not much new...

This week has been pretty uneventful. No new news. Nothing exciting. Just lots of work and lots of anticipation for summer vacation. Only 19 days left with kids at school...only 23 days of work left in total. My first official day of summer vacation is June 1st. I can't wait!

So, yeah, I don't know much else that I can say right now. Baby Girl Amen is doing well. She kicks a lot and is growing a lot...as you can see by my weekly belly pic. It'll be nice when I don't have to dress up for work and I can just wear comfy clothes all the time. Hopefully I have enough maternity stuff to last me through the end of the school year. I could use another pair of jeans, though.

geesh...i'm getting bigger...

This week I have definitely noticed growth. You can totally tell in my weekly belly pic that things are starting to fill out more. I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later!

I got my nursery bedding and other things in the mail this week. It looks really cute. Now what I need is to get my baby furniture so I can start putting things together. But...before I do that I have to clean out the spare room to turn it into the nursery. And that will take some time. I'm planning on tackling that project during the first week of my summer vacation. However, if I feel motivated enough during a weekend between now and then I may just start doing little things.

Baby Girl Amen's kicking is getting a lot stronger and a lot more noticeable. Still not enough to wake me up at night, but it is enough to actually see and feel from the outside of my belly. It's pretty fun to watch when she's really active. I read to Baby Girl Amen almost every night and I've noticed that she's usually pretty active when I first lay down in bed before I start reading. After I start reading though, she stops kicking like she's actually listening to my voice. It's pretty cool.

Yesterday I found out that me and Josh's stone was placed out at the cemetery. I went out there to see how it looks and I'm pleased. I think it looks really nice and I do think Josh would approve. I didn't know exactly how I would feel about it once I got out there and actually saw our names engraved on a piece of marble, but I can honestly say it felt good. It felt good to see my name next to his again. We are meant to be together and seeing it on something so permanent, something so concrete was comforting. Almost like another way of proving how much love we share together whether in life on earth or up Above. I jokingly said to Josh as I was getting ready to go, "Now I gotta pay for this thing." But after I said it I think Josh whispered to me and said, "At least you can do it now and our little girl won't have to." I am thankful for that. And it's so strange to me that here I am at 25 already paying off my headstone so that my unborn daughter won't have to worry about it. I know my grandparents have just recently gotten to that point and my parents haven't even thought about it...but here I am almost finished with it. Life's journey is so different for each and every one of us. It's so surreal to step back and look at the way my life has played out so far. Yet I'm so grateful for all of the gifts God has given me and I wouldn't trade a thing in life if it meant I would be a different person than who I am today.

look how efficient i am...

Who knew I'd update so many times in one week! I just keep finding more and more things to tell you all!

I wanted to let everyone know that I now have a baby registry up at Target. I did my shopping over the internet, so I think some of it is internet order only, however there are things that you can purchase at the store, too. Those of you who want to buy something and feel safe ordering online, I say go for it. I've had good luck with them before. You can click here to sign into baby registries. http://www.target.com/gp/browse.html/ref=nav2_targetbabylogo/601-3436310-4148107?ie=UTF8&node=306503011

I also wanted to share with you the nursery pattern I chose to go with. It's called Como by Nojo (ha) and I think it's very cute. Simple and cute...just the way I like it. And NO FLOWERS! Those of you who know me well enough understand my feelings on floral prints in home decor (right Grandma?). Here's a picture of the set I purchased. If you check out my Target registry you'll find a couple of items from this set that I haven't already bought.

Isn't it cute? Well, I think so and that's all that matters, right?!? Josh would be upset that I'm not doing Huskers...but I just can't bring myself to plastering all Huskers stuff in Baby Girl Amen's nursery. We can save the Husker stuff to outfits and the occasional accessory. He'll just have to be happy with that! :)

hopefully everyone knows now...

Sorry to all my friends and family that I lied to and told I was having my ultrasound on the 11th. It all worked out like I wanted it to, though. I was able to finish up my scrapbooks and drive one out to the Amens then drive one out to the Johnstons and surprise everyone that way. Hopefully you all got to read the book I made. Some of the pictures in the slideshow didn't turn out as clear as I would have liked, but I think it's still readable. I had so much fun making those books! I started them over a week ago, but wasn't able to finish the last page until after my ultrasound, of course. So, I had a lot of work to do after I got out of work on the 9th! It was all worth it, though.

So, Baby Girl Amen is doing well. Everything looks and sounds healthy. My ultrasound pictures aren't as clear as some of the earlier ones, but they still show my little girl, so I love them.

This picture I turned on it's side for you. It's a close up of Baby Girl Amen's face/head. You can see her eye sockets and chin. The white between the eyes is just bone forming for the bridge of the nose. It's really hard to tell in the picture, but if you look closely you can see her arms are up by her head. In fact, she kept her arms by her face during most of the ultrasound. It was very cute!

This is a picture of Baby Girl Amen's foot. It's pretty self-explanatory. I just thought it was a cute picture of a little foot.

Okay, now this picture will be hard to describe to you without actually getting to point it out, but I'll try. This picture actually tells us that Baby Amen is a girl! First you have to understand where we're looking. This picture is looking up at Baby Girl Amen's behind. As if she were sitting with her knees curled up towards her tummy (which is why you can't see her legs). Her behind is facing the right side of the picture and her legs are facing the left side of the picture. In that area you can see what shows up as 3 little white lines. Those are little girl parts. My doctor said that if it were a boy there wouldn't be lines, there'd be circles. Obviously you get that picture. So, now I know I'm having a little girl...and I'm so excited. She certainly is already Daddy's little girl! I can't wait to hold her in my arms!

Also, I should add another thing. A lot of people have been asking about a name now that I know it's a girl. Well, believe it or not, Josh and I have already had names picked out for about 2 years (since we started fertility treatments). We always knew it was a possibility that Josh may not be here with me when our baby was born and he wanted to be a part of choosing names. We also knew that since I had to go through fertility treatments there was a huge possibility that I would have multiples. So Josh, being the extremely organized, overly prepared person that he was, helped me plan combinations of names in case we had twins, triplets, and even quadruplets!!! Technically, we have 4 girl names and 4 boy names chosen, each one ranking in a certain order. It's very comforting to know that I'll be naming our child exactly what we would have named her even if her daddy were still here on earth. And by the way, you won't know Baby Girl Amen's name until she arrives in August!!! It's me and Josh's secret!!!

so i lied to everyone...i had my ultrasound today (4-9-07)...

***hint: click on the plus sign in the bottom left hand corner if you want to make it go faster***but you still need to read it!***

happy easter...

I hope the Easter Bunny was good to you all. In church this morning one of my pastors reminded me that Easter is a time where God reminds us that death does not have the last word; instead, He promises us eternal life. It's reassuring to hear that again and again because it strengthens my faith that I will see Josh again in the future. It's only a matter of time. I remember back to 4 years ago today. It's the day that Josh knelt down in front of me and asked me to marry him...to be his wife. Even though he and I already knew we were meant to be together, it was a day that we were able to solidify that feeling of being together forever. And I feel that as deeply today as I ever have. We will be together...forever.

Baby Amen is, as far as I know, doing well. Still moving and growing. The kicks are getting a little stronger so that sometimes I can feel them from the outside of my belly. This week I go in for my BIG ULTRASOUND! I can't wait! Make sure you check back here later this week to see the results.

Oh, and I better mention the fact that today is my 25th birthday. And no, I don't feel any older today. After everything I've been through the past few years I've felt old for quite a while now. Here are a couple of pictures to celebrate the occasion.

still waiting...and waiting...and waiting...

In my last post I noted the fact that I would probably be going in for my BIG ultrasound during the week of April 2nd because it is my Spring Break. Well, I was wrong. My Dr's office is being very picky about the fact that I have to be 20 weeks along before doing the ultrasound. And since technically I don't hit 20 weeks until the Saturday before Easter, I have to wait until the week of April 9th. ugh! So much for my "shopping glory" after I find out! I guess there is a Kohl's between my office and school...hmmm...tempting.

I have been working on my idea of how to tell everyone if Baby Boy or Baby Girl Amen is on the way. I think it's going to turn out nicely.

Officially, I am now on Spring Break. And it feels so good! I had to set a short-term goal with myself a few weeks ago because I was so swamped and stressed out with work stuff. My goal was just to make it to Spring Break...if I could make it to Spring Break the rest of the year would be cake. So, I trudged through the last couple of weeks and made it to my gloriful Spring Break! Yay!

Nothing new with Baby Amen, except for the fact that he or she is getting big. I feel him or her moving a lot...and I love it. When I lay on my back and look down I can see a big lump wherever Baby Amen is residing at that moment. And if you watch carefully and catch it at the right time, you can see the "lump" slowly disappear and reappear in a different spot. It's so cool!