Gratitude: Day 14

Communication Devices: ie. the phone, Internet, video chat, etc!! I miss my family but am glad I can talk to them whenever we want.

It's no secret that I have really missed home, especially with the weather out here and the problems we had with finding a place to move. I have so many questions and wonder all them time if I am doing what is best for Abigail. There have been a couple of hard days where we haven't connected and it drives me to the end of my rope. It has been a blessing to be able to call my family and get advice or even just have someone to talk to. Now we just need to get the grandparents hooked up to SKYPE so they can see their cute little grand baby.

Gratitude: Day 13

Mt. Dew

Oh how I have missed Mt. Dew, with the caffeine it's one of those forbidden items to partake of while being pregnant. It has the perfect citrus taste commingled with the carbonation. Yummy!!!

I couldn't even begin to tell you how much I have had since Lady Abigail has joined our family 4 weeks ago/

Gratitude: Day 12

Sleep

Lady A hasn't completely conquered sleeping all the way through the night but she does pretty good to only wake-up once between 9 and 7. This has been a huge blessing to Paul and I. With things being so stressful lately and Paul having a show opening soon {he's assistant lighting designer, he has been so busy} it has been nice at night to go to bed and know that we will actually get a good amount of sleep or Paul can stay up and do homework with no interruptions.

Ellington Fall Festival

Yep ~ Momma made the beanie!!

Well, we had our ward Fall Festival last night. With the power outage we got to know all of our neighbors a bit & so I decided to ask the couple with the two little bis if they would like to come since the boys missed out on their first Halloween. They decided to come with us & I was so excited. When we got to the church everyone was really welcoming. My neighbor even commented to me on how friendly everyone was. Their oldest is just over a year & I don't think he knew what to think of all the booths but I think he had fun.

It was a last minute decision to go & so I didn't have costumes ready for any of us. As cheesy as it is I had Lady A wear her orange beanie & I put a green flower with it. She went as 'the cutest pumpkin in the patch.' Next year I'll do better at coming up with costumes.

Gratitude: Day 11

RedBox

Paul and I have been renting movies all week movies quite a bit lately. It has been a great way for us to unplug and spend time with each other. It's a great date night where we can stay in {our heated apartment} and made even better because we have gotten so many free codes lately.

Gratitude: Day 10

Paul loves to cook!!

Don't get me wrong, I can cook and would if I had to, but I married smart so now, I don't have to!!

He is always trying new things {for example, he cooked a whole chicken tonight}& has taken the time to perfect some of his favorites. What makes it better is that he really does enjoy it, he finds it calming & I know that I will never go hungry. It's the perfect combination!!!

Gratitude: Day 9

Baby Formula

Ok, this one might sound a little odd. I had my heart set on breastfeeding Lady A but nature had a different idea. We had been working at it but then the power went out {for 9 days}. We were spending our days at the University & nights at our freezing cold apartment eventually we moved into the basement of a ward members place, so it was hard to find a private place & at home we needed to stay bundled up. My poor baby needed something, hence, the formula!! Since we went so long, now that we are somewhere warm, Lady A is doing even worse cause we weren't able to keep up with our practicing. I'm still pumping & we try every time, we'll just have to see which one of us cracks first.

I am so grateful that during our time without power there was still a way for me to feed my baby & keep her happy.

Gratitude: Day 8

Disposable Diapers

Growing up I remember changing my youngest brothers diapers. With 6 kids my parents found different ways to save. One of these was by using cloth diapers. I really didn't mind it, but I also didn't know any thing else. It wasn't until my last brother that I really found out about the convenience of disposable diapers but we stuck with the cloth, disposables were new & expensive.

Now with my own baby girl I am so grateful that they are more affordable {with coupons}. I could use the cloth if we needed to, really, that's what I grew up knowing, but I'm glad we don't need to. The disposables even have a yellow line on them that will turn blue when the diaper is wet!! I know that Paul is very grateful for this as well, the idea of cloth diapers just about gave him a heart attack.

Gratitude: Day 7

POWER!!!

Today I have been sitting around feeling sorry for us thinking all I want is to go home & have my home be warm. It's been hard for me to think of something I was grateful for. By the end of the day I still hadn't come up with anything & needed to make the hour drive from where we were starting to go get Paul from school.

It was just before 8 by the time I got Abigail & Bentley in the car. I was on the phone with Paul letting him know we were on our way & my phone made a tick sound in my ear. I didn't think anything of it until I got off with Paul and noticed that I had a missed call & 2 text messages roll across the ticket on the bottom of my phone. 'POWER!!!'

I had just gotten out of the neighborhood & puked over to call Paul. I can not even convey the feeling of joy ay that moment. We decided to have me go back & pack up all out stuff so we could go home tonight. It would be about 2 hours before we got there so our place would have time to warm up. When I walked back in the front door the family we have bern staying with knew exactly what was going on. Allyson helped me load everything up and get it all in the car, unfortunately the trunk of the car bit her on the nose.

Yep, there sure was power. By the time we got home it has been 9 days & 9 nights. Turns out that when the power was originally turned on {Friday night} it blew a fuse. That's right, to come change a little tiny fuse it took them an extra 3 days &2 big guys with their big trucks. AHHHHH!!!

There is still a crisp feel in the air so I turned the heater up. As soon as I sat down to enjoy being in my own place my body felt so sick. Hopefully it's just the stress from this last while &i can just sleep it off.

Gratitude: Day 6

The Gospel/church in my life

Today Lady A. and I stayed home {at someone elses home}, the ward is only doing sacrament today, because she is only three weeks old and I worry so much about having her pick up a cold from others. Which would be made worse by the fact that we are occupying a room at someone elses home right now. {I would hate to get them sick} Church was canceled last week because of the storm and since no where had power. I'm missing it a bit now and could really use a good spiritual pick-me-up right now. Maybe next week if things are back to normal Paul and I can switch off and each go to an hour.

Having the gospel in our lives has been such a blessing to us. We have been able to see the hand of the Lord work in our lives so many times. I'm grateful for my parents faith and example to me of following the gospel. Hopefully I can do half as good a job as they did with my own kids!!

Gratitude: Day 5

The Generosity of Others

The nights are only getting colder here which means the apartment is getting colder too. I couldn't think of Abigail having another freezing cold night so I got in touch with someone in the ward. After a couple of phone calls we had a place to stay. This family has only been here a few months longer than us and I couldn't put a face with the name. But they opened their home to us and were great enough to let us bring Bentley. If he was a bigger dog with more fat on him I would have been fine to leave him at home by himself, but he's only about 12 lbs and would freeze at night. The kids have enjoyed having dog to play with and we all know Bentley loves kids. Which is great because it looks like we will be spending another night out of our place and they have invited us back.

How else could you move to a place and not know a single person but still feel so at home and like family!?! This ward has been truly wonderful and so great to help us out in so many ways.

Gratitude: Day 4

UConn Theatre Peeps

This week with the power being out we needed to find some way to stay warm. Paul invited Abigail, Bentley and Me to come hangout at the Grad Lab this week. Of course we were hoping it was only going to be a day or two but as it turns out we have gone up to the school every day since Tuesday.

I wasn't planning on taking Abigail to the school until next semester when she would be a bit older and the fall cold and flu season would be well behind us. Everyone was great to not get all touchy-feely with her and when she slept they left her alone. Between staying home and keeping away from strangers or going to the University where there are tons of people but warmth, I chose the lesser of the two evils.

The other Grad students have been so great to let us stay there. I have even heard from others that they would never feel comfortable enough to go hangout at their significant others department. I have not had a chance to meet anyone yet so I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into, but everyone was so great!!!

Gratitude: Day 3

My Sister

I have had my heart set on breast feeding sense before we ever found out that we were going to be having a baby. It's just something I have always wanted to do, thought would come so naturally and be great to do for the baby and me. As it turns out Lady A. doesn't like to eat that way. To try and help her work through it we have had her tongue clipped and I have been finger feeding her so she can get used to the skin to skin feel of nursing. With the power out and momma at the end of her rope, I was thinking it was time to go to the bottle, but was having a hard time with that idea. I know a lot of people use the bottle and formula, my own niece and nephew did but for some reason I'm having a hard time with the idea now that I'm faced with it.

Out of the blue my sister called me and after a long chat I felt a lot better. I haven't taken her off of the finger feeding we have been doing just yet because it's only been one day since we went to the Dr. to clip her tongue so we need to at least try but I'm not sure how much longer the two of us will last.

Thanks for the call Sis. I really needed that!!!

Gratitude: Day 2

We have a gas stove

Being without power for 4 days and nights now it has helped us to realize there are a couple of things that we will want in our house when we buy or build our own. One of these items is a gas stove. Sunday morning Paul wanted omelets but I didn't see how that would happen. He said in Brasil they had gas stoves too, all you had to do was turn on the gas and use a lighter to get it going. So we had omelets for breakfast and warmed up soup for dinner. I was able to keep the babies food warm by boiling water through out the day. What a small and simple blessing it is to be able to warm up water.

Gratitude: Day 1

My wonderful little FAMILY

Now I know you're thinking it's Pauls fault that we are out here in the first place but he really has worked so hard at his education and providing for us and wanting to be able to provide for his family in the future. Having our first baby so far from family and everything familiar was not something I was looking forward to, Paul made sure that he did everything he would need to so he could be there for me, even when it turned into a 5 day ordeal at the hospital.

Lady Abigail has been such a blessing to us. I catch myself looking at her all the time and just thinking 'WOW!!!' Wow...I'm a mom. Wow...she is so beautiful. Wow...she was inside of me? Wow... what color will her eyes be, what will her little personality be like?... The list goes on...

Of course there is Bentley, our cute little miniature schnauzer. His little personality has brought so much to our family. When we were looking for places to live out her in Connecticut we found that most places accepted pets, mostly just accepted cats. Why? He only weighs 13 lbs, is house trained, doesn't shed and is not trained to do his business inside the house. If we ever need cuddle time or someone to play with at the end of a long day, he is always there.