North Carolina!

Weekend before last I FINALLY went to North Carolina to see my best friend in the entire world Erica. :)  I hadn't seen her in about 9 months, so that's a really long time when I consider her my "second husband" since we lived together while our hubbies were deployed.  It was a quick trip with a 8-ish hour drive one way between us, but it was well worth it!  We laid by the pool and went shopping, as well as talked a lot of baby talk.  Erica even got to feel the baby move... she was pretty excited about that. :)  Here's what our pool scene looked like:
And here's me getting all slathered up so I didn't get burnt.  Like my maternity suit?
And here I'm looking pretty sunburnt, but really I'm just hot.  I actually did a good job and didn't get sunburnt.  PS... I still think I look fat in this picture moreso than pregnant lol, and don't ask me what I was looking at!
Erica and me.  She's so tan I'm jealous... but then again, she sits by the pool a lot more than I do! Haha...
Oh yeah, the other thing we did was chop my hair off.  My original plan was to keep it long for our wedding ceremony in May, and then chop it off after that.  I'm so anal about who is allowed to touch my hair that I kept putting it off and putting it off... too afraid to go to a hairstylist in the area, so I told Erica that the next time I saw her she'd have to chop it for me.  Here's the before:
And the after!  
I wanted to keep it long enough to put up if I didn't feel like doing anything with it, and when it dries and gets a bit curly, it gets shorter, so it's just about right.  I forgot how much less shampoo you have to use when you don't have so much hair!  Plus, it takes about half as long to blow dry it now too.  Below is Erica and me outside on their little porch the night before I left.  It was a nice evening and not too hot anymore, so we spent a fair bit of time out there.
And finally, here's a baby bump picture... which is from me at 27 weeks.  I'm quite a bit bigger now, but that gives everyone an idea.
Thanks for an AWESOME quick vacation in North Carolina Erica.  I definitely needed it!!  Now it's her turn to come visit me. :)

Baby Update

Here's to yet another baby update!  I went to the doctor yesterday, and it was just a normal checkup as usual.  Strange thing is... in the last two weeks, I didn't gain a single pound!  Jason was pretty appalled by that considering my belly has definitely grown in the last couple of weeks.  That can be proven also by the fact that when the doctor measured my stomach, I believe his statement was "whoa, you're gonna have a big baby."  Haha... duh, I knew that already.  I let him know we have big kids in our family, and that I was 10 lbs.  He proceeds to say "well to give you an idea, you are 28 weeks and 5 days right now, and you are measuring at 35 weeks."  HAHA... WOW.  I was impressed by that.  He said we'll probably have a 9 or 9.5 pound kiddo... YIKES!  So in a few more appointments I will have another ultrasound to see just how big this kid really is. :)  One thing I do know is that he sure is an active little thing... takes after his daddy right now.  He kicks me constantly, and now when I push at him, he pushes back, which is WAY fun and VERY distracting at work!

The new ride!

Earlier this week, my air conditioning went out in the car.  I drove around for a day like that, it was hot and miserable with how much I have to be in the car.  I thought maybe it was the freon, but alas, it was not, and it turned out to be something electrical.  Considering how much money we've had to put into that darn car in the recent months and year, we decided we would just trade it in and get what we've been eyeing for a month.  Luckily, the used car salesman didn't even get into the car when he told us the trade in value he would give us, so he doesn't know the air conditioning doesn't work. :)

Anyway, here is my new ride.  It's a 2006 Chevy Trailblazer with lots of bells and whistles.  We talked him down (well, Jason did) to the price range that we wanted, and drove it off the lot yesterday afternoon.  It's also a 4 wheel drive, so now I don't have to speed up our driveway anymore, and the winter won't be something to worry about getting up the driveway either.
Here's the inside.  Note the radio controls on the steering wheel.  I'm pretty excited about that!  You'd never really know it's a used vehicle because it's in REALLY good shape.  We're pretty pleased with it, and fight over who gets to drive it when we go places together. :)
Lastly, here's a picture of Taco, since I haven't really posted any lately.  He looks kind of tired in this picture, but he blinked every time the flash went off.  He has lately decided that he likes sleeping right up next to my belly (aka the baby), which I think is pretty cute.  He'll also rest his head on my belly too... like he knows something is in there and he's going to protect it.  I'm excited to see how he reacts when the baby finally comes!