Relaxation

As the year 2009 approaches, I cannot stop thinking about how relaxing this Christmas vacation has been for me. First, we went home to Huntsville to stay with Bill's folks (my parents were in MO). We spent Christmas Eve with my family and Christmas Day with his. It was so nice not having to split time down to the second, this definitely alleviated a lot of stress.

This past Monday we traveled to Jackson to spend the new year with the Koseks'. We are going to be here until Sunday and this trip has been amazing. I mean there is not going to be a whole lot going on when you get two pregnant Zarzour sisters together. However, if you throw in a precious 2 year old and an restless husband (Bill) and an ophthamologist resident who is on call every other day- things tend to get a little more exciting. Since we have been in Jackson, Bill has decided to put up new screen doors and redo my sister's guest bathroom vanity, he is so handy!! During this time Kim and I have been running all over town with Kate spending as much money as we can:)

Anyways, now to the true relaxation part of this vacation. Yesterday Kim, Kev, Bill, and I decided to treat ourselves to a one hour massage compliments of St. Dominic's day spa. My sister and I recieved prenatal massages while Bill and Kev were manhandled my Karen, their special massure. I have never gotten a massage before, but man was I needing one. The one complaint I have with my pregnancy is my extreme back pain. No matter what, I cannot get comfortable. Anyways, ever since yesterday my back has been A OKAY!!!!!!!!!!

One of the best parts of my massage was getting to lay on my stomach. The spa had a special pillow for pregnant women with a big old hole in the middle. As soon as I laid down there was a big old smile on my face. I was so grateful to be able to lay in that forgotten position. After our massages we ended the day with art time with Kate, where she drew a picture of baby Ryan (I will post a picture later) and watched the Jungle Book. I love coming to Jackson!!!!

Tonight Kim is having people over to celebrate the new year. Here is how crazy the party is going to be, five couples all pregnant!! The wine will be flowing tonight!!! Happy New Year to all!!!!!!!!!!

The Most Fun Laundry I've Ever Done

After getting home from my 5 hour lunch at the Adam's house. I decided it was time to clena our house for the holidays (there is nothing worse than coming home to a dirty house.) After I finished cleaning, I still needed to do something. So, I went into Ryan's room and cleaned out her closet. It was not THAT bad, but there were around 30 shirts, 5 outfits, and 20 pairs of socks in there that we have recieved as gifts for her. Well, the other day I bought my first jug of baby detergent to wash her sheets in and I wanted to continue to washing extravaganza. I washed all of her clothes, actually dividing them into colors and whites (which I never do with Bill's clothes). I also washed all of her towels, washcloths, and blankets she has gotten so far too. I waited until both loads were done to begin folding the laundry, which was the most fun I have ever had folding clothes. I kept holding up each piece of clothing, beginning with the newborn pieces. I kept thinking I cannot believe an actual person is going to fit in this. Then as I went through all of the months of clothes that she has I was overwhelmed with how fast she is going to grow. The 9 month onesies didn't even look like they would belong on the same child that would wear the 0-3 month onesies.
Everyone likes to say how motherhood is tiring, exhausting, and tough and I know there will be hard times. However, I just started crying folding her clothes thinking, I cannot believe she is going to grow this fast. As I laid her clothes in her drawers I was seriously smiling from ear to ear. I wish someone could have seen the embarassing look on my face. I cannot wait for that precious girl to get here!

Ryan Lily's Pad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After a long day at work, this is what I came home to. I really cannot write anymore except- Bill is the most amazing husband ever! He did ALL of this himself! Enjoy the pics!















The other babies approve. Little do they know they are about to take a serious backseat to a very powerful girl in our house.

I mean amazing, he did an amazing job. Okay after posting pictures I do have a few words to say. Bill put up the custom shelfing, painted the room, cleaned the room, made her bed, organized the room, hung her curtains, folded her clothes in the drawers...umm yeah I think it is safe to say he is totally wrapped around her finger.

Bedding

Bill and I are on a mission to get this house ready for little Ryan. It is crazy how what once was a house with plenty of storage and space, now seems to be the smallest house ever- and she is not even here yet.

We bought a new desk today to put in our guest room, just a simple little thing. We got rid of our old recliner. We got rid of our desktop computer. We are taking our old desk home to give back to my parents. We donated our second round of "stuff" we had to Head Start, our last donation totaled to $940 worth of stuff. Bill is installing new door handles all over the houe, we have had some major issues with our previous ones. We went to Home Depot to look at some shelfing and molding to put in the nursery. Last but not least, we got our bedding. We have not picked it up yet, but I did find a picture of it online.



All of this preparation is messing with my head, I feel like Ryan should be here tomorrow. Next thing on our to do list, teach the dogs not to bark everytime they hear someone cough in our neighborhood, pray for us:)!

Mouse Hunt

*Note, this posting is not for the squeamish or extreme bird lovers.

Well I promised I would post about our recent infestation. Yes, apparently we have become the local hotel for Opelika's mouse population. I know my tone is extremely light right now, but this is how I avoid throwing up everything I think about a mouse snuggling up with my innocent baby in three months.

It all started about a week before Thanksgiving. I was doing some laundry and noticed a few pellet shaped things on top of the dryer. I am no fool and I knew what they were supposed to be, but there was no way I was accepting the fact that we were housing rodents. So the next evening I lifted Radly and Kramer's bag of dog food and found a whole collection of pellets. Even then, I just was in denial, I thought well maybe they are just dead bugs or balls of lent, or well freaking rat poop. So I opted to tell Bill about the disgusting discovery I had made and he said yeah I have been finding pellets around the house too. Immediately I was mad, " What, you have seen rat poop and did not tell me?! How could you?!" Then he simply replied, "Did you really want to know?" the truth was no!

So the next night Bill was having some grad school friends over for a Thanksgiving dinner. I was preparing the appetizers and had to get something out of the pantry. I went over to the pantry picked up the bread and crumbs started falling out the huge hole at the bottom of the bag. The rat/mouse/small deer had eaten through our bread bag and through like 5 pieces of bread. Well no wonder the dang things are living in our house, they are living pretty. Warm bed (probably snuggling up with our worthless dogs at night), plenty of food, and no distracting traps. After I found the bread situation, I started looking around the pantry and there were holes in a ton of our packaged food and poop everywhere. Bill and I probably threw away around $300 worth of groceries once all of his friends left and I told him I was not sleeping until he went to get traps.

Bill took an 11 o'clock trip to Winn Dixie and bought the only traps they had, poisoned pellets. We set them everywhere we found terds, which was in every room and every closet except our bedroom, thank goodness. I mean we found terds in the laundry room, o9ur pantry, the garage, our two linen closets, our COUCH, EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!

Since then we have yet to see a mouse terd or mouse. Bill tells me to prepare myself to find a dead mouse on our floor when I come home from work one day, but let's face it- how do you prepare for that? The pellets we got kill the mice from the inside out. So we probably have a family of dead, dried out mice in our walls. Man I can't wait until we decided to tear one down and it starts raining mice.

This is not where my story ends my friends, when we left to go to New York we decided to set some sticky traps too, just in case. So we bought about 10 sticky mouse traps and set them everywhere, including the garage. Well, just tonight Bill decided to tell me some horrifying news. I told him how I saw a dead baby deer on the side of the road on my way to work this morning and had to pull off the road to cry for the poor thing. Then he let out the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth. He told me a horrible thing happened in one of our mouse traps in the garage. He said he came home for lunch on Tuesday and found a baby bird trapped in our sticky mouse trap. He said it was horrible, the poor thing was trying to flap, but its wing was caught in the stickiness. He went over to the bird and had to break the bird's wing in order to get it out of the stickiness, then he set it free in our front yard. He said it was horrible, because the poor thing was starring at him every time he pulled and it start squeaking. I mean I was just tearing up hearing this story. I will have to say I am way glad Bill found this situation instead of me, I would have set up a small vigil around the bird and prayed for it speedy recovery.

Needless to say, our mouse traps have been useless, but we have managed to catch one defenseless baby bird and break its wing. If you come over for a Christmas dinner at our house, don't bring anything with a dairy product in it, you may just awaken a small visitor.

New York State of Mind

For those of you who don't know, Bill and I went to New York over Thanksgiving break for our last hoorah without little Ryan. I will admit, I was not so much looking forward to the trip until the day before we left. I think the stress of leaving a mess of a house behind, that is infested with mice (another blog posting) and not being with family around the holidays was stressing me out.

However, as soon as we sat down at Tavern on the Green in Central Park on Wednesday afternoon in New York, all of the stress went away and it was just about Bill and I having a great time in the city that never sleeps.


I could not believe what we fit into a three day trip. We went to Central Park, Times Square, Ground Zero, Staten Island, Ellis Island, Greenwhich Village, Soho, Bryant Park, Wall Street, FAO Schwarz, Columbus Circle, The New York City Library, Rockefeller Center, NBC Studios, Chinatown, The Museum of Natural History, Little Italy, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, Caroline's Comedy Club (to see Craig Robinson, Darryl, from "The Office"), see "Hairspray" on Broadway, and I am sure there are other things but I just cannot remember. It was an amazing, fast paced, trip and we are already excited to go back with Kim and Kev one day. Here are a few cool pics.

Happy Belated Halloween

Most people took advantage of Halloween being on a Friday this year and threw a fabulous party on the perfect night- well not us. Bill's psychology program holds an annual Halloween party and this year, due to stress induced students, the party date was set back a week. Bill and I dressed up as a cowboy and an indian. The outfit would have been much better if we would have brought the dogs with us. The original plan was to dress up this Halloween as the village people. Radly and Kramer were going to be a cop and a construction worker. Well, we opted to not take them with us to this party- smart choice.

We did end up winning best couple outfit which was exciting. Bill celebrated by lassoing the host's dog and screaming yehaw! Yeah Bill was very into his costume.

Side note, come the night of the party I did not have a full jewelry set, so Bill went to Hobby Lobby, on his own, and bought the materials to make me some earrings and bracelets. He is so hilariously talented!! Here are some pics.

22 weeks and going BIG

I realize I have been falling behind with my posts. More importantly, I have been falling way behind with my pictures. Bill and I decided tonight was the perfect chance for a photo shoot. Enjoy


22 Weeks in my new red shirt, thanks Bill!


Kramer wanted to join in on the profile photo shoot


Ryan's precious cheerleading outfit. This was given to her by Jo Jo and Pap


PUMA jumpsuit from daddy. Polo jumpsuit from Jo Jo and Pap


The only way to eat salad while pregnant:)

Aversion!!!

Well, baby Ryan has definitely shown that she is her father's daughter.

This past Sunday Bill and I were visiting The Koseks in Jackson, MI. We went to the Renassiance on Sunday afternoon, after we had eaten lunch. The Renassiance is this huge shopping center with high end shops and dining. Well, as soon as we got there Bill said something and I thought he said the word "Nachos." So I immediately wanted nachos. Thank goodness there was a restaurant there with nachos, so we all went to enjoy two plates of nachos, and then the bad part came. Kim suggested that we go to Fresh Market and get some chocolate covered bananas (they were so good, but I am about to vomit just typing about them).

So, as Bill and I were packing up I told him I did not feel good. He asked me if I wanted to lie down and wait a little longer before we left, but at this point it was already 4 o'clock, and we had a four hour drive ahead of us. After about two hours in the car, I shot up, from sleeping, and told Bill to pull over. I proceeded to get sick four seperate times on the side of the interstate and one time as we pulled into our street, I guess I just could not wait to get home! I stayed home from work on Monday just miserable. I did not know what the deal was.

As the day went on I started feeling much better, the majority of my sickness was Monday morning. So, this morning I had to get to school at 6:45 for picture make-up day. I stopped by Starbucks on my way to work to warm myself up, it was dark and 33 degrees when I got in my car! I got to school, drank half of my hot chocolate and threw up.

It is now EXTREMELY clear to me that Ryan Lily does not like chocolate, does not want me to eat chocolate, and is already siding with her daddy in this ongoing struggle between desserts. Bill always says fruit desserts are the way to go because at least you get a fruit serving. I guess I have to side with him now.


PS. Bill could not be happier about this aversion, he hates is when I eat so much chocolate. Dang Ryan, I thought us girls have to stick together:)Ryan Lily is a stinker and she does not even know it! I love that child!

Class of 2027

Well, Bill and I had our second ultrasound today and found out we are having a baby GIRL. We are simply on cloud nine right now. We always had the idea of girl in the back of our mind, but boy was just what we had always thought we would have. Well, now that we know the sex of our precious angel, we have already decided on a name. We are going to name her:

Ryan Lily Ferguson

There are many reasons we have chosen this name. Ryan is Bill's middle name and I have ALWAYS wanted to name my baby girl Ryan, another reason why Bill is perfect for me! Since we do think Ryan is a bit more of a masculine girl name, we really wanted to soften it up with Lily. There is nothing more precious in the world that a beautiful lily.

As some of you may know, our last ultrasound visit was extremely unpleasant; well this one was worse. Keep in mind, it was not because of me, it was because of the HORRIBLE ultrasound technician. As soon as I walked in the room I apologized for my behavior the last time I was there. I fell all over myself saying how I got upset and once I opened the flood gates, I could not stop. How I appreciated what she did and I was so sorry. Well, her response was,

"Why are you here 2 weeks later instead of 4 weeks later?" I told her this was when my doctor scheduled me to come back in.

She said, "Well, I am not going to poke and prod around on your forever, after the way you acted last time with your Oscar winning performance. I swear everyone in this office thought something was wrong with your baby, they were all talking about it."

I said, "Yes I know everyone was talking about it, I could hear them." By this point I was lying on the table and ready for her to shut her mouth and give me my ultrasound, but I was on my best behavior and let this woman talk to me just however she wanted to. I mean it was almost comical about how much of a butthole she was being to me. I looked at Bill once and we were both almost laughing, just biting our lips. Once she began the ultrasound she said,

"Well, you should have waited a month because this baby is in the same exact position."

I said, "Well that's okay, if we can't find out then we can't find out." I really did feel this way, Bill and I had a long conversation about this, and I was totally cool if we could not tell again.

She said, "Well wait a minute." Then she continued to shove the heck out of the right side of my stomach, she pushed three buttons on her machine and said, "Well, it's a girl congratulations." By this time she had already wiped the jelly off of my stomach and was handing Bill the picture. We were literally pushed out of the room. The total time spent in the ultrasound room was 4 minutes- insane!!!

So, Bill and I, in response to her ridiculous attitude, acted extremely excited. We were not going to let this bitter woman ruin our awesome day. As she was basically pushing us out the door she said, " I hope you know this is not the most important thing, I usually have to search for heartbeats. Be glad you have a healthy baby, so I hope this helps!" I mean totally uncalled for, we could not believe it. But then again we were not really paying attention to her either, she was just background noise at that point.

For those of you who think I am exaggerating, Bill has approved this story!! Also, Bill was seconds away from telling this woman to back off of me. He was so mad because he saw how hard it was for me to apologize to the old nag, and then she just kept saying things that were more and more unprofessional!

Anyways, I can't wait to tell Ryan about the memorable day that her mommy and daddy found our they were having a precious little girl.

Here is an updated photo of the Fergusons taken this weekend

It's Gonna Be A Soccer Playa

Well, I was pretty sure I felt the baby kick like two weeks ago, but Bill did not believe me. I thought I had felt a couple of kicks every two days or so; last night, it was confirmed that we have baby movement, not just bowel movements. Once again, I fell asleep watching a movie (this is number 3 for the week). So, Bill was forced to carry me to bed- he is amazing. Once we got in bed he woke me up to take my prenatal before I fell asleep. Once I fell asleep he said he laid there for a minute with his hand on my stomach and he totally felt the baby kick. I am going to call that baby Ferguson's first interaction with daddy.

Then today, during Verb Trashketball 5th period I felt a big old kick. It was amazing, I know I felt Baby Ferg in there kicking around. We like to think he/she is starting World Cup training.

Update

Well Bill and I had our doctor's appointment yesterday and it went good. Our appointment to see the sex of our baby was at 3:30. I went back for my ultrasound at 3:45 and walked out of the room at 5. Yes that's right my ultrasound was an hour long. I am feeling very sore and almost bruised today from the roughing up I was given. So after a whole hour of waiting to find out the sex of our precious baby, the little lazy butt never turned over. So we are still in the dark about the sex of our baby. Needless to say, I threw a fit! The women at the clinic were rude to me and well I was definiely not the sweetest thing in the world to them either.

On the other hand, our precious angel is 100% healthy and everything is developing beauitifully. Our baby weighs 7 ounces and 6 inches long and it's heartbeat is 163. We got a whole reel of pictures of baby Ferg and got to watch it swim around for an hour in my belly. The funniest thing was the annoying ultrasound tech kept shoving on my stomach and one time the baby turned it's fist towards her and balled it up. Oh it was priceless, it was like the little lamb was reading my mind, we both wanted to punch her!!!

Anyways, after I threw a fit I might be able to find out the sex of our baby after all, it will take a little bit- but hopefully we'll find out. I think if our lazy baby is still sleeping with it's back up and we cannot see the sex, we will just be super super surprised on March 8th!!!!

Tomorrow is the big day!!!

Tomorrow at 3:30, Bill and I will find out what sex our precious little baby is. We are overly excited and cannot wait to start getting our house ready for the little butterbean. Pray for us!

BRINNER!!!!

As of lately, I have had a real case of the "nothing sounds good." It will be 8-9 o'clock before I just decide to eat something. Once again, on Sunday night nothing sounded good for dinner. I told Bill I was going to go look for something at the grocery store. I was walking up and down every aisle and everything just looked gross. Then I saw it, I finally came across Belgium waffle mix. Well one thing led to another and the next thing I knew I had waffle mix, syrup, eggs, sausage, hashbrowns, diced peaches, cheddar cheese, and milk in my basket. I was ready to prepare a top notch brinner. Bill was fabulous as always and helped me, and we finally sat down for brinner around 8:30.

I think everyone should mix it up every now and then and make some delicious breakfast foods for dinner one night.

Prego Pics

I have had a couple of requests for prego pics and I feel like I have blown up the past couple of weeks, so what better time to post than now. I have felt like complete crap this evening while running a temperature of 99.6; however, I promised myself today would be the day I get pics because I was semi dressed up. I have been freaking out because I want to make sure baby boop is doing all right, but after some tylenol, I am feeling a little better. Happy viewing.

Countdown

I had another doctor's appointment today and it went great. I have gained 4 more pounds, which makes my total about 9 pounds. I heard the baby's heartbeat again and it was 160 beats per minute. Is that high or low? What is the old wives tale again; high girl and low boy? Let me know.

Anyways, everything went great and I have my next appointment on October 1st- and this is THE APPOINTMENT!!!!!!!!!!!! We are finally going to find out the sex of baby Ferg. So we are anxiously counting down here already, 3 weeks!!

I love my child

This post was inspired by Katie's Krisy Kreme post. Over the past two weeks baby Fergie has been giving me some stomach issues and well I have not been too happy with the precious darling come bedtime. The little bugger has been keeping me up a little later with some teeny tiny stomach pains and late night bathroom trips. All things considered, I am in love with the new addiction my child has gotten me on.

I am officially addicted to Drumsticks ice cream.

I have had big issues with buying food and cooking food and then starring at it because it looks less than appealing. I have also had a big issue finding desserts that sound good evening to evening. Well, problem solved!! Baby Ferguson has given me the biggest craving for Drumsticks ice cream. I have done a good job limiting myself to just one stick a night, after dinner; but man, those things sound good for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

I would like for everyone to take the opportunity to give this past time favorite another chance, because there is nothing like getting to the bottom of the cone and getting to eat frozen solid chocolate. It is like a pleasant surprise every time!!

There's a new sherrif in town!

Every morning starts the same way, I wake up, get ready, rush out the door already late, load up the dummio dogs, and take them to Uncle Luke's house - every single morning. Yes, Bill and I have to take the babies to Luke's house every morning before we head to work, and we've been doing this ever since we've been married.

There once was a time where we tried to leave them at home in our nicely fenced backyard. Well, Kramer put an end to that very quickly when he broke through three panels in our fence and took his faithful sidekick, Radly, with him to run away. The dogs really enjoy going to Uncle Luke's house because they get to play with their friends, Shadow and Yuki. Well, playtime is over.

Bill and I have decided there is no way we will be able to drop the dogs off at Luke's house, take a child to daycare, and then still arrive at work on time;so we decided to get an electrical fenced installed in the backyard. When I say "get" installed, I mean Bill did it.

Now the decision to install this fence is not one that came lightly for me. I have had huge issues with the idea of shocking an animal- I mean come on you know me, I would give up my house for a homeless dog. However, Bill had to break it down for me: "Jenny, now what is worse, Radly and Kramer getting a little shock, or Radly and Kramer getting hit by a car?" Touche Bill Ferguson, touche!

So Bill installed the fence last weekend, and we have been testing it out this one. We sat outside with the babies last night after dinner and walked them around the fence so they could understand their boundaries. They are actually doing pretty well around the yard, but they do not do too well with the shock they recieve if they jump on the sliding doors to come inside. This is their response to being shocked by our back door.

The face that Radly gives me is too much, the interpretation Ceasar Garcia would give me is, "How could you do this to me?"

and I think to myself...What a wonderful man!!

It is no surprise I am talking about my fabulous husband, Bill. Although he has been occupied with school, building us a deck, Head Start intro., and thesis work- he still managed to make time to surpise his big ole' wife. I meant to blog about this last week, but let's face it people, when have I ever been on top of anything?!

As most of you know my Mondays and Wednesdays tend to get a little long. I get to work around 7:30 am, work with my lovlies (oh these are my kids, their mischievious grins steer me towards using another descriptive adjective; but I will stick with lovlies for now), finish up with school at 3:30, hang out there until time for practice at 5:00, have practice from 5:30-7:30, then head home around 8ish, only to arrive home at 8:15-8:30ish pm. I used to be able to complete this schedule without loosing an ounce of energy, I think it was the 2 peppermint mochas a day that assisted too. However, once I get home now-a-days I crash hard, which is why many of you have heard me complaining about our gross house. Okay, back on track! Well, I got home last Monday night and walked into the living room expecting to find a paper covered Bill, but he was not on the couch- he was standing at the entry way of our foyer. He told me to close my eyes, because he has to show me something. Now, Bill is a diehard romantic, but he is still so suave about these things.

So he walked me into the guest room and he had moved the furniture out of the office (the new baby's room) and into the guest room. He then opend the office door and had moved the furniture I wanted in the baby's room to its appropriate location. It was awesome, moving is something I never enjoy doing- and now I can't do since no heavy lifting. He rearranged the furniture in both rooms and now it looks fantastic. We still have to get rid of our desk and desk top computer, but other than that- we are ready to move in some baby furniture.

Bill has really gone above and beyond to help tighten up some loose ends around our house before the baby gets here. For example, I wanted a screened in back porch, which he quickly replied, "Did you forget about our dogs?" Then I asked for him to build a covered back deck. He might as well have said, your wish is my command. His parents came in town one weekend and built this beautiful addition to our home.


Before


After


Radly doing his part!


Dummio!!!


Man, I was working so hard watching Bill work I needed a break!


Railings and all!!!!! Isn't it beautiful?!

Bill is such a provider and does whatever he can to make us happy, because let's face it when big ole' prego is happy, everyone is happy!!

We got a heartbeat!

Well, Bill and I had our second doctor's appointment today and it was amazing. I have been saying for weeks, I want to hear the heartbeat so I can have some sort of validation behind my weight gain:), well today my prayers were answered.

After our long waiting room visit, and my downing a pack of POPS cereal, Bill and I were called to the back. It was very pleasing to hear I have only gained 3 pounds my first 11 weeks of pregnancy. As some of you may know there has been talk of me being pregnant with twins. Now, if this is the case we would be more than thrilled- we just want a healthy baby/babies. However, my rapid weight gain has been concerning to me. I just want to make sure I am staying healhty for the baby and everything is happening how it's supposed to. My doctor reassured me I was at a healthy birth weight and my uterus looks like it is the right size to be carrying an 11 week baby (fetus).

Anyways, now to the exciting part, as soon as I was ready to get my appointment started the nurse walked in and said, "Let's hear this baby's heartbeat." It was the most amazing experience that has happened to I think both Bill and I up to this point in our lives. She put her little radio looking thing on my stomach and started to move it around. At first all we could hear was something that sounded like swishing. Then we could hear a louder, slower heartbeat- this one was mine. Suddenly, we heard a mildly loud pulsating beat that was the heartbeat of our baby. The nurse said, "There it is!" Well, I think you can all imagine what I immediately started doing- crying! The nurse moved the radio thingy a little to the left and we could not hear anything. She searched again for a few more seconds, then there was the heartbeat again strong, loud, and healthy.

This was one of the most amazing experiences ever. It was powerful, overwhelming, and breathtaking. I keep looking at my belly and thinking there is actually a little babe in there.

I asked Bill what he was thinking when he heard the heartbeat and he said he fed off of my joy. He described the initial sound as the most powerful experience of his life. He described the feeling as, "That is my baby in there- I can't believe it."

We both left that office on cloud 9. What an amaing day and gift that God blessed us with. I cannot imagine our reactions when we get to see the little butter bean for the first time.

First Baby Shower

There was a full dozen of cookies, but I ate one before we could get a photo op!

Well, with all of the excitement that came along with our Rascal Flatts outing, I totally forgot to blog about my family beach trip. My sister put up a nice picture sildeshow of the trip and somewhere in the back of my mind, I thought the blogging of the trip was taken care of. I mean I am use to Kim doing things for me (sidenote- Kim when are you quitting your job and moving to Auburn to raise my baby?:)

Anyways, while Bill and I were vacationing with my family, my wonderful sister and mom decided to throw me a surprise baby shower. I could not have asked for anything cooler, my family there as guests and my two favorite women as my hosts.


Now, this was not be biggest shower in the world, but there were plenty of gifts and the most amazing little duckling cookies I have ever eaten (I have been craving one ever since). At this shower Bill and I got a lot of gender neutral clothes, some burpe clothes, a blanket, a baby book, a maternity shirt for me, and then the finale. I got the "cadillac" of baby vibrating chairs. It is so cool and weird to actually have baby stuff piling up in our office. I cleaned out the baby's closet this weekend and we will soon start clearing out the room to make way for baby stuff.






I have my second doctor's appointment next Thursday so I will keep everyone posted.

Flatlanta

Well, as some of you know for our 1 year anniversary I got Bill and I tickets to a Rascal Flatts concert. We went this past Friday and it was SOO much fun. I have not been to a concert since my senior year of high school when I went to see Dave Matthews.

Since Bill and I do not get a chance to get out of Auburn much, without having to leave for soccer, we decided to make an evening of it. There is this restaurant in Atlanta called, Fogo De Chao. It is a churrascaria, which comes from the word "churrasco" which means, the Gaucho way of roasting meats over pits of open fire for delicious barbecues, always present at every festive occasion, especially family gatherings. Bill went to a restaurant like this when he was on a mission trip in Brazil and has been in love with them ever since. It is a very cool dining experiencec, I reccommend it for anyone who has not been to one. Well, after stuffing our faces with 12 different types of meat and three plates of mashed potatos (this is like my favorite food as of lately, I have always loved them, but my obsession has been taken to a new level since the pregnancy, we decided to get some dessert. Our waiter asked us what we were celebrating and we told them it was our one year anniversary, so they brought us this...



It was very cool and very nice of them to add this special treat to our night. After, finishing up and sitting in 1 hour of stop and go traffic to get into the concert we arrived to hear the musical stylings of Taylor Swift. She was great, you know Bill and I are not the biggest country fans, but man we loved us some country music on Friday night. Rascal Flatts were awesome! They almost sound better live than on CD. We were sitting in the very back of the amphitheater and we loved our seats, we could see it all. We sang, we danced, and we made fun of the people in front of us. It was a great night. My batteries died in my camera, so I did not get any pictures inside, but this one is from the restaurant.

I have GOT to go back to work

Okay, don't get me wrong, I love summer just as much as the next guy. I have been to the beach twice in the past two weeks, and my true ethnicity is finally showing through after my dedicated tanning. I love waking up late, although I hate missing "Saved by the Bell." I get to eat out all the time for lunch. I mean let's face it summer is one of the top 10 perks of being a teacher. Although all of this is true, it is time for me to go back to work.

I have been keeping myself very busy this summer with summer school, soccer camps, and vacations. This is the first week I have been able to just do stuff around the house and around town. After having nothing to do for a week, I am B-R-O-K-E!! I guess I am just too good to sit at home and think of some ground-breaking creative project that probably costs about 10 bucks. I have to go out and buy a dress a day, some new luggage, jewerly, heels, new shirts. I mean you name it I have bought it this week. So I have decided I have to keep myself busy every day in order to not spend money. Man, what am I going to do on my maternity leave? Bill is going to have to give me a to-do list everyday. Now, this does not mean I have to complete the list, but I need options.

My Ego Is Prego

Well, for those of you who have not seen Juno, that means I AM PREGNANT. After one year of marital bliss, Bill and I have decided to add the next Fab Ferguson to our family. As of now, I am 6 weeks along and our due date is March 9th, 2009. This was a planned pregnancy and we could not be happier. We love saying, "This time next year we are going to have a little bub (that means baby)."

Bill and I found out we were prego on the 4th of July, but we wanted to visit the doctor first before we told anyone. We were actually at Bill's parents lake house when we found out and I wanted to tell them immediately, I can never keep a secret. So I thoroughly cleaned and washed my digital prego test and walked outside with it in my pocket. I went up to Bill's mom and asked her if she could hold this for me, while handing her the pregnancy test. She said,"Sure," but she had no clue what it was. She looked at it for one more second then immediately started crying, and then of course I had to cry- you are not surprised! I had to call my parents and tell them and they were actually in Nashville at a concert. They were more than elated!! Of course we all know my sister was bouncing off of the walls. I cannot wait to give my precious niece a cousin.

So, I had my first doctor's appointment today and it was just a basic consult with 10viles of blodd being taken. My next appointment is August 14th and hopefully that will be our first ultrasound. My doctor is awesome and I feel really great about him. He was great to talk to today, he really calmed me down because I have definitely been very anxious.

I am feeling good as of now. I was having morning sickness without the sick sickness for about two weeks, but that has gone away from now- thank God. It just is not a good feeling; but you know what I will go through anything for this little baby! We look forward to talking to everyone about this exciting time in our lives. Have a great day! Love you all!


after we found out, the 4th of July!!!

1 Year & Going Strong

Today is Bill and I's 1 year anniversary. I still cannot believe how fast this year has gone by. We have rennovated a house, moved in, I got the best job in the world (teaching 6th grade), I became the Director of Coaching for Auburn Thunder, Bill completed his first year of grad school, we went skiing, we went to Vegas, we started making plans for World Cup 2010, we watched our precious niece turn 1, I found homes for two homeless babies, Bill started seeing his first set of mock patients, we started attending a new church, we continue to love our baby boys, we have gone through two time periods of not shaving Bill's beard, and we continued to fall more in love with one another every day.

I just gave Bill his anniversary present, and in sticking to tradition of the first year of marriage- I got him paper. On that paper were two barcodes for concert tickets. Those concert tickets will admit us to see Rascal Flatts on August 1st in ATL. I told Bill I was going to get him paper and it cost around $100, and he thought I spent all of that money on stationary. He saw no possible way that getting paper could be exciting- after a year he is still doubting me! Well I proved him wrong, he absolutely loved his present! I cannot wait to go and jam out to some Flatts.

Now, Bill did not stick to tradition, which surprises me, becuase he is usually really big about that stuff. But when the end result is a diamond, he can break all of the traditions he wants. For our anniversary Bill put a new stone in my grandma Shirly's engagement ring and gave it to me. I got my grandma Shirley's ring about a month ago when I went to MO, but she had taken the diamond out and put it on a new setting. The band she gave me is absolutely beautiful, and the setting is amazing. I LOVE MY PRESENT.

This year has been the best year of my life thus far and I know each day is just going to get better and better. Stay tuned for more exciting news! Love you all!

Happy Birthday Bill

Bill's birthday is not even here yet and this has been the "Best Week Ever," in quote of him. So I decided to make this week Bill's birthday week. Everyday night before we eat dinner I have given him one of his birthday presents. I topped it all off with giving him his big present last night, an wireless speaker I{OD docking station. HE LOVED IT. This thing is so cool too, the speakers have a 150 feet radius from the docking station. Which was awesome last night when some people were outside with one speaker, and the others were in the kitchen listening to another speaker. Anyways back to the weekend, I wanted to surprise Bill with this party, but unfortunately Bill never lets anything go unknown with him- and let's face it, I cannot keep a secret.

So I called Bill's two best friends Kyle and Donald and wanted them to come to Auburn to surprise Bill for his birthday. They were more than willing to come down, so Kyle, Donald, and his wife Katrina ventured down to Auburn for Bill's birthday weekend. Well, Bill wanted to go to a movie on Friday night, but I was just not "feeling well." So Kyle, Donald and Katrina got in town while Bill was the movies. So I picked them up and we parked next to Bill's car in the parking lot and waiting for him to come out. When he walked out, he was just so excited, it was awesome, they were all jumping around like a bunch of school girls. So then we all went downtown for the night and left Bill's car at the movie theater. It was awesome. Bill was so surprised and he said he had no clue. Another fabulous surprise was Bill's brother Dan came in town as well. Oh it was just the best weekend!

Now, after a week of chaotic planning, we had the best birthday party ever. We had a ton of people here, plenty of entertaining games, and a fun time was had by all. I think the highlight of the night came when Bill's crazy wife lit 38 birthday candles on his cake (do not ask me why I chose 38 candles) then suddenly a moth flew on the cake. So she decided the best way to get the moth off of the cake was to blow it off. So crazu Jenny took a deep breath and successfully blew the moth off of the cake, while blowing out 20 or the 38 lit candles. It was great, I just walked away and said, "I'm done!" Now Bill's true birthday is not until tomorrow, but I think it will be celebrated with a quiet dinner between just the two of us.

Happy Viewing


I decided to go with a tropical theme, the decorations were the easiest to get. Anyways I had the whole house decorated and set up when Bill got home from his session, and his birthday present was in the middle of it all. And of course the dogs had to get in the photo.

Radly hanging out with the decorations. Dan's girlfriend Kelly helped me get everything set up too. She also made brownies, sweetheart!







The beautiful cake. My best friend Jill Adams made this cake and it was quite a process to decide on what to make. After some debating we decided the psychology dorks should have a brain for their birthday. The cake was a blueberry cake with cream cheese icing, dang it was good!

Lovely Ladies

Blowing Out the Candles

Group Shot

The Andys

Okay, this is all happened because a group of large men decided to ride three deep on our litle bench and the whole thing just cracked. Andy hit the ground hard and really hurt his bottom, don't worry I rushed to his assisstants with ice!


Bill & Mike (we celebrated Mike's birthday too)


Happy couple after a long night, this was probably taken around 1ish, too late for me.