Wowsers!

Well baby has arrived! And boy is it crazy. Labor and delivery went over without any great hitches - they say farily textbook. Whatever in the world that means. I had my water break - heard that doesnt happen for everyone - had time to shower and then made it to the hospital still having minimal contractions. They gave me pitocin to get things rolling and a mere 11 hours and 45 minutes after that water happening, little man was born. He came out squalling like a little banshee before they even started sucking all that fluid out of his lungs. He was the most beautiful color already and as soon as they cleaned him up (a little bit anyway) and Larry cut the chord (wish I hadn't been to exhausted and overwhelmed to witness that!) they put him on my chest and he instantly quieted. That was the first of many absolutely amazing experiences I have already had in the last 5 days. He is the most incredible thing and has already produced the most incredible worry I could ever imainge!!! The first night home, I slept with the lights on so I could peak into his craddle (which is so close to my bed you could nary fit a sheet of paper between us) and make sure that he hadn't rolled into the side and suffocated himself! By night three at home I have turned off the lights and actually slept on my other side some of the night! Please excuse all the exclamation points, but folks, this stuff is big time and silly little periods just aren't gonna cut it for this blog post.

Anyway, I came here to tell you that he arrived and is healthy, eating like a horse and has already stolen mine and his Daddies hearts and left us awestruck like we could never have imagined. I also wanted to send you the link to his webpage! Yep, you read that right, he has his OWN web site. His Uncle J made it for him and his Daddy already has it up and running. It's http://griffinreaves.com/ and I have a link on the left, with my other favs, so you can keep up with the little cutie pie yourself. Not sure how often I will get here to post in the next few weeks (or years for that matter, as I here those all belong to a little boy named Griffin now) but I will do my best. Come say hi and check out Griff's page when you can!

Til later,
~m.

The times they are a changin'

So today, I went with my brother while he picked up the engagement ring he plans to present tomorrow. I was thrilled to be able to be there and see it, but all the while I just could not help but think how wild it is. How crazy that in a few short days he will be on his way to being married and in just a few more days (let's hope) I will be a MOM!! I am still having trouble wrapping my brain around both of those life changing events. I still see him as being my little brother who is always coming into my room and asking to hang out. Always (by no fault of his own) making me completely insane. I've watched him get taller, more mature, more wonderful, supportive, and more amazing. But now, he will be getting married! That means he is officially not my little brother anymore. He will soon be moving away to finish school and become the surgeon we have all known he would become. He will have a wife and soon kids. It makes me proud, emotional and excited. Little brother gives ring to girl. Its surreal is what it is folks, that's fo sho.

And then there's me and L and a baby mere days away from making his appearance. That is more than surreal. It's just plain old crazy/scary/wild/insane/cuckoo. Thinking back to the year of Mona and all the trials and tribulations that came with it, I can hardly believe that our lives are about to completely change yet again.  And in a VERY different way.  I have nested, painted, acted like a crazy person, been grumpy, cried, eaten my weight in chocolate and finally think I may be ready.  As ready as two people can be for something that will alter our lives forever, that is.  The nursery has been painted twice, I have bought all the things I think I need (and probably don't) and the clothes are washed, folded and put into little tiny stacks of little tiny clothes.  We have hats, mounds of socks, teeny baby hats and mittens and the smallest diapers I have ever laid my eyes on.  Each day I wonder if it's THE day and if I have any idea what we are about to get ourselves into.  While I am sure that he is way easier to take care of where he is right now, I cannot wait to see what he looks like.  I can't wait to see those little feet that kick me in the ribs.  Those little knees I can see jutting out of my sides and that little heiney that sticks up in the air all the time.  I am so excited to meet him.

All that said, today I have been mulling over how life changes.  How one day we just realize we are adults( I hope that doesn't mean we have to act like it!!).  I have thought often during this pregnancy about how differently the world looks now. 

 I can't put my finger on what it is, how or why, but its different.  And I know that my brother is no little boy anymore either.  I am excited to watch him though and get to be a part of his life.  For that I am grateful. 

~m

Lucky

Larry and I were thrown a shower by his work staff yesterday.  I was thrilled from the get-go about their willingness and excitement to do something so nice for us, but when we arrived I was absolutely awe struck.  The office was decorated so beautifully with balloons and a special chair just for me.  There was yummy food covering a beautifully decorated table and then I saw the tables (yep that was plural!) of gifts!! I continue to be stunned in my life at how generous people can be.  Larry and I were shown an immense amount of compassion and generosity last year (wait, make that the year before last!! Whoa time flies) when I was diagnosed with Lymphoma and underwent all that craziness ('round here we call it The Mona Incident).  Almost daily we would open our mail box and there would be a card with a check and a well wish or prayer! That happened for weeks!  My emotions were undergoing an upheaval as it was but this just left me speechless on a nearly daily basis.  I have always tried to live my life (ok, so at least my adult life) as a person who does good things and believes that in doing those things my life will also be good.  I believe in Karma and also believe that Larry and I have are good people.  I still am not sure we are (or were) THAT good.  I have since tried to spread that compassion and generosity as best I can.  And now we are pregnant and again our friends rally around us and help us prepare for the arrival of our little boy.  I continue to feel as though my heart could not possibly be any more full than it is today.  It is such an incredible feeling to be surrounded by people who care so much and are so thoughtful.  Yesterday, after leaving Larry's office with our trunk loaded to the top, I thought the whole way home about how lucky we are.  Lucky to have friends.  Lucky to have family.  Lucky to have each other and lucky to be having this little man coming into our lives.  

Thanks all for being in my life and making it as wonderful as it could possibly be.  

Love.

~lucky m

5 weeks to go!!

Well here I am, again two months since my last post and still a slacker.  I do have a few good excuses this time though.  I have been nesting my little (well, it's been growing along with the belly) fanny off!!  I always thought that was some stupid made-up non-sense that people said happened to pregnant women.  Well I am proof that some sort of bizarrness happened to me and made me clean every closet, drawer, shoe box and junk drawer in my house.  And I'm not done yet.  I have painted the nursery twice now (with the help of my fantastic Mother and Brother) and have rearranged hte furniture about twenty times.  Mom and Wilbur said they weren't coming to paint again if I didn;t like this color.  Bless them,  I was quite a brat.  But read my "about me" and you'll see I've always been indecisive and now I just added being pregnant on top of it!  Speaking of which Larry likes blaming everything on pregnancy.  When I am being a pain in his ass he knows its the pregnAancy (and I CERTAINLY will not be telling him otherwise) and when I need my second bowl of ice cream for the day, he knows its the pregnancy (and CERTAINLY not that I just really love ice cream).  He really is one of a kind and I can't wait until I get to see him with his little baby.  

Speaking of which, Jess (my bff for more than 15 years) just had her baby last Wednesday.  She was miserable at the end but still managed to keep a smile on her face and have positive things to say whenever I talked to her.  I sure do hope I can maintain that class in the next 5 weeks.  Maybe I will have to come back here and re-read for inspiration.  Anyway, seeing Jess with that olittle baby is amazing.  Her name is Siena Riley and she is beautiful.  I was vblown away at how much love I felt for her when I first saw her (she was only hours old!) and can not fathom how I will feel when I am holding my baby in a few short weeks.  And then to see Jess and Matt (he's the Dad) holding that little teeny baby is such an amazing thing.  It is wild to see

 people whom you've known since you were nearly a baby yourself now becoming parents.  I don't remember this nostaligia when any of my other friends have become parents, but who knows.  Perhaps its me nearly being in the same boat that is getting all those feelings a-stirring.  All I know is Jess is already an amazing Mother.

So as for this blog thingy, Judi has inspired me to write more often (we'll see) since she has her blog.  Here is a link to her blog and I strongly suggest you check it.  She is funny, smart and has great pictures unlike all my booooring typing here.  Maybe one day I will become inspired to add in some photos and such.  I plan to use this here blog when little Baby R arrives to keep everyone (well shit, Pete is about the only one who still reads it!  Thanks Pete and here is a SHOUT OUT to you!!) abreast of his arrival, cuteness and how fast he grows.  So keep an eye out peeps.

Ok, so in conclusion here is my usual whats been going on:  I finally graduated from

 USC School of Medicine with Masters in Rehabilitation Counseling (wow that looks way fancier with all those capitals) and am STILL in need of a job at a Masters level.  I am 5 weeks away from the most pain I have ever felt to experience the most love I can imagine and likely the greatest loss of sleep Larry and I are to get.  So we are slowly getting as ready as we can.  If I could just stop changing my mind, that is...

Til I remember to do this again,

Love.

~m

oh and here is a pic starting at 15 weeks up to 30 weeks.  And I am WAYYYY bigger than that now!  Eeeeek...

Louis the fat-ass cat

So my good friend Pete wrote to me the other day and said that I should keep writing here, even when I feel like there isn't much to say. "Well, why the hell would I do that" i thought...who wants to read the silly rantings of an over-worked, over-stressed, pregnant woman who should be doing school work, or cleaning the house, or putting the kitchen back together, or finishing the 19 loads of laundry piled up in the laundry room? Well, apparently Pete said he might and that made me think maybe some others would too. I like to read random blogs about nothing sometimes and well honestly if no one does, I like coming here. I like writing and sometimes I even make myself laugh and make myself feel better (read: feel less like a loser since I'm doing SOMETHING, just not what I should).

So anyway I'm sitting here in the office-that-is-soon-to-be-the-nursery-but-looks-like-a-tornado-went-off-instead and trying to write some ridiculous paper on my findings about the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Oh-my-god how boring can you get!!! This is the second of three such papers and they make me want to pull my new fabulous-after-chemo hair out (damn, I'm using a lot of hyphens today). I am doing everything but finishing this paper including staring out the window, yelling at the stupid mutt that lives with the morons across the street and daydreaming about the 6 pieces of chocolate I just ate and how fat they are going to make my ever growing ass. I am dreaming about what it will be like in one month when I have completed (mind, you maybe not passed) my comps (damn still can't show you the sign for that-stoopid f'in computer) and how I will have Saturdays to enjoy doing something outside of this horrid, shrinking little room. I can't even remember what that will be like! Can anyone remind me what a free Saturday is like...? Anyone? Yeah, ok so this is truly a blog about nothing. But I still like coming here. And I still like writing...just not shit about assessment instruments and how they really taught me a lot about my fake client named Jeanette whose personality I could care less about. So there, I guess I have stalled enough. Better get back to Jeanette and whether she's an ESFP or ISJT or what-the-hell-ever.

Till next time...

~m.

oh - and about that title: Anyone interested in offering up a home to a 16 year old fat-ass mean-as-hell cat named Louis? Can't blame a girl for tryin'.

baby mama

Wow, so the last time I posted was August!! I am worse than I thought! Well, there honestly hasn't been a whole lotta time for posting stuff on this here blog. I am still plugging away diligently at school which takes up the vast majority of my free time. Graduation is set for December 15th, but that is only a relevant date for me if I can survive until November 14th when I take my comprehensive final exam which is where I must recall all the information I have learned over the last two years and pour it out in essay form in under 3 hours! See the concern there (and the need for that crazy long runon sentence)? Not only did I lose some brain cells during that whole chemo bit last year but now I have preggo brain and can't half remember what I did yesterday! Okay, so those are lame excuses, but I am a tad worried about that thing. If my computer didn't hate me on a regular basis I would a picture of me showing you what the sign (American Sign Language) is for comps. It would make you laugh and cry for me at the same time (ok, so probably not cry, but one can lie to ones self, right?).

Anyway, I promised to keep you all (whoever you still are) updated on all things Mary and Larry. Well I announced in my last, albeit a ridiculously long time ago, blog that I am pregnant. Well I am 22 weeks today (that's 5.5 months for those who hate conversions like I do) and we found out just two weeks ago that we are having a boy. In fact, here are some photos for those who didn't get/see/read/open the email. We are still trying to figure out names and all that crazy jazz but it is quite an experience. Especially when we really thought we would be using those embryo's we went to all the trouble of growing and harvesting. Don't get me wrong, we are both insanely grateful that we didn't need to use them and were successful the "good old fashioned way". But that leaves us with a bit of a dilemma in what to do with those eggs that are laying patiently in cold storage continuing to rack up their enormous annual fee. That's not what I intend to post on this evening, but it's certainly something I think about often.

Anyway, back to pregnancy and la vida del reaves:
Larry has been able to feel the baby move a number of times. I definitely think its the coolest thing to ever happen to me and he finds it incredible as well. Little Baby Reaves is quite a mover and a shaker and LOVES when I eat and when I try to go to sleep. He also goes bananas when I am in the car so I told Larry its a good thing he likes to drive since we may have a baby that prefers driving around at 3am as opposed to quietly resting in his bed. Guess we'll have to keep you posted on that one! We are expecting him to arrive somewhere at the end of February, like maybe the 25th. That date gets scarier and scarier!

So around the home front, Larry and I (and the awesome people we hired to help us) have been quite busy working to get the house in better shape. We have completely re-done the kitchen and Larry is quite the cabinet maker/countertop-layer/electrician/plumber and he hasn't seen a free weekend in ages! Our house has been a complete mess for weeks now with almost every room undergoing some type of transformation and each one at various stages in the process. If I weren't so busy each night with either work or school I would be freaking out! My continued gratitude to my amazing husband for his hard work and dedication. He doesn't complain or gripe, even when he has a bandaid (only because I force him, mind you) on 5 out of 10 fingers! What a champ! We are hoping this will all be done and over and all cleaned up in the next little while. It sure would be nice to have it all ready for the Holidays!

Anyhoo, that is a quick update on what's been happening in our lives. I hope to put some before and after photo's up here of the house for anyone who is interested. Hope that you are all well and getting ready for the Holiday's, I know I sure am!

love.

~m

Vacation!

Well it has again been ages since I have posted here and who knows if anyone still checks this spot, but I told Mom and Will I would figure how to post some pics while we were on vacation in St. Croix. We are here for the week with Judi and Steven (our close friends from Charleston) and having a blast. THe weather is wonderful and from the pics you will see that we have an amazing place with an even more amazing view. We decided to go for renting a house in lieu of the standard all-inclusive resort and it is proving to be a great decision. The house is all ours, its quiet, relaxing and we have our own private pool, jacuzzi, and Jeep to tour the sites. I am not sure how often I will update the blog while we are hear (as we have to sit in a rather unusual spot on the far corner of the patio for the internet to pick up, but here's some for now.
Just a few pics that we thought were cool (sinc ethis blog won't let me load too many!)

Enjoy!oh- and here's a tid bit of interesting information you may all enjoy knowing. Larry and I are not alone on this little trip to paradise (not meaning Judi and Steven!). We found out a few weeks ago that we need not use those frozen grandbabies Mom loves to talk about as we are 11 weeks pregnant! More on that later!!! :)