[Texanromaniac]

Hi, my name is Julie and I've been married to my awesome husband Brack for just over 2 1/2 years now. I am 8 1/2 months pregnant with our first child...a little boy named Edmund Robert. We moved into our house in February (after living in apartments up to that point), so I've been having fun getting it fixed up. We live in a small town just up the road from Fort Worth, TX...so though it has a small town feel, we are moments away from the craziness that is the DFW metroplex!!

I grew up as the oldest of seven in a missionary family...spending a chunk of my childhood in Mexico and a chunk of my teen years in Romania...so I speak both Spanish and Romanian. After I headed off to college my family spent several years in Peru and I now have both a SIL and a BIL who are Peruvian (so plenty of chances to practice my Spanish...even if I didn't live in Texas)!!

In college I studied business administration and ASL...neither of which I ended up using...as I have worked off and on since then mostly in retail or as a nanny!! I love working with kids and am already missing my latest nanny charges since my job with them ended in May!! Of course, I'll soon have my hands full with my own little one, so that's okay!!

I have a couple blogs. One grew out of my blog from when I myself spent a year in Romania as a sort of missionary...working with orphans, summer camps, and a youth group and teaching English. It sort of evolved into being just my personal blog where friends and family can keep up with me. You can find it at Random Days. The other blog I started last year and deals more with organizing and living frugally, amongst other things. That one can be found at Essential Simplicity. Both REALLY need to be updated!! I also twitter...you can find me there as @texanromaniac.

Anyway...so that's me. If I think of anything else that seems important to mention I guess I'll come back and post it later. Feel free to ask me anything you'd like as well!! I'm looking forward to getting to know you ladies more as time goes by!!

[Texanromaniac]

I'm back!! My little guy decided to come a few days early and a bit more dramatically than anticipated!! My water broke on the morning of the 13th and by the morning of the 14th I'd been in active labor for 9 hours, I'd only dilated 6cm, and my blood pressure was getting too high...so no quiet little homebirth for me!! I transported to the hospital where they gave me an epidural and pitocin and late that night (after over 24 hours of active labor) my little guy was born!! Since it had been so long since my water broke, they checked his white blood cell count and it was a bit high...so we ended up staying at the hospital thru the afternoon of the 17th so he could do a course of antibiotics. We went home for a grand total of three days before another emergency happened. Evidently my blood pressure was still an issue because the afternoon of the 20th I had an eclamptic seizure...landing myself in the hospital thru the evening of the 23rd!! Needless to say, I am sick of hospitals and glad to be back home and finally getting into a semblance of a routine!! So I'll be around more now that things have quieted down for me!!

[Rattlecake]

Congratulations! It is a few months late, but I hope all is still going well.



Michelle Storms
Mommy to Xavier 10/4/2008
Diaper Cakes...My WAHM Business