29 Weeks

Can you believe I'm already 29 weeks?? I sure as hell can't! I feel like I keep saying it, but it's true: time has flown by! Things continue to go very well, I still have very little to complain about and most of the complaining is about my future soccer star and her perfected rib kicks. Or when she beats on my bladder and hips. She is super strong, and while I find it very cool, a lot of the time her kicking/hitting/rolling sort of hurts. I'm also finding that there must be no room for my stomach anymore, I can get about two meals a day in now. Anymore than that and I walk around with that uncomfortable I-ate-way-too-damn-much feeling.

I had my 28 week appointment with my doctor today. I start my bi-weekly doctors appointments now and I'm sort of in shock at that. Every two weeks. Only women who are close to their due date see their doctor every two weeks. I am now one of those women. Holy crap!! Since I'm pretty damn proud of how well my pregnancy is progressing I'll post my stats from my appointment:

29 Weeks 2 Days
Blood Pressure: 122/77
Weight Gain: 16lbs
Fundal Height (belly measurement): 28-29 CM
Madeline's Heartbeat: 150 BPM
Over All: GREAT! :)

The fundal height is right on track. I've managed to keep my weight gain down, and since I'm aiming for 25-30lbs total I'm right on track. Madeline's heart rate is right where it needs to be. My BP last appointment was a little high at first (when they took it again it was normal though), so over all I'm as healthy as a horse. I get to do the glucose test sometime before my next appointment. As someone who loved orange soda as a kid I hope that the rumors that the glucose drink tastes like Orange Crush is true. I go back to see my doctor August 5th.

TJ and I have started work on the nursery! We painted last weekend, and are waiting to buy and stain the chair rail and molding before setting up the room. Her crib and changer arrived a few weeks ago and they are still in their respective boxes. He doesn't want to take the plastic off the floor in the nursery, so we're waiting to get it all set up until after we get the chair rail up (next weekend).

I didn't think to take pictures of our progress (what little there is) until we'd already moved everything out of the room and painted two coats of primer. Originally the bedroom was painted 4 different (ugly and obnoxious!) colors - dark red, dark blue, green, and yellow. It took two coats of primer before we started painting. Below are pictures of day two, when the pink went on the walls.

Please excuse the mess, this was my craft closet before and we left my scrapbooking crap in there.

Finally here are the 29 week pictures I took on Saturday. I went back to blonde last week so I also put a new hair picture up.

The Story of Us

Three years ago today it was a beautiful day.



It was a day of what fairy tales are made of. A day that a little girls dream of while running around with a pillow case veil on their head. It was the best day of my life.

Three years ago today I married my best friend. I became somebody’s wife. And it was a damn good day.









It really doesn’t feel like 3 years has gone by since TJ and I got married. I am thankful for him every day, just like we said in our vows: even when he drives me crazy. I feel so lucky to have him as my husband, especially when I am driving him crazy. While sometimes we lose our patience with each other or fight over silly things we are truly a great partnership. We both have realized that a happy marriage takes work, it takes effort, and if you just let it coast along it’s just going to fizzle out. He tries every day to make me laugh, and make me happy (and 9 times out of 10 he’s successful). I wish there was a way for me to tell him in words just how happy he makes me, but nothing comes close to what I’d want to say.

The “story of us” started well before our marriage though. It was just over 6 years ago now that I met a handsome young man, with deep brown eyes, ruddy cheeks, dimples and a great smile. At the time we met I was seeing someone, but I remember thinking there was something “more” there. You know that “spark” people talk about? It was there. We finally went on our first date sometime around July 19th. At that point I was recently out of a very serious long term relationship and was not looking to jump right into another. We were both pretty shy at first, we met for dinner at Chevy’s and then rented a movie to watch at his place (The Butterfly Effect). I thought he was very sweet, and he probably thought I was fabulous/amazing/wonderful. . .or maybe not. ;) We continued seeing each other, and after a month finally made it exclusive.

I don’t remember exactly how it happened, but I remember his words very clearly. One night in October he told me he was going to say something and I didn’t need to say anything back. When he told me he loved me I froze, and did the absolute worst thing ever: nothing. I stood there, and he said, “Well, say something.” Ever the smart ass I pointed out that he’d told me I didn’t have to, and then explained to him that while I really liked him and thought I might be heading toward love it just wasn’t a word I liked to throw around until I was sure. I really don’t know why he didn’t dump my crazy butt right there, but he understood and waited until I was ready to say it back. I honestly felt ready to say it much sooner than I did, but I held off until December.

Things moved along really well, we moved in together (officially, since I was staying the night pretty much every night anyway) January 2005. I decided to start looking to buy a house a few months later and signed papers in May. We moved in just before I turned 21 and celebrated our first anniversary there, where I bought him a new TV and he bought me a nice little right hand ring. That November we had both my mom’s family and his mom’s family over to our house for Thanksgiving and our house was crazy with so many people in it. It also was a nice chance for our families to meet. After everyone left we went out to the bar at La Hacienda with a few of his cousins and he told his cousin Robert that day that he had decided to ask me to marry him. I think he went ring shopping/browsing the next day with his mom while I was at work, and I was none the wiser.

We took a vacation to Whistler, Canada the end of January 2006, with Robert and Bridie. On January 23rd he mentioned he wanted to go out that night, so I went into our bathroom to get ready before we went out. When I was ready to go I went out into the living room and Robert and Bridie conveniently decided they wanted to stay in that night (and watch the OC). TJ and I walked around the town for a while and I’d point out pubs that we could go to. He had a death grip on my hand and shot down every bar I suggested. While I thought the death grip was rather strange I was more annoyed that he didn’t like any of my suggestions. I finally gave up and told him, in an exasperated tone, to just pick somewhere to go himself.

He finally pulled me toward the center of the village toward a trail. My mom and dad had owned a time share in Whistler since I was 9 and I knew there wasn’t anywhere to go back there. I protested and finally gave in and walked with him, pointed out that I was right (of course!) and turned around to try and find somewhere else to go. He pulled on my hand to turn me back toward him and there he was down on one knee. Again with the doing the worst thing ever: I asked him, “What are you doing??? Are you sure???” After I shut the hell up he asked me to marry him, I put my hand over my mouth and shook my head yes. As soon as he got the ring on my finger the water works started, and all the mascara and eyeliner I’d work so hard (OK not really) at putting on ran down my face. We went back to the condo and Robert and Bridie were waiting anxiously for us. It was a perfect evening.





The wedding was perfect. The years that followed were amazing, and most of the time we still acted like two love sick kids who just met. We decided to start trying to expand our family on a whim at the end of October 2008. 14 months later on January 23rd I took a test and found out I was pregnant. It has been a wild and eventful six years, I can’t wait to see what the next year brings to us. I also can’t wait to see what forever with my best friend is like, someday we’ll get there, but for now we are just enjoying the ride!

Our first anniversary.

Our second anniversary.

I love you TJ, with my whole heart. Happy Anniversary to the best husband in the world!!!

*Wedding photos were taken by John Nolte (http://www.johnnolte.com/)