No more baby teeth!

My Drew lost his first tooth today! Really, he didn't lose it as much as he pulled it out. We have been waiting patiently about 3 weeks, and today he decided to pull it out. The one next to it is also on its way out! I think he looks pretty cute! And, yes, he will be the orthodontist's dream. He has a full under bite, just like his Mama did!

Name Meme

I have been tagged by Sarah.

Copy the questions from my post and paste them in a new post on your blog. Erase my answers and put yours in. Use the first letter of your name to answer ALL of the following questions. If the person before you has the same 1st letter pick a new one. You CAN NOT use anything twice, and you CAN NOT use your own name for the boy/girl question. After you are done, tag 5 people.......

1. What is your name?: Therese
2. A 4 letter word: time
3. A boy's name: Tony
4. A girl's name: Tabitha
5. An occupation: teacher
6. A color: teal
7. Something you wear: toe ring (well, not me, personally!)
8. A Food: tomato
9. Something found in the bathroom: towel
10. A place: Timbuktu
11. A reason for being late: tardiness
12. Something you shout: (Andrew) Thomas!
13. A movie title: Titanic
14. Something you drink: Tea
15. An animal: Tiger
16. A song title: The Mystery
17. A verb: taste

Here are my five tags:
Corinne at Struggling Towards Heaven
Kim at It's a Dog and Pony Show
Evy at Yes, they are all Mine
Amy at Word from the Herd
Nancy at Be Not Afraid

Pregnant Musings

I am sitting here tonight waiting for my last teaching session to begin, and I am musing about this pregnancy. Of course, I have it in my head that this one is dramatically different, so that must mean I am having a girl, right? (OK really, healthy is all that counts!)

Here's my deal, and I will try to get through this without sounding whiny. I have been really sick this pregnancy. I always am, but it is so much worse. The doctor put me on medication which keeps me from throwing up often (I still do, just not as much). I have been kind of miserable, but glad to be so, because I know that sick is good, right?

So here is my real issue...I AM HUNGRY...ALL THE TIME...but I am nauseous too. Late afternoon through the evening until bedtime is the worst. My problem is that I teach at night for 3 hours. I can't reduce my schedule because we are in peak right now. Any suggestions to help make this better would be greatly appreciated. I am 11 weeks, so I should be in the home stretch!

As an aside, while I was getting sick before dinner, Drew was checking on me (he's my worrier). I told him that it was the baby but it would get better soon. He asked me if the baby was being WILD in my tummy, and do I need to give the baby a bottle! Too cute!

Frugal Finds

I have discovered a couple of really good websites lately to help with saving money. I thought I would share them today.

The first one, Common Sense with Money, is absolutely fabulous! She has links to lots of good deals and freebies. We literally check it everyday for the latest hot deals. She also breaks down the weekly deals at Walgreen's, CVS, and Pick n Save among others to get the most either off your total order or rewards back to use towards a future purchase. This site is saving us some serious money!

The other one is Pinching Your Pennies. This site is one I am still trying to get the hang of, but they do a great job as well of how to save money on everyday items. They even have a forum that breaks down grocery deals by state. Again, worth checking out!

With the state of the economy, I figure we all need to help each other out!

Baby Musings

So, the boys, again, have been very sweet in their curiosity about the baby in Mama's tummy. At least 3 times a day, Michael asks if the baby is in his tummy, his brothers' tummies or even Daddy's tummy. I continue to remind him that only Mamas can do this.

Over the weekend, my dear, sweet husband decided it was time to stop hearing me complaining about my tight jeans. So, while I was gone on Saturday, he pulled my maternity clothes out of the garage and washed them-he's the best!

As a result, yesterday, I needed to so some swapping out. Drew came in while I was packing up my regular clothes, and was very concerned to see this happen. I explained that I needed different clothes while the baby grew. He decided he wanted to help and then asked if the baby would wear my maternity clothes when he or she was born. I smiled and said that we had clothes just for baby when the time came. He also reiterated how much he wants a sister. Too sweet!

Followers Gadget

Is it something I said, or is there a problem with the gadget? I am not the only blogger who seems to have lost 3-4 followers today. Sarah and Lori have as well. I know I haven't been very much fun lately, but I promise it will be better once I hit my second trimester!

Monday

Well, the medicine the doctor gave me for morning sickness seems to be helping a bit more now which means that (fingers crossed) we are over the hump of morning sickness. I usually start feeling better around 12 weeks, and I am a week and a half out! I made the mistake of trying to not take the medicine yesterday afternoon. Definitely still need it, but I am feeling a bit more human.

The question for the day, however, is when will winter illnesses be over. After a break of a few days, Drew came down with a nasty cold which has been passed onto Michael and I. Colds are usually no big deal, however, it seems to have made Drew and Michael relapse in the stomach bug department (back end only, thankfully!). They just never had enough of a chance to get stronger before the next bug hit! So, Drew is home today. Not well enough to go to school, but not sick enough to be home-he is spending the morning playing with and annoying Michael. Come on Spring, we need you!

In other events, it was announced that our Archbishop, Timothy Dolan, has been appointed to the Archdiocese of New York. All I can say is that New York is very fortunate to have such a wonderful leader coming their way. I am saddened that we are losing him, but happy for him and the people of New York. Please pray that we are sent an Archbishop who will be good for our area. Someone full of compassion and devout in the teachings of the Church. We need that right now. God bless you, Archbishop Dolan!

Viruses, Spam and such...

It has been an interesting 24 hours I must say! Yesterday, I logged into my gmail account to see about 20 new comments on my blog. I was all excited to see this because I love getting comments! Upon further inspection, I realized that I had been spammed. I vaguely remember seeing someone else writing about being hit by a Chinese spammer. Well, now I was too! I showed it to my husband who immediately wanted to know what the characters meant. He threw it in a translator, and, well, let's just say it was not good. I spent an hour last night deleting all of those comments.

Then, this morning, while I was checking out a site for a TV spoiler (can't help it, I am curious!), I suddenly got a warning that we had not only been hit by a virus, but by a Trojan horse. For those of you who might not know, my husband Andy works on computers for a living, and I prided myself on never having downloaded a virus. OOOH, I downloaded a doozy now. I called him on his way to work, and he came home to start the disinfecting...it is still running, and I am stuck typing this on my kids' computer.

This was not the morning for him to have to come home either. He has a huge company wide meeting to discuss the financial picture. I am not worried, yet, but in 12 years there has never been a meeting such as this one...OK, just took Herd Momma's advice-write the worry let it go! I feel better already! Now if only my computer would! Have a great day!

Update

I know I've been kind of low on blogging lately, but gosh, I am so far behind, and so very into being tired and sick lately. You all forgive me, don't you?

As I said, I am way far behind around here. The laundry monster has taken over. I am hoping to get that situation under control today. I did a couple of loads yesterday, but lost my energy around Noon. Lunch duty at the boys' school did me in!

I also need to grocery shop. We are out of a very many items around here. I have been making baggies out of plastic wrap for the boys' snack at school because I am out of baggies. We ran out of their shampoo which means that they have been using my good shampoo (it's my little splurge). So all in all, sick or not, I need to get these things done TODAY!

On the pregnancy front, not much to tell. I will be 10 weeks tomorrow. Apparently my Hcg levels should have peaked by now which means I should start feeling better. The doctor did put my on meds last week because I was getting sick so much. It helps, as long as I drink Ginger ale all day. I keep telling myself, only a couple more weeks, and I will enter the time that I love-my second trimester!

Have a great day, everyone!

Thank You!

I want to thank everyone who left me a message and prayed for me over the weekend. I am emotionally feeling much better (morning sickness still not so much, but I am taking it day by day)! Of course, every comment made sense, but it is hard sometimes to get this head of mine to listen! Thank you all again for listening! I prayed for all of you when I went to Adoration last night.

Nervous Nellie

So, I am nervous. In the decision to tell people about our latest addition to the family, I have suddenly become nervous. There is nothing wrong, I just am nervous. I have 3 beautiful sons, but I also have 2 angels in heaven. Right now, I am going through the, why did we start telling everyone? What if I end up having to go back and say I miscarried? I have no reason to think that this would happen, but what if?

I have had constant reminders this week of what can go wrong. One dear blogging buddy is pregnant for the third time, and so far, so good, but she lost the first 2. My sister lost a baby at 17 weeks. Another dear friend just lost a niece 2 weeks before her anticipated due date. I hear all of this and think, that couldn't be me, not this time, but what if it is? Life is just so fragile and I am scared.

Any suggestions on how to cure the nervousness?

Heritage Foundation

The Heritage Foundation has written an open letter in response to the "Stimulus" package that is about to be approved. It provides a lot of food for thought. Check it out here.

My Best Friend's Wedding

This was on TV this morning...here is my favorite part:





Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

Check me out!

I'm being featured on Modern Mommyhood today!

Baby Talk

First of all, thank you for all of the well wishes and prayers for baby. It gives me a sense of peace that I so desperately need right now.

I have to say that I have had some interesting conversations with the boys since we told them the other night. We have had the boy or girl discussion. Drew says girl, Michael says, "another brudder", and Peter says one of each. Sorry, but the ultrasound confirmed we are definitely having just one!

This afternoon, I had to laugh in the midst of getting sick. The boys were concerned as they heard me. I reassured them that it was just that the baby would make me feel sick for the next couple of weeks (please, Lord, let it go quickly!). Drew's response, "Mom, is the baby kicking you so hard that you're throwing up?!?" Michael's response, "Mom, you ate the baby and now you're sick!" I guess it would make sense that I ate the baby because it is in my tummy!

It's going to be a fun time between now and September! I'm just praying that Peter (at 8 1/2) doesn't start asking how the baby got in my tummy!

Conversations

So, here is how the conversation went at dinner last night:

"Boys, Daddy has some really big news to tell you," I said.

"Well, you're all going to be brothers again. Michael is going to be a big brother," Andy told them.

Peter's eyes got like saucers. Drew, not to be outdone, had news of his own to share, "DAD! I have really big news too! One of my teeth is loose!"

What a moment!

So, yes, we are expecting-is it in the bloggy water??? I am 9 weeks, and I have been dying to write about this but my hubby thought it would be best to wait until after my first OB appointment which was yesterday. I had an ultrasound, and we saw the heartbeat-so far, so good! I had a miscarriage in June, so we are a bit nervous, but very excited!!! Any prayers would be appreciated!

Check this out!

Please head over to Reflections of Hope to check out her latest post. It's a good one! I'm not biased or anything-she's my sister! (SHHHH-it's a secret!)

Update

I feel like I have been out of the loop for too long, and now I need to make up for it! After my last post where I said Michael was better, he wasn't. We still had another 24-36 hours of his being sick. Quite honestly, it was scary. He was in a lot of pain. Thankfully, he is so much better now. He has gymnastics later this morning and is very excited! Thanks for every one's prayers! They did the trick!

Now, for me this week is playing catch up. I have several of you I need to write interview questions for. They are coming, hopefully in the next day or two. I also need to finish up Lori's scarf. It is not quite half way. I will post pictures when it is done. Besides taming the laundry monster and cleaning, I also need to read my book club selection for next week. It's a lot, but I can do it!

Also, sorry for not much commenting, I have read everything in my reader, and hope to get back to regular commenting this week! Have a great week, everyone!

Friday Flashback-1985

Marilena posted about her crush from the 80's, and so I thought I would too. Rick Springfield was it for me (still love his music!). I thought I would share one of his concert videos from 1985. This song made me feel like a rebel-I wasn't! Enjoy! (Especially Amy!)

Thank You!

Michael seems infinitely better this morning! No more explosions out of either end in almost 18 hours! He just ate and drank a little something, so I think we are on the mend! Thank you for you prayers, they truly made the difference!

Happy Friday!

Prayers, please!

We all know I have been flying under the radar because, well, my entire family has been sick. I need some prayers for my little one, Michael, please. He's been sick since Saturday, and is not getting past this bug. The pediatrician hasn't been much help. Trust me, after 3 kids I know to watch for signs of dehydration, blah, blah, blah. I just want my little one better. Thank you all! I am so blessed to have such wonderful friends!

Wordless Wednesday-Daddy time!

Hope

Tonight, as I sit here exhausted from taking care of sick kids and a sick husband (yes, Michael and Andy have also come down with flu), I have hope. I received this rose from Peter's teacher last Wednesday, and, in the middle of January, it has bloomed beautifully. This rose reminds me that as I am taking care of my family to trust in God and, as St. Therese did, live in the present moment. Drew is better, so I am thankful for that!