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Sat, 27 Sep 2008 20:23:40 GMT

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where'd my baby go?

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 12:49:15 GMT

this is what i do. i work, i come home, i eat, i sleep a little and i have this two year old who talks constantly. i'm currently hearing "come on mommy, watch tv". and it's always "my turn" or "madilyn do it". we throw tantrums, laugh at silly things, and are always asking for chocolate milk or candy or cereal or pancakes....

madilyn is IN my classroom at daycare now. that means that i see her from the time she wakes up (sometimes a few times a night!) until the time i put her to bed. nice and frustrating at the same time. she is good at home but the rules at school are different. she's above them in her mind since her mommy's there.

yesterday madilyn told me that "madilyn big trouble, go to time out". i'm not sure what she did since she was sitting in her car seat but it must have been bad.

she's also started telling me that she has a sick belly about 20 minutes into a car ride. this could be trouble.

our biggest issue is leaving. she will not put her coat on to go anywhere. frustrating.

her answer to the question: what's in mommy's belly? is "baby brudder in there". yep. she's going to be a big sister. i guess we'll find out if she's getting a brudder or not in a month or so.

that's about all the exciting stuff happening for us. except for the fact that i was in california for a conference in october. that was nice. a week to myself. madilyn spent the week with grandma and grandpa and didn't really seem to mind that i was gone. neither did justin. oh well.

Sat, 11 Nov 2006 00:00:49 GMT

Tomorrow is the day!

Madilyn turns one year old tomorrow.
I can't believe how fast the time has gone. I started with a tiny baby who was 5 lbs when I brought her home. Now I have a 20lb one year old who walks and talks (not well...) and has three teeth.

I love my little toddler but I really miss that baby. For weeks I've been going through her pictures and remembering how small she was when she wore preemie diapers and preemie outfits.

Now she feeds herself for the most part and only nurses between 7pm and 6am. (somewhere between one and 3 times). She drinks whole milk and throws her food on the floor. She thinks she's funny and has a fake laugh to prove it.

I miss my baby.

Tomorrow my mom and dad are coming in (3.5 hour drive). My husbands family will be here too. Aunt Sarah and Uncle Dustin, Aunt Livy, Aunt Elissa, Uncle Pat, Cousin Ella, Grandma Barb, Pappy Marcus, and Great Grandma and Grandpap Lewis. It will be a full house here since we're hosting. I ordered a rubber ducky cake at walmart and got Madilyn a small cake of her own. I'm sure she'll go nuts. Nothing extravagant but she'll have a great time. I've even got her nap time planned out. I have to go pick up the cake 20 minutes away so my mother in law is going with me and will sit in the car with her so she can get about an hour long nap. haha. it's genius.

since i haven't posted pictures in a really long time, here are a couple.

Mon, 04 Sep 2006 02:13:12 GMT

so madilyn has been doing a lot of growing recently.

she started crawling at 6.5 months and pulling herself up shortly thereafter.

she finally got two teeth at 8.5 months.

today at 9.5 months old, madilyn took several steps alone.

happy 6 months!

Thu, 11 May 2006 13:26:21 GMT

Madilyn is six months old today.

So far we've mastered rolling, sitting, pivoting on the floor and push ups. It won't be long before she's crawling away.

She gets very excited when she sees the cats. She puts both hands out and shakes them and makes grunting noises. The big cat gets up and gets the hell out of there. The small cat usually sits still for a while. She doesn't get up and leave until Madilyn pulls on her ear. The cat is a patient beast.

Currently she's sitting in her exersaucer grunting so I will look at her. Then she smiles at me because she knows she got my attention. It's too cute.

Being a mommy is fun. (mostly).

Sun, 30 Apr 2006 03:09:03 GMT

We haven't been updating lately... oops.

My days are as busy as ever. In a minute I will get very long-winded and rambly. You were warned.

We go to work/school every day. Now that it's summer time, Justin is playing softball. We go watch him play on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Most other days we go home and play inside or go for a walk if it's nice out. There isn't much time for anything else. We don't go out anymore since we have a baby and money is very tight now. Justin's been out a couple times with his buddies. I've only been away from Madilyn about 10 times now. (Two staff meetings and a training where Justin watched her for 3 hours, an interview and observation where Aunt Sarah watch her for a couple hours and a viewing when Grandma watched her for a couple minutes.) I always take her grocery shopping with me, she's very well behaved.

Needless to say life has completely changed in the last year. A year ago I was about two months pregnant and still trying to plan the wedding and work swing shift. Now I have a baby who is nearly 6 months old, a husband and a new (lower paying) job.

Sometimes I wish that I had something else to talk about. I don't. My life revolves around my child. I have no other interests. I'd like to take a class or something but I'm afraid I'll miss out on baby time. Maybe when my kids are grown.

This isn't exactly how I pictured my life working out. All through college I figured I'd have a career of some sort. I never figured out what that career was going to be but the idea was there.

Somewhere around junior year I got the baby bug. I knew that I wanted a family and that it was going to be soon. I was in a relationship with someone that just wasn't as ambitious in that department as I. As time went on, I realized he wasn't at that point in his life. I felt like it was a waste of my time. I feel bad saying this, but I'm so glad that I ended that relationship.

Four months later I went out with someone by chance. I wasn't looking for a relationship since I had just ended one. It felt like too soon. He was a persistent fellow. Nearly four years later, I'm in a totally different place. No more college life. No more concerts. No more bars. No more late nights out. No more not coming home at night. Now we are married. We are parents, homeowners, and college graduates. And we are tired.

It's hard to imagine that I actually had the energy to get dressed and put on make up and fix my hair to go out. These days I'm lucky if I get to eat more than once a day. I'll confess. There are days I don't shower before work. There are also days when I don't comb my hair. That's the beauty of a pony tail. No one can tell that I didn't have time to comb. There are also days that I have to pull jeans out of the laundry basket and wear them again. How is that acceptable in college but now I feel so dirty and rushed?

I used to cry for no reason all the time. I would start to laugh and then end up crying. I was sad all the time, even when I was completely happy. I couldn't ever describe what I was feeling except that it was like being empty; like I was totally alone. Justin would get so frustrated with me because there was nothing he could say to make me feel better. It's different now. Madilyn turned me into a whole person. She filled the void.

My husband is asleep on the couch. My daughter is sleeping in the stroller next to him. And I'm perfectly happy to have a couple minutes to myself.

.... (i'm tired of writing things now. that end abruptly, but so does everything when you're a mother. especially things like eating and sleeping.)

Anyway.. here are the latest stats for Madilyn and some pictures.

As of April 21st, (a little over 5 months) Madilyn weighs 13lbs 11oz. and is 25 3/4 inches long. She's just a small peanut. She's also very active. She started rolling over a month ago but has since given that up. She is no longer interesting in rolling across the room. Her new fascination is push ups. She will roll on to her belly and push herself up so that only her hands and toes are on the floor. She also does this when she wakes up at night. I think she is trying to see what i'm doing since she's almost big enough to peek over the side of her bed. Madilyn has also discovered that she can move herself around. She's been pivoting for almost as long as she's been rolling but now she can go backwards. Boy does it make her mad. She sees things ahead of her and then they get further away. I sit and laugh my head off.

Sitting isn't a strong point here yet. Madilyn can sit for about a minute. Then she gets distracted and tries to reach for something and falls over. I find that hilarious also. She's got such a tiny hiney that i'm sure it's not so easy to balance.

That tooth still hasn't broken through the gums. There was a sharp white speck but it went away! I guess it just wasn't ready to poke through the skin.

We also seem to have our first cold. Madilyn has a runny nose and a cough. It's sad, but it's funny to wipe her nose. She doesn't like it but when I tickle her face with a clean tissue she laughs like crazy.

This is how our days go. There's some napping, lots of nursing and TONS of play time. Being a mommy is fun (mostly!).

Playing in her Exersaucer.

Trying to crawl!

Up to something naughty!

Telling a story

Making silly faces

Fun times, fun times.

Fri, 24 Mar 2006 13:22:38 GMT

We have a tooth!!

Madilyn is cutting her first tooth. It's on the bottom in the front. Her tooth is a sharp little white speck right now. I'm sure it will get sharper in the next few days. YAY teeth!

Fri, 03 Mar 2006 13:54:45 GMT

what a good weekend. madilyn and i were busy most of last week at work/daycare (same place).

it was nice to have her all to ourselves this weekend. although saturday night madilyn decided she did not want to sleep and was up and nursing most of the night. she also didn't take very long naps on sunday. oh well.. i can't complain, she's been sleeping in 6 hour intervals at night lately.

we took tons of pictures this weekend.
i thought i would share a few. as always, they are located here.

she tried to suck on daddy's nose in this picture.

Fri, 17 Feb 2006 15:35:22 GMT

i'm sick again.

i can't take this winter. i've been sick on and off since november. i had a sinus infection when madilyn was born in november and probably 4 more times since then. now i have strep throat. yay!

hopefully the baby won't get any of my sickness. she's been lucky so far. right now she's trying to cram her whole fist into her mouth. it's silly. she can't figure out how to get her thumb in there. i'd really rather her not be a thumb sucker, but it's cute to watch her figure out where things are.

and in not-so-cute news, madilyn crapped the bed this morning. i put her in my bed to change her diaper. ooops silly mommy took the diaper off too soon and silly baby angled her self in a funny way. pooped on mommy's leg and on the sheets. thank the lord for mattress pads!

this weekend we are going to visit grandma and grandpa. woo hoo!! since i'm not allowed to go to work today, i'll be spending the day doing laundry (5 loads.... that's not too bad, right?). i'll also be doing the dishes and packing our things. since i've been back to work our house had gotten very messy. every room is a mess in some way and needs cleaned. there isn't anythign on the floors (except the laundry i have sorted). they just need swept and vacuumed. all the tables are covered with paper and stuff. every surface is dusty and the cats don't help much. they get all the chairs and rugs hairy.
so it's not really that bad... except the bathroom. it's really gross when you go to brush your teeth and there are dirty cat footprints in the sink. they are also in the tub. yuck.

it sounds like my laundry is done... woo hoo. time to wash the poopy bedding.

Thu, 26 Jan 2006 04:17:46 GMT

justin is on the naughty list now.

it's 11pm and he woke me up to move madilyn over in bed. we were both sleeping!! i was actually sleeping good for once. we laid down at 8. now i'm up pumping a bottle and packing a lunch. he better hope she keeps sleeping or he's gonna be in trouble.

i still can't believe he woke me up... all i ever get is short naps!!

grrr.. today is the day that i understand separate bedrooms.

Mon, 23 Jan 2006 23:36:42 GMT

so an update...

i started a new job. i no longer work with delinquents in a group home. now i work with two year olds in a day care.. better? you bet.

i play most of the day and whenever i get a break, i walk down the hall two rooms to the infant room and see my daughter.

i no longer work weekends (with the exception of feb. 4th, we have a training). i no longer work 2nd or 3rd shift. it's great.

i'm home every evening to see my husband and put my daughter to bed. i get a discount on day care for madilyn and spend lots of quality time with her. the ladies in the infant room are very nice and do exactly what i tell them to do in terms of feedings, naps and diaper changes.

i don't get paid very much money, but it's something. i get out of the house and i have a fun job for the most part.

the biggest drawback (apart from the lack of pay), is the fact that the kids are always sick! two weeks ago it was pink eye. and yes, i'm a hypochondriac when you mention an illness. i swore i had pink eye yesterday morning.. it was just sleepies.

the steelers are in the superbowl this year. my little lucky charm was wearing her steelers onesie. she'll be doing the same on feb. 4th!

uh oh. she's up from her nappy. just in time to eat and get ready for our big day.

Mon, 02 Jan 2006 15:32:21 GMT

it seems like my skinny little girl is beginning to enter the chunky stage of her life. either that or it just looks that way because she was sooo tiny to begin with.

two weeks old

seven weeks and screaming her head off. go steelers!

passed out in the car seat after a trip to visit great grandma and great grandpap lewis.

madilyn went to her first party on new year's eve. she slept for most of it but at 11:30pm she woke up to eat and get a kiss from mommy and daddy at midnight. daddy also had to wake up for a kiss. that's right, justin fell asleep at a new year's party. at someone else's house. with lots of people there. OLD!

2005 Survey

Thu, 22 Dec 2005 17:50:24 GMT

1) Was 2005 a good year for you?
it was a year of extremes.

2) What was your favorite moment of the year?
when my daughter was born

3) What was your least favorite moment of the year?
brooke's funeral

4) Where were you when 2005 began?
at the hoover's new year's party.

5) Who were you with?
the whole town was there.

6) Where will you be when 2005 ends?
the hoover's new year's party.

7) Who will you be with when 2005 ends?
the whole town will be there again.

8) Did you keep your new years resolution of 2005?
i didn't make a resolution.

9) Do you have a new years resolution for 2006?
i wont' make one this time either.

10) Did you fall in love in 2005?
yep.

11) If yes, with who?
my daughter and brand new husband.

12) If yes, do they know?
i certainly hope so.

14) You regret it?
Nope

15) Did you breakup with anyone in 2005?
Nope.

16) Did you make any new friends in 2005?
not that i can remember

17) Who are your favorite new friends?

18) What was your favorite month of 2005?
november when madilyn was born

19) Did you travel outside of the US in 2005?
no.

20) How many different states did you travel to in 2005?
none. i think madilyn and i stayed in state all year.

21) Did you lose anybody close to you in 2005?
our neighbor bill and justin's cousin brooke.

22) Did you miss anybody in the past year?
everyone.

23) What was your favorite movie that you saw in 2005?
batman begins. i didn't watch movies when i was pregnant because i couldn't sit through them.

24) What was your favorite song from 2005?
anything on the new system of a down cd

25) What was your favorite record from 2005?

26) How many concerts did you see in 2005?
zero.

27) Did you have a favorite concert in 2005?
no.

28) did you drink a lot of alchohol in 2005?
i'm not sure if i had any.

29) did you do a lot of drugs in 2005?
no.

30) How many people did you sleep with in 2005?
just my husband, hence the daughter.

31) Did you do anything you are ashamed of this year?
i didn't have the opportunity.

33) What was the worst lie someone told you in 2005?
everything anyone told me was the truth!

34) Did you treat somebody badly in 2005?
not on purpose.

35) Did somebody treat you badly in 2005?
i dont' think so. if they did, i don't remember.

36) How much money did you spend in 2005?
more than we made.

37) What was your proudest moment of 2005?
marrying my husband or having my daughter.

38) What was your most embarrassing moment of 2005?
let's see... there was the time when i peed my pants. or the time when i thought i peed my pants. or the insane amounts of gas a pregnant lady has. or when i was playing stomp dance with the girls (boys) and lost my mucus plug. or the whole delivery thing... but only justin witnessed that and i really didn't care at the time.

39) If you could go back in time to any moment of 2005 and change something, what would it be?
we probably would have saved more money.

40) What are your plans for 2006?
love my husband, raise my daughter, start a new job, and hopefully get pregnant again near the end of the year.

Fri, 09 Dec 2005 16:57:58 GMT

so i may or may not have a new job.
we'll see how things go on monday. i'm really hoping this works out because i'd never have to worry about day care for madilyn and we'd have weekends off so we'd actually get to see daddy!

maternity leave is excellent. i'd never go to work again if i didn't have to.

yesterday was madilyn's due date. today she is 4 weeks old. luckily she came on a day when there was no snow. last night we accumulated nearly 10 inches.

madilyn has been sleeping in the bed with us lately. it's just so much easier than getting up to nurse her. the only downside was yesterday morning when she peed the bed. not once, but twice. the first time was totally my fault. i'm a bad mommy. i fell asleep after one of her many feedings and forgot to change her diaper. i woke up to her fussing because her entire outfit was wet. crap. i suck. then an hour later, she did the same thing. that time it wasn't my fault. she was just being spiteful.

since it has been so cold outside, we've been staying inside all the time. we're getting pretty good at watching tv, doing laundry, eating, playing playstation, and sitting around in general.

Sun, 13 Nov 2005 22:42:07 GMT

She's here!!

Madilyn Grace was born 11-11-05 at 7:54pm.
She weighed 5 lbs 7oz and was 17.5 inches long.

She was in a big hurry apparently. She was almost a month early and was born in 5 hours. She only made mommy push for 45 minutes.

Two days later and mommy, daddy and baby are all home and doing fine.

Thu, 10 Nov 2005 16:47:06 GMT

these cats are trying to sabotage me.

i just did some laundry and i lay it all on the bed once it comes out of the drier. once everything is dry, i put it all away. the big cat was laying on the t-shirts. i kicked her off of there.

the small one was "sleeping". apparently between my trips down to the washer and drier, she found the time to completely chew off one of the straps of my maternity tank tops. what a bastard. of course i can't even find the piece she chewed off to sew it back on.

they must be getting mad that the baby is coming soon.

car update

Thu, 27 Oct 2005 13:01:05 GMT

so my car is fine.
it runs and there is just a crack in the bumper.

justin said there's other things wrong with it but nothing really serious.

i also got a bonus check at work today. now i feel better about my stupid job.

i just got home... i ate cereal at work and now i'm STARVING again. STARVING!!!!

Reason number 543, WHY I HATE SNOW

Wed, 26 Oct 2005 14:36:59 GMT

So this week I'm scheduled to work some overnights. (CRAP) The first overnight, I never get any sleep. It's terrible but it's how I function. So Monday night it's raining and I go into work at midnight. Sometime overnight it decided to snow. There was seriously an inch of very heavy snow on my car when I left work at 8am.

So I'm driving home, thankful that I still have my winter tires on my car from last winter (LAZY). Halfway home, my car decides it hates me and I start to lose control. To make a long story short, I ended up sliding sideways across traffic (there was no traffic, and no plowing) and slammed into a bank. Then my back tires went up over the bank leaving my car stuck in a ditch.

Well that sucks. I tried forward, nothing. Reverse, nothing. Okay. I'm stuck. So I call Justin and he comes to pick me up.

And since I'm seven months pregnant, he makes me go to the hospital. CRAP!

So we go home and find out that the car is being towed. Some cop showed up and was looking for a body. (Where was he the 45 minutes I sat there waiting for Justin?) I shower and we head BACK to Johnstown to the hospital (umm.. 45 mins for Justin to get me home, then 45 mins back to the hospital, that sucks).

I guess we got there around 11am and they took me up to labor and delivery and hooked me up the the fetal monitors. Everything looked good with baby. I had an ultrasound, blood work, a urine screen.. this was all before 12:30. So when I get back from ultrasound, they decide that I'm having contractions every seven minutes and I'm 1cm dialated. The contractions weren't painful. They are normal. I'm pregnant and that's just what happens. So they gave me tons of fluids - 4 bags!! and three shots of stuff to make the contractions stop. I finally got released at 6pm. 6pm!!!! for nothing! The baby was fine!

I was very disgruntled since neither Justin or I had anything to eat since breakfast. That's twelve hours of no food! AND since I worked the night before, I got no sleep.

Today the plan is to go retrieve my car from the salvage yard and see how much damage I did. Hopefully I'll be able to drive it to work tonight. Otherwise I'm banished to driving the sunbird again.

Wed, 12 Oct 2005 16:05:01 GMT

This is very random...

Wed, 28 Sep 2005 16:45:56 GMT

it's sad when the only things that interest me are articles about food.

last night i think justin was trying to poison me. i could be wrong but here's what happened.
on sunday we went to the steelers game and justin packed us a lunch. it was excellent. chips, sandwiches, soda, oreos. the oreos were in a little ziploc baggie i ate a few, he ate a few. we brought the rest home. last night i decided i would eat the rest because i'm a huge pig. so i sat down with some milk and dunked the first one and devoured it. then i pulled the second one out and it looked weird. it was all hairy and dusty. very gross. ( it was so hairy that we probably should have named it.) so i went and showed justin the oreo in question and his response was this: "that must have been the one i dropped... i thought i ate all those" there are so many things wrong with that. then to top it off, he never seal the bag the rest of the untainted oreos were in so they were all stale. i lose.

the steeler game was pretty fun. it was hot and sweaty and someone there smelled like bologna. haha.

so this pregnancy thing is going alright. we're at 30 weeks this week. so only about 10 more to go if she comes on her due date. i've gained a considerable amount of weight. i almost weigh the same as justin now. which is really fun because when he lays down i sit on him and he screams. i've heard "you're like a beached whale" more than i'd ever thought possible. surprisingly enough, it didn't make me cry.

we got our bedroom and nursery painted last week. justin's dad did a really nice job. i'm hoping justin will get his act together and move the bed back in there. it's the only dark room in the house and i have five overnights this week starting tonight. i need to get a nap. last time i had overnights there was too much going on and i didn't get enough sleep. this time people need to stay away for the week. that would be nice. i guess archery hunting starts on saturday so justin should be gone allll day. it will be very quiet.

i can't think of anything else... except spaghetti. i guess i should have some of that.

Wed, 31 Aug 2005 19:06:36 GMT

will someone please explain to me why my cats think it's perfectly normal to "swim" in the water dish and drink out of the tub.

Wed, 17 Aug 2005 20:26:50 GMT

Tomato Sandwich, you complete me.

Tue, 16 Aug 2005 13:29:06 GMT

we're married!!

Wed, 03 Aug 2005 19:26:57 GMT

i could update but i'm fat and sweaty.
attractive, isn't it?

the count down is started. it's just more than a week before our wedding. there's tons of things to do and i still don't feel like doing them.

i'm going to take a nap.

Mon, 13 Jun 2005 16:00:58 GMT

i'm addressing envelopes today.
two months until the wedding and we still have a TON to do.
too many to list, really

yesterday i got a nice sunburn so i'm sure that will look great with my dress. Somone should have planned my life a little bit better.... Ugly tan lines and pregnant at my wedding? haha.

and for my own amusement: