I was reading an article on MSN celebrity gossip about Britney and her 2nd pregnancy. She mentioned, among other odd comments, that her cravings were to crunch on ice and hershey's chocolate bars. Okay not so wierd but its just got me to thinkin...what are my cravings... This pregnancy is much more bizarre in terms of cravings then the last.

Emma-
Corn on the cob
Wendy's spicy chicken sandwiches
pizza (I could eat pizza breakfast lunch and dinner and never get sick of it)
canned green beans preferrable uncooked and cold with italian dressing
ice cream (also much like pizza)
doritos with hot sauce
cocoa pebbles (although I threw them up after I ate them most mornings)

I see the majority of those with exception of the green beans (which is really good if you ever want to try it) all pretty normal.

Shorty#2 -
-Hamburgers-big juicy restaurant style ones with restaurant style buns and all the fixins
-Peanut butter and jelly sanwiches and a must have is with a glass of milk and it must be crunchypeanut butter or the whole thing is ruined
-dessert but surprisingly no ice cream (for anybody who knows me they would think that is not something that could really come out of my mouth) Cake or brownies seem to be it.
-Taco Bell-pretty much anything that they have at this point I cant go wrong with
-Blueberry flavored bubbalicious bubble gum (my sister would appreciate that one)
-my mother in laws lemonade. I have never had a drop of lemonade better than that womans homemade lemonade.
-AND pizza again! I seriously could eat pizza all day long and never get tired. Now I may want to switch up where the pizza is from but overall I really dont care as long as it is pizza
-Bottom line with this pregnancy is anything I dont have to cook because frankly the indigestion and exhaustion is enough to make me say I dont care just dont make me fix it myself.

If anyone would like to contribute their own craving list. All this food talk is making me hungry so I am going now. My husband is making hamburgers.

Not much new here. I havent updated because frankly life has been rather dull. Em had her baby! Yippee that was big time exciting for me. I am so happy for them cause although labor was rough the baby Ava is happy, healthy and beautiful.
Other than that.... nothing.

I honestly wish that I could time warp to 20 weeks in this pregnancy. At over 91/2 weeks right now I feel like time is trickling by. Dont get me wrong I am not ready to have the baby I just want to get through the critical point and know everything is perfectly fine and my baby is super healthy and all of that good stuff. I want to feel him/her move and I want to start to grow outwards so that I dont just look like I am gaining weight that I worked so hard to lose. I really just need to be greatful for where I am though cause so many women would seriously give anything to be where I am at right now. I read on the babycenter boards and it is sad seeing so many women trying so long to conceive and it not working for them or women who were pregnant and due the same time I was that have just miscarried. It makes me so sad to think that this miracle is not something everyone can have. I just praise God for that gift daily.

This weekend we are heading to THE Wiggles concert..... Yes the Wiggles that every child under 5 knows about. I have to admit my husband and I are excited and will likely get star struck seeing them in person. When you eat breakfast with them every morning, sing and dance to all the songs, have them in doll form, remote control car form, guitar form, and even underpants form you cant help but feel like they are very much part of your family much less celebrities. Our main concern is that our daughter wont want to go home with us after she sees them and she will try to claim one or all of them as her father. She is a little on the obsessed side. We really are looking forward to it just because it is one of the few opportunities we get to splurge on family outings. It should be a good time.

Those of you living in suspense....the surprise party went well. He was really overwhelmed by it all but so greatful for the whole thing. He never has really had anything like that for him before. The in law issue resolved itself somewhat. They started to think of ideas for centerpieces the day before and when they were telling me about it I thought great what a great idea, YOU GUYS go for it. So they ended up doing the centerpieces with balloons, toilet paper rolls and hershey kisses. It was cute. Other than that it went pretty well. While the party was going on though my family had a major meltdown and began freaking out. They were fighting everyone was crying it was crazy. Amazingly though, we did it all upstairs and to my knowledge it wasnt really obvious (other than my parents in intense conversation at the table). It was just a bizarre event.

Other stuff...baby is doing okay. I went to the doctor and the little thingamabobber had a heartbeat so the risk of miscarriage at this point goes way down. I am happy about that. They also took literally about 9 tubes of blood for all of the tests they have to run on me because of my previous preeclampsia. In one sense I hate being special and needing higher risk care but on the flip side the more tests they run the more I feel safe that they arent going to "miss" anything.
I have fully decided though that I have figured out what and ideal pregnancy and parenting experience would be for me. I would like to be pregnant starting at around week 20. What a great time in pregnancy! You are through the pits of the first trimester, you havent quite made it to the uncomfortable and tiring third trimester so you are just happy feeling the baby move, showing enough that people dont think you are just getting incredibly fat. I have also decided that although I do not want to birth a 1 year old (yikes!) I definitely am interested in parenting a 1 year old. I really began to truly enjoy parenting at that point. Life became stable again and some independence began right around then. I am a great Aunt to a newborn, holding the baby, changing diapers, I can even take nursing (so okay maybe not an Aunt) it mainly is the lack of sleep and the lack of being able to communicate with your child that makes this definitely not my favorite stage of development. I want baby to tell me what is wrong, what hurts, what it needs. THat is why infant sign language was so helpful at a young age for my little girl. At 6 months she began to express what her needs were making life a bunch easier. That is for another blog though.

Anyways this is the extent of life right now. I am tired and nauseous (though it is beginning to subside a wee bit I think). I am tired of school and doing practicum hours. I am pretty much ready to quit and just do what I really want to do which is just live life on weekends again and not go to school at night and take lunch breaks again at work which I have had to give up because of this practicum. I just am beginning to question what this degree is really worth. I keep thinking when all of my kids are raised and I am ready to enter the "real" work world again I will be happy I have the degree to fall back on but for the moment. Nothing is really enjoyable about it.

I hate to end on a crabby note so just the overall life situation is okay right now. Nothing to pressing or scary going on so I will just take it day by day for the moment.