Aaarrggghhhhh!

Okay - so technically I am early. And as of Friday, when the doc told me he thinks I will definitely go early, I was excited, but still thought - I just want my little Adalyn safe, so whenever she is ready, I am just fine with that!

That was then... ;)

So on Friday night, I had a couple random contractions. Not a big deal, just enough to start to get me excited. Then on Saturday morning, another milestone (I'll let you all guess in your mind what). Then Saturday afternoon - A LOT of contractions. Including some pretty painful ones. Greg and I got all packed up and ready to go, gave the house a good vaccuum, and then went on a walk. Still contractions.... But not getting worse, necessarily.... Then the night came, a couple painful contractions, and just steady contracting. Then the morning came. I thought - this is definitely it! And at 6 in the morning, NOTHING. Just plain stopped.

Then Sunday day came, a few more contractions, but nothing to freak out about quite yet. Then last night - LOTS of contractions. They even got more steady and started taking on a pattern. And, they started to get more painful. This morning, from 5-7, they really started to get more intense. So, I once again got things ready to go and was thisclose to going to the hospital - and WHAM, no more contractions. After some tears of disappointment and frustration, I went to work - and then Today, a few more contractions here and there, but I am just sitting at work doing my thing.

SO FRUSTRATING! I know I am early, so I really shouldn't care, or be this excited - but this going back and forth, back and forth is SO emotionally exhausting. Plus, add raging hormones to that list, and I am a real fun treat to be around at this moment!

So - that was then, this is now - I WANT HER HERE!!!!!!!!!!! And I have lost my patience! So, with this new knowledge.... any guesses on when she will come? Also, any stories that can help calm me down and give me patience?

Getting SO close!!!

So - I have no fun pictures or anything fun, BUT - I just had a dr appointment this morning and I am dialated to a 3 and 80% effaced! So - yay! Things are moving!

I will keep you all informed - but any guesses???

Should I update???

Okay - so it is fastly approaching almost a full year since I have updated this blog - clearly I am not into the whole blog thing. But, I am thinking that I might want to pick it back up again so I can keep everyone informed of our new addition. I am not making any promises, but here is an update for now... Then we will see how it goes!

As you all know by now - I am PREGNANT! This news just doesn't seem too exciting anymore since really, I am just wanting it to come to an end (I am 31.5 weeks) rather than being all excited about it beginning. But here is a quick run-through: I found out I was pregnant the day before Halloween. I actually had my suspicions, so a co-worker convinced me to go get a blood test. So, I did. And I then called and got the results over the phone an hour later - the poor nurse that read the results was likely a bit concerned. As soon as she said positive, I burst into tears. She clearly didn't know if they were happy or sad tears, so she just kind of said - thanks. But before she hung up I told her they were happy tears and I was SO excited. She sighed in relief and said - good, I didn't know which way that was going! I of course told Greg immediately and (don't tell him I told!), but he also shed a tear. I also told my sister that night - which I am glad I did. She had the great idea of 'trick or treating' to the family the next night (Halloween) and wearing a t-shirt that said BABY with an arrow pointing down. It was great. I was in my parents house for a full-on 5-10 minutes with Jay, Janeal and Greg trying to make it extremely obvious to look at my shirt. My parents didn't notice and Janeal had to basically say - Look at Jackie's costume. My mom and dad got SO happy - it was fun. We then told several other members of the family (including Mickele and Mindy, Carol and Grandpa). Then Greg and I went to his parents. We weren't going to tell, but I can't keep a secret, so after being there for a minute, I quickly unzipped my sweater and Amanda was the first to notice. She screamed and my mother in law literally screamed and jumped off the couch - they were SO happy! So then I told pretty much everyone else in the entire world that I knew. I cannot keep things a secret at all.

Fast forward to Feb 2. I was 17 weeks along - we had a routine doc appointment. My wonderful doc asked if we were going to find out the gender at our 20 week ultrasound - I told him Of course we were, as it was taking all my self-control to not go to Fetal Fotos and find out then! So, he got a grin and said, should we take a looksy? I was THRILLED! When he found the region - he said It looks like we have a girl! Greg got a big old smile and said - a girl! I got a perplexed look on my face and said, "A girl, really - are you sure?" For some reason, I thought it was a boy, so I was surprised by this! I am SO excited for my beautiful little girl, and after I have had 3 ultrasounds since then confirming it is in fact a girl; I finally believe it! On a side note, the official ultrasound was Feb 13, and Greg and I were very happy to see that everything was very healthy and progressing just as it should be!

I can't remember exactly when I started feeling her move, but I think it was sometime around 17 weeks and just kept getting stronger and stronger. Now, she moves constantly! I am kind of worried about her sleeping patterns - I can't quite tell when she sleeps, she just moves! It is a very good thing that I gave up caffeine for the pregnancy, I would be so worried right now that I did something to 'ruin' her! Clearly, she is just one active little girl - especially in the middle of the night. Greg can actually feel her moving the bed (as she kicks me). He will wake up and tell her that she needs to go to bed right now young lady and stop kicking her mother! She never listens, so hopefully that will change before she becomes a teenager, or else we are in real trouble. While I am so excited to meet her, we are preparing for some LONG nights ahead of us.

Which brings me to the final. I am due July 9th and Greg and I have had a fantastic time painting the nursery and getting all sorts of pepto-bismal colored objects to fill it. She is going to be one spoiled little girl! When we picked out our furniture, I was describing it to my Mom. She reminded us that we probably didn't need much furniture as we had a big closet with an organizer in the nursery already. Greg answered her with - well we don't have that much space in the bathroom for all her stuff, like bows and ribbons for her hair and stuff. My mom said, so you are buying a dresser for bows? Greg and I responded - Yes! So see, this little girl will be one spoiled little girl. She better have a lot of bows to fill the dresser. Come to think of it, she has no bows yet. Uh oh - I better get on this!

Oh - and I almost forgot. Our little girl's name is Adalyn. Adalyn Johnson. However, we are currently in debate about the middle name. If you have any suggestions, please let us know! We will likely be calling her Addy for short as well. So - send any suggestions you have my way!

Sorry for the novel. But people say to treat these blog things like a journal or scrapbook or something so you can remember things. So - here you go! And yes, we do have other things going on in our lives, like jobs and school and such, but nothing is as fun to talk about as our little Adalyn! I will try to post more often so I don't have to sum up a full year next time!

Hell Week...

Okay, so Hell Week is officially over! Yay! For those of you that don't know what I am talking about - my Hell Week is USANA's annual Convention. USANA is a MLM (network marketing company), so all the associates that want to come to Convention come and it is basically a big party/tradeshow/celebration thing all in one. This one was actually really cool (my first, so I don't have a comparison), but there was a cool new product launch of an energy drink, so there was a lot of excitement. Anyway - the reason that it is known as Hell Week to the USANA employees is because we are forced to work it. So, I have been working about 14 hour days, on my feet the ENTIRE time - literally, we are not allowed to sit down - and talking with associates, selling product, etc.... It is crazy! Considering that is about as different from my regular job as it can be, it was kind of fun - but, wow was it tiring. So from Tuesday though Saturday I was working from 6:30/7 in the morning until 8-11:00 at night (depending on the night).

Considering Greg went out of town for part of it made my life even more interesting having to come home to two high-energy dogs after I was SO tired. Plus, he took our truck, so I borrowed my mom's car to get to work, and let's just say that I am not used to turning on/off my own headlights - and yes, I left them on and ran my mom's car battery dead on Friday night. Luckily, I have a FANTASTIC brother-in-law (and a pretty great sister too), who came over bright and early Saturday morning and tried to jump the car for me. When we couldn't get it to work quickly, he instead let me take my sister's car to work, and he spent his day fixing my problem - THANK YOU JAY AND JANEAL!!!!!!!!! Considering I was so tired and stressed out by that point that I was in tears, it was VERY helpful! Also, thank you Mom for letting me take your car - and then for not caring that I am an idiot and ran the battery out. ;)

I am SO glad it is over - But my poor feet are going to need a couple weeks to recover I am afraid. On the plus side - it was really fun to see the associates that sell for USANA since this whole network marketing idea is so foreign to me - it was exciting to understand how many people are involved on the other side. Okay - I am going to finish enjoying my couple days off!

:)

Hunting!

So - We went hunting this past weekend, and had a GREAT time. Greg is going back up this weekend, and then back up again halfway through next week and staying through Labor Day. Unfortunately for me, I will be working as it is USANA's HUGE Convention next week and I will be working from 6 in the morning til late every night - crazy! So, in preparation for this, it felt great to go up camping and relaxing this past weekend. For those of you that were there, you know that us girls pretty much relaxed, ate and played all weekend while the silly boys went out chasing Bambi - well, Greg got an elk tag, so he was watching the rest of them chase Bambi while he eagerly tried to find elk. Lucky for me - none of the boys were too ambitious so this weekend was unsuccessful! Now that I can't go back up - if he gets one, I don't have to see the ugly part! ;) Although, I did teach Odie how to run with me on the 4-wheeler, which was just great for his high energy level! If only I could take the wheeler on the road around town here - I would be set! ;) As always, I am HORRIBLE at taking pictures, so I literally didn't take any until my uncle took his 6-month old grandson on his first 4-wheeler trip - Jaxon is SO dang cute, I had to take a picture. And then, Madi and I had to take a picture since Greg finally got a hold of the camera. So, enjoy the only 2 pictures I have of the weekend... I promise - I will make them take one of Greg in his camo - it is pretty dang cute!

Martina, Breaking Dawn and Tests!

I had a fantastic weekend this last weekend! I had to share. So, Friday afternoon a girl comes in my office and says "Martina McBride tickets?", I said, why of course! So, I went to the Martina concert on Friday night with some of my girls and had a great time. She is a fantastic singer and put on quite the show at the amphitheatre. The plus side is that apparently this happens often at work (since I work for USANA), so I already have my name on the list for other great ones coming up (DMB and Toby Keith)! So, after the concert, I had to rush home to make it to the release party for the book "Breaking Dawn" at the Bountiful Barnes and Noble. It was a madhouse! Luckily I did not have to wait outside with the THOUSANDS of fans that were in line, I had RSVP'd to the release party, so I could go inside and join the festivities and line on the inside. I was there for an hour or so, but it was SO worth it. I spent the next two days reading the book and I loved every minute of it. I finished it late Sunday night! Let me just say to all the Twilight fans - You will LOVE this 4th book. Everything kind of comes together in a very cool, and unexpected way, but there are definitely some hardships. All-in-all it was a great book! Anyone that reads it - please call me so I can talk to you about it!

While I was busy with my book, Greg was busy with a final project/test thing that he has been working on for weeks. I am very proud of him - after working all day at the office, he would come home and work on it for days - then he worked on it al Friday night and ALL day Saturday. Not his usual idea of fun! But, his hard work paid off, he turned in the test at midnight on Saturday (exactly when it was due) and his teacher sent him an email back 7 minutes later saying that his project was BY FAR the best one turned in and he is getting the only 100% in the class. Considering this is one of this last Construction Management classes, he was very excited and very proud of himself. So Yay! I think he congragulated himself enough though because that meant that on Sunday he rounded up is hunting gear and convinced me to go to Cabela's and Sportsman's for some last-minute items. He is very excited about going hunting with the guys this year since it will be his first bow-hunt that he actually is drawing a tag.

I hope everyone enjoyed their weekends! And if you are a Stephenie Meyer fan - get to reading!!! (If you haven't already!).

Animal Lover...

So - Mindy Eyre posted on my comments to the post below that her and Marty were just talking the other day about how Greg and I are so good at seeing the animals in Yellowstone - It reminded me of a story and I just HAD to share: You see, when I go to Yellowstone with Greg's family, I always make the joke that because I am such an animal lover that I am "one" with the animals, so I know where they are at because they tell me! I don't know where it started, but it had been going on a couple years and they just laughed at my joke and said - okay Jackie, whatever you say. So every year they tell me to use my powers to find the animals - but they never believed in my powers ;) - Until a couple years ago... After all day without seeing hardly anything, they were teasing me to tell the animals to come out and I said - okay here goes (I put my hands to my temples and closed my eyes for a dramatic effect) and said - "K, I wanna see a bear, and not just in the distance, I wanna see a bear in the road, right next to our car." I am not even kidding, it was less than 20 seconds later, we turned a curve in the road and had to come to an abrupt halt as we waited for a big ole' black bear to walk all the way down the road (crossing a bridge), walk right next to our car, and then cross the road right behind our car. My brother and sister-in-law were in awe! So to continue the joke, I kept saying things like - I wanna see a wolf, a moose, etc.... In the next couple hours, we saw three wolves circling an elk (to attack), a couple more bears (but definitely more in the distance), and then on the way back to camp, we saw a moose just off the side of the road. His family never lets me live that down and now they firmly believe in my powers!

I really do have all the luck - but don't tell them that! ;) Have a great time in Yellowstone Mindy!