You'll have to excuse me...

Oh my goodness, it has been 2 and a half months since I last posted.

I posted last on 11/7 so I'll just outline the important things that have happened since then. Gehrig and I went home to NY to visit friends and family on 11/14, and stayed for a week. eric had a conference in Dallas that week so I decided to go home, where I would have help with Gehrig, instead of staying here in Vegas by myself. It was the 1st time G flew and the 1st time everyone back home got to see him in person, including my brother, my aunts, uncles, and cousins, and my friends. We had a blast. My best friend Stephanie got me a room at the Springhill Suites by Marriott because her mother in law works for Marriott, so we had a suite, which was great, 2 queen beds, a seperate living room, little kitchenette, and bathroom. Then Stephanie brought to the suite before I even got in town a pack and play, an exersaucer, a bouncy seat, toys and all kinds of stuff for G so that I didn't have to carry everything we own (like I am doing later today when we leave for Curacao). We got to see Lisa(Koury) and her little boy Matthew, she is also expecting another boy any day now, Mr. Koury, Michelle(Gruhn), Kate and Chloe(it was the 1st time I ever saw Chloe). We saw Stephanie(Stiles), Roy, Matthew(my godson), Andrew, and Isabella(Steph's daughter, and Gehrig's future wife). It was my first time seeing Isabella and she is almost 2. Isn't that dispicable? I have been undergoing fertility treatments so long, then was in a high risk pregnancy, then almost died from delivery, that it took me almost 2 years to see her in person, of course I get pictures emailed to me and sent in the mail. She is a beautiful little girl with brown curly hair and big brown eyes, truly a pretty girl. I love to spoil her with cute clothes! She is my daughter by proxy!! When I go to Gymboree, I get Gehrig lots of stuff, but I also have to look at the cute girl stuff and then buy it all for Bella!!

My girlfriend Michelle had everyone over for pizza Sunday night, so it would be easier for me to see everyone instead of me driving to each person's house. It is so bizarre for all of us to be together just like we have always been since high school, only we're all married, with children, and with our own big beautiful homes. I really love the fact that I am still so close with so many people from grade school, middle and high school. I really feel very blessed that I have such great friends, they're really all more like family to me than just friends, we've been through so much together. As I sat in Mr' Koury's family room with Lisa, and we gossiped and chit chatted about this and that, I really felt a huge deja vu come over me. I thought to myself, "how many times in my lifetime have I sat in exactly this spot, doing exactly this?". We started when we were in 6th grade, so maybe 11 years old. Now we're 34 and she's pregnant with her 2nd, and has a toddler, and I had my 5 month old with me. We got to spend almost every day at least partially together, we'd go to lunch or spend the morning or afternoon together before I would go to my parents' house or to Stephanie's.

I got to go to the outlets in Lee, MA on my 1st day in town. before I went home, I called my sister-in-law and concocted a scheme to surprise my in-laws. Sarah got them to go to the outlets on Sunday under the ruse of she was taking her mom shopping for her upcoming birthday on 11/26. My mother-in-law, Jill, loves to shop so she didn't pass this up. I texted Sarah when we got to the outlets, and told her we were sitting in the very back of the food court, at a table across from subway. So she and my mother and father in law and her husband all walked to the back of the food court(again, Sarah just lied and said she needed to use the restroom before they all ate, and they all decided they needed to use the restrooms too). Once she saw me, my mom, Stephanie, Isabella and Gehrig sitting at a table, she said "oh, hold on, I see someone I know", and turned in towards our table. I was turned with my back to them and Gehrig was hidden. Stephanie could mumble to me that they were headed right for us. So I turned around and my mother-in-law saw me, then Gehrig(who, let's be honest, she was most excited about seeing), and she screamed!! It was such a great reaction! She actually started crying when she saw Gehrig. My in-laws came to Las Vegas when G was 6 weeks old in July, and they hadn't seen him since. So we all ate, then I let them take gehrig for the afternoon while my mom, Steph, Bella and I went and did some Christmas shopping. It gave my in-laws, and Sarah and Anthony a chance to have Gehrig all to themselves for a while and gave me a free afternoon.

Then we were supposed to have dinner on Monday night at my parents house and they were having my aunts over, but my Uncle Kevin got sick and got admitted to Albany Medical Center so that didn't work out for us. My Aunt Linda only got to see Gehrig on Sunday very briefly, but she fell in love with him!! On Thursday I went to meet Julie at the newly renovated(and beautiful) Colonie Center, and we had lunch at Cheesecake Factory. It was her 1st time seeing Gehrig and the 1st time she and I had seen each other in almost 2 years. I just can't believe how fast time flies by. It is so sad to me that that amount of time goes by between the last time I saw a friend or I came home and now.

Julie and I got to have a leisurely lunch and do some shopping, then my mom met us so she could take G and babysit him at my hotel, while I went out to dinner at the Barnsider with my girlfriends, Stephanie, Michelle, Julie and Lisa. It was so fun, we talked about our crazy single days when we all used to go out so much!!

I started to feel sick that night, and the next day it was time for us to go back to Vegas. We had breakfast with my brother and mom, then they took us to the airport, and we left. When we landed, we waited for an hour at the airport for Eric because he got in that same night. By the time we got home, I was really sick with a horrible cold. Thank God Eric had the next 3 days off, because I went to bed right when I got in the door, and never got out of bed(besides to go to the bathroom) until Monday night!! I had a very bad cold, horrible sore throat, sinus pressure, headache, horrible stuffy nose. That same Monday that I was getting a TINY bit better, Gehrig started coughing up a storm. Then Eric got it the next day. Poor Eric, he had just taken care of G for 3 straight days while I stayed in bed for literally 72 hours, and when he got sick he had to go back to work, so he didn't get to rest or just try to get better. Gehrig was horrible, coughing all night long for like 3 straight nights, so stuffy, I would suction his nose and get so much stuff out that it was disgusting!! All in all, we had the cold for almost 2 weeks.

That ran into Thanksgiving, which Eric worked and G and I went to our friend Donna's house to celebrate with her family. It was lovely and delicious. I missed my family and friends back east but we did ok.

I usually go shopping every Black Friday. I have been doing this since I was a little girl and my Grandma Schweigert used to take me every year to help me get my holiday shopping done for my mom, dad, and brother, and also so she could buy me my Christmas present, which she let me pick out every year. Even after my Grandma died, I still always went, to honor her because she enjoyed it so much, and I knew she'd want me to still go and still love it. She'd be so proud of me for getting great bargains!! This year, however, I didn't go for the 1st time in probably 20 years(since I was 14), because we were still not feeling 100% better.

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, G and I ventured out to Target in the late afternoon at like 4 PM. On my way home after Target, at around 6 PM, I started to have these God awful belly pains. They came out of nowhere and because I am an expert at knowing whether belly pain is something very serious or not(because I have had 22 open abdominal surgeries), I knew that these pains were not good and that there was likely something extremely wrong.

I will continue this when I get back(in 10 days). We are leaving for vacation in about 3 hours and I have to go get some sleep or I am not going to be much help to Eric or Gehrig. Please check back to find out what happened to me with the belly pains. I'll write again on February 2nd, for now we're going to the Caribbean.