Bad News

I know some of you are anxious to hear how our ultrasound went.  First, thank you for all of the well wishes and excitement, I have had so much fun sharing the joy of my pregnancy with you.  Now for the bad news.  The US determined that our baby has Anencephaly, a brain defect where the top part of the brain doesn’t develop.  It is fatal.  The baby will not survive.  We have a second US Wednesday to verify the findings, but there doesn’t seem to be any doubt that this is the case.

With this, the baby can develop normally until full term, be delivered but will only live for a few hours after being born.  Or it’s heart can stop beating at anytime and labor will be induced to deliver the stillborn baby.  Lastly, we have the option to terminate the pregnancy within the next few weeks.  We our weighing our options, have an appt. with our OB Monday. 

Our boys are devastated, as are we.  We have received unbelievable support from our family and close friends we have told.  They are all helping us work through this unimaginable nightmare.  As I type this I can feel the baby move.  Hard to believe it is strong and ‘healthy’ but will  never come home to the love we have for it. 

I will be taking some time off from blogging.  I don’t know for how long, maybe a day, maybe a week or more.  I have made some very good friends through blogging and I believe I will need you all over the following days, weeks and months.  I might post sad, depressing posts, I might post more normal posts like in the past.  Who knows how I will feel from day to day.  But Annie and Keyona, PLEASE do not stop sending me emails about your pregnancies.  I always thought if a miscarriage happened to me I would not want to know about other’s pregnancies or see other’s babies, but that is just not true.  It has not made me feel differently about my excitement for you girls and my friends with little babies. 

Please send prayers my way, and prayers for my husband and boys.  I will be in touch and will let you know when and if anything happens. 

Erin

Lame-o Wednesday

Hello one and all, and welcome to my new followers!  Thanks for stopping by!

Today I am pretty lame-o and don’t have whole lot to talk about.  I went out for supper with some friends last night, had a great time catching up with them and am already looking forward to the next time we get together.  I always feel so chipper and upbeat after getting together with my girl friends.  Does it do the same thing for you?  We were having such a great time I didn’t even think of taking pics to share!

Since I’m so lame today I thought I’d share a few cards I’ve recently made.  First my Valentine’s for my niece and nephew.

And this is a birthday card I sent to my good friend. 

These were all inspired by cards I found on Pinterest.  I also found this quote on Pinterest, it fits me and my type of crafting well I think.  I’m not perfect, don’t try to be and I am just fine with that.

Tomorrow is my big baby appointment – THE ULTRASOUND!!!  There will be no big reveal on here as to the sex of the baby, we won’t find out.  I am a little anxious to see how much I’ve gained this month.  The bump is out in full force and you know that brings with it weight gain.  I didn’t obsess with my weight gain as much with the boys, but with this one I think about it all the time.  I think it’s because I was trying to lose weight and get healthy before I got pregnant and now I can’t get that out of my mind.  Because it’s my ultrasound Andy will go with me and then we’ll grab lunch after.  There’s a chance I won’t post tomorrow so if you don’t hear from me tomorrow you’ll find out all the details on Friday.

Have a great day, Friends!

Erin

Say My Name, Say My Name

Hey all!  I guess I still have Beyoncé on my mind today – she killed it Sunday night! 

I’m linking up with Amanda over at My Very Own Modern Family today for her “What’s In A Name” Link Up.  I thought this was a fun link up idea, so thanks for hosting it Amanda!  And if you’re not a “Modern Family” reader head on over and check out Amanda’s blog. She has 5, count them FIVE, daughters!!!  And they all have such beautiful names!  I can’t wait to read how she came up with them all.

I’m going to start with my name.  I am named after 2 of my dad’s favorites from the 70’s.  My first name is after Erin Gray, an actress.  I love this picture of her, totally 70’s, totally what I would have tried to look like if I’d been around then.

And my middle names is Yvonne, after Yvonne Elliman. (Let me just help you out by letting you know Yvonne is pronounced ‘EEEE von’, not Ya von. ‘K, glad we cleared that up!)  She was a singer.  I’m a bit surprised my dad liked her so much, but whatever floats your boat.

So that’s how I was given my names, based on my dad’s favorites at the time. 

My oldest son’s name is Aiden Kinnick.  One Saturday morning, while I was working at the salon, Andy was home watching ‘Rick Steve’s Europe’ on PBS.  Rick was in Ireland, traveling down some country road.  They come upon a flock of sheep and their herder.  Rick yells out “What’s your name?” and the herder yells back “Aiden Devereux!”  Andy called me right away and asked me what I thought of the name Aiden.  At the time I wasn’t even pregnant!  But I liked it enough to put it on my imaginary list and it stuck.  Kinnick, well, if you’re a Big 10 football fan you might know where Kinnick comes from.  When we were pregnant Andy was going to the University of Iowa (Go Hawks!), plus he’s a lifelong fan of the Hawkeyes.  I saw in some paper that a couple named their twin boys Kinnick and Carver.  I told Andy, kind of like “cute, right?”, but not thinking we’d ever name our child after one of Iowa’s greats.  Well, Andy took it to heart and never looked back.  Oh, and Kinnick is after Nile Kinnick, the only Heisman Trophy winner in Iowa Hawkeye history.  He’s also a WWII hero.  They play his Heisman acceptance speech at the beginning of every Hawkeye home football game, it gives me chills every time I hear it. 

Okee dokee, that was a long explanation.  More wordy than necessary.  Ha ha!

Now on to my Brenner Bug.  While I was pregnant with him I hated every single name we thought of for him.  EVERY.SINGLE.NAME.  And you might not believe me, but every name made me literally gag.  Weird.  So delivery day came and we still didn’t have a name picked out.  When I was pushing I told Andy not to call the baby Brennan if it was a boy, I wanted to see him first.  So out he came, I looked at him and just felt like Brennan was it.  Today I love his name.  We still didn’t have a middle name since we didn’t go in having a first name.  I was really hoping for a girl and was going to use my Grandma’s name for the middle name (Louise).  Well, it was a boy so now what?  Then my genius husband came up with the idea of using my Grandma’s Angel in Heaven’s name (Ricky Joseph was born 6 weeks early and didn’t survive).  I didn’t want to use Ricky, but Joseph seemed to fit perfectly.  So we were still able to honor Grandma after all. 

There it is, how we named the boys and where my name comes from.  I have no idea about Andy, I will have to ask his mom sometime.

And now to plug my own link up I’m hosting next Thursday, on Valentine’s Day.  I hope you’ll join me for sharing our Love Stories!

<a href="http://homemadehappenings-erin.blogspot.com"><img src="http://i1302.photobucket.com/albums/ag134/aemcguire02/thCAJLGC97400x400_zpsaad01565.jpg" alt="button" width="400" height="400" /></a>

Have a great one!

Erin

Closets and Ads

Good Monday to all!  I have to say, my Birthday Month is off to a great start!  I told Andy that I can feel the difference between January and February, something’s in the air!  I can almost see reds and pinks and hearts floating around! Ha ha, I’m bizarre!

So why is my month going so great already?  Well, Saturday we went to the big city and bought the supplies for our closet project and Sunday we hung the bead board and painted it. I have to say, I am in LOVE with bead board these days so I am so excited to finally get to hang some in our house!

I was going to give you a tease so you could see the beginning of the process but then I changed my mind and decided I wanted to do one big reveal when it’s all done.  I do have to say the green I picked out for the bead board is UH-mazing!  I’m in love.  I told Andy it makes my heart sing (I think that’s a direct quote from my idol, Ms. Pioneer Woman herself!).  It is one of the prettiest greens I’ve ever seen and I’m in love!  Love is in the air after all, Valentine’s Day is less than 2 weeks away!

Last night we watched the Super Bowl.  I have to tell you, things got pretty crazy here in our house!  Brennan and I watched the entire thing in our pj’s and I had 2 helpings of this amazing Oreo Dessert thing we bought at Hy-Vee on a whim.  Yea, Casa La Crazay here!  We go all out! 

What were your favorite commercials last night?  My top two were the Taco Bell Elderly Gone Wild/Joy Ride commercial (totally LOL’d) and the Farmer Dodge Ram commercial (tears!!).  I HAVE to have that poem!  We might not be farmers right now, but we both grew up living on farms (Andy until age 6, me until I got married at 21).  We come from a long line of farmers and I love and adore them!  That commercial moved me.  So did the choir from Sandy Hook Elementary.  I think in total I cried 5 times during the Super Bowl, from the Sandy Hook singers to the commercials.  And I almost cried when I thought the Niners were going to win.  Whew, squeaked that win out, didn’t you Ravens?  Honestly, how do you blow a 22pt lead like that?  Darn power outage, anyway!  What do you think, was the outage a conspiracy?? Either by the Niners or by the ad execs wanting to get more money for the Bowl by playing more commercials?  Will we ever know?  Probably not. Ha ha!

Have a great week!

Erin

What’s On The Menu And What’s The Baby’s Name?

It’s Friday!!!! Woo hoo!  This has been a fast week but boy am I ready for the weekend!

It’s been awhile since I’ve shared a recipe with you so I thought I’d share a nice, hearty, hot dish to make on a cold winter night.  If you’re trying to lose weight just skip ahead past this recipe to the end, you’ll thank me later.

Scalloped Potatoes with Ham

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

5-6 potatoes, peeled, cubed, cooked, and drained (*note- I have found that it’s best to cube them fairly small and to cook them until about 1 1/2 minutes before they are done, they’ll continue to cook in the oven and you don’t want super mushy potatoes.)  If you have a Dutch Oven use it for boiling the potatoes, that way you can combine the potatoes, ham and sauce together in this one pot and throw it in the oven when ready to bake it.

1-2 C. diced ham (again, smaller chunks.  I’m not a fan of Pig’s Butt so the smaller the pieces the better for me.)

While the potatoes are cooking make the following sauce in a medium saucepan:

6 T butter, melted.  Add to that 6 T flour to make a rue.  Let cook on medium heat for about 2 minutes, stirring often so as not to burn it. 

Next, add 2 C. milk.  Cook, stirring often, until the rue thickens the milk, a few minutes.  While this is cooking dice up 1 C. Velveeta cheese into 1” pieces.  Add salt and pepper to taste (not a ton of salt, the ham is salty enough).  Stir in 1/2 tsp. of Worcestershire Sauce.  Last, add the cubed up Velveeta. Stir constantly until the cheese is all melted.

If you have cooked your potatoes in a Dutch Oven add the ham and sauce to that and gently stir together.  Otherwise throw it together in a 2 qt. baking dish. 

Throw it in the oven at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, uncovered. 

For a little extra pizazz you can top the dish with shredded cheddar for the last 2 minutes of baking or cover the top with French Fried Onions for the last 5 minutes of baking.  Mmm!  Let me know if you try it and like it.  I like to have corn for a side, seems to go well with this. 

---

I have a favor to ask of you all.  Can you please leave me some baby name suggestions in the comments?  We are at a complete loss for names, especially boy names.  So let me know your favorite boy and girl names, or what you would have named your kids if you had anymore.  Or even what your kids’ names are.  I think I am leaning towards a more traditional name but any suggestions are welcome.  You never know when something will jump out at me.  Thanks!

Any plans for the weekend?  We are heading to the big city to get supplies for our closet project.  Hopefully the weather doesn’t make us change our plans.   Wednesday we got 3 or more inches of snow.  It’s hard to tell how much because the wind blew and blew and we have drifts like crazy. Today the roads still aren’t in great condition and schools in the area are still delaying 2 hours.  We are not delayed but the buses are running on hard surfaces roads only.  Doesn’t affect us here in town, we can get around no matter what.

And for your (and my) viewing pleasure, a nice way to end the week.  Love me some Matthew!  And Lance, you ain’t so bad yurself.  Yum!

I hope you give the recipe a try and don’t forget to leave me some name suggestions!  Have a great weekend, see you back here next week!

Erin