Our boys

We have two wonderful dogs. One an old man at 8 1/2 and the other a puppy still at 1 1/2. As everyone that knows us knows, our old man Cy, has had lots of health obstacles but has fought through them all. Jake started off a little rough, but generally loves life. He is one happy dog! Yesterday both of the dogs had appointments with the vet. Cy needed his shots and Jake had a place on his leg that we needed to get looked at. Friday night, Jim's mom and I took them to the groomer so they would be clean and ready to go. Saturday morning we got up and went to the vet. Jake, being the special dog he is, was so excited to get inside to see Dr. Travis that he literally pulled me down. I had to let go of his leash to catch myself so I wouldn't fall flat. I am fine, if you count bruised and skinned knees as fine! Anyway, Cy is aging. He still has arthritis and is growing fatty tumors, but neither of those things affect his quality of life so he is great. Jake has OCD. Yes, that's right. We have a dog that the vet said was OCD. He won't stop licking his leg, hence the reason he has a sore. Jim always said he was touched and I guess now he has confirmation. Even though he is a little special, I wouldn't trade him for anything. He loves Jordan so much. If he comes in, he goes straight to her room to lay down with her. I am so glad that he loves her that much. Cy, is a daddy's boy. He would follow Jim to the end of the world and back. Of course they both love me twice a day; in the morning and at night when I feed them!

So lucky

Even though we are back to living in a town with lots of places to shop, there was still one toy that eluded us; the infamous Zhu Zhu pet! We are one of the lucky ones to own one of these cute little hamsters, however since finding the one way back in September/October, we haven't seen them again. My mom was on a mission today at lunch to find a particular bouncy seat for me, and although she didn't find the seat, she found Zhu Zhu pets! She was only able to get two today, but hopefully she will be able to get some more tomorrow. Jordan will be so surprised! They are the neatest toys and beat a real hamster any day.

Curious

Each morning, when I go into Jordan's room to make sure she's awake, I wonder, do all children not know how to sleep on their bed? She sleeps on her bed (this is an improvement as not that long ago she was perfectly happy sleeping on the floor) but not the way anyone else does. First, she very rarely sleeps under the covers. She sleeps on top, and covers up with a blanket. She does this so she doesn't have to make her bed. Smart right? Second, she rarely sleeps with her head at the head of the bed; usually her head is at the foot of the bed. It doesn't matter how many times I put the pillows at the head of the bed, she moves them to the foot and sleeps there. Sometimes, she doesn't even sleep under a blanket, she piles pillows on top of her. There are also times that she sleeps sideways on the bed. Her feet are at the wall, and her head is hanging off the bed almost. Pillows, no where to be found. On top of all this, she sleep with her fan going full speed every night. Each morning I go in, and she is bundled head to toe, but the fan must stay on.

My beautiful girl, I can't help but love her!

December catch up

Oh my! What a month it has already been, and we are only in the second week of December! Last week Jordan had Nutcracker rehearsals every night, then 3 performances beginning on Friday. She did a wonderful job as a Christmas Angel! The only bad part about rehearsals, other than the fact that she didn't get home until after 8:30 every night, was there was no heat in the theater! The heater broke and they couldn't get the parts in time. Needless to say, it was freezing every night! I was never nervous about her performing in front of so many people, however I was nervous about her tripping on her costume and falling, as she did that 3 times during rehearsals! My fears were unfounded; she performed beautifully. She was especially interested in the professional ballerina that was performing the role of Sugar Plum Fairy. She came all the way from New York (the American Ballet Company to be specific) to be in our production. I was glad Jordan was able to see a "real" ballerina perform.

I was hoping, with all of our late nights, that we would have a snow day last Friday, but that did not happen for us. It snowed, and Jordan was able to play in it for a few mintues, but we still had to go to school on time. Of course by the time we got home, all the snow had melted. I am thinking it will snow again, so hopefully, Jordan will be able to make a snowman next time.

With Jim's help, I managed to take some pictures for our Christmas card. That is always easier said than done, but this year I decided to do an actual photo card, so that I could include 4 small pictures, instead of the one big picture. Not sure that I will stick with that format for the upcoming years, but I had to try it once.

We only have one more big event this month, the choir concert at church. This Sunday will be the last of our hectic days, then we will be able to relax for a couple of weeks. Of course, it won't be long until we will be waiting on pins and needles for Carter to arrive, but we still have a bit before then. I hope that you enjoy the pictures!

Name Change

As you may have noticed, I had to change the name of my blog. Someone pointed out to me, earlier this summer, that the title of my blog would no longer work, once Miss Carter arrives. So, with today not being a extremely productive day at school, I decided to get my creative juices flowing and come up with a new title. I rather like the new name, and I hope that everyone is still able to find it!

I am also enjoying some calm before chaos today as well. Sounds weird to say school is calm, but this afternoon we start full on rehearsals for the Nutcracker and really don't have a break (except for Thanksgiving day) until the performances are finished on December 6. I worry about my sanity as well as Jordan's well being during the next couple of weeks. This week shouldn't be too hard, since school is pretty low key, but next week will be CRAZY!

I guess this post turned out to be more of a hodge podge, but I know it will be difficult with rehearsals and basketball games to post much in the next couple of weeks. I will try to post some pictures of Thanksgiving, we will all be in Bronte celebrating.

My Husband

I have the most wonderful husband, who has always been overjoyed at the fact that we had a girl, Jordan, and now have another girl on the way. People are always amazed that he wasn't dreaming of a boy that would play football for him. He and Jordan have the best relationship and I can't wait to see the relationship he forms with Carter. With this said, last night was the first time he has EVER mentioned a hint of regret about not having a boy. I got him an early Christmas present, a new toy for one of his guns. He was so excited to get it and try it out. After playing with it, and reading the book that came with it, he came in the living room and said that it occurred to him that he wouldn't have a son to pass his gun on to. He quickly followed with, I guess I have lots of sons, just not one to give my guns too. It broke my heart, but he quickly mended it when he said he didn't mean anything bad by it, in fact, he has Jordan who he is sure will want his guns in 30 years. I'm thinking maybe in 30 years we will have grandsons that he can share this passion with!

I'm so lucky that Jim is such a great daddy to Jordan, and I'm sure that he will be a great daddy with Carter. It is true, we have lots of sons, and Jordan has lots of big brothers, and I know that Jim wouldn't trade his girls for anything in the world.

All you ever wanted to know about me

Okay, so I'm straight stealing this from Michelle's blog, but its always interesting what you find out about people!

I WANT time to move faster and slower at the same time. Can't wait for February to get here, but I don't want Jordan to grow up too fast!

I HAVE the best husband and daughter in the world. It's hard for people to understand how to be married to a coach, but he is the most amazing person. The relationships he forms with kids is unbelievable. The relationship he has with our daughter is even better!

I KEEP too much junk! I really need to work on getting rid of stuff.

I WISH I COULD make everything easier for those I love. I hate to see people I care for struggle.

I FEAR not know what is going to happen in the future.

I HEAR silence, and I'm not sure if I should be worried or not...

I DON'T THINK I will ever tire of listening to Jordan's stories. :)

I REGRET that Carter will never be able to meet any of her great-grandparents.

I LOVE being a coach's wife!

I DANCE with Jordan in the car. I love when she hears an 80s song she likes and we dance away. I'm sure it provides lots of entertainment to those around us!

I NEVER want my kids to not spend time with their grandparents.

I CRY WHEN I WATCH Jordan do anything that I think is special. Any program, dance recital, playing on her computer.

I AM NOT ALWAYS the best housekeeper, but I wouldn't trade spending time with Jordan for doing the dishes any day.

I HATE THAT kids are cruel and I can't protect my kids from it.

I'M CONFUSED ABOUT how I can have a job and insurance yet it costs more for me to have a baby than someone who does have a job or insurance.

I NEED to be cleaning the house and doing laundry.

I SHOULD start washing baby clothes soon; she will be here before I know it!

Lots to post

I'm going to start this post by saying that before the day is over I will have posted at least 3 different things! I'm really behind, but I need to get caught up. Last weekend was so much fun, even though it was very quick. Some very good friends in Athens gave me a wonderful baby shower, and it was so nice going back and seeing so many friendly faces! Now, I really have to get started on the thank you notes! I including pictures from the shower. All I can really say about the shower was how amazing it was! The ladies did such an awesome job getting everything together, mostly via email! I can never thank them enough, as well as everyone that came. I can safely say that Carter will be clothed when she comes! Jordan had a blast as well, mainly because she was able to play with Allie for an entire afternoon, well into the evening. She misses her friends so much. I know that she will make good friends like that in west Texas, but it is still hard since she grew up with the same group in Athens. Enjoy the pictures!

Happy Halloween!

This year was a little different for us on Halloween. First, Jordan is used to doing Trunk-or-Treat, not Trick-or-Treat, so she was a little confused why we weren't going to a church to get candy! Luckily, Bronte was having a kids movie at the old theater at 3 then Trick-or-Treating from 5:30 to 7:30. So, Jordan went to Bronte to celebrate Halloween. I, on the other hand, completed almost all of my Christmas shopping for Jordan. It is getting harder, the older she gets, to accomplish this task. I saved shopping for grandparents, nieces, and nephew until Jordan can join me.

I'm attaching some pictures of Jordan in her Halloween costume. She was Alex Russo from Wizards of Waverly Place. She loves that show. The first picture is from today, the second two are from Thursday, before our Fall Festival at school.

A HUGE Thanks!

Way back in July, when we received our unexpected yet wonderful news, my good friend Kele told me that she would like to give me a shower. So, as soon as we found out that we were having a girl, Kele and I set on the difficult task of finding a weekend that worked for the both of us. (You would think it would be easy, but alas not so) We decided on November 7, not too close to Christmas, and the end of regular season football. With this said, I set on the difficult task of creating an invite list, of all of my East Texas friends and family. As hard as it is to believe, I think that list was bigger than my wedding shower list! We made some awesome friends while in Athens, and all of them are just as overjoyed at our news as we are. Anyway, yesterday it occurred to me that I had forgotten one name, so I emailed Kele this morning to tell her. She emailed me back very quickly, and told me she was already down to two invitations left! I didn't realize that the shower had gotten so big! I really just wanted to write this post to give Kele a HUGE thank you! She is an amazing person, and she is organizing the entire shower via email, as she lives in the metroplex and the others live in Athens. So Kele, I know it is early, but I want to say thank you so much for doing this for me! You are honestly one of the most amazing people I have ever met! Also thank you to all the other wonderful women helping Kele; I can't wait to see all of you!





I am including a picture of my enlarging midsection as well, for those of you that don't facebook! :-)

Copy Cat

Okay, I am totally stealing this idea from my friend Kele, because I thought it was so neat!

How my children got their names

Our oldest daughter, Jordan, got her name because I've always thought it was a really cool name. I happened to marry a man that thinks Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time, so people always assume we named her after him. Alas, this is not the case, I just really liked the name. Elizabeth just kinda went with Jordan, and this gave Jordan and her daddy the same intials. Carter on the other hand was not quite so easy. We had always had our girl name picked out, and our boy name (plus a backup that I will get to) but we never had a secondary girl name. Of course our buddle of joy on the way would be another girl, but luckily we had stumbled across a unique name that we both liked around 6 years ago. Jim and I were at a Roadhouse somewhere for supper and our waitress's name was Carter. We asked if that was her first name and she said yes. She was a cute girl with a great personality, and we both agreed that it was an awesome name. Leigh was a little harder to come up with, but once we did, we knew it fit perfectly. It was only after that we thought of our niece Ada, whose middle name is Leigh too!

I also want to include our two boy names, even though we don't have boys. Our first boy name is Jackson Eddleman. I know, a mouthful, but we really liked it. Jackson is my maiden name, and a name I always wanted to give a son and Eddleman is Jim's mom's maiden name and it was something he had always wanted to use, so it was a good fit. We also had a second boys name picked out just in case, Cy. Cy is a wonderful friend of ours that we have both known for years. I met Cy when I was in high school and he was in junior high. His stepbrother and I were friends, and he has such a great personality that we hit it off. Unbeknownst to me, Cy's football coach in junior high was Jim. Imagine our surprise after dating just a short while, when we went to Athletic Supply and both knew Cy Rogers! (Of course I was long out of high school!) He has been our dear friend ever since. We loved the name so much that when we got a puppy 8 years ago, we named him Cy. He is the best friend we could ask for, for us and Jordan, just like his namesake!

It's a....

So today was THE day. Jim got to sleep in, Jordan and I had to leave earlier than usual, but at 7:20 we were all at the doctor's office waiting patiently for my sonogram. I have been very nervous, mainly because I'm not feeling a whole lot of baby movement. Promptly at 7:30 the nice radiologist ushered us back to the sonogram room and put warm gel on my stomach. And there was our beautiful baby! Jordan was amazed. I was really amazed because it was constantly moving and kicking, and I'm laying there not feeling a darn thing. It only took the radiologist about five minutes before she discovered that we have yet another child that is not bashful. And again, we have a baby girl! Jordan has said all along that she wants a brother, so yesterday I did prepare her that there is a chance that it could be a girl, and I'm sure glad I did. She was so happy that she got to see her baby sister. We watched the heart and saw all the vital organs. She was not shy at all about shoving her feet at the wand so we have the coolest footprint picture. According to today's sonogram, my due date is now February 8, which is fine with me. I'm glad that we have know what "it" is so we can call her by her name. Of course I'm sure Jim and Jordan will continue to call her Peanut, but I'm getting in the habit of calling her Carter. I'm so glad that we stumbled upon that name, sometime ago. I even took Jordan to the store and she picked out Carter's first outfit. She is so proud!

On a humorous note, at my regular appointment on Tuesday, Jordan was with me. She did a great job of sitting quietly and listening to Dr. Adams. However, at the end of the visit she looked over to the counter and said, "Look mommy, an esophagus." Dr. Adams and I both looked (after all I was at the OB) and Dr. Adams quickly said, "Oh yeah, good job." and smiled at me. It was a diagram of a uterus and birth canal.

Tears of joy

I wish I could say that being pregnant causes me to cry at the drop of a hat where Jordan is concerned, but I honestly cannot say that. It is true that the hormones have made me a little more teary eyed at random things, but when it comes to my beautiful girl, I always get choked up. I think it started the first day she went to daycare, she smiled at me for the first time when I dropped her off. Of course I every single first she did made me cry; first day of school (every year!), first friend birthday party (well pretty much every party), first time she played t-ball, you get the idea. Today was no exception. She auditioned for the Nutcracker on Saturday, and results were to be posted today. I wanted so badly for her to get some part, I didn't care what, just something, but of course, I was a good mommy and prepared her that the other girls auditioning had been in dance much longer and if she didn't get a part it would be okay. We wouldl try again next year. So today, as I'm going down the list of parts, my heart is beginning to hurt because I haven't seen her name, then close to the bottom of the list, there it is. Jordan Womak (yes it was misspelled) Angel! I had to suck up my tears really fast as my beautiful daughter showed me that huge, proud smile. Even now as I type this, I get tears in my eyes. I wonder if it will be like this for the one on the way. I hope so. I do enjoy sharing all these wonderful moments in her life. I hope that this is what she looks back on and remembers. Not me griping at her to clean her room, or find her shoes.

School has started!

I feel so behind! I haven't posted anything in forever. I am just so tired once we get home from school that all I want to do is rest. School has started off well for us. Jordan has made several friends, which gives me great relief. The first day of school I took her to the gym and I had to leave. She tried so hard to talk to some of the little girls that were there waiting, but of course they were all friends and she was new. I left with tears in my eyes. All was great by the end of the day though, as she already had a "best friend." I always find it amazing how quickly she makes friends. I know this is actually a blessing. Her teachers all tell me how wonderful she is, which makes me very happy. She keeps all of her talking in until the end of the day, then she has to let it all out! I think the only time she hasn't talked this weekend is when she is asleep!

Enjoy her first day of school pictures, two weeks late!

Catch up

It has been a very crazy couple of weeks. For whatever reason, I have had a hard time getting into the school mind, so going back has been a little difficult. Luckily, Jordan has been able to spend tons of time with her grandparents (both sets) so that has made life a little easier. With that said, she has been spending the week in Bronte, and the last couple of weekends in Odessa. Today, I got a text message that said to check my email and call. It took awhile, but the email finally came through on my phone, and there was my baby girl riding her bike with no training wheels! I know this may seem odd, since she is seven, but East Texas is very hilly, and I am a very paranoid mommy. But now that we are back in flat West Texas, she has just taken off riding her bike. Of course, I'm sitting at lunch fighting back the tears as I call her to tell her how proud I am of her. Even Jim said it made him sad that he wasn't there to see this first. She is also on a museum kick, so she has visited some of West Texas' finest the last couple of weeks. She went to both the Art and Presidential museums a couple of weeks ago, then this past weekend she went to the CAF. Her favorite was the plane she got at the gift shop, BUT of the museums she really like going to the Bush house behind the Presidential museum.

Of course Jim has started football, and absolutely loves it. He is so much happier being back here. He says almost daily how happy he is that we moved back, eventhough we are the oldest couple on the staff! On the baby front, things are going great! The baby is extremely active, kicking or hitting the heart monitor while the doctor was listening. I'm sure that soon I will be feeling those hits. We have our second trimeseter ultrasound scheduled for the middle of September, so we will know before long what this is. Last night, as we were leaving Meet the Chiefs, Jim looked down at me, and said Wow, you really look pregnant. (He did not mean this in a mean way at all, I will add) He said it was the first time he really noticed. So, lots of info, but I'm sure I will be better since school is about to start.

Dance

For the last two years, Jordan has taken ballet, tap and jazz from an odd woman in Athens, but Jordan loved going so I hated to take her out of it. However, after this spring's recital, I had decided that she was just a little too odd, and we would have to take dance somewhere else. Fortunately, we moved, and my decision was made a little easier. San Angelo has two dance studios, but one came highly recommended. They teach classical ballet (and ballet is what Jordan really wanted to be in) and even do a production of the Nutcracker each Christmas. Of course, I jumped at the chance to enroll her in the studio. I am well aware that she is not the most graceful of girls, but I'm hoping that taking ballet will help her in this department. She is very excited to start the class and she can't wait to audition for the Nutcracker.

Baby

Jim's favorite TV show to laugh at is I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant. In fact, we had both shared laughs at how there are people in the world that didn't know they were pregnant until, surprise, you're in labor. For some strange reason, while I have taken medication to ensure no pregnancy, I stopped having a visitor each month. Now, while many see this as the best thing ever, it caused me great concern, because I wanted to know I wasn't pregnant. Needless to say, I grew accustom to not worrying about that visitor, so when Jim suggested that I was pregnant a month ago after not feeling well, being tired, and having no appetite, I knew there was no way I was pregnant. After all, I took a handy dandy pill each day to make sure that didn't happen. But, my curiosity got the best of me, and I bought the test. With all this said, I began to wonder, if I hadn't gone to the store and bought an at home test, I would be like one of those women on that show! I firmly believe that I will begin showing in the next few weeks, so that would have tipped me off, but other than those few very mild symptoms I had no clue. I can say that I am very glad that I didn't end up like one of those people on that show, that I had enough worry wort in me to go get checked out. But it does go to show, that it is possible to be pregnant and not have a clue.

Surprise!

To say this was a surprise is an understatement. We believe in the power of medical science, but I guess when they say 99% effective, that means that 1% of people have a failure of some sort. I guess we are 1 percenters now! Its odd because I have been pregnant pretty much all summer, and never really felt any side effects until after all of our craziness. (packing, funeral, packing, DC, moving, unpacking, beach) Once we were all settled, some definite dizziness and some dislike of once favorite foods, set in. We all figured that all of the going had finally caught up with me, but as a precaution, I bought some at home tests, knowing that they would be negative. Imagine my surprise when the test said pregnant. I was in so much shock that the next morning I took another, with the same results. The best part is how excited Jim has been. I was really worried that he would be upset, because we were perfectly happy with our family of 3, not planning on anymore. However, he has been the opposite of upset. He couldn't contain himself. I think he told just about everyone he could before today, then after the official confirmation, he told everyone else! Jordan is beside herself, asking baby questions everyday. I was especially excited to see it moving all around waving its arms and legs during the sonogram. We have always said that if God wants us to have another baby, it will happen no matter what we do. Obviously, it was in God's plan for us to move closer to family, so he could bless us with another baby.

Jordan & miscellaneous stuff

Jordan has had lots of fun the last few weeks. As you can see from the pictures, she can help her daddy mow the lawn, which is very helpful as I don't mow the lawn, she made a dress and shorts with Marmoo, which she is modeling, and she can eat dirt cake, which she bid on at the 4th of July auction. You can't tell from the pictures, but Jim has actually been quite sick for the last little bit. Of course he didn't tell anyone until it was actually pretty bad. He did go to the doctor Monday and is now on medicine, so hopefully he will get over it before he starts work.

I started wondering yesterday, as I retrieved a baseball several times from the jaws of Jake, do our neighbors think we are lazy, unemployed bums? I mean, we are home all the time! I hope they realize soon that we are active members of society. I do plan on going to school this week. This is the first time in eleven years that I haven't been to school to get my stuff ready. Plus, I have to register Jordan for school. It is starting to dawn on me that I have lots to get accomplished with not so much time! Plus, I will have to go to the teacher store, and I don't even know if San Angelo has one.

Lost Tooth

We had lots of fun today. My parents stopped by on their way home from their place in Mills County and then later this afternoon Jim's parents came by before they ran some errands in San Angelo. It is so nice to be close enough to everyone that they can stop by and not have to pack! With both visits, Jordan was eager to show off her very loose tooth, but she wouldn't let anyone touch it. I hate to say it, but she has teeth like mine. Very hard to loose. Anyway, once everyone left she and I went to PetsMart and Albertsons, and once home Jim tied some floss to her tooth and she was left to the task of pulling it. It took about ten minutes, but she came into the dining room with shaking hands and her tooth! We were so proud that she pulled it herself. Eventhough she has lost three other teeth, this is the first that she pulled all on her own! It also turned out to be a nice day. Some storm clouds rolled in, and while we didn't get any rain, it cooled off very nicely for the dogs. Unfortunately, Jim's golf plans were squashed. I hope that you enjoy Jordan's picture!

Beach Fun

We have had a busy few weeks. I went to Washington DC for 4 days, we moved, and when we had been in our new house for exactly one week, we went to the beach. Jordan has wanted to go to the beach forever! She had so much fun. She also has no fear. She definitely takes after her daddy on that one. I find that fear overwhelms me anytime she is doing something where I think she can get hurt. We had even more fun because Jim's sister LeAnn and her family joined us. Lots of fun was had, but we were all ready to come home after 5 days. Now, back to regular life. Jim starts work on Monday, and I'm planning on taking boxes up to school this week. Maybe the garage will be cleaned out before too long!

New to this

I have decided to start blogging! Oh boy, something new to learn. My friend Kele has been blogging for over a year now, and I have always admired her blog, then my friend Rachel started a blog, my mother-in-law has one, and my friend Michelle started one. They all said how easy it is, so I figured I would give it a shot. Hopefully, after I play some more, I will get much better and be able to do fabulous posts like Kele! :)