One day this will be funny...

But at this point, I'm tired and crabby.

We are in Michigan this weekend for Sweet Pea's first birthday party (round 1). We are having a party here today for all my relatives then another party next weekend for the rest of my family and our local friends.

This weekend has started with a few hiccups that are just getting on my nerves. On Friday at work, I was assigned a task that needed to be completed by Tuesday. Not a big deal right...except I can't get into the system and the internet goes down at our office so I waste the entire morning trying to work. Keeping in mind, we have Monday off I know that I will be working this weekend. The weekend we are out of town celebrating Sweet Pea's 1st birthday. Before I leave work, I save my work on my computer and head home.

At home, RoadTripDaddy and I get ready to leave while Sweet Pea dances while her music table plays song after song. I decide to bring our home computer with us this weekend as it's much lighter than my work pc. I figure I can work in the car on the drive in and get as much work done as possible. I hope that I can finish everything before we get here. Saturday morning I wake up realizing that I didn't email the document I need to myself and it's instead sitting on my work computer at home - an hour away.

I spent an hour before we leave desperately trying to access the system to run my report. No luck...so several text messages and emails go out begging for some help. I get the report - just a crucial column from a work friend - so I still can't get my work done. Awesome.

When we got to the hotel, we are informed that while we do have a reservation it's just not for this weekend. It's for next weekend. Thankfully this isn't a problem as there are rooms available. Another small snafu but after a long car ride and my general frustration with having to work, I'm not amused.

Did I mention that we are sharing our hotel room with my parents? Oh yeah, and we are sleeping on the fold out couch. Nothing like a crappy mattress and paper thin sheets to make for a comfy night. There's a blanket too that I'm sure is a hand me down from a local hospital. So this morning when Sweet Pea woke up at 3:30am Central Time and finally fell back asleep with her feet jammed in my ribs, I decided that it's not that bad to be awake and got out of bed.

So I'm sitting in the lobby of our hotel wondering just when I can get breakfast around here. Here's hoping I can take a nap later this morning before the party...

This will be amusing some day, but right now I'm tired, crabby and hungry.

This morning, I saw news coverage for the first time. I have been trying to avoid the images because I can't handle the pain and suffering right now. Please take a moment to donate in any way you can help the people of Haiti. This is a country without a net. While I had a crappy start to my weekend, I feel blessed to have my family and friends safe and healthy.

You can click on any of the following links to donate:

Red Cross

Clinton Bush Haiti Fund

UNICEF (1-800-4UNICEF)

Direct Relief

Yele Haiti

Partners in Health

Red Cross

World Food Program

Mercy Corps (1-888-256-1900)

Save the Children

Lambi Fund

Doctors Without Borders

The International Rescue Committee

Care

William J. Clinton Foundation

Meds & Food For Kids

Feed the Children

Habitat for Humanity

If you can't donate financially, please consider donating a pint of blood. My friend is running her Third Annual Blood Drive. You can find out about it by clicking here.

Wordless Wednesday

20 weeks

This was Day 5 (I think). I'm not in my flickr account right now and I'm not in the mood to find out. This is the first present RoadTripDaddy bought for the new baby. He brought this and a card home the day after (I think) we found out I was pregnant. It's the only thing we have bought for the baby. I am nervous that if I start shopping for the new little one I will go overboard. And that's probably not a good idea. Also, I would feel like I would need to get stuff for Sweet Pea too. And she will be a year old in two weeks (as of 4:29 this afternoon). So, I think we are set on presents for the moment.

Back to the topic of this post - yesterday was the 20 week mark for this pregnancy. Half way there. I can't believe it. At this point in my pregnancy with Sweet Pea, both RoadTripDaddy and I were convinced we were having a boy. And everyone was all to willing to give their opinions on the matter as well. Because I was carrying like I was having a boy. Or so I kept being told. The week of my ultrasound last time people kept asking me whether I thought Sweet Pea was a boy or girl. And I repeated over and over what I believed, that I was pregnant with a boy. I didn't tell people that I had changed my mind. That I was sure we were having a girl. See, we had a name set for a boy. And we had stopped looking at names - but part of that was that I was just so sick of repeating names over and over again trying to figure out how my child could be teased with each name I liked. I announced to RoadTripDaddy at 18 weeks that it didn't make sense to keep looking at names. We had the appointment set and there was no point in looking for a girl name too unless we were told something different at that appointment.

Going back to whether I thought we were having a boy or girl, the week of my ultrasound I became convinced (although I didn't share this with anyone) that we were having a girl. Because I was totally unprepared for having a girl. Because I didn't have a name for a girl. Because I thought RoadTripDaddy wanted a boy. Because I thought I wanted a boy. So on that day, during the ultrasound as we talked with the ultrasound tech and looked at the different parts of Sweet Pea's little body, we saw Sweet Pea's arms and RoadTripDaddy mentioned our little one becoming a pitcher for the Cubs. The technician looked scanned down further on Sweet Pea, looked at us and said our little one will be more likely waving her arms at a Miley Cyrus concert than pitching in a major league baseball game. Tears filled my eyes. I looked back at RoadTripDaddy worried he would be upset. And there were tears in his eyes. But he wasn't upset. He was happy. He squeezed my hand and we continued the ultrasound. I wiped away the tears and knew that we would be okay. I knew that it didn't matter if we were having a girl or boy. Sweet Pea was healthy and we were halfway to meeting our little girl.

My 20 week ultrasound is this Friday at 3pm. We will once again be finding out if the little one will be a boy or girl. I'm convinced we are having a girl. And having panic attacks that it will be a boy and I won't have any clue what to do. But truthfully, as long as the baby is healthy I will be happy either way.

2009 comes to a close

This is a long post. If you are too lazy to read the whole post (or just want the good stuff - head down to the last 2 paragraphs!)

I don't normally make New Year's resolutions. It's not that I don't believe in them or I think I will set myself up for failure. I just think that waiting for a particular day to occur to make a change in your life (hopefully positive) is a silly idea. If I decide in June that I want to volunteer more, why wait until January 1st to contact the charities I hold dear to my heart? Why not call that day and ask how I can help out?

A few months after Sweet Pea was born, I saw that a blogger (and no, I don't have any idea who it was) was taking a picture of their baby every day for the first year of their life. What a great idea I thought. Why didn't I think of that? It wasn't like I didn't have 2000 pictures of her by her second month (because I did). But there was something about starting or ending or at least acknowledging every day with a picture of Sweet Pea's life.

I told myself it was too late for Sweet Pea. How could I start that now? What with her being 4 months old and all? So I didn't. And I regret it. Because how cool would it be to see how much she has changed. I know she has. I can see it in the pictures framed at my desk and the rotating background on my computer.

It's been a crazy year for our family. I know 2009 has been awful for some people (for a lot of people). But all in all, 2009 has been good to the RoadTripFamily. We went from a married couple (family of 2) to a family of three with Sweet Pea brightening our days. While I received news that I had tumors in my thyroid that needed to be removed, I learned they weren't cancer. And I was grateful. And a week before my husband's birthday, we found out that I'm expecting again. It was a rough first month and there were concerns of miscarriage. But I can tell you that I'm 19 weeks along and looking forward to our ultrasound next week. We've had our ups and downs, but there's been a lot of love. I look forward to 2010 with some nerves, but mostly I'm excited to see what will happen next.

On that note, I have decided on two resolutions for 2010. After seeing OHMommy wrap up her year in pictures on Twitter, I have decided to challenge myself to a year of pictures. I plan to share some on this blog but mostly, it's for the RoadTripFamily. We have a lot to see in the next year. From Sweet Pea's 1st birthday to baby 2 to our 3rd wedding anniversary and 4 weddings (so far). Secondly, my goal when starting this blog was to post as often as I could. And I admit, I could have posted more often. So in 2010, I am resolving to post at least once a week (please note that could mean a Monday of week 1 and Saturday of week 2 - because I'm ambitious but let's be serious). While these may seem like minor resolutions to you (and anyone else I tell), it's about a commitment to RoadTripFamily and our life together. They are the best part of my day.

Happy New Year everyone!