So Sad...

Head hanging in shame, voluntarily sitting in her kennel (her safe spot/ time-out spot) Vista waits for me to say it's alright for her to come out. I was trying to sit peacefully and work on the computer, yet with every little noise from outside came a "terror" bark as if Vista was scared of something. I continually scolded her and told her to lay down, but it wasn't working until I yelled, "Vista! Hush up!" and gave her the look. She ran into her kennel and stayed their for 45 minutes. Is this how parenting is going to be??? Wait....don't answer that ;)

Momma and the Baby

As of yesterday I am officially 27 weeks along and feeling good. This has been a fantastic pregnancy as far as I am feeling (that's the operative word). It wasn't until mid-November did any worries arise. It all started because I went to the hospital with excruciating back pain. I was checked over in the maternity ward, then sent to the ER because nothing was wrong with me baby-wise. Thank goodness! After a long day in the ER the doctor said I might have kidney stones and I would hopefully pass them...super.....I left the hospital with no defining answers.

When I went back in for my next OB appointment my doctor said she was concerned with the ultrasound done on me as far as the length of my cervix was and the estimated weight of the baby-as well as an in-office test she had performed where my cervix was feeling soft. All three things were not good. So she prescribed weekly ultrasounds to monitor my cervix and the baby and to begin visiting her every 2 weeks, along with taking more breaks at work so I'm not on my feet for eight hours.

I followed up with my first official ultrasound appointment and was told I needed to go to the hospital and get checked over. I, of course, began sobbing thinking the absolute worst. I wasn't given any info except I needed to wait 24 hours because I was going to have an FFN done. I called my doctor from the ultrasound clinic to explain what was going on and she said that my cervix was short enough to possibly go into labor and the FFN would help determine if I was. I did as I was told and went to the hospital. By the next day my cervix had already improved and the FFN came out negative (a good thing), but I was ordered to go on modified bed rest for the next two weeks. What????!!!!

After those two weeks were up I went back to be examined by my doctor, have another ultrasound, and another FFN. The stats: my cervix had not changed and was still soft and the FFN was once again negative. On the plus side the baby is still small, but gaining weight at a faster rate. My doctor concluded by saying that I would need to stay on modified bed rest for the rest of my pregnancy.

So that's where we are at this point. I went from working like crazy to not working at all. My mom says it's God's way of telling me there are things more precious in life than trying to make an extra buck, and that the rewards in the end will be much greater than I have ever expected. I do believe this is true. Anything I can do to make a perfect home for our baby is what I will do-it's a sacrifice that is definitely worth making. Just another 13 weeks of hanging in there is what we have to do. Keep us in your prayers and hope that he comes out healthy and chubby.

Me at 25 weeks

Baby at 24 weeks

Donny's Elk Hunt

Over Thanksgiving Donny and Mike had a chance to go elk hunting. It started off a rough expedition, then.....bam! They got one. If you want a story you'll definitely have to ask them, because I don't re-tell it well at all. It was a joint effort in taking this guy down and they had almost given up. They might tell you it was pure luck they even encountered this buck, but they're thrilled to say they got him.

Facebook

I did it.....I fell into all your requests and made a facebook page. I've probably already requested most of you, but if I didn't do not be offended I did it in 20 minutes because I have to go to work. We'll see how this goes because I did not enjoy the whole myspace thing. See you all around on the internet!!!!!

It's A Boy!!!

Last Tuesday we found out baby Grace is officially a boy! So far everything is going well with the pregnancy. Little baby Grace is becoming quite the kicker/flicker. My baby bump is starting to grow- pictures coming soon:)

What we've been up to....

D-Backs Game/Donny's B-Day: Donny's work rented the dugout suites for the last game of the season, which also happened to be Donny's 26th B-day. We were right next to the D-Backs players, it was pretty awesome!

My 26th Birthday: My wonderful husband took me for a long weekend to the Princess Resort in Scottsdale. We had a great time eating out, hanging by the pool, and walking around the beautiful grounds.

Donny's Scuba Trip: Back in August Donny went on his official certification dive at Catalina Island. He had a ton of fun using all his "skills" and "making it back to the top" (a little joke).

What I'm thinking RIGHT now ;)

Inventory last night...it was supposed to go until midnight-that did not happen. It went until 1:30 am-and my store was a mess......of course, no one could come in to clean.....so I did with only having 4 hours of sleep. I was there this morning until 11 am-then I had to go to Target and pick up some essentials (no deoderant is not a good thing). Got back home about noon and there is much more in my home that needs to be done: dishes, loads of laundry, scrubbing bathrooms. cleaning floors, and vacuuming....maybe more. So now I'm just angry that inventory people are dumb and messy-they have made me tired and angry, and my house is sill dirty. I have 45 minutes to clean up and get into work so that I can babysit the "Friday Night" kids whose parents dropped them off at the mall so they wouldn't have to spend family time together (told you I was angry >:( ) So if you happen to run into to me while you are there, sorry if I'm in a bad mood. Promise you'll have a better Friday than me. Happy Saturday! (because I will have had sleep by then).

Oh Baby? Yeah Baby!!

About 2 months ago I began to have tons of strange dreams. They involved Donny holding a baby, me changing a baby's diaper, a baby crying about something and I had to help it, etc. The following week I was due to get my "monthly". Of course, it did not arrive on the expected day-no shocker there-that's just how my system has always worked. Not really thinking anything of the dreams, or the fact that I was "late"-went on with my day-to-day. My next day off from work happened to be a weekday, so I put myself into cleaning mode: floors, laundry, dishes, the works! I had the TV on all day while I was hustling and bustling about. Low and behold every single show had to do with a baby in some way: Charmed-Piper was going into labor....Full House-Becky tries to tell Jesse that she's pregnant....The Today Show-Nancy Grace talking about going back to work with her twins....Friends-The one where Phoebe finds out she's pregnant. The light bulb clicked: am I pregnant? I really had to go the bathroom so I told myself to hold it-we're going to Target-I've got to buy some pregnancy tests!!!!! I made that trip, came home, and did my thing. 3 short minutes later I found out that I was going to be a mommy. I couldn't be happier! I began sobbing and smiling and didn't know what to do......should I immediately call Donny? Should I call the doctor? Do I need to go buy some prenatal vitamins? Too many thoughts at once. So what do I do when I get worried-call April. We chatted and came up with a game plan, also known as, April calming me down :) I decided that I would come up with a cute way to tell Donny the following night. I was far too nervous and giddy over the next day that no cuteness came to mind. So later that night I simply told him that I took a pregnancy test (3 at this point) and unless First Response was untrustworthy, we were going to have a baby!

So surprise, surprise! We're having a baby :) Now that I'm feeling real well and officially into my second trimester I thought I should blog about it. This little bundle of joy is set to join us March 28, 2010-so probably early April.

There is so much more that has happened in our lives I need to update everyone on and I will get to that quite soon! Until then......thanks for reading

A Wabbit

THE SCENE:

It's 12:15am and I step out of my car........what the heck! There's a cute little rabbit in my front yard!.....I stalk it.....and stalk it.....then, chase it down the road.......and stalk it some more.....then feed it some grass.......then a little more stalking......then BAM!!!! I got him!!!

This cute little guy escaped out of our neighbor's backyard. For two-and-a-half days I had a precious little bunny living in my bathtub. He was so sweet that I almost wanted to keep him-until he escaped out of the tub and chewed a GIANT hole in the side of the towel basket as well as poop and pee all over the towels.

Until we meet again my sweet Snowball......

Bath Time

Sometimes I feel bad when we have to give her a bath......but then she does something bad, and I don' t feel that way anymore.

The Grown Up Backyard

As of July 11, 2009 our backyard was considered finished. I'm so stoked! (I'm channelling Keanu Reeves for this one) The sod was laid on Saturday thanks to Donny, my bro-Adam, and my bro-in-law-Mike. So thanks to the 3 of you for doing it. :) It's been a long process-seeing as how it all began in February. So last night Donny and I decided to eat our dinner in our new beautiful backyard-a Grown Up Backyard!

Hangin' at the Pool

On Saturday my sister-in-law and friend Carrie went to Firesky Resort in Scottsdale to lay by the pool and have some drinks. It was the perfect little getaway, for just a few hours. Thanks for the pic Stace! ;)

Greer `09

We came home from Greer a week ago Wednesday and it's been crazy with everything that goes on day-to-day to be able to do this specific post in a timely manner. So, I apologize to those who read my blog. I realize that the events listed in July are not quite in chronological order.

This year was better than last year....and for Donny and I this is now our third time we have graced Greer with our presence-and guess what?!.....I didn't get sick this time! Woo Hoo!! We did a ton of fun/relaxin' STUFF! My favorite was playing a new game called Ladder Ball. Super Easy....well, it was for those of us who totally dominated their first try (that was me :p ) We also went on a fun little bike ride-which turned out to be so exhausting at the end. So, April and I decided to relax and give ourselves some quickie pedies. Oh, and the questionable pic of me is how bored I was when everyone came in all tired and noone would play with me. So sad.....

Drum Roll Please......

Good News! Yesterday I had a conference call at work and they announced that we're coming out of Chapter 11 by the end of the month. YAY!!!!!! So I guess I'll still have a job, insurance, and a ton of stress. Can you feel the excitement?! It still has me thinking, though: Is there something else I was meant to do? I feel like I have a hidden talent or cause tucked inside of me-real deep- and I haven't found it yet.....maybe I have special powers (I've been watching ALOT of Charmed lately) :p

4th of July

What did you do on 4th of July? As my brother put it, "I killed his dreams." So this is how the story goes.....My sister and bro-in-law were in town and staying with my parents. My parents were having a mini BBQ to celebrate and thought we should all go watch fireworks, naturally. So we piled into 3 cars and headed on out to Queen Creek to catch a good spot. It all started out quite lovely as we/I decide we should take pictures of how excited we were to see the fireworks (see pics below). Of course Donny resisted.....and everyone else was game. We searched.....and searched.....and searched-then we missed a ton of good ones because we were following my dad, and passed them all. Finally! We find a spot and park in the Queen Creek High School parking lot to catch a glimpse. Now, I don't know if it was the fact that I was frustrated with looking too long, or the fact that I was extremely hot from being wedged between 2 uncontrollably sweaty men in the backseat of Ape and Cam's car, but that's when it happened-I killed my brother's dreams. The mini conversation went something like this:

Adam: "I wonder how they make fireworks and how they get all those designs and colors..."
Erin: "It's SCIENCE." (I had seen a special on the Discovery Channel)

And with those 2 little words-my little brother's dreams died. He turned to me and said, "Well, aren't you a dream killer? Couldn't you have lied to me and said it's magic?! Or maybe it's Tinkerbell up there waving her wand around? Jeez.....some big sister you are."

Coming from my brother it wasn't that big of a deal-but the fact that he hasn't given up on the dream killing thing for a week IS a big deal. So, this is my formal apology: I'M SORRY :( I never meant to kill your dreams. In fact, I think that special I watched was a complete hoax. I personally believe that it's God throwing out giant sprinkles so that we all are smiling and happy ALL at the same time.


HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!!!!!

Circus, Circus, Circus!!!

This post is defnitely 2 weeks late....but we all know the saying, right? We went to the Circus on some free tickets my father-in-law received, payed for some ridiculously priced popcorn, and had a ball. :) It was only the 2nd time I have ever been and I still think it's great! Elephants are truly amazing animals-and I kept thinking/wishing, "I hope we don't show up on that show: When Animals Attack." That is.....in regards to the elephants and their ability to squish me like a pancake.

Meet Herbie

This.....is HERBIE. Herbie has been visiting our house for the past month, now. Though he is not dangerous to us-he's definitely caused quite a scare a time or two.....whether he was flying at our faces or trying to get into our house by way of Vista's mouth-he has certainly out-stayed his welcome. Since I wanted to know exactly what I was dealing with I decide to do some research on my good buddy. Herbie is known as a Paloverde Root Borer and is quite harmless, but the fact that he is quite LARGE does not sit well with me. I actually felt more in tune with nature when I landed on this site: http://fireflyforest.net/firefly/2005/07/09/paloverde-root-borer/ , I had the chance to learn a ton about Herbie and other types of beetles that are native to Arizona. Hopefully you will too!


The Before......

....And the After.......

This was before I had a chance to gain a little knowledge on the poore little guy. May he rest in peace.