Fun Stuff

Sooo some news....  my Hubby and I are expecting baby #2.  Kyla is about to become a big Sister!  I am really excited for her.  I am only about 4 - 6 weeks along, so not much, but we should have another baby by early July, 2012.  I have been thinking about having 2 babies and honestly I somewhat think "what in the heck am I doing?"  LOL....let's be honest, babies are a lot of work, they are your entire world, but they also are so rewarding.  Looking back, life without kids was so self-centered and so boring.  My Hubby and I had kind of planned to try for another baby in October and honestly up until October I wasn't ready, but as soon as October hit, I was open to the idea.  I thought about Kyla being an only child and that was definately something we did not want for her.  This sibling is more for her than for me, I want her to have someone she can be close with growing up and someone who will be there for her after we are gone...of course let's hope that will be a while from now, but seeing her play around the house, she is so bored and she needs a little friend!  She will have that soon and I think she will be a really good helper.  She actually is so funny...she is a little cleaner...if she spills her milk she runs to the kitchen to get a towel and wipes it up, or she grabs a kleenex and wipes it up.  As soon as she comes in the house she takes her jacket off, runs to the closet and puts it in the closet, along with her shoes.  If she drops some of her food on the food while she is eating, she will squak and won't eat until I clean it up.  She's a pretty good girl and I think she'll be a little Mama to this baby. 

On that note, I have been having some complications with this baby and am currently on bed rest.  UGH...really not fun at all.  I'm supposed to do at least 7 more days of it until my Doctor gets back in town next week but I don't know if I can last that long.  As soon as I got to work last Thursday and walked from the parking lot, up 2 flights of stairs and into my cubicle, I hemorrhaged.  This was not fun...I was pretty much freaking out at work and as soon as I saw what was going on, I grabbed my stuff and left.  I figured I was loosing the baby and of course didn't want that to happen while I was at work.  I did blood work Thursday to test hormone levels and was supposed to go back in Saturday to do more blood work, but I didn't.  Instead I asked for an ultrasound on Friday and at first the intern ultrasound tech couldn't find anything.  We thought baby was gone, but then he went to get his instructor to see if she could find anything.  Right away she found baby and baby's heart was beating, 111 beats/minute which is a tad bit slow but I guess this is normal for how early the pregnancy is.  So that was a huge relief.  My Hubby and I have been so stressed the past few days.  It is so weird, like having a child already, even if your only like 4 weeks pregnant or whatever, you still have another heart beating inside of you and that little bitty thing will someday be a 2-year old running around the house squealing. 

Yesterday morning we finally got in to talk to a doctor and spent 4 hours between that appointment and doing blood work/other tests and getting my RhoGAM shot at the hospital.  5 vials of blood drawn, 1 pee test and 1 RhoGAM shot in the butt and I got to go home.  I was so tired....I am already having some morning sickness, not puking yet, thank goodness, but I'm sure that's not too long from now.  I had to do the RhoGAM shot, which I do not like yesterday because my blood is negative and my Husband's is positive and since I am already experiencing some bleeding, if the two mix, my body will start forming antibodies against the baby and attack it....if this is left untreated (not getting the shot) for like 70 hours, then there is nothing that can be done...my body would basically just kill the baby because it see's it as something foreign that isn't supposed to be there.  The blood work I did tested to see if my baby was already making antibodies and it wasn't, so then I got the RhoGAM shot, which this is the same shot that I did a ton of research on when I had to get it when I was pregnant with Kyla and paid $100 out of pocket to get the safest version out there, HyperRho.  Well I could've had HyperRho overnighted to me and got it today, but the doctor didn't want to wait any longer and I didn't really want to either, so I risked the mercury that is in the shot (even though they say there is none) and not as much purification process of the blood that makes up the shot and just got it.  Anyway that is a lot of info., but I also have a new Manager that started this week and I haven't been there.  Horrible timing as far as that is concerned.  I am hoping this baby will be healthy and not have any issues and the rest of the pregnancy will go well.  I've been taking my prenatal vitamins since the day after I found out I was pregnant so I'm doing everything I can to grow a healthy baby!  Anyhow, so that's what's been going on.  I can't lift Kyla anymore and so we changed her crib into a toddler bed just a few days ago.  I thought for sure she would be getting in and out all night, that we would find her asleep on her bedroom floor, that she wouldn't take her naps, she would be jumping off her bed onto the floor constantly, but none of this has happened, she is such a good little girl, just goes to bed and stays in her bed until we come get her.  Love her so much.  By the way, I've decided that doing this 2 times is plenty.  I don't think there will be anymore babies.  Too much stress and worry involved, and feeling crappy!  Two little chickens is good for me.  :)  This body is not made to make babies, let me tell ya!!   Women who say it is a wonderful experience, nothing better in the world....ummm no, they are just plain crazy.    

Woman Who Lost Her Hands and Feet Receives Double Hand Transplant

Woman Who Lost Her Hands and Feet Receives Double Hand Transplant: A young woman who lost her hands and feet to an infection about four years ago is recuperating after undergoing a double hand transplant. “The patient is doing extremely well,” said Dr. L. Scott Levin who led the team of doctors. “She’s progressing very well through...

Latest News

To those who still keep up with my blog thank for continuing to check back in.  I've been pretty busy with this photography stuff and haven't had much time to write blog posts.  Anyway, Halloween is approaching and Kyla will be Little Red Riding Hood this year.  I hope she doesn't flip out about the costume being too tight, or won't wear her red shawl.  She is picky about how tight her clothes are (she gets this from me, I lived in spandex and leggings as long as I could when I was a little girl until I finally had to start wearing jeans and I can still remember flipping out pulling on my jeans because they were too tight)!  A bunch of us got together this past weekend and carved pumpkins, I did a Mickey Mouse pumpkin which Kyla LOVES, a snow white pumpkin (which I'm still working on...it's a tad difficult) and Greg did a regular ol' pumpkin face pumpkin.  The kids also cut out sugar cookies and watched Charlie Brown Great Pumpkin or whatever.  It was a fun night!  Greg is now working a lot in his part time job.  He worked 60 hours last week.  Poor guy, but he is taking care of our family and getting us ready for the future, which is good.  Kyla is hilarious...she is so funny and cracks me up a lot.  She is starting to run around the house and squeel at the top of her voice all while laughing at the same time.  She hates to get her diaper changed, so most of the time I've got to chase her around the house and she runs super fast, squealing super loud and laughing at the same time because she doesn't want me to catch her.  If I'm not in a hurry this usually cracks me up.  If I'm in a hurry, it's super annoying.  LOL.  I swear the kid is so slow and anyone who knows me knows that I'm always in a hurry and always late.  This combo doesn't work well with a 2 year old.  I got her ready to go to church all by myself this weekend by 9 am, but I was huffing and puffing by the time I got to my seat and was a tad bit late.  Hmmm what else.  I got a new manager at work...I just met her today.  She seems nice, but I'm not sure how things will turn out, hopefully good.  Kyla got her Annual Limb Differences Social invite in the mail a few days ago from Seattle Children's Hospital.  It is in mid-November.  I would like to take her this year.  I think she is old enough that she will be able to get something from it.  Even if it is a 3 hour drive and probably not in the best weather.  We will see.  I'm not sure if I've mentioned it here yet or not, but Kyla knows how to count to 10 no problems and has for a while now.  She is also starting to say her ABCs and we practice her letters in the tub when she takes a bath.  Hope everyone is doing well and has a good Halloween.

My Photography Blog

For anyone who would like to follow my photography, as I get better, do shoots for family and friends, etc., please access my new site:
 
http://www.ambervancephotography.com/

I also started a Facebook page which I seem to keep more up-to-date than the blog.  Check that out if you wish, Amber Vance Photography and 'Like' it!  :)

I'm still doing this just as a hobby, and wanted somewhere to show my works, so I have started this site.  Hope you like it.

Amber

Brief Break

Welp, it’s been a while since I’ve blogged, eh?  Let me just say, September was one heck of a month, and not in a good way.  LOL.  I blocked access to my blog for a while and decided to return it.  I told my Hubby that I had blocked access and he was like “well then people who want to know more about ABS won’t be able to read it.”  I said that I knew that, but I am pretty sure people who just wanted information on what all was going on with our family were accessing it and not with good intentions.  So to those people… get a life, OK?  Now, on to important things.  I enjoy writing, always have.  I can remember being like in elementary school, having a diary and writing about things that were going on in my life, like about my dogs dying, about my parents fighting, about my parents divorcing, about who my best-friends were at school, etc. etc.  Then once I hit high school and started dating guys, I started writing again.  I still have both of these diaries, but the high school/after high school one is a doozey.  I was one of those girls who always wanted my first kiss to be with the man that I would marry.  I waited for my first kiss till I was 16 and wasted it on one heck of a loser, grown up man.  Literally.  He was 4 years older than me and out of high school…his intentions were not good ones and I luckily got away from that relationship the moment God gave me a fairly large wake up call.  Then came a few others that were alright but not too special, then came my first love.  That relationship was full of young kid issues and eventually dissipated, then came my Hubby.  He was the last one in my diary that I wrote about…  he didn’t make me cry, he didn’t break my heart.  Sure we had some issues in the start, but eventually worked through them.  That’s when I stopped writing.  Then with the birth of Kyla, I started up again on this blog.  The thing about an electronic version of a diary is it’s out there, for everyone to read…and unfortunately there are plenty of people who do not have good intentions and are only looking to gather information.  So, although I love to write about all things, I’m going to try to refrain from going into personal details too much and try to keep the focus of this on little Kyla.  I’ve also decided to start a separate blog for my photography.  Granted this is just a hobby of mine.  It’s fun for me to do, I’m not trying to call myself an actual photographer, because I barely have a clue, but I’m working hard on getting better and want to display my photos, so I plan to do that soon.  I’ve always been into art, but again, stopped doing that about 8 years ago. 

My family took a trip to the Oregon Coast at the start of the month and we camped for 5 nights.  Pretty sure this was the longest I’ve ever camped in my life!  It was a nice break, but I could’ve used a hotel or vacation share the last night.  Our laundry was so filthy by the time we got back home, LOL.  Good times.  I took almost 400 photos while at the coast and unfortunately purchased a corrupt memory card right before leaving.  I lost all but about 4 photos of my baby girl.  Even paid a data recovery geek to try to recover them for me.  No luck.  Totally bummed out about that, but I’m looking forward to shooting again and have something planned for this weekend.  Kyla began potty training last week and Friday, Sep 30^th was her first time using the potty.  I was so proud of her.  Unfortunately she isn’t too into her potty anymore.  I thought for sure we were going to be like on our way to getting out of diapers.  My child is so hard headed - she does what she wants to do and that’s final.  We have also been discussing making a big decision for our family soon, so I’ve been pre-occupied thinking about that.  Won’t say what it is right now.  We will see what the future holds.  I volunteered in our church nursery twice last month.  Those little kids sure are fun, but lots of work.  There were 13 little ones both times I volunteered and just me and two other gals.  The criers liked me for some reason.  I think because I picked them up and tried to make them all better, which usually worked.  I brag about how one little girl who only ever lasted 10 minutes in the nursery lasted the entire service – just call me the baby-whisperer.  :)  More later.

Emmanuel Kelly

Check this guy out on YouTube.  There are several videos of him there, heart-warming story.

Coast Trip

Going to the coast in just a few hours.  I'm behind on blogging, but will get caught up when we return.  For now, these past two weeks have been full of fun stressors and I'm ready for a break!  Going to my most favorite place, Cape Lookout.  Update you all next week. 

Amber

Past Two Nights

The past two nights have been eventful.  Greg's Sister Amanda and her fiance Stephanie were in town the past week and a half from New York.  We went out Thursday night to celebrate her last night in town.  Whenever Amanda is in town and Greg and her get together they both drink way too much and both get sick.  LOL, this time was no different than the rest.  Last night I planned a night out with our friends just for fun and we all had lots of fun.  Here are some photos of the past two nights:  (P.S.  I will post a blog on Kyla's 2nd bday party here sometime soon, when I get time)

 Stephanie, Greg, Me and Amanda (I was not drinking, hence, the no smile :))

 Lesly, Spencer, Me, Greg, Andrea, Josh, Rob, Shelley and Jen

 Me, Greg, Greg's brother Peter, Peter and Amanda's brother Aaron, Stephanie and Amanda

 All dressed up!  Rob, Shelley, Greg and Moi

 So cute, Amanda and Kyla...  They babysat for me for a couple hours while I ran b-day party errands.

Kyla cheesing it up with Stephanie while they babysat.

Couple More 2 Yr Photos

I've been having asthma problems and a little bit of a cold the past two days so have been home.  Pretty sure it's from all of the fires we have or are currently having in Washington state.  Hoping it clears up soon.  Thought I was going to have to go to the ER yesterday but luckily didn't have to once I got to my home where the air is cleaner.  Here are a few more edited photos of Kyla.

Once again, these photos come through so distorted sometimes (not sure why) so be sure to click on them.  :)

Kyla's 2 Yr Photos

Kyla is 2 on September 5th.  I have not had professional photos taken of her since she was 6 months old.  Had a bad experience the last time, so that is pretty much why I have gotten somewhat into photography, so that I can take them myself.  I did these last night.  It was so hot and Kyla was so uncooperative but none-the-less I still got a few good ones.  Here are some I have edited so far.  I also am now doing a trial of Photoshop Lightroom and love it!  Pretty sure I'll end up purchasing it after my trial expires.  I made the headband for her and her necklace.  You can't see it too well from the photos but I also had her in Huggies Jean diapers.  I've signed up to take a "how to use your DLSR" photography class from a local photographer on September 8th.  Really looking forward to that.

 Excuse the messy hair and hairbrush in this one.  :)