What I've been up to...
I started substitute teaching, which has been a tremendous blessing both financially and for my soul. It definitely makes me NEED to get back into the classroom. Plus, without that extra income I'm not sure how we'd afford Christmas.
Speak of Christmas, I did my first Black Friday shopping as a mom this year! I got some awesome deals - a play kitchen, play tools, Vtech laptop, Elmo DVD, Elmo Memory game, an immersion blender, Dirt Devil dust buster/hard surface vacuum, and plenty of clothes. All in all we spent about $300 and saved at least that. All of Christmas is taken care of except for parents and grandparents -- and I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing for them!
Since my last post, I've been trying to be a bit more creative. Thanks to my good friend, Tara, I've learned how to knit! I just know the basics right now and am not very good at it. Plus, I can only knit when Jackson is in bed because he is fascinated with the knitting needles. His favorite thing to do is pull them right out of the project I'm working on, which sends me into a BLIND PANIC every time!
I've also been in the kitchen a lot more. Thanks to Pinterest I've tried several new recipes. Including Nutella hot chocolate, 2 minute mug brownies, and a DIY Hibachi dinner complete with fried rice, teriyaki chicken, and shrimp/white sauce! It's by far my new fav meal!!
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| Is your mouth watering? Because it should be. |
I've also been spending a lot of time on ilovephotography.com and trying to work on my photography. We had our FIRST SNOW of the season yesterday and was able to get Jackson out for a bit to take some pictures. I am eager to get my new Auto lense from Santa because by the time I kneel down (remember 25 weeks preggo here) and adjust the focus on the lense, the shot is gone! Plus, I had the blue snow problem (slightly fixed with editing) -- but I'm still figuring out white balance settings. Here's some shots from yesterday...and I don't think they're too shabby at all...
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| This one's blurry but that face is to DIE FOR! Ah, he kills me! |
I'm going to try and do some Holiday family portraits of us and some friends of ours this weekend with twinkle lights. I'm SUPER excited yet trepidatious about it not working. We'll see how it goes!
An update on Jackson...
He had his 6 month evaluation and he is still pretty far behind in his speech. Farther behind than we originally thought which was heartbreaking to find out. The good thing about all of this is we now have a new Interventionist and she does so much more with him than our previous one did. You can tell that everything she is doing has a purpose and she isn't just coming over to be a big toy. It makes me feel a lot better about the intervention and gives me hope that it will start to help him more. Also, they are recommending him for another speech therapy evaluation. It'll take several weeks for us to get in and see if he qualifies. Last time he tested out, so we'll see this go'round. In a way I hope he doesn't test out. I just want him to get all the help he needs to get caught up. Do you know how hard it is to watch your sweet little boy try to tell you something, but not have the words? He gets so frustrated and it upsets him so much. It rips the heart right out of my chest.
Lastly, a pregnancy update...
Ok, so this second time around I have definitely been slack. I haven't taken ONE baby bump picture yet and have a tough time remembering how pregnant I am on a daily basis. I have my glucose test next week, which makes me nervous. Sweets haven't been too agreeable with me during this pregnancy, which makes me doubly nervous that there is a reason why. Sweet Ruth is moving around like crazy. Her favorite times of day are late at night and starting at about 6 am. I never woke up because of Jackson moving, but this little girl seems to wake me up all morning long! I'm thinking she's gonna be an early riser!
We've started clearing stuff out of the extra bedroom to make it Ruth's nursery. So far we've cleared all but the linens out of her closet and emptied out most of the drawers in the furniture. We also cleared out a cabinet in the kitchen to use for extra baby bottle/container/etc. storage. We put a shelving unit up in our laundry closet and already have it filled with the contents we've cleaned out of the cabinet, drawers, and closet. Next, we just need to finish clearing out the room and sell the furniture. Once we get it all cleaned out, we can paint and start putting everything together!
Speak of...I'm gonna get started on that now...
XOXO
An update on Jackson...
He had his 6 month evaluation and he is still pretty far behind in his speech. Farther behind than we originally thought which was heartbreaking to find out. The good thing about all of this is we now have a new Interventionist and she does so much more with him than our previous one did. You can tell that everything she is doing has a purpose and she isn't just coming over to be a big toy. It makes me feel a lot better about the intervention and gives me hope that it will start to help him more. Also, they are recommending him for another speech therapy evaluation. It'll take several weeks for us to get in and see if he qualifies. Last time he tested out, so we'll see this go'round. In a way I hope he doesn't test out. I just want him to get all the help he needs to get caught up. Do you know how hard it is to watch your sweet little boy try to tell you something, but not have the words? He gets so frustrated and it upsets him so much. It rips the heart right out of my chest.
Lastly, a pregnancy update...
Ok, so this second time around I have definitely been slack. I haven't taken ONE baby bump picture yet and have a tough time remembering how pregnant I am on a daily basis. I have my glucose test next week, which makes me nervous. Sweets haven't been too agreeable with me during this pregnancy, which makes me doubly nervous that there is a reason why. Sweet Ruth is moving around like crazy. Her favorite times of day are late at night and starting at about 6 am. I never woke up because of Jackson moving, but this little girl seems to wake me up all morning long! I'm thinking she's gonna be an early riser!
We've started clearing stuff out of the extra bedroom to make it Ruth's nursery. So far we've cleared all but the linens out of her closet and emptied out most of the drawers in the furniture. We also cleared out a cabinet in the kitchen to use for extra baby bottle/container/etc. storage. We put a shelving unit up in our laundry closet and already have it filled with the contents we've cleaned out of the cabinet, drawers, and closet. Next, we just need to finish clearing out the room and sell the furniture. Once we get it all cleaned out, we can paint and start putting everything together!
Speak of...I'm gonna get started on that now...
XOXO
You know I'm jealouse of you as a mom. There are days I can barely keep my head on straight let alone do all the things you do. You are amazing. Nick is getting me a new camera for my birthday so maybe I'll get to work on my photography a little. As for cooking, I can make what I make and that's it. When I try new stuff it doesn't work. LOL As for Jackson, have faith. You are getting the help he needs and that's the most important thing. He will be just fine and you are doing the very best possible to help him. He couldn't ask for a better mom.
ReplyDeleteCarrie - I only try the easy stuff!! I always read through the recipe half a dozen times before I get started too. If it is a lot of steps, and I think will require multi-tasking, I always ask Bryan to help the first time. This takes some planning but we're beginning to really love the times when we cook together.
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