Weeks 22, 23, & 24

Well, school is over, swim lessons are over, and it's almost time for school to start back! My little pouch is more like a cantaloupe now, but I'm feeling really great! He's kicking and moving, and giving me heartburn (but nothing a few Tums won't take care of)!

Weeks 20 & 21

Wow, these weeks are really getting away from me! We had the medical ultrasound done, everything looks good, and they have confirmed that it is a boy! Justin got to feel him Sunday morning-it was really cool! Feeling good! Started 2 college classes in July...already can't wait to get them over with!

Week 19

Baby and I taught swim lessons this week. He has really become active, and I have really started showing.

The Ultrasound

We had a 3-D & 4-D ultrasound done this afternoon. At first, the baby was shy, and didn't want us to know the sex. But then....well, lets just say he decided to show everything!!!

Here's a picture with his foot in his mouth!

Weeks 17 & 18

I was on vacation these two weeks. Feeling great, and the baby decided to make its presence known while we were watching Hairspray on Broadway in New York. Not sure if it was a good review or not, but a pretty cool place to first feel the movements!

Week 16

Went to the dr. again...heartbeat 160 beats per minute...next time we get an ultrasound! YAY! In two weeks, we're going to have a 3 and 4 dimensional ultrasound done with all our family. Meanwhile, I'm leaving for 2 weeks of vacation. Will try to post pictures.

Week 15

Last week of school! Yay!! Feeling great, can't wait to find out if it's a boy or a girl!

Week 14

Feeling great! Still loving on the pimento cheese sandwiches! Heard the heartbeat again, though the midwife had to search for it (hiding on my right side at that point, apparently). Can't wait for school to be out and to go on vacation.

Week 13

Feeling much better, much more normal! A little indigestion, and my thyroid is acting up, but all in all, much better!

Week 12

We got to hear the heartbeat! This was the week of pimento cheese sandwiches, and feeling better!

Week 11

This was the week for McDonalds! I craved double cheeseburgers all week! Feeling bits better now!

Week 10

This week went by really quickly. I'm feeling better, and I can't wait to go to the doctor to hear the heartbeat!

Week 9

We celebrated Easter this week, and Baby got some Easter gifts! I was on spring break, and lazed around, except for cleaning out closets and such! This is the best I have felt in several weeks. I even hiked up Kennesaw Mountain on Friday!

Week 8

Went to the doctor's office this week for my first appointment! Got to see the baby on ultrasound, and saw the heartbeat!

Still feeling kinda icky...can't wait for the nausea to go away!!!!

BTW-Due Date is November 9th!

Week 7

A little more nausea, a little more tired...that's about all I'm feeling this week. Still forgetful...but such a small price to pay!

Week 6

We had a few firsts this week. Baby and I went to our first rock concert-Nickelback-it was a great concert! I didn't realize how many Nickelback songs that I knew!

I also had morning sickness for the first time. I drank two sips of milk, and the milk decided it needed some fresh air. :)

We drove to Augusta to meet J's family for lunch, and he got to tell them the news in person.

Week 5

Really thirsty still, white and orange foods are my favorites! Mac & cheese, bread, potatoes, mozzarella cheese, and french fries!

Mom told the church, and everyone is excited. Pretty much everyone at school knows, also!

Week 4

I'm excited to be pregnant, and I'm thirsty! I have to eat more often, but not really any more. Carbs taste good, chocolate doesn't!

Oh, yeah...and the pregnancy brain! I can't remember all kinds of things, and the funny part is that this started before I even knew I was pregnant! If this gets worse, it's going to be a LoOnNgG nine months!

How We Told the Parents

I had gotten a new digital picture frame for Christmas, but hadn't used it (hoping for a time like this)! I put several pictures of the pregnancy tests on it, and directed our parents toward it when they got to our house for card night.

The night before, my MIL and I had talked during dinner about the names we had called our grandparents. She hated the name Granny, and J and I were teasing her that we would call her Granny. She said "Well, if you have a baby in three, no, in two years, you can call me Granny." We shook hands on it, as J and I were dying laughing. Needless to say, my MIL will be teased with Granny for a long time to come!

The First Day We Knew

I woke up early, like 5 in the morning. I took a pregnancy test, and 2 pink lines showed up within seconds. I took two more, both digital, that said "Pregnant". I couldn't believe it! I carried one of them to J, and said "Good morning, Daddy!" He woke up, said "Really?" and I showed him the test. It was our little secret for a while, but we were bursting to tell our families.

My Best Shot Monday

My sister's corsage.

Link to Picture This.

My Hubby will do ANYTHING to get out of work!

Last Saturday, my hubby went to play paintball with my sister's boyfriend. Yes, he's 18 and my hubby, well, he's 27. My hubby, being the all-out-I'm-gonna-win-no-matter-what-take-em-out
player that he is, attempted to slide into a bunker on his knees. The problem? The metal stake in the ground holding down the bunker. He sliced his knee open.

DSBF calls me and tells me that hubby hurt his knee and is going to the hospital. I ask to talk to the injured one, and discern that he is capable of talking and making jokes. I beat him to the hospital, and once he's there, I'm directed back to the ER room.

He's lying on a gurney, and they are taking bloody clothes off his leg. There was surprisingly little blood-for an 8 inch laceration with two inches of exposed kneecap and tendons.

30ish stitches.

Lots of pain medication.

So far, a week off work, and kitty litter cleaning, and dishes, and doing clothes, and trash duty, and....and....and....you get the picture.

Everything looks ok now, just got to give it time to heal.

If you don't like gore, DON'T scroll down...stitches picture ahead.









Look away now!













It's coming...











EWWWW....Last chance!

Growing up...

When I was 10, my parents rocked my world. They asked me if I would like a brother or a sister. My first thought: adoption. All my friends parents had stopped having babies. When I was 11 years and 12 days old, my little sister was born. I was there, at the hospital, with a pink "I'm the big sister" shirt on.

I was always a wuss about riding roller coasters, or any fast ride-at least until I was in high school. So it was very convenient that I got to go on all the kiddy rides with my sister, even after I was too big/old to go on them.

In middle school, she was always the ice breaker, at dances when my parents chaperoned, in her cheerleading outfit at basketball games, and with my friends.

In high school, she loved to cheer for her sissy-marching in the band and cheerleading at basketball games.

In college, she charmed all my buddies into buying Girl Scout cookies, we sent her a birthday card signed by all my friends, and she decided she wanted to be a Ballerina with the Marching Southerners-and she still does!

She was a bridesmaid at my wedding, and probably should have been Maid of Honor. Sorry, Meg! We danced to "I hope you dance" until my husband cut in. To know how special that was, you need to understand that they have a love/hate relationship, i.e. they love to hate each other-the best picture from the wedding is the one where they are sticking their tongues out at each other!

Today, I cheer for her in the marching band, and when danceline performs at basketball games. I am a leader for her Girl Scout troop, and ride the roller coasters with her! I carry her to JSU basketball and football games, and encourage her in her desire to try out for the 'Rina's.

This weekend, I reflected on how, in the last 16 years, our lives have become entwined in a way that no one could have predicted when she was born. She keeps me young, and I hope I pave her way into this big, wide world.


I hope you never lose your sense of wonder
You get your fill to eat
But always keep that hunger
May you never take one single breath for granted
God forbid love ever leave you empty handed
I hope you still feel small
When you stand beside the ocean
Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opens
Promise me you'll give fate a fighting chance
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance
I hope you dance

Artist ~ Lee Ann Womack~

My Best Shot Monday

At the marina at George T. Bagby State Park.

With the long weekend, my parents invited us to spend 2 nights at the state park in south Georgia. We did a short hike at the Indian Mounds, a 3 mile hike at Providence Canyon (the Grand Canyon of the South), and lots of card playing and fun!

And, I got to try out my new Lensbaby 2.0 and zoom lenses!

My submission for Picture This!

My Best Shot Monday

See my Tabblo>

I Am From...

I am from a small city in Georgia with a population of 336, fluctuating according to the deaths and births. It is a city where my parents and grandparents live, and where my great grandfather, great great grandfather, and great great great grandfather are all buried. I had relatives who fought in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, and I am related to the infamous Pretty Boy Floyd (of whom my great aunts dachshund was named).

Growing up, I lived within a mile of all my mom's family. We spent Sundays at church, eating southern fried chicken, sweet potato souffle, and homemade ice cream. Then we saddled the horses and hooked up the wagons for a trail ride. We have family reunions every summer, Homecoming at church in August, family dinners at Thanksgiving and Christmas, and pretty dresses on Easter, after a visit from the Easter Bunny.

My grandfather greets everyone (including family) with an introduction to himself as "the chief pea-picker of , Georgia". My grandmother bakes a mean roast beef, and occasionally used a switch on me, but only when I deserved it. My mom's a teacher, and my best role model. My dad raised me as the son he never had-hiking, camping, canoeing, and working around the house. When my parents asked me (at age 10) how I would feel about a little brother or sister, I thought they were talking about adoption. My sister was born just after I turned 11, and so I became a sister.

Travel is a cornerstone in my family. My mother has been to all 50 states, I am one shy. Vacation means getting up early, seeing, doing, driving, packing and repacking, spending each night in a new bed.

Education was important, I went to First Baptist preschool, then the elementary school that my mom teaches at (and where I teach at now), but I was also pulled out of school for trips with my family.

I may not have been born into the lap of luxury, but I am rich with family and experiences.

My Best Shot Monday

My Super Bowl Cake

To understand why this is my favorite shot, you have to understand that I don't cook. Well, hardly ever. This is a Sour Cream Pound Cake recipe from my grandmother, with green jello for the field, field goals made out of candles, and flags from toothpicks. I'm very proud of myself.

The Adventures of Laura and Louis

The people have been too busy cleaning with that vacuum all day to pay attention to us. It's a scary loud machine, and we try to stay away. When the man person takes a break to empty the dirty water, the door is left open a crack. The wind blows the door open....whooOOOooOOOoo...and we creep to the door. We sniff the air...Brrr. It's cold out there. With tentative paws, we slip through the door and look at the great big dark world. Suddenly, the woman person crashes through the door. "Get. In. The. House." she orders. We scamper to obey, and decide never to do that again.

My Best Shot Monday

Louis the ATTACK CAT!!!

Really, he's yawning...

My Best Shot Monday-Night at Home

Sending Snow Dust

When I was little, snow was something that happened every few years.

Then, in March, when I was 13 and my sister was two, Georgia got hit with a blizzard. Two to three foot drifts, which doesn't sound like much to you New Englanders, is a HUGE amount to a place that shuts down with an inch of snow on the roads.

No power for a week, and my family went into survival mode. Mom and Dad taking shifts manning the fireplace, no baths, no electricity, mattresses pulled into the living room, and food cooked in the fire or on a cook stove in the kitchen. I must say, we ate well, trying to eat the food before it spoiled. However, I got to play in snow as much as I wanted, digging tunnels, eating snow cream, making coke slushies, and pulling a two year old around in the snow. Then Mom had to go back to school, and all us TK's played baseball in the back of the school, heh-me and the guys, and I messed up my Guess jeans and sweatshirt (those were the bomb!).

Now, I haven't seen snow in years. And the kids I teach, they have never seen snow unless they went to another state. And we're studying winter/weather/arctic animals right now, and wouldn't that be great. And (last one I promise) I was sick for the long weekend, and need a day to .

Snow Dust------->Georgia