The Belly Growth

Upon an anonymous request (We'll call the requestor "Robin" from here on out for ease of typing purposes) I am posting a profile picture.


This is me at 17 weeks, 6 days. (aka-This morning)

It turns out I'm kind of "S" shaped at the moment. The section between my ribs and my belly button has expanded - probably from all of my intestines being squished together - and it makes me look wide all over. But even with that, there is still a little belly there.

My 2 roughest pregnancy symptoms: Major acne and massive hair loss. "Robin" says those are normal though.

How Well Do You Know Me?

How well do you know me?? For instance, did you know...

Four jobs I have had in my life:
1. Flower Delivery Girl/Front Counter Girl (3 separate shops)
2. Lifeguard
3. Administrative Assistant
4. Paper Boy

Four movies I would watch over and over:
1. That Thing You Do
2. Empire Records
3. Saturday’s Warrior
4. The Ultimate Aquarium Video

Four cars I have owned:
1. Red 1992 Geo Storm
2. White 1993 Honda Civic
3. White 2000 Chevy Prizm
4. White 2001 Chevy Prizm
(currently own BOTH #3 & #4)

Four places I have lived (i.e. the only places I have ever lived):
1. Mesa
2. Provo
3. Scottsdale (1st married apt)
4. Tucson

Four TV shows I love to watch:
1. The Office
2. Scrubs
3. Wheel of Fortune
4. Most anything on HGTV

Four favorite places I have been on vacation:
1. Massachusetts
2. Bahamas
3. Mexico (Rocky Point & Cabo)
4. The Dominican Republic

Four websites I visit daily:
1. Blogs
2. MySpace
3. craigslist
4. More Blogs

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Ice Cream
2. Subway (new favorite with my growing belly)
3. Junior Mints
4. Potatoes

Four of my least favorite foods:
1. Coconut
2. Sushi
3. French Toast
4. Oatmeal

Four favorite restaurants:
1. Mint Thai (Gilbert)
2. Miss Saigon (Tucson)
3. Rosa’s (Mesa)
4. I like to try anything local (usually out of the Entertainment Book)

Four places I would rather be right now:
1. At home
2. Visiting Mesa
3. On a beach
4. anywhere with Jake

Four things that annoy me:
1. Talking with your mouth full
2. Tucson drivers pulling out in front of you
3. Cigarette smoke
4. Coffee breath

Four words I can never spell right the first time:
1. Restaurant
2. Genius
3. Hotmail (“hotamil” when I type too fast)
4. Marriage

Four favorite holidays:
1. Halloween
2. Thanksgiving
3. Easter
4. Anything that takes Jake out of school

Chocolate Bunnies

I love most all Easter candy. I love Peeps, Cadbury eggs, and all the regular candy turned pastel. But something I especially love is the chocolate bunny. Now, don't get me wrong, I had one this year and it was pretty gross (I think they changed the recipe or something), but it's tradition. Every year, my family would have an Easter egg hunt in our living room on Easter morning, and there would be 4 chocolate bunnies hidden throughout the area. These bunnies were so popular, that the Easter Bunny had to label them so that each child got one.

Well, this year while I was shopping for Jake's Easter basket, I came across a chocolate bunny that was about 14-15" tall, but wasn't in any plastic wrap. I walked up to it to examine it further, and then tried to pierce it with my fingernail (that's also how I tell if plants are real - some fake plants look so lifelike). Anyway, it didn't pierce, so I realized that I was dealing with a FAKE chocolate bunny. I thought it was awesome. Of course I couldn't buy it, it was still before Easter. So, this morning, I went back to the store and they still had them, but they weren't marked down yet. I picked one up and was examining it, and a store clerk came up to me, asked me if I wanted it, took it, turned it over, and priced it at a DOLLAR. It was the best part of my morning.

So now I own my very own chocolate bunny statue. It's our first Easter decoration. Jake and I also began our Christmas decoration collection this year too (I say this year because we only bought stuff in January). Living in a house allows for more storage, and thus more stuff. We kept our "stuff" down to a minimum whilst in the 480 square foot apartment we used to live in. But now we get to decorate for the holidays. It's great.

Lucky

I have a brother (who will go unnamed) who is one of the luckiest people I know. Well, he's wrecked every car my parents have ever owned, but besides that, unbelivably lucky. His friends even noticed how lucky he always is. We call it "Mike's Luck". But again, I'm not going to tell you who I'm talking about.

Anyway, I hadn't met anyone as lucky as my brother until I met my husband. Jake has an incredible ability to win things. He wins radio call-in contests on a regular basis. Who wins those? I'll tell you - it's Jake. Just this week, he called into the WB TV show, needing to be the 1st caller, and won us 4 tickets to Old Tucson Studios and dinner for 4 at Blimpie (which is extremely fortunate for me because my baby LOVES subs for some reason).

Previous Winnings:
A prom package (in high school) including tux rental, dinner, & a limo driven by the radio DJ
Tickets to a Coyotes game (won on 2 separate occasions)
Tickets to a Suns game (also won on 2 separate occasions)
Tickets to a Diamondbacks game
5 lunches at Whataburger
Easter brunch at a fancy Phoenix restaurant (gave that one away)
Charlie Daniels Band tickets

Its pretty great to be married to a winner.

My New Friend

Meet my new friend. His name is Rubber Band.

Rubber Band helps me to wear my regular pants as my belly starts to expand. Rubber Band also makes long shirts a necessity. Here are some pictures of me in my work clothes yesterday. Okay, it's every part of me but my head because I didn't like how I looked. I tried to take a picture from the side, but it didn't turn out either. The picture wasn't my exact profile, and it made me look more pregnant that I actually look. I didn't want to get anyone's hopes up yet. Right now I just look like I'm putting on a few extra belly pounds.

Aren't my shoes cute? They're from Jake's mom.

The 9 Month Itch

Jake and I have lived in 3 places since we've been married.

#1 - The Scottsdale - 9 months

#2 - Windscape - 9 months

We were so glad to buy a house because it meant that we would be somewhere actually permanent, even if permanent might mean only 3 years. 3 years is a lot better than 9 months. So we made the move to Tucson into our wonderful new house (#3).

And then we learned that we will be moving - temporarily - after living here for--any guesses?

Yep. 9 months.

Jake has accepted a summer internship at a law firm in Phoenix, and we will be moving back to Mesa for 3 months. We thought about staying here and having Jake commute, but we figured out we'd be better off just packing up and heading over.

So, come May 15th, we'll be back in good ol' Mesa AZ.

The Fruits of Our Labors

Whenever Jake & I see pictures of our house before we move in, we get a little worried. Even though we have a desert landscape in the front yard, it was still full of yellow and purple flowers, and a bright green tree. Well, after winter hit, our colorful bushes turned in to a bunch of piles of sticks. I though we had killed the entire front yard, even though everyone told me that its impossible to kill desert landscape. I was sure I had done it somehow.

Alas, we didn't give up. We trimmed back our stick bushes and continued to water our barren trees. And this weekend we finally saw some results. Our stick bushes have turned into little green mounds and we got our first rose bud.

I was going to post this yesterday, when our rose first appeared. I took this picture yesterday morning before work. Well, I'm glad I waited. When I got home, this is what my little rose looked like:

Quite the growth for one day. There are more little buds appearing on our rose bushes, so maybe we didn't kill off everything after all.

Boy or Girl?

Jake is more and more sure each day that we are having a girl. The Stoddards agree. However, I am now pretty convinced we are having a boy. (Jake's brothers Adam & Sam are with me on this one). I was completely undecided until I had a series of dreams that all talked about baby boys.

#1) Before I was pregnant, I had a dream that I was holding a blonde baby boy (He looked a lot like Mabel). I remember thinking, "I don't remember being pregnant", but I knew he was mine, and I knew he was born in October.

#2) I can't remember the details of this dream, all I know is I was carrying around my baby and it was a boy.

#3) The other day, in my dream we were at the doctor, and I was getting an ultrasound, and the doctor started calling our baby a "he", and then she showed us on the monitor that we were having a boy.

#4) 2 nights ago, I was with my entire family in my dream at some water store. It was taking forever for the employees to fill our order, and we were just waiting around. Most of my family went outside, and just Danny & I remained in the store. Then, Danny looked out the window, pointed, and shouted, "BABY BOY!", which, in dream talk wasn't absurd at all, but instead meant, "It's time to go". And we went outside and got in the truck and left.

Now, as I'm writing all of these dreams, I remember that Jake did have a dream that we had a dark-haired little girl. Notice how Jake imagines babies with dark hair, but I see them with blonde hair. Who knows what we'll really have.

Any other guesses out there?