Been awhile....

Well, it certainly has been a while since I have blogged. Though I have kept in touch with all 5 of my readers through email so they know what has been happening in my life. If by chance there are other readers, I can give a reader's digest version of what has been going on here:

-Baby girl was born 2 days before Christmas in a whirlwind delivery complete with me trying to drive myself through holiday traffic to the hospital. I promise to post that whole story another time.

-Missed Christmas with my son, husband, brother-in-law, mother-in-law and BIL's girlfriend due to an extended hospital stay due to whirlwind delivery.

-Celebrated New Year's at home with my family and actually saw midnight this year due to a hungry baby.

-Nursed my baby girl back to her birth weight and then some in 2 1/2 weeks time.

-Suffered major complications from delivery and ended up in Yale New Haven Hospital for 13 days. Another blog for another day.

-Finally am home with my family, thankful to be alive, and am starting to enter the land of the living.

-Discovered the power of prayer, frinedship, family and love in a whole new way.

Now it is mid-February, my family is all back together again and I am starting to feel human again. Baby girl is getting better at sleeping at night and Big brother is wonderful to his little sister and a big help during mom's recovery.

Oh and here are my wonderful children:

As I said LOTS to be thankful for!

Fat?!?!?!

Over the recent months my body has been changing a lot. But I have an excuse, I am expecting a baby and as of my last doctor's appointment I was the heaviest I have ever been. Throughout my life I have battled weight thoughts and issues, mostly being underweight, accused of being anorexic, unexplained weight loss and struggles to get back to pre-weight loss levels. Even when pregnant with my son I lost weight and it took me almost two years to get UP to my pre-pregnancy weight. Everyone who has known me and my struggles is surprised and pleased with my weight this pregnancy.

But I am 30+ years old and finally as a grown woman comfortable with my body and the ups and downs it goes through. In today's day and age there is such a pressure to be a certain size, not gain too much weight and if you are not a certain size you are fat. Well, I was a size 10 before I got pregnant. Some of my clothes were 12 closely approaching that taboo size where some women fear to tread. And what disgusts me to no end is that regularly the press is calling out a woman for gaining weight and being fat. Gasp, Eva Longoria-Parker is no longer a 0 she is a 2! Oh the horrors!! Seriously people, get real. I so fear the world my daughter will be entering once she gets to a certain point in her life with the pressures to look like all the models and actresses on TV. Yes the pressure was there when I was a child to be thin but I do not remember the different actress a different month being called out as being fat or gaining weight. I look at these women who are being called out and all I can think is where is all this weight they were supposed to have put on and if I can see it, so what? They are human and do have the right to eat.

Hopefully as my yet to be born daughter grows up in this world, I can steer her to a better self-image than I had/have and get her to ignore all the B.S. about what a woman is supposed to weigh.

Things about me you may not know....

In reading some of the blogs of a few of my friends I see that they have listed little known facts about themselves. That got me thinking about things people may not know about me. Or you may know them since I do talk a lot and tell a lot of information about myself.

1) I can stick out my tongue and touch my nose.

2) I can raise one eyebrow and curl my lip. Kinda like Elvis or that wrestler the Rock (at least that is what my students tell me, LOL)

3) I can not stand folding laundry, putting away laundry or cleaning my house.

4) When I was younger I hated my name. Especially my middle name. Then about 18 I started really liking it and now I love it. In fact I love it so much I am determined to have it as my daughter's middle name when she is born in January.

5) I spent 4 years at college in Boston, started off in a science field and discovered that I suck at sciences, so I switched to retailing management. I received my degree in it and worked in that field for a few years and discovered that I hated every minute of it towards the end.

6) The friends I talk to the most and tell the most to are spread all across the country. In fact 3 of them I have never met face to face and the other 3 I have only met face to face less than a handful of times. But they are great friends and we are there for each other through most things. Even if we don't agree on politics. ;-)

7) I loathe politics and am not even registered to vote in my new town. Something I guess I need to change in today's day and age. And I know one friend who would love to help me form my opinions.

8) I go back to work on Tuesday and really want to have more of a tan so that my coworkers don't know I did relatively nothing this summer.

9) My husband and I met when I was a nanny for a family in the town I grew up in. He was installing an alarm for that family and I was insistent that he had to do everything that the family wanted despite that what they wanted was impossible. He thought my determination was cute. Then when the 7 yr old cut his hand wide open on a can he was wonderful in helping me keep both the 7 yr old and the 18 month old calm. He was so good with that 18 month old that is what attracted me to him. Who knew 11 yrs later we would be married and expecting our 2nd child.

Musical memories

Growing up my grandfather, Jack, instilled in me a love for musicals. I remember singing Camelot songs with him after he would tell me stories of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. When he didn't introduce me to a musical, Mom did. Camelot, My Fair Lady, Flower Drum Song, Sound of Music, Annie Get Your Gun and The King and I, are just a few of the musicals introduced to me at a young age. I remember listening to Jack and Gee-Gee's records and memorizing the words to them all. And even today so many of those songs are on my iPod.

Then newer Broadway musicals came out and Jack would tell me all about them and get me the soundtracks to listen to. I remember getting woken up on visits to his house in Florida to the opening strands of Phantom of the Opera, Les Miz or Cats. The first time I saw Phantom in a theatre was in Los Angeles, with Robert Guillaume as the Phantom. I never sat back in my seat and was just in total awe.

Then Rent came out and broke the mold for Broadway musicals. I was in love with the music and "new" style of music from it long before I ever got a chance to see it on stage. It was the first musical I ever dragged DH to. Poor man was shell shocked and I was in heaven.

As I was pregnant with my on I was so anxious to share my love of musicals with someone who would "get it" like Jack, Mom and I do. So far at four Bo-Bo doesn't share my enthusiasm but laughs at some of the songs I play for him but he seems as uninterested as his father. Now that I am pregnant again I have high hopes that I will have another chance to share my love of musicals with some one.

Now I sit here tonight and am watching the movie version of Phantom. Nothing like the actual show on Broadway but oh the memories it brings back. :*)

Thank you

This Memorial Day, I want to take a minute to thank all the families of soldiers who gave the ultimate sacrifice in all of our nation's wars. The sacrifices in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam made it possible for both my grandfathers and my father to come home to their families.

Home

When I was 10 my parents built a new house. It was a great house, big and roomy, huge basement to play in and roller skate in as a preteen, play pool in as a teenager, big enough for the much needed teenager privacy. My parents owned it until after my brother graduated college and I got married. They made sure we were both not coming home again when they decided to sell. And it was a huge decision for them to make. And one they backed out of a few times before they decided to go for it and downsize.

Now eight years later that house is for sale for the second or third time. Being nosey I went and looked it up online and looked at all the pictures and took the virtual tour. It was so disappointing. Nothing in that house is the same as it was when we lived there. Not even the backyard.

I don't know what I expected but definitely not what I saw. And I was upset. Until today...... My husband and I bought our house just about a year ago. Since then we have created a long list of things we want to change both inside and outside. We have started some of the things and this week I have finally started tackling the backyard. That is when it hit me...what is one person's likes and styles is another person's to do list to fix. I love our new house but I want to make it mine. And that is all the people who bought "my" old house did too. And I bet the people who owned this house before us would be upset with some if not all of the changes we make.

That Man of Mine

My husband is not a perfect man. No man is thankfully. And many times I will freely admit my husband has faults and I may even find a few for you. But my husband is the love of my life. Not only that he is my best friend. When we first met it was very easy for me to see myself falling in love with him. He was kind, helpful, friendly and great with the little boy I was a nanny for. He held his cool in an emergency and calmed this crazy girl down who was trying hard not to panic and not succeeding. Oh an he put up with my bossy, know it all attitude. :X The past few weeks he has been put out by me and my inability to do anything (darned appendix removal). He has picked up and done everything around here: laundry, groceries taking care of Bo-Bo and the cat, meals and driving to daycare. All while handling his own job and needs; not to mention my care. Has he griped and complained? Oh yes, but he does it ( and does it well, for that matter too) and in the process lets our son and I know we are loved and cared for. All in all that is what matters, right? Being loved and cared for. My husband does that for us in all of his quirky ways. He loves us and we love him.