First off, Carlia over at The Stork Drop Zone featured me yesterday and awarded me the Humpday Hero Award. Thank you so much to whomever nominated me!!

Now, for those of you who aren’t familiar with my work, at this point, I’m sort of a Jack (Jill?) of all trades.

I’m a Rea.ltor (something that’s basically impossible to make money in at this point – damn economy).
I’m a secretary for a local church (just a few hours a week for very little pay – I call it my good karma job!).
I’m a bookkeeper for a couple of local business (just a few hours a month really, but the extra cash is nice).

…and I used to be an office manager, but after 4 years of that, I quit last fall b/c I really needed a break from the desk job thing and I had an opportunity to be a bartender/manager for a new restaurant that was opening up in town.

Sadly, after only two months, the restaurant unexpectedly closed down for nearly 5 months over the winter (ridiculous business move, but that’s another story for another day), and though it was incredibly frustrating, luckily I qualified for Fed.eral Emer.gency Exten.ded Unem.ployment Bene.fits. Basically, all the zillions of taxes I (and my previous employers) paid in for years finally helped me out. Honestly, it ended up being a blessing in disguise. This meant time for a much-needed extended vacation to see my family in MN over the holidays (yay!!) and then plenty of time for numerous trips to Denver to the RE and to our local hospital (30 min away) for monitoring appointments while doing IF treatments. I applaud anyone going through fertility treatments who is working a full time job – that would be HARD. It’s hard enough just going through them, much less trying to take off so much work without people getting suspicious!

At any rate, it’s finally time for me to get back to work! The timing couldn’t have worked out better – I finally quit puking last Thursday at 10 weeks (who hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!), and that makes it much easier to work around food all day. This summer I’m going to be waitressing 3 days/week and bartending 2 nights/week at two different restaurants. It should be great money, but it’s going to be hard work. The brewery where I’ll be waitressing is three stories tall… and with the kitchen on the main floor and me the main rooftop waitress, that means running up and down flights of stairs with trays of food and drink all.day.long Monday-Wednesday. I’m kind of nervous about it, but we’ll see how it goes. I’ll definitely have buns of steel, even while my waistline keeps expanding. 🙂 I haven’t told that boss about the pregnancy yet, but I’m thinking next week I’ll need to – if for no other reason than to maybe get assigned to the mid-level floor 1x/week just to give my poor body a break. We shall see.

SO, the goal is to make as much money as possible from June15-Oct15 (the main summer tourist season around here)… because after that I probably won’t “work” until post-baby sometime. I’ll keep up with the first three jobs I mentioned, but they definitely aren’t enough to make much of a dent in the bills. Thank God I have a husband who is willing to do/work whenever/wherever necessary to keep us afloat. Love that Man. It is definitely a weird feeling though to go from making pretty much identical incomes to having to depend so much more on him. The fluctuations of marriage and money – no wonder they say it’s the root of most fights!
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On the HAPPY JOYFUL THANKFUL front, I’m 11w today, and I’m feeling pretty good! Still tired and nauseous, but at a much more manageable level. SUCH a difference.


How far along? 11 weeks
Size of baby? A lime! We were both pretty excited to see how big the baby now is when we were looking at our Pregnancy Day By Day book this morning. 🙂 RockStar is 1.6″ long and weighs .25 ounces.
Total Weight Gain? Dropped back down to 162.2, so I’m up a total of 1.2# since BFP 7 weeks ago.
Maternity clothes? Not really. Jeans are tight, but the bloating has actually gone down.
Sleep? Tossing and turning this week because of allergies. I’m so used to doping up this time of year – it’s bizarre to not be able to!
Best moment this week? Feeling happy about the pregnancy because I’m feeling so much better!
Food cravings? Foods from my childhood. 🙂 Bowls filled with cheese and summer sausage slices, saltines, and grapes. Bowls of ice cream with choc syrup and milk. Life cereal with milk. Fruit. I’ve still only eaten ONE salad since week 6 – green absolutely sound horrid to me. I’m hoping that changes soon.
What I miss? Having a s.ex drive. I know my husband misses it too!
What I’m looking forward to? Getting OUT of this first trimester so I can feel more secure about everything.
Weekly Wisdom: Don’t freak out by the look of the pooch of your expanding belly. I’m only up 1.2# but my belly is definitely starting to feel and look more real instead of just like bloat. It’s bizarre to remind myself that it’s not all beer & cheese in there!
Milestones: The end of the worst of the morning sickness (**running to go knock on wood**)
Emotions: Happy. Grateful. I’m in a good head space this week. It was HUGE to get to wean off the progesterone supplements – just good to know that my placenta is finally doing its job!
Symptoms: Fatigue, insomnia, nausea. Slight tenderness in my boobs. That’s about it!