19 weeks and appointment update

Thank you for all the nice birthday wishes, they always make a girl smile! Today we are officially 19 weeks, which feels like such a huge accomplishment. I know I say that every week - but I still pause each Monday and think that we have been so blessed to be at this point. Tomorrow I'll try to post an updated belly shot and a better update.

Today was a quiet day by myself, after a great weekend filled some time with the family. I have come to have a new appreciation for both. Yesterday my OB said that he would like to see me today for another cervix check since last week's was a little shorter and I was having what sounded like contractions. As I mentioned yesterday - I was a little surprised that he wasn't waiting the week between appointments like was the plan at the end of last week. But I never mind the close monitoring. Overnight I actually felt like I finally was having less contractions than I have in the last few days - like things were slowing down. Since this is my first pregnancy - it was weird to start feeling these things I weren't even sure were contractions at first. But now they have gotten regular enough and frequent enough that I now have no doubt what a contraction is. Basically my abdomen just tightens all of the sudden and gets as hard as rock. It then will relax, and in a little bit later, sometimes it happens again. Sometimes they are uncomfortable, sometimes they are not very uncomfortable.

Today at my appointment they could see on the monitor that I was having a contraction here and there - so that was reassuring in some weird way to know that what is actually happening is indeed a contraction. I despise the unknown, and it unnerves me a lot to not know when something is happening to my body. Or that something is happening, but not know what to call it. It's like I find if I know what's going on, or have a name for something or a cause of a problem - then I feel like I can start to deal with it. I can move forward, and pretty much get through things if we just decide to pull ourselves together, and move forward. Does that make any sense? I guess another way to put it is that I fear the unknown?

So yes I am still having contractions - although less frequently today. Yay! Game plan of today is to increase my p17 shots from once a week to twice a week (which was not something that I knew they did). This provides smooth muscle relaxation of the uterus and hopefully less irritability. If in a day or two they are not continuing to decreaes - then we will add indocin to the mix for the short term, and then see how I do with that. We can always pull out the bigger guns if necessary. One step at a time. My cervix is still a problem child. Can you believe that pesky bugger shortened a tad bit more from last Wednesday at my anatomy scan to today..less than a week later? It wasn't a huge change - but once again - shorter. Hmm, all these talks I've been having with Ms. Cervix don't seem to be working. Any suggestions? Perhaps a more stern approach is in order? I can be a little bit of a softie.

My OB wants to see me twice a week for a little while, just until things quieten down a bit. But instead of feeling like, GULP.... I feel more like PHEW. The extra monitoring makes me feel more comfortable, and not necessarily more nervous. So I go back on Wednesday. On a really happy note, I found out last night that a childhood friend of the family (the daughter of my mom's best friend) just got a BFP after doing an IVF cycle. They had been trying for 6 years to have a child and have had numerous failures. She lives out of state, but we have been in contact daily throughout her latest cycle - and I actually felt so happy for her that I felt like I myself got a BFP all over again. I am so excited for her and her husband, they have never before gotten this far along.

During my cervix check I got to peak at our little girl again, which made my heart smile. It's nice knowing that while she might feel like there is an earthquake going on in her neighborhood with the contractions and frequent internal checks - that all still is stable with her. In fact at the end of the ultrasound our little girl Spot gave us the thumbs up (if you look closely) to let us know that she was still doing okay, and wanted to hang around for awhile longer.


If you get a chance - go give Lost in Space some kind words and a hug or two - she's just been put through some beta hell after her IVF cycle. Also, if you want to read a really good post about why infertility should be covered by insurance companies for logical reasons - check out When all else fails. I think the bedrest insomnia bug has hit me again and that post sure makes for some interesting reading at 1AM- now if I could just fall asleep :-)

Birthday weekend

First, thanks for all the congrats and good wishes in finding out that Spot is a little girl! We are so excited.

Today I headed down to my parents house to be a bedresting couch potato on their furniture for a change of scenery instead of my own. This weekend was both my dad's birthday as well as my own, and my mom was cooking out for the afternoon. My grandparents and sister's family were there as well. My sister has four little ones (all under the age of 10) of her own so it's never a dull moment! Her oldest three are boys, and the youngest a girl who is 2. My niece thinks that all little girls are princesses, and so when my sister told her this week that "aunt Sara was going to be having a little girl soon" my niece asked if I was going to be bringing a princess to grandma's house this weekend. Hmm, my sister might have a little explaining to do. My niece spent the afternoon asking if I could let her play with the princess because she "really likes little princesses" and is "tired of her brothers" who are home from school for the summer! All this coming from a 2 year old :-) It'll be nice in the years ahead that my sister's youngest and our first are both girls.
Here's a picture of my sister and I at our parent's house today.

It was nice getting out of our house today, even if it was only to my parent's house and their couch to see the beautiful sunshine and grab a quick picture. I promise I was outside for like 30 seconds and returned promptly to where I belonged. My husband and my mom herded me like cattle - not leaving me much choice :-)


All in all it was a great weekend. Yesterday to celebrate my birthday my husband and I ate from a new restaurant nearby called Oce.an Pri.me that is very nice and serves mostly seafood and steaks. (It's funny - these days we eat "from" restaurants instead of "at" them - but it's still fun) I've avoided most seafood lately because it just doesn't sound good to me - but yesterday I choose some salmon in a ginger sauce that was so yummy. I also started out with an iceburg wedge salad that came with crumbled cheese, onion, tomato, and bacon on top. I love those type of salads for some reason - so I was a happy girl. It's definitely a place I would eat from again. Also, I got a really nice gift card for a prenatal massage package that I'm dying to use when I'm having a quiet week and it's okay for me to go. Since it's a prenatal massage - my OB said that it would be fine as long as I wasn't having active contractions, or any other problems that week. Now I just have to have that quiet week (since this wasn't one of them, LOL!) :-)

I'm also finally starting to acknowledge that Spot may actually arrive in just a few short months. I finally got off of my lazy butt and starting some planning - at last! Well, I didn't actually move off my rear, but I did call our painter to come give us an estimate for painting the room we'll be using as the nursery. While he was over we decided to have him plan on painting most of our first floor as well, and fixing some small cracks that we have in a few spots. He does a great job and since our walls are wet plaster instead of just dry wall - it's good to have someone experienced with repairing wet plaster and coved ceilings. Now I just need to get busy picking out some colors. I figure the two weeks he's working in our house my dog and I will just have to spend our days parked on my mom's couch in front of her TV instead of our own so we don't get high off of the paint fumes. Spot might appreciate not getting high as well :-)

As far as what I spent rotting my brain with this weekend - we watched Over my Dead Body with Eva Longoria which was a really cute movie. Also, we started watching a miniseries that was out a while ago called Tin Man that was based on the Wizard of Oz. I wasn't sure if I like it at first, but we're about 2/3rds through and it's pretty good. Tonight starts the next season of Big Brother and we're excited to see this season's cast. My husband used to watch it faithfully and got me hooked the last few seasons. On a more educational note, I ordered the John Adams miniseries from Netflix, so hopefully my already softening brain won't become total mush (thanks Tracy for the suggestion).

I spoke with my OB again this weekend, and although my next appointment wasn't supposed to be for another week from now, he wants to see me again tomorrow. They want to measure my cervix again to make sure things aren't changing too much too quickly, and because I'm still having contractions. I'm not complaining because I always love sneaking another peak at our little girl Spot - but I'd prefer that my doctors weren't seeing me for the second time in less than a week because they aren't thrilled with how things are going. But, once again - I'm just going to try to make believe that I'm a normal boring pregnant woman who just happens to have a lot of doctor appointments and am on a long vacation from work! It's my own little take on the old saying "ignorance is bliss!"

Anatomy scan 18 weeks

Yesterday late afternoon was my 18 week appointment and anatomy scan. My husband picked me up and we headed to the OB office together, luckily traffic during rush hour wasn't too bad and we made it through the city making good time. Once called back for our ultrasound my favorite ultrasound tech was there and had me undress from waist down. I still have a transvag ultrasound to measure my cervix along with the abdominal one for the remainder portion of the scan. Almost immediately little Spot appeared on the screen. Reclining back watching the screen I felt like I was watching a movie where our little Spot played the staring role - honestly they should offer you some nice buttery popcorn while you viewed. Perhaps that will be one for the suggestion box? The tech goes well there's the vagina...and I waited for her to say and there's the cervix and cerclage - but she didn't. She was staring at me. Once again, the tech goes, "there's the vagina." Huh? Wait a minute..does that means Spot is a "Girl Spot?" Yup she smiled, you're having a girl!

I turned to my husband and said, we're having a girl! I still couldn't believe that Spot who I thought was a boy all along was actually a girl! My husband has thought girl all along. Not that we even cared what gender it was, but it's so nice to have some more identity to put with our little one. The rest of the appointment breezed by because I think I was still riding on my little high of realizing that I was not longer just carrying our little "Spot", but rather our little Spot- our daughter.

On the cervix and growth front as well, it was pretty good news as well. Spot was measuring in the 30% - so our little girl is on the smaller end of the spectrum. But heck I will take that, she had all of her parts, no abnormalities were seen, and 30% isn't too bad in my opinion. As I've mentioned with a unicornuate uterus, IUGR (growth restriction) is a main concern - so this is something that we will watch every 2-4 wks with growth scans from here on out. On the cervix front, the cerclage itself is intact which is great. My cervix did get shorter once again from the last measurement - that pesky little bugger! But it didn't get a lot shorter, so once again we'll do more of the same. More bedrest, more monitoring, more watching my cerclage.

I am so grateful that we are fortunate enough to have caught this weeks ago when we did. Since even with bedrest and a cerclage in place my cervix is still shortening - I know without doing the two we wouldn't even have our little girl Spot at this 18 week mark. My OB said that he was so glad we were able to get to the point to enjoy a 18 week growth scan and to be able to find out that Spot was a girl. I know each week is a blessing and that we have all our ducks in a row and everything lined up to do the best we can with what we have. Basically the game plan is that my cervix may continue to shorten, but we all have to hope that it shortens at a slow enough rate. Technically with a cerclage in place, you can shorten to very low levels and hope that you have a strong enough stitched that was placed high enough up to hold things in place.

Most days I'm still having some contraction like cramping. My OB is talking with my peri and I should know more today about what the game plan is for that. All in all, I couldn't be happier. We now know Spot is a girl, she isn't measuring too too small, and my cervix is shortening - but it could always be worse. Yes I'm having contractions, but you know what - I'm only contracting because I still have Spot with us! My husband and I joked that the contractions are just girl Spot's way of say, "Hi mom and dad - yup I'm still here...don't forget about me!"

I'll try to update more if I know anything else as the day goes and hope to have some pictures up later as well. Hope everyone is having a good Thursday, it's almost the weekend!

What Spot is up to this week

(cartoon from babygaga.com)

Happy hump day to all! In middle school whenever we would hear that phrase all the girls would burst into giggles. I have a secret confession to make - I still giggle like a 10 year old girl when I hear it sometime, or at least break out in a smile!

Well Spot is doing some more growing and activity during his or her 18th week:
* The fetus is now 6 inches long and weighs 7 ounces.
* They can hear sounds and may be startled by loud noises.
* Recognizable active and rest periods.
* The skin is building a protective wax layer (vernix)
Vernix (a white cheese like protective material) forms on baby's skin with the lanugo, a soft lightly pigmented hair covering the body and limbs, both help to protect your baby's skin during the months in water. This is a big week for their baby skin. There are now two distinct layers—the epidermis (or the surface skin) and dermis. Currently, their skin is covered Your baby may hear your heart beating, your stomach rumbling or blood moving through the umbilical cord. He or she may even be startled by loud noises.

Tiny air sacs called alveoli begin to form in lungs and the vocal chords are formed. Baby goes through the motions of crying but without air doesn't make a sound; yet.

Your baby may have the same awake and sleep patterns of a newborn. Baby will have a favorite position for sleep and recognizable active and rest periods.

Fun fact for momma’s with baby girls: it’s a uterus within a uterus! Your little girl will have developed a uterus and vagina canal by the end of this week.
Your baby measures about 6 inches (15cm) crown to rump and weighs about 7 ounces (200gm).

I had to giggle (again!) when I read about Spot being startled by loud noises - I wonder if my evening gas sessions count? It's crazy that Spot practices crying and has a favorite sleep position. I wonder if Spot will take after my husband who is a stomach sleeper or me who likes to sleep on her back. (I miss sleeping on my back the last few weeks - the whole side thing just isn't the same.)

As far as the changes that occur in the mom side of things this weeks are:

And how's mom doing? POP! If you haven’t yet, you will soon be seeing the last of your inn-y belly button—until after you’ve pushed your little monkey out. If it’s getting difficult to breathe, you can thank your not-so-small belly for squishing your lungs—which will be more and more cramped for space as the pregnancy progresses. Not that this is surprising as everything else in your mid-section is getting properly squooshed as well. Keep in mind that as you grow (and grow and grow) in size you produce more blood (for both of you), which lowers your blood pressure. So standing up quickly and/or occasional fast movements may cause slight dizziness or lightheadedness. This is totally normal, but means you shouldn’t be too quick to jump to your feet when your team scores a goal. It's better to just punch the air in excitement or clap gleefully. One more fun pregnancy symptom to add to the list: you are producing more melanin, which can cause dark patches of skin to occur on random parts of your body. Don’t worry—these dark spots (unlike your parent’s age spots) will retreat soon after birth.

Well, I definitely don't think that belly button has popped yet (oopps - I almost wrote pooped, LOL!), but it definitely has changed in appearance and shape. I've already become somewhat lopsided due to my unicornuate uterus. My bump is more to the left than the right (I have a left UU). Also, the vertical slit that is in inside my belly button looks more like a 45 degree peace sign line tilted to the left since Spot is sitting mostly on my left side in my left sided uterus. I'm hoping that the bigger I get and the uterus expands, that things shift a bit more midline.

As I'm typing this on my laptop a commercial for the Honda CR-V has come on. It's the one where they start out mentioning the word "crave" and they show a soft baked chocolate chip cookie baking and as it gets more formed it turns into a chocolate chip cookie car that is the Honda CR-V. Genius - anything that can combine a yummy chocolate chip cookie and tie it in with a boring car commercial sure grabs my attention! I think all commercials should either contain pictures of vacation spots, puppies, or dessert food aka chocolate chip cookies. But that's just my opinion!

Late this afternoon I have my next OB appointment and anatomy/ growth scan. We have a late day appointment so that my husband can come especially for the ultrasound appointment. I'm hoping that traffic isn't too bad because even though my OB's office is only about 9 or 10 miles away - it'll take a good 45 minutes to get through the city that time of day. Thank you for guessing whether Spot will be a boy or girl - it looks like most people think that there is a lot of blue in our future (my hunch all along as well)! The great thing is that my husband and I don't have a preference either way. As long as my cervix continues to hold Spot in for several more weeks and doesn't try to pull any shenanigans, I don't have a care in the world when it comes to the gender.

So until later this afternoon I will be keeping my fingers crossed for a good cervix measurement and to see that Spot is measuring close to where they should be size wise. I'm interested to see exactly what my cervix is measuring because my last exact measurement by ultrasound of it was two weeks ago. Last week my OB looked at my cerclage and did an internal digit examine of my cervix to see how it was doing - and they can tell pretty well how things are, but they don't have exact numbers like a transvag ultrasound produces. The gender I'm excited about, but not worried about. Now what I am worried about is seeing if I can come up with something that resembles a chocolate chip cookie in my kitchen!

Technologically challenged at the moment.

Ugh, I've been trying to get online and stay online for awhile today. Our home landline is static filled and keeps dropping in and out - we have MCI. Our TV keeps muting on and off and getting fuzzy - we have Comcast cable (we even pay extra for the good channels - double ugh!!) Our internet has been down more than up so far today - we have Comcast cable internet (why oh why have you forsaken me Comcast?) My cell phone has dropped two calls today and also keeps saying "call failed" - I have T Mobile. Well that involves a total of four electronics and three providers. I think I must have seriously pissed in someone's Cheerios this morning or last night and not realized it. Either that or the technology gods are not smiling on me and sending me not the best karma. But, alas...the day is young and I'm hoping that by afternoon some of this is fixed! As long as the ultrasound machine works at the doctors office - I can live without the rest. I'm hoping I can email my sister and mom some pictures of the appointment later, and maybe smack an update on here - but I'll need a little cooperation from the technology gods for that...do you think that they would like a rain dance, or some chocolate chip cookies?

18 weeks

I hope everyone had a fabulous and restful holiday weekend. Thank you so much for the kind words about my grandfather and WWII in my previous post. My husband's parents came up from Ohio and spent the weekend with us. On the fourth in the evening our city does fireworks over the golf course. It's a really nice show and best part of all, we have a clear view from near our house - perfect for me especially right now!
Our first "family portrait with our little Spot" taken at 18 weeks.

Alright here's our first "complete" family photo with our first "furchild" and Spot.


Spot is 18 weeks today - hip hip hooray! Less than two days until our anatomy scan and maybe seeing if Spot is a boy or girl (thanks for voting so far - looks like most people think Spot is a boy, that's my secret hunch as well. But my husband thinks girl.) Most pregnant people are excited about finding out the gender - I am, but am more excited to find out what my cervix is doing, and to find out if Spot is measuring okay size wise.

If you have a moment go over to give Adriane a little hello. She was just put on hospital bedrest for possibly the duration of her pregnancy due to an incompetent cervix - yuck - one of my most current dreaded fears. She is looking for ideas to keep her entertained and good websites that are entertaining as well. I myself can't think of too many great suggestions - so go give her some cool ideas if you can. It's hard enough to keep busy at home on bedrest, but being in the hospital would be so much worse to stay entertained. So if you can - go give her a bunch of good websites, entertainment ideas, or just a hello.

Some more things I learned about bedrest the last week:

1. When you send your husband to the grocery store asking for organic fat free skim milk, he will call from the dairy aisle. My husband is such a sweet guy he phoned and said, "Some milk says fat free and some says skim milk. Which one do you want?" I then say, "Either one honey since they're the same." He tries to get exactly what I ask for, and the poor guy looked through two aisles of milk for one that said skim AND fat free on the label before he called!

2. Speaking of groceries again, my engineer husband has even taken his new duty of grocery shopping and made it all his own. I rarely if ever shopped with a list in the past. When he started going, I had to start making a detailed list for him to take. After about two weeks one evening he showed me the laptop screen. My husband made an excel spread sheet with all of our most common grocery items in categories and blank spaces to add new things. He now obviously has his own little system :-)

3. Most of the time while lying down I do so on my left side. When I roll over to my right side - it's like I'm seeing the room through a whole new set of eyes - aahhh magnificent!

4. I still haven't felt Spot move (which I know it's still early) - but I'm looking forward to this moment so much. During the day and evening I try to lay very still and see if I can distinguish any fluttery feelings or something more recognizable. This is what I have discovered in my grand journey of trying to feel Spot move: I have gas - a lot of gas between 8-9AM and 6-8PM. Yes, I know the baby can feel like gas - but I'm pretty sure Spot isn't releasing the fart that follows these movements during these times, LOL! So I definitely am having movement, just not baby movement yet!

5. While glancing out my window or while sitting outside, I have discovered that five families on our block alone have children that were adopted from various countries - one from Russia, two from Korea, and two from China. I knew that there were a couple of families - but I didn't know the number was as high as 5. The kids range from 3-7 in age. Every Tuesday evening the moms and kids get together and meet at one house for a little dinner/discussion/playgroup/support system for each other. How cool is that?

6. I read two quick and easy reads this weekend that made me laugh the whole time:


Bedrest by Sarah Bilston is a hilarious book about a busy New York lawyer who is put on bedrest for a couple of months towards the end of her first pregnancy. I could really relate to her funny spin on things and about how she struggled to go from having a crazy busy job that she loved, to having to leave it all behind to be a prisoner in her house for weeks on end. The author had been so busy with her job, and then could do nothing when being put on bedrest that she suddenly finds herself weeks away from the baby's arrival with not a single thing bought or prepared for the baby. Yup - that's me. Despite being home all the time now on bedrest - I have not a single thing bought or prepared for the arrival of our little Spot. I think that may have to change, sometime soon. I think my husband has been more worried about getting things settled for us and getting used to doing everything I used to do. Baby preparation has fallen by the wayside the last few weeks, as we adjust to me occupying the couch for the next four months.

Belly Laughs by Jenny McCarthy is just plain funny. I don't really have to give much explanation - she talks about every untalked about pregnancy body change. She even includes my "Blue Twinkies" that I talked about recently as McCarthy calls them (swollen lady parts). Sully you were right - good choice of a read!

In between those two books I continued to read Middl.esex - which is still really good as well - I'm almost done with that one. One pleasant surprise in that book, is that it takes place in Detroit and makes references to suburbs and landmarks I grew up around.

7. My dog and I are on the same bathroom schedule. I mentioned before that my dog uses a doggie litter box (very different than cat litter) in our back room. Well, whenever I get up to go to the bathroom - if she isn't too busy stealing my pillow - she goes to the bathroom in her litter box. Kind of like the thought that women living together or are close get their periods on the same days.....well my dog and I relieve ourselves on the same schedule! Well now that is one loyal dog :-)


Neela got all spiffy for the holiday weekend and broke out in one of her new shirts for company at our house yesterday. But by the end of the weekend, I think she was glad to rejoin me back on the couch. I have to admit I did miss her while she was running around with my husband's parents from lap to lap.

Well, I'm off to rot my brain on some more TV - I'm finally caught up on America's Ne.xt Top Model from last season so far. I'm thinking maybe it's a Crim.inal Minds kind of TV watching day perhaps? But more importantly, I really should start browsing some websites for baby things. I swear the whole bedrest thing may have me taking online shopping to a whole new level. I seriously have not looked at anything, or heavens forbid bought anything for Spot yet. One of these days I have to start because if not my husband will be running out to buy an infant car seat the day we're released from the hospital!

Fourth of July Memories

My grandparents were married at the start of WWII, and shortly afterwards they gave birth to my mother in 1942. They lived in Detroit (originally both from Poland) at the time, and my grandfather played baseball for a semiprofesstional team. Soon he actually had two offers of interest from two professional teams. This was all put on hold when he made the decision to enlist and go overseas to join the numerous American soldiers fighting. He left behind my grandmother, and my mother who was two years old at the time. In December of 1944 as the war was getting closer to the end, my grandfather was killed east of Metz, France close to the German border. At first my grandmother was notified that he was missing and presumed to be dead, but it was several months before she could be at peace with the actual knowledge that his body was finally found. My grandfather was buried in St. Avold France.

The picture up top left was taken when my grandfather's brother visited his grave in France shortly after the war ended. You can see the fresh dirt that covered the cemetary with footprints in the soil - so new that even grass hadn't grown yet. The one on the top right is of my grandparents and my mom here in Detroit prior to him leaving for the military. When my grandmother gave me these pictures years ago, they were already old and crinkled, so the quality is not the best - but they're something I'll always treasure. After my grandfather's death, my grandma worked three jobs and raised my mother on her own for several years. With so many others doing the same - it's no wonder they've been nicknamed the "Greatest Generation."

My grandmother has been over to France to visit his grave a couple of times when she was younger. She is now close to 90, and doesn't make many trips other than to church or out to eat. Something that I always wanted to do growing up was to visit my grandfather's grave at the American Cemetary in St. Avold. So last fall, my husband and I booked a three week trip to France and one of our stops was St. Avold. To say it was one of the most moving experiences of my life would be an understatement. Were there was once dirt and the footprints of soldiers like my great uncle in the top photo is now green grass, trees, and a chapel. The cemetery has thousands of American soldiers buried there that died in WWII, the grounds are impecable, and it is run solely by the American government even though it is located in France. Staff from the cemetary meet you at the train station (St. Avold is super tiny with not a lot of taxis), take you on a tour of the cemetary to your loved one's grave, help you with lunch arrangements, and help you catch your train ride out later that day.

Here are a few pictures from the cemetary. The man from the army helping us locate the grave helped my grandfather's name show up on the marker for our picuture. Because the crosses are so smooth and all white, the name won't appear in pictures taken. So the military men working at the cemetary put actual sand from the beaches of Normandy that they keep on site, over the name so it will temporarily be visible for a photo. I thought that was the coolest idea, and was very symbolic as well.


We had a really nice trip and although we rented an apartment in France for three weeks, the time flew by. I do have to admit it was nice to get home to see our little dog that my parents watched for us and took great care of!
(we were traveling just the two of us, so my husband got better each day at holding the camera out in front of us and blindly taking photos of the two of us. That's why his arm is in a lot of pictures. We took over 600 photos, but here's just a few.)

Some pictures from the Tuileris Gardens:





We took a few boat ride tours on the Seine - windy hair days :-)

We tried to walk somewhere new to dinner each night - definitely got a lot of exercise!


Church where much of the DaVinci Code was filmed (where the line lights up)



After the Da Vinci movie and book, alterations were made to the actual church structure and that are over a hundred years old- wiped out - kinda crazy!

One day we climbed to the top of the church Sacre Couer and the sky was all windy and stormy with different layers of colors.


On the major holidays my husband and I have flowers sent to be placed on my grandfather's grave. Someday, we'll return again to visit - this time with our little Spot once they get old enough to make the plane ride. I think it's important to show the next generation in our family the sacrifies that their relatives made for them. I wish I could have met my grandfather, I would just like to give him a hug and say a simple, "thanks." This weekend on the fourth of July, I'll remember all of those who made that similar sacrifice. I hope that everyone will take the time to thank someone serving our country as well as the thousands who already have.