Update

I haven't written in a while. It's not for lack of content, but more lack of motivation. I feel like I have a lot to say, but somehow sitting down and finding the words seems difficult. I'll give it a try though.

First, a pregnancy update. I only have 6 weeks left!!! WOW! This fact is truly amazing to me. I feel like I was just telling people that I was 10 weeks pregnant and now I only have 6 weeks left! I am excited. Daniel is excited. I can't help but feel a bit nervous though, too. This is a natural feeling, I know, but it's so weird when it's ME!!! Me and Daniel! We love kids. We're good with kids, but it is going to be so odd to have a baby that stays with us, like forever. That may sound bad, but think about it...then you'll understand. Otherwise, I'm feeling really good. I'm having some carpal tunnel issues and I brace up my wrists at night and that seems to help. Also, I have some eczema on my palms, but that's it. I have NOTHING to complain about. Pregnancy has been a wonderful experience for me. I am blessed.

Along those lines, we have a lot of work to do within the next 6 weeks. This week, the roofing crew is here getting the roof replaced from last summer's hail storm. Daniel is part of that crew, so that's nice. Especially since this is week 4 of no work available. When the roofing project is done (hopefully tomorrow), we have a lot to do in our master bedroom remodel. Daniel will finish the mudding and taping, then we'll call someone in to do the texturing. Then we (he, really) need to paint, lay tile in the bathroom, build the vanity, build another cabinet, install the tub, carpet the bedroom, install the sinks and toilet, light fixtures, and I'm sure there is more I'm missing. Do you think it can all be done in just 6 more weeks? What happens if the baby comes earlier than it's due date?!?! It's possible. My doctor said they won't stop labor after 37 weeks, so technically, I might only have 3 weeks left!! I hope not. I want this baby to bake as long as possible. For many reasons, obviously.

We had my nieces, Allison and Kimberly here last week. We were able to take them camping at Ruby Reservoir last weekend and we had a lot of fun. We did some tubing and the kids had a blast!!! The smiles on their faces were priceless. We took cousins Michael and Breanna along and those cousins are sure good buddies! I love it! This past weekend, I rode along with mom and dad to Sturgis to do the exchange with Ben and Michelle. It was fun to see them and for them to see me pregnant. Ben told me I finally fit into the family...I've always fit it! :) Silly Ben!

Well, I felt like I had a lot more to talk about, but apparently I don't.

Hopefully I'll get better at this blogging stuff!!! Perhaps when I have a baby that is changing constantly, I'll have lots to write about!?! Time may be an issue at that point though!!! :)

28 weeks

I guess I missed a few weeks here. I really thought I’d be a better blogger. I feel like I have a lot to share sometimes, but when I sit down to write them out, I realize that all my internal dialogue may not be very interesting to other people. My hope would be that I could get better, but I feel that once the baby is here, I will not have time to record all my boring internal dialogue! We’ll see what happens.

So, there’s not much new. I’m still pregnant. I feel good. My allergies have been terrible. I can only take Benadryl at night and a Zyrtec during the day. For most people that may be enough, but I’m missing my Nasonex, Claratin D and Singulair. That is my usual cocktail of drugs during the summer. Crazy, but it seems to work. This year I’m down to the two drugs and I can certainly tell the difference, but I’m still struggling.

We are taking our first camping trip this weekend and I’m very nervous for that. First and foremost I’m worried about the heat. I am not doing well with the heat this summer. I feel like whatever the temperature is outside, I’m cooking about 20 degrees hotter than that. For anyone who knows me, I am not a happy camper (pun intended) when I’m hot and sweaty! The worst part is that I refused to buy a maternity swimsuit, so I can’t even plunge into the lake when I want to cool off. This also leads to the fact that I probably won’t ride in the boat this weekend either because I need to pee every 30 minutes or so and usually I’d just hop into the lake and pee and swim and then crawl back into the boat. The previous dilemma still applies! To continue the pee dilemma…I really hate to think about getting up in the night and walking to the outhouse. I’m scared when I’m not pregnant, but I tend to be a bit clumsy lately, so I’m really scared to walk outside in the dark. Luckily Jynx is always willing to walk with me, but it just sucks. I know Daniel would walk with me too, but I’d feel bad waking him up.

This post is making it sound like I’m complaining about being pregnant. I’m really not because in all actuality, I love being pregnant. If we ever plan this again though, I will try not to be so pregnant in the summer. Will someone remind me of this someday?!?

On a very positive note, Daniel got our central air up and running this past weekend. Just in time, too. Saturday was miserable. We went to the fair for a while to eat fair food and it was pretty awful outside. It was so wonderful to walk into our house and feel a rush of cool air! AHH! That, and tonight I actually got to bake some chocolate chip biscuits for our dessert tomorrow night and I didn’t heat up the whole house even more!! How neat! I’ve never lived in a place with central air. I’m pretty sure that I will never want to go back now! Good thing. We still have 28 years left on our mortgage!!! We’re here for the long haul! I’m very happy for that, too.

I think that’s it for now. Perhaps I’ll try to do this more often and do shorter more frequent posts. That way I won’t forget all that’s happened. My memory is really bad lately. I thought a lot of the things you hear about pregnant women were myths or old wives tales, but I’m finding some of them to be very accurate! Memory loss and forgetfulness being the thing that affects me most right now!

21 Week Ultrasound

Today we had our 21 week ultrasound and it went well. It just amazes me, this ultrasound deal. Seeing the hands, feet, femur, brain, and kidneys, it all just amazes me!

The baby didn't cooperate today. It was laying face-down and it wouldn't turn. It was playing with it's toes and the tech said it was sitting "jack-knifed". Little turd. So, I have to go back on Tuesday morning in hopes that it will be more awake and show us the other side!!! I asked the tech if she could tell the sex and she said she could, but we didn't find out. It sort of bothers me that this stranger knows the sex of our baby and we don't, but thankfully we don't know her and will not likely have to see her again! (after Tuesday, that is!) Isn't that odd though?!?! Some random person knows the sex of our baby and we're clueless?!?! Oh well.

Here is a picture of the face...the only really good shot we got! It's amazing that you can even see the teeth!! Wow! I'm happy that it's looking a bit more like a human baby at this point! :)

Here is one of the feet...Daniel thinks it might be both feet stacked, but either way, the baby is holding onto it's foot/feet with one hand.

Again, I say amazing! It's so funny that it was so obsessed with it's feet! Funny stuff!

That's it for updates for now. Perhaps I'll get some more pictures on Tuesday! Baby Neutgens' is healthy and moving tons! It feels like it is hitting a speed bag against my belly. Probably the neatest feeling in the whole world! I am truly blessed!

Mother's Day food for thought...

Daniel and I were talking last night about Mother's Day. I asked if I get to celebrate it this year or if I have to wait until next year. We did determine that I can celebrate this year. The funny thing is, Daniel and I don't really celebrate holidays like most people. We don't do birthday presents or Christmas presents with each other. It's not that we don't love each other enough to give presents, it's more that we would rather get things throughout the year that we want/need, for no reason at all. It works for us.

So, with Mother's Day, it's no different. I don't expect anything, especially from Daniel. After all, why would Daniel get me anything for Mother's Day? I'm not his mother.

I wonder how many mom's can agree with me on this?

16 Weeks!

I had my 16 week check-up today and everything looks good. My blood pressure had been a bit high at my 12 week check-up, but today it was normal. Phew! (I still think it was high at my 12 week because I was so excited to hear that heartbeat for the first time!)

As the doctor was examining my belly, she said, "Someone's growing nicely in here". That is just so nice to hear. Not that I thought anything was wrong, but it's so nice to hear the doctor say everything's good. She put the doppler on my belly and we heard the heartbeat within seconds, which was a relief, too. At my 12 week, she couldn't hear the heartbeat with the doppler and that's why we had the ultrasound. Hearing that quick little sound of "whoosh, whoosh, whoosh" is just amazing.

It's so hard to believe that by my next appointment, I'll be half way through my pregnancy. It honestly feels like I just peed on the stick a few weeks ago!!!

Daniel and I ordered the crib last week. It is back ordered, but it will be here by the end of May. We also decided to start buying a pack of diapers with each paycheck to help soften the blow once the baby gets here. Daniel is appalled at the price of diapers. I am too, but I knew they were spendy. He asked if we could have the baby potty trained by 6 months!!! Nice thought, but I just don't think that will happen!

So, everything is good. What a great way to start a weekend! Now, if I can just get my hands on some Mexican food sometime this weekend, I'll be happy! Doesn't Mexican food sound good!?!?! :)

Baby News!!

I've posted it on facebook and we've told everyone we can get in touch with, so I guess Hot Dish by Melana needs to be updated as well.

Daniel and I are going to be mommy and daddy come mid-October. I cannot tell you how excited we are! It is becoming a little more real everyday. As of this week, I've noticed that my pants are a bit tighter by the end of the day. I start out the day feeling pretty normal, but by about 2pm, I feel like I just ate a Thanksgiving Dinner, without eating the dinner. The intense tiredness has worn off a little. I can stay up until 10pm now!! Yippy!

Fourteen weeks tomorrow. It's hard to believe that in another 6 weeks, I'll be half way through the pregnancy. WOW! Time is already going by so quickly.

Here is a picture of our little baby...It's just a shot of the face. You can see the eye sockets and the nose and the chin line. Pretty neat if you ask me. This picture is of the baby at 12 weeks!

In other news, I started a new job almost 3.5 weeks ago. It is going well. I'm basically doing about the same job, but with a different company and in a different area of health care. So, this is week four and things are starting to pick up a bit. I'm starting to get out on my own a little more and I'm appreciating and enjoying that a lot!

Wii Bowling vs Real Bowling

So, I think the Wii has officially compromised my real bowling game. I bowled in a fundraiser for the Humane Society today. The first time I got up to throw a ball, everything was just off. My approach was goofy. With Wii bowling my approach is much shorter, but in real bowling, I need my 3 step approach. I nearly fell onto the lane when I threw the ball. It was so odd. I felt like I'd never bowled before. It literally took me until the 8th frame of the first game to get everything to go as it should. My score was 120 my first game, 150 my second game and 165 my third. I was more than pleased with those results! It kind of makes me want to real bowl more often though.

I wonder what would happen if I had the Wii Fit and did Wii yoga vs real yoga? Luckily I have no experience with real yoga, so I'd probably be fine!

Saturday Mornings

I love Saturday mornings. The last 3 Saturday's we've been up at normal work times, but today, we slept in. Well, not really slept in, but we stayed in bed until 9:30am and it was great! We both woke up around 9, but we just laid in bed talking. I love mornings like this! We talked about anything and everything and it just feels good. We didn't solve the problems of the world, but almost. I love Daniel so much. I love how easily we can talk about whatever we want.

Now, we're sitting on the couch, drinking coffee and I'm eating my favorite Saturday breakfast, oatmeal. Yummy!

Randomness

I don't have a lot to say, but I thought I'd post something since it's been so long since my last entry.

Daniel is off work this week. He had no work, so he's home. It's a bittersweet thing. The obvious bad thing is that this is a week that he won't get paid. OUCH! One underlying good thing is that he is working on our construction project, our master bedroom. He's gotten a lot done in 2.5 days and I'm continually impressed by his talents. The way he can take an empty room and create a beautiful living space is unbelievable. It's a gift, one that I don't have, but am thankful he does! Another plus side to this "time off" is that he will be eligible for unemployment should it happen again. It shouldn't and we should be okay once it starts to warm up again, but it's nice to know that we have some options should it happen again.

I met my mom and dad at a local restaurant last week and we each had a shrimp poboy and they were divine. My dad has talked about this sandwich several times over the last week. He keeps saying he wants to go back to I Zee Zee...Huh? Yeah, the restaurant's name is Cafe Zydeco, but somehow he only remembers the Z in it and calls it I Zee Zee. Too funny. The funniest part of all is that the first time he said something about I Zee Zee, I had no idea what he was talking about and my mom knew right away. I guess that's what 44 years of marriage does for a couple! God love 'em!

I can't get the Jitterbug commercial theme song out of my head tonight. I hope I can sleep! Speaking of sleep, I'm going to bed!

Counting Blessings

Yesterday there was a funeral at my church for a 19 year old girl who died of cancer. I read her obituary in the paper on Wednesday and something tugged at me, but I couldn't figure out if it was just the natural gut-wrenching feeling of reading about death at such or young age, or something else. On Thursday, I was talking to my mom and she said she had to work at the funeral on Friday. She asked I remembered Stephanie. I asked if I should because I felt like I should. Back in October, my mom and I helped with the spa portion of Mending in the Mountains retreat for cancer survivors, sufferers and in between. There was a young lady there and I talked to her at length. She wanted to be a Kindergarten teacher and I shared some of my teaching experiences. She was an amazing young lady. She had very little hair, no eyebrows, and looked run down, but she was so optimistic! It was an amazing experience for me! Well, it was that young lady who had passed away. I looked at her picture again in the paper and then I recognized her. Her smile, mostly. She married her high school sweetheart in December 2008, after being diagnosed in May of 2008. She died February 1, 2009. I cannot imagine the grief her husband in enduring, or the rest of her family. I wish them peace and comfort knowing that Stephanie is pain-free now.

Then, yesterday I was calling on one of my doctor's offices and one of the PAs came out and he looked distraught. He came up to me and said that he just had to tell a 22 year old young man that he has lymphoma. He talked about what an amazing young man he is and how hard it was to tell him. I got teary. Can you imagine being 22 years old and hearing that you've got cancer? I can't imagine it at 31, 45, 56, or 60 for that matter, but 22? Really? Your whole world changes in a heartbeat!

I have so much to be thankful for. My family has some history of heart disease and diabetes, but otherwise we're quite lucky! I thank God everyday for all my blessings! And I pray that He will keep these families in His loving arms and bring them some peace.

I'm counting my blessings again today, and everyday!

Weekends

Daniel and I sat on the couch getting ready to watch a movie last night and I said, "Remember when we used to go out EVERY Friday night? And when we didn't have any plans we were so bummed!?!" It seems like a long time ago!

I was so thankful to just sit on the couch last night and watch a movie. We have both had super bad colds again this weekend and it was a long week! Resting seemed like the best thing we could do. We watched Lakeview Terrace and it was a good movie. Not as good as Righteous Kill that we watched last weekend, but it was still good. I was rather disturbed by both of them, but they were good stories!

So, as we recover more this weekend, I'm looking forward to getting stuff done around the house, saving money, playing a little Wii and taking Jynx for walks on these nice days! It's amazing how weekends are different for us now...I like it though.

Bridgette is 15!

My little Bridgette is 15. I honestly cannot believe it. It seriously seems like a just a few short years ago that I was driving in a snowstorm to Willmar to see my new niece or nephew. School had been called off that day due to the snowstorm, but mom, dad and I took off anyway. We got there and we didn't have to wait too long before she arrived. I remember being so anxious...finally I went to the bathroom and when I came out, Ben had just come down to the waiting room to tell us that we had a new Bridgette Michelle. A GIRL! I was so excited.

I remember walking into the room and seeing her for the first time. She was amazing. She was looking all around and was so content. Holding her was like a dream. I still remember seeing my dad with her for the first time. He literally melted when he first held her and he hasn't frozen up again since either :) I guess when you add 6 more grandkids after her, there's no chance to freeze up again.

When Ben and Michelle moved back to Ivanhoe, I was so happy. I still remember the day we helped them move. My mom and dad were gone somewhere so Tina and I were responsible for taking our 1984 Dodge Ram Van to Willmar and load it up. We had to get up at like 6am and that was really early for us sophomore girls. So, I was terrified I wouldn't get up on time. I must have dreamed that the alarm went off because I went downstairs, took a bath (this was before we had a shower at our house!) and when I got out of the tub, I looked at the clock and it was 2:45am. I went back upstairs to bed and woke Tina and told her that I must have been sleep walking because I'd already taken a bath and it was only 2:45am. For anyone who knows Tina, she didn't give a rat's rear about that story in the middle of the night. She grunted at me and rolled over. I was laughing...I still sleep walk, although the incidences are further and farther between now :)

Back to Bridgette...she has truly been such an amazing niece. She was so funny as a little kid. Some of my favorite memories of Bridgette include singing. She was a real fan of Shania Twain (she was big in the 90's) and Bridgette knew all her songs, especially the one that starts off, "I met a tall dark and handsome man, and I was busy making big plans..." It was like her signature song. I wanted her to sing it at our wedding! Everytime she was with me, I was asking her to sing. As she got older and started to participate in Sunday School, I looked forward to hearing her songs. She sang Sunbeam one year and it was the cutest thing because everytime the chorus came around she would just belt out, "A sumbeam a sumbeam, Jesus wants me for a sumbeam..." I cried. I cried this last October at her confirmation when she sang for that, too. She's just so beautiful. She sings like an angel and I hope she continues to share her talents with the community.

Tonight, she texted me at 8:00ish and said, "You don't love me". Whatever. I just hadn't gotten around to calling her yet. We had company this evening and I got to hold a little baby for almost 2 hours and I didn't call her. Of course I love her. I called her when they left. She's 15! WOW!

It's because of Bridgette, Allison, Mason, Michael, Breanna, Brody and Kimmy that I dream of having children some day. They're all wonderful, beautiful, and good kids and I love them all so much. I wish we all lived closer because I'd love to be able to be with them more often.

I want to share some random Bridgette stories...

She was about 5 or so. Allison was 2-ish. Ben, Michelle and the girls and I were watching some home videos from when they were little and I asked Ben and Michelle, "Do you guys think you'll have another baby?" I can't remember what they answered, but Bridgette said, "But, we have to keep Alli!" Apparently she thought that if Ben and Michelle had another baby, they'd get rid of Alli?!?! Too funny!

Michelle was in a bad car accident in early 1998 and they must have told Bridgette that the car slipped on the ice because Bridgette said, "I know, we should get a sleigh for our next car. They're meant to go on the ice!" Classic :)

Mom and dad have the best video of Bridgette reenacting a scene from Grease. It's the scene at the very end when Sandra D is all decked out and looks like she's gone bad. Bridgette does the whole thing and it's so cute. I nearly roll over when I watch it. She was in Kindergarten. The best part is when she acts likes she's taking a cigarette out of her mouth and putting it out with her foot and saying, "Tell me about it, tud." It's not a typo, she says "tud". So adorable.

One of the all time best is after Allison was born and Bridgette was telling her parents...
"We need to have another wedding now so Alli can be in the pictures, too", since Bridgette got to be in their wedding pictures. How cute is that?

15 years ago...I really can't believe it. I'm still crossing my fingers that she'll change her mind and come to MSU for college...she'd have free room and board and maybe by then we'll need a babysitter and I'm pretty sure Bridgette owes me some babysitting time...FREE babysitting time, that is!

Love, love, love that young lady!

Pay Cut

I got news today that I am taking a mandatory 5% pay cut. It doesn't seem like much, but on top of reducing my commission by $200 each month, it is a lot. We will feel it. I realize I shouldn't be complaining. There are people out there who have lost their jobs completely. However, it has hit our household and it makes me sad/mad/discouraged/etc. I hope to see a turn around soon. I'm not sure what the answer is, but I hope it's discovered sooner rather than later.

I guess this is just another gripe blog...

Hospitals

Everyday I work in a hospital. I spend about 3-4 hours per day at Bozeman Deaconess Hospital. I've seen some stuff I don't care to see, but for the most part its always a good experience.

Today, I had an ultrasound on my thyroid. (Everything is fine. It was just a follow-up.) I got there early like I was supposed to. Checked in with the unfriendly, bland and rather depressing-looking lady. She told me to take a seat. I did. I sat for 35 minutes. Now, I don't really mind waiting because I've come to expect to wait. What I did mind is that there was a man sitting down the line from me who was coughing incessantly. I just wanted him to get up and get a drink or at least cover his mouth. He didn't! That wasn't so bad, but since it was combined with another man who was whistling intermittently, I was officially perturbed. I'm a whistler. I like whistling. It annoys my sister-in-law Michelle to no end! Whistling in general doesn't bother me, but this guy would whistle a couple measures of something and then stop. He'd walk around a little and then whistle again. My skin was crawling. I wanted to jump up and run out of there to escape the coughing and whistling! I'm fairly certain that it wasn't that annoying, I was just nervous. I'm glad it ended up that I had nothing to be nervous about, but still.

I guess I just had to gripe a little. I'm over it now and I'm getting ready to snuggle on the couch with my husband and watch a movie. I love Friday nights!

Catch-up

So, I haven't blogged in a while. It's been close to a month and I'm finding that hard to believe. Where does the time go?

Instead of trying to write about it all, I'll just show some pictures and summarize.

Daniel at my mom and dad's on Christmas Eve.

My mom and Michael on Christmas Day.
Breanna and mom.

My beautiful mom.

My dad...his eyes smile and I love it!

Daniel and I on Christmas Eve at Dan and Audria's.

The weekend after Christmas, our friends from Nebraska were in Helena. We got to spend almost 2 days with them and we had so much fun! Little David turned 2 on January 2.

Daniel and David. They were buddies.

Aaron and Daniel.

David's uncles put him on top of the fridge and he thought that was pretty cool! He laughed and laughed!

Last week we had the pleasure of babysitting Andrew, son to Buffy and Randy. He's such a sweet baby! Daniel looks good with a baby in his arms, right?

See? He's even a natural when feeding a baby!

Looks good!

This is a picture of our new couch. I like seeing Daniel on it, holding a baby. The whole picture looks beautiful to me!

Next time, I won't wait so long to post.

I will be posting pictures of our construction progress soon. Daniel got one more window put in today and our whirlpool tub arrived on Friday. It's beautiful and I can't wait to sit in it when it's full of hot water...sitting in it now isn't so much fun and not that relaxing.