I live on a farm.

Well at least somedays it feels like I live on a farm. Actually I live in a really nice, quite residential neighborhood, but you wouldn't know it be taking a look at my backyard neighbors' yard. They currently own 2 monkeys, 2 African Servals (the female is pregnant), 1 Fox, 1 Goat, 5 or 6 dogs, and about 80 billion cats. No joke!! Now most city regulations across the country would not allow people that live within city limits and especially in a neighborhood to keep these wild animals, but the City of Murfreesboro does.

Brett and I came home last night from work to find that our fence had been busted through by the goat. Not all that surprising, since it constantly rams it with its horns. Two of the boards were cracked in half and an entire section of the fence was busted loose. Therefore, the goat and all the other animals had free reign on our yard. They took advantage of this too. My garden was trampled and all of my green been plants were destroyed. The goat also took its non-stop chewing jaw up on our deck and ate part of one of my plants and shredded a cardboard box we kept our inflatable pool in. It also took a drinking glass that was sitting by the back door and placed it in the middle of the yard. The list goes on.

Needless to say, I was ticked!!! As many of you may already know, I'm a hot head and things like this make me go off! So what did I do you ask? I took the cucumbers that the goat didn't get a chance to finish and I hurled them over the fence as hard as I could. I was hoping to land them in the swamp they consider a pool, but I didn't make it that far. Not that they would have seem them in there anyway, because the algae is far too thick to see anything. These people obviously had to come get their animals and attempted to put the fence back in place hoping we wouldn't notice. Right........good thinking. Most decent people would have come by and offered to pay for the damages or at least apologized, but not these hill billies. Nope, they just put their goat and dogs into hiding. I kid you not, they must have taken the goat inside their house until we went to bed, because it was nowhere to be found until this morning.

Oh yeah and about this morning. I was awaken by what sounded like an animal on our deck. I was right! When I looked out the window I saw a puppy Beagle on my back deck sniffing around. The little booger had gotten through the newly made gap in the fence, but couldn't seem to get back. So I went out there and played with her for a little while. She was the cutest little thing and our dogs loved here. I thought about holding her for ransom, but wasn't sure that they would even notice she was gone and I can't afford a third dog. When we pushed her back through the fence she fought us with all her might. She did not want to go back. She whined and cried and I felt so bad for having to put her back over there in those conditions, but I had no choice.

Anyway, I contacted the City and no one is willing to do anything. The only thing that can be done is that Animal Welfare can site the owners if the animals are found roaming free. I was thinking of opening up the fence and letting them in my yard and then letting them out my front gate and then calling Animal Welfare to come witness it. Does that sound like a plan or what? You tell me.

Drum Role Please...

It's a boy!!!! Yep that's right, now Brett will have a little buddy to watch football with him, because we all know I have no interest in ND football or any of the rest of it. When the lady started doing the ultrasound yesterday, she said the baby had his legs curled up right to his crotch and I just knew we were going to leave not knowing what we were having. But 30 minutes later, she was able to get a glance at his boy parts. Don't ask me how these people identify these things, because it just looked like black spots to me. We were so excited, because this means we'll get to use all of the little boy outfits that my sister-in-law gave us. In one box alone I counted 70 outfits and I didn't even bother to count the other box. This also means the outfits we got at the garage sales last weekend will be put to good use as well. No more thinking, "well I guess I could pair this with a pink hat or pants or socks or something."

Now for the other anouncement. I said I would hold off until we found out what we were having to announce the name we had picked out for a boy, so here it is: Carter Joseph Mitchell. Carter being a totally random name that we loved and Joseph being Brett's middle name. So we can call him Carter, Car, or C.J. My dad already has visions of C.J. whipping everyone on the NASCAR track. If the ultrasound is any indication of what this kid will grow up to be, I think he'll be a boxer. The technician kept trying to get a good image of his face, but he kept putting his hand in the way everytime she tried. He was very very active and even seemed a little obnoxious, because anything she wanted to see, he would block it with his hands or feet. Awwwww...I love him already!! Stubborn just like his momma.

Here are the two best images we got from the ultrasound. The first one is an image of his cute little face and the second one is of her trying to get his face, but only getting hands, knees, and cord.

Almost a Big Announcement

Well I'm at 21 weeks and tomorrow Brett and I will find out the big news; whether or not this baby that's been kicking me in the belly is a boy or a girl. Hopefully he/she won't have his/her legs crossed. That would be upsetting. But mostly I'm just extremely excited and nervous to see my baby for the first time. I'm assuming it's normal to have fears of something possibly being wrong with your baby when you take your first glance. I'm not so sure it's normal to think my baby may have an arm growing out of its head. Or is it? Anyway, I guess I'm just nervous because of the unknown. What if my 1 cup of coffee every two weeks really has hurt my baby, or what if carrying that night stand that probably weighed 35 - 40 lbs. was too much, or maybe inhaling paint fumes while painting my room was harmful. I mean, I think I've followed the Dr.'s rules pretty closely, but I still have fears. I've never been pregnant before and I'm so used to over doing things (especially when it comes to straining my body) that I just don't know what is safe. I have been a huge believer in not listening to everybody's advice and only listening to my Dr. and my body and so far I think that's the right thing to do. I know there are so many people out there that believe if you have a sip of coffee or lift over 15 lbs. you're hurting your baby, but I don't believe that. But I'm still a little nervous for tomorrow.

I really haven't been that worried so far, until I went over to my in-laws the other night. My sister-in-law had a baby about a year and half ago and her and her husband were the types that took no chances and I'm pretty sure she wouldn't even take a sip of Coke for the entire 9 months. So when I had mentioned I painted my bedroom, her and my mother-in-law freaked. I told them my Dr. said it was okay as long as I had plenty of ventilation. Then when I picked up a box of baby clothes that probably weighed 10 lbs., my sis-n-law quickly made me hand it over and told me I'm not supposed to be lifting stuff that heavy. I know they only have the best intentions and are only trying to look out for the baby, but it just makes me feel bad like I'm not taking care of my own baby. I don't know. I think this blog just turned into something way more that I had intended it to. Must be the hormones.

Anyway, I'll make sure to let everyone know on Thursday morning whether or not our little boy or little girl has an arm growing out of its head. Until then...someone please get me a chill pill.

Gray is an impossible color

Well over the weekend I was determined to add some more color to my house. Apparently it was pretty colorful before we bought it, but the seller painted it all a boring beige to make it more sellable and now I'm trying to change it back. I painted our master bedroom a couple of months ago and was trying to achieve a medium gray color and ended up with a dark olive green looking color. Kinda similar to gross baby poop. I guess someone thought it would be a great idea to mix a lot of gold into the paint and made it look disgusting once it was on the walls. So I went to Sherwin Williams and picked out a couple of over priced paints to fix my situation. I stressed to the guy that I wanted a light to medium gray that actually would turn out gray. Not blue, not purple, not green, but actually gray. Well I got a color I really thought would look gray once on the walls, but it once again looks a little different. It has a blue look to it, but I'm satisfied. It's waaaaaaaay better than the color I covered up. So I am in love with my room once again. We got the smell out be painting the floor and replacing the carpet pad, we finally got a bed that we love as well as the bedding, and now the color just really tops things off. So here is the final product (almost, I still need to hang the curtains).

Here is the color I picked out to paint two of the walls in my living room. It's called Svelte Sage. I'm doing a two tone, because my ceiling is sloped and two of the walls are two stories high and God knows I don't want to attempt that project while pregnant (or ever for that matter).

Oh and some how I actually convinced Brett to let me paint the kitchen purple!!! Can you believe it? I told him that a lot of people are starting to use dark purples in their houses and I left it at that. When we were at Lowe's last night I had showed him a Taupe kind of color for the kitchen and he replied, "I thought you were going to paint it purple." What?!?! You mean you would actually let me do that?! He said as long as I had lots of white accents. No problem, our cabinets are white and there is lots of white trim in there to help out. So this will be exciting, because I'm going to do a wine/grape/Italian theme in the kitchen and I think purple is very fitting for that.

Dear Mr. President

You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. You cannot build character and courage by taking away people's initiative and independence. You cannot help people permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.

Abraham Lincoln

Week 20 Belly

For the first time in my life my legs actually look skinny compared to the rest of me. I promise you, I really do have thunder thighs!! This is me at 20 weeks prego. I hope I'm not expanding too quickly, but if I am, oh well! You probably won't be seeing anymore pictures of my bare belly, because it's really not that attractive nowadays. I don't have any stretch marks yet, but I still have a tiny tiny fat roll at the top of my stomach that the baby hasn't seemed to push out yet, so it leaves a gross red line across the top of my belly. It's horrible, because it's the tiniest little roll you've ever seen, but it just won't go away!!! What can ya do?? Hey, with my belly looking so large at least my but doesn't look that big anymore. (At least for now).

Halfway There

Today marks my 20th week of pregnancy, which means I'm exactly half way there! It seems like these past 20 weeks have flown by, but it also seems like November 24 is still an eternity away. These next 8 days are going to crawl by, because on July 15 at 3:00p.m. we find out whether our child will be playing baseball or softball. To date, we still haven't had an ultrasound done, so this first one will be extra exciting. It's supposed to be a 3D ultrasound, so that'll be really cool to see. Hopefully the baby cooperates and I won't have to wait any longer to find out the gender. Brett and I were at the mall the other day and stopped by The Children's Place and were debating on whether or not to buy a pack of neutral colored body suits, but we decided to pass. Afterall, we're going to be find out if it's a boy or girl in just about a week, so there was no point in spending the money on something we weren't crazy about anyway. Although, I did find a website a couple of weeks ago where I could design my own Onesies and I got a couple personalized for Brett and my parents. The one I got for my dad (or the baby really) said "Grandpa, it's not fair to blame your gas on me." So fitting.

On another note, our new bed arrived yesterday and we got to sleep in it last night. It's a King size pillow top and I thought I may never get out of it once I layed down. Not only is the mattress super comfortable, but the sheets and comforter are also soooooooo cozy. I think Brett and I will be going to be at 6:30 tonight.