We're Homeowners!

I'm finishing up my last classroom semester of PT school this summer (TRYING to get everything turned in and finals taken a couple of weeks early BEFORE the baby gets here--talk about busy but I know there is no way I will be in any condition to study and take tests right after he's born). Anyway, Caden will be here sometime in late July and then I'll be moving out of Lubbock sometime after that.

As many of you know, I had been stressing about where Cody and I were going to live once I moved that way. He's been living and working in Seymour while I have been finishing up school in Lubbock. I start my clinical rotations this Fall and am hoping to get all of them set up in Wichita Falls (keep your fingers crossed for me). We needed to be somewhere that we could 1) afford 2) feel safe 3) have a dog 4) be relatively easy for Cody to get to Seymour for work and me to get to downtown Wichita Falls for my clinicals.

Our solution? We bought a trailer house for $5,000 and moved it to some of my dad's land that is in between Holliday and Seymour right off the highway! Of course this is only a temporary thing but we got a great deal on this house, it's in great shape, and it will save us A LOT of money! The lady that sold it even left us the stove, refrigerator, washer and dryer (all in good shape).

OK, so it's not exactly everyone's definition of a dream home but I personally couldn't be more excited! I'm mostly just thrilled that after 5 years of dating and 10 months of being married, Cody and I will FINALLY live together!! I say we're pretty lucky to have found this since we'll be living off of one income and I won't be able to have a job until at least September 2011. Another perk--Caden will have his own room, Bailey can have a big yard, and we won't have to worry about neighbors being too close!

Cody and I are blessed to have such wonderful friends and family that offered to move it for us so we could save the $2,000 it was going to cost us to move it. I never imagined how much work that would be for these guys! There were about 12 or so guys that spent about 3 days (after they got off from their full time jobs) in 100 degree heat to help us get this thing moved.

Because we were moving it ourselves, we didn't exactly have the right equipment/certifications/etc to move it so it was a bit illegal...but pretty funny to watch. They hooked it up to one of my dad's tractors and pulled it that way down a very narrow farm and market road. Not everyday you see this. Some of the guys joked with me that I needed to pull a "Smokey and the Bandit" move and go ahead of the tractor and distract the police so they could get this thing moved. Ha!




Notice the trucks taking up both lanes behind the trailer? Dad, who was driving the tractor, couldn't see behind him at all so Cody and I blocked off traffic. When a car would come behind us, Cody would call dad to find out when the coast was clear and then we'd get out of the way and wave the car on around. Several of the guys that Cody works with at TXDot were helping us move it so when we got to the point that we had to cross a 4 lane highway, these guys took charge and were flagging traffic to clear the way (all they were missing were the orange vests).



It was a tight squeeze to get in that gate!


Dad got to be the lucky one to drive the tractor that pulled the (uninsured) house... no pressureIt took about 20 minutes to make it through that gate but they got it figured out.

Home sweet home!These poor guys worked so hard. All I could do at 8 months pregnant was bring them food, water, and beer. I felt horrible that I stayed away and in the AC while they crawled around on their elbows for hours in the heat. One time when I showed up to see if they needed anything, I was instructed by one of the guys not to go under there or I would high center it. Haha!







Master bedroomThe closets are gonna be a little tight. They are very small and I don't even have many clothes (surprisingly Cody has more than I do).Dining room/kitchen areaI never got a chance to work on the house at all last weekend and I won't be able to go in again until after Caden is born. I'm very much an organizer and I was SERIOUSLY struggling with the fact that I couldn't get in there and clean/plan/etc. It was especially bad since i'm in this nesting phase now. I begged Cody to drive me back to Holliday so we could just put together the crib and maybe unpack one tiny box. I told him that I knew there was no way he could understand why it had to be done right then but to please go with me because it would relieve me of a lot of stress.


As we are trying to get a few things done inside, I was forced to come to terms with the fact that I can't do much (belly in the way, heat getting to me, etc) so Cody pretty much did it all. We didn't have electricity and ran out of light so here were are putting a crib together (that honestly could have waited) and i'm holding my tiny keychain flashlight so Cody can see the screws... He finally gets the last piece in, turns and looks at me and says "there's your nest". Oh, I love him!

I'll post more pictures in August once we move in!

34 week belly

34 weeks pregnant... only a few more to go! Exciting and scary...

Other than feeling like I was dying in my first trimester, I've had a great pregnancy and have been very lucky to be feeling so well. So far I've mostly only grown in the belly, haven't been retaining much water yet, avoided stretch marks and varicose veins (at least the parts of my body I can actually see), I've only had a couple of episodes of mood swings, and have been spared many of the other "unmentionables".

But, as expected, I'm achy and uncomfortable. I suffer from the occasional yet intense heartburn as well as INSOMNIA. The braxton hicks contractions are starting to be a little painful and I'm not tolerating the heat nearly as well as I usually do. I never thought I would see the day that I'm freezing Cody out at night.
This picture is exactly why I "forget" to take belly pictures... not too often that a flattering one comes around. They always consist of awkward poses and now I've also managed to close my eyes and fail to fix my hair. However, my personal favorite is the size of my belly's shadow. Oh. My. Word.

To explain this picture, we are now officially home owners to a trailer house that we moved this weekend. I'll get into that more in the next post!

Lubbock Baby Shower

We had a baby shower in Lubbock on June 5th. I was excited that the Caden's grandmother's were able to make it and we also had several of my friends from PT school there. I have been blessed with some great friends and it's been so much fun to have them around every day through this whole journey (they were there when I got the news from the doctor that Cody and I may not be able to have kiddos, they were there during the rapid wedding planning, strangely enough they were the ones who encouraged me to drive East when I was ovulating, and now they've watched me grow for the last 8 months... I'll have the baby right before finals in our last semester of class together so they'll all get to meet him, too!)This was a funny game we played where they melted different candy in diapers and we had to guess what it was--gross! Me and SarahGigi (although she hasn't decided for sure on her grandma name yet), me, Nonny, and Mimi

Seymour Baby Shower

We had our first baby shower in Seymour on May 22nd! Cody works at TXDot in Seymour and several of the other guy's wives got together and hosted this shower. I honestly don't know what Cody and I would do without all the love and support from family and friends!

My talented mother-in-law made this cake!Teresa, Auston, Briana, and MeCaden got a Marine onsie--check out the cute "boots" on it!Look who else made it--My sweet nephew, Kache! Kache and Caden will only be about 5 months apart.Cute diaper cake. The blue diapers are "jean" patterned. How fun is that? Now he doesn't even need to wear pants :)Molly and Tina

My 25th Birthday

May 24th, 2010 was my 25th birthday. What did we do to celebrate?!? Well we had to drive back to Lubbock so Cody could spend all morning checking out of the Marine Corps and I spent my time getting a glucose test and sonogram.

How's Cade man doing?? Well he's definately a bigger than average baby (Cody and I were both large babies) but we got a very good report from the sonogram! I just finished up a pediatric class in physical therapy school and it makes me realize that sometimes ignorance is bliss. For example, during our sonograms Cody simply enjoys getting to see Caden. Then there is me who is asking questions and watching Caden's movements and anatomy looking for hints of possible spina bifida, clubfoot, heart defects, hydrocephalus, etc, etc, etc. I loved my pediatrics class--maybe it was because I had a great professor, or because i'm pregnant, or maybe this is really where my passion is... no matter the reason, I learned a LOT and and more aware than ever as to how blessed Cody and I really are!

Look what I came across as I was cleaning out some of Cody's things! Those of you who know my dad know that he's a huge goofball. A couple of years ago Cody and I took a trip to Las Vegas and dad drew this on a napkin and gave it to Cody the night before we left. He told him that it was his choice whether he ended up in or out of the circle. I can't believe I found the napkin after all this time!

Of course we had a great time while in Vegas but I couldn't go without harassing my dad in some way since he reminded us MANY times to make "wise decisions" and not to get drunk and get married in sin city. So Cody and I took this picture and e'mailed it to him while we were there!

30 weeks baby bump

Wow it's been a while since I've taken any preggo pictures. It's not one of my favorite things to do and it's even harder to get done when I live alone. I know i'll be disappointed later when I don't have them. Here's 30 weeks... 10 more to go! I actually didn't plan on having any pictures taken of me this day. Cody and I had gone out with dad to help him move a tractor, etc. We decided to stop and check out the wheat and dad got a few pictures while we were there. I am very aware of the fact that my belly is getting BIG but somehow I am still shocked when I see pictures of myself.

So, physical therapy friends, did you notice the excessive lordotic curve in my spine? My Sacroiliac joint is also killing me. I should be in prime shape for you all to get some experience for our women's health class this summer. You're welcome. :)

I LOVE this time of year (for several reasons) and it makes me realize how much I really do miss living out in the country.

More 4D pictures

As I mentioned before, my good friend Lindsey is doing all of our sonograms. So much fun to have her be a part of this! She didn't have any patients one evening so I went up there to go see if we could get any good pictures of the little guy. He was being stubborn and wouldn't turn over or kept his hand in front of his face so we didn't get many good ones.

It seemed as if he were ANGRY actually, because kicked so much while she was doing this. We kept laughing because he never would settle down. We would just watch my stomach bulge out all directions while he was punching and kicking for a good 45 minutes.

Here he is at about 26 weeks!

I'll have new pictures in a week or two when I go back for my real appointment!

Unborn child has been robbed.

Poor Cade man hasn't even been born yet and he's already been robbed!

Apparently someone came into Cody's house last weekend when he was out of town in Lubbock and took a few things. I say "came into" because there was no sign of a "break in" which tells me that Cody most likely left the door unlocked.

He lives way out in the country. Our closest neighbor is probably a good mile away and you can't see the house from the road at all. This means whoever it was knows who Cody is and that he lives out there.

Anyway, the weird thing is they only took 3 things... Cody's boots (which are new and $$), a blank book of checks, and a jar of change that had about $250 in it. They didn't tear up the house, and they didn't care to take the 42" t.v. or the guns that were sitting out... so I guess we should be grateful that there wasn't more damage done.

The worst part is that the jar of change (which had a money counter on the top that showed the value) was being saved until July/Aug for Caden. Cody and I had decided that once he was born (because we need to have a birth certificate to do this) we were going to start him an account and start saving on it for him. I know it wasn't all that much but we hate that it's gone now because it was his, not ours. Poor little guy!

Although they didn't take much, they did get 2 of the things that would bother Cody the most. My dad put it pretty perfectly when he told Cody, "stealing a man's favorite pair of boots and a baby's money seems like it should be a hanging offense to me". :) Luckily, I've never had to deal with this kind of thing before. It just feels like you have been violated in that they have been in your home without you and had access to so much of your personal information. Creepy.

Easter Weekend

Pictures from Easter weekend with Cody's family! It's safe to say that I made up for all the great food I missed out on at Thanksgiving and Christmas when I was so sick in my first trimester.

My sweet nephew, Kache! Mimi and her great-grandson.

Cody, Kache and Nonnie (Cody's mom)Confetti Eggs