My Little Ladybug!

Lots of parents have a mascot or theme for their baby. My inquisitive brother asked me the other day what Emma's "animal" would be. I hadn't really thought about it yet, so I told him I would get back to him on it. I have friends that have used butterflies, giraffes, cows, puppies, frogs, and even certain Disney characters, but none of those worked for me. A monkey came to mind at first, but since we affectionately call our puppies "monkey", it wouldn't be right to call our sweet Emma that too!



But while I was outside the other day, it hit me literally, a lady bug landed on me and I realized.... her little mascot should be a lady bug. Not quite an "animal" but close enough. I was so excited to ask Brandon if he agreed, and he did. I don't think I even explained to him the significance, or why I was so happy about it! As most of our friends and family know, we have had a rough few years. We lost Momma 3 1/2 years ago, and as we've alluded to on here, for the past two we have been pretty discouraged that we would be able to conceive a child and had been on the infertility rollercoaster. Many tears have been shed wishing my mom was here to listen and encourage me as we went through all of this. Once, for her birthday, the last one she would have, I made her a special cake. She and Dad were going to be spending the weekend with dear friends, and I wanted her to have a pretty cake to enjoy. I made her a red velvet cake and made cute chocolate lady bugs to go around it. It was more than I normally did, but I am so glad that I spent the extra time that year, even if they did melt a little on the car ride there! After we lost Momma, I started noticing lady bugs when I would miss her the most. Keeping it my little secret, I don't even think I told Brandon, I knew that Momma was close by whenever I would see one. Once, when leaving a disappointing doctor's visit there was one sitting on my car door. Countless times I have had them land on me, and a sweet feeling of Momma's presence would pass over me. But they have been out in droves since we found out we were finally pregnant! As we worried about her in the beginning, I would see them outside, even though it was only January or February! Just today I saw 10 while taking the pups outside. There was one sitting on my bedroom floor yesterday. It makes my heart so happy to see them so it only seems right that we call Emma our little lady bug! It does help that red and black will match her room perfectly (I will post my decor for her room soon) and that often they are seen with polka dots.

So Brady, I hope that sets your mind at ease, she has an "animal".

Take that Gestational Diabetes!

I just got of the phone with my Endocrinologist and I got some great news. I have lowered my A1c number (the number by which they determine if you have or are at risk for diabetes) almost completely out of the range for even "at risk" for diabetes. I do believe that she called me a rock star! I am still only having to take one shot a day at night, my diet is controlling the day numbers adequately. Hallelujah! What good news as we get closer and closer to this little one being at viability (+/- 25 weeks). The larger the baby grows, the harder my body will have to work, so it is very encouraging that my numbers are getting better now while the baby is growing larger.

On another note, we are two weeks away from knowing if this cute little Tator Tot is a girl or a boy. I have dreamed both, so I am no help! I will be happy either way, I just want a healthy happy little one! That doesn't mean I am having an easy time waiting to find out! I want to be able to call this little one by name! And I admit, I really want to get started on the nursery. It is so hard waiting to buy anything!

Hello 2nd Trimester!

Woo Hoo! We made it to the second trimester! I am 16 weeks along, and this little one is starting to show a little. It is so fun! I still have trouble believing that it is real. We have waited so long for this miracle, it is surreal that it has actually happened. We went to the doctor(s) last week and everything is looking good. It was much easier to find "Tator Tot" at this visit. We may or may not have nicknamed the baby Tator Tot due to my intense craving for tator tots and ketchup for almost a month, and I don't normally like ketchup! That craving is gone, so I am waiting to see what is next.

We will have our big 20 week sonogram on the 25th, our 5 year anniversary! What a special gift for us to celebrate! We can't wait.

Big News!

We hope that your new year has started off great! We have been wanting to share some news for awhile, and now we feel the timing is right! Brandon and I received the best Christmas present ever this year, a little baby Price is on his/her way! On December 22nd, I was able to see the little heartbeat of our little one, what a special gift. We are due early August. Looks like I am getting a baby for my birthday this year!

We have struggled with infertility for over 2 years, and had been deep in conversations and prayer regarding how we would grow our family. We had decided this fall to try a few fertility methods after the new year and if those failed we would pursue adoption. Adopting was a choice we were both so comfortable with, we were really ready to just get that ball rolling, I think we had both decided that was going to be our plan. Everything we have done in our house was thinking that we would have a home study done. We had started baby proofing and everything! Thanksgiving weekend I cooked for our family and just seemed really tired. After our all night Black Friday shopping tradition, I was worn out. We talked about how funny it would be if I was pregnant, but I don’t think either of us thought too seriously about it. Well wouldn’t you know, we were right! We are so surprised that we were able to get pregnant with so little medical help. Clearly the Lord had decided it was to be in His timing, not ours!

We have been quietly enjoying our little secret now for a couple of months. Our immediate families have been so supportive and loving towards us. Clearly the first trimester has been a little scary for us since this wasn’t our first time to be pregnant, but all in all it has been great! We are just about at 14 weeks, and baby sounds/looks good and is growing strong. According the OB as she struggled to find the little one on the doppler, he/she is a feisty one! I love that!

Please join us in praying for our sweet little miracle. Both the baby and I are doing great, but the pregnancy has not been without a few hiccups. I have already been diagnosed with gestational diabetes, a complication stemming from the same reasons we struggled to get pregnant. It was caught as soon as the pregnancy was confirmed, so I have been treated for it from the very beginning. I do have to test for blood sugars several times a day, ouch!, and give myself insulin shots. Brandon is getting really good giving me shots, so I prefer it when he can! I have been labeled "high risk" because of the diabetes, but I am choosing to look at it positively, since it means more sonograms throughout my second and third trimester, at least one 4D sonogram at the hospital, and more attention from my team of doctors. So far, I am very impressed with my doctors and their attention to my health and the health of our little one. One of my doctors routinely calls on the weekend or after hours to give test results and check in with me. I am very fortunate.

Here is Baby Price from December, a teeny tiny little blessing. Yes, I think the sonogram tech was as excited as I was to see that little heart beating so she added the "YAY!".

Two years ago today I lost my Momma. It hurt, physically, the first few months. It was a dull ache in my chest that could take my breath away. I remember asking Brandon if it was normal, because I had never experienced grief in that way. Everything had happened so quickly, she was only in the hospital a couple of weeks, so I think shock protected me from a lot those first few months. Every day it seemed to get a little better, the tears came less frequently; I no longer needed to carry that hanky that had been given to me by a sweet friend at the funeral. I was healing. The anniversary last year was sad, but we got through it. I knew that the grief was still strong, so I went to a grief class at church, and talked through my grief.
I breathed a sigh of relief. I had survived losing Momma. I could do this.
Then Momma’s birthday rolled around, and it was harder than I thought. I think the worst part was that everyone else was moving on. My little world had stopped and yet everyone else’s was still going. These past few days have been really hard. I have tried to keep going, keep doing what I am supposed to be doing, but it seems like swimming upstream. I know that it will get better, and I also know that it is ok to feel grief. I guess I just didn’t expect it to be so hard still. I didn’t expect to still “forget” that she is gone and go to call her still two years later. I didn’t expect that I would still think that I need to tell her when things were exciting or sad. I also didn’t realize all the times that I would need her and she wouldn’t be here. How hard birthdays are without her to make a big deal of it. How all of a sudden I had no other woman in my immediate family to talk to about girl things. How much I would miss her silly cards on St. Patrick’s day with a $5 dollar bill to give us some “green”, or an Easter basket even though we are 20 years too old for baskets. Or how much I would miss the way she loved Brandon as her own, how hard she tried to treat him exactly the same as she treated us. She could have written a book on how to treat your children’s’ spouses. (I will interject that Dad is excellent at this as well, I am so very grateful.) She no longer had two children, she had three. Or how much I would miss her advice, even if I didn’t want to hear it. I never thought about how much I would miss seeing an email from her pop up, and how much trouble she would have tried to get into on Facebook. She would have had a million friends.
I just didn’t know. And now I do. I am so sad of all the things she won’t be around for in the future. She should be there when we find out we are pregnant someday. She should be there for my children. She, of all people, should have gotten to experience being a grandma. She should be deciding what to do for the holidays, and what we will have. She was a lot of our link to our extended family, and I miss seeing them.
I know that I will survive this crazy rollercoaster of not having a Mom. I know that it will get easier, that people will help fill the gaps. I have an amazing husband, who in our second year of marriage dealt with my loss with such love and grace. My dad has done everything he can to be both parents to us. Brady has been there to listen, and most importantly, to help me laugh. I have a wonderful and wise Grandma that has held my hand and loved on me, even when her grief was still fresh from losing Grandpa. I have wonderful friends that have been patient and understanding, and have been here for me at a moment’s notice. I love Momma’s friends, and several still check in with me, just sometimes to tell me that they miss her too.
I am blessed. More than I deserve. So I will move forward. I will focus on my blessings, that is what Momma would tell me to do. But man, I will miss her telling me to!!!!

Ok, so it has been forever, and I am terribly behind! Brandon and I have had so much going on, I hardly know where to begin to get caught up! We just moved into a cute little townhome in Wylie! And we LOVE it! It is so roomy for us, we have three bedrooms, we hardly know what to do with all the room. We are going through all of our stuff, and we are finding things we haven't seen for two years (we were never able to completely unpack in Friona because our places were so tiny there, and we have been back in Dallas almost a year and our stuff has been in storage the entire time).

It is great to see all of our things, and the memories that go with them. Of course, memories are sometimes bittersweet, and I have missed Momma a lot. She was so generous during all the showers for our wedding, and so I have loved getting to see all of her gifts again.

My favorite is my tea pot. I have many memories of mom and I having tea whether is was to warm up on a chilly day, to soothe a sore throat, or to soothe a worn out spirit, a cup of hot tea was her answer. I miss those cups of hot tea, most of which were not even touched because of all the talking and giggling that accompanied them. I hope to make many memories with my tea pot. Hopefully with my friends and family like you guys. So, if you need to unwind, gab, or soothe your spirit, I know a good tea that will work wonders, come on over to my house!

Giving Back - A Charity Event for our Buddy Nate

"Giving Back" is a charity event honoring the supportive community that has helped the Oxford Family, through prayers and support, deal with their battle of childhood cancer. This special event will take place on May 2nd from 11-4 at Pullen Elementary in Rockwall, Texas (Horizon Rd & FM 549). This is a family event for all ages. Everyone is welcome!

We will be having pony rides, bounce houses, fishing demo, vintage car show, chili cook-off, circus clowns, golf training for kids, games, and a blood drive, just to name a few. Most of the activities/games are free. (There will be a nominal fee for some food items.) We will also be having a silent auction, a live "celebrity auction," and a really unique raffle called "Golf Balls from Heaven."

The raffle tickets for "Golf Balls from Heaven" will be numbered and will match up with numbered golf balls. Those golf balls will be dropped from a helicopter at the event (into an unoccupied field, of course) where there will be golf holes. Numbered balls in the hole or closest to the hole will win the prize. Prizes will include: $1000 television, His/Hers watches, $500 gas card, $300 Wal-Mart gift card, and a round of golf for 4 at Buffalo Creek Golf Course. Raffle tickets are $10 each.

All of the money and donations raised that day from the raffle, auctions, donations, etc. will be used to cover the Oxford family's expenses during this trying time and also a donation will be made to Nates' doctor for research of childhood cancer. Dr Bowers, Nate's Doctor, is on the cutting edge in the world with this research. The event will help to raise funds to further his research.

Please mark your calendar and plan on attending this wonderful event for the whole family!

If you would like to get involved, please contact the following people:
Blood Drive registration: Rhonda Mishler -- rhondambi@sbcglobal.net
Volunteers: Justin Hall -- jkhall@hallcriminaldefense.com
Silent Auction donations: Wendy Rathje -- omahawendy@yahoo.com
(We are collecting baskets of merchandise, crafts, gift cards, etc. If you own a business or would like to put together something, we would love to have it. ABF's, groups, etc can get together and put together baskets from the whole group too.)
Sponsorship & Monetary Donations, Event Coordinator: Lana Carlisle -- carlislelana@yahoo.com

Points of contact for purchase of raffle tickets for the "Golf Balls from Heaven" drop:
Lana Carlisle: East of Royse City -- carlislelana@yahoo.com
Stephanie Cox: East of Royse City -- stef4chase@yahoo.com
Rhonda Mishler: Rockwall -- rhondambi@sbcglobal.net
Wendy Rathje: Woodcreek -- omahawendy@yahoo.com
Kristi Helton: Caddo Mills -- khelton@caddomillsisd.org
Renee Clover: Pullen -- rclover@rockwallisd.org