Sam With Dad 

Sam Staring Out the Window 

2 Weeks

He's 2 weeks today! I can hardly believe how busy the life of a mom is. Sam's honestly the next best thing to Greg that has ever happened to me, though. I love him sooo much. He's pretty dang adorable. He's learning all sorts of stuff. He's always got his hands near his mouth, which is dangerous, but we try to keep him out of yucky stuff. He also likes to hit himself in the face. A few minutes ago, he accidentally grabbed his belly button stump. He didn't like that very much. Sometimes he'll grab his nose, which is one of my favorite things, but my absolute favorite thing he does is play with his dad. Greg is really good at showing him how to do stuff. It's his teacher instinct I think. Anyway, here's some more pictures for your enjoyment!

Waiting For Sam to Arrive 

Greg and Sam 

This Is IT

This is the last time I will be writing before I'm a mom. We leave for the hospital in an hour! Mom.. what a strange title for me. That's the title for MY mom. I'm happy, but wow, what a change this will be! Please keep us in your prayers. I think the things I'm most nervous about are the IV, the epidural, and avoiding an episiotmy. (In other words, please pray for those the mostest). Hopefully this will go fast!

Love

Crystal

Tralala

So today I thought my water might have broke, but I was wrong. It's just an infection. Yummy.. sorry if that's TMI. But we got to see an ultrasound. That was fun. It made my mom cry happy tears, which was cool. It's hard for me to be emotional about all this right now. I feel so distant from birth, even though it's coming up THIS SUNDAY. Is that strange? I feel like it probably is, but it's hard to be all into it right now for some reason. He's kicking like mad right now.. he always seems to do this when I am writing in my blog. He'll probably be a computer nerd too. We did notice something with the ultrasound today. He's A CHUNK! He's going to be quite portly, we think. That was fun to see =) He sure is excitable.

So that's about it for now. We're just praying that everything is okay on Sunday. We're excited, but scared. Please keep us in your prayers too. Hope you're having a great week!

Love

Crystal

Noooooooo!!!

Shoot Shoot Shoot Shoot Shoot

So I went to the doctor today. I was all excited, hoping I would have made some progress. Just a little would have been fine.

Nothing

Once again, nothing has happened. I am one centimeter dilated, which is what I was a WEEK ago. DARN IT! Really, this is ridiculous.

They'll probably induce on Sunday. It's a bummer, but at least I know that he's coming. And induction means I KNOW WHEN. But it's still bad because there are higher risks with induction; things like episiotomies and tearing and heart rates dropping and other such fun things.

I am excited, though. I know God's going to take care of my baby and me. It's hard to believe it's almost time.. but then again it's not really. He is being SO active! It's awful! He's trying to pop out my belly button or something! Arg!

But we'll keep you informed. Who knows.. maybe something will happen before Sunday. Pray that it does. I am READY for him to be here!

NOTHING

D'oh.. he's not here yet! I'm a day between my two due dates. I have had hardly any contractions today. Last night I was feeling them every 15 minutes or so, but I am not now. It's very sad. I wish he would hurry up and get here. On monday I have a doctor's appointment, so maybe I will find something out then. It feels like nothing is happening, though. Really. I feel exactly the same pretty much. The contractions I have been getting are not painful at all. He's moving around quite a bit still, which is not supposed to be happening just before labor.

But that's okay, I guess.. it just means he'll be that much more prepared for the world. I'm just eager.

So my sister has morning sickness. I feel bad for her. I was one of those lucky few.

Well, I'll keep ya'll updated. Please pray that he comes soon now. IT'S SAFE! Tell him that!

Love

Crystal

My Sis Is PREGGERZ too!!! 

Exciting Times, These Are!

So, wow..

My sister is pregnant.

I figured this was a good enough wait. I've known for about a week and apologize for not posting on this sooner, but it's happened. My sis is going to be having a baby too... looks like sometime between January and February of next year. wowowowow.

She sounds pretty excited, and as you can tell by the look on Jesse's face, he's excited too. =) Which excites me and I'm excited!

So, Sam is nearly here, and he will have a little cousin coming about 8 months after!

I'm not really scared of labor anymore. I am more scared that I won't know when it's really happening, will end up at the hospital or get stuck on the way and have the baby on the freeway or something.

We have everything we need, though. I even got the baby bath tub today.. and some Lansinoh and all that fun stuff. Hooray! Almost here!

TWO WEEKS LEFT

There are two weeks until my due date. This feels weird. I can't believe that there will be a new family member in a matter of days! Skittle is jealous. I'm nervous. Greg is doing better than the two of us. =)

We had another doctor's appointment today. Everything looks fantastic. He's head-down which is nice to know. No forceps here! =) My heart problem comes and goes but it's no longer as scary as it once was because nothing seems to happen because of it.

I have all sorts of weird dreams--last night I dreamed that he was talking in my tummy and they could hear him when they did the doppler thing. It was pretty cool! And another night I had a dream that he came out and started walking in a matter of days. That was fun too.

My sister made the dean's list at the University of Arizona's online criminal justice course! YAY KARLIE! You rule the school!

My mom comes to help out with labor and delivery and the stuff afterward in less than two weeks! I'm so jazzed. I find the 14th of June to be a more significant day than the actual due date. I know it's silly, but it's true. The night after my shower I got all emotional because it was such a DATE. I mean, you have the shower, you're having the baby. It's just how it works! I freaked. But Greg was very good at calming my nerves.

So, I'll try to keep in touch and let everyone know when I am going into labor. if it's not too painful to be on the computer, I'll try to post here when the contractions start.

PLEASE comment with any advice and/or encouragement!

NINE MONTHS!!!

I'm nine months on sunday! Wow... can't hardly believe this. We're so close. I had my southern-california shower last saturday. It was a really smashing good time. Thanks to all of you who came for making it such a special and memorable event. I love all my gifts so much!

God is good. My husband found a real-estate job! He has to wait until his lisence is issued before he can go to work, but he has a job lined up with a man we believe is trustworthy and smart... not to mention, ETHICAL! Hooray! For more details, email me!

All the recent pictures are from last weekend. My family came down to visit and we took these while they were here. =) My friend Becs says "You're GINORMOUS!"

I agree

The men belonging to my sister and I 

My beautiful sister and me 

My awesome mom and dad... aren't they hot 

Just me and my tummy 

My darling husband and I before a wedding 

WE PASSED!!!

Greg passed his real estate exam! YAY! Praise God! Now we are just hoping that we can get everything turned in soon so that he can get his official real estate license, find an employer, and start making those lovely commissions! Ohhhh...we are so overjoyed. Thank you all for your prayers and support. We are very happy with how things have been going recently. God's been opening lots of new doors and we're just waiting to see where they take us.

I'm starting to feel contractions sometimes now. I'll get two or three a day. They're nothing too huge.. in fact, I sort of enjoy them because it means things are moving along. I'm 34 weeks on sunday! I can hardly believe it. I'm getting pretty nervous about labor, but not so much that I can't enjoy the anticipation of the arrival of Samuel. He's going to be so much fun. I can hardly believe he's so close to being here. I'm not looking forward to the sporadical sleepless nights and nursing and all that other fun stuff, but it's still going to be awesome.

My baby shower is a week from Saturday... should be fun! I'm definitely looking forward to that!

Hope all is well with you all out there!

33 3/4 weeks! 

Real Estate Exams Are Hard!

My hubby took the real estate exam today. What a joyful bunch of fun! (Not really). Greg had a very hard time with it, but we're glad it's done. Thanks to those of you who were praying for us. I guess there have been 10 random drive-by shootings in the past week on the 110 (a freeway we took to get there). The test was in downtown LA. I have woken up the past three nights feeling like we were in for Greg's impending death on the way. I just had this horrid feeling that something awful was going to happen on the way to taking the test! I know that's weird, but sometimes you just get these feelings. I was TERRIFIED! We're just glad to be home.

The test itself was hard. Greg feels that it was, anyway... lots of trick questions and not too many easy answers. We'll see! There were a whopping 7000 people there taking it, so Greg was real overwhelmed with people smell and sounds--we probably won't get our results for about 5-10 days, but we keep checking.

Cameron, our new little nephew is very wonderful. We love him. He makes awesome baby sounds that make our hearts melt. Yay to God and Jeff and Melissa! They did a terrific job in putting him together.

Yardsales and Leather Couches

We are getting our leather couch! Hooray! So exciting. We've been talking about it since before we were married and finally have decided to go for it. Greg's parents gave him a money gift a while back for a computer. He never bought the computer, so they told us to get a couch with it! =) We're very excited. It's going to be from the arizona leather company. It smells good. It feels squishy. It is nice.

We had a yard sale on Saturday. We were hoping to sell lots of stuff. In order to not have to get up TOO early, we set everything out the night before. Well, of course, it rained. We were very disgruntled at first. So much so, that Greg, in his frustration, couldn't figure out how to make the signs for the sale. He spelled the word "Yard" like "Sard" and spelled "Sale," "Sail"! I laughed at him, which was probably uncalled for, but it was so funny.

Well, that's about it for these days. Oh... my sister-in-law is having her baby sometime this week. That'll be really cool! I'm excited to meet him!

Hooray!

The New Napster

So, we're trying out the new napster. I've discovered a couple of new bands/artists/whatever-you-want-to-call-thems. Ben Lee and Andy Stochansky to name a couple.

The cool thing about the new setup is that you can preview whole songs before you buy them if you're a subscriber. I like that a lot. 9.95 a month isn't that bad of a price to pay for unlimited music. The bad thing is, a lot of the bands haven't given their authorization for Napster to give away their complete songs though streaming media. This means only 30 second clips of songs.

My husband's taste is a lot more inclusive and eclectic than mine. He can handle lots of single songs from a million different bands, where if I find myself liking someone, I like ALL their stuff. It's amazing discovering what different tastes we have. I didn't realize he was so into industrial... I knew he liked it, but it's pretty much all he has on his playlist. I am trying to be accepting of it. =) I'm sure he's totally sick of hearing most of my stuff, but he's a lot more tolerant than I am of music he doens't like. It's a good thing we have headphones, but a bad thing too. It makes me sad that we are finding yet another area we don't necessarily synchronize in. =(

Sam is doing well.. he was having a heck of a night last night. I think he is definitely going to be a night and morning person. He's so ACTIVE then. I woke up this morning sorer than I've been my whole pregnancy. Uck.

My Sister in Law and I at her baby shower. Lots of Us Preggerz People these days! 

CENTRAL AIR!!!

We HAVE IT! Ah HA! Central air is a wonderful beautiful thing and we are hoping that Sam likes it as much as we do already. The installers just turned it on and we stood under the vents smiling like we did on our honeymoon. =) How romantic these little inane things are. Yay to "The Cool Guys!"

We also got a dishwasher today, something that I have sorely missed since Alturas. I haven't had one available to me since. It works beautifully.

I have a holter moniter attatched to me today. After three consecutive sundays of nearly passing out in church, we are wondering if I am having heart issues (not of the spiritual sort.. I hope). So the doctor referred me to the heart moniter people and now I look like a borg. Very interesting and irritating. I'm taped up and suction cupped in 5 places with cords coming out and down to my pockets. Very attractive.

Sam and Greg and Skittle say hi.

That's about it for today.



Bye

Profile (He's practicing kissing on his arm) 

Sam with his arm next to his face 

The Drama of Home Loans

If you are ever seeking a quiet, useful, necessary home-equity loan, don't ever be fooled. They are hellish. Those nice little ads they send you in the mail? They are LIES! This has nothing to do with the brokers themselves. Our broker, Anita, has been nothing but wonderful and we love her. It's the mortgage companies themselves that are ridiculous. I won't go into details, but just keep in mind that they are never a piece of cake, no matter how enticing they may sound.

So anyway.. we're funding TOMORROW! Hooray! Then we get our money on Wednesday. Just in time to go to the Sandiego Zoo for my nieces 2nd birthday! She's getting so big! Golly I love her so much. She has grown so fast and I can't wait to see what the next year has in store...lots, considering her mom is about to give birth to her little brother. Poor Emma. So used to being the baby. I will try to be her friend through it, but I'm definitely prone to being attracted to the new ones too.

I go in for a 3-D ultrasound soon! Yay! So super excited! =) We're definitely looking forward to another glimpse into Sam's little world. i'll post pictures here that I get =)

Well, that's the haps for now.

Baby Showers

I went to a baby shower today. I realized after I came home that my pictures would have me wearing the same dress as before. Ugh.. how annoying. I really do have more than this outfit. Really!

Anyway, the shower was fun. It was for my cousin JJ. She's as excited as I am, which is fun. She's a doula-in-training, so I might be asking her to assist me in my birth if I can get her. She will have a two-month-old when mine is born, so I don't know how available she will be.

We have over thirty outfits for our little Sam. I've only bought a few of them myself. Most of them I got for Christmas. Looks like we're good for the first 3 months, but I wouldn't mind taking more stuff. Clothes for tots are FUN!


My Cousin and Me (She's due before me..next month!) 

Recent Photo Of Our Progress 

This photo is for Karlie. I hope you can "tell better" on here. Love ya!

Connections

Okay, so I just found out that the first person I met at the school I graduated from is living with a friend that lived VERY close to my hometown and as far as I knew, they didn't even know each other. I swear. I've felt this twilight-zoneish only a few times in my life. So to Sherida and Ruth, HI FRIENDS!

GREAT site you have to go to:
http://www.iusedtobelieve.com

So, today's been good. Greg worked a sub job today. He did okay. I think he's ready for real-estate, though.

I tried to get some laundry done, but our washer has this rather odd habit of moving around when it's in spin-cycle and acts like it wants to go on a mini-break to Big Bear or something. Today it was in such an odd place that my husband had to move it. I felt that if I pushed it back in place I'd push Sam out and that would not be pretty.

Valentines

Yay! My husband got me an orchid for valentines! I think this one was appropriately colored. =)

Right now Greg is working on building a shed for our back yard so we don't have quite so many boxes in storage. He's doing the foundation. Poor guy has already made 4 trips to True Value and Ace today. It's going to rain, too, which stinks, because he's been putting down cement.

I love Trolli Mini Burgers. I eat them like, well, candy.

My Dad and Mom are off to Grandpa's funeral today. I'm hoping it is a good time for them.. a good chance to get closure and say goodbye.

Something I've noticed recently: When looking at other blogs that name "Pregnancy" as an interest, I have seen so many that have "Christianity" as well. I wonder if there is a connection there.


Another Angle 

My New Orchid 

Grandpa died today. He had just turned 90 years old about two weeks ago. What an amazing man of God. We loved him so much. He had a heart full of many convictions and yet still managed a balance of gentleness and kindness and love for all who knew him. I particularly remember his love for my grandma, whom he met and married close to 60 years ago. I am so excited to know that he is with God right now.. finding out things that most of us have to wait a long time to find out.

Greg is feeling better today. The baby is kicking again... big phew. I don't know if this was from God or just a coincidence, but everytime I found myself thinking about Grandpa's passing today, I would feel the baby moving inside me. It was really amazing realizing how Grandpa was being given a brand new life and a brand new life is growing in me.

Root Canals and Boredom

You know how it is when you start your day out expecting one thing and end up with something completely different? My poor husband started out today going to the dentist for a simple cavity filling and ended up needing a full on root canal. I guess that's what we get for not going to the dentist since we met. Poor guy. I will go to the store and get him soft foods to eat tonight and tomorrow.

I cannot believe it's already Friday.

The baby has been so quiet the past couple of days. It's starting to worry me. But I feel fine.. no contractions or anything, so things are probably okay.

Heard from my old college roommate, Mandi. That was nice. I miss her. She sounds like she's having a pretty successful life right now, though, which is really good. It's funny. I am doing exactly what I expected to do with my life. Is that "achieving goals"? I think it is. I never wanted anything different than what I am now. Can a mom dress weird without people looking at her strangely? that's seriously the only thing I wish I had done differently...been a more extreme dresser.

I wish I were sleeping...

Our pup, Skittle 

Hi. Well, joy.. it's 2:00a.m. and I'm wide awake. Maybe this is God's way of preparing me for motherhood--getting up every 2 hours to feed the baby. I think Sam's waking me up now with his kicking, too. Poor Greg. This is the third day in a row that I've had to go sleep on the couch due to sleeplessness. It probably doesn't help to have as much overactive imagination as I have.

I'm doing better as far as not being terrified of childbirth today. Who knows, maybe it'll be a breeze in comparison to what I'm expecting it to be. What frustrates me is the simple fact that you can't ever be prepared for anything, no matter how much you try to psych yourself up for it; nor can you anticipate how difficult something will, or will not be. I guess it seriously just comes down to trusting God that he's going to get me through this. Sooo.. hard sometimes.

Saw a fantabulous movie today. Greg and I don't have t.v. anymore, so we hadn't seen anything on Napoleon Dynamite. We LOVED it. One of the coolest things, though, was two of our bestest loved songs were on there. I'm hoping it wasn't because of their "cheese" factor, because we actually take them seriously and call them "our songs." They are "Forever Young" by Alphaville and "I Promise" by Modern English. When both of them were played, we both started yelling things like "Hey!" and "Holy Toledo!" The best part of the movie itself, for me, was that the characters were extreme, but not so extreme that I couldn't relate to them or say to myself, "That reminds me and people I know, somehow" I really liked the main girl, Deb. She was someone I probably would have been friends with in high school. Was she the little kid from "Water World?" Or was I just halucinating? Yay for fun movies!

I love my niece. What a cutie. We have so much fun with her. I can't wait 'till we can have 'real' conversations, but she is getting more verbose by the day. Oh! Sam just jumped! Did I tell you, we're thinking of naming our son Samuel Paul? =)


My niece and I at the aquarium last year 

Belly Pants

I've moved into belly-pants-mode. Anyone who isn't pregnant has only had the opporitunity to see these if their mother was wearing them at some point that they can remember. The things are hideous! It's basically just plain old elastic waist jeans with a u-shaped "stomach" cut out and patched with softer fabric to allow for your tummy to grow comfortably and stick out unabashedly. My tummy sure is unabashed. Every day I look at it and think, "What did I look like before all this?"

He (our Sam) has been super quiet today--not encouraging to the lady who was so freaked out last night about all things pregnancy-related. I still have been today, but thank goodness for people like my old friend Raquelita who is living very far away from me, but still encourages my heart on a regular basis, and for my mom who always is willing to listen, no matter how absurd I might sound.

Hooray for my husband who is such a wonderful-head! I was taking a nap today because I was up 'till 3:00 a.m. last night. He came into the room in the middle of his Halo II game to give me a kiss and tell me he loved me. What a sweet caring and perfect guy for me! I lovehim so much. He's my hero and a half. Thanks to everyone who encouraged me to marry him. Ha, to anyone who said he was too old for me and said I wouldn't like being married. He truly is my bliss. Thanks God, for giving him to me.

The Fear Creeps In Once-In-A-While

When we got pregnant it seemed so far away, the birth of our child, that its imminence didn't even matter--nine months is way too long of a time to anticipate anything but the now and just beyond. I'm starting to feel freaked out. It's not so much labor and delivery as how much I will be able to handle. I feel as though so much is unknown, so much is intangible. I can say "I want this and this and that for myself and our child," but aren't my wishes the wishes of every other woman out there? Who really says, "Oh please, give me an episiotomy. I've been hoping for one since day one."? I just feel like my well-meaning but squeamish husband, and my highly supportive but timid of offending mother are going to be no more capable of making my voice clear when I am unable to. I picture myself gasping in agony in a horrible smelling, noisy delivery room, in pain beyond all human comprehension, unable to breathe (let alone talk), scared, emotional, alone in what I'm feeling. I will look like E.T., dying all alone on that hospital gurney. Ugh. All I want is to know that I will be told that I am strong, that I can do this, that I'm not going to be forgotten amidst all the monitering and craziness. Will Greg be able to hold my hand? Will I be coherent when our son is finally put into my arms? Will I be able to say, "I don't want a c-section or episiotomy unless absolutely necessary." And then have someone actually listen to me? I feel like it's a lost cause right now. Someone give me hope for hospital delivery. I hate the sterility of a dentist office. I can't even imagine how a delivery room is going to feel to me.

A Bun In The Oven

A Bun In The Oven 

Here's Sam and me, cooperating in making me huge! =) I am very excited. Can't you see by the look on my face?

The Second 

The first 

Greg's Turtles!

I LOVE MY HUSBAND!

Oh my gosh! Look at these awesome turtles he painted in Sam's room!

Our baby sucking his thumb 

Real estate

My husband is applying for his real estate license. He thinks he's done teaching forever. What a weird thought. I am going to miss him in that job.. it's the kids that I'll miss, though. But we're going to be having our own soon, so I guess that's fine.

I am 21 weeks pregnant tomorrow. More than half-way there! Good grief I'm getting big. We did some closet cleaning today and I am no longer fitting into anything but maternity clothes. Everything I used to wear looks so tiny. How did I ever fit into it?

My sister doesn't have menengitis! Thank you, God! She was recently in contact with this guy who had it and died, so the doctors were very concerned. Turns out it was only the flu. She was still pretty miserable though, even if her life wasn't really being threatened.

Random thought for the day: Ichthus, ich, ichthyologists.. they all are ichy.

Greg, me, and other people's butts in Calais, France.