Have you seen the Ghost of John...

long white bones with the flesh all goooooneeee wooahhaoooaahhooohohhhoh. Wouldn't it be chilly with no-skin-on-BOO!
That was always my favorite song to sing in elementary school around halloween :P

I have been a home owner for two years, and have yet to convince Mark to let me decorate. Until this year! Yaaay! Thanks to a few friends, but hey it got the job done. Houston, we have pumpkins! We went to a place in town called Mike's Farm. Hiiighly recommended. If you're in Jacksonville, to drive straight past Ellis airport and it'll be on your left. They have an amazing restaurant as well that is open every so often. I would assume they are in season right now so the weekends they should be open more often than the other times of year. In total, we got three large pumpkins, and one Madison pumpkin ❤ I'm not sure if I'm going to carve them so they're just sitting out on my porch for now, chillin. I might just find some glow puff paint and decorate them that way. I was going to make a cute little pumpkin family, but lets face it... I am not going to sit down and do all that lol I fully intended... just like I fully intend to do all that other stuff I've got pinned.

And (unfortuately) this year, Mark won't be able to take leave for Christmas so guess who gets a christmas treeeeee. THIS GIRL! Ahh I'm so excited. We'll be gone for New Years, instead, since the Marine Corp is ridiculous and expects us to be back ON christmas day if we take Christmas leave... I repeat: ridiculous.

And about that baby. I am 36 weeks along now, and definately feeling it. I cannot even turn over in bed without feeling like my pelvis is going to rip in two. Walking sucks. Bending over sucks. Everything except sitting in this recliner being a lazy SOB sucks. I am sooo over all of this-- but my momma will be here at the end of next week so storm troop on, little lady! I cannot WAIT for the help she'll be able to put in before and after Madison gets here. To end this on a positive note: I can eat chicken again without wanting to throw it back up! Winner winner chicken dinnerrr!!

I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends...

& Pinterest ;D

I was skimming pinterest, waiting for the call to head to base to pick up my husband after two & a half weeks away at training (woohoo!), when I came across this:

The Fun Cheap or Free Queen: "You're Welcome" Wednesday tip: Keep your house cl...

Amaaaazingg! I mean, I know it's simple, I know you could have probably thought of it yourself... but lets be honest-- did you? No. So shut up and pay attention ;)

Basically it's a go-to list for how to keep your home looking guud on a daily basis without having to clean everything on a daily basis. I know that I'll have to add vacuuming more than twice a week, especially not going the weekend without it; my dog seems to forget that hair is supposed to be on him, not all over my house in ever nook, cranny, crevice, and open area visible and invisible by the naked eye.

I looked over the list and honestly-- apart from vacuuming, dusting, and the occassional surface clean I RARELY do any of the others. I loathe laundry. It doesn't mention dishes though-- but I'm pretty sure you're supposed to do those every day (not that I do lol)

You're welcome :)



Update on the little bloomin' lovey-- I'm 33 weeks today :) My anxiety has sky rocketed, though I'm sure it's because Mark has been gone since the beginning of the month. Exhaustion is hitting me like a ton of bricks, but if I stay on my feet I'm fine. Only problem with that? When I'm on my feet for a long period of time my sciatic nerve starts looking mighty appealing to my uterus and one false move and I'm being stabbed in the ass by a pinched nerve. Yaaaaay pregnancy!

 It is so crazy (& nerve wracking) to think that in less than two months Madison will be sleeping in my arms or (hopefully) latched onto me like a leech. I cannot wait to see her. Every time I see a little girl out in public, or roaming across the internet I wonder what Madison will look like. It's the worst when it's a little girl that looks like she COULD have came from Mark and I's genes... especially that adorable little girl on the pinterest little girls hair tutorial pin... gets me every time.

She has the hiccups nearly every night, now. You can see my belly move with each one. She doesn't kick nearly as much, but boy does she shake her booty like a little Shakira lol It makes me smile thinking that how close she is to me-- but it feels like I'll never get to have her in my arms. It's too far away. But it's also way too soon. We still haven't even begun finishing the nursery. I haven't really done much of anything since I put her closet together. Fashion first, right? ;)

Wake me up when September Ends.

Yes, I went there on you. I went to Green Day.

I woke up at 5:30am this morning. Why, you ask? Because I had the pleasure of dropping my husband off at his squadron so he could leave me for two and a half weeks >:/ He'll be in Colorado until the end of the month and I get to hang out here, by myself. Including on my birthday. But there is hope... my aunts are sending me homemade fudge. A batch of chocolate with walnuts and a batch of Peanut butter. Ah mah gahd I'm so damn excited to get that delivery.

I already got two birthday presents :) My mom got me closet organizers for the baby's nursery and a glider. She said there was two more packages after I got the organizers, but I'm thinking maybe she thought the glider would come in two parts-- the chair & the ottoman.

In the next week or two I'll be ordering the dresser, and then the following payday the armoire :) Then all we need to do is hang curtains and get the mobile. The crib was still in processing for another week, otherwise it would have been here this week. Hopefully those bitches email me again soon saying it's being shipped out. I'm not terribly worried about it getting here after the baby. I plan on having her sleep next to the bed until I get used to her feeding schedule, anyway.

I think after this I'm going to try and fix the night light I used as a child. It's a little bear in a a blue sleeping gown with stars on it. I just have to remember where I put it lol I think it's in our closet, but when I looked yesterday I didn't see it. It's in some closet somewhere in this house, that's all I know.

My best friend came to visit me last week. She left Tuesday. We had tons of fun, and I found her a man... well I pointed her to one. She chose the one standing next to him haha. We went to the beach, the aquarium, and bought her anti-nausea medicine when she was hangover for an entire day lol. Oh, and then I almost made her miss her flight so we ended up FedExing her luggage. Whoopsies! She's already making plans to come back when Madison gets here :)

So here I am. 30 weeks 4 days pregnant, chillin' with my two dogs, watching a lifetime movie about a pregnant 15 year old, my husband two time zones away, and doing light cleaning to kill time between facebook game recharging. Oh the life of a military wife.

It's Been Awhile...

Since I blogged :-o

Sorry I went AWOL! It's been nearly two months since I posted. A lot has been going on, and frankly I didn't have the heart to write. Too much too say and not enough will power to do so.

I'll start on the negative note. Under two months ago, the main reason I've been putting off posting, something devastating happened. We were on leave for the 4th of July, in Florida. We stopped on the 29th of June in Orlando to see DH's family. We were supposed to stay the whole weekend, but only ended up staying for the night and then taking off the very next morning, probably about 45 minutes after waking up.

I woke up on the 30th and had several missed calls on my phone. Not a good sign. Well, I called my sister and found out the last thing I expect to hear. My grandmother had passed. She wasn't the healthiest of people, being overweight, but she wasn't sick. She had woken up early that morning, and collapsed. It seems so unreal, even now, that she isn't there. More than unreal, it's probably one of the hardest things I had to accept that she would never hold my little girl. She had been waiting for another girl in the family for sixteen years. She was sooo happy when I told her that I would be having a girl. It kills me that Madison will never truly know my grandmother. Her great grandmother.

Now lets try and get a bit more positive. Officially, as of today, I am now in the third trimesterrr!! Yaaay! Her nursery is (almost) painted. There's just a little spot left where Mark ran out of paint :) The crib is on it's way, as is the bedding and changing table! And the room is pretty stocked full of everything we will need, because guess who got a surprise baby showerrr? This girrrlll :P

So, I went to Ohio earlier this month. Funny story, I had an anxiety attack on the damn plane. Yep, that would happen to me. First one this entire pregnancy, worst one I've ever had, scared the ever-loving shit out of me. BUT, it was quick and I felt fine right afterwards, so they let me fly on. Last time I'll fly in a very long time, though, I'll say that much. Pregnant or not. Obviously I'm not flying any more while pregnant, though lol. I couldn't even if I wanted to. So I landed in Ohio, drove to my grandmother's house (I think I'll always call it her house...) to be greeted by the family who was supposed to be there, no biggie. But, look around? Decorations, "Its a Girl!", and a corner of the living room swamped in presents wrapped in paper with pictures of rattles, bows, and baby feet ♥ I got nearly everything on my registry. I'm so grateful that everybody was so generous. I knew she would be spoiled but goodness, this baby girl will want for nothing. I can see it now lol.

So, that's about what I've got going for me right now. Finally, I updated this. Hopefully I can keep everybody posted more from here on out now that I got all of this out of the way.

Hit Me With Your Best Shot.

No, seriously. Do it. I know you've got more.. Yes more. Because I JUST felt her kick!!

Okay, that's really all I have to write about... I just wanted to document it lol

Don't Stop Believing.

So, now that Mark and I know what is going on, I feel comfortable sharing this with everybody who wasn't aware anything was evening wrong.

A month ago I was flagged for Trisomy 21. That is how we found out Madison was a girl at 17 weeks rather than during my original 20 week scan we had scheduled; we needed an ultrasound to narrow down the likelihood that Madison would be born with Down Syndrome. Going into the geneticist we were told that from my blood test they had noticed an abnormally large presence of one of the four hormones that are released during pregnancy. With what they saw, they put Madison in a 1 in 40 chance for Down Syndrome. After speaking to the geneticist we were sent for the second tier; an ultrasound. Everything measured perfectly, but there were two soft markers. Soft markers are common finding in babies with Down Syndrome. The first soft marker was a Choroid plexus cyst in the baby's brain. This would not affect the baby's brain, and they are found in perfectly healthy babies. They typically go away on their own. They also found a dark spot in the heart, typically they are calcium build ups. Also, the baby's heart would not be affected by this, and perfectly healthy children have this as well, but it is a soft marker. These two soft markers brought her chance of being born with Down Syndrome to 1 in 20.

After that we were sent into a consultation room. We were told about the soft markers, and asked if we had decided if we were going to go ahead with Amniocentesis. Amnio testing does have a risk of miscarriage, I had already researched it, and I was not okay with that so I declined immediately. Earlier in the appointment we were told about a test, MaterniT21. It was another blood test. They would take my blood, thus no potential for harm to the baby, and from that they could find DNA from the baby to count chromosomes. It is 95-99% effective in diagnosis Trisomy 21, more towards 95% for Trisomy 18, and about 65% for Trisomy 13. They weren't concerned about 18 or 13, just 21, so I agreed to have that test done. I was told it would take two weeks for the test results to come back, and they did. Today.

Today I got a call. The area code was Wilmington, where my appointment was, so I knew exactly what they were calling to tell me. They were calling to tell me whether my baby was going to be born with Down Syndrome or not.

On or around November 11th, 2012 I will have a baby girl. Her name will be Madison Brianna J. and she will be beautiful and 100% healthy. I nearly cried on the phone, but I pulled it together. The tests came back negative for all forms of Trisomy. She will be a normal, healthy baby girl. I felt in my heart that everything was fine, but it feels so much better to have that reassurance.

Give Me All Your Luvin'

Say hello to Madison Brianna. Yep, you got that right, it's a girl! We found under unfortunate circumstances, which I'm not going to discuss with anybody other than those who are already aware of the situation, so please do not press the issue. I will not talk about it right now. Soon enough, people. Soon enough. I will say that the ultrasound went very well, all things considered. She is measuring exactly where she should be.


More good news: I don't feel like hell anymore! Hip hip horray! I've cleaned the house like 3 times this week... that's every other day... that's like 2 times more than usual. And 3 times more when I was in the middle of Morning Sickness hell. My house is now clean on a daily basis... that deserves a drink-- oh wait.

I haven't thrown up in at least two weeks. As long as I stay away from too much dairy, and little to no eggs or chicken I'm good to go.

In under three weeks I'll be getting another ultrasound, in Florida, with my family. My mother is getting us a 4D ultrasound, which I'm super excited about. I love seeing her move around, which she does. Alot. I just pray that she stays a she!

I'm also feeling her move on a daily basis. Not big moves, just kicks-- mostly after food because apparently I'm growing a porker. A butthole of a porker, too. Daddy's chili? Kick. Momma's taco pie? Nada.... an hour after Momma's taco pie she grabs applesauce and THAT makes her happy. Really!? Whatevs... guess somebody is already a Daddy's Girl. I will win her over with kisses, and hugs, and clothes when the time comes. Your days are numbered, Daddy.