Capture Your Grief - Day 3 - After loss self portrait

I wasn't sure which picture to use until I saw this one and knew it was perfect.  Takes me back to that moment. :'(

Capture Your Grief - Day 2 - Before loss self portrait

Here I am 30 weeks and 6 days pregnant with William - 022709.  I was trying on clothes for my maternity pics that I was supposed to have on 031409, but he decided to come 3 days before that on 031109 which was 7-1/2 weeks early. :(  I still wear this shirt though. :)

Capture Your Grief - Day 1 - Sunrise

I have decided to participate in "Capture Your Grief", a project created by Carly for Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awarness Month.

This is my Day 1 - Sunrise picture (taken on Day 2 on my way to work in Austin, TX)

From Carly's website - http://carlymarieprojectheal.com/

This project was created In Loving Memory of all the babies who died during pregnancy and the little ones that could only stay with their parents for the shortest of times. No parent should ever have to bury their child. We will speak about these precious lives. We will honour them. We will remember them.

This October for Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month, I’m hosting CAPTURE YOUR GRIEF 2012. If you have experienced the death of your baby/ies/child/ren, this project is designed just for you! It doesn’t matter whether you are only a week into this walk or you have been walking this road for 20 years, all are welcome to join in. Capture Your Grief is a 31 day photograph challenge. All you will need is the internet and a camera. It doesn’t have to be some big fancy DSLR – a phone camera or a pocket digital camera will be perfect. And if your camera is broken – you can still take part as in this project you are not required to take a new photo everyday.

Trying this again...

I obviously didn't do a very good job of blogging when I started this 2 years ago. So let me try again.

Kayla is in her second week of 1st grade.  So far so good. :)  Her teacher is really nice.  I can't wait to see what this year will bring.  This year she will still be in gymnastics and Girl Scouts.  I plan on enrolling her in an art class they are offering after school which will start in 3 weeks...I think she will enjoy it.  Tonight I am taking her to the church to see their kick-off for the Youth Ministry they are doing.  She was really excited about it when she came home from Sunday School so I thought I'd take her to check it out.

I'm almost a month in to my personal 3 month challenge of no soda, fast food or sweet tea (made with real sugar - only using stevia) and going to the gym.  I think I'm doing awesome on the soda and fast food, but I will have to admit that I have had fast food 1.5 times (I say 1.5 because one time I only had tater tots).  That is so amazing for me when I would stop by McDonald's about 3 times a week for breakfast and maybe eat out 2 times for lunch.  I have had absolutely NO soda and hardly any sweet tea.  As far as the gym goes...I was doing great at the beginning and then I tried being an over achiever and hurt my back.  My back has started feeling better and now I'm blaming it on being so tired all the time.  I just can't seem to get out of bed. :(  I haven't gone to the gym  in 2 weeks.  That will change - I WILL get my butt back on track.

Guess that's all for now...gotta clock back in from my lunch break. :)

So much for keeping this updated...

Well it's only been 4 months since I posted something! Sorry. Nothing much really going on so...ya haven't really missed anything. Just getting ready for Christmas - which is probably my most favorite holiday, but I HATE it so much. :) I love to buy everything for everybody seems like. I love Christmas decorations so I feel like I need to buy it even though I don't need it and don't have anywhere to put it. So come the end of the year I have spent more money than I "budget" for (technically I don't budget for gifts, but definitely need to start).

I am working on getting my Christmas cards sent out to everyone. And finishing up some Christmas crafts. We need to wrap all the gifts and ship to families far away soon so they can get them before Christmas. :) I am still waiting on some gifts to come in the mail. And I think there are a few more gifts to buy. UGH!! :) I enjoy it though. LOL.

I guess that's all for now - I'll leave y'all with the most recent picture of Miss Kayla.

Decorating her pink Christmas tree.

Back to school & swim class

Yay Kayla went back to school today...that means I went back to work (booooo). Ms. Karen (her teacher) said she had a rough 1st day back. LOL - well what did she expect, she has been locked up in a house for 2-1/2 days. I am still in the clear and have not gotten strep so that is pretty dang awesome.

We did her first homework assignment tonight - the "Me bag" (fill a bag with 5 things that tell something about you). She picked (with a little of my help) a crayon (because she likes to color & write), a dolly (because she likes to play with dollies), necklace/bracelet (because she likes to dress up), her swim goggles (because she likes to swim & goes to swim class) and a piece of candy (because she loves candy). LOL...that was a fun homework assignment.

And tonight was her first swim class for the fall session. She has the same teacher from last time - Ms. Alana. She's pretty nice and Kayla likes her. Kayla has 2 other kids in her class, but the little boy will be moving to a more advanced class next week, so it'll just be her and a little girl named Kristen. That's awesome because it means more time in the water for Kayla. Since she moved up to the next level the kids are in the water the whole time and poor Kayla is too short to stand up in the water so she has to hold on to the wall the whole time. I thought she would struggle with that but she did pretty awesome. Overall she had a great time tonight - she will be swimming like Daddy in no time. :)

First day of "pre-school", well sorta...

So today was Kayla's the first day of school...well technically Kayla is at the same daycare, just the school year is starting today just like everyone else. I was excited for her to go today because she was getting a new teacher and was going to get back into a learning routine.

Here she is in her new outfit I bought her at Kmart (yes Kmart still exists - they have one in Corpus) :) I think I may be overly obsessed with stars, but that's ok!! FYI my "baby" girl is in the "big" girl section of the store now. :( She may be in the bigger sizes, but she's still short so her capris look like high-waters.

And here she is all sassy. "One more picture Mom"

So her first day didn't last too long...

I got a call from daycare at 11am saying she had a fever so I needed to pick her up. I knew it was going to be strep as soon as I hung up because Charles stayed home from his first day today because he had fever and Sam texted me saying he had strep. UGH!!

Poor Kayla has never had strep (me either - crossing my fingers that I don't get it). Took her to Sam's office and she threw up outside. Then Sam swabbed her for strep and said it was NEGATIVE - WOOHOO! But Dr. M came in and was like "yup it's strep." um...."Sam said it was NEGATIVE." Damnit. Oh well plus she has an ear infection. :( We can't ever leave the doctor's office without an ear infection.

So we came home and she rested for a bit - dosed her with some antibiotics & Tylenol and she's feeling a little better now. I got a nap in too - gotta stay ahead of the sickness (I WILL NOT GET SICK...I hope). We'll be staying home tomorrow (maybe Charles too). Sam & Jason had strep last month and I didn't get it so hopefully I'll be lucky this time too. Cross your fingers please.