Amy Scott's Thoughts

Monday night our little family camped out at the church for the evening. I brought the boppy and Owen’s bouncer. All the comforts of home. We set about making an office switch. The thermostat in our back offices is a bit odd. Jeremy’s office runs about 78-80 degrees most of the time. Since my hubby can sweat in the arctic and it seems that Owen has inherited that trait, it’s just too warm for them. The solution was switching to a cooler office. The great thing about moves is that they force you to examine your stuff. My hubby has been in that space for a long time and had accumulated a lot. I was impressed with how much he paired down and he still has plans to get rid of more. The big challenge of the office was move was swapping two full offices. We would empty one shelf from one office and move it the same shelf in the other office. There was a lot of back and forth. We wanted to make sure when moved the other office, we didn’t mess up anything for the staff members that use that office. We tried to make things as identical as possible and as workable for them. We prioritized them and left our new space a bit of a mess. When you’re working with a baby in tow, we knew we couldn’t complete both offices in one night. After 4 hours of switching, we had to take Owen home and put him to bed. He was a great baby throughout the night. We moved him all around, trying to keep the view exciting and interesting. He also took a couple of good naps. Jeremy and I were really proud of him. I will admit that there was a sad moment when we shut the door on what is now “Jeremy’s old office”. He had been in that office longer than we’ve been married. I remember when he moved in there. A lot of moments have happened in that office. Working alongside Jeremy has been such a blessing. I know that we will make new memories in our new space, but I can’t help but feel a little nostalgic about our old one. It will always hold a special place in my heart.

Hanging out with Mom & Dad at work!

The middle of the move

I thought as 2013 is drawing to a close, I would share my favorite posts from each month. It’s my year-in-review blog style! Click the links and enjoy!

January: A Year of Biblical Womanhood by Rachel Held Evans – a book review of one of the best books I read this year!

February: Good Bye Carpet! & The Final Result! – Two blogs on the major flooring project of 2013!

March: St. Patrick’s Day and Other Random Holidays – Discussing my love for celebrating even the most random of things!

April: It’s Official – Announcing we’re pregnant!

May: Pink or Blue? We’re having a… – The big gender announcement!

June: Baby Boom – Realizing that I was not alone in the pregnancy department!

July: 84+ Months – Teaching the kiddos and loving it!

August: Camping! Or something like it... – The wilderness adventures of Jeremy, Amy & Toby!

September: Lessons in Trust – A continued reminder of the greatest lesson I need to learn!

October: Owen Richard Scott – The arrival of our little boy!

November: This Is My Life – Honest reflections on parenting a newborn!

December: Christmas Vacation – Loving the hubbub of the holidays!

I had this cassette tape when I was little that was all Christmas songs. “We-Sing-Christmas” is what I think it was called. It was a series of sing-a-long tapes with words books so you could… well… sing a long. Not rocket science. Anyway, on the Christmas tape there was this song about Christmas coming, a goose getting fat and something about putting a penny in an old man’s hat. It’s a random song, but one that has been stuck in my head this weekend.

Since Thanksgiving falls very late in the month this year, Jeremy and I decided to do our Christmas decorating on Friday. Jeremy put up our Christmas lights and we started to decorate the inside of the house. I will admit that I was torn. I don’t usually decorate before Thanksgiving, but this year if I wanted help, I needed to do this weekend. Next weekend Jeremy will be out chasing the beast (deer season for archery reopens on Wednesday). I usually do the decorating inside by myself and then Jeremy and I decorate the tree together. This year I took a wild guess and assumed that with Owen around I would need another set of hands. I was right. Jeremy actually ended up hanging with Owen while I put up a majority of the decorations. I was so grateful for Jeremy’s help because with him, I would have been hanging with Owen instead of hanging up stockings (with care, but not by the chimney).

There was a lot of debate in the Christmas aisle of Target. It’s a big decision choosing your son’s first Christmas stocking. A big deal! I found a stocking online that I really liked and it looked navy with a cute deer on it. However, in the store, it turned out to be purple. Now I have nothing against the color purple. It’s a lovely color. But… I thought about 5-6 years down the road and I saw a bigger Owen throwing a fit that his stocking is purple and that’s a girl color. However, by the time Owen is 6 the world might be so politically correct that he will never know colors are associated with certain genders. Maybe he’ll be asking me why he doesn’t have a pink stocking. This might be a battle that I will never win. This lead us to choosing a penguin stocking for him in the very gender neutral color of red. It’s Christmas. You can’t beat the color red (or green), it’s an instant winner. So now we have 4 stockings on the wall because yes, Toby has a stocking too. It’s fun to see the stocking collection grow. The funny story is that we don’t fill our stockings in this household. I do get a stocking from Santa each year, but it’s the strangest thing, it always gets delivered to my in-laws house. Santa must not know where I live or something. Anyway, next year we’ll probably do a stocking for Owen, but since his memory won’t include his first Christmas this “Santa” is saving the bucks for later. I have a feeling Owen will still get something from Santa – most likely at my in-laws. Just a guess…

I know some of you out there probably hate me right now for already having my house decorated and for blogging about it. I know for you I should be ashamed, not proud. Oh well. I will march to the beat of my Christmas drums. *Insert some pun about the little drummer boy that I am not creative enough to come up with right now* I love Christmas. I love this time year. I’m not ashamed of my love for Christmas music, Christmas lights, red cups, peppermint, Christmas shopping and more! By the way, I am happy to say that my Christmas shopping is officially started thanks to Amazon.com. No, it’s not the same as hitting the holiday decorated malls (another thing I love), but at least I have gifts on the way and that makes me happy. On Friday, I bought my wrapping paper, so I’ll be ready for those gifts when they come. I love wrapping presents!

As you can tell, there is very little I don’t love about this season. Egg nog. I don’t love egg nog. Too thick. Gross! So yes, there is my Grinch side. Don’t ask me to have a festive cup of holiday egg nog. Oh and ugly sweaters. My MOPS group is having an ugly sweater contest at our upcoming Christmas party and I’m doomed because I don’t own a single ugly sweater or “festive” sweater as they call it. The closest thing I have to a holiday wardrobe is penguin socks. If only it was a sock contest.

Well, that’s the update with me. I have a Hallmark movie to get back to. I’ve been watching all the new premieres on Hallmark’s Countdown to Christmas. I’m fairly positive that if it was made before 2013, I have seen every Hallmark Christmas movie. Yikes. It’s scary to admit that. My only excuse is that one year I was very sick around Christmas time and watched them all. The only upside to being sick is endless movie watching… which brings me to my last point – I pulled out White Christmas and The Muppet’s Christmas Carol today. I wanted them on stand by for holiday cheer in the upcoming weeks. I know that are both on totally different ends of the movie spectrum, but both are classics in their own right. At least that is my humble holiday opinion.

I hate all things medical!!! I mean hate! I strongly dislike every time I walk into a medical office. In my mind these are places of torture. I have nothing against medical professionals, I just wish I didn’t have to see them – ever. As you can imagine this last year as been a fun one for me. Being pregnant meant regular doctors visits and blood work. I always look away like my arm is being amputated when I have to do blood work. It totally grosses me out. Many appointments and blood pressure issues led me to the whole giving birth hospital stay. If I thought giving blood was gross… well, let’s just say, I looked away a lot while in the hospital. No dignity. Everyone in your business. Somethings you just have to grin and bear. Once Owen arrived on the scene, we had multiple doctor’s appointment for him because of his issue with jaundice. During that season, I also got a UTI and had to go to the doctor for myself. Fast forward a few weeks, I just had my 6 week postpartum appointment. My regular prescription for my acid reflux is up and I have to go back to the doctor to get a refill and oh goodie, because it’s been so long since they’ve seen me they want blood work. Blood work is becoming the bane of my existence. And yes, we have Owen’s two month appointment in about a week. The Scott’s have been very medically exciting these days. I’m pretty sure our insurance company now assumes all incoming claims belong to us. They probably get the paperwork and groan “Again! What’s wrong with these people.” Yup, they know us by name, I’m sure. Oh well. 2013 has been a big year for us. I’m fairly positive will meet our deductible for the first time ever. I guess when we do something we go all out. Here’s hoping that Owen’s next appointment is the last doctor’s visit for this calendar year because I am done with doctor’s appointments and anything medical! Blah!!!

Side note: Jeremy is as healthy as a horse (I don’t get this expression). At least one member of our family isn’t a drain on our HSA. I’m slightly jealous. Arg.

One family member has felt the arrival of Owen more deeply than any other. That family member would be our Toby. This dog is a sensitive soul. He has always been very tuned into our schedule and our routine. If we divert from the regular flow of life, Toby lets us know. He usually isn’t too happy about it. So, you can imagine how he feels about our new way of life now. Many people asked us how we thought Toby would do with a baby. It’s a reasonable question. Toby was our “baby” for over three years before we had a human baby. We expected it to be an adjustment for all of us. Toby does well with Owen. He behaves himself just fine. However, something tragic has happened. I do believe we have killed Toby’s spirit. The spark has gone out of his puppy eyes. He knows that things are different and he can’t say he is happy about it. I think Toby likes late night feedings the least of all of us. He groans at us if we have to move him out of the way. He would prefer that we let sleeping dogs sleep. Understandable. I would like a little more sleep myself. There are moments where Toby will come up to me and sit on my lap or sleep by me during the day and I try my best to love on him in those moments. I want things to feel as normal as possible for him. I’ve also tried my best to take him for walks on sunny days because these are always great adventures for him and they tire him out. He is a happy pup on walk days. I’ve also feed him more people food than I should in the last six weeks. I’m trying to cover my guilt with scraps. I know that a day will come where Toby’s memory of the family three will fade and his new normal will be our family of four. But that time has not come yet. He still remembers when he was the center of attention. So far now I will keep bribing my pup in hopes that his sensitive soul will be encouraged and that spark will return. Poor sad dog!

Reunited and it feels so good!

Today is a monumental day! After 11 months, I had my first Diet Pepsi. Before we got pregnant with Owen, I decided to give up diet caffeinated soda. I figured it couldn’t help things. Lets just say that I was addicted to Diet Pepsi at the time. It was my “coffee” and I would drink it any time of day, multiple times a day. Now I knew that the caffeine levels weren’t as high as coffee, but it still helped me feel better. It was more of a comfort item. A security blanket of sorts.  Giving it up wasn’t as hard as I expected. I still occasionally had a diet soda, but I made sure it was decaf. By occasionally, I mean, about once a month or less. It just was nice to drink something other than water as a special treat. It wasn’t until the last month or so that desire for my Diet Pepsi returned strong. I think it was my way of responding to the stress in my life. Now that Owen is here and I’m learning a new way of life and sleep pattern, I finally caved. I’ve been talking about hitting the bottle again with Jeremy for some time and yesterday, I decided to go for it. The decision was made. I would go back to my true love. Now we didn’t have any Diet Pepsi on hand and I didn’t want anyone running out and getting it ASAP. It was just a decision. However, my husband came home from church today with a bottle for me and I didn’t hesitate to open it! I’m unsure at this point if I’ll keep it stocked in the house. I might go back to my past addiction levels if it’s ready on hand, but I think an occasional Diet Pepsi as a treat or at a restaurant will now be acceptable! This might seems like small thing, but it’s another small thing that makes me feel like me – like the Amy Scott I’ve been for years. I also had cold meat this week when I ate some leftover pizza. It was amazing! While being a new mom has it’s ups and downs, being able to eat things that I haven’t eaten in months is definitely an upside!

Sister Date

It’s hard to believe that September has flown by so quickly. It started off with a big BBQ at our church where my hubby got to hold snakes and get dunked in the dunk tank. I very much enjoyed watching him squirm and splash! Actually, he didn’t squirm too much when it came to the snakes. He is very good at playing it cool. I think I did most of the squirming from my seat where I watched him.  The month has been full of coffee dates, dinner dates, lunch dates, shopping adventures and family gatherings. Even though I started my maternity leave on the 12th, I’ve never been at a lack for things to do. So many people to see and places to go before my life gets a smidge more complicated.

Tonight was the perfect closing to Social September. My sister and I met up with some sisters from our church that we’ve been friends with for a very long time. There are a lot of similarities between us girls. Our age difference is almost the same. I can very much relate to Jessica being the older sibling and April can relate to Natalie being the younger sibling. We’ve connected on a sister level and it’s a special relationship. It’s been a long time since we had a “sister date” where the four of us got together, so tonight was the long awaited night. Let me tell you, these ladies have busy schedules and they were hard to pin down, but it was totally worth it. We met at a local coffee shop and sipped warm beverages while enjoying good conversation and catching up with one another. It was a great closing to a fun month.

Now I’m not really sure what October holds. I have a few ideas, but the timeline is really up in the air. October is birthday month for the Scotts so we’ll have three family birthdays, plus the arrival of our little guy. I’m sure October will be social just like September, but in a different way. This month I’ve been trying to see everyone before the baby comes. Next month, they’ll all want to see the baby instead of me! No matter what the occasion, I am blessed by the friends and family that I have in my life. I have loved each moment spent with them this month!

This afternoon and evening, my lovely friend, Jessica, and I sat down to watch the first two Anne of Green Gables movies. Yes, there is a third, but I honestly don’t like it. Now that I’ve read the books, the third movie is WAY off base with the timeline of the books and let’s just say they made the movies with too big of a gap between them… The actors are so not in there in twenties even though they try to sell it as that. Anyway, enough about my dislike of the third movie. I love the Anne movies and it brings back so many memories of being a kid and watching them on VHS. I very rarely watch both together because it’s a 7+ hour venture, but today was special. Jessica requested watching them and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity for a girl’s day of movie watching. Add cheese pizza, garlic bread sticks and S’more brownies and you have a dynamic combo! The S’more brownies were a first for me. We had a ton of S’more supplies around the house and I decided that I couldn’t just make “regular” brownies. You make the brownies just like you normally you would  and then you add the marshmallows and graham cracker chunks after the fact and broil them for a minute. Once you pull the hot brownies out of the oven, you add pieces of chocolate bar on the top. The chocolate bar melts a bit, but it still keeps it shape to really show off the whole S’more effect. I’. thinking that maybe S’more cookies might be next on my list of things to try. Anyway, a movie day is always better with pizza and chocolate! Perfect girl day! Love it!