21 year old Amanda

I saw this post on one of my favorite blogs, Down at Fraggle Rock and I just knew that I had to participate!  Now that it's 7 years later and I'm a momma to be, it's probably a good time to sit down and share some insight with 21 year old Amanda!

Dear 21 year old Amanda,

This is going to be quite the year.  Right now you think that life is going great, even if your grades aren't that good, your finally able to go drink in a bar without washing the X off your hand.  Your boyfriend helped you throw an awesome party for your 21st complete with Taco Bell and throwing up all night.  Party on Wayne!  But here's a heads up about some things.....

• I know you think you're in love now, but honey he is not the one.  You're going to meet him in a few years, I promise and when this relationship ends it's going to tear you apart.  You're going to cry for weeks, not eat and camp out in your room.  You will think that you will never get over him, but trust me you will and it's going to take a long time.....way longer than you can even imagine.  Some things are not meant to be but I promise that you both will end up happy and in the end, that's all that matters.
• The guy you meet after him, he's not the one either.  Yes, you were in love with him once too and now all those feelings are flooding back, have fun with him and take it all in stride when it doesn't work out.  This one is not going to break you as bad as the last.  The two of you will have a ton of fun but it will get intense and long distance (as you know) is not easy.
• You should probably try a little harder in school instead of wasting so much time partying and being a total slacker.  You might regret it some years down the road when you're 25 and going back to finish your degree.
• Be sure to make your friends a priority, not just some of them ALL OF THEM!  They are going to be in your life for a long time and you need to make sure they know how much they mean to you!
• Be there for your family too, some really rough times are going to happen here in a couple years and they will need you more than ever before.  
• Stop going tanning, just stop.  You don't want to look like a crocodile and those moles on your back are just going to get bigger.
• Take better care of yourself, go for a walk if you don't want to work out, quit eating so much junk and take your face away from the TV and computer every now and then.
• Your parents are worried about you and they have every right, try to settle it down a little and remember that they love you.  About 7 years from now, when you find out your pregnant, you will finally start to understand where they are coming from.
• By the time it's getting close to your 22nd birthday, you're going to come to quite the crossroads with your life, so try to enjoy things now.  It's fine to go out all night EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE and to stay up late with your girlfriends, to dance till your legs hurt and to dress like a bit of a whore.  Cut your hair, dye it brown, you're only young once!

You may think that things are never going to get easier or that you will never fall in love but just enjoy this time with your friends and remember that in just three years you're going to meet your soul-mate.  I don't want to ruin it for you, but you will know when it's him and all of the pain you felt this year will disappear. 

Love,

Your older, wiser 28 year old pregnant and married self :)

First Ultrasound

I had to go solo to my first ultrasound, which in a way was a bummer but sort of cool at the same time.  Andrew had scheduled a physical months ago with a new family physician and I didn't want him to cancel.  He needs to see a doctor about his stomach issues and high blood pressure before this baby is born!

I was so nervous that something would be wrong, but thankfully nothing was!  The baby is in the uterus, the heart rate was 178 and I'm still measuring right on track for a due date of January 20th.  I don't go back to the doctor until July 10th, pending our decision to test for downs syndrome (I want to do some more research on this). 

There is the little olive!

Bumpdate!

• How far along? 8 weeks and 2 days
• How big is baby? According to my What to Expect App, the baby is as big as a green olive or about 1 inch long!
• Weight Gain: I'm still the same as I was at the last doctor appointment, which I find hard to believe because my boobs are HUGE!
• Stretch Marks: No more than the ones I had before.
• Maternity Clothes: I bought some over the weekend and wore a pair of the dress pants yesterday, I was much more comfortable however I felt like they were a little too big.  Some of my dress pants don't fit quite right anymore and the same goes for my non-stretch khaki capris which I love.  At this point I would say it's mostly bloat
• Cravings: Cereal, Steak, Cheese/Cheese Pizza/Grilled Cheese, Cold Water and Pepsi
• Food Aversions: Chicken, Coffee, Eggs, Brats/Hot Dogs, Sausage (unless it's in biscuits and gravy, then that's okay)
• What do I miss: I'm still missing my glass of wine on a Friday night, which has now been replaced with sparkling water.  I also miss having normal dreams, I have been having the most terrifying nightmares.
• Symptoms: Exhaustion, tender/englarged boobies, a little cramping/growing pains, mood swings, swollen sinuses, a little nausea but no throwing up, lower back pain and acne.  I seem to feel worse when I get home from work.
• Anything else? After hearing the heartbeat today I felt a lot better about everything, it's so crazy to think there is a human growing inside my body!  I feel pretty blessed that I have not been horribly sick.  I really need to start getting in more physical activity though.  The midwife said the more I walk the better I will be at pushing, and hey I believe her!

Weekend Wrap-up and the week ahead

This weekend was far from exciting, but that is just fine with me!  Friday I had to work till 6pm because of a meeting and didn't end up getting home until about 7.  We ordered a pizza and vegged out on the couch.

Saturday morning Andrew was determined to finish his engine swap project so we could drive the truck up to his parents and pick up our trailer.  Thankfully after several trips to Lowes and Advanced Auto, he was finally able to get everything done.  We headed up to his parents to visit with them and had a nice dinner out at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants!

Sunday I was up early to sing at church with my parents.  They were shorthanded and thankfully I was able to sing now that my coughing fits have subsided a little bit.  I picked Andrew up afterwards and we headed out to run our Sunday errands.  I also had to get some more clothes because I've found that some of my dress pants and especially my button down shirts don't fit anymore!  I swear my boobs have gotten bigger, which I'm sure will continue to happen.  I was really disappointed with the selection of dress pants in maternity at Target so I think I'll hit up Kohls later this week.  I did find one pair, some capris and some tops but all in all, I was disappointed with the selection.  My mom came over while we were out to plant all the flowers I had purchased.  Thank GOD for her help because I have been so exhausted.  I did manage to plant my garden and do a few other things, but my front flower bed is a BEAST!

My front flower bed, all filled with lovely perennial's!

Tomato plants!

Hydrangea bush

Potted herbs on the deck.

We spent the rest of the day Sunday cleaning house, doing laundry and cleaning up the garage which has been a hot mess due to the engine swap.  I even got my own cabinet for all of my gardening stuff!  On the agenda for this week:

Monday and Tuesday: busy days at work since my boss is going on vacation for two weeks starting on Wednesday.

Wednesday: The FIRST ULTRASOUND at 8:30am and I'm going alone because Andrew has a doctor appointment as well and this was the only day I could get in :(

Thursday and Friday: Should be slightly calmer days at work

The weekend: I'm not really sure what plans we have, but I'm hoping that we can take the boat out for a little bit one day!

Coming in January 2014

I have about three posts in my drafts about living the childless life, what it would be like if we never had kids and all the while as I've been writing and re-writing these posts A BABY has been growing inside of me.

Yes, you read that right, I'M PREGNANT!!!!!  I still don't believe that this is really happening, but I should have known because right away I was having many atypical symptoms: exhaustion, loosing my breath when I would walk up the three flights of stairs at work, peeing all the time, horrible boob pain and the missed arrival of Aunt Flo.

I took my first of what seemed like 100 pregnancy tests on Thursday,  May 9th and it was a very faint positive, so faint you almost could not see the second line at all unless you stared at if for a good hour or so.  I kept staring at it and thought maybe I was nuts and tossed it after doing some hardcore research online about false positive blue dye pregnancy tests.  I stopped on my way home from work on Friday and bought a two pack of a pink dye test, which I've heard/read works better.  On Friday, May 10th I took yet another test and it was positive, very faint but positive.  I was in such disbelief that an hour later, I had to take another one and it was positive too.  I took the fourth test on Sunday, May 12th (Mother's Day) and it was an immediate positive.  I believe I bought more tests that weekend as well because Andrew still didn't believe and I couldn't either.

My first doctor appointment could not happen until June 5th (the wait was AGONIZING) and I was not sure what to expect, there was peeing in the cup, a blood draw, talking to the doctor, a pap test and getting a whole mess of stuff to take home and read about the pregnancy.

June 12th will be the first ultrasound and I'll be sure to post some pictures once I have them!

No, we weren't planning on this happening right now, we didn't know when we were really going to think about having a baby.  We've only been married for 8 months (which is fine) but we've been together for five years, we have a house, we're slowly paying off our debt and we're both working so I would say we're in good shape. I will be going back to work once the baby is born and right now my biggest worry/fear is figuring out child care.

Bumpdate!

• How far along? 7 weeks and 3 days
• How big is baby? According to my What to Expect App, the baby is as big as a raspberry or about 1/2 inch long!
• Weight Gain: I've actually lost about 4 lbs and it's not from morning sickness I'm just not very hungry.
• Cravings: Chipotle, Waffle House, Sparkling Water, Ice Cream and Steak
• Food Aversions: Chicken, Coffee (it was so hard to give up at the beginning), Eggs, Brats/Hot Dogs and anything in the shape of a hot dog, anything that is really tart like cranberry juice
• What do I miss: Wine (yes I tried the alcohol removed stuff and it's okay just not the same) and Bud Light Lime-a-ritas my favorite summer drink.  I also miss a big iced mocha from Starbucks though I know I can get it in decaf the thought of coffee makes me feel a little ill right now.
• Symptoms: Exhaustion (I go to bed around 9pm every night even on weekends), tender boobies, a little cramping which the NP said is normal, mood swings (I cried the other night about cooking an egg for Andrew's BLT.....he did not understand why that made me so upset), swollen sinuses which is in face a pregnancy symptom, a little nausea but no throwing up, lower back pain and acne.
• Does the family know?: But of course!  I told my mom and dad along with my grandma, aunts, uncles, cousins, brother and his wife on Mother's Day and then we told Andrew's family the following weekend.  It's on Facebook now too so EVERYONE knows :)
• Anything else? Well, I'm honestly hoping that the baby is a boy because Andrew's brother has girls and I just think a boy would be really fun.  I'm anxious to be done with the first trimester because I am sick of being tired all the time, my house looks like a disaster zone but I literally have no motivation to clean.  I feel lucky that I haven't been really sick thus far and I'm so excited for the ultrasound next week!

Mechanic's Wife

There are lots of perks related to being married to a mechanic.  We rarely have to spend money on having someone else fix our car (unless we need tires or a tire balance), we are able to keep our cars running for a LONG time (both of ours are almost at 150k and I'm not worried) and Andrew can fix about any engine.  The lawn mower, leaf blower, chain saw, snow blower, you name it and he can fix it.

For the last few months Andrew has been deep in one of his most intense projects, taking the gas engine out of our 1997 Dodge Ram 2500 4x4 and replacing it with a 12 valve Cummins diesel.  Why the switch?  Diesel engines are more reliable and the way that our truck is built means that it could run up to a million miles if well maintained.  It's also a manual transmission which makes it extra desirable.  We don't use our truck as a daily driver, it's mostly used for towing our boat and trailer and maybe one day a pull behind camper.

I am always amazed by how smart Andrew is and how much he knows about engines.  I know he went to school for two years to learn more, but I still cannot believe everything he knows and everything he can do.  He's done nearly all of the work himself (enlisting the help of his brother for the day when the engine went back in the truck) and he's spent an eight of what the truck would cost new.

Taking out the gas engine

One of my favorite pictures

Andrew trying to look tough, diesel on the left, gas on the right.

Empty

Putting in the diesel

Getting everything aligned

Almost ready to be out on the road again

 The truck should be put back together by the weekend, Andrew has been working on it for two hours before and after work every day during the week and most of the day on the weekends.  I don't think he will be attempting a project like this again for a while and it has been really neat to watch the progress. 

Side note: this isn't my first time being in a relationship with a mechanic, but I've always loved cars and wanted to learn more about them.  I love going to car shows and I'm excited to finally learn how to drive a manual transmission once the truck is complete.