random monday loveliness.

well, hello.  yes, i am still alive.

life has been really busy these past few weeks, especially at work.  i traveled for work & working for an insurance firm we are in the midst of our annual enrollment.  so when i get home, i don't want to blog.. i just want to play with my son & relax with my hubby.  even my household chores are lacking.


let's see.. a lot has happened these last few weeks.

#1::  i will definitely not be winning the mother of the year award.  a few saturdays ago, we were getting ready for bed & i went into the bathroom to potty & shut the door.  fox started crying; he's in that stage where i can't go into a room and shut the door without him crying & banging on the door & yelling "ma.. momma.. waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!".  i'm sure i'm not the only one that has experienced this.  anyways, i opened the door & saw him still there & so i shut the door again & started making myself to the toilet.  fox starts crying again & a few seconds later brandon opens the door & screams at me that i shut the door on fox's hand.  OMGosh!!!  i started crying & freaking out.  i couldn't look at his poor little hand & we started running around the house trying to get ready to go to the ER.  his little pinky finger looked so mangled & flat & the skin was coming off.  we were sure it was broken!  so we rushed to the ER around 10 pm...in our pj's.  brandon didn't even put on shoes!  heehee!  well, we did x-rays.. waited in the room for a couple of hours before we saw the doctor for 2 minutes.  about 3 hours into the visit, we were notified that fox's medicaid was no longer current.  ugh!  talk about more stress on top of stress.  when we moved to arkansas, i didn't work for 8 months & with brandon's job, they pay for his insurance but not for the family.  i couldn't get an independent coverage for fox & i because i had a lumpectomy.  blah, blah, blah!  so i put him on medicaid & it was good for a year.  i guess now we make too much money for him to be on medicaid.  i get it & i understand the system.  it would have just been nice to have been notified so my son could have had insurance.  i've added him to my insurance now, but i'm stuck with an ER hospital bill.  yuck!  oh & his finger wasn't broken.  it's still a little red & his skin is a little flaky in places.  i'm hoping that is the last ER visit i ever make with my little love.  

#2::  i've been able to talk to my brother that's in afghanistan almost every day via email.  thank God for the interwebs!!  i start to panic & get anxious when i haven't heard from him in a few days, but i always pray to God to give me peace & ease my mind.  a couple of weeks ago, i saw that my brother was tagged in a picture on facebook.. so i went to it.  well, i found a few pictures of him!!  pictures were taken by the reuters photographers or something like that.  i found these pictures at daylife.com  

 aaron is the one on the far right

 aaron is the one in the center scratching the back of his head

 aaron cheesing it up while doing a pull up

 aaron (the one in the back with the rocket)

& louis running & changing positions during battle

please continue to pray for our troops. especially with the holidays coming, it gets tough for these men & women.  

#3::  fox is 16 months old today!!  i can't believe it!  2 years ago yesterday, we found out we were expecting & here he is at 16 months!!  he's been a blast, but can be a little booger at times!  he has begun to throw tantrums.  they are soooooo much fun!  not!  he's is a talker, too.  his favorite words right now are: "what?.. why?... no!... yeesth! (something like that!).  it's quite funny when he says why or what.  they come at the most opportune time.  "fox, please don't take off your shoes!".. "why?" .. "because mommy just put them on you!".. "what?"  i love him so much!  he's at 25 lbs, 9 oz & 33 inches long!  oh yea, one morning i was getting ready for work & put on a sweater in front of him & he said "oh wow, peeety!"  and i asked him if mommy's sweater was pretty & he kept saying "oh, wow".  then when i was dressing him, he started rubbing his hand up & down my arm & kept saying "oh, wow!".. i received my first compliment from my son!!  heehee!  he just melts my heart!  

i am still breastfeeding.  it's still going strong!  2-3 times a day.  i did try to wean him about a month ago, but it didn't go so well.  on the fourth day, he was in hysterics & i couldn't take his crying & pleading anymore!  so i gave in!  i honestly do still enjoy it except with i am really, really tired & want to go to bed & he was to talk & nurse for an hour before falling asleep.  yes, i nurse & rock until he falls asleep.  don't judge.  i need to read up on how to get him to fall asleep after i do wean him.  i guess that's why i haven't really forced it because i don't know how to get him to sleep.  he's currently cutting 3 molars!  these have been really tough, but they are almost done coming in!  thank God!

#4::  new york trip in at the end of next week!  i am so excited!  i can't wait to go!

#5:: we had a great thanksgiving with both sets of family.  we went down at the beginning of last week to have thanksgiving with brandon's family.. and came back up to have thanksgiving with my family.  brandon had to work on friday so we had thanksgiving with my dad, stepmom & stepbrother.  our time with the family did not last long enough.  i'm always sad when they leave or we leave.  :-(

#5:: the christmas season is upon us & i am so happy!  our christmas tree has been up since the first week of november.  if it was up to brandon, he would have it up in october!  all christmas gifts are bought & wrapped except for my father in law & stepbrother.  still have no clue as to what to get them!  any ideas?  fox has been pretty good around our christmas trees.  some days he doesn't touch it.  other days, he will grab an ornament or two.  yay for shatterproof ornaments!  heehee!

#6::  and....i'll leave you with this!  if you hadn't noticed, i changed my blog background & header.  and i have some lovely new pictures that were taken by my talented hubs!  we'll use the family picture for our christmas card (which brandon is designing).