I'm back again

Ok, so I've been a terrible blogger - I know. But I DO have a good excuse!

As most of you already know (at least the blog readers that I know - not sure how many lurkers I may have?) I am pregnant again! I'm now 11 weeks. It was a rough first 9 weeks or so, at least compared to my first pregnancy, which was a cinch. This time, I was nauseous every day and pretty cranky and just didn't feel like myself. Luckily, all of that seems to be getting better, I'm still just pretty tired. The being tired could also have to do with our crazy busy schedules lately also.

So this is how we told everyone that we were pregnant again!

Hannah is pretty excited about being a big sister. She has informed me that she will be taking care of this baby by herself (what a relief!!!) although I will get to change the poopy diapers (gee, how thoughtful!!) My due date is February 19th and I'm actually hoping it doesn't come early (crazy, huh?) because it's already so close to Hannah's birthday on January 30th. I would like to space them out a little bit more, but I have a feeling, that's not really up to me!!!

So we're getting excited now that things seem to be getting better and I'm progressing along. For now, despite Tony's complete objection, we think we're going to wait until the baby is born to find out the gender.....we'll see if an ultrasound in October changes our mind or not. I'm not sure why I want to wait, other than this is our last chance for this sort of surprise of a lifetime. I think it'll be fun to not know and pick a boy's name and a girl's name (which we're working on now). And to be honest, this goes against everything about my personality (must have a plan), but hey, I think it'll be fun and give us something to look forward to the second half of the pregnancy.

The one big bummer so far, other than not feeling well, is that I had to switch doctors and I'm not very fond of my new doctor. She's just a different personality and I really liked my old doctor. I got really mad at her at my 9-week visit when she didn't order an ultrasound. I had one with Hannah at 9 weeks where we got to see her heartbeat for the first time and her little arm and leg buds.....I so wanted that again. But Mrs. New Doctor said there was no need to do one, so instead, I left mad and had a rotten rest of the day - one of the other pleasures of these first 10 weeks (one little thing wrecking my day - yeah, I've been fun!!!) Tony's been GREAT! He's learned to just stay away from me and let me be, very understanding that I didn't feel good and trying to just get through it the best we can. I think it's getting better.....wonder what he thinks???

So anyway, that's the big news.

And an update on the other happenings for us lately - SUPER busy! Like, really, stuff all week long! No wonder I'm exhausted all the time!

Last weekend, we took Hannah to our little fair here in town. She had fun riding the rides most of the time. She must have super sensitive hearing because she has always hated loud noises. She walked into the fair holding her ears and actually rode a couple rides that way!

But then she also had lots of fun riding other rides too.

Then last Saturday, we drove down to Columbus for Bo & Courtney's wedding shower.

That was a nice time, but a long day. We're looking forward to the wedding now at the end of the month. Hannah's all set too. Everyone liked her dress just the way it is and didn't think I needed to have it altered at all, which is great. And I totally lucked out with shoes! I was so worried where I was going to find her a pair of ivory sandals at this point in the summer (now that we're surrounded by back to school stuff already everywhere). I went into Kohl's last week to get their gift and just happened to walk around the shoe section. I found a pair of pearly looking Carters sandals that I thought would work perfectly on clearance for 10 bucks! The only problem was that they had size 7 and size 9 and yes, I needed an 8. I knew the 9 would be too big and I thought I could get away with the 7 since they were open toe. I tried them on her after work and they would have fit, but she's got a wide foot and the straps were too tight across her foot. I freaked at the thought of my bargain not working out. I started calling all the Kohl's around and the third store had an 8!!! WOW - couldn't believe my luck, so I ran out there and picked them up and they worked perfectly! So anyway, the only dilemma left is what to do with her hair. My sister and I were talking the other day and we think we came up with a way to do it and get it done in the timeframe we have to work with. I'm sure it'll work out just fine!

Last Sunday, we hung out at home. Tony changed the air filters in our cars. He was so proud of himself for doing something "mechanical"!! And, he even got his hands dirty!!! Dad, aren't you proud?!!?

This past week flew by since we were so busy. Wednesday was my dad's 61st birthday!!! We met Dad & Julia for dinner, which was great. Thursday I had book club. Consensus among all of us was that our first book was awful! We read "The Sportswriter"....well, only 2 people actually read the whole book. One skipped the entire middle and read the ending. I got to chapter 4 and Laura didn't get past page 8! Yeah, not one I'd recommend, although I have a very gently used copy if anyone would like to borrow - or keep - it! Thank goodness our book club is really just an excuse to get out once a month! At least dinner was good! We've dubbed our book club "reading optional"!!! Right up my alley!

Yesterday, we went to Tony's sister's house for Kendal's 14th birthday party. Cannot believe she's 14! Totally crazy! She's going to be a freshman in High School this year. Oh, boy!

Today was a much needed free day. Hannah had gymnastics in the morning. We came home and ate lunch and then took a nap. Loved it! We hung out in the yard for a while. Tony washed his car. And then we went to dinner. It was a great, nothing-to-do day!

Tomorrow, we have to go out to my mom's for dinner. They've got family in town to visit with, so we'll probably be there all evening.

And that's it! There you have it....my big announcement and the update to the past couple of weeks of our busy life! I love my busy, yet simple life - we're so blessed!!!