A Baby Bump Worth Blogging About

Today I am now 29 1/2 weeks pregnant and I feel like something isn't quite clicking...
Everyone asks me how I am, and I wanna say ready to get this baby out of me, but all I can say is I'm good... I feel like being pregnant should be the happiest time of my life, but I am miserable most days. She does put a smile on my face when she moves or makes my belly jump, but for the most part I am just ready to have my body back.
Don't get me wrong I totally love her with all my heart and I am excited to be a mom I just feel like this needs to end. haha
I guess you can call me a complainer, and that I will admit I am. I can't say for sure why I'm not totally enjoying being pregnant, and my next pregnancy may be totally different, but at this point when I see another pregnant woman I feel sorry for her, when I used to think they were precious. I feel like I'm not alone in this, but to the women out there that had a perfectly easy pregnancy...YOU SUCK...and to those who totally enjoyed every second...God Bless You!!!

But now that I am done complaining and whining I said I would put up baby bump pictures and that was 6 months ago...so to catch you up.



2 Months Pregnant




3 Months Pregnant



4 Months Pregnant



5 Months Pregnant




6 Months Pregnant




Our Little Delaney



A "Plan"

Well it's been a while since I have blogged and I would much rather blog then write my research paper...so blogging it is.
Life has been very crazy here lately, between 2 jobs, a full course load at school, tons of homework and actually trying to have a relationship with my husband in between it all, life is stressing me out!!!!
And then came march 16th - a day me or j will never forget. I had missed my cycle in February and march and we headed to the doctor. That afternoon we found out that I was 2 months pregnant and that we would be parents in October. We were a little shocked to say the least. Our plan was to wait till I finished college and began teaching and then start our family, but God had other ideas.
We are very excited about being parents, Jonathan a little more then I expected, but when I sit and really think about it, it still seems so unreal. It feels like just yesterday I was graduating high school and not planning on settling down anytime soon. And it seems like not days ago I fell in love with my amazing husband, who saved me from myself and so many past memories. And now we are planning for a child. This 22 year old college student is planning for a child. I sometimes feel like any plans I make never really go that way, but I know in the end that what God plans is always better then any plan I can come up with.
The stress of this all is really getting to me, and I feel like with so many other things on my mind I haven't had time to really think about having a baby.
I am so glad this semester is almost over and I will have the whole summer to prepare, after all the baby's room is our storage/office at the moment. Lol

Hopefully I can get some pictures on here soon of my baby bump, and we find out may 11th if we are having a boy or girl!!!! So so excited!!!!

My Name

Last week I had to write a paper for my English Class about my name. How my parents picked it out and what it means. I really like the story of my name, so I wanted to share a little piece of me =]

A Last Minute Change: The Story of My Name

It was late November of 1987 when my parents found out that they were having a second child. My dad had always wanted a little boy, and a few months later the doctor told my parents that he thought by the signs of my mom’s pregnancy his wish for a boy was coming true. For my parent’s picking a boy name was very simple, and soon it was decided that I would be named Thomas Foster, after my Dad’s two granddads. My dad was on cloud nine with the possibility of having a boy, but my Mom wanted to pick out a girl’s name just in case. There were two things that my mom knew for sure she wanted in a girl’s name. She wanted it to have the same initials as her, T.D.S. and she wanted the middle name to be Dawn. My older sister has my mom’s maiden name Shannon as her middle name, so she wanted to pass on her initials to me. With my mom’s due date drawing near she sought my dad’s approval on many first names, but he wasn’t a fan of any that she liked.

On August 31st of 1988 at 6:42 A.M. my mom gave birth to her second child, and to much dismay of my dad it was a little girl. In an interview with my dad he stated “The doctor came out and told me that I had another little girl, and I responded ‘Are you sure?’ The doctor laughed and said ‘I’ve been doing this for quite a while.’” For the first few hours of my life I was still unnamed because they couldn’t decide on one name for me. In an interview my dad said “Your mom suggested Tiffany Dawn and I loved it, so you became Tiffany Dawn.” My dad is unsure of where my mom came up with Tiffany, but I do know that Dawn came from one of her cousins.

I haven’t always loved my name though, when I was younger I always wanted to be named something different, because Tiffany was so uncommon. Today though is different. As I grew up I realized that being uncommon is certainly better than having the same name as many other girls in my class. My mom passed away twelve years ago, so the reason for Tiffany will always be unknown, but I am very thankful that I am blessed with having her initials, and I hope to one day carry on the tradition of passing on my initials.

When researching my names on the internet, ThinkBabyNames.com said that Tiffany means “revelation of God”, and audioenglish.net says that Dawn means “the first light of day” (thinkbabynames.com; audioenglish.net). I have to admit that with those two meanings I am very proud of my name and love it dearly.

I would have to say that after hearing the story of how I got my name, and doing the research on what my name means I have come to appreciate and love my name more than I ever have and I have to admit that my parents did a wonderful job of naming me.

another day...

well...there isn't a lot on my mind tonight except for the fact that I lead a pretty dull life. I'm laying here in bed listening to my husband and Lettie snore, which is a pretty normal thing. And I actually think I'm beginning to get used to it.

Yesterday we bought six dining chairs to refinish to go with a old primitive dining table I inherited.

Like in the last post this table was a find while cleaning at my parent's house, and I was super excited to be able to take it home. I'm not really sure who it belonged to, just know that it was several great-grandparents ago...not sure which side of my Mom's family had passed it down or how many generations it went through before ending up on my parent's back porch for 30 some odd years. It is lime green, and will need stripping, lots of sanding, staining and some love to make it look much better!! I hope to find out this week who it belonged to and maybe even how old it is.

The six chairs we bought don't match - which I love. Four of the chairs still have stickers and metal tags on them that say they once belonged to the State of Tennessee. The guy said he thought they came out of a school house, but not really sure. The other two were just a couple of primitive chairs that I really liked the look of. These two will get recovered, while the other 4 will stay pure wood. They too will be stripped, sanded and stained though. J and I took it all to his parents house last night, and got a start on them today.

We cut new wood for the seats, and covered them with red fabric, and we sanded down all the chairs. J is planning on stripping the chairs Wednesday. I am going to attach a few pictures, but they were taken with my blackberry so they aren't that great. Hopefully I will remember to take my camera next time and get better pictures.

Here are three of the chairs...the other three look just the same

The leaf to the table

The Legs

The Metal Tag



& The Table



The underside of the table



Goodnight all!!!

Tiffany

I remember...

   Some days it feels like it just happened yesterday, the day is so vivid in my mind, and the pictures are so clear that I feel like I'm standing there watching it all happen again.
   It was a normal Saturday, my dad, mom, sister and I all got up and got ready to go to my pee-wee basketball game. I was ten and all that mattered that day was the fact that I didn't want to wear purple jogging pants out in public. To say the least I was pretty ticked at my mom, the nerve of her. We went to the game, and all came back home and mom fixed us all lunch. B (my sister) and I went to our bedroom and began watching a movie and eating our lunch. After a few minutes we heard a bang come from the other room followed by my dad's footsteps and then his voice. He was yelling our names.
   As I entered the kitchen, a nightmare that I had never dreamed was happening. My best friend, my hero, my mom was laying in the floor with my dad over her trying to get her to respond.
   Some of that day I don't remember, but the worst parts I do. I remember trying to get Preacher, our guard dog, into a pen. I remember trying to figure out what was going on, and trying not to cry. I remember how it looked to see my mom being carried out on a stretcher down the stairs of my home while sitting in the back seat with my grandparents. I remember my dad holding mine and B's hands and praying for my mom.
   But mostly I remember exactly what the nurse said to me and my sister "You're dad needs you...she didn't make it." I remember thinking, well I need my mom, fix this!!! I remember everyone crying around me, and me never dropping one tear. I remember thinking it was all a dream.
   They said that she never knew she hit the kitchen floor, that she was already with the Lord. Her death was caused by a heart aneurysm. And all the doctors said that it was simply her time to go home. Today, I don't understand why, but one day I will.
   A few days later my mom's visitation began, the line wrapped around the whole building then down the chapel. I felt like it would never end, but it just showed us how many lives she had touched over the years. The one thing I regret...never walking to the casket, and telling her goodbye. I knew that if I ever did it would all become real, and real it could never be. I remember the friends, the family I had never met, and all the hugs and I'm sorrys. The next day was the funeral - the day I still block out. I remember walking in behind her casket at a local church, because the chapel at the funeral home wouldn't begin to hold everyone. I remember holding my dad's hand the entire time, but I don't remember a single word said or a song that was sung. I remember the ride to the cemetery and sitting there thinking that it still wasn't real - that we were going to go home and she would be there, either cooking or watching Bulls basketball and drinking a diet coke. But that hope never came true.
  I feel like some days I chose to block out those days and hours to protect myself, but deep down I know it was because my heart was slowly breaking, and I knew that I had to stay strong for my dad and sister. At the age of ten I said goodbye to my mom.

12 years later...there have been many birthday parties, many depressing days, many dates, and three weddings. I married J in Sept of 09, my sister was married in June of '09, and my Dad married in Nov. '10. After my dad married he moved into my step-mom's home and left my childhood home empty and for sale. To say the least this was very hard on all of us. This was the only home me and my sister knew before we were married, and this house holds all of our memories. Last weekend after 12 years we finally began to clean out all of our belongings. The hardest part was my mom's dresser. It had been partially cleaned out after her death, but the majority was left. In the second drawer there was an old oak box that I fell in love with! As a little girl I inherited a oak box from my great-great-grandmother and this box looks a lot like it. While going through the drawers and her jewelry box I slowly filled this box with many trinkets of hers that holds many memories for me and my sister. Like her key chain from her bus keys, her blue sunglasses, her whistle, some childhood books of hers, and a few other things. But at the end of the day I wish I had more, more memories, more trinkets, more pictures...more time.
I have attached pictures of my greatest property. It sits on my bookshelves and I touch it every time I walk by. I hate that I can fit what means most in a small box, but I am glad that I am able to remember her on a daily basis. I wish I could tell you everything about her, what she meant to so many people, but I know that this blog won't hold it all. Bless you if you did sit and read all this. I'll leave you with the pictures, for it is certainly time to get in bed. =]



My Mother's Oak Box



The inside of the box that holds many treasured belongings of Mom's




A childhood picture of my mom, me (left)
and my sister, B (right)



From the same day, this is one of my favorites.
My husband gets this look a lot!!

Telling A Friend Goodbye...

After losing my mother as a child my prayer has always been that I would never have to say goodbye to a friend or loved one again, or at least for a very long time...
Well a few weeks ago I said goodbye to a lady that I considered a true friend, but it wasn't at a funeral.

In 2008 I was offered a job at a local daycare where I was raised and also where my sister and grandmother worked at the time, so I took it. The lady I was working for had worked there for a while and had recently purchased the daycare. After a few weeks I fell in love with the children and began to love my boss also.

In June of 2009 I was my sister's Maid of Honor and our boss and her dear friend was her Matron of Honor.
I had become close to my boss and I was getting married in 3 months...so I asked her and another friend (who has had lots of experience with weddings) to be my wedding coordinators. And I was so glad I did, they took care of so much for me and really lightened my load that day.
A few months later my sister, our boss and myself played Bunco with a group of ladies at our work. After everyone else had left my boss told me that in September I would no longer be working with the Pre-K class because the previous owner wanted to come back and teach it... I was shocked and blown away with the lack of care of what I thought about it. I was also ticked, I had busted my butt to teach my Pre-K class all they needed to know and she was basically telling me it didn't matter...  after that night she slowly stopped talking to me and seemed to avoid me at any chance she got. I was a little hurt, but brushed it off. I' m quite used to losing friends...

About a month ago my sister and I were called into her office and handed a 2 page letter of complaints from parents...all of the complaints were lies, but she didn't care she simply told us to fix it! She went on vacation the next week and when she came back we went back to her office to tell her exactly what we thought about it. We had found out that it was not several parents complaining it was only two...a co-worker and her best friend...both of their sons were in our class. She told us she was sorry for the way she handled it and pretty much left it at that. That same afternoon my sister, our boss and one of the parents that complained met in my bosses office. The parent chewed my sister out and told her that neither my sister nor I should be teachers because we do not have children and that we are both very immature...our boss...she just sat there...never defended us or asked the parent to not say everything she was. That parent also got mad at me when I deleted her off of facebook that night! haha grow up!!!  My sister called me that night and asked me to come over so we could talk about everything that had happened...I decided to quit that night...but knew that I could not leave my very best buddy before he went to big school...so I stuck it out and gave her my 2 week notice and my last day was the day before big school started. When I gave her my notice I made it very clear that it was her that made my decision to quit so easy. The way she had treated my sister and I and had let another parent treat us. I was heartbroken to leave, but so angry that I could care less...two weeks later I had to tell my kids goodbye, but promised that wouldn't be the last they heard from me...especially my bestest buddy!!

I miss seeing my kids everyday, but have come to realize that I got out of there at the best time possible!!! I am now working for my cousin who owns a daycare in a nearby town and will be starting back to school next week working towards my Special Education Degree!!!

Looking back I am letting a "friend" go, but I know that my future will be just fine without her!!!

Meet Lettie

I can't really remember the first time I saw a pug, but for as long as I can remember I have always wanted one. Most people think they are very ugly, but I absolutely adore them!! After J and I got married, I went to work one day and my boss told me that a friend of hers knew a lady that was wanting to give away her 2 1/2 year old pug and would I want it. I called J right away and asked him if I could have her. Being the one who thinks about long term facts he wasn't so sure about it. But I have a way with him ha ha and talked him into it. He came home that night with a dog bed, food bowls, food and toys. To say the least I was super excited. I got Lettie the next day!!

This was taken the night I got Lettie! She was 22 pounds, which is a little over weight for a Pug!

We got her in January and a few weeks later we took her to the vet and found out she had worms. It broke my heart, but we set up an appointment right away to get it taken care of. The next weekend I noticed that she was coughing a lot more then normal and took her to the vet that day. She had pneumonia...they gave me pills for the pneumonia and pills to get her ready for the heart worm treatment. A few weeks later we took her to the vet to start her treatment. J took her to the vet when i went to work, and I cried telling her I would see her in a few days. I called and checked on her everyday and in a few days J went and picked her up. They all said she did very well and was a great patient. We had to carry her around and keep her locked in the kitchen for the next month. It was pretty bad, I felt so sorry for her. At first she was very calm, but soon got all of her energy back. A month later she was back to her normal self, and to say the least I was very very excited!!!

Lettie after her heart worm treatment and her new toy we got her!!

Lettie sound asleep on the spare bed! This has become her second favorite place to sleep!! She has a very hard life!!

But on my stomach is her favorite place to sleep or just to sit and be loved on!!

She was waiting for me to get off the computer and give her my full attention!! ha ha

To say the least, J and I love Lettie and I count her as my child (J - not so much ha ha)! My life wouldn't be the same without her and I love having her around!!