My Crazy, Beautiful Life

So, I posted a status on facebook yesterday about how I am feeling. Since it came up, I wanted to share more. I believe in brutal honesty, so I wanted to be honest about what this journey has been like for me. I started out very surprised when I found out I was pregnant. I, like a lot of moms, knew that I would love my second child, but worried about one of my kiddos feeling left out. All of these worries seemed to ridiculous when we found out that our baby girl had something wrong with her. We discovered this around 18 weeks. Honestly, I had already been struggling with my emotions as I was missing my mom like crazy. She was at almost every single doctor visit when I was pregnant with Anabeth. I was kind of feeling like I was going through this alone since Matt was working mandatory overtime and it was so difficult for him to get time off for anything. I was missing a piece of me, but at the same time, it was like God was filling it with this new life. They never figured out 100% wh...

This little girl has rocked our world since the day we found out I was pregnant. She was a very happy surprise, but a very big surprise :-) Just for those that don't know, we found out around 18 weeks that she had some kind of problem going on in her abdomen. Between her being a girl and having more organs than a boy and the fact that they were taking pictures of her through me, they couldn't tell us for sure what the problem was. They decided to do an MRI while I was still pregnant and started thinking it was her lymphatic system. After she was born, on January 7, they took her to the NICU and started running some tests to try and figure out exactly what was wrong and what they needed to do about it. They decided that she needed to go to Nemours Hospital in Orlando, FL for an interventional radiology treatment. We got to Nemours on January 13 and were given a pretty grim outlook. This mass had totally taken over her abdomen and was surrounding all of her organs. The surgeon ...

So, I have really been letting myself feel bad lately. Since May, my family has kind of been through a hurricane. I found out that I was pregnant, which though we were very excited about, was a complete surprise. Though I had wanted a second child for years, my husband had decided he wanted to stop and I had resigned myself to being a family of three. A few months into my pregnancy, my brother and sister-in-law found out they were also pregnant...with twins. They had been praying and trying for a baby for years. We were all so exciting and looking forward to having babies close together. I had to change OBGYNs when I got pregnant as my doctor that delivered Anabeth had stopped delivering babies and I was absolutely sure that this baby will be my last, so I wanted to have a tubal ligation after. I had to deliver at a different hospital as the one I had Anabeth is a Catholic hospital. Also, since I will turn 35 during my pregnancy, I had to go see the high risk doc. I wasn't conc...

I know it's not proper English, but I am from the south ;-) I have always tried to be a positive person, but I have certainly let the trials of life get me down at times. Not so much as a New Year's resolution, but just as a life goal, I'm striving to be more positive and uplifting to myself and all those around me. With that in mind, here are a few things that I love... Having a husband that after almost 8 years of marriage still makes me feel loved and beautiful! Having a husband that cooks almost every meal we eat at home...and will make me lunch if I ask! Having a husband that works hard and provides for our family! Having the most beautiful, sweetest, and smartest 5 year old girl anyone could ever imagine! Having two dogs that drive me insane, but provide the most unconditional love! Having had the most loving, inspiring mom that I try to emulate in my life! Having a dad that's always there for me and loves me no matter what...even if we do butt heads...

http://www.housewivesofriverton.com/2013/02/coat-closet-makeover-tutorial.html This is what we were shooting to recreate...I think ours came out much better! Below are the before...     After looking at the Pinterest post, I found that they used MDF. We opted to repaint the closet only one color, white, and used oak.   We decided to stain the oak a dark walnut color to give more of a contrast to the white walls... We used brushed chrome finish hardware instead of the dark hardware they used to add contrast to the wood. And finally, with all of the jackets hung up, the totally finished project. Well, we still have to put a shelf up above the top level.   It was definitely more pricey to do this the way we did, but we agreed we'd rather have a nicer look, even if it is just an entryway closet. The wood alone may have cost as much as the original Pinterest project, but it's worth it.       ...

To start with a brutally honest secret, I never wanted to be a mom. Until I met my husband, I never had any desire to have a child. Even when I decided that I'd like to be a mom, I never had a desire to be a stay-at-home mom. I believe part of that has come from needing to feel like my child and I would survive if something happened to my husband. Another part of it comes from a need to identify myself as more than a wife and mom. Please know that my most prized titles are "Matt's wife" and "Anabeth's mom". Those are my two biggest accomplishments in my life that money can't buy. I can sincerely say that if everything were to disappear today, and I still had the two of them with me, I would still feel like everything would be ok. Though I choose to still work, and my husband says I need to work, it doesn't give back the piece of my heart that leaves me every single day when I either drop Anabeth off at school or leave to go to work. I never cou...

Tomorrow will be our 10th Valentine's Day together, so I wanted to devote a blog post to the man that has been by my side. Many people have no idea just how amazing he is. Matt is the kind of guy that is happy to be in the background, but will voice his opinion when he has a strong one. He has never done anything for the purpose of someone noticing or giving him a compliment. Matt has one of the biggest hearts of anyone I know. In October of 2004, we began dating. Soon after, I moved to Florida to be closer to my mom since she had a lot of health problems and was looking at having a double lung transplant. Matt soon began visiting on a regular basis and spoiled me from the onset of our relationship. Anytime he was going to visit, I'd get a delivery of flowers at work and since the beginning of our relationship, I've received flowers on every Valentine's day, birthday, and anniversary. We were engaged in May of 2005 and married in May of 2006. In February of 2007, ...