this is gonna be LONG!

I've got a lot running around in my head and this is the place where I let some of it out.
First of all, in case you live under a rock or are deaf, mute, and blind... it's still raining in N. Texas. I personally love rainy days and don't mind this one bit, besides it keeps the air cooler and since I am almost 32 weeks preggo, I'm all for that! My only 'problem' w/ the rain is that my dogs don't like to go 'out' in it. And when it does stop or rather 'pause' from raining, and they do go out then they bring in muddy footprints and I have hard wood floors. Nevermind the fact that there are 5 area rugs for them to wipe their little feeties on before they get into the house, we still have footprints and lots of them. Oh and since they aren't outside as much, there is way more dog hair on the floors than there usually is. So on Tuesday, in an effort to be like the Holly Homemaker that I claim to be... I hauled out the vaccum cleaner... and used it. On every square inch of the first floor. I was almost done when I went to move the coffee table. It's on wheels so no biggie right? Well, since it is on wheels and on hardwood floors, I lost control of it and it totally smashed my big toe! The nail was/is this nice light shade of blue within an hour. It throbbed for most of the night and still hurts today. Let me tell ya, you don't realize how much you use your toes for walking til you hurt one of them!
I don't usually re-read books, well, except for the Bible... but I'm re-reading a book this week and boy is it a kicker. It's called "Having a Mary heart in a Martha world." the concept is that we women can tend to get caught up in the things and busyness of life and forget to just sit and take a moment w/ Jesus sometimes. Like when Jesus went to Mary and Martha's house... Martha was ticked b/c Mary was sitting there listening to Jesus talk and she (Martha) was running around like a chicken w/ out a head trying to be the perfect hostess. It bothered her so much that she tattled on Mary to Jesus! He told her, chill girl, Mary has chosen the better thing.
(um, this is from the 'DRB' translation not available in print or anywhere outside of my head actually) Anyway, the book really gets you to look at where your priorities are and how difficult we sometims make our lives b/c we don't spend a few minutes w/ God before we rush (or slowly enter) our day. Just thought I'd throw that out there for ya.
Ok, now for a vent about fireworks. Yesterday, C and I just puttered around the house, he actually was able to mow the back yard and we washed all the windows and screens on the first floor, then we napped and watched some movies. Well, around 8:30 we decided to go to a majorly announced fireworks display since the one we went to last year (which was great by the way) was cancelled and rescheduled for Labor Day. Our town wasn't doing anything and I think its b/c this majorly announced thing was happening just one town over. So we threw some chairs in the pickup, grabbed a can of OFF! (thanks to the rain we are overpopulated w/ mosquitos!) and headed out about 45 minutes before the show was to start. Now the place where the display was going to take place is only 10 minutes from us, but it took 90 minutes for us to get there!!! Traffic was horrific and people where being amazingly idiotic. The show started late, and we wound up watching it from inside the truck while stuck in traffic. Let me just say this, for something that was announced as much as this was, and for as hyped up as it was, I was expecting one incredible display of fireworks. Boy, was I disappointed! The show lasted about 15 minutes MAYBE one or two minutes longer than that with some major pauses between some of the blasts. What a HUGE letdown. It looked like the whole world had come out to see this display and it was the puniest show I've ever seen! EVER! The small town in IL where we used to go had better displays. Then it took about 45 minutes to get out of the snarl of traffic. Not before we were almost t-boned though. OK, now I've mentioned the rain we've had right???? So, common sense would tell you that the ground would be wet, muddy, and really not driveable. Well, common sense is obviously an oxymoron... b/c it ain't so common!!! This moron decides he wants out of his parking spot from up on the side of the road. So he tries to back up his LARGE SUV into the traffic that is inching its way down the road. (By the way, just b/c you have an SUV does not mean that that you can drive on any kind of surface, you need 4WD or AWD AND the right type of tires. If you primarily use your vehicle to pick up milk and run the kids to soccor practice you DO NOT have an all terrain vehicle. C's truck has 'mudding' tires on it and he even said he wouldn't have tried parking up on the side of the road like some of these COMPLETE morons!) The guys truck was at least 3 inches deep in the mud up there but he proceeds to spin his wheels and spray mud EVERYWHERE just to go nowhere. His buddies help push at least the rear drivers side wheel off the curb and into the street. Do you remember how I said he was 3 inches in mud? Well, guess what he has NO traction back there now. The other 3 tires are just spinning and spraying mud and the one wheel that is on the street is so covered in mud that it is just sliding on the road. So the geniuses get out and give him a few more pushes and boom the other back tire is on the road and now the entire rear of the vehicle is just fishtailing on the road. I'm scooting in my chair to the middle of the truck b/c I'm so afraid that he is just gonna slam into my side of the truck. Since there is so much traffic, C has no where to move our truck and we are both just praying that we don't get hit. The gifted driver decides to 'rock' his car now, putting it in drive then reverse then drive again. Can I just tell you if I wasn't so worried about getting slammed by this man in the middle of deadlocked traffic at almost 32 weeks pregnant, this would have been quite the show and more entertaining than the fireworks we had come out to see! Somehow he managed now to get the driver side tire off the curb and now he really has no control over his slidding truck. Truly its a miracle he didn't hit anyone. He finally spun his wheels enough on the pavement to remove enough mud to get traction and pulled the rest of his vehicle onto the road. Yes, he looked like a moron as he drove 2 inches away with his arms in the air claiming 'victory'! No one was happy w/ him, as most of us now need to get our vehicles cleaned to get his mud spray off.
Speaking of trucks... I'll just mention this and then end the longest post in bloggin history... it seems that we will be saying a sad farewell to C's truck sooner than we really wanted to. Of course, now that it is paid off and we actually have the title, oh and spent the money to have it reregistered b/c we figured we'd use it for a few more months... it doesn't look like it will make it that much longer. We'd rather not put anymore money into it. So we are on the look out for a small sedan for C. I'm really going to miss the truck. I loved having a pick up. It was great for camping and for hauling stuff to/from Home Depot or Lowe's, and getting rid of tree limbs that we've cut down. We had some good times w/ this truck, I will be sad to see it go. The dogs will also miss hearing C come home. They perk up their ears when he is about a block away and go running to the door as he gets closer.
Ok, I promised I'd go now...

~til next time!

ok, I'm back... finally!

Sooooooooooooooooo did ya miss me?

The trip to NY went really well. The planes were full so I was warmer than I wanted to be, but over all the flights were smooth, the layovers were uneventful and there weren't any delays... even getting back into Dallas where it has been raining for what seems like forever! The weather this year is the exact opposite of last year and quite honestly I'm very glad about it. I love rainy days! :D

The shower was wonderful! My family and friends totally blew me away with their generosity. I'm still overwhelmed by it all.

C painted the baby's room and b/c of the generosity we received in NY, we are able to order all 3 pieces of furniture we want for the room. We wanted to go do that on Saturday, but the store has a coupon that starts on July 23rd so we are gonna wait to use that for it. I'll be sure to take pics once that is all set up. I'm getting pretty excited about it and so is C. He was really bummed that we have to wait to use the coupon. If we weren't going to save a significant amount of money... I think he would have just ordered it anyway.

When I got back, I had a NST (non stress test) on Thursday and a sono on Friday and all is A-OK with the lil bean.

We have a home project in the works, I'll try to take before, during and after pics. I'm really hoping to have it done in the next week or two. Course, I'm not doing the work... that is gonna have to be all C, I'm just 'supervising'. :D

I've been 'tagged' to do a 7 things you didn't know about me blog... I'll work on that and hopefully have it up for you soon.

Now to leave you with some pics from the shower... I didn't take any of these!

My Step-mother, Beth & me



My 'other mother'. This is Debbie. She and my mom were best friends. Debbie and her family is my family! She hosted the shower in her home/yard.



My Aunt Virg, she's the one who takes care of me!




Here is my Aunt Sheri, she flew up from Orlando, FL; then my Sis in Law (and friend) Stacy, and my Aunt Dorene, she flew up from Austin, TX... she has also taken on a roll of taking care of me. I have WONDERFUL family and friends! I love them so much!



This is Sharon, my almost sister, who organized this whole thing.
In this pic, she is measuring my 'girth' for a game. (so humiliating by the way)



ok, I'm sure I've bored you all to tears by now...

~til next time!

So long... farewell....

I'll be gone for a week folks... with NO internet access!!!!! I really don't know how well I'm going to handle this. Seriously. I'm the type who checks her email every 20 minutes. SO there is going to be some major withdrawal going on here.

Here are a few pics that I have from when some friends of ours came to visit.... the last time I was gone for almost a week! :D





ok, so I really don't have a whole lot of pics of that visit. Guess you'll have to wait for R to put them up on her blog!! :D

I'll catch you all up to speed when I get back next week. In the mean time, would someone please keep an eye on my hubby for me??? I hate to leave him all alone!

It is a bit odd...

last night the baby was moving around, not jabbing but rolling or whatever... so I put C's hand on my belly and he could feel it. I couldn't help but laugh at his reaction... his face said EW That's disgusting!!!! but his words were that must feel weird. And it is, but in an odd way neat and majorly reassuring. My aunt lost 2 babies in the womb and that is always in the back of my mind, so I get uber nervous when I don't feel the little bean moving and grooving. I try to reassure myself by saying this is totally a miracle from God and He will finish it perfectly. But I'm not delusional... even Christians lose babies. I'm just trying to trust Him that He has this in His hands and that whatever the outcome is... He will prepare me to handle it.

I had a post...

at 5am running through my head, but now I can't remember it all. I do remember that I was going to say how glad I was that we have health insurance. I mean seriously, God's timing is sooo perfect. If I had gotten pregnant in 2003, when C was out of a job and we had no insurance I just don't know what we would have done. During this pregnancy I have seen my OB dr at least 2x a month if not more, a cardiologist once, he performed an EKG and sent me home on a monitor for 24 hours, I have seen the perinatologist 4x and at each visit he has performed a sonogram. My OB gave me the number for a dermatologist b/c I have this small rash on my abdomen (its going away so I haven't called... I'm dr'd out)I have a 'scrip for prenatal vitamins, my lancet and test strips for my glucose monitoring... and the machine itself, I had a 'scrip for blood pressure meds but I don't have to take those anymore, plus I have the 'scrip for the shots that I take daily. I have been to the hospital once b/c they were worried that preterm labor might set in and they hooked me up to monitors for 2 hours and did some swab test. (don't worry, all is good) At my last OB visit she informed me that I will be starting monitoring 2x a WEEK at the hospital... every Monday I go in for a NST (I think this means non stress test) and then on Thrusdays I will have a sonogram. This is from now until I deliver. The whole reason why this is running through my head is b/c I recently picked up a refill of my shots. Originally, the pharmacy told me that the ins would only pay for 14 needles at a time. This cost me $15. My dr warned me that it was an expensive med and that some ins cos won't pay for it, she said if this was the case to not pick up the meds, call her and she would prescrip a different med, but the catch to that was that I'd have to have 2 shots a day. So we figured $1 a shot a day wasn't too bad. Well, when I went to pick up my first refill, the pharmacist said that the ins co didn't want to pay. I told her, well neither do I!!! She said she wanted to make some phone calls to find out whats going on... so I went home. She called a few hours later and said she got it worked out w/ the ins co that I could now get 30 needles at a time and still only pay $15. YAY! Well, when I picked them up and saw the receipt and it sais "Your ins co saved you $986.89" I was shocked. Seriously, someone else would have to pay $1001 a month for this???? YIKES!!!! I haven't seen a bill yet from all the other visits I've been to, nothing from the hospital yet on the monitoring from the other day... but so far I've only paid out $10 to each dr... and only on the first visit, nothing on repeat visits. OH AND I have been to diabetic counseling... one class and 2 follow up visits... these take place at a major medical facility a few towns over. I don't know what we would do without our health insurance. I hate to think that the baby or I wouldn't get the medical care that we have been getting without the ins, but quite honestly, we couldn't afford it without insurance.
On the pregnancy front: I still feel fine. My complaints are minor. One is waking up to pee and not being able to get back to sleep for about an hour, and I really get annoyed b/c I have to wake up to roll over. I mean really, how rediculous is that???? I am a little annoyed that the one time in my life I could be eating whatever I want and not feel too guilty about it... I can't. I miss fruit juice, I miss indulging in ice cream and not feeling guilty. I don't like feeling monitored when I dish up my serving of mashed potatoes or pasta. I just want to sit on the couch with a fresh loaf of french bread and some butter. I want to eat a bagel w/ cream cheese every morning. I want to drink a regular soda. The occasional sips that I steal from C just aren't cutting it. I will need a regular coke from McDonald's with no ice when I am at the hospital! I want to be able to eat anything with out having to think about the consequences. I don't want to test my sugar levels anymore. I don't want kool-aid or decaf iced tea made with splenda anymore. I'm tired of reading labels. I used to freak thinking the baby was going to be here soon and I'm not ready... I'm still not ready, but I'm so glad this is almost over! Summer time and ice cream are just meant to be enjoyed together!