Dance with me...

Augustine and I have had a few date nights lately since Jeremy has been working.... A LOT. Its been pretty exhausting on our whole family but we knew this year would be tough with the new theatre. Hope is a beautiful thing and it has been keeping me (and I think Jeremy) plugging away.

Hope that it will get easier... someday... soon...

So that's where dancing in the rain comes in.

Augustine and I watched The Sound Of Music together yesterday and it has inspired Augustine's "Dance with me??" This is actually one of the moments I imagined having as a mother. My little children running up to me with their arms held up, hands eager to be filled with mine and to be spun into oblivion. So now whenever Augustine hears a tune, he finds partner worthy, he runs to me in this way and says, "Daaa Daaa daaa" over and over until I jump up and start jiving with him. He's quite the partner too! If I am not dancing and moving my feet fast enough to his taste he shakes his head and shows me he knows I'm not REALLY dancing my heart out. Ok, ok, this pregnant lady gets tired. Guilty as charged. :-)

I had to also throw in this picture of my Hallows Eve Social Ballroom Dance...

Augustine pretty much tore up the dance floor. His loves "Cotton Eyed Joe", "Hamster Dance", Polkas, and anything else with a strong fun fast beat like my Latin dance music. He also has some serious dance moves on his own. He even knows the power of the "pause" in a moving grooving dance. He does this little posed pause which he holds in total dance mode. It so cracks me up. One of these days I'll get up some sweet videos of him dancing...

$1 for $30 worth of food??

No, I am not an extreme couponer, although I envy their dedication and mostly their savings.

Free food from a friend? No.

I actually went out to eat at a "restaurant" and with my friend's help ordered $30 worth of food!

I paid ONLY $1 to purchase the coupon at GROUPON. So, yeah, dinner with a friend for her birthday became a very affordable and fun outing for ONE DOLLAR!!! If you haven't checked out GROUPON yet you should there are some serious steals! Since I rarely get to eat out this was a really fun treat and cheaper than eating at home. I meant to take a picture because the place was kind of a bar and my friend and I had brought our toddlers which felt awkward at first but once we realized no one else was there and our boys could destroy the place we enjoyed the good laugh, good food, and good time!

Happy Savings!

17 weeks and dreaming...

I have been having some really beautiful dreams about my little new growing baby and now that I feel baby kicking it is making the whole, "I'm pregnant thing" feel more real.

I just went to my 16 week pre-natal checkup on Monday and I've "gained 1lb" (with my winter coat on) since my last visit. My blood pressure went down quite a bit from last time, the nurse actually checked 2x since it seemed so low, in a good way. The baby's heartbeat was sweet music to this worrying mommy's ears and my measurements are right on for 16weeks. Excellent!

I have been feeling pretty good except that I got a nasty cold from my dear son. So much for the healthy bliss of my first pregnancy. And "hello" to the cold season. Ug.

The really exciting news is that on the eve of St. Nicholas Day (one of my favorite holidays!) we get to see our baby at the 20 week ultra sound AND (drum roll please....) find out if we have a baby boy or a baby girl!! I LOVE that part! I dream baby is a girl, I think girl, and I feel girl.... BUT when ever I want to out loud refer to baby I easily want to say, "he." Who knows but I am SUPER pumped either way.

Inspiration of Life!

I just had to give you a link to this blog. This woman writes about her personal struggle with pregnancy and suffering...

"For those of you who never heard of hyperemesis gravidarum, it is your normal morning sickness gone psycho. It is not limited to mornings or evenings or even the first two trimesters of pregnancy. It is non-stop nausea and vomiting and can result in serious dehydration and even hospitalization for some women. Most women who experience hyperemesis, like me, are prescribed antiemetics to control the vomiting and keep the symptoms at a manageable level. But even with medications the baseline level for women struggling with this condition is extreme fatigue and the feeling that you might lose your lunch at any moment. Nice.

...

I share this about my own struggles because the sicknesses I have endured to become a mother have taught me a lot about women seeking abortions. Before becoming pregnant, and thus very sick for the first time, I could not understand how a woman could ever feel so threatened by a growing baby as to want to “terminate” it. Just a few short weeks after my first positive pregnancy test, I remember feeling terrible about myself because the only thing I could think about and wanted was for things to go back to normal. I just wanted to feel good again and be free of this sickness. At the height of this pregnancy sickness and already 20 pounds down in less than 5 weeks, I remember thinking that I could actually understand a woman wanting an abortion. I got it. In my weakness I understood the temptation towards abortion for the first time ever in my life."

 I wanted to post this on my blog because her story rings so true and is so honest and true. I know for myself I had the same realization that she had about abortion when I was sick sick sick with my pregnancy with Augustine. I never have ever ever wanted an abortion but I understood for the first time why some woman give in to the "easy way out". She then goes on to talk about how the suffering you go through is like a Crucifixion. This is my body given up for you!

What a beautiful gift God has given to us woman to offer our bodies for a greater life giving purpose. I can say this so easily after now making it past the nausea of the first trimester. But there are a lot more sufferings to come and of those I am acutely aware of this time around. I am at 15weeks today and had entered, what I call, my headache phase. Ever since I was a child I suffered from awful migraines. I have somewhat grown out of them but at about 14 weeks pregnant I start to get endless throbbing headaches. It is so hard to rejoice in these struggles and pains but sometimes God gives me the grace to recognize in the moment what a gift my body is and how perfectly and wonderfully He has made me.

After my dear husband gave me a neck and back massage I have no throbbing headache today and I can rejoice again in no pain (for a little while). I can also rejoice in the fact that I seemed to have found the remedy for my headaches and a quite nice remedy at that!

Until I get to meet you, my little precious child, I am so honored to be offering my body up for you with agape love!

May your cross today (whatever it may be) help you to realize your greater purpose on earth to offer those sufferings up.

We always find that those who walked closest to Christ were those who had to bear the greatest trials.

            -St. Teresa of Avila

"Guys"

Augustine's favorite play toy among ALL his toys...

are his, "Guys!"

Augustine is 19 months now and he plays the most charming game of imagination with these little "GI JOE "guys." He calls them his "guy" or "guys" and he even gives them different voices. He has a deep growly voice for one of them. I mostly don't have a clue what he is saying but it is usually with great passion and he can play for quite some time having a couple of guys interact. I hear him say occasionally, "go go go, guy..." He got it from mimicking his brother Aidan and Jeremy and myself. I know I try to lower my voice when pretending to talk like one of the "guys."

Another really neat thing about these "guys" is that they were Jeremy's favorite toys growing up. He is actually a bit protective of them since they really are his old toys! Ever since we watched Toy Story 3 he says, "those are not age appropriate", over and over. I insist they are since they keep Augustine's attention way longer than anything else AND he actually plays with them as they are intended. I mean he doesn't use them as a hammer! So, Jeremy played with these little guys, Aidan played with them growing up, and now Augustine is instinctively carrying on the legacy.

And now you are wondering why your mother made you throw out your old toys!

Meals...

Ok, so it's not Monday but I'm having some sort of food craving and I found this new blog that I LOVE! Its A Year of Slow Cooking and its given me some yummy new ideas for foods. I'm past my healthy food only cravings and have been diving into my Monday meal of Chili loaded with cheese and sour cream! (It's so loaded with cheeses that it shouldn't even be called chili but... oh, well!)

Here is the weeks plan:

Monday: Chili
Tuesday: Leftovers
Wednesday: Cream Cheese Crock Pot Chicken over Whole Wheat Pasta
Thursday: Chicken Pepperoni Bread Wrap
Friday: Tuna Melts
Saturday/Sunday: Sarah's Tortellini Tomato Creation... maybe I'll post the recipe

Now I'm going to stop writing and eat some Chef Boyardee it will go with my previous courses of a whole red pepper (yeah still love my veggies!) and a pomegranate (which Augustine tried for the first time and LOVED!)

Bon Appetite!

He gives and takes away...

OK, so I've taken a bit of a 3 week hiatus from blogging since I have not had my laptop. I finally have it back and I am super excited to start blogging again. SO MUCH is happening right now both good and bad so its a lot to catch up on!

It goes something along the lines of that song or bible verse, "He gives and takes away, gives and takes away! But I will choose to say, BLESSED BE HIS NAME!" Amen. God gave us the gift of my old car Roger from some dear people who "paid it forward" (give) then it broke down 2 days later (take away). Then some rocking friends of our fixed Roger (give). Then we had our trailblazer broken into $200 broken window repair and $2,000 piece of equipment stolen (take away). Then some generous donors replaced our equipment (give) and God blessed us with $2,000 + in donations unexpectedly at a performance in Atlanta, GA (give). We made it back from Atlanta (16 hr drive) to realize we could hardly get our Trailblazer into the car shop one block from our house (take away). This has all happened in about a month (except for the getting Roger part). Roger is now our reliable car... which is scary if you saw Roger... or heard him for that matter!!

None-the-less... God is good and we do bless his glorious name! So far we are all healthy and our new baby seems to be growing fine! We have a house, a working car, jobs, and our families. The big things that really matter, God is letting us keep. Thank you LORD!