Lobsters, Nurserys and Goofy

Things have been busy in the Williams Household. Mike and I spent this weekend finishing Ella's room. We still have to order the rocker and buy a book case but other than that, she is ready to move in. Here are the pics of the finished room:

This past Saturday was the monthly card game with Mikes side of the family, it also happened to be his Step-Moms and Brothers birthday. We got a call on Friday from his sister asking us if we wanted 11 whole lobsters (they were left overs from a company party her husband had), of course we took them. So Saturday was a food fest, ribeyes, chicken breasts, ribs and of course the lobsters:

Just a goofy pic of my husband on Cinco de MikeO:

Baby Ella

Mike and I went last Friday to get the 3D ultrasound done. Ella wasn't cooperating, so we got to go back Tuesday and try to get some decent pictures. She was good this time and we got some really cute pictures and video of her. According to the Ultrasound Tech, Ella has a lot of hair, just like her mommy did.

Here are a couple of the pictures:

Picking her nose, nice!!

So its a rainy day here in St. Louis and I'm thinking of all the things that we could do today. Of course, my husband would rather spend the day playing his new "Teaching Guitar". I, of course, have a much different view of how today could be spent.

* The garage needs to be cleaned out. I refuse to come home with a new baby and be able to park in the garage.
* Finish painting the Baby Ella's Room.....
* Go check out the St. Charles Home and Garden show
* Work on cleaning up the basement
* Pack up all the old clothes in this house and take them to Goodwill
* Laundry

None of these really sound any good and we will probably spend the day on the couch watching stupid Saturday Afternoon movies.


A couple of months ago, Mike and I bought a dopplar to hear the baby's heartbeat. We could never hear it until this morning. We decieded to try it out and sure enough, there it was. It was really neat to be able to hear that. She has been moving around like crazy the last week (I'm thinking future Olmpyic Gymnast Perhaps?).

26 weeks....

can you believe that in less than 14 weeks little Miss Ella is going to be here? Kinda crazy to think about. Here is the latest pic:

I am getting so big and to think I still have 14 weeks of weight gain to go! YIKES!!

Pictures.....

Here are some pictures of Ellas room so far and one of the little suit I HAD to buy her:

Happy Belated Easter....

This was too funny to pass up!!

Touchy Subject

Mike and I were discussing the fact that a women in the US can have a late term abortion just because they decieded that they didn't want it, through the 2nd Trimester, week 27. I know this is a touchy subject and before I was pregnant wasn't real sure how I stood on the issue. Thinking about it now, when Ella is 24 weeks, it just makes me sad. This is a photo of what a 22 week old baby looks like, Ella is 2 weeks ahead of this:

I don't mean to offend anyone, or start any sort of argument. I just wanted to state my thoughts. Right now as I'm sitting here, I can feel her moving and kicking me in the ribs. While I'm totally enjoying that part of it :), I couldn't even imagine having an abortion at this time. If she was to be born today, she has a pretty good chance of survival.

On a different topic, for those of you who are not keeping up with her website, I will post on here how the doctors visit went yesterday. Each visit the doctor measures my Uterus and in CM, it should equal the number of weeks that I am. As of yesterday I'm measuring 26 weeks, 2 weeks bigger. I asked the doctor what that meant and she said that if it goes over 2 weeks, then another Ultrasound will be done and my due date will be adjusted. Little Ella may be earlier than we thought. Her heart was good beating at 141 BPM.

We started our Childbirth Prep Classes Wed. night. The information is useful, Mike is a little bored, (been through this how many times in school)? One of the nurses giving the class is a horrible speaker and makes the class drag on but there are some good things too.

Week 24......16 to go

Here is the week 24 pic, not much growth since last time. Can you beleive that I only have 16 weeks left? The time has flown by so far. I have a feeling that these last 3 months are going to creep by!! Ella has been getting more and more active. She loves to wake up and do the salsa on my bladder around my bedtime...I really don't mind though, at least I know she's okay.

Tonight is our first Child Birth Prep Class. It should be interesting, we'll see how it goes tonight to see if we continue them.

Here is pic of Sigma, for some reason he loves to sleep on the remote:

And just so she doesn't feel left out, here's one of Tigger

Stuff...

Here is the latest picture of my belly:

22 Weeks



The furniture has been ordered and should be here next week. The bedding has been ordered and should also be here next week. Things are coming together in the room. Mike and I still have to finish painting, put up blinds and the closet organizer. My brother has to put in a light and ceiling fan. The goal is to have the room done by June 1st. We shouldn't have a problem with that.

I've finally started feeling Ella kick. She's finally strong enough for me to feel her on the outside moving around. It's kinda creepy, in a good way. Everyday it still amazes me that this little being is being created inside of me.




Does it make me completely nuts that I'm excited that Mike is going out of town tomorrow and I have the day off and my plan is to clean out the kitchen cabinets?
I'm starting to think so!!!

BRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!

Update: 15mins and $220.06 later and I have heat. I can't believe that in 15mins the guy got my heat working. Not that I care, I would have paid whatever he wanted....It is already warmer in here.

As I was getting up this morning around 5:30am to pee for the 50th time (this is what happens when you are preggo), I noticed that is was really chilly in the house. I woke Mike up and asked him to go check on the heat. He said, "It must be really cold outside." I told him it's too cold in here, somethings wrong. He finally gets up, goes downstairs and then down to the basement. He was down there for awhile and curiosity got to me, so I piled on a bunch of clothes, shoved my feet in my slippers and shuffled down there. Apparently our pilot light was out, I told him to light it. He says its not the kind you light, its self-ignighting.

We called the repair man and I'm now waiting in this freezing house while Mike got to leave and go sit in a warm class room. They are charging us $160 bucks an hour because it's Saturday. Why couldn't this freaking thing have gone out 2 days ago?

Fridge Magnets...

First day of Spring......

Today was the first day of Spring and we were hit with a snowstorm. Sleet, Rain, Snow the whole sloppy mess. We haven't had a decent snow all year and the first one we get is on the first day of Spring. I'm hoping that Mother Nature got that out of her system and we can now start having warm and sunny days. Mike took this picture out the front door last night:

Ella's Room

Here is the picture of what Ella's room will look like. It will be almost identical to the picture. The furniture we are getting is almost the same color and the walls are the already the tan color:

Surprise!!!

Yesterday was our 20 week office visit and anatomy ultrasound. They check to make sure all of the organs are formed correctly and that the baby has all the parts it is supposed to have. While we were in there the Sonographer asked us if we wanted to know the sex, of course we said, even though we already knew.

(If you don't already know we had gone into the 3D place about 3 weeks prior and was told it was a boy.)

She looked around for a minute and said, "congratulations, It's a defiantly a Girl!"

Mike and I both got that the deer in the head light look and I started stammering....Uh, Uh, Uh. Then I told her what we had done and showed her the pic of the "Boy Parts." She says, "Well, if I had looked at these, I would have said it was a girl with her hand between her legs." Mike and I were in totally shock and I made her look 4 more times before I was satisfied. She told us that she never says 100% but if it was her Ultrasound, she would go home and paint the room pink!

So our little man has turned into a little Lady! Alex James is now a Ella Marie and we have a ton of work to do. We started re-registering last night and now we have to pick out bedding and repaint the room!!

Here are the pictures:

Ella's girl parts



Ella's Profile



Ella's Foot

Animal Abuse...

For those that know my cats.....

MOOOOOOOO!!!

Current
Week 20....half way there


Before, Mexico Sept 2005




OMG!!! What the hell happened to my belly this week? It got really big this past week. I'm going to be freaking huge by the time this kid gets here. Check out Alex's website to see the progressive slideshow so far.

HELP!!!!

Oh my gosh! There are literly thousands of bedding sets to choose from. Here are a few that I really like, let me know which ones you like.

Sanford and Son

Today was trash day at my house! We took an entire truck full of clothes and furniture to Goodwill and now the boys are on their way to the trash dump with another truck load full of trash, old mattresses, ect. We are clearing out the house for the baby!

We finally decided on a paint color. Some of you know the story, some of you don't. Mike and I have been trying to find a light tan color to paint Alexs room. It was a lot harder than we thought it would be, it was either too light or too dark. After 3 gallons of paint and $75 later, we decided to head to the paint store instead of Home Depot for some professional help. We told the man, "we want a light tan", he said, "how about subtle tan?" We bought a $4.00 sample can, took it home and it was perfect. So now after all of that, we are finally going to get the room painted today!

Get Pregnant, Get a clean house...

I've found the secret to a clean and organized house....get pregnant. Once you get past the 1st trimester of sleeping all the time, the 2nd trimester rolls around and you suddenly have more energy then that annoying little pink bunny. My "nesting" as they call it is in full swing. Let me just tell you what I've done today.

Got up at 8:15am, took a shower, dressed, did my hair

9am - ate breakfast, checked my emails and everyone's blogs....some of you need to update!
9:30am - got a wild hair up my ass and started to clean out my bedroom closet. Attacked it from all angles including using the magic eraser to clean the baseboards and vacuumed all the corners. Washed all the sheets that have been accumulating in the house. I hate folding sheets so I wait until there is nothing left to put on the bed before I do this! Vacuumed the entire house. Threw away all the old magazines and finished cleaning Mikes bathroom.

11:30am - stopped to talk to my sister, ate some lunch, thought of things that had to be done today.

12pm - started cleaning the office.

12:45pm - Mike got home for lunch and laughed at me sitting in the middle of 3 trashbags and lots of paper.

1:30pm - went to Walmart and Target to pick up some stuff

2:30pm - back home and finished cleaning out the desk/office. Threw away 3 trashbags full of crap. Emptied all the trashcans since I was at it.

3:15pm - Finished laundry and started scrubbing the floors in the laundry room. Reorganized the mantel because it was bothering me.

4:00pm - cleaned off coffee table, moved stuff to where it belonged, emptied dishwasher, reloaded and wiped off counters with clorox.

4:20pm - decided that I was finished for the day and am now sitting down, writing this blog.

5:00pm - make dinner, clean up, get Mike out of house to meeting.

6:30pm - vacuum the downstairs and finish up all my little projects for the day.

By the way, this all started because the bug man is coming tommorow for the yearly spray and I decided that the house should be really clean before he gets here, including those corners in the closet.

Some Final Decisions....

We have finally come up with final decisions on the babies room..here is the bedding,
and the crib.

We are going to put up chair rail and paint the top half the tan color, the bottom half the red color and the trim will be white. I'm going to buy an unfinished dresser and paint it the navy color and I found little silver stars for the drawer pulls. The bookshelve will be the same color as the crib and we will use some of the accessories that are on the bedding link. I think it's going to be so cute!

Now I just have to get it done and get Uncle Bill over here to install a light and fan for me.

Introducing......

Profile shot


Little Boy Parts


As you can see from above, Tator is a HE!!! Yes folks we are having a boy! I have a feeling that he is going to be just like his daddy, so watch out people!

Now that we know, it's going to be really hard to keep me out of the stores. Yesterday while out shopping for myself, I ended up with 2 Rams onsies that they had on clearence. They were $5.00 for both. My boy will be a Rams fan, just like his parents. We are going to start working on his room tommorow, sanding the walls and getting ready to paint.

So far I think we really like the name, Alex James Williams. What does everyone think? We've also picked out some bedding
Do you like it? I love the colors and its not too cartoony!

"Snips and snails, and puppy dogs tails or Suger and spice and everything nice"

Most of you know that I'm probably one of the worlds most impatient people. When the doctor told me that I would have to wait until March 16 to find out the sex of Tator, I almost flipped my lid. I kept telling Mike, "I want to know now!". How am I supposed to start shopping, register unless I know if it was a he or a she.

Tuesday night we went and did a little shopping, checking out strollers, cribs ect. If you have ever done this before you know that alot of the stuff is gender related. We couldn't even pick out a flipping car seat because we didn't know what Tator was. We decided right there in the middle of Baby Depot that we would call the next morning and make an appointment for the 3D ultrasound place, Ultrasona. We grabbed my Mom Wed morning and we were off for our Noon appointment.

It was so exciting to see little Tator moving around stretching it's little legs. Tator slept most of the time so we had a hard time getting the "Private" area. We managed to get one pretty good shot of the area...........

I have a secret........

"I'm just saying......"

Tator, Weather and Nesting

So yesterday was our monthly doctor visit and everything is going great. We have scheduled the Ultrasound for March 16 to do the anatomy US and hopefully find out what "Tator" is. It will be nice to have an official he/she, name for the little one.

So I have to mention the crazy weather around here...it was 71 degrees at 2pm when I went to work at 5pm when I left it was 31. It is now around 20 something!! I'm so ready for spring and my flip-flops.

Things have been relatively quiet around here. Mike and I are settling in for the next couple of months of American Idol and Survivor. I've been busy getting the house "ready" for the baby. The nesting thing has kicked into full gear. I've got a list a mile long and its growing by the day. Paint rooms, clean out closets, clean the laundry room, get my scrapbooking caught up, organize my dining room hutch....I could go on but I don't want to bore everyone, now do I? With a baby one the way, I've suddenly got this wild hair up my butt, that all this stuff must be done before the baby gets here. As if I won't have the time once he/she arrives!! (say that in a sarcastic tone please)

Not that anyone cares, but here is the week 16 belly pic. I am taking it every two weeks and eventually will post a progressive pic. But for now, here you go...

Belly Pic....

Here is my HNT pic....me at 14 weeks.

So, you think you know everything?

Here is a fun list I received via email:


A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.

A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.

A crocodile cannot stick out its tongue.

A dragonfly has a life span of 24 hours.

A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.

A "jiffy" is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.

A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.

A snail can sleep for three years.

Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer.

All 50 states are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the $5 bill.

Almonds are a member of the peach family.

An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

Babies are born without kneecaps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2 to 6 years of age.

Butterflies taste with their feet.

Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds. Dogs only have about 10.

"Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt".

February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.

In the last 4,000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.

If the population of China walked past you, in single file, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction.

If you are an average American, in your whole life, you will spend an average of 6 months waiting at red lights.

It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors.

Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.

No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or purple.

On a Canadian two dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament building is an American flag.

Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.

Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.

Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.

"Stewardesses" is the longest word typed with only the left hand and "lollipop" with your right.

The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.

The cruise liner, QE2, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.

The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.

The sentence: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter of the alphabet.

The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Fall s froze completely solid.

The words 'racecar,' 'kayak' and 'level' are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left (palindromes).

There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.

There are more chickens than people in the world.

There are only four words in the English language which end in "dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous

There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order: "abstemious" and "facetious."

There's no Betty Rubble in the Flintstones Chewables Vitamins.

Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.

TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.

Winston Churchill was born in a ladies room during a dance.

Women blink nearly twice as much as men.

Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks; otherwise it will digest itself.

Quiet....

There is an eerie quiet in my house this morning. Sigma is off at the Kitty Dentist having his teeth cleaned today. There are no cats fighting, no whining from him wanting his food bowl filled (he will only eat out of it if it is completely filled). No following me around the house, tripping over him....It's kinda nice. Here is a pic of him the other day sitting on the couch, totally unposed, we came home and found him like this....I swear.

I Won.......

Yesterday was a pretty boring day in our house. Mike was in class until around 1pm and I was lazing around the house attempting to get some housework done. After he got home we went for some lunch, walked around the mall and Home Depot for awhile and came back home to relax. Around 7pm Mike says, "Lets go to the boat." So off we went, $40 each in our pockets and a hope in our eye. We weren't doing so well and both of us lost our first 20 bucks pretty quick. We walked around and saw some slots that looked fun and took our places. My second time betting and wouldn't you know I had hit something big. That little counter kept going and going and going. Mike and I got excited, the little old man next to me and his wife were watching and getting excited. Eventually it stopped and it said I had won 2100..........................






Pennies! Yes folks we were playing the penny slots and I had just won $21 bucks. For only playing 90 cents so far, I thought that was pretty good. I kept playing and hit another 1100 ($11.00), so now I was up $32.00. In the end I ended up walking out with $33.00. Not bad for playing penny slots with $40.00

A Request....

As requested by Miss Emily....Here she is with her Pineapple Upside Down Cake





The reviews are coming in...."Moist and Delicious", The Best I've ever tasted", "Stupendous", "All time best cake maker I've ever seen", "MMMMMM, I love your cherries" (quoted from Bill).

New Years Eve 2001....

Here are two funny pics I came across from a couple of New Years Ago...



My Brother Bill...AKA Party Animal




My Hubby and Sister-In-Law, Doing the Urkel

Bosom Buddies.....

My Aunt has been throwing a fit about her 50th birthday. Trying to convince all of us that she is only going to be 49, doesn't want a party, ect. Is basically being a big baby about turning 50. Today is the big day and last night, my Mom, Sister-In-Law and a friend of the soon to be "ELDER" decorated her yard. My Mom has been planning this for awhile. Late last night, they crept into her yard with a huge sign that read "Happy 50th from your bosom buddies", and a bunch of bras that we had all signed.

This morning when they went to check it out, they caught her taking it all down. After she left for work, my grandpa says, "I have a key!". They promptly went back to the house and proceeded to redecorate the yard. They didn't get it all back up but here are a few of the pics that I just went and took.

Dis n Dat....

Why do people have to type in slang? It's bad enough when they talk in it but type it? Heres a classic example from a message board I'm on:

"aww he is excited lol..das soo cute..but yeah this is my first baby and alls ..im due july 6th but i really dont like da deal dat ima be missin out on summer..lol..but i say some cute summer wear i could wear..i never wear shorts or skirts lol..but i know this summer ima hafta ima be soo freakin hot and stuff..so im jus gonna get a lot of cute maternity clothes fo summer..i even saw a cute two piece swimsuit..lol..well n e ways..congrats on ur baby..and happy new years..."

Why does this bother me so much? Oh Wait, I know....Pregnancy Hormones.

Stuff......

Yesterday was our 12 week checkup and so far everythings going great. The baby was hiding and we couldn't find the heartbeat so they did a quick ultrasound. YEAH!! We got to see little Tator. Baby is starting to look like something...




I've finally had to break down and buy maternity clothes. They are not comfortable at all. The jeans dig into your hips and the shirts tend to ride up on me. I think part of the problem is that I'm not quite big enough yet for them, but big enough that my regular clothes are pissing me off.

Why is it that when you are pregnant the "pregnancy police" come out? If I wanted your opinion I would have freaking asked. Strangers coming up to me and saying things like, " You know you are pregnant ( really?), why are you drinking soda?", " you shouldn't eat that, its loaded with nitrates.". I've talked to my doctor and a soda a day is okay, eating at Subway is not going to cause my unborn child to have some strange disease. Eating Peanut butter is not going to cause my child to be born with an allergic reaction. ( Okay, this could happen but the odds are about as good as Paris Hilton winning an Oscar.)

What is MLK (pronounced milk) Day?

So Tuesday night we are sitting around my brothers house watching House MD when during a commercial my brother asks, "So, Whats with this MLK (pronounced MILK) day?" We all look at him and start cracking up. Apparently my niece told him right before she went to bed that she didn't have school on Friday or Monday for MILK (MLK) day.

I'm a Stripper....

So stealing from Emilys blog, here are my results:

Your Stipper Song Is

I'm Too Sexy by Right Said Fred "And I'm too sexy for your party Too sexy for your party No way I'm disco dancing" Yes, you're super sexy. But you never yourself too seriously!

What Song Should You Strip To?

(being 3 months pregnant, nobody is gonna wanna see that for awhile)

Pet Peeve....

One of my biggest pet peeves: Bathrooms in restaurants that don't say men and women. They say stupid things like Lambs and Dingos (Longhorn), Shielas and Blokes (Outback) these are among a few of the ones that I've seen recently. Why can't they just say MEN/WOMEN? Drives me insane.

The name Game

So Mike and I have been mulling over some names for our future baby. This is freaking hard! I keep thinking to myself, this is the name that this kid has to live with for the rest of his/hers life. What if I pick the wrong one? What if my child becomes the one in school that everyone picks on because of the name? I'm terrified that I will pick one and then regret it. GRRRRRR!!!! Anyone know of the magical name that everyone will like?

We made Tators first website, go check it out. We will update as things progress.

Williams Website

Dreary Wednesday...

Its a dreary Wednesday in St. Louis. Cold, Windy, Rainy, Blah!!! We were exceptionally slow in the office today so I left to come home and do laundry, housework and get some stuff posted on Ebay. Does anyone use Ebay? It's seriously addictive. I have sold a few things on there and bought a lot more. Selling stuff is great! I get rid of my old crap and earn a few bucks in the process.

Christmas was good, I'm glad its over. Now comes the time to drag all the boxes back up from the basement and begin the disassembling of my house. The house always looks so boring once the tree and all the decor is packed back in its boxes for another year. Now is the time that I will start bugging Mike to redecorate, Paint, buy new furniture ect. Anything to liven up this joint.

UPDATE: Tator is doing well. We are in our 9th week and so far everything has been great. We go back to the doctor on Jan 16 and should be able to hear the heartbeat then. In March we will hopefully find out what we are having, right around St. Patricks day. I can't wait for that. I'm still not showing much, there is a little pooch but not enough to start wearing Maternity clothes yet. It won't be long though. I've just started my 3rd month and everyone keeps telling me that by my 4th I will finally start to look pregnant.

Does it get any worse?

Have you ever had one of those days that just plan sucks? Today is that day. I can't go into details but I'm to the point that I want to run away and join a Buddhist camp. Doesn't that sound great? No choosing what to wear (they all wear those brown dresses), don't have to do my hair (they are all bald), no worrying about bills or people bitching about stuff.....Okay, maybe that would be a little drastic but I swear I'm running away somewhere if tomorrow is rotten too.

On a good note, I finally after a year of bitching about it got my husband to clean out his closet. You find the weirdest things when you do that. We found a hammer, 4 "drunkfest hats", we thought had been lost to the river gods, a wig/hat that looks like a high reggee guy wore it(dread locks, pot leaf on it ect), old lab coats from Mikes days in College (16 years ago), a piece of bread (I have no idea), a Switzerland T-Shirt from about 9 years ago and a small alien named Bob.

Mike and I just finished watching The Dukes of Hazzard ( the movie). Not real impressed with that one. My husband did mention several times that Jessica Simpson was smoking....not a good thing to a pregnant lady who is bloated and swollen. It was short and not so sweet.

Welcome to the family...

This morning was our first ultrasound and we got to see the baby and the heartbeat. It was so awesome to see that. I've been so worried that something was wrong, I'm such a worry wart, always have to have something to worry about.

Anyways, the pics come out great, it's little heart is beating. That was so cool to see the heart beating. 140bpm, pretty fast little sucker. Here a couple of the pics:

He's checking his list, he's checking it twice...

Christmas Naughty or Nice List I am on the The Nice List After checking the North Pole database I had : 1,401 nice entries 189 naughty entries Check your name on the Christmas Naughty or Nice List at JokesUnlimited.com

"The Last Stand...

The beloved Busch Stadium in St. Louis is almost gone. This is a picture of the last section going down tonight.