Tobey Update!

Tobey had his surgery last week. After a month of deliberation Hugh and I decided to go with the FHO procedure. This is where the surgeon removes a small portion of the bone from the top of the femur. Essentially, this removes the bone-on-bone problem and allows him relief from the pain. Tobey went in last Tuesday and he was able to come home late Wednesday. I have to say that I drove 30mph the entire way home from the vet with him. I was scared to death that I was going to cause him unnecessary pain. He’s got a 6 inch scar and a shaved hind-quarter. We go back in two weeks to get the stitches removed.

He’s doing very well. He moves quickly on three legs and is starting to slowly but surely use his “bad” leg. We were told to expect this for several weeks, but it still has me worried. He seems to forget that he’s recovering and attempts to do things like jump on our bed. (He managed to get up, got upset and then I had to pick him up and put him back on the floor)Hugh’s mom brought him and Cassie each a new doggie blanket and Tobey loves his. He’s been sleeping on it every night since she brought it over.

He’s getting better every day, and I’m looking forward to the day that he’s using his back legs at 100%.

25 Weeks!

Wow. I can’t believe that the baby will be here in around 100 days! (Lord willing, we want this little one to cook the whole time!) I have an app on my phone that keeps a small countdown calendar for my due date. About once a week I look at it and update Hugh on the amount of days we have left of just being “us”. It’s a bit scary. We’re very excited and looking forward to meeting our little one; but it’s a huge change and we’re both nervous.

Clothes: I’m completely in maternity pants at this point. I’m still able to mix in regular shirts as long as I have one a camisole beneath it. Ditto for my dresses. I wear some of my regular dresses with leggings each week. I’ve found that leggings and dresses or tunics are my favorite things to wear. They are much more comfortable than pants. I think I’m going to have to break down and find some type of maternity work-out shorts. I’m still wearing my own shorts to the gym, but they’re starting to get a little uncomfortable around my belly. Oh, and I really need to see if Speedo or Nike make a maternity version of their racing suits. My regular swimsuit is attempting to kill me.

Weight Gain: At this point I’ve gained right at 15 pounds. When we were in the Dr.’s office last time I inquired about my weight gain and if I was gaining too much, too fast. The nurse actually laughed at me. She said that I really need to stop stressing about the weight. According to the baby books we have I’m a few pounds under the “average” weight gain at this point. Sometime during the weekend, I finally decided to let go of the anxiety about the weight gain. I know that I’ll get it all off after the baby. I don’t want to look back on my pregnancy and realize that all I did was worry about weight gain. Life is TOO SHORT! Oh...and my boob are HUGE! I'm starting to get concerned with the size. I mean...where are they going to go?

Baby Size: The baby is about the size of a large eggplant and weighs around 1.25lbs! He/She moves all the time my uterus is the size of a soccer ball. Holy crap. A soccer ball, people. I can see my stomach move from the outside when the baby’s kicking. It’s a crazy thing to see and I love how much Hugh wants to touch my stomach and see everything as well.

Food: I’m still loving cereal, but I’m trying really hard to make sure that I’m getting in some protein as well. Hugh gets worried when I don’t want to eat meat so I try to eat something with meat once a day. I can’t seem to get enough citrus. I eat fruit all the time and I’ve been trying to curtail my orange juice drinking. It’s pretty sad, but I’ll wake up in the middle of the night CRAVING orange juice. The dogs always follow me into the kitchen and I appreciate the company.

Overall: I’m feeling good, but my lower back hurts. It’s driving me crazy. Stretching doesn’t seem to help so I’ve been sitting with the heating pad at night. I’ve also noticed that I’m starting to get tired during the day again. We spent all yesterday working in the yard and there may have been a few times that I seriously considered curling up next to Tobey in the grass and taking a little nap. Then I noticed that Tobey wasn’t napping. He was eating bugs. No thanks, that’s not really my thing.

Current Bump Report: 22 Weeks

We are now more than halfway through this pregnancy and our due date is fast approaching. I’m starting to get a little worried that we can’t decide on a baby name. We may just end up naming this kid baby. We finally decided on paint for the nursery and Hugh’s going to work on getting that finished up.  

I’m really feeling pregnant now. The other day I decided to wear this sweater top to work that’s non-maternity. I typically don’t wear this often because it’s a little big on me. Well, it looked like a fitted top. You can see it in the picture below.

Please ignore all the crap in my bathroom and instead focus on the large belly. No, it’s not twins. Yes, I’ll consider stabbing you if you ask me.

I went and got a bikini wax last week since I’m officially having a hard time seeing over my bump. I’d read about how your skin is more sensitive during pregnancy but I hadn’t really noticed any changes. While the waxing didn’t hurt too badly, my skin decided to react to it. My entire bikini area was HORRIBLY red. It looked like I’d been blistered. Plus, it hurt like I’d been burned. THEN, to make it better, about three days after the skin started peeling. I couldn’t help but laugh. I mean…seriously? I can’t have sex anymore so why don’t we just make your whole bikini area look like its got leprosy? I’m glad that Hugh has a sense of humor.

I’ve been eating a TON of cereal lately. I’m usually not a big cereal eater, so this is out of the ordinary for me. It’s driving Hugh crazy that it’s pretty much all I want to eat. I actually ate cereal and two cucumbers for lunch yesterday and I didn’t even stop to consider that that might not be a good combination. While I might be eating large quantities of shredded wheat, I’m keeping up with eating my fruits and veggies.

I had a complete adult temper tantrum last Friday night. I had been thinking all day about how much I wanted to go eat at Balderas Tamale Factory for dinner. Hugh ended up getting home a little later than usual and we had to go to Costco and get the dogs more food. Hugh asked me if I would prefer to eat something at the house and just go to Balderas for lunch the next day. This was a COMPLETELY reasonable request. In my mind, I realized that it made more sense. However…pregnancy hormones decided to rear their head and I decided that I should stomp around the house yelling about how all I wanted that ENTIRE day were some tamales. I honestly felt the crazy coming out of me and I even recognized how crazy I sounded, yet I couldn’t stop it. Poor Hugh. He was very calm and just said, “Ok. We can just eat a little later tonight. Let’s go!”

Bless him. Bless him. Bless him.

The tamales were delicious.

Baby Update!

I’ve been quiet for the past few weeks, but I’m finally ready to blog about everything that’s been going on with Baby McCrea.

Hugh and I went in for the Anatomy Scan ultrasound when I was at 19 weeks and 3 days. The anatomy scan is the ultrasound where they go through and check all of the major organs, take measurements of all the bones and typically people can find out the sex of their baby. We were really excited about our appointment and looking forward to seeing how much our little baby had grown.

We were worried that we’d accidentally find out the sex of the baby during the ultrasound, but we made it through without being told. The doctor came in and explained to us that they were unable to identify all four chambers of the heart and that the technician saw a cyst in the baby’s abdomen. She was referring us to a Maternal Fetal Medicine specialist at Texas Children’s Hospital to have an evaluation and a higher level ultrasound. She explained to me that this type of specialist deals with high-risk pregnancies and babies that have problems. She told us not to panic (Seriously? Don’t panic? The moment she said “referral” the panic set in.) and that there was a big chance that it could just be the position that the baby was in. She then proceeded to tell me that my placenta was slightly covering the opening of my cervix (this means that my placenta is blocking the baby’s exit route) which is called Placenta Previa. I didn’t have a complete previa, but my placenta was low enough that if it didn’t move in the next 8 weeks, then I would have to deliver the baby via c-section.

WHOA!!! Talk about a ton of information in one appointment. Hugh and I were expecting a typical appointment where we were patted on the head and told to continue on.  The doctor placed me on pelvic rest because of the previa which meant that I had to really cut back on my work out routine and that we weren’t supposed to have sex anymore. Oh, and no housework. Ok…she didn’t really say that I couldn’t clean the house but that’s how I heard it.

We left the doctor’s office in a bit of shock. We were both worried, but what can you do? Absolutely nothing but wait and pray. I worked really hard not to think about it but I was quite unsuccessful with that. It was constantly on both of our minds, and I wasn’t adjusting well to feeling as if I’d been sidelined with the pelvic rest order. I’m a very active person and I know that working out keeps me sane. I don’t do well with inactivity so I pretty much went on this baking/cooking/freezing meals rage that might have bordered on manic. Is anyone interested in some frozen chicken soup?

A week and half later Hugh and I each took off an afternoon of work to go see the specialist. We had the ultrasound first and it lasted a full 45 minutes. The baby was in a great position and the technician was able to get all of the shots that she needed. The very first thing that she showed us was the heart and ALL FOUR CHAMBERS! We were so happy to see that. The ultrasound equipment was incredible. The detail was amazing and we were both dumbfounded at how real everything looked. The doctor came in the room and did some further investigation. She showed us that the abdomen was clear and that the baby was in great health. At 21 weeks and 2 days of development our baby weighed 14ozs, almost a pound!

Hugh and I were so happy. I can’t even explain the relief that we both felt leaving the office. We had both been worried sick and were both overjoyed with the good news. The doctor told us that we didn’t need to come back unless we had any further issues.

Here’s a photo of our little Junebug at 19 weeks and 3 days:

Please note that you’re seeing the baby’s arm and hand touching its nose, not the world’s largest baby penis. (Dad….that clarification is for you.)



Tobey, Tobey, Tobey...

For the past 6-8 months Hugh and I have noticed that our male dog, Tobey, has been moving a bit slower than usual. When he runs he’s been keeping his back legs together. When he lies down on the ground; he does it in a sideways manner. Tobey turns 6 this coming March, so we decided to take him to the vet to see if there might be a problem with his hips.

Tobey- using my pregnancy pillow as a bed.

The vet kept Tobey for a day and did x-rays. Let me give you the gist of the conversation I had with our veterinarian.

Vet: “We did the x-rays and Tobey’s hips are both completely dysplastic.”

Jenn: “When you say dysplastic, is that the same thing as Hip Dysplasia?”

Vet: “Yes. Typically the hip joint is supposed to be round a smooth but Tobey’s are both octagonal shaped.”

The conversation went on from there, but I was shocked. Shocked beyond belief. The vet went on to say that this is a surgical case, not medical meaning that Tobey will need to have surgery to “fix” the situation. If a dog just has arthritis or is only slightly dysplastic then there are medications that can help them feel better. I picked Tobey up that day and left with a prescription for 14 days worth of arthritis medication. A fourteen day supply cost $34! He takes one a day, and it’s supposed to help with the pain and inflammation.

Our local veterinarian does a surgery called an FHO which is a procedure where they go in and actually remove the top of the femur. The dog’s muscles are supposed to scar and grow around the remaining bone and provide them with enough support for their legs to function. The other option would be to have a total hip replacement.

Hugh and I are going to meet with our regular vet to get his thoughts on the different surgeries and then we’re planning to take Tobey to the Texas A&M Veterinary Clinic to get a second opinion. I called the vet clinic today and they gave me a generalized estimate for the hip replacement surgery: $3,700…for one hip. They typically do one hip and after the healing process they replace the other one. HOLY CRAP MONKEYS!!! That’s some serious money. We’ve got a baby on the way and I can’t say that we were planning on spending that kind of money on the dog. Bye-bye babymoon!

In all seriousness, I can say that Hugh and I will do whatever we think it best for Tobey. We love our dogs and consider them to be members of the family. I’ll post updates on how the visits go and what we ultimately decide is the best decision.

Weekend Recap

This weekend was awesome. I can’t really put my finger on the one thing that made it so great, but let’s just say that it was.

Saturday morning Hugh and I got up and decided that we had some stuff we needed to get done. It was a beautiful day so we stopped at Firehouse Subs (my latest addiction) and took sandwiches out to the park to eat. It was gorgeous and warm with a little bit of a breeze, just perfect for sitting outside to eat a delicious sandwich. We ran by his parent’s house and picked up his grandmother’s sewing machine. I’ve decided that I want to attempt a few projects that will require me to learn some basic sewing. Yikes! We’ll see how that goes. After that, we ran to Lowe’s and spent an hour picking up random things we keep forgetting to get.

We had dinner Saturday night at The Backstreet Café with some friends. It was DELICIOUS! We had a good time visiting with friends and eating yummy food. I had goat cheese stuffed chicken that makes my mouth water right now, just thinking about it. Oh, and the warmed chocolate cake with raspberry sauce, ice cream and candied walnuts wasn’t bad either.

I woke up Sunday morning to the LOVELY smell of bacon. Hugh had gotten up and made me bacon, eggs and toast for breakfast. YUMMY! It was very sweet of him and I appreciate it so much. He’s very good about doing little things like that for me. Hugh spent the morning painting the ceiling in the nursery. I’m shocked at how much brighter the room is after he painted. I cleaned house and we settled in just in time to watch the Texan’s. Sadly, they lost but we enjoyed hanging out and watching the game.

Hugh and I both had Monday off from work, and we decided to take advantage of the crazy weather. It was almost 80* in the middle of January! What’s this craziness about? We ate lunch at a place called Park 10 Café where we both had very good burgers. They make their own break, so if you’re ever over at the I-10/HWY 6 area, you should stop by. We headed out to Terry Hershey Park (where we typically ride bikes) and we sat out on a blanket and spent time reading and relaxing. Then, we proceeded to walk somewhere between 4-5 miles. It was fun, but different. I’ve really struggled with adjusting my work outs to be more pregnancy-friendly, but we both enjoyed the walk and the scenery.

What did we do last night? Oh yeah…we READ some more (I <3 reading) and watched some of the Always Sunny in Philadelphia marathon.

Throughout the weekend Hugh and I spoke about how things are going to be different when the baby gets here. We probably won’t have many weekends where we both get to sleep in and then take the time to make bacon and eggs. We most likely won’t get to go to the gym together every evening or decide on a whim to go pick up lunch and eat outside. We both realize that things are going to change (for the better, but still different) and that we’ll be leaving this portion of our relationship behind. The two of us will become a set of three and we’ll enter into parenthood. I think it’s important for us to have weekends like this where we simply do what we want to do and have a great time. They may happen less often in the future, but we’ll appreciate them no matter what. I’ll cherish the memories from the weekend and I look forward to making many new memories.

It was a spectacular weekend.

Dog Models Part 2

On Christmas Day Hugh and I decided once again to try and get the dogs to take a picture. We tried to take them with just the dogs and then with both of us. This time, we had a photographer so we figured we’d get some better pictures.

Not so much.

See below.

We love our doggies!

McCrea/Kazmierski Christmas!

This year, Hugh and I went over to his parent’s house for Christmas Day. It was just the four of us (plus our two dogs) and we had a great time. His brother and new sister-in-law were on their delayed honeymoon so we had planned to get together with them at a later date.

For Christmas I’d had one of our good friends make Hugh a beautiful washer’s board. I was blown over when I went and picked it up. It was absolutely gorgeous. I went over to Mac and Theresa’s before Christmas and they helped me set up a scavenger hunt for Hugh. I made up clues using stories that he’d told me about different occurrences during his childhood, and some stuff from when we were dating.  Needless to say, it was AWESOME! Hugh had a good time trying to figure everything out and I think he enjoyed getting to run down the street and search in the garage for clues. In the end, I think we all laughed until we were crying and Hugh was very excited about his gift.

We had a very nice dinner and gift exchange with Mac and Theresa, and by the time we left we were all tired. We were headed out to College Station to spend the night with my parents while Mac and Theresa were coming up the next day.

 Here's Hugh about to FINALLY open the gift he worked so hard to find.

 The incredibly awesome washer board.

Mac and Theresa with the sign we got them for the lake house.

 Here's a group photo done with the timer on our camera. Not too bad!

The group in College Station consisted on my parents, siblings and their s.o., my Uncle Ricky and Mac and Theresa. Of Course, Jackson the cute 15 month old was in attendance as well. We ate a traditional Christmas dinner and tons of fudge. :) For the gift exchange we all had drawn one name and had a $40 limit, which really helped out expense wise. Everyone gave to Jackson and a few of us gave to our parents (which was against the rules but who cares!). Overall, we all had a great time. Mac and Theresa fit in very well with my family, and I think they enjoy the “Slightly controlled chaos” that is Kazmierski.

I’m going to post the best pictures from the two days and I’ll caption them as I go.

Here's Jackson, ready for the gift opening to begin.

My mother found the cutest ornament to decorate my Uncle Ricky's gift with. LOVE IT!

See how pretty Krystal is? Hey Jordan, shave and get a haircut...you're starting to look homeless.

Chelsey looks awesome with gift garland in her hair.

My Mom with the sign that we got for my parents.

Jackson with the gift we got him. Obviously we should have gotten him a box.

Jackson LOVED the clothes that Mac and Theresa got him. He had to climb on the box and show them.

Here he is again with the clothes...

And again....love that smile!

Theresa got a cooler but Jackson decided that it was his.

Uncle Ricky with his bathmat.

I had to include this photo. I love Tobey just looking on resting his head on Hugh's knee.

LOVE ME!!!!

16 Weeks

12/25/11

Christmas Day- I was 16 weeks pregnant to the day and I finally agreed to let Hugh take my picture from the side. I haven’t been taking weekly photos of my belly, but I do intend to take pictures from different times in my pregnancy.

At this point I’d gained a whopping 3 pounds, but my belly is sticking out. The week before I’d spent 3 days in the hospital with a stomach virus from hell that dehydrated me. I couldn’t get caught up. It didn’t matter how much I drank or attempted to eat; it was all coming right back out. After three days of no solid food and 9 bags of fluid, they finally released me to come home. I spent the next week doing a lot of sleeping and getting exhausted from difficult tasks like checking the mail. I was feeling 100% better by the time Christmas rolled around.

Cravings and Aversions- I’ve got a serious love for orange juice. I’ve actually had to restrict myself because I know I don’t need the sugar. I’ve been eating sandwiches from Firehouse Subs. It’s my go to-lunch stop if we’re ever out on the weekends. Now, I’d love to say that I’ve been craving James Coney Island and bacon; but let’s be honest: that’s just me wanting to eat crap food that I don’t allow myself to eat. I have had some aversions. I prefer not to work with raw meat. It seems to have a smell that is vile. Bleh. The other thing would be seafood. I normally love it but I’ve attempted to eat it several times and I can’t stand it. Yuck.

Other than my stomach virus I’ve been feeling great. I’ve been working out at the gym lifting and doing cardio on the elliptical climber or swimming. I have to work at not getting frustrated with not being able to do the exact same stuff that I did before.

Confession...

I have a serious addiction and I figure that it’s time for me to come clean about it. I love bacon. When I say love, I don’t mean, “Oh?? Bacon or Sausage? Well, I guess I’ll go with bacon.” I’m more of a: “Double side of bacon extra crispy.” kind of person.

Usually, this whole weird love addiction isn’t a problem. I typically eat bacon about three times a year. We seldom eat breakfast out, so no worries there. We don’t eat breakfast for dinner because Hugh doesn’t like it. (Seriously….sometimes I wonder how we ever ended up together. Who doesn’t like breakfast for dinner?) I don’t allow myself to ever buy bacon unless it’s for a recipe; simply because I’ll cook it and eat it. The whole damn package and not even feel a bit of regret about it.

My mother sent me a cooking magazine recently and I decided that I wanted to try a new recipe called, “Spicy Sautéed Green Beans”. It looked delicious. Fresh green beans, straight from Canino’s Market, onion, balsamic vinegar, chili oil paste and a little crumbled cooked bacon.  It really sounded good. I pulled out the bacon and put four extra thin pieces in the skillet to cook. I decided that I would cook the bacon and then proceed on with the recipe. Hugh was at the gym so I had some time to get it all done.

Well…

I ended up having bacon, eggs and toast for dinner. Hugh will be eating a sandwich or leftovers. The green beans are still in the fridge and I’m happy that the house smells like bacon.

I blame my grandmother for all of this. Mema loved bacon. To this day I’ve never had a bacon sandwich like the ones she used to make me. Any time I visited her it was always a guarantee that there would be bacon at some point. She taught me how to make my bacon crispy, limp bacon is a sin. She also taught me how after you’ve finished cooking your bacon you can pour off the majority of the grease and then cook your eggs in the remnants. Dear Sweet Lord…there’s nothing quite like eggs that have been cooked in bacon drippings. 

Ok…I’m stopping now. I’ve pontificated about bacon for long enough.

Here we go again...

You may recall from previous reading that Hugh and I have had to deal with several instances of identity theft. We’ve had credit cards missing from his wallet, my checking account number stolen, and even better: we’ve had our credit card numbers stolen while we still had the cards in our possession.

Hugh and I made big changes from all of this. We make all of our purchases every month on a credit card. All of them. We don’t write checks, and if we get some sort of bill in the mail that wants a check? Well, we call and pay it by credit card instead. We don’t use our debit cards and we protect our banking information as if we were the KGB.

Hugh’s brother, John got married back in December. Hugh and I were both members of the wedding party. After the meal at the reception, Hugh accompanied me upstairs to the room where the bridal party had gotten ready. I had brought along a spare dress to wear because the one that I had to wear for the ceremony was tight (baby bump!) and not flattering at all. As we walked into the room the assistant wedding coordinator approached me and asked me if I would check through my belongings and make sure that I wasn’t missing anything. She stated that she had walked in on a wedding guest exiting the room earlier (the room was supposed to be off limits). I walked over to my purse and noticed that it was unzipped, when I recalled making a point of zipping it up prior to the ceremony. I pulled out my wallet and discovered that my 3 credit cards were gone as was some cash. Hugh asked the girl if she would point out the person that she’d seen in the room, so they left.

I finished dressing and headed downstairs. I was so pissed. I honestly don’t think I can accurately describe the anger I was feeling. I found the assistant downstairs and asked where I could locate my husband. She told me that he and the head wedding coordinator (W.C.) were outside speaking to the woman that had “supposedly” taken the stuff. I walked outside and located Hugh and the W.C. speaking to a woman that was half inside her car. I actually heard Hugh say, “If you’ll just give us back what you took, we won’t call the police. I’m giving you 10 seconds to hand it over or I’m calling.”

The only thing she was willing to give up was an empty purse that she’d stolen from one of the other bridesmaid’s and obviously used to stash all of the cards she’d taken.

I’m going to take this moment to let you know that I’m omitting the part of the story where I might have possibly screamed obscenities at the woman and then been forcibly removed from the area by my husband picking me up and carrying me back over to the reception venue.

My parents came outside from the reception to see what was going on. My Dad went out and took his car and moved it to block the woman from being able to leave the property. Hugh called the police and the W.C. called the owner’s of the venue. The police show up and conduct a complete search of the car. The discovered several credit cards that didn’t belong to her and cash. They handcuffed her and her husband-who, by the way, hadn’t even realized hi s wife was missing for an hour from the dinner. Seriously??? Innocent my ass. They decided to arrest her and allow him to go since he claimed that he had no knowledge of what she was doing. The officer came in and instructed me to fill out a witness statement, and I know that another bridesmaid had to do the same. I believe that only one other credit card was taken and more cash. The officer informed us that we would have to cancel all of the credit cards (even though they were recovered) because they had been in her possession for a while. He also gave us the case number and a phone number to call to see what we would need to do to get our cash back.

What sucked, more than anything was the officer told the W.C. that an announcement had to be made to all of the guests at the reception informing them of the theft and asking them to check their belongings to see if they were missing anything. I really hated that for the bride and groom. Nobody deserves to have something like this happen at their wedding.

So, to end the story: Hugh and I got up early the morning after the wedding and sat in the hotel lobby for breakfast where he called the credit card companies and cancelled the cards. Hugh and I have the same credit card numbers on our Visa and Discover cards, so he had to cancel his as well. The woman has two previous felony convictions and was released on $68,000 bail. It only took about a week for us to get our cards replaced, but the big hassle is trying to remember every single account that we need to update with the new numbers. In fact, we forgot about our Ez-Tag account and it got suspended. Oh, and when it gets suspended you have to CALL. Ugh. Yuck. Just this past week we were having conversations trying to recall if we’d gotten everything updated. It’s been a big hassle.

A few days after Christmas I called the number that the deputy gave me to see about what hoops I’d have to go through to get our cash back. Well, I was informed that we won’t get it back until after the trial ends and then he went on to inform me that I will be subpoenaed to court for the trial. Inset sarcastic YAY!!!! I don’t consider taking off work and driving to Austin for a trial and good time. However, I feel like this woman needs to be held responsible for her actions. I don’t care if it’s a fine or jail time but I do think she needs to pay her debt to society. She’s obviously been convicted of crimes before and doesn’t seem to be learning right from wrong.

I’ll keep you updated on the situation, and if I do have to go to court I’ll definitely do an entry on that. Right now, Hugh and I feel like we’ve got targets on our back when it comes to our money and people trying to steal it.

Keep your hands off my money!

2012 Resolutions

First off, I realize that I haven't blogged in a while. I have several posts to catch up on, but I wanted to get this one out here before January turns in February.

2011 Resolutions

Be able to run 3 miles without stopping

Lower my BMI by 3 points of lose 20 pounds

Only go to the grocery store once a week

Stick to our allotted budget

Go to Europe

Be more positive in my dealings with family members.

Convince my husband to play hooky from work at least once so we can go play.

Take the dogs to hike at Sam Houston State Park

Take the challenge route on the MS150 this year

Improve my average cycling speed.

Seriously reduce the amount of sodas I drink.

Keep up the blog!

Work at being a positive, uplifting wife.

I sat and thought about resolutions last night and while I do well with organized specific goals, I think I would benefit from a little less overachieving this year. I tend to allow myself to become very focused on goals so I’m giving a different route a try this year. We’ll see. If I hate it, I can always change them.

2012 Resolutions

Obsess less about pregnancy weight gain.

This has been a big issue for me. I’m very meticulous about my weight and pregnancy isn’t exactly the time to worry about it. I’ve done well so far, I’ve made it 17 weeks and gained 3.5lbs. I’ve been very good about what I eat-only indulging once at P.F. Chang’s where I’m sure I ate my weight in Kung Pao Chicken and Dan Dan Noodles. I know it will all come off and that I don’t need to stress, but old habits are hard to break.

Enjoy my marriage.

Hugh and I have a great time together and I want to make sure that we keep focusing on us and our relationship.J

Maintain my workout regimen (even if it’s modified) the entire year.

I’ve struggled with jogging since I’ve been about 8 weeks along. While it’s perfectly fine to keep running since I was doing that prior to my pregnancy, it’s just not comfortable. I’ve still been going to the gym and doing cardio and circuit weight training. This week I’m starting back to swimming and planning to keep that up.

Keep a positive outlook about my job.

Just relax.

Enjoy pregnancy, birth and motherhood.