I’m SO excited for this April!! 🙂 I really can’t wait to introduce you to Maya!

I’ve been busy the last couple of weeks redesigning my website. I really hope you like it! It’s a little more clean – which is nice, considering it’s nearly time for spring cleaning and all. 🙂

And the big news – you can now pre-order an autographed copy of Cool Beans! Just go to my website and click on “The Books” page. I’ll be sure to sign it and put it in the mail on April 1st 2010. Yay! 🙂

Today is a dreary, cloudy morning and not at all what a day nearly into March should look like! I don’t like cold days without snow – seems like just a waste! Plus, by this time I’m so ready for warmer weather. I want to be able to take a walk without my face freezing!

Hope you have all had a wonderful morning so far!

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The last few days have been so fun! I can’t help but stop and think every day about that tiny little boy God is growing right now – what a miracle! 🙂

After the ultrasound on Monday, we went and bought the supplies to tell my parents and also got the baby’s first outfits. 🙂 Jon and I kept it a secret all day long and finally told our families that night. We called his parents, brothers and sisters-in-law first. I’d sent a package last week that had two presents in it – they were both frames for a baby, one blue and one pink. We told them to open package number one – and everyone went crazy! 🙂 So fun to hear over the phone! 🙂 We wish we could have told them in person, but this was just as fun!

After that, we headed to my parents’ house for dinner and my mom surprised us with this:

Isn’t it cute??? We had everyone gather around my dad and he got to open the present that would tell them what it was. Here’s a picture of what we got for my family:

We got stir sticks, a little paint roller and a can of baby blue paint. 🙂

First Dad pulled out paint stirrers, then a roller…next the can of paint.

I love their expressions when they find out! 🙂 Poor Dad was the last to see! And we got to keep the blue gift bag from my parents. 🙂 Afterward, we called my grandmother, a few friends and more family – I think everyone was pretty surprised! You have NO idea how many people had told me they thought we were having a girl!

Jon had told the teachers he works with that he would wear either a pink or blue shirt on Tuesday after we found out, so he wore a blue shirt we bought Monday. And Tuesday, Mom, Cayce and I went shopping and Mom is already spoiling our little man:

Poor baby! I don’t think he’ll have a thing to wear! 🙂 We had so much fun shopping all the winter sales that are on right now! Jon came in and was like, “Holy cow, he has more clothes than I do!”

Thursday, Mom and I left very early in the morning for the Christian Writers Guild’s annual conference. This year, it was held in Downtown Denver at the Grand Hyatt hotel. We just got home yesterday, which is why I am SO late in posting! It was such a busy weekend – CWG had us come out and help with the conference. I love the CWG conference – this was our 9th one!! Now, it’s something like a family reunion. 🙂

I wish I’d gotten a few pictures of Mom and I and us with the CWG staff, but I did get one of me and my agent, Steve Laube:

(And yes, I’m wearing the same shirt I’ve worn for a few pictures now – what can I say? I’m still working on getting a variety of maternity clothes – most of the ones I wear are compliments of my mom. 🙂 )

While I was there, though, I experienced one of the famed pregnancy symptoms that I had yet to experience – swollen ankles. I think it was because I was standing and walking around most of the day, but I’ve never seen my ankles look like that before! Weird.

And while we were gone, Jon painted the baby’s room to a nice chocolate brown. Yay! I’ll show pics of the room as we start making progress on it.

Current craving? Anything red meat. 🙂
Current food aversions? Chicken and eggs. This baby boy does not like his poultry, I guess!

Hope all of you had a fabulous week! What were you up to?

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Today has been one of the best days of my life – most definitely!!! 🙂

Our appointment was at 8:30 this morning and we spent the longest few minutes in the waiting room, trying to settle the nerves. Finally, the ultrasound tech called us back and we got to go see!

The baby is perfectly healthy – thank you, Lord!! That has been my most fervent prayer these last few months!

And… since these are definitely the cutest baby pictures Jon or I ever seen (not that we are biased or anything!), I thought I’d share them!

Here’s the baby being shy…see both hands covering the eyes?

And now the baby is covering the ears… I started laughing so hard once we got home and really looked at the pictures – all we need is covering the mouth and then we’ve got all three of those monkey “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil,” poses!

Our sweet little one!! Look at those cheeks!

We got to see the legs, arms, hands, feet and tons of profile pictures of the sweet little face! I had the hugest smile on my face the whole time and then the ultrasound tech told us what we were having and suddenly I was grinning and crying and laughing and Jon teared up too.

It amazes me how much we love this little one already! And we still have 20 weeks to go before we meet this baby in person!

Would you like to know what we’re having??? 🙂

It looks like we’ll have Little League in our future because….

It’s a boy!!!

Thank you SO much for your prayers for our little man! We are ecstatic!!!

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I am SO excited to think that at this time tomorrow, we will have known for several hours whether we are having a boy or a girl!

YAY!!! 🙂

We’ve got lots of big plans tomorrow on how we’re going to tell our family and friends, but I will be sure to post here tomorrow night and let all of you know what the verdict is! 🙂

Please be praying for us – we are overwhelmingly excited, nervous, thrilled and terrified at the thought of being parents! I have been praying for God to give us wisdom and grace as we prepare for what is the biggest responsibility that Jon and I have ever handled together.

And…to those of you out there who are still “waiting for your Ryan”, I know Valentine’s Day can be a horrible reminder of how lonely you are – but I’m praying that you feel the huge arms of your heavenly Father today. 🙂 If you are spending tonight with your Valentine, have fun! Don’t take any moment of it for granted! 🙂

Have a wonderful night!!!

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If you are looking forward to the weekend, then you might want to skip reading the beginning of this blog post because I CANNOT WAIT FOR THE WEEKEND TO BE OVER!!!

Okay. I’ll try to calm myself down now. I read on my favorite weekly pregnancy info website thing (www.similac.com) that this week I could be experiencing a racing heart or shortness of breath because of the extra blood my body is pumping. So, I guess I will try not to add to the stress that is already on my heart by jumping up and down at how close Monday is.

I had grand plans for today. Today was going to be the day that I became a good steward of our finances by taking Kody to one of those low-cost shot clinics because someone is in need of a rabies shot (and no, it’s not me – the extra saliva I’m producing is also said to be a pregnancy symptom).

The cheapest clinic is, of course, 45 minutes away on the far opposite side of the city and it’s only open every other Friday from 8am to noon. So, I’m thinking practically and with my new-found good-stewardship-ness and decide that it would be better to wait until 9:15 or 9:30 to leave so that I’m not stuck in the middle of rush hour traffic trying to get there and waste a tank of gas.

So, I leave at 9:30. On the dot. Or maybe 15 minutes past the dot because I got distracted when I was finding clothes to wear today and started planning what I would wear to the Christian Writers Guild conference.

Anyway. I get Kody and me and his shot file and my purse and my phone and the Valentines that Jon forgot for his class that he needs by noon and two leashes (because one has a frayed handle and the other is one of those mechanical zippy ones that I don’t like) into my what-seems-to-be-shrinking Mustang and we set off.

Traffic is nearly non-existent and I’m happily high-fiving myself as we drive over because this is all working out exactly as I had intended. I’ll drive over, Kody will get his cheap shots, I’ll drive back to this side of town and give Jon his Valentines and then I will go have a nice lunch of leftovers and perhaps one of those Drumstick ice cream cones that are so addicting.

I pull onto the street for the clinic and here’s what I see: CARS. Lined on both sides of the street, half a mile each way. Miraculously, I find a parking place within a block of the building and me, Kody, the shot file, the mechanical leash (the frayed handle one was stuck in the seat), purse and phone all set off toward the clinic.

There are dogs and people. Everywhere. Sitting on the curb, sitting on the sidewalk, sitting on a few chairs scattered around. I force Kody and myself into the clinic door to get a number and then drag Kody back out of there since a HUGE German Shepherd apparently was mistaking Kody’s confused look for a threat. We’re number 67 and looking around, I’m definitely thinking I see more than 67 dogs already here. It’s already 10:15 and with my 45 minute drive back to our side of town, I can wait an hour before I’m going to need to leave and meet Jon with his Valentines.

So, we found a nice place to stand and wait. And wait and stand. And sit. And wait. There are puppies and people and mean dogs everywhere and Kody is just looking around at everyone like, “Wait, who are you? Where am I? Why have they done this to me?” There’s a dog in the clinic who is baying like a dog-version of Wesley on The Princess Bride in that part when he’s getting tortured to death in the Pit of Despair. Which of course is when Kody looks at me, at the shot record and immediately starts whimpering.

We’ve raised a brave dog.

Right then is when one of the ladies who works there forces her way out the door and nearly steps on a pup whose ears are bigger than it’s head. “Number 17!!!” she yells.

I think that’s when I started questioning the brilliance of this idea. But I decide to wait a bit longer. After all, someone said they seemed to be calling the numbers quickly.

At this point, about seven people standing in close proximity to me light up seven cigarettes. Through the cloud of smoke, a man a few feet away is telling a lady next to him about how he used to breed pit bulls for fighting but now he’s on medication and he’s stopped doing that now. And the dog wailing in the clinic is just getting louder and louder and Kody is just looking sadder and sadder.

Forty-five minutes drag by and then the lady appears yet again. “Number 21!”

Which is when Kody and I left. I text Jon and tell him that I will be there with the Valentines as soon as I can and he calls me. “Actually, I don’t think I need them anymore, but thanks honey.”

I look at Kody, who is lounging in the passenger seat all smiley because he didn’t have to go into the Pit of Despair and decide that he’s been a good boy today. So, Kody and I go to his favorite place. PetsMart. He needed food and he likes checking out there because the checkout ladies always check him out. So, he goes and shows off and sits and acts like he’s not crazy and they always fawn over him and give him doggy treats. He really is a big flirt – particularly when there are treats around.

And then there was nothing else to do except come home and eat one of the Drumstick ice cream cones calling my name in the freezer. Because I’ve been a good girl today too. And I even called around and found another shot clinic that is on Sunday.

I will be a good steward even if it kills me.

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With everything that happened on Monday, I forgot to tell you how the Super Bowl Brownies turned out! And pictures are always better than words:

I used a Duncan Hines box mix and made a quick powdered sugar glaze for the laces (powdered sugar mixed with water until the right consistency is reached). They were actually pretty easy! And the plate I found at Target a couple of years ago in the $1 section. Love it!

I’m SO excited as I write this, because in FOUR days, I will be able to tell all of you whether our little one is a girl or a boy! We can do away with the “it” title the baby has right now! No more of this: “Let’s decide how to decorate it’s room.” “Gosh, it’s moving a lot right now!”

I hate the word it in relation to our baby. It makes the baby sound like he or she is not really a person, just a thing.

But, enough of my soapbox. 🙂

Yesterday was a great day! I had lunch with a good friend of mine and we started a Bible study that is awesome! It’s called Because of Jesus and I highly recommend it. We ended up talking for two hours at an adorable little tea room. Such a great conversation! God has been teaching me so much lately – Monday’s reminder of how He protects us has just been the tip of the iceberg. The fact that He loves us so completely, so thoroughly…wow. It just amazes me!

I went and met my Mom and sister afterward at the mall. I needed some black ballet flats for the upcoming Christian Writers Guild conference (it’s February 18-21 in Denver – I’m SO excited to go!!! If any of you are going to be able to be there, send me an email so we can meet up and get coffee or something!). I found some shoes (cute and actually relatively comfortable – SCORE) and my sister applied for a job and got it (yay! The mall is very close to my house, so I’ll get to see her more!)

After that, I met some girls from my Bible study for a quick coffee before dinner. It was so nice to get a chance for some girl catch-up time! Jon had a family night thing that lasted late at his school, so when he finished, he came and picked me up from coffee and we caught a quick dinner at Flying Star (favorite local place here!) and then watched the American Idol episode we DVR-d (my thoughts: Group Day = Weird).

Today is going to be a quieter day. I’m working on some writing and I might have to clean out the closet in what’s going to be the baby’s room (right now, it’s the catch-all room) just to make the time pass faster. I’ve been trying to come up with all kinds of things to do this week to keep my mind off of this coming Monday’s festivities! You know – because a watched pot never boils and stuff like that. 🙂

And I’ll leave you with a picture of my constant companion:

🙂 Have a great day!

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Yesterday morning started out like any other Monday morning. Weekends are typically more filled with activities around here than my normal day during the week, so I’m usually exhausted come Monday morning.

So, I sleep in. My excuse? I’m pregnant. 🙂

Well, yesterday morning, Jon kissed me goodbye, I went back to bed and woke up about 9:15. I was still very tired, so I decided, “Eh, I don’t have that much to do today. I’m sleeping more.” So, I fell back asleep.

At 9:40, I heard someone yell, “Erynn!”

I sat straight up in bed, put on my socks since it was cold and walked out into the family room because I figured Jon was home and it must’ve been a snow day.

No Jon. No snow. No one but Kody, who was sitting there just blinking at me.

I decided I must have dreamed it and went back to my bedroom to brush my teeth and blow my nose (I seem to be suffering from the weird stuffy nose of pregnancy…who knew it existed?). Right after I blew my nose, I started smelling something weird.

I sniffed all around our bedroom, the guest room, the office, the bathrooms, the laundry room and finally came back out to the family room and kitchen where one of us apparently accidentally bumped our gas stove knob. It was on, the flame was not.

I immediately opened all the doors and windows and Kody and I hurried outside (yep, bathrobe and all). I ran back inside, threw on some pajama pants and a long-sleeve shirt and Kody and I went to my Mom and Dad’s for about three hours yesterday morning, leaving my house to air out.

I didn’t experience any of the symptoms of exposure to fumes (headache, nausea, dizziness, fainting), but I went to the doctor this morning just to make sure that everything is okay with our peanut. And everything is perfectly fine – a heartbeat of 144 and he/she’s a busy little thing! I bet the baby is just excited that we’ll finally start calling it by it’s proper gender and name soon! Six days away!!!

I truly believe that God or an angel yelled my name yesterday morning. If I hadn’t heard it and hadn’t woken up, I would have slept probably until close to eleven in the morning and by then the gas would have been on for several hours and I and the baby might have been feeling the effects of it.

I have been SO reminded about how much God loves us and how faithful He is to protect us! Most of you know that Psalm 121 is my all-time favorite chapter in the Bible, but I’m so comforted by it now:

And that is my miraculous story for this week! I love that our God is here and present with us, don’t you? 🙂

And, without further ado, here’s my 18 week picture! I took this on Sunday, so it’s actually a little bit past the “official” 18 week mark, but close enough:

Growing, growing, growing! Counting down the days, hour, minutes and milliseconds until we get to find out what God already knows – whether this one is a boy or girl!

Love to all of you and a very heartfelt THANK YOU to all of you out there who have been praying for me and this baby. 🙂 I can’t even put into words what that means to me and Jon!

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Not to ruin anyone’s weekend, but Friday is SO CLOSE to Monday! Which will mean only one week until we find out! 🙂

I’m only a little bit excited. 🙂

Today was a good day! I got some mailing stuff taken care of at the post office, went to a store that carries previously owned maternity clothes and found nothing (sad), Wal-Mart and the Sunflower Market (love that store!).

We’re spending Super Bowl Sunday with my parents and siblings and I decided we are going to make guacamole (because it sounds really good right now!) and brownies. Only these brownies are going to look like this:

Aren’t they adorable? I saw them on the Betty Crocker website and just couldn’t resist them! What are your plans for the game? Anything fun and exciting? And who are you rooting for? I’m not really tied to either team, but I’ve always been a Peyton Manning fan so I’m going to go for him in between mouthfuls of guacamole and brownies. 🙂

Tomorrow, we’ve got a birthday party for a little guy in our Bible study. He’s turning the Big 2, so of course we’re going to live it up a little bit for him! 🙂 I just love little kid birthday parties! We went to another little boy’s 1st birthday party a couple of weeks ago. All of the other kids were trying to get in on the unwrapping. Hilarious! It’s even more fun for me and Jon because we get to just sit back with our content, just-barely-kicking-in-there child and watch all the parents go crazy trying to corral and feed their kids.

It’s entertaining. 🙂 We have great examples of parenthood in our circle of friends. I love, love, LOVE our Bible study!! 🙂

Well, tonight is Friday which means we’re having leftovers from this week for dinner. And since they sound so good right now, I might have to toss a couple of baked potatoes in the oven too. 🙂

If you’re in the northeast part of the country, I hope you are bundling up! Stay warm out there, everyone! And have a fabulous Super Bowl weekend!

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Today is a cold, dreary day and it’s been snowing almost all day. But we’ve got little to show for it. Again. 🙁 I think, if it’s going to snow, it should snow. After we’re all safe at home, of course.

I got my haircut yesterday and I took some before pics, but they aren’t loading onto my computer for whatever reason. So, all I’ve got is the after pic. To give you an idea, I ended up getting about four inches cut off yesterday. My hair feels so much healthier! I’ve decided that long hair is just a hassle. And mine gets so tangled and yucky looking on the ends way too quickly.

Pardon the poor quality. I took it with my MacBook. Gotta love that Photo Booth application! You can’t see much of it, but this is my glider that I got for Christmas from my mom and dad. I sit here almost every day to either write or read or catch up on the things I call “marketing strategies” but are really just Facebook and Twitter. 🙂

I am at 17.5 weeks today and Big News! I have felt the baby moving! 🙂 YAY! It’s the weirdest feeling EVER and nothing like I imagined it would feel like. Almost like a little thumping in my stomach. Very, very odd. Still, SO exciting and I can’t wait until Jon is able to feel it!

Speaking of my dear husband, he went snowboarding this past weekend, as you guys know. Well, apparently somewhere halfway down a black diamond slope filled with moguls (bad news for snowboarders), he did something weird to his back. He could barely bend over on Monday, so he took a sick day and went to the chiropractor.

Chiropractors have the strangest jobs. This doctor wasn’t a tiny guy, but he wasn’t a big guy either and Jon is not small (you don’t play football at a college level by being a little guy!). So, the doctor is almost jumping on Jon and Jon’s making cracking noises all over and I’m standing in the corner not able to watch. Bleugh. I can’t even stand it when someone cracks their knuckles, cracking a back is WAY worse. But, I was there because I’ve been to the chiropractor and unable to drive afterward. So, I was the designated driver.

Anyway. I think it’s safe to say that I will not be going back to school for my chiropractic degree.

Did you guys watch American Idol or Chopped last night? Chopped was a rerun (boo!), but American Idol cracked both Jon and I up (wow – way too much cracking in this post). I normally don’t start watching until the auditions are over and they are in Hollywood, but it was a good show last night. Though, I have to confess – I thought guest judge Victoria Beckham looked way too dark last night for it being February. I mean, I’m all for fake tanning (as most of us heavy-on-the-Swedish blooded girls are), but there needs to be some realism to the darkness of the tan, I think.

Hope you are having a great day today! I’m going to leave you with something I saw on Facebook today that had me giggling:

“Let’s eat Grandma!” OR “Let’s eat, Grandma!”
Punctuation saves lives.

Have a wonderful night! 🙂

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Today is Monday and I officially love Mondays!

Or at least, I do for the next two weeks. Because Monday, February 15th, is when we find out whether we are having a boy or a girl!!

I’m SO excited!! (In case you couldn’t tell!) I can’t wait to get the baby’s room all ready and start collecting some of the adorable baby clothes I’ve been seeing. AND I have this great plan of how to tell the family and you guys what we’re having! I’ll be sure to take tons of pictures!

In other news, I’m coming off of a great weekend with my mom and sister. We were supposed to go to Colorado Springs to visit our friends, Jen and Greg (who just had the cutest baby boy!) and Jen’s parents, Barb and Walt, but the snowstorm on Thursday and Friday kept us from going. Jon, my dad and my brothers all went to Durango to do a little skiing and snowboarding, so Kody and I packed up and spent the weekend at my parents’ house. We’ll have to find time to go to Colorado Springs soon!

We had such a relaxing weekend! We went to go see When In Rome, we ate out, Cayce and I helped my mom redecorate her living room and we watched the Miss America contest (I was rooting for Miss California – though Miss New Mexico did great!). When In Rome was adorable – though we were all laughing at the height difference between Kristen Bell and Josh Duhamel.

Jon and the guys had a good time too – until yesterday afternoon when Jon did something to one of the disks in his back. So, Jon had to take a sick day, we spent this morning at a chiropractor and Jon’s busy icing and heating his back today. Poor guy!

I finally get my hair cut tomorrow (yay!) and I’ll be sure to post before and after pictures for you. Still thinking about going closer to shoulder-length – I think it will just be so much easier!

Jon’s watching The Rookie right now as he has the heating pad on his back and I have a confession: I cry like a baby during this movie. And even though I’m trying to get some work done today, I can’t help watching bits and pieces of it and I’m now sniffling through this blog.

What did you guys do this weekend? 🙂

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