I spoke to the agency attorney today and finalization has been scheduled!  YEAH!!    If everything goes smoothly and according to plan Lovey Girl will be official on December twenty third!  What a fantastic Christmas present for us! 

It gets better though.  Jameson is taking time off from work!!  His company closes for ten days in December (the time between Christmas and New Years) because there is a union which Jameson isn’t part of, but he gets some things the union fights for like the plant closure and the awesome healthcare.  If everything goes smoothly and according to plan we are going to the mountain house for 3 weeks!!!  A THREE week vacation!  I have never had that long of a vacation before.  AND, my mom is a college teacher so she can come and babysit LG while Jameson and I go to the Finger Lakes in NY for a day or two…they have a bunch of wine trails there and we thought it would be fun. 

It keeps getting better though. We’re going to celebrate Christmas at the mountain house.  All of  us.  My parents, my brother, SIL, Lovey Girl, Jameson, and I. And to my surprise my brother and SIL didn’t put up a fight.  We’ll be there up through the New Year holiday.  I’m so excited!  We are spending Christmas Eve with my in-laws, but then we’ll return to the vacation house.  It looks like the holidays are gearing up to be a great time!

The terrible long work days seem to have come to an end for my husband!  Wahoo!!  I’m so glad he’s finally back.  It’s so strange that I feel like he left even though he was still here.

Jameson DID NOT go into work today for the second Saturday in a row!  When I commented he reminded me that he had said he thought things would slow down in October and he was right.   Wahoo!!!  The money may be nice, but having a well rested husband is nicer. 

SO, we are insulating the attic that is off of Lovey Girls closet and hopefully we’ll get it done .  There’s a door to this attic in her closet and we’re concerned about her room being chilly this winter so hopefully this will take care of it.  This has been a multi-weekend project and when we got started the other week and we found that the original owners of the house 60 some years ago (?) had cut tongue and groove oak floor planks for the attic flooring.  They just aren’t attached yet so that’s our big project right now:  insulate attic walls and attach and stain floor boards.  It’s sort of unfortunate that we’re doing this major major household project that no one will see because it’s an attic and not even our primary attic.  We have a large walk up attic and this is just a little extra storage.  I’d love to be able to turn this attic into a walk in closet for LG since it’s off of her room, but we can’t see how we would do it.  I asked Jameson to put his engineering skills to work and try to come up with a way because then we could make a closet going from our room into LG’s current closet (they are back to back) for ourselves because we just have a dinky closet in our bedroom.  We could theoretically then add our current dinky closet into the master bath space .    He still says there’s no practical way to do it, but I’m not going to let the idea die . 

On another note.  Corona is being the most annoying dog around.  I’m pretty sure she just wants attention, but I feel like no matter what we can’t seem to pay her enough attention to satisfy.  She is also obsessed with Lovey Girls toys and such.   I keep finding them spread around the house sometimes destroyed with chew marks and since LG isn’t walking yet and doesn’t have teeth there’s only one other culprit. 

Well off to enjoy a beautiful fall day with Jameson, Lovey Girl, and Corona the irritant.

For some reason this week seemed VERY VERY long and I’m happy that it’s come to an end.  Tonight I have my book club meeting which will be fun.  I don’t know if I want to have glass of wine or not, lol.  On Thursday night Jameson asked if I wanted a glass of wine and I just shuddered and said NO.  He started laughing and asked if I minded if he opened a bottle.  Then he asked if I wanted to go to the mountain house for a long weekend.  I said sure, and we’ve planned it in two weeks.  Hmmm, I wonder if my parents are going that weekend?  Part of me doesn’t want them to be there because it means less personal time for us, but it also means we can go out to dinner or something and have more of a romantic evening because my parents will babysit. 

My parents are planning on selling their house and moving nearby in the next year or two.  They were looking at over 55 communities until they learned that those communities have rules about grandchildren visiting.  Most of them have a rule about a grandchild or any adult chilren staying there for longer than 30 days.  NOT that something like that would happen, but my parents did NOT like the limitations that were set.  So the began research their other options and found what they were looking for was an all ages community.  They were out looking last weekend and had a bit of sticker shock.  My mom really likes the new communities because of all the amenities the housing offers, but she was a little blown away by the cost of taxes.  They were looking in two counties and both seemed to have taxes that were around the same price.  I pointed out that the areas they were looking in all had good school districts so that was why.  It was affordable but it will take some getting used to.   

On another note one of the girls at this new mothers group I went out with on Friday was telling me about her gym.  I havent’ considered this gym because it’s a little far (20-25 minuntes) BUT they have classes specifically for people with my health condition and awesome daycare.  Anyway this girl said one way to get around the expensive gym fee is to get a script from your doctor for physical therapy and go to the physical therapist that is associated with this gym because you get an automatic gym membership then.  I feel a little slimy abusing my health plan like that becaus it covers physical therapy and I wouldn’t even have to lie to my neuro, I could just ask for a script and tell him why I want it.  I know he would give me one.  We do pay a lot for our health plan so we don’t have a to get referrals and can go to any doctor we want.  Would that be really wrong for me to do?  They specifically have yoga, pilates, etc. for people with my health condition.  I do need to lift weights because I have osteopenia (d*mn those steroids and I’m high risk for osteoporisis being petite an caucasion) and to work with a PT who has training in my health health condition makes it SO tempting…  I don’t think I’m going to do it because my conscience won’t let me.  Opinion?

Oh my, I went out last night and had a good time.  TOO good of a time and am currently regretting it.  I went out with a group of girls in the moms group I occasionally go to.   I don’t really know them well because they get together on Wednesday during our Li.ttle Gym class time but I screwed up my courage and went to happy hour last night.  One asian mojito and 2 glasses of chardonnay later and I am very very sorry.  We did get sushi, spring rolls, and edamame (did I spell that right?  It doesn’t look right.), and I’ve been on an edamame binge lately.  Jameson LUVS sushi so my “assignment” was to check out the happy hour because they offer discounts during happy hour and I certainly did my job (hee hee).  Anyway, everyone was really nice and I think I liked them a little more than the girls in the MO.MS group I belong to.  I have yet to meet a new BFF but I’m getting myself out and about. 

BTW, the MO.MS group.  They seem to get hung up on stupid mundane things.  They have an online group set up and often people ask for recommendations (like a plumber, babysitter, etc.) and this has raised a HUGE discussion that is on the verge of a fight about how that goes against the official MOM.S club international rules because sometimes people join to try to earn money for their businesses or personal venture.  The one woman even made a comment about if we go against the official rules she views that as a “ghetto” moms club.  What?  I personally could care less about someone who recommends their husbands landscaping business and if that business gives us a good price I would rather the money go to people who I know need it because the wife is a SAHM and they are living off one income.  Ya  know?  A little disappointing because I thought I had left catty stuff behind in high school and college.  Apparently not.  I’ve just been steering clear of that sort of thing and trying to ignore it.  It has definitely reminded me that I live in a fairly wealthy sometimes snobby area even though I’m not like that.

This time last year I posted about working with an expectant mother who I met through my infertility support group.  She decided to parent, which left Jameson devastated.  Me not so much because when she actually went into labor I was in the midst of my relapse and I was more worried about hiding the fact that my arm was spasming.  All I remember is going to the hospital and sitting on my hand so the spasms would be hidden. 

But now a year later, I am the mother of a wonderful 6 month old girl whose happy smiley face always makes me laugh.  She’s still not crawling yet, so she’s decided to roll her way across the family room carpet (hee hee).  Atleast her goal is accomplished.  It’s amazing what she can do by rolling from her front to her back and back to her front combined with using her legs to push off things. 

I’m currently investigating how to make my own baby food.  We’ll see how it goes and I’m reading a book on the subject.  She’s been on organic formula since we brought her home, and I noticed organic baby food is pretty easy to find, but I’m more thinking about making it myself for $$ reasons.  If I can save us a little that would be great.

Happy Halloween everyone!  I hope everyone has a great day.  It’s on a Saturday which makes it a prime time for parties and it’s also the World Series and the Phillies are playing in it.  Yeah Phillies!

 Lovey Girl is a pumpkin.  Ooh that Corona got in the picture .  Mommy the big spender got her outfit at T.arget (ooh la la).  Next year we’ll hit a consignment store and get a mega spiffy one.  I couldn’t see the point of it for this year since she’s not walking yet or anything, but when she’s walking and has a better understanding of it then I’ll go all out. 

Lovey Girl sporting Daddy’s hat while she hears ALL (and I do mean all) about the Phillies.   

I got my hair cut today.  I got bangs cut.  I’m still getting used to it, but I think I like it (I can’t change it now so I’d better like it).  I have’t had bangs in, um, about 10 years.  Tomorrow I’ll be subjected to the in-laws (again!).  I just saw my MIL two weeks ago! 

Warning to those waiting to bring a baby home.  Once that baby is in your life your parents may want to be very involved and all of the sudden you have parents visiting what feels like every weekend.  Unless of course you have siblings who have already supplied grandchildren and that grandchild void has already been filled.  In our case Jameson is an only child and my brother and his wife don’t have children yet so Lovey Girl is well loved and adored. 

Yesterday I went into my old office while my mom babysat LG.  It was a day of mixed feelings for me.  My old desk was still exactly the same.  NOTHING had been cleared away, even old post-it notes.  The wall along my cubicle had pictures of LG that my office mates had printed out on the color printer (aren’t they sweet?).  I cleared out my desk and I found a book that I had filled out during my lunch break and down time called “While I Was Waiting” and it’s a journal type thing meant to be filled out by the waiting parent for the child to read when he/she is old enough.  Wow, it brought up so many feelings.  I’m amazed at how different my life is now. 

Anyway, I emptied my desk, but I have to go back for some stuff.  I had my old MRI’s from DR visits pre-MRI on CD and my old yoga mat from when I did yoga during my lunch break for many years.  I went out to lunch with my dad and my brother just like old times.  I chatted with everyone and they all wanted to know about motherhood.  What could I say?  Being a S.AHM isn’t that interesting.  I hardly had anything to share.  Who wants to hear about the baby book club we belong to or my forays out to the Li.ttle Gym?  Not really interesting stuff.  I had to laugh at myself.  I actually got “dressed up” to go into the office and by dressed up I mean I put on my spiffy jeans, a nifty jacket, and a cute top. My dad even commented that I looked very stylish hmmm. 

I also went to F.idelity because I rolled over my 401k and had to decide how I wanted to invest it.  Decisions, decisions.  It’s so hard to know because I have no idea how my health is going to be.  I’ve recovered and I’m feeling great, but I have no idea about returning to the work world.  We have talked about a brother or sister for Lovey Girl in a few years.  Would I be too old?  I’d be 37 or 38 depending on how long we waited.  I was thinking about all that as I considered my retirement money and how risky I wanted to be (sigh).  So many things are unknown.  The unknown is a good and a bad thing.  I wouldn’t want to know everything single thing that was going to happen to me with the exception of health stuff.  Really if I had no health issues I wouldn’t think about any of this.  I’d just go along like the happy go luck kind of girl I want to be.

If  you guessed framed LG photos for grandparent and great grandparents alike you are correct !  A sneak peek.  I’m waiting to see what they’re like when I have them in my hot little hands.  Do you guys have a favorite frame shopping spot? (ie:  reasonably priced and cute) 

I don’t only call her that in blog world.  If she had been a boy she would have been lovey boy, lol.

This one is extra special because my parents took one of me (naked on my stomach) when I was a baby and so did Jameson’s parents.  I got one of Lovey Girl now so the plan is to hang them all together. 

I just like this one .  Who am I kidding.  I like all of them.

The special one I ordered just for Jameson .

Yesterday I dropped off one of my fertility meds for a member of my old infertility support group.  I was one of the founding members (is that an honor or what?).  Oh my, the group has grown from 3 members to a dozen!  I did NOT say anything about LG and I went by myself.  I handed over the med to the girl and explained my prescriptions are mailed to my house in 3 month increments and they’re probably about a year old now so she should check to make sure it doesn’t make a difference.  She thanked me and said it was the same one she had been taking.  I said great, and made an off hand comment about fertility meds not being for me and that they had the opposite effect on me than most in that I dropped down to below 100 lbs.  She asked me if I was ok now and I said I was fine. 

I left the infertility support group and my mind was spinning with a mix of stuff.  Mostly that I was thankful to not be in that place any longer and I felt so sad for the girls who were still there.  I so desperately wanted to tell them that the fertility/adoption part is HELL, but when they finally bring home a little one home it will be all worth it.  However at the same time I remember whenever people said that kind of stuff to me all I could think was go fxck yourself so I stayed tactfully silent.  Anyway, my heart went out to them.  I asked the one girl who had been in the group when I was there how she was doing and she just said, well I’m still here. 

Anyway, I got home and I was so thankful to no longer be in that dark place.  I am so thankful for what I have.