Did you catch that?  No?  Go read it, I can wait....
Anyway, yes, we are going to start trying to get pregnant again.  And by trying, what I really mean is we are not going to prevent it from happening.  In case you didn't know, Elijah was not a 'planned pregnancy'.  We had just moved to Texas, didn't have steady income, didn't have health insurance, and were using birth control.  I just love God's timing, don't you?  But, of course, God provided for us in amazing ways and here we are, mere days away from a first birthday.
Before we had Elijah, and had thought that we had our life planned out exactly the way it should go, we wanted to start trying for a second child when our first child was 6 months old.  That gave the first baby 6 months of breast feeding and would make our kids around 15 months apart.  Our goal was to be done having kids by the time I was 25.  That would mean that we could retire when our youngest was in college, or I was no older than 45.  Sounds pretty perfect, no?  Let me just tell you than last October, when Elijah was 6 months old, I went a little crazy inside at the idea of having another baby.  Maybe a lot crazy.  So, we re-worked our plans, Elijah weaned himself around 8 months, and we decided that we just didn't want our kids any farther apart than 2 years.  That means we have to be pregnant by the end of July.  Which would mean that our children will have been born in the same month.  The same month my birthday is in.
(bleh)
But, I think that I would be okay even if we aren't pregnant by then.  We have decided that after I finish the pack of birth control that I am on now, which is about 2 1/2 more weeks, I will not start another.  But, we will use some other form of control for the first month.  That will give me a chance to get back to a semi-normal cycle.  (so sorry to any male readers!)  That will put us somewhere in the first part of May.  And, like I said we are not going to really be 'trying'.  There will be no tracking, not temperature taking, no planning.  It will happen when it happens.  I have loved being a mom so much that the idea of starting it with this next kid already makes me a little sad.  Sad because it will be the last time.  We do not want anymore than 2 kids (sorry Grandpa Mick!).  We actually for a time considered stopping with Elijah, but as the title of this post suggests, I have got the fever!  Plus, we both have the most amazing relationships with our siblings and we want the same for our kids.  So if it takes us a little longer than we think, and we don't make the many deadlines we have set for ourselves, I will be okay.  Or maybe I just don't want to share my birthday month anymore than I already have to.  

Monday, March 24, 2008

Hello. How are you?

Ahhhh... crazy week.  I suppose I should say crazy life, but blah, whatever.  

Let us just hope that I actually write enough to be able to post it!

Don-e had a BUNCH of family in town this last week and it was crazy.  But so much fun.  I love having family around and this part of his is loud and chaotic, and perfect.  It was his maternal grandparents, an aunt, five cousins, and a cousin-in-law.  Because there were so many of them part of them stayed at the in-law's, and part of them stayed here.  Somebody even slept in the garage!! We had the best time with them though.  Don-e's oldest cousin and her husband are 6 months pregnant with their first, a little boy.  Most of all of the conversations we had circled around pregnancy and Elijah's birth.  It was really neat to sit down and talk about all of that time again.  Makes me anxious to do it again!  Which, by the way, we have decided to start working on....
On Sunday we visited a church that was holding an Easter egg hunt.  Our church doesn't hold any kind of activities other than service, so we went to the church of some good friends of ours.  Elijah did so well with the eggs.  We had gone to city-sponsored hunt last weekend, but that was a disaster.  There were thousands of people there, and even though they had it broken up by age, it was still a mess.  We were in a group of three-and-unders and parents were allowed to 'help'.  There was no helping.  There was looting.  Don-e said that he saw people scooping up armfuls.  Big armfuls.  Ugh.  But!  Yesterday's was so much more fun.  Smaller.  There were probably only 20 kids in our area.  Parents were actually letting the babies toddle around and get eggs themselves.  It was so much fun to watch.  'Lijah didn't get the whole, putting an egg in his basket, moving on to the next, but he loved picking up the eggs.  His Mom just kept taking them to put in the basket!  At one point a little girl came up to him and they were both playing with the eggs in Elijah's basket.  So very cute.  I can't wait until next year when he will be old enough for us to dye eggs and do a hunt in our backyard.
I am so excited, because my brother is coming to stay with us next weekend.  I haven't seen him since his graduation last October.  Come to think of it, I haven't seen any of my family since last October.  But, ever better yet, my sister will also be here for a day next weekend.  MJ has a 4 day weekend, which is why he is coming, and Lycia is driving out here with a friend who's husband just got stationed somewhere in southern Texas.  Remember me mentioning that I love family?  Yeah, living out here with very little family has been my own personal little hell.  I do not regret coming out here at all.  It was the best thing in the world for us.  I just wish my family would follow.  There have been talks of my Mom moving this direction at some point, but I don't think it will happen any time soon.  She has some stuff going on in her life that will hold it up for some time.  But there is hope!!!  Anyway, I will get a little fix this weekend, and then in mid-April we are going to Seattle for my cousin Noah's wedding, and the ENTIRE family (except MJ) will be there!  WOOHOO!