30 Things: Day Five

Day five: What are five things that make you happy right now?

1.       Daniel. 

2.       Cecilia Anne

3.       Being pregnant and knowing that I am carrying another of God’s miracles.

4.       Vacation: in 8 days!

5.       My birthday is tomorrow!  

30 Things: Day 4

4/30 Things: List 10 Things To Tell Your Sixteen Year Old Self

1.       Don’t stress about getting that A in Calc or AP Chemistry.  You will never use it again in your life.

2.       Boys? Ignore them.  Have fun with your friends!

3.       Visit Brooks more, don’t let his illness keep you away.  One day you will regret it, because it will be too late. Your goodbye will happen when he is in a coma-like state.  This will be one of the biggest regrets of your life.

4.       No one will remember if you are wearing Express jeans or shopping at Abercrombie and Fitch. Don’t spend all of your hard earned money on clothes, save it!

5.       Your parents are right.  Even though you may hate their rules, later on in life you will thank them for it.

6.       You won’t meet “the one” until you are 21.  Quit thinking that your high school boyfriend will be your husband, it’ll never happen.  (And be thankful)

7.       Don’t be so shy around you don't know. You will find out after high school that many had mistaken your shyness for being stuck up.

8.       Visit your grandparents more.  They won’t be with you forever.

9.       Six years from now you will get in a huge fight with your high school BFF.  You told her that her current boyfriend was cheating on you and she failed to not listen.  This fight will ruin your friendship.  Don’t tell her and keep your mouth shut.  Eventually you will find out yourself.

10.   College will end up being four of the best years of your life.  Enjoy it! Make friends, party a little, study a lot!

30 Things: Day 3

Today is Day 3 of Thirty Things and today’s question is:

3. Describe your relationship with your parents.

 I am really lucky that I have a great relationship with my parents.  I think growing up I was closer to my parents then most kids.  I actually hung out with my parents on a Friday night (by choice) and enjoyed it.  Growing up, especially in the high school years my parents were strict, mainly my father.  I wasn’t allowed to date until I was 16, I had a curfew even when I was home on college break and every boyfriend I dated my parents had to meet him before we went out on a first date.  No boys were allowed in my bedroom.  The first “boyfriend” allowed in my bedroom was Daniel and that was after we were married and we had to stay at my parents during the blizzard of 2010, because our power was out for days.

My dad is a retired police officer and he was the Police Chief in our local town.  Everyone in our County knew him, I may or may not have been let off of a few speeding tickets because of my last name. In high school though I was a goody-goody.  I had friends who were honor society members, we didn’t drink,  we didn’t smoke.  I was a virgin until college. I was always so scared that I would get caught.  The last thing I wanted to do was disappoint my parents.

I talk to my mom almost every day, sometimes multiple times a day.  If there are days I don’t call, she’ll call me just to make sure everything is okay.  My mom and I are alike in a lot of ways, but in many ways we’re different.  My mom’s simple, she only wears make up on special occasions, she is not a fan of dressing up and she only owns maybe five pairs of shoes total.  I am far from that.  I always get told I take after my Aunt Bonnie more then my mom when it comes to fashion.   I think I am like my mom’s when it comes to a love of entertaining, cooking and her sensitive personality. My mom has always been my biggest cheerleader.  She made it to every single softball game from T-ball on, she didn’t miss a school concert or dance recitals and she was by my side when I was in labor with Cecilia.  She is always there if I need someone to talk to and she’ll tell me if I am in the wrong in certain situations. 

I am very lucky to have the relationship I have with my parents.  I hope one day Cecilia can say the same about Daniel and I.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

30 Things: Day 2

It’s day two of thirty things.  Today’s question is about fears. 

Describe 3 legitimate fears and describe how they became fears.

1. I am terrified of dying from cancer.. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve lost several loved ones to cancer, but I worry that I am the next to follow. I don’t want to get to cancer, I don’t want to die young and have my kids grow up without a mother and for Daniel to be a widow. I don’t want my parents to lose their only child. I am praying that this will never happen, but in the last few years I’ve seen two young moms die from cancer.

2. I am afraid of the dark. This is a fear that developed recently. I grew up in the country, I am talking no street lights, if my parents porch or deck lights weren’t on outside the only light we had in the summer was lightening bugs. Fast forwards ten years later, I hate being outside in the dark. We live in a safe neighborhood (without street lights nonetheless). I don’t know if I am scared of intruders, the boogie man, animals or what exactly, but whenever I have to get something outside I make sure to turn every outside light on before I go out. I blame it on my four years of “city” life in college. J

3. I am scared of losing another one of my loved ones. This past year and a half I have had my share of loss, I lost my mother in law and grandmother within less then two months of each other. Up until this time I hadn’t loss any close family member. Now I am terrified of losing Daniel or my parents , grandfather or even Cecilia. I don’t think I would be handle it. I went in a brief depression after the deaths last year and I don’t know if I can handle much more. I want these family members in my life forever and I never want to have to say goodbye.

20 Randoms

I found this link up on Mandy’s  blog  I thought I’d join in since I am always looking for new things to write about.  You can find out more information by visiting Hopes and Dreams

Some of you may know some of these things, but hopefully you will learn a thing or two about me.

20 Random Things About Me

1.       I am an only child.  I hated it growing up, but don’t mind it so much now.

2.       I have a phobia of frogs.  Random,  I know?  I would rather see a snake or a mouse then a frog.

3.       I also have a phobia of clowns…

4.       I don’t like characters on kids clothing.  Of course my kid is obsessed with Hello Kitty, Minnie Mouse and the Disney Princesses.

5.       My favorite color is pink.

6.       I have seen every Sex and The City episode at least ten times.  I can tell an episode within the first few seconds.

7.       I was Team Aiden.

8.       I don’t like cats.  I am actually allergic to them which means no cats for Cecilia in the future.

9.       I think I grew up in one of the most gorgeous places in the world, Maryland’s Eastern Shore.



The Choptank River which is the river that my parents live at the mouth of. Image Courtesy of The Bay Dailly



       Living on the shore allowed me to live a small town life, but we were still within an hour or   two of three major cities, Baltimore, DC and Philadelphia. I love spending my summers on   theater, sailing, water skiing, knee boarding, fishing and crabbing.

10.   When I was pregnant with Cecilia, I refused to call her Cici when she was born.  What do I call her now? Cici. I try not to do it, but every now and then I find myself doing it. 

11.   Even though I am an only child, I gained three sisters when I married, Daniel.  His youngest sister, Lauren and I are especially close.  I started dating Daniel when she was 13 and she will be 21 next month.  Time flies.

12.   I always said I wanted 2 kids, but now I kinda want three.

13.   I am a huge Baltimore sports fan. 

14.   I was an Orioles fan since birth (the year I was born was the last year they won the World Series) and I have stuck by them through the many bad years.

15.   I love the Ravens, I hated football before the Ravens came to town.  Now I count down the days until kick off (61 days until NFL kick off!)

16.   I hated brussel sprouts until last month when my husband’s step mom made them for dinner, she sautéed them with olive oil and seasonings.  Now I love them.

17.   Breastfeeding my daughter for a year was probably the hardest thing I ever did.  No one ever tells you breastfeeding is hard, but it is.  I had a really bad case of Mastitis when she was 6 weeks (and I have a nasty scar from the surgery), but I kept with it.

18.   I am not an organic, baby food making, cloth diapering mom.  Nor will I ever be.  My mom formula fed me (started me on cows milk at 6 months!), gave me store bought baby food and I turned out okay.  My mom did cloth diaper, but that was only because they were poor back then!

19.   I am really shy in groups where I don’t know a lot of people, but once you get to know me, I don’t shut up!

20.   I love Mexican food.  I could eat it three or four times a week.

Busy, busy July!

Hi blog friends!

Once again I haven’t posted in ummm forever! Things are going really well with the A family.  You can blame my blogging hiatus on stupid end of the fiscal year close out at work (yes, I said stupid, and yes I know I am not nine!) and being tired 24/7!  I seriously don’t remember being this tired with Cecilia during my first trimester.  Maybe it’s because I am a momma of one and I am pregnant that I am extra tired!

I am almost officially done with my first trimester! (YAY!) The baby looks great, I have had two ultrasounds so far and I heard the heartbeat on the Doppler at my appointment on Tuesday.  The baby’s heartbeat was a strong 160! I go for my next ultrasound next Wednesday, which happens to be my birthday (YAY!!! I love my birthday, every single year, even though this next year will be the last year of twenties…).  I don’t think we’ll be able to determine the sex then (I’ll be 13 weeks 4 days) so we will have to wait until August to see if we will be blessed with another sweet girl or a gorgeous baby boy.

July is a huge month for us.  We are going away this weekend camping.  Yes, I said camping.  For those of you who know me well, know that I don’t camp.  But friends of ours have a camper that they keep down to the Delaware beaches for the summer.  It is supposedly a very nice camper, but I am still reluctant about the whole thing.  I like hotels and resorts.  I like having a whirlpool tub to soak in after a long day and a nice huge comfy king bed with Egyptian cotton sheets and a down comforter on vacation.  Not a camper.  Daniel promises me it won’t be as bad as I am imagining.  So we’ll see.  Stay tuned for my tweets and pictures on a Instagram this weekend…………

Next week is my birthday!  Yes, my birthday!! Ahh! I think I already told you that, but I have to tell you again.  I really don’t have any plans except I know my momma is cooking me my favorite dinner (a family tradition) of her famous Maryland crab cakes, fried green tomatoes,  cajum squash and zucchini and corn on the cob. Oh and I am getting my very first IPhone next week!  Bye bye stupid Droid!

The following week we are going on our family vacation.  We originally had planned to go to Fairfield Glade, Tennessee.  But Daniel talked me into changing our reservations to somewhere closer.  A 12 hour drive would turn into a 16 hour drive with Cecilia and I having to go to the bathroom every 2 hours.  And I need to save my vacation time at work for my maternity leave so we decided to take a mini – five day vacation to Williamsburg, Virginia.  Both Daniel and I love Williamsburg, we went there for our six month dating anniversary and have went back quite a few times ever since.  Ci is at the perfect age for Busch Gardens and Water Country USA, she loves riding rides.  We are also taking my cousin’s daughter, Kacie, who is 14 so Daniel will have a roller coaster riding partner since I won’t be able to ride anything.

The day we return from Williamsburg, the 21^st, I will be attending the Sugarland concert at the Delaware State Fair.  I love Sugarland.  It will be the 4^th time I have seen them in concert.  I saw them open for Kenny Chesney twice and I saw them at the fair one other time.  On the 25^th, we’ll be going back to the fair to see Miranda Lambert perform. Opening for Miranda is her band The Pistol Annie’s.  I am REALLY looking forward to this concert.  I love Miranda’s music and I like that she is a real size and not size 2 like a lot of other performers out there today and that girl can sing!

Also this month? The start of my favorite reality show, Big Brother AND the Bachelorette Finale.  I cheated and I read who Emily picked, but I still want to watch the drama unfold!

I hope everyone had safe 4^th and I promise to post all about our “camping” excursion next week.

8 Weeks

Pregnancy: 8 weeks



Weight Gain: I actually lost two pounds this week!



Sleep: I still have trouble falling to sleep some nights and every night I am up at least once to use the bathroom.



Gender : still undetermined! I thought for sure it was a girl, but this week I am thinking boy….



Names: Boy: Dane Michael, Girl: ??????



Feeling: Exhausted! I was nauseous this week though! I don’t want to even think about eating meat (except for chicken).  The thought of pork or beef makes me want to puke.  Last night I had spaghetti with just marinara sauce, with no meat.

Health: Good, I am still spotting a little, but hopefully that will waver off.  I had my first official doctor’s appointment yesterday and the baby looked great.  He/She was measuring at 8 weeks exactly, but my doctor is going to keep my due date January 12^th ( going by the date of my last missed period).  We opted not to do the first trimester screening, we did it with Cecilia and it really doesn't make any difference if the baby will have Downs.  We wouldn't abort it.

Movement: None yet.



Belly: I am still huge!  I know at this point it’s just the baby bloat, but I seriously look 5 months pregnant!  I mean look at this belly????

Sorry for the blurry pic! I took this right before I left this morning!

Race Weekend

There are two weekends a year when I do all possible to try to avoid the Dover area.  This means I don’t leave my house for three days or I head south to the beach or east to my parent’s house in Maryland.  Those weekends are race weekends, when NASCAR fans from across the country come to town.   The population of Dover goes from 35,000 to 200,000 on these weekends making traffic hell!  The few times I decided to venture into Dover on race weekend it took me over an hour to go a half a mile.  Even yesterday businesses had “Welcome Race Fans” posted on their signs. Delaware State University had RVs already parked in a field by the school.

I can’t complain though, it is a great revenue for the state and city and they are probably my husband’s two favorite weekends out of the year (I think NASCAR weekend tops Christmas, birthdays and our anniversary).  When we first started dating he attended all three races on race weekend, starting with the truck race on Friday, the Nationwide race on Saturday and the Sprint Cup race on Sunday.    Businesses and hotels get a ton of revenue on these weekends and it’s like a holiday for some of the residents of Dover. 

Dover Downs Hotel & Casino in front of the track

The Monster Mile "Monster"





An aeiral view of the Dover Downs track on Race Sunday

If you would of asked me seven years ago if I was a NASCAR fan, I would of said “hell to the no.”  I still don’t consider myself a fan.  I’ve been to a few races, I prefer going to races when we have sky box tickets and I can enjoy the AC and get free food and drinks.  One year while in a sky box I met Martin Truex Jr..  He was really nice (and incredibly hot, I think he looks kind of like Daniel).  When I was talking to him though, I had no idea who he was.  I thought he was just a regular guy.  He is originally from South Jersey so we talked Philly sports.  Then Daniel walks up and he’s whispers to me, “Do you know who that guy is?” I said “No.” He said “That’s Martin Truex.” I said “Okay.”

Later after Martin and his dad had left I told Daniel “They were really nice!”  He said “You still don’t know who he was?”  I said “Martin Truex.” He said “He drives for DEI, he drives the Bass Pro Car in the Sprint Cup.” I was like “Oh cool.” The next day when he won he became my favorite driver and the one reason I actually pay somewhat attention to racing on Sundays.  I wish now I would of asked him for a picture.  Now if it was a pro football player or baseball player, I probably would have known who they were.

Ci, me & the hubs

Martin Trues Jr. (see the resemblance with him and Daniel?)

I think most people stereotype NASCAR fans as rednecks who only have a few teeth and believe me there are plenty of people at the races who fit that criteria.  So many people come out that you would not expect to be NASCAR fans. The first time I went it surprised me the amount of kids that came, some of them looked as young as two or three.  My attention span is not long enough to watch a 400 lap race, but yet these little kids watch every single lap.  It kind of reminds me of myself at an Orioles game when I was young.  I would sit in my seat and not move the entire game.  I didn’t beg my parents for hot dogs or cotton candy, I was there to watch a game.

I haven’t been to a race since Cecilia was born in 2009 and today I am going with Daniel to the truck races.  I would be lying if I said I was looking forward to it, especially since I am pregnant and I can’t partake any drinking.  I am looking forward to spending some quality time with Daniel and doing something he enjoys doing, but other than that I will be counting the hours down until I am home in bed.  Who knows maybe I’ll meet the next up and coming NASCAR driver.  As for the rest of the weekend, I will be avoiding Dover!  Tomorrow we have our niece’s first dance recital (I am sooo excited!!!!) down at the beach area.  Then Sunday is Cecilia’s little friend from daycare’s birthday party (thankfully not in Dover) and then we are going to my friend, Melanie’s daughter, Ali’s graduation party (again, thankfully not in Dover!). 

Edited to add:  It doesn't  look like I'll be attending this race either.  My mom was going to watch Ci for us, but she has a deadline for a project at work and was told to stay over.  Daniel is alredy at the track with his dad, so it looks like it will be a girls night with Ci and I.

Edited to add 2nd time: Our daycare provider came to the rescue.  I texted her to let her know that my mom wouldn't be picking up Ceclia so I would be there after I got off work.  She knew our plans for the race today.  She texted back "I can keep her tonight if you want."  I felt horrible for her having to keep her, but she swore to me it wans't a problem and she would enjoy the time with her.  She isn't just our daycare provider, but she is a longtime family friend of my family's.  I only trust about four people to watch Cecilia, my mom, my sister in law, Lauren, my friend Denise and Miss Sally.   I seriously have the best daycare provider ever!!!!!!  So I am praying the rains hold off and the race gets in.

3 On Thursday: 3 Weird Foods

Two blog posts in one day!  I am on a roll today!  I had to join in on Andrea and Cole’s Three On Thursday!

This week they ask:

What 3 foods do you eat that are weird? What foods do you eat that other people would think are strange?

According to my husband I eat a lot of weird foods, but if you ask me, he’s the weirdo for not eating them!

1.       If you grew up in Maryland (and most parts of Delaware) it’s probably a given that you love Chesapeake Bay crabs!  There’s nothing like having your closest friends over and eating a bushel of delicious steamed crabs!  It’s even better when you caught those crabs! It’s been years since I’ve been crabbing with my dad or one of my uncles, but I love getting the crabs, putting them in the crab pot and watching them steam with the smell of Old Bay!

For those of you who don’t know what the inside of a blue crab looks like, here’s the best picture I could find:

That yellow stuff? We call it mustard…it’s actually the crab’s ummm poop.  We don’t eat it, but if I happen to get some on a piece of crab while picking it I don’t clean it off.  Grossed out yet?

We had Crabs this past weekend and they were delicious!! Usually we try to get crabs at least every other week.

2.       Another love of mine is also a summertime food.  I love tomato sandwiches.  All it is a few sliced of tomato with some salt inbetween two slices of bread with some mayo.  It is my absolute favorite thing to eat in the summer!!!

This absolutely grosses my husband out!  He hates tomatos and mayonnaise.

3.       And finally, I think this will gross most of you out! It’s called scrapple? Ever heard of it? Scrapple is defined  by Wikipedia as is traditionally a mush of pork scraps and trimmings combined with cornmeal and flour, often buckwheat flour, and spices.  And let me tell ya, It is yummy!  This is another one of those foods that I think you had to be raised on to love.  I believe you can only get scrapple in Maryland, Delaware and certain parts of Pennsylvania.  We use it as a breakfast food and serve it with eggs, pancakes or french toast.  We also make Scrapple and Egg sandwiches.   Daniel and I both love scrapple and Cecilia is a lover of scrapple!  It’s her favorite breakfast meat, she prefers it over bacon and sausage any day.

The show Dirty Jobs on Discovery Channel actually visited our favorite Scrapple brand, Hughes Maid Scrapple’s headquarters (which is 15 minutes from my house) to see how scrapple was made. 

So are you grossed out yet?  Sorry!  There are a few foods that everyone seems to like, but I can’t exactly acquire the taste for… namely coffee, guacamole and onions.

Have a great Thursday!  Tomorrow is Friday!!!! Enjoy your day and be sure to link up with Andrea and Cole for Three on Thursday!

Baby's First Photo!

On Tuesday night around 11:00 I started cramping a little, as the night went on the cramps became more painful and it almost felt as if I was getting my period (sorry if TMI!), but worse!  No matter what position I tried to lay in, I couldn’t get comfortable.  Around 4am I had to go to the bathroom and when I wiped I noticed bright red blood.   My mind instantly thought the worst case scenario miscarriage.  I debated on going into the ER, but Daniel talked me into waiting until my doctor’s office opened at 8 and calling them.

I decided to go ahead and go into work and just call the doctor’s office once they opened.  I called at 8:00 and left a message with one of the nurses.  She immediately called me back and asked me to come in for blood work and then to come back at 1:30 for an appointment with one of the doctor’s.   At 1:30, Daniel met me at the office for my appointment. My blood work came back good, my HCG level was at 34,000 which my doctor was right on for 7 weeks.  He did an internal exam and confirmed that my cervix was closed.  He still wanted to send me for an ultrasound just to make sure that everything is okay.

We headed over to the hospital, I had to get more blood work done and then we were taken back from the ultrasound.  The technician was wonderful and explained she couldn’t tell us anything, but if she started pointing out things that more than likely everything was alright.  The first thing she said once the wand was on my stomach was “See that flicker? That’s your baby’s heart beat!”.  Tears immediately came in my eyes and Daniel squeezed my hand a little tighter.  Everything was going to be alright!

The technician continued to look at other things, my ovaries, measured the baby and it’s heart beat.   The baby was measuring 4 days behind then what I had thought. So instead of being 7 weeks for 4 days, I was only measuring 7 weeks.  The heart beat was 146 .  After my ultrasound they held me at the office so they could call my doctor.  Once the got a hold of her doctor, they let met talk to him.  He explained that had a few cysts on my right ovary and more then likely that was what was causing the pain.  They want to continue to monitor the size of the cysts throughout my pregnancy.  I was told to take it easy, not to do any heavy lifting and to get plenty of rest.
So without further ado, here’s the first picture of baby #2!

After the ultrasound we had to head up to Labor & Delivery so I could get the Rhogam shot since I am Rh negative.  It was funny to be on the labor floor and to see one of the nurses who helped prep me when I was in labor with Cecilia.  She remembered us (she also went to school with Daniel) and asked how Cecilia was.  It’s hard to believe (fingers crossed!) in 8 months I will be back there delivering baby number two!  It just seems like a lifetime away!

P.S.  Cecilia has been asking me to take a picture of the baby since we told her we were pregnant.   She looks at her sonogram pictures in her baby book all the time and she wants to know what her little sister (she’s convinced it’s a girl) will look like.  When we showed her the picture she said “That’s not a baby!” So we had to explain the baby’s really little right now, but every week she is going to grow and get bigger and bigger! 

7 Weeks

Pregnancy:  7 weeks

Weight Gain: I am too scared to step on the scale!!!

Sleep:   Up until this last weekend I have been sleeping well, but for some reason this past weekend I couldn’t fall asleep until almost midnight every night.  Needless to say I am dragging at work today.  I have really tried hard to avoid caffeine this pregnancy, but I have a feeling today I will need a diet coke to get me through the work day!

Gender : still undetermined!  I am 90% convinced it’s another girl!

Names:  Boy: Dane Michael, Girl: ??????

Feeling:  Still very tired!!  No morning sickness though!  (YAY!)

Health: Great as far as I know!  My first doctor’s appointment is a week from today!!!

Movement: None yet.

Belly:  I am huge, it’s official!  My grandfather and my husband’s step dad both mentioned it over the weekend.  My grandfather asked if I was for certain I was only 7 weeks, because I look about 4 months pregnant (Thanks, Pop pop!).  My husband’s stepfather asked if I was carrying twins (haha, not very funny!).

Here’s the belly picture from this week.  Please ignore my hair and lack of makeup.  I forgot to take a belly picture until Cecilia's bath time last night.  This was after a day out on the water with my family.

Three on Thursday: What Won't You Do?

I'm linking up with Andrea & Cole's Three on Thursday today!

This week they ask: 

What 3 Things Will You Never Do?


1.  I will never own a cat.  I'm allergic to cats and besides that I am not a cat person.  I love, love. love dogs! But cats? No thank you! Luckily the hubs agrees with me.  Unfortantely, that little three year old who lives with us loves cats. 

2.  I will never take a cross-country road trip.  I hate driving (or riding) and I get car sick fairly easy.  A car trip over 12 hours is way too much for me, I'd much rather fly!  We are driving to Tennessee for vacation in July (and I will hopefully meet one of my longest blogger friends!). It's an 11 hour drive.  I am not looking forward to the drive, especially when I'll be 14 weeks pregnant and with a potty training toddler!

3.  I will never do drugs.  I was a goody-goody growing up, my dad was a police officer and everyone knew him.  I saw what drugs did to certain family members of mine (who I have nothing to do with) and I vowed to myself I would never follow in their footsteps.  I have never even had  a cigarette.

You can link up with Andrea & Cole by going here.

A Big Fat Success!

Forgive me the picture-less posts I’ve had lately.  My DLSR is not working and it costs almost $200 to have it repaired.   I haven’t gotten around to taking it in to get it repaired yet.  My cell phone (a piece crap Samsung phone from Sprint) takes HORRIBLE pictures (as you can see from my bump updates).  I am keeping my fingers crossed for an iPhone for my birthday in July!  I’ve considered buying a cheap point-n-shoot until I get my DSLR fixed, but I can’t see spending $150 for one of them when I can get my camera fixed for $200!  Decisions, decisions!

Anyway with that being said, here’s another picture-less post.

Last month I wrote a post about giving back and why I decided to start a Relay For Life Team.  You can read it here.  Well, this past Friday was our biggest fundraiser to date, our First Annual Quarter and Silent Auction.  For those of you who don’t know what a quarter auction is, it’s basically the new bingo around these parts and I have to admit they are a ton of fun!  Basically with a quarter auction you have several items up for auction, some of the items are worth over $200 and some are worth $25.  At our auction 100% of the items were donated so we decided to offer two types of paddles, an All In Paddle for $25 or a Quarter paddle for $5.  With the All-In-Paddle you could bid on all Quarter Auction items without putting in any quarters, with a Quarter Paddle, you had to put in quarters for the items you bid one.  Each item depending on it’s price was worth 1 to 4 quarters.  You never bid more the 4 quarters for any one item. 

Like I said before 100% of the items were donated and we had so many great items to auction off, including a $100 Gift Certificate to the Melting Pot, dinner cruises, a weekend away in Washington, D.C. or Cape May, NJ, theater tickets, items from Pampered Chef, Tastefully Simple, 31 and Celebrating Home and much, much more!  We had over 130 items to auction off between the Quarter and Silent Auction.  The last few months myself and the rest of our Relay Team has been busy getting donations, posting flyers about the auction and selling tickets.   

Friday the auction finally came and I was happy to say it was a huge success!! Between, the Quarter Auction, the Silent Auction and selling concessions we made almost $3000!  I am so thankful that people came out to support our team.  The Camden Moose Lodge (who donated their space for FREE) was packed that night.  By the time the auction was over we were having people come up to  us and telling us that this was the best Quarter Auction they have ever been to and wanted to know when the next one was.   I am so, so, proud of our team!  We worked our butts off and Friday was proof that all of our hard work paid off!

Of course our Relay Team was allowed to participate in the auction as well ( if we paid our money!)  I   came out a big winner, I won this super cute clutch donated by a local boutique here in Dover, Bel Boutique valued at $50, a basket full of Tastefully Simple items, dinner theater tickets to a Comedy Show in Lancaster, PA and sailboat ride along the Kalmar Nyckel which goes out of Wilmington and Lewes, Delaware.

Our Relay Event is two weeks from Friday and I cannot wait!  I promise to take plenty of pictures one way or another!   If you would like to donate to our Relay Team you can do so by going here.  Every donation counts, whether it’s a donation of $5 or a donation of $50!

Cecilia Is Going To Be A Big Sister

It’s official all of our families know about baby number two.  When I originally found out I was pregnant, Daniel didn’t want to tell our families until after my first doctor’s appointment which was June 12^th at the time (I managed to get it moved up to June 5^th).  He wanted to make sure everything was okay before we told them .  My feelings differed from his, he didn’t want to tell our families in case something were to happen.  I believe 20% of pregnancies end in miscarriage the first trimester.  I wanted to tell my family so I would have that support in case something did happen. 

I convinced him to let me tell my parents on Mother’s Day and then we could tell his family whenever he felt the time was right.   There was a little more than a week between the day I got the positive pregnancy test and Mother’s Day so I had to figure out a plan quick!  I looked and looked for a shirt for Cecilia on ETSY announcing she would be a big sister, but no one could get one to me in the time frame I needed so I looked online and found a shirt on Cookie Baby Inc’s Website. 

It was perfect for what I needed .  I ordered it and did priority shipping so it would be guaranteed to be here by Mother’s Day weekend.  When it arrived I immediately thought I should of ordered a size or two smaller, because a 4T was way too big. 

  I didn’t have time for exchanges though.  I stuck that baby in the washer with hot water and prayed it would shrink.  It did, but not by much!

Come Mother’s Day trying to convince Cecilia to wear the shirt was not fun.  My girl is a girly girl who loves her dresses and tutus, not a white t-shirt two sizes too big for her.  I had to bribe her with gummies, but eventually she agreed to wear it.  When we first arrived at my parents, my dad was outside grilling by the pool and my mom was inside getting things ready.  I tried to hide Cecilia’s shirt from my dad so he wouldn’t see it before my mom.   When all went inside Cecilia ran to my mom to give her a hug.  As my mom bent down to pick her up she read her shirt.  She looked at me “Really!? Is this true?”

I told my mom, “No we just bought her a shirt saying she’s going to be a big sister for the hell of it.”  Then my mom started crying!  Both of my parents said congrats.  They asked “How far along?” “When is it due?”…  Then my dad told me “Cecilia already told us anyway…”  I was like ‘What!?” He said ‘Yeah, when we had her on Friday night and we were driving over to Pop pop’s (my grandfather), Cici kept on saying ‘Mommy has a baby brover (brother) in her belly!  I have a baby brover (brother) in my belly! Pop pop has a baby brover in his belly!” My mom claimed she didn’t think anything of it, but my dad knew then that I was pregnant.  I know my parents are really excited for us, but like me they are really cautious too.  My mom wasn’t able to get pregnant after me.  She wouldn’t have any problem getting pregnant, but then she would miscarry during the first trimester.  It was really hard and it’s not something I would wish on anyone!

This past Friday Daniel told me he wanted to tell his family this weekend.  He had called his dad and sister, Lauren and arranged for dinner at either our house or my in-law’s house on Sunday.  We were also going down to the beach on Saturday for our anniversary so we would tell his stepfather while we were down there.

Saturday we stopped by his step father’s house before heading to dinner.  I was going to let Daniel decide when to tell him.  Somehow it came up on in conversation about “having more little ones” and Daniel said “Well it’s too late for that..”  His step dad looked at me and said “Are you pregnant?” I shook my head yes.  He gave us both hugs and was happy.  This will be his fourth grandchild.  Daniel has two step sisters and they each have one kid, and of course we have Cecilia.  We asked him not to tell Daniel’s sisters, we wanted to tell them ourselves.

Sunday we had dinner at Daniel’s dad’s.  Since Ci was with us I could use the shirt trick again, except for Daniel’s sister wasn’t expected to be there until 5:30, we got there at noon.  Once Lauren arrived and everyone was sitting down for dinner I had Cecilia put her shirt on.  Once again she didn’t want to put it on, so this time I bribed her with strawberries. {See I am not above bribing my kids!}  Lauren was the first one to notice.  Her reaction? “OMG! Seriously!? SERIOUSLY!?” She was thrilled!  She said “Cici you are going to be  BIG Sister.”  Then Daniel’s dad, Danny said “WHAT?!”  He looked at me, then at Daniel, then read Ci’s shirt and he was like “WOW! Really?” He asked how far along I was. (6 weeks) and whether it was a boy or girl (uhhh way to early to tell!).  Daniel’s dad, step mom and Lauren were sooo excited!

After we got home from dinner, Daniel said “Let’s tell Kim and Tammy too….text them and see if they can skype.”  I texted them and said ‘Hey, Ci has something to show you…can you skype?”  They immediately came back with yes.  So we tried to three way skype for the first time, Tammy lives in southern Delaware (about 45 minutes from us), but Kim lives in Arizona.  The three way Skype  Video didn’t work, because we didn’t have a paid Skype account, but we were able to tell them on a three way Skype conference call.  Cecilia said in her soft voice “I’m going to be a big sister.”  Kim screamed and Tammy was like “Wow!”  After  we announced it, we skyped one on one with each of them to talk to them and show them Ci’s shirt.  They were both really excited!  I think everyone is secretly hoping for a boy since girls are out numbering boys right now and on Daniel’s dad and my parent’s side Cecilia is the only grandchild. 

So now the cat is out of the bag with the family!  We have also told my grandfather and we still want to tell Daniel’s Aunt Pam in person.  We have to make arrangements to see her and her family one night.  We are still waiting until the end of the first trimester to go “public” on Facebook.  I know it’s kinda crazy I am telling the blog world, but not my Facebook friends, but honestly not many of my real life friends even know about this blog and if someone were to find out through my blog or Twitter then they know… it’s not the end of the world!

Cecilia swimming in the shirt!