a really long post with TWO pictures!!

So I'm going to start working on something -- typing correctly. I never use capital letters when typing blogs/emails/IMs/messages/texts. Okay, I'm not going to capitalize texts, but I'm going to try with everything else. I like the way typing in lower-case looks -- kind of informal. But I also realize that it looks like a middle schooler is typing my blog, and it would drive me crazy if I received a hand written note that wasn't capitalized properly.

So anyway, not that I'm off that... how was everybody's week? Mine was actually busy -- WalMart has ACTUALLY HAD ME WORKING FULL-TIME SHIFTS the last two weeks. Not next week, though, only 28. Boo, but better than the original 23 I was scheduled. So sorry I haven't had much time to blog!

Today I am 16 weeks. Woot woot! Time is flying! I have a doctor appointment on Tuesday, and hopefully he will schedule an ultrasound for sometime in the next few weeks, but I doubt he will. He likes to wait till 20-22 weeks for the second trimester ultrasound. I am still undecided on whether or not I want to know the gender of the baby. I think it would be such a neat surprise to wait until the birth, but I know it would be so fun to know now, so that I can buy cute clothes that go on sale, and be able to personalize blankets and the nursery and everything. I know I want to do a Pooh theme, and already have bedding picked out. My good friend Shannon is giving me a crib (and in exchange we are giving her a 27" TV!) and I think she is going to drop it off tomorrow. I FINALLY got the spare bedroom cleaned up, with much thanks to my friend Tabatha because it was a huge task and she didn't complain once! The only thing left to do is donate a bunch of stuff to PCDC, take a few items to Stephen's mom's house, and find SOMEBODY to buy my old entertainment center because it's HUGE and taking up a whole wall in the room. Then we can start painting!

Here is a picture of the bedding I have picked out.

Isn't that adorable? I also think the butterflies on the wall are cute, so I am going to try to copy that!

AND, last but not least, this week's picture!

Get ready for a growth spurt. In the next few weeks, your baby will double his weight and add inches to his length. Right now, he's about the size of an avocado: 4 1/2 inches long (head to rump) and 3 1/2 ounces. His legs are much more developed, his head is more erect than it has been, and his eyes have moved closer to the front of his head. His ears are close to their final position, too. The patterning of his scalp has begun, though his locks aren't recognizable yet. He's even started growing toenails. And there's a lot happening inside as well. For example, his heart is now pumping about 25 quarts of blood each day, and this amount will continue to increase as your baby continues to develop.

water works

i'm working on an emotional blog right now, and can only write it a few paragraphs at a time. i started it before work today, and everybody commented on my swollen/puffy/red eyes and face. as i've mentioned before, i am a really emotional person (even for a woman) and can cry for no reason at all. add in a bunch of pregnancy hormones, and i'm a freaking basketcase -- i'm a walking sprinkler system. it's ridiculous.

15 weeks

Your growing baby now measures about 4 inches long, crown to rump, and weighs in at about 2 1/2 ounces (about the size of an apple.) She's busy moving amniotic fluid through her nose and upper respiratory tract, which helps the primitive air sacs in her lungs begin to develop. Her legs are growing longer than her arms now, and she can move all of her joints and limbs. Although her eyelids and stil fused shut, she can sense light. If you shine a flashlight at your tummy, for instance, she's likely to move away from the beam.

working for the world's largest retailer isn't all it's cracked up to be

i missed my 14-week mark and don't feel like uploading a picture right now, so i'll just tell you that as of today, i am 14 weeks, 4 days, and my baby is about the size of a lemon! exciting, huh?

today i am going to the unemployment office (even though i am not unemployed) to try to find a new job. wal*mart just isn't go to work anymore, they've been cutting our hours so so so badly. i want to say more on that subject, but it will have to wait until i've talked to the store manager and cleared a few things up. (long story short: i believe i'm being discriminated against because i am pregnant. not cool.) hopefully i can find a great job where i can get 40 hours a week (not 23) and not take a huge paycut. even though walmart is the worst employer i've ever worked for, i do get a nice hourly wage compared to other jobs. of course, if i CAN work 40/week and take a pay cut, i would still make more than working 23-32/week with my walmart wages. oh, walmart, how i loath thee....

it's getting uncomfortable for me to sleep on my tummy. =( however, i am SO excited about people being able to see a baby bump and being able to wear those oh-so-comfortable maternity clothes!

twenty-five random things

i was tagged on facebook, and i thought i'd post it on here. 25 random things about myself.

1. the summers after my freshman, sophomore, and senior years of high school, i attended a summer camp. it was called "upward bound math and science camp" but it wasn't really a science camp, you know? during the mornings, we would take classes -- math, science, spanish, and english -- and in the afternoons we would do fun activities. there were two fun trips a summer, one short (like to hot springs) and one big. i traveled to atlanta, denver, and houston/galveston. the summer after my senior year i was able to take college classes from carl albert for free. it was a great opportunity, i made some great friends there and had the time of my life. i love my memories from those summers.

2. i was born and raised in mena, but there's nothing really tying me down here. i don't see myself here in 10 years.

3. my little brother is one of my best friends. if my child is a boy, i will be naming him after my brother.

4. i started college as a nursing major, and three semesters in (right before clinicals) i switched to education, which lasted for a whole semester. after taking a year off, i went back as a general studies major, and i'm about 12 hours away from a bachelors degree in gen studies but don't know when i'll finish it. i'm hoping to get accepted to the LPN program at rmcc next fall.

5. i am a very different individual than the rest of my family. it's hard to explain, and you've got to know both them and myself really well to understand it.

6. the only season i really don't love is spring. i love summer because it's so fun -- pools, vacations, tanning, there's so much i love about it. fall is wonderful because of the colors and the transition to cooler weather. winter i love for the snow, Christmas, and hot chocolate. maybe spring will grow on me eventually.

7. i've had a lot of "best friends" in my lifetime. the one i miss most still lives in mena and we still talk occasionally and when we do it's like we've never been apart -- but we lead such different lifestyles now than we did 2 years ago, it's hard to explain but we just can't see each other as much now. she was like a sister to me, and "gets me" more than anybody else i know. i miss our closeness so very much. (just typing this has made me cry.)

8. i have a freakish memory when it comes to conversations, dates, names, stories, etc. but, ask me where my keys are right now -- i would have no clue.

9. i am a big-time blog lurker.

10. types of cancer in my family history: breast, pancreatic, uterine, lung, colon, brain, testicular, and prostate. all of them are from my grandparents, except for the prostate, which my dad is in recovery for.

11. i love to read and wish i had more free time to devote to reading. i've always love it -- when i was in 3rd grade, i got in trouble for reading a book during recess.

12. this is my second pregnancy. i miscarried twin gestational sacs on september 17th, 2008 -- 4 days before mine and stephen's wedding.

13. i love love love to travel. there are so many places i want to visit before i die.

14. i also love theme parks. alot of the places i want to visit before i die are theme parks! i will ride any rollercoaster. stephen is still a little iffy about them.

15. when i was little, i took my brother outside, wrapped a garden hose around his whole body, and told him to look down the hose because Thomas the Tank Engine was going to come out of it. (he was a BIG thomas fan.) then i turned the water on. hehehe.

16. i'm definitely the emotional type. (as i proved in #7) i can cry about almost anything.

17. my memories of my dog toby are among my most treasured. (and here come the tears again.) it's been almost 2 years since he died, but i still miss him so much.

18. i have no living grandparents, which i think is so sad. both of my grandfathers died before i was old enough to really know them. i was 3 when one died, 6 with the other. i was 11 when my dad's mom died, and 16 when my mom's mom died. i hope my children have a lot of long, happy years with their grandparents, because i hate that i didn't.

19. i have the best mother-in-law a girl could possibly ask for!

20. i was in the ouachita little theater's production of "steel magnolias" during the summer of 2007, and the director told me he thought i brought more to the role of shelby than julia roberts did in the movie.

21. i attended the arkansas school for mathematics and sciences for the first semester of my junior year of high school. it was an experience i will never forget. i will always wonder what would have happened if i had stuck it out and finished my high school education there instead of returning to mena in january.

22. i chose to go to henderson state university for a few reasons. one was because i really liked the campus -- it was just the right size, and i thought it was beautiful. another was because it was only an hour and a half from home. i also like the town of arkadelphia -- about the same size as mena. in the end, i hated arkadelphia, and wished i would have gone somewhere farther away. i don't think it was the right school for me -- although i did make some great friends there -- i wish i would have chosen a different college, and i think i would have liked college more, and would have finished my four years instead of dragging them out the way i have done. part of me wishes i would have gone out of state. you only get to do the move-away-from-home-live-in-a-dorm-be-a-college-student thing once, and i wish i would have had a better experience.

23. i love trucks and suvs, but right now i'm driving a chevy impala. the best vehicle i've ever owned is a jeep liberty, and i LOVED it and i MISS it.

24. i don't re-use bath towels. once i dry off, it goes in the dirty clothes and gets washed. this is something that stephen finds extremely weird. my brother does the same thing, and his fiance thinks it's weird too! we just grew up doing that, so it's natural for us.

25. i cannot watch scary movies. i like to watch them, but i'll have nightmares for weeks afterwards. the ring scared the ever-loving crap out of me. after i watched that movie the first time, i couldn't sleep and crawled into bed with my brother after he'd fallen asleep. i was a sophomore in high school. i watched the exorcism of emily rose when i was a sophomore in college, and i had PRIVATE dorm room. i slept (badly) with a light on for weeks.

AI

ok... so the top 36 contestants were chosen on american idol tonight.

most of them, i agree with.

but a few i have a BIG problem with.

tatiana??? SERIOUSLY? she really doesn't sing that well. she will be one of the first america votes off. her laugh is seriously one of the worst things i have ever heard. i just cannot believe they put her through.

ok, and what about norman gentle/nick merchant... or whoever this guy is feeling like being on a particular day. he's hilarious, i give him that. but i have a problem with HIM getting through and the guy who sang "hey there delilah" (the best friend of the guy whose wife died -- btw, love him.) getting the boot. i really liked him, i just cannot believe that mr. split personality made it through and he didn't.

and the guy who couldn't remember the lyrics to "time of my life" and walked off stage? after talking about how it was such an easy song to memorize but a hard song to deliver? wow.

oh, and what about the extremely gay (and bear in mind i have NOTHING against gay guys here) guy who cries all the time. ech. again, his singing doesn't do anything for me and the fact that he cries MORE THAN ME is really, really, annoying. i would have much rather seen someone a little more mature make it through.

ok, and my last one is not necessarily a gripe... but i'm not sure about the visually-impaired piano player. yes, he's extremely talented, and yes, i liked his singing. but i don't think he has what it takes to win the competition, and i'm worried that he's going to get sympathy votes because he's disabled. i guess we'll see, maybe he does have what it takes -- that's just my gut instict, though.

by the way... how do you like my header?!?!? much thanks to thecutestblogontheblock.com for the layout and to blogaroozer for the instructions on how to replace my blogger header with the header that i made at scrapblog.com!!!

check it out!

whoohoo! i have a pretty blog now! no more yucky generic background! ...now i just have to work on my header!

not much is really going on. work, sleep, eat -- that's pretty much all i do nowadays. i seem to sleep 10 hours a night, which is just nuts! i seem to eat non-stop (although i rarely get cravings) and i am just sick and tired of working! this weekend we have a 3-day weekend. stephen and i planned on going to branson for V-day, but the stupid place where we are employed Wal*Mart has been cutting hours since before Christmas, so we don't really have the money to spend the weekend in branson.

on a different note, my laptop seems to have a mind of its own these days, and it's very frustrating. it doesn't always pick up all of the letters i type, which makes it look like either (a) i am a really bad speller or (b) i have a crap-load of typos. "summer" becomes "umer" and that sort of thing. the other thing it's doing is moving around the cursor on its own. so i'll be typing and all of a sudden its like the mouse clicks somewhere on the page, and there goes my typing off in the middle of a completely different paragraph. GRRR. frustrating! i am going to have to start using the desktop, which is just inconvenient because i'll have to re-do all of my settings... plus i love being able to watch tv and sit on the couch with my laptop at the same time.

poor, pitiful me.

help me!

where are you guys getting these adorable layouts? part of the reason i don't use blogger as much as i would like is because my layout is so generic and blah. so... help a girl out!

i am THIRTEEN weeks today! i had an appointment on tuesday and we got to hear the baby's heartbeat! it was really, really neat. every few seconds we would hear these loud static thumping noises, and the doctor told us that was the baby kicking! so neat! i can't feel the kicks yet, but hopfully in the next month or so i will be able to!

here is this weeks picture!