I've been tagged!

Aimee from A day in the life of...tagged me. Here goes...
1. What is the one BIG goal you hope to accomplish this week? Finish last week's laundry and spend a little more time at Leenie's house ;-)
2. What is the one household chore you do NOT like to do? Ironing - when this pregnancy is over Leenie and I will implement the Margarita ironing idea we got from anther neighbor.
3. What would you buy if someone gave you $2,000.00? I'm wondering if this is supposed to be 2 million since Aimee had answered hers with buying a new car - what kind of new car can you buy with $2,000? So, I'd probably go on vacation with it - somewhere warm!
4. Describe yourself using one word. honest - I don't know???
5. What is the one saying or theme that you live by? I am a firm believer of what goes around comes around. I try to not do something that I wouldn't want done to me - yes there's times I fail miserable, but I said "I try"
6. What is the one household item you can NOT live without? Washing machine and dryer - I know it's two, but they go together. I remember living in the Chicago on the 3rd floor and lugging my laundry up and down the stairs and to the laundry mat on the next block - I am so glad I don't have to do that anymore - especailly in the snow!!
7. If you had one chance to go any where in the world where would you go? I'd love to go to Hawaii
8. List the one person you admire the most. I'm going to have to steal Aimee's answer. My mom! I can call her anytime day and night and talk to her about anything. She is such a strong person and has accomplished so much in her life. I'm amazed at the struggles that her and my dad went through in raising our family, but the two of them always got through it and never gave up. And she still spoils me. When I moved out of parents house my mom started a February box for me. Every February I get a box of presents delivered to my house. Inside the box is a wrapped gift for every day of the month of February and I open one gift every day. The gifts range from pajamas to cookie cutters to money to gift cards for manicures and pedicures. It's just the most awesome idea and I just love it. I can't wait to do the same for Olivia when she grows up and leaves the nest - you know, when she's 35!! Anyway, my mom is the greatest, always has been and always will be.
9. What is one thing people may not know about you? I saved a lot of money on my car insurance. Seriously? I can't stand to wear dress socks without shoes. If I have on any kind of socks other than white I have to take them off when I take my shoes off - unless I'm at someone else's house. My dad and one of my brothers are the same way, in fact they are a little worse...they wear white socks underneath their dress socks! No joke. And white socks annoy me if they aren't on exactly straight - like if they get turned around a little or hang off - it doesn't just bother me for it to be like this on my feet, but it bothers me to see it. I had to call someone out during small group because their socks were bothering me so bad that I couldn't concentrate on the lesson. We all have our thing, right? I can't be the only person with something this crazy.
O.K. - so now I tag...
Leenie and Megan, you're it!

Confession time

I have a lot of friends who are HUGE Bon Jovi fans and have gone to several of his concerts. I have been asked several times to go and always passed. Bon Jovi just doesn't do it for me! I don't find him all that attractive and I don't really know any of his music, but anyone I know who has ever gone to one of his concerts have always had a great time - even people who weren't huge fans of him to begin with, so this year I decided I would just go and have fun even though I didn't really care that much for him. I was more excited to find out that Daughtry was opening - I find him very yummy!! I can't say I dig the bald head, but everything else is very appealing!!

Chris was AWESOME!!! I would have loved to see more - If I ever get a chance to go to a concert of his, I am there!! It was an outstanding performance and it's just so cool to think that a couple of years ago, he was a nobody - and now he's in Chicago opening for Bon Jovi - that's huge!

So anyway, to the confession part - I must confess that Bon Jovi put on a pretty incredible show. He sang for hours and it was so entertaining. We had awesome seats at the United Center - we were in the second row of the second level and center stage. Come to find out, I know a lot more of his songs then I thought I did! I was not bored whatsoever! I was on my feet most of the night singing and dancing - and I was even SOBER!!

And speaking of sober - I thought I would be annoyed most of the evening being sober when everyone we were going with would be drinking except for one other person who was pregnant, but it wasn't bad at all! Not even with all the belly rubbing going on by an unnamed person! I think she thought it was a lamp and if she rubbed long enough a genie would come out, but that didn't happen. The Limo ride was great too, even though the driver wouldn't take us to White Castles on the way home! But at least he did stop on the side of the road so someone could relieve themselves in an alley - what a nice guy!!

Thanks girls (and guy) for a great time and for encouraging me to go - I'm really glad I did, it was so much fun!

I am Yours

This is cool

Another peak

I saw my perinatologist, Dr Ismail, yesterday and he wanted to do yet another ultrasound. The doctor was in the room during the ultrasound which was awesome. I didn't have to wait on answers or wonder what the tech was doing and I could follow most of the things that the doctor and the tech were talking about and when I didn't understand I just asked and they filled me in. They took some quick measurments, but were mostly concerned with measuring the empty sac and comparing it to the measurements that were taken last month and to the level 2 ultrasound I'll have done in 8 weeks. The doctor said that everything looks great and reassured me that everything was going to be good. He brought up how I've made it further than my past two pregnancies so that's a big hurdle that's out of the way. He went through all my bloodwork again and really feels like we have left no leaf unturned and that there are no red flags. He told me that I'm going to be seeing a lot of him and my midwife and he's not going to leave me alone. He said by the end of this pregnancy, I'll be very sick of him and my midwife - I told him I was glad to hear that! The only bad thing is that the ultrasound tech was trying to get a view of the baby's neck and the baby wouldn't cooperate. She was pushing extrememly hard and I am very very sore today - I feel like an elephant has trampled my stomach!
So, I will see my midwife in 4 weeks and then in 8 weeks I'll see my midwife and Dr Ismail - I'll have the level 2 ultrasound with Dr Ismail at this appointment. Then starting at 26 weeks they will start increased surveillance of the baby. I will start going in every 2 weeks for my appointments, but will also have non-stress tests each week. To some it might seem like such a hassle, but I'm actually looking forward to all the visits and all the checks on the baby - I know that it will be so reassuring to see so much of the baby and hear the heartbeat...it's exactly what I want!

Thanks again for all your prayers - I'll keep you posted.

1 down, 2 to go

Well I have one trimester under my belt - or should I say under my elastic waistbands :-) 2 more trimesters to go. If they go as fast as the first it will be here before you know it.
I had my appointment today with my midwife and we took another peek at God's perfect little plan. Looks like we have a wild one on our hands!! The baby was flipping all over the place and kicking and hitting and it's little mouth was opening and closing - it really looked like one of Olivia's temper tantrums, but on a smaller scale and much quieter ;-) It's just so reassuring to see the little cashew doing so great. My midwife did the ultrasound, which she isn't too familiar with, but as far as she could see the other sac is pretty much gone and she doesn't see the implantation bleeding. She said that she doesn't know how to push the buttons on the u/s machine to get a better quality picture, but as far as she could see they were going away all on their own as anticipated. She also couldn't figure out how to get the sound or the beats per minute for the heart, but we could see it beating so that's all that matters. I should have a heart rate at the next appointment - I know some of you are trying to determine the gender based off of this, so sorry I couldn't provide you with more information - you'll have to just wait another 4 weeks :-)

Thanks so much for all your prayers and thanks in advance for your continued prayer - I know it's working - you're the best!!

Getting pampered while pregnant

There's just nothing like it, but when you are pregnant you are so deserving of some pampering. I mean, you're sharing a part of your body with another human for 9 months. You're days are spent making everything from kidneys, to eye lids to bones and all the vital organs necessary for a healthy child - it's a lot of work! (but worth it) That's why I have decided that I'm going to get pampered much more often this pregnancy than I have in the past :-)

I spent Sunday morning with some friends as we got pedicures. There's just something great about looking down and seeing pretty feet - I probably don't have too much longer to still see my feet, but while I can I want them to look beautiful!

So the pedicure was great, but I wanted more - of course I did, I'm a spoiled girl :-) So I decided today I was going for a makeover....hair and make-up! Have you ever had a makeover? I think this was my first - I don't recall having it done in the past. It was nice too. I spent a while in rollers and lots of time in the make-up chair. If you've never had one, I suggest you do it soon.

Oh, I forgot to tell you, the person doing my makeover today was my 3 year old!

And the finished product...Don't I look beautiful?!?

Of course she wanted some too - being the girly-girl that she is...only problem was we forgot to wash away the evidence on her face before daddy got home :-O

And a couple pics of us together.

While I'm showing makeover pics, I'll share these with you too. A couple of weeks ago I went out to dinner with some friends. While I was gone Olivia played dress-up with daddy - what a great Daddy!! There's not too many men who would let someone do this to them and allow pics to be taken.

My latest sweet treat creations

The past two weekends I have been busy in the kitchen making cakes. First I made a cake for Aaron's baptism

I wasn't too pleased with how it turned out...I think that it was just too plain, but there's not much you can do with a baptism cake and I stink at writing with icing, but Leenie gave me some advice so I tried it out on my next cake which was for the superbowl party that was at Leenie's house. I used her advice on writing and I think that it turned out much better.

What was the advice? Write in cursive - who knew it could be so simple?!?

I really enjoy decorating cakes - it seems to take me all day, but I love it!