Maternity pics!

Kyla was nice enough to send me a digital copy of some of my maternity pics - like I said she is awesome. Enjoy!

Admiring the dedication...

...to those that blog consistently. Impressive - really. And then even beyond that, those that write for a living. God bless you Mrs. Spencer and the things that you do. I had my own form of writers block since my last post, I would have long been fired if this was my job.

Speaking of jobs, Dad got an new one - he's now employed as a Supervisor for Embry Construction! First project is in Oklahoma City so he hit the road Monday and won't be back for awhile. Amazingly enough the jeep cherokee that he drove up there made it all the way. Those of you that know the Havins family & luck with cars can understand the victory there. Congrats dad!

Dom and I attended childbirth classes these last two Mondays - I'm ready! I think, I guess, we'll see, I mean as ready as you can be for labor. It's exciting though and I feel as prepared as I can be. I had another dr. visit and we got to see the little munchkin all squished in my belly, she weighs 4 lbs 5 oz (last Wednesday), so she's defnitely getting there. We also got maternity pics taken and they turned out great. Kyla was awesome, anyone looking for a good photographer check her out at http://www.luzdelalmaphoto.com/. I'll post a few pics if I can get a digital copy.

Off to get baby furniture now - the room is almost there. If Babies R Us didn't suck so bad we would have had this all put together awhile ago. I won't bother you all with how bad they suck but just trust me on this - they are the most inefficient, unorganized, SUCKY place in Austin to buy baby furniture. Ciao!

Where's Lee?

Lee Greenwood that is. We needed him on the 4th of July during the finale of the fireworks but he never showed. We had KVET blaring from our garage thinking surely we would hear the famous song, "And I'm proud to be an American...", but as the fireworks wrapped up we just took it upon ourselves to close the show properly. Great time had by all on Friday, speaking as the only sober one in the house, besides Gracie, I can vouch, and remind all others that were there that it was a good time. Apologies to my neighbors for the conversations taking place on the back deck that involved all guys, including Steven Hand, Mark Spencer, and my brother. There is a reason the rest of us were sitting out front. Sorry to the car that Steve threw the beer bottle at. Sorry for the loud screaming of "blue","green", "red" but per Mark Spencer we thought a good way to create sound for the fireworks was to scream out their color. They were a distance away over the lake and the loud boom didn't accompany, so we made our own noise. 4th of July weekend was awesome.

Back to the daily grind this week with nothing fun or exciting to report on. I'm sure all of you watched the Bachelorette finale Monday night - can you believe she picked Jesse!!? I was excited, the other dude was a huge dork and ran like a girl. Nice guy, but she'd run all over him.

Went shopping with grandma and mom (soon to be grandma) and got Brooklyn's stroller. I will honestly say that a wave of inadequacy hit me as I attempted, many times to unhook the car seat from it's base, on to the stroller, and off again. Folding the stroller was no easy task either. If Brooklyn had been in them she would have gotten motion sickness from the jerking. I'll need to practice! It's amazing how the simplest tasks can scare you into your parenting reality. :)

Approaching 32 weeks tomorrow, counting down!

Centipede's, Spaghetti, and Painting!

Yeah, three things that don't even make sense to remotely put in the same sentence. It's the title of my latest post though because these are the three things that I feel the need to share since I last updated this thing.

So, this morning I was leaving my house and asked Dom if he wanted me to take out the trash. (This is the subtle way of reminding him that it's Tuesday and he needs to take out the trash). Hey - I'm pregnant and I'll use that until the day this baby is born. Well, as I opened the garage and moved one of the boxes from Brooklyn's furniture delivery a GIANT centipede stared back at me from our driveway. This thing was prehistoric looking, I've only seen something like this one other time in my life. It had to have been a foot long, and it's legs were a inch long - ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew. Dom, in heroic fashion, came to my rescue and beat the shit out of this thing with a paint can. Must have hit it like 10 times. Sorry to all of you centipede lovers, but another one bites the dust. So since I've lived at my house I have seen two tarantula's, a snake, and now this. All outside but still! Anyone know a good exterminator?


Spaghetti: When pregnant, be aware of your stomach while cooking on the stove. I was making spaghetti last night and while browning the hamburger meat I burned my stomach on the pan. It is so big that I don't even know where I am relative to the stove, and now have a line across my belly. Niiiiice.


And now, to the fun part. This weekend Dom and I took on two projects - staining shelves and painting letters for B's room. For someone that has little artistic ability and can barely color between the lines, they turned out great. To my artsy friends - no comments please!!!

Before:


After:


Me staining shelves - this was the exact location

of the GIANT centipede.

Hump day

Where does the time go - it's hump day and it seems like I was just contemplating our weekend plans! Friday night KQ and I joined the Spencers, Mike, and a few others for a pool party. Hey - pool parties on the EAST side is where it's at. One minor detail, we were at the pool no more than 15 minutes and the only rain cloud in the city managed to position itself right above our little get together and poured. We packed it up and headed back to the condo. We still managed to squeeze on the porch and drink some beers, burn a few heaters, and have great conversation. Don't worry - no beer or heaters for me.

Saturday Dom and I got up and we did decide to go to Houston, which was great! A road trip with him is easy, we talk a bit and then I make him listen to all my good CD's that he loves so much. ;) A little Pat Green on the road never hurt anyone, and he no longer denies it - he likes country music. Well, some of it. It was great to see Perri and Ryan, and their kiddos. Hats off to the two of them as keeping up with little Brody and Addison is a lot of work! Perri just looks at me and smiles as if to say, "you have no idea what you are in for, do you?" Brody is going to be two this July and once again - I can't believe how time is flying by!

Sunday we headed to my parents house and enjoyed a great day grilling with them, and looking at my mom's war wounds from when she fell through the garage ceiling on Friday. Yes, grandma Donna fell through the ceiling of the garage while looking for tea sets of mine for Brookyn's room. I'll leave it at that though, it's a sensitive subject for her (although the rest of the family got a bit of a laugh out of this once we knew she was okay ;). My poor father though, he'll be reminded of how he needs to clean out that damn attic everytime he, or she, goes into the garage.

So, here's to time flying and it being hump day today. Just remember, as I try to do, to make the most of time, it's precious.

What to do?

So, weekend is right around the corner and my undecisive self can't figure out what we're doing. Options, head to H-town to see Perri & Ryan or stay in town and hit the lake on Sunday with some friends. Both arn't too shabby huh? It's just the gas prices are so high right now and we are trying to save up the cash for when B arrives. A quick road trip does sound good though, hit the road with good CD's and enjoy the scenic drive on 290 - that beautiful town of Brenham with the Budweiser plant and K-bob steak house. Oooohhhh, I think that's where the cafe/gas station/grocery store/town bar is too - or wait, that might be Giddings. Smells like a giant greasepit in there. No, Giddings has the crappy Sonic. If you want a good sonic drink before you hit the road you have to get one before you get out of town. Don't forgot to stop in Elgin and pick up some BBQ, and then hit the flea market on your way back into town. That flea market is fanceeeeeee. That's the 290 route, there is a whole new world of adventure if you take 71 to I-10. Oh, Houston - land of polluted skies, horrible traffic, obesity, and humidity. Sounds tempting! We'll see what we end up with - regardless, looking forward to just being off work for a couple of days.

Mt. Everest

Voluntary weight gain is something that you get used to when pregnant, and you come to accept it. No worries, I'll just keep up with the exercise side of all this (I tell myself). I will say that I learned from my mother who walked up and down our stairs with Robert, and rode the stationary bike with Richard, that it does help things. That stationary bike, by the way, was louder than most cars today. But she stuck with it and it paid off. I'm attempting to do the same thing but as I put on the weight the exercise gets a little trickier. At most these days I walk, and just last weekend I started swimming laps. I did 10 and was exhausted! I haven't swam a lap in years, swimming with this belly made it all the more interesting. I'll keep that up though as it feels great in this 100+ record setting summer we are having. So, for the walks Dom and I tackle the streets in our neighborhood - and as of today I am down with an injury. We have a street that has a hill the size of Mt. Everest and me, being determined to keep my ass from tripling decide that I can take on this hill, 29 weeks pregnant, 2 days in a row. Hate to say use the expression but things just arn't like they used to be, on my 2nd attempt I seemed to have popped something in my knee which has resulted in me limping around the house, and work since yesterday. It's my surgery knee which is equivalent to an 80 yr. old's anyway, so I'm sure I did something. Pretty sad when your neighborhood hill is, in your mind, much like that of Mt. Everest. Seems like I should just stick to water sports for the remainder of the pregnancy!

Went to the Dr. today and she's doing great - everything is on track - 11 weeks to go!