Bless This: Family

My "normal" now is not that normal.  At least what it used to be like last year.  I'm trying to make it somewhat normal now.  For Olivia. My "normal" now is Olivia and I all the time.  It used to be Patrick and I. Anywhere I go, Olivia is generally with me. Which is great with me.  We make a good team! Our friend, Meg Licht made this for O. I only have time to myself on my hour long commute for work. I don't have Patrick there to take our daughter when I would need it.  If I would want to go out with friends for the night, they can all just say, "Oh, I'll just have my husband watch the kids so I can go."  I don't have that option.  I have family in town that will watch her, but they watch her all week while I'm at work. You don't really want to take advantage of them too much to help with Olivia. I knew there would be a change in things when she was born, but I thought Patrick was going to be here for all of this....

Valentine's Day was never a big holiday for Patrick and I.  We wouldn't do much, but go out to dinner.  It was a date night for us.  He did always have flowers or something small waiting for me at the restaurant. This past year, I told him I didn't need/want anything. We were short on money, as he had been laid off for 10 months.  I told him he could just write a poem for me.  But, in true Patrick fashion...he surprised me. Valentine's Day 2010.  I receive a call from Judy at the front desk that I had something downstairs.  I quickly came down to see an arrangement of roses and an envelope for me.  I raced upstairs to open it.  It's a poem that Patrick wrote and it was perfect.  He went to Sendik's to have the flower arrangement done and then he delivered the roses himself to surprise me.  This is the poem he wrote.  In red is what it means:)  Please read the poem first and then go back to read the red. A Valenti...

Work. Well, this week was my first week back to work from maternity leave.  The first official day back was Wednesday...blizzard...city emergency...snow day.  So, I worked from home and caught up.  Thursday and Friday I was in the office.  My desk was decorated and I had bags of Doritos everywhere.  My friend Stacy knows how much I like Doritos and was sweet to think of me.  The last 2 days at work consisted of catching up on email, starting "To do" lists, meeting with people and best of all...catching up with my friends who I dearly missed.  You know who you are.  These last 2 days went well at work because of them. I have missed Olivia so much.  It just stinks to get home late, feed her during her fussy time and then put her to bed.  No quality time with her at all.  The last 12 weeks, it's been Olivia and Mommy.  Other family and friends to be with us here and there.  But mainly it's been Team Blessing.  Big cha...

Pearl Jam has played a large role in my life. In 1993 I got their first CD, Ten.  They were introduced to me by my friends, Dan and Jamie.  Their "song" was Alive .  When they passed away that summer, we listened to it constantsly.  Alive became my favorite song.  All through college, I listened them even more and grew to love them. During Patrick's time in college at Ripon, Alive became his song, too.  It was his faternity's song, Phi Kappa Pi.  While Patrick was in the hospital for his leukemia, he constantly listened to Vitalogy, as it was released that year.  He listened to it all the time and it helped him cope. Years later, Patrick and I got together.  Both of us attending many concerts.  He was at the Chicago one about 5-6 years ago.  I asked him to call me when they were playing Given to Fly.   It was my favorite song.  He loved it, too.  Then in 2008, we got married.  We incorporated Pea...

I really miss him. Thanksgiving.  This was Patrick's favorite holiday.  He loved gathering around the table with family and enjoying a nice day.  He loved the food.  We all know that.  He'd pile his plate up 2 layers high full of food.  That bothered me, because his food was touching each other AND the cranberry sauce was all over the plate and being soaked up by a roll.  He would then tease me that I ate one kind of food at a time, turned my plate to get to the next one, until it was gone.  He loved hanging out in the basement after dinner, watching football with my dad.  He loved hanging out with the family and enjoying every moment.  I missed that a lot this year.  I missed him on Thanksgiving. Decorating the house and tree for the holidays.  I miss coming home to a fully decorated house and tree (except for some ornaments for me to hang).  He loved getting the house to look like Christmas.  He loved sur...

In less than one week, the 2 most important dates in my life happen. November 9th, 2010. Olivia Marie Patrick Blessing was born at 2:50am at 7lbs 13oz and 19.5" in Fond du Lac, WI.  Notice the time she was born at?  2: 50 am? It was a perfect day.  I had the support of my mom and sister-in-law Shauna in the delivery room and family ready to help. On Monday at 1pm, Dad stopped by for his almost daily "check in" on me.  I was laying on the couch, because I wasn't feeling the best after lunch.  I sat up and that's when my water started to break.  I called Shauna to ask her if it was really happening and then called my doctor.  They advised me to come right on up to Labor and Delivery to check in.  My Dad was calmly freaking out at this time, hoping nothing was going to happen until we got to the hospital.  I then proceeded to finish packing last minute items, doing my hair and make up...and of course shaving.  (You moms out...

Waiting... Well, this week I am 39 weeks.  Less than 1 week to go before our baby girl joins this world.  It's going to be one of the best things that has ever happened to me, next to having Patrick in my life.  It will be a bittersweet moment.  I'll be overjoyed to meet her, but her daddy won't be there.  I'm so looking forward to this big event, but so sad about it, too.  Just wish he could be here for it.  He would have been the best dad ever. As many of you know, I'm sometimes an impatient person.  Especially when it comes to vacations, big events, shopping, giving presents, etc.  Well, I consider the birth of our daughter a HUGE event and I can't wait until she arrives.  I thought for sure I would have her by now, but she's also being stubborn, like her mother.  She already has her dad's patience.  I can't wait to see what she looks like.   Until then, I'm just " patiently " waiting. Ripon. A couple of weeks ago...