Summer School Has Begun...

This week has opened my eyes to the possibility of having a part-time job...

Summer school started on Monday and it only lasts from 8 to 12! I absolutely love getting off work at lunch. I wish that the regular school year ran on this schedule. Now, when I get off I have the energy to do some laundry, pull some weeds, cook supper, and all sorts of other things. It's wonderful!

Here is a picture of Buddy. Before I go home after work, I pick the dogs up from their job (on the farm). These days, they have been excited to see me. After being out in the heat all day, Buddy and Lucy can't wait to ride in the air conditioning!

Baby update: Since having the stomach flu, I have been experiencing Braxton-Hicks contractions. I'm not real sure what this means... nothing, I'm sure. However, I am anxious to go the doctor Monday to hear what he has to say. Also, in two weeks (to the day) we will get to see sweet Mason's little face for the first time. Seth and I (and our moms) are headed to Tupelo for a baby day! After I get off work we are going to http://babyskickin.com/ to get 4D images of Mason. I sure hope he cooperates and we can get great pictures.

Week 25

Drumroll please... Finally, despite my better judgement, I will post the baby bump self portrait. This comes after numerous requests from friends and family (especially family) so here goes nothing... AHHHHH!

My face is expressing my resistance for even taking this photo to begin with. However, I cannot complain as long as Mason continues to grow and be healthy. This picture was taken as my body was mending itself from the stomach virus that lasted over 48 hours. In addition to feeling crummy, Mason decided to become more active than ever before. I don't think this helped the nausea any... Despite the past few days, I have turned the corner and am feeling much better.

Tonight Seth and I (as vice-presidents of the Pickens County Cattlemen/Cattlewomen) will be in Gordo for Mule Days! I can only think something like Mule Days could occur in the South but I may be wrong. It's a small town festival with live music, an antique tractor parade, good food, and friendly people. The Cattlemen/women have a tent set up as vendors selling prime-rib sandwiches. Pretty tasty if I do say so myself. If you find yourself in the Gordo area, come on by! We will be there all night!

p.s. Did anyone notice the new bangs? Ok, so they aren't like the whopper bangs I had in highschool but close enough... I'm enjoying the change!

Accidental Omissions

This pregnancy has really worked over my brain... now MORE THAN EVER, I am forgetting names, numbers, occurances, conversations, EVERYTHING! I heard that this could happen, but I never new it was so true. Here are some recent events that I have accidentally omitted from my blog:

SNAKE IN THE GRASS- Seth and I were casually riding about checking his fields for flooding after a thunderstorm. We were driving slowly down the gravel roads enjoying the afternoon when suddenly Seth slams on the brakes! SNAKE! It was a copperhead (I believe that is what Seth said...whatever it was, it was poisonious)!! Seth asked me if I wanted to kill it. Well there was NO WAY I was getting out of the truck when there was a snake in the vicinity, so I told him I would shoot it and I did. Whew...that was a close call with a deadly predator. I was proud of myself that I shot it dead in the road. One less snake to creep up on Mason while he is playing in the yard. We continued our drive and got closer to the river when again, Seth slammed on the brakes. This time it was no plain jane snake. This was a GIANT RATTLESNAKE in the road. I had never seen a rattlesnake in the wild (only in the zoo). I was terrified. It was on my side of the truck so Seth let me do the honors. I used all of the bullets in 2 different guns because I wanted to make sure it was dead. At one point it coiled up and rattled at me with its mouth open. I just new it was going to lunge into my open window and attack me. Here is my trophey photo...redneck, I know.

BLUE ANGELS- The Blue Angels came to Tuscaloosa and we had prime seating! Seth's buddies, Wilson and Duncan and Mr. Tommy, own the land right next to the runway so we got to pull up right next to all of the action and tailgate all afternoon. We had a great time with everyone, including the Huerkamp crew. Lane loved to watch the smaller planes, but as soon as the Blue Angels got in the air, she panicked. After awhile, she warmed up to them. Here is a photo of our godson, Luke enjoying the sunshine and the stunts.

DIAPERS & WIPES- The last day of work, the fabulous faculty at EOCES threw me a baby shower...diapers and wipes! It was wonderful. Everyone enjoyed the cake and punch and getting to visit with each other one last time before summer break. I could not believe their generosity; it took forever to unload my car when I got home. Seth and I are so blessed.

BEWARE: TODDLER ON SKIS- Lane is on the loose! Tyler and Sarah have created a monster, a river monster. We all should have known with Tyler's mild (or major) obsession with wakeboarding, that his firstborn would be attacking the wake while still in diapers. They began training her in the livingroom then moved to the pond, pulling her by hand. Next step was the pond at Izzy and Pop's house. They pulled her behind the boad and she was a natural. This picture is of her first ski adventure in the river. Sarah is proudly snapping photographs. Lane loved it until her turn was over. The water was really cold and that didn't go over very well either. (p.s. please please let me look like Sarah after Mason is born...)

KITTENS!- I may have mentioned before that our newest addition to the More family included 4 sweet kittens. They are absolutely precious! Sally Cat kept them hidden under the house for nearly 6 weeks after she had them. When they finally emerged we were thrilled. Even Buddy and Lucy like having them around. They are the busiest kittens I have ever seen. Constantly digging up ferns, knocking over lanterns, chewing up flowers, killings bugs...it's hard to snap pictures of them all. Here is one, Snickers, taking a rest in her mama's bed.  [sidenote: the kittens are killers...in a good way! they slayed a dragon that apparently had been living under our house. Okay, maybe not a real dragon but the biggest lizard I have ever seen. I was disgusted, but very thankful to the furry foursome that protected our home!]

Whew, that was a lot! Hopefully I will be more careful in the future to not leave out so many important events.

Summertime and the livin is easy...

 School is finally out! Hallelujah! I have one more week then summer school begins... 1/2 day for 4 weeks... not so bad. Normally this time of year is slower for Seth because planting is finished and its not yet time to work cows. This year has been different. Here's a little taste...Waiting on the wheat to dry up so they can get in there with a combine and harvest then plant beans, rain everyday, freak hailstorm tore up a whole field of corn, had to replant some soybeans, major drama with the green tractors so we made the switch to red (which is very scandalous in the farming world).
We are also starting the updates in the baby's room! woo hoo! Painting was suppose to begin this week, but since there was so much going on, we decided to wait until next week. I also ordered the bedding for Mason's crib. If you are looking for quality custom bedding at a reasonable price, go to http://www.modpeapod.com/. It was recommended by a friend and their stuff is great because it doesn't look like everything else in the stores AND she will create a custom set just the way you want it!
My birthday was fabulous! I spent it with my family and wonderful husband (gushy but true). We traveled to Hunstville and visited my mom, uncle, and aunt.
I have also embarked on a new business adventure. I am now a rep for NuSkin. I have been using their facial/skin care products for a while now and absolutely love them. I'm about to have my website up and running for it, so if you are interested in any products let me know!   http://www.nuskin.com/en_US/home.html  

week 18

We had a GREAT weekend! It was so good to see Lauren and Matt and Caroline. An added bonus was seeing my mom and sister for a little bit too. After prying Seth off of the tractor and planting soybeans, we headed off to Memphis to celebrate Lauren's birthday (a tradition 11 or so years in the making). It was strange for our conversation topics to be babies and families...big change from the years past.

Seth and I have basically made it to the halfway point of our pregnancy! We are ready for this boy to get here. I am feeling the aches of motherhood already... despite the normal backaches, belly aches and all-over aches, I already worry about this child every day. After our trisomy 18 scare, we critique every "feeling" I get. Seth has grounded me from google. There is way too much info online for pregnant women to stumble upon and freak themselves out. During my triple screen research I found a lot of information on the negative but not a lot on the positive; so here is our story in case others find themselves in a similar situation.

I went in for a routine OB appointment with my doctor and he recommended taking the triple screen test. I did not know a lot about it so I went on his advice and let them draw the blood and test it. He said that it would more than likely provide me with a peace of mind that our child is healthy.  The following Monday (Easter Monday) he called my cell phone (not the nurse but the dr) and I knew it was not good. I went in to talk to him and he said my results came in and everything looked good except the screening for trisomy 18. This is a more severe disorder than trisomy 21/down syndrome. Oftentimes the baby will not survive in the womb or will die shortly after birth. Seth and I were devastated, despite the doctor telling us there was only 1 in 60 chance of our baby having this disorder. Normal chances for this were 1 in 10000 or something exponential like that. Immediately, my dr arranged for me to see a specialist at UAB. By Wednesday we were meeting with the genetic counselor hearing all about the potential outcomes of our level II ultrasound and amnio. Before we new it, we were looking about live images of our baby on a big screen. It was incredible: his little hands waving, his foot tapping... I was in tears- NO SIGNS OF TRISOMY 18! We were so blessed. We had sent out the prayer warriors to ask for God's help and God heard us! We found out we had been blessed with a baby boy and he appeared to be 100% healthy! No need for an amnio. Our prayers were answered.

After the good news Sarah and I celebrated by taking Lane for a girls day out to Dogwood Festival in Aliceville.  We enjoyed the sunshine and warm weather while Lane enjoyed super slide and the bouncer...

Our Neck of the Woods... the lost post from November

[I found this post in the drafts...it mysteriously never made its way to being published...]

As we have been preparing our video for the ASA's Young Leader conference, I have a camera glued to my hand. So for the past 3 weeks, I have been tagging along with Seth as he works on the farm. I've been out every day after work and each weekend. I get lost in daily routine and forget how gorgeous this place is.

California was a blast! We arrived around lunchtime on Sunday.  I immediately fell in love with the palm trees that lined the road. At night, they were even lit up with little twinkle lights. They were absolutely enchanting!

Monday, we ate breakfast and headed directly to Disneyland... I was in love. I've already begun planning our trip to Disney World! I rode the rides that permitted pregnant women to ride and a few that I had to sneak past the operators. Don't worry...they were very gentle... except for the Indiana Jones ride. I believe it was Chad (Kentucky) who said something to the effect of, " Aw, this ride is nothing. It's just like the Pirates of the Carribean ride that we just went on." So I thought alright, that was like watching a theatrical show from boat... I wonder why it says no pregnant women or health risks... I soon found out. I hid my bulging belly from each Disney worker we passed until I finally made it through the line and climbed into the driver's seat of the pretend Indiana Jones car. How bad can it be? I thought. There are small children on this thing. The next thing I knew I was taking the carride from Hades. Everyone was screaming, including me! It probably wouldn't have been that bad, but all I could think about was Baby M floating around with both arms up screaming, "Whooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaa!" We both survived and moved on to a calmer ride... It's a small world.

Tuesday, we took a tour of L.A. It was an 8 hour tour and we saw EVERYTHING (including Hilary Duff!!!)

We even saw Andrea Bocelli (the opra guy) getting his star on Hollywood Blvd!

After LA, we went to Santa Monica Pier. It was windy and very chilly. I was also disappointed with the beach . I guess I am used to the white sandy beaches of Florida.

The highlight of Santa Monica was when I found the Zoltar machine from Big with Tom Hanks! I paid the dollar and got my fortune. It didn't have the same effect on me as it did on Tom Hanks in the movie, which is probably a good thing. However, now that I think of it,  I am getting bigger by the day so maybe it did work.

See what I mean?!?!? Here is a picture of us after the ASA banquet. You should see the professional picture that was taken of us when we walked across the stage to accept the award in front of 1000 people. We got it in the mail yesterday. I am in desperate need of a trainer, or at least a maternity yoga class. The crazy part is, I haven't gained but about 6 lbs... I just look like I've gained 40! Pure insanity.

I go back to the Dr on Monday. Hopefully they will schedule my ultrasound. I am ready to find out if Baby M is a boy or girl! Seth is hoping for a boy (of course). I am just hoping that they don't say, "Oh my, there are two babies in there!" I may have to be hospitalized from shock if that is the case. However, as long as he/she or they are healthy, it doens't matter to me.