Lets blog again

It’s time to blog again. I have had so many people telling me to star blogging again that I felt a little guilty. So many things had happened since I posted the previous pictures of me at 32 weeks pregnant with my Baby Lisa. So I will do my best to write down things as they happened.

MAY:

After months of stalking dogs at adoption events at the Pet smart close to our house I finally got a furry friend. I originally met her at Pet Smart and fell in love with her. I wanted to get a dog that would have a hard time getting adopted because of her appearance. Ella is not a dog that you would consider super cute and fluffy, but since we met her she has given us so much love and devotion that really is impossible not to love her back. Since I was pregnant at the time the rescue volunteers actually turned me down, they told me that they wanted to make sure that Ella would go to her FOREVER home, and being pregnant was something that they consider a reason why people dump their dogs at shelters. Needless to say I got VERY offended that they would conclude I was that type of person. Then they told me that Ella was a very energetic dog and that she wouldn't do well in an apartment, which I thought was very logic. I do not know if you guys has ever watched one of those dog shows on the T.V, but the adopters always say that they knew which one was their dog as soon as they saw him or her. Well, that is exactly what happened to me. When I walked in front of Ella’s cage she tried to reach with her paw, and when I got down to her level she rubbed herself against the cage for me to pet her. I have loved her since. After I got turned down I started looking at shelter, which made me cry so much more than once. Sometimes I would like to be different; sometimes I would love not to care like I do. When I walk through those places my heart hurts for those animals, they are scared, sometimes cold or too hot, they want to be touched and loved. I could not chose one from the shelter, so I wrote back to the Georgia Homeless Pets Rescue and told them that if they did not give me Ella I would go and adopt from somebody else. They immediately answered back to tell me that actually Ella was becoming depressed and needed out. The deal was that we were going to foster her until the baby was born and then wait to see if she was okay with it (not the baby, they were worried about the dog) and then decide whether to adopt her or not. Ella has loved Baby Lisa since day one.

JUNE:

We had a special visit. Mom and Dad Anthony came to Atlanta. It was so nice to see them. They are truly like my parents, I love them so much and it makes me so happy to see them.  They helped us set Baby Lisa’s nursery. They took apart a changing table that Grandpa Larsen made so they could travel with it and then they put it together again here. Sherrie also made a super cute bedding set for the baby’s crib. I think that is one of the most special things someone has done for me. Is hard to admit, but I get really sad very often because I miss my parents, my siblings and my friends and now that we are here by ourselves it gets even harder because I don’t even get to see the Anthony family either. Sherrie took me to the fabric store and let me chose the colors and everything, it was so hard and tiring for her even though I tried to help. I love Lisa’s crib so much and I appreciate all the work Sherrie put into it. I have so many good memories of that visit. It was when they were here that I discovered the most delicious crab spread in the world. I still crave it all the time! We also ate at some very interesting places that Mike has found here in Atlanta. It was sad to see them leave. As I said, since I have been here Dave and Sherrie have been so good to me. They are so special to me.

JULY:

Oh July! The worst and best month of my life so far, I was so big and uncomfortable that I just wanted to disappear. Baby Lisa would not stop moving. I kept asking myself if and when she would sleep. I was being kicked all day long and all night long. I was taking two classes online at the time and I could not sit for more than 30 minutes because she would start kicking me.
With the help of Dara and Aunt Kay Lynn we were able to buy a ticket for my mom so she could be here when Lisa was born. My mom works as a secretary in a Lab, she earns very little money and by law she only had 14 days of vacations. She had told her boss that I was due on August 3^rd but that it could be sooner, or later. I was not having any signs of labor. On July 26^th her boss went into the office and told my mom that I was taking too long to have my baby and that she wanted to go on vacations. She wanted my mom to be in the office while she was gone so she needed my mom to leave the following week. My mom told her that I was not in labor yet and that she only had 14 days. We didn’t want to get my mom here until I went into labor. My mom’s boss said she was sorry but that my mom needed to take her vacations starting Monday July 30^th. Obviously I was devastated, I didn’t want to be induced and I didn’t want my mom to come for nothing. I cried my eyes out the day I had to buy her ticket.  We prayed that I could go into labor on my own while my mom was here. Monday the 30th came and my mom traveled for 18 hours. We went to pick her up at 11:30 at night. At 2:00 am we got back to our apartment. After carefully introducing her to Ella (who later became my mom’s best buddy) we were getting ready to go to bed and we discussed my next day’s appointment. I was going to ask my doctor is he could induce me so that my mom could be here for the delivery. I said my good nights and told my mom I was going to put one more load of laundry in the dryer before I went to bed. When I bent down to pick up the laundry basket… Guess what? My water broke, and off we went to the hospital. Lisa Marielle Anthony was born 12 hours later on July 31^st. I know it’s a cliché, but that day was truly the happiest of our lives. I will never forget the eyes of my baby looking into mine for the first time. I am so grateful to Heavenly Father for granting me that wish, having my mother with me was so special. I always thought Mike was going to be the “Coach” type of husband during the delivery, but actually he just went a little numb. He says he did not know what to say or do to make me feel better. My mom knew and I am grateful for the opportunity to have them both with me at a time when you have no control of anything.

I was extremely lucky to have help for the first three weeks. My mom stayed for two weeks and then Sherrie came right after my mom left. I am so grateful for the things I learned from both.

AUGUST:

Three days after I came from the hospital I had to go take my two finals for my internet classes. I spend all night studying, it was awful. I am very proud of myself, I managed to score A+ in both classes History and Math.

On August 25^th Max was born and on the 26^th my sister’s baby Roberto was born also. I am not sure about the details on Max’s delivery, but my sister broke her water at 2:30 in the morning and her baby was born at 5:00 in the morning. All natural delivery, no pain meds unlike me.  I am so jealous.

SEPTEMBER:

The only thing I can remember from September, besides all the baby duty stuff is that, 1) I got a haircut and 2) I decided to make a tutu for Lisa for Mexico’s independence day (which is actually on September and not on 5 de Mayo) and from then I became a little crazy and made her like 10 tutus.After I figured that Lisa wasn't going to wear all the tutus I decided to make some more and donate them for the rescue dogs. I also made pearl necklaces for the lady dogs for the adoption event.

 
OCTOBER:

We met Dave Romney and his wife to go see BYU play at Georgia Tech. It was very fun to see the difference on the fans. While we were walking towards the stadium a group of Georgia Tech fans were saying that they kept seeing babies all over the place. Did you know that in the stadium they do not have changing tables in the women’s bathrooms but they do have them in the men’s bathroom? I thought it was nice. Mike had to do all the diapers. Lisa did not do so well, she got scared whenever something exciting happened and the fans went crazy. I spent most of the time away from people, but we did have fun being around BYU fans. All the missionaries were there with the mission president.

NOVEMBER:

We went to the pet fair. Ella’s rescue group had a booth there and they had albums with the pictures of all the dogs available for adoption. Since we were fostering Ella she was in those albums and I started getting phone calls from people interested in her. I was not giving her up so I decided that it was time to adopt her into our family officially. She became Ella E. Anthony on November 2^nd .

We went to Utah for Thanksgiving. I traveled with Lisa by myself. It was very stressful. I had to change flights with very little time, but we made it and we had a wonderful time. Mike met us there a week later. We had family pictures taken. Not my favorite thing to do when I still have baby weight on me, but they turned out very well at the end. Baby Lisa was very good with everybody except for Aunt Lisa. I don’t know why. At the end she started liking her, I think.

Mike gave Lisa a beautiful baby blessing. It was really nice to have Baby Lisa's uncles and grandpa there.

Lisa and Ella were pirates for Halloween

DECEMBER:

Lisa and I went to Mexico for Christmas. It was very sad that Mike could not join us. He had taken days off for Thanksgiving and had to stay in Atlanta. Lisa met my Dad and my siblings. It was fun to be there and have so many people eager to help with her. I felt spoiled having somebody wanting to change her diaper, play with her, and give her baths all the time.

My nephew Roberto was baptized in the Catholic Church. The following weeks my Dad asked my sister if it was ok to give the baby a blessing in our church and they said yes. My Dad was very nervous, but he did very well.

 

JANUARY:

We came back from Mexico, it was very sad lo leave. I have never cried so much. I think it was harder to see my family say goodbye to Baby Lisa. It made them very upset; I hope we can go back soon.

I was very happy to see my husband and to come back home. It is interesting how HOME becomes the place where your spouse is. Every time I go somewhere I feel like a visitor now. Mike, Baby Lisa, and Ella are home.

We had been looking for a hose for a while. We live in a really nice area in Sandy Spring Georgia. With our budget we could only afford an apartment or a town home. Mike kept telling me that we could afford a family home if we moved out of Sandy Springs, which is really expensive. I did not want to leave this area, it is just so pretty. I am also used to the ward here and to have the Temple so close (although we are not very good at going lately). Right after I came back from Mexico I went to see a house that had been in the market for 2 days. While I was there with our agent (an LDS agent who was super nice) the agent for the house told us that they had several offers already. I texted Mike that I wanted the place. We put and offer two days later. A week later the agent told us that our offer had been accepted, and that is how we bought our first place.

Mike also started his master at Georgia Tech. He loves it.

FEBRUARY:

We close on our home on the 28^TH and we were supposed to move the next day, but something happened with the wiring of the money and they told us it would take 10 more days. We had to leave our rental apartment on March 1^st.

MARCH:

The agent felt bad that we had to stay in an Extended Stay and gave us the code to get into our place even though it wasn't official. So basically we were evicted from our rental and the we broke in into our place.

March 5^th was my birthday. Mike got in big trouble for mot making an effort to do something special for me. I have not forgiven him yet. Our neighbor Steve gave me a gift card and we went to eat sushi. I LOVE sushi.

Mike’s boss was fired and the temporary Account Manager is actually his professor from Georgia Tech. How is that for a coincidence? He really likes Mike and has already given him a lot of projects. Mike told me that he is going to be super busy. I don’t know how can that happen if Mike already works from 7 in the morning to 7 at night. He has gone for two days without seeing Lisa this weeks, and had to work all day on Saturday.
We also met with Uncle Russ and Aunt Kay Lynn. It was very nice to see family. They took us out for dinner and we had a wonderful time. I love hearing bout their adventures.

Our precious Baby Lisa has been a joy. Here is a timeline (sort of)

1 day old

1 day old

Going home from the hospital

1 week old

1 week old

2 weeks old

3 weeks old

1 month old

1 month old

2 months old

2 months old

3 months old

3 months old

4 months old

4 months old

5 months old

6 months old

6 months old

7 months old

8 months old

8 months old

8 months old

8 months old

8 months old

8 months old