Thursday, December 9, 2010

Busy week

So this week has been busy and super awesome! I've been attempting to help my mother and older sister to get things ready for my younger sister's wedding (which is next Saturday !) and so that is keeping me really busy. Basically if I don't have something else planned I'm at least over at mom's in case there is something I'm actually capable of doing to help :) I am getting to the large and not so comfortable stage of being pregnant so sometimes I really just sit and watch them, but I guess I'm cheering them on, right? So while my actual list of activities is short, the wedding stuff is what is keeping me busy. And I am still working on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. So having activities the other days feels like a lot.

Tuesday the ladies from my church had a shower for me and it was awesome. Besides the uncomfortable opening presents and making sure I say something nice about everything ( I know this is something that others besides me worry about so don't even pretend to think I'm crazy!) it was really fun and way more people showed up than I expected. It may be that they just feel bad for me because my husband isn't here, but they would have to at least like me a little to care enough to come right? I got a sweet diaper cake (and it's the only one I've ever seen in real life), tons of cute clothes and various other useful things. It was great and I'm so thankful......but I was so tired by the end and it was only two hours! I'm definitely not used to getting tired so easy.

Side note, I need to learn to let people help me. I'm usually the one who is lifting heavy boxes when we get home from Costco and bringing them in with no problem. I cannot do that right now. I already hurt my back and when I try to carry heavy things in front of my large belly that only makes the object heavier and hurts my tummy and my back. I let my first heavy box go the other night....it hurt to put it in the car from the cart so I had my brother carry it in the house. Baby steps here people, I'm not going to go completely useless just because I'm pregnant. Unless I get put on bedrest....but I'm not.

Today I had my 36 week doctor's visit. I will spare you all the details but it was the best! Baby and everything is still good, heard the heart beat and had a few other business things to take care of, but I asked about being induced and got the exact answer I wanted. I will be induced a few days after Nathan gets home so that we can have some alone time, have the baby, bless the baby on Sunday and then have almost a full week as a family before he has to go back! I'm so excited that it is looking like everything will work out perfectly :) Oh, babies don't come early in our family and he said there is no way I will be ruining my sister's wedding with going into labor. Just don't tell her that....

We have a concert tonight and another one this weekend and fill in any empty space with wedding stuff! January will be here before I know it!!!

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Thanksgiving Shenanigans

Be warned, I am very tired so this may not make sense and I will probably forget many things.

We started out our Thanksgiving fun by finding out something was wrong with the furnace. Our house was stuck at 65 degrees and it was so cold to get out of bed in the mornings. So grandma tried to start a fire...and dad finished it for us. The dogs have never seen a fire in the fireplace and they were very interested in what was going on.

Then on Sunday we found out that two of my cousins rolled their vehicle on the way here. They were fine and lost only the car and a cell phone. Plus, it was only a mile outside of Columbus so my mom and dad were able to drive over and pick them up.

My older sister was also on her way here and fishtailed her car into a guard rail. Everyone is good, but the back hatch on the car does not work. Which was way fun for her when she had to unload all the stuff and her kids through the doors, fun stuff!

The same night I dropped my car off to get fixed finally. I'm very excited to finally have it back and in it's perfect condition :) Then Monday the furnace was fixed!

Wednesday was the day we baked 14 pies (that was about a pie per person) and a whole bunch of rolls. It was awesome to have my sister and cousins here to help though. It is normally an all day process, this year it took about three hours excluding actual baking time since there is no way to hurry that along. Oh and Kaitlyn and Adam drove up from school with no wrecking of vehicles or anything!

Thanksgiving! Lots of food, games and fun! Everything was delicious and we had an awesome time.
This is probably my favorite picture from the day. The two little dogs insisted on both being on my lap the whole time we were playing games, but I got tired of sitting in such a way that created a lap. So I put Daisy on my belly and then Avarie wanted to say hi to baby (which she does all the time and is just so adorable!)
The rest of the week is blurred, actually it all is blurred because it's six in the evening and I think I could go to sleep now if I wasn't baby-sittting. But we had my younger sister's bridal shower on Friday so that was fun. Adam was watching the little ones and Aiden threw up on the couch...how fun for him:) He's a good sport!

 They called to tell me my car was done, but I wasn't able to get there before they closed and then some Wii was probably played and invites assembled. I don't really know. Those things happened I'm just not sure all when :)  Saturday Grandma took everyone (except mom and Trevor because they were sick) to Olive Garden and then we went to TJMaxx. Then Jeni and I did some other shopping. Then half the chaos left on Sunday to go back  to school. The other half is just staying through Christmas!

Now we are busy getting ready for Kaitie's wedding in 3 weeks and then the baby 3 weeks(ish) after that! Busy busy busy!

Baby Shower

I had my first baby shower a couple weeks ago. My mother-in-law hosted and we had some awesome food and everything was beautiful. My mom was in charge of the games, which I was lousy at doing! And we got so much stuff for the baby. He's all set for clothes through six months. And it took the full two weeks before company for me to wash everything and figure out where to put it all! It was way fun and I'm so glad some friends were able to get off work to play. I feel like I'm far too busy to have a social life right now so it was nice to catch up with people this way.
We played the "guess how large Shannda is" game...........
And we matched socks for 30 seconds,  or less you over-achievers who can expect a phone call when I'm swamped with baby socks :)
Mom put a giant ribbon in my hair and now the only pictures with me in them I have this on my head.

And a picture with my mother-in-law
And my mommy!
It was definitely fun for me and I hope everyone else got some enjoyment out of it as well :)

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Crafty Things




I finally finished my diaper bag! I wanted one that didn't look boy or girl so I can possibly use it for the next child as well, but I also did not want it to cost a fortune. Oh and I wanted more than two pockets. I hate digging around in my purse for things and the diaper bag is twice the size of my purse so pockets were a must! I learned a lot doing this project (or so my mom tells me...I feel like she just had to explain the whole pattern to me) and it feels really good to have it finished. And when it gets dirty, I can just throw it  in the washer! I love that :)

It's really hard to take pictures of though, the outside has pockets on the sides and front and I made one of the small pockets so that my cell phone fits perfectly.
 When I was working on the beginning of the diaper bag my mom made these awesome receiving blankets. She was just gonna make three but we found so many cute combinations that she made five! I'm so lucky to have such a talented mother (and grandmother and sister, they all help me a lot).
I just finished the outline for the baby quilt I will be making last night. I need to find some material and then I will get started on that! Then over Christmas break my sister will be here and she's going to help me make nursing covers that have the little loop so it's easy to check on baby without exposing myself!!! I'm so excited that I have stuff to keep me busy and I'm not just sitting around waiting for him to make his appearance :)

Monday, November 1, 2010

Halloween

We didn't do much for Halloween around here....we sewed most of the time. But we do have some cute costumes for the little dogs:
Tinkerbell will only allow a collar to be put on her so I don't bother even trying. I got her a Christmas sweater last year....she wouldn't move and hated it!

Baby and I dressed up too, mostly for pictures for Nathan.

He was the baseball to my baseball player :) My mom thought I was crazy, but painted my belly anyway. And then agreed I wasn't so insane afterwards. I believe that is all for now!

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Going back...

to my great grandma's birthday. My dad's grandma turned 100 years on October 7, 2010!!! So we went to see her in Cornell, WI and had a big ol' birthday party at her assisted living home. My aunt Sheri planned it all and it was so much fun. She was expecting about 25 people and there were over 50 of mostly relatives. I didn't even know the family was that big!
Here is our immediate family that went (mom, Trevor and I were all sick)
And my dad and his sister Sheri (the planner)
Sheri and her husband were sick too. Everyone felt well the day of the party though...it was a miracle. And we didn't pass any germs along to my still very feisty great grandma either! She was the healthiest one.
Me, our cousin Michael and Trevor
I was trying to find a good picture of Sheri's family, but this is all we have I guess. Michael is on the left, me, Bob, Sheri and mom. PS I saw this picture and realized how big I really am!

HAPPY 100TH BIRTHDAY DORIS!!! We love you and we're glad you are still so feisty :)

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Terrific Day

I got to talk to Nathan yesterday morning. Like skype and the internet fully cooperated (at the least the best it ever has since he's been there) and I got to talk to him while I could see him! It was wonderful! We discussed baby names and got nowhere yet again. If he's not here for the birth this boy might come home from the hospital without a name!


Yesterday I had a 3/4D ultrasound done.....only because my husband requested it. I just didn't want to pay for it, but now I'm super glad we did. The package said a dvd up to 20 minutes long and a picture. Well I walked away with the dvd and 14 pictures! I was so excited! She went to tear off the pictures and even she was surprised at how many there were. Our active little boy moves around a lot, but he sure likes to keep his hand and/or hands in front of his face! We poked and prodded and I moved on my side.....nothing. He did give us the thumbs up...in front of his face of course!
And this was as close as we got to both hands off the face.
And the tech checked again and said he is "all boy." Good to know I haven't bought a bunch of stuff I won't be able to use :) 

After the ultrasound my mom, grandma and I went to lunch and then registered for baby. And of course I had to buy a few things. There were some super cute clothes on sale, a stroller at a place I wasn't registering at and I finally found the baby book I wanted! It has spaces to fill out things like a family tree and siblings and pets, but also room for pictures. I was so excited because I spent hours looking for this thing. Of course I will take way more pictures than this book can handle so there will be another one for just pictures.

After spending way more money than I planned (since I didn't plan on spending ANY) we had a date night at...COSTCO!!! I had such an awesome day yesterday that I'm still tired today :)

Oh yeah, it was Friday and I did not have to work. Pretty much an awesome day!

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

HELLO...

to the third trimester! That's right we have about three months left until we get to meet our son! I am so beyond excited.

 It has been going by so quickly, I think because I have been too sick to really enjoy everything. Speaking of.....being sick when pregnant is not fun at all.  I can't take any drugs that would really help so my body is still fighting whatever this death illness is that I caught! My mom says I am sounding better and I can finally sleep decently laying flat. The baby loved the first night I got in bed without a ramp of pillows....he may have been shocked to find he had so much room. He was flipping and kicking all over the place!
I finally ordered and received our pictures from our Operation: Love ReUnited session. They are awesome and I'm so excited to get them on the wall to look at before I go to sleep at night. I'm going to have a few blank frames on the wall with them so I can put some of our whole family when the little guy gets here. Not sure how we'll get a good one with a baby, two dogs and Nathan (since he hardly ever just smiles for a camera). We did get one good one for our Christmas card last year so how much harder can it be with an infant?
I went to Cornell, WI with my parents and brother this last weekend for my great grandma's 100th birthday! Oh you don't know where that is? That's because it's a tiny little retirement town close to the border of MN. But more on that later when I get the pictures from my brother :)

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Dear bronchitis

I hate you and you are no fun! Actually when I got checked out at the walk in clinic (which I don't even know if it will be covered by insurance) I got to hear our son's heart beat so that part was fun! It's at about 160 and I'm still feeling him moving and have a normal pregnancy so they were not too worried about him. The doctor said it sounded more viral but gave me antibiotics in case I don't start getting better....I think I feel better today, just even more tired than usual :)I love Vicks Vaporub...it burns so good...also cough drops and now I've moved to Jolly Ranchers, YUM!

Enough about that. Baby boy is doing well, I can see him and feel him move a lot now! It is so much fun...I wish his daddy could see it too. It's hard to see over Skype, but when we figure out the video camera I will take some video of it :) Twenty four weeks tomorrow...in three weeks I will be in the third trimester!!! It is going way faster than I thought and it's not even the busy holiday season yet. Plus we will be preparing for my baby sister's wedding! Busy, busy, busy and I am so excited about all this stuff to do, now I just need to be healthy so I can do them.
 Nathan and I haven't been able to talk a whole lot, but I always look forward to seeing his name on my phone....yep I got a halfway fancy and expensive phone so that he can always call me. In fact he called at two thirty the other morning.....apparently forgot about our many hour time difference, but no matter I got to hear his voice even if I was mostly asleep :)
And I'm done rambling for now.....

Saturday, September 4, 2010

We just found out....

IT'S A BOY! My husband was there over skype and the first thing he said was "I told you so" but the whole experience was really fun. I had my parents, his parents and my grandma all in there and my father-in-law holding the laptop over my belly the whole time so that my hubby could see the baby. 
I was worried because we were kinda crazy but the tech was super nice and made sure my hubby could see before she actually starting doing anything....and we have a disc of EVERYTHING she had on the monitor. 
This was also my mark for telling facebook so I finally have my pregnancy album
We are all super excited and my mom and grandma bought stuff for baby the very same day smile
Tomorrow is 22 weeks, it feels like I have forever  to wait until we get to meet him! But I know in the end it will feel like it went really fast and I have lots to do to get ready for the little guy :)

Thursday, August 19, 2010

It's kinda tough...

So I didn't think it bothered me when I would hear people complain about their husbands being gone for months at a time. But now I know I don't mind. Yes you can marry into the military and "know" what you are getting into, but you never truly know until they leave and are gone. It's hard to not know anything and I know that no news is good news but that is only slightly comforting. I'm so glad I have my family right now, with my extra hormones and all these new things I'm experiencing. And I'm glad my besty doesn't mind me being the third wheel at her house because they are my social life :) It's great to have someone to complain to and I'm sure the people that need to complain publicly just don't have the awesome support that I do!!!
This is really just rambling, but I'm so thankful for everything I do have; the people, the car, the baby and the insurance. I know my life is great and I just need to remind myself and count my many many blessings!

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Pass Days

I got back from WA yesterday morning. We had a great time and it was well worth the hassle of getting there and trying to plan everything. I am so grateful for the awesome family I have (and the one I married into) that helped make this trip happen. We could not have done it without them :)
The first day I flew into Seattle, found the rental car shuttle, got the car and then couldn't work the GPS. I really just needed to find the interstate but Seattle is not very good at signs giving direction. So I called Nathan and we couldn't figure it out. So I called mom and she fixed it, moms are awesome :) Nathan told me to just head to base because he would probably be done by the time I got there. Um, he was way wrong! So I went to Burger King since I was starving. That was a new experience! Everyone there was either in uniform or with someone in uniform, I felt a little out of place. Then I had to hang out and wait forever until Nathan was let go. It was earlier than planned but he thought it would take me a lot longer to get to base than it did. After they were done, and Kristen brought me to the bathroom (pregnant lady had been waiting over an hour to pee), we went to dinner and did some shopping before finding our hotel room.
On Friday we had our pictures taken by Tammy Fraley. She was so nice and I was so excited she could do them on such short notice. I haven't seen any yet, but I'm really looking forward to it. We also tried to get a hold of Nathan's cousin to have dinner or something, but no such luck. Ha and we didn't have a hotel reservation for that night so we stayed at this really classy place just north of base. While Nathan was checking in someone called to report screaming in the room next to them, the lady at the desk hung up and  said haha, screaming. Think about that one for a minute.....it's kinda funny since a brigade just got a three day pass and it's right by base.
Saturday we went to Pike's Place Market....in the rain. We walked the whole thing, but couldn't enjoy it because there were far too many people there for us! We did listen to some street performers and bought all three of their CDs. They were really good. Then we searched for a hotel.....and found a great one with a very comfortable bed. It was a suite for the price of a regular old room, I felt special but it really had nothing to do with me. Nathan is personable and in the military :) We brought all of our stuff in and I laid down for a bit before we had dinner and headed to Kristen and Zach's house. Zach just got home and they were having a celebration. They played beer pong and flip cup while I drank my diet coke and laughed. Nathan had a good time chatting with Zach.
Sunday we went to the Space Needle for lunch! Actually the menu said brunch, but our reservation was at two and that is clearly lunch time:) It was so cool to see Seattle from there and the Blue Angels were flying and went right past a few times. Nathan has pictures on his camera....but who knows when I will get them from him. That evening we ordered pizza for dinner and had our one year anniversary top tier of our wedding cake celebration.
PS I'm very surprised Nathan wasn't sneaking pictures of my belly....he commented on it a lot :) I also have not seen the pics from his camera so maybe he did and he was really sneaky.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Things Are Happening!

So lots of things are happening and most of them are awesome! We have a baby on the way at our house! S/he is due January 8th and we could not be happier. I am almost sixteen weeks (about 4 months) along and so far everything is going well and baby is healthy.
We got an awesome new car that will be dependable while Nathan is away. We are now paying for a 2010 Jeep Patriot and we both love it!
And the not good thing is that Nathan will be away for a year:( He is currently on orders in WA and then will ship out from there soon. He has a three day pass that I am so grateful that I will be able to make it there for and we found a photographer through OpLove who has time during those 3 days to take our pictures. It was such short notice that I am ecstatic that she is willing and able to do this for us. We are also going to find some fun things to do while we are there like eating in the Space Needle and a few other things. I will try to get some pictures up when I get back, but this is new so it may be a while:)

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

This Uneasy Feeling

So for the past year Nathan has been preparing to deploy with the 67th Signal NSC. However, he is now in limbo and no one can tell him for sure if he will be deploying or not. It's a huge long complicated bs story and it's actually making me physically ill. I'm a planner and so not knowing where I will be living in two months is really bothering me.........and I can't get insurance because of this whole ordeal which makes it worse.
The good news is that because sewing takes a lot of concentration my quilt is getting done. I have been sewing so that I don't think about what I could be doing if we knew what was going to happen. So that I don't think about how unproductive I feel lately. I will post a picture when I am finished with the front...........which will be soon at this rate :)

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Bored and New

So I am going to try this blogging thing. This first one is purely because I am bored and waiting for laundry to be done. My husband is at drill and my family is in Utah so I have the dogs for company for the moment. I had a very unproductive day yesterday and so today I put my butt to work. I cleaned my car, cleaned the house, did a whole bunch of laundry, prepared the Sunday school lesson for tomorrow and I may be doing our grocery shopping. Maybe not......I'm feeling like sitting in front of the computer instead:) So I need suggestions on what to blog about. My dogs are my kids for now and my husband and I don't do much that is too exciting. Help please!