NO more work for me!!

So it looks like I am going to get to quit working shortly after this baby is born and I am so excited. We have talked about it before but I just didn't feel like we could afford it, I don't want to be so broke we can't enjoy our children and take them fun places. But it seems like with the promotion Scot is expecting and then his yearly raise we can replace half of my salary. And then without paying childcare then we have pretty much replaced my salary and I am SO SO excited!!

I worked up until 2 weeks before Kennedy Jane was born b/c Nationwide had just created this job for me and I felt it was the right thing to do. With work being as stressful as it I am going on leave at 24 weeks (assuming Dr. Madonia will let me). I have 6 months of short term disability at 80% of my pay so that will give me a full 6 months off. I will come back and work for as long as I can stand it and then NO more work for me!!

I couldn't be more excited!

Trip to the Zoo

Sunday morning Scot wanted to get out of the house and it was such a pretty day we decided to go to the Zoo at the beach. Kennedy Jane LOVED it. When she saw the donkey she just thought he was hysertical, I am sure from watching Shrek 3 million times!! I think her favorite part was feeding the animals, she didn't quite understand that she couldn't get closer to the animals. It was a great family day, here are some pictures

Auburn vs Tennessee

Mom, Ali and I went to Auburn this weekend for the AU vs Tenn game. Gosh we look bad, I am really worried about our team, this whole spread offense thing seems like such a joke, we have no idea what's going on! We were SO lucky to get out of the game on top and I just think the season is going to continue to get worse not better. Here are pics of Mom, Ali and Me and the scoreboard!

Its all so surreal

Its hard to believe that this is it, this is the last time for all of this. I have always wanted two children and I know that won't change but its a bit bittersweet. I feel like I should enjoy EVERY second of this b/c its going to be my last. The last time announcing my pregnancy, the last time hearing the heartbeat for the first time. The first time feeling the baby move and finding out the gender. The last time picking out names and designing a nursery. Its so much fun!!

Oh and speaking of names, we have them picked out.
Girl: Kallie Suzanne
Kallie is b/c Nonnie would always try to call one of us and it would come out K-Ali so it just seems appropriate to name this one Kallie and Suzanne is Ali's middle name. Ali is my very best friend and she deserves this!
Boy: Trammell Scot
Trammell is Mom's maiden name, and a name that I have wanted to use for a boy for as long as I can remember and of course he would have to have his daddy's name!

And gosh I am so tired these days. Today I went to lay down and ended up sleeping almost 2 hours and I am so tired I can barely stay awake!!

Auburn Football

This past weekend, Scot, Ali and I went to the Auburn vs LSU game in Auburn and we had a blast. ESPN Game Day was there but we didn't manage to make it over to see that before they shut down. We did go to the Tiger Walk and stood right next to the band, they were jamming and it was awesome!

Our seats are amazing, we are literally 8 rows off the field and where Game Day sets up is right in front of us. So we got to see Lee Corso, Chris Fowler, and Desmond (whoever) up close, it was pretty cool!

We were SO bummed when we lost though, ugh what a tough loss. And LSU fans are such a classless group of people. Brad Lester, one of Auburn's players, was hurt and their band was playing, their fans were cheering, its just rude and disrespectful. Then at the end of the game they were chanting "it sucks to be an Auburn Tiger". NO it does not suck, I would be an Auburn Tiger any day of the week over an LSU one. I mean serioulsy, have fun, cheer for your team, but don't bad mouth the other team. They are just cajun trash!

So Mom, Ali and I are going up next weekend for the Tennessee game and I am dreading hearing Rocky Top over and over again!!

Mommy x2

Wow so I really am going to be a mommy again! I had betas done last week and Wed my beta was 16.7 which really alarmed me b/c when Dr. Madonia called he sounded alarmed. He is really easy to read, when he is relaxed, I am relaxed, when he is stressed I am too! So b/c my progesterone was low (18) he wanted me to start on Prometrium right away (literally). So I run up to the pharmacy and pick it up and start it right away. Friday I had the tests done again and they were great. Beta was 84.9 and progesterone was over 20. Basically they want the betas to double every 48hrs and mine doubled in 19hrs which is great! So I go see him on Oct 6th, the day after my birthday for an ultrasound!!

The progesterone is really kicking my butt, it makes me SO tired. I have had to have a nap everyday but didn't manage to get one today b/c work was so busy and Kennedy Jane was so crabby.

She requires so much one on one attention right now and its really hard to work too. It makes me wonder how in the world I am going to manage two children and working full time with a part-time nanny.

But gosh she is so stinkin cute:

Scot wants to find a way for me to quit working so I think I am going to look into being a travel agent from home. I love to travel, I love to look for places to travel too so why not. So I am going to do some research and see if it is possible!

And baby makes 4

Wow we are pregnant again, how exciting and surprising is that?! Its such a blessing though, we tried for so long with Kennedy Jane and it was such a stress on our relationship that this surprise is so welcomed and refreshing!

We are due on May 31st, 2009 but will deliver at 39 weeks by scheduled csection. One thing I want to make sure of this time is that we deliver early in the morning and on Monday so that we have 4 days before Dr. Madonia's day off! I don't want to take the chance of getting the on call doctor and him being as rude as he was to me last time.

I had bloodwork done yesterday at 10DPO and the beta was at 16.7 and the progesterone was at 18. Dr Madonia was alarmed by those numbers, however, I am not certain that he knew that I was only 10DPO and not further along. He started me on 400mg twice a day of Progesterone and its kicking my butt. It makes me VERY sleepy and dizzy and now I have a headache. But anything to keep this baby safe! I just pray so hard that this is a healthy pregnancy. After the other early losses I feel like this one is a keeper and I just pray that it is!

Everyone is really excited and surprised! So now the debate on names begins, with Kennedy Jane we knew ahead of time what the names would be, now we have to start over. I truely don't care if this is a boy or a girl, Scot really wants a boy but as long as this baby is healthy I am good either way! It would be easier to have another girl b/c we already have so much girl stuff but at the same time dressing a boy is a lot of fun too!!

So wow, we are pregnant!!

Kappa Delta Reunion Planning

So last night a group of 18 KD Alumni got together at TP Crockmier's to plan a reunion party and we had such a good time! The reunion is going to be a blast. Friday night will be a girl's night out, Saturday a family picnic at the KD house and then Saturday night an adults only party at the Battleship. We are discussing $40 per person to include food and everything and then we will order tshirts seperately.

I volunteered to design the tshirts and I am excited about that. I always enjoyed doing tshirts in college so now I have to figure out what I want. I am thinking either "Those were the best days of my life" or "KD's are like wine, they only get better with time" so those are my two ideas. I am going to see what I can come up with and maybe present a design for each of those themes and let them choose which one they want.

I am so excited to get together with everyone again. Here are a few pics from last night:

Small Town Southern Man

This song reminds me so much of Smokey (Big Smoke), especially at the end. These are the words about the death of a small town Southern Man:

Finally death came callin'
For this small town Southern man
He said it's alright 'cause I see angels
And they got me by the hand
Don't you cry, and don't you worry
I'm blessed, and I know I am
'Cause God has a place in Heaven
For a small town Southern man

And he bowed his head to Jesus
And he stood for Uncle Sam
And he only loved one woman
He was always proud of what he had
He said his greatest contribution
Is the ones you leave behind
Raised on the ways and gentle kindness
Of a small town Southern man.

--Alan Jackson

Attitude

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, that successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance,giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company ... a church ... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past ... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude ... I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you ... we are in charge of our attitudes.

---Charles Swindoll

I was given this at a meeting today and really like it, I think its good advice and something we should all strive for!

We are going to St John!!

Wow I am getting so excited. Mom, Ali, Scot, Kennedy Jane, Brian and me are going to St John over Thanksgiving week. We have rented a villa called Adeste that's a 3 bedroom villa perched in the hills of St John with its own infiniti edged pool overlooking a bay. Its going to be so fabulous!!

But gosh this is so much harder than booking through a travel agent to stay at a resort where someone picks you up at the airport, drops you off at the resort where you have plenty of places to eat, shop, etc. We do this all the time at the beach but its different, we drive there and can grocery shop in Walmart.

Speaking of grocery shopping, we grocery shop off a list, fax it to them, and when we get to the villa our groceries are there waiting on us, including cold local beer!!

Here is what it is going to take for us to all get to St John:
Thurs Nov 20th -- We leave Mobile and drive to New Orleans for dinner and to stay at the Hilton across the street from the airport
Friday Nov 21st -- Wake-up at 4am, get showered and dressed, wake up the baby (I know NEVER wake a sleeping baby, unless of course its for vacation) and get all our luggage, carseat, and all of us across the street to the airport. Get all checked in and wait. Our first flight leaves NOLA at 6am, we connect through Miami where we will meet Brian and then on to St Thomas.

Once we arrive in St Thomas we have to get a private taxi to take us to the Ferry. We then load all of our luggage onto a ferry that takes us to St John. Once we get there we will be met by a reprensentative of the villa company that will help us get our rental car and will direct us to our villa. Sounds exciting huh? Keep in mind this is ALL with a toddler, haha, we are nuts!!

But if you read above you will know that upon arrival we will have ice cold local beer, can't get any better than that!!

The greatest thing is we are not limited to St John, we can get to Jost Van Dyke, Tortola and Virgin Gorda by ferry and also back to St Thomas. Its going to be an amazing vacation and I cannot wait!!

There is a ticker on the right side of the blog that shows how many days it is until we leave. Is it time to go yet??

17 Months Pictures

We had Kennedy Jane's picture made the other day at Sears and gosh is that getting harder! The girls in there are so bad at what they do, they just teach them how to push a button on a camera. They wait too long, they want what they think are perfect shots with her feet crossed just so and her hands in her lap and her looking right at the camera. WHAT?? You are talking about a toddler, if you get her anywhere close to what you want, take the picture!! Its a digital camera, you can erase the bad ones. So here mom and I are trying to tell them to snap the picture when we saw something we liked and by the time it registered the moment had passed.
I don't like the statue pictures, that's not Kennedy Jane. She is very active and silly and I love those shots. We still managed to get some good pictures and my favorite is the Auburn one of her shaking the pom poms! War Eagle!

Cloth Diapering

I love cloth diapering but there has been so much to learn. Do you use pockets, AIO with pockets, fitted with fleece covers, ahh so overwhelming!! Thank goodness I had some good help my March Moms otherwise there is no way I would have figured this out. But now that I feel I know just enough to be dangerous I thought I would talk about it here.

Our stash:

Pockets with PUL outers

AIO (All-in-one) pockets with PUL outers

Fitteds & Fleece Covers

My review on all 3:

Pockets with PUL outers: These are my favorite for daytime use and being out and about. I have several from Silly Piggy Monkey that I absolutely love. She is a stay at home Mom and has taught me most of what I know. Here is a link to her site:

http://hyenacart.com/whimsicalprairie/

AIO pockets with PUL outers: I have swaddlebees AIO with pockets that I really like and really can count on. I use an extra layer of a microfiber towel and that does that trick!

Fitteds & Fleece Covers: At first I didn't like these, thought they were too bulky and just weren't cute. But then when I was having trouble with leaks at night I decided to give it a try and they work great. I don't get why fleece works but it does and it seems to do so much better at night!

All in all I love cloth diapering, I don't miss the disposables and I gotta think that these are so much more comfortable for Kennedy Jane as they are so soft. Not to mention they are so cute and make her have a fluffy butt! Here is a pic of her modeling her cloth booties:

Drew Bond's 40th Black and White Party

Saturday night we celebrated Drew's 40th birthday at the Manhattan Club with a Black and White Party. We had a great time! My long time friend Whitney Brooks came with us as did mom's neighbor Cheryl. Whitney had us cracking up the whole time. There were some hooches there though, two that were so drunk they had to be carried out, wow good times right??

It was SO great hanging out with our friend Brian who is now in Delaware working, we miss him bunches!


I am too old for this now though, I was SO totally hungover all day on Sunday. I just cannot drink like I used to and probably shouldn't anyway!


Scot and Me, we had such a good time going out again!!

Scot, Brian and Me

The girls, Whitney, me and Cheryl

Elmo Grows Up!

This weekend Scot, mom and I took Kennedy Jane to see Elmo Grows Up. We were joined by my best friend Carrie and her daughter Aneliese. It was SO much fun. The girls had a blast! It was such a pleasure watching her have so much fun!

Here she is with Aneliese in front of Elmo!

Totally mesmerized with Elmo

The start of KJ's Mommy Blog

I have finally entered the world of blogging and I am not sure where to start. I guess the first post should be about me and how I came to be KJ's Mommy.

I was born in Mobile, AL on October 5th, 1978 and was born and raised here. We moved around a bit when I was young but this is where I call home. I graduated from Murphy High School in 1996 and from South Alabama in 2001. I was a member of Kappa Delta at USA and loved it! I went on to finish a Master's Degree from Troy State and am working now for Nationwide Insurance as a Claims Adjuster.

I met Scot in New Orleans in Feb 2002 and we were married on August 30th, 2003. We moved to Mandeville, LA and then to Madisonville, LA. We were there when Katrina hit and that moved us to Dallas. While we were in Dallas my Aunt Susan died after a 5 year battle with cancer and we just decided we lived too far from home. We had been struggling with infertility and had given up on that battle. Two days before we moved home we found out we were pregnant with Kennedy Jane. We lived with Mom while our house in Dallas sold and bought the one that we are now trying to sell!

Kennedy Jane was born on March 27th, 2007 at 2:02pm at Springhill Memorial Hospital. What a blessing she has been. That same day we got a call that Nonnie, my mom's mother, had a massive stroke so mom stayed to meet Kennedy Jane and then left to be with Nonnie. 10 days later Nonnie died. Kennedy Jane is what has kept us all sane and what most of this blog will most likely be about. Our world revolves around her and I love her more than I could have ever imagined!!

I hope that I am able to keep up with this and that everyone enjoys reading it!