Category Archives: Family

Big Changes

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I have alluded several times to some medical issues over the past couple of months. And not to worry….they are for a good reason! I’m proud to announce that the Hubby and I are having a baby!!

We are over the moon excited and due sometime early to mid October. As of today I’m around 12-13 weeks and moving into the second trimester! It’s been sooo hard to keep this a secret!!!

That being said…..I’ve been MISERABLY sick since about week four. My mother’s side has a history of hyperemesis gravidarum. This condition was highlighted famously last year by Duchess Catherine or Princess Kate, whichever you prefer. While I didn’t have to be hospitalized I did have a steep learning curve to finding ways to cope with the debilitating symptoms. I’ll spare you the gory details but around week two of symptoms I asked my Hubby if he was okay with only one child, lol. It has since become more manageable.

I am currently taking an anti-emetic medicine, eating a very high fiber and high protein diet, a B-6/Unisom combo for bed time nausea, I drink enough water to fill a swimming pool every day, and take a gummy prenatal vitamin because they are easier on the tummy. I eat almost no sugar, no caffeine at all, very little fried food, and eat 5-6 smalls meals a day instead of 3 large ones. I seriously feel like a gastric bypass patient. But most days it works for me. And the plus side that is all this morning sickness (or all day sickness) means a healthy baby, or so I’m told.

I still have a lot of symptoms but I can at least manage to make it through work. I’m hoping this tapers off in the second trimester. But my own mother had symptoms for her entire pregnancy. I’m praying that I don’t have to do the same….

I’m BONE TIRED most days and sleep 8-9 hours every night. I have had little energy to knit or anything fun. I can barely make sure the house has groceries and the laundry gets done once or twice a week. A big apology to my husband for all the sandwiches and chicken nuggets on the menu lately. Seriously, he’s been such a trooper and takes great care of me!

I can’t wait to start our nursery and pulling out all my baby hand knits I’ve been storing up over the years! Not to mention feeling better some day! Stay tuned for updates on our little Jellybean! (I don’t know want to find out the sex so I picked a gender neutral monicker lol)

Puppy 911…Or So We Thought

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To be clear this is not an April Fools joke….but it sure felt like it at the time!

The hubby and I have two very happy and (knock on wood) healthy pets, Dex and Chloe. Chloe is a six year old King Charles Cavalier Spaniel. She has a minor heart murmur that is under control with exercise and healthy diet. Then we have Dex, a five year old yellow lab that aside from some digestive issues after licking grill goo is very healthy. Until last week…

While visiting my parents Dex developed soreness/pain while jumping up and down from surfaces. He yelped/cried when he tried. Not finding any outward signs of injury we kept him quiet for a few days to ease what we thought was probably a pulled muscle. And for most of the week he continued to show no interest in jumping up and down off the couch or bed. He did absolutely fine running, eating, drinking, and playing.  Then last Saturday came…

After having their supper and evening constitutional the pups settled in for their naps. I took up residence on the couch to catch up on my DVR. I turned around to see my lab hunched on his back haunches, ears laid back, and shaking visibly on his pet bed. To say I freaked out is an understatement…I yelled for my husband who came running. Dex didn’t want to stand or move his back legs. They were stiff and shaking. My husband had to carry all 90 pounds of him to our car to take him to the Emergency clinic down the road.

Upon reaching the clinic and getting settled into the exam room, our dog for no apparent reason began acting normally again. The (very sweet and lovely vet) examined him and found no muscle, skeletal, or neurological issues. So 15 minutes and $100 later we walk out of the clinic with doggy NSAID pain relievers and orders to keep him calm for a week.

I was half mad at myself for freaking out and half relieved that nothing serious was wrong. After five years of doggy ownership, this was our first “emergency”. And it scared the crap out of me. Lord help my husband and I when we have human kids, lol.

Have you ever had a puppy false alarm? How did you handle it?

20140330-135717.jpg(This is Dex’s sad face because he can’t go for walks or play Frisbee for a week)

 

The Quiet Spaces

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The house is quiet, the sun is peeking out, and I have yarn in my hands. These are moments I yearn for!

The laundry is started…

Dinner is in the crock pot….

Dogs have been been fed…

Dishes are put away…

The hubby is snoring away in bed…

With my crazy jam packed life, I live for these moments. I get to slow down and take a breath. No nagging chores or to-do list…nothing but me time. Time in my quiet corner of the world helps me keep maintain a healthy balance. My happy place is anywhere with yarn in my hands or camped out in front of my PC with knitting blogs and a cup of coffee. A few precious moments here and I can take on the rest of my day and week without fear.

Where is your quiet space?

Pardon Me

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11

Pardon me, for I have no knitting today. I’ll pause for the shock and horror……

Last night I had a tremendous opportunity, to sit in a room and spend time with some of the greatest women I know. My Grandmothers’ aunt….yes I said Grandmother…..turned 102 earlier this week. She still lives in her own home and has complete control of her mental faculties. She is a little unsteady on her feet but who wouldn’t be at 102?

Well, my Grandma (80 and proud of it) came for a visit to see her aunt (and two other aunts mind you, still alive and kicking at 90+ years each) and as chauffeur I got stay for dinner and dessert. These ladies came from a family of seven girls and four are sadly gone now. For as long as I can remember my family has called them simply “the sisters”. My Great-Grandma was the eldest (and lived to be 100 1/2). I can still feel her whiskers tickling my face when she would kiss my forehead. And she never did learn to pronounce my name, she would say Ray-shell instead of Rah-shell. Oh, how I miss her 🙂

On this night, I sat mostly off to the side with my knitting and just soaked in the wisdom. These women are strong, funny, and absolutely wise. I pray that I got some of those genes and that someday I can be half as spirited as these ladies at that age. Who says getting old can’t be fun?

So for this reason…I have no knitting update. I can’t remember if I made very many stitches or any at all in between laughing and listening. What I do have is a full heart and great memories of some fantastic ladies.

I now return you to regularly scheduled programming….

Holiday Hangover

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This pretty much how I feel….

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I’m all Christmas’d out. Don’t get me wrong I loved every minute of it. But I’m exhausted!!! I spent five wonderful days with my husband and fur babies at my parents. It was a delightful break from the “real world” but boy did we work hard.

In five days we completed the following:

  • Butchered out 1 1/2 deer
  • Made 10 lbs of deer jerky
  • Defrosted and scrubbed all five of Grandma’s refrigerators and deep freezers (and threw 3 trash bins of crap away)
  • Baked 20 loaves of rye bread
  • Cooked three family dinners
  • And celebrated two Christmases

I got almost no knitting done, which was NOT the plan with five days off of work. I did manage to read a few chapters in the Yarn Whisperer. I took my Abalone and Sophisticate with me in hopes of finishing both. Yeah right…

We got just the slightest hint of snow so I took advantage and had some lovely walks with the fur babies. It was a nice way to take a break from the full house of shenanigans and to walk off all the holiday goodies! The dogs also LOVED the snow! Just FYI, I came home with three abominable snow creatures, lol.

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Now I take you back to your regularly scheduled knitting!

A Step Forward in My Career

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I’ve been at my current job for five years and it’s been one hell of an adventure. No two days are the same, both good and bad! But there isn’t a lot of room for advancement and there are some inherent problems with the structure in my department. So I struck out and interviewed for a dream job….which I was promptly denied.

And I’d like to point out that I was valedictorian of my high school class with a 4.0, I graduated summa cum laude with BA in Spanish, Business, and Accounting from undergrad, I graduated summa cum laude with a Masters in Business Administration from a nationally recognized university, and I have five years working experience as an accountant. I say this not to brag but to point out how ridiculously qualified I am for most jobs. It’s just that even now there are 20 qualified applicants for every job, especially the good ones. Now I don’t want to complain too much because I am currently employed and earn a fair wage. I’m just not happy, and on some level you should be happy(ish) to go to work every day!

So I decided to study for and sit for the Certified Management Accountants’s exam. It’s a step below the CPA and give you knowledge across a WIDE range of accounting topic and not just the banking industry I currently work in. That being said this process is a HUGE time suck. I need to be studying 10-15 hours a week to be on track to take the first test in February 2014. This has put a huge dent into my knitting time.

I guess this is my long way around of saying that for the next couple of months my knitting posts may not be as frequent or as detailed as I have become accustomed to writing. Please bear with me and I promise to keep knitting along the way! How else am I going to stay sane, lol?

Happy Knitting (and studying)!

Art Update

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My mom brought me some art to fill up the blank wall in our living room! She works at an antique shop a couple of days a week and found this tin stamped art piece.It had all the colors of our main living area: red, brown, tan, and green. I paired it with a rustic Live, Laugh, Love sign from Hobby Lobby. Not bad if I do say so myself!

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I was also recently in a Marshal’s looking for a few last Christmas presents for my in-laws and I found this…

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This now hangs in my office next to the closet where we keep our dog food and other puppy paraphernalia. It was SUPER cheap thanks to a few imperfections on the print. But I don’t care, it totally expresses how I feel about my fur children!

Happy Saturday! I’m off to the gym to work off my Thanksgiving dinner….ugh….

Happy Birthday to Me!!

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Today is the first day of my last year of my 20s. I’m officially 29….

I have the day off work so I slept in. I have had a wonderful fall inspired latte with homemade waffles. I’m going to knit on something totally selfish today. I’m going to eat birthday cake before my dinner. And I’m going to make the husband drive me to the yarn store 45 minutes away because it’s my birthday (yay!) and because it’s going out of business (boo!).

I hope they some stock left and it’s still discounted, fingers crossed!

Happy Knitting!!!

 

Clutter and Junk

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This past weekend I celebrated both the birthday of special princess and that of my very own husband. The hubby turned 30….shhhhhh. There was a great deal of planning leading up to this as he requested a LAN party with his friends. For those of you not in the nerdy know….that’s where a bunch of people show up at your house with their xbox and television, hook up on the household network, and play video games and drink till dawn.

Of course I purchased the obligatory cake, made homemade taco soup, and cream cheese and jalapeno spread for our guests. Not to mention scrubbing the house top to bottom. Boy, does my house collect clutter (and dog hair). I have a deep and profound hatred of clutter. It literally makes me grumpy at the sight of it. So let’s just say that preparing for the party did nothing for my mood on Saturday. I also didn’t get any of my normal workouts in due to Halloween on Thursday and party preparation on Saturday.

(Side Note: I would also like to mention that one of the party goers, after about 4 drinks, thought he knew how to “unlock” our alarm system. He succeed in sending not one but THREE silent alarms to the police. Who subsequently showed up at my door along with my neighbor across the street how works for the department as well….whoops! I was not NOT a happy camper. But now I can honestly say I’ve had a party where the cops show up. But all kidding aside, the officer was kind and polite and had a pretty decent response time…..)

Then there was the junk. Between the birthday lunch for a 1 year old where pizza and cupcakes were served and then the big kid party at my house where the above mentioned was served, I consumed copious amounts of refined sugar, carbohydrates, and alcohol. And it was all DARN TASTY! But it left me feeling lethargic and in a funk on Sunday. In my general life I do not abstain from those things, but I do consume them in moderation. And like it or not, they have an impact on my general well being.

Literally on Sunday I was agitated and listless all day. I HATE feeling that way. And here’s the kicker……I DIDN’T EVEN WANT TO KNIT! I’ll pause for your gasps of shock and horror………………………………………..

So I picked myself up by the shoelaces and set out on a long walk with the dogs. I took a lot of deep breaths, took in the beautiful fall landscape, and just spent a quiet 45 minutes with the dogs. And after our walk, I fixed a light romaine salad with diced chicken and lots of veggies and a side of Greek yogurt with a splash flax seed on top. Not to mention about five glasses of water. Not to mention a lovely cup of caffeine free herbal tea at bedtime to soothe my fragile nerves.

I guess this has been a long way around of saying…I don’t really have anything knitting related to show today and I have my grumpy/tired pants on. I will however attempt to put my big girl pants on and improve my mood. Though I have plans to pick up the needles on my Nutmeg Sweater and my Toe-Up sock this week.

I wish all you out there a week of happiness and healthfulness!