Heart Day

If I had known this dress existed, I would have married my husband in it. It is so delicate and elegant...and BLUE! Beautiful!

Heart Day #3

I am super busy at work and working through lunch, so this will be a quick "Heart Day" but well worth it!

I have watched this 100 times, and could watch it 100 more. It makes me giggle like a little girl.




Oh, and I'm ready for summer dresses that fit high above my ever-growing tum-tum...like this one...
Happy Tuesday, my dearies!

Might Be the Death of Me

This is what my knees looked like when I woke up this morning. These little things just might be the death of me! HIVES! I have broken out in hives for over a year now. It started on March 7th, 2009, when I was at my parents house for a wedding. I didn't sleep all night because I was itching. I usually only break out on my knees, elbows, ankles, shoulders, etc. and only at night when I am under the covers. I have seen many allergists and I am not allergic to anything. I have Cholinergic Uticaria, or hives that break out due to heat or lack of airflow to the skin. They are chronic and can last anywhere from 6 months to 3-5 years. I've got one year under my belt, so that's good. There are only two things I can do to help them: 1) Take an antihistamine like Allegra or Zyrtec every day. I don't like to take medicine, especially something I have to take every day, so that's out. OR 2) Just get naked and cool off. Which has been my method of choice for a year.

Anyway, if you think to, just say a little prayer for my hives. I just want them to go away for good. They are annoying and have worn out their welcome.

Heart Day #2

So, on this second Heart Day, I thought I would explain the "why" behind Tuesdays being my least favorite day of the week. Tuesday's are blah...for lack of better words. Monday is typically the worst day of choice for most. However, to me, Monday holds a little bit of excitement. Key words being "little bit". You have just come off of the weekend, and somehow things seem new again. Then you get to Tuesday. For me, I have meetings all morning on Tuesday, starting at 9:00am (which is TOUGH to pull off when I am preggers and tired) and ending at noon. So right off the bat, half of my day is squashed. But overall, you are just sitting in the middle of the week, closer to the beginning than you are to the end. And it's just yuck to me.

So with that said, here are my "hearts" for the week...and they certainly make me smile today!

Red lips...AND Sandra Bullock. I love matte red lipstick and I love Sandy at the Oscars.

McDonald's Hot Fudge Sundae! Best hot fudge in the nation...hands down!

These pink peony letter press thank you notes. Love, love, lovey!

This lovely, flowy, feminine, feathery, peach top...bellisimo!

Heart Day #1

Tuesday is my least favorite day of the week. Hands down. It's a lull, a drag, a big fat pain in the you know what. So, in an effort to lift my spirits on Tuesdays, I am going to post a whole slew of things I heart. So instead of being "hard days," Tuesdays will now be known as "heart days." Here's the first dose of things that make me warm and fuzzy and giddy and well, just lovely things...

J'adore this bed and the wallpaper (that's a dirty word)! I am obsessed with this vintage pram! Our baby needs this. Too bad I would have to sell our baby to pay for it! Actively searching for a knock-off.

My Cashy kitty. I might heart him the most off all these things.

Beautiful bassinet. I love you.

Love the horizontal stripes and the lamps hanging above the crib in this nursery.

Love the birds on the ceiling in this nursery!

This nursery is INCREDIBLE!!!! One of our faves for sure!

I just want to drink the pink in this room! And the mom looks like my Brookie!

LOVE the dust ruffles under these cribs! Gorgeous!

I love everything about this girly nursery. Precious!

And last but not least...I heart Sesame Street and Feist FOR SURE!

First Baby MUST-HAVE!!

This is the first of many, I'm sure...but if we have a little girly-girl, you can COUNT on her rockin' these....

You + Me...and BABY makes 3!

I know...I know...I am terrible at keeping up with my blogging. When I really think about all that has happened in our lives over the past year that I HAVEN'T blogged about, I feel like a world-class loser! I promise to be better. I HAVE to be better, because...

WE ARE HAVING A BABY!!

That's right...we are going to be parents on (or around) September 17, 2010! We have known for about eight weeks now, and it is still just as exciting to say it as it was when I walked out of that bathroom with a positive pregnancy test in my hand! We were so shocked...so excited...and SO SHOCKED!!

We have been "trying" to get pregnant...well, really just "not preventing" it...since we got married. If you know me well at all, you know I am not a proponent of birth control. Not for any religious reasons, but just not being completely comfortable in my spirit with it FOR ME. We also want as many babies as God wants to give us (hence the reason I LOVE the Duggars!). We had actually stopped "trying", using ovulation strips, etc. in December when we closed on the house. We knew this dwelling was going to take every bit of energy, time, and resources we had, so we just put it on the back-burner. I also had a much-anticipated appointment with a hormone specialist in January that would tell us for sure if we were ovulating correctly and hopefully FINALLY explain my spotting between periods for the past two years. Out of that appointment, they confirmed that my progesterone levels were "normal" and that I had ovulated in January. They sent me skipping away with the word that we should be good to go when everything settles down for us, and "to pretend like we were 16-year-old's in the backseat of a car because they don't want to get knocked up and they do." No joke. The doctor said that to me.

The week after that appointment, I was EXHAUSTED! We had been working for nearly two months on the house and I was plumb tuckered OUT! I was also STARVING like I never had been before...craving the most random things at the same time...which is not too far off for me since I am a food junkie at her finest. Something inside me just kept asking, "are you pregnant?" But I KNEW I wasn't because of the doctor's appointment the week before...so I dismissed. Finally, one Sunday when I couldn't even pry myself off the couch to go to church that morning, I asked Dan to pick up a pregnancy test on his way home from church. Now, had we been really trying and expecting, I would have taken the test by myself and surprised him with the results somehow. But, I KNEW it was going to be negative, so I just hopped up and went in the bathroom and took it, with Dan on the couch watching some man show. The next steps go like this...

1. Pee on stick
2. Notice dominant pink stripe coming through
3. Wait a few and don't see anything else coming through, confirming what I thought
4. Get up and wash hands
5. Out of the corner of my eye see not one, but TWO pink stripes in the window of the test...PREGO!
6. Emerge from bedroom
7. Yell, "Dan! You better get in here! That thing is positive!"
8. Assume it was user error and plan on taking the second test of the 2-pack in the morning
9. Take another test the next morning which is VERY positive!
10. Make appointment with family doctor who confirms the results with a blood test and informs us that we are about five weeks pregnant.
11. Jump, scream, shout, thank Jesus for giving us this baby, pray for health, swear each other to secrecy for the next 10 weeks until we are in the clear

Over the next weeks we found out that my progesterone was IN FACT low, not "normal," so I am taking progesterone for 12 weeks to even me out. That explains why the hormone specialist didn't know I was pregnant when I was in. My progesterone LOOKED "normal" to them, when in fact, it was high for me since I was pregnant. We have also seen our little chicken nugget twice since then, the last time being last Monday when it had its foot in its mouth and the heart beat sounded like a racing horse. (See pic below) Now we are just basking in the thoughts and dreams of being parents...and trying to put together a plan to get this house that we thought we had all the time in the world to finish, finished in 6 months! Not to mention a nursery! (Monetary donations and donations of time are being accepted)


I have never been this sleepy in my life. I have never spent more time in my pajamas, hair in a pony tail, and no make-up in my life. I am just lethargic. It's all I can do to get in the door and in my pj's after work. Praying that part goes away soon, because I am a busy-body at heart and this is killin' me. I have not been that sick though...can I get a hallelujah?? I have been pretty consistenly nauseas, but never sick, sick, sick, proving that God is not just good...He is GREAT!

I have dreamed of this since I was little girl. I am a mother at heart, and have always known it. If you have kids, I have probably loved them as if they were my own at some point in time. I have a heart for children, and have longed for nothing more in life than to be a wife and a mother. God gave me both in a little over a year. Mmmm....so sweet.

So now, we just wait and pray for our little one. Pray for it to grow, grow, grow into a healthy, beautiful, sweet little thing. Pray for it to experience love from us and Jesus before it even enters the world. Pray for it to have a life of joy, passion, purity, kindness, and love for Jesus and others. We have loved this baby since it was just a thought, and pray it feels that already.

Thanks for celebrating with us. YAY! Stay tuned for more baby bid'ness!

Hiatus

It's been a while! Since the last time I posted, Dan and I closed on the house I previously blogged about, and have been living in renovation and remodeling heaven...sometimes it has been hell, not gonna lie. We have sanded until our fingerprints and fingernails are no more, caulked until our hands hurt from pulling the trigger, sledge hammered and torn out until our shoulders can't take anymore, etc. However, we are ALMOST there!

Y'all, my husband...ohhhhhhhhh my husband is so many things! He is Superman, Bob the Builder, Handy Manny, and well...he's just my hero. He has pulled all the weight in this remodel and has built something both of us really never dreamed we would have. He has been a plumber, a carpenter, a painter, a sheet rock hanger, a wall texturer, a tile layer...you name it, he's done it. He is amazing, and everytime I am grateful for this house, I am over-the-top grateful for him and his hard work.

We are also so grateful to all of our friends who helped us out with this project. It has been seven weeks of intense labor and we couldn't have done it without you...you know who you are. We also want to thank our family and friends for their patience with us. We haven't seen or even talked to most of our loved ones in seven weeks, as we have been at the house every free second before and after work for that time. We can't wait to reconnect, and hopefully have you all come visit soon!

The plan was to move in this weekend, but have been set back because of the ice storm. We will move in next weekend, and I will post more pics then! The pics below are organized by room in the house and show progression from beginning until the first coat of wood paint went on last week. I don't have pics of the final woodwork yet because I haven't been able to get over there in the ice. Keep your cursor at the bottom of the photo to read the caption.

Sorry it has taken me so long to post these! I really haven't had a spare second until now. Enjoy!

He Gives & Takes Away

What a past couple of weeks Dan and I have had! As MANY of you know, we have been anticipating the closing of our new house. Apparently there REALLY was a mortgage debacle, and I can now say with all confidence that has to be easier to get guns through airport security than to go through the loan process right now. It has been two months of jumping through hoops to get information that seems absolutely ridiculous to outsiders, but the underwriters need it for some unknown reason. Two months. We were originally supposed to close on October 27th. Well that date came and went in the blink of an eye. Since then, we have been told time and time again that we will close in a couple of days. Those days come and go, and we stare in anticipation at another closing date a couple days later. Needless to say, we have felt similar to cards in the spoke of a bicycle wheel...around and around and around and around, hitting our heads with every turn of the wheel. It has been two months of HIGH anxiety and waiting. If you know me, you know that patience is the very LEAST of my virtues. That "Type A" personality just doesn't allow for it.

All things said and done, we have just been hoping to close before the Thanksgiving holiday so we would have days to work on this house without having to take vacation days from work. We also have a sweet friend moving to OKC from South Dakota who is going to live with us for a while and she will be here tomorrow. When we didn't have a closing date at the beginning of this week, we started to get a bit panicked. We were calling our poor lender every couple of hours asking for updates. After all, it HAS been two months and they have everything but our elementary school report cards and blood samples. As we drew closer to Thanksgiving day, we knew this was not looking good. Finally on Wednesday morning, our lender yanked our file out of underwriting and asked them to push it up to the Regional Manager because nothing was being done on it. The good news is that they responded within 30 minutes of that call. The bad news is, they filed us as a risk and denied our loan after having our file for two months...just like that. Our lender was so upset, and told us that he knows they just got mad with us pushing and looked for the first "risky" item to deny us. That risky item was the fact that Dan does roofing on the side, and has done quite a bit in the past few months. What??? Wouldn't that make you feel safer knowing that if something were to happen to one of our salaried jobs, we would still be able to bring in income???? So, we have reapplied with another lender, and hopefully they can push it through for us this week. Not cool. What's a girl gotta do to be in a home? The worst part was that we felt completely blind sided. We were both made to think that it wasn't a matter of "if" we were going to close, but "when." Hard stuff.

Needless to say, we were pretty bummed on Wednesday. The thought of not getting this house is just too much to bear right now. I can't even go there in my mind, but have to prepare myself for whatever may come at the same time. All the plans we have made are tentatively on hold until we know more. We already have things moved into the garage of this home. However, God totally smiled on us Wednesday in the midst of our grief and frustration. Dan was getting ready for youth service when he heard a little cry from the bushes outside of the youth building. He kept hearing it and hearing it, growing louder and louder. A pitiful little cry. When he started looking, he saw a little kitten buried deep in the bushes, scared to death. He worked to get his hands on it, and finally did. He took it inside and let some of the youth girls comfort the little baby until I could get over there. When I got there, it was over. That kitty was no longer homeless. He is the sweetest little thing. He is a chocolate brown, long-haired kitten with bright green eyes. He is SOOOOOO lovey, but he is super scared. He limps on his back leg and has a tail that is broken off about 2/3 of the way up, so it makes a hard 90 degree angle and just hangs on the tip. When he is not running from hiding place to hiding place, he will let you love on him and just purrs and purrs. He is precious.

We took him to the vet yesterday to have his leg and tail looked at, as well as his overall health examined. We found out that he is about 9-10 weeks old, and is pretty sicky. He was running a fever of about 103.7, which would be about 101.7 in humans. The doctor seemed to think he had probably been attacked and bitten by a larger animal, which explained the leg, tail, and fever. He also had some fleas and roundworms. He was treated for all of those, and given an antibiotic to take for the next seven days. Poor little guy. He's had a rough run for the first few weeks of his life. Wednesday was his lucky day. He found a home where two people will absolutely adore him. It hurts my heart to think about where he came from and how he has been living. He is so scared of humans. We can love on him and he purrs, but the second you put him down, he is instantly afraid again. It will take him a while, but we know he is going to be just fine. We are trying to name him, and thinking Jett, Sambo (Sam), or Rocco. Little cutie.

So see, the Lord DOES give and takeaway. We are being taught serious trust right now, but in the midst of that, we can see that the Lord gave us a little special gift to show us He loves us and also to keep our minds off our current situation during the Holiday weekend. Pray for us if you think about it. Pray for this house and for our hearts. Also pray for our little kitty to heal and feel at home with us. He found us Wednesday, we didn't find him. He has already brought new love into our home. Sweet little baby.

18 Kids...AND Jenn

Can't believe I haven't posted these pics of my time spent with my favorite family (other than my own) in the entire world! THE DUGGARS! Most definitely two of my favorite pics EVER! And yes, they are as sweet in person as they are on the show, 18 Kids & Counting. Thank you, Brooke, for letting me experience this with you!

Oh, hi Jim-Bob and Michelle! Happy 25th Anniversary (and congrats on #19 in the oven!!!!)

Just kickin' it with the Duggar girls! Jessa, my FAVE, is to my left. Happy day!
I asked them if they got to pick out their bridesmaid dresses, and they said they made them...of COURSE they did! Silly me!