Sometimes, life just isn't fair...

This last weekend, Gabe and I drove down to Aurora, MO to see his parents and go to Silver Dollar City to look at rocking chairs that I have been coveting for at least 5 years. We now finally have a good excuse to buy one. They are beautiful, sturdy, solid wood, handmade rocking chairs with big comfy cushions. I was so excited to get down and see them. Gabe and I have been going to Silver Dollar City in Branson, MO every year since we have started dating. It’s a fabulous place, especially at Christmas. A big entertainment park with rides and food and shops all based on old time America. They have lots of great shops full of handmade art, crafts, and furniture…..like rocking chairs. Every year, we would go into the furniture store and I would drool over the rocking chairs. I would sit in every one and dream of having my own one day. So when we found out we were pregnant, I immediately thought of these rocking chairs that I have been dreaming of all this time. And where I will put it in the nursery. And what color cushions I will get. And how after babies, we will use it forever in our family room until we can hand it down to our kids…..oh boy, I really can’t wait to get down there!

After a ill-fated drive south (something to do with a lot of dog vomit, but I will spare you the details), we finally make it. I practically run to the store and make a bee-line to the room with the chairs. Only…..no chairs. Where are the chairs????? I start to panic.

I ask the salesman, “where are all your rocking chairs?”.

“We have one on display in the very back”, he says.

ONE????? I run to the back to the one chair. Nope, not the one. “Where are all the others?”, I ask. “We don’t display them anymore and only have two styles still available to order”, replies the salesman.

Devastation.

The kind salesman takes out the catalog and shows me what styles are left. I point to one that sort of looks like the one I like. Maybe, just maybe I might get lucky? He punches numbers on his calculator and shows me the price. $1100.00 with the ottoman. Ummm…No. Devastated.

In the end, I learned a valuable lesson. About the emotional attachment for a piece of furniture. A materialistic thing. This isn't what life is about. We will get a rocking chair and it will be great and wonderful. It will most likely be from one of those big furniture superstores with bargain prices on factory made knock-offs. I mean, who needs a 1,000 dollar rocking chair anyway?? Not us. Because let's face it, in the big picture, there is much more to life than the perfect rocking chair.

Another Halloween Bites the Dust

Halloween 08 came and went with a whimper for us. Halloween has traditionally been a favorite day of ours. We love to decorate the house, carve pumpkins, and watch scary movies. This year was a complete flop! Between work, baby, school and remodeling, we just didn't have time to celebrate properly. The front porch went undecorated, not a single pumpkin was carved, not a single bushel of mums set out.....how sad. However, the holiday didn't go by completely unnoticed. We did take the time to attend our neighbors Halloween Bash. Finding a couple costume while pregnant is a challenge but we decided to go as Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin. A meager effort. I thought Gabe made a great Charlie Brown. I on the other hand....



I had envisioned a great pumpkin costume. In my defense, I did attempt to make a decent pumpkin from the proper materials. But it was a disaster. So I ended up using an orange T-Shirt in desperation. I really must learn to sew.

The party was great. Being out in the country you can really get creative. They had a live band, bonfire for a weenie roast, and a hayride through the graveyard and spooky woods, and Mother Nature helped finish if off with a nice thick, freaky fog over the whole place.

Today, I am home sick with a nasty cold made worse by being outside in the cold on Saturday night. And when I am sick, I have to clean. Today, the dog hair in this house has me at my wits end. This is the time of year when the dogs lose their summer coats to make room for the winter coats. The Dyson work overtime, but it is impossible to keep up with. Today it has become a mission.
Chey was the first victim...

Wow.
Guess I will take a nap now...

Big Week

Okay, okay, so we caved and found out. Actually, since we couldn't seem to decide, the baby decided for us. And boy she wanted to show too! She was spread eagle for all to see and there were no boy parts there. At least, that is what the sonographer thinks, and we are goin' with it. Still, I think we had better keep our receipts just in case.

The ultrasound was awesome. She was wide awake and movin' all over the place! She has all her appendages, a good heart with all the chambers in place, all her organs look good. We both took a big sigh of relief. They gave us a cd with video and pics. Here is one of her looking straight at the camera with a big smile on her face. Can you see her eye sockets? She was smackin' her lips in this shot and we got it on video. I wish I could post it here but the file is too large.

As you can imagine we both had Perma-Grin as we walked out.

Other developments this week:

• Oct 29 - finally felt movement! Yea! - Gotta mark that one in my journal
• Heartburn begins
• Tummy itches like crazy
• Lost ability to verbally put together a proper sentence

Now the real work begins...

Weekend

This weekend went by faster than I thought for me, but slower than Gabe had hoped.

Gabe's trip started out great. It was beautiful there will the fall colors in full swing. He and his friend, Chris Morgan planned for weeks and were very prepared and rearing to go.

Here he is at the start of the trail. My man is darn handsome! :)

However, things quickly changed for the worse. They ended up getting the terrible rain storm that swept through the Midwest last week. It poured and poured and was very cold. I can't believe Chris is actually smiling here!

Finally, after spending 14 hours in that small tent, all their clothes soaked, and no end in sight, things just got too bad and they decided to go ahead and pack out. They were so very bummed since they had put a lot of thought and planning into this trip. You can't control Mother Nature. However, it wasn't all bad. He and Chris did have fun regardless and were able to spend quality time together. Which they hadn't done in a long while.

For me, the weekend flew by and didn't go quite as I had planned:

Saturday I had my hair cut and highlighted. The plan was to get that done and head out to the campus to work on my elusive research paper. Um, that didn't work out. I was at the salon for SIX HOURS!!!! Got there at 11am, left at 5:30. The girl I got was new and apparently had not done many highlights. I was terrified how it would turn out. But, in the end it turned out great and they were all very nice to me. Even going to get me something to eat since a pregnant girl has to eat! However, blew my entire Saturday. I was exhausted by the time I got home and didn't do a darn thing that night.

Sunday I baked Halloween Cookies (which came out awesome, good recipe), cleaned and did homework for this week. Still no progress on the research paper!!! UGH!

By Monday, I was tired and very ready to have my husband home. While I stayed busy, he was lonely and bored and stuck in Knoxville, TN. Needless to say, it was a happy reunion.

I left my heart in Colorado

The hardest thing about leaving Colorado is leaving the mountains. They get into your soul, and when they are gone, there sits a huge hole.
Oh how I would love to be here right now....

Oh here....

I started to write this post earlier today, when I was feeling particularly melancholy. I had just had lunch with my hubby and said goodbye (more on that later). It was super gloomy, cold and pouring rain. Couple that with hormones that have me on a crazy emotional roller coaster ride, and you have the perfect recipe for one depressing blog! So I decided to spare you the gory details of my current woes and how darn homesick I am for the mountains and closeness of friends and family. Instead I will focus on more positive, happy thoughts!

It's 9:15pm (past my normal bedtime) and I have just finished my homework for class tomorrow and feeling quite good about finishing it before the actual due date. I have left the melancholy behind (for the next few minutes anyway, haha) In my current euphoria, I felt like a little light blogging before bedtime.

First, I have promised an update on the Little Bean. The appointment went well yesterday. She said I was measuring "big" (I have no idea what that means)but I am doing well on the weight gain front. Still under 10lbs total. I am not sure why I am so obsessed about the whole weight gain thing, but I guess being pregnant didn't change my constant weight worries.
Anyway, we were thrilled to hear the heartbeat again. She found it quickly this time and it was nice and loud. After the appointment we went up to the labor and delivery ward and made an appointment for the grand tour next month. But the big day is Tuesday, when we have the ultrasound. We have not yet fully decided to find out the sex, but I think we are going to leave it up to the Bean to decide for us. He/she will either show or not show. Either way, watch the blog next week for that news.


Gabe left today for a five-day backpacking trip with his college buddy to the Smokey Mountains. This leaves me with a few days to myself. All week I have been wondering what I will do with my alone time. At the very least, this will be a great time to catch up on my schoolwork, organize and clean. I am so behind on it all. I am particularly stressed out about a 15 page research paper that is due in 6 weeks and I have put zero time into it. Sounds like a trip to the library for me on Saturday. Plus, I think I am going to attempt to make iced Halloween sugar cookies and see how I do. I may even spend some long over-due time at my out-of-tune piano trying to learn a new song. Or maybe I will rent a bunch of Chick-Flicks and the 4-legged crew and I can have a nice movie night together. Wow, I could be pretty busy if I wanted to! Usually I love the alone time, but I have a feeling by Friday night I am going to be twiddling my thumbs and wishing I had some company.

These darn hormones!!!!

The phone is ringing!! Could it be????

I will let you know how the cookies turn out!