Quality Time

New House Pics

Pictures of our new (empty!!) house:
(Dining room, hall way and all the burgundy walls need to be repainted - probably tomorrow.)
Paul forgot to get any of the front of the house, Judah's room, the office/guest room or the garage. Oh well!
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The Guest Bathroom:
It had a hideous mirror hanging here, so it was taken down and we'll find something to go in its place. Maybe replace the lights too.
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The dining room. We'll try to scrub some of the soot off the brick. We'd love to add a mantel too! There's a second identical window on the other side of the fireplace.

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Master Bedroom

the view from the bathroom to the door (back right)
view from the corner across from the door in to the master bath.
master bathroom - it has toilet and bathtub too.
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The Kitchen -

looking at it from the dining room. We can't stand the border, or the color. So those will be changed eventually. On the back right hand side is a pantry. There's a window over the sink, looking into the backyard.
Looking at it from the living room.
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Standing in the living room - the beige wall in the back is the dining room wall.
The closets from front to back are - coat closet, furnace, laundry closet.
looking at the front door - across from the coat closet (above)
One end of the living room
The other end of the living room - which opens onto the back porch, the kitchen on the left, and the garage on the right.
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The backyard - it's a good size!
The back of the house from the backyard
The back porch.
A junky play house in the back yard that needs to be fixed up.

Contests!!

OHHH - my dear bloggy friend Crystal told me about the bloggy carnival going on now - you can read about it and all the giveaways offered HERE.
There are literally HUNDREDS of blogs linked here to meet, and, well, they are giving away cool things!! What better thing for me - a person on bedrest with nothing better to do than blog hop?! Thanks Crystal! (Oh, and check her site too because she's hosting a contest!!)

I am going to post to the blogs/contests I enter. Mainly because most of them require you do that to be entered in their contest, but also so you can get to know some more cool blogs!! :)

A BOOK GIVEAWAY from A CALL TO HIGHER PLACES
A GLAMOROUS BLOGGY GIVE-AWAY from REDEFINING SANITY
A COOKBOOK from ALL ABOUT US
A POUND OF COFFEE from WELCOME TO PARENTHOOD
DIGITAL STORY BOOK from MY ENDLESS DAYS OF DIAPER CHANGES
BATH AND BODY WORKS PRODUCTS from FRUGAL HEARTS
ANIMAL PRINT BAG from POLKATOTS AND WHATNOTS
$15 TARGET GIFTCARD from FRUGAL FINDS
$15 I-TUNES GIFTCARD from PROMTHING
BOOK OR CD from REAL LIFE
10 DOZEN CUPCAKES from MOD*MOM
$25 IN GIFTCARDS from MOMMY SWEET MOM
BARNES AND NOBLE GC from REMODELING THIS LIFE
STARBUCKS AND LUSH from AFTER A CUP OF COFFEE OR TWO

From Here on the Couch

Bed-resting is pretty boring. It wasn't so bad over the weekend - when I thought it was only suppose to last for the weekend! - and I was able to watch (and embarrassingly enough complete) Season 1 of Heroes. Never mind how many hours long that is. I had nothing better to do.
But then came Monday - I still took it easy, but I did carry Judah around a bit, I played on the floor with him, I made supper... all things the doctor said were fine to do. But I ended up having abnormal discharge Monday night through Tuesday. I called and talked to a doctor yesterday and she said to remain on bedrest till it stops entirely. It hasn't stopped. So I'm still laying around.
Paul is so sweet about it all - I am SO GLAD that he has two weeks off work. And Judah is being great too. He'll sit beside the couch and put a blanket over his head while I say "Where's Judah?" Then he pulls it off and giggles. I think he knows I'm bored. Little does he know playing "Where's Judah?" for twenty minutes is pretty boring too. But it is cute :)

I spend a lot of time blog hopping... I check my favorite blogs a dozen times a day. Imagine my delight when I saw my Rock-Chick friend -Jessica- wrote a blog post devoted to ME!!
You can check it here - TWIST AND SHOUT

There's a few other blogs worth checking out today.
My bloggy friend Mel, whose fiance died in Iraq almost one year ago, has posted a handsome picture of her soldier in honor of his birthday.
You can see it here - HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Earlier this week she also shared with us about a special blessing. Her and Jim had planned to get married December 7th. On that very day her friend had a baby, who was named after Mel's fiance! A beautiful, bitter-sweet day.
You can read about it here - A LITTLE MIRACLE

Sarge Charlie has a rather wacky sense of humor and this week posted a cartoon that made me laugh.
You can see it here - WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

And finally Nathan - whose wife has CF and three weeks ago delivered their baby prematurely - shared with everyone some of the struggles and set backs his wife has been going through. Nathan updates frequently (or sometimes has family members update) and he has lots of pictures of his little girl - who at three weeks old is 12 inches long and weighing in at 1 lb 4 oz.
You can read the update on his wife here - THE PAST FEW DAYS
And see the most recent pictures of his daughter here - WHITE ROSE BLOOMING


One of the reasons Paul took two weeks off of work is because we are moving from and apartment in to a house. A REAL HOUSE! That we're allowed to paint, and can plant flowers, and has lots of closets. It also has a big back yard. We can officially start moving things in on Friday, but we were given the key yesterday and are allowed to put things in the garage and paint the one bedroom (Judah's) we wanted to paint. Last night Paul and a friend from church painted Judah's room. We picked out this color - BELGIAN CHOCOLATE (click to view)- and we will paint the trim either a light brown/cream or blue. I'll decide when I see it :)
Paul went back over there this afternoon and said he would take pictures of everything for me, so then I will post some.

Rubix Cube

I bought Paul the Rubix Cube for his birthday and Judah adores it! He carries it around with him most of the day, it's kind of cute :) This was him yesterday, on his birthday.
We had a couple of gifts from my parents for him that he opened (pics will be loaded eventually!) We're going to be celebrating as a family on Friday, and he'll get the rest of his gifts then.

Almost One!

Our little man will be one tomorrow!!! I was hoping to make him a cake and a few other treats for him, but I am not feeling up to it. I haven't even felt like wrapping his presents! So the little dude will have to wait a few more days to celebrate his birthday :)

Last week I spent some time looking on E-bay for lots of clothes for Judah - I won a twenty plus pieces lot of clothing for .99 cents!! It was $10 shipping, but still, that only brings the total to $10.99 for some pretty sweet pieces of clothing. The clothes arrived a couple of days ago and I am so happy with them - they're all in like new condition and really nice. Very boy-like clothes!

Judah has spent a lot of today sleeping, which has been nice for us :) Yesterday we took him to the hospital with us - waking him up at 5am. We thought he would sleep, but he didn't. He wanted to charm the nurses. Which he did. Which is why I think they treated me so nicely - go blue eyed baby boys!! Judah's lack of sleep yesterday has been more than made up today - he slept twelve hours last night, and has napped for five hours today. Paul has been bed-resting with me. We've watched a few movies and he ordered in pizza. Only one more day of this, and then I'll be able to do stuff

Home

I am home now and everything went as planned. Thanks for praying! I go back a week from Monday, at which point they'll check the baby.
Paul has been amazing - I haven't had to do a thing :)
Judah sat with me and we watched YouTube movies, I thought I'd share one that made us both giggle.

Surgery Tomorrow

I had pre-op today for my cerclage placement tomorrow. I am first on the list - surgery is at 5:30am!! 5:30!!!! I realize I am not a morning person, but this seems to be insane even for morning people!

Paul has the next 13 days off of work - I am suppose to be on bed rest for the first week, in order to give my body time to recover, and then just take it easy for the remainder of the pregnancy.

I think we're going to end up taking Judah to the hospital with us - they won't do my surgery unless there is another adult present that can drive me home... we plan to get there at 5:15 in the morning, and I should be home by 9 or 10 the same morning - so technically Judah should sleep through the whole thing. He's really good at just hanging out, so he'll probably be there in the waiting room snoozing on his daddy's shoulder.

It's a little bit weird knowing what to expect this time around. It's not bad surgery at all - just, uh, isn't fun.

I am grateful that they are going to perform the surgery - at the last minute last week my doctor tried to convince me I didn't need it... I know I haven't really been blogging much about it, but I have done a lot of research, and it was pretty much a retarded reason to not want to give me the stitch, and the Dr. ended up shrugging and telling me that if I really wanted it then they would do it.

There is a very slight risk of infection when placing the stitch, so please be praying that that doesn't happen!

Make-up Remover Towelettes

Several of our local Dollar Trees are carrying Almay Make-up Remover Towelettes. You get 30 wipes for $1. Online they're selling for about $5/package and from what I could find they're selling in stores for $9/package!!
What a steal!

A Good Week

Paul was gone for 11 days with work, and my sister decided to come visit during that time. I am so glad she did =) I had five doctor appointments in four days - craziness! But they really weren't so bad because I could leave Judah at home with his Auntie Essie, and I didn't have to worry in the slightest bit about him.
Last time Esther was here (watching Judah while we were in Jamaica) she got bumped off her return flight and was given a free voucher for a round trip flight anywhere within the USA. She used that to visit us this time, and had great hopes of being bumped off her return flight and getting another voucher. Sadly her flight wasn't over booked and she didn't get bumped off.

Here are some pictures of Judah with his Aunt:

These are the cool pants she bought him for his birthday!

The Olive Garden Experience

This doesn't look very appetizing - does it? I wish I had gotten a better picture of the asparagus. They were skinny, brown and yucky looking. The broccoli didn't look so bad but it tasted horrible. Even Paul thought so, and he's not picky.

Saturday night Paul, Esther (my sister, who'd been visiting for the week) and I decided to go to The Olive Garden for supper. It was the most amusing and longest dinner we've ever experienced. Our food took forever to get to us - we went through four salad bowls and five bread stick baskets while we waited. Only one of the three main course dishes was hot. Refills on our bread basket and salad bowl took ages... turns out there had been some sort of drama in the kitchen - running out of appetizers, burning some dishes, etc.

The only complaint we had that evening was about my limp asparagus. I'd ordered my chicken dish mainly because asparagus sounded so yummy. And even in the 'complaint' we were nice - I just asked the waiter if he could see if there was healthier look asparagus. Nothing nasty. I even smiled and said please and thank you.

Our waiter was a cool dude. Flustered. Scatter-brained a bit. But cool.
About an hour and a half into our dinner experience the manager came to our table and said that our waiter had told her about everything (we're not sure what 'everything' was... but we weren't going to ask!) and that dinner was on the house that evening. Sweet!

We decided at that point that we each wanted dessert =) I asked our cool-dude waiter what he thought about a chocolate and strawberry cake. He made a face and said it was disgusting. When have you ever met a waiter that said anything on the menu was disgusting? We loved this waiter.

We ended up getting a nearly $60 meal for free. Totally worth the two hours we spent sitting at the table laughing and enjoying each others company =)

Judah and Paul at The Olive Garden

Roar

Old Navy has a *ton* of clothes for 75% off or more - I got this and a chicken costume for 90% off.

First Baby Pictures :)

I had two appointments today (out of four for this week!!) and was pleasantly surprised that when they did my ultrasound they did some 3-D pictures! Because the baby is only 15 weeks the pictures really don't have a lot of detail, but they are much better than the alien head pictures I was expecting! The picture looks better than it is showing on the computer - it was printed on shiny paper and that is SO hard to take a picture of! These two pictures are identical, I just labeled the second one in case you couldn't make any sense of the features!



I met with the High Risk specialist today. He made me smile. He looked like a car mechanic - minus the greasy hands! Goes to show you can't judge by appearances! He had unruly hair, an earing and just did not look like an OBGYN doctor... let alone a high risk specialist. Ah well, I liked him a lot, and that's what counts!
He wants me to come back to see him on Thursday, and then next week I will (finally!!) get the surgery to have my cerclage placed. Hurray!

Duck Duck Goose

If Judah could pick one place to live the rest of his baby-hood it would un-doubtably be in the bathtub. We bought him a small collection of rubber ducks for Christmas, and those along with the lid to my shaving cream make tub time a giggly, splashing haven of fun.

Snake Skin Boots and Gum-Ball Pink

Doesn't this man make you want to giggle? Take away the magnify glass, 15 lbs, the hook in the nose and the blue suit and add snake skin boots, a gold bracelet and a strong Southern accent and you've got our Very Likely Future Land Lord (VLFLL).
Our VLFLL is a really nice man, and I'm really not making fun of him. He just makes me giggle every time I talk to him, and when I met him in person with his ultra -uncool snake skin boots I wanted to giggle some more. I think Paul even felt the urge to giggle when he saw those boots.
Like I said, he is a really nice man. We're pretty much almost definitely going to rent a house from him (HURRAY!! A HOUSE!). But how can you not giggle when you end up with a voice mail message that goes like this:

"Hi Jessica, this is VLFLL. I'm just callin' to let y'all know that we can go see the house y'all are interested in tomorrow at 4pm. No need to call me back. Unless I hear from you I'll presume that 4pm will work for y'all. But why don't you call me just to let me know for sure that it will work for y'all? You can call my cell or call my secretary."

Something about that just struck my funny bone. I have the message saved on my cell phone now, and will probably keep it there forever.

Do you save voice messages?

VLFLL made voice mail #3 that will never get deleted.
The first one I have saved is a sweet message from Paul he left sometime in June ... I can't bring myself to delete it.

The second one is my sister when she found out we were pregnant with baby #2. It makes me giggle when I hear it. It goes something like "Oh my goodness! I am soooo excited. But EWWWWW. I was babysitting Judah for you when you made that baby."
Thanks for that Esther.

Now my VLFLL "don't call me back, but why don't you to confirm?" message is going to be saved for the life span of my voice mail :)

Back to this house though ... today was the 4pm appointment and as much as you can fall in love with a house, we are with this one! If all goes well we'll get it February 1st ... since we're stuck at our apartment through the month of February we'll have all month to move our stuff in... and to change Judah's future room from gum-ball pink to something a little more boy appropriate color!

A Blog Worth Reading

A fellow bloggy friend pointed me in the direction of this amazing blog. It is a really sad and touching blog about a woman who has Cystic Fibrosis. Days before she was to go in to start the procedure to get a double lung transplant they found out she was pregnant.
Knowing it could risk her life they decided to continue with the pregnancy, viewing the precious babies life as a gift from God.

The baby was born this week prematurely. She was 24 weeks along. The mother and baby are both fighting for their lives.

The husband and now proud daddy is the writer of the blog. Grab a box of klennex before heading over to the site Confessions of a CF Husband

Here is a very small taste of what you will find on his blog:

"It's amazing to consider that both of my girls are in almost exactly the same state. Both are lying on the backs, almost totally unaware of their surroundings and of each other, both are on ventilators, both have multiple IV's, pic lines, arterial lines, etc., both will have a feeding tube (prayerfully Gwyneth will have one very soon)."

The man's dad, uncle and his two sister in laws have blogs that talk about their insight to the situation too. The links can all be found on the blog I linked you to. Check out the blog, and pray for the family as you think of them.

Happy Birthday Hunky Hubby

It's Paul's birthday today =) He was suppose to of left yesterday with work, so thinking we wouldn't be together today we did his birthday dinner, cake and gifts on Saturday... but things got changed at work, and he doesn't leave till tomorrow! So we are together on his birthday but I don't really have anything special planned since it all happened Saturday. Oh well, it's nice having a few extra days together.

When Will You Get Fat?

I will be 14 weeks tomorrow, so I thought I should finally take a picture, since I don’t have any of my pregnant self yet!! Taking pictures of myself this pregnancy will be rather easy, since Paul bought me a tri-pod last year. Paul is truly one of the best present buyers. I love the tripod, and it has been well used.

This picture was actually inspired because someone today asked me “When are you going to get fat?”

Huh?? I’ll admit… I didn’t get it. I asked her what she meant.

“You know, your belly. When will it grow?”

OHH! Suddenly it made sense. I thought my belly had been growing … if not from baby at least from all the Christmas goodies I have been munching on for the last few weeks.

Sales Galore

I have probably spent too much time in the stores lately to know all this, however if you're looking for some great deals (mostly Christmas-related sales, unless otherwise noted) check out the following:

Target – all Christmas items are 90% off

Walmart – all Christmas items are 75% off

Walgreens – all Christmas items are 75% off

Kohl's – all Christmas items are 80% off. They also have racks and racks and racks of clothing for 60% - 90% off. I got gorgeous maternity shirts at 90% off! Jewelry and shoes are up to 80% off too.

Babies-R-Us – all Christmas items are 50% off lowest ticketed price and all regular clearance items are an additional 30% off the lowest clearance price tag.

Wipe That Smirk Off

It was too quiet in the living room, and so I jumped up to see what Judah was in to - he was huddled up next to the couch (where I can't see him from my place at the table) and had his tub of wipes opened and nearly 180 wipes strewn on the floor around him! He was truly delighted at his accomplishment and Paul and I tried our hardest to keep our amusement hidden from him.

If I had Written a Christmas Letter, This is What it Would have Said

Showing off his new shoes from his Aunt Essie

This past year has been the busiest, the craziest and, quite simply, the best year to date. God's blessings and provision never fail to amaze me.
2007 started off with a bang - I joined Paul in Georgia (where he'd been activated, in December.) Three weeks after I arrived down here Judah decided to make his appearance five weeks early. He spent his first week in the NICU, and then came home, scrawny and wrinkled - but healthy! - to happy and grateful parents.

Judah adjusted well to us =) He smiled, happily content, when Paul accidentally folded him up in his stroller. He looked on with no cares in the world when I mistakenly grabbed - and generously applied - Icy Hot instead of Diaper Rash Cream while I was changing him.
Judah has a wonderful personality, and if I could bottle up one thing from this year to save and remember throughout life, it would be his laugh. It is contagious, carefree and delightful.
Judah has two teeth that he proudly bares to any and all, and three more that are showing through his tops gums. He loves grinding these puzzling new 'toys' in his mouth.
His favorite game at present is Peek-a-Boo. We play it until I get bored or start going insane. He's also contributed to our home decor. Cheerios can be found everywhere - smashed in the carpet, hidden in shoes, under couch cushions... the hiding places keep getting more creative.

This has been our first complete year in the military as a married couple... while it certainly falls short of winning Job of the Year award, there are no complaints. I am more than proud of Paul serving, and even though he is away from home long hours, and gone many nights with work I am so glad that most nights he sleeps soundly beside me. Paul was promoted to Sgt this summer, and started working on completing his degree by doing online courses. Both of these things have demanded a lot of his time, but he still makes the time to spend with his family. He is Judah's favorite person - Judah chants 'da-da-da' endlessly and claps when Paul gets home from work.

Despite Paul's hectic schedule we were able to do a bit of traveling this year - we spent three days for our anniversary in Helen, GA, we explored Atlanta, spent many days at the beach in SC and in October Paul and I went to Jamaica for a week while my sister stayed with Judah.
Paul did a lot of traveling with work - Alabama, Colorado, Georgia and South Carolina . And I went with just Judah to visit a friend in Tennessee, and then also up to Ontario. We both love traveling and visiting new places, and hope in to be able to go to some new places in 2008.

Our big news at the close of this year is that we are expecting baby #2, due July 2008. We are rather ecstatic and looking forward to adding another bundle of joy and laughter to our home... which hopefully won't be the one we're currently living in as it is getting smaller and smaller as Judah gets bigger and bigger =) We are looking at moving the end of February to someplace nearby.

We enjoyed all the many visitors this past year - at least monthly we had someone(s) for overnight visits. It was quite fun, and we look forward to the continuation of company in '08.

That's All Folks

Well, Christmas day has come and gone =)
Judah's first Christmas wasn't overly exciting... I woke him up early (tho not as early as Paul and I were up... we did our stockings, breakfast and our gifts first!) I really tried to let my baby sleep... but by 8am I was just too excited to let him sleep any longer!
So much to Paul (and Judah's!) disgust, I woke him up. We had all his gifts in a pile for him, but he really didn't care too much about them. We gave him a xylophone, and once that one was opened he really didn't give a hoot about anything else.
Judah's special treat on Christmas was eating Jello for the first time. He loved it! When he'd finished his off he ate most of mine too =)
Here are a few pictures: