We're BAAACCCKKKK!!!

I am back from my girl's trip and had an amazing time! I have so much updating to do, but I can't do it now. There are a few pictures to post as well.

Antonio, Tatum, and I are all back into our normal routine. We had some craziness this weekend that I will explain later.

Anyway, just wanted to post a quick update that we are all doing well and still alive.

Heading Out....

I am completely packed, have directions in hand, and ipod in car. I am ready to GO!!! Jennifer and I are heading out on our girl's trip for a week. We have no plans and that is so nice! We will figure it out when we get there.

I failed to post pictures from California, and I won't be able to do it when we are gone since I am only taking my work computer, but I promise to get some up eventually.

Until next time....

I Miss....

I am in California and wishing I was home!!! While I don't have to worry about anything other than getting to meetings on time and staying awake in meetings, I still miss home. I am in my room, it is 7:30pm (9:30pm at home) and I am about to go to bed, but before I do, I wanted to post the things I miss.

I miss....

-Tatum and her awesome hugs and kisses, her sassiness, and her cuteness
-Antonio and his pampering....and even his snoring!
-i miss my bed. (even though this bed is nice, it is LONELY!)
-I miss my "me time" after work. I LOVE my roomie, but I still miss having some "me time" while Antonio goes to pick Tatum up.
-I miss my drs! I am sure the things I am learning here are priceless, but I still miss my work! (Hope that makes sense)
-I miss my time to talk on cell phone! I feel like when I get out of meetings, everyone is in bed, eating dinner, or something since I am 2 hours behind it makes it hard. I feel like there have been lots of things happening this week while I have been out of town, and trying to catch up and figure out what is going on is hard when you are 2 hours behind.

I think it is nice to get away to realize how much I appreciate and miss my family and routine.

On a side note, my feet have been swelling MAJORLY since I got here! I know flying can do that, but sitting in these meetings all day are killing my feet! I NEVER swelled with Tatum, so it makes me a little nervous. I am trying to stay well hydrated, but if anyone else has suggestions, let me know.

I know i am rambling and this is boring since there are no pics. I get home Thursday night late...but I will be home soon!!

My flights were wonderful on the way out here....please pray that they are just as great heading back.

i have lots of pics to post when I return, so check back soon, I will try to do that when I get back home (before I leave again to go out of town next week).

Sunday Night Quickie

It's Sunday night, almost 7pm. I am headed to bed so I can get up at 3:30am, get ready, finish packing and be at the airport by 5am to catch my 6am flight out to California. I am NOT excited about going, but it is part of the job. I am not a big fan of flying and especially alone. ESPECIALLY when it will probably be a pretty bumpy ride thanks to Hurricane Ike. I will get to see lots of friends that work with my company and I will be sharing a room with my FAVORITE girl that works with me, which is always exciting. I hope I can hang with the busy schedule they have for us over the next 4 days. I am taking my camera, so if I don't get too shy, I will try to take lots of pictures of everyone and everything.

Anyway, I am not sure I will be posting at all, and if I do it will be without pictures. We had a great weekend. I got my hair cut, colored, etc. on Thursday which always makes me feel like a "new woman" and then I got an airbrush tan done Friday morning. It was a first and I must say that it was kind of weird standing in front of a lady half-naked, letting her spray me. However, I LOVE the results and will probably be back again soon to see her. I got it done because we had a wedding reception to go to Saturday night and I wanted to TRY and be cute. I didn't do a great job of getting in any pictures, but the photographer there got me in some pictures with the bride so I will post them soon.

Other than that, there isn't too much going on. My best friend Jennifer S. FINALLY announced she is pregnant and I am SO EXCITED!!!! She has a blogpage, so you can check out the big blog announcement here.....http://jennifersere.blogspot.com/

A few prayer requests if you are a praying person....

-Please pray that my travels tomorrow will be SMOOTH and uneventful. Also, that I will adjust quickly to the time change and be able to keep up with our packed out schedule for the next 4 days. I will get back home at 10pm on Thursday.
-Please pray that Antonio and Tatum do well. He is ALWAYS so good with Tatum and such a big help, but she has been quiet a handful here lately and it has taken 2 of us to deal with her tantrums and whining. She also doesn't do well when she has to get up early in the mornings, but Antonio has to be at work by 7am, so she will have no choice.
-Finally, I think that Amanda W. (http://thyatiratales.blogspot.com/) will be having her baby sometime while I am out of town. Please keep her and her family in your prayers that all goes well as they welcome their new baby boy into their arms.

Until next time...

TP Tuesday...

So, it's TP Tuesday. I am still hovering below 9 squares, barely.

All is going well, for the most part. I had a dr's appt yesterday and it left me down and depressed to say the least.

I hopped up on the scales, weighed, jumped down. Went to the next room to get my blood pressure taken. While the nurse was doing that I looked down at my charts and that's when I saw it...EIGHT POUNDS!!!! I gained EIGHT POUNDS in ONE MONTH!!!(That is more than Amanda W. http://thyatiratales.blogspot.com/ gained her WHOLE pregnancy!!!) I was in a little bit of shock to say the least and I was very disappointed in myself. Don't get me wrong, I know I am supposed to gain weight. Heck, I am pregnant. However, let's do some quick math.

8 pounds / 1 month = 2 pounds a week

I am 24 weeks, so let's say I go up until 40 weeks. At this pace

2 pounds a week x 16 weeks is 32 MORE POUNDS!

That puts me at 40 pounds which is NOT where I want to be this time....eeerrrr!

Then my dr comes in the room and I tell her that I have gained too much weight. She said I was fine because i haven't really gained any up until now. Blah, blah, blah is all I heard. Then I asked her about what the chances are that she will induce me with this baby. She said since she induced me the last time, it was very likely we would do it again. GREAT. So I ask her when she thinks this induction will take place considering all things are progressing normally.

She looks at the calendar and says Dec 29th....Dec 29th!?!?! I am thinking Dec 20th! My due date has been anywhere from Dec 27th to Jan 2nd (based on ultrasounds) and she said she would induce me at 39 weeks, so I am thinking Dec 27th - 7 days and that makes it Dec 20th. SHE is thinking Jan 2nd - whatever and comes up with Dec 29th....oh geez!

Needless to say, I was a little (A LOT) down yesterday and didn't feel like talking to anyone really.

Antonio and I are now on a new path to eating better. We had gotten into eating whatever was quick and easy. But tonight, we had fresh grilled SALMON and GREEN BEANS....yummy!!!(Kudos to Chef Antonio). There WILL NOT be another 8 pounds gained in 1 month....I hope!

No more "Twix Fixes"....no more "Kit Kat Attacks"...none!

Enough venting.....still no name and no decisions made for the baby's room. I will be going to California next week with work and then the next week I am heading to Hot Springs for a much needed girl's trip, so my blogging may slow down a bit for the next few weeks.

Labor Day Weekend

While our long weekend was action packed, I wasn't good (AT ALL) about taking pictures, so I will try to recap.

Friday night-we stayed at home and did nothing.

Saturday morning-Antonio's mom, 3 women from her church, Antonio and I started cleaning our house at 8am and worked until 3:30. These ladies did AWESOME!! They did that deep cleaning that I am not sure has been done since we moved in. We didn't even get to all the rooms, but we did get the majority done. NOW Antonio and I are going to have someone come and clean the house every 2 weeks starting next week. This was supposed to be my Mother's Day present, but it was never set into motion. I am SO excited to have someone coming to help clean!

As soon as they all left, we showered and headed to Tim's mom's house. While I was not great at taking pictures, Jennifer was, so here are the pictures....

In this first picture below is Tim's mom and James.
Next is Tim's mom and Kaitlyn

and finally Tim and Jennifer...
Let me just say the 5 people pictured above SPOILED Tatum ALL night!!! Antonio and I were so tired from cleaning all day and they were God sent when it came to Tatum!

I am SO GLAD that Tim's mom isn't picky about kids in her flowers and moving things around. Below, Tatum had walked around the yard and picked a few things to give to us.
Here she is giving the flowers to her Mommy...
Tim's mom also had tons of statues of dogs, rabbits, frogs, etc in the yard and she let Tatum move them all around. James brought the dog and cat statues up so she could see them all...
After all of the rearranging, Tatum needed a snack...

Below is Tim's attempt at taking a self portrait of him and Tatum...

Kaitlyn and Tatum were playing with the dog. Tatum LOVED the little dog, but he wouldn't let Tatum give him a kiss no matter how much she tried.
Tim's mom has a pool in her backyard. I didn't think to pack Tatum's swimsuit or swim diapers. However, that didn't stop her from getting to swim. Kaitlyn, Tim's sister, said she would get in the pool with Tatum...A HUGE thanks to Kaitlyn for getting in with Tatum. She LOVES to swim and I am sure you can tell from the pics below. Since we didn't have a swim diaper, we just put a regular diaper on her and she got in.
Tatum loved this raft and it worked perfectly until Tatum ripped it somehow and it developed a huge hole. Sorry.

Antonio and Tim looking on as Tatum was swimming...


The diaper filled up with water really fast and started to weigh Tatum down...

So, we decided it would be okay to let Tatum go skinny dipping. She didn't mind at all...
Tatum LOVES Timmy...
After swimming, we ate some WONDERFUL food! We could all tell how tired Tatum was but she didn't want to miss out on the action, so Tim's mom decided to take Tatum outside to sit in the swing. When I went out to check on them, this is what I found...

Poor Tatum tuckered out!

Sunday-We went to church that morning and sanded and painted the dresser in the afternoon(see post below)

Monday-we didn't do too much during the day. Jennifer and Tim came over in the afternoon and we grilled out and played with Tatum.

The LONG weekend sure seemed short since it was so action packed, but we had lots of fun. I can't believe it is already Friday again! We plan to do some more fun things this weekend, so I will try to be better about taking pictures and posting them.

Project 1 Complete

Before I get to the project, I thought I would go ahead and post some pics of Tatum. She is SO into dressing herself these days. Sometimes she tries to put pants on as a shirt or a jacket on as pants, but she doesn't want to be corrected so we just let her play. This past weekend, she found a swim diaper and thought she needed to wear it. She was trying to get it on her head and got frustrated so I must admit I did help her get it on, but she LOVED it.




We are slowly but surely making progress for Tatum's new room. We have pretty much cleaned it all out and our next task was to paint the bed and dresser in there so we can use them instead of having to buy new furniture. We ended up not taking the bed apart because we volunteered to host a family that had to evacuate LA because of the hurricane, so I was scared we would get it apart and then get called up. Long story short, we never got a call and no one stayed with us, but we didn't know that so the bed didn't get done.

Here are a few pictures of the dresser before Antonio and I sanded it down. As you can see it is a dingy white(or maybe off white) with gold trim. I had already taken the drawers out, but trust me the handles on the drawers were SO OUTDATED. This dress was my gandmother's at one time, then I think it was my sister's and now we have it.

And here are some after pictures. We just painted it all white and changed the handles. I think it turned out great and I am proud of the work we did.


Now we just need to

-take the bed apart, sand it down, and paint it

-clean out the closet and add a double bar

-clean off the bookshelf in there and put it by the curb!

-paint Tatum's little school desk I got at a garage sale

-and FINALLY move her in!

I will try to take pictures of the progress we make. I can't promise much promise over the next few weeks since I will be in and out of town for 2 weeks and Antonio will be gone some of that time too.

Week 23

This post is a few days late, but I wanted to update quickly on week 23. I am feeling good, not getting sick or nauseated...just tired. I have always been a sleeper, so I don't know if it is more me or the pregnancy.

Although it is a little late for TP Tuesday, I did measure this morning and I am a little shy of 9 squares.

The 4B Pop Process is officially taking place these days too. I am guessing you are asking what is the 4B Pop Process....well, it is this...

4 B's
-Boobs
-Belly
-Belly Button
-Butt

They are all growing and/or popping out.
Boobs-mine have never been big (compared to others I know) but they are big for me.
Belly-I FEEL like i am growing and THINK I am growing, so I hope everyone can tell from the pics below.
Belly Button-It hasn't popped out yet or anything, but it is getting more and more shallow.
Butt-This is where I think all my weight is going (hips, thighs, butt) I was not that cute, all belly, pregnant lady with Tatum, so I was expecting this to happen again.

With all this "popping" I am also gaining some weight too. I have gained somewhere around 10 pounds. I will know for sure Monday morning when I go back for my next appt. I am ok with 10 pounds cause when I was 23 weeks pregnant with Tatum I had already gained 17 pounds. I didn't track it all the way through, but I know that's where I was at that point.

Anyway, below are some belly pictures that I took this morning. This pink shirt was a favorite of mine when I was pregnant with Tatum and still remains a favorite this time too.






As you can see, it looks like I was stripping down as the pictures were being taken, but I wanted to get some good pictures to compare to past pictures.

Also, I finally took out my belly button ring this week. I wasn't going to, but decided it would be easier if I just took it out again.

Look for more posts later.