Janet

Well, I met Janet and her daughter, Torrey, today for lunch. Janet's really nice! And Torrey, who's 11 years old, was a sweet girl. She was really shy at first but by the time we got to the restaurant she was talking a blue streak. : )
We had salad and pizza at Giardano's. It was SO good. Anyway....we chatted and ate pizza and drank Diet Cokes for a couple hours. It was cool! They're going back to Texas next Sunday so Torrey and her sister can go through one more year of school there. After the school year, they're planning to move up here permanently!
Two *really* cool things:
- Janet met her boyfriend, David, on eharmony.com. When I told her I met Scott online she was like, "No way!" LoL!
- Besides my mom, Janet is the ONLY other person I know who likes broccoli on pizza!
We're gonna go see "Must Love Dogs" next weekend before they head back to Texas! They're an animal-loving family. Another really cool thing!
It'll be great when they live here "full-time"!!

A new friend?

Saturday at 11:00 I'm meeting Janet. I got in contact with her through exercisefriends.com, which I think is a very cool website! She lives around here part of the year and in Texas for the other part. After her daughters finish one more school year in Texas, they plan to move up here permanently. Anyway, we both enjoy walking for exercise, so we're gonna meet (her 11yo daughter will be along) at a park in Island Lake on Saturday! We'll walk (if it's not a gazillion degrees) and then grab lunch somewhere. I'm so looking forward to meeting her and her daughter! It'll be so nice to know another person in the area, especially one who I can exercise with. I hope we get along well!

Also I'm in the process of trying to get a hold of Kelly, a girl who lives in Vernon Hills and loves to knit! Gotta love the world wide web, eh?! : )

A friend

I'm so glad I could be there for Sherri today. She called at 7:30 this morning, crying, and asked if we could meet for coffee because she desperately needed to talk. It's the first time she's done that and I was so glad that she felt she could come to me. Nutshell: She's going through a really rough time with her pet sitting partner, as well as with a few clients. She's also having infertility issues. She has had two miscarriages (one of them was when she was already four months along). She has a bunch of tests next week to find out why she can't carry a baby to term. Poor Sherri. I feel terrible that she's having trouble with that, and I pray that she and Brian will eventually be able to have a child. They would be terrific parents. I talked through some things with her over French toast and scrambled eggs, and she said it helped. I hope it truly did.

Tomorrow morning I have a new client consultation. Bobbi. I've talked with her on the phone twice and she is NOT a pleasant person. WOW. Life must absolutely suck when you're bitter and pessimistic all the time. She needs someone to visit her golden retreiver, Ben, several days a week as well as many weekends and holidays. Um. My business is *very* small. And I do have a life and am not willing to be at this woman's ever beckon call. Especially since she's so.....mean. Plus, she lives 20 minutes away. I explained to her that I work for myself - I don't have a partner or employees and I simply cannot commit to that kind of schedule. I wanted to tell her that up front instead of getting both of us into something that would be mutually frustrating. She is hopefully going to find another pet sitter (one that has several people working different shifts who can give her the service she needs). And I am still going to have the consultation with her tomorrow morning because I am willing to be a "backup" for Ben if/when the need should arise. I am totally content with that, since I imagine it would not be often at all.
But yeah, I'm afraid. This woman is gonna take a magnifying glass to every word of my contract and ask me sixteen questions about each sentence. She's that kind of person. May the force be with me.

So I'm almost done with season three of "Gilmore Girls" already. What WILL I do when I'm done? Season four doesn't come out til September 27! LoL! I'll survive. Actually, it'll be good...cuz I wanna get some serious work done on the two blankets I need to have crocheted by the end of August. I've been spending so much time watching these DVD's that I've hardly been crocheting at all! Tonight I watched four episodes and during the last two, I was laughing so hard I couldn't see straight. It's such spontaneous, wacky humor and I love it!!

My head itches.

Goodnight!

God is working

It's the only way I can rationalize what's been going on in my heart for the last couple weeks. I've been praying about it like crazy, and He's been changing me. I can feel myself transforming. I want a baby. I TOTALLY want a baby.
I'm ready.

I've been battling with myself for the past three years about whether or not I want to be a mommy. It's been an annoying burden, in a way. Like something that's continually in the back of my mind, sometimes consuming my thoughts so much that I want to scream.

And it's not like there was a moment when a switch flipped and I suddenly decided, "Yes, I want a kid." It seriously feels like God has been gently and gradually - and very definitely - working on me to get me to this point. It's like blinders have been removed from my eyes. All the reasons that I didn't want a child are gone. GONE. It's really quite amazing.

For instance, my craft room. I didn't want to give up my craft room for a nursery. This house is too small to move all my craft supplies somewhere else if I give up that room for a baby. But now I find myself thinking, 'BIG hairy deal, dork! That is a SMALL price to pay in order to make a bedroom for a baby!' So I give up rubber stamping for a few years and go back to it when our child starts school. Or I consolidate my supplies and keep them in a small cabinet in the loft. WHY was I being so SELFISH???
And crocheting is the perfect hobby to have for a mommy. It's quiet and calming, and I can make things for my little one! So I won't have to give up that hobby....ever!

Three weeks ago, I could not picture a kid in this house. Now, I totally can. I can picture myself feeding my baby in a highchair in the kitchen. I can picture sitting on the living room floor tickling my baby's tummy. I can picture my baby at family gatherings getting oohed and ahhed over and feeling so proud that that baby belongs to me. I can picture not being able to imagine our lives before our baby was here.

I can even picture being pregnant! *insert shocked smilie here!* I still don't think I'm gonna like it, but ya know what? I'm not gonna hate it! *insert another shocked smilie here!* The only thing I need to worry about is going off of my "tummy pills" (Librax, my IBS medication). That stuff helps me a LOT. I have a routine gyne appointment on Monday afternoon, so I'll talk to her about that. I've decided that since I'm on an extremely low dosage of Paxil, I will stay on it throughout the pregnancy.

I want to see what a combination of Scott and me looks like. I want to nurture and love and teach and guide a child.

God is indescribably awesome.