WARNING: MUSHY POST

So, I have been thinking a lot lately about how lucky I am to be married to my super hunky, adorable, loving, strong, supportive, accepting, patient, diligent, persistent, crafty, handy, smart, sexy Man O' Mine.

Yes, that's Mike in a nutshell. All of those things and more. I've been watching this man grow in so many ways lately, and I can't help but wonder, what happened to the knuckle head I started dating 6 years ago???? He's become a better man than most I know, and has taken it upon himself to make me as happy, comfortable and loved as possible. And I love him so much. He knows what to say when I'm crying, or stressed, or crying, or irritated, or crying, or anxious, or crying, or angry, or crying (see the pattern?). He knows how to make me laugh. He knows how to drive me up the wall in a way that only makes me love him more. He takes my abuse. I beat him pretty soundly, and he just laughs. He fixes my house. He feeds my bank account. He talks to my belly (now that I'm pregnant. I would not have found this cute if I weren't). He smacks my bum. He's a lean, mean grilling machine, especially in tailgate situations. He's an excellent laundry folder. He's good at sharing our bathroom. He gives crappy back rubs, but still, he tries. He listens to Journey. He laughs really loudly, in such a sincere way. He coaches high school kids, because he feels like he wants to give back for all his high school coaches did for him. He loves to eat what I cook (and it's usually not great) and always gives me rave reviews. He likes to grocery shop with me. He only eats the chocolate and vanilla ice cream from the Neopolitan flavor, leaving what he calls the "strawberry mohawk". He cuts coupons out of our Sunday paper. But he never puts them away. He lets me drive the new car, even though he had to give up his truck for it. And he lets me park it in the garage. He'll always pick a restaurant to go out to, because I refuse to make decisions. He makes me cut his hair, even though I get really nervous every time I have to do it. And even when I butcher it, he tells me he likes it. He brings me whoopie pies from the broad street market. He invites me to his office for lunch dates. He always texts me to let me know he'll be home late if he's going to the gym, or staying at work. He won't talk to me on the phone if I'm driving, mostly because he doesn't think I'm a good driver. Better safe than dead, he's says. He let the bunnies who dug a hole in our front yard live, instead of trying to kill them with the mower because he was angry about the hole. He's read all of the Harry Potter books, and we've seen all of the movies together. He's really hoping our baby will be a daddies' girl. He always has to hang his shirts in the closet facing the same direction. He has to check the locks on the house several times before he feels comfortable that they're actually locked. He locks me in the house when he leaves me. He kisses me every morning before he leaves for work, even though I'm not awake. Now he kisses my belly, too.

He tells me every day, more than once, that he loves me. How much luckier could I be?

Now ladies, I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way about her man, so if ya got love, show it! This blog was inspired by a friend of mine who sent me the husband tag game below. So if you're reading this... TAG! Now tell me about your hubby!

Husband Tag
1- His Full Name: Mike Sage
2- How long have you been together? Together 6 years, married 2 years 7 months!
3- How long did you date? about 3.5 yrs
4- How old is he? 28
5- Who eats more? Uh...definitely him:)
6- Who said I love you first? It was him. And it was very romantic and sweet and gushy and mushy.
7- Who is taller? Mikey Pooh
8- Who sings better? Ha! That would be me. And I'm not good. But he's just awful. And he knows it. So he sings a lot just to torture me.
9- Who is smarter? I have more random knowledge, but he's got some serious, geeky computer genius stuff going on. If he's into it, he's a master of it...
10- Who does the laundry? We both do, depending on what items we are out of!
11- Who pays the bills? We both do, depending on who is busy
12- Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? If you're standing at the foot of the bed looking at it, Mike sleeps on the right side.
13- Who mows the lawn? Mike usually does, but I've mowed it a couple times this summer, since he's been uber busy. The front yard is small, but totally killer because it's hilly!
14- Who cooks dinner? Usually me, especially now that I'm not working. But he's got his signature meals he likes to cook.
15- Who drives? Both of us
16- Who kissed whom first? Mike definitely kissed me first. I was shy and afraid of him:)
17- Who's more stubborn? I'd say Mike, but I don't really think either of us are stubborn, except in extreme cases, and it's usually not with each other.
18- Who asked whom out first? Mike likes to joke that he tricked me into dating him. And he did.
19- Who proposed? Mike. It wasn't that smooth. I thought he was breaking up with me at first.
20- Who has more friends? I didn't realize this was a popularity contest! We both have lots of friends!
21- Who is more sensitive? Oh, that would be me. Very much me.
22- Who has more siblings? I also win that one in a landslide, 7 beats 1!
23- Who wears the pants? He usually does, unless I feel TERRIBLY strongly about something, and pull out all the stops to get my way:)

July

So! It's been a while since I've added a substantial post. So here goes. There are corresponding slide shows in the posts below, but they are out of order a bit. You'll be able to figure out what's what.

I started off the month of July with volleyball camp at Shippensburg, my alma mater. My former coach was desperate for help, so not only did I go, but I brought Bird with me! Hooray! We had a good time working with the "lowest" group of girls, who turned out to be better than many of the older girls!! It was a long camp, but the girls we had made it worth the while. We had this one girl, Allison, who was just completely whacky. She was 11 years old and tiny, came up to perhaps the bottom of my shoulder blades if we stood back to back. And yet, her feet were a size bigger than mine! Hilarious! At the first session she proceeded to tell Bird and I that she could stick her head between her legs. Amused, we said, "Let's see!". And she bent BACKWARDS, not forwards like we were imagining, and stuck her head out and looked at us. She was like one of those Gumby dolls I used to have... Anyway, she filled the week with really random, funny sayings and thoughts. Good times. And we got paid, so that's a bonus!

After volleyball camp, I came home for a few days before heading off to New York with Mike, Mom, Dad and Grandma. We stayed at the Chieftain Motel in Watkins Glen. We met mom, dad and Grandma there on Thursday night, and went out for dinner at the Seneca Station overlooking Lake Seneca. We then enjoyed a stroll on the pier before we were scared off by dark clouds, thunder and lightning. We got into the car just before the torrential downpour started.

Friday we all rode together to Lake Canandaigua. We had lunch there at what used to be Kellogg's Pantry (where we'd stayed on a family trip when I was little) and then walked across the street to enjoy the sites on Lake Canandaigua. It was absolutely beautiful! After that, we headed further to Palmyra, NY, where we visited church sites. We did the tour of the Joseph Smith Farm, then ventured into Historic Downtown Palmyra to see the location of the BOM publication. That was a nice tour, as well. Then we went to dinner before heading to Hill Cumorah, for the pageant.

We got there early enough to get some really good seats, and then walk around for a bit. Mike and I went into the visitors center, and also spent time walking around meeting some of the cast. A family from our ward was in the pageant this year, and we got to see them in costume!! It was pretty hilarious to see them all dressed up! We also met one of King Noah's wicked priests, the 3 Wise Men, who acted more like the 3 Stooges (part of actual conversation with them...me: so who's bringing what? WM1: Uh, I think I'm bringing Mirth. WM2: I think I have Frankin...it's in a box. What's in the box? I don't know, I got the box. WM3: Hello! I'm from Alberta! What?
WM2: No I got gold.) and the youngest cast member of the pageant, a little 5 month old baby! The costumes were pretty cool, so it was fun to see. The pageant itself was pretty awesome. Good times were had by all, and even Grandma stayed awake for the whole thing!!

After it was all over, we headed back to Watkins Glen for the night. Saturday morning we got up and shared breakfast together. Mom, Dad and Grandma headed home, hitting up the Corning Museum of Glass on their way. Mike and I ventured off into Watkins Glen State Park, which I LOVE! I remember stopping there when I was little on a family trip, and I wanted to take Mike there. He loved it, too! The scenery was just beautiful! We climed 832 steps on the Gorge Trail, passing lots of waterfalls and other beautiful sites.

After that adventure, Mike and I headed for home!!

Three days later I was in Washington, D.C. to spend the day with mom, dad, Jerry, Sara, Taylor, Lydia, Gaby and Owen! They were passing through on their vacation, so we joined them to do some tourist stuff! Once we met up, we spent the bulk of our day in the Museum of Natural History, which is right up my alley. Lydia also loved it, because apparently she's an archaeologist in the making, collecting all sorts of rocks, fossils and geodes. She's a girl after my own heart!

Anyway, we saw the dinosaurs, sea creatures, mammals, bugs, western cultures, african cultures, and so much more. Owen was particularly hilarious during this part of the trip. He was all over grandma!! So cute! She had him busting a gut laughing at points! He also enjoyed what he saw in the museum, with many exclamations of "OH WOW" or "EWWWW YUCKY" or "THAT SCARES ME!" The funniest was when we were looking at some bugs. He crawled right up to this window, looked in, ran back yelling "THAT'S SCARY", and then ran right back up to the window again, repeating the process. Too cute. Lydia was just amazed by everything she saw. Taylor, in all of her teen glory, had fun roaming the place and finding all the cool little features to point out to Lydia. Gaby went back and forth between total amazement and total exhaustion, I think. We all had a good time, though. By the time we were done at the museum, we were all spent (especially Jerry and Sara who'd been walking DC for three days at this point) and decided to go to Elephant and Castle for dinner. Yum. We all had nice hearty meals (except Owen who slept on Jerry's shoulder for the duration of dinner) followed by dessert. We ordered two Big Ben Brownies. They were humongo. Gi-normous. Crazy big. It took all 8 of us to finish just two orders, and we each got whopping servings!! That's my kind of brownie. I wish I'd taken a picture of it. It was bigger than Taylor's head. Seriously.

After dinner, we were pounding the pavement again, this time on our way to the White House. We passed by and got some lovely photographs, all the while being watched by the ever-so-obvious Sniper on the White House roof. That made me feel really, really safe. We tried to walk by the South Lawn of the White House, but were stopped. Dad figured out that we were probably being blocked because a helicopter was coming in. He was right! It was pretty cool, too, to see Marine One fly in with Mr. President on board. He flew right over our heads!! It was quite the scene. The fields surrounding the Washington Monument had been cleared and were being guarded again by some men with heavy artillery, and the whole thing was rather serious. But cool.

After all that excitement, we finally made it over to the Washington Monument. We had fun playing on the benches, and getting really close to the monument, and then looking up. The way the clouds were moving made it look as though the monument was falling over on us! Owen ran away yelling "it fall on me! it fall on me!". He seemed pretty satisfied later, though, when Jerry told him to tell the monument to stay up. He did, and it did, and he wasn't scared anymore.

After that little journey, we headed back to the Metro Station, said our quick farewells, and headed home.

So. That's been the last couple of weeks, and I feel like I've been GO GO GO. I've also been GROW GROW GROW as my belly gets huger and huger. To some it still doesn't look like much, but to me, I look down and see huge-ification. But I'm ok with it. I've been trying to keep up with my workouts at the gym so I don't get all huge everywhere else. I'll be a full 24 weeks on Saturday, which means I only have 16 weeks left! Which means that I'm running out of time to get done all the things I need to at the house! It wouldn't be so bad, except we have to get something done with the basement first, so we can move all of our "office" stuff out of the baby's room. And we need to continue working on re-wiring the house. And we need to install a baseboard heater in the baby's room, because the radiator doesn't quite warm up the bedrooms very well. And then we need to paint. And then we need to get a crib. And a stroller. And all the other baby stuff you need. 16 weeks seems SO far away, and yet so close! Egads!!

slide show

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A Girl!

Well, we had our ultrasound on Thursday and heard the good news, we're having a girl! The ultrasound was an altogether amazing experience. To see her little arms and legs, and all her bones and her heart, stomach, kidneys...the works! She measures in the 52nd percentile for weight at 1 lb 1 oz. She's healthy and very active, so we feel blessed! It was great to watch her move around and squirm, and had a hilarious moment when, in rebellion we think, she rolled over and mooned us:) We also got to see her open and close her mouth a few times, and saw her rubbing her head with her hands. She's cute already:) Here's the ultrasound pic of her profile. Her head is on the left side, with her face pointing up, and her chin resting on her chest. Her abdomen is on the right side of the picture, and the little dark spot in there is her heart:)

Right after the ultrasound we took off for a little weekend vaca with mom, dad and grandma, but I'll post more about that later!!

On another note, today we had a fun experience when Mike was able to feel her kick for the first time. I've been feeling it for several weeks now, and he's been jealous, so he was EXTREMELY happy and proud today when he felt her kick. And then he talked to her and said "GOOD JOB, BEAN! KEEP KICKING YOUR MOMMY!" And so she did, she put on a good show for daddy, kicking the tar out of me for a good 30 minutes or so. Mike loved every minute of it:)

Tagged

I couldn't resist leaving comments for all my sisters and SIL's who posted this, so I guess I tagged myself on this one. Leave comments if you wish, but please don't embarrass me too badly. I know there are several of you who could really, very easily embarrass the crap out of me...

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

3:25 am

Good morning all you fine people of my reading audience. How are you? Let me tell you how I am. I am agitated. Because, you see, it's 4:07 am right now and I have been awake since 3:25. That's when I had to wake up to pee. Usually I can do this without even opening my eyes, and then jump back in bed and fall asleep 10 seconds later. But noooooooo, not today. Today I jumped back in bed, and was immediately attacked by the growling hunger in the pit of my expanding belly, despite the fact that I'd eaten a hearty bowl of tin roof sundae just before I went to bed. I figured I could take a few sips of water, nibble on one of the crackers I stash beside my bed, and end it. But noooooooo, 3 crackers later, I knew that was not going to do the trick. So I just laid there, thinking, if I ignore it, I'll just fall back to sleep. But nooooooo, by 3:50 Bean started kicking the crap out of me (which, although irritating that it was at 3:50 am, I still love because I just love love love feeling this baby...) and I realized I needed to eat something substantial if not for my own sake, for the sake of Bean.

So. I ventured out of bed one more time, headed to the kitchen and grabbed a banana. I did all this without even opening my eyes. I've gotten pretty good at that, as I've gotten to know my house. The fruit sits in a basket on the counter, so it's easy to access. So I thought to myself, "wolf down the banana, then GET BACK IN BED!" So, wolf down the banana I did. And then I had the uncontrollable urge to have a slice of peanut butter bread. If you know me at all, you know that I really don't care for peanut butter unless it's spread THINLY on one slice, and smashed up against another slice that is absolutely SMOTHERED in jelly of some sort. But tummy wanted what tummy wanted, so peanut butter bread it was. You can imagine that preparing this was not so easily accomplished with the eyes shut, although I tried. I finally opened my eyes when I had peanut butter all over my left hand (because I'd buttered the counter, didn't realize how much I'd gotten on it, tried to clean it up with my hand, and ended up with a fistful of peanut butter. Yum). And boom, that was it. 3:56 am and the deed was done, I was awake, sticky, and that's that. So then I sat on the couch, and thought to myself, what would Deb do in a situation like this? That's right. Blog it out. So here I am. My eyes are open, but I've got no contacts or glasses, so the screen is really just a blur to me as I type. In fact, now that I think about it, I don't remember actually logging in to my blog. I will be angry in the morning if I wake to find out that I'm not actually where I think I am, and that all of this is written in peanut butter on the kitchen floor. Let's hope not. It would be quite the mess, and I am lazy.

Anyway, the stream of thoughts that run through my mind in this not-sleeping, but not yet all the way awake state are ridiculous, at a minimum. I can say that I haven't had any epiphanies as deep as, let's say, that Deb spelled backwards is Bed, but I think I'm getting there. I was just thinking about how before I got pregnant I never remembered my dreams, but now I have the most vivid, and WEIRD dreams ever. For instance, Mr. Michael has been saying for quite some time now that since I'm carrying HIS child, it will be enormous. I've always laughed this off, but apparently it got to my subconscious, and I've had several dreams where Bean is here, as an infant, and that it's Mike-sized. Now, tell me that wouldn't be a nightmare of labor. I also, for reasons I'm pretty sure are linked to my fear that I'll be an inadequate mother, recently had a dream about my friends from church, Chad and Cheri. They are expecting any day now. I had a dream that they'd had their baby, that it was a boy, and that they named it Belini. You know, like the iced-tea you can get at Olive Garden. Why they chose this name is beyond me. It's like saying, "Hello, this is my son. Iced Tea." and if you're going to say that, you could just drop the "d" and say "Hello, this is my son Ice-T. Yes, that's right, I gave birth to an over-the-hill gangster rapper, who's now married to a trashy former porn star and he stars in one of the jagabazillion versions of Law and Order. We're so proud of him, just a few days old and he's supporting the family already!" But who would name their kid Belini, anyway?

So in this dream, Chad didn't want to change Belini's diaper, because it was a major stinker. So I offered. Then I took little Belini, and darnit, I just couldn't change the diaper. Well, I got the diaper off, but couldn't clean Belini's bum. And then to hide my shameful lack of bum-cleaning ability, I tried to just put a new diaper on really fast. But I couldn't put a diaper on! So what did I do? I threw Belini in a stroller, not bothering to fasten him in, and then ran onto the shoulder of the freeway. Good idea right? The whole time I'm just trying to run away to hide my embarrassment, bobbing and weaving through traffic, Belini flying up and down in the stroller. I woke up from that dream pretty terrified that I'd be a horrible mother, and that Chad and Cheri would never, ever let me hold their baby. That would be sad.

On another note, I've been getting along much better with the elderly at my gym this summer. Mostly because I avoid the one lady who pretty much wanted to fight me last year. They still annoy me with their Ben-Gay, and hovering and talking really loudly even though they can't hear each other anyway. BUT - my fitness center recently spent about a jagabazillion dollars in renovations, and now there are three or four different rooms to work out in. So I just kind of work out AROUND the elderly, which I couldn't really do before. I'm sensing I'm not the only one who had run-ins with the elderly, and that's probably why they built the extra rooms, and got doubles of just about every machine in the place. Those elderly gangs are scary. They've all got canes to beat you with. BUT. Because of the jagabazillions spent on renovations, I will no longer be attending that gym after July 11. That's when my membership runs out, and I recently found out that to renew it, will be about DOUBLE what I'm used to paying, for about HALF the length. So, that's really QUADRUPLE the price, and now that I'm jobless, that ain't happening. SO. I do believe I'll be going to Planet Fitness now, where you can pay by the month and it's only about $10 or $15 a month. Much better than the $65 they were expecting me to pay at my current place. Too bad.

Anyway, me and Bird are working volleyball camp at Ship next week. Huzzah! My old coach called me up, desperate for people to work the camp. I've done it a jagabazillion (my new favorite word, can you tell?) times before, but couldn't last summer because of work obligations at PHS. So she thought work would be holding me back, but when I told her I wasn't sure if I could do it because I was PREGNANT she about fell off her chair. She's one of those coaches who sees all her players as her little girls...

Anyway, when I've worked camp I usually work with the highest level players, because let's face it, I'm awesome. I knew I couldn't hack that this year, because it requires lots and lots of high impact activity, 3 sessions a day, for 5 days. Soooooo coach talked me into it by telling me I'd have the lowest level girls, who would require far less of me, physically. I was still skeptical about being able to keep up for a whole week, three sessions a day, being on my feet in the heat at almost 5 and 1/2 months pregnant. But then I came up with the brilliant idea that BIRD could work the camp with me! So she's coming, and I'm just going to make her do all the grunt work! And when I get tired, I'll just sit down and yell. I like that. It's going to be fun hanging in the dorms with my lil sis.

On another note, I like Bird. No, scratch that. I love Bird. Wait, scratch that. I like AND love Bird. She's pretty cool. She gives good massages. She agrees to work volleyball camps with me. She's got big holes in her ears. She does all her work outs with a rubber band. She wears awesome sunglasses. She loves flip flops. She drives the Yoda. You know, the Toyota that is home to the Toy Yoda because we call it the Yoda. She burns me CD's. She turns me on to good music. She ran a 5K with me. We took her out to eat once, and she let me have half her dessert. She took me to arts fest. She didn't make fun of me too badly when I fell off the Alpine Slide in Colorado. People steal her sweatshirts out of the dryer in her apartment complex laundry room when she lives in Utah. Yep. She's cool. She's probably not even reading this, because she hates my long blogs. She probably stopped reading this entry about 15 minutes ago. I hope she didn't though. She should know that she rocks. And I'm happy Bean will have an aunt so close for at least a little while.

On another note, HOW HAPPY ARE MIKE'S PARENTS FOR THIS BABY!! This is my mom and dad's 16th grandchild, so while they're excited, it's not really anything new for them. However, this is Mikes' parents FIRST grandchild, and they're super stoked. It's pretty awesome. And very cute when they get all excited:)

Do you ever worry about your punctuation? I am one of those people who hate to misplace a comma or apostrophe, but no doubt do it ALL THE TIME. I have always been self-conscious about the fact that when most of my peers here in the United States were busy learning things like grammar in middle school, I was in Canada not learning it. I don't know if that's something they tackle later, but I never got it. So we moved back to PA when I was in 9th grade, and in English class we talked about things like Direct Objects, Gerunds, and other funny words that I didn't understand. I never really did get a hang of it, and most of the grammar that I use is purely guess work at this point. I think I have done surprisingly well for myself, given that I am grammatically challenged.

Are you a blog stalker? I am. I like to read people's blogs, even if I don't know them. Are there any of you out there, who are reading this blog, who don't really know me? Or who know me, but are too shy to tell me you're reading my blog? Or who read my blog and don't leave comments? I feel like my reading audience is probably bigger than I think it is. For you people who I don't know are reading this (?) sorry for all the weird things I write about, and for my ridiculously, unnecessarily long blog entries. Once I get going, it's hard to stop. But you're not obligated to read my blog, you just do anyways. So maybe I shouldn't be apologizing. And if you really have a problem with my long entries, you probably stopped reading 15 minutes ago, too. Touche, blog stalker! They should make a Miller-Lite commercial about you! Not that I'm into Miller-Lite...I just think the "Here's to You..." line of commercials are particularly hilarious. They put everything to a cheesy 90's rock theme song, with titles like "Here's to You, Wing Man" or "Here's to You, Mr. Invisible Dog Walker Man" or "Here's to You Taco Salad Inventor Man". So, Here's to You, Blog Stalker Man. Stalk Away.

I think that I need some sleep. I'm going back to bed now.

20 weeks

Well here I am at 20 weeks, plus a day or two. No, I'm not pushing my tummy out (Lauren!) it's really all me, all natural. I still don't show too much in my clothing, because it only becomes really obvious when I tuck my shirt in under my boobs, then you can see how far the tummy sticks out! My bff Jean told me that to people who don't know me, it probably just looks like I have a beer belly:)

More pics and updates later. Ultrasound in 2 weeks!!