Something Old, Something Blue

The other day I was checking the blogs I enjoy reading when I came across a post by my BF. To summarize she was discussing the tradition of women getting a gift from their husband when they have a baby. This got me to thinking...

Tom will usually get me a present as finances allow so it isn't usually the same time the baby is born 'cause babies are expensive. I'm a big jewelry person, I've loved jewelry since I was a little kid. I can still remember going through my mother's jewelry box, the carpet fibers pressing on my legs,  looking at all of her rings and necklaces. Now I have my own collection and I imagine one day I'll find Hannie looking through my jewelry box too ;)

I've really lucked out in the children's birthstone department. Hannah is aquamarine and Tom bought me a very beautiful pear shaped aquamarine ring with white diamonds around it. Next is Carter and Tom again bought me another beautiful ring this one is a cushion-cut blue topaz for Carter's birth stone with black and white diamonds around the topaz. Both rings are very beautiful and both rings are a shade of blue. This gave me the idea that one day when/if my kids get married I will give them these rings on their wedding day as their "something old and something blue." Carter of course could give his ring to his future bride.

It then dawned on me that I never researched what the birthstone is for November, which is when Amelia will be born. Can I tell you folks, it's Citrine. For those of you not familiar with that stone it's like a yellow-orange color. Gross.  I immediately went online and did manage to find a beautiful ring, that is of course sold out. (Story of my life) The more I thought about the Citrine the more I decided this warranted a call to Tom which went something like this:

H: Amelia's birthstone is not very pretty, it's a weird orange color. Maybe we should switch her birthday to the day prior.

T: (Slight pause) No, we are not making her birthday Halloween!

H: Well, one day, when I have lots of money and can have my mother's ring custom-made the Citrine won't be as pretty as an Opal would be...

T: That's selfish Heather, we are not switching her birthday to Halloween just so you can have the ring you want.

H: I did always want an October baby and Halloween could be fun...

T: No, Heather.

So, I didn't quite get my way but I thought my argument seemed reasonable at the time ;) Truth be told I did always want an October baby but our option was Halloween so we vetoed that before I made the surgery appointment for 11/1. The thought of Citrine made me quickly change my mind that Halloween really isn't all that bad but Tom declared it otherwise. I guess one day when I'm old and gray I'll have a very pretty cluster ring that contains: Aquamarine, Topaz and Citrine. And if Amelia doesn't like Citrine I'll let her know her Dad is to blame...blahahaha!

"Thinking" May Not Always Be A Good Thing

Aunt Flo came to see me today which makes me think that could be why I was SO emotional this week. I haven't had Flo visit since I had Carter so it makes perfect sense that it would come when we planned to go to Sesame Place and on a date night. Tis my life I guess, I'll just try to be grateful it came at all.

I've had the weirdest dreams/nightmares lately. I dreamt that the rapture happened on 12/21/2012 and Hannah, Carter and I floated off to heaven and Tom was left on Earth. Then the next night I dreamt that Hannah and I were being gunned down in our neighborhood and a bomb hit me in the face. I was then pinned to the ground and couldn't get up until my attacker was right next to me. Thankfully these "dreams" end pretty quickly to the tune of my annoying alarm clock!

I'm still working out and eating healthy, I hope that my the end of the month I will reach the 15 pound mark! I lost a total of five pounds this week which I couldn't have been more proud of! The week prior I had lost 1.5 lbs and to be honest was feeling a little discouraged. I kept pressing on and it paid off big time! I finally reached out via email to the counselor  so I hope to hear from her on Tuesday. I am super nervous, I've never had any type of counseling so this is all unfamiliar territory. I am excited to see how it affects my life!

I started reading "Women, Food and God" by Geneen Roth,  already I have cried reading it and I'm only on the second chapter! The points she makes about food addiction and why you react to food is so real. I would recommend everyone to read it, even if you don't think you are addicted to food!

We'll Be Moving.

We are in the process of getting a new house. So far everything is in motion but you never really feel 100% until settlement is over...that should be the first week of January.

In my mother's neighborhood there was a lone house that had hooligans living in it selling drugs and bringing down the neighborhood. They didn't keep there house clean and had junk everywhere on the outside. It just looks ridiculously unkempt. Back before we bought the house we currently live in we had our realtor send them a letter of my intent to buy if they wanted to sell, they never responded so we went ahead and moved into the house we have.

Since having a baby looked like it was never going to happen we didn't mind that our house was a small two bedroom with one bath. However, now that I am with child it is clear we need more room. So we heard about the aforementioned "drug house" having been sold sheriff sale and my mother stalked went down and gave her phone number to the workers to have the owner call her.

We met with the current owner (a house flipper) and asked him to stop with the improvements and that we would like to buy the house from him. The man had already put a new garage door and new roof on but we will be doing the rest ourselves. Lucky for me I have a handy dad that can do just about anything when it comes to remodeling. He taught my brother and I a few things so I can attempt to help as well (I say attempt because no one lets me do anything because I'm pregnant!)

The house wasn't that horrible on the inside in my opinion, I've seen worse. Essentially it needs new flooring and new paint everywhere. The bathrooms need gutted and replaced and a little bit of drywall work here and there. Most of the big things can wait until we find a money tree save up for it.

I am super excited! The best part about this house is that it is the same model house as my parents! Which is also the house I grew up in! I will also cut about thirty minutes off my commute to work every day which is a blessing since gas prices seem to keep getting higher and higher. We will be living on the same street as my mother and father which is good because I can keep an eye on Grandma, we are literally like three or four houses away from each other.

Holy Smokes!

Out of morbid curiosity I decided to check out how much tuition is at the school I always envisioned sending my child.

Then I had a panic attack, I really didn't, but I could have! Tuition is outrageous! I knew it would be costly but I don't think I had quite prepared myself for that.

Pre-School that costs $4,148.00 for three full days sounds just ridiculous. How much is there to teach a little kid? If you want three half days you can have that for $2,871.00. Are these prices normal? I mean, we're talking three days here. It sounds like a lot of money for three days.

When your child finally reaches Kindergarten the price increases (at-least they get to go five days!) to $5,902.00 for full days and $4,087.00 for half days.

I am completely flabbergasted and I don't think we will be sending our child to the school of my dreams (literally, I will only see this school in my dreams), unless I win the lottery!

Dream Me A Dream...

I guess it has been about a month and a half ago by now. I had a dream that I was having a baby girl and she had red hair and green eyes. She looked just like her daddy, it was so real. She was laughing and everything, she wasn't a newborn but maybe about six months or so old. It was all very strange. Of course at the time of the dream I still thought I might be having a boy even though my dream was showing me otherwise. So that leads me to wonder? Do your dreams "come true" when you are pregnant and dream of your baby? My MIL seems to think so. When she was pregnant with Tom she had a dream about him and everything came true, very freaky I know.

Not too long after my dream my manager had a dream about me and the baby. The baby had curly hair! It was a girl and she had curly hair. Mind you all of these dreams are prior to finding out that the baby is indeed a girl.

Just this weekend my manager had another dream about my baby. This dream was almost like it took her breath away, she kept telling me, "Heather, she was just so beautiful!"

So do you think these dreams are true? Do you know of anyone whose pregnant dreams came true?

I think it would be a hoot if this baby came out nothing like the dream I had of what she looked like! HAHA!