23 Weeks

Time is flying by and I'm over halfway through the pregnancy. I expected it to go relatively fast but this has been a crazy fast 23 weeks.

I'm starting to feel little kicks and it's so wild! According to my pregnancy books he is a little over a pound and about the size of a large mango.

Picking a name has been quite the ordeal. We have one in mind but we are not positive yet so right now I'm keeping it under wraps.

We were in Old Navy and saw this adorable little shirt. I couldn't resist getting it - every name we come up with I always add "Dr." in front of it to make sure it sounds right. And anything with the word "poop" in it cracks me up.
Other than the crib we haven't done too much shopping for baby. My mom bought me this adorable bedding though.

I did add this element to my photography arsenal last week. I knew I'd need a serious tripod for the thousands of pictures I will take after he gets here.

That's all for now, sorry it's not more exciting.

Snowmageddon

I hate to wish my life away but I can't wait until Spring. After 4 days of snow, ice, power outages and treacherous driving conditions I'm so over this Winter crap.

When I woke up on Tuesday morning I pretty much decided that I needed to call into work, we already had a few inches of snow and the forecast was calling for more snow and ice. I can drive in snow but ice, forget about it. Todd went to work but came home early as it became more dangerous to drive in.  

On Wednesday morning we woke up at 2 AM when the power went out. The next 4 hours we would listen to the ice storm and the havoc is was doing outside to our trees. It looked and sounded like a war zone, tree limbs breaking off from the weight of the ice and bright flashes of light from the transformers all over the city blowing up. I tried to fall back asleep but as soon as I would get close a huge limb would crash to the ground and wake me up. 

When the sun came up we saw this in front of our house. A nice tree had broken off and partially blocked our road. 
I will say it was all so pretty to look at. I just love snow - but only on the weekends when I don't have to drive anywhere.
So still without power and Todd home from work I got the brilliant idea to go into work. Todd drove me and about a mile down the road we encountered this lovely power line down blocking the road.
So work would have to wait. I did eventually make it in, about 4 hours later after it stopped snowing and we were able to drive around the downed wire without getting stuck. I'm glad I went in, if for nothing else than to be warm for a few hours, our house was freezing. 

After work we decided below 50 degrees in our house was too cold so we built a fire in the fireplace and blocked off the other rooms of the house. It got warm but we were dangerously low on firewood. We had to use it sparingly to make it through the night. We slept in the family room and fed the fire all night. It was probably the worst nights sleep I've had in a long time. It was still really cold and just plain uncomfortable. At about 3 AM we put some of the last pieces of firewood on the fire. Luckily at 4 AM the electric came back on. Hallelujah! 

We still had to deal with the freezing cold temperatures until the house heated back up but I was so grateful to those hardworking electrical workers. 

Thursday came and went with no additional snow or ice but there was still the bitter cold. Friday morning I woke up to 1 inch of additional snow. Enough already!

But by Friday afternoon the sun was out and all that ice had started to melt. But even better than the melting was how gorgeous all the trees were when the sun hit them. I was dying to get my camera and get some pictures. I was only able to get a few when I got home from work before the sun went down. 


Of course Lilly had to have her fun in the snow too. 

I really hope that the forecast I've heard about a new storm headed our way for Monday is wrong. Please, please, please be wrong!!!

The Backpack Incident

While in Hawaii last Spring we had an incident involving our rental Jeep. When we received this letter yesterday Todd and I could not help but laugh. 

The crime rate in Kauai is almost nonexistent which is why I was so surprised that this happened to us. The cop that came to help us was VERY thorough and so nice. He asked us descriptions and took lots of pictures of the Jeep. You can really tell they take any crime, no matter how small, very seriously there. 

I expected that these kids who did minor damage to our glove compartment and didn't actually steal anything (except of course the soda from our cooler) would be long gone and the cops would never find them. I also suspected we would be forced to pay the damages on our rental. We filed the claim with Alamo and once arriving home I waited to get a bill. Months went by and after following up I found out the file was closed since they never received a cost estimate from the repair shop. So really other than ruining our nice day at the waterfall, no harm was done. 

Back in August I received a call from a police detective in Kauai and he informed me that they caught the juveniles the day of the break in. I was shocked. They were caught at a beach near by surfing. He told us that one of the boys confessed and was admitted to a juvenile drug rehabilitation center. He asked if we had incurred any charges from the rental company so the boy could pay us back. I told him they were not charging us so he thanked me and apologized for the whole ordeal. Again, so nice. 

I can't say enough about how great the Kauai (Lihue) police handled the whole situation. And receiving this letter yesterday reinforced the fact that it would be an amazing place to live and definitely retire someday.

We're Having a Boy!

Here he is in all his glory! Don't you love how there's an arrow pointing it out? Tee hee.

He is measuring normal for 18 weeks and everything is working as it should. He was dancing around and kicking his little feet, it was awesome. I still haven't felt him move (that I know of) but the doctor said that is normal, I should feel something in the next few weeks. 

It is such a relief to me to finally know the gender and also a relief to know he is doing A-okay! 

Now the tough job of names - exciting but also daunting. 

This is my super fabulous crib my mom and dad got for me, I love it, love it! . 

Also notice the walls in the nursery are already blue, yet another reason I suspected we would be having a girl. But we lucked out, no painting needed! Actually, we may still paint the room a different color we haven't decided yet. 

And for my loyal blog followers here is the requested belly shot.

Poll

So Monday's the big gender ultrasound. Hopefully baby will cooperate and show us the goods. I'm wondering what everyone thinks it will be -- leave me a comment with your guesses!

Still Cookin'

Well I'm 15 weeks and things are still going great. Had a doctors appointment today an she let me know we can find out the gender on January 12th. I am counting down!  

Here is my extremely unflattering belly pic.

And a shot of our tree. 

Goodbye Sweet Jack

We lost our little Jackie yesterday. It stings terribly to even type that. 

This cat could not be contained inside this house and every time he would bolt out the door to explore I was afraid he would cross the road and be hit. It happened. As inevitable as it seemed I still find it hard to believe he is gone.

I'd like to think Tyson hasn't even noticed he is gone but I know that can't be true. He has been calling for Jack. Breaks my heart.

I never met anyone that didn't instantly love Jack. And I know a lot of anti-cat people. A lot. He was truly a sweetheart. Not to mention the best mole catcher and bird destroyer in the state. Even though he had no claws he still managed to leave us some pretty grotesque stuff on our back patio. We appreciated it when it was pesky moles but the poor little songbirds, they didn't stand a chance. 

 

His favorite place to sleep at Christmas time was right under the tree. If there were presents he'd just remove all bows and make himself a nice little bed. 

We will miss you, little Jack.