Gratitude

As I sit here relaxing in the a/c on a hot, humid Mississippi Saturday morning, I know what I should be doing. I should be writing the Thank You notes for the gifts we received at my baby shower two weeks ago.

I've started a couple times now.
I sit down at the table, Hallmark cards and pen ready to go, accompanied by the notebook pages full of gift givers and the description of their gift.
The last few times I've started this process, I just end up crying.
No.
Weeping.

I generally try to keep my posts light-hearted and funny, but I have just been downright emotional lately and I'm just going to use the scapegoat of HORMONES.

The reason I get so weepy is because I look at the list of names of my wonderful family and friends and realize that for most of them, this is the THIRD time in less than two years that I've sat down to attempt at showing my gratitude on a 3x5 inch piece of cardstock I picked up from the Hallmark shop. This is the third time I've been brought to tears at the generosity and love shown to me by these people. This is the third time in less than two years there's been more love out-poured to me and my little family than some people are fortunate enough to have in their entire lives.

We are so blessed. 

And I don't mean by the nice gifts, the practical items, the fancy outfits or the cutesy baby toys. Those things are great, and I'm thankful that you helped me fill our newlywed home with kitchen gadgets and home essentials in the fall of 2012. I'm also grateful for the home-cooked meals, cards, and gifts you sent last year while I was dealing with a thyroid cancer diagnosis and two surgeries in 3 months.

The real blessing here isn't in those actual items though, it's that we're surrounded by the love and care of so many people who take the time out of their busy lives to do these things for us.

And I just feel completely cheap and unable to completely express my heartfelt gratitude on these little cards when I'm reminded of all that's been done for us.

Alright, but really...  I just wanted to take a moment and write about how thankful I am for the blessings in my life. In other news - I'll be getting the Thank You notes out soon and if you are looking for me the rest of this summer, just look for anywhere with A/C or a body of water and that's where I'll be.

Image source: Huffington Post

"You're Going to be a Grandma!"

So I'm in my third trimester now... Yes, really. We're just 12 short weeks (or less) away from having our Baby Girl here in our arms. Since 28 weeks have quickly come and gone, I figured now was as good of a time as any for me to share with y'all how we told our moms/families the big news.

If you know me, then you know that Mama Bear Humphrey and I are very close and keeping this news a secret from her for EIGHT weeks was hard. But as soon as we got that BFP (big fat positive), Kevin asked me if we could tell his family first, since they live 10 hours away and won't be around the baby as much as my family. 

His request made sense and I agreed, so I struggled to keep our big secret through numerous Christmas outings with my family and smiled and nodded through the usual questions of, "When are YOU going to start a family!?" I just knew my mom was going to figure it out. But she didn't. Although now she says that she thought I'd changed makeup, because one day that she saw me, I was just glowing.

I knew right away how I wanted to tell them and I quickly found an artist out of New Orleans who could make what I wanted. I found Rhythms of Grace on Etsy and she was happy to create 2 custom handpainted ornaments that our moms would open as a Christmas present.

We told Kevin's mom first, on Christmas morning in St. Louis:

And we told my mom 3 days later once we were back in Mississippi:



The moms got the same ornament and the dads got this cute coffee mug (ordered from Cafepress). While the future grandpas were equally excited, their reactions weren't on film like the grandmas. So you'll just have to imagine they reacted the same way. ;)

P.S. As cute as the reactions were of the grandmas-to-be, my favorite part of both videos is how you can hear Kevin's giggle as he's recording.

For my readers who are mamas, how did you tell your parents the big news?

The Krewe of Kowalewski

Since this year I'm not participating in the raucous behavior of Mardi Gras (or St. Patrick's Day, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, or summer boating days, I need to plan this better next time), I decided to have a little carnival season fun with our Facebook pregnancy announcement and gender unveiling.

The Facebook announcement seen by many.

Digital invitation for Gender "Unveiling"

My main goal for having this party was to do something easy and affordable. I didn't want to spend a ton of money, because any extra money we have, I want to be able to buy stuff for the baby. Rather than buying lots of blue and pink stuff, I figured at least Mardi Gras decorations would be used again.

Now as far as gender reveal parties go, 1) they get real cheesy in a hurry and 2) we knew the sex of the baby, our guests did not. It was hard to find Pinterest examples of how to do it, so I kind of went rogue and did my own thing. Three weeks ago, our doctor was 90% sure the baby was a boy. Three days ago when we went for our confirmation, Baby K is a girl. So there was that component thrown into the mix, as well.

What we ended up with was a Mardi Gras-themed gender surprise for a few of our closest family and friends. Our house is tiny, so that was another challenge, to keep the crowd at a minimum.

I decided on Thursday that since the surprise was for our guests and not us, that we would do something interactive. An entire batch of cupcakes with King Cake babies in them. One cupcake would have a special baby with a blue or pink ribbon tied around it. I went on a quest to find ~20 plastic babies... On the Friday before Mardi Gras... Not my smartest move ever. I was nearly cussed out and got hung up on by a lady in the bakery at Rouses. Wal-Mart laughed at me. It would've cost me $63 to have 24 over-nighted from an online site. Finally, I decided to call Michaels. They weren't "king cake babies," but rather baby shower favors. Nevertheless, Friday night I acquired my babies for Saturday morning's party.

Enough with the my blabbing. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. If the way I feel today is any indication of how the party went, then it was a great party because I AM WHOOPED. My entire body hurts as if I actually was out partying at a ball all night. 

Whew. 

Pregnancy is letting me know who's boss.

Saturday morning I made the cupcakes. I shoved a baby (head-first, Kevin insisted it would be bad luck to put the babies in the cupcakes in the breech position) into each cupcake.

All the cupcakes have been babied.

The final two. I marked the bottom of THE cupcake with a piece of
ribbon and tape so I would be able to feel it without looking as I passed
out the cupcakes. Yes, I had an intended receiver of the lucky cupcake.

It's party time!

Living room decor.

Dining table decor.

More living room decor.

My first time working with deco-mesh. That stuff is not as easy to work
with as it seems. Sheesh. It was a chore to get this little swag done.

I cleaned for days and decorated for hours and this is where everyone hung out!

But we had beautiful weather, so I couldn't complain.

More of my outdoor guests.

It wouldn't be a good southern, Mardi Gras party without a tasty menu, right? Here are a couple shots of what I actually remembered to snap:

Corn salad. And yes, I added some colorful ingredients
to match the theme. I was proud of my cabbage cutting skillz.

Kevin's jambalaya. The rice had overcooked and gotten mushy by
the end of the party when I remembered to take the picture. :)

My first stab at a chicken and sausage gumbo. It was excellent.
Some shrimp did sneak their way in, though, too, accidentally. :)

 And now for the roster of who was Team Girl and Team Boy:

8 for girl, although Aunt Debbie (upper right corner) thought
there were two, so she was on both teams.

7 for boy, counting Aunt Debbie again. LOL

Apologies to Caitlin and Hugh, I forgot to get individual pics of them, so I had to crop them out of random crowd shots I got... Oops. SORRY. ;)

And for the big announcement... drumroll please... 

Grammy-to-be got the lucky cupcake, IT'S A GIRL!

We had a great time and I'm glad we had the party, but I forgot how much work it is to play hostess! Hope you've enjoyed the long version of how we pulled off a Mardi Gras-themed gender reveal party. For our friends and family who weren't able to be there, we hope you can feel like you were there with us through the pictures! :)

Blog Revival

My hero/endocrinologist, Dr. Waguespack

Hello? Oh hi, there blogosphere! It’s me. I’m still here. Alive. And kicking. I’ve been doing a lot of blog reading lately, but embarrassingly enough, NO writing. The sad part about this situation is I FINALLY have fun, happy news to blog about!

Shortly after my last post wishing the ol’ blog a Happy Birthday, I went back for a 6-month checkup at MD Anderson in Houston. My bloodwork and ultrasounds looked GREAT and I got a clean bill of health, so much so that my doctor doesn’t need to see me again for a year. JACKPOT.

In the days following that good news, we celebrated and almost bought a house (whew, what a mistake that would have been). A few short weeks later, one trip to the bathroom would change our lives FOREVER.

Dramatic, right? Don't worry, our toilet is nowhere near this clean.

I peed on an over-priced piece of white plastic and it said something like,
“OMG SHEILA, YOU ARE PREGNANT!” 
Okay so the test itself didn’t exactly say that, but that’s what I was thinking as I quietly went into the other room and said, “Kevin, will you come look at something?” I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t crazy and there was DEFINITELY a blue plus sign there. I was afraid to even touch it for fear that the blue dye would erase like an etch-a-sketch.

The faintest blue line I've ever seen. But it was there!
I even asked the ladies in my NFP group for reassurance!
(12/2/2013)

Thirty dollars and a few more tests later, I decided it was time to call my doctors. Yes. More than 1. More than 2 actually. I have a TEAM of doctors on the case for this little bambino to make sure we both stay healthy.

This is the snapchat I sent Kevin
from the Ritz in NOLA. I was on a
work trip and just had to do another test.
CLASSY! (12/3/2013)

The third and final test I took before Kevin told me I was
insane to keep buying tests! (12/5/2013)

I immediately started the lovely Lovenox injections in my stomach twice a day because of my history of blood clots in 2012. It’s a good thing I’m not the type who’d want the bare-bellied maternity shots taken, because this bruised stomach is not pretty. I’m already storing these kinds of nuggets away for when I have a piss-ant teenager who I need to put in line, “I did not give myself shots in the stomach twice a day to be talked back to by a smart-aleck teenager!” 

We told our families on Christmas Day (the Kowalewskis in Missouri) and a few days later (my parents in Mississippi). 

I’ll save that for a later post.

P.S. We have videos and they’re great.