HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Scary story, the other morning, I woke up to go to the bathroom and when I laid back down to hopefully get a few more hours of peaceful rest, I heard a pack of coyotes right outside the house. Of course I am cornered about my ever adorable dog, Katie. I ask Dennis quietly if he is awake and he knew I would want to check on my ever adorable dog. So, we both get up and try to look out the window to see if we see the not so adorable wild dogs. Turns out that morning you could not see twenty feet in front of you because of the fog. So, we went to the porch to see if Katie was out side or in her kennel. Dennis opened the door and Katie was there so she cowardly came toward the door. She was obviously scared so I bent down to comfort her and let her know that it would be okay (little did I know...) As I was in the process of telling her a lie that all would be okay, a yellow dog ran across the porch RIGHT behind Katie about a foot from my head. This scared all three of us causing Dennis to push me back into the house and slam the door. His response "That scared the crap out of me!" He tells me that it was a yellow lab. I of course try to believe him but have to look up images of coyotes on the Internet and I now do not believe that it was a lab but indeed a wild coyote! So, Katie did survive that night but I have yet to see our mama cat Kathy... I don't know if she fell to be a victim of mother nature or not but have yet to prove that she was not. It is VERY scary to know that they have come that close to the house. I guess that was part of me being a naive city girl, but that would definitely put me more of a country girl!

Before I give you a very short update, I would just like to say in the spirit of Thanksgiving what I am thankful for. I am most thankful for the family and friends that I have in my life, you all do treat me well. I am thankful for Dennis and this baby that is kicking inside of me, my own little family that I would do anything for. I am thankful for a job that I love and I enjoy to going to, even if I do have to work crazy hours. And I am thankful that I am able to be thankful for all of these. I am healthy, I have enough money to feed my family and I have a house to live in. I guess, all in all, I am thankful for everything I have in my life.

This last week has been a quiet one for us all. So a short update; Dennis is done on all the big things in Sabetha! YEAH! I guess just in time for Thanksgiving! I have just been working, I had a few days off and invited Mom and my sisters over to watch My Sisters Keeper. It was a great movie but was really funny at the end of the movie we hear Nikki saying “Oh that just makes me mad.” The ending was different than the book and I figured that was the only other ending…. After I get done working nights I will have 8 days off!! I am very excited for this, not really sure what all I will do but I am excited to take a break from work myself. I got my hair cut on Wednesday too, it was just a trim but I hadn’t had my hair cut since February so it was much needed. The same morning of the coyote escapade, I woke up and my eyes were burning so badly that I could hardly keep them open. I called the eye doctor and somehow managed to make it into town. She told me that I have one of the worse cases of bacterial eye infections that she had seen in quite sometime. She gave me a prescription to put in my eye ever hour that day and every-other hour the next day and then 4x a day after that. That small bottle that holds a whopping 3 mL, costs $100!!!! Thank God that I have great insurance, I only had to pay $20, and wear my glasses for a week. At the start of week 24, Baby has been kicking just as much only harder now. He should be right under 1lb 6oz., or at least somewhere in there. We have a doctor's appointment on Monday, just a check up so I will let you all know how that went later. It will be a long time until I update you again because I will be off work until the 2nd!!! So, I wish you all a great Thanksgiving and hope you eat lots of turkey!

Week 23!

At week 23, baby should be right around a whole pound, give or take a few ounces! He is also about 11 inches long from head to toe. It is very reassuring as each day passes to know that he could have a chance at living if he were born now. But in the mean time, he is kicking more and Dad has gotten to feel him move around more. I think that we have finally decided on a name! I will not post it but you may hear us say it if it slips…. So, for now we will just call him Baby.

Dennis has been going to Sabetha pretty well every day. It is so good to hear that he is almost done. I know that it will be a huge relief when it is done. He has several jobs around here that will not take that long that he has to do yet. He has been feeling a little under the weather too. Friday he came home after lunch because he wasn’t feeling well. I don’t know if this is just a touch of something but he never gets sick so I do get worried about him pretty quickly. Yesterday he was feeling better so hopefully it is done whatever it was. I know we are all hoping that he will be done in Sabetha by the end of this week.

When we went to Topeka, we took Christmas pictures. They are very cute but WOW did it take all of us adults energy to get them done! All of the kids were tired and so they were not cooperative. Sears did do a good job and they were able to get a good picture of each kid. So I guess that was a successful day. I am almost done with Christmas shopping too!! I just have a few small purchases to make and then I am DONE! I am so excited to get Christmas decorations out. I have been trying to hold off for Dennis’s benefit. Also, Friday, Tara and I baked Christmas cookies. With a minor mess up, we did have a successful day and made several hundred cookies. Time is going by so fast. It seems like Christmas will be here and gone before we know it. That only scares me because I want everything to get done for the baby before he arrives.

Start of week 22 update

I will give an early update this week too since I am taking off work on Sunday. As far as baby goes, there really isn’t much that he has been doing for me to let you all know. He is kicking just about the same as he has been, I would like for that to pick up. It is very reassuring that he is doing great when he kicks. I find it amusing at how little amount of sugar it takes to wake him up. I can eat a small piece of candy from Halloween and he starts to kick. Dennis thinks that I use that as a reasoning to eat candy.

As for Dennis and I, we did have a great weekend away. It was nice to see friends that we only get the chance to see once a year or so. I guess that I lied last week about Dennis was done combining. He finished his beans tonight, so now I believe that they are all done. He should have only a week left in Sabetha and then cross your fingers that he will be done!

Wednesday, I did get my H1N1 shot so I should be in the clear! Let’s hope anyway. I have been getting some major headaches and my lower back has been so out of place, so, I called the chiropractor yesterday to set up an appointment and they had a cancelation so I took it. I do feel better but I think I need a lot of work! Turns out that she charges a lot more than others do, I guess I should have done my shopping around before going to someone who charges two times what others charge around here. She is good and I do like her but I think saving $25 would be worth my drive to Sabetha to go to Simpson. With my days off coming up, I am going to go to Topeka with the family again only this time, we are going to get Christmas pictures taken. I have not done this since I was a very small girl! I am also thinking of getting a batch of my Andy Mint Cookies made! With all the Christmas candy out now, it is making me want to start baking yummy candy and cookies. So, here’s to a great 22 week for baby and hopefully Dad can feel him kick this week!

Baby BOY!!!

Since I am off work until Monday night, I will write a quick blog for this week. We had a VERY exciting week with baby. On Tuesday we had a sonogram and a doctor’s appointment. The sonogram went great. We told him right off the bat that we would really like to know the sex of the baby. He scanned the baby first off and he was awake enough and moving around enough that we saw his little BOY parts right off the bat!! The tech guy in Sabetha says he never gives a 100%. He usually will go for 70% as the highest and he gave us an awesome 80%. We saw his proof as well so Dennis and I are 100%! I was pleasantly surprised! I truly thought that he was a she. So, Dennis was just beaming! As far as the little guy’s growth, he was measuring about 50% for all height and on weight. Everything was just spot on. His heart beat at the sonogram was 153 and by the time Dc. Glynn checked it, it had dropped to about 138ish. I was told to eat some sugar and drink some OJ for the sono to wake baby up… I guess I had too much! As far as the other doctor’s appointment, there really wasn’t anything new to update anyway. I have felt the baby much more this week. Also, I just had a call from the clinic and they will have an H1N1 shot for me on Wednesday and they should have one for Nikki too! That that is very good that we will have those taken care of.

Wednesday, I went to Sabetha to help Lacy paint some trim at her house. It was really great to see Stephanie and Lacy, I feel like life takes over and we don’t get to see each other very often. Dennis is done with combining and is now just trying to get done in Sabetha. As this job has taken much longer than he had anticipated, he is looking forward to not driving an hour to work soon! For this weekend, it should be great, we are leaving today as soon as I get off work to go see some friends in Western KS, It is close to Greensburg. So, we are looking to be driving a good 4 ½ hours tonight! I hope all has a great Halloween and eats LOTS of candy! I know I will!!!!

20 weeks!!

HALF WAY BABY!!! Or, baby is half baked? Either way you look at it I guess we REALLY need to start thinking about what all we are going to do room wise and furniture wise and everything else that comes with your first baby. This week the baby has been much more active, I now feel it at least once a day. This is pretty exciting for me because it becomes more real. Just in the last two days or so I have felt tightening in my belly. Nikki said that is probably Braxton hicks already.

This week sucked for farm equipment. First off, the chopper attempted to chop a rock. Turns out, that doesn’t work so well. Or does, just adds up a good six to seven thousand dollar bill… I guess that is what insurance is for! So, yes we will only have to pay the deductible but now I am even more worried that the baby’s room will not get done because this will be a winter project. Then, a few days after that happened; something went wrong with the combine. I’m not really sure what happened to it but it is still sitting in the field with corn that is not cut yet. So, hopefully that will be a fix that isn’t too hard and all the guys can get the crops up.

Sunday I got to eat Chinese food! I so wanted Chinese!! And now that a good week has passed, I want a big ol’ plate of beef and broccoli with a side of deep fat fried chicken, or cat, or rat or whatever animal that tastes so darn good. And of course you cant forget that deep fat fried dough coated in sugar! Oh how I love those! Ok, next time we go to Topeka, we ARE eating Chinese!!

The snake is caught! On Tuesday, my nerve grew enough to meander downstairs to see if one of the sticky traps was occupied. And indeed it was. This was also I am sure of it, an America’s Funniest Video winner moment. I poked the dang thing to see if it was still alive or if it was dead. Well, the only last part of it that I saw moved and tried to get further into the stairs. I carefully moved the sticky trap as far back as it would go and hoping that I would kill it, I took a big heave hoe with the shingling fork and just pissed the damn thing off! So, I called Dennis, of course, he didn’t answer so I called my mother-in-law who was determined to get someone to rescue me! (I am so thankful of this, I just new Dennis would give me crap till the day I died if I started calling anyone who would come over) So, Kyle came over and got the snake out for me! I would have stayed to help and also to verify that it was the same snake but I was called into work that day to take a crazy lady to Osawatomie State Hospital. So, I am just telling myself that it was the only lime green and yellow snake that was taking up residency at 2246 H Rd!
Like I said, I was called into work to take crazy lady to the crazy house. This I never mind, I get paid to sit in the car for 6 hours (because that is so different from sitting in front of a computer updating my blog). We got back a little before 5 and I was so excited that it was enough time to go work out at 5:30 at aerobics. So, I went home to change and somehow I got off track and looked at the clock and it was straight up 6 o’clock! I completely forgot! I guess that is the start of pregnancy brain. Hell must have froze over this week too because then on Wednesday Dennis and I went out to eat AGAIN! Loren had the great idea to eat pizza at the Axtell bar. Friday I finally got to enjoy my days off. My sisters, Mom and all the kids and I went shopping in Topeka. I can now get the rest of my Christmas shopping done in town!! You would never believe how we all fit in the van with all of our purchases. It was crazy and a bit fun to watch Mom get in the back between the kiddos. Love you Mom! Saturday, was Trenton’s birthday party. That kid is going to enjoy being a fireman way to much this year! Then on Sunday, I had a Lia Sophia party. It was a fun time and wowzers I get lots of jewelry! My party was big enough that I will get $926 of jewelry for only $120!!! Maybe more, the party doesn’t close until the first.

This week was apparently busier that I thought. This next week will not be much, work, work and more work! Oh ya, that one little thing called a SONOGRAM!!! Yep Tuesday we will get to find out what we are having!! I may be mean and not tell anyone but if Dennis decides to let it slip to every man, woman, and child then I guess I will make the facebook and blog announcement as well!

Lovely Blog Award!

I keep forgetting to say that my cousin Amber gave me the Lovely Blog Award!

The rules are that I am to award my 15 favorite blogs, well, I don't follow that many so here are the blogs that I do follow:

Of cause my cousin's Amber, Traveling Amber, she blogs about her life living in France. She has some very interesting stories of her now two years living over seas.

My sister, Nikki, The Blogging Mom, who blogs about her kiddos and all the funny things that they do. This is kinda the reason I started blogging, so that I someday can blog about all the cute things my kids do.

Miranda Young, her blog, Our Journey, who the last month and a half hasn't been a good blogger ;) But she blogs about everything from her son to the move into a new house, to her likes and dislikes.

Phoenix's Fight, This is a blog that a co-worker's wife has. She blogs about all of their kids but their youngest Phoenix has Cystic Fibrosis. She blogs about his struggles and triumphs as a little boy with such a hard life.

Lastly, I just started following Emerson Kate Strahm, This is a blog by Kelsi Strahm who is expecting a baby in January. She is married to a classmate of mine from high school.

Night owl!

I believe it is official; our 19 week old baby-to-be is a night owl! Working the night shift this week I have felt the joy of the little bugger twisting and turning all night long. It is pretty cool to notice it moving around more and more every day… or night. Down to nine more days until we get to find out if it is a girl or a boy! (This evening, anyone who thought we already had the sonogram, they asked 'So it's a girl?') There really hasn’t been much of anything else new with baby this week.

Dennis had a stressful week. He found out on Friday that someone had gone in the garage that they were building in Sabetha and stole a lot of his tools. He said that Edelman’s were great to work with and gave him a pretty good deal to replace them but even still, he is now out a lot of money missing all those tools. So, having a very upsetting end of the week, he is even more ready for this job to be done, as so is everyone else involved.

I had a great work week. I had Tuesday and Wednesday off and just spent the days pretty lazy. Katie has been a bad girl! She was so great for about three weeks and only ran off a few times. Well, the last four days she has made her way down to our neighbors and visited her buddy, Buddy. If anyone has any ideas at how to train her to stay at home, I would LOVE the suggestions! Dennis had a great idea to have Jeff shoot off a gun when she runs down there. She usually will see a gun and run straight for her kennel. So, I will have to try this trick, I will get some great use out of my 20 gage. Saturday, Kyle and Julie had a house warming party and so we spent the evening there. We will see what this next week has in store for all three of us! I am hoping for Chinese food tonight, cross your fingers!!!!