Picture time!

Here are pictures of our trip to Ocean City, MD in June.

Here are pics of Alyson's 2nd Birthday Party, 6/21/09 -- Dora the Explorer theme!

2am rambles...

Ugh.... here it is, 2am and I'm STILL awake. I'm so extremely worn out by this sinus cold I have, but I can't seem to fall asleep. My eyes hurt, my ears ache, my throat is scratchy... and it sucks. No one should get sick in the summertime!!

Anyway, since I'm wide awake, I figured I might as well attempt to stay updated with my blog. I really need to update this with pictures from Aly's birthday, vacation, etc... I started a post with pictures last week, but when I went to preview my post, the pics were all screwed up, so I just saved it as a draft and haven't gotten back to it.

Anyway, here are the updates from the past week or so...

Starting with yesterday... we had a little scare where our boxer Cody was concerned. He and Lucy were napping in the living room while I talked on the phone with my mom... then I see Cody get up and start walking around, only he couldn't keep his balance for anything. I immediately called Russ to come home, luckily he was just next door in his office. I started saying Cody's name and he was just ZONED and wouldn't respond to me, and his pupils were all dilated. He'd try to lift his back legs and it seemed like he was sorta stomping around at one point, only he didn't have the strength in his legs to keep from wobbling around. I held onto him and he was trembling, poor thing. He got himself up on the couch and stayed there for a few minutes, while I called the vet and explained what was going on. They said we could bring him right in... thank God we only live a few minutes from the vet. So Russ opened the door to the basement where we keep the dogs' leashes, and Cody LEAPT off the couch, like nothing was even wrong!! The whole episode only lasted 5 minutes or so!

Since Alyson was napping, Russ took Cody by himself to the vet. He said Cody was still kinda weak and wouldn't jump out of the Navigator like he usually does... Russ had to lift him down (and he's about 90 pounds!) The vet said that more than likely it was a mild seizure. They checked his temp (their temp will increase during a seizure) and ended up drawing a CBC to check for any abnormalities where his labs are concerned. They said we'd find out the results by Wednesday, but the vet called us this afternoon and said everything was fine. He said just to keep an eye on Cody and that if he has another episode like that within the next 2-6 weeks, they can put him on medicine if need be. So we'll see. I'm just praying this was just a one-time thing and he won't have that happen again! He's back to his same ornery energetic self today, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed :-)

(cough cough sniffle sniffle, sneeze.... this cold sucks.....)

Anyway, so that was the excitement of the past few days. In other news... I'm trying to potty train Alyson. That's going really well. *rolls eyes*(Sense the SERIOUS SARCASM.) I just don't get it. Alyson knows when she goes to the bathroom and will occasionally look at me and go "poo" or "pee pee!" She knows how to put her potty seat on our toilet, she knows to take her pants/diaper off, and she even knows to get toilet paper... but she won't do a darn thing once she gets on the toilet. I guess she's *almost* ready but not quite there yet. I just don't want to MAKE her sit on the toilet and then have her not want to go on it at all because she associates it with me forcing her to do it, ya know?! *sigh* And what sucks is that now she's in the "I want to take my diaper off ALL THE TIME" stage. I brought out her big girl undies and she was all excited so I figured she'd want to keep them on, but no. They came right off too, within about 2 minutes. So that's our adventures in potty training for now... fun fun.

Well, I really need to try and get some sleep now... Alyson doesn't get the fact that mommy isn't feeling well and would love to sleep in for a change. She'll be up at her usual 8am or so, I'm sure... so that gives me less than six hours of sleep.

Nighty night!

Updates, good and not-so-good

Wow, it's been awhile since I've posted... as usual. A lot's been going on, so I'll try to give the short version of updates.

Most recently...
4th of July was awesome... we spent the day out on the boat on the good ol' Ohio River. The weather was beautiful, blue skies and sunny. We went out to dinner with friends, then back down to the boat to watch the fireworks on the river... good times! Aly went to my Grandma's with my mom and dad to watch the fireworks. My Gram lives close to where the fireworks are let off, so everyone usually goes over there and watches them from the backyard. I wasn't sure how Aly would do with being REALLY close to the fireworks, so I figured I'd wait til next year to take her with us. Come to find out, she LOVED the fireworks and just stared in awe at the sky, going "Woah! Wow wow!" when the big ones let off. Too cute.

What else to talk about that's been going on recently... Oh. We just got back from vacation last week... we spent some time in Ocean City, MD with friends of ours and their 3 kids. We stayed right on the boardwalk which was awesome! Lots of nightlife. Not that we could really enjoy it with 4 kids ages 4 and under, but it was still nice to sit out on the balcony late at night and enjoy some 'adult beverages.' haha But yeah, like I said-- 4 kids ages 4, going on 3, 2, and 18 months. Mass chaos all around! haha It was definitely a good time though. The beach was beautiful, and the weather cooperated the whole time we were there. Which was only 4 days, but long enough to get somewhat relaxed. (Before making the 8-hr trip home...fun fun.) I miss it! Russ, Aly and I are heading to the Outer Banks in September, so now I have THAT beach to look forward to :-)

As for Alyson, she's doing great. We had a Dora the Explorer birthday party for her on the 21st of June. She had a BLAST! We had a pinata in the shape of a #2, and all the kids loved it. The weather cooperated for that too, which was great because there were 30-some people there and the house would have been kinda crowded if it decided to rain!

Aly's 2-yr checkup at the pediatrician went well... she's 36 inches tall and weighs 34 pounds... higher than 100th percentile! My baby is off the charts. No wonder everyone always asks me if she's 3. She's gonna be a tall one. I figure I'm 5'5 and Russ is 6 ft, so she'll probably end up somewhere in between. She's just growing like a weed, and is into something new everyday. SO curious!!! Her latest antic was to flood our upstairs bathroom. Yeah... that was fun. You see, she always goes up the stairs and plays in her room, that's just an everyday thing. So i didn't think anything of it when she went up there the other day. Well, she had gone into the bathroom and decided to stick a bunch of baby wipes into the toilet and keep flushing and flushing and flushing. That toilet is pretty quiet so I didn't hear all this going on, I thought she was just playing in her room. But when the water started spilling onto the floor, I heard THAT. I thought she had turned the shower on, but no. I got to the top of the steps and saw water all over the floor about to head onto the hallway carpet!!! I had to turn the water off to the toilet and figure out what the heck she did. She was just laughing and laughing at the water falling onto the floor. Mommy, on the other hand, was NOT laughing. Ugh... eventually I got the situation under control, but not until after the extra water decided to drip down to the main floor by way of the counter over the stove, and then down to the basement. It basically made a path all the way down the house. NOT fun. I'm hoping we don't have anything like that happen ever again. I hope she got the toilet-plugging out of her system.

And we're thinking of having ANOTHER child?? haha

Yes, you read that right... we're officially "trying." Well, not TRYING trying, but we have the "if it happens it happens" attitude for now. We're not trying to prevent anything from happening. I was totally excited at the end of May to find out I was pregnant, only to have my excitement cut short by a miscarriage a week later. It was pretty crushing, because it is totally amazing how quickly you can come to embrace and love a child that you've never even met yet (and who is virtually the size of a pencil tip.) At first, I was surprised (because we weren't really expecting it and were actively house hunting at the time.) Then in the next breath I was TOTALLY excited, and Russ was too. To top it off, 2 days later my cousin/best friend found out SHE was pregnant, so we'd literally have been due days apart.

I knew to be cautious in the first weeks, but I still found myself planning for the future and how we'd redecorate our spare bedroom to make it the baby's room... it's just sad. But I know everything happens for a reason, even if we can't figure out what that reason is right now. The good thing about this whole situation, though, is that it really made us get our priorities in order and think about the future more. It REALLY brought my husband onboard where having another child is concerned. It was pretty much the furthest thing from his mind even a month ago, now he is all for trying. For now, we're putting our house-hunting on hold to focus on other things, like paying off bills!! My husband is in the process of putting up a huge building/garage on 10 acres he bought for his business, so that's taking up time and money. He's just running out of room where his garage is now, and his business is expanding, so that takes top priority over us buying a new house right now.

So now we're taking things day by day, and are excited to bring a new baby into this world when God decides to bless us with another one :-) Fingers crossed!

Well, I know there's still a lot to update on, but I need to get some things done around the house before Aly wakes up from her nap. Hope everyone (who still reads this or occasionally checks up on me) is doing well. Take care :-)

Blah blah blah. That's how I feel today!

Well, as I write this my daughter is running around getting into everything and I have absolutely no energy to get up and chase after her! I started getting a sinus cold yesterday and today it's definitely here in full force. Aly had me up just about every hour lastnight, and it turns out this sinus thing got her too... she had a little snotty nose this morning when she woke up, along with coughing and sneezing. We spent a lot of time around little kids this past weekend and had a playdate on Monday, so I'm thinking we caught something one of those days. I guess we've been lucky though... this is only the 2nd sinus cold Aly's had since she's been born. She was about 4 months old the last time she was sick!

Needless to say, I've gotten nothing accomplished today, except for caring for my little Alyson! She's eating and drinking ok, and doesn't have a fever as of yet (and hopefully she DOESN'T get one!) so we're good there. Here's hoping. Tomorrow we're supposed to go to my in-laws' house for dinner, but I talked with my MIL today and said there's a chance we might not be able to make it. I don't want to get anyone else sick, since these colds just started. So we'll see... I just feel like my head is a big balloon and everywhere in my head where there are sinuses just HURTS! Also my muscles are aching, especially my back...that happened last time I had a sinus cold. It sucks! Oh well, I guess I'd rather we be sick now instead of next week. Russ and I are leaving for Cancun on Thursday already!! 8 weeks went by pretty fast! I'm looking forward to the trip... we (especially Russ!) need to get away for a few days. Aly is staying with my MIL for a few days, then my mom and dad are watching her Friday and Saturday nights. Luckily, she's used to staying places, and so far she doesn't cry when we leave her with anyone. I hope that doesn't happen, or it'll make ME cry!

Well, I'd better go see what Aly's into. She's bringing me pieces of candy and handing them to me, and I didn't know we had candy in the house....hmmm.... Never a dull moment.

Hope everyone (if anyone still checks my blog, being that I post 1 time a month...lol) has a great Easter weekend! We're supposed to do lunch with my MIL and her husband, and then my parents are cooking dinner for us. :-) I can't wait to put Aly's little pink Easter dress on her! I'll be sure and post some pics soon.

my monthly post...

Guess I should post again sometime this century!!! I've been way too caught up in the whole Facebook craze lately, so that's where I've spent my catching up/blogging/updating time. I'm liking it a lot more than myspace these days. It's amazing the people you can find on there...seems like everybody and their brother is on facebook. Even the priest at my church is on facebook...lol.

Anyway, not too much exciting to talk about, sadly! Same old same old. I've just been enjoying what little warm weather we've had lately. This weather's been a big tease!! We had about 4 or so days last week where it was in the 60's, then it got all cold again. Aly gets all excited to go outside and play on her swingset, then the next day she wonders why we're not going out because it's 30 degrees again!! Tomorrow is supposed to be in the mid-60's, so I'm looking forward to that! I'm so tired of cold weather...

In other news...

As for the house I've talked about on here time and time again, it came REALLY close to being a reality a few weeks ago. The realtor we've been dealing with called and told us the guy will take a lower price (FINALLY) so we put another offer in. The guy counteroffered with a price that's still a bit too high, considering all the work that needs to be done to the house before we move in (fence, deck, driveway). I mean, the house itself is move-in ready, but Russ is concerned with all the outside stuff that needs finished and that would tack on another $30-40k to what we'd be paying for the house.

So NOW, Russ decides he'd rather build a house. A guy he knows (who considers Russ to be like a son) has about 6 acres of land he's willing to sell Russ if he wants it. About 3-4 acres is flat, with the other 2 sloping/wooded. So that's an option now. I guess what we're doing now is just waiting (ha...seems like we've been waiting FOREVER!) to see what happens with the house, and whether the guy decides to finally lower the price to something reasonable. If that doesn't work out, Russ wants to buy the land and build in the next year or so. I was REALLY set on buying the move-in ready house, but when I think about building and having EXACTLY what we want, that sounds pretty darn good too!! There are pros and cons to each option. The one house is in a great neighborhood, very kid-friendly... and part of me wants that. A great place to raise kids, for Aly to go ride her bike, etc... I just keep thinking about what's best for our kids in the future. But building-- we'd have a ton of land to do whatever we want with, plenty of privacy... but no close neighbors or that neighborhood feeling. If we wanted to take a walk/ride bikes we'd have to go somewhere else and do it, because the road in front of the house isn't the place to do it. So I'm kinda torn. In the end I'll be happy with whatever decision is made... you gotta make sacrifices either way. So we'll see. :-)

Well, that's about it for now. I need to go get ready...Aly and I are going grocery shopping and then I need to go get some new Penguins stuff to wear for Sunday... Russ and I bought 4 tickets for Sunday's Penguins/Flyers hockey game in Pittsburgh... I'm SO EXCITED!! It's gonna be an awesome game!! :-)

Have a great week! I'll try to post again SOON! But when all else fails, you can find me on facebook...lol.

The good and the not-so-good

First off, thanks for the prayers for my Grandma... she's back at home now after spending about 6 days in the hospital with bronchitis. The doctor said she also has some emphysema which is contributing to her difficulty breathing. She had quit smoking about a year ago (after smoking for 50 years or so!), but unfortunately she's back to smoking again, though not as much as before.

Anyway, she was sent home from the hospital with oxygen and a portable tank, being that her breathing still wasn't up to par. The nurse checked her oxygen on room air prior to her being discharged, and it was only 87%, so she won herself an oxygen tank. She also has to have breathing treatments at home every so often. Since she has a really hard time seeing now (macular degeneration), my aunt and mom have been taking turns going over my Grandma's and giving her treatments to her. Gram has a doctor's appointment in 1 month, so she'll be on the oxygen at least until then. She's feeling much better though, thank GOD! Her birthday is tomorrow and she really wants to see everyone, so we are having a little family party for her tomorrow evening, just for an hour or two, so she doesn't get worn out. I called a local bakery and ordered her a white cake with raspberry filling and whipped icing, and it'll say "Happy 79th Birthday" on it. I was going to joke with her and have "Happy 30th" or something put on it, but I didn't...lol.

So that's the news with my Grandma. But I swear, when it rains it pours... The day my Grandma went in the hospital, I found out that the pastor at our church was admitted to a Pittsburgh hospital for emergency surgery!! He had been getting sick and throwing up, then come to find out he had a perforated bowel. Needless to say he had MAJOR bodywide infection and unfortunately he is allergic to a TON of things, so I don't know exactly which antibiotics they ended up using to treat him. He was very critical the first 24 hours, and was sedated and on a ventilator in ICU. I just received an email tonight saying that he's been moved to a step-down unit, is off the ventilator and is doing alot better. I guess the staff had to ask that his cell phone be taken away because he was CONSTANTLY on the phone after getting off the ventilator! He is SUCH a talker! Like he said in church one day, "I could find a brick wall and have a conversation with it!" I'm just so happy he's doing better...he's become such a friend of the family and I'd hate to see anything happen to him :-(

On a lighter note...

Russ and I have planned a short vacation for April!! Russ has been so stressed and has been on my back to plan a trip for us. I was just a little on the fence about the whole thing because he wanted it just to be the two of us, and I just HATE to leave Alyson! I know she'll be in great hands with my parents and Russ's mom, but I still hate leaving her. Russ REALLY needs to get away though, and really wanted to go somewhere in the Caribbean. We wanted a nonstop flight if possible, and remembered USA3000 airlines flies nonstop to Cancun and Punta Cana. (Anyone fly that airline before?) We ended up finding a nonstop flight from Pittsburgh to Cancun for mid-April.... I can't wait. We're only going for 3 nights, since "Alyson withdrawal" will surely have set in, even during that short period of time!! We ended up booking a suite at the Sun Palace in Cancun. It was completely renovated and reopened in January 2007 after being destroyed by Hurricane Wilma in October of 2006. The rooms all have private hot tubs in them (I can't wait to fill it all up with bubbles...hey, they provide them so why not!) The place looks gorgeous. I read practically every review and looked at a ton of pictures on Tripadvisor.com, so I think I made a good choice. The place is ranked #3 of all the hotels/resorts in Cancun, so that can't be a bad thing!

Here are some pics:

View of the resort:


View of the beach:


View of the suite:


I'm really excited to go, and it will be nice to spend time alone with my husband. Plus, it'll be a darn good birthday gift! (My bday is the 13th, and we leave on the 16th) :-)

And what's a post without mentioning Alyson? (I really need to start updating HER blog that I started awhile back...) Well, Alyson is steadily growing into Little Miss Independent. She wants to do EVERYTHING on her own, and will let you know what she thinks (mainly by dropping down to her knees and bouncing up and down while whining...) if you try to tell her otherwise. She's doing SO great with feeding herself, but she still doesn't understand why mommy wants (well, NEEDS) to help her with the messy stuff. She's currently loving applesauce,Gogurt, jell-o fruit cups, Jr.Lunchables, and Mac and Cheese....lol. Oh, and Cocoa Crispies and Oatmeal Squares. She LOVES some cereal. Takes after her mommy in that aspect! (Probably because that's basically all I ate while I was pregnant---CEREAL!) Currently Alyson is obsessed with her bellybutton and showing it to EVERYONE (and wanting everyone to show her THEIR bellybutton!), and she's still playing with the dogs food and mixing it in their water. Also, anytime she finds a paper towel, dishrag, etc, she dips it in the dogs' water bowl and then goes running off like a mad woman, with a trail of water behind her. That's always fun to clean up. Earlier today since it was mild outside, she decided to make a few trips out the dog door and run out onto the deck. It's always something... I could go on and on.

How about I'm already looking around online for ideas for Aly's 2nd birthday party!! I'm thinking we're going with Strawberry Shortcake this year. Aly is SUCH a strawberry girl! She will eat a whole container of strawberries if you let her.

I just can't believe she's gonna be 2 in June.... pretty soon we're gonna have to start trying for baby #2! I'm starting to hear, "So are you ready for another one?" and "When are you having another baby?" and "Alyson needs a brother or sister" more and more lately. I'm ready for another baby, but I still need to get my husband to jump on board the baby train again...lol. So we'll see.

Well, I'm getting tired so I'm gonna end this here. Hope everyone enjoys their weekends :-)

Updates...

Here I go becoming a blog slacker again... better update a little.

First off, I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day this past Saturday. Though a romantic "date night" with my husband would have been great, I was just as happy going out as a family on Friday night. We took Alyson out to dinner on Friday night, since we knew all the restaurants would more than likely be packed on Saturday. Russ kept asking me, "What do you want for Valentine's Day??" but I told him dinner was fine. I've never really made a big deal out of Valentine's Day. For such a long period in my life (pre-Russ) , February was just SUCH a crappy month for me for a lot of different reasons... so I'm just happy to have a wonderful guy to spend V-day with. Anyway, for V-day we ended up getting Alyson a cute pink teddy bear with a heart pillow that says "princess" on it, and a Strawberry Shortcake "Be My Valentine" book. I read the book to her, but I think it only kept her attention for, like, 2 pages. Oh well...

As for Alyson, she's STILL in that mischievous "I want to get into everything" stage... boy, does she keep me hopping!!! The girl DOES NOT STOP. I wish I had half her energy. She's just GO GO GO from the minute she gets up in the morning. Her latest antics include attempting to crawl out the dog door (she had stopped that, but now she redeveloped an interest in it....), and pouring the dog's food into their water bowl and stirring it around with a spatula she grabbed out of the silverware drawer.

Sorry if this post is jumping all over the place... I just don't have much to write about...that I can THINK of anyway. There are a few things I'd LIKE to talk about in here but it would take way too long to type out right now, and I'm getting too tired to think straight. I'll just continue this another time. Just figured I should update since it's been awhile.

Well, I'd better attempt to get some sleep. Tomorrow I'll be heading to the hospital to see my grandma... she had to be admitted today because she was having a lot of trouble breathing. Come to find out, she has bronchitis. She's had a lingering cough and it seems that she never fully recovered from the last cold she had. So now she'll be on IV antibiotics and supplemental oxygen. I don't know many details yet, but I'm sure I'll find out more tomorrow. My mom and my aunts all keep eachother informed, but by the time info gets passed from one person to the next to the next, and then *I* hear it, the info has always gotten a little mixed up from what was heard in the beginning. You know, kinda like that game "telephone." Anyway, any prayers would be appreciated :-)

Nighty night...