A long week...

I'm so behind on blogging. I haven't had a chance to read many of your blogs either. Maybe I will catch up after Amelia's birthday party. Alex was out of town on business last week, so it was just me and Amelia. My sister and I had a huge, two-day catering job, so we were busy prepping. We did a dessert bar one night and baked over 400 cupcakes. My favorite was the chocolate peanut butter...they were so good.



Mid-week I started noticing Diesel acting differently. He just didn't have a lot of energy. On Thursday, I was struggling to get him to eat anything (very unusual). By Friday, he stopped eating all together. Alex got back into town late Friday night and I had made a vet appointment for Dies for early Saturday morning. We didn't know what was wrong, but weren't prepared to hear that he had acute kidney failure. We were so upset. The hardest part was not knowing what caused it. I have cried more in the last week than in quite some time. Diesel stayed at the vet and they began different treatments, in hopes to get his kidneys to start functioning properly. On Thursday morning we got the news that Diesel had passed away during the night. I'm crying just typing this. It's hard to believe he's gone. Diesel was our furbaby. He was our baby before we had Amelia. Alex bought Diesel as a puppy when we were separated. He was Alex's best friend through those hard months. He took him fishing, to work, to the park...everywhere.



I'd never really had a pet until Diesel. I never knew your heart could hurt this bad over losing an animal. He was part of our family. He was such a sweet dog. He was very smart...Alex had taught him all sorts of tricks. He was obedient and loved everyone. He would let our nephews and nieces boss him around and lay all over him. Over the last month Amelia had started crawling over to the glass door, standing up, and then beating on it for him to come see her. When we would take family walks, he would want his nose right in her stroller and she would constantly be reaching to pet him. I always felt safe with Alex out of town because we had Diesel. He was very gentle, but was quick to protect if he thought something was wrong. It will take quite some time to get used to him being gone.



We will miss him very much.



We wanted to get out of the house today, so we took Amelia to the pumpkin patch. We had a great time and took lots of pictures. I will post those tomorrow.

Love to all,

Amelia at the polls...

We've had a long day! Amelia woke up around 7am. I fed her, I showered, and then we left for a catering job. This week is a full week for our catering business. I really don't have childcare for Amelia, so she's coming with me! We arrived at the kitchen this morning and as long as little miss had a full belly and clean diaper, she was good to go. I would walk her around every so often, but otherwise she sat and watched us cook the entire time! I thank God for Amelia every day, but on days like today, I feel extremely blessed. She is such a laid back baby and it makes taking her places very easy.

After catering, we went to lunch with Joy, Cody, and Pryce. We ran a few errands for upcoming catering jobs and then Amelia and I headed to the polls to vote! We have a good friend that's running for State Representative, so it was important for us to vote today!!



This was Amelia's first time to go with me to vote, so of course I wanted to document it. :)



Here we are casting our ballot!



Voting for our good friend, DJS!!



Amelia getting her I Voted sticker. The volunteers just loved her. :)



I couldn't stop laughing because that sweet lady above kept calling Amelia by the wrong name. She was talking so sweet to her in baby talk and calling her Amanda. If she said Amanda once, she said it a dozen times. (LOL) She was too sweet for me to correct her. It also made me laugh because there is someone who thinks my name is Amanda and every time I see her, she says, "Hi Amanda!!" And I just say, "Hi!!" I don't have the heart to tell her that my name is Jill. And Amanda is a pretty name. :)



It was good day with my girl.



She's always putting a smile on my face. :)



Love to all,

35 weeks...

A doesn't have much room to maneuver now that she's over 18 inches long and tips the scales at 5 1/4 pounds (pick up a honeydew melon). Her kidneys are fully developed now, and her liver can process some waste products. Most of her basic physical development is now complete — she'll spend the next few weeks putting on weight.

I had my doctor's appointment last Wednesday. I wasn't able to see my doc (he was on vacay) but I did get to choose who I wanted to see, so I picked Dr. B. My bp was up, so he ran some blood work (all came back okay). I had to do a 24-hour urine analysis yesterday...seriously, collecting your urine is so gross. I'm sure everything will come back fine, since the blood work came back okay. They are just watching me closely since we're getting so close to my due date. I see my doctor again tomorrow. I start going every week now. CRAZY!! I feel like I'm getting a cold - woke up with a cough. My doc's office told me to go get both flu shots. I still haven't. I'm trying to find a place to get the H1N1 vaccine. Neither my OB or primary care have it.

My sister and I had a big job last week. It was a 2-day event that we were catering. My Mom came in to help us with the job and THANK GOODNESS she did. We have the best time together. We laughed A LOT...cried a little...happy tears of course. :) I seriously have the best Momma in the world. She was up at 5am every day and working until midnight helping us get things together for the next day. She's awesome and I love her to pieces. There is no way we could have done it without her. Thank you Momma...you're the best!!

I had my 3rd and final baby shower yesterday. It was at my church and it was fabulous! I will post pics this week. I received several items that I really needed and then some really cute things with A's name and monogram!

Everyone says I should have my bag packed. I've been asking people what to pack. Any suggestions on what to throw in the bag?

I will post more soon. I lost the cord to my camera, so I can't put any of my pics on the computer. That's why I didn't include a belly shot in this post. Just imagine me very large and swollen. HA! My S-I-L sent me all of her pics from the shower though, so I will post those soon.

Love,