Thought and Prayers

I have a request for yall to keep a friend on mine in your thoughts and prayers. Kristin Larkin Crawford is pregnant with twins due in September. She is in the hospital with contractions and will on bed rest until her due date in  September. Please keep Kristin, her husband, daughter and the babies in your thoughts and prayers.

With Love,

Mrs. Jones

What a Wonderful Day

I am sitting on the balcony of our condo with David. The view is amazing! I love the beach, it is such a calming relaxing place. Almost spiritual in a way. Nothing but miles of ocean as far as you can see, the white beach with greenish blackish seaweed spread around. What a sight! Today we...well I slept in and David waited for me to wake up. We hung around the condo a bit before heading down. David's parents rent the lounge chairs with umbrellas and they are worth every penny. It's so nice to just grab beach bag and head down. We have a great chair attendant this year. When we get down he checks to see where we want our umbrellas and checks in every hour or so. He knows I like mostly shade so he changes it whenever the sun starts to move. This is the first year I haven't "worked" on my tan. I am so white! I get so hot that I like being in the shade with the breeze coming off the ocean. I am reading A Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingslover. It's one of Mom's favorites and I can already see why.  The author is so detailed but still keeps on track. I'll give my review when I'm finished. 

Yesterday I napped all day on the beach. It was amazing! Today I read most of the day and took a short nap. I can never get in enough naps these days. Later in the afternoon today we got in the pool. The weightlessness felt awesome! It was like I didn't have these extra 27 pounds. I wonder what if felt like for Eli. David said it must have been like a womb inside a womb. David took me around the pool on his back. I'm so short I can't touch half of the time. 

We are going out to eat tonight at a place called Zeek's. The is a little shop under the restaurant that is so cute, it's Kathy's favorite down here and one of mine. I would post pictures but I am too lazy to get my camera and cord. Maybe later tonight!

With Love,

Mrs. Jones

$75 for what?!

I love online banking. I can check our account and see what has cleared and what is outstanding. Last night I checked before we went to bed and saw two charges from PayPal. One for $1 the other for $75. I haven't used Paypal since March but checked my Paypal account, ebay account and amazon just to make sure. Nothing on any of them. So I call Paypal customer service wait on hold for about 25 minutes (yes it really was that long!) and get disconnected. I try to call back and of course the offices are closed. As soon as I get to work this morning I call Paypal. I get through to a male that can not speak English very well, he finally transfers me over to a female I can understand. She goes through all the verification again and searches their database using my debit card number. Apparently someone has used my middle name and new last name to open a Paypal account. She was very helpful and opened a "case" and filed a stolen credit card report. I called the bank and explained what happened. They had canceled my debit card (Which I live off of! I NEVER have cash). The lady at the bank was also helpful but my new card won't be here until we get back from the beach. Maybe that is a good idea.....with my shopping habits! Another thing is I pay all my bills online so I will have to go through and add my new card. I guess I should be grateful they didn't spend more! Oh and the person that took my card number bought at $75 ebay gift card. The transaction shouldn't go through my bank account (it's just pending/authorized now) So hopefully the bad guy won't get the gift card.

As for this weekend we pretty much hung out. We did go see Star Trek and it was awesome. The special effects were amazing. Eli seems to be growing a lot......by looks of Mommy's stretch marks! In addition to the stretch marks I swear he is going to weigh 20 pounds. I'm having a hard time at work with pain in my ligaments. I think I posted about this before but it really hurts. I sit down for 10 hours a day, which is great for my feel, but painful when I try to stand and walk. I am scheduled to work until 5 days before I'm due. I really wanted to work as long as possible but I don't know how that is going to turn out.

No pictures from last week. I am usually a picture fanatic but I'm been slacking lately. I'll try to post some this week.

With Love,
Mrs. Jones

Beach Time

In a short while I will be laying on the beach! David and I are going to the beach with his family. We went last year and had blast. Last year started our marathon watching of Ghost Hunters. This has become a tradition with David, Eric (David's brother) and me. Now we order pizza, turn the lights off and scare ourselves. Last weekend we were watching it over at Eric's house, Kathy knocked on the door and I screamed! To my defense it was a pretty scary episode. This year we are staying on the ground floor, there is a patio area that leads straight to the pool and beach. No stairs or waiting on the elevator. Everyone knows how hot natured I am and since I've been pregnant it's ridiculous. I'm hoping to enjoy sitting the shade on the beach and watching David wake boarding. He and Eric bought wake boards last year and had a blast. I have a video of them, if I can find it I will post it.

I went to the doctor today for my 30 week check. Everything checked out well. I have gained a total of 27 pounds, which I don't think is that bad. While I am eating everything in site David is doing his best to eat well and exercise. He has been doing a really good job! Since he does not have class he has been working out in the evenings. When I talked to him at lunch today he had not had a Coke! I will say I've been nagging him that Coke is awful for you and you should drink more water blah, blah blah. Me, I've never been a big Coke drinker so I don't really know what it's like to really want one. Back to the doctor. Today I saw different doctor and I really liked her. I think I have one or two more to see before I've seen them all. After I have seen everyone they let you pick a different doctor to see for each appointment. That way we will be familiar with who ever is on call when I deliver.

On another baby related note I have had to take off my engagement ring. I was very upset! It's been a week or so since my hands have swollen but I just did not want to take it off. David said Sunday that I really should take it off so I do not have to have it cut off. So I sprayed some windex and wiggled it off. Even though I am able to wear my wedding band I feel naked without my other ring! In another week or so I am probably going to have to take my wedding band off too. I'm thinking of getting a cheap silver band to wear. I know it does not bother some people but I still want to wear something. We will see what happens. I have always had small ankles...not anymore. They are more like cackles now!

I have started to wash all of Elijah's clothes. Some things he will not be able to wear for a while but it helps me with my craziness/nesting. We still have our big ticket items to get. I went ahead and order the monitor today. I got it from babyearth.com Every hour they have a different Gagadeal. The price starts at retail and drops every second. The only problem is you do not know how many they have in stock and will the product will sell out. The monitor retails for $90, I paid $66 with shipping. Right after I placed my order and the page reloaded it sold out! I think we got a pretty good deal and the monitor we really wanted. We still need the car seat, stroller, pack and play (with bassinet and changing table) and highchair. We still have three showers! haha A family shower with David's side of the family, a work shower given by the girl's at David's office and one at my Aunt Tammy's. A lot of the people that are coming to Tammy's have already been to others so I have told them please don't feel obligated to purchase another gift!

I haven't begun to pack my bag for the hospital. I still want to get a nice nursing night gown to take. Other than that I think we pretty much have everything, it's just getting it together in a bag. We take a nursing class this weekend. Notice I said we, haha. It should be very.....informative :)

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!!

With Love,
Mrs. Jones

30 Weeks

How far along? 30 weeks 2 days

Total weight gain/loss: 27 pounds!

Maternity clothes? of course!

Stretch marks? ewww yes! It started as just one lonely mark but he has friends now

Sleep: Very uncomfortable but still getting some sleep

Best moment this week: My first Mother's Day and my present from David

Movement: A little, I think he is running out of room!

Food cravings: Nothing out of the normal

Labor Signs: None (good!)

Belly Button in or out? Kinda in between

What I miss: Laying down to sleep and being able to get comfortable easily

What I am looking forward to: Getting the crib put together

Weekly Wisdom: Morning sickness returns and again it's not always in the morning.

Milestones: 30 week mark, 10 more to go!

My First Mother's Day

David made my first Mother's Day wonderful! He told me not to check our bank account on Friday because he had been "window shopping". Well window shopping does not involve buying something. Of course I was excited and I did not check the account, that took a lot of restraint! We had our couples shower give by Kelly and Josh Burton and Gail and Kevin Burton. The shower was wonderful, we all had such a great time. We got lots of wonderful things we need. David even got a present from me. A nerf gun! If you haven't heard, every time we go to Target I check out the clearance baby stuff and David checks out the nerf guns. He was so excited. Granny asked what he was going to do with it and I told her as soon as he finds scissors to get the ties off he will be playing with it! And sure enough Ryan came to rescue with his knife and the guys were off to play. After the shower when everything was loaded up, and I made sure I had the rest of the cake, I opened the car door and there was a present in my seat. I asked David thinking it might have been something we didn't open. It was my Mother's Day present. Of course I open it before we can even get the car started. I open the box and see the familiar maroon jewelry box from Jonnie's (Crown Jewelers). Inside there are two charms for my charm bracelet (David started that for me too). One is a heart with Eli engraved and the other is a baby carriage (like the Bugaboo I want!). Both the charms are sooo sweet, I love them! I forgot to take a picture but will post one later. I have not had a chance to take them to be put on so I am wearing them with my flower necklace for now. (My Uncle Allen gave me a beautiful Tiffany flower necklace for me receiving Employee of the Year 2007) After the shower we stopped by my cousin's graduation party and were planning on eating for Mother's Day with Mom, Granny and Grandaddy. I called J. Alexander's and they had an hour wait time, so I call P.F. Chang's their wait time is an hour and half to two hours. This is Saturday night by the way, not even Mother's Day yet. So we end up eating and Pueblo. It was good, as always, and we had a great time.

Sunday David let me sleep (by not annoying me to death while I am trying to sleep) half the day away. It was wonderful! We then went to mall to pick some things up, I got a new shirt and David got some C.O. Bigelow shave cream. I wore my new maternity support belt and it helped with the round ligament pain. If you are not familiar with round ligament pain, it's sharp searing pain in the far lower belly region. It's caused from my ligaments being stretched. By the time we walked around the mall my back hurting but I could still walk. Normally I can't walk that long because my ligaments start to hurt. But moving on, Mom called so I went to meet her for lunch. We went to Cinco De Mayo (mexican restaurant in Brentwood). This is Mom's favorite mexican place and normally the food and service are good. Not Sunday. We had just gotten our food when the waiter came to set more salsa on the table. Instead of setting on the table it slipped and went into Mom's eyes, hair and all over her shirt and pants. It literally looked like he threw it on her. Her eyes immediately began to burn. Even though she had her glasses on it still got into her eyes. She couldn't open them for a few minutes. The waiter apologized and we told him we knew it was an accident. She asked to speak to a manger. The manager was on the phone and did not seem in a hurry to get off so we went to the check out to talk to him. Mom was very polite saying she understood it was an accident. She asked to fill out and incident report in case there was something wrong with her eyes. (They were very swollen at this point) The manger says no if anything happens just me the bill. Mom did not agree with that, she thought there should be something on file stating what happened. Then he asks what happened. Mom explained and the waiter starts talking in spanish. Mom asked what the waiter said and the manger said He said you were reaching for the salsa and he was trying to help you and you dropped it. Well I was sitting right there and can tell you Mom did not reach for anything. So of course that makes Mom upset and worry that now the waiter is lieing about what happened. Mom asked repeatedly for an incident report and he keeps saying no just bring me the bill. We end up leaving and decide not to call Metro for a report. If we did, I'm sure we would have waited 2 to 3 hours for an officer to get there. Mom had to drive back home change, re do her make up and go back to work. Not a very happy Mother's day for her.

I went home and tried to take a nap, I never fell asleep but the rest was nice. Later that night we went to eat with David's family for Mother's Day. Kathy gave me a very sweet card, since the beginning his whole family has welcomed me with open arms and been wonderful!

David went back to the office to work on his paper and I went home to work on laundry (how exciting is that). After I finished laundry I went to organizing Elijah's stuff. We had tons of bags full of shower gifts. I went through and pulled out everything that needs to be washed, sorted the gifts by what they were. I feel much better! The crib is cleaned and ready to go. David and Grandaddy just have to put it together. Grandaddy is also going to put some shelving into Elijah's room and our room and then build closets. We only have one closet and it has an A/C unit in it. (Our house is an 1800's farm house) Everything seems to get coming together. Granny and I still have curtains to make for his room. We are planning on starting those the first of June when David and I are back from the beach. (Only two more weeks till beach time!!)

So that pretty much sums up our weekend, hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day!

With Love,
Mrs. Jones

PS- If anyone is familar with posting pictures in blogspot please let me know. I'm having problems!

Cake from the Butron's Shower

Bruton's Shower

Me, David, Josh and Kelly
(She is pregant too but is still rocking the heels!)

Me trying to get up

Cake from the shower Kathy's lunch ladies gave

Kathy, me and Mom from the lunch ladies shower

Quilling?

Has anyone ever heard of quilling? A brief explication (from Wiki): "Quilling or paper filigree is an art form that involves the use of strips of paper that are rolled, shaped, and glued together to create decorative designs."

Here is an example I borrowed from myscrapbookingmadeeasy.com

When I was younger I remember going to my Great-Grandmother's in Alabama and seeing all the quillings she, my Mom and Grandmother made. They made all kids of lovely figures and flowers. I still amazes me how they can twist up the paper and glue it down where you don't see an thing! The paper just looks as if you have set it upon the other piece of paper. When I find a kit I like I think I am going to purchase and try it!

Speaking of crafts with Elijah on the way I have a whole file folder of things I want to do! The only crafty thing I have done lately is cross stitch some burp pads. They turned out alright. I am going to work on another one today. Being from the South I LOVE anything monogrammed! Anything that I can put Elijah's name on I have. I recently found a few people I know own a monogramming machine, I am super excited! I have a feeling Eli's things with all have his names on it.

All for now.

With Love,
Mrs. Jones

What time is it?

Most of you know I do not have a normal 9 to 5 work day. Instead I work 4 ten hour shifts. So about 7:45 am I wake up a realize "I think I'm supposed to be at work in 15 minutes!" Luckily I live close so I got here just one minute after 8. I take a look at the schedule and I'm supposed to be here at 9am! To some people that extra hour might not be a big deal but to me, that's a lot of sleep! In the end it worked out, one of my co-workers was running late so I signed in and got to work, it'll be a hour of overtime. Can't complain about that!

David has one of his last three exams today. He has been studying like crazy. I quizzed him last night and I think he is going to do great! I know he is ready for summer. I will still be working late during the week but since David's classes are over we can work on getting the nursery ready. I think have finally decided where to put the crib and how to keep a bed in the nursery! It has been driving me crazy!

Speaking of crazy, yesterday I had a total off day. I don't know what was wrong with me but I'm going to blame it on being pregnant. We went to lunch with David's parents and Eric. Which is wonderful because we don't get to seem them during the week so we go eat lunch on Sundays. Then we ran to Target so I could pick up thank you cards and a classic controller for the Wii (more on that later). By the time we got home I did not think I could get out of the car. I was so tired. It's crazy how growing a human can drain your energy. David went back to the office to study and my plan was to go to the grocery store. Lately I've been clipping coupons and actually using them. I'm am straying from the story but I have to plug an awesome website. http://fullmailbox.net/ It is owned/run but a co-worker of mine and his wife. It's the best website for coupons, hot deals and best of all freebies! They also post sweep steaks and instant win games. If you've never clipped coupons you should really check it out. Michele has been great getting me started on the whole coupon deal, you can really save a lot! Okay, back to my story. I am heading to the grocery store and remember I forgot all my reusable bags. They are so much easier to carry. Get to the store, do my shopping, remember everything, go to walk out and it's pretty much pouring rain. I wait for a minute but it's been raining the past few days and this is not going to let up any time soon. So off into the rain I go, get my stuff loaded, be a good person and take my buggy to the buggy holder thing and run/waddle back to the car. I get home and David is still at the office studying so I unload the cold stuff and leave the drinks and water in my car for him to carry up those awful stairs. By the time I got upstairs I was wiped out. I felt like I had run a marathon. I mean hello, I just went to the store! So I decide to take a nap, which ended up not being a great idea because I had a lingering headache that got worse. David came home and was super sweet. I had planned on making burgers and fresh corn on the cob but we eat other stuff instead. Later that night I was cleaning off the massive mess my desk had become and found the safety info for cribs. Since we decided to use David's I wanted to measure the space between the slates. So I get my handy ruler and start measuring. Well it's supposed to be less than 2 3/8 . The way I am reading it, the ruler says almost 3 inches! So I go interrupt David studying and make sure I know where 2 3/8 is on a ruler and have him check it. I'm like, look see it's almost 3 inches! Well hello blondie crazy pregnant wife! I am counting the next slat, not the space in between! At this point I feel so bad for take David from his studying because I don't know how to use a ruler. But as always he was super sweet and made me feel better. Now that I have all that typed up it doesn't seem like a big deal but I swear yesterday my hormones had me all backwards and crazy!

One more story and then I will pack it up for the day. I really want to try using cloth diapers. Not all the time but when I am at home. Most people, including some of our family, think I am crazy. But they have really improved. So I registered for some. My Mom and my sister Lauren have already told me they aren't doing the cloth thing. Mom says she is keeping a pack of Pampers at her house! Which is totally fine with me. It's something I want to try and if I hate it then there will be a listing on Craigslist! So Kathy called Mom last week, they were talking about our registry stuff and Kathy asked about the cloth diapers. Mom told her, she wasn't using the cloth and Kathy didn't have to either. Mom could tell how relived Kathy was. So a few hours later Mom calls Kathy and says "You were trying to figure out how to hid the pampers and get Elijah back in a cloth diaper when Nicole comes to pick him up!" They both died laughing!! I'm sure there will be some posting about my adventures with cloth diapers!

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

With Love,
Mrs. Jones

1st Sunday in May.....Go away rain!

This weekend is the first Sunday in May. For those of you from the South you might be familiar with a tradition called The First Sunday in May. It used to be pretty big in the South but has since seemed to fade away. A little explanation, on Saturday or Sunday or go the cemetery and decorate your family members' graves. This might seem odd but it's really a celebration of their lives and almost like a family reunion. Then you eat a huge meal and visit with family. My Great-Grandmother passed away earlier this year. She was from Alabama and that is were we went each year for the First Sunday in May. Since this year is the first year since she passed we thought it was very important for Granny, Mom, Lauren and me to go down and put out flowers and eat lunch/dinner with family. I woke up this morning....well David woke me up this morning! But on a side note in all fairness he was feeling for Elijah to kick and he felt two good ones! Back to the story. When I woke up Granny called to say that in Alabama they have storm warnings and tornado watches! So it probably wouldn't be smart for us to jump in the interstate and head down. On another side story, my Great Grandmother's house has been hit 3 times by a tornado!!! The last time it hit it completely destroyed the house and she built there again! So we are waiting to see what the weather does. I'm really sad that we might not be able to go down today. I know this really meant a lot to my Grandmother (Granny). If we don't get to go today I'm hoping later this month we might be able to drive down and put flowers out.

I have some very late breaking but very excited news.....I have a new cousin!! Smith William was born in New York on April 10th. He is absolutely adorable! To help you make the connect my Aunt Karol and Uncle Allen live in New York. (My mom's brother). Mom and baby are doing well and I hear Moose (the big brother, black lab) is adjusting well. I think it will be so much fun to have two little boys together at family get togethers.  We all can not wait to see Smith, for me it will probably be a while because Elijah is due soon!

I have a ton of pictures I want to post so I am going to upload some in this post today and will work on getting more later this weekend

With Love,

Mrs. Jones

Mom, Me, Granny, MalMal (Great-Grandmother) and Lauren 2007

Me 27 weeks, I am now almost 29!

David and I Easter 2009