If You Don't Hear From Me....

You can assume that I'm buried somewhere underneath the mounds of things that I have to do this next week!  I know I wrote a whole post about it just yesterday, but I've got guests coming to town this weekend.  Six of them, to be exact.  And my husband is gone.  And my two year old is not handling change well these days.

As you can imagine, we're going to have quite the busy weekend around these parts!  Options include pumpkin carving, NC state fair, movie night in the park, another trip to the pumpkin patch, the Volksmarch Festival, and lots of playing at the house.  Oh, and I've got FRG responsibilities, and doctor's appointments for AJ, and an ultrasound for me, and a battalion Halloween party to get through in the next week!

Seriously.  I feel like its going to be Christmas before I can even take a breath, and at that point it might just be too late to stop and breathe, as we'll need to start gearing up to welcome this new little one to our lives a mere three months after that!  Ack!

Next year also brings with it lots of training and a deployment, so I'm definitely looking forward to certain parts (the baby) more than others (the deployment).  Make it slow down!  Life is moving too fast!

I think this is the time of year that I start to figuratively try and slam on the brakes.  I start to realize that another year has all but passed me by and I'm just not ready for it to be 2013 yet.

Is anyone else beginning to have little mini-panic attacks about the amount of "stuff" you still have to cram into the last 2 months of 2012?  I have plans, people, and they include listening to obscene amounts of Christmas music, drinking peppermint in my half-caf coffee every morning, and enjoying the twinkle of those little lights reflecting in my daughter's eyes.  I need to slow down to a reasonable speed these next few months, or I might just miss it this year!

It's a GIRL!!

I realize that this picture is not the one that shows the gender of the baby, but it is the one that looks most like a baby, hence, I posted this one.

Tomorrow Is The Day!

After a fun weekend hanging out with Abby and Zach, I am glad to hang around on the couch with D and watch movies and eat left over spaghetti for dinner! Today after we dropped Abby and Z off at the airport we went to a gymnastics meet that 1SG's daughter was competing in. She did pretty well and we all went out to lunch afterwards!

This weekend we went to Seattle and walked through Pike Place Market. We had lunch at a little cafe called the Sound View Cafe. It was very good and fun on a typical Seattle day. We also stopped in at the original Starbucks that is across the street from the market. After the market we went to the flagship REI store, which is also in Seattle. We browsed for a while and then came back to Tacoma for dinner. We went to a restaurant that I've wanted to go to for a while, Johnny's Dock Restaurant and Bar. It is right on the water and we had a perfect table! They had awesome seafood!

Today is Mom's birthday! Happy Birthday, Mom!

Tomorrow we have our gender determination ultrasound (first thing). Hopefully the tech will be able to tell if the baby is a boy or a girl. I'm sure that after the appointment I will head out to the store and buy something in the color, either pink or blue, depending on what we're having. So exciting!

The Killer Wait!

We had a fun weekend! Saturday evening we went to dinner and watched the Iowa v. Michigan game with D's 1SG. Iowa won (of course) and it was a fun time! Sunday we went to a "tailgate" party on post with a bunch of people D works with. We had hash and eggs, teriyaki kebabs, steaks, tons of stuff! We watched a few of the games, but the Bears weren't on this weekend, so we left and went to Cabela's during the afternoon game.

Now that Monday is done and this week has officially started we are just waiting for Abby and Z to come to visit on Thursday, the next prenatal appointment on Friday and our 20 week ultrasound on Monday. I think Saturday I am going to take the kiddos down to Seattle and do the whole REI thing and Pike Place Market. We will have to see what they want to do. D has a competitive shooting match Saturday, so he will be there for part of the day and will join us later for fun and excitement (and probably dinner).

Abby had some excitement this weekend. She got a new toy since Monkey Man passed last week. The only problem is, she can never find it! LOL.

Great News!

The doctor's appointment went really well on Tuesday and we got to hear the heart beat (175!) and the midwife said that it sounded strong and steady, which she was happy about. My next appointment is 18 September, so I just have to wait until then to hear the heart beat again!

Since the appointment went well we started to tell everyone that we hadn't told yet. I will be 12 weeks on Saturday, so we figured that hearing the heartbeat and being almost out of the first trimester we are pretty safe in telling people.

So the parts of the day that make it great are as follows.

#1: I called Tricare to see if I still needed to call and make my ultra sound appointment for 20 weeks since I am doing centering and not regular appointments. The girl at Tricare didn't know, but I called the midwife number and she was able to schedule my appointment right then on the phone! I wasn't supposed to call and make the appointment until I was between 13 and 14 weeks, so I am glad it is done!

#2: My parents are coming to visit for the weekend and they will be here tonight! We are picking them up at the airport later on! I am excited to see them since I haven't seen them since we were home on block leave. We are staying in a hotel one of the nights, so that should be a fun time too! We will also get a chance to do the fun "tourist-y" activities in and around the area while they are here!