Moving On

So pretty much everyone and their mother, whether they care or not, know about this pregnancy. This, thanks to our parents and David himself. Everytime I talk to Mom, which is often, she tells me what so-and-so said when she told him or her the news. And David was so excited to tell people that he told everyone we knew at church and then emailed our friends who have since moved away. He said that he was feeling a little left out because everyone was calling to congratulate me (even though they said to tell him congrats, too). But, I pointed out, everyone who called me was from my side of the family. It'd be kind of weird for them to call him and not me -- so that reasoning and being able to tell everyone else brought him into the thick of things.

Two of our church friends said the news was no surprise to them, which surprised me. We went out to eat with one couple (and their two-year-old) before they left for deputation and she told him, after lunch was over and we had parted ways, that I was pregnant. And then we went out to eat with two other couples from our church and one of them asked the other if we were expecting. We hadn't told anyone at this point, so the answer was no. Odd. They have exceptional sixth senses. Anyway, people here are happy for us, but sad they won't get to see the baby. We've already had a few self-invitations to wherever we are come September.

In other news, I'm in the middle of designing D's graduation invitation. His parents, my parents, and I are throwing him a graduation party to celebrate all his hard work and his accomplishments...and it's a great excuse to eat good food and visit with our friends and family! I have the stationary all picked out, but I want to shop around to see if I can get a better price. Next week will bring the countdown to double-digits---ahhh!! So I'm excited...just a little...not too much... :) :) :)

Yes, it finally happened. Dougie died last night. Not exactly sure when, but D noticed that he hadn't heard anything from Dougie's area in a while and went to investigate. Dougs was in his house with his head sticking out and his eyes open. D tried to get him to move, but he couldn't and confirmed that he wasn't going to be moving anymore. He lived the average lifespan of a guinea pig: about 3.5 years.

I was okay with everything, sad, but okay. I called Mom and then I called my Grandma and then I started crying. We weren't going to take him with us when we moved, so separation was inevitable, but now I will miss him sooner. I have no idea how/when/if to tell the kindergarteners. Poor Dougs. He was the perfect pet. And he will be missed.

And it was a grainy glimpse at that, but he's still cute. Can you tell who he looks like? Mom said he has my nose...












Our doctor's office didn't have an ultrasound machine, so the doctor wrote a prescription to get one elsewhere. That elsewhere happened to be at the hospital David is currently rotating through, so we got free parking :). For some reason, many people here in PA don't usually do ultrasounds this early, so the technican said they don't print out any pictures because there's not a lot to see. But I asked if I could have one anyway and the technican said I could if I kept it quiet...which I was more than willing to do!

So the ultrasound process was a process. My bladder fills up quite nicely because it's used to drinking so much so often, so I had to empty half of what was in there a little while into test. Can't say I complained. Then the machine froze and the technican had to reboot it and...well my bladder filled up too much again (no, I wasn't still drinking) and I had to revisit the bathroom. Can't say that I minded that either. From then on, everything went really well and we got to see our baby, doing a great peanut impression. D was in all his glory a) because he got to see his baby and b) because he was reading the ultrasound as she was doing it (after all, Radiology is his chosen career path). Then, much to my dismay, the printing machine wasn't working: the technican attempted to print out some pictures, but they were all coming out black. So we left empty-handed.

The Stats:
Fetal Heartbeat: 164bpm
Crown to Rump Measurement: 1.8cm

But the story doesn't end there. Since D works at the same hospital in which my ultrasound was done, he has access to my file! That means he was able to download four of the ultrasound pictures as well as the Radiology report a doctor filed around 9:30this morning (saying everything was normal). He also printed out one of the pictures, so now we have everything and more that we wanted...after all I'm sure we paid a pretty penny for the test!

Yes, this IS a positive pregnancy test you see!

I took it about a month ago now, while D was on interviews actually, and was really excited to see the results! They say the first pee of the morning is best, but this was taken after drinking water all day at work and peeing regularly, so I figured if it was positive at that point in the day, then I was definitely pregnant!

We waited a month to tell everyone because that's when the doctor's appointment was scheduled. I didn't/don't feel pregnant and I wanted to be sure we weren't lying to everyone, so we waited. It was kind of hard, but it was nice having that secret to ourselves for a bit while we adjusted to the news. I feel fine, no complaints at this point and I'm praying it stays that way!

It was really fun telling everyone today, boy does news travel fast! My mother, and father for that matter, told the entire family and some close friends inside an hour. Quite the accomplishment considering everyone that was told. Mom was way too excited, so I'm glad she got the chance to call everyone...I think if you saw her right now, she'd be glowing! Direct quote from her, "Oh I'm just so excited that I just want to go out and buy a ... crib!!!" And Dad's been just as excited, which is odd (for his personality) and cute. D called his parents and his brother and his sisters, which he couldn't wait to do. So the first wave of people knowing is over. We'll tell our friends this weekend. At work, people's jaws were dropping because it was totally unexpected, but it was cool to see their reaction. It's neat to know that this baby is no bigger than an inch and already all these people love him.

On that "him" note, at this point we don't want to find out the sex of the baby. Well I don't and D says he would find out if I wanted to, but won't if I don't want to. So we've just been calling the baby "he" because "it" just seems cruel.

The only difficulty in the forseeable future: Kristina's bridesmaid dress. Yeah, I'm not going to be fitting into that size 4 we bought come June. I'll have to see what can be worked out, but it seems like Mom is already on that, too.

Oh, and some name suggestions we've already gotten:
Ernest William
Trident Forester-Peppa
Alayna

Much more to come...as I think of it. For now, I've added the pregnancy ticker to the side bar of my blog so you can keep track of our baby's progress.

Just wanted to share some exciting news...Auntie Anne's is having a FREE pretzel giveaway this Saturday:
Now, I wonder just how many Aunt Anne's I can hit up in that amount of time... Just kidding, I wouldn't want to take advantage of their kindness, too much...

Herb Garden at Day 11:

Not much to update. D's on his way home, as I write this, from the last of his interviews. We'll probably sit down this weekend and do the Rank List, but it's not due in until February. I can tell you right now that D probably won't let me say what order we put everything in, but everyone will know where we'll be come March.

Oh, and I might have played a little Wii while D was gone. It can be addicting! He ordered Donkey Kong Country for me with his Wii points and oh how I love that game! Didn't get very far, but I had fun in the process.

See what I mean...not much to update...

I got around to planting my herb garden last weekend and it was quite easy...after reading all the directions:

Mom was so excited that "all of her family" was together on her birthday. So excited, in fact, that she decided to round up all of us and snap this picture:


That's why she's holding her little date thingy, January 2nd is her birthday.

In other news, there's not much news. D and I have been spending lots of time together, which usually involves me falling asleep while he reads or does computer stuff. He's been back for a week now and boy has that time flown. We went out to lunch on Sunday with our friends who are leaving for 6 weeks on a support-raising trip. They're from Ireland, well she's an American citizen, but hasn't ever lived over here for an extended period of time until now. They have a two-year-old and she's seven months pregnant with their second, so it'll be an interesting six weeks! Tomorrow night I'm making that pulled pork recipe I made back in the summer and have been craving ever since. I invited a few friends over so there wouldn't be TONS of leftovers...and because we enjoy their company :).

January is always the calm after the storm and it can get pretty boring, in my opinion. So basically we're waiting it out until March (20th, to be exact!) to see where we'll be moving to and then the pace can pick back up again. I guess, then, this can be considered the calm before the storm, too.

Speaking of storms, we had a pretty good snow storm today. It was that heavy, wet snow that isn't fun to drive in, but beautiful to look at. It's so cozy in our apartment right now! We actually went into a flurry of cleaning activity because of our guests tomorrow, but it was cozy while we were cleaning. Ok, I've rambled long enough. Stay tuned for pictures of my newly-planted herb garden that Mom got me for Christmas!

I know we did some more things during our two-week stint in CT, but at this point I can't remember and I really don't want to drag vacation posts on much longer. So, I'll round them out with our New Year's Eve/Day happenings.

Mom and I were at iParty looking for something for one of the weddings when we stumbled onto half-off Christmas items and a cool New Year's Eve party-in-a-box thing. So she bought it and invited G&G over along with Ryan and Yana (Nick and Kristina had plans with some friends). The four couples had such a fun evening together eating the pot roast and lemon cake, drinking tea, and of course talking, laughing, and joking around. Mom took our pictures in front the "Happy New Year" sign, which you can't really see, but that's what it says:





We all had party hats, leis, noisemakers, and strings of confetti (to toss at the appropriate time, although no one waited until the appropriate time). All of us were being silly and there's Dave...eating! :)

The next day there was a pretty nasty snow spell that made it difficult to go across town to D's parents house for a very yummy New Year's Day dinner. But we made it and the snow was pretty to look at, just not to drive in:


D had an interview the day after New Year's (aka Mom's bday). We left that evening and made it back here in our usual four hours, thus concluding our two week vacation! It was nice only having to work for two days before the weekend, but then D left again that Sunday for four more interviews. He's back, 800 miles later, and doesn't have to leave again until the end of January for the last of his interviews!

On the Friday before New Year's, I offered to watch my niece Ariana so her mom, her aunt, and her grandma could go on a shopping spree at the local mall...and so I could play with her because she is just so much fun to be around :)! She was such a good girl and interacted so nicely with everyone at my house. We ventured outside for a bit and she seemed to enjoy that. Towards the end of our time together, she even took a two-hour nap, during which I laid down, too because little people are good at wearing out big people!

That night, D and I gathered up all the ingredients for a chicken parm meal, complete with salad and garlic bread, and headed over to my grandparents' house. We wanted to make them dinner as part of our Christmas gift to them, so that's what we did! Everyone seemed to like the meal and there was plenty of leftovers that G&G told me they had for days afterwards! They are two of the sweetest people I know and I so enjoyed visiting with them at their house. That house holds many great memories and this was just another one to add to the list. After dinner, Gpa scrounged around and found his old yearbook from his USS Oriskany days and showed D and me what life was like on the boat. Then we all watched the DVD we gave him for Christmas, the one about the Oriskany being made into man-made reef off the coast of Florida. Gpa visited it while it was being dismantled in Corpus Christi (I'm assuming around the same time they were taping the show) and while he was sad to see it in such a state, he told us a lot about the ship. Overall it was a great night and one that I'm sure we will soon repeat.



Aren't they cute?!

Anyone who knows me knows that Mom and I are close, like best friend, call each other every day, tell each other things we wouldn't tell anyone else besides our husbands close. Now, don't get me wrong, at 26, she still parents me when she feels the need to, but obviously it's much different parenting than when I was 6. She does it perfectly, too, not overstepping any boundries or trying to force her will on me. I'm truly blessed to have this relationship because I know mother-daughter relationships can vary from no mother in the picture to having a mom just as a mom, but not a close friend and so on. However, I'm so glad that ours is the way it is and I hope (and know) it always will be because I know we both wouldn't have it any other way.

I probably should have saved this post until Mother's Day, but not only would I have forgotten, but I would have missed a perfect opportunity to say THANK YOU to a wonderful Mom. She is beautiful on the inside and out and she will always be one of my favorite people in the world!

What made me think of all this? I noticed these pictures as I was going through the millions we have of our Christmas vacation and thought about what a cool mom I have:

Not exactly sure what went on Wednesday, but Thursday was a super-busy day. Mom and I met Kristina, Nick's fiancee, and some of her bridal party (and her mom) at Olive Garden for lunch. We got the endless soup, salad, and breadsticks and oh how yummy! After lunch, we met more of the bridal party across the way at David's Bridal for the purpose of choosing our bridesmaid dresses. Kristina didn't care what style we had, only that we had the same truffle-type color. We scoured the racks and tried on so many dresses. We all finally ended up picking the same dress because it fit everyone so well. It kills me to pay that much money for a dress I'll wear once, on top of doing the same thing for Ryan and Yana' wedding, but some things can't be helped. I'll probably end up getting one or both hemmed so I can wear them again. Anyway, here's some documentation of our dress-finding journey:

That evening, Mom and I went to David's sister Mary's bridal shower at our church. The theme was Mickey and the church basement was decked out! I had a lot of fun being the scribe. I got to see the gifts up close and she got a lot of nice things!