lately...

I've spent too much time sitting on keester.

I've been totally uninspired.

I've been a little depressed with all I want to do but haven't been able to.

I've been happy to have the extra time to think about all the ways I am blessed.

I haven't taken a single personal picture...

But yesterday I had a sudden burst of inspiration and took advantage of it searching for nursery ideas online. I started to feel like my old self again! Summer is after all my favorite time of year, but I haven't gotten into a groove yet. I swoon over the silly romanticism of the summer months. Beautiful outdoor picnics, perfectly decorated. Huge chandeliers hanging from trees and such ;)

But alas, most of those things look better in my mind than actually played out. One thing however, that always seems to appease my desire for the romance of summer is a display of flowers on my table.

My church has been so amazing and has arranged for a few meals for us this week. What a huge relief! I haven't been as sick as I know some people get with their first tri-mester, but enough so that I have been down and out for over a month! It's been hard and I'm grateful for loving people to come to the rescue ;)

Yesterday, our dinner from Annette came with a beautiful bouquet of flowers picked right from her garden. The BEST kind!



I love it!

first ultrasound

When I found out I was pregnant, I was so excited to see the little bambino! But then I realized that I wasn't going to be able to have an ultrasound until like 18 weeks. They basically told me that they only do them if they think something is wrong or if you aren't sure of the due date... which I can't complain that nothing is wrong! and I actually am quite sure of the due date and all that.

So I was really tempted to go to like a free clinic and just get one, but I didn't feel right about it. So I called again and asked if there was any way, and basically they sent me in for a dating ultrasound... which I was extraordinarily happy about ;)



So here it is! Baby didn't move much during it, looked like it was just chillin in it's hammock in there... good baby ;) and honestly, this is in my opinion a pretty terrible pic! It looks like a blob to me, but when I was seeing the video you could see it a little better. So little baby is 9 weeks 5 days today... and mama is hopin to be done with this morning sickness soon ;)

a different kind of feeling...

About 5 weeks ago I ran into a strain of pms I was unfamiliar with. Like, I felt as though anything and everything steve did was to intentionally tick me off and instead of just sitting sweetly, I was about ready to literally bite his head off.

There have been times I've felt this (mildly) and I'm always like, oh you rascally pms, let's get this over with!

But this, this was not normal. Through tears on a couple evenings I sat apologizing to him for being such a meanie head. What in the world is wrong with me?

We were on vacation that weekend and when I got home and realized my period hadn't come, the thought crossed my mind that I might be pregnant. Which I could only hope for! Oh how exciting! I had thought about that so many times in my life before, but figured naaaaaaahhhh. I'll wait a few more days, it's sure to come.

But it didn't. And didn't.

So by the time I was like 8 days late I decided to take a test. Thinking, if it's not positive, then there is positively something wrong with me!

But that second little line began peeking through and sure enough... it was positive :)

I called the dr the next day and they sent me for bloodwork, which also came back positive (phew! because at that point I had pretty much told everyone ;) how embarassing would that be for them to be like, uhhh no, you just have bad eyesight and can't read pregnancy tests (a dollar store test no less) Ha! ;)

But the case is such that I am currently growing a human inside of me. I am so very happy and excited! My first appointment with my midwife is at 10 weeks, so just a few more days!

I would post a picture from 7 weeks, but I am still feeling pretty dang self conscious that I feel like I could save that one for like 4 months... because I look that prego lol. I've actually lost 8 pounds in the last few weeks, but my belly is growing, it's a very different feeling...

But a very good one ;) Well, besides the nasty morning sickness. I hope that only lasts a couple more weeks, but whatever the case, I'll get a pretty sweet reward out of the deal! I'm good with it :)

So there you have it! Come January, our family of *two* will be a little bigger ;)

Thanks!

Dear kindest readers and friends,

You are so awesome! Sometimes when I sit in front of this screen and type my stories, life and random happenings I forget how many people actually read it... and all of your comments to my last post really meant a lot to me. So thank you!!!

I have been meaning to write this sooner, but somehow, the week has literally flown by. I feel like I blinked and then I was here. How does that happen? Like seriously!

So I wanted to play a little catch up, here we go!

- Last week I traded in my beloved civic for a very nice honda accord. I was sooooo sad to see it go, but it's been a change we've been planning for a few months... I just love the new car though! It's 3 years older, so I traded down, but honestly I feel like I traded up! It's a V6 and let me tell you, those 2 cylinders make a huge difference. I feel unstoppable bwahaha! OK... calm down ;)

- I painted our upstairs bathroom. My old bathroom was near perfect to me... minus the fact that there was like mold growing on the ceiling and ants everywhere... how is that perfect? Because i had a beautiful shower curtain and pretty towels and it all matched so nicely ;) So I painted the new bathroom the teal blue that's in the shower curtain... I was afraid at first that I had made a dastardly mistake, but in the end it turned out so good!

- my next painting project is the guest room, woot woot!

- I have a dresser I acquired from a friend that is pretty old and run down. But I'm going to liven that up with some white paint, I can't wait to see how it turns out.

- Still no pictures on my walls... I have been slackin lackin. I kinda want to paint the living room before I put them up... but I don't know exactly when that will happen. What have you done in this situation, should I just hang stuff for the sake of hanging it, or wait. And also, should I use the 3M hanging stuff instead of nails? I've seen it on TV but not sure it would work... and it's not super cheap so I'd want to know it worked before doing it.

- I got a new to me couch for the living room. It's circa 1992 probably, but it was $150 and that kinda cheap talks to me ;) It's a sectional and fits pretty perfectly in here. Plus it's comfy, bonus! lol

- I still hate folding laundry...

- I want to get a kitten soon... I hope I can find one that doesn't make me itch and sneeze like crazy.

That's about it really! I have some other stuff I want to share but I'll save it for another post ;)

I'm proud

this is something I've been thinking about a lot over the last few months... facebook, blogs, social networking... what's the point? Well, for me it was initially really fun connecting with people from the past, then grew into a way to share things I maybe wouldn't share with people in person (hmmm) and now I've stumbled upon this nebulous state of ambiguity. Not really sure what's appropriate to share and what isn't. And why do I care about that?

The answer? Because I've been raised with the mindset that life is a blessing... not to be arrogant. And all of this sharing has made me feel, well arrogant.

But there's a difference between pride and arrogance... at least the way I'm describing it here. I am proud of my life. I am proud of my accomplishments and I am proud that I've been able to overcome things that have dragged others down...

I'm not perfect. I've made a lot of mistakes... and I don't want one of them to be me becoming an arrogant person.

The things I do work for me, because I've made goals in my life to listen to God's voice and heed what He says to me (most of the time, I've gotten in lots of trouble for not listening!).

So my hangup with facebook and blogging has been that I don't want to look like a snob... arrogant about the good things in my life. But why should I feel like I can't be happy about my life just because other people are unhappy? Or that I think they will judge me for being too goody-goody. If people think that I suppose they wouldn't read... at least that's what I would do.

I am so sullen with this whole concept lately. Hung up on what others would think of me... but who cares?

I'm happy with my life, and I'm so proud of the person I've grown up to be! Does anyone else understand where I'm coming from here? I guess I wanted to say type it out loud!

pocket camera

There was a time where in which I did not feel the need to edit every.single.photo that I took. I still have that in me, but usually don't end up letting myself. Today though, I decided that I need to find my battery charger for my little camera and start carrying it around with me... and while thinking about that I decided to look back through the pictures I still have on the computer from before I started using my dslr. Some awesome memories! I don't even care that they are not like super fantastical awesome piccies, they're memories and I am loving how it's like yesterday when I look at them :)



Used to be that alicia and i would have regular photo fests taking dozens of pictures of the two of us at a time... a couple months would go by and we realized we hadn't taken pics in a while and took more... so there's a lot of those ;)



taken while sleeping... yep.



Andy :) my little buddy!



My version of how to use an exercise ball... ;)



layin in the grass watchin contraband movies on Alicia's computer...





Man, my teeth were yellow! I've noticed this in so many pictures, eww! lol, I don't think they're that yellow now... at least I hope



we were on our way to a family reunion...



and then wasting time... I've never been good at making faces at the camera other than my classic wide open mouth crazy smile face... maybe I should stick with that.



Again with the teeth! but I had to chop my hair off here, it was a long story of hair falling out sadness :(



corn maize!



candlelight service on Christmas Eve... and bein goofy ;)



Waiting for santa... I was good, don't I look it?



and one more of Andy :)

Amanda goes to Washington

and Baltimore too as it turns out.

I actually frequent this part of the country with all the family in Maryland, but this trip was unrelated to visiting family. The lady that I babysit for regularly was participating in some conferences in Baltimore as well as DC and she had me come with her to help out with munchy-poo Robbie while she was unavailable.



So in an attempt to have as much fun as possible (which is always on my agenda) I met up with my oldest brother Rob, my sissy-in-law Dyan and two of my nephews, Robbie and Nick. We went to the national aquarium at the Inner Harbor on Saturday afternoon.



I was so amazed. Like seriously. I couldn't believe how cool this place was. Very much worth the ridiculous ticket prices. And since munchy-poo got along with Big Rob so well I really did enjoy it and wasn't making silly noises pointing to "fishy" the whole time... lol.





I was very very close to leaving my camera at the hotel because it's just a lot of extra weight to carry... esp since they didn't allow strollers in the aquarium... but I am so glad I took it along! I feel like I never take pictures anymore. and I always kick myself for it.













Being with the jellies I really felt like it was in a sci-fi movie. The blue picture of the jellies is sooc, nothing at all... crazy right?

Well, on Sunday we headed to DC and checked into our hotel mid morning. When Wendy's conference ended that afternoon we decided to trek it on over to the monuments and check out the Cherry Blossoms which I mentioned before I have not been able to make it to see during festival time.



Earlier on in the day they had some kite festival... and by the time we made it down there weren't many still flying... and because I didn't care to not blow out the sky, you can't actually see any of them flying. But they're there.





I think Robbie enjoyed the blossoms as much as we did ;) So nice to see a little one love nature.



And then there's me. Who loves nature, DC, turtles, lots of colors, my husby, venetian blinds and light bulbs in my laundry room.

Love,

today is the new tomorrow

I say that because it has taken me now like a week to get to "tomorrow" when I said I'd post more about how there is a giant U-haul parked in my parents' driveway...

Well thank goodness that is no longer a current statement... it's old news... because we now live in a house, not a U-haul. And for $30+ a day, I can find a pretty decent apartment to be livin in... the truck just didn't cut it ;P

And since today is the first day in almost 2 weeks I've actually had internet on my computer I'm finally catching up with a little of what I've missed! I've got a droid but it's hard to keep up with emails, facebook etc on it since the typing isn't the easiest. Back to my trusty rusty desktop ;) mmmmmalicious!

Anyways, here is the truck with the giant mushrooms on the side...



anyone know anything about the humongous fungus? I was like omg that's totes disgusting. TOTES people! (btw I just made myself barf a little just typing that word)



And heeeeere is a pic of the house! I will eventually post more nice ones, but everything is so disheveled right now... I just want to get off here and put some stuff away!



Oh ya, and that's me on the right side... wearing my bills hoodie with the hood up, because apparently it only ever rains and snows here now.

on buying a house

What would the house buying experience be if there wasn't a crazy story to go with it? I mean, for awhile things were going so smoothly that I was afraid we might make it through without a hitch and when the conversation started round the dinner table I might be met with blank stares as I explained, "well, when we bought our house, there were no problems. it was easy peasy. everything went as planned."

Well let me tell you how relieved I am to know that will never happen to me! I was starting to get worried...

When we wrote up the purchase offer agreement, it was stated that the closing date would be on or before April 18th. Now, although this is a nebulous date (moreorless) we were still told that it was ok to plan around it... and hopefully things would just fall into place.

Common problems not allowing us to close by then would most likely involve the bank, or some unfinished paperwork. So we decided to move out of our apartment on Sunday April 17 and stay overnight at my mom and dad's, close sometime Monday the 18th and then move in then and the next day.

On Sunday evening we went to the house for the final walkthrough... and found that the sellers had taken pre-posession of the house they are buying and were still in the process of moving out of our house but had no plans to close the next day.

At this point, we live in a U-haul.

Apparently, closing on the 18th wasn't convenient for them.

It's more convenient for them to have posession of both houses while they take their time to move.

So it's Tuesday night and we still have not closed.

The bank is ready. The lawyers are ready. We are ready. But the sellers, well, they're not.

What a great story right? I know, that's what I was thinking too ;)

Here's to hoping this all gets sorted out in the morning :) and I will have to dig out my camera from the bottom of my car and take a picture of the moving truck outside my parents house so you can see just how giant the humongous fungus from michigan is on the side of it.

I laugh so I don't cry ;)

catch-up

It's official... I am one of those non-blogger bloggers. You know, the ones you label as "friends who have blogs but never blog" in your reader... (well at least I have one of those labels, you don't?) I'm one of them! And I am not a happy camper. Where has all the mojo gone???

Also, this is one of my pet peeves, people who blog about how they never blog. Yep, I'm actually annoying myself right now by writing this. But who cares, if you didn't, you wouldn't be reading this... errr, I think.

Anyways, I think I will do a little catch up on here in bullet form.

- In January we started looking for a house... one to buy, not rent.

- We bought one.

- We're moving this weekend!

- I'm still babysitting part time.

- I almost never take pictures lately. Ugh... maybe because I hate sitting at my computer. I really think this is a valid point... my computer is in my most hated room of my apartment... and since most of the time I've lived here I've had to climb over boxes to get to it, I am just in no mood to take pictures I will feel guilty about letting sit in my camera.

- When we move, I will have a new office, all big and bright and just mine :) I can't wait!

- Last weekend I went to Baltimore and DC with the lady I babysit for. I watched the baby while she was at conferences and meetings. It was an adventure for sure and we did lots of fun things. Like, the aquarium at the inner harbor and also was able to make it to the tidal basin where the cherry trees are... AND the fact that it was actually cherry blossom festival time was like, a miracle. I've been going down there almost my whole life, wishing, hoping, waiting for the trip that would land during that time... but alas, it's always the week before or the week after.

- I actually DID take pictures of the weekend. Since I'm supposed to be packing and not blogging I only took time to pull one of them... but a goal for next week will be to do a few more so I can show off the super sweet aquarium... I dragged my camera along though I was *this* close to leaving it... I'm such an oxymoron!



- Yesterday I took two boxes into the kitchen thinking that would be enough to empty the cupboards of food. It took six. I am just amazed at how much stuff I have... and I really thought I did a good job of minimizing over the last year... just think if I hadn't.

- I tried playing pandora on my computer but the dang speakers weren't working properly. However I plugged them into my phone and they played just fine... so I'm wasting my battery by playing pandora on my phone while I sit in front of the computer...

- Oh! A couple months ago I set out to make some changes around here with our food. I wanted to cook a lot more than I was, because a) it's cheaper to cook and b) it's easier to control what's in your food if you cook it. And I have been loving this new adventure. I thought I did a pretty good job at cooking before, but now I feel like I'm doing a lot better. I meal plan a month in advance and buy everything besides perishables at the beginning of the month. This way I can budget more effectively... and this is all thanks to my friend Erin. She turned me on to this and I'm so glad!

- I've had some really amazing personal revelation lately... I haven't had so much direction in my life like pretty much ever. I am just blown away by a few things that have fallen into place and how it was that I hadn't ever seen it before!

- We're planning a bunch of traveling this summer, the next trip is to visit the inlaws in PA and our friends in MD. I'm very excited to see all of them, it's been quite awhile now.

I think that's all I have for now... til next time... and hopefully that doesn't mean in like 2 months lol