SNAKES & SNAILS & PUPPY DOG TAILS... IT'S A BOY!!!!

After drinking 38 oz of water and holding for 45 minutes because they were behind we finally made it into our appointment. We are so excited to announce we are having a boy. I had thought that it was a boy but one can't be sure without proof. I won't post that specific ultrasound picture on the web because what kind of a mother would I be to put my child's parts for the world to see. Mike is of course ecstatic, but what man wouldn't want a boy. We went straight away to Babies R' US to purchase our first boy item. My Mom was with us so she did the honors. Mike chose the outfit and we all agreed. Below are pictures of the first boy outfit we purchased and then me and our baby boy. Pictures courtesy of my the new camera my Mom bought me for my birthday which isnt' for a couple weeks but I love presents and this one is especially nice. Thanks Mom! Now it's time to play the name game.

When God visits hell...

I can tell that I have finally started to feel a little better. I can tell because I find I am being stubborn about most everything. I am insisting that I feel fine as I literately gag down a sandwich or my back might be killing me but I insist on pulling all the pesky weeks plaguing my garden.

It was Monday and after 3 weeks Mike had just gotten his car back from the auto repair shop. I was so happy to have the freedom to go where I pleased I decided to do a little grocery shopping. I was tired and not feeling too hot but determined to get out of the house and explore my freedoms. Now grocery shopping isn't really my favorite passtime. It used to be when I was a kid and knew I could whine my way into a candy bar or a stop at McDonald's on the way home but now it is plain and simple work. Being on a budget I have found that I get much more bang for my buck at Wal-mart. Not always the most pleasant time shopping and I almost never find everything on my list there but cheaper none the less.

I pulled into the parking lot and I decided to park my Jeep near the back of the parking lot with it's "For Sale" signs plastered neatly in place so everyone driving by could see. I made my way into the store and began up and down the isles to collect all the things on my list. Not one isle in I realized it wasn't going to be easy. I was hungry, I had to go to bathroom, I was tired and realizing that half of humanity needed a class in common courtesy. A women pulls up in the middle of the isle with no awareness of the lines of people waiting for her to move. Then someone strolled up next to her and park on one side of the women while someone else decided that was a great idea parking on her other side making a barricade so that no one could pass so I decide to turn around completely and come back to this isle I just start going in the other direction when a women in a motorized cart (don't get me started on these motorized carts most of the people in them don't know that they are driving in a store and not out on a street race somewhere I nearly took a ride in one womens lap as she plowed by completely unaware of my existence) pulls up and parks directly in front of me. I am stuck completely stuck. Soon my cell phone is ringing. It's Mike. "Honey I am stuck in a Wal-mart isle I am tired, hungry, my stomach is turning, I have to go to the bathroom and I want to cry." He says he will be right there but what could he do it would just be one more body in this sea of people. I declined his help and his suggestion to just come home and finish my shopping another time. I must finish. He said he would meet me at home with the chips and salsa from the Mexican restaurant I have been craving, not to mention about the only thing I had been eating for days which made me wonder why I was grocery shopping at all when I could just eat chips and salsa.

I finally get to the end of the isle unsure if I can continue. I come around the corner to see a handsome young man staring back at me with sincere sympathy in his eyes. I looked at him and said in a shaky voice "I don't think I can do this anymore, there are too many people." He smiled sweetly and said "I know, I agree." I felt like I had found an angel with an understanding soul that God had sent so I could continue on. I finally made it through and I knew I didn't have everything on my list but after asking 3 different associates where the bread crumbs were and getting 3 different answers all of which were wrong I had had enough.

I finally pushed my cart into the bright sunlight and had just one more hurdle to jump. Finding my car. Realizing that I had so smartly parked it at the far back of the parking lot I wanted to cry. I was about to cry when I began heading down the parking lot and looked up to see painted on a bright shining window "You did a great job!" I felt like God was smiling at me saying your are almost home. My angel in the store with a sweet understanding smile, my reasuring "sign" from God (that I am sure was for someone's graduation) and my angel waiting at home with chips and salsa. I got into my car drove home and thanked God that he cares about the little things.

And you know what no one called on my Jeep. I parked at the far back of the parking lot for nothing.

The life of the stay at home Mommy to be

Yesterday, Mike asked me if I liked being an at home Mommy to be or if I was bored and lonely. His question came in a caring, concerned voice. That day I hadn't felt bored but lonley wouldn't descirbe it either just sad. Probably hormones I decided and I responded that I indeed loved it and would love it all the more when there was a little one running around to keep me busy. We worked hard for the day that I could stay home and take care of our children and almost 5 years later our dream and goal has come true and I don't take that blessing for granted. Right now I am simply spoiled. I have truly wonderful friends who stay at home right now and I can always call or visit one of them. I also have the opportunity to get things done around my house that have been neglected or overlooked for so long. The major bonus right now is that I if I feel sick or tired I don't have to call anyone or worry that I am not pulling my weight as a team member I can just relax and know that there is always tomorrow to get this or that done.

There was a time in my life that I hated my life. I wondered if God would ever stop picking me for all the bad stuff but I can honestly say now that if I had to go through all that stuff again to have the beautiful life I have now with the wonderful person I share it with I would do it all again. That is God's grace in my life and I will never stop thanking him for that. My life will never be void of trouble and it is scary to think what the future might hold but I know that it will always be full of people I love and that love me and I'll let God worry about the rest.

Two posts in one day?

Yes! Two posts in one day. I felt this post needed it's own section. It was a bad decision that lead to a finale this weekend that felt deserved the whole story.

I hope it's safe to say that most people have one purchase in their lives that they greatly regret. I really hope that or that means I am alone on this and I quite frankly don't want to be alone in a land of buyer's remorse I would much rather have friends. I once owned a beautiful GMC Envoy XL that I loved. I not only loved it but knew it was perfect for us. Even though I felt like a soccer mom driving it and there were times when I thought we wouldn't have kids for a while and why was I driving this giant gas guzzling SUV anyway. Well I will tell you why. Safety and convenience. One day I got the wild hair that my perfect SUV wasn't good enough and I needed something zippy and sporty. I still wanted an SUV because I felt safer, higher up and there was the fact that we often take our two 70lb dogs on trips with us and it comes in handy to lay the seats down and let them have their space.

After a bad encounter with a car dealership and their sleazy sales people (not all sales people are sleazy but these ones really were) who wouldn't show me the car I knew I wanted to buy because they wanted to sell me something else I stormed off determined to find exactly what I wanted somewhere else for a better price and within the hour I had. I took my finding as a sign from God that this was the right thing to do. The exact thing I was looking for with a better price tag within the hour. How could it NOT be God? Well, after a week I realized that just because the stars aligned didn't mean that God, whom I hadn't even talked with about this wonderful decision, hadn't meant for this to be. I had a cute, black, zippy, sporty 2005 Jeep Liberty parked in my driveway that I was quickly learning I hated. Soon all of our conversations in our new Jeep would start out with "The Envoy did that." or "If we had the Envoy we wouldn't have to worry about it." or "My Envoy never did that."

Soon winter was blanketing the trees and mountains with snow and the streets with ice. Ice, how would my new zippy, sporty SUV do on ice. The answer, not well. I had to have it in 4 wheel drive to ensure limited ice skating on the asphalt ice rink outside. Even then it was smooth sailing and not in a good way. By that time though I had decided that I had to keep the Jeep. There was no other way. I had made a bad choice, it had low miles and it would be in our families best interest financially for me to keep the Jeep and make the best of it. So I started over looking it's lack of traction, features and other things I had come to dislike and instead gave it a cute nickname "Beep, Beep" and went into denial trying to always say something positive for every negative. "It barely stopped at that last stop sign but it's ok because I look so cute and sporty in my black SUV."

This last weekend we were in Tacoma/Puyallup, I never really know where I am when I am there. Nicole, Mike and I decided to go to the Babies R US and start our registry. We were excited to have the help of someone who had used these items and would know what to get and what we wouldn't need. I was driving my Beep Beep. Now I have to be honest. I usually work really hard to be a safe driver. My first accident was on ice when I was 15 and had barely had my Idaho's Drivers License for a month. Since then I have always been really cautious. Being pregnant however I have noticed my ability to focus and think straight haven't been what they once were and there are times I joke that pregnant women should have bumpers on all sides of the car and a sign overhead announcing that it is indeed a pregnant women driving. Now not all pregnant women are like that and I realize that but this one is in need of a little help from time to time. All that said. I think even in my right state of mind I still wouldn't have been able to control what happened. I learned the hard way twice that my Jeep didn't have anti lock breaks.

Seattle traffic was bad and the west coast sky was busy soaking the roads. Cars sped up so did I car slammed on breaks so did I, cars stopped, I did not. We began hydroplaning down the freeway and no amount of pumping, steering or screaming was going to get the Jeep to stop. The first time it happened it wasn't that bad. We stopped a few feet from the car in front of us regained our composure and decided bad weather conditions and the fact that neither Mike nor I realized that this vehicle was not equipped with anti lock breaks had lead to the incident and now that we know we can better prepare ourselves in the future. Denial. Little did we know that our next hydroplaning incident would be 2 hours into the future. Yet again cars speed up so do I, cars slow down and so I start to slow down, cars stop but we don't. This time however we were closer to the vehicle in front of us because his breaklights looked like taillights it had taken me longer to register that it wasn't one of the many sets of taillights I had been staring at but in fact a set of brake lights. Nicole starts saying something, I can't tell what but I know she is begging God to make the car stop. I realize that I could be praying as well but I was a little busy trying to get my unresponding car to stop and I figured that God knew I wanted the car to stop so I should just worry about that. The Durango in front of us was all over it and moved to the shoulder to give us some more room we quickly skidded right up next to him and finally the car stopped and then turned us in the the lane next to us once the slack in the wheel I had been trying to turn caught. I weaved us quickly to the shoulder and Mike pipes up with "I'll drive." I climbed into the passenger seat as Nicole moved to the back. She quickly announces "Can you imagine if there was a baby in the car?" Well of course I can I am pregnant. I quickly burst into uncontrollable sobs blaming myself, my bad driving and then Nicole makes the point that it wasn't really me it was my Jeep. Quickly all my self loathing turned to pure and simple hatred for the vehicle I was trying so hard to like. As soon as we were back at Nicole and Ian's house Mike was on the Internet determined to get me an Envoy. No matter how badly this would hurt our finances my dear sweet husband wasn't going to let me suffer another day thinking I had to drive that horrible Jeep. Which he is now calling the missile because you don't stop missiles.

Hopefully, we can sell the Jeep quickly and find us another Envoy. I feel kind of bad selling the Jeep to some unsuspecting person but it must go.

FOR SALE: One 2005 Black Jeep Liberty with low miles, capable of hauling large Christmas trees, A/C, power windows. Priced to sell!

Where to start?

We just got back yesterday from a wonderful weekend jam packed with good friends, good food, and baby bargains. We journeyed over to Puyallup this weekend to spend time with Nicole and Ian and their adorable son Peyton. There was a BBQ and some great girl time with some friends I hadn't seen in while, Niki, Karin, and Gretchen. It was so refreshing to be with everyone and I am so glad we took the time to go over.

Good food. There always has to be good food when you go out of town. Between eating at the Keg, with free Birthday dinners for Nicole and I, excellent breakfasts at the Rienches, Red Robin with the girls and BBQ with all the gang it was indeed a weekend of good food.

Baby Bargains. Earlier this week Nicole had said she found a glider an ottoman that she had wanted for herself then realized that it wouldn't work in her nursery because the wood was a deep cherry but she realized that it would work in mine. After she mentioned finding it on Craig's List it reminded me of my great online garage sale that I had been neglecting for a few weeks. I quickly made my way to the baby and kids section on my local Craig's list and started shopping. Nicole also found someone on Craig's List selling a bunch of baby stuff. Between the too of us. I scored a cherry glider and ottoman, a cherry crib and mattress (which I might replace, not sure yet), a baby bath tub, a changing pad, a boppy, a breast pump and a baby Bjorn carrier. In all I saved around $520 this week. I think I am done for a while though because most of the other stuff I want to buy new.

I am now having second thoughts about buying a used crib but it is so beautiful and very sturdy (Mike wouldn't let me buy it if it wasn't). I wouldn't have gotten exactly what I wanted for that price ever and it's done. Once my brother moves out and I can take over his room for the baby I will put the crib together, more like Mike will put the crib together and I will take a picture so you can all tell me how beautiful it is and that I didn't at all make a bad decision. Then I will feel better and life will go on. Sometimes I need the encouragement of my friends, is that so wrong?

Baby Karaoke

Thursday Mike and I went into the doctor for another check up on baby. I have been feeling baby move all week so that was comforting. What wasn't comforting was the spotting that happened throughout the week. The nurse came into the room carting babies microphone and began to look for the heart beat. It took her a minute to find it which was fine at first but the longer it took her the more my heart sped up. Finally, babies heart started racing audibly into the room(baby karaoke as Mike calls it). When the doctor came in she ordered an ultrasound to be done the next day just to make sure everything was still ok due to the spotting. Everything turned out to be fine, they couldn't find any explanation. The bonus was we got to walk away with the comfort of know that baby is still in there and as healthy as we can tell from out here. We got to see it's little hands and arms and legs, it's spine, heart, kidneys, brain and little feet that made me want to hold my baby. We also got a profile shot of baby that I have enclosed.

Babies first picture.

It was too soon to tell the sex of the baby, or so they said. I think she could tell but it sounded like they had gotten themselves into trouble saying it was one thing and then later it being another. So she said to wait a few weeks until it was crystal clear. Our next ultrasound is June 25th. Just for fun, any guesses as to what were having?