Pregnancy Update

I am 14 weeks pregnant today.  Crazy!  It seems like I've known forever, but yet it seems like it's going so quickly too.  I'm officially in my 2nd trimester :)  I hear this one is the best, so I'm pretty excited about that.  I can't complain too much though.  Pregnancy has been pretty good to me so far, compared to a lot of people I guess.  Fatigue was my major complaint, and that hasn't completely gone away.  It has gotten better, but I still have days where I feel like I'm just counting down the hours til bedtime.  The nausea I was having has mostly subsided.  

I am starting to gain weight.  Yes, I'm aware that this happens, and I'm fine with that!  I'm just in the uncomfortable in-between stage where no one can tell I'm pregnant, but it's obvious I'm gaining weight.  I'm ready for the baby bump!  I did finally break down yesterday and buy a few pairs of stretchy pants.  I also got one of those lap bands that I can wear with my jeans that fit, other than the fact I can't button them.  Hopefully that'll work out for me and get me by for awhile!  

As far as food, I'm not really having weird cravings or aversions.  I don't crave strange foods, but I have been going through different stages where I crave a certain food all of the time for a week or two.  One week it was cottage cheese, one week it was eggs, one week it was grilled cheese sandwiches.  And for aversions...there's only one strange thing: my favorite gum was spearmint flavored.  Suddenly, it doesn't taste the same.  Sad!  I guess it could be a lot worse.

I'm starting to get anxious to know the sex.  I know I have about a month left, but I just want to know.  I've taken some gender prediction tests, and they are pretty split.  Most are saying a boy.  Everyone tells me that I should have an instinct.  At first, my definite instinct was a girl.  I had dreams about my baby girl.  Now that has changed to dreams of my baby boy.  So my instincts aren't really working out for me either.  Guess I'll have to just be patient and wait on the next ultrasound and hope that my baby isn't being modest that day :)

Pregnancy really is a miracle!  The changes my body is going through are unreal.  I've never really known all that a woman's body has to go through.  Like I already said, I have had a great pregnancy overall so I'm not complaining.  It is just really strange to feel my body change so much.  It's also an emotional adjustment.  Again, I think I have been lucky as far as mood swings.  Jimmy might argue, but I really don't think I have been too crazy!  I have gone through every internal emotion though.  That part has also gotten better, but I think there's so much to get used to when you're preparing to be a parent.  A baby will change our lives forever, and I know it will be the greatest thing that has ever happened to us!

My BIG Announcement...

....yep, I'm PREGNANT!  And incredibly relieved that I'm at the stage I can tell people!  Now I'll be able to document all of the different stages through this blog.  I'm going to back up and review everything that's happened since we found out.

We found out on March 21.  I had been at church and a baby shower all day and decided to stop and get some home pregnancy tests since I was late.  Not that I thought I was pregnant at all.  I didn't "feel" pregnant, as if I knew what that "felt" like.  I was just taking the test to rule it out.  And then it took about 4 seconds before a bright blue plus sign showed up...Huh?  I was shocked.  We weren't preventing, but I still had no idea that was coming.  I ran downstairs just holding it out to show Jimmy, who shrugged and said, "like I know what that means".  Really?! Think I'd run down here to show you a negative test?  I had to take a second test to convince myself.  Then we called our parents and my sister, who were all understandably excited!  I think they had all started wondering if our only kids would be 4-legged and furry.

We got confirmation the end of that week when I had my doctor's appointment.  Due date = November 20.  I had already decided I didn't want to tell many people until I was late in my 1st trimester.  So then came the hardest part.  My life had completely changed, and I couldn't even talk about it!  I spent a lot of time reading up on what I could do/not do.

As far as symptoms, I have been very lucky.  I have been exhausted.  A level of tired that I never knew existed.  I felt like I couldn't sleep enough.  I had nausea, but usually minor and at night, so that was convenient.  Once I felt nauseous, I just laid down and usually felt better...and usually fell asleep:)  I have only thrown up 4 times and that was all during my 7th week

I'm now 12 weeks.  I started telling people after my 10 week appointment when my US looked great and my doctor said everything with Baby J looked healthy.  I had to change doctors due to my insurance changing, and had an appointment with my new doctor on Friday.  That was the day that Jimmy and I got to hear the heartbeat for the first time!  I wasn't prepared for that emotion, but hearing that sound was just the sweetest thing I have ever heard!!  Oh, it was precious.  And we did another US and our baby has developed little arm and leg stubs, and it was squirming all around while we watched.  Again, precious!

So now I am just dealing with getting fat :)  I KNOW it's going to happen, and I'm ready for it.  I'm just at that uncomfortable in-between stage where it's not obvious that I'm pregnant at all, but I'm definitely bigger.  And my clothes fit, but not well.  I've even had to do the rubber band trick with a few pairs of my jeans.

And yes, we plan to find out the sex of the baby.  I have to plan things!  It's hard to do these things without knowing the sex.  I'm SOOO ready for this.  We will be thrilled with either sex, and I really have had feelings both ways, so I have no clue at this point.

But we are super excited!  I think I have gone through every emotion possible, which is apparently normal.  I'm ecstatic, I'm scared, I'm nervous, and I'm in love.  But I know that we will be awesome parents.  We have been blessed in many ways, but I know that this beautiful addition to our family is the greatest blessing that God can give us.

Happy Birthday to Griffey

Here comes another sappy dog post!  Today is the day we celebrate Griffey's birthday!  We're not exactly sure what day he was actually born.  Our vet estimated how old he was, so I just picked a birthday for him.  Every dog deserves a birthday :)


The day I met Griffey was very sad.  He was dropped off along with 5 brothers and sisters at the church early one morning.  They were all in terrible shape, covered in fleas and ticks and visibly sick and starving.  Ugh, my heart just broke for these poor puppies!  But Jimmy and I did NOT want another dog.  Cassius was handful enough.  So I quickly devised a plan to get one of them for my parents, who were looking for a dog.  I decided to take one home and take care of him until my parents could get prepared to take him and love him.  It was actually very easy to choose which one I wanted.  Griffey ran up to me and licked my hand and wouldn't leave my side.  And could you really resist these eyes?

Precious!  I brought him home and spent over 2 hours trying to kill all of the fleas and getting them off of him.  He was so exhausted he could barely keep his eyes open.  And who could blame him?  He was completely malnourished.  I just wanted to cry looking at him.  After his bath, he got to meet Cassius, which I was pretty worried about to be honest.  Cassius is so spoiled and does not like sharing attention with anything else.  He didn't really know what to think about Griffey.

They smelled each other out for a few weeks!  Anyway, poor Griffey was SO SICK!  He had almost every type of worm and sickness possible and spent the first 2 months with us on medications.  He never acted sick though.  This dog doesn't show any of the normal sick-dog signs.  He was always still just as active and wagging his tail as much as ever!

He quickly became healthier though and started to bond with Cassius.  We thought having 2 dogs would double our work load, but really it was so much easier for us!  They just keep each other entertained and play constantly.  And although he was tiny compared to Cassius at first, we had a feeling that wouldn't last long!

He soon equaled Cassius in size and was even stronger.  I came home one day to this.  Not that we have the strongest fence ever, but he didn't seem to have a problem tearing right through it.  This hasn't stopped to this day.  He keeps breaking the top of our fence off.  It looks pretty ghetto right now and if anyone has any other suggestions to get this to stop, we'd love to hear them!


Needless to say, my parents did not end up with Griffey because we fell in love with him and couldn't give him up.  But we aren't completely selfish!  One of the other poor puppies needed a home, so Griffey's brother, Yogi, is now living with my parents.  They look like twins!


As much as we were entertained by just having one dog, having two has made our lives so happy!  They play together like brothers should, wrestling and fighting almost all day.  But they have their moments too.  I catch them snuggling sometimes and I know they love each other :)

So happy birthday to Griffey!  Our baby.  Our calm dog.  Our big, strong dog.  Our dog who will lick your face off if you'll let him. We don't know what we'd do without him!

15 years

Today is April 19, 2010, which marks the 15 year anniversary of the OKC Murrah Federal Building Bombing.  I remember that day, fairly vividly.  I was in band at Hollis and we were on our way to Stillwater for a competition.  We drove through OKC not long after the bombing happened.  I remember being on the bus and everyone commenting on the huge cloud of smoke that we could see coming from the downtown area.  Wow, huge fire, we thought.  It was sometime later while we were in Stillwater that our band director delivered the news to us.  I think I was a little too young and naive at the time to understand the magnitude of this event.  It took a few days of watching the news footage and finding out that people I knew were affected by the situation before I really understood how huge this day was.  It seems crazy that it has been 15 years now.  A few years ago, I went through the bombing memorial, and it's a very powerful place.  I learned many details that I'd never known before and it's very moving to go through all the rooms and see the remaining damage.  I think the most moving part is the room with pictures of the 168 victims.  I didn't know any of the people personally, but it's still hard to see all of them and imagine the horrible time their families went through.

I think days like this make me even more grateful for who I have in my life.  I have been so blessed to be surrounded by wonderful family and friends.  It seems like many people I know are dealing right now with the death of a friend or horrible tragedies affecting family members or some other unimaginable issue.  All of this has also made me grateful for those in my life.  I just wish it didn't take tragic events to make me so aware of how precious life really is and how appreciative I should be.

Grandma's 80th Birthday

A few weeks ago, my grandma celebrated her 80th birthday.  Last weekend our family got together to celebrate  with Grandma, her twin, and one of her friends who also had a birthday.  It was great to see everyone and it was Jimmy's first time to meet a lot of our extended family.  We had a great day!

My sister, me, Melody, and Hannah

Me and Mel.  And the lazy eye I developed in EVERY picture that day.

Jimmy and Mel

Cathy, Mom, Grandma, Dorothy, Margaret, and Anita.

Grandma and all the grandkids.

Easter Weekend Recap...a few days late

I can't believe it has taken me so long to post about Easter!  I have been so lazy this last week.  My house has been suffering too.  I must do something about that today.  I also plan to spend some time with my wonderful hubby today on my day off!  I love spending time with him, and I love that I'm married to my best friend.

Ok, here's what I've missed.  Last weekend was my sister's birthday.  She's getting old :)  She came to visit, then we all went to visit my parents and see their new kitchen.  LOVE it!  They remodeled and got new appliances and it looks like an entirely different house.  They're very excited about it, and I can't blame them.  They made us some awesome food for Becca's birthday, and we were pretty laid back other than that.  Our dogs go nuts when we go up there.  Not only do they get to play with Griffey's brother, Yogi, but they have space to run and play.  We also discovered on this trip that Griffey loves to swim.  We've never really had him around water, but he was so cute!  We'd toss something out in the lake and Cassius and Yogi would run until they could stand with their heads above water and stop, but Griffey would just leap in and swim all around.  I loved it.  All three dogs were completely wiped out when we left and spent the next few days sleeping and recuperating.

We came home Saturday to get ready for our big Easter Sunday at church, which went awesome!  We had record attendance and hundreds of salvations.  Everything went great.  Elmo even made an appearance in the kids' area and was a huge hit!  After church, we went to our favorite place, Aja Bleu, to eat some traditional Easter food since I wasn't about to cook a whole feast for just the 2 of us!  Lazy?...maybe.  But it works for us for now :)  Then we wrapped up our Sunday watching Amazing Race (go Jet and Cord!) and our new favorite show, Undercover Boss.  I know I'm a sensitive gal, but it just gets me every time!  Watching bosses learn how to better themselves and help those in their companies who are less fortunate...how can you not love that?

Community Group Fun Night

Have I mentioned how much I love my community group from church?  Well, I do.  I love the time we spend together, the relationships that have formed, the discussions we have, the support and comfort we give each other during rough times, helping each other grow, and making each other better.  I also love our fun nights!  We try to be creative and do fun and different things.  Someone suggested awhile ago that we go to a murder mystery dinner as a group.  After checking on prices, we decided it costs more money than we wanted to spend, which was disappointing.  But we have a very talented writer in our group!  He stepped up and volunteered to write our scripts for us and create our own mystery.  I've never been to a murder mystery dinner, but I'd bet money that ours was so much better!  Thanks, Russell!

It was set in 1985, and we were all connected in some way to a record label.  The label had much success, but there were definitely conflicts amongst all of our characters.  Once our CEO was murdered, it was our job to discover who did it and why.  Bring it on!  I love a good mystery!

Of course, the women won!  Apparently the men started out their discussion picking the right murderer and talked themselves out of it.  Hmmm....too bad!  We also dressed in full 80s gear.  Can I just say that it is scary how many styles from the 80s are coming back?  I'm not exactly a fan.  Here are some pictures from that night:

After we called out our murderer, who was our deputy, we had to use his "handcuffs" on him!

Here are the ladies, aka the winners, with the criminal:

And the men.  The gracious second placers. "Losers" just sounds rude...but they were :)

And me and hubby decked out in some hot fashionable clothes!