A couple photos to share...

Here's Hayden and his Grandma Christie. Aren't they sweet?


Grandpa Jack and Grandma Christie at the Biltmore Estate

sick, sick, sick...

The past few days in our household have been quite unpleasant. It all started with Emerson. He began throwing up while I was in Atlanta last Wednesday. He got over it quickly and was fine the next day. Then, Hayden began throwing up. I came home that evening to a house that smelled funky. Poor guy had puked just about everywhere-the couch, the kitchen, the hallway, our bed, his bed, the playroom, etc. He was better by bedtime and then Clayton was hit hard by the bug. I got it Friday and threw up all stinking night long. I have never been so sick in my entire life! It was horrible. I still feel funny, but it could be that I am pregnant, so who knows ;)

Wild Week

My in-laws came in on Sunday morning to visit. On Tuesday, we headed out to the Biltmore Estate. I have lived in NC almost my entire life (lived in Atlanta, GA for 2.5 years) and I have managed to never see it until now. The coolest part was the winery where we sampled several wines. We had a great time and it was a beautiful day. They left on Wednesday morning for a convention in Nashville, TN.

I left on Tuesday night for Atlanta. The embryo transfer was scheduled for 9:30am and I thought that it would be better for me to leave the night before rather than having to get up at the butt crack of dawn to get to my appointment on time in the morning. The procedure went really smoothly. We transferred 3 embryos and all we can do is pray that one of them sticks. We will have to wait until March 6th to get a blood test to determine if there is a baby in there. Ugh...that seems so far away!

I hit the motherlode of sales today. Target had all of their foreign-looking accessories marked down to 75% off! I came home with a couple of cool clocks, several vases, and a neat bowl. Yippee!!!

Bring it on!!!

The weekend, that is. Clayton's mom and Jack will be getting here on Sunday and we are so psyched. The kiddos are antsy to see their Grandma and Grandpa J! We are going to have a great time while they are here :)

For the love of catsup, lol

You think he likes it? LOL. I believe that kids will eat anything and everything as long as it can be dipped into catsup (Clayton hates that I choose to use this particular spelling). Big E doesn't get it very often because he makes such a mess. I should have just stripped him down instead of getting his shirt all messed up. Oh well, live and learn. Yuck. That sounded like those stupid Luvs commercials. Buy Huggies Supreme instead ;)

Hayden

H stole one of Daddy's cookies, lol. 

Clayton's cookies

These are the yummy sugar cookies I made for Clayton. 

My resignation from TSS and some updates

Last week, I made the decision to leave The Scrapbook Stand so that I could spend more time with the kiddos and make my life less hectic. It was a hard thing to do, but I have been feeling the strain lately. My kids and this surrogacy have to be center stage, so I am now able to shift my focus to what is more important. I love the gals at TSS and I will miss the site dearly. I was chosen for their first design team, hung around as one of the chosen 3 after the first term was over, and then was honored to remain on the team as a second round of gals were added. It's hard to believe that TSS is now one year old. I hope that it continues to provide members with fabulous kits in the future and that the design team hangs around forever. Happy Birthday TSS!!! Thanks for the amazing opportunity Shirley. You're the best!

My wonderful IM should be getting ready for her egg retrieval this weekend. We will most likely be transferring them (after they have been fertilized for 3 days) on next Wednesday. I am so excited and I really hope that we can make the eggies stick! We should know by March if any of them "took". Wish us luck :)

Valentine's Day was fun. We didn't do much, but it was still good. Hayden got lots of valentines from school and both kids got goodies/money from their grandparents. I made Clayton some pretty sugar cookies (his favorite) and he brought home some Ben & Jerry's along with a movie to watch. We are planning to go out and celebrate while his Mom is visiting next week. Gotta love free babysitting! I sure hope that Christie is up to it.....hint, hint. She is going to be coming on Sunday with Jack. We cannot wait to see them.

A Rockin' 80's Party for Reed :)

My friend Krista threw her hubby a surprise birthday party with an 80's theme. Reed was definitely surprised! We all were decked out in tacky 80's clothes. The pic to the left is me, Kala (sporting a banana clip in her hair, lol), and Krista. Clayton rolled the bottom of his pants tight and wore a Bon Jovi tee shirt. I tried to mohawk his hair, but it was dang near impossible to do. I wore fishnet hose, cropped legging, slouch socks, a crinolin skirt, a Bon Jovi mini tee, a gold sequin belt and lots of jelly bracelets. The funny thing is that all the parts of my costume were bought within the past year. It's bad to think that the 80's fashions are making a come-back. Blech. I prefer to keep all those hideous clothes and blue eyeliner back in my elementary school years. Big hair was also an embarrassing thing that I did and I WILL NOT ever do it again. It is so awful to look back through my yearbooks and realize that I chose to look like that. Anyway, we had fun playing trivia and remembering those crazy days or yore. Krista made lots of goodies and some wonderful martinis.

Pictured at the bottom is the "old" man Reed ;)

LOST

Last night I had to DVR LOST because I went to a party at a friend's house. I watched it this morning while Emerson slept in my arms. I don't think that he feels very good because he cried all morning long. It could be his teeth since he is getting a mouth-full all at once. Poor guy. Anyway, there were a few interesting details in this last episode:

-Did you notice that the waitress in the diner was Kate's mom?
-The song that Hurley & Sayid picked up on the radio was Moonlight Serenade by Glenn Miller. In the 40s, Glenn Miller boarded a plane to Paris that never arrived. The crash site was never found and Glen was never heard from again.
-Hurley read a manuscript from Bad Twin , which is a book that one of the passengers wrote before he died in the Oceanic flight 815 crash.

I noticed Kate's mom, but read about the other two things on 2 Peas. Interesting stuff, huh?

Late tag post

Forever ago, Shirley from The Scrapbook Stand tagged the design team with these questions and I forgot to post them to my blog. So here goes...

Four jobs you have had in your life:
1) salesperson/teacher in 3 scrapbook stores in Atlanta, GA
2) assistant chef for a high-end restaurant (Sugar Magnolias) in High Point, NC
3) a textbook buyer/customer service person for Packbackers Student Bookstore in Raleigh, NC
4) brand representative (yep, that's the official title-lol) for Abercrombie & Fitch at the Crabtree Valley Mall in Raleigh, NC (that's where I met Clayton while we were going to NCSU)

Four movies you would watch over and over:
1) The Shawshank Redemption
2) Napolean Dynomite
3) A Christmas Story (it never gets old)
4) Just about anything-I cannot remember a movie longer than a few days after seeing it.

Four places you have lived:
1) Hendersonville, NC
2) Atlanta, GA
3) Raleigh, NC
4) High Point, NC

Four TV shows you love to watch:
1) LOST!!! Hubby and I are both addicted.
2) The Office
3) My Name is Earl
4) Yes, Dear

Four places you have been on vacation:
1) Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Cozumel on a cruise
2) Orlando, FL
3) Williamsburg, VA
4) Wyoming (Hubby is from there)

Four websites I visit daily:
1) www.thescrapbookstand.com
2) www.twopeasinabucket.com
3) www.surromomsonline.com
4) All of the blog links that I have listed

Four of my favorite foods:
1) chocolate-covered strawberries
2) fondue (LOVE the Melting Pot!)
3) crab legs
4) croissants

Four places I would rather be right now:
1) Jason & Natascha's house in Raleigh-I hate being so far from them :(
2) back home chillin' with my family in High Point or with my hubby's family out west
3) Target/Starbucks (they are a package deal-hee hee)
4) on vacation-ANYWHERE would be fine with me!!!

Four bloggers I am tagging:
1) Krista
2) Adrienne
3) Jennifer F.
4) Angie H.

Emerson's free!

Big E got his cast off today. His little leg looks so dry and scaly. He hasn't been able to take a bath this past 3 weeks, so he will be thrilled to take one tonight. Putting pants on him will now be much easier-yay! Anyway, the doctor said that his leg isn't completely healed. It will take just a little bit more time. I am concerned that he may break it again since it is so weak, but the doctor said that another cast isn't necessary at this point. I meant to take some photos before the cast came off, but I totally forgot. Ugh.

On the surrogacy front, I had an ultrasound yesterday and everything looks perfect. The doctor said that the drugs are doing their thing and I am all set for our upcoming embryo transfer. My intended mother had her ultrasound today and all is well with her too. Sooooooo, we will likely have the transfer around the 23rd. We have our fingers crossed.

I am greatly disappointed to be missing the Bon Jovi show in Greenville, SC tomorrow night. Clayton and I have been to all of their concerts since they returned to the music scene, but we just couldn't swing the $200 tickets. I tried to win some last week, but failed to get them. I called the radio station today and told them that I was willing to streak through Biltmore Village for them. They asked if I would do so in their parking lot and I told them heck yea! Unfortunately, they didn't have any more to give away :(