We Have an Announcement...

Now that I have gone to the doctor and have a confirmation, we would like to announce that we will be adding a member to the family in May…Yes friends, I’m Pregnant!!!

After 3 months of trying (this seems long to us since it happened on the first time with Mason), I found out that I was pregnant on Saturday, September 4.

Kacey and I decided to keep the news a secret from our family until that following Friday, my birthday. We knew that we would all be getting together for dinner and thought that would be the opportune time to announce the pregnancy.

Once our visitors arrived (my mom, brother and sister-in-law and Kacey’s mom, brother and his girlfriend), Kacey had everyone gather in the living room so that I could open gifts. After all of the gifts had been opened, Kacey told Mason to come with him because they had one more present for Mommy. He took Mason into our bedroom and put him in a shirt that I had bought him earlier that day.

Mason came running out of the bedroom and everyone quickly caught on to what his shirt said. As suspected, all were very excited about the news and there were even a few tears. Oh, and despite the look on Mason's face, he does seem to be pretty excited about the baby. This is just his "my mom had that camera out again" face.

We had our first doctor’s appointment today and had an ultrasound to see the heartbeat. The baby is strong and healthy with a very good heartbeat.

In case you are not an ultrasound pro, the baby is the small peanut in the middle of the small black oval. The large black spot is my very full bladder…

It was so comforting to see that little heartbeat today since there has just been too much “bad” going on in our lives. I feel like we can now relax and enjoy what is to come. We are all very excited and can’t wait for this little one to join our family!

Jail?

A few weeks ago, Mason and I had a discussion about jail. This came about due to the fact that he sometimes finds it cute to run away from my Mom. I have tried to convince him that it was in fact not cute, but dangerous to do this. The only way I could get him to realize or think it was a bad thing was to tell him that the police would come get him and take him to jail if he did it again. In hindsight, this was probably not the best thing I have ever told him, but hey - it seems to be working. So don't judge... :)

However, this leads to a conversation that I just had with my Mom. She and Mason were playing in the backyard and she was pushing him on the swing. When she pushed him particularly high, he looked up towards the sky and said, "I'm swinging high, Papa!". This in turn lead to a discussion of how Papa and Uncle Big Bubba and Grandpa are all in Heaven and how they will always take care of and watch over Mason. And how does my kid respond?

"Yeah, Nannie...They watch over me and take care of me so I don't go to jail..."

Oh, great...What seed have I planted in that tiny little brain?!

Understanding Loss

For those of you who really know me know that I have lost two very important people in the last 3 months; my Daddy and my Uncle Big Bubba. Losing someone close to you is something that you know will eventually happen but are never truly prepared for.

With my Daddy, Elden Bruce, we watched him suffer for the past few years with an ever changing mind and physical awareness due to Alzheimer's Disease. That is not something that I would wish on even my worst enemy. Seeing someone become a person that they themselves do not recognize is very hard. His passing was and is very hard to deal with but knowing that he is with God and is now of sound mind and body makes coping with the loss a little easier. You can read his obituary here.

Elden Lee Bruce
10/13/1935 – 6/11/2010

My Uncle Big Bubba, Michael Witkovski, passed away very suddenly on 9/11/2010. He was my Mom’s only sibling and we were all very close. Anyone who ever met Uncle Big Bubba will never forget him, as he was so caring and full of life. He suffered a massive heart attack on the morning of 9/11 and passed away after doctors could no longer help him. This came to a shock to all of us. I had spoken to him not even 10 hours prior and he was his normal, joking self. He made reference to a shirt of Mason’s and thought it was the funniest thing he had ever said and then proceeded to explain the joke he made – this in a nutshell was my uncle. You can read his obituary and sign his guest book here.

Michael Leo Witkovski
2/5/1946 – 9/11/2010

The purpose of this post is to reaffirm that fact that life happens and no one can ever be prepared for what God is going to put in front of you. If we all had our way, we would live eternally here on Earth and no one would ever be sick and everyone would live together in peace. However, we know that is not the case.

After my uncle passed away on Saturday, I was crying and telling Kacey how I just don’t understand why these things have to happen. I was angry at God and just wanted so badly to yell and scream and to find out why He had to take away someone that just wasn’t ready to go. Kacey said to me “This is not for us to understand”.

Those words will ring true in my heart for as long as I live. It made me realize that in times like these, more than ever, we must turn to our faith and hear the word of God.

On the way to New Orleans on Saturday to be with my family after my Uncle’s passing, one of my friends posted the Bible verse below on Facebook. There has never been a passage that has spoken to me more clearly than this one.

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”

Proverbs 3:5-6

I miss you dearly Daddy and Uncle Big Bubba, but I know in my heart that the two of you are having the time of your lives in Heaven will be watching over all of us until we can meet again.

Mason's New Chair

Thanks to Uncle Bubba and Aunt Kim for Mason's new chair...

It is obvious that he loves it!

Really loves it...

Mommy's Side

For those of you that don't know, Kacey is a shift worker. His schedule is 3 days, 3 nights, 3 days off. Last night was his last night and today is his first day off. He will go back to work on Friday at 5am. Try keeping up with that...

So last night, Mason and I went to bed in our respective beds. Sometime around 2am, I had a visitor come crawl in bed with me. This is almost a nightly occurrence. He comes to my side of the bed and crawls over me and gets either on Kacey's side if he is not home, or smack dab in the middle of us if he is there. Since Kacey was working last night, Mason was laying horizontally on his side of the bed when I got up at 5am to shower.

After my shower, Kacey had just gotten home and was crawling in the bed - on my side. Mason, who was dead to the world asleep, immediately woke up and told his Daddy, "Hey - that's MOMMY'S side! Get up...that's MOMMY's side!" Needless to say, he has figured out who sleeps where and has a hard time deviating from the norm.

He never went back to bed after that.

Blogging...

I never thought that I would be one to keep a blog but it just seems like the most reasonable way to keep all of the people in our lives informed as to what is going on with us.

Plus, our kid is hilarious and this is easier than texting out every funny thing he might say at a given time.

So, please bookmark this page and keep checking in on us because you never know what may be coming soon...

Oh, and here is a picture of Mason since I know that is the only reason anyone will ever visit this site...