Already February

I can't believe it's February already. I figured I'd do an update on how my goals are going.

Working out weekly?? We're planning to start that this week. I stepped on the scale yesterday (eek!), and it wasn't pretty. I will say that I haven't gained anything since my doc appointment in November, so after gaining constantly for what felt like forever, that was a slight plus.

Eating better?? I started the 5:2 plan yesterday. In a nutshell, you eat a super-restrictive diet for two days of your choosing, not consecutive, and the rest of the week, you just eat normally. The first day of 'low-cal' eating wasn't bad. I know that I ate what I was supposed to, even with a few substitutions with dinner, but it really didn't seem all that bad. The corn and potato chowder that I made was great, and I portioned it out into four servings so I know I only ate about 150 calories.

Photo challenges?? Ha. I'm failing miserably at those.I'm still getting a picture a day of Hannah, and that's the important part.

Saving money?? Since I've scheduled the first half of the year's worth of deposits, this is going along fine. I want to start making some of those bigger deposits now, or at least splitting them since I'm not sure we'll be able to afford to stash almost $200 bucks in December.

Unpacking?? We are sloooooowly getting through our boxes and figuring out what we really need to keep and what is just not necessary. It's tough at the end of the day. I want to make dinner and spend time with Hannah, then spend time with Matt or workout or whatnot. But we're working on it.

Knitting?? Ravellenics starts on Friday, and I have three projects plus a WIP to finish over the Olympic Games. The stash isn't particularly organized, but it's all in the corner in the basement, so that's a start. I did finish a red scarf, but I'm not a fan of red, so I might trying dyeing it with some blue to see if I can make purple. I'm mad at the long vest that I made so I'm currently refusing to bind off and weave in the ends. Silly, I know.

Relationship?? Ehhh, things are stable right now, I guess. We go in spurts. We'll have a big fight, then things will be better for awhile. Rinse, lather, repeat.Amazingly enough, we had our first make-up sex EVER the other night. I know! We usually end up with me crying, and after crying, who feels like sex??

Things with Dan and Mindy are going fine. Her due date is August 17, right after Hannah's birthday. Plans are still rolling forward for Ace and Manoel's wedding.

Not much else is new. Hannah just keeps growing like crazy. I'll get around to posting new pictures soon. I can't believe she's going to be a year and a half old already. We start with the new doctor toward the end of the month; I hope we like her. I'm seeing her by myself on Thursday, so if I don't like her then, I'll cancel Hannah's and we'll figure out a new plan.

Overall, things are pretty quiet these days.

Happy New Year!!

Soooooooo.......... once again, I fail at blogging. But it's a new year and one of my biggest goals for 2014 is FOLLOW-THROUGH. I am going to create new habits and keep up with them.

Goals, goals, goals. Of course, there will be the usual ones about eating healthier and making exercise and activity priorities and saving money and knitting. But I'm also doing a photo-a-week and a pic-a-day challenge so those are new goals for me.

I want to save up some money by the end of the year. Maybe just to roll-over into the next year. If I really want to have another baby in 2015 or 2016, we're going to need money for that. I have a plan for the money savings and that has already been started. I've created a schedule of savings based on this blogpost. It adds up to almost $1,400 by the end of the year! Even if I can't manage the last few weeks, it still will be quite a chunk of change. Less eating out will help make sure we have enough money to pay bills and whatnot, plus some leftover.

My knitting goals are pretty basic. Number one is to knit from stash, although I am generally pretty good about not buying yarn outside of the yarn crawl. I am giving myself permission to pick up one ball of yarn, if it becomes necessary to make a second blanket buddy for my brother (Mindy is having crazy pregnancy symptoms so they are slightly suspecting twins). I also want to get some organization accomplished now that I have to keep the yarn in the basement which ultimately will help me use my yarn more effectively. I currently have no idea where at least half of my circular needle tips are- NOT COOL. I also want to finish at least twelve projects this year, including some of my larger WIPs that have been around for years (ten-stitch blanket, workout bag, NaKnitMo2012 sweater, etc.). The 2014 Ravellenic Games are just around the corner and I think that I could definitely make a dent during that.

I have a plan laid out for improving my eating habits. It's just more expensive to buy fresh produce and with Thanksgiving, the move, unpacking, and the holidays plus finding new stores, it's been tough to get a rhythm going with shopping and cooking. Now that the holidays are over and we are slowly starting to get settled in, I think this will quickly improve. Matt wants to start training and working out again as do I, so we need to get the boxes in the basement unpacked quickly. I'll post a separate post about this later with the outline of my plan. I think it's doable, as long as I think about stuff ahead of time and stop just winging it in the morning. Exercise will come along as soon as we get the basement and our bedroom organized.

I've never been much of a photography buff, but I have really enjoyed making sure I had a picture of Hannah each day over the last year. Eventually (in all my free time), I'll go back and fill in the gaps from 2012, but with the exception of a few days in January, I have a picture for every since day in 2013. And that's awesome! So I'm upping the ante a bit this year. I'm going to continue taking pics of Hannah each day (with Matt's help), plus I'm adding a weekly photo group on Facebook and a photo a day challenge here.

Last but not least, I want to be a better wife and mother. Around the same time that I stopped blogging, life was rocky and not pleasant for two of the three people in my household. Things are better, but still tenuous. I want to work on that.

2014 is looking to be a big year for a lot of people in my life. My sister-in-law is having her fancy wedding/reception (they got married in a itty bitty service right before Christmas) in North Carolina. Yea for travelling with a toddler! Aaaand my brother is having a baby!! Currently, they're thinking late July or early August. According to what my brother told me, he is planning to propose in the spring and then have a small ceremony before the baby is born. He wants to do a big reception the following year, maybe on their anniversary. Everyone else can have all the excitement this year. I just want to fix the little things that are going to make my overall life better.

Although I admit, I'd love to get pregnant either at the end of the year or early in 2015.

Happy Father's Day

This weekend was Father's Day.

Such a  contrast from last year at this time. Last year, we were unemployed, not sure where we were going to live or what we were going to do for money, and expecting a baby. Pretty stressed out.

This year, we're still stressed out but much more optimistic about it all. I've got a great job, Matt's doing a super job as a stay at home dad, we live in a house (for now, at least), and while the thesis isn't done, it's almost there. Oh and that baby arrived. And she's wonderful.

Hannah is now ten months old. She got her big girl carseat this week, so no more bucket for her.

She's getting so big. She is super close to walking and even took a few very tentative steps tonight.

Even though today was Father's Day, we gave Matt his gift earlier this week when it arrived. I made a board book of pictures of the two of them for them to read at bedtime.

Also earlier this week, we went to the park for a picnic dinner. Hannah had never been on a swing or a slide, and since she is getting one from Sam and John for her birthday, I figured we should get started. She seemed to like it for awhile. We ended up bringing the swing home this weekend, so that she was able to use it for the summer.

The slide also went over well, but Hannah didn't want to sit still at the top.

I had a great week 'off' although I spent almost every night working at Starbucks until 1am at least. Hopefully, this will be the last super intense week of work. The thesis is almost done and Paul and Al both want to have the defense sometime in the next two weeks. Eek! I'm so happy to be this close to being done.

Hey look! It's me!!

I was featured for the Monday Snapshot on the PAIL blog this week.

I know I've mentioned PAIL before, but as a refresher, it is Pregnant and/or Parenting through Adoption/ Infertility/Loss.

I've discussed our brief trek down the infertility road on this blog often. I mean, that's why I created the blog in the first place. I haven't, however, talked much about it on Facebook. As much as I'd love to share the link to the Monday snapshot on Facebook, I'm not sure I'm ready.

And that makes me sad.

My all time favorite picture

I hate pictures of myself. I'm not particularly happy with my post-baby body so I am quite critical of any pictures that are taken. However, at the same time, I don't want to get to the day when Hannah asks to see photo albums and there aren't any pictures of her with me. So every once in awhile, I make Matt take pictures of us.

The other evening we went to Kopps for dinner. It was super yummy and greasy. Obviously we didn't share with Hannah but she had her own stuff to eat. Once we were done, we got here out of the stroller and decided to take done pictures in front of the water wall. Many of them turned out pretty well.

This one I don't like for how I look, but Hannah looks so precious, I have to share it.

This one is my absolute favorite.

I also like this one that was taken a few nights ago after a particularly messy dinner.

Hannah makes me so happy and I want to make sure that there are pictures to look at down the road.

Eight and Nine months

Things have been crazy lately. I completely forgot to do a post around eight months so this a joint post. My thesis is taking over my life; I can't wait for it to be done so I can spend time with Matt and Hannah again. Progress reports are due this week so I've spent more time on those and at home this week. It's been a good week.

So I posted a few weeks ago that I was back on the mini-pill. Without going into too many details, it didn't go well. At all. Matt and I ended up talking about things, and he is adamant that he thinks the fall is too soon to be talking about another baby and isn't even sure that another baby is even in the cards. He is worried about our financial stability (a valid point) and admits that it is possible we won't be in a good financial spot ever. So since it appears that it's going to be awhile for we try for another baby, if ever, I decided to get an IUD. I hate taking the pill of any kind, the mini-pill specifically, and he hated all of the barrier methods we were using. I got it on Tuesday; it killed while she was doing it, but wasn't too bad afterward. Some cramping, but nothing too awful. I'm sad about the semi-permanence of it , but at the same time, it's nice to know that we are protected until we change our minds down the road. It is also going to give me the opportunity to lose some weight and get in better shape. Being in better shape will be nice and it may also give me the confidence to let myself be pregnant at a later age. At this point, I don't really feel like being pregnant after 35, but if I'm in way better shape, that might change....

Hannah is growing by leaps and bounds. At her most recent doctor's appointment, she weight 21 pounds and was 28.25 inches tall. She is crawling like crazy now and pulling up on everything. She wants to hold your hands to walk everywhere. We're hearing words like 'dada' and 'mama' which are addressed to the correct person about 50% of the time. She has also said 'cat' a few times; she will chase Luther around like crazy. He is finding solace on the other side of the gate, up on the couch, or up on our bed. He also has taken to hiding under her crib behind the stuff that's under there. She has completely outgrown her 9 month pants and pjs and is on her way to outgrowing her 9 month onsies. She has also grown two teeth. She's turning into a little person.

Sleep has been an issue the last few weeks or so. Lots of waking up during the night or struggling to be put down, so we've had to go back to letting her cry. There have been some rough nights and nap times. Unfortunately Matt has taken the brunt of this since he is the one putting her down most of the time. I've been spending way more time than is healthy at Starbucks working on the thesis.

The stupid thesis is slowly getting finished. I had hoped to have a rough draft done by the 17th, I even took the day off to finish if needed, but it just didn't happen. I put it off too much and spent too much time dilly-dallying. I should have worked on it more last semester. Oh well, no use whining about that. The first three chapters are mostly done and just need editing (as far as I can tell). Chapter four is in progress and chapter five is a bundle of thoughts floating around in my brain.

My advisers have been very unhelpful with this whole process and have given me very little feedback. I don't want this to drag into the summer, unfortunately it's looking more and more likely that is going to happen. But dammit, I am going to finish the stupid fucking thing. I've already had them order my special education stole; I had decided from the beginning that I wasn't going to walk at graduation (which was this afternoon), but I still wanted the stole as a physical representation beyond just the piece of paper. Progress reports are due this week, so now that those are done  I can get back to work on the thesis. I really should figure out a way to get work done at home; I'm tired of Starbucks and it's starting to pack on the pounds. I've put on six pounds in the last two months. I also shouldn't know the baristas as well as I do.

I'm looking forward to the summer. We've already made plans to do the zoo with my mom and dad in June and we're spending a few days with the rest of the Story family in Indiana over the fourth of July. We've talking about going to Atlanta in August, but that is still very much up in the air. In general, it will also be nice to just work four day work weeks. I'm guessing I might have a few Fridays to go in for trainings that I missed last summer when I had Hannah, but I'm hoping it won't be too many. It'll just be nice to have less stress.

If you've made it this far, congrats!! Now for the best part: pictures!!

Eight months old!

Shopping for yummy food

Sleepy baby at the zoo

Standing at the front door, watching daddy leave for aikido

Good morning mommy! (while we were visiting my mom and dad)

Cooking with grandma

Looking at flowers on Mother's day

Playing at the library

Nine month check-up

Fun with mirrors

Playing the guitar with daddy

Shoes for the first time....... they didn't last long.

She's growing up so quickly. It's just amazing.

Crap

I've come to the realization that I am a lousy adult.




I should fix that.