Success at Walk MS!

We completed our MS Walk again this past weekend!  Charlie rode along in her stroller the whole time and loved it.  I think our team had the most dogs in attendance too w/ 5 dogs walking with us!  Although I definitely didn't raise as much as I have in previous years I still raised enough to be proud of my contribution.  AND if you still want to donate, there is still time!!!  :)

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR/Walk/MNMWalkEvents?px=3047773&pg=personal&fr_id=17886

Anyway, it was a great weekend down in Des Moines spent with family and great friends.  And even better my friend Sarah timed things perfectly with her pregnancy and had her little bundle a week early so I was lucky enough to get to go visit them in the hospital. Little Preston is beautiful!  So happy for them!  They're going to have so much fun and be such great parents.

Charlie found a new favorite toy too:  Balloons!  We had a lot of fun blowing some up and rubbing them on her head to stick to her and pushing them up her shirt.  She had a blast playing with them.  She is so much fun to watch have fun.  It immediately brings a smile to my face!

Xoxo~
Kel

Want to help a mutha out?

I'm participating in the MS Walk again this year.  This is a cause very near and dear to my heart.  A very close family friend, Katie, was diagnosed with MS at the young age of 28.  Thankfully she is one of the lucky ones and has found a drug combination that is working wonders for her!  Until she started these new drugs she had blindness is her eyes and her right leg was paralyzed.  She no longer takes walking or eyesight for granted!  Could you imagine having to go through this all at such a young age?!?!  The MS Society is to thank for her now being symptom free because due to their fundraising the world is getting closer to finding a cure for MS.  What a great moment that will be!

Charlie & Wade at last years MS Walk

Kara & I w/ our Arbor Mist drinks enjoying the walk!

So I ask you all, if you have a spare $1, please click the link below and donate.  The MS Society is doing wonderful things to put an end to MS and you can be a part of it.  Plus, it's tax deductible!  Who doesn't like that?!?!  :)  Thanks so much in advance!  I couldn't do this without you!

Cheers!

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR/Walk/MNMWalkEvents?px=3047773&pg=personal&fr_id=17886

Twat did you say?

The MS Walk was last weekend and it turned out perfect! We woke up to rain and were worried we'd have to be walking in it the entire time. Me being the ever prepared Mom of the Year (haha, right) had heard it was supposed to be raining so I'd gone out and bought a rain cover for Charlie's stroller so that at least she'd be dry for the walk but we never even needed it. Guess I'll be returning that b/c I'll never be out walking in the rain again! Just minutes before the walk was supposed to start the sun came blazing through the clouds and it stayed that way the rest of the day! Gorgeous!!! Charlie loved the stroller ride and it was great to get out in the fresh springtime air and contribute to such a worthwhile cause!

You know that is Arbor Mist in those bottles, right? Tasty! :)

Thanks to all who donated! Although I ended up raising $125 I'm sad to say this was my worst year yet fundraising but this just means I can pester everyone even more next year! :)

After the walk Kara, my mom and I went to our friend Sarah's bridal shower where we sipped mimosas and had some excellent food. She's got some great friends and family and it was a lot of fun! Can't wait for her wedding which is coming up fast!

The rest of the weekend was spent w/ family and friends relaxing. We got Charlie a zebra blow up pool for this summer which I can't wait to get out! She loved staying up late and hanging out with the adults. When there are people up she does not want to be the first to go to bed! She fights it like a champ! She's such a little social butterfly and loves getting all the attention. She's starting to mimic people more and is so silly and she knows it too and keeps doing it to keep getting the laughs. Such a ham ball! All in all a great weekend. Couldn't ask for anything more.

Some new Charlie milestones:

• 
  
  She can now drink out of a sippy cup all on her own!

• 
  
  She waves hello/goodbye, but is picky as to who she will do it for. She almost always does it to herself in the mirror. What a goof.


• 
  
  She'll tilt her head to the side and wait for you to do the same and then immediately tilt it to the other side and go back and forth like this w/ a huge grin on her face.


• 
  
  She has a new sit and spin move where she sits and spins in circles on her butt. She now has the complete 360 view wherever she may be.







• 
  
  Her first tooth (bottom middle right one) broke through May 12th. She handled it like a champ although her tongue is now more often sticking out of her mouth than staying in it.


• 
  
  Still not crawling but you can tell she is getting anxious to be mobile. I don't think it will be much longer before she has learned some way to get around although I'm not convinced it will be by crawling...


• 
  
  She has started trying to clap her hands but usually does one or two claps and then instantly brings them together up to her mouth all excited and makes little squealing noises.


• 
  
  Her babbling is starting to sound more and more like actual words. Sometimes she'll really get on a roll and talk non-stop for what seems like forever. She gets really excited and worked up and it is hilarious.

• 
  
  She's very ticklish. :)


• 
  
  She loves to play peek-a-boo w/ her blankets and toys.


• 
  
  She loves these Gerber puff chip things and inhales them! She also likes pastas, cheese slices, cheese tortellini and quesadillas. She does NOT like green peppers. We found this out last weekend when she took one bite of one and immediately puked it and whatever else she had eaten up all over me and her. Not fun.


• 
  
  The second we take her outside she sticks her tongue out. We say she is "tasting" the air. We really have no idea why she does it but here is evidence:



She's perfect. :)




Happy Tuesday!!

I totally suck. Help me NOT suck.

Team FMS 2010 (Charlie's in the fat belly)

Yikes! I've totally become a slacker this year! I'm participating in the MS Walk again and I've got less than 3 weeks to try to reach my fundraising goal for it. Please help if you can. Just think if ALL my readers contributed just $1.00 I could raise like $7.00! :) But seriously, any little bit helps and I appreciate it with all my heart. As does my friend Katie who I walk for. She's proof that positive things come from these fundraisers b/c thanks to the donations the MS Society raised she is on a new drug that has helped keep her MS symptoms away! Not a cure but getting closer and it's all thanks to donators like YOU! These scientists couldn't search for a cure without that moolah!


Charlie will be joining us this year for her first time doing the walk out of the womb. She went with us last year but she just doesn't know it. :) And of course little Kobe man will be joining us as well and will probably army crawl the entire way through the grass and make us be the last ones to finish. (Or maybe we're always the last ones to finish b/c we always start late??? Whatever.)


Also this year since I'm not pregnant I can enjoy my Arbor Mist in my water bottle again! Hooray!!! Keeping the world classy since 1979. (Yes, I'm old.)

So please consider making a small donation and if you do I will linky love back to you, just be sure to let me know your blog address.

My donations page

Thanks a million from me and everyone else out there affected by MS!

2010 Year Review

Since basically the entire year of 2010 I was pregnant we were a bit on the slow side for happenings in our family. That is until August 6th came around and we found ourselves w/ one more family member. Like years past I’ll do a quick little 2010 review.

January
I came out of the baby closet and shared my news with the interwebs that we were expecting little nugget late July.
Kara and Todd got engaged! Yippee!

February
We worked on getting the house ready for a baby. Painting, building and installing. Fun and exciting stuff!

March
Went wedding dress shopping with Kara and she found the perfect dress!
Found out nugget was a GIRL!
April
Finished up our garden in the back.
Celebrated E’s 30th birthday at Stellas.

My grandpa passed away. Miss you Paps. :(

May
Participated in the Des Moines MS Walk.

Family came up to celebrate Wade and his MBA graduation.

We remodeled our shower.
I got pregnant fat face and turned 31! Ahhh!!!
We went to our first Twins game at Target Field.
June
Drove to Indy to celebrate Shannon and Derik’s wedding where I raised the roof.July
Wade broke his wrist racing his motorcycles and had to have surgery to repair it. Todd broke his dancing at a wedding reception (numerous drinks were involved so we'll let it slide... I guess.)

We finally finished the nursery just in time!
Remodeled the rest of our bathroom (halleluiah!)
My due date came and went and no baby!

August
Nugget (aka Charlie) is here after 16+ hours of labor that would not progress and ended in a c-section!!!

The rest of August is a blur. :)

September
Road trips to Des Moines and Galesburg so that Charlie could meet more family and friends.

October
Charlie attended her first ISU game!

Kara had 2 bridal showers that Charlie and I went to.
My maternity leave ended and I went back to work part time.
Charlie’s first Halloween and she dressed as a cute bee.
November
Charlie started daycare.
Kara had her bachelorette party and I had a 2 day hangover.

Wade and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary.

December
We said goodbye to our wonderful neighbors, the Bormann’s, who moved back to Iowa (we miss you guys!)
Charlie learned how to roll over front to back like a champ and is SUPER close to going back to front.
We got 17.1 inches of snow in one day which was the 5th largest on record! We were stranded in!
We celebrated our 1st Christmas as a family of 3 (+ Kobe). (Now if only I had a picture of all of us together...)

All in all not a super eventful year unless you count the birth! But you can’t do much when you’re pregnant! And through the ups and downs of the year we realize we are very blessed. What a life we have!

Here’s to a happy and healthy 2011 to you all!

Cheers!

Wordless Wednesday

28 week update

I thought I'd do another one of the updates since I haven't done one since 21 weeks. We have an ultrasound today at 1:30 to check on my placenta previa. I am so excited to see how much she has grown and changed since our last one at 19 weeks! I'll be sure to post a pic or 2 once I get them uploaded.



How Far Along: 28 weeks

Total Weight Gain: 22 pounds (eegads!)

Stretch Marks: None. Thank the baby Jeebus. I hope it stays this way!

Sleep: Also none. Well, not a lot at least. I toss and turn all night. It is impossible to get comfortable and just when I do little Nugget seems to wake up and kick the shit out of me. Not nice Nugget. You are in time out!

Best Moment This Week: Husband of the year got me a mani/pedi and massage for Mother’s Day! My 2 neighbor girlfriends got the same thing from their hubbys (they are so sneaky) and so we all 3 get to go together for some girl time! Could they be any sweeter? I don’t think so!

Movement: A ton! She is so strong too! I see pokes out of my belly all the time now and I wish I knew if it was her foot or elbow or knee or what! And I felt her having hiccups for the first time on Monday! She’s an active little booger and is tossing, turning and kicking constantly!

Food cravings: Um, anything and everything? Yeah. Just give me food. Although sometimes absolutely nothing sounds good even though I'm famished. Go figure right?

Labor Signs: None! Yay!

Belly Button in or out? I guess it’s safe to say it is officially out since the only time it is still flat across is first thing in the morning before I eat. After that it is out constantly and when I laugh it pokes out about an inch further I swear. I think it is a whole nother belly in it’s own right it’s so big!


What I miss: Same answer as last time. My wine, beer, margaritas, martinis, etc. But I also miss my chin, ankles and waist. :)


What I am looking forward to: Besides our ultrasound today at 1:30, heading to Des Moines this weekend to participate in the MS Walk. Thank you so much to all who have contributed! I still haven’t reached my goal of $800 so if you want to donate there is still time! Click here! I’m hoping I can make it the 2+ miles no problem and with minimal potty breaks. I think I can!


Weekly Wisdom: Speaking of potty breaks, when you have to pee, go. Don’t hold it. It can get down right painful and also cause the fear of God that you may piss yourself in public. Also, it’s amazing what a little elevation can do to lessen cankle swelling. Ugh.


Milestones: I’m in the home stretch – the 3rd Trimester! Little Nugget can now open her eyes and she weighs approximately 2 ½ pounds and is nearly 16 inches long! Only 12 more weeks... (There is some sarcasm in that last part). :)

xoxo~

This pregnant bitch be walking

All righty guys. It's that time again. Time for a reminder! In 2 weeks I will be in Des Moines doing the MS Walk. All proceeds go to help find a cure for MS!

If you would like to donate to me please visit my page! Also, as an update as to how huge I am I have posted below a picture of me in all my glory. In 2 more weeks I will be even bigger. It's amazing how fast I seem to grow but I have no fear that I will be able to complete this walk. It may just take me a bit longer due to multiple bathroom breaks and fat, uncoordinated feet. :)

Just for comparison sake (b/c I love to look at past pics when I am wearing the same thing and gawk at my hugeness) here I am at 20 weeks vs. 26 weeks (today). I think it's safe to say I've grown just a "bit". :)

Thanks everyone!

xoxo~

Tying it all together: Sex, Dress & MS

The big day is near! Thursday we find out the sex as long as the baby cooperates! Probably the only time I will want this baby to spread its legs open (especially if it’s a girl)! Modesty!!! Haha! :) I have been counting down the days for the past 4 weeks and it seriously cannot come fast enough.

My parents, sister and her fiancé came up last weekend to visit and dress shop for Kara. It was a success! She actually ended up buying the 2nd dress she tried on. (Although she tried on probably close to 20 more after it.) But she looks stunning in it and really looked great in almost every dress she tried on. I thought we were going to have a problem with her selecting one since they were all so beautiful on her! :) Here is a picture of the dress she chose (Madison by Maggie Sottero). Perfect!

She is doing a peacock feather color scheme so it will be lots of vibrant blues, greens and purple accents. It will be gorgeous! As of now she is thinking the bridesmaids will be wearing a Kelly green color that we found at David’s bridal and we can all select whatever style we like best as long as it’s in that color. I love the green so I’m looking forward to picking out my dress. Although I have no idea what size I will be wearing 6 months after having a baby. Hopefully I’ll be back to my normal size (or at least really close to it). And hopefully my bazookas will be back in control. They are getting crazy. And since they are sore they are no fun. As Wade put it "they are like a closed amusement park." Nice analogy there hun. :)

I’m up about 8 pounds which is amazing since I am hungry NON-STOP and my mom even said how surprised she was at how big my belly has gotten. But it must be all baby b/c I haven’t gained all that much and my ass still fits in my jeans. Thank the baby Jeebus. I feel the little nugget kicking away pretty much every day now in little spurts. It’s a great feeling!

Other than that there isn’t much new in our household. I’m just living for Thursday! Our appointment is at 1:30 and then after it we are going to go to Babies ‘R Us to start our registering process (which is really overwhelming if you ask me). I know nothing about babies and what we need. Yikes. Any suggestions?

Also, a HUGE thank you to those who have so graciously donated to my MS Walk!

Emily – So This Is My Gig
Paula – Insert My Blog Name Here
Matt – Mr. 5820
Kristin – BonBon Rose Girls

And there is still plenty of time between now and the walk so if you still want to please do! You guys are the greatest!!!

I’ll be sure to update ya’ll on Friday once we know if our babe is packin or lackin! Til then!

Xoxo~

Push, push... in the bush! *

Last year there was Arbor Mist in that water bottle...

It’s that special time of the year again. That’s right, the joyous time I hit you all up for money. But relax. It’s for a good cause, as always. (Which unfortunately for me means it will not be going into my bank account to fund my shopping habit.)

You see, for the last 3 years I have participated in finding a cure for MS. I wish I could say I’m a genius lab tech who slaves away and actually invents these miraculous drugs to kill the disease but no, I’m just a measly little woman who rides her bike for 150 miles or walks for 2 miles. This year, being that I’m knocked up, I’ll be doing the walk. At the time of the walk I will be a whopping 28 weeks pregnant. To those of you who need help with that, it's 7 months huge! I will likely be as large as a house. Or at the very least an SUV. Let’s take a look at how this could be bad for me…

• I could lose my sense of balance (since I will be ginormous) and trip and fall on my face. Road rash on my face will not be aesthetically pleasing nor will it feel nice.

• I get winded very easily (like a 90 year old asthmatic) and will likely need to sit and rest numerous times which will mean the 2 mile walk will take us approximately 8 hours to complete.


• Last year my dog stopped and took a shit right in front of the hundreds/thousands of people walking along side us. This was the 1st and last time I have ever felt the need to pick up his shit. This also happened directly before walking onto a bridge that we were stuck on for 15 minutes which led to 15 minutes of me holding my dog’s still warm dookie in a plastic baggie. This better not happen again.


• Last year I also enjoyed a fabulous water bottle filled with Arbor Mist. Unfortunately the doc says I shouldn’t indulge in that whilst pregnant. So my water bottle will be filled with… water. Boring!


• All the strenuous walking may cause me to get contractions which will definitely slow down my walking pace to a crawl. As my friend Katie, who has MS has stated, she will push me in a wheelchair if need be. How about that? The amazing woman w/ MS pushing the fat ass pregnant lady!
  

This is me at 18 weeks. Add on 10 more weeks of belly. Like whoa.

Alas, I’m sure there are numerous other possibilities of things going badly. Regardless, I am hoping the walk goes off without a hitch and I easily make the 2 mile trek b/c I want to do this for Katie. She is the strongest woman I know and luckily for her she is currently on a drug that is working miracles in her body. Unfortunately, not all MS patients can say the same. It is a debilitating disease and one that we desperately need to fight to find the cure for. So please, take a moment, go to my page and donate. It’s tax deductible! Uncle Sam wants you to do it! And like last year if you donate I will linky dink to you and thank you over and over again. Maybe even lick your face off. (If you like that sort of thing...)

Rock on!

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR/Walk/NTHWalkEvents?px=3047773&pg=personal&fr_id=13635

*Yeah, I know this title has absolutely nothing to do with this post but I am the blog author and can do what I want. It was the first thing that came to my head and well, I wanted to say bush. Haha, I said bush. Tough shit.

Brunk Dlog Time

Let me start this off by stating that I am drunk. 2 beers and 2 strong and tasty pomegranate mojitos and I am done in. I guess I'm a light weight. So right off the bat I apologize for any and all misspellings and incorrect grammar bc/ this post will be riddled w/ tit. That's right, I said tit instead of it. Get used to it.

Second off, thank you to everyone who stuck with me through me temporary blogging break. I know it wasn't that long, but generally us bloggee's have short attention spans. At least, I know I do. And I really TRIED to keep up to date on the blogs I read but it was damn near impossible. You guys rock my socks off and post so often (which is a good thing, don't get me wrong) and I just couldn't keep up. So I've lagged. I apologize. I sound just like I would if I had biked the 150 miles this weekend like my wonderful hubs = lagging behind. :)

That's right. The MS 150 was this weekend and I didn't ride it. I feel like a complete slacker. I've rode it the past 2 years and this year it was an unsure thing up until the last minute so I did the MS Walk in Des Moines instead (which I've written about and would link to if I weren't so lazy and half (read: totally) drunk) So I apologize if this doesn't make sense. You have NO idea how much I have backspaced on this post so far.

Anyway, I didn't ride it. I was the chauffeur. I carted Wade, Bob, Amy and Steve up to Proctor, drank my ass off with them, slept in until 9:30 the next morning, made an emergency pit stop at their lunch stop on the route to drop off a jersey for a biker who wrecked, and met them in Hinckley, where I proceeded to try to check into our room but they wouldn't let me b/c the room was in my husband's name and, well, you never just know, we could have divorced and I may have been trying to steal his room yet put it on my card still... You know, b/c a lot of people want to do that and hang w/ their exes and... Wait, that doesn't make a lot of sense does it? Nope it doesn't. Lame. So I wasted $30 on slots until I could get a hold of Wade on the route and he could add me to his registration and I could check in and shower. So completely ridiculous.

After that it was a good night but we lost $80 on blackjack in about 15 minutes. Worst. Table. Ever. They all took off early Sunday morning to finish up the 2nd half of the ride and I took my time, woke up around 9 and drove back home. Picked up Kobe and met them at the finish line. Aren't they a classy bunch!?!? (Be sure to zoom in on Kobe, he didn't bike, but he looks so cute doing a raspberry!) (Or maybe I'm just easily amused???) I'm so proud. I know they worked their asses off. Actually I know they worked their asses raw. Their asses will hurt for the next 2 weeks. It's brutal. And I'm not lying. It's so painful. So I was happy to be their chauffeur and would gladly take up this position at any time in the future.

So let's give them a hi-five and a cheers! They worked hard and raised a lot of money towards finding the cure for MS. And Fuck MS! It can totally suck it! :)

Ta ta my lovlies. Next time I'll try to be sober, more interesting and more coherent... :) Maybe.