How bout that

Only 99 days left!! Crazy. Finally looking pregnant. Feeling very full all the time. She is getting big and kicking like crazy. I used to be able to only feel her when I was laying down but now I have started feeling her when I am sitting and standing. My cats like to lay on my belly and I can't wait for the day when she kicks hard enough that they notice. It will be hilarious. My maternity pants are just starting to fit but my old pants aren't fitting. Spending a lot of time in yoga pants and sweats. They are so comfy.

Other big things are happening now but updates will come later when we have things all figured out.

Baby moving!!

Chris can finally feel Claire moving! It was a crazy moment. I have been trying to get him to feel her thumps for about a week now with no luck. I was eating cheezit party mix last night while we were watching Youtube videos and I felt a kick that shook the box. I grabbed his hand and planted it on my abdomen. Immediately she thumped him. And then again. His face was priceless. Complete and total awe. It is so strange to be going through this pregnancy and realize that all of the morning sickness and flutters and pains that I feel haven't really been real to him until he felt that thump. Finally!!

Update time!!

So much has happened since the last time I posted. Chris has been working like a maniac while going to school. He has been so tired and cranky but the extra shifts are not quite done yet. Next week will be really hard but at least there is no school. Our anticipated lack of fundage pressed me to apply for a new job. Mind you this was back in July before we even realized the great surprise that was in store for us. I applied at Costco down here in Clarkston and went through no less than 4 "interviews" before finally being offered a job. I started last Friday. I resigned on Sunday. Though I was warned that it was a very physically demanding position I thought I could handle loading purchases into members carts considering that is what I do every shift I work at ShopKo. If you have ever been to Costco you will know that their carts are huge and have very tall sides. This apparently made all the difference. That and not being able to use my abs. I went home the first night crying in pain and that was after a 4 hour shift when the normal shifts are 8 hours. I felt like such a huge failure. I was trying to help our family so Chris didn't have to work as much considering the pay at Costco is way better than ShopKo. Chris comforted me and let me know that I wasn't a failure, I was growing a child for goodness sake and we don't want anything to happen to her or me. I worked my 8 hours on Saturday and that just reinforced my decision to quit before either party invested any more time. It was a hard decision but the right one. Luckily I hadn't fully quit my old job and ShopKo is welcoming me back with open arms. Thank goodness for that.

For the last few days I have been trying to work on our baby wish list on Amazon. It is a lot harder than I thought it would be. There are just so many choices and options. Some of the stuff they have out there is completly rediculous. I am hoping to stay simple and practical. We are going to try cloth diapering. People think we are crazy but I think it is the right choice. Disposable diapers produce so much waste and since we do plan on having more than one child, we wil be able to reuse the cloth and save a bunch of money while also saving the planet :-). It will be an adventure for sure. There are so many choices. Much research left to do.

I am still having a hard time adjusting to living here. I feel like it is kind of a waste of time to make friends I know that I won't be seeing after June but I just need to suck it up. I need that social contact. I still have friends up in Pullman but I really hate making that drive. I can't wait for that wonderful day next June when we will drive out of here for the last time. It will be so nice to have family and great friends within the same area code. We still don't know where we will be living for sure, it all depends on where Chris gets the best offer. That is the beauty of having an in demand degree.

Well I am off to cheer myself up with a little Christian Bale and the Newsies. Nothing like a Disney musical from the 90s.

It's a........

GIRL!!!!!!!

Introducing Claire (middle name still undecided) Byers! We are so excited! It was so unreal to actually see her there moving on the screen. She was putting her hands up by her face in the "Home Alone" pose and it was just amazing. Having not been to the doctor or having an ultrasound until this point it wasn't really feeling real to us. I mean the morning sickness was definitely real but since that has stopped we wondered what was going on in there. Technology is just amazing. We were able to see her kidneys, bladder, all chambers of the heart, spine, and her skeleton like head. Chris was just in a happy state of shock.

For some reason in my mind I kept thinking before the appointment that I was supposed to drink 64 ounces of water. That is approximately 4 bottles of water starting the hour before the appointment. Well, as I was getting near the bottom of the third bottle I was thinking that I was going to start drowning if I really had to drink all four. I checked my notes and to my relief I only needed 32 ounces!! That could have been fun.

After the appointment we starting calling all of our friends and family. My favorite reaction was my dad's. He said "But Byers' don't have girls!" LOL! We were kinda thinking along those lines too. For those of you who don't know, Chris' father has 8 children. Of these there is one girl.

So to celebrate we went over to the hospital and signed Chris up for as many extra shifts as we possibly could for over the holidays. Lol. Then for the fun part we went out to dinner with our great friends Angie and Justin who were very excited for us as well. The evening was topped off with delicious brownies with ice cream and a little Mario Kart Wii for the guys.

It was one of the best days of my life.

Our next adventure!

Guess what? We are having a baby!!!! We found out back in July but have waited to post here until we could personally let our friends know that we are expecting. This adventure is coming a little sooner than planned in our life but we couldn't be happier! Our due date at this point according to online calculators is March 17th.

We have been having a little trouble getting into the doctor as they keep cancelling our appointments. I did talk on the phone to the nurse who took my personal health history and got my blood drawn at the hospital lab up in Pullman. Our first appointment was scheduled for the 15th of October but we got a call cancelling that the Monday before it was to happen. I explained to the nurse that at that point we were 16 weeks along (hadn't had our insurance figured out until then) and was there anyway we could combine a few appointments to get things going when we rescheduled. She was able to work it out so that we could have our ultrasound and my physical work up done on October 28. At the beginning of this week I got a call that the Nurse practitioner would not be in the office that day to do the physical. I told them fine whatever, but we can still come in for the ultrasound right? They said that would be fine so on Tuesday we will hopefully be finding out what kind of baby we have in there! Then my physical will be on November 11th.

We are really excited. Halfway through already! I had really bad morning sickness until about 2 weeks ago. I was sick almost everyday. Every time I opened the fridge my stomach flip flopped and I would have to run out of the room! Chris was a lifesaver. No matter how annoyed he seemed I know that he loves me and the baby. My very first craving was slurpees. Then we moved on to nectarines and melba toast. Also natural fruit popsicles for that quick sugar burst when I first woke up and waited for my waffles to toast. Now I am almost back to being able to eat normally again. I had a huge problem with lettuce and other vegetables just tasting like garbage. I have been able to eat salad and lettuce successfully for the last couple weeks until the other day when we were at Shari's. It just wasn't fresh and the soup that I had was not at all what I was expecting. Came home feeling not to well. One of the good things about moving down to Clarkston was transferring locations of my retail job. The location here has the bathrooms and drinking fountain in the very front of the store while the other store had them in the way way back. I would not have survived there and definitely would have quit probably by mid September if I had made it that far. The people at this store are really understanding. It turns out that I am one of three pregnant women at this store. One is due any time now and the other is due about 2 weeks after me.

It is hard being so far away from family right now and missing out on my baby nephew's early life. I wish we had the support system close by but we talk frequently on the phone and that seems to help. So I hope to be a better blogger from here on out. Here's to the first of many many posts!
Jessica

One word Meme

The rule is that you have to answer with one word.
1. Where is your cell phone? couch
2. Where is your significant other? work
3. Your hair color? red
4. Your mother? smart
5. Your father? protector
6. Your favorite thing? food
7. Your dream last night? none
8. Your dream/goal? many
9. The room you’re in? living room
10. Your hobby? waiting
11. Your fear? dying
12. Where do you want to be in six years? happy
13. Where were you last night? home
14. What you’re not? neat
15. One of your wish list items? dogs
16. Where you grew up? Olympia
17. The last thing you did? laundry
18. What are you wearing? pajamas
19. Your T.V.? old
20. Your pet? cats
21. Your computer? gold
22. Your mood? hungry
23. Missing someone? family
24. Your car? dented
25. Something you’re not wearing? socks
26. Favorite store? Target
27. Your Summer? missed
28. Love someone? many
29. Your favorite color? green
30. When is the last time you laughed? 3ish
31. Last time you cried? Sunday

It seems like only yesterday

July 9, 2005. I cannot believe that it has been three years already since Chris and I got married! We are happy and healthy and getting ready to move into our 4th apartment together. We were getting so excited about being in one place for two years and now we are out of here! We have good days and bad days like anyone else but we have each other to lean on through it all. Dinner out at Sangria in Moscow was amazing but expensive. Good thing we are moving or I think we would spend too much money over there. Being with Chris makes me so happy. Even though Chris doesn't always agree, my favorite times are the cuddly times. This time next year we hope to be moving back to the wetter and more family filled side of the state. I'm so thankful for that blind date 6 years ago. I can't imagine a life without you in it Chris. I love you!

4th of July weekend

The trip back to Olympia was absolutely wonderful. Perfect timing for a break from Pullman. The drive was hot and long and cats cried almost the whole time. Luckily my nephew decided to make his appearance into the world a little early and we got to meet him! He is so beautiful and Mikey and Emily are so lucky to have him. They are great parents. We also got to see my sister and her boyfriend Zach. It was good to see them too even if Melanie kept picking crappy movies :-p. Sure wish I was planning a trip to Disneyland with them. Stinking potential job and Chris' summer school.

Our favorite friends the Boyd's are back on the mainland after living in Hawaii for the past two years. We have missed them greatly and now that we have seen them again we have realized how much we have actually been missing them. Chris and I always try to compare people we meet to Shane and Mary but no one is like the Boyd's. We have yet to find many stable couples to form relationships with. Hopefully when we move to Clarkston and Vancouver we will be able to find people who have the same type of goals that we do unlike in this college town. So over the past week we were able to get in some quality time. The 4th of July party at Shane's dad's house was as great as ever. It was good to spend time with that part of our "family" again.

We also got to hang out with every other person we both are related to in the state of Washington. It is so nice to be able to go and come back in the same few days. Unfortunately with Chris' school going on this summer we had less time there than we wanted but depending again on the potential job situation for me, we want to go back in August.

All in all it was one great weekend.

I'm going to be an aunt today!

So today looks like it is going to be the birthday of my first nephew Michael Isaac. We are so excited to have this little addition to the crazy family! Wish I could be there for the occasion...if only he had waited one more day, lol. Luckily he is coming a little before his due date so we will have the opportunity to see the whole family when we are in town this weekend for the July 4th celebrations. The family is at the hospital right now and I will post more details when I have them.

Graduation!!

So it has finally happened, the day I have been looking forward to for the last two years with more tension than I ever knew possible. It was everything I hoped it would be. No more papers looming on the immediate horizon, no more sitting through classes starving the entire time and no more Pullman hills. Yay!!

I am happy but also sad. I am really going to miss my friends. We will probably never have the opportunity to get together like we used to. I want to make it a point to stay in contact with these people. I have moved far away from people and they have moved away from me. The distances were not only physical. In the past I have become a lazy friend. I don't like that about myself. I can see these people being my friends for quite a long time. Also on that note I want to make an effort to contact people I have known recently and a long time ago to renew friendships with people I have really enjoyed. I miss them.

Right now I am in Montana. It is snowing. Look at the date. Snow is supposed to be gone. It is really pretty though. I love the wide open spaces here. When covered in snow they are just as pretty. Dirt roads are gross though. Super muddy by the end of the day. This is my last school related event for a while (hopefully). I would like to go to grad school at some point but right now I just need to take a break, work for a while, have some fun. Then I will think about school again. I don't know what kind of job I am going to get in the near future but hopefully it is a good one. Wish I had that all planned out. We are moving to another small town for the next year and I'm not sure how attached I am going to get. We have one friend there at this point. It sure is going to be interesting. The schools I want to go to range from the other side of the state to the other side of the country. We will see where the wind blows us when my husband is done with school.Life is good right now but I wish I was sleeping in my own bed. Only two more weeks.