well hello second trimester, so nice to see you!

I am still in shock at how quickly this pregnancy is moving so far! Yesterday marked the beginning of my second trimester - already! Life is just so wonderful right now. Today is my 31st birthday and the bible passage on the top of this lovely blog today says: “For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” SO true......there couldn't be a more perfect passage for today for me. I have already gotten so many birthday wishes from friends & family - thank you all! I am so blessed in so many ways and it just becomes more & more obvious with each day that passes.

On a different note, I have tried the old wives tales for gender prediction for this little munchkin and I hope to have a moment to post the results in the next few days. I'd do it now, but my list is at home ;-)

12 weeks and counting...

Well as of yesterday I am 12 weeks along - already!! I can't believe how fast this is going - I mean we've now known for almost 8 weeks that we're having a baby. My next appointment is coming up in 2 1/2 weeks, at which point I will be at the start of my second trimester already - holy smokes! At this point I am still feeling good for the most part, weekends are kind of rough sometimes (it's like my body knows that fun occurs on weekends and decides it wants to feel sick instead have fun), but overall I am doing great! I am really wanting the next 6 weeks to go by so we can find out what this little munchkin is - I want to know so bad!! Speaking of - I am starting to experiment with some old wives tales that predict the gender of your baby to see what they all say, and then to compare it to the ultrasound when we find out. Nothing like having a little fun to pass the time ;-) I have added a poll to the blog so that I can get everyone's opinion on what we're having - I can't wait to see what you all say! I will post the results of all my experiments after my next appointment (I want to see if I can get a heart rate for the baby first) and then we will see in November who's right!

Oh, and a quick shout-out to my cousin Elizabeth - hope you had a fabulous birthday yesterday and birthday weekend full of celebration! Wish we lived closer so we could've helped you celebrate, but we'll see you in December for sure!!

moving right along

Well yesterday I had my first appointment with the OB that will deliver my little love in April. My normal doc retired the end of August, so unfortunately I have to start all over with a new doc during pregnancy. Although, that is a lot of appointments and getting to know her, so I suppose it will be a fairly quick way to tell if I really like her or not. So far so good - she was very friendly and informative and made sure she answered anything questions I had (which of course I'd forgotten them all - I really need to remember to make a list next time).

Everything looked good to her. She tried to hear the heartbeat with the Doppler but "we" weren't cooperating, so no such luck this time. She did however give me a free ultrasound (apparently my insurance doesn't cover OB ultrasounds) so we could watch the little heart beating since we couldn't hear it - nothing like seeing that little heart blinking away to give you peace of mind. It was so fun to see that little body, it's arms & legs on that screen - this kiddo is growing and changing so fast! No picture to take home with me this time though :-( My next appointment is a few days after my second trimester starts - the Friday after my birthday! Eight weeks and we should be finding out if my little love is a boy or girl - November can't come fast enough!!

It's really true!!

After a long and hard road, Greg and I are finally having a baby!!! Our prayers have been answered and mid-April (the 12th) we will turn into a family of three!! Because of our situation we have had multiple doctor's appointments with our RE so far including 6 week and 8 week ultrasounds and everything is looking great! We have been released to my OB and will start "normal" pregnancy appointments next Friday. We couldn't be more thrilled and I can't wait to share this journey!

Slacker!

I am still alive - I promise! No tragedies or anything - just life and all that goes with it keeping me too busy to blog! I can't even remember the last thing I wrote about - oh I just had to check (how sad) - apparently the subject matter was a lack of free time - HA! Here is the best recap I can come up with of what had been going on since mid-May:

• family vacation to Disney and a Disney Cruise: It was an incredible trip, but Greg and I have decided it was not a vacation by our standards because that to us means relaxation and this trip was way too busy for that! We had a great time overall and have made some wonderful memories - but we are glad to be home! The best day was spent at the Atlantis resort in Nassau - we have some pics on here but I will be getting some more of our Dolphin encounter shortly. Greg kissed a 23 year old girl named Michelle and I have a picture to prove it (don't worry, so did I......did I mention Michelle was a dolphin??) I went a little crazy and have a grand total of 319 pictures I uploaded to my shutterfly page tonight....and that is after going through them and deleting a bunch. Greg got a hold of the camera a few times on the boat and was playing with settings so if you notice any random pictures (or multiple pictures of the same thing) I'm sure those are probably his doing! Here is a link to my Picasa album, which has all of the pics I took (the ones with captions) and eventually everyone else's will be there too
  

• New Addition: my SIL Diana got married in a beautiful evening wedding in her dad's backyard in Norman. I was an IDIOT and got the wedding invite & reception invite cards mixed up and we ended up missing the wedding all together! We realized this as we were walking out the door - and we thought we were running early!! We still went to the reception though to congratulate the happy new family (their daughter Isabella Grace turns 2 next Wednesday!) Couldn't be happier for them - welcome to the family Patrick!
• 4th of July: we had no spectacular plans other than watching the fireworks from our backyard as we do every year!
• 30 Vegas Style: my best friend (and her husband) turned 30 this summer and they had a big casino party at her parent's house. We got to play blackjack, craps and Texas Hold'em - I enjoyed a little Hold'em and then went on to learn craps - it was a lot of fun! Glad we were playing with fake money though - even though I enjoyed myself I still don't think I'd really gamble if we went to Vegas
• Another Year Older: more summer birthdays in the family include my nephew (turned 3 on June 20th) - my mother (I won't tell how old she turned on July 26th - she doesn't look or act it anyway!) and my niece (turned 5 on Aug. 3rd)
  
• FORE! I took golf lessons at the beginning of the summer with a good friend and have really taken to it. Mind you, I still suck, but I think it's fun and it has been something I have enjoyed doing. I go every Saturday morning with my parents (and occasionally my sister and/or Greg) and Greg and I enjoy playing 9 holes in the evening during the week at a short course near our house. He bought me my own clubs and everything! He has really enjoyed me getting into golf and has been able to play with me for the first time since he originally hurt his back! I love the time we get to spend together!
• Oh baby: things are still going for us in the baby department - lots of doctors appointments and pills trying to expand our family! Hopefully soon one of these treatments will work and we will have a little one! In the mean time, I have found out that one of my very best friends is expecting her second!! I've got a few other people from high school, college and my current circle of friends that are expecting either their first or second too! And some of the most exciting news is one of my sister's best friends is FINALLY getting her baby girl from China - they have been in the process to adopt for YEARS and I am so happy that they are finally getting their baby!! Babies, babies, everywhere (almost)!
  

Well, I can't think of much more that has been going on. Lots of work, golf, cleaning, laundry, doctors and then more of the same! Hope everyone is doing well - I'll try to keep up with this more!

Free time, what's that?

Well I haven't posted in a LONG time it seems - things are just so busy! Let's see - a quick overview of things that have been going on since my last post......my MIL had a birthday on April 7th - hope it was a good one! I went to the Pollard Theatre in Guthrie with my parents, sister, nieces & nephew to see Beauty & The Beast. We had a really good time and I think the kids did too ;-) Our friend Patrick got married on April 25th so we spent that Friday night and Saturday in Norman celebrating with them - congratulations Patrick & Katie - the wedding was beautiful!

The beginning of May I started a new drug so we are anxiously awaiting the end of May to see if it's working or not! May 5th I started taking golf lessons!! It was a random, spur-of-the-moment thing that popped up because a friend of mine was going to start them, but I am really enjoying myself! My wonderful & loving husband took me on a date night to go see the Lion King on May 6th - it was FANTASTIC!! Granted we had incredible seats (row D, center!!), but the show itself was just really well done. From an artistic standpoint I loved being that close because I could see all of the intricacies of the costumes and set decoration so I was in heaven the entire show! I hadn't even noticed that the kid sitting next to me threw up until lights came on at intermission - thank goodness it didn't stink or I might've too! I got yet another sinus infection so I had to miss our postponed bunco from April that my friend Stephanie hosted on May 8th - I was rather peeved about this because I love my nights I get to socialize with the girls! Mother's Day we met Greg's mom & stepdad after church for lunch and then spent the evening with my family. The ladies in my family had spent the day before together too going through my mom's closet (she has us do this about once a year so we can help her rid her closet of things that are out-of-date or that don't fit her anymore) and then shopping for new bedding/accessories for their back bedroom. I LOVE to shop for that kind of thing - especially when I'm not the one paying for it! May 11th I started back to the sand volleyball league I used to play in - it has been 3 years since I played but I actually didn't suck! I love the team I play with though (a bunch of my friends) so that always makes it fun! We did pretty good - we won the first game in 2 sets and then won the first set of the second game only to lose the other 2 sets. This past Saturday I got to see my cousin Jenny who was in from NYC for her baby shower. It was so nice to see her and the others at the shower that I hadn't seen in a long time. Yesterday while Greg had to work (ARRGG!!!) I rode with my parents, sister & her kids up to Tulsa for another cousin's daughter's baptism. My cousin Jenny was the Godmother so that is the primary reason she was in town. ANYWAY - we went to Georgia's baptism and then back to Liz & Gavin's house for a brunch. Thank goodness our two weeks of rainy, crappy weather ended and we had a gorgeous, sunny day to celebrate! We had the patio doors open and just roamed from indoor to outdoor enjoying the weather.

Tonight I am looking forward to playing some volleyball in the sunshine - we always seem to get so few sunny days that aren't scorching! Tomorrow I have my last golf lesson and will finally have a sunny day for that too! Friday I am going with one of my oldest & best friends to a stage production of Steel Magnolia's - I am looking forward to a girls night out with her - we are both so busy I hardly ever see her! And then this weekend is, of course, Memorial Day. No spectacular plans for us - maybe some golfing for me with my parents on Saturday morning. Besides all of this stuff going on our work schedules have bother been kinda crazy - I'm losing a coworker in a week (she's going to work for her BIL - we didn't have any lay-offs) and Greg's work has been CRAZY busy! As always, we are hoping things calm down a bit - but my theory is they won't until we die so we might as well live it up ;-) We leave for vacation in 19 days so we are ALL excited about that! Someday maybe I'll have time to post some pictures.....until then I hope you all are doing well and enjoying some nice weather!

a quick little note...

Happy Easter everyone! I hope that you all had as nice a day as I did, surrounded by the ones you love!