Random Stuff...

Since I have a wonderful week off from editing photo's, I thought I would spend more time this week blogging... however, I don't have much to blog about. lol! So, this may be boring to some of you, but i'm blogging about random stuff today.

We have an ultrasound on Wednesday, and I am SOOO excited to see our little 'sprout' again. :o) We aren't sure whether we will find out the sex or not, but we have 2 days to decide. We kept it a surprise with Adelyn, and that was really fun... however this time I think I am leaning more towards finding out. We will see what happens I guess... maybe baby won't even co-operate. :o) I can't believe we are 19.5 weeks already! It is going by pretty quickly. I can only feel baby moving once or twice a day, so I'm praying that will increase soon. Adelyn was moving a whole lot more at this point in pregnancy... but maybe this little one is just lazy. :o)

I've started decorating for Christmas and am hoping to put the tree up soon... maybe even today! Shaun thinks that it is ridiculously early, but my theory is the earlier you do it, the longer it lasts. I will post some pictures soon of all the decorations.

Speaking of Christmas decorations, I was seriously bummed out when we went to Wal-mart to buy some new decorations. They have tons of gorgeous stuff this year, however I really wanted a nice nativity set to put on our mantel and there was only 2 dinky ones to choose from. Lame. Half the store is full of Christmas decor, and yet it is all Santa Claus and snowmen.... nothing to do with Jesus' birth which is the real reason for this wonderful season. Sigh.

18 Weeks!

Today we are 18 weeks pregnant! Yay! I can't believe how fast this pregnancy is going lately. This little munchkin is starting to wiggle more often, it is so cool to feel a precious little person dancing around in there again! It is starting to feel more and more real!!!


Here's some info on were "sprout" is at now:
Your baby is approximately 6 inches/ 14.2 centimetres long from crown to rump and she weighs about 7 ounces/ 190 grams. Her chest moves up and down to mimic breathing but she's not taking in air, only amniotic fluid.

A mid-pregnancy ultrasound scan is often done sometime in the second trimester (usually between 18 and 22 weeks) to assess fetal growth and development, screen for certain birth defects, check the placenta and umbilical cord and determine whether the gestational age is accurate. During this scan, you might see your baby kick, flex, reach, roll, or even suck her thumb. Bring your partner along, and whether or not he's able to accompany you, make sure you ask for printouts of the baby in various poses.

Church/Life Woes...

I think I am in the middle of a identity crisis... sigh. I've been dealing with a lot of things lately that have me totally confused about what to do next. Since no one really reads this blog, I think I'm pretty safe sharing these things here... so I will use this as a way to get these thoughts out of my head and if someone reads it great... if not, that's fine.

What does "church" mean to you? Of course it's a place where you go and worship God and hear great preaching, etc... but isn't church supposed to be more than that? Isn't church supposed to go beyond the four walls and out into the world and people's everyday lives... not just something for Sunday morning? I am not really seeing that in our church lately.

I have had it up to my eyeballs with church clicks! It is no wonder to me that the world thinks badly of the church... church people are worse than high school students. How is someone supposed to feel like they belong to a church family, when people can't take the time to acknowledge your existence? I can't even count how many church functions, mom's group things, birthday party's, bridal shower's, playgroups, and lady's events I have not even known about until after the fact. As a matter on fact, the only time I have been asked to attend something in our church is when they needed a sound person.

Out of the blue one day I got a call from a girl that I have not seen or talked to in 2 years inviting my daughter and I over to her house to do some crafts with her kids who are about the same age. I immediately thought how funny it was that people I see every Sunday at my own church couldn't give us a second thought when it comes to inviting us to their kids birthday parties, or over for playdates, etc. but this girl thought of us out of no where and invited us over. I could not care less when I am not invited to something, but when my daughter, who is the same age as all the little kids in our church, is forgotten time and time again I get really mad.

Sorry for my rant. I am just fed up big time with people in churches pretending that they are mega Christians, but don't act any more mature than a sixteen-year-old who doesn't want to be someones friend because it's just not cool to do so.

Baby Scare...

Ok, so yesterday I went to the doctor's for something totally not pregnancy related and on my way there I thought "Hmmm.... I hope he listens to the heartbeat again today!" I just love that sound and was so looking forward to hearing it again. Sure enough my doc decided to check it. Yay!

Well, after 10 minutes of trying to find it, we heard nothing. WHAT!!!!???
Since we had heard the baby's heartbeat last week and it sounded awesome and he/she was wiggling around kicking the doppler, it never crossed my mind that we wouldn't be able to find it just a week later. Sigh.

My doctor started saying things like "have you had any bleeding?" and "how many miscarriages have you had previously?" etc.... I started to panic slightly and then burst into tears right there in the Dr.'s office. He said that he would try and get me in for an urgent ultrasound and then he prayed with me before I left.

I drove home and told Shaun about what had happened. We were both pretty upset about it and weren't sure how to feel. Sigh, another huge faith test. Having gone through this before 4 other times and only having a good outcome once, it was hard to be positive and to put our faith into action. I must admit, I have failed at the faith thing several times in the past.

Today was our ultrasound.... and after spending the entire morning in tears, I suddenly felt a strange peace as we were driving there.
We got in right away... the lady turned on the monitor and said "There's your baby..."
I was so afraid to look, because I didn't want to see a baby there with no heartbeat. Then she said, "...and there's the heart, beating away!" HUGE SIGH OF RELIEF!

The baby was perfect. Everything looked fantastic and his/her little heart was beating away at 154 bpm!!!! He/she was so squirmy that the ultrasound tech could barely get good pictures. :o)

How awesome is God!!!

Yay!!!!

I haven't blogged here since July... I know, lazy blogger. Sorry! We've been busy with everything but our own lives, so we've really had nothing to blog about.... until now!

Today I am announcing something that I have kept a secret for a long time. I am nearly 15 weeks pregnant and SOOOOOOOO excited to be a mommy for the second time around! We were waiting until we heard this little one's heartbeat before we told the world (or anyone for that matter)... today we heard it! A strong little thump, thump, thump! What a beautiful sound!!

We are a week into our second trimester, and perhaps I will share a little bit about why we waited to long to share this exciting news some other time... but for now, I am enjoying my new little bundle!!!

I am also about %85 sure that I can feel some little movements from time to time! Yay!!!!!!!!!!

Basement!

We have started the basement reno's this week!! Yipee! It's already been quite the adventure! Everywhere I turn around there is another problem to solve and another cost associated. :o) Sigh.
Oh well. That's part of the fun, right!?

We painted the livingroom upstairs. I'll be posting pics of that soon. I just need to find an ounce of time.

:o)
-T

Electrical Panel Upgrade

One of problems with buying an old house is that some very important things may need upgrading from time to time... i.e. furnaces, electrical service, plumbing etc. Sigh....
Although, we lucked out and found a great house that needed little upgrading, one of the requirements for buying our house was that we had to upgrade the electrical service from 70w to 100w within 60 days of our possession date.

This is definitely a job better left to professionals.... and since I didn't have a hand in any of this all I can do it post the pictures :o)

This is the old 70w service that we had when we first moved in. It was located beside the back door of the house:

This is the new panel. They had to move it down to the basement into the room that will become my photography office once our basement reno's are through. Although there is nothing visually appealing about an electrical panel, it is at least an improvement!