AC problems and solutions

Yesterday our AC went out at the house.  When I got home at 6:45pm the temperature in our house was 92 degrees.  When we left to go to Sis and Adam's at 7:45pm it was up to 95 degrees.  Luckily, my amazing hubby came to the rescue and got it all fixed today while I was at work.  It's not completely cooled off yet, but MUCH better than yesterday!  Thank goodness it was fixed quickly!  Crisis averted!  ;)

Upcoming Dates

There are many exciting things coming up in our lives!  October will be here before we know it!!  Life, it is a changing!  Here are some (I'm sure I will forget some) of the big things that are coming up that I'm excited about!

June 29th - I have the day off work (and don't have to be in until 1pm on Saturday) and we are going out to Mama's to celebrate the 4th of July!!  Going to try to talk Michael into getting off work early so we can head out a little earlier.  :)  Can't wait for fireworks and for Dayton's first big booming holiday!  :D  By this time next year he'll be a pro!  ;)

July 10th - Our next doctor's appointment.  Nothing too exciting going on for this one.  I am getting my glucose test done, but otherwise it should be a normal in and out appointment.  But another appointment means we're another month closer to our baby girl's arrival!!!

August 4th - BABY SHOWER!!!!!!  Mama and Sis are throwing Baby Voss and me a baby shower!  It's going to be here at Michael's and my house so that we don't have to worry about transporting things back home after the party.  ;)  No time or details yet, but the party stuff has baby jungle animals, pink, green, and polka dots!!!  :D  I am COMPLETELY stoked!!!!  Can't wait to celebrate our perfect little girl!!

August 7th - Another doctor's appointment and another sonogram!!!  I will be just under 32 weeks at this appointment.  The doctor wants to check the placenta to make sure that it isn't covering or near the cervix which could cause problems with a normal delivery and end up requiring a c-section.  Honestly, I don't care how she gets here, as long as she's safe and healthy.  So if it turns out that we have to have a c-section, this will not bother me in the slightest.  I'm just excited that we get another sonogram and another chance to see our baby before she gets here!!!!  We have been VERY spoiled and will have gotten 4 sonograms during this pregnancy!  I feel very blessed to be able to see her and her growth so often!  :)

August 9-12th - Tugfest!!!  Michael and I will be going up to Iowa for the weekend with Linda (and whatever other family decides to come, still up in the air) to LeClaire, Iowa for a family reunion and Tugfest!!  It's one of my favorite things to do all year!  I love seeing all of Michael's family, seeing the parade, watching the fireworks on the Mississippi River, listening to the bands, eating carnival food, playing with the kids, and enjoying lots of family time with my hubby.  Michael and I have gone every year since we started dating.  :)  This will be my 6th year at Tugfest!  :D  This time next year there will be 3 of us making the trip!!  :D  Can't wait!!!

September 1-2 - K-State Football and Ren Fest!!!  2 of the reasons I love the fall so much is because of K-State football and the Ren Fest!  So the weekend of Sept. 1-2 we are going to take a trip to Manhattan and KC to enjoy a weekend of fun and excitement before the baby is born.  Yes, I know I will be 36 weeks pregnant at the time, but I'm dieing to go to a K-State game!  And I really don't want to miss the Ren Fest this year either!  So we are going to attempt to make a weekend of it!  K-State's opening game is on Saturday the 1st.  The Ren Fest opens that day as well, but will also be open the following day, on Sunday the 2nd.  It should be a VERY fun trip!!  I know people think I'm crazy for trying to squeeze all that into a weekend, but it's so fun!  I just have to try!

October 5th - D Day!  Little _____ ____ Voss should be entering the cold, loud world on this day!!  Now, whether she will or not is entirely up to her, but this is her expected day.  This will be the day our world will turn upside down for the better and we will have a beautiful, perfect baby girl to raise.  I can't wait!!!!  She'll be here before we know it!  I can't believe her arrival is only 15 short weeks away!!  Hooooray!!!!

That's all I've got planned so far.  I'm sure there's more going on, but these are the major events coming up in my life that I'm looking forward to.  I just get giddy looking at this list.  :)  Life is so very good.  :)

Family Came to Visit!!!

A big thank you to Glenn, Linda, Nick, Maggie, and Shadow for coming to visit this weekend!!!  It was good seeing everyone and it was so fun to show them our home!  Friday night we had a nice time sitting on the deck under the veil of smokey citranella watching the sun set, watching the dogs play, and just catching up with Glenn and Linda and what had been going on in all of our lives.  :)  It was the first time Michael and I had used the tiki torches.  They worked great!!!!  We will have to use them a lot more this summer!  :)  Then Saturday morning we sat on the deck and drank coffee.  The sun rises on the other side of the house, so it was nice and cool, especially with a little bit of a breeze.  :)  Michael made us all waffles for breakfast!  They were delicious!!!  Nick and Maggie got to town about 10:30.  The puppies loved playing together!  :)  They all wore each other out very well!  We showed Nick and Maggie the house and then we all piled into the van and drove to Old Town to check out the farmers market.  They had some good stuff!  Including homemade pasta!!  We got some onion and garlic pasta.  I hope it's tasty!!  At the market B98 was having a listener appreciation day and passing out 98 cent passes to the Museum of World Treasures (normally $9/person).  So we all went to the museum for a couple of hours.  It was fun!  I hadn't been in there since Sis and Adam's wedding reception!  There is so much stuff and information!  You could spend a LONG time in there!  Next, we went to Heroes for lunch because Maggie wanted bar food (but ended up ordering a salad, lol).  Michael and I hadn't even been there before.  It was very good!  We will have to go there again!  Finally, we went back to the house to let the dogs play some more.  We all sat around in the living room and talked and caught up.  Sadly, I had to go to work at 5, but it was nice to spend most of our day with our guests.  :)  Thank you again, to Glenn, Linda, Nick, Maggie, and Shadow for coming to visit!!!  It means a lot to us that you would spend your Friday and Saturday doing so much driving just to see us and our home.  :)  We can't wait to see you again!!!  Thanks so much!!!

Hey, Ch Ch Changes! ;)

As expected, my body is going through many changes right now as our baby is growing.  One of the things I have recently noticed is that moving around is getting more and more difficult.  Now, this does not include walking from one side of the room to the other.  My walking is still just fine, no waddling yet.  My movement is mostly limited when I am sleeping.  Normally I roll back and forth from side to side while I sleep.  These days, that task is getting more and more difficult.  Rolling and getting out of bed are getting more difficult every day.  It worries me a little bit, because we have 15 weeks and 2 days left to go, and I'm going to have to keep sleeping and getting out of bed.  I will keep you informed as I become more and more inmobile.  :P

Another change that's taking place is that I'm getting much bigger around the middle.  ;)  Now, of course, I knew this part was coming, but I didn't anticipate how full feeling my belly would be getting, or how firm and tight it would feel.  I weighed more in high school than I did in college, so I think when I lost weight in college, it gave my body and my skin some extra room to stretch if I got bigger again.  Well, I think I am getting close to the limit of my skin elasticity.  My skin is feeling very tight over my growing belly.  I have been very thankful to not have gotten any stretch marks yet!  While I know this is something that's likely to happen, and that I should wear them proudly as a badge of honor for all my body has been capable of doing, I'm young and still a little vein, so I would rather not get the stretch marks at all.  ;)  We shall see if I am lucky enough.

Other than those 2 items, things have been pretty normal for me.  The heartburn is subsiding somewhat, which I am glad for, but am still hoping our baby girl is born with lots of hair.  My digestive issues that plagued me during the first trimester and into the second (probably aided by the zofran side effects) have gone away.  The nausiated feeling when I haven't eaten in a while hasn't bothered me in weeks.  And with the exception of mornings like today when I stay up late the night before and then have to work early the following day, I've had plenty of energy and not been too sleepy.  Overall, the second trimester has treated me very well.  I am beginning to see some of the dark cloud of the third trimester approaching.  Only a little over 2 weeks until we get there.  But I am hopeful for the third trimester.  Because if nothing else, I know there is a silver lining around 40 weeks that will arrive in a perfect pink package and be wailing her head off.  :)  Can't wait for that!!!

Finally, in movement news, this girl is definitely going to be a soccer player!  She has great foot coordination already!!  Any time Michael or I push on my stomach, she kicks the spot where we're pushing.  That explains why she kicked the doppler so many times when we were at the doctor last.  :P  She doesn't like her space being pushed on, so she kicks wilding at the spot until the pushing goes away and she's got plenty of room again.  She does the same thing when I'm laying on my side in bed or wearing my seatbelt.  If there is pressure on her, she is kicking at it until it goes away.  What a brilliant little girl we have!!!  :D  Love her so much already!!

Ok, last thing for real this time....  I think Michael and I have all but picked out her name.  We were between 2 different middle names, and I think we have settled on one now.  We are still open to the idea of a new name coming to our minds and using it instead of the middle name we're currently on, but for now I think we have things settled.  :)  Only a little over 15 more weeks until she'll be here and we'll be able to introduce our perfect baby girl to all of you.  :)

Well, I should get ready for work now.  Love you all very much.  Thanks and congrats to all of you who made it through my entire post.  I know I can get long-winded.  ;)  Have a wonderful Wednesday!!

Much Love,
Michael, Jen, and Baby Voss

Do Not Poke Me

Our baby girl does not like being poked.  ...That, or she thinks it's a game.  :P  Any time Michael or I push on my stomach, she kicks at the place where we're poking.  It's so entertaining!  I love feeling her move so much!  Can't wait for her to get here!  What an amazing ride this has been!  So happy to be pregnant and growing our little miracle.  It's such an amazing blessing.  It's going to be amazing shaping this beautiful little life.  Mommy and Daddy love you _____ ____ Voss!!  :D

Btw, we settled on a name!!!  :D

Babysitting the Little Monkey

Sis has recently taken up being a secret shopper.  She goes to stores and resteraunts and orders food, then grades them on their service and quality of food.  Today she needed to go to McDonalds, but wasn't allowed to have anyone with her, even a baby.  So I came over to watch Dayton for a little bit, and got free breakfast out of it!  Yum!  The little guy and I had a nice time.  I tried to get pictures of his adorable smiles, but when I got the camera out they weren't coming.  :P  Little stinker!  So the following picture will have to do.  ;)  What a handsome little man!  Love this little guy!!  :D

Happy Father's Day!!

I am so excited that today is Father's Day!  Michael isn't a dad yet, but it won't be much longer until he is.  He is the greatest man I know.  He's caring and patient, he's loving and kind, he's thoughtful and considerate, he's strong and even-tempered, he's everything.  I love him so very much.  Our baby girl is so lucky to have such an amazing dad.  I can't wait for her to get here and for Michael to finally have his chance to show the world what an amzing father he's going to be.  It's so fun watching his eyes light up while he talks about her.  He's so excited to meet her, hold her, and love on her.  He is going to be her biggest fan and her protector.  I can't wait until he's finally got her in his arms.  I think fatherhood will come very naturally for Michael.  I can already imagine what it will be like that day in the hospital when our little girl is born.  I imagine it be hard for him to give her up to the hoards of friends and relatives, dying to hold our new little girl.  And I can imagine him staying close by or keeping a very close eye on everyone who holds her, making sure that she is always safe.  He's going to make such an amazing Dad.  She already knows his voice and gets excited when she hears him.  She loves her Daddy already!  :D  I can't wait for her to get here so she can see first-hand just how deeply she's loved.  What a blessing this little girl is!!  God has been very good to us!  I cannot wait to see what other blessings He has in store.  He's already given me the world's most amazing husband, and in 16 more weeks we'll have a baby girl as well!  I don't think life gets much better than this.  :)  I love you, Michael.  :)  Happy Father's Day!
Love,
Jen and Your Baby Girl  :)

Date Night

It might not be much, but I love the evenings I get to spend with my hubby.  Even if we do nothing more than lay in bed and watch NCIS or SVU.  :)  Tonight was a bit more adventurous.  ;)  We went to Oeno, the wine bar by the Old Town Warren for drinks (just water for me, damn) and free appetizers.  Then, we went to the Brickyard to watch a free movie put on by The Tallgrass Film Festival.  :)  The movie was "The Tender Trap", a 1960's Romantic Comedy starring Frank Sinatra.  :)  It was very cute and funny.  We liked it a lot.  We didn't spend much, but we got an evening out together.  It was nice.  I love my hubby so much.  He's my favorite person.  :)

Discovery!

I have discovered that the best way to get our little girl to move is to sit in a chair and lean forward and put my elbows on my knees.  I probably won't be able to do this for very long, but when I do, I think the pressure causes her to get awefully fidgety.  :P  Hahaha!  Love it!  This is payback, little girl, for weeks 6-13.  ;)  We'll see how nice you are to me at birth...  That will determine if you'll have payback coming the rest of your adorable little life!  ;)  Mwahahaha!!  :D

I love being pregnant.  :)

Life is good today.

Another Successful Doctor's Appointment!

Yesterday's appointment went very well!  Our baby girl was very active, making it a little difficult on the nurse trying to find her heartbeat.  Every time the nurse would settle on the heartbeat, little punkin would kick and interupt us.  :P  She's feisty!  That's for sure.  In the 20 seconds or so that the nurse was working on the heartbeat, our little girl kicked about 6 times.  :D  She can be such a stinker sometimes!  Her heartbeat was at 142, which is where it's been for the last 3 months now.  And this time I know she's awake and everything, so I'm officially calling BS on the heartbeat wives tale.  According to the Old Wives Tale if the baby's heartbeat is over 140 it's a girl, under 140 is a boy.  Well she has been both over and under the line and is currently towing the line, so I'm not seeing any actual correlation to determining the sex.  However, I'm sure I'll still be paying close attention to the numbers when we're still waiting to find out with number 2 if we're having a boy or girl.  :P  Other things that happened in our appointment, the doctor measured my belly, which is showing me at about 25 weeks (I'm currently at 23 weeks and 5 days).  So she's growing well and getting big.  I think it's interesting that I'm measuring larger since I have only gained 6 pounds so far in my first nearly 24 weeks of pregnancy.  My doctor is happy with my overall weight gain, but most of it came on right here in the last 4 weeks (which I knew, and doesn't surprise me, I really popped this month) so he just wants to make sure I'm not putting on a bunch every 4 weeks.  So I suppose a couple more salads are in my future.  ;)  The next time we go in I'm doing my glucose test to make sure I'm not developing gestational diabetes.  Then, the following appointment we will get to see our little girl again one last time before she arrives!!  We'll do our last sonogram at 31+ weeks to check the placenta and make sure it's not in the way of the cervix.  If it's where it needs to be, I will be able to be at the birthing center and deliver naturally (with drugs of course) as I will still be extremely low risk and healthy.  However, if the placenta has shifted and is covering the cervix or is too close, a natural delivery will not be in the cards for me.  If that's the case, we will be at the hospital and I will have a c-section.  I am really ok with either option.  I would like everything to be problem free and to be at the birthing center where you only have to stay in one room for the delivery and recovery, but if it doesn't work out that way, whatever is best for our baby girl will be perfect.  Either way, my doctor will be there calling the shots and I trust his judgement, so I guess we will just wait and see what happens.  :)  But as I mentioned before, great doctor's appointment!!  :D

In other news, I got more cloth diapers in!!  They are adorable!  I focused on girl prints in this last order since we know we're having a girl.  Check out the picture below for all the cute diapers!  :)

I've also finally got all of the nursery set up!  This little girl is spoiled by her Grandma, which is why she already has a closet full of clothes.  :P  Pictures below show the nursery as it sits right now.  We need a couple more major things, but hopefully we'll get those from a shower or Michael and I can buy them later.  Just can't wait for our little girl to get here!

Going to the doctor

Michael and I are going to the doctor today for our monthly appointment.  It's so exciting that our little girl will be here in a little over 16 weeks!  I'm shocked at how fast this pregnancy has gone!!  It's had it's ups and downs.  The first trimester was not so kind to me, leaving me tired, nausiated, and throwing up occassionally.  However, the second trimester has been my saving grace, giving me more energy, an appetite, and movement from our little girl.  :)  We only have 3 weeks left in the second trimester, then we will move on to the third and final waiting stage.  I know the third trimester will have it's share of struggles as the baby and I get even bigger, especially during these hot summer months, but I'm looking forward to it.  So far I have put on 6 pounds from my prepregnancy weight.  I think at this stage I should be up closer to 10 pounds.  I will see what my doctor has to say today.  If he's not worried, neither am I.  My belly is getting plenty big.  The girls at work tell me every day that I'm getting bigger and bigger.  :P  But as I don't feel like a beached whale yet (unless you count when I'm getting out of bed), I don't mind.  ;)  I'll try to blog again later today and let you all know how the appointment went and how our little Pumpkin is doing.  :)  Wish us luck!  Love you all!

Labor and Delivery Playlist

I don't know how many people still check out our blog on a regular basis, probably just a couple.  Also, I know people don't generally comment on here, but today I'm asking for your comments.  Michael and I are working on putting together our Labor and Delivery Playlist so we can have the ipod ready when it's time for our little girl to be born.  We are putting together 2 different playlists, depending on what mood I'm in, a slow, calm playlist, and an upbeat playlist.  If you have any suggestions, we'd love to hear them!!  Specific songs would be great too!  So far we have things from Elton John, Relient K, Eric Clapton, John Mayer, Ben Folds, Matthew West, The Temptations, The Beatles, Red Hot Chili Peppers, James Taylor, Jack Johnson, and The Eagles, just to name a few!  ;)  Let's hear some more suggestions!!  Thanks!!

Cookie Dough

I know that while I'm pregnant I shouldn't eat raw cookie dough...  Unless of course, there are no eggs in it!!!  Sis sent me this recipe yesterday.  It was GREAT!  Nice to satisfy that craving.  ;)

http://baskersfunfoods.blogspot.com/2009/05/cookie-dough-for-preggies.html

Closing

I switched shifts with a girl from work today so that I can close instead of open.  I'm still up early, but I can relax this morning instead of rushing around to get ready.  I'm thinking the baby and I may go for a swim.  :) 

I realized the day after I switched with her that today is Thursday and I requested Thursday nights off so I could go see the free movies at Cinema Alfresco.  Rats!  Oh well, maybe next week.

Only 4 more weeks until the 3rd trimester!  Woohooo!  This little girl is growing and moving like crazy.  I cannot wait to finally meet her.  Just have to withstand the warm summer, then she will be here!  Hoooray!

Movement Schedule

I have noticed the past several days that our little girl tends to move on a schedule.  Every 3-4 hours she gets active and moves and wiggles for 45 minutes to an hour.  Then, she stops and rests for a while.  Then, 3-4 hours later she's back at it.  She is getting so strong.  I worry a little about what her kicks will feel like later on since she is already kicking so hard.  Yesterday her schedule went something like this:

7:15-8:00 - Moving and wiggling, this wasn't affected by breakfast, because yesterday I was having morning sickness and didn't get breakfast until later.  By the time I ate she was quiet.

11:00-noon - VERY active!  Hard kicks and frequent ones.  I was working on putting jewelry away at work and tidying things up, so as she kicked I talked to her.  I probably looked completely crazy.  :P  Hopefully the belly rubs helped explain my behavior to passers by.

3:15-4:15 - Moving steady, but not hard kicks or frequent.  Never had several right in a row.  She would kick and then wait 5 minutes or so and then bump me again.  Much calmer in the later afternoon.

6:45-7:45 - More moving and shaking.  By this time I was home and Michael wanted in on the fun.  She was sparatic again in the evening.  As soon as he would move his hand away she'd kick at it.  She's quite the little stinker that way.  Calm again in the evening.

9:45-10:30 - Playtime!!  After being calm all afternoon and evening, she was hyped up and ready to play again when it was bedtime.  Luckily, Michael and I were up watching some NCIS, so she wasn't interupting me trying to fall asleep anyway.  Her kicks weren't hard in the evening, but they were frequent.  Michael had his hand on my stomach for about 30-45 seconds and she kicked him about 4 times in that short time span.  I love seeing his eyes light up when he feels her move.  She is so cool!

So, in light of the fact that our little girl is moving and shaking pretty hard and frequently at only 22 weeks, I think that she will be a little bigger than anticipated, and possibly come a little earlier because she's done baking.  ;)  I'm hoping she doesn't come any more than 4 days before her due date, because I really want her to be born in October.  But instead of the small-average 6-7lb newborn, I'm going to predict her to be at the very smallest, 7lb8oz up to as big as 9lbs.  Now I know this is still an average sized baby, and maybe I'm wrong, but she is so strong already, I think she's already growing like a weed.  :)  We shall see!  I have another doctor's appointment on the 12th.  They won't do an ultrasound and get measurments of her, but they will measure my belly and weight and see how much we've grown together.  I think I'm going to be surprised by the numbers they tell me.  But I'm not worried anymore like I used to be before an appointment.  I don't need the doctors to tell me she's healthy anymore.  I know that very well on my own.  :)  I love being pregnant!  (Now).  ;)

Happy Wednesday folks!  :)

Tuesday Notes

I love my hubby so very much!  :)  I'm glad he's now at a stable job that he enjoys.  :)

I love feeling my baby girl move around a bunch.  :)  I talk to her while I'm at work and doing other things.  It probably looks like I'm crazy.  :P

Sleeping is more difficult these days.  The belly is getting big.

I had to take Zofran again this morning.  You would think by 22 weeks I would be done with it...  Nope...

Gotta go back to work now!  ;)

The News is Out!!!!

WE'RE HAVING A GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I could not be more excited!!!!  Since we found out we were pregnant, Michael and I have both been thinking we were having a girl.  When we talk about the baby we say her (or her name, which is still a secret) and when we picture our family or our baby she is a girl.  Michael has had dreams that we were having a girl, including one where she had long dark hair like Michael's color, only it was in loose ringlets.  :)  I cannot wait for her to get here!!!  October still seems so far away!  But 5 months are over now, and we are on the downhill slide with only 4 months left to go! 

I was updating our registries today and realized this little girl needs a lot of stuff!  :P  I probably need to go through and get rid of some of the cloth diapers that I've registered for, as I have plenty of my own, without anyone needing to buy more, but I just can't help it!  :P  They are all so cute!!  Can't wait to get her in them!

She is moving and kicking more than ever these days.  I think she has discovered just how much room she has, and she's using every inch of it!  She moves all over the place and kicks and wiggles constantly!  When I've been laying down for a while and move or adjust myself I have got some really hard kicks that make me lay back down and go, Woah!  What's going on in there???  Michael feels her almost every day, either putting his hands on my belly, or when I'm cuddled up next to him, she'll give him a couple kicks too.  It's so cool feeling her moving around in there.  I'm looking forward to many more months of movement (try saying that 5 times fast!)

The housewarming and gender reveal went very well.  It was nice having friends and family over, to show them our new home, and to share our baby news with them.  :)  We have lots of leftovers, but I'm working on them, and that means no more cooking for several days!  Wooohooo!

Finally, for those of you who haven't heard yet, Michael and I are keeping our little pumpkin's name under wraps until she arrives.  People have opinions about everything, and what we name our baby is our decision and we don't want to hear the opinions.  :P  So when we announce that she has arrived, she will already have a name and everyone can just love it and tell us how much they love it, or keep their other opinions to themselves.  ;)  This also eliminates the risk of someone taking our name.  ;)  We have the first name settled, but the middle name is still up in the air.  We have 2 names that we both like, so we're just going to see which one we lean more towards over the next 4 months.  :)

Hope you all are well.  Keep up those prayers for Michael, pumpkin, and myself.  We need them!  Love you all!

-Michael, Jen, and Baby Voss

Housewarming Party and Gender Reveal

Today is the big day!!  While Michael and I have known for a while now (and not done too well keeping it a secret) today is the day you can all find out if we are having a boy or a girl.  We are so very excited to show our house to everyone.  We are so proud of it.  We love this house a lot and hope that you will like it and enjoy it and want to come visit us often.  Michael and I have been working on cleaning and getting everything ready for the party and it's almost there.  Most of what we have left to do is vacuum, sweep, and mop, which I promised Michael I would do.  Can't wait to see everyone this evening!  It's going to be so fun revealing the gender too!!  Finally everyone will know what this squirmy baby inside of me is.  :D  It's just going to be a super fun day!  Well, the baby would like fed, so I better run, but we will see you all tonight for the party!!

Friday Rambles

Hello all.  Not much to say today, just some random stuff going through my head.  Listen if you'd like, if not, no big deal.  Probably nothing important anyway.

My boss has been scheduling me more morning shifts lately.  I like this because I get evenings with Michael.  I don't like it because I have to get up so early to get showered and dressed and everything.  Struggling to keep my eyes open this morning.

Went to Topeka Wednesday night to visit Glenn and Linda and watch Payden's game.  It was a short trip, but nice.  Good we went, as Glenn and Linda won't be able to attend our housewarming party.  We came home with gifts, which weren't necessary, but we're very excited about!  Linda made us a baby quilt!  It's beautiful!  Matches our bedding perfectly!  We also got a K-State rock which we plan on putting either in the front garden or on the front step.  See pictures at the end of this post.

Our baby is super-duper squirmy!!!  I feel lots of movement every day.  Sometimes the baby kicks outwardly, where Michael can feel the kicks too.  But sometimes the kicks are internal, and really, the best way to descibe the feeling is that it feels like a swift jab to the gut, which it is, so I guess that makes sense.  We hit 22 weeks today.  :)  Depending on which way you measure pregnancy (9 months on the calendar or 10 months with every month equalling 4 weeks) we are somewhere between 5 and 5.5 months along.  There's still a lot more cooking this baby has to do, but it is definitely growing!!  My weight fluctuates a little bit, but I seem to be up about 3.5-5 lbs.  This isn't as much as I should have gained yet, but my doctor isn't worried, so neither am by.  I'm sure the pounds will start piling on soon.  I'm starting to get scared of the scale.  :P

Our housewarming party is tomorrow.  I'm looking forward to seeing people and to show off our big, beautiful house!  :)  We've got a little cleaning and work to do on it, but not much as we did most of the work last weekend when Mere, Kylee, and TJ were here (and Shelly stopped by too).

Well, I can't think of anything else to say.  Guess I better finish getting ready for work, then get going.

Remember, if you want to find out the sex of our baby, be here for the housewarming on Saturday!  We're not sure when we'll put it on the internet, so you might have to wait even longer.  :P

Have a nice Friday, my friends.  :)

Also, please continue to pray for Michael.  He begins his new job on Monday.  He's very excited, but change and new things can be difficult, so just be thinking of him.  :)  Thanks!!