&t The Taylor Family: July 2011

Sunday, July 31

Awww, Home

After another long day in the heat it was finally time to pack up and go home. I had come to mom's house on Wednesday night with all the children and we had stayed there until this evening. I don't think I have ever been so happy to be home. My feet are so tired and my back hurts. Sitting outside (even in the shade) I am all sweaty and tired. Around 4 I told mom I needed to start cleaning up so I could get home. I have to work tomorrow and be at the station by 6am. This morning when I got up early once again I was hesitant about setting up the sale again. It is so much work and so hot. We still had a ton of stuff and most of it was easy set up so there really was no reason beyond laziness not to do it one more day. I must say though, I am extremely glad we did! Today was my best day of the three and just about all the big stuff I really was concerned with selling went. Being the last day I made a lot of deals but none that would leave me feeling ripped off or insulted. Mom did really well too but this was her least profitable day. In the end I was ready to go and started to pack things up and clean the house inside where all the children spent their time. I helped mom pack up some of the sale things but she told me to go home before we were all done. I didn't argue too much with that, I was totally exhausted. Peter had come by earlier in the day so he stayed a little longer with the girls and I took Javan home. We showered and put on jammies and Peter picked up some dinner on the way home. I am so tired and so very happy to be able to sleep in my own bed again and with my hubby, I really hate sleeping alone.

posted by We are the Taylors @ 7:10 PM   0 comments

Saturday, July 30

Second Day of Sale

This morning we lugged all the stuff out and again and found more things to fill in the spaces of the items we sold yesterday. Another hot hot day but still a pretty steady flow of customers came through. I had advertised on Craigslist and a lot of people came as a result. We had signs out too, of course, and mom's house is in a nice location. One of mom's neighbors had a sale today too so that drew more people in. I didn't do very well today but I really can't complain. Mom had a great day and I was happy to see a lot of stuff go. After the heat had gotten the best of me I took the kids to the next door neighbors and we went swimming in his pool. The kids were happy to be outside and not so hot and have something more to do than watch tv and sit around. I figured this would help them release some energy and get some sun too. I taught the girls how to do cannonballs into the pool (I didn't show them but explained the actions) and after just a few tries they both had it down. Javan played on the stairs and then swam out with me a couple times to deeper water. After almost 2 hours I was ready to get out. The kids wanted to stay but I still had to help mom put all the stuff back in the garage. Most of our big items were still there so it looks like tomorrow we will continue to be open.

posted by We are the Taylors @ 7:36 PM   0 comments

Friday, July 29

Grand Opening

Today my mom and I got up around 5-6 and started working on the sale stuff. We have so much stuff that even after we pulled a ton out and loaded up the driveway the garage was still full. I hate stuff. I am really a minimalist and I would like to have just a couple comfy chairs and a stocked kitchen and nothing else. Since it was our first day we were pretty firm on our prices (we marked things to move and thought all the prices were more than fair). We know that we have tomorrow and possibly Sunday still so we can always mark things down later. Anyhow, the temperature was in the 90s but thankfully we had a nice canopy for shade, I don't know how we ever did a sale without it. We stayed open pretty late because people kept showing up right when we would decide to start packing it up for tomorrow. Today was a great day and we made a nice amount of money from all that was sold. If tomorrow goes the same we will be very happy. Javan and the girls stayed inside most of the day but he came out a couple times and found his old toys and played with them all. He didn't understand we were selling them and probably never realized they were missing from his room. He had a good time despite the heat and kept me entertained in between customers.

posted by We are the Taylors @ 7:29 PM   0 comments

Thursday, July 28

Helpers

I took today and tomorrow off of work to have a HUGE Garage Sale with my mom at her house. We have been accumulating lots of things for this sale but it kept getting pushed off so more and more stuff stacked up. I took off today to start with the organizing and pricing and get all the things prepped that we needed. Hopefully tomorrow we can get up early and pull things out of the garage and sell it all!

posted by We are the Taylors @ 4:27 PM   0 comments

Friday, July 22

22 Weeks

Peter took my picture after we went out for a nice quiet dinner at Vienna's. Our friend watched the kids and him and I got to escape and listen to a live cellist. Of course, it never fails, we ran into people we knew even though the restaurant is a tiny little one that few people know about. Peter and I enjoyed a wonderful meal and dessert then went to a local park and took a nice walk until I was too tired to go on. After we picked up the kids and returned home Peter snapped this shot of Javan and I to send to the IPs to show how their little girls are growing.

posted by We are the Taylors @ 8:21 PM   0 comments

Wednesday, July 20

Spoiled


How many people can say they have their own personal hair stylist?

posted by We are the Taylors @ 4:14 PM   0 comments

Saturday, July 16

Housewarming and Birthday

Today is Bresa's 8th birthday! It's hard to believe it was an entire 8 years ago when she made Peter and I a family and no longer just a couple. We already celebrated her birthday and Abbi's when we went to get manicures last week but there were still a few presents to open today. Daddy made her pancakes for breakfast and we let her choose what she wanted for lunch and dinner as well.
We had a housewarming party to go to today for our friends, Rodney and Valleta so the kids had to help decorate the present. We got them a gift card but we put it in a balloon that we then blew up and filled this box with more balloons. We each drew a picture of a house for them. Peter used Illustrator, I used Photoshop, Bresa made a castle, and Abbi cut out shapes and glued them together to make a wonderful house of her own. I wrapped the box in butcher paper and then we set to work decorating it all. We each put our hand prints on one side and then the kids had a great time coloring the others.
When we got to the housewarming party Bresa was surprised to find a beautiful princess Brenda cake just for her birthday. Brenda was going to make a cake for the party anyhow so she asked me about making it a birthday cake for Bresa. Like the rest of us, Bresa loves Brenda cake. After the party we hung out with R&V for a while playing Mexican Train and then we went to Panera (Bresa's choice) for dinner. Christina and Noah met us there and picked up Bresa for a couple nights birthday sleepover and the rest of us headed home. Happy Birthday to my beautiful red head. You are very stubborn, independent, and too smart for your own good but I love every bit of what makes you who you are. It may have been 8 years ago already but I will never forget the way I felt the first time I held you in my arms the day you made me a Mommy. I love you pretty girl, you will always be my baby.

posted by We are the Taylors @ 9:04 PM   0 comments

Wednesday, July 13

Mmmm, Yummy


So much for the bath I gave him 2 hours ago.

posted by We are the Taylors @ 7:03 PM   0 comments

Sunday, July 10

Titanic, The Experience

A few weeks ago Christina called and asked if Peter and I would be interested in going to Titanic, The Experience in Orlando. Apparently her mom gave her and Noah tickets but Noah wasn't interested. I asked Peter but he wasn't interested either so Tina and I decided we would go and leave the guys with the kids. After Peter got home from church and we ate lunch we drove to Christina and Noah's house. Peter brought his laptop so they could play video games and the girls got set up on the Wii with Animal Crossing. Tina and I went to the museum and it was really interesting. I knew a lot just from watching the movie Titanic that came out in 1994, on the DVD there are a lot of special features that tell about the Titanic with a lot of details but the museum was really fascinating. You walk through the building of, into the inside rooms, to the sinking at the end of the tour. I thought the difference in all the classes was the most interesting and how third class had to be separated from first class at all times. After we went through the museum we went over to the Mall of Millennium to walk around a bit. When it got to be dinner time we ate at Mimi's Cafe before heading back to the boys and kids. I don't think the guys would have enjoyed the museum much but it sure did make for a great girl's night out.

posted by We are the Taylors @ 9:13 PM   0 comments

Friday, July 8

A very good night

Today is national Cow Appreciation Day and just like last year Chick-fil-a was giving away a free meal to anyone who dressed up like a cow. Well, our family is not one to pass up free food so we made our cow attire and drove over to get some delicious chicken dinner. Bresa missed the fun because she is at Grandma's for her week away but that didn't stop the rest of us from getting our fill. After we finished eating we let Abbi and Javan play in the play area for a little while and our friend Cindy showed up for some food too. She was not dressed properly though so she wouldn't be getting free food tonight. We were just catching up when I saw our other friends, Bill and Brenda walk up dressed very nicely in cow-wear. We all talked for a bit but then Peter and I had to run because we had plans to go over to our friends, Machelle and Larry's, for some games. All the kids played really well together and us adults got to enjoy a lengthy game of Carcassonne.

posted by We are the Taylors @ 11:02 PM   0 comments

Monday, July 4

Happy Independence Day!

This morning we got up a bit early for a day off but for good reason. We were meeting our Life Group at one of our member's houses for breakfast. Everything was delicious and there seemed to be a never ending spread different foods to have. We ate and talked and hung out for a while before going home. Peter and I got our things together and we drove the girls over to Christina and Noah's house where they were having a BBQ later on. Before it was time for more good food Tina and I had an appointment with the girls to get pedicures and manicures. The girls had never been to a nail salon before but they always asked us if they could come when Tina and I went to get our nails done. For their birthdays they decided that rather than having a birthday party they would be able to go and have both their toenails and their fingernails done with Aunt Tina and I. Both, Bresa and Abbi, were very excited that the day had finally come and when we got to the salon they took their time picking the perfect colors for the nails. We got to soak our feet in our own hot tubs and then we had our own technicians come and pamper us thoroughly. The girls were very interested in all the steps that were done and Bresa must have asked 100 questions (this is not unusual). Once we were all prettied up with shiny new polish on all our nails we went back to Tina's for dinner. They had a lot of guests over for the BBQ and we enjoyed seeing old friends and met new ones too. Dinner was wonderful and very filling and when the sun finally set we took the girls outside (Javan was at Grandma's) to light our own sparklers and see the beautiful display of fireworks above the tree line. When it was time to get going we stopped to pick up Javan and drop Bresa off to spend a week at Grandma's (for her birthday) and headed home.

posted by We are the Taylors @ 10:34 PM   0 comments

Saturday, July 2

Surrogate Babies

Anyone who has followed my blog for any amount of time knows that I am not a totally normal person. I am okay with this and what's better is Peter is okay with this too. As you may recall I carried triplets as a surrogate mother back in 2006/2007. The journey with that surrogacy wasn't the greatest but in the end God blessed me beyond belief and I finally had closure after three years of struggling to forgive the intended parents and accepting I would never meet or see the babies. Anyhow, back in mid 2009 after our son was born I decided that I would like to be a surrogate again (for a different couple) so I started the process of filling out applications and submitting them to various agencies. Some wouldn't accept me because I refused to waver on my stance of not killing a baby because he/she may have down syndrome. There were a couple agencies that were interested in bringing me on but there was one that stood out as being more friendly and I decided to activate a profile with "Open Arms." In my profile I specified who I was willing to carry for and what I was looking for in a couple and of course added information about me, my family, and my previous pregnancies. Pretty soon I had a call from the agency telling me about a couple who lived in Tampa and had been trying for several years to get pregnant with no success. They didn't have any other children and had been married for 11 years. We set up a conference call in September 2009 and then after meeting a couple times in person we decided to draw up some contracts. They had a donor in mind but she wouldn't be available until the spring of 2010. We waited patiently but unfortunately she fell through and so did the next 3 donors. Finally, in the summer of last year a wonderful experienced donor was found and things got underway. The contracts took a bit longer than usual to finish but they were ready just in time for my mock trial to start with all the meds and appointments to follow. In November of 2010 we transferred two embryos via IVF but two weeks later we found out that neither of them took. After a week of total devastation and lots and lots of tears I called the new IPs to see if they wanted to go again. After so many years of disappointment I wasn't sure what their stance would be but they eventually called me to tell me they wanted to try again. Our clinic in Tampa is closed each December so we waited until mid January and started the cycle again. Following up to three shots every day for months as well as several medications and weekly doctors appointments we were ready to try the transfer again on March 12. Again we transferred two embryos and after two of the longest weeks of my life I went in for my first Beta Blood test to check my hormone levels. Hours after my test the clinic finally called to tell me that we were pregnant!! After many more tears (this time of joy) we followed up with two more Beta test to confirm that the pregnancy was still strong. Two weeks later we had our first ultrasound and found out that both of the embryos had taken. Twins. Not really what I was hoping for but I was very thankful it wasn't triplets this time because last we only transferred two and one split after they both took. The following week we had another ultrasound and confirmed that both hearts were still beating strong. The fertility clinic released me to a normal OB/GYN and I was eventually weaned off all the painful shots that left me in tears many nights. Today I am a day shy of being 19 weeks along. This past Wednesday we went in for another ultrasound and found out that both of the twins are girls. I am so excited for the IPs, after trying for so long God has blessed them with two strong and growing babies at once. He is so good. My expected due date is November 6th (a little earlier than 40 weeks since they are twins). The photo here is my new addition to the back of my van. Three fish for the triplets (the one with the cross is for baby Isabella) and two for the twins.

posted by We are the Taylors @ 3:48 PM   1 comments