Ring around the....whatha?!

12/6/2010

While i was in the shower, enza decided to get the towel holder out and put it around bellas neck, i had trouble getting it off.......omg


This is a text message I received from Jason while I was at work in December, this is 5 days after we moved in to our house, still under construction!
I had a bag by the front door with somethings in it to return, one of those things was a round towel bar for the bathroom. Jason was getting ready after showering and had that all too common thought..."it's too quite, what is Enza doing?" He finds Enza in her room playing at her table like such a sweet little girl, which might I add is the first clue that something is wrong :) He then hears a familiar sound of a dog scratching, collar tags jingling and then what's that sound? Clink clink clink. Whatha? Jason goes out to find our Boxer Bella with the towel bar around her neck! Frantically pawing at the towel bar trying to get if off her head, hence the clink clink clink.
Jason was able to get the towel bar off of Bella's neck, but it wasn't easy. He thought for a bit that he wasn't going to be able to get it off and might have to cut it off. Oh boy, that girl! Any of you who know Bella, can't you just see her sitting there letting Enza put this ring down over her head just because someone was paying her attention to her and touching her!

Looking Back......Part III

After Enza was born Sept 25, 2008 I had the Mirena IUD inserted to prevent pregnancy. It was cheap and I didn't have to worry about daily birth control. I didn't have any complications with the Mirena, and even though over the year that I had it I read and learned lots of things about IUD's that I didn't like or agree with, I already had it and it was working. Birth control is a very sticky subject for me. I dislike hormonal birth control, I was on it for 10 years before getting pregnant. Of course it was only after coming off of it that I learned the dark secrets of birth control and what it's doing to our bodies own hormone function. It's pretty yucky stuff, and I always wondered what I was really like. How were these synthetic hormones altering my personality, temperament, sex drive, even my complexion?

So January last year I had the Mirena removed so that I could learn to chart my cycle using Natural Family Planning. No, this doesn't mean the rhythm method. It means using the Symptothermal Method. Taking my waking body temperature and monitoring cervical fluid and position. (Sorry if this is TMI for you, I'm not much of a TMI girl ;) ) I read Taking Charge of Your Fertility and started my chart.

The plan was to learn NFP for a few months while trying to avoid a pregnancy and then use it to achieve pregnancy.

1st problem, after I had the Mirena removed it took 2 months for my cycle to return. This was not what I was expecting! I saw a Naturopathic doctor and learned about the damage that could have been done to my bodies own hormone function by hormonal birth control and started some supplements and diet changes to help 'detox' my body of the synthetic hormones. My cycles were really out of wack and way long, I had always been a very predictable girl in this way ;)

Well, while waiting for my 3rd cycle to wrap up I had the signs that my period would be coming in a day or two. It didn't. So, Monday May 24 on my way home from work I stopped by the drugstore and purchased a pregnancy test. I stopped at HyVee to get a few things before going home and couldn't stand to wait. So I went to the bathroom, into a stall and peed on the stick by myself.in the grocery store. That sucker LIT up! I could not believe my eyes. Last time it took severals days and tests before it was obvious to me, but this test, it literally LIT up. Those pink lines showed up like neon lights :)

I went home (remember to my parent's home) and decided I was going to wait to say anything, even to Jason because I didn't think he could keep it a secret from my parents. But while making dinner I HAD to tell him, I couldn't keep it a secret standing right next to him! But I made him promise not to say anything.
After that weekend I made Enza a shirt to deliver the news.....

Enza was going to be a big sister and we were going to have another baby! What a blessing! My estimated due date was January 31st 2011!

Pictures of my babies

I managed to get out and get some pictures of the kiddos taken today! I absolutely dread the entire process, it is so painful to me. Yes, I really hate it that much! But I really want to have the pictures to look back at. Photo studios are NOT my friends, but photographers prices and not either, oh well.

So, I won't have actual prints to share until next Saturday, so I thought I would share the link with you so you can see them now. These are the rough un-cropped images.

I ordered: #10 Enza laying on her tummy

#11 Enza & Grayson

#22 Grayson in basket

Here they are!

Mom2Mom

With the news about Osama Bin Laden's death, I felt proud that America stood up for themselves. But at the same I felt sad that he died, I felt so silly feeling that way. This man was responsible for thousands of lives lost, it should feel good that he was dead, right? A friend on Facebook posted a link to this article on Mom2Mom, a local website/forum for moms to connect. It resonated with me, so I thought I would share it. Maybe it will with you as well.

Mom2Mom

Looking Back....Part II

Sad News
That Saturday evening after everything was moved, we still had plenty to do at the house. That night we got to my Parents house where we would be living the next few months to unpack what we needed right away. My mom and Step-dad had spent the last couple days out at my grandparents home. My grandma Jeanne was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer right after our wedding in 2006, and her cancer had stopped responding to treatment. Not long after getting to our new home, I got a call from my mom. Grandma was gone. She had lost her battle with cancer. While sad for those she left behind, a relief to not have to see her suffer any longer. Before Grandma passed my mom said to me that she now understood why God allowed our loved ones to suffer as they do sometimes when terminally ill. It is so we are able to let them go. Although it always hurt immensely to lose them, there is comfort in knowing that they are no longer suffering.
The next week was filled with funeral preparations, and family coming into town. My parents went from living alone, to us 3 living in their basement and my brothers, John & Jason and my nephew Casey filling guest rooms. I enjoyed having all my family together like that. It was fun to huddle around the computer with my siblings and look at pictures or watch stupid videos on YouTube :)
Grandmas funeral was Thursday, May 20 2010. My Grandma's 3 children and every single one of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren were there to lay her to rest. This may not seem like a big deal, but we do not all live close to each other. So it was really wonderful to have us all there to honor Grandma.

Jeanne L Brantner 1929-1951

Looking Back....Part I

The last post I wrote on this blog was April 6 2010. One line from that post caught my eye this morning, "It's been a good 5 years." Because all I can think right now is, it has been a bad year. Which is why I haven't wrote. While we've have great times in the last year, everything seems overshadowed by the trials we have faced.





Jason Gets Sick


May 6th 2010 was our 4 year anniversary. We spent it at home because Jason was 'prepping' for a colonoscopy. May 7 2010 one week before we had to move out of our house Jason went in for a colonscopy because he had been experiencing severe diarrhea with bleeding. It took 3 nurses and about 6 tries to get an iv started before the procedure because Jason was so dehydrated. He was gone for over an hour and when he came back, the GI doctor came and told me that he was admitting Jason to the hospital, he was going to have to spend the weekend there because he was severely dehydrated and his colon was hemorrhaging. I was shocked. His diagnosis and cause for the bleeding was Ulcerative Colitis. He spent the weekend in Centerpoint Hospital on iv fluids, iv steroids, colitis medicine and antibiotics. By Sunday(Mother's Day) he was released and feeling MUCH better. He was sent home with orders to follow up and continue the colitis medicine.


The next Saturday, May 15th we had a large group of generous men from our church show up to help us move. We still had quite a bit to do considering we had lost the last week. They stayed until they had literally packed up, loaded and moved our entire house. I'm not kidding when I say those guys wouldn't leave until it was all done! That was a huge blessing for us to have that help.

Maternity/Family pics

Excuse the total lack of posts this year! So much has happened I feel like I need to go back and recount everything I've missed posting. But who knows if I'll ever actually do that, so I guess I should start back anyhoo, right?
We had some maternity and family pictures taken New Years Day. Last time it will just be the 3 of us, although technically Grayson was already in these pictures. Anna came to our home and tried to take some pictures, all the while Enza was way more interested in dancing, singing and showing off for our company as you'll witness in a few of the pictures.
Check them out at http://anna-mariephotography.com/.
Click proofs and our password is jeanne.

Sold!!!

I'm a little apprehensive about writing this because I still feel unsure about everything seeing as it's our first time selling a house. We came to an agreement with the couple buying our house on Saturday! We close and give possession April 29th!!! Today marks 1 month of our house being on the market, wow! We had an offer in 3 wks, and a contract in 4.
So, we ordered our POD, it was delivered today and Jason has spent the afternoon loading everything that was ready to go. We basically have opposite days off, which is going to leave little room for play the next 3 weeks. We close on a Thursday but because of work schedules will have to actually move the weekend before, less than 3 weeks from now!
I am sad to say goodbye to our humble little home. It was my home alone first, I bought it when I was 21 all by myself, just like a big girl, made me feel so grown up :)
In the 5 years since I bought the house, I got a dog, a husband, another dog and a baby (in that order;0) It's been a good 5 years :)
As bitter sweet as it is to say goodbye, we are so excited about the future and it's possibilities. We are looking for our next home to be an investment, we don't know exactly what kind of package that will come in yet. Our plan is to find something that we can stay in for ~2 years while we fix-up and then sell and maybe do it again. But like I said, that's our "plan". In the meantime we are moving in the 'rents, yee-haw!
Keep us in your thoughts and prayers the next few weeks that there won't be any glitches, that closing will go smoothly and that we won't be too stressed out with moving.
Muah,
Jenni

To Be Sold or Not to Be Sold

We put our house on the market March 4th We were told that 60-90 days is totally normal for a house to sell right now.
The first weekend we didn't have any shows, but as soon as the weekend was over we got our first call! Ahhhh, the anxiety! I had to run home from work grab the dogs, make sure everything was picked up and spotless. From that point on we've had about 3-4 showings a week. Pretty good traffic from what we've heard.
Friday the 25th we had our 1st 2ND showing! How exciting, the couple that was looking said our house was in their top 3. Ok, well I guess you have to make top 3 before you can make #1. Well, Sunday evening we got an offer!! It wasn't a fantastic offer, but it was an offer! We just countered today and we don't know what to expect. We don't know whether we will be moving in 4 weeks or not. But the reality of all of it just hit me. Ahhhhhh, we could be moving in 4 weeks!!! Where are we going to store all of our stuff? I don't know the first thing about storage options out there to purchase, like self-storage or pods. And how much stuff do we have? How much storage do we need? Not to mention that we haven't even started looking at a new place for us to live!
Aye aye aye, my head is spinning right now.

I Feel You Underestimate My Sneakiness

Jason worked off-duty at the Snake Saturday Parade in North Kansas City this weekend. He came home for a few hours before heading off to some more off -duty work. Before he left he handed me his money he made from the earlier off-duty. I remember looking at it, surpised by the amount and then sitting it on the coffee table. Jason left for off-duty about 9:30, I had Enza in bed about 10p and I followed shortly after.
Fast forward to the next afternoon, after church I get to thinking that I hadn't seen the money this morning but yet I didn't remember putting it in my purse. I checked my purse right away, no money. Uh oh, what happened to it? Jason and I start frantically looking everywhere. Coat pockets, pants pockets, etc. Where could it have gone, I don't remember doing anything with it after he handed it to me. And he was sure he hadn't picked it back up after giving it to me. There was only one other culprit in the house......she's about 2.5 ft tall, blonde hair blue eyes and sneaky as ever! So we start looking anywhere and everywhere Enza could have stuck the money, it was folded up so that meant she could have stuck it anywhere. We were looking in the floor registers, trash cans, under the couch, Enza's toy box, we even took apart the sub-woofer in the living room that she so frequently puts paper in. Nothing. We finally gave up, hoping it would turn up somewhere.
Monday rolls around, still no money. I go to work, Jason is home with Enza, still keeping his eye open for the money. He looks through the bathroom trash one more time, no money. He did find his mouth piece that he sleeps with though! Enza had snatched it off of his nightstand and thrown it away without him ever noticing. That would have been another fun scavenger hunt :)
I get home from work and we are STILL thinking about the money and where it could be. We decide that maybe the people who buy our house will find it, or maybe we'll find it when we move. A little while later I ask Jason if he looked inside any of Enza's toys when he emptied her toy box. He hadn't, so I opened up her toy box and pull out her little barn that you sort letters & shapes into. I opened the barn door.....nothing but letters. Sigh, there really isn't any other toys that she could put money into. A minute later Jason looks too, he grabs a sports bottle she has in there and looks inside.....MONEY! He turns it upside down and we hear the money fall against the plastic. He reaches in and pulls out the missing money! Thank God!
So the moral of the story, Enza is a sneaky little sh*t! We never saw her with the money, she must not have played with it. She probably picked it up and put it in the bottle, couldn't get it back out and so went on to something else. I wonder what else she has thrown away or stashed somewhere we don't know about.....

I Must've Slept Funny or Something

Have you ever woken up in the morning and you're neck is stiff and you just feel all out of whack? Like you must have slept funny or something? Wondered what you've been doing?

Sunday School

Enza went to Sunday school for the first time a week ago. She had stayed overnight with Grandma & Grandpa and they actually get to church early enough for Sunday school! This was only the second time that Enza has every stayed overnight somewhere but it was a special occasion. We had a 30th Birthday/Going Away Party for Nathan. If you don't know, Nathan is Jason's childhood best-friend and brother from another mother ;) He has taken a job in San Jose CA and is leaving us this weekend :(
So, Enza had such a good time in Sunday school, that this week Jason & I made the extra effort of get to church early enough for all of us to go to Sunday school. But here are a few pics from her first time.

When It Will Stop No One Knows

Today Jason asked me "When are you going to quit breastfeeding?" I didn't really know how to answer him nor did I actually have an answer for him. "I don't know" I said, "when one of us wants to?" I said kind've guessing myself. When Enza was born I never put a time frame on how long I was going to nurse, I knew I wanted to make it to atleast a year. Now here I am at 17mo+ and I don't know when we'll stop.
Jason asked because he finds it a little disturbing that Enza pulls out my shirt touches my boob and says "Num num!" She gets all excited and lays down just waiting for me to oblige. She nurses 3-4 times a day right now. I was a little bothered after Jason's comment, mainly because we are in the stage when most people wonder why we are still nursing, the stage where some people might think I'm weird or whatever. Before I had Enza I might have even thought it a little weird to nurse a toddler.
At my last La Leche League meeting I borrowed a book from the library,Mothering Your Nursing Toddler. I opened it up to read a little today and immediately felt some comfort and confidence in its pages. The first page of the first chapter says, "

It may seem strange at first that a child who sits at the family table at mealtimes and is into the refrigerator many times in between would also ask his mother for nursing......Yet anyone who looks lovingly at a child at the breast can see that satisfying hunger or thirst is only a part of nursing. After a minute or two of nursing, the entire little body relaxes with contectment and pleasure. A child who is hurt begins to feel better. A child who has become overexcited calms down.........Nursing has all the restorative powers of a morning cup of coffee without the "caffeine jitters." It is as relaxing as an evening cocktail, with no bleary aftereffects.

And so on it goes and when it will stop no one knows.

Bradley Reunion #2

As a forenote, you may have realized by now that I'm a procrastinor/crammer. I put off posting for awhile and then I cram a bunch in!
We had our second Bradley Reunion last month. It was so hard to get everyone together, so there ended up only being 4 our of 6 of us. But, we still got together out at Eric & Carols house and had fun watching the 1 yr olds run around.

Holiday Dress

Jason bought me a sewing machine for my birthday in July. It took me a month or two to get it out of the box because I was slightly intimidated. Since I got the nerve to get it out and learn how to use this paticular machine, I'm hooked!
I started with an apron I made from a cotton nightie that I upcycled. Then I started making accessories for my sewing machine, a mat for it to sit on, a scrap/thread bag that velcros to the mat and holds all my trash. I made a ruffly scarf for me. Finally I decided to attempt my first garment! I made Enza a holiday dress! It all started when my mom gave me some dark green velvety type material from a dress she had and no longer liked. What a perfect little dress this could make! I found a plaid material at Hobby Lobby and used my 40% coupon to buy it.
I cut it all out one day, and started sewing the next weekend. It went better than I expected. The puff sleeves were the scariest part, I prayed the whole time I was sewing that they would look ok when I flipped them right side out! I'm pleased to post a pic of it now, I still have to 'finish' the hems and attach the bow, but I'm thrilled with it. Now that I've got this under my belt I'm more confident to start making more clothes!!

Pigtails

I adore pigtails and cute little ponytails on little girls and I've just been dying waiting for Enza to have enough hair pull it off. Guess what, We've got PIGTAILS! Isn't she the cutest little girl you've ever seen?

Pumpkin Patch

In October we made our first trek to the pumpkin patch as a family. It wasn't exactly what we expected, there wasn't a patch to pick a pumpkin, more like a lot next to a barn. And all of the activities were a little to big for Enza and there were too many big kids running around crazy, it was a little dangerous for our little one to get down and really explore. All in all though we had fun, next year we'll probably check out a different pumpkin patch in the area. Here are some picks from our trip, enjoy!

Enza 1st Birthday!

September 25, 2008 9:02 am Enza Jeanne Lomonte was born into this world. I can hardly believe it's been a year since I went into labor and birthed our wonderful little girl.
We celebrated with a party at our house on our back deck. I made two crockpots full of chili, regular chili and white chili served with corn muffins and my mom's homemade bread. For cake, my mom made Pumpkin Spice cupcakes with honey creamcheese frosting. Yummm....

Enza and a Race Car

While we were at my dads we had to check out the race car! All of you who know my husband know that he spent much time in the garage checking everything out. He is a gear head and he fit in a little too well at my dad's ;)
Of course while we were there were had to get Enza's picure in Grandpa's race car. Since she's not old enough to drive yet so Mommy took her for a spin......not really :)

MI Trip (LP part)

After we left Shane's we took my nephew Casey with us and headed down to Rockford to my dad's. I hadn't seen my dad since I moved to MO more than 7 years ago, a visit a little overdue :)
We were supposed to go to the races Sat night but they were cancelled due to the rain, so my big brothers John & Jason came over to Dads and we all hung out for the evening. It was really nice having all of us together! We watched old home videos and told old funny stories, I about peed my pants on several occasions.

Sunday afternoon we took in a West Michigan WhiteCaps game with John, Jason & Casey, good times. Enza loves her Uncle John and Uncle Jason!



We all spent the evening back at Dad's again, had a bonfire and spent time with family.





Monday morning we got up and made the trek back home, it was nice to be home. We had a great time in Michigan, we hadn't been back since 2004! Hopefully we will be able to make more trips with our schedules now :)