BrianandLibby.com

• Not enough sleep but I dealt with it knowing that April 1 was around the corner, and with it, 8+ hours/night
• Got to meet, hold, and snuggle with Jon and Nic’s latest addition, Abi. She is beautiful. Big brother Ben has grown up to be a little sweetheart, and I think he really likes me…and my painted toenails…and my shoes. He showed more interest in them than me, but I know it was kind of a symbolic display of affection.
• 2 Arbonne events + 1 whirlwind trip to Syracuse = awesome progress for my business + lots of fun too
• One week after the Grand Opening of Northway Church Colonie, we had two more rockin’ services this morning. Lots of people = awesome. The Colonie worship band = awesome. The fact that Colonie is the only NC location with food after every service = awesome. Which reminds me, cream puffs = awesome.
• Had lunch plans with great friends from my previous job who I don’t see NEARLY enough. And guess what? They are such awesome friends that they surprised me and came to church at Colonie! Mostly because they wanted to see if I could really sing a Bon Jovi song at church (yes, I was singin some Livin’ on a Prayer this morning). Lunch was a blast.
• The Cheesecake Factory has a Sunday morning/afternoon only brunch menu. On it you will find a breakfast Monte Cristo - basically french toast with breakfast inside, dusted with powdered sugar. Basically like little bites of heaven.
• Saturday night I started to crash around 7pm (from lack of sleep) and I decided to catch up on some DV-R. Two episodes of One Tree Hill later, I am pretty much in tears. As Brian put it, as much as the OC had a glorious start and steady decline, this teenage Soap Opera had a so-so start, but keeps getting more super-awesome with every overly dramatic episode. Check it out on the CW, Tuesday nights.
• Good night

I did not believe the weather when I saw snow predicted for last night…I was wrong. What’s the deal? It’s almost APRIL!!

This weekend marks the end of my March Madness Marathon. I am driving to Syracuse tonight for an Arbonne event, then back to my house for another tomorrow morning. This is the last weekend that I take a whirlwind trip alone…the last week I’m busy every weeknight…you get the idea.

As for April, I have a lot to look forward to. First of all, I plan on sleeping more. I also look forward to three free weekends, a trip to the Newport Coast in Cali with my hubby and lots of good friends, and a little trip for work in Vegas. Not that I’m overly excited about flying into Vegas four months pregnant on a Tuesday, having non-stop meetings and flying back Thursday, but it’s a nice break of routine. Plus, I’ve never been so I want to see what all the hype is about. As far as anything “staying in Vegas,” I fear that the extent of any escapades I may encounter will probably be me sitting in front of a slot machine with ten bucks sipping a shirley temple in a maternity top. Sounds scandalous, I know.

Farewell March. April, I welcome you with open arms. Don’t let me down.

(there are more questions than answers running through my mind today)

Why…

• …does Posh lick the water off my legs every day when I get out of the shower?
• …does my belly button look significantly different every morning?
• …did it take me 23 minutes to drive from exit 9 to exit 8 this morning?
• …do I even bother fighting traffic on the Northway southbound at 7:45 when I could wait 45 minutes and avoid the traffic almost completely?
• …don’t they make some identifying sign or pin for pregnant women who are in between their normal shape/size and the point of obviously showing, so they don’t feel like people think they’re just getting pudgy?
• …do I get so excited when I pick up a wireless signal?
• …do I wait until I fear my electricity will be turned off to sit down and pay bills, even when I feel so much better once I get the checkbook all balanced and the bills all paid?
• …do I have a love/hate relationship with every Facebook notification that comes through my e-mail? I can’t stand them clogging up my inbox but I HAVE to check and see who wrote what on my wall…yadda yadda
• …did Posh bark for 43 minutes at Melissa and Phil’s tonight when she was supposed to be playing with Kona like a good girl?
• …haven’t I cooked dinner since…January 25th?

Who’s got answers for me?

You may have noticed that I skipped week three. There are very good reasons for that. Posh didn’t fare so well at school last week and I was beginning to lose faith in the power of dog school. Fortunately, my faith was restored last night.

For all of you who were losing sleep wondering, Posh is making great strides with the commands wait, come, leave it, stay, and go to bed. Her main weakness is loose leash walking, which means she has no hope for heeling right now, but that’s ok. I learned a valuable lesson last night - all things are possible with food. If she doesn’t perform the command, I just get better food out of my purse. I have everything from plain old dog food to the ultra indulgent beef jerky-ish stuff (her obvious favorite).

By the end of class she pretty much falls asleep on the floor, which makes me realize how under-exercised she is. I suppose that I am too, so hopefully when the weather improves that will change for both of us. In the meantime, I also learned at school that while Posh may not be the smartest (although she’s definitely pulling mostly A’s and B’s), she is definitely being informally voted cutest, softest and most hilarious (I promise - it’s not just me, everyone in class says so)! Aaaaah, she makes her mom so proud.  

• It was so great to have my family in town. I love them all! Brian loves them too, but I did realize that he really needs a son…when the 7 of us ladies were gathered around the kitchen table, and I looked over and saw Brian sitting on the couch - alone - watching basketball.
• Got a phone call Monday morning from Kevin, who was really sick and worried about losing his voice. How could I refuse a night singing with the Malta worship team? (and of course helping him save his voice for Sunday out of the goodness of my heart) It was awesome.
• My neices LOVE Posh…mostly because she is the only person under them on the family totem pole. All I hear when they’re together is “Posh, SIT!” “Posh, NO!” “Poshy, GET DOWN!” They cried when they left her. It was touching.
• Crazy morning today. We left the house with our gas tank already on Empty, but we were confident that we’d make it to church. Besides, we were low on time and had to choose between getting gas for the car or getting food for Colonie. Obviously we chose food. No worries, we made it.
• The Colonie Grand Opening was AWESOME. It was standing room only in the first service and the second was full as well. About a dozen people were added to God’s family in Colonie. And my nervous prayer was answered - that we would not have serious parking, traffic, overflow or fire code issues! God is definitely a God of details for all the OCD people like me!
• After church we headed to the Crowne Plaza for brunch with, who else, the Easter Bunny! We hopped in the car, both got on our phones, and five minutes later I looked at Brian and yelled “we forgot to get gas!” Too late, we started running out at that exact moment.
  • Running out of gas is the worst feeling ever. You wish you could go back in time 5 minutes and be less stupid.
  • It’s surprising how far you can roll on an off ramp when you’re running on momentum alone. Brian has superb rolling skills.
  • God has a funny way of making you stop dead in your tracks when you’re “busy”
  • 5 years of marriage has gotten us a long way. A few years ago, some words might have been exchanged in that situation. Today? We were so exhausted and just didn’t care. I looked at him and said “I totally forgot.” He said “Me too.” We reclined our seats and took a nap and waited for AAA.
  • AAA is awesome and way better than our Liberty Mutual Roadside assistance. They were there in 15 minutes.
• There was this awesome band with this dude who sounded just like Louis Armstrong. I ate breakfast, then lunch, then two desserts. I am still full. 
• Laid down on the couch around 4. Got up around 8. A pretty awesome afternoon overall.
• I miss my family already.
• I’m jealous of anyone who has the day off tomorrow.

This morning before I left my house, I grabbed jeans, a hoodie and some comfy shoes to change into after work for practice in Colonie. When I got to colonie I put on my jeans and hoodie and took out one sneaker…and a different shoe. At this point my feet were shaped like the stilettos I was wearing and I was ok with wearing two different shoes. But they were both right shoes. So I spent the night barefoot. Not a good sign as I reach the half point of my marathon.

But then I got good news. I am now free Friday and Saturday night. Someone is filling in (thank you Faith!) and “running a few miles” (get it? marathon?) for me. This information allows me to regain like 9 hours of my weekend. Nine precious hours…4 by myself (awesome) and 5 with my family (even awesome-er). I am so excited, even though I will spend the “by myself” time cleaning. As a celebration of sorts for these hours I have regained, I think I will go watch television over a bowl of Cheerios. Splendid.

I should have posted this sooner, but I feel like I’m coming upon the end of a marathon here (this is so metaphorical, I have never really experienced a marathon. Does a 5k count?)

After 2 consecutive weekends away, and events 2 Sunday afternoons in a row, I had dog school Monday night, lots of work to do Tuesday night, and a wildly successful (insert sarcasm here) program for work Wednesday night. Right now I’m sitting in the Marriott lobby waiting to present an overview of my business to my Regional Director, which I’m totally not nervous about (again, sarcasm) and tonight I have band practice at Colonie so it’ll be another late night.

At this point, my house looks like pigs have been living there. Brian’s schedule has been equally insane recently and, well, I guess cleaning falls to the bottom of our priority list. I managed to run the dishwasher this morning but that’s really the only progress that’s been made as of late.

Then tomorrow I head straight from work to sound check in Malta for the first of TEN Easter Weekend Services at Northway Church. Get home late, wake up, clean like a madwoman and host my whole awesome family for Easter weekend. Two more services Saturday night in Malta, and then, the BEST way to conclude my marathon - two GRAND OPENING services in Northway Church Colonie! I can’t wait. And the best way to celebrate completing such a feat? Brunch, of course! Brunch with my mom, my sisters, my nieces, friends, and (of course) the Easter Bunny.

What am I doing next week? Honestly, I haven’t even looked past 4pm Sunday. I’ll let you know when I get there.

• …decided to dress nicely since the weather is a little nicer. You know, the wide leg pants with the button down shirt tucked in, so nice because it really makes your waist look small. Very businessy and classy. Except that I found what’s begun hiding under my sweaters in the last couple of weeks. Those pants with the cute little waist? Yeah, the waistband just made a nice indentation between what I now see as my two stomachs. It was not so classy. I kept my coat on all day so I could unbutton the pants. And when I got home, I put the shirt at the back of my closet - I hope to wear it next spring. Anybody who wears an Express XS top is free to have it until then.
• …had some cramping and called the Dr’s office. Guess what? We had our first ultrasound! I really was over it after hearing the heartbeat and ready to wait a couple months to see Baby Howe. But I’m so glad we got one! It was the coolest thing ever. The baby was moving all around, I swear SHE was waving at us (no, we couldn’t tell the sex, I’m just guessing). She has two arms, two legs, two eyes, a nose and a mouth and a brain! She is perfect and she is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. Also, the second most beautiful thing I have ever seen is her daddy beaming while watching the screen and asking the tech about 1,000 questions. It was a lovely afternoon with my family.

Sorry for the delay. Crazy weekend.

• This was a crazy weekend. A crazy AWESOME weekend! I was am so exhausted but I don’t know that I could handle much more excitement.
• Went to an all day Arbonne consultant training in Long Island on Saturday. It was so awesome. I learned a ton and am feeling so motivated. More to come on my new business with Arbonne.
• Chew on this: Your philosophy determines your thinking, which in turn directs your actions, which will determine the results you get, which will shape your lifestyle. I have been chewing on that for a couple days now. When you don’t have the lifestyle you want, do you do what most people do and just change your actions, or do you go all the way back to your philosophy?
• I heart Northway Church Colonie. We had a full house this weekend, and that’s without any kind of promotion or advertising. Next weekend is the grand opening (and a little holiday we call Easter). We’re adding a service and I know God will still fill all the seats for both services.
• It was my first weekend leading the Colonie worship team, and Colonie’s first week with a full Northway worship set and programming. And guess what? Our band rocked, and it was flawless. Not only that, God showed up in a big way. I love this place. Every time I think it can’t get better, it does.
• Had volunteer training after the service and about HALF the church came. How awesome to be starting a church where half of the people who attend are committed to serving. Pretty good sign if you ask me!
• I did not get to sleep in at all this weekend. Need to go catch up.
• Check out Brian’s blog for the most exciting reality contest of the year, the “First Ever (and hopefully not annual) Name the Howe Baby Contest.” It’s true - we really are that desperate. Please help us.

Or hear it, actually, is what we’re looking forward to doing today! For some strange reason I hesitate to even write this because deep down I have this lingering fear that something will be wrong, but Brian and I are headed out the door to our 12 week appt, where we should be able to hear the baby’s heartbeat! This will be a huge milestone - letting me know I’m officially through the first trimester, and that the risk of bad things happening is, statistically, very low at this point.

I’m also looking forward to this because, strangely enough, I still need to know that this is real. I guess the constant headaches, month and a half of nausea, tightness around the waist of my pants, and getting up to pee in the middle of the night hasn’t convinced me yet haha.

In other news, so as not to completely neglect Posh (yet), she got a haircut and it looks like we have a different dog. Or half of the dog we had before. With all that weight lifted, she has a lot more energy. Maybe that’s just from being cooped up at the groomers all day yesterday. I think we need to be a little more consistent with her haircuts! We have much to learn about parenting…