More Tips

Another friend of mine saw these and sent me some more...

Some Helpful Tips

A friend of mine passed along some helpful tips to me the other day.  Since he knew I was a visual learner he put them in a form I could easily grasp.

Family Reunion and Tummy Picture week 32

These pictures are in front of my parents' azalea bush in their front yard in Moncla, LA. My parents helped organize a family reunion for the Moncla family this weekend. Over 200 people attended. It was a lot of fun! The food was great- cochon de lait (pig), dirty rice, chicken, crawfish, sweet potato casserole, rolls, green beans, and tons of desserts. Mom and dad hosted a cook-out at their home last night and then this morning, we had brunch at my Aunt Carol's house. Lots of fun and lots of laughs :) It was also fun to meet some of my Moncla facebook friends. One of my favorite parts of the weekend was getting to swing on the front porch at the old house and talk to my cousins/ husband. (Even though the cousins shared some scary birth stories with me!)

Me and one of my favorite cousins, Barbara.
32 weeks- how much more is my tummy going to grow? I'm hoping at least for 5 more weeks.
If we look tired, it's because we were! Micah sold t-shirts at the reunion and I had to register people as they came in.

Waco Baby Shower

The baby shower on Saturday was lots of fun! I felt so loved by friends and family members! People came in from Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Austin, Houston, Temple, and Dallas. It was fun to hang out with college friends, roommates etc.

These are the thank you notes and a framed scripture that my friend, Natalie designed for me. It matches Kaitlyn's bedding perfectly. You can look at her website at www.nwarddesigns.com

These are the shower hostesses. My sister-in law, Melissa, Mandy, Natalie, and my other sister-in-law, Crystal.



My friend, Kathy, surprised me and drove all the way in from Oklahoma. Raegan is always so trendy.
Look at this little premie outfit! Isn't it the cutest? I doubt Kaitlyn will be a premie since I was a 9-lb baby, but we'll see! At least she has 1 thing to wear if she is small.
Crystal and Melissa did the food. Melissa made the little tags that match the bedding to indicate what we were eating!
This looks like fun!
Mandy made the most beautiful butterfly cake. It was very tasty too! I was so impressed!

Dream

I had a dream about kaitlyn last night. She was cute. Brown hair and blue eyes. Fair skin. Hair was curly. She sounds like another baby I know well. :). Micah did a genetics survey for Kaitlyn. She has 50% chance of green eyes, 25% brown and 25% blue. I'm hoping for blue, but like green too. I didn't know that only 2% of the world population has green eyes. That makes me pretty special, i guess.


-- Post From My

iPad

Micah bought me an iPad today at the Baylor bookstore. He talked about how much he loved them and how he thought it would be perfect for me b/c it does e-mail, facebook, words with friends, internet etc. I really like it and have played with it all evening. I did have a little trouble posting on our blog from it, but otherwise have had no problems. It's 1/2 computer and 1/2 large I-Phone with a cool screen.
He wants to take it to work tomorrow because Baylor's iPad shipment had not yet come in. I hope to show it to my co-workers at some point this week!

First thoughts about the iPad

So the Waco Best Buy had a few iPads.  As it turns out they got 15 iPads in for sale starting on April 3rd and they were all purchased by people that had lined up outside the Waco Best Buy starting Friday night.  I never would have dreamed that the Waco Best Buy would have had iPads in stock on the first day of availability. (It is probably best that I did not know...)

I am pretty sure the Best Buy salesman thinks I am a jerk.  I sat there and poured over the device and just smiled and nodded while he tried to sale me on the iPad.  He told me about how Apple had developed a special chip just for the iPad called the A4.  He told me that the iPad could run iPhone apps.  He told me that he likes to refer to it as a tablet.  Smile and Nod.

Enough about that.  What did I think?

First, it feels solid.  It is going to be interesting to see how they sell to people that come in and use them at a Best Buy or Apple Store or something.  I think there are going to be a lot of people that want to use one before they buy one.  However, the "theft-prevention" cable coupled with the lack of chairs makes it difficult to imagine using the device normally.  I found myself a little tentative while using it. (not wanting to set off any alarms.)

The concerns I have heard about the iPad mirror that of the pre-released iPhone.  Most center around the on-screen keyboard.  I ran the keyboard through all the tests I could think of and have to say that it works very well.  I think the central difference between learning to use the iPhone keyboard versus the iPad is going to center around how much more similar the iPad is to a real keyboard.  The iPhone keyboard was different enough from a normal keyboard to basically allow me to learn a new skill as I learned to type on it.  The iPad, however, is close enough that it taps into my preexisting ideas of where the keys should be.  This is both good and bad and makes it feel really natural to a point.  Have you ever starting using a new keyboard where the keys are just a little bit different than your old keyboard?  That is how it felt.  Only time will tell how long it will take for it to feel completely natural.

Easter

Usually we spend Easter in Louisiana with my family, but this year I was on-call for work, so we stayed in town. Micah's family started celebrating Easter a couple of years ago when my nephew, Caleb, was old enough to start hunting for Easter eggs.

This is my 6-month old Nephew, Hunter. He's still too young to hunt eggs. :)

Caleb found an egg!
Go! Go! Go! (Not sure who he was racing against since he was the only kid finding eggs!)
The attack of the ants. After he got bit, finding eggs wasn't as much fun anymore.
Micah with the chocolate pound cake my Momo always makes. I made it this year in her honor. Micah dyed the coconut green and wanted to take credit for making the whole cake (but I didn't let him!)
My bunny cake that I make every year. This one was a spice cake with cream cheese icing.
Some of today's entertainment included games for the older kids (our generation). We played memory with cards and answered some creative questions to obtain eggs with money in them! Very fun (except Micah is so good at memory, he ended up with much more money than I did and is not sharing!!)

Kaitlyn's Tree

Ever since Stephanie saw the picture of our chosen baby bedding she has been set on having a similar tree on Kaitlyn's wall.  It has kind of become the focal point and anchor in the room.  There is a baby bed to assemble and decorations to hang but first a tree must be planted (errrrr painted).

Lucky for us we have a very artistic friend.  Natalie created a tree and I stole a projector from Baylor for the day and she went to work.  Above is the finished product.  The picture looks great and it doesn't even do it justice.

Now I guess I have a bed to assemble...

I'll take an Octa-Plenta Hazelnut Latte Please.

Starbucks is introducing a couple of new sizes starting today.  Check out that picture of the a "plenta" size drink...  So now it goes micra (also shown above), tall, grande, venti and plenta.

I wonder if the refills are still $.50...  I could supply my whole office with coffee for under a buck!

You can read more here: Starbucks Listens to Customer Request for More Sizes

(and yes I know...  it is April 1, I just thought it was hilarious)

Bunco

I played Bunco tonight for the first time. Filled in as a substitute at my friend, Cyndy's house. She roped me in by telling me that the BU women's basketball game would be on, that there was good food (chicken salad, spinach dip, fruit), and with the idea that I may win some money. I won 3rd place ($12) and tied for the most Buncos. The other lady got the prize for that b/c she did not win any money. I'd rather have the money than the Bunco koozie any day!

29 weeks- tummy shot

Here I am at 29 weeks. I haven't grown that much in the past two weeks, but I do look HUGE in this dress. I've gained 15 lbs so far. I'm hoping not to gain more than 25 total, but we'll see.

Work Baby Shower

My co-workers gave me a very nice baby shower this evening. I am so blessed to have such good friends who work with me at Providence. See the attached pictures.

The fondant cake was made from scratch by Miranda! I told her she should go into the cake business on the side.

I am very excited about our lamb swing! It was the hostess gift.
Daddy thinks this bathing suit is a little skimpy :)
Kaitlyn can sit on the lion or stand behind it and walk.
Kaitlyn will be stylin' in Ralph Lauren
Love the diaper wreath that Chelsea made. So creative!
Aren't the hydrangeas pretty?

A lot of Gold!

All I can say is Sic'Em Bears!

Go Baylor!

Baylor University!

I'm so proud of the Baylor Bears. Both the guys and girls have made the Elite 8- hard to believe! We won't be able to see the games in person, but it's fun to watch them on tv. I hope they both make it all the way to the top!

Spa

I had a wonderful massage this afternoon at the Spa at Canyon Oaks (this is the backyard, by the pool). The weather was perfect. A prenatal massage is not quite as good as the real thing, but it was still very relaxing. Micah sure hit a home run when he gave me 1 spa treatment per month for 2010. I think next month I'm going to get a pedicure and use my other prenatal massage (since I did not do my spa treatment for January it's only fair that I do two in one month, right?) The Spa is offering $49 massages for 1 hour if you buy at least 2 services. Check out their website: http://www.thespaatcanyonoaks.com/ if you live in the Waco area.

I needed a relaxing start to a busy weekend. We are having dinner here for Micah's parent's 40th wedding anniversary tomorrow night. Then Sunday, I have a baby shower with all my co-workers.

More Rain...

It seems like it has rained more this year than any year I can remember. According to weather.gov, McLennan county is between 200-300% normal rainfall so far this year. I really need to mow my lawn but  it seems like it always rains on the day I was planning on knocking it out. I don't want to complain too much but the longer it gets put off the worse it is going to be. We have my parent's Anniversary party here this weekend and I know Stephanie really wants the lawn looking nice by then.

Maybe it will be dry tomorrow so I can mow tomorrow night or Friday.

Black Four Door Chevy Car

Well it happened.  Truck is gone.  I am now the proud owner of a 2010 Black Malibu.  It is very fun to drive.  Actually its a blast.

I found the car I wanted last week and called the dealer and have been bouncing back and forth over price and options.  Finally this weekend we settled on a good price and I drove out there this afternoon and had them appraise my truck.

When all was said and done I was driving off the lot and loving every minute of it.

I have to say,  John McClaren Chevrolet is a great dealership with some great people.  Go check them out.

Baby Shower 3/20/10

Me and my mother-in-law, Joyce (aka "Grammy").
Me, my mother ("Mamaw" to Kaitlyn), and my "Momo." They came all the way from Louisiana!
7 of the "Great 8" (and the hostesses of the shower)
Kaitlyn's outfit for coming home from the hospital and for her baby dedication.
Monogrammed burp cloths- love the butterfly!

The Pearland shower was lots of fun! My friends sure know how to throw a party. The food was great, flowers were beautiful, and I think people had a good time. Thanks ladies. I had no idea I looked so pregnant until I saw these pictures- WOW!

Perspective...

So today has pretty much sucked.  I am talking about the type of day where computers die just because you walked by.  Not a great place to be when you are paid to keep them running.  In the middle of all of this funk someone asked me how my day was going.

"It's Friday," I responded.

"Is that good or bad?" came the question.

"The day has sucked but it doesn't matter; it's the last one this week."

Later I realized how true that is.  I can put up with a lot of stuff when there is a visible end to the madness.  It is the wow-i-can't-handle-this-and-tomorrow-looks-worse kinda days that are overwhelming.

I love my job.  I really do, so don't take this the wrong way but I would rather have a horrific Friday than a middle-of-the-road Monday.