SO much to talk about...

So little time to post! Work's been crazy, tax season has come a bit early this year, and my IT responsibilities are in full force - so it's made for frequent 11-12.5 hour days already. Here's the rundown:

• 2 weeks ago we traded Ben's Wrangler in for a Grand Cherokee... He's officially a 'big boy' now. I pointed it out to him that evening while driving up to Kelly's wedding. He had been kind of 'strutting' while driving his nice new car, until I said something and then every wrangler that passed by he let out a little sigh... just to tease me of course for making him trade his dirty, lifted, rock crawler (that never did quite make it out to crawl many rocks) for a responsible "Daddy car".


• Kelly's wedding was beautiful and she was just absolutely gorgeous! I got to see some friends from high school and catch up, which was really nice.


• This past weekend I had 2 awesome baby showers thrown for me, one by my mom & Chris, and the other by my Aubrey. I am still in total awe about all the wonderful goodies I brought home. We are so lucky to have such an amazing support base. I told Ben that we'll have to get up and get fancy everyday until Luke's 2 so that he can wear all of the clothes he got :o)


• Over the last couple weeks Laurece has been painting the nursery and she finished last night! It's so stinking cute - I love it!

• Aubrey, Brandon and the kids have been on town for a while too - unfortunately my poor friend has had a heck of a time with her sick little boy and his asthma :( It's so nice having them closer, even if I don't see her everyday - I still hate that Moses Lake is 'Home' for her!

• Cut about 5 1/2 inches off my hair and died it brown with some red undertones... but the lady didn't believe me when I said that my hair takes to red REALLY well, and left it in a little too long, so it's a little more red than I wanted - supposedly it'll fade 'soon'.

• Had my 32 week appointment today and he's still doing really well! I've been a bit more uncomfortable these last few weeks, but I've been expecting that. My doctor said she can restrict my hours to no more than 8/day and 40/week and I just laughed at her - not during tax season! That might be more stressful for me. He's sticking out a little bit farther the last week or so, she said we're measuring at 34, but that she really doesn't think he's a big baby or that he'll come early - just that my body's run out of internal space and finally starting to try and accommodate the busy tenant. She laughed at him because he kept kicking the doppler thing that she pushed into my stomach to get a heart rate. It needs to register 8-10 thumps to give her an accurate reading and we'd get to 5 and he'd kick it. (Literally, right where she was pushing it in, not near, right on - the kid's got great aim so far)

I don't have pictures of either shower, or the new car yet... but to make up for it, I do have pictures of his new room! :o) It's not all put back together yet - and Restoration Hardware still hasn't sent out his bumper yet (from 2 months ago!!) but here's Laurece's handy work!

Oh, I have these pictures too! Jared hung out with Ben during Sunday's shower, so Emily and Kaelyn came home with me and we hung out for a bit. No pics of Jared, Emily, Ben or me... Kaelyn was kind of the 'star':

GREAT story!

I heard this on my way into work this morning. Every morning the radio show I listen to reads a 'good news story'. I thought it was just way too cool and had to share. It may not change the course of these kids' lives much, and it doesn't change what they've done to get themselves where they are... but it's got to be one of the coolest ways to show God's love to troubled kids that I've ever heard of! ...It just might work!

tagged again

Got tagged in the "3x4"... We already did the 4x4 picture post...

Seeing as this is actually pretty fun, I thought I'd share again. Here's Brendan and Makenna, Halloween 2005.

30 weeks

Well, not for another 26 hours, but I've been meaning to take one of these for a while now. 

...As of just moments ago, here's what my very, very close to 30 week baby belly looks like:

You think New Yorker's are tough...

Don't mess with their birds!

I had my normal appointment this morning, Dr. Hanlon got called out for a C-section a few minutes before I got there and then had an emergency one call her back moments after she walked in the door, so I didn't get to see her. I did see another doc in the office and with a few of the occurances this last week that I told her about, she felt it was best to get an idea of how the boy was doing. I got hooked up to a fetal monitor for about 40 minutes to check on him.
He 'looks' good according to the monitor output... She said from whatever they can tell from that little print out he's looking like that of a 32-33 week baby. Let's hope not - I need to go to the END of March! Ben's out of town from March 8-12, and I'm really not interested in having this little boy while his Daddy's gone! However, I'm no longer measuring a week ahead, I'm back on with 30 weeks, so hopefully that means something! I was a bit freaked out yesterday (and Ben called during this freak out so he got really concerned) so it was really nice to find out this morning that they're not worried and he's doing well! I do have some new 'rules and restrictions' to adhere to if these 'instances' occur again, but they're more to be on the safe side, than they are things to panic about. :o)

almost worked...

My 'aunt' Laurece is an amazing artist. She free hands these awesome murals and they just come out incredible! Such a talent! Anyway, she's offered to paint Luke's room for us and is going to be stopping by to get some ideas. I don't know if it's because my Mom always decorated with such beautiful pictures and shelves with candles and greenery, but we never used paint anywhere as part of the decor process. So last year when we owned our condo I was always a little hesitant to paint walls. (Except my red wall above the fireplace - I knew I wanted that) 

Now that the house is brand new and pro painted, I'm even more hesitant! If I screw it up and want to go back, it'll never look the same! I know I want Luke's room to really 'pop' so I've decided that as long as Laurece is doing it, I'm comfortable. However I'm a bit of a wuss and take no chances, which does nothing for her mural abilities. I mentioned this to Aunt Cindy and she surprised me by jumping on the mural wagon!?! She sent me these and I absolutely LOVE them!! We've decided to not use them, as the room won't allow one whole open wall to be furniture free, and you just can't cover this up. It's my favorite, but now I'm trying to get my little brother to put it in his room, so at least I'll be able to enjoy it on occasion.

I would've had her make a couple changes: 

6 lockers (2 baseball, 2 football, and 2 soccer)

probably only 2 shades of blue for the lockers and alternate them - but I love the look that the shaded red gives, so somewhere red would be in there (are you noticing I'm into that darker red?) Maybe even use the browns and dark reds to add a more vintage look to them...

I don't know, I love it but it's just not going to work this time. Rest assured I did find something. Something still absolutely adorable, and a little less dramatic for us wimps over here... Ben likes the one we'll use much better, he's not into the sports stuff like I am. I'm not into the team type stuff, but this stuff above is just so BOY to me, I love it!

I've decided to wait to share what we've found until after I see Laurece and go over it with her, but you'll probably even have to wait until it's all done - I want to wait and give you the full effect! :)

(Click 'awesome murals' above to see her work website, Rustic Painting - it's also on my blog list to the right)

A really long, irritating day at work = possibly not worth the money made,

2.75 hours of traffic commuting in disgusting weather = about half a gas tank,

Hearing the little jingle on your cell phone and realizing you've got to walk back up and down the stairs = tiring on the newly swollen - 3rd trimester feet,

Getting a text from your working hubby that just reads, "I love you" = joy enough to want to do it all again tomorrow!!