28 weeks.

seriously. 7 months? nuts. i cannot believe i'm entering the third trimester. eek. where o where does time go? thumper is now the size of a head of cauliflower. 2 pounds and 14 1/2 inches.
side note: my mom delivered my lil bro 3 mos. early. he was 3 pounds and 20 inches. can you imagine if he went to term?!

here's a picture.

let's see what's new...
not sure if i've complained about a constantly runny nose or not. it's serious. congested all the time. some days are better than others. have to remember to turn on the humidifier at night or i'm in serious trouble the next day!

been getting up again during the night to pee. might have to restrict my liquids like i did earlier. it's not too bad since i usually fall right back to sleep!

nick got to see thumper's kicks for the first time last tuesday. had a long day and came home. i immediately ran to the couch! he was outside trying to clear the ice off of the driveway. as i was laying there, i thought i think my shirt is moving when it's kicking. sure enough. nick was able to see it. not much. just a little bulge in the tummy. would remind me of a drum or something.

have the shower invitations out! only a few final details that i need to take care of. strange that it is only a month away! will share the invitations soon. gotta meet with the cupcake lady. pick out the flavors and designs. i'm thinking simple. will have to do some web searching...

painted my toes sunday night. that was fun! had a heck of a time. i think nick just sat and laughed. not sure i'll be able to do it again. might have to get pedi's from now on... and i'm not sure why i felt the need to paint my toes. they've been naked for quite some time.

looking into a maternity photo shoot. our friend does photography on the side. trying to come up with some ideas. if you have any ideas or links you think i should see, please share. have a list of things to talk with her about. trying to gauge when they should be done. don't want them too early. don't want to wait too long and then deliver or something crazy. must call her this week.

baby pressner got some christmas presents. my family was cute and everyone had something for thumper. nothing crazy. just thoughtful and super sweet. totally weren't expecting that.

really have to get on the ball with thumper's room. hope to get that taken care of in the next month. would be nice to have everything set up for after the shower. then i could just put things away.

and one final picture so you can actually see the belly... {sorry, no fancy photoshop on this one}

the nicest.

funeral service i have attended. first one at a methodist church.
making nick and i really evaluate this whole kid/religion issue.
ran tons of errands. now are home for the evening. good thing because we're supposed to get like 3 inches of snow. then 2 inches of rain. then 2 inches of snow. wha?
oh and the snowblower is broken. totally makes for a happy nick... not.

long day.

exhausted. was away from the house for over 16 hours.
worked. visited with grandma. went to the wake. then went out with friends for dinner. couldn't stop yawning even though we were watching a mighty exciting bears game. ;o)
more tomorrow.

27 weeks.

eek! i cannot believe i am this far along already. craziness.
no picture today. sorry. refer to yesterday's post with the crazy blueberry belly if you really feel it necessary. ignore the bra glare in the picture. nice, classy stuff here people.
have had frozen pipes for almost the whole day. froze pipes = no shower. no shower = no belly pictures.
the only quick wash came courtesy of the kitchen sink before an emergency baby sitting session of miss braiden for jas and chris. i mean, playing volleyball and having some normal human time is worth it. and she's cute. when she isn't a crying snotball. kidding. ;o)
thankfully, the pipes are unfrozen. unfortunately, it required cutting two holes in our drywall. fun times. just when we thought we were done with home improvement projects. hrmph. they never end.

so 27 weeks. i think they say the bean is now a cucumber. and something like 2 pounds. sheer craziness. feeling good. less hungry which is great. this weight gain can totally level off a bit. have been having total fruit cravings. i think i had a pear for the first time in years this past week. any fruit will do. another new favorite... pink lady apples. i mean, that's a fun name and they are tasty! and i's still on the smoothie kick every morning. hello, it's lots of fruit: oj, pineapple, strawberry, and banana. fruity goodness.
had to upgrade some maternity pants. were a bit snug. the jeans should hold out the entire time. and the dress pants. i just had some cheapie ones i found on clearance and thought they might last. no such luck.
think i even picked out the outfit for the shower. no skirt! and it's black. total shocker from me. i live in that color. my mom said they would just smother me in pink and blue bows to make up for the lack of color!
back to baby stuff. feeling more kicks. feeling guilty during the day when i'm not really paying attention. makes me nervous sometimes. like i should be more aware. who knows.
have had a total urge for clean and neat around the house. so not a good time with all the renovations. and the newly cut holes in my wall. sigh.
think we've locked down our names. again, that could change. really want to meet mr. or miss. bean before picking for sure.
the turkey timer, aka my belly button, has yet to fully pop. so close. got an email today that suggested taping it down with a bandaid it if interfered with your fashion sense. wha? watch me totally do that in a few weeks after scoffing at the thought!
sleeping well. much better on the bed than couch. some back aches. nothing too serious. some crazy foot aches and pains too.
have been an effin inferno. this coming from the girl who is always cold. i cannot believe how hot i am and in this negative weather. i threatened to take the flannel sheets off of the bed the other day. i didn't. i'm a good wifey. but holy heck, it's hot!

think that's it for baby. as for pw's lasagna. it got three thumbs up from the three recepients. chris said she would add some mushroom in the future. jason and mr. grish said more cheese. i think i will do both with a bit of onion when we finally make it ourselves. they said it really hit the spot. so glad they liked it. making carmen's french toast casserole for them next. figured they could eat it the morning of the services. will more than likely be uber hectic, so this will be one less thing for them to worry about. i think i'm going to be on braiden duty tomorrow and tuesday. works for me. anything to help. hope she isn't a holy terror and i look like a totally unfit parent to be!

watched fred claus last night. i fell asleep. surprise, surprise. it's a miracle if i make it through a movie these days. fingers crossed it warms the heck up and this -30 wind chills leave. i cannot have frozen pipes in the morning.

oh and i'm totally diggin the mac. haven't done much beyond surfing the web on it. but that's getting easier and easier. must take baby steps!

a hodge podge post.

lots going on.
finished shopping and wrapping. on 3 gift cards left. woot woot!
here's a pic of me wrapping.



the presents aren't that big. just thought the bag was fun and obnoxious! didn't think i could fit myself in it either. that was just for giggles.

had my cookie exchange at work this week. here was the loot.


good stuff. might share my favorite recipes later. who knows.

made one card with the december byom kit.
the colors aren't the greatest. didn't have the scanner hooked up right then, and i made the card for my boss. didn't want to give her the gift card without the card. ;o)


maybe i'll have more time to make some more goodies. who knows.

had to go to the mall today. not fun. wasn't planned. need some more dress clothes. christy's mom passed away thursday. needed something decent for the wake and funeral. and christy is totally worth dealing with mall madness at this time of year. i also about sweated my ass off. ended up taking my socks off and walking around in my crocs. so close to removing my jacket as well. these hormones are insane.

picked up stuff for pioneer woman's lasagna. nick made it. getting ready to deliver it to christy's dad's. they are currently setting up camp there... hoping it's tasty since we've never had it.

more baby updates tomorrow. don't want to deviate from sundays which are designated baby post days. however, i did finish the shower list. just have to address and send them out! with everyone donating their time and monies i thought i could do the invites. oh and the centerpieces. have cute ideas for those. hoping they come out as i picture them.

thundersnow.

seriously, it is sooo strange.
you can learn about it here. nick and i were laying in bed, not wanting to get up and saw this brilliant flash of light. he was like, 'what was that?!' my answer was someone crashed with all the ice or it was lightening. sure enough, about 30 seconds later, there was a downpour of sleet/rain/snow.
i am home from work. i swear my phone rang at least 7 times in 45 minutes all before 630. the first ones were my mom letting me know about cancellations. my dad drives a bus for the local school corporation and she is a teacher at another school corporation. one has school, one doesn't! my boss called this morning and told me to not even try it. there are two staff members who are pretty close to the office. they were gonna go in for us. my boss lives even farther away. a while later, one of the coworkers called to make sure i was staying home. i swear, these girls are so cute with the fat, pregnant lady. ;o)
nick's coworker tried to convince him to stay home. she lives pretty close and said she would make the trek. unfortunately, he had to go in. had to mix for a new patient. total bummer.
plan on attacking the house and some of my to do lists.

thursday.

is the new wednesday.

i think a nap is in order. long week so far at work. not looking forward to this crazy snowstorm that is headed our way. i mean this storm dumped inches on vegas. not looking forward to it.
hmmm. maybe it will get me a snow day, right? a girl can dream.
hoping to curl up on the couch and drool. ;o) maybe even watch some football.

need to be reenergized for a weekend of shopping, wrapping, cleaning, and more baking!

a wednesday....

that i didn't nap!
ran some errands with the hubby. made dinner and then watched hancock. now we're getting ready to play mariokart on wii with the fam. i know, we lead such an exciting life.
back with a more exciting post tomorrow... i hope!

hello, mr. plow?

where the heck are you?
it's snowed quite a bit lately and you've been mia. oh and that ice storm a few days ago. would have been great if you could have come out to play and maybe put some salt down for us commuters.
today on the way home, i saw 3 plows. we've had about 4 inches. seriously? where are they this year?
i know someone mentioned budget cuts, but this is just silly....

brr.

these artic wind chills aren't to grace us with their presence until like january.
it is freaking cold outside. the winds are not helping.
a plus side of being pregnant, i'm hot. so the cold isn't that terrible. nick keeps wanting to turn on the fireplace. i would probably sweat to death!
it's amazing how my body temp has increased. i would need layers upon layers in the winter to keep me close to warm. now it's just a t shirt please.
however, my feet are another story. i think they always have and always will be icicles. nothing i can do about it.

sundays.

are now for naps too.
so i do usually fall asleep sometime during one of the football games on sunday. today i was asleep before the start of the first ones. only a few hours after waking up. nick couldn't believe it. i told him i wasn't lying when i told him i was sleepy!
the wall is officially done! nick is currently busy putting the carpet in place. few more touches and i will share pictures. soooo excited that it's over. such a time consuming and messy project.
next biggie is deciding how to paint the kidlet's room. have had the paint for a while. just unsure if it will be one, two, or all four walls. decisions, decisions.
have the shower invitations. sooo cute. goal is to do christmas cards in the next few days and then move to the shower ones.
have lots of scrappies to do too. one of my docs goes out of town this week. the other leaves next week. hoping work settles and i'm not so tired after work.
all of the baking is done. might do a few more batches of some of the favorites. depends on what i nab from the cookie exchange tomorrow at work!
so no pictures today. blame the nap and couch hair. ;o)
kidlet has been kicking up a storm. and the tummy is itching like crazy. hello my new best friend cocoa butter! feeling wider and wider by the day. and it's just gonna get better! groan. finally filled out my preregistration forms for the hospital. i told you kids i was a procrastinator. got those on my first ob visit back in july!
k. off to chore land....

indianapolis...

had nick's dad's side of christmas today. made the journey to indy. carpooled. 7 grownups in a recently acquired acadia. fun times. was nice to see and visit.
but 4+ hours in a car in one day makes for a sleepy shannon.
stay tuned for possible fat baby bump pictures tomorrow....

cookie blitz.

is on.
did some marshmallows yesterday.
working on oreo truffles and buckeye balls now.
hoping to do some toffee ones and lisa's fabulous white chocolate cherry soon.
hope i can keep up the momentum. and if the cookie drive dies, fingers crossed that the scrapping mojo is around, i have some serious work to do!

7 randoms

thanks liz....

7 random tidbits.
hope i haven't repeated these over the life of this blog.

-i am obsessed with cookbooks. i tend to collect them more than use them tho.
-i love pomegranates. wish they weren't so difficult to breakdown and eat.
-i hate parallel parking. i close my eyes when nick does it and i even made colleen do it in chicago at the byom weekend getaway!
-i cannot read manuals. too adhd for that. which is probably why i still don't know how to use my sewing machine or have taught myself to knit, crochet, or quilt. show me and i'm set for life.
-one of the reasons that becoming a nurse appealed to me... scrubs. darn those things come the weekend and you try to fit in your jeans...
-love a clean house but hate the housework that goes with it.
-i'm not a big phone talker. most of my phone calls take place in the car. rarely, spend a long time on one once i'm home.

roasted over an open fire....

so i'm in the shower getting ready to go to nick's christmas dinner in the city and i smell something funny. he walks upstairs with a totally mischievous look and says, what? i ask did you light a candle? no. {said with giant grin} did you light a fart? stop it, no. {while laughing hysterically} well, what the hell did you do? light some incense? wait, why do we have incense? no. i give. wait, it smells like toasted marshmallows. you making me smores? no.
the man didn't want to shred an important document so he freaking burnt it.
brilliant....
this comes after he's telling me that our driveway is slippery and he needs to ice it. of course, my smart ass self asked him why? is the driveway salty. he didn't get it. took me saying it twice and them him making fun of me before he figured out i was making fun of him. he then proceeded to laugh for like five minutes.
apparently, we are in rare form tonight. should make for an interesting car ride to the city with tobbi and george. hopefully, we settle down before we make it to the restaurant.

no way.

this can't be true.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 1 or fewer people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

thanks kel!

i'm in love.

with amazon. it's an addiction.
i think 95% of my gift purchases over the last few months have been bought online.
loving the amazon prime. nick and i paid for it in june and it has been well worth it. i smile when i pull into the driveway and see my mini-mountain of amazon boxes. sometimes i even get the purchases in one day.
i've looked at this multiple times over the past few months.

my patient had one on thursday... it's way cool in person. might have to ask for birthday cash and buy it with that... then again, with parenthood looming, i'm not sure how much time we'll have for reading. ;o)

i can't handle.

this mess! i can only tolerate this craziness for so long. going on a month is enough. so close to having the wall done on the main level. the paint didn't match, so they had to come back and repaint three adjoining walls. fun stuff. hoping the trim guy is out before the middle of the week and we can get everything back to normal down here. well, nick has to replace the carpet and pad in the new study still. but that's a tiny mess compared to the crap strewn about this house! then it's onto the kidlet's room. then i do believe, that is all of our home improvement projects for some time.

dinner last night was from this new cook book...
so many of the recipes look good. and easy. my kinda cook book! not to mention the mouthwatering mac and cheese on the cover. taste of home, you really know a way to a girl's heart.

was an impulse buy at lowe's. i know. bad shannon. but what else says home improvement like down home cooking? nick and i were starving so that explains it. we picked out dinner and desert over lunch at penn station. anywho...

made the skillet lasagna. we thought it was okay. too tomato-y and soupy on the first day. leftovers were better today. would have added some seasoning while cooking... garlic, italian seasoning. and the directions were not spot on. i ended up having to bump up the heat and cooking for like an additional 10 minutes for the noodles to soften.

dessert. yummy! hello. my new easter desert. sooooo good. soooo easy. except, i don't think i let my cream cheese soften enough and it was a bit curdy. took me a while to get it worked out but oh well. still was so delish.

finally got my christmas cards! not what i wanted. but eh, will do. hoping to have them postal by the end of the week. stumbled across my new avatar while searching for pictures to use. the picture was taking in a bathroom at one of the wineries. ha! had completely forgot about it. so glad i found it. was time to update.

shower invitations should be done soon too. i kept the envelopes while they're being printed. hoping to save some time since it's so busy around the holidays.

k. off to tidy up some more while nick's at volleyball...

multitasking.

dinner is on the stove. have been putzing in the scraproom while cooking dinner, making a desert, trying to pick out christmas cards, helping nick with the two new light fixtures he's installing.
phew.
looking forward to dinner and a movie.
will let you know if the new recipes turned out...
last night was a blast! hung out with nick's mom, aunt, and cousin after the show. in the new sonic's parking lot for like an hour. movie was good. better than i thought it would be. not as good as the book.
k. off to check on the oven!

twilight.

so excited. sorta. think i would be more so if i was not so tired right now.
anywho.
going to see the movie tonight.
have read all the books. am a bit leery for the movie. movies are never as good as the books. never.
fingers crossed i'm not too disappointed.
oh and i hear there's a sonic near the theater. super stoked. hoping the line isn't ridiculous. nick's aunt says it is new and there has been some craziness going on there since it opened.
fingers crossed it isn't too crowded.

stupid candle party.

so i went to my girlfriend's partylite party. was going to try and behave. ha! that never happens at these things. i'm a sucker for catalogs. jewelry, candles, food items. you name it, i want more when it looks cute in a candle.
so i went thinking i was only going to buy some reed diffusers. like one. hrmph. one? more like three! yeah, like i said, no will power when it comes to these things. hoping i like them. also nabbed two other things for myself and a gift. so not too terrible. especially since my mom bought the coach purse my girlfriend had bought for me. now, i'm even money wise. not sure if a bunch of partylite stuff is worth a coach purse... we'll see.

naptime...

wednesdays are for naptime.
i usually drag ass by mid day on wednesday. love to come home and snuggle up on the couch and fall asleep. a quirk of mine... i cannot fall asleep with cold feet. totally, utterly impossible. i don't care how tired i am. i can't do it. and i can't wear socks to bed. well, mostly i never wear socks. my feet like to breathe, but anywho. winter makes napping/sleeping hard. k. back to regularly scheduled topic.
was a little nervous about how this week was going to pan out. had something planned daily. nick said dr appointments don't count. pshaw. it does because there is always shopping after. ;o)
tonight's festivities were cancelled. moved to tomorrow but since i already had plans for tomorrow no dinner downtown for us.
i'm sad a bit. but a little happy about the nap that might be in my future!
nap? top chef? nap? top chef? decisions, decisions.

the bean.

or formerly known as the bean will now be referred to as thumper.  ;o)

last night nick was able to feel it squirming around in there.

i'm not sure if i haven't really been paying attention.  i mean, i feel it.  i just don't normally have time to sit around and feel it with my hands.  and last night we were laying in bed, reading and i took a good kick to the lower tummy.  thought to myself that a thump that serious has to be able to be felt from the outside.  i think i might have even said, ow!

sure enough, it was!  was pretty rhythmic for a while.  like it was doing summersaults. 

nick was funny.  wasn't sure how to tell if it was kick.  thought my stomach was just spasm-ing or something.  we laid there for a bit, reading.  his hand on my belly.  cuteness.

had my appointment today.  all is well.  well, weight gain is hrmph.  not bad, just i thought this past month would have been less.  i was wrong.  everything checked out okay.  got measured, heard the heartbeat, discussed the ultrasound {everything is okay as far as he can tell}, nothing really new and earth shattering.  

will have blood work and any other testing that may be needed after my next appointment.  what fun to look forward to in the new year. 

the cutest...

grandma to be.
so we had our first snow of the season. roads were horrific. not sure why. i know it was predicted. i know that it happened last night, didn't just start this morning. and it took me 50 minutes to get to work. about double the norm.
was supposed to quit snowing around 12. no such luck. flurries all darn day.
got a phone call from my mom around 415. wanted to warn me that the roads were terrible. that i should be extra careful and take my time. this being said from woman who is talking on a cell phone during the icky road conditions. so being the good daughter i am, i scolded her for calling if it was that bad while she was driving. she then just insisted she was just calling to quickly let me know so i could keep her grand baby safe. aw. but hey, what about me?!
kinda like that time when i told her she loved nick more. her reply? oh, honey. i love you too. not no, that's silly. you're my child, i love you more. nope. i love you too. ;o)
love teasing her about it. and i think it was super sweet to get that phone call today. totally made me smile and all the girls at work say aw...

no pics like promised. i didn't get home until after 7. long day. 12 hours gone. so i'm vegetating on the couch. stay tuned for an ob update tomorrow.