20 Weeks

I'm 20 weeks along now and I'm very excited to be half way (or more) through my pregnancy. I'm definitely starting to feel pregnant. My belly is getting in the way of doing things like bending over, reaching up, or breathing.

I look very pregnant with out a shirt on, but when I have clothes on the belly seems to hide. I'm still telling people that I'm pregnant and getting a very surprised response. I guess that's flattering. During this pregnancy I have been very, very active so I've actually lost a lot of fat. My legs and arms are a lot thinner, and my calves are more muscular.

I have my 20 Week check-up but I wont have any pictures taken. I guess I'll hear the heart beat, yay! I do love that!!

I was going to try to post a picture but it would be sideways because for some reason I don't have the "authority" to turn it 45 degrees. Maybe next week.

Weekend

We've had a great weekend. John mentioned to a friend tonight that it felt long, and I think I have to agree. I'm coming to a point in my pregnancy where doing almost anytihng is pretty exhausting. John let me sleep in on Saturday morning and I still couldn't sleep past 8:30. We got ready shortly after that and headed to a movie. We saw Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. We really enjoyed this movie. We didn't know if Malachi would like the 3-D experience, but we never had to leave. After that we had lunch at the mall and then Malachi played in their play place while John watched and I shopped. I got a pair of jeans and two shirts at Motherhood Maternity. I also picked up a little dinosaur and some wrapping things for a friend that we were going to see. Our friend had a baby two and a half weeks ago and we had to go see him, and them of course. :) He was so little and so cute. We really loved seeing their family. We've known the mommy since second semester at CFNI and we really love her and by extention her family. It also gave us an excitment for our little one to come in February.

Saturday night we chilled at home. Today we had church in the morning. Afterwards we made our weekly trip to Chipotle. Malachi and I napped at home while John went out to buy a power supply for the computer because we thought it blew. After getting home and putting it in, it looks like that's not the reason our desk top isn't working. John's new theory is that the motherboard blew. At any rate, we're down to one computer, which can be annnoying some times.

John played Volleyball today with some people from his class and the class right after. After that John made a delicious dinner of dumplings and Pad Thai. A relaxing night with our friend Sam and then TV. Now that I write about it, it sounds like a typical weekend, and I wonder why anyone would wanna read this. Oh well.

No news yet about where we're heading. Trust me, as soon as we know something y'all will hear about it.

230th Post

I'm going to post some recent pictures and thought that I should mention this is my 230th post. I didn't keep track until a few ago and thought that mentioning the 223rd might be weird. :) So for your enjoyment, some recent pictures!

Malachi and our friend's dog Oosha:


Mommy and Malachi chillin in the car waiting for daddy:


Malachi being awesome:


Photography by Malachi:

HA!

I was going to blog this morning just because I thought I should. Just as the blank blog page was pulling up I got a text. I figured it couldn't be John saying we got a bid list because he said he would call if we did. The text read: bid list received. After jumping and cheering and running into Malachi's room to jump and cheer (he ignored me and kept his eyes on the TV (by the way, I think we may never do a TV in his room again)) I called him.

We talked about what's on the list (13 posts). I'll let John blog about the specifics, but we're very happy about some, and very scared about the others.

Sigh

I've been pretty silent about this subject on my blog so far, but I need release.

John was taken out of Mandarin training and thrown into Spanish training the day before the language training started because of Malachi's clearance. No China for us. Right now with Malachi having a level two clearance the Medical Department (MED) here has to make sure that where ever we go has an ER and a Neurologist. So, John's Career Development Officer (CDO) sent a list of post ideas to MED to check out. As far as we know the CDO is still waiting. Once she gets word on all the posts she'll put together a bid list for us. Very similar to the one that we worked on before, except much shorter. So basically right now we're just waiting for the bid list. We're very anxiously waiting for it. It's possible that there are some really nice English Speaking posts on it (Sydney, Geneva, Johannesburg). We're trying to not get to excited about those posts. If we get Sydney (which we asked specifically about because there's a post open there and on the list for the 148th class) we'd be in the R&R spot for Eastern Asia. That would mean that Team China, which we're very sad that we're not a part of anymore, would be coming to see us.

So now we're just waiting. Lots and lots of waiting. We were hoping to get the bid list Friday, then we were hoping to get it today. Now I don't know. Maybe I should just stop hoping. I've been getting lots of "encouraging" notes from people. For some reason I don't want to hear it. Sigh.

Pardon the Language

I'm so sick of the damn cold.



Obviously I thought it was over with a few days ago, boy was I wrong. It really is a weird cold. When I'm sitting my nose gets stuffy, when I'm up and moving around my nose is clear. It has moved to my chest now and I'm coughing quite a bit. It's a productive cough - but a lot of the time, I can't cough anything up because we've been so busy and out this weekend. John's parents were in town and yesterday we went to see the Arlington National Cemetary and the Pentagon Memorial. I think we walked around for about three hours. By the time we were done I was cramping and crazy sore. I think I know now that it's way to much for me to do things like that anymore. If people come to visit I'll go on short trips and John can take you to the big stuff.

Today was church, then lunch, then toy shopping for the boy, then home to nap. Now we're making dinner. mmm...Grilled Chicken, homemade potato salad, and corn on the cob.

Weirdest Cold Ever

John and I both had colds this week. Mine is still lingering a little bit but has been the shortest cold I think I've ever had. I think that the stuffy/runny nose will be gone by tomorrow morning. I hope so anyway. Even though this was one of the shortest colds I've had it's been quite painful.

Three to One

I'm out numbered. Currently there are two boys in the house, to one female. Come the birth of our baby we're going to have THREE boys in the house. Three boys!!!! As Wayne Myers says: my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my.

Malachi's not quite as excited as daddy. I think Malachi really wanted a baby sister. He still wants to name the baby Chicken Butt. We have a few names in mind: Simon, Patrick, James, Adam, and Christopher. This isn't a final list, some names can certainly be added if something good comes along. We're very, very, picky with names though, so it's hard for us. Plus it's harder to name a boy than a girl.

I didn't get a very good ultrasound this time around, but I'll still try to get a picture up so y'all can see.

Have a great day/week everyone!

9/11 Sorry and Thankful

Eight years ago today I was putting on my uniform for a day of work at Best Buy. I was a cashier on the morning shift. I grabbed my socks and was heading to the bed to put them on. My cell phone rang - it was John. A plane has flown into the World Trade Center in NYC. I sat on the bed stunned.

Still pretty young it didn't quite hit me how bad it really was. I went to work and on the radio it's all that was talked about. I worked in an Electronics store, and it was on TV. As the morning went on the seriousness of the situation was sinking in. I was crying at work and couldn't stop. But I had to move on. Business was business.

I was continually stunned after every plane crash. Who would do this and why? How had my home country (a place I thought was so safe) been violated like this? My life had seemed so happy - engaged and getting married in 9 weeks and in the process of buying the perfect little house. My fairy tail dream was crashing down.

I felt so bad, so, so bad for all the people who were suffering deaths (whether it be the person who jumped - or their family). I felt so sorry for the thousands of people directly affected by this tragedy. And yet...I felt so thankful.

I had no friends, no family touched by this awful day. I didn't lose someone and have to be reminded every day that the man responsible is still on the loose.

Every day for a few months afterwards, on my way to work I would see a man standing on a bridge over 494. He held a flag in the air. Sometimes still, sometimes waving. Sometimes I balled, sometimes I was numb to it. But I still remember. I remember the pain that people went through. I remember putting on socks. I remember.

VA Beach

I figured it was about time to blog about VA Beach. We had a really great time, thank you Matt and Julie for letting us stay with y'all.

We left the North VA area around 4 o'clock on Friday. Matt told us to take the "back way" because the highway would be really bad that day. We did so and saw some really beautiful stuff. It still took us about five hours to get there though. Aryn (their daughter) was in bed so we quickly put Malachi down and talked to Matt and Julie for about an hour before we all went to bed.

After a relaxed morning getting ready and letting the kids play we decided to go to Mt. Trashmore so the kids could ride bikes and play.




The Gills

Despite the name of the park (and yes it used to be a landfill) it was a very nice park. We had a great time walking to the big playground. We passed the skate park on the way there and stopped to watch a bit. Some of them were really talented. After letting the kids play for a bit at the playground we decided to start the walk back to the car so we could go home, have lunch and put the kids down for a nap. The parents enjoyed this kid free time to chill and talk. Shortly after the kids woke up it was time for the Gills to go to a birthday party and the Roys to meet a friend.

We hadn't seen our friend Curtis in years. I didn't think he'd even met Malachi but apparently he saw him when he was itty bitty. It was so nice to sit and talk and catch up. We sat at Starbucks where I didn't get a drink I enjoyed. After that we went to the boardwalk to see the beach and the touristy area because we didn't plan on beaching there. We went to a tourist store to buy a couple of souvenirs and then headed to the beach.


The Roys with Neptune at VA Beach


Curtis and me on VA Beach


Malachi on VA Beach

We then went to sushi with Curtis for dinner...mmm...shushi. It was very delicious. By the time we got home it was bed time for Malachi. The adults stayed up talking again and then headed to bed.

The next morning we went to church with the Gills, afterward we went to Ruby Tuesdays for brunch. After which we went home and all the girls and Malachi napped. After naps we beached it up! We went to the military beach thanks to Matt being in the Navy. There was body surfing done by Matt and John, sand playing by the kids, and I did get into the water but not for long. We had a really good time at the beach. There was also body burrying. Who can go to the beach and not be burried?


M is for Malachi


Malachi and Aryn

We had a delicious dinner at Texas Roadhouse (haven't been to one since we left Dallas...so tasty! We put the kids to bed after getting home. Then the adults enjoyed a game of Settlers of Cataan and a couple of rounds of Scattegories. The next morning we put our things together and after a group picture headed off. We decided that since we were leaving in the morning we could take the highway. There was a tropical storm off the coast so we got quite a rain storm in the beginning of the trip. It made for some really stressful driving. After about three and a half hours on the road we stopped at Chick-fil-A (another first in VA) for the free sandwich deal. As it turns out, I was the only one who had a team shirt (John's didn't make it to VA). After eating delicious CFA we drove the last hour home. Ahhh...home sweet home. Thank you so much Gills for letting us stay! We had a wonderful time with y'all.


Group picture take 3 - yay it worked!

Home

We're home from VA Beach. We had a great weekend. Detailed blog to follow.

Can't Remember

I was going to post some kind of realization I had today, or something cute about Malachi. I wish I could remember what it was. Maybe I will later.

I took a video on my phone today of Malachi helping me do my chores. It's really cute but I can't figure out how to get it off my phone. So either y'all will have to come to me to see it, or I'll have to have someone figure it out for me.

Malachi and I have started a "home school" of sorts. It doesn't consist of much. We have reading time (his books and his Bible), letters and numbers, colors and shapes, and craft (haven't done today's yet, but we're going to write a letter and a number today for our craft!!). I'd really like to get to a teacher's supply store and get some books to help us with the learning of letters and numbers. I really miss the supplies I had as a pre-school teacher in Dallas.