I didn't realize how much such a little person takes from the mom. I learned the hard way, you shouldn't try to rearrange your bedroom while you're by yourself. I had Eric rearranging the living room the day before and after moving the love seat about five times, I thought I'd give him a break on the bedroom and do it while he was gone. Not wise on my part, I know this now. I paid for it for two days. Eric got perturbed at me and I was sore lol. Oops. So, I know now, that's the main thing right? At least I was able to learn from my mistake.

The baby has also found my ribs, apparently he likes them very much. My sister is planning the baby shower, I guess around the beginning of Jan. She's not telling me many details, the one's I've gotten have been from my mom. She's not supposed to tell me, but I have to make plans to be there, right? We went and registered a couple days ago. That was neat. It just makes it that much more real that the day will be here very soon and it won't just be the two of us anymore. I'm excited, but also a little nervous. I've been around babies my entire life. I know the basics, but I've also never had the experience of the baby actually being mine. I could always send them home. I didn't have to make the big decisions. It's kind of overwhelming, but in a good way. I know God will lead me through, and He will definitely have to, cause I feel like I'm almost clueless.

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. We had a great one. We went to my parent's house and my brother and his wife came over too. They had three dinners to go to, but lucky for them, her mom had theirs the day before. That's one reason I'm so glad my inlaws don't live in the same town as my parents lol. We had a good time though. My mom and I made the dinner, and it was delicious (if I do say so myself lol). My sister's bf took Eric hunting a couple times while we were down there, he really enjoyed that. Although, they went Friday and Eric came home with a cut on his forehead. Turns out, he learned the hard way not to put a scope so close to your face when you're shooting. I really enjoyed myself, but I was wore out by the time we got home Saturday. I just can't believe that we're fixin to go into the last month of this year. Time is going so fast and I'm having a hard time keeping up. Here's a picture of Eric and me over the weekend.

My great grandma passed away yesterday. Please keep my grandma (it was her mom) in your prayers. It was exactly 5 months, to the day, since we buried my grandpa (her husband). Thank you.

I was talking to my mom this past weekend and we were talking about the baby. She said it's amazing how the circle of life goes. My sister is 17 now, so that means my parent's are almost done with the raising of kids, while I'm just about to begin. My great grandma is not expected to make it very much longer, they put her on hospice and gave her weeks, while a new life is just a few months from beginning. The closing of one chapter and the beginning of another, just another way of seeing God's work in progress. May God take my great grandma in his loving hands as he leads her out of this world, and guide our precious child when it's time for his life to begin on the outside.

Today's one of those days. One where the alarm went off way too early, and time between getting up and having to go to start my day was way too short. I got about 2 mins with Eric between his class and mine and then another 8 mins from me getting home to him having to leave for the afternoon. The end of the semester is nearing, which means every teacher under the sun decides to lay it on thick. We have to go to Eric's mom's house tomorrow, and I'm not to thrilled. I would really just like to stay home this weekend. From his mom's (2 hrs away), we then have drive to my parent's house (another 2 hrs) because part of Eric's birthday present from me was him going to a hunter's saftey course (kinda ironic since he's in the military, if you ask me, but rules are rules...) so he can go hunting with my sister's bf. That starts at 8 Saturday morning and lasts until 5 p.m. Thankfully, my sister's going with him, and I don't have to :)

Little baby is getting bigger every day. He's getting very mobile for sure. It's really neat to see him moving across my stomach, I enjoy that so much. Eric reads to him every night and the baby reacts to Eric's voice, I love that. I can't wait to see him hold our little one for the first time. He's already such a wonderful daddy. I love them both more than words can say.

My MIL drives me crazy! Yesterday was Eric's birthday (thank you all very much for the happy birthday wishes for him), we had a very good time together. We didn't do much, but I baked him a cake and made him a steak for dinner (his favorite). My parents, sister and sister's bf all called to tell him happy birthday. His mom? Never did. It broke my heart. While we were eating dinner he said he thought his mom would call, but she didn't call his brother so why should he be any different. That made me so sad for him and so mad at her! He said he was kidding, but... He ended up calling her around 8:30 last night, cause he needed his sister's phone number (I dropped our cell phone in a cup of water and ruined it and all the info in it lol). It's just so infuriating. Her birthday is next week, and Eric's already said we're going up there for it, and he let her know earlier in the week, and she can't even pick up the phone? It's kinda sickening. I'm so thankful for my family.

My wonderful husband Eric's birthday is today. He's 25. I just wanted to tell him Happy Birthday and I love him so much!

Eric had to go to the field this past weekend and I went and stayed with my family while he was gone. It was the first time he had been gone for more than 24 hrs since he got back from overseas last year. Anyways, my sister and I went to her boyfriends football game on Friday night and then had lunch with our brother on Saturday and we had a pretty good time. We don't get to see much of him, since he works on an oil rig and he works evening towers, 7 days a week. So, getting to spend a couple hrs with him was nice. I also went to church with my mom yesterday before I came back home. She took a picture of me before I left to get a shot of my belly lol. She said it's neat cause you can see it grow almost daily. Hopefully it's all baby and the stuff that comes with it. I'm trying really hard not to indulge too much and still get plenty of exercise so I don't gain too much weight. I definitely don't want to go back to where I started from. I think I'm doing pretty good though. I'll be 6 months tomorrow.

I can't believe it's almost time for Thanksgiving already. This year has flown by. It seems each year gets faster and faster. I remember when I was in grade school, I thought time would never go by and now it seems like I can't keep up with it. It's kind of sad too.

I would like to ask for prayers for my Grandma and Great Grandma. She's the one that just lost my Grandpa in June. Well, her mom (who is 87 or so) is not doing good at all. She lives in WY and the relatives there with her called and told Grandma that she needs to get there asap. So, my uncle is flying in to take her and my aunt there. I guess they're not expecting her to make it much longer. Grandma is trying to prepare herself, but I don't think you can, so if you could keep them in your prayers I would greatly appreciate it.

*Clarification*-
rose_michelle left a comment on what I said and I realized I needed to clarify something. I don't have a problem with a teacher trying to make us think outside the box. I don't have a problem with them trying to make us think objectively. The problem is, this teacher does not do that. He puts HIS point of view out there and to those who agree with him he says, "good point", to those who disagree he says, "you gotta be kidding me". It's not a matter of making each student think objectively about what we are supposed to be doing. It's a matter of him feeding us what he believes, which I think is wrong on many levels. If he challenged everybody, no matter their points of view, I wouldn't have a problem with the way he acted towards me yesterday, but he doesn't. It's only when we disagree with him that he makes a point to make us defend ourselves and our beliefs.

My journalism class frustrates me to no end. Today in class the topic was "what is news?" The teacher brought up health care. Well, call me old fashioned (at the ripe ol' age of 24) but I think you should have to work for what you get in life. Things shouldn't be free. My parents raised me to work hard and earn what I have in life. My dad worked in the oil field for 15-20 years. He worked his butt off up until one faithful evening in July 1991, when he was swinging a sledge hammer and was permanently injured. Here we are, 16 years later, and he's still unable to work. However, he has never said that the government should take care of him or his family. He has never said that it should all be free. He is on social security for disability, but he worked for every cent (as few as they are) that he receives. He paid his dues up until he could no longer physically do so. Even after his injury he tried to get back out there and continue to work. He fought through the pain that he had as much as he could until he could no longer take it. He loathes not being able to work. If you ask him today he would say he would get out there in a heartbeat if he could at all manage to do so. Eric and I were the dd's for everyone at my brother's wedding. At one of the places we went to we ran into a guy that used to work for my dad. My brother says to me, "Watch this." He goes over to the guy and brings up our dad and that guy talked for 10 minutes on the fact that my dad was the hardest worker he has ever known, before or since. Even putting in all those years, pain, sweat and tears, to this day my dad will not say the government owes them anything. He loathes being on social security, if he had a choice he absolutely would do anything else.
So, the teacher talks about how the government should be responsible for giving everybody health care. My response, isn't it the individuals responsibility to help themselves? I'm not saying that those who need the help shouldn't be able to get it. I just think that you should have to give something in return. I brought up the fact that Eric's in the military, he works hard so we get health care. He tries to throw everybody in the pile by saying, "if your husband came back from Iraq without a limb, shouldn't the government have to help him?" Well, excuse me, I don't think that's the same thing as giving EVERYBODY free health care. Of course they should help injured vets, they worked for it. Of course those injured while working in any line of work should get some sort of help, they were WORKING for it. But don't say that ever Tom, Dick & Harry should get free health care just because they are Americans. It makes no sense to me.

Ok, sorry I had to get that out. I swear, if I make it to the end of the semester without high blood pressure I'll be doing good. I never thought taking intro to journalism would be so taxing lol.

Today has been a wonderful day. It's our five year anniversary. I'm so thrilled to get to spend my life with Eric. His love has been such a blessing to me and I'm so thankful that God put us together when He did. He has blessed our marriage and I'm so grateful for everything. Last year we weren't able to spend the day together, since Eric was still overseas, but this past, almost, year that he's been home has been so wonderful. It's amazing how much a year can change things. This time last year I was planning his homecoming, making signs and getting the house ready. In the past year, my husband came home, I've lost both of my grandpa's, gained a sister-in-law, lost a ton of weight and got my dream of being pregnant with our first baby. Not all of the things have been good, but it's so wonderful to know that no matter what I have the Lord, my wonderful husband and a family that I couldn't imagine not having.

We had the ultrasound today, and everything looks good. The baby was very active and wouldn't hold still the whole time. The baby was so adorable and even gave us the thumbs up.
The radiologist said he's not allowed to tell us what the sex of the baby is because apparently somewhere someone was told they were having either a boy/girl and it turned out they had the opposite and so they sued the hospital, and won. They got not only the money for doing the nursery but also pain and suffering. So, he couldn't technically tell us. Instead, he said, "There's the umbilical cord," moved the thing a little and said, "and there's not the umbilical cord." We're having a boy! Eric and I are both thrilled. Of course we would have been no matter what was seen or not seen. The radiologist kept waiting for the baby to tire and quit bouncing around, but even though we were in there for an hour and 15 mins, the baby refused to settle down. The guy said he hopes he's not quite as active when he gets bigger or he's gonna hurt me lol. Everything looks good though, he has all his little fingers and toes, his little heart is working wonderfully and he's measuring exactly (to the day) what he measured in the first ultrasound. So, the expected due date stays the same, Feb 19, 2008. Here's a couple more pictures of the little one, one is of his face and he's got his little finger on his face and the other is of his little feet.

Well, it's official, my brother's a married man now. That's the weirdest thing to say lol. Things went great though, it was a beautiful wedding. The rehearsal was long and a little sketchy, but the wedding went off without a hitch and everything was great. I put a slideshow together for them that they played before the ceremony started, and it went over well. I cried pretty much from the time I got to my place through the whole ceremony. Although my brother told me thanks for not blubbering like he did during my wedding lol. They couldn't get the unity candle lit, but they didn't let it bother them and we got a laugh from that. So, a word to the wise, make sure the wick is actually sticking out of the candle before the wedding lol. When the ceremony was finished, and we were walking out, the groomsman that I walked with said, "well you held it together good." lol... I said, "yeah I did, didn't I?" geez. Anyways, we had cake there at the church and then they had a dance reception at a opera house museum thing. It was beautiful. They had a dj there and they had a mother/son dance and a father/daughter dance. Then they had a $1 dance. I hadn't ever heard of that, but you pay $1 to dance with either the groom or bride. So, we did that and I don't know how much they made in total, but quite a bit. Plus, one of our cousins came in from Montana and was an usher, but he bought my new SIL a camcorder and my brother a guitar! Well that blew our gifts out of the water that we got them, lol. Anyways, I think they did pretty good and we had a good time. My poor baby was kicking me cause the music was so loud lol. I don't think he/she liked that very much. Several of my brother's friends had come down from where he used to go to college, so after the dance they went to the bar. Somehow, Eric and I got roped into being dd for my cousins, brother and SIL. I'm glad they asked though, because I'd much rather do that than them drive and something happen. So, I was exhausted by the end of the night. I don't think I've ever been so happy to see a bed. Things went great though and I'm just so thrilled for both Matt & Brandi (my brother and SIL). I wish them a lifetime of happiness together and may God bless their marriage.

This pic is me, my mom, brother, dad, sister

me, brother, sister

brother and new sil

whole wedding party, those in very front were ushers

new sil, I love this pic

brother and sil

mother/son dance

Glo left me a message asking if I was feeling ok since I hadn't been on in a while. I am so appreciative that there are people who care, and I just love all you ladies! You've helped me through a lot, even though I've never met any of you in person.



I felt the baby kick today, which was such a neat feeling. I was so thrilled and can't wait until it's strong enough for Eric to be able to feel it too.



My brother's wedding is Oct 6, and I'm a bride's maid. I'm pretty excited about that too, just because I know that she makes him very happy and that makes me very happy. I wish them a lifetime of happiness together.

Courtney is so sweet. I seen that she gave me my first blog award and I want to thank her very much for that! It means so much to me.

The awards says: "The thing that I love most about blogging is that I learn so much about a person just by reading their blog. I have met MANY wonderful people with wonderful stories to tell,and I am grateful every day for each person that I have the pleasure of crossing paths in life with.I wanted to create something special for ten people who have inspired me through their blogging; the stories they tell, and the lives that they lead with grace and dignity. I visit their blogs for inspiration and encouragement.Although there are MANY people I want to give this award to at this very moment, I am going to choose ten bloggers:Please grab your badge and wear it(with a smile) proudly, and pass it on because you inspire and encourage me, thank you.So, now it is my turn to pass it on. "

So, I know that most of these ladies have already received at least one, but they are very special to me and so I'll give it to them again. Thank you all for the support you've shown me. I couldn't have gotten through last year without you!

Courtney (Beside My Soldier)

Michelle (Learning How to Deal)

Charla (Standing By My Man)

Glo (Young At Heart)

Kbug

Andrea (Sgt and Mrs Hub)

Monica (Always My Soldier)

Vanessa (All That I Am)

My little baby sister turns 17 on Friday (21st). It's the last year she's technically still a kid. I'm pretty bummed about all this "growing up" stuff. Seriously, next thing I know it's going to be Eric & my baby that's turning 17. My sister, Meagan, is 7 yrs younger than I am. We're really close. Actually, my whole family is close. We call each other Bisty, and she's so funny. She's really a cool person to hang out with. The night she was born, I was so thrilled. My brother and I were sitting in the waiting room at the hospital by ourselves, the rest of the family hadn't made it there yet, and I was bouncing off the walls (literally). I was so excited to have a baby coming into the family. We didn't know what she was, and when my dad came down the hall with the nurse and told us it was a girl I was beyond thrilled. My brother, on the other hand, was not. He wouldn't even come out in the hall and see her before they took her to the nursery to clean her up. He sat in the waiting room pouting. He wanted a brother. He even called her "It" for a while after she was born. Of course, they are best friends now too though.
Our whole family is super close and I'm so thankful for that. My sister completed the puzzle to that part of our lives and I thank God that she was put into our family. The age difference could have been one that separated us, but I think that it made us closer. I've always had the instinct to protect her first. As my mom has said, I was a very clumsy child, but even when I would be holding her and I would trip and fall (lol) I always made sure to land with her up, so she didn't get hurt. She's not just my sister, but a wonderful friend and I'm proud of the young woman that she's becoming. So, to my beautiful, talented sister, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEAGAN! I love you!

We had another appt yesterday. Everything is going good. The baby was moving alot, so she wasn't able to get a good heartbeat lol. What we did hear, she said was between 140-150 though. My next appt is Oct 17, but we are scheduled for an ultrasound Oct 12 (which just happens to be our 5 year anniversary!). I'm so excited, I can't wait to see our little one again. My brother is getting married Oct 6, so this weekend is their wedding shower. We are going to my parents this weekend so I can go. Eric's not even slightly interested in going (for some odd reason lol) so he's going hunting with my sister's bf. I even let him off the hook of going to our baby shower, he wants to go to an OU game since I did that. I figure I made him suffer through our wedding shower, I'll let him slide on this one. They don't seem to be geared towards the men anyways lol. Who knows when it will be though, my sister is planning it and won't tell me anything. She says it's a surprise. I think I should at least get time to plan when I need to be there lol. Oh well.

In other news, school is going ok. My journalism teacher is one of the most slanted people you will ever meet and his "teaching" leaves a lot to be desired. My economic geography teacher thinks he's teaching 3 yr olds (seriously, he stopped class after myself and another person sneezed back to back and said "I guess everyone has the sniffles huh?" and then he got irritated when a girl asked a question and asked if it would be on the test). I don't think he realizes that if we don't learn what's being taught, it's at our own expense. Oh well, I guess everyone can't be pleasant, otherwise we'd have nothing to complain about lol.

Ok, I'm a little slow, but I finally took the time to take some pictures of our house. I haven't taken any of the outside yet though. I have some of before, but I'm just going to post the one's of now. I love this house, I'm already dreading the thought of having to sell it one day lol. We got some baby stuff the other day. We got the crib, changing table, and dresser. Eric put it together and it is so cute! I'm thrilled. It looks neat having it in the baby's room. We still have to paint and stuff, but I have no clue what color to paint, so that will have to be later.

Here's our cute little kitchen, I love the cupboards! My mom made the curtains for the kitchen. They are so cute!

And the living room

The spare room is a mess still, we have lots of work to do to get this one in order!

Our bedroom

And our cute little baby's room! The dress hanging on the dresser is something I had picked up for a friends baby. Turns out, she's having a boy lol. Oh well, it might come in handy if we have a girl!

I came close to dropping journalism, but after thinking and praying hard about, I decided not to let an arrogant teacher run me off. Besides, I'll know better next semester! lol...



I've had a head cold the past week and I'm so ready to get over it. It makes things more difficult not being able to take medicine. A small price to pay though.



We have tickets to go see OU vs North TX this weekend. I don't want to go, I'm not a big fan of football, but Eric wanted to and my sister and her bf want to too, so I'm going too. We also get to go see my sister's bf play his high school football game Friday. So, as much as I don't like football, that's where I'll be all weekend, YAY!



I miss Hawaii. I want to go there again and just relax and do absolutely nothing but goof off for another week. Sounds so good to me right now! Too bad that takes money, and quite a bit of it. First, we have to fix the air conditioner and then eventually we need things for the baby. Vacation will have to wait. The baby is definitely worth it, and with the heat, the air conditioner is too, but if things weren't so expensive we could have all three and then I could forget school and be relaxing in paradise. Ahh, dreams.

Classes started Monday, I'm taking Economic Geography, Intro to Journalism, Methods in Social Research and Social Statistics. You know which one I dread going to the most Monday, Wednesday and Friday? Intro to Journalism. Would you like to know why? On day one the teacher called us out on our political views. I am not an outgoing person, by any stretch of the imagination. I don't go around spewing my views, but I also won't sit back and let others bad mouth my side either. So, in answer to his question of who we supported, I was the only one to raise my hand. I felt out of place, sure, but also proud of myself for sticking up for what I believe. Then today, another dose of making a point to draw out those who oppose his views. Luckily there happened to be another lady in class today that shared my point of view, and she's a talker :) You know, I would understand the point to this type of teaching if the teacher wasn't so biased. If he drew out both sides to open a discussion for the students to choose their own beliefs, that's one thing. However, It's a completely other thing when the teacher puts his point out there and makes the student feel like they are totally wrong for their beliefs. He flat out said, "I'm anti..." and proceeded to name the things he hates. Isn't the point of teaching to teach all the angles and give the students the information to choose their own path, not to try and make them take the path already chosen by the teacher? Aahh, ok that's enough of a rant for today, and it's only the second day of that class. It may be a very long semester! Sorry if this doesn't make sense.

I don't know why the picture wasn't showing up. I'll try again to post it. Sometimes blogger is frustrating. We had another dr appt today, and we got to hear the heartbeat! It was 156. It was amazing and so neat!

Ok, sorry this took so long, but here's the picture of our baby. The cute little one even had it's tail still lol. I have another appt on the 15, so hopefully we'll get to hear the heartbeat then. I'm excited! Eric's mom bummed me out when we went and visited her this past weekend. She looked at the picture and just went on talking about her stupid cell phone. We might as well have shown her our big toes for all she seemed to care. Oh well, that's her loss if she's not going to be excited with the rest of us. My family is estatic and Eric and I couldn't be prouder parents already lol.

I know I referred to the baby as he in my post, but that's only because I've always figured I'd have a boy first lol. I always wanted to have the older boy so he could look after his little sister. Kinda like my brother, I guess. Although my brother was such a butthead to me for a long time. When it came down to it, though, he stood up for me and protected me when I was being threatened. My brother's rules were that I was to never look at him, or talk to him in public. The only reason I could talk to him was if something happened to mom, dad or our little sister. He was very adament about this, and in fact he told me if I seen him in school I was to look the other way and act like I didn't see him. I always complied to these rules, and I developed a very bad habit of starring at the floor, and playing with my hands. Anyways, we went to Falls Creek Church Camp one year, and I stayed away from him. Some of the people from our group were going to play in a volleyball tournament, and so the whole group went to watch. Well, one of my friends and I sat up higher and away from the rest of the group. These three guys came up to us, one had a camcorder, and stood in front of us. The other two sat down on either side of us and started putting their hands on us and saying stupid things like, "Hey baby, wanna go with us?" and just being really dumb. Well, we were both taken aback and didn't know what to do. Out of the blue, standing in front of me, my brother appeared. I didn't see him come up, but he was there. (He's always been very stocky for his age, and everyone was always intimidated by him) He was standing there, flexing his muscles and he said, "Michelle, are these guys bothering you?" I told him yes and he said, "Leave her alone!" The guys started stuttering saying, "Hey man, we were just playin around." My brother said, "Leave her alone!" The guys were stumbling all over themselves, and my brother wasn't backing down. Anyways, they left and left us alone. My brother turned to me and asked if I was ok, I told him I was, and he turned and walked back down to his seat. Everyone was talking about it, they said that as soon as he realized that the guys were touching us, he flew up the steps. From that day on I knew my brother loved me and would be there when I needed him. Up to that point, I had no clue, I figured he'd be the first to throw me to the wolves lol. Anyways, I've always wanted a little boy to give his little sister that kind of security. (Minus the whole making a rule where she can't look at him part)
On the other hand, though, my mom and grandma both say it's a little girl lol. It's kind of funny though, because my mom says things like, "They got a picture of her today," to my dad and my dad responds with, "You mean him?" lol. I guess only the Lord knows though, whatever we have, it's our little blessing and I'll be so happy to have him or her.