An Update...

Hi Folks! It's been awhile, yes? I know we are so overdue for an update and bump pictures...well, I can provide one of those things today...an update! I promise to get my photographer (husband) to take some updated bump pictures so I can share them next week. There has been some major growth going on in the belly area!

So what have we been up to recently? It seems that we have had quite a few lazy days, as this pregnancy is still knocking me down with exhaustion. I don't know if it's all the pregnancy, or if my thyroid has something to do with it too. I was told that when pregnant we would likely be increasing my snythroid (thyroid medicine), which helps with energy levels among other things. Well, my last blood work apparently showed no reason to increase so we stayed at the same dosage...I am thinking we should have increased...but that could just be me being tired of being so tired, ha. So other than going to bed by 9pm almost every night and a couple lazy Sunday's we have been working more on the baby's nursery, painting more rooms in our home and enjoying time as a family of 3 with Louie.

Oh Louie...I could do a whole update on him alone complete with adorable pictures. I will save that for next week though as we go to the vet with him tomorrow for a heart worm recheck. At this point, we have been doing treatments for over a year. Please, please pray that our pup is heart worm free at last. I hate putting him through these treatments, which I would explain as chemotherapy for dogs basically. They make him not feel good and it just breaks my heart! So please, pray for Louie to be heart worm free with us!

Along with being busy and blaming my lack of posting on that, I feel like I should also be honest with you. I have been having a bit of a hard time the past couple weeks. At some points I have actually felt depressed or wondered if something was wrong. It all comes down to some personal family issues that my Florida family is dealing with, and then the exhaustion and just not feeling right from this pregnancy-not to mention working full time, plus overtime. I feel like I really can't complain because we get to go to the doctor and see the baby ALL the time, and I haven't been sick for weeks at a time, but even so...I don't enjoy being pregnant. I have been trying to focus on the amazing thing that my body was built to do by the grace of God, but some days are just rough in plain English. Please don't start to worry though, everything is good and baby is thriving away as of our last appointment.

Our last doctors appointment for the baby was on 10/26 and everything was dandy. The baby had a strong heart rate again and we were able to pick it up on the doppler so I did not have an ultrasound. Our doctor is confident in our pregnancy and prenatal care with diabetes. I still feel like we have a wonderful medical team working with us to bring this little miracle into the world! Our next appointment is actually on Monday and we will hopefully find out the gender. We are scheduled for a scan at the local hospital as opposed to going to my doctors office. I am nervous and excited at the same time. You can bet your bottom that there will be a gender announcement along with a name announcement as soon as we know something. And yes, we have both names settled on as of a couple weeks ago! Any last minute guesses as to the gender??

On our agenda for this weekend is painting the last room in our house that needs painting; our living room! I am not at all looking forward to the actual project but I am looking forward to the outcome of the project. We are so thankful that Stephen's Dad will be helping out some since I can do less and less each week it seems! We hope you all have a great weekend, see ya next week (I promise!)!

Mid-Week Randoms

Happy Thursday, Y'all!

 

Let's just recap my week thus far, shall we?

 

• It's been a busy week! I actually worked yesterday from 6:45am until after 5:30pm...that's a long day at a desk people!
• Thank goodness I got some new nail polish thanks to my BFF, Brooke and was able to relax last night by painting my nails this beautiful color. LOVE it!
• On Tuesday we went to our niece's softball game and had a great time! We took Louie with us thinking it would be fine because we took him to the ballpark several times last year. Well, they have changed the rules and added "No Pets" to the sign :( He stayed with us and was on my lap the entire game, but it looks like that will be his last softball game! Sad face! He had a good time:

• I got a new phone through work this week too and I am loving the IPhone 4s. Siri is my friend!
• Along with the phone I have several new apps, including Instagram! Follow me here @ylimedonaldson!



My First Instagram Photo: Peonies from our yard!

• I'm on the hunt for the best IPhone apps, so fill me in our your favorites!
• Louie has been so funny this week, his personality is hilarious! Tell me, what did we laugh at before we had a dog? He lights up our life!

• Louie gets so excited when we come home, we love it! He will jump and jump and then run, its so cute!
• All the flowers we planted last weekend? Well, most are doing great but our double inpatients are not. Looks like we will be doing some more planting and rearranging this weekend. It's okay though, I like it!
• In other Louie news: I just talked to the vet and we have a new plan for his heart worm treatments. It just breaks my heart that we are dealing with this still...it has almost been a year since we started treating him, and the end still seems far off. Now we will be giving him Doxycycline (you know, anti-malaria meds/) and heart worm preventative meds (HeartGuard). Apparently this could potentially weaken the already adult worms so they can respond to other treatments and prevent/kill baby worms before they can grow into damaging adult worms.

• Louie will stay at the vet next week one day to be observed, just to make sure he doesn't have any reactions. So please lift him up in prayer! And me too...my nerves are already kicking it!
• We booked flights to Florida this week! We will be on a little vacation over the 4th and I am getting excited! I am also getting nervous because we will be leaving Louie.
• While we are on said vacation, a friend from church will be staying at our house with Louie. This way, at least he will be in his normal environment. I really hope he adjusts well while we are gone. Does anyone have any tips or advice for making this happen?
• I thought about ordering Louie a Thunder-Shirt for while we are gone, hoping it might help keep him calm and relaxed. Does anyone have any experience with these? Here is some info about it.
• I'm SO excited to watch Grey's Anatomy tonight...but I am sad about who I am 90% sure is going to be killed off!



Midweek Randoms :)

Ready for a post of bulleted style awesome-sauce? You better be!

• Thank the Lord it is Wednesday, I am looking forward to the weekends more and more these days. Anyone else in that boat?
• I am so thankful for my husband. Stephen is incredible and always helping me around the house and with Louie. I know how blessed I am!
• I am pretty thankful for Louie too. He is such a sweet pup and makes us laugh everyday with his antics. Having a pet has been so good for us!
• Have I mentioned I have a new boss at work? Well, I do. It has been 2 weeks of long days and lots of overtime, which certainly helps the checkbook but totally wears me out. I am very much looking forward to things settling down and a routine forming.
• I like routines and doing the same thing everyday. There, I said it.
• I participated in my first ever assimilation meeting/process for said new boss this week and it was very interesting. Have you ever participated in one?
• We may have some warmer weather later this week and I am kind of looking forward to it. I am upset that we had a lousy winter, but I am over these cold, gray days that do not result in snow.
• I feel like last year we went sledding like 10+ times during the winter and this year we have gone 0 times. This is not okay with me.
• With the mild weather we have been having I really have Spring fever. I am ready for sandals and suntans! At least I have some pink nail polish to help put a spring in my step! :)
• Speaking of nail polish...a good color can totally lift my mood and spirit. I love a good pink color! Color of choice this week is "two hour lunch". So fun!
• 17 days until vacation in Florida...woo! I think "two hour lunch" will be my vacation color...
• I am already planning what to pack for Florida and have bought a couple new things. I don't know why but I always want/need something new before a vacation...no idea why.
• While in Florida we are hitting the Magic Kingdom. It will be Stephen's first trip and I am so excited. I might even make him wear a "My 1st Visit" Disney pin! :) Any tips or comments on things we need to do while there?
• I got Stephen Star Wars on BluRay for Valentine's Day...meaning I have to watch them. We started on Saturday and I actually like them. I was shocked that they interested me at all...Anakin just became Darth Vader though so I think it goes downhill from here. I liked him as a good guy!
• I am loving the longer days, it is daylight outside when I leave for work and still light out when I get home...love love LOVE that!

You know me...I could probably keep going and going but I better stop. If you made it to the end of this post, bravo to you! I hope everyone has a great Wednesday! :)

Adios for now!

Random thoughts for this Tuesday:

Disclaimer: All of the pictures used in this post are cell phone pictures. Please excuse the poor quality!

1. We are having some weird weather here in Indiana. Well, at least I think it is weird. Let’s just say that we had snow but it is all melted now and last night we had thunderstorms. Thunderstorms in January! I even had to wear my rain boots to work today because of all the water. Is it not spring, it is winter! Oh and our high today? Yeah, it’s in the 50’s.

2. Our high on Friday is 23 degrees.  In the 50’s on Tuesday and in the 20’s on Friday, that’s totally normal, right?

3. We finally got our Christmas gifts put away and/or hung up this weekend. The pile if gifts that was neatly stacked in our bedroom was driving.me.nuts.

4. Speaking of hanging things, several new things are adorning our walls at home and I love it.

This is our new gallery wall by our staircase. Mom & Dad got us these great frames for Christmas. Love!!

These new sconces are from Kohls and they are in the library-where up until last weekend we had nothing on the walls! I am working on a painting that will go in between them!

This puzzle was a gift from my Grandma this Christmas. It looks very good in our library and I think it will be something we treasure forever. She even wrote a note on the back of it!

5. I got a lovely Christmas gift from my sister-in-law that I can’t wait to use.  She got me the Baby Cakes Cake-Pop maker, which is essentially a Easy Bake Oven for adults. I am so ready to put it to use. Maybe this weekend! J

6. Louie has been acting like he feels much better, even running around with energy. I want to teach him how to play but since he never has he just doesn’t get it. We have a couple toys that he will sniff and just walk away from. What toys do yours dogs love? I need some ideas for something he will actually use!

7. The hubster and I picked out what tile we want for our backsplash last weekend at Lowe’s. I think it is perfect!! Just waiting for our 10% off coupon to arrive via email and we will be purchasing the tiles for our spring project!

What do you think?

8. Last weekend we also did a little car shopping. My car is just not safe in the winter with snow. We are comparing the Honda CRV and other compact SUV’s that offer 4WD or AWD. Do you have any recommendations or reviews to offer from personal experience? We have heard wonderful things about the CRV and are leaning in that direction. Probably going to test drive this weekend!

9. Getting a new car means getting rid of my old car which makes me sad. My Honda Civic was my Grandpa’s last car and I took over his payments when he became too ill to drive. It breaks my heart that it won’t be staying in our family. L I might cry when I give over the keys…

10. A new aquatic and fitness center just opened near our house. Read: about six blocks away. Every night I drive by it and wish we had a membership so I could get some exercise and work harder at losing weight. A 12 month membership for me and the hubster is $400. I think it is time to sign up!

11. I have not had a gym membership since I was in high school and worked at the YMCA. Membership was my only benefit and I loved going to work out…hopefully I can find that love again! Maybe paying for the membership will actually motivate me to go! Ya think?

12. We have been watching Mary Poppins and it is such a fun movie! A spoonful of sugar… J

13. Oh, we also watched Mr. Poppers Penguins last weekend and LOVED it. A must see!

14. I LOVE after Christmas sales! We found some cute (and cheap) stuff last weekend at Kohls. This included the perfect ornament for Louie to remember his first Christmas with us. We I was so excited!

15. I could keep going and thinking of random things, but I thought maybe I should stop. Don’t want me readers to get bored!

Hello, again!

Hello again! I must apologize for my absence in blog land again. I could offer you excuses, which are true; like we have been so busy, work has been crazy, and we have just been enjoying being a newlywed couple with a super cute pup…but I won’t bore you with that mombo jumbo. K?

Oh with the good stuff! Life has been pretty busy for us, which is a good thing. I have been busy at work and while I have days I want to complain about it, the fact is that I am completely and totally thankful for my job every day. I kind of love it. How many people can say that about their job? Thankfully I enjoy what I do all day…most of the time. While I can always think of things I would rather be doing, but I am saving those for dreams to pursue later down the road. Read: opening a bakery. For now, I am so happy in my current job.

We have been waiting patiently on our new furniture to arrive.  We finally got the call today that it is in and ready to be delivered. They asked me if next Wednesday or Friday would be better. Umm, Wednesday people…why would we wait until Friday? That is a whole week away! No thank you! I promise to post pictures of some sort next week once it is in our living room. I doubt you guys are as excited as we are…but it’s okay!

Louie has been doing really well. I don’t see his improvements daily anymore like I did when we first rescued him, but I can look at the day we got him and see how far he has come. I love that he will go outside with us and not run off. We have not put a leash on him in weeks. In fact, one day last week I came home from work to Stephen cutting the grass with Louie prancing back and forth right next to him. It was the cutest thing! I wish I had my camera out to capture the moment, but I missed it.  I am sure there will be a next time. The weather has gotten colder here so he is almost always in a sweater or something. It is so cute! I am looking forward to getting him a nice red one for Christmas…oh boy, I never thought I would be the person to dress up my dog. Really though, he is pretty small and shakes all the time without something on. I think he just can’t handle the Indiana cold!

Speaking of cold and dogs; what do you guys with pets do when it snows? I am thinking we will just keep a square shoveled for him to use. What do you recommend?

I have spent a little bit of time crafting recently…I can blame Pinterest for all the new projects on my to-do list! Have you seen the coasters that are made from square ceramic tiles and scrapbook paper? Well, I tried that last weekend and failed. I could not get the paper to flatten out properly and then the color rubbed off tinting the modge podge. Any ideas on that? I gave up pretty quickly and started working on this tree skirt:

It took quite some time to complete but I LOVE it! I cannot wait to see it under our tree that will go in our dining room. Since the room is red, we decided to not put any red on the tree…it should be a beautiful green, white, silver and glass covered tree hence the color choice of the tree skirt!

I also worked on some fall crafts, like this fabric flag banner:

I also LOVE this. I plan on making Christmas ones too, I am just not sure where they will go.

I am itching to decorate for Christmas. Really, I am. I am trying very hard to wait until the week of Thanksgiving at least (for our fake tree), but we are not planning on getting our real tree until the weekend after Thanksgiving. I know it will be here so fast, like in the blink of an eye so I am trying to enjoy the Thanksgiving season, too!

I just love this time of year, October through December is my FAVORITE!

If you made it to the end of this long and pretty boring post with me, you rock! J I hope that you also are enjoying this season and you have a great weekend!

See ya next week! (Hopefully!)

Random...

My brain is currently on information overload and my body is currently exhausted because I have not been sleeping well at night...maybe because of the information overload thing. Anyways...here are my random Thursday ramblings:

• The sun is out and though it is a little cold, I am thankful for the sunshine. So are my tomato plants. That is, is the frost did not get them last night!
• I cannot stop thinking, talking, analyzing, and comparing the two houses. I am constantly thinking of things to add to the pro/con list for each property.
• We are thinking that we love the red brick house that is 128 years old....the white house is beautiful too but the red one just has much more character and is more our style.
• I cannot wait until Friday when we get to see the houses again with the Realtors!
• Vacations are expensive. Period.
• Taco Tuesday this week was switched for Taco Thursday in honor of Cinco de Mayo...looking forward to that tonight! :)
• My good friend Brooke is getting married in less than 2 weeks and that means The Mr. and I get a weekend away...can't wait to see Brooke and her groom, Preston!
• I LOVE having flowers on my desk at work. I think it improves my attitude, really! Oh, and they smell great!
• Speaking of said flowers, I need to add some water to them-pronto!
• Did I mention that I cannot stop thinking about the houses? Seriously, am I losing my mind here!?!
• I almost forgot to mention the number crunching since meeting with a loan officer...whoa...talk about slightly overwhelming!

That's where my list stops. Hope everyone has some sunshine to enjoy today! Happy Cinco de Mayo! :)

Complete Randomness...

I am running low (not empty, just low) on creative juices today, so this post will be bullet style. Hopefully things will get back to normal next week! Here are my random Thursday ramblings and snippets on what is going on with our life:

• I am wearing corduroy today for the first time in my life (that I can remember)...I officially live in the North-well, technically the Mid-West!
• The Mr. needed a haircut...badly. Only he did not know where to go for one in our town and really does not have time with his work schedule. The solution? I cut it. Yep, I cut his hair! AND it turned out very well for my first time. We were both happy in the end, so hopefully he will let me do it again :)
• I have been busy working on our wedding scrapbook, and I am so excited to have it finished. It really is fun to look at all the pictures and remember details from that moment to document them. I cannot wait to start on our first year of marriage scrapbook when the wedding one is complete!
• We have been pondering ideas for summer vacations and have narrowed it down. So far, the first weekend trip is to Kentucky for my friend Brooke's May wedding :)
• I am really looking forward to Winter Jam this weekend in Fort Wayne, I just know it is going to be a great time praising God!...I do love the Newsboys and Michael Tait!
• I  officially started Weight Watchers online this week to shed some marriage weight. It is crazy how fast you can gain and how long it takes to lose! I have heard great things about the new PointsPlus program and the accessibility of doing it online and I am excited. My first weigh in is next Thursday-hopefully there will be results!
• The Mr. and I are already on Season 8 of Friends that means before we know it, we will be done. What show should we start watching next? Being the Friends nut that I am, I would be okay with starting over and watching them all again...or backwards maybe?
• I really, really, really have been craving some Southern BBQ...Sonny's or MoJo's would be the best. Why did I not think of eating there when we were in FL for Christmas!?!
• It seems like everyone we know is either engaged, or pregnant-so we have lots of gifts to buy. It has been so much fun shopping for sweet baby clothes, who does not love that!?! We can't wait to meet all the new additions very soon!

I hope everyone has a blessed day-just remember that it is almost Friday. Woohoo!



Anniversary & Random Fun!

Today marks our 3 month anniversary; can you believe we have been married for 3 months already? Time really does fly when you are busy and having fun! I am so grateful for my loving husband and all of our family members in Florida and Indiana who love and support us! People say that you fall more and more in love; honestly I did not believe them. It is true though, you do fall more and more in love and learn new things about each other almost daily. The Lord has blessed us beyond measure!

*click on picture to make it bigger!

1. What are your middle names? Marie & Kavika

2. How long have you been together? Married for 3 months already!

3. How long did you know each other before you started dating? Two months

4. Whose siblings do you see the most? The Mr.s because we live closer to his family than mine and we work at the same place! Although, my brother was here just last week :)

5. Do you have any children together? Negative Ghostrider.

6. Who is the most sensitive? That would be me!

7. Where do you eat out most as a couple? That really depends, we both love Asian, Mexican and Italian...yum!

8. Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple? So far, Hawaii. I have been dreaming of Europe recently though...maybe in a year or two!

9. Who has the craziest exes? Neither.

10. Who has the worst temper? I get upset before he does, he is so calm-one of the many things I love about him!

11. Who does the cooking? We both really enjoy cooking and in our tiny apartment kitchen that can get interesting! We make it work though and usually cook dinner together.

12. Who is more social? I would have to say me.

13. Who is the most stubborn? Again, me. BUT, we both can be!

14. Who hogs the bed? I have been told I hog the blankets, but that is why there are extras if you need them. I also sleepwalk and talk in my sleep...yep.

15. Who wakes up earlier? The Mr. he has to get up pretty early for work and I sleep until 6:30 or 7. Same thing on the weekends-I can sleep the day away and I plan on taking advantage of that ability while we do not have kids!

16. Where was your first date? The Mr. flew to Jacksonville and we had an entire date weekend complete with breakfast with my family and a day trip to St. Augustine where we climbed the lighthouse. It was such a great weekend!

17. Do you get flowers often? Occasionally, but not too often. It makes it more special.

18. How long did it take to get serious? Not entirely sure about this one. The Lord used the time Stephen was in Nigeria to open both of our hearts and minds to the idea. Things were just different when he came back! That being said-a couple months I suppose.

19. Who eats more? The Mr., DUH!

20. Who sings better? HA! Again, The Mr.

21. Who does the laundry? Currently we both do the laundry on Sunday's at his sister's house (we do not have a washer/dryer in our apartment) so it is a team effort.

22. Who’s better with the computer? Probably me.

23. Who drives when you are together? The Mr.-I usually have no idea how to get places without turning on the GPS. I seriously cannot live without that device! Well, that and my insulin pump :)

24. Who picks where you go to dinner? We discuss it together and decide usually. IE: Me:"what do you want for dinner tomorrow night, taco's or chicken?" The Mr: "Tacos sound good-let's do that." Me: "Okay, I will take the beef out of the freezer for tacos!"

25. Who wears the pants? umm...I really think we both do. I do like dresses though :)

26. Who has the better sense of humor? I think we just have different humor types, so they really cannot be compared.

27. Who eats more sweets? I have a huge sweet tooth, more so than The Mr.

28. Who is more adventurous? Both of us!

29. Who is more romantic? Well I am a girl, so me of course!

30. Who usually wins in a fight? We hate fighting, if we are having a disagreement or not seeing eye to eye we just work it out. I don't really think anyone wins or loses.

31. What is your favorite "date" activity? Right now, I just love dinner at home and a new movie or something from Redbox. I really enjoy being in our home together relaxing. I also really like shopping, so maybe add that in there too :)

32. Who is neater? I will admit that I am totally my Mother in this sense, I have to have a clean house. I am addicted to the smell of Clorox and Lysol; I am aware that this is a problem.

33. Who is better looking? Of course I am going to say The Mr.!

34. Who is the better dresser? Really, is this a legit question? Ha...sorry babe but I am!

35. How long will you two be together? As long as we live on this earth!

Randomness...

Sorry for the absence of new blog postings this week. I have just been so very busy both at work and at home. Being busy is a good thing, but sometimes it can wear you down! I am so thankful that today is Friday and we have this weekend to get everything together for our trip to Florida and get some relaxing done too! I am thankful for more than just that for sure:

• I am so thankful that we are able to go to Florida for Christmas. Even though it will be a super short trip-I am ready to see all my family and do the whole Christmas thing!

• I am so thankful for my Aunt Erin's 34th annual Christmas Eve Party and that I get to be there for it! Yay! PS Aunt E: I am SO looking forward to your dip so make a lot!
• I am thankful that things are work are becoming easier...I might be getting the hang of this!
• I am thankful for the week after Christmas...no details yet, you will know more later :)
• I am thankful for my friend Brooke and our daily emails to each other. She is a blessing!
• I am thankful for the beautiful snow, as crazy as that sounds. It is amazing how it covers all the dirty things and leaves them pure and white; kind of like Jesus...amazing.

• I am thankful for my wonderful husband

•  I am thankful for my oh.so.warm. winter coat and feel blessed to have one. I feel for all the people who are homeless or simply cannot afford something as simple as a winter coat or a blanket!
• I am thankful for a good report at the endocrinoligist and no diabetes complications after 13 years witth the disease!

I could keep going and list things that I am thankful for (I really like lists!) but I thought I would stop there! We still have some things to get together before our trip to Florida. I am already trying to anticipate how to get our laundry done before leaving so we can take only clean clothes down with us. We plan on leaving Thursday after work and driving as far as possible...I'd like to drive the entire distance and just get there! I had a dream that we arrived at my parents and realized we had forgotten Florida gifts in Indiana, so I am making mental lists and notes on what to bring to make sure it gets into the car. I really hope we do not leave something important at the apartment!

Oh, today my friend Tina and her fiance Kyle are getting married! The Mr. and I had dinner with them at their soon to be house together a couple weeks ago and they are so excited about their new lives together and of course the wedding. We are excited for them too and wish them a happy wedding day! Congratulations you guys!

Hope everyone has a Happy Friday and a great weekend! 



Random Thoughts

1. I really, really like the snow when I am inside. When I have to go to work; not so much. How am I supposed to look cute when my pants get soaked from nasty, dirty parking lot snow slush at our apartment AND at work?

2. One night this week we were forecasted to get several inches of snow and I felt like a 5 year old who was so excited and could not sleep on Christmas Eve. No lie. Sometimes it is good to look at things with a childlike perspective!

3. Oh, and that snow was beautiful in the morning!

4. I love, love, love...did I mention love-Christmas time. I look forward to it for most of they year but this year it is making me a little homesick. I usually always help my Mom put up my parents tree and also help my Grandma with her tree. Mom has her tree up, but it took her 4 days and Gram's is still in the box. I know there are other family members there, but I kinda wish I was too.

5. I really like our apartment and it's location. I can get to work in 3 minutes and the same thing coming home. Not to mention all the places to eat and grocery shop that are right by us!

6. My husband rocks. He is so sweet and helps me out so much. Last week I asked him to vacuum the living room and after 20 minutes I realized he was sitting down but the vacuum was out of the closet. i checked to make sure he understood my request, that I wanted him to vacuum not just get the vacuum out for me. He understood, but got distracted reading the mail and ended up vacuuming the entire apartment for me-behind doors and everything!

7. I have not really felt like cooking at all recently...I think I would be okay if we ate Totino's pizzas every night for a week!

8. I look forward to getting the mail everyday, just because of the possibility of receiving a Christmas card :)

9. I cannot wait to see my family in Florida! 16 Days!

10. I officially registered my car in IN this week and now I am sad because I have to remove my pretty Florida license plate and put a plain blue one on. I realize this is something I have to do, but I really don't want to. Oh, and in IN you cannot smile for your license picture...that's right I have a mug shot that is NOT attractive!

11. Tired of my random thoughts yet? I am, and I should be doing so many other things right about now so I will get to those things!