40 days....

The ticker officially says only 40 days to go!! I really can't believe that....although sometimes I can't believe it is getting so close and other times I can't believe that I still have that many days as things are starting to get a bit uncomfortable.

We of course still have tons of things left to do--finding a new job is probably the top thing on the list. I am finishing up the semester in grad school this week which is a huge relief....and hopefully once I wrap that up I'll have some time to update the blog with pictures of my baby belly and the wonderful shower my work friends threw for me. Aren't you on the edge of your seat now??

Interuppting Regularly Scheduled Programming...

I was tagged by Rebecca....so here is my list of 4's....

4 Jobs I have had in my life:
1. Counter Girl at Sweet Temptations
2. Attorney's assistant at a title company (I didn't even know what a title company did the first three months I worked there)
3. 6th grade teacher
4. Student Advocate

4 Movies I’ve Watched More Than Once:
1. Waiting for Guffman
2. Drop Dead Gorgeous
3. Madagascar (thanks Amanda)
4. Casino Royale--it's been on cable lately so it is always on

4 Places I’ve Lived:
1. Georgia
2. Garland, TX
3. Waco, TX
4. Fort Worth, TX

4 TV Show I Watch/Watched: Only 4????
1. The Office
2. Grey's Anatomy
3. Desperate Housewives
4. Current network reality show--the Bachelor or survior or big brother, etc

4 Places I have Been:
1. St Lucia
2. Belize
3. Turkey
4. London

4People who email me regularly
1. Josh
2. Jennifer P.
3. My mom--she recently sends me weekly updates about job openings in Garland
4. Tie between Pottery Barn and J. Crew

4 of my favorite foods
1. Sushi
2. All Mexican food
3. Profiterol--sounds like medication but I promise it is awesome
4. a great steak

4 Places I Would Like to Visit
1. Greece
2. New Zealand
3. Bora Bora
4. I'd love to go to NYC with Josh

4 Things I am Looking Forward to in the Coming Year
1. Meeting Baby Weems :)
2. Setting up a nursery for Baby Weems in our new house
3. Drinking margaritas after the arrival of Baby Weems
4. Seeing my feet again :)

4 Friends who I’m Tagging
1. Sharee
2. Jessica
3. Diana--because you haven't updated in FOREVER
4. Kelli K

Sabotage update...

Well, I contacted our real estate agent to let him know about the terrible showing....and he emailed the showing agent to apologize.
It turns out that the potential buyer doesn't like dogs and that they could hear Monty barking so they never even opened the door to the laundry room!! They didn't know about the sabotage attempt and they'd like some more info about our house!!!

WOOHOO!!

SABOTAGE!!!

We think that Monty doesn't want to move. He loves his house with the big back yard. He's probably worried that if we move the squirrels and birdies will start to think they own the place. So, he's trying to sabotage real estate showings....

Take today for example. I received a call at 5pm that said they'd like to show the house from 5:30-6:30. I was still at work but we've gotten really good about leaving the house "ready to show" so I said sure. When I left work I stopped by Old Navy to look through their very picked over maternity section for a few minutes just in case the people were at our house.

I came home and noticed that there were some random lights on which is pretty typical when someone looks at the house. I opened the door to the laundry room where we keep Monty's kennel and the smell hit me!! Monty had pooped in his kennel. And I won't go into detail except to say that Monty and the kennel both immediately went to the back yard for a good hose down....after I fashioned my own gas mask from a dish cloth.
We haven't heard any feedback from the potential buyers....I'm sure their real estate agent is trying to figure out how to word "This house smells like dog poop" in a nice way. I want to call the agent and tell him it isn't always like that and to bring his people back or at least bring other people by.....

We have another showing tomorrow. Hopefully Monty will stick to just growling and barking when they are in the house and will keep the intestinal fireworks to a minimum.

Most Smartest....

Well, it's official. We've finished all our baby classes. We went to parenting, childbirth and breastfeeding. It made for two VERY long weekends but we learned a lot. I'm not sure if we feel more prepared for the baby to arrive or if only now we are able to realize how unprepared we truly are.

We took parenting first. The best part was that we got to learn infant CPR which we will hopefully never use. We also learned a lot about infant car seats. The worst part was some really awkward videos we watched about the importance of skin to skin contact. After all, we didn't really need a video explanation of what "skin to skin" meant.

Then this weekend we took childbirth on Friday night and Saturday. The first video we saw was about laboring. The instructor forgot to warn us that it would show a live birth at the end.....let's just say that it wasn't like on "A Baby Story" and nothing was blurred out. The second video was even more frightening. I looked at Josh several times and said, "I don't think I can do this." One of the videos said something about massage and how even household items could be used as massagers....it showed a rolling pin and I told Josh he could hit me over the head with that if things got too tough. Our childbirth class was very small and there were some fun people....so we got to make lots of jokes and comments such as when the instructor asked about the stages of labor being able to say loudly "Transition: that's when the yelling REALLY begins."

And then today we took our breastfeeding class. The lady was really positive and informative. She wasn't near the "la leche nazi" that I envisioned or had been warned about. I'm still not 100% sure how all that is going to work out but I feel better about it then I did before we went to the class. And strangely enough the videos in the breastfeeding class weren't nearly as awkward as the ones from parenting....go figure!

So, now I'm officially 32 weeks and despite the fact that we've finished our classes we're not really any closer to being "ready" for the baby to get here....I still have a TON of things on the to-do list such as 1) Finish grad school projects 2) Find job 3) Buy carseat....although I'm not sure those three things are the top three things....except maybe for the grad school project because it is due on Tuesday night and I'm blogging instead of working on it. Since it is already late Sunday night, I'd better get my "most smartest" self back to work on the project.

**Bonus points for you if you can name the movie that the quote "most smartest" comes from!! I'll give you a hint: "Amber is the best tapper, the most smartest"

Reality again...this time on TV

Okay, I admit it. I watch reality TV. Some people (like my husband) might even say I watch a lot of reality TV. Currently I'm into four reality shows--Big Brother 9, the Bachelor: London Calling, Survivor and Dancing with the Stars. I'm not really sure if Dancing with the Stars counts as reality TV though. Is it just a game show? Oh well.

I usually only watch shows that I've DVR'd. Ever since Jason bought us TIVO a couple Christmases ago it has become impossible to watch actual live television. So, tonight I finally watched this week's episode of The Bachelor. Now, if you've never seen the Bachelor you might think that it is about a guy dating a ton of women and trying to find the one. This is what ABC wants you to believe the show is about. The show is actually just about the drama of a bunch of girls living together and dating the same guy....it isn't about love and it doesn't matter who he picks in the end since it never works out anyway. I mainly watch to make sure that the drama queen I like makes it through to the next week to create more drama. Most of these girls are so detached from real reality that sometimes I'm not sure if the Bachelor qualifies as reality TV either.

Anyway, this week's episode of course contained the "Most dramatic rose ceremony yet" just like every other week. And the Rose Ceremony was indeed the best part....although not because of the girls. Here's what happens:

Our Bachelor, Matt, (pictured above) has 5 women to choose from but only 3 roses. He hands out rose #1 and rose #2. The host, Chris Harrison, steps in to say his famous line, "Ladies, Matt, this is the final rose this evening." As Chris is saying this we notice that Matt looks down at his hand. He's studying the palm of his hand. He looks at it for several seconds. And I wonder "Does he have the names written on his hand?" I rewind the DVR. I play it again. I call Josh into the room. "Does it look like he's reading his palm?" Josh agrees!!

And that ladies is true love right there. He's picking 3 out of 5 women to continue in a contest to maybe be his wife and he can't even remember the names of the three chicks he wants to pick!! Awesome. Truly awesome. I love reality TV.

Reality sets in....

Today I officially resigned from my job in Burleson.
Tomorrow the for sale sign is going in our front yard.
Saturday I'm going to a job fair to look for a new job.

This whole moving thing is starting to become VERY VERY real.

Need to do? Nesting? or Just Procrastination?

I feel this crazy need to do stuff around our house all the time. I'm talking about cleaning stuff out, rearranging, getting organized type stuff. Things that have been in a certain place since we moved in suddenly need to be moved. Closets that I never open suddenly need to be purged of whatever is in there anyway.

Now honestly, most of the stuff needs to get done so that we can put our house on the market next week. But some of it is kind of irrational....for example, we got our baby furniture last week. We didn't buy bedding yet because 1) we don't know the baby's gender and 2) now that we're moving I'm not going to create a cute neutral nursery for just a few weeks. So, Josh and I decided that it would be best to just not create a nursery until we get to the new placce. The baby has an awesome bassinet that it will sleep in for the first few months. But, I really want to go get something to put in that crib!! Part of my brain says that a crib with a mattress, sheet and dust ruffle will look nicer to potential buyers but the other part of my brain questions why I would spend money on something that is just for show at this point?? I'm not sure if this is motivated by the need to have the house look nice or if it is the fact that I'm almost 30 weeks pregnant so I could be starting into that whole nesting phase.

I also have a 20 minute presentation about compensatory education looming and need to work on another presentation and paper about effective staff development as well. Plus, I need to go to the bookstore and get the book I'm suppose to read for class next Wednesday. So, it could totally be procrastination. In the past I've been so good about putting stuff off until the last minute but I'm not sure how many minutes I'm going to have free with working my current job and trying to find a new job in the midst of all these grad school projects.

Well, whether it is moving pressure, nesting or procrastination I'd better stop blogging and get a move on since that book store closes at 2pm and it's in Arlington.

So long Explorer....

Well, we traded in the explorer last night. It was exciting and sad at the same time. I bought the explorer over Easter weekend my senior year in college. It replaced the teal cavalier which was awesome....oh wait, not so much. The explorer was a luxury car compared to the cavalier and I've loved driving it for the past 5+ years. Yes, it has problems--a dent in the side we never got fixed, a leaky transmission, no cruise control, a smoking stearing column (we did get that fixed)--but it was mine and I loved it.
Josh did not feel the same way about it though.

We've known for a while that we had to get rid of the explorer. It is a two door and trying to get a baby carrier car seat in the back would've been ridiculous. Honestly there were a few tears and I was a little sad....

Until I drove my new car home! It's the first new car I've ever owned and I love it. More pics of the mom ride (it has 4 doors!) to come....

Sad puppy...

Monty had to have a little cyst removed from his side last week. He's fine now but he had to wear the E-collar for two days....and he was so sad about it. He would just stand still most of the time...and when he did try to run around he'd hit the walls and furniture. It was so so sad.

I thought this pic pretty much summed up how Monty felt about the whole situation.

He was pretty happy though when he got to take his medicine wrapped in cheese.

3 trips to Lowes equals 1 productive Sunday

Josh and I made 3 trips to Lowe's this weekend. Well, we made one trip together and then each made a trip solo.

And here's what we got:
Trip #1: We went to Lowe's on Saturday night (because we're cool and romantic like that!). We picked up two quarts of white paint....different whites though...one for the kitchen cabinets and one for the ceiling in the hallway. We got some special cleaner for the deck around our hot tub and a pump thing to spray it on with. We also got some samples of deck stain to try out on our deck as well.

Trip #2: After church on Sunday I ran to back to Lowe's to pick up a gallon of the deck stain that seemed to match best.

Trip #3: Josh went back to Lowe's to pick up some stuff to fix the light in his closet.

So, what did we do with all this stuff???

Well, Sunday my parents came over to spend the day and we put them to work. We prepped the deck around the hot tub to be restained. We didn't stain it because of impending rain (but my mom and dad promised to come back later this week). My dad touched up some of the areas of our cabinets that were missing paint in spots. He also used the ceiling paint to touch up the hallway where I managed to get brown paint on the ceiling while attempting to paint the walls last summer. Dad and Josh worked together to replace the light in Josh's closet. We cleaned off all the patio furniture and made it look nice and spiffy for Spring.

Originally the plan was for my parents to come over for Spring Break and help get the nursery ready. The furniture comes tomorrow!! But we've decided to not paint the nursery at all....instead we've decided to put our house on the market and move to the other side of the metroplex due to Josh's job. He's currently driving over an hour each way to work and that stinks.
So, if you know anyone who wants to buy a 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom ranch style home in Fort Worth let me know!!

Thanks so much to my mom and dad for coming over to help us. We had fun and things look great.

We also hung up a painting Josh's parents gave us for Christmas and it is unbelievable how great it looks. Gwen, I can't wait for you to come up and see it in the dining room. It is perfect!!

**I would post some pics but it is a yucky day today....maybe once the deck is totally finished and the nursery furniture arrives.

Baby bump....

So we got the digital camera...so I guess we should put it to good use. Here's me and Baby Weems at 27 weeks. Maybe for our next picture I'll throw on some make-up :)

Wedding Weekend...

EMILY and MATT got married. We had so much fun this weekend attending Matt and Emily's wedding. Matt and I have know each other since the 6th grade and Emily was a Chi Omega with me at Baylor. It is so fun to see these two worlds come together. Matt is one of the greatest and funniest guys I know and if you've ever met Emily then you know she is one of a kind as well. I'm so happy these two found each other...thanks to Carole's matchmaking skills!!!



This is Carole (who's been my friend since we were 14) and she was listed in Matt and Emily's wedding program as "Matchmaker." (She was also singing at the wedding.) Anyway, a few years ago Carole set up a group "hang out" time so that Matt and Emily could meet. Who knew that all of us hanging out at Snuffer's would eventually turn into a perfect match!!
I forgot to tell Josh to take a picture of all the Chi Omegas who were there but here are some of the high school friends: (Marcy, we missed y'all!)



And here are Mr. and Mrs. Matt Mulkey right before they took off for a fun filled honeymoon and a new life together...

Let it Snow...

This was the house we came home to this evening after work. Gotta love Texas in March. I'm sure my neighbors thought I was crazy as I crept carefully across the street to get this pic....I was being very cautious because it was damp and icy...and well I've already fallen and broken my tooth once :)

Blame it on the squirrel....

So, I got home from work and Josh mentioned that there had been a power outage and we couldn't drink the water....a quick google search explained:


FORT WORTH, Texas — A squirrel is blamed for an electrical outage in Fort Worth that affected thousands of customers and prompted a boil-water advisory for parts of the city.

Oncor spokeswoman Carol Peters says the rodent Friday got into a substation and made a connection between two high-voltage points, causing an arc.

Peters told The Associated Press that the transformer sensed the surge, caused by the now-deceased squirrel, and shut down.

Service was interrupted to about 10,000 customers and two Fort Worth water department pumping stations. Electricity was restored within one hour.

Residents of southwest Fort Worth, mainly south of Interstate 20, were advised to boil their water before drinking it, or using it to cook or make ice, until likely early Saturday.
___

Am I a bad person because the now-deceased squirrel sentence cracked me up?? I guess you could say he went out in a blaze of glory.

6 months already....

So, suddenly I look up and find that I'm six months pregnant. The image that best describes my life right now is plate spinning. My plate isn't just full....there are several of them spinning in motion and I must keep them all spinning. (Thanks Carol S for providing me with this image weeks ago in reference to a totally different situation. I want to give credit where credit is due.)

Anyway, so suddenly I'm six months pregnant and I realize all the things I "need" to do before this baby gets here....and while I still have three months I also know those months will be filled with work and grad school and other things too. During the two years we tried to get pregnant I thought a lot about making a baby scrapbook. So many of my friends have these cute pregnancy scrapbooks instead of traditional baby books. I love them. I've thought and thought about how I want to do one.....but I have yet to do anything. This really shouldn't shock anyone though since the last scrapbook I did was for my senior year in high school--and I didn't even finish out the whole year...I think it stops in about March or April.

I want to make a cute, simple scrapbook that details this time in our lives though.....from the first picture:

to the pics of how we told my parents, the ultrasounds, a page about me (the mommy) and Josh (the daddy), pics of my growing belly, baby showers and of course the hospital pics for once this little miracle arrives.

The truth is that I don't even really know where to begin scrapbooking though. I guess I need to get a scrapbook and some paper.....but otherwise I have no idea how to attach all the stuff or what the current trends in scrapbooking are...

If you are a scrapbook queen and would allow me to come and peer at your creations and learn how to do this then that would be awesome. Let me know and I'll clear a place on a plate...I mean, a place in my schedule and come be inspired.

Slight delay on the pics....

Something got messed up with my camera order online so the delivery of the camera will be displayed until next week....keep holding that breath!!

Guess what I did today???

Well, several times I've posted about my lack of pictures on this blog...or I've been really excited when I've been able to post pictures of something. But today we FINALLY took the leap and ordered a new digital camera. It has been a year and a half since ours stopped working. It just quit on me shortly after I came home from our Florida vacation and makes a weird noise when you rattle it. I wasn't really committed to having it fixed because I got it 5+ years ago and obviously digital camera technology has improved a lot since then.

I'm so excited. It should be here within a week of so. It is just a small Canon that a friend recommended but should meet our photography needs. In the meantime I need to develop our kodak disposable camera and get those pics put on CD so I can upload them. I've been using the same kodak camera since September so who knows what will be on there. My number 1 goal with my new camera is to take pictures more often. I've gotten out of the habit since our digital broke and I've let other people take over the picture taking duties because having to wind the camera up was just annoying.

So here is a list of some things I'll be taking pics of in the next few weeks:
1) Before shots of the nursery
2)My growing belly. Suddenly I'm looking pretty pregnant.
3) Matt and Emily's wedding. I'm so excited about this because one of my good friends from high school (Matt) is marrying one of the funnest girls I knew at Baylor (Emily)! It should be a great evening. (Yes, I know funnest isn't really a word but it is the best word to describe Emily Parker.)
4) Ava. Ava and more Ava. Did I mention that she turned six months old on Saturday? Did I mention that she's crawling everywhere?? Or that she almost gave my sister a heart attack by pulling up in her crib the other day???

I know you're on the edge of your seats now ;) Stay tuned.

Good as new, sort of....

Well, I went to the dentist today and he fixed the tooth. It looks good as new. The only problem is that the fix is really just temporary. He told me that when I come back for my next cleaning (which will be after the baby since I just went in January) that we'll discuss more permanent solutions such as a veneer.
For now I'm super happy though because I felt like the chip was just glaring out at people everytime I opened my mouth. Some people didn't notice at all of course but others asked me right away, "What did you do to your tooth?"
So now it is fixed and I can smile again without feeling like the world is looking at my tooth. YIPPEEE!!!

Fall down, Go Boom!!

So, last night our neighbors called and needed some help moving a couch. Josh and I headed over so I could chat while Josh helped move the couch. After quite a while chatting we walked back over to our house.
Our neighbors' driveway is raised up higher than ours. Since it was dark I misjudged the distance between the step I was on and the ground. I stepped off and lost my balance. I started the stumble forward and completely ate it. I imagine that I looked like a baseball player sliding into second...except I was sliding across the pavement of our driveway. My hands weren't very successful at breaking my fall but I did catch most of my weight with my front tooth.

Josh helped me up and we went inside. My jeans weren't torn but my knees were bruised. My hands were scraped up but not bleeding. My lip was swollen and my tooth is jaggedly chipped....but of course our real concern was about the baby. Sliding across cement on your belly isn't the best idea when you're 22 weeks pregnant.
We called the on call doctor and she told me I was probably fine but that I could come in and get checked out if I wanted. So, we headed down to the hospital. The main doors were locked so we had to enter through the emergency room....which is always interesting at 10pm on a Friday night. Due to construction the hospital is kind of crazy right now and it was quite a maze making our way up to labor and delivery. They put us in a room and asked me to put on a gown. The gown had these weird sleeves that had to be snapped and it took both Josh and I working together to figure out how to even put the dang thing on.

The nurse came in and set up the monitor....it seemed to take forever for her to find the baby's heartbeat. It probably took less than a minute but it felt like 20. I don't think I took a breath the entire time she was looking. Finally we heard that sweet sweet sound. The baby was really active and kept kicking the monitor. So, I got to lay in the comfortable hospital bed and listen to my baby for a while.
Then the doctor came in and said, "Everything is looking good but I thought we'd go ahead and check the baby out." And in rolled the portable sonogram machine. By now I was relieved that the baby was fine but it was exciting to be able to see our little one again. She got a great shot of the face and it was so clear. The baby was moving his/her hands and kicking his/her feet. The doctor seemed to be enjoying the sonogram just as much as Josh and I were so we got to watch the baby for quite a while. It was a pretty happy ending to a bad night.

So, despite my "flying leap" nothing was hurt but my pride....and my tooth. I am now banned from walking around in the dark which is probably for the best since I hear that clumsiness will only increase as my belly gets bigger.