A Rainy Day Update

I haven't updated on this pregnancy very often, mostly because I forget I'm pregnant a lot of the time.  But I had an interesting doctor's appointment yesterday and thought it was worth noting (if for no other reason than for my memory in the future).

As a second pregnancy often goes, I forgot I even had an appointment yesterday.  Much to my lack of planning, I had to take Annelise with me, which typically isn't a big deal.  But, I got caught up in work and realized my appointment was in 15 minutes, Annelise was still napping and I had not a stitch of makeup on.  So, I quickly woke her up (first mistake) and proceeded to make myself look half alive with a few globs of cover up and a dash of mascara.

Amazingly, we arrived at the doctor's office with a few minutes to spare.  The humidity was horrendous yesterday, so Annelise looked akin to Shirley Temple.  The nurses loved her hair! They called me in for my appointment and no sooner did the nurse put the blood pressure cuff on my arm and Annelise was screaming "No! No! No!"  She's never been protective of me before, but apparently she thought I was about to be tortured.  Did I mention she slapped the nurse before I could gain control of her with my free arm?  How embarrassing!  She was slightly nicer to the doctor, but only because she let Annelise play with the heart rate monitor.  

In baby news, it looks like everything is normal, except for the length of my baby's legs.  Her femur registers in the 90th percentile.  Hm...tall?  I've also only gained 4 pounds this pregnancy.  How that's possible with the amount of mint chocolate chip ice cream I've consumed, I don't know.  But, I'll take it.

And who knew that after an 80 degree day full of heat and humidity in a house without air conditioning, we'd have a 54 degree rainy day.  I even made my husband put the window unit in our bedroom last night.  

Oh well, here's the drinking a mug of hot chocolate and wearing fuzzy slipper socks.  I have a feeling we'll be breaking out the pool and sunscreen tomorrow.

Family Reunion

What a fantastic Memorial weekend!  On Saturday, we spent a quiet morning sleeping in, going out for breakfast at McDonald's and happening upon a neighborhood sale where we hit a jackpot of deals.

Originally we had planned to drive down to Indiana on Sunday morning for the Neal Family Reunion.  But thought, "What the heck, let's drive down Saturday afternoon and stay at a hotel."  We met up with Matt's sister and parents and enjoyed an afternoon of swimming in the pool and hot tub and a wonderful dinner out with family.

Sunday morning, we headed out to Crown Point, Indiana for the first ever Neal Family Reunion.  What a day we had!

Neal Family (We are on the bottom left kneeling in between Matt's parents.)

Annelise, Matt, Sarah (Matt's sister) and Mia (our niece)

The weekend must have pooped Annelise out.  She fell asleep in the swing!

Me and my wonderful mother-in-law, Lora.  I love her!

The party-planning committee: Matt's cousins Dawn (left) and Beth (right) with me in the middle!

It's a...

GIRL!  

Looks like we won't have success in breaking the streak this time.  We're very excited that Annelise is going to have a sister!

A Beautiful Summer Evening

There's more where these came from here.  You need to be a Facebook user - and my "friend" - in order to view the album.  Sorry, they're my sister's pictures.

Tomorrow is the Big Day

Yup, in 24 hours we'll be in the doctor's office, watching a screen that hopefully tells us what kind of child we're going to have.

I'm not anxious at all.  Actually, I'm more nervous about how Annelise will behave in the doctor's office than I am what kind of genitalia will appear on the screen.  Does that sound crude?  I hope not.  

It would be nice if we had a boy...that seems to be the only name we agree on.  The Lord knows Annelise could use a sibling tough enough to put her in her place.

But, we'd be happily content with another girl.  Sure would mean a lot less stress and shopping for me this summer.  

Check back soon for the real info.

What I Love About Today

• I've been feeling the baby move for a few weeks now, I just forget to blog about it.  As I type this, tiny feet are bumping the inside of my belly.  A kick has never felt so good.
• Sitting on the couch, watching the news, enjoying my second cup of coffee (which I got a great deal on at Meijer this week - $6.99 for Starbucks Whole Bean Sumatra with a $1 off coupon), reading blogs and email...still in my jammies of course.
• Its a bit cloudy outside, which makes my day easier.  No stress of playing in the yard, weeding or mowing the lawn - just laundry - which I typically hate, but am in a surprisingly good mood about today.
• We're only 5 days away from finding out what this next baby will be.  I have no idea.
• Annelise has decided that staying in bed during naptime is boring.  I finally caught her getting out of it today.  She's so sneaky!  Inevitably, I had to spank her to get my point across.  I think she's asleep now, but who really knows.  I don't dare open the door to possibly find her reading books on the floor.
• We have absolutely no plans for this weekend - no meetings, youth activities, work events, big house projects - we're hoping to spend some quality time at home tomorrow, as a family.  
• Kelly posted about her great finds this week at Meijer.  I was tempted to do the same, but didn't want to haul all the groceries out of the cabinet.  Basically, I planned two weeks worth of meals and bought $100 worth of groceries - all for $74.  Here's to couponing online (which I'm new to) and shopping the sale ad.  A novel idea, I know.

I hope you all enjoy your Friday.  Take some time to read to your kids today, kiss your husband and tell him what a joy he is in your life and most importantly of all, praise your God for the amazing provider He is in your life.  Really, we're all living better than 99% of the people on our planet.

Some of My Favorite Things

Is It Thursday Yet?

The only good thing about today is that I'm still in my jammies.  Can that be good?

Woke up late to Annelise screaming from her bed.

Turns out she just wanted to get down.

Made a wonderful pot of coffee.  No creamer or milk in the house.  

Had to use evaporated milk...its wrong how good that is.

Gave Annelise a bowl of cantalope for breakfast.  She dumped the entire thing on the floor.

I didn't realize it until I stepped in cold, mushy fruit.  Nice.

Decided it was time for a diaper change, then nap.  

Did the unthinkable...stuck my finger in poop.  Oh the joys of motherhood.

Started work off right - finding out there's a major error on the website

that is causing my coworker to get 100's of spam emails a minute.

Can't get a hold of tech support.  Sorry Teri.

The house is trashed, laundry undone - even worse, partially done.

No shower, didn't brush my teeth yet and its 11:15 am.

When does Thursday get here?

What A Weekend

I feel like there is so much to blog, I've been putting it off.  Blogging shouldn't be a burden, I guess.

We spent a wonderful week enjoying Tulip Time!  The weather was gorgeous and the festival was full of everything we hoped for - elephant ears, Dutch dancers, friends and parades.  It doesn't get better than that!  

Three beautiful Kentucky friends came to visit over the weekend.  We were so refreshed to spent time with Erin, Betsy and Sarah.  Thanks for coming friends!

And now we're back to the grind, preparing for school to end and a big golf event at the Mission. Summer is just around the corner and continues to tease us with sporadic days of sunshine and 75 degree weather - like today.

I'll leave you with my feeble attempt to photograph Annelise and her cousin Alayna.  By the looks of it, we have a lot of preparing to do before another baby comes.  She was not impressed with the idea of touching Alayna.

Seriously mom?  Don't put that kid on me!

Annelise at 16 months old and Alayna at 3 months old - almost the same size!

Eating Spaghetti

PS - Do you hear the funny statement Matt says in the background?

E.L.F. Make Up

Ok, ladies...sorry for all of the hassle.  First, I posted about this great deal on E.L.F. makeup that a coworker referred me to.  Then, I heard from another blog friend that it could be a scam (after she placed a large order).  I felt terrible for possibly referring something that could harm friends. I did some research online and it doesn't appear to be a scam, per se. Unfortunately, there isn't any REAL deal here.  E.L.F. products are always sold for $1 a the retailers that carry them. Nordstrom and Bloomingdales did not buy them out.  So, its still a great price for makeup, but not necessarily a time sensitive steal.  

Also, I'm not sure about the coupon code CAROLINE.  A friend placed an order and received 50% off by using that code, but we're still not sure if the code is a scam or not.  I'll keep you posted.

FREE MEAL - What?

If you haven't already checked out Kelly's blog, then you must!  KFC is offering a FREE (no strings attached) two piece grilled chicken meal, with 2 individual sides and a biscuit.  The best part...you can print the coupon more than once!  I printed 4 separate coupons, all with different barcode numbers.  

I'm smelling a picnic in the park tonight...a FREE one. 

Little Miss Chatterbox

I recently posted a list of all of the words that Annelise can say.  But, I thought it would be so much more interesting if you could hear some of them for yourself.  Here are a few of the words. As you can see, you're also getting a glimpse of her independent personality.  

PS - That snack cup was the best purchase I made at the grocery store today.  2 for $5.19!  It holds all kinds of precious goodies (Trix ceral today) that Annelise may help herself to.  It's a mommy's right hand...with nothing to sweep up!

The Great Room Switch

After LOTS of hard work, we finally made the great room switch this weekend.  Annelise officially has her own big girl room, complete with crib, twin bed (which she will graduate to when her sibling arrives), along with all of her toys!  Mommy is very pleased that all of her toys fit into the room and are not scattered throughout the house.  Just a part of my anal-ness.

As a result of Anne's big girl room, I now officially have an office - that is JUST an office!  No guest bed, ironing board, baskets of laundry or toys.  I'm a work-from-home mommy, so having my own space is very nice.  Its near the kitchen, half bath and living area.  So, I can see all, hear all and still accomplish all.  Its a complete feeling.

Our digital camera pooped out, so I had to take pictures on our video camera.  Not so great. But, you get the gist.  Also, please don't assume that because we no longer have a guest room, that means we don't want guests.  We do!  In fact, three of my lovely Kentucky girls are coming to visit this very weekend.  They'll be staying in the studio apartment at my parents' house (which was built with the intended purpose of housing guests).  So, come one, come all!  Did I mention there's a park and a pool right there too?  Hm...I'm hear the pages of calendars turn as I type.  I'm sure the Kamper's would be willing to give us a good reference.  They stay there often when they visit Holland.  And, without being biased at all, my parents are pretty darn good hosts.

The beautiful book shelf in my office, complete with blue lamp shade and brown satin curtain. Though you can't see it, just outside the window is an array of flowers and all-things green that my hubby works hard to maintain.  Its a pretty site!

My desk, with covered file cabinet.  Did I mention I spent 5 hours on Friday, filing receipts and papers all the way back to 2005?  Who keeps this much stuff?

Annelise'  big girl bed.  I wish the colors were more vibrant on screen.  Her bedding is from IKEA and most of her toys are as well.  I've heard bright colors help babies develop faster?


The other side of her room, with crib (which she was sleeping in at the time of the picture). There's lots of rug space to play in the middle of the room.