Goofy looking redhead

I went HERE to get a birth prediction. lol It was silly fun.


"The day you deliver, outside will be fair. Your baby will arrive in the late evening.

After a labor lasting approximately 11 hours, your child, a girl, will be born. Your baby will weigh about 12 pounds, 2 ounces, and will be 20-1/2 inches long. This child will have dark hazel eyes and some auburn hair."


12 pounds!? Ha, I hope not! I thought it was cool that it predicted my child would be born with auburn hair (since our child very well might have this color hair). Have I ever mentioned that Matt's family has red hair and so does mine? Nobody in my immediate family though (my grandad prayed that God wouldn't give him a "goofy looking redhead" when my grandma was pregnant with my dad and it worked, he has black hair). All of my cousins except one have red hair, it comes from my great-grandmother because my aunt and uncle don't have red hair, although my aunt's has a reddish tint and I think my uncle's may have been more red when he was young. 2 of my cousins actually have auburn hair, it's gorgeous. It will be very interesting to see what our child looks like....

Bump and first baby purchase

I had a horrible nightmare last night that my baby was dead at the big ultrasound. :-( For some reason I was so worried last night about that. That happened to my aunt and my mom's cousin, I can't help but think of it sometimes, last night after I went to bed it was on my mind though and then the nightmare didn't help. I guess it all just seems too good to be true. There's no use worrying, but it's hard not to sometimes. I think it will be so much better after I feel movement.

Matt and I went out to dinner when he got home from work and then we went over to BRU and Tar.get to look at baby stuff. He had never been into BRU. We looked at cribs and found one that we might go with HERE. That brand gets pretty good reviews as far as their cribs, but not as great for their dressers. We would like to get the matching dresser/changing table combo (HERE, but in coffee color), but we're not sure. Matt and I talked a lot about spending amounts last night and he really surprised me by saying that he wants everything in our nursery to match and be very nice looking, even if we have to pay extra! lol Obviously we still aren't going to let it get too out of hand (or so we say...), but now I'm thinking that we might just buy a new dresser/changing table to match whatever crib we end up with whether it's this one or not.

And I like THIS bedding set for a girl. It's a little busier than I thought I'd like, but I saw it in person last night and love it. It's also new so I wouldn't have to worry about it being discontinued (that happened to the bedding that SIL had picked out just before her shower). Matt really liked THIS for a boy, but I'm not sure if it's really what I want. lol. Ah!! I can't wait to find out the gender so we can really start making decisions on nursery decor! Only 11 more days.

After reading your replies and seeing the infant car seats and strollers last night we've decided to definitely get an infant car seat, one that will attach into a stroller. Thanks for all of your advice!!!! I really, really appreciate it. Y'all are all I have, I don't have any friends here who are pregnant or have babies to help me out.

Look at the baby bump!! It definitely popped out this week! Jen, you were close with your week 16 prediction. I think it's safe to say that I "started showing" during week 15. Although I guess I did have a little bump last week too. So I don't know, but this week I've noticed my jeans aren't fitting as well (just last week I could still button them, this week, no way).
And we made our first baby purchase last night. :-) The kitties love it (that's Firefly in the picture), but I've kept them off so far. It still has all of its tags and is in the bag with the receipt in a box in the nursery with the few baby things I have where it will safely stay until we start getting the nursery set up. lol! I'm determined to have the nursery completely cleaned out before we start getting the baby stuff out.

16 Weeks

The baby is the size of an avocado. Which really, really makes me want guacamole every time I think about it. I'm amazed that I still can't feel it moving around with it being that long! When did you feel your baby moving for the first time? Also, when is it bad to lay on your back? Lately the only way I can get comfortable at night is by laying on my back (which is weird because for the past 10 years laying on my back is the worst position, it kills my back). I even wake up in the middle of the night laying on my back sometimes. The midwife said that laying on my left side is best, but not to worry about laying on my back or stomach. She said eventually I'll be too big to do that anyway and that then I'll naturally be laying on my side. Anyway, I had just read that it's bad for the baby to lay on your back or stomach after 14 weeks.

The baby has been on my mind a lot lately. I'm starting to get more into the whole pregnancy thing. I've been looking at nursery furniture and even bedding sets. We still haven't bought a single thing for the baby, but I think that tonight we may go to Tar.get and buy a blanket that we both liked a lot. I can't find a link for it online, so I guess I'll have to take a picture of it to show y'all! It's green and yellow, so I it'll work for a boy or girl.

I've discovered that it's very easy to let baby spending get out of control (not that I've started yet, but I can see how other people can get that way!). It's tempting to buy nicer furniture and bedding when the cheaper stuff works just as well (I know that the cheapest stuff isn't that great because it won't last as long or could break, etc). The B.aby Barga.ins book is great, it lists the good quality brands and there are plenty of brands that get great reviews that are hundreds of dollars cheaper than the brands that get the same reviews but may look prettier or have a better name attached. I am starting to change my mind about the Bea.trix Pot.ter theme for a nursery. I'm not good at decorating, I don't enjoy it, I think it will be best to go with a bedding set with matching assesories and that be the end of it instead of choosing plain bedding and then having to find Bea.trix Pot.ter stuff to spiff up everything else. We'll see.

We're just trying to go more on the cheap side, but I have to keep reminding myself of that. I now understand how tempting it is to buy the prettiest stuff and the unnecessary items, etc. Even though we have a savings account for baby spending, we need to use a lot of that to pay the hospital bill (we're going to pay it all up front at once...20% discount if you do that!). We're going to buy an expensive carseat (we already this style and brand picked out although I can't remember exactly which model Matt wants... that's our big splurge) and we're going to buy a new crib and probably new bedding. We're going to try to find a used PnP, stroller, changing table/dresser, and glider. That's it for the big stuff, I don't know what else we'll be getting used or new at this point.

Matt and I aren't expecting anyone to get us anything. I'm sure my parents will probably get a gift and probably some of my other family members, but even then I'm not counting on it. A family friend has offered to throw a small shower for me, so I'll get some gifts there. It's so nice of her to do that!! She also hosted my bridal shower, it was great! I'm going to go ahead and create registries at Tar.get and BRU, but will probably mostly register for smaller stuff. We're going to go ahead and buy all of the large/expensive items ourselves and then will wait until closer to the birth to buy everything else we need. Oh yeah, did you get an infant carseat and a convertible carseat? I read in that book that that's the best thing to do because even the convertible seats aren't the safest for newborns. Just wondering if that's a decision that most people make or if everyone just goes with the convertible seat anyway!

Anyway, I'm just all excited about starting to get stuff, but I'm trying to hold off until we know the gender to start the registry and start seriously considering bedding sets and nursery themes. Only 2 more weeks!! Wow, I feel really weird having talked this much about baby stuff.... I can't explain it... it just feels weird to me to start discussing it. I'm allowed to, I'm 16 weeks pregnant, lol. It just doesn't feel real, even now, like I'm just pretending that I'm pregnant and being silly for looking at baby stuff.

I've been feeling so much better this past week. I haven't been taking naps in the afternoons although I'm still not sleeping as much at night. However, I had 3 nights where I got 8 hours of sleep this week, so nice! The others were only about 5 hours, but at least I'm not feeling sick during the day like I was. I definitely feel more energetic.

I don't have my baby bump picture for 16 weeks since Matt has been out of town so he can't take it for me. He got back at 7:00 this morning, but is at work now. I'll try to get one tonight and then post it tomorrow.

7 Years

Matt and I are celebrating our 7 year dating anniversary! It's also been 3 years since he proposed! Unfortunately he's in California now, but he gets back Thursday morning so we're planning on doing something special after that. :-)

I may have already mentioned this on here, but when Matt asked me out the first time he said then that he wanted our relationship to end in marriage. We had been best friends for almost a year and had known each other for 7 years. I already knew I loved him even though we had never talked about it. For a long time I thought that he liked a friend of mine. However, a couple of weeks before he asked me out he asked if he could escort me to the historical ball that the homeschool group had every year (basically it's a prom). And then there had been a few other times that I suspected he liked me. It was still kind of a surprise that he liked me that much though! We waited a few months to say "I love you" to each other because we didn't want to start saying it until we knew 100% that we were going to stay together and eventually get married and by August of that year, after spending even more time together, we knew for sure.

As for our proposal, Matt was supposed to go out of town on a class trip on March 24, 2006 so he had arranged that we would have our big date when he got back. I made plans to meet my brother and sister for dinner and then they were going to come up and spend the night at my apartment. We said our goodbyes and then that evening after work I drove down to meet Chris and Melissa. I arrived at the Mc.Don.alds and sat down to wait for them and all of a sudden Matt popped up beside me! It turns out his field trip had been canceled at the last minute, he hadn't even known until he went to class that afternoon after we said goodbye. So he offered to take me anywhere I wanted for dinner and he had arranged that my brother and sister would meet us at my apartment later.

We went to a BBQ place and then Matt drove us to a shopping center (which is now 2 minutes down the road from our house!). It was a cute little place with fountains that were all lit up at night. We walked around talking and stopped by the fountains. Matt said he wanted to give me my anniversary gifts. First he pulled out the camera he had just bought me for Valentine's the month before and said that I could use it after he gave me the last gift. Then he pulled out a wad of toilet paper and said I might want to use it after the last gift (I was actually totally confused by this...was it something scary to make me pee my pants!?) and then he pulled out a cell phone, also to use after the next gift. Now at this point it crossed my mind that the next gift could very possibly be THE BIG GIFT. However, I was still kind of confused about the combination of "gifts" he had just given me and I knew that our date scheduled in a few days was still on and it was supposed to be nice, so I figured he would propose then if he was planning on proposing at all (we had already discussed engagements and decided to wait until after he graduated). But sure enough, when he pulled out the next gift he got down on one knee and said, "I hope you'll use this gift forever because I'll love you forever. Will you marry me?" and he opened the box and there was the most beautiful ring EVER! Of course I said yes. :-) It turns out that the camera was for taking pictures after the proposal (duh), the toilet paper was because he couldn't find a tissue and was just in case I cried (definitely would have made more sense if it was a tissue), and the phone was for calling friends and relatives to let them know the good news afterwards. :-)

So needless to say, this day is a big day for us. Our relationship is extra special so we celebrate 2 anniversaries every year. :-)

Now for the pictures!

2002 (Matt was 18, I was 16) - when it all began. A couple of weeks after the ball we volunteered to visit nursing homes to show off our dresses and provide entertainment by dancing. After the nursing homes we went to a shopping center with a beautiful fountain (sound familiar?) and danced. I danced with Matt the whole time (I was SO pleased), although this was a week before he asked me out. For those of you who care, I'm wearing a Civil War style gown (that's me and Matt in the middle, dancing down the line).



2003: The historical ball. This time I wore a Colonial style gown. Yep, it's an authentic pattern. Lots of sewing by hand!



2004: My senior ball. This time around I'm wearing a Renaissance style dress although it's hard to see...this is the only picture I have on my computer of that ball.


*Update: 2005: We weren't doing anything special, but was close to March of that year and we were in love (that's special!). Wow....I'm so mushy today!


2006: Engaged!

2007: Trip to the mountains for my Spring Break.


2008: NYC trip (cold!)

Picture tag

Crysbena tagged me! This was so fun, thanks!

Here are the rules:
1. Find your sixth picture folder and in that folder, the sixth picture.
2. Post it on your blog with some of the background of the picture.
3. Tag four others and leave a comment on their blog to let them know they’ve been tagged.



This is me Christmas Day 2006, modeling some of Matt's boxers. lol! They aren't Christmas boxers even though they are red and green. We had just returned home from our honeymoon cruise early that morning which explains the bags on the floor behind me. I remember being so rushed that morning because we had to get up after only a few hours of sleep to go see my grandparents before they left. Don't ask me why we took time out to do this!

I can't begin to choose only 4 people to tag! So if you want to do this go ahead, I'd love to see everyone's picture. :-)

Spring

Yay, it's the first day of Spring! I love the Google homepage today - so cute.

Matt left me the cutest video message on our camera. I noticed that it was sitting on the keyboard when I came into the office so I figured he had taken a picture of the kitties or something and wanted me to see it. So I turned it on and there was a video from him saying he loved me and to have a good day...Aww!

15 Weeks

15 weeks! Baby is the size of an apple or orange. I think that I may have an official bump now. My clothes still fit the same, but I've noticed that it's harder to suck in the past week and that there's definitely always a firm bump.

I just found out that another friend of mine from high school is pregnant! That makes 3 that are due in Sept and Oct. Too bad none of them live here though. I don't know anyone who lives here that is pregnant.

I'm still tired all the time, but I've been feeling better overall this past week. Of course, I've had several nights of good sleep. However, I'm still only sleeping 8 hours a night maximum, I don't think my body has really caught up from the many nights of only getting 5 hours. Did I mention last week that my midwife said I could take medications that cause drowsiness to sleep? I am against drugging myself though. So unless I go several nights in a row without sleeping much I won't be taking any although my mom just gave me a bunch of Tyle.nol PM yesterday.

For some reason I'm feeling lonely and kind of down today. I don't know why. I guess it's the first day in awhile that I'm not going out. Monday I had a chiropractor appointment, yesterday I got my hair trimmed and then went to visit with my mom the rest of the afternoon, and over the weekend Matt and I were busy the whole time and went out shopping both days. And Friday I was out with my mom. So anyway, I guess that's what it is. I wish I had a car because I'd go visit my mom again so that we could go out walking. It's a really great day out, but I don't like walking by myself. And right now is especially frustrating because my neighbor got laid off so he's always out in his yard (if it's nice outside).

We don't have much privacy between our yards, so I feel very uncomfortable going outside to sit at our patio table to read and hang out. I had the same problem at our apartment. The first several months we didn't have patio furniture so it was hard to spend time out there. During the summer I bought a patio set with some of my graduation money and was so excited that we could spend the summer months sitting and eating outside. However, right after buying it a man moved next door who was unemployed and smoked. He was ALWAYS outside on his balcony smoking. I couldn't go out because not only would he stare at me, the smoke was really bad. So Matt and I spent the summer inside, not being able to go out and enjoy the balcony (we couldn't even open the doors to let the air flow in because of the awful smell). Now that the weather is nice here and I want to go out I have yet another unemployed man next door who is always outside! At least he doesn't smoke, but it's just really awkward to me. Maybe some women could go and sit and lay out with men around, but I'm not like that at all. I can't even leave the house without this guy seeing me because the only doors to get out are on the side and in the front, in plain view of his yard. I'm looking forward to someday (hopefully soon) having a large patio with a door in the back and a privacy fence to shield it from the neighbor!!!!

Okay, so rant is over and here's the picture:
See the little bump? Ugg..and I just now noticed you can tell my bra is very ill fitting. I had to go up a size, but it's still a little baggy in the cups so sometimes it kind of gapes and sometimes it slips down. *sigh*

What a year

I just realized today that almost exactly a year ago we started TTC. Matt and I were talking about it when I was driving him to work and I couldn't help but smile when I thought about how excited and happy I was about finally TTC back then. But it still makes me sad to think that the happiness only lasted a couple of months, after that it wasn't the same. I always tried to stay hopeful that I would conceive soon, but I also always had in my mind, "I should be this far along, I should be doing this, I should be feeling this..." It isn't nearly the same as TTC before a m/c. It's also crazy to think about everything that's happened in a year. A lot of bad things, but a lot of good things too. At this point I don't say that I wouldn't have changed a thing. A lot of this past year has been a living hell that I wouldn't wish on anyone, no matter how much of a character development it was. On a positive note, I think the best thing that happened was that I became even more aware of what so many other women go through. I feel that I can be even more sympathetic. And that's never a bad thing.

To completely change the subject, we did so much cleaning and organizing this weekend! Matt was amazing, he helped out a lot. I couldn't have done it without him. We completely cleaned up the office, got rid of a lot of stuff that was taking up floor space. For the past month and a half we've had 4 office chairs in there!! Matt received 2 from a giveaway his office held back in January when they got new chairs. I really wanted to get seat covers or cushions before we started using them (because they attract cat hairs more than our other chairs!). So we haven't been using the new ones, the kitties have. We finally went ahead and started using the new ones even though I haven't been able to find seat cushions (we went to 4 different stores looking for them...no luck). Needless to say, the kittens are NOT happy about this change. They liked having their own chairs when we were both at our computers! We also took out the 2 cat beds that were on the floor that the cats never use anymore. What a big difference!

We also bought a new vacuum cleaner. For the past couple of months our old one has gone downhill. It was a cheap one to begin with, more like a dorm room vacuum than a whole house vacuum. The new one was worth every penny. It cleans so much better...so this is what it's like to have really clean floors! We bought some shelves for one of the closets and have been able to straighten up the living room and utility room with the new storage space. Matt cleaned the entire utility room yesterday. Amazing difference! Once again, he got everything off the floors. Even the kitties' food and water is up on the counter in there to get it off the floor.

We still have a lot to do, especially straightening up our bedroom and the nursery, but we're going to get there! It's so encouraging to already have more room and more order. We went to Good.will yesterday and got rid of a lot of stuff that's been sitting around the past couple of months. We had to borrow my sister's SUV to haul it all off! I didn't take before pictures (mainly because I was so embarrassed at the state it was in), but I did take after pictures to show off!

The closet at the end of the hall with the new shelves:


The office:


The kitty space (know what that spray bottle is for? lol And don't ask me why the CDs are on the scratching post too... there's nowhere else to put them so for now that's where they go):



My space (I was in the middle of writing this post when I took the picture):

The utility room (with Firefly in front of the food dishes of course):

Lemon vs Peach

I'm going to prove that lemons around here are smaller than peaches! I'm trying to decide if I should wait until peach season and then buy one of each and take a picture comparing or if I should just buy a lemon now to take a picture of since I think the lemons here are smaller instead of the peaches being bigger. lol! I asked Matt which is bigger, a lemon or a peach, and he said peach. I'm not the only one! Oh yeah, and I'm thinking of peaches that grow on peach farms, not the kind that grow on trees in our backyard. Those are a lot smaller.

I majorly threw up for the first time last night. That makes 3 times total since getting pregnant, and it was definitely the worst! The first two times weren't all that bad since I had an empty stomach. Yesterday I ate Mexican for lunch and dinner, stuffed myself at dinner, and then ate a lot of chocolate frosty. Yep...

I'm determined to do some organizing today. I want Matt and I to go buy some shelves and drawers and stuff and get to work! I'm ready for this house to be a HOME to me. I want it to be like our apartment that was so easy to keep clean. Our office at the apartment was always cluttered and the bedroom was sometimes cluttered (I had to go through and clean it every few weeks to get stuff off the dresser tops), but here the office, bedroom, and all the other rooms are super cluttered. I'm ready to just start throwing things away. If we haven't used it in the past couple of months it's going in the trash! That's a big step for this pack rat...

So anyway, I better stop procrastinating and get to work!

Names

Thinking of the gender and having the big ultrasound in sight has made me start thinking of names more than ever. Matt and I have been talking about names for years, but have started seriously considering them the past couple of weeks. We have a boy's name picked out, but I'm not going to share it yet. I will right away if we find out we're having a boy. :-) No reason to start confusing people by announcing a bunch of names. If you really want to know I can email or PM you, it's not like it's a huge secret or anything. I just don't feel like announcing a name that might not be used.

Girl names, on the other hand, are very, very hard for us! I would like to have one settled on before we find out the gender so that if it is a girl we'll have a name right away, but I'm beginning to think that if it's a girl we may not have a firm decision until closer to the birth! Also, I'm trying not to get too "into" figuring out a name since we may not even have to worry about it if we have a boy. I'm a huge planner and I like to have everything figured out ahead of time, so it's hard to think that we won't have a name for each gender picked out before the ultrasound like I had always thought we would. I know, I know, it doesn't really matter, there's plenty of time, but that's just the way I am!

I've decided to post a list of girl names that we're considering so that you can vote (the button to the list is on the sidebar...it says Baby Names). It looks like we won't be adding to the list, but we just might! I've already put the list on my message board signature for the baby name message board I've been visiting and a friend of mine who has been helping me out with names said there's already a lot of votes. So I figure it can't hurt to have people who are actually close to me give their opinion! I'll never know if you like the names or not, so it won't hurt my feelings. I'd also love to hear your positive opinions about any of the names that you particularly like. :-) And if you have any suggestions, feel free to share, but don't be hurt if they aren't added to the list! Matt is very picky about names (he already has a favorite on this list and doesn't feel the need to even consider any other names...ugg! frustrating man!) so that is the reason this list isn't any bigger. lol Maybe that's a good thing because there's already a lot of names on there!

I'll probably check the votes this weekend. I want to involve my family in the baby name process, so I hope we can get together with them on Saturday to discuss it. Maybe their opinions and the votes will make a difference, maybe not, who knows! But I want my family to like the names we have picked out since we see them so much. My mom was going to name me Sarah or Bethany, but her parents hated both names and so she decided to make them happy and not use either. Boy am I glad!! I like my name a lot better than those (they are pretty, I just don't think they fit me at all). Of course, I guess if I had ended up as Sarah or Bethany I'd be SO glad I wasn't named Andrea instead. ;-)

Anyway, I love looking at names and seeing what other women have picked out, so I'm excited to share this with y'all! I like unique names, but not TOO out there. I would prefer to never meet another girl the same age as my daughter with the same name. However, Matt likes more common names. As a matter of fact, Isabella is his #1 favorite, but it's too popular for my tastes. I love seeing the SS.A's list of names and it's too bad that they won't publish 2008's names until May because I'm curious to see how much the names we're considering have risen/fallen in rank.

14 Weeks & 3rd appointment

So today I'm 14 weeks! My baby is the size of a lemon (I thought lemons were smaller than peaches...I feel like my baby has shrunk. I don't know what kind of peaches the people who make these size charts up are eating...or maybe they eat giant lemons...) and is moving around a lot, but I can't feel it now. I guess that's something to look forward to in the coming weeks! I'm still not showing, as a matter of fact, I think my "bump" got smaller! lol Maybe because my baby went from the size of a real peach to a lemon. I was probably still bloated the past few weeks but thought I wasn't. I can still fit into my jeans. I can button them, but it's very, very uncomfortable if I sit down or bend over! I still wear the belly band, but lately I've taken to looping a pony tail holder around the button and through the button hole to hold the button together. It still gives me some extra room, but I don't have to wear that tight belly band. It feels just like normal!

I had my third prenatal appointment today. Everything is going great! I heard the heartbeat again!! :-) She found it no problem and it was so loud and strong sounding! Much clearer and louder than last time (when I was 10 weeks). Darn, I just realized I forgot to ask what the heart rate was. I was so distracted by the wonder of it and Matt and I were both amazed that it was so much louder and clearer that that was what we were talking about right after. We've seen a different midwife each time, but I think I liked this weeks the best so far. We still have to meet one or two more and then I will start requesting to see my favorite and request her for delivery. Obviously if she isn't available I will have one of the others deliver, but at least I get a first choice.

They took a urine sample and I could.not.pee. It was so awful, trying to go when I couldn't and knowing they were waiting on me out there. I managed to get a little bit out and that was enough for the nurse to do whatever she needed to do thankfully! They didn't take a sample last time, now I know that I should drink more on the mornings I have appointments. I gained 2 pounds since my last appointment, which makes my weight gain so far...2 pounds. The nurse seemed to think that was great, the midwife didn't comment on it and I didn't think to ask.

My BIG ultrasound has been scheduled for April 8! Right now it's scheduled for early in the morning and they have me scheduled to see a male doctor afterwards to go over it. However, I'm going to call and reschedule it later so that I can see a midwife after. If I went in at 7:30 in the morning I could see a midwife, but the 8:30 slot had to go with a doctor. I think we'll just do it later in the morning or even in the afternoon. I don't want to see a doctor, especially a man. That's the reason I'm seeing the midwives at this practice!! I just didn't think to protest when the receptionist scheduled us for that slot (I refused the 7:30 slot...way too early for me, especially if I still have insomnia at that point!). But anyway, it will be on April 8 at some point during the day!!! I'm so excited!!! I'll be 18 weeks exactly then, but the midwife said that will be fine since I'm a little smaller, apparently that makes it easier to see the baby or something. So I'm putting a poll up. Do you think I'm going to have a boy or a girl? vote!

I have to admit, I've been getting some girl vibes. It's not a super strong feeling though. So I won't be surprised if it's a boy, but I'm definitely starting to feel more and more that the baby is a girl. I don't know why, it's just a feeling.

Yesterday I went to Old Navy and actually bought clothes!! I tried to buy things that will work when I start showing too. However, I was disappointed that one of the t-shirts shrank so much that although it fits now, it won't work when I get really big. But I did buy another shirt that is way cute and is baggy and stretchy, so I should be able to wear that over the summer! And I found several other clothes that I will get a little later. They are too baggy for me now, but will fit excellently when I start getting bigger. They also have such a cute maternity section there! I saw the prettiest dress that will fit me now but has a drawstring around the waist so I can also wear it when I have a huge baby bump. :-) But I'm going to wait to see if it goes on sale. I couldn't tell a difference between their maternity tanks and tees and the regular ones. I even compared the tanks. So I just bought regular ones, only $5 each!!

It's still absolutely beautiful weather here. It's supposed to get up to 80 degrees again today! Matt has his first soccer game tonight (last week's was canceled because it was so wet) and I'm planning on going along to watch. If it was cold I wouldn't go, but I'm looking forward to spending time outside this evening. Anyway, I am off to continue proofreading my friend's novel, I want to spend this afternoon outside reading instead of in here on the computer, so I better get some of it done now! I hope you are all having fabulous day!!!

Big Plans

A week ago it was 30 degrees outside and snow was everywhere. Today it's 80 degrees! As a matter of fact, after I write this I'm going to go sit out in the backyard and read for awhile to enjoy the beautiful weather. If I get a tan in the process...well, I won't complain!

It's been 80 since Saturday. Needless to say, that means we've done a lot of yardwork this weekend! Our neighbors have been out too. It's so nice to have things back the way they should be. We've talked more to our neighbors this weekend than we have since back in October! I love our little community. We live in a huge neighborhood, but our little section is very friendly and social. We're always out working in our yards (our house and the houses around us have the best looking yards on the street!) and so we talk to each other a lot. I hate that the vehicle traffic is so busy in front of our house, but it's also nice that the pedestrian traffic is busy. We just live in a busy section, I guess that's good and bad. It is sometimes annoying when we're trying to get serious work done and keep getting interupted, but I'd rather that happen than live in a place where nobody talks to each other.

We chopped down the pump (also known as pompous or pampas) grass in our backyard (remember my post on pump grass on my old blog?). It already looks better even though we haven't pulled the roots up yet. It's going to be serious work...we're actually going to have to rent a bobcat to dig them up. We had 10 of them growing in one huge group. UGG! It's bad enough getting rid of one. We also trimmed all of the monkey grass so that it will grow back looking nice and fresh. We're actually planning on getting rid of a lot of it, but we're going to give some to our neighbors and my MIL, so we still trimmed it.

Before:

After: (it will look much better once we get rid of the roots and plant grass there!
We have started designing our new patio for the backyard! Right now the "patio" is awful looking. The people who lived here before (the original owners) must have owned a brick factory or something! There are bricks EVERYWHERE. It's very unorganized and haphazard. We're going to use the same bricks, but we're going to make it look much nicer, like a real patio. We're going to level out the patio area and place the bricks close together. Right now there's all of this white gravel all over the place, so we need to scrape that up and get rid of it. We went around counting bricks yesterday. It was hilarious!! We wandered all over the yard and kept finding more and more bricks, some out in the back of the yard under the trees, some buried in the flowerbeds, some randomly stacked in corners of the yard. We have 102 18"x18" bricks, countless regular sized bricks (at least 300, but we keep discovering more and more buried under plants and stuff, so I imagine we'll find more as we keep working on the flowerbeds), 39 12"x12" bricks, and 17 10"x10". We also have a lot in various other sizes, but we aren't going to use those for the patio. Matt found a software where you can make 3D designs for patios and landscape design so we've planned out most of the patio already. I'm going to try to get a screen shot of our plans when he gets home to show y'all! We still need to design a pattern with the various sized bricks. But before we begin that, we need to pull up the many, many bricks in the backyard and dig up the pump grass. After that we can get to work on our new outdoor space!


The patio as it is now. We haven't moved a single one of those bricks (except those 2 you see placed on top of the large bricks). That's how the previous owner placed them. Including those completely messed up looking ones in the lower left corner! What were these people thinking!?

The view of the patio area from the end of our driveway (obviously this picture was taken last fall, before the leaves fell and we cut down the grass). We just tore down that section of the fence (that separates the driveway from the backyard/patio). We're going to replace it with a much nicer looking privacy fence!

The view of the patio from one of our living room windows. We're going to replace this window with a French door that leads out onto the new patio! Obviously we'll get move the AC unit!



The patio that we're going to build is going to end where those large bricks end. Then all of the rest of those oddly placed bricks and gravel are going to be replaced with nice, neat looking grass!

This is the flowerbed between the patio and the house. We're going to cut down the bushes, move the AC unit, and get rid of the flowerbed altogether. In its place we're going to build a raised flowerbed/benches that run the length of the patio.

Ladybug

Congratulations to Mel! She had her beautiful daughter (nicknamed Ladybug) a couple of days ago!! There's pictures on her blog now, so go say congrats and oohh and aahh over her adorable little girl!

Dream on

Twice in the past 2 weeks I've had dreams about my teeth falling out. The first time it wasn't so bad, I woke up like, "eh, weird." The really weird thing is that a friend of mine posted that she had a dream about her teeth falling out on her facebook status that same day! A few years ago we had the exact same dream one night. We must have some sort of connection. We were best friends for awhile in high school, but I haven't talked to her in years (except for some on facebook). I guess we still have similar dreams though!

Then a few nights ago I had another dream about my teeth falling out and it was horrifying. In the dream they kept coming out, all in the back of my mouth. In the dream I thought that at least people couldn't tell that I was missing all of my back teeth. Then my front teeth started hurting and feeling funny and I knew they were the next to go. I felt so helpless knowing they were about to fall out and there was nothing I could do.

So the other day I looked up dream meanings online and apparently a lot of people have these dreams! It can mean anything obviously, but it said the most common meanings (reasons that people are dreaming about them) are apprehensions about appearance, fear of change, feeling powerless, worried about money, etc. The exact reason I think I've been dreaming about it is because since I had my braces taken off (when I was almost 18) my teeth have never stayed straight. For many, many years I had to wear a retainer all night. I just stopped wearing it a few months ago because the top one is cracked (it's a plastic mold retainer) and it bothers me during the night. So my teeth are all slightly out of place (mainly just the bottom ones). Maybe the dream was about my worry that my top front ones will also go out of place?

What are some weird recurring dreams you have? Do you think there's a reason for it (like you are subconsciously thinking about something, God speaking to you, etc) or is it just random? Most of the time I feel like my dreams are random except when they are recurring and stick with me even after I wake up. Then I feel like it must be something that is on my mind, but that I usually don't spend much time thinking about, so it comes out in dreams. Sometimes I feel like maybe it's a "sign," but I'm not so sure that's ever been the case.

13 Weeks

Wow! I just read that my baby is the size of a peach!!! I'm absolutely amazed! I was also amazed to read that its ears are developed enough to hear me when I talk. So awesome! I don't know if I'm in the second trimester now or not. Some things I read say I am and some say it's 14 weeks. I've also heard that 13 and a half weeks is the official second trimester point. Oh well, either way, I'm really close! I have my next prenatal appointment in exactly a week. And then the appointment after that will probably be the big ultrasound! Wow, time has flown by so fast for me!

I think I seem pretty happy go lucky on here, but the truth is, I'm still so scared of something happening. Thankfully I haven't had any major scares so far, just a few times when I have sharp pains in my abdomen for a little while and it freaks me out. I still go and check for blood sometimes. It's kind of random, but suddenly I'll get this feeling of dread and run to the bathroom to see. So far nothing, no spotting or anything. I know that some spotting is normal, but I think it would freak me out so much, even if it was just a little. I think that's why God hasn't allowed that to happen to me, it would upset me and stress me out a lot. I still have a lot more to go, so hopefully everything will continue to go smoothly.

There aren't any new symptoms. I've been sleeping better the past couple of days, which feels amazing. A couple of days ago I was really moody. I think it was Monday. I couldn't help it, I would be sitting there thinking about how I sounded really stupid getting upset at the littlest things, but I would still say mean things and snap at Matt and the kittens. Everything annoyed me that day. I could barely stand the sight of Firefly during the day (I don't know why, she's the cutest thing..well it might have had something to do with the fact that I cleaned that day and there were cat hairs everywhere...mostly hers). Every time I saw her I had horrible urges to toss her out in the snow or shove her off of whatever she was sitting on at the time. Once she walked by me and I tried so hard not to get upset and ended up sighing really loud in exasperation. She stopped walking, turned around, and glared at me! I think she knew I was being mean to her the whole time. Poor baby! After we put her and Serenity in the office for the night my irritation turned to Matt. It was just the weirdest thing. I would apologize for getting annoyed at him and then he'd grin and say it was okay and I would find myself annoyed at him for forgiving me! lol All I can think is that it was hormones. Thankfully I haven't had much of a problem with that lately. No crying or anger or anything. Just that one day...

No bump progression. I still feel kind of tight and uncomfortable in there, but I don't think I've gotten any bigger since 2 weeks ago when I posted a picture. Matt tries to take a picture of me every night, he wants to put them all together in a video at the end. lol It doesn't always work that he gets one every night. I hate them all. I'm always in my pajamas by then. Most of the time I've already washed my face and put on my glasses. My hair is always ugly looking because I've messed it all up putting on my pajamas. Ugg! Once I get a bump I'm going to try to get the pictures in the evening when I'm still wearing nicer clothes although I have to admit that many days I stay in exercise/pajama pants and a sweatshirt all day. :-( So here's my 12w6d picture, I probably look better in this one than I will in tonight's, so I'll go ahead and post it. You can kinda sorta see a little belly sticking out if you look closely. It would help if I wore tighter shirts, but usually I wear baggier t-shirts when I'm not going out.

Honest Scrap

Nity tagged me for the Honest Scrap. Thanks!! She is due 2 weeks before me, I'm so excited for her! :-) She's a really cool person, if you haven't checked her blog out yet, you definitely should.

So here's the rules...

• Choose a minimum of 7 blogs that you find brilliant in content or design.
• Show the 7 winners names and links on your blog, and leave a comment informing them that they were prized with "Honest Scrap." Well, there's no prize, but they can keep the nifty icon.
• List at least 10 honest things about yourself.

As for the 10 honest things....well....

1.) I'm sad/disappointed that my brother isn't coming home for Spring Break at all and may not be coming home for summer break. He's really drifted away from our family the past couple of years. He doesn't even want us to visit him anymore. We used to go up there every fall for a weekend to visit, but this past year he told us not to bother, that he would be "too busy." He's just very independent, I don't think he feels as strongly about family connections as the rest of my family does. It's hard to understand, but I know some people are just like that. lol I guess this is really more about my brother than me, but it's just on my mind, his Spring Break is this week.

2.) I'm allergic to almost all antibiotics. Penicillin, erythromycin, sulfa, and anything related to those. The last time I was sick enough to need an antibiotic (strep throat) the doctor had to get out one of his medical books to find one that would work! Even then he wasn't sure I wouldn't have an allergic reaction since it was distantly related to erythromycin, but thankfully it worked!

3.) Maybe it's just some form of OCD, but germs really bother me, I swear I can feel them on my hands! I carry hand sanitizer in my purse to use when I'm out and touch something. I avoid touching door handles, shopping cart handles, etc, by pulling my sleeves down and using them as a barrier. lol It's a little better in the summer when I don't imagine that every surface has cold and flu germs all over.

4.) I may have already mentioned this on here, but I really hated planning my wedding. Like, I seriously wish we had eloped (my dad offered to pay us to elope!! lol). Of course, planning it may have been better if I had started while I was still in school instead of waiting for summer break, if I hadn't worked full time the first couple of weeks of summer, if I hated gone on vacation for almost 2 weeks, if my ex-best friend and her son hadn't moved in with us and I didn't have to babysit him all day every day, if my cousin hadn't died, if I hadn't taken summer classes, and if I hadn't gone on to be a full time student for the fall semester. Oh, and if I had just plain had more time or decided to get married some time other than fall break when I only had 2 days off school! Oh well, it's over and done with and I was overall happy with the wedding, it was just a very hectic and traumatic time leading up to it and I don't think I'll ever be able to "get over" it!

5.) I've always wanted to adopt (well, since I was about 10 or 11). My parents know a family who are missionaries in China. They run an orphanage and used to send us update letters regularly. They used to talk about some of the girls (most of the children in their orphanage are girls because of China's one child law) and I remember feeling the strongest desire to adopt a girl from China. It has stuck with me ever since and Matt and I have talked about it and have decided to go for it! He also feels strongly about adopting because both of his parents grew up in a children's home. Of course, plans may change, but at this point we want to have 2 children of our own and then a little later in life arrange to adopt at least one child (probably internationally).

6.) I don't like dogs. Some dogs are okay, but most I don't like. (don't kill me!)

7.) I can't count how many times in my life I've "gone along" with my girl friends pretending to be scared of something or obsessed with a guy or confused about something. It's sad, especially when I pretend not to know something or understand something. I just don't like to make people feel uncomfortable so I go along with them sometimes. Obviously I don't do this as much anymore, mainly because most of my friends have grown up and don't act as silly. ;-)

8.) My most hated food is sausage. Sausage on pizza is okay and I bet I could eat the sliced sausage that you fry up in a pan and put on a biscuit, but those thick kinds, like the ones shaped like hot dogs....disgusting. Thankfully those aren't as popular in the south, whew! Most of my bad experiences with them are from visiting up north.

9.) When I was in Indonesia I was so homesick. I spent a lot of time crying and thinking about how much I wished I had never gone. Thankfully the last part of the week was better since we left the city and my dad wasn't working so we could go out and do things all day. Now I regret it and wish I had taken advantage of the trip while I could. I miss it there and want to go back.

10.) I like paying bills "by hand." Automatic payments confuse me, it's hard for me to keep track of what's coming out of our bank account when. I like the control I have when I write out a check and decide when to send it in. It helps me stay organized when it comes to finances. So some bills we have on automatic online payments and the other half I pay with checks (I know it's a waste of paper and that does bother me, but it's worth it to me to stay on top of finances.)


And the 7 brilliant blogs...

Joy - She has 2 blogs and they are both brilliant, but I'm really into her pregnancy blog these days! She's due a month and a half after me after a long, hard TTC journey and I'm so excited for her!! I also love her honesty, especially in her pregnancy blog.

Anne - I love Anne's blog for several reasons. Not only do I love her personality, her children are adorable and she's very artistic. I love seeing her new photos and hearing about her latest purchases and projects!

Becky - Becky never ceases to amaze me! She's been through a rough TTC process, but she keeps going and doesn't let the negative things get her down. Right now she's going through and lifestyle change and I have to say, I'm very impressed and proud of her! Go cheer her on!

Donna - Another one of my artistic friends with cute kids! Seeing and hearing about her boys makes me think about how much fun it would be to have a boy and I love all of her awesome card designs. She sent me a Christmas card and it was amazing! I still have it sitting by my computer!

Valeta - I love this girl's honesty! Her posts my me laugh, cry, sympathize, and go "awww" every time I see her adorable kids! She's a good, loyal friend who just had her 3rd baby, a beautiful boy.

Crysbena - I can't remember how I met her, I think it was through the Nest message boards. We've had a lot in common in the past, good and bad. I'm praying that she will join me in pregnancy soon so we can be together in that as well!

Uhu - I just started going to her blog and don't know her very well, but I feel a connection with her and am enjoying her posts!

Are you excited?

I hear this stupid question every.single.time I announce my pregnancy. Seriously, what do people expect me to answer with? Yesterday Matt's adopted grandma asked me that question after we told her we are having a baby and I had to pause and force myself not to say (in a very sarcastic tone), "No. I'm not excited at all." Even if I wasn't excited, do people honestly think I would say so??? There's only one answer to that question, which makes it completely pointless to ask.

Why do people ask that? If you've asked a pregnant woman that recently, why do you ask it and what response do you expect? Maybe it's just me, but it really bothers me to be asked that. Maybe I'm completely not getting the point of it. Do I not seem at all excited while announcing the news? Do people expect me to bounce up and down and squeal every time we announce it? Do they think that I should ramble on and on about my pregnancy and how excited I am and nothing else? Do they think that this pregnancy wasn't planned? That bothers me the most. I'm young, I look even younger, I know I'll have a lot of people thinking that I'm a teen mother who doesn't know a thing about life, let alone pregnancy and raising babies. So that's hard enough, but I'd hate to think that anyone who even remotely knows me would think that our baby is unplanned. The past few times I've been asked this question I've had a strong urge to say, "We tried to get pregnant for over 10 months and planned when to get pregnant since we got married." But that's really nobody's business but ours, so I never say that, although it seems like that is the "right" answer. I feel like I act just like every woman I've known who has announced her pregnancy. I don't think I talk about it more or less than they do. So does every woman get this question or is it just me? :-(

Not much has been happening. I'm editing/proofreading a friend's novel. That takes up many hours of everyday. I love doing it though! I got together with some friends Thursday night, we're planning on making it a weekly event. I'm pretty happy about that, I'm finally starting to feel social again. Yesterday we visited Matt's grandparents' house. We haven't seen them in almost 2 years (and they only live 30 minutes away!!!!). I've seen both sets of my grandparents more than we've seen his the past couple of years, and one set lives over 18 hours away.

It was the first time I've ever been to their house. It was an interesting experience. It's very interesting because I can see a strong influence of his "grandma" on his mom (and even some on his sister). His mom wasn't really adopted by these people, she got to know them when she was in her early 20s and started working with the grandma. They used to spend more time together though, so I guess her personality and interests rubbed off on MIL. It's just weird, I kind of figured MIL had always had the same personality/hobbies/styles, but it would be too much of a coincidence for her to have always been this way and then happen to meet another lady who is almost the exact same.

It snowed again last night. This is the most it's ever snowed in a single year since I moved here almost 14 years ago. Usually it only snows once or twice, this year it's snowed 3 times. We got about 3 inches, but some places in this area got up to 8 inches. Matt is working from home today.

I've seen a direct correlation to the amount of sleep I get and how I feel as far as nausea goes. I'm still having problems with insomnia, but I'm trying to rest in the afternoons, which helps the sickness in the evenings. Last night I slept pretty well, in spite of getting up twice to go to the bathroom, once when the kitties started scratching on the office door wanting out, and then another time when there was some sort of explosion outside. It was the most bizarre thing. Something woke me up, I guess a noise from outside. Then there was a loud BANG and the house shook and a bright blue light flashed in one of the bedroom windows. Matt had woken up right before too and he looked out and didn't see anything. The power flickered right after it happened, but by the time he got up and tried out the lights it was back on. Weird, huh? This morning he went out and checked the power transmitter box thing in our backyard, but said it looked fine. lol

The car search is ongoing... I made the decision to go ahead and go along with Matt's plan. We'll have to buy another car in a few years anyway when mine starts going, so we can get a nice, long lasting car then that we can use for trips. We've been doing really well paying off loans and debts the past year. It would be great to be debt free by the time the baby gets here and paying off 2 of the 5 loans now will help us get there!

Enough about me, what is up with you!?