New Years Resolution (2013)

Okay so it has been way too long since I have last posted, so I will try to explain everything briefly starting from when I last posted. So as I hope everyone knows by now (from all my sharing on facebook) I have a beautiful little girl names Madison Belle who is almost 8 month! She is a super tall girl with beautiful olive skin tone, and the most precious personality ever (we are still working on figuring out her eye color). We have since moved back from Utah, in July, so about 6 months ago and time as flown by! I do miss it at times, I miss old friends who I had a lot in common with and my good friend who had a baby around the same age as Madison, but we have kept in god touch since the move:) We now live in a cozy apartment home and we are so happy to be living near our family so they can spoil us and more importantly, Madison! IT being the New year and all, I wanted to make a few changes (not like thats cliche at all). I dont want to do the typical "weight loss" "eat less junk food" because I have tried that all before and honestly I am not willing to give up the junk food, though I could stand to exercise more..any way I am getting off topic.. So what is my New Years Resolution? I want to S L O W D O W N. I struggle with this so much because I am always running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get so many things done. I find myself showering and being out of breath because I have to hurry to make sure Madison is ok, which is totally normal I know, but still why just not wait to do that until the hubby gets home and I can actually enjoy it? But even then I still can not remember sometimes if I put shampoo in my hair already or not so its possible I am shampooing twice. So lately, I forcefully tell myself to not worry about the dishes, or the pile of laundry and just tell myself to wait until Madison is napping or until Chad is home. These days I try to get myself to shower longer than 5 minutes and just RELAX. I found myself wanting this as my New Years Resolution because when the day is over I feel so sad that another day has gone by and I have to wait until morning to play with my baby girl again. I do not want to look back and regret not treasuring the moments I had with my children because I was too worried about making everything perfect. NOW, a couple years ago I did not care how messy everything was, in high school my mom wanted to kill me for never keeping my room clean, but ever since I was pregnant and that "nesting" instinct kicked in, it never went away! I just want everything to always be perfectly clean for my baby to feel comfortable and safe, but I do not want it to take away from our time together. Trust me, writing this down I realize I may sound a little dramatic and like one of those silly moms, but I really think all of us moms need to take a step back, and just put all the silly chores to the side and find a better time to do them so that we have time to ourselves and with our kiddos:) on a different note now.. I do have some pretty exciting news about my alopecia, that my hair has finally grown back! I do have a couple of spots that require wearing a little hat over because it is still bald but I have been getting steroid shots (which really hurt) in those spots that help with hair growth! It is funny because 2 years ago when my hair was gone and I went into this same dermatology office they turned me away to get shots because they told me "your hair will probably not grow back because there are no hair folicles visible" but man I showed them! One of my favorite quotes from the Notebook is "science can only go so far, and then there is God" and I believe that 100 percent! It is crazy to look back on one of my posts from a long time ago on this blog and see pictures of myself without hair and to read about where I was in my life back then, thats why I enjoy blogging because its fun to look back on later on:) Now I am done ranting:) Here are some pictures of our little family through the past six months.

Birth Story

I can not believe how long it has been since I have blogged! So much has happened since the last time I wrote, I mean, I had a baby! I do have to warn that this may be an extraordinarily long post! There is so much to fill in on how my pregnancy went but I will just skip to the good stuff and talk about the birth story! SO, I was 4 days past due my due date, which was killer! I seriously thought I was going to be prego FOREVER! I loved being pregnant, and sometimes I miss it, but I really wanted to meet my baby girl! And to make things more frustrating was that my Mom, and Grandma were in town from Colorado to be here in the labor room with us when Madison was born, they arrived here tuesday the 22nd which was Madi's original due date and she didn't come until the 26th of May! So it was a close call because that was the day they left, so they only got a few hours with her. Everyday we thought was the day, I thought what I had been experiencing were contractions, but those were only minor ones to prepare me for what was to come! On Friday morning at 3:45 am I woke up with a sharp pain, one that I have felt before several days before,so not being able to go back to sleep, I came into the living room and sat on the couch, then I got another really sharp pain! So I grabbed a piece of paper and a pen in excitement and starting timing the pains! I had never been so excited to be in so much pain in my life! I soon started to realize these are contractions, and I knew then what everyone meant when they said "when you know, you'll know". The contractions were 6 min apart and it was the kind where you have to stop, hold on to something and take deep breaths because you feel like youre going to fall over when you walk. After about an hour of 6 min apart contractions I called my mom and grandma at the hotel (this was all while Chad was still sleeping, I mentioned I thought I might be having contractions, but he had heard me say that everyday for a week so he wasn't too concerned) and I went over and hung out with them while Chad caught up on sleep since he had to work super early. So after running on 3 hours of sleep, and obviously being in too much pain to go back to sleep we all decided to go on a walk, a very long walk that took up the day! We went to victorias secret, where every woman would ask when I was due, and I really did not want to have any conversations because of how much I was hurting. We also went to the pond and walked, and then my mom made me pace around our apartments lap after lap. So for about 17 hours I had contractions every 6 minutes, and finally at 7:30 pm they were 3-5 min apart! I was in tears by this point, so I called Chad and told him to get his butt home from work and he came racing home! Him and I drove to the hospital and my mom and grandmas were to meet us there after I called them when I was done getting hooked up to Iv's and everything. When I got there they had told me that I was already dilated to 5 cm and 90% effaced! So after that I got my Iv's and epidural, which I must add the IV hurt WAY more than the epidural! Then..I took a nap and waited until it was 4 a.m, the whole family was there and doctor said I was ready to push, and thankfully enough it took only 20 min to push! At 4:21 a.m Saturday May 26th, Madison Belle Bartholomew Was born. She was pink, clean and beautiful when she came into this world, absolutely nothing was wrong, she was perfect. The Nurse said she could tell Madi knew my voice because I was the only one able to calm her down in the hospital when she would cry, she just listened to my voice.

I can not explain the feeling of holding my angel in my arms for the first time, and even now still. I just can't stop staring at her, and it makes me cry happy tears when I imagine how she would be when she grows up. Though I do not want her to grow up, I can not wait for the fun times that I share with her and her daddy!

The Ultimate Gift

I have to start out by saying I have many ways of expressing my gratitude about the many blessings in my life, but it makes it extra special sharing it with all of you.

As I am sure you all know by now, Chad and I are expecting our first beautiful daughter May 2012. Her name is Madison, and I know she will be the most precious angel on this earth. I am so excited, and thrilled to start this new chapter in our lives and to be able to teach her all the rights and wrongs, and to help guide her so she can live, again, in heaven someday. I know that we are not only going to be a blessing to her, but she will be the best thing that has ever happened to us. I know the future holds trials and there will be many learning situations at hand and that will only make us grow stronger as individuals and as a family.

We are hoping to be able to move back to Colorado really soon, so our families can all be close and the new grandma's and grandpa's can come see their little granddaughter whenever they please. Until then she will have a nice cozy little room for her in our apartment.

Madison already has quite the closet full of clothes already! Chad is been so cute and has been buying all these cute little outfits and surprising me by putting them in my stocking. We also just bought the most precious dress from baby gap and I can not wait to put her in it!

Little Madison is now 17 weeks in my belly, almost half way there! She is extremely healthy as far as we could tell from the Quad marker screening, and on our 20 weeks visit we will do an ultrasound showing the 4 chamber of her heart, and all the parts of her brain and we will be able to make sure everything is still going we:) She has a very strong heartbeat at 160 BPM. I am still waiting for those little feet to give me a good ol' kick in the ribs so hopefully I can feel her soon!!

We are Expecting!

Ok! So I can not even describe how good it feels to get it out in the open! I was so excited I just could not wait anymore to share the exciting news! Our baby is due to arrive May 23-25 of 2012! Crazy thing is, is May 23 is my mommas birthday so they may just share the same day:)

I wanted to get the chance to describe to everyone how the process worked.. and no I do not mean the typical way where the cup watered the seed;p I was not able to get pregnant much on my own so it required a lot of time and patience. I had to get on a pill called Chlomid which helped my eggs to mature since mine never did that on their own AKA ovulation. Once the doctor "okayed" the eggs I then had to insert HCG which is a natural pregnancy hormone, but we just gave my body a boost. The injection had to go right into my stomach, but the difficult part about this was that I had to mix the HCG in a little bottle and insert it myself at home, and I had no idea how to do that! But long story short, I overcame it. Then the exciting news came 2 weeks later! I then had to start taking progesterone (which is another natural hormone we produce, my body just needed an extra boost) for 2 months every night before I went to bed and that was just a messy situation.. literally! I am now 13 weeks and everything is going wonderfully besides the morning sickness I have had for the last 2 months!

Both of our families are so excited and can not wait to be grandparents, great grandparents, aunts and uncles!

OH and I can't forget to tell you how I told the daddy to be! So just a short explanation first of why I did it this way.. So when ever I shower we do this little thing where I put a lot of soap on my stomach and then will just write a little note that usually says "I love you" and then I will call Chad in to have him see (sorry if this is to much info lol). So anyways I knew he was coming home from work so I hopped in the shower lathered up my stomach with soap and had "I'm prego" written across so that when he came home to give me a kiss while I was in the shower he looked down and saw what I had written and he was so excited! He was like "Love are you joking?" and kept saying "no no there is no way" haha so it was very cute:)

So that is the wonderful news in a nutshell! We will be having plenty more to share very soon!!!

Crazy Life!

I thought I would do some updating on mine and Chady's CRAZY LIFE! I know it has been forever since I blogged last, and let me just tell you it drive me nuts because I absolutely LOVE blogging!!

So my last blog was about our ACN trip to San Jose, CA! I still can't even begin to tell you how excited I am!! Now we are just waiting for September to come around the corner so we can go to Charlotte, North Carolina.

I Have been working like crazy, but still not as much as most people do so I can't complain too much I suppose haha. I work about 40-50 hours a week depending on the week, and I am never letting a day go by that I am not showing, or telling someone about ACN. I can't even begin to tell you how exhausted I am, because my life is never ending. Chady is working full time as well, at Sears, and just got moved to the appliances department which is like a promotion! haha He also got asked by the owner of RC Willey (a furniture company) to come work for them because he was so impressed with his Sales ability. What can I say I married quit the guy;p I am so proud of him and I both. We only get to hang out with each other starting at 10 p.m so we usually have pretty late nights so we can get some time together.

I also have come to a big self realization about my skin disease. I have never been one to feel sorry for myself, or never been one to ask for others to feel sorry for me as well. I always looked at it as an unfortunate thing, but as an unfortunate thing that could be much worse. What I realized though is that I have been given ann opportunity to bless peoples lives more than I think I realized, and I notice this more and more when people share with me how inspired they are. And I can't help to think to myself "I, inspire you?". I feel so happy and tear up every time someone messages me about how I inspire them, or how I gave them courage, and it is such a warm feeling that makes me smile for hours. I had to share that just because it really made me smile when an RVP (Regional Vice President) of our company was so inspired by me that he said he wanted to share my story with thousands, and that God has a purpose larger than what Chad and I even know, and it just made me so happy. This man is well known in our company and is even recognized in Success from Home Magazine, he always speaks in front of thousands, and just thinking that he wants to share my story was so amazing. So I realized that something I thought was so small, is so big to someone else, and if thats the case than my reason for being Bald has been justified, and I could stay content with being this way forever if it means changing the life of someone else.

OH P.S! They think they found a cure for Alopecia! HAHA pretty cool!

So anyways.. thats our life in a nut shell. We figure work our ever living butts off now, and play later... but not too much later:p Mark my words we will go places, and its just around the corner...

Acn international Event, changed my outlook on life and my future

So as most of you know by now, I was able to finally make it to an International event! And this time i was in San Jose, California (next one in September in Charlotte, North Carolina).

I always heard so many wonderful things about attending this event, that it will "change your life", that "you can't become Senior Vice President without attending these events". No the money does not go to any of my up-line, or to the co-founders the money we pay is for our seat in the arenas which are always sold out. like at least 20, 00 people worth. I didn't fully understand how this event could be SUCH a big deal, until this weekend. I was pumped before, but now not only am I pumped, I know my future will change in only a matter of a few years.

Chad and I have so many goals for ourselves in our lives, and we know all that can be possible with the blood, sweat and tears we put in now, and the life we can have in just a year if we wanted. I know all of this sounds so crazy, and so surreal to most of you. I know most of you think this is still a scam and think to yourself "Oh man, what is Brooke doing she is going to get screwed" but I want you to know that I have yet to be screwed over, I have seen this company work because I am one of them who has made residual income. I now know there is nothing that can stand in my way to keep me from going to the top.

We got the opportunity to listen with billionaire entrepreneur and endorser, Donald Trump who's only company he endorses without personally making money for himself is ACN. I also got to hear from Publisher of Success magazine, Darren Hardy. These are two guys who make a lot of money, but recognize this exceptional opportunity, and after hearing them talk about ACN in such an amazing way I knew this wasn't going anywhere.

So I don't want to write this in hopes for people to maybe wake up, I am writing it in hopes that people will start taking my decisions a little more seriously so I don't have to say "I told you so" in a few years.

Here are some wonderful things I heard from Donald Trump, Darren Hardy, and the co-founders of ACN:
1. Grow personally in every area of your life.
2. With ACN you can have a great professional life, and personal life.
3. Acn will give you residual income, and will bless your residual outcome of your life.
4. This is NOT get rich quick, there is hard work to be done. ANYTHING THAT HAS VALUE DOES NOT COME EASY.
5. There will be disappointments. Somedays I will feel like quitting, somedays I will say I don't know if I can make it, but I will NEVER quit.
6. ACN is a documented company, not a company just starting up hoping we will make it.
7. Fed your faith not your fears

I can't wait to accomplish so much, and build a wonderful life together with my Husband. I love you!