Tuesday: unanimous

Unanimous.

I don't like reading this word. It looks like un-animous, as though people are not of the same mind. Silly...uh, I don't remember the word...word starter thingies.

Tuesday: in reveiew

So this week wasn't much better than last week. Some days I kept most food down, some days I kept no food down. And seriously...throwing up is hard work. I'm always exhausted after the bigger ones.

But in better news, I had I first real OB appt today. And I got an ultrasound!! I wasn't sure I was going to get one. The head is on the right, the legs on the left, and the bright spot is part of the umbilical cord. The length measured around 9w0d and the heartbeat was 180...high but normal. And the legs were kicking all around!

Monday: Happy Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day! Today we drove back. The car doesn't have air conditioning, so it was rather hot. :( But some friends that are going to Papua New Guinea as Wycliffe Bible Translators came over this evening, so it was nice to see them before they take off.

Sunday: all by ourselves

Ben's parents left with Scarlet this afternoon and Ben and I decided to stay here another night. I'm pretty sure that we did almost the exact same things that we would have done at home, but it was nice not to have to drive this afternoon.

I expect one of these days my posts will become more interesting again.

Saturday: still up north

Ben came up last night...while it's been nice to be up here, it's really nice to have Ben up here too. Nothing special happened again...I had a donut for breakfast, watched Scarlet enjoy the motorcycles, ate, napped, watched TV, read, and played Dominion. I know; it's a rough life.

Thursday: up north

Today I slept in really late...guess I was tired. Then I ended up coming up north a day early with Ben's parents and Scarlet. So in the end it was a rather uneventful day, but still nice.

Tuesday: curry

Tonight my plans for dinner got changed at the last minute, so I thought I'd take out a frozen curry and eat half of it. Then Ben could have the the half tomorrow for lunch. It was delicious, so I had seconds. There was still enough for a lunch. It was still delicious, so I ended up finishing off the container.

Luckily there was another container in the fridge so Ben will still get some curry in his lunch tomorrow.

Monday: recycling

This morning I wanted to get the kitchen all clean. We don't have a good place to put the recycling, so it just sits on the counter until I bring it out to the garage. So while cleaning I took out all the recycling...it ended up being two trips because I brought some pop cans out too.

Then I found a can lid I missed. Trip three.

Then I found four pieces of paper I missed. Trip four.

Then I went into the bathroom and realized I had recycling there too. I decided that since it was still in the bathroom I could leave it there for another day.

Sunday: I guess I was tired

So after Dominion we got home around 6:30. Ben and I were reading in bed, but I decided to take a nap because I was so tired. Three and a half hours later (10:15) I finally woke up. I continued reading and whatnot, waiting for Ben to come to bed. He came to bed a little later than normal, but it worked well. So I was asleep again around 1am. I woke up briefly when Ben got up for work and got some raspberries, but was feeling tired so I thought I'd just close my eyes. When they finally opened again at 10:45 I was rather surprised. I guess I needed a lot of extra sleep.

Saturday: telling more people

Today we told most of the rest of the family (sorry Nathan). In the morning we surprised Dad and Pat at their house, saying that we stopped by because Ben had to get some recordings in the car. But they were obviously very happy once we told them. I didn't really have a cool way to tell them.

Then we told Ben's siblings while waiting for the pizza to arrive...Ben brought up how it was nice to see the room where Autumn had been born since we'll be there in January. It was fun to watch the faces as they comprehended what Ben just said.

Sunday: Dominion

Good evening! Today we went to a church called Calvary that we liked...we'll probably go back again at least once. I think it'd be interesting if we ended up at another church called Calvary.

In the afternoon we played Dominion with Travis and Allison. It was interesting playing it with four people instead of two. Some of the cards work better (or worse).

Saturday: yard work

Today we helped with some yard work at Jamie's. I won't call it fun, but it wasn't bad either. It was nice to do it with family. We were going to grill, but it was raining so we had pizza instead. It actually was a light rain for most of the time we were there, but not enough to stop us.

Friday: a first time for everything II

Today was also the first day we told anyone we were pregnant. We went to a movie (Fast Five) with Larry and Cheryl and then out to dinner. In the movie one of the women is pregnant and so Ben goes...

"Well, they did get some things in that movie correct. Like how morning sickness isn't just in the morning, as we've been finding out recently."

They were pretty excited. :)

Friday: a first time for everything

Today I mowed a lawn for the first time. Ever. It might not have turned out great, but at least most of the weeds (and grass) are shorter.

Thursday: semi-successful

Well, today was only a semi-successful. I managed to get groceries and go to the bank, but that was about it.

Maybe tomorrow will be better.

Thursday: ugh

So yesterday I wasn't feeling too bad. The afternoon wasn't great, but besides that I was feeling pretty good. Not so today...

I woke up and soon started to dry heave and fart at the same time. It was almost funny. I finally got some food in me and went to the grocery store. I was exhausted half way through getting groceries. Oh my goodness. Luckily I found a bench so I sat on it for a while. The store also didn't have dried apricots, which I thought was odd. I was feeling rather useless, but the argument didn't hold much weight (even with me) since I had managed to get groceries and go to the bank.

The rest of the afternoon didn't go very well either. Lunch came all back up. I started crying near the end of the day only to realize that I was hungry. I got crackers and peanut butter (which hasn't given me problems yet) and that helped a lot. A hungry Amanda is a sad Amanda.

Wednesday: light haunting

A few days ago, I noticed that the light on the garage was on. "Odd," I thought. The next day the light was out. Since I had seen it flickering a bit, I figured the bulb had burned out. Last night I got up to go to the bathroom and the light was on. This morning when I finally got up the light was off.

Yesterday I also heard a scratching from one of the cabinets. I figured Flurry had gotten into one and couldn't get out. So I opened all of them, only to find no cat. Then I somehow convinced myself that the table was just wobbling. (It had never made that sound before, but hey.) I finally remembered there was one more cupboard in the hallway that I had forgotten to check. Out popped a cat. At least one of the mysteries was solved.

Tuesday: welcome Autumn

Our niece was born yesterday, Autumn Lynn. I only took one picture and you can't really see her. But Ben is cute.

She was the sleepy recipient of the random triangle quilt.

Her sister Scarlet also got a quilt for her baby doll. She kept covering her legs and having her mom tuck her in, but it wasn't quite big enough. It was cute though.

Monday: tulips

Not much happened today, so I thought I'd share some of the pictures of tulips that I took last week. Tulips are my favorite flower, and this is a wonderful week because they are all over the place! My favorites tend to be red tulips, but it almost seemed like every time I saw a new color they were almost my favorite. There were some pink ones closer to our house that were very pretty. So in the end I decided that I liked it best when colors were mixed instead of just solid.

Monday: seven

Happy seven weeks!

I keep thinking about what I'm going to make for dinner and it is making me queasy. I've even identified the problem...last week I made a chicken cordon bleu and it was super salty. Somehow I've managed to identify that meal with all dinners and it is a serious problem. Luckily we have enough left overs that I can do something easy like chicken and tots tonight and hopefully that will work.

I also have a sleeping problem. I either sleep a lot (which isn't really a problem) or I have a hard time sleeping (which is a problem). Two nights ago I slept eleven hours and last night I had a hard time getting to sleep and then was awake for an hour or two in the middle of the night. Plumbers also came first thing this morning, so I didn't get to sleep in.

Sunday: seven

Happy Anniversary to us! We've been married seven years. They've been a good seven years.

We skipped church this morning, but because of that Ben made some donuts and brought them too me in bed. I also finally won some Dominion games. Phew. Then we went to Wild Chef for some delicious food with family (we were also celebrating Jamie's birthday!).

Saturday: dominion, movie, and dinner

It was a very nice day...Ben and I spent more time together than normal, which was a nice change. we played several games of Dominion, but I still haven't managed to win any. which is probably fair because I used to win all the time. although Ill admit that the game where Ben won by 60 points was maybe not my favorite.

In the afternoon we saw Tron. It was a good flick. it's fun seeing some of the back stories of the characters before they all get put together in movie later.

finally we had dinner with some of my family at CityVu. We had never been there before but it was good.

Friday: early gift

Ben gave me our anniversary gift tonight so that we could use it all weekend...an expansion to Dominion! I had been thinking that would be a good gift for him, so it ended up being our gift to each other. We've only played it once so far, but it was fun. It's nice to have some new cards.

Thursday: Dutch Dance

This evening we went with family downtown to eat at the junk food vendors. I had a corn dog and part of an elephant ear. I really wanted a fried banana, but didn't see the stall. Oh well, I still had plenty of fried food.

Then we went to see Betsy Dutch Dance. It made me a little sad that I wasn't dancing, but not too sad.

Thanks to our new windows, Flurry has found another favorite spot. From here she can watch the chipmunks and wait for Ben to get home.

Wednesday: volks parade

It was a beautiful day out today, so I decided to ride by bike down to the parade.

For those of you unfamiliar with tulip time in Holland, the first parade starts with street scrubbing. Basically, anyone from the community that wants to can dress up in their Dutch Costume and clean the street.

These are random people that I don't know, but the boy is one of the cool water carriers. He's also drenched, because it was hot out and half the fun is getting each other wet.

Here are Allison and Scarlet. You can see that the streets are wet from being washed.

Next up were Jamie and the kids. I almost missed them because I thought Jamie had a different costume and I was on the other side of the street. I had to do some running to catch up and cross over.

Next up was Ben's alma mater. I know he played drums, although I'm not sure what he played while marching.

Since I saw Ben's alma mater, I thought that I should wait for mine too. I was going to leave after it. However, they ended up being the last band. Oh well, there were some interesting floats and other ...segments?... to make it worth the wait. I took a picture of the drum major in honor of Nathan.

Tuesday: this and that

Today, like most days lately, when by rather quickly. I did some errands, including getting groceries. I ended up with four containers of frozen juice. We don't drink a lot of juice, but it sounded really good.

Oh, I also played some racquetball. Dad tried to cheat when the score was 14-7 (Dad) by ending the game. But I made him play out that last point. He also hit me in the shoulder, just after I was thinking that we had been doing a really good job of not hitting each other. To make it up to him I hit one ball towards him, but he flailed out of the way. It was funny.

Good night. I'm tired.

Tuesday: first appt

I had my first OB appointment today. :) It didn't really feel like much of an appointment, because they mostly just gave me reading material and I gave blood for some tests. I also found out that I might only get one ultrasound at 20 weeks. I was hoping for more.

I'm only feeling ok. Nights, right before bed, have been the worst, although I haven't thrown up. Yesterday I was gone for about four hours and so exhausted when I got home. My naps have increased in length to about two hours and I'm not having trouble going to sleep at night. But besides those things it isn't going too badly. It's nice not having a job so I can nap.

Monday: quilt show

Today I went to the Holland quilt show. The quilts were beautiful. There were several kinds that I can never see myself making, but they were still amazing.

Here are my two favorites:

Salvaged Rainbow by Meghan Derks

and Delicious by Shelley Wisendhall (that name might be spelled incorrectly...the picture with the info was out of focus).

Sunday: Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day! It was a fun day...brunch, dessert, art-in-the-park, and pizza.

Brunch had a delicious chilled mango soup. It was tangy and kind of like melted ice cream, but still edible. Then I came out ahead at art in the park as I didn't buy anything and found a quarter on the ground.

I took a few pictures and this is the only one I really like. I know it's rather crooked, but...that adds to the charm. It is of Ben's Grandma, and I think she is saying "ooo" to something Scarlet was doing.

I also realized that I forgot to actually talk to Pat today (sorry!!). My plans got messed up when Dad called me and then by the time I realized that I can call people too it was too late. But whether I did a good job of showing it or not, I really love all the Moms in my life.

Sunday: Happy Mother's Day

...to me! :)

Ben wished me Happy Mother's Day a few times too and that was wonderful.

Saturday: fireworks

Tulip time started today! I'm kind of excited...it's been a long time since I've been around for the festival. We saw the fireworks this evening. It ended up being colder than I expected and we didn't quite plan correctly...oh well. The fireworks were pretty and loud.

Thursday: a present

I was in the car this afternoon changing my shoes from my comfortable flats to my dressy heels and what did I find in one of the shoes? The green-tailed mouse toy. Flurry was obviously just wishing me luck. :)

Wednesday: busy

Hmm. I'm trying to think of something interesting to write about. Today was rather busy...career fair, talking with Jess, racquetball, and picking up Jamie's kids. But nothing special really stuck out. So I guess this will just be a short post.

Tuesday: grumpy

This afternoon I was grumpy. Luckily, only Flurry was around.

Unluckily, Flurry's response was to bite my legs, which made me grumpier.

Monday: bee

Today I was doing just a little bit of yard work since it was sunny and I went into the shed to get a rake. I heard a BZZZ behind me, and so turned around and looked up. There were two bee hives and a gigantic bee. It was about three times the size of a normal bee. Normally I'd ask Ben to spray the bee stuff at this point, but I'm not really sure how to safely spray these nests. The are right above the door, so it is either straight up (and still might have a problem getting them) or from inside (which seems like a bad idea).

I also walked the Holland mall with Betsy. The mall is pretty dead, especially compared to when I was in high school. But it was a bit cool outside so it was nice to have a comfortable place to walk.

Monday: week 5

Well, I guess the + on the stick was actually correct. The nurse on the phone said I'm due Jan 4, but according to the internet calculations I'm due Jan 1.

Also, the general practioner doesn't do OB stuff, which I understand. But you can't exactly ask people for recommendations without them wondering (or asking) if you're pregnant. It's a problem. So if I were still an unpregnant person, I'd ask for recommendations now while you can still say you're not pregnant. :)

Sunday: kitty

Travis and Allison came over briefly after church. Scarlet got to see the kitty. She got to pet the kitty too as long as Flurry was looking the other way. Needless to say, Flurry is not fond of small people. (She's been doing much better with big people lately though!) So she would hiss at Scarlet and Scarlet would just laugh like it was the best thing. Phew. I'd rather have her laugh than be scared of Flurry.

Uncle Ben also helped her play the drums for a bit.