Woohoo New York

So I am late - it is 7:30 and we should be driving to Dallas...but I'm not b/c my husband gave up on me and is getting gas in the truck. But I'm ready now and am waiting for him! ha!

So, I can't take my computer to NY b/c Keith says I'll end up working. You won't hear from me all week. I promise. I will however take lots of pictures (especially ones of Joey) and update everything as soon as we get back.

And wanted to say thanks to the cutest nephew ever for the gift card to Motherhood Maternity - thanks to him (and his Mom) I will be traveling in style, with pedicured toes! :)

Thanks Logan!!

NEW YORK here we come!!

Name That Snake

I hate snakes. They give me the creeps. So last night, after our friends left I was enjoying my nightly glass of apple juice while Keith straightened up the living room and the dogs were going absolutely bonkers outside. I thought they were barking at the dog in the other yard - so I stuck my head out the door and hollered at them to come inside. Chuy made a huge production of going all the way around the rock pit to come inside, while Whitey Tighty and Shea barked furiously at something in the rocks. Yelling at Keith to come get his children who would not listen to me, I started to go outside - then I saw it. I wasn't sure what it was, but I knew it was alive, it was wild and sure didn't belong in my yard! Keith was right behind me, and he quickly realized it was a snake. WT was irate! I'd never heard him bark that much! It took about 3 minutes to get him inside, then Keith attacked the snake with the only tool we had handy - a metal rake! ha! Ever try to cut off a snakes head with a metal rake in a rock pit? It isn't easy. I went and got a shovel, and Keith eventually won the battle and the snake lost. I think it is just a grass snake - but I don't know and I'm certainly not going to go look all over the internet trying to compare pictures of snakes - talk about nightmares! So, I took pictures, and maybe you guys can tell me what kind of snake this is....beware - these aren't pretty!

I think that the snake was at least two feet long. See our box? How do you dispose of a dead snake when you live in the city limits? Why, you put it in two grocery bags, tied tight (he could come back to life you know) and put those inside a box, fasten the box closed and throw it in the outside trash bin. Keith will have to take the trash out this week!


Okay - if you aren't much for snakes or blood - stop looking now. We were trying to get a picture of the coloring of the snake - he had black and yellow on him. His underside was solid white/cream.

I took this picture for my Grandma - she always says you can tell if a snake is poisonous by the shape of it's head. Well - the head is kind of demolished, but if you look really close, you can see that his face was rounded, not pointed. The head is in the top part of the picture laying on top of it's body. I couldn't remember if she said rounded was good or bad.

Okay - so what kind of snake is this?! Any guesses?

The Week in a Glance

Well, the last two weeks seem to have flown by. If things keep going this fast, we are going to have a baby before we know it! I can't believe it has already been 17 weeks. Although, I am glad to be in the second trimester officially. The nausea has gotten a lot better. It still hits me sometimes, but it is not near as bad as it was in the beginning. Keith is very grateful - as he actually got a cooked dinner this week and it was even CHICKEN!! ha! It took all day long for me to cook that chicken, but I got it done and Keith liked it so much he even ate the leftovers!

We have been trying to work in the yard these past few weeks while we can. The backyard has been a mess - but slowly we are getting things together....slowly. I think this will be a project that continues into next year since it requires some money that we aren't quite ready to spend just yet. We have put in the "poor man's" sprinkler system in the front yard. It is a really cool thing actually. It is called Watering Made Easy. Basically you bury this pop up sprinkler in the yard and hook the hose up to it. If you have a timer on your faucet, you don't have to worry about turning the water on and off. We had it last year and worked pretty well. So we got another to get better coverage. Since the front yard is what ppl see first of our house, we thought it should at least be green this year. I'm not doing flowers this year, since Keith is in charge of mowing and weed eating. I figure about the time I'd have to be pulling out weeds, I'd be too big to comfortably do so. So we are shooting for a green yard this year! :)

We have big plans for the house as you know. We did find a guy we really like who does hardwood floors. We checked out three places so far, and Floor Max in Tyler is by far our favorite. The guy was honest and had the best price. Can't beat that. So now we have to pick which floor we want. We are going with hand scraped planks for sure - but it is the color that is hard. Small group is at our house tonite, so I am hoping to get some insight from them.

Such has been our last few weeks. We did go to the doctor today. Heard the baby's heart beat, 156, which is good. I measured at 18 inches, not sure what that meant, as it looked like he simply laid a tape measure vertically on my stomach and came up with a number. I'm sure it means something. Next month we find out what the baby is! So cast your vote now!! We are going to put up a poll for the name of the baby as soon as we know what it is. We have a few names picked out already.

We are also taking labor volunteers for help with all that we have got to get done before the baby gets here...any takers?!

Makin' Music

Has it been 10 days?! Goodness, where does the time go?

Our trip to TN was a good one. We didn't get to see as much of Anthony as we would have liked, but still we were glad to get to visit with him. I was so proud that he actually participated in Makin' Music. It was a lot more fun to watch, when there is someone in the program that I knew! Makin' Music is quite different from ACU's Sing Song. They move all around the stage, they have music that they sing to and they pretty much tell a story. Anthony's club told a story about a clock maker - and all the members were pieces of the clock - or rather, like on Shrek, the little guys that come out and sing on every hour and half hour. Anyway, it was cute.

Here is Anthony in his costume - isn't he cute?!

We really did have a good time, not only because we got to see Anthony - but because Grandma, Pawpaw, Aunt Carolyn, along with Andy, Michelle and Logan all came too. It was like a mini-family reunion. Logan of coarse was the center of attention. He is such a cute little guy! Hard to believe he will be a year old in May! He really loves his Pa - but he loves his Uncle Tone too. How cute is this picture?!

If you can see, Anthony is sporting a toothpick, so Logan decided to stick his tongue out!

It sure is a LOOONNNGG drive to TN. But it sure was a lot of fun. I am glad we got to go. Plus, when you travel with Grandparents and a baby - the pregnant lady rarely had to ask for a pit stop! Usually Logan took care of that for us all. I am excited for Anthony to come home for the summer. He's my faithful Sonic buddy!

Me and Anthony in TN

Just had to end the post with a picture of my Grandparents and Aunt Carolyn with Anthony. Aren't my grandparents so cute?!

Dad

Okay - so for the three months we were pregnant, we brainstormed and brainstormed about what we could do to tell our parents the big news. We really wanted to tell them together, but if we had done it separately, I had wanted to make a video for my Dad. Just wanted to. So a few wkds ago when we spent hours at the airport and in the airplane, I thought it would be fun to go ahead and do a video for my Dad. I was just playing around, but do you think he would have understood our news if I just showed him this video?

Take Me Out To The Ballgame

Well, did you honestly think Keith would willingly post more than once on here? Ha! He probably will soon, but he has not been home much at all this last week. His two nights that he has "off" when I am working late in Alto, were monopolized this week. He ended up coming down to Alto on Tuesday to fix Mom and Dad's TV in exchange for Dad fixing the spark plugs on my truck. Then on Thursday, Dad decided that maybe the mechanic should fix the truck, so Keith met me in Jacksonville since we dropped the truck off there. So, with all that in consideration, I won't do this post justice, but will do my best!

Keith and I got to go to a spring training game a few weekends ago while we were in Tucson. It was fun and Keith was quite excited that this was the baby's "first" baseball game.

We had some pretty awesome seats - right behind home plate.



Here is Keith's new man crush, Josh Hamilton - I think he hit the game winning home run this week against the Mariners. He played right field in the game we saw in Tucson.

Then before we left, we just HAD to get ice cream in a hat. Apparently it is a Spring Training Tradition.

I think the Rangers won that game. We ended up leaving in the bottom of the 7th or 8th inning. See as to how we were both operating on less than 3 hrs of sleep, we were both exhuasted. It was fun though - the park was neat too. Spring Training games might just be more fun than normal games!