So...I was driving home from work 2 weeks ago around midnight in the pouring down rain. I love my drive to work, so much easier and faster than where we were before. There is one road, however, that does not have a single street light on it. It's the road that I turn onto to get to our neighborhood from the county road. It is windy and very much a back road...complete with a herd of cows that I enjoy looking at in the daylight. The speed limit is 45 (it shouldn't be more than 35 in my opinion) but because it was raining and I couldn't see very well I was not going that fast (fortunately). I hadn't turned my high beams on yet because I saw headlights in the distance. All of a sudden, the car came speeding around the curve, shining it's lights on what was a man on his bicycle!! I swerved into a turning lane that just happened to be available at that moment and just about threw up. What was this man doing riding his bike in the rain, at midnight, wearing black with NO REFLECTORS?! My blood pressure still rises just thinking about it. Had that car not been coming in the opposite lane, I would have hit him...and I probably would have killed him. My life would have been ruined in a matter of a second. I was so shaken up when I got home I jumped into bed and held onto Brian. I thought of a million scenarios that would have happened proceeding hitting a pedestrian. Would I have been taken to jail that night, would I have had a trial? Would I have been charged with vehicular manslaughter? Oh...I am so grateful that God protected me that night! I actually have a Cast Member at work whose husband is a Sheriff, so I shared the story with her and asked her to ask her husband what would have happened to me. She said that in Florida, if you are riding your bike after sun down that you must have a flashing light on your bike, so because he was breaking the law and I was in no way shape or form in the wrong, I wouldn't have been charged...but it still would have been a mess (not to mention the emotional toll I would have gone through for watching myself hit someone). Praise God for keeping us safe in those dangerous moments.
Wow...that took more words than I expected. Needless to say I am quite cautious on that road, especially in the dark. I wonder if I should mention it to Orange County? Street lights would at least be nice. At any rate, here's some thoughts on our life the past few months:
Our Home
It's growing on me! I love it! There are always things we get used to living in a place...from little things like faucets and height of things, to big things like your appliances. So, a new place has taken some getting used to, but just this week I feel like this house is our home, and not someone else's place. There are ample amounts of organizing and decorating that need to be done, but overall we've kept up on daily chores and cleaning. We finally hung some photos this week (and by "we" I mean Brian graciously did it for me).
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| The wall is actually the same color... |
I'd still like to take all the curtains off, wash them, iron them, and re-hang them, but I just don't have that kind of time. We still need to hire our air ducts to be cleaned and get the water faucet on the fridge fixed, but other than that we are in pretty good shape. Carly makes the place look like a mess with all her little toys she leaves everywhere, but that's a quick fix. There's a big different between messy and dirty. I love the size of our kitchen...much easier to keep the tile clean when it's half the surface area. I love having two levels, LOVE our master bathroom...if we ever get to build we will make a replica of the bathroom! I love the size of Carly's room and that there is a bathroom connected. She loves her tub and we use much less water to fill it than we did when we were using our tub at our old place. I LOVE cooking with a gas stove and it's SO easy to clean! Brian put in a new kitchen faucet so I now love that, too (I was very impressed that he figured out how to do that!).
I enjoy not having sliding glass doors that are easy to break into and I love that our back and front porch don't get near as dirty. I think the magnolia tree in the front yard is just beautiful and I love sitting on the swing while Carly chases lizards. I love the sidewalks, the pools, the playgrounds, our neighbors, the jogging paths, the greenery, the mature trees, the gazebos, the amount of kids out and about and the fact that I've met more mamas with their toddlers than I've met in my whole life! Because Carly wants to be outside all day long, we meet friends at the playground, at the pool and when we are out on walks. I'm so thankful that we have moved here and as long as we can keep up on the hefty bills we've created for ourselves, it will continue to be a blessing. Our other home was suppose to close on July 31st, but the financing fell through, so we've given him another 30 days to get that straightened out and if he doesn't than it's back on the market. So, this is our first month of having double mortgage payments, but we will get through it. As of this Saturday, we have a tenant in the studio, so that will help us out financially carrying two homes. She is a very sweet girl who happened to work for me 2 years ago and has come back to Disney on a professional internship. She has also been babysitting Carly recently so I think it will be just perfect to have her living there!
Carly
C is doing wonderful! She is a fun playmate and loves to get on the floor and wrestle with us. That's really the only way to steal some snuggles these days. She loves her house and plays in every single room...and you can tell! There are Carly toys everywhere! How does any mother keep a tidy home with toddlers? Actually...I have yet to see one. ;) We have made lots of new friends, one of which lives right across the alley from us. They were married one year after we were and have a 14 month old boy and a dog that Carly adores. The dad is a GSM just like Brian and I and the mom is an ICU nurse who also works part time. This week we have been spending the mornings at their house playing with their dog, Tucker, as they are out of town. Carly has had a blast playing with new toys and loving on Tucker. :) I'm excited to see our friendship grow! Carly also says new words every single day and when asked to say something can frequently repeat it correctly. She refers to herself as Caca, and has recently learned to say "ut oh" and "bows;" both of which she says all day long. I've been keeping a running list and have to add words daily. It's so fun to watch her speech develop so rapidly! We try to get her to put two words together, like saying, "bye, dada" but so far that's the only one she's mastered. Here's a cute clip of her throwing Brian's freshly folded socks through the banister and into the living room. I always fold laundry in the hall way so that she can play in her room but she also likes to come out and "help" me.
Baby #2
We are so excited to find out the gender of the little avocado-sized baby inside my belly. We are hoping to find out next week or the week after...but I haven't officially made the appointment yet. My official guess is a that it's a boy, and I was right about Carly, so we shall see if I'm right again. I think this for these reasons:
- Although I've been sick, it's not been near as bad as with Carly, so this pregnancy has been different
- I'm exhausted....another old wives tale that it's a boy
- I smell. This is weird...but my body odor is way stronger than it is normally, so I attribute that to having extra testosterone in my body and smelling like a stinky boy.
- I have more acne than I've ever had my entire life...another thing to blame on testosterone
- I'm not nearly as emotional as I was with C and feel much tougher. Again, a male attribute.
- I am carrying "out" rather than "around" and haven't gained a single pound. (That's a big deal for a mama who gained 65 pounds with her first pregnancy)
Me
I've been a bit "all over the road" the past 4 months, but I am doing great now! The nausea subsided right before 14 weeks hit (yay for a more normal pregnancy...Carly I was sick until 20 weeks) and I'm not nearly as tired. Less fatigue overall! I still throw up frequently, but it happens in a split second when I smell something foul (I've thrown up on Carly while changing her poopy diaper twice)...so that's not near as bad as feeling sick all the time! I just barf and move on with my life. ;) For a good three months we were just in survival mode...I didn't clean, cook and had very little energy. I felt like a failure of a mama bc I just couldn't pour into Carly like I wanted to. My bones ached with pain and I could barely peel my eyelids open after closing at work. Now I can at least function the next day with only 5 hours of sleep! But...I was doing a lot for my other baby. Did you know that in the first trimester, your baby doubles in size each week! No wonder mamas feel so lousy...they are supporting a being that has to double in size! Think about how much you and I would have to eat to double in size during one week! In 10 weeks the babe grew from a sesame seed to an apple. That's truly remarkable. I am in a great place; spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically and have such joy playing with Carly while fantasizing about watching my children play together in a short year from now. I am allowing myself to enjoy being pregnant this time around. I have a cute little bump and soak up the moments I feel movement. Last night as I carried my sleeping toddler from the car to her room, the baby kicked her so hard I jumped a bit. I guess he/she didn't like her body weight resting on his/her nest. ;) I'm delighted to be on this journey with Brian and I'm thankful for his help and his patience. I can't believe I'm 16 weeks already...nearly half way done! I have one more week of closes and then I'm back to a normal mid-shift schedule. So....life will get even better when I'm getting 8+ hours of sleep 7 nights/week rather than 4!
Carly turns 18 months old this week...can you believe she's a year and a half! Stayed tuned for some photos and video of her at 1.5!
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