P. S. Thanks Ashley!!

I know you check my blog. We got your package yesterday, and everything is too cute. We really appreciate it! :)

Fun Filled Weekend

Man, when I put my mind to something.....

The weekend started off easy enough. I got up and started checking things out online for work. It was going pretty well, so I went upstairs to get Eric up a little after 8. He came downstairs and we ate a quick breakfast. I was going to be on the computer for awhile, so I said, why don't you go pull those weeds out in the back yard flower bed (that we started last year and pretty much let go the past few months). So he did. It started to look really good, and after getting bored with some work, I said, let's go up to Home Depot or the Garden Center and pick out some flowers for it. So we went to the depot, and the soil/mulch we wanted was more expensive, so we went to the garden center, which was having a sale! On the way we stopped at Sherwin Williams to compare a paint color we had picked out for our living room/breakfast nook/kitchen with a color we had picked at home depot...just to see what we liked better. So we get to the garden center and picked out some great plants, most of which were half off. We came home, ate a quick bite, and I put Eric to work. Eric laid all the new soil, I potted a plant, and laid out the plants how I wanted them in the flower bed, and he planted them all and then put all the new mulch down. I was impressed. The picture does it no justice, but it looks good!

So then, I come back in, we shower, check work stuff online, lay around and eat dinner and watch the Astros game. Then, I'm like, why don't we paint these rooms? We have a color, we want to do it, let's do it this next week slowly (Eric can work during the day) so that it'll be done and paint smell free before the baby comes. So of course before you can paint, you can to clean the whole house head to toe right? I vacuumed the entire downstairs, including the laundry, all the tile corners, moved everything in the living room and really cleaned. Then, Eric ran up to home depot as Kerry Duty called, so I took a rest on the couch and he went to get the paint (this is almost 9pm now). Kerry and I had a great talk, for almost an hour!! She was rocking little Joshua and it was great to catch up. When Eric finally got back home, I got off the phone and still wasn't tired. I decided to tape off the living room. Then I finished it and taped off the breakfast nook. Then I finished it and taped off most of the kitchen! Eric (and most of you) thought I was crazy. Finally I got tired and decided to go to bed.

Anyways, now I'm up and at 'em (can't sleep too long, I get way to uncomfortable) and am checking work stuff again. I predict we get the ugly green wall that I painted about a year and a half ago in the living room primed today and everything out of the kitchen (from on top of the cabinets, etc). Maybe we'll even start painting the breakfast nook and other walls of the living room. Here are some befores...will post the afters if I don't go into labor first! :) Don't worry, I won't stay around the fumes. Besides, my doctor said when we were painting the nursery, as long as I keep it well ventilated and take lots of breaks, I'll be fine. :)

36 weeks

Today I had my 36 week ultrasound and doctors appointment. Everything went well. Baby girl's heart rate was 130. I've gained 25 pounds. Her estimated weight already is 6 pounds 14 ounces! Amniotic fluid levels and everything looked good. She is now in the 78th percentile. In February (after my surgery) she was only in the 21st percentile. Then 3 weeks ago at my last ultrasound she was in the 45th percentile, so she's been growing strong. I'm already dialated 1 cm. Basically I'm due 6/28, however my doctor is on vacation that week and wants to be here when I deliver, so if I haven't gone into labor on my own, I will be induced most likely 6/20. If that's the case, only 12 more work days, I'm SOOO excited! I am on call this weekend however, so add 2 to that. We are all ready for her to be here. Everything is ready in the nursery, we've filled out all the paperwork we can think of. Eric is enjoying his time off of school, but getting everything out of the way so we can have a full 5 1/2 weeks of pure family time until he goes back and starts summer band 7/31. My folks and Bailey will be at the Frio on vacation 6/4-6/10, so they are praying she doesn't come that week. The full moon is 6/11, so we'll see! Eric's birthday is 6/13 and Bailey's is 6/21, so we have LOTS of dates in between to try to get her here :) I think we are close to picking a name, but we won't tell anyone until she is here. I said I'd never post this, but here is a picture of my big ol' belly at 36 weeks and 1 day for those who want to see. If you don't, AVERT YOUR EYES! :)

Baby Duty is here!

Joshua Michael Duty was born at 1:24AM, May 25. He was 5lb, 10oz at birth. Both mother and baby are doing great. Go click on the link to Jon and Kerry's blog to see pictures. I talked to Kerry today, she said they induced yesterday because he was small, let her push for 4.5 hours, then decided she needed a c-section! They are doing well, but both mom and baby got a fever, so she expects to be in the hospital until at least Saturday. Congrats to the new family!!

Showers

The past two weekends have been a whirlwind of baby showers. I never thought my house would have this many baby items in it at one time! The first shower was thrown by Eric's mom, sister, and aunt, Clara, Amanda and Joanie. Our friends Shannon and Nathan came down for the weekend and brought baby Garrett. I can't believe he's 10 months old. I am due 4 days after his 1st birthday. We got Ninfa's take out Saturday night so I think we pleased them (no ninfa's in Dallas!). The shower was a hit with family from Corpus, friends from work and church, and Houston family all attending. We got a lot of nice things, including clothes, the bath tub, and enough money to go order the crib, which we did last Saturday.



The second shower was down in Santa Fe, hosted by Bailey, Trayce, Kendra, Kate, Kristal and Karen. I didn't get a picture of all the hostesses together, so here is one with Bailey and Mom. We had a great time at this one too, with friends from Dallas, work, church growing up and high school all attending. We got some great items including the diaper bag and diaper champ, the pack n play and our bedding from the hostesses. Justin and Ashley came down from Dallas for a visit and Eric and I had a great time with them as well. We took them to Lupe Tortilla's Saturday night and had some great fajitas. Besides that Eric and I have spent the past few weeks writing thank you cards, watching (and falling asleep to) the Astros games (one of which last Tuesday was in person via tickets from work--we left in the top of the 11th inning!) and organizing the nursery. Eric has been having rehearsals after school this week to get the kids ready for the last concert which is next Tuesday. Monday is our last week of 3 weeks of "Prepared Childbirth" classes at the hospital. We've actually enjoyed them, and learning about the different relaxation techniques.

Coming up we have a game night at our house next Friday with friends from church. Then on Saturday, Eric is going with the jazz band from church to play at a church in the 4th ward. I will be heading down to Santa Fe that day to have an early mother's day with mom and go to Hailee's 4th birthday party. On the 17th I'm going to the Astros game in the suite with everyone from work....woo hoo! The 18th I have a shower at work, which I'm looking forward to (and it's Eric's dad's birthday, as well as George Straits!), the 19th is Eric's band banquet and the next week is his last day of school. I can't believe how quickly this school year has passed. We are SO looking forward to Eric having the summer off with me and raising our infant. Then this fall we have my sister's wedding to look forward too.....lots of fun to come!!

Another update....

Hello again. Sorry it's been so long. Things have been fairly quiet...but busy. April 7-9th we attended the Memorial HS band trip down to the South Coast Music Festival in Corpus Christi. The band did ok, but we had a great time hanging out at the condos. We were able to go visit Mee Mee (Eric's grandma) and Grandma Betty (my grandma) who both live there. I also got to see my cousin Amy and her 2 kids (2.5 and 6 months), both of which I had never met. Also, Grandma Betty bought us our 'travel system,' which the stroller and infant carrier/car seat. We are super excited. We know it won't end up in the nursery, but we have all the baby stuff up there right now for storage and it's getting full....this without the crib! We are so grateful for all the friends and family that are so excited about this baby. Keep us in your prayers as we are diligently praying for a safe and smooth labor and delivery.

Also, good news, Eric's band played at UIL last Wednesday and they got a 1 on stage and a 2 in sightreading. This being Eric's first year teaching (and with the scores the band has got in the past), he was VERY excited and I was extremely proud of him. He did so well! I went and watched in support and was so proud!

This fun Easter weekend came and went so fast. I was on call for work so I was at my computer most of the day Friday/Saturday, but at least Sunday was better. Our church added a Saturday evening service for Easter weekend because of the number of people we had attend last Easter and Christmas Eve. We expected Saturday evening to be mostly members making room for the guests on Sunday, but it was packed! We had 2 overflow rooms that were full. After we played in the orchestra, we ended up going out in the hall and watching it on a screen and listening to the sermon piped in. We were unable to go Sunday morning because Eric played a gig at another church, and work called, but I'm anxious to see how many people were there!

Besides that, we had a fairly uneventful weekend at home. We rearranged the living room. I went crazy scrapbooking, trying to get as much done before the baby comes as possible. I have completely finished my 2005 album and I did my cruise album this weekend. Now if only I could finish my 2003 and 2004 albums (each have about 4 months done). I have also started my wedding album, just sorting those pictures yesterday brought back so many memories, I can't believe it's been almost 5 years. I can't believe the number of pictures we have either!!!! Also, in other news, my sister and her fiance, Matt, bought a house in Pearland this weekend. They still have papers to sign and the inspections, but they'll only be about 25 minutes away from us now! Anyways, that's now for all. I'll add a couple of pictures from the past few months so you can laugh :) To the right is Eric at one of his band concerts in February. The kids in top band were going to play an Elton John song, and they wanted their director to dress up. When he wouldn't, they put the garb on Eric and snapped some pictures. He looks too cute! :)
Here is a pictures of Eric and I at the George Strait concert on 2/28. It was a great concert, we had a good time. We went with Deanna and Chad Nesvadba. I also didn't take pictures of opening day for the Astros.....we had awesome seats. We went with Deanna and Chad, 2 of their friends-Stephanie and Kevin, and Bailey and Matt. The Astros are starting off much stronger than they did last year!!! Woo hoo!!

Pictures

I finally unloaded some of our recent digital pics onto our computer. Here they are with some updates. To the left is Eric and I at our church on the 2/12, the day he got baptized. That little heated pond behind us is where he was dunked. My family and his family came up for the day and we had lunch at our house afterwards. To the right is Eric, David Jackson and Damon Archer. Damon's HS band (7 Lake in Katy) put on a concert in February, and David came down to play 2 accompanied solos at the concert. We had a good talk after his performance and Eric went out to eat with David, and Steve Peterson and Mike Brown, fellow trombone players from UM that are down in Houston now. Damon is our orchestra director at church too, he's a great guy!

This is Eric and I at the Great Caruso, a cute little dinner theater in Houston. March 4th was his Uncle Lawrence (Sparky)'s 50th birthday, so all the family met there for a matinee showing of Doo Wop 2. It was fun and a really neat place to visit.



Here are pictures of us painting our nursery. My mom came up and did most of the painting, and Eric worked hard on the chair rail. It turned out great looking. We have the changing table in it now and it looks great against the green. We can't wait for baby girl Newsome to join us!!

Slow Update....again

Hi again! Sorry it's been awhile. I think about updating this all the time, then don't get around to it. Today I am 25 weeks....15 to go (or less hopefully!!) :) My last dr. appointment was 3/2, when I was 23 weeks, 1 day. I had gained 2 pounds so far. Baby girl Newsome's heartrate was a healthy 142. I was 26 cm (that measurement thing the dr. does, not dilated!!! haha). I go back on 4/4 to do the nasty sugar drink and blood tests. Since the surgery, it has been a pretty pleasant pregnancy. I was never sick during the 1st trimester (physically sick). Things would smell bad, and I didn't want to go out to eat, but I never got sick. At about 20 weeks I started feeling the baby kick, and she hasn't stopped since! Eric and I sit and watch her at night, it's entertaining (or we're just boring!).

Update about the tier 2 ultrasound we did, we got there and sure enough, the doctors office had sent in the blood work with the wrong due date, so were worried for a month for nothing. They said they sent it in with the right due date and we had no increased chance for a baby with down syndrome, so that's a blessing. We still got to do the ultrasound, which was about 35 minutes of just watching our baby move around (and be wound up in a ball so we kept having to move her to get some measurements). We LOVE ultrasounds, but now since everything's been going so good, I don't know if we'll get another one. My March 2nd appt was my first ever appointment without an ultrasound, and it was kinda sad because I like watching her move around (and it's even better without a large tumor to look at!). Oh yeah, the 10cm cyst turned out to be a benign tumor. The name of it has 3 long words (not a fybroid, something else). The doctor said they are never cancerous, but have a 10% chance of coming back on either ovary, so I'll probably have an ultrasound at every yearly exam from now on to make sure it doesn't.

Last week was Eric's spring break. We started out last Sunday/Monday by painting the baby's room. It has a pale green on top and one shade darker green on bottom, with a chairrail in the middle. It looks awesome; I will have to post pictures soon. My mom, being surrounded by teachers, has brought up 3 boxes of clothes (mostly 0-6 months, I don't think we'll need any more of those!) from friends at work. We ended up going and buying our changing table so that we had a place to put them all, and it's full already. If you add the few things we've bought and what the Newsome's have bought, the closet is almost full too! We are so excited for this little girl. On the one hand, I can't believe how fast it has gone so far, but on the other hand, I can't believe I still have 3 months to go!!!

We've been to the rodeo twice so far this year. Once to see George Strait and once for my committee final party--I volunteered on the Carnival Ticket Sales Committee this year, and had a blast. I sold so many tickets I got my gold badge and a big 'ol Texas size belt buckle! We had a great time walking around looking at all the vendors and animals. Eric and I got new cowboy boots, they are too cute :) We also found a great vendor that sells collegiate kids wear, and now Baylor is even letting them sell. The website (for Jen Barnes) is www.westarcollegiate.com. We bought the little onsie, and then my mom came up Sunday for lunch and she had gotten us the overalls and socks and bib and blanket. They are all too cute.

Keep in touch, we enjoy reading everyone else's blogs!

Happy Birthday Ashley!!

Today is my cousin Ashley's 26th birthday. I hope you have a great day! Sorry about the bad picture, it's the only one I have of her from Thanksgiving this past year. Her husband Eddie is sitting next to her.

Also, big news last Thursday, I felt the baby kick for the first time. It was awesome. Eric tried to feel it all weekend but he couldn't yet. That's the cool part about being the mom ;) We put headphones on my belly and let her listen to classical music all weekend. It was awesome--after about 10 minutes she started jamming away. Either that or she didn't like the music. I feel her more and more now that I know what it feels like.

Also big news for today, Eric finally got baptized. We joined our long attended church, Kingsland Baptist Church back on 1/15. I transferred my letter and he, who has been a christian since July 2000 finally got to get baptized. My parents came up and his family attended and then we grilled at our house afterwards. It was a fun day. Hope you are enjoying the updates :)

Major Update

I know, I know, I'm not keeping this thing updated. I have pictures of Christmas and Thanksgiving online, email me if you'd like me to send you the link. I'm behind the times and not on Flikr yet either. Well, let's start with all the news of 2006. For New Year's Eve, we went up to Dallas to attend the KKY/TBS alumni party...however, we thought the party was Saturday and not Friday, so we missed it! :) We did have fun at Justin/Ashley's house visiting with Jamie/Curtis in from Nashville, and Shannon/Nathan/Garrett, and Ashley's sister and her friends.
It was my first time venturing into maternity clothes. They are still too big for me, but are much more comfortable than my normal clothes. After that, we came home and Gweny had to have surgery AGAIN! She had the bladder stones again. This time, a slightly different kind. But she healed fine and is her same perky self again (with the help of Riley of course!). That picture is of a Christmas joke, Bailey KNOWS our dogs don't wear clothes, but she bought them sweaters for Christmas and we just had to put them on. They were too funny. They wore them about 5 hours, and haven't since. After Gweny's surgery, Eric's truck had to have a new transmission and a new ignition switch (2 separate visits to the dealership). Thank goodness everything was under warranty still! On January 10th, I went in for my 16 week check up. Sure enough, that cyst was still there, so we scheduled my surgery for the 19th (last Thursday). I got 4 great pictures of the baby (total of 9 now), which someday I may put online. And, I begged the ultrasound tech to tell me what she thought it was, and as of right now, it's a "Possible Girl" :) As the ultrasound pic says! My next appointment is Feb 2nd, so maybe we'll find out a little more then, either way, we are thrilled. After, that, it was just waiting out the surgery. We had the quad screen test done, which I had said my whole pregnancy that I didn't want done, but the dr. talked me into it. Sure enough, we are at an 'increased risk' of having a baby with down syndrome. My normal chances should be 1 in 1,020, but we are 1 in 256. We are praying about that, but not really focusing on it much because of the false positives rate that is out there. On 1/19, I went in at 6am for my surgery. It only took an hour, but man was I nervous. I didn't realize I was nervous until I was in there waiting for the nurse to start my IV, etc and I realized I was wheezing. She sent Eric to get my inhaler out of my car and he and my mom got to come back there before the surgery with me to calm me down. I was glad they were there. After the surgery, I remember pain and saying ouch and crying a lot in the recovery room, which they made me stay in for an hour. When they told me I couldn't see Eric for an hour I got even more upset.....then I fell asleep and it went by very fast! :) After that they wheeled me to my room and Eric, mom and Eric's parents came in to see an emotional Misty. They were very good to me, Eric and Mom stayed pretty much all day with the Newsome's visiting in the morning and at night. Each day got a little better, and they let me go home Saturday afternoon 1/21. Mom, Bailey, and her fiance Matt came home with me and took care of me until Sunday afternoon. Eric took Monday off too to make sure I was ok. Tuesday was the hardest because I was bored and missed Eric, and had to move around on my own a lot. The puppies kept me company though and curled up at my feet to keep them warm. I also missed not being in the hospital and having them check the baby's heart beat every 6 hours or so. I think that's what got me so emotional this past week! Yesterday we went to get my staples out (yes, I took pictures of them, they're gross, not getting posted online--imagine a cut from my belly button, down 10 cm!), and man did that hurt, and sent me into another crying spell. I've had lots of weird/sad dreams lately, and I was telling my doctor about them and got upset. Eric has been so great through all of this, I am truly thankful to God that we found each other! The doctor told me the tests on the cyst came back. It's not a cyst, it was a benign tumor that has a 10% chance of coming back on one or both ovaries. They will just have to check every year by ultrasound to make sure nothing is there. That's about it now that you have the full update on my life. I'm really happy it's Friday. Eric should be home soon and my mom is coming up tomorrow to keep me company. Let us hear from you!