As American As Apple Pie

This afternoon while Mike was mowing the yard, he noticed that one of our trees had tiny apples on it. We have lived here 8 years and I don't remember seeing any fruit on this tree ever!

We think they might be Granny Smith apples, but we don't know for sure.

We do expect them to get bigger at some point.

Emily sure liked them!

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Will it? Wont it?

Will my new storage shed make it in time? For some reason, this is very hard to figure out. The shed company didn't call me back last night like they said they would. I called this afternoon, but had to leave a message.

When the guy called me back, he said he was "trying really hard" to get me scheduled for next Friday, but they still don't know for sure. He said one of their workers fell off a ladder and hurt himself today.

Apparently, he fell down on some boards on the ground chest first. He has no broken bones, but is in a lot of pain. And they hope to have him back at work by Wednesday or Thursday next week, but they don't know for sure. So in the meantime, we sit and wait and pray. The guy said he should know something by Monday or Tuesday and he will call me as soon as he finds out. Uh huh, I think that's what he told me last time.

I guess they already got my money and so they feel no real need to accommodate me at this point. I am sure they don't need my business as much as I need my storage shed. That's typical of companies these days, isn't it?

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Good, Better, Best

Today was Emily's last day of school for this year. Her last day of Pre-K ever. She got her report card today and it was GOOD. She passed every skill, of course.

In her Pre-K class, they have a color chart that they use to track behavior. Green is GOOD. Blue is a warning. Yellow is worse than that. And Red is a trip to the principal's office. Emily, proudly, has stayed on GREEN every day this whole year. And that is GOOD!

This is what Emily looked like this morning on the way to school.

Do you remember what she looked like on her first day of Pre-K? Check it out here.




Isn't she just growing up right in front of our eyes?

Today while I was at home, I called my doctor's office to see if they had the results from my glucose tolerance test that I took last week. The nurse called me back later and said that the results were normal. I told you that's what it would be, but I feel BETTER now that I know for sure.

I also worked on cleaning and organizing in Emily's room today. I had a lot of baby things stored in her closet and I was trying to get everything sorted out so that I can move some of it to Noah's room soon. I don't know about you, but I clean and organize with a large trash bag in hand.

Anything that has seen better days goes into the trash bag. It's much easier to clean this way when Emily is not around though. And the bag has to be gone by the time she comes back!

When Emily got home from school, I put her to work putting away her things in her room. She is a good helper if I give her specific directions. "Gather up all the shoes and put them on the shelf." "Find all the baby doll clothes and put them in this suitcase." "How many books can you find? Put them on your desk."

When Dad got home, we went to eat at Ted's to celebrate the last day of school. It was good Mexican food tonight, but Emily was more interested in checking out the other diners than eating her dinner. Lately, she has become an expert people watcher. I have to remind her often to keep her eyes over at our table.

Tomorrow, Emily and I are going to spend the day together. And I think that's the BEST news of all. We don't have any specific plans, but we are going to try to find something fun to do. We might go shopping. We might go play at the park. We'll definitely try to get some things done at home. But I know we will have a great time.

More

I made some phone calls yesterday and was finally able to talk to a guy about our shed. He wanted to schedule us for Tuesday, June 1, but I said I really needed it earlier than that - before Memorial Day. He said their schedule was booked until then, but there was this one customer who had inquired about delaying their installation date because their building site was not ready. And IF they change their install date, then we can get our building installed on Friday, May 28. He called it an "outside chance" that we could get installed on that date, but I explained that we were expecting a baby soon and we NEEDED to get this building in before Memorial Day. So we are praying that we'll be able to get the date that we need and everything will work out. At this point, I just have to turn it over to God and let him work out all the details.

And A Funny

This morning when Emily and I were on our way to school, Emily and I were chattering about different things. She said that "Daddy works on suitcases." I said he doesn't work on suitcases. And she said "Yes he does. He works on a lot of suitcases at work." I tried to explain that they're not suitcases, but they are computer files that are called cases and that Daddy helps people. I am just wondering how many people she has told that her Daddy works on suitcases.

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Tasty Tidbits

• Emily's last day of school is this week. Her class is having theme days every day this week. Tomorrow is sports day. She gets to wear her new OU t-shirt. It's pink.

• I've been packing Emily's lunch for the last few weeks. I've just been putting "stuff" in it - peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, rolled up slices of ham, string cheese, yogurt, chips, cookie. Just whatever I have on hand. She's LOVING this because she had been eating lunch in the cafeteria for months. The main reason I'm packing the lunch now is that the school will no longer allow her to charge her lunch because the school year is nearing an end. And I don't exactly know how much a lunch costs each day. Lame, I know.

• We went to our local home improvement store this weekend and ordered a storage building for our yard. So far, they have not called to schedule delivery. And, you know me, if they don't start doing right by me, then I'll have to start naming names on my blog. And you know they don't want that!

• On Sunday night, a bad hail storm came through our town. Many people have horror stories of hail stones going all the way through shingles and the roof deck and right into their living room. Many windows were busted out on both homes and cars.

• Did you know that the largest recorded hail stone was something like 7.5 inches in diameter? Mike told me this. He knows all about it.

• We're expecting more bad weather tomorrow. I know this because Mike keeps telling me that "Wednesday looks interesting". When he says this, I hear "Wednesday looks dangerous."

• This is a three-day work week for me. I'm taking a few days off to celebrate Emily's last day of school and her first day of summer vacation! I want to spend as much time with her as I can now before we become a family of four!

• I saw on the news that Sonic now has "real" ice cream. (Not sure why this was news.) So today at lunch, I went to Sonic to check out this new feature. And while I believe them that it's "real" ice cream (why do they need the quotation marks if it's really real?), I didn't think the ice cream had much taste. Am I the only one who feels this way?

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27 Weeks

I'll be 27 weeks pregnant on Monday. I thought I would go ahead and post a picture from today. 'Scuse my bad hair day. It's been rainy and I took a nap!

I had my glucose tolerance test this morning and it was no fun at all. They draw your blood for a baseline reading and then you drink a nice big bottle of super sweet orange drink (must finish it within 5 minutes.) I was drinking this and the technician told me not to get sick or they would make me come back and do it again another day.

Then after you drink the stuff, they draw your blood every hour for three hours to check how your body processes the sugar. In case you were counting, that's a total of four blood draws. Well, they got their four blood draws from me, but they ended up sticking me a total of 8 times! That's a miss every other time. It was awful. They poked both arms and both hands.

Noah is very active these days. He flips and kicks and hiccups a lot during the day ... and night. Sometimes you can see my belly moving when he kicks. That's very cool to see. He is about 14 inches long and 2 lbs.

My current craving is Reese's Pieces. I'd rather have these than ice cream. I'd rather have these than just about any kind of food. Too bad that won't fly. Peanut butter in a crunchy candy shell. What's not to LOVE?

I'm looking forward to going to the doctor for another ultrasound in about 2 weeks. It's always so fun to see how much baby Noah has grown and what he's doing in there.

I was talking to Mike the other day and told him that I was going to be 27 weeks on Monday. Emily was born at 37 weeks so we Noah could be here in as little as 10 weeks. Yikes! That makes me think I need to get busy.

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Glucose Tolerance Test

My glucose tolerance test is in the morning. I just want to take back what I said earlier this week about knowing that I'll pass the test this time. It's sorta like when you say that your kids sleep through the night ... or when you say that you or your kids never get sick. As soon as you say that, you know whatever you said WILL happen. So I take back what I said about the glucose tolerance test. Just because I don't want to press my luck.

So tonight as I prepare for the test, I'll be eating nothing after midnight. And I'll dutifully show up at the doctor's office early in the morning to start my test. Oh, and someone told me that it's not three blood draws. It's actually four. OUCH! I was thinking I might take pictures of all my "wounds" and post them on the blog, but I think Heather might not like that. Sorta like the alien baby pictures.

I told Mike that I might need some TLC tomorrow when I get done with my test. Mike went to the doctor's office with me when I had to do the three-hour test when I was pregnant with Emily, but he's not going to be able to go this time.

There seems to be a lot of confusion about the difference between the one-hour glucose screening test and the three-hour glucose tolerance test. I keep getting asked about this A LOT. The point of glucose testing in pregnancy is to look for gestational diabetes (aka diabetes during pregnancy.)

Like any screening test, the one-hour glucose screening will not give you a diagnosis. It's purpose is to identify which women need a closer look at their glucose levels. I think about 80% of women will pass the one-hour glucose screening.

The women who do NOT pass the one-hour glucose screening will have to take the three-hour glucose tolerance test and this will tell her doctor if she has gestational diabetes. Of the people who have to take the three-hour test, only about 30% of them will end up actually having gestational diabetes. So statistics (and history) are on my side.

I'll have to take a good book with me or something because three hours is a long time to sit in a waiting room. Especially when you're hungry. And especially when you're hungry and pregnant. And especially when you're hungry and pregnant and had to drink a bunch of nasty orange liquid (which gives me wicked heartburn) and have to get your arm jabbed repeatedly.

Okay all this talk about the test tomorrow is making me grumpy so I better go to bed.

Goodnight all!

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Spring Storms

As you know, we live in Oklahoma. Oklahoma is known for being in "tornado alley". On Monday evening, we had some damaging storms in the area. A tornado came through about a mile and a half from our house. There's a lot of major damage just down the street. As of today (Wednesday), there is only one north-south road that is open out near our house and it has power poles and power lines leaning over the roadway. Some of the cross streets are closed or blocked off.

And the sad thing is that we're having more bad weather in the state tonight. I think we're supposed to get storms every day from now until Monday or Tuesday next week.

We lost power on Monday night and finally got it back on Tuesday night. We stayed at home in the dark on Monday night, but we were getting ready to go stay with family on Tuesday. As we were packing our bags, the electricity came back on. I was soooooooo glad!

There are lots of people that had it much, much worse than we did. Many people are in need of our prayers during this time. I can't drive through the damage area without getting emotional. (I mean, I am plenty emotional right now without seeing all that.) But, it just breaks my heart to think of all those people who worked so hard for what they had and now it's all destroyed. Just seeing them out in the yards putting tarps over their roof or boarding up part of their house that was damaged, I can't imagine what they are thinking or feeling.

So all that to say ... please pray for these families who have lost their home or who have damage to their home.

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Mother's Day 2010

What a wonderful Mother's Day I have had!

This morning, it looked like we were going to get rained out, but the rain only lasted for a few minutes. Then we headed off to Sunday School. Cherry and I had some cute things planned for our SS kids to do for Mother's Day. Well, most of it was already done. And Cherry did most of it. But I think their mothers will be very happy.

After church, we went to lunch with Mike's family. The place was packed, but we got there early and didn't have to wait long. Mike's mom was excited about her gift - a large framed picture of the grandkids. The picture was from our Easter/Spring photos a few weeks ago. I think it turned out really cute and I'm glad she liked it.

After lunch, we went back home to take a nap. I think I'm the only one who actually took a nap, but I did take a long one. And it felt GOOD. Well, except for one little part.

When I got into bed, the sheet was sorta stuck down in the bed (because you KNOW I didn't make my bed when I got out of it this morning.) So I tugged on it to get it pulled up. And I ended up punching myself in the mouth with my fist. Got a nice fat lip out of the deal. Very classy look, I might add.

It was so nice to have a relaxing day. We had been so busy lately. It's been hard to keep up with all the little chores around the house ... like laundry. I can't say that I did great job of getting things done today, but there is always tomorrow. Or maybe the next day. Or sometime soon. Relatively soon.

In Other News ...

• We had a grand time yesterday in Tulsa for Miss Brynlee's first birthday party. Brynlee was so cute. The food was delicious. And Emily had a great time playing with all the kids. My ankles swelled quite a bit and I was sooo tired when we got home, but it was a lot of fun.

• I failed my one-hour glucose test last week. Total fail. Boo! So I have to do the three-hour (three-blood draw) test this week. So. Not. Fun.

• Emily only had about two weeks of school left. This week, she has to bring snacks for her class for the last time this year. It's also a day to celebrate her summer birthday. I was thinking we could stop by our favorite bakery and pick up some iced sugar cookies. And maybe one .. or two .. for baby and mommy. But Emily wanted to pick something else. So she's taking pre-packaged cookies from the grocery store.

• Cubbies is done for this year. Very happy about this. Wednesday we'll be able to relax instead of running all around town. I'll miss my Wednesday night date with Mike though.

Hope everyone had a great Mother's Day this year. I can't wait until next year when I'll be a mom of two. *squeal!* So fun! I think that almost makes up for the three-hour glucose test that I have to take this week. I just have this feeling that I'll pass the three-hour glucose test just fine. Sorta makes me want to call the doctor's office and say "ya know what? I don't feel like doing a three hour test this time so I think I'm just gonna pass. See you soon." What do you think?

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Where We've Been And Where We're Going

Have you noticed that the blog has been silent for a "few days"?

We have been extremely busy. This weekend was the city-wide garage sale weekend where we live. We went in with Mike's family to put on a garage sale at Mike's parents house. Well, they did most of the work, but I contributed some things to the sale.

Mike and I have been gathering up things for the garage sale for the last several weeks. One night last week, Mike's dad and brother came out to get a couple loads of the big things. I was so tired that I felt like I was done gathering up my sale items. But then I went to help at the sale on Friday afternoon and they were selling a lot of baby and kids clothes and toys. And I knew that Emily had lots of clothes stored in her closet that no longer fit. So Friday night I went home and gathered up 5 bags of clothes and shoes to take to the sale. And then I was pretty sure I was done.

On Saturday, we set up a table with my kids clothes on it and we sold lots and lots of them! I was so excited that I decided to go into Emily's room and look at the clothes hanging in her closet to see what might be too small. And I ended up dragging out another 3 bags of clothes. I had no idea I had that much stuff in Emily's closet, but I did. If I had more time and was not so worn out, I would have gotten out some of Emily's old toys too. But I was bone tired.

Today after church, we opened up the garage for a few more hours. I put out my three bags of clothes and we moved some of the larger items out closer to the street. We did not have a lot of traffic, but we did sell some items.

Overall, I think we had a great sale and I am soooo glad that I moved out so many things. It will be a huge help when baby gets here in a few months.

And to top off a great weekend, Emily sang in the church choir spring program tonight. Her class sang four songs and they did a GREAT job. Madison and Sarah were also in the program and they did really good too. They both had big roles and it was wonderful to watch!

So that's where we've been, but where are we going?

Hopefully things will be slowing down for us this week because I could sure use the rest! But I do have my 25-week doctor's appointment this week. This is the one where I do my glucose tolerance test and I am not looking forward to it! This is the one hour test and I'm not supposed to eat before I go in. The nurse said to have nothing to eat 6 hours before the test, but the lab technician said to fast for 12 hours if I want to avoid the 3-hour glucose test. (She wants to help me avoid that because it is not easy to get blood out of me and she sure doesn't want to have to stick me three times in one day.


All that's fine except that my appointment is not until 1:30pm. I am already cranky about how much I will be starving by 1:30pm. I'm thinking there is no way I can avoid eat something that morning. I'm thinking I can get up early and eat something that is low in sugar/carbs. Do you have any ideas on something I could eat for breakfast that morning?

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Weekend Recap and Sleeping Arrangements

This weekend started out as a busy one, but it ended up on a quiet note.

We had an appointment early on Saturday morning to get Emily's spring/Easter pictures taken with Madison and Mason. We actually got out of the house on time (See sidenote below) but we didn't get very before before we got a phone call from Cherry. Our photographer had a family emergency and couldn't meet us. Cherry did some calling around and found someone else who could take pictures for us.

*Sidenote: We have an AWFUL time getting Emily dressed most of the time. Everything is too tight or doesn't feel good or whatever. She has been complaining about her Sunday Schools shoes for several weeks so we stopped by the shoe store on Friday night to find some new and larger shoes. I saw down on the floor in the shoe store and let her try on many pairs in different sizes. She finally found one that wasn't too tight and didn't hurt her feet .. but it was a size 9 1/2 wide. It was SO big on her little foot! So I did a little switcheroo and got a pair in size 8 1/2. She thinks the shoes she has are the ones she picked and so they miraculously do not hurt her feet.

Anyway, as I said, Cherry luckily found someone else to take our pictures so we drove across town to meet them. We went out to the University of Oklahoma and took some pictures around the beautiful campus. It was a beautiful day and I think we will end up with some really cute pictures. We also did Emily's 5-year-old pictures while we were out there. By that time, she had all but lost interest in the whole process but I think they will still be good.

When we got finished with the pictures, it was just about lunch time and Mama was hungry! Mike and Emily and I went around the corner to Hideaway Pizza and shared a delicious pizza. I forget what it was called, but it was so so good!

Sleep Update

Mike got his CPAP machine the same day he went to the doctor last week (that tells you how serious his sleep apnea was!) It took him a while to get everything set up, but he slept very well after that was done. He did not snore at all so I didn't have to get up out of bed. Unfortunately, that first night is when I had leg cramps several times during the night. I was so frustrated! The first night I could get some sleep and I couldn't get any sleep.

Since that night, Mike has been sleeping well. He doesn't even get up during the night. And he's much more rested during the day. The doctor told him not to go to sleep at all without using the machine. The doctor is taking this very seriously now and so is Mike.

I have been sleeping well too. I have not had any more leg cramps since that first night although my calf is still a bit sore. It is so nice to be able to rest well.

Suffice it to say, that machine is a keeper.

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Baby Book Preview

Noah's Baby Book and Photo Album arrived in the mail today. I am soooo happy with it. I think it's very cute and will be perfect for him.

Here are a few pictures:

This is the main photo on the front of the baby book.

First Year Calendar, Baby Book, and Photo Album
The adorable stickers that came with the calendar

I was showing Mike all of Noah's new things tonight and talking to him about some of the pages in the baby book like the family tree. And Mike suggested that maybe I should go ahead and fill in as much of the information as I can now and then just start with the new stuff when Noah gets here.

And sadly, I had to admit that I had not even finished filling in Emily's baby book. And ... very sadly ... in fact, I can't even find her baby book right now. And if I could find her baby book, I would be filling that out before I start on the next one. I do have a lot of the details written down, but just not in her book.

Just for fun, one more picture of the crib bedding. This is the main picture of Noah's Ark on the crib quilt. The top and bottom of the quilt says "Two By Two By Two". We always make sure that there are two of each kind of animal. Some of the Noah's Ark bedding and accessories only have one of each kind of animal. That just does not seem right to us!

We have ordered several other accessories for Noah's room. His room is going to be so cute! I can't wait for all his things to arrive.

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Noah's Ark .. err Crib

Tonight when I was at Cubbies, Mike texted me and said that I got two packages. I was hoping it was going to be Noah's crib bedding. Turns out, I was right!

I opened the box and the bedding is sooo cute. I love it!


Here are couple tiny teasers. I promise to show more pictures of the bedding and accessories soon. I have not even gotten everything out of the box yet because it's late and I'm tired.

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Sleep is No Laughing Matter

Or maybe I should say "Lack of sleep is no laughing matter."

The last several weeks, Mike has had a terrible time sleeping. He's started snoring very loud and obnoxiously. At first, I thought it might have been related to a cold that he'd had. But it just continued and I started noticing that he was tired all the time and having a hard time staying awake in the evenings and other times.

He tried Breathe Right strips, but they did not help. I tried them too and I ended up getting a cold after the very first night. That'll teach me to try new things!!!

You all know what it's like when your bed partner is not sleeping well. It's been hard for me to get some sleep too. I've tried ear plugs, but I could still hear him snoring over the ear plugs. Most of the time now, I just go sleep in my recliner. That seems to work better than everything else. And if I turn on a table fan in the living room, I can't even hear him snoring.

The downside to me sleeping in the living room is that I can't hear his alarm go off and so I don't make sure he gets up on time. Now most of the time, he's done fine but there have been a few days where we were running late.

A couple weeks ago, he got in to see the doctor. I went with him in case I needed to explain what I had been hearing and seeing. Mike told the doctor that I thought he might have sleep apnea. And the doctor acted like I was just a crazy wife who was tired of the snoring. I told him that I was worried about Mike because he was so tired and having a hard time making it through the day.

So he tells me that lots of people stop breathing at night and he starts doing a demonstration with his watch on how he can hold his breath for 10 second and still talk to me and he's fine. Luckily, Mike was between me and this guy because I was suddenly feeling like a pregnant hormonal woman and I was getting sick of this guy's attitude.

The doctor finally said he would send Mike to do a sleep study, but "everybody I send to the sleep study comes back with sleep apnea." Personally, I don't care what these other people are doing. I just want Mike to feel better.

Late last week, Mike went in to do his sleep study. It was scheduled to be a two-day study. He went in the first night and they hooked him up to all the monitors. He had a hard time going to sleep so they finally gave him a sleep aid. And he still slept very little that night. The technicians were not supposed to tell him anything, but one of them said he "kept waking up when he would stop breathing."

The second night of the sleep study was much better. They hooked him up to the monitors and also put a CPAP machine on him to see how he would do with that. In the middle of the night, they came in and switched him to a different mask. I think the first one just covered the nose and the second one covered his nose and mouth. After the mask change, he went back to sleep and slept well the rest of the night. He said that when he woke up the next morning, he was the most refreshed he'd been in years.

Unfortunately, he is still waiting for his doctor to get the sleep study results to see if he can get a machine of his own. He's going to call them tomorrow and see if he can get this process moving. He is just ready to feel so much better after a good night's sleep. I'm praying he'll have his machine by the end of the week.

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What's in a Name?

Mike and I have been discussing names for our little bundle of joy. We don't agree on much, but I think we agree that choosing a name for a boy is much harder than choosing a name for a girl. Of course, I already had my short list of girl names. Luckily, Mike liked the name Emily and so that was an each choice for us.

When we found out that we needed a boy name, we were a little less prepared. I didn't have any boy names that I just loved. Mike liked Biblical name, but he liked a lot of them. We had talked about a few names for several weeks, but we couldn't really agree on anything. Mike would read long lists of names and I would rate them Yes, No, or Maybe. I had a lot of No's, some Maybe's and a few Yes's just to be funny.

We did eventually find a name that we both liked. It was one of the names that we liked early on, but we just had to be sure it was the right name.

So what's his name? His name is Noah Michael S. We love it! It's a good strong name.

We've decided to decorate his room in a Noah's Ark theme. It may be a little cliche, but we think it will be perfect for him. I wanted to decorate Emily's room in a Noah's Ark theme, but I could never find the right bedding. I ordered some bedding online this weekend and will post pictures in a few weeks when it's delivered.

This weekend, we went to Hallmark and found a baby book with Noah's Ark on it. What a surprise! We went ahead and bought the baby book and a brag book. Then we got home and Mike was looking online and found a Noah's Ark baby book that we both liked much better. So the Hallmark one will be going back to the store next weekend. Can't wait to show that to you too.

So many decisions, so many choices, so many cute things!

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Special Person

Emily was the special person of the day today at school. That means she got to be the special helper today. Each of her classmates also colored a picture of Emily and they made a Special Person book for her to take home.

Emily also colored a picture of herself, but the teacher is posting all of those along with an interview sheet for each child in the classroom. Emily didn't remember all the questions, but she said they wanted to know her favorite color and she said pink and green. Mike and I were surprised and mentioned that we thought she would just pick pink. But she said "I like pink and green because I stay on green (on the behavior chart at school) every day". Yes, she does - my sweet girl.

Some of the pictures were pretty funny. My camera battery was dead tonight so I'm recharging it and will post pictures soon. She also made a fingerprint counting book that was very cute. Another thing that will have to wait until another day.

Boys Vs Girls

The other night, Emily was taking a bath and we were talking about all the things we would do with baby boy. I told her that she could help me give him a bath. She said "I will, but he can't take a bath in the bathtub with me." I'm not really sure why she said that, but may have been a pretty smart observation. (I wouldn't want a boy to pee in my bath water either!)

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Somebody's Happy About Their Baby Brother

This weekend, we were on a mission. We found some baby crib bedding online that we liked, but I wanted to see it in person to make sure the colors were what I was expecting. We thought we might find it in a couple different local stores (they had it on their website) so we made several stops.

Every time we would go into a store, I would pick out several little boy outfits that were on sale. But by the time we were ready to leave the store, I always put the clothes back because I know we will get some other things before the baby comes.

He'll be born in the heat of the summer, but it won't be long before it starts getting cooler. So it's hard to shop when you don't know how big he'll be when he's born. (Emily was 5lbs, 8oz when she was born.)

So anyway, at the last stop Mike picked out something that he wanted to get and Emily picked out something too. It was fun getting just a couple things.

The other night, I wanted to take some pictures of the things we bought over the last couple weeks. Emily noticed what I was doing and wanted to get picture with every item.

Did you notice Emily's poor raw nose? We've been putting medicine on it every night and it's looking better today.

Also, I noticed that just about everything we bought was blue. I need to work on branching out to try other little boy colors. Just give me some time ... I'm new at this!

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A Great Day

The flowers were blooming (Irises, finally!)

We have been checking every day and this was the day!

We stopped by to see Pops for a minute. Emily and Madison wrote bicycles for about 5 minutes.



She needs to work steering a little.

And baby was moving and grooving. (No laughing, pointing or staring.)

We did some other fun things, but it takes toooooo long to upload the other pics. Maybe another night!

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Late Easter Post

Have I ever mentioned that we have a fabulous Easter bunny? I mean we have the most beautiful Easter baskets and they are chock full of goodies that kids and parents love. (Because I know that Cadbury Egg was really for me. I mean, it had to be for me. No I didn't eat it, but it's not over til it's over.)

And you know I am totally digging the fact that Easter Bunny brought TWO baskets this year.

And Emily is totally digging that fact too. (Like her nightgown? It's kinda new. And very cute.)

And speaking of digging, you obviously just DIG right into that big basket.

Oh! She found something she liked!

And she liked this one too - a girl after her mother's own heart. It's actually pretty neat. She's got all kinds of plans for helping me in the garden. That's great because I need a lot of help this year.

And this is my favorite picture. Partly because of my beautiful girl. And partly because of two bunnies - my two babies! You can tell Emily is so excited about this too.

(And aren't her bangs just cute? I cut them the night before. Maybe a tiny bit too short?)

Oh and did I ever show you our princess Easter eggs?

You gotta admit they are very beautiful.

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Goosey Goosey Gander

On Thursday as I was leaving work, I was walking out of our office building and I heard some hissing nearby. I looked and there was a huge goose sitting in one of the concrete planters by the front of the building. And it was hissing. At me!

I quickly side stepped and went around that freakishly large thing. I was thinking "that thing was hissing. At me!" Probably sitting on some eggs or something. It kinda reminded me of myself .. caring for my unborn baby. But just so you know, I wouldn't hesitate to smack it with my lunch bag if it came after me. Because, really, I'm caring for my unborn baby too. So back off, Goosey!

Then Friday afternoon when I came out of the building, I noticed that the big concrete planter was taped off with caution tape. But there was no big huge goose. And there was an awful stench coming from the area. So that leaves me to wonder what they did to the goose. I hope they didn't hurt her or her eggs! The thought almost made me cry. But it didn't.

Is the goose cooked? Is she gone for good? I guess we'll have to wait and see.

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What is this pain?

Yesterday at work, I started having what I think is sciatic nerve pain. I just call it "booty pain". It's only on one side - the left side, but it sure hurts when I walk.

Then after I got home from work, I also started getting a pain/ache in my left side. At first, I thought maybe the baby was pressing on a nerve but it soon became clear that the pain was worse than that. I drank a glass of water, took some Tylenol and then went to relax in the bath. After a while the pain did go away so I went ahead and got out of the tub and went back to the living room (to work on our taxes - in case you didn't notice, April 15th is next week!)

Well, unfortunately, the pain came back again. I tried drinking more water and eventually went back to the bath. Again, the pain went away after a while. I got out of the bath and the pain eventually came back again. I began to realize that my side did not hurt when my bladder was full, but a few minutes after I emptied it the pain would begin to come back.

I eventually did go to sleep in my recliner. Every time I woke up to go to the bathroom, I would also get a BIG drink of water. And I felt okay when I woke up this morning I immediately went to get a big drink of water and I've been drinking lots of water all day today. So far, I've been okay - just tired. I'm thinking it may have been a kidney stone or something. Whatever it was, I hope it does not come back!!!

Tonight I seriously considered asking Mike to take a picture of me and my 21 week belly. I just couldn't do it though. It is so against my nature.

I'm almost exclusively wearing maternity clothes now. After the heat wave last weekend, I decided that I need to get some shorts or capris. Jeans are way too hot when it's 85 degrees outside! This weekend is supposed to be nice though so maybe I can make it another week or two.

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I Had

• I had one of those busy days at work where everyone wanted something and they all wanted it RIGHT NOW.

• I had, thankfully, a good night of sleep last night, despite the weather, despite the noise, and despite this nasty cough/cold thing.

• I had a big surprise when I left work this evening and it was so so windy. The car door actually slammed on my arm. Ouch!

• I had a lovely quiet supper at Chick-Fil-A tonight with my one-and-only.

• I had, also, a shake while we were there. Chocolate. Large. BIG mistake.

• I had seven kids in my Cubbies class tonight. Only one with two time-outs. We made collages. And they all like the games that I make up every week. Somehow, all the games end with everyone learning their Bible verse. I like to play games with blank pieces of paper, but I pretend that each piece says something on it. I'm cool like that.

• I had a lady tell me tonight that her 18-month-old son gets up in the middle of the night and eats everything he can find. One night he ate four bananas. Is that a typical boy thing? Or is that just nuts?

• I had a problem on my way home from Cubbies tonight. Lets just say, as a pregnant woman, I hate sneezing. It's so hard to control and so awful when it happens. Kegal exercises, anyone?

• I had to avoid going to bed for a half hour after I took my prenatal vitamins tonight. Have to do this every night. But normally it's not this late.

• I had a long day. I'm tired. I'm going to bed.

• I had to come back and say good night. Good night!

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21 Weeks - Dr Visit

Today was my 21 week Dr visit. It was really rather uneventful. They were running behind schedule so I had to wait a little longer than usual. It was nothing too bad though.

Everything looked good with baby boy. His heartbeat was 151 bpm. I think that was the same as it was on the ultrasound last week. He is consistent, if nothing else. Ha! He moves around a lot in the afternoon and at night. Mornings are his sleepy time. Lets hope he figures out the days and nights before he's born.

I'm measuring on track for 21 weeks. Blood pressure is perfect these days (I check it every night.) And +0 lbs gained this month so that's good.

I go back to the doctor in a month and I'll have to do my glucose tolerance test. That is never fun! Lets hope I can pass the 1-hour test so that I can avoid the 3-hour test this time!

One other cute unborn baby story ... I said the baby likes to play in the afternoon, but he really seems to like country music. When I'm driving home from work, he'll dance and wiggle along with the music. Go baby go!

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Happy Easter!

We've had a long day today. This morning after breakfast, Mike asked Emily and I if we were wanting to go to BabiesRUs today. I loved the fact that he suggested it and so we headed over there after lunch. Emily and I picked out a few random things for baby brother. We looked at crib bedding, but we didn't find anything that we loved.

This afternoon, we ran a few errands and brought home some BBQ for supper. Before we even got to eat, Emily had a huge accident involving ketchup. Don't ask - it was bad. While we ate, I boiled some eggs so that we could dye them tonight.

And dye them we did. We had enough to dye two eggs of each color. I think Emily had a good time, but it was a very messy experience. I'm pretty sure my tablecloth is stained for good.

But it's all good because we've got these beautiful eggs to enjoy. They are covered in Princess stickers, of course.

And while we were dying the eggs, I made some marshmallow sheep. I read about these in Southern Living this month and they looked so cute. I didn't think they would be too difficult to make even though they required a lot of ingredients - things I didn't have in my kitchen.

The Southern Living magazine didn't give really good instructions, but it is basically Pepperidge Farms Milano cookies covered with mini marshmallows for the body, brown Peanut M&M's for the legs, another cookie for the head, mini marshmallows for the ears, mini marshmallows for the eyes and mini chocolate chips for the eyeballs. White candy coating holds everything together.

It was not too hard to put everything together, but I only got two of them made before I was just too tired to continue. I was going to make them for our Sunday School class, but that just was not going to happen. Maybe another day!

So after we got everything cleaned up in the kitchen, we had to put out a plate of food for the Easter Bunny. Emily chose a bunch of baby carrots and we made them into a smile. I think it turned out really cute. I hope the Easter Bunny likes it!

I guess we'll see in the morning ...

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Baby's First

This weekend, we went to "the big Walmart". This is news because we normally go to "the little Walmart". But we had to go to the big Walmart to get a specific kind of DVD for our ultrasound scan this week. While we were there, we had to stop by and look for a few things that we can't get at the little one - a/c filters, watch batteries, baby toys. :)

We had to see if we could find a gender-neutral toy for baby since we were at the big Walmart. Emily picked out a dinosaur toy. She has been studying dinosaurs at school for the last few weeks and so it's fitting that she would pick this toy.

She's only in Pre-K, but she really knows a lot about all the dinosaurs. She knows which ones are meat-eaters, which ones are plant-eaters, which ones are as big as two elephants and what's special about each one.

Her class made Dinosaur Books that shows a picture of each dinosaur and tells a little about them. We have looked through this several times as she tells me about each one.

One day last week, she asked me if I knew what "distinct" meant. I said yes and explained what it meant. And she said "Well, the dinosaurs are distinct." I said I think you mean "extinct". Yes she did! I was very proud of her for trying it though.

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It's a ...

Finally, after many weeks of waiting, we found out today that Baby Smith is a BOY!!!!

We're thrilled to find out that we're having a boy although we would have been just as happy if baby turned out to be a girl.

We thought we were going to have a 3D/4D ultrasound today, but it turned out to be a traditional 2D ultrasound. That was fine though. We were able to see lots of baby's parts and everything looked perfectly normal. That was a big relief and a huge praise.

The ultrasound tech recorded our scans on a DVD for us. When we found out that it was a boy, I asked Emily what she thought and she said "it's alright". Then when the real doctor came in, she said it was "more than alright! It was good!"

She said she changed her mind and he can sleep in her room. I told her we would have to fix his room up for him and pick out some new sheets for his bed. She said she would help me. She's got it all figured out!

She was telling the doctor all about the things we were going to have to teach him. She thinks he might not know his numbers yet and he might get his "ones and his two's mixed up". The doctor said this baby was definitely going to be born with two mothers. Yes, that's so true!

The doctor was very nice. He was a lot more laid back than I imagined he might be. I asked him if that was anything I could do to prevent the high blood pressure issues that I had with Emily. He said there is nothing proven to work, but fortunately the problem usually starts later with the second pregnancy and it's less severe. I'm hoping to avoid the problems altogether!

This doctor (an expert in Maternal-Fetal medicine) is totally on board with continuing the metformin throughout my pregnancy. My ob/gyn agrees with this, but she pretty much left the decision up to me. It was nice to get confirmation from another doctor that this is a good choice.

We're just thrilled that everything is good with Mama and Daddy's little boy!

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Letter Person Dress-up Day

Tomorrow is Letter Person Dress-up Day in Emily's class. Each child was supposed to choose a letter person and the parents is supposed to help them create an outfit related to that letter person.

I had been asking Emily what letter person she wanted to be. I was hoping she would say "Ms. E" the Exercise Expert. I thought that one would be pretty easy. Or maybe "Mr. B" Beautiful Buttons. (Vowels are girls and consonants are boys.) That one would be fun.

But she didn't choose Ms. E. She didn't choose Mr. B. She chose "Ms. A" Achoo!

How do you create an outfit for Ms. A? Give a kid a box of Kleenex and send them on their way. Yeah, somehow i don't think that would work.

So I decided to get a t-shirt and put a handkerchief in the pocket. Except that the shirt I found didn't have a pocket. So I had to make a pocket with hankey out of a red bandanna. The A is made of foam and Emily helped me cover it with red pom poms.


We had such a good time that Emily wanted to put more pom poms around the neckline of the t-shirt. She wanted to put them around the arms too, but we didn't have enough pom poms to go around. We used every one that we had though.

This is one fancy shirt and I think it turned out really cute. Emily and I really had a good time putting it together earlier this week. I hope she enjoys wearing it to school tomorrow.


And you can see below what Ms. A really looks like! I thought she was pink and red, but apparently not. Ha!

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Tomato Billboard

Several weeks ago, I was driving home from work and I noticed a billboard that just had some gigantic 3-D vines around the edges of it. I watched the giant billboard for several days in a row, but nothing changed on it - still just those strange vines.

It reminded me a lot of the time the new casino had some cryptic billboards for weeks before we finally found out what they were all about.

So anyway, back to the vines on the billboard ... a few weeks later, some giant tomatoes showed up on the vines.

Now, let me just say that it really irritates me that I'm looking at this thing every day on my drive home to see what will change because I know that's what the billboard creator wants me to do and I don't want to do it. But I do it anyway. Every day.

So many weeks later, I finally get to see the final billboard and it's these huge cans of tomatoes. I don't remember the exact wording, but the point was that they were fresh. And, much to my chagrin, I do remember the name of the product - Red Gold Tomatoes. Gah! I hate that. They got me right where they want me.

And now I'm "advertising" for them on my blog. Gah! They got me again!

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Driving Miss Daisy ... or Mister Dashing

Today on my way home from work, I heard on the radio that part of westbound I-40 was narrowed down to one lane due to a 1 foot by 2 foot hole in one of the bridges. This is the same highway that I drive to work every day.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time the highway has been closed due to holes in the bridges. When you drive down the highway, it looks like a patchwork quilt with different colors and types of cement and asphalt. It's not a smooth drive at all. At ALL.

To be honest, I usually don't even think about the road as I'm driving to work and back every day. But it sure is a scary thought that the road is in such bad shape. They are putting in a new highway a few miles south of the old one, but when will it be ready for traffic? Can the old road wait long enough?

Only time will tell!

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How much snow?

On Friday night after work, Mike and Emily and I went to Wal-mart to get a few things that we needed - like milk and ice cream. The parking lot was completely packed, but we drove up and got the spot closest to the door. A lady stopped us as we were getting out of the car and asked if we needed a buggy because there were none inside. She was right and we were very thankful to have a buggy to use.

So we wade through the packed store and get a few things that we needed. While we were in there, a line of heavy showers came through. We could hear it hammering on the roof.

But then we had to stand in line for over 30 minutes just to check out. And when we get to the check stand, Mike starts up a conversation with the Chatty Cathy Checker dude. The guy would scan a few things, look at Mike and talk, and then bag a few things .. and over and over again. I started to poke Mike, but I figured we'd be out of there in a few minutes anyway and then someone else would have to deal with Chatty.

After we left Wal-mart, we stopped by the new Braums to get an ice cream. I ordered a small frozen yogurt twist. I think they gave me a large. Either way, I ate every bit of it. Yum!

On the way home, Mike and I were talking about how we were forecasted to get 6 to 12 inches. I told Mike that I thought we'd only get 2 inches or less. I was fairly confident in that so I made him a bet that we'd get 0 to 2 inches. If I was wrong, I'd treat him to a steak dinner of his choosing. He said he felt like we would get 4 to 6 inches of snow. And if he was wrong, he'd treat me to an ice cream treat of my choosing.

So really, how much?

So, we stayed home all day Saturday waiting for the snow. When we woke up, it was definitely snowing. And it snowed off and on most of the day. But we only got a couple inches on the ground. I have not heard an official snow total so I don't know who won yet, but I'm feeling really good about this one.

After our (long) naps, Emily helped me make some strawberry cupcakes. We were going to make chocolate sheet cake cupcakes and the best ever icing, but we didn't have any buttermilk. Luckily, I had the strawberry cupcake mix and the can of pink icing. Emily and I had a great time baking. She is a great helper.


And Today ...

And today, most of the snow is melted and gone. We stayed home most of the day today as well, but we did get out to go to Texas Roadhouse for lunch. Emily actually suggested it and I thought it was a great idea. If you must know, she loves loves loves the loaded sweet potatoes at Roadhouse. Well, I think she mostly loves the marshmallows. *wink*

When we got home, we spent some time working on cleaning out our home office that may be our new baby boy nursery. I am so excited. We should find out if we'll be using that room as a nursery in about a week.

Either way, we have a lot of work to do in that room to get it back in shape. It's been a long time since we've used it as anything but a storage room. But I'm feeling good about the progress we made today. I think we know what we have to do to get it done.

Well, Emily's spring break is over and she'll be going back to school in the morning. I know she is excited to see her friends. Although we're sad that our relaxed week is ending, we'll be glad to get back to the routine. In just a few short weeks, the school year will be over and we'll be preparing for Kindergarten. *Phewww!*

Hope you all have a great week!!!!

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It Smells So Good

I'm just going to put it all out there right now - it smells so good in my house.

As you may know, we were forecasted to get 6-12 inches of snow today. Today - on the first day of spring. Great news!

When I got home from work yesterday, I noticed my beautiful yellow daffodils happily waving in the 70 degree weather. I couldn't let them freeze to death under all the snow. They were so beautiful and such a welcome sign of spring.

They were blooming in the middle of the circle drive, around the tree in the front yard, a couple in the flowerbed by the front windows, and in the big raised bed at the end of the house.

But now they are shining brightly in my living room. I picked about half the blooms and put them in a vase and brought them inside.

Emily noticed them right away and had a hard time keeping her hands off of them. They smell so sweet. We have been enjoying them all day today while it snows outside.

We looked outside to see what happened to the ones still growing outside and they just looked so sad. I hope they will perk up when the snow melts, but I don't think that's going to happen.

At least we'll get to enjoy these inside for a few more days.

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Wednesday Thankfulness

Today, I'm thankful that we're not having Cubbies tonight. Don't get me wrong. I love my Cubbies class and I love spending time with them every week. But it's very nice to have a break every once in a while.

I really wanted pizza today (Hmmm, pregnancy craving?) so we went out to dinner to find some pizza tonight. We drove over to the pizza place and it was packed! They had half the parking lot blocked off and had a big party going outside. And, to me, a big party = a big wait = not fun for a pregnant lady.

So we kept going on down the road hoping to find something good to eat. We ended up at a little diner and the food was not good tonight! I felt so sorry for our waitress because she was no less than 80 years old. She did a good job although she had a bit of a hard time hearing me.

Feeling Green

This year, Emily is really into St. Patrick's Day and wearing green. Last night, she had to make sure she was wearing green before she went to bed so that she wouldn't be pinched this morning. She wore a shirt with green gumballs on it today. So that meant that I had to find something green to wear too. No way I want her pinching me!

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Being Real

This morning when I woke up, I had a bad headache on the right side of my head. I immediately had to do what I always have to do first thing in the morning these days - run to the bathroom! Mike was getting ready to get up at this time, but I crawled back into bed and went back to sleep for a few minutes. When I got up again, I took some Tylenol and hoped for the best.

By the time I left for work, I was feeling a little better. But as soon as I started driving, my eyes started feeling heavy. It was so so hard to keep them open. I don't know if it was because it was dark outside again or because of the loss of my hour from Daylight Savings time, but I was having a really hard time this morning.

When I got onto the interstate, I actually rolled down the window a little bit to try to liven myself up. It messed up my hair, but it didn't help much. I was just having a hard time driving 70 miles per hour because it just felt way too fast for my drowsy state.

When I got a little past halfway to work, the traffic stopped because two firetrucks were in the road working a car fire. As I went past, I happened to look over at the car and it was totally burned out and nobody was inside. I felt a pang in my chest and immediately started to get teary-eyed. I was thinking "What would I do if my car caught on fire with my kids inside??" Oh my goodness, what a terrifying thought.

(Ring .. Ring ... Hello? Honey, we have GOT to buy a new car TODAY. No, not tomorrow. Today. Like right now. I don't want my babies to burn up in a car!)

Gotta love those emotional and irrational thoughts. It was really not a fun drive to work today.

When I got to work, I went straight to the vending machine to get a diet coke. I usually don't drink sodas during the day, but I needed some caffeine to perk me up a little bit. My doctor said that caffeine is okay in moderation so I try to do that. Now, I don't know if my Route 44 diet coke from Sonic last week would be technically considered "in moderation", but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. But I digress ...

Our department has a Monday morning meeting every week so I took my caffeine to sip during the meeting. Unfortunately, it didn't really seem to help very much. I had just given my weekly recap and listed out a baker's dozen of projects that I needed to work on this week. And then every person in the room had "just one more thing" that they wanted me to "work in" this week. Really? Are you kdding me? I guess I gave them all a nasty look because they sorta backed off and said "ya know, but do whatever you want". Ha ha! That'll teach them to mess with a hormonal pregnant woman!!!

So that was my day in a nutshell - the good, the bad, and the ugly.

How did your day-after Daylight Savings go?

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Daylight Savings

Well, we saved some daylight today, but it sure was hard. It was hard to get out of bed this morning in time for Sunday School. It must have been hard for a lot of other people as well because we only had one little boy in our Sunday School class.

After church, we went to lunch with Mike's parents and Madison. We had a nice lunch and a good visit. The weather was not as warm as expected today. When we came out of church, it was misting a little bit and pretty cool.

This afternoon, we came home and took naps. I told Emily that if she took a good nap, we could go outside and play later in the afternoon. Unfortunately, she never took her nap today. I think I am the only one who ended up taking a nap.

Emily didn't get to go outside (and she was very upset about this), but I went out and worked in the flower beds for a few minutes. We have a few daffodils blooming and some blue vinca. I hope I didn't hurt them when I was raking out the flower beds.

I saw a lot of other things that needed to be taken care of outside, but I could only stay out there a few minutes with Emily throwing a huge fit inside. I came back into the house to find her fully dressed for outside play, including her socks and shoes. Poor thing - she should have taken her nap.

She quickly forgot about playing outside as soon as I asked her if she wanted to help me make some brownies. It took us a long time to whip them up, but they turned out really good. After the brownies were in the oven, I made some chicken tenders and mashed potatoes while Emily played in the sink. By the time we were done, I was so so tired.

I was worried about how Emily would be able to fall asleep with her room being so well-lit because of daylight savings time, but she actually went right to sleep. I hope that trend continues over the next few weeks.

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Quad Screen Results and Embarrassing Moments

First things first ... I called all week to get the results of my quad screen blood work. On Friday, I finally got an answer and found out that everything came back normal. This was a big relief and a big praise. I was glad to get the results before the weekend.

We're still over two weeks away from our next ultrasound. We're so ready to see this little kiddo again. He or she is moving a lot these days and that's so fun.

In Other News ...

I've been feeling under the weather since we got home from our trip last weekend. I've had that sniffling, sneezing, sore throat, stuffy headed feeling all week. I went to work every day, but I was just not feeling well. And that was the source of my embarrassing moments. Lets just say ... sneezing is not a pregnant girl's best friend. So. not. fun. And it's especially not fun when it happens several times a day.

Fortunately, Emily did not end up getting sick. Unfortunately, Mike did end up getting sick. I feel bad for him because this is one of those things that just hangs around for days on end.

Speaking of Emily, she's on spring break next week. I know she will miss her friends, but she will enjoy doing some different things for a week. And when she gets back to school, we have lots of things coming up in the next few weeks. We'll be dressing up like a letter person, bringing filled plastic eggs for an Easter Egg Hunt, going on a field trip, and ... I can't remember what the other things are. This is not good since it'll be my responsibility to get all these things done. I hope I have it all written down somewhere.

Just a reminder ...

Don't forget to set your clock forward one hour before you go to bed tonight! I noticed tonight that the clock in my bathroom didn't "fall back" last fall so it's already ready for daylight savings time. Slightly embarrassing.

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