Mother's Day Weekend

I had a great weekend and thought that since my last blog was kind of, well, not so upbeat I should get on here and report only happiness. Mostly happiness anyway.

I've been having a lot of lower back problems in the past few weeks related to the pregnancy. It had gotten to the point where the pain and mobility was completely debilitating and affecting my day to day activities. Not being able to walk or bend over isn't an option when you've got a 2 year old you're responsible for. So I finally sucked it up and started seeing a chiropractor. It's helping quite a bit and I am almost pain free. I am going in for adjustments 3x/week for the remainder of the pregnancy. I love the way they make me feel physically but am getting tired of dodging some of the doc's claims that chiropractic care is the answer to all of life's medical conditions. While I'm not a disbeliever, I don't think it's a bad thing to rely on the occasional tylenol! He would like to see me getting regular massages as well as take some prenatal yoga classes. Not sure I am going to be able to swing all 3 on our current budget but it sounds like a fabulous idea. Today he tried to sell me on getting Declan regular adjustments. Uh....no. 

I had a fabulous weekend. Friday Tom got back from his short trip to South Dakota. We got some stuff done around the house. Saturday morning I participated in a neighborhood garage sale which was a total bust. I need to get rid of all of Declan's baby clothes and was hoping I could make a little bit of money. 6 hours of tagging plus washing, ironing, hanging and sorting clothing translated into $67. I still have an assload of stuff to get rid of. Let me know if you are in the market for good condition, reasonably priced boys clothes!

The rest of Saturday was spent at the salon. I am blonde again. Meaning, I don't have 2 inches of roots along with another inch of split ends. I almost feel pretty ;) That evening I had a fabulous time with Jessie and Casey at the Bonefish Grill enjoying some good food and great conversation. We closed the place down! I didn't get home until well after midnight, which I paid for dearly on Sunday. I walked in the house and it was empty. Except for all the pets who were sitting outside in the rain and one baby boy who was asleep in his crib. Where was dad? At the neighbors drinking. And not the next door neighbors in the garage where we usually hang out, but two houses down. Without the baby monitor. He figured that the dogs would bark if anything happened in the house and he would hear them. This is why God invented moms. 

We celebrated Mother's Day at the B&B Cafe for breakfast. I stuffed my self with french toast, eggs, bacon and hash browns. And some of Declan's pancake. Yes. I can eat. A lot. Then it was home to nap off our food coma. We had hoped to spend the day working in the yard and planting flowers but since it rained that didn't happen. Instead, we headed to Lowe's for tools and Sonic for my Mocha Java Chiller. YUM! Though how my husband was able to translate Mother's Day into a day at Lowes is beyond me. I think I will get my revenge with a family trip to Sephora on Father's Day.

I am in week 26 now. With the exception of occasional heartburn/indigestion and the back pain, I am feeling pretty good. I have somehow managed to keep my weight gain in check this time around and am hoping to continue to do so. Although, I am definitely at this point where I ALWAYS want to eat. And of course I don't crave healthy food. So, I'm sure I will start to see some major increases on the scale. Oh well. I will try and embrace it! 

What is plan B?

I am feeling a bit demoralized right now. I had finally come to a major decision in my life and a giant road block has just been put in front of me. Who knew that the decisions I made as an 18, 19, 20 year old would still affect me? If only I could go back in time and have a conversation with myself about the importance of good grades! 

For several years now I have wanted to return to school and get my nursing degree. And now that Tom is pursuing a new career it means that I will eventually have to return to work. I want to work in a field that I will find fulfilling and meaningful and that will also earn me a decent salary. I know, without a doubt, that nursing is the right path for me. I have been researching local programs and pulling together all of the necessary info in order to make it happen. I had finally decided on the University of Colorado's Nursing program and was so excited to get started on my pre-req's this summer and apply this fall. 

It turns out that the grades I received in my first few years of college are going to prevent that from happening. Nursing school is extremely competitive. Especially at UC where only 40% of applicants are accepted. In fact, I think it's easier to get into med school these days than nursing school. They don't give a shit that you pulled your head out of your ass and eventually took school seriously graduating with a GPA of 3.0 from one of the best Kinesiology programs in the country. Unfortunately, they are going to take into account the fact that I fucked off my first 3 years back in the mid-90s and barely made C's and D's. 

The program requires that I retake Anatomy, Physiology, Statistics and Microbiology. Not easy classes. I will need to earn AT LEAST an A in all 4 of these classes to pull my GPA up to the minimum and truth be told, I don't have a whole lot of confidence in myself to make this happen. Not with a 2 year old, a new baby and a husband who is also in school FT.  Good grades never came easy for me. I always had to bust my ass. And I will never get all 4 of those classes completed by Dec. 30th of this year. God I sound so pessimistic. Oh, and did I mention I also need to get some volunteer work with underserved populations under my belt? 

Looks like I will have to come up with plan B. If only I could turn back the clock.....

Confessions from my inner teenager

I have to confess to the reason I have been M.I.A. lately. I got myself sucked into the Twilight series. I decided that I needed some light reading these days and went on a recommendation. Bad idea.  I finished all 4 books in under 2 weeks. It pretty much ate up every spare moment.....and then some. When I bought it I was warned that I would get so sucked in that I would ignore every responsibility in my life including my child, my husband, my chores, etc, etc. They weren't lying. It's one of those books where you just have to know what happens next. It's embarrassing really. To find yourself panicking at Target because you can't find book #2 and fearing that it has been sold out only to stalk the book aisles in hopes that it has been put back in the wrong place.  And then grabbing some misc. items that you don't really need in your cart just so the cashier doesn't think you showed up at Target 5 min after the store opened just to pick up New Moon like some pre-teen Twi-hard (those are the super fans for you not in the know!). And then I find myself buying the DVD because that Robert Pattinson makes for one sexy Edward Cullen. GAH! I found myself in mourning after I finished all 4 books. I dare you to read it. I loved the entire series with the exception of book 4 which was a giant FAIL but still worth the read. 

So, other than my crush on teenage vampires, not much exciting going on here. Just your usual mundane and boring adult things.  Refinancing, landscaping, car repairs, furniture shopping, sick child, mauled cat and spring cleaning. We got some snow. That is if 22" followed by 4" more sounds like a good definition for "some".  Fortunately it all melted quickly. My mom came out to visit for a week while Tom headed to Des Moines for work. Grandma stocked the new baby with a half years supply of clothing and got all of Declan's old clothing ready for a garage sale. 

Pregnancy is going well. I keep meaning to take a picture but haven't yet done so. I think I look much further along then I am....maybe 7 months or so? I am 24 weeks now. Yesterday a woman at the gym told me I looked cute. That made my day and I wanted to hug her. I can think of a lot of words to describe my figure these days and cute is definitely not one of them! I am starting to have some lower back pain and major indigestion. Fortunately it's been keeping me from eating crappy food so that might end up being a good thing in the end. Mexican is definitely out for now!