Will be 17 weeks...

TOMORROW!...and towards the end of July they will be able to do my "sex" ultrasound (well, really it's more of a structures, chambers of the heart pumping, baby position, organs where they need to be ultrasound), but since we are hoping that all this is AOK, we are more concerned with finding out what we're having.

I've been telling people who ask me what I am having, "I feel like it's a boy." I am a pretty intuitive person, but who can know these things for certain? I feel as if this is a little "Junior," and I am very excited to meet him (or her)! On the other hand, if it's a girl, we will be thrilled as well. I love my little girl already, I will already have clothing for the babe, and we know a little of what to expect.

Daddy is hoping for a boy to carry on that family name. I can't say that I blame him. That would be a very nice thing.

Still, I'm gonna feel silly if they tell me "girl" because I have been feeling "boy." It'll take a whole change of mindset on my part!

:)

Scary

Brian, Tatum and I were driving home from my doctors appointment when we realized that ahead on the right, westbound on 322 near route 100, there were lots of trinkets and "momentos" along the side of the road, and then we both realized that's the spot where that "Jackass" star and his friend were killed not too long ago.

I knew they crashed in a Philly Suburb, but I didn't know it was near me.

I don't know, whenever I see crosses or momentos alongside of the road, it really creeps me out because I know that for whatever reason, somebody died there.

This time I was sad because you know what? I am pregnant, and I (and probably a lot of other) people drive this way to get to the hospital for whatever reason. Route 322 is a wide, deceivingly curvy road, and anybody who speeds down that road going over 100 and being drunk is liable to kill somebody. It's a beautiful area, heavily wooded...

The thing is, drunk drivers are everywhere, and bad things happen all the time to and around them. People on message boards have really been slamming these guys for driving drunk and being stupid, but it makes me wonder....

People go to bars to relax and/or to have a good time, which many equate with getting plastered or maybe just having a few drinks - but how do they GET to the bars? I think it would be a safe bet that there are a lot more people who have had a few too many on the road then we think, and I hope that people can learn from this. I mean, this guy in particular was famous for doing stupid, dangerous stuff, and maybe that's why the public is being especially brutal in their assessments of this guy, but if are coming down so hard on him, we should come down on everybody...You don't KNOW when you've have "too much." Alcohol is a depressant - it effects your JUDGMENT. No cell in your body is free from the effects of it. It freely crosses the protective blood-brain barrier, which affects your brain cells (including your judgment and coordination). You don't need to be falling off of a bar stool to get the hint that you may not want to drive home.

I just don't want to be driving to the hospital at 2AM to deliver my baby and be the victim of a driver who has had a few too many, flying down the road and crashing into my car! I wouldn't want that for anybody!

Just seeing all that today made me think about these things (only because this time, I knew who all those trinkets were for, and what happened there). Road crosses still freak me out. Drive carefully. Be defensive. Be alert. 

I am noticing that whenever I go to work on the weekends, quality of life here at the house goes down, down, down! My husband is a good husband and father, and he will help me out a lot with the cleaning and such when I am around directing it, but otherwise, things are a mess! I mean, dishes are everywhere, laundry piles up (there wasn't that much on Friday?!), my daughter is dressed like a character from Lord of the Flies, and whenever I call my husband on breaks while at work, he sounds stressed and distressed!

Again, great husband, but bad weekends!

So here I am, going back to work this morning. It's a pain, but not because I don't like my job or am thankful for it. It's just that I miss doing "mom" things. I really am a good mommy. I tame the peanut (my daughter), things get done around here, and my husband's stress level goes WAY down...I definitely think that if I can't be a stay at home mommy, I need to find a Per Diem position allowing me time during the week and not just the weekend. I NEED to go to church and that;s been missing practically for 6 months now. That alone is not worth it to me...

I also noticed that the past few weeks we've been hiring agency nurses on my unit, but those nurses haven't shown up? 

People of Prayer

Hello - If you've stumbled across this blog recently, I ask that you keep my brother in your prayers. He is down south in AZ about 3 miles from where these wildfires are. He lent his boss his car, and his boss got T-boned in my brother's vehicle, so now my brother does not have a car, and he's three miles from these wildfires. On top of that, my brother doesn't have $$ to pay for extra repairs for his vehicle if insurance doesn't cover it (he's hanging in there like a lot of Americans), so please keep him in your prayers. Thanks a bunch!

Oh Baby Baby

Oh Baby Baby

So, now I am "officially" 15 weeks pregnant, and I get to find out what I am having in a little over a month (I guess anyway!).  According to one of the pregnancy websites, my baby is 4 inches long, and actually looks like a little mini tyke right now. I know you're not supposed to "feel" the baby move until like, 17 weeks, but I swear I feel the little tyke bumping around in there every now and then (I don't usually have gas moving through me in pangs like that!).  It's pretty darn exciting.

I feel like it's a boy, but we'll see. Brian WANTS a boy, but I am kinda hoping it's a girl (I like my first one:). I want a boy as well, so we are happy about whichever it may be. I've been saying that I feel like it's a boy though, so if it IS a girl, I'll have proverbial egg on my face :) I knew my first was a girl, so we'll see about this one :)

Not too much else to write about right now. If you promise to keep it a secret (who reads this anyway??) I'll tell you one....I am looking for a new job. Of course it's still a job in nursing that I want, but I am very sick of hospital mumbo jumbo. I LOVE the unit I work on, and the people I work with, but I work every single weekend, and I miss a lot. Thank God I AM working, and working the shifts that I do, but I am still trying to find where I fit. Hospital work is definitely for the chosen and the called, because there is so much extra "crap" one deals with in the hospital and I am almost ashamed that I am feeling burn out after only 3 years. It's not the job itself that I don't enjoy, or the patients (because I am a people person, and I like helping others), it's just the extra stuff you do at the hospital that makes it not very worthwhile. I definitely try to go the extra mile at work, don't get me wrong, but I think you'd have to be in health care to understand where I'm coming from. So, it's on the search I go! Still needing part time/PRN, no benefits necessary (that's what my husband is for;).

OMG! House Hunters International are in Iceland tonight! Watching it is making me miss Iceland SO badly.

Part of me wishes Brian was part Icelandic, as it would be a bit easier to move there :) Of course, IF we had unlimited resources, we'd study the Icelandic language 24/7 (right now I am studying Icelandic and Hindi, which is not easy going with a 10 month old and house chores to do), and we'd pack up and establish residency in this amazing country.

Since I've always been into geology and volcanology, I've always been fascinated with Iceland. I mean, this place is a geophysical playground - consistently erupting volcanos, virtually non existent energy bills due to GEOTHERMAL ENERGY, hot springs, GORGEOUS landscapes... Of course, I could not really begin to appreciate any of this until my husband and I ventured there ourselves.

It was PERFECT. My husband is a Texan, and until he met me, he would probably be content to live and die a Texan (his words, not mine). He fell in love with me, and I pulled him over 1,000 miles away to Pennsylvania (not to mention a variety of road trips all over the states, Mexico, and most recently, ICELAND). Since I wanted to go to a beautiful place I've never been to but have ALWAYS wanted to travel to, Brian took me to Iceland, and he fell in love with it the moment we set foot in Reykjavik.

Actually, my first moment in Iceland really occurred like a movie scene. When we landed in Keflavik, we could not see a thing. It was dark, and when I say dark, I mean DARK. It was during their "normal" end of summer days, but we arrived after midnight, and started driving to our hotel in Reykjavik at 0100. Aside from road signs and other cars, we couldn't see anything. We arrive at our downtown hotel and find a place to park (a few blocks away. Parking isn't hard to come by in the city, but you need to know where to look), and we're exhausted, so we check in get into our room and go to sleep. In the morning, Brian went out to the car to get some things we left from the previous night and he comes back and tells me "You HAVE to go outside." From our window, we see people's backyards and houses, so it wasn't a very scenic view, though it was kind of neat. We get ready for our day and exit the hotel and I saw what he meant! The landscape is indescribable.  The sky itself is gorgeous. It's gray and moody - the land is jagged and pronounced - the water is absolutely blue - and it smells faintly like sulfur throughout the country (seriously - but after a while, you don't notice it anyway).

We drove all over in Iceland. The only thing I regret, is not being able to travel to Grimsey Island. We drove to Dalvik, but did not make the boat to the Island. Oh well, next time.

BTW, even though their economy has crashed, you can still expect to spend a pretty penny up there.
Here are just a FEW of the many great pictures of our experiences there

 

This is the famous Viking Sculpture, which was very close to our first hotel (Hotel Plaza)

Walking in Downtown Reykjavik. There are loads of things to do in town, lots of shops...and COFFEE!

Our purpose in visiting this Scandinavian gem was to get our Norden Voyager cards! These gave us discounts at places all over Iceland...(tip for travelers to Norwegian countries)

A yummy food stand conveniently located outside our hotel. It's about 10:00pm in this shot...

A shot of me getting into the drivers seat (I was the official chofer of the journey). Yes, they drive on the "right" side of the road in Iceland - just as in America.

That LOVELY view from the hotel window I was telling you about :)

Some of that awesome landscape...

A little "out of this world"

Reykjavik was awesome, but I REALLY loved Akuryeri

More Akuryeri...

The Blue Lagoon, a tourist must see...

More Blue Lagoon (It's a Spa, and it's awesome)

All in all, Iceland is a very interesting country. The cities are obviously where most of the people reside. It took us 6 hours to drive from Reykjavik to Akuryeri, and the drive was a very, very long one (but in a good way). It's very sparse. You'd better enjoy the landscape, because there is a whole lot of nothing, a gas station here and there, a farm here and there, and random people where you wonder where the heck they've come from. heehee. It's obviously that Reykjavik is the hub of the country, but there is such much to discover, and Brian and I have only experienced a sliver.

Whenever we see something about Iceland on TV, we tune in to watch. When it comes up in conversation, our ears are piqued...Can't wait to go back!

The pregnancy...

OK, I am officially 14 weeks pregnant and into my second trimester. Right now, I still do not have much of a belly to show for it, and I've lost three pounds (as in, I am 3 pounds less than my pre-baby weight).

I have not been as sick this pregnancy, but I am a grazer this time around. I eat all day. However, I do "exercise" more than I have before, because I am still working part time and am constantly on my feet for my 12 hour nursing shifts, but I also take long walks with my daughter (long being a mile or longer) and enjoy them.  Some days I eat more than others as well.

I shouldn't say that I am not feeling "bigger," because I am. right now my pants still fit me, but I seem to have acquired a front "muffin top" as my three inch baby is pushing out my innards. Before my first child, I had a flat belly. Oh yes. After my first child, my belly was tightening back up, and I was doing my sit ups and crunches and going to the gym, but then I got pregnant again.

After this second one, I think I am going to hold off for a little while on getting pregnant. I want about 4 kids, but this back to back pregnancy thing leaves much to be desired.

Indeed, I hated being pregnant the first time around, and this time around isn't much of a picnic either. It severely limits my normal activities (I've always done more strenuous exercise), and I feel completely drained of all energy, sleeping at least 9 hours every night, and wanting naps during the day (not always getting those naps, mind you).

I think after this pregnancy, I am going to start sopping away money each paycheck while I work out and get my body into bangin' shape (even better than pre kiddos), and I am going to SHOP FOR CLOTHING LIKE IT'S ALL GOING OUT OF STYLE. The only time I find it difficult to shop for myself is now, being pregnant. I know I will get bigger, but I am not sure how much bigger. My closet has items in it like open shirts and belly bands.

My belly is higher up this time than it was last time though. Well, it feels that way anyway. I can't wait to find out in a few weeks what I'm having. I have a feeling it will be a boy, but I am absolutely 100% OK if it's a girl. I would love another girl, but it would also be nice to have a boy this time around as well. We'll see!

We need to get rid of political parties in America.

I have never seen so much hate speech between people who call themselves "democrat" and people who call themselves "republican."

Of course, our country being the juggernaut that it is, will not see the dissolution of political party banter until our country (regrettably) fails.

With my beliefs and standards I hold to in life, I myself tend to vote more conservative and aid conservative causes more so than liberal counterparts. This is not to say that I am a die hard Republican. I am somebody who does not think President Bush did an excellent job during his presidency, but when I sit back and think on it, I can't think of a recent president I would rather be in his position. If president Clinton has the ability to, and won another term, based on his 8 years in the white house, I believe he would have handled things similarly to president GW Bush. It's difficult to say what Obama would have done, but people upset at Bush's spending habits (and perhaps rightly so) seem to turn a blind eye to our current president's spending habits...(hint, they've been just as bad, and that's being generous)

Yes, these are the men who are in the forefront, who have that executive power, but we forget that there is an army of congressmen and congresswomen behind these men writing bills, voting bills, and spending money right along side and behind the presidents. So WHAT is with the mudslinging? It's to the point where you can't talk politics with another American without the potential for somebody's blood to start boiling.

My opinion on the matter is to shut it and start praying about it. Our leaders, be they religious, God fearing men and women or not, need our prayers just as much as people without Jesus need Him, even if THEY don't know it. I was not a fan of President Obama being sworn in as a senator, and I sure as heck wasn't excited about him being sworn in as president, but by golly he IS our president, and we need to pray for him.

My husband and I are totally "bugging" about the political state of our government. It's a mess, and there are more holes in it than a slice of swiss cheese. Realistically, how can it be patched any more? Our country is full of cracks and holes, and we are going to come to a breaking point eventually, and yet all I see and hear are Republicans saying liberals are idiots and Liberals saying Republicans are stupid, etc. This type of problem solving didn't work in elementary school, it's not going to work now. HELL-O!!!!