Who knew?

When I entered adulthood I expected my life to go so much more differently than it has. I expected to move to somewhere warm (Florida, California, South Texas), get a job at Sea World working with dolphins and whales (no longer a dream of mine, see the documentaries “Blackfish” and “The Cove”), take some photography and art classes at a local community college, and maybe have a dog. I wasn’t in a hurry to get married or settle down.

Then I met my husband. I remember us talking one night after we had been dating for about a month and him saying, “I’m not looking to get married. I’m not one to settle down.” And I remember thinking, “You and me both buddy!”

After dating for almost two years, we got engaged, and six months later we got married. I guess we were more ready to settle down than we thought. Shortly after we got married he started talking about wanting kids. I KNEW I wasn’t ready for that just yet. I was still getting accustomed to being a wife! I was hardly 22 years old and wasn’t in a hurry. He, however, was almost 28 when we got married. Do men have biological clocks (haha)?

A couple of years after we got married, we started spending time with friends that had kids. One friend was pregnant when her husband was tragically killed in a one-car accident. I was in the hospital waiting room when her son was born, and my husband and I were at her house at least one night a week spending time with her and her beautiful children. I fell in love with her sweet little family, and I learned so much about kids and caring for babies. Spending so much time with her and her beautiful children really softened me to the idea of having our own children.

Twenty days after our fourth anniversary, I gave birth to our first daughter, Zoey, in May of 2011. My whole world changed in the moment they handed me my beautiful baby girl! I saw things differently, worried about everything more, and enjoyed just being still and loving on this tiny little creature that God had blessed us with! How was it that I had thought I wasn’t cut out to be a mother? This is what I was made for! She is two and a half now and is also a big sister to Isabelle, our one-year-old.

I find myself laughing at silly dance moves, negotiating clean dinner plates for a cookie or cupcake, and handing out stickers when we have potty success! This is so not the life I had planned. It is BETTER! Sure, there are days where both girls are wild, cutting teeth, refusing to eat anything I give them, and just wearing me out! That is normal. They are kids!

A few things that have changed since we had kids:

• We’ve traded in spontaneous outings to the lake after work in the summer for painting at the kitchen table and playing with toys.
• We’ve traded sleeping late on the weekends for waking up early with kids crawling all over us.
• Our Netflix history has changed a lot and the suggestions have changed from action, adventure, and SciFi to My Little Pony, super hero cartoons, and Curious George.
• I use to be a fast food fan and now I try to eat (and feed my family) a healthy, balanced diet.

All of these trades have been so worth it in my life! I can’t imagine my life without my husband and our sweet, beautiful, wild, silly girls! I am blessed beyond belief!

Birth story one year later

It is so hard to believe it's already been a year since my baby girl was born! Time sure flies when you are chasing two little ones around!

My due date was Jan 20th, and after going 10 days past due with my first I was already planning on baby number two arriving sometime closer to the beginning of February.

On Friday, January 11th, I started having pretty regular contractions that lasted all weekend, but they weren't always consistent. I had them off and on from the following Monday until Thursday the 17th.

On the day I went into labor (the 17th) I had a doctors appointment at 8:45 in the morning. When my doctor checked me I was at 3cm and between 70% and 80% effaced. He told me he didn't think I would make it to the end of the day. He offered to go ahead and have me admitted, but I wasn't having contractions so I went home to get ready for work (I was working 11 to 3).

When I got to work the girls surprised me with a food day. We ate and I told them about my appointment and about how my contractions had picked back up around 10:00 and were more intense. I ended up going home at 1:15 and called my husband to come on home, too. I relaxed in an Epsom salt bath while I waited for him.

We got to the hospital around 3:00 and I had progressed to 5 and a half cm! They had me fill out a pile of paperwork and stuck an IV in my hand before taking me to a room (I'm pretty sure I lost half my volume of blood when they stuck me for my IV). I got my epidural between 5:00 and 5:30 and was about 7cm by that point (way sooner than the 9cm I was at when I got my epidural with my first delivery).

My mom, aunt, sisters, brother and nephew came up to the hospital around 6:00 or so and took turns coming in to see me.

At close to 7:00 they put me on Pitocin to get me from 9 to 10 cm. At around 7:30 the nurse had me roll over on my side because baby's heart rate was slowing down during my contractions. That scared me, but after rolling from my left to my right she did better!

By 8:00 I was feeling a major urge to push! I wasn't in pain (thanks to Dr. T and his magical epidural). I just felt a lot of pressure and had to really fight the urge to push. I kept telling my nurse that I needed to push soon, but she said that the on call doctor was about to be in surgery and I would have to wait a while... Uh no, this baby is coming! I told her I was really fighting the urge to push, and she called Dr T back in to give me more pain meds (that I didn't need). When he came in he asked me if I was in pain and I said, "No, I feel pressure and I need to push! You might have to catch this baby." He and the nurse laughed, and she told me that he had to be in that surgery, too. Did nobody care that I was having a baby?! About that time the on-call doctor came in and said something about the upcoming surgery, and I said "I need to push NOW." The nurse checked me, and the baby was less than an inch from crowning! Within minutes they were telling me to push. I pushed twice and she was out!

We spent Thursday and Friday night in the hospital before finally going home. I missed my oldest daughter so much while we were at the hospital, but she did get to visit twice and seemed to have a good time at Grandma and Grandpa's. After we got home from the hospital, my husband went to pick her up and go get my pain meds from the pharmacy. He sent me a picture of her at Walgreens while they were waiting for my prescription to be filled, and I just broke down in tears because I had missed her so much! It was so good to have our little family all together!

Snow day survival kit

This winter has been full of snow days! My husband works at a local university and stayed on campus a few nights this year because the roads were too icy and bad. 

That left me stuck in the house with a two-and-a-half-year old and an almost 1 year old. Holy cow, it’s was an adventure! We did crafts, watched Curious George’s Christmas movie 300 times, cleaned up toys endlessly, tried hot buttered Cheerios (AMAZING) and danced to Christmas music.

If you know there is snow and ice coming, the most important thing to do is go to the grocery store as early as you can to avoid the crowds of people getting milk and bread! Obviously you'll want to stock up on groceries but you may want to pickup some craft supplies and things to keep everyone from going stir crazy!

My suggestions are:

• Make and decorate sugar cookies (you must ALWAYS have ingredients on hand).
• Make felt snowmen, paper dolls or Christmas trees for kids to decorate over and over.
• Salt dough hand or footprints
• Pipe cleaners!
• Paint! Make some yogurt paint or just use regular (washable) paint and let them go wild on a $.30 poster board from Walmart.
• Fun music on Pandora radio
• Pillow & blanket forts
• Start reading a chapter book aloud (I loved The Wizard Of Oz as a kid).
• Netflix
• Homemade playdough
• Come up with fun games and obstacle courses for them.
• Enlist help with chores! My oldest loves to vacuum with the little bissell 3-in-1and it’s great to have the “help”

These are just a few fun ideas to break the boredom. If you can go play outside in the snow, go for it! We opted not to because I HATE the cold and didn't want my babies out in 12 degree weather.

What are some of your favorite snow day activities?

Disagree vs. Hate

big•ot noun \ˈbi-gət\ : a person who strongly and unfairly dislikes other people, ideas, etc. : a bigoted person; especially : a person who hates or refuses to accept the members of a particular group (such as a racial or religious group)

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bigot

I have seen this word tossed around a lot in the past few days in reference to Christians with a traditional view on sin according to the Bible. I think I have it figured out, non-believers can’t fathom disagreeing with something and still being able to love the person. As Christians, that is what we are called to do. I’m a strong believer in the word of God and I know that is getting less and less popular these days but popularity has never mattered that much to me anyway.

I grew up in a very Christian home, my parents were (and continue to be) missionaries in South America. I grew up in a third world country being home schooled by my parents (“Well, she must be socially retarded!”). I have cared for the sick, homeless, hungry and widowed with no regard to their faith, color, age or sexual preference. But more than that, I’ve LOVED these people (some being strangers and others being close friends)! Some of my friends and I have had vastly different views on things like politics, religion, drugs & sexuality and we still manage to love and respect one another.

What I get tired of is hearing “how Christians are supposed to act” by non-Christians. “You’re supposed to be accepting and loving.” We are supposed to love our neighbor but are not called to accept sin! This is not a debate on homosexuality, I don’t want to open that can of worms, it’s about Christians being mislabeled or maybe misunderstood is a better term. I have “tolerated” HUNDREDS of posts about “marriage equality” and have never tried to censor my friends (or anyone else for that matter) because their views differ from mine and I expect the same courtesy.

A few of my friends have posted, “'You are not some sort of “Patriot, fighting for the First Amendment rights of all Americans” if the only time you get upset about a person’s “rights being trampled” is when it happens to people who think exactly like you...And if the only free speech that you support is speech that you agree with, that doesn’t make you a “patriot.” It makes you a hypocrite. And that’s something completely different.” And that is true, however, Christians don’t have the power to censor things we disagree with, we are a minority. If that were the case, Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber and Kim & Kanye wouldn’t be nearly as popular.

When you ask a Christian what their view of sin is, be prepared to hear their honest opinion. Don’t ask someone a question that you have an idea what the answer is and then get mad at them for having a differing opinion from yours. Saying, “Here are my beliefs according to the Bible.” And going on to say, “It isn’t my job to discriminate/pass judgment, it’s my job to love.” Is not “spewing hate” or being intolerant. Firing someone for having Christian values and sharing them when asked is pretty intolerant though.

Don’t tell me that my faith is full of intolerant bigots, my church loves everyone. Sure, there are folks out there that claim to be Christians and do not walk the walk (Looking at you Westboro) but that is like saying, “all blondes are airheads” or, “you must be an addict if you have tattoos”. I really dislike generalizations!

It is A&Es right, as an employer, to fire or suspend anybody they want to. They may have a lot of angry fans and may even lose the whole Robertson family. Do I think it was a mistake on their part? Yes. But it was their choice to make. I stand behind Phil because he was asked a question and answered it honestly and according to his beliefs. I stand behind him because he is my brother in Christ! He could have betrayed his beliefs to appeal to the general public but he stood firm on his faith and I applaud that! He didn’t hurt anyone, he didn’t promote hate (quite the opposite).

I wish all the folks on social media could keep it civil (both sides). There have been hurtful words exchanged between strangers and between people that, at some point, called one another “friends”. Yes, I’ve seen things on friends’ facebook walls these past few days that I disagree with but I don’t hate them! I’ll still hang out with them, our kids will still play together and we will continue to love each other. It all comes down to respecting views that differ from your own. Disagree, sure! Just don’t disrespect.

Tortellini soup

I made a pot of the best tortellini soup this weekend! It didn’t take long to make it on the stove and I will be making this again soon.

What you’ll need:

1 package tortellini from the refrigerated section.

1 Box veggie broth

1 (or 2) cans of Italian diced tomatoes

8 oz of cream cheese

1 cup Italian shredded cheese blend

several handfuls of fresh baby spinach

garlic or garlic powder to taste

Start with the broth, tomatoes, garlic, cheese and cream cheese and heat until cream cheese is completely melted and soup is boiling. Add tortellini and spinach, cover and simmer for 20 min or until tortellini is fully cooked. Even my picky husband and 2 year old liked it! I will be making this a lot this winter.

Charlie's soap

I recently had the chance to use some Charlie’s liquid laundry soap and their Oxygen Bleach. I mostly used it on diapers and on the girls’ clothes. I make my own laundry soap usually, but wanted to try something store bought. I LOVE the Oxygen Bleach! It does a great job on the diapers. With two girls (2&1/2 and 10 months) in cloth diapers, things get stinky around here pretty quick. The Oxygen Bleach does better than anything else I’ve tried on stinky diapers. I put two tablespoons of it in the wash and let the diapers soak before the wash cycle. It really did a great job!

I will probably stick with my homemade soap because it works just as well, and it’s cheaper (though I really liked the Charlie’s liquid a lot). However, I will probably switch from Oxy Clean to the Charlie’s Oxygen Bleach because it is truly superior and a little bit goes a long way!!

Pump and dump: Pouring liquid gold down the drain

We have been suffering from seasonal allergies and sinus junk in my house for a good 3 weeks and I finally had to break down and go to a walk-in clinic on Tuesday night because on top of a pounding head and intense sinus pressure (nothing new for me). I also started having severe pain in my left ear. We're talking ice pick to the ear drum kind of pain.

I saw a nurse practitioner at the walk in clinic that told me I had an ear infection and a sinus infection (as I suspected) and wrote me a prescription for a Z-pack. He then informed me that I would have to quit nursing my 9 month old because the antibiotic crosses in the breast milk and it could cause a reaction or resistance in the baby. I begged for something else and he told me he would tell me the same thing no matter which antibiotic he prescribed. I was on the verge of tears when I left the office.

When I got in the car, I immediately called a family friend, who is a nurse and has worked as a lactation consultant, and cried on her shoulder. After talking and going over our options, she instructed me to talk to the pharmacist about it and see what he said. When I talked to him, he acted like it was a low risk and it would “probably be okay”, but to watch her for signs of digestive distress or other reactions.

The lactation consultant and I decided it was probably okay to nurse at night, but just to be safe I am giving her milk from my freezer stash (Hey, that is what it’s there for). In order to keep my supply up, I have to pump and dump. Yesterday alone I dumped over 10 oz! I may have shed a tear over it.

I’ve gotten some judgment over it, with people telling me it is totally unnecessary to pump and dump, but in all honesty I’d rather be safe than sorry. Chris, Zoey and I are all allergic to different antibiotics, so I don’t want to cause any issues with my baby if I can help it.

I’m not ready or willing to end our breast feeding relationship, yet, and more importantly, neither is the baby. She has a hard time taking a bottle from me and it breaks my heart a little each time I have to give her one.

These couple of weeks won’t be easy, but I’m just going to do the best I can.