The best Ruby Pic EVER!

I know I just posted 5 secs ago, but thought everyone needed to see this pic of Ruby. We were @ the apple Festival in Sept and in case you can't tell, she had cotton candy and Daddy's ice cream.

Green Thumbs

My granny had a green thumb. She could make anything grow, anywhere. Her house was surrounded by beautiful flowerbeds and her garden never had a bad year. She loved being outside and working on the yard. She even mowed her huge yard until the year she broke her ankle (and then crawled to the porch to wait for someone to come visit her). Unfortunately, my mom and I are not her heirs when it comes to gardening. In fact, I think the only thing I really inherited from her is stubbornness (as John will attest). She had her weaknesses (not being able to remember people's names, she called Marsha Marcy from the beginning), but gardening was her thing.

I bring up my Granny's green thumb b/c I've been kinda thinking about her here recently. When I was on my mission in Germany, my parent's went to Hawaii to see my oldest brother graduate from college (Ben sure knows how to pick schools!). Mom fell in love w/ Hawaii, who wouldn't, and brought home a plumeria flower cutting. She then came home and ordered more from QVC (her addiction of choice). When I moved to Huntington and into a house, she gave me a cutting of one of her plumeria flowers w/ very specific directions on how not to kill it (both of us are not the best @ keeping things alive). Naturally, I lost the cutting for a good while, but when I found it, decided to plant it anyways. It was not dead, a minor miracle. Last year, I decided to re pot the poor thing into a huge container (that was full of another plant that I killed). I bought miracle grow potting soil and re potted it before the spring really set in. It bloomed until November. I bring this up b/c mom's many plumeria flowers have only bloomed once. Everyday she would call me to see how my plant was doing, if there were any new blooms etc. I began emailing her photos of the flowers to show off (hey, not perfect!). So I was delighted the other day when mom noticed that my plumeria was starting to get it's leaves (they all die off every winter, then grow back before it blooms again). I also noticed it's starting to fork. So I'm hoping to have a beautiful flowering plumeria again this summer. It will be nice b/c when it's not summer, everyone who sees it asks me why I have a stick in dirt by my front door.

Gluttony is a sin for a reason

This past Friday I "forced" John to take me to our favorite restaurant, Super China Buffet. Being an all you can eat buffet, I ate all I could eat, waited, then ate more (plus dessert). I didn't think it would be a problem, after all I'm almost 8 months pregnant and if a pregnant woman can't eat a bunch of Chinese food, then who can? I quickly found out I was wrong. We ate so much that we had to walk it off. We chose to go to Circuit City and said, "we won't buy anything, even if it's clearance". Naturally, we were wrong. Walking around w/ movies didn't really help my over-eating. That night was the first night I've not been able to sleep b/c I ate too much. John had a bad night as well. Of course, our little girl decided to throw a party @ 3am that night, too.

Another exciting bit of news: I have a bathroom shower now! We've lived in our house for 3 yrs now w/ just a bathtub. Living in an old house gives you all kinds of exciting experiences (like how the creaking and settling can sound exactly like someone walking around your house @ midnight), so getting used to a bathtub was one I got used to. I wanted a shower, but other things were more important (like fixing the leak in our roof).

When I became pregnant, getting a shower was moved up to the top of our list. I would eventually get so big I wouldn't be able to get up under my own power (it happens sometimes now and John laughs, hard, as he helps me up). B/c I have a wonderful hardworking husband, he started working on it. He had it all planned out and we thought it would only take a weekend, 2 @ most to get the shower up and working. Life doesn't always go according to plan, unfortunately and we had some setbacks w/ our shower. Luckily, we have good friends and family who are able to help John out when I can't (which for this project is almost everything). I was very excited to take a shower this morning instead of a bath. It also took us less time/water for the both of us to get ready for church this morning.

I do love my hardworking handy man!

MMM, pie

I made a cherry pie yesterday. It was very tasty and I was actually surprised it lasted long enough to take a picture of (John was waiting behind me w/ a knife). This was actually the 3rd time I've made a cherry pie for John in the almost 5 years we've been together and since cherry is his fav pie, he was excited. I even did the fancy lattice work (John said I didn't have to, but I think he just wanted to eat it sooner rather than latter).

The cherry pie actually has quite a history in our relationship. John and I started dating March 13, 2004 (Suzanne's birthday, which is how I remember it) and not long after that he took me to a break the fast meal for the local singles branch. Wanting to make a good impression on my new boyfriend (and people I barely knew), I made a cherry pie. It was so delicious looking that some of the sisters had to stand guard w/ a spoon to keep the men from trying to sneak a bite. When the branch president found out that I had brought the pie, he told John he was giving him an assignment: Marry her! We had a good laugh over it, but we did end up getting married and since we've been married I've only made 2 cherry pies. According to my Father in law, I've already married him, I don't have to impress him anymore.

On another note, being the geek that I am, I have recorded our baby's heartbeat from my last drs appt. I emailed it to my parents and other persons I felt would be interested. My mom was so happy she almost cried. If I were more computer savvy, I would post it on here, but I can't.

Temple Trip

Last weekend, John and I took our niece to the temple. We had a good time and I was glad that I didn't have to have too many bathroom breaks! A good time was had by all and I enjoyed eating @ subway (baby really likes her veggies!). We were able to have some nice conversations w/ our niece as we drove to the temple, mostly explaining to her what will be happening. I even stayed awake during the trip, which is amazing considering here lately all I've wanted to do is sleep it seems.

Work on our bathroom continues on. Hopefully I will have a shower soon, but I will settle for a happy husband in that regard! He does such a good and through job it amazes me sometimes. I am very lucky to have a husband who is very house fixing smart b/c I panick a lot. John has accused me (very correctly) of being a drama queen.

I do have a pic from the Temple trip to share. I would just like to add that until I saw this pic, I had in my mind that no one could tell I was preggers, even though I am 7 months along. This is what happens to vain, crazy women; we talk ourselves into believing the impossible. I was very happy w/ the sweater b/c @ the time, I thought it hid the baby bump very well. I guess I've just fooled myself. I guess mom will be happy now, she just can't wait until I'm fat, barefoot and pregnant (which I am most of the time now, I've never liked shoes!)

pics!

We were placed on a bad weather watch yesterday and normally, we don't get anything, but this time we did! This is the first time since I've lived in our house that I've not been able to see the road in front of our house. John went out and shoveled the sidewalks while I salted them (I offered to help shovel, but he didn't want me to hurt myself). We have probably about 6 inches on the ground right now, and it's still snowing.

After I took some pics of the snow, I noticed I have an old pic of me on the camera. This was taken the day I realized I was actually showing. Of course, this was also the last day I wore that sweater, which is sad b/c it's one of my favs. John, naturally, made a smart alek comment about me needing to lose weight (all the while I was eating doughnuts!). I was about 5 months along when this picture was taken. I show a lot more now that I'm 6 1/2 months along. She's also a lot more active now than she was when this pic was taken (as evidenced by the fact she wouldn't let me sleep last night, she was so intent on kicking me)

Randomness is goodness

I am officially 25 weeks along. Right now everything is going well. I am no longer on any restrictions (except to be smart about things). I find out tomorrow if I have gestational diabetes. I've been assured that test is "fun".

Life here has been going smoothly. John was able to feel our little one do somersaults in my belly which he said felt "weird", but at the same time, it was the 1st time he felt her move that he was sure she had moved and not me having gas. I'm getting bigger. I discovered yesterday that my really big (something like 2x lg) sweater did not hide the belly. It will only get worse.

On a sad note, my family recently lost a member of our "adopted" family. Don Petry has been a family friend for as long as I can remember. When he lived in Washington, D.C. he and his wife loved to have us stay and visit (they would entertain us while mom and dad went to the temple). Ben and Jason even stayed for weeks at a time. Don was in his 70s (although once he reached 70 he started counting backwards), had breathing problems normally. He fell asleep w/ a cigerette in his hand and his house caught on fire during our recent cold snap. He and his daughter managed to get out of the house safely, but w/out shoes and he caught pnemonia. After struggling for breath for 3 days, he decided he would rather go and be w/ Anna Jean (or Mammaw as we called her). He lasted from Thursday to Saturday off of life support. We all felt his loss and we had one last card game in his honor (we also gave Sammy Joe, my parent's dog, one last root beer, like he always did).

John has put in a job application for our local VA Hosptial. This job is for 3 IT techs and we are really hoping he gets it. It would be nice for him to be able to go to a job he loves, and work in a feild he enjoys. Larry Denzil, my dad and Jason helped look over the application and gave good suggestions, so let's all keep our fingers crossed that we will hear some positive news soon.