Update and more

I think it's been quite a while since I last posted a pregnancy update-- when was it? 11 weeks maybe?

How Far Along: 18 weeks exactly

Total Weight Gain: I quite checking at home and looking at the doc's office once I got to 5 pounds.

Maternity Clothes: Yes, and I started needing them four weeks ago. God bless the secret belly fit---is that what they're called? I heart them, regardless!

Best Moment this week: I swear I could feel 2 strong kicks (not at the same time) this week. I've had some major tummy troubles, so I really don't know for sure!

Gender: We find out in 10 days--it's not like I'm counting. I may just decide to hide it form you all! HA HA HA HA

Movement: See above!

Food Craving: Salad! Greek salad at home with fresh romaine, grape tomatoes, a little onion, alotta kalamata olives and some cucumbers. Of course, I toss all of this with Paul Newman's oil based Caesar dressing!

What I miss: Working on my feet all day and being able to move at the end of the day.

Sleep:Groggy in the morning. This past week I spent every other day extremely exhausted. I would wake up and spend any free second trying (sometimes unsuccessfully) not to nod off!

What I am looking forward to: For people to stop looking at my belly trying to figure out if that's a belly made by beer or baby. Seriously people, I see you look there and then back at my eyes while talking about your crazy, pregnant daughter who lives with you--(eyes peer at my belly)--and how she only has one more month--(eyes on my belly again, oop now they're back at my eyes)--and you think maybe you'll just make it without pulling your hair out! Yes, Starbucks lady, I saw you doing the belly/eyes thing all conversation long!

Belly Button: In all four of my previous pregnancies my bb remained an innie. I'm guessing it'll do the same this time around.

Stretch Marks: Geez, not yet. Of course, I have old ones from a certain second pregnancy with my 9 pounder (all of my others have been 7, 7.1 and 7.2)

Symptoms: Hunger at odd hours, extreme thirst, extra tired, extra EXTRA tummy issues (I was put on some antacid medsbecause of my complaining about what I think is heartburn--I've never had it until this pregnancy)!

And now on to our weekend! We had a busy, yet very fun weekend!

We started off yesterday with our local fall festival--I love this! Crafts galore, greasy food (I had a Philly and fries), bounce house, kid train, fudge, dips, etc, etc.! The older two girls, my mom and I all went Saturday morning, but we had to practically run through it in order to make it to Peach's soccer game.

She played half of her game in spitting rain and then there was that one little flash of lightening. Automatic SHOW OVER! They don't play around (is that because our society is a little sue happy--I'm betting so). In all fairness though, that one tiny flash did initiate a heavy downpour--which I would be none to happy sitting in with three little gals who were needing a nap!

So we headed home and relaxed (I cleaned) a little before my niece and nephew stopped by for a few hours while their mommy went to a wedding. These two cuties are right in the middle of my brood. Peach just turned 5, Brownie is 4 next week, Miss Z (my niece) is 3 1/2, Bug will be 3 next month, Boushka is 17 mos and Mr. G (my nephew) will turn one on Brownie's birthday next week. It works out great as far as playmates go, but once we get those three, three-ish year olds together it is loud (somewhat controlled) chaos! But they are such fun kids and I know they all just love playing together! It's fun to watch how different my kiddos can be once they are all together--of course some kids just never change--mainly Peach who takes the two cousins in under her mothering wing.

We ate pizza, played, read stories, and ordered a few time outs- no major offenses, just some misdemeanors! HA! When the two cousins left I already had half of mine down for the night, but of course the older two were not about to miss out on any goodbyes! But they headed to bed shortly thereafter because they had been promised a trip back to the fall festival for all of the outside stuff (bounce house, train, pony rides, roasted corn) since we had to miss it yesterday.

So we woke up this morning, and I headed out the door back to the festival with Peach and Brownie. We hit up the bounce house, the train, a magic show, fried and roasted food, homemade root beer, pony rides, pumpkin bowling, and more crafts.

Here they are enjoying the train ride together!

We once again had to head out rather quickly in order to make it to a soccer game! I didn't have my "camera" (you know I mean phone here, but it just sounds odd to say "I didn't have my phone to take pictures with") with me at the soccer game, so I didn't get any pictures today :(

I didn't even have my video recorder, but I can tell you that my Peach has got some talent! We tell her to "be aggressive" (not towards the other kiddos, but to get after the ball) and boy does that girl take it to heart! She's so calm and reserved most of the time, so it's really neat to see her charge after the ball.

We did a little grocery shopping after the game and I came home to get some drawers organized! Not only is the season switching, but Boushka's clothes have been needing to be replaced with the next size up. I don't know how you all do it, but this takes a good afternoon at my house (and that's to do two girls). So after I go our Rice Baked Chicken on to cook (gosh I love that meal), I headed upstairs to reorganize Bug and Boushka's clothes. Thankfully, my mom gave us an old dresser so that each girl can have 4/5 drawers to herself; prior to this second dresser I was trying to get all of their clothes into a not-very-spacious 4 1/4 drawer dresser (the 1/4 drawer is just a really tiny top drawer). But now they have all of their own clothes in their own dressers, but they still share a closet. Luckily, these are spacious enough and there's no problem sharing. In the midst of this reorganizing, I also rearranged the room. I didn't snap any photos with my phone (there I said it, I guess it's not so weird), but I do like how it turned out.

After a few loads of laundry and a few more of donations, I am left with a rather clean house right now. The random spurts of energy that I get every other day have really helped out this house. Last week I got our bedroom and bathroom organized and clean, our closet cleaned (okay, just my stuff), I dusted the whole house (almost), got the big girls' room cleaned, upstairs vacuumed (these chores happen rarely, so this is quite the victory for me), our fall decorations put out, and tons of vacuuming downstairs. As of right now, all I'm left with is this:

1) A picnic towel that the girls dined on tonight needs to be cleaned off and put away,

2) those white pad things by the towel are some diaper pads I need to add to our (empty) stash we keep on the main level,

3) a load of blues (despite the fact that I just did a load of blues yesterday, I swear I don't know where these clothes come from sometimes) that need to be washed,

4) and three bags of donation stuff that needs to be dropped off at Goodwill!

And that, my friends, is all this tired mama has to get done before I hit the hay. Well, I guess those donation bags will still be sitting there in the morning since I'm not headed to Goodwill at 11:18 pm on a Sunday night! HA!