We're Expecting!!

Well, this is the only picture I have of anything to do with pregnancy so far.. That and a picture of my still normal looking stomach, so this is what you're getting.

We are thrilled! It's the first grand baby on both sides, so I think everyone is really looking forward to this little guy/gal's arrival. I'm only about 6 weeks along right now, and they've got my due date set as March 24th. One week to the day before my big 3-0! So far I feel great! I have a hard time believing he's actually in there because I just feel so normal. I sure am praying that he's in there though, and that he's healthy and he's trying really hard to stay put and cook for the entire allotted time and not come out before all his fingers are in place. ;)

We took the first home test on Sunday morning... and the "pregnant" line showed right away. I yelled in to Dallas "That didn't take 3 minutes to show up!". So we thought we'd go get breakfast and get another test. Which I also took, and which also showed up right away. Ohmyholycrap! But we wanted to be 100% sure, so I faked being normal at grandma's party, and later while showing our land to Kevin and Sharon, and even through dinner with my family that night. I called the doc first thing Monday morning and had my blood drawn around 9:00. They waited until freaking 4:46 to call me back and tell me it was positive!

We were beside ourselves happy! We thought we'd wait till this weekend to tell our families, because we were getting together for Tanner's birthday Sunday. I went and had a t-shirt made up that says "Baddest Uncle Ever". And that's how we were going to surprise them! BUT! Our excitement got the best of us, and Dallas was itching to tell his folks last night, and there was no way I could wait another four days to tell mine! So I called up Tanner, and ruined his birthday surprise (but I think he was ok with that..) Then we drove up to Oskie to tell the McCarters. Dallas handed Kevin my bottle of prenatal vitamins.

Dallas: "What do you think they put in these things?"

Kevin: (without looking at name of pills, lifts bottle) "I don't know, lead?"

Dallas: "Read the bottle."

Kevin: "Prenatab."

Dallas: "I think it's pronounced pre-NA-tablets.."

Kevin: "YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE A BABY?!"

Hahahaa... When Sharon got home, Dallas did the same thing to her, but she just assumed I was working on strengthening my hair and nails. Tee hee! They were great though, and I know they're going to be such fun and wonderful grandparents for our little one.

I knew that schtick wasn't going to work with my folks. #1, they'd have to turn on a reading lamp and get out their glasses to see what was on the bottle. #2, they'd read it exactly as Kevin had and just not get it. So what to do? Show them the pic of the tests? Show them Tanner's t-shirt, and hope they didn't assume it had to do with Tanner making guys call "uncle" while fighting?

I was so jacked up and excited to tell them, that after we marched into the house, I'd barely gotten to the couch before blurting:

"I'M PREGNANT."

*crickets*

Mom: ".....What?"

Me: "I'm pregnant!"

*more stunned silence*

Me: "Seriously.. I'm PREGNANT."

The third one sank in, and mom said. "I just wouldn't have expected you to say it like that."

Hahahahaha.. yeah, me neither mom! But they were great too, and super excited. It was all I could do to keep Dad from texting his entire phone's library and Mom from putting it on facebook right then and there! So thankful to have such support and excitement around us... I think it'll be a fun pregnancy thanks to these people in our lives.

We leave, and not 30 minutes later I get a text from mom that says: "I bought sumpin..."

You think this child may get spoiled??

*skeered face*

OH!

A rare pic of the puppies together! Bahaa...

Toby Puppy

THIS:

... is Toby.

And this:

... is Dallas who is retarded over that dog.

Toby is a Toy Australian Shepherd that we got from a litter Dallas' parents had. We've been missing ol Hank since he had to go live at the farm, and Sophie is such a nervous little thing we thought she might like to have a buddy at home with her while we are at work. So far, that's not been the case. Sophie tolerates him ok, but they're not besties yet. I have my fingers crossed that she'll extend her olive branch soon.

Some things I've noted about Toby's puppyhood:

1) He has limitless energy and doesn't care if you're tired or not.
2) His teeth are like little needles and he loves biting flesh.
3) His little toenails are more like razor sharp talons and he uses them to claw his way up your neck onto your head.
4) He is softer than a cotton ball when he calms down enough to let you snuggle him.
5) His puppy breath smells like coffee and his puppy feet smell like Frito's.
6) He's like the fat kid from 101 Dalmatians.. "Momma, I'm HUNGRY".. This dude goes NUTS for food and treats.
7) He loves to chew on my hair.
8) His bark is so high pitched, I fear for our windows.
9) He's in love with Dallas.. he cries every time D leaves the room whether I'm still in it or not!
10) It's amazing how quickly you can fall in love with an animal!

And now some photos of the little stinker for your viewing pleasure! (note: I couldn't get Sophie to sit by him long enough to snap one with both of them... quick as a ninja, she is.)

One of my very favorite peeps wrote this... :)

Upon the clouds rest the dreams of my day,
suspended above gently drifting away,
just out of reach every time that I grasp,
while my hope slowly fades knowing some dreams don't last.

Some I chase fearless, relentless my drive,
nothing can stop me my eyes on the prize,
then there are dreams that I'm too scared to chase,
my confidence shaken, my bravery replaced.

It's those dreams that haunt me, I'm soaked in regret,
but the past is the past now I grasp for the next,
forward I move beat the drum sound the horn,
while I march on with pride as I dare to transform.

We Landed Our Land!

Well, that the first sellers weren't willing to haggle turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I'd mentioned that we had just seen a new plot of land for sale last week? We went to check it out and LOVED it! Loved it much more than the other plot. Interestingly enough, it wasn't a new listing.. it had actually been on for quite some time. I have no idea how we'd missed it for as long as we'd been looking. But, again, it worked out great for us because they'd just reduced the price when I found it. YAY! We offered, they countered, we accepted, and we feel great about it.

It's an 8 acre plot in Meriden. If you're familiar with the town at all, it's at Wyandotte and Washington.. And we own all the road frontage on Washington.. which means no neighbors! Bliss! It's bisected by a little "creek" and some trees, so the pictures I've included below shows the part where the house will go. On the other side of the trees... who knows? Dallas wants to bring his horse and maybe one other.. had talked about a couple cows.. and I think goats are cute. We'll see. I'm catching a lot of crap from family members aware of my aversion to sweating and being dirty. But I think it will be fun!







We can see the old grain elevator from what will be the back yard.



McCarter Creek.







The old well the high school used is on our property, and always full, apparently.




Local wildlife.

Crop Tours

Welp. I was wrong about the lazy realtor/out of state sellers. I was told this morning that they rejected our offer. No counter offer, just a big fat "no thanks". They said they're willing to wait until the market turns around to get full asking price. It's been on the market for over two years - good luck with that.

They're not willing to come down, and we're not convinced it's worth what they're asking.... So, back to the drawing board.

We had a couple back up plots in mind, and found a new one this morning we want to check out, but we're just not going to get in a hurry. We want to find something we love and will want to stay in for forever.

I've learned a lot of new vocabulary since Dallas came into my life, and one term in particular is crop touring. Basically, it's just taking a drive out in the country, but the boys back home like to say they're going on crop tours. I foresee us taking a crop tour or two this weekend to see if we can come up with anything fanschmastic.

*fingers crossed*

My mom is pressuring me to blog.. even though I don't have much to talk about at the moment. But here's my thrilling life nonetheless:

Dallas and I haven't been able to find any houses we love. We've kept our eye on the listings for a while now, and it's just tough to find everything we want/need because we do plan on staying in this house for the long haul. Moving blows. But we'd like to be north of town, have some space between us and our neighbors, and since we both have company cars, our garage load equals 4 vehicles, a boat and two kayaks along with the usual paraphernalia of mowers and crap. OK, so the BNSF truck and boat could stand to sit out, but we still need enough land to park them. You just can't do that on a cul-de-sac.

So we then started looking into the option of building. We've found several plots of land we think we'd like, but one in particular. It's 5 acres of unimproved land northeast of town. We took mom and dad to see it, and mom was covered head to toe in her jeans, jacket, and boots, yet still managed to be the only one to get stuck with some ticks. (HA!) D figures we can clear the land ourselves and up the value in the process. We met with our realtor Tuesday night and put in an offer. The seller's realtor is, in our humble opinions, lazy. It took forever to get a map of the layout and a write up of any restrictions, not to mention calls back. Plus the sellers live out of state, so I'm trying not to let it eat at me that we haven't heard back yet.

What else...

Oh - Dallas is the best husband ever and took me over to Legends last night for delicious sushi and Asian food and we ended up strolling around Nebraska Furniture Mart for a while. The thought of building a house is super exciting, yet terrifying at the same time because my husband is consistently drawn to $10,000 stoves. I imagine we'll end up living in a poorly built shack with a sweet kitchen.

If, by some miracle, this all does work out for us, this is our current favorite house plan.





Ummm...

We decided that since we're both pushing 30 now, it's time to be healthier. We're kick starting our brilliant plan with a system cleanse we found on sale at GNC. Basically we just take some am pills and some pm pills, choke down a fiber mix that is lumpy (I put it in my OJ and tell myself I'm just drinking pulp) and apparently it'll scrub out our systems. Mom warned me it would make us poo a lot, but that hasn't been the case. This is day 3 and I don't feel any different. Er, I mean, I feel much healthier!

Uhhh...

I downloaded a new app on my Iphone called Words With Friends. Basically, it's Scrabble but I'm addicted and beat Dallas and a certain co-worker mercilessly. (They'll both deny that, but they don't have blogs to dispute it.) I would highly recommend it.

Ummm...

I'm about out of books on my to-read list. I checked out a new series with my cousin who tends to have on-target taste, but I'm open to suggestions if you've got them.

OK, I think that's it in a nutshell. Aren't you glad you took precious time out of your life to read this?!

A rundown of my day thus far:

~ Amy arrives at McDonalds for a $1, 32 oz. iced tea (Again trying to cut back on the soda consumption, yet have to do something to curb the caffeine withdrawals.. ergo, the tea).~ "What's this? No cash? Never fear, I shall just pay with my debit card."

~ Rifles through wallet.~ "What's this? No debit card? CRAP!"

~Scrounges together $1.09 from seat cushion while musing about sales tax increase~ Hmm... I bet that sucker is still at the Outback where we had delicious fish and chips last night.

~Note to self: Call Outback.~

~Arrives at work toting giant iced tea and wearing jeans for the first time all week due to massive amounts of chigger bites.~ While skirts are bad because they show off the hideous-ness of my situation, jeans are worse for irritating the little jerks. But it's Friday and I can, so I do.

~Co-workers stop by to say hello.~

~Amy scratches at back of knees with ferocity.~

Co-worker: "What's the dealie-o?"

Amy: "We walked a plot of land the other night and I got lots of chiggers and the A-holes are eating me alive, and my aunt made fun of me for getting them from rolling in the hay and I got them even though I wore jeans and socks and shoes!"

~Co-worker produces hydrocortizone cream~ "Here, this has helped with my skeeters."

~Amy applies cream to backs of knees~ "Thanks pal!"

~Other co-worker arrives and apprises situation.~ "Do you also have them in your, ahem, hoo-hoo area?" ~gestures to nether region~

Amy: "No." Yes...

~Third co-worker arrives to tell tales of poison ivy irritations and suggests yet another remedy available at Walgreens.~

~Phone rings. Co-workers scatter~

Ex-Bank: "Hey dude, you closed your account with us, but we got your paycheck anyway."

Amy: "Drat! I shall pick it up shortly."

~informs HR~

~remembers lost debit card, calls Outback but no answer~

~goes to bank and retrieves check~

~driving from ex-bank to new bank, spies woman in front lawn of funeral home dumping an entire bag of sliced bread onto grass.~ ~Wonders to self... Is this some sort of homage paid to a loved one with an affinity for baked goods?, There are no ponds or ducks near by, surely the random birdies can't throw down an entire loaf of bread?, Is white bread, perhaps, a good fertilizer?~

~deposits check at new bank~

~returns to work to humbly ask co-worker to again borrow hydrocortizone cream.~

~complains to Dallas about itchy-ness. Dallas suggests taking very hot bath, scratching heads off chigger mounds, and applying bleach.~

~makes note to obtain own tube of hydrocortizone cream.~

~again recalls lost debit card, calls new bank, puts block on card.~

~spills tea.~

~calls Outback, no answer~

~Looks at clock, sees 11:19, decides it's time to do some actual work, but blogs first out of procrastination and sheer laziness...~


UPDATE:

~Had lunchie lunch with mom, flinged bacon on her shoulder.~

~Complained to her about my chigger woes.~

~Called Outback, they DO have my card.~

1:36 ~ Figure out how to get out of work 3 1/2 hours early to pick up said card.~