The end of 2008

Today was pretty uneventful, as life usually is here in Oklahoma. I've pretty much been in a pissy mood for a week now, with no signs of it improving. Being in the happening town we live in, our new years eve consisted of going to the base gym (which was pretty much empty) and playing racquetball for 10 mins and bumping a volleyball around for a little bit. Then we went to one of the best restaurants in town (sarcasm), Braum's, and got ice cream. Even that didn't cheer me up. Ice cream ALWAYS cheers me up. We drove around Enid for a while, and then came home. Now it's 9pm and I'm pretty much ready to go to bed.

It's been tough since we've been back here after our trip home. All, and I do mean all, of our military friends are still out of town. Our entire neighborhood is like a ghost-town. No one is around. Mark hasn't been working since he doesn't go back to work until Monday, and it's really hard for me to go to work when I know that he's hanging out at home. Plus one of my good friends at work has been off since I got back, so work isn't half as much fun without her there. I just hope I can snap out of this mood soon. It's getting old feeling so depressed. I have no ambition to do anything. I get off work around 1pm, and then I come home and eat, and then I sit on the couch for the rest of the night. Granted, I'm usually on the computer, or knitting, or writing letters, or reading or something, but I feel so unmotivated. All I can think about is moving away from here (in 91 days). I'm completely living in the future and not in the present, and I know that's not good, but I can't help it.

Today work pulled a REALLY crappy stunt. Luckily it didn't affect me, but I felt really bad for all my co-workers. They (the bosses) had put on the office calendar about a month ago that everyone would get to leave at 2pm today. Well today at NOON, they decide to tell everyone that they were just kidding and everyone gets to work until 5pm... I felt so bad for my co-workers who'd already made plans and had to cancel them because the bosses changed their minds at the last minute. It just seemed like it was all sorts of wrong to me, and I was upset for my co-workers. That place has way more than one problem, but their main problem is how crappy they treat the "pee-ons" sometimes. It's just grossly unfair how the managers get so many perks and everyone else in the office get nothing. Oh well. I only have 3 more months there anyway... Not even.

Anyway, tomorrow Mark and I are going to go to OKC to get in touch with civilization again. We want to see a movie and go out to eat, and while we're down there I'm going to check out fabric for a ring sling I want to make, and we want to get a better tripod for our camera. Mark had our good camera on our current tripod outside last night, and the camera is so heavy and the tripod is so light that the wind almost blew it over. That wouldn't have been good. We also want to check out car-top carriers for when we go home and then move to Phoenix in April.

Hope you all have (had) a safe New Year's Eve.

We're having a....

GIRL!!!!!

We had our 18w5d appt today. When we got there my blood pressure was still high when we got there (143/85), even though I felt pretty calm. We talked to Dr. Ferguson for a few minutes. I told him about my arms and legs falling asleep all the time, and he said that was normal, and I told him about my back pain, and he said "Just wait.. It'll get "better"." (By better, he meant much worse.) It's not too bad now though. Then he left and said he'd meet us in the ultrasound room and to wait for the nurse to come get us. He came back a few minute later with the blood pressure machine though, and took my blood pressure and it was 122/77!! WOOO-HOOO! I asked if we could just take a picture of that and remember it next time but he didn't go for it.

So we went over to the ultrasound room and got to hear the blueberry's heartbeat again, but I don't remember what it was... I don't think I even asked, since I was so excited to find out what it was. After digging around on my belly for a while, he said there was definitely an absence of testicles, so he was relatively positive it was a girl. The picture below is where the boy parts would be, and as you can see, there's nothing there. There were a few good shots of the baby's facial profile with HER hand (I almost typed "it's" again) just below her head that were really cute, but he didn't print those off. She looks kinda like a monkey in the first picture, but that's her eye. She looked much more normal in the other images. Hopefully we'll get a better picture next time.

Anyway, Mark and I are SUPER excited that we're having a girl. I cannot WAIT to see Mark with his daughter. He's going to be wrapped around her little, tiny finger. My dad said right away that Mark will be great with a little girl and he'll be an excellent role model for her. It's nice to finally know a little more about our blueberry. My parents are also very excited about having a grand-daughter, since they have 2 grandsons. It will be good for Mark's family to have a grand-daughter/niece since they have so many boys in their family. Right now, we are leaning towards the name Abbigale Rose, although that's not 100% finalized right now. We have a few more months to decide.

That's our news for now! Hopefully we'll be able to sleep tonight!

(93 days left in Oklahoma...)

Christmas pictures

Since I'm feeling better today (must have been a 24 hour bug, thank God), and I was able to beat Mark to the computer, here are some pictures we took while in IL.


My parents newly remodelled living room.

The K. Kawai piano that I miss SOO much!

My parents used to call me monkey butt... Don't ask...

Our nephew, Miles, and his new John Deere hat!

My dad and our nephew, Cameron, and his new hat.

The weinas and I opening gifts. Sadie is wearing the John Deere hat my parents got the blueberry. Let's hope it's a girl!

Mark took HUNDREDS of bird pictures. This is one of my favorites.

My mom's a little on the weird side sometimes... =) They (aka she) were catching snowflakes.

I love this picture of my parents stained glass with the snow behind it. I love the snow.

The snow filled horse pasture. My dad and I spent HOURS building that fence.

Mark discovered his artist talent on this trip, using our new Canon DSLR camera. He took most of the pictures I'm posting.

The road home. I miss everything about it.

My parents new fireplace, decorated by their cat, Elsie.

Our nephew Cameron getting upclose and personal with Sadie.

Sadie making out with Mark's brother, Ryan, while my mom watches.

Me and my Grandma

Gram and I comparing bracelets.

Showing grandma the blueberry book. (aka - our ultrasound pictures)

Watching Gram open her gifts

The Browning Christmas.

Us with Mark's brother, Alex, at his graduation.

For the FIFTH time in 19 months.....

...I have the stomach flu, yet again. Apparently Oklahoma doesn't like me, just as much as I don't like it. Last night before we ate, Mark said his head hurt and he didn't feel very good and he was getting the chills. Around 1-2am, I started waking up with some pretty back stomach pains/cramps, and woke up every 15-30 mins until I finally got up at 7am. I was going to try to go to work, but I was still doubling over in pain from my stomach ache, so I decided to try to relax until around 1pm and go in then. I had a half a glass of juice and about 10 bites of oatmeal, but by 1pm I wasn't feeling any better at all. I felt really guilty telling my boss I still didn't feel good. I had this exact same thing last month too and I think I missed a day or two of work then, plus I'd been off for a week before Christmas too. I'm always afraid they're not going to believe me when I tell them I'm sick. I went back to bed at 1pm (although I'd just been laying on the couch all morning) and slept until around 5pm. It's now almost 10pm and I'm starting to feel a little better. I've ached all over all day though, and my stomach is either constantly hurting or I'll get really sharp cramps and then nothing for a few minutes.

I really don't know why I keep getting sick here. We've lived here since May 2007, and I've had the flu FIVE times since then. I can't remember the last time I had the flu before then. I think I had one sinus infection during the 2 years we lived in FL, and I'd take a sinus infection over the stomach flu ANY day. Oklahoma and I just don't get along I guess. The climate here (it was 71 degrees here today) or something must through my system off, or maybe these last 2 flu's have been because I'm pregnant, I don't know. But this week, the only place I went without Mark was to work, and I'm sick and he's not. I'm just sick of getting sick all the time. Not my idea of fun...

Our trip to IL

We had a good time in IL. It snowed a lot and made everything so pretty. I REALLY love the snow, even if driving in it scares me sometimes - like when the car slides sideways around corners...

It was good to be home with Mark there with me this time. (Last time I was by myself.) My parents remodelled living room is very cozy now with the new fireplace. (Mark is hogging the new computer that he put all our pics on, so I can't add pictures to this blog since I'm on my laptop and he's busy on the other one.) I got to play my piano some and I got TWO new Lorie Line music books. (She's my favorite pianist.) When I was younger and home by myself I would play the piano for hours. I really, really miss that. But I was spoiled by that piano, so now when I play others it's just not the same. I'll post pics of my piano later too. Sorry I didn't play for you Donna. Next time I will. I should have but I have never liked playing in front of people. If everyone is in a different room, I'll SOMETIMES sit down and play for awhile, but I usually freeze up if people are staring at me. It took me quite a while to be comfortable enough to play in front of Mark even, and he jokes about how when he was at my parents house, as soon as he'd go upstairs, he'd hear my playing the piano and by the time he got back downstairs, I was done. I wish I was more comfortable playing in front of people, but I'm not... especially since I rarely practice anymore.

Saturday the Browning's came over to my parents house and we all ate and played Dirty Santa. It was nice to have our families together.

I got to see some of my childhood friends on Sunday and Monday, which was really nice. My friend, Emily, who I've known since kindergarten, showed us a bunch of baby wearing wraps and slings, which Mark and I REALLY enjoyed. I've heard of the maya wraps and ring slings and hot slings and mei tai's, etc, but I couldn't have told you the differences between any of them. Emily had 4 of them and she showed us how to use each of them by demonstrating with her most adorable, 6 month old, Sierra. (Emily, what was the first one called again? We can't remember. It was the big long piece of fabric that you had her in when we got there.) Emily said she was going to MAKE us a mei tai and we are both VERY excited about it. Mark is all about the "baby wearing" too, which I think is great. I can't wait to see him with our little one.

About the baby - I think I've been feeling it lately. I feel these short little flutters every once in a while, but I'm not sure if it's the baby or something else. I've gained around 7 lbs I think, and that's kind of depressing me. The getting bigger part doesn't really bother me, since so far I think it's mostly in my belly, but when I see the number on the scale going up, that pretty much freaks me out and then I feel really fat. I'm worried about being able to lose this baby weight afterwards. I don't want to be the fat girl with the really skinny husband, and I feel like we were already "that couple" before I got pregnant. I'm going to try to start walking or doing light weight lifting or something now bc I'm getting really self conscious about it all. Mark is reading "The Expectant Father" and he was telling me how pregnant women get forgetful sometimes (or it said that in the book anyway.) I was thinking, yeah, that probably happens to other people, but not me... Wrong. I made beef stir fry last night with pot stickers, but I COMPLETELY forgot about the fried rice that I ALWAYS make with stir fry. I felt like I was forgetting something as I was cooking, but I couldn't, for the life of me, remember what... until I was serving up the plates. Duh. I felt like an idiot, but luckily Mark thought it was hilarious.

If I can pry Mark away from the new computer, I'll try to post pictures later today.

Home sweet home.... not.

We just got back to Oklahoma from our trip to IL and I'm already bitter. The ride home was long (but not as long as the ride there - only 11.5 hours) and pretty depressing to be honest. We drove from almost a foot of snow being on the ground, to just dead grass as far as the eye could see, from below zero degree weather with flurries, to 40+ degree weather with overcast skies. Even though it's December 23, it feels like Christmas is over for us since we're back in the hell-hole we've called "home" for the past year and a half and away from our families yet again. Before my "Oklahomie's" get mad, I'll say there are three good things about living in Enid. The first is my good friends I've made here. I'll never ever forget them. The second is our obstetrician. We REALLY like him and I'm sad he won't be delivering our baby. And the third is Enid has some of the lowest gas prices in the country. (It's $1.51 right now!) But really, I hate it here, except for our friends and my job. I have yet to meet an non-Enidite (someone who didn't grow up here), that actually likes it here. All of our military friends seem to be counting the days until they get to leave. I met a girl online at one of the military spouse forums, and she was moving to Enid a few months ago. She was asking me all about Enid, and I was trying to gloss it over as best I could, in attempt to make it seem "not that bad". Ironically, they live right next to us now, and I saw her in our back yard last month and asked her how she was liking it. She gave me that "you've got to be kidding me" look, and pretty much flat out said she hated it here.

After the holidays is always a little depressing because all the hype is over, and in our case, we're away from our hometown's and families again. But coming back to Enid makes it ten times worse... At least. It doesn't feel like Christmas here because there isn't any snow. The snow at home was SO pretty. I loved it, even if our car thermometer read -9 at one point. The cold and the snow make it feel like Christmas, since I grew up in northern IL. This 40 degree weather, with no snow on the ground, with dead trees and grass as far as the eye can see just doesn't do it for me. And I've noticed that not many people in Enid do the christmas lights thing. That's depressing too. Despite my rant, I'd move anywhere, no matter how much I didn't like it, as long as I got to be with my Mark. He makes it all worth it. We're both VERY excited to move though. Granted, Phoenix won't have snow either, but at least Phoenix will have other things to keep us entertained and keep our minds occupied. (Plus we'll have a newborn so we probably won't have time to concentrate on anything else.)

We took TONS of pictures at home, and I'll write more about our time up there tomorrow. We have to download all the pictures on to our computer and Mark is hooking up the new monitor to the computer he built, so I'll get to all that after work tomorrow.

December pictures

I'm still trying to figure out the best way to add pictures to the blog. It's a lot harder than you would think to get them where you want them and to be able to write captions by them...

Me, 16 weeks pregnant.

Mark and Sadie Roo
This is one of the many reasons we call Oliver the "weina baby"
They're playing.. Really...
Sadie and her new ball... 2 mins and there were holes in it...
Ollie and Sadie opening their gifts.
They really did open them too!











This is why it's so hard to leave them sometimes..





I really miss IL winters. I LOVE the snow!











The Browning's and all the weinas.

Made it to IL

The drive to IL is getting pretty old, to say the least. It normally takes about 13hrs to drive from Enid to Batavia (outside Chicago), IL and usually we leave OK around 7-8pm and drive straight through the night and get to IL around 9am. This time, we decided to leave around 2pm the day before and drive to Springfield, MO (about 5 hrs from Enid) and spend the night. That way we were still in the local area, which according to the military is 350 miles of where you're stationed, and we also beat the weather they got in Enid last night. Our plan worked perfectly until we got to St. Louis this morning. We left Springfield around 7am, and our GPS said our ETA was 2:44pm in Batavia. However, while driving through St. Louis, we saw 2 trucks flipped upside down on the side of the road, one car that had gone completely through a fence and halfway down a BIG hill, an RV laying on it's side, and a semi trailer bed - actually just the bottom of it, since the rest had burnt to a crisp. That was all within about 15 miles of each other. The roads were mostly okay, some of the bridges were a little slick in places, but we had our 4wheel drive Explorer and it handled the roads fine. However, then we ran into a "wintry mix", which made driving a little harder, mainly because something is wrong with the washer fluid on the SUV and it doesn't work at all. So everyone was kicking up wet stuff on the road, so the windshield got dirty REALLY quick and if we tried to use the wipers (without the fluid) it would streak and you seriously couldn't see out the front of the car. When we got within 2-3 hours of Batavia, the weather took a turn for the worse, and so did the roads. The left lane was pretty much covered in snow and the right lane had patchy snow in places. The traffic in Chicago was going about 15mph. It was bad. All 4 lanes (one way) of traffic were moving slow and none of the lanes were completely clear. We finally got to Mark's parents around 5:30pm. We're not sure if it would have been better to drive through the night or not, but we're both sore from sitting in the car for 5 hours yesterday and 10 hrs today... And I think I'm going to be able to drive from IL to AZ (26 hours of DRIVING alone, not including stops) when I'm 34 weeks pregnant... I'm only (almost) 17 now, and that was rough. I guess we'll see how that goes when we get there.

Anyway, we're in IL now. We'll be in Batavia until Friday AM, and then we're heading to my parents house in Galena. We're heading back to OK on Tuesday, so hopefully the weather will be better then. It's supposed to get bad up here Thursday night too... just in time for our 3 hr drive to Galena. Yay. That being said, it's SOOO pretty up here now. There were big, huge snowflakes and all the trees look so pretty with the snow on them. I love it. I miss the snow they have here. It's just not the same in OK, and it won't be the same at all in AZ. I can't wait to go to my parents house and sit by their fireplace all day long and play my piano that I miss so much!

16w1d appt

First things first. Here are the US pics from yesterdays appt.



Heartrate was 141 bpm.

The blueberry's legs and feet.

In the pike position, look at the top of it's head, with it's legs out in front of it.

Top of head with arms and hands.

Face view.

My co-worker brought her husbands bp machine to work. We checked mine first thing this morning when I got to work and mine was 147/88. We checked it a few more times over about 2 hrs and the lowest was 137/85 I think. So I called my OB office and told them the readings from last night at Wal-Mart and this morning and told them I was a little concerned about pre-eclampsia. The nurse asked "Do you have blurry vision ever?" .... Well actually yes. I went to the optometrist for it a few weeks ago and he said my blurry/double vision is caused by severe dry eyes and scratches being on my corneas. "Do you ever see spots?" Yeah, actually.. I have maybe 2-3 times in the past 2 months. I thought it was because I got up too fast or something. "Do you have long lasting headaches?" ..... You mean like the ones I'm on meds for that last for 2 days even with me taking meds for them? Yes... "Okay, the dr would like to see you this afternoon." Great...

So I go to my dr at 3pm. My bp is 160/88. Perfect. I'm dying. <~~sarcasm Mark gets there a few minutes late because his sim ran late, but he makes it before the dr comes in to talk to us. The dr comes in and I say "I'm fairly certain I'm dying." He says "Yeah, we're going to ship you over to the hospital right now, and we'll probably just put you down to put you out of your misery." =) I explain to him how I'm at LEAST in the top ten of the world's biggest worrier's and all about the House episode I watched on Tuesday and how I know it's most likely in my head, but just in case I wanted to hear him say I'm not dying. (Or have pre-e or am at risk for harming the baby bc of my bp or however you want to word that. "Dying" is my shortened version.) He says I'm not dying and no more House episodes for me, but he would appreciate it if I do watch House or Baby Story or any other medical show to at least give him advance warning so he can watch it and be prepared, and in the case of House, know the treatment ahead of time. And then he said I'll probably want to call whichever pediatrician I plan on taking the blueberry too and give them advance warning that I'll probably be in 2-3 times a week after the baby is born. =) I love my doctor. But between all the joking, he said that pre-e doesn't usually start until at least 20 weeks, so I'm too early in the pregnancy to begin with. He also said that people that have pre-e are usually very sick, and since I'm pretty healthy, he's not too worried about it. He said my bp of 160/88 has no scientific meaning bc it's a skewed reading - meaning the ratio of the top and bottom numbers are too far apart. And he said you can't get a truly accurate bp reading unless you've been sitting/ resting for at least 3o mins before hand with minimal movement. He's having me come back in 2 weeks to check things out and give me piece of mind because he doesn't want me to think he's brushing me off - which I don't at all. I really, really like him. I'm sad that he won't be the one delivering our blueberry, which is a big thing for me to say bc I've never had a male OB/GYN. But he puts me at easy right away, and we have the same sense of humor and Mark and I both enjoy our visits with him.

So I'm much better now, and I'm not worried about it anymore really. I'm sure it'll still be high every time I go in there but I'm just cool like that, but as long as he's not worried about it, I'm not either. Em, I would still like those CD's you were talking about though, to borrow, if I can. They'd be beneficial either way I'm sure. Thanks!

My pre-e scare (16 week appt)

Let me preface this by saying last night we watched the TV show House, and a girl died of eclampsia on the show. Also, I'm probably the world's biggest hypochondriac... Okay, maybe 2nd biggest. My good friend and co-worker, Elyse, might take the cake on that one, but I do give her a run for her money sometimes... And this was one of those times.

We had our 16 week appointment today. First thing they normally do is take your blood pressure. Mine is usually pretty high because I get all wound up for my OB appointments. Until I see the baby moving and hear the heartbeat, I pretty much hold my breath the whole time. So anyway, she takes my bp and it's 148/88. That's way high. So immediately she takes it on my other arm and it's 131/74 - not bad, but she wants to check it on my way out just to make sure. We have our normal talk with the dr. He asks if we want to do the down's syndrome screen bc now is the optimal time. We decide we don't since it won't really matter either way, besides saving us the shock at birth. But we decide to take our chances with not knowing. The dr asks about my headaches, which are getting a little better it seems, and if I take the 2 midrin as soon as I feel one coming on, it usually takes care of it. Then we have our ultrasound and we get to see the blueberry for like the 5th time I think. It's getting so big. He tried to see what he/she was, and got a few good "shots" but it wasn't all that conclusive. He said if he had to guess he would guess it's a girl, but not to go around telling everyone he said that... like I just did. =) We got 5 new ultrasound pictures to add to our collection. After the ultrasound she took my bp again and this time it was 158/88... They wanted to do a urine sample, but I had just peed, so they said we'll look at it next time if it's still up.

So my heart had been racing all night after that appointment. I felt like my chest was tight and like I couldn't breathe. It was all in my head and I knew it was in my head, but I still freaked out. We went to my company christmas party and had a good time, and then headed to Walmart to use their blood pressure machine. I could feel my heart rate speed up just walking to the machine because I was getting nervous. Sure enough, when I sat down, the first time my bp was 151/88 and my heart rate was 101. Nice. (Yes, I know I need to calm down... no need to remind me.) After walking around the store for 15 mins and breathing deeply and taking my bp about 6 more times, I finally got it down to 127/77 and my heartrate down to 92. (For comparison, Mark's bp was 123/74 and his heart rate was 55 at the lowest. He tested multiple times too.) And sure enough, as soon as I saw the "normal" range, I could feel my heart rate lower and my chest felt much less tight. We seriously contemplated getting a blood pressure machine for home, but they were $40 and we didn't want to spend that much. We decided we'll wait until my next appt (Jan 7th) and see what my bp is then.

Overall though, things have been great. I still get some migraines, but they seem to be letting up some. I've been really hyper lately too. I've been in a great mood and I truly am loving being pregnant. Today at the grocery store we saw a friend we hadn't seen for a few months and she right away said "I didn't know you were pregnant!". That made me feel great - like I actually look pregnant instead of just fat. It was a real "upper", even though I probably didn't need that since I was already way wound up. =)

We're SUPER excited about going home next week. They're calling for bad weather though on Monday and Tuesday all the way from OK to IL. That makes me nervous. I get nervous driving 13 hours away anyway, but adding snow/ice/rain to the drive makes me even more nervous. We've decided we're going to leave Monday afternoon as soon as we can, and drive to Springfield, MO - about 6 hrs from here. We'll be within the 350 mile radius Mark has to stay in since he leave doesn't start until 12:01am on Tuesday. Then we'll drive the rest of the way on Monday. That way we have more time with his family and if we run into bad weather, our drive will be more bareable. I don't want our 13hr drive turning into an 18hr drive due to weather if we're trying to do it all in one day. Hopefully the roads will be much better than I'm imagining! =)

A fun-filled weekend

We went to Mark's squadron's Christmas party on Friday night. We had a great time visiting with friends and eating the wonderful food! I promised my mom we'd take pictures of our new outfits so I've included a few in this blog. I pooped out kinda early (10:30pm), but despite leaving earlier than most, we had a great night.

Saturday we headed down to OKC to go to a Cirque show. Before the show, we decided to eat at Joe's Crab Shack, since I was craving crab legs. I'd never even tried crab legs until I was in FL with Mark and he took me to the Crab Shack on Okaloosa Island, RIGHT on the beach. That was a mistake... I LOVE crab legs, so the whole time we lived in FL we probably had them at least once or twice a month. He's learned since then, not to introduce me to expensive foods. =) Anyway, so we thought it would be fun to eat crab again... Eh.. Not so much. The crab was okay, not the best we'd ever had. Mostly it was the atmosphere. We were so spoiled in FL since every time we had crab it was at a nice restaurant along the Gulf coast. Eating crab in the middle of OKC in December just isn't the same. We learned our lesson. That, and our waiter there was absolutely horrible! It must have been his first day or something. I hope to God it was his first day...

After lunch we went to our 6th Cirque du Soleil show, Saltimbanco. Cirque holds a special place in both of our hearts. We went to our very first one in FL in February of 2005. We were there with a group of people on spring break and we saw La Nouba. (That was before we were even dating, although I was calling him my pretend boyfriend, he just didn't know it yet.) Then we went on a graduation trip after Mark graduated from MSOE in May 2005, and Mark, his brother, Ryan, and I went up to Montreal, Quebec and saw our second Cirque show, Corteo. The next two we saw were in Vegas on our honeymoon in June 2006. There we saw Zumanity and Mystere. In April of 2008 we saw Ka in Vegas also during my work trip. And then 2 days ago we saw Saltimbanco. If you've never seen a Cirque show, I would HIGHLY recommend it. They are amazing, and not at all your typical "circus". They're all kinda similar, as in - you know you're watching a Cirque performance, but they're all vastly different too. We both really enjoyed Saltimbanco. They did some amazing tricks, and the clowns were funny and the audience participation was entertaining. We had a great time.

After the show we went and finished up some of our last Christmas shopping and I admired pan sets at Williams and Sonoma. Someday I'll be able to afford a $1200 set of pans, but not anytime soon, so I just like to go look at them. We also checked out Mimi Maternity, since I would like a few "dressy" maternity shirts, but that place was so un-Godly expensive I didn't buy anything there. I refuse to pay $40 (and that was HALF OFF!!) for a shirt! Most of my entire OUTFITS don't cost $40. We split an entree at Olive Garden for dinner and decided it was a good thing we didn't live closer to OKC since our dining out budget would probably need to be tripled. (Just on Saturday we spent almost $60 on food and we shared a meal at both restaurants we ate at!) After dinner we stopped at Target (I miss Target) and I found a cute maternity shirt for $10 and we got gifts for our dirty santa game with our family and a few gifts for our nephews and then we headed home. It was a great day overall. I love going on dates with Mark. We talked a lot throughout the day about how our life will change when we have this baby and how we thought things would be different. We're so excited, and a little nervous, but more excited than anything. We keep talking about how next Christmas will be so much fun having a 6-7 month old. We are truly blessed.

Almost to 16 weeks!

The visit with my parents was great. It was so nice having them here, even when we were just relaxing. It kind of annoys me though, how quickly I revert to "kid mode" when my mom is around. My mom is a domestic queen. She loves cooking and cleaning (weird, I know) and all that domestic stuff, so when she's here she pretty much takes over the kitchen. That's fine with me, because I miss her cooking and I don't mind too much when she cleans (although sometimes I wish she'd just relax). It does annoy me how easy it is for me to just let her do it though. It's my house and I feel like I should be the one cooking and cleaning, and I always feel guilty afterwards that I let her do all the work.

Most of our Christmas shopping is done, which is a relief. Now I need to get the rest of the presents wrapped. I think this is the first year I'm more excited to go to IL than stressed out. It's been somewhat hard for me to be around Mark's family bc he is pretty much the prodigal son when he goes home since he's not home nearly as much as his brothers. I've never really felt like I've measured up in their eyes, but I'm sure that's all in my head. And it's probably just as much in my head that now that I'm pregnant with his baby I'll be "worth" more.

This week we ordered a really nice Santoku knife from one of our credit card reward programs. It's probably worth at least $100, but we got it for free by using our points. We got an okay set of knifes for our wedding (2.5 years ago), but they are impossible to keep sharp bc they're not the best quality. So I'd been wanting a good knife for a while. This new knife is AMAZING! My other knives would barely cut through an onion without pushing really hard, and this new one - you don't even have to push! It's a lot heavier than our cheaper knives too. I LOVE it! Someday we'll have to upgrade all of our knives, but I'm really happy with the one for now. Now I would like to get a nice, big, wooden cutting board. We usually use plastic ones, and I think they make our knives go dull quickly. I can't wait to someday have a nice kitchen, with lots of cabinet and counter space, and preferably a 6 burner gas stove and a double oven. =) I don't want much... I know. Maybe 30 years from now we'll have something like that, and then I'll spend all my time in the kitchen! I'd be spending more time in the kitchen now if my stupid kitchenaid stand mixer worked. I got that for our wedding also, and I've used it MAYBE 20 times and I think the gears have already gone out in it or something. It doesn't mix at all on the lower speeds, you have to turn it all the way up and it only works on the fastest speeds. It's annoying.

Tomorrow is Mark's squadrons Chritmas party and Saturday we're going to Saltimbanco (a Cirque du Soleil show) in OKC. Next Wednesday is my work Christmas party and our 16 week OB appt. and then the following Tuesday we're off to IL. Time seems to be flying by! Next week I'll be 4 months pregnant! I can't believe it!

To those of you that have been making suggestions in the comments, thank you so much!! I've been taking notes! And if you haven't voted on what you think we're having yet, go to the main page of our blog on the top right corner and vote!!

Stressful day of shopping and registering.

Today we went shopping in OKC with my parents. Mark's squadron Christmas party is this coming friday, and it's formal attire. Mark doesn't have a suit, except for his military mess dress and service dress, so we figured it was time he got one. We looked at Kohl's first because they usually have good sales, and they did. However, they didn't have his size anywhere. We looked at every single jacket in that store, and there were no 40L's. Anywhere. We were pretty discouraged, but luckily, later we went to a mall and had more luck finding his size. We started out in Dillards. That was a mistake. They had all their suits 50% off, but the cheapest one was at least $500, so they were still $250 just for the pants and jacket. Yikes! After making a few stops, we finally found a very nice suit at JC Penney's, along with 2 shirts and 2 ties for $220. We're both pretty excited about it. The next challenge was finding me something to wear to a formal party.... It seems like this weekend I all of a sudden look pregnant. And no, I didn't eat a lot during Thanksgiving. I'm definitely showing now so it made finding a decent outfit more difficult. I saw this really pretty, navy blue, long, halter top dress at Dillard's that would have been perfect, but it was $198. So yeah.. After looking at all the major department stores, we finally went to Motherhood. It was our first time there, so that was exciting. I had wanted to get a dress, but I found a pair of black pants that fit really well, despite my belly, and a nice white shirt, along with another shirt that I liked. I'm a little worried I won't be as dressed up as everyone else, but I'm not going to spend a bunch of money on a dress that I won't be able to wear a lot. At least with Mark's suit, he'll be able to wear that for many years.

Before the clothes shopping escapade, we went to Babies R Us for the first time. Needless to say, we were both completely overwhelmed. We wanted to look at the car seats and strollers primarily, and furniture, and other big stuff. I've had friends recommend getting the car seat of our choice, and then get the little strollers that are made for the car seats to fit into (they're basically just a frame of a stroller) and then get an upgraded umbrella stroller for when they're a little older. My only problem is, I don't like any of the cheaper upgraded umbrella strollers. I like Peg Perego's, but they're like $150, so that's really not saving us any money. I want the stroller to have the tray that goes in front of the child, to put food and drinks on, bc I've read that that is very useful, and none of the "cheap" umbrella strollers have that. We finally gave up and decided to look into it more and then update our registry online. We only registered for a few things, and most of them were expensive, so I'm going to try to update the Babies R Us registry soon and also start one at Target. We were kind of freaked out by the high prices too. I would LOVE to get a glider, but the ones at Babies R Us were like $500. YIKES! We're not going to have $2000 to buy furniture and strollers and car seats and pack and plays and high chairs and everything else you need for a baby. I knew babies were expensive, but it's still overwhelming. Maybe our 2nd trip there will be less stressful.

Happy Thanksgiving! (plus a few pics)

We had our 14 week appt yesterday. It was bittersweet, since I had learned the day before that one of my good friends had miscarried. She was 11 weeks. I always am a little nervous before our ultrasounds, but hearing about that the day before made me extra nervous. Luckily though, the blueberry is fine and doing well. It's the size of a peach now. It's heartrate was 154bpm (down 1bpm from 2 weeks ago) and it rolled completely over while he was doing the U/S. Here are the pics we got this time.

Arms and legs!!
Good profile shot!


I think this was taken at 13 weeks. Definitely starting to show.

In Amarillo, TX

Maxi pad

Sophia

Sadie and her bone, before she stole Ollie's

Ollie and his bone, before Sadie stole it.

The weinas testing out the running stroller that my parents got us. Only $100!!!

That's all for now. Hope you all have a safe and happy Thanksgiving! I am thankful for ALL of you!