Day 2: Fr. Dominic

My family is so blessed to have several friends who are now priests. I love it! It's been amazing to watch friends discern, go to seminary and be ordained. AMAZING. 

One of those friends is Fr. Dominic. We go way back. We met at a Frassti Society conference.  Long ago all the girls chased Dominic. I laughed it off because I never saw him like that. We hung all the time... He has seen me at my worst and best. I always knew he would be one of those life long friends. 

He's really the best. He was still in seminary when Doug and I were getting married. He was going to serve and be a reader in the wedding. He was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma shortly before the wedding. He had his first chemo treatment a day before our wedding. He insisted in being there and being in the wedding. Yep, that's the kind of friend he is. 

And he is one holy priest. 

We had coffee with him and Beth & Co. today. It was great seeing him. He even blessed our mini vans! 

        Fr. Dominic at George's baptism. 

Blessed Day 1 - Halloween and Saints

Today we were blessed with some pretty fantastic weather and a wonderful Trick or Treat Day.  I mean it was still cold and a little rainy… but it wasn't like yesterday… which consisted of rain and more rain and lightning and tornados all day. The city even postponed Halloween trick or treating until today!  So we celebrated All Saints and Halloween today!

Daisy the Angel… Not so much.

Best buds… My penguin and angel.

He LOVED Trick or Treating!  

We went to three houses and he wanted to keep going!

Look… I'm festive!  Got me a 50% off angel halo and wings!  $3 - score! 

Pays to have Halloween a day late!

So… my attempt at dressing him like his patron saint… Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati.  

I'll get a pipe next year!  This was before 6:30AM mass!

ONE!

It's true.  My baby is ONE!!!

Sick.

Doug is sick. Cold. Cough. 

George is sick. On steroids. Lots of breathing treatments. 

I can hardly move... I hurt my back. Steroids for me too. 

Prayers please.  We need em. 

Oh.... My baby is ONE this weekend! We must get better!

I could not ask for more.

10 meals in 1 hour!!!

I'm not the best cook.  I feel like I just do not have enough time these days.  I plan the weekly dinner meals during the weekend.  If I do not do it then... then we are grabbing whatever to eat during the week.  I hate that.  It happens way too often.

I need instructions and pictures.  And someone to buy all the ingredients.  And be there to really just cook for me.

So when I was invited to attend a Wild Tree dinner workshop, I jumped at the chance... and brought along my great friend Sarah and her in-utero twins.  It was so much fun!

Basically, you are able to make 10 meals (20 if you want to divide in 1/2) in one hour!  I signed up for a "Not Your Mama's Crock Pot" workshop.  Yummy!!

That is my ideal situation!  I received a grocery list a head of time... lots and lots of meat and chicken.  Wowzers.  I called the local butcher to place an order and I had NEVER bought that much protein in one day!  Sidenote:  I felt crazy adult ordering food from a butcher.  Hahaha.  I don't know why, but it did!  I also had to buy some veggies and some canned goods.  And that's it!!!

To prep, Doug chopped and chopped veggies and I labeled bags and put in some ingredients.  Packed it in a cooler and off I went.

First... when I arrived at the workshop... I thought I was on a pinterest page.  The house was flippin' AMAZING!  Huge old house with a carriage house (where the hostesses parents live) and then an awesome barn that serves as the family hang out.  OMG.  AMAZING!  I mean, there was a slide that kids could use that went from the upstairs in the barn to the main level!  Crazy.  To heck with the food... the house alone was something to see!

Anyway... the workshop was great.  We all received a whole bunch of yumming spices and then we took each back and added what we needed to complete each recipe.  Easy!  Everything will be frozen and then cooked in a crock pot!  Done!

Drove home and popped all the meals in my freezer.  I can't wait to start cooking!  Hehe.

Prepping!

Cute baby wanting the bags in the cooler.

All my bags are ready!

Sarah and her twin bump.

Instructions.

Putting the ingredients together.

This will be a yummy meal!

Yummmm.  Well, it will be!

That old familiar feeling times 2

I have two old feelings that have come back recently.  Both suck big donkey balls.  Yep, they do.

1. Endo pain.  That old family pelvic ache/horrific pain is back. The Gremlin is what I call it.  Same spot.  Same pain.  Ugh.  I've already made a call to my doctor.  We are working on it.  Sucks that it is back.  Dang you endo!

I've also been bleeding for three weeks.  Not real 'period' bleeding... just bleeding here and there, continuously for three weeks.  Enough to use a panty liner... not enough for it to really act like a 'real' period.

WTH body.

Oh, and I have a tilted uterus now.  I found that out at my last doctor appointment -- a follow up and a check up when I started to feel the Gremlin again.  Ugh.

Seriously body.


2.  It seems as if Labor Day was also Pregnancy Announcement day on FB.  There were several in my news feed today.  I thought that after I had a a baby, announcements wouldn't give me that 'punched in the stomach/ugh' feeling anymore.  Wrong.

It still hurts/sucks.  Maybe in a different way, but it still does.  I was having a great ole day today and then bam... a mom from the tiny little day care posts on FB that she is pregnant.  Her son is about 7 months.  I felt that old feeling.  Hated to admit it, but it was there.  I even thought "You better say congrats... act happy!"  Totally something I would have thought in my IF days.

It put me in a funk for a few hours.  I mean... there are so many of my friends still waiting for a baby and boommmm... she is totally shocked at her wonderful fertility.  Yup.  Suckage.  Yay for her and all.

We haven't been avoiding for months and nothing has happened.  I'm ok with this -- we do have our hands full and all --  but it makes me worry again.  Same feelings, even if they aren't totally justified, the second time around.  I can't help how I feel... so there it is.

Well... Happy Labor Day.  Ironically... while today might have been pregnancy day on FB... I didn't hear of anyone actually being in labor day.  Hmmmm.

Wordless Wednesday

Friday Quick Takes

1.  Oh my has this been a busy week. Three social events! Three! That's more than I've had in a looooong time. I'm a home body these days. 

2. First event = I took George to my college to meet up with some college friends that were in town. Super fun. George was not all that impressed with my old stomping ground. Or at least be wasn't very excited about sitting in front of the college sign. 

3. Second event = I hauled George across town in eager anticipation of finding out the gender of This Blogger's babies!!!http://fumblingtowardgrace.com/ It was so much fun to see her announce she's having a boy and a girl! I'm so super excited and it was
super fun!

4. I ate my placenta. 

5. Third event = I met up with Rebecca (http://theroadhomewv.blogspot.com) and my great friend Sarah and some new friends for dinner! Oh it was SO MUCH FUN! A night out... Great dinner and so much laughter! Such a great time!

6. We have an awesome online garage sale in the area. My major score for the week is below! George looooves it!

7. Big brother has been nuts this summer! Oh how I love that crazy show. 

Have a great weekend!

On having a boy

I admit it.  I really *wanted* a girl.

I love the relationship I have with my mother and I wanted that with a daughter.  I wanted pink dresses and bows and ballet lessons.  Yep, I wanted a girl.

I did also want a boy.  I wanted Doug to have a son and my dad to have a grandson named after him.  That's where George gets his middle name - Theodore.

Having a boy scared me.  I know nothing about sports and super hero's - other than the fact my husband loves them.  Teenage boys are awkward... and boys during puberty.  Eeeeeek.  How in the heck would I deal with that??!!

So I knew I would have a boy.  Doug was convinced George was a boy and Doug is very good at stuff like that, so a boy it would be!

At the 20 week ultrasound I knew I needed to sound crazy excited in the video and say, "Yay!  It's a boy!"  I found myself saying that... a little half-heartidly. 

To be honest, I think of I would have been told the baby was a girl... I would have strangely been sad it wasn't a boy. This all probably stems with not knowing if we can ever conceive again - and really wanting both a boy and a girl in our family. Weird feelings, but they were there!

I quickly changed my tune about wanting pink in my world and changed to being all about blue.  I was still a little sad that my dreams of a girl might not come true.  But seeing how excited Doug was to have a son took a lot of that away. He was ecstatic!

Now, I'm in love with having a boy.  

I love how he *slightly* resembles my red headed hubby.

I love dressing my little man in plaid and polo's.

I love that when he plays, he zooms his cars and trucks around the living room.

I love his superhero t-shirts.

I love his dinosaur pajama's.

I love that he is a mama's boy.

I love how he has my heart.

I love how he says, "Mamamamamamamama."  Makes me swoon.

I love that my dad has a namesake.

I could go on and on...

Now that I have one boy, I admit, I would love another.  I would love for George to have a brother.  I don't have a sister and Doug does not have a brother.  I always missed that.  I NEVER thought I'd ever say that I'd want a houseful of boys, but I could totally take it now.

Granted, I still would love a little girl too... but for now, Boys Rule.

Pictures by Beth.  :)