I’m Back, Baby!

What. A. Week!  Amazingly Friday arrived sooner than I thought it would, which goes to show that putting one foot in front of the other really does get you places.  Before I recap our week, here’s an update on the status of my bloggy giveaways:

1.  Any giveaway that was supposed to end on March 1st will now end on March 8th.  So, enter now for your chance to win a $35 gift certificate to Garden of Holly (she has amazing organic and natural products!), a $50 gift card to Safeway stores, and a mini-quilt from Sewing Maniac!  It’s your last chance!

2.  Any giveaway that was supposed to end on March 8th will now end on March 15th so that I have a chance to properly promote it.  Seriously, you will really be missing out if you don’t enter these great giveaways!  You can win a custom infant/child’s hat by Malindi, a nursing cover from LoveStruckBaby, a bib/burp cloth set from The Point, and/or baby bottle covers from Deb’s Craft Room.  I’ll take all four for my baby-to-be, thank you very much!

3.  All my giveaways that were supposed to start last Monday will now begin on March 8th.  And there are FIVE of them, folks, so I KNOW you’ll want to get in line to enter first thing on Monday morning!

With the business stuff taken care of, I can move onto the other things that make this blog what it is.  Thanks for all the support, comments, and emails.  Here’s what happening {or happened} on the personal front this week:

:::  First of all, shout it from the rooftops, I’m an AUNT!  My sweet nephew arrived after many days of contractions and weighs in at a whopping 8 pounds, 11 ounces.  That’s 9 pounds less than his cousin Noodle, now 20 months old.  My sis is a hero!!!

:::  You would not believe how cute the town is that we are living in for the month.  It’ll make you melt, literally.  I’m sure you can understand why I can’t reveal our location to the world at the moment, but I’ll let you know as soon as we are “released” because there is so much to share!  We are pretty darn lucky to be here and not stuck in some awful town in the middle of nowhere {okay, we’re sorta in the middle of nowhere BUT in a good way!}

:::  As hard as this has been, we are counting our blessings.  The range of disabilities that we see in the clinic on a daily basis is astounding.  Being pregnant, my imagination tends to run wild about the “what ifs” but for now I need to step back and just realize how good we do have it.  Yes, Noodle is a munchkin.  Yes, she faces and has faced more medical issues than any of us could fathom in one lifetime, let alone in just 20 months of life.  {I do need to explain more of her story at some point, and I WILL, I promise!}  But she’s so full of life and happy and has a great heart.  She’s charming everyone here, that’s for sure.  Her long-range prognosis is excellent once we get over this speedbump.  We are blessed indeed.

:::  It’s becoming more and more apparent that the feeding issues Noodle has are medical, not behavioral.  This feeding clinic focuses on behavioral changes.  It’s dawning on all of us that we may not see major changes after this is over, but we will see some improvement as we work on upping the volume she eats.  Not a magic cure by any means, but it’s something, right?

:::  I usually have one donut a year, if that.  Now that there’s a drive-thru Dunkin Donuts on our morning “commute”, I’ve had TWO in one week.  Can I blame it on cravings?  Noodle’s not the only one in need of a feeding intervention this month– but I need to eat less, not more!  But BOY are their chocolate creme filled donuts an object of lust right now.

:::  This was my agenda today: glucose tolerance test in the morning, and then touring a local candy factory in the afternoon.  I’m not joking!  Better get it in while I can before all those donuts show up on the blood test!

Good night, sweet bloggy friends.  Just a few more weeks and then I can get back to all my DIY projects and renovations.  Gotta get Noodle 2.0’s room finished… time is running out!  We’ll have some great guest posts and giveaways the next few weeks (and I have Goffice photos to share!) plus some updates as to how we are doing.  Thanks for sticking with us on this crazy ride!