99

99 days to go! How wild is that! We definitely need to get crackin on getting the baby room ready and get some of our baby 'supplies'. Eeeek! So exciting! I'm glad that we have Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's all in between, maybe it will make time go by faster! Something tells me things will seem nice and busy from now through the first week of January and then things will just draaaaag by!

Yesterday, for the first time, I felt Kaygan have the hiccups! It was really weird. I didn't catch on at first that it wasn't her little kicking and punching, then I figured out that the little taps were the same strength every time and were on a rhythm. So, Yup! Hiccups!

Tomorrow we have a big dr. appt. Well, actually, 2 of them. We have an ultrasound at 8am. Let's hope that we still have a little girl. I trust the u/s tech, but, 18 weeks is really early to be able to determine gender. Bib made the comment the other day how he'd feel so bad if we DO find out it's really a boy and he's been calling his son Kaygan for the last 8 weeks!

I also have to take my Gestational Diabetes test tomorrow at a 9am appt. So, no food for me after midnight tonight, and just a sip of water tomorrow before the test. Then, a super super sugary drink in my tummy for 1 hour. I'm not looking forward to that. I've never been able to handle even kool aid on an empty stomach without getting sick... I really don't want to throw up at the dr. office! I really really don't want to fail and have to do the 3 hour test!

I also have to do my RH- contamination screening tomorrow since I have a negative blood type. Bobby and I have the same blood type, so the chances of Kaygan having a different type aren't huge, but possible. If I'm clear for that, then I have to go back and get a Rho Gahm Shot in 2 weeks. I had to get that twice with our miscarriage, and it's not exactly the funnest shot in the world to get. According to our dr." it kinda feels like getting kicked in the butt by a mule ". Now, only in MO would they say mule!

26 weeks tomorrow... I'll post a new Belly Pic after our appt and give an update!

Look what I did!

I've finished my first baby project! I found some blocks on a website and the pattern to make them. I was planning on getting some fabric to make them after our next ultrasound... just to make sure it's a girl. But, a few nights ago, I was going through some baby clothes that I'd gotten at a garage sale at the beginning of summer and found this fabric that I'd also gotten at a garage sale. I thought that they went really well together... the little duckies have purple bows around their necks. So, I decided to give the block pattern a test run on this fabric that I paid like, a quarter for, and if I totally screwed up, no big loss. Well, they turned out and I love them!

I've found a few other patterns for baby hats and pants that I'm going to try to make, as well as a baby quilt (nothing fancy) that I'll attempt. Since we can't do any painting in the baby room, I feel like there's nothing fun to 'create' for her. So, this is my creative fix! And how cute! I'll post pics again when I complete something else!

Newborn's conversation with God

Grab your kleenex box mommies... this ones a tear jerker... or maybe just to me, as I seem to be overly emotional lately!

A baby asked God, "They tell me you are sending me to earth tomorrow,
but how am I going to live there being so small and helpless?"

God said, "Your angel will be waiting for you and will take care of you."

The child further inquired, "But tell me, here in heaven I don't have
to do anything but sing and smile to be happy.."

God said, "Your angel will sing for you and will also smile for you.
And you will feel your angel's love and be very happy."

Again the small child asked, "And how am I going to be able to understand
when people talk to me if I don't know the language?"

God said, "Your angel will tell you the most beautiful and sweet words
you will ever hear, and with much patience and care, your angel will
teach you how to speak."

"And what am I going to do when I want to talk to you?"

God said, "Your angel will place your hands together and will teach
you how to pray."

"Who will protect me?"

God said, "Your angel will defend you even if it means risking its life."

"But I will always be sad because I will not see you anymore."

God said, "Your angel will always talk to you about Me and will teach
you the way to come back to Me, even though I will always be next to you."

At that moment there was much peace in Heaven, but voices from Earth
could be heard and the child hurriedly asked, "God, if I am to leave
now, please tell me my angel's name."

God said, You will simply call her, " Mom ."

25 Weeks

How far along: 25 weeks, Only 15 to go!
Total weight gain/loss: 5lbs i think
Maternity clothes: not yet!
Stretch marks: just the beginning of one... it's actually a former stretch mark that is getting some color back to it :(
Sleep: yes, I'm sleeping, but not well most nights!
Best moment last week: Bobby getting to feel her kick again and watching my belly do a little bouncy dance!
Movement: strong as ever, still mostly very low, but every once in a while, I get a little nudge about 3 inches below my belly button.
Food cravings: Nothing
Gender: GIRL!
Labor Signs: None yet... which is a very good thing!
Belly Button in or out: Innie...but getting flatter
What I miss: wine... I'll be completely honest on this one... I miss having a glass of wine to un-stress!
What I am looking forward to: Our next ultrasound on November 5th. Can't wait to see her again!
Milestones: We made it to 24 weeks, which was V-Day!

24 week bump!

So, here's the 24 week bump! I can't believe that I'm going to get bigger, I feel like a cow already!

Yesterday I chatted with my girlfriend Jennifer. We went to Concordia together and we cheerleaders together, well, that's actually how we met... GO BULLDOGS!

She was one of the first people I called when I found out I was pregnant. She and her husband Cliff had been trying for quite a while, so, she knew what Bobby and I were going through when it was taking us a while to get pg again after we lost Taylor. I wanted to tell her in person right away, before she heard it through the grapevine.

She called me back the next morning to tell me that she had just gotten a positive test too! So, our due dates are only a few days apart and we're both having girls! She's lucky enough to be able to know her babies exact birthday though, as they're having a scheduled c-section.

She lives in Atlanta, so we haven't seen each other since spring of 2000, but, we're already planning a Nashville (halfway point) get together so our little girls can get to be friends from the time their tiny! I can't wait!

It's so great to be able to talk to her. I have several friends who are pregnant right now, but not with their firsts. It's so fun to be able to both be shocked and amazed at the little kicks that we're feeling right now, and know that our babies are pretty much the exact same size!

Love you Jen! Can't wait to meet Sophia!

24 Weeks= V-Day!!!

Weeks 21-24 (Month 5): Papaya

Watch what you say -- baby is now able to hear outside noise from down in the womb. Studies show that baby finds gentle music and your own voice most soothing. Nipples are starting to sprout, and that little face is fully formed. And, baby's starting to settle into sleep cycles, snoozing about 12 to 14 hours a day. It shouldn't be hard to figure out when -- just pay attention to those kicks as they start and stop.

Today marks our 24 week mark! That = Viability Day! For those that don't know, V-Day is the mark when IF (and we're hoping I don't) I were to go into labor any time between now and 40 weeks, not only will the dr.s try their hardest to keep our LO alive, they've got a really good shot! I guess the survival rate of 24 week babies is incredibly high, as long as there are no other complications. So, very excited for today!

Kaygan has been quite the active little girl lately. I'm feeling things that are totally bizzaro to me! She's still sitting very low, and still doesn't seem to want to kick when Bobby tries to feel her. Like I keep telling him, she loves him and doesn't want to kick him... but what does that say for me!

Happy Anniversary to Us!

I can't believe it's been a year already! We've had a very busy, tense, stressful year, but, I think it's made us a closer couple!


Our wedded year started with fun honeymoon on a Carnival Cruise. Unfortunately, Bobby got a fever blister on day #2... how fun was that for us... we couldn't even kiss on our honeymoon! So much for romance!

We found out 6 weeks later that we were 4 weeks pregnant! 9 weeks of miserable all day morning sickness followed, only to end in the loss of our first baby. We miss our Taylor baby bunches. It's crazy to thing that at this time, we should have a 2 month old baby! It took about a month for our loss and all follow up appointments to be completed and we were give the ok to try again.

In May we went to Nebraska to visit Bobby's parents for Mother's Day. Very fun... as always!

Finally... June 3rd we got our second chance to start our family. I was sick from week 4 till week 16!

June was a very busy work month for me! 5 weddings in 6 weeks! Crazy!

The first week in July, Bobby sent me to my last family reunion without a baby. He said I needed to go to this one since it would be my final chance to really relax and not stress about work or baby or anything else. I had a great time, but really wish Bobby could have gone with me!

On September 11, we found out that we were having a little girl! We are so anxious for Kaygan to be here and in our arms... come on February! A few minor concerns and a very wiggly baby means that we'll have another ultrasound in November to try to get some better measurements and make sure that the 'concerns' have resolved themselves.

In early October we lost my Grandma Thole. It was sad but she was ready, which made it somewhat easier to deal with.

And here we are today! We did try our cake today. I was pretty skeptical that it would taste good... Bobby was REALLY skeptical. We took off the frosting, because that tasted a little off, but the cake itself was great!

We have an incredibly busy few months coming up as well. Bobby and I plan to make a trip to Nebraska to visit his parents before Kaygan is born. We are anxiously awaiting the birth of our great nephew. Christmas shopping needs to be done. Thanksgiving planned, and nursery set up and decorating need to be started and finished! November and December are usually very busy times for me at the studio as well, with everyone wanting to do last minute sessions for portrait gifts and Christmas Cards!

Candy Countdown!

I got this idea from a fellow SAL gal, but she used M&M's for her container. I don't LOVE those, and I wanted to be able to see a bigger dent in my countdown! So, 116 pieces of candy in these jars (total) and 116 days till my due date! I have to be honest, if these aren't completely gone when Kaygan arrives, I won't be too sad, as long as there's not too many left in there!

This was God's Plan

Even though Bobby and I were ready to be pregnant again soon after we lost Taylor, God knows what he's doing! Tonight I shot a wedding, not even a full wedding, just the formal pictures of the couple before hand. It was physically tough! My belly isn't even THAT big and I was having issues bending and squatting! If we'd gotten pregnant any earlier than we did, I'd have an even bigger belly and this really would have been challenging. AND, I'd have been at this stage in June when I was swamped with weddings!

Even though it wasn't my plan, God seems to have this all worked out!

120 days to go!!!

Well, we hopefully have 120 days or less till little Kaygan arrives! I've decided to copy on of my friends ideas and fill a big jar with 120 pieces of candy. I get to eat one a day! That should help with my countdown!

Bobby finally felt her last night again for the second time. Only once, but it was still a good little kick from her! We've figured out that she tends to sleep all day long and maybe wake up once in the afternoon. She wakes up in the evening around 7-8 and is moving and kicking around for a couple of hours. She also wakes up with us at 5am and kicks around for a while then too! She must be awake more during the night, but I guess I sleep too soundly to be able to feel her!

From what I can tell, she's head down (let's hope she stays that way!). The only reason I say that is I get lots of little bumps on my bladder, but the stronger bumps tend to be up by my belly button. So, I guess she's using my bladder as a punching bag and my belly button as a soccer ball!

We get to see her again on November 5th, so we'll see how she's sitting then and if I'm right or not!

She's Shy!!!

Well, Kaygan has now graced just ONE other person with the opportunity to feel her kick. I of course feel her all the time, and even know how to get her to kick if I feel like it's been too long since I've felt her. Bobby has felt her the one time as well, but as I've posted before, she seems to want to cuddle with his warm hand instead of kick at it!

Yesterday, Aunt Kayla got to feel her. We tried for a while, but Kaygan wasn't participating at all. So, we gave up and started looking at some pics from our trip to MN earlier this summer. Well, Kaygan got to kickin. I've JUST started to be able to feel her while I'm standing, usually it's only when I'm sitting or laying down. So, I really didn't figure anyone else would be able to feel her. Well, I pushed Kayla's fingers in right where she was kicking. She kicked a time or two and Kayla didn't feel it. Then, on the third one she must have put all her effort into it, because not only was it one of the hardest kicks I've ever felt, Kayla got a good strong feeling on her fingers too!

Kayla has got some pretty big eyes as it is, but they got huge when she felt those kicks! She started jumping around and squeeling! It was so cute! Of course, now Bobby's jealous because he's only gotten to feel her once and now someone else has felt her as much as he has. But, he's still excited for Kayla's sake I think!

22 Weeks! Go Huskers!

22 weeks down!!! Yay!!! I've really been feeling Kaygan kicking around in there. She had a few quiet still days after the East Perry Fair... too much junkie fair food I guess! Now I've figured out how to make her squirm and kick, so if I ever get nervous, I just use my pants waistband to squish her a bit and she fights back!

Bobby has only been able to feel her once. First of all, he doesn't have much patience to wait it out for her to kick again, but the biggest problem, is she likes it too much to have his hand or arm cuddle her! She can be going crazy and as soon as Bobby puts his hand on my tummy, she not only stops while his hand is there, she stops completely! He must be putting her to sleep with his big warm hands!



A few weeks ago, Bobby's parents sent Kaygan a Husker onesie. So, we wore it with pride for the Husker/Mizzou game... and we won! Go Huskers!

I feel old!

Here's a pic from my 10 year class reunion. Not too many showed up from our class of 200+ people. I know some more showed up after we left. We had to leave early because all of the cigarette smoke was making me sick. It never used to bother me... I was a bartender for crying out loud! But, since Kaygan's been around, I just can't stomach it!

Room Theme

Will be Ladybugs... hence the new blog theme! I'm not a fan of Pink, so we're going to do Ladybugs and purple.

We also are probably doing dark wood for the crib and other furniture in her room. I got a bookshelf from my Aunt Mietz's auction for a dollar, and Bobby, my Mom and I stained and finished it. I love the way it looks!

And she shall be called...

Kaygan Elizabeth!

Yes, we made it up! We are wanting to 'tribute' our heritage with our kids names. So, Kay is my mom's middle name and Elizabeth is Bobby's mom's middle name.

We had huge 'discussions' about how to spell Kaygan, but this seemed to be the easiest for other people to comprehend how to pronounce it. I kinda feel sorry for Bobby's parents. They'll now have a Kaygan for a granddaughter and a Kaden and Kailey for great grand kids. It's a tongue twister!

Here's me at 20 weeks!

It's a....

Well, we'd had a few minor issues that our dr. wanted to take a better look at, so we had an U/S at 18weeks 1 day. The U/S Tech wasn't planning on doing our whole gender and measurement scan that day, but she decied that we were far enough along to go ahead and do it. I was so excited! I just kept quiet, because I knew that Ashley (the U/S tech) was doing measurements and concentrating on everything. She'd tell us there's the head, here's an arm etc. After about 5 minutes, Bib just couldn't stand it anymore and asked her if she could tell if it was a boy or girl yet. Ashley said she'd been checking, but LO kept it's legs crossed, so she couldn't see anything.

I immediately said "oh, if the legs are crossed it must be a girl". Bobby was certain we'd be having a girl, and I was positive we were having a boy. So, Ashley just kept going and after another 5 minutes Bobby again asked if she could tell. She just kinda smirked (she knew about our difference of opinions) and said, "Yeah, it's a girl".


My response? "What!!!??? Are you sure? Are you serious? Really, it's a girl?" and many more comments such as these. She just smiled and showed us the 'goods' as proof it was a girl. I wasn't convinced, because it looked so blurry to me. She checked the other things she needed to check and I asked her again if it was 'really a girl' and how sure was she? She said we'd look again, but she was 95% sure, and that's the highest percent of sure she'll ever say! So, looks like it's a girl and I have to admit that Bobby's 'daddy instincts' were better than my 'mommy instincts'.

I think she looks like Skelator in this one!


There's her little profile. While we were looking at this view we saw her put her hand in her mouth and then we could see her little jaw going up and down. She was sucking her thumb! It was soooo cool!

So, we called Bobby's parents right away and told them. Bobby's mom was so cute and squeely and his dad said "I like girls". It was so cute. We put them on speaker so we could both hear what they had to say. Then we went out for supper to celebrate... and give Bobby even more time to tease me about his being right.

We were planning on holding out with my family until my parents and sisters were all together. We had it all planned out on how we were going to tell. Well, my parents and their friends were the only ones there, and we had to wait a while for my sisters to get there. My parents and their friends tricked us aka Bobby into telling. They just kept kept asking questions about the U/S. Eventually, Bobby slipped and said "we saw her hand go into her mouth..." He didn't even realize he'd done it at first, but after 2-3 seconds of everyone staring at him he caught on and put his head down and just couldn't believe that HE was the one who slipped up! So, then they all knew!
We told Becky as soon as she got there, and had to wait till the next day to tell Kayla. They both had similar reactions... screaming!

Whew...

So, it's been a while since my last post! Let's just say that morning sickness aka ALL day sickness kept me from doing anything extra on my computer for a few months. Finally, at 16 weeks I started to feel better, but had alot of catching up to do on photography stuff before I could do something fun like blog!

So, Here's what's been going on!

After we found out about our LO (Little One) I started to get sick almost right away. It was all day long, just like our first pregnancy. But, thankfully, this time, I went for the Zofran right away. It never completely took it away, but it took the edge off. Good thing too, since I had a bunch of weddings in June and July!

We were just over 7 weeks when we had our first U/S (ultra sound). At that U/S I had a pretty good idea of just how far along we were, but, our LO was actually ahead of schedule. Our EDD (estimated due date) was moved up to Feb. 11. Here's our first pic of LO!
Just after the U/S, I went to our Family Reunion in Cantrall IL. It was a great week. Bib said I was to go and just relax, because it would be my last reunion where I didn't have to chase a LO the whole time! So, I went, I relaxed and had a great time! It was so fun to show off the U/S pic of our LO.

While at Family Reunion, my cousin's little girl Hayden decided that our baby's name was Carfie. That's the name she gives all of her dollies so no one was surprised! So, Carfie has been our LO's nickname ever since!

My Sister's Keeper

Last night, I read My Sister's Keeper. It's the book that a movie that comes out in a few weeks is based on. The movie looks good, so I wanted to read the book first. I'm like that.

The book is about a 13 year old girl, Anna, who wants to sue her parents for the medical rights to her body. Her older sister has cancer, and Anna was conceived to be a perfect match for her. From birth, Anna is her donor, and has been through the double digits when it comes to # of procedures for her. Anna is ready to be done... but not for the reasons you'd think.

I liked the way that the book was written. Each chapter was told from the point of view of a different character. Each one was how that person was feeling. Some of the chapters were re-peats of the same thing, but from a different persons perspective... does that make sense? The only thing that would have made this concept a little easier to the reader, would be if at the top of the page, instead of the book name or author name, it said the name of the person who's telling that chapter. Usually it was pretty easy to figure out, but there were a few chapters when I had to go back and look at the chapter title to figure it out.

I thought that was a really neat way to write it all out. It made it much easier to see everyones side of the story. Although the majority of it is about a court case, it's very hard to take sides.

This book was sad, had many surprises, and several great smart-alec remarks.
I'd rate it A-

TTCAL Girls ROCK!!!

There is a group of women for whom life is not what they thought it would be. They have had their dreams of motherhood cut short, never getting to meet their child(ren). They are the TTCAL(Trying to Conceive after a Loss) women. I know that there are many many women who are TTCAL, but the ones that I have come to love are the TTCAL girls on the Bump.com.

This is such an amazing group of super-supportive women. I should know, I had been on the board for the past 5 months before recently graduating to the SAL (success after a loss) board. When you consider how much we share with each other... all the TMI details of what's going on inside our bodies, and the secrets we tell that we'd never tell to our IRL friends, we are probably closer, better friends than most people who see each other face to face on a regular basis. I'll be perfectly honest... I miss my TTCAL girls.

Oh, it's not that I can't go back and visit... and I do. I lurk constantly. But, I also remember being on that board, and depending on the day, and how my life was going, it could be really tough to see pg women comment on posts. Granted, the ones who I'd gotten to know, who came back from SAL to make the occasional post, I was happy to see. They are my friends and I am happy for them. But, on the occasion that a pg woman came and posted, and I had no idea who she was, and I was feeling particularly glum that day, it was really difficult to see that little baby ticker. I don't want to be that person for some of the newer TTCAL girls.

So, I guess this is just a shout out to the amazing TTCAL girls on the Bump. You Rock! and Ellen would be lucky to have us TTCAL and SAL girls on her show!!!

My Fun Day!

Yesterday, my Aunt Sue and her grandkids (my cousins kids) came down for a visit. We put up the sprinkler and let them play in it for a while... all in all, a very fun day! The oldest is my Godson!
G.
H.
H.
G. figured out that he could pick up the sprinkler and attack his siblings with it! It didn't stay on the ground much after that point!
Super G.!!

Subway... Eat Fresh!

So, the other night I decided to try the new sandwich at Subway... The Tuscan Chicken Melt.
Not too bad! The extra seasoning is pretty good. The way it's 'supposed' to be is with some Olive Vin. dressing, but, I didn't think I should risk that on a newly pg tummy! I'd order it again!

Guess what WE Got!!!

We are very excited! Nervous too of course! We have decided to go ahead and share early, even with our recent miscarriage. We figure, the more people praying for us and our baby, the better... so, please pray that we get a take-home baby this time around!

Yesterday my girlfriend Jessica asked me if I would design some business cards for her new Doula services. I’d volunteered to do this a few weeks ago, but didn’t know for sure if I was going to get to do it. Well, last night, I did. I love the name, but I don’t know if she’ll be using it or not… I just made it up on the fly! So, anyone in Colorado, or anyone willing to buy a plane ticket for a great Doula… check her out! The info on these cards may or may not be right, not sure yet… but the phone # is legit for business. What do ya’ll think?

Weekend Warriors Book Review

Book: Weekend Warriors
Author: Fern Michaels
Pages:

Back Cover Blurb:

My Review: This book was recommended to me by my mother in law when we were visiting her for Mother’s Day. She told me about this series, and that afternoon, a girlfriend of mine was packing up some of her books to lend me and came across this one and also said I just had to read it. She actually gave be a 2-in-1 book that included the second book of the series, which I will review in a different post.

I really liked this book. It was almost instantly addicted to it. I think it took me 2 days to read the whole thing. For me, this wasn’t a great book to help me fall asleep at night, because I wanted to stay up all night reading.

As this group of women is drawn together by the fact that they have all been unjustly wronged by the justice system in some way. They call themselves a sisterhood, and it’s very easy to fall right into the group as another sister. During the first meeting, they all put their names into a box, and each book is based on the ‘case’ of the name pulled from the box. They go after the person or persons who have gotten away with hurting these women. Each chooses the punishment for the crimes. With a multi-billionare footing the bill for the projects, and a former government official with access to every data base in the world, the details are carefully laid out for each plan.

Granted, this is supposed to be a review of the first book, but they sort of lay out the format and what’s going to be happening in each of the books.

In the book Weekend Warriors, Kathryn’s is the first name to be drawn. She is a trucker, who’s now deceased handicapped husband used to ride with. Three bikers attacked and raped her while her husband was forced to watch. The Sisterhood dons costumes and make-up to appear as biker-chick as possible. They scheme a great plan to make these three bikers pay in a way that will haunt them the way they’ve haunted Kathryn’s life. I won’t tell you what they do, but, one of the women in the Sisterhood is a surgeon… so figure it out for yourself!

I rate this book an A-… it could have been longer and I’m sure I would have been just an intrigued throughout!

Book Review of Citizen Girl

Book: Citizen Girl
Authors: Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus
Pages: 306

Back Cover Blurb: The blurb on the back cover looks like a newspaper classified ad. Very attractive in my opinion, although maybe not the best as to a description of the book. It reads:

SEEKING Qualified applicants looking to build their careers on sand. Requirements: a bachelor’s degree worth a fraction of the debt you incurred. One or two years of experience working for a deranged harridan who has sucked your very life force. Fluency in at least two major jargons. Must be resourceful, flexible, action oriented, stress tolerant, enthusiastic, and desperate. Primary responsibilities include: figuring out just what we’ve hired you to do; working closely with no one for clients we’ll never identify, and a practice we’ll never commit to. All interested e-mail your integrity to www.mycompany.com.

My Review: To be honest; I do judge books by their cover. This one seemed like my kind of book, as it appears to be the legs of an overworked hip and trendy New Yorker… something I personally long to be! Well, the hip and trendy at least. I feel like I’m slightly stressed in the work department enough. When I looked at the back, a review by Austin American Statesman read: Think The Beauty Myth meets Sex and the City. Again, I think where can I go wrong now.

I will admit, this was one of those books that I just kept reading, thinking surely, this has to get better at some point! It never did. The characters don’t seem to have real names; the main character is referred to simply as Girl in the whole book. She works for My Company, another nameless.

Throughout the whole book, she is attempting to figure out just what her job is. Literally, not how to do it best, but what she’s actually supposed to be doing. She never seems to figure it out, and the people she asks don’t seem to know either. Chapters jump from one subject to the next, work, boyfriend, boss (named Guy), party. None of these topics ever really seem to blend together, or have any point to the rest of the story.

I have to say that off the top of my head I can think of only two other books that I found this bad. I read quite a bit, and even if I’m having trouble getting into one of them, I put for the effort to finish what I’ve started, and have been pleasantly surprised by several of them. This one however, no such luck.

I rate this book a D+, the plus being for the cute cover.

Baked Kale

So, I know it sounds weird, actually, maybe a little gross. But, my sister, Becky, is a nutrition major at school and is on a ‘find everything healthy’ kick. She found this recipe for baked kale… yes kale as in the nasty green leaf that comes on your plate at restaurants. Not so nasty tasting if you make it right I guess!

1. Heat oven to 350
2. Tear the Kale into pieces, about 2-3 inches each… not really a big deal here.
3. Wash them in a colander and spread them out on a towel. Pat the pieces dry with another towel.
4. Spray with a butter flavored spray
5. Sprinkle seasoning on, I like Salt and Pepper, with or without Garlic, but this is an open book here!
6. Sprinkle with shredded Parmesan Cheese, not too much (use sesame seeds or another topping for variety)
   
7. Bake until the pieces have a dry brittle feel to them, 5-10 minutes

• These are good plain or dipped in ketchup, ranch, or any other dip you’d like to try!
• A full bag of Kale will feed 2-3 people… it looks like a huge pile, but really isn’t that much once you start eating!
• The one downfall to this recipe… the odor that will be left in your kitchen isn’t awful, but doesn’t exactly smell great. I suggest candles or an open window.
• She could tell you all the benefits of this stuff, apparently it’s really great for you… I just know it tastes YUMMY!!!

Moving Scoot

On Friday the 26th of May, Bib and I drove 4 hours to Illinois to help his long time friend, Scott, move. Scott, Scooter or Scoot (pick a name any name) and Bib have been close friends for many many years. Scott was one of the Best Men in our wedding.

We spent Friday evening dining on amazing, and enormous, Italian dishes at this little restaurant that he took us to. We spent the rest of the evening at his new house. His girlfriend Jan came over eventually too.

On Saturday the 27th, we went over to Scott’s house bright and early to start moving. Before we started though, we walked across his yard to the bank that he works at… needless to say, he’s anxious to not be living next door to work anymore! The Morton Community Bank was awesome! It was huge (used to be a grocery store) and decorated with the coolest antiques!

I t took two trailer loads to get almost everything from Scott’s old house to his new house. His girlfriend, Jan and her 10 year old son, will be moving in with him also in about a month. His new house is pretty cool. I’ll be interested to find out how moving his elliptical machine to the basement went though… it was a pretty tight squeeze to get around the steps to the basement!

Taylor Reece

Many of you know that just 7 weeks after our wedding we found out that we were 5 weeks pregnant! It was a little bit of a surprise that we were able to conceive so quickly, but we were sooooo super happy and excited!

I surprised Bobby at work by telling him that I had a surprise for him. I held out two fists and told him to pick a hand. He picked the right one, which was also the correct one, and I opened my had to reveal a pacifier! He was really shocked and had to go sit down! He quickly recovered and started calling his family.

We told my family the next day by hanging the pacifier on their empty Christmas tree!

Our pregnancy was going very well except for the all day morning sickness I was having!

On January 31st, we were 13 weeks pregnant and were so glad to be coming out of the first trimester. My morning sickness was tapering off and food was starting to taste good again!

Then things came to an abrupt halt for us. I ended up in the ER where they informed us that our baby had passed away. We are devastated, of course. According to the dr. our baby had passed some time ago.

I had surgery to remove the baby on February 4th. Recovery was rough for a few days. They asked us if we wanted to participate in the Share program. We chose to. 4 times a year the Share group takes all of the babies who were not carried to term (mostly late 1st Trimester losses like ours, and early 2nd Trimester losses), and has a memorial service and burial. There is a special cemetery in Cape specifically for this group. This means that we will actually have a grave to go to where our baby will be buried.

We would like to thank you all for the prayers that you have sent our way. We have talked many times about how much harder this would be if people were not praying for us.

It has been just over two weeks since we lost our baby. In order to feel some closure, we have decided to name our baby Taylor Reece Stell. We feel that this is the perfect name for our baby, who's gender we will not know until we get to heaven.

We will also be purchasing a plant to have in our home in memory of Taylor.

Thank a Soldier

So, Xerox is doing a really great thing. You can go to the website: Thank a Soldier and choose from a ton of different designs of cards. You can add one of their pre-written notes, or write your own. Xerox will Print and Mail your card to a soldier, Free! No, you don't get to pick the soldier, but let's face it, they are all working hard for us!

Even if you can only do this once, it's worth it, and it only takes 2 minutes! So please, Thank a Soldier today! Pretty much everyone knows that my brother is in the service, that's why we all wore flag ribbons in his absence at our wedding. Even though he isn't overseas at this time, I know that when it is his turn to go, notes from home (meaning the USA) will mean so much to him!

Engagement Photos

Well, we finally had our engagement session... may need to do a few more... we seem to have lost the camera card with all of the indoor pics on it, but, here are a few of my favorite ones so far!!!

I think that this one is my favorite so far!

I'll post some more when I get more of them fixed up a bit!