The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly

This post has been running around in my head for a couple of weeks, but I am just now getting it blogged. Story of my life...ha! We have so many things going on right now. So many are good, some are not so good, and others are downright blah. I want to record it all for Ian though. We think it's important to be real with him and let him know that life is full of ups and downs and we are fortunate to (usually) have more ups than downs!

The Good:

I love, love, LOVE our neighborhood. This is my view driving in from one direction.

Picket fences, beautiful houses, open spaces. Sigh. Happy heart beats. I love it! And I just noticed the crime watch sign on the right when I looked at the picture. This neighborhood is so incredibly safe - we feel so comfortable here!

They recently just painted a mural on the tunnel that connects the walking trails under the main road. Last Tuesday was our first time to get to see the finished product. It looks awesome!

Skull and bones. Ian was more excited about the train than the skull and bones! Maybe in a year or two he will understand what those are...

View from outside of the tunnel. Ian loves playing by the creek and climbing over all the rocks!

Cumon, Mahnee!! What are you taking pictures for when there are rocks to climb???

No matter what else is going on in life, every time I pull into our neighborhood, I am so thankful for our wonderful house and its location! It looks like we are going to stay here another year too (fingers crossed!), and we are thrilled about that!

The Bad:

Looking at these sweet little boys playing so nicely together over Christmas...

...and this precious baby girl giving Momma sugars...

...and our little boy finally doing so good and not hitting his cousin...

...yup...you guessed it...made me ready for Baby #2! Up until this point, I was SO not ready! But that little combination (plus knowing there's another little cousin on the way!) pulled my heart strings just right and now my biological clock is back on.

Why is this bad? Two words: hyperemesis gravidarum. Otherwise known as the serious limiting factor in pregnancy planning. On the one hand, I'm thrilled that I'm even ready for Baby #2. But we aren't ready for HG again. Ian needs a Mommy who can get up and take him to the park without puking. James needs his teammate to still be able to function while we finish out this year. I need to be able to attend classes. And we need to save up a lot of money. HG pregnancies are expensive! Learning about IVF pregnancies, I've realized HG kiddos cost just as much. (More sometimes if you count lost wages from work.) We need a good $10-$15K in the bank before we are ready to try again. Seems outrageous, I know! But we can't risk not being able to afford meds and full time preschool for Ian.

We also can't plan a baby during marching season because James is gone so much. If I am super sick again, we need him to have a little more flexibility and availability. So we are talking not even getting to try until Spring 2013! Ian will be almost five when the next baby is born if all goes as planned. I've always wanted kids 2-3 years apart, but this isn't something we really have a choice in. So you may hear grumbles and gripes between now and then. In the meantime, I am just really thankful we have Ian! He will be a great big brother.

The Ugly:

Ok, so the Language Building isn't really that ugly. In fact, it's right next to the Physics building, so I often think about my older brother and all the time he spent next door. It makes me feel closer to him, even though it would have been nice if I had gotten started sooner so I could have been there at the same time! But this building means I still have classes to go to and a thesis to do. I'm not done yet. I was downright depressed about it last week. This week, I've moved on. It is what it is. Getting your master's while working and having a child sucks. It's hard. It's a lot of sacrifice (mostly in sleep and sanity). It means very little time to myself. And I'm pretty much done with the whole thing.

Fortunately, I have good professors and I'm studying a topic I enjoy. I still have day time hours with Ian and hubby occasionally surprises me with dates! It's enough to keep me going for now.