I forgot how much work packing to move actually is! Thankfully I have a mom who’s very experienced at it being a military brat and then a pastor’s wife. We got quite a bit knocked out in the time that Josh and my dad were at the movies. Yeah, we worked… they played. Oh well The pile of boxes is getting higher and the living room now echoes. It’s very exciting! Just a few more things to go and we move in less than 2 weeks! Yay!

Josh took some new belly pics of me today.  I’m 25 weeks.  And my shape is more closely resembling a bowling ball than a bump now.  I was sitting at my parents house feeling Evan move around and thump me good every now and then and I was amazed at what’s going on… how I’m changing!  I also was marveling at the change in the way I look when I compared the picture that Carrie took of me at 13 weeks!  It’s crazy!  So I thought I would just put them up here so you can see for yourself!

13 weeks (top)

25 weeks (bottom)

Well, we are now 20 days away from moving!  Yay!  I realized we were getting close when Josh said he’s going to pack up the studio this week.  So I’ve been slowly packing stuff up, and now I’m trying to get this place a little clean so they don’t have to take money out of the deposit for cleaning fees.  Anything to save money!  So at the moment I’m using Scrubbing Bubbles (shower cleaner) to get the layers upon layers of hairspray and spray gel that has accumulated on our bathroom floor.  This stuff won’t just come off with a mop… no sir.  There’s a reason why the bottle says “Super Hold” because this stuff won’t let go!  So I used the bubbles stuff and it’s working!  I am a genius!  And I’m now wondering why the dust and stuff on the top of my baseboards is pink.  I don’t want this to sound like I never clean my house, because I do!  I just never think about cleaning baseboards… and I’ve come to the conclusion that I should make that a normal part of my cleaning.

It’s so hard to figure out what to do with 3+ years of stuff that has piled up in our apartment.  Some of the things we’ve bought have been for specific places in the house, so finding a new place for them will be a challenge.  But I’m excited.  It’s going to be fun finding new places to hang pictures, and getting Evan’s room finally set up!

So the countdown is on!  Yay!  Time to get moving (no pun intended)

Well this is the last blog of 08′ and it’s a good one!
I had a doctor’s appointment yesterday and Evan is doing great!  His little hearbeat was a whopping 140 bpm.  That is smack in the middle of what’s normal: 120-160.  Perfect!  He’s right on mark as far a growth and is now about a pound and a half.  Me on the other hand, lost a pound!  I’m trying to gain, I really am!  I weigh a few pounds less now than I did before I got pregnant.  So I have to up my calorie intake ( I never thought I’d be talking about making myself gain weight).   I love my doctor.  My mom and Candace came with me and asked questions that I never thought of.  Because of their pregnancy histories I am at a little bit of a higher risk of popping him out early, but Dr. Perez told me what to look for and just told me to be careful.  So that means no moving stuff!
We’re moving in a month so not moving boxes and packing stuff is hard!  I’m one of those people who wants to do everything for herself… right now!  Josh doesn’t see the need to start packing for another 3 weeks or so.  I disagree.  Boxes are already starting to pile up everywhere… some filled, some not.  Anyone want to come and help move them in?  Just thought I’d check   I’m off all this week again so I’m trying to get some stuff done while Josh is at work so there are no questions as to why I’m taking stuff off the walls…
2009 is going to be great!  I can’t wait!  Evan will be here in 4 months and that will start a whole new chapter.  I feel him move all the time, but I want to just hold him and look at his face and study all this little features to see what he got of mine and what he got of Josh’s.

I don’t know why, but I’ve found that I’m having a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit this year as much as ones in the past.  Don’t get me wrong… I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!  But for some reason, this year isn’t as big of a deal as it was the last couple.  It took me 3 days to get my tree up and decorated… and there’s still decorations that need to be put up!  Maybe it’s because I’m pregnant, or maybe my focus is elsewhere.  I am pregnant (as just stated), and we’re moving at the end of January, so maybe that’s it.  I wish I didn’t feel this way, but oh well… what can you do?  I’m so happy that Candace and Chris and Christian are coming down though.  I miss them.  I’m sure I’ll feel better once it gets a little bit closer.  I think that it’s hard for me (and for anyone) when you can’t be as generous as you want to because of lack of funds.  I’m not working the last two weeks of December and we’re already feeling it.  It stinks not being able to buy presents for everyone.  I wish I could.  When Josh and I went to the bank to deposit my paycheck, as we pulled away he said ” I wish we could take all that money we put in and just spend it on other people.”  That’s how I feel!  I want Christmas to be great!  But I have to remind myself that Christmas isn’t about presents and being able to buy stuff.  It’s about the greatest gift.  Our Heavenly Father sending down his son for us.  That’s what this season is all about!  No matter what anyone says…

We were so excited to find out on Friday that we’re expecting a little boy.  And we were actually shocked!  There were only a total of 3 people who thought it was a boy, and neither one of those 3 were Josh or me.  We had so convinced ourselves, that a boy didn’t even seem like a possibility!  But when the ultrasound tech told us that Evan was in there, all thoughts of a girl just blew away!  I went from thinking about frilly dress up clothes and pink stuff to cars and dinosaurs and monkeys lol.  It takes the reality of this pregnancy a little further.  Yes, I’m pregnant, yep.. there’s a baby in there I felt it… now we know it’s a boy and it gives him an identity!  He has a name!  It’s just crazy.

Josh posted this as a note on his Facebook page and I thought it was pretty awesome   Enjoy!

From: 175 Things A Man Should Do Before He Dies by By Michael Paterniti

FROM THE START, we agreed there’d be no wedding. We’d be eighty-year-olds with fifteen kids and a goat herd of grandkids before we got married. They’d have to force us to the altar in a wheelchair and walker. No thank you. We’d live in the here and now without rings to bind us or the authority of some churchly hocus-pocus to confuse things.

Sara and I had met in grad school, ended up at a party one night, and while everyone was playing charades, we bailed out into a winter storm and started pummeling each other with snowballs. After getting the worst of it, I raised my hands to surrender, and she stood in all that white downfall, a knot of energy, strands of wet hair matted to her brow, eyes glittering ferociously, a smile lifting her off the ground, and then she fired another one right at my forehead.

That’s when I knew I was a goner.

And so we made this life together, moved across the country and back, traveled the world. Seven years passed and, even as our early defiances softened, life kept hurtling. Sara’s mother died in a scuba-diving accident, and on one of the murky nights just after, lying sleeplessly in Sara’s childhood bed, in her childhood home, when everything in the world seemed broken, she turned to me and said, “We should have gotten married.” And I said, “Yeah,” but there was nothing more to say. Without her mother, it seemed unthinkable now.

Here’s the thing about grief: It doesn’t go away. But after a time, it changes a little. It loses a few electrons and allows life back in. And eventually it requires an equal and opposite reaction. A single moment that reminds you why you were put on this earth.

Last summer, Sara had a dream that she was a stripper named Nevada Plum, living in a roadside motel. Nevada Plum’s life was strange and titillating; boyfriends came and went, and the money was pretty good. I had my own recurring dream: that I was swimming around the world with a pod of dolphins.

“But I don’t want to be Nevada Plum,” Sara said.

And I’m tired of being a dolphin, I thought.

I just want you.

In September, with little warning, we eloped, with our families–about twenty-four of us in all–to a big, funky cottage on the island of Islesboro, in a place called Dark Harbor, Maine, a few hours up the coast from where we live. The cottage had fifteen bedrooms and a huge, shambling back porch overlooking the ocean. Sara and I arrived early to set things up, wandered the big house in giddy anticipation, and that night saw a shooting star that came down so bright and near we thought it was the sun.

Then, on Sunday afternoon, the porch was wrapped in flowers: purple delphiniums, button daisies, yellow snapdragons. A bluish fog rolled in off the ocean, floating through the tamaracks and pine trees, and candles were lit. The first time I saw Sara in her wedding dress and realized that she was coming for me, I thought for a moment that it was just another dream. Yes, I’m sure a man never forgets what his wife looks like that first time he sets eyes on her in an ivory gown, what it feels like to stand where his father once stood and his father before that and all fathers forever back through time, but then I’ll never have to try to remember. Every moment lived after that one is attached to it.

The ceremony flew by too quickly, and suddenly she was pushing a gold band on my finger and I was pushing her mother’s wedding ring on hers and we were dazzled by them, our fingers, wearing these rings. And then we were man and wife, wife and man, husband and woman, woman and husband. Hitched! We cocktailed and hors-d’oeuvred and sat down at two big tables and toasted and ate. And then we danced. Just pointed a couple of speakers out on the porch and poured music into the salt air.

There’s something about seeing your brand-new father-in-law on the dance floor, swiveling to the music, yelling the words: That’s the way, un-huh, un-huh, I like it. . .Something wonderful and edifying. Something that makes you feel as if you’ve arrived at the beginning of your future. And so we went on like this for some time–and might still be going on, had the hour not turned from late to early–and one by one, and two by two, we were carried by the fog up to bed. Remembering it now, I half believe the angels came down for a little while just to watch us, to see what joy really is.

It was the best that ever was. I’m here to tell you: It was the very best.

With the baby coming, we decided that this place is entirely to small.  We’ve outgrown our current space as it is, so to add a baby and all that comes with it to this place is impossible.  SO… on that note… insert new apartment!  We’re in the final approval process but I think we’re good   We’re just waiting to hear.

It’s a really nice place.  They’re brand new and right up the street from my parents house (YAY for childcare!) so that’s nice.  It also cuts 10 minutes off of my drive to work as well as off our drive to Melbourne!  YAY!!!

The only thing that’s going to be hard is since I moved so much growing up I have a process.  Josh doesn’t understand this process.  I pack boxes neatly and wrap everything and label where they go… pack the moving van from front to back-big stuff to little stuff… have as much put up and put away as I can before bed… but Josh isn’t like that.  He throws as much as he can (no matter what it is) in a box.  But since I’m going to be almost 7 months pregnant when we move I’ll only be good for ordering pizza (He won’t let me carry a gallon of milk… do you really think he’d let me carry a box?).  But that’s why I’m thankful that I have friends that have already offered to help (and she’s helped me move before… so she knows!).

So just pray and keep your fingers crossed!

These are a few things that I’ve come to realize no one warns you about when you get pregnant.  Maybe it slips their minds, that new baby amnesia that I’ve heard about.  But I decided to share

1.  How much blood they really take at your first bloodwork appointment!  ACK!
2.  How odd it is to see yourself in the mirror, or a picture, when you REALLY start to show.
3.  How amazing and indescribable it is when you see your baby on the ultrasound monitor for the first    time.
4.  How reassuring it is to hear your baby’s hearbeat EVERY time.
5.  How close people really like to get to your belly… wow.
6.  You thought the baby stuff was cute before… wait till you want to buy it all!
7.  How uncomfortable sleeping can become.
8.  How weird the cravings really are… not weird stuff ,most of the time, just normal stuff at odd times (try an egg roll at 7:30 in the morning)
9.  How you can wake up at 4am completely FAMISHED!
10. How those pregnancy books and their contents tend to become just as important to you as the bible.

I’m sure more will hit me, but I just thought of these (some of them when I was up at 4am starving…).  I’m sure there will be more!

I had my first prenatal appointment yesterday!  Woohoo!  And everything looks good!  And sorry to disappoint, Pastor Ken, but there’s only one baby in there!  I’ll leave the multiple making to Chris and Brittany   But we’re super excited and my due date, for all that don’t know, is April 22nd.  Next appointment we’ll be able to hear the heartbeat!!!  It just amazes me, how God designed all of this to work.