Back from the dead!

Well looky here, I found my way my to bloggyland.  I really thought I was lost forever.  I don't know what happened really, but lets just move on to the part where I am back.  Hopefully for good...

Let's take a look at what has happened to me over the past year.  Oops...

Jack turned two.  We had his Winter Wonderland birthday party in NY with all his cousins.  It was supposed to be a sledding party, but Mother Nature had other plans.  The hot chocolate and donuts were flowing and the kids never even missed the snow.

In April, we were blessed with a sweet little girl, Elise Rose.  She was born April 11, 2012, 5 days late.  I had the most wonderful waterbirth at home!  After having contractions for two weeks, my water broke at the elementary school playground while Bobby and I were trying to get the crazies out of Jack.  My water never broke spontaneously with Jack so I was quite surprised when it happened.  Half an hour later the contractions started.  My midwife was at an appointment in Chicago and was stuck in rush hour traffic, so two hours later, my birth assistant, Bobby and I welcomed an impatient little girl on our own. 

 

Adjusting to life with two little ones is tough, but I still have all my hair and I haven't emptied the wine and liquor cabinet, yet.

We had a rough May as our cat, Gretel, was hit by a car near our house.  She came to me when I was in Vet Tech school and has been one of the best pets I ever owned.  It took me weeks to stop seeing her around the house.  Jack really misses his Kitty, hopefully we can get him another one some day.

June brought a vacation and a new sister!  We celebrated Bobby's brothers wedding in Jacksonville FL.  We rented a beach house and spent a few relaxing days in the sun, well rain but who's counting...  We even got to visit with our Savannah friends who came to play on the beach! Love you guys!

 

My parents came to visit in July.  It was my Dad and sister's first visit with Elise.  My Mom was here for the birth.  Welcome to the bloggyworld Mom and Dad!

 

 

Bobby got promoted at work so we got off the awful rotating shift work schedule.  He now works days and has the weekends off! YAY!  Except for today (Saturday) as he got called in to cover for a supervisor.  Eh, you can't win 'em all right?

 

 

The end of July we surprised Bobby's parents by driving home for the weekend of Big Bob's 60th birthday.  We drove for 13 hours with screaming children to show up at 11:30pm.  We had to convince Bobby's dad there was something in the garage for them where we were waiting.  See Bobby's dad has guns and we were afraid of getting shot if we walked in or rang the bell that late...  Jack got to ride in the hot rods so he was very excited.



 

 

Yesterday we got back from a 3 week long NY trip.  Bobby had a business trip in NC for 2 weeks and I was not staying home with the monsters kids by myself so I packed up and drove 13 hours with two kids by myself to NY.  I know the logic is off there huh?  But we all made it.  And then Bobby came out after his trip for a week and we christened Elise!  I left my camera in NY of course so I will have to update those pictures later.

 



Last month I also became a Beachbody coach.  I started Beachbody back in July when my friend and now coach Lindsey offered a 10-day Shakeology challenge.  I wanted to shed the baby weight so I said sign me up!  In the 10 day challenge I lost 7 pounds!  I loved shakeology so much I bought a bag.  And now combined with Insanity, I am down 13 pounds!  I'll tell you all more about my journey later, but if you have questions or want to learn about this awesome company you can check out my site at www.teambeachbody.com/alexiseisenhart.  Or you can click the Shakeology banner on the left hand side.



Hey Baby...

come April 6 2012 (you know around then) that's what we'll be saying to Jack's new little brother or sister!  Yup, I'm growing a baby!  Exciting huh?

It's actually quite an interesting story.  Considering I was on birth control and all, again.  Listen closely if you have a mirena in!  I went to my OB in the beginning of April to have the mirena removed.  I wasn't happy with the side effects and just wanted it out.  It had been in over a year.  After poking around for about 10 minutes, the most painful 10 minutes of my life, the Dr. announced she wanted to use the ultrasound to locate it, then remove it after she saw it.  Another painful 10 minutes of searching under U/S and it wasn't out.  She showed me on the monitor what she thought was the mirena, but asked me to come back so she have the U/S tech there to help her.  Since I was leaving for NY the next day, we scheduled for a month later when I returned.

When I was home there was a week where I wasn't feeling too great, but I just thought it was either traveling related or a stomach bug.  I just had no appetite for anything.  A week into my visit, my mom hosted a psychic party with a woman near our hometown.  My mother-in law came down, all my aunts, one of my cousins and her son, and my grandma were there.  At one point, the psychic looked at me and said she saw babies.  She asked if I had babies, I said a son, and she said no you're pregnant?  Since this mirena was supposedly in, I said no I'm pretty sure I'm not.  She wouldn't give it up and kept telling me I was "pink" and that I would be pregnant by December then.  But she really kept saying that I was.

Fast forward the rest of the vacation, I get to my OB appt and the sonographer calls me back.  She says she wants to scan me first, find the mirena, then call the Dr. in for the removal.  So I lay back, get my belly lubed up and she's silent.  She finally looks at me and says, "Well, I don't see it, but you're pregnant."  I just about died.  How could I have a mirena in and be pregnant?  I was crying so much that she wasn't sure I was even happy about the situation!  When she assured me that the mirena was really not anywhere inside that she could see, I finally calmed down.  I was just so scared that there would be some complications with the baby having that in.  Then she informs me that I'm not newly pregnant, but 9w5d!  At least I'm almost done with the sucky part...

Apparently, mirenas can fall out.  And you won't have any idea.  I still can't believe that I wouldn't feel that, but the U/S tech says she sees it more than you would think.  Hmm... glad I went through that implantation pain just for it to fall out...

So here I am now, 13 weeks pregnant.  Baby E is due April 6, 2012.  Which also happens to be our 5 years anniversary!  Jack is very excited and loves to kiss the baby in Mommy's (or as he calls me "Mee") belly.  He will be a very good brother I'm sure. 

We are considering a home birth for this baby too.  I had a natural water birth at a birth center with Jack, but with no facility like that around, I'll do what is the next best thing in my opinion.  We haven't met with the homebirth midwife yet to make the decision, but she has good reviews and credentials!  The hospital here does offer water birth, I just am wary about a Dr. led birth.  My OB has already brought up the inductions and C-sections and I want nothing to do with that.  So, we will have to see what happens.  I have no worries though that the birth will be perfect.

2 Years, Coming Right Up!

Jack-man is fast approaching two years old.  I honestly don't believe it, but the increasingly frequent temper tantrums are proving me wrong.  Every day I am amazed at the amount of things this kid knows.  It's like he's studying ways to shock us in his sleep.  His use of words and signs gets better everyday and he actually tells us his opinion on things he wants for snack, lunch and drinks.  Potty training is also on the close horizon.  I'm going to try the 3-day potty training method.  It's gotten great reviews and just worked for a friend.  We are in the getting ready period since she recommends starting at 22 months, which is just a few short weeks away...

And now that Jack's birthday is only about 3 months away, I need to get started on thinking about his birthday party!  I love to plan a good party and my only little boys 2nd birthday has got to be great!  I had so much fun planning for his 1st birthday, I can't wait to pick a theme for number 2!  But I can't decide what to do.  Jack has a lot of favs.  Thomas, trucks, cars, dinosaurs, Elmo (and the rest of Sesame Street), so I'm not sure which way to go.  I've been browsing one of my favorite party sites, Kara's Party Ideas, to find the one.  I love all the ideas, I just need to go with one!

Jack will probably also have more than one party.  Lucky kid huh?  Since we don't live near any family, we will probably have one when we go home for Christmas.  So maybe, two parties, two themes?  We will see.  I still have a little time...

Fall is in the Air

Well at least the smell of my Cider Webs Yankee Candle burning.  Considering it's still around 95 degrees here, didn't we leave Savannah?, I had to make believe.  But soon enough, that crisp cool air will be upon us.  Bobby and I cannot wait! 

This weekend we are celebrating our new found falldom with a trip to the County Line Orchard.  We will be picking these...

Well, the Macs won't really be ready until mid sept, but they have Gala and Honeycrisp... But Macs are my fav...

And hopefully I will be then making a yummy one of these...

Oh and I'm sure we will be eating plenty of these...

Well they make them fresh, Bobby could never turn one down...

So it will be a fun fall family outing.  Of which there will be many more.  I just can't wait to pick pumpkins in something other than a tank top and shorts, sweating my butt off on the scratchy hay ride in the backwoods of GA.  I'll even take snow over that...



Do You Miss Me?

Well I'm on vacation.  In NY.  With my Jack-man.  And Bobby comes in on Thursday.  Woo-hoo.  So see ya later alligators!

Grocery Carting

I've really been struggling here with a good grocery store.  Well actually any good produce and meat really.  I never thought I'd actually say that I missed a Kroger!  Coming from a Wegman's, Kroger seemed second rate, but compared to what I've got here, Kroger is wonderful!  I guess I need to learn to keep my mouth shut.

Bobby found a yummy looking recipe for a Vietnamese style pork chop in his Men's health magazine.  I scanned over the ingredients and saw it was relatively easy.  I just needed to pick up some fish sauce.  One of the many things I've learned to hate about a move, is losing your fridge/pantry items that the movers won't take.  Like my fish sauce.  So I ran to the grocery store.  I mean in this day and age, everyone carries fish sauce right?  It's not that crazy of an ingredient.  Almost every Thai and Vietnamese dish has fish sauce in it.  Well not Strack and Van Til.  What kind of a grocery store name is that anyway? The cashier even called the other Strack's, that's what you call 'em here, to see if the had it.  Nope.  Don't even ask how many times I actually had to say "fish sauce" for them to know what I was talking about.  Come on people, this is a common ingredient.   As I'm complaining explaining that they should carry fish sauce, the cashier says I might try Pay Low since they carry a lot of gluten free products.  I hadn't tried out this store yet, cause well, I was a little grocery store prejudice.  How could a store called Pay Low Discount Foods even be worth the time? 

So I ran home, of course I forgot to bring my phone, and called Pay Low.  A few short minutes later I find out yes they carry fish sauce.  So yippee, I'm off.  After walking through half the store to find the Asian aisle, I see it's not that bad.  Not Wegman's quality, but I've come to learn not much is.  But whoa baby, their International aisle, it might actually come close to my Weg's.  They had not one, but three different kinds of fish sauce.  Thai, vietnamese and some other knock off brand.  A million kinds of soys, gluten and wheat free soy, flavored soy, tamari soy, soygu soy.  Curry sauces, peanut sauces, every asian noodle out there, it was pretty much a little heaven for me.  I love all asian food...

So I grab a botle of fish sauce and head to the cashier, but I'm pulled to a halt by the MASSIVE multiple aisle with cold cases ORGANIC section.  Wait, a minute, am I in Indiana still?  I didn't have time to browse, cause Bobby would never get any dinner, but today I went back.  And I'm not quite sure why I saved it for last because then  Jack was in his I am so done sitting in this cart, let me out to run or I will scream mood, but I still loved it.  There was so much.  So, even though I am still missing my one true grocery  love Wegman's, I at least found a little piece of organic heaven here in northwest middle of no where Indiana.   I guess we can stay...

I'm open!

For business!  I've decided to start an Etsy store!  Keeping up with this kid's eating habits is turning out to be quite an investment, so I thought I'd try to peddle my wares to stay afloat.  Ha, it's not that bad, but I've been getting some "How much would you sell that for?" questions so I thought there might be people out there willing to buy what I got.  We'll see how that goes.  I am still in the process of building my shop up.  There are lots of things to drag out of storeage to take pictures of, so it'll be a work in progress for a while.  But I thought I'd share my lil shop so you can take a peek!  Thanks for your support!