what we've been up to lately

Ok, so no pics for this post, and really nothing too much to talk about! We have been very busy getting the baby room ready and the house ready! Zack's mom and sister n law are throwing my second baby shower for Zacks side of the family this weekend, the 21st and they asked to use our house because Andrea lives in Blacskburg and Susan is putting like 15 people up overnight that are coming in from out of town... SO, we have known for a while and have been as busy as bees doing small projects to get ready...
We started the floor project over a month ago and ran into a few snags... one being that we found some water problems under our back door upstairs when Zack was tearing up the floor... So, the bottom of the back door was RUINED... We had to buy a new back door (french, yay!) and have that put in... Plus, replace the floor (our original plan only)...
Well, once we started on the floor, we realized a few little things we would like to do in the kitchen, to the bottom of the cabinets to spruce those up and add hardware to our cabinets... After about a month and a half, last night, everything was finally finished! Thank the Lord! I will add pics tomorrow, since last night we went to bed late and I didnt even get to take any... The floor was replaced in the kitchen and dining room from yucky tile and grout to hardwood floors, man are they pretty! :) And, the hardware on the cabinets looks great... the best part is, Zack did it all himself except for the snag door problem, LOL!
Anyway, so we finished the trim a few nights ago in the baby room, so as of then the painting was all done... Its light green with dark brown doors and trim (trying to create that safari look)... I think baby boy will be pleased :) I know his mommy is! Tonight, we are cleaning up a bit, putting the crib together and putting furniture into the baby room... I am so excited and I will surely post pics as soon as it progresses!
I also need to post shower pics from last weekend... Holy moly, Ann and Megan know how to throw a baby party! They had thought of everything! The games were great thanks to Megan and the food and decor was awesome thanks to Ann! They even had a preggo clay figure made that looked like me, with my kittens and bunny hanging out next to me on the cake! How cute is that!!! HAHA!
I WILL post pics before this next shower, so none get confused!

I must say too, that I am SOOOOO excited that we finally know what Megan's baby is!!! A BOY! I cant wait to meet Baby Young! Our little precious boys will surely be best friends, since Megan and I will set up all sorts of play dates for them! And, I cant wait until I have a teaching job and Meg and I can take them to the pool together in the summer and maybe even a few chuck-e-cheese trips wink wink! Anyway, I cant tell Brandon and Megan how happy I am for them, and I am anxiously awaiting meeting this bouncing baby boy of theirs!!! :)

Ok, well, I promise pics are coming of showers and projects at the house... Hope everyone is having a great week this week!!! :) I am so thankful to my Jesus for everything he has done for me and my family!

Piggy Flu yuckiness

Its been forever since I wrote a blog update! We have a very good reason though, or should I say multiple reasons!?

Last Monday, I went all over town looking for baby things for his room... I was looking for big stuffed animals that stood up, like lions, tigers, giraffes, monkeys, etc... So I could make his room like a safari type of atmosphere... I was thinking about hanging vines from the ceiling etc etc... Anyway, that Monday, I was off, so I set out on an adventure looking for anything that I thought I could use somehow... I felt great when I woke up!!! I went to Michaels, AC Moore, Walmart, Target, Pier One, Babies R Us, Several Dollar Stores, and even Sams... My aunt told me to check Sams, and I am so glad I did! I found the cutest lion that stands up... he is about 2 feet tall and baby boy can sit on his back until he is probably around 2 years old, so he is the perfect addition to the room plans! :) You would have thought I was a weirdo if you had seen me grabbing him, when I saw he was the last one... It wasnt a bad price either, so I was ecstatic to find him! I found some other things at Babies R Us and the palm tree I've been looking for at Michaels... But, the only thing I purchased was the lion... He rode in the very back of my CX-7 very happy to know he had a new home :)

So when I finished on Monday with shopping and errands, I was so tired, I went home to take a nap... I had no clue that by 10:00 that night, I would be laid out, and done with feeling good...I started feeling achy and I went from no sore throat to a terrible horrible no good very bad sore throat within hours that night... Tuesday, I went into work thinking I could make it through and maybe I could get to feeling better, but by mid day I felt like I had been hit by a bus!!! My throat felt like someone was stabbing it over and over... I coughed so much I couldnt talk, and my head and body was aching like crazy!!! I left work and ran to CVS to buy a thermometer and took my temperature... after seeing it was over 101, I called my OB... She immediately called me back and said it was definitely swine flu and that I needed to get home and lay down... She called me in tamiflu and said for me not to even pick it up, to make Zack go get it...

After Zack hearing over the phone that I could hardly drive home, much less do anything for myself, he left work early and rushed to get my prescription and take care of me... He came home with allll kinds of soups, tea, honey, frozen noodle dinners, and said he would take care of everything. I was so out of it, that at the time, I just nodded and tried to sleep... When I got to feeling better a few days later, I took a picture of how he had laid out a little of the stuff he had bought for our sick week... haha!

As you can see, he had no clue how long we'd be sick, so he bought the store out of soups, haha! The green tea was yummy and the honey was to sweeten it with, since honey has good antioxidants in it for your body :) What a thoughtful hubby! :)

By Tuesday morning, Zack felt the same way I did the night before, he was soooo sick. He ended up having swine flu as well and got tamiflu to treat it... We were a sad sickly pair of people... Our kittens thought we were dying Im sure, because they have never seen us stay in bed for more than 7 or 8 hours at a time... We were literally in bed for 5 days straight... On the 4th or 5th day, we were able to get up and walk a bit, but we were still so weak and sick that there was no going out or no getting anything done that needed to be done on projects around the house...

See, our floor in the dining room hadnt quite gotten finished, so our house was a total wreck still. The floor wasnt done because we found a leak in our back door as we were ripping up old flooring and ended up having to get a brand new door as well... which is mighty pretty I might add :) I will post pics of that adventure later on...

Anyway, we started feeling somewhat better by the weekend, but we were so sick of soup by the end of it all! Our fevers both had broken by around Thursday afternoon to Friday, so we were glad about that...

This Monday, Zack went back to work after missing almost a full week and I went back half a day just to ease into it.. I didnt quite feel as well I thought I should, But I wanted to push through...

By Tuesday of this week, my throat had started killing me again and I thought I was relapsing... I wasnt sleeping because I was coughing so much and my chest was killing me! I could hear the raspy crap in my chest and got worried, so I called my OB yet again, and she said I had pneumonia... oh yay... She said more than half her preggo patients that had swine flu had ended up with pneumonia or an infection in their lungs... (where it goes into the chest because of being pregnant and having a lower immune system at the time)... Anyway, she prescribed me a strong antibiotic (or as strong as she could), and today (Friday), I am starting to feel more normal... I cannot believe how sick I have been. For a while, I was worried I would never pull out of it! I was also worried I was going to end up in the hospital because my breathing had gotten rough before she put me on the meds for pneumonia... yuck!

I think my kitty felt bad for us, I told my mom I thought he had piggy flu or kitty flu at the same time... doesnt he look sad? Little schnookems!

Anyway, I am so looking forward to working on some stuff this weekend... I am still going to take it easy, because I want to keep my immune system up, but we plan on finishing the 20% of the floor thats left to do, and paint the baby room! I am so excited about painting the baby room, because then I can start decorating and Zack can put together all the little boogers furniture! WOOHOO! I am so grateful for all the prayers people have sent our way and all the support people have given over our week-2 weeks of illness. I am SO glad we are over it for the most part, because I am so looking forward to the shower Ann and Megan are throwing next Sat, the 7th! I will definitely try to post more pics of stuff before then, like our floor reno, and the baby room project :) Not to mention our first halloween in our new house :) We bought lots of candy to hand out! eeeeek! :)

Hiccups and kick mommy day

So, I've started feeling him kick more and more, but this week has been a real whopper of a week for movement! I will be 24 weeks Saturday (6 months), and it seems as if he doesnt stop moving around lunch time 12-2 ish... and after 8 pm, he moves constantly until bedtime... Last night, he kicked and kicked, and I thought he would never stop... the little booger! Zack hasnt been able to feel it yet, but Im sure in the coming days or weeks, he will be able to feel the kicks on the outside of my tummy... he has been trying to catch them for days now! Im hoping so, because he looks at me like Im crazy when we are sitting there watching TV and all of a sudden, I go "ow!" or "woah"... LOL! Such a sweet little baby in there!

Today, I was driving and singing a song I love on spirit FM and all of a sudden, he flipped around in my belly... His head was up and his feet were down, causing him to kick my lower abdomen, but when I started singing, he turned upside down and started kicking under my ribs... it was so weird feeling, LOL! It was awesome, but kind of funky too alllll at the same time. I wouldnt trade what happened next for anything! He started having the hiccups... It was very apparent that they were, and everytime he did, my whole body shuttered... For a solid 15 minutes, he hiccupped good and hard. It was so funny! I wanted someone else in the car with me to witness it, because I would literally shake everytime he did it! He flipped back around a bit ago, so Im happy... because I'd rather him kick me in the lower stomach than up high, because it kind of hurts above the belly button... But, I would rather him kick me and hurt me than not feel him at all, thats for sure!
My friend Megan had the swine flu this past week and missed a few days of teaching her second graders. Poor thing! I prayed every few hours that everything would be fine and nothing would come of it, and she is good to go now! She is back at school and feeling much better. Praise God!

I need to write about our floor saga this past week/weekend, but Nathan is here with me and bugging me to play with him, so I must go play with the nephew for a while, then tomorrow, I will write about the lovely floor adventures... We are going to Blacksburg tonight to eat with Ryan and Jamie, yay! We look forward to seeing them, because they are darn funny and great to hang out with.

P.S. I am soooo glad its the weekend! Hope everyone's week has gone well!!!

My hubby is a sweety :)

:) :) :)

Last week, I enjoyed time with my girls at Olive Garden... First we went shopping a bit and then went and ate salad, pasta, and pumpkin cheesecake! I cant tell you how happy I am to have such wonderful friends! They are such a blessing! I love all three of them and it is so much fun to see them and hang out, even if we do only get to do it every once in a while!!! :)

So, this past week, I have been as sick as a dog!!! I have been feeling so great with this second trimester thing, but this past Tuesday, I came down with something that took me out for days... That same day, we were supposed to pick up Flip Flop from being fixed... oh boy, what an ordeal. I already wasnt feeling well and I got a call that poor bunny had lost a lot of blood and they had to open him BACK up and re-do some of the surgery! I was super worried about him and they kept him a little longer than expected... but all in all, he is doing much better this week. When we finally got to bring him home, he had to wear a cone around his head... Pic below :)

Isnt he pitiful? Behind him is a tiny bail of timothy hay, not poo! I promise!!! LOL

We couldnt let him out of his cage for a few days, and the kitties really missed playing with their brother bun bun... He was so miserable that I dont think he cared... We tried to give him extra carrots to make up for his sad little bunny face though!

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, I was so sick, Zack left work to come home to me... I didnt have a fever, although I felt as if I was 150 degrees! I was super nauseated, had a headache the size of Texas, my stomach hurt like crazy, my neck hurt.... and of course the muscle aches all over... Im guessing it was just a bug, because Thursday I felt a bit better. I thought I was over it, then Sunday (yesterday), I got to feeling bad again... UGH! The doctor yesterday said it was probably just a bug, but if I had it again and had any type of fever to call Asap... P.S. The thermometer I was using while sick kept saying my temp. was 97.2, so finally, Saturday, Zack tried it just to see what it said... and low and behold, it said 97.2 as well... Needless to say, Zack went to CVS and bought a lovely new thermometer.

So, finally an explanation as to the title of this post:

After a week of feeling horrible, missing some work, and being very overwhelmed (because my housework got behind while sick)... Zack surprised me Friday night with a new peice of jewelry... I have always wanted one, but never thought I would indulge or spend money on it for myself... cause I just dont like spending money unless I have to hehe!

Here is what he gave me:

I was so excited! I cant wait for our little one to get here! But, I AM enjoying being pregnant... I feel him move every once in a while and it is so great to know he is in there hanging around with mom... LOL... The doctor let us hear his heartbeat yesterday and said everything sounded good. She also went over signs of pre-term labor... way to make a girl nervous! But, I know everything will work out fine and God will keep us ALL safe!

I can't leave without posting a few pics of my fur babies... Snipps has come to love it when we have the back door upstairs open with the screen pulled. As you can see below, he is quite mischievous! Hope our little one isnt as crazy as this cat!!!

Piper, on the other hand, loves to stay calm... She loves to read... I have proof! When I walked into the living room last week, she was sitting with these books that Nathan left in the floor by accident...She is such a smart kitty!!!

"No David No" is what she just finished (under her), and she had already finished "The Stinky Cheese Man" and "Skeleton Hiccups"! How Intellegent she is!

We didnt have a sonogram pic this time, we wont have another until about 32 or 36 weeks... I am at 23 this coming Saturday, so over half way there!

Hope everyone is having a great week!

ITS A BOY! & Congrats Meg!

Ok, so I didnt post like I said I would, Im so bad about that!!!
As you can see by the title, we are having a precious baby boy this winter... oh my, a little Zack running around, hmm, that should be interesting!!! :)

We cant wait to meet him and hug him and squeeze his little cheeks!!! I already love him so much, and I know that it is going to be so overwhelming when he finally gets here, I cannot wait!

This week marks the 20th week of my pregnancy, so woohoo! Half down, half to go! I cant believe how fast time is flying!!!

The crib I talked about 2 posts ago that was on sale at Target was sold out by the time we rode out there this past Thursday night! I was so upset! They had totally sold out at the beginning of the week, when the ad first came out. They checked other Target stores within the state and only Danville had one... So, I called and they said the only one they had left was the display which they couldnt sell. I was so crushed at first, but then I realized that if it was meant to be, God would provide a way, Or, another Target shipment, ha!
Friday morning, when I got into work, I had this weird idea to check online to see if I could order it that way. When I checked, sure enough, you could order it, but had to pay shipping... yuck! A heavy crib shipped here, eww on shipping rates!
So, I looked up to see if their online thing showed any stores getting a new shipment in today... And, what did I find??? The Christiansburg store had gotten a shipment in that very morning! I called right away and asked them to reserve one! The lady put my name on one and a free mattress (part of the deal in the ad)... she said there were already 2 reserved for other callers, and there were only 5 total that came in on the truck! My mom came with us to the exciting trip after work that night to pick it up... The interstate had actually been backed up alll day long that day, but thankfully we left around 6 and the roads were clear as glass! We got to Target and all they had left was the one they were holding for me! Thank you Jesus!!! They also had the matching changing table on sale... which I hadnt planned on buying.. Our plan was to buy a peice at a time, so it wasnt such a huge chunk of change all at once, but when I saw the sale, I couldnt resist! They only had one of those left too, woo hoo!!!
Anyway, we got to the checkout, and my mom got her card out and started paying for the crib and changing table! I started arguing with her and saying, NO NO NO... and she said her and dad had been planning on buying it for some time, but didnt want to tell me because she knew I would fight her on it! HAHA! So, Jesus is Lord and we have our crib and changing table, as a gift from my parents!!! All we have left to buy furniture wise is a rocking chair (one of those nice gliders) and the matching chest which Target doesnt sell... but another company does, so we are going to get that in the next 3 weeks. I am so excited! My parents are wonderful and I am so grateful to them for everything they have done and continue to do for us!
Exodus 20:12 ESV “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you." I have always loved this verse! :)

My goal in the next week is to decide on a definite decorating plan... I have too many to choose from! I have been planning a little girl nursery and a little boy nursery in my head for years and years, so I thought it wouldnt be hard... but boy is it! So, thats my task for this week, so we can paint in October and have the room done and ready by Halloween... That will make me feel so good, since Ann and Megan are planning a shower for November 7th!! YAY! I cant wait! My aunt is planning another for later in November as well, so November will be busy, with Thanksgiving and the Stocked Market at the civic center, eeeee!

Ok, enough about all that!!!
One of my very best friends Megan has finally announced she is having a baby! I have known for quite some time, but she wanted to attend a doctors appointment or two before announcing (I did the same thing to wait and make sure things were going smoothly).... I absolutely cannot say how excited I am that she is pregnant and that we are pregnant at the same time! When we worked together years ago and went to high school and college together, there were a few times when we would mention "wouldnt it be fun to be pregnant together"... well there it is! We are! She is due just 2 months after me, on April 1st, so I am starting to plan a shower for her as well! I cant wait to get planning on that one!!! Congrats Brandon and Megan, I am so excited our kids will get to play together and be friends! :) You will be wonderful parents!!! :)

Ok, Im off to do some work!

Wanted to post pics of the outfits I was talking about yesterday!

<---- Zack picked this one! It says Zippy Zebra allll over it, too cute!

<---- I picked this one! Of course, it says what it says! HA!

On the same day (Saturday), my mom found a yard sale in Botetourt with baby clothes for a buck! They all had their tags still on the outfits! So, she picked like 8, but I thought I'd share a pic or two of the majority!

And to top it all off: This one was too cute to pass up at Toys R Us when they were having such a good sale!

<---- Just in case you cant see, it says "Squeeze Please" :)

We bought all of the clothes in either 3-6 months or 6-9, because I hear that you dont need that many newborn clothes and I wanted to wait and see what the baby showers brought before buying any newborn stuff! I should fix that statement, not that we wont need many newborn clothes considering it will spit up a thousand times a day, but I hear that the following months are much more clothing needed months. Anyway, I will get back on later to post sonogram and the gender!!! Zack took the pics to work with him to show off, he was so proud... So, I dont have them with me today :)

hump day post

Ok, it hasnt been as long this time! Just wanted to post what we did this weekend and how exciting is it to shop for baby stuff!!!
I did not think Zack would get into shopping for the baby furniture and stuff at all, but he so did!
My mom rode along to see what kind of cribs we were looking at, because my dad and her are wanting to help buy a peice of the 3 room set for the baby's room...
We started out at Grand Home Furnishings... can you believe they dont have cribs!!! I was so surprised! I thought sure they would have them, but NOPE... Then, we headed to Toys R Us, or Babies R Us... they have awesome baby stuff!!! They were having a clearance sale on baby clothes, so Zack and I each picked an outfit out! It was the first thing we personally had bought for the baby whatsoever... It was so exciting! My outfit says "I love Mom", haha! And, Zacks has zebras all over the pants and the shirt says, Zippy Zebra... it is too cute! I will have to post pics later on of those two cuties! Zack got into the shopping for the clothes and picked out so much... But, I didnt want to buy more than two for now because we find out Thursday what the little booger is! Both outfits are yes, neutral!!!
After Toys R Us, we went to Burlington, JC Penney, Target, Walmart, and KMart... All had really cute stuff... But, I really like the set Target has... Its a good price and its the finish I really want, espresso... The bad thing is, it only has a matching changing table, not a chest, so we are going to buy the chest to match from Burlington and get away with spending less than what we originally thought! Whew! There for a while, we were thinking it would cost over a grand just to buy the babies furniture! Ouch! LOL...
God really knows how to bless you, because Sunday night, my aunt called and said Target put their sales paper out and there were two cribs on sale this week only.. And, what did I find when I went to look!!??? MINE is on sale!!! So, we are getting it this week, for $50 bucks less than original sticker, plus it comes with a free mattress thats a good brand! Talk about a happy Elise when she gets to save money! I love it! Now, if you cant tell me that wasnt God, then I just dont know... Because Im pretty sure it was!!! LOL
Anyway, thought I would update on the baby furniture situation and I will be back tomorrow with a new pic of the baby and hopefully, (if he/she cooperates), we can tell whether we will have a little boy or girl joining us in 4 and a half months! Woohoo!!!