Creative Outlet

Remember my long list of things I wanted to get done while I was on vacation? Well, I'll be lucky if I accomplish at least 2 of the items. This vacation is going so fast and today was my first day actually home alone! I spent most of the day being a house wife, but I had to take a moment to put up my new sass in the kitchen. My cousin, Shawna, sells Uppercase Living and I bought a saying about a month ago and I was itching to get it up on the wall.

I probably should of waited until Jesse could of helped me. It was a huge saying and it was very tricky getting it on the wall and getting it to look straight. It still seems a little uneven to me... but then I just say the cupboards are uneven... my saying is straight!! ; ) (Plus I didn't take a very straight picture.) This is right above my sink!

Now I am feeling a little addicted and can't wait to find more spots for a little Uppercase Living!!

Um... I have one more thing... so last week our garage door broke and we have to get that replaced. Then our furnace went out and we have to replace that this summer. Well now!!! My brand new 4 month old washing machine is leaking!!!!! First I went to turn on the washing machine and it wouldn't give me any water!! I email Jesse and he tells me he turned my water off and all I had to do was turn the water valve on and I was good to go. It worked! Then after 2 loads of laundry I notice a puddle on the floor!! I stop doing laundry until Jesse comes home and he looks at it and thinks that one of the hose connectors is leaking, not the washing machine. He runs a little water in the machine and all of sudden we see water coming out from under neath and there is no water in the machine!! Ugh! Really? Does everything break at once? I'm beginning to think so. I'm afraid that a little leak will not stop me from doing laundry! : ) I finished up what I had to do and just kept mopping up the floor. (Laundry is in the basement and it is a cement floor... not doing a whole lot of damage besides peeling the bright blue paint off the cement!)

We are certainly sending the year out with a bang! Hopefully 2009 brings us lots of luck! ; )

Gas? Or is that kicking I feel!

Yesterday afternoon Jesse and I went over to his cousins house, Jason & Danielle. I was sitting in their living room and I'm feeling a very weird sensation in my belly. It doesn't feel like gas... and I'm wondering if I just felt blueberry move!! A friend told me that it sort of feels like you have a gold fish swimming around... and that is kind of what it felt like. Little flutters. It only lasted for a moment and then it was gone and I never felt it again.

Today in church I had that same feeling again!! I'm thinking blueberry is on the move and I'm finally feeling it! My midwife told me I probably wouldn't feel any movement until 20 weeks, and I am only at 17. We'll see if this keeps happening! Its kind of fun!

Today was decision day on little Maggy. And.... um.... we are keeping her! I know! A little shocking! She has made great progress the last few days and has really proven herself to me. ; ) She is no longer sleeping in her kennel at night and she just lays (on a blanket) on the floor by Jesse's side of bed and stays there all night. We have given her freedom the last two nights and she hasn't broken it!

We also took her out to the hunting shack last night for the yearly bonfire. I was a little nervous bringing her because there were going to be lots of new people and lots of kids. She did amazing! She only barked at people once, and that just had to be my parents. Sheesh, she isn't going to win them over with her hyperness and barking! ; ) She was also good with the kids! I really was interested to see how she would be and she was so good. The little boys would run out into the woods with their flash lights and Maggy would just follow them around. Then the boys would hide and call for Maggy to come find them. Maggy would go running into the woods (and being a black dog during the night in the woods... she can be hard to spot) to find the kids and when she would come up on them they would scream and Maggy would come flying out of the woods. They did this over and over with her. Then my little cousin, Jett who is 3, would be outside with Maggy and he would call for her. Maggy would come over and knock Jett down and lick him and Jett would giggle like crazy and then get up and say "That's naughty Maggy." Then run away and call for her again until Maggy came and knocked him down. Jett just loved it!

Plus we got so many compliments on Maggy from all the people that were at the woods. "She is such a good dog." "She is so mellow for only 8 months old." Kind of helped make our decision into keeping her. We called her previous owners this morning and told them we would keep her.

I'm hoping she keeps up the good work! Although I was on the phone earlier today and she decided that was prime time to get up on the couch and lay her head down on the pillow! I think she knows I'm on the phone and I can't yell. But she doesn't know that I can snap my finger and point still! I'm feeling like I have good discipline style... I get off the phone and I go over to her and she instantly knows she did something bad. She lays down and won't look at me. I learned this next line from my parents "Look at me when I am talking to you." I tried it on Maggy today! She eventually looked up at me and I told her she was naughty! LOL. Then I started laughing. Oh such good practice for when little blueberry comes!! Except I have to learn to stay serious and not giggle.

Merry Christmas!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!! Jesse and I had a great Christmas. We visited lots of family and ate amazing food, yet felt very relaxed and enjoyed it all.

Christmas Eve morning there was a mini snow storm going on. It was so pretty out and felt very Christmas-y! Then Christmas night (9:30ish) there was a mega snow storm! It took us so long to get home. Roads were covered in snow and we couldn't see center lines... it was extremely windy... it was snowing hard! We were in this line of traffic going down the interstate at about 30mph.

Here is a picture of us on Christmas Eve.

Crazy thing happened Christmas morning. I think blueberry grew over night! I was running around the house getting ready and every time I would walk by the full length mirror I would have to back up and take a second look. My belly looked much bigger then the day before!! I thought it was just me so I didn't say anything and pretty soon Jesse says... You are starting to look pregnant! I'm starting to feel different too. Laying on my belly on the floor to play with Elly & coo with Garrett feels very weird! Then my Mom and Sister yell at me that I'm not suppose to be on my belly!! Sheesh... so many rules!

Finger update: I tried to take a couple pictures so you could see. But my camera is being a pain lately and not focusing like I want it to, so they are a bit blurry and this is the best I could do. Doesn't look all that terrible. I think there is more damage done on the inside then the outside. With his bone being crushed and still no feeling.

Jesse went to see the orthopedic on Tuesday and they said all is well. They can't do anything for it, it just needs to heal on its own. (That's what we thought, but the ER Dr. told us we had to follow up with this guy.) They could do a surgery to remove the nail, if he wanted. Jesse does not think that is necessary, and either do I. He came home and told me that and I said, "Did you tell them you are MAN and it is okay to have black & blue fingers! It makes you tougher!"

Oh and I took a picture today of where his finger was. See where all the wood is crushed... that's where. Ick!

Garage door update: Our neighbor found a company that would replace the door for us on Tuesday (Dec. 23rd)! They come all the way out here to discover they brought the wrong door. Our neighbor told him we had a 16 foot door... when we really have a 15 foot door. So they couldn't install it and they have to special order the 15 foot door because it is extremely rare!! They did replace the spring for us so that we can at least use the door now until our replacement comes in.

Furnace update: Jesse woke up on Tuesday morning to find our house at 55 degrees!! Way too cold!! He also couldn't get it running again either, but eventually figured something out before he left for work. I woke up an hour later and it was only 60! It was getting warmer... but extremely slow. Jesse calls a repair guy to come out and take a look at it. The guy shows up and I greet him at the door and he says "I have been here lots of times." Ugh. Really!? Come to find out this guy was here looking at the furnace before we bought the house and he was trying to talk the lady into replacing it before she sold it because it is already going bad!! And she wouldn't! And she never said anything to us!! I think you need to disclose information like that when you sell a house?! So long story short... Jesse's brother has been here since noon today trying to fix it up for us. 3 hours later and one trip to the hardware store I think he has it working!! There has also been talk that we'll be replacing a furnace this spring/summer. Goody! : )

Maggy update: On Tuesday Maggy and I had a falling out. I went to go take a shower and I left her run around the house while I did that instead of putting her in the kennel. (This is what Jesse does... so I thought I could too.) I am in the shower and I can hear her running full board up and down the hallway like a crazy lunatic dog! I am yelling from the bathroom... MAGGY NO! I was only in the shower for a short time (15 minutes at the most) and I come out to find a whole mess of things! She jumped up on our bed and rolled around. The blankets were all messed up! She found one of my Old Navy flip flops and chewed on and broke it. She found Jesse's slippers by the front door and drug them up into the living room and chewed on them. She was clearly on the couch as she left a little drool mark! Then we had all these workers at our house on Tuesday (fix the garage, look at the furnace, Jerry & Steph) and she was hyper dog and just couldn't sit still while they were here.

Jesse and I go out for supper that night and we talk about Maggy and how we are feeling with her. Me... I'm not real excited and feeling done with her. Jesse... he thinks she is getting better and has really grown to like her. We come home from supper and Jesse takes Maggy outside to plow the driveway and she runs around in the snow. She loves snow! She jumps up and down in it and stuffs her head in snow banks! That night she crashed on the living room floor and even put herself in her kennel when she ready for bed! Jesse then likes to rub it in and make me feel guilty... Lynn she is such a good dog. Look at her. She is being so good.

The verdict is still out. But I have this feeling that Maggy will have a new home... here with us. Jesse says I get the final say and I am having a hard time saying no to him. Plus when she is good, she is really good and I don't even notice her here. We have two more days until we really have to make our decision...

One of those Weekends

Oh were do I even start? It was one of those weekends where you would be really happy if it never happened again... for a long time!

First lets introduce Maggy to y'all. She is an 8 month old black lab german shepard mix. With loads of energy!!

We pick Maggy up Friday night and we get back to our house and she is kind of restless. It is about 9:30 at night and she has tons of energy! So Jesse and I bundle up and take her for a walk. She clearly has never been on leash or a walk before. She was all over the place, walking right in front of you, cutting you off, pulling, tugging... all the bad stuff. Then it started snowing on our walk and it was getting colder and colder. We were out there for about an hour and by the end she finally was starting to understand the terms of a walk and was doing very good.

Maggy sleeps in a kennel! Yahoo!! I was real excited about this! We put the kennel in our room and went to bed. About 3:30 comes and she is awake. She is wiggling and whining. Jesse has his good ear in his pillow and doesn't hear a thing.

Although at one point in the night he sits up and says "I hear growling!!" I said, "Jesse we have a dog in here, remember?" J: "I know. But I hear growling!" Me: "Your crazy. I never heard growling. I think you are sleeping." Sure enough he was because he doesn't remember saying that.

The rest of the night went fine. Jesse finally heard her and took her outside and brought back and everything was honkey dorey.

This brings us to Saturday. There is a snow storm on its way and we still have Christmas shopping to do. We talked about going early in the morning but just couldn't get ourselves motivated fast enough. My parents however were coming back from their early morning shopping trip and wanted to stop over and see the tree. This is where everything goes down hill... They come over and Maggy turns into crazy dog. She is just way too excited and wants so much attention. She is jumping and running around. Jesse and I are not a fan of this behavior so we sent her outside to blow off steam. My Dad says "You can let her in. I'll keep her calm." So we did. That calm part didn't happen! They decided to leave because the roads were already getting sketchy and we still needed to get to the stores.

Shopping went great. We got all our last minute items and headed home.

So, I have to fill you in on our lovely garage door. It is huge! A double wide one! It is old! It is made of wood! When we moved in we had an automatic garage door open... which was ancient, but worked. Well the automatic part... started having a mind of its own and would open on its own! Haunted! Just kidding! So we had to disconnect it and just open the door manual. Which this door is a beast! It is incredibly heavy! It takes everything in me to muscle that door open! Anyway... back to coming home from shopping...

We get home from shopping and Jesse hops out to open up the garage door. He can't open it! He goes inside the garage to open it from the inside and discovers that a spring has broken... which holds the door open and helps with the weight of this beast. So he holds the door open while I drive in the truck. All is well.

I go inside and realize that Jesse turned the heat down to 60 while we were gone and it is now 60 in the house and it is freezing! It is snowing and blowing outside and I was hoping to be warm inside. I go to turn the heat back up to 70... and the furnace doesn't kick in!!! Does everything go to pot all at once when you are a homeowner?!? Thank goodness Jesse's brother is a HVAC guy and does this sort of thing for a living. Jesse gets on the phone with Jerry and they solve the problem!

I think the rest of our night went fine... no big action sticks out at the moment.

Sunday morning comes. We have to get up early because we want to head into Medford to see Jesse's cousins in a Christmas play and a bunch of Mississippi relatives are here. It is going to be a sketchy drive because it snowed all night and the wind is blowing and it is below zero outside. That weather stuff doesn't stop us Wisconsin folks from getting where we want to go!

Poor Maggy has woke up on the wrong side of the kennel this morning. She forgot how to listen and is being very naughty! I never knew I could say: Maggy no! Maggy out! Maggy down! Maggy sit! Maggy lay down! Maggy! So many times in one minute!

Time for us to leave! Jesse holds the garage door open while I back the truck out. It is way too cold to walk around the truck to get in the passenger seat... so I'm in the process of climbing over the center counsel when I look out the window and Jesse is not moving away from the garage door. The door is shut but he is still standing by it looking at me with panic in his eyes! He is yelling "MY FINGER! MY FINGER IS IN THE DOOR!" I fly out of the truck and run to him and he says... you are never going to lift this door by yourself get a neighbor! I start running in circles thinking...what neighbor? do I have time to get a neighbor? Which one is closer? Thank goodness Jesse had his head on because he spots our neighbor, Jody, outside shoveling his driveway. We both start screaming "Help!" And I am jumping up and down and waving my arms around trying to get his attention. Jody spots us and looks at us like we are crazy. Then finally realizes we are not kidding and we need some serious help. He comes hoping over the snow across our yards. It has to be knee deep snow! Jody and I go inside the garage to lift up the door so Jesse can get his finger out.

Now lets just talk a moment about where Jesse's finger is. You know how your garage door is in panels and they separate into sections when you open the door? Well when Jesse was closing the door is finger some how got in between the panels. (He has gloves on.) He doesn't realize his finger is in there until it is too late and the door has closed and he can't pick it up because this thing is like 200 pounds! Now, when the door is shut... the crack between the panels is very very very tiny. Like... you couldn't even slide a quarter in the crack. His finger is in there with a glove on!!!!!! Go take a look at your own door and you'll be amazed.

Jody gets the door open and yells "Is your finger still attached?" I'm thinking... you have got to be kidding and I can't look or I'll be on this floor passed out cold. Jody and Jesse pull his glove off to discover... that yes his finger is still attached but it is flatter than flat! I hear Jesse say " The f*@#* is flat!!!" (Amazing how swear words immediately become part of his vocabulary when in pain/shock.) It shouldn't even be possible for your finger to get that flat! It is his last joint (where your finger nail is) on his right ring finger that is flattened. Jody immediately says... you go to the ER right now!

Did I tell you that it just snowed the night before!?! Well it did! But the cool part is we have these awesome neighbors that get antsy when stuck in doors too long and they plow every ones driveway! The neighbor 2 houses down came over and plowed us out! He actually plowed every drive way on the street, I think. So our driveway was clean but not the roads! We only live like 3 miles (if that) from the hospital so I didn't have far to baja my way there. I took the back way... which takes me threw the high school parking lot and they were some pretty high drifts in there and I was nervous... but I didn't get stuck. You know how we are with getting stuck!

We get to the ER and his finger is starting to get the shape back, but it is black, blue, and purple already! And now Jesse is starting to get sick on me. It is just us two sitting in the room and he starts feeling light headed and like he is going to throw up. We get him to the bed so he can lay down and I move the garbage closer. And he is getting whiter and whiter! I'm thinking to myself... where are the nurses?!? He never did get sick on me or pass out... but I think he came within inches of it! The nurse comes back in and gives him a pain shot... he was not real excited about where they gave him these shots! He ended up with 3 shots total!! Then they took him away to x-rays. Brought him back and he starts going white on me again.

Basically he crushed the tip of his bone in his finger. Which you can't do anything about!! They prescribed some pain medicine, an antibiotic, splinted his finger and said your good to go. But he needed to follow up with an orthopedic this week to make sure it was healing properly.

So I get to take him home and he is still weak and light headed and feeling sick. When he stands up to leave one of the other nurses sees him and says... are you sure you are ready? You can just lay here for awhile if you need to. He has this scowl on his face... eyebrows down and just doesn't look pleasant or himself. And he says "I'm fine." I started laughing and said, Jesse you are looking at her like she is crazy. It was just too funny... Jesse isn't like that so I am not sure if the medicine they gave him made him like that or what.

We get home he goes to the couch because he is incredibly tired. Now... I get to take care of Maggy. Oh joy! This will be the true test! I let her out of her kennel and she is acting like crazy dog again. Plus she is getting in Jesse's face and wants some attention and he doesn't have any to give her at the moment. So I send her outside for a bit. I let her back in and about an hour later Jesse is trying to talk on the phone and Maggy is getting up in his face so I send her back outside again to burn off that puppy energy. Up until this point we can let her out and she stays in the back yard and doesn't go anywhere. Well today... remember she woke up on the wrong side of the kennel... she came to the front yard and is now across the street at the neighbors. Jesse is still on the phone so I'm hollering for Maggy to come back home. She just stands there and tips her head and looks at me like, who are you? She would not come! Finally Jesse starts calling her. Nothing! She is just looking at us! Grrrr! She eventually comes and we discipline her... and she pees on my carpet!!!! Oh! Not a good way to make Lynn keep you! Not only once but twice!! Oh and I should tell you it is only about 11:30am and all of this has happened!!!!!

Later that afternoon we had a neighborhood Christmas party which was a perfect event for our rough weekend. We relaxed, ate great food, played cards, and laughed with the neighbors. Man I love my neighbors. They are just too fun. The ladies are already fighting over who gets to watch the baby first! They are too funny! Grandparents you better stand your ground with our neighbors - they may take over if you don't watch them! ; )

We come home from the party let Maggy out and she has this bad habit (that her owners, Jesse's cousin, thinks is real cute where she jumps up and you!) and we don't like this! And she instantly started jumping on Jesse. He tells her no and puts her down and she is not listening and then starts peeing again!!!!! Oh! I was ready to take her home right then and there! I was done, D-U-N done!!

Well now... Jesse is feeling bad for Maggy. He feels bad that she just wasn't trained very well and really does not know any better. Maybe we are expecting too much out of her already. I'm thinking are you crazy... I'm done. But he is not making his call until the end of her visit.

Today Maggy is having a much better day!!! I'm home alone with her today as Jesse went to work. It took her about an hour to stop whining for Jesse and relax. She really has been very good today. She is just laying here by me sleeping. Now... if she could do this for the rest of her stay it could be a different story for her!!

Finger update: Jesse says it isn't hurting. I don't even think he has taken anything for it yet. Not even ibuprofen. He says, he just doesn't feel anything but it is ugly looking. He is almost wondering if he lost all the nerves in it that he isn't feeling it. He goes to the orthopedic tomorrow afternoon for a recheck on it.

Garage door update: We stopped using it. We park outside which is so not fun in the winter. Today is about -12... and snow is on our forecast. So just when we thought the years of having to scrap windows and get in a cold vehicle were over. But we are having someone come put in a brand new door and automatic opener ASAP! With holidays coming up this week, I'm not sure when we will get someone out here - hopefully soon!

Oh Christmas Tree!

Here is our Christmas tree this year. It looks a little naked to me. We don't have a lot of decorations - but have no fear I will be hitting up the after Christmas sales to stock up for next year. We also don't have a tree topper but if we did I don't think I could use it because I love the fuzzy natural top we have this year. We didn't go with the traditional tree we went with this one with very long needles and I love it! I don't think I can go back to the poky short needle tree anymore. Plus this guy doesn't shed!! Whoohoo!

I only have 4 more days left of work!! Count them 4 days!! Then I am done! Well, for the rest of the year that is! Oh man! I'm like a kid in a candy store! I am so excited to have the long break and not go back until January 5th!!! I haven't had a break like this (to do what I want, when I want) since middle school I swear. I have always worked on my school Christmas breaks, so this year I'm celebrating baby!! I have goals and a plan for my time off like... go shopping! Paint my living room! Refinish a dresser & makeup center that I got from a garage sale this summer! Finish unpacking and organizing our spare rooms! Clean out the baby's room so we can start on that! And if there is time left... paint our bedroom! Now that I write this all down that is a big list. Hopefully I'll be able achieve it and not be disappointed.

I think I have officially lost my mind. Let me explain. Back on Thanksgiving we saw Jesse's cousin, Dayna. Dayna has a black lab German Shepard mix dog that she is looking for a home for. I don't think the dog is a year old yet, but fully grown. Dayna is looking for a home for this dog, Maggy is her name, because they just don't have the room for her to run around and they don't have yard either. So, Jesse hears "black lab German Shepard mix" and he can't resist! He has been bugging me and asking me to get a dog since we got our house. Jesse sits in this chair and says "Don't you think we need a dog laying beside me and my chair?"

German Shepard is Jesse's brand! I'm not a fan - not so cute and they are cop dogs so they seem mean to me. I would rather have a lab or golden retriever... but honestly I don't even like animals so no dog would be great for me!!

Dayna tells us that we can try the dog out for a week with the option of return. : ) And it just so happens that she is leaving for Mexico (her boyfriend's brother is adopting a baby from Mexico and the whole family is going down to pick up the baby! Too cute!!) on Saturday and Jesse and I will be dog sitting for a week!!! So Friday night we have to go pick up Maggy and bring her back to our place for the week. She tells us that Maggy is completely potty trained and is over the chew stage.

I'm nervous and scared all rolled into one. I am so not an animal person - I'm worse with cats! I tried every excuse as to why we can't have a dog. #1: I will not and I mean will not be cleaning up poop!! I just can't do it! I will throw up and I'm not lying! Jesse says... You won't have to. He will teach the dog to go in the field behind our house. Some of you are wondering how I will be changing diapers... um... I still don't know!! I hear it is different when it is your old child, lets hope they are right. #2: I get up too much in the middle night I don't want to freak the dog out. Jesse says... you act like this dog is going to attack you. They know, smell, and see you and know that it is you. #3: Where is this thing going to sleep? Jesse says... where ever it wants. Um, really?!? I'm not so sure about this one. #4: We have this dog over Christmas - we will be gone most of the day on Wednesday & Thursday. Just what are we going to do with Maggy? Jesse says... We'll probably have to take her to my parents house and have her stay there during the day.

He has shot down all my excuses... and now we have a dog coming to stay at our house for a week. I'm sure I'll keep you updated on how it is going. Wish me luck! ; )

Yum! Cookies!

Yesterday was cookie baking for us. I don't bake... so this is prime cookie time for me! All the bakers (my Mom & my Sister) gather in one spot and I get to help out where needed. Then we all split up the cookies to take home! Yum!

These are the best cut out cookies ever! They are fluffy, soft, and melt in your mouth! It is not Christmas for my family until we have our bellies full of these cookies. Some years my Mom has had to make another batch of them because we just didn't get enough.

Here they are before the frosting.

Here is baby Garrett. It has been about another 2 weeks since I seen him and has changed and grew so much!! I keep telling my sister to keep him little and she says "I'm trying!" Here he is trying to sleep. Apparently he sleeps with a sound machine at home that makes bird noises. So Shannon and I laid by him and went "tweet tweet tweet" until he fell asleep. I'm kidding! We did tweet at him for awhile and then she moved him to the comfy couch and he was out. I guess the floor was too hard for him and he needed a softer location for sleeping.

Here is Ms. Elly! She would rather color, draw, cut, spell words then help us cut out cookies. Such a little nerd. But a pretty cute nerd!! She did help us with the frosting!! At one point she wanted my green frosting so I had to trade her knives... after we swapped knives I spot my green frosting filled knife headed straight for her mouth! Yum! Grandma makes good frosting!

The cookies are all frosted! I so wish I had a video camera so I could tape my little brother and Jesse's conversations that they have while they do this stuff. It is stinkin funny! They saw how many cookies we had so they thought we needed to have an assembly line to make this process go faster. Some one needed to drop a spoonful of frosting on the cookie... pass it to someone to smooth out the frosting... pass it to someone to put sprinkles on... pass it someone to put on the drying tray. Well, they didn't do a very good job of recruiting their 'employees' so it was just them two. And they would try to make it so appealing for others to come help them. Jesse would keep sneaking his frosted cookies over by Adam's girlfriend, Sara, so that when she sprinkled her cookies... just maybe some of her sprinkles would fall on his cookies so then he wouldn't have to sprinkle.

Look who woke up!! And it looks like he got his nose in some frosting too! He is trying to coo/talk. His mouth will be open like this and you can tell his trying so hard and then he starts crying. Talking is just too hard right now for him. This is actually the very first picture of Garrett and I. The poor guy is going to think his Auntie never held him or saw him until this day!

Now that I have made you all want cut out cookies that melt in your mouth... I'll go eat one for you! Okay I'll eat two for you!!!

3 Months Down

Well! I made it past those tricky and risky first 3 months of pregnancy! Whooohoo!! I'm officially into my second trimester. Wow, did the time go fast! I'm afraid it is only going to go faster from here on out. Sniff. Oh no! I'm already getting emotional about our baby growing up too fast! ; )

Belly Status... I'm sorry this picture isn't more cute. When I get bigger I'll ask my Mom to take some fun ones and I'll at least do my hair and possibly wear a little makeup for those.

When ever I see Ms. Elly she has to see my how big Blueberry is. But she can't just see little Blueberry threw my shirt. I have to show her my bare belly!!! I try to show her but she comes over and lifts my shirt right up to see and then shrieks "Only that big!!" She sure knows how to make a girl feel good! I giggle every time!

I have a friend who is pregnant and she lists the ups and downs of her pregnancy... so I thought would be a copy-cat and do the same thing.

Ups:
~ The zombie stage is almost over. I can feel it! (The zombie stage is where I would be perfectly content just sitting and staring.) Naturally I'm a girl of comfort and love my couch and blankets and watching TV... but I could do this all day long in the zombie stage and never once feel guilty! But the energy & motivation levels are coming back to normal!! Whew!! I have got to get this house painted & organized before June and watching HGTV doesn't make that happen.

~ I feel great!! I can cook supper without getting completely grossed out! I can open up the fridge door without gagging! Heck I can actually eat normally!

~ We received our first baby outfit! I haven't bought anything yet... but I have received a rattle and I now have a little outfit! It felt really weird getting that baby outfit and bringing it home. It was a good feeling. I guess it just made it feel even more real.

~ I don't own a scale! That means I can eat the whole bag of Baked Ruffles and I won't even know that they added 10 unnecessary pounds. I'm not saying that I ate the entire bag in one sitting... I'm just saying I may... or may not have... ate the whole bag. Yes, I did find them!! At Walmart!!

Downs:
~ Jesse thinks we should name our child Tums because they have became my nightly snack. Oh bloating and heartburn! This baby better come out with a full head of hair if I have this heartburn stuff already! ; ) A little legend... if you have heartburn your baby has a full head of hair. Maybe I shouldn't joke... because I always tease that I'm going to give birth to the hairiest baby because of... well... my harry husband.

~ Our baby is similar to some inmates??? I had emailed Jesse this week about what our baby was doing and what was going to happen this week as far as growth and development. We learned that our baby is now going #1 and #2. I told him I didn't think I was okay with this baby of ours doing this inside of me! His response back was something of this nature... Yeah when I read that I thought our child is like some of the inmates here who poop and pee in their cells. ***Also should mention... we were totally joking and kidding!! Please don't take us seriously and send us nasty comments. Not joking about the inmates! They really do that stuff and trust me you don't want to hear the details!! But joking about our baby being similar to an inmate!***

~ Let the flood gates open! Again, naturally I'm a very sensitive emotional person. It just got worse folks! If I see or hear anything the tiniest bit sad and I've got tears streaming down my face!

Um, we have a cop behind us...

Tonight we are coming home from grocery shopping. It is snowy, cold and yucky here today, but we desperately needed to go so we took our chances. Anyway we are a few blocks from our house and we have to stop to let a train by. Pretty soon Jesse says "We have a cop behind us." Sure enough I start to notice the flashing lights reflecting off the snow around us. I said "Are they pulling you over??? Were you speeding??? Please don't tell me you just fish-tailed and played in the snow with a cop behind you!!!?" (Side note... Jesse and snow... he can't resist! The snow never gets old for him. He is constantly sliding his back end around and fish-tailing every where we go.) Jesse didn't think he was speeding and he wasn't sure why we were being pulled over.

This is the very first time I have ever been pulled over! Jesse has been pulled over a few times before but has never gotten a ticket... just warnings.

It was girl cop! She comes up and tells us that we have burnt out headlight! WHEW!!! Then she asks for our driver licenses... Jesse still has his Appleton address on his! She tells him he really only has 30 days to get that changed after we moved. She asks for my licenses and like the good little girl that I am... I have the correct address. She says "Leave it to the women to do things the right way." : ) She was a very cool cop and was joking!

Lady cop goes back to her car with our licenses and says she is going to write us up a warning for our headlight giving us 5 days to get it fixed... plus Jesse needs to get his licenses updated. While the cop is back running our files or writing up our ticket or whatever she was doing... Jesse says, "She can run our files all she wants she isn't going to find anything on us." Which I giggled and said "Yeah, I'm sure my little episode where I stole gas has to be off my record by now." We both started giggling.

Did I ever tell you this story? This story where I accidentally stole gas. Yes it was accident! It is a good one... let me share with you...

I was 16. Had my licenses for a few months. Driving this old rickety mini van as my mode of transportation. I don't know where Jesse and I were going (we were dating at the time) but I was driving my oh-so-cool mini van around with Jesse. Needed gas and had Jesse pump gas for me. See here in Wisconsin we have to pump our own! Which I can't stand! I hate pumping gas! Even in Oregon I hated having to stop at the gas station even though I never had to pump it! I don't know what it is about pumping gas... but I don't like it one bit! So... Jesse said he would pump my gas so I let him. I gave him my cash to go inside and pay. He goes inside and comes back out with gummy worms! We take off and head back to my parents house.

We get back to my parents house and no one is home but there is a message on the answering machine. It is the police!!! They are looking for me!!! They think I stole gas! I looked at Jesse and said... you didn't pay for the gas?!! He looks in his wallet and sees my cash in there and says, I guess not, I guess I just bought the gummy worms and forgot. Now what?!!? We head back up to the gas station to apologize and explain what happened and to pay them! Then we have to head to the cop shop to explain what happened to them! After all this I realize... I never deleted the message from the answering machine! What if my parents heard it! I freak out. I know I did nothing wrong, but I just felt so bad! We find my parents out at the hunting shack and I explain what happened. I think I even cried. Me cry - yeah right! ; ) Pretty sure my parents laughed at me and said... I think you learned your lesson. Kind of like the time I tried to skip school and broke down about 9pm that night and had to tell them I skipped school. They laughed!

Hopefully this little blueberry (and our future children) take after me lots!!

Thanksgiving Memory

Our Thanksgiving this year was very low key. We spent the morning and afternoon with my family and then went to Jesse's parents for the big feast!

While we were at my parents house my sister was there with her kids. I had to make a dessert to take to the Freys so I thought it would be real fun to have Elly help me! I was making a pumpkin pudding with ginger snap cookies layered between the pudding. An easy take on pumpkin pie... I don't bake so this was the perfect route for me.

I sent Elly up to the bedroom where all my stuff was because I forgot the gingersnap cookies. Here is how the conversation went while we yelled back and forth to each other...

Elly: I can't see the cookies Tia!
Me: Look harder. They are in my blue bag along the wall.
Elly: I still can't see them Tia!
Shannon (Elly's Mom): She doesn't know how to look. She just stands in the room and spins in circles until you come show her where it is.
Me: Elly do you see my suitcase?
Elly: Yes.
Me: Now look for my blue bag and look inside for a box of cookies.
I now realize I forgot my serving bowl up there too and it is heavy and glass and I don't think I trust Elly with it. So I'm running upstairs to get it and to show her where those cookies are hiding. As I get half way up the stairs Elly is coming down and she has the box of cookies open and is eating the cookies!!!
Me: **giggling** Elly you can't eat the cookies!! We need to put them in the dessert we are going to make.
Elly: But I like them!
Me: Okay, you can eat that one but we need to save the rest.

I dump all the cookies on the counter and tell her she can eat the broken ones. They are gone in seconds. We mix up the pumpkin pudding and now she wants to eat my pudding. Doesn't your Mother feed you??! I get her a spoon so she can scoop a little out and eat some. Well she doesn't want that little spoon she wants the big spatula. I finally convince her to use the little spoon and she is satisfied... for a little while.

When it came time for all of us to go our separate ways she was not so happy that I wasn't going to the same place she was. She wanted my pumpkin pudding!!