Welcome Little One!

Holding my goddaughter for the first time!

She’s finally here!  What a sweetheart!  She was a whopping 9 lbs 10.5 oz and was 20.5 inches long.  Basically she was HUGE for a newborn!  My poor friend was in labor for 9 hours and then had to have a C-section because little “JEM” was so big! 

Sticking out her tongue at me already!

It was a wonderful day!  I know one day I’ll have my own…but until then, I will soak up all of JEM’s sweetness that I can!

Happy Day Everyone!

It is a Good Day!

Whew!  Today was a tough day and it’s still not over!  I spent several hours cleaning my house this morning (we’re having company on Saturday night) and several hours cleaning out our flower beds this afternoon.  My back is cursing me!    In 30 minutes, I will be heading off to do some power yoga…is that crazy?  Oh well, I’m still doing it.  After I get home, M and I will have dinner and then I’m off to go grocery shopping for tomorrow!   I have a feeling I will be sleeping like a rock tonight!

On the emotional front, I am quite proud of myself!  I am doing so well!  I met up with my former co-workers for lunch today and was surprised when another co-worker I hadn’t seen in awhile also showed up and was obviously 4 or 5 months pregnant.  She just got married last year (I think).  She even passed around ultrasound pictures!  I handled it surprisingly well considering it’s survival week and all!  Honestly, I think I just have so much going on that my not being pregnant is the farthest thing from my mind. 

This is good.  This is really good!

More good news is that my scale has FINALLY started moving again this week!  Yay!  It’s about darn time!  This came at the perfect time because I was really starting to get frustrated.  Finally seeing progress has just amped my motivation once again!   I only have about 4 or 5 pounds to go!

Ok, I gotta run!  Yoga is calling and I hate rushing to get there…it pretty much defeats the purpose of yoga (calming your mind while working your body) when you’re road raging the whole way there…ha ha!

Enjoy the beautiful weekend!  (Well, I hope it’s beautiful where you’re at, because it certainly is going to be a beautiful here!)

Survival Week Begins – Look Out!

Yup, it is definitely the beginning of survival week for me.  But I think being at home and really only doing what I want to do has helped immensely.  I warned M last night though!  I will try and be good but it would help me out if he could just be little extra loving these next few days.  I am also swearing off Facebook for at least the next 3-4 days.  I will read anything in my inbox, but I’m not reading anyone’s status updates! 

On a happier note, I think my goddaughter is going to be born next week.  My friend has an appointment on Wednesday of next week and if little Janie still measures big they will induce her on Thursday!  I can’t wait to finally meet her and get a sweet baby fix!!!!

I also have some other really great news.  When I worked at the pregnancy center on Tuesday, I asked about that girl I counseled last week.  Apparently she has put off having the abortion and actually went and saw a doctor on Monday.   I think that is a REALLY great sign!  It shows she is concerned about the pregnancy.  Obviously she may still change her mind but from the person we talked to who gave us the update, it seemed likely she would either keep the baby or place it for adoption!   Praise God!!!!!  I just got the biggest smile on my face when I heard that!  It just picked up my spirits after being sad about it over the weekend.  God is definitely in control and I’m glad because I definitely could have done a better job last week!  But it didn’t matter because God’s strength is made perfect in our weakness!

One last thing…the other day, M says to me “do you feel different?”  I said, “…uh, no.  What do you mean?”  He basically said that he just had this feeling that I might have conceived this month.  I sorta laughed at him because we actually missed my peak day by 2 days this time.  In fact, I don’t think we did it all during my fertile time.  A lot of things were going on last week and I just didn’t feel into it.  I knew we were missing our time, but since I’m starting school, it’s not really the best time for me to get pregnant anyway (like I even can…LOL), so I didn’t see any sense in trying this month.  I really don’t think there is any chance that I did get pregnant this month, but I just wanted to put this out there, just in case in DID happen (a complete miracle).   (BTW, M has NEVER said this before in our 3+ years of trying).

The List Keeps Growing

Well, I haven’t really had a chance to get into the groove of this whole SAHW thing yet!  Yesterday was crazy busy and today is shaping up to be the same!  The nice thing is that I can SLOWLY get ready in the morning…have coffee, eat some breakfast, watch a little GMA, check e-mail from the comfort of my bed…yay!  I could definitely get used to this.  The bad thing is that I really do feel like I have a ton to do.  I’ve only checked one thing off the list so far and yet I’ve added several things….argh!  

Well, I have to run.  I have to take a shower, then head over to the University to turn in some financial aid forms, then off to the library to read and study for an entrance exam I have the first week of school.  This evening I am volunteering at the pregnancy center.

Speaking of, I have to share a story.  When I worked at the pregnancy center last Thursday we had an 18 year old girl come in who had just found out she was pregnant even though she was about 8 weeks along.  Her dad brought her in so she could talk to someone about her situation and also so she could have an ultrasound.  I spent about 30 minutes talking with her.  She really wanted an abortion and wanted to make sure she wasn’t too far along.   I can’t share anymore details but her situation made it seem very difficult for her to even consider parenting her baby. 

Eventually I passed her along to our nurse to do the ultrasound.  About 5 minutes after she went into the ultrasound room, I heard the heartbeat LOUD and clear through the door!  I immediately got choked up.  What a beautiful sound!!  A sound that I would give ANYTHING to hear for myself!  After she left, the nurse said she was still really leaning towards an abortion.  It really broke my heart.   I wanted to beg her to let me have her baby…but we can’t do that.  Due to legalities, I’m not even allowed to adopt her baby even if that’s what she wanted.  I don’t know what she ended up deciding, but the situation really affected me.  I will be asking tonight if anyone has heard what happened.

Ok, I’ll be back later this week!  Hopefully I’ll have knocked a few more items off my list!

A New Era

Well, that’s it!  I’m actually done!  I got a call from HR on Friday morning and they told me that Friday would be my last day in the office so I needed to pass along any info I had to my co-workers (did that already), pack up my desk (mostly already did that too) and leave.  I have to go back to meet with HR on Monday to sign all the paperwork and turn in my company property, but it’s in a different building so I wont even be going into my old building.  I was surprised.  I figured I’d have Monday to say all my goodbyes but it wasn’t to be.  I admit, as much as I am so excited and ready to leave my old career behind, I was actually pretty sad about leaving all the great people I have worked with.  I even cried when I said goodbye to my co-worker who has been my partner/teammate for 8 years.  It’s “the end of an era” (ala Friends).

So as I was driving home, I called M.  I was still choked up and just wanted to cry.  But then I realized that I would definitely not be crying come Monday morning when I don’t have to wake up early…ha ha!  That helped perk me up a little!  And it’s not like I’m never going to see the people I was actually friends with again!

Ah…but really, I am FREE now!  I will never work as an engineer again and I’m officially a SAHW…well, at least for the next 2 weeks anyway.  Then I’ll be a full time student again…weird!!!

It’s the start of a NEW era!

Protected: The Surrendered Wife

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

The Final Days

Well, I’m down to my last 3 days of work!  I found out officially that my last day of work will be this coming Monday, April 20. 

As excited as I am to move on to my new career, it is still a little sad to be leaving my company.  I have worked in the same department, in the same group, for the same manager, and with pretty much all the same people for the last 8 years.  That’s a LONG time especially when you’re spending up to 40 hours per week with someone!   I will definitely not miss the actual work, but I will miss the people.  We have some really wonderful people in my department.  At least I’m not leaving the general area so I will be able to stay in touch with my friends!  The core group in our department organizes happy hour’s regularly so I will still do my best to join them once in a while!

Aside from those small feelings of sadness, I am still really looking forward to having almost 2 whole weeks off before school starts!  I have been continuing doing yoga almost every day (I still love it) and working out/cardio on top of that!  Unfortunately I haven’t lost any more weight…I’m not sure why but I have definitely seen my muscles grow and also dropped my body fat percentage, so that’s pretty cool.  I’m trying to use the mirror as motivation as opposed to just the scale.  The pounds will eventually start dropping again (I hope)…I just wish it would go a tad faster.  But with all my time off coming up, I will have lots more time to keep up my activity level!  I also hope to get lots of stuff done around the house, errands run, scrapbooking started back up, and get-togethers with friends!    I can’t wait!

So I will post more on the SW stuff in a pwp post.  It will be the same password as before for all you who got it last time.  Otherwise feel free to leave me your e-mail address and I will send it to you.

The Theology of the Body CD’sI have been listening to have been really eye opening.  Basically the speaker, Christopher West, explains Pope John Pauls’s teachings from awhile back about what God’s original intent for and meaning of the body really was.  Society (and sin) have really warped our sense of what our bodies are for.  In many ways, society looks at people and their bodies as objects.  The theology of the body gives some practical ways to live out the proper/godly view of the body.  I am only about halfway through but it is really good.  I asked M to listen to it also.  I think it’s a little more overwhelming from a guy’s perspective because they are so much more visual!   It is a hard concept to put into practice.  But at the same time, there was a lot of really great points about women and their struggles in it too.   I would highly recommend it!

As for my NaPro stuff…I decided to hold off for another month before getting my hormone series done.  I made an appointment with my primary care physician last week to see about getting some of it covered by my insurance.  I have an HMO and they usually don’t pay for anything that is out of network.  So I had a long talk with my doctor to see how we could word the referrals so that my HMO might be more willing to accept it.  We had several strategies mapped out but it wasn’t even necessary.  Later that day, her office called me and said that my HMO has a special provision that allows me to see anyone out of network so I’m all set…..huh?…come again?

I guess through my work…the HMO’s they pay for will let you see someone out of network.  Now, I’m not sure they are going to cover 100% of the cost, they may only cover the cost up to how much they would typically pay an in-network provider.  But still….even if they only covered 30-40% of the cost, that would still be a huge help!   Yay!  Next year, we will still switch our insurance to a PPO so that if I do end up getting surgery at PPVI (after I finish school), it will at least be 70% covered!

So as soon as my next cycle starts in about 2 weeks, I will start the series!   Needle sticks…here I come! 

That’s all for now!  More on the SW in my next post!  By the way, I am totally delinquent in sending it the next person.  I should be able to get it in the mail tomorrow or Saturday!

Reading and Reading!

So I’m reading the SW book and it’s really really good!  In fact, I ordered another copy because I just had to give it to my sister to read.  She is actually reading it right now too!  I figure there’s a good chance we will be passing around our copy to some of our other friends! 

I don’t have a lot of time to write tonight since I’m really trying to get the book finished so I can ship it off to the next person but I wanted to share a link to a really cool blog post I came across today!    It was shared by “Infertile.  Who, me?”  It has a really great cartoon that had a very poignant message.  I hope it strikes you like it struck me!

Here it is!