Future Flyers Fan?

Ryan and I got to go to a Flyers game last night. It was pretty exciting since they won in over time. And although I'm not a huge hockey fan I can appreciate the intensity of a tied game, in over time. But I have to say, I think Ryleigh enjoyed it more. She kicked and cheered every time they scored!!
Or maybe it was because she's at the stage where she reacts to outside sounds, and loud ones make her jump....... but I'll just keep telling Ryan it's cause she'll be a Flyers fan. :-)

My husband, my hero

Yesterday I was feeling very impatient about putting Ryleigh's crib together. This involved us going to the storage unit and tracking down some missing hardware. After taking about half the stuff out of storage, having a chair fall on his head, and lifting lots of heavy boxes Ryan finally found the hardware in the back corner. He didn't whine or complain, he was just happy to make me happy.

Today during my lunch break I accidentally left my car lights on, resulting in a dead battery. I called Ryan while he was at work, and left him a message. The whole afternoon I didn't stop to think, "What if he doesn't come to pick me up and jump my car.". I had full faith that he would come to my rescue. At 5:30 he was there to pick me up, he stood in the freezing cold rain and wind and jumped my car for me.

I am so thankful for this wonderful man that I know I can always count on. I could spend the rest of my life trying to thank him for all the wonderful things he does for me, and that still wouldn't even come close to repaying him. I'm so happy I married such a great man :-)

My Favorite Things

Despite the title of this blog it is not like the Oprah episode where she lists her favorite things and everyone in the audience gets one. Sorry to disappoint.

1. Sunday afternoon football- No, I don't like this because I like football. I watch football with Ryan on Sundays because it means hours and hours of cuddle time. We get all comfy on the couch, watch football and take naps together. It's even better when the 4 of us (me, Ryan, Ryleigh, and Hera) are all together. Today Hera was laying on my stomach and Ryleigh was kicking her :-)

2. Family- We had lots of family time and I loved it. Despite the fact that just watching all the kids run around makes me tired I love watching them. And I cannot wait until Ryleigh will be playing around with all her cousins.

3. Baby girl clothes- convenient, huh? I loved little girl clothes way before I got pregnant, but now that I have an excuse to buy them it's even better.... actually, the only clothes I bought for her so far is a little Phillies onesie. But I love all the outfits I've been given so far. I love all the pink, and the frills, and the littleness of them all.

Well that's my list so far. I'm sure I could name more things but I am so tired right now! I'm glad the Phillies are winning cause it makes Ryan happy, but these late night baseball games have go to stop.

Little by little

So sometimes I get frustrated about money.... or lack thereof. I get so jealous of people who own a house, and get to go on vacations, and get to buy more than one new outfit a year. I try to remind myself that money isn't everything but it can get pretty hard.
This weekend, however, I started realizing that we are getting closer to having a good money situation. My car needed new brakes and new routers. One of my old cars needed all that done one time and it lead to me calling home, crying, stressing about how I would pay for it and then I think I had to use a credit card to pay for it. This time Ryan paid for the repairs and that was that. I am still in shock that we were actually able to do that.
We also went and joined Sam's Club today. It seems like a good idea since we'll be having to buy diapers, and wipes like crazy. Plus the Sam's Club in Deptford has a gas station with cheap gas for members. At this time last year we wouldn't have been able to even afford a membership. We were counting our pennies, and a couple of times when our pay days, and our days where our big bills had to be paid didn't quite match up we'd be overdrawn on our account. I would cry almost every night because I was so scared we wouldn't be able to pay our rent and we'd get kicked out and be homeless.
So although I get frustrated about having to work 2 jobs, and the fact that we can't afford for me to be a stay at home mom, I am thankful for the progress we are making. I am trying to not complain too much...... but that will also take some time.

I'm not laughing anymore

So if you read my blog yesterday you would have read my "amusing" story about how a mom told me I shouldn't be picking up babies out of cribs because I'm pregnant. Well, that same mom went up to one of my supervisors today and told her that I couldn't pick up a baby out of a crib. That one little comment from a parent lead to me being yelled at by two supervisors. I was told that if I can't do what is required of me then I should just quit. (seriously, the mom would not let me pick the baby up out of the crib. She stood right there and told me not to..... what was I supposed to do? Push her out of the way??)
I was also yelled at for making a comment that a baby's poop was gross. Yeah, my boss over heard me saying that and I got yelled at for it today. And I seriously do mean yelled at. The thing that sucks about having a woman boss is that women tend to get bad attitudes, and can't keep them in check even when they're supposed to be acting professional.
I also got yelled at because my boss has heard me complaining that my back hurts. Of course my back hurts! I'm 6 and a half months pregnant! I've gained weight. I am carrying my baby, plus other peoples babies around all day. What do they expect? And seriously, everyone at work complains about something. Geez. God forbid I make a comment that my back hurts!!!!
I also got reprimanded for keeping it a secret that I am pregnant, and not telling my boss before they hired me. And since that is totally illegal I will be filing a complaint.

Ugh. Overall, my work day sucked! And my stupid emotions got the best of me and I cried in front of my boss, and all of my co-workers. It was embarrassing and stupid and I hate that I have to face those people again!!

And yes, I am over emotional lately, but I totally blame Ryleigh.

This made me laugh

Today a parent came in to pick up their child who was asleep in a crib. I offered to get the baby out of the crib for her, and she said, "No, you should be getting babies out of cribs, you're pregnant!".

I just had to laugh. It was nice that someone finally realized that maybe because I am pregnant I should be taking it easy ..... but seriously, how hard is it to pick up a little baby from a crib? haha. I do that about 15 times a day! And it's not like this woman doesn't know what it's like to be pregnant..... her baby is only 5 months old..... I wonder what she did for the 9+ months? Sat on her butt the whole time. That would be nice :-)

Not so friendly ghost

So I bought a cute little ghost decoration to go outside our front door. We're not really into Halloween, but the decoration was a dollar and the ghost is smiling, he's not like a threatening scray ghost.
Well, this thing just blows in the wind and taps against the door all the time. And all the time I think some one is trying to get into the house. It's kinda startles me every time I hear him tapping. I should just take it down, but I think Ryan enjoys laughing at me everytime I get startled.
And can I just say that I love this weather!!! I made pumpkin pie tonight, and bought caramel apples, yum yum. Fall has the best food!!

Home Sweet Home

Well we're back from our weekend in Rhode Island. Let me just say how nice it was to be home! Between the shower, church, and an impromptu attendance at my 2nd cousin's birthday party we got to pretty much see my whole family. It was great to see everyone.

My shower was very nice. I got a lot of presents. We got an umbrella stroller, car seat, and tons and tons of clothes. Unfortunately the majority of the presents were clothes..... and blankets. We now have about 15 blankets. Now, I am very thankful to have all the clothes, they're all very cute, but I didn't get a lot of the big expensive things we need. I was kinda hoping people would chip in and split the cost of the big things like a pack & play, crib mattress, etc. We didn't get a single baby bottle, or pacifier, or box of diapers, or any other very necessary things. So I tried not to be disappointed by all the clothes, and I tried to focus on the big stuff that we did get. Hopefully I did a good job of smiling the whole time. Unfortunately no one thought to give us gift receipts, so I am now stuck with things like sweaters she'll fit into in July, and t-shirts she'll fit into in February. grrrr.
My favorite presents were the hand made stuff. I got 3 hand made blankets, 2 hand made sweaters, and a hat. Those were sweet cause they were made with love.

Thankfully after we left RI my mom called to say she was talking with my cousins and aunts and they realized they had old stuff to give me. So, as long as they're in good condition I will be inheriting a crib mattress, stroller, breast pump, pack & play, and a swing from people in my family who no longer need them. So, that will be a huge help!! I just have to wait until Thanksgiving to check them out, make sure they're still in good condition, etc. But yay for free stuff!!

On another note, it was fun watching the Red Sox game up in RI where everyone's a Red Sox fan! If they win tonight they'll be playing the Phillies in the world series....... yeah, that'll be very awkward for me...... our house will be like the civil war. haha.

I am too impatient!

I am so excited about my shower in RI this weekend! I can't wait to see all the cute things I get for Ryleigh!

However, with registering at places like Target and Babies R'Us I can check my registries online to see what people have bought so far. And I am too impatient to wait till Saturday so I check like 3 times a day. And so far it has made me panic. Thankfully somebody's bought us a car seat, and my mom will be buying us a stroller, but other than that we are getting a lamp and bath toys. Now I know most people will probably wait until the last minute to buy gifts. And I know that there will be 20 people in attendance at the shower, plus several Connecticutters will be bringing gifts from other Connecticutters that can't make it, but I'm still panicked.

I went to a friend's baby shower a couple of weeks ago and seriously all she got was clothes, hardly any of the other essentials like bottles. I'm so worried I won't get the essentials.

Maybe my curiosity is just getting the best of me and I should stop worrying. Or maybe people will just give us money and I'll have tons of fun going shopping to buy everything myself! Either way, I am super excited about getting baby stuff and seeing my family!!!

Why I want to move

We looked at the apartment and we like it. It's bigger, has 7 or 8 closets, and the room that will be Ryliegh's is already painted pink. It is a basement apartment however, and the ceiling is really low.... like we'll have to get different bookshelves cause ours won't fit..... but we'll deal. We put in our application and we have to wait for it to get approved and stuff, so hopefully we'll find out on Monday if we got it or not. Then we'll have to see if everything will work our money-wise, and in breaking our lease for our current apartment.

But unfortunately Ryan and I both love the idea of moving and will be sorely disappointed if it doesn't work out. Not to mention all the things we would love to leave behind with our current living situation. Here are just a couple of excerpts from our current leasing office's blunders.

There's signs up for a yard sale they were having through out the development. The signs read: "Yard Sale Sat 10-11 9am-?"...... so I thought maybe they meant Saturday the 10th, through Sunday the 11th and just kind of left out the word "Sun."..... but there's no yard sale today so who knows what they meant by 10-11, 9am-?

Here's another one. They sent out a notice that there will be work done on the concrete around the development. Here's a sentence from that note. "Please try and park your cars, kids playing, walking away from these work areas."...... Ummmmm..... what? I mean, I'm smart enough to figure out what they meant, but seriously, you would think that people who run an entire development would at least have some knowledge of sentence structure. They write stuff like that all the time.

But please don't analyze my blog for proper sentence structure.... blogging doesn't have to be grammatically correct. :-)

Answer to prayer??

We have been working with a realtor for quite a while now. She has been trying to help us find an apartment to rent. We've been working with her way before we knew we were going to have a baby. Unfortunately she hasn't found anything decent in our price range.... until now.

Picture it. 2 bedroom apartment on the 1st floor of a house. Front and backyard with fencing. Washer/dryer to be shared with the people upstairs. Utilities included. 700$ a month! Seriously, we're paying 735$ a month in rent, plus our heating bill was astronomical last winter, for just a one bedroom. If we could live in a 2 bedroom for that cheap it would be wonderful. We haven't seen it yet, and we have to check out the location. It's in Audubon, so theoretically it should be closer to work for me. And any neighborhood is better than the one we're living in now. I'm kind of thinking that since our apartment is close to a dump anything would be better, but I have seen some pretty bad places, so I'll hold my tongue.

If we lived in a "real house" I would have much better chances of finding someone to allow me to watch their baby at our house, and then I could quit my job and stay home with Ryleigh!

There's a few catches though. Like the 1,10$ security deposit we would need. And the fact that we would be breaking the lease for our current apartment and would be responsible for paying the rent until it gets rented out by someone else. But, we'll go see this new apartment tomorrow. If it looks perfect for us then we will be trusting in God to work out all the money details. In the long run it would help us save more money each month, so it would be a good financial decision...... meanwhile we'll be trying to find a money tree in the woods somewhere. haha

I need a break!

At the beginning of this week my class had 13 kids in it. Starting tomorrow it will have 16. Our ratio is 4 babies to 1 teacher. We have 3 teachers. It doesn't take a genius to figure out we will be out of ratio. Do you think our director will be doing anything about this? Nope. We're usually over ratio by 1 baby, maybe she figures 3 more won't hurt?

I would just love for a parent to come in and notice we're out of ratio and yell at the director :-) But I doubt that'll happen.

For now we'll just have to somehow deal.

I sure could use a prenatal massage. After lifting babies up and down all day my back hurts, my knees hurt, my arms hurt...... it's no fun working full time and being 6 months pregnant. At work I do everything everyone else does. I don't wimp out because I'm pregnant. I don't expect them to allow me to sit on my butt because I'm pregnant. And I'm actually scared to ask them to take it easy on me. For my first 90 days I am on probation, which means, they can review my performance and decide I am not living up to the standards of my position, and I could lose my job. So I have to prove that me being pregnant will not hinder my performance............ but I really really want to say, "No, I can't lift that huge baby up over the 4 foot door and pass him to you because I'm pregnant and it's dangerous for me to do so"......

I am so tired!!!

Grinches Stealing Christmas

I like watching the news because I like staying informed, but I am so sick of the negative spin they always put on things. The latest was how bad Christmas is going to be. Because of the poor state of the economy they are saying that no one will be able to buy as many Christmas presents this year, therefore, Christmas will be ruined.

I'd like to comment on that. First of all, I kind of hope it does "ruin" Christmas for some people. I know that sounds mean but I have a reason for it. In years past Christmas has been a time where people charge stuff to their credit card, therefore living beyond their means, and isn't that one thing that has lead to this economic crisis? I hope the people that have relied on credit cards will maybe learn their lesson, and will learn how to buy presents within their means, and how to apply that throughout the year to all their spending, so maybe we won't have thousands of people doing things like buying houses they can't afford and then not paying the banks back.

And the obvious reason I hate the news people sometimes is because Christmas is not all about presents.... or at least it shouldn't be. So what if people might not be able to buy tons of expensive presents like they want to. Why can't the media put a positive spin on things and realize that maybe this year people can focus on the true meaning of Christmas. I personally grew up in a family where half the people could never afford to get me presents, and I don't remember ever complaining. My favorite Christmas tradition is when 4 generations of my family crowd into my aunt's 2 bedroom apartment for breakfast. We all show up un-showered, in our pj's, with messy hair. There's never enough seating, and there's kids always running around. But the food's always good, and you gotta just love being with family.

(Ok, now I'm a little sad. This Christmas will be the first one where I won't be waking up at my parents house :-( I'm staying in NJ. But, I will be positive about it. Ryan and I will get to come up with our own traditions for Christmas morning. We have no idea what we're going to do, but it's fun coming up with ideas. And I am so excited about next year when we actually have Ryleigh with us to participate!)

P.S. Isn't it too early to be focusing on Christmas? Let's get through Thanksgiving first :-) That's my favorite holiday!

I <3 maternity clothes

It struck me earlier today how nice maternity clothes are. Not only are they the only type I can wear, but with the majority of pants you don't have any buttons or zippers. Can life get any easier? haha.

But seriously, I love shopping for maternity clothes even more than I like wearing them. There's a store called Destination Maternity. They carry all the really cute, expensive clothes, but if you go all the way in the back you'll find the cheap ones. Seriously, I just bought brand new jeans for 19 bucks. Yay! But it's not the cheap prices I like. It's the pampering.

The first time I shopped there I was showered with pamphlets of information about everything having to do with babies. I was also showered with free samples of things :-) It's the type of store where you're "assigned" a sales lady, she follows you around, helps you find things, starts a dressing room for you, and happily goes and gets a different size if you need one. So basically she does everything you wish your husband would do, haha. But the nice thing about this store is they have a big TV so the husbands can watch the game while you're being treated like a queen. And they offer drinks (non-alcoholic of course). I sometimes feel bad when I make someone wait on me only so they can ring up my 19 dollar purchase, but really I just enjoy the pampering.

Silly me. I thought I would get pampered a lot when I was pregnant. I was so disappointed when I realized my house didn't magically clean itself, and my oven didn't automatically yield a delicious dinner every night. I'm sure if Cinderella was pregnant she'd have mice and birds do everything for her. But sadly I still have to cook, clean, do laundry, and scrub toilets. Not to mention the fact that I'm working 2 jobs, plus volunteering in the church nursery. I cannot wait until my maternity leave!! It starts in just 12 weeks!! Yay!

Aloneness

Ok so first off I'd like to say that I know the title of my blog isn't a real word. But I am alone, and I'm not really feeling lonely, so I couldn't say loneliness so I improvised.

Ryan left this morning to go camping with a couple of his co-workers. I am trying not to be nervous about it, even though it's supposed to be very cold at night, and I hate spending time away from him. The last weekend we were apart was during a business conference where the guys and girls slept in different rooms...... it ended in a trip to the hospital. Not fun. But, this time I sent him off with all his emergency information and equipment. He is also camping with a guy who was an EMT for a number of years, so if anyone is able to handle an emergency situation it's him. So, with that being said, I am husbandless and trying to be worry free.

Like any good husband Ryan left me with a set amount of money to spend on myself this weekend :-) :-) So I will busy myself with buying some much needed maternity clothes, a new purse, and more fall decorations. I also have a 3 hour training session for Sylvan on Saturday for a new computer program they're switching to..... no so fun, but I get paid for it. I'm also hoping to hang out with my closest friend in NJ, so all in all the weekend should go by quickly.

The weird thing is, although I am at home all alone, I'm not completely alone. I have this precious little baby kicking me in the stomach, saying, "Mom, I'm here". And all the baby books say now is the time to start talking to her, and singing to her. One book even suggested I dance because she can feel the rhythmic sways. ..... I probably won't go that far. But I find it amusing that I will most likely spend the majority of my weekend conversing with someone that no one else can see.