Is this for the dog, or the parents?

Over the weekend I went garage sale-ing (or sailing??) with my sister-in-law and mother-in-law for baby stuff. I was super excited to find a gently used changing table for only $25! Unfortunately I think that getting up at 6am, and then running around on (literally) the hottest day of the year was too much for me. I went home early sick. But Jo and Patty were awesome and they kept on sailing.

Amongst many awesome gifts (bathtub, portable bassinet, clothes, etc) was this CD.

It is a soundtrack of various baby noises from cooing to screaming that you play for your dog as background noise, so that they get used to the sounds the baby will make. Experts say that noise can often be a stress trigger for animals.

From babysitting to having friends over with babies/young kids, we are pretty sure that Belle will be cool when the baby arrives. She may sulk a little bit, but that is to be expected. So when Johanna gave me the CD, I told her that it would be fun to see what Belle would do, but my money was on her not reacting at all. And I was right.

I put the CD on our surround-sound system and her ears didn't even twitch. When it got to the track when the baby is blood-curdling screaming, she opened one eye...and then went back to sleep. I, on the other hand, had to leave the room because it was sooooooooo annoying! This CD may work better for US getting used to all that noise!

I'm sure that once there is an actual living, breathing, baby in the house Belle will be curious. She gets the first sniff when we bring stuff home. But I think she is going to be a great "Big Sister". :)

Thankful for friends, not thankful for fake blood.

Today a couple of Robbie's best friends came over and helped Robbie paint our house. One friend has already come over and helped trim our trees and bushes. You can't ask for better friends! I am so thankful for their help, I don't even know how to express it!

The boys accomplished more today with priming and painting than I have gotten done in months. I guess it doesn't help now that I'm preggo. They wouldn't even let me stay and watch because of all the fumes. It was so wonderful to come home to a house that was half-way painted! It was like being on the show "Extreme Home Makeover". It looks amazing guys, thank you!!

Even though there is still much to do, to have this much done is an enormous relief. To be able to see the progress of remodeling is beyond wonderful!

Do you know what is not beyond wonderful? When your husband comes down the hallway with dark red blood pouring from his hand, and streaming down his arm--and asking for a band-aid! I said, "Ooohh what did you do?!! Holy crap!! That cut looks really deep, you might need stitches!"

I scurried to the hall closet and tossed everything out to find gauze and bandages, yelling at Robbie to clean his hand off. When I looked up he was standing there with this ridiculous smirk on his face, biting his lip to prevent laughing, when he said, "But if I clean it off all the fake blood will wash off!"

I threw the first aid box at him really hard and told him that he's gonna need bandages if he doesn't move out of my line of sight. It was a good thing he was on his way out for Wednesday night youth group!! :)

What's in a name?

Okay, so I don't think it's time to post any "preggo pics" yet, but I did buy my first pair of maternity pants today. Until now, I've been wearing my regular pants unbuttoned--but tied together with a rubber band for extra room. I will be 16 weeks along in a few days. It's not the first article of maternity clothing I've purchased, I broke down and bought a maternity swimsuit last weekend. I loooooooooooove to swim, so I figured that I may as well invest in one since I plan on swimming a ton this summer. Swimming is the most relaxing and wonderful thing ever! Water in general is soothing. I'm pretty sure I might have been a fish in a past life. :)

Our most recent visit to the doctor was last week, and everything seems to be going okay. Nice strong heartbeat at 156 BPM. (my mom is now fully convinced we are having a girl because of the "higher" heart rate) No ultrasound yet, which at first really freaked me out because all of my friends had their first ultrasounds as early as 6 weeks. But all my friends also have insurance. We will be going back in a couple of weeks for sure to get an ultrasound, but my doctor feels that he doesn't want to burden us with the cost until its necessary. We will probably be able to find out by then if we are having a Ruby Mae, or a Maverick.

Robbie and I actually decided on our children's names a really long time ago. (probably some random conversation at Starbucks) Even before we were married we've always pictured ourselves with a Ruby and a Maverick. Everyone says that you end up changing your mind, but we love these names more than ever now. If it's a girl, we decided on Ruby Mae because the name is wonderfully old-fashioned. Ruby means precious gem, and we're thinking if we ever have a little girl she will be just that. It is also the middle name of my Grandma Logan, whom I've never met but I heard she was really rad. Quite the "looker" too from what I've seen of her young photos. Mae came from our love of the 1940s culture--the hairstyles, clothing, life in general.

If it's a boy, we love the name Maverick. It means wildly independent. Which is awesome, and will most likely be a strong genetic trait from Robbie. Of course we gotta throw in that this name has influence from one of the greatest movies of all time, "Top Gun". We haven't fully decided on Maverick's middle name because we can't decide between a couple. We like Russell or William. My personal favorite is Maverick Russell, but Robbie likes Maverick William. Both of which give an "old west outlaw" vibe so I think either way he will be pretty set.

Weekend Pics

This weekend was really rad because we got to hang out with tons of our friends. One in particular flew in from California with her new-ish baby. All of us girls have been super best friends since middle school and have only grown closer over the years. It's sort of like "The sisterhood of the traveling pants" but we've shared more than pants! (I won't elaborate)

It's harder to get together now that we're all married with jobs, babies, and such. But the phone is always on, and we do whatever we can to see each other. At one point we all lived in separate cities and states, but now everyone has moved back to St. Louis except for Lexi. We're still trying to convince her husband to move the family back here...but it's hard to move a California boy away from the ocean.


Left to Right: Marcy, Lexi, Shannon, and Me.

I didn't realize my hair looked so awful. But that's okay because I went the whole day without throwing up! My shirt is pretty amazing too. My sister-in-law got it for me and I love it!!! (it says "future fan" on the belly)


Robbie with Olivia

We got plenty of practice with babies this weekend. Shannon just had a baby boy, Isaac, about a month ago; and Lexi brought her 4 month daughter, Olivia, with her from Cali.


Robbie with Isaac

Robbie wasn't too happy that I was taking so many pictures of him with the babies. It was just tooooooo cute. What's better than a 6 foot guy covered in tattoos holding a baby?

Robbie and I also celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary on May 26th. It wasn't much of a party because we both had to work 9+ hours. But it was fun to reminisce our memories of that day. It's funny the things that you remember crystal clear, and the other stuff is kinda fuzzy. All good though!!

Week 12 Update

Okay, so I saw this mini maternity update on another blog and I thought it was great, so I decided to use it as a weekly update tool.

Week: 12 weeks and 1 day

Belly Button, in or out: Still an innie. I don't suppose the answer to this question will change for quite a while.

Wedding Ring, on or off: Fits better than ever because of all the weight I've lost from puking.

Food cravings: NONE. NONE. NONE. I hate to think about eating food. I keep a lot of peppermints in my pocket, those seem to help with my nausea.

Food aversions: EVERYTHING makes me want to puke. I can't even watch food on tv.

Nausea: It's pretty much 24 hours a day. There is a small window from about 7 to 9pm in which I feel sort of normal.

Energy level: Feel like I've been hit by a truck.

Weight gain: At one point I was -10 lbs, but since I've gained back about 4 lbs. So overall -6 lbs.

Moods: I cried for 2 hours the other night because our dog got out. She came back of course, but I still cried for the next hour and a half.

Maternity clothes: None yet. But my jeans are most comfortable with the top button undone. And as soon as I get home I get in the jammie pants.

Size of Baby: about 2 inches and weighs about 1/2 an ounce. About the size of a lime.

Changes with Baby this week: learning lots of reflexes like finger and toe movement, squirming (even though it can't be felt), the kidneys start functioning, the umbilical cord will move into the abdominal cavity, nerve cells and brain synapses are forming rapidly.

Can I call it or what?

I know I haven't posted anything about Dancing with The Stars since, well, the beginning of the season. But as you may recall I picked Shawn Johnson to win--and I was right! I should have put money down. Oh wait, that's right, you actually need to have money to bet it. :)

I am so glad she won because she is such a pure 17 year old. Most other 17 year olds would have tried to be too risque with their outfits and dance moves. (if they weren't too risque already) I appreciate her attitude she always carries, which is to just go out and have fun.

p.s. Completely different side note:
We're sooooo excited that our friend from California is flying in to town tonight to stay for almost a week!!!! I just hope that I have enough energy this time to hang out like we always do. Although that is quickly changing as she has a 4 month old, and our other friend has a 4 week old, and I have Rubick making me sick and exhausted.

My 2 favorite things!

Just wanted to share some of my 2 most favorite things in the world, thunderstorms and photography!! Before I decided to be a science teacher I wanted to be a meteorologist, but the calculus defeated me through and through. Majoring in Atmospheric Science is basically majoring in Math too. We're talking Calc 1, 2, and 3, and Differential Equations, etc. My poor college tutor--I'm sure--was ready to stop "beating a dead horse". Sometimes you just have to know when to throw in the towel. So upon some personal inventory taking I decided that the reason why I wanted to be a meteorologist was because I LOVE to explain how our atmosphere works, and I changed my college major to science education.

Anywho, it was actually in high school when I was approached with an extra-credit weather photography project. It was then that the best of both worlds collided! I began my hobby in photography with a Coca-Cola Bear point-and-shoot 35mm camera. Don't be hatin'! That little camera took some of my most favorite pictures. :) After a few years my parents surprised me with a Canon Rebel G2 for my birthday (still film). It actually took me quite a while to make the change to digital, but it was for my own weird reasons. Because film was so expensive to buy and develop for a poor college student, I was super picky about what shots to take. I guess I looked at each frame with more caution before I actually clicked.

Last year Robbie surprised me with a new camera that we both enjoy. I now shoot with a Canon Rebel XTi DSLR with both a 18-55mm and 75-300mm lens. Nothing too crazy, but still super rad for me. I finally upgraded to the digital age. :)

Enjoy!

This picture was taken with my Coca-Cola Polar Bear camera from my front yard: (2002) It's a little fuzzy because I had to scan it in.


Taken with the Rebel G2, so again it had to be scanned in. (2005)


Rebel G2. (2005) An AMAZING view of the belly of a supercell thunderstorm. You can see the shelf cloud perfectly!


Rebel G2. (2005) A beautiful sunset as stratus clouds dissipate.


Rebel XTi. (2008) Cumulus Congestus sunset.


Rebel XTi. (2008) My first attempts to capture lightning. Not too shabby, eh?