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About Me

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Western North Dakota , United States
My husband, Allen, and I are high school sweet hearts. We started dating Sep.99'- I kind of followed Allen home one day, and never did leave, is Allen's story. November 02' we were engaged, and on November 22,2003 - we were married. Having been married for 6 years in 2009, marked the 5th year we had been trying to start our family. With the referral of a Fertility Specialist from a friend, our IUI attempts ended up being a complete success despite my doubts. We welcomed our sweet little girl, Hayleigh into the world on June 30,2010 at 6:28am after 37wks and 1 day of gestation. She weighed 7lbs 14oz and was 20 in long. We found out that we were Baby #2 on April Fool's Day- a complete surprise! Reid Allen was born 11/13/12 3:24am 9lbs 8.2oz 21", after 38wks 5 days. Our 3rd baby, Eva Jane, was born on April 19, 2015 after suffering a pregnancy loss June of 2014. We are currently anxiously awaiting baby #4 due 2 days before Eva's birthday, so we are having Irish Twins! Our family is so blessed and happy to be growing!

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Hayleigh and Private School

So, as of lately I've been checking on which school we will be sending Hayleigh to next fall. We could have sent her to Preschool this year, but opted out for various reasons... We just moved back here, we were planning on sending her to Preschool back in Illinois earlier this year to St. Joe, but since we decided to move back, I was at a loss for where to send her. I know she is learning quite a bit at home- we are working with her every day. Allen and I have discussed where we wanted to send Hayleigh now that we are here to stay. I of course wanted to send her to private school, along with Allen. We both feel that the smaller class rooms would be a good thing.

There are a few private schools here in Grand Junction- 8 to be exact. There are no non-denominational ones. So, that pretty much blows the door wide open on where we will be most likely sending Hayleigh- Holy Family Catholic School. Both Allen and I are on the fence on the whole religion bit as far as school goes. I was raised Catholic, but I went to public school, as did my sister. Our public schools here I'm afraid teach towards what is on the testing more so as to how to problem solve. The public schools here unlike little Otown do get to celebrate the seasons as well as Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, etc... back in Otown, that has pretty much been thrown out. I think Allen and I basically want the best education possible for our kids, while having a normal school life. We got to have that normal school life- we celebrated all the holidays, and were just kids. I know some people will read this and think I'm bananas, but they are kids- having one night of trick or treating getting to dress up as something you would like to be when you grow up, or as some character you admire to us is helping build them for their future. They learn that they can be who they want to be- any goal in life is attainable. That is what I see in Halloween. We don't do the whole dressing up as dark evil stuff- no devils, bad things. We didn't do that when I was little.

Anyway, getting off topic. The whole hang up has been on just how much we will have to contribute to the church. I don't have a problem contributing to the school, but I don't want to be told how much to donate, how often we must attend mass. Ideally we would start attending once we decided that the kids would go there, but I doubt if it would be on a every week basis. The good thing about Catholic Mass is that there is a Saturday service, and a Sunday service.. Allen is never home on Sundays- BUT any of the religious step stones are on Sundays, so he might have to leave to go back to work late on some Sundays, if this is the path that we choose.

It really scares me to be sending Hayleigh to school already. Since we are not doing Preschool this year, we are getting Hayleigh enrolled into gymnastics or dance, so she can at least socialize with kids her own age. We are just wanting the best opportunities for academics, sports, and any other activities that schools can offer. Being out here means even more for Hayleigh and Reid. What blows my mind the most is that we have been getting more bang for the buck here. Having Reid here in a very nice hospital with a NICU cost $8000 less than having Hayleigh in little Otown with no NICU, our wellness checkups are the same with services they provide, so why should school be any different? Holy Family is almost 1 grand less than St Joe is in Otown. I really don't understand it all, but there it all is. I am just really happy to have a few months to get a jump on school for next year for Hayleigh.

Monday, August 26, 2013

List Making Cinderella

A glimpse into our past 3 weeks~ Yard sale, Hair Cut, Reid's 9mth pics, Otown curse, Bringing Missy home, Colorado - Home At Last!, Clothes My Mom Hoarded and sent back with us with a mountain of groceries, Kids playing in the yard, Hayleigh playing the Kinnect Disney Dance game, Halloween Up, Fruit Loops in a canister just for our Fruit Loop, My supper/lunch last night, and peach cobbler
Here we are- another week with Allen back to work. At least this time we will be staying home since the last first week of Allen being back to work entailed us traveling back to Illinois and not coming back until right before Allen come home.

I can truthfully say I am now burnt out on the drive back for now. When we made it home, I had such a ahhh it feels sooo great to be home! The kids we also equally as happy. Both were going everywhere all over the house- Reid quit crying immediately and was crawling everywhere laughing.

We were all ready to get out of the car, and get ready for Allen to be home. I can't remember if I posted it on here or not- the Otown curse.... every time we go to leave Otown to head back out here- something happens. The time before last it was the alternator and the batteries, this time it was the back glass.... Sigh... Yes, so add that to the list of many things I had to get done before Allen got home.

I unpacked like a crazy woman.. trying to get ready for our house guests, and for Allen. Allen managed to sneak in early before I had everything done. Sad thing was I had cleaned the house just before we left- worked all Sunday and Monday morning on it- and it was still not up to par for me. I was on the phone/online- getting things taken care of. I had the back glass scheduled for Monday afternoon- well, they had their count wrong in the warehouse, so Tuesday morning, the people to fix the back glass were here. You want to talk about a mess! I vacuumed and vacuumed until the excursion was clean Sunday- we went grocery shopping, then on Tuesday, I had to take all the duct tape make shift back glass down. Surprisingly it worked well, but come to find out- MAKE A MENTAL NOTE LADIES.. you can go to any auto shop, and get a clear tight plastic cover made for this instead of using duct tape. Allen found out after the fact we made the duct tape wonder...

Anyway, got the back glass replaced, our company left, and we kind of just floated on the rest of our week.

Of course, Saturday night came and I was coming up with things I wanted to get done for the next few weeks before Allen got home- to keep busy. He will be with us for 2 whole weeks this next time- he's taking vacation to go elk/bear hunting. While coming up with a list, we try to get our extra little bit of family time in before Daddy leaves. I even give Allen his first at home hair cut- we bought our own set of clippers. I did a good job, but was soo busy cleaning up the hair and trying to get the kids in a bath to take pictures. Allen helped tuck them in after we spent all evening putting Halloween stuff up and playing on the floor. Yes, you read that right- Halloween stuff up inside the house. I have a lot, and I want it to be worth while to put it up before taking it down. Anyway, off track again.. We got a new kinnect game for Hayleigh- a Disney Dance Party game with all her favorite Disney shows/movies songs all in one. She wasn't so hip on dancing, but watching me and the kids on the game dance. She then found our stash of Disney sing along movies, and it was on- they are all VHS.. do we have a VCR? Nope... So the hunt was on for a VCR. It was thankfully a short hunt, with the kid's Great Grandpa Bob coming to the rescue! He got it sent out to us, and it should make it to us by Thursday.

So, my lists.. I come up with one every time Allen gets ready to leave- trying to keep busy, and take care of stuff that needs done. I am thinking that my list is way longer than I need it to be, but as always, I'll keep adding to it.

Yesterday, I got the excursion back in the garage- waiting to hear back from our landlords on what they want to do about fixing the garage door- the bracket that connects it to the arm of the opener just popped off- the door is a brand Lowes sells, and this seems to be a very common problem. You would think they would figure out glue and small screws will not work on this method. Anyway, excursion in garage- check, vacuumed, did laundry, cooked both supper/lunch in one with a peach cobbler, got sheets/bedding all washed and clothes put away. I think that was pretty much it.

Today, I got the dishes all put up and done, trash out to the curb, vacuumed again, started with cleaning out the fridge- ended up cleaning behind it and behind the stove.. ONE word... NASTY! Not anymore at least!~ Fixed left overs for lunch- put more clothes up, got 2 more loads of laundry done- one left to go, and cleaned the bathrooms.

This week I have yet to update the kids' baby books, get their appointments scheduled with their ped, my appointment scheduled with a dermatologist here so I can start up on my shots for my psoriasis again, go to the store, clean out the excursion- started phase one of that today, clean out the garage and rearrange it again, finish painting Hayleigh's headboard, refinish and paint our bedside table and touch up Hayleigh's bookcase and our dresser, spray and pull weeds, give Missy a bath, change out more pictures on the wall, take our pool down, get out my fall yard decor, make a tree skirt for my halloween tree and halloween shirts for the kids, dust, and paint the front door... I think I got about all of it anyway... I need to work on some crafts with the kids and get some homemade gifts made up for approaching holidays and occasions, along with keep working on my Christmas gift stash.

One thing I swear is that I am even more busy just staying home now.. I think I'm finding more to do around the house to keep me extra busy.. with the kids, I'm getting ridiculous.

We were going to go and have a pool day here this week, but the weather has been rainy and it is cooling off- so I'm afraid we have missed our chance. Maybe we can hit the indoor pool in Fruita yet- hoping for tomorrow.. My list can wait another day....

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

This Time Every Year....

When August comes every year, I start to get kind of emotional, and tend to go back to reading my first posts on here before the kids- back when we were trying soo hard just to get pregnant. I think it's all part of being grateful for how far we have come. On the 17th, it will be 4 years ago since our first IUI attempt. Four years ago today, I posted this video that I have re posted several times. It never seems to fail to make me cry- even though we now have kids, and we are completely happy and in love with both of them. My heart aches for the other thousands of couples out there that are now in the shoes we were once in. 

Even though our first attempt at IUI was unsuccessful just like many others are not for other people, we did manage to survive through it all, and did end up with our own sweet little family after it all. These days, I reminisce back to before the kids, to the bittersweet time when we were trying for all we were worth to just get a baby. I miss those days in a way- funny, but I would love to live those days all over again, knowing what was in store for us. I would love to see those 2 pink lines for the first time all over again, and go through that miscarriage from the first IUI over again, knowing Hayleigh would soon be a reality. Just to hold Hayleigh again for the first time... 

It is amazing that we didn't have to go through all of the treatments all over again for Reid.. He just happened against all odds. Both kids are our miracles- one planned and longed for, for so long, and the other a complete shock of a surprise of what we wanted and were getting ready to start planning treatments for. Back after Hayleigh was born, I figured we would have to go back and start all over once again. I in a way wanted that, thinking our kids would be mean to each other someday and say I was planned, and Mommy and Daddy wanted me. I also thought I would feel bad because we had such early ultrasound pictures of Hayleigh, and not of Reid. Hayleigh we have from 5 wks along with her, Reid starts at 8 weeks- the same time I was discharged from the infertility clinic with Hayleigh. At least both of them were born into loving arms of parents who really longed and wanted them both. While my views on infertility will stay with me for my lifetime, I hope that both Reid and Hayleigh don't have to go through it all as well someday. I would wish infertility on my worst enemy and best friend, and I know that sounds wrong. BUT, I am the mom I am today because of it. I try not to take things for granted with the kids, I think sometimes to myself to suck it up- the "me" before kids yelling at me to do better for them. Because of our experience I'm a better mom, and with the way society is today- all the teen pregnancy, single parent pregnancies, etc, it would be good for our society to experience that. Maybe then, the birth of a baby, or even a pregnancy would be seen as a miracle instead of a burden. 

I know a lot of people are out there hurting now- watching everyone and their dog get pregnant and have babies like it's nothing. Those people going on about how easy it was, while you are trying everything you read that could possibly help you get pregnant. Trying to smile for others while holding someone else's newborn baby...IT's hard! 

Even though infertility is not a life threatening disease, it is a very hard thing to battle. Expensive, emotional, and exhausting. 

To all the hopeful future parents out there- hang in there. Even if it feels like you are in a dark hole all by yourself, you're not. There are many others out there struggling just like you out there. 


Otown Visit Part One

We're still here in Otown. Plans have changed a little bit. Instead of leaving out Saturday morning, we will be leaving out on Friday morning. We have company coming Sunday evening, and I didn't want to just get home, have to immediately go grocery shopping, cook, and unpack all at once. So now, we can have a day to get ready for our guests, and for Allen to get in on Monday morning as well.

Time has flown by here once again. We have been having a good time. We managed to put together a last minute yard sale here of the kids' Fall and Winter baby clothes. That was soo hard for me to do... tagging those sweet little clothes, then watching strangers walking off with them. We ended up selling half of the Fall/Winter clothes in the end, and loaded up the 4 boxes of what was left in the excursion to sell back home when we get back.

Reid has been crawling EVERYWHERE, and getting into EVERYTHING lately. He has loved exploring all that he can of Grandma's house, and can crawl the hallway in 10 seconds now. He's a little speedster!

Humidity has been awful here, and so has the mosquitoes too. Hayleigh and I have bites all over us.

We took a little trip up to Oblong yesterday, and ate lunch at the same cafe we always do. We also stopped in at the Village Stitchery, and I picked up some new braided coasters for the house and Halloween fabric to make our tree skirt for the Halloween tree. They had lots of cute stuff, but I don't want to take tons of stuff back with us. We then went over to Harmon's drug store, and picked up more Halloween decorations as well. I made it back out with the start of my Christmas shopping as well. I got Hayleigh one of her first presents, so I can start checking off of my lists now. I picked up some cute spider candle holders, a spider web candle holder, and a few ornaments for our Halloween tree as well.

Today, we are going blue berry picking, and will hopefully be bringing home some blueberries, peaches, and chowder back with us to share with Allen.

We just have a few days left, and I want to relax all that I can before we leave, but visit with a few more people too. It just never does seem like we have enough time to do what we want, but that is the way it always seems to go.

Monday, August 5, 2013

Gentlemen ....Lady, Start your engine!

I don't know really what to say. Allen came home last week, we had a GREAT week, and he left to go back up to work. I've gotten the whole house unpacked- including the garage, and the trailer loaded with stuff going back ready to go hooked up as I type. I haven't been really in the mood to talk all that much- I guess someone deflated my balloon on that one.

Something has happened here lately. I don't know really how to describe it, but I guess that the only way I can put it is we are now home. I don't have an overwhelming desire to go back to Illinois to visit. I miss our family and friends, but I'm just in the mood to stay put right now. I don't know why it is that when I want to just sit still and chill for a bit, it is the time I have to be running 20 different directions. Tomorrow, I will start the 19 hour trip back. 19 hours in the excursion, pulling the trailer with the kids in tow, by myself.... Yay Raw!~ Sooo Excited!!! Not really. I guess I'm just burnt out of the drive in the stretch of Kansas and the other side of Denver from here. Not really looking forward to the drive between Denver and here either, all the mountains... Good thing I don't smoke...

My mood is just ehhh right now. I'm ready to do a few things back in Illinois, and I really am looking forward to seeing people, just not driving. If it wasn't soo expensive to fly, I would so be on that for October's visit. HOPEFULLY we will be in the homestretch tomorrow evening right at this time, nearing Otown.

I am praying for a safe- non expensive trip back to Illinois and back, coming back to all my flowers still alive and the grass not 2 foot tall. That is all. Ohh, and for the kids to do soo well again. They so far have been great travelers! So, here is my driveway right now....