Where to start?

The last four days have been amazing! We are so excited that our sweet girl is finally here. Everything went great during her delivery. We got started at the hospital with the induction around 7:30 and were holding her in our arms at 1:05. We have been totally in love with her ever since!


The three of us, with help from my mom, have survived our first day and a half at home. Matthew is great at changing diapers! He's actually so great that I only changed one the whole time we were in the hospital.

I was a little worried unnecessarily about how Mallory would do with all of the fireworks tonight...she and Matthew are both sleeping soundly with them going off in the neighborhood as I type. I can't think of a better way to spend New Years eve!

We only have about a million pictures of Mallory so far. Here are a few of our favorites so you can all see how precious she is. Enjoy!!!

Mallory Joy is Here!!!

Mallory Joy arrived yesterday, December 28 at 1:05 pm. She weighed 6 pounds 13 ounces and was 19 1/2 inches long. She is precious! Marcia and Mallory are doing great and headed home tomorrow. I am quite partial, but she is one of the most beautiful babies I have ever seen. I love you Mallory! -Proud Aunt Anita

FRIDAY!

I got the call from my doctor this morning that Friday was going to be the big day!!! We have an appointment at the hospital at 5:30 am to be induced. Obviously, we're pretty excited!

Hopefully I'll post again before long with some pictures of our little Mallory. :)

NO NEWS

Just in case you are eagerly checking my blog today for news of Mallory's birth, here's my big exciting update. No baby today (at least by induction)! When I called the hospital at 5, the nurse said it looked they would probably be able to get me in today and they would call me. So I somehow went back to sleep. Finally when I hadn't heard anything shortly after 10, I called back to check and give them my cell number so I could leave the house and not go crazy sitting by the phone. The nurse told me then that I was next on the list. I felt pretty good about this news! Less than an hour later I got a call from my doctor. Apparently things didn't look as good as the nurse made it sound. Even though I was next on the list, they were too busy and it wasn't going to happen today. Surprisingly, I wasn't too disappointed by this. I think I was just relieved to know. So now we're just waiting for little Mallory to decide on her own when she would like to join us.

BECAUSE HOW CAN HE TELL ME NO THESE DAYS

Matthew and I were thinking positive tonight and decided to have a last date night before Mallory is hopefully born on Friday. We went to Ruby Tuesday for dinner. This is a special place for us because nine years ago Matthew took me there on our first date. I was a little worried going there because we hadn't been in years, but it didn't let us down. The fries were especially yummy!

Next we were killing some time and needed to do a little Christmas shopping. We took a gamble and went to Toy's R Us. That was an adventure. Things were a little shady there, but we survived.

Our next stop was going to be a movie but we couldn't decided on which. We were debating between American Gangster and Enchanted. Matthew offered me a deal. He said that if we went to Verizon and looked for me a new phone we could see Enchanted. How could I turn that down? So, we headed to Verizon where we got me a new almost free phone and got my monthly rate lowered too. After Verizon we had some time before the movie, so I suggested a trip to the slab for ice cream. Matthew usually isn't a big slab fan, but how could he really turn me down right now?

After our ice cream, we were right on time for the movie. Unfortunately, my perfect night got a little less perfect. As soon as we took our seats I realized that they were not very comfortable for a 38 week pregnant person. I sat there debating during the previews if I could make it or not. I decided no. Thankfully, they were nice enough to give us all $18 back for our tickets. So, here were are sitting on our comfortable couch watching Castaway. I guess we'll go to a movie again some day.

Is my husband great or what?

Check out my new phone...isn't it pretty!

CALL ME MARY

So we went to the doctor for my weekly check up this morning. We had talked to her last week about possibly inducing on Friday, so I was really hoping for that. After my exam today she said, "OK, get dressed and I'll make a call to labor and delivery." When she came back she did not have good news. There are 7 ladies past their due date in line before me to be induced on Friday. So, I'm on stand by for the stork. We can start calling Friday morning at 5:00 and hopefully these 7 ladies will have had their babies on their own by then or maybe Mallory will decide herself to pop. Until then, I'm Mary...pregnant and no room at the inn!

FUN WEEKEND!

This was the third weekend in a row that Matthew actually had a night off. This time, he had Friday night off so we could have a fun date. We did a little Christmas shopping, ate a yummy meal at Pappadeaux, and then went to a Third Day and Jars of Clay Christmas concert. Except for the climb all the way up the stairs to our balcony seats, it was great! I was seriously wiped out when we got to our seats. The usher that was showing us our seats obviously wasn't very observant that I was just a little pregnant. When she saw where our seats were, she took off so fast that Matthew even had trouble keeping up with her. After we finally got to sit down, I told Matthew I thought I might need some Gatorade and a GU! When I left to go to the bathroom and saw that there was an elevator, I was probably the happiest girl at the concert.

During the concert Third Day sang O Holy Night. O Holy Night always makes me think of Carol of Lights at Tech. For you non-Red Raiders, this is a tradition at Tech going back to the 50's I think. It is a big deal in Lubbock. People gather on the Tech campus and they light more than 25,000 Christmas lights. Part of the ceremony every year is a man singing O Holy Night. We have always made fun of the guy because he sings it in his best "opera man" style. Friday night it hit me what a big deal this is....on the campus of a public university, thousands of people gather each year to hear the singing of a song about the birth of Jesus. I hope and pray that this tradition will continue for years and years to come.

On Saturday I did almost all of my Christmas shopping. I figured since there are 12 days until my due date and less than that until Christmas it was time to get serious about my shopping. It was actually a very successful shopping day with a couple of funny sights. When I was at Linens N Things waiting in line I really felt that someone should tell the lady checking her pores in the magnifying mirror she was buying that she might want to wait until she at least got to the privacy of her car before doing something so personal. A little later I was at the mall. I noticed a booth selling wooden nativity scenes. The name of the booth was Star of David. The irony was too funny for me not to share.

This morning we went to church for what could be the last time as just the two of us. Tonight, I finally packed my bag for the hospital. Its pretty full, so I should be prepared even without leg warmers.

ALMOST THERE!

I'm thinking positive with my "Almost There" title. I'm now 37 weeks and can't wait to meet little Mallory.

Here's the latest picture of she and I plus the Christmas tree.

I think that just about everything is ready in Mallory's room. Matthew would still like a chair or rocker in there, but other than that this is pretty much it...except for her!

FAMILY TIME

We got to spend last Saturday with our college "family" plus some more family and friends while they showered our little Mallory. It was a great day spent with some of our favorite people.

Look, my plate of food almost covers up my belly. :)

All the girls...Krissy & Shannon. Sara, Anne, baby Caroline, me, & Tiffany.



The guys had to go outside and throw the football to balance out all the baby time inside. That's Matthew and Ben watching Sean go next door to get the ball that went over the fence.





Now some bits and pieces...

I was looking in a pregnancy book today for what to pack for the hospital. Two of the things the book recommended were coins for the phone and leg warmers in case it was cold. Anyone think I might need a newer book?

Today after work I went to Target and looked at the maternity clothes. They actually had a red velour track suit. Can anyone say Santa suit?

NEED A LAUGH?

In case you are in need of something to laugh at this Friday night, here is just a sampling of some of the pregnant and non pregnant funnies from my week...

I was doing laundry one night this week. I squatted down to get clothes out of the dryer. When I got down there and got my arms full I could not stand up! I guess it was a combination of my ever changing center of gravity these days and the fact that my arms were full and I couldn't use them to balance, but there was no way I could possibly get my body to move up. Thankfully this was one of Matthew's nights off so he was here to answer my yell for help. The really bad thing is that I did the exact same thing on the next load. Don't know what I was thinking then.

Another night this week, I woke up around 2am thanks to Matthew's snoring and the fact that I was on fire. I nudged him and asked if he had turned the heater down before coming to bed. His response was "My feet are freezing." I asked again if he had turned the heater down. This time his response was "Do you mean hotter or colder?" Again I ask him if he turned the heater down. He had nothing to say this time except he was freezing. I told him I was on fire and Mallory was probably sweating. I could tell I was getting no where with him, so I got up my self and turned the heater down and fan up. The funniest part is that he remembered NONE of this the next day. He did say he remembered his feet being cold and thinking that if he put them close to mine he could steal some heat from me.

Nathan is the one that came up with Mallory sweating. We were all so hot after church the last time he was here, and he thought it was hot enough that she might even be sweating. :)

On to tonight...I was at Hobby Lobby buying some gifts. I asked the cashier if they had gift receipts. Her response was a blank stare and "What are those?" I just said "never mind". I know the registers at Hobby Lobby are not the most sophisticated machines around, but when was the last time that she bought or received a gift???

GETTING CLOSER

I went in this morning for my 35 week appointment. They did an ultrasound and it looks like Mallory is a little over 5 pounds and head down. So, we're getting closer!!! I'm trying not to get too excited since I still have a month to go, but she'll be here before we know it. We even got to see her sweet little face on the ultrasound too. Can't wait to see her in person.

On an unrelated note, there is something from Desperate Housewives this week that is really bothering me. Bree insisted that baby Benjamin sleep in the bed with her and Orsen. When Orsen made a comment about what if he rolled over on Benjamin during the night all Bree said was, "DON'T". If we have to warn people that hot coffee is hot, shouldn't ABC be a little more careful when talking about infants sleeping in the same bed with adults? Maybe if the writers weren't on strike, they would have caught this.

THE LITTLE GENTLEMAN

When Abby was too sick for Anita to take her to my shower, we just figured that Mom and I would go and leave Nathan, Anita, and Abby here at my house. When Sunday afternoon came around Nathan was adamant that he was going to the shower! We told him that there wouldn't be any other kids there and he might not have much fun, but there was no changing his mind... He was going! I even asked him is he would take a picture with me when we got there. Surprisingly he said, "Sure"!

When we got to the shower, he turned on the charm and was a hit. He greeted guests at the door, he carried presents in, he carried presents away after I opened them, and he even made sure that my friend Jennifer got cake after she arrived.

We all sure were proud of Nathan that day!

SMILE!

I could tell you about more of my medical woes of the last week, but I think I need to lighten the mood on here instead. So here are some of the highlights of my last few days if anyone is interested.

I got to play Bunko on Thursday night with 16 special friends. I've been playing bunko with this group for the last 5 years. Our bunko group has somewhat of a revolving door, but because of this I've gotten to know so many new friends and know old friends better. Its always a highpoint of my month.

Last night I finally felt up to and had the time to start putting away and washing Mallory's things. I did my first load of all pink laundry last night! I'm sure I will have many more of these over the years. Something tells me the fun of them will wear off before long. When I was folding some of the tiny little onsies, it took me back to being a little girl and playing with clothes for my baby dolls. I can't believe that in about 6 weeks we'll have our real live little baby to wear all these sweet things.

I just spent the last few hours eating skittles, writing thank you notes, listening to it rain, and watching Texas Tech beat OU!!!!!! What could be better than all this?

WHAT A WEEK!

This has been such a fun week for me that I thought it was time I shared some of it with the whole wide world via my blog. Here are a few highlights:

• Tylenol
• morphine
• throwing up
• vicodin
• Gatorade
• juice
• toast
• rice
• soup
• icy/hot
• heating pads
• break dancing

Are you jealous? So, this week has been a fun filled four day vacation from work for me filled with a trip to the hospital and the doctor due to the worst back pain of my life and possibly a stomach bug. Now I bet you're really jealous! The stomach bug could be a treat from sweet little Abby. My doctor doesn't know exactly what has caused the back pain. Could be the bug, could have pulled something, could be Mallory hitting on something during all of her break dancing. I don't know what brought it on, but it seems to be getting better so I am ecstatic!

Here are some fun things we've learned this week:

• Never share a drink with a 2 year old...no matter how sweet she is
• Don't question your wife's choice to wear flip flops when she wants you to take her to the hospital at 6:30 am
• My doctor's office is really good at following up on phone calls
• a shot is definitely worth it when it is delivering morphine
• Icy/Hot is great
• Pharmacy drive thru windows are a necessity
• a mom that will stay an extra day to clean your house, buy groceries, and cook your husband a meal is a real blessing
• My husband is the best!
• Feeling your baby break dancing in your belly when you feel horrible and are taking a lot of drugs, is a WONDERFUL feeling!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Everyone is posting pictures of their kids in costume today, so here's a picture of my baby in her costume. She is deep under cover if you can't tell. :)

You might also notice that my hair is much shorter that the last you time you saw me. I did this a couple weeks ago. I had been wanting to go shorter for a while, but was listening to all the books and people that say don't make any big changes to your hair while you're pregnant. I finally decided forget them, I want a hair cut!

Its a good thing I did it when I did because I got some tragic news from my hair stylist. When I got there he told me this would be my last time. I thought "whatever, I'm still getting my hair done once I have a baby!" But then he started talking about quitting. He's a big joker, so I didn't believe him at first but he kept going on about it. When I finally realized he was serious, I was very sad. I've been going to him for most of the last 6 years. He and his wife have just launched their own product line, Retro Chic, and are so busy with it that they don't have time to do hair any more. Good for them, but what about me?!?

NOW YOU DON'T SEE THAT EVERY DAY...

Last week when I was driving home after work I noticed something weird on our street. There were people sitting in the back of a parked pick up. There were people standing in their driveways. There were people sitting in the grass and in lawn chairs on the side walk. Definitely not the norm. When I got home I asked Matthew if he knew what was going on. He had no clue either. We decided to leave the front door open so we could see out the glass door in case something exciting went down our street. Well, in a few minutes we heard a marching band. We went outside and there was a parade going down our street!!! We live very close to the high school and apparently it was time for the homecoming parade. We're hoping this hasn't gone on the last three years we've been here and we've just been oblivious.

A couple of weeks ago Monica and I went to my parents house for the weekend. When we got back in town, I took her to her parents house where her bulldog, Penny, had spent the weekend. When I was getting in my car, Penny got a little mixed up and thought she was going home with me. I couldn't help but get a picture "little" Penny trying to drive my car.
And a few weeks before that...Matthew was knee deep into the wall project in Mallory's room. He was in the sanding stage. I got home from work and went to see what he was up to in there. When I opened up the door, I found him looking like this. Yes, I'm pretty sure those are swim goggles. In his defense, there was A LOT of dust stirred up from the sanding (that's why it looks like the camera needs a good cleaning.)

That's enough of my random pictures for tonight. Hope you had a great weekend!

MAKING PROGRESS

It was almost two months ago when we started on Mallory's room, but its finally starting to look like something. Matthew finished the painting this week and we put the crib together this morning. I'd write more, but all you (Anita) really want are pictures so here you go...

THIS MEANS WAR!!!

A couple of months ago we had an intruder. It was Sunday afternoon. My parents were here and Matthew had taken the day off. We were sitting around in the living room watching baseball I think when all of a sudden we spotted the intruder. A lizard had somehow made his way into our house and was climbing the wall. Matthew and my dad grabbed a broom, played the heroes and got rid of the little critter. During this adventure we learned that when in times of crisis chameleons turn from green to brown. We also learned that lizards don't fare well if you attempt to trap them with a cup, but catch them half in and half out of the cup.

I thought this would be our only episode with lizards.

Fast forward a month or two. I had been to the grocery store. When I got home I saw that I was not alone. There was another lizard friend out on the blinds in the kitchen. I quickly devised a plan. I moved the kitchen table out of the way, grabbed the broom, and started whacking! This is what the kitchen looked like when I was done with the lizard.

This is what the dazed little guy looked like after I had used my best broom ball moves on him and shot him out the back door. I gave him a very stern warning to stay away and pass the word on to his friends not to enter my house again.

Apparently lizards don't share warnings with each other. Tonight I sat down at the kitchen table and grabbed my folder of coupons. When I opened the folder, a lizard jumped out. I WAS MAD! I didn't know what to do but fight. I threw a couple sections from the newspaper at him, but my aim wasn't so good. With no other options or broom handy, I had no choice but to take the rest of the newspaper and start swinging. Luckily I got in a few good swats and the little bugger was laying crippled on the floor with his feet in the air. Score one for Marcia! Thankfully, there were no guts or anything so I opened the back door and swatted out the lizard corpse.

So, does anyone have tips on how to keep lizards out of your house?

"EVERY DAY MATTERS"

If you haven't noticed, "Every Day Matters" is JC Penny's slogan these days. After my dealings with them, I don't think they take it very seriously. I ordered Mallory's bedding a month ago. I called them today to find out the status of the order. All they could tell me was that it was supposed to ship yesterday, but it hadn't. They would have to check with the manufacturer and get back to me in 3-4 days. Well every day does matter to me, so we canceled the order!

Matthew emailed me some choices this morning, and we ordered new bedding at lunch time (from someone else of course). Before I left work today, I got an email saying it had already been shipped. That made me feel so much better!

The best part is that I liked the first bedding, but I LOVE the new bedding. Here's a picture of the new stuff. Its kind of hard to see, but there are pink, brown and mint green polk a dots. Looks like Matthew will be painting on his next weekend!

I went to the doctor yesterday for my 28 weeks check up. Everything is still going great. I start going every two weeks now, so we're getting closer! Unfortunately, I don't feel like I'm getting any closer to getting my braces off. I had hoped to have them off before Mallory was born, but I don't think that's going to happen now. Oh well!

FINALLY!

Our bedroom is finally put back together. We had survived for almost a month with our bed pulled into the middle of the room and the night stands shoved where ever there was room after the "Door to Wall" project began. Thankfully, the work on our side is done! When I got home from Beth Moore on Tuesday this week, Matthew had gotten all the painting done, put the furniture back where it belonged, and made the bed. I was so excited. This came not a moment too soon because I wasn't sure how much longer I was going to be able to squeeze between the foot of the bed and the TV. Now, I get to make some curtains for the windows.

We're still waiting to get Mallory's bedding before we can start painting her room. Penny's website still says the expected ship date is 10/4. By my calendar that was yesterday! Hopefully they just haven't updated the website and it will be arriving at my door very soon because I'm getting very impatient.