15 week Update

Instead of starting a pregnancy blog, I decided I would incorporate it into my every day blog. Therefore you guys can learn right along side me! I'm sorry if these pictures are too graphic for some of you, but get use to it! This is the cycle of life and I am dealing with this stuff daily :) And I am afraid my blog is only going to get more graphic as I go progress!

Here is what is new with my baby this week:

• weighs 2.5 oz (70 grams)
• measures 4 inches (crown to rump)
• legs are growing longer than the arms
• fingernails are fully formed
• all joints and limbs can move
• the sex can be determined by ultrasound
• the baby can still fit in the palm of my hand

I haven't felt the baby move yet.The "experts" say it doesn't happen until 16-20 weeks... what an amazing experience that will be! Hope you all enjoyed learning about my small little peanut while he is 15 weeks developed! 5 more weeks and I am half way there (wow! That's hard to believe!).

What am I still doing at home???

Good Morning!

What a boring weekend I had! I had a sinus cold, possibly allergies, all weekend. I have never had allergies in my life, but I suspect thats what took me down this weekend. Some people develop new things when they are pregnant and I guess allergies is mine. James worked on our deck all weekend and planted 5 trees in our backyard. I love being pregnant and using that as an excuse to not do work around the house! HAHA! I sat on my lawn chair and told him what I thought looked good. The funny thing is, wait till I am absolutely huge and cant move anything. Then James will really be mad at me!

I booked our PreNatal classes today! July 24-September 25! Everyone told me to go to the YMCA and take them from Sally Elliott because she is amazing. So I called ahead of time to make sure I got in. They said I should take them in my 3 trimester, so I hope my baby doesn't come 1 month early, because I will still be learning how to be a parent! For those of you who don't know, my due date (tentative, still having to be confirmed for the 3rd time...) is October 22. At the YMCA they also offer PreNatal aqua swim classes. So I am going to sign up for those too! Man, there sure is a lot of fun things you can do when you are pregnant!

I have another doctors appointment tomorrow so hopefully she will let me hear my little ones heart beat. I haven't heard it yet because the sound was off on our ultrasound. If I don't hear the heartbeat that is very common too. I guess sometimes the baby is positioned wrong and a doppler can't always pick it up. But that does scare me a little.... hopefully I can hear it! I think I will ask Dr. T if there is anything I can take so I stop throwing up. Even though my belly is getting bigger I am loosing weight because I can't keep anything down. No one should have to "get used" to throwing up every morning, it is very depressing!

I really hope that it rains today! My lawn needs to green up quite a bit! It is so dry! I just love spring rain! Then the trees will be out and in full swing! Does anyone know where I can buy some bushes for the backyard? I want the kind with nice little yellow flowers on them...

Well, I should really get my day started here. I am meeting a good friend for lunch and then having another friend over for coffee tonight. Yes, even when I feel like crap I can still be a little social butterfly!

Have a WONDERFUL day friends!

Much Love,
Melissa

14.5 weeks along! Starting to show :)

Today was the first time I had a picture taken of my belly! Not huge, but definetely not flat! Slowly I am expanding and I am getting excited about it. There is a little one growing away in my tummy, pretty soon I am going to pop! Just wanted to show you my progress!

Monday complaints!

Now I am sure all of your are just dying to know how I like being pregnant. Well, I will be honest with you in all my blogs about it.... and so far I hate it! I have been so sick for the past 3 months that I honestly fear my teeth will fall out and my throat will corode from throwing up so much! I am sick every morning until around 11:A00 am and I am sick often throughout the day! BRUTAL! If I dont eat on a regular schedule I will be sick from not eating and if I eat too much, you guessed it, I will be sick again. Where is my happy medium????

I don't have a belly at all. But my hips have widened so I cant wear my old pants comfortably. I went to the maternity store for the first time on the weekend to purchase a pair of pants and I could feel the stares from the hugely pregnant other women. I am sure they wanted to tell me, "Just you wait hunny, soon enough you will not feel like looking at these cute clothes!" But I left with a nice (and expensive!) pair of jeans and capris. Finally pants that aren't chaffing or confining my waste! Thank goodness for elastic wastes!

Another things not so pleasing about being pregnant is that you have to pee every 20 minutes. Even when I think I can not possibly have anything in my bladder, I still manage to releave myself. Where is all this urine coming from? And dont get my started on sleeping... I dont think there is a comfortable way to sleep when you boobs hurt, your hips hurt, and back hurts. And I havent even had to add an enormously large belly into the picture yet! Oh man....

But when I saw that small precious baby on the screen the other day all my complaints flew out the window. What can I possible complain about when you see the miracle of life right in front of your eyes!?

Well, I am sure I have you all just thinking, "it's going to get worse Missy... just you wait." But that's my complaining I have been dying to do for the past 3 months. Fewwwww!

Until later,
Much love,
Melissa

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!

For those of you who haven't already guessed.... We are expecting :)

We found out on our vacation that we were expecting a baby and I have had to keep it a secret until today! Well, I know some of you already knew but we thought we would keep it exclusive until the ultrasound was done. And today was that day!

It was so exciting to go and see that little one just kicking and moving around. We went and had a 4D ultrasound, which is so awesome, and you get to see what they are doing and they look so real! When we were watching "him" (I am going to refer to it as a boy because that's what I think we are having...), he would keep putting his hands over his face and he would kick the around. Also, he jumped and had the hiccups. SO CUTE! I can't feel anything but it was so good to see the baby moving.

James was very happy that he came. He saw the baby on the screen and he saw the little heart just a beating. Wow, God sure is good!

Well I couldn't keep it to myself any longer! Especially with so many of you asking when I would share my big news. There you have it! Welcome little one :)

Love,

Melissa

How Great Is Our God?

I should be on my way to work, but I can't stop thinking about those poor, innocent students that died yesterday at Vir. Tech. I have to write down my thoughts, in hope that I can move on with what I have planned today.

What is wrong with this world? It is one thing for an individual to take his own life, but to take down 32 others with you is something that I just don't understand. How can one feel so alone and upset that they burst into a dorm at 7:15 am and shoot 2 people, then return to a classroom about 2 hours later and kill 30 more people? My heart goes out to the families, friends of the victims, if I can't get over it then how will they?

I don't know what kind of schedule those students are on. Whether they are wrapping up their school year or going until May or June. But how can those remaining thousands of students concentrate on their studies when their lives have been changed forever. I pray that God gives them peace but is that enough? The University career can be hard at the best of times. But with this added, and unnecessary, twist to their lives how can a student focus on finishing hard and strong? The gunman sure didn't think about others, what a selfish and cowardly thing to do.

I am so mad at that young man! How can you be so self centered and stupid? What was going through his head? What makes it worse is that I heard that he didn't use a high poured gun, rather he killed each individual with the pull of a trigger, he made a decision each time he killed someone. Again, what was he thinking? What good came out of his plan? So many questions. I know that God would want me to forgive this individual, because that is what He would do. But I feel like asking Him, "God, how can we forgive people like this? It's too hard! He knew what he was doing and it was so wrong. He deserves the worst punishments you can give him!" Our God, who is so forgiving and loving, would take this individual in his arms and love him.... and that I just don't understand... sometimes I really think, "My God is too good!".

How Great is our God?
How Great is our God?
He is so great that he forgives those who the world would like to kill and be rid of.
Sometimes I think that is not fair. But who am I to question the Almighty and powerful God. He is the one incharge, no matter how much I want to be. And trust me, I like to be the one calling the shots.

I love the new Martina McBride song, "Anyway". The chorus really has hit home for me lately. That God is good, but life isn't always. And when you pray things don't always turn out like you think they should. How true. But she says, don't stop doing things because they aren't turning out. Keep going and do them anyway.

Martina McBride -"Anyway"

You can spend your whole life building

Something from nothin'

One storm can come and blow it all away

Build it anyway

You can chase a dream

That seems so out of reach

And you know it might not ever come your way

Dream it anyway

God is great

But sometimes life ain't good

And when I pray

It doesn't always turn out like I think it should

But I do it anyway

I do it anyway

This world's gone crazy

It's hard to believe

That tomorrow will be better than today

Believe it anyway

You can love someone with all your heart

For all the right reasons

In a moment they can choose to walk away

Love 'em anyway

God is great

But sometimes life ain't good

And when I pray

It doesn't always turn out like I think it should

But I do it anyway

I do it anyway

You can pour your soul out singing

A song you believe in

That tomorrow they'll forget you ever sang

Sing it anyway

Yea - sing it anyway

I sing

I dream

I love

Anyway

Well, I better get going here. I hope you all have a safe and productive day!

Much love,
Melissa

Sunday, Sunday, I love you!

Hi Everyone :)

Another quiet Sunday afternoon! I just love Sundays! Today I played in the backyard with Lexis, fetch can get very old after a couple of minutes. But she loves being outside and I thought I would play with her since it was so warm out. I just love my dog so much, she makes me very happy! After playing with her James and I decided to put my car on the corner with a for sale sign in it. We didn't get any calls on it this afternoon, but we did put it on UsedRegina.com so maybe we will get some off there. It's not like I have to sell it this instance, but it would be nice to have it gone. We neeed a vehicle with more room. I would like an SUV so we could put Lex in the back when we travel this summer. Right now she rides in the back seat of our car and chases each passing vehicle or whines in our ears for the first 20 minutes because she is so excited.

Spring cleaning also happened today at our house. We hadn't cleaned the house in FOREVER so today we finally broke down and cleaned it till it shined :) James actually cleaned up his bathroom, a first in 3 years! I told him that I would take care of his laundry if he cleaned his bathroom. I hadn't heard that much complaining since my mom asked my brother to take out the garbage when I lived at home. We use to have certain chores that we had to do each Saturday when I lived at home and my brother would complain about his 1 job, getting all the garbages and emptying them... like that was a hard job!!!!

Now for some catching up on your lives:
- Sheryl, any day this week is fine for lunch? When would you like? By the way, your blog is GREAT!
- Deb, are you home from your cruise? Did you have fun? Thanks for your card the other day!
- Tim, I will see you on Wednesday night at The Jar! I will be putting my talk together this week. Maybe you could read it over when I am done?

Okay, now I got those questions out of the way, I hope everyone had a good week last week and have an even better one this week!

Talk to you soon :)

Melissa

Good old Monday!

Hope everyone had a good easter weekend! I was sick over the weekend, so that was not fun at all. The food all looked so good, but it didn't stay done :( So sad. Oh well, that's life. We went to Outlook and went to their annual easter production, which was once again amazing! Every year I really enjoy it and this year was no different. It was a little cold outside so we didn't get to take the dogs running by the river. I was a little bit dissappointed.

Tonight James and I are going to go and test drive an SUV that we have been looking at. We are selling my car and buying a bigger vehicle so hopefuly we like the one we drive tonight. We were going to buy a Santa Fe, but in the end I think we like the Buick Rendezvous instead. That is what we are going to see tonight. We see them all over the road now and like what we see. We need a vehicle now that we can put the dog in the back and put the mesh net up so she can't jump over the seats. Hopefully everything will work out.

I don't have much planned this week but that is okay. James and I have to get our taxes together so we can take them to the accountant. Taxes aren't due until the end of April here, but we are always cutting it close! It always takes so much time to do a business income tax than the personal, so poor James has been working so hard to get his books together and make sure all the numbers balance. But we are so thankful that this year has been so busy, the business had a good year. This year was such a blessing to us. God sure is good!

Well, I am still in my p.j.'s and it is almost noon! I have no energy to get up and do anything. I have to make myself get up now. I must go!

Melissa

Random Monday Thoughts :)

Today was my first sad day in real estate world. The first time a deal fell through. I should not get too upset because I know that it will happen many more times through out my career but it is always sad when it happens. Especially when you have put so much time and effort into making your client happy and being available when they need you.

Oh well, I can't dwell too much on that. The good thing is I have a great team support behind me who are keeping me busy with stuff that they can't handle. YEAH FOR ME! I was so scared that I would be sitting in my office, twitling my thumbs, for the first 2 months I was licensed. But that is not really the case. I have one firm sale, 1 pending a home inspection, and another offer waiting to be accepted. Plus I have about 3 leads on the go who are looking at buying within the next couple of weeks. I am keeping busy and not totally broke. That is a very good sign :)

This coming week is Easter. I think that Easter is one of my favorite holidays. It is a time that we relax and enjoy spring. We usually go up to Outlook to visit James' parents and some of his siblings. The smell of spring is in the air and I get to wear that first spring outfit to the Good Friday Service at church. Easter is just great!

At church on Sunday it was Palm Sunday. We listened to a song by Steve Bell called This Is Love, which was presented with a movie of the last days of Jesus. It struck me how at the final supper with Jesus and the deciples that the deciples just didn't understand that Jesus was going to die. He even told them that one of them would betray and deny him, and they just argued over who would sit at his right hand. I am sure that Jesus felt like yelling at them and saying, "You dumb idiots, don't you understand what I am trying to tell you???". But no, they were too dense! Hard to believe that he died on the cross for you and I, that brutal death should have been ours, but he took it instead of us. Now, that is Love.

At the grade 11 and 12 girls small group that I teach on Sunday mornings we talked about Grace. Grace is something that I think a lot of people have trouble giving. I, for one, don't have trouble giving grace, because in my teenage years I was given a lot of grace. I read this book, called "What's So Amazing About Grace", where a prostitute said she didn't want to go to church because she didn't want to feel worse about her life. How sad is that? I hate it when Christians are perceived as self righteous, judgemental, too good for other's type people. It is my goal in life to show love and grace to those who think that they don't deserve it. Because everyone deserves to be loved.

Okay, that is probably the most random blog in the world. I should get going here!

Love,
Melissa

P.S. - I am not proof reading this.... hope it makes sense