I’m so excited to celebrate my 200th “official” post.

To celebrate, I thought it’d be fun to do my first “giveaway” to one of my readers!! No, I am not being paid by someone to do this, nor is this blog going to become a “giveaway” junk blog, I thought this would just be a fun way to celebrate 200 posts, by giving someone something that I LOVE.

A few years ago, I received a Christmas present from my sister-in-law, something she had made at a craft fair and I thought it was the neatest thing since sliced bread. Do you remember when you always had to manually add birthdays, anniversaries, angel dates to your yearly calendar? Well, this little calendar eliminates that need! All you have to do is ADD dates to it and keep it forever! Maybe it is not a new thing to you, but I think it is awesome and if I have my act together, makes it simple for me to review the next month and get prepared for cards to send out. It is a flip calendar that includes 12 months and space to write in special dates you want to remember -and it never gets outdated!

I place my special events calendar directly next to my annual calendar in the kitchen, so these special dates are always top of mind and easy to reference. Many of you IRL friends know that I still miss dates…yes…I am not my fabulous sister in Japan who preps ALL of her cards the month before and sends them out exactly on time from half-way across the world. But on a good month, I can glance at it and know exactly what special dates are coming up.

I designed and created this calendar a few years ago and gave as gifts to many of my friends and family. I would LOVE to sell them someday, after I clean up the look a little bit (I made them pretty fast in Illustrator).

So, for your chance to win this calendar pictured, leave a comment on this page by midnight, July 2nd (EST)! I will randomly selected a winner, next Sunday, July 3rd and let them know via e-mail that they won.

A FEW RULES (only because you KNOW there are people who will ruin it)

1. Only one person can win this giveaway.

2. Giveaway is open to readers with US shipping addresses only.

3. No, if your name is drawn, you will not win the candy jar, the candy, the plant, my personal calendar, the plant holder or my kitchen counter, we are only talking about the events calendar pictured.

4. A limit of one entry is allowed per e-mail address. You may not enter more than once, whether or not you use a different e-mail address.

Biggest frustration this week was seeing my endocrinologist today and finding my blood results a bit higher than I wanted. Luckily, I have a “guilt-free” doctor who doesn’t seem concerned at all. He keeps saying “You do realize that is normal and supposed to happen right?” Yes, I know that towards the end here, insulin resistance is the game to play but it can be so frustrating when there is no rhyme or reason. I am up to 100+ units of insulin a day when I was just at 60 units 2 months ago. THAT IS A LOT OF resistance!! Good thing, my doctor has always got a plan. We are throwing out the carb counting and just jumping to a sliding scale. The numbers he gave me to use are drastic -my pump doesn’t even allow me to take that much insulin in one setting; BUT IT WORKED tonight for dinner. Within an hour of eating, I was right where I should be. Hallelujah.

Week 32

How Far Along: 32 weeks today!
Anticipated Arrival Date: Who knows! The week of July 18th is week 36. I foresee last week in July if there are no complications; but week 36 has always brought about something in the past…so we are just being realistic.
Name Yet?: Thought we had a name…now we don’t. This one is HARD!
Size of Baby: Roughly 3.75 pounds.
Weight Gain: Now I can’t remember my starting weight…I think I might be up to 16 pounds. Gotta ask my OB/GYN tomorrow.
Sleep: So, I know I can sleep anytime anywhere, but just this week, I noticed my pattern of waking up every two hours. Literally. It was either the dog, the cat, Lindy or Dale or having to pee. So, I eliminated 2 of the distractions, the animals have been banished to the first floor so that I don’t hear or see them on the second floor. I usually wake up to the kitty bell or the dog’s nails clacking along the floor. Dale usually comes to bed later and every once in a while, Lindy will wake up for some reason. The first night I tried it out…I slept 5 HOURS straight and then…well, Lindy fell out of bed. BUT it was a good five hours. I felt completely different. So, now down to peeing 3 times a night. Not too bad!
Movement:I LOVE this feeling. Love love love it. She is squirming and moving around a lot. I’m going to start officially kick counting. Gotta find a good system to do so. Today, I think I started to feel some Braxton Hicks, a good sign of things to come.
Emotions: I feel the strong urge to start preparing for this baby. Dale and I are not quite on the same page and he is crazy busy with all kinds of other stuff. I just don’t want to have reason for my blood pressure to go up, I’m a planner. If I feel that things are not ready, who knows what that could do to my pressure. We have come to sort of a compromise, so we’ll get a few things done before she arrives. We know SO many people who don’t do a thing until their rainbow baby comes home breathing…I just have to get a few things put together in HOPES that all goes smoothly.
Swelling:This week, started to see and feel the phalanges swelling a tad bit. I’ve been keeping a close eye on my ankles and face -I think I’ll start to show there more if I start developing pre-eclampsia, but so far, so good! Blood Pressure is ideal and very consistent between all 4 doctors. Had to take my rings off due to the swelling.
Symptoms:Probably too much information, but I’m sure someone out there has had something similar…I got this rash on my leg…I thought it started out as a bug bite but then it spread. It itches like NONE other and it will NOT go away. So weird. Went to my PCP and she said it was more than likely an allergy but decided to treat it as a bacterial infection with some meds. I walked away feeling not as assured about her diagnosis. Called my Dermatologist and they couldn’t see me until second week in July. Went to my endocrinologist today and he said, “oh, that is a pregnancy thing, right on your shin too, textbook.” Apparently it is Arythema Nodosum? Never heard of it but glad to know it won’t affect this pregnancy in any way.

Sometimes I feel like I am complaining a lot this pregnancy…but I think I am just making note of absolutely everything that is going on this time and I won’t let any anomaly go undocumented. I promise…I am SO GLAD we are on this road to grow our family, even if it means my body goes a little wacko.

Well, next post, will be my 200th official post -Giving away something fabulous to help you stay organized! Stay tuned!

When I met Dale in the summer of 2000, I was just 18, he was 26. I KNEW he was the man for me. As I headed to Chicago for school that fall, everybody knew about this guy named “Dale.” The guy I was madly in love with. My aunts and uncles, cousins, neighbors…knew him by name. I had only spent maybe 3 days with him and I just knew.

I’d like to think that the week I met Dale, I knew he would be the best dad to a little 4 year old curly haired girl but I think I just thought he was perfect in EVERY way, so I’m sure that was included. And he is the perfect daddy for my children. I couldn’t imagine it any other way. What a legacy of fun, adventure, humor, wisdom, consistency, authenticity, absurdity, hard work, morality, no big baggage (like me), and little bit of old schoolness he has shared with me and now our child.

Dale is one of THE hardest workers I know. If you know Dale, you might just agree with that. Whether it be by choice or because that is his ADHD kicking in, he NEVER stops. I have seen his stopping point though. I have seen him hit the wall and not have anymore to give. It rarely happens but with grad school now and 5 jobs and not living in bad debt…I am so grateful that we are both on the same page, making it work so that I can stay home with Lindy. He is doing SO MUCH so that we can live this lifestyle. It might not be glamorous living paycheck to paycheck but we are making it work and living comfortably. He literally gets up at sunrise and works until sunset. In-between, I make him do MY projects (which usually are crazy hair-brained ideas that take up lots of energy and hours to complete) and he is always carving out good daddy/Lindy time to play. Currently, he is working full time at one job, part time at another job and has 2 side jobs in-between. At home, he is building a deck. Yes, folks, a deck on the back of our house. He was in the garage, sawing boards at 11pm the other night. Never any time to rest.

I know it is hard to live with me sometimes. I have some pretty high, weird, misconstrued expectations in our marriage and in Dale’s fathering; but you are the perfect counter-balance to me. You keep me grounded and sane -I like that about you, even though, in the heat of the moment, it annoys me.

THANK YOU Dale for all that you do for this family, for me, for Lindy and for Indiana and Bentley Zoomeroni. Thank you for the guilt-free naps you give me ANYTIME I want them (which is usually daily and even when I am not pregnant). One day, the car won’t need to be fixed, the ceiling won’t be falling in, the deck will be done, the trim will all be painted again, we will have more children. And I really just mean ONE day in the next 80 years. Until then, I enjoy EVERY moment with you, the good and the bad. We are a good team together. Your are perfect for me and a wonderful daddy to Lindy.

May turning Lindy upside down anytime she is crying or upset always be soothing to her soul and make me laugh. You make being a good daddy look real easy.

So, Happy Father’s Day to my husband -I love you!

I woke up thinking, she needs to be named Charlie because of these CRAZY charlie horses that I’ve been having this pregnancy. I had them with Lindy but these are starting to get a little out of control. I’ve had 4 thus far. If you’ve had charlie horses, you know that feeling…the MINUTE you wake up because you can feel it coming. And there is NO avoiding it once you wake and it is there. Screaming in pain, trying to massage it out.

I spoke to my doctor about it a few weeks ago and he told me to eat more tums. I guess I’m doubling up on them tonight. It worked for a few weeks but got another one last night.

Luckily, I think I found a way to make the after affects of a charlie horse go away faster. The second one I had made me limp for 4 days it was so bad. I found that when you feel one coming, you tense up and point your foot towards yourself. I found that if you pump your foot, like on a gas pedal, back and forth, it’ll go away faster. I did it on the last two and after the screaming and writhing in pain, within a minute I felt nothing and it was back to normal. It hurts like the dickens to point your toe during a charlie horse but for me it is worth it.

No, I am not naming her charlie, although that was on our list for a while until we caught the “lindy” and “charleston” drift and decided that was not the route we wanted to take.

Here she is! 30 weeks and has the same profile as Lindy and Everett.

This is a picture of her HAIR! Can you see the round head and the little white lines on the edge? That is hair!

Here I am at 30 weeks. For some reason, I don’t feel THAT huge but apparently I am. I look humongous!!

I feel good, albeit, tired all the time as I try to adjust my insulin levels and keep up with Lindy and housework. Luckily my wonderful momma came to visit and did me some good. I literally sat on the couch and propped my feet up for 3 days while she took care of me, mom style. We even got 4 projects done on my “list” which included cleaning closets, and freezers. LOVE you mom. Thanks for coming out here when needed!

When people ask me when the baby is due, I am at the point of saying “no more than 7 weeks!” That seems crazy. Crazy soon and yet I have wanted another child for…3 years now? Crazy that so much time has gone by. I have an almost definite timeline of not going past 37 weeks, so that gives us an actual countdown. I’ll have to adjust my countdown timer. We also don’t call her Tres anymore. Her actual nickname is Piddledit -we’ve been calling her that for weeks now. We’ve grown so fond of it, she’ll probably truly have that nickname when she comes out!