Help needed!!! Our Palermo!

Ok guys, I need some help.  I was planning a creative blog post to announce this but sometimes life throws you a curve and you have to go with it.  We are building a house and I need your help!  (Yes I am very excited! I will do an official blog post about the experience later, but I need help now.)

Tomorrow we have to finalize our exterior colors and I don't know what to do!  The colors that I debated about and finally decided on, based on other homes in the neighborhood, are no longer an option.  So, please tell me your opinion.  We are leaning more towards one, but are still unsure. 

Sorry for the bad quality, it is the only picture I can find with our particular elevation.  It will be exactly as seen.  If you look, it has two types of siding.  There is shake-over the porch and garage then beaded siding on the rest of the house.  We HAVE TO choose two DIFFERENT colors.

 These are the options that we have it semi-narrowed down to.  We are using the type of stone in the picture (Conestoga) because our top choice (Bucks County) is used next door so we can't use it.
On the left side we have our greys.  The lighter one is silver mist and the darker is graphite grey.
On the right we have our browns.  The lighter one is Natural Almond and the darker is Pebble Clay.
The shutter/door colors we narrowed it down to are navy, black or maroon.

 Or you can tell me other options you like.  Maybe Pebble Clay and Sandy Tan?

 I am a very visual person, so here are a few houses (not our plan) using Silver mist (lighter) and Graphite Grey (darker).

This last house uses Pebble Clay and Sandy Brown I think. 

So please, comment on what you like and don't be offended if we choose something different!  This is just a huge decision and I am feeling indecisive since my favorite option is out!  Thanks for your help and I will post more later!

A Little of this and That

(I have more pictures, but it says my storage space is full and wants me to upgrade and pay for more storage.  Does anyone know how to fix this problem?  I didn't know I had a picture limit.)

I have been crazy busy lately so my poor blog has been neglected.  These are a few random thing that I want to remember but don't really have time to post about.

Back a couple months ago, Travis and I went zip lining with our friends, Alison and Jeff.  It was so much fun (Alison may tell you different though)!  We went zip lining through the rainforest of Mahogany Bay on our honeymoon I was nervous it wouldn't be as exciting.  Although the zip lines weren't as high or long, this course had obstacles to go through.  The obstacles were my favorite part!  We had to do things like walk across a tight rope, jump from one suspended plank to the next, climb rope ladders and so on.  I loved it!


Something that I love about Ohio is all the street fair they offer.  We have had the chance to go to several the past couple of months.  They are very popular, so we end up driving to some quaint town and walk the crowded streets looking at home made goods.  Most of the time there are booths with bows and other girly things, ethnic wraps, wood carved decorations, candles, jewelry, paintings, stained glass, food and so on.  I love seeing all the culture that is brought in!

I made it through parent teacher conferences!  They only do them once a year in my district, so we are done for the year!  Wahoo!

Although I didn't spend Thanksgiving with my family this year, it was still amazing!  Several of our closest friends got together for the day.  Travis and I even fried our very first turkey (we still need a little practice)!  The day was filled with delicious food and great company.  It is great to know that even when family isn't close by, we have our friends to lean on!
The desserts with my big belly.  (Thanks for the picture Leisy!)

Travis went Black Friday shopping and ended up coming home empty handed.  I opted to sleep instead!

We have been spending a lot of time looking at houses lately.  Our lease ends in May and we have been looking at buying a house.  Yes, that means we will probably be here for a while.  Now if we can only figure out a way to get all our friends to stay (the husbands are all in the air force doing residencies so it isn't up to them where they go).

I can't believe it is December already!  Before we know it, Christmas will have come and gone.  Then three months after that I will be having a baby!  Crazy!

Speaking of baby, I have been feeling great!  I get tired in the evenings but I can deal with that!  I am feeling her kick a lot more and Travis can feel her now too!  It is pretty exciting!

We have started all our holiday shopping.  I love all the holiday decor and sparkles!  I find myself wandering over to the clothes department to look at the clothes I will one day be able to wear again.  Feeling cute is the hardest thing about pregnancy at this point.  I know it is worth it, but sometimes I have clothes envy. 

I think that pretty much catches me up.  Only two and a half more weeks of school and I get another amazing break! 

Happy Birthday Travis!

Luckily Travis and I were brought up celebrating birthdays pretty similarly.  Neither of our families went all out on birthdays, but we did do something small.  For my family, the birthday person would pick what/where to eat for dinner and we were able to bring 1 friend.  We would do small gifts, a cake and that's about it.  I remember having one big birthday party when I was 8, but that's about it.  While it is a special day (and I love being spoiled), I don't expect anything big.

That being said, Travis had a VERY low key birthday this year.  We both had work and unfortunately I had a headache that evening so we didn't do much.  We went and tried a new restaurant, got dessert and that's about it.  We agreed that we wouldn't get anything for each other for our birthdays this year because we bought nice bikes earlier this year as our presents. 

I still wanted to do something so at school that day, I had my kids make him some birthday cards.  They are too cute not to share.  These are some of my favorites:

This is one of the best as far as writing goes.  I love kid handwriting!

 I love how detailed she was.  She wanted to know Travis' favorite color so she could make his shirt that color and she drew my blonde and brown hair.  So cute!

I love how all the kids drew pictures of me and Travis together.  All I told them was to make a birthday card and that's what they came up with.

 This is Travis' favorite.  He said he looks like a monster.  I see it in a more developmental way.  She is more advanced because the arms and legs aren't just sticks and she drew details on the face.  It still makes me laugh though.

This one is probably my favorite.  She asked me what color hair he had and then she said she wanted to give him a mohawk.  Since he was at work, she drew a tie on him.  Up above us is our baby girl.  haha

I hope Travis felt loved on his birthday even though he didn't have a big party and lots of presents!

20 Week Update

Well, I am officially more than half way through my pregnancy!  I am doing everything a little late, so my picture is from 21 weeks and my ultra sound is from almost 22 weeks.  According to babycenter.com, I have 126 days or 18 weeks left to go.  I can't believe how fast it is going!

Here is the lovely pregnant pose.  I am large enough that strangers are now commenting on my belly and asking when I am due.

 I went in for my "20 week" ultrasound this past week.  I was really looking forward to this ultrasound because it has been 7 weeks since my last one and I wanted to see her growth.  Last time she was measuring big and this time she is measuring small.  She can't seem to make up her mind.  I am hoping she will be big so they take her early.  My due date is 3-23-13 and I want to have her 10 days early on 3-13-13.  We will see if that happens.

The pictures aren't as clear as they were last time.  Here she is, once again, sucking her thumb.  Doesn't she look so much bigger?  

The doctor said that everything looked great.  We even counted all her fingers and toes! Right now she is breech, so I like to think that she just wants to stand up and move with me.  I didn't realize how big/where she was located.  Her head is a lot higher than I thought.  At the level she is and the height of my students, she is getting tons of hugs everyday! They did a 3-d ultrasound and Travis thinks she looks more like me.  I can't really tell, but he thinks she has my turned up nose.  I really just can't wait to meet her and kiss her little face!

Here she is wedged in tightly.  She is in the middle with her head up and a fist by her chin. 

Just to help me remember, here are some things about my pregnancy lately.  You can skip this!

*I am once again sleeping through the night!  I don't have to take the frequent potty breaks for now.
*My migraines have not been very frequent.  One of my biggest concerns about being pregnant was not being able to take my migraine medicine and getting migraines on a daily basis again.  I have probably only had 4 or 5 since being pregnant.  The only bad part is that they are more intense and last longer than normal because I can't take my strong medicine.
*Even though I feel really fat, I am at a stage where I am still comfortable moving and doing normal things.  Exercising is harder with all the extra weight, but it helps motivate me to be conscious about my eating choices.
*I started feeling the baby kick on a regular basis at about 19 weeks.  Travis felt her for the first time at 21 weeks.  We started seeing it at just over 21 weeks.
*I am not having morning sickness anymore.  I only throw up when I have migraines now.
*Besides my belly, the areas that has grown the most are my thighs and bum.  As of Friday, my jeans officially couldn't fit because my bum is so big!
*I have a lot more energy.
*I still haven't had any food aversions or cravings.  I have a hard time resisting sweets, but I did before I was pregnant too.
*I am feeling healthier because I don't have to eat constantly to prevent nausea.
*I officially weigh more than Travis.  :( 
*Occasionally I get REALLY bad lower back pain.  It is mostly if I have been really active and then stop to rest or when I wear heels all day.

Helpless

Today was the most beautiful day ever!!  After all the cold this past week, weather in the mid 60's was like heaven!  I opened all the windows in the house to get fresh air before we have to lock up for the winter.  I felt an urge to clean and did for a while, but then I just had to enjoy the outdoors. 

Since I still wanted to be productive, I decided to rake our leaves.  I would be in the sun and be productive at the same time, it was a win win situation.  After raking for a while, I decided to take a little rest.  Bad choice.  I laid down on our freshly raked grass and soaked up the sun for a while.  It was so relaxing and enjoyable...until I had to get up.  When I went to get up, I couldn't move.  My lower back was KILLING me!!  It was so painful!  I was on my back with my knees bent.  I couldn't even straighten my legs because the pressure on my lower back was so intense.  I tried to roll over, but that too was excruciating!  I sat there helpless trying to figure out what to do.  I tried moving my legs a little at a time or arching my back or moving my weight one way or another.  Nothing helped.  Finally I had to suck up my pride.  I pulled out my phone and called Travis.  I simply asked him to come outside.

Travis saw me laying there and asked what I needed.  When I told him I needed help getting up, he laughed.  I told him I was being serious.  When I laughed at myself, that hurt too.  It was so pathetic.  He had to carefully move one leg at a time.  Then once my legs were flat, he slowly pulled me to a sitting position.  It was so painful.  Please tell me that other people have experienced this.  After I got up it was better, but still not normal.

After getting a few other things done around the house, we decided to go on a bike ride.  It was gorgeous!  Just the perfect thing for a Saturday afternoon.  We even got to look at some houses for sale!

Went to the Beehive Conference, cleaned the house, raked the leaves, went on bike ride, looked at houses, put stuff in storage, went to Anna's baptism, bought a turkey fryer, and spent quality time with Travis.  I would say it was a very productive day.  Now time to relax with a movie. 

One Post on Politics, Then I am Done

I try not to get involved in political discussions of any sort.  Whether it is in person, on the phone, or through facebook, I try to avoid it.  I whole-heartily feel that everyone should be entitled to their own opinion and we should respect each others opinion.  I have seen too many people hurt or offended by opinions of others so I try not to get involved.

That being said, I have a few opinions about the 2012 elections.  (since this is my opinion, on my blog, please be respectful)  I don't like politics because I feel like it brings out the worst in people.  On Facebook, I would say 85% of my friends are republican and voted for Romney.  Of that 85%, I would say 80% of them are LDS.  I was so disappointed to see the reactions of my friends this morning when I saw the election updates.  They were downright awful in some cases.  It made me a little ashamed to be a republican and member of the church because I didn't want these opinions to have an affect on what people thought of me.  I try to live my beliefs and that includes lifting others up...not tearing them down. 

While I may not have voted for Obama or believe in his policies, I am going to support him.  Afterall, it was the majority that won so the majority liked his platform.  I was brought up learning to respect authority/others.  That could be anyone from a teacher, instructor, policeman, president, or the elderly lady next door.  I don't care who it is, I will respect them. 

At this point, there is nothing to do to change the outcome of the elections except to support and pray for our President.  He needs people to lift him up and not tear him down.  As I got on facebook this afternoon, I saw this quote by a prophet of our church and thought it summed up my feelings. 

"We teach our people all over the world, regardless of the countries in which they live, to sustain the policies of their governments....
"If executive officials have been elected by the vote of the people, after that vote is complete and the majority has spoken, we have the obligation to support and sustain those who have been elected by the majority, and not bring about disharmony. It tears down government when opposition is raised....
"I would hope that as members of the Church we can stand fast on these principles by supporting and sustaining our governments wherever we may live and by sustaining the officers of those governments with our prayers as well."
- Howard W. Hunter

This is what our church believes.  For those of you that are not members, I encourage you to go to LDS.org to see what we believe.  Please do not base your opinions off the ignorance of others.  Please feel free to ask me any questions.  I will do my best to answer them. 

OK, that is my opinionated, political post of the year.  Now I am done. 

More Kicks!

I have been feeling our little girl start to kick more and more.  It still isn't super strong, but that is definitely what it is.  I want Travis to be able to feel her sooooo badly!  This evening I felt her kicking a lot so I put my hand on my stomach.  A second later, I felt her kick from the inside and outside!!!  Travis was sitting next to me and just laughed because I was so excited.  I had him put his hand where the kicks were coming from.  Unfortunately little baby girl decided to stop kicking so he never felt her.  At least now it is possible for him to feel.  It won't be long until he feels her.  This is really the coolest/weirdest feeling ever.  There really is a baby inside me that is alive and moving.  According to BabyCenter.com, she is about 10 inches longand 10.5 ounces!

Oh, and speaking of BabyCenter.com, it keeps track of my progress and I am officially 20 weeks today!!  I only have 140 days to go!  It has seriously flown by!  The second half is probably harder, but I feel like it is not going to be long before she is here!  I guess I need to take a picture to show my half-way belly.  I will do it tomorrow after church, because let's face it...I am in sweats and a t-shirt right now.