SCOOOOORE!!!!

So the other day, my friend Mary tells me that her sister in law is having a garage sale and getting rid of a ton of maternity clothes. She asked if I wanted to look at them first and I was like, "Uh, yeah! Duh!" So she comes in a few days later and says, "I brought the clothes and they're back in the break room." So at lunch, I headed back there and holy casserole, there were clothes EVERYWHERE!!! Our break room looked like a used clothing store. But I was stoked because that meant OPTIONS!!! I've been wearing regular shirts (that are getting a little tight and just make me look extra pudgy rather than pregnant) and I have 2 pairs of maternity jeans that I am SO tired of wearing already. Lol, on a side note, Dr. Shah walked into the break room shortly after I did and his eyes got really big and he just stood there for a few seconds. I just laughed and said, "I didn't do it!!" He said, "I did not say a word." And then he turned around and walked out. FUNNY! But anyways, back to the clothes!! I took a bunch home hoping they would fit but not really holding my breath because clothes are really hard for me to find. Well guess what!! Oh glory day!! They fit! I got 6 pairs of maternity pants--3 khaki, 2 jeans and 1 pair of nice black pants--and I got 7 shirts all for $25!!!!! It was such a blessing I almost cried! I love dressing up or at least decent but for the last few weeks, I have totally understood why most pregnant women wear sweats and big t-shirts--because you're not really comfortable in anything else. But these clothes fit great and look great and I am SO excited to wear them! So I just had to share that little bit of good news!

MOVEMENT!!

So I FINALLY felt Tommy move!! I've been praying that God would make me feel him move and that I would KNOW beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was Tommy and not gas :) Well I was listening to the heartbeat with the Doppler and BAM! There it was! He kicked pretty hard against the Doppler and I KNEW that was him! And now I've felt the flutters ever since :)

I LOVE IT!!

 It's got to be the coolest feeling in the world to know that there is something alive inside of you and it's moving around!! I am excited for when Nick finally gets to feel it. That'll be so fun!

The nursery is coming along slowly but surely. It's painted tan and we got a dark cherry crib and dresser. Then I got some curtains that are brown fabric with little owls on them with blue and green polka dots in the background and it's so cute! I found this little owl lamp at Cracker Barrel that I just LOVED!!

I never thought my nursery would involve owls, but they're just so stinkin' cute! So I'm going to just decorate the rest of the nursery in brown, blue and green with touches of sports and "man stuff" at Nick's request. Why do I have the feeling my whole house is going to quickly turn into a man cave?? Hopefully I'll learn how to be a boy's mom quickly--catching frogs and learning football and peeing outside. Okay, I'm not going to pee outside, but I just KNOW my son will :) I've caught his father doing it a time or two. Dear God, prepare me for the months ahead where my estrogen will be out ruled by testosterone! Thanks!!

It's a Tommy!!

Well we FINALLY found out that we're having a boy! His name will be Thomas James (Thomas after Nick's dad and James after Nick's middle name). It started out not being my favorite name in the world but it's growing on me. We are going to call him Tommy (because it's cuter). I have to admit (and I feel like a bad mom for saying this), while I was VERY happy to know it's a boy and that his spinal cord and brain are normal, I was slightly disappointed it wasn't a girl.

Stupid, I know, but I just had it in my head it was going to be Tessa, not Tommy.

But that changed when I started shopping for the nursery. I bought some letters that spell out his name and hung them on the wall above his crib. Then I bought some really cute curtains and some football and fishing stuff. Decorating the nursery--making a room with someone specific in mind--has helped me to feel like I'm getting to know this little guy and love him even more. I am SO excited to see his face and his little fingers and toes. And I have become very happy with the idea that we're having a boy (it may have taken a few days, but it grew on me!).

When I hung his name on the wall, it hit me and made me cry a little to think that soon, this room would be completed by the perfect accessory. My little guy Tommy. It makes me tear up now to think about how he's going to grow up in our house and make our lives so complete. Who knows, maybe I'm just over emotional, but the further along I get in this pregnancy, the more real it's becoming to me and the more excited I get!

Now, if I could only feel him kick!! I'm pretty sure I felt it the day of the sono. I had to drink 30 some ounces of water and so my uterus was pretty squished since my bladder was so full. And I SWEAR to you, he was using my bladder as a trampoline. I just kept feeling this little pinging feeling that couldn't have been anything else. I've only felt it a few times since then and I have myself convinced now that it WASN'T the baby, but I don't know. I guess I'll know for sure at SOME point if that's what I'm feeling or not. I can't wait until he gets big enough for Nick to see him moving around. I remember when my friend was pregnant and we would watch her stomach and just see little elbows and knees going from side to side. It has to be one of the most AWESOME things ever and I can't wait to see what it feels like! So I'll update more later and TRY to get pictures of the nursery up when it's further along!

OB update!

Well we went to our OB on Tuesday. I was REALLY hoping we would find out the sex at that time, but she found the heartbeat without having to do a sono (which is ultimately a good thing since it means my bambino is healthy!). While Dr. Lowden was using the doppler on my stomach, we would hear the heartbeat and then hear a loud noise. She said the loud noise was the baby kicking at us!!

That really made this hit home for me. I mean yes, I get that I'm having a baby, but sometimes I forget or I just don't really think about it because I can't see it or feel it yet. But when she said that I was like, "HOLY COW!! There is a CHILD in there and it's moving and alive!!" Crazy.

Then her next statement started World War number 2 :) She said, "The heartbeat is low at around 140." Nick was GOING to ask her if that was TOO low or if it was ok so he said, "And a heartbeat of 140 means......." And she mistook his question and instead of saying whether that was healthy or not, she said, "USUALLY means its a boy!" And there was an instant grin on Nick's face and my eyes started rolling. Now, I'm sure since all OBs do every day is listen to baby heartbeats, they might have an IDEA of what it will be, but there's no ABSOLUTE certainty until you have a sono. And Nick said that of course he knew it could still be a girl, but I could see in his eyes, he'd already named it Tommy, dressed it in camo and signed him up for the football team.

But I must say, the smile on his face was enough to make me almost want a boy :) It was sweet to watch and I know no matter what we have, he's going to be such a proud dad! So we'll find out for sure what we're having on 8/30/10 and trust me, there will be a blog by the next day for sure!! I can't wait to find out and feel like this next week is going to draaaaaaaggg by.

Until the sono, Nick will continue to call the baby Tommy and I will continue to call it Tessa :) I told him if it is a boy, it might come out with a complex because I've been calling this baby Tessa since I found out I was pregnant and if it's really a Tommy, then.........I'm gonna have a hard habit to break! Also ever since I found out I was pregnant, EVERYONE has been giving me a hard time and saying it's twins. Then last night, I had a dream that I adopted twins while I was pregnant with twins!!! AGGGGHHH!!!! Now wouldn't that be scary?!? So who knows, maybe I'll find out I have a Tommy AND a Tessa! But at least after the sono, we can put that myth to rest :) More to come later!

Biscuits=dangerous!!

So just a short little blurp about my exciting trip to Dillons.

Now, I know you're thinking, "What on earth could possibly be exciting about grocery shopping?"

Nothing. There is NOTHING exciting about buying groceries and knowing you just spent money on something that you are going to eat and then eventually just turns into poop. Sorry to be gross, but that's just what it is. Essentially, when we buy groceries, we're buying poop.

 But I digress...it was my turn to bring breakfast to the staff meeting today, so I went grocery shopping a few nights ago. I decided to make these little biscuit muffins (and they turned out REALLY good!!). You just buy a tube of jumbo biscuits. Cut each biscuit in half and put it in a muffin tin, pressing it onto the bottom and sides. Brown some sausage and put a little bit of sausage in each "biscuit cup." Then beat a few eggs (like you would for scrambled eggs) and pour that mixture over the top. Sprinkle cheese on top and cook it for about 12 minutes and VOILA!!! Sausage, egg, biscuit and cheese in a muffin shape!! They were delicious. But I digress. After I got all my groceries, I put them in the back of the Jeep and was driving home when I heard this LOUD POP!!! Sounded like a gunshot, no lie. So I ducked and freaked out a little and then slowly came to my senses, realizing that none of my windows were shattered and I had NOT been shot to my death.

Then I tried to figure out what the noise was. That's when it came to me---my biscuits!! When I got home, there were biscuits all over the back of my Jeep! DANG IT!! I had to go buy more biscuits!! But it was pretty funny and I wish I would've had a video tape of my reaction to that noise, because I bet I looked like an idiot! Grocery shopping made a TINY bit fun :)

Super Summer was....you guessed it!! SUPER!!!

Well as some of you know, I took my youth group and about 12 other kids to Super Summer (a Christian camp in Salina) and it. Was. AWESOME!!! I wish SO bad all of our youth group could have gone, but at least most of them got to go. Let me just put this on the record though---if you're pregnant, do not and I repeat do NOT volunteer to be a sponsor for 14 teenage girls!!! Yes, I said FOURTEEN teenage girls! While it was one of the best experiences in my life, let me just tell you what our room looked like. Imagine a space about 20 feet long and 14 feet wide (a very small rectangle) crammed full with 8 bunk beds and 14 girls, each of whom (including me) brought at least two bags. Now thankfully, I claimed a bottom bunk, so there was no climbing involved, but the bunks were stacked so low on top of eachother that I had to ROLL in and out of bed because if I wasn't completely horizontal, I hit my head every time I moved. So I looked like Chuck Norris doing some kind of special horizontal round-house kick whenever I got in and out of bed.

Then, each of us had brought at least one grocery bag of food and God FORBID any of them get up to throw away the trash from that food. Instead, they used the trashcan as a basketball goal and surprise, surprise, they all suck at basketball :) I kid, I kid. But really.......there were candy wrappers, crushed cookies, water bottles, pop cans, sucker sticks, etc. all over the floor.

Yum.

There's nothing like waking up at 6:00am and rolling off your bed onto a bag of cheez-its laying on top of some spilled soda. That's the other thing--did you note that I said waking up at SIX a.m?!?! Excuse me Jesus, but since when did it become a good idea for Your camps to start so early???? And lights out wasn't until MIDNIGHT! Don't these people know I go to bed at 9pm?? And you had to wait in line to shower and pee! Now, I know it sounds like I'm doing a lot of complaining, but these are the things that make camp memorable and I say them with fondness in my heart :)

 Now let me tell you about how AWESOME it really was!! We had about 75 kids at camp give their life to Christ and 3 of them were ours!!! Praise God! I got to see how awesome my kids were. I gotta tell you, I witnessed some pretty outrageous behavior among other youth group kids and if I wasn't impressed with how well behaved my kids are before, I certainly am now. They are so well mannered and truly seeking God and it just makes my heart so full and thankful. So if you are a parent, friend, sibling, etc reading this and you know someone in my youth group, take the time to appreciate how awesome they are! We had not ONE problem---no fights, no drama, no boy-girl stuff. It was great. And the Towanda Methodist youth group and the Baptist youth group went to super summer together and now they've decided to combine. So we had 12 kids at youth on Sunday! It was so great to see growth and teens who are excited for Jesus!

And I myself grew as a leader and as a person--I was convicted of a few things and am doing my best to change them. Rush of Fools was the praise and worship team and they were such a breath of fresh air! Praise and worship always gets me so happy and excited and of course, it makes me a cry. There's this one song called Hosanna and there's a line in there that says, "I see a generation, rising up to take it's place with selfless faith." Oh MAN, did that hit me hard!! Yes, this generation is harsher and cruder and louder and more advanced in knowledge of certain things that they maybe shouldn't know about yet at that age, but there are SOME kids who are CRAVING Jesus Christ and I got to see that and it just made me think how much more support and love they need. And I'm excited to get to be there for them. So although camp had it's hard ships, it was SO worth it and SO awesome and hopefully I will be going back next summer!!

On a side note, my baby is the size of an avocado this week :) Oh how fast they grow up!! It seems like just yesterday it was the size of a poppy seed!

Alein sighting!!!

We went for our second OB appointment yesterday. Now, I'm not gonna lie. Before we went, I prayed that the baby was perfectly healthy, but that they wouldn't be able to find the heartbeat with the doppler, so they would have to do a sonogram. I just REALLLLY wanted to see this baby and get one of those cute, cheesy sonogram pictures that everyone likes to show off. So I prayed!

After we checked in, we had to wait about 45 minutes to be seen, which is fine because I work for a doctor, so I TOTALLY understand how people get behind (especially specialists). My husband, however, does not have that understanding. He had gotten to the appointment early (which in my lifetime experience has NEVER paid off. I ALWAYS try to get there on time, never early), so he was there for over an hour before we finally got to see the doctor. Poor guy--AND I made him sit with purse while I went to the bathroom 3 times before they finally called my name. He hates purse sitting.

We got back in the room and they did the usual--pee test, blood pressure, etc. Then we met Dr. Lowden (last time we saw the PA) and I really like Dr. Lowden a lot. She's not real chatty, but she's very nice. Then she looked for the heartbeat for like, 20 minutes. I was totally relaxed because hey, I knew this was my prayer being answered. Finally, she gave up and said, "Let me go fire up the sono machine."

YESSSS!!!!!!!

So they take us back to the sono room where the nurse comes in to prep the machine and she says, "So they're doing this intravaginally, right?" I was like, "Uhhhh........the doctor didn't say." So she prepares the wand (which looks interestingly enough like male anatomy) by putting a rubber protector on it (which looks interestingly like a condom) and Nick just starts laughing. Awesome. I'm sitting there with no pants on, getting ready to get invaded and my husband is laughing. But it all stopped when we got to see our sweet baby's heartbeat. We both got a little teary eyed and it was just SO amazing!! There is a HUMAN LIFE inside of me!!! And it looks JUST like an alien!! But it's the cutest little alien baby I've ever seen. And it was a relief to know that everything is great. So we'll keep you updated!