Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! 

I have so much to be thankful for this year.  I am thankful for my amazingly strong and supportive family.  We have been through a lot this year, but we all hold tight to each other and learn to make it through.  I am thankful that my dear Aunt Cin is no longer in pain and suffering.  She is partying up in heaven now, watching over all of us. We could all use an extra angel, right? I am thankful that God has blessed Joe and me with our first child, a son.  We have waited so long for this and to finally experience it is truly amazing.  It's hard, but always remember, God has a plan, if you want to follow His plan, you must go by HIS timing not your own...I have learned this! I am also so thankful for my amazing best friend. Not sure where I would be without her. LAUREN RAWSON, you are my rock and I know I can always count on you for anything. Whether tragedy hits and I need someone to cry to or my drive home is just making me crazy, I know you will listen! I also have a ton of other friends, old and new that I am incredibly thankful for, my life is what it is because of you! 

Baby Update: So I haven't blogged in forever and I promised it wouldn't be so long the last time, but I do have a half of an excuse, other than being crazy busy lately...our laptop is about to hit the dust and won't connect to the internet, so I have to come use our ancient desktop to make this post :) 

I am 35 weeks this Saturday. Gavin is over 5 pounds and measuring 18.5 inches.  All of our appointments have been normal and the doctor says everything is looking good.  The nursery is all finished with the exception of the bookshelf which my parents will hopefully be bringing down at Christmas time.  


We have been so blessed to have 3 amazing baby showers.  So many people have given us great words of wisdom and some pretty great gifts! We have just about everything we need! 


I hope everyone has a blessed Thanksgiving and remember there is always something to be thankful for, no matter what your circumstances are! Much love to all!

Rest In Peace

July 25, 2011 will never be the same, although it is my best friend's birthday, it is also the day an amazing woman and fighter lost her battle with Ovarian Cancer.  3:50 pm, she took her last breath, just prior one tear drop fell from her eye, even though her heart hadn't been beating for nearly 2 hours.  She left this Earth and entered the gates of heaven surrounded by family.  To ease all of our pain, we have to understand she is no longer in pain, and isn't suffering anymore!

She told us the day before she left this Earth that everytime we see a cardinal that is her. I have seen two so far, so I guess she is trying to tell me she sees me and loves me. 

Our lives will never be the same, family functions will probably be a lot less funny (she was always cracking jokes) and her encouraging words will be forever gone, except those which I have kept in her ever so perfect handwriting! Her boys are in need of some serious prayers.  We hope the two of them realize our family is not going to abandon them, and they we are here for them more than ever.  We love them so much and just hope that they will continue their relationships with the family.

My family put on an amazing bbq last saturday, at my Aunt's request.  She planned everything...from the Johnsonville Brauts (not off brand), to the deviled eggs, pigs eyes (red neck sushi), relish tray, and bbq ribs! The family was required to at least drink 1 natty lite, from the can of course! Even Joe drank one, and he hasn't had beer in like 8 years! It was amazing to see 4 sides of her family, and all of her friends all in one place, with all their differences aside to celebrate her life. She was a truly amazing person, and I am sure she is rocking this world as an angel!

Lastly, if you do not know the silent signs of Ovarian Cancer, please do your research. It is known as the silent killer because the symptoms can often be mistaken for flu like symptoms.  Had we been able to catch this sooner, we may not be saying goodbye. 

Ovarian Cancer...It Whispers...So LISTEN!

We love you Aunt Cin ....... Rest in Peace

Rest In Peace

My aunt lost her battle with stage 4 Ovarian Cancer on Monday, July 25, 2011 at 3:50 p.m.  Before taking her last breath one tear fell from her eye, no one really knows how this scientifically happened as her heart hadn't been beating for almost 2 hours, but it did...She left this world with her family by her side and now she lives on in all of our hearts.  I know she isn't in pain anymore and is up in heaven watching all of us and telling us to be happy and cherish the times we did have together. 

It is extremely hard for myself and my entire family to find peace or even a sliver of happiness through all of this, but knowing she isn't in pain needs to be enough for us.  I keep telling myself it is too selfish of us to desire to keep her on this Earth when she was in so much pain and the chemo just wasn't working.  She was a fighter, she faught til the end, but God had other plans, which we all don't seem to understand at the moment.

I ask that everyone please keep her two sons in their prayers as they learn to live life without the physical presence of their mom. 

Rest in peace Aunt Cin, we love you so very much and we will meet again some day :)



Aunt Cin and me May 2010





 



Aunt Cin, Joe, Me, and Baby M -- July 24, 2011



Things Are Coming Together

Things are coming together around here! We have the tall dresser in the baby room, my parents have the crib and they just ordered the dresser/changing table combo to be delivered in about 2 weeks! It is so exciting to go in the "spare room" and see baby furniture in there.  I now realize I had myself convinced I would never get to experience this!

We have been keeping busy around the house, clearing out closets and reorganizing things around the house to declutter before we reclutter with baby stuff. The baby stuff is more than welcome, don't get me wrong, but I am loving the cleaness lately!

Today I was just shutting down my computer at work packing up to head home and I was resting my left elbow on my left knee, kind of crunched over and I felt something weird...I was feeling the baby for the first time! I felt a little flutter and it was longer than I had prepared myself.  I know the baby is only 4 inches or a little more, but it was like he/she was saying, hey stop squishing me! I was so excited, I texted Joe, who was elated, and yelled at two of my bosses that I just felt the baby.  We talked for a few minutes about it and they were so excited! I am feeling so blessed to be able to feel our little creation now instead of just hoping and praying everything is fine, I can fell the little bean in there now, so reassuring!

Lastly, I would please ask anyone that is reading this to stop and pray for strength and healing for my family as we navigate through some very tough times.  My aunt hasn't been given a very good prognosis with her stage 4 Ovarian cancer and was just admitted to the ER today for having fluid in her lungs. At this point, chemo isn't working, so all we have is prayer.  This is up to God, modern medicine isn't working, so we need the strength and healing from up above, not that we haven't been praying for strength and healing this entire time, but at this point, this is all we have.  I know it is selfish, I just don't think we are ready to lose her yet, but that is easy to say when we aren't experiencing her pain.  I just hope when the time comes that she is called to heaven, the rest of the family can see the good in all of this and know that her pain is gone.  But no negative thoughts for now, though reality is hard to escape, only prayers for strength and healing.  Thank you.

           ***We love you Aunt Cin***
Ovarian Cancer...It Whispers...so LISTEN

What A Weekend!

Whew, what a great weekend! The 4th of July weekend was a blast for us! Friday Joe and I went downtown with Lauren and Olivia to the Springfield Art Walk to see some art that Jeff (Lauren's husband) did and to walk around and see other art.  Jeff is truly blessed with an amazing talent, check out these photos below. A short description of what you are looking at is these are photos of normal everyday things, like a dollar bill, taken under a microscope, magnified hundreds of times and then colored afterwards.  Seriously amazing work, and by far the best art at the walk!

Saturday we went to Fireworks at the Field, which was a fireworks show being put on by the City of Springfield.  With our admission sticker we got into the Discovery Center for free and then got to go see fireworks on the field at Hammons Field, which is where the Springfield Cardinals play.  It was awesome! Joe saw some of his co-workers there who were reporting and they were able to get us free drinks from the green room so we didn't have to pay.  The show was amazing and we had a ton of fun at the discovery center!



Joe at the Discovery Center. This thing you stand on and when your body weight is exactly centered it makes you spin round and round, needless to say he only did this for a few seconds for me to get a picture, because it was slinging him around!



Joe and me sitting on the field waiting for fireworks!



Saturday was so much fun, but we were dead tired! Sunday we went to Lauren and Jeff's to bbq and had an awesome dinner with them and sat outside for a few hours, it was surprisingly nice out! We went home at a half way decent time so Joe could sleep because he had to work that night.  He came home Monday morning and needed to sleep so I did laundry and cleaned up the house. 

At about 2:30 I got a call from Lauren saying they weren't staying at the aquatic center because Olivia fell and had a huge bump on her head, so their plans were to be at home.  I got Joe up around 3:30 and we went to the store to get some hamburger to bbq with Lauren and Jeff and O and we got some fireworks to shoot off. 

We swam with the Rawson's in their pool and bbq'd and shot off fireworks, and just chilled enjoying each others company.  It is so great having them here, it was like we never skipped a beat. I can't imagine life without them, they are truly amazing friends and baby O isn't such a baby anymore...she is a grown toddler with the attitude bigger than her mommy! Here are some pics of our fantastic 4th of July! We are truly blessed!

So that was the weekend...yesterday was another doctor's appointment.  It was just your standard monthly appointment to make sure everything is going as it should.  It's hard at this stage of pregnancy to know if everything is ok since you can't feel a kick or anything, so you just hope for the best.  We went in and got to hear the heartbeat...156 this time! Doctor says that is very strong! We scheduled our next appointment for the first week of August. 

My family is coming in town the last weekend of July/first week in August.  We have an ultrasound scheduled with Ultrasona on August 1st to get a 3D done and determine gender.   We are super excited to find out what Baby M is and I can't wait to start feeling these little flutters I read about!