The Buerglers

There's been seemingly a lot of talk this week about how everyone's lives are picture perfect on Twitter and Blogs...so here's a glimpse into my not-so-picture-perfect day. Yesterday Evie was complaining of a stomachache, which is a whole different story.  Basically she had two huge diaper blow outs and threw up.  She was restless all night with a cough (again).  As I laid awake from 2am-4am listening to her suffer through another coughing fit I was really glad I didn't make Friday Funday plans with friends. Because, WHO KNOWS what the morning would bring. Well, toddlers are remarkable creatures.  Evie slept until 9:15 am. Whatthewhat?!?!  And woke up a bundle of energy. She was excited for pancakes and promptly asked what our adventure would be for the day.  Well, crap. While she was eating breakfast I got an email from the Gap Outlet that they were having a 30-70% off everything in the store sale. We had a few more items on our spring shopping lis...

Here we are on day 4 of 7... I already feeling like I'm digging for content, but then I remembered these photos I took last month and never put a post with them! My girlfriend Alyshia was expecting baby #3 in early February.   Little baby Joshua was a little bit of a surprise, and Alyshia and Greg had already given away most of their baby gear.  Her friend Rebecca and I decided to host a "Sprinkle" to get Alyshia and Greg a few new essentials for bringing home baby Joshua. Rebecca and I hosted the event at a local Mexican restaurant (Their tag line is "Mexican with an attitude," perfect for Alyshia, amiright?).  We had a huge table and shared queso and guacamole as a group.  Everyone ordered their own drinks and dinner.   Rebecca organized a little activity where we all wrote notes of encouragement to Alyshia to read in labor. After dinner Alyshia opened gifts.   The "sprinkle" was super easy and fun. The perfect girl's night ...

One of the goals of the 7x7 challenge was to dig out drafts or half-baked blogging ideas...so for my third of seven posts, here's one I never got around to publishing! So, y'all, I had so much fun discussing cloth napkins and gardening with you after this post so I decided to do follow ups occasionally. It's often that "being green" and "being cheap" go hand in hand. Eric and I discovered most of these when we were gazelle intense in dumping debt.  Turns out they're also environmentally friend, and great for recovering pack rats like myself. Digital Media Level: Beginner Cost: Some start up fee, $-$$ The iTunes era really pioneered this. Ditch the CDs buy an iPod and digital music. I was hooked. Same with a Kindle. Same with our Roku.  Instead of hoarding books, movies, magazines, etc.  Small start up fees for these gadgets grant you an unlimited world of digital media for less than the hard copy.  No more transportation waste in obtaining...

Today is day 2 of 7 posts in Conversion Diary's Challenge . I've given mini-updates in my bimonthly Bump Watch Updates, but I haven't really tracked the progress of the Great Big Girl Room Make Over process as promised.  I posted the inspiration for her room back in September . The status of her room was manageable.  We had an easy time line of September - November to get the room done in time for her Second Birthday. But during that time my parents cleaned out two of the storage areas in their house and brought more of my stuff (that I didn't even know I had!) along with all the bulky baby gear we had in their attic while we moved.   The task to get the room made over became OMG more daunting. Work season piled on stress and business and the room sat untouched for almost three months.  Really, until about 2 weeks before Christmas, a month after our initial deadline. But it was do-able. We booked a weekend to organize all the junk. And ...

I "signed up" or "committed" to join Conversion Diary in doing seven blog posts in seven days. One of the premises was to write about stuff you've been meaning to catch up on.  And the point of the exercise is just to write, and not be perfectionist about blogging (not that I really am anyway, ha!). Today I want to share a little about Evie's preschool experience. (first day of school! My family!) As a short back story, Evie went to in-home childcare with another family for last school year while I worked. It was fabulous. And that had been the plan for this year as well.  The nanny we used last year moved on to another job so we'd searched and hired someone for the summer, who was great but she was a college student.  And the nanny we'd hired for the Fall ended up getting recruited for job in her field a few months earlier than expected. This left us without childcare while I worked 15-19 hours a week in the Fall. We prayed and Googled a...

How far along? 31 weeks How big is baby? check up on Saturday estimates her growth about 1-3 weeks ahead of schedule, which lands us a baby in 6-9 weeks!! Total weight gain? 22lbs, which puts me at excessive for my BMI, but otherwise in the "normal" range.  I'd gained 40 by now with Evie. Ooof! No wonder I feel so much better this pregnancy Maternity clothes? I went through and tried on all my spring/summer clothes and am donating a bunch. A lot of them are really big and or I just don't like them. I saved just enough to get me through a few weeks of Spring weather, if it even comes this year. Stretch marks? Nothing new! Belly button? Sticking out a little more! Exercise :  I made a really good effort to walk any day it was nice the last two weeks. It really helped keep the puffiness at bay. Sleep : I don't want to talk about it. I think I slept through the night twice in the last two weeks, which landed me a terrible cold, which led t...

With the countdown less than ten weeks until Baby Buergler #2 is due, I had a sudden panic of all the things that "went wrong" with the end of my pregnancy, the labor & delivery, and my recovery.  I am terrified of a repeat.  I have been doing my best to mental prepare, should they, but it was just SO MUCH last time that I am almost in tears again just thinking about a repeat experience. 1. Preeclampsia    I was diagnosed with preeclampsia around week 36-37 with Evie. It only occurs in about 5-8% of pregnancies. Fortunately once you've had it you're not more likely to get it. Each pregnancy is unique. Still, I know more about now than I did then. It's dangerous (Lady Sybil anyone?).  I am terrified to repeat that: The headaches. The bed rest. The edema. The blood pressure feeling like my body was going to explode.  After a short stint on bed rest I had to be induced. I was also passed back and forth between the doctor and midwife, and neither of ...

Our local Chick-fil-as host an annual Daddy-Daughter Date Night.  Eric had been excited to take Evie since we learned about this when she was just 3 months old. Last year she was still too little, but this year was JUST RIGHT!   Saturday morning I started preparing Evie for her special night. I told her all about how she'd wear a special dress, put a bow in her hair and wear her ruffly socks.  I also told her Daddy would get dressed up in his fancy suit and tie and the two of them would go out for a yummy dinner.  She was SO EXCITED!  She talked about it all day. She kept asking questions.  Like, would they take Daddy's car?  Was Mommy going?  And would there be ice cream? (Girl has standards, I tell you). After her nap I started getting her dressed.  She was giddy with excitement as she remembered about her special night out. Eric came by her room and "picked her up" for their date, but I couldn't let them leave with out a few ...

To keep with our new years resolution, our weekly Funday outing was to my salon for hair cuts!   Evie had her first hair cut about 11 months ago in preparation for Aunt Katie's wedding. It was mostly to cut off the scraggly new born hair ends.  I cut it in the late Fall but it was pretty crooked. We decided to splurge on a fun trip to the salon for a really good cut before baby sister arrives. We'd watched the Small Potatoes Hair Cut episode a million times in preparation, so Evie was SO excited to meet my stylist and get her hair cut.  The girl who cuts my hair has two daughters about Evie's age so I knew she'd be great with Evie. She did the consultation on the booster seat and then we walked Evie over to the shampoo bowl, but she was terrified. Hey, it was worth the shot.  When we got back to the chair, Evie wanted to sit with me.  She did really well for the first 10 minutes and then it was like a wrestling match.  I almost regret...