Ali's Allies

Today, Nash and I participated in our 3rd annual Easter's Seals walk with Ali's Allies. Well, the first year we signed up and donated but didn't make it because Nash was only a few months old and had a rough night the night before. We walked this year and the year before. Our cousin Ali who has Williams Syndrome is the reason we walk. She receives tons of services through Easter Seals and loves it there. She is such a sweet little girl. Ali and her family has had been through a lot with her physical problems. Her family does an awesome job taking care of her.

The group picture. Our group raised over $1300 for Easter Seals.

This year Kat and Nate joined us for the walk and we all had a great time.

      Thanks to everyone who participated and donated to our team.

An Awesome First Day

Today was Nash's first day at Mother's Day Out. I have been both looking forward to this day and dreading it. Last night did not go so well as he didn't sleep well because of his stopped up nose so I had to wake him up to get him ready for school and I was afraid of how that was going to play into his day but he did awesome!

Nash about to walk out of the door to go to big school.

What's funny is when I took this picture he at first had a hold of his lunch box but it was so heavy from all that it had in it (an ice pack, two sippy cups full of milk and juice, a lunchable, grapes, and cheez its) that he quickly set it down. He likes to wear the back pack though.

On the way to school, I was on the verge of tears but Nash was so happy and excited about big school that I was able to hold them back. When we pulled up, he said "BIG SCHOOL!" and then started rattling off all the things I have been telling him about big school like "I play with friends, I color, I play with toys!". He went in and immediately started playing and didn't even look back. I talked with the teacher some and didn't even say bye because I was afraid I would start crying and I didn't want to make him upset when he was doing so well. I had my cry on the way to work though and got it out. I am so glad he did so well with going. I don't know what I would have done if he cried or didn't want to go. I think I probably would have called into work and sat with him until he felt more comfortable.

So, I called and checked on him about 10ish and the report was that he was doing great and was enjoying story time at the moment. I took off early today so I could pick him up on his first day. When I got there he was so excited to see me and ran to me. He told me about what he did at school and I have asked him a million questions about it too. I got the below report about his day and couldn't have been more happy with how it went. He even sat on the potty twice, ate most of his food, AND took a good nap rather easily.

He did this and decorated his "mail box" today as their art for the day.

I couldn't be happier about how today went and hope every day goes as well as today did.

Big Things are Happening

This week has been a big week for Mr. Nash. Saturday night Chris and I went to a movie and to Babies R Us to order Nash's converter kit to turn  his crib to a toddler bed. We get there and to my surprise they had one in stock. I wasn't really planning on converting his crib this week but since we had it Chris put it together on Sunday. Right away, Nash loved it and did real well. He calls it his "big boy bed" and loves that he can get in and out himself. The first night he went down easy, fell asleep, and stayed asleep all night in his bed.

So, since that was such a success Monday I randomly decide I want to try go wean him off the paci. My thought was I have a week until he goes to Mother's Day Out where they prefer the 2 year old not to have paci's or just have them a nap. So, my thinking was if I take it away cold turkey that would more than likely freak Nash out since he loved it and wanted it so much so I tried the method of cutting the tip off which worked pretty quickly. It was comical to watch him at first put it in his mouth,  try to suck on it and take it out and look at it again trying to figure what was up with the paci ( I had to turn my back to him to keep from him seeing me laugh). I have to give him credit because he is pretty smart. The first time he figured out something was wrong with the paci he said "no Mama, the red paci". Little did he know it had been altered too. So, long story short he did this several times over the last couple of days and has decided that the paci's are broken and he wanted to throw them away. So we have. However, due to this change he has been super whinny at times. It is getting some better. It has been hard for him to go to sleep. That combined with the new toddler bed means I have had to lay with him in his toddler bed (Yes I lay on my side facing the rail with my feet off the bed) until he falls asleep. Any sugguestions of other things that would work I am for. He woke up some during the night the first night but each night thus far has gotten better so keeping my fingers crossed that it will continue in that direction.

The broken paci

As mentioned above Nash starts "big boy school" as I have been calling it next Monday. I have tried to prepare myself mentally, prepare Nash for what to expect, and prepare by getting the things he needs for school. Below is a super cute monkey lunch box and pre-school backpack I found on line that I thought Nash had to have.

He also has a Mickey Mouse blanket and pillow set  coming any day now and a new pair of tennis shoes. So material wise he is all set. However, I am nervous about Monday. It's going to be another big day. I really feel like Nash will do good. As I have been talking about it to him, he gets so excited and tells me pretty much every day that he wants to go to school. I am just preparing myself for a tearful day Monday, calling and checking on him during the day, and rushing there from work to pick him to see how his day went.

TCOYF

This is what my night stand looks like.

As most of you know I was having awful side effects from my birth control. First it was just horrible periods and then it was headaches turned into migraines turned into daily migraines. My last attempt at the pill was the mini pill with a preventative for the migraine and I was having migraines every two days and awful side effects from the preventative I was on. So my doctor advised me and I totally was already there myself to stop hormonal birth control. My only other option (as my doctor's office apparently does not do diaphrams anymore) was a copper IUD.  A friend of mine told me a horror story about it and the cost and etc. I decided not to go that route.

So I went this route. My friend, Kat, uses this method and has been successful at both getting pregnant and not getting pregnant for several years so I thought I would take a look at it. I have borrowed the book and am reading it and starting to use the method and am excited about it.

Basically, the book educates you about your body and the whole ovulation process. So, in a nutshell you chart your waking tempature every morning before getting out of bed and chart it along with other signs your body is giving you to let you know if you are fertile or not. I have just started charting and I started mid cycle and right after getting off homromal birth control so I am going to give it a couple of months to totally rely on it once I can tell what my body is doing and be more comfortable with it.

I am excited about it for several reasons. The main one obiviosly is I am glad to be off hormonal birth control and not have so many migraines. My migraines are getting less frequent and will eventually stop once the effects of the hormonal birth control gets out of my body. Also, I am kind of a nerd and I am excited to be educated on my body and being able to know what it is doing.  Another thing I am excited about is normally I am pretty regular and I hope I will get back to that soon. Once you kind of have it down you can short cut the charting to a little over a week a month where you can track the fertile phase and then be done with it until the next one comes.

Yes, if I could just take a pill and not have to worry with it I would probably do that because that sounds so much easier. However, this method makes perfect sense. Once you have it down it really isn't that time consuming, I will know exactly what my body is doing and can use that info to both avoid pregnancy and possibly get pregnant again in the future.  An interesting fact the book talks about is that women are only fertile for a short while (about a week). Men are fertile twenty four seven but women most of the time have the hassle of birth control and all the other "side effects" that come along with it. Never thought of that before.

Sick

Ughh...I hate being sick. I woke up early Sunday morining around 3ish with a migraine, nausiated, and cold chills.  The migraine and nausia went away  with medicine but all day Sunday it felt like I was drugged. I couldn't stay awake. Good thing Nash was being good and wanted to watch some of his movies. Then I took the entire nap with Nash and could of slept more. I layed down all afternoon in and out of sleep.
Today, I am home sick and I hate it. I have slept most of the morning and just got enough energy to get on the computer some. I woke up  this morning with the intentions of going to work but when it was all I could do to shower and I still felt tired after 10 hours of sleep I figured I better stay home.  Tomorrow, I am going to make myself go. I don't like missing work espically a new job that I am still learning. They are real understanding but I don't like it. Also, I don't like laying around all day feeling lazy and not at all productive. Maybe, I will be better tomorrow. Hopefully.

busy, busy, dreadfully busy...

(the title for this post is from Nash's Veggie Tale Movie)

I guess I have been busy. It kind of feels that way. I started my new job about a week and half ago. The first week was just orientation to the company (polices, procedures, cpr, cpi, tours, insurance, etc). This week I have actually been at the school doing the summer program and getting trained on paperwork, procedures, etc. So far so good. I like my supervisor. She is down to earth and easy to talk to and get direction from when needed which is always nice. I think I am going to like it. It is a lot to learn though and it feels like starting all over which really it is. So, that makes me a little uneasy but I am catching on. I requires you to be very independent which I am but because it is so unstructured I want to be super structured and organized which I can only do a little at a time and I am not quite there yet. I am sure once I get in my groove I will be fine or at least I hope so.

Chris has been very busy too. Now that he is head coach, he has off season every day where he goes up to the school and the guys work out and play basketball and several nights out of the week they have practice games and are going to camps. It feels like it is basketball season already.


Nash has been good. I think he may be teething because he is waking up at night again crying and even after coming to our bed he still does not sleep well which means I don't sleep well. I hear they get their two year old molars around this time. I haven't felt anything yet and it's hard to see back there. He also has had some rough dirty diapers too. We have regressed significantly with the paci. Now I am wondering if part of that is from teething as well. I know most of it is due to the 10 hour car drive to and from FL where he had his paci most of the time but did amazing well during both trips. Now he calls it his "pass-e-fi-er". He enunciates well. In other Nash news, I have order Nash a matching monkey backpack and lunch box for when he starts Mother's Day Out in a month. (Okay I don't want to talk about it any further, I think I might cry).

My migraines have been horrible. Long story short I tried another preventative that actually made me feel pretty rough for most of the day  due to the side effects and only stopped my migraines to every two days. I could have waited it out longer but I have decided enough is enough and am getting off of hormonal birth control and the preventative I was on. Therefore, I have had a migraine every day. My only hope and peace about is I know when I did this last time after a few weeks I got to where the migraines were few and far between and at one time I went a month without one until I got on a new hormonal birth control.

There is no easy transition here but this morning my aunt passed away. She has been battling cancer for years. She recently started going down hill  and in the last couple of weeks went down hill pretty quickly. I have not really processed this yet and it still kind of hard to wrap my brain around it. I mean in a way it's not and in a way it is. My aunt is a sister to my grandmother who passed way a few years ago. I always associated the two of them together because they were together a lot. My grandmother never got to see Nash. I got pregnant with Nash a month or so after my grandmother passed. My aunt was crazy about Nash. She saw him a lot, bought him things even though she didn't have much money to do so, and loved being around him. I think her and I got somewhat closer because of him and my grandma passing. She went on and on about him all the time. I like to think that is how my grandmother would have been with him. I am sorry she is gone and going to miss her. I know her and my grandmother are together now and maybe she is telling her all about Nash.  I am glad she is out of pain and  I know I will see her again some day. I feel so sorry for her kids and grand kids.

The Tattoo

Before I get started, yes it hurt like
crazy and I am glad it wasn't much bigger than it was.

So, I got at tattoo while I was in FL. What really possessed me to do it, I really don't know. My brother gets one every year that he goes down there and I think that is a little much. I have nothing against tattoos (obviously) but never really knew of anything I could think of that I wanted tattooed on me for the rest of my life. I really wasn't planning on getting one this time. However, when I was down there as they were talking about what they were getting the thought kept coming to my head of getting a Jesus fish on my foot.
So, one afternoon my sister who was with us wanted her belly pierced with I was trying to talk her out of just because I saw one done before and saw how bad it hurt. I thought I will just take her down there to see about it and then I will ask about mine. We get there and I explain to the lady what were are both looking for and immediately they say because my sister is 14 and not yet 15 she can't have her's done. I though oh crap the pressure is on me. So I look and find one on the wall that I like. I start freaking out. I decide for whatever reason against everything in me that I am just going to go ahead and do it. One, no one thought I would and for some reason I just fight through the fear and do it.
There is this man there who is tattooed up who is the one going to be doing my tattoo and who is a complete jerk to me the entire time. The reason-I am getting a Jesus fish tattoo. He makes it very clear. He keeps saying Jesus ain't got nothing to do with it or God ain't got nothing to do with it when I am freaking out and calling out on God. I lightly joke back at him. With me being a girl he doesn't just crush me but is being pretty harsh. I see all over Chris's face like "we can leave any time you want". I knew there was a bigger issue going on though so I stuck it out and try to make light ot it even though under any other circumstances I would have been gone. Anyway so while on the table about to or during my tattoo he says "in case you can't tell I am not a religious person". I say something to the effect of "no I can tell". He says "Oh because of the way I look". I say "no it has nothing to do with the way you look. The entire time you have been riding me and giving me a hard time". He says "I just don't believe what you believe. I believe it's whatever that gets you through the day that matters". I say "sir, I am not judging you. You believe what you believe and I believe what I believe". His whole attitude changed from that point on. He said "I know your not". The truth is he was judging me the whole time. Thinking I was going to be a preachy Christian and tell him he's going to Hell if he doesn't get his life together and yada yada yada. I am sure he has heard enough of that and that is what he had me pegged for from the word go.
Don't you know I have obessed and analyzed this situation a million times. I feel like I was supposed to get the tattoo. I feel like I was supposed to meet this man. I feel like this man needed to see that even though he wanted me to judge him and pushed every button to get me to I was not going to. That poor man underneath it all has been hurt badly by someone and sadly probably some "Christain". Lord help us. God is love and wants us to show love to others. There as some very wounded people out there who I feel like instead of being preached to need to first feel like they are loved and accepted for who they are.