Monday Memoirs

Why is it Monday already? I did NOT get enough lounging done this weekend. I feel like I barely sat down yesterday and that is not okay for a Sunday. It was pretty productive though between going to the grocery, Target (for the second day in a row), visiting with some friends, laundry, lunch prep and more laundry.

 

I'm doing something different today than the usual weekend recap since it was pretty uneventful. By uneventful I mean, we went out to eat, went to this place, went out to eat again.. same ol same ol. SO, today I'm participating in Monday Memoirs hosted by Royal @ Royal Proclaims to share a story about my Gram.  As I've mentioned a few times before, she's not doing very well and our days with her are limited. She is a hilarious, one of a kind woman and what you see is what you get with her.  She made sure my cousins, brother and I always had a good time when we were with her. We all certainly have some funny memories that involve her. One that sticks out the most is the time she made me a really bad sandwich.

Grammy always watched my brother and I after school and during the summer.  Once I hit 6th grade my brother and I went to separate schools. If I didn't have a practice right after school, Gram would pick Drew up and bring him to our house, where I had gotten off the bus. (For some reason I enjoyed riding the bus home. Why? I have no idea. There weren't any cute boys on there so its beyond me.) She would usually bring something to eat since I probably had volleyball practice right around dinner time.

On this particular day, I told her I didn't care what I wanted. I figured I would get the usual egg sandwich or cheeseburger made by her. Those were staples as after school snacks. So, I told her I didn't care. She said alright then and headed over to my  house. When she got there, we were all sitting at the table and as I started unwrapping my sandwich, my brother started laughing, causing me to be concerned. I looked at each of them and asked what was going on. Grammy suggested I look inside the bread. I slowly lifted the top slice of bread and found LITTLE DOG TURDS resting nicely on the bottom slice. She literally made me a shit sandwich! I asked her if she was really going to let me eat it. She said no, but I'm not so sure.

Needless to say, from that day forward, if she brought me food, I made sure to inspect it before taking a bite.

Valentine's Day + The Weekend

This weekend absolutely flew by. I didn't get as many baby snuggles on Sunday as I would have liked, so I would like a redo please! Overall it was a good weekend other than the nasty ass cold I had all weekend. I think I'm on the downhill slope though.

Valentine's Day was pretty low key for us. It has never been an extravagant holiday though so that's nothing new. We exchanged gifts Thursday evening when I got home from work. Danny made me dinner so I felt like giving him his Valentine's early. Plus he worked on Friday. I got him a pair of thick socks and some band-aids. He was bitching about not having band-aids a couple weeks ago, so I picked up some Cars ones for him. I'm sweet like that. The rest of his Valentine's gift was making him dinner Saturday night. I heard him tell his mom the other day that he wanted mac & cheese with hot dogs. Like I said Friday he is kind of like a little kid. So, I picked up a box of mac & cheese, the deluxe four cheese kind by craft, and some big turkey hot dogs (he wasn't thrilled that they weren't regular ol all beef franks) and fixed my man some dinner. He was a happy boy. Aside from dinner, I got a card from Danny and Tucker and Diesel got me a card and a gift card to Hobby Lobby. I imagine Tucker rode on Diesel's back the whole 20 minutes it takes to get to either Hobby Lobby. :)

Tucker partied with his cousins at their school's Valentine's Day party on Friday. He also taught his 13 year old cousin that babies are chick magnet. I mean, look at him!

Saturday we took Tucker to my mom's while we roamed around the Boat, Sport and Travel show to pick out our boat, camper and 4-wheeler. This weekend was the motorcycle expo so Danny picked our a Harley too ;) Really though, I think we're getting closer to actually buying a camper. We talk about it, our friends try to pressure us into it and it would really be a lot of fun. Maybe this time next year we'll suck it up and actually fork out the money.

He was so happy to spend the day with his Gigi

After that we rushed back to town for church, then pawned the kid off on Danny's brother so they could watch the Daytona 500 stuff on TV. His brother had been waiting on that night since we told him we were pregnant. It was kind of hilarious. While he was there, we had our gourmet mac and cheese/hot dog dinner then went to visit my Gram.

Sunday Tucker and I played and then spent a couple hours at Grammy's and then lounged the rest of the evening.

Grammy update: She is home on hospice now.  It was either hospice in a facility, or hospice at home. I felt like a facility would be a good choice, but my aunt went with doing it at home. And I'm glad she did. Saturday she had a really good day. She was up for 3 hours and was talking, making jokes and even had a drink (by drink I mean Windsor and coke) with one of her very best friends. You can't do that if you aren't home. But then Sunday was a rough day with pain and trouble breathing. It'll probably be that way from here on out and we'll just have to take it day by day.

That's all for now. We are about to get hit with more "winter weather" once again. Winter weather my ass. This is hell frozen over.

Five on Friday: The Danny Edition

Hey all! I've decided to make some time this morning to participate in one of my favorite link-ups, Five on Friday with Darci at The Good Life Blog. Today she is helping out a little boy and family by sharing their story.  The little boy has Menkes Syndrome and her and the other girls are trying to spread their story to raise awareness for what seems like a horrible, horrible disease.  You can visit her blog by clicking the button below to find out how to share their story, or even help the family.

As for my Five today, I usually don't have a theme to this post as I use it to get the randoms off my mind, but today is different. Since it is Valentine's Day, I want to share 5 things I love about my Valentine, my sweet, sweet hubby.

1. Danny is one of the hardest workers I know. As a firefighter, he only works 9 or 10 days a month, but they are 24 hour shifts.  That comes out to about 1/3 of the month. It is rare that he spends any of the other 2/3 of the month just relaxing. Especially now that he is doing the stay at home dad thing on his days off. Whether he is working at the local feed store, working at his 4th job, taking care of Tucker, or piddling around the house, he is always doing something. I have to practically beg him to sit down and relax. I do it for his sanity, as well as to make me feel like less of a bum :). He also thinks sleeping in means sleeping until 8:30. This was pre-Tucker.

2. He eventually does everything I ask. I don't mean this in the "I wear the pants" kind of way. We actually share the pants and I think that's how it should be. I ask for about 100 things every week.. help me do dishes, hang this up on the wall, help me with laundry, etc... and he gets it done. Same goes for if I want to go eat somewhere, stop at Target for the second time that weekend, or do the dreaded grocery shopping. (he hates grocery shopping, I actually kind of love it.) He will do it. Since he keeps busy it might not get done right away, but he does it.

3. He is kind of like a little kid. When we were dating, we always said we would have a monkey bathroom when we moved in together. Well, when he moved into my dads house after he passed away, he wanted a monkey bathroom.  I asked him what color he wanted the walls. His response: "Yellow, but not just any yellow, banana yellow" So, at 21 years old, we had a monkey bathroom. He also couldn't open his fire station Lego set quick enough that following Christmas.

Different Christmas, but I gave him this early. He felt jipped on gifts to open, so I had to wrap the box. He also got a remote control truck that year.

4. He talks about winning the lottery almost daily. He can tell you how much the winnings are, how much we would get after taxes (because he would OBVIOUSLY take the one time payment), and how much we could spend every year. Then he follows up with how we would spend our millions. Its almost the same list of dreams every single time. House in Michigan for him, house in Orange Beach for me, bigger house here at home, a boat, camper, cabin out in the woods, a mini cow farm, new wheels for both of us, and all kinds of stuff. The best part, he always includes "we would donate a lot of it." He's the best!


5. I can count on him for anything. If something needs fixed or I have a random ass question, he's the first person I go to. If he doesn't have an answer or know how to do it, he will figure out how or tell me who can. When I have a random question about something, 9 times out of 10 I will ask him first rather than Google. Whatever he says, I believe. He could probably tell me the sky is green and grass is really blue and I would believe it. He knows it too, and that's why he only jokingly tells me the wrong answer every once in a while :)

The next few weeks...

So this week has already been exhausting and its only Wednesday morning.  Its that time of year at work again where the days run together and I wonder if I'll make it out alive. Just have to make it to March 15th and things calm down again.

Over the next month, posts might become few and far between. I'll be doing a lot of traveling and that requires me to leave in the morning and make sure I'm out the door by 7:45, which leaves little time to write posts, or even just hit submit.

Another reason I may be absent is my Gram. She's not doing well. I took her to the hospital back in October.. and she hasn't been home since. Its been a pattern of hospital, nursing home, hospital, different nursing home, hospital, a different hospital, nursing home for 36 hours and back at the hospital. She had a heart attack Friday night or Saturday morning and has pretty much gone downhill since then.  She is in a lot of pain and our family has some difficult decisions to make over the next few days or weeks. We aren't really sure how long we have left with her.

On a lighter note, I went to Zumba last night. Holy shit, Batman. Throughout my pregnancy, the most exercise I got at one time was walking 3 miles. And the last time that happened was most likely September? Hell probably even before that. But that last time I REALLY exercised was when I did the 30 Day Shred at the end of March/beginning of April and I hadn't been to Zumba since right before that. So, it's been 11 months since I've been to Zumba.

It. Kicked. My. Ass.

The hilarious part of it? The instructor is 5 or 6 months pregnant. Her SIL told me last night that she's only gained 2 pounds. I kind of wanted to throw up since I gain that just looking at a cookie. It felt really good to get back and I am really looking forward to going again Thursday. That is if I can still walk. I'm feeling okay right now, but she did tell me the night after Zumba, which would be tonight, is the worst. Awesome.

So that is what's going on with my life. This week at least.

And for your time, here are some sweet pics. One of Tucker and I when we went to meet my mama for lunch. The second is him and my mom at lunch. Isn't his little smirk just adorable? His little personality is starting to show and I am loving it.

5 on Friday

Um, its freaking cold. I'd be perfectly content just spending my day snuggled on the couch in my sweats with Tucker and Diesel. But I did that Wednesday. Anywho, lets get to the good stuff. One of my fave link-ups, 5 on Friday with Darci from The Good Life Blog. Maybe I'll actually link-up this time since I failed to do so last Friday. Good going, Erin.

1. Speaking of me being kind of dumb. Does pregnancy brain just turn into mom brain? Mom brain that is completely taken over by eating schedules, sleep deprivation and running yourself ragged. I forgot about a meeting Danny and I had with our life insurance agent. When she showed up at my office at 9:30 yesterday I immediately said Oh Shit and called Danny. Luckily she understood that I'd been a little frazzled lately with getting back to work and having a newborn in the house. Then at lunch I asked Danny to get a box off the porch that I had forgotten about. I assumed it was his gun holster. Nope it was a Target box. I legit thought for about the whole 2 minutes it took to open that I had ordered something and totally forgot. Wouldn't put it past me these days. Fortunately that wasn't the case and it was a gift for Tucker from my cousin.

2. Tucker turned 2 months old on Wednesday. How did that even happen? Wasn't it just yesterday that Danny was driving like a mad man to the hospital because my water broke? He has his 2 month appointment today and I can't wait to see what his little chunky butt weighs. He's getting little rolls on his thighs. So precious. I posted these pics on Instagram (erinshell10) the other day to mark his 2 month birthday.

3. You know when someone tells you a story and you immediately get chills? That's what happened when I heard about The Band Perry paying for a family's funeral expenses. On January 30th, a rural farm house in Kentucky caught on fire. The dad and one daughter were able to escape but the mom and the EIGHT other children didn't survive. Their community was trying to raise money to help pay for the funerals and The Band Perry caught wind of it and said they'd take care of it. How freakin awesome?!  I've enjoyed the music they've put out the last few years, but this makes me love them even more!

4. So, the Olympics. I'm not super pumped about them. I LOVE the summer Olympics though. Volleyball and gymnastics make my day. I guess I'm kind of excited about the ice skating and I can probably get into snowboarding, but that's about it. Are you excited about them at all?  Apparently some of the athletes told their parents to stay home because they didn't want to risk anything happening to them over there in Sochi. Also, there's the whole #SochiProblems on Twitter. Sounds like they dropped the ball on getting ready with hotels not being finished and roads still under construction. Nice move, Sochi.

5. Finally, getting my eating habits under control has been more challenging than I expected. I forget to log stuff into LoseIt all the time. Hell, I'm lucky to remember to put deodorant on in the mornings, which I almost forgot again this morning. I've continued eating like I'm pregnant. During those 9 months, I justified things with "Ah, I'm growing a human" and that made it okay. Well that has shifted to "I'm breastfeeding so I can eat that second cheeseburger" No. Just no, Erin. Its so hard to get your shit together when you've slacked off for nearly a year. Today is a new day though.


Can I get an Amen?!

I hope you all have a great weekend! Stay nice and warm!

An Update

On breastfeeding.

When left off last week, I said that I was going to give it until 3 months to see some change and until 4 months to throw in the towel on nursing before I went to exclusively pumping. I kind of lied.

Friday we went to support group (and I was the only person there... totally fine with that). I was telling the lactation consultant about my concerns and updating her on what had happened since the last time I saw her, which was about 3 weeks prior. After I rambled on about all that, she basically said she wouldn't blame me for pumping only. I thought about it on the way home and then bounced my thoughts around to my mom, where she said the same thing.

Here are my concerns/pros for pumping only.
- Its one of the 2 really busy times at work for me. All of my business has to be sold for the year by March 15th. I don't have countless hours at night to nurse. I need sleep.
- I thrive on routine. Actually, if I deviate from a routine, I get all ADD and nothing gets done. Pumping and doing bottles only will get Tucker on more of a schedule then I can start being my OCD self about the nightly routine for all of us.
- I will have more time for housework. All I read on exclusively pumping is that it takes so much more work/time. You know what else takes a lot of work? Nursing your kid until your nipples feel like they are going to fall off and then having to sit with your pump for another 20 minutes because he didn't eat enough to make you comfortable. Oh, and when you're done pumping, he wakes up because he wants a bottle and then you have to get the milk you just pumped in the fridge and rinse your parts out. Take out the nursing marathon and you're down to just 25-30 minutes of work rather than an hour.
- With the weight gain issues Tucker had in the beginning, making sure he gets enough to eat is important. Bottles allow us to monitor that better.

So, Friday afternoon I made the switch. Until Sunday night.

I had just given Tucker a bottle and we were sitting on the couch snuggling. All of a sudden he starts bobbing his head around, eventually landing on my boob. He was still hungry and wanted to nurse. Great. So, we tried it. No pain, no nipple shield, no problems. I had undone my decision.

Same thing happened last night. He had gotten a bottle and was still hungry, so while our company was holding him (thankfully she was a woman), he was looking for the boob. I took him to his room and he nursed for 10-12 minutes. Again, no pain or problems.

Here is where I'm at as of 7:20 am on this Tuesday morning. I'm just going to let Tucker take the lead. I'll be pumping and doing bottles all the time, but if he wants to nurse then he can nurse. I'm not going to force it, I'm not going to intentionally lose sleep over it. Whatever happens, happens.

Operation Organization

I spent a good part of this weekend thinking of how I can organize our house better. Ever since our little dude arrived, things have been pretty chaotic with his health issues in the beginning, then the holidays, then my cyst and now the arctic temperatures. And our house seems to be struggling. Like the physical appearance of it. I'm pretty sure I almost had a mental breakdown over it the week before last.

This weekend was the kitchen and my craft/scrapbooking supplies. I'll be honest, finding a new spot for my crafting shit has been on my to-do list since about August.

Friday my mom came up to help me. She tackled dishes and holding the baby while I straightened up the kitchen. It is amazing how much help holding a baby actually is to a new mom. Anywho, after the kitchen looked a little less like a hot mess, I started doing some research, AKA browsing Pinterest for some quick ideas for the kitchen. My goal is to get our corner counter under the cabinets a little more clear. It held Danny's randoms, radio and pager chargers, hats, sunglasses and medicine as well as come canisters, bananas when I've got them, wine and wine opener and can opener. Occasionally when the bread won't fit in the cabinet it goes there too. To sum it up, a bunch of random crap that doesn't necessarily belong together.

Here is what I've got in the works at my house today while Danny is home.

It won't be exact, but this is pretty much the set up we have in our house. A set of cabinets with some counter space.

Hopefully tonight I can get the area set up how I want and work on Danny's new corner and post an update. Holding myself accountable with you guys is about the only way it will get done.

We also celebrated my brother's birthday this weekend.

Drew making a face versus actually smiling is pretty standard

 

See what I mean?

 

 

I honestly think this is our first family picture since Christmas. We've got to get better at taking pictures. If what they say about the number of pictures for the second kid compared to the first kid is true, then our next one will have NO pictures. 

The marg that I talked about on Friday was everything I had hoped for and confirmed what I had been expecting... my tolerance isn't what it use to be. One marg in and I was done. I was tired and felt like I was having trouble forming complete, intelligent sentences. I would still talk and walk right, but it required concentration.

It was a productive and fun weekend. The best kind of weekend.