It's the Final Countdown

Well, I guess 10 weeks to go starts the final countdown until Baby R2 arrives. Here are a few things we have left in preparation for his arrival:

-moving (we're checking out a duplex tomorrow)
-2 more baby showers
-doctor appointments every other week
-another ultrasound (next week)
-prepared childbirth classes at the hospital
-epidural anesthesia class at the hosptial
-breastfeeding class at the hospital
-setting up R2's room
-washing all of R2's clothes
-training someone to take over my jorb

And I'm sure there are tons of things that I haven't even begun to think of...

I'm getting pretty excited. It's looking like this summer will be very similar to the summer after Chase and I got married. We pretty much had an extended honeymoon because neither of us had jobs (he was a teaching assistant during the school year and I had been told I had a job but it fell through). Things are pretty slow around the BCM in the summertime because most of the students are gone and I won't be working, so it looks like we'll get to spend a lot of time with R2 as a family.

The aches and pains of pregnancy are catching up with me. My belly is getting bigger and heavier making my back sore, I get really hot sometimes, my tailbone hurts after sitting at work most of the day and I get heartburn/reflux on a nightly basis (no matter what I eat or how long I sit up after eating, it still comes at the same time each night). But it's not too bad. It's awesome to feel him wiggling, squirming, punching and kicking.

Orphaned Cameras

There's a web site that attempts to reunite orphaned cameras & memory cards with their owners:



Check out www.ifoundyourcamera.net. Maybe you'll see someone you know!

Rest Assured

You all can now rest assured now because I do not have gestational sugarbetes. Originally, I was supposed to have that dreaded test last week, but a giant ice storm postponed it. My appointment was moved to yesterday. I had to drink this syrupy stuff that tasted like orange Triaminic. That part wasn't bad at all even though this other lady who was there for the same test was acting like it was the worst thing she ever tasted. I mean, when I was little, I really liked taking that medicine!

Anyway, the whole drinking the syrupy stuff wasn't bad; it was the drawing my blood part that I dreaded. It's not so much the pain that bothers me as it is the whole idea of a needle going through my skin and poking a hole in my vein. Blek! It's just so gross! I usually get really nauseous, occasionally throw up, and either pass out or come very close to passing out. They have to lay me down to even attempt to stick a needle in me. So, I told the nurse I don't want her to tell me what's going on- to just do it. I find it's the worst when they tell me what they're doing. I have to look the other way and have someone distract me. The nurse says OK and then starts telling me what she's doing!!! She was talking about my veins rolling and whatnot. Oh, it was awful! And on top of that, it really really hurt!

So if I would have failed that test, I would have to come back for another one where they'd draw my blood multiple times over three hours or something. Thankfully, my test came back negative the first time. Hooray!

My doc said that Baby R2 is, or was at the time, positioned head down at a slant. That's good to know so I can tell which part of me is being punched and which part is being kicked. He does both, ya know. Also, I'll have another ultrasound in two weeks.

So that's the latest news on Baby R2, the next American Gladiator. (If you don't like that show, you're unpatriotic and possibly a terrorist.)

And There Was Much Rejoicing...

All new episodes of The Office begin April 10.

The writers' strike is over!

Oh, the Excitement

All excitement is not fun...

This weekend we went to the Give Me an Answer conference in Louisville, KY. The main theme was Spiritual Warfare and (Christian) Missions. Great speakers, as usual. The conference part was fun, but students calling and texting Chase all hours of the night was not.

After the conference ended on Saturday, it was up to my parents' for my dad's 50th birthday party.

This is my dad. He's 50 now.

Lily came to celebrate. She belongs to my cousin Sara.

Sunday, it was back to Louisville for my first baby shower at Chase's sister Paige's. Baby R2 has all kinds of baby stuff now.

We played "Hot Potato" with a baby toy (octopus) while Amy Grant's Baby, Baby played in the background. Then we played Laura's game... "Sniff the Diaper." Well, I'm not sure if that's what it's called, but that's what we did! She had melted different kinds of candy bars in diapers; we had to determine what candy bar it was by sniffing the diaper. Yes, it looked like poo.

Paige and her husband David were kind enough to let us spend the night Sunday so that we weren't rushing back to Illinois. We had the opportunity to visit with Caleb, Keli and Baby Nella on Monday morning. Nella was born on Friday, February 8 at 7:39 pm.

This is Nella with her engagement gift from Baby R2. We've arranged their marriage.

This is the engagement photo.

We left the Billingsleys' about noon or so to beat the big ice storm that was heading towards Southern Illinois. Apparently noon wasn't early enough. Worried about the treacherous hills and curves that lead to our home no matter which way we would take, we stayed the night with our awesome friends Kyle & Chelsea, whose home was much easier to get to.

This morning we woke up to a layer of ice, snow and thicker ice. Chase has some pictures up on his blog. I was supposed to have a baby doc appointment, but I got a call early this morning saying the office would be closed. The church office where I work was closed as well. The power went out at the Bass' and the BCM this morning. We went to the grocery to get some food that needed no preparation, just in case we didn't get power back, and headed to the BCM since it was mostly main roads and little to no hills. I had called our landlord who said he wouldn't attempt getting to our place until later in the afternoon.

After napping, gassing up the car and picking up a couple more groceries, we did finally make it home about 24 hours after we expected. As you can tell, there was much excitement this weekend, some fun, some not so fun. We do have power, water, food, cable, Internet, etc.

As busy as we've been, there hasn't been time to have an Abraham Lincoln's birthday party. We'll just have to celebrate by ourselves and so will you. Have a happy Choppy Day!

Goings On

Today officially marks the beginning of the third trimester for Baby R2! He's as active as ever... except when other people are around. When I'm alone or with Chase, he'll punch, kick, squirm and roll like crazy, but when I'm around other people, not so much. Or he will move about, but not at an appropriate time for someone else to be able to feel him. He's even started teasing with Chase. R2 will punch/kick really hard, but as soon as Chase puts his hand on my belly, he stops; when Chase's hand is removes, R2 starts back up. He's starting to explore my ribcage as well...

In other news, there was a crazy storm that came through last night. There was heavy rain, thunder, lightning and hail, but little to no wind. Oh, and flooding. Chase came home to get me and brought me to the BCM. We had to drive up on a sidewalk at one point. No tornadoes here. When I was watching the weather on TV, the weatherman said that there were 12 tornadoes nation-wide at one point. Crazycakes! By the time we went home, some of the flood had subsided. We did end up having to take an alternate route due to flooding.

We're going to have a busy weekend in Kentucky. There's a conference, my dad's 50th birthday party, my first baby shower and hopefully a visit with our friends who should have their baby by then. (An inducement is scheduled for Friday if their baby doesn't make his/her way out by then!) Exciting and busy times.

Foolish Sucka

So, maybe we ordered this movie this weekend:



We rented it on a whim a couple weeks ago with the Blockbuster gift card Chase received for Christmas. We hadn't heard anything about it, but it looked interesting.

Eagle vs. Shark is sort of like the Napoleon Dynamite of New Zealand... except it has a plot... and there are a couple adult situations and a bit of language. Right after watching it, we thought it was just OK, but when it sunk in and the more we thought and talked about it, the funnier it became.

After watching Eagle vs. Shark, I want to go to a come as your favorite animal party... and go to New Zealand.