Merry Christmas and Happy New Year :)

Sorry for the delay in posts. It has been a very busy few weeks with the holidays.

First of all, I did get the results of my glucose test: I passed with flying colors! My results were 99 and could have gone as high as 130. No gestational diabetes here!

Christmas was good. I have been visiting our large families and still have a Christmas celebration tonight and one more tomorrow.

There have been many fun events this holiday that have made things easier. I enjoyed a night out last night thanks to Shannon Suther and iBot Records. They threw a benefit concert for Baby Bruce which included different bands from their record label. I had a blast last night! It was really good to get out and see lots of friends as well as do something normal. I had a great group of friends who stayed with me all night and took care of me. They made sure I stayed hydrated, always had a chair if I needed it, and kept me and Baby Bruce from getting bumped. Thanks Taryn, Jeff, and John :)

I plan to continue working on Baby Bruce's nursery over the next few days and the upcoming weekends. We have chair railing up thanks to Uncle Brad and Curt, and we plan to paint soon, as well as get her closet started! I can't wait! The closet is my project so I will be able to keep everything organized.

I hope everyone had a great holiday and has a good new year!

December 17, 2012

I will start with last saturday. I got up early to head to Quest diagnostics to get my glucose test taken care of before my next Baby Bruce appointment which is Thursday. I will know then if I passed, or I need to go for the 3 hour test. I am hoping I passed and can move on to whatever is next. Before drinking the orange sugary drink the nurse told me what to expect: nausea, migraine, and my little girl to do summer salts! Good news was the only side effect that happened was our little girl doing acrobatics.

After my test I took care of a few errands and then enjoyed an evening with my friend Becki. We at dinner at my house and hung out like old times. Sunday I slept in and took my time getting ready. Aunt Linda picked me up at 11:45 and we were off to see the Lion King at the Hippodrome! It was such an amazing show, I can't begin to describe how good the show was. I enjoyed all the songs and was amazed by the costumes. Hands down best show I have ever seen! After the show we had dinner at G&M and had one of Baltimore's best crab cakes. Then it was time to go home and get ready for my first full week of work.

Getting up early is a little hard but it feels good to be getting back into a routine, by the end of the day I feel pretty tired. Monday night I did some paperwork relating to Jon, and also finished up some work that needed to get done for the next day. Tuesday was another busy day but fun. Went to work then Jen and Dave made dinner at my house before we all went to a chorus concert at Linton Springs that Grace was singing in. It was good to see everyone and hear Grace sing. After the concert I stopped by Mrs. Sue and Richards to drop a paper off and visited with them for a little while. I saw their tree which is much smaller than their normal tree but still very beautiful! It was nice to see they decided to have a tree this year.

Wednesday morning my body was getting tired and didn't want to get out of bed. I put in another full day of work and then had dinner with Taryn at Qdoba which was very yummy! Thursday after work Mom mom and Pop pop Bruce took me to Pizza Hut where we met Seth. We all came back to my house and visited before they went home. About 10 minutes after mom mom and pop pop left the door bell rang, I looked out the peephole and no one was there. I opened the door to find 2 gifts sitting on my step. I brought them inside and opened them. Attached to the gifts were two letters, both addressed to me but one was about me and one was about Baby Bruce. However neither letter was signed, I hope whoever left them has a link to this blog so they read this thank you. I really appreciate everything that was in the gifts, I LOVED the piggy bank for Baby Bruce it is adorable. The gift cards are greatly appreciated and will come in very handy. Thank you again for the generous gifts! This was such an exciting way to end my thursday. Friday was finally here I spent the evening with my mom and my sister Erika, before heading home I decided I wanted ice cream :) Thank god for google maps when I decide I want ice cream. This happened last friday too, all of a sudden I was craving ice cream. I found a Baskin Robbins 4 minutes away…found it! After we ordered and paid for our ice cream, the man behind the counter asked if I liked cake bites, I had never had them before I told him. He then reached in the cooler and gave me a free cake bite! This totally made my night, the cake bite was delicious! It went great with my mint chocolate chip ice cream :)

I decided to turn my alarm off in hope to sleep in this Saturday. It worked except Fisher decided he wanted to wake up and scratch my bed at 5:30am…He got fed and locked in the bathroom :/ I slept till 10am this morning! It felt so good to sleep, glad my internal clock got the memo not to wake me up. The rest of the day I spent with Jen, we got pedicures, Panera, and then started/finished my Christmas shopping. On our way home I got a call from Jon's Aunt Lauren so I thought, when I said hello it was a guys voice…Daniel! He was calling to invite me to dinner at Cobblestone. I met them for dinner and was able to see Daniel, Karen, Mallory, Aunt Lauren, and Uncle Russ! After dinner I came home and finished my Christmas cards, typed this blog, and now it's time for bed.

Baby Bruce is doing great, it feels like I am growing by the minute which I hear is a good thing. She is very active and other people are now starting to feel her kick. I have an appointment this Thursday to check her progress.

I hope everyone has a good week :)

Anne

December 9, 2011

I continue to take each day as it comes as I have since this whole thing started. I have been figuring everything out day by day. 

Last weekend I decided to put up my christmas tree. I thought it would be nice to have a place to put my Jon ornaments after the Dove House ceremony. Since Jon and I moved into our townhouse this past February we did not have any traditions here. This made it much easier for me to be okay with decorating for Christmas. I went with my stepdad Donnie to Target and we picked out everything that was needed for a real tree. Jon and I had talked about getting a real tree this year so I felt like I still needed to follow through with what we decided. We picked out a stand, lights, VERY girly christmas balls and then a bright pink glitter covered star! I was so excited now to go find the perfect tree! We decided we were going to put the tree in our bay window so was on the hunt for a smaller tree. I knew Martin's had table top trees so I checked there first. They were too fat for what I needed. Next stop Home Depot. Thank you to everyone from Dulaney that bought us a Home Depot gift card I was able to find the almost perfect tree with the help of Donnie, and George in lumber. I couldn't find one short enough, but with a saw it became the perfect tree! I have the top of a 5ft tree sitting perfectly in my bay window. 

After decorating the tree it made me want to put up lights outside! So Donnie went back out and bought me more lights and we decorated the tree by my door. I was the second person to decorate in our section of houses, the next week I saw my neighbors decorating and they said I inspired them to decorate. :)

I started my week finishing paperwork and taking care of a few more things Monday during the day. Everyone that I have dealt with has been really helpful and has made this process as smooth as possible. I want to thank Jen from Dulaney who has gone above and beyond to help us when Jon was sick as well as continuing to help me now. 

Monday evening I went to the Dove house tree lighting ceremony with my family, and few friends. The ceremony was beautiful! They had three trees with many ornaments filling the branches. Two trees were dedicated to family and friends and the other was dedicated to pets that had past away. All the three trees were nicely decorated with the ornaments that were ordered. After the ceremony we were given the opportunity to find the ornaments that we ordered so we could take them home. Jon did not have enough ornaments for his own tree but he definitely was the majority of ornaments throughout both trees! It was so exciting to see his name on so many ornaments. It was really fun to see how people ordered them, most said Jonathan Bruce, Jonathan Lee Bruce, or Jon Bruce. Then there were a few that said something different like "Jon Brucey" or "Jon Bruce!!!" While I was standing in line to get mine I had to ask the woman a question about one of the ornaments, she showed me the list of how many ornaments were ordered. She had a page and a half of different Jon ornaments! It was so exciting to see how many people want to make Jon a part of their holiday. The artist writing the names on the ornament said she had never seen so many ornaments for one person. Thank you everyone who ordered an ornament in honor of Jon, it made me smile to know that we all were helping the Dove House as well as honoring Jon. 

The rest of the week has been filled with visitors and other fun events. Tuesday I had a doctors appointment for Baby Bruce. My blood pressure was great, and we listened to her strong heartbeat. I received the paperwork for my glucose test, keeping my fingers crossed I won't have gestational diabetes. That evening I went to Linton Springs to watch Riley and the other 5th grade band members perform their holiday concert. Wednesday was my first day back to work, it was nice to get back into a routine. Wednesday evening I spent with Mom mom and Pop pop Bruce (Jon's grandparents). We went to dinner  and then visited. Thursday evening was another fun event, Jess Shipley (co worker/friend) and her boyfriend Steve came by and picked me up for Buck Wear's Christmas party. And then tonight I spent the evening with Courtney and we went and picked up her wedding dress! It was so exciting to see how beautiful she is going to look, her dress was gorgeous! 

I appreciate all the thoughts, prayers, concerns, and support it truly has made this journey a little easier.

I need start blogging twice a week…They are getting long!

December 2, 2011

Thank you everyone who came to Jon's memorial service! It was amazing to see so many people who loved and admired my husband. Thank you to all the people who made donations for food, it was greatly appreciated. 

As I told many of you I will continue to update the blog as I continue this journey with "Baby Bruce." I have stayed busy since Jon's passing and it has really helped. Not a second goes by that I don't think about him and what we shared. I feel blessed to have fallen in love so young (we were 17 when we met) and been able to spend almost 10 years with him. Every time I see a picture of him it makes me smile, because I think of how happy he always was. :)

Many people have asked how I am feeling and how "Baby Bruce" is doing. I had an appointment the day Jon passed away. Everything was normal except my blood pressure was a little high in the one arm so they took it in the other and it was normal. The doctor was going to have me come back in a month but with everything that happened decided to bring me back in two weeks to ease everyones worries. I have that appointment on Tuesday, and from then on out I will be seen every two weeks like planned. She is very active and moves around quite a bit! 

This week has been filled with lots of paperwork and phone calls, but on Wednesday I decided to do something fun, and went to Babies R Us with my mom, sister and Jon's mom. It was really nice to take a day and focus on something positive. We had fun looking, scanning all the baby stuff, trying strollers and laughing at some as well. 

I will do my best to try and post at least once a week to let everyone know how we are doing. My goal is just to continue to take it one day at a time.

Thank you again to everyone who has been a part of this journey with us.