Baby Update and New Year's Resolutions

Well, after my 15 week check-up, I discovered that I still had not gained any weight.  Which is odd because I definitely have a belly and I certainly haven't been skipping any meals.  And this leads me to 1 of 2 New Year's Resolutions.  My first NYR is to eat more!  How many times in my life will that be number 1??  But I am excited to continue to eat more than normal - and I will try to keep it healthy.

My second NYR is to work on my side consulting business.  I have done a little bit of accounting/bookkeeping consulting for small businesses and I want to grow this into a full time gig.  My goal is to not have to go back to Triad after the baby is born.  My dream is to have a home based business that I can work on when I have the time and energy - no more commuting! And most quickbooks work is remote, so I can do it from home in my pj's. 

My last announcement related to baby is that we have scheduled the next ultrasound to hopefully find out what it is!  It is scheduled for February 14th, Valentine's Day!  (And Hannah's 21st b-day!).  I have never looked forward to a Valentine's Day like I am this year!  So, with that news, I am going to see if I can add a poll for people to vote boy or girl.  I have one up on the whiteboard at work, and boy is just beating out girl after one week.  There's a lot more people in the office that need to come vote, so this should be interesting to see.  And I can honestly say, I don't feel like I have a "mother's intuition" about it.  Justin and I would both like a boy first, so I think that just for wishing it that way, we'll have a girl.  But I really don't feel one way or the other.  We will hopefully find out in a couple of weeks!

Happy New Year!

What an exciting year 2011 will be!  I am officially in my second trimester today and the baby is about the size of a lemon according to the weekly email I get.  I'm ready for a baby bump instead of looking like I have a beer gut.  Pants are definitely getting tighter around the middle - but luckily nowhere else!  I have my next doctor's appointment next week so we'll see how much, if any, weight I have gained. 
 
This past week has been a bit of a bummer because I came down with a cold and have felt like a truck ran over me.  And being pregnant, there's not much in the way of medicine that I can take.  So for about a week I was taking Robitussin every 4 hours and a Benadryl at night and drinking lots of hot water with lemon.  I finally called my ob-gyn on Monday and asked if there was anything else I could take or do because I was just miserable.  She called in a Z-pak for me to my pharmacy that I picked up on my way home from work.  I'm not 100% yet but I do feel a lot better.  At least it's giving my nose a break and I can breathe again.  My poor nose looked like Rudolph's there for a couple of days - red and raw.  And I was putting Vaseline on it because it hurt so bad so then it was shiny and red and raw.

I'm going to talk about my New Year's Resolutions in another post soon (I'm tired and ready for bed right now) but I was excited and wanted to share my second trimester news!

Baby Makes the Belly Go Round!

WE ARE PREGNANT! Sorry I haven't posted anything in a long time, but I couldn't share my biggest news yet and everything else paled in comparison to write about. But now that the majority of friends and family know, we can share it online. I will be 12 weeks on Wednesday (the ultrasound picture was taken at 10 weeks). We are due on July 6th, but I have a feeling this kid will be late - all of my siblings, including me, were late. Plus, the doctor said the measurements from the ultrasound would put the due date on July 8th, but we are leaving it at July 6th for now.

So far I have not had any problems or issues. I had a little bit of nausea just a couple of nights but I ate some crackers and soup and felt better. I also have not gained any weight yet which my doctor was happy with. In fact, I was still doing bootcamp up to my 7th week! I haven't done anything since then though :(. I did look for a prenatal yoga class in my area but haven't had any luck so far. I may just have to go to one in Houston if I want to do it :(. I will keep everybody updated much better on the blog from here on out, I promise!

Happy Halloween!

I went to College Station this weekend to hear Taylor's band, Chief Nation, play a show on Saturday night. And because that is the night that College Station comes alive for Halloween, it was a good excuse to dress up as well. Neither Hannah nor I knew what the other one was going to wear, and we both had costumes that included feathers in our hair and fringe on our dresses! She went as Pocahontas (or "Pocahottie" as the package proclaimed) and I went as a 1920's flapper.

Taylor in his cow costume, playing the congo drums.

Playing the regular drums

Free sunglasses were passed out at one point by a "Blues Brother" during a cover of the ZZ Top song, "Cheap Sunglasses", by another band.

Chicago

Justin and I had the perfect excuse to go to Chicago this past weekend - for a friend's wedding. And in October so we could experience this mystical season called "Fall" or "Autumn" if you will. So we took a long weekend and flew in early Friday morning (we had to get up at 4:30 am in order to catch our 7:25 am flight; I'm not sure what we were thinking when we booked that) and didn't fly back until Monday morning (a much more reasonable 9:40 am flight). We were in Chicago by 10:00, so we headed straight downtown from O'Hare. First stop, the Museum of Natural Science, called the Field Museum.

I really wanted to see the man-eating lions of Tsavo, which the movie The Ghost and the Darkness was based on. They were really not as impressive in real life, but cool nonetheless. After that, we drove around looking for a place to eat. We ended up at Frances' Deli in the Lincoln Park area. It was delicious! Then we headed towards our hotel in Barrington (closer to the Church for the wedding and the reception in Crystal Lake). It took us 2 hours to go 30 miles at 3:30 on a Friday afternoon. I think the traffic there was worse than Houston. We decided to stay in that night and order Giordano's Pizza. It was recommended to us by a friend from the Chicago area and has been featured on numerous shows, magazines, yada, yada, yada. It was good, but honestly I wouldn't crave it. And the small, which they say is for 1-2 people, could easily feed 4-6. I'd like to meet the person that can eat the entire thing because Justin and I ate less than half. Saturday we slept in then ate at a restaurant next to the hotel for lunch. It was pretty good. Then we drove down to a nature center and walked on one of the shorter trails (1 3/4 mile) just enjoying the scenery and weather.

It was beautiful out there. The leaves turn RED, Yellow, and Orange!

We got back to the hotel room a little after 1 to get ready for the 3:00 wedding. It was very nice and then we all had to drive another 10 miles to the reception at a country club. We had a good time, Justin sitting around talking to the guys, while all us girls were out tearing up the dance floor! It was over at 11 and we headed back to the hotel to crash. Sunday morning we slept in again then decided to try downtown Chicago again. We hit up Millennium Park where "the bean" is and walked around there.
Then we went over to the Navy Pier to eat lunch at Harry Cary's and walk around some more. We were both pretty tired and Justin had been fighting a chest cold so we called it in early and headed back to the hotel by 3:30 or so again. Justin picked up Chili's for dinner and we ate in the hotel room, calling it an early night.

Hannah's Ring Day!

At A&M, getting your official Aggie ring is pretty much as important as earning the diploma. As a matter of fact, I went through all of the rigamaroo to get my ring but didn't even bother walking the stage at graduation - I had my diploma mailed to me. I really wanted to be there for Hannah's ring day, but I could not take off of work that Friday - we had this company wide motivational coach/speaker thing that I couldn't get out of. So I had Justin go in my stead. Hannah's roommate and her boyfriend, as well as Jacob as soon as he got out of class, were also there with her.

Before:

Almost:

Here it is!

It's a special deal who gets to put the new ring on, Justin did it for Hannah. Nobody was with me when I got mine :( and I am still bitter about that. Hannah remarked that he has now put a ring on two Palmer girls' hands. His reply, "Next, I'm going for the trifecta!" So watch out Mom!

After:

With our "little" brother:

Group shot:

I hurried into College Station as soon as I could from downtown Houston so we could all go out to dinner. So finally, some sister pictures:

Everybody always says that Hannah looks older than me. Until now, I've never understood that. But I really think in this picture she looks so much older than she is, and definitely older than me. You wouldn't believe we are 5 years apart from this picture!

I am so proud of my sister!

Date Night

First, I want to say Happy Birthday to my Mom. Her birthday was last Friday and I drove in to surprise her. It was a little strange being the only child home now that Jacob is at college.

Justin was able to come home on Monday which was nice because I wasn't expecting him until Thursday. So, I asked him to take me out on a date last night. We went to Pappasito's for dinner - they have a special going on Wednesday nights after 5, fajitas for 2 are only $16.99. So that's what we ate. Then, we went to Bass Pro Shop to look for a shotgun for me (so I can go bird hunting with him). Oh, he sure knows how to treat a girl right!