Almost There

I'm going every week now to the doctor until delivery. Things seem to be progressing nicely. I've had 2 colds in the past 3 weeks and apparently coughing mimics contractions so there is a small chance this little one could come early. We'll see. His kicks are getting so strong that he feels like he's just going to break out on his own. I'm not sure what labor is going to be like but I can say that as far as pregnancy goes it's been a rather uneventful one (despite all my complaining). I'm very thankful for that. I'm finishing up the baby room this week and getting the stroller and car seat just in case I run out of time. The excitement grows and so does my need for sleep. I used to feel guilty spending all day on the couch but I'm finding it's so hard to get up that it's just easier if I just sit there. I'm very ready to see this little one and be able to get on a horse again.

Quote of the Day:

Robert California: Last week an accounting mistake resulted in a client getting their order for free.
Andy: Ooh. That's not good. Chalk that one up to Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb out there.
Robert California: Who're they?
Andy: They're both Kevin.

Oh Baby

So, here he is. It took us a while to get a photo of his little face. He was fast asleep even though they had me drink a very sugary drink to wake him up. It was so amazing when he came into focus. The lady doing the ultrasound even went over our scheduled time to make sure we were able to see him as long as possible. It's motivated us to get the baby room organized and ready. Plus, I'm feeling rather huge these days so the sooner we get everything fixed the better. I have about five thousand photos and some are really cute. I'm so excited!!

Quote of the Day: "Death once had a near Chuck Norris experience."

3-D

We go Saturday with hordes of family for the 3D ultrasound. I'm so excited! I should get a DVD with it so I can put him on the blog. If all goes well this will be the last ultrasound until we see him in person. I hope he's awake. If not I might bring some sugar to help him wake up. Then I'll let him sleep the rest of the day. The nursery is in progress...not like he's even going in there for awhile. He'll be staying with me. He's a pretty active baby. He kicks like a wild man and this morning he found a fun new nerve in my back to jump on. I've heard that being active in the womb usually means a calm baby in person. Let's hope so. If not I'll have to recruit Cedar to help babysit.

Quote of the Day: "Last night, I dreamed that the number two was the most valued number in the world. The vice-president had all the power, athletes fought for silver medals, women were considered the best gender, and stadiums of fans shouted, "we're number two!" As with all my dreams, I'm guessing it was about my fear of immigrants." -Dwight Schrute

What I Can't Do

I rode a horse the other day. It wasn't a great idea. I didn't fall off and John stood and played safety patrol so I didn't do anything stupid but it wasn't a comfortable experience. It did show me how much I've missed riding. Now that I'm about halfway through this pregnancy I'm really starting to get stretched out and a little uncomfortable. I know it only gets "better." I'm trying to enjoy it but goodness gracious am I tired. My OB laughed at me my last trip when he found me almost asleep waiting for him in the exam room. I got the "you think you're tired now" speech. Anyway, so far so good.

I'm sad about missing State Fair this year but there are other competitions I can enter besides the horse show. John is also going to be entering some competitions. I'm excited for him. He has a pretty good chance of doing well. We are considering entering Laurel in one of the classes at the horse show on a friend's horse. She has become quite the little rider. She talks about it all the time and has bonded with Lilly. Noah even rode last weekend. We had to tone him down a bit. Screaming "heeeya" at the horse while snapping the reins may be how the cowboys on TV do it but Lilly just froze and didn't know how to react to the little monster on her back. If his allergies hold off we can probably do lessons with him too. TWO YOUTH RIDERS! Hopefully I can start posting more often. We have been so busy with barn activities (injured horses, barn drama) that posting has been last on my list. It would be fun to put up a ultrasound photo or 2. I'll see if I can figure that one out.

Quote of the Day: "This morning Danny Cordrea stole a sale from me so what do I do? I go out and I steal Danny Cordrea. Funny thing about it, we don't even need 'em. We already have Packer on the road! Crrrrap. I forgot about Packer!" -Michael Scott

Who dat?

Have you ever had one of those days where you just expected the "same ole" and then WHAM you get hit in the head. Not a literal hit...but it sort of feels like that anyway. As you can see by my baby ticker in the corner I'm about 16 weeks into my pregnancy. We had a regular OB appointment set up last week and they we where to go back this coming Monday to find out if we were having a boy or girl. Well, we did the fun glucose test, took blood, saw the doctor and then were told we needed to wait for the ultrasound because they were running a little behind. WHAT! They had my chart messed up and they had scheduled the ultrasound for that day. What an incredible surprise. We waited about an hour for the room but it was so worth it. I was so excited (not to mention hyper from the sugar test) that I talked John to death waiting but finally they called us back. Now, I haven't seen the baby since 7 1/2 weeks and then it just looked like a jelly bean with a tail. Still a very moving experience but nothing like what we were about to see. We could immediately make out the baby. The lady did measurements, movement, made sure all the parts were there (not like it would have made a difference to us) and then went to check on gender. I've had a strange feeling that I'd be having a girl since before I got pregnant and I just knew that this would confirm it....just knew. John didn't really have a preference but I knew deep down he would love to have a tractor buddy. Well.......







A tractor buddy it is!!!!!! I'm so excited:)

Quote of the Day: "Raising kids is part joy and part guerrilla warfare." -Ed Asner

HOT!

Boy is it hot!!! I feel so badly for the horses that stand out in this all day. Back when we broke 100 we brought all the pasture board horses in for the weekend just so they could have some relief from it all. It really seemed to help them. Even the shelters don't do much to cool them off when it's this bad. I helped John get hay up last Saturday. It was the rush of the century. We could see the storm clouds building and had about 50-75 bales in the field....and....the tractor decided to not work. After frantically whamming on it it kicked into gear and off we went. Only 15 bales left to go when the storm of the century hit. I think I took 4 showers that day cooling off and then going back out to help. This weekend the hay will have to wait. We have a wedding to attend...in 105 degree heat.

Quote of the Day: "Dwight has been Acting Manager for three months now? ... Nope. A week. Just feels like three months. Let's see, we all have to punch into a time clock, which is very old, very strong, and has the slot about the size of a finger. We were all given new business cards, big enough to set us apart from the competition. Which is how I learned that our titles are now Junior Employee. Our lunch breaks are staggered to prevent wasting time. Mine's at 10:30 and I find that the first hour of the day goes by a lot quicker than the second seven hours." -Jim Halpert

I Dont' Ever Post Anymore

Life has gotten a little wild lately. I completely forgot that I even had a blog! Work is nuts and the horses have had to fend for themselves. They don't seem to worried about eating grass all day and hanging out under their shelter when it gets hot. We did go to a local show this past weekend. John took Scout and I took Lilly. I didn't ride but I did show model classes and John won the trail class. My cousins showed all day and won high point you and overall high point champion. I'm glad we had a good day. That will be the last show we go to for awhile. This heat is crazy and it's just hard to go outside for anything. John is working like a dog on the farm. It's his busy season too. Most evenings we just collapse on the couch and stare at the TV....very productive. Well, I'll try to post more often. Life is about to get interesting!

Quote of the Day: "In my family, you don't really go out and get things. If you want something, you write it on a list, and then the housekeeper goes out and gets it on Wednesdays and Fridays. So I don't know. I guess you could say that this job is on my list. And we'll see what Rosa comes back with." -Andy (The Office)

Weekend

John and I went away for a holiday weekend last Friday to celebrate our one year anniversary. My aunt has a house near the mountains and we went and stay several days and did absolutely nothing. I loved it. We did, however, manage to go to my grandma's farm and fish for half a day. John kept catching turtles. It was fun.

We took Lilly and Cole to a horse show recently. Cole acted so badly that we had to cancel most of his classes and John had to ride him for over an hour just so he would stand quietly at the horse trailer. Lilly did great. Hopefully I'll have photos soon (I know I always say that but I really mean it this time).

Nothing more for now.

Quote of the Day: "Today will either be the best or the worst day of my life. Holly gave AJ an ultimatum. He either proposes by New Year's or they break up. Now, if she's engaged, I'm gonna go crazy, and I'm gonna start attacking people. If she's not engaged, in all honesty, I may just burn this whole place to the ground out of happiness. Either way, I am going to need some talking down. And nobody talks me down like myself in a video talking me down." -Michael Scott

Warm Days = Naps (and riding horses)

I am so glad the weather is finally warming up. That means horse shows and working on my garden. We were preparing to go to the first show of the season on Saturday when we were told the show was canceled. We were pretty disappointed. So, we changed plans and had a trail ride/picnic instead. IT WAS GREAT. We rode all over the farm with my 2 cousins and one of our boarders before we stopped for lunch...got attacked by ticks...and then finished the ride. I'm glad the show was canceled. It was awesome. Now we have to get ready for the next show in exactly one month. I think we'll be ready.

It has definitely been the winter of sickness. All we've done is bounce around colds. I was feeling pretty cruddy so I went to the doctor to get blood work done. My vitamin D level was too low. She said a lot of women are coming in with low vit. D levels. But, it's an easy fix. I'm taking 2,000 iu's a day to get caught up. It may take several months but I hope it does the trick.

Oh, I have become a Scentsy freak! Have any of you come across this? They are little (or big) plug in warmers with some of the best smells ever. No kidding. I've bought 2 warmers already and about 12 different little smelly blocks to melt in them. I don't even sell this stuff but I would be a perfect spokesperson. Poor John. I'm so thankful he puts up with me.

Quote of the Day: "First up, the lost and found has gone missing. It itself, is lost. So please try not to lose anything until we find it." -Michael Scott

Lots going on...nothing to talk about.

I really enjoy having sit on the couch evenings. We've been pretty busy with the barn lately and it seems like things are picking up. Horse show season is right around the corner and I've ridden my horses a total of 3 times since the fair. I'm actually impressed at how much my horses retained since last season. I got a lot of riding in last year and I'm sure they needed some time off. It's just the getting in shape part that's going to be difficult. John and I laugh at the extreme hay bellies they've all developed. Even always skinny Aari looks a little pudgy. I started this year with visions of increasing my riding lessons but quickly found that it was too much right now. Maybe later. Wallace and Rubble went to the mobile vet yesterday to get spay/neutered. I got a phone call about an hour in that Rubble was only 2lbs and she was too young. Wallace was actually huge so they were able to go ahead with his de-tomcatting. At least they can't get married now. My biggest fear was that we would have a sunroom full of beautiful half feral kittens. Rubble goes NOWHERE until she gains 2 more pounds and I trot her off to the vet. Oh, Valentines Day is almost here!!! I'm so excited. I've already bought John his present/ online/ discount price. He knows what it is so I can't really surprise him so I need one more really good idea. And, that's what I'll be working on for the next few weeks;)

Oh, and I don't do resolutions. Just thought I'd say that. Kind of takes the pressure off 2011. Except, I do want to finish writing a book I started several years ago. Nope, not my resolution though.

Quote of the Day: "I made a resolution to floss, and I did it. 12:01, January first, BAM! Blood everywhere." -Michael Scott

He's Well!

The old horse is now frolicking around with the other horses. Well, he actually just stands there and they frolic around him. I am so glad he's better and he healed rather quickly. My cousin got a horse for Christmas. I drove up to see him on Saturday. Absolutely beautiful and very sweet. I have pictures! Also, Christmas etc. are over. I killed Christmas at my house last night. It took forever to get everything wrapped up in paper and stored away. Then I ate a salad. I did get some cool stuff. One gift John gave me was pillows. Sounds not that exciting but if you've ever had to live with a really crappy pillow then you know how wonderful it is to find the perfect one. His mom gave me a magic pot from pampered chef. I've already used it twice. It really is magic. With the weather trying very hard to warm up I really want to get back to riding. My horses are fat and scraggly. They need a job.

ps- I found this photo my mom took the day of the bridal portraits! I think it's pretty.

Quote of the Day: "Having Luke here is a pretty big deal for me. Because his mother, who also happens to be my half sister, kind of cut me off from that side of the family fifteen years ago--fourteen. The last time I saw Luke, was the opening day of Ace Ventura 2. And that was '95. So yes, fifteen years on the dot. Anyway, I lost him in a forest." -Michael Scott