Real Messy

My sister was in town this weekend and she has an awesome knack for un-hoarding my house. (One of) the main problem(s) in my house is the 'C' word: CLUTTER. Piles of mail, every damn worksheet Claire's touched with the tip of a pencil, SO MANY shoes and ... my weakness - magazines.

I have a love/hate relationship with magazines. I love getting them and eventually reading them, but that's the catch. I never have time to actually read them. They just collect and build up and glare at me. Ironically they feature articles on organizing, time management and cleaning ones friggin home!

I counted all of the magazines I'm currently housing. 31. Thirty one! And that's not counting the weekly issues of Us that I get and donate to work. Real Simple is my favorite. But then there's O, Everyday with Rachael Ray, and MORE. I literally don't even know where/how I signed up for them. I just keep getting them.

My sis was so helpful that she sat down and probably spent the better part of two hours tracking all of the subscriptions down and canceling them for me.

I'm half serious about posting these photos on Craigslist just to see if I could sell them. I can't throw them away or recycle. They need to go to a good home. Maybe donate them? But where? Any ideas?

Party of ONE

I'm in Columbia for the rest of the workweek for a conference. I heart CoMo. Anytime I get a chance to go to my old stompin grounds I take it! Some if my BEST years were spent as a Mizzou Tiger.

Went to The Pasta Factory with the entire CoMo family plus my uncle who's also in town for a conference. Got to visit with my Nannie, two of my fave aunts and uncles, two of my sweet cousins and my parents. Thanks For dinner Uncle Dave!

This pic of my cousin Sami and I kills me. I used to babysit him several times a week in college. It's how I made my 'going to the 'Vu or Trops' $. Now he's taller than me and has a drivers permit! I used to change his diapers?! Love ya kid (and your lil' bro Jack).

I present at the conference tomorrow afternoon. Wish me luck. I always induce diarrhea worrying about presentations like this.

Oh and P.S. I totally get to stay in a hotel for TWO nights BY MYSELF!!! Moms of young kids will know what I'm getting at here. BY MYSELF!! BIG bed. With only ME in it! AND I must be in a handicapped accessible room bc the layout is very generous, especially in the bathroom AND there's a HUGE tub. So you KNOW what I'm doing tomorrow night as a reward for rocking this conference's socks off!

Nighty night!

Mittelschmerz

I can't even think about posting right now because I'm ovulating and it literally hurts worse than my C-section did.

Speaking of painful C-sections...did you see Walking Dead last night?! R. I. P. Lori :(

"Happy 'ween!"

The Lowder girls had a spooky Halloween this year. Claire really wanted to be an angel this year. So eve's costume was a no-brainer: a little devil. We had dinner at Grammy's before trick or treating in her neighborhood. We don't really have a subdivision in our neighborhood with sidewalks and its not the safest to walk around, so we've been going to Grammy's neighborhood since Claire was a baby. They have wonderfully nice neighbors and everyone congregates on their driveways with the firepits going. Some houses hand out hot cocoa, cider and have s'mores station. Fun times! Eve seemed to like trick or treating and of course the candy but she really loved looking at very ones decorations and jack O lanterns. She was THE most polite devil ever. She said thank you and 'happy ween!' To everyone. When Claire got back to the house we weighed her candy bag and it came in at 4 pounds!!!

So...yeahhhh....

Um, I kinda forgot I used to write a blog and really enjoy it. I got, shall I say, BUSY, being on bedrest, having a baby 7 weeks early, having a lovely/crazy maternity leave, returning to work after 5 months of disability, raising said preemie along with her big sister, staying happily married to my husband of over 8 years, starting a private practice, taking vacations, blah, blah, blah.

Eve in my belly

proud BIG sister

Introducing Eve Isabelle, 4lb 7oz, perfection.

 

Claire turned 5!

 

 

 

 

Claire started Kindergarten.

 

 Eve turned ONE!

 

Claire turned 6!

 

Claire lost her first tooth!

 I participated in the AVON Walk for Breast Cancer in Chicago. 13.1 miles on the first day!

 

Claire started first grade.

 

 

 

Stay tuned...

stream of consciousness

i'm bored. mike is at the flat making some repairs with his dad. we got an offer on the flat and we hope to close on dec 20! this is huge and will really help b/c i've been on disability and probably will be until i come back from maternity leave. i'm going to miss the place, but we haven't lived there in 4+ years and we're ready to not be landlords anymore.

i have NO friggin' idea of what to get mike for christmas!! we agreed to just do $20 stocking stuffers this year. given that i can't really shop and he's given me NO hints ... I AM CLUELESS! any ideas?

Claire and i just got our hair cut. Claire's is a little shorter than i anticipated but it looks pretty and healthy and we can actually get a comb through it without all the tangles she had with her long hair. she looks older and taller *tear*.

OB update: i've gained about 3 lbs back since the 7 or so i gained at the hospital. i've had a picc line and tpn for a little over 2 weeks and i'm very slowly making progress. mostly it looks like less nausea in the mornings, but i'm still pretty sick at night. baby girl is doing well and we get to have another ultrasound on Dec 6 to see how she's growing. lots of ultra sounds are one benefit of having a high risk pregnancy i guess!

today after mike gets home we're going to another thanksgiving at his mom's house. here's hoping i can eat one of my favorite meals!

it's been a while

i just read my last post. i had forgotten how good i felt right after getting the pump. things are pretty different now. i had to go to the ER for the third time on Oct 23 and they ended up admitting me to antepartum for 3 days. i gained some weight back in the hospital, i was down over 22 pounds. my OB put me on bedrest, so i've been at home for the last 3 weeks or so. the nausea and vomitting has actually gotten worse, but in general i think the bedrest is really good for me. it was getting increasingly difficult to maintain a regular work week much less a work day. now all i have to worry about is resting and trying to eat.

in the hospital we found out we're having a GIRL!! everyone is super excited to have another little princess around the lowder house. we got to see some 3D images of her and i think she's beautiful. although i readily admit the 3D pictures are fairly creepy.

my mom has come up the last two weekends and that's been a huge help. mike's needed to do some work on the flat in the city, so i'm not alone with claire all day. last night she made my grandpa stallone's sauce and meatballs and i wanted to eat it soo bad.  so i did! and actually kept it down. that's huge for me as i haven't been able to eat dinner in weeks and rarely keep stuff down in the evening.

so i'll probably be home until baby girl arrives. company and phone calls are always welcomed! it helps to break up my day.