Our trip to Dallas

For the past week, I've been away on vacation.

Welcome to Texas!

We took a trip to Dallas, Texas to visit my college roommate who lives down there now and to catch a Cowboys game since hubby's a big fan and has always wanted to see a game in person and they only play the Bears in Chicago or the Packers in Green Bay every few years.

Anyways, for those of you that follow me on Twitter, you're probably aware of the majority of our adventures on vacation. For those that didn't, here's the rundown!

We left Thursday afternoon by 430pm as I had work til 3ish and needed to stop by the bank and drop my apartment keys off at my parents so someone could stop by daily and feed Tiger. I drove us for the first 4 or 5 hours to just outside St. Louis where we stopped for dinner. We were going to eat at Ponderosa as there hasn't been one in our area for years, but apparently "winter hours" where they close at 830pm instead of 9 or 10 start in October...? We ended up eating at Ruby Tuesday instead and hubby took over the driving.

We were making really good time and so he decided to stop a bit past Tulsa at a rest stop and join me in sleeping. We were up around 7am and ended up getting into Dallas at about 10am. It was 1030am when we reached the hotel and since check in technically wasn't until 3pm and I knew my college roomie probably wasn't awake yet I went in to see if it would be possible for us to do an early check in. Luckily, they had a room ready and let us check in, where we got comfortable and napped into the afternoon and then got cleaned up for the evening.

Baby Jay's first Cowboys apparel

My college roomie is currently waitressing at a small Italian restaurant and we were planning on eating there for dinner, but she told us to wait til about 9pm since they were a bit crowded, so we trekked out to get some fast food for a light meal since we hadn't really eaten anything yet and then set out to find a Walmart to purchase some cheaply priced Cowboys gear, since our Walmarts only sell Bears/Packers stuff. The first Walmart we went to was really small and seemed a bit ghetto and didn't really have the selection we were looking for. It has also rained a bit and all these black birds were sitting in the parking lot trees all creepy like - I seriously felt like we were reenacting the last scene of Hitchcock's "The Birds"! We found a Super Walmart though We found several finds - a nice Cowboys hoodie for me, a 2-set of Cowboys onesies for Jay, and a Cowboys hoodie for Jay - it's a 4T but we figured he'll grow into it and be able to wear it for awhile. After we dropped our purchases off at the hotel and watched the end of The Hangover, we headed over to the restaurant where college roomie works and got dinner - it was pretty good!

The Texas Rangers won the ALCS while we were finishing up eating so we hurried back to the hotel to beat the rush of traffic while waiting for college roomie to get home from work.

We went over to her place and watched Troll 2 with Rifftrax with her and her boyfriend. OMG, it's seriously THE WORST movie ever and watching it with Rifftrax only makes it that much more awesomely bad! lol... seriously, if you're looking for a terribad movie to watch and laugh at, be sure to check out Troll 2!

Love and War in Texas

Saturday, we met up with her and her boyfriend for lunch, where they took us to a stereotypical Texas restaurant called Love and War in Texas. It was pretty good fixin's although hubby's potatoes were the spiciest potatoes we've ever had! I only had one and deemed it too spicy... hubby had several spoonfuls before heartburn kicked in! lol... Since it was raining and we had time to kill, we stopped at Barnes and Noble since college roomie had to pick up a few things there before she went to work.

That night we met up again and went to a The Flying Saucer pub, where if you join their frequent drinker club and drink 200 of their brews (they have over 300 different ones) you get your name on a plate that they hang up on the wall and you get an additional plate for each 200 you drink after. It was an interesting place and there was a cover band playing too which wasn't half bad.

Whataburger

Sunday we all met up again and went to Whataburger for lunch since Chick-Fil-A was closed for the day. It was an interesting burger joint that I guess is only in Texas. After that we went to the Galleria which is a big mall and the entire first floor is filled with all yuppie stores like Gucci, Coach, Luis Vutton, etc. There were more normal stores on the 2nd and 3rd floor though - including the Dallas Cowboy's Pro Shop which hubby had to go in. We did a bit of shopping in there before we headed out since the mall was closing. We also stopped in the American Girl store too.

The Cowboys Pro Shop in the Dallas Galleria mall

 That night we went out to dinner at another pub where college roomie introduced us to one of her former co-workers from her previous job, as a group of them usually meet for dinner and drinks at this pub on Sundays. The Vikings/Packers game was on - there were some Vikings fans there cheering on Favre - being from Illinois, we don't like Favre as he was a longtime Packer so for amusement we started cheering against them, lol... there was also a poetry group meeting at the table next to ours - we were a bit confused though as they were clapping when someone finished their poem instead of snapping like you would expect!

Monday was the day of The Big Game.

We got up at a decent time and grabbed some Jimmy John's for lunch, which omg - BEST JIMMY JOHN'S SANDWICHES EVER! Not sure why, but Jimmy John's there tasted A MILLION times better than Jimmy John's back home.

Cowboys Stadium

Since parking at Cowboys Stadium is $70 on gamedays (because Jerry Jones can), we used a parking site online to get a good deal where we reserved a spot about half a mile away from the stadium for $22 from 330pm-midnight. We looked into taking a shuttle, but the one from Humperdinks was $10/person and left 2 hours before the game and gave us no time afterwards to take our time, plus we'd still have to find a place to park the car.

The stadium was huge! They didn't start letting people go in until about 2 hours before game time, but we got to see some of the players pull up to the stadium - hubby got a pretty good pic of Miles Austin getting out of his car!

Miles Austin getting out of his SUV

Panoramic view of the one of the main concourses at Cowboys Stadium

The view from our seats

We went in and walked around the main concourse a little bit and we bought a few things in the Pro Shop there before heading to our seats. So we knew we were in the nosebleed section, but with the world's largest HD TV it didn't matter and we had a view of the entire field too... only our seats were SO HIGH UP! It didn't help the stairs up were narrow and since we were in row 20 we had to walk up about 40 steps... and then the rows the seats were in were pretty narrow too! Hubby's afraid of heights so once he got in his seat he wasn't getting up at all! I was a little uncomfortable with the height until the crowd started filling in in the rows in front of us.

Me wearing my AWESOME homemade maternity tee

I also wore my homemade custom Cowboys maternity tee, which I made with iron-on letters and patches and fabric paint, which says "Future Cowboys Fan" with an arrow pointing to my baby bump. I got quite a bit of compliments and comments and congrats from fans and staff at the stadium that night!

For those that watched, you know how the game went... started off great, then went downhill after the Giants took our QB out by breaking his left collarbone and we got stuck with our back-up QB who hadn't played in nearly 2 years! We lost by only 6 points, which was kind of a bummer, but hubby was still thrilled at actually getting to see an NFL game in person, let alone his team at their snazzy, expensive new stadium!

Traffic sucked getting back to the hotel and we were beat with a busy day on Tuesday.

Mary Kay headquarters

We woke up and went over to Mary Kay headquarters where we got to do a self-guided tour of the museum. It was pretty neat seeing some of her outfits, a picture of the original storefront there in Dallas, and different product packaging throughout the years and for different companies. Even hubby admitted it was interesting.

Next, we drove back over to Cowboys Stadium as we tickets for the VIP Stadium Tour. That was pretty cool as we had a tour guide who explained some fun facts to us and we got to go in owner Jerry Jones' private suite where he watches the games from - the guide said that was something new that they had only started doing recently. We saw some of the other suites and some of the behind the scenes areas that you'd have to be a VIP to get normal access to. Then we got to go down on the actual field and get our picture taken on the center of the 50 yard line and we got to check out both the players and cheerleaders locker rooms. It was pretty neat!

Us sitting in Jerry Jones' private suite where he watches all the home games from

In the Cowboys locker room - the lockers of Tony Romo, Jason Witten and Miles Austin

Getting our photo taken on the Cowboys Star logo on the center of the 50 yard line

The skyline of Downtown Dallas

On our way back, we decided to stop in downtown Dallas just so we could say we were there. We went to the historic West End Marketplace shops, only to learn it had been closed down. Then we walked over to the Dallas World Aquarium... only that was closed too. We had put enough money in the meter to give us an hour and a half to kill down there but only used about 30 minutes of it! Downtown Dallas is all mainly businesses - it's like mini-Chicago, building-wise, but none of the fun stuff to do! A bit disappointing. Also, I didn't realize it was rush hour when we were leaving Downtown Dallas - that was a mistake! It took us awhile to get out, oops!

Wednesday we met up with college roomie for lunch before we left town and went to the infamous Chick-Fil-A - people have told us about this chicken joint for awhile now, but there isn't one near us so we heard we had to try it while we were down there. It was actually pretty good!

We left Dallas around 1pm and hubby let me take over driving at 2 once we were out of the heavy traffic from the area (he doesn't like my driving, lol...) I drove us out of Texas, through Oklahoma and into Missouri where we stopped in Springfield for dinner around 9pm. Hubby took over driving and around 11:30pm was when our fun vacation came to a screeching halt, much like our car.

I had noticed a rest stop about 30 minutes prior but I didn't need to go that bad and hubby said we'd be in St. Louis by midnight and we'd just stop for gas then so I figured I'd hold it. I was looking down at my phone, playing a game on it when I heard hubby start yelling all panicky and he slammed on the breaks. I looked up and saw a big deer in the way right as we hit it and of course I screamed too. The deer went flying it seemed. Hubby quickly asked if I was okay, which I said I think so and after looking to see if the deer was in the way, hubby quickly pulled the car over onto the shoulder of the highway, as there wasn't any traffic near us but we knew some would be coming by soon.

We paused for a moment to collect ourselves and noticed the hood was dented up and bent and that the headlights seemed a bit wonky. We didn't see the deer at all. We called our insurance up which hubby gave them a report and then I called roadside assistance who said they were going to be at least 30-40 minutes since they were in another county and said that since our insurance didn't say we needed a report from them, if we could drive the car to go ahead and do so otherwise we could wait for them to tow us if needed.

Stupid buck!!!

We thought the car was drivable, however we really didn't want to get out on the dark highway (it wasn't very well lit) to survey the full damage since there were semi's and other traffic driving by. The nearest exit was just up ahead so we figured we'd get to a gas station or rest stop there, check it out and if it was drivable wait til morning since the headlights seemed jacked up a bit. Well... there was a Mobil mechanic at the gas station who took a quick look at it and we noticed coolant fluid leaking out - the radiator had been punctured and would need replaced. Hubby called the insurance company again to let them know the situation and to see if we could get a tow - the claims adjuster wasn't in until 830am so we had til then to wait.

Hubby called first thing in the morning - I was still a bit shook up and stressed and worried about the whole ordeal and it was making me nauseous that I couldn't eat so I just sipped on some juice. Progressive put us in touch with Enterprise who picked us up at about 10am so we could get a rental to drive home and they were sending out a tow truck to get our car and take it to a Progressive approved repair shop. We were about 20 miles west of St. Louis and about 4-5 hours from home - we were making good time when we hit the deer and were planning on being home by 4 or 5am... so much for that! What sucks is when the car is ready, we have to drive the 5 hours or so down there to drop off the rental and pick it up. At least we were able to get home though!

I also called my OB/GYN clinic once we got the car stuff figured out, as people online and family were all saying I should go get checked out. I honestly thought Jay and I were fine - hubby and I both had our seatbelts on and my lapbelt didn't really get tight when we hit the deer like the shoulderbelt did (as I was leaning slightly forward in my seat), there was no blood or leakage like my water broke or anything and Jay was moving around in there like he does (although more so because I was so shook up and stressed, giving him a bit of a late night adrenaline boost). My clinic recommended that for pregnant women in accidents to go to an ER and get checked out. Since I didn't have the urge or feel the need to rush to one, I waited til we got back home and went to our hospital there.

Since I'm 23 weeks, they sent me right up to Labor and Delivery where they set me up in a room "just in case" and took a urine sample and later a blood sample to run tests. They hooked me up to a contraction monitor too which you wear like a belt... the whole hospital process took nearly 5 hours... soooooo boring. And nothing was wrong - blood tests came back fine, urine showed a minor bladder infection that they gave me antibiotics for and I learned that I am blood type A+. Hubby and were both starving and tired by the time we got out of there.

And if that wasn't enough... Tiger was happy to see us when we got home, until we found the mess she left for us in the bedroom. Hubby went to climb in bed and thought he smelled cat urine - sure enough, she had peed on his pillow and that whole corner of the bed... and random spots on our comforter, so I get to do laundry tomorrow while he's at work! In the past we always shut the bedroom door when we go away on trips so she can't mess stuff in here, but this time, as we know she has several favorite sleeping spots in here, we decided to leave it open for her. Looks like that won't ever happen again! It's not even like her litter box was full - hubby scooped it out before we left! I think she was just pissed we left her or something.

Anyways, that's been our week - a fun vacation despite the last 24 hours. Hubby enjoyed his birthday present (going to the Cowboys game at Cowboys Stadium). Now to figure out what to do for his actual birthday tomorrow, as we had talked about going to Joe's Crab Shack in the suburbs, but he's really stressed about spending money right now with the car in the shop and our trip to the hospital... poor guy, he was really stressing.

He's a baby, not a fetus

I realized the other day, I *hate* the term fetus.

I know, I know, medically, that's the term for a baby that hasn't been born yet, but to me it just sounds so degrading to call a baby that. Yes, the baby hasn't been born yet, but you really want to tell me this kiddo inside me doesn't have a personality of his own?

The term fetus just comes off as degrading to me, like calling it a baby instead is giving it too much credit or something, or calling it a baby makes it seem more "real" and "human". Regardless though, even if you call it a fetus, it still is real and human, you just can't see or hold it in the flesh yet.

Since being pregnant, I've only come across "hearing" the term fetus once so far, and it was a few days ago when I mentioned online about how Jay wasn't being cooperative at the ultrasound in letting us get a 3D image of his face. A friend commented that when her pregnant sis (who's a few weeks behind me) went to find out the gender the week prior, "her fetus wasn't cooperating either".

Now I know she didn't mean anything hurtful or degrading by it, so I'm not upset at her or anything, but it got me thinking in general - I really don't like that term for a baby in utero. Carrying a kiddo myself, no, there's definitely a baby in there - there's definitely a little life, a little person moving around in there!

Perhaps I've gotten lucky - the OB/GYN clinic I go to is a Christian-based one and so not once have I heard or recall any of the doctors or staff refer to babies as fetuses - every ultrasound we've had since our first appointment, the tech has always said "there's baby! there's baby's little arm, and baby's little heart... baby's heartbeat is beating at this many bpm's..." etc.

Just thought that was interesting enough to share.

22 Week Anatomical Survey Ultrasound

So today (Monday) we're 22 weeks, and 1 day!

This also means it was time for our monthly appointment!

Today we had the Anatomical Survey ultrasound, where the ultrasound tech does thorough scans and stuff of Jay's body to make sure everything is there and how it should be. His brain seemed to look good, his heart has all 4 chambers, his kidneys seemed fine, spine was good, and we from what we could tell he has both arms and legs and all his fingers and toes! We could also see where his eyes, nose and mouth are too.

His heartbeat was at 155bpm which is about where it was last time, and she said he weighed 1lb, 2 oz so far.

He decided to be a little stinker though when she went to take 3D picture of his face and wouldn't cooperate - he had been moving quite a bit this morning, which is strange for him as he usually doesn't move much in the morning, but I swear he senses when we're going to the doctor as every time so far he's been really active! However, previously our appointments have been at 10:30am or 11am and today's was at 11:30am. I think, from what we could see on the ultrasound, he was getting tired again by this point and curling up to sleep, as he had his hands up by his face - hiding from whatever, lol... the tech spent like 5 minutes or so poking and nudging him trying to get him to move so we could see his face, but he refused and instead kicked me every time she nudged/poked him with the wand like he was fighting back, lol...

Grandma (hubby's mom) was not too happy to hear about this, as she was really hoping we'd get a good 3D shot of his face, lol... she was joking about how she was going to have to have a talk with that boy, lol...

So here's the 3D shot we ended up with:

Personally, I think these things are a bit creepy... from left to right, there's the umbilical cord floating around and you can see a little hand and finger going into his mouth, then there's the nose and an eye (with the nose all smooshed against himself, I think he looks like Squidward from Spongebob, lol...) and apparently his legs are bent up over his head somehow - seems he's a bit of a contortionist in there!

It was cute though - at one point he had his hands clasped together and then he unfolded them for us. And another time it looked like he was waving at us! In addition to the kicking, I think he's been punching too, as she was looking at his legs on one side but I was feeling "kicks" up by his other half.

We think it's funny that he'll hide his face from us for the 3D picture, but he's got no problem showing off his package to everyone, as we had no problem getting a view of that! lol...

Our next appointment is in 4 weeks, then after that we go every 2 weeks (we have the Glucose Challenge test is in 6 weeks) up until the last month - then I go in weekly til he finally pops out.

*****

In other news, I found out today for sure that my primary doctor is "retiring from the practice." I asked if that meant he was "retiring" retiring or just moving elsewhere and he explained that after 29 years in OB/GYN it's just his time to cycle out and that he plans on being a laborer, helping with deliveries at the local hospitals for a bit. He said he might still pop in at the clinic from time to time if they need help while someone's out on delivery duty. It was a bit sad though, as he's been my primary doctor there for over 2 years and worked with me throughout all my LEEP stuff I went through and all my follow-ups since. Fortunately there's 3 other doctor's on staff at my clinic, which they've been cycling us through with our pregnancy appointments as our delivering doctor is whoever happens to be on delivery duty that day, but still...

*****

Today we also got hubby situated with getting tested and his prescription to clear up the bacterial infection that he most likely has since I have it.

*****

Oh and I registered us for a few classes at our delivering hospital too - we were signing up for the childbirth class and breastfeeding class, but we learned that if we also signed up for the newborn care class, the cost of that one is free, so we figured we'd sign up for all 3. The childbirth class covers all the basic labor-related stuff you would expect. We signed up for the 3 night class in November, however the lady gave us a heads up that so far, we're the only ones signed up for it and if they don't have at least 3 signed up they tend to cancel it and we'd have to pick a different time. The breastfeeding class I figured I need to take as I'm pretty unfamiliar with it - my mom didn't breastfeed and neither did my aunt so I haven't really had a lot of exposure or whatever to it and no knowledge outside of what I've read and heard. That class is a 1 night class that I'm going to in November. The newborn care class they recommended we take about a month or so before our due date, so we're doing that one in January. Should be interesting and maybe even fun... I think!

Well, that one's out...

So the other day I mentioned this house that hubby and I had found online and were curious about since it was in in our estimated price range, in our neighborhood, and seemed to have a lot of what we want in a house.

Well, driving home today, I noticed as we approached the street it's on that there was a "open house" sign and as we passed the street, sure enough, cars were parked out front of the house. Since it was only a little after 3 and the open house went til 4 I suggested we go take a look. Hubby was in a hurry to get home and watch the game though so I hoped in my car and drove over. I also called my mom to let her know, since my dad's in town and he'd like to check out any house we're interested in it just in case he might catch something wrong with it that we might not know or think to look for and can give us their opinion on how much work we might need to do.

So I get over there and look around, taking photos on my Moto Droid as I go so I can show hubby when I get home, and to me it didn't look too bad - very dirty and needed a good thorough cleaning though as I spied multiple spiders and spiderwebs throughout and some of the cabinets in the kitchen would need to be fixed. The basement was full with framework up, but would need to be finished eventually before you would be able to do much with it. The upper deck I was a little hesitant to go up on, as I wasn't sure how sturdy or worn it was and didn't want to take a chance with. Overall though, I didn't think it was too bad but I get what the description meant by "needs 'some' TLC."

My parents stopped by it shortly after I had left - they said it was pretty much a gut job, as the hardwood floors throughout most of it needed to be sanded and shined, the bathrooms needed work as I guess my dad noticed some major problems in them, the linoleum in the kitchen needed to be redo and the floor of the 3 season room would need to be fixed too as it was uneven. They said if we wanted it, that's fine, but they wouldn't offer more than $55k for it due to the amount of work we'd have to put in, and they mentioned that odds are we wouldn't be able to have it ready to move in until after Jay was born and even then, having to fix up the rest as we go could be tough with a newborn.

So I guess, that one's pretty much out.

There's another my mom and I came across online last week too - the price was in the $50k's and it looked like people were still living there which means it can't be too bad, it has a 2 car garage, however it's not attached liked we were hoping to find... the rest of it seemed to have a lot to offer though, so we'll see - we got vacation next week and we plan on going back to the bank in the week after we get back, so hopefully we can get the ball rolling on this here and get things in motion before the holidays and winter hits!

Not the test results we were expecting...

So you remember how 2 weeks ago I went to doctor for an emergency exam because of some strange discharge I was having? And how last week I updated that I got a call that my test results were fine?

Well... I didn't realize we were waiting to hear about 2 different test results - the urine test results or whatever and a culture test results.

Last week they called regarding the urine testing, which came back fine.

Today I got a call regarding the culture test results.

Turns out I have a bacterial infection called Mycoplasma, which the nurse I spoke with said is a very common urinary bacterial infection that most everyone gets and because it's so common it's rarely treated or even really considering to be much of anything.

However... because I'm pregnant, it needs to be treated because if it's left untreated it can cause early contractions and preterm labor - neither are things we want.

They put me on this z-pack type medication called Azithromycin, with is a category B drug, which means it's been safely tested on animals all with no results of birth defects or anything else that could be bad for pregnancy. Doing research of my own online, I also found that there's been a few studies done on pregnant women in various trimesters and aside from the one that decided to terminate the pregnancy early, all babies were carried to term and have had no defects or complications - the ones they followed up with a year later are all doing fine.

I have to take 6 doses of this medicine - 2 right away, and then 1 a day for the following 4 days, and then refrain from sex for a week, followed by another week of only using condoms. While it's a common bacterial infection and not an STD, it is transmitted like an STD, as you pass it back and forth via sex.

So... this means hubby has to get on the prescription too!

My OB/GYN office said he could see a regular doctor if he had one or just go to an immediate care clinic and explain to them what I have and that odds are he has it too, but because I'm pregnant he needs to get checked out and treated if he has it as well so we're not passing it back and forth.

He went to one of the local immediate care chain's clinics, explained it to them and... they told him they can't do that there - he has to go to a hospital for that.

Say what?!

My OB/GYN seemed pretty confident and sure that he could just go in there and get it done easily (he doesn't have a regular doctor). He wants me to call my doctor's office again tomorrow and see if they can't just write him a prescription for it, since odds are that I have it, he has it too, however I told him I doubt they'll do that - they don't have any of his medical information on file and aside from him coming to the pregnancy appointments with me and his name being the primary on our insurance they don't know him as they've never seen/checked him out before.

Fortunately, his parents are good friends with a doctor - we asked them and they said they would call and ask him tomorrow to see if he could help us out any too... hopefully we can get him on the prescription quickly without having to deal with the hassle that is the hospital (plus hubby said hospitals are expensive and I know they take forever too and with him working 2 jobs, there's not really time for him to waste sitting around for someone at the hospital to fit him in whenever).

I might just call one of the nearby immediate care clinics and talk to them over the phone about it, stating my OB/GYN said it could be done there, as who knows - maybe the person he talked to just didn't know or understand what he was talking about.

So keep us in your thoughts and prayers - that we're able to get this infection cleared up, that hubby can get on the medication for it without too much of a hassle, and that the medication and infection doesn't affect Jay at all. We have his anatomical survey ultrasound on Monday (where they count his fingers and toes, get a good look at his spine, heart and brain and just make sure he's developing everything correctly), so if it is affecting him, hopefully we'll be able to tell when we go in.

Possible house?

Now that I got you up to date on our home loan woes in the previous post, I can now move forward.

Despite our last trip to the bank regarding a home loan not going quite as well as we were hoping, we know we're extremely close to getting it soon and so we're still staying positive and hopeful (we're just crossing our fingers and praying that those last 2 items report this month like they should).

Hubby and I have been looking online at houses from time to time though. Originally, hubby was hoping to pick up a foreclosure for $50k or less, as a co-worker at UPS had gotten a decent foreclosed home for under $30k! Unfortunately though, all the ones we could find in areas that weren't terrible seemed to require more work than we wanted to do. We started looking online in the $50-65k range, however most of what we were found were either foreclosures needing A LOT of work or smaller homes than what we want.

We don't want to be too picky and we know it's highly unlikely (although not impossible) to find our ideal dream home as we're just starting out and have a budget to stick to, but at the same time we want to find something we won't mind living in for awhile as we both hate moving if we can help it.

Basically, we'd like a house (preferably a ranch-style) with at least 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms (although we'd settle for 1 or a 1.5 bath if we had to), a 2 car attached garage, a finished basement or one that could be finished someday, a decent backyard (not huge, but not tiny - we'd like to get a dog someday so it needs to be big enough for a dog to run around in as well as room for Jay to play too), and I would really like room for a dishwasher in the kitchen (I am soooo tired of doing dishes by hand - I hate doing dishes almost as much as I hate cleaning the kitchen and bathroom floors or scrubbing the bathtub!). So far, from what we've seen online, the lowest price range for a house like this in decent shape in a decent area of town is in the upper $60k's through the low $80k's, so we're hoping to find something in the low-mid $70k's. Telling the bank our plan there, the bank lady said that with hubby's current incomes that shouldn't be a problem at all and easily doable.

Looking online today, hubby found a few in our neighborhood/area that didn't sound too bad, although he did include the horrid looking "steeple house" as I call it (for the longest time, I thought this house, which is just around the corner from us, was a small church as the front door has a steeple tower with like a bell tower at the top! Apparently it's actually a house and the inside looks decent from the photos online, however I can't stand the steeple entrance! lol... hubby ruled it out though as it doesn't seem to have a garage whatsoever).

Bored at work, I looked a bit too - the house down off the main street I had been keeping my eye on for awhile (it says it's move in ready and basically seems to have everything we'd want in a house) recently got taken over by a different realtor company as the sign out front changed and apparently the last listing got removed and the only one I can find shows the price going from the $104k it had gotten down to (we were hoping it would get in the $80k range soon) up to $128k!! What the?! Why?! Grrrr

I did come across another house though just down the main street from us that I hadn't seen before. Listed for $70k, it's a 3 bedroom, 2 bath ranch with an attached 2 car garage, and while the address is the main street which can be a bit busy, it has a private drive just off the street which is nice. It says it's sold "As Is" which means it's a foreclosure and it mentioned it needs "some" TLC, so I'm curious as to how much work there is on the inside. I drove past it on my way home today and the backyard didn't look big, but it didn't look too tiny either. There's a white wooden fence along the front which looks a bit worn and I wasn't too crazy about, but we can easily do something about that. It had a really nice front porch though! It also has a deck on the back too and I guess a screened in backporch. I thought about getting closer and looking in the windows, as my dad would do, but I'm not sure if someone is still living there or not, as there were blinds and drapes in the windows! If there's someone still living there though, that makes me think it's not in too bad a shape on the inside though! Oh the page online also said it has a private newer well pump too and it's county taxes (which most houses in our neighborhood are) which looked pretty low compared to some of the houses I've looked up online in our area.

We still have about 3 weeks or so until we're going back to the bank, but I'm hoping maybe this one will still be on the market by the time we get approved and that it turns out to be pretty decent on the inside with no major problems.

The home loan debacle

Since this blog is primarily about having a family of our own, I don't see why I shouldn't mention our home and house hunting stuff here as well, as a house can be a home and a home is where you and your family are.

Hubby and I have been hoping to move into a house for well over a year now.

We currently live in a decent sized 1 bedroom apartment in a pretty decent neighborhood with a great walking/bike path just around the corner from us. Compared to the 1 bedroom apartments I knew of down at college, our place is actually a pretty nice size - we have a full size bathroom, a galley kitchen with a nice big eating area and a huge living/family room; there's multiple closets, including a nice sized walk-in closet in the bedroom, which is also a pretty nice size! We casually joked how if we needed to, we could move the clothes out of the closet and put them elsewhere and turn the walk-in into a nursery if we had to!

Anyways, as I mentioned in the past, we had a plan - we'd get married, hubby would finish his Associates up that semester and then get promoted to full-time at UPS soon after. Then we'd get a house and start trying to have kids. Unfortunately the plans we make for ourselves don't always work out.

The week we were on our honeymoon in Vegas I remember turning on the TV one day while getting ready and they were talking about the stock market crashing and the housing industry crashing - the economy seemed to be going to hell rather quickly!

Since this post could get a bit lengthy, with me bringing you up to date, I'll insert a cut here so it doesn't take up the entire page on my blog!

20 week photo

As I mentioned earlier this week, I would try and post a 20 week baby bump photo.

I had hubby take a few last night and here's the best one of the bump without my face in it (for some reason he took em when I wasn't smiling or anything, lol):

There I am at 20 weeks, 5 days!

Jay's actually down in the lower half of my belly there - I tend to feel him below my belly button, but above the pubic bone.

I didn't realize just HOW big I had gotten until I looked at the photos - I mean, I knew I had an obvious bump that was showing now, but I just didn't realize how big it was!

Baby Kicks are Amusing!

Since Jay started kicking the other day, he's been quite amusing!

He seems to really enjoy it when I eat fruit flavored things! The other day I ate a fruit juice popsicle and boy did he kick up a storm soon after! The yesterday I stopped by McDonald's after work and got a wild berry smoothie to enjoy while I was out running errands around town. As soon as I started drinking it, Jay began kicking up a storm again! lol...

Also, I think I "cramped" his space this morning when I first got up - I got up wrong and had a bit of a muscle spasm on my right side like I pulled something or moved too quickly. The pain went away after a few moments and I was fine, but then a few minutes later I felt little baby kicks right where the spasm was! It's like Jay was all "Hey! That's where I had my feet - that's my space! Quit cramping it!" LOL...

He's on a bit of strange schedule it seems - in the morning there's no activity (which started to scare me a little bit yesterday) but then about 1 or 2pm it's like he wakes up and kicks on and off throughout the afternoon, then he's pretty quiet for the first part of the evening and then the kicking starts again in the late evening and is off and on throughout the night until hubby gets home from work around 3:30am - then he seems to stop around the time we go to bed! LOL... he's such a night owl like us!

I noticed on days I don't work (when I tend to sleep in later) that if I don't eat by a certain time, he starts kicking once he's awake like "Hey! I'm hungry! Let's get some food down in here!" LOL

Also, just a few updates I should mention...

1. I heard back from the clinic regarding my test results last week - they said everything came back fine and normal, so who knows what was up...

2. Got an update on Baby Lucas (our new nephew) today - him and mommy are both doing fine and they're bringing him home today, however he did lose one of his testicles as the one was dead. Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers though - seems like he'll be okay!

Interesting coincidences

A few interesting coincidences I've come across lately.

First, while recently cleaning out my side of our walk-in closet, I came across a jewelry box that had a trio of rings in it that my mom bought for me back in like high school. Each ring has a colored stone - a blue zircon which is the birthstone for December, a peridot which is the birthstone for August which is my birthstone... and a purple amethyst which is the birthstone for... February! How funny is that - I have a ring set that includes both my birthstone and Jay's birthstone! Since I found the rings, I've been wearing the peridot and amethyst stone rings together, occasionally pairing them with the blue topaz, although obviously that one isn't significant yet... if only it was opal or rose zircon for October, then I'd have all 3 of our birthstones, as hubby's birthday is in October!

Another interesting coincidence...

The other day I started playing The Sims 3 again, out of boredom, and I honestly haven't played it since last December. Last time I played though, I had made Sim Josh and Sim Rachel to play as myself and hubby in the world of The Sims. I quickly got them on romantic terms and they got married and eventually had a baby... a baby boy! How weird is that? My virtual Sim self predicted we'd be having a boy first, nearly 9 months ago! Could this possibly be life imitating art? I think maybe!

The last coincidence is that I recently learned that hubby's aunt has the same birthday as my deceased grandma - February 23! So I know we're due the 20th, but how weird would it be if Jay is a few days late and is born on the 23rd?? It'd be a bit interesting if our first baby has the same birthday as my grandma who passed on the eve of our wedding!


On a non-coincidence related note, hubby and I were out at the mall the other day, just killing time and walking around (we're literally about 5 minutes down the road from the mall so window shopping and mall walking a great way to kill free time). We stopped in the sports shop just to look and see how much baby football/team related stuff goes for and found some really cute ones, like a onesie that said "I've been a Cowboys fan my whole life!" and "My first Cowboys tee." Can't wait til we're in Dallas and can start buying baby Cowboys gear! hehe

Welcome Lucas!

Well, it's Facebook official - I'm an aunt again!

We just found out that hubby's older brother and his wife gave birth to their 2nd son, Lucas, at 4:17 today. He weighs 7lbs, 2 oz and is 20 inches long.

Baby Lucas, several days old here, with the Pooh that hubby and I sent him.

They had to do an emergency C-section (after inducing labor yesturday afternoon), but mommy is doing just fine!

Please keep baby Lucas in your thoughts and prayers though - he had the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck and then I guess his testicle was wrapped around itself - they had to take him to Peoria from the Quad Cities to get fixed up! It doesn't seem life threatening though, but still - it's a bit scary!

First kicks

So forget what I said in my last post about how baby Jay started fluttering over the weekend which means he'll probably start kicking in the next few weeks - HE STARTED KICKING LAST NIGHT!

It was really neat!

Hubby had just gotten home from work, we were laying in bed with the light off watching the end of Sex and the City on TBS before turning the TV off to go to sleep. I was feeling Jay moving around in there, but then I started feeling little "twinges" or "kicks" on my lower abdomen just next to center.

Curious, I grabbed hubby's hand and was trying to get him to lay it flat on my abdomen although he was like "What are you trying to do?" when I couldn't get his arm to turn the right way with the way he was laying.

I told him "I want to see if you can feel something..." so he cooperated and let me put his hand flat on my abdomen.

We sat for a moment, before he was like "I only feel your heartbeat."

I told him to just wait a moment as I thought I felt Jay kick and then I felt it.

"Did you feel that?" I asked him.

"Yeah! It felt... awesome!" Hubby said with a big grin on his face.

He then repositioned his hand tried to feel another one. I told him just to wait for it and then there was another one, but he missed it as I was talking which moved my abdomen a little. We repositioned his hand a few times, as it seemed Jay moved just right of center for a bit and hubby was able to feel him kick a few more times before Jay seemed to stop for the night and we decided to go to bed. It was a fun 10 minutes or so of "follow the kicking."

I woke up a few times this morning, tossing and turning, and there were a few times I think I felt him kick some more. He's pretty quiet right now - like I said previously, he seems to be more active later at night, he's already turning into a night owl like his mommy and daddy!

Halfway there!

As of right now I am 20 weeks, 3 days pregnant - we're officially at the halfway point! (although, if you're pregnant for 40 weeks, why do they say 9 months? Someone fails at counting!)

Still waiting to hear back from the doctor's office regarding my test results from last week - if I don't hear anything by mid-afternoon tomorrow I think I'll give them a call as they told me we'd know early this week - they told me to refrain from my prenatal workout and intercourse until we get the results back and well, refrain from the latter has been a bit hard the past few days (which is saying something, as I've had NO sex drive whatsoever since getting pregnant), especially since hubby got a hair cut which looks pretty hot! lol...

I *finally* started feeling Jay "flutter" the last few days - I think it might have been noticeable over the past few weeks, but at the time I couldn't tell if it was just my stomach grumbling or gas or what, as it wasn't very distinct... but over the past few days, it's definitely become a very distinct flutter! He doesn't seem to be very active during the day, but late at night and around the time I decide to fall asleep (usually around 4am when hubby gets home from work) he's fluttering up a storm!

My college roommate was up visiting from Dallas last week and I met up with her halfway in our old college town about 30 miles away for dinner. She declared that I "definitely look pregnant!" I've been wearing mostly my maternity clothes the last 3 or 4 weeks as they're looser and just look better than a lot of my regular tops right now. I visited with my best friend from high school today too - I  hadn't seen her since July and she was shocked at how much I'm showing already. I mean, I am halfway already, but I guess she didn't really start showing til 6 months with her first. It is nice though, as it's obvious now that I'm just pregnant and not fat! =)

I've grown some more too - I swear my boobs literally grew again overnight this past weekend! As I was changing for bed the other night, hubby noticed and was like "Whoa! Big boobies!" I pointed out that they've been bigger than normal since like July, but he was like "No, they look even bigger!" I shrugged it off, but noticed the next day in the shower that no, he was right - they are even bigger! I've decided that so far, one of the strangest "pregnant body" things is when I'm relaxing at home, sans bra and slouching, is that my boobs just kinda rest on top of my belly - it feels SOOO weird and unnatural! And they're NOT DONE growing yet!!

This also leads to my sleep issues I've had the past week or so - I'm lucky if I get about 4-6 hours of "good" sleep before my body wakes me up and declares that whatever position I've been sleeping in is no longer comfortable and I need to roll over to my otherside. And then my body proceeds to wake me up EVERY HOUR telling me it's no longer comfortable in the position I'm in and to roll over again. This tossing and turning tends to continue until I finally wake up, which involves me laying on my back for a few minutes just to stretch out my back. So annoying and I hear it's only the beginning - now that I can feel Jay fluttering it's only a matter of weeks until he starts kicking, keeping me up half of the night with that! lol...

Hubby's been pretty sweet lately though - he's been pretty good about giving me back rubs when I need them (there's a few spots on my back - one along my spine, the other near my shoulderblades) as with my boobs getting bigger, my back seems to hurt a bit more. There's also been a few times where we'll be laying in bed, me propped up reading or watching TV and he'll roll over and put his arm around my baby bump or just fall asleep with his hand holding it. He also said the other night (I forget if we were going to bed or if he was leaving for work) but he turned to me and said "I love you, Baby" like he usually does and I responded "I love you too" and then he stopped said to my belly "and I love you, baby" - it was pretty cute!

Oh! Another thing I noticed in the shower the other day was that my belly button is starting to "pop" a little! It's only on the inside so far (I have an innie), but cleaning it in the shower (I have a naval ring so I clean it regularly) I noticed a little bump starting to pop out on the inside of it!

I'll have to remember to take a 20 week pic this week and post it!

First purchases for Jay

Last weekend hubby and I went and did our baby registries at Target and Walmart since hubby wanted to wait until we knew what we were having before we registered for stuff so that not everything would be gender neutral (although some of the bigger items are, since we plan on having at least one more kid if not 2).

We didn't buy anything yet though, but I did show Grandma (my mom) our registries and she's trying to refrain from going out and purchasing most of it, as she knows other people will need/want to buy us stuff for the shower in January, but she has bought a few things the past few days, including some cute little clothes she got on sale during Bergner's Goodwill Days sale.

Hubby and I stopped out at the mall last night, as he was having one of the guys at their kiosk there do something with his phone. I went to stop in the nearby stores on that end where 2 of my friends were working to say hi but the one was pretty busy at the register so I left after looking around for a few minutes, and the other one, well, I found out I had just missed her and she left right before I got there, so I went back to stand with hubby at the kiosk (they were taking FOREVER it seemed and I was hungry and wanted to go get dinner). Right across from the kiosk is The Children's Place - I remember my aunt going there frequently when my cousin was little, but I myself had never really gone in there, so since I was bored, I told hubby I was going in to look.

OMG, that was a mistake!

I quickly found the baby/infant section of the store and there was soooooo much cute little clothes and all the prices were surprisingly not bad at all! I had to leave within a few minutes or I knew I was going to end up spending money.

I went back out to the kiosk and told hubby about some of the cute stuff I saw and wanted to get, which included this really cute little hoodie for $10.50 and this cute matching grey plush monkey rattle for $5. He knew I wanted to spend money and told me to go ahead and get 2 of the hoodies - 1 in a 3-6 month size and another in a 12 month size - as well as the monkey.

While I went back in to get those, I noticed that some of the little stripped polos I had been eying was on the $5 table in the back (I had seen one on a different table the first time I was in) and decided to see how much it actually was - $5 or the $7.99 sticker price. To my surprise, it rang up at $3.99 so I got that too. I showed hubby, he kinda rolled his eyes at the fact I bought something more than what he he said we could, but I told him it was only $3.99, lol... ah, men - they don't understand our love for shopping sometimes! hehe

Anyway, here's links to the hoodie and polo we got Baby Jay (their site doesn't let me drag and pull the image, boooo). Like I said, the hoodie we got in 2 sizes so he can wear it hopefully this spring and in the cooler beginning of summer (or summer nights) and then a bigger one so he can hopefully still fit in it when fall comes. The polo is actually more of a greenish-blue color than what the picture is showing. We got this one in a 3-6 month so he can wear it this spring or even shortly after he's born with a long sleeved onesie underneath.

Now I couldn't find an image of the plus monkey rattle we got online, but here's a link to a bib that has the same monkey on it. It's not a very big plush, but just the right size for newborn. It's grey, it's cute and soft and when you shake the monkey he rattles - too cute!!

Baby shopping is going to be sooooo much fun!

Walmart has a shelf of Garanamials tees that are on clearance right now for $2 - I'm trying so hard not to give in and buy a few of them, but I don't see that lasting too much longer! lol...

For 4th of July next year (2011) we're probably going out to my inlaw's for the holiday, who live pretty much in the country with a small town. Last time we went, the majority of the day was spent at the main park in town where we ate lunch, walked around and viewed all the local area arts and crafts vendors who had tents and then sat around listening to various local (mostly folk) bands play til it was time to get seated for the fireworks. Since we're mostly outside, I plan on getting Jay a cute little baby cap hat and a little pair of sunglasses and one of those Off Bug Spray clip-ons to attach to the stroller so the bugs will stay away from that radius. I can't wait to go shopping though! Maybe we'll get him one of the Old Navy 4th of July flag shirts, since they always have those for just a few bucks each year!

A scare

So I had a little bit of a scare this past week.

If you're a guy and/or don't like TMI-pregnancy related stuff, stop reading this post right now.



There - you've been warned.



Anyways, continuing, I've been wearing panty liners the last few weeks due to the increase in cervical mucus flowing out of me (which I read is normal during pregnancy). I noticed Monday morning when I first went to the bathroom that the liner was stained a little bit of a light brownish color, kinda like at the end of your period when you know you're basically done. I didn't think too much of it. Tuesday morning I wake up, and same thing - overnight it seemed the liner had gotten stained with this light brownish color. I put in a new one and go about my day, starting to wonder what's going on. Later that night, I'm vacuuming and doing some basic cleaning (ie: dusting, putting away, dishes, etc) and before bed I go to the bathroom and notice that the liner is again, stained a light brown color, only this time I was feeling a bit sweaty from all the vacuuming and moving around I had been doing - I felt like I had leaked a little and thought maybe that's what it was. Still, I wondered a bit and decided to call the doctor's office the next day (Wednesday).

I tell them about it, they ask if I've had any significant pain or cramping or anything and I tell them I haven't experienced anything out of the ordinary (as with pregnancy a little pain and discomfort here and there is normal and I hadn't been experiencing anything I hadn't already prior to this). They said it sounded like I might have an infection and wanted me to come in the next day (Thursday) so they could do some tests and find out.

So I'm a little nervous now, as when I mentioned to my mom they said it might be an infection her response was "well that's not really good either..." and I started reading stuff I found on Google that wasn't making me feel any better. I mention to hubby I'm going to the doctor when he gets home from work - at first he had a bit of a worried, panic look on his face, but when I explained and told him they thought it might be an infection he was just like "oh okay" and didn't say much else. Talking with a friend though, she pointed out that if it was anything to seriously worry about, they wouldn't make me wait overnight to come in - they'd have me go to the hospital right away if it was major cause for concern and since the stain is a light brownish color and not red, odds are it's nothing too serious as light brown tends to be "old blood" that's just now coming out and bright red/pink is usually something to worry about.

So I go to the doctor Thursday morning, they have me pee in a cup and they do a vaginal exam and swab just to check. They said there was no blood in my urine and no signs of a UTI but they were going to send it off to be tested just in case. They also said my PH levels were fine too and showing no signs of anything abnormal. She noticed a little bit of white stuff down there, but didn't think it was anything to be too concerned about. She also said my cervix wasn't dilated, and that at our appointment the week before the placenta and my cervical length were both great. We checked and Jay's heartbeat (once she was able to find it and count it, as he was moving around like usual, not staying in one spot and not making it easy for them to count, lol) was just around 160bpm which is in the normal range (he's always been around 160-180bpm). She asked me if I had done anything different recently and I mentioned the prenatal workout I had started and done twice so far. She asked if we had sex over the weekend and I thought we might have (we do it so little lately due to my lack of a sex drive thanks to pregnancy that I have a hard time remembering how long it's been since we last did it), so she said it's possible that with that and the workout, something up in there might have gotten bumped and knocked loose some old blood and that's what I'm seeing on the liner.

She said to refrain from sex and my workout until we get the test results back (which is early this coming week), but that there really doesn't seem to be much cause for concern or worry at this point, just that I should keep an eye on it and if it changes color to a pink or reddish or the amount increases then to let them know.

I mentioned my appointment on Facebook and my mother in law asked what was going on and I told her the shortened version - she said she had something like that happen throughout some of her pregnancies too (a light brown stain on liners) but that there wasn't really much of a concern at all. So that makes me feel a little better.

Have any of you ladies had anything like this happen to you?