It's on

I've been thinking a lot about starting up the ol' blog again lately.  The gift of time has been bestowed upon me once again, in the form of yet another layoff this past January.  I had been hunting for a job for the first few months of unemployment, however since I was 3 months pregnant at the time of layoff it soon became very difficult to hide the bump.  That's right, the VonD's have managed to procreate a second time!  Well, almost.  Baby boy is due at the end of July and right now I'm as big as a house so I've given up on finding a job until after he's born.

How did this miracle happen, you wonder?  It wasn't without it's difficulties, but didn't take nearly as long as it did for the first one, so that was a nice change!  We tried for a year, with another miscarriage last April, and juuuust when I was ready to give up, BAM.  It happened.  (By the way, fate has an interesting sense of humor - I always said I didn't want to have a baby after age 35, well this one is due the day before I turn 36.)  It was another rough start, though.  I had spotting on and off until about 13 weeks, plus my HCG rose VERY, VERY slowly (like less than 30% in 48 hours around 6 weeks) so I was positive it would end in another miscarriage.  It was a very stressful first trimester.  But, turns out I was wrong.  We're very lucky, he's been growing right on track, I had all the AMA testing done and he's apparently healthy, so now we just wait around another 8 weeks for him to arrive.  Amazing, right?  I'm still amazed anyway.

So in addition to having that news to share, I've just been in need of some kind of creative outlet.  Cadence (3 now) is in school a few mornings a week so I do get a little time to myself.  I may just be back here from time to time!

Otherwise things are good and busy here.  Hubs finished a 2 year degree completion program this month and finally has his college diploma, so that is exciting and a relief.  We finished a total backyard renovation so our tiny house has more "living space" with a big pergola-covered patio, a sizable playground for the tykes, small grassy area, drought-tolerant garden (gotta love living in California), and lots of room for my busy girl to run around and blow off steam.  I have a feeling we'll be spending lots of time out there this summer!  It's perfect for entertaining too; we had Cady's birthday party out there a few weeks ago and Hubs's graduation party will be this weekend.  Then next month he and I will be taking a very short babymoon (just 1 night) to Solvang where I can eat my weight in pastries and float in the pool, and after that a few of my friends are throwing me a little shower so I can stock on baby boy goodies.  When that's done I'm not planning anything until Hubs's family leave is up - FOUR MONTHS after the baby is born!  Yep, he'll be home with us that whole time, and then I plan on finding some temp work quickly until something full time and promising arises.  Preferably somewhere I won't get laid off after 3 years.  I swear I must be cursed.

And that's it, that's all I got for now.  I apologize for the hodgepodge of news and updates.  I'm more than a little out of practice with blogging and writing in general.  Maybe I'll get better!