working hard or hardly working?

On Thursday this week we had 17 tons of dirt delivered to our yard. It didn't look like quite as much as I was expecting but it is still tons of dirt. We plan on using it to fill in around the house and hopefully stop the basement from leaking. So now between rain storms Andy is working hard trying to get all of the dirt moved so we won't annoy the neighbors with a huge dirt our yard. I am on the disabled list so I didn't help much today. I did get a few flowers planted in pots. I don't really know what I am doing. And I do wish I would have picked a different type of flower, not that I even know what I picked I just thought they looked nice at first, but I guess I will know better next year. Maybe once they grow they will look a little better. So I ran to Walmart after I was done and didn't bother to clean up. I did put a clean shirt on, but it's Walmart, so no need to go all out. When I got home I realized I had a huge dirt streak up my neck. A little embarrassing but I probably fit right in.

Graduation Season

Last weekend we went to my cousins' ranch in Kansas for their graduation. My family was also there so it was fun to see them and I know they want to see how my shape is changing. It was a fast weekend we drove down on Saturday and back on Sunday at least we like rode trips. This weekend we drove out to my a different cousin's graduation party and stayed the night at my Grandma's house. I however did not get any pictures from the 2nd graduation weekend.

Me with the graduates Tristin and Chelsy

Me with my little sister and brother Melissa and Ryan. We are only missing Rachel, she couldn't make it.

my lovely lady lumps

It has begun. I was at McDonalds last week and the cashier was a real happy bubbly lady and she looked at my belly and asked “What can I get you lady lump?” Hmmm… lady lump that’s a new one, I am sure I will hear many more things like that. It’s kind of entertaining. There are of course the people I work with every day that still haven’t noticed or at least are too scared to say anything, which is fine too. It all depends on what I am wearing.

Let the count down begin

We are leaving in 3 weeks from tomorrow for Nicaragua!! We are staying in a nice resort and it's going to be so fun! Not much time to write this morning but I knew you were dying to know. Thanks for all the guesses some of them were close, but who would have thought Nicaragua and in case you were wondering my OB thought it was really cool that we were going there and said one of the other Dr's goes down there all the time and loves it!!

Drum Roll Please...

We have booked our long awaited vacation!! Just where you might ask? Try to guess. I will give you some clues and the winner can have the satisfaction of knowing they won. If you already know don't ruin the surprise.

It is somewhere I have never mentioned wanting to go

In fact I never knew I even wanted to go there

Not a common place to go on vacation

It is warm and tropical

Beaches, volcanoes, rain forest, mountains, monkeys

four-five star all inclusive resort

Stimulus package almost covers it!!

South of the U.S.

Same as Mountain Standard Time Zone

Any Ideas?

Good Samaritan?

I went to the mall this week and as I was getting out of the car this lady was trying to flag me down from across the row. She was much taller than me and I am 5’8” and just a sturdy looking gal, at first I was going to pretend I didn’t hear her and keep walking but she was persistent. As she was walking up to me she told me her name was Caitlin which isn’t common for someone who seems to be in their 40’s, but what ever and she was telling me that she was so so embarrassed to ask but she really need help and seemed a little frazzled. She said she needed like 4 dollars because she ran out of gas she had to take her daughter to the mall and she was trying to get back to work, and she kept saying she was “so embarrassed” to have to ask, and she would mail it back to me and kept rambling. I was still feeling nervous- I mean I would love to help someone but I was by myself, and because of my back I was not feeling real strong on my feet at the moment if I needed to be. I just kept holding my purse closer as she approached, and I did unzip it to start to look because for most of the week I did have a couple of dollars just hanging out in there, still nervous, I remembered that I had spent my last dollar on a bag of Honey BBQ Fritos that my stomach had been regretting all afternoon. So I stopped looking and told her I was sorry and I didn’t have any cash I spent my last dollar on a bag of chips that I regretted buying. She was ok with that answer and walked on across to the bus stop?
That is seriously one of the oldest tricks in the book, it could be legitimate and I feel bad if was, but how do I know it was legitimate and I wasn’t really up for any funny business.
And really almost everyone has credit cards anymore, so couldn’t she have used a credit card? Well, if she really did indeed need some help I hope she found it. I guess I wasn’t a good Samaritan this week.

movement

I know, I know I missed my weekly Thursday update. I spent the evening with one of my good friends and mother of little Ruby. She fed me dinner, we chatted, took care of the girls and enjoyed ourselves. It was a fun way to spend the evening!
My back is doing much better. Melissa's comment on my last post made me laugh so hard I almost injured my back further. I am really surprised and very grateful at how fast it is healing up. I thought for a few days I was going to be miserable the rest of my life, maybe a little melodramatic but hey I have pregnancy hormones.
I had my 4 month check up on Monday, everything looks good. I thought that I was going to have a follow-up ultrasound but they are going to wait a few more weeks. We don’t plan on finding out girl/boy. I think it will be fun to have a surprise in a few months.

One of the things I was really looking forward to in pregnancy was feeling the baby move. It was most discouraging to me to think if we were never able to have children that would be one thing I would miss out on. I am disappointed however that I can’t mark the day that I first felt the baby move. It's quite possible it was a month ago, but it was so brief and never repeated, that I just don’t know. I know during church on Mothers day I most definitely felt some movement, and one day this week the baby and I both decided my pants were getting way to tight and I felt a lot of bouncing around in there. It’s a nice feeling-- the baby moving not the too tight pants. It’s still so hard to believe that I am actually pregnant and I will in fact have a baby to hold in just a few months. I am getting so excited!
We have a busy weekend planned, I think it’s going to be a fun one!

Murphy's Law

What ever can be dropped will be dropped.
I can barely walk across the house. I almost wet my pants because it took so long for me to walk to the bathroom. So I went to the chiropractor this morning and I dropped my keys outside on the ground, about the worst thing to do when your low back is in spasms and can hardly stand up. I retrieved those, then while leaving the chiropractor's office I dropped the little card with my next appointment information on the ground outside, at least the wind wasn't blowing to much. I look like a little 95 year old lady in bad need of a walker. I thought drive-thru would be my best and least painful option for lunch, so I headed that way. The cashier leans out tells me the amount, and just as I am handing it to her she is trying to shove my food into my hand, drink and bag at the same time and then she drops my dollar outside. I thought about letting it blow away but it's a dollar, if it was a coin or something I probably would have left it. So I feebly get out of the car and inch my way to the end of the car to retrieve my dollar which takes me a few minutes to bend down and pick up. Then I am slowing sitting back down and trying to get me feet in and the lady is impatiently trying to get me to grab my food. Seriously, I know I look young but today I feel 95 , give me a few minutes. And really how often does your money get dropped in the drive-thru? Why did it have to be today?

home again

Once again here is my weekly blog. Last weekend we went to Galena, IL to visit Andy's brother and his wife. It was a good time like always. They have a cute little house in the very cute historical town of Galena. Saturday started off rainy so we went to The River Museum in Dubuque, then spent the rest of the day walking around the town of Galena. I love that place. It was just a relaxing weekend, so relaxing in fact that I failed to take any pictures.

All my pregnancy woes are starting in already?! Seriously I am not quite 4 months along. You know the achy hips, sore back, swelling legs etc. Wouldn't you believe it, this morning I was eating and I suddenly sneezed (a common occurence when you have allergies and sleep with the windows open) That sneeze hurt so bad, I had to wait for Andy to walk into the dining room to help me stand up. Yup, so now I joined the group of people that those lay you out flat back injuries. I can still barely walk around so I took the day off again. Hopefully I will still be able to enjoy some of the nice weather that seems to be shaping up.

hmmm...Summertime

Tonight for dinner we had Chinese at Hyvee (a midwest grocery store). It was very yummy, I love crab rangoon. I think it's kind of funny how some of the best pizza comes from Casey's gas station, and some of the best Chinese comes from the grocery store cafe. It's a unique Iowa or midwest thing I guess.

I am longing for summer, it's getting closer I can feel it. But most of all I am longing for a beach vacation. I may even regret saying this when it is 95 degrees and I am 7 months pregnant, but right now I am tired and need a break and that is what sounds so appealing to me. Shortly before I got pregnant we were seriously talking about going to Hawaii in April, we almost bought airline tickets, but I was starting to have some the trouble with the pregnancy and we thought it would be best to wait and get the Dr's ok for travel. She didn't exactly say to not travel, but she more or less implied she it might be best to wait until my next appointment when they do the follow up ultrasound. So we are waiting. In the meantime we have also tossed around the idea of going to California since it would be a much shorter flight. I would even settle for going back to Florida again this year, but we really like going new places. So watch out Kandid Kiwi and Galloping Cows. Really I have no idea where we might end up, but it would be nice to go on one more kid free vacation. We still hope we be able to go on vaca without kids but we will always have a responsibility for getting them taken care of from here on out. But this is what I think about when I am stuck in my little cubicle at work and this is what keeps me from putting my 2 weeks in, knowing that I am making some extra money that would help fund the trip.

So on a side note the main concern for travel when pregnant is blood clots, which is also a concern for anyone at anytime that is traveling. So the hypochondriac side of me researched blood clot symptoms so I would know if I got one. Well I already have ALL the symptoms in my right leg. But I have had all those symptoms for the last 6 years, so I probably would have died by now had it been a blood clot. But it kinda freaked me out for a day or so.

I must go Thursday is a good TV night with the Office and Lost.

I always plan on updating my blog more often, but before I know it a week has passed. So today you get 2 posts, or maybe even 3!

*note - I fixed the link for baby Ruby's caringbridge site for updates. The tumor was removed successfully and they found out that the cancer is non-aggressive! At times the situation has looked pretty bleak, but they are doing well under the circumstances. Lydia is such a good testimony to the nurses and staff, I have witnessed this first hand, and it makes me ashamed to think that I don't know if I could handle it the same way if I were in her position. But she said if she doesn't then "this entire ordeal has no point." Wow, what focus, God is really using this family for His good work, despite the heartache. Baby Ruby starts her chemo tomorrow, I am praying that she reacts well and has minimal side effects.

Cravings or are they?

Recently I have been on a gummy fruit snack kick, after about 4 boxes of trying to find the good kind, I think my fruit snack taste buds are satisfied. Or are they? Just writing this I had to get up and and get the last 2 packages. Welch's brand seem to be the winner!
My other craving that I have yet to satisfy are my mom's cinnamon rolls. Our version growing up was the basic cinnamon roll with sticky bun topping (minus the yucky pecans) instead of frosting. I think these are even better than Cinnabon and I really like Cinnabon. I have always loved my mom's cinnamon rolls so much, sometimes while we were at school she would make some for an event but she would always make extra for us to have some. I know that this craving stems from the Amish book I was reading and every morning for breakfast they sit down for some fresh sticky buns, or every time they go to visit some one they are served fresh sticky buns. The power of suggestion, that is what gets me the most. Last time I talked to my mom I did ask if she could make some and bring them to my cousin's graduation in a few weeks, along with the recipe. So she just might...

I got my first 2 pairs of maternity pants in the mail this week. I found them on clearance from target.com and they came in longs. The gray ones fit great, but the jeans are huge, I mean all around huge like 3 sizes too huge and they were supposed to be the same size. Oh well they were only $8 so I will hold on to them and see if I will grow into them, I just might. I don't plan on wearing either until I have to. I am starting to show now depending on what I am wearing, I still don't think you can see much if I am wearing something loose but if I put on one of my older tighter shirts you can most definitely tell. I don't know why but the tight shirts make me feel so self conscious, I feel like with the looser tops I can still fool a lot of people and they wouldn't even know I am expecting. For those that don't see me on a regular basis, here are a few pictures for you to see for yourselves, both taken this week.