Side note!

Tonight at Jamba Juice the lady asked if I wanted a shot of calcium for the baby! I wanted to say, "What baby?! Are you calling me fat?!" But I decided to be nice! How fun is that? Strangers are finally able to recognize my pregers belly for what it really is!

The moles are terrible in Dallas this time of year!

OK, it's not moles. We're having a sprinkler system put in. According to Greg it is long overdue. We never had a sprinkler system growing up in St. Louis (unless you count my parents setting up the sprinklers for us to run through), so I kind of think it's a little silly. But I guess, when in Dallas...right?

Hopefully in the next few months all of our outside pictures will have lush, green grass as far as the eye can see (or at least to the lot line)!

Crystals

I used to like crystals. In fact, in grade school I grew my own crystals on a rock in an empty soda bottle. It grew really quickly and had every color of the rainbow on it! I think there was even a girl in high school whose name was Crystal. And I like the restaurant Krystals, even though it's no where near as good as White Castle.
What I don't like are crystals that show up in a urinalysis. Which is what happened to me the other day at my GI appointment. Apparently crystals aren't supposed to be there and can be an indication of kidney stones! Lovely! So he decided that I should have an abdominal ultrasound done to look for these.
Yesterday was my day to have this test run. I'll start by saying that the entire test only lasted about 15 minutes. It was supposed to be a regular ultrasound focusing on the kidneys and bladder. What ended up happening was that the sonographer was so excited that she got to look at a baby instead of old people's kidneys all day that we spent 10-12 minutes looking at the baby and 3-4 on the kidneys! The sonographer was so funny! She kept telling me that she wasn't supposed to be doing this, but if I didn't mind then we would keep looking at the baby. We literally went from the top of her head to the soles of her feet and discussed how the baby looked in each view. We were able to see the ears, see that she was sucking her two fingers like Hook 'em Horns, her tongue was moving when she was drinking the amniotic fluid, we saw HER kidneys, her heart, her 10 fingers and toes, her legs crossed at the ankles and much, much more! I'm not kidding! We went through everything and the sonographer was giddy the entire time! Apparently the baby and I "scan" well. Good to know! I was loving it, but all I kept thinking was, "Greg is going to be so mad he's missing this!" Because we weren't supposed to be looking at the baby in the first place, she wasn't able to print out any pictures. But it was a fun experience anyway!
And my kidneys...well apparently that pain that I've been having at night is due to hydronephrosis. Which basically means something is blocking the tubes that let the fluid drain from the kidneys. It could be stones or it could be that the baby is sitting on them! Treatment: drink lots of water so I don't develop an infection and hopefully everything will be better once the baby is born. This pregnancy thing is not for sissies!

Happy Easter!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter. Greg and I spent it in Dallas this year. We only got to Mass 10 minutes before it was supposed to start, so we were relegated to the gym Mass with the other slackers! I always loved Easter Mass because of how many times you get to say "Alleluia!" You're not supposed to say it during Lent, so it seems like they throw it in whenever they can at Easter!

It's hard to get a good shot when there is no one around to help take pictures. Thus, Greg has the top of his head cut off!

We didn't have time to take pictures before Mass, so we took some when we got home. Unfortunately Mass was super packed so we had to park down the street. And then when we were leaving, the sky opened up and it rained like crazy! So if you look close you can see that my hair is soaking wet and getting curly from the humidity and our clothes are pretty damp! I can only run so fast in high heels and with extra pounds!

23 weeks and still attempting to play soccer with Greg yesterday (It was a sight to behold!)

This afternoon the weather cleared up and was beautiful! We grilled out for dinner and were able to eat outside. I hope the weather stays like this for a while!

Keeping busy

These past couple weeks we've been staying busy with shopping for the baby, making improvements to the house and traveling the country (or Arkansas). The baby shopping has been lots of fun! A couple weeks ago we went to Just Between Friends which is a consignment sale. We loaded up on lots of cute outfits, a pack n' play, a swing and a carrier to pull behind bikes! So exciting! Because we're first time parents we were allowed to shop before the general public. The one that we went to was in Arlington (about 45 minutes from our house) and started at 8:30 on a Thursday night. We only shopped for about 30 minutes but the line took for-ev-er and we didn't end up getting home until 1 am! That made for a rough Friday! But it was all worth it for the awesome stuff that we got for great prices! The baby's room is filling up quickly! We also registered this weekend at Babies R' Us. That was a little overwhelming! How many choices of pacifiers do you need?! I will put this one disclaimer on our registry...Greg had the scanner! So there is no telling what is really on there! There were a few times I turned around and he was no where in sight. It will be interesting to see what ended up on the registry!

This weekend we had a fun evening out with friends who gave input as to what names NOT to choose for our little one. Our two favorites were: World Wide (with the initials 'WWW' and the nickname 'internet') and Tangled Ina. So funny! We haven't really come up with any names that are realistic possibilities. Any suggestions are more than welcome! I tend to like the less common names with different spellings and Greg likes the more traditional names. It's definitely harder than I thought it would be to choose a name.

We also did some spring cleaning around the house and donated 8 huge bags of clothes to Good Will. The closet has never been more organized! I love it! It's funny what getting ready for a baby will do! I think the nesting phase has already begun!

Just last week I was finally able to distinguish between which movements were the baby and which were just my stomach. I think it helps that my stomach issues have been improving since another medication was added to the regimen. Greg and I have decided that we're going to have to get something that mimics the sounds my stomach makes and it's going to have to be really loud and sound like someone letting air escape out of a balloon with the end pinched. I don't know that they make those! One day I was sitting there with my stomach going crazy and when it would make a sound, she would kick like she was startled from a deep sleep. It was so funny! But then I started imagining her getting revenge on us at 3 in the morning! I just hope payback isn't as bad as they say it is! They say that sounds the baby hears in utero will be familiar to the baby when they're born. So this past week I decided to put that to the ultimate test when I went to watch Greg play basketball. He was helping out a team that was down a couple players. He played really well, but the buzzer could not have been louder! I don't know what that means for the baby when she's finally hear. Maybe she'll be able to sleep through multiple hours of Rock Band practice like I am!

Look at that textbook form! I don't even know what to look for!

Last weekend we went up the Arkansas for Alumni weekend at Hendrix. Greg was able to play in the soccer game and said it was tough! I helped cut up oranges for halftime...it wasn't too tough! We were able to hang out with some of the soccer teams. It's so fun catching up with everyone and finding out what everyone is up to. It makes me miss the good 'ole college days when things were simple and you only had classes for a few hours a day and the food was cooked by the nice cafeteria ladies...and was seriously delicious! I honestly contemplated stopping by the cafeteria to get some food!

We went to Cantina Laredo for dinner. I only had about 4 bowls of salsa! It was so good and I was starving! But by 11 o'clock I was spent and ready for bed!

Reagan, Leah and Andrea at Cantina Laredo


Jenn and Ryan

Then Sunday we went to a cooking demonstration at Williams Sonoma and learned all about brunch cuisine. This was followed by a 60th Birthday party celebration at a really good new restaurant! The pregnant lady had two huge pieces of cake for dessert...and then took a nap on the drive back to Dallas!

Next weekend we'll be back in Arkansas to do some more work on the lake house. No rest for the weary around here!