Goodbye Sid!

The three years I spent working as a manager at Enterprise (in Oklahoma) is not something I look back fondly on. It was tough work but it did offer me a crash course in business and customer relations. I was an angry person at the end of every day. I was spending way too much time doing something other than what God put me on Earth to do. I despised 99% of the customers, hated marketing and strongly disliked my commute and hours. Can you believe the dress code demanded that women wear panty hose, suits, heels and that we had to wash cars in THAT?!

Although there were many things about Enterprise that royally disgusted me, I absolutely LOVED (and miss) my co workers. I worked at three different branches (Stillwater, Ponca City and Guthrie). I spent lots of time with these people. Among my favorites were the drivers. These were retired men. My driver at Ponca was Dewey - who I still talk to at least once a month. My driver in Guthrie was Sid. Both were neat guys who I was blessed to have met. I thought of them both as extra grandpas! :)

Last week Dewey called with some bad news. Sid had passed away on Easter. At first thought I was sad beyond words. I always thought I would have another conversation with him. He had been in poor health the entire time I knew him. He and his wife, Sandy, were also Texan transplants "lost" in Oklahoma! We both longed to be back in the lone star state and talked about it quite often. Death is part of life and Sid had had a full life. He was 75 years old at the time of his passing. After being a state trooper in Midland for many years, he was prouldy promoted to a Texas Ranger in 1965! He did that until 1988. Sid had some amazing stories and I loved to hear him talk. Sandy convinced him to move to Guthrie, OK to be closer to their two daughters and grandchildren. Sandy passed away last Fall of cancer. Dewey said that he had spoken to Sid numerous times since and he said that without his other half he was ready to go! He was a Christian man and I know where he is today :)

Just another Wednesday in paradise!

Today was a good day. I am down to just one zofran a day....usually first thing in the AM. I still feel sick always but just not as bad. Does that make any sense?! I am functioning A LOT better!

Dance was fun this morning. It was pretty gloomy outside so only a few mommies & girlies showed. Mrs. Lisa had the girls "practice" for the recital. She warned us that this would be tricky the first few times! She directed them to each stand on a silver star on the floor. She then had the mommies sit across the room looking at them. She handed out the maracas, turned on the music and YIKES!! The girls all freaked out! There were maracas flying and tears flowing. One poor little girl was trying her best to escape the classroom. The girls will be performing two dances at the recital but I'm afraid there isn't much time for perfecting. We have less than a month 'til SHOW TIME!!!

After dance Emma & I both got hair cuts then went over to my hair gal's house for lunch and play time. Sarabeth has two kids, "Gus" (age 3.5) and Lola (age 18 mos). We had a fun time.

Is this swine flu scaring anyone ELSE? The fact that a 23 month old died last night AND there are more and more confirmed cases freaks me out! Jarrod called me at lunch to inform me that their regional track meeet has been CANCELLED by UIL. Many school districts participating are closed until mid May. I was leery walking through Wal Mart today. I wanted to wear a mask and ask everyone when the last time they were in MX was. I keep reminding myself that God is in control. He knows everything WAY before it happens. I have peace with that.

San Antonio - day 3

Yesterday we concluded our SA trip with a trip to Sea World. I felt the BEST this day!! We watched three shows including the Sea Lions, Acrobats and Shamu! Emma clapped and cheered! It is amazing how well these animals are trained! We saw the sharks, penguins and other many attractions. Emma is at the perfect age to start enjoying theme parks. The weather cooperated and was in the high 80's all day. It heavily sprinkled for a few minutes but didn't last for long! We enjoyed our day!

San Antonio - day 2

THANKFULLY I felt so much better on Saturday morning when I woke up!! We enjoyed breakfast at the hotel then mapped out our directions. First, we visited the Witte museum. Jarrod is a history fanatic and there was so much for kiddos to do! Emma loved seeing and learning about the animals. She especially loved the interactive exhibit of the sights and sounds of night wildlife in South Texas. There was also an HEB sponsored tree house which was a three story fun place for kids of all ages. After lunch we went to the San Antonio botanical gardens. It was beautiful and smelled so sweet! I wish I had a garden like it :) As you can see from the photos, there were flowers and plans of all colors, shapes and sizes.

After those adventures we went back to the hotel to rest before the wedding. Emma wasn't in the mood to nap, so we went to the pool instead ;) It was right outside our backdoor. It wasn't quite 90 degrees and it was pretty cold!! We went to our friend Dustin's wedding at the Fair Oaks Ranch in Boerne that evening. All festivities were outdoors and it the weather was great! They are going to Jamaica for their honeymoon and I told them to get ready for the most FUN week ever (that's where we went and I'm ready to go back!)

San Antonio - day 1

On Friday we traveled to San Antonio. I was still not feeling great but managed to get myself in the car! It took us about four hours to get there and we went straight to the hotel. We stayed at the Courtyard Marriot off of I10. The mattress and pillows were soooo comfy, I hated to leave!

On Friday evening we went down to the river walk. It was "Fiesta" so there were people everywhere!! We took the riverboat tour which Emma loved!! Throughout the remainder of our trip she kept asking when we were going back on that boat :) Our tour guide, John, was halarious! After that boat ride we walked, and walked, and walked and walked some more. Geez there was a lot of working involved ~ especially for a sick pregnant lady! We had tickets for Fiesta so we decided to check it out. It turns out that there were tight crowds, alcohol, beads, turkey legs and other things that were not at all appealing to me. After five minutes of Fiesta, we decided to find food! We ate at Casa Rio. Unfortunately I couldn't eat. I was ready for bed! We walked back to our car before sunset and were back to the hotel and in bed by 9:30pm.

Please pray!

I am so sick today. I woke up at 3am puking bile and didn't eat a thing until 8pm. I think I have the nasty stomach bug partnered with pregnancy sickness. Zofran hasn't touched this. Jarrod had a track meet out of town and is still not home (10:30pm). I got so bad that I finally had to call my parents and have them come here to help. They brought food, my mom cleaned our house, and they bathed and played with Emma. I really owe them. I HOPE that this is miraculously gone by morning so that we can go to San Antonio as planned.

Late night udpate

Look at me, I'm a blogging fool today!! It's 11:30pm and I've got to do something to keep myself awake during my last half hour of work. My online job work situation is going pretty well. I've been at it for eight months now and it's such an ideal work arrangement for our family. I am committed to completing at least twenty hours each week. My weeks start on Sat and end on Fri. Basically, I do call evaluations and audits for a company based out of Ohio. They have a large branch in College Station and a wonderful friend referred me last year. A different friend is now actually my direct supervisor. We went to school together 6th - 12th grades!! It's a small world afterall. It's truly a blessing that this job fell into my lap at the perfect time! I've always known that I wanted to stay home with our kids but there's really no way we could live on one income. Although it can be rather tricky to fit in 20 hours per week, it is totally flexible. I can work anytime and take breaks anytime. I can work in my pjs and Emma can run around and be a 2 yr old all she wants while I work :) What could be better?! Lately I have had trouble falling asleep at night so I work until I get sleepy.

Tonight I was organizing Emma's room. How could someone so small acquire so much stuff in just 2.5 short years?! Each season I go through and retire Emma's outgrown clothing into large plastic bags. I keep things that I hope to use again and discard the rest. It's amazing how quickly she outgrows clothes, shoes and socks! Tonight I gathered sizes 18 months and up. She used to be so tiny....what happened?

Tonight was the night. Emma went to bed without a pacifier. We cut a hole in it and when she discovered it she said "Broken"! We blamed it on the dog. Poor Roxie. Emma cried for a good hour before I assume she finally fell asleep. I'm pretty sure that nap time will be non exsitant now. Great.

Today I started taking zofran. Although they used to be a lot more expensive, $1 per pill is still a lot on the Smith budget :) I am pleased to report that it has been wonderful! I felt so good this afternoon that I took some clothes to the dry cleaners, washed my car (with the wand and hose), folded two baskets of laundry, made dinner, ate dinner and cleaned the entire house!! It has been MONTHS since I've been half that productive! Yay for the zofran. Let's just hope it continues to work like a charm!

Did I mention that I'm officially addicted to Dairy Queen tacos?! Yes, I am. I guess you could call it a craving. No matter how nauseas I feel, I can stomach them. Yummy in my tummy!

I'm not so much worried about juggling two kiddos yet. But, I'm sure that as November approaches I will be. So, I need advice! Those of you with 2+ kiddos, fill me in! What surprised you the most? Was your oldest jealous? What was most challenging? Help! My brother was born when I had just turned 3, which is close to the age gap our kids will be. I can remember telling my mom that I wanted to throw him in the "crash can". We didn't get along at all!

Thanks for reading my late night rambling. I guess I'll work some more. My goal is to have all hours completed by Thurs pm as we are leaving for San Antonio on Fri AM!!!

Our weekend

We had a good restful weekend! We visited family on Sat then I came home and slept for 5 hours before waking up to eat dinner and go back to sleep - ha! I tried Reglan over the weekend and it made me so sleepy. It may have taken the edge off better than phenegeran but I still can't deal with the sleepy thing all day. Yesterday Jarrod took Emma grocery shopping and to his dad's house. It was nice to have some time to myself, but all I did was work and puke. Today I made the exectuive decision to try zofran. I took my first pill at lunch time and now feel GREAT! I am hoping and praying that this is what I needed!

Emma is a spelling queen. Not so much "spelling", but she rambles off every letter she sees. Whether it is on a billboard, a t shirt, the tv, or wherever! She got a cute pink toy computer for Christmas that I believe has taught her a lot! It has several different games and one in particular that says "Press the lower case letter ?" and she gets every one correct! She is not interested in learning numbers or colors, but by gosh, she has letters down :)

I got tagged

My friend Rachel tagged me. Here I go!

8 Things I Am Looking Forward To:
1. Our trip to San Antonio this weekend
2. Morning (all day) sickness to GO AWAY!!
3. the birth of this baby in early Nov.
4. our next move (we outgrew this duplex before we moved in!)
5. our next trip to Outback Steakhouse
6. Emma's first dance recital next month
7. visiting with the Rasmussens next week
8. Jarrod to come home at lunch with ZOFRAN!

8 Things I Did Yesterday:
1. Woke up
2. worked 5 hrs
3. threw up
4. showered
5. started shaking and felt very sick
6. watched Madagascar with Emma
7. watched Desperate Housewives
8. are crab cakes and salad for dinner :)

8 Things I Wish I Could Do:
1. feel well
2. enjoy exercising
3. keep the house clean
4. cook better
5. be more successful at my Pampered Chef business
6. make more money at my other job
7. sing well
8. sew beautiful Christmas stockings

8 Shows I am Currently Watching:
1. Desperate Housewives
2. Oprah
3. Dr Phil
4. Sesame Street
5. the news
6. In the Motherhood
7. Parks and Recreation
8. Word World

I tag:
Megan
Michal
Lindsay

Friday adventures

I love rain. My favorite weather is gloomy, dark and pouring down rain. But, it's much easier to enjoy indoors! This morning I thought we were in trouble on the way to my dr appt in Waco. I left in plenty of time, but ran right into a horrible storm. The sky was dark green. At first it started to rain, then harder and harder. Then, I could barely see. Then came the HAIL!! It was beating down so hard that I was honestly prepared for my windshield to bust. I was running right on time so I was reluctant to pull over. I followed pretty far behind a pair of trustworthy tail lights and said many prayers. Lightening was awfully close to us and I didn't know what to do. If I pulled over to the shoulder, another vehicle was sure to ram into me. If I pulled over to a rest stop, we would be directly underneath trees, which can't be good either. I was right in the middle of nowhere. Finally, it got so VERY bad that I decided there were much more important things than arriving to the hospital on time. I pulled over in Golinda and a tiny little gas station. There were about 15 other vehicles pulled over. I gathered that I had made the right decision! Oh, and about a mile before finding a place to pull over, Emma puked everywhere. I'm not sure if she was scared or ate her waffle too quickly. We waited for about twenty minutes.

My dr appt went well. Dr Wang finally found the cute heart beat which is at a steady 187 beats per minute! She prescribed reglan for my nausea. She was concerned that I had lost six pounds in the past four weeks. I discussed zofran with her but she seemed very leery and said that she only recommends it as a last resort. If I do not see a significant positive effect with the reglan in the next few days onward to zofran it is!

Jarrod thinks that he caught the stomach bug......again :( He has been laying on the couch since 4pm. The past three times he has brought it home I have managed to get horribly sick in the middle of the night. Great. Just what I need. I will be soooo mad.......

Sick and tired of being sick and tired

Will it ever end? Really?! A man must have created the phrase "morning sickness" because very few (if any) pregnant women only experience this yucky stage in the morning. This time around my sickness comes in waves. One week I was fine mid day and very ill morning and evening. A couple of weeks I was really sick early on in the day and then it would wear off as the day progressed. It is very unpredictable and life altering.

I am still convinced that it was worse when I was pregnant with Emma. This time I actually have "okay" moments every once in awhile. With Emma I never felt okay. I was horribly sick for the first trimester (and maybe a little longer). I keep thinking it will get better. I enter my second trimester in 1.5 wks so I have hope :) It has gotten a lot worse as the weeks have progressed. They say that sickness is a sign of a healthy baby, so that's really what keeps me going. I'm very thankful that I don't have a job outside of the home right now. I think that extra stress brings on more to of the yucky symptoms. Granted, I am falling way behind at my online job but thankfully my supervisor went to high school with me, is also pregnant and is very understanding :)

With Emma I lost 15 lbs (then I gained 40+). I have already lost about 10 lbs with this one. It's been a long while since I've seen the scale stop at 119 :) Some days I can't even keep water down and everything that goes in comes back out. I am 95% convinced that this is another girl, but who knows!

Dr. Wang prescribed phenegeran at my first prenatal appointment. It did absolutely nothing for the nasusea and made me totally exhausted. My next appointment is this Friday morning. I hope to discuss other options with her in detail.

I'm not sure that Emma understands what's going on. She knows that I am sick a lot and points to her belly button and says that there is a baby sleeping in there :)

Happy Easter!!

Happy Easter! He is risen! We hope that everyone enjoyed time with friends and family.

This morning we attended a church gathering at the Expo center in Belton. Afterward we went to the Winklers' beautiful home overlooking the Belton lake. We had lunch and visited with friends. After that we stopped by my parents' house in Temple for a quick egg hunt. Emma had a wonderful Easter and loved all of the baskets full of goodies that she received. The Easter bunny was definitely good to her :)

Good Friday

This afternoon we headed to Waco for an egg hunt and potlock gathering with our Waco playgroup/friends. Emma is really a pro at hunting those eggs this year! Last year she had no clue that the egg went in the basket and this year she needed no help :)

Easter dress

Here are some pics taken of Emma in her Easter dress this evening. She was not thrilled about the camera again! These pics are taken in Cameron in a cute set up called a "Texas Park and Wildlife demonstration". It has a beautiful wooden gazebo as well as every flower you could imagine! Included here are the four best pictures (out of 45). The pouty one is just an example to show how difficult it can be to photograph a 2 yr old! She literally sat down, pouted her lip, crossed her arms, sighed loudly and rolled her eyes at me. I'm sure it won't be the last time.....

Bluebonnets

Today we took bluebonnet pictures! Emma wasn't a fan but I got some cute ones! Enjoy :) The other cute little girl is Katherine, a friend of ours. Her mom Lauren and I went to middle school and high school together. Kat is about 6 wks older than Emma and we try to get together once a month for lunch and shopping!

Wedding shower

Today we had a wedding shower for my cousin, Chassati. Hosts included my mom, my aunt Mary, Emma and myself. We had the shower at the Ridgewood Country Club in Waco. One of my favotite things in the world is to host showers, birthday parties, and gatherings for all occasions, but today I felt a little puny. There was a great turn out with family members and friends!! There were even four sweet little girls including Emma. The other three (named Teegan, Eliana and Marley) were all between 7 and 9 months old. They all desperately wanted to crawl :) Emma was very good with them but didn't understand why they wanted to grab and pull on her hair and dress! She had to continuously be reminded to be gentle. That's definitely something we need to work on over the next 6 months! Emma was a great little hostess and evem sat like a big girl at the table. She got pink icing on her new dress but at least it matched ;) Chassati and Rene will be married in Salado on May 2 - right around the corner!! We look forward to that fun weekend.

Hump day thoughts

I love Redbox! Yes, the red dvd machine found at any McDonalds or Wal Mart. If you haven't already, you should try it! It even has new releases. Basically you pay $1 per day that you keep it and then you return it.....to ANY Redbox!! Today while in Temple I "rented" Marley & Me. I won't be near another Redbox until Sat, but I don't know of any other movie rental location that I could rent it for under $3! I saw it in the theater but Jarrod hasn't. So, tonight we are going to get a Kleenex box and watch it. If you haven't seen it yet, you should!! It is a heart warming story for anyone who has ever loved (and maybe lost) a dog :)

Today I have actually felt pretty good! Wednesday is our busy day in Temple, so I was hoping I wouldn't be too puny. This morning Mrs. Lisa taught the girls the two dances they will be performing in the May recital. Is there anything cuter than a bunch of 2 yr olds with bright yellow tutus and maracas in hand?!

We received word of one of our dear friends in Oklahoma having health problems. Jonathan and Jarrod worked together in the OSU Posse athletic fundraising department. He has two young sons and a wonderful wife! Please keep them in your prayers. Here is a blog his sister started about his current condition: http://updateonjonathan.blogspot.com/