Whew! After a week on the road we needed a day to decompress after getting back to Evansville. Yesterday we sat around in our PJ’s, did many loads of laundry, scrubbed cat vomit from the carpets, cleaned cat boxes… You know all the chores and stuff that go undone while you are away.

Everly was a doll during the trip. The plane ride wasn’t an issue, she nursed and played and sat in our laps for the 10 hour travel day. She did well on the road also. We drove 6-10 hours a day for three days and and she just slept or played with her toys in her seat. As long as we made frequent stops for diaper changes and feedings she was happy.

We did crazy things to entertain her and ourselves when it was time to stretch the legs. Here is an example:

Speaking of changings… We made it the whole trip on just the twenty or so cloth diapers I have. We only had to wash them once right before we hit the road to head home. 7 days, 20+ diapers = 1 wash. When we got home E had to sleep in a disposable overnight while every single diaper we had was being laundered. I am proud to have cloth diapered the whole trip though. It was a breeze!

As for feedings, I just breastfed her as usual and supplemented with baby foods and snack puffs as usual. Now, she’s really getting in to being involved in meal time though!

When we stopped for a snack at the mall with my mom Everly grabbed my straw right from my mouth and even sucked juice from it (which she’s never been given the opportunity to do). She is hardly doing the sipply cup thing so we were pretty surprised at her instinctual straw drinking.

I was just glad I was pinching the straw and holding on to it tightly or she would have successfully gotten a mouthful of sugary strawberry lemonade up it and in to her mouth. No sugary lemonade for baby! Luckily we have a straw type sipply cup thanks to Maiden53, time to bust it out.

Now she’s getting more adventurous with her foods too. She’s just starting to get the hang of her sippy cup and is having “juice water”. She’s also enjoying sampling new flavors on the go. Like the skinless tomato chunk I stole from my mom’s plate and gave to her…

She would gladly try more things like our coffee and over processed junk food we are enjoying if we let her. We are being super selective about what we let her have, we are overprotective parents

We have moved through all the organic stage one flavors of food and are progressing to more exciting flavors (not more sugary though). I am a sugar natzi, sugar has had a major impact on my brothers as they were growing up. One has a sugar addiction still. So we are trying to get her in to the bland flavors before the sugary ones are introduced, so she’s not always expecting her foods to be sweet and sugary.

Thanks to her meal time interest we were even able to brave a Denny’s one morning for breakfast. She sat in a yucky high chair like a big girl and we ate a meal together.

She of course didn’t order off the restaurant menu, she opted for boobie and a nap while we finished our meal. It was progress though.

As scary and anxiety ridden the idea of taking a trip with baby seems I am glad we did it. Once you are in the thick of it you realize it’s really not all that insane and it provides baby with much needed stimulation and the opportunity to adjust to changing situations.

We’ll probably be taking many more trips as a family now that we know how adaptable and well behaved E can be (if money permits).

What is it with shower situations in New Mexico? We are spending the night in Tucumcari, NM this time around. We got a cheap hotel to spend the night in and unfortunately it only has a shower.

You see it’s a cheap hotel, tiny, clean and shower-less with a super loud heater… You get what you pay for.

Anyway, it’s been a pretty chilly 24 hours for us and all I wanted was some warm water to warm my bones and relax my muscles. It’s freezing so I was not looking to do a complete hair washing and all that, just want to get the body clean, warm and relaxed. Gotta do it in the shower though.

It could be worse though. Poor Everly had to get clean in the sink tonight…

The last time I showered in New Mexico it was at Ute State Park where we were power-washed with cold water. Yep, go back and read the post if you are curious. It was a heck of a time!

This time the shower sprays almost completely horizontal. You know how normally shower heads spray water downward? This one was pointed downward but it sprays all directly across and right in to the wall.

To top it all off the little shower is like cubby-sized so I had to literally stand with my nose like an inch from the wall and on my tip-toes in order to get the water to spray on my back and not on the hair piled on top of my head (that was supposed to stay dry).

I almost asked N to bring me a chair or stool to stand on in the shower so that I could get myself in the right position for the water spray. Sheesh.

Guess it is better than power-wash-type force or a soak in the sink though.

We had a blast this weekend and even took some photos to share with you. Hopefully you enjoyed the belly shot photos I shared with you over the weekend. If you haven’t seen those yet you can by following this link.

For those of you who didn’t already know we planned to spend my birthday weekend in Tennessee. It was our last appointment with our midwife out at The Farm until we come to stay and deliver Tater in early June.

We figured it would also be kind of nice to plan a mini vacation for that weekend since it will be basically the last time we travel for leisure as just the two of us before Tater arrives.

N did have a nice dinner planned for me at The Melting Pot in downtown Nashville on Saturday night. We saw Pamela for our prenatal appointment Saturday afternoon then we stayed at the very unique Hotel Preston that evening.

On Sunday we headed out to the Cheekwood Botanical Garden in Nashville, we also stopped by The Mall at Green Hills to buy me a nice maternity top since the one I brought wouldn’t button around my boobs anymore.

I found 2 at Macy’s for $16.00 that weren’t even maternity tops but fit great, they were my birthday splurge. We also went by the Whole Foods near the mall to pick up a few grocery items and some calcium supplements per Pamela’s suggestion.

Like I said we had a blast together and we captured so many great belly shots for the scrapbook and our baby announcements (that I am not allowed to share with you just yet because they are a surprise!).

The photos I am allowed to share are of The Farm and I figured I would tell you more about the appointment too. First here is a slide show of the photos:

We were late to our appointment again which was a bummer, being late is also a big anxiety trigger for me so that wasn’t pleasant for us. Plus poor Pamela was waiting for us. We got lost on the way there once again thanks to GPS and internet directions.

I think we’ve finally figured out the correct directions there so N will be able to navigate his way there confidently once my labor has begun. It would really suck for him to be lost while I am in labor!

Anyway, once we arrived at The Farm Clinic I got to pee (finally) while N and Pamela talked. N ratted me out about my anxiety and stress levels these days then the appointment got underway.

All checked out normal. I am still weighing in at about 123.5 and my blood pressure is good but I’ve been warned to start laying more and to stop feeling bad about it. Apparently, laying down (preferably on the left side) means better overall circulation which has a major impact on kidney function while pregnant.

Blood pressure and kidney function go hand in hand so if my blood pressure is to stay at a good level my kidneys need to have adequate blood flow which means I need to lay down more… Like I’ve got time to lay! I am making a big effort to lay my ass down more now so don’t worry.

I am also working to drink more water and I’ve added a calcium supplement because calcium and magnesium also go hand in hand with lowering blood pressure. Blood pressure is basically the only potential concern for us right now. We are trying to be proactive so that we don’t have problems later.

We heard Tater’s heartbeat again and she checked out fine, N was having a great time taking video and snapping photos the whole time. We all got to chat about what is going on with life. We told Pamela about the move and all the stuff that is going on for us right now.

My OBGYN said I could lift stuff and not worry about a weight limit on lifting as long as it didn’t hurt. Pamela advised me not to lift stuff during the move at all. She said major lifting could lead to premature labor and that it is better to be safe than sorry, which we totally agree with.

We also talked and have ultimately decided to hold off on getting the RhoGam shot until after Tater is born (if her blood type warrants it). Having the injection while pregnant is just something we are not comfortable doing. We are more concerned with safeguarding Tater now as opposed to safeguarding my future fertility.

Oh and we did talk about the game plan for possible early labor and when to call Pamela or head to The Farm. Right now I am having some of my first practice contractions, fun!

All in all we are feeling good about the pregnancy progress, confident and ready for the last leg of pregnancy! It was a great weekend for us and now we are looking ahead to next weekend with anticipation. We get the keys to our new place, yay!

I have been in a crappy mood today basically over finances and lack of preparedness. You probably got that from my last post huh? Well, I wasn’t going to whine about it here in another blog post cause that is a downer. So I resolved to sleep and lay around all day instead having anxiety and feeling blah.

I was reading your blogs, commenting and tweeting throughout the day just wasn’t in the mindset to post anything worthwhile when one of the people I follow tweeted about a contest that was right up my alley! It was for 3 Fuzibunz cloth diapers, I still have none so I went and entered.

Then I got to thinking, “Hey whiny baby! Change those poopy pants and do something to improve the situation instead of just being all sad about it.”

So I did a twitter search on diaper giveaways then I found all these other bloggy contests to enter. Instead of keeping them to myself I figured I could share them with all you. If you have a need for the stuff then I’ve helped you, if you don’t you can still enter the contest and just give your winnings to me if you are drawn as the winner, Ha! (Kidding, but not really).

So here is what contests I’ve found:

• Ending March 20th – Win a $50 gift certificate to swamibabyboutique.com over at: http://theohanamama.com/
• Ending March 20th – Win a New Native Baby Carrier over at: http://delectiblemommies.blogspot.com
• Ends March 22nd – Win an assortment of baby goodies, 2 winners drawn over at: http://www.designmom.com
• Not sure when it ends – Win an assortment of mama goodies over at: http://www.lifestarringellieandeve.com
• Not sure when it ends – Win a Moby Wrap over at: http://ourlifeupstate.blogspot.com
• Ends March 25th – Win a newsgirl or newsboy crochet hat over at: http://babylovingmama.blogspot.com
• Ends March 29th – Win a Bumgeneous 3.0 cloth diaper over at: http://hotbellymama.blogspot.com
• Ends April 2nd – Win 3 FuziBunz one size fits all cloth diapers over at: http://meandmyboys-abby.blogspot.com
• Ends April 6th – Win any 2 Natures Baby Organics items over at: http://kindredspiritreviews.blogspot.com

Then I found the Ultimate Blog Party Giveaway and found a ton of great baby/ kid giveaway items! My top 3 picks that I’ve entered for there are:

• #19 – $50 gift certificate to Target Stores: Provided by: Shoot-Me-Now
• 21 – $50 gift certificate to Target Stores Provided by: Agoosa
• 22 – $50 gift certificate to Target Stores Provided by: Beginner Baby Blog

And if my top three picks are already chosen, I’d love any of the following (in order of preference) or anything else related to babies since I have my first child, a girl, on the way!

• 26 — $30 gift certificate to Target
• 7 — Ergo Baby Carrier
• 45 – Ultra Chic Diaper Bag with matching Diaper Pocket
• 91 — $25 gift card to Target
• 118 — $25.00 Old Navy Gift Card
• 123 — $20 Gift Card to Kohl’s
• 30 $25 gift certificate to weeBgreen
• 43 — Two $25 gift certificate to eco Store USA
• 83 – Prize: $25 Gift Certificate to ecostoreusa.com

I could be long winded and thorough about all these things but that is just a tad boring and seriously nobody cares that much right? So here is my brain spew for you in the form of an infamous bullet point post. Enjoy!

• My tap water gives me diarrhea.

Yep I know that is TMI huh? It is serious though. About every 2 weeks it happens and oddly enough it is coinciding with my water intake. Any time I drink more than my 2 jugs of water it just runs right through me. Someone remarked “wouldn’t you just pee the water out?” and I thought to myself, “why yes I should”. Problem is that is not what is happening. Then my mom reminded me that her water has some unusual levels of minerals that cause them stomach upset among other issues. Our bodies really can have problems with the levels of stuff in our water and if my body can’t process whatever is in it and sees it as harmful wouldn’t it just eliminate it as quickly as possible? We are putting this theory to the test, I am now only drinking water that had been distilled first. Hopefully that will do the trick, I can tell you after 2 days I am peeing way more!

• Our OBGYN never called about our appointment that never happen.

We were planning to have our ultrasound on the 29th of January but since the town was literally shut down as a result of the storm our doctors office wasn’t open. They didn’t call to inform us of this either, this makes us a bit annoyed. We’ve been expecting them to call us to reschedule the missed appointment but I guess they really don’t care. I called them today and got booked for an appointment next Thursday, 2/12/09. We should be finding out Tater Tot’s sex then. *fingers crossed*

• I am still researching genealogy, now for Tater Tot’s sake.

Remember those silly family tree projects you are assigned as a kid in school? I never had fun doing them and always kind of despised them because we had no info on our family history at that time. In my baby book in the family tree area my parents and grandparents are filled in but nothing else. Where it says great grandmother/ grandfather someone wrote “dead”… Nice huh? Anyway, I am still loving the myheritage.com site and would encourage each of you to sign up there (it is free) and record all the info you know about your family. It may help others later on down the road and you never know when you might want to reasearch your own genealogy further.

• Our residential roads are still iced over, the city doesn’t plough them- ever.

Flagstaff had 12 ploughs in operation, the same number of ploughs are working here in Evansville… Funny thing is we had better snow/ ice removal in Flagstaff, which is was smaller than Evansville and gets way more winter storms. Things are ass backwards here with regards to winter weather response/ management, big time!

• Scott MacIntyre did advance to the next round on American Idol.

I recorded it and fast forwarded thought all the commercials and annoying drama girl parts but did see him in many of the filler shots and the show did indicate that his group made it to the next round. Of course he wouldn’t be featured in the group night drama episode, he is nice, cooperative and does well with others. I am sad that they didn’t show his groups performance though.

• Tater is crazy active and we are in the planning for baby phase now.

Tater’s kicks and punches continue, I am used to them now. Shoot! We’ve only got about 5 months left to this pregnancy, almost half way through and we have tons to do! [cue anxiety]

Here is my “perfect world” scenario brainstorm: We’ve got to get out of this place and in to another rental preferably before May (even though our lease doesn’t officially expire until August 31st). Any ideas on how to nicely get us out of our lease?

This means we only have 3 months to pack, find a new place and move in to it. Didn’t we just do the moving thing? *sigh* Once we are moved we’ll have the month of May to unpack and nest before any chance of early labor. We don’t want early labor folks!

Then I’ll take it easy for 2 weeks before we drop me off at The Farm (around the 2nd week of June). Then I’ll wait at The Farm for labor to begin while N is back in Indiana working and caring for the pets (I could end up being there until the 2nd week of July if baby wants to come later).

I’ll call him when I feel like it is time for him to make the trip down to be with us for the delivery (but who will care for the pets?). We’ll hang at The Farm for a few days after labor to get breastfeeding support and to make sure baby is doing well, then we’ll head home and adjust to being new parents.

See? Told you this was a brain spew post! Oh and we sat down and got our baby registry lists semi updated too! We still haven’t added gender specific stuff like bedding and clothes but all the other junk is on the registries now! You can check out the registries by using these buttons:

So basically that is it in a nutshell, sort of… Stop diarrhea, find out Tater’s sex, genealogy research, clean, pack, find new home, move, buy baby stuff, unpack, nest, rest, go The Farm, squeeze baby out, rest more, learn to breasfeed, bond with baby, enjoy, adapt, head home. The end (for now).

Remember when I outlined all N’s job uncertainty in this post back on May 2008? Back then we still had no idea where his job search would take us and we were pretty worried that we would end up stuck with the status quo if no better offers came along.

We were barely making end meet, were financially frustrated, itching to start a family, had no chance of buying a home and were ready for a little more job security. Too bad my lady doctor said I was not fertile because of my low weight and N’s job told him they really valued him but could not increase his salary from here on out. That was 5 months ago…

Can you believe how much has happen in 5 months? Holly crap! N got the job in Evansville, IN so we started planing our cross country move. We got engaged 7 days before we were scheduled to move. We made the week long cross country move with minimal drama. We were in our new home for 3 weeks, were planning our wedding for July 2009 then we found out we conceived our first child! I just did the bills and we actually have several hundred dollars left over after everything was paid oh and houses are damn cheap here!

That really is a ton of stuff that fell in to place all at once for us. I guess it makes up for the 3 years we spend in limbo land huh? I almost can’t believe all has worked out for us in such a freaking short amount of time.

Now I just need to master taking photos of water already (I didn’t forget Wordless Wednesday, just a bit late) Lotus says anyone can do it and my camera has a freaking macro setting but my water photos suck big time. I guess you can’t have it all huh? Here are my crappy attempts and a funny video!

Well we got up very early and pushed off to Sam’s Club for my optometrist appointment. All in all I got my 1 pair of glasses and my eye exam for $150, I paid 100% out of pocket because we wont have insurance until late November.

Turns out I have 20/70 vision and am near sighted. The doc said I have no other eye problems and that I just have mild vision issues. He said the folks at the BMV just were being all mean and embarrassing and that my sight was not that bad. Just can’t read small print from very far away.

So getting the eye doctor thing taken care of was nice, then we grabbed some necessary groceries from Sam’s Club and came home. I had a headache from the eye doc tests so we relaxed for awhile. I ended up taking a nap which is pretty unusual for me.

We got in to “a baby is coming” mode while at the bookstore today and ended up buying The Pregnancy Journal; A Day-To-Day Guide to a Healthy and Happy Pregnancyso we could track progress and also learn about the pregnancy process. Speaking of pregnancy it seems people are rather divided about my baby weight as the last post’s comments suggest.

I am thinking about hosting a little betting pool on how much I’ll gain in pregnancy and how much weight will remain after the delivery. I am thinking $1.00 per guess to get in on the pool, then the winner and runner up will take the pool a few weeks after the delivery. What do you think? Winning some cash would be pretty sweet for the winners and we can all speculate about how my body will handle this pregnancy.

I know some of you might think I am a bit perverse for putting this very personal thing on display for the whole bloggosphere, I am just not a shy person and I think it will be interesting to have a pool going. What do you say, are you game?

Like I said in a comment yesterday I have been only been perusing dresses online because I don’t want to get my heart set on one particular dress and have it be unavailable. I am not really a “by the book” kind of girl so my dress selections are a bit different, I think different is good!

So here we go! Since I am 1500 miles away from all my girlfriends in Arizona we are going to have a little wedding dress day right here on my blog! It is like you are in the dressing room with me helping me pick a dress huh? Shh, just pretend okay? If you click on the images can see a larger image of the dress.

This first dress caught my eye about 5 years ago when I was working the front desk at The Radisson in Flagstaff. They were holding a bridal convention or something and there were wedding books lying around so my coworker and I started flipping though them. This was the one and only thing it the book that I liked.

I love the way it has that flash of color. I am also questioning the red though, will it look strange with my hair color? Although I have seen it in other colors like white with a peach trim & trail and sage green. I would really love if I could find it in a forest green, that is the color I would like my bridesmaids to wear. Would forest green look funny on the dress?

This next dress is super adorable, it reminds me of my Jazz choir days of singing 1940′s & 50 tunes and dancing around the stage in cute period dresses. (Yeah that is me singing the in the photo on the left.) Isn’t the belt cute? The dress is so pretty, girly and unique. My only concern is that is it short. Is a short wedding dress inappropriate for an outdoor forest wedding?

This last one N really loves. I like it because it is also unique and it reminds me of a ballerina tutu with the tulle fabric. It is actually very pretty and is the dress with lots of shiny accents on the skirt but it is not too over the top either. This is the dress I am most leaning towards. Problem is the dress shops in and around Evansville don’t stock it so I may need to find another option.

I am not really set on having a long flowing train and I really like the tulle layering look for the bottom of the dress. I am kind of uncertain about how long a frail my arms will look in a strapless dress and of course I wont know what I love for sure until I actually try on the dresses I have found. Trying them on changes everything! So there you go, my dress options are now shared!

We are here in our new home and off the road but the chaos continues… It’s been almost 2 weeks since my family joined us to make the 1500 mile trek from Flagstaff, AZ to Evansville, IN. We have had our ups and downs like any family over the course of the two weeks. We are close but also very fiery, that’s how we roll!

The day after we arrived at our new home my brother was having some anger issues. Actually we were all at wits end and were ready for some quiet calm time. Unfortunately he broke his cellphone and that made him upset the previous night.

The anger had also carried over from one day to the next until it erupted. When he lashed out on my mom we stayed out of it but when the rage was directed at us we were not willing to allow the behavior in our home especially when he became physically aggressive. Lets just say my brother and I got in to a full fledged brawl.

I still don’t handle physical aggression well and am prone to respond likewise. I suspect it has something to do with my abusive childhood. Anyway after N and my mom broke up the fight my brother aimed his anger at my mom and then stormed out and then called the police on us.

We retrieved him from the Evansville juvenile detention center on Wednesday morning, obviously the first three days in our new home were not relaxing or calm with my brother being detained. Today he was released and we are fine, tempers just flared big time.

Thursday was somewhat low key once we had my brother home we were all able to relax a bit, we hung around the house and tried getting stuff done. The truck was completely unloaded and picked up by the moving company. We nursed our awful mosquito bites and wondered if the folks just built up an immunity to the nasty buggers after a while. We were being massacred that is for sure, we can’t detect any bites on the natives though. WTF?

Yesterday we got a rental car to drive my mom and brother to Louisville, KY so they could catch their flight and head back home. We left Evansville at noon and arrived in Louisville at about 3pm, had a fun lunch at a quirky place called Lynn’s Paradise Cafe.

After our lunch we went around the corner to the airport, stood in line at ticketing for an hour and learned they had canceled my family’s flight! It only took us 1 1/2 hours to get out to Louisville to learn that. Turns out air traffic control in Chicago (where their plane change is) called for the cancellation of flight as a result of severe weather.

The nice airline ladies booked my mom and brother on a flight for Saturday out of Evansville instead of Louisville after we explained that we drove almost 2 hours just to get to the airport. Now we are just crossing our fingers that weather doesn’t cancel their flight again since it doesn’t appear to be improving as a result of the latest hurricane.

Too bad as of 11am yesterday morning her rescheduled flight has been canceled, again… It doesn’t look like they will be getting out of here until after the hurricane weather has come and gone. They have her resecheduled yet again this time she will change planes in Dallas as opposed to Chicago. Want to take bets on when that will be?

When we awoke the morning of our last day on the road we were unsure about how my mom would be feeling after her night of vomiting and passing out. I asked N if she was awake when I awoke, I was worried she had alcohol poisoning or something.

Turns out mom was just fine and didn’t remember much about the previous night. We recalled much about the nights events for her and I was a bit worried about how crazy she was as a result of the drinking and pills. I express this and we talked about how the pill she took impacted her. She was surprised by her reaction and attributed it to the pill she took.

After we talked, ate some breakfast and took our daily group photo we hit the road and were ready to visit the Merimac Caverns. We had a good time and were amazed by what we saw. Here is a video of the very end of our tour: http://s45.photobucket.com/albums/f60/Talinan/?action=view&current=MOV05787.flv

“Beneath the fertile rolling hills of the Meramec Valley, lies a complex of mineral formations and color as rare and unique as they are beautiful. These jewels of nature which took thousands of years to grow, are preserved in the spectacular sights of Meramec Caverns.” Quote from http://www.americascave.com/

Here are a few more photos of the Caverns:

When we finished up at the caverns we drove in to St. Louis and had an interesting time navigating the Winnebago through the town in search for a place to park so we could see the Arch.

After asking a friendly horse drawn carriage driver (<- there he is the the photo) we were informed of the best parking spot for our rig. All of the parking areas had a low clearance that would rip off the top of the RV!

The arch was huge and I am glad we got to see it but man were we ready to just get to our new home and relax!

After many hours more of driving we finally pulled in to Evansville, IN and we were excited! I was so excited I took photos of the road sign and the traffic. We also got a photo of us outside our new home before we opened the door. Gotta love the red eye huh? Whew, we were glad to have arrived in our new home all safely and without any new issues with the motor home.

Check out the next posts in the series:

• Days 7-11, We are here but the chaos continues
• Sitting in the garage, watching Ike blow through.
• OMG, we are actually living in Evansville…

or you can checkout the previous posts in the series:

• Day 6 – Stanton, MO to Evansville, IN
• Day 5 continued – Kingdom City, MO to Stanton, MO
• Road Trip Day 5 – Emporia, KS to Kansas City, MO
• Road Trip Day 4 – Dodge City, KS to Emporia, KS
• Road Trip Day 3 – Logan, NM to Dodge City, KS
• Road trip day 2 – New Mexico to New Mexico
• Road trip day 1 – Arizona to New Mexico.
• We pull out tomorrow…

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