Yesterday, we made it to 24 weeks along! I'm still feeling great; the only thing I've noticed lately is that I wake up a lot during the night. I guess it's because I don't like sleeping on my side, but sleeping on my stomach right now is definitely out! Jenn got me a Boppy full body pillow for my birthday, so that has really helped a lot. I may even keep using it after February! :) This week, Baby Grant is apparently close to a foot long and weighs over a pound. You'd think she's even bigger than that judging by the size of my belly!
24 weeks
We found out some interesting news this week. I don't think I mentioned that at our last appointment, Travis did the same genetic test that I did several months ago. You know...spit into a test tube and mail it off to California. Well, we got the results a few days ago. He's a carrier for Factor V Leiden Thrombophilia also!!! That was the only thing that came back positive, and of course, it would be the same thing I'm a carrier for too. Apparently, our awesome blood clotting abilities attracted us to each other :) Knowing that doesn't really change much, but it does mean that our kids could not just be carriers of Factor V, but they could have the full blown thing. That would increase their risk of a blood clot by 18 to 80 times in 1000, whereas a carrier's risk is 4 to 8 times in 1000. Just something to be aware of, I guess, especially as Baby Grant gets older. Factor V rarely causes problems in kids, but the risk goes up as you get older.
We had a fun weekend in Trussville and Tuscaloosa! Thanks to my parents and grandparents, I now have all of the bedding and accessories for the nursery. That was my birthday present this year :) Can't wait to set it all up. We also went to the Alabama game on Saturday, and that was a lot of fun. It was a little cold, but not too bad once we got in the stadium. After not getting back from the game until 1:15 AM though, I was exhausted on Sunday!
I think I'm just about finished with my registries at Target and Babies-R-Us. Travis left it all up to me, so hopefully I picked out some good stuff. I'm sure I'll tweak it a little bit over the next couple of months, but at least I'm mostly finished :) While at BRU, I decided to go ahead and buy a baby book. I found one with an elephant on it, and since the nursery bedding has elephants, I couldn't pass it up. It is really cute! It's pretty detailed, so hopefully I will stick with it and fill out all the pages. I need to get started with the first few pages already!
We also got the neatest gift in the mail on Wednesday from Jennifer Baxter, a friend from Tuscaloosa. She made us the cutest tissue box holder and piggy bank. She patterned the tissue box holder after the nursery bedding, and it looks awesome! Thanks again Jennifer! :)
Changing the subject, yesterday we woke up with no hot water in the house. It wasn't just coming out cold; it was barely trickling out. The cold water faucets worked fine though. We both worked all day, and when we got home last night, there was still no hot water. When we turned the hot water faucet on, cool water just barely came out like it did yesterday morning. Travis checked the hot water heater, and when he pulled the drain, no water came out at all. We thought it had quit working. Then, around 10:30 PM, we magically had hot water again just like normal. Are we going crazy? I have no idea how the problem fixed itself, but hopefully it will keep working and we won't have to call any plumbers this weekend! Any plumbers out there know what was wrong??? Maybe someone was playing a late Halloween prank on us...
I'm looking forward to resting and relaxing some this weekend. Tomorrow, we're following tradition and making gumbo for the LSU game. Hope we win!
We're officially 23 weeks in at this point! Hooray! We had our last appointment on Friday of last week, and everything went well. My blood pressure was good, and I'd gained 4 pounds, which they said was right on track. I dread getting up on that scale every time, but I guess it just has to be done! Baby's heart rate was in the 140s, so that was good. My doctor said I could keep "running" right up until the baby comes if I want to, so I took her up on it Saturday...haha. More on that in a minute...
After the appointment, we hit the road for Cookeville, TN. Travis's cousin Megan got married there Friday afternoon. It was a beautiful wedding and a really nice reception. Glad we got to go!
It was great to see Katie and Jon there!
The happy couple! :)
Settlers of Catan cake...so cool! :)
Saturday was the Liz Hurley Ribbon Run, so Travis and I woke up early for it. He ran first and did great! His time was 22:16...he was really moving! I ran with Alisha and Melissa, and we were just a tad bit slower than that :) I did manage to jog the whole way without stopping, which I think was a pretty big accomplishment considering the extra load I'm toting! We had a lot of fun, and it was for a great cause...beating breast cancer!
Before we ran!
Sisters!
Travis getting close to the finish!
Tyler...almost there :)
Love my mom!
All the sibs...minus Emily...
Alisha and Tyler
Me and Mayra...my friend from work!
This week has been pretty busy so far. I've worked every day but yesterday, and yesterday I spent a few hours in the morning babysitting Brady Hester...the cutest 3 year old ever. We had fun playing Candyland and playing outside. He is SOOO cute!!! Travis and I both work tomorrow, and then we are heading to Trussville for a belated birthday celebration with my family and then Tuscaloosa on Saturday for the game. Roll Tide!
I guess I'll blink and Thanksgiving and Christmas will be here, and then not too long after that, Baby Grant will arrive!! Eek!! Time to get busy picking out her name and starting on her nursery!! :)
Today marks 16 weeks along! I guess my bump is definitely noticeable now because I've gotten several more comments from strangers this week. To me, it's more obvious when I wear certain shirts and less obvious in others. I think it's just been such a gradual change that I'm not noticing it!
It's there!!
I'm still doing the daily Lovenox injections, and it gets easier every day. It's really no big deal anymore. I haven't skipped a day yet, so I guess it's just part of my normal routine now. Baby Grant is supposedly about 4 1/2 inches long now and weighs 3 1/2 ounces. It's tiny heart is pumping 25 quarts of blood per day!!! How cool is that!? I'm pretty sure I've felt some kicks already, so that's been really neat. At one point during the Bama game Saturday night I was yelling at the TV, and I'm pretty sure I felt a good kick right after that! I think Baby Grant was saying, "Let me outta here! I can't see the TV...." Already a Bama fan from the start :)
We're still just waiting (im)patiently to find out whether it's a boy or girl. I'll clarify that...I'm the impatient one. I think Travis would be fine just waiting until the baby is born! I'm still debating whether or not to have the party. Our appointment is 2 weeks from tomorrow, so I've got some time to make up my mind :)
Tonight is our first night at home with nothing planned since Tuesday a week ago...whew. No wonder I've been so tired lately! We had a great weekend! We had a great gospel meeting at church with Dan Chaney, spent time with lots of friends and family, and watched Alabama win their first game of the season! Roll Tide! Our steaks from Earthfare were awesome!! Definitely not something we'll buy every time, but well worth it for a special occasion!! Unfortunately, I didn't get an "after" picture, but here are our "man steaks" before they went on the grill...
Yum!
One of the highlights of the weekend was eating lunch with Alan and Katie on Sunday. It had been forever since we'd seen them! It was great to catch up with them.
This weekend will be much more low key, and I'm looking forward to some relaxing. Tomorrow we're going to go to a consignment sale in Huntsville with lots of baby and kid stuff. Who knows what we'll find...should be interesting! I've started a registry at Target, but I haven't put too much on it yet. I never knew babies needed so much stuff!!! Expensive stuff!!!! Hoping to find some good deals at this consignment sale :)
So, I guess that's about all that's happening around here. Can't believe it's already September! I need to get out my fall decorations soon....yipee!!
In case you haven't heard (ha!), Alabama won another National Championship last night. That makes #14, and the 2nd time we've won it in only 3 years! I was definitely pretty nervous before the game started since we'd already lost to LSU once earlier in the season. But, looking back, we had plenty of chances to win that first game, and last night proved for sure that we were the better team! Roll Tide!!
We watched the game at Collier and Jessica's house with them, little Baker (who went to bed during the 1st quarter!), and Matt and Maggie. We had a great time! Jessica made some awesome finger foods, so we ate before the game got started. I knew once it started I would probably be too nervous to eat anything. The guys kept us pretty entertained by dancing and going crazy when something good happened. It was funny to watch because they were trying to be fairly quiet so they wouldn't wake up Baker, but we could tell they would've been yelling at the top of their lungs if they could!
Our favorite interview of the night was after the game with Courtney Upshaw..."Hold dat thang, fo!" Definitely priceless. And Coach Saban even looked like he enjoyed his Gatorade bath...at least more than he did 2 years ago when they almost knocked him out with the cooler! It would have been so awesome to actually have been there in person last night, but you can't ask for anything better than watching it with your friends either. And, we're probably at least $3000 better off for not going too. That doesn't hurt :)
The girls...Jessica, me, and Maggie
The guys showed their excitement a little more than we did...
Confetti! :)
#1 again!!
Of course, we left the kitties at home when we went to go watch the game. I tried to take a "festive" picture with them and an Alabama shaker earlier yesterday afternoon, but it didn't work out too well. Gabby tried to eat the shaker, and Felix was scared of it and ran away. Ha! I asked Travis before we left if he was going to leave the TV for them so they could watch the game too (they really do like to watch football), but he said no. What a mean daddy! :)
See, she's eating it!
Gabby loves to give kisses :)
Cuddle time...they're almost too big for that chair now!
Speaking of sweet victory, Mom is finished with chemo! WOOHOOOOO!!! That's definitely something to celebrate. She'll start radiation in a few weeks, but hopefully she'll be done with that by sometime in March. Go Mom!!! Her birthday is also tomorrow, so happy early birthday Mom! I love you so much!! :)
Travis has been running with me lately, and we've been running 3 days a week to prepare for the half marathon I signed to run in late April. He's still trying to decide if he's going to run it too. I'm looking forward to it, but definitely feeling nervous about it.
Travis has a 4 day weekend coming up with Friday as his normal off day and Monday being MLK day. I work Friday but not Monday, so we're hoping to get some blinds and curtains hung around the house. If we don't get them hung pretty soon, I'm just going to have to hire someone and sneak them in while Travis is at work. I'm sure he'd appreciate the help, don't you think? :)
Hope you're having a great day and staying warm and dry! This weather makes me glad to just stay inside at home :)
In case you were wondering, I didn't completely forget what to do at work when I went back last week. 2 weeks is a long time to be gone, but luckily the rust came off pretty quickly once I got back into the swing of things. This week, I'm working 8 hours Thursday and 12 hours Friday, and that's it. Shouldn't be too bad! And, Travis actually has a 5 day work week this week. With so many holidays in the fall and our bed and breakfast trip, he's mostly had 4 day weeks since probably early October. It's been nice! He'll be taking off from our anniversary to January 2nd as well, so he's really looking forward to that.
We're almost through with our Christmas shopping already, which is probably a record! Usually, I'm always buying everything the week before Christmas. We've got to return one thing and get a few more things, and then we'll be finished I think. Everything we've bought is even wrapped and under the tree already. The kitties (and I) are loving it.
Did I mention last time how much they love the Christmas tree? I'm sure I did. They especially love the ornaments and bows on the presents. The first few days the tree was up, we kept finding ornaments on the floor that had been pulled down. Now, they've moved on to bows. If your present is missing its bow this year, you can thank Felix and Gabby. The bows aren't even sticky anymore they've been pulled off so many times! I may just have to tape them down. We like to leave the tree lights on all the time when we're home except when we're asleep, so we always turn them off when we're going to bed or about to leave the house. Well, yesterday morning we were getting ready for church, and I came out into the living room to find the tree lights on. I thought that was strange...Why would we turn the lights on when we're about to leave? So, I asked Travis why he'd turned the lights on. He looked at me funny and told me he didn't turn them on. Well, I know I didn't turn them on, and they were off a few minutes earlier that morning. Apparently, the kitties must have turned them on! The lights are plugged into a surge protector, and I guess they flipped the switch! If it happens again, we'll know they're doing it on purpose...what funny kitties!
Here are some pictures of our Christmas decorations so far...
Kitty stockings! Aren't they cute???
Our stockings from Target! (I haven't taken the tags off of anything on the mantle yet)
The mantle is tree and reindeer themed, I guess :)
I think I'm going to take the red tree back b/c it's a little too tall, but I really like everything else!
Is he cute or what?
Closeup
They LOVE that tree!
We still need to hang our wreath on the front door, and after that I think we'll be finished decorating for this year. We're going to wait and get outdoor decorations next year (can't spend all our money on this stuff!).
I need to give a fantasy football update since I haven't done that in a while. The season started off horribly, but I've made a miraculous comeback! 6 wins in a row! I'll finish the season with a winning record barely (7-6), and I think I'm actually going to make it into the playoffs. Never thought that would happen!!
Speaking of football, ROLL TIDE!!! We're going to the national championship again!! After Oklahoma State's big win Saturday night, I thought our chances were over, but I'm glad we're getting one more shot at LSU this season. Hopefully this game will end better than last time! I just checked Stubhub, and prices have come down a little bit. We could buy 2 tickets for a whopping $1375 a piece! No thanks! After buying a house and a car this year, we definitely don't need to be spending money like that. Anyone know of any cheaper tickets out there? We may end up just driving down there to see if we can find some, but we still haven't decided yet.
I've changed my blog layout quite a bit, and I'm not sure what I think about it yet. I'm missing the side columns that I used to have, and I kinda want those back. If you don't mind, give me your feedback on whether you like it better this way or not!
I think that's all for today, so I'll leave you with this thought...
Christmas is forever, not for just one day,
for loving, sharing, giving are not to put away
like bells and lights and tinsel, in some box upon a shelf.
The good you do for others is good you do yourself...
~Norman Wesley Brooks, "Let Every Day Be Christmas," 1976
I haven't had to work in 2 weeks. Just call me a bum. It's been a nice break...like Christmas break a little early! I've done some cleaning, organizing, Christmas decorating, Thanksgiving cooking, and I spent a few days at home with my parents and sister last week. It's been great!
Mom had her 6th chemo treatment last Monday, and Jenn and I went with her. So far, she's done pretty good except for some aches and pains that I think must be pretty common with Taxotere. She ran fever for a couple of days, but knock on wood, she's stayed out of the hospital so far. Two more chemo treatments and then radiation, and she'll be finished!! Yay Mom!!! She's decorated a beautiful "pink" tree that's in the dining room. I wish I had her decorating talent!!
Mom's tree
We had a great Thanksgiving with the Dvorak family. Of course, the food was awesome, and we had fun playing Settlers of Catan and also ultimate frisbee since the weather was so nice outside. I'm thankful to have married into such a wonderful family!
We hurried home after our day of fun, fed the kitties (who were very sad that they didn't get any leftover turkey!), and mapped out our game plan for Black Friday. Our main goal was to buy a nice Christmas tree that fits our living room better. We headed to Kohl's around 11 PM since they were opening at midnight, but by the time we got to the back of the store, the trees were all gone. Sad day. They also had some counter height bar stools we were wanting to get for our kitchen, but we could only find one and we were wanting to get two to match. We bought a couple of Christmas presents there to make it worth our while, and then we headed out. Our next stop was Belk, where Travis dropped me off around 1 AM to wait until they opened the doors at 3 AM. Travis headed to K-Mart (which didn't open until 5 AM). We figured that it would be better to split up than both wait at Belk and potentially strike out again and then be too late getting to K-Mart. Anyway, after waiting 2 hours outside in the cold, I was definitely ready to get inside. People in line were getting pretty vicious too trying to keep people from breaking in line, so that was kind of entertaining. It made the time pass by faster at least. I got a $10 gift card for being one of the first 250 people in line, and luckily they had plenty of trees!
Travis left K-Mart and met me back at Belk, and then we headed to JC Penney and Lowe's before crashing at home around 5:30 AM. We are definitely getting too old to be doing that! I'm still recovering...
We ended up getting a 7 foot pre-lit tree with clear lights, and it fits great in our living room. We've gotten it mostly decorated, but it still needs a big bow on top and maybe a few more ornaments. It's getting there though!
The tree!
Shhh...don't tell anyone, but Jenn helped me make some houndstooth decorated ornaments for Mom's "Alabama" themed tree (she's got 3 trees this year!). Jenn's still got some Bama in her! Did you know you can buy houndstooth duct tape??? I had no idea!! Anyway, I brought one of the ornaments back for our tree...
Script "A" on one side...
Houndstooth ribbon on the other side!
The kitties LOVE the Christmas tree...maybe a little too much. No matter how many times we straighten the tree skirt, it never stays in place because they are constantly attacking it. Same for the tree itself. We've found several ornaments on the floor so far (thankfully not broken!), and they also like to chew on the branches themselves. So far, they haven't tried to climb the tree yet (that we know of), but I'm thinking it will be a miracle if it stays upright for the next month. We'll see...
Gabby loved the box as much as the tree itself
She also likes Black Friday sales :)
The prettiest package under the tree!
Just think how our presents will look after the kitties rip them to shreds!
Needless to say, this Christmas will be interesting with two little rascals living with us.
I can't ever remember it snowing in November, but it's supposed to snow 1-2 inches tonight and tomorrow morning. Don't know if I'm ready for winter weather driving yet!! That was one nice thing about living in Bham and Tuscaloosa...not as much snow and ice.
We watched the Iron Bowl over at the Hagewoods' house this year, and we had a great time! Bama looked better (except for 2 plays) than they looked the past few weeks, so we were glad to see that. It's apparently about 95% positive that we'll be playing the national championship game in New Orleans again! We'll find out for sure on Sunday I think. It's a shame that Travis and I weren't on the 7 year plan to graduate....then we could have gotten "cheap" tickets again like we did 2 years ago! As of last night, the cheapest tickets on Stubhub were $1700 a piece! Ouch. Santa, all I want for Christmas is to go to that game!!!!!
Shocker....I'm working tomorrow and Friday this week...if I can remember what to do! :) I'm hoping to get most of our Christmas shopping done this week (mainly online), so we can start getting some presents under the tree. Whenever I buy our stockings, I'll have to get those hung too. It's so much fun to decorate for Christmas!
Hope you're having a great holiday season so far!! :)
It's been a while! We had a pretty busy end to the month of October, so I'm hoping November will slow down a little bit. Somehow I don't think that will happen though!
We had a fun time at the Tennessee game a couple of weekends ago. We met up with Ashley and Seth for a little while, and then we headed to Jason's tailgate. We didn't get to see anybody when we were in town for the Kent State game, so we were glad to have some time to see our friends and walk around campus before the game.
Mikayla, Katie, Jason, Alisha, Tyler, me, and Travis before the game
Newlyweds!
:)
The game was fun...or, at least the 2nd half was! We sat in my parents' seats, which are in the north end zone on the right side. We were literally right across the aisle from the Tennessee band, so by the end of the game I was ready to never hear "Rocky Top" ever again. I wish I'd taken some ear plugs!! :)
Last week was a short work week before we headed to Hearthstone Lodge on Thursday to meet Ashley and Seth for a 2 night getaway. Hearthstone is the same bed and breakfast we went in August 2010, so we were very excited to go back. (You can read about our trip last year here). This year, everything was even more beautiful with the leaves changing outside and the cooler weather. The breakfast lived up to last year's, which was what I was looking forward to most!
Friday night, we ate supper at Charlie's, an Italian restaurant that we ate at last year. It was as good as we remembered!
Ashley and Seth after supper
Us
We had to get a picture in the big red chair!
The guys weren't as excited...haha
We stayed in the Jonagold room again this year, and we loved it. Next time we go back, we'll have to try out one of the other rooms though...
Our room for the weekend
After supper Friday night, we played Settlers of Catan for several hours and ended up staying up way too late! Travis won that game. Saturday, we ate a big breakfast and then played Settlers again for a while.
Yummy fruit!!
The main course...an omelet, sausage, potatoes, and bread
After breakfast!
View of part of the back porch
Ashley loves Lori, their dog!!
Hearthstone Lodge!
I loved all of the fall decorations...
Around early afternoon on Saturday, we headed to Blue Ridge, GA, where we rode the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway to the Tennessee state line. It was a great way to see some of the beautiful fall colors in north Georgia! It was kind of rainy off and on all day, so it kind of put a damper on the day, but we still had fun!
The train
The train went alongside the Tocoa River
Pretty!
We ended up in McCaysville, GA, which borders Coppertown, TN
We ate supper at Harvest on Main in Blue Ridge before heading back to the Lodge. And, that's rain...not snow!
Saturday's breakfast was even better than Friday's! We had fruit, bacon, and french toast croissants with apples and pecans. I ate every bit of it...it was amazing!! :)
YUMMMMMMM
After breakfast we played more Settlers (yes, we're nerds!) until it was time to leave. We headed to the Red Apple Barn to get some apples and peach cider before heading out of town.
I'm going to make apple pie later this week...can't wait!
On our way out of town, we got stopped on the highway by a bunch of horses and wagons. Not sure what that was about, but it was pretty funny!
Our trip was so much fun! We can't wait to go back hopefully sometime next year. I think it's going to be hard to find a better B&B than Hearthstone!!
This Saturday is the "Game of the Century"....Alabama vs. LSU. As of right now, our plans are just to stay home and watch it on TV. Don't want to pay $1000 for tickets! I'm planning to make gumbo (our tradition for the LSU game weekend), so hopefully it will turn out good. I'm pretty nervous about the game, but if we win, I'll feel a whole lot better about the rest of the season!
Speaking of football, fantasy football is not going so well this year. I'm 2-6, probably the worst I've ever done (including the first year I played when I had no idea what I was doing!). Maybe I'll win a few more before it ends...who knows!
Mom had her 5th chemo treatment on Monday. Only 3 more to go!! This time, she started a new chemo drug, so we'll have to see if it has any different side effects. Hopefully she'll stay out of the hospital this time around! The rest of the treatments will be 3 weeks apart instead of 2, so it'll be January before she's done with chemo. That's not too far around the corner though!! :)
The kitties are getting so big! Gabby is so funny....she loves to sleep on my stomach at night. It usually doesn't wake me up when she climbs on me, until she starts purring! She purrs so loud!! They were so glad to see us when we got home from the bed and breakfast on Saturday....they were meowing and following us all over the house. Even Felix was glad to be petted...haha.
Gabby ready for soup night
Gabby thinks she's a pantry staple :)
Felix loves House Hunters!
HGTV isn't just for girls!
Love my kittens!
Ok, I guess that's enough pictures for one post! On Emily's request though, here are a few funny videos from earlier this year. We were talking about them at lunch on Sunday, and I'd deleted them from my phone, but they were on my computer. The first is of Toby last Christmas when it snowed so much. The other videos are from the car ride home from Virginia with Tyler, Alisha, and Emily. There's nothing to "see" because it was dark in the car, but the singing is priceless! :)
Ok, I'm finished...I promise!! Watching those videos made my afternoon!! :)
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