Trying to Catch-up on My Life

A dear friend of mine has been bugging me about writing in my blog. I didn't realize how long it's been. Well, let's get this started.

In May, my husband and I went to Hawaii. Don't get too excited, we had to work. We had a trade show to work for 4 days, so we only were able to take 2 extra days for vacation. If it wasn't for the company paying for our travel, lodging and food for 4 days, we probably wouldn't have gone for about another 10 years. It's so expensive for us. What we did see was beautiful. One of our favorite parts of the trip was taking a sea plane tour of the island. It was amazing to look to one side of the plane and see mountains and then ocean on the other side. It's just a gorgeous place. We were on the island of Oahu in Honolulu. If we had more time, we would have loved to explore more and other islands. We also did a luau but it was not on the beach (which it seems as everyone else has done one on the beach) but on a roof top. It was neat. The food however, was not quite right. LOL! We're not seafood folk so many of the items weren't on our plates. Along with some pork, we did take some rice that had some veggies however after a couple bites, I noticed tentacles. YUCK! I was done eating after that. As a souvenir, we bought a pineapple. It was one of the best pineapples I had ever eaten. We did a search online and found a site that showed how to grow a pineapple plant from the top of the pineapple. We don't plan on growing pineapples but just to have the plant as a memory is nice. We have a nice green planted pineapple top sitting in our dining room now.

In July, Hubby had another conference, this time in Boston. We decided to make it a family trip and brought our daughter along too. This was a short weekend excursion for us. The highlight of this trip was whale watching. It was the most moving experience to be that close to such a magnificent animal. We were on a New England Aquarium Whale Watch, here's a link to our actual outing... http://www.neaq.org/visit_planning/whale_watch/log/2009/07/july-16th-am.php

In the fall we decided to change our daughter's preschool. It was a hard decision to make but well worth it in the end. She has grown so much since we switch schools. She started writing her name at the new school, which really shocked me. She was a little over 3 1/2 and she was already writing her name. She is spelling out many words that she sees and even trying to sound words out. The school is much smaller than her previous school so there is more focused attention. I think this is fantastic! Now, don't get me wrong, I am not pushing her by any means to do any of this, she wants to learn all by herself. I just go along with the flow. Her little mind keeps me in awe. Yesterday she turned 4. I can't believe my baby is 4 already! She will be in Kindergarten before we know it. Wow.

Thanksgiving was very nice. My grandparents came along with my parents and brother. It was nice to have all of that family around. My grandmother cracks me up. She is a very dramatic person and I love everything about it! LOL! We had them playing the Wii and laughed the whole time. I hope I'm that active when I'm in my 80's.

About a week after Thanksgiving, I found out I was pregnant. Yeah! I started taking my Lovenox shots faithfully every night. The OB had my blood levels checked to make sure everything was progressing as it should. At the end of December, we went in for my ultrasound. We actually saw everything that we were supposed to this time, the only thing we didn't see was a heartbeat. :( The doctor decided to wait one more week and do another ultrasound. When we went back, the fetus didn't grow and there still wasn't a heartbeat. The doctor took another blood sample just to make sure and saw that my levels were high enough that there should have been a heartbeat. Two days later I had a D & C. I go back in a week for a follow-up. I'm not sure what to do now. Do we keep trying for another baby? I told my husband that I think I can do this one more time but after that, I'm done. It just hurts too much. We'll just sit back and see what happens.

Looking forward to this year. I will be going on the quilt retreat again this year with one of my guilds. A week later, we will be taking my parents to Niagara Falls for a mini vacation. Other than that, nothing else is planned.

My goals for the year:

1. Organize my sewing room / office
2. Organize my family room utilizing the new cabinets my parents built and the shelves that I built
3. Finish 3 quilts
4. Work on a having a healthier life style by eating right and working out
   
5. (this one's a wish) To have another baby just as wonderful as our daughter

I don't believe these are too difficult. Let's see where this year leads us.

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you have many wonderful experiences.

Robin

How?

I want to know how single parents can keep it together. My husband travels for his job about 20-25 weeks of the year... yeah, that's a lot. Most of his travels follow the school year because his job has him traveling to colleges and universities. So, needless to say, spring and fall are very busy times of the year. That's also the time I find myself more depressed. I find myself shutting down and doing the bare essentials to keep my daughter and myself going. Feed, bathing, clothing, and sleeping. Work is in there too. This also exaggerates the fact that I can't create a lunch menu and grocery list. My biggest struggle is what to feed that satisfies everyone in the home. My daughter will pretty much eat what I eat (which I can follow along with her food allergies); my husband, on the other hand, is more picky. So, what do we do? Go out to eat... Ugh! I've fallen into such a rut! One of my biggest problems is that I need someone to physically show me, go through my cabinets, help me with my list and coupons and get it all done! So, anyone that knows who I can contact to help me out with such a thing, please let me know. I think once I get that portion of my life figured out, I will be much more stable and personally successful.

I look back and want to blame my mother for this but yet, I can't blame her because she's a wonderful mother. She does everything for us. And, because of this, I never "learned". I want to know, I want to be self sufficient. I want to have a clean home. I want to have meals planned. I want to not eat out. I want to save money (which if eat at home, we'd save a lot of money).

Thanks for "listening" to me ramble. Some day I'll get it figured out. Hopefully it will be soon.

Chicago!

I love Chicago! Hubby just had a work convention there earlier this week and I tagged along. My mom came to watch Little Girl. Being away from her was tough but the 3-4 phone calls home to hear her talk made me feel better. :) We left early Saturday morning on an 8:30 am flight. Shortly after we pushed off from the gate, the pilot announced that we won't be taking off until 10:10... well, I guess that gives me more time to work on my quilt!

You heard me, a quilt! I wanted to try the English paper piecing so before the trip I ran to JoAnn's and picked up some templates and fabric. Recently I've become a "fabric snob" and realized that quilting fabric at JoAnn's was not nearly as good as something from a quilt shop.
However, my thought process for buying at JoAnn's this time was that if I didn't enjoy the hand piecing, then I wouldn't be out much $$. But if I did like it, it would be a great throw until it dies. I was okay with that. So, in my search for fabric, I found a bundle of 20 FQs for $14.99! I couldn't pass that deal up. Here's a sneak peek.

We had planned to visit Quiltology just on the edge of Chicago but with the delay on the plane, we couldn't make it. Bummer. We did get there in time to eat a yummy lunch at Miller's Pub right before we went to see Wicked!! OMG! If you've never seen this show, you have to find a way. It's fabulous! With a theater background, this show amazed me. The costumes were amazing, the scene changes were flawless, and the show just flowed. The story line was great. Nothing from the "Wizard of Oz" was changed, this just had you looking at the story from another direction. Awesome. It's THE best show my husband and I have seen, hands down. I could keep rambling but I'll move on now. After the show, we met up with friends that lived in the area and went to Cafe Ba Ba Reeba, a tapas restaurant. Um, the food was good but I have a hard time spending so much money on a small dish of food.

Sunday was a relaxing day, we got to sleep in some (internal alarm clocks suck sometimes). We decided to take a walk to the Shedd Aquarium. What a wonderful place. Next time will bring Little Girl, she will love it. After lunch we went back to the hotel to rest. Hubby left for his convention and was gone for a couple hours. I just chilled out and worked on my quilt. He was back by dinner. We decided to sit out side and people watch at Su Casa. The food was good. The Gold margaritas were better! :)

Monday, Hubby had to work most of the day. After he left, I went an had a deep tissue massage at Spa Space. I hear it's one of Oprah's favorite spas, I can tell you, it's now mine too! I felt soooo good afterwards. When I got back to the hotel, I called my friend to see if she wanted to go shopping. She had just laid her son down for a nap, so she would call me when he was up. In the meantime, I took a nap. I was so relaxed that I then passed on shopping. I know! How do you pass up shopping on the Magnificent Mile?! But I did. Hubby's convention ended earlier than he expected so when he got back, we went to Navy Pier. I was able to eat some yummy roasted almonds (I miss nuts). Inside one of the buildings was a stained glass museum. I took a couple pictures of some that I would love to recreate in a quilt. Stained glass quilt is another one on on the "some day" quilt list. For dinner we went to the Reagle Beagle. If that sounds familiar to you, you were a fan of Three's Company, it was the bar they used to go to. We wished the food was as good as the atmosphere. The drinks were even worse. We thought about going to a piano bar that was close by but the drink list looked way to pricey for our liking. We decided to go to the store and get ourselves something for the hotel room. We played online trivia, drank, and watched T.V.... boring but relaxing at the same time.

Tuesday, we packed up to come home. No delays this time. That evening, Hubby took care of the Little Girl while Mom and I worked on my sewing room. Yes, it's still a work in progress. We did get a lot accomplished. I'm hoping that it will be up and running soon. With me recently cleaning (scrubbing the floor, painting the floor, and peel-n-stick tiling the floor because it's where the previous owner had the kitty litter box) the basement closet, I have a lot more storage space to put some of my "not so often" used items. The room is finally taking shape.

Little girl had her first gymnastics class yesterday. I'm so proud of her. She actually joined in after about 15 minutes! Once they started doing the actual tumbling/circuit, she was following along very well. We did have to stop early because she decided she need to have her diaper changed. UGH! I was embarrassed. All the other kids in her class (2 year olds) were wearing underwear. She still won't go on the potty. I know it will come in time... "no kid is in diapers in Kindergarten". It's still frustrating. I will give her anything she asks for (well, almost) once she does finally go on the potty. It will be a glorious day! :)