Hip Hip Hooray!

Today is the day we get our AT&T U-verse installed and finally will have a DVR! I am so excited and can't wait to record shows and watch whenever I want. :)

Chicken Tortilla Casserole

This is what's for dinner tonight ... Bon Apetite!

Ingredients:
2 cups cooked chicken, cubed
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 can diced green chiles, finely minced
1 onion, minced
1 (6 oz) pkg corn tortillas, cut into strips
6 Tbsp margarine
1 (8 oz) pkg sour cream
1 1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 cup crushed tortilla chips (optional)

Instructions:
In large mixing bowl, combine soup, salt, pepper, green chiles, and onion. Stir well. Add tortilla strips and chicken. Melt margarine in 9 x 13 casserole dish. Pour in chicken mixture. Spread sour cream over top. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes. Sprinkle with crushed chips and bake 5 more minutes.

It's a BOY!

  

Source: etsy.com via Alina on Pinterest

And boy, oh boy are we excited! I'm so glad we found out and it's just been so fun looking at and picking out all things boy. People had been asking me if I felt like it was a boy or a girl beforehand, but I really didn't have a feeling either way. The morning of our appointment, I asked Jason if he had to say what he thought it might be and he mentioned our typical disclaimer first, "I'll be just as excited for either..." and then said "but I really think it's a boy." I told him I agreed. It was our first time verbalizing a prediction. So we headed to the doctor's office and it was the most amazing experience! The ultrasound tech was so nice, and you could just tell she LOVES checking up on babies. She called our little one "little munchkin, little sweetheart, etc" and was very thorough and told us a lot about the development and how everything looked. They checked the brain, heart, kidneys, bladder, umbilical cord, and checked for 10 fingers, 10 toes, and confirmed there was no club foot, no cleft lip and that there was skin fully formed behind the spine. Everything looked great and so then it was time to determine the sex. She said she could tell, but tried to get a good picture for us to be able to see. She joked that the baby was doing jazzercise and moving around like crazy.

The proof! :)

It took a while to get a profile and this is the best of the bunch. Sweet little face!

When we saw that it was a boy, I just started crying, and then the sweet teary eyes turned into a blubbering tissue-needing mess! I was just overwhelmed with emotions and thrilled that it was a healthy baby boy. Then of course the tech was cracking jokes left and right so then I started laughing so hard I was wheezing! I was a mess!! It was just such and exciting thing to see and we're hoping to remember to take a short video the next time we have an ultrasound. So fun to see him move around and practice his jazzercise! Ha!

After the appointment we texted/called family and then headed to Panera for a late breakfast, and to talk about our very eventful morning. We talked about names again, this time was so much more real since we knew it was a boy. We had basically picked the name at that point, but were still hesitant to just commit to start telling everyone. So, since we've now picked the name, it's no secret anymore.

CONNER GARRETT SMITH

This past weekend my mom and I went to Buy Buy Baby and Babies R Us to just basically go down every aisle and talk about everything you need when you have a baby. It was so helpful, and at the same time, very overwhelming. There are just so many things you need, that you have never needed before until you are expecting a baby. Mommy-hood from experience is the best information to have, because you can read all the reviews you want, but the advice based on experience of people you know will always trump the internet.

While at Buy Buy Baby, we picked out a stroller and got to talk to the sales guy who was uber helpful. Yesterday, Kylee and I put it together (it was SO EASY) and put it in Conner's closet (our new baby storage).

http://www.chiccousa.com/gear/travel-systems/cortina-30lb-systems/travel-systems-30-romantic.aspx

It's been fun trying to figure out what all we want his room to be. I've taken the simplistic approach to bedding, and am hoping to add pops of color and interest to the wall decor and accessories. And I'm pretty much in love with every single piece of boy baby clothing I've seen. It's all just so adorable!

I can't wait to get the crib in his room all set up and arrange the furniture how we want it. Jason's mom and Aunt are coming in mid-October and bringing the crib with them. I cannot wait!

So for all you moms out there ... what are some of the must-have items, or specific brands you love?

Halfway there.

This week is the official halfway point of this pregnancy! While I can't believe I'm already halfway there, I'm thankful for 4 and a half more months to get everything ready for our little bundle of joy!

Only 2 more days until we find out whether it's a boy or a girl!! :)

A lot has happened in this past month...

We went on a New Mexico vacation with our friends, Chris and Kylee, and had a fabulous time. I definitely learned the hard way to take nausea medication any time I'm planning on driving for long periods of time, but once I found out, it was an easy fix. The weather was absolutely beautiful and it got cooler in the evenings (which I love). We were able to meet a lot of their friends and spend some time with Kylee's family. It was a great time with our friends and a great trip. Looking forward to our next vaca with them!

One weekend I organized my laundry room finally. Of course I couldn't do it without help from my mom and Kylee. It was great to have someone to bounce ideas back and forth with, and in the end I think it was hugely successful. I'll do a post soon about the details of that project - it was a big one.

I also bought curtains for our living room, dining room, kitchen, and master bathroom - all from Ikea - along with a rug for our living room. My project for this week is to hem the curtains in the master bath, living, and dining rooms. I'll take pictures once they're done - my house looks so much more homey with curtains!

 Kitchen curtains

 Rug for living room

 Master bathroom curtains

Living & dining room curtains

We also went on a beach vacation last week to Orange Beach, Alabama with my family. We stayed in an awesome condo, ate lots of seafood, got some sun, and just relaxed. The 12 hour drive was rough, but totally worth it. It was so nice to get away from our regular responsibilities, and just spend time together. The next vacation Jason and I will have will be the last one before the baby is born - our "babymoon" - in Dallas. That's another thing on my list of things to do soon - book our hotel and make restaurant reservations for our weekend getaway. I'm super excited for that.

That pretty much brings us up to date! I got The Help from my mom (she read it on vacation), and I can't wait to start reading tonight. I'll probably end up reading all day tomorrow, too. It's just been too long since I've sat down with a good book and just read. I've heard great things about it and can't wait to read it and then see the movie with my mom. Hopefully we can see the movie sometime this week or early next week - that would be awesome.

Our next OB appointment is Monday (the 15th) and we have our 20 week ultrasound. I am so hoping we can find out if it's a boy or a girl! I can't wait to start picking things out and talking more seriously about names. We've narrowed some down, but are keeping it to ourselves until we decide. It's just too easy to get hurt feelings about names. And other people never realize that they are saying things that hurt my feelings, which makes it even harder. So ... we'll just let you know when we decide. ;) I also still haven't felt the baby move yet ... so I'm hoping that happens soon, too. I hear it doesn't happen until much later with your first baby - so I'm hoping in the next few weeks I'll be able to feel it. It's probably going to be one of those things you wish for and then when it happens all I'll want is for the baby to just settle down and stop kicking me! Ha! Maybe it's just me, but I think it will be so cool to feel and experience I don't even think I'll mind.

A little birdie told me...

We are expecting!! It's true - and we are so excited. Baby Smith is due December 29, 2011, which means I'm officially starting my second trimester tomorrow! I'm feeling pretty great most days, just mostly tired and can smell everything. Sometimes that leads to a little queasiness, but for the most part no morning sickness, which I am so thankful for. So since I've known since early May, I've been keeping this secret for way too long. It was hard to blog about anything when I had this great news I wanted to share, so I just didn't blog. No worries - I'm back!

So early May we realized I was 2 weeks late on my period (normally I'm very aware of when I'm due, but since work was incredibly busy and stressful at the time, it totally slipped my mind), so we decided to pick up a package of pregnancy tests and just see. It made me super nervous and anxious to think that I could be pregnant. We had talked about it and decided to stop trying not to get pregnant and just see what happened. I was expecting it to take several months to get the timing right, but clearly I was wrong. So we got home and I took the pregnancy test and we waited in the bathroom watching it ... and lo and behold...

Jason was super excited and I was instantly freaked out. I kept telling him to go back in the bathroom to see if it changed to "not pregnant." I think my main reason for feeling freaked out was that it was so unexpected, and I had lots of nervousness, worry, and anxiety about whether the baby was in the right spot, healthy, and not twins. (A little story about the twins speculation ... over Christmas my mother-in-law, grandmother-in-law, and aunts-in-law kept saying it would be so great if I had twins. To the point where I was thinking "I want a baby someday, but I don't know if I can handle twins....") So we called and scheduled our first meeting at the doctor's office which was with the pregnancy coordinator - it ended up being the day after my last day at work. The pregnancy coordinator was so sweet and full of great information. It was fun for Jason and I to get the bag of "goodies" and information and ask some questions and schedule our first appointment with the doctor. That first appointment was actually on our wedding anniversary (June 2, which was 10 weeks), so that was pretty cool. We had an ultrasound and got to see the little baby and hear the heartbeat. It was so cool for Jason and I to experience together and at that point the worry was gone, and excitement was in full force.

So then we had another appointment at 12 weeks to get me on the schedule the doctor uses to see pregnant women, which right now is every 4 weeks. At the 12 week appointment it was very short and easy. Blood pressure, heard the heartbeat, and asked some questions. The next day we did our Sequential Screening and that appointment was so cool. We had a sonogram and the baby was dancing around like crazy! It was very cool to see and we haven't heard anything back from that appointment, and no news is good news. Very happy for that!

My friend Tayler offered to make pregnancy announcement cards for us to send out to family and I definitely took her up on that offer! She did such a great job and I LOVE how they turned out! 

 

If you want to check out more of her work, check her out at

http://etchcreativedesign.com. She's a very talented designer!

It was so fun to tell family and friends and everyone is so excited which is awesome. Next on our list of things to do is pick out a crib. We've looked at Crib 4 Life and like the Infinity, Kathryn, and Legendary Curve beds in Espresso. It will be nice to make the decision and check it off our list.

Next up is our 16 week appointment on July 18. It sure does seem like a long time from now, but I'm sure it will fly by. :)

New Fence

Since moving here, our fence was completely rotten and was practically falling over. We had it propped up with a 2x4 in the back and the side gate only had one hinge attached. Needless to say ... we needed a new fence.

So, a few weeks ago the fence guys came to tear down the old fence and put the new posts in. The next day they came and put the new fence up. It extends further into the front yard to make the backyard bigger. We are so excited about this awesome upgrade to our house.

 Old fence pics...

 Real classy... Ha!

 New fence!! :)

Who said you need to travel the world to Eat Pray Love?

My husband and I recently made the big decision for me to quit my job and start a new phase in my life. I just realized that there were so many things that I was putting off or just simply not doing because I was so exhausted/overwhelmed by my day job, like reading my bible, working out, cooking at home more, organizing my home, and getting a handle on the responsibilities at home.

I work for a construction company as an administrative assistant - and the job required a lot of multi-tasking and involved juggling several projects at one time. I rarely stay late, but when we've got big projects due, I have to stay until it's done (two weeks ago I had to stay until 11:20pm working on a project ... not fun). It's not that it's too much work or that I can't handle the requirements of the job - it's that I brought my work home with me and worried about it during the evenings and checked my email outside of work to give me a general idea of what I would have to face when I got back into the office. My stress level was higher than I'd have liked, and I was just so exhausted by the time I got home that all I wanted to do was sit on the couch. For me, a job is something to keep me busy and to add to the family income, not a career to build upon. After a lot of conversation, prayer, and planning, I gave my 2-4 week notice last Monday. I basically said that I understand the value of training and that I'd be willing to stay to train my replacement if they'd like me to do so. I've been compiling my "how-to" document that will serve as an "Instruction Manual" for my position over the last week, as well as tying up loose ends. It will be sad to leave since I've been with the company in my current position 2 1/2 years, but also have worked here since my college days and started in 2004. My co-workers are like my family and I will miss them a lot when I'm gone, but I am confident in my decision and look forward to this new phase in my life!

So, today as I was blog hopping, I was doing a little research on the Money Saving Mom website.

She is all about couponing and saving money, which is something I'd really like to get better at - especially now that I'll have more time. I know I'm not a mom yet, but I think the principles are still great and incredibly useful. I'm excited to see what all I can learn and apply to our family budget.

The specific article I started with was this one. I'm really looking forward to starting with these baby steps!!

The Prayer of my Heart

These few verses have been the prayers of my heart these days. I love reading a couple of different translations to really capture what the passage is saying.

"Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."     -Philippians 4:5-7 (NIV)

"Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon.  Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus."     -Philippians 4:5-7 (NLT)

"Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in him! Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you're on their side, working with them and not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute! Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life."     -Philippians 4:5-7 (The Message) 

Gallbladder-less!!

I cannot believe how fast this week has gone by and how quickly everything progressed with my gallbladder issues. Wednesday I got my blood work and ultrasound results ... several gallstones and my liver enzymes were still high. So, what next? Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy ... gallbladder surgery. Finally, a plan.


So Thursday, we had a consult with the surgeon (same guy the ER doctor recommended) and I felt 100 times better afterwards. He just totally put me at ease about the whole thing and was able to schedule my surgery for the very next day. What a relief. Some of the key things I learned about the gallbladder and the surgery are:

• Your liver produces bile which is used to help digest food. Your gallbladder is an extra storage place for bile so that when you eat extra fatty, greasy, fried, and spicy food, your liver and gallbladder can tag team your intestines to help digestion. A gallstone is a little rock (feels hard like a rock too) that blocks the opening of the gallbladder which makes the gallbladder irritated trying (with no luck) to release the bile. Once you get gallstones, you will always have gallstones and gallbladder issues. Since your gallbladder is just a storage place and doesn't actually produce bile, your liver naturally takes over and picks up the slack when the gallbladder isn't there anymore. Pretty cool how God made our bodies that way.
• Laparoscopic  surgery is the most common way to remove the gallbladder and involves 4 small incisions. The camera that uses gas to blow up the abdomen is inserted through the belly button and the other 3 incisions are on the right side and they use scopes and tools to remove the gallbladder.
• My surgeon, Dr. D (http://www.surgicalassociatesofnorthtexas.com), and his staff were awesome. So nice and helpful, and truly cared for me and my situation. Dr. D explained the functions of the gallbladder and the surgery. I highly recommend them. 
• Gallbladder surgery is one of the most common surgeries - Dr. D did 250 of them last year. One of the questions I had was how often they have to go from a laparoscopic procedure to a large incision of the abdomen, and he said the last one he did was 3 years ago and it was a very unique situation. That made me feel a lot more confident that my surgery would be just fine.

So I went back to work after my consultation on Thursday and wrapped up my work so that I could take Friday and Monday off for my surgery and recovery. I couldn't eat or drink anything after midnight including water, coffee, mints, or gum. Crazy. I slept late and took my time getting ready. Watched a little Celebrity Rehab on Netflix and before I knew it, it was time to leave for the hospital for my check-in at 1pm.


Check-in and prep went by pretty quickly. Jason was there and my mom came by before I headed into surgery. I changed into my gown and sticky socks, got my IV in (first time ever), and met with the anesthesiologist. She was very nice. Really ... everyone at the hospital was really nice.

I got into surgery pretty quickly, and then was put to sleep. When I woke up I was in recovery. The nurse was so nice, but I was kind of hyperventilating and very emotional, so she tried to calm me down and get me to breathe deep long breaths. For some reason, I kept crying. The anesthesiologist came by to check on me and I was so happy to see a familiar face and just started crying when I saw her. There was just a constant lump in my throat - I think I was truly just a little overwhelmed and relieved it was all over. The nurse gave me ice chips to suck on which helped since my throat was really sore from the anesthesia trache. I was also freezing and the hospital blankets aren't the best warm fuzzy thick blankets you hope for when you're cold. They are thin and stiff. One good thing was that they kept them in warmers so when they first get laid on you, they are very warm and cozy.

Apparently Dr. D went out to talk to my family and friends to let them know that the surgery went really well. He mentioned that my gallbladder was a little inflamed and that I wouldn't have made it another 2 weeks, which means I probably would have been in trouble had I gone to CA without having this surgery beforehand. Hearing that made me even more confident in my decision to hurry with scheduling the surgery.

So after that they made sure my pain wasn't too intense and wheeled me into the second stage of recovery where I could have visitors. Jason and my dad walked in first. Of course, I cried when I saw them and was so happy to see them. Then Kylee came in and I cried. Then my mom came in ... more tears. She instantly went into "mom" mode when she came in. I mentioned I was cold and she threw off her jacket and draped it on my shoulders and helped me drink Sprite from my straw. It was so cute.
Shortly after I got dressed, went to the bathroom, and headed out around 5pm. Chris and Kylee were with us for the rest of the evening. It was so nice to be with friends and they are just the best. We picked up my prescription for pain meds and headed back to our house. We watched a little BSG which was nice to just kick back and relax. 

Stella being lady-like...

I was so thirsty, and water just wasn't quenching my thirst. Plus everyone else was pretty hungry so we headed to Smoothie King and then to McAllister's for some food. I had potato soup, which was super tasty. After that we headed back home for more BSG and I was pretty tired by about 10:15pm (pain pill time!!). I slept great even though I had to wake up every 4 hours to take my pain pills. It was a very restful night's sleep and when I woke up this morning I felt so refreshed.


So I wanted to get out and so my mom and I headed to McKinney's Farmers Market at Chestnut Square. It was nice to get moving (and it's good for me to move around so I don't develop blood clots). I ended up buying a few things (Roasted Garlic Olive Oil, EVOO, Lavender lotion and body butter, and a necklace) and it was nice to be out in the fresh air. Next time we go I'm getting some produce and maybe some flowers.

We were only out and about for 2.5 hours or so, but I was ready for a nap when I got home. I slept for about 1.5 hours and then woke up to take my pain pill. Kylee headed over to watch a little Felicity with me. I heard a knock at the door and yelled "Come on in!" thinking it was Kylee. It was actually a flower delivery from Jason's parents. I was so touched!! It was so sweet and made me feel so special. I instantly wished they lived next door so I could run (hobble) over and give them big hugs. The flowers are beautiful and smell so wonderful.

So now we're gearing up for a quiet evening at home to rest and relax. Jason has been such a great helper for me and I'm so blessed to have him as a husband. Looking forward to 2 more full days of recovery before going back to work. Thank you to everyone who has been praying for me and checking in on me these last few days. It means more than you know. BIG HUGS!!