I Like to Move it!

Hey, this is a fun one!  Tripping Gracefully tagged me with a meme that involves rocking to your ipod.  So, I have my little shuffle clipped and on random. 

The Rules:
1. Put your iTunes/ music player on Shuffle
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER WHAT(this is in capital letters, so it is very serious. No hiding your showtunes, folks!)

After you’ve answered all of the questions, tag 5 other people and then let them know they’ve been tagged to do the meme themselves!

IF SOMEONE SAYS “IS THIS OKAY” YOU SAY?
God help me, but this is truly the song that came on…. I Hate Everything About You by Three Days Grace.  What can I say?  It’s great to work out to!
WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
Ha ha ha!  Hey Good Lookin’.  Dang I got lucky on that one!

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
Interesting…Whisky Girl by Toby Kieth.

HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
Living in Fast Forward by Kenny Chesney.  Now it’s definitely going to be stuck in my head! 

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE’S PURPOSE?
The Woman with You by Kenny Chesney.  What are the odds of getting two of his songs randomly?  Pretty darn good when you own my ipod!  I can’t believe how perfectly matched the question and song are!

WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
Why am I doing this?  How embarrassing.  Love Shack.  Yes, you read that correctly!  Somewhere my husband is laughing his butt off.

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
Here for the Party by Gretchen Wilson.  Hey, I’ve been known to have a good one or two, just not lately!  Why do I all of a sudden feel the need to go play pool? 
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR PARENTS?
I’m about to poke my mind’s eye out at this very second.  Nookie by Limp Bizkit.  Gross, gross, gross.
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
Play Something Country by Brooks and Dunn.  Awwwwhhooowhooo… 

WHAT IS 2+2?
Two of a Kind Workin’ on a Full House by Garth Brooks.  Sounds about right!

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
Ha!  Promiscuous by Nelly Furtado.  Couldn’t be further from the truth!

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
What was I Thinking by Dierks Bently.  That’s dang hysterical.  Happens to be one of Justin’s favorite songs, my name is in it, and it takes place in Alabama.  Go figure!

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
She’s Not Just a Pretty Face by Shania Twain.  Wow, that worked out nicely!  So glad I didn’t get stuck with a terrible one on this question!
WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
Fall by Clay Walker.  Perhaps not what I’m going to be when I grow up, but certainly what I will need as I continue to grow up!
WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Sweet Home Alabama!  Well, it certainly was his idea to move here, but probably not the song I think of when I look at him!
WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
Life Ain’t Always Beautiful by Gary Allen.  True, but so sad.

WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
Save a Horse Ride a Cowboy by Big and Rich.  Gaaaaawwwd, have to admit that this was played at our wedding, and yes by our request! 

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
Brick House by the Commodores.  I’d say that while the cards have been dealt to me may be crazy, overall it’s a winning hand.

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
Love in an Elevator by Aerosmith.  This meme is doing nothing for my image!  So, I will just plead the fifth and move on.

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?

What Happens in Mexico by Toby Kieth.  If only I was on a beach right now!

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?

Lime in the Coconut.  Mmmm….midnight margaritas!

WHAT SHOULD YOU POST THIS AS?

I like to Move it.  Excellent treadmill song!

So, now to tag….

Sharah, Disenchanted,  Lemons, Sky, & Jess

No excuse if you don’t have an ipod.  Just be creative!

Dinner and Painting

Last night I had a wonderful dinner with the local ladies, and I had a wonderful time.  Thank you so much Kel for the Christmas gift!  You brought tears to my eyes and joy to my heart. 

Today we made some cookie dough, but we are so far from done.  Lucky was in a very clingy mood today, and that makes things challenging.  He didn’t even know what he wanted today.

My anniversary was last Tuesday, and we had tried to celebrate it the preceding two weeks very unsuccessfully.  So, we will try again this upcoming week. 

My birthday is on Monday, and my brother is coming in to help us celebrate.  What will we do to celebrate?  Hmmm….probably dinner.  I know, real wild over here!  So, a little back story here.  One Father’s Day my dad got to choose what he wanted to do to celebrate.  What did he choose?  He had us all do yard work for eight hours.  It was terrible but terrific.  We all slaved away, complained, but it gave us something to laugh and joke about for a long time.  So, for my birthday, I’m going to ask that my dad, brother, and husband paint our spare bedroom. Yep, that’s how I want to celebrate!  Think it will work?

Not much else to report.  I’m just hot flashin’ my way through the day.

I had no idea.

So, remember that $2,000 bill for blood tests?  I certainly do!  It turns out they tested me for immunity to the chicken pox.  I have it.  Who knew?  Not me.  Not my mother.  So, um, yeah, nobody but Dr. Local had a clue.  So, I’m in no danger according to them.  I went in for a scan, and we are officially starting IUI #4.

However, I’m still hoping the pox stay away from this home.  That would soooo not make for a good time!  Thank you for all your beautiful comments on the previous post.  You guys are too sweet!

Chicken Pox?

Warning:  There is a picture at the end of this posts. 

I’ve never had the chicken pox.  My mother’s never had them either.  My brother had an extremely mild case, meaning he can still get them too.  We were all exposed.  Southern Sister’s cousin’s children have them.  Well two of her three do, because she immunized one of the three.  So, that left the two un-imunized children miserable with chicken pox.  As of right now, SS’s daughter has a 104.3 degree fever but no rash.  They were exposed seven days ago.  So, three more days until she will know for sure whether her sunshine will end up with them.  SS daughter was immunized at a year old, and her second shot comes at age four. 

So, now we wait to see if any of us turn up with the pox.  Phone calls go out to my family physician to check into immunizations for adults, and another to Dr. Local to ask about cycling.  I’m guessing they will cancel me, but we’ll see.  Silver lining would be that I get to get in better shape before our tango with IVF in January.  Our meeting about that is on the 6th of next month.  I’m not sure if the January round is full or if we will have to wait three months from then.  We’ll keep you posted.  It wouldn’t be the end of the world, but would rather give Lucky a few more months as an only child.  I’m sure he won’t mind!

I put up family portraits on the parenting page.  We had them taken on Saturday.  Poor Justin had a 24 hour bug that made him feel sicker than a dog.  The best way to get Lucky to smile was to sing the itsy bitsy spider to him.  So imagine us all singing to him behind the photographer.  Too fun!

Black Friday was a blast!  I think I’m well on my way to done with Christmas shopping.  Just a few small things left to pick up.

Lucky is now rolling to get to where he wants to go.  I call this destination rolling.  His favorite place is right under the Christmas tree.  I guess that’s fitting, because he is the most priceless gift of all!

This is splotchy posting, and for that I apologize!  More later after my calls are complete.

Please don’t leave a comment on the parenting page though, they have to be deleted and the process is a bit tricky.  However, since you know I looooove comments, can you pretty please post them here?

To Answer Some Questions

This post is to answer some of Kim Kim’s questions.  I don’t mind answering them.

There was no coercion of Lucky’s biological mother.  She stated to social services the entire time that she was pregnant, delivering, and afterwards that she did not wish to parent.  She was offered services to help her, but she declined.  She has no home, no vehicle, no job, mental instabilities, drug addictions, and a very violent lifestyle.  She did not hold him after delivering or bring him home from the hospital.  There was no known biological father.

Lucky was born and with no drugs in his system, and for those two reasons alone I am endlessly thankful to his biological mother.  I am still close to the two people who cared for Lucky for those first five weeks of his life.  In fact, we went to visit them on Thanksgiving.  They are a part of his family our family.  I have carefully assembled as much information as I can about Lucky’s biological mother.  She wants zero to do with him.  However, I did find a way of obtaining a good bye letter from her to Lucky (a very long story.)  I also managed to get one picture of her.  I know how much this will mean to him one day.  I’ve also gotten as much information as I can about her family, childhood, and medical history. 

One day, my little man will want answers, and it’s my job to help him find them.  I will not feel threatened or that that he loves me less.  He has enough love in his heart for all of us.  What saddens me and causes me worry is that she will break his heart.  However, I will be there holding his hand and there to pick him up if he falls.

It is no secret to him that he’s adopted.  Despite the fact that he’s too young to understand, we already talk about his adoption and the day he joined our family.  We have adoption friendly reading, music, and avoid movies or shows that portray adoption in a negative light.  Our goal is to make Lucky secure, happy, well grounded, understood, and connected to his past, present, and future.  That’s all any parent can hope for.

I can relate to my son on many levels, but will not be going into depth on that subject at this point in time.  So, you’re going to have to trust me here when I say that I understand adoption is a congested highway of emotions.  With that said, I’ve never been terribly upset by adopt a highway signs.  I will never be over the top sensitive to the subject of adoption.  I’m sorry you didn’t care for the word “gotcha.”  I didn’t pick it, but I do feel it’s acceptable.  We did meet him, fall in love with him, bring him into our family, pick him up, and basically went and got him from the social worker’s office….hence gotcha. 

So, that’s that.  Any other questions?

In other news:

This IUI was a bust.  Headed to IUI number 4 now. 

Social worker comes for a visit on Wednesday.  Sounds like a good excuse to convince my husband to steam clean the carpets!

Tick Tock

Still waiting for an answer one way or another.  Pregnancy test came back negative this morning.  Today is 12 days post ovulation.  I will update one way or another when I know.  All I ask my body is to hold off  until tomorrow.  Please don’t annoy me by having to go in for blood and a scan on Black Friday!  Pleeeeease!

It appears Lucky’s fever is gone.  It had hit 103.1 the other day, and the doctor confirmed tonsillitis.  He’s much better now.

Ok, off to pack things up to stay at my parents’ house (all of nine miles away) for the holidays.  It will be fun to have the whole family under one roof.  We’re expected to get pretty bad weather, so instead of driving in it, we’ve decided to just stay there.  Then, we’re all going shopping on Friday together at the crazy crack of dawn.  So, it’s just easier and more fun.  Enjoy Thanksgiving my fellow US friends! 

My favorite day in November…

is black friday!  C’mon, you surely saw that one coming!  This year Kohl’s opens at 4 am, and I am beeeeyond excited.  Yes, that probably makes me crazy.  However, it’s fun to stand and freeze at three am outside of a department store while sipping a cup of coffee and shivering next to your mom, friend, husband, etc.  Didn’t you know?  It’s tradition for me to snag a Starbucks as soon as they open as well.  That’s just one more reason to love the day!

Last year I was sick, but the year before that I was beyond organized.  We all went through the fliers and check out what we all wanted to snag.  Mom and I holed ourselves up in the office, and I created a spreadsheet.  It had the store at the top and the time they opened, and when door busters ended.  The sheet also contained the items from that store we wanted, how many, how much it costs, and who it was for.  Each store had its own sheet.  Oh, and at the bottom was a time for how long we had in that store before we needed to make it to the next as to not miss their door busters!  Yep, I know…

Sooooo, while I will enjoy the family gathering of gluttony, and I’m looking forward to our family portraits on Saturday, I’m really excited about Friday!

Gotcha Day Story

Barely Sane just posted her Gotcha Day story about the day Sweet Pea came to them.  I’ve never truly posted about the Day Lucky came to us in length.  So, here’s the rest of the story.

It was a very random day, and my mother and I were cleaning house.  I didn’t have my phone on me, because my husband never typically calls me at that hour.  So, there I was cleaning the bathroom, and my mom casually tells me, “Hey, Beck, Justin’s called a couple of times on my phone.  You probably should call him back.  It could be important.”  So, I borrow her cell and give him a call.  He doesn’t answer, and I assume he must be in a meeting.  Two or three minutes later the phone rings.  I barely get hello out, and my husband blurts out, “Do we want a baby?”  Dumbfounded and confused I reply, “Of course we do!  Why?”

The next few moments were so filled with excitement that they began to blur.  Speaking faster that an auctioneer, Justin begins to tell me the facts, “S.ocial S.ervices called, and said that they had a perfect baby boy for our family.  He’s five weeks old.  He’s healthy.  Biracial.  Five weeks old.  Ready for adoption.”  As he tells me each detail I repeat it out loud to my mom.  I begin to get a bit misty and emotional.  “Yes!  Call them and tell them yes!” I squeal. 

The next few minutes crawl by at snail’s pace.  I begin to race around the house cleaning like a madwoman.  My mind races even faster.  Is this real?  Is this truly happening?  Am I truly about to become a mother just like that?  Man oh man, I didn’t see this coming!  The phone rings, and I nearly jump ten feet off the floor.  “He’s ours!  They’re going to call us and tell us when we can get him.”  My heart skips at least ten beats.  “Are you serious?” I say in absolute disbelief.  “Yes!” my husband says with palpable excitement.

It was about an hour later, and the social worker calls me.  I could barely squeak out a hello in my nervous excitement.  The first thing I say to her is, “I can’t believe this is happening!”  Thankfully she laughed and said that she knew we would be over the moon.  She gave us a pick up time of 3 pm, and it was currently 11 am.  We had four hours to prepare for our son’s arrival.  Before I could even dial my husband’s phone, he rang and told me he was on his way home.  A phone call went out to my dad.

My mom and I rush to my house to meet my husband, and begin picking up, taking stock of what we have, what we need, and grabbing some lunch.  In preparation to become parents, we already owned a car seat, changing table, and crib.  Justin rushed to install the car seat, while I took stock of our clothing options.  We all started a type of nesting that made us look like we were on fast forward.  Beds were being made, the crib was being moved, and floors vacuumed.  At two, we couldn’t handle the wait any longer.  On our way, I looked at Justin and said, “We didn’t bring an outfit for him!”  So, we made a stop at the only place on the way….W.al-M.art.  We picked up a super cute little something.

At this point, my heart was in my throat, and reality has had the pause button.  This was not even on my map.  I never would have guessed this would happen.  They told us our odds were minuscule and practically laughed at us.  Yet, here we were pulling into the parking lot to go pick up our little boy.  Justin then turned to me and said, “Are you ready?”  I looked at him, and just had no words.  I just smiled and squeezed his hand. 

Once we entered, we were quickly ushered into a back room.  Here we met with the social worker, who gave us his name, weight, age, and situation.  We’re told his birth story, family history, and prognosis.  All of which excited us, because it was clear that we shouldn’t have any roadblocks.  Then, we were left alone for over twenty minutes.  You could hear a pin drop in the room.  Neither of us said a word.  Perhaps we were afraid of jinxing something. 

Then, in walked the social worker, a woman, a man, and a teeny tiny eight pound baby with the most gorgeous black hair and blue eyes you’ve ever seen.  The woman carrying the baby had taken him home from the hospital, despite not being related in any way to the baby.  She was there through the pregnancy and delivery.  She clearly loved this baby, but knew she couldn’t care for him.  Her age and health would not allow it.  After going over every detail of his personality and going into serious detail on how to make a bottle, she finally relinquished him to me.  I scooped him up, and pulled him close.  I simply couldn’t fathom that this baby was coming home with us.

We talked to the couple for about forty minutes, and made it clear to them that we weren’t going to cut them out of his life.  We’ve stood by our word, and talk to them weekly, and meet monthly.  Finally, we all parted ways, and I sat in the backseat of the car with the baby.  I call my parents in such amazement.  They have me describe every little detail of him.  It’s clear that they are pacing and waiting for us to arrive.  Justin calls his parents from the front seat.  My father is the first to barrel out of the house, but only because he tricked my mom into thinking he needed something from the car.  She didn’t realize we were in her driveway.  He’ll never live this one down.

As soon as we enter the emotions in the room overflow.  Mom is moved to tears, dad can’t stop smiling, I join mom, and Justin began pacing.  Before allowing them to hold our new bundle of joy, our first family photo was taken. 

At this point, we were are all ravenous.  So, we take two vehicles and head to a local Mexican food restaurant.  As we paid the bill, none of us can believe this is real.  Our next stop was to B.abies R Us to fill those two vehicles with a bouncy seat, bottles, blankets, bibs, binkies, and more.  Upon pulling into our driveway, we noticed two big balloons on our mailbox.  One giant one stating, “It’s a boy!”  I about lost it.  Southern Sister and her mother had put them there, and SS was literally waiting in her driveway for us to get home.

There has been no shortage of love for our surprise miracle.  He is the one who reminds me to believe in miracles.  He brings me hope, and reminds me of all that is good and exciting in this world.   

The Wild Side?

Bri over at Tripping Gracefully just posted about reflecting on our life and the paths we choose, moments we share, and how our time is spent through the years.

Will I have one of those moments where I’m eighty and I fess up about the tattoo that I got on a blind date with a co-worker of my father’s?  Will I admit that I went skinny dipping in Cancun?  Will I feel the need to explain how on Earth a photo of me wrapped in caution tape, wearing a feather boa, and passed out on a curb came about? (I know exactly who’s to blame for such things.  Other than myself of course!) Yes, all of which are my finer moments.

How will my life be viewed by my children?  Will I be seen as the straight “A” hard studying bookworm that I was in high school?  Or, will I be seen as the girl who wore the smokin’ dress to the prom?  Will I be seen as the girl who lied and said she was allergic to beer in college to avoid peer pressure to drink?  Or, will I be seen as the girl who was brave enough to go and get bags of condoms from the nurse for everybody in the dorm? (The nurse would fill a brown lunch bag of them, and everybody in their brother would come to me for a condom.  Hey, I was all about the safe sex.)

I want my life to be balanced.  I want to look back on my life and say, “Wow!  She really lived.”  However, I will never be that woman who lives for a wild night.  Nope, I’m a girl who loves flannel pajamas, a good cup of coffee, green tea, watching movies on the couch, playing cards, and just enjoying the quieter side of life.  I enjoy going to bed early and getting up early and time spent with family.  I’m a jeans and baseball hat type of girl.  There is nothing wild about my life, but rest assured that I am wild about it!

So, how do you strike balance?

Can you smell that?

Scene:  In the car headed towards B.abies R Us.

Becky:  “Can you smell that?”

Mom:  “No.”

B:  “It smells like he’s pooping.”

M (a minute later):  “Oh yeah, I can smell it now!”

Scene:  Inside the B.abies R Us bathroom.  Becky unsnaps the pants of Lucky’s overalls to discover a huge explosion of nastiness in his pants.

B:  “Oh my.  Holy crap!  It’s everywhere!”

M:  “You aren’t kidding!  What did you eat Lucky?!”

The events that ensued after this point were so nasty that I dare not describe them for fear of nightmares this evening.  Let’s just put it this way.  My little guy walked through the store in his diaper, and we got many strange looks.  However, he went home in a really cute new outfit. 

Fast forward to this morning, and I’m feeding him pears.  In goes food, and out comes not only a sneeze, but the pears too.  My first thought, “At least I like pears.”  My second thought, “I wonder if they are good for your complexion?” 

Isn’t motherhood glamorous?  I say that with a smile, because these are the moments (while stinky and icky) I wouldn’t trade for a million bucks!