12 weeks (August 28-September 3)

The most dramatic development this week: reflexes. Your baby's fingers will soon begin to open and close, his toes will curl, his eye muscles will clench, and his mouth will make sucking movements. In fact, if you prod your abdomen, your baby will squirm in response, although you won't be able to feel it. His intestines, which have grown so fast that they protrude into the umbilical cord, will start to move into his abdominal cavity about now, and his kidneys will begin excreting urine into his bladder.Meanwhile, nerve cells are multiplying rapidly, and in your baby's brain, synapses are forming furiously. His face looks unquestionably human: His eyes have moved from the sides to the front of his head, and his ears are right where they should be. From crown to rump, your baby-to-be is just over 2 inches long (about the size of a lime) and weighs half an ounce.


We went to have another ultrasound on Tuesday and for some 12 week testing. The baby is growing well but was stubborn for the ultrasound nurse. She had a hard time getting him/her to cooperate with what she needed! Hopefully this is not telling of how the baby will be outside the womb! lol!! :) It was neat to see a little bit of how he/she has grown but our ultrasound pics aren't as good this time. Anyway, I go back to the doctor again in 3 weeks!

It's Positive!!!

Mike and I found out that we will be adding to our family! :) I took 3 positive pregnancy tests on July 16th. We are both thrilled! :) I told Mike by giving him the three tests wrapped up in a Clemson onesie!

I had my first prenatal visit on August 10th to confirm the pregnancy and find out the due date. My doctor gave me an estimated date of March 12th and I was 9 weeks and 3 days at this point. We also got to see our little peanut through a transvaginal ultrasound. (I'll post a picture later.) He/She was moving around a little bit. This made it SO real! :)

Right now, I am 11 weeks and I will go back to the doctor on August 31st for another ultrasound and some testing. I can't wait to see how much our baby has changed!

Info for 11 weeks:
Your baby, just over 1 1/2 inches long and about the size of a fig, is now almost fully formed. Her hands will soon open and close into fists, tiny tooth buds are beginning to appear under her gums, and some of her bones are beginning to harden. She's already busy kicking and stretching, and her tiny movements are so effortless they look like water ballet. These movements will become more frequent as her body grows and becomes more developed and functional. You won't feel your baby's acrobatics for another month or two — nor will you notice the hiccupping that may be happening now that her diaphragm is forming.

The end of an era...

...for my beloved car! Let me just preface this by saying that Mike and I have had a TOUGH week! First of all, he had a small fender bender, that was his fault, last Wednesday and his car has been in the shop since then and we have only had one car, which wasn't too bad. Well....it then gets worse. On my way to pick him up on Tuesday of this week, guess what? Yep, I was involved in an accident! However this time, it wasn't my fault and it was MUCH worse than his. (I just had to out-do him...haha!) I, along with the people in the other car, were very lucky to not have been seriously hurt.

To make a long story short, the girl was traveling the opposite direction from me and turned left right in front of my car, causing me to hit her. There was NO avoiding her. As soon as I saw her turning, I knew I was going to hit her. This scared the CRAP out of me! I have never been in a serious car accident before and when the air bags deployed, I didn't know what to think! But all is well for the moment. I am having to go to the chiropractor because I got whiplash but he seems positive that all will be well. We also finally got a rental car to drive today and I will be going back to work tomorrow.

I had to clean out my car today and was almost brought to tears. Yes, I was getting to the point where I needed a new car, but I hated to see my car destroyed like this! It was my first car and had gotten me through college and my first few years of teaching. Many good memories with the eclipse! So, this is kinda like losing a family member! :(

This week taught me a few things...to be thankful to God for keeping me safe and providing for us by giving us GREAT friends and family to help out when needed...teaching me patience and learning to trust him for direction...and to be a careful driver. I have become more cautious (maybe a little over-anxious too) but I'm hoping that I can begin to enjoy driving again.

Here are a few pics of the damage. These were taken today. I took some of my phone at the accident but can't get them to upload on the computer.

Good bye my sweet eclipse! You will be missed! :( You served me well!

Salkehatchie 2009

So...I've been bad and not posted in a long time! I'm going to try and get better at that! This post is about our trip to Salkehatchie. A group of 21 youth and adults went to Bishopville, SC for a week in June to work on houses. Also at the camp were churches from Bennettsville, Simpsonville, and Lexington. We had a GREAT group and a GREAT trip!!!

Our group from Knightsville.

In total there were 9 sites. My site had 3 people from my church and 11 people from the other churches. We worked on Ms. LuAnn Wright's house. She has a husband, one daughter, 3 sons, and a sweet grandson that lives with her. Her brother lives next door and was a big help to us during the week.

This is her house before.

As you can tell, her house was very much in need of a new roof and paint job...which we gave her throughout the week! We worked for 5 long, HOTTT days on scraping the old paint off, stripping off the old roof, putting a fresh coat of white paint with black trim on the house, putting on a new roll roof, giving her 2 new ceiling fans inside, cutting her grass, repairing the front porch and painting it, putting Plexiglas in some broken windows, and cleaning up the landscape. It took about 25 gallons of paint and 30 rolls of roofing to finish her very large house! We were very busy!! The family was a huge help to us too. They helped do a little bit of everything that we were involved in. It couldn't have been done without them! As a gift, we gave them a new front porch swing as well as a table and chairs for the porch.

This was her house after we finished!

We also had other activities throughout the week such as going bowling, swimming, going to the local library (to catch up on facebook and email!), having a Talent Show and visiting the famous "Button King" from Bishopville.

Me with the Button King.

To see more pictures from the whole week, you can check them out here.

Overall, we had a great, rewarding week and I can't wait to go back next year! :)