No more tornadoes!

I can hardly stand tornadoes. They might be my biggest nightmare next to sharks in the water. That's probably the real reason my parents left Oklahoma. But for real, last night there were more tornado warnings in our area than usual. Michael was at the Nats game until the wee hours of the morning so I spent some time over at my parent's house. Around 10:45pm I decided to drive back to my home and just get ready for bed. On the road I knew that something had to be up - I've only seen that type of lightening in the movie Twister. (why I would even allow myself to watch that movie is beyond me.) When I got closer to my home the rain began to pour down and my dad all of a sudden called me. He's not an alarmist and not one to lead you to fear but this was the convo: "Where are you?" "Almost home, WHY?" (I knew this couldn't be good.) He said, "Well there's severe weather headed our way in about 2 minutes." "WHAT TYPE OF SEVERE WEATHER?" calmly he said, "Like a Tornado Warning." Begin freakout mode: Megan's heart races, legs shake uncontrollably and thinks about how she has no basement, doesn't know where the flashlight is, much less a battery, there's no TV to even watch the news and I didn't want to crawl in a coat closet all alone. "What should I do???" "Well, go into your house and get a radio and..," "NO!!! I'm coming back to your house. What do I do? What do I do?" He then tells me what direction the storm is headed (in 2 mins)which puts me in an even bigger panic because I just moved and I don't know where southwest is. So like a pregnant and scared you-know-what-less maniac I race back to my parent's home driving at least 15 mph over the speed limit - knowing full well how dangerous that alone is - but at the time I had no desire to meet a twister. I made it before the storm reached their neighborhood and we all sat in the basement listening to Sue Palka say "seek immediate shelter, move to an inner room in your house" over and over and waited until the warning passed. No way I was about to do that by myself in my home. Then I tried it one more time and made it home, only to be spooked out by crazy winds and a night terror of a tornado ripping through our home that woke me up at 5am. At 5am I grabbed my phone and saw that there were more storms headed out way and at 6am mom texted me telling me that our county had yet another tornado warning. I am done. I am a big old baby. I am thankful that we don't live in tornado alley and more seriously, am praying for the families and towns in Alabama that were so terribly destroyed by the storms yesterday. I'm so so sad for them.

Last night concluded day 4 of unwanted emotions and things happening to us. Not superstitious, but hoping that today puts a stop to this trend.

In other news, BABY is doing well! I had an appointment yesterday morning. Met the PA in my doctor's office and totally love her too. I don't want to ever leave their practice. Baby girl moves around a lot, it's like my sweet little secret that reminds me that she's real and we're getting to know each other. We are so close to having her named! That'll be so fun. There's not much else to report at this point - which I am thankful for, healthy baby and healthy mom! God is good. Especially because he kept those darn twisters away from us.

Peeps Project

My brother created this reconstruction of "The Battle of Bull Run" for an extra credit project at school. Those are all Peeps soldiers. I thought it was so funny. Some peeps are riding horses, some are holding guns, some are wounded, and one is even being carried away on a stretcher (in the lower right hand corner.) It's pretty entertaining if you ask me.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone! He is Risen! I hope you all had a beautiful day yesterday. Our family did. Church was wonderful, dinner at my parents house was delicious, the egg hunt was hilarious and then ending the day at the Moore's was a treat.

For the Easter meal, my role was dessert. I have been wanting to make this Lemon-Rosemary Layer Cake for nearly a year and a half and finally decided to do it for Easter. It was a total winner.

Heather helped me bake it over the weekend and thank God she was there! I couldn't read the recipe, remember ingredients, keep from cutting myself to save my life.
Three layers! Not just two. I kept the cake a tinsy bit undercooked in the very center because I knew I was refrigerating it and I wanted to keep it moist.
Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting Final product - never said I could decorate cakes pretty.

It was an awesome and different cake. You needed a really small slice because it was so flavorful and rich. But light from the lemon. I have nearly half a cake left in my fridge so please come over and help me eat it!!!

Grocery Store Delight

I was grocery shopping by myself keeping my head down reading my list- which was the back of a purple, used mailing envelope. I could hear two rowdy children being pretty disobedient to their parents down the aisle ahead of me. They were maybe 3 and 5 years old but already knew how to talk back to their parents and kept touching everything despite mom and dad's constant warnings. Needless to say I wanted to keep my distance from them. I had no desire to weave around their parade for fear of running one of them over with my shopping cart. However, later on in my trip we unavoidably met in the egg and cheese section. The parents were taking their time picking out cheese while the kids were being rude (but truthful) and talking about everyone that passed by. I tried my best to stay out of their line of fire by picking out my egg carton from a distance then quickly running up to the fridge to grab it. I didn't make it. The little girl saw me, looked me up and down and started tugging on her mom's shirt. "Mom. Mommy. Mom. Mom.." I braced myself for what I knew would be the ugly truth because we all know that out of the mouth of babes often comes blunt honesty. Would she pick my unidentifiable baby belly or my pale skin? To my surprise, she pointed and exclaimed loudly to her mom, "Mom, that's a fancy lady! That's a fancy lady Mom." I smiled, felt better about myself and walked away wondering what in the world she was talking about.

Will she look like me?

I can't help it. As soon as you know the gender of your baby, you wonder who she'll look like. Will she look like me? Will she favor Michael? Will she be a perfect blend of the two of us? We laughed because on our own we already thought through our noses and agreed that we both have normal noses - so I think she's safe there. I have tons of pictures from my childhood but close to zero of Michael. He was such a cute little boy and I wish I had pictures to show off. Here are some of my baby pictures...

Baby GIRL!!!

It's a girl! We welcome the world of pink, princesses and all things beautiful. I'm at a loss for words right now because it's such a new reality learning that we will have a daughter. One of the sweetest comments yesterday was, "she's gonna be the love of your lives." I believe it.

I think Michael will be the greatest dad to a little girl. Seeing how much he loves my little sister and other little ones in his old Sunday school class at Portico, makes me so excited for him to have his own little girl. I think she will simply be in love with him. Michael made a comment talking on the phone to a friend yesterday, "I guess I will have to brace myself for an overload of pink and girly things." Then he thought for a moment and followed it up with, "Actually, I'm pretty used to that with Megan so never mind, I think I'll be just fine." It just makes sense. :) Marriage has prepared him for a little girl.

Praises because she is growing on track and looks very healthy according to the ultrasound! All the necessary organs and formations the doctors look for were present. She's a petite little thing right now - which I love! She is in the 30th percentile for babies her age weighing in at 10oz. She was a very modest little baby, kept her legs crossed the whole time. When she wasn't playing with her toes, her hands were up by her face or scratching her head.

The technician commented at how full my bladder was and even let me get up and go to the bathroom in the middle of the ultrasound because it was cramping the baby out so much. She asked what my profession was and if it required me to hold my pee in for a long time because most women can't hold the amount I was holding. About five minutes after she let me go to the bathroom, the bladder filled up again on the screen - poor baby. Now after seeing what it does to baby, I will be more thoughtful of not holding it so long.

More excitement of baby girl to come!

20 Weeks - Half way there!

Feeling great at 20 weeks! This is the last picture we will take before we know if it's a boy or girl. After this, it's all pink or blue and baby's name will begin to take shape. I'm feeling the baby move a lot throughout the day. The movements have definitely become more noticeable in the past 3 weeks. Things have been so easy and fast, it's hard to believe that there's only 20 weeks left of this pregnancy. I only get a little anxious when I think of all I have to prepare for in conjunction with wedding work and settling in the house. I'm learning how to stop and remind myself that the Lord will not give me more than I can handle. This time with Michael is so precious and we are being intentional about enjoying our time alone together - we always have, just now there's a clear change in sight. This summer, though hot and huge, will be great and very much enjoyed!

I have a problem

I don't like buttons. I don't like to look at them and I definitely don't like to touch them. I'm not afraid of them - some people get confused and think that I am fearful of them, but that's not the case. I simply do not like them. I've never bought clothes with buttons on them. The only exceptions are winter coats and required dress shirts -such as for the National Fine Arts competition and waitressing. I never button my pea coats. I have a way of hanging Michael's dress shirts up so that I don't touch the buttons. I don't think purses with large decorative buttons on them are cute. I will never ever wear a necklace made of buttons and I'm appalled that they even exist.

I recognize that this may become quite a handicap when I have a baby. How on earth do I say, "no buttons on clothing please" ??? I just can't be that picky. Snaps are perfectly fine, any other way of fastening clothing is perfectly fine with me, just do not make me touch a button and squeeze it through a button hole. When I search a little deeper into this, I think may be fine with buttons on the back of an outfit - especially if they don't have 4 small holes in them. Like those little pearl or bead buttons, those I can handle. I can see this becoming an issue in my near future. But who knows? Maybe having a cute little baby will cure my dislike of buttons. However, you will not find my child wearing a bib or shirt that says "cute as a button." I don't think it's cute.

La Quinta

The grounds of the resort were absolutely gorgeous in Palm Springs. I could've spent every single day walking the property admiring the beautiful flowers.

That was our home for a week. If only I can learn to garden this well and make my true home look this good!

Best part of my week

Seeing Rebekah and Nathan in Palm Springs! They live in San Diego and Bek graciously offered to drive down and spend a night at the resort to see us. It was such precious time. I need more of her in my life.

And Nathan? He is the cutest and largest 6 month old ever!
Here we are eating lunch at In-n-Out Burger (which by the way has NOTHING on Five Guys, except the milkshakes) and Nathan decides that the french fries aren't good enough, he'd rather take the cheese off and eat that. Bek stopped him in time.

See how small he makes me look? I like him for that.

Do-Not-Do list

Yesterday morning at the ladies coffee we had a fabulous speaker who talked to us about balancing stress and life. At one point during her presentation she started talking about things on her "Do-Not-Do" list. This list is for things that we women feel like we need to do, should be doing and most likely feel guilty about not getting done. The idea is to forget about them completely! Don't add the stress of these tasks on your life. Simply resign to knowing that you will not get them done. I got so excited because this is exactly what I have mentally but could never put a name on it. Now I know and truly do not feel bad about it! I have a do-not-do list and I love it! Here are some items on mine:

My Do-Not-Do List

- Iron clothes

- Put photos in photo albums

- Preserve wedding dress

- Try and clean the house more often

- Make a grocery schedule

- Plan out meals more than 5 days in advance

I'm sure this list will expand after we have a baby and I'm determined not to care. I encourage you to think about what is on your do-not-do list. It can be freeing and a great way to reduce stress. I'd rather lay in bed at night thinking about all that I accomplished during the day rather than stress over all the things I didn't and what's left to do for the next day.

Pregnancy Brain

Man oh man, am I a believer of this condition now. I wasn't sure that "pregnancy brain" was any more than an excuse for ditsy girls to make themselves feel better. Boy was I wrong. In the past, I've been a person usually sharp, quick and on top of my game. Those days might just be history. My pride is gone. In the last week I have:

- Driven to Reagan National to pick up a cousin after I looking at the itinerary for their flight into Dulles.

- Taken my shoes off, "lost them," and walked around barefoot in the convention office before figuring it out.

- My short-term memory retention has dwindled to about a 3 minute time span.

- I can't get directions right in general.

- a few other things not even worth writing about

and if you don't believe me, I've posted a blog twice about the exact same thing using the exact same picture saying nearly the same thing and never remembered doing either. (see below for post about 17 week sonogram and 18 weeks.) Not complaining though! This bebe is worth it!

18 weeks

Can you see our little sweetheart? This sonogram is from last week's appointment when we almost found out boy or girl. We think we know, but we are waiting for 20 weeks to be sure! I've been feeling the baby move more regularly this week. It's incredible. I'm also showing more and more -almost to the point where a stranger can tell. This week we are enjoying the gorgeous weather and grounds of our resort in Palm Springs. Can't wait to share pictures with you!