Wow, it's been a while.  Almost two weeks since i've written in here.  Wish i had some exciting news to report but not much is new.  I did have a birthday though!  It was a good day full of cards, lunch with mom, dinner with joe, and even hand delivered flowers from Randall at work.  My husband's so sweet. When i came home from work, on the dining room table were my birthday cards i'd received, a lit candle, our laptop with a Happy Birthday Michele message and a huge box covered, and i mean covered, with bows.  In the background, Dave Matthews was blasting from my DVD that he had turned on.  I was so surprised at what my gift was.  It was one of those things where every time i saw it, i wanted it sooooo bad, and then i would forget about it until the next time i saw it again. So i was thrilled when i opened up my own brand new Jack LaLanne's Power Juicer!! It may be a lame thing for some to get excited over, but man do i love it.  I juice everyday now.  We decided we need to find a good store where we can stock up on fresh fruits and vegetables.

Another awesome surprise that joe and i both got for my birthday was the wall border and valance for the baby's room.  Eric and Beck had bought it off my registry, and had it mailed straight to us.  I didn't realize til later of course that i needed two of each, not just one like i had registered for.  Mom came through for us on that one though, and bought the remaining materials we needed.  So we got inspired.  We went to Home Depot, and after about an hour of mental anguish trying to choose the right shades and hues, we went home with two buckets of paint, one green and one blue.  And no, they're not Seahawk colors.  And already the whole room is painted, the wall border's up, and the valance will be hung tonight.  Joe's also going to start working on shelves that he'll be building in the room to help with our major lack of storage issues.  He's so handy at those things, he can build just about anything. 

A co-worker of mine did a such a sweet thing for me last week.  We had talked about the TV show on TLC called "A Baby Story" and i was telling her that if we had cable, i would probably watch that show non-stop.  So a few days later she showed up with like 12 episodes tape recorded for me to watch! so thoughtful.  i wanted joe to watch them with me but wasn't sure how into it he would be.  Come to find out, he can't get enough of them.  We watched about two hours worth the first night we had the tape.  Now he's more anxious than ever for this baby to come, three months to him seems way too long to wait.  I know of a certain gramma to be that would wholeheartedly agree.

Man, for not having much to report, i sure write a lot.

Oh yeah, and i'm still eating ice cream.

The top ridge of my belly button keeps sticking out just enough to almost make me look like i have an "outie" from the side view.  I am in a fight to stop the full outie from happening, and i find myself constantly applying pressure to it throughout the day.  I am determined to win this battle.

So remember when i said something dumb like, it's great to gain weight and not feel guilty about it so bring on the pounds?  Well, i didn't mean that i wanted so many pounds so quickly.  At my doctors appt. last thursday, i found out that i'd gained another seven pounds in the last month.  That's 20 pounds so far!  The doctor said on this track we're looking at about a 40lb. pregnancy.  I felt so depressed.  Joe didn't understand, he thinks it'll be a piece of cake (bad choice of words) for me to burn off all the extra fat once the baby's born.  I guess i just didn't realize how much i would miss my former body.  None of this will matter of course when my little boy enters the world.  I just need to get out walking more, that'll make me feel better about myself. 

I also mentioned to my doctor something that i thought was a little less than normal so he did a quick check you know where and sure enough, he said that i had a slight bacterial infection.  He said if untreated it's been linked to pre-term labor in pregnant women.  So now i'm taking some antibiotic twice a day for a week.  He said that one of the side effects would be a slight metallic taste in my mouth.  What he really meant was, You're going to feel like you've been chewing on metal all day.  Yuck, thankfully i only have three more days then i shouldn't have to worry about it again.  He said baby's measuring perfect and the heartbeat was around 140 bpm.

I hope everyone had a great Valentine's day.  Joe and i did, we actually turned it into two days.  I made him dinner on Monday and his turn was on Tuesday.  They were both wonderful although Joe was pretty depressed most of the day on Valentine's day.  He lost his wedding ring.    It's not like he ever takes it off or spins it on a table (like some person i know ;-)  )  so he didn't lose it that way.  It's been loose on him for a while for some reason, i guess being a barber has smoothed out his fingers or something.  Anyway, it finally slipped off, and we still haven't seen any sign of it.  The thing is, it's gotta be somewhere around our house because joe was home when he noticed it was missing.  He thinks it's gone forever, i'm still trying to have hope that it'll show up.  We'll see.

One last note, my next ultrasound is scheduled for three weeks from today.  I'm so excited to see how much my boy has grown!  And this time i don't have to have a full bladder which will make the experience so much more comfortable.  The only reason it's happening though is because they want to check my placenta to see if it's out of the way of my cervix.  Please pray that it is so this pregnancy can continue on without any complications.

Thanks everyone for signing the guestbook, i love to read the entries!  and i know joey will love to see them someday too