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tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-84939104512363093572020-01-02T04:17:03.478-06:00Dearest MeCrystalhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8493910451236309357.post-18410610666394748042019-04-02T10:45:00.000-05:002019-04-02T10:45:23.721-05:00Hey, It's Okay

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Hey, it's okay...

... to have named my new car Sassy. It's a 2014 Mitsubishi Outlander... In the Outlander series, Jamie calls Claire "Sassenach". Hence, Sassy. My husband and I are super excited to have a new vehicle. He drove a 2000 Mercedes Benz C-class which my father-in-law is going to try to sell for us. I drove a 2008 Nissan Sentra which will now be my husband's primary vehicle to drive to and from work. My primary vehicle will be Sassy:

... to be excited about a possible opportunity on the leadership team of my local MOPS group. I've only been a member since January, but I am so in love with the program. It's an activity this lonely SAHM can look forward to each month. I'm excited about the opportunity to meet more local moms and hopefully make some mom friends. I should know tomorrow whether or not I was accepted into a position for the upcoming MOPS year.

... to think the theme for the 2019-2020 MOPS year is going to be amazing. This year's is Find Your Fire which comes from Romans 12:11-13:

Never let the fire go out... When you hope, be joyful. When you suffer, be patient. When you pray, be faithful. Share with God's people who are in need. Welcome others into your homes.
Next year's theme is To the Full which comes from John 10:10:

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it TO THE FULL.
Seems like it will be a fun year! The intro video for the next year was amazing and brought me to tears. To be fair, I am a sap so...

... to be unimpressed with my son's napping abilities right now. He sleeps about 12 hours overnight and, easily, napped twice for two hours each a few weeks ago. However, now, he's refusing to nap well during the day. He will maybe nap for half an hour to an hour in the morning and about the same in the afternoon. It makes for a cranky baby because he needs more sleep than he's wanting to get.

... to have gotten drawn in to the game Township yesterday. My son pushed all the buttons on the computer and somehow popped up a window that asked if I wanted to install it. I've been kind of bored at times lately so I decided to download it. I've been playing it off and on since yesterday afternoon.Crystalhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8493910451236309357.post-65532214301706072392019-02-19T14:52:00.000-06:002019-02-19T14:52:11.723-06:00Hey, It's Okay

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Hey, it's okay...

... to have taken a long hiatus from blogging. I couldn't write because I honestly didn't have the time.

... to have volunteered my family to stay with my parents for two and a half weeks while my dad recovered from having his knee replaced. It was hard, but the right thing to do... This was also one of the reasons I didn't write for a while.

... to be so happy my family is on the mend. My family came home from my parents' house on a Tuesday. Thursday, I started wheezing (which I've never done before) and went to the doctor Friday morning. He prescribed an inhaler and advised me to steer clear of the baby. By Monday, I was a lot worse and had a fever. I went back to the doctor who said I had bronchitis and prescribed an antibiotic and steroid. On Wednesday, my seven-month-old son woke up with dried snot under his nose and swollen eyes. Thursday, he had several episodes of breath holding (where a baby physically can't breathe during crying and can pass out). Friday, I took him to the doctor and he was diagnosed with RSV. This was his first illness. Sunday, my husband started feeling a little sick. Today, I am mostly better though I still have a bit of a cough and some sinus issues. My husband feels a little rough still, but is on the mend too (or so it seems). The baby is doing really well. He has some extra snot and coughing, but seems to be almost better.

... to be excited to have a crocheting lesson coming up. My aunt has agreed to show me how to do it. I bought some yarn and hooks before we left for my parents' and haven't been able to go to my aunt's house for my lesson yet, but will hopefully be able to do that soon.

... to be on a reading kick lately. I think I've read like four or five books in the last three days. Lots of reading!Crystalhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8493910451236309357.post-8562763068934766972019-01-15T07:03:00.000-06:002019-01-15T07:03:09.950-06:00Hey, It's Okay

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Hey, it's okay...

... to be excited have joined a group for moms of little ones in order to make new friends in the area. Hey, when you're an introvert with social anxiety, you do what you gotta do!

... to love snow... but only when you don't have to go out in it. We got about 8-9 inches of snow on Saturday which is a lot for our area. It looks beautiful though!!!

... to be undecided about going to a play date organized by MOPS today. The above two statements are mainly why... I had a lot of fun at the MOPS meeting, but it remains cold and snowy here today!

... to feel anxious about basically moving to my parents' house for a couple of weeks. My dad is having knee replacement surgery and cannot be left alone for two to three weeks. Being a SAHM means I got drafted to be the one to stay home with him. As it would require me to be gone from about 6:45 am to 6:00 pm every day, we decided it would be easier to just stay with them for the duration. However, it takes a lot of stuff to travel away for two to three weeks with my husband, my six month old, me, and our dog!!!

... to be excited our half bath is almost finished being remodeled! We did the demolition of it and removed everything from the room on April 7th. On Sunday, my husband finally got around to installing the vanity light and mirror. Now we're just waiting on our special order door to be installed (Menards let us know it's in, we just need to pick it up), the last bits of trim to be put back in, and any decor to be hung and it's complete! Oh, trying to remodel with an infant is so easy!Crystalhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8493910451236309357.post-26944133264770317832019-01-14T11:12:00.002-06:002019-01-14T11:33:17.173-06:00Mothers of Preschoolers

My husband and I bought our house almost two years ago now. We moved into an amazing community which is almost halfway between both sets of our parents. This community has an amazing school district and plenty of stores, restaurants, and activities for children. We live about two blocks from a huge park where the town's swimming pool is located. These reasons are why we chose the house we now own. The only downside to our town, however, is I don't know many people.

When I was pregnant, my husband and I decided I would stay home with our baby and any future children until they are all in school. I posted on Facebook with our decision and asked for advice on how to meet other SAHMs in my area. My sister-in-law recommended trying out MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers). A cousin seconded going to MOPS and said she had been to our local group previously and it was awesome.

After that discussion, I started looking into MOPS. I joined the Facebook group for my local meeting. According to Facebook, this was about 9 months ago. My son was born in mid-July. When my husband went back to work a month later, I tried to talk myself into going to a meeting. It was the perfect time as it was a new year for MOPS which runs from September to May.

I am an introvert and deal with social anxiety. I couldn't bring myself to go. Every month, I would psych myself up about going and then back out. After doing some reflection, I determined this was because I was afraid of the unknown. I had never been to the church where the meetings are held. I didn't know where to park or where to go once in the church. I didn't know anyone there.

After figuring this out, I decided to message someone in the group. There is a lady named Heather who seems to do most of the administrative duties for the Facebook group. I sent her a message last month and told her my dilemma. She jumped to help! She said if I was interested in coming to the January meeting, we would work something out. Someone could come to my house and get me or I could follow someone to the church. I agreed with this and was so excited to finally be able to attend a meeting.

Last Monday, Heather messaged me and asked if I was still interested in attending a meeting. I said I was definitely interested. I also told her I didn't think I needed a ride or to follow someone as long as I had an idea of where to go at the church. She sent me a bird's-eye view of the church and showed me where to park and what doors to enter. She said there would be someone at the front doors to meet me and direct me where to go. I thanked her.

The meeting was on Thursday and I'm proud to say I attended. I was a little anxious, but definitely excited about going. Thursday, I got up a little early in order to get ready. I got the baby ready and we headed to the meeting. I was greeted at the door by a mentor mom. These are moms with years of experience (read grandmother aged). The mentor mom lead me into the church where I was greeted by Heather and another mom. Heather took me to the meeting room which was actually at the back of the sanctuary. She lead me to her table and showed me where to sit along with where the "cry room" was.

I immediately took the baby in there because he needed a diaper change. This is a funny story, but the baby went from having a bowel movement (or multiples) every day to not going at all. It was an instant switch and worried his dad and me. We contacted his pediatrician who said to do a glycerin suppository if he hadn't gone in about ten days. We did this and he went. Another 5 days passed and he was acting miserable so we did another... and he went. We decided not to do another and see what happened. By the day of the meeting, it had been about a week since he had gone. When I changed his diaper before we left the house, he had a bowel movement on his own! I was excited, and got him changed. By the time we got to the church, it was obvious he'd had another one. It was a monstrosity of a bowel movement and I had to change his diaper on a little changing table in the crying room of the church. Luckily it didn't get on his clothes, but it was messy and disgusting. Haha! I was flustered due to being at a new location and dealing with a mess of that size, but I got him cleaned up and went to the meeting.

Another mentor mom named Nancy sat next to me and talked to me throughout the whole meeting. She even held the baby for a while. I wish I had known they serve breakfast at the meetings because I ate before I went. They had bagels with cream cheese, donuts, fruit, what looked like a casserole of some sort, coffee, and juice. Those are just the things that I know they had. I didn't have anything. I was given a welcome folder with registration information and forms to fill out. I was told the meeting I went to was free as it was a trial, but if I decided to return, I would need to pay the registration fees.

We discussed friendships: what your best friend is like, what your best friend in high school was like, what you need in a friend, how can you be a better friend to those close to you, how you can be a better long distance friend, how to make new friends, etc. I found the meeting to be very informative and awesome. I was glad to hear a lot of the women in the group are in the same shoes as me when it comes to meeting new mom friends.

Overall, I loved the meeting. I felt very welcome. Oh, we did a words of affirmation exercise where an index card with your name on it was taped to your back. People came around and wrote on your card. The cards were filled with positive things. It was the first time these women had met me, but my card was full of so much positivity and love!

I talked to my husband at lunch about the group, and I decided to join. I am so happy and excited to see what this group does for me when it comes to making mom friends... and how I can be of service to the group and its other members. I'd recommend checking out the MOPS group nearest you if you are a stay-at-home mom looking to have some adult interaction from time to time!Crystalhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8493910451236309357.post-68001330912498476242019-01-09T17:38:00.000-06:002019-01-09T17:38:23.938-06:00Wellness Wednesday

While my husband was home over winter break, we were discussing our health. We have both gotten into the habit of eating whatever is easy to grab, not caring about the quality of the food or its impact on our health. We decided to start with a healthier eating lifestyle on January 1st. The first day of the new year made a lot of sense as we had a bunch of unhealthy food in the house along with a couple of events planned where we wouldn't be able to control what we were eating as easily.

I have read the blog of Katie at Runs for Cookies for years now. The best piece of advice I've gotten from reading her blog is to not make any diet or lifestyle changes you aren't comfortable doing for the rest of your life. We didn't want to start with anything too crazy as we wouldn't be able to stick with that long. We have two goals for now:

Actually plan out our meals so we have healthy meal options available.

Add in healthy sides with our main dishes so we end up eating a smaller portion of the main dish and, therefore, less calories.

Overall, we've been doing a great job of following this plan. We have gone out to eat a couple of times, but have been able to keep from going overboard. We had planned to get a meal out from Dairy Queen last Friday. We calculated all our calories and everything, then my husband went to get our food after work and they didn't have what we wanted. That was a disappointment, and I ended up being over calories for the day, but not by a ton.

I've been trying to make healthier choices when it comes to snacks as well. I have been very bad at grabbing the quick, unhealthy snacks we have around like mini muffins, streusel cakes, and stuff like that. The past couple of weeks, I've started eating cottage cheese and pineapple or homemade protein snacks (a small serving each of peanuts, ham, and cheese). I have had a muffin pack here or there and cereal has become a popular snack for me this week, but I'm very pleased with the choices I've been making.

We weighed ourselves on January 1st and weighed in again today. My husband is down a little over a pound and I lost almost three pounds! I'm so proud of us for sticking with these changes thus far and cannot wait to see what changes we continue to make for our health going forward.Crystalhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8493910451236309357.post-43403808797851834902019-01-08T12:31:00.000-06:002019-01-08T12:31:12.787-06:00Hey, It's Okay

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Hey, it's okay...

... to have planned to read 75 books this year. Last year, I read 67 books. I figure I can read a few more this year! If you're on goodreads, feel free to add me! I vowed to follow the reading plan below this year. I have no problems reading more than twelve books in a year, but I like the idea behind this plan. I hope I can follow through with it!

... to have lost my blogging mojo when my husband was home for winter break this year. It's hard for me to sit down and write a blog when I can be spending time with him instead. I'm writing this entry while my kid naps next to me.

... to be thankful for baby naps. My son has started not sleeping as much during the day. I'm lucky I still get two short and one long nap throughout the day from him still.

... to be going to my first MOPS meeting this week. I've been trying to go since my son was born over the summer, but haven't been able to make myself go. My anxiety makes it weird to go to places I've never been alone. I reached out to one of the ladies who is managing the group on Facebook and she has volunteered to help get me there this month. She has a friend who is willing to come to my house so I can follow her in. I told her I don't know if that's necessary, but just a map of the huge church where the meeting is held would probably be helpful. I'm excited to meet some more stay-at-home moms in my area!

... to have finally bought a Nintendo Classic. I wanted one when they first came out, but then the price jumped super high due to demand. I put it on the back burner for a few years and saw someone post a knock-off on Facebook marketplace last week. I brought it up to my husband and we searched. I was pleased to find them in stock at several retailers at a good price. My husband and I decided to split the cost as a Christmas present to ourselves. It was delivered today. I have it mostly set up, but am unable to plug in the HDMI cable on the back of our TV because it's mounted and too heavy for me to get off the wall. I can't wait for my husband to get home and finish setting it up!!!Crystalhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8493910451236309357.post-49101779789957998452019-01-03T11:59:00.000-06:002019-01-03T11:59:58.854-06:00January Currents

Nothing like posting my second currents late. Haha! New Year's Day, my husband and I relaxed and didn't touch the computer at all. Since then, I've been dealing with a busy, happy, attention-seeking infant so... there's that.

Current book.
I am reading a book series called Their Vampire Queen by Joely Sue Burkhart. It's free with my Kindle Unlimited subscription. I saw it as a sponsored post in my Facebook timeline. The series would be vampire erotica, pretty much. While I'm not a huge fan of erotica, I am enjoying the story lines in the books. I'm currently on the third one. I basically skim or skip over the numerous kinky sex scenes as I don't like reading about a girl having orgies with a bunch of men every dozen pages or so, but I am enjoying the books overall. They're a nice easy read which I need right now.

Current music.
I really haven't been listening to a lot of music lately. Right now, I'm hearing the silly songs on my son's playmat. When I listen to music, I usually stream Pandora onto the TV in the living room. I listen to a station Pete (my husband) created and shared with me. The music on it is all music I like which is great!

Current TV show.
I got caught up on Outlander yesterday as I had five episodes to watch. I enjoyed getting caught up, but I feel so bad for Roger! Poor, poor, Roger. After that, I binged the newest episodes of Fuller House. I watched Full House when I was younger, so I enjoy the remake... relaunch... whatever you want to call it. Today, I watched the two-hour series finale of Timeless. I enjoyed that show so much! I'm going to miss it. I'm now watching Chicago P.D. on Ion with their marathons. I haven't watched a lot of episodes of this show, but I do enjoy it.

Current film.
Pete and I watched Avengers: Infinity War on Netflix last night. I was working on some other tasks like balancing our checkbook when he started watching it so... I may have to watch it again myself, but I love me some Marvel movies!

Current website.
I would have to say MyFitnessPal, right now. Pete and I agreed to start logging our food again beginning on January 1st. We hadn't been and we were both gaining weight which isn't ideal. We're mainly concentrating on logging our calories and making healthier choices. As a blogger I've read for a while said, don't make any changes you're not willing to stick with for the rest of your life... so, that's what we're doing.

Current blog.
I haven't really been reading blogs as much lately. One I always enjoy reading is Airing My Laundry. I started reading her over a decade ago! It's so crazy. I've "watched" her kids grow up. She's a military wife and is totally honest in the things she writes about.

Current app.
Going along with the current website, it would be the MFP app. I love that you can scan the barcodes on your food and it pulls it right up. It makes is so much easier to log your food when you can just scan everything!

Current project.
I am not in the middle of any projects though I really want to get some yarn and crochet hooks. I need something to keep my hands busy sometimes and crocheting looks like fun to me! I put some stuff on my wish list for Christmas, but didn't get anything so I'll have to buy it myself if I want it.

Current relationship.
The growing one with my son. He's five and a half months old now and is becoming so funny. His dad was home with us for a week and a half over winter break. Pete went back to work yesterday, so it's just my son and me home again on the weekdays. I love this silly baby!

Current outfit.
I'm wearing dark gray cotton pajama bottoms with a black nursing tank and a wine red cardigan sweater... oh, and light gray house slippers. The style of a SAHM. I know you're jealous. Haha!

Current clothing thoughts.
Really... just that I need to get my eating in gear so I can fit into my clothes better. I don't wear them often, but when I do, my jeans are slightly tight and my shirts don't fit right anymore. I have a ton of clothes and don't want to have to go buy bigger clothes because I'm eating too much.

Current self-image thoughts.
I'm actually feeling pretty good about myself regardless of my weight gain. I'm still basking in the glory of my body creating and birthing my son; of my breasts being able to nourish and feed him for his entire life thus far. A woman's body is an amazing thing!

Current guilty pleasure.
Well, if I had written this yesterday, I would have said Oreo Truffles. I made some for New Year's Eve and my parents are the only ones who came over so we had several left. I ate about five of them yesterday even while logging my calories. They were so worth the calories though! Yum!

Current food.
I just ate a raspberry mousse yogurt. It was very tasty! The yogurt was my attempt at not eating worse snacks... like a ton of chocolate. I'm trying to make better choices when it comes to the calories going into my body.

Current drink. Water. I've still been drinking chamomile tea (which is what my drink was last month), but right now I'm trying to increase my water intake again. I got back into the habit of drinking sweet tea, lemonade, Sprite, and juice instead of water during the day. The last two days, other than a cup of tea in the morning, I've drank water all day.

Current feelings.I'm excited for the new year. I love each new year as it seems like a clean slate in life. Who doesn't need a clean slate for something? This is also the second year my son has experienced and I'm excited for the milestones coming up (crawling, walking, talking, eating solids, etc).

Current wants.My son to be able to entertain himself for longer than 20 minutes so I have the chance to finish a blog post! Right? I'm supposed to be writing my Thankful Thursday entry, but I'm so late on posting my currents that I'm skipping that for today.

Current needs.
More sleep! The baby slept almost 12 hours straight the night before last and he napped wonderfully yesterday. However, last night, he was up three times overnight and has barely napped today. He's requiring a lot of attention which means no naps for mommy.

Current annoyance.
My lips are super chapped. It happens every winter and I'm tired of the cracked, bleeding, dry lips! It's terrible.

Current triumph.
Sticking to this lifestyle change for two and a half days so far. I'm normally really bad at slipping up since I'm home where all the food is... *fingers crossed* I hope I can stick with it!

Crystalhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8493910451236309357.post-80793804814938717812018-12-20T16:13:00.000-06:002018-12-20T16:13:48.846-06:00Thankful Thursday

I have been blogging for over half my life. I began blogging before blogging was even popular. I have always enjoyed working through my thoughts by writing. I write in two blogs; this one which is public and a more private, more anonymous blog elsewhere. Looking back at my entries in my private blog recently, I discovered that I tend to use my blog to complain. There are few entries filled with gratitude and thankfulness which saddens me. I have much in my life to be grateful for and I need to show it better. Therefore, I'm turning Thursdays into "Thankful Thursdays". On Thursdays, I will write ten things I am thankful for and why I am thankful for them. Feel free to participate! If you do, be sure to comment on this entry with a link to yours so I can check it out!

Today I am thankful for...

My baby boy. I always wanted to be a mother. When I was in high school, I decided I would be married and done having my children by the time I turned 25. This is laughable as I didn't figure out who I was or meet the love of my life until I was over 30. I am thankful I was able to have a normal pregnancy and childbirth experience at 33 years old. I'm thankful my son is healthy, smart, funny, and growing wonderfully.

My husband. My husband is my soulmate. I honestly don't know if I believed soulmates existed before I met him. He is my perfect complement and makes me strive to be a better person. He is hardworking and supports our family so I can stay home with our son. He is loving and endeavors to make me as happy as possible. He is funny and can make me laugh on some of the roughest days.

My family. This time of year where I realize how amazing my family is... this includes both immediate and extended family. Many members of our family go above and beyond to help us out when we need it. We are forever grateful for any help we receive no matter how small.

My pets. I love my pets. My cat tends to annoy the heck out of me, but he's adorable so I guess that counts for something. He's only two and has so much energy to burn! I've had my dog since he was about two months old and he's now nine years and three months old. He's turning more and more gray which makes me sad. When we got the cat, he and the dog didn't really get along, but look at them now!!!

My home. When my husband and I married, we lived in a little house in a run-down town. We were about half an hour from his parents, but about an hour and fifteen minutes from my parents. The town had nothing in terms of stores or restaurants. Before we were married, we decided we wanted to live in a certain town. This town has many great stores and restaurants, an amazing school district, and is right in the middle of both sets of parents. We sold our first house eight days after listing it and quickly searched for a home in our dream town. We stumbled upon one and made an offer. We've now lived here almost two years and we've put a lot of work into it. I love our home, though. I'm excited to raise our child(ren) here.

Christmas. Christmas is my favorite holiday and always has been. My maternal grandmother absolutely loved Christmas and her love rubbed off onto many of her children and grandchildren. I love Christmas because of all the quality time spent with family. I love giving gifts and seeing the reactions of people as they open what I have purchased for them. I love the decorations and the snow. I love the carols. It's hard for me to believe Christmas is in five days, but I'm excited for our first Christmas with our son.

Winter. While Fall is my favorite season and is followed by Spring, I am happy it is Winter. Here in east central Illinois, we really don't get a Fall or a Spring, but we do get a Summer and a Winter. I despise being hot. It makes me super cranky. Therefore, I enjoy Winter much more. The beginning of December had lots of snow and really cold temperatures, but for the last week or so, temperatures have been more mild (in the forties) with no snow. While I'd love a white Christmas, the chances of that happening are slim to none right now, but hey... at least I'm not hot!

My UBAM business. I became an independent consultant for Usborne Books & More back in February. My first few parties went amazingly and created an excitement in me to spread literacy to as many children as possible. However, my pool of hostesses and contacts quickly became a puddle and I struggled to find people to host parties and buy books. I took a little bit of a hiatus from my UBAM business, but have found a new excitement it!

My vendor friends. The new excitement for my UBAM business comes from the help of two friends. I have been looking into vendor booths locally and also am in my first online multi-vendor party on Facebook which starts tonight. I am super excited about these opportunities and hope it helps me gain some new host prospects. I love throwing parties!

Books. I have read a ton this year. I have read thousands of books in my life! I love books and reading. I am thankful my parents instilled a love of reading into me and that Kindle Unlimited exists.

Crystalhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8493910451236309357.post-9530844967014011762018-12-19T16:27:00.000-06:002018-12-19T16:27:03.699-06:00Holiday Preparations

The past week has been hectic with holiday preparations. On Wednesday, I located and busted out all of my wrapping supplies – wrapping paper, boxes, bags, tissue paper, bows, gift tags, etc. I also rummaged around the house and located all the gifts we bought for family members this year. I set up a wrapping station on our dining room table in hopes of being able to begin the process of wrapping presents. I believe two presents were wrapped before my five-month-old son demanded my undivided attention and wrapping was put on the back burner.

On Thursday, the orders from our wine party were delivered. We were taking three of the five orders to my parents' house, one was being picked up by our wine guide, and the final order belonged to my cousin who happens to live in the same town we do. I sent her a text to let her know her wine was in and said it would be a good day to visit the baby if she wanted to come by after work.

She got to our house around three o'clock in the afternoon and stayed for a couple of hours. While she was over, I got to work on making Hot Cocoa Cones to give out as small gifts to some people. We bought all of our supplies on Amazon and were planning to make 50 of them. The supplies made slightly less – around 42, if I remember correctly. The price each had we been able to do 50 of them as around $0.50 each which is awesome! Regardless, we made plenty cones to give to the people we had decided to gift them.

My first task was to cut out the tags I created. I made them in Microsoft Word using an Avery label template and printed them on heavy paper. I found a free clipart image of hot cocoa in a mug, matched the text colors to it, added the directions, and finalized it with "Merry Christmas!" with our surname beneath it. (I removed it for privacy purposes on this post.) Using a hole punch, I added a singular hole next to the "H" in the word "hot". Here's a peek at the tag:

Next, I got out all my supplies to make the cones. This included Swiss Miss hot cocoa mix, Nestle milk chocolate chips, mini marshmallows, and twelve inch piping bags. After looking at the serving size of the hot cocoa mix, I decided to use one quarter of a cup in each piping bag (the suggested amount to mix with eight ounces of liquid) topped with two tablespoons of chocolate chips and one third cup of mini marshmallows. I twisted the remainder piping bag and knotted it, took some red and white braided twine, cut a piece, strung it through the tag, and tied it on under the knot.

The cones turned out so cute! I didn't get a picture of them after I put them together, however, the idea came from a "recipe" on another website. The cones I created looked very similar to the ones below other than I used slightly less chocolate chips, added the tags, and used the red and white twine instead of the gold ribbon. This image was borrowed from the site where I found the recipe and a link is under it:

Source ~ Simply Jessica Marie

After finishing the cones, I wrapped a few more presents which had to be wrapped by Saturday as we had our first Christmas party of the season. It was at my parents' house and completely atypical of our normal Christmas celebrations. A normal party at my parents' house runs from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM on Christmas Day. My husband and I would usually stay all night there Christmas Eve. We would have stockings from Santa, breakfast of biscuits and gravy, open presents, and then have a big lunch including steak or prime rib and numerous delicious sides.

This year, my parents are taking a cruise over Christmas and will be gone so we celebrated early. We got my niece a present and small gifts for my parents. For my siblings, we had a white elephant gift exchange with new gifts and a $10 limit. We bought this awesome large coffee mug with a donut warmer on top and a decorative pillow. I ended up getting a gold Christmas-themed wax warmer. It's really pretty and I like it! My husband got a mini shop-vac that connects to the AC adapter in the car. We ate the equivalent of Thanksgiving dinner – turkey, mashed potatoes, noodles, dressing, corn, cranberry sauce, and rolls.

We also celebrated the birthdays of my niece, cousin, and brother's girlfriend. My husband and I created a four-layer cake with each layer a darker shade of pink. I made homemade buttercream frosting for the first time. The cake was amazing in taste and appearance. I really wish I had taken a picture!

Anyway, as of now, we may have a party to attend on Saturday and my husband's side of the family is celebrating on December 26th. After Friday, my husband is off work until January 2nd. I'm so excited to have him home with our son and me for so long! Should be a pretty relaxing Christmas break.Crystalhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8493910451236309357.post-50529859031737564072018-12-11T15:07:00.001-06:002018-12-11T15:07:48.487-06:00Hey, It's Okay

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Hey, it's okay...

... to have hosted a wine party at our house on Sunday. I'm not a huge wine drinker, but it was still a lot of fun and we got a great deal on some awesome wines and accessories for hosting. Have you heard of Traveling Vineyard?

... to kind of miss being pregnant when I see posts on social media from friends or family who are expecting. A friend's daughter-in-law posted a video of her baby moving in her belly and watching it made me miss that. My baby is about five months old so we're not planning to add to the family quite yet, but I look forward to feeling a child move in my belly again.

... to be proud of myself for writing so much so far this month! As the baby is getting older, I have a little bit more time to do things because he can entertain himself somewhat. I'm glad because I really miss it when I don't write!

... to feel a bit anxious when I think of our schedule for the rest of the month. We have so much going on, but I will enjoy seeing family regardless of my anxiety over it all.

... to not enjoy every book I read. I'm a part of a program called First to Read where I can read new releases for free before they hit the shelves. My title this month has drawn me in and out of it the whole time. Right now I'm out of it so I'm not wanting to read it. I need to finish and review it soon.Crystalhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8493910451236309357.post-4895933865433473732018-12-10T16:37:00.000-06:002018-12-10T18:47:59.365-06:00Review: Traveling Vineyard

Have you heard of Traveling Vineyard? It's a direct selling company, but instead of selling sprinkles or make up or books "wine guides" sell wine. A former coworker became a wine guide earlier this year. My mother hosted a wine party back in June, but it was the day of our baby shower and I was exhausted after so we didn't go. A family friend hosted a wine party back in October, but we were unable to attend that one too. I decided we would host a party ourselves.

We set a date. About two weeks prior, our wine guide brought us an information folder. It included all the information about hosting a party along with foods that pair well with the wine. As a part of hosting the party, you are in charge of providing snacks that pair with the wines to your guests.

These are descriptions taken from the Traveling Vineyard website of the five wines which were brought to our party:

Zapatazo Torrontés: Brilliant pale lemon-yellow in the glass. Nose of white flowers and stone fruits, peach fuzz & ripe apricot. This wine tastes as it smells, plus a hint of minerality. Good acidity and feel, light bodied and crisp, with a lingering freshness.

Hoot White Blend: Brilliant pale straw, medium body. Slightly vinous white flowers nose over nuts and approaching spicy stone fruits, nectarine-to-apricot. Good fresh acidity and acid/sugar balance, richer-than-expected mouthfeel, good extraction.

Rayado Cabernet Sauvignon: Herbaceous black earth fruit nose over toasted plank, baker's chocolate & black earth; with smoke & black pepper touches. Integrated, balanced & concentrated black fruit over the nose flavors, lengthy finish. Juicy, fruity, smooth & quaffable as a burgers-on-the-grill red, or with beef stew and Italian red sauce dishes.

Never Have I Ever Pinot Noir: Translucent garnet-to-brick hues in the glass. Aromas of dried strawberry and raspberry. A whiff of warm spice and dried herbs/violets. Soft on tannins, light-to-medium bodied, clean, balanced and accessible.

Fissata Blonde Fizzy White Wine: Gently sparkling with notes of peach, white flowers, mandarin orange and nectarine. The palate also shows hints of ripe melon and dried apricot.

Our wine guide also brought a Caramel Apple Sangria made with the Zapatazo wine, caramel vodka, and apples. I'm sure there was more to it than that, but I don't have a copy of the recipe. We started the night with the sangria. It had a very strong caramel flavor. It also tasted strongly of alcohol to me. While I could have drank the entire glass of about 4 ounces, I only drink about half of it. I did like the flavor, but after not drinking much for over a year due to pregnancy and breastfeeding, I didn't want to risk ingesting too much alcohol right off the start.

We then began the actual tasting. This included looking at the color of each wine, swirling, smelling, and tasting. We tried the wines in the same order listed above.

The first wine we tried was the Zapatazo. This wine was also used to make the sangria. It was a little drier than I normally like when it comes to wine, but I drank my two ounces. We paired this wine with cream cheese topped with spicy red pepper jelly and club crackers. While I didn't feel the pairing actually improved the wine, the crackers were delicious!

We moved onto Hoot after that. This is a wine our guide thought I would really like. After the first sip, I wasn't sure how much I liked it. Our guide mentioned something about needing to eat something salty to get the sweetness of the pepper jelly out of her mouth to fully enjoy the wine. We paired this wine with buffalo chicken dip and corn chips. After eating a corn chip with dip on it, the wine tasted much better. I thoroughly enjoyed this wine.

The next two wines were red wines. I am allergic to red wines and have a pretty severe gastrointestinal reaction when I drink them. I didn't try either of these wines because of that, but I did eat the pairings. We paired the Rayado with fudge brownies. My husband wasn't a big fan of this wine, but after our wine guide poured it through a decanter, he enjoyed it much more. I guess the decanter made it more light and airy. The Never Had I Ever was paired with cheddar cheese and crackers. My husband and my mother loved this wine.

The final wine we tried was Fissata. This wine was paired with barbecue chips and orange juice. The chips were the main pairing as the orange juice was used to make mimosas. I really enjoyed this wine. It made super yummy mimosas too.

Our wine party was a lot smaller than expected because six of our twelve expected guests cancelled last minute. They all had good reasons for being unable to make it, but I was a little disappointed. Once our party was underway, though, I enjoyed the small group. We had more wine and snacks to share among the eight total people who were here. All of the food except for three small brownies and about a cup of the buffalo chicken dip was eaten. There was barely any wine left either.

Everyone who attended our party ordered along with two people who weren't able to make it. We ended up getting a pretty good deal ourselves. We ordered a couple bottles of the Never Have I Ever as my husband really enjoyed this wine. Because of this order, we got a free bottle of wine and I wanted to get a bottle of Hoot. We also got two half priced accessories. We ordered the Magic Decanter Aerator which I'm gifting to my husband for his birthday (from back in May!) and the Wine Saver. Because we ordered three bottles of wine, we also got a great deal on some tulip wine pourers.

While I am not a huge wine drinker, I thoroughly enjoyed this party. I would attend one if hosted by someone else and may host another myself sometime next year in hopes more people would be able to attend. I learned a lot about wine tastings and pairings. I also got to try some wines I wouldn't have had the option to otherwise. The wines sold by Traveling Vineyards is not available anywhere else. The guests we had also enjoyed the party which is always great to hear! If you have an opportunity to go to or host your own wine party with Traveling Vineyards, I would highly recommend it!
Crystalhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8493910451236309357.post-77406708005904596802018-12-07T12:38:00.001-06:002018-12-07T12:38:37.501-06:00Christmas Tree ShoppingGrowing up, I don't really remember having real Christmas trees. I know we did on a few occasions, but I only remember helping my dad put together the artificial tree each year.

The first year my husband and I were together, we were engaged at Christmas. I was living with my parents an hour and twenty minutes southeast of where my (then) fiancé lived. Because we had a tree at my parents' house and he had a tree at his parents' house, we did not decorate at his house. This also meant he did not have a tree there.

The following year, we were newly married when it came time to decorate. We went with my new in-laws to get our first real tree. There is a store near where we live called Prairie Gardens. This is a home decor store and is mainly full of holiday decorations this time of year. There are several locations within Illinois and their decorations are amazing. When we went shopping for a tree that year, Prairie Gardens did not have a great selection. There were a few nice trees, but nothing any of us wanted to buy at that moment as they were more expensive than we had planned. We left Prairie Gardens and went to Menards to look at their trees. We ended up buying a Fraser fir at Menards as they were cheaper and looked better than the trees at Prairie Gardens. We later learned this was a big mistake because the tree was super dead, didn't drink any water, dried out, dropped all of its needles, and basically became a big fire hazard.

Because of the troubles with the prior year, last year we looked into a tree farm. There are several well-known trees near us, but these trees become overrun and its hard to find a good tree unless you go early in the season. After some research, we found one pretty close to us which wasn't as well known. We went there and it was awesome! The weather was cold, windy, and terrible, but we enjoyed our experience anyway. We were with my in-laws again and both families found trees we wanted quickly. The farm shook the needles out and netted the trees for us while we paid. Our tree was gorgeous. It was some kind of a pine tree, smelled citrusy (almost like oranges), and was vibrant and alive the entire Christmas season. It hardly dropped any needles and I loved it!

We were planning on going back to the tree farm last weekend with my husband's parents. We met for breakfast first. The weather was rainy so my mother-in-law suggested we call the farm before heading there to make sure they were allowing people in their fields. My husband called and heard a recorded message saying the farm wasn't open at all during the 2018 holiday season. Bummer! We ended up going back to Prairie Gardens because my father-in-law heard they had gotten in a thousand trees from Canada. We searched through their trees for a while and bought the second tree we had seen. It's a Balsam fir and is very pretty. Here it is once we got in the house before we started decorating:

The first thing we did was put on lights. In previous years, we had put one strand of larger bulb lights on the tree. We had three strands of regular lights, but last year we put those lights outside. We are not going to have time to put up the lights outside this year, so we decided to put them on the tree. I love how many lights there are!!! With the lights only:

After a short break, we decorated the tree. I love decorating and looking at the ornaments we have accumulated over the last few years together... along with the ornaments we had prior to meeting. Since I moved out of my parents' house at 19, I have always topped my tree with a Santa hat and my husband is fine with this... I haven't found a topper I like better. Anyway, here's our finished tree prior to having presents under it:

It's so pretty and I love it! I love getting the occasional whiff of real Christmas tree. It smells awesome. I hope having a real tree each year can become a family tradition for us. Hopefully, the tree farm we used last Christmas opens back up because, again, that farm was amazing. It would be a great place to take our kids (our current one plus any others) in the coming years!

We finished decorating our whole house that night. I love Christmas! I have my grandma's Christmas village, but we aren't putting it up this year. We put it up the first year we were married, but haven't in the last two years as I have been unsure where it should go at the new house. However, I'm hopeful we can put it up next year as I think I've figured out where it will go. This collage has a picture of all of our decorations merged into one:

What are your holiday traditions? Do you get a real tree or have an artificial one?Crystalhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8493910451236309357.post-12227610505781240732018-12-04T09:27:00.000-06:002018-12-04T09:27:15.005-06:00Hey, It's Okay

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Hey, it's okay...

... for life to have, once again, gotten in the way of blogging. Now that my son is getting older, I will have a greater chance of being able to blog regularly. We shall see, I suppose!

... to be done with Christmas shopping already. We're waiting on several gifts to come in the mail yet, but I'm pretty sure we're done! We may have one small gift/thing to do for a group of friends we game with, but other than that, we're done!

... for my husband and I to decide our gifts for each other will be a "mommy day" and a "daddy day". This will be one day while my husband is on winter break (December 22nd through January 2nd) where we can each do whatever we want while the other will take sole care of our son. It will be nice to have a day to do whatever. It will stink a little bit on my part as I will still have to break from my "mommy day" to pump.

... to have decided to take up crocheting. I really love doing crafty things. I know how to piece quilts, but that makes such a big mess. I wanted something with less of a mess so I did a little research. My aunt, a family friend, and one of my good friends all crotchet. It seems like something I would really like to do. I put a beginner's kit of yarn skeins (basically just a bunch of colors) and a set of aluminum hooks on my Amazon wish list for Christmas. The entire thing would be about $20. If no one buys them for me, I may buy them for myself. I watched a couple of beginner's videos on YouTube and it looks easy.

... to feel a little anxious about all of the stuff we have planned between now and the end of the year. We don't have a weekend free until after Christmas. It will be good to see family though! I do enjoy seeing people.

... to have thoroughly enjoyed hosting our gaming group at our house this past Sunday. Our normal hosts were unable to welcome us into their home because of illness. We didn't want to miss a chance to game (we play Pathfinder) since we usually miss several sessions due to the holidays coming up and possible bad weather so we offered to host. It was a fun session and we were able to play a little longer than usual since we were able to put the baby in bed when he got tired and we didn't have a 45 minute drive home.

Crystalhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8493910451236309357.post-404787113636096892018-12-01T14:11:00.000-06:002018-12-01T14:11:53.219-06:00December Currents

As a way to start each month, I want to keep track of what's currently going on in my life by discussing several different topics. I hope to post an entry like this the first day of each month. Hopefully I can keep up with a post as easy as this each month. Haha!

Current book.
I am currently trying to read Outlander by Diana Gabaldon as I've been watching the television series. However, the beginning is kind of dull with all the history of Frank's ancestors. I understand those who haven't watched the series would need that information in order to know what's happening, but to me it's boring. I'll keep at it whenever I have a chance.

Current music.
Right at this moment, we are listening to Christmas Radio on Pandora. It's the first of December and we just bought our Christmas tree. We will be decorating it soon and the music is to help us get into the Christmas spirit. Otherwise, I haven't really been listening to much music. When I do, my favorite is listening to a station on Pandora my husband has been working on perfecting for years. We have similar tastes in music and the station is quite enjoyable!

Current TV show.
I've been watching more TV lately. I have really been enjoying New Amsterdam and A Million Little Things as new shows this fall. As usual, I love This is Us and Grey's Anatomy too. The husband and I have been "binge watching" The Librarians lately. By "binge watching", I mean we're watching however many episodes we can while we're together and not super busy.

Current film.
Oh, man. I can't even remember the last time I watched a movie. I don't watch many. My husband and I keep wanting to set up a date to go see Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. Not sure if that will actually happen or not. I'm supposed to go with my mom to the movies next weekend... to chaperone three girls between the ages of 7-9 for my niece's birthday. I'm not even sure what we will be watching. It's now December so I'm sure I'll start watching Christmas films on TV, too.

Current website.
With the upcoming holidays and Christmas shopping, I would have to say I visit Amazon more than most other sites right now. We have a Prime membership and do the majority of our shopping on Amazon so yeah... I visit the site at least once daily right now looking for gift ideas.

Current blog.
Is it wrong to say my own? I've been redesigning and working on my blog lately. I felt like I needed something new in order to stick with the blogging. Hopefully it helps, but we'll see. I mean, I always have high hopes of getting into blogging more, however, my four-month-old mini-boss doesn't always agree with me sitting at the computer and writing.

Current app.
I love the Post Secret app right now. I get up around 1:30 in the morning daily to pump breast milk for my son. On Sundays, I always check Post Secret at that time... just after they've been posted for the week. I really wish secrets were posted more often!

Current project.
My mom's side of the family has a big Christmas party the Saturday before Christmas each year. As we're on more of a strict budget this year, we're making our stocking stuffer gifts for everyone over age 5. We've been slowly working on buying all the necessities for putting these gifts together. That is my current project. In regards to our house, we're still working on remodeling the half bath and putting finishing touches on the kitchen. We tore everything out in the kitchen and half bath almost eight months ago. I feel like we'll never be done working on our house!

Current relationship.
I suppose my relationship with my husband. We're happily married, but we have our disagreements like any other couple. Luckily, we discussed how to handle arguments when we first started dating and agreed to not let bad feelings fester. I was feeling annoyed on Wednesday morning and let him know. We talked about ways to fix the issue causing me stress and now we're great. I love having a mature relationship that is always growing.

Current outfit.
We went to get our Christmas tree today and it's rainy. I'm wearing skinny jeans, a black nursing tank with a sheer pink sweater (with a multicolored sheath which sticks out the bottom) over it, and some winter boots to help protect my footsies from cold and rain.

Current clothing thoughts.
This outfit is way better than my normal daily SAHM outfit of pajama pants, a nursing tank, and house slippers. Haha! Leaving the house always makes me want to dress up since I'm stranded here with a four-month-old all the time.

Current self-image thoughts.
I feel pretty good about myself lately. Granted, I am almost always without makeup and with natural hair wearing pajamas, but I still feel pretty good about myself. Basically any time I leave the house, I "dress up" meaning I curl my hair and wear makeup. I only leave the house about once a week, though, because we currently only have one working vehicle which my husband takes to work with him.

Current guilty pleasure.
Baby smiles. I love making my baby grin. He has the most adorable gummy grin. Also, the Snickerdoodle Cookie Dough Blizzards from Dairy Queen are amazing! When I was a child, I would eat vanilla ice cream with cinnamon sprinkled in. The Blizzard tastes like a fancier version of that. So... so... SO good!

Current food.
I'm not currently eating anything, but my newest kick is toast with peanut butter and sliced bananas. This has been the "morning snack" my husband and I have been eating before breakfast for a couple of weeks now. It's so filling and delicious. The last thing I ate was some Dulce De Leche Owls (Girl Scouts chocolates). They remind me of those Carmello candy bars. So good!

Current drink.Chamomile tea. Once the weather turns cold, I love hot tea. I can't drink it during the warmer months. I have been drinking tea each morning and chamomile with honey is my favorite. I also have an Apple Cinnamon Spice tea and a black tea with currants in it. Occasionally, I'll have some hot cocoa.

Current feelings.I'm excited it's December. I love the Christmas holiday and all that comes with it. We picked out our tree today and will more than likely decorate it later as well. We have been looking into gifts for people which is always fun. Also, the baby is beginning to interact more with people as he's getting older and I can't wait to see what comes next for him.

Current wants.More money? My husband just got a promotion at work which came with a bit of a raise, but we literally split our income in half when I became a SAHM. Losing half your income is hard and we're having some minor issues with sticking to our new budget. It will take some getting used to, but I know we can figure it out. Still... more money would be great around the holidays.

Current needs.
A nap would be heavenly. The baby was very cranky and overstimulated last night. He didn't go down until 9:30 which means the husband and I didn't get to bed until around 10:00 PM. We were both up at 1:30 AM so I could pump milk. We were back in bed by 2:30 or so, but I struggled to fall asleep again. The baby woke us up for the day at 6:20. The baby is currently napping and I'm taking the break to write this post.

Current annoyance.
Hmmm. I don't know that I'm currently annoyed about much. I'm home and wearing real clothes which is unusual. My skinny jeans are a little snug around the middle because of the way I'm sitting. I guess that is annoying. *shrugs* Life is pretty decent right now.

Current triumph.
Our Christmas tree. We have had a heck of a time finding good live trees each year of our marriage. This is our third Christmas together as a married couple. The first year, we couldn't find a good local tree farm so we went to a holiday store in a town near us. They didn't have any decent trees for a good price as the ones that looked good were too expensive. We ended up buying our tree at Menards and it was a terrible tree. It was old and wouldn't drink water so it became super dry and dropped all of its needles all over our house. Last year, we found a nice little Christmas tree farm nearby and found the cutest, nicest, great-smelling tree. We planned to go there again this year, but my husband called this morning to make sure we could go through their fields because of the rain we got and heard a recorded message saying they weren't open for the Christmas season this year. We ended up going back to the holiday store we went to two years ago because my father-in-law heard the store had shipped in over a thousand trees from Canada. We found a gorgeous Balsam fir for a really great price. It's currently standing in our living room waiting to be decorated. I love decorating the tree!!!

Crystalhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8493910451236309357.post-25169151181671742782018-10-08T20:00:00.000-05:002018-10-08T20:00:11.094-05:00Hey, It's Okay!

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Hey, it's okay...

... to be moving my Hey, It's Okay entries to Mondays in the future. It's just going to work out better for the potential flow of my blog and what I have planned.

... to have taken an unexpected trip to Michigan a couple of weekends ago so my son could meet his great-grandma. My grandmother passed away a few weeks ago and I regret she never got to meet my baby. My husband's grandma is the last grandparent either of us have so we wanted our son to meet her. She's in her mid-90s so anything could happen at any time.

... to be happy our niece is here today. She's eight and out of school for Columbus Day so I'm watching her. The baby is currently napping, but weather permitting, we may walk down to the park later so my niece can play.

... to be excited we will have our niece (the only cousin our son has on my side of the family) next weekend too. We're going to a birthday party for a niece on my husband's side of the family. My niece gets along so well with my husband's nieces so it will be great! My husband's brother's family has yet to meet our baby. He'll be just three days shy of three months old when we go to the party so I'm happy they will be able to meet him!

... to want to wish my mother a HAPPY BIRTHDAY today. Growing up, I was always a daddy's girl. When I became a teenager, my mom and I butted heads a lot. Now that I'm older, I consider her one of my best friends! It's crazy how that happens. She is the best mom and grandma and does so much for us.

Source

Crystalhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8493910451236309357.post-67016859210313257822018-09-14T20:00:00.000-05:002018-09-14T20:00:00.693-05:00One Year AngelversaryMy husband and I began our journey to grow our family in March of 2017. It didn't take long for us to become pregnant as we had a positive test on June 10th. We were incredibly excited. At our thirteen week ultrasound, we were so surprised to learn we were expecting twins! Two weeks later at the maternal fetal medicine doctor, we discovered our twins were identical and monochorionic/diamniotic (one placenta, two amniotic sacs). At seventeen weeks, we went to a routine sonogram excited to see our twins again. Instead of learning their gender, we were told their little hearts stopped beating. We were sent to the hospital where I was induced and gave birth to our sleeping angels on September 13, 2017.

Source

Wednesday was the one year anniversary of learning our twins no longer had heartbeats. The last two days have been difficult for my husband and me. While we love our son and wouldn't trade him for anything in this world, it doesn't diminish the grief we feel in the loss of his brothers one year ago.

When the twins were born, we decided we did not want to have a service for them. We did not want to bury them or have them cremated. This is a decision I semi-regret as it would be amazing to have a place to go to remember them. I know my father was sad we did not have a marker for them anywhere because he wanted somewhere to go to visit them. Last year on October 15th (which is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day), our family attended a memorial service and walked through the Shining Light Infant Memorial Garden at the hospital where the twins were delivered.

My husband was off work due to being on bereavement leave for the death of my grandmother. We decided we would honor the twins that day by visiting the memorial garden again.

The garden has pavers which are engraved with memorials of pregnancy or infant loss babies. In the center of the garden is a statue called Mourning Rachel:

Mourning Rachel is there to comfort the parents who have losses. She lets the parents know their babies are never alone. Mourning Rachel is based on a verse from the Bible - Jeremiah 31:15.

This is what the LORD says: "A cry is heard in Ramah--deep anguish and bitter weeping. Rachel weeps for her children, refusing to be comforted--for her children are gone." (NLT)

While we were there, I told my husband I would like to purchase a paver for the twins in the memorial garden. He said he was thinking the same thing. Due to being on a budget, we talked about saving up for the cost of the paver. I mentioned this to my mother who talked to my father. They decided they wanted to pay for the cost of the paver for us. This is a huge gift and blessing! My husband and I are so thankful to have such generous parents.

While the last few days have been hard, they've also been very cathartic. We have come a long way in the last year. We are well on our way in the healing process. We will have somewhere we can go to visit our sweet boys who were taken too soon.

I know in my heart the twins are watching over their little brother. There are times when the baby will stare up at a spot on the ceiling, smiling and cooing. I always ask him if his brothers are up there and he grins really big. It warms my heart...

Happy Angelversary, Adam and Eli! You are forever loved and forever missed.Crystalhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8493910451236309357.post-64654398647654779722018-09-13T20:00:00.000-05:002018-09-13T20:00:07.088-05:00Wellness Wednesday #3 (a day late)This past week was terrible in terms of my wellness challenge. My grandma went into the hospital on Labor Day weekend. Towards the end of the weekend, things seemed to be getting better. However, on Tuesday, things went downhill. She wound up with sepsis and her kidneys started to fail her. They intubated her and transferred her to a larger hospital. From there, things went downhill quickly and she passed away last Friday afternoon.

While she was in the hospital, we babysat my niece several nights in a row. She stayed with us on Saturday night. Sunday was spent preparing for my grandmother's funeral. Monday, my husband was off work due to bereavement leave, and we worked on getting our house in some sort of order - something which hadn't been done since the baby was born eight weeks prior. Tuesday was her funeral and a family dinner. Yesterday was spent in mourning - something I will be writing about tomorrow.

Needless to say, with all of this going on, taking care of myself and eating healthy were not on my radar. The scale showed it when I weighed myself yesterday morning. However, I'm guessing most of my weight from yesterday morning was water weight. When I stepped on the scale Tuesday morning (to get a preview of what I might see on Wednesday), my weight was right around what it was the previous week. I definitely saw 215 on the scale, but I don't remember what the decimal part was...

Anyway, here is my week three weigh in:

So, officially, I am up 2.2 pounds from last week which makes me slightly disappointed. Again though, I don't think I really gained almost two pounds in one day so I'm trying to take that lightly and get back onto eating healthy this week. Here is a list of my current weigh ins:

 Weigh In Date	 Weight	 Change	 Total Change

August 28, 2018

217.2

Wellness Starting

± 0.0

September 5, 2018

215.4

- 1.8

- 1.8

September 12, 2018

217.6

+2.2

+ 0.4

Neither of my goals last week happened. I didn't get around to doing what I would consider a good deed for anyone. I had high hopes a moment would come up, but nothing happened so I'm hoping in the next week I can do a good deed for someone. I also did not log my food every day. I did not eat at home often which makes it difficult to log. I do hope to continue this as the wellness challenge continues.

Week Three:

Mental/Emotional: Make leisure time a priority. Take one day this week and make it be all about you. Do your favorite things. Read a book. Take a bath. Limit your duties and try your best to relax.

Physical/Nutritional: Try a new healthy recipe. Find a new recipe online, in a cookbook, or from a friend. Make it. Did your family like it? Would you make it again? Could you alter it to make it even better or healthier?

I think leisure time is very important, but it may be difficult with an eight week old at home. I will definitely see what I can do and enjoy each day as it comes. I have been watching a marathon of Queer Eye on Netflix this morning while the baby sleeps. I haven't marathoned a new show in a while and it has been very enjoyable.

I'm unsure if I'll be able to try a new recipe this week. We already did our grocery shopping and we didn't get anything to make anything new. I did make a new recipe a couple of weeks ago which my husband and I loved. We will definitely be making it again. It is called Slow Cooker Caribbean Pork and is amazing and easy! It's a recipe where once you buy everything the first time, it will be a lot more budget friendly from there on out. It is also healthy!Crystalhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8493910451236309357.post-57851274784242610792018-09-05T12:00:00.000-05:002018-09-05T12:00:02.320-05:00Wellness Wednesday #2When I stepped on the scale this morning, I was pleasantly surprised. It was Labor Day weekend here in the United States and we spent a good portion of the weekend visiting with family. We were not in charge of the meals we ate while visiting, so I consumed foods I normally wouldn't make myself as they are higher in calories than I would like. However, spending time with family is very important to my husband and me so it was worth it.

Here is my week two weigh in:

I am down 1.8 pounds since last week which is a pretty great loss! It's been about three years since I've seen a number starting with 215 on the scale as an "official weigh in". I have seen slightly below that as a mid-week check in, but not as an official one. I'm definitely very happy with that loss as my goal while breastfeeding is one pound per week. Here is a list of my current weigh ins:

 Weigh In Date	 Weight	 Change	 Total Change

August 28, 2018

217.2

Wellness Starting

± 0.0

September 5, 2018

215.4

- 1.8

- 1.8

My goals last week were to get enough rest and drink plenty of water. Most days I got about seven hours of sleep which is my goal right now while the baby doesn't sleep through the night. There were only two days in the last week where I got less than seven hours. In regards to my water intake, it could have been better. Most days I drank plenty of liquid, but I drank a lot more lemonade, soda, and sweet tea than water. This is something I will continue working on as this wellness challenge continues.

Source

Week Two:

Mental/Emotional: Do a good deed. Whether this be paying for the coffee for the person behind you at Starbucks or just opening doors for people. Do something kind for someone else.

Physical/Nutritional: Count your calories. Use a paper and pen. Use MyFitnessPal.com or SparkPeople.com. Count your calories all week and decide where you could cut some (if necessary).

I'm pretty excited for this week's challenges. I've always wanted to do a random good deed for someone. I don't know if it will be a monetary deed as we are tight on funds at the moment, but I'm sure I can find something free which would make someone's day.

I have been trying for the past week or two to log my calories everyday. I normally do great at logging my meals through my afternoon snack, but don't log my dinner calories. I am going to make my personal goal to log all calories for the entire week.
Crystalhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8493910451236309357.post-71895146624171179672018-08-31T12:00:00.000-05:002018-08-31T12:00:02.977-05:00Exclusively Pumping is Hard

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Breastfeeding is incredibly difficult. I had no idea how thoroughly challenging it is until I gave birth to my son last month.

When he was born, my son latched onto my breast within half an hour after his birth. His latch was great and there were no issues with his feedings. However, he wound up in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) when he was just twenty hours old because he was having issues with regulating his blood sugar and body temperature. To stabilize his blood sugar issues (which would help his temperature problem), the NICU had to introduce formula and a dextrose IV drip.

The hospital encouraged me to use a breast pump since I intended to breastfeed the baby. I was shown how to use the pump by a lactation consultant. In the beginning, I only got a few drops out during a pumping session. However, these small drops of colostrum were liquid gold and important to the baby's health. The NICU nurses made sure to feed my son what I had pumped, regardless of how small of an amount, before giving him any formula.

The baby was born on Monday and, by Friday, my milk had came in and I became engorged. I asked the NICU nurse what she thought while visiting our son. She called another lactation consultant who came to the NICU meet with my husband and me. The lactation consultant assisted us in getting the baby to feed on my breast with the help of a contact nipple shield. Once the baby was done eating, she showed my husband and me how to relieve the engorgement in my breasts. I was amazed at the amount of milk I pumped during that session.

The biggest struggle with the baby being in the NICU was the nurses would only let me attempt to breastfeed for a short time. If he became frustrated and cried too much, they would say he couldn't be bottle fed and would, therefore, feed him with a feeding tube which was placed through his nose to his stomach. He would be frustrated often because breastfeeding is more work for a baby. He became used to the instant feeding a bottle would allow and didn't want to work for his milk.

When we brought him home, I decided not to fight him on breastfeeding. I wanted him to eat, gain weight, and be healthy. When he would cry inconsolably each time I breastfed, I decided to exclusively pump. I wished he would have drank directly from my breast instead of pumping and bottle feeding, but it wasn't working out at that time.

While my husband was home on parental leave the first four weeks of our baby's life, pumping wasn't an issue. He could watch and console the baby if he started fussing allowing me all the time I needed for each pumping session. However, my husband has been back at work for two full weeks now and I'm at my wits end with pumping exclusively.

Source

After some trial and error, I discovered by son would latch on and nurse if I used a nipple shield since it resembles a bottle nipple more than the nipples on my breasts. The first time, he nursed a mere five minutes. The second, closer to ten. He's nursed up to fifteen minutes a couple of times. I have fed him solely from my breast overnight twice. We've only been working on the transition into breastfeeding for about a week and it's going pretty well.

During the day, I cannot breastfeed him. This is because my supply had started to struggle when my pumping schedule became irregular. The baby would be asleep when it was time for me to pump, but I would wait for him to wake to offer him by breast first. Sometimes he would take it and sometimes he wouldn't. If he wouldn't, I would have to wait to pump until after I had bottle fed him and gotten him to sleep. There were times when it would be four to five hours between pumping sessions when I am supposed to pump every three hours or so.

My husband and I worked out a plan to work through this yesterday. When he is home, I will try to breastfeed the baby first. Once the baby is done (whether he eats or not), my husband will take the baby and see if he wants any milk from a bottle while I pump. My lactation consultant recommended continuing to pump after breastfeeding sessions until the baby is solely eating from the breast. When I'm home alone with the baby, in order to maintain my pumping schedule so my supply is not endangered, I will exclusively pump. This would be no different than if I was working full-time and pumping at work.

Nevertheless, pumping while home alone with the baby remains a struggle. I have searched online for tips for keeping my supply up. Some of the suggestions I have located are pumping at least seven to eight times a day, pumping for at least 15-20 minutes a session, and not paying attention to my output while I pump.

Many times, when I am attempting to maintain my pumping schedule, the baby will be fussy which makes pumping nearly impossible. Today I became incredibly frustrated and informed my husband I was done with pumping. Since then I have decided I am not actually done with it yet, but it's hard and emotionally taxing to attempt to be the sole source of sustenance for your child. I am hopeful we will be able to transition into exclusively breastfeeding instead of exclusively pumping because we are already on that journey. It is going to be extremely difficult, but it will be worth it in the end.Crystalhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8493910451236309357.post-36513464232562402962018-08-29T12:00:00.000-05:002018-08-29T12:29:12.227-05:00Wellness Wednesday #1My weight is something I have struggled with my entire life. As a child, I remember hoarding sweets in my bedroom even though I was never without food. I overate regularly and my parents couldn't really stop it as I would sneak food without their knowledge. The summer between middle school and high school, I weighed over 200 pounds. At that point, my body hadn't matured so I wore my weight much differently than I do now.

High school gave me such high anxiety. Shortly after I started my high school career, I acquired a compulsion to not eat in front of other people. I couldn't eat breakfast because I wasn't up long enough and it made me nauseated. I couldn't eat lunch because I was at school and my classmates were there. I didn't eat dinner because I had marching band practice, color guard practice, rifle team practice, National Youth Coalition meetings, etc. Without making a conscious effort, I basically became anorexic. With the lack of eating and activity from marching band, I started my freshman year around 200 pounds. By Christmas, I weighed 130.

During my sophomore year, I hit rock bottom with my lack of eating. I remember a one week period where I consumed one single package of Nutrigrain bites which were about 200 calories. Around this time, I was in my JROTC (Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps - intro into the military) class reciting the Pledge of Allegiance when I almost fainted. My instructor had a classmate take me to the nurse who called my mom. She picked me up, drove me home, and forced me to eat two grilled cheese sandwiches. That situation scared me and my parents. I slowly began eating better with my parents monitoring my food intake. My weight began to creep back up and, by the end of my sophomore year, I had gained 35 pounds and became overweight again.

My weight increased and decreased often throughout the rest of high school and into my early 20s when I had my first serious long-term relationship. The comfortableness of that relationship caused my weight to bloom. After about ten years in the relationship, things started to go downhill and we were no longer happy. I became depressed to the point of obtaining a compulsive overeating disorder. I would sit on the couch watching hours of television and stuffing my face until I felt sick and disgusted in myself. I saw my primary care physician who prescribed an anti-anxiety medication which helped me break the compulsive binge eating episodes. I only took the medication for nine months. My relationship ended. I was forced to move back in with my parents at 30 at my highest weight ever.

Since then, I have become more active and lost some weight. My weight went from 253 pounds to around 215 pounds by the time I met my husband. Once we met, my weight rose slightly due to being happy and comfortable in our relationship. Then I became pregnant and had a high aversion to most foods. I was eating whatever I could in order to consume enough to sustain my growing child. I gained around fourteen pounds during my pregnancy which was within the range of what was acceptable per my obstetrician.

Source

Now that I'm no longer pregnant, I plan on focusing on my own health and wellness again. I was overweight when I became pregnant. I am still overweight, though at a lower weight than I've seen in years due to breastfeeding. I don't want to solely concentrate on weight loss. I would like to also concentrate on mental and emotional health.

Years ago, I ran a weight loss support group on another blogging site. While running that group, we had goals each week of a twelve week round. I am going to review and possibly change a few of those goals, but use the same format as it seemed to really help motivate my weight loss back then. Feel free to participate along with me!

Week One:

Mental/Emotion: Get enough rest. Most people need at least seven or eight hours of sleep per night for optimal functionality. Getting enough sleep also aids in weight loss.

Physical/Nutrition: Drink enough water. Most people don't drink enough water. Water is very important to your physical self. Use this website to determine how much water you should drink each day.

The mental or emotional goal is going to be hard for me. I have a six week old infant whose sleep determines mine. I will definitely strive to get the most sleep possible overnight. I normally drink a lot during the day as breastfeeding makes you thirsty. However, I've been drinking a lot of chocolate milk, cranberry juice, orange juice, and Sprite. I will focus on drinking more water and less of other liquids.

So, my official first weigh in for this twelve week wellness challenge is:

If you're interested, here is a log of my "important" weights for this challenge. I am also posting these on the Weight Loss page on my blog here. Again, join me if you wish! The more, the merrier!

 Weigh In Date	 Weight	 Note

January 1, 2014

253.0

Highest Ever

November 27, 2017

228.0

Prepregnancy

July 13, 2018

242.2

Last Pregnancy

July 25, 2018

227.0

First Post Pregnancy

August 18, 2018

215.4

Lowest Post Pregnancy

August 28, 2018
	217.2
Wellness Starting

Crystalhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8493910451236309357.post-86838341782810832792018-08-28T12:00:00.000-05:002018-08-28T12:00:09.758-05:00Hey, it's Okay

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Hey, it's okay...

... to be excited my son is growing! We had his one month appointment last week at five weeks and one day. His last appointment was exactly four weeks previously. His weight went from 7 pounds 2 ounces (20th percentile) to 10 pounds 6.5 ounces (55th percentile). He went from 19.75 inches (30th percentile) to 21.5 inches (45th percentile). His head circumference went from 13 inches (4th percentile) to 14.75 inches (60th percentile).

... to already be going through Hammer's dresser. He has outgrown most of his newborn clothes and even some of his 0-3 months. He has started wearing some 3 month clothing at 6 weeks old!!! We're going to take out everything we know is too small and evaluate what we have in the 0-3 month and 3 month size. We may need to get some more onesies and sleepers. Again, he's a growing boy!

Hammer at 1 month

... to be failing at blogging... Again, you're only a new mom once. I tend to focus on my little man when he's awake so I'm only on the computer when he's sleeping and I'm not doing anything around the house. It's not much because, at six weeks, he's awake a lot more than he was a few weeks ago. He's more fun though because he grins at his mama all the time and it makes my heart happy.

... to want to get out of the house, but also not want to get out of the house. I've been a stay-at-home mom for six weeks now. Other than my in-laws and my great aunts, we've had no visitors which is weird to me. I figured more people would want to come by and meet the baby. While I would be fine with that on days like today, some days I just want to be left alone.

... to be ready to try to get back in some shape. I have my six week postpartum appointment this week. I'm hopeful my OB will tell me I can return to regular activities. Once we get out of this heat wave, I would like to start taking my baby for walks a few times a week. It would be good for both of us. Eating healthier would also be better for us all around.

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... to be trying to relaunch my Usborne Books & More business. I took about two months off with the birth of my son and now I have to win back all of my customers. Usborne is books which are both educational and fun. The books are for children from infant to teenager. They're really awesome and I love them so much. Let me know if you have any questions about them!

... for the majority of these to be related to the baby. Haha!Crystalhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8493910451236309357.post-14602254629295871512018-08-17T18:00:00.000-05:002018-08-17T18:00:12.462-05:00Hammer's Birth StoryDisclaimer: Hammer is the nickname my son has had since I was 8 weeks pregnant. Also, this will be long so bear with me!

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I gave birth to my first child a month ago yesterday. I really want to have his birth story somewhere so I can remember it in detail when mom-brain makes me forget. Let's see what I can remember...

On Sunday the 15th of July, I began having pretty regular contractions. They weren't very strong or close together. My husband and I worked on finishing up Hammer's nursery that weekend. I had a scheduled obstetrician appointment on the 16th. At my appointment the previous week, my OB had said we would need to schedule an induction if I hadn't gone into labor by the 16th. I wanted the nursery to be ready for the baby to come home should I be induced.

Around 11:00 PM, my contractions became closer together, but were still around 7-8 minutes apart. They were lasting a minute or longer, though. In order to be sent to labor and delivery (L&D), the contractions needed to be five minutes apart lasting a minute or longer for an hour or more. I was able to fall asleep for a bit.

I woke up around 1:00 AM with stronger contractions. I couldn't sleep through them anymore. I began timing them with an app on my phone. They were ranging from 4-6 minutes apart and lasted over a minute each. Around 1:30 AM, I woke my husband because I needed him to help me breathe through them. They were getting closer and closer together. Some were only 2-3 minutes apart! We decided to wait until 2:00 AM to call the after hours number for my OB's office. When I called, the OB said to head to L&D so we gathered our things and did. Let me just say, contractions while riding in a car for forty minutes are not fun.

We arrived at the hospital just before 3:00 AM and got situated in our room. The room just happened to be the same room I delivered my sleeping twins in back in September... I guess the universe was giving us a way to replace sad memories in that room with happy ones. At this point, I was two centimeters dilated and 50% effaced with the baby's head at -3 station. (For information on what I mean by station, please click here.)

Just before 5:00 AM, my nurse said the on call doctor told him if I hadn't had any cervical changes they would be sending me home. Nothing had changed. He came back within about half an hour and let us know they would be keeping me for observation for another two hours. Since I live forty minutes from the hospital and baby was at an A- on the monitor and not an A+, they weren't confident with discharging me. We later learned his heart rate was flat and didn't have the peaks and dips most babies have, but it wasn't a huge concern at that point. My mom had arrived by this point.

Another cervical check was completed around 7:30 AM. The nurse declared I was now three centimeters dilated and 50% effaced with baby at -2 station. The doctor came in shortly after this and said since my labor was progressing and I would probably be induced that day anyway, they wanted to augment my labor. We agreed.

She used a Foley balloon and pitocin on the lowest setting. I asked for an epidural immediately because I know how painful the contractions are with pitocin. I experienced a few of these intense contractions while waiting for the epidural. When a nurse tried to adjust my Foley balloon around 10:00 AM, it came right out which meant I was dilated to at least four centimeters. About fifteen minutes later, the anesthesiologist came in and did my epidural.

I don't remember much after that in regards to time. I know I napped some. I know the nurses turned off my pitocin and reduced my epidural because baby's heart rate would drop with my contractions and stay low for too long. I remember my contractions came back really strong and I had to get a bolus from the anesthesiologist. The bolus made everything more numb than the original epidural did. I know the doctor came in and broke my water because my labor had stalled with them shutting off the pitocin.

My doctor was getting ready to recommend a c-section, but I told my nurse I felt a lot of pressure and pain with each contraction. She did another check and determined I was ready to push. I pushed for 30 minutes, but was getting worn out. The nurse let me "rest" for about 30 minutes. Her hope was the baby would work his way down on his own. I was sobbing through each contraction and telling my husband I wasn't sure how I was supposed to rest when the pain was so bad. My mom was massaging my back while my husband attempted to help me breathe through the pain.

The nurse came back and told me to push again. The pain was terrible with each contraction. I kept having to stop because I felt like I was going to throw up. I cried almost the whole time saying I didn't know if I could push him out. I remember saying over and over I never wanted a natural childbirth and the pain was too bad. I know I said at least once I was never wanted to go through labor again. Eventually, I did throw up due to the pain. I'm not sure how, though, because I hadn't had anything to eat in over 24 hours. Throwing up helped me though because I was able to push harder after that.

The doctor came back and said she could see the baby's head coming out. She said it looked like he was stuck under my pelvic bone and, if I could get his head under it, he would come out really easily. Baby appeared to be under distress. There was a lot of movement once she said this; the bed was raised high, the end was taken off, and stirrups were brought out. Once I was in the stirrups, pushing was so much easier. I wish they would have set the bed up like that to begin with!

With the next few contractions, the doctor tried to use a vacuum while I was pushing. Unfortunately, it popped off the baby's head twice. The next time I pushed, she pulled and the baby's head came out. I pushed once more and felt immediate relief! I heard a little squeak and my husband asked if I had heard the baby. My husband had planned to cut the umbilical cord, but I heard the doctor say, "Sorry, Dad. I had to cut the cord. We need to take care of him."

The nurses took the baby to the warmer and began working on him. He starting crying loudly. My mom and husband went to see the baby while I was laying there getting my second degree tear stitched up. I heard the doctor say he came out sunny side up which is why my contractions were so intense and why he got stuck under my pelvic bone. The nurse the doctor was talking to said my epidural had failed, too.

My mom asked if I wanted to see a picture of the baby. I told her no because I wanted to see him. A few moments later, a nurse brought him over to me and I got to see my beautiful baby boy. He was born at 9:50 PM on July 16th which is also his paternal grandfather's birthday. He weighed 6 pounds and 15.5 ounces and was 19.5 inches long.

I later learned from my mom that, when he was born, he was very limp. The nurse would pick up his arm and drop it, and his arm would fall to his side. My mom was very worried, but the nurses kept telling her he would be okay.

I held him for a minute or two and the nurses took him to the nursery to give him some fluids. Shortly after, he was brought back to breastfeed for the first time. They took him back to the nursery when he was done and the L&D nurse finished with my post-delivery checklist and moved me to the postpartum floor around 11:30 PM.

I will write soon about our first night together and Hammer's stay in the NICU.Crystalhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8493910451236309357.post-36001016945228200562018-08-14T18:00:00.000-05:002018-08-14T18:00:00.135-05:00Hey, It's Okay

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Hey, it's okay...

... to have missed a ton of writing. It's not every day you become a mom for the first time. Look for the birth story of my son soon! I'll also be writing a lot of entries about my experiences with being a new mom.

... to be uncertain of what to do with a four week old. My husband returned to work yesterday so I am now home alone with the baby and the pets.

... to not want company this week. Getting used to being home alone with the baby has made things a little difficult. When my husband was on parental leave, we would split the time we were up overnight. Now I do most of the overnight wake ups so he can sleep for work. I am running on little sleep and haven't even showered today... and it's almost 6:00 PM.

... to love all of the rerun marathons shown on ion. I love most of the shows on there. NCIS: Los Angeles, Criminal Minds, Law & Order, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and Law & Order: SVU. They show Leverage in the early mornings and I'm starting to like that show. I'm not a fan of Blue Bloods though.

... to be excited we're in the middle of August. Autumn is my favorite season and I cannot wait for the weather to cool down some. It hasn't been as hot as normal here lately, but it's still been too hot for me!Crystalhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8493910451236309357.post-26241733036375535262018-07-10T12:00:00.000-05:002018-07-10T12:00:11.716-05:00Hey, It's Okay

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Hey, it's okay...

... to have failed miserably at my goal of writing every day the latter half of June. Being 9 months pregnant makes doing anything regularly hard! I'm going to try to write several times a week at least. We shall see how that goes. Haha!

... to be done being pregnant, but also not want to force the baby out. I was told by my OB at my appointment yesterday that no one at the hospital would bat an eye if she sent a 38.5 week pregnant lady with a history of hypertension to the hospital that day to be induced. I told her I would rather wait and see if baby comes on his own.

... to have greatly slacked on my reading of books. I have been relaxing waiting on baby and watching a lot of television (old episode marathons on ION - Criminal Minds, NCIS: Los Angeles, Law & Order: SVU, and CSI). I actually started a new book today so we'll see how quickly I read that.

... to have informed my mom she can be in the hospital room during the beginning stages of labor, but let her I know I'll probably kick her out at some point. I'm pretty modest and don't want to have to worry about my boobs and bits showing during labor.

... to be sad my puppy (he's almost 9, so not quite a puppy anymore) is getting all gray in the face. This is him snuggling on the couch next to me yesterday and his face looks so gray to me!

...Crystalhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8493910451236309357.post-21751559496229987722018-06-21T08:00:00.000-05:002018-06-21T08:00:00.221-05:00Brain Dump: Blogging is HardNow that I'm a stay-at-home mom (or mom-to-be), I really need to get into the habit of writing daily. To do this, I've created some drafts of entries with random topics. When I have nothing better to discuss, I will post one of these topics so that I have something to post each day.

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Brain dump. What's on your mind right now.

Keeping up with blogging is a lot harder than I thought it would be. Even without a full-time job, relaxing and planning for baby is keeping me busy. I figured I would have a lot more time. However, I do think there is a "learning curve" as to how much time I actually do have and to put some time aside each day for writing.

I am basically home alone from 7:30 AM to almost 6:00 PM. Right now, I do not have a baby to take care of, but I am 36 weeks pregnant and baby could come at any time. I really do not know what my schedule will look like then. I know it's hard to plan something like that because all babies are different. I could have an easy baby who sleeps and naps for hours at a time giving me more free time. I could have a baby who wants to be held 24/7 and cries if put down which would leave me with no time to blog...

All I know for sure is I really want to write often and get my blog going again. I find writing cathartic. I enjoy going back and reading blog entries I've written at different parts of my life. I know I will, one day, enjoy reading about this particular time in my life... where I am expecting a child in four weeks, when the baby is newborn and I'm figuring out that part of my life. That is why I'm trying to get into the habit of writing multiple times a week (or daily right now).

I will do my best to write as often as possible, but it's going to be hard to get back into that habit. Even with writing prompts already planned, it's hard to take the time to actually write. Here's to doing better at that. *fingers crossed*Crystalhttp://email@example.com


text:
Despite publicly stating that he hoped he'd end up in Arizona to playing for the Suns next season, the New Orleans Hornets officially matched Phoenix's four-year, $58 million offer sheet for restricted free agent Eric Gordon, keeping the guard in the NOLA.
According to ESPN.com, the Hornets made the announcement Saturday afternoon (July 14), as many expected they would.
Gordon, however, has said in recent days that he would hope the team would let him go, but, now that the NOLA is clearly his home for the next several years, he plans to give his all to ensure he and the organization are successful.
"There is always a business element to the NBA when dealing with contracts, but I never lost my appreciation for the New Orleans fans," Gordon said in a statement released by the team. "I look forward to giving my very best on the court this season to make our team successful."
"Eric is a phenomenal player that we are thrilled to have in our organization," added Hornets general manager Dell Demps.
With Gordon's return, the Hornets' chances next season look good. Pairing him alongside #1 2012 draft pick Anthony Davis and #10 draft pick Austin Rivers, gives the organization a real chance to make some noise in the upcoming season. So, stay tuned…
ESPN says the Suns are likely to pursure free agents O.J. Mayo and Courtney Lee to pair with point guard Goran Dragic.
Gordon was limited to nine games last season because of a bruised right knee that required minor surgery. However, he averaged a team-high 20.6 points, and New Orleans was 6-3 when he played.
In four NBA seasons, he's never averaged less than the 16.1 points per game he scored as a rookie. In his third season, he averaged 22.3 points in 56 games with the Clippers.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
The current version contains the pliers, however the original version had scissors.
See History
The Angler Plus (possibly not an official name) adds a wood saw to the Angler and was a less common model.
The Angler Plus is no longer available.
Layer Tools
- Large blade
- Small blade
- Fish scaler/Fish hook disgorger/Ruler
- Pliers with wire crimper and cutter - The original configuration had scissors not pliers
- Bottle-opener with large screwdriver & wire stripper
- Can-opener with small screwdriver tip
The Angler Plus adds a:
Back Layer Tools
Scale Tools
Standard red synthetic scales
The original Fisherman model was available with a corkscrew or a back-side Phillips. The corkscrew variation later became known as the Angler (featuring scissors), at least as early as 1985, as it appeared in the Victorinox/SABI* catalogues for that year.
This original Angler configuration was still in place in the early 1990s, several years after the introduction of the pliers with the SwissChamp in 1986. In the 1992-1994 time frame, Victorinox also made a version of the Angler called the Angler with Pliers. This knife included the pliers, as well as the scissors, implying that when this tool was made, the 'scissors' Angler configuration was still in production and the pliers were the add-on tool. This dual configuration is now usually known as the Deluxe Angler or Angler with Scissors.
The modern Angler configuration/naming with pliers as standard was introduced later.
* SABI = Swiss Army Brands Incorporated - The former importer and distributor for Victorinox in the USA.
Physical Specifications
- Length: 91mm
- Width: 20.8mm (Original 19.5mm)
- Weight: 112.5g (Original 102g)
- 1.3653.72: Red Cellidor with fish emblem (US Model Number: 53671)
- 5001 - Older US SABI Number: Red Cellidor, fish emblem, scissors not pliers
Related Knives
- Fisherman - Replaces the pliers with scissors, corkscrew with a back-side Phillips, and adds the multipurpose hook
- Mechanic - Removes the fishscaler/ruler, a Phillips replaces the corkscrew
- Deluxe Angler - Adds scissors, multipurpose hook
- Bass - A similar model made by Wenger