Best Parenting Advice

I am linking up with Kelly's Korner for her weekly "Show Us Your Life" posts. This week's topic is "What is your best parenting advice". Boy oh boy, I love this one. Why? Because I have a short and simple answer.

Stop listening to the advice of other people because only YOU know what is best for you and your family. 

It aggravates me to no end at how other people think they know what is best for your child.  I know that most of the time people say these things out of the goodness of their hearts but only you know what fits your needs. 

Also, you will see my post on C-sections below that I could only hope provides some encouragement for women who in fact have to deliver that route. 

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Friday y'all!!! ;o)

Until next time......

Gotta love country living

I haven't made it a secret how much I hate living in a small town (even though I know it has its advantages) but this afternoon something was going on that made me stop and think, "Now where else could you experience this?!"

So what was it?!?!  Well, as Preslei and I were driving home from her MiMi's house (MiMi is her babysitter) we were almost home when WHOOSH....here comes a crop duster flying RIGHT over my car.  I was as giddy as a school girl! MOST of the time, they spray the crops on the weekends at the crack of dawn and Preslei would always be asleep.  I whipped my car in the drive and parked it and Preslei and I just watched him as he was flying next to us.  She absolutely LOVED it!!! She was just waving and laughing.

When I say we live in the country, we really live out there.  We JUST got DSL internet like 2 years ago! The closest neighbors we have is my brother and his family across the road and The Connells (who are the absolute sweetest old people!!) who own all the farm land surrounding us.  One thing that I absolutely love is I know that no one will build around us because it is nothing but farm land.  My brother and his wife got lucky when they bought their acreage! Now if we could just convince my parents to move out to our neck of the woods! ;o)  (or convince my entire family to let's pack up and move to Atlanta or North Georgia!!)

Until next time......

W-I-L-W

I am absolutely LOVING life in general right now.  I swear it has to do with finally being at peace with the whole "I am still not pregnant" thing.  When you shake off all the stress and realize how important life is in general and realize all your many blessings, it makes you so appreciative of what you have.

I am LOVING my little family and the fact Preslei has been cracking us up lately.  Her two new phrases are, "I'm just kidding with y'all" and "Oh my goodness, are you for real?!"  Of course, my little prissy thing has these little hand motions she does when she says it.  (I really need to try to get it on video)

I am LOVING that we have booked our annual family vacation! Let the countdown to cool mountain air begin.  I am beyond blessed to have amazing parents, my brother and his family and the fact that we are able to go on vacations together and actually enjoy each other.  I'm so excited that we are going to change up the plans this year.  Of course, we will be staying at "the mountain house" (as Preslei calls it) in Blue Ridge, GA but we are going to drive to Gatlinburg one day and hang out there.  I'm hoping to go to Ober Gatlinburg and let Preslei and Caden play in the snow and stuff like that! I can't wait.  Of course, I can't wait to go to Mercier Orchard and get some of their AMAZING apple cider.  That stuff is SOOOO good. 

What are YOU loving??

New pictures

Gotta love impromptu photo sessions with your camera phone! I think Santa is going to bring this Mommy a nice camera for Christmas!!!

Funny story of the day.  I had a perm put in my hair....yes, I know, I am TOTALLY bringing the 80's/90's back ;o) I wanted an easy way to style my hair in the mornings while letting it grow out.  My hair has been short for seriously 14 years with the exception of letting it grow out for a year prior to our wedding.  As soon as we said "I do", it got cut.  My sister in law got one put in her hair a few months and oh my goodness, it was SO cute.  I like it.  I'll be glad when it relaxes a bit but I like it.  It is going to be SO easy to fix in the mornings!! But, back to the story....I pick Preslei up from the sitter's and our conversation went like this:

Preslei: "Mommy, what did you do to your hair?!?!"
Me:  "I made it curly.  Do you like it?"
Preslei: "Yes ma'am!!! It's just like mine!!!"
Me:  "Thank you Preslei.  Mommy likes it too!"
Preslei: "But Mommy, what did you do to your other hair?"
Me:  Nothing but laughter......

I love my child!! LOL

Until next time.....

It's a bird, it's a plane....it's a SNAKE!!!

Oh but yes, you read that right....the story goes a little something like this.

Saturday, Preslei and I were getting ready to meet my Mom and go shopping for back to school clothes in Tallahassee.  If any of you know me in real life, knows that I basically live out of my car.  So, needless to say, my car needed cleaning out.  I told Preslei to stay inside the house while I cleaned out the car.  Of course, she didn't listen and walked out on the porch.  Few minutes later, she said, "Mommy, there's a snake right there!" I looked and holy crap, it was a snake.  I am scared to death (or so I thought) of them.  I told Preslei to go inside and not come out.  It was coiled up but never tried to strike or move so I finished cleaning out my car.  Keith wasn't home because he was at the coast fishing so I had no idea what to do.  I've never shot a gun on the ground so I was reluctant.  Pessimistic me was scared that the bullets would ricochet and shoot me, LOL.  So what do I do? I grab my phone, take a picture of it and upload it to Facebook.  I have 2 friends that know everything there is to know about animals of any kind so I tagged them in the picture.  My initial thought was that it was a baby rattlesnake.  I decided to call my brother to come over and kill it because several people told me it was a rattlesnake.  So I call him and he comes over.  He asked that I go inside and grab our "picker upper thing" (yes, that is really what I call it).  Well, when I did, the stupid snake went in the bushes.  Next thing I know, it slithered in a crack in the foundation and went under the house.  I was like, "OMG!!! It's going to get thru the flooring and attack me in my sleep!" (I told you I was a pessimist!)

So, we go back inside the house and Chris told me to google "timber rattlesnake" to see if that was what it was.  It wasn't.  I log back in on Facebook and was told it was a......you ready for this.....a BABY COTTONMOUTH!!! I think I died for a minute.

We have yet to see that snake again.  One of my Facebook friends that is a snake expert said that it is probably long gone from now.  It was just looking for water.  I trust what he says.  After all, he raised several snakes, including cobras, eastern diamondback rattlesnakes, a gaboon viper....just crazy!! LOL.

**I forgot to add how proud I am of Preslei for not trying to touch it or bend down to see it.  We told her repeatedly how proud we were of her for telling Mommy she saw a snake and she should always tell an adult when she sees something like that and to NEVER touch any type of animal except our dogs.  Of course, Keith swears that the reason she knows about snakes, lizard, alligators, etc. is because of Swamp People and those types of shows.  LOL.  He may be right but all I know is I am SO thankful she reacted the way she did.**
Until next time.....

Bring me peace, bring me joy

Let me first start off by saying that when I was thinking of a blog title, these words immediately swept my thoughts.  They sounded so familiar to me and I began to wonder if they were song lyrics.....so I googled.  (I google EVERYTHING!!! What did we do before Google and the internet?!) So, I googled and found the song, "Bring the Rain" by MercyMe.  I've never heard this song and when I read the title, I immediately thought of Angie Smith's blog, Bring the Rain.  So, I went on YouTube and listened.  I was speechless.  It was AMAZING hearing that song and how much it relates to my blog post today.  Here is the song I'm referring to. 

Bring me peace, bring me joy is how I have felt the past few days.  Anyone that has gone thru trying to conceive and infertility knows exactly how much it feels to feel defeated and how you just want to give up.  Then, when you throw in fertility drugs to the mix with all the extra hormones they put in your body, you just become an emotional wreck when you get negative results month after month.  These women that are on these journeys for years on end....well....you are AMAZING.  The strength and courage you embody humbles me. 

For a brief recap, we've been trying since last summer.  We told no one.  We wanted to have a "surprise" pregnancy.  In April, something happened and we decided then to get on the fertility meds again.  We started the next week on the meds and have been taking them every month since.  I tested negative for the 3rd month this past weekend.  Prior to testing, I was starting to wonder what is next for us.  What is our actual "plan of attack"? At what point do we give ourselves a break?  I need an emotional break.....I need my non-hormonal sanity back!

Since I was taking 100mg of Clomid this past month, I wondered at what point do we increase to 150mg and then 200mg...so I called Dr. M's nurse.  Our plan of attack is this: We increase to 150mg this month and then 200mg.  Dr. M doesn't allow you to be on the med for longer than 6 months and doesn't go over 200mg.  So, my last month taking the medication, if I don't get pregnant, will be September.  After that, we are going to be taking a break.  How long? I can't be 100% sure.  Ideally, I would like to start on the next phase of this journey in February of 2012.  What will the next phase consist of? I have absolutely no idea.  Dr. M doesn't do anything besides the Clomid so I will more than likely go back to Albany to The Veranda (I will be seeing a different doctor other the last one I saw) and we will weigh all our options.  Our insurance doesn't cover any infertility procedures so whether we will be running tests, doing IUI or IVF...who knows.  All I can do is pray about it.  I know without a shadow of a doubt, God will lead us in the right direction.  I feel completely satisfied with our decision on what to do the next few months. 

"Bring me joy, bring me peace

 Bring the chance to be free
 Bring me anything that brings You glory
 And I know there'll be days
 When this life brings me pain
 But if that's what it takes to praise You
 Jesus, bring the rain"


Until next time.........

C-sections

To most pregnant women, that word scares the daylights out of them. Well, I'm here to tell you they aren't as bad as what people make them out to be!  I have a friend that is in labor as we speak and another friend is worried for her that she will have to have a c-section because she isn't dilating.  I get it, I do....every woman wants to have a natural childbirth but a c-section isn't that bad (at least mine wasn't).  Before I had my c-section, I was a pro-natural childbirth girl.  I didn't want any drugs and certainly not a c-section.  I didn't want to be induced and I wanted a water birth.  Well, we all know that you can't plan everything.  I was induced, had an epidural 4 hours later, and ended up going into surgery b/c despite everything we tried, Preslei's heart rate kept dropping and I wasn't dilating.  In no way did I want to risk anything...I wanted her out.  I had an AMAZING experience during my c-section.  We, meaning the doctors, nurses, me and Keith, were all in the OR joking around and laughing.  I mean, really....who can say that while they are in surgery?! I had fun, lol.  I will never forget when Dr. M started pushing Preslei down and I felt all the pressure, I said, "Shit!" and he started laughing and said, "I don't think I've ever heard you say anything like that!" and then a few minutes later, when he was pulling her out...I said, "Sshhhhh........shoot!" and the entire room just busted out laughing.  It was priceless. 

But, I just want people out there to know that if you have to deliver your child via c-section, it doesn't make you a failure and it isn't as scary as it seems.  My recovery wasn't terrible.  The three worst things was I couldn't drive for 2 weeks; I had to sleep in the recliner for what seemed like forever; and getting up for the first time after surgery was hard.  Was it pure hell? Nope.  Of course, I would love to try and do a VBAC but Dr. M doesn't do those and I trust his judgment.  I just get tired of reading how people are so worried for so and so b/c they may have to have a c-section.  C'mon people, it isn't the end of the world and the end result is what truly matters!!

And there you have it........ ;o)