Pit and Peak Friday

How was your week? This week was fine, just busy, busy.

My Pit:
My dad is in the hospital. He is a recovering alcoholic and has done tremendous damage to his body. They are doing an upper GI as I type. We have a bit of a strained relationship, and I just want to highlight that having a baby has only made things MORE strained. Children don't fix things, they make them more complicated. It's so tough for me to let ANYone babysit or watch my little one. But when I'm not sure if my dad has been drinking it's impossible for me to let him watch her. So a big part of the current strain in our relationship is that I haven't let him sit for her alone. I don't see that happening in the future either. I think he's so dissapointed though because when I thought he was still sober I made a few comments about perhaps him watching her, but shortly after she was born he was 'off the wagon'. So how can I trust that? I should probably save my post on my dad for a later time because there is so much baggage. Do any of you have strained relationships with your parents?
But before I share my peak, I've got to share that I have the best mother in the world. My parents are divorced. She is everything I hope to be for Macie.

My Peak:
Last night as Macie and I were waiting for DH to get home I was playing with Macie. We had the best time. She was just laughing and laughing and it was the belly laugh, the kind that just make me think I'm the luckiest momma in the world to be entrusted with such a sweet baby.

I know many of you are still waiting for your little ones, and I think about you often. I have no words of wisdom, just thoughts and prayers that our hopes will be fulfilled through Him.

What was your 'peak and pit' this week?

Things That Keep Me Humble

This year my husband (who teaches high school chemistry) has a blind student. He's told me a lot about her and I met her once while in DH's classroom (remember, we teach at the same high school).
She told me she has heard my voice before and I told her I'd say hi next time she walked by my classroom.
Yesterday I saw her while I was holding the door open for some of my students. I said "hi!" and she said hi and then asked me how my day was. I said great, and she said her day was going well. I said "That's great! See you later!".

Then I put my palm to my forehead and realized how inappropriate my comment was.

Peak and Pit

The peak of this week was getting rid of the 8 industrial dryers which were in our house for 6 days! Our tiny little leak has caused thousands of dollars of damage and will result in new paint for most of the house and new laminate flooring if they can't match the old. It's been a hassle, but how can I complain with all the loss in Japan and in other parts of the world? It's been a great reminder of how much I am blessed.

The pit of this week was Monday night. For some reason I always get bummed when we're driving home from Bible study on Monday nights. Maybe it's because it's usually around 930 and I'm tired and we're all tired. Maybe it's because all the moms at the Bible study talk about their 'mom's group' that meets during the work day on Wednesdays and I always feel a little guilty about working. Maybe it's just that I still have the whole week to get through and it's only Monday night...Anywho, I tend to get a little bummed out on Monday nights. I'm hoping this Monday will be different.

And this is mean to share! What was your peak and pit this week?

P.S. This is Macie. She has now found her hair bows and they don't generally stay in her hair anymore.

1st birthday ideas

At Kelly's Korner, today's Show Us Your Life is Birthday parties. Macie just turned 10 months this week (what!?!) so obviously I can't show you her party pictures, but I thought I'd share what I'm planning. Her theme will be 'CowGirl'. I'm telling, you go on etsy and search for cowgirl birthday party. There is some of the CUTEST stuff, and so far, this is what I've decided on:

I ordered this shirt from IzzyBTees on etsy. I haven't received it yet, but I just thought it was adorable.

I also found this skirt, but my mom is starting to be quite a seamstress in her retirement, so I commissioned her to make something similar and she was excited to try. So I'll let you know how it turns out.

And I've given myself a budget of $200.00 for this party. Is that too personal to share on a blog? It feels like SUCH a large amount of money, but most of that is going towards feeding our family and friends, so I'm thinking it's pretty reasonable (especially since I just partnered to throw my SIL a baby shower that totalled over 500 dollars!). But that means I'm making most of the decorations for Macie's party by myself. I found these dye-cuts here at work (school) and I'm going to try to make a banner myself. Something like this:

I'll keep you posted as I plan. Anybody watching that 'extreme child birthday parties' show on TLC? I watch the re.al housewives of beverly hi.lls and I noticed that one woman spent $60,000.00 on her daughters 4th party. I suppose by comparison my 200.00 is pretty cheap. Anybody brave enough to share their party costs? Yikes!

Womanly

I finally scheduled an oppointment for a 'well woman' exam. I've been putting it off since I had Macie, and finally It's just time. I'm mostly doing this because my dr. left the practice I was using and I don't like the other dr. there. So while I'm not necessarily hoping to get pregnant until maybe summer (like I have control over such things, ha!), this time, I'm hoping to already have a relationship with my dr. before hand. So thus, I scheduled my womanly exam.
For me, the worst part of the womanly exam isn't the womanly part. It's the blood pressure machine and the scale. I don't mind when they take bp by hand, but that machine actually hurts sometimes! And then the scale...do I need to say more? By the end of my pregnancy I was just turning around on it so I didn't have to look at the numbers. I've lost about 25 pounds since Jan. 2nd, so I know the scale won't be so bad, but it's still not so great. THat is for sure!
What part do you hate the most about the ob/gyn?

Peak and Pit

Every Friday for almost the entire year I've been teaching, I've asked my students what the peak and pit of their week was (the best part - peak, and worst part - pit). It has been a great way to get to know my students better. Everyone has to write it in their bell work, but only a few kids share (as it could easily take the whole period). All the ages of students I've taught, from sixth graders to 12th graders really like it.

So then I was thinking, why don't I do this on my blog? I'll try to do it every friday like in my classroom, but of course, today is Saturday, so I'm already behind.

Plus, we've had some homeowners excitement around here this week, so I certainly have things to share.

My Pit: Tuesday night, DH found a leak in the wall between our bathroom and dining room! I am so thankful he heard it, because if I was alone, I wouldn't have heard it and it would've gone on for a lot longer and done a lot more damage! So that meant that we were on the phone with st.ate farm and a 24 hour plumbing company. We ended up just shutting the water off until the next afternoon when the plumber could get out there. At first we thought it was a slab leak, (which means a lot more money..Yikes!) but turns out it was just in the wall.

But this has meant that since Wednesday night when the 'restoration' company was here, we've had about 7 industrial dryers going and we've had to spend the last two nights at my mom's house. I know my mom didn't mind, but we really took advantage of her. She insisted we sleep in her bed, and she watched Macie all day for the last two days while DH and I went with our church to the Catalys.t West coast conference with An.dy Stanley.

So the current status update is that we're on day three of the dyers, they tore out about 20 square feet of our laminate floor, and there is still a whole a few feet big in our drywall in the dining room. I'm sure I'll update that more as the problem gets fixed. And we have pictures too.

My peak: There are really a lot of things to chose from. Going to that conference was amazing. It was about taking courage as a Christian leader. We heard from two non-christians (the guy who started twitter and Soledad O'b.rian from CNN) and a bunch of Christians - An.dy Stanley, Dave Ram.sey, and about 5 other great speakers. Very motivating. But the best part of all was coming home to this adorable little girl each day. She is almost walking. She has taken a bunch of steps on her own, but she still falls down. Her current record is about 9 steps. Since she'll be 10 months on Monday (right!?) I'll probably say she 'started' walking at 9 months and hopefully became proficient at 10 months.

Here is a picture to end this post. Macie has recently started biting the spoon when she's done eating. I know she looks like a cowgirl here, it's just the way her bib is positioned. I promise she didn't just come from a train robbery, it's just how she looks. promo

On to the next?

I'm feeling torn about trying for baby #2. On one hand, how could I think about putting it off? I'm already 32 (not THAT old, but old enough) and it took us 3 years of trying to get pregnant with Macie, so what if it takes another 3 years? Ideally, we're still thinking of having 3 children, so shouldn't we get busy?

On the other hand, I'm finally losing some weight (21 pounds since January 2nd), and I have a long way to go. I'm about 2 pounds away from pre pregnancy weight. And about 40 pounds from pre-TTC weight. So to start from here again would be frustrating. AND, I'm just enjoying this girl so much!

She's 9 1/2 months, and I'm loving being her mommy! I think two years apart would be great!

But here is my dilemma that you all can weigh in on. We haven't used any birth control since Macie was born, but what if I did use birth control? Just until Aug. Would that be telling God that He doesn't know what's best for my life? But isn't that what I did before we even started trying? Maybe this is what all women in the 60s and 70s had to ask themselves once the pill was available, but I don't really feel good about either option. So for now I"m just enjoying my little one and if I got pregnant again I know I would be THRILLED, but I just also think I would probably be a little frustrated too.

What did you all do, those who got pregnant. Some form of birth control or just a free-for-all?