Our deck is nearly done. We just need a week of dry weather so we can stain it and it'll be ready to go! We had a bench made for it and are debating on what type of table to have made also. You can't imagine how handy having friends who know how to do things like that has come in handy. We plan on getting a fire pit too to make the nights last longer. I can't wait for the summer, I'll be out there all the time. Oh, and I'll have a new baby! I bought some flowers today. Light pink carnations, some tulips and another flower that I can't remember how to say or spell, but they are really fragrant and Alyssa had some purple flowers like them on the table at Easter. But mine are white and pink. 

Brandon is going through what I hope is just a phase. Separation anxiety at night and during the day for his naps. It's worse at night. It took nearly two hours for him to fall asleep. We are trying to just let him cry then to check on him every once in a while but when we leave or won't pick him up it seems to make him more mad then if we had never come in. John can't bare to hear him cry. He thinks I'm cruel. But I would rather go through this now when he won't remember it than in a couple years when he can crawl out of his bed and walk to our room... I just want this to be nipped in the bud before the baby comes. I can hardly deal with this when I'm actually getting a decent amount of sleep, I'm sure I wouldn't be a nice person to be around if I were sleep deprived. It's been nice being able to experiment with food and seeing what he will and won't eat. He's pretty brave and eats things that John or I won't. He likes seaweed with rice that John won't touch and raw tomatoes that I can't stand. He loves scrambled eggs, multi grain cheerios, green peas, peaches, teddy grahams and oyster crackers. he is getting the hang of eating long noodles and prefers them to smaller pasta. Of course it's more of a mess for mom to clean up!

I was at Ross today buying a lamp and I ran across a dumpling maker that makes 5 different sizes. One is really small and would be good for ravioli's (tomorrow nights dinner, who's coming over???) and a larger one that is about the right size for a personal sized calzone. Can't wait to try them all out! 

John's mom came home last Monday from Vegas and came over on Saturday to visit a while with us and to see how much Brandon has grown. She had been gone for 3 months and I'm sure he has changed a lot to someone who hasn't seen him for that long. She is deciding what to do. If she's going to go back or stay here and work. She wasn't able to use her vacation and family medical leave at the same time and keep her health insurance so she just might have to work a while then take some vacation and go back. Grandma still has 8 or 9 more chemo treatments and she is doing really well. Especially considering her age and the kind of cancer it is. 

I am officially 24 weeks pregnant today with only about 15 more weeks to go (39 total). I have gained 12 pounds and I am thrilled about that. If I can just keep the pace of weight gain to what it has been I should only gain about another 8 to 10 pounds. Let's just hope I do and have an easier sized baby. At my next appointment I have my glucose screening test and going by the weight I have gained I am confident I don't have gestational diabetes. My blood pressure has been good and with any luck I'll be able to keep it under control and not have to go on medication like before. I want to find out how much I weighed with Brandon by this time in pregnancy. This time I did start out 20 pounds heavier but I also gained over 70 with Brandon. So let's hope I have gained less this by this time than last time. 

Well I should get going. With any luck John will be coming home within a few minutes. That and Brandon is starting to destroy the kitchen.... it's his little way of telling me he wants some attention!!! Oh but he's just so darn cute!

Okay, I just found this and I thought I would share it with you. I laughed so hard, I was crying. Too funny, I hope you enjoy!

http://tinyurl.com/2ad7f8/

So I have been looking for new ways to be more involved at church. John and I go to Good Shepherd and while it's a wonderful place to go, the mass amounts of people who do go is amazing and can be hard at times to connect with the others who go. John started going when he was in high school so it's been, I'd say, 14 years for him and just about three years for me. He went before the new building was built, he knows a lot of people who go and just over all is a more out going person. So for me who tends to be extremely shy in large crowds and in new situations try to avoid doing anything that needs me to be social. 

We started attending one of Good Shepherds Mini Churches which is what you might consider a Sunday School. It's called Young Families and I have really enjoyed getting to know a few of the women (and their husbands) through that. From that stemmed a book club that I have been to once and will go to another meeting for a different book (which I haven't even begun to read) this next Sunday. One of the ladies that go to church and the book club was in the birthing class John and I took last year and we have gotten to talking. She asked me if I had been to such and such activities, that I didn't even know existed. Of course I had not. There is a wide variety of things to do for especially the stay at home mom. Today I went to a Mom to Mom event where Author and fellow Good Shepherd member Randy Alcorn spoke. The topic was "Answering your tough questions" and it was awesome! Everyone was invited to write questions they wanted answered, some of them were very personal: husbands who've had affairs to kid related questions about sex and being an example to them. Randy brought along a table full of books that we were able to choose one from. I picked 50 days of Heaven. We already had the book Heaven which John has read but this was the same book written more like a devotional style, the original book condensed into what he thought were the most important things to know and in a format that "busy moms will have time to read". 

When I first showed up I had no idea that so many women would be attending, about 100, so I was kinda at a loss. But as I was dropping Brandon off in the nursery Alyssa's friend Anne Dunlop walked in and I was able to tag along with her and she helped me navigate where to go. She doesn't go to GS but has friends that do and had been to these Mom to Mom events before. We sat together and talked about her chickens. It was a really fun time. I couldn't believe all the babies and other pregnant women who where there, there had to have been about 10 babies all about 4 months or younger and like 6 other pregnant women. 

Before the meeting started Kristin Coppom (Formerly of Gateway Baptist) came to the table and my bravery shone through and I asked her, only because I was positive I was right, if she used to go to Gateway. She said she had and I told her I recognized her and remembered her husband used to do worship there like he does at GS. I think the only reason that I even remembered her was I thought she looked vaguely like my mom's cousin Diane. I think it's her mouth. 

One of our good friends goes to the Gresham Mom's Club and I have been going to their play groups. It's been fun watching Brandon interact with kids closer to his age and it's fun to talk to other moms. They have a lot of activities planned each month but they usually conflict with something I'm already doing. Between my doctors appointments and running around getting things done between nap time and being completely exhausted, sometimes I feel like I have no free time... 

Brandon's birthday was great. We drove down to JC Penny and had his picture taken. Too many cute pictures to choose from, I don't know how I'll narrow it down. Then we came home and shared some chicken nuggets and fries (bad mom) and he just played all afternoon. He never took  a nap until later that night around 5:30. I couldn't keep him up, he just laid himself on some pillows and fell asleep. I woke him up just after 7 and played until John came home. Had a late dinner and put him to bed and enjoyed each others company until we just both couldn't stay awake any longer. Saturday is his party and I don't know how it's going to go. It's the first time we are going to have a formal party besides at Christmas so we'll just have to go with the flow. We have no deck still and I don't know how long it's going to take to get it in. Looking forward to having a garden and spending more time outside when the weather gets nice. Hopefully it isn't too far off. I am getting tired of the rain... But in a few months, after the baby is here, I'll probably be saying I wish it would rain. Thank goodness this house has air conditioning!!!

Why I hate daylight savings.

Who has a baby that is on a schedule? Well of course he didn't want to go to bed last night and all night he was up crying and whining. I went in and gave him some ora gel for his gums and he went right back to sleep. For about 4o minutes. So then John goes in and tries to calm him down again and with no luck decides to bring Brandon in our room which is completely fine at 4 in the morning. Brandon doesn't want to sleep. Brandon wants to kick mommy in the tummy and make her miserable. He went to sleep for a while, but I was awake for hours it seemed. Sleeping about two feet away from the headboard and like a cat right up to the edge of the matress. I was paranoid that I would fall off and land on the stool I use to help me in bed. John would occasionally say "Lay down Brandon" when ever he would lift his head off his chest. Up and down they went attempting to let everyone get some sleep. I think they fell asleep in the recliner in Brandon's room for a while. Either that or I fell asleep for a little while. I finally gave up around "8:30" and got up and took a shower with him. He's wide awake. Last night we gave him his first cup of whole milk. He seemed to like it but I know he realizes it isn't formula. Even though officially he isn't a year until Wednesday I thought it would be alright if he started milk anyway. We had just run out of formula and I couldn't justify spending $14 more dollars on something that wasn't necessary. 

Well Brandon and I are finishing our breakfast. Cheerios and milk I'm having tea and he had some apple juice. I need to go wake John up so he can shower and drive us to church!