Back from my blogging vacation...

I had to take a little time and refocus. I'm sure I wasn't missed much!!

An update from my last couple of posts...my Etsy shop is doing better than I thought it would, and I only have a couple of pieces left in it as of today. I need to get back to work! Also, Colleen as made a wonderful recovery! Something to be truly thankful for!

A few things have happened since I last posted. First, we found that we're expecting our third munchkin! I am currently 13w5d, and have just this week announced my pregnancy to the public. Something weird happens when you have a miscarriage...like no pregnancy is safe. I wanted to get past the point of my prior miscarriage, which was 9 weeks. I passed that, but still wasn't comfortable. Well, now that I'm a couple of days away from my second trimester, I figured it would be as good a time as any! I've contacted my midwife to make an appointment in the next couple of weeks. It's all starting to seem real. I've had a different pregnancy this time. I've had lots of exhaustion, quite a bit of nausea but with only one vomiting episode...the kicker is the migraines. I have had migraines several times a week and headaches every day. I normally get a migraine once or twice per month at the very most! So I've been a little dysfunctional.

About a week before I found out I was pregnant, I sent in my application for Frontier's Certified Nurse Midwife program. I've been talking about doing that for the longest time, but I finally DID IT. Whew! So, weeks of waiting and waiting ensued. Yesterday we took a little trip to Pier 39 in San Francisco to go to the aquarium with the boys and escape the Valley heat for a few hours. While we were there, my phone alarmed indicating a new email...it was from Frontier. I've gotten several emails since I sent in the package, some for updates, some with general info. This was my acceptance email!!!! I was one of the 25 blessed people to be accepted into the program this go-around! I fly to Kentucky the end of August to have the 3.5 day orientation, then back home to officially start school. Oh, my! I don't know what to think! I'm so excited and a little nervous, and now wondering how this pregnancy will play into things...I guess we'll have to wait and see. But in the meantime, I am overall totally STOKED. I can say that I'm working toward my dream!

At work, things are plugging away. The economy has chipped away at our floor. We've lost staff to layoffs. We've had hours cut and pay cut. But we still have jobs, hurray for that! We're just waiting for things to come full circle, as they always eventually do. I had applied for a supervisory position on my unit some time back, but the person who I would have been replacing decided to stay. So I was placed on the "farm team", filling in when supervisors are on vacation or in meetings and so on. One of the supervisors is going on maternity leave in a week or so, and I'll be taking her place. It's a different world in that office! It's been a long time since I've been in a supervisory position, and this unit is far different from the one that I supervised back in 2004! But it's good experience and I'd like to think that I could do a good job. We'll see how it goes.

I guess that's about it for updates. I have a headache so I think I need to stop staring at a screen. But now that the cats are out of their bags, I'm sure I'll be on a bit more. Wish me luck!

Please...

...go check out my Etsy shop! I know it's not much to look at, and my inventory is quite small for now, but I'm going to be adding a little more and it's for a good cause! See my previous post for information on the family who will be getting the proceeds from anything I sell. I've made a couple of sales, and I'd like to make several more before I send off a check. Go have a looky, and if you don't find anything you like, feel free to request something custom! My shop is called All Things Birthy, and will have a bit more than pendants after a little while! Thanks for stopping by!

Announcing...drumroll...

...my Etsy shop! It's called All Things Birthy and is quite small at the moment. I wasn't going to open my shop yet, since I have so many ideas but SO LITTLE time, and I wanted to build my inventory and have some variety. I'm limited to necklaces and pendants at the moment, however there are several other non-jewelry items to come. The reason I started it up anyway was because of the Augsburger family. I've never met them, but they come from the community into which my second son was born, and anyone from there I hold dear to my heart. You can read about their story on Born In Sarasota's page. Colleen is home now and on IV antibiotics, but her husband is still having to take care of her and the kids and is unable to begin working again for at least a month. The folks back home have been bringing them food and pumped breastmilk for their new babe, holding fundraisers, etc. I have been wishing that there was something I could do. However, being pretty broke myself didn't really help and I couldn't bring anything...but wait! I have my clays...I have some ideas...true, I may not have everything together yet, but it's a start...I could open my shop! So I did. It's a humble beginning. But whatever money that comes in from sales will be passed down the line to the Augsburgers until otherwise noted on my shop's intro. So go have a sneaky peek. You might like something. If you don't like the color, ask for a custom piece. If you don't like anything, buy it anyway...it's going to a good cause!! I'm just kidding, but you catch my drift. After you pay a visit, let me know what you think. Should I change anything? Does my work suck? I know my picture quality is pretty crappy, but I'm going to work on that. Any other ideas?

Spring has sprung!

Well, not quite, according to the calendar, but it sure looks like it around here!

The mint is coming up in the front beside the porch...

...as are the dandelions in the front and in the planter in the back yard...

...and we have a tree just full of kumquats in the front yard! I guess it's time to make a little jam or jelly!

The peach tree in the back yard just started blooming as well, but I'll have to get some pics of that another day.

Spring, to me, means new beginnings and fresh starts. In light of that, I'm starting a project that I've been batting around for a while now. Once it's all ready, I'll post it on here. Yep, I'll hold you in suspense until then! Travis is en route home from Florida with a truck and trailer loaded with our stuff...I can't wait to have some of my "housey" stuff back! There is still some stuff back in FL, but we'll have about 2/3 of it here. Not bad!

Another giveaway!

This giveaway is for a Simple Wishes bra/bustier, specially designed for hands-free pumping! My pumping days have gone for Deklan and Gavin, but boy, do I wish I had one of these when I was doing it at least three times daily at work! I pumped at work for both of my boys, as I worked the night shift and went back to work after six weeks. Pumping for me was always on my breaks...my two 15 minute breaks and my lunch for 30 minutes...which generally meant that I either didn't eat at all for lack of time (when all I had was a manual pump), or scarfed my meal as fast as I could after pumping for my babe (after I got my Medela...woohoo for mechanical pumps!). Pumping was what allowed our breastfeeding relationships to thrive even though I was at work, and I ended up breastfeeding Deklan for over a year and Gavin for almost two years. Anyway, I believe that this would allow for easier and more discrete pumping at work and at home, as well as enabling you to multi-task. I remember the days of driving and hour or two home from a night shift in traffic and attempting to pump one side at a time in the rush-hour crawl. With this, I could have just hooked up before driving away, pushed the button, and pumped away! I am really glad to have found out about this. I had looked into pumping bras when I was pumping for Gavin, but just never found one that looked sturdy or comfortable enough. I even looked into DIY conversion patterns, and never did it. I know that, should God bless us with another little one (and I hope He does!!), I'll be getting one of these for my back-to-work and back-to-school days! Thank you, Talk Birth, for getting this giveaway out there!

Birth Days...

Ahhhh...eggs. Simple fare, good source of protein, versatile. And in my case, gorgeous!! I mean, aren't they just pretty? I get my eggs from a local lady whose young daughter is learning about money and savings. And meanwhile, I get these beauties for $2.50 per dozen! And what's really awesome is that I know that the hens they came from are well-cared-for, organically fed (mostly fruits from their orchard and veggies from the garden, plus the standard bugs, etc. that free-range hens eat), generally happy birds.

Seriously, does it get any better than this? The boys are really tickled about the blue-ish ones...

Speaking of the boys...one of my boys had a birthday today!!

My sweet, crazy little Gavin turned two years old on this day!

I love to look at pictures and read over his birth story and remember that awesome time in our lives. Where has the time gone? One moment his daddy is holding him for the first time, then *blink* he's running around the yard in his big brother's hand-me-downs, chasing the dogs and loving life.

I thank God for every day with my boys. Life is so fragile...we've seen this in our own lives and in the lives of others around us. There are days that they drive me to the brink of insanity, but I wouldn't trade those days for the world...I'm just so glad that they're here and they've been lent to me for a while...I cherish every day.

P.S. I won the afore-mentioned book giveaway for "Birth Space, Safe Place"! Woohoo! It's the first time I've ever won a giveaway!!

It's giveaway time!

Talk Birth, the personal blog of Molly (one of the ladies over at Citizens for Midwifery) is hosting a giveaway! We all love free stuff, and if you're even half as crazy as I am about anything even remotely having to do with birth, then you just might be interested! The book is called "Birth Space, Safe Place", and is about emotional well-being in pregnancy and birth. I know that, for me, there were a few things that played big roles in my emotional well-being during that time...the first few that come to mind are having family that were supportive of me, having a midwife who I trusted implicitly, and the overall sense of peace brought by being "in charge" of my pregnancy and labor this time and being educated about the options in birth. Even if I don't win the giveaway, I will be planning on getting this book for my library. I think that a lot of people either discount or don't realize how much your emotional state has so much to do with your progression in labor. I'll be interested to read it...and I LOVE the cover art!