garage sale Saturdays!

I actually tried going to some garage sales yesterday, but I had my post-operation doctor's appointment yesterday morning and only had time for about 3 sales before I had to drop Lily off with a friend and go to the appointment.  A word of advice for people who want to do a garage sale some day from someone who goes to many sales: don't be overly zealous about selling your stuff to people.  Ugh.  There is such a thing as a good sales person..but just about everybody I know gets annoyed and turned off by the overzealous and pushy sales person.  And garage sales are just not the place for you to practice your salesmanship.  Because honestly, I don't care how much you bought your piece of whatever for 20+ years ago.  If I wanted it new at full price, I'd buy it new at full price, and if I wanted to know the price, I'd ask.  Last weekend, you may remember that I mentioned going to a house that basically we could just sort through and ask if it was for sale?  The guy was asking absolutely ridiculous prices on everything: Jesse picked up an old sling shot and asked the price.  He was told that "oh, 10 years ago I bought those for $20...I'll sell both of them to you at $15 apiece."  Really?  $5 off 10 year old USED stuff?  Jesse chuckled and told me later he was thinking more along the lines of both sling shots for $3.  Not 2 for $20.  My personal favorite I hear a lot is, "I just couldn't let it go for less than $xx, I put $xx into that."  Telling me prices and how you wasted your money isn't going to convince me why I should pay more for your USED item.  Some people..

Anyway, sorry about the tirade, but yesterday, a lady had about 20 things in her garage she was selling.  And she kept trying to sell everything to this other poor lady.  Everything the "customer" picked up, the sales lady would tell her how much it was, how much she bought it for and why it was a good deal.  I just left, even though there were some things I was interested in, her prices were higher than I would want to pay.  I know beggars can't be choosers..but I promise, if I need/want something new, I won't be looking for it at a garage sale.

End rant.

Today, Lily and I went out.  I had my list of sales I wanted to check out and the order I was going to stop in.  I'm never this prepared when we go out on our adventures.  I didn't come home with a ton, but did have some great deals: got a big box of clothes for Lily for $10-- I told her to give me a price and I'd take the whole box.  She thought about it and said $20, then shuffled through the clothes and dropped it down.  Which is good, because I definitely wouldn't have been buying it if she hadn't.  And I'm not sure what's going on with this area of West Virginia, maybe it's going out of style, but I have seen a TON of Coach purses and bags.  Today, I came home with a messenger/laptop bag for $20 (talked her down $5) which I'll be using as a diaper bag/purse (you mom's out there know what I mean) until I have use for a laptop bag and a $15 Coach duffle bag for my friend, Jen (also talked down $5).

pile of clothes I'll sort through after I wash them

my new bag! yay!

I didn't take a picture of the bag I got for Jen, but this is what it looks like..

I also got a picture frame and a blank scrapbooking book for my MIL.  Man.  If I was into scrapbooking, I would get all my books at garage sales.  I hear they can run pretty expensive at the store normally, but when I can buy them blank for $1 at a garage sale?  That just seems to make good sense to me..

And since I mentioned it and I have such caring and concerned friends, my appointment with the doctor went just fine.  He was pleased with how the incisions looked and how I was feeling so he cleared me for activities again!  Hurray!  Which I was kind of already doing anyway, so it's good that he "cleared" me to pick things up again.  I may or may not have "forgotten" I wasn't allowed to do certain things occasionally..but I went for a run today.  Ugh.  Two weeks of no running didn't give me the best times today, but I'm pretty sure I'm still going to do my best and push through my training and run my half marathon in October.  Seven weeks of training for 13.1 miles should be sufficient, right?

xoxo

11 months.

I think I'm going to be in denial for the  next month that Lily is almost 1.  This just doesn't seem right.  I've been trying not to be awkward and reminisce about "this time last year, I was..." but I'm pretty sure I have.  And thankfully, Jesse and my friends put up with me.

I really wish she would cooperate and look at the camera..if I can talk him into it, I may get Jesse to come help get her attention and take some more pictures.  But still, I think she's cute, whether she looks at the camera or not.  And, obviously, Tigger had to make a cameo in these: one of her current favorites is to put her doll or stuffed animals on the rocking chair.  

I also recently made her a blanket.  I may have mentioned that when she's tired or falling asleep, she likes to pinch, scratch and claw at the back of your arm?  While this is of course endearing (ugh, not so much!), I decided it needed to stop, so I started making her a blanket with a satin edge.  Jesse can attest to the fact I got very frustrated working with satin ribbon and eventually had to change my game plan to conquer it, but I finally won:

supplies

trying to make a straight edge since the fabric cutting people at JoAnn's can't

ever try turning a satin corner?  don't.  either buy a blanket that already has the satin or just give your kid the spool of satin ribbon, you'll be a happier camper.

tada!

I love this blanket.  First, because I made it.  Second, because it has hippos on it.  Third, because I made it.  Lily seems to like it ok, but doesn't care one way or the other on too much and doesn't carry it around like Linus.  Which I was secretly hoping for, but that's ok.  

Other than that..Lily's been walking for about a week now.  Last weekend she really started to get the hang of it, and has been trying to walk more than crawl.  Everyone has been asking if she's been getting into everything, and really, she hasn't.  I'm not sure if it's because we never put stuff up out of her reach and so she just doesn't care, or she is more entertained by other things.  Yesterday, she did walk over to one of our end tables, pick up a can of pop that was half full and walk it over to me without dropping it.  I kind of was impressed..

That's it for now, I suppose.  I'll try and update more, Jesse informed me yesterday it had been too long since I updated last.  So here ya go, Jesse!  You better read it!

xoxo

garage sale wins

Jesse was kind of judgmental of my finds today during Lily and my adventures out garage sale-ing.  But I don't care, I like what I found and they were all good deals.  Sorry Jesse ;)

cedar chest, 2 storm lanterns, basket of books, bag of clothes and kid rocking chair

I was pretty excited!  One lady doing a sale had a few tubs full of clothes from 2T-4T.  As she and I were chatting (I know her from the Y), I suggested that instead of me digging through the bin of 2T clothes trying to find only what I wanted, I would take the whole bin for $15, or whatever she thought was fair.  She went with it, and I ended up with 30+ pieces!  Score.  She has triplets (I think?), so there were some boys stuff thrown in there, but I'm not concerned, Lily can still wear it.  Except for the one pair of boys underwear I found, I will draw the line at that, even though they were Star Wars.  I didn't look through the bag too much-- figure I'll do that when I'm folding them with the laundry later-- but I did find this gem, which honestly, made the whole purchase worthwhile: 

comes with matching gloves!

I'm so excited for winter now and for Lily to wear this all the time.

Jesse was judging the cedar chest I found, but I talked the lady down $15, and I like it.  My original thought was to put it in our living room at the new house to act as a coffee table/blanket holder but Jesse vetoed that and said we could do that with the other hope chest I have, but that one is "too ugly" for living room display.  Hmph.

There is one that I'm hoping will be available for perusal tomorrow.  As I pulled up, the older gentleman running the show came over as I got out of the car and led me to the garage where the "sale" was.  I use the term loosely, because it looked like he'd been a pack rat for a few decades and just decided to open up his garage and say "make me a deal on what you see."  I was so overwhelmed!  American Pickers would have had a hay-day.  There was a ton of old furniture, I saw a China cabinet pushed in a corner, tools, carpeting, a few dog cages..it was weird.  He also told me that he had stuff in his house, but I didn't think it was a great idea to check that out alone.  I asked if he'd be around tomorrow, and he said he would, weather permitting.  So keep your fingers crossed for blue skies so Jesse can go check it out!  I did chuckle when I pulled in because it was two old guy sitting on their porch drinking beer.  At 10:30a.  But one of them was opening a can and I'm assuming that the carbonation got the better of him because it just spewed everywhere.  I live in a neat town.

xoxo

back in action

...well, trying to be, anyway.  Jesse and I are doing well, I think, with finally being able to process everything that happened at the hospital and in the following days, and I believe I am recovering fairly well.  My incisions are looking good (in my opinion), and only one is sore/tender.  I've been taking the percocet very sparingly, as anyone who has ever been on this can probably tell you, it makes me pretty dizzy and woozy which just isn't fun.  We've certainly been blessed with wonderful friends, family and adopted family all across the country, and I can't tell you how much I appreciate all the thoughts, prayers and distractions this past week and all the people who offered to help..thank you all!  Jesse and I have never had to deal with anything like this, and are praying we never will again, but a special thanks to everyone who has been there and offered words of support and encouragement.  Please keep us in your prayers as you think of us: we're not out of this yet, but I think we're on our way there.

Anyway, moving on.  I think it is now safe to announce that we are buying a house!  YAY!  We're really excited, and it's been in the works for a month or so, and everything is looking good and really coming together.  It's small, nothing fancy, but we're pretty pumped about it.  We're getting a place out in the country with a bit over 17 acres, a few of which are meadow, the rest hills with trees and a small creek running through it.  Jesse's been scheming and planning everything he hopes he can do with it.  The house itself is in pretty decent condition and we won't have to do too much to it to move in, the main thing is the carpet upstairs needs to go.  Everything else can wait until we have more money for projects.  Dumb money.  Without further ado, some pictures!

through the front door: dining area and kitchen

turning right from the front door: living room

missing a stove and fridge, obviously

the previous owner built the house himself.  including the cabinets.  I'm very impressed with his skill!  and for the record, those cabinets are so tall that even Jesse will need a step ladder to get to the top.

hallway.  boring.  two rooms on the right are bedrooms (farther back will be Lily's), first on the left is stairs to the basement, second is our bedroom.  attic and a door outside at the end.

our room..nothing exciting. 

2 closets and a half bathroom in our room

room in the basement with a small secondary kitchen.  there was a fridge down here, not sure we'll replace it.

again

room.  there isn't really anything exciting about basements until you fill it with your own stuff.

again.

view from the front door/deck.  that's our garage on the right and our land across the street.   

garage.  there was a workbench here, but they apparently took the top part.  easy enough to replace, and Jesse is already planning on his workshop.

planning where I'm allowed to park and where all his tools will go.  very nice garage!

I think this is my side.  

part of our meadow and creek

floor plan so you can put it all together yourself :) the house is built into the side of a hill (kind of) with a walkout basement so you have to go upstairs to get to the main floor.  the "deck" on the left side is what we'll use as the "front door," opening into the dining area and living room.

I suppose that's it!  We're looking forward to being somewhere that will be ours.  Not that moving 4 times in 3 years isn't fun..but..it's not.  

xoxo

a trip to the hospital

First off, I want to apologize if you are finding out this way or via Facebook: I tried to update as many people as I could last night and today, but there just was a lot going on.

Second, we are fine.  Just wanted to get that out there, too.

So what happened.  I began experiencing some lower abdominal pain on Sunday afternoon.  I thought it was weird, but just wrote it off as nothing because it went away before too long.  However, the pain came sporadically for the next few days, but never stuck around.  Thursday morning, the pain came again and this time, nausea came with it and the pain was at least a 9 on the 0-10 scale.  Maybe even 9.5.  I was at work when this bout of pain hit, and sent Jesse a message, asking if he thought I should go to the doctor.  He thought I should, so I called to try and set up an appointment.  They unfortunately didn't have any openings for that day, but felt it important enough that I should either go to the ER or an Urgent Care.  Hoping to avoid any hospitals, I opted for the Urgent Care.

When I got to the Urgent Care, they took my vitals, collected a urine sample and asked if there was any possibility of pregnancy.  I told them I supposed there could be a chance.  When I was finally seen by the doctor, she was mainly concerned that this could be my appendix which kind of made me nervous.  She said that my urine looked fine as far as kidney functions and everything went, but that she was going to schedule me for a CAT scan at the hospital to check out my appendix.  The doctor went off to work on that, and I sent Jesse a message, explaining about the scan and appendix.  When the doctor came back in, she said that my urine had in fact tested positive for pregnancy and that she was going to go ahead and rule out the appendix theory.  I was excited but definitely nervous when she told me because of all the pain I was having.  We discussed possibilities as far as the pain went, and the one that seemed most probable was that it was an ectopic pregnancy.  She then left to try and schedule an ultrasound instead of the CAT scan.

The hospital was really slow and pokey about getting me back to the ultrasound, which was just annoying because they made me drink 32 oz of fluid beforehand so my bladder would be full.  If doctors are going to require that, they should be speedy about the procedure!!  The ultrasound tech finally came and got me and took a few pictures.  She let me have a bathroom break before continuing.  After she got everything taken care of, she went to review them and call the doctor from the UC while I waited.  I ended up talking with the doctor from the Urgent Care twice: I don't remember what exactly was discussed the first time, but the bottom line was that I was 6-8 weeks pregnant, but they couldn't see any sign of a baby in my uterus or Fallopian tube, and so she was getting in touch with the on call OB/GYN at the hospital and that I was going to be admitted overnight with the possibility of surgery.

At this point, everything kind of hit me at once: I was concerned about what Jesse and Lily would do without me overnight and overwhelmed with the emotions of the day so far.

I got checked in and shown to my room.  I was just sitting down and trying to keep the tears back when Emily text me and asked if I had time to text and how I was doing.  Really, she couldn't have text at a better time: I was alone in a hospital waiting for probable surgery where I would lose my baby and Jesse hadn't arrived yet.  Thank you Em.

Jesse arrived shortly later and we talked and I cried for awhile.  Several hours passed and we spoke with the doctor who would be conducting the surgery and he said there would be a bit of a wait because of some other surgery that was underway already.  More time passed and we found out that I'd be going in for surgery around midnight.  Jesse made arrangements with Betsy to keep Lily overnight for us and took Lily off to her house and then came back to be with me overnight.  We tried to relax and keep friends and family updated on what was going on and had dozed off for a little bit when they came in to take me down to the OR.

The surgery went well.  I got back to my room and Jesse told me a bit of what the surgeon had come up to tell him: they had gone in with scopes in 3 different incisions on my stomach and found the pregnancy in the right Fallopian tube and removed it, cauterizing my tube and leaving it in tact.  We both went back to sleep, or as best we could for the night.  Recovery today seemed slow and annoying, as I just wanted to go home and cuddle with my Lily, but we were eventually released and came home.  Julia came over to babysit me while Jesse went to fill my prescription for pain, and Betsy came with food and my little girl.  We had decided it would be best for Lily to spend another night with the Partin's so Jesse and I could get some rest tonight, but it was so good to see and cuddle her for a few minutes.

That's about it, I guess.  We're doing ok: glad that this was discovered before my tube burst and made the situation much worse and thankful that this happened within a few hours of finding out I was pregnant versus several months, which we both feel would be so much harder to handle.  I know I feel emotionally drained right now, but we'll be fine.  We both believe that everything happens for a reason and that God is in control of this and knows why it had to happen.  As sad as we are to have lost a baby, we are blessed with an adorable little 10.5 month old that makes us so happy and incredibly blessed to have such a great support group of family and friends.  Thank you to everyone who sent me texts, emails and prayers yesterday and today and for everyone who has helped out out and offered to help.

I'll post a more cheery post soon, promise!  I'm going to bed now, though :) thanks for bearing with me as I wrote a book, and probably was much more scatter-brained than normal.  Please continue to pray for us if you think of us.

g'night!

xoxo

oi.

I feel that a lot is going on in our lives.  However, when I finally find a few minutes to sit down and blog about all the goings-on, nothing comes to mind to tell about.  Blah.  I just feel kind of overwhelmed by life-- the everyday, boring things.  Shocking, I know.  But you know that feeling when you survey your house and realize all the cleaning you have to do that just never seems to get done?  That's where I am right now. Fortunately, I don't care at the moment, hah.

So yesterday, Jesse was supposed to work a few hours in the morning (8-12).  Since he figured he'd be free by 1p at the absolute latest, we made plans to go to the mall with friends so he could see a movie with the boys and Lily and I could walk around with the girls.  Additionally, since he was only supposed to be 4 hours, he didn't take anything to eat.  Lunch time came and went...and so did movie time.  He finally made it home around 7p, after not eating anything all day and being stuck at work well past his assumed finishing time.  He was not amused, but all survived.  During my day: Lily and I got up, did some things and she just seemed a little off.  Nothing to be concerned about, just not as awake and happy as normal in the mornings.  By the time we got to the farmer's market, she just seemed wiped out and was pretty much slouching as far as she could in her little stroller.  We walked back to the car with our purchases where she proceeded to throw up everywhere.  Oh, and of course it was raining.  So I stripped her down to a diaper, wiped her up with baby wipes as best I could and took off for home.  She was so tired and just drained that I put her in her crib when we arrived home and she slept for a few hours.  All was fine and dandy.

Until I went to the basement to get something and thought "uh-oh..the floor is damp.  Not.  Good."  Hoping it was somehow leaking from the washing machine (fixable), I quickly realized that our basement had water alllllll over it from the huge storm we'd had the night before (not fixable by me).  Ugh.  And since this all happened before I got to eat lunch, I figured that the water would be there by the time I was done, and went back upstairs and had some leftovers.  I prioritize well.  Long story short, nothing of ours was ruined (praise God), and our landlady is calling the insurance people to see about how bad the damage is.  In the meantime, we were able to borrow a shop vac from friend so we've been trying to mop up some of the water because it smells horrendous by now.

And that, has been my Sunday and Monday so far.  Lovely.

On a lighter note: Lily has 4 teeth now, and it looks like her gummies might be swollen to work on the next two in the top row, but that might take awhile.  She has also started to boycott the jarred baby foods, so we've been doing a lot more table foods and whatever Jesse and I are eating.  If any of you Mommy Friends out there have any suggestions for transitioning between jarred baby food and table food, I'm all ears!

I also began my half marathon training today.  Woohoo.  Why do I do this, again?  Anyway, my official stance and theory on running is this: if you're running up a hill, you can add a mile to your total distance. Same goes if you're pushing a stroller.  And since I did both in my run today, I'm pretty sure my 3 mile run was more of a 5 mile run.  You can dispute this if you did the same thing today, otherwise, I win.

And that is about it, I think.  I also updated the 365 pictures, so you should go check those out, too.

yay camping!

Jess, Richard and Joel all came to visit this weekend.  We had a lot of fun and they had to leave too soon, but I'm really glad they were able to visit!  They arrived Friday, and we left to go on an overnight camping adventure shortly after Jesse got home from work.  As far as Jesse and I are concerned in the use of the word 'adventure,' and looking back on previous camping trips with my family growing up, this was rather tame on both counts, but an adventure nonetheless!

It started with me running around my house like a chicken missing it's head while I tried to gather all the things we'd need for the overnight.  We eventually made it out the door in one piece and only forgot a few minor details.  Like shutting the back door..oops.

We arrived at our camp site, made a fire, pitched some tents and started roasting some hot dogs over the fire.  This is where we remembered that I had forgotten any sort of condiment for said hot dogs, but life goes on and it's food, so we dealt with it.  Poor Joel was miserably sick with some sort of sinus infection/pink eye/laryngitis fun, so the ridiculous humidity and heat left him more miserable than he already was.  Oh, additionally, we got a spectacular storm over night: plenty of lightning and rain to go around.  Lily slept like a champ-- once she finally fell asleep WAY past her bed time-- and actually slept better on the floor of a tent than she did in her own crib in familiar surroundings.  Hmm..anyway, the dogs did great, and we all left dry and at least well fed.  Not rested or showered too much, but we took care of that when we got home.

how the dogs travelled to the camp site

that little yellowish dot in the middle is Lily enjoying being outside

dinner!

our little site

s'more time!

lovin' the great outdoors

breakfast after a morning run

and not letting the s'mores go to waste!

how the dogs travelled home from camping

game time!

The rest of the weekend was filled with food, laundry, showers and board games.  My opinion is that it was wonderful and tons of fun.  Jesse and I are already scheming our next camping trip for the fall when it isn't so hot and humid out.  

Other than that..Lily is taking more and more steps.  She isn't too interested in letting go and just walking by herself, but if we can entice her and keep her interested, she'll take however many steps she can towards us and what she wants.  I don't think it'll be long before she realizes that she can run and then it's on.  And Lily's top teeth FINALLY came in: I had threatened to go in after them myself with a pair of pliers if they didn't show up soon, so I'm glad for her sake they did.

That's about it for now!  Nothing too exciting going on here..