Pictures...FINALLY!

Rylee and Mommy on St. Patrick's Day!

Rylee Rose pretending she is Ty Ty. The SAME two fingers! Amazing!


One of the many attempts at trying to take a picture of Rylee's scar 2 weeks after surgery. She does NOT want to cooperate! She is such a little stinker!

Finally caught one! Doesn't look too bad. We go for a check up on May 13th and will probably schedule Stage II that day. Hopefully it will only be one more!

Looking so cute in the hat Karissa got her! Grandma Bobbee was NOT a fan...but how can you resist those big blue eyes?!?!

Looking so cute and posing for the camera! In this picture you can see the WHOLE hat. AWESOME!

Update: I said I would keep y'all posted on my "pregnancy." I still have no visit from AF (Aunt Flow) and Sunday's pregnancy test was negative. I am just continuing on with birth control starting on Wednesday because why would a pregnancy test be negative a month after...right? Insurance at work just got more expensive and the coverage just got shittier! It now costs me less to prevent a pregnancy that to have a baby. I guess that made up my mind! ;o)

Pregnant, Camcorders, and Conventions

We will start with the first one. Pregnant.
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No I am not. But thought I was.....Could you even IMAGINE?!!?
Supposedly the Nuva Ring can fall out without you even knowing!! Who knew!?! So off I went to the gynecologist yesterday to have her "check" for my nuva ring. Nope, not there....pregnancy test next. LONGEST 5 minutes of my life! NEGATIVE. (I guess I am not really in the clear yet....keep y'all posted around the 25/26)
While I was there I asked some questions about IUD's since this "ring" thing was not for me anymore. I used the ring four years prior to Rylee Rose....never had an issue. Back then (a year ago) it was forty dollars....it has now jumped to a whopping sixty dollars!! WTF?! It would be cheaper for me to have a baby every year ($500) on my insurance than it would be to prevent a pregnancy. (I work for a Catholic School.....I guess that should explain some things!) But let's not forget that my work doesn't give you ANY maternity leave and you have to take short term disability. So I call up my insurance company this morning and SHOCKER....they don't cover IUD's either. Go figure. I did learn a lot at my OB visit though. My appointment was with the RN Nurse and gave me SO much information. NEVER knew that you could just walk into the office, without an appointment and tell them you need a pregnancy test. That could have saved me a lot of money last year. (Paul's comment to that was: "You probably have to pay your $35.00 copay every time though." I don't think so....but I don't really know) She also gave me TWO samples of the Nuva Ring after I asked her for one before I left. She probably felt bad for me after telling me that the IUD's run about $800.00 if your insurance doesn't cover them. But good news...Mirena has a credit card that you can just sign up for and pay monthly. OH GREAT!
So my new theory is that I am going to make an appointment for the OB-GYN every two months and make up some symptom that I need to be seen for and pay my $35.00 co-pay and ask for two samples of birth control every time. Do you think they will catch on?

Camcorders
Paul, Rylee and I headed out for some sushi last night to celebrate our anniversary! YUM! We went right after Rylee ate at 4:30 and hoped for the best. She sat in her car seat for about 10 minutes and the rest of the time she was held by either Paul or I. She wasn't really cranky...but I could tell she would have been happier playing on a mat. When we left the restaurant it was time for her nap so she fell asleep right away so we headed to Target. Paul is ADDICTED to Target clearance and found a camcorder for a steal! I would love to post a picture of it but I have NO clue which one it is. I was busy off in other departments finding steals of my own!
I can't wait to learn how to download some cute videos!

Conventions
This morning while I was supposed to be getting ready for work, Paul found me at the computer catching up on blogs! I told him I have become ADDICTED (maybe the post title should have been "Addictions") to blogging! You can get so caught up in people's blogs. Then you find more people on their friends lists and so on. I am addicted to people's lives that I don't even know! I need to spend more time with the people that I DO know rather than worrying about what the people I DON'T know are doing!
Anyway...so then Paul was talking about setting up his scuba diving trip that he wants to go on. This was our conversation:

Me: It must be nice to live your life. Scuba Diving, Flying, Snowboarding....(he recently went flying with his cousin and snowboarding with his friends, all within 3 days!)

Paul: Yeah, it kinda is. You can go do things that you love to do. Why don't you go to a blogging convention?!

I couldn't even respond, I was CRACKING UP. But the more I think about it....what a GREAT idea. Then I could spend more time with the people I do know without having to be ADDICTED to reading their blogs. Then I could actually say that I know some of these people! Let's get this convention started!

*Pictures on next post!

Hospital Visit #1

Rylee Rose was such a trooper Friday morning! We had to be at the hospital at 6:00 a.m. and we were right on time. We were in and out of admitting in about 10 minutes and we were all ready to go into surgery by 6:30. What to do with a 3 month old for an hour and a half!?! To our amazement, she was SUPER good! She sat on Paul's lap with her bunny and eventually fell asleep with me. She was so calm and so well behaved! I just hope the same happens in 3 more months for stage 2. Good news out of the surgery was that the doctor got 70% of her nevus sebaceous and will probably only have to go back for one more stage and not two more! Thank goodness! She goes to the doctor in 2 months for a check-up and then we will schedule the next one that day. The scar is A LOT longer than I though it would be but I guess they know what they are doing. No more big bald spot...just one BIG scar! Hopefully it will fade and become lighter soon. She is back to her happy self...playing and laughing along! Of course some crankiness was expected! We only gave her infant Tylenol twice. Such a Thomson Trooper!

There was one up side to the hospital trip....the cafeteria! It did make the hour wait go by SO much faster and we all ate for SO cheap. If any of you are ever on a small budget and need to feed a big family for CHEAP...St. Joe's hospital is the place to go! My sister's favorite...her 75 cent pancake!

Waiting so patiently! This bunny comes EVERYWHERE with us now. She sees it and SMILES so big!
Waiting for the doctor and anaesthesiologist. Rylee had the SAME anaesthesiologist that Jackson had! What a crazy, small world! He was so nice and all the nurses LOVE him. They told us he is the best one and he used to be a pediatrician. How can I book Stage 2 with the same one?!

This picture was taken Friday when we came home from the hospital. She was ready to play! I tried to capture the little mohawk she came home with but it's so thin...u can barely see it.

This picture was also taken Friday when we got home from the hospital. My sister says it looks SO much better already. I will have to take pictures when she wakes up from her nap and download them. The purple/blue mark above the scar is where the doctor marked the bald spot. The bald spot is 70% gone so hopefully only one more time!

Being a Queen in Mommy and Daddy's bed!

Cousin Jackson looking so cute! They came over Saturday night to visit Rylee Rose and bring us dinner! How sweet! Thanks guys! (Jackson's hair was in the cutest, curliest ponytail right before this picture. Pat too it out WAY too quick before I got a picture of it!)

Giving Bunny hugs! So cute!

Oh the Drinks I would drink!!!

My Lenten promise of no alcohol for 40 days turned into ALL drinks besides water for 40 days!! This was Paul's "brilliant" idea and my stupidity for going along with it! I know it's only 40 days but sometimes you just want some FLAVOR in your life! The funny thing is...it's not even the alcohol that I want anymore! (I guess not having it for nine months made me used to not having it.) So I thought since I couldn't drink all that I wanted to, I would post about them for some satisfaction. I'll let you know when I am done if it satisfied anything or just made me want them even more!

First....just some juice. So easy! And it didn't help much that found a new fabulous flavor of Ocean Spray juice right before these 40 days! And to make matters worse...it was on sale for $1.98 (when usually they are around $4.00 a jug) right before Lent started so I have about 3 of them waiting for me in my pantry! Ugh!

I guess it's so new that it wasn't even mentioned on their site when trying to find a picture but Cran-Mango was mentioned and haven't seen that in the stores! My juice of choice is their Cran-Pomegrante!

The next one is so bad that I sometimes find my self thinking I am actually SMELLING it. I am not even addicted to caffeine like some people. I don't wake up CRAVING caffeine and I don't need it to get through my day. But I do miss these:
A White Chocolate Mocha! Yum!

The next one is the drink I usually have with dinner since I usually don't drink caffeine after I get home from work. I don't need anything interrupting this girl's sleep! It's basic and simple...just has FLAVOR!
A glass of Gatorade. Any flavor really...not picky!

And the last is...yes. A glass of wine. It's not so much the taste or need for it. It's just when everyone is having some alcohol you want some too! Or being told that we are going to be no fun since we are not drinking. (Numerous people have told us this!) I guess I can agree with y'all about Paul cause he usually is but are we all saying that I wasn't fun for a recent nine months!?! I don't even drink that much to begin with!! It's not so much at home that I miss the occasional glass of wine....it's when we go out to dinner, have people over, or at someone's house. It's the social aspect of it all.



So there was no satisfaction at the end of this. Just makes me dred my next meal that will be accompianied by a boring glass of water! 35 more days of this! Wahoo. :o(

I know it's suppose to be hard, otherwise it wouldn't be a sacrifice....but this one is WAY tough! My first thought was giving up eating out but we had my sister's birthday dinner planned already and our anniversary falls in the middle of Lent too. So for the whole month of May I am going to challenge myself NOT to eat out once! The whole month. And to top that off....I am going to try and make something different EVERY night of the month! (I don't even know if I know 31 different meals?) I just must like to torture myself!

Yes...35 I said because if you have ever counted....(Which I have) Lent is really 46 days because it doesn't include the Sundays. When Paul gave up alcohol 2 years ago we found this out and he drank on Sundays. We haven't yet....but would you?

3 Months Old!

Rylee Rose is 3 months today! Wahoo! Time is flying by and I can't believe she is already 3 months. She loves sitting up, standing on our laps and LOVES a bath! Although she has never smiled IN the bath....she looks so concentrated on something whenever she gets cleaned. She is always full of smiles and giggles after she is fed and is just overall a HAPPY baby!
At her four month appointment we discuss starting rice cereal and then baby food! She sat in her Bumbo chair once and didn't really care for it so we got rid of that already. I think we will move right to the high chair or Boppy chair for feedings! She is still sleeping through the night from about 8:00 at night to 5 in the morning! Paul and I couldn't be any happier about that! (We are not looking forward to teething!)

Just a couple pictures to keep you all updated. I was going to take more last night but she had a sick day at Miss Inez's house yesterday so went to bed earlier than normal. So there are just a couple new ones. We are planning on getting professional ones at 4 months (over my spring break) so we can't wait for that! We already have her outfits picked out! Isn't that the best part?!?! I just need to order some matching bows!

This bunny is her favorite now. She loves chewing/sucking on ANYTHING!

Sticking out her tongue at the camera!

Smiling so big right BEFORE the bath!

So serious IN the bath!

One and a half more weeks till her surgery date. So sad....
I am sure she will be fine! It's me I am more concerned about....Rylee is a trooper! Not so much her mom and hospitals! I wonder if the St. Joe's cafeteria can keep my mind occupied during surgery? If it's as GOOD as it was during volunteering days then that just might be where you can find me!! (The best grilled cheese sandwiches EVER!!)