Bailey Anne Tyler

Pictures are out of order, but blogging is much harder with a baby in one arm! Getting ready to go home on Monday.






















Bailey ready to go home.

















Happy mommy to finally have her here! Taken Monday.

















Her first picture, in the operating room.

In the nursery getting checked out.

She is here! She was born on Saturday, December 27th at 9:23pm by c-section after a long day of labor. I can't type much now as she is occupying my left arm, but I will as soon as I get a chance. We are all doing well and adjusting to this new life!

The Plan

Well, I went back to the doctor today, and there was no change since Monday, and he did oblige me and schedule me for an induction, but it's not till January 2nd. That was the earliest next week they could take me. Apparently it's a popular time to be induced, what with the nice tax deduction on the line and all....

He did say they flagged my file so if someone ends up not needing an induction earlier in the week they can bump me up and try to get me in before the 1st. My hope obviously, is that she will come on her own before that time. I'm okay with being in the hospital on Christmas day, so keep praying people! :)

So anyways, I've decided I just need to not worry about it anymore, because I've done everything I can do to try to make this work the way I want it to. It's just up to God now how it works out. If I end up being in the hosptial after December 31st, then we'll just suck it up and have to pay the extra money and trust that God will provide that for us. So in the meantime, I'm going to try to enjoy Christmas and the time Anthony & I have left together with just the two of us.

Off to work on my Chex Mix now and then we'll be heading over to Kevin & Sarah's in a little while for the Christmas Eve party. :)

Bailey's Room

Here are some pictures of Bailey's room! We are all ready for her now.... just waiting on her. :) I just got the rocker tonight. My dad bought it for us, so that was really nice of him! I wanted to be able to use it past the time when I am just rocking babies in it, so I didn't get a white one to match the furniture. I got something I thought would go well with our living room furniture and floors. Enjoy!

38 Weeks Picture

Okay, so apparently Windows Vista does have kinks, but luckily I have a computer saavy husband who fixed the problem, so finally, here is the 38 week picture!

39 Week Checkup

Okay.... this ought to be the last or next to last one of these I have to write. Everything was good. My blood pressure was lower than last week, so I was pleased with that. Baby's heartbeat was good and she still likes hanging out over on my left side. I am about 1/2 cm dilated, so that was good to hear. At least we're getting somewhere and not having nothing happen!

I saw Dr. Ferguson today and this was the 2nd time I've seen her. I like her, she was very easy to talk to and just really friendly. She said of course, that first babies tend to take their time and once I was a week to 10 days overdue (if we get there) we could talk about scheduling an induction. She mentioned that obviously it's best to let "mother nature" handle things if possible, but once you are overdue, you have to start thinking about the fact that the baby is getting bigger everyday, so you don't want her so big that she won't come out anyways. I ran the January 1st/insurance deal by her and I get the impression that if I make it to my appointment next Monday (the 22nd) we might be able to schedule an induction for the point that I would be a week overdue (the 28th). So hopefully we don't make it that far (I am begging you to pray for that!) but if we do and things went like they should, I could still be out of the hospital by December 31st. And, the doctor I see next Monday is Dr. Hoover, who I believe someone told me is the one I should see if I want an induction. So maybe that is God's plan for us. Who knows?

But I would ask you to pray that we DON'T make it that far. Here is my ideal situation: I work till Friday and then things start happening over the weekend and we could be home, baby and all, by Christmas. Of course, I know God's plan is best, so we'll just trust Him, one day at a time. Anthony guesses she will be born on her due date, because as he says, "we are on time kind of people". Haha.

So anyways, that's the latest. I'm trying to get everything wrapped up at work, and it feels a little overwhelming, but we're doing the best we can. And Anthony is done with one of his grad classes (he'll get an A!) and he is taking the final exam for his other one tomorrow. So he'll be happy if I just make it past tomorrow. :)

30 Random Things

Okay, I have not done this yet, because I feel like I'm too boring to come up with 30 random things about myself, but I'm going to give it a shot. I may have to save and come back later to do it, but I'll give it my best.

1. I LOVE getting in bed when it is freshly made with a clean pair of sheets. Anthony & I actually count to 3 and jump in at the same time so we can share the wonderfulness!

2. I was in the World Trade Center shopping August 11th, 2001, exactly 1 month before the attacks. I bought a pair of underwear from the Gap which I actually happen to be wearing right now. How do you like that? I am 9 months pregnant and wearing a pair of underwear I bought when I was 16. It sounds disgusting but I actually didn't wear them for a while until my belly started interfering with my regular underwear. TMI? I had to steal this one from Laura since it is such an interesting fact that we share. The WTC thing, not the underwear. :)

3. I will eat popcorn shrimp but not the regular, big, unbreaded kind. I don't like their "bouncy" texture.

4. My knees pop when I bend down. They have done this as long as I can remember and my dad's knees do something similar. When you hear it, it sounds painful, but it's not at all.

5. I love playing school when I was a kid and would make up names and keep a grade book in a spiral notebook.

6. My all-time favorite toys were the Magic Nursery Dolls. Please tell me someone else remembers those?

7. Anthony and I went on our honeymoon to Caesar's Pocono Resort, Cove Haven in Pennsylvania. We had a heart shaped jacuzzi tub and had breakfast in bed almost everyday. It was an amazing time and I would love to go back sometime.

8. Alias is probably my favorite show of all time. Amanda and I used to cuddle up on her bed to watch it in college AND we gave ourselves spy names to match Sydney Bristow's initials.

9. I ALMOST took piano lessons when I was younger, but the plan was thwarted because we couldn't get the piano from my aunt's house in Georgia because we didn't have a hitch on our vehicle.

10. I have been on missions trips to New York City, the Bahamas, China, and South Korea.

11. My first job was cleaning the school part of my church. Bathrooms and all.

12. I only got in trouble one time at school, when I was in 8th grade because I got smart with the teacher. Funny part - now that teacher and Anthony work together at WHS!

13. I love Harry Potter. I have read all 7 books and am anxiously awaiting the release of the next movie. I don't like it when people judge it as "evil" before they have even read any of it for themselves. If you've read it and then don't like it, then fine. But don't knock it before you try it, as they say.

14. We gave away personalized Shasta daisy seed packets as favors at our wedding and I have them planted around our mailbox.

15. I once broke the head off of my sister's Jasmine Barbie Doll when I threw her across the room because I was mad about something. I shoved the head back on and stuff her back into our Barbie box. Later when my sister's friend came over to play she grabbed Jasmine by the hair to pull her out and the head came out while the body did not. I allowed Ashley to believe that her friend broke the doll for years before the truth came out! (I sound like a terrible person!)

16. I have a really good memory for people, and remember almost everyone I went to school with, even if we weren't friends. I feel like none of those people could possibly remember me for some reason.

17. My niece Zoe was born on November 17th, 2004, and came home from the hospital on my 21st birthday, November 19th. My best friend Amanda's niece, Ava, was also born 2 days before her 21st birthday.

18. My goal in life is to be a mom. I don't really care if I ever have a career again. I just want to be an excellent wife and mother.

19. I have the equivalent of a minor in math from Liberty. It's not called that because of the way the teaching program is, but that's basically what I have. It makes me feel smarter than I really am.

20. I wouldn't marry Anthony before we were both graduated from college, so he took overloads almost every semester so he could graduate at the same time as me. I think I got a good one. :)

21. I went all the way through the Awana program at our church and received the Citation award, and a scholarship to Liberty. That means that I learned and recited more than 700 Bible verses.

22. Anthony and I completed Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University this summer and because of what we learned in that will have our Jeep paid off sometime early in 2009, about 2 years ahead of our loan schedule.

23. During our first year of marriage, we won the chance to buy Red Sox/Yankee tickets, and we did purchase them, but instead of going to the game, we sold them. We made somewhere around $500 I think but I wish now that we would have gone to the game.

24. I already have my first "project" lined up for after Bailey is born and I am staying at home. Our office is in complete disarray, and has been the room we've paid the least attention to since we have lived here. I plan on doing some serious organizing!

25. I love the movie Dumb & Dumber.

26. I am the daughter AND granddaughter of breast cancer survivors!

27. My first car was a 1983 Buick Century. My parents bought the car new right around the time I was born, so we went way back. :)

28. My sister and I used to sit in the tiny linen closet at the end of our hallway, close the door, and I would read books to her by flashlight.

29. I love visiting my in-laws and having the entire family together. Anthony & his 3 brothers are crazy and hillarious when they are all together.

30. Right now, I am 25 and Anthony is 23. I am about 1 year and 3 months older than him.


Wow - I made it! But it took me close to an hour, so I sure hope you learn something new about me!

Out of the Mouth of Babes

This morning as I was laying in bed, thoroughly enjoying what quite possibly has the potential to be my last Saturday to freely sleep in, uninterrupted, my phone rang. (The voices of Amanda and Jen came to my head when I woke up at 8:00 ready to get out of bed and get to cleaning, organizing, baking, etc. Perhaps I am nesting. But because of their advice, I decided sleep was more important today. So I stayed in bed/slept till around 11:00.) Anyways, back to the main story. I did not get up to answer the phone because I knew if it was important enough, whoever it was would call back. They didn't. :) So when I did get up at 11:00 I listened to my voice mail and it was Ashley saying that she wanted to tell me how I was being a bad influence on her daughter. ME a bad influence on Zoe? This oughta be good I thought.

So I call her and she said that this morning Zoe says to her "I want a baby in my belly". Ashley says "Excuse me?". To which Zoe responds, "I want a baby in my belly so my belly will grow big like Aunt Tara's". Hahahaha.

The funny thing to me was that I wasn't even sure if she had noticed or cared that my belly was big. She never says anything about it or really acknowledges "the belly" unless we tell her to put her hand on it, or say something to Bailey, etc. But apparently she is keenly aware, and jealous, of the size of my belly and the little one within. :)

38 Week Checkup

Still trying to upload that picture.... maybe I need to try from a different computer. Not sure what's going on with that, but until I am able to get it up here, just imagine a whale in your head. :)

Checkup was fine today. I saw Dr. Thompson who delivered Zoe and is apparently, from what I understand, the king of the circumcisions. :) (And I am waiting to hear Phil's impression of him, Courtney!). Anyways, he's the very nerdy type, but excellent at what he does, so I enjoy seeing him. I gained more weight in the last week than what I care to share with the world. Dr. Thompson says that often a jump like that is due to fluid retention, so that's what we'll go with. It would suffice to say that I have not done as well in the latter part of pregnancy with the weight thing as I did in the beginning.

My blood pressure was also higher than it has been, but he didn't mention it, so apparently nothing to worry about yet. I measured 38 cm and the heartbeat was in the "middle" range as he put it. He didn't have his normal heartbeat thingy and did not have a watch so he didn't give us a rate, but I'm satisfied with "middle" range. :)

And then, of course, the part you've been waiting for. I am still not dilated any, but around 75% effaced, so I made some progress from last week, so that is good. Dr. Thompson actually mentioned something about me hopefully having her by Christmas, so that made me feel a little better since I am worrying about being out of the hospital by January 1st for insurance purposes! Please continue to pray for that. I really am hoping that I can have her and be home by Christmas.

My next appointment is on Monday, so we shall see what that holds. Hopefully more progress and one step closer to having Bailey here with us! :)

Jennie

Anthony's Poppa's wife (his step-grandmother), Jennie, passed away this morning, so please pray for the family during this time. This was expected as she had congestive heart failure and her kidneys were failing as well. Anthony didn't know her very well and I had never met her, but she had children of her own and of course it will be hard for Anthony's mom and her brother and sisters, and especially for Poppa as he adjusts to life without her. Thanks for praying.

38 Weeks Update

Whoops.... it's been a whole week! Well I am 38 weeks and 2 days pregnant today.... 12 more days to go, or thereabouts anyways. That is hard to believe! My appointment last Thursday went well. Everything was normal and I was about 50% effaced with no dilation yet. I go again tomorrow so hopefully I'll be a little closer to the big day.



We are pretty much ready for Bailey now. I have my bag mostly packed, and the list on top of it of the things we would need to throw in there when the time comes. Anthony tells me everytime I leave him to make sure I call him if I go into labor. Like I would forget! :)



I guess the only thing I have hanging over me is work. Through a series of events, we don't have anyone to take Tina's place (the girl who is taking my place) when I leave. So she is still doing that job so it makes it hard as far as me training her goes. But hopefully, Bailey won't come too early and we'll be able to get enough time in for her to feel comfortable with my job.



We had a good weekend, and we were pretty productive. Got the whole house cleaned, which does not happen every weekend these days! We also finished up Christmas shopping for Anthony's family and have a box ready to send to them.



Well, I think I am going to end for now and go spend some quality time with my husband while it is still just the two of us. :) I leave you with my 38 week picture we took this evening. I slacked for the last 4 weeks and did not take pictures. So maybe it's just me, but when I saw this picture I could not believe how huge I look! I don't feel like I look this big in the mirror! :)



Okay... maybe not. The picture thing seems to not be working at the moment, so I will try again a little later to post the picture. You'll just have to wait on the edge of your seat in suspense! :)

Heat Problem

When we got home on Sunday evening, our heat was not working correctly. It wasn't staying up with what it was set at. Of course, I get all stressed out and worried about how much money this is going to cost! Anthony called a heating company on Monday morning but they couldn't come until this afternoon. The house was still being heated but not properly, so at least we weren't freezing for an extra day.

So the guy comes today, and now, the problem is fixed, but I am ticked! Turns out it was just some wiring that was loose, thanks to the company who did a shoddy job of installing the heating unit apparently. There was another cord, some type of defroster thing that is supposed to be hooked up to keep the unit from freezing basically, and the wire was not even hooked up! And, there is about 2 inches of mud at the bottom of the unit, basically from someone being careless it sounds like. AND, if you needed more, we thought that there must be some kind of manufacturer's warranty on the unit, but I didn't remember seeing any information on that when we got all the other warranty type stuff when we moved in. Well, guess where it was? INSIDE the unit. I'm sure that's where they normally keep that when it is in the box, before it's installed, but someone should have taken that out and given it to us! So pretty much, we're lucky that we haven't had bigger problems besides some loose wiring.

It "only" ended up costing $90. I do think that $80 an hour is insane, but I was so glad that's all it took to get it taken care of. Hopefully, we will recover that money with lower electric bills this winter. Last winter our electric bill shot up more than double what it was during the summer, and the tech guy told Anthony today that it should not be that way. He also told him that the company that installed our unit (their name & phone number is on our thermostat) is actually out of business now (big surprise, huh?) and that there have a been a lot of problems similar to ours in our neighborhood. So anyways, now I'm excited to see what our bills look like for the rest of the winter.

Who could imagine I would be thankful for a $90 bill??!! I know that this is just another example of God providing for us and meeting our needs. $90 now will definitely be worth smaller electric bills and avoiding bigger problems later on because of sloppy workmanship!

Weekend

Quick Recap of our weekend:

Friday - Met Anthony at Chili's for dinner. I wanted to make sure we got at least one last free wing and free chips & salsa happy hour before the baby comes and we are too poor to eat out! Be forwarned though, the waitress told us that starting December 4th they were going to starting charging 25 cents per wing during happy hour. Then we went to Walmart and got a good amount of Christmas shopping done for Anthony's family.

Saturday - Did some stuff around the house, mostly cleaning and general tidying up of the house. Went to Walmart, again, for grocery shopping this time. As soon as we got home from that I went to Ashley's Pampered Chef party, which actually only consisted of me, Mom, Ashley, Zoe, and Jen, Ashley's friend, who was the host. It was fun though and we made some excellent pizza! After I got home from that I got the bathroom cleaned with the help of my wonderful hubby. It's getting harder and harder to bend over to clean that bathtub these days! Then Saturday evening I went with the girls from church to The Melting Pot in Charlottesville for Megan's baby shower. She is due about 2 and a half weeks after me with her 2nd little boy. I had never been to that place before so it was a neat experience and we had a great time.

Sunday - Church and Mom's. Also ran into town to go to Michael's and Target. We played with Zoe for a while once we got back. That kid loves Anthony. More than once during the day, she had to abruptly stop the playing and run to the bathroom before she peed her pants cause she was laughing so hard! Then Sunday night was Hanging of the Greens at church. That's one of the best services of the whole year!

It was a good weekend, but as always it went too fast!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

We have had a good day. Slept in till we just woke up on our own. :) Then we went over to Mom's about 11:30. Helped getting lunch ready. Everyone was there, so that was nice. Then we pretty much just relaxed and put up the tree the rest of the day. Zoe was so much fun with putting the ornaments on the tree. Everything was just so fabulous to her. She would see a pretty angel ornament and just gasp in amazement. Christmas is so much better with a little kid around. :) Then Mom brought out her two Nativity sets (one is Veggie Tales and one is Little People I think) and she kept going on about how they were for her and Bailey to play with and how she would share with Bailey.

We got home a little before 6, and have put up the tree, which has one section of lights not working... great... and just lounged around. I'm so disappointed I have to work tomorrow! But at least it's only one day and then the weekend.

Anthony put a dead bolt on our back door for me last night. I never understood why they didn't have one on the back door, but did have one on the front door. So being a wonderful husband, he installed it for me and now I feel much safer. :)

Well, it's going to be bedtime for me pretty soon, so I better start heading that way. I had some frozen coffee tonight and Bailey has been moving around like crazy! Hard to believe she will be here so soon! I think I will be in shock when I actually go into labor. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Quickly

This will be a quick little update cause I'm tired. Mom & I went to Lynchburg today to go to Lily's 1st birthday party (Lily is my best friend from college, Amanda's little girl). It was a lot of fun and it's hard to believe she is a year old already. Most of their family was there so I got to see them which was nice. Amanda's sister Dawn gave me a TON of diapers, an entire fullsize trashbag full, plus more..... not kidding. Please do not buy us any size 1 diapers. I think we are all set for that stage. Hopefully it lasts long enough for us to actually use all the diapers! :) Thanks again Dawn!

Now I'm just working on some laundry and really considering going to bed as soon as I get the last load in the dryer, which should be in a few minutes. Oh and I took a bath this evening too, so that was nice.

Can not believe we only have 4 weeks (give or take) until Bailey gets here! I'm afraid I'm going to wake up and the whole thing be a dream! We are fast running out of weekends so we need to get on the ball with getting the room completely ready. It pretty much is I guess, there's just some clutter that needs to come out.

Okay, I'm off to wish the dryer to go faster and wish my husband to be done with homework!

35 Week Checkup

I went today for my 35 week appointment. I actually did not gain any weight this past week, hooray! I'm not sure how I managed that seeing as I think I have eaten near the equivalent of an entire cake with the birthdays and baby shower this week!

Blood pressure was good. No protein in my urine sample. Heartbeat was good (and incredible as always) and I measured normal (didn't ask what it was).

Then this time Dr. Brooks took a sample for the Group B strep culture, which I will find out about next week. If I am positive, I'll just have to have antibiotics administered to me every 4 hours during labor, so I don't pass it to the baby. He also checked my cervix, which they should be doing at every appointment from now on. He said I am not dilated any yet, but the cervix has softened some, so that is good. He also said that if I were to go into labor at this point, they would not stop me. So it's definitely reassuring to make it to this point! :)

My next appointment is Wednesday and it's at 9:00 am, so that means I get to sleep in like an extra hour that day! Woohoo!

Birthday Week!

Okay, catch up time again. Let's see. Sunday we celebrated Zoe's 4th birthday. I cannot believe she is 4 years old already! I remember the night she was born, it was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving break was getting ready to start at Liberty. Anthony and I went ahead and headed home and skipped a couple days so we could go meet little Zoe. I was almsot off the interstate, about 3 minutes from the hospital when Ashley calls me and says "She's here!". I say "Who's here?". Haha. And I asked her couldn't she hold her legs together just a few minutes longer so I could be there! But it was all good, because I got to be the first person outside of the birthing room who knew she was born! :) Anyways, she is growing into a beautiful, fabulous little girl who I love like crazy! I suppose here would be a good place to put a recent picture of her, but since I'm a slacker on the camera, I have none. :)

And a quick recap of the early part of the week. Monday night we had child birth class and Anthony skipped quiz bowl so he could go with me. We watched 3 birth videos and that was, umm, interesting, haha. I didn't leave being more scared or worried than I already am, so that was good. Definitely reinforced my decision to have drugs!

Tuesday after work they had a baby shower for me. I got some really cute clothes and some great stuff! I am really going to miss (most of) my co-workers when I leave.

Wednesday was my birthday! I am 25 now. After work Anthony and I went out to Massaki (Japanese steakhouse) with Mom and Zoe. I had a coupon for a free meal on your birthday, so we used that and Mom offered to pay, so that was really nice of her! It was delicious and we had a really good time. Zoe was so cute, saying "What's he doing now Ganny?" about the chef guy. And that child can eat mushrooms like there's no tomorrow! Weird little girl. :) Anyways, after dinner, we ran to K-Mart just to kill a few minutes. Then we went to infant CPR class. I'm glad we did that and I feel confident that I could do that now, so that is good. I got some nice gifts and had a great birthday.

34 Week Checkup

Went to the doctor's on Thursday for my 34 week appointment. I saw Dr. Bendfeldt who I definitely like, and is easy on the eyes as well. :) They didn't mention anything about protein in my urine like last time, so I assume that went away which is good. I have gained 18 pounds now... ugh. But I'm hoping it's not really that much, maybe more like 16, because my appointment two weeks ago was first thing in the morning, and this one was the last appointment of the day, and I always weigh more in the afternoon than I do in the morning, so I guess I should really be weighed at the same time of day for my weight check to be accurate. Oh well. 18 pounds is still not that bad. I have every intention of exercising on a regular basis again once I am staying home, so I will make up for it then!

Blood pressure was good, 120 over something I can't remember, haha. But she said is was great. Baby's heartbeat was in the 140 to 150's range, and my uterus measured at 35 cm.

This week (on Thursday) I will go for my next appointment, at which they will do a swab for Group B Strep and if I have that I will have to take antibiotics once I am in labor so the baby does not get it. It's something normal that pretty much everyone is exposed to and usually has at some point or the other, but we don't even notice it since our bodies have immunities, but babies would not be immune to that, so it's just a precaution they take. And starting at this appointment they will be checking my cervix every time now. Can't wait for that. (Please note the sarcasm). :)

I can't believe it's only 5 weeks, 35 days till my due date now. I'm still having Braxton Hicks and last night they were actually more intense than they have been, so I guess that is a good sign. I need to take another belly picture and get it up here, but everytime I remember, I am wearing bum-type clothes! Hopefully I will remember this week.

Now, I'm off to do some relaxing!

Game Night, Baby Shower, Child Birth Class

Where to start! Well, I last blogged on Saturday. We ended up going to Jeremy & Summer's house for game night with the youth group. It was a lot of fun. And there was lots of good food. :) And let me tell you, I can still play a mean game of spoons, even during my eighth month of pregnancy! We also played Apples to Apples which I love. We don't get to play games much anymore these days, so it was a great time. Hopefully, after Tyson's chemo is done, Jeremy & Summer will be able to do more of that type of thing. And remember Tyson in your prayers - he starts his final round of chemo this weekend!



Sunday was church of course, and to Mom's for lunch. I had a great afternoon with Zoe. After lunch we cuddled up on the couch and watched Milo & Otis. Well, she watched, I slept for most of it! But I love those rare moments when she wants to cuddle with me since they are far and few between these days. After the movie/nap, we colored and cut out things to hang on her door. I am not a good artist. She asked me to make water so she could put some fish on it, and she said "that's not water, that's toes!". Haha! So I redid it a little differently and that was acceptable according to her standards. :) I can't believe she will be 4 in less than a week!



Oh and a funny story about her. Ashley told me that when she told Zoe they were going to go to a baby shower for Tara and Bailey, Zoe told her that babies don't take showers, they take baths, and she was thinking they might should get a baby bathtub for us! Haha. I love that kid!



Sunday night after church was my baby shower! Well, before I get that far, I should add that while we are sitting in church Sunday evening, someone comes and sits behind us. I glance behind me to see who it is, and it's Anthony's parents!!! They had talked about coming up for the weekend so they could come to the shower, but it just wasn't going to work out since the shower was a Sunday evening. Well, they decided last minute that they wanted to make the trip, and they did, just for the shower and then turned around and drove home since they had to work the next morning! I was shocked but so thankful to have Anthony's mom there for the shower. Thanks for coming! :)



So on to the shower... it was great! Most of you know my good friend Laura Williams. Her mom was in charge of the shower and she did an excellent job (with the help of her amazing daughters and Chris Moran of course!). I got so much great stuff. I had told Lois (Laura's mom) that we didn't need any clothes since we have all Zoe's clothes. So she put that on the flyer she made and that definitely made a difference! I did get a few clothes, and not saying at all that I don't love those, but it was really great because we really got things we NEEDED. There was hardly anything we didn't need.



And a side note to the shower..... let me just say, if you are going to regift, you should at least get rid of the evidence of such. I have nothing against regifting, I do it myself. I'm all about regifting really, as long as it is practical for the person you are giving it to. But you should cover your tracks so the person receiving the gift, does not know you regifted. :) I will protect the innocent by not naming the person nor the gift. The person doesn't even read my blog, I am pretty certain. But I got a good laugh out of it on Sunday night when I was showing my gifts to Anthony.



I had childbirth class last night and Mom went with me. It was mostly about the stages of labor, pain relief methods, and relaxation techniques. Interesing stuff. It was probably good Anthony couldn't go, because he would have been laughing half the time. :)



And now, I am home alone for now, since Anthony has parent conferences till 7:00. I need to get on my mission of figuring out what to have for dinner. And since he is not home yet, I am attempting to make myself some frozen coffee. He always makes it for me. Hopefully I don't have Bailey bouncing too much tonight. :) Maybe you could come make it for me, Amanda? She was my coffee maker (and the one who introduced me) before my old lady married days. Well, I better get busy.



And thank you to all those who have served our country or have family who have sacrificed for the greater good... you are appreciated!

Update for the Week

I know I need to post, but life has been pretty calm lately. Thank goodness it is the weekend though. I just felt bombarded at work this week. And with somewhere around only 6 weeks left, that leaves me feeling a little overwhelmed with trying to wrap up anything that I need to get done and train someone else to do my job, which consists of about a million different things that I hope I can remember.

Wednesday night was church. Thursday night we had "Baby Basics" class and Anthony got to come with me to this one! It was just basic stuff on how to care for your baby. Of course they had the baby doll and you get to pretend to bathe it and all that good stuff. When Anthony finally did hold the doll he played with it by turning the head all the way around so it was backwards! I am always entertained when I am with my husband. Let's hope he does not try that with the real thing. :) We had a good time and it was just nice to spend that time together. When we got home we watched Survivor that I had taped and then went to sleep.

Last night we went to Shoney's for dinner. We had never eaten there for dinner before, and probably won't again. It wasn't bad, but the buffet was actually a seafood buffet (on Friday evenings) so we had to pay like $12 something a person to eat and I don't even like seafood that much! But oh well, we tried something new, so that was good. Then we rented a movie and did our grocery shopping at Walmart. Walmart is much more tolerable on a Friday night than on a Saturday. When we got home we watched our movie, "Get Smart" which was hillarious, I highly recommend it if you have not seen it. And, we got it free as well, because if you don't rent a movie for a while at our movie store, they will call you and tell you that you have a free rental for like a week. And we haven't rented for a while, so the guy called me on Thursday to tell us we could have a free rental! Okay, so I guess I should say Anthony watched the movie when we got home. I made it through about 20 minutes or so, and then I was down for the count. So when I woke up this morning, I finished watching the movie in bed.

I've got my bathrooms clean and I need to vacuum but Anthony is watching one of his classes, so I can't do that right now. I suppose I need to do some general picking up of things lying around. Not sure what we are doing tonight yet.

And as far as pregnancy updates, I will be 34 weeks tomorrow, only 6 more left! I have had a few more Braxton Hicks but nothing major. Things continue to become more difficult but I still enjoy being pregnant. :)

Dented Bumper Pics

Here are the pics of the bumper dent. See the dent on the first one, and maybe you can imagine my disbelief when I walked outside Saturday morning and there is no dent! Craziness! That lady got really lucky, that's all I have to say.

Now, here we sit, watching the lovely election results. Too bad House is not on tonight. I think Obama will win. I hope I am wrong, but all the signs point to Obama. It does concern me to some degree. I hate to think about the socialist direction in which he wants to take our nation, but I am also aware that God is more powerful than any political leader. I did my job by voting, and that is all I can do.

Now, away from politics, I made some yummy Taco Soup for dinner and we both enjoyed that. Last night I had my first child birth class. Anthony couldn't go, because he had a quiz bowl meet in Rockbridge, so Ashley went with me instead. It was pretty good. There wasn't a whole lot that was new to me in this class, but it was still good. I definitely think I will feel more comfortable and informed when I go to the hospital to deliver the baby because of this class. It was just some general information last night on the stages of labor, relaxation, etc. We go again on Thursday for the "Baby Basics" class. This should be fun, since Anthony has never changed a diaper before! :)

Well, back to my frozen coffee and the election.

Election Day

I voted! Did you??

Crazy Old Lady Who Should Not Possess a Driver's License!

So yesterday afternoon I am at work, and one of the ladies comes and tells me I better come look at my jeep. Stomach sinking feeling.....

See, at work, we don't have a "real" parking lot per say. On the left side of our building is the dry dock where trucks back up to unload products. Well, one of the places we have to park is parallel with that side of the building, so that when the trucks back up, they are backing up between our "car line" and the building. I hate having to park there but a lot of days I have to because most people get there before me. So I am always afraid of a semi truck scraping up my side or something like that.

Anyways, Malisa and I head quickly out to our cars (she was parked in front of me), and I am imagining the worst. So we get out there to find, not a semi-truck & driver, but an old lady and a boat of a car that has side-swiped my bumper and is literally about 2 inches away from hitting the back of Malisa's car. I wish I had the pictures right now, because I can't even begin to describe how it looked. (Pictures are at work, I'll post them next week.) I cannot for the life of me figure out what this old crazy woman was trying to do and how she got herself in this predicament. Finally after some talking to her we discover, she had come to pick up something for her church (probably more likely for herself, just using her church's account) and had driven up to the dock, got her tea, backed down a little ways and then decided instead of backing all the way down, she was going to try and cut through Malisa and my cars and go out the alley on the other side of our cars. Now, there was not enough room for a small car to fit through our cars, especially not this old lady's huge, ancient boat of a car. I think this would be a good instance of an elderly person who has no business driving. Her judgement obviously is not good enough for her to be out on the road. And if you're not convinced, she said she didn't even realize that she had hit me!

It was probably a good 10 minutes into the incident/discussion, before she even got out of her car enough to turn around to see where she had put a nice dent in my bumper and an even better dent into her own side (got what she deserves!). So I ask for her insurance information... she can't find her insurance card. Great. So I ask to see her driver's license so I can just jot down her information. She doesn't hand me the card but tells me the information, so I write it down, hoping she is not lying. But she's really old and spit it right out, so I thought I was safe (I was safe, by the way, about her name, address, and phone number at least.... she said she had State Farm insurance, so I am assuming that is correct as well).

And then, we are not about to let her try to get herself out of this predicament, so after we got plenty of pictures, I move my Jeep and Malisa moves her car. We have everything we need from the lady, so she proceeds to back her car down the rest of the way. Let's just say, I'm glad I moved my Jeep a good 20 feet away from her. She nearly hit the building trying to back out. This lady really should not be driving. Malisa also noticed that on the other side of her car, on her bumper, you can see where it's all dented up and there is red paint on it, so this is obviously not the first time she has hit something/someone.

Now, you can be proud of me, I didn't cry during any of this. (Don't worry though, I did bawl when I got home and told Anthony, apologizing over and over, even though it's not my fault.) Not saying I didn't want to or that my eyes didn't get a little watery, but I held it together, it's just a bumper after all. And of course I was thankful that I wasn't in the car or it wasn't something worse than what it was. After I worked a little more and composed myself I even called the insurance company to report it. Life is so much simpler when you have parents to take care of these things for you. :) So Sarah at State Farm (who I love by the way) got all the information and told me someone would call me about it (and I plan on telling them that this woman should not be driving) and I should go ahead and take it to the shop on Monday morning. Okay, good plan.

Fast forward to today, just a little while ago. I am gathering up the trash so we can take it to the dump, and I go out to the Jeep, and go to take a look at the dent..... and there is no dent. Did I dream this whole story? Did crazy old lady not really hit me? No, you can definitely see where it was dented, but apparently it "undented" itself. You know, plastic bumpers. Maybe plastic bumpers aren't so bad after all. They fix themselves. But I'm thinking I should still go ahead and take it to the shop Monday morning just so they can make sure there wasn't any damage underneath the bumper (is there even anything under there?) or anything that I am not seeing. I wouldn't want something to come up a while from now and this be the cause of it but then it be too late, you know? Any thoughts on this? Would you go ahead and take it in just to cover yourself? It seems like the right thing to me, since I did file the claim, just so I follow through all the way.

So I guess this is a blessing, my bumper fixing itself, but I really wanted them to sock it to that old lady! Maybe they will still evaluate her or something. Way to be Christ-like, Tara. :( But honestly, I'm sure she'll be hitting someone else and hopefully it doesn't take someone getting hurt for something to be done about this.

So that's my crazy story for the week. I think I can do without that kind of drama in my life. Now that I have procrastinated enough, I should go do something productive, like wash clothes, clean the bathroom, etc, etc. Although I think we'll be headed out here soon to have lunch at El Puerto and do our grocery shopping! Yay!

32 Week Appointment

I went yesterday (Thursday) for my 32 week appointment. I saw the nurse practicioner (or something along those lines), Shannon yesterday. I had seen her once before I got pregnant for my annual exam and I really like her a lot. I had gained 1/2 pound since the last appointment bringing my total so far to 12 1/2 pounds. She said there was a little protein in my urine sample but they would just keep an eye on that. Blood pressure was good still. Even a little lower than last time I think. Baby's heartbeat was in the 140's and Shannon was able to give me a good idea of how little Bailey is situated in there as well. She is head down with her back coming up my left side, with butt at the top and legs folded on my right side. I guess she won't necessarily stay that way, but that's how she is for now. I've definitely been feeling that little butt up against my ribs making me uncomfortable! :) That's okay, I'll take the discomfort any day.

And.... I had a discovery this evening while we were at Trunk or Treat. Let me back up one day first. Last night while I was making dinner, I just felt like she must be growing leaps and bounds right then and there, like there was just no more room in there and I was feeling really uncomfortable. That's the best way I can explain it, but I didn't think much of it. Then it happened again tonight around the same time while we were at Trunk or Treat. So I told Ashley about it, and she's like "you're having Braxton-Hicks contractions". Oh. Yeah that makes sense. Haha. So there you go. It has started. It was really a little bit painful so I hope this doesn't happen too often in the next 7 weeks (unless she wants to come before that!) but it also is kind of encouraging to me, since I haven't felt anything like that up till yesterday. I've still got the January 1st insurance deal on my mind, so although I know these don't mean anything at this point, it's hope for me that she will come before then!

Well, I think I'm off to bed. I have had a cold this week and not sleeping the greatest because of it, so hopefully I can get some extra sleep tonight.

Insurance & Taco Bell

Today was kind of a fun day. I got to leave work at 3:00 so that is always fun. The purpose for that was to attend Anthony's open enrollment meeting for insurance. They are changing the dental insurance from Delta to Guardian. I'm actually a little familiar with Guardian because that is what we had at my work during 2007 (I never was a member, but I am basically the insurance administrator, so I deal with the companies). Turns out this is actually better insurance than Delta, and CHEAPER. So that's some good news.

I also had a lot of questions about our insurance because we were hoping to switch to the cheaper plan that has the deductible and trying to figure out how/when to work this out with a baby on the way. So my questions got answered, and I'm mostly happy with the answers, but some new questions were created. The billing lady at The Women's Center (my ob/gyn) told me that the only thing we would have to pay was $50 at the time of delivery. But that is not the case according to the literature we received today. So I'm wondering where the billing lady got her information from, but I have an appointment on Thursday so I plan on finding out. So here's the thing.... we will remain on the plan we are on now until January 1, which has better coverage for in-hospital stays, so the only thing is, in order to avoid paying the deductible AND the higher percentage on the hospital stay, Bailey needs to come by December 31st.

SOO.... I am asking that you would pray that she would be born by then. I really hadn't been worried about that, and still feel like she'll be here by then, but it just makes me a little nervous since 1 day (December 31st to January 1st) could mean a difference of more than $1000 for us. :/ So please pray for that if you remember. I plan on asking about how long they will let me go overdue at my appointment on Thursday as well. I'm sure it varies depending on the doctor, health, etc. but anyone have any input on that?

After the meeting we ran to Taco Bell to get a free taco for each of us. Thanks to whomever stole a base in the world series. :) And I feel good about myself cause we only got the free tacos, and that's it. Because I'm sure they rationalize giving away free tacos by saying that people will come for that and then go ahead and buy more for dinner since 1 taco is not enough for a meal. So they probably end up making more money than what they would have if they did not have the free taco offer. Well, I beat the system. Taco Bell made no money off of me today. :) We got our free tacos, and made dinner at home. Good job me. I'll try not to strain my arm as I pat myself on the back. :)

Well, I think I am going to go clip some coupons now and maybe watch Jeopardy in a few minutes. Later this evening, a date with House and some yummy frozen coffee made special by my hubby.

32 Weeks

My face looks dumb in this picture, but the others the hubby took were kind of blurry, so I went with this one. Just look at the belly, not the face. :) I just can't believe I only have 8 weeks left! It is all the time getting harder to get up from the laying down position and to turn myself over in bed. And every now and then when she makes a drastic move in there, it is somewhat painful. But I am still enjoying being pregnant. Wonder how much longer I will say that? Haha.

I am having a baby shower at work on November 18th so that is exciting. I worked a little more on the baby room this past weekend, so I am making progress there. I just wish I could know when she will be born! Christmas is so up in the air right now, who knows what we will be doing on Christmas day! Will I be miserably pregnant? Will we have a newborn? Will I be in the hospital? I guess the not knowing makes it more fun, so I'll just keep being patient. :)

Boring Update

I feel the need to blog but don't really feel like I have anything to blog about. Nothing too exciting going on around here.

Monday evening I went to Anthony's quiz bowl match at Lee. They were missing some kids and they didn't do so great, but I had a good time. Tuesday was a stay home night and I made some yummy chicken alfredo! Wednesday night we had church of course. And tonight is a stay home night with Survivor, Grey's Anatomy and a cup of yummy coffee my hubby made for me!

I cannot believe that I am 31 weeks pregnant already and we have less than 9 weeks to go now! I had one of those moments last night where I was totally in disbelief that I am pregnant at all. Like, why is my stomach so huge!? I guess I just feel like I have waited so long for this. Ever since I was a little girl I couldn't wait to be a mom, so it is so amazing to me that it is actually about to happen.

Well I guess that's about it for now. I'll leave you with a couple of pictures from the baby shower.

Weekend Fun

Well, here we are, Sunday evening, another weekend almost over. :( We are skipping church tonight because Anthony has homework he has to get done. So I'm here trying to leave him alone and kill some time till 8:00 comes around to watch the Red Sox play! Hard to believe they actually made it to game 7. I hope they win tonight cause that would sure make for one happy hubby for me. :)

Friday evening, we stayed around the house. Had some pizza for dinner, Anthony did homework and we watched the episode of Fringe from Thursday that we missed. I got caught on up Grey's Anatomy and laundry while he was doing homework.

Then Saturday, we headed to Lynchburg for the day! We got there right before 10 and then Vicky, Amanda, and I went to Starbucks for some catching up and good coffee. It was so wonderful to be with them again, we don't do that nearly enough. After coffee, we went back to Amanda's and just hung out for a while. Then the shower started at 3:00 so I got to see all my Lynchburg friends! It was really fun and it was great to see everyone again. I got lots of goodies to use for Bailey. It was a little surreal that the shower was actually for me! I just still have those moments when I can't believe I'm pregnant. Before heading home, we stopped to get some gas and to get some Tokyo for me! I ate about half of it last night and will finish the other half tonight! Yay! Oh, and during the shower, Anthony, Matt, and Evan (Vicky's brother) went to Buffalo Wild Wings and got 100 wings to share... yeah... crazy boys. And Anthony volunteered our debit card to pay with the other guys giving him cash, so he handed me a lovely $78.00 receipt when they came back. Thanks babe. But Evan gave Anthony cash for about half of the bill, so that was nice of him. Apparently the Geek Squad makes good tips. :)

And on a sad note, on the way to Lynchburg, we hit and killed a squirel. :( It was sad, and I cried. (Insert laughing here.) I know, pathetic, right? Can I help it that I'm an emotional person? But Anthony made me feel a little better by telling me that the squirel was lucky that he got hit by us and not someone else, because if it was anyone else, they wouldn't have thought twice about it. But me, no, I actually shed tears for the squirel. So at least someone had a little compassion for him. RIP little squirel.

So today we went to church and Mom's of course. And then I went with Ashley to one of her friend's houses to a Pampered Chef party that her mom was having. It was fun and there was some yummy food, but I did control myself, and not buy anything. And it turned out I actually knew Ashley's friend's mom because she teaches at Shelburne, so I taught with her for a year. Small world.

Well, I guess that's about it for the weekend. I'm excited for tomorrow evening because Anthony has a quiz bowl match at Lee in Staunton so I am going to go to that!

Well I'm off to go make myself productive for a little while at least. GO RED SOX!!!

Almost Friday!

Almost Friday! Yay! Well, the busy week isn't going too badly. Last night Anthony stayed home while I went to church. He had homework that was due this morning, so he had to get that done. Then this afternoon we both went to Kevin & Sarah's and Anthony helped move some furniture around while I played with Trinity to keep her out of the way. She is such a little cutie!

Went to the doctor today and I saw Dr. Hoover. He was the last doctor (who delivers babies) in the practice that I had not seen, and I liked him a lot. So now I have at least spent a few minutes with every doctor who could deliver Bailey. The appointment was fine, just the normal stuff. My blood pressure was good and he said the baby is growing fine. I have gained 12 pounds now. Maybe I can keep it to one pound a week from here on out - 22 pounds would not be a bad amount to gain. I won't count on that though. :) My next appointment is two weeks from today.

We are not going to be able to make it to Lynchburg tomorrow evening, so we'll just head over there Saturday morning. I am so excited to see all my friends! I wish we could get together more often, but it's so hard to coordinate everyone's schedules! Someone needs to go ahead and come up with the next big event to get us together! :)

Well, I'm off to watch Survivor. The Red Sox are about to play as well, but I'm not expecting much out of that. :(

Unusually Busy Week

So this week is a strange one for us. Here's a sneak peek...

Monday - Anthony was not home until 10:30 because of a quiz bowl match at Broadway. Tara playing bachelorette, but pacing the floor with boredom till Anthony gets home.

Tuesday - Anthony goes directly to church after school to meet up with 7-9th graders and Summer, Megan, and Steve to go to Buffalo Wild Wings in Charlottesville. Tara leaves work at 4:30 and meets them there for wing night with the kids. Both home around 7:30.

Wednesday - Church, but Anthony may be staying home because of the amount of school work that has been accumulated due to the strange week. But hopefully not, since he is getting some done tonight.

Thursday - Going to Kevin & Sarah's to help move furniture (Anthony) and corral little Trinity (Tara) to accomodate their recent increase from a family of 3 to a family of 6, due to their amazing huge hearts and taking in 3 foster children. There will be pizza.

Friday - May be heading to Lynchburg after work, or might be a night at home. Not sure yet. This will depend on how Anthony's work load is looking in a day or two. If we don't go Friday night, then probably just myself will head there on Saturday morning. I have a baby shower and some seriously overdue hang out time with my girls!


This is so not a normal week for us! We are stay-at-home people, and usually the only "outing" we have during the week is to church on Wednesdays. So while we are busy, these are all great things so I can't complain. Also can't complain about not having to make dinner any night! Wednesdays we just have sandwiches since we don't have much time at home before we go to church. So yay for no cooking! That means that it's okay that I'm not going to make it to the grocery store this weekend. We'll just use what I had planned for this week.

Well, that's all for now. Off to watch the Red Sox get crushed, I mean, win, yeah! :\

Fried Beans and Red Sox

I wanted to blog about these things while they were on my mind, because if I wait, I'll forget!

We tried out that new Fried Beans restaurant that I had mentioned last week. If you are in the Waynesboro area and have been wanting to try it, I suggest you do it soon because that place will not be open long. At one point, for probably 10 minutes, we were the only people there, and this was like 6 something. The busiest restaurant time of the whole week probably. The food was not bad, but nothing special. My burrito consisted of a tortilla filled with beef, and that's it. So it tasted fine, but I could have made that at home very easily. The only "pluses" I saw there was that their salsa was like the fresh made, has-tomato-chunks kind, you know what I mean? It was necessarily better than El Puerto (our regular place) but different. And they were playing Spirit FM over their sound system. So after my long analysis of the restaurant, here is my conclusion. If they had food that was super great, they MIGHT be able to make it. But with mediocre food, and El Puerto practically across the street, they won't be there long. End of story.

Oh, but since our dining experience wasn't impressive, I thought we deserved Sonic milkshakes, so we got those after our Walmart shopping. :)

And my other thought was on the Red Sox/Rays game last night, that lasted FOREVER. The Red Sox did not win, so that was a bummer, but we had already won one game, so no big deal. And the next 3 games are at Fenway, so that's an advantage for us. The game started at 8, and was not over till close to 2am if I am remembering correctly. I fell asleep on the couch probably around 11 and slept till close to the end. Well when I woke up it was the 11th inning so I had to see what happened, so I got in bed and turned the tv on and finished watching there. I really enjoy watching these games with Anthony although he was commenting last night on why you can't watch these things with women, since I would make random, non-related comments at important times during the game. I REALLY do like watching them. :) I guess I can just think of two things at once. I'm spaghetti, all my trains of thoughts cross each other and I can think of multiple things at one time. He is a waffle and he was in his baseball box last night so he can't think of the other things I wanted to talk about. Fair enough. I'll try harder Monday night. :)

Now, I'm off to get ready for church. Hopefully I can get in a nap today...

Life is a Cookie

Also, forgot to mention, my wonderful friend Laura Williams has a blog now, so check out her blog-- Laura Williams on my links!

Update for the Week

Sorry about taking a week to update! I've been keeping myself busy most of the week actually.

I never got a call from the doctor's office about my bloodwork, so that is good news, meaning I do not have gestational diabetes or anemia! Yay for that! I can't believe I will be 30 weeks pregnant tomorrow.... 3/4 of the way done... only 70 days or 10 weeks left. While I am in disbelief, I still don't think that reality has hit me yet. I don't know when that will happen. I guess when I start having real contractions, haha. I've had a couple of times where I *thought* I might have had some Braxton-Hicks, but it could have been gas, lol. Not really sure. Probably just gas. :) We all have gas, that's okay to say, right? :)

On Wednesday we went to State Farm to meet with the girl there to talk about our policies with them. We actually adjusted a few things so Anthony's car insurance will be a little bit cheaper now. Cheaper is always good so I'm glad for that. (And I love the girl that works at the insurance office - she is super sweet and nice). Especially seeing as how our health insurance premiums are going up 12% from what I understand. The open enrollment meeting for that is October 28 and I am leaving work early so I can attend that. Hopefully, if things go according to my plan, we are going to change the plan option that we are on, so we'll be on the cheaper one, which of course will still go up once we go on the family plan when the baby is born. Sigh. Life is expensive. I think I should be a health insurance executive. They must make a killing. How do they sleep at night anyways?

What else? Let's see.... well I'm already done cleaning the bathroom, changing the sheets, taking the trash, and one load of laundry. So I feel pretty good about myself so far. I need to finish the laundry, vacuum (might save that till Monday), and work on getting "stuff" out of the baby's room and into the shed. We'll go to Walmart and get groceries at some point today. And of course the Red Sox play tonight, game 2 in the American League Division Series against the Rays. I was thining of getting pizza or Sonic or something and bringing that home to eat during the game, cause we have spend more than usual on eating out this week. I don't know what we'll do. We'll go wherever the wind blows I guess!

Last night, my friend Malisa from work, had a Creative Memories Framing Party that we had here at the house. It was fun and there were some great framing designs that people did. I did one with an ultrasound picture, a picture of me holding the belly, and a portion of Psalm 139. I'm excited to see how it turns out. And awesome Malisa used a lot of her hostess discount to pay for my piece. So I got it at a really good price. And I got a Mini Everyday Display (except mine is black) as a gift for hosting the party at my house. So I think I made out like a bandit.

Well I need to get busy on what I have left to do today before some relaxing and cheering on the Red Sox! I'll leave you with the picture I used for my framing project last night. I'm not crazy about it, I just had the idea yesterday, so it's definitely not professional quality or anything, but I think it will do the job just fine. The miracle of a baby and God's amazing handiwork is what the piece is all about anyways!

A Good Day

It has been a good day so far, and it's still not over yet! Anthony got up around 6:15 this morning because he had to be at school at 7:00 to proctor SAT's. I woke up too, but ended up going back to sleep until 9:15! So then I got myself out of bed and got ready for the day. I had loaded up all the new computer/new crib trash in my Jeep last night and then this morning I gathered up the regular trash and I took all that to the dump. The dump is only probably about 2 miles from us, so that makes it nice so we don't have to pay for someone else to take our trash, we just take it ourselves. This is a good money saving tip.

After the dump, I went to Wal-Mart and TOOK MY TIME. :) Don't get me wrong, I love having my husband with me when I go grocery shopping. He is so efficient and quick about it. I have a hard time keeping up with him sometimes, and he is the one checking off the list. But sometimes it's nice just to be able to take my time and go look at other things that are not groceries. It was especially nice since it wasn't too packed yet, since it was still morning. Random comment - the check out lady who I had was super fast. I think she set a record. I was impressed.

After Wal-Mart, I ran to the library to take back some books I had checked out for my dad. I tried to find him some other books he wanted, but they didn't have them, go figure.

Then I came home and put my groceries away. Then I dove right in to cleaning the bathroom. (Still no husband home yet.) Oh that's not completely true. I tried out the Sundried Tomato & Basil Wheat Thins I bought. Very yummy. I recommend them. After I finished my snack/lunch I got the bathroom knocked out pretty quickly.

Then I proceeded to begin vacuuming (since it's not like I skipped doing last weekend, no way, not me). I got about half of our bedroom done when hubby pulled up in the driveway! So I knew he was home, but he still managed to scare me when he came in the bedroom. Well, of course I had to stop to give him a hug to help him recover from his 6 hours of the type of boredom that will nearly kill you. And then he laid down in bed, and I couldn't stand to see him there alone, so I just had to cuddle up to him. And that, my friends, led to a nap. That was great, since he doesn't get to do that very much these days. We got up about 3 something and he started on schoolwork while I finished the vacuuming.

Now he is still doing schoolwork, and I'm killing time till we go out to eat for dinner. Not sure where we will go yet. Maybe T-Bone Jack's, Applebees, or there is this new Mexican place called Fried Beans that I would like to try. I can't find anything about them on the Internet though, so I don't know how it will be. It's just in a little strip mall, so I'm kind of thinking they might not be around for long. But maybe I am wrong.

Tomorrow is Homecoming at church! One of my favorite Sundays of the year. I am making Pineapple Cheese Casserole. I know it sounds strange, but I promise it is delish. I first tasted it when I was at Shelburne, and my good friend Fred made it to bring to one of our potlucks. It is one of my favorite potluck dishes ever since then. Anthony loves it too, so that is a plus.

Now, I think I'm going to try to convince Anthony we need to go eat now, since he must be famished since he didn't eat any lunch!

How Could I Forget??

Well, I meant to do this when I finally blogged again, but I forgot, somehow! I had said on the 16th that I was going to be an aunt again very soon but I got caught up and forgot to update about that again!

Madelyn Rose Tyler was born on September 16th at 11:19 pm, weighing in at 6 lbs. 15 1/2 oz. Her mommy had said I could share pictures with everyone, but I just didn't get around to it till now, so here they are!





































We haven't gotten to see her yet since Anthony is so busy with school and everything, but I hear they are doing very well and enjoying life as a family of 3 now. Congratulations again, Jeremy and Brynn, and good job on making a cute baby! :)

Crib

And finally, here are the pictures of the crib. I think I really like it and it goes well with the style of the room, I think. So now I need to get rid of all the packaging from the crib so I can actually figure out how I want the room situated. I think I will leave it pretty much like it is now but I just need the trash out of there to visualize. :)

Now I can't wait to get a mattress (someone buy me one, haha) so I can actually get the crib baby-ready!

28 Weeks Prego Pic

And since I knew I was blogging tonight, I went ahead and had Anthony take this one, so this is 28 weeks, from today! I keep wishing my belly could be translucent for just a minute so I could just see how big she is and how she is situated in there! And if I look a little irritated, the neighbors had their music up way loud so I could hear the bass ever since I got home.... grrr.

I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow. They'll be doing the glucose screening test, so hopefully that comes back fine and I don't have gestational diabetes. I think I would come close to dying if I had to try to control that with my diet. But hopefully we have nothing to worry about! And for the record, I still love being pregnant. :)

27 Weeks Prego Pic

Okay... here we go.... 27 weeks, this was last Monday maybe, September 22. I still get shocked when I look at these pictures! And yes, Amanda, I am wearing lounge pants, but this was right before I was going outside to pull weeds out of the flower bed, so I think lounge pants are acceptable in this case. :) You'll have to pardon the mess on the floor. That's how it looks these days with Anthony "storing" his grad school stuff out there!

New Computer & Crib

Okay! We did it. We bought a new Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop. After much debate in the store, I decided to go with the laptop. I just don't like the bulkiness that desktop brings. I don't think Anthony agress with my decision, but he is a nice husband and let me make the choice since he mostly uses his school laptop. He even got it all setup for me while I was taking a nap.

And then, this evening I ran to Walmart to get groceries, and when I got back, he had taken down my old bed which was in the baby's room, so we could get the crib set up. So we also got that done tonight! I will take pictures once I am motivated. It looks really cute and goes well with the room, so I'm happy with our crib choice. And even happier with the wonderful husband I have and how helpful he is and how he puts up with me!

Now, I'm off to watch the premiere of The Office which we did not watch last night due to the presidential debate, and my falling asleep during it, haha.

Computer

Well, I've gotten behind again.... but I do have a decent excuse. I'm not sure if it would have made a difference on whether I blooged or not, but my computer died. :( I believe it was Monday evening. I was on facebook and the computer started making a funny clicking noise so I called Anthony over, and just about the time he looked over my shoulder.... blue screen of death! Anthony is super good with computers so usually if anything can be done to "save" a computer, he can do it, but he says it's a goner. So that stinks, especially since I lost everything I had on there. Tip for the day, backup your files! I had actually been thinking about needing to do that recently but it looks like I waited too long. I suppose we could spend money to try to get those files retrieved somehow, but I'm not sure I want to do that. I'll just deal with it.

So with that in mind, we are headed to Best Buy in Charlottesville tomorrow to see if we can't find a new computer. I *think* we are going to go with a desktop since it should be a little cheaper and generally they last longer and have fewer problems. I kind of would like to keep it in the office because I feel like we pay less attention to each other with the computer in the living room (which we'll still have because of Anthony's school laptop, but better just one laptop instead of two laptops). But I've been back and forth since Monday so I could change my mind again. I'll let ya know!

We may try to work on setting up the crib tomorrow as well. And of course there's the typical Saturday cleaning and grocery shopping to be done. So it should be a busy day.

Another thing I wanted to comment on.... my ticker at the top which tells me that there are only 86 days to go until Bailey comes. Starting to get freaked out a little. That's coming soon. And just about every morning this week, I have woken up feeling like I have gotten bigger overnight. So I think I'm starting to feel a little bit of the discomfort of being largely pregnant. But I am still utterly enjoying pregnancy at this point. I feel like it is such a wonderful thing that God would allow me to carry another human life inside my body. It just never gets old to me. We took some prego pics this week so I will put those up probably once we get a new computer set up.

Well, we are watching an episode of House right now, and I'm hoping to find they have posted the premiere of The Office online so we can watch that after House. We watched the Survivor premiere last night so I wasn't able to watch The Office or Grey's Anatomy. I love fall for the tv shows! Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Auntness Increase!

I meant to mention in my post last night that we had a girls' night out on Thursday. We went to McAllister's and it was a lot of fun! We got to hear a lot of the details about Tyson from Summer so it was nice to get a big update and all the details like that. I don't know how they do it!

And I wanted to say that I am going to be an aunt again either tonight or tomorrow! Brynn (my BIL Jeremy's wife) had a doctor's appointment today and she was 4 cm dilated and 60% effaced and her blood pressure was high enough that they wanted to go ahead and admit her and induce her. Not sure whether the inducing will take place tonight or if they will wait until morning though. This will put me at 2 nephews and 3 nieces! I believe they are going to name her Madelyn (sp?) Rose but I'm not 100% positive of that. I'll let you know the news when she is born!

Better go get my dinner out of the oven before it burns!

Week Recap and Crib Drama

Well, I am locked in the office right now (don't worry, not literally) while my husband makes a presentation for one of his classes, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to blog.

Recap of the past week:

Wednesday - Dad was released from the hospital. Staying with Mom and Ashley now. He is doing okay. He can get around by himself, slowly, with the walker, but he gets worn out quickly. He goes back to the doctor on Friday so hopefully there will be some progress there.

Saturday - We went to Charlottesville and ate lunch at the Wood Grill. Yummy. I love buffets because unlike most restaurants, you can have lots of different options. You don't have to have a lot of one thing, you can get a little bit of a lots of things! I was stuffed and the food was excellent.

Then we went to Babies R Us to look for a crib. We were there for a long time and I was really discouraged actually, at the selection they had. They had one lower end white Jenny Lind crib that I considered, but it just looked cheap and didn't feel very sturdy. Anthony wanted a wood color crib and I wanted a white so we went back and forth over that for a while but he got so tired of being there, he didn't care anymore. :) That Jenny Lind crib was the only one in the $100 - $200 price range and everything else was above, and far above that. I had no intentions of spending that much on a crib! So anyways, I finally decided on this really nice white colored Jardine crib that was $220. It was more than I wanted to spend, but it was really beautiful and sturdy, so we were going to get it.

So I asked the girl did they have any of them in stock. She looks it up on her computer.... nope, none in stock, but they can order it for me and have it in 7-10 days.... okay!..... come sit down while we place the order..... oh wait...... there are none in the warehouse.... and we can't get one on order. Oh. So basically they had a crib on display that you CANNOT buy. Probably not for months. They don't even have it on their website. If I was thinking straight, and not on the verge of tears, and I did cry mind you (they shouldn't tease pregnant women like this!) then I would have asked if they would sell the floor model. But the only thing with that was, something was not put together correctly on it because the side would not go down. I thought about calling them back and asking if they would sell the floor model for a nice discount, and I still haven't totally dismissed the thought, but I may just stick with what we ended up getting. Any thoughts? I wish I had a picture of it to show.

So what we did end up doing, after my tears were dried, was going to Target and looking there, again. And we bought a crib. I don't like it as much as I did the cursed crib at Babies R Us, but I do like it, and I think it fits in with the other furniture we have. Really, having the perfect, ideal "nusery" is not very important to me. The baby won't care what the room looks like anyways, so as long as it is functional and at least a little cute, I'm happy. :)

I also put together our stroller/travel system on Saturday so that was fun.

That's about all the excitement in our lives in the past week. I know there have been other things I wanted to blog about, but I store them in my brain and then they get lost somewhere.

Tyson is set to have surgery on Thursday to remove the remaining tumor from his brain. They are expecting it to be a pretty easy surgery compared to last time. And hopefully after this, he will be tumor free and they will finish the 3 remaining chemos just to make sure there are not leftover cancer cells or anything. God has definitely been providing and doing miracles for this family, but please remember to pray for them on Thursday. I think the surgery is supposed to be around noon or 1pm.

Now I think I will go eat some cookies with my hubby. :) Life is good.

3 Pounds!

This morning before my doctor's appointment, I stopped by the hospital to see my dad and bring him some McDonald's tea. :) He was doing okay, but pretty uncomfortable from having to stay in one position pretty much all the time. He told me this afternoon it looks like he will get out of the hospital on Wednesday. I'm not sure where he will go after that however. Hopefully to the Inpatient Rehabilitation Center at AMC so he can really get the help he needs and have attention 24 hours a day since everyone in our family has a job during the day.

After the visit, I headed to the Women's Center for my checkup. It did turn out to be just a checkup - weight, urine sample, blood pressure, heartbeat, etc. My blood pressure was good and it's amazing to hear the heartbeat, as always. I was also measured for the first time and he said that looked right on.

Then I asked Dr. Brooks how much I had gained since the beginning because our scale is semi-broken and I haven't really been keeping track, and I have only gained 3 pounds! I could hardly believe it. I asked him if that was okay, and he said that it was, as long as I was eating healthy and not trying to lose weight, which of course I am not. I just really am not sure how I've pulled that off, since I feel like I've been eating more, if anything, certainly not less. It is normal for overweight women not to gain as much, but I was just shocked. I hope I can keep this up, so I don't have much to lose after Bailey is born!

I will have the glucose screening on September 30th, so they gave me the little orange bottle to drink before I come to that appointment. Everything was great, so I'm happy and thankful for a good appointment and a healthy baby so far.

Well, I am trying a new recipe tonight, Tater-Topped Casserole, and my timer just rang, so hopefully it will turn out yummy!