So.....

Apparently my idea of "I'll post a pic tomorrow" is a little skewed. Ah well, better late than never!

This weekend was great! Jim finally had the whole weekend off which was a nice bonus. So come Saturday we decided it was time to do something fun and different. Anyone remember the geocaching that enveloped our time in the summer? (See: Our New Hobby...) Well, we decided to dust off the 'ol GPS and head on out. The weather was cold, but not unbearable. We headed about 30 minutes outside of town to pretty much the middle of nowhere! Nothing but fields and well cemeteries! We found 5 geocaches that were located in cemeteries. Those are some of my favorites, just because they are usually relatively easy to find, you don't really have to be too stealthy and on the lookout for people looking at you funny, and I enjoy looking at all the historic markers (most of which were from the 1800's!). Here are a few snapshots from the day:


It was definitely a fun trip and made us realize how much we miss the hobby and look forward to sneaking out again soon when the weather allows! We are looking forward to strapping Baby C into a carrier and taking her out on our many adventures as well.

Speaking of Baby C. She decided to give mama a little scare Saturday. All of my own doing of course. Being that I was so active Saturday hiking around and pretty much constantly on the move, she must of been asleep most of the day because movement was pretty sparse. By the time we got home I immediately went to lay down on couch and eat an ice cream bar to see if I could spark some movement. Got a few kicks here and there, but not enough to ease my worry. Decided to head upstairs and use our home doppler. Found her hearbeat pretty quick as usual and that made me feel better.

Well, lo and behold, since little one was asleep all day, she decided to rock and roll all night long! She didn't keep me awake, but every time I did wake up in the middle of the night to roll over or something, she would just be kicking away. I love every minute of it. She can kick me all she wants :)

So I leave you with a better picture of my new 'do (wearing my cute little bow headband of course) and a few more belly pics (including an elusive bare belly shot!!)

Two in one day!

So, yeah. I didn't want to clog up the last post with everything. So I decided to have this post dedicated to my knitting projects! I've been a busy knitter lately after a long hiatus last summer.

Here are a few projects that I must say I am quite proud of!

Fingerless Mittens:


The cutest shrug EVER for my little girl:


And...a headband that was intended for my little lady, but I made to large so now it's intended for me. And I must say, I think it looks darn cute on me. I will make sure to post tomorrow's haircut picture wearing the headband :)
A close up of the bow:


I plan on making a headband to really fit a baby this time. And those bows are just so darn cute, I plan on whipping up one in every color yarn I own! I figure I can make one or two headbands, and then just interchange the bows!

I also made a cocoon/pod to use for photographing a newborn. It's pointless to post a photo of that without a baby in it, since it just looks like a really large hat when it is not in use. I may have to use the old teddy bear decoy and take a pic of that. It looks awful silly though, so we will see!

My bad!

Yeah, yeah, I should be awarded the "lazy blogger" award.

So, not too much exciting happened since last post. Husband has been working a lot so that makes for some boring weekends. We did hit up the North American International Auto Show on Monday. That was fun to cruise around and look at all the concept cars. I actually had never been before, so it was definitely about time we went!

The rest of the week was same 'ole same 'ole.

This weekend we are hoping to plan something fun to do Saturday. We may take a drive around somewhere we've never been before. Maybe take a mini overnight vacay somewhere nearby. Or there's always the Plymouth Ice Festival which is always fun to go to.

Well, so here is LAST weeks bump picture:

On to this week...We'll start with a survey:

How far along? 24 weeks 1 days

How big is Baby? 8.5 inches, 1 1/2 lbs

Total weight gain/loss: I've stopped paying attention. I really don't want to know unless the doc tells me I need to stop gaining :)

Maternity clothes? Still managing to wear my normal tops. I need to layer them with long under shirts though. I've only bought 4 maternity shirts and a sweater. Then of course my pants that I've been wearing since practically the beginning!

Stretch marks? Might have a few on my breast.....not sure if they are veins or stretchies....hoping they are veins and will go away!

Sleep: Sleep is starting to suck. Waking up and rolling around at 3 am almost daily. Not cool.

Best moment this week: The movement is so much fun!

Movement: She is moving and grooving like crazy and I love every minute of it. She's had a slow day here and there and of course always freaks me out. But she has to sleep sometime!
Food cravings: Ice water with lemon. Very strange craving, but at least it's keeping me hydrated!

Gender: Girl

Labor Signs: No

Belly Button in or out? In

What I am looking forward to: Third Trimester. About 2-4 weeks away depending on what chart you look at ;)

Milestones: I'd say Third Tri is a good milestone. Technically this week was "Viability week" meaning that if God forbid baby decided to make an appearance WAY too early, she would have a better chance of survival with TONS of medical intervention (thank you modern medicine). We definitely don't want to see the little lady for another 16 weeks though!

These weeks bump pic featuring a new haircut! This picture sux. I am bound and determined to get a better picture of the haircut tomorrow!!

Well this was happily unexpected!

I have been given the Happy 101 Award from Mrs. Pink Pearls at A Place To Start. Thank you my dear! I love reading your blog as well!!

The rules:

List 10 things that make you happy.

Pass it on to 10 bloggers that make your day a better one!

1. God.
2. My husband.
3. My baby.
4. My Family.
5. My cats.
6. My friends.
7. Big Homecooked Dinners.
8. Knitting.
9. Chocolate and other sweets.

10. Weekends.

Here are some of my favorite blogs!

Completely Eclipsed

Life as a Firewife

The Long and Winding Rogue

We're Really Great

Falling For Baby

Live, Laugh, Love & More

Thoughts for the Journey

Mixed

Our Peaceful Little Life

What's Left? There's Life.

Thanks for sharing your e-lives with me and others. You are all so real and honest and I enjoy following your stories!


PS. Belly pic/blog to follow soon. Need to take my weekly pic still!

Losing (most likely lost) a good friend

Ugh, 4 am and can't sleep. Perfect time for a lengthy serious blog, right?

So yesterday morning (Sat.) all was fine and normal in my world. I was getting ready to head up to Panera to meet a couple friends who offered to host my baby shower. We were just gonna go over some planning details and such. Well, as I got into my car I noticed a strange text message from another friend of mine. It pretty much cryptically stated that she didn't want to be friends anymore and not to call her. Um, okay? I was totally confused and started running through the events of the last day or so and looking up stuff on Facebook to see if there was something I missed. Well finally, after a few unaswered phone calls and text messages, she sent me a very long letter letting me know what was up. Not only was she upset that she wasn't included in the the shower planning, she listed a few other things from our past that bothered her that I had NO clue about. So now I'm just in shock. But that's fine, she's entitled to her feelings of course.

I come home and try to respond to every issue she addressed to let her know that I care for her very much and consider her one of my closest friends and in no way did I ever mean to hurt her feelings. My other friends approached me about the shower. I didn't ask them to do anything. She never offered anything, so I didn't even know she wanted to be included. I would love to have her help, but again, it's just one of those things you don't ask people for, it just happens. They come to you.

So I try to explain that as well as going through some of the other issues that she mentioned, trying to let her know that I didn't know she felt that way and that some things were never intentional, etc. That was about 2:00 pm or so.

Never heard back.

Not sure if she "blocked" me on facebook so she didn't receive it or what? So I sent it to her email as well. Texted her to check her messages. Nothing.

Andrea=hurt and confused.

We've been friends for 10+ years. And we are going to just toss it out the window over this? Not even a chance to work it out? I don't even get a fair say or nothing. She just wants it to be over and I guess that's it.

I realize our relationship has never been perfect. We've connected and disconnected plenty of times over the years. Family situations, bad relationships, me away at college, and other stuff just gets in the way sometimes. But I never once considered her NOT a friend. She was a bridesmaid in my wedding last year. Which apparently she says I felt obligated to have her. That's another total misconception. I have a handful of "best" friends. She was one of them. Of course I would want her to be a bridesmaid.

I just always thought our relationship dynamic was different. We didn't call each other all the time, we didn't see each other all the time, but when we did....things were good. We could talk about anything and everything. We were still close. But apparently this wasn't working for her. But I didn't know that. In the last few months I have contacted her more than she has contacted me! I called on her birthday, I called when I could tell she was feeling down due to her FB status, I called when I was pregnant. I've been to her house a couple times in the last few months....she stopped by once, but she was already in the area.

But this stuff didn't matter to me. It's just what our relationship was. I know she can't come over too often because of her cat allergies, so that's fine. I'll trek over there. No biggie.

Again....Andrea=Confused

So what now? Wait it out another day to see if I hear anything back? If she just wants to give it up, there is nothing I can do about it. She is entitled to that. But I'll always be here. And I'll send her one last message to be sure she knows. Although I'm hurt, and it sucks, I can and will put it behind me if she wanted to move forward someday.

Just pictures

Just some pictures this week :) Not too much going on!

22 weeks!



Flowers that my wonderful husband picked up for me today. Stopped in the midst of a snow storm to get them, what a man!

High time for an update - Holiday Review!

Woo, slacking once again! But the holidays are always a busy time of year, right? Well, this year went really well! This was our first year doing some of the holiday entertaining at our house. I was pretty nervous about it, but it went great! Here is the holiday rundown:

Christmas Eve:

Dinner at the IL's....wonderful as usual! They always put on a great spread from the appetizers to the dessert! I am known as the dessert girl around there, so my mother-in-law is always excited to tell me what she gets for dessert. And well, I don't mind, because, frankly, that is my favorite part and I fit the role perfectly!

We got an exciting gift from them this year as well.....a family trip to Disney World! Me, Jim and baby along with grandma, grandma and then Aunt and Uncle and their kids are all going to Disney next summer! We are totally excited. I can't believe I'll be carting around a 3 month old in Disney, it's going to be an experience for sure! Baby's first trip....I couldn't have picked a better place to go!

From Jim's Aunt and Uncle we got an awesome Flip video camera! I am really excited to put that to good use once the baby arrives! It is definitely a really fun device!

After a lovely evening with them, we decided to head over to 10:00 pm Evening Mass at Church. We knew we wouldn't make it Christmas day so....it was very nice, but I'll admit, I was really tired! We ended up leaving just a tad early. We had a busy day ahead of us!

Christmas Day:

Brunch to begin around 10:30! My dad, step-mom and grandmother came over for eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, and waffles! Breakfast is kind of a tricky meal to make for a group...things get cold too quickly! But we managed. Jim handled the majority of breakfast. I was more worried about dinner!

We got some great un-circulated coins that belonged to my grandfather. That was a very special gift. We also got some gift cards and money (which is always nice!)

The first wave was out by 1:00 ish. That left us a couple hours to unwind before wave two was to arrive at 3:00. Turkey was in the cooker and everything else was prepped. My mom and step-dad, aunt and uncle, and great uncle arrived and we started with a nice spread of simple appetizers. The turkey cooked a lot quicker than I expected, but luckily turned out great! We had a lovely dinner and some home made pies (compliments of my aunt) for dessert!

We got a lot of gift cards again that I am looking forward to spending! Jim has already spent his, lol.

The weekend to follow I was just pooped. I pretty much just lounged the whole time. Jim unfortunately had to work, so he didn't get much of a rest!

Here is my 20 week picture as well as some other Christmas pics:




On to New Year's Eve:

Jim had to work, but was home at a reasonable time. I loaded up on some unhealthy snacks (chips, dip, poppers, mini tacos) and we just relaxed until midnight. It was nice!

Here we are relaxin' and being silly:



New Year's Day:

Woke up and head to an early showing of Avatar in 3D. Great movie! Very long and I was going to pee my pants by the time we got out of there, but it was very enthralling and the graphics were great! Then it was off to Babies R Us to start to register. Ugh....talk about overwhelming! There is just so much stuff and we don't have a clue what we really need, what we really don't need, what baby will like, or not like, etc. We skimmed through the store and then I decided I had enough and we went home!

The next day (Saturday) I went through the online site each category one by one researching products and figuring out what we need/don't need. When Jim got home from work, we went to Starbucks and went over it yet again to narrow down some items. I think it is finally good to go. And it should be, since the shower is next month!

Sunday (yesterday) I took down all the Christmas decorations. It's always kind of sad to take down the decorations....I love our Christmas tree! It is fun to look through the ornaments one last time before wrapping them up for the year.

So that was that. Here we are in 2010 and we are hoping this year will be a good one! Last year was well, not the best. So here is to a better and brighter year!


How about a 21 week survey!!

How far along? 21 weeks 4 days

How big is Baby? Should be about 1 lb now!!

Total weight gain/loss: I have not stepped on the scale...I will find out at my monthly checkup tomorrow!

Maternity clothes? Still managing to wear my normal shirts with maternity pants!

Stretch marks? Nadda

Sleep: Sleep is beginning to lack. I seem to wake up every night around 3-4 am and toss and turn. No fun!

Best moment this week: Movement is increasing!

Movement: Definitely feeling her move around now! It's a pretty crazy, weird, cool, amazing feeling!

Food cravings: I'm craving salads like big time today!

Gender: Girl!

Labor Signs: No

Belly Button in or out? In

What I am looking forward to: Jim being able to feel our little girl move and groove!

Milestones: Still hanging in there and enjoying this pregnancy so far!

21 week 4 day pic!


And just for fun...the kitties!