Bridge, Boat, Cows and Corn Fritters

Last Sunday we were inspired by Paula Dean, and yawl, we made the most wonderful corn fritters. I grew up eatin' them, but D wasn't as fortunate, and therefore received his first taste of corn-speckled fried goodness. The cookbook we used suggested serving the fritters with syrup (yes, like Aunt Jemima), and dang that was good! Highly recommend it. Also, if you ever make them, please note that when you have leftovers, heating them in the toaster oven or big oven is the only option. Microwave equals enemy to anything fried.

We traveled to Charleston this weekend for Kathy's wedding. Kathy doubles as our good friend Joe's mom, and my former boss/very good friend from the newspaper I worked at in Charleston (follow that?). The wedding was beautiful and Christ honoring. The reception was in Mount Pleasant on the harbor, with a wonderful view of the new bridge. D captured these amazing shots.
Today I finally got some shots of my friends, the cows. There is a farm that backs up to the houses on our cul-de-sac, and the farmer frequently places bales of hay for his cows to eat very close to our neighbors' houses. When I sit on the couch or am at the kitchen sink, I can see the cows eating. I really enjoy seeing them and watching them eat. It makes me feel like I'm out in the country, which compared to a big city, this is country, but since there is a grocery store, gas station and Chinese Restaurant a mile down the road, I do not consider this "country." Please visit my home town for examples of true country. So here are "our" cows. I really hope the yellow tags on their ears means "not for slaughter."
This one kept her eyes on me the entire time, only breaking to stick her face in the food.

Baby update: The doc gave me a good report on Friday. I am 25 weeks, measuring 27 weeks, weight is good, BP is good, etc. The glucose test wasn't as bad as people have warned. They gave me the orange-flavored sugar-syrup drink and it tasted like the orange drink at McDonald's. I'm pretty sure being a sugar addict made it easier for me to consume. Speaking of sugar-addiction, the doctor did tell me to lay off the sugar. This doesn't have anything to do with me personally, it's just her own personal campaign that she pushes on everyone (every doctor has something they harp on, and it just so happens that my doctor thinks sugar is the devil). SO... I am going to listen and lighten the sugar intake, b/c eating less than I currently do can't possibly hurt (well, maybe my morale will suffer, but I certainly can't rely on food to make me happy, so I'm up for the challenge).

Snow!

We had our annual "it's snowing so let's shut down the city" day on Thursday. The roads were safe, but snow in SC brings some kind of mood that makes us feel like we should stay home by the fire with homemade waffles and hot chocolate. Okay, so maybe I can't put all South Carolinians in that category, but at the very least, that's how snow makes D and me feel. Sadie loves the snow... She likes to eat it (as it's falling).

Sadie and Dondie

Sadie leaping for a snowball (snowball is in top left corner).Baby update: The baby has been moving around a lot this morning. So much that you could see my stomach jumping around. She must like oatmeal.
We go back to the doctor on Friday for our monthly check-up (I'll be 25 weeks). I "get" to take the glucose test this go-around, which is a test for gestational diabetes in which you "get" to drink a whole lot of super sweet something and then sit there for an hour before they test your blood. Yay! Wish me luck.

She's Kicking and I'm Getting Bigger

Wow. I wasn't that big at all in my last pregnancy pictures was I? I remember feeling really pregnant looking, but I laughed last night when I saw the pictures from November. I guess everything is relative... I'm sure I'll laugh in a few months at these five-month pregnant pictures, when I'm busting at the seams.

I've felt the baby moving for about 5 weeks now and was anticipating the day when D could feel her too... up until last Thursday (Just a little bit of pregnancy knowledge I can share-- usually the mom can feel the baby moving on the inside for awhile before feeling the kicks on the outside for both the mom and any interested third-parties to feel). So, last Thursday we were sitting on the couch and I happened to feel her kick with my hand resting on my belly. "I think that was her," I said, and then grabbed Donald's hand for him to feel. She kicked again, and we both said, "Was that you?" ...It was her! And she continued most of the evening. As I type this, it seems so silly to be documenting such an event, but it was awesome...something I won't forget. I'm so grateful that D and I were together at the moment she chose to show her kicks to the world. And just for the record, the kicks have reverted back inward, and neither of us have felt them for almost a week now. I guess that was just a sneak peek at what's to come. In the meantime, her foot remains in my bladder.
Another quick pregnancy note-- my brain has lapsed into some kind of spelling coma, and I will spell things the funniest ways (yes, I know, Dewa, I was having trouble with there, their and they're pre-pregnancy, but let's blame that on stress). So this phonetic-spelling/word-substitution thing is getting worse and worse... I caught myself earlier spelling "finally" like this: "finely." I'm finely getting it! What?! And I will do this at work. A lot. I wish I could think of some other examples. I'm sure pretty soon I will be saying, "thank ewe" and stuff like that. And of course spell check doesn't catch errors like this considering I'm spelling everything write (ahh! gotcha, I really meant "wright," I mean,"right").

P.S. Pictures from Christmas and New Years and Mylin's wedding and Julie's wedding are on our web site. Yes, our "little cousin" got hitched on Dec 30th. Congrats!

Current Conditions

• My belly is starting to touch my upper thighs when I sit down. I now can officially appreciate the full-fledged beer gut. I can't say it's a "good" feeling, but hey...anything to get this baby here.


• My belly button is hanging on for dear life. It hasn't "popped out" yet, but it's awful close. I think either somehow it's tied to my spine or our little girl is hanging on to it, because sometimes I feel pressure in that area.... Imagine holding a blown-up balloon by the tied-knot part and then yanking on it. That's what the inside of my belly button feels like, especially when I walk (don't worry...it doesn't hurt).


• I have reached the "it-is-safe-to-ask-her-if-she's-pregnant" stage. I had my first stranger ask about the pregnancy last Saturday in Nashville. And thus the "how far along are you?" "when are you due?" "Is it a boy or a girl?" interrogation has begun. It's kinda nice being out of the "is-she-pregnant-or-does-she-just-really-like-cake-and-ice cream?" stage.


• My bladder is not my friend. He thinks it's funny to press the "I gotta go NOW" button every two hours (or less), which isn't really convenient on road trips or during church services, etc. But, I am still grateful for these types of changes because the gift of pregnancy and new life is SO worth it. One side note: I am considering starting a "public restroom revolution." I spend lots of time in them, and I think it's fair to say that 75% of them are downright grody (80's word for "absolutely nasty"). It is also fair to say that people in the restroom business (as in, Rest Areas on the interstate) are surprisingly better at keeping their facilities clean than, let's say, the average restaurant or store. Our tax dollars are at work!! Thank you government for keeping the rest rooms clean on the side of the interstate! Since Hillary should be able to relate, you know, since she is a woman, maybe she'd have a chance if her campaign slogan was, "Changing America One Public Restroom at a Time."
  
• I still feel the baby move around every now and then, but she's not big enough/kicking hard enough for Donald to feel her. I'm looking forward to that!!

I will post again soon with pictures and stories from our Christmas travels, but first, let me tell you what I've been dying to tell you for a few weeks now: our cousins Thomas (Jay) and Dita are expecting a baby in August!! Our kids will only be 3 months apart, which thrills Donald and me to death! We are looking forward to our children having cousins in the family so close in age! (just for clarification... Thomas' dad and Donald's mom are brother and sister, and they
[Thomas and Donald] grew up like brothers, so they are really close). I guess our kids will be first cousins once removed but we will just call them "cousins." :) Check out this helpful chart if you are often perplexed by the mysteries of cousinship.

What is She?

She's a girl!! Contrary to popular belief, we found out this week that we are having a little girl. To see her in the ultrasound was such a sweet thing. To see her arms and legs and little face was simply breathtaking. With all due respect, a mere ten-weeks ago, she resembled a tadpole or a peanut, but now she has transformed, in such a short time, into a beautiful little girl! She had her legs crossed and tucked up beneath her bottom nearly the entire ultrasound, so her gender almost remained a mystery. However, at the very end, she kicked out a little leg, giving us just a teeny view of the "right" area. The ultrasound tech almost wouldn't commit to a sex because she wasn't sure, but by the end, she gave us an 80/20 percentage and just told us to "buy pink, but keep the receipts." So here we are with our little girl. In our anxiousness, the journey to get her here has now seemed to double, but we have a lot to learn and she has a lot of growing to do in the upcoming months. At least now we can move beyond the world of "it" and "the baby" into the land of "she" and "her."

Praise God for the miracle of this sweet little baby.

Football Highlights

I just wanted to share with you the highlight reel from Donald's little league football team this season. D is the offensive coordinator and he coaches with some guys from church and our neighbor, Fred. These kids are 10 and 11! It amazes me how good they are! They finished the season 8-2. Considering they finished last year 0-10, these kids have learned so much and it was very neat to watch the transformation.

First Ticket and the Totem Pole

So I'm pretty confident that there is a hormone named "cry" and lots of it is released during pregnancy. Apparently my body was lacking in it until several months ago, considering I hardly ever cried, and now I just might cry over an episode of Seinfield. Case in point... I received my first speeding ticket on Saturday night (gasp!). And I bawled. The officer probably thought that I was either nuts or trying to squeeze out of the ticket, but quite honestly, I just couldn't help it. I didn't even really care about the ticket. It was more about wounded pride and the fact that I was less than a mile from my house, and that I never (rarely) speed, and that I'd never been pulled over, and didn't the officer know that I was pregnant and that I drove on that road every day without speeding and that I was listening to Christian music?! Doesn't that matter for anything?! Well, of course none of that mattered, and even if I wanted to tell him all of that, he wouldn't have been able to translate amongst the sobs (nor cared). I would tell you more about the experience, but I really want it to be out of memory close to soon.

Getting Bigger! Me at 19 weeks.

I went to Charlotte last Friday to spend the day with my friend Molly. We went to Body World, which is an exhibit that shows real human bodies that have been "plastinated" so that people, like me, can walk through and look at what goes on in our bodies. Just in case you're wondering, plastinated muscles look like beef jerky, and therefore, I have renamed the exhibit "Beef Jerky World." It was really cool, though. And I really enjoyed my day with Molly! It's not very often that I can hang out with a good friend all day and just do whatever!

On Saturday, some friends from work came over for a Christmas Movie Extravaganza. We watched three movies, made and decorated cookies, made homemade hot chocolate and then taco soup and played "Name that Christmas Tune." So yes, it was most definitely an extravaganza.


Donald and John cut down a tree in our backyard on Sunday. It was a cedar that has slowly died over the last year or so. It now stands in the form of a totem pole...ready to be carved. We are so grateful for John's help. I was a nervous wreck. For some reason chainsaws and ladders scare me when used at the same time.

No, seriously... this 15 foot topless tree is really standing in our backyard (the chainsaw wasn't thick enough). Any ideas, Paul Bunyan?