Randomness...

I had another Dr. appointment yesterday... Nothing too exciting, but I have now reached to point were I get to go every 2 weeks instead of every 4 weeks. Lucky me - more Dr. appointments. :) My labs were all good this last visit and my glucose tolerance test came back negative so I'm happy with that. My feet are still terribly swollen by the end of a few days of work and my hands are starting to give me trouble... A few years ago, i had never heard of carpal-tunnel in relation to pregnancy, but it seems to be extremely common! As long as it goes away after the baby is born, then I can deal with it. It's starting to make work more difficult though. My finger tips (especially on my right hand - and I'm right handed!) are numb and my hands have lost a bit of strength and are starting to ache. Hopefully a good set of wrist braces will help... Otherwise all things pregnancy are going well - "mini me" seems to be enjoying more lengthy stretches lately - to which I respond with a poke or 2 and a "hey! go back!" To which Kris in tern replies, "Hey - no poking the baby!"

We went to Starbucks tonight to do our "prepping" for home-group tomorrow night... Haven't been in a while and it was a nice little place to read and study. We've spent most of this year studying Hybel's book "Becoming a Contagious Christian" and we're almost finished with it. We're getting tired of it now and feeling ready to move on to the next thing so I'm happy that we're almost done with the book! We have a couple new couples in our group this year that have been a great addition. And others that we've been able to see really grow over the last couple years - its been so exciting and a blessing to watch. On a side note and without saying to much... we sometimes struggle with questioning how much to "follow up" with some people. Knowing that its our responsibility to "Shepherd" our little group, we sometimes wonder when we are pushing too hard and when we sometimes don't reach out enough - Some people its very hard to tell where they are at... Just a little something that I've been really contemplating lately...

Six Month Pic...

I wonder... Can i get away with posting just a really small thumbnail of this shot? Or... Maybe I can just post it somewhere else and link to it - ...then hope that nobody notices the link...! Or, Maybe no one would even notice if I (coming from a house of photographers - where there are at least 5 cameras that I can think of off the top of my head...) just never posted another "pregnancy" shot...

Oh, well, ...here it is - a little late... My 6 month shot... Actually its more like 6 1/2 months, but I forgot to get the picture any sooner. I look a little washed out next to the lovely green, but then - I'm not entirely in love with my "looks" right now anyway! :) The happy times for me are not the looking in the mirror times now... :) But what i do enjoy is the times in the evening when I'm sitting on the couch relaxing and my belly starts moving around - so funny looking! And so much fun to watch!
Sadly, my hands and feet have already been swelling for about a month now... :( I had to take my wedding rings off and put them in the safe. So i bought a "fake" ring to wear for now. Sometimes after a few days in a row of work my feet look like horrid balloons... I think they scared Kris the first time he had to see them. Oh, well - its a good excuse to have to relax and put my feet up! Other than that, my arms fall asleep all the time at night which wakes me up - I can live with it though. It bothers me more when my fingers go numb in the middle of the day for no apparent reason which seems to be happening more and more. I'm not complaining - more just posting so that I will remember next time what happened this time. I can deal - I just keep hoping and praying that I'll be able to keep up with working till the baby comes...

Crib...

And here is a picture of the lovely crib (and mattress!) that my in-laws bought for us!! Mom and Kenny came over Sunday afternoon to help us put it together! I love it - just need some bedding to make it complete! Funny how having a crib set up in a bedroom in your house puts a little sense of reality in your head! Reality can now sink in - as if it hasn't been doing that for the last 6 1/2 months! But now I look at the crib and realize that there will be a little baby in it soon - scary part is that little baby will be mine! That's a little more responsibility than with all the other little babies I've taken care of! Makes one ever so excited and just a little bit nervous... Hmmm... I become more and more contemplative as the days go on...

And the Work Continues...

Then, on Fri, we continued our labors... and vwah-laah... a beautiful room! Actually, the color didn't come out very accurately in the picures. Its' really a bit brighter! You know how you go and pick out that lovely little color swatch and picture in your head what it will look like? Then you get home with the paint and it just isn't what you thought??? Yeah... Kinda what happened... But I still love it and am very happy with the results! :) I was going for a pale sage green color - its just a little brighter! Amy and I decided that its both energizing and still peaceful. (How can it be both? Not sure, but it is!) Anyway, since we are going with black furniture, I think that they will compliment each other nicely.



I have since scrapped all the extra paint off the windows and Kris replaced all the outlets and light switch. Oh, and Morgan hung the new light fixture - tallness made it easier for him! All in all it looks like a whole new room! Big change from the drab old paint and stained walls! Thanks again to all the hard work of Morgan and Amy and Hubby! We're getting closer every day to being ready for a baby!

WAIT!!! We're having a baby????? Wow - still sounds crazy sometimes... How can this be? :)

Prepping the Baby's Room

Morgan and Amy came over Tues and Fri last week to help me prep and paint the baby's room! I spent Monday night spackling, wood filling, and sanding... oh, yeah, - and cleaning up my mess. Then on Tuesday they came over and we painted the ceiling and all the trim work... Er... I mean - Morgan did most of it! Thanks Morgan!!!

Valentine's Day...

I just remembered that I forgot to ever post a picture of the beautiful gift that my Honey sent to me at work the day before Valentine's Day! It was so sweet and I was so surprised. :) I happened to be sitting at the nurses station so I answered the phone when the front desk called and said there were flowers down there for me... Somehow I still thought that it was a delivery for one of my patients. Silly me. What a wonderful thing. Honey - thanks for always being so wonderful to me!

Afghan!

So about two and a half years ago - I was newly married, it was winter, I didn't seem to have enough to do and wasn't sure how to fill my time... That has changed. But at the time, I was looking for something to do and decided to start crocheting an afghan! Several times since then I've wondered why on earth I started such a thing and almost decided to make it much smaller blanket a few times. But, i couldn't... cause I promised my Hubby that I'd make it for him! Its been one of those things that I'll work on for a while, then forget about it for a while... Well, a few weeks ago, I finally realized that if I didn't get it finished before baby comes, then I'd probably never get it done! So I've worked feverishly for the last few weeks and here it is!!!

The finished product...!!!
And here is an "up close" view...
In other news... We'll be painting the baby's room this week! Morgan is coming over to help me a couple days this week. Kris' Mom bought us our crib already - God bless her! Now we need to get the room ready so that we can put the crib together. She told us the other day that she wanted to buy the crib and she and Kenny dropped it off Sat. morning! Then I got home from work and found a brand new mattress for it in the garage as well! What a blessing Kris' parents are!!!

I'll have to get another "belly" pic up this week - I've just passed the 6 month mark. Already I feel huge - I can't imagine what I'll look like in another 2 1/2 months! This afternoon I sat on the couch for a while and just watched my belly jump around - so funny looking. I feel like an alien! She doesn't kick all the much, but it sure is getting stronger when she does!!!

Five Months...

Well - didn't have a belly at all till about a week and half ago - now I do. Here it is - my 5 month shot! I forgot to smile for the picture - don't worry, I really am happy!

Its A GIRL!!!!!!

We had an ultrasound this morning and sure enough... ITS A GIRL!!! We're really excited! We would be just as happy either way, but we were hoping just a little bit for a girl! :) The ultrasound was awesome! Kris came with me and we were both amazed by how much we could see and how easy it was to make everything out! We could see all the little bones in the arms and legs, hands and feet. We saw the little one wiggling all over - its so amazing to see! She's already all curled up in her little "baby pose." Yes, I was and still am in absolute awe!!

So, I thought I would share the few ultrasound pictures that I have so far... This first one was at 6 weeks and I call it "the pea!" ...test positive - there is an egg sack...!
This second one is 10 weeks... You can't really see much, but those 2 little balls at the top are baby Milo! I think the head is on the right and he body on the left...
And last but not least - these two are today's glamor shots!! I think she looks like a little alien...:) so cute. You can see the face easily and her little arm...
Well, that's all folks...
Until next time...

Oh, p.s. I forgot that I was going to mention - on a different note - God blessed me with a pretty substantial raise at work this week! What a blessing! Apparently my Hospital had to evaluate our pay based on other hospitals around and we didn't measure up! What a blessing for us! Especially now that the little one is coming and ill be cutting back!

Random thoughts and ramblings...

Hi to everyone reading! Yup, we're all still alive. I come on here daily to check everyone else' blogs, but somehow just haven't had the wherewithal to actually post for myself. :) Its somewhat sad and always amazing just how busy the Holidays get - and the focus always seems to end up on things other than Christ - the true meaning of Christmas. May that be not the case through the next year... Happy 2008 everyone!

The last few weeks have been much better for me - I'm not sick anymore. Thank God!!! What a rough time that was! I'm pretty sure that I've probably been feeling the baby move for a couple weeks now too, but not knowing exactly what that feels like, I'm still not quite sure... My next Dr. appointment is the 21st and we're hoping to find out what we're having that day if "little one" will just cooperate! :) I can't wait to paint the room and start getting things ready! Its hard to believe that I'm almost halfway done being pregnant! I'm not really even showing yet!!! I'm still wearing the same jeans and only just this week have I had just a little bit more trouble holding in my tummy - but most everyone still has no idea I'm pregnant unless I tell them.

I must enter a note here of sincere thanks to my wonderful husband. He's put up with my odd emotional moments with very little complaint... Thanks Honey! Sunday I was trying to get ready for church and started bawling because I looked like the Pillsbury Dough Boy in every sweater I tried on... I have no idea where that came from! A friend of mine gave me a huge tote of maternity clothes, but I'm not there yet - they look silly, I'm just getting "fuller" everywhere, shall we say... A couple new "new year's sale rack" sweaters later I feel much better. Oh, and I noticed in the mall yesterday that there is a new - as I call it - "big bra store!" What a relief!!!

I'm hoping to post some more pictures soon... I've been awfully lazy in the photo department lately... I have a hard time wanting to take pictures in the winter time. Oh, and speaking of winter - we've already had more snow this winter than I remember having since I was a kid! We've had 3 big snow storms already and its only Jan 1st! We had a white Christmas for the first time in many years! So beautiful! Sadly, I'm not as much the kid anymore and not quite as thrilled with snow as I used to be - oh, well - it sure is pretty! :) Pretty, that is, until we woke up to the lovely sound of dripping water in our bedroom the other night! We think what happened was - the icicles backed up so far into the sofets (however that's spelled) that when they started to melt the water started to drip in through the window frame. There doesn't seem to be any permanent damage but makes us very nervous for the rest of the winter! We're praying that rain gutters on the house in the spring will take care of the problem - if only we don't have any more trouble before that... We may have to have a roofer come look at it if it happens again. :(

I hope that this find everyone happy, healthy and blessed by God this new year!!!