Nov 20, 2009

What's in a Name?

I just have to put this out there, as it's a common issue that we as parents struggle with when having a child - the acceptance of the name.

Someone in the department right next to me had a new grandbaby born overnight. She is sorely disappointed that they named the baby Gunner (not Gunther), and is lamenting this to all of the women in her area - all of which are over 50. She doesn't understand why these college educated professionals would name their child something like that, even though it's been picked out for quite some time, and why they couldn't choose a simple name like James and call him Jimmy.

Obviously, that name appeals to them and what right do you have to try and influence the naming of their child?! I fear this will come up when Brent and I have children, especially with the girls names we've picked out. But you know what? We love the names and that is all that matters. Here's to hoping that our mothers and grandmothers can keep their opinions to themselves, if they're negative.

Love, KC

Nov 19, 2009

From the Beginning . . .

We met on eHarmony, and no I’m not in any way ashamed to admit that. I will admit that I initially signed up for two reasons: boredom being number one, but number two being that I was hoping to meet a different caliber of men than I’d been spending the majority of my time with. I had set standards: at least 27 years old, at least 6’ tall, and NO kids. I did not want the baggage that came along with a possible ex-wife/ex-girlfriend and Lord knows I get attached to kiddos way too easily. So if anyone came along that did not meet my criteria, I immediately closed the match, regardless of what their profile said. That was until January 3, 2009, when I was matched with him. Honestly, I intended to close him. I really did. But I kept going back to this picture.

This picture was the first thing I saw when I opened his profile, and I couldn’t help but smile. There is something about it that just showed immense joy and love from this man and his son and even though he failed all of my demands, I couldn’t close him out. So I waited for three days, and sent my first round of questions. And to this day, I feel like I lost three days with him somewhere in there.

Those eHarmony commercials, as corny as they are, are real. From my experience I truly believe that. I was on that site for less than a week when we were matched, and we could both swear to you that we were destined to be together. We ARE that corny couple and we proudly wear that badge. Through an unfortunate set of circumstances - my having severe pneumonia and him having the flu - we were able to spend over two weeks just talking to one another. And talk we did! I’ve never talked to someone so much, and we still don’t shut up (just ask our families). This, I believe, helped to build the strong foundation of our relationship, how openly and honestly we communicate with each other about everything.

I remember one night, probably during week two, he asked me to marry him four times in one conversation. All over food, I do believe (which I still contend is a primary reason he’s marrying me). I don’t think there was ever a doubt in either of our minds even at that point where this was headed. But amongst our earliest of conversations were children. Did I mind that he had a child? What were his thoughts on more children? In no time we were pretty set on 3-5 kids, and I was excitedly freaked out about LB. How, in such short order, had I found my other half – and a baby?


What I’d written above was supposed to be my introductory blog. The entire purpose of setting up the blog in the first place was to capture our journey of making our family. I’m not sure why I never finished it or much less posted it, but I found it today and wanted to try and finish it. It was originally started on 6/11/09, just over five months ago. Not much has changed, and at the same time so much HAS changed.

We still don’t shut up. Every opportunity we have to talk to one another we greedily seize and try to cram as much into that two or three minutes that we can. It’s increasingly difficult since Brent was promoted to store director in September, but we do the best we can.

We are more madly in love with one another than we were yesterday, or the day before. Every day our love grows in such a manner that it leaves me speechless, incredibly blessed and anxious for more. Never in my wildest dreams did I think it was possible to love someone so completely, for everything that they are and everything that they’re not. It’s hard to express this in a way that can wholly encompass those emotions, so instead we mainly smile at one another with a knowing that we wish others could experience.

Our wedding is in 60 days, one year to the day of our first date, and we have done nothing to prepare other than toss around a few things we’d like to do. We have no intention of having anything that really resembles a wedding, actually. All that we need is a minister, LB, our parents and his siblings, and my best friend. That is eleven people, and I’d be perfectly happy having it in someone’s living room. While there are no immediate plans for a honeymoon (thanks to my job) we will definitely spend a week doing something during the summer.

Lastly, our three-year baby plan went out the window within three weeks in our new house. We’ve been trying to conceive since then, with no luck yet, and trying to not be discouraged. I fully realize these things take time and therefore I’m just not going to worry about it anymore. Both of us will be utterly delighted to have a baby when the time comes, but for now we do good just to keep ourselves from going insane.

As with every couple, we sometimes have issues. While I’m a complete neat freak and like things to be extra organized, he is my polar opposite and that can sometimes create frustration on my part. For the most part, the fact that he has ADD never occurs to me except when he can’t complete a task, and I have to remind myself that I’ve never been in his shoes and not everyone is as anal retentive as I am about all of the lights being off in the house before you leave.

As you’ve read, LB is growing bigger every time we see him. He was only 23 months old when we started dating, tiny as could be and precious. Now he’s going to be three in a couple of months and he’s a different kid. The terrible twos have been rough but we’ve survived with our humor intact, mostly because of the insanely cute things he does. I asked him the last time he was here if he wanted a little sister, to which I got a “NO!!”, while Daddy asked if he wanted a brother and he said, “YES!!” I’m hoping he warms to the idea; I think he’ll be a great big brother.

Thankfully I had the foresight to pull off mine and Brent’s entire email communication from our first week of “talking” before my membership to eHarmony expired. To go back and read them now is so funny, and remarkably true to how we are. Hopefully I can put them in our scrapbook.

Until next time. . .

Love, KC

Happy Feet


Most mornings when dressing for the office I think of one thing - comfort. Our attire is business casual so comfort is fairly easy to achieve, usually black slacks and a soft cotton blouse. However, this morning I was running late and feeling spunky, so I threw on my comfy red cotton dress and my favorite red polka dot wedges. The shoes take me from 5'7" to over 6' tall, and somehow remind me of Dorothy.

Love, KC

Nov 18, 2009

Cheers!

Whew. I guess I never fully realized how consumed I was with the baby-making process until I backed off from it. After another month of no baby, I decided at the first of November to just not think about it anymore. I had been enthralled with anything regarding babies, conceiving, tracking, you name it. It was really taking a toll on me, why I couldn't conceive immediately and what was I doing wrong?! Not ONCE since the beginning of the month have I looked at a blog, an app, or anything regarding pregnancy. And you know what? It feels GOOD. I'm not honestly sure when I had my last period, when I could have conceived or when the next one is due. It's as if the greatest weight has been lifted from my shoulders and that is exactly what I needed.

Initially I think Brent thought this was my way of saying I didn't want a baby right now, and it took a day of bickering to get him to fully understand my reasoning. Absolutely I want a baby, and due to my job restrictions we can try until February and then we'll have to take about three months off and pick up in May/June. I fully believe that God will not give you more than you can handle and He will decide when the time is right, so obviously the timing hasn't been right thus far and we must just be way too busy to handle a baby. That's what I choose to believe, and it has nothing to do with my want for a child. By letting go of the process in my mind and letting nature take it's course, I'm less stressed and happier, and that is the precise medicine I needed. Although we said from the beginning that we were "going to try, but not try", we've been "trying" this whole time. It's draining.

So I'm quite proud of myself. I've been focusing on work and family and rearranging my entire house for the Christmas tree. It is truly my favorite time of year, and when I put up my Christmas tree this weekend I'm going to whip out my customary bottle of pink champagne and enjoy it, because my body deserves to let loose and do what it needs to do.

Cheers to the holidays and lots of fun baby making!

Love, KC

Nov 16, 2009

LB's November Adventures

LB went home yesterday. We are sad. The End.

So not really, but that's the gist of how we feel. Last week was one of the longest and shortest weeks ever. Between LB being sick and spending Monday morning in the Cook's Children's ER, to all of the crazy things going on in both mine and Brent's work lives, we sort of awoke this morning wondering what happened. It's as if he was here and then he wasn't, and we don't have just a whole lot to show for it.

Let me start with last Sunday, when we picked him up. He had a horrible cough, that his mother said he'd had since the Wednesday prior but she wasn't concerned about. We had not gotten more than 20 minutes from our drop point - Guthrie, OK to be exact - when he started coughing so hard that he threw up. I was officially scared. Cue the iPhone for the nearest pharmacy and we were in downtown Guthrie looking for a cough suppressant. There is a quaint little pizza joint there so we sat down, ate, and let LB watch some Nascar while we set him up with a breathing treatment. He slept fairly well on the way home but was absolutely miserable, and by the time we finally put him to bed we all were. I wrestled with taking him to Cook's that night, but really hoped he'd wake up better Monday.

No such luck. He woke up at 2:15am on Monday, crawled into our bed, and didn't go back to sleep until almost 5am. By that time I had to get up and get ready for work, and run and drop my car off at the shop and pick up my rental. Brent called about ten minutes until 8am and LB was not doing any better. We'd heard him wheezing all night long through the monitor and it wasn't subsiding with the breathing treatments. After calls to two different doctors, they told me to take him straight to Cook's. Some steroids and two breathing treatments later, we were sent home with an ear infection and aggravated asthma and instructed to do more steroids and six treatments a day for the next four days.

Through all of this LB did amazingly well. Despite his crankiness and inability to breathe he was in fairly good spirits. He took the treatments like a champ and gradually got better. We had one more night of ups, on Monday, when he woke up at 11:45pm and then again at 5am. After that he slept every night. He and I shopped a lot, bought a few items for Christmas - including a Lightning McQueen stocking - a new jogging stroller, a guitar with a cool intro to Whole Lotta Love, and some ornaments. We made homemade playdough, with me finally just giving him a cup of flour and a whisk and letting him go at it.

Our highlight was Saturday, when we attended the high school football playoffs at the new Cowboys Stadium. Brent's dad is a coach and his team made playoffs this year, so we sat through almost two games. LB was mesmerized. Kid loves football, and between that, his natural ability at all things sports and music we might have a prodigy on our hands.

So yes, LB is gone and we are sad, but the good news is that he'll be back in 4 1/2 weeks for Christmas and will be here for two full weeks. We're already counting down the days.

Love, KC

Nov 6, 2009

Taking a Moment to Breathe . . .

Trying to have a baby is stressing me out, and it's wearing on me. In turn, Brent is getting the brunt end of it - and while I'm sorry about that, I also sometimes feel like it is necessary. I'm not going to go into specifics, but sometimes you have to say what needs to be said, whether it hurts your feelings or not. Because believe me, as bad as you feel about it, I feel ten times worse.

So I slammed a door as hard as I possibly could, which only seemed to make my anger boil, and then sat in my dark closet and just . . . breathed . . .

It hasn't helped much yet, but I'm trying.

KC

Nov 4, 2009

The Accident

I've been driving for the last ten years and have never been involved in an accident - at least one where damage was done to my vehicle. Once, not too long after I started working in Dallas, someone in a Toyota Tercel rearended my Ford Pickup on the highway. While no damage was done to my truck, his car was totaled - my dual exhaust pipes shredded his hood, the back end of my truck was sitting on his car, and he had no insurance. All I had to do was have my pipes re-welded.

So I guess it was bound to happen. Yesterday morning I woke up feeling great. There was now a slight probability we could be pregnant and I was just in a fantastic mood. It was 7:15am and I was less than 10 minutes from the office, just having crossed I-35 traveling eastbound on I-635. As customary for this time of morning, the far left lane I happened to be traveling in was at a complete stop, letting the traffic coming from 35S get on before the lane became the HOV.

I saw her coming. I was talking to Brent on the phone and I said, "This truck is fixing to hit me!" Sure enough, she slammed on her brakes and cut the wheel, but still hit me at a pretty good rate of speed. My head slammed against the headrest, and I said a few expletives. Once I regained my composure we made our way across five lanes of rush-hour traffic to the shoulder.

This poor girl in her Expedition was a mess. She was young, maybe 20, and thoroughly upset. Thankfully, there was no damage to her vehicle, she wasn't hurt, and by all comparison the damage to my car was minimal. I'll need a new bumper, rear quarter panel and trunk, but it could've been a lot worse. We exchanged insurance information and I headed on to work. My day was still good, despite it all.

About two hours later I realized I was experiencing some stiffness in my neck and back. Under the advice of her insurance company I went to the ER over at Medical City Dallas to be checked out. They were wonderful, and I was diagnosed with a cervical sprain and given some antinflammatory and muscle relaxers, and sent home. Boy, did I NOT know what was coming.

When I got home I took the meds and went to sleep. That's when I became the angriest person I've ever known. Brent kept calling because he had to go down to Hillsboro and he wanted to check on me but I was having none of it. When he finally got home around 8pm I could not wake up for anything, but somehow managed to ask for chicken fried rice from my favorite Chinese restaurant. And was very mean, so I'm told. This morning he told me he thought I had a concussion but I doubt it. Needless to say, I won't be taking any more of those meds!!

So aside from a little stiffness this morning, I'm not half bad. My car should be in the shop today or tomorrow to be fixed and life will resume as normal. The girl that hit me called to check on me, which I thought was really sweet. I felt really bad for her, I know it probably had something to do with the sun being right in her eyes.

Love, KC
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