Backoff girls, he's all mine...

Last week when we went for the ultra sound I had back to back appointments. The first (at 3:00) was to see the nurse practitioner and listen to the heartbeat...which I foolishly thought would only take 10 minutes or so. The second appointment (at 3:45) was to have the ultra sound. Well, since the nurse didn't get in to see me until 3:30 (and she had about a billion questions and was in no particular hurry to do anything) I informed her that I had another appointment and was going to be late. So she ran out of the room to inform the other doctor I wasn't ready yet and would be a few minutes late.

So after she was done listening to the heart and stuff... she whisked me out of the room and down the hall to the check-in desk. Then she had R check me out at the OB/Gyn desk. Here is his account of the events.

So he steps up to the desk with all my paperwork and all three ladies just look at him. Finally one brave soul says "Can I help you?" Kind of like "Surely you have taken a major wrong turn somewhere because why would you be at this desk with your paperwork??"

My dear husband, always on the prowl for the chance to give someone a hard time, says "Yeah, I need to check out and schedule my next appointment!"

She asks "Well, who did you see?"

He says "Jan, the nurse. And let me tell you that is was really uncomfortable and very awkward!"

All the ladies laugh. He hands her the papers and she starts looking for a new appointment date. She names a couple of times and dates and he agrees to one then asks if she will write this all down.

"Well, can I trust you?" she asks.

"Of course you can. Well, actually the last girl I said that to is down the hall having an ultra sound... so maybe not."

At least there is never a dull moment in my house. Can't wait to see what kind of crap my son will pull on me. He will have a good teacher.

The Boy

Here are the photos of the little man:

This is his little body. Not real fond of this picture seeing as how he looks like Skeletor and all, but he does actually have flesh on his face - we saw it. In this pic you are seeing head, elbow, part of a hand and knees.

Here is his manhood. I told R that I would block it out to keep this family friendly - but when I did that you really couldn't tell what was going on in the photo - so I left it. I guess this post will have to be rated R (or maybe worse). This picture is actually from the inside of his body looking down (so that isn't his you-know hole). Then his legs are out to either side.

This is by far my favoritist pic - I tried to brighten it a little so it would be more obvious. But this is his hand (far left) holding his foot. Behind the foot is his other foot. I think this photo is very sweet!

It's Statler and Waldorf

So, I went to a funeral the other day. I realize that this shouldn't really be an entertaining activity - it was a very nice service - but it was also pretty funny.

It was a service for an elderly lady- so most of all of the attendees were also elderly. As we are waiting for the service to start I realized that the 2 old men on the row in front of me are talking pretty loudly. The longer we wait...the louder they talk. Then the organ starts playing...and they continue to talk...only louder...and at this point they are drawing stares from all the people in the surrounding rows. And at this point you can clearly hear what they are saying. Critiquing this...commenting on that...comparing wives...etc. It is almost time for the service to start and I am really starting to worry that they won't shut-up. And then it hits me...they think they are whispering to each other because they are both so deaf. Each one taking turns shouting into the other's "good ear" but neither of them know that they are shouting.

I started to wonder what to do if they didn't stop "whispering" by the time the service started. Tap them on the shoulder, pinch them like mom used to do, yell "sshhhhhhh" into the good ears? I could only imagine that any of those would result in a "whispered" response...and would draw attention to me.

I was really starting to get tickled by the two of them. All I could picture was Waldorf and Statler from the Muppets - completely oblivious to the rest of the world.

They did stop talking. I don't know if they could hear what was going on in the service or not, but at least they didn't continue to critique every part of the service. On second thought, that probably would have been pretty funny too.

The Pregnant Mind

This morning I got into my car and went through my mental checklist (as I put everything into the passenger seat) to make sure I had everything I needed for the day.

keys - check
purse - check
sunglasses - check
jacket for when I freeze to death in the office - check
remote for the t.v. - check
head back into the house to return remote to the coffee table - check

The sad thing is that I had not even used the remote this morning - so I have no idea when I picked it up. It is amazing I make it through the day at all.

The Gender Issue

There just isn't much happening in my world these days. Well, things are happening, but not anything really very interesting. I kind of feel like my life is on hold until next week when we will hopefully find out if we are having a boy or a girl. I feel like I can actually get some things accomplished at that point. I will know what furniture we are getting for the nursery, I will know what color to paint the walls, I will know what bedding I will want to use, and so on.

Oh, and we will know which name we will be using for our little peanut...Emmaline Cinderella (family name) or Maximus Octavius (like the Gladiator). If you do not like our name choices...well, that's just too bad...and since we have made our decision you can also stop making suggestions! Max and Emma aren't so bad! Except that my sister has a dog named Max...but he won't live forever!

But if we don't have a successful ultra sound next week, then we are going to get the 3D ultra sound at a place in Austin. I am hoping we don't have to do this - because quite frankly the pictures can be a little frightening! Plus we would like a little bit of a surprise at the end - and not already know what he or she might look like!

By the way...these may or may not be the actual names that we use...but seriously guys we have the book of 100,001 names...if we can't find something out of there to name our baby then we shouldn't be parents in the first place. But we appreciate the thought...and you are more than welcome to suggest...but if you get a fake smile and an insincere "Thank you" then don't take it too personally...it just really gets exhausting.

The Reward

I have a little girl...not a biological one (and NO we don't know if the peanut is a boy or girl yet!). I adopted her as my F.A.N.S. kid through church. As you can see she is beautiful on the outside - and just as beautiful on the inside. It has been so much fun to do things for her and watch the pure joy and excitement she gets from it. It can just be a card in the mail, or a hug when I see her - and because she so thoroughly loves everything it makes me want to do more and more for her. I like to pick out cute little pencil sets or purses and then watch her face light up when she realizes that I actually care enough about her to get her these little (useless) trinkets.

She has a rough family life. Living with grandma, Auntie and some cousins while mom is in prison.

But... because one day some youth at this church decided to do some local missions work in the neighborhood... and because that one event turned into a monthly event... and that turned into bringing these underprivileged kids to the church for some special events... and that turned into them coming to Wednesday night activities... and that experience was so positive for her... and because she has encountered key people who show her Christ's love - she made a decision.

She asked Jesus to live in her heart.

So now, I get to be the excited one.

And relieved.

I am relieved and happy to know that after all the hard work and frustration that we have put in to this ministry...it was worth every minute. It was worth every frustrating moment, every scramble to get things done, every moment of uncertainty, every noisy bus trip to pick these kids up and take them home again. It was worth listening to every negative comment by all the "haters" who felt like we should just give up on these unruly kids, it was worth hearing some of my very own friends bash this program, and it was even worth every night that I went home feeling totally defeated and wondering if there was any hope for these kids.

So for anyone out there who wouldn't believe, or participate, or try because it was hard work and uncomfortable at times - I just want to say how sorry I am, because the reward in the end is so much bigger than the journey...and it was worth every single minute.