Freak Out

Clearly I am freaking out.

I have been contemplating changing the look of my blog for WEEKS and now my stupid computer won't let me access scrapblog.com to make a new header.

Seriously?? I can't leave my blog in this under construction phase for long! My fans will NOT be happy.

So pardon the dust. I am working on it :)

Happy Father's Day!

Have I completely gone overboard on posting the last couple of days? So sorry. I'm on a roll.

I hate that I don't have any good pictures to post of dads from this past weekend but I don't want Father's Day to go unmentioned. Because all the dads out there deserve some recognition!!

Seth celebrated his first Father's Day (although he will argue against that) with a brand new TaylorMade Burner Driver. If you don't know what that is, don't worry, I didn't either until several months ago. He's had his eye on this golf club for FOREVER but refused it as a birthday/Christmas gift. I finally decided to bite the bullet and take care of this myself. Except when I gave it to him, he thought it was just the swivel sweeper because of the way I was standing with my arms on top of it.

Really?

Anyway. It was the LEAST Jake, Maggie, Tucker & I could do to show our appreciation for how he takes care of our family! I am so fortunate to have such a Godly man to go through life and raise a family with. The dogs are so blessed he scoops their poop once a week. And Jake...well...he'll be that little guy's hero NO DOUBT! And his baseball coach. And any other kind of sports coach. And his ESPN watching buddy.

Maybe Jake might need a break.

Kidding!

So thank you Seth and I hope you enjoyed your first Father's Day!

Also, happy Father's Day to both of OUR dads! We love and appreciate you!

There I Am!

...or shall we say, there HE is??

6 Months...

Seth's cousin informed me I only had "3 months to go!". Sadly, I had to inform him there were in fact, 4.

Pregnancy is so deceiving.

Today I had the pleasure of being tested for gestational diabetes. I had some bloodwork done and had to drink 10 oz of the most disgusting liquid I've ever tasted. It was like flat orange soda with an extra cup of sugar. I was thinking...if I'm not diabetic before I had that, I surely am afterward!

Kidding, but really, no fun.

It's crazy that the next time I go back, I have to start going every 2 weeks already. Time is flying!

My weight gain saw double digits today which was just thrilling. Seth better start packing on some pounds or else we're all in trouble!! :)

Other than that, everything is normal and I'm surviving the heat. July could quite possibly bring some heatstroke. We sat outside for a few hours yesterday and that was enough to make me light-headed and thinking I was on the way to passing out. Luckily some homemade ice cream cured that up real quick.

I haven't taken a picture yet, although you can see the headless belly shot from the wedding. I think something big is about to happen because my skin is stretching and itches like crazy!

Ok, enough of me. For those of you interested...

As for your baby, he's about eight and a half inches long from head to rump and one and a half pounds, gaining steadily at a rate of six ounces per week. Much of that weight comes from accumulating baby fat, as well as from growing organs, bones, and muscle. By now, that fabulous face is almost fully formed, complete with eyelashes, eyebrows, and hair.

Cuh-razy!

Oh, and before I forget...thank you SO MUCH to Hunter and Oprah for keeping the pups entertained while we were gone this weekend. Tucker missed Maggie so much, evidenced by the laying, rolling, and jumping on top of her that occurred last night.

Tucker, I'm sorry to say, but I don't think Maggie missed you much.

My Little Sister's Wedding

Hm. Except she's not so little anymore. Why does this growing up thing happen so darn fast?!

You will possibly get picture overload reading this post. And these just barely skim the surface. But I think this event needs to be documented pretty thoroughly.

Setting up the reception area on Friday night. It took all 3 of us (me, Papa, & Dad) to get the cake table ready. Mostly because Papa wouldn't stop eating the candy.

Thank you Ashley for making our hair look soo good!
The bride getting ready for her big day. She was strangely calm. Unlike this older sister she has.

A view from the balcony of where the ceremony was held. It was gorgeous! We were at the Hotel Alsace in Castroville, TX.

Don't worry, these people weren't still swimming during the ceremony. My mother might have shot them.

Yummy wedding cake

Cake and candy table. There was definitely lots of orange at this wedding!

James, Arinn, April, & Aunt Sandy
Cynthia and Little Caleb (not so little anymore!)
Dana insisted of taking lots of pics of my belly throughout the night. My head apparently was not important. We were all glad the wedding was this past weekend because that dress was a tad snug...
Dad introducing Mr. & Mrs. Thomas
Kyle & Emily ready to eat!
Have you ever had pizza at a wedding reception? Me neither! Emily has had an ongoing love affair with pizza for as long as I can remember. It is not uncommon for her to take down an entire Little Caesar's cheese pizza solo. How she stays so tiny we'll never know. But dinner was actually VERY good and I started wondering why we don't have pizza at receptions more often!
Michael & Rachel (even littler sister)
Me & the bride

Have so much fun in Jamaica! The wedding was beautiful and Kyle, we're so glad to have you join our family!

Stuffed Shells

This is a combination of both Erika and Carla's recipes...and I forgot how much I loved these until dinner last night! And despite what you might think, this is SUPER easy to make. Mostly ingredients you'd have on hand anyway.

Cheesy Stuffed Spinach Shells

2 cups mozzerella cheese
1 (160z) carton cottage cheese
1/4 cup parmesean cheese
1 (10 oz) package frozen chopped spinach
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 1/2 tsp oregano
1 jar spaghetti sauce
1 box jumbo shells
1 cup water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Spray a 9 x 13 dish with Pam and cover bottom with half of spaghetti sauce.

Mix 1 1/2 cups mozzerella cheese, cottage cheese, parm cheese, spinach, s&p, oregano in medium-sized bowl.

Stuff mixture in shells (uncooked) and arrange flat in dish. You can probably fit 18-25 shells depending on size.

Cover with remaining sauce and 1 cup water. Sprinkle remaining mozzerella cheese (I always add more) on top.

Cover dish tightly with foil and bake for 1 hour.

Perfecto!

Oh.My.Goodness

FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This was, hands down, the best top 20 performance we've EVER seen on SYTYCD. I was blown away! There were definitely some Mary Murphy-esqe screams in our house (ok so maybe not quite as loud...and p.s. does she take tequila shots before the show or what?). I don't even know where to start - I'm still smiling!!

Phillip & Jeanine...awesome. Loved it. Tabith"er" and Napoleon are awesome choreographers. They make hip hop look so stinkin' easy.

Evan & Randi...are you kidding me?! AWESOME!

Max & Kayla...again, are you KIDDING ME?! Good grief, I wish I could samba. You'd think I'd be semi-close to that goal by marrying Seth.

Yeah, not so much.

The crash dummy dance?? Loved it!! We could totally see Mark & Chelsie doing that dance also.

And Jason and Caitlin's Bollywood? I love this style more and more. It just made me want to jump and join them. And it made me miss (just a little) Joshua and Katee.

Yes, that's what we did during the entire episode...reminisced about our favorite dancers from season's past. Is that pathetic? I can't believe we can remember all their names.

Remember Natalie from Season 2? Gorgeous dancer. And how could we forget Ivan?! Jesus & Sara...Dominic & Sabra...Kherington! Twitch. There was a lot of "oh Lacey would have been awesome in that dance" or "Remember the Shane Sparks routine with..."? And how could we forget sweet Neil?

Ah, I freakin' love this show!!!

Seth even let us watch ALL THREE HOURS tonight. Because clearly this was 175% more important than doing his homework.

I am pumped up in a whole new way tonight. And I'm even MORE excited that season 6 will start in the fall. What a way to introduce our sweet baby boy to the world. Stick him in front of the TV with Cat Deeley and let him absorb everything he needs to know about becoming a professional dancer.

Ha. Kidding. That would have to be countered with about 80,000 hours of ESPN time with Seth. Which I'm sure he will also get in the fall regardless. I don't think Seth would mind if our son could pop & lock or hip hop so one can still hope...

Welcome Home Surprise

This is the sweetest video...

Week 23 Babble

Many of you are wondering why I haven't posted yet about SYTYCD. I think you should sit down for what you're about to read.

I haven't watched it yet.

I KNOW, RIGHT?! The anticipation is KILLING me! We didn't have a chance to watch before Seth left town for the weekend...and then got too caught up cleaning and catching up yesterday. So here we are. It's Monday. I still haven't not seen the show. I'll admit - I did try to watch the first dance on Friday night but I felt too sad and guilty for watching without Seth. We've watched this show together for FOUR seasons...I couldn't abandon him now!

Because in reality...it would be WAY too hard to try and explain the sweet dance moves to him. Seeing as I'm only semi-professional I figured it'd be better for him just to watch himself.

Sigh.

It's my goal tonight. I promise.

So I'm 23 weeks along now. I am ready for our baby to get here! I want to meet him so bad. Seth and I are so anxious. I know he's going to be a wonderful dad and just want to see him in action*!

*i.e. changing dirty diapers

I way overdid myself on Saturday and am still paying for it. My back feels like it's going to fall off and I seriously woke up on Sunday AM feeling like I just finished day 1 of the MS150. So ridiculous. Other than that, I'm feeling pretty good. We've kicked up dog walking into high gear...sometimes twice a day. I told Seth I still want to be walking around the neighborhood until the bitter end so that's our goal.

This is also part of my plan to make sure this baby comes a little early on time. Of course that's all in God's (and Jake's hands) but I figure I can play my part too.

I am almost at the point where strangers might know I'm pregnant. And this whole belly rubbing thing is NOT my cup of tea. I don't understand why people think they can just walk up to me and touch my tummy!! It's akin to them coming up and slapping my butt. That's how I feel at least. The books tell me to just start rubbing their belly in return. I haven't been brave enough to try that yet but maybe things will change a few weeks from now. It just feels like an invasion of my space. Rub your own belly people.

Now that that's out of the way...

My sister is getting married this weekend so we will be headed out of town YET AGAIN to celebrate with everyone. Of course I will have pictures!

No offense, but I am drooling in anticipation of July when we can STAY HOME and spend some quality time together!!

Local Hero

I tell ya...the weeks are flying by! One minute it's Monday...the next it's the weekend again.

On Thursday night, Seth left for the weekend to go on a men's retreat with his dad. As I was dropping him off, we got a call from our neighbors telling us there was a massive bee hive in the tree in our front yard. How we never saw this I don't know. I wasn't too concerned though. I spend more time inside than in the front yard anyway. But Seth was all worried about the bees since he'd be gone for a few days and wanted to make sure his gorgeous pregnant wife wasn't attacked by those pesky yellow & black monsters.

Enter Garrett.

Seth gave our neighborhood handyman a call with instructions to take care of the bees. My life was clearly in DANGER.

Luckily Garrett made it out alive but it sounds like it was a close call. He put my safety first and claims the thought of his wife and newborn children were the only things that kept him going while in the line of fire. He even had time to set up the tripod and get a snapshot of himself in action. Garrett, for your bravery we are eternally grateful.

I mean, look at that! These weren't your ordinary bees...

In other news, I am sitting on the couch trying to recover from my day. It still amazes me how running errands, walking the dogs, etc...basically just doing NORMAL things tire me out so much. And the 103 degree heat index didn't help much either. So I'm nursing my aching hips and back and finishing off a bowl of ice cream. Woe is me, right? :)

I've also started the baby registering process and I have a few thoughts:

-Can someone please let Wal-Mart know that sometimes (or all the time) little boys don't like to wear Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh???

-Why are there so many stinkin' cute outfits and blankets with puppies on them???

-Please don't judge if I may have registered for 29 bibs and washcloths. It's really hard not to just scan everything in sight.

-Baby registries are 100% better than wedding registries

-I don't know where we'll manage to store a quarter of this baby stuff!

Anyway.

Maybe you'll get a new belly picture soon.

Then again, maybe not.

Hmm...Oops

So in my "Week 23" email from What to Expect.com it starts out by saying:

"Worried that your healthy new diet is going to break the bank?"

Did I miss something here?

My healthy new diet??

Zack Attack!

This almost makes me more excited than Twilight.

Resisting Temptation

I am proud to annouce my latest achievement.

I have officially ditched ABC's The Bachelor/Bachelorette!

After the scandal and trashiness that happened last season I vowed to never watch the show again. And that is a pretty big deal considering I've watched this show since...well...it's inception.

But after fastforwarding through the first episode and getting a feel for things, I gave myself a slap on the wrist and said, "NO MORE MARY, NO MORE!"

I've suffered no relapses or side effects. I am living proof that yes, life CAN go on after kicking a TV show to the curb.

As for all the other shows I watch? We still have some work to do.

Free Money? I Don't Think So.

Yesterday evening when we walked the dogs, there were 3 young girls (possibly middle school...who can tell these days?) standing on the corner, begging for money in their swimsuits.

No joke.

They were literally yelling, "We want money! Give us MONEY! We love money!! We need money! Can we have money??"

For REAL?!

I was tempted to go find their parents and compliment them on a job well done raising some tweenage prositutes. Because that's kinda what they looked like.

Kids these days.

Chi Chi Weekend 2K9

If you would've told me back in 1995 that moving to San Antonio would bring me to some of my greatest friends, I don't know if I would've believed it. Mostly because it's too hard to think that far ahead for a confused, hormonal 6th grader.

Stop right there. No comments about where you were in YOUR life circa 1995. I realize I'm young.

But on a serious note, for nearly 15 years, I have laughed with, cried with, played pranks on (well maybe the pranks were mostly on me), prayed with, sung with, danced with, worshipped with, cried more with, made music videos with, chased boys with, fought with, traded clothes with, etc, etc, ETC some of my best friends.

I thought it would be sweet to load a 15 year old picture of us on here.

But then I realized that would scare most of you...possibly cause you to stop reading the blog...and you might very well never look at me the same. So we will leave middle school pictures in all their bangs, braces, and four-eyed glory up on the dusty shelves in the closet where they belong.

How about this instead?

Paula, Me, Susan, and Dabney

WE KNOW!

This past weekend we met up in our old stopping grounds for a little R&R and girl time. Distance has never really been an issue for us except for when Susan lived in Cali for way too many years but we won't go there. Thank goodness for the invention of email. Which was also maybe around 1995. Interesting.

On Saturday afternoon we met at EZ's (one of my all-time favorites!), went shopping, and got pedis before we checked in at the Westin Riverwalk to spend time at the pool and enjoy a night on the town.

"Night on the town" is also relative when you're toting around 2 pregnant women.

But it was so much fun! We were also lucky enough to meet up with another one of our bunch at Paesano's for some dinner that evening. Megan, the aspiring doctor, was recovering from being on-call for THIRTY hours in her surgery rotation but still made the time to meet us and answer all my our medical questions. According to Megan, she first befriended me way back when because she felt sorry for the 6th grade girl who still had to wear matching dresses with her younger sisters at church. Sweet. Unfortunately we spent too much time chatting at dinner to get any pictures with her but I do have plenty more. You would've thought we were tourists or something with the posed pictures we kept stopping to take.

I guess this is why self-timers were invented

Dabney & Susan after their pedicures

Enjoying our morning Starbucks on the Riverwalk

Wow, my sunglasses are big. But fame has done that to me. Don't want the paparazzi following me around ALL the time.

Paula is also having a baby in December and I am so glad Jake will have another playmate! God truly has blessed this friendship...these girls are family to me. So thank you Seth, JC, and Ben for letting us get out of the house another weekend and for being the best husbands!

This get-together will be a little more interesting next year when we have diaper bags, bottles, and pacis with our luggage too...!

And to continue making this the longest post ever, I have to share one more exciting thing. When I got home I was DELIGHTED to see our backyard! Greg & Jacky decided to nurse their green thumbs this weekend and put some flower beds in their backyard...leaving them with a lot of extra grass. So Seth got up bright and early on Sunday to get the yard ready and lay the first load of sod. He's picking up another load tonight - yea! We still need more but this was a great (and free) kickstart!

And guess how many muddy paws I had to wipe off last night?

Zero.

Ah, bliss.

My New Best Friend

Happy Wednesday!

(I'm going to try and use this one)

Baby Blessings

We prayed for this child and the Lord has granted us what we asked of Him. - 1 Samuel 1:27

Weighing in at a whopping 15 ounces and measuring 10 inches long...we would like to introduce to you...

Jake Anderle

SO CUTE, RIGHT?!

(I had to edit this post and take out the middle name. Seth is still on the fence. Garrett has also thrown "the snake" into the suggestion box. So really, anything could happen...)

Seth took one look at the screen and said, "That kid looks nothing like me!" Never mind the super long fingers or legs (has he ever looked in the mirror?).

Today's visit was awesome! We got some great shots and are so thankful we have the best u/s tech in the world. Everything looks completely normal...10 fingers, 10 toes, blood is flowing, kidneys work, brain & spinal cord look perfect!

We have been so blessed. I've struggled a lot with faith during this pregnancy. From the minute I got the positive pregnancy test, I was convinced this wouldn't be a viable pregnancy. At every appointment I prepared myself for them to tell me there wasn't a heartbeat. I just couldn't fathom that God had chosen Seth & I to be parents and I was sure he'd change his mind. That He'd all of a sudden remember something I might have done and thought twice. But the big guy upstairs doesn't make mistakes. And He knew I needed a ray of sunshine in my life after having gone through a bad experience last year. It took a swift kick in the butt and someone ELSE asking me about my faith to realize that Jake IS and always has been apart of God's plan for us. I never really planned on sharing this, especially on the blog, but I think I realized how THANKFUL I truly am today for this beautiful baby boy. And how honored I am that God has chosen Seth & I to raise him. And how blessed I am to have the best husband in the world to experience this with me. And how much I LOVE HIM!

Leave it to Satan to attack me during such a joyful time...and leave it to God to help me realize that and deliver me from unbelief and doubt.

I sing for joy at the works of Your hands - Psalm 92:4

Onto the pictures!

Profile shot

His hands were either in his mouth or on his face the majority of the time. Must have some good tastin' fingers!


See? Hands in the eyes.

Yeah...loooong fingers!

I am so sad to say that this is probably one of our last ultrasounds! The doctor said I'd probably (hopefully) get one more around 36-38 weeks and then we get to meet little Jake in person!! We were given an "official" due date of October 11th, 2009 so here's hoping we'll be singing Happy Birthday that Sunday if not before!

(My doctor is leaving town October 17th. He PROMISED me I would have this baby by then. I made him pinky swear.)

21 Weeks...Yikes

Yikes is right.

I am not too thrilled with this picture. And yes, I realize it's only going to get worse. That's why I think this is maybe the last bare belly picture y'all will get. We need to keep this rated G, ya know.

So obviously I am changing. Obviously I am not loving the whole body changing thing. But I do love our little boy so he's all worth it! He's been a moving machine lately. In fact, I think something gave him the idea that my bladder is a trampoline. I spend more time running to the bathroom lately than anything else!!! I think I went almost twice an hour today. That's a lot of times to hit up the bathroom at work. Makes it hard to get anything else done!

We go to the doctor for another ultrasound and check-up tomorrow so I'll be sure to post pictures of how he's changing. According to my emails, he's as long as a banana and weighs 10-12 ounces. I'm interested to see if he's still measuring ahead too. I am not opposed to babies coming earlier rather than later. I know that doesn't mean anything. But I am going to keep telling myself that in order to keep my spirits high.

You hear about those crazy women who love being pregnant. I wouldn't say I hate it, but I wouldn't say it's the best time of my life either. I don't like being limited in what I can/can't do. I don't enjoy the hip and back pain. But honestly, I really can't complain much about these last few weeks. So I am going to enjoy it while I can before I turn into a whale and can't do much of anything!

Pictures and perhaps an official name post tomorrow...

Can't Wait!

Yes, my child will be one month old. And yes, I will be at this movie opening night.