Happiness

I thought after our last blog, this one had to be labeled "happiness" just because it is. Last week we had our scheduled 3d ultrasound, which baby girl Miller did not cooperate one bit. She couldn't get a single shot of her face around both feet and both hands and to top it off she wouldn't move at all....caffeine doesn't effect her at all apparently.

Well, sugar, does! We went back in today for try two and she was much more cooperative! We watched her open her eyes (a little creepy to see in all honesty), yawn, and practice breathe. One of the pictures even shows her smiling. I know its not a real smile, but its neat to see that those muscles work! :) Its amazing how much you can love someone you haven't yet met. She's already my pride and joy.

Sadness

I am sick of writing messages like these to our blog. I feel like I've done it way too often. After a wonderful weekend with Mom, Dad, and Rudy in Virginia, I received a call last night from Mom. Rudy had been hit by a car at around 10:30 or so. They took him to the vet right away but he had suffered massive internal injuries. So at around 11:15, they made the decision to put him down. Rudy was all the things I had spoken about earlier- stubborn, persistent, etc., etc. But after a year with my parents, he was also loving and kind. He was faithful and a protector of his family. He had become Gus' best buddy (I'm so glad I took video of them playing together this weekend). This is the most unfair I've felt life has been in some time- mom and dad are wonderful dog owners and I saw Rudy come SO far! All I can ask is that those reading this blog REALLY pray for my parents, especially dad. Rudy was dad's boy and there is going to be a hole that is left by this that I think will need divine intervention to fill. Please pray for them!!
-Jimmy

Is is back to school time already?

Both Jimmy and I started back to school this week. I realized its been a month since we posted...mainly because we were on vacation for about ten days in Ohio. We spent time with my family in Bluffton and in Hartville with Jimmy's family.

My cousins threw a wonderful shower for my sister and I since we were both home at the same time for the last time until after our little ones are born. We saw countless friends in both homes and I picked out my nursery furniture with Jimmy's mom. Its gorgeous! Baby girl doesn't know how lucky she is! We also visited a consignment shop in Hartville, where we picked out her very first buckeye t-shirt!

One fun story to tell is that goes with the picture I included. Gus and Rudy were the best of playmates this time and one time when they were running in the backyard, Rudy turned one direction and Gus turned the other and kept on going. We yelled for him and I ran up to the front yard to see if I could see where he went. I yelled down to Jimmy that I saw a dog running down the street but it was too dark to be Gus. The closer he got to me, I realized it was Gus...covered in black mud. He looked like one of those sea otters stuck in an oil slick! He was not happy when we had to hose him down and then give him a bath on top. I also managed to annoy my husband because all I could do was laugh...he is still working on thinking it was funny. Maybe someday! The other picture I posted are just ones of Gus asleep at the top of our stairs, too darn cute! - Kari

Boy was I wrong!

After 19 a half weeks of guessing we found out today that we are having a girl! I had been positive it was a boy! I even had bought some boy clothes off of the classifieds posted by our school system! Luckily, some of them are actually pretty neutral. We are thrilled, we would have been thrilled if it was a boy as well.

The little one actually was fairly uncooperative. I thought I might leave without knowing! The tech said it had been a long time since one had made her work that hard. I might have to have another ultrasound in a few weeks to check out the heart a bit more closely. She would not turn around! She has a good heart rate and she was moving, but I think she is like her daddy, likes his sleep! :) Now I can start picturing the nursery bedding and other items I was waiting to decide about!

Happy Fourth of July!

Well, it has been an eventful week! I got my husband back and my parents came to visit all in about two hours of each other. It was nice to have a full house! They helped us with our nursery. It is about done, I will post pictures of that tomorrow when it is completed. But I had to show a picture of our beloved, "scaredy cat" of a dog on the fourth of July. Gus hates fireworks. There were several displays going off right in our neighborhood so we went out to the back porch to watch them. We tried to get Gus to come too, but he immediately jumped at the door to go back in. Jimmy took him in and he was still scared. Jimmy's parents former dog, Hoss, had also not liked fireworks and thunderstorms and he used to get into the bathtub. We thought maybe it would make Gus feel better too. So I have included a picture of our silly dog sitting in the bath tub where he stayed for probably an hour! - Kari

Team Camps and Winning Expectations

As promised many moons ago, I would post some boring basketball news. We are on our last day of team camps. We started at Alta Vista (went 5-1 with the one loss coming against a state semifinalist last year). It was a good time and we learned some things. We've come to NC State to play against the "big boys" and have more than held our own (we're 6-1 here as well, and in the one we lost we gave away a double-digit lead and ended up losing by 4). We've said all week that there is just a different feel when you EXPECT to win rather than hope to win. And this team simply expects to win when they take the court. That confidence and the expectation of winning is going to be big as we continue our development and head into next season. We have gotten a lot out of the last several days (not to mention our individual camp 2 weeks prior to this) but this Coach is ready to be home with his wife and his dog! 210 Tanager Lane will look GOOD tonight!!
-Jimmy

Upcoming changes

Well, summer is finally here! I have had a quite busy week considering its my first week off from work! I try to put all my doctor and dentist visits in the summer so I don't have to take off for them so I spent a lot of time in doctor's offices. I also had my 16 week doctor's appointment for the baby as well. I am going to a practice that has midwives and doctors and opting for the midwives unless something goes wrong and I become a high risk pregnancy. As a part of everything we had the option to join a group of women all at about the same delivery time and have a birthing/parenting class as well as your normal routine check up. Seemed like a good idea to us since many of our friends said the ones they went to at the hospital were worthless. As a part of the time we listen to the baby's heartbeat and don't you know, when I got my turn she couldn't find the heartbeat! Scared me to death! She went and found one of the doctors and we did an immediate ultrasound and there he/she was....hiding just a little further into my pelvis than expected at this point! Needless to say there were a few tears shed! Already teasing mommy! Jimmy wasn't with me because of basketball camp and I told him he was not allowed to miss any more appointments!

This week was crazy basketball camp week for Jimmy. The coaches decided to do both boys camp and girls camp the same week (one in the morning and one in the afternoon/evening) so Jimmy has been gone almost all day. I have been helping with the boys camp in the morning by running the concession stand. I get paid a little and I like just being there to at least catch glimpses of my husband! Then I come home and take care of our beloved Gus! Who by the way chewed up a bottle of chocolate syrup on my area rug last week. Other than that he has been pretty good! - Kari