Our Charlie Brown Christmas Tree :)

Thanksgiving... Yes I am that far behind

Empty House

Our last night in our house. :( I think this was November 22nd. What a sad day and an empty house that was our home. We will miss you Illinois home!

Goodbye To Some of My Dental Friends

A few of my school buddies. We had a little get-together to say goodbye. Awesome people I will miss. :)

The Beginning of My Re-cap FEST!!!

PACKING! This was around early November. We were keeping our fingers crossed that all would go well with the buyers. We sold our townhome to a sweet young couple.

We also sold as much of our stuff as we could stand to. That included our college car, the silver '97 Acura Integra. When we sold it there were about 240 thousand miles clocked on that odometer. It is so hard to let go of your junk.

I Owe You An Update

Yes. It is true. I have neglected my posting. Actually, it really was a stall tactic. We have had so much going on and I haven't been able to discuss any of it openly. That can make a girl go mad. So, you may ask, what have you had "going on" lately? Well....

WE ARE MOVING BACK TO GEORGIA

It's okay, just breathe. Shocking, I know. There are many details to share... soon. I'll return to this post within the next couple of days and finish the information sharing. :)

AND..... here I am again.

Where do I start? I don't even know. Ummm..... okay. How about the part where we put our house on the market? Our townhouse was on the market for quite some time. We did a by-owner deal through Kale Realty and sat and waited. For what? We didn't know exactly at first. We were thinking about moving back home at some point in time, we just weren't sure when or what we were supposed to do or what "the right thing" for us to do was. (Did that sentence work?) It took a lot of praying. Then, we waited... for about a year.

We (or I - whatever) finally started feeling like we really needed to move closer to family, then we got pregnant. Talk about finding fresh motivation to get the ball rolling. We had open houses just about every weekend. Finally, a lovely couple decided that they wanted to purchase our home. We closed on November 24th and then our sweet friends, the Warrs, let us take over their basement. We have been living with them since November 19th so that we can finish out our year working here in the Chicago 'burbs.

There is so much more...
- We have packed all our belongings and have been living out of our suitcases since Nov 19th
- We are getting a POD on Saturday and all of our stuff will be delivered to Georgia next week
- I am trying to get licensed in Georgia so I can continue to do my dental hygiene gig; I severely dislike all the paperwork involved.
- I just took a special exam in Wisconsin today so that I might obtain the said Georgia dental hygiene license. (That was slightly stressful).
- We are driving down to Georgia next week... at 32 weeks pregnant... 2 separate cars... 12 hour drive... yikes.
- All this while still working, trying to get ourselves to 6 holiday parties, executing and designing our Christmas card, registering for baby stuff, oh AND lets not forget the Christmas presents...

I might lose my mind people.

That's okay, though. It may sound crazy, but I am okay with our super busy, out of control life right now. I am trying to live in the moment and just enjoy it all because this is such a special time and we will never be able to duplicate it. Thank heavens. :)

Sigh...

I love my life.

Picture Preview...

More pictures and explanations coming soon. These are from my ultrasound last Friday...

Alrighty now, the update. Our first ultrasound was September 25th and it was at the typical 20 weeks. It was a less-than-happy experience because my ultrasound tech was not very nice to me. I felt harassed and pretty emotional afterward. I had a discussion with the right people and was offered a second ultrasound - not medically necessary, though.

These are the pictures from my 26 week ultrasound. It was an awesome experience!!! The tech was nice and showed us so much. Of course I was able to see all the medically interesting stuff that I want to see, like the four chambers of the heart, skin layer, spinal cord, etc. and that made my day. Then, we were able to just watch the baby be itself for a few minutes. The baby yawned!!! I must tell you, I have never seen anything cuter. That moment made me fall in love with this little package that much more. Human life is amazing. After our sweet moment with the cutest yawn ever, the ultrasound tech showed a profile of the baby's head and happily pointed out that our precious babe has a healthy sucking reflex already. That was another great moment, just watching that cute little mouth open and close.

I could go on forever, I'm afraid. I am in love! Actually, I should say WE are in love. Skot is incredible. He has been the best future-daddy and pregnant lady helper ever.

Fingers... so cute.

Facial profile... so cute.

Knee, calf, and foot... so cute, again.
Our baby practicing pilates. Can you see the thigh, calf, and foot right in front of "it's" face? So cute.
Awww... cutie baby foot.
I think I would rather omit this one. This is the baby's middle finger. Obviously, I didn't request that this picture be taken. Hmmm... I wonder who did? Not as cute.

I still don't know the gender. I still don't WANT to know the gender. I do appreciate my hubby's photoshop skills... BOY?

Or GIRL?
Some of you out there know the gender... just a reminder... DON'T SLIP!

SLEEP!!!

Sometimes I curse bedtime. Anxiety lurks just around the corner as the sun sets. Will I sleep well tonight or not? Last night was not much fun. Left side, baby rolls and kicks, my shoulder and hip and attached extremities go numb, Skot's rear-end is in my way and he is slumbering like a kitten. Curse him. Right side, baby rolls and kicks some more, numbness ensues, bathroom here I come again... Did I even sleep at all? Ahh, the joys of pregnancy. :)

Baby Swimmer Transformation

Just a quick note about the baby and mama. I am doing well, feeling well, and had a great check-up last week with the OB. He said he is very happy with my weight and that I am measuring (from pubic bone to top of uterus) exactly what I should be. How nice to hear. Needless to say, I was glowing after that appointment. What a simple thing to hear, but so important to me right now.

The baby is so ACTIVE! I told a friend the other day that my little swimmer has now transformed into my gymnast / martial artist. I have experienced rolls and little tumbles with some surprising, no, STARTLING kicks that have literally made me jump. Needless to say, it is fun and interesting and all new.

Halloweeners

Quickie pics of the angel and kitty and belly.
Halloween night was spent at our friend's house, the Leites.
Just a quick little adjustment of the tail... and an accidental shot of the rotund.
Okay, lighting is poor :( and I really hate that. My angel boy, so pure and cherubic. :)

Birthday Girl

Yes, I had yet another birthday. I turned 32 on October 3rd. :) We had a lovely, quiet day together. We watched general conference, made a yummy cake, and Skot bought me tickets to the opera to see Faust.
No I am not eating batter with raw eggs in it.


It's my birthday, I can eat the middle if I want. ;)

Apple Pickin' 2009

Let me give a quick prelude to the apple picking... I have a great husband. I love spending time with him and I just can't get enough of him. Making fun memories, like apple picking, just adds to my appreciation for him. I really like this guy. :)


We went to a cute family-owned farm in Woodstock (Illinois) called "More Than Delicious" orchard that had numerous kinds of apples. I think we left there with 10 different kinds of apples. We brought home Cox's Orange Pippin, Jonathan, Jonalicious, Senshu, Snow, Tolman Sweet, Gala, Lustre Elstar, Sweet Sixteen, and McIntosh.

A lovely sample and rather large apple, actually.
Prolific fruit- bearing trees.
A little cheese with our apples.
Spying on my apple picker.
A view of the farm from the orchard. Just finishing up...
Our loot.

Chicago Temple

Unwired

I am a bit behind on my posting. We have had a lot of stuff happening lately and I have not been reporting! To back-track a bit (to Sept 11th) I thought I should share pictures of Skot's most recent day of liberation... the day the oral surgeon removed his super-tight rubber bands and allowed Skot to open his mouth.
Skot checking out his Panoramic x-ray from August.
Dr. Steichen removing the super-tight elastics and replacing with stretchy ones so he could open.
We took a trip to the doughnut shop and Skot was able to eat his first piece of solid food in 6 weeks!
Happy, happy, sweet boy.

Gender

As some of you may know we had an ultrasound on Friday. I decided not to find out the gender of the baby. (Yes, I'm calling it a baby more now than a fetus). However, Skot really wanted to know, so he found out! We'll see how this goes. Right now I want to wait until the birth, but who knows, maybe I'll change my mind. If YOU want to know what the gender of the baby is all you have to do is send an e-mail to Skot at skot@samatamason.com. There is one main rule. DO NOT SLIP AND TELL ME THE GENDER! If you think you might slip you have two options: don't talk to me about the baby OR don't find out and just wait with me.

Some people want to know what we are going to do about decorating a nursery and buying clothes for the baby since I don't know the gender. Obviously, decorating based on gender gives the whole secret away! Well, it's simple, we are going neutral which is what we would want to do anyway. Yes, that means no pink or blue. Skot has his own reasons for not wanting pink and blue; he wants to do some kind of a social experiment. I'll let him post about that on his own.

Speaking of Skot, he is doing well. His sweet mouth is unwired and he can eat now... and talk. He ended his broken jaw / liquid diet issue at 139 pounds. He was already thin from all his cycling and then dropped an additional 11 or 12 pounds. Crazy. No worries, he's gaining, you can stop cursing his skinniness.

New Link...

Hey everybody! Skot has started a website to help those who are suffering with "wired jaw syndrome." Take a look. It is still being worked on but is meant to have recipes, hygiene tips, etc. http://www.blenditloveit.com/

Excuse Pee, Please

Is anyone else sick of peeing ALL THE TIME? I can't count how many times I've gone today. So, so many times and I hear it only gets worse. Well, on the bright side, I felt great today. I went walking for 35 minutes, ran errands, cleaned, practiced piano - it was a pre-pregnancy sort of day. How nice to have a break.

Photography Is Hard

Yes, folks, that's right. Taking a truly good, high quality photograph is not an easy task. We now have a Canon T1i. I really like it a lot. I really am having a tough time mastering it. So, the truth is I haven't taken enough time to work with it, but I am trying. While we were at a neighborhood carnival, Skot tried to teach me a few photography principles. This is my attempt to focus on a subject and have the background blur. I can't remember how I did this. The photo isn't that great, but it's the concept I'm working on right now and I managed to nail it. If only I could do it again...

Another Baby Bump

So, it is time for another bump picture. I surrender, here it is. This is a not-so-good picture of me, but I don't care anymore. For the past 3 months I have looked terrible. It's true, I have lacked motivation to dress myself up. Feeling yucky has taken precedence over everything. That's okay, though. I have reached the stage of acceptance and my sweet husband has been so encouraging, how could I possibly feel bad about myself?
This is me at 17 weeks. :)

Explosion

For the most part I have tried to stay away from Skot's adventures in blending. Being pregnant and frequently nauseous means that I have been pretty much disgusted by his pureed food. Yes, to the point of gagging. On the positive side, I have been so proud of his efforts to be creative and to not let this whole mouth-wired-shut situation get him down.

With that said, he has had a few hiccups. Somehow, I thought we would skip this one, but apparently not. We had a blender explosion in the kitchen. I know, how sad. This was on a Saturday. Skot decided he wanted to blend eggrolls. No, no, don't gag. It's okay, I understand the throw-up feeling in the back of your throat. Anyway, he put all the food in the blender without placing the lid on, didn't see that the toggle switch was in the on position and plugged into the outlet. I heard a loud noise, then Skot cursing the blender and food and life itself. I jumped up thinking he for sure had injured himself only to find this...
Food on his face, in his hair, down his backside...
Itsy-bitsy pieces of food - everywhere...
And guess who cleaned up most of the mess? Trust me, it wasn't because he wasn't willing to do it and he did help some. I insisted on taking care of it. He needed a break. Poor boy.

Food Glorious Food

I've made some "thumbs up" and some "thumbs down" food choices recently. Christi calls them desperate. I don't think so. It's just the way it is.

1. Breakfast: pancakes, eggs, butter, and maple syrup.

Review: Not bad really. I actually went back for more. Had the taste of pancakes, with a hint of egg and syrup. Nothing was really overpowering anything else. Thumbs up.

2. Juice: Cantaloupe, mango and mint

Review: I think the cantaloupe taste was a little strong. The mint added a slight bite to the juice which was rather refreshing. The mango smoothed the taste out. Overall, OK, but I was done after one glass full. Cantaloupe taste was a little too much. Thumbs sideways.

3. Chips and Salsa: plus sour cream and re-fried beans

Review: If you love chips and salsa, you'd love this. It was mighty tasty! The chips added the saltiness and that good 'ol chip taste. The salsa was super refreshing, and the beans and sour cream added the extra "full" element that it needed. Thumbs up.

4. Spaghetti and Marinara: plus parmesan

Review: Couldn't get past the third sip. The noodles just became too thick and starchy. I did microwave everything AFTER I blended it, so maybe that was the problem. It was just too frothy. I added extra sauce, water, milk and still too thick. Thumbs down.

5. Wendy's: Chili and Baked Potato

Review: Oh yeah, thank you Wendy! I didn't taste them individually. I poured the baked potato first (with added butter and sour cream), then added the chili. Super good! I had 2 servings worth. What a deal. Thumbs up.

6. Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich (not pictured)

Review: Add the bread, peanut butter, jelly (in this case strawberry) and milk. Need I say more? This was super awesome. I wouldn't be surprised if you found this at some kind of smoothie shop somewhere. I've had it twice. Thumbs up.