Everything's bigger in Texas and other related going - ons

Last week was an incredibly long week. I woke up at 5:30 on Wednesday morning so that I had time to get gas, drive to airport parking and take the shuttle over. I squeezed in a quick puking session since what morning is complete without that and was ready to walk out the door by 6am. A quick kiss for Joey, who I wouldn't see until 3am Monday morning as he had to take his son back to Mississippi and it was bon voyage. The flight into Houston was extremely turbulent at times and Jellybean was not enjoying that at all. Luckily the connection to San Antonio was uneventful.

The resort we stayed at for the food show was OUT OF THIS WORLD! I wish I could have brought Joey along as it is the perfect place for a romantic getaway. It's also great if you have kids. The even was held at the JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country and I would gladly go back there anytime!

The restaurants were top notch with the most amazing homemade strawberry jam. The last night there we had dinner at the clubhouse restaurant 18 Oaks and I cannot say a bad thing about any part of the meal. A great range of appetizers - I highly recommend the Grilled Oysters and my Filet Mingon was beautifully prepared. Salted just right with a scrumptious horseradish sauce. Dessert was the highlight for me though since they had Zeppoles!! I have to have those anytime they are on the menu as they always take me back to childhood. The resort also boasts a waterpark of sorts with two pools, a lazy river, and water slides.

The restaurant/bar poolside - Rivertop Grill is really great too. I had Mahi Tacos there for lunch and loved the homemade tortilla chips. My coworker had a chillata - its beer, lime juice, ice and salt on the rim - she said it was very refreshing. We spent Friday evening relaxing poolside after two days of working nonstop. Friday morning we had to be at our booth by 6am so you can imagine how exhausted we were by days end. My baby bump was also on full display by the end of the night too. Although that may have been mainly bloating! It seems to come and go right now but I'm sure one of these days it will be here to stay.

Saturday morning I was up at 4:30 am to head back to the airport. I was actually glad to be coming home to an empty house except for the pets as my entire plan for that day involved catching up on sleep. I took a few naps on the plane ride but they just weren't refreshing at all. That excited took anose dive when I realized Joey left the house an absolute wreck and took pretty much all the food with him. Never leave a pregnant women without food.  I wanted to spend sometime with Joey when he got back - I really missed him!

That didn't go quite as I had hoped for. I mentioned Joey didn't get home until 3am; that is because he managed to catch a stomach bug while in Mississippi and spent the entire trip back getting sick. I thought I would help by giving him some nausea relief medicine when he got in along with some ginger ale, He managed to hold that down for about 3 seconds and then it turned into a scene from the Exorcist with projectile vomiting like I had never witnessed before. That continued for much of the night and following day. There was no way he was going to work and I couldn't leave him alone like that so I stayed home to play nurse. To top it off our AC decided to go on the fritz so I had to call the AC guy to come out and $160 later its working like a champ but between Joey missing work and the AC - our Keys trip was out of the question. :(

I did get my nt scan scheduled for the baby. It happens to fall on Joey's birthday so I am hoping he can go into work late to be there for it. We will be able to see a lot more on it as I will be 11.5 weeks along then. So now hopefully you can understand why I didn't post in a week! I promise I was thinking of everyone and reading your updates!

Sorry Guys!!

My work trip completely drained me and then I had to play nurse to a ridiculously sick hubby so my blog has been painfully neglected. I promise, promise, promise a long thoughtful and picturefull (I made that word up just now) post tonight. Don't forget about me!! :)

Post It Note Tuesday - How do you call your loverboy?

Face...Meet Toilet

That is what I spent a good 20 minutes staring into this morning. I woke up and everything seemed okay. Well other then the fact that I tossed and turned all night so by the time the alarm went off I was exhausted. Any how, I stumbled into the kitchen and thought I would be nice and grab food out of the freezer to put in Joey's lunch box. I started to open the freezer and it hit me HARDCORE. I managed to squeak out "Grab something for your lunch!" as I ran to the bathroom. I hadn't thrown up like this yet. It was painful and with no food in my stomach since it was first thing in the morning it was all bile which I was quickly reminded of just how gross that is. Then Joey the genius asked me if I was okay - as I'm yakking into the toilet. "Does it look like I'm fricken okay right now? DOES IT?"

So after a quick shower and a mouthwash I felt human again. I even managed to make the bed. I am also all packed for my work trip to Texas this week. I'll be in San Antonio Wednesday through Saturday. I'm not sure how I'll handle two days on my feet non stop but - you do what you have to do - right? This is all really just a countdown though since next Friday we will once again be bound for the Florida Keys. You have no idea how glorious that sounds to me right now. I can taste the fresh seafood already. (along with the saltwater I will inevitably suck up in my snorkel). So if I'm a stranger for the next two weeks - my apologies.

You know you're pregnant when...

Well you definitely do not know you are pregnant when looking at my belly from 8 weeks -



No bump here...not even a hint of one. My boobs on the other hand...as someone who has never really had much to speak of in that department - I like it. I like it a lot!

There are however signs that I am pregnant though. I thought for your weekend reading pleasure I would put together a little list for you. So here is my version of -

"You know you're pregnant when..."

• You throw up in the shower and just keep going.
• A pickle at 3 am seems perfectly normal.
• You get nauseous if you don't eat every 12 minutes.
• You spend time at work trying to devise a plan how you can take a nap and not get caught.
• You start eating cheese sticks even though you don't like cheese.
• You can take a nap after work and still fall asleep before 9pm.
• You have learned how to eat while nauseous and in between dry heaves.
• You pee after every sip of a drink.
• You smell peaches from across the produce department and know you have to have one...immediately.
• You keep the AC in the house so cold your hubby keeps grabbing blankets to stay warm on the couch and you have an extra fan in the bedroom in addition to the cieling fan.
• You forget half the symptoms you have been experiencing when asked at the doctor's office because you have gotten so use to them always being there.

Hope everyone has a good weekend and a Happy Father's Day! I spent all day cooking my Dad's favorite things so I can spoil him for Father's Day!

First Pictures

Sorry for not posting lately. There's a lot going on at home and it may be awhile before I get my bearings to where I have the mind to be able to post again. I wanted to share pictures of our little jelly bean though -

It was nice knowing ya...

So, we finally got the information for my 10 year reunion last night. I went to a school in Daytona Beach, where my parents still live and I visit almost every weekend while trying to avoid half the people I went to school with. Get ready to laugh hysterically when I tell you how much they are trying to charge per person for the event only. Are you ready? Are you sitting down?


$125 per person


Outrageous, right? They have also made it a three day event. Three days!!! As much as I would like to catch up with everyone $250 for a weekend in Daytona is ludicrous to me! I can do that for free - anytime I want to. The previous year's class reunion was $50 per person. Much more manageable. I mean most of us have spouses, kids, mortgages, car payments etc. I don't know many who have money like that to just blow. We all reacted pretty quickly and strongly and set up an "anti-reunion" for those of us who aren't quite in this financial bracket -

The event will be free and held at a former classmates house. Thank you, Nancy! It feels as if the organizers are completely out of touch with the state of the economy and people's finances right now. I have a baby on the way so there is no way I can justify the expense. What am I supposed to say to the kid? Sorry you don't have a crib but Mommy and Daddy had to go to Mommy's high school reunion so this dresser drawer is all you get?

So kudos to classmates banding together and finding an alternative so we can still catch up! Some of us still aren't on Mommy and Daddy's never ending bank roll and just can't afford the expense.

Post It Note Tuesday - The Heat is On

I finally blessedly got a good nights sleep last night. I was sorely disappointed when I woke up this morning and realized it was only Tuesday and I had to go to work. So here's my Post-It Notes to brighten your Tuesday!

Menu Plan Monday

You can find out more about Menu Plan Monday at I'm an Organizing Junkie.


One of the things I have been craving the most being knocked up is spicy food. I also have found myself eating every 20 minutes but my morning sickness reappeared this morning after giving me a break for a few day so we will see what happens. I am only planning 4 days of meals as we are going to my mom and dad's for the weekend.

Monday - Cajun shrimp, fries, salad and Cheddar Bay Biscuits
Tuesday - Tacos
Wednesday - Pork chops, Mashed Potatoes, Broccoli with crushed pepper
Thursday - BBQ Burgers, Onion Rings, Salad

Honey Do and Honey Don't

So its been busy around the house the past few weeks. As I mentioned earlier we went and picked up Joey's son a few weeks ago and before that we decided to switch rooms around and put him in the smaller room we were using as an office since he is here so rarely with the thought that eventually his room would become the nursery. Little did we know that three weeks later we'd be planning that nursery out!

Joey wanted to make Devin's room special and being the talented artist that he is he painted some amazing murals in there. I was given the huge task of painting...the water. Then we argued about the waterfalls and I told him if he didn't like my waterfalls and didn't want my ideas he could paint the whole gosh darn room himself. I may have also told him where he could shove the paintbrush. He apologized and begged me to keep painting while considering whether I need to be checked into the loony bin for getting emotional over a waterfall. Devin had asked for an army theme so that's what he got. Please excuse the mess - that's what happens when you put two 8 year old boys in a room together. I admitted defeat on day 2 and just started shutting the door. My pregnant butt doesn't have the energy to clean their room too!

Without further ado here is the finished product:

These would be the waterfalls I threw a hissy fit over!

So that would be the hubby's first project that he wrapped up. He also brought home a new member of the family. He is the most curious bearded dragon you will ever meet. We named him Aragon.

On to Joey's next project. You'll recall that our back porch looks something like this -

Well, Joey decided that he needed to frame  the porch out and start putting some board up. We will eventually screen in the rest. So this is what it looks like for now-

Yes, My husband does have a TV on the porch!

In case you thought that I have been resting on my laurels during all this that would not be the case at all. Just because the rooms got switched around that does not mean that Joey got everything out of the nursery or cleaned it at all. Nope - he just took care of the major stuff and then left stuff strewn everywhere.  It was like a stick of dynamite went off in there. I also had to find different places to stash all of our junk. Except for the big pieces of furniture which I can't move I've managed to get the room cleared out.

With all the projects that have been getting done - one age old battle in our home continues.

We are currently in the midst of a standoff over the dishes. It's not looking like its going to break anytime soon. I've been washing all of my dishes and leaving his dishes and the dishes the boys use when he is with them behind. I'm hoping my tough love will work but there's a good chance I'll be washing a boatload of dishes tomorrow!

I'll leave you with this -

5 weeks

and because I have good sense of humor - here's what the dog did when I tried to take the first picture.

Pour Your Heart Out - On the other side

Shell over at Things I Can't Say hosts - Pour Your Heart Out.

Click over to her to read the Rules.

I blogged before about the pain of infertility and its a subject I don't take lightly at all. I'm now standing on the other side of the fence and quite honestly its not any easier over here. First off, to all the ladies struggling with IF - I completely understand being happy for me but then again not, since it isn't you who finally "got knocked up." It won't hurt me if you no longer follow or read my blog as I go through this pregnancy - I would never want to be a cause of pain to someone else and its hard to read about someone else's pregnancy when you can't get there yourself. Have no doubt that I will continue to pray for all of you to see that BFP and that I am always going to be supportive in your quest to become momma's. Remember - I didn't think I would be here today, 5 weeks along. I didn't think the Clomid had worked. I was convinced we were heading for IUIs or IVF.

So here I am, standing on the finally pregnant side of infertility. And it scares the shit out of me. (Pardon my french!) Is it a sticky bean? Did I do anything I shouldn't have during those first few weeks? Why wasn't I taking my prenatals like I should of been when we were TTC? How in the world are we going to pay for everything? What is going to happen to my body? Will my back ever stop hurting? Why couldn't my first appointment get here sooner? I know that many of my fears are unfounded and just me being crazy. I have no reason to think I will miscarry, especially since I've never been pregnant before so I have nothing to compare it to. I second guess every twinge, cramp and symptom. The worst part is that most early pregnancy symptoms happen to be exactly like AF symptoms. Way to screw with your mind mother nature! My temp this morning was higher than its ever been before so by all mans I should be relaxing and enjoying this. I am trying to but I am also a worrywart by design so I may end up "what if"ing myself into the crazy house. I'm hoping that my first doctor's appointment will assuage my fears a bit and calm me down. I haven't said anything at work yet and I am hoping to hold off until after that first appointment. Wish me luck through this crazy journey - I'm shaking in my shoes over all of it!

Once again to the infertility ladies - I'm keeping my fingers crossed for BFP's for all of you.

And the numbers are in....

The doctor's office finally, blessedly, called me back with my beta #, from LAST Wednesday (or 13dpo) for those of you familiar with TTC terminology. Our number was an 85 so we are confirmed as pregnant!! My first prenatal appointment will be June 15 and they are of course available 24 hours a day if anything comes up before then. My sister is still teasing me about twins but the number is a little low for 2  - who knows though, our family likes to go against the odds! I'm home alone tonight so I'm going to keep on clearing junk out of the nursery and maybe finally toss some of the items I've been holding on to for so long since - Baby needs room!

Post It Note Tuesday - Complaint Desk