Great News!

Well, the time has come for Todd and I to make a very exciting announcement. I am pregnant! The baby is due December 1st.

I am just coming out of the first trimester now, and am amazed that it went so smoothly. It took us so long to get pregnant that when it happened, it didn't seem real, and we were so afraid I would miscarry. It was too good to be true. But Heavenly Father has blessed us with this incredible miracle, and now that I'm 13 1/2 weeks along, we're finally feeling at peace that "The Bean" is going to make it after all.

My belly is just starting to poke out a little bit, and I've been using a rubber band to hold my pants together because the button is a little tight. We had an ultrasound at 9 weeks (a month ago) and heard the heartbeat again yesterday. The little tike's heart is just pumping away. All sources say "The Bean" is doing great.

I feel really fortunate that my doctor's office puts the ultrasounds on a DVD for us to keep. Is that common, or am I super lucky? Anyway, we added commentary to the video and sent it to our moms for Mother's Day, but there are some out-of-town family members who have been wishing they could see it. So for any who are interested, check out the ultrasound below.

How I Know Todd Loves Me

This past weekend, Todd took his boy scouts deep-sea fishing down at Panama City, Florida. Apparently, they had a very successful time. Many red snappers were caught. The good side of this is that the group had a great time, and were able to pass off a fishing merit badge and a camping requirement. The bad side is that Todd came home smelling very fishy.
Saturday night I kept waking up to a strong fish smell. It was because I'd be lying on Todd's shoulder, and he'd have his arm around me. His stinky hand would be dangling right by my face. It made me feel a little bit like barfing. So I'd roll over. Hours later, the same scene would repeat itself.

Yesterday, Todd asked me why I'd kept rolling away from him, and so I had to reveal the smelly truth: The smell of his hands made me want to hurl. We've been trying to get it out with salt and lemon juice (any other great ideas, guys?!) but it's still there.

So. . . guess what Todd did last night? He wore stretchy gloves to bed. For reals. It was seriously funny, and it actually made us get really hyper for a while. We both laughed so hard we cried. But he kept them on all night. And I was able to cuddle up with my man even though he went fishing.

The Alabama Haircut

Well, I'm definitely not in love with it, but it's undeniably better than before. I was going to do side and back shots, too, but I couldn't bring myself to post them. It's only cute from the front.
I brought several pictures with me, and told Max, the stylist, I wanted my hair cut like this:Max had his own ideas. He was definitely a skilled stylist, but he also had strong opinions - particularly about women keeping their husbands happy by having long hair. He kept saying, "Let me show you what options you have, since your hair is long," and "You can always come back and get it cut shorter when you're ready for a new look again." He did a good job, but he did not do what I wanted. I'm a pushover, and gave in since I'd already been slowly persuading him to go shorter and shorter for over an hour and was tired of it. I forked over the money, and am relieved that in three months I can try a stylist in another state.

A Smal Child Could Get Lost in This Sink

This is the sink in our half bath. It is pretty huge. Sometimes Todd says it's so big he could take a bath in it. I think that's funny.

The Hair, Part II

Last night, when I pulled my hair out of its ponytail and turned around to come to bed, Todd's eyes bulged and he gasped. He didn't want to tell me what he had thought. I said, "What, is my hair out of control?" After much cajoling, he told me what had gone on in his head. He said, "Not that you look like her, or even that you remind me of her, but the way your hair was bending out before it fell down [instead of laying across the forehead] reminded me of that girl from American Idol with the crazy hair."
Yep. My hair reminded Todd of Amanda Overmeyer. It is truly time to take action. I can't live like this. I am going to make a hair appointment today and hope for the best.

A Mother's Day Tribute

Today I've got to give a shout-out to my beautiful and loving mom, Deon. She is the Ultimate Mother. I am amazed at how large a capacity for love, tenderness, and compassion her heart has. All my friends who've met her have remarked how sweet and caring a woman she is.
Words cannot begin to describe how much I appreciate you, Mom. I have already erased three half-sentences that didn't come close to touching what I feel. Thank you for coming to all of my school plays (usually more than one night), for the late-night talks, for the back-massage trade-offs on the living room floor, for the phone calls and emails since I've left home, for the road trips to visit me in California, for the countless nights I know you have been on your knees praying for me. You are so beautiful and loving and sweet, the perfect mom. I am so lucky. I love you. Happy Mother's Day!
And I can't let this day slip by without also mentioning Todd's mom, Ellen. Todd Floyd is the perfect mix of wacky, hardworking, fun-loving energy, and it's pretty obvious that he gets A LOT of that from Ellen. Thank you, thank you, thank you, for raising this boy that I love so much.
Here are some of the things that I love and admire about Ellen. She will play games with me every single night when I visit - one of the rare few who crave games as much as I do. Ellen is generally happy - she laughs A LOT. She is chock-full of service. She's always running about, doing things for her family and neighbors, making the day stretch into impossible lengths to accomplish all she plans to do. She impressed me the Christmas Todd and I were dating when she had us run all over town "pixie-ing" people - leaving anonymous treats and gifts on doorsteps and running away. She organizes opportunities for her family to work at soup kitchens on the holidays. She is active in charities and helping third world countries. She is involved in so many good things and is a very good example to me of how to give of your own time, money, and possessions to others who are less fortunate than we are.

I am so blessed to have these fabulous women in my life. Happy Mother's Day, Mom and Ellen!

Woe is Me!

Sigh. My hair is so blah these days. I don't know what to do with it. It needs a haircut, MAJORLY! but I'm so scared to have a local take a whack at it. It hasn't been cut since last August, right before I consigned myself to a long-term Alabama residency.

It is always back in a ponytail by mid-day, and ALWAYS before presenting myself to the public. To be honest, I often let it run amuck during the day, but when I think Todd's about to come home, I run upstairs and pull it back. I can't even stand for him to see me this way!

Every night when I pull it down to go to sleep, I look at myself forlornly in the mirror and wish, oh wish, there was someone out here I could trust with a pair of scissors.

I thought for a while I'd just scope out other ladies around town, and ask the ones whose hair I love who cuts it. That lasted about a week. It gets pretty depressing when you hit seven days without seeing EVEN ONE haircut you'd like on your own head!

Blah. I just want to look glamorous; is that too much to ask?

Playing Dead

We were up late one night and Todd heard a scuttling sound in the backyard by the BBQ. He went out to investigate and saw a possum running away. The drippings can was on its side on the ground.

Since then, there have been a couple more times Todd has sworn he heard the possum outside, always around 11:30 or midnight, but he has yet to see it face to face. Todd is determined to catch the possum while it's in the yard, and hit it with the broom, to make it "play possum," or pretend it's dead.

A few nights ago, Todd was especially confident that his time had come, so he had me videotape the proceedings. Please, enjoy! I think it is SO funny, as you can tell by my whispered giggling throughout the whole thing.