....well, still frustrated...

So, I took down my last post. Not because every single bit of it wasn't true....but because I don't need drama in my life....I have enough and I don't want anymore of it. I took it down because apparently, it was offensive to some. I will restate that I love Madison very much, and I do treat her very well.....Being a step parent is the single most difficult thing I have ever done, but I think I am a good step mom. I do my BEST at it. But I also cannot wait to become a real mom to my own child. I don't think there is anything wrong with being excited about that. Have a good day.

SuMMer has ARRived!

Sorry, I was slow in posting this week. And sorry no new pics. Truth is, I am being lazy. And, I've been too busy to sit down at this computer for the length of time it takes to add pictures!!!

Things are moving along, and summer has finally gotten here! I mean, really gotten here! Its been in the high 80s, and HOT. But, its better than cold. :) Small progress has been made at the house....Eric is ready to do drywall, and I got the carpet ordered. Madison's walls are finished being painted and I am going to finish the bathroom, hopefully, today! So, that's all good. Eric is thinking we might be able to move in about two weeks. Here's hoping! :)

They finished planting Saturday. Yay!!! I think that means I have to start cooking again. Boo. :( I need to....it would be much healthier for the baby.

Speaking of baby, I am now 16 weeks! Crazy how far I have made it, how fast it is going, and how little time is left before the ultrasound. I cannot wait for this! I am so anxious to find out what we are having. People keep asking me what I think it might be, and I honestly have NO idea!! I did have a dream the other night it was a boy...but I am not sure that means anything?? We will see. The ultrasound should be happening when I am about 20 weeks. I plan on calling the Dr. office tomorrow to see when that can be scheduled. :) Other good news is a girl at work offered to GIVE us her crib from her kids. I was planning on just using the one we have out in the barn that I bought at a garage sale when Madison was small...but, this option is much better! She brought me a picture of it last night and its very nice and cute! So excited! Now, I just really want some kind of cute armoire to paint or something. Maybe I can find that on craigslist? or a used furniture store? hmmmm....

What else can I tell ya? we took the dogs swimming for the first time on Saturday evening. It was hilarious! Lexi jumped right in head first when she saw the pond. So cute ;) Then, Eric gave them all baths.....fun stuff.

That's all for now, folks.

Our Little HiDinG HeaRtBeAt

14 WEEKS!!!!

...and today was our appointment............finally. Monday's appt. got canceled, and then they called to cancel today's appt. because the Dr. was sick.......but, thankfully they said I could see the nurse practitioner again instead. (I STILL haven't met my doctor!!!) So, we go in, and I am excited to FINALLY get to hear the heartbeat......and she couldn't find it!!....anywhere.

She then stepped out of the room to see if she could get an ultrasound scheduled.....and I started to cry, of course......I had just had this feeling we wouldn't get to hear it for some reason......She was able to get us in for an ultrasound, and the next 90 minutes

seemed to be an eternity...

When we finally went back (and I had to pee so bad I thought I would die because you have to have a full bladder!), she took some images and said she could see the heart beating. She had me go to the bathroom (thank GOD!) and then finished the study. We got to see the whole body...arms, legs, face, head, abdomen, feet...it was really surreal and such a relief. Heartbeat was 149. She said it was too early to see boy/girl parts...so, we have to wait until probably 20 weeks for another ultrasound to find out.

It felt so weird to be looking at that screen seeing he/she move all around and know that was going on inside me. I still just can't believe there's a baby in there! I am not sure why, but its such a strange feeling to me to be pregnant. I guess I never thought it would really happen. I am excited and nervous....but, everybody says thats normal.....so, I will just go with it! :)

On the house front, more progress is being made. I got lights for the entryway, stairway, and living room.....big step!!!! It takes me a loooooooooooong time to make decisions, so to have that done is big! And I have been itching to do SOMETHING at the house myself, so I painted Madison's room yesterday. Its not completely finished...but, it felt good to accomplish a little bit. :)

I will post some pics this week sometime of all this exciting stuff! :)

Can't wait for Eric's family to be in town and for his cuz's wedding. (I bought a maternity dress to wear.... LOL )

My HusBanD thE PlaNTer...................

Not much has changed since last week.....Eric has been able to be in the fields planting since the end of the week, and they haven't stopped!!! But, actually, this is really good news because... planting early now=an early harvest!!!! Which=he should be done in the fall before the baby gets here!!! That is REALLY good news! That way it won't be a stress being off work, and he will actually be able to take a week off or so to get adjusted at home. :) :) So, plant away boys!!! They should finish this week if it doesn't rain....however, there's a chance of rain tonight.

On the baby front, I am now 13 weeks!!!! Moving into my second trimester!!!! Crazy, I know! My email today said the baby is the size of a peach (or 2.9 inches)! I cannot honestly believe I have something the size of a peach inside me. I am kind of anxious to go to our doctor's appointment next week because its been so long since I was there! We will get to hear the heartbeat, and then I should feel better about it.... It still just seems impossible that I am pregnant right now! But, then I have the very frequent bathroom stops, exhaustion, hunger/nausea to remind me! lolAt the house, Eric just needs to finish up a little more work himself, but since he's been in the fields, he hasn't been able to go over there to work......then we are paying a guy to come drywall the staircase because its such a hard job. Then, paint everywhere and carpet in the living room, then we should be ready!.....so, I am thinking a couple more weeks........... :)

It would be great to be in by the time Eric's parents get here for his cousin Abby's wedding on the 22nd...but, I don't know if thats gonna happen! We will see! :)

Making our HOUSE a HOME

SOLD!!!

Well, I've hit 12 weeks!!! They are saying our little one is the size of a plum now....or about 2 and 1/2 inches. We have our next apt. in two weeks and should get to hear the heartbeat then! Can't wait for that!! and then sometime in June we should be able to find out the sex of the baby! yee haw! :) :) :) I have been feeling pretty good most of the time, except at work all night. Its horrible, and I get so tired. But, thats part of working nights I guess. I get to work three in a row this week, starting tonight. So, wish me luck!

I thought I would put up some pics of the demolition that is happening at the new place!!! Eric has been working hard the past few days, as well as our good friend Brian England. Its SO nice to have a good friend who is willing to help out during times like this. Otherwise, Eric would be doing a lot of it himself.

Its absolutely amazing to see how much tearing out the walls around the staircase has changed the look of the house!

Here is before:

During demo (they found a door behind the walls at the bottom of the stairs!! We plan to make this our "entryway" into the house!):

After:
Its so awesome how much it has opened up the space from the kitchen into the living room! We are trying to decide what to do with the stairs now...Carpet or just refinish the hardwood?? Then we will have to have a handrail/banister done for it. Its gonna be so pretty! :)

This is the "blue room", or what I thought I was making Madison's room, but now it might be the baby's room.....they had put in a closet there in the corner that looked really cheaply done...So, of course, Eric decided to tear it out and redo it. As you can see the floors are painted white...

Here is what was behind the walls: An amazing brick chimney! I love exposed brick so much!! So, Eric is going to put another closet in that corner and then leave the brick exposed! So awesome! And the floors in both this room and the other room are going to be left painted white I will post more "reno" pics in later posts....I have stuff to do today!

It was so pretty out yesterday, so I decided to take a few more pics outside so everyone who looks at the blog could get a better idea of how awesome it is out there:

Of course, this is the front again. LOVE :)

The side yard:

The big horse barn:

The HUGE shop (you don't know until you see the inside!):

This used to be the "washhouse" but we think it will be a great playhouse for the kids! :

The back pasture (it goes back past those big trees):

I got a LIME in the CoCoNUT!!

So every week, I get an email on Monday (which is my week-anniversary date of being pregnant) from http://www.thebump.com/ . In the email, it tells you what to expect right now in your pregnancy, what you should be doing, and the size of your baby this week!!!! So, last week was prune.....this week, he/she is the size of a LIME!!!! It seems like such a big change in one week to me! Crazy how fast they grow in there and you don't even know it!

I am still fitting in my pre-pregnant jeans without any problem really, but buttoning them isn't very comfortable....so, I have started the elastic band thing. However, I don't really wear jeans that often, so, its not a huge deal. I did go to Target on Saturday to buy birthday presents and ended up buying a Be-band (to help hide the unbuttoned jeans), a maternity tank top that i should be able to wear the whole pregnancy under things, and a couple of other long tanks and a t-shirt. So, I was excited to buy my first "maternity" clothes. lol

I was able to see my girlfriends from college this weekend and tell them our big news. It was so great to see them all and tell them all at once. Now, I finally get to join the "mom-club" officially with all of them! They are all such great mom's and, even tho I have taken Madison with me when I see them, its been weird being the last one to become a mother. I just hope I can be as great of a mom as they all are. I love you girls!

Other news: WE CLOSED ON THE NEW HOUSE THIS PAST FRIDAY!!!

We got a key right away and headed over to look around (again)! With the rain this weekend, we were able to get over there yesterday and work. Eric has already done so much work to the yard, and he was also able to start ripping up floors yesterday. Its amazing what we found in the living room! Under that awful board they had covering the it, was an amazing fireplace. The tiles surrounding the brick inside is beautiful (well, to me...maybe not as much to Eric)...I looked up the information we found on the back of one of the tiles and it dates back to 1890! LOVE IT! The hardwood floors underneath the three layers of carpet, linoleum, and luan board is awesome as well. I think we are going to go ahead and carpet the living room and stairs tho for now, and leave the bedrooms hardwood. :)

My mom and I got down and dirty and started the cleaning. We got a lot accomplished...but, let me tell you...this house was DIRTY! and my body hurts all over today!

Sorry the pics are kinda blurry! My cell phone camera lens has a scratch on it and EVERY pic I take with it is blurry! grrrr!

The making of a prune........

Well, everything seems to be going well with the pregnancy so far! Well, for the baby that is! I, on the other hand, feel like crap!!! Not all of the time, mostly when I am at work and sometimes in the evenings. Its gotten a little better tho actually. So, I am hoping it will pass all together in time!

I had a Dr. appointment last Friday and everything checked out okay. She ordered some lab work that I had done this past Friday. Normal pregnancy labs, an HIV test, urine tests, and a glucose tolerance test. She wanted me to have the glucose test now because of some of my previous symptoms that could indicate I have polycystic ovaries. And polycystic ovaries causes glucose instability. Lets just hope that test is normal!! Because I really don't want to start messing with my blood sugars right now! We have another appointment in a few weeks and should get to hear the heartbeat then!

This picture is a little old now, but I thought I would post it anyway......Here she/he is at 6 weeks and 4 days.....sooooooooooooo small. I am 10 weeks tomorrow and "it" will be about the size of a prune (or 1 1/2 inches long) :)

We are moving right along with the house. Closing this coming Friday! Crazy how fast its all went.....we aren't sure right now if we will get the keys then, or if they guy will want some time to finish getting his stuff out. He had told Eric he would probably be out by closing, and considering all he really had was a couch, table, small bed and dresser to move....that shouldn't be a problem! But, according to the purchase agreement, he has 14 days to get OUT! :) So, we will see. I need to get busy on packing! And as soon as we have the keys, there is a lot to be done before we can move in! :)

I am going to be doing my best to keep this blog updated! I know there are people we don't get to talk to much, and like to keep up on what we are doing. Feel free to comment on the blogs! (So I know who all is reading them!)

P.S. Eric started planting yesterday! Let the fun begin!