10 Weeks to Go!

Week 30

Baby's Length: 16.25-17 in.

Baby's Weight: 3 lbs.

Baby's Size: Thick Wool Sweater, Folded

First it was a Sock Monkey
Then a pair of sneakers
and now this?...a thick wool sweater?!?! folded?!?!?! Talk about ridiculous. These items do not help me know how big my baby is!
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In other news, I'm feeling great and the baby seems to be having a ball in there! All 5 senses are fully developed now, so there's a lot of touching, hearing, seeing, smelling and tasting going on. Sometimes when I poke my belly, the baby pokes me back. I'm sure Ryan's singing has been highly entertaining as well!

We think it's either a boy or a girl. Ryan thinks it's a boy. My granny thinks its a girl. What do you think? Enter your guess into the poll in my sidebar!

One minor issue...

Yesterday Ryan and I found the most gloriously awesome, comfy, glidey, rockey chair for our nursery!

• it's lime green, which is awesome
• it's so comfy and squishy
• it was the floor sample, and waaay on sale, so we bought it immediately, brought it home, got it through the front door and into the living room... where it sits right now.

One minor issue...

It won't fit down our hallway and into the nursery! That's right folks, the windows are too narrow, the door frames are too narrow, and yes, even the hallway is too narrow.

What do you think we should do?

1. Leave it in the living room


2. Attempt to return the "as-is floor sample" and try to find a smaller lime green comfy chair that happens to be on sale
   
3. Saw it in half, take it to the nursery, duct tape it back together


4. Other

If you choose "other" please leave me a comment with your suggestion.

on my mind right now...

• I miss my hubby. I can't wait for this crazy night float month to be over so we can live on the same schedule again! I seriously just teared up thinking about it. pregnant and hormonal? yes.
• My friend Kelli is cutting my hair soon and I am so excited about it - I LOVE getting my hair done!
• Is it bad that I have worn the same 2 pairs of maternity jeans every single day since Christmas?
  
• $15 dresses at Old Navy - They fit my belly! SAYIN'!
• There are a lot of red markers and pens on my desk at work right now. I don't know where they come from, I'm like a magnet for red pens.
• One of my least favorite things is when I'm in a public restroom and that sanitizer smelly deodorizer sprayer thing sprays while I'm in there...especially when it's right over my head and I smell like a floral explosion for the rest of the day.
• I think Ry and I might rake the back yard this weekend - Yahoo!
• Are any of my West Michigan friends going to the mom-to-mom sale at the Deltaplex tomorrow? Maybe I'll see you there!
  

Revelation

Last weekend I had a revelation. My mom and sister threw me a baby shower and one of the gifts I opened was a little baby grooming kit with a little soft hairbrush and a tiny comb, some baby nail clippers and an itsy-bitsy toothbrush!

That was the moment...the moment I saw that toothbrush. I had never in my life, until that moment, thought of having to brush a baby's teeth.

Then my mom (because she knows me so well and always seems to know just the right thing to say at the right time) reminded me that babys aren't born with teeth.

And now I can sleep at night. Thanks Mom!

Colbert

When Ryan and I found out that our favorite "guardian of truthiness" Steven Colbert had entered his name into NASA's Node 3 Naming Contest, we went nuts. He is so hilarious and we are proud to have represented the Colbert Nation by casting our vote last week. The best news is - HE WON...by more than 40,000 votes!

NASA's online contest to name a new room at the international space station went awry. Comedian Stephen Colbert won.

The name "Colbert" beat out NASA's four suggested options in the space agency's effort to have the public help name the addition. The new room will be launched later this year.

NASA's mistake was allowing write-ins. Colbert urged viewers of his Comedy Central show, "The Colbert Report" to write in his name. And they complied, with 230,539 votes. That clobbered Serenity, one of the NASA choices, by more than 40,000 votes. Nearly 1.2 million votes were cast by the time the contest ended Friday.

NASA reserves the right to choose an appropriate name. Agency spokesman John Yembrick said NASA will decide in April, but will give top vote-getters "the most consideration."

If you want to vote for Colbert for TIME's 100 most influential people of the year, click HERE.

3 Year Blogiversary

I love blogging. Today is my 3 year blogiversary and I am thrilled to pieces that so many of you have enjoyed glimpsing through this window into my life.

Ryan's Grandma Cox is one of my favorite readers. Each time I post I think to myself "is this something that Grandma Cox would find entertaining?" and if the answer is "yes" then I hit "Publish" (Thanks for reading Grandma Cox!)

Here are some of the most popular posts from the last 3 years. Apparently you readers seem to enjoy the stories of shenanigans best...

Hot Sheets
What would you have done?
Homeless Picture
Flashback Friday
Shampoo and Conditioner
One thing I learned yesterday...
On Housewifing
Metatarsal-Phalangeal Capsilitis & Bipartite Sesamoid
How a Donut Hole Ruined My Day
Flashback Friday

Over the last 3 years 36,880 Unique Vistors have checked out my site. I'm sure about 36,800 of those never returned, but for the 80 of you who have come back, thanks for reading!

I don't usually do this, but...
I'd love to know who you are and why you come back! Leave me a comment!

Just Do It

You write the caption...

Have You Got The Money or The Money Got You?

Billy Pollard sings it like it is...

28 Weeks

As I mentioned last week when my pregnancy calculator described my baby to the likeness of a Sock Monkey - this week again I am baffled by the item they have chosen to help me know how big my baby is.

Week 28

Baby's Length: 15.25-15.75 in.

Baby's Weight: 2.25-2.5 lbs.

Baby's Size: Pair of sneakers

Really? A pair of sneakers? You couldn't think of anything better to compare to?
...both sneakers?
...what size of sneakers?
...the sneakers I'm wearing right now?

SO CONFUSING!!

Third Trimester - The Final Countdown!

On this, the first day of my third and final trimester I can officially report that the baby is big enough to poke me in the ribs. My mom and dad came up for dinner tonight and my dad took these pictures of me on our front porch. Can you tell I'm getting poked in the ribs?

Weekend with Friends

This weekend we had our friends Joel and Sarah down from Boyne and Luke, Lindsay and baby Isla down from Cadillac. It was so great to see them and spend some time catching up. The weather was beautiful so we grilled out (of course) and had a great night recanting tales and watching the boys crack each other up.Luke and Lindsay are such great parents. I love seeing Lindsay interact with Isla...I think I learned a lot this weekend just from watching Lindsay.

Here's Ryan and Joel practicing how to be dads. I think they've got the look down...not quite sure how Isla was feeling about it.

It was so great to see you guys! Can't wait for our next little get-together!

Today I learned about Sugar Gliders

Ryan and I have been selling stuff on Craig's List. One item that is currently for sale is a Smoothie Maker - still in the box! We got two blenders for our wedding, so it only makes sense that I sell one.

Today I got the following email: "do you still have the smoothie maker? i need it to blend food for my sugar glider would it work for that?"

Before emailing back I think to myself, "Sugar Glider? What is a Sugar Glider?" Thank you Google, for directing me to knowledge about this hilarious little buddy of a pet.











People LOVE Sugar Gliders! Apparently they are tiny marsupials native to Australia and Indonesia. They require a very specific natural food diet, require a lot of room to climb/move around, can be smelly, messy, noisy, have emotional issues and they bite...but other than that they make great little pets. You can learn a lot about Sugar Gliders on Gliderpedia.

I now feel informed enough to email this lady back to let her know that my blender will indeed be capable of blending food for her Sugar Glider.

Feeding the Hungry in Elkhart, IN

I love seeing people helping people. Yesterday in Elkhart, IN my mom and dad and many people from Granger Community Church and other churches in the community partnered with Larry Jones of Feed the Children to distribute $2.1 million of food. One of my favorite parts of this story is that some of the volunteers were jobless as well. What can we do today to help someone? Do we have money to give? Do we have time? Can we offer a word of encouragement or a smile?

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Matthew 25:36-40

'I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

Matthew 25:36-40

Dear Nay-Sayers...

There are lots of nay-sayers out there who seem to think that "the church" is no place to talk about sex. Well...I disagree.

This video pretty much explains why.

ImNotBuyingIt.com Video from Granger Community on Vimeo.

One week away from the 3rd trimester!

Week 27

Baby's Length: 9.25-9.50 in.

Baby's Weight: 2-2.25 lbs.

Baby's Size: Sock Monkey

Is it weird that today the parents.com "Ages and Stages" email compared my baby to the size of a sock monkey? It seems like they could come up with some everyday items that make more sense. I have no idea how big a sock monkey is.

Sex For Sale

This weekend's services at Granger were stellar. I can't go there each weekend because I live in GR, but I do watch the services online and you can too! The new series called "Sex For Sale" is relevant across the board whether you're a teenager, single, dating, married with an awesome sex life or married with a not-so-awesome sex life. The decisions we make each day either put us closer to or father from where we truly want to be.

Watch Services HERE

in other news...

Ryan and I turned into superheros over the weekend.

Pretty much we had a HUGE list of a million things that needed to be done - and we successfully crossed approximately 67 of those things off over the weekend. Whenever Ryan has a weekend off of work we try to go somewhere and do something - which is why it has taken us over a month to unpack our boxes and move into our house.

Weekend Highlights:

• Purchased items that made us feel very "adult": brooms, a rake, some recycle bins, a weed whacker and a mower
• Spent the afternoon raking our frozen lawn with our fancy new rake (yes, it was not quite 20 degrees on the last day of February. I'm sure our new neighbors think we're weird)
• Hung pictures on our walls, which required a lot of teamwork
• Put a carpet in the living room
• Picked up an awesome, never-used, in the original wrapping crib mattress from Craig's List
• Organized the attic - including our first usage of the Shop Vac we got for our wedding that had never been opened
• Cleaned, cleaned, cleaned
• Finished the taxes! YAHOO!!
• Checked out a church down the street
• Put my clothes in my drawers (and realized that I need some longer shirts in my life. I can tell that my "non maternity" clothes aren't going to work much longer!)

All-in-all it was a GREAT decision to stay home this weekend and get some stuff done! Ryan started his "Night Float" month today - which means some days he works from 1pm until 10pm and other days he works from 8pm until 7am. Night Float is my least favorite month because we are forced to live on completely opposite schedules. The good news is, being on the General Peds floor gives Ryan a chance to learn a lot and see a lot of different types of diseases and problems. He loves learning and is so good at his job. It thrills me to see him succeed and excel the way he has during residency.

Woah - that was a long post. Those of you who actually read the whole thing should go out and get yourselves a gold star today!

No Mo' Breakfast

This guy won't need no mo' breakfast when the good Lord calls him home. What do you think? Could the lady he is singing with be a little more into it?

Thanks Tim!