Bestfeeding...

8:14 AM Posted In , , Edit This 0 Comments »
As I have mentioned before, one thing I am really looking forward to is being able to breastfeed Hadleigh. Throughout the first trimester, everyone I would meet would ask me what books I am reading in order to prepare for our tiny baby. I would always casually respond, "Hubs and I do everything by the seat of our pants, we probably aren't going to start reading parenting books now!!!" But recently I have become obsessed with knowledge about birth and breastfeeding. I began reading the book, "Bestfeeding" after borrowing it from our library and it has only made my passion to nurse that much stronger. I must admit, however, that I do not have unrealistic expectations about breastfeeding. I watched my sister feed my nephew for what seemed non-stop until he was weaned. I am certainly scared that I will give up and say it's too hard, opting for formula, but I honestly believe with a strong support system I will be able to endure the physical and emotional demands of breastfeeding. In order to strengthen this support system, I am going to attend my first La Leche League meeting today. I know I have about four months left in this pregnancy, but this will be the only meeting I am able to attend until the month before sweet baby is born.

I have also become obsessed with learning more about having a natural childbirth. Now this is where I think I am losing my mind. After watching my sister labor for hours on end and the pain that she was in WITH an epidural, I begin to think I am crazy to even consider going natural an option-- I just want to see what is out there and learn about whatever is best for the baby...but I'm sure I'll be posting more on this later...Now, off to shower and off to my meeting!!

Weekend Plans

9:18 AM Posted In , , , Edit This 1 Comment »
I can't wait to get out of town!!! We have been having our statewide standardized testing ALL.WEEK.LONG. and I am MUCH more than over it! I have been looking forward to this camping trip long before I was pregnant, so we will see how much I enjoy it toting a couple extra lbs now... Hopefully it will be no big deal, but we will see how comfortable I am while sleeping.


Mostly everyone will be arriving tomorrow during the day, but hubs and I are going up early today to scope out the scene. We will go ahead and set up our tent and canopy, etc. and wait anxiously for everyone else to get there! Hubs and I have already toyed with the idea of taking sweet baby girl next year when she is merely 8 months, but we will obviously see about that later.

I am unfortunately missing a talent show at my school and one of my students asked me if I could reschedule the the camping trip for another time so I didn't miss their dance. As politely as possible, I told her that I would miss almost anything, except for H.A.'s birth to go camping. Maybe next year we can talk my sister and parents into going too...We will see, be back on Tuesday!!! I hope y'all have a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend!!!

Nursery.

9:55 AM Posted In , , , Edit This 6 Comments »
As you can probably imagine, I am so very eager to get our sweet baby girl's nursery set up. Actually, I can't stinkin' wait!

I could possibly be the hardest person in the world to please so I have been having an impossible time picking out the bedding. I think little girls (and boys!) are so special and individual, so I can't imagine grabbing a bed-in-a-bag that could truly match everything I feel about this tiny baby.

My criteria for the bedding was this;
1. LOTS of colors! I wanted to be able to match solid color crib sheets with whatever we chose
2. NO CHARACTERS! END OF STORY!
3. No butterflies, bugs, animals, etc.
4. Flowers were ok if they were abstract and not strategically placed in rows and or columns
See? I'm a freak. I found some that I liked, and some that I looooooved, but they were either in only brown and pink or $500 for a 4 piece bedding set.

Solution? Ask these incredible people that I am lucky enough to be related to and or friends with to make it for me!!! Yaaaaaaaay!!!



Luckily, my sister is friends with (so I, in turn, am friends with...) the very talented Stephanie of Providence Handmade and she has graciously agreed to work with us and create our own bedding for our sweet little H.A. (I am not sure I am 100% ready to reveal our name...)!



I asked her yesterday if she would maybe consider helping us out...my sister is amazing behind the sewing machine, me...not so much, but she said she would definitely help us out! Sa-Weet!!! Not only is she doing this pro bono, she also put together this LOVELY collage of everything we should include in the room, aahh, the benefits of having an interior designer friend!!! Check out this bad boy--

(Sorry! I can't figure out how to make this bigger!!! )
Needless to say, we can't WAIT to get started!!!

T is for Taking...

2:27 PM Posted In , Edit This 0 Comments »
Taking it easy that is. We had another snow day today so that of course meant more time with the boys.
Sam and I were enjoying a little cuddling sesh in "Crap-paw's" recliner, when Joelie decided to join the bunch.

Yay for snow and taking it easy!

R is for Recap. . .

7:41 PM Posted In , , Edit This 2 Comments »
I have been MIA for the past few days, so I thought I would recap with lots of pictures from my weekend with my brother and sister-in-law!
We went up to see one of my favorite bands, Old Crow Medicine Show. They were fab.
My sister-in-law Jessica and me enjoying the music.
Husband almost always looks surprised in pics.
My brother and Jessica enjoying the show. Nicholas almost always looks like this in pics.
We had to walk through massive amounts of snow, while looking Romanian, says my sister-in-law.
As Nicholas and Jessica walked on the beaten path, hubs ran through the snow like a 5-year-old.

We made wings, rings, and things...here we are breading the onions. It looks like we forgot our makeup, but we didn't, it just came off after our 4 hour naps.

Par for the course, we had a freestyle dance party while we were deep frying our food.
Our finished products-- wings!!!
Our finished homemade onion rings.

Showing just exactly how tasty our wings were.


We sang duets while my husband someone who will remain nameless flipped off the camera.

We went to my brother's office where we did really important stuff with the 3D printer.

We ate 1/2 lb. meatballs @ Buca Di Beppo.

And we hated it when we had to leave. It's always nice to get back home, but it does make me sad living away from my brother and sister-in-law. I wish Jessica could go with me, my mom, and my sister when we go shopping every Saturday, I wish Nicholas could go shoot guns with the boys, or go shopping with us, or even just eat Sunday dinner with us. But their life is there and ours is here, so we have to make the best of it while we can, and we have been known to have some good times when we are together!

Q is for Quick

5:06 PM Posted In , Edit This 0 Comments »
Since these have been circling facebook, I knew it was inevitable that I would eventually be tagged. 

So, here you have it. Straight from my facebook notes; 25, well, 28, quick and random facts about me. 

1. My initials spell my name phonetically. When I got married I dropped Leigh (even though I loved it) to make my maiden name my middle name. My initials went from ALM to AME

2. I have had a pet turtle, Mr. Peepers, for at least five years.

3. I have always been looked at as the “wild child” of my family but it’s just because I tell all of my business. I think my sister or brother could have given me a run for my money but they are much more secretive about their meanderings.

4. I can flip my eyelids inside out. 

5. My dream job would be working in a salon doing hair and nails aaaaall day long. I never even mentioned going to cosmetology school to my parents because I was afraid they would think I was crazy for not wanting to go college.

6. I loved every minute of undergrad and I am pretty sure I wouldn’t change anything I did if I had to do it over again. 

7. Graduate school kinda sucked. 

8. The only thing I ever wanted to do with my life, besides hair and nails, was to be a mom. Unfortunately there is not an undergraduate degree for Mommy-ship, so I went into teaching. 

9. One reason why I wanted to get married was because I was surrounded with the strong marriages of my mom and dad, sister and Nathan, and brother and Jessica.

10. More than anything in the world I would love to be a mom. I am terrified of this because I don’t think there is any way possible I could be as good of a mom as my mother or my sister. 

11. Even though I know it probably will eventually happen; I can’t imagine loving any child more than I love my nephews Sam and Joel. 

12. I think the US should think more like Sweden on maternity leave--16 mos. paid leave per child. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maternity_leave

13. I once sprained my ankle because I was excited about eating a sausage sandwich, and it was a very bad sprain.

14. I broke my nose in dance class after my girl Joanie asked me to skip it so we could hang out.

15. We have had all our baby names picked out since before Tyler and I were married. Who knows if we will ever use them. . . 

16. I have never had a speeding ticket, or even been pulled over ::::knocks on wood::::

17. I never went camping or would have considered myself “outdoorsy” until I started hanging out with Tyler…Now I can’t imagine my life without camping, fishing, peeing in the woods, swimming in rivers, etc.

18. I think homeschooling could be either the best/worst-service/disservice you could ever do for your child.

19. I believe in public education and it’s not just because our kids will go to the school where “Grandma” is the principal. 

20. I have only passed out once in my life. It was while I was checking out at the gyno’s office…I told the clerk that I thought I was going to be sick. I passed out and hit my head on the wall. My gyno made me go get a CT scan to make sure I was ok. They still use the wicker trashcan I smashed when I landed. They also still joke about it when I come in.

21. I could live anywhere in the world with Tyler…as long as my parents and sister moved there too. 

22. I have four tattoos. My most recent is on my back and has rhododendrons and says “Montani Semper Liberi”. Said tattoo is still unfinished. When Kevin (tattoo artist) finished the lettering, he said, “Hey, what is the ‘Montani Sepmer LIBRARY’ anyway?” I panicked for a hot sec, but then I realized he was just messin’ with me. 

23. I think that going to “Lick Run Tavern” with Melissa was a defining moment in my life.

24. Tyler and I have lots of nicknames for eachother, but most of the time I call him Borg and he calls me Sasquatch.

25. I met my husband through facebook by clicking on five random people I didn’t know in my college's network, Tyler was the sixth. At the time, we had no mutual friends.

26. I have two "pretend" sisters-in-law, Sarah and Erin. They are pretend because we aren't really related but we act like we are. Sarah is my bil Nathan's little sister and Erin is my sil Jessica's little sister.

27. When I need sisterly advice without the tattling to my mom, I go to Sarah for everything. Mary Ann and I have a very hard time keeping secrets from each other and our mom...Sarah can keep a secret from both of them. . . MA and MOMMY, don't you dare push Sarah for info about my secrets!!! Haha...

28. When I was in 7th grade I was at a sleepover and a girl there was being mean to me, I called Sarah crying and she put the fear of God in that poor girl's heart.

There you have it. 28 quick random factoids about yours truly. Thanks for reading!

P is for Play Day

8:48 PM Posted In , Edit This 4 Comments »
Well, in my sweet little county, we had a snow day today!!! So, knowing that I was on P for my alphabet blogging...so I set out to have a day full of P's. But not peas, I don't like peas.

First...I started my morning by pretending.

I woke up at my normal time; about 5:35 to start my morning. The weather people were calling for snow, so I went to my laptop to see if my county had a delay or if they were closed. Lo and behold, we were closed!!! Halle-freaking-lujah! I tried to climb back in bed with the boy, but I couldn't sleep and I was squirmy and coughy, and he wakes up about an hour and a half after me, so I decided to get out of bed. I thought it would be fun to pretend to be a stay-at-home-wife so I tidied the house a little, washed dishes from the night before, and made hubs cheesy eggs and ham, bacon, and toast. It was fun pretending, then he went to work and I was bored.

Next, I decided to give myself a little pedicure. I soaked my feet, trimmed my cuticles, buffed my nails, the whole nine yards. Finally, I painted my pigs OPI's French Chambord-Tini. I won this nail polish at the same WWW where I won my massage gift certificate!

Around 10AM I decided to go to my Mama's house...I think that's one of the good things about living in a one mile radius from your mom and sister; even on snow days you can still hang out with the girls, and boys! My dad drove up to pick up my sister and her boys to bring them down because of the crappy roads. I walked over to my mom's house and began my play day.

My mom and sister made me drive out to pick up the pizza and Sam was excited for his pizza. Joelie ate tons and TONS of pizza, but somehow, I didn't have many picture of him and then he was onto his nap.

Later, Sam and I decided to make peanut-butter kiss cookies! He is starting to be a help in the kitchen! He even unwrapped the kisses for the cookies. Here is a picture of Sam eating another cookie while we were making the other cookies...he has quite the sweet tooth.
Later, Sam wanted to get in bed to "play". I pretended to be asleep and he laid down beside me...then he was concerned about where my feet went. He went under the covers to find my feet and decided he wanted to stay under the sheets. He looked up at me and said, "Amy. AMY. This is so fun!"
After Joelie woke up from his nap, he of course had to have a cookie, but not the peanut butter kind, apparently babies shouldn't eat peanut butter until they are two. It's such a good thing my sister knows everything to know about pregnancy, being a mom, what kids can eat because I am sure I will be totally clueless when it comes to that stuff. My mom was making pinto beans for dinner and Sam said he wanted some. She set some out on a plate so they could cool down for him, he never got to those pinto beans because Joel ate them. Joel who doesn't like to eat anything if it isn't sweet or pizza.
Joel and Sam ended our play day by playing the piano together. I promise they are not really dirty, they just had about fifty a couple Hershey kisses. The temperature has warmed up a little here but it is still icy. I am hoping for another snow day tomorrow, but I am not quite sure I could come up with a day full of "q" activities. Oh well!

O is for Old and Older

12:56 PM Posted In , , Edit This 4 Comments »
Well, not really just Old, but Old Crow Medicine Show. And older is for me.

On January 13, 2009, I turned a quarter-century old. Bleh. It's not that I feel like that is old, but it is older and I really enjoyed 24. We celebrated our one-year anniversary, bought our first home, bought a new car and had many other mini-milestones thrown in here and there. I guess it's just an unavoidable part of life, but I did get a little bit older this year.

So, for my birthday, my brother called and asked if I would like to come up for a visit to see one of my favorite bands!!! Well, there is no better way to celebrate getting older than having a little fun with my family! I love my brother and sister-in-law so much and we hardly get to see them, so this was the perfect opportunity.

My college roommate Laura turned me onto OCMS, I turned my brother onto them, then I met hubs and turned him onto them, I am sure my brother turned my sil onto them too..so this has been a long time coming. This is what I looked like when I saw them over three years ago.

Not much has changed except that I have stopped wearing cut-up and tied together tee shirts; well, for the most part. We just happened to meet those two boys at the show and I still talk to Jason. . . guess there are some cosmic connections that will just go unbroken.
Anyway, we are very excited to see them and hopefully I will have a new pic to post!

MIA. . .

7:58 PM Posted In , , Edit This 3 Comments »
Well Well Well...look what the cat dragged in....

Ok, I have been MIA once again. I have trouble with this whole blogging thing. I read multiple blogs a day and can check in on them every few hours, but as for me...I feel like I never have time to write...but I will start...and I will start now.

Since I have been on yet another temporary hiatus, I will reflect upon the past few months. . . 

Let's see, my last post was on May 12th...a lot has happened since then...

I finished out my first year of teaching with a bang! It was great and I will dearly miss those girls (I teach an all-girls' class) but I was happy to see them move on to middle school at the same time. My first year of teaching brought on many trials and troubles that I did not ever imagine having in college, but more importantly, it also brought many more rewards than I ever thought possible. I will post more about teaching at a later date...

When I finished up the school year I only had a short 3 week break due to the fact I teach at a year-round school so we packed it with a lot of fun!

Over Memorial Day husband and I went camping with my brother, sister-in-law, and a BUNCH of their friends from OH. We had a great time so I decided I will try to recap wit pictures. . . 




This is me at our campsite enjoying the fact that I do not have to wear makeup for the WHOLE weekend!!!


When we camp, our favorite part is the food!!! We eat so well when we are out in the wild!


Enjoying an evening by the bonfire. 


Husband cooking his fresh trout on the campfire! 
We had a great time and can't wait to get back there...we love being in the outdoors away from all of our normal routines.

We went to the beach during my break...but this post is getting a little long, so I will post more on that later...

I'll be back . . . 

wedding day blues...

12:26 PM Posted In , Edit This 1 Comment »
Well, so far, there is only a 10% chance of rain on my wedding day...we'll see what happens.

On this past Wednesday, I went to my "final" dress fitting before the wedding...and, lo and behold, my dress was hemmed too short!!! Hopefully it will be fixed and I am going to try it on again today...I just hope it covers my ankles!!!

After I try on my dress tonight...We will be going see the Huntington Symphony tonight to see my sister Mary Ann play! We will have a fun night with Nathan and Sam...can't wait to sit outside and watch her play!

More on the wedding dress later....
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