HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

Yesterday was our anniversary and it was wonderful. My only regret is that it fell on a day after I got off work so I had no choice but to come home and sleep most of the day. I was so sad to sleep the majority of the day away but I was so tired even sleeping what little I did. Ben and I had decided not to do anniversary gifts because we went in together and got a tv for our bedroom that we are super excited about. Well Ben never listens to our little agreements. He called to wake me up as he was bringing Pepper home from her final checkup (p.s. pepper is cleared for normal activity). Ben told me that he wanted me to get up and start getting ready. I drug myself out of bed and went into the bathroom to get ready and he had a beautiful arrangement of wildflowers sitting on the counter. If the flowers weren't enough, he went to a local jewelry store and picked out some really pretty white gold earrings for me. LOVE THEM! We both got ready and went to dinner at the Chop House. We wanted a nice dinner to spoil ourselves a little bit since we weren't going anywhere special for the anniversary. Dinner was great. We got the stuffed portobello mushroom cap appetizer. They were stuffed with lobster, crabs and something else. Then Ben was enticed to get the Delmonico Steak and I got the Fillet Mignon. All of it was fabulous. Ben said the Delmonico was a great steak but for the price and flavor next time he would get what I got. You can't beat a fillet! We then went home and installed our tv mount and dvd player to try out our new tv. It will be so nice having a tv in the bedroom...especially once our little one arrives and is a little older and needs distractions while I get ready in the bathroom. Overall, great day...short..but great day. Three years in a wonderful marriage!

Due Dates

Yesterday Ben went with me to the doctor to have my first ultrasound. I didn't have a whole lot of time to think or be anxious because the doctor was in a hurry to get to a woman in active labor! HAH he didn't want to make us wait so everything went very quickly which was fine by me. So before we knew it there it was...our baby on the ultrasound. It was so surreal. I'll scan the pictures as soon as I get around to it. The doc said I wasn't as far along as he thought I was but I kinda expected that ;). So the official due date is July 22. (This just so happens to be Ashlie's birthday! No doubt she's excited about that...she's a surrogate aunt in waiting. haha) Christmas is in a few days...before you know it..the end of the year...2008 has flown by. I can't imagine how the next 7 months will be any different!

Dreams

I've had the craziest and most vivid dreams lately. I don't normally remember dreams but I'm sleeping a lot more lately so this might be playing a role in more dreams. I recently had a dream though about our baby. I dreamt I was getting an ultrasound and clear as day I saw that it was going to be a boy. I found this funny and told Ben when I woke up. Last night at work I randomly mentioned this dream to a co-worker and she told me that she had also dreamed that I was having a boy. Now I'm going to laugh really hard if we have a girl!

SNOW

I was really getting tired of all the rain the last couple days. They said there may be a chance of snow but who really ever believes the forecasts?? I was watching a show on tv for about an hour and then when I got up the rain had changed to snow and everything was white! I loved it. The dogs needed to go outside so I let them go play in the snow. This was Mitzi's first time in the snow. She went crazy. This sent Pepper into a frenzy and they were sliding all over the porch chasing each other. I had to intervene just to protect Pepper's leg. It was funny to watch them though. Too bad Ben couldn't be here to enjoy it with us. He unfortunately is not enjoying the snow in the same way. He has been so incredibly busy with the ambulance service tonight. He has worked so many wrecks and is currently racing to Nashville with an emergency transport of a patient. Everyone be safe tonight! ;)

The word is out...

This was going to be saved for a Christmas surprise for all...but who knew keeping good news a secret would be so hard??!!??

I am officially pregnant. Both families now know so this is why I am posting details now for those who want to know. We've known for about 3-4 weeks now. We wanted to keep it a surprise till Christmas because that would put me about 10-11 weeks along and would lessen the chances of another miscarriage. Thanksgiving day we took Caitlin over to see mom and I felt terrible. It's hard to keep pregnancy a secret from your mother when she can tell you are not feeling well. I didn't explain why I didn't feel good and she didn't ask too many questions about it. Friday morning while hanging out with Bryan and Lisa though, I spilled the beans. Lisa was just being silly and asking me when we were going to have kids and I caught her off guard and told her we were pregnant. Mom overheard me in the kitchen and came out with big smiles and hugs. I just knew that after feeling terrible for a week and seeing mom as often as I do that I couldn't keep it a secret for long. We didn't tell many others early on just because we were still trying to keep it a secret from Ben's family. I didn't want people to say something to me over facebook and spill it to my inlaws. This past Wednesday Ben went with me to my doctor and we had some blood test done. They wanted to check my hCG levels to determine how far along I am and to make sure we weren't having problems like last time. Doc called me yesterday and my hCG levels were 191,000 which puts me well over the mark for 8weeks which is what doc thought I was. With such good levels, Ben was busting a gut to tell his family. I consented and he called his folks and I then told the rest of my family. My first ultrasound is scheduled for two weeks from now. It looks like it will be a July baby...I do no look forward to a hot 3rd trimester but we are excited to be starting our little family. I am holding my excitement until I get past the constant 24/7 nausea that I have currently been dealing with.

Other news: Ben is still waiting to test for the driver position at work. The chief had said that they wanted to complete promotions before Christmas but nothing has been done as of yet. We will see what happens. Meanwhile Ben is still working hard doing two full time jobs and I'm trying my best to continue to work through the nausea. We want to knock some stuff out before I'll have to quit work when the baby comes. There's no way I could find a 24hr babysitter to be able to continue to work...nor would I ask that of anyone. So I will probably cut back to part time or not at all. We will see what happens next summer.