Geez! I haven't posted anything since April. Sad, sad, sad. . . sorry folks. It's not that there hasn't been anything exciting going on I just cannot find the time. Let's see between playing mommy, wife, growing a baby, working part-time, keeping up a house, finally having some Stampin' Up! classes again, playdates, real dates, and whatever else it is that I do, posting on here seems to be an afterthought. I will not promise to do a better job because frankly, I know it will not happen. Just like promising to keep up with the chores, it will not happen. So that's the scoop.
Anyway, I'll give a quick update of life at the moment. It's stinkin' HOT! Seriously, 90's + humid=triple digits on most days. It feels like August. This would be all fine and well, but at almost 6 months pregnant, I'm not embracing the weather. Speaking of pregnancy, I hit 25 weeks today! #2 is getting quite good and kicking/punching/tumbling or whatever it is he does in there. Definately a boy if you didn't hear over on Facebook. No names yet. We have a list of about 5 but we have time. I'm thinking we might decide after the delivery at this point. We bought the paint for the nursery this weekend with plans to paint in the near future. In April I finally took the plunge and started my Stampin' Up! classes again. It is so much fun to craft and teach others what I like to do. I will update the craft blog with all of our fun projects. Plus, I've had many requests to do this.
Jacob finished Young K-4 in May and has been going to daycare part-time this summer when I work. He enjoys it and it beats sitting around the house being bored. You can only go to the science center, library, pool, park so much before it gets old and expensive. On days off we play and work on workbooks so he doesn't forget too much of what he learned over the previous year. All in all he is a good kid, typical boy though :)
Tim finally has a more family friendly work schedule which has really made the past few months a dream! We actually get to eat dinner as a family on most nights again. I won't post too much about him as he doesn't like that sort of thing.
In May we celebrated a ton of milestones. May 1st was our 1-Year Anniversary of returning to the States after living in Sicily for 3 years. We celebrated by a dinner at Olive Garden and taking Jacob to Chattanooga, TN for a "Day Out with Thomas the train" May 14th Jacob turned 4.5 years old (6 months until I have a 5 year old, yikes!), I hit the half-way mark in my pregnancy AND found out we are having another boy!, May 25th we celebrated our 8 year wedding anniversary and May 27th was the one year anniversary of closing on our house. A lot to take in, but it was all good!
That's life at the Clayton's for now. It's going to get a whole lot crazier in the fall!
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
In case you were wondering. . .
I'm pregnant!!!! Yes, I know many of you family and friends have been asking the question "Are they every going to have another baby?" I didn't realize this was a question that weighed so heavily on many minds. It makes me giggle, it does :)
So, now that you know why I've been laying low for awhile, well, I really didn't have anything blogworthy up until now. I'll give you details. I've suspected since 4 weeks, known since 6, and felt horrible from week 6-9 (all day nausea, falling asleep at 7pm). At 9 weeks I was able to go see my new OB, who is a doll. Since we don't live near a military base I get to go civilian with hospital, practitioner,etc. So far I am loving the experience. At this 9 week appt I had the first ultrasound and got some decent pics of the little bean that has been making me tired and feeling overall blah. Now this was a very anxiety provoking appt. You see, in January 2009 I had a miscarriage at 9 weeks. Same time frame. Please don't feel bad if you didn't know, only a few close friends and my mom knew. Anywho, once I saw little bean and a fluttering heart, a great weight was lifted from me. I so wanted to tell the world, but knew is was better to wait until I got to 12 weeks. Since around week 10, I have my energy back and feel almost normal again, except for the fact that my pants aren't quite as comfy as the used to be. #2 definately shows itself sooner than #1.
Today I went to my 2nd appt at 13w3days and got to hear the heartbeat on doppler. You don't know how good it was to hear that fast beating heart beat! It was in the 150's range. Hmmmmm. . . Jacob was pretty consistently 140's. I have made most of my calls to family and Facebook. My how things have changed in 5 years. Facebook? Who heard of this in 2005? The family, is of course, over the moon.
Now, you maybe wondering, how is little Jacob dealing with all this? Well, for several months he's been asking for a little brother or sister. He would really like a sister, or so he says this week. I told him today he is getting his wish and his little brother or sister will be here in time for his birthday. He asked me the important questions: "How did the baby get inside you?" Umm, lets not worry about that one right now. God put it there. "Is your belly slimy and wet?" and "Will the baby come out slimy and wet?" Well, yes and don't worry the nurses will clean him or her off. Last question: " Is that where the pool is?" as he points to the community pool. Love the preschool mind.
I'm sure you are also wondering when is the BIG DAY? October 10, 2010. 10-10-10. Isn't that an awesome day to be born?!
Here is a parting picture for you to admire. Cute isn't it?
So, now that you know why I've been laying low for awhile, well, I really didn't have anything blogworthy up until now. I'll give you details. I've suspected since 4 weeks, known since 6, and felt horrible from week 6-9 (all day nausea, falling asleep at 7pm). At 9 weeks I was able to go see my new OB, who is a doll. Since we don't live near a military base I get to go civilian with hospital, practitioner,etc. So far I am loving the experience. At this 9 week appt I had the first ultrasound and got some decent pics of the little bean that has been making me tired and feeling overall blah. Now this was a very anxiety provoking appt. You see, in January 2009 I had a miscarriage at 9 weeks. Same time frame. Please don't feel bad if you didn't know, only a few close friends and my mom knew. Anywho, once I saw little bean and a fluttering heart, a great weight was lifted from me. I so wanted to tell the world, but knew is was better to wait until I got to 12 weeks. Since around week 10, I have my energy back and feel almost normal again, except for the fact that my pants aren't quite as comfy as the used to be. #2 definately shows itself sooner than #1.
Today I went to my 2nd appt at 13w3days and got to hear the heartbeat on doppler. You don't know how good it was to hear that fast beating heart beat! It was in the 150's range. Hmmmmm. . . Jacob was pretty consistently 140's. I have made most of my calls to family and Facebook. My how things have changed in 5 years. Facebook? Who heard of this in 2005? The family, is of course, over the moon.
Now, you maybe wondering, how is little Jacob dealing with all this? Well, for several months he's been asking for a little brother or sister. He would really like a sister, or so he says this week. I told him today he is getting his wish and his little brother or sister will be here in time for his birthday. He asked me the important questions: "How did the baby get inside you?" Umm, lets not worry about that one right now. God put it there. "Is your belly slimy and wet?" and "Will the baby come out slimy and wet?" Well, yes and don't worry the nurses will clean him or her off. Last question: " Is that where the pool is?" as he points to the community pool. Love the preschool mind.
I'm sure you are also wondering when is the BIG DAY? October 10, 2010. 10-10-10. Isn't that an awesome day to be born?!
Here is a parting picture for you to admire. Cute isn't it?
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
November Rewind
Wow! It's December first already. . .where does the time go? Honestly, I am happy to see December since November was a mess at the end. I can now say, that historically, November is not a good month for me. Bad things usually happen to me, especially the week before Thanksgiving. I guess it started in 2003. I don't know what it is. In 2003 I had a patient code, in 2004 a patient died and I got cellulitis, 2005 was good year (Jacob was born), 2006 & 2007 were crisis free, 2008 I get TMJ.
The insanity started in the days leading up to Jacob's birthday. Thursday the 12th, Tim woke me up to tell me his car wouldn't start and he had to take my car to work. Nice, Jacob missed school and his flu shot appointment. I spent a good 30 minutes the night before calming his fears about the mist he would have squirted in his nose the next day. That was now for nothing. Then I realized the cupcake liners I need to make the cupcakes to bring to school the next day were in the trunk of my car which was now 45 minutes away. That night, Tim spent 2 hours fixing the problem (gotta love a guy who can fix a car!) while I was inside baking and icing cupcakes. Of course Tim got home late so it was 11pm before I was done with my project. The things we do for our kids :)
Friday, Tim called and told me he would be late because the same car that died the day before now blew a tire on his way home. Nice! Gotta love Friday the 13th.
We celebrated Jacob's 4th birthday on the 14th. We decided not to have a kid birthday this year for several reasons. 1. the few kid parties we have been invited to turn out to be mostly family and 1 or 2 kids from Jacob's class. Well, we have no family here and I couldn't see going through all the crazy preparations for 2 kids and seeing him disappointed. Reason 2. I just wanted us to have a nice family day. 3. We would be seeing my parents in a couple of weeks and having a small party with them (something we've never been able to do) We let Jacob pick out what he wanted to do. He picked the zoo and dinner out. So that's what we did. We went to the Birmingham zoo for the day. It was nice and sunny. It's a small zoo but just the right size to get through in a few hours before completely loosing interest. We came home, opened presents and then headed out for an early dinner then it was home again for cake. Perfect! I highly recommend going simple.
The week leading up to this, our desktop computer was acting weird. By Sunday I was about to throw the thing out the window. It was just a year old in August. Not knowing what else to do with it, I brought the tower in to Best Buy. The Geek Squad determined it had a virus and possibly a corrupt OS. $200 later the computer got shipped off to be fixed. We still don't have it back. We are going on 2 weeks now. Luckily we have a laptop to get us by. It's amazing (and sad) how much we rely on computers these days for almost everything.
On the 18th I had to catch a flight with my co-workers to a training conference in Baton Rouge. Earlier that week, Tim wound up with a last minute conflict in his schedule which left us not knowing what to do about Jacob and child care while I was gone. After many phone calls on Tim's end, Jacob got to miss school and go to Atlanta with Tim so he could take his PT test. This is when it would be nice to live near family. I was near tears at this point b/c what else could possibly go wrong?
Well, on my way to the airport I stop at the ATM. I am driving the car that had issues the week before. In case I didn't say, it's our old 1998 Nissan Sentra we had in Italy, my very first car I ever owned. I put the window down, all the way down, not realizing that the switch was now broken. The window will not go back up, it's cold, looks like it is about to rain and I have to drive 20 minutes on the interstate (70mph) with said window down. I called Tim frantic and he told me it will go up if the radio and lights are off. I'm thinking this poor car just needs duct tape and plastic on the windows and we will be good to go. HA! My worry was that my car would get stolen sitting in long-term parking at the airport. About 5 minutes from the airport the window finally went up. Note to self, do NOT put window down again.
While at the airport, I meet my co-works and we find out our flight is bumped and we will not make our connecting flight in Atlanta. We were able to get on a different carrier 2 hours later and all made it safely. Side note, what a great experience this was! I am really excited about this job/research project!
Amazingly last week, nothing happened. We went to North Carolina and spent Thanksgiving with my parents and had a birthday party with them for Jacob. We also spent some time walking our property down the road from my parents. If you recall, we have 4 acres of land, 5 houses away from them. With the leaves off the trees we could really do some deep walking in the woods that we haven't been able to do. We found fresh deer tracks and droppings. We had no idea deer were that near. We were also able to get an idea of the depth of the river that flows in the back. It was so peaceful to be in the woods and listen to the water flow by. We have decided that during our time in AL, we need to seriously start looking at house plans and get an idea of what we want to build. It's so exciting! Since we've had a couple of houses now, we know what we want and don't want in a house and we look forward building something to our specifications. Tim has 10 years to retire but the plan is for me and Jacob to be there before that. Besides looking at house plans we have to find a builder, gets plans approved, etc. and we figure about 9-12 months to build, so it's going to take some time. Luckily we don't have to rush.
Sunday we drove back to find out that Tim has a week of training and he had to leave Monday. It's always something. This weekend we will be putting up the Christmas tree and decorations. We are so excited to decorate the new house! And just in case you were wondering, yes, we plan to replace the Sentra in January :)
The insanity started in the days leading up to Jacob's birthday. Thursday the 12th, Tim woke me up to tell me his car wouldn't start and he had to take my car to work. Nice, Jacob missed school and his flu shot appointment. I spent a good 30 minutes the night before calming his fears about the mist he would have squirted in his nose the next day. That was now for nothing. Then I realized the cupcake liners I need to make the cupcakes to bring to school the next day were in the trunk of my car which was now 45 minutes away. That night, Tim spent 2 hours fixing the problem (gotta love a guy who can fix a car!) while I was inside baking and icing cupcakes. Of course Tim got home late so it was 11pm before I was done with my project. The things we do for our kids :)
Friday, Tim called and told me he would be late because the same car that died the day before now blew a tire on his way home. Nice! Gotta love Friday the 13th.
We celebrated Jacob's 4th birthday on the 14th. We decided not to have a kid birthday this year for several reasons. 1. the few kid parties we have been invited to turn out to be mostly family and 1 or 2 kids from Jacob's class. Well, we have no family here and I couldn't see going through all the crazy preparations for 2 kids and seeing him disappointed. Reason 2. I just wanted us to have a nice family day. 3. We would be seeing my parents in a couple of weeks and having a small party with them (something we've never been able to do) We let Jacob pick out what he wanted to do. He picked the zoo and dinner out. So that's what we did. We went to the Birmingham zoo for the day. It was nice and sunny. It's a small zoo but just the right size to get through in a few hours before completely loosing interest. We came home, opened presents and then headed out for an early dinner then it was home again for cake. Perfect! I highly recommend going simple.
The week leading up to this, our desktop computer was acting weird. By Sunday I was about to throw the thing out the window. It was just a year old in August. Not knowing what else to do with it, I brought the tower in to Best Buy. The Geek Squad determined it had a virus and possibly a corrupt OS. $200 later the computer got shipped off to be fixed. We still don't have it back. We are going on 2 weeks now. Luckily we have a laptop to get us by. It's amazing (and sad) how much we rely on computers these days for almost everything.
On the 18th I had to catch a flight with my co-workers to a training conference in Baton Rouge. Earlier that week, Tim wound up with a last minute conflict in his schedule which left us not knowing what to do about Jacob and child care while I was gone. After many phone calls on Tim's end, Jacob got to miss school and go to Atlanta with Tim so he could take his PT test. This is when it would be nice to live near family. I was near tears at this point b/c what else could possibly go wrong?
Well, on my way to the airport I stop at the ATM. I am driving the car that had issues the week before. In case I didn't say, it's our old 1998 Nissan Sentra we had in Italy, my very first car I ever owned. I put the window down, all the way down, not realizing that the switch was now broken. The window will not go back up, it's cold, looks like it is about to rain and I have to drive 20 minutes on the interstate (70mph) with said window down. I called Tim frantic and he told me it will go up if the radio and lights are off. I'm thinking this poor car just needs duct tape and plastic on the windows and we will be good to go. HA! My worry was that my car would get stolen sitting in long-term parking at the airport. About 5 minutes from the airport the window finally went up. Note to self, do NOT put window down again.
While at the airport, I meet my co-works and we find out our flight is bumped and we will not make our connecting flight in Atlanta. We were able to get on a different carrier 2 hours later and all made it safely. Side note, what a great experience this was! I am really excited about this job/research project!
Amazingly last week, nothing happened. We went to North Carolina and spent Thanksgiving with my parents and had a birthday party with them for Jacob. We also spent some time walking our property down the road from my parents. If you recall, we have 4 acres of land, 5 houses away from them. With the leaves off the trees we could really do some deep walking in the woods that we haven't been able to do. We found fresh deer tracks and droppings. We had no idea deer were that near. We were also able to get an idea of the depth of the river that flows in the back. It was so peaceful to be in the woods and listen to the water flow by. We have decided that during our time in AL, we need to seriously start looking at house plans and get an idea of what we want to build. It's so exciting! Since we've had a couple of houses now, we know what we want and don't want in a house and we look forward building something to our specifications. Tim has 10 years to retire but the plan is for me and Jacob to be there before that. Besides looking at house plans we have to find a builder, gets plans approved, etc. and we figure about 9-12 months to build, so it's going to take some time. Luckily we don't have to rush.
Sunday we drove back to find out that Tim has a week of training and he had to leave Monday. It's always something. This weekend we will be putting up the Christmas tree and decorations. We are so excited to decorate the new house! And just in case you were wondering, yes, we plan to replace the Sentra in January :)
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Trying to keep our heads above water
Just thought I would pop in for a minute and say Hi! Yes we are still here, just swamped from every which end. Week days are filled with school, Tim working long hours (still, grrrrrr), me working 3 days a week and in between all of this we still have to cook, clean, play, soccer, find time to food shop, and manage to have a little fun and family time. Weekends aren't much better with soccer games, birthday parties, catching up on what got neglected during the week. It's nuts!
Sunday, October 25, 2009
The Pumpkin Patch
On the 17th we finally had a somewhat dry day to head up to Hayden where they have a pumpkin patch. From talking to some of my new found friends, this is fall "must do." The temperature hovered around 50 degrees making it a perfect, cold day to do some pumpkin picking.
Jacob had his first pony ride and absolutely loved it! Now he tells us he is a cowboy. Just one of the many hats he wears when he is not part of Lightening McQueen's Pit crew or fighting crime as Spiderman.
After our chilly afternoon at the patch, we headed north so I could see the town that Tim works in and then we ended the day with a nice dinner out at a local Asian restaruant called Stix. By the time we got home the temps had dipped into the 40s. Much to my dismay, we had to turn the heat on to take the chill off the house. Now to find some fire wood so we can make some nice toasty fires in our new fireplace.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
October Happenings
Life has been hectic, as shown by the fact that I haven't update in over 2 weeks. I was in the middle of updating yesterday when hubby kicked me off the computer. Men! Anyway, I thought I would just give a run down of life at the moment.
Jacob got over the H1N1 flu after missing 1 week of school. It took another 4 days or so to really recouperate after that. He got his first report card and did great! You are probably wondering how a 3 year old can get a report card but they do. Basically it's do they recognize the letters they have learned, know the letter sounds, know their name, behavior, stuff like that. He also won an award for "Most Improved" since the school year started. Unfortunately he missed the assembly when the award was presented because he was sick. The soccer season has been very wet. At this point we have had more practice and game cancellations then playing time due to the rain and field conditions. We've also had a birthday to attend in all of this.
This week I started my new job as a Care Manager at UAB hospital working along side a research team/project. UAB is a huge university in downtown Birmingham with a huge medical complex. They are listed as one of the top hospitals in the country! I'm super excited and grateful for this opportunity! This is a big change for me. Going from pediatrics to geriatrics (but now I get to use my minor a bit), direct patient care to indirect patient care. It will be an adjustment. I had orientation Monday and Tuesday and next week things will really get going, hopefully. Otherwise, I've been doing some computer work from home that goes along with it and attending weekly team meetings. So nice to finally be productive out of the house again! I feel like a new person! Someone told me once "the more you have to do, the more organized you are and the more you get done." True, true! So, now that I have found one of my missing links, I'm good to go.
Hopefully if the weather holds out we will venture up to the Pumpkin Patch this weekend for pumpkin picking and hayrides. The leaves are slowly turning from green to red and orange. Still looks like it has a long way to go though. We had a fence put up last week, 6ft on the sides and 4ft in the back so we don't lose our view. Now Jacob and Star can run around and I don't have to worry about either one tumbling down the hill.
Jacob got over the H1N1 flu after missing 1 week of school. It took another 4 days or so to really recouperate after that. He got his first report card and did great! You are probably wondering how a 3 year old can get a report card but they do. Basically it's do they recognize the letters they have learned, know the letter sounds, know their name, behavior, stuff like that. He also won an award for "Most Improved" since the school year started. Unfortunately he missed the assembly when the award was presented because he was sick. The soccer season has been very wet. At this point we have had more practice and game cancellations then playing time due to the rain and field conditions. We've also had a birthday to attend in all of this.
This week I started my new job as a Care Manager at UAB hospital working along side a research team/project. UAB is a huge university in downtown Birmingham with a huge medical complex. They are listed as one of the top hospitals in the country! I'm super excited and grateful for this opportunity! This is a big change for me. Going from pediatrics to geriatrics (but now I get to use my minor a bit), direct patient care to indirect patient care. It will be an adjustment. I had orientation Monday and Tuesday and next week things will really get going, hopefully. Otherwise, I've been doing some computer work from home that goes along with it and attending weekly team meetings. So nice to finally be productive out of the house again! I feel like a new person! Someone told me once "the more you have to do, the more organized you are and the more you get done." True, true! So, now that I have found one of my missing links, I'm good to go.
Hopefully if the weather holds out we will venture up to the Pumpkin Patch this weekend for pumpkin picking and hayrides. The leaves are slowly turning from green to red and orange. Still looks like it has a long way to go though. We had a fence put up last week, 6ft on the sides and 4ft in the back so we don't lose our view. Now Jacob and Star can run around and I don't have to worry about either one tumbling down the hill.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Swine Flu hits the Clayton Household
Things happen for a reason. Yesterday, I was notified that my business trip to Denver to take place at the end of next week was canceled. I couldn't help thinking there was an ultimate reason for all of this. Could it be recent news events or something else completely different? I got my answer early this am.
Jacob came into our room at 11pm. He was roasting. I removed the sheets and Tim found the thermometer. 102. Nice. Gave some Tylenol and would reassess in the morning. My mind was spinning. I had checked on him an hour earlier before I went to bed and he didn't seem as hot as he did now.
6am, Jacob is burning up. Temp 103.7. Oh, boy! Mind you these are tympanic temps (ear), so, probably a degree higher. Tylenol again.
Report cards went out yesterday and today was to be the Honor's Chapel assembly at school. Jacob was suppossed to receive an award for "Most Improved." I felt so bad he was going to miss it :( I called the school to let them know he would be abscent and his teacher called me back to let me know there were several kids sick with the "Swine Flu" I called the doctor back, explained the situation and was able to get him seen 2 hours later.
At the peditrician they did the fun throat culture and nasal swab to run in the lab. Jacob was not happy with them after they stuck the 6 in long q-tips in those orifaces. I cannot blame him. They were never my favorite procedures to do on the little ones when I was working. About 15 min later his doctor (who is the sweetest thing) came in with papers and confirmed my suspicions. "Influenza Type A Positive" AKA, H1N1/Swine Flu. This flu is actually much milder than the regular flu. Yes, if you have an underlying condition it can be very severe. If you are generally healthy you should be fine in a few days. I chose not to go the Tamiflu route as the side effects seemed worse than what we were trying to fight and there is always the chance of this strain becomeing resistant to it. I've seen MRSA and the over use of antibiotics it's not pretty so why chance it.
As we left the pediatricians office, Jacob said, "Mommy, I have that Swine flu that is on the news" Yes, Jacob, Yes you do.
Monday update: Jacob is doing much better! I'm glad I chose the course of action I did because by Saturday evening he was fever free. A low grade temp yesterday evening but not enough to medicate. He was even getting into mischief so I know he's feeling better.
As soon as the flu shots are available in my area, we will all be getting them! I'd also like to thank those of you who called over the weekend to check-up on Jacob. We really appricated it!
Jacob came into our room at 11pm. He was roasting. I removed the sheets and Tim found the thermometer. 102. Nice. Gave some Tylenol and would reassess in the morning. My mind was spinning. I had checked on him an hour earlier before I went to bed and he didn't seem as hot as he did now.
6am, Jacob is burning up. Temp 103.7. Oh, boy! Mind you these are tympanic temps (ear), so, probably a degree higher. Tylenol again.
Report cards went out yesterday and today was to be the Honor's Chapel assembly at school. Jacob was suppossed to receive an award for "Most Improved." I felt so bad he was going to miss it :( I called the school to let them know he would be abscent and his teacher called me back to let me know there were several kids sick with the "Swine Flu" I called the doctor back, explained the situation and was able to get him seen 2 hours later.
At the peditrician they did the fun throat culture and nasal swab to run in the lab. Jacob was not happy with them after they stuck the 6 in long q-tips in those orifaces. I cannot blame him. They were never my favorite procedures to do on the little ones when I was working. About 15 min later his doctor (who is the sweetest thing) came in with papers and confirmed my suspicions. "Influenza Type A Positive" AKA, H1N1/Swine Flu. This flu is actually much milder than the regular flu. Yes, if you have an underlying condition it can be very severe. If you are generally healthy you should be fine in a few days. I chose not to go the Tamiflu route as the side effects seemed worse than what we were trying to fight and there is always the chance of this strain becomeing resistant to it. I've seen MRSA and the over use of antibiotics it's not pretty so why chance it.
As we left the pediatricians office, Jacob said, "Mommy, I have that Swine flu that is on the news" Yes, Jacob, Yes you do.
Monday update: Jacob is doing much better! I'm glad I chose the course of action I did because by Saturday evening he was fever free. A low grade temp yesterday evening but not enough to medicate. He was even getting into mischief so I know he's feeling better.
As soon as the flu shots are available in my area, we will all be getting them! I'd also like to thank those of you who called over the weekend to check-up on Jacob. We really appricated it!
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