Halloween and more...

Holloweeen 2011 was awesome! We The festivities started long before October 31st. First we went an took pictures at a local pumpkin patch! It was amazing to see how much he had grown from last year. Last year he was 6 months old. he wasn't even crawling yet. this year he was running so fast I couldn't get a clear shot. Then we picked out a pumpkin! And I am not a huge fan of carving pumpkins and sammy is too young to help do all the dirty work, so we bought pumpkin decorations that are like Mr. Potato head decor. We got a skele-kin.....HAHAHAHA.

 

Then we went trick or treating for the first time. Sammy was a lion! GRRRR! He did a very good job he liked knocking on doors and ringing door bells. he picked the best candy! One lady gave us a pencil, but that is ok. I dressed like a black cat. next year will be even better! I'm excited!

Now for the And More.... I have Robin's invite all ready to mail out i just need one more address. So I am happy to say everything is on time! Now I have been trying to decide if I want to fix a hot meal for the guests of get a meat and cheese tray. hmmmmm if anyone has andy really good, large, hot dish recipies. Let me know!

My Boys...

I just recently watched a show called My Boys. And let me tell you, it hit a very special place in my heart. SO this Blog is dedicated to My Boys, all of them!

The Definition of my boys have changed over the years. Very early on my boys were my dad and my brother. Although they may have thought I was theirs....that is not true...they were MINE. I take much responsibility in MOLDING them into the man and older man that they are today! They are quite special in my book and if you disagree....well then you're wrong. I can tell they worry about me, and they the feel it is their job (it is) I can always see the pleasantly surprised look on my face when they realize I can take care of myself. And I never hear hurtful things when I do. They made me strong enough to handle my next group of Boys.....

Late in my high school career I was, you might say obsessed, with football. The guys, especially the freshman and sophomores, on the team were my boys. They were so much fun. It was through them I started to understand the MALE jokes and what boys find funny, and why...Farts and boobies sounds simple...but its deeper than that. Kinda. The lessons they taught me will be with me forever. Thanks...

Shreve Hall 6th floor... My Boys...this one's for you. Whenever I think of my time back on the 6th floor I have only good memories! I can never thank Kevin Knipp enough for introducing me to them all. I admit that my nerdiness helped me blend in a lot with this particular group but they accepted me even when i had my girlly moments. They were there when a long term boyfriend broke up with me. they were there when I was sad I was away from home. But truthfully I was rarely sad when I was with them. DOA3, Halo, Pizza, Star Wars, LOTR.... all have a special memory attached to all of you. This chick had NO FEAR when you all were there. I have been keeping up with many of you over fcebook....and I am proud of where all of you are now in life.

Now, My Boys are My husband and my Son....not to mention my 2 male cats...They are my life. All of my Boys have taught me so much....I still learn new things every day thanks to my boys now. They are so special and individual but are similar in many ways to the other boys I've known.  Playing in the dirt, and with legos are amazing and i never knew how interresting those activities could be until I met jesse and sammy. I never know LOVE from boys until I met these two very special boys.

Boys are great! but MY BOYS are awesome!

UPDATE: it's been several years since I wrote this blog but I am happy to add that my group boys has grown by 2. Jacob and James are now my boys, too. My heart is so full. 

The "camera" cake

Well the cake did not turn out as well as I would have hoped. It looks pretty aweful actually. It tasted great though! Here are some Pictures of the experience

i learned a lot though! next time will be loades better. to be honest this was horrible!!

Getting there!!!

I have box full of bridal shower supplies ready to ship to my mom. I bought table clothes and napkins today as well. I'll post a picture. I finished Robin's banner as well.

I really thought I had more to update on but I don't. I will however talk about my big boy now!

Sammy is going to be a Lion for halloween. I bought the costume at Once Upon A Child for $6.50!!! Great deal. He is saying Mamaw and Papaw now. Its pretty cute he shortens it to MoPo now. On a sadder note he got sick for the first time the other night. But i don't think it was the flu I think he may have ate something bad. Poor little guy it was so sad. we are all def excited for the holidays! Sammy's first time trick or treating. Another AWESOME thanksgiving! and christmas at home with the family (also robin's bridal shower).

By the way THANKS to everyone who decided it would be a good idea to let me plan thsi shower. It has made me so very SANE through all that has been happening in my life lately and I could not think of a better person to celebrate than My Robin!

working hard, or hardly working....

Shower update: As I said last time I have center pieces done. Three total. Thank you cards are ready for her. I have a guest book that includes "advice for happy marriage" section for each guest to fill out. I have a few other decorations as well. I have the Invites picked out awaiting ordering. But my big recent creative moment was the "banner" I decided to make. I'm gonna take photos of individual letters (spelling out Robin & Seth) lace a long ribbon through them and use it as a banner. I just ordered print outs of the photos. This is what it will look like... All I have to do now is get plates and cups and that sort of thing. I'm thinking of contacting Robin's mom and asking her to get the sheet cake. I called around to the local bakeries and they didn't have a website where i could view cake designs. So I think if someone local could go and pick out a pretty design I'd feel better about it. Then it could be ordered ahead of time.

When I received the shower package from my good friend Danielle, there was a beautiful angel inside, I thought was for decoration. I have been having a very rough week. We have about 2 whole months before the doctors says we can start trying for baby number 2 again and it just seems like SO far away. And I have a support group of ladies who are also trying to conceive and 3 of them this week have found out that they are pregnant. Well I was looking through the box again and I found a letter that I did not see before from Danielle and in that letter she mentions that the Angel was for me. I cried, and I love it. It is hanging in my bedroom. Thank you, Danielle.

Baby update: You already know some of it. My Ultrasound said that everything was fine. So the doctor said to wait 2 more months then try again. So we are now playing another version of the waiting game.

making progress

I am moving right along with Robin's bridal shower. I have thank you cards, and the center pieces done. I have also picked out the invitations I will use. I am excited about those because I am getting them from Shutterfly.com. I Love that website! and I picked a great photo to put on the invites. AND they are cheeper there than any other place I've seen nice invites. I am so proud of the center pieces as well. I hope she likes how they've turned out. I also have a green one made too.

Thank you Shelly Bean...

So I would like to send out a great big THANK YOU to Danielle "shelly bean" Chrisman for sending me the awesome bridal shower care package. I now have all the thank you cards she will need for the shower and I even have a guest book for it. (and confetti and do-dads and game ideas)

Also I am well on the way to getting the center pieces done. Hopefully I'll have enough to make about 5 pieces! If not I can always make more. I may post pictures when finished I may not. I'm thinking of keeping it a secret so it will be a surprise. I have not decided yet.

Other good news, I think the camera cake might be a go! I found out that the Michael's carries black fondant so I won't have to make my own. Woo hoo!!!! So I'm thinking that in a few weeks I might give it a try. Those pictures I will post!

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Also, in future baby news. All my tests came back normal so now I have to schedule a sonogram and then.....well that is to be announced. But I will most def keep you posted.

Gotta get crackin'

I actually really like blogging. Even though most of them are rather short.

Project number 1: I am anxiously awaiting a package from my friend Danielle (shelly bean). She is sending me some of her supplies and check lists for when she gave my bridal shower. I am excited to get started. So far I have food planned I have a few games. I hope Danielle has more ideas for games. I also have ideas for decorations and center pieces. I'm thinking about gift bags as well. I need to get ahold of Robin's mother so nail down a place. And my mom is willing to accept packages of supplies that I make up here.

Project number 2: camera cake........yeah I'm thinking more and more about having someone else do it I'm just worried I won't be able to do it... But I will try. And, robin, if you read this can you send me the fondant recipe?

In other news all my blood work came back normal. That is the story of my life, normal but not. I have to have the sonogram done in a few weeks and if that is normal I guess we'll go from there.

Just keep swimming...

I went to the doctor about the problems we have been having trying to conceive and they are still waiting on one more test to come back then they will call me. I hate the waiting game. I wish the nurse had just told me the results of the tests that HAD come in. Im going out of my mind

I'm starting graduate school in about 2 weeks but can't seen to get excited about it. Too much other stuff to worry about and keeping my mind occupied. Hopefully after all these tests are in and we get the baby making worked out I'll feel better about classes. Or maybe after classes start I feel better. Who knows?!?!

On a lighter note I have started to plan Robin's bridal shower. I am super excited about it. I have a grand design in my head hope I can make it come true. She deserves that. Projects are good for me. Hope I don't bite off more than I can chew.

New project!

Ok this blog is on a much lighter note than my previous blogs. I have a new project that I would like to acomplish. I want to make a 3D camera cake. I want to do it myself because i don't know anyone professionally who can do this....So if anyone knows of any great cake decorators in the southern Indiana area or central illinois area please let me know incase it doesn't turn out too well. I would love to be able to make one for my best friend Robin for either her bridal shower or her wedding... I don't want it to feed lots of people mostly just for her. so I want it similar to scale. Basically I need to learn how to carve a cake. And how to use fondant. how to use a piping bags. and a number of other things. So you can see how many ways this can go wrong. I'm gonna need lessons and a book and someone who can be on call for advise! so who's in?????/

Holy moly

After a visit with a specialist about my miscarriages we are now playing the waiting game. I am having blood work done, so we are waiting on those results and a few other tests that need to be done in the near future. So really we received no answers so far which doesn't give us much hope of seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. I'm sure we will but it just seems like so far away. I hate waiting. I could just scream. That is all.

Confusing times

Jesse and I have been through a lot this year. Our baby boy turned a year old and we decided to expand our family. Sounds like happy things right? Well it should be. Getting pregnant a second time has been harder than expected. Ergot pregnant on the first try with Samual. No serious complications and the result was a beautiful baby boy. Back in march of this year we found out we were pregnant again and thrilled! I announced it on facebook and started planning. A week later, I lost the baby....all of the sudden....just like that. And if that wasn't hard enough, I felt responsible to call close friends and tell them that we were not expecting anymore. That was the worst. That is why when we got pregnant again the following month we didn't tell anyone. Well I did tell a few people but not near as many. And it's a good thing too because a week later I lost that baby too. The thoughts were how could this be happening to me? What did we do wrong? We stopped trying for a few months to let my body and our emotions heal and this past month decided it was time and got pregnant again. I am apparently very fertile....well the most dreaded outcome occurred....we just had our third miscarriage. I've never felt this low. It like there is nothing to look forward to. I have a doctors appointment to figure out what is wrong, but I just want things to be normal.
I think the saddest part is that whenever we find out about a pregnancy no is excited, everyone is afraid. I think it is sad because when I think back at how happy and excited we were with Sam I will never be able to say that about the next pregnancy because I'm sure everyone will be worried.
Hoping to hear some good news at my doctors appointment.

The love of my life

I love telling the story of how I met my hubby. So I'll take you all the way back to 2005....

In January of 2005 I was starting my second semester at Indiana State University and of the classes I was taking was PE 101. my instructor for this course was, none other than, Jesse Rhoades himself. Iwas single at the time, he was not. He was engaged...but of course that ended. Right after that semester ended I started dating some and he stopped...not that I knew much about him all this I learned later.

While I was in his class and after he would talk about me to his advisor and his friends. I switched majors the next semester and my advisor was his advisor as well. It seemed that every time I had a meeting with him Jesse would show up to tell him something. But I still had no clue. All this I learned later. In the fall of 2006 I was no longer dating anyone and starting my last year at ISU. Jesse was in his last semester of grad school. Now or never I guess... He swooped in and asked me out... Not on a date...just to hang out...after that we hit it off and were officially dating. That was when I learned how deep he was and how long he had noticed me.

I never imagined that someone like him would notice me. But notice he did! In June of 2007 he proposed and in May of 2008 we got married. It was a beautiful ceremony. With a Greek/roman theme, it was beautiful. In April of 2010 I gave birth to our wonderful son. He is the prefect blend of Jesse and myself. He is almost 16 months old going on 30. We have our hands full!

The Background

Hello all! I guess I will start off by telling a little bit about myself. My name is Becky Rhoades, formally Hall, and I am 26 years young or old depending on the day. I have been married for 3+ years to my wonderful husband, Jesse. He truly is 'the bread to my butter, and the breath to my life." He is a worrier, but so am I. We seem, though, to never be worried about the same things. Which is good because we can support each other. I also have a beautiful baby boy (he's not really a baby anymore he is almost 16 months old) named Samual. He is just the cutest and has the greatest laugh EVER! I never realized how much I could love until he came along. My boys are the glue that holds me together on the really rough days. They mean more to me than I could ever express with words.

Back to me! I have a B.S. in exercise physiology and will be starting graduate school this August. I will be attending the University of North Dakota, where my husband is a professor. We moved to ND a year ago, on July 4, 2010, from Illinois. I am originally from a very small town in Indiana called French Lick. (yes, that is where Larry Bird is from.)

north Dakota is a great new adventure for us, but it is truly far from home. I have started this blog in hopes of connecting in a new way to friends and family and even with myself...

...enjoy.