Ch Ch Ch Changes

Life has been all about changes lately.  Changes in Evan's call schedule (not for the better), changes in my business (hopefully for the better), changes in our home (the living room is looking fabulous), and changes in my life overall.

Evan's Call Schedule

Evan's been working really hard lately.  I know that's no exception, but lately has been tough.  Any time he has been on call it's been a rough day and night.  He has just had really sick patients that nearly die and I know the pressure on him is daunting.  And I have to be completely honest and say that while sometimes I'm a kind wife about it, sometimes I also just get exhausted and take it out on him.  It's something I need to work on.  I know this is the life we'll have for 5 years.  I know that.  But when I'm being selfish (which I am certainly guilty of at times) it's hard to be level headed.  Last night he got home early, wasn't on call, and it was fabulous.  We cuddled on the couch lots, kissed lots, and just got to enjoy time together.  Just what we needed!  Divine.

Changes in the business

I've been really busy rebranding my business.  I've known for the longest time that I wanted to change the name of the business and couldn't find a name until I finally settled on Lacey Fields (Lacefield is our last name so it's kinda a play on words).  I really loved it and I've had so much fun designing for it!  Here's the new look:

the new website is found at laceyfields.etsy.com

I need to make the website and I need to work on taking new pictures of all the prints etc etc (deisgn more etc).  But for now this is progress!  And I like this progress! 

I'll update on the other changes in another post, when that post does happen.  But for now, here's a lovely parting gift for you:

I'm the deal of the week on mom365.com!  Want 20% off?  Go to laceyfields.etsy.com and put in coupon code MOM365 for 20% off your ENTIRE purchase and it'll last an entire week!  Sounds like love is in the air huh?

Renovation Explosion

I don't know if it's the time of year.  Maybe it's the fact that it's cold out and we want to stay in.  I chalked it up to the pregnancy hormones last year.  But it happened again, and to the two of us ...

The Renovation Explosion happened at Casa Lacefield the last few weekends.

It all started when we were sitting down in our livingroom and realized it just still wasn't right.  And then we turned our heads to the right and saw the dining room and kitchen made us squirm.  As much as I'd like to say we can take credit for it all, the fact of the matter is I was out of my league with it all.  I'm not an interior decorator (although I sure as heck feel like one after all this experience!).  We decided for Christmas we'd hire someone to give us an e-design of our living room and dining room. Let me tell you... money WELL spent.  We hired Sita at Family Room Design.  It took a long while to get everything done, partly b/c she had sick kiddos and then we had the whole debacle of no power and Gloria in the hospital, but E and I weren't in any kind of hurry so it didn't phase us. What we liked is the results.  She sent us this:

 We were SO happy!  SO SO happy.  The only part that Evan wasn't crazy about was the chevron rug but I insisted it stay .... stay tuned for that. ;)

Our plan was to purchase SOME of what she sent us (for instance, I ordered the EXACT coffee table) and then to try and find budget friendly similar finds for the rest.  So far, it's going AWESOME!

Just as a reminder, here is what the livingroom looked like BEFORE we started all of this ...

 

AND ... VERY VERY VERY much so in progress ... here it is today! :)

So different right?  We got rid of the love seat and found these two chairs on clearance at Kirklands!  SCORE!  Then we found that big mirror ORIGINALLY for our master bedroom and then decided we loved it here so that was from TJ maxx (as so is the rug).  We hung a TV on the wall.  And the little table and lamp by the sofa was from Target and we just spray painted the table to match. We spent two nap sessions over the weekend painting the fireplace wall the same color as the trim.  Lightens it up SO much!

We still have LOTS and LOTS to do, but are so in love with the progress.

Now you'll notice the carpet.  I ordered it and got $50 off overstock b/c I'm the queen at finding online coupons.  BUT when we put it there it just wasn't us.  I mean, we liked it, but weren't IN LOVE and we've decided that if we're going all out we wanna LOVE it all.

SO ... Evan said "wanna try it in your office before returning it?"

LOVE it!  Excuse the HUGE mess that is my office.  I'm aware.  It's a nightmare.  I clean it and it gets horrible within 2 days.  This office is in major need of a renovation and that's on our to-do list, especially since it's the room where I spend the majority of the day in!

I know what you're thinking, wow that's a lot to do in two weekends.  But we're not done.  We also added to the master bedroom renovation too!   Remember that mirror in the "before" of the livingroom?  Look familiar?

This room is still VERY much so in progress too, but that chair was a STEAL for $45 at Tj Maxx (it had a knick on the leg that made it from $120 to $45 but I just took a furniture marker and it's good as new ... can't see anything can ya?) We're goign to spray paint the mirror a silver and need some knobs for poor Evan's dresser, but this one's coming along too.

And here's the best part ... my text from Evan this morning:

"Don't hate me.  I think I want to renovate our bathroom."

Half a Year Old? You're Our Big Girl!

My Gloria baby:

I'm sorry this is over a week late!  Daddy just wrote his to you tonight too.  It's just been a crazy crazy few weeks.  Heck it's been a crazy month!  We went from the hospital, to no power, to your sweet Abu having a horrbile fall, and now a weekend at home where nothing seemed to go our way.

But we want you to know.  We want you to know just how darn special you are to us. 

At your 6 month appointment your weight was in the 65th percentile, your height was in the 90th percentile, and your head in the 80th! Overall: BIG gal! :)  Just like your sissy.  We might have premie girls, but not premie sized!  haha.  You're in size 3 diapers and 6 month clothing (or 6-9 month clothing).

SO this month.  You've been pretty incredible.  You feed yourself your own bottle, sit for long periods of time, roll around, have started scooting backwards now too!  You smile ALL THE TIME.  Just somebody looking in your direction = a smile.  You LOVE your jumperoo.  After feeding you go in it and will jump away for an hour, literally just laughing and giggling.

You're grabbing on to EVERYTHING now.  No more having things in front of us without you knocking them over, etc.  Daddy and I have commented that our lives are about to get pretty nuts with your being mobile.  Your sissy is a 150% full-time job, but her favorite thing on Earth is being with you. She gets SO excited when she sees that you're awake playing.  Mommy often comes in to the room to see her speaking with you, telling you things like "your sister Liliana loves you so much Gloria!" or "Gloria I'm going to get you your pacifier to make you feel better!  Don't worry your sister Liliana is here!"  You hold hands together and you're starting to reach out trying to stroke her hair.  She loves it.

The biggest thing that happened this month though?  You got really sick on us.  It was probably the roughest week Mommy and Daddy have ever had as parents.  Your Daddy was there with you so brilliantly.  He slept in the hospital with you many nights, as did Grammy.  I spent many days with you, making sure that you got better on us.  You had a horrible case of RSV that took nearly a week in a hospital with a feeding tube and oxygen.  You had me scared.  I'm not going to lie.  But your beautiful face, smile, and laugh helped every single day.

I don't think we can say just how EASY going you are.  We go out all day on the weekends and you just go along willing to let us do anything.  You sleep twelve hours MINIMUM at night, you fall asleep on your own and have never had to "cry it out" longer than 20 seconds (seriously, no exaggeration).

OH OH ... and one last thing.... you've said FOUR words!  YES, FOUR of them!  Mommy is in SHOCK!  She didn't know babies spoke this early!  But you've said "hermana, Mama, Dada, and habla!"  (habla = talk in Spanish and hermana = sister)  I got a video of you saying "habla" for Daddy and he was SO excited to have been able to see it.  You are such a brilliant stinker!  I have a feeling we will have a very loud house for the next 18 years with you two girls in our home.  We are so blessed to have you two.  So blessed to have you my Gloria.  You are my darling.  I adore you.

Mommy

The 2013 Resolutions!

For some reason I really like the idea of New Years Resolutions.  I make them every single year and usually do a great job at fulfilling them.  I don't give myself BROAD goals.  I think those are mistakes, impossible, and defeating.  I also don't do things that will completely turn my life around.  I do little things that I've wanted to take control of.  And I know that I'm OCD enough to do it if I say I'm going to.

This year I gave myself THREE specific, completely achievable goals:

(1) Go Back to Exercise Being #1: I was on bed rest with Gloria and while yes, I've lost a good amount of that baby weight, I'm not the toned person that I wish I was!  My goal isn't necessarily to look thin.  That's not at at all the only thing I care about.  I like having a toned butt b/c my husband keeps telling me his word for me is "irresistible."  As long as he keeps thinking that, we're good and I want to keep working at it! :) I didn't work out ONCE in December.  The first half of the month I was working 70/80/90 hours a week.  Then the hospital stay and no power around the city cut the last two weeks out.  Working out/ exercise is my biggest hobby.  It makes me feel great about myself, it's something Evan and I like doing together, and it's just very important to me as a person.  I have always said I would never be the wife to let my body go, that would be ok with just being thin and not fit, and didn't care as much about my appearance.  I want my husband to find me attractive forever...and I want to feel good about myself.  It's all one in the same.

(2) Spanish with the girls: My girls speaking Spanish is incredibly important to me.  I'm not nearly as strict about Spanish being spoken at the house as I should be.  I don't have the luxury of sending my children to a school where they speak Spanish like my brother and his wife do.  SO it's up to me.  And I now am ONLY speaking Spanish with Liliana and Gloria at the house.  In just ONE week, I already notice a difference.  Liliana already started using more words in Spanish and I know she's a sponge so this is the age to work on it.

(3) The Teeth:  OK so I have a huge confession. I'm horrible about taking care of my teeth.  I'm blessed.  I've never had a cavity, braces, retainer ... none of it!  So many nights when we get in to bed, I get under the covers and just get so comfy ... I can't convince myself to get back up and brush my teeth.  So ... I don't.  And yeah.  That's disgusting.  So my other resolution (pathetic and horrid I know) is to use mouth wash and brush twice a day.  I got this "Crest 3d White" toothpaste and mouthwash.  I'm pretty sure they're whiter.  Evan says they are.  He also knows what to say when I ask. ;)

So that's it ... I'm all SET ... Spanish, Exercise, Teeth.  Yeah I went there.

C'mon 2013

2013 just has to start better than 2012 ended.  And so far it has.  I mean, I have both of my children home AND our house isn't 40 degrees.

YES that was pretty much the last month of our life.  Really and truly I try to keep complaining out of our lives but I think December was just pretty damn crappy.

Things started going sour on December 15th.  Gloria just started vomiting her entire bottles.  And when I say vomiting, I mean it got all over EVERYTHING.  Completely soaked her burp clothes, my entire outfit, the carpet, etc.  It wasn't normal and my Mom radar was very concerned.  Evan convinced me to wait another day and then on Sunday she continued the horrible vomiting and developed a fever.  Evan and I decided that if she didn't keep any food down or have any wet diapers we'd go to the ER.

Once we got to the ER they told us she had RSV and that it would probably be a 24-48 hour hospital stay.  Turns out, she was much sicker than anyone anticipated and within 24 hours of her being in the hospital, we were told she was the sickest baby with RSV at the entire hospital.  She moved to an intermediate care floor b/c they couldn't monitor her closely enough in the infant toddler unit.  The feeding tube went in.  And I just was a big mess.

I called our mother-in-law (couldn't call my parents yet because they were on a cruise, but that's coming later).  She later told me that she couldn't understand me.  I don't even remember crying.  But I think I was just panicked.  Nobody wants their baby on an intensive floor.  Nobody wants their baby with the highest level of oxygen and a feeding tube.  She saved the day by staying with us for a week and stayed in the hospital a couple nights so Evan and I could sleep together at home.  It was such a blessing just being wrapped in Evan's arms.  Evan was so stressed through it all and coming home with Gloria was truly a Christmas gift.

Things like this make you realize so many things.  I realized what good friends we've made here in Little Rock.  We had a package delivered to the hospital, we had three dinners brought for us from friends and some of Evan's co-workers.  We had flowers and a care package arrive.  But ... it's more than that.  It's my brother and parents writing us every single day (minimally once a day), it's my family (my extended PR family) constantly texting and calling to see how she was doing.  THOSE are the ones that meant so much.  It makes you realize who is important to you and just how lucky we are to have so many people that love our baby girls (also interesting to see who couldn't take the time to be troubled to ask about her, but during that time I had more important things to worry about).

On Christmas day, we were having a CHILL day.  We were SO thrilled about that.  We had originally planned on going to San Antonio but Gloria wasn't healthy enough to do that so staying behind but as a healthy family was all we cared about.  THEN at 3 pm, zap ... the power in our house went out and Little Rock was hit with the biggest snow storm they've had in years.  We spent Christmas evening huddled by a fire that wasn't doing much, shivering, worrying about keeping Gloria healthy, and eating crappy sandwiches.  Fortunately we found refuge the next day (the house had gotten down to 52 by then) at Evan's aunts house.  140,000 people were still without power but she was one of the first in the city to get power back so we stayed with them for days.  DAYS.  Being without powero until the new year and not getting cable or internet back for 2 weeks meant my business was non-existent.

And now my post of pure complaining is done.  Because we have power.  I'm working on the business right now and Gloria is back at school today for the first time in 3 weeks.  I am so thankful for those luxuries we have now.  I am so thankful for the husband I have.  He was my rock through this all.  He worked constantly to take care of us through the power outages.  He was the most AMAZING father staying at the hospital more than anyone else over night since he had to work during the day.  I am sure he was purely exhausted but he is beyond obsessed with our girls and I am beyond obsessed with him.  We have said that this last month was probably the most challening we've had as a married couple and definitely as parents.  And we made it through without one argument and just repeatedly thanked one another for being eachother's perfect match. 

So SO LONG 2012.  I definitely won't miss you.  But I sure am looking forward to 2013. :)