Life from Pippy's Perspective....

I'm partying with the D-list!

2010-05-18T17:24:00.000-07:00

If you haven't already signed up to be part of the D-list Blog Party 2010, you need too!

Also, If you're reading this post...it means you haven't updated your reader & moved to my new blog with me! That's not cool! I miss you & there's all kinds of fun stuff happening over there!

So click 'here' to come join the fun!

Today is the last day!

2010-05-14T07:34:00.000-07:00

To win one of these super cute aprons!

You know you want one.
Plus you really need to make the move over to my new blog anyways, that's where all the cool stuff is happening.
So it's a win-win.

Click 'here' to come on over & get entered!

You're missing out...

2010-05-11T14:45:00.000-07:00

If you haven't found my new blog yet.
We've got big things happening.
Not the least of which, being all the fun details of being in late latent labor since Saturday & a fun trip to Labor & Delivery, & being about this close <----> to active labor & meeting Pipsqueak. .

Oh & I have a super cute giveaway going on right now too.

So click 'here' to join the party!

The Search Party

2010-05-07T09:17:00.000-07:00

FYI:
If you're almost 37 weeks pregnant, and you leave your phone in the bedroom while showering & blowdrying your hair, & your husband is 12 hours away from home...
He will send a search party.
And you will almost back into their car pulling out of your garage.
Because he won't call and tell them that he talked to you & you are fine.
And he also won't tell you that he called them to come check on you, so you have no idea that they might be there.

Just letting you know.

But really, If I'm incapacitated enough that I can't get to my phone, how am I supposed to answer the door?

Just sayin'.

Speaking of Search Parties though....If you are still reading this blog then you must have missed the big moving announcement!
So come on over to my new home! Just click here!

Don't make me send a search party out for you!

The Housewarming Party Giveaway!

2010-05-06T05:56:00.000-07:00

I posted pretty late in the day yesterday, so just in case you missed the big news, here is is again!

I'm MOVING!!!

Now, I know what you're thinking, "Wait, didn't you just move??"

We definitely did, & are loving our new digs, but this is a totally different kind of move.
You see, with the help of the amazing, I seriously cannot say enough good things about this girl, Kelly at Twenty70Hosting,
I am now the proud owner of....
www.pippysperspective.com!!!

How cool is that?
I am really excited about this & can't wait for all of you to come check out my new place.

In honor of this momentous occasion, I'm hosting an awesome giveaway.
All you have to do to enter is come & comment on the new blog, letting me know that you have found your way to the new place!

Want to know more?

Come on over & find out by clicking here!

The Big I'm Moving Housewarming Party & Giveaway!

2010-05-05T13:35:00.000-07:00

I'm MOVING!!!

Now, I know what you're thinking, "Wait, didn't you just move??"

We definitely did, & are loving our new digs, but this is a totally different kind of move.
You see, with the help of the amazing, I seriously cannot say enough good things about this girl, Kelly at Twenty70Hosting,
I am now the proud owner of....
www.pippysperspective.com!!!

How cool is that?
I am really excited about this & can't wait for all of you to come check out my new place.

In honor of this momentous occasion, I'm hosting an awesome giveaway.
All you have to do to enter is come & comment on the new blog, letting me know that you have found your way to the new place!

Want to know more?

Come on over & find out by clicking here!

Music City needs our prayers.

2010-05-04T08:49:00.000-07:00

I don't know that I have ever mentioned it before but Mr. Pippy & I spent our honeymoon in Nashville, Tn at the historic Opryland hotel.
It was the first week of December & it was decorated with all the Christmas lights that Opryland is so famous for.
It was gorgeous.

But right now?
It's not looking very pretty.
Opryland had been hit hard by the flooding from the storms this weekend, along with much of Nashville.
The images would be startling to anyone who viewed them, but one of the pictures in particular, really got to me.
Our room overlooked the atrium in the "Cascades" area of the hotel.
This is the archway that we walked through.

This was the image I saw posted online this morning of this same archway.

Reports say that parts of the hotel are covered in as much as 10 feet of water.
It will take months before the resort & convention center are completely operable again.

So much of Nashville is suffering the same fate.
Thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes.
It's a sad time for Music City.
Please keep Nashville & it's residents in your prayers.

Coddlelife Winner!

2010-05-03T06:59:00.000-07:00

Congratulations Entry #54: Mrs. Firefighter!!!

Mrs. Firefighter said...: I voted again!; May 2, 2010 2:11 PM

Please e-mail me by midnight tomorrow night or a new winner will be chosen.

I honestly wish that I had enough of these bottles that every single one of you could have one.
If you are interested in purchasing one, just let the great folks over at Coddlelife know & they can hook you up! They have great prices & the whole 2 parts vs. Dr Brown's 7?
Well, that makes it worth trying right there!

Tell them Pippy sent you!

Giveaway ends tomorrow night!

2010-05-01T08:29:00.000-07:00

Just a quick reminder that the Coddlelife bottle giveaway ends Sunday night & the winner will be announced on Monday!
So hurry up & enter if you haven't already!
Click here for complete details!

Autumn's Story

2010-04-30T06:18:00.000-07:00

Almost a year ago, I started this blog.
Mainly as a way to keep record of our attempts TTC with a little life & humor thrown in.
I had been a regular on one of The Bump boards and while I don't post there much anymore, I made some fabulous friends and gained invaluable information about my body that I had never been taught.

I also met Autumn.

Autumn changed my life.
She may not even know how her story has affected me, how for the rest of my life I will see things differently, I will be thankful for things that are normally unmentioned. How I will compose myself and not ask nosy questions that everyone thinks are okay to ask.
Because I'm changed, I'm informed, but most importantly, I am aware.

Not to say I wasn't aware before, but not to this extent.
It's one of those things that until it happens to you or someone you are close to & you see them experience the heartbreak & confusion, you don't think about.
Sure, you hear stories about people who can't or struggle to have children and the automatic response is "That's so sad" but then you go on about your day.

But what if it was you?
What if it was your sister or best friend?
Would it be so easy to put up that barrier & just not think about it?

Autumn shattered my barrier.
I will never hear those words again and think only "That's so sad."
I will reach out, I will be a friend. I will not ask questions. I will just listen. I will be there.
Autumn taught me those things, and so much more.
This is her story.

My Story by Autumn

There are short stories with surprise endings and long stories with tragic endings.
There are good stories with shocking endings and fair stories and superior endings.
And then there is my story.

In the fall of 2004, I met the man of my dreams.
He was tall with thick dark hair. His eyes were blue like the sky.
His skin was fair and his smile was perfect.

“We would have beautiful babies together!” I told my best friend.

On October 20, 2007, I married that man.

…this is where my story ends, and our story begins…

Matt and I had originally planned to wait 2 years before trying to start a family. I didn’t want to be one of “those” couples who have a wedding and become pregnant all on the same day. I wanted to enjoy my marriage, travel, focus on our home, and then welcome children into the world.

God had a different plan.

At the turn of the New Year (2008), Matt and I decided to stop “not-not trying”. We were going to go full throttle. I began charting my temperatures, eating organics, checking (and charting) my cervical mucus, elevating my hips after intercourse (this was reeeeaaaal sexy, let me tell ya!), and even used Pre-Seed for an added boost. I made sure all my medical history was up to date and made a “pre-conception” appointment with a doctor at the best hospital in the city.

I was ready. I knew it was going to happen. Everything was perfect.

Month 1.… One line…not pregnant

Month 2…. One line…not pregnant

Month 3…. Early period…not pregnant

Month 4…. One line…not pregnant

…….

Month 9…. One line…not pregnant

It wasn’t working. Everything I was doing was failing. I was failing.

I contacted my OBGYN and explained that we had been trying for quite some time and feared that my previous experience with Endometriosis could be causing us problems.

He ordered tests. A lot of tests. Tests for me. Tests for Matt.

On my way to work, about a week later, I received a phone call from an unknown number.

“Hello?” I said.

“Autumn, this is Dr. DeCenzo. I just received the results from all of your tests. Your numbers all look great and it’s not your endometriosis causing the problem.”

“Oh! That’s great! So we’ll just keep trying” I said as I pulled into my parking spot.

“I’m afraid that won’t work. Your husband’s sperm count is extremely low. In fact, he only has about 500,000 sperm that could even contend to do the job.”

My heart stopped. My world stood still. My eyes filled with tears. But I would not let this get me down.

We met with an Urologist a month later. He felt Matt would be a good candidate for a procedure called “varicoseal repair”. He would simply go in, make a few snips, move things around, and wah-lah!

It would take 3 months to know if this had worked.

Month 15…. One line….not pregnant

The Urologist swore Matt would have me “knocked up” in no time.

Month 18….One line….not pregnant

It was time to move forward with a Reproductive Endocrinologist.

We met with Dr. Wakim and instantly knew we loved him. He was old and talked like ‘The Godfather’. He put our needs first and was willing to work with us to do what was financially appropriate.

We found out our IUI’s were covered, but our medicines were not.

God, again, had a plan.

A friend of mine conceived her 3 children with injectables, had overstock, and sold them to us for next to nothing.

IUI 1…natural… one line….not pregnant

IUI 2…clomid…cancelled…not pregnant

IUI 2…injectables…one line…not pregnant

IUI 3….injectable…one line….not pregnant

IUI 4…injectables…early period….not pregnant….or so I thought.

Matt and I met, once again, with Dr. Wakim. This time it was to discuss IVF.

We decided to go ahead and do a “one fresh, one frozen” plan.

Total cost, $12,000 plus the cost of medicine. Grand total $15,000.

God had a different plan.

As Matt and I entered Babies R Us, hopeful that our IVF would work and anxious to start looking at baby items, I received a phone call.

“Autumn, this is Hope from Dr. Wakim’s office. You’re pregnant.”

All I could do was cry and listen.

“Your BETA is 31. That is pretty low, but not unrealistic. We will need to see you again next week for another blood test.”

IUI 4…. Chemical Pregnancy…no longer pregnant.

I was ready to give up.

God wouldn’t let me.

How would we ever afford the IVF and the medication involved?

God knew.

I decided to partner with another couple and donate ½ of my eggs to them. We split the costs right down the middle. This was not an overnight decision and took months to prepare for. I had to answer questions I never even thought about and go through tests I didn’t even know existed.

Jan 1, 2010…. IVF injection 1….no pain no gain.

Everything was going great! I was producing eggs like the hens in a hen house. This was finally going to be it.

On January 15, they collected 21 eggs from my ovaries in a small medical procedure.

I donated 11 and kept 10.

8 out of 10 were mature. 6 out of 8 fertilized. 4 out of 6 were perfect quality.

We decided to transfer 2 embryos and freeze the other two.

The results of the IVF would be revealed on my 28th birthday.

I woke up early that morning (4:00am) and used 2 tests. I was shaking. This was it. I knew it.

IVF 1…. One line….not pregnant

How much more could a woman go through?! Why was this happening to us?! We corrected the problem and yet for some reason I wasn’t made to be a mother?!

God had a different plan.

On April 6, we had our Frozen Embryo Transfer. Two embryos that thawed like a million dollars. They were beautiful. One blastocyst and one 10 cell-grade A.

On April 14th I tested.

FET 1…. Two lines….pregnant.

WE DID IT!! Our dreams were coming true!!

I pee’d on 10 sticks in the following 7 days. Every day the line was darker than the day before.

On April 19th the nurse confirmed the pregnancy.

On April 26th we went for our first ultrasound.

FET1….Pregnant….TWINS!!!!

God had a plan.

There are short stories with surprise endings and long stories with tragic endings…but my story…
my story had a great ending that came only from a great story.

Autumn had a happy ending, but so many others do not.
They go through a lifetime of expensive medical procedures, adoptions that are expensive and sometimes fall through, red tape, & insurance companies that don't care.
All because they want the one thing that comes so easily for so many others.
To be parents.
It's not fair.

We can all help raise awareness about infertility.
We can make it a subject that is okay to talk about.
We can guard our words, & be considerate of the silent struggle that lies behind what the world can see.

We can listen. We can be supportive.
We can be aware.

For more information about Infertility & National Infertility Awareness Week, Click here.

Cloth Diapering from a Not-So-Crunchy Momma!

2010-04-29T09:17:00.000-07:00

There is a lot of debate going on in the baby world these days, about Cloth Diapering vs. Disposables.
A popular term for Cloth Diapering momma's?
Crunchy.
If you're anything like me, you're already lost.
What I've figured out so far is that I am about as crunchy as a burnt marshmellow.
My husband? He's somewhere in the Cool-whip category.
However, as crunch-less as we may be, I still feel it necessary to be informed about things like Cloth Diapers, in case we need to know someday in the future.
Luckily for me, one of my favorite blogging mama's has just made the cloth diaper switch herself, & I have been learning all kinds of things from her about them.
She is an absolute treasure trove of information, she's gorgeous, & she has one of the cutest babes evah!
If you don't follow her already, you should...just as soon as you get done reading this post!
So without further adieu, I give you "Mrs. Trophy Wife"!

Cloth Diapering from a Not-So-Crunchy Mama
by Mrs. Trophy Wife & Sullivan

(Pippy Comment: Holy cuteness!)

When I first told my husband I wanted to cloth diaper, he looked at me in disgust and said, "No way! There will be shit stains all in them." So, I dropped the subject.

Then life happened. Sullivan was born, and we quickly realized he was extremely allergic to Pampers. We switched to Huggies only to deal with at least one "blow out" a day and diapers soaked through to his clothes. Fed up and exhausted, I called my husband (over Skype. He's deployed, by the way), and said, "I'm switching over to cloth." I began my research of all things cloth. My Type A OCD personality led me to be overwhelmed by the hundreds upon hundreds of choices. Where the hell do you even start?

So when Pippy asked me to do a guest post on cloth diapering for mamas that aren't sure where to begin, I jumped on the idea. Hopefully, my obsession with cloth diapers will help you make a decision about what's best for you.

1) Making the Decision: If you're environmentally concerned, obviously cloth diapering is the best way to go. Our water bill has not increased since starting, and I line dry anytime it's nice out. Better for the diapers. Better for my wallet. If you're concerned about rashes or chemicals in the disposables, you can't beat cloth diapering. We haven't had a single rash since we started using them. Oh and money? We've spent about $600.00 on cloth diapers and we're set for Sullivan and the next baby or two. You can expect to spend about $1,600 every two years on disposables. Then you add in diaper creams, wipes, garbage services. It really adds up. The initial investment might seem high, but just look at the numbers in the long run. It's also VERY possible to cloth diaper for under $200.00. If you go with Prefolds and Covers, you can easily cloth diaper economically.

2) Starting Out: Start with a trial program. You never know what's going to work best for you and your baby. A good trial will have some of everything. The basics are;

Prefolds-Old school. Have to pin or snappi them in place. Need a cover.
Fitted-Soft and fitted. Requires a cover.
Pockets-Just like it sounds. They have a pocket you can stuff with inserts to make as absorbant as you need.
All-In-Ones-Most babysitter/daddy friendly. Work just a like a disposable. You put them on, take them off, stick them in the laundry. Not necessarily the cheapest.
Hybrids-Have a "Snap-In" insert so that you can re-use the cover.

The trials will let you try whatever you want, send back what you don't, and learn what you like in a cloth diaper. My advice? Don't cloth diaper a newborn if you're not sure if you want to stick with it. I was so overwhelmed as a new mama with my husband deployed, I probably would have given it up if I tried right away. You can start cloth diapering any time. Sullivan wasn't cloth diapered until he was three-months-old.

3) Traveling:
Super easy. Grab yourself a wet bag, stick it in the diaper bag, and you're off. For longer trips, take a pail liner instead so you have extra room. If you get one that's zippered, you can keep smell at bay. Easy peasy, for real.

4) Laundry:
Simple again. Get enough diapers, usually about 24 per child, to do laundry every other day. Cold Rinse, Hot Wash, Cold Rinse and a tiny bit of cloth diaper friendly detergent. Hang to dry, or tumble dry. Whatever works for you.

5) All or nothing:
It doesn't have to be. Don't start cloth diapering by tossing all your disposables and becoming immediately dependent. Ain't gonna work. You can cloth diaper part-time, during the day, during weekends. WHATEVER WORKS FOR YOU! Don't pressure yourself.

6) Enter Giveaways:
If you're looking for a way to cloth diaper cheaply, just do a quick google search and enter some of the hundreds of cloth diaper contests. I've won twenty-six diapers. Seriously. And no, I don't spend my life entering contests. I keep a list of ones I'm interested, check them every day. It takes probably ten minutes and is so worth it.

So, that being said, be sure to check out my "Month of Fluff" on my blog http://www.exploitsofamilitarymama.com if you're looking to win some great diapers. I'm also doing lots of reviews, so you can read about them and enter what interests you. Also, email me with ANY questions at: mrs.trophywife@ymail.com

Finally, enter Pippy's Coddlelife Bottle giveaway! SO cool.

~Mrs. Trophy Wife

Because he's popular...& I love him.

2010-04-28T09:46:00.000-07:00

I realized something the other day while looking at my blogger dashboard.
The posts with the most comments are generally about something my dear, sweet, hilariously funny & drop dead sexy husband has done or said.

So because it's obvious y'all like him too, (naturally, I mean who wouldn't?)
I'm going to give all of you a chance to get to know him a little better!
We're going to play a little game called "MR. Pippy's perspective!"
(P.s. I had to tell him it was a game so he would play along..he's uber-competitive.)
(P.s.s. I also told him he would probably win because, well...see above.)

So ask away!
Anything & everything you would like to know about Me, Mr. Pippy, what he thinks, or just whatever!

Oh! & one more thing...if he gets no questions... he'll be crushed.
and sad.
and he may whine a little...because he's a man, & they are like, the world's best whiners.

Don't do that to me... please.
Thanks.

Ready..set..ask!

35 weeks down, 35 days to go!

2010-04-27T08:29:00.000-07:00

Well here we are!
The anticipated 35/35.
It is so hard to believe that we are already here, that sometime in the next 5 weeks, we will be meeting our little Pipsqueak.
I can't wait.

I finished putting her dresser & hutch together this morning & am about to start washing clothes & blankets.
I'm trying to get everything organized....but I need your help!

I feel like I'm missing something.
Like there are things that I'm going to need, but I don't have yet.
So if you don't mind, leave me a comment about your important baby necessities.

I realized yesterday that I don't have a bathtub, changing pad or pacifiers yet... (yes I feel dumb admitting that)
I blame the pregnancy hormones....

So anything you can think of, let me know!!!

I do have a Coddlelife bottle though...& by clicking 'here', you might could have one too!

"Hey! We're playing Scrabble! Wanna Play?"

2010-04-26T08:31:00.000-07:00

The Hubby and I went to Georgia this weekend.
He was fishing in a Bass tournament and my family had planned a baby shower for Pipsqueak!
We had lots of fun and Pipsqueak is going to be one stylin' little girl!

Anyways, on our way home we were talking about how my little sister (Who just turned 18 & is graduating from highschool... I die) & her boyfriend are going to come visit us this summer.

Our conversation went something like this:

Mr. Pippy: So when are they coming?
Pippy: I don't think they've decided for sure yet, sometime in June or July I think.
Mr. Pippy: And they are the only ones coming?
Pippy: Yep
Mr. Pippy: Mmmmhmmm
Pippy: Wait, what does that mean?
Mr Pippy: ::Gives me *that* look::
Pippy: ::Horrified:: OMG don't even think that!
Mr. Pippy: I'm just sayin'...
Pippy: ::says nothing::
Mr Pippy: I mean we do have those baby monitors...we could easily sneak one in the guest bedroom.
Pippy: And just what exactly would you do if you heard something?
Mr. Pippy: I'd go bang on the door and say "HEY Y'ALL! We're playing scrabble! Wanna Play??"
Pippy: ::dies::

P.S. If you haven't entered my Coddlelife Bottle Giveaway, you should "click here" & do it now!

What I'm doing...& what you should be.

2010-04-23T07:20:00.000-07:00

Personally, I'm chill-axing on my grandparents couch, about to walk down to the dock & get a little sun on my pasty white self.

While I would LOVE for all of y'all to be here hanging out with me, I know that's probably not possible.
So, be with me in spirit...& go sign up for my Coddlelife giveaway by clicking "here".

Seriously, pregnant or not, mommy or not, everybody knows somebody who has a baby, & who doesn't like free stuff??

So what are you waiting on?
Go sign up...like now!

Have a fantastic weekend lovelies!!!

Because everyone wants to be a winner! {Coddlelife giveaway!!}

2010-04-22T09:25:00.000-07:00

I have BIG news for y'all today!
As I have been preparing for Pipsqueak, I have read thousands of reviews on thousands of products trying to decide which items I should have ready in my arsenal.
And I'm gonna be honest, Sometimes, just browsing can be totally overwhelming.
Like bottles for instance, there's so many! How on earth do you decide which ones to get?

So I turned to my blog friends for help & they introduced me to a bottle that I can't wait to try when Pipsqueak gets here.

This is the Coddlelife Polypropylene Bottle with Peristalic nipple.
I know what you're thinking, "Say what? Can I get that in English please?"

Let me break it down for you:

Extra stretchy peristaltic nipple elongates and is molded to fit the inside of the baby's mouth.
The nipple is designed to be longer which ensure the baby's lips flange widely & enable wide open latch which prevent nipple confusions.
New advanced one-piece venting system helps to reduce colic, spit-up and ear infection. It is easy to use with no extra parts to wash.
Microwave, sterilizer, and dishwasher safe.

If you're anything like me, you're probably still thinking something along the lines of "Yeah, that's all well and good, but how do I know it's going to work? Can it really help with Colic? I want to talk to somebody who's actually used these things.."

I didn't have to look very far.
2 of my favorite mommy bloggers were ready & willing to sing Coddlelife's praises!

"Hands-down, the best part of the bottles is the nipple technology. So many mothers recommend Dr. Brown's bottles because of the venting system. Which is fine & dandy but Dr. Brown's has SEVEN PARTS. If you run your dishwasher often, that may not be such a huge deal, but if you hand was like we do...that is SEVEN parts. With at least eight bottles per day. You do the math. Coddlelife? From what I understand, it has basically the same idea as Dr. Brown's where air does not mix with fluid. Sucking pulls only fluid while tubing-bits spits the air out the back. With only TWO parts. Nipple & bottle, same as the bottles we were using before."

~ Blair @ "The Heir to Blair" (<- click here to read Blair's entire Coddlelife review)

"After using several brands of baby bottles, I have found that Coddlelife works best! It keeps my little boy from swallowing too much air and mimicks the breastfeeding motion so he has no problems switching between nursing and taking a bottle. Because our family has had such a great experience with these bottles, we have stopped using other brands and now exclusively use Coddlelife!"

~Alyssa @ "Adventures of a stay at home mom!"(<- Click here to read Alyssa's Coddlelife reveiws)

Now for the really exciting part....

The amazing folks over at Coddlelife have graciously given me the opportunity to pass one of these fantastic bottles on to one of YOU!
How cool is that?

There's gonna be TONS of ways to enter this one... so your chances of winning are pretty awesome.

Here goes:
Mandatory Entry: Be a follower of my blog. (1 entry)

Additional Entries:

Leave a comment about something neat you learned on the Coddlelife website. (1 entry)
Follow me on Twitter @pippy1208 (1 entry)
Follow Coddlelife on Twitter @coddlelife (1 entry)
Become a Coddlelife fan on Facebook (1 entry)
Tweet this -> "I just entered @pippy1208 's @coddlelife bottle giveaway! You should too! http://tinyurl.com/2e4mwh5" (1 entry, max. 3x's a day)
Put my button on your blog! (1 entry)
Vote for me on Top Mommy blogs (1 entry, max 3x's a day.)

You have to leave a seperate comment for each entry for them to count.

That's a total of 8 entries!! Plus the ones you can do more than once!
That's pretty good odds if I do say so myself!

The winner will be chose using random .org on Monday, May 3rd!!
*Open to US residents only*

Clouds & Silver Linings

2010-04-21T10:29:00.000-07:00

Today has been one of those days.
You know the kind I'm talking about?
The ones where you just want a do-over, or to sleep through the rest of it & have someone wake you up tomorrow.

In the midst of it all though, I have been trying to find the positives in every bad situation.
Here's my list of clouds & silver linings so far.

1.) I'm repainting a chest of drawers for Pipsqueak's nursery & wanted to change out the pull knobs.

Cloud: It's old & apparently you can't buy new hardware for it. The standard is 3" now, & this is 2".
Silver Lining: I found hammered metallic silver spray paint & I'm going to attempt to paint the old ones. So instead of $45 on knobs, I spent $7 for paint.

2.) My iPhone woke up & decided to only let me hear people talking if I have it on speaker phone.

Cloud: I've had it 8 days over the warranty. 8!! I can pay apple to fix it or buy a new one.
Silver Lining: For about $50 more, I can upgrade to the one that has video recording capabilities. Which would be nice when pipsqueak gets here.

3.) I ordered some nursery furniture & bedding for the guest and master bedrooms using Walmart's Site-to-store shipping.

Cloud: The lost the master bedding, and instead of just getting me another one, They are refunding my money & I have to order it again.
Silver lining: That's all they lost. All the Nursery furniture has been delivered. So as far as things getting lost, that was the least important thing.

4.) We are going to Georgia for the weekend & I did some laundry last night.

Cloud: Somehow I didn't notice a red shirt that got thrown in my husband's hamper. It bled on not 1...but 2! pairs of his khaki shorts.
Silver lining: Okay I've got nothing for this one. It just sucks.

5.) As I was folding clothes, My dog came to keep me company.

Cloud: He actually wasn't trying to keep me company, he didn't feel good & wanted his mom.
He puked.
Silver Lining: He puked in the garbage can I sat in front of him. Yeah, we've done this a time or two. His name isn't "Hurley" for nothing...

Aaaaand it's only lunchtime.
Awesome.

34 Weeks

2010-04-20T15:25:00.000-07:00

Where has the time gone?
We only have 6 weeks left...at the maximum.
Craziness.

I'm not ready for her to be here...yet I am at the same time.
I still have sooo much to do, but I want to hold her & watch my husband hold her.

There are a few other silly little things that I'm ready for too.
Like being able to lay on my right side.
Actually wanting my husband to come to bed at the same time that I do, instead of giving me a while to get comfy and go to sleep.
Being able to tie my tennis shoes.
Being able to get up in my husbands truck.
Walking quickly.
Normal jeans.
Cute clothes.

But I know I'm going to miss this.
I love feeling her kick & move around.
I love how close I feel to her right now.

It's tough.
Wanting your baby to be here & your body back, but not wanting to wish away this precious time.

So for now, even when I'm uncomfortable & feel like dragons are dueling in my esophagus, I'm going to enjoy each day.
Because it's not going to be like this for long, & I'm gonna miss this.

The leading "Diaper Bag Dilemma" Contender

2010-04-19T10:36:00.000-07:00

So I read all of your comments and suggestions for the my diaper bag dilemma.
You guys really were a big help. Thank you for all of your suggestions!
It seems that we have lots of "Petunia Pickle Bottom" fans out there.
However, I'm going to risk losing even more of you by saying that while I love a lot of their bag designs, the fabrics really aren't me.
I'm just not sure I could pull them off personally. You know what I mean?

Enter this little beauty.

LOVE.
This, my friends, is a "JP Lizzy Classic Diaper Tote in Mocha Mint".

I love it's classic look with fresh pink & green stripes.
& That polka dot bow?? I die.

It looks feminine without screaming "PINK" which is a very common problem I'm finding in all things baby girl.
The hubs would totally pick this up and carry it without feeling "too" much like he was carrying a purse or pink glittery butterflies were attacking him.
It comes with all of the things pictured above, Diaper bag, changing pag, cosmetic bag and wristlet.

There are 2 adjustable bottle pockets inside, along with several of other pockets, it's made out of a "wipe-able" microfiber fabric with a wipe-able interior liner.
AND
It converts with stroller straps, where you can just hook it on & go.

So after days of deliberating, I think this is probably the one.
Now if I could somehow figure out how to get them "Buy one get one free" so I could this one too...

Well then I would just be in heaven.

Baby Shower Day!

2010-04-17T07:33:00.000-07:00

Today is Pipsqueak's baby shower!
I am really excited and can't wait to show you the pictures next week.
My very talented mother asked my friend who is hosting the shower if there was anything she could do to help and she made the invitations!
They are super cute!
She asked me what I wanted them to look like but I had no idea that they would turn out so good, but I should have because my momma is uber-talented.

Wanna See?

That flower is 3-d! She made it using several different sized punch outs and different shade of pink cardstock.
It kind of hangs off the side of the invitation.
I am in love with them.

I hope everyone has a fabulous saturday!!!

Sit, Stand, Sip, Repeat

2010-04-16T12:24:00.000-07:00

That's what my morning has consisted of.
I woke up about 6:45 this morning and almost immediately felt like I has having a Braxton Hicks contraction......except it hurt. Like alot.

A few minutes later...
it happened again.

So I sent the hubby to the kitchen for a glass of water. I drank about half of it & decided to get up and try to walk around, usually that makes the braxton hicks go away.

Not today.

So after about an hour and a half of this I called my Dr, I told them what everything felt like and I was told to drink some more water and lay on my side for 30 minutes. If they felt like they were intensifying, I should come in.
So my day has consisted of laying down, standing up, sitting down and drinking lots of water.

Oh! & did I mention that my entire family is on their way to visit for the weekend?
Yeah.
So my floor is being cleaned in 5ft by 5ft sections.

Fun times.

Diaper Bag Dilemma

2010-04-15T10:47:00.000-07:00

I really should have seen this coming.
But no. I have been cruising along, blissfully unaware of the upcoming decisions that are going to have to be made.
I have a Diaper Bag Dilemma.
As in, I haven't picked any out that I like.

And here's where I should have seen it coming....
(and probably where I lose some readers...please don't hate me.)

I don't like purses.

I have owned 3 my entire adult life.
I used the same one all 4 years of high school.
I don't like carrying them.
I leave them everywhere.
I have literally had my purse mailed to me from different states.
(yes, that's plural because it has unfortunately happened more than once.)

So here I am, 33 weeks pregnant and all of a sudden I realize that even though I have said things like
"Oh, this will be handy to keep in the diaper bag."
The bag in question...has yet to be found...because I wasn't looking.

I did manage to fine one that I thought was cute.

It obviously won't say "Hunter" cause that isn't Pipsqueak's name, but you get the idea.

And here is the point where I come to you begging for help.
If you could find it in your dear, sweet hearts to resist the urge to stone me, run away screaming and de-follow me for not liking purses, just long enough to suggest some cute diaper bags, I will be eternally grateful.

Just think, you're saving me from being the chick that throws all my baby stuff in a plastic grocery bag.

And we all know that plastic grocery bags are bad, so by helping me, you're helping the enviroment!

It's a win-win.

Please?

P.S. I love shoes....if that makes you feel any better.

Anybody want a Free Kindle??

2010-04-14T07:19:00.000-07:00

I bet you do!
I know that I have wanted one forever.
I also bet that you might not know that if you have a iPhone, blackberry, PC or Mac, you can get Kindle for free!

I know, it's hard to believe but it's true!
All you have to do is download the software and whatever device you happen to have becomes your own personal Kindle & it's totally free!

If you have an iphone - go to the App store and search for Kindle. It will be a free App.

If you have a blackberry - Same deal. It should be free, I don't have a blackberry so I'm not sure how it works.

If you have a PC - You can click right 'Here'.

If you have a Mac - Click 'here' please!

Amazon also has a new selection of Free Kindle books every week!
Isn't that pretty stinkin' cool?

I downloaded this one this morning!

"A Promise to Remember" by Kathryn Cushman

I'm thinking that this is going to be pretty handy during all those late night feedings!

A little bit of everything.

2010-04-12T07:55:00.000-07:00

If you remember, I was too absorbed with Banana Popsicles to think about my "7 quick takes" on Friday.
But the snowcone place is now OPEN, so that shouldn't be an issue anymore.

Anyways, It's going to be "6 Totally Random Things Monday" instead.

1. It's my little sister's 18th Birthday today!!

She doesn't read my blog so I can tell you guys that I'm a rockin' older sister and got her a gift certificate to a spa.
I know, I'm a shoo-in for Sister-of-the-year.
I may or may not be hoping that she remembers this when it's my birthday in about 3 months.
Just kiddin'....kinda.

2. We had our Maternity Pictures taken on Saturday morning and I am so stinkin' excited to see them! He said he should have them ready by then end of the week! I can't wait.

3. I slept like crap last night. I was seriously happy to see the sun come up, because it meant that I was getting closer to tonight when I can try again. Pipsqueak kicked, and punched and rolled and basically pummeled all of my insides last night and left me feeling like somebody beat me with a baseball bat. I know she's just growing and trying to make herself some more room, but my goodness. It hurts.

4. If you have an Iphone, you need to download "Words with Friends". It's free, it's like Scrabble and you can play with me. I'm addicted to it. It's my new favorite game. So as soon as you get it, send me a game request! My username is Pippy08

5. I saw something totally bizarre the other day.
Meet Pepper the Pig.

Pepper is a "Pacimal".
Yep, that is a pacifier sewn to the top of Pepper's head.
So here's my question.
With all the "Orthodontist approved, good for baby's developing teeth, etc." stuff that is going on in the Pacifier industry. Who thought that putting weight on the end of a pacifier was a good idea?
Maybe I'm wrong, It just seems like a good way to end up with this.

Edited to add: This is one of the reasons I love blogging. Not long after I posted this, one of my regular readers posted a comment about the Pacimals. She said they were a lifesaver in the NICU. I never even thought of that. I can see where in certain circumstances, these little animals would come in handy. I was just thinking about older babies.
I learn something new everyday from you guys! Thanks Nursekj!

6. A lot of you may know that I'm a member of "Southern Mommas". It is a great group of women and you should totally check it out if you haven't already. They recently hosted a Storkie giveaway and I won!
If you have never been to the Storkie website, you really should! They do all kinds of wedding invitations, shower invitations and baby announcements! They have TONS of designs to choose from, I have no idea how I'm going to pick.
Also, Join Southern Mommas! You won't regret it!
*That's just the name of the group, being pregnant or having kids is not a requirement!*

Not quite 7 quick takes...

2010-04-09T09:01:00.000-07:00

So It's supposed to be "7 Quick Takes Friday", except my brain didn't get the memo.
Probably because all I can think about are these...

Yes, those are banana popsicles. Don't judge.
The Snow-cone place isn't open yet, and I swear, these things were absolutely calling to me from the frozen food section of the grocery store.
I have never in my life been so tempted to open something and eat it while walking around the store.
It was SO weird!

Like, these guys were on the handle of the cart.
They were arguing back and forth about the pro's and con's of eating popsicles in the store before purchasing them.

Angel: Pip, you should wait. It would be really klassy to eat a popsicle in the store.

Devil: But it would be soooo good, nobody is going to give you any crap, and if they do, I'll call my friend "Pregnant hormones" to deal with them.

Angel: Right, because we all need that crazy person running around. Do you not remember last time "your friend" came out to play? It was not pretty.

Needless to say, I didn't not eat a popsicle in the store.
I waited until I was safely in the car.

Sometimes you have to wonder..

2010-04-08T08:45:00.000-07:00

Do you ever find yourself looking at someone and thinking,
"Seriously? What ARE you thinking? What on earth made you think THAT was a good idea?"

It might be something that they are wearing, something they are doing, it could be anything really.

Long story short, I don't have the best relationship with my biological father. He was absent for all intensive purposes the entire time I was growing up and that remains the same. I will get the occasional "Happy Birthday" or "Merry Christmas" text message but that's really the extent of our relationship.
When I was younger though, He would come and get me for a weekend every couple months and I cannot even count the number of times I have looked at him and asked myself those questions.

One time in particular will forever be burned into my brain. It is something that I will carry with me for the rest of my life, it affected me that strongly.

I'm not 100% sure how old I was, but somewhere around the tender age of 5, in an attempt to spend some 'quality' father/daughter time, he decided that we should watch one of his favorite movies......

Arachnaphobia

I only wish I was kidding.
I mean, really? All the movies in the world and he picks that one?

Do you have any idea what seeing thousands of killer spiders coming out of a shower faucet and onto some poor woman's head does to a 5 year old girl?

I wouldn't shower for a month! Baths only, and I wouldn't get in until the faucet was turned off.

To this day, I have a crazy fear of spiders. I hate them, with a passion.
Like crawl up on a chair and squeal like a little girl, fear of them.

Not very long ago, I was sitting at my computer desk when I saw something move across the floor out of the corner of my eye. I glanced that way and of course, there he was. My ultimate fear and the hubby was not home.

So here's my dilemma.
He's stopped, in the middle of the living room floor. Staring at me.
I know he was trying to figure out how he could kill me, he's been chasing me since I was 5 after all.
Here's what I also know, If I scream and he runs off. Then he is loose. IN MY HOUSE. To come after me while I sleep, but let's face it, he would have had to wait a couple days cause there was no way I would be sleeping knowing that a tarantula was crawling around.

So I roll up a magazine, ready to attack and save myself, when I think, "What if I miss?"

That's when I realize that I have to be a little more pro-active, I have to ensure that he will not come after me, even if I miss.
I quickly glanced around and saw my gardening supplies by the front door. Insect killer! In a spray bottle, no less.

So I snuck over, grabbed the bottle and then doused him in it...

while standing on top of the couch, of course.

Pipsqueak says....

2010-04-07T10:34:00.000-07:00

"Y'all are all crazy. I'm growing just fine and have plenty of fluid in here. Now quit poking me with that ultrasound wand."

My goodness, someone was sassy this morning.
She was making some serious waves in there while we were trying to get a good look at her.
The Ultrasound tech was shocked and very humored by how much you could see her move from the outside.
I swear, sometimes it looks like she is just gonna bust right out.
Anyways...

The growth scan showed nothing but good things, and the Dr said that we had a perfectly fine, healthy, growing baby, who was not even one day behind where she should be.
So the only person measuring small around here is me, which is an awesome blessing.

Thank you all so much for all the comments, support and e-mails you sent yesterday.
Sometimes it's too easy to worry about all of the 'what-if's', but you guys made me feel so much better.

I am so incredibly thankful for each and every one of you & proud to call you my friends!

Bunny Hop Swap Link Up Party!

2010-04-07T06:46:00.000-07:00

The time has come to show off your goodies!!!

Just post a picture or description of what you received on your blog and then enter your name and the link to that post, in the box below.
*I'm not sure why Mr. Linky has entered in my name and blog link in the boxes, but just remove them and replace with your own : )*

I can't wait to see all of your spring stuff and I hope that each of you had as much fun participating in this swap as I did.

Thank you so much for playing along!

32 Week Update & Prayer Request.

2010-04-06T12:17:00.000-07:00

If you don't mind, pray for me and Pipsqueak tonight.

We went for our 32 week appointment today and the Dr was just a little concerned.
Nothing major, but I'm measuring a little on the small side, so he scheduled a growth scan ultrasound for tomorrow morning.

He said it could be a couple things, none of which were cause for alarm, but still.

1. She could just be a small baby. Which is totally possible because I was less than 5 & 1/2 lbs at birth and the hubby was not quite 6lbs. So genetically speaking, we may just make smaller babies.

2. I could be leaking some amniotic fluid. Which still isn't a huge deal, but a bigger deal than just her being small.
They will measure the fluid level at the growth scan tomorrow and assess whether or not that is the issue.
If it is, then depending on how much fluid is there, I'll be put on modified bed rest, they will check the level frequently and Pipsqueak may need to be delivered a few weeks early.

He said more than likely, she's just small, but by doing the growth scan he will have a basis to measure her growth by over the next few weeks. At 37 weeks, he will probably do another scan and assess whether she would thrive and grow better by staying inside, or if she would be better off outside.

Afterwards I called my mom to give her the update, and she gave me both good and bad news. The good news was they did & thought the exact same thing when she was pregnant with me. I was just small, but they did all the growth scans and debated whether or not I would thrive better as an outside baby.

The bad news was that she leaked fluid with my sister. So they put her on bed rest, monitored her fluid and eventually delivered her 6 weeks early.

LOL, she was a big help wasn't she?

Oh! & he put me on antibiotics because they found a small trace of bacteria and I got my first stretch mark.
I'm falling apart people!

But stretch marks aside. More than anything I'm just a little worried about my little girl today. I'm sure it's probably nothing to be concerned about yet, but anytime the Dr. is even the slightest bit concerned, it's hard not to worry.
It makes you feel like maybe you've done something wrong, or maybe there was something that you could have or should have done differently.
Maybe my body isn't giving her everything she needs and that makes you feel like you're failing somehow.
I don't know.

I guess we'll find out tomorrow.
So if you don't mind, just keep us in your thoughts and prayers tonight.
Thanks.

Weekend Recap!

2010-04-05T08:25:00.000-07:00

I hope all of you had a wonderful relaxing weekend.
Mine was absolutely glorious.
Friday I rode along with my BFF to go pick something up for her husband and the town it was in just happened to have a Carter's factory outlet!
So needless to say, I got a cute little outfit & bib for the Pipsqueak.
After we got back we went through her daughter's baby clothes and she's letting me borrow all kinds of clothes, plus some other really great baby necessities.

I went to dinner with my husband Friday night, he was really busy last week so it was the first time we had eaten a meal together since Tuesday. Weekends are always my favorite, because we get to spend so much time together.

Saturday morning we slept in and then I got up and made some cinnamon rolls. They were awesome. The babe & I may or may not have had 2.....a piece.

We registered a cute little shop here in town for some baby items, and spent the afternoon cleaning the boat, getting it ready for the water!!

Afterwards we went to dinner and then to the 10th Avenue North & Casting Crowns concert with our best friends and several other couples from our church. It was awesome!

Pipsqueak was making me a little uncomfortable though, for some reason on Saturday, we had a little 1st Trimester flashback...and here I thought the puking was over with! So far it has only been Saturday, but I've felt kinda nauseous ever since.

On Sunday, we went to church and then lunch at the in-laws. After lunch, the hubby and I hooked up to the boat and put it in the water! We went for the very first pontoon ride of the season and now it's docked at the marina!
Spring is officially here and Summer is closer than ever.

That makes me sooooo happy!

How did you spend your Easter weekend? I hope you all had a fantastic time enjoying the beautiful spring weather and time with your families!

Don't forget, we're having our "Bunny Hop Swap" link up party here on Wednesday! I'm so excited to see what all of you sent out and received. It's gonna be great!

Love is Here

2010-04-04T07:58:00.000-07:00

Love is Here: by 10th Avenue North

Come to the waters, you who thirst and you'll thirst no more.
Come to the father, you who work and you'll work no more.
And all you who labor in vain and to the broken and shamed:

Love is here.
Love is now.
Love is pouring from
His hands, from his brows.
Love is near, it satisfies.
Streams of mercy flowing from his side.
Cuz love is here.

Come to the treasure, you who search and you'll search no more.
Come to the lover you who want and you'll want no more, no.
And all you who labor in vain and to the broken and shamed,

Yeah:

Love is here.
Love is now.
Love is pouring from his hands, from his brows.
Love is near, it satisfies.
Streams of mercy flowing from his side.

Yeah

And to the bruised and fallen,
Captives, bound, and broken hearted.

He is the lord
He is the lord,
Yeah

By his stripes he's paid our ransom
From his wounds we drink salvation

He is the lord
He is the lord

Love is here.
Love is now.
Love is pouring from his hands, from his brows.
Love is near,
It satisfies.
Streams of mercy flowing from his side.
Streams of mercy flowing from his side.
Cuz love is here
Love is here.

Happy Easter Everyone!
I hope you all have a wonderful day with your families and may we all remember the true reason that we celebrate this day!

Whatchu' talking 'bout?

2010-04-02T06:20:00.000-07:00

Calling all bloggers:

I'm looking for some guest posters!
Would any of you be interested in writing a post for "Pippy's Perspective?"
The topic can be totally up to you, whatever you want to write about!
I've been toying around with the idea of having a featured blogger day several times a month. Wouldn't that be kinda fun?

If you're interested, leave a comment here with your e-mail address & we'll get in touch!

No joke...

2010-04-01T14:15:00.001-07:00

The only thing that could have made this day any better than it already was, would be this...

Not the cat...just the frozen rainbow deliciousness.
I love me some snow cones.

It was in the mid 70's here today and that means 2 things.
1.) The snow-cone shop will be opening soon.
2.) SPRING IS HERE!!!!!!
And that Ladies & Gentlemen, is no April Fools Day Joke.

I don't kid around when it comes to snow cones....

I hope everyone had a good April Fools Day. Did you trick anyone?
I would love to hear about your pranks, or maybe a prank someone pulled on you?

A few quick things!

2010-03-31T07:38:00.000-07:00

1. Today is Swap Day if you are participating in the "Bunny Hop Swap"! So start sending those packages if you haven't already. We will be having a Swap Reveal link-up party on Wednesday, so if you are interested in participating, make sure you take a picture of your goodies!

2. Would you like an awesome free photo book? Of course you would! Today is the very last day to create a free 20 page photobook with Picaboo. I made one last week and received it yesterday. It is amazing! I am so in love with it, the quality is fantastic.
For complete details, click here!
Don't forget, today is the LAST DAY. So get designing! I promise, you don't want to miss this.

3. I received an award this week from my girls, Miss Prepperoni & Bella Michelle!
I love awards, they always make me feel so special & this one was no exception!

1. Who is your Style Icon?

2. What is your favorite Socialite Lit. Book?

I admittedly have not read the first one yet, but it was written by the mother of a friend of mine & can't wait to get my hands on a copy.

3.Favorite party theme?

4. Go-to Halloween costume

Totally kidding. This costume is priceless though.

5. Extravagance you can't live without.

Susan Lucci's Youthful Essence Microdermabrasion Kit.
Best.Stuff.Ever.

6. Living person you admire.

My Grandparents.

7. Greatest Fear?

My husband dying. I can't even begin to imagine life without him.

8. Traits you deplore in yourself.

9. What talent would you most like to have?

10. What is your greatest achievement?
This one is tough but right now, I would have to say that I am the most proud of continually striving to be the best wife I can be for my husband.

Okay enough about me!
I have to tag 10 people, so in no particular order:

Blogging: The New Pink
The Richeys from BG
Jorden & Kristin
Adventures of the Wilkinsons
Falling for Baby
Exploits of a Military Momma
The Thomas Chronicles
All Things Cherish
The makings of a Baby Otsie
Honey, Sugah, Dahlin'

The rules:
Post the "Preppy Mafia" picture on your blog.
Tell who tagged you.
Answer the questions.
Tag 10 people & let them know you tagged them!

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

Dear Maternity Store Saleswomen,

2010-03-29T10:52:00.000-07:00

I am writing you to say that hovering around me like a persistent little fly at a picnic, does not make me want to purchase more clothes. In fact, It makes me want to drop everything I'm holding in the middle of the store & run out into the mall. And let's face it, at almost 8 months pregnant, nobody wants to see me do that. Not to mention, I'm pretty sure running would be impossible, I imagine it would look something similar to a penguin trying to run. Not pretty.

Being with child does not make me incapable of buying clothes. I do not need you to tap on my dressing room curtain every 25 seconds and ask if everything is okay, if I need any help, or if you can take anything back for me. I brought my husband, he can go exchange sizes as good as anybody else. He can also tell you to go buzz off, which I assure you, he was only seconds away from doing based on his exasperated expression every time you would come by.

But if you absolutely can't refrain from asking me if you can take the things that I want to purchase to the register, then for crying out loud, make sure it's at the register when I get there. Because getting home from the mall that is 45 minutes away only to realize that the super cute black shirt that I loved and wanted to put on before going back to church ISN'T IN THE BAG causes irrational pregnant lady crying spells. Now not only do I not have the shirt, but I have to drive all the way there and come deal with you again, just to get it.

Sincerely,

Saturday Surprise!

2010-03-27T09:09:00.001-07:00

I don't normally post on saturday.....but I took new belly pictures this morning!

::waves hi::

And from the other side...

You can see her with my shirt down now!
:happy dance:
Unless I'm wearing my super comfy, oversized Georgia sweatshirt...which I do...probably too much.

Happy Saturday! Get out there & enjoy the sunshine. I've got bulbs to plant!

*Anybody else have a total "Amelia Bedelia" flashback when I said I was planting bulbs?

I loved me some Amelia Bedelia...come to think of it, that actually explains a lot.*

If you're going to be a tattle-tail, make sure you have the right address...

2010-03-26T06:45:00.000-07:00

1.) I was talking to my mom yesterday & she walked outside to get her mail. Right afterward, she said "What is this & who are these people?"
I had no idea what she was talking about and she starts saying that she got an envelope in the mail & it has all these pictures in it of people that she doesn't know.
She proceeds to find a little piece of paper that has something typed in itty bitty font, it reads:
"Dear Mrs. XX, Just thought you might like to have these pictures of your husband and Julia. They were taken during their hot steamy affair, after Julia divorced Michael. Some were taken in the Charleston/Savannah area, where they met for several weekend trips. Julia now has a lesbian girlfriend living with her. You know she is nothing but a slut, don't you?...."

Obviously the man in the pictures was not my dad, so mom was laughing by the time she got done reading the note. I asked her if there was a return address & she gave it to me.
I googled it and guess who's name came up? Julia!!
So apparently, whoever actually mailed the pictures, was really trying to get Julia in trouble, by using her address as the return address. sneaky, sneaky.

I have no idea who Julia is but she has made someone very upset with her about something...lol

The really odd part was, she said that the pictures definitely don't yell "hot steamy affair". Some of them were just the man by himself, walking down stairs outside, ect. Some were of a woman (julia?) by herself. There were a few of them together but they weren't touching each other in any way in any of them.

I just wonder how many of these letters got mailed out?

2.) I'm now 100% converted to a twitter fan. The biggest reason why being that it's like a facebook status without the need for censoring. Now, yall know me well enough to know that I very rarely use foul language, but that's not the censoring I'm talking about. I'm talking about having to contemplate what is now an acceptable status because of the backlash you can now receive on facebook.
Having a bad day? Can't write about that, because Grandma Margret will call your mom 'worried' about you.
Exhausted, sore, tired ect? Better not write that or you get, "Just wait till the baby gets here, you'll never get to sleep. You'll be sore all the time, your life will be AWFUL." Seriously, thanks for the support people. Who needs enemies, right?
Do something stupid? You don't want to go there, because we all have that one friend that is ready to rub your nose in all your mistakes & tease you about it forever.
Going home to see your family? That's out, cause there's that one person that you haven't seen since middle school, that you weren't even very close friends with to start with, that leaves those comments saying, " OMG We should totally hang out!!!".

Not a problem on Twitter. That's why I'm a fan.

3.) 2010 Census commercials are annoying. :sings: "We can't go forward, until you mail it back."
I mailed it back, so you can start moving on forward now...

4.) Oh and another thing about facebook. I received a fan page request this week. Someone made a facebook page for their unborn child & "suggested I become a fan."
I hate to break it to everyone but I will not be making a fan page for Pipsqueak. I know you're incredibly disappointed.

5.) It wouldn't be a true "7 quick takes by Pippy" if there wasn't a story about my awesome & incredibly funny husband somewhere in here. He's been out of town all week and one night when I was talking to him on the phone, & he mentioned how tired he was, then he said "It's worth it though, I'm doing all this and working hard now, so that when we're old, we don't have to sit around eating beanie-weenies until we die."
I'm so glad he's thinking about our retirement. lol

6.) If your dog literally 'leaps' off his bed and runs to the front door when you put your jeans on, you are probably spending far too much time in athletic pants...not that it happened to me or anything.

7.) Our pastor recently went on a mission trip to Brazil, on Sunday night, he showed this picture that he took while he was in the plane. He said that they had come through a really bad storm and the pilot increased their altitude to get them above the clouds. The picture was so cool because you could see the dark stormy clouds below the plane, but above them, blue skies & sunshine. He said:

"Never forget, even when you feel like you are going through the worst storm you have ever encountered, the sun is always shining above the clouds."

Breaking news!

2010-03-25T10:05:00.000-07:00

I FELT A FOOT!
with little toes!!!!!

Pip has been doing this thing where she stretches really big & presses her feet against my right side. It's so weird because this little lump pops up almost on my back but as soon as I press & feel against it, she moves it and it disappears. I have been assuming that it was a foot because the hard spot itself is only about 2 inches long.

But this morning I got confirmation...or as close to confirmation as you can get without actually being able to see inside, and well...that would just be creepy.

When she started pressing hard, I started lightly running my fingers over the spot, seeing where it started and stopped. Then I started pressing just a little harder around the edges & I felt a slight change in texture/shape from one side to the other on one end, like little bitty bumps!
Then she moved. Little stinker.

Just for the record, the bump that comes up does not look like this...

(sidenote: Isn't that a creepy-ishly cool picture though? I'm thinking photoshop)

But that's kinda what it feels like, just up by my ribs.

**I'm sorry that the blog has been baby central this week! I had a totally different post planned for today & then felt her little toes, & I couldn't contain myself! Non-baby stuff tomorrow, pinky promise!**

Nursery Sneak Peak

2010-03-24T10:19:00.000-07:00

I had this great post planned about this "Amish friendship bread" that I was going to be baking this morning, but when I started gathering my ingredients I realized I was missing something & am going to have to go to the store before I can start baking...
So that post will have to wait until tomorrow!

In the meantime, anybody want to see a little of Pipsqueak's nursery?

Here's the hubs inspecting all of the crib pieces!

He's a fast worker!

And then of course, I had to put all the bedding in there, even though I'll have to take it off to wash it before long.

Isn't it cute?

That's all for now.
I'm working on a few other little craft projects for her room, but you'll have to wait till I finish!

10..9..8.. We're getting closer to blastoff!

2010-03-23T10:39:00.000-07:00

That's right. I'm officially 30 weeks!
Man, that is soo hard to believe, but things have been going great so I can't complain.
I'm excited about my countdown going into single digits, it just seems so surreal.

Twice a year our region does a huge indoor consignment sale. A lot of it is absolutely brand new stuff, with the tags still on it. They have cribs, pack-n-plays, diapers, blankets, crib sets, toys, bottles. You name it, they have some.
It is very cool & you can save tons of $!
My BFF and I went on Sunday afternoon & I scored some awesome deals for the Pipsqueak including a Baby Einstein Bouncer/Rocker with Mp3 attachment for only $12.

Oh! And the clothes! You wouldn't have believed the racks & racks of clothes.
I didn't buy a whole lot, but I got some things that were just too cute to pass up.

While I was shopping, I realized a few things about myself. Over the past few months I have developed a few addictions.
I know that admitting you have a problem is the first step, so here is my "baby girl clothing addicts anonymous" introduction....

Hi, My name is Pippy & I'm addicted to.....

1. Polka Dots
(To be honest, I was already addicted to polka dots but polka dots on little girls clothes has taken my addiction to a whole new level.)

2.'ruffle-butts'.

3. Sleepers with little footsies. Esp. if they look like a shoe or cute cuddly animal.

4. Little dresses with matching hats & shoes.

5. Little pink sneakers.

I almost can't handle the cuteness of these. They are one of my favorite pipsqueak items so far.

We put the crib together this weekend so stay tuned for a nursery sneak peak sometime this week!

I'm a Georgia girl in a Kentucky world.

2010-03-22T06:38:00.001-07:00

I want to preface this post by saying that I am & always will be a Georgia football fan 100%.
Very few things excite me like watching our boys in Red & Black take the field.

However, I find myself here, living in Kentucky, in the middle of March Madness being pretty darn excited when images like this one come on our big screen tv.

(6'11" freshman DeMarcus Cousins)

Have you seen these guys play?
We're talking about freshman & sophomores here people.

(6'4" freshman John Wall)

They're not just winning. They have been DOMINATING.
For example, in the SEC Tournament they beat No. 15 Tennessee, 74-45

(DeMarcus Cousins)

In the first round of the NCAA Tournament, they beat East Tennessee State, 100-71

(6'9" Patrick Patterson)

Round 2? They beat No 9. Wake Forest, 90-60.

The best part?

(John Wall)

They are having FUN.

So while I will always bleed Red & Black, there's nothing wrong with rocking a little blue during basketball season, right?

I don't remember attending plumbing school...

2010-03-20T09:13:00.000-07:00

Maternity jeans - the inspiration behind "Pants on the ground"

Seriously.

7 Quick Takes - I get a thousand hugs...

2010-03-19T07:42:00.001-07:00

1. I love spell check & predictive text, however I hate it when I'm typing something & it automatically changes the word I'm typing to something completely different. If I wanted it to say that I would have typed that in the first place. Prime example, I got a text from my little sister this week, it read :"I'm heterosexual to Kohl's. do you need anything?"
It was supposed to say "I'm going to go to Kohl's.." but she left out a space somewhere & that was what her 'smartphone' thought she meant to say. LOL

2. This song cracks me up, not because the song itself is actually funny but because my husband, after hearing it for the first time started trying to make his voice sound like this & sing the song to me one morning while he was getting ready for work. I married a clown y'all, but I love him more & more everyday.

3. Speaking of the hubs, he travels a lot for work & frequently has to work late. So when he is actually home we take advantage of the time we get to spend together. I don't clean on the weekends for this reason. Snuggling with him is way more important than dishes in the sink or laundry in the dryer. That's what monday's are for.

4. While I was at the store the other day I started noticing something about brand names. There are some brand names that have absolutely taken over an item. Like Band-aids, everyone says band-aid but it's actually that's a brand, not an particular item. The generic version of band-aid? Adhesive strips.
Jello? It becomes "flavored gelatin mix"
Cool-whip? Whipped topping
There's tons more.

5. I realized yesterday that I still don't have a "The Pioneer Woman" cookbook. :hangs head in shame: My next amazon order will have to rectify this situation.

6. In my latest couponing adventures I came across a coupon for 20% any one Vera Bradley Sale item. So I cruised on over & they had a bag that I had been wanting in a print that I love that has been discontinued on sale. Original price $85.00, on sale for $35.00, I paid $29.50 after using my coupon. I love great deals.

7. Anybody looking for some giveaways? I have oodles of blog friends doing giveaways this week. Here is a list of some you should check out!
Kitchen Belleicious - Red Letter Word Giveaway!
Thrifty Decor Chick - Donna Geissler Photography Giveaway
The Preppy Princess - The Great Preppy Princess Giveaway!
Stacy Says - Ann Taylor clutch giveaway
Short Southern Momma - 100th post giveaway!

Tell them Pippy sent you!

Have a great weekend everyone!!

"It's better than a mango even.."

2010-03-18T09:49:00.001-07:00

I don't normally "steal" other people's blog posts, but I'm totally doing it today.
This was just too good....or bad to not share with all of you.
However , please go visit "Fatherhoody" and thank him for finding this gem for us.
The video is posted on his blog as well and he made a nice list of 13 things to review after you have seen the video.
Seriously, I don't know how he found this but omg. I don't even have words.

Here's my list of things to review...
1. NO
2. When your kid is old enough to talk, it's time to let go of the tit.
3. If your kid is old enough to say, "I won't monkey around I promise" YOU ARE WAY PAST TIME TO WEAN.
4. To quote popular comedian Ron White "Things that make you go 'bleeeggghhh' :shudders"
5. Did I say NO already?

That is just wrong on SOOOO many levels.

*Pippy is not responsible for any side effects you may experience from watching this video. Typical side effects include vomiting, nausea, nightmares, gagging, body shivers (the bad kind), ect.*
The opinions stated are mine, you are free to your own. However if you disagree, you probably should just stop reading my blog now, cause we don't have anything in common. While I fully intend on breastfeeding my child, there will be weaning period sometime between 6 months to a year old. WAY before she can tell me that my milk is better than a million melons. I promise.*

Some people deserve to be pinched...

2010-03-17T09:04:00.001-07:00

Like this guy for instance...he actually deserves far worse than pinching but since everybody's already hatin' on all of the mommy bloggers this week, I'll keep my opinions to myself.

In happier news...

I hope you all have a wonderful & safe St. Patricks Day! Mine will be pretty low key, but I might enjoy some of my thin mints...they come in a green box so that totally counts as a St. Patty's day food, right?

For those of you participating in the Bunny Hop Swap, you should have received an e-mail from me last night with your swap partners e-mail address. If you didn't get one, let me know!

"Y'all need to find a cracker barrel..."

2010-03-16T09:37:00.000-07:00

Can I really be 29 weeks?
Seriously? That can't be possible, can it?

I passed my 3-hour glucose test like a champ! Typing is tough with band-aids on 4 fingers, especially on the iPhone. I clicked on the wrong contact to call several times yesterday...whoops.

We did a little nursery furniture shopping while we were gone this weekend, & have decided on the rest of our furniture. It should be here within 2-4 weeks.
The funniest thing happened while shopping for our glider though, yall are gonna loooove this.

Backstory: Like a good nesting wife & soon to be mother, I have researched all kinds of different gliders & rockers, how much they cost, how long they take to order, where you can get them from, ect. The other night I showed the hubby a picture of the one that I had decided I wanted & where I could get it for the best price.
Like a man, he was just positive that we could find it at a furniture store cheaper & negotiate with them on the price.

Fast forward to Saturday: We get up and go to a reputable baby furniture store in the Atlanta area, because while he is positive that they probably have what I'm looking for at Rooms-to-go, I'm positive that they will not. I persuade him to go with me to the baby store first, so at least he can see exactly what it is that I'm wanting. Then we can go where ever he thinks they might have one.

We pull up and sure enough, there in the window of the baby store, is a chair just like what I'm wanting. He kind of puffs up and says "See! I knew we could find one in a store, & I bet we can negotiate to get it cheaper than what you found online."
I just smiled, because I knew what all of you probably know, my husband has never stepped foot in a baby furniture store & had no idea what kind of price tag he was about to encounter.
It was TRIPLE what I found online & they said ::insert best snooty salesperson voice here:: "Well we don't really lower the price on our floor models, because by selling them, we're really doing YOU a favor, since you don't have to order one."
A favor indeed.

As we walked to the car, he said "I think you did a little more research than I assumed that you had, I'm thinking the one you found was probably the best deal" but since rooms-to-go was practically right next door, we decided that we would go in there, just to check & see if they had one.
Now that the hubby knows exactly what I'm looking for, he walks up to a salesperson & begins to describe it. The convo goes a little something like this:

Hubs: Excuse me, we're looking for a rocker/glider for our nursery
Salesman: ::blankstare:: you mean, like a lay-z-boy?
Hubs: No, not really a recliner. This looks more like a stationary chair, but it rocks/glides when you sit in it.
Salesman: :light of recognition flashes in his eyes: OH!! No man, we don't carry those here. What you need is to find you a cracker barrel, they have all kinds of those sitting out front on their porch, there's one right down the road on the left...
Pippy: :biting lip to keep from laughing:
Hubs: Um, no. It's not really a rocking chair exactly, it's an upholstered chair that glides.
Salesman: Well come over here, I think maybe we were talking about the same thing the first time :proceeds to walk us to the biggest lay-z-boy in the store.:

So needless to say, rooms-to-go was a bust.
Well, except for the fact that I will always giggle every time we pass a cracker barrel from now on...

If you haven't already...

2010-03-15T11:50:00.000-07:00

Today is the last day to sign up for the swap! So if you haven't already signed up, go ahead and click on the "Bunny Hop Swap" overe there on the right sidebar!

I'll be assigning partners tomorrow!

Let me know if you have any questions!

7 Quick Takes - Guest Bathroom Sneak Peak!

2010-03-12T07:30:00.001-08:00

I am so glad it's Friday!
I feel like I haven't seen the hubby all week & I'm definitely ready for some rest & relaxation! We are going to see my family this weekend for my little sister's spring ballet. I'm excited.

Who's ready for some quick takes?
If your joining us for the first time, the idea is simple, you jot down 7 things during the week & compile into one post on Friday. They can be about anything & everything! If you want to participate, just click the "7 Quick Takes" image below...after you read mine of course! : )

1. You know how I said I was ready for some rest & relaxation? I'm happy to announce that I am D-O-N-E at the old place. Everything is moved into the new garage and the old house is clean. I am so so so so excited about that. Now I just have to sort through everything in the garage, but oh well, at least it's all here!

2. I failed my 1-hour glucose test...boo. So now I have to go on Monday for the 3 hour test, let me just tell you how excited I am about the thought of spending 3 hours in a waiting room & getting pricked by a needle every hour. I can hardly contain my excitement. ::dripping with sarcasm::
You want to know what is worse than failing? Having my Dr say "Don't be surprised if you fail, I set my pass threshold really low so that I can be sure and catch all of the borderline cases. I really doubt that you have anything to worry about, your body is handling this pregnancy wonderfully & your weight gain is perfect. You are extremely low risk for gestational diabetes."
Why thank you, I'm rewarded by you wasting 3 hours of a perfectly good day & being stuck by a needle 4 times. Lovely.

3. Moving into a new house is a learning process, you have to retrain yourself, learn where things are, etc. The funniest thing so far has been my husband answering his phone. We own our own business and every morning around 7 his phone will start ringing for the day. People needing his help with whatever. In our old house, we had a metal roof & absolutely no cell reception. So he would lay his phone by the bed, & when it would ring, he would literally "leap" out of bed, & run to the front door so he wouldn't lose the call. So funny.
The new house? Perfect reception. He can talk on his phone anywhere, but old habits are hard to break. Every once and a while, when he's still laying there dozing off, his phone will ring & he leaps into the air. I love it.

4. I have a love/hate relationship with fitted sheets. I love that they stay in place. I hate that every.single.time I put one on a bed, I start when the wrong corner.

5. So far, I have great neighbors! One house down is a couple is in our sunday school class & she happens to be like a couponing guru. She's teaching me how it works, & my first trip went great. My "stuff I got for free" pile was bigger than the "stuff I actually paid for" pile. Awesome!
Our neighbors right next door are Georgia fans!!! So obviously, I know that I like them already. They are from Ga, like me & she is having a baby girl in July.

6. If you have been around my blog for awhile, you know this guy.

This is Hurley. My 4 legged baby.
And by baby, I usually mean it in the "oh I love him so much, I don't know what I would do without him, he's the best dog in the world" kind of way.
But this week I mean it in the "I'm afraid of the new house, I hate the electric garage door, going through the car wash means you should hide in the floorboard" kind of way.
Poor thing. Our old house didn't have alot of windows & this one does, so the thunder & lighting storm we had 2 nights ago, ended up with him all the way under our bed.
In the above picture, he surveying my work in the guest bathroom, giving me a look that says, "Um mom, this is not our house. The people that own it are going to come home eventually and boy, are they going to be mad at you..."

7. I have gotten all kinds of comment & e-mails from you guys this week, wanting to see pictures of our new abode. So even though I wanted to wait until a room was completely finished to post pictures, I thought that I would give you a little sneak peak of what I've done in the guest bathroom so far!

We haven't hung the mirror yet...the hubs has been busy & it's too heavy for me.

And this is how I rewarded myself for getting all the moving done yesterday...

Have a great weekend everyone!!!

Ps. Don't forget, Monday is the last day to sign up for the "Bunny Hop Swap", so tell all your friends and sign up here!

I have a question for you & some Swap info.

2010-03-11T06:42:00.000-08:00

I love it when you guys leave comments! It absolutely makes my day.
I have my blogger account set up to send me an e-mail whenever you leave one, & sometimes I try to reply from my e-mail....
Do you guys get those e-mails?

Sometimes I think they go through because I get a response, but other times, I don't think they are actually getting to the person they were intended for.

In fact, as embarrassing as it is to admit, I think I've been clogging up the "noreply-comment@blogger.com" email box.... fail.

Sooo I'm not entirely sure what to do to fix that but something needs to be done because I love talking to y'all and I frequently want to respond to the comments that you leave.

Should I just start commenting on the blog post itself? Would you see my responses then?
Maybe one of you more experienced bloggers can help me out here, cause I'm as lost as an easter egg....

Speaking of Easter eggs, If you signed up for the Bunny Hop Swap already, you should have received an e-mail from me this morning confirming that you are entered!
March 15th, is the last official day to sign up so if you have any friends that might be interested, send them this way!
We have had lots of people enter so far, it's going to be awesome!

I'm such a tease...

2010-03-10T08:46:00.000-08:00

Anybody want to guess where this doorway goes?

While your guessing, let's get a closer look at what's hanging on that doorknob shall we?

Isn't that precious?

It feels so good to be back blogging again! A whole week blogging from the iphone is definitely better than nothing but it's still not the same!

I promise to post all kinds of picture of the new house once everything is settled, I'm still working on getting things the way I want them, hanging pictures, etc.
It's a long process but I'm thrilled and feel so blessed to be able to do it.

The "Bunny Hop Swap" gets bigger every day! I am so thrilled that so many of you have decided to join in the fun & I want to send a huge thank you to all of my wonderful bloggy friends that have mentioned it on their own blog!
If you haven't entered yet, but want to all you have to do is click & comment here!
You are more than welcome to mention it on your blog and invite all of your readers to
It will be a great way to make some new friends, plus get a fun easter basket!

I'm already planning in my mind some of the things that I'll be putting in the basket that I make, what about you?
What fun ideas have you guys come up with?

We have Internet!

2010-03-09T18:18:00.000-08:00

Woohoo!
We are back up and running!
Unfortunately the hubby's farm town crops didn't survive the move very well, so he has claimed the computer for the evening.
We will return to regularly scheduled programming first thing in the morning!
Thank you all for being so patient with me during the whole moving process, I will make it up to you, I promise!
Goodnight!

Late again...

2010-03-08T19:09:00.000-08:00

Let me just say that moving at 7 months pregnant will wear.you.out. I'm so glad that we didn't wait any longer than we did!
I know it may seem like I'm not around but I'm here! They haven't come and hooked up the phone lines and Internet yet so I'm blogging from the iPhone. They are supposed to come tomorrow so hopefully we will be back to normal after then.
I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Better late than never!

2010-03-04T17:12:00.000-08:00

Sorry this post is so late tonight guys!
We are in full on moving mode at the Pippy household. It's been a crazy day around here, but I think it's safe to say that we are probably 85% moved in! I still have TONS of organizing to do to get everything out of boxes and where it all belongs, but our furniture is moved in & we will be spending the night here tonight!
So exciting!

I'm thrilled about all the people that have signed up for the swap! I think it is going to be so much fun! If you haven't signed up yet and want to, you can comment here or on the bunny hop swap post from Monday! Make sure to leave your email address!

Y'all, moving is exhausting! I'm ready for supper and a long hot shower!
Now if I only knew where I packed my shampoo...

I love buying dishwasher detergent.

2010-03-03T08:30:00.000-08:00

Do you remember about 2 weeks ago when I mentioned that I was contemplating a ssembling the crib in the middle of the living room , just to motivate my husband that we needed to get going on the moving process?
Well a few days later, my husband was reading my blog...
He does that from time to time, he actually enjoys it. So here he was reading & all of a sudden I realized that the next post he was going to read was the one about the crib.
I stayed quiet, watching his face, I wanted to enjoy the moment
All of a sudden he stopped, kind of snickered & cut his eyes at me. "You wouldn't dare.."

I just shrugged and giggled. I might, I might not. Probably wouldn't, but there was definitely a chance that I might. Just depending on how sassy I felt one day. He knew that.

Now fast forward to Monday.
After our ultrasound, we went and met with a friend of ours.
Said friend just so happens to own a realty company.
After signing a few pieces of paper, that same friend tossed me this.

Ladies & Gentleman, that is the key to so many things.
Not the least of which being a nursery, an extra toilet, a dishwasher & enough water pressure that I don't have to stand huddled up in the shower hoping that I will be able to rinse out my hair today.
Happiness does not even begin to describe it.

**Don't forget to enter the swap, if you haven't already!**

The wonders of modern technology

2010-03-02T06:06:00.000-08:00

Is it just me or it it absolutely freaking amazing that with a click of a button, an ultrasound technician can now turn this......

Into this?

Pipsqueak was napping I believe, which is a good thing because the rest of the time she's flipping & kicking so much that I don't think we would have ever gotten a good picture of her.
But we got a couple good ones!

You can see her little nose so clearly! If you look closely you can actually see her little fingers & thumb right there.

It's hard to believe that she is actually inside of me. Seeing her on the screen yesterday was definitely one of those "wow" moments in life. The ones that fill you with so much emotion that you are speechless. Just in awe of what you are looking at.

We're 27 weeks now, with only 13 short weeks to go!

**Just a reminder...if you didn't see the post yesterday about the Easter swap, click here! You have until March 15th to get signed up!**

Bunny Hop Swap!

2010-03-01T10:30:00.000-08:00

I know that you're ready for the big news I promised you on Friday! I have been waiting rather impatiently myself actually.
So without further adieu, I am very pleased to announce that the lovely Deals, Steals & Heels and I are co-hosting the very first "Bunny Hop Swap!".

The object of the swap is to share a little spring with your swap partner by creating an Easter basket for them. You can put things like candy, stationary, note cards, nail polish, or anything that makes you think of spring. Things that would make you smile.
Won't that be fun?

We would like for the baskets to stay around the $20-$25 range, so that it is easy and affordable for everyone who would like to participate.
I don't know about you guys but I am so excited to create an Easter basket for someone. I think that this is going to be a blast.

For those that would like to enter, here is the game plan.

Enter by leaving a comment with your e-mail address, letting me know that you are interested. You can also enter on Deals, Steals & Heels blog here.
If you are uncomfortable posting your e-mail address on the interwebs, you can just e-mail me directly at pippy08@ymail.com.
I will assign partners by March 15th then I will email you, letting you know who your partner for the swap will be. The two of you can then get to know each other, your likes/dislikes and exchange addresses. We would like for all of the baskets to be mailed by March 31st so that everyone will have their basket by Easter. (April 4th!)
We're hoping to have a basket reveal party, where everyone can post a picture of the basket they received on their blog if they would like.
We made a button for the swap, the code for it is posted on my left sidebar. Feel free to put it on your blog and invite all of your readers to join us! The more the merrier!

I really hope that a bunch of you will participate with us. I'm ready for a little burst of spring!

Please let me know if you have any questions at all!

Seven Quick Takes Friday!

2010-02-26T10:36:00.000-08:00

My friend Chelsea @ Roots and Rings has been participating in "7 Quick Takes" for awhile now and I have always really enjoyed reading them. I've wanted to participate before now, but never really felt like I could come up with seven things all at once. I mean, sometimes just coming up with one thing to blog about each day is tough enough.
So for the past few weeks, I have been keeping a list in my handy dandy iPhone.
Anytime something funny, remarkable, thought provoking, or even something boring that I want to remember happens, I write it in my notes.

So after a week of note-taking, I give you my very first "7 Quick Takes"!

#1 - I have BIG news to announce on Monday. We're talking huge. I am so very excited about it, be sure to tune in Monday for the big announcement! You don't want to miss this! (Yes, I am pregnant but you already knew that so no, that's not it. And for the record, no I'm not having twins. Quick take #7 will be your only hint, so keep reading!)

#2 - I always leave my phone out of reach. After 5 mad dashes to find the cordless phone in a week, I should have learned my lesson, but no.

#3- I know that I have already bragged on my husband once this week, but seriously y'all, the man is amazing. I literally fall more in love with him everyday. He has made this pregnancy so easy for me. He's been patient with my crazy emotional mood swings, he's been understanding when we go out to eat and suddenly I can't eat any of the food I just ordered, He's made me feel beautiful in maternity clothes that are most definitely not, and he finds new ways all the time to show me how much he loves me and the baby. Some without even realizing that he's done it.
For example, he loves to go fishing. I grew up spending the summers at my grandparents lake house and I love fishing too, so we have really enjoyed the time we spend going together. Last summer, we bought a bass boat. He loves this boat, it's fast and maneuverable, just what he always wanted.
Do you know what he did? He SOLD it, and bought a Pontoon!
Girls, that is the equivalent of a selling your sports car to buy a minivan. I never asked him to sell it, it never even crossed my mind. For him though, this was something that had to be done, because everyone knows you can't take a baby on a bass boat. A pontoon has shade, and a nice tall railing, perfect for babies and toddlers, and as he said, " Anyways, why would I want to go fishing if I can't take both my girls with me?"
Riley may not know it yet, but she has her daddy wrapped around her teeny tiny finger, and he wouldn't have it any other way.

#4 - In pregnancy news, we are 26 weeks & 3 days today! woohoo! Riley had the hiccups for the first time last night and it was so cute. You know how when you get the hiccups, it kind of makes your head bounce a little? She has been head down the whole time, so last night every time she would hiccup, I would feel a little thump way down low. They were suprisingly fast too, only about 2-3 seconds between each little jump.

#5- I love consignment store shopping! I went on Wednesday and found all kinds of cute stuff but only spent $20! My 2 favorite finds were an old coke crate & a blanket that was the same as the one that was in my crib when I was a baby! I loved that blanket & took it everywhere with me until I was about 5, I still have it but it's pretty torn up from all the love it recieved. I was so excited to find one just like it for my little girl, maybe she will love hers like I loved mine.
What are the odds of me finding that though really? I mean it has to be about 23-25 years old, & is still in perfect condition, besides being a little faded from age, plus it ended up costing a whopping $2.50.

#6 - While I was out driving around one day, I saw a house that someone had turned into a store and out on the front porch they had what appeared to be a rack full of baby clothes with a big sign that said "SALE". I excitedly pulled in, & was admiring a little dress on the front of the rack, it was white tank-top style dress with big red polka dots. Polka-dots are my weakness, I love them. I glanced at the tag to check the size......
it said "Pampered Paws ~ Canine Coture'.
Needless to say, my cheeks were as red as the big polka dots when the lady came outside to ask if I needed any help.

#7 - I am so ready for spring! The winter blues are here and I'm ready for some sunshine, warmth & prettiness. So I need a little help from you! What little things cheer you up? New nailpolish? Fun Stationary? Easter Candy? Leave a comment letting me know!
*I should have clarified that I'm asking about small purchasable items, not things like sunshine & heat*

Have an awesome weekend everyone!!!

Born in the '80's: Gloworms

2010-02-25T08:43:00.000-08:00

It's Thursday & while I should be writing about what I read in my Beth Moore book over the last week, I'm not.
I can't, because I'm a slacker & didn't read.
I usually read at night but heartburn has hit with a vengeance this past week. Every night at about 6:30, it feels like this invades my esophagus.

(Name that Disney Movie!)

So instead of reading, I sit up at the computer, spending all kinds of time looking at baby stuff. The other night I came across a "Soothe & Glow Seahorse".

It's the Playskool's new version of the gloworm!
Do you remember those?
I was born in the 80's and I'm figuring that a bunch of you were too, so it's a safe bet that some of us had one. It would have looked something like this:

and would light up when you squeezed it. Remember?
Yeah, I thought you might.

I had totally forgotten about my old gloworm!
I personally think that I like the seahorse a little better though.
One of the things that I am really enjoying about shopping for the baby is that I see all of this stuff that reminds me of things that I had when I was little. Things that I had completely forgotten about.
And shopping for baby stuff online?
It's awesome! Especially the reviews. Other moms have tried this stuff out, and want you to know if it's going to be a lifesaver or be a huge headache.

And every once in a while, you will come across a review that will change the way you look at a particular item forever.
Like this one that I found while looking at the "Soothe & Glow Seahorse"....

It simply said:
"I wish I was a gloworm, because a gloworm's never glum. How can you be grumpy when the sun shines out your bum?"

::dies::

The Thin Mint Crisis

2010-02-24T09:57:00.000-08:00

I was never a huge myspace person. I just never "got" it, but facebook on the other hand?
Love it!
How awesome is it to be able to keep in contact with all of your friends even though you don't have the hours to spend on the phone like you did in high school?
Anyways, Sunday night I mentioned that I hadn't seen any girl scouts selling cookies this year in my status & that I needed to buy some Thin mints.
Almost immediately someone commented saying that I better hurry because cookie season was almost over.

*cue panic attack*

Yall don't understand my need for these cookies. We go WAY back.
Ever since I was little, my mom would buy everyone in our family their own box of cookies, and you didn't have to share your box with anyone, it was all yours...

That is until your dad and little sister ate all of their box and would sneak cookies from your box.

They were Thin Mint hogs.
Scarfing down their box and then hunting for mine.
So, in an effort to save my cookies, I realized that I could hide mine and eat a couple when no one was around to see the evidence.
After trying several different hiding places, I decided to disguise them and hide them in the freezer.
Let me just say, if you have never had a frozen thin mint...you are seriously missing out.
All of this hiding and waiting taught me something though. You can make a box of cookies last a long long time.
2 boxes? Well, that can last you till the Girl Scouts come around again.
And that my friends, is what I've done.
I've bought 2-3 boxes every year, put them in my freezer and taken a couple out when I'm having a bad day. Never any more than 2-3, about once a week.
They are my bad day treat.

So, as you can imagine I was just a little upset when I was told that cookie season was almost over and I haven't re-stocked my supply!
A whole year without my cookies?
I mean, I'm fixing to have a baby.
I know that I will need my bad day treat, probably even more than usual.

My seriously awesome husband noticed my distress and made this his status message on facebook: "Mr Pippy: if anybody in facebook land can hook me up with some girl scout cookies (thin mints) for my pregnant wife I would be very grateful. She heard they were almost through selling them and is greatly distraught. Your cooperation in this matter is greatly appreciated and will be highly rewarded!!!!!! Thank You"

The man cracks me up.
But it worked!
He brought home 6 boxes the very next day.
I was shocked when I saw how many he had bought, but he just looked at me, smiled and said "This was all she had left, and I wanted to make sure my girls didn't run out."

I love that man.

This can't wait!

2010-02-22T13:13:00.001-08:00

We're still working on the blog re-design around here, so please excuse my mess.

In the meantime though, you need to head over to my friend Jessica's blog - Kitchen Belleicious!
She is doing an awesome giveaway right now.
You can enter for a chance to win a $50 Lisa Leonard Gift Certificate!!!
Lisa Leonard's necklaces have been featured in Glamour, Instyle, Parenting Magazine & Baby Coture!

I can't decide which necklace I would get if I won, I'm torn between these two...

This one with my name, the hubby & pipsqueak....

Or

One like this, maybe even customized with Pipsqueak's name.

What do you think?

Click here to enter the giveaway! Tell her Pippy sent you!

Blog Under Construction

2010-02-20T19:29:00.000-08:00

We've got our hard hats on around here.
If you're visiting, please pardon the mess, things should be back to normal on Monday.
Thanks!

Belly Pic Friday!

2010-02-19T10:55:00.000-08:00

Notice anything new?
Okay, so it's not perfect, I know, but I did this all by myself!
It's my first attempt at blog design on my own and even if it's not perfect. I'm proud!

I even made a new button!
<------ See? You can take the code below it and add me to your blog!

Alright! Onto the Belly pictures!
Several of you told me I should post a new one, so here I am at 25 weeks!
It's getting a little bigger!

This next one cracks me up because you can see her pressing out, making the bump look almost triangular.

If you want to see the last belly picture (@ 20 weeks), Click here!

Have a great weekend everyone!!!

So Long, Insecurity (Week 1)

2010-02-18T07:31:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone!
Welcome to my first week discussing the book "So Long, Insecurity" by Beth Moore.
For those of you that haven't gotten your copy yet, just let me know. I can hook you up!

I know these posts will have a little more depth than what you're probably used to reading on here but I'm kind of excited about it. It will mix things up a little. I love goofing off & being funny, but there's more to me than that, so I hope you'll stick with me on Thursdays too.
Ready?
Let's go.

As I picked up the book, and started reading this week, I was kind of just coasting through. The first several pages were an overview of Insecurity & I was pretty sure that I had a good grasp on what the word meant.
It's something I have always dealt with. At times worse than others, but it's been present in my life for as long as I can remember. I've always worried about fitting in. I was never one of those girls that could shake it off and say "Who cares what they think anyways?" I mean, I could say those words, but inside I was saying "I care! Maybe I shouldn't... but I do."
So as I grew up, I learned to adapt. Or at least I thought I had. Until I read this...

Our minds start sketching what a self-conscious person looks and acts like, and we know we don't want to be her. After all, we have way too much pride to be her. But the truth is, she's not as easily pegged as that seventh grader who has perfected the art of changing into her gym clothes without first taking off her dress. I hate to state the obvious but all it takes to be chronically self conscious is to be chronically conscious of self.
Self consciousness is an acute self awareness...no matter how it's externalized in life.
The self conscious person may protect herself with plainness and try to blend into the paint but she may also dress herself to perfection and stand squarely in the spotlight.....Whether she feels inferior or superior, she takes a frequent inventory of her place in the space.
She may like it or hate it, but she is rarely oblivious to it.
~Beth Moore

And I thought that I had learned to adapt. What I've really done is learned to be one or the other. I was most definitely the girl that learned how to change clothes without undressing, but now? Some days I want to blend in, some days I want to look perfect, but the root issue stays the same. I'm insecure about my appearance. Almost always.
The delete button on my camera gets far more attention than it should, and that's if I let anyone take my picture to begin with.
I cringe when I run into people I know at the store, which is almost always on a "athletic pants and baseball hat day".
You know what kind of days I'm talking about.

And Pregnancy?
With all the joy, happiness and amazement it has brought to my life, well let's just say it hasn't helped my little problem. I wouldn't trade being pregnant with my daughter for anything, In fact, I'm actually loving being pregnant. Feeling her move it's like a miracle every time and I cherish this time I'm getting to spend with her that I don't have to share with anyone else.
But just as far as insecurity goes, maternity clothes are awful. I haven't felt like I looked good in anything I've had on in months. Partly because, at 6 months, I still have practically no belly. I have a little one, but instead of baby belly, it looks like I've been nommin' on cheeseburgers. And that's what people tell me! Either that, or they give me the side-eye and tell me I don't look pregnant.

Which obviously re-lights the fire under the whole insecurity problem, and I don't know about you but it's one problem that I'm more than ready to kick to the curb.

Insecurity is miserable. That's the bottom line. We don't need it. We don't want it. And we really can live without it. So what would happen if we quit being accomplices in our own misery?
~Beth Moore

I don't know what will happen. But I'm ready to find out.
So long, Insecurity.

Party Tonight, Sophie is invited...(& Givaway Winner !!!)

2010-02-17T06:58:00.000-08:00

Since I couldn't enjoy my bagel for breakfast this morning....
*cough* Thanks, KRISTIN! *cough*
I came straight here to post the winner of the Beth Moore giveaway!!!

The winner is.....
bswhit!
Congratulations!!
I started reading my copy last night, It's so good! You're going to love it!
You can e-mail me at pippy08@ymail.com, and I'll get your copy in the mail to you today!

For any of you wanting to purchase the book, let me know. I can get you a great deal on it!

Speaking of great deals....I did a little shopping yesterday.
It all started because of Twitter. I knew that thing would get me in trouble.
Anyways, I signed up to follow "Online Baby Deals" on Twitter.
If you're pregnant or already have kids, you should follow her too, because she posts some pretty awesome deals on there.
As I was browsing her "tweets" (lol I feel like such a dork saying that), I saw that she had a listing for "Sophie the Giraffe" on sale.
What is a Sophie, you ask?
Let me present Exhibit A:

In my humble opinion, she looks like a glorified dog toy, BUT apparently babies think she is the best thing EVER. I have many, many friends that all sing Sophie's praises. I'm not entirely sure why babies love her so much, but one of my mommy friends refers to Sophie as "Baby Crack" sooo.... they obviously love her.
She's made of a really soft rubber so I'm thinking that she must feel good on the gums?
Sophie usually costs like $21 dollars & that's a stinking lot for a dog...I mean baby toy.
However, she was on sale for $15 and while that still seems like a lot to me, I would rather save the money & buy her on sale than pay full price later on.
So here's to hoping that she is as awesome as they all claim.

The thing about shopping on Amazon though, is they always get me with the "Spend $5 more & qualify for Free Shipping!"
I think it's the word free. Gets me every time.
So I bought a 5 pack of onesies, cause I know I'll need tons of those.
And then I saw this.....

Yeah, I had to have it. I actually laughed out loud when I read it.

Have a great Wednesday everybody, be sure & come back tomorrow for Week One of the "So Long Insecurity" posts!

*DISCLAIMER* If you are pregnant, eating, trying to avoid thoughts of actually giving birth, or any combination of those...don't click on Kristin's name at the top of this post. I know you will anyways, cause you're curious. But don't say I didn't warn you.*

Talkative Tuesday

2010-02-16T09:02:00.000-08:00

It's called that because I have so much to say today and it's kind of all over the place...so just bear with me.

First off, we are officially 25 weeks pregnant today (woohoo) with 105 days to go!
I feel the need to reiterate how fast this pregnancy is going, it's absolutely flying by.

I'm trying to find good ways to remind my husband of this fact, because things are going so slow with the new house/moving process.

I've been contemplating assembling the crib in the middle of the living room.
You know, in case he needs a visual aid?
Would that be too evil or just evil enough to get the point across? I'm unsure.

Along with the 25 week milestone, I broke down today and signed up for Twitter. I know I'm like the last person on the planet to have one, but I have yet to understand the appeal. I'm willing to give it a shot though, so If you want to follow me, click here!
Unfortunately, I have no idea how it works.
I managed to post a tweet? and follow 2 people. So that's something.
If you can share your twitter knowledge with me, I will be forever grateful.
Thanks.

Now for a tease...
I have something very cool in the works for you guys. I'm SO excited about it. I can't give you any more details than that at the moment, but I think you are going to love it. It's going to be a blast.

Just a reminder, the giveaway ends tonight at midnight, so if you haven't entered yet, you better get moving!

My heart is so happy! (& giveaway reminder.)

2010-02-15T07:04:00.000-08:00

I hope all of you had a wonderful Valentine's weekend!

For 2 of my very dear bloggy friends, this weekend was extra special & I can't wait to tell you why.

First, Mrs. Southern Belle got to spend her Valentine's day snuggling with her new baby boy!!!!!
He was born on Saturday, February 13th at 12:13.
Welcome to the world, Keating! We are so happy you are here.
For a picture of the valentine's cutie, click here!

Second, Chelsea got to spend her Valentine's day knowing that next year, her little valentine will be here!!!
Congratulations to Chelsea at Roots & Rings!!!
She announced her pregnancy this morning, & I am beyond thrilled for her.
So please go tell her Congratulations by clicking here!

WOW, Pipsqueak is going to have all kinds of new friends.
I am so thrilled for both of these wonderful women.

Giveaway update!!!
The deadline for the giveaway has been extended to Tuesday night at midnight so if you haven't entered yet , click here to enter now!

I'm so excited! (psst...it's a giveaway!)

2010-02-12T08:02:00.000-08:00

*sings* "I'm so excited & I just can't hide it..."
Now that's going to be stuck in your head, your welcome.

I have something awesome to tell you!
Many of you may know this but one of my all-time favorite authors, the lovely Beth Moore has released her new book. It's titled "So Long, Insecurity".
To celebrate this, I'm doing a giveaway!!!
One of you will become the proud new owners of this book!

"We're insecure, you, me & every woman. In fact, chronic insecurity is a cultural epidemic but almost no one is talking about it. And it ticks me off." ~Beth Moore

I absolutely love that she chose insecurity as the topic for this one.

I believe that in some way or another all women battle with this.
Maybe your insecure about your looks, weight, relationships, the way others see you, maybe you're fixing to be a new mom and your absolutely scared to death that you will have no idea what your doing & fail miserably...or you know, whatever.
Insecurity is a huge deal for a lot of us, & I have no doubt that Beth will use her amazing sense of humor to get down to the root of it & help us overcome something that is sometimes, extremely hard to overcome.

Beth is also doing a book club type thing on her blog that I will also be participating in. So for the next couple weeks, on Thursdays, I will be discussing what I've read in the book on here & maybe picking some of my favorite comments to share from Beth's blog!

Beth has truly been given a gift. I have learned and grown so much from her books and bible studies in the past.
Regardless of who wins the giveaway, I really hope that some of you will get this book & go on this journey with me.

Okay, onto the fun part.
Ways to Enter!
Please leave a separate comment for each entry so that I don't miss anyone!

1 -Comment on this post letting me know that you are a follower of my blog.

2 -Leave a comment sharing something you are insecure about.

3 - Blog about this giveaway & leave me comment with the link!

4 - Go to Beth Moore's blog, & become a follower there! You can sign up for the book club by commenting on this post.

Okay, the giveaway will be open until Monday night at midnight!
Good Luck!

24 Weeks!

2010-02-11T07:55:00.000-08:00

As my Dr. said yesterday "That's a milestone."
Pipsqueak now has a 50% chance of making it if she came early.
*Pip, that's not an invitation to come right now. You have to stay put for at least 10 more weeks.*

She is about a 11 inches long by now & weighs a little over a pound!
Our ticker says that we have approximately 110 days left!
I've read that she probably sleeps about 11-12 hours a day now, but I'm not sold on that. If she does, she sleeps in like 30 minute increments. Hopefully her "outside" sleeping habits will be a little better than her "inside" ones.

I painted something for her room last night. I haven't done a whole lot of painting since I've been pregnant & wasn't expecting her kicks to make it so difficult!
She has uncanny timing, it was like "Oh mom is trying to paint a straight line, hehe watch this!"

*please excuse the crappiness of the iPhone picture quality*

Anyways, I'm proud of how it turned out. I think it will match the bedding pretty well.

Hibernation

2010-02-09T09:49:00.000-08:00

Last night I dreamed of this...

It was so real, like I was actually there.
After waking up from that dream to go to the restroom, I drifted here...

It was awesome.
I could feel the sun & the warmth.
When I woke up there was light streaming in the window, it was bright. I thought to myself "Could the sun actually be shining? Is it possible that it might be warm?"
I peeked through the blinds and saw.....

This.

I'm going back to bed. Wake me up around the end of March.

A plea to all my pregnant & new mommy friends...

2010-02-05T09:42:00.000-08:00

I need help finding maternity clothes. I cannot find anything that looks halfway decent that doesn't cost a fortune.
Where do I go? I don't even know where to look.
Help me please!

23 Weeks!

2010-02-04T08:41:00.000-08:00

My ticker over there says 117 days to go! I can't believe we are almost to double digits!
I got to go home & visit my family the first half of the week, & we went to this cute little baby clothes consignment store.
Riley has some of the cutest clothes ever. I have never had that much fun shopping in my life.

Here's the 23 week update!

* How far along?: 23 weeks & 2 days
* Total weight gain: 5 lbs
* How big is baby?: 8.5 inches & about 1.5 lbs.
* Sex: GIRL!
* Maternity clothes?: Most of my shirts are still fine, but she doesn't like the band in my maternity pants. She shows her disapproval by kicking it as hard as she can, same with seatbelts. So I've been hanging out in sweats & athletic pants whenever possible.
* Stretch marks?: None so far.
* Sleep?: HA. nuff said.
* Best moment this week? She has started doing these crazy flips at night when I'm trying to sleep, but then when my husband puts his hand on my stomach she will calm down. It's so sweet.
* Movement?: She's always moving! She makes my belly shake & jump like crazy.
* Food cravings?: Nothing really.
* Labor signs?: Nope, I've had the occasional BH but that's it.
* Belly button in or out?: Still in, but it's changing shape. It's a lot more shallow than it used to be.
* What I miss: I leaned over to tie my shoes while sitting in the car & couldn't reach. I still just barely have a belly, but my range of motion is definitely limited already.
* What I'm looking forward to: Starting on the nursery
* Words of Wisdom: Sleep when you can, you never know what the next night is going to be like.
* Milestone: Just about anybody who wants to feel or see her move has been able to. She's not shy.

Setting the record straight...

2010-02-02T06:58:00.000-08:00

Today, instead of just "Life from Pippy's Perspective", you're going to get "GROUNDHOG'S DAY from Pippy's perspective".
There seems to be a little confusion on this issue & I want to set the record straight for good.

Meet Puxsatawney Phil

He lives in Pennsylvania & resides on Gobbler's Knob.
He "claims" to be America's groundhog, however that's really not the case. He's really only half of America's groundhog.

So how do you know if Phil is your groundhog?
Well that's pretty easy, it all depends on whether or not you live "above" the Mason-Dixon line. If you do, well in that case, sure, he's your man.
By the way, your man said 6 more weeks of winter. Sorry bout your luck.

But what about us "below" the mason-dixon line?
We rest our hopes for spring on one groundhog alone.

You see, in this mini southern plantation house on the Yellow River Game ranch in Lilburn, Ga resides a little groundhog by the name of "General Beauregard Lee".

He's our guy!

He's cute & cuddly & he says early spring! What's not to love?

So there you have it folks, no more confusion.

Happy Groundhog's Day!

Happy Monday!

2010-02-01T07:50:00.000-08:00

Happy Monday everybody!
I know Monday's generally suck, so I thought that I would share a couple things that made me happy this weekend to lighten the mood. Plus it gives me something to blog about since I'm lacking inspiration today & blog posts make me happy.

#1 - I love things on Clearance! When my husband & I went to register at Babies R Us at Christmas, we found the travel system that we wanted but they were sadly out of stock. I've since been to 2 more Babies R Us & they have also been out of stock. When we were at the one closest to our house, my husband asked if we could just buy the floor model & they told us no, they don't sell their floor models & the soonest they would be able to get us one was April. I've looked online, everywhere. It was looking like it was definitely going to be April before we had a chance....
Then yesterday I got a flyer in the newspaper saying Babies R Us was having a big diaper sale so hubby & I decided to run by there after church.
You wanna know what I saw right when we walked in the front door?
Our travel system, on clearance! They decided to sell the floor model after all & it was $70 cheaper than the list price!!!
Talk about perfect timing, I was SO excited.

#2 - I love flipping through the radio stations & listening to my husband sing. The man can really sing when he wants to, & I love that, but what really makes me happy is when he's just playing around. He tried to sing "Ring of Fire" just like Johnny Cash, he created new words to multiple songs, & you get the idea.
For instance, the song that says "I may hate myself in the morning, but I'm going to love you tonight" is now "I may hate myself in the morning, but I'm gonna put it on you tonight" among other things.
*sigh* He'll never grow up, but oh, he makes me laugh.

#3 - I don't watch award shows...gasp, I know. They have just never interested me that much. However, I LOVE the morning after award shows. Yahoo has all the red carpet pictures right there for me to look through as I eat breakfast.
They give me things like this.....

Seriously??

And This....

And honestly, I have NO idea what this is...

But it's a hot mess, whatever it is...

And I'll admit, it makes me a little happy.
I love a good giggle in the morning.

What made you happy this weekend?

Friday Funnies

2010-01-29T11:18:00.000-08:00

Nursery Ideas

2010-01-26T08:16:00.000-08:00

You asked for our nursery ideas...

Well that story begins a little over a year ago.

My super sweet husband goes to Big Lots sometimes to buy things for work. One day while he was there, he walked past a bin of miscellaneous blankets.
I'm always cold, so he stopped to look & see what was in there.
While he was looking, he came across a pack of receiving blankets.

I'm pretty sure he was sold the minute he saw the words "Bandana Bear" but when he saw the pattern, he was for sure bringing them home.

So that afternoon, he brings them home to me.
He says "I know we haven't even started trying to have a baby yet, but I saw these at the store & I wanted us to have them for when the time comes. There's a whole nursery set that matches it."
He pointed to the picture of a nursery on the pack of blankets.

The picture on the pack looks like this.

He went on to say that he really liked it, & wanted me to try to find it, "for you know, when the time comes."

Naturally, the whole thing, made my female heart melt.
I was concerned by one thing though.
He found the blankets at Big Lots, which is overstock or things that are left over from discontinued lines.
As it turns out, the line had indeed been discontinued.

That made it a challenge, but after several months, I came across a listing for the complete set.
A lady had listed it on Craig's List. I contacted her & she told me that her parents had a cabin on a lake & they had made a nursery for her daughter there. However, they only went a few times, & the set had been slept in about 3 times.
I was a little hesitant but she was only asking $35, so I figured "Why not?" I was willing to take a chance for that.
It came in a big box, & I was oh so pleasantly surprised when I opened it.
It had been listed as a 4 piece set, Blanket, bumper, sheet & decorative head board piece.
The blanket looks like this

What was in that box was so much more than a 4 piece set.

Not only was the blanket, bumper, sheet & headpiece in there, but she had thrown in the mobile, lamp, dust ruffle, diaper stacker, & 5 extra sheets!!!
I was so excited & my husband?
Well, I knew from the look on his face when he picked the blanket up that it was the best $35 I had ever spent.

Just having him pick it out himself made it worth the hassle of trying to find it.

So that bedding will go in this crib from JCPenney.
In Cherry, not white.

I'm not 100% sure on the rest, but I really like the look of the vinyl trees & branches.
I'm considering this branch to go on a wall in the nursery to bring out some of the blue & green in the bedding.

& maybe one of these in a different color, saying "Riley" over the crib.

A lot of it will just depend on what color I end up painting the nursery.
That's about all I have right now.

If you have any ideas for me, let me know! I would love to have your input or design ideas!

The answers to your questions!

2010-01-25T09:02:00.000-08:00

Good morning!
I hope y'all had a good weekend!
I did except for lack of sleep. Baby Pippy has decided that night time is the best time for extreme acrobatics.
Which is fun, but it wakes me up...& keeps me that way.

Okay so, you guys had some questions, & how I have some answers! Ready?

#1 Michele from "My Italian Grandmother" said "I had no idea you could blog using a Wii! How does that work?"

A: This was actually a new discovery for me last week because I had no idea I could surf the internet on that thing. It's pretty cool! The back of the Wii has a place where you can hook up an phone line. We actually have wireless internet in our house, so I'm not sure how you hook the phone line up, but however you connect, you just go to the settings on the Wii & go to the internet setting. After you hook it up, you can now access the Wii shop channel. It's on the Wii startup menu when you first turn it on. From there, you can download the Internet Channel, it's free. Then presto! You now have a internet browser on your Wii. You can use it just like the one on your computer! Enjoy!

#2 Kelsey from "The Richey's from BG" asked "Do you ride horses? Did you ride when Mr. Pippy trained horses. Where did you live?

A: Yep! I've ridden since I was a kid. He was training cutting horses in Georgia (where I'm from), I actually took him a horse to train for me, that's how we met! We traveled all over the USA going to shows, Mr. Pippy was very good! I didn't show as much as He did, I was usually too busy helping him or our customers but I got 4th at the All American Quarter Horse Congress one year!

We stayed in Georgia for awhile before moving to western Kentucky. His family is in the car business here & his dad wanted to retire so he moved home to run the family business. Now our horses are just a hobby instead of our jobs, but we still really enjoy them!

#3 Chelsea from "Roots & Rings" wanted to know where our crib is from & some Nursery details!

A: The Crib is from JCPenney! It got here the other day, however I haven't set it up yet. I promise I will post pictures as soon as we do. I have all kinds of Nursery details for you guys, but I feel like it deserves it's own seperate post with lots of pictures. So I promise I will post that this week, maybe even tomorrow! Fair enough?

#4 Haley from "Deals, Steals & Heels" didn't really ask a question, but this is for you Haley!

It's Baby Pipsqueak's very first swimsuit!!! I fell in LOVE & had to have it. I also wanted to be the one to buy her first swimsuit. That makes it even more special to me.

Which brings us to our last question...

#5 Candace from "Mrs. Southern Belle" wanted to know our top name picks for Baby Pippy.

I love calling her Pipsqueak as her nickname, but she does in fact, have a real name that was picked out just for her.

While Mr. Pippy & I did all that traveling all over the country that I mentioned earlier, we had loads of time to talk about anything & everything. So we had already discussed what names we liked & didn't like before we even got pregnant.

We knew all along that if we were ever blessed with a little girl that we would name her...

Riley Elizabeth

: )

Happy Monday everyone!

I'm dissapointed, I'll admit it..

2010-01-22T08:19:00.000-08:00

For starters, my husbands trip got delayed & he won't be back untill this afternoon.
But I'm also really dissapointed that only 2 people had any questions for me...Guys that's hard on the pregnancy hormones. So now I'm here feeling like I could cry in my cheerio's with the song " nobody likes me, guess I'll go eat worms" playing in my head.
But I digress,
I promise to answer the questions I received on Monday when the computer is back in my possession.

I hope y'all have a great weekend!
~Pippy

Don't forget.. I still need help

2010-01-21T10:10:00.000-08:00

I still need some more questions to answer for tomorrow's post!
Lurkers, now would be a great chance to introduce yourself & come play!
I know some of my regular readers have to have some questions as well!
I know you guys won't let me down.

Check out yesterday's post for complete details!

I can't wait to answer the questions ya'll come up with!!

I messed up...HELP : )

2010-01-20T15:14:00.000-08:00

I sent my laptop out of town with my husband!
So now I'm stuck blogging from either my iPhone or the Wii. Neither one is easy. So here's what I need from you guys, #1 I need questions. Anything you want to know about yours truly, & #2 check out some of the awesome blogs listed on the left and tell me what your favorite one is! They are all fantastic so you really can't go wrong.
And since we're blog hopping, maybe share some of your favorites with me? I'm gonna need some reading material till Mr. Pippy gets home!

That is your assignment, should you choose to accept it.
You have untill tomorrow night!

Annnnd go!!!

I Won!

2010-01-18T07:48:00.000-08:00

Did anyone watch the Golden Globes last night?
Did you see me?
I just KNEW they would mention my very first blog award, but I was too busy watching Jack Bauer try to save the world for the 56,000th time.

Speaking of, How many times does the dude have to prevent a major disaster before they start listening to him? He's got a hunch & they say "No thanks Jack, we're gonna do this our way, you can run along now."

Anyways, Back to my awesome award! My friend Joy @ Thoughts for the Journey, gave me this award on Friday. Thank you so much Joy! It's the Happy 101 award.

Te rules are: list 10 things that make you happy & then pass on the award to 10 bloggers that make your day a better one.

So here goes:

10 Things that make me happy: (In no particular order)
1. My Husband
2. My Friends
3. My Family
4 My Lord & Savior
5. Baby kicks & rolls
6. Crafts
7. Fresh coats of paint
8. Sunshine
9. Christmas lights
10. Blogging & my readers! I love you guys, comments seriously make my day. I love reading & getting to know each one of you better, you are an awesome group of women & I feel blessed to have "met" every one of you.

10 Blogs that make my day a better one:
1. Roots & Rings
2. Deals, Steals & Heels
3. Mrs. Southern Belle
4. Jorden & Kristin
5. Big things come in small packages
6. I pick pretty
7. Prepperoni
8. Shanty to Chic
9. Thrifty Decor Chick
10. A penny saved

I had to pick 10 but there were plenty more! Thank you all for allowing me the opportunity to get to know you & sharing your lives. It's been such a blessing!

My budget is in trouble...

2010-01-15T07:47:00.000-08:00

But...

How adorable is this?

No I didn't buy it...but I wanted to.

The Big Announcement

2010-01-13T16:18:00.000-08:00

Pipsqueak wants you to know that:

A healthy, active, shy, sweet baby girl.
Did I say active?
She wouldn't be still! We had such a hard time getting all her measurements. She was head down & hiding her little face. We got a few glimpses but she would put her hand up there to hide, or scratch her face & head.
It was so incredibly awesome to see her little fingers moving & twitching.
To see her kicking & feel it at the same time was such a unreal experience.
I could have laid there all day watching her.
We are so excited!

Hi guys!

2010-01-13T11:33:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to let you know that Pipsqueak & I both doing great! I'm not home yet & it's hard to blog from my phone! As soon as I get home, I'll post an update! I know you are all dying to know what pipsqueak is!

Halfway!?!?

2010-01-12T07:58:00.000-08:00

Oh my goodness y'all,
I am 20 WEEKS pregnant today.
Holy Cow, that is halfway! It sooo doesn't seem like it has been that long, & with this weather, May/June seems so very far away.

Tomorrow is the big ultrasound! I am so excited to see our little baby again. The last time that we saw our baby, it looked like this:

I can't wait to see how much Pip has grown! With all the jumping & dancing that I have been feeling, I'm sure that it's quite a bit!

It's been a while since I've answered the weekly questions but in honor of week 20, here they are!

* How far along?: 20 weeks!
* Total weight gain: At my appointment in December it was 3lbs. I don't keep a scale in my house because "Scales are da debil."
* How big is baby?: Head to Rump about 6.5 inches!
* Sex: sometimes lol j/k *see weekly wisdom* We find out tomorrow!!! I hope! Pip, you're grounded for life if you don't show us the goods!
* Maternity clothes?: Yes & No, My shirts are still pretty good, but not great. I'm loving the maternity pants except for the tighter band that keeps them from falling down is right across where the baby hangs out, so it's uncomfortable sometimes.
* Stretch marks?: None yet & I have been pretty awful about not using my lotion, I better start making a better habit.
* Sleep?: not too bad, still waking up about 2 times to use the restroom.
* Best moment this week? Knowing the ultrasound is finally almost here.
* Movement?: Oh my goodness, yes. Pip wants to be the kicker for UGA, Do somersaults with the cheerleaders & swim on the synchronized swimming team.
* Food cravings?: Nah, not really. The whole pickles & ice cream thing never happened for me.
* Labor signs?: No, & they need to stay away for a long long time.
* Belly button in or out?: In
* What I miss: Honestly? Not a whole lot, yeah I'd love some Sushi but I'm really enjoying this part of being pregnant so I don't miss a whole lot.
* What I'm looking forward to: Tomorrow!
* Words of Wisdom: You're not going to "hurt" the baby during *ahem* marital relations. However, just because you know that you're not, doesn't keep you from worrying about it. all.the.time. lol
* Milestone: 20 weeks! We're halfway there!

So I don't guess I have to tell you, but check in tomorrow!!! Our appointment is at 9 cst!

I forgot to show you guys something!

2010-01-11T12:43:00.000-08:00

In all the excitement of the holidays, I forgot to tell you "The Crib Story".
It's a long story, one with lots of emotions & frustrations, one that ultimately ends with me finding out that someone had bought us a crib as a surprise*.

We greatly appreciated the gesture, however there were some design elements that didn't quite work for me, so we returned it**, & exchanged it for this!

(Except in Cherry, not White.)
Like this!

I really like how it sweeps down in the front, I'm not very tall & thought that it would be easier to bend over to pick the baby up.
I also really like the trundle drawer underneath. The nursery is kinda small, so extra storage is always a good thing!
It's also a conversion bed that becomes a toddler bed, & then a full sized bed.

As soon as it gets here & we get it set up, I will definitely post more pics!

*Surprise as in totally unexpected with no previous mention whatsoever.

**Word to the wise, when "surprising" someone with furniture, or something they would have a hard time picking out themselves, always check the return policy.

***If you want the full story, you can shoot me an e-mail***

Belly pic anyone?

2010-01-08T09:21:00.000-08:00

It's my very first belly pic for the blog.
I'll apologize in advance for it being my bare belly. Unfortunately if I leave my t-shirt down you can't see the belly, thus no belly pic.
Sooo you see my predicament.

Anyways, here we are at 19 & 1/2 weeks!

(Please ignore the wall paneling, we're moving soon & I cannot even begin to till you how excited I am to be saying adios to that!)

There you have it, my little pipsqueak bump!
Don't forget to vote in the poll!

To the right..

2010-01-07T11:10:00.000-08:00

You will see a little poll.
A pipsqueak sized poll.
What do YOU think baby Pip is? Boy or Girl?
The poll is open till Wednesday, when I *hope* to be making the big announcement! So make sure to vote before then.

Just for fun, I answered some questions to help you make your guess, unless you just have a hunch.

If the heart rate is under 140 you'll have a boy.

This one is tough, our first u/s the heartbeat was 114 then the doppler further along said 145?

If you are carrying all your weight out front its a girl, if your weight is around your hips and bottom it's a boy.

All 3lbs? lol I'd say it's around my hips so Boy.

If your bump is low it's a boy if your bump is up higher it's a girl.

Definitely boy.

If the baby is very active it's a boy.

For sure boy. (I'm thinking future kicker for UGA)

If you're craving sweets it's a girl, if you're craving salt you're having a boy.

What about fruit? I can't really pick sweet or salty.

If a wedding ring or needle suspended over your belly moves in a strong circular motion you are having a girl. If it moves to and fro like a pendulum, you're having a boy.

Boy! The hubby even tried swinging it in a circle, & as soon as he stopped it went back to a straight line.

If daddy is gaining weight along with mommy (or more than mommy) it's a girl.

Then it's a girl! He's definitely gained more than me.

When picking up a single key, if she picks it up from the thin end, it's a girl. If she picks up the key from the base it's a boy.

It'll be a boy.

If your face is colored in acne you're having a girl. If you have clear beautiful skin you'll have a boy.

Um, It's mediocre? Not covered but not clear & beautiful.

Do you sleep on your Right or your Left side? Right you're having a girl, left you're having a boy.

Girl, I mainly sleep on my right side.

If you are puking all the time you'll have a girl.

Once again, hard to tell. Lots of nausea, very little actual puking.

If your hands are dry you'll have a boy, if they are soft you'll have a girl.

Neither? It's normal. Neither dry or super soft.

If you're drinking lots of orange juice and other citrus you're having a girl.

Boy, I could care less about OJ.

If you feel graceful during pregnancy you're having a girl, but if you feel clumsy you'll be having a boy.

I think this would have to be Boy, I've been pretty clumsy. However, I was was to start with anyways : )

If you gain weight in your face you're having a girl.

No facial weight gain, so Boy!

If you are especially moody you'll be having a girl.

Nope pretty normal, Boy.

The Mayan tale adds the mothers age at conception and the year of conception. If the result is an even number then mom is having a girl. If the result is an odd number then a boy is on the way!

The Mayans say Boy.

If you are the first born child, you will have what your mom had but starting with her second child. If you are the middle child, you will have what she had but starting with the third. If you are the last child you will have what your mother had in the exact order.

We'll have a Girl.

If you eat the ends of bread, it’s a boy. If you eat the middle of the loaf, it’s a girl.

Girl. Who eats the end of a loaf though? That's just weird.

The Chinese Gender Chart claims to have an accuracy rate of over 90%. It is based on how old the mother is at conception and the month that she conceived.

The Chinese say Girl.

Basically you are having a girl if your beauty disappears during pregnancy. It is said that the girl “steals” the mother’s beauty. If you think that pregnancy has never made you look more beautiful, you might just be having a little boy.

I can tell no change at all, lol so...

If you have dreams that you are having a boy, you will have a girl. If you dream about having a girl, it will be a boy. Dreams show the opposite of what you are having.

I have dreamed about the baby, but in the dreams, I never see the baby or what it is. So no dreams either.

When the pregnant woman is asked to show her hands, it’s a boy if she keeps her palms down and a girl if she shows her palms up.

Um, Boy? I think...

71% of the time, the mom-to-be knows what she is having.

BOY then!

When a pregnant woman craves meat and cheese, count on a boy.

Did somebody say steak? All Boy.

Are your feet colder now that you are pregnant? If so, you just might be having a boy. If your feet have stayed the same before pregnancy and during, you’re having a little girl.

Girl, they're the same

If you are having headaches, you might be carrying a boy.

I've had one or two, but that's normal for me. Boy.

It is said that when you can only think of specific names for a boy or a girl, you will have that particularly baby.

We've had both names picked out since before we got pregnant, so no help there.

That brings the grand total to:

BOY: 14 GIRL: 6 Undecided: 8

So... There you have it.

Not even the ancient chinese or mayans can agree. The upside is, you have a 50% of being right.

Ready, Set, Vote!

This time next week...

2010-01-06T08:00:00.000-08:00

I hope to be finding out if the little pipsqueak is a boy or a girl!
My main prayer this week though, is to also find out that he/she is healthy.

I always thought that you would coast right along to your big ultrasound & find out the sex of your child & everything would be great. However I have now met so many women that had unsettling news given to them at the big ultrasound that finding out the sex really doesn't matter that much to me anymore. (Pipsqueak, that doesn't mean I want you to be difficult & not show us the goods)

It just means that there are far bigger things to worry & pray about this week.
So if you think of me over the next few days, if you don't mind to say a little prayer, that God will give me peace to calm my nerves between now and Wednesday.
Thanks,
~Pippy

Every southern lady needs one of these

2010-01-01T21:49:00.000-08:00

An apron!
Not just any apron, but a ridiculously cute one, like my friend Chelsea @ Roots & Rings is giving away this week.

I.am.in.LOVE

Seriously, go check em' out.
OH, & make really sure to tell her that "Pipsqueak" sent you.

(Chels, that should sooo get me more entries.)

An easy way to help some kids in need!

2009-12-30T08:44:00.001-08:00

I have sooo much to tell you guys today!

First off, I'm officially 18 weeks as of yesterday. Pipsqueak is very active & kicking around in there. We are getting closer to our big u/s on Jan 13. We are very excited!

Secondly, the house passed the termite inspection yesterday. There was no active termites OR signs of past damage. Awesome news!
Our next prayer is that there will be no leaky pipes when we turn the water on. We have a long list of things that need to be done before we can move in, so as few setbacks as possible would be fantastic.

And lastly, the most important part of today's post.

What do you do with your Christmas cards now? Throw them away?

You could send them to St. Jude's Ranch for Children.

St. Jude’s Ranch for Children rescues abused, abandoned and neglected children of all races and faiths from the vicious cycle of...
child abuse.

They provide healing and nurturing in a safe home-like
environment w...here children can learn life skills to start new lives
with new chances, new choices and new hope.
The children participate in making the new cards by removing the front and attaching
a new back. The result is a beautiful new card made by the children and
volunteers. The benefits are two-fold: customers receive "green"
holiday cards for use and the children receive payment for their work
and learn the benefits and importance of "going green".

They are accepting used, all-occasion cards from: November 15, 2009 - February 28, 2010
You can mail your donations to: St. Jude's Ranch for Children Recycled Card Program 100 St. Jude's Street - Boulder City, NV 89005
(877)-977-SJRC (7572)
www.stjudesranch.org

I thought this was a great idea, and an awesome way for us to help out.

My day has consisted of..

2009-12-29T12:15:00.000-08:00

1. Calling Pest Control Companies to compare prices on home inspections.

2. Calling My husband to get his opinion on said prices.

3. Calling the water company to find out the necessary steps for having water turned back on.

4. Calling to schedule the pest control inspection.

5. Frantically calling my husband when I found out that the bug guy could be there in about an hour & a half. (Awesome)

6. Calling bug guy back to say "Okay, see you then!"

You would think that we just bought a house or something......

: ) : ) : ) : ) : ) <- (This is me, reveling in the knowledge that the purchase agreement has been accepted, the contract is being finalized, & that just as soon as we sign that pretty little dotted line, we will officially be HOMEOWNERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Yes, All of the "!!" were entirely necessary.

What my husband will be singing tomorrow.

2009-12-24T07:55:00.000-08:00

::Clears throat & attempts to use a deep manly singing voice::

"On the day before Christmas, my dear wife bought for me!
4 Ribeye Steaks,

3 pounds of ground beef,

2 Big Filets,

And a package of beef made for Fajitas.

Obviously, It's the steak lovers variation of the 12 days of Christmas.

They say the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, & with this little gift I'm going to occupy about 119 oz of that big heart of his.

I have to give all the credit of this gift idea to my blog friend forever, Chelsea @ Roots & Rings.
A few weeks ago she posted about "Green Grass Meats".
It's a Texas Cattle Company that raises 100% natural, no hormones or steroids, completely grass fed cattle.
She mentioned how yummy their meat was & how she was getting some for some of her family.
So Chels, THANK YOU! My husband will have a gift to open tomorrow. He'll have to wait till January for it to be delivered but he does have a box filled with printed out pictures of steaks to open in the morning.

Merry Christmas Eve Y'all!

*P.S. This was our 100th post together!!!! Go us! I have truly enjoyed the past 100 posts and look forward to many hundreds more. Thank you for making them so much fun for me.

Disclaimer: I know not everyone is going to appreciate the pictures of meat that I posted, however it worked good for the song, & I'm not ashamed of the fact that we eat meat. It's a personal choice, but I'm sorry if anyone is offended.

My pathetic day before christmas eve confession.

2009-12-23T11:11:00.000-08:00

I love buying people gifts. I like to pick out things that mean something. Not just generic gifts.
So far I have awesome gifts for my mother, father, sister, grandmother, & grandfather.

Did you notice an important person missing from that list?
My HUSBAND, maybe?
I only wish that I was kidding. He should be the easiest person to buy for, but alas, that is not the case.
Have you ever met one of those people that doesn't need much & when they do actually need something, they just go out that day & buy it for themselves?
He'e one of those.
It's incredibly frustrating. So for the past 2 months I have been pestering him about what he wants for Christmas. He gave me 2 things he wanted, which would lead you to believe that I had choices, correct?
Wrong.
He asked for: 1.) The horse that won the 3yr old cutting world championship this year.

(HA Right?)

& 2.) Cabela's Big Game Hunter for Wii

Guess which one my mom already bought for him?
If you guessed the horse, you are incorrect.

(For the record, the horse isn't for sale, and even if it was it would still not be purchasable by us. The whole "current world champion" thing adds a higher price tag obviously, but then add the fact that he is currently owned by Alice Walton. One of the top 5 richest women in the United States, Heir to the Walmart fortune, Sam Walton's daughter.
Yeah, she ain't selling & I'd hate to know what she would ask for him.)

So you see, what appeared to be 2 choices, ended up being zero.
Which led me to plan B. Things he had mentioned wanting but couldn't find in stores around where we live.

A trigger stick for his gun...

& A safety harness for when he is up in his deer stand.

Score right? I can order online.
Wrong again.
You remember that little trip to Texas that we went on? There just happened to be a freaking huge Cabelas sporting goods store right down the road from our hotel.
Guess what he bought for himself?
If you guessed both, you are correct.
::cue hormonal crying::

So that leaves me presentless for my husband. Which in turn, makes me feel pretty pathetic, even though it's most definitely his fault.

I'm welcome to any & all ideas, because at this rate, he will be getting switches & lumps of coal from me.

A must-watch

2009-12-22T12:36:00.000-08:00

Anyone up for an new Christmas song?

I give you "Dominick the Italian Christmas Donkey"

No, I'm not kidding. It's a real song.

Let me know what you think & if you have ever heard it before!

I'm gonna be completely honest....

2009-12-21T08:44:00.000-08:00

and mushy. (don't say I didn't warn you)

For the past couple months I've felt like there must be something wrong with me. I have always been excited about the baby, I knew it was coming but there was something missing.
Sure, I cried at the ultrasound & teared up when we heard the heartbeat but something just wasn't quite right.
I just didn't have a connection with the baby.
I'm not sure if that makes any sense to anyone.
But one day last week, I was sitting on the couch & feeling it kick, and in that instant, for whatever reason, it was there.
The connection was just there.
I was unprepared for how powerful it would be.
I don't know if my delayed connection was because of all the fears, sickness & raging hormones that come with the first trimester. Maybe it happens at different times for everyone. I don't know, but what I do know is that I feel whole now, I don't feel awkward talking to the baby now. Instead of just being inside me, I feel like it's a part of me.
I love little baby kicks & flutters. I love the fact that my husband has been able to feel it a couple times already.
I love that when I'm laying on my back in the morning, the fluttering will sometimes get really strong, like it's pressing against me, & then you can feel a hard place on my stomach about the size of my palm in that location. I love that a few minutes later, the hard spot won't be there anymore & it will pop up 5 inches from where it was.
I just love all of it.
So much.

I warned you it was going to get mushy.

This is the coolest thing ever

2009-12-18T08:33:00.000-08:00

I'm home.
I'm 16 weeks.
& I'm feeling the baby ALL the time.
I love it.

It's so squirmy.
It usually starts in the afternoon around 2pm.
Squirming & kicking, it actually tickles sometimes.

Another cool thing is that when I wake up in the morning, & sometimes when I'm laying down I can kind of press on my belly down low, and I can feel where it is. It will be soft on one side, & hard on the other.
My husband is eating all of this up, he LOVES it. He says that one day he actually felt the kicking that I was feeling. I wondered if that was even possible but my Dr. said yesterday that it definitely was, especially if the baby was pressed up against the front of my stomach.

How far along?: 16 weeks
* Total weight gain: 2 lbs. woo hoo
* How big is baby?: The size of an avacado. About 4 & 3/4 inches
* Sex: We don't know yet, but our BIG u/s is on Jan 13th!
* Maternity clothes?: I'm starting really love the maternity jeans, even a couple tops. Not that I need those yet, I'm just barely showing a bump.
* Stretch marks?: Nope, & I'm keeping my fingers crossed on this one.
* Sleep?: it's much better lately
* Best moment this week? Hearing the heartbeat & scheduling the big u/s!
* Movement?: Yep, not every day but it's pretty frequent.
* Food cravings?: Not really, I'm feeling better, but I get full really quickly. The baby really doesn't like chicken, but loves steak. lol
* Labor signs?: N/A
* Belly button in or out?: In
* What I miss: Eating chicken....& sushi....mmmm
* What I'm looking forward to: The big ultrasound next month & CHRISTMAS!
* Words of Wisdom: Don't ride all the way to Texas in the back seat of the truck while hauling any empty trailer. The road in Arkansas sucks. It will bounce you to death.
* Milestone: We are almost halfway there!

George Strait asked it best...

2009-12-09T14:10:00.000-08:00

"Does Fort Worth ever cross your mind?"

Well. the answer for Mr. & Mrs. Pippy is "YES!"
Every year in December.

We'll be gone until Monday, but I may sneak a blog post in sometime.
Have a good weekend everyone!

15 Weeks!

2009-12-08T14:45:00.001-08:00

We're moving right along.
I'm fairly certain that I am feeling the baby every once and a while. It's so cool
My "What to Expect" iPhone app says that by now the baby is able to hear my voice too.
There's just all kinds of cool stuff going on in there.
Exciting, huh?

Silly Husband...

2009-12-04T12:02:00.000-08:00

I seriously LOL'd at the store today.
Our anniversary is on Sunday.
I really feel sorry for the poor guy. Our Anniversary is on Dec 6th, Christmas is Dec 25th, & His birthday is January 10th.
He grew up getting those Christmas/Birthday presents.
He is also REALLY hard to buy for. He's one of those people that doesn't need much & when he does need something he goes & buys it.
So I have to get creative.
A few weeks ago, we were watching T.V. & a commercial came on for this...

Somehow this Nerf gun hooks up to the Wii & it has a game that goes with it?
Anyways, as soon as he saw it, he looked at me & said "Did you see that? I Want one!!!!" I didn't think much more about it after that.

Then today as I was walking through the store, frustrated & trying to figure out what to get him, I wandered past the videogames & what do I see right there on the shelf?
Nerf N-Strike Elite

Will I get wife of the year?
Obviously.
I'm the only wife he has had this year, I win by default.
I'm so glad we're not polygamists.

Allow me to introduce...(A Giveaway)

2009-12-03T07:59:00.000-08:00

Prepperoni!
She is relatively new to the blogging world, but is doing a fantastic job.
To help spread the word about her cool new blog, she is hosting a giveaway!
Yummy bath products anyone?

I thought so.
Click here to head on over & get entered in this fantastic giveaway!
Tell her Pippy sent you!