There's No Place Like Home...

Well, I have returned to Houston after what was my last trip home to Minnesota by myself.  Darin was concerned I wasn't coming back, but he should know that I would never abandon my puppies and Louie!  ...Kidding, Darin, I wouldn't abandon you either!  Although I know he knows I'd never do something as selfish as leaving him to fend for himself in Houston, I appreciate the fact that he knows how hard it is for me to leave Minnesota.  It doesn't matter how long I stay (and I was home for 10 days this time), it's never long enough.  I miss my family, I miss my friends, I miss my city--Minneapolis.

It was so nice being home.  On the 10th I attended my baby shower hosted by Kasi and Louisa.  It was so much fun.  I can't really put into words why it was so much fun, it was basically a normal shower (with some great additions, yes), but it was wonderful.  It has been a very long time since I've laughed and cried that much in one day.  It was exhausting and fantastic and I wouldn't change it for anything in the world.  Being so far from home makes me appreciate my family so much more and I realized once again how much love surrounds me and the very active baby girl in my belly.

Soon to Be...Grandma, Mom, Auntie

Me and Louisa (with Drew's newly planted mums)

Me and Grandma J

Mom, Me and Grandma Blackstad

Me and Mom & Dad

I saw some of my friends and enjoyed hanging out and talking about nothing...and a lot more!  Some of my friends I have known for half my life and some I've known for a lot less, but either way, I love being with them.  Your true friends become much more obvious when you live 1000 miles from home.  

Of course I got to spend time with Kasi, although not enough time.  I figure we can make up for that fact when she's in Houston for two and a half weeks in December after Baby C makes her arrival.  I'm already looking forward to it not only because I love being with her, but because I know she is going to be the best aunt!  

Most of my time, however, was spent with my parents.  I don't think there is any place in the world that I feel safer and more secure than my parents' home.  And I think the reason for that is there is such love there.  No matter how old I get, I will always be their child.  (And that's not to say that I don't feel safe and secure and loved with my husband, but it's different--as it should be!)  I got to thinking a lot about my relationship with my parents while I was at home and the fact that I hope and pray I have as wonderful a relationship with my baby as I have with my parents.  I hope she always feels as loved, safe and secure with me as I feel with my parents.  I hope she knows that no matter what she does or says or thinks or feels, I will love her unconditionally.   And I hope she knows that there is no one in the world who loves her more than me.  I know all this already...and I haven't even seen her face yet.

As completely ridiculous as this sounds, this trip home made it so much more real that I am, in fact, going to be a mom!  I don't know why that is.  You would think my huge stomach that wiggles and moves at random would be real enough, but apparently not!  Maybe I just needed my people to see the belly and get excited about it, who knows.  All I know is that I am so grateful to have so many good people in my life.  I know not everyone can say that and it truly is a gift to have so much love and support.  I think I'm going to need it...this is going to be quite the adventure Darin and I are embarking on!

25 weeks down!

Well, we're 25 weeks down and only 15 to go!  Can't believe how quickly time is flying by.  I had another appointment on Wednesday the 24th.  All is well, except for the fact that I'm "bigger than normal" for 25 weeks.  Just what every pregnant woman wants to hear!  Ha!  Anyway, we went back in today for another ultrasound to make sure I'm not further along than 25 weeks, I'm not, and everything is great!  She is absolutely a "she" and appears very healthy.  All measurements are "normal" for 25 weeks and her heartbeat was at 164, music to our ears!

Here is a current picture of me and the belly.

And here is a picture of what's inside the belly-legs above her head!!  

In the waiting room, she was kicking up a storm and moving like crazy.  Then we got to the ultrasound and she didn't want to move.  She stayed in this position the entire time and was apparently a very tired girl because the ultrasound tech said she kept yawning!  All those gymnastics moves are very tiring! 

Things are progressing well and now we're looking very forward to our 4D ultrasound at the end of September.  That should be pretty amazing!  Until then, we're going to continue to plug away at the nursery, try to find a name we both love and enjoy our child-free life...the days are numbered!

The Furry Coble Kids

Our every day lives are pretty boring around here.  But, the dogs usually keep me entertained.  And occasionally the cat too.  So, here are some pictures of my three favorite furry babies.

Can't we all just get along?  Believe it or not, this is major progress.

Josie guarding her beloved toy and Boomer, sitting like the very handsome and obedient boy he is.

She can't get enough of her chew toys.

And Boomer can't get any chew toy.  Poor baby!  Mean sister!

Until, that is, Josie looks like this.  This is generally Boomer's cue to swoop in and steal a few minutes with the toy.

Drying off their wet paws in the kennel.  They are so cute.

And, of course, the original Coble kid, Louie.  Helping with a baby project.    

Here are a couple videos for your amusement (or not so much) also.  The first is from the old house in Amarillo and just of Josie.  I apologize for you having to go to the links.  For some unknown reason, they won't play in the blog itself.  

http://youtu.be/wom_4Ks9trs

The second is from June 2011 of both Josie and Boomer.

http://youtu.be/NbQ1_NEvdJI

Fruit in a whole new way

Our baby is now the size of a papaya.  And, as Darin said, hopefully has much better looking insides.

She weighs about 1.1-1.3 pounds and is able to kick like crazy!  It's amazing.  I'm 23 weeks and a few days along and the kicks started a couple weeks ago.  People kept saying it felt like a "flutter" or a "butterfly" but honestly, I just thought it felt like a poke from the inside.  Only a couple times did I get a "fluttery" feeling.  

I was able to feel the kicks on the outside last week, but Darin finally was patient enough to wait for them on Saturday.  It seems that even if she's kicking up a storm, she stops as soon as my or his hand goes on my stomach.  So, we have to wait a few minutes for her to forget the hand is there!  

Just yesterday, I was finally able to see my stomach popping and moving when she kicked.  It's so odd to know there's a little life in there just hanging out, kicking around, testing all her joints and working up some tiny baby muscles.  Just amazing.  

I am feeling great.  I've noticed I'm a little more swollen than in the past, but my tennis shoes still fit OK. My flip flops are actually getting a little tighter and I don't wear my rings unless I know I'm going to be in air conditioning and just sitting and not doing anything.  Otherwise, they don't want to come off.

I am unbelievably happy that I do not have to go through a Houston summer being 7, 8 or 9 months pregnant.  It has been 95 or above since June and fairly consistently 100 or above for the last few weeks.  It's awful and I hate it.  However, I think I would be on the first plane back to Minnesota if I had to go through it in the 3rd trimester!  So, that's a good way of looking at it!

I've started decorating the nursery and still have a long way to go.  I will post some pictures when it's all done.

Anyway, we're all happy and healthy in Houston and I'm very grateful for that!

Going Green. Ghetto Style.

Darin and I are probably about as into recycling as the average person.  We do our part and recycle our plastic, glass, aluminum and paper.  And furniture.  And I'm not talking about bringing our unwanted goods to Goodwill.  Take a look at our garage.

We have an actual shelving unit for a garage on the left.  Not bad!  To the right of that, we have the top half of my old entertainment center that I've had since 2004.  We have reused that in every place we've lived in since then but now have finally purchased a "real" entertainment center for the lower level of our new home.  Of course, we'd hate to get too classy too quick and get a nice TV stand for upstairs, so the bottom half of the old school entertainment center is still being used up there.  I have to say though, who knew that this cheap entertainment center from Wal-Mart would last five moves and be no worse for wear?!  Under the top of the entertainment center (now known as a "work bench") we have an old filing cabinet.  It's match is actually still in use in our study.  Next to the "work bench" we have a very old desk that Darin purchased from an antique shop while living in Minneapolis.  This thing is so banged up, I always forget where he got it and accuse him of dumpster diving.  It is now home to all our nails, screws and packing tape.  I'm sure there are other things in there as well, but if you read the post about my hoarding tendencies, you probably can imagine how many rolls of tape we have acquired over our many moves and I'm fairly certain I could outfit an entire hardware store with our nails and screws.  No joke.  In fact, Darin just told me yesterday that I'm not allowed to purchase anymore hooks.  I've only used two hooks in all the places we've lived, but seem to have purchased 2500 of them!  Next to the desk is our IKEA dresser.  I like to think that baby is still standing because it was put together by myself and Louisa, but I'm guessing we just got lucky.  It now houses a drawer overflowing with Darin's car washing "equipment". For the one time a year he washes our cars by hand.  (After all, it is more green to go to the car wash.  And we are very green people.  Clearly.)  And for those of you who are wondering, yes, that is my radio circa 1993 on top of the desk.  And it still works like a charm!  Rounding the corner we have a Bacardi display stand that Darin "rescued" from a liquor store many a year ago and then a bookshelf that looks much better from afar than it does up close.  

I think it's very obvious that we are very conscious about reducing, reusing and recycling.  Can you say the same?  

NOT PICTURED: black bookshelf home to all our (OK, my) paint and painting equipment

 

Beep, beep, beep! Wide Load!

Well, I knew I was dreading this weigh in and I guess I had good reason to.  In the past 4 weeks I have gained a whopping 10 pounds!  This cannot continue because if it does, I will have another 50 pounds to gain before I have this little girl.  That is not OK!  How can something the size of a banana cause this much weight gain?  Oh well, at least it's for a good cause!  The growing of tomorrow's leaders.  It's tough work.

To put the weight gain in perspective for myself (and all of you), I also gained 10 pounds in a week during my first vacation to Mexico a few years ago.  Ha!  And that was just due to eating 3 huge meals and 2 large "snacks" (some would call them meals also) a day!  And I suppose all the alcohol consumption didn't help anything either.

Well, either way, here I am in my 21st week and it is what it is.  There really is nothing I can do about the weight gain since I already walk at least 3 times week for an hour and rarely eat any junk food so I just need to accept it and move on.  Done and done.

On a much more fun note,  I have ordered the bedding for the nursery and it's shipped, so I'm hoping it's going to get here this week.  Darin is hitting The Strip (as in Las Vegas) this weekend with some friends, so it would be the perfect opportunity to get some painting done and surprise him when he gets home!

It's cooled off quite a bit right now as I think it's about to rain and boy, does it feel great!  It's been 100 degrees or very close to it for pretty much all summer and these storms are really the only chance I have to sit outside and actually enjoy myself.  So, on that note, I think that's what I'm going to continue to do.

It's a GIRL!!!!!!!!

We finally got to find out the sex of the baby today and ... IT'S A GIRL!

I have to be honest, I wrote the subject down before we went to the appointment, and it said "It's a boy!"  Wow, was I wrong!  Darin and I would have put major money on the fact that we were having a little boy.  The thought started to sneak into my head that we could be wrong and it could be a little girl a few weeks ago, but I brushed off the idea.  I mean, really, how could I be wrong?  Well, very easily, apparently!

We had a boy's name picked out, I had a boy's nursery forming in my head.  I have nothing girl in my head at all.  To Barnes & Noble we went for a baby name book and it's back to the drawing board for the nursery!

That being said, Darin and I are really excited.  Shocked, but very excited.  It's funny because when people asked me "what do you want to have?" it never even occurred to me that it could be a girl.  My answer was always, "Well, I'm so set on it being a boy, I can't even think of it as anything else!"  Most of all, we just wanted a healthy baby.  And, she's a whopping 13 ounces and that's right on track!  (Now tell me, why haven't I gained only 13 ounces?  :-) )

We got to see her heartbeat and instead of it looking like lightening like the first ultrasound, this time we could see the chambers of the heart opening and closing.  We could see her little nose and lips and fingers and toes.  It was amazing.  I love technology!  

Our little bambino is in here, about the size of a small cantaloupe.  Twenty weeks down, twenty to go!

I'm off to find some ideas for a little girl's nursery...!