Funny story that has nothing to do with being pregnant

So, I was hanging out at my friend's (Carrie's) house the other day...which is what I always do when I skip...ahem...take a day off work (don't worry, it's allowed...). Anyway, so I'm over there and we're just chatting and I remember a funny story.

So after all my troubles trying to return stuff to Target....who by the way has the ABSOLUTE WORST return policy of all times...I was reminded of what Greg and I fondly refer to as "Wal-Mart Date Night."

Greg and I got married the summer between our junior and senior years of college. I worked part time as a teller and and Greg worked part time at the Collegiate Card for a whopping $5.75 an hour...both in school full time. We claimed a whole $11,000 for the year as our annual salary on our tax return in 2003! Oh, and we still had to pay taxes that year...man I hate tax season. Anyway, back to Wal-Mart Date Night. So, basically we were PO-OOR! When we'd want to have a date night we'd walk around the house and look for stuff that we'd bought at Wal-Mart that we could take back. It was always stuff that hadn't been opened yet, but we'd take back the box of Swiffer's we'd bought, or the laundry detergent we hadn't used yet and didn't need right away. We'd gather up all that we could find and head to Wal-Mart. Their return policy is AWESOME! They'll take anything without a receipt as long as it's under $20...and if it's over $20 they'll give you store credit. So on the off chance we had multiple things, we'd recruit friends to take back stuff too! It was like our own little savings account. We'd take back our stuff, collect our cash and head out for dinner at Taco Bueno or something and then go see a dollar movie.

It's memories like this that make you really appreciate where you are today. Greg and I are doing well...we love each other...and now we're having a baby. I think back to those days and it's easy just to remember that we argued ALL the time, but there were a lot of good memories too. I joke a lot that nothing kills a marriage faster than living in Abilene, and for us that was probably true, but there are some married memories in that town that will always bring a smile to my face!

I'm carrying a fetus midget...

Well not really, or at least they haven't proven it yet. I had my regular appointment today and I'm now measuring 3.5 - 4 weeks ahead. I didn't even gain any weight between my last two appointments so at least I didn't just feel fat! I'm currently at a little over 32 weeks so that puts me quite a bit ahead...if it's right. I go again in two weeks and they're going to do an ultrasound to see just how big this baby is. Since Greg was adopted when he was two we don't have any records of his birth or anything. He lived with a foster family starting at 6 months so that's the earliest information that we have. The doctor asked me today if either of us had been big babies, and I wasn't and like I said we don't know about Greg. I will say, Greg has the biggest head of anyone I know so if that's any indication then I'm beginning to wish I'd married someone else! Just kidding...mostly. :-)

Also, looks like I'm going to be on my fourth doctor. My current doctor was diagnosed with breast cancer so they're going to be assigning me to someone else. So let's see: I started with Dr. 1, but the practice itself drove me nuts. The staff was always disorganized and rude so I switched to a friend's doctor. Dr. 2 decided she wanted to be a full time mom after I'd met with her twice so I switched to Dr. 3 who just got diagnosed with breast cancer. I feel like I should warn my next doctor that having me as a patient is apparently a curse! Oh well, what are you going to do? At first they thought she'd be back in time to deliver me, but if I'm really this far ahead or even if I'm not, they're not so sure she'll be back. That being said, please keep her and her family in your prayers (Dr. Heck). She's not very old, and I would guess this has been a pretty big shock!

Finally, want to brag on my husband for a second. He has so far made A's on every test he's taken. Three of them he had the highest grade in the class! He's worked harder this semester than I think I did in all four years of college and I'm REALLY proud of him! Just wanted y'all to know!

My crazy week...

So, this has been a crazy week. Started having contractions off and on and told the doctor at my appt. last Friday. I was told as long as there weren't more than six in an hour I would be fine. Didn't go to church Sunday, went to work Monday, didn't go to work Tuesday, worked 14 hours Wednesday, and by Thursday I felt terrible. Went to work in the morning and by lunch time I was having terrible pains in my stomach and back and I felt really nauseated. I was in the process of texting one of my previously pregnant friends (Carrie) to ask if I was just being paranoid, when a friend at work walked up and told me I looked bad and made me go down to the nurse at work.

The nurse then proceeds to freak me out telling me to call my doctor immediately from her office, which I do, and they tell me to come in within the next 1/2 hour. By this point I'm totally freaking out because I was just expecting everyone to tell me I was just being paranoid.

Well it all turned out okay. Just had a urinary tract infection, got some antibiotics, and feel TONS better now. It was just a bit crazy there for a while!

So, want to hear my pregnancy ditsy moment of the day? Today I get up all early and I'm proud of myself because then I can take my time getting ready for church. I take a particularly long shower and get out to hear Greg say...uh, did you know church starts in 5 minutes? Yeah, I totally forgot to "spring forward" so he rushed off to church and left me at home in my bathrobe. That's not even the best part of my ditsyness...a little later I take the towel off my head to brush through and fix my hair when I realize despite the fact that I took a 30 minute shower, I apparently never bothered to rinse the conditioner out of it! So back in the shower...so if any of you see me today, you can rest assured that I'm especially clean today!

One last question to leave you with: why is it that smoke detector batteries only go out at 3:00 AM and not like 5:00 in the evening? And why do smoke detectors that are plugged into the electricity system in the house EVER go out? Hmmmm...some of life's little mysteries! :-)

They're coming...I promise...

Okay, so I really will post the pics from the 3d/4d ultrasound, but I'm lazy and the laptop is upstairs and the scanner is downstairs and I don't like carrying stuff on the stairs because I'm clumsy enough as it is. So I'll have Greg set up his laptop downstairs and actually post those pictures. They are so awesome! He already has chubby cheeks!

Also, I had my church shower on Sunday and it was SO much fun! The hostesses all did such an amazing job with all the decorations and everything...it was so cute! I also got so much stuff, it was overwhelming how loved I felt. It makes me realize how blessed I am!

Speaking of blessed this is my new favorite person.

It's a Roomba! So for those of you who don't know what that is, it's a robot vacuum cleaner. And seriously, we refer to it like a member of our family. "Honey, Roomba is lost" (he got lost after all the shower presents took over the living room). "Kaya, (the dog) it's okay, it's just Roomba...your new sibling."

We just got it last week. We went to Costco in search of a new vacuum and eventually decided on this one. I had looked online and it always gets good reviews, but we were planning on buying a heavy duty something else. Well we started debating in the aisle at Costco and Greg brought up a good point...we could either buy a new closet decoration, AKA upright vacuum, or we could buy the one that would just vacuum every day for us! I have to say, I've been nothing but impressed with it so far. You can schedule it to run every day if you want for whatever time you want. Even the day after the maid came and had vacuumed, I decided to go ahead and run the Roomba afterwards. It shocked me how much MORE stuff it picked up. Kind of gross I guess, but at least it's all in the trash now. So for those of you who hate vacuuming as much as me, maybe this is the wave of the future.

Blast from the Past...and prophetic dreams!

So first off, update on the Christmas village. For all you inquiring minds...it has been put back in it's box and put away. I know all you "Monica's" (Friends reference...) were wanting to come over and take it down for me, but I'll have you know we got it put away!

Next, my blast from the past. So last week (or week before...they all run together) we hear the doorbell ring and there's a package from Target on the front porch. Well we figure out it's my stroller (okay, not mine so much as little Bruce's, although a stroller for me might be kind of fun!) and we're trying to figure out who it's from because the only people who I could think of that would send me that nice of a gift and have it shipped would be someone in Greg's family and none of them even knew about my shower yet.

So we're searching through it to find the card and up flashes a name that I really didn't expect! One of my friends from high school (yes, HIGH SCHOOL!) sent it to me! So for those of you who lived in one small town all your life and still know everyone you grew up with this probably wouldn't be that surprising to you. My high school experience was a little different. Most of you know I went to high school in Germany and it was a very fluid group of people. People came in, people moved out...it was the way life was! I have maintained a "Facebook" relationship with this friend, but never in a million years would I have expected this. I was so touched that I wanted to write about it on my blog. Well then today she informs me that she reads my blog...so now I'm just sucking up! JK I was planning on writing this for a while, but sitting down to type has eluded me lately.

Tomorrow is my 3d/4d ultrasound. I'll post pics afterwards. I'm super excited, Greg and Mom are coming with me so we can see him bouncing all around. I keep having dreams that he's really a girl so I'm excited to make sure he's still a he. A couple different people made a big deal out of the dreams telling me maybe I'm having prophetic dreams...well my response to that is...I've had dreams that I'm gestating a cat, that I'm gestating and alien, and my favorite, that I'm gestating 50 gerbils. So if those are prophetic too, I'm in for a bumpy ride! 'Til tomorrow...or maybe Saturday!

Let the nesting begin...

So, first off, I really like "..." a lot...I noticed that when I was reading back through my blog. Now all of you who never noticed are going to be seeing that every time you read. :-)

So anyway, let the nesting begin. I didn't really believe that happened! I hoped, but didn't believe. I'm probably the worst housekeeper on earth...or at least close to it. My mother-in-law even told me that! Okay, not in those words, but we'll be talking about something and on more than one occasion she's said, "it's okay, I know you're not domestic." At the time, I got my feathers ruffled a little, but it doesn't really bother me that much. Mostly because, well...it true!

I even pay someone to come every other week just to do the things I never want to do (clean the showers, vacuum, etc.). I know, it's sad. So anyway, I've been working from home a lot this week since I'm finally done with my training class and I haven't had any meetings. It's been really nice and for breaks I'm actually doing housework instead of watching Law and Order or something. I can't even begin to tell the you the amount of laundry I've done. I've been sorting clothes like there's no tomorrow. It's actually kind of liberating! I was starting to feel overwhelmed by all that needed to happen before Little Bruce makes his appearance but that's diminishing as I get stuff done. We're having the carpets cleaned tomorrow so our house can stop smelling like dog. I have to say, I'm pretty excited!

Now I just have to figure out what I'm going to do with all the Christmas decorations taking up Little Bruce's closet. I mean, it's not like we've even put them up for the past two years, but I'd like to think at some point we'll quit being lazy and put them up! I did put up the Christmas village that my MIL gave me...it's one of my very favorite Christmas decorations. The sad part is: it's still up!! I told Greg yesterday he really needed to get that box out for me so I could put it all away, and you know what he said? "Oh, it's not that Christmas-y, we could just leave it up!" Okay, so now you know, the non-domestic stuff is not completely limited to just me! Two "messies" should never marry. That's going to be one of my two rules that I teach my kids when looking for a spouse. Number one: "Never marry someone who cheats in games...you don't know what else he/she cheats at." (that one's from my mom) Number two: "If you're a "messy" make sure and marry someone who is OCD."

I'm going to sign off having given you my words of wisdom for the day. I go for the gestational diabetes test tomorrow...not terribly excited about drinking sugared up Sunny D and getting my blood drawn, but I guess I'll survive!

It's a long one...

So this weekend was our ladies retreat and as always it was a very interesting, fun, tiring weekend! It's always a time for me to reflect on myself and where I see my life. It's things like this that 1) remind me of things I need to work on and 2) make me restless. First off, I hate that I'm negative. Ironic that I "hate" it right? I know, bad joke. Someone will say something and instead of the 50 nice things I think about that subject, I spit out the one bad one. It frustrates me because that's rarely indicative of my true feelings on the subject. So that's my lesson from this weekend that I'm going to work harder on saying positive things I think about rather than the one negative (don't get me wrong, my blog will still be negative and sarcastic...I mean I need one outlet right?).

The second one is that I feel restless. I think my parents forever changed me by living overseas. We've always been a pretty international family with my dad being from South Africa and spending time there and having my grandmother spend time with us. My first overseas trip was at the ripe old age of 6 months. Then we lived in Germany for 6 years as well. I love Texas...I always have...I just tend to love it more when I live somewhere else. Does that make sense? Maybe not to those of you who haven't lived far away from what you consider home. Texas will always be home, but I'm restless. I'm ready to explore. I want to live somewhere new, do something exciting, make a change. Now, it's not likely to happen. At least not soon, but I can dream. If I could get a job in Australia I'd pick up and leave tomorrow! Man, I want to move there. Being on the retreat caused some introspection on my part and really reminded me how homesick I am for change. What a strange concept, to be nostalgic for change. I never would have thought of myself that way, but I've been here two and a half years and that's a long time to me. I know, I know, you're all thinking...hello, she's about to have HUGE change in about 3 more months.

I'm okay with that change. Don't get me wrong, I'm scared...really scared. But I'm excited! It's change! And it's going to be hard, but I'm okay with that too. Little Bruce really liked the singing on the retreat and would always get really excited when it started. As he was moving around everywhere it all started becoming more real...there's actually a PERSON inside me! How incredible is God?? I mean, we GROW people! He's a little human being that's going to grow up and forever make a change in this world!

Speaking of how amazing God is...here's what the power of your prayers for my friend have done. Misty is now a medical miracle! I won't go into all the details because I've heard it a few times now and every time I do it kind of grosses me out. :-) Basically...she coughed up her cyst. Now, I didn't know this, but apparently that doesn't happen. They asked the doctor if that was normal and he was pretty much astounded...he'd never heard of it happening before! So she no longer needs surgery and the cyst is gone! Hallelujah!!