I'm done.

I don't even know where to begin. It's been a while since I've been on here. I've been extremely busy at work, which is great. I hate being bored. In case you didn't hear, our agency is being "taken over" by another agency so lots of changes are taking place. All staff people were let go except for myself and one other lady. But it didn't really effect me personally until today.
When I started working here a year ago I was encouraged to take out a short term disability policy in case I ever got pregnant. It would pay me a percentage of my salary while I was on maternity leave. Because of things that are completely out of my control, that policy is more than likely going to be cancelled Dec. 31. because I'll be at another agency. What!? I've been paying for this for a year and counting on it all this time. The worst part is, I can't even get a similary poicy through another company because I have a "pre-existing condition"- pregnancy. How messed up is that!? They're trying to help figure this out for me, but I don't have much hope of that happening. Pretty upsetting.
I am excited about our pajama party with some friends tomorrow night at our house. And our Sunday School party Saturday night. And getting together with friends Monday night! We're in for a lot of fun.
I hope everyone is having a great Christmas so far. I can't wait to see everyone. I HATE the traveling and wish that just one year Matt and I could actually be at our own house on Christmas, but that day is coming. :) Everyone should just move next door to me and it'll all be good. :) If only.
Baby Anna is doing great! She's getting pretty big, or is that me? She and I are both measuring perfect. I feel like a hippo but people are just starting to say things like, "wow, you're really starting to look pregnant." I'll be 6 months next week!
Talk to you soon.

Christi

It's a....

We're having a little Girl!!! It was a crazy day and a crazy appointment, but after 20 minutes of mashing on me and waiting for her to move her legs we finally got the "money shot". I know that's gross. :)
When we left our last appointment Dr. Stradtman told us that we would go straight to the ultra sound room next time. Well, when we walked in for the ultra sound they informed us that we didn't have an appointment and that they weren't supposed to do then until 20 weeks ( I was 19). After composing myself to keep from strangling the lady behind the desk, I asked how we could get the problem resolved. After 20 minutes of them not knowing what to do, they took us back to see if they could see anything.
Little Miss Priss was kicking, flipping, and punching! I still can't feel her so it was odd to see it on the big screen. Matt kept saying, " you can't feel that?!". Even though her little legs were just a goin', she was being a little lady and keeping them together. The tech kept pushing on me and finally she kicked one of her legs out and we got the picture. 100% Girl!
We are so excited. We haven't completely settled on a name yet but we'll let you know when we do.
Oh yeah. I also have a bladder infection. I've never had anything like that before but it wasn't very bad. I'm not on a 'prostitue strength' dose of pennicilin! If it makes me better it's worth it.
Have a great week!

Christi

Happy and Sad

We've been crazy busy the past couple of months, but here is an update. In about 2 hours we should know whether we're having a boy or a girl! I'm so excited about it and I can't wait for the appointment. We had our Tablescapes event at church a few weeks ago, We've been having extra choir practices every Thursday night for our dinner theatre, and we spent this weekend at church helping with our youth conference- The Gathering. We've had an awesome time at all of these events, but it will be nice to be home tonight! The Gathering was AWESOME as always and we had a blast. Mike Satterfield did a wonderful job speaking and Echoing Angels and Rush of Fools gave us a great concert. We are blessed to have such a great group of kids! I was exhausted, especially after our service project. We went to all the Moody and St. Clair schools and disinfected them for the teachers. I hope everyone appreciates what our kids did for them. So, we had a great weekend.
I found out this morning that one of my best friends lost her grandmother this weekend. I feel so badly for them having to go through this again but I know Jon Jon is in a better place now and won't be in any pain. It's still going to be hard for everyone here, but she's having a Great day today! Please pray for the Poe family.
It's been crazy at work as well. Our agency was bought out by the Memphis office and they laid-off everyone but me and one other lady. This includes my sister. You may be thinking, " hasn't Steph worked there for 5 years and actually got you this job?". You would be right. But don't worry about her. She is working things out with her boss and will probably get to stay and work for him which is a better deal for her anyway. Thursday was rough, needless to say, and even though my job was safe it was horrible being here when other people were losing their jobs. Some of these women had worked here for 25 years! But I know everything will be ok.
I hope everyone out there is doing good. Hopefully I'll be able to let you all know about the baby today or tomorrow.

Talk to you then!

Ummm...

Obviously my new background didn't work. It was really cute, too. It pasted really big and not like the picture showed. If you know why this happened, please enlighten me.
Thanks,
Christi

WOW

I forgot to mention this. A few months ago I was dealing with anxiety again really bad. Like, I lost 6 pounds in 6 days bad. I realized some things, and me and God worked it out. I tend to let fear take control. It doesn't happen often, but when it does it completely overcomes me. Anyway, I started reading my Bible again like I should've been all along. I didn't have a 'Bible study' to go by at that time so I took Bro Rick's advice and just started reading Psalms and Proverbs. This past Sunday our lesson was on Psalm 56 ( I think that's the right chapter). Next to verses 8-9 I had written "WOW". In my paraphrase it says...

'You know my wanderings. Put my tears into your bottle. Do you not keep account of them all?'

Basically, we are so important to Him that he KEEPS every tear we cry. Even the often stupid ones that don't amount to anything! That spoke to me loud and clear. Why in the world would I worry about anything if He loves me that much.

Just a nice thought.

Still Here.

Well, I'm still here. Our internet at home has been odd lately and there are probably going to be layoffs at work, so I figured blogging wouldn't be a good idea for a while. Not much is going on with us. Just work, church, family, football. We went back to the doctor Monday and all is well. I was hoping for an ultrasound, but wasn't that lucky. We'll find out November 16 at our next appointment. I'm really excited to finally know. I have to admit, this pregnancy has flown by very quickly so far. I'm sure I'll feel differently toward the end but so far, so good.

The company my sister and I work for has been "aquired" by our Memphis office. Not a big deal for our agents and their clients, but they may decide they don't need any staff people here in Birmingham. Now we just wait and, for some reason, gossip. I cannot stand it when people almost twice my age act like kids. Some people don't understand how we can work with our youth and not go crazy. But I'd rather deal with 14 year olds who act like 14 year olds than 50 year olds who act like 14 year olds. Enough of that. I'll keep you updated.

One of these days I'll get a fun background and upload pics, but I haven't really had time. I've only done 1 belly pic which was the week we found out we were expecting. I know I need to do more. Be patient. :) I'm gaining lots of weight like a good pregger. I gained 10 pounds the first trimester and 8 in this last month! Dr. Stradtman still says not to worry. I was never sick so I've just been hungry. I'm sure I'll be huge like everyone else in my family.

Hope everyone is good. We've got choir tonight- yeah Christmas music!!!!- and then nothing much until we get together with a few people to watch LSU STOMP us Saturday night. :) Still great to be an Auburn Tiger. Have a great weekend everyone.

Not easy...

I'm gaining weight like a pro. I know it's a good thing and I'm supposed to be gaining now, but that doesn't make it any easier. After consistently losing weight for the past 2 years, putting it back on- so quickly- is still hard. I go back to the doctor October 19th and we'll see what she says. Previously, I was told not to worry about it.
Everyone wants to know what the nursery will look like and what colors I'm doing everything. But I think I'm going to wait until I'm at least 5 months before I do anything to the nursery. I don't mean to be negative, but I think it'd be crazy to fix everything up before then. I know everything has been perfect so far, but I'd rather be rational about this one little thing. I'm not very rational about much else!
People ask what we "want" and we honestly would be happy either way. I think deep down all girls want girls and all boys want boys. When we talk about "the kid", Matt always says 'he' and I always say 'she'. We joke about it a lot. Everyone who knows my family says we should have a boy since our family has mostly girls now. But all the babies at church- our class has produced about 12 babies in the last 12 months- have been boys, except for 2. Those boys are gonna need little girls to marry one day!
Well, I'm at work so I better get back to it.

Christi

12 Weeks!

Well, I'm officially 12 weeks preggers today! I'm very excited, but still trying to be cautious. Steph gave me some maternity clothes that I need to try on and I'll probably buy a few things soon. We go back to the doctor October 19 and will probably get another ultra sound since the last one didn't really work.
There's not a whole lot for me to say today. Oh yeah, I have diagnosed myself with a sinus infection. I felt bad yesterday and it got worse over night, but felt better this morning. Just the normal stuff for me but no fever so I'm fine. There' s not a whole lot they could do for me now anyway so I'm just taking my Tylenol like a good girl.
Guess I should get back to work now. Sorry today was so boring. I hope to update my background and stuff soon. Have a great day!

Christi

Finally

Well, I figured since I'm going to be a mommy now I have to have one of these. It just seems like the thing to do. Plus, we can't check Facebook at work but we can look at blogs. Who knew? Please excuse my posts and background for a while since I'm new to this.
I'll try to keep everyone updated on our family and our pregnancy.

Let me start at the beginning. My husband, Matt, and I have been married for 4 years now. We dated for 5 years before that so we've been together for a while. I graduated from Auburn University in 2003 with a BS in Interior Design and a Business Minor- which has done nothing for me. After getting married, he graduated in August 2006 with a BS in Civil Engineering and now works as a geotechnical engineer at Gallet and Associates aka Teracon. I tried for a long time to fulfill my dreams of working in the architectural world, but finally gave up after many...many tears shed. We got our first baby, a maltese/shih tzu mix named Beasley, in the Fall of 2005 and love him way too much. Just last night I was looking at him thinking, " this is crazy. I cannot love a dog this much". But I do.

We have a wonderful marriage and I'm so blessed that God has given me a great husband, an awesome family and extended family, and wonderful friends. We found out on August 7 that we are expecting our first baby in April of next year! We had been trying for a little over a month and were kinda shocked that it happened that fast. Those of you who know our family history will understand that. We can't wait to find out what we're having and start getting ready for everything. I'm already becoming a COW and eating everything that isn't nailed to the floor! But I had NO SICKNESS at all, so I'll be happy with my fat.

We are also Christians and have been most of our lives. God has blessed us in unimaginable ways and has done awesome things with us over the past few months. My new phrase in January became "I'm glad that God loves me enough to make me miserable!". He made me miserable with being lukewarm and afraid of everything. It wasn't fun, but He brought me through. We love our church and our church family. We spend a lot of time there and enjoy being a part of such an awesome ministry and loving family. We also love working with our youth and singing in the choir.

Wow. This was a lot of stuff. They won't all be this long. Probably didn't need to write all of this since most of the people reading this already know us, but too bad. I'll keep everyone updated on the baby. We'll be heading to one of our favorite places- Auburn- tomorrow for another game. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Christi