Just Say Julie

I have really been struggling with the idea of home versus home recently.  I have lived in Texas six and a half years. I have a house and a family here. Yet, I still can't accept this place as my home.  To quote a little  country music here, "My home's in Alabama."  I guess it's the Southerner in me.  I will always be an Alabamian at heart no matter how long I live away from the state and I will always be a native Mobilian.  That is where my roots are and I want to make sure my son knows where he came from. We aren't going to Alabama for any part of the holidays this year. It's killing me.  Last year we went the weekend before Christmas for a long weekend so we could still be in our house Christmas morning.  But the whole crew from Alabama is coming here this year to celebrate with us since Jenny is 8 months pregnant.  I'm excited about not having to travel with a 5 month old but still sad about not going home.  I haven't been for a visit since A

A few weeks ago, there was a post on Style Lush  about makeup worth repurchasing which got me thinking about the makeup I love and the fact that I have a mild obsession with makeup.  For someone who really doesn't wear a lot of makeup, that is an odd obsession to have.  But I have always loved to shop for makeup and it is nothing for me to drop obscene amounts of money in Sephora, Ulta, or at the department store makeup counter of my choice.  I will buy new skincare and face products, use them for a few weeks, and toss them aside but not get rid of them because I might use them one day.  What I found in most instances was that I kept going back to the same products.  That should tell me something so I made a deal with Chris.  It was time for me to clean out the makeup collection and get back to the basics of the products I love and only purchase items to replace what needs to be replaced. So tonight I went about the near impossible task of sorting out the excess makeup and baggin

Thanks to Jackson waking up early this morning, I actually have a little time to blog.  (He's currently rolling around on the floor...yes, he's rolling!)  So I decided to post a couple of the dishes I have found on Pinterest recently.  (If you are not on Pinterest yet, get thee to Pinterest!)  I have a ton of recipes pinned (and lots of other things as well) but I have only made 4 so far.  Two we loved and two we were meh about so here are the two we loved: Crockpot Potato Soup Y'all, I loved this so much the first time that I have already made it a second time.  When I was sick two weeks ago, this is what I wanted.  The soup is quite tasty but not too heavy.  It is also a great base to be played with.  Add cheese, bacon bit, sour cream, whatever you want!  Chris and I have already discussed ways we can expand this soup to make it more interesting.  Plus, it's easy!  Dump everything in your slow cooker for 6 hours.  Add in the cream cheese for the last hour and you

I decided to take a pregnancy test a year ago today on a whim after watching the episode of Life Unexpected where Shiri Appleby's character found out she was pregnant.  Something about her symptoms struck a cord with me.  I had been feeling off but didn't think much about it. Imagine my shock when I took the test (alone since Chris was at work) and it was positive.  (I took 3 more before it was over it just to reassure myself.)  I read the directions about 5 times to make sure I was reading the test right and then I took a second one to make sure.  It was so hard not to be able to share my excitement with Chris once the initial shock wore off.  Trying to sleep after learning that news was awful. I could barely wait till he got home the next morning.  I called him as soon as his shift was over to see what he had to say about the numerous texts he had received over the evening. I was always on the fence about becoming a mother but I feared I would miss out if I didn't at le

This little guy is four months old today! Some days it is hard for me to believe that it has been that long and some days it feels like he has been a part of my life for much longer.  I am having such a fun time with him right now.  He is really starting to interact and react to us.  I love his smiles and laughs.  Knowing those are waiting for me when I get home gets me through the day.  According to his check up this past Tuesday, Jackson now weighs 15 pounds and 5 ounces and he is 26 inches long.  He is pretty much average (50th percentile) for weight but he is on the tall side (86th percentile).  Not sure how my kid ended up tall.  We will see if that lasts.   I realized I didn't do a 3 month update so I will cover some of those highlights here as well.  J started daycare just over a month ago and has done really well with it so far. I get a little jealous when I see him snuggling with his teacher, Miss Jordan, but it makes me feel better that he is comfortable and

You won't find me talking about stepparenting on here very often for a variety of reasons.  I am concerned that things I say might be taken negatively when they are intended to be as well as the boundaries of discussing a child that isn't mine on the internet.  I know as Jackson's mother, I wouldn't want him being a topic of conversation on the internet by someone else.  I can only hope that Sean's mother feels the same way.  However, there are times when I will lift the censor long enough to address something I really feel like I need to share.  This is one of those times. A couple of weeks ago, someone posted a link to this post on Twitter: This is not a Bonus Mom .  Obviously my curiosity was peaked so I had to check it out.  And boy, was I glad that I did.  For the first time since becoming a stepmom (and even while we dating/engaged), I felt like someone actually got it.  This is what I had been trying to explain to Chris this whole time.  I am not Sean's

My last post talked about our crazy busy days which led me to thinking about cooking for my family.  Now, I am not one of those people who hates cooking.  I won't say I love it but I do enjoy it.  However, I don't cook a lot.  Chris does most of the cooking in our household, which is actually quite backwards.  But he does it because he is the one that is home.  Because of my hours and commute, it is almost 6:30 each night when I get home from work.  If we waited till I got home to start dinner, we would either eat junk or not eat until it is time for Chris to walk out the door for work.  There are nights that happens but we try to keep that down to a minimum for the sake of both our waistlines and our pocketbooks.   Instead, I text Chris on my way out of the office and he starts dinner so that it will be close to completion when I get home. If there is still stuff to do when I get home, I will help out.  Otherwise, I save most of my cooking for the weekends. For this reason,

I have so many things that I want to blog about right now (Penn State, Halloween, step parenting) but I am having a hard time finding the time to squeeze in blogging.  Our days are just insane.  And, every time I say something, I feel like I am whining because I know I am not any busier than anyone else.  Please know that I am not trying to complain. This is just something I feel the need to talk about.  We are completely running ourselves ragged right now and I am praying it will stop soon.  How is having 2 kids so much harder than having one? Is it because Jackson is still a baby and needs our full attention?  I finally realized how much I needed a break today when I was talking to a coworker about some upcoming events at work and she mentioned how tired I looked. Suddenly I was in tears for no reason other than the fact someone noticed and told me I needed to take a day to myself.  Something has to give.  I am just not sure I can figure out what that something is. One thing that h

So, there's this football game this weekend that it seems pretty much every college football fan in the nation will be watching.  No, not the one that will take place in Austin between Texas and Texas Tech.  Not even the Aggies and Sooners are garnering this much attention.  It's the Tide and the Tigers.  Alabama and LSU that is.  A game that will surpass all other games this year.  Number 1 versus Number 2.  Anyone who knows me knows which side of the ball I am on.  I have tried to be very careful about what I have said about this game.  I will admit that I am nervous.  I want Alabama to do well.  I want to see them win but I don't want to do a lot of smack talking and have it come back to bite me in the end.  So instead I will just support my team and wear my colors proudly and say what I know to be true, "It's going to be a good game."  With that, I will leave you with an article I read this morning.  I can't say that I disagree with the article.  I do

So, The Blathering is this weekend and 50 fabulous ladies are going to be converging on my city to take it by storm for 3 days.  I am terrified and excited all at the same time.  I do not know any of these women in real life and most of them I have only meet over the internet in the last couple of months as the attendee information has been posted.  Several have shared 13 things to know about me so I figured I would jump on the bandwagon as well.  Here it goes: I live in Round Rock and work in Austin.  However, I have only lived here for 4 years so I still have no idea where anything is.  I rely on my GPS for that reason.  Please don't laugh at me for this. But I am willing and able to drive around those who need transportation this weekend.  For the same reason listed above, I also have no idea what is really fun to do in Austin.  There are still a lot of tourist-y things I want to do like tour the Capitol and see the bats fly from the Congress Street Bridge.  If anyone is in

I am extremely easily annoyed these days.  It doesn't take much to get under my skin which makes me an unpleasant person to be around.  Knowing this, I've been keeping to myself a lot so I don't just completely go off on someone. I am also more emotional.  I almost cried in a meeting this week when one of the PMs welcomed me back to the office and commented that I looked thrilled to be there.  The comment didn't bother me because it was true.  It just re-emphasized how much I want to be home with Jackson.  And then I did it again the next day driving to work just because I really didn't want to go. The daycare situation is really stressing me out.  We have just over 2 weeks to find someone to watch Jackson while Chris and I are at work since our perfect in-home daycare fell through last week.  I am really not happy about this.  I never wanted to put my kids in daycare but I have no other options.  Nor do I have any idea how we are going to pay for this. My feet

I borrowed this from the fabulous Sarah Lena  since I accidentally deleted the post I started writing earlier today.  I intend to finish that post but this will have to do for now. A. Age: 34 B. Bed size: Queen which was fine for me and Maverick but Chris, Maverick, and I need a King. C. Chore that you hate: All of them but particularly cleaning the bathrooms especially the toilets with all the boys in my house. D. Dogs: Yes, Maverick, the fat beagle E. Essential start to your day: Now that I am back at work, I must have my coffee. F. Favorite color: Crimson red...is there any other color? G. Gold or Silver: I am more of a gold person but my wedding rings are white gold so I have been leaning towards silver since getting them nearly 2 years ago. H. Height: 5’2" on a good day if I stretch I. Instruments you play: I played alto clarinet in high school and I wasn't very good J. Job title: Financial Analyst K. Kids: Jackson - 2 months old; Sean (stepson)

I fully intended to write 2 blog posts last week.  One about Jackson turning 2 months old and one about returning to work.  That did not happen.  That nasty thing known as my job really got in the way last week.  Along with trying to keep my household together, there was just no time.  The post-work evenings felt like I was running a marathon.  There is just so much to do in the 3 hours between getting home from working and getting everyone settled in bed.  That meant that my internet and TV time was extremely limited.  So, I will make up for it now by talking about what I was going to talk about last week. Jackson hit 2 months old last Tuesday.  It was also Maverick's 6th birthday.  I cannot believe how big both of my boys are now.  I remember bringing Maverick home as a tiny little 6 pound puppy 6 years ago.  He was so adorable and so tiny and would fall asleep on my chest.  Now he is my loving, crazy, rambunctious, fat beagle.  He will still curl up in my lap and go to sleep w

I am currently laying on my couch bored out of my mind praying that Jackson will sleep until it's time to go get Sean from school.  He was cranky this morning because he was fighting sleep.  So now that he is finally napping, I don't want to turn on the TV or do anything else that might wake him up because I need to enjoy my last quiet afternoon before all hell breaks loose in my house.  My short term disability officially ended on Tuesday so I took 3 days of vacation to finish out the week before I return to work on Monday.  The only good thing about the c-section was that I was able to get 8 weeks of disability instead of the 6 I was expecting.  While 2 months should seem like a long time, it really isn't.  I am still sore and some days I think I must look like I just got off a horse with the way I walk.  I also know it hasn't been long enough to mentally prepare for leaving Jackson behind.  Mom gets here Saturday to keep Baby J for us while I go back to work and Chri

It is Jackson's first football season and I am enjoying dressing my boy in all the crimson and white I can get my hands on.  I found out I was pregnant after the regular season was over last year so I didn't get the fun of dressing my bump to cheer on my team.  Instead, I get to dress my baby and that is way more fun. I am not sure how my boy feels about having his team allegiance picked so early in life but I figure I better start early since he isn't surrounded by all the Alabama fans I was growing up.  It is my job to raise him right and teach him that even though we live in the land of the Longhorns, Tuscaloosa is the place for him.  Jackson's first game was two weeks ago when Alabama defeated Kent State.   As you can see, he could barely contain his excitement for the game. Jackson slept through the whole first half of the game.  We watched the game at the house of our friends, the Heards, and the guys fixed us breakfast for lunch.  We chowed down on Conecuh sausag

Today was my 6 week postpartum check up.  I have been dreading it.  Just the thought of having someone mess with me down there knowing how tender I still am around my incision did not excite me.  Fortunately the appointment went better than I expected.  My blood pressure was finally back down to the normal range.  Yay! for 120/82.  I think my doctor and nurse both did a happy dance.  They kept commenting on how much better I looked and how they could tell I felt better so I asked Chris if I really looked that bad.  His answer was yes, I looked pretty rough for a few weeks.  That's good to know.  I blame the pain meds because they made me feel like a zombie. The doctor says I am all healed and released to return to all manners of normal activity.  I have also lost all of my baby weight and then some.  (We won't talk about the additional 30 pounds I need to lose.)  So I guess that means I am good to go back to work in a couple of weeks.  (Boo!)  The weird part is I don't ha

I heard many people say that their pets could sense when they were pregnant and paid special attention to them during that time.  I was actually surprised that I didn't receive a similar reaction from Maverick.  It wasn't until the end of pregnancy that he started paying closer attention and could sense something was up.  I don't know if it was rearranging the house and his living quarters or what but he definitely knew something was up and would get antsy whenever Chris and I would leave the house.  He also had his own way of greeting the baby. I was hoping that there wouldn't be any drama between the dog and the baby when we returned home but I wasn't totally sure how Mav was going to react to yet another new person in his house.  I had confidence that Maverick would adapt well and I was right.  Having the baby in the house has actually calmed my rowdy pup a bit.  He has become quite the protector for Jackson.  He has to check on him when he is crying and he eve

For some reason it didn't dawn on me to check out photographers before I had Jackson to setup newborn photos.  I had no desire to take maternity photos so researching photographers never crossed my mine. I used a photographer that my brother and his wife recommended from their Sunday School class.  That meant Jackson's newborn photos were closer to 1 month photos because they were taken when he was 4 weeks old.  I just wanted to make sure I had something to document my baby's early days.  J-Man was not a fan of having his picture taken either.  However, Jenni did a great job of capturing a few sweet moments with my little man.  Here is a link to her blog highlighting Jackson's photo shoot: Jenni Roberts Photography . 

Chris went back to work this week.  I was pretty anxious about being left at home with both of the guys for the majority of the day but it has been a relatively smooth week.  Jackson has been pretty easy to handle and Sean went back to school today so that has made the week go by faster than I expected it would.  However, this turn of events means that it is only a matter of time before I head back to work myself.  I am scheduled to have about 3 more weeks off work.  The sheer thought of going back is tearing me apart.  I don't want to leave Jackson even though I know he will be in the safe and loving hands of my mom for the first couple of weeks after my return to work.  But still it is going to kill me to feel like I am missing out on my time with my son.  I just love watching him sleep.  I love the adorable faces he makes when he is dreaming his baby dreams.  It's going to be so hard to leave him and be away from him for the better part of 10 hours a day.  I knew it would be

Jackson turned a month old on Saturday.  It's hard to believe that a month has gone by already.  Time really does fly.  I am amazed at how much our lives have changed and how much I enjoy being a mom to this sweet little boy. I keep trying to figure out some way to get paid to stay at home and watch Jackson sleep all day.  I just love his little antics and expressions.  I constantly want to know what he is thinking and why he looks like he has the weight of the baby world on his shoulders.  I still have a lot to learn about this parenting thing but I feel like I am getting the hang of it.  I'm so glad I get to see this face each day and to hold him and love on him.  I know I had my doubts about having a child in the past but I truly wouldn't change it for the world now. After all, how adorable is this little boy?

All total I was in the hospital almost 6 days for Jackson's birth.  That included 2 days for the induction, 1 day of bed rest, and 2 and a half days of postpartum.  I was a lot worse off after the delivery than I expected to be.  Having an epidural for a full 24 hours plus pushing for 3 hours plus 24 hours of bed rest meant my legs couldn't function when I was finally able to get out of bed on Thursday night.  It took me several days to feel comfortable walking without Chris nearby to help me.  I think I was home for a week before I really felt like I could get around on my own and walk for more than a few minutes at a time. They aren't kidding when they say 24 hours either.  Once 10:30 Thursday evening rolled around, my nurse was in my room with a wheel chair to take me to the postpartum wing.  Bye-bye nice giant labor and delivery room,  Hello tiny, oddly shaped postpartum room.  The best thing about moving at that time was that we requested to leave Jackson in the nurs

Around 6:45 on Wednesday evening, the time finally came for me to push.  And push I did for the next 3 hours with my nurse, Lauren, and Chris encouraging me the whole time.  The on-call doctor came in around the 2 hour mark to check on my progress and told me that we would have a different conversation the next time she came in if the baby still wasn't here.  That's exactly what happened.  At the 3 hour mark, it was determined I had not made enough progress to continue.  The doctor gave me the option of forceps or a c-section.  Since there was no way I was going to let them try to yank my baby out, I went with the c-section. At that point, things started moving quickly.  Suddenly there were more people in my room and things were happening.  They were stopping the pitocin and stopping my contractions.  Chris was given scrubs to wear and told to wait outside the operating room until they came to get him.  Everyone was moving around me but I was only slightly aware of it.  I was

With the epidural in place, I was more comfortable and thought I would be able to get some rest.  Unfortunately, the cervidil wasn't doing anything more than make me contract so it was time to bring in the big guns.  Two hours after getting my epidural, they removed the cervidil and started the pitocin.  I was in for a long night.  With the pitocin in place, Chris and I tried to settle in for the evening.  However, with nurses checking on me periodically and the blood pressure cuff going off every 15 minutes, sleep was not to be had. One of my night nurses even asked if I ever slept to which I responded that I was resting but the noise from the BP cuff was keeping me awake. At some point during the night, I got quite a scare.  The nurse had come in to make some adjustments to my IV and I started to get a tightening in my chest.  It felt like I had something sitting on my chest and I couldn't breath.  Since I was still on the potassium, I freaked out thinking it was messing wi

Chris didn't show back up at the hospital for another 3 hours.  I knew I had given him quite a list of things to accomplish on top of getting my stuff and getting Maverick to the kennel.  Since we were completely unprepared for Jackson's pending arrival, I had also told Chris to wash all the newborn clothes and sheets and anything he thought we would need as soon as we got home.  Needless to say, by the time Chris got back to the hospital, I was beside myself.  Here I was in labor in the hospital alone.  I was not happy. The rest of Tuesday went on pretty much the same.  I had contractions.  I was uncomfortable and I was tired.  But nothing was happening.  I wasn't dilating so the labor was progressing.  Even though I wasn't in a lot of pain, I was uncomfortable enough that they gave me a couple of sedatives so that I could relax and get some rest.  After the second sedative wore off, I told the nurse that the contractions were stopping.  She thought I meant the pain

Disclaimer: I wasn't sure if I would want to share Jackson's birth story with everyone.  If you aren't interested in reading all this then by all means, skip this (and any related posts). However, I want it documented for my sake because there are things I have already started to forget and it just happened 3 weeks ago. This is going to be long and it might have to be broken up into several posts.  So I apologize in advance. I went in on July 15th for my 38 week appointment.  This was the first time I was going to be checked for any progress towards having the baby so I was cautiously optimistic about what the results would be.  I also felt like crap.  It was one of the hottest days we had had so far in the summer and I (wisely) decided to go shopping with my coworker, Jennifer, after we got off work that day.  (Yay for half day Fridays!)  The thought was I needed to be up and walking around to get this baby moving.  Well, apparently that did something.  While I was only

One of my friends had to remind me on twitter yesterday that I am not, in fact, superwoman.  That is something I guess I am having a hard time with.  I had a baby just over 3 weeks ago via c-section (more to come on that later).  A c-section is a major surgery.  It takes time to heal and recovery.  You cannot resume normal activities immediately after.  Somehow, I cannot get that message through my head. I feel like I have gotten mixed messages on how to handle recovery.  Some say get up and get moving while some say take it easy.  I went with get moving which meant going to the store, going to the mall, going to church, anywhere we needed to go I went.  Mom was worried I was over doing it and kept telling me I didn't need to be taking Jackson out this early.  Apparently, she was right only Jackson wasn't the one we needed to worry about. I ended up back in the hospital.  As if 6 days at delivery wasn't enough, another 24 hours was just what the doctor ordered (ha!).  W

I guess it is time that I finally updated everyone on Jackson's arrival.  Baby J is 2 and a half weeks old now.  And because I have to share, here is a bit of baby cuteness for you to enjoy. As I am sure you can imagine, my life has been turned upside down.  It is amazing how quickly my focus has shifted away from budgets and invoices to dirty diapers and feeding times.  We are still trying to get adjusted and get into a routine.  Right now, Jackson seems to have no problems sleeping all day only waking up for diaper changes and bottles.  The nights are a different story.  He apparently thinks 1 AM is a great time to wake up and party for a little bit.  Fortunately for me, Chris has been taking the night shift so I am able to rest at night.  That is going to change soon though when Chris heads back to work in a couple of weeks.  For me, I am dreading going back to work.  Mostly because I don't want to put Jackson in daycare but I am not sure what other options we have at this

My house is in utter chaos right now.  I have been saying since May that we needed to start clearing out the office to make way for Jackson.  Thanks to conflicting schedules and constant activity, we haven't gotten around to that until now.  So here we are 9 days away from my due date boxing stuff up for storage and rearranging furniture to make room for a crib, dresser, and glider.  Part of this move means relocating Maverick's "home" to other portions of the house. Up to this point, Maverick had a corner of the office where his bed and bowls were located.  A space to call his own.  While we are away from the house, he would hang out in there behind a baby gate and nap all day.  Since the office is now going to be the nursery, we couldn't leave him in there.  A few nights ago we moved his bed into our room at night so he could sleep in there with us.  This transition was fairly easy since he was already used to sleeping in the room with me.  However, I am tryin

I have 18 days until my due date and all I can do at this point is wait until Jackson decides to make his presence known to this world.  We had an ultrasound last week to see how big our boy is and we were surprised to find out he was only about 6 and a half pounds.  My doctor had said she would schedule a c-section if he was measuring 8 pounds or more at 36 weeks.  At this point, they are estimating he will be a nice average 8 pounds at full term. I actually started feeling some contractions a couple of nights ago.  Hopefully that means we are starting to make some progress.  I just want Jackson to be the July baby we have planned on him being this entire time.  For the most part, I am just tired, hot, and uncomfortable.  Some days I just feel down right crappy.  I am really starting to understand why some women hate being pregnant.  These last few weeks are definitely the worst part of the pregnancy.  My feet and hands are so swollen right now that I can't feel my fingertips (w

Sunday was our last full day in Tennessee before we flew back to Austin Monday morning.  I definitely didn't want our trip to end but neither one of us had much time off work and we already taken care of the important part of the trip: getting married.  However, I realized that Sunday morning as I handed Chris his Father's day cards from Kiddo and Maverick that I was going to be faced with a dilemma in a year.  Indeed, our first anniversary would fall on Father's Day.  So I would have to share the day with a celebration for Chris.  Little did I realize at the time that Mother's Day would also fall on Chris's birthday.  I have been so cheated this year.  At least I get my birthday all to myself unless Jackson makes his appearance early but I digress. Since we finally had time to relax a bit now that the wedding was over and we had finished all the running around related to the festivities, we were finally able to take in the scenery around the lodge.  Just a short h