funny Scot story

Yes - it's Scot story time. For any of you who know my husband, it will come as no surprise that I have 100s of little stories about him that either show his sweetness, his unintentional blunders or just his...well...Scot-ness. This story falls under the hysterically funny category. I basically played a trick on him and if only we had a video camera to capture it all - i'm sure we would win a prize on FHV!!

Picture this: It's Sunday morning (and it was a gorgeous Sunday morning at that) and we were getting ready for church. I was sitting in the pre-warmed car thanks to my thoughful husband while he, meanwhile, was putting something in the trunk. Well, I thought it would be funny to 'pop' the trunk right after he shut it so as to give the appearance that the trunk was broken. So here's the scene. I'm bending over the middle console in the car to keep my hand on the lever that releases the trunk. When he shuts the trunk I pull the lever - the trunk pops right back up. Scot, thinking nothing of it, sticks his head into the trunk to rearrange the contents - no big deal. He shuts it again. And again, up pops the trunk. Hmmm...he's thinking. He's looking at the latch that's SUPPOSED to hook but is obviously not working. He tinkers with it for a moment (I can see him in my side view mirror and his face is a mask of curiosity) Satisfied that he's fixed it, he shut the trunk again. And AGAIN, it pops right back up. He's stumped. His face says it all. He's very confused. He has NO IDEA what's going on. (Meanwhile, I'm hoping he can't feel the car shaking I'm laughing so hard. And for those of you who know me well - yes, there were tears). So he decides there's REALLY something wrong here. He makes sure latch works again - he fiddles and fusses, and he scoots everything in the trunk to the middle so as to alleviated any sort of blockage anywhere. He checks the latch one more time. He shakes his head, and one last time he SLAMS the trunk shut. And this time it stays. For about 2 seconds. And then it pops up. (The delay was intentional on my part). And he finally has it figured out!! There's nothing wrong with the trunk, he just has a wife who has impeccable timing! So he runs around to his side of the car laughing at the joke (I was glad he was such a good sport about it) and we laughed about it until we got to church. People probably thought something was wrong - I'm sure my eyes were pink from all the crying!! Maybe it's a story where you had to be there - but those of you who know Scot at all should get at least a mild chuckle from this story. Needless to say, it was a great little prank and I'm only sad that I won't be able to use it again. I'll just have to think of something else. :)

so much is happening!

i feel like i have so much to catch you all up on! where to even begin in all the changes?! I guess I'll start with the 18 week picture shoot. Yes, I'm 18 weeks and man has my body changed in the last month!! I feel like over the last week or two I've really started to pop and it's been so fun!!
(The first picture is of 14 weeks, and the second was taken at 18 weeks)

Who knew such changes could go on in one body. I've really started to feel wonderful and get my 'old me' back. I have figured out that as long as I go to bed by 9 (yes, it's early I know), that I'm fine the next day and full of energy. I'm still working out and that seems to help my energy level in the middle of the day, too. So far, the 2nd trimester is the best ever!!

BUTTERFLIES!!! Yes indeed, I had the classic 'butterfly' feeling quite a few times last night and I'm sure it was the baby kicking. Now that I know what it feels like, I've been feeling them for a little while, but last night was definite!! It was so neat, it almost tickled and even though I know it's said all the time, it seriously felt like a live butterfly was in my stomach just flapping around!!

I'm also quite excited this morning because I finally fit into maternity dress pants and I don't feel like such a bum wearing jeans to work anymore. I'm sure I'll still slip into the jeans every now and again, but it was nice to be able to look professional this morning - that and I have a meeting I need to look professional for, so it was a good thing they fit enough for me to wear them in!

The other new development is again about the names. Ha ha. I know, I know, when will we decide? Well, we've decided for sure on the girl's first name (Anelise), but now we're searching for a new middle name. Mae is cute and I like it because it sounds good and looks good. But it dawned on me that even though it's a family name, no one knows anything about the woman originally named Mae in the family tree. (She's Scot's Great-Grandmother) And as much as I think it's cute, we would rather have a name with meaning and significance behind it even if it's not a family name, rather than just have a family name for family name's sake. And Scot is perfectly fine not having a family name from his side, he said there was no one he really wanted to honor name wise, no one he knew well enough to name our child after, so...Anelise is without a middle name as of now and we're officially on the hunt. And watch, we'll go through all this rigamaroll of finding the perfect girl name and we'll end up having a boy. Ha ha. Now won't that be funny. :) Thankfully, we have time and we don't have to decide today.

Also, we're switching the baby room themes up a little bit. Airplanes AND Helicopters for the boy (Scot LOVES flight and we didn't want to restrict the decor to JUST planes.) And if a girl, we're going to do a Meadow theme - mostly little lambs with butterflies. Something sweet and feminine and not too over the top. I don't want a lot of 'stuff' in the rooms anyways, but what is in there decor wise can be themed. i came up with the Lamb and Butterfly idea because I have a hand done drawing in pastels of a little lamb chasing a butterfly through a meadow. It's the sweetest little picture and I was like, OH, that's perfect!!

Anyways, that's all for now!!

finally looking the part

So the other night as I was standing over the stove cooking dinner, Scot mentioned that I looked more pregnant. I think I had some comment about it being the fact that I was standing over the stove, maybe the heat, and he was probably just overcome with that 'homey-wifey' feeling. Either way, I think he was right. As I was working out yesterday, I noticed that my t-shirt was getting a little tighter, too. And then someone else mentioned it. And I thought to myself "hmmm...maybe my dear husband is on to something here." So after I dressed this morning, I looked in the mirror to quickly appraise my appearance. I had about 2 minutes until we were headed out the door, and as always, that means rushing around getting my lunch in a bag and pulling my coats on while walking out the door. But this morning as I stood there and took in the fact that my hair was most definitely not going to cooperate today and the thought crossed my mind that I looked a little more tired than normal (Scot was up at 5:30), I happened to notice my belly!! And what a little belly it was. No more did it look like leftovers from Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners - but an actual little prego belly!! I was so excited!! I asked Scot to take a picture, but since he was pulling on his coat and packing his backpack while putting on his shoes (yes, that's 3 things at once, and yes, it's quite the sight, but he does it well) - I decided to just take the camera to work and have someone take the picture once I got there. So Beth did the honors and while it's not the best picture of me(that has nothing to do with the photographer and everything to do with the sleepy subject), it still shows the prego belly!! It may have something to do with the shirt I'm wearing, but either way, I am just happy that I'm finally start to look the part!! I'm not all the way there, but I'm getting there!!

14 bags full!!!

After spending about 4 hours going through all my clothing on Saturday - I'm talking summer and winter clothes here, everything from socks to sweatpants, shirts and dresses - I ended up with 14 Wal-Mart bags full of clothes that don't fit me right now or won't fit me right after the baby is born. It was really good to go through everything if for no other reason to realize that I have a ton of clothes (some of which I'll be keeping since I'll be able to wear them as maternity clothes...ie: skirts), and it was good to just clean everything out. I felt very accomplished, but it's now quite sad to look in my closet and see the 8 shirts i have hanging up and the 4 sweaters that fit. Oh well. My mom is a gem and bought me some tops she found and is sending them along today. So next week, I'll have new clothes! WOOHOO!! I also have a friend's maternity clothes in my closet, but since I'm in the lovely limbo stage, they don't fit yet and so they're just hanging there. But I'll be prepared once I need them!!

On a side note, I also think we're close to fully and definitively coming to a decision on a name. The reason I was most again Annelise was b/c it would be easy to shorten. Well, we thought about it, and thought about it some more. And while we're not REALLY fully deciding until March, I think we'll change the spelling to Anelise, that way it's harder to shorten. And also, if the baby is a girl to start off with, and she ends up being more of an Elise than an Anelise, we could always shorten it to Elise, but you can't lengthen Elise to Anelise. Anyways, that's the latest scoop!!

weekend plans

I have BIG weekend plans - essentially a BIG project. I'm going to go through ALL my clothes and put those that don't fit into a box and those that may fit after the baby is born into another. It's not something I'm looking forward to, but I have so many pants that I look at every morning and I just don't know which ones I would even fit into. So it will help the morning process out quite a bit. A friend is letting me use all her maternity clothes, so I'm pretty well set for a while which is wonderful. But I need to clean out the closet before I can put more stuff in there. Gotta love it. :) But it'll feel good to get all that accomplished. And then we'll be able to keep all my winter clothes at my folks when we go back for spring break. (Thank goodness they have a basement that they don't mind us cluttering - they're angels)

name change?!?!?!

Yes, people told me that you never know what you're going to name your child until they come out and I'm starting to whole heartedly believe them! While Scot and I are still set on Carson Blake, we're having a little dilemma with Annelise. The thing is, I like Elise better. I don't particularly care for names being shortened and Annelise would inevitably get shortened to Anne or Elise. And since I'm not a huge fan of Anne for a daughter, I would rather steer clear of names that can be shortened. sigh. Scot like Annelise better b/c he says it's prettier. And I give him that on some counts. But I just can't explain it. I feel like out child, if a girl, would be more of an Elise. (also - Annelise Eskestrand is kind of a mouthful) Dilemmas, dilemmas. Ha ha. We've decided to not make any decisions right now. But we find out the sex the beginning of March, and so we've said we'll decide by then b/c we want to be able to call this baby something besides baby. :) So stay tuned to see what we decide!! Just to clarify, though, I do love both names. I just love Elise a tad bit more. :)

Poems

I have been searching for poems to hang in the baby's rooms once they are born and for them to also be hung in their rooms as they grow up. I had a little poem that now sits on my dresser that I've had since I can remember and I've always loved it. It's simple, it's about my name, it goes something like this:
Sarah, meaning, a princess. (my parents were obviously not worried about putting ideas into my head)
You truly posses a charm special and rare
You can hold your head high, you have that special air
To you many admires, you seem almost royal
Your devoted followers will always be loyal
Because of you name, enchantment and romance
Will fill you life long, will laughter, song and dance

Anyways, finding a GOOD and wholesome and meaningful poem was tricky because there were so many good baby poems, but not grown up poems. I found 'If' by Kipling and fell in love with it, but had the hardest time finding a comparable poem for a girl. But i finally found it in 'A Prayer for my Daughter' by Yeats. The only thing with it is that I will only use 3 or 4 of the verses in it. Probably 2,5,6 and maybe the last one. (don't want to put ideas into her head at such an early age ya know!)

wacky weather

so we have some of the most wacky weather here in MO. CO is more wacky and unpredictable, but please, below freezing last week, up to 60 for the weekend and now it's warm and rainy!! I mean, the good weather over the weekend was amazing. i had the windows open and aired out the house, did a lot of cleaning, took some naps, read some books and just enjoyed the break in the nasty weather. I love that there is no more snow on the ground and the ice is all gone. :)

Over all, thought, the weekend was great. Scot and I got to go on one of our favorite walks and Sunday's are our 'sweet' days. So we swung by TCBY with my discount card and shared a waffle cone while walking - it was so good to get out! But now I'm back at work and all I see out the big windows are wet leaves stuck to the wet ground and it's a little dreary out. But I soaked up the sun and I should be good until the next 'sun break'!

NEW BLOG!

Hello to anyone who even reads my blog! I just wanted to let you know that I've copied and pasted the 2 previous blogs from the old blog and I'll be updating this one from now on. :) The old blog address if you want to pre-read up to this point is: http://theeskestrands.blogspot.com/

Happy reading!

3rd Prenatal

Scot and I went in for my third prenatal appointment today and that was a BLAST!! The nurse didn't write down the due date last month, and they didn't want to just go by what i said, so I had an ultrasound done to solidify the date. They came up with June 27th or 29th - i said that was fine, because I had thought it was June 28th! But the neatest thing was to see the baby move!! And man did the baby move a lot!! Little legs were kicking all over the place and the head kept moving around. The sweetest thing was that the little arms were just folded behind the head, like the baby was just chilling out and relaxing! We got to see the spinal cord and the stomach - not the belly, but the actual stomach - it shows up as a black spot on the monitor. The baby is 10cm today (about the size of a large peach) from 'crown to rump' (so not including the legs) and the heart rate was above 140 again, so that's good, too!! :) Everything looks great and we're just so tickled!!

Prego

I'm pregnant!! And since I'm past my first trimester, I want everyone to know!! I also am now going to try and keep up this blog a little better now that i have something interesting to talk about! heehee. I'll start with a catch-up.

I'm due June 28th, so I'm officially 14 weeks along and working on my 15th week right now. So if i mention a week, i'm referring to the fully completed week, not the week i'm working on. kinda confusing, i know, even for me. anyways - Scot and I are SOOO excited, so so excited. My first trimester was fairly easy. i wanted to be sick the whole time, but never was, so that was hard. and certain foods made me want to gag, but other wise, i was fine food wise. the only other hard part was that i wanted to crawl into bed at 7 every night. and sometimes i would. :) i just could never get enough sleep the first trimester. scot didn't know what to do with me falling asleep on the couch every night after dinner. he finally just realized that it was what i needed and would let me sleep for a little bit and then wake me up so i could actually get ready for bed.

and then i woke up one morning and everything was different. i felt normal. almost too normal and i thought maybe something was wrong. so i called my friend Beth to see if feeling that normal was, well, normal. and since i had just entered my 2nd trimester, she said yes. so for the last 3 weeks, i have been enjoying the blissful stage of normalness during pregnancy and i love it. i can stay up until 10 and i can eat almost anything again (lunch meat, peanut butter and soy milk still make me gag) and i just FEEL great! So that's where we are right now.

We told extended family and everyone else over the Christmas break and it was so fun to watch as my Grama realized she was going to be a great-grama. We gave her a little picture frame with "Reserved for Baby Eskestrand. Due June 28th" written inside. It was so sweet. My folks are so excited and it's just such a blessing that we're moving back to Denver and will be close to so many friends and family! :) The Lord is good.

I also regret to admit that while i have been eating healthy and continuing to work out and haven't gained any weight except in my tummy - my pants simply did not fit this morning and so they are zipped up, but not buttoned - but shhh....you can't tell, so don't say anything! :) So maternity clothes may have to be thought about sooner than i thought.

Also, i'll answer a few questions. Yes, we're going to peek. We'll find out, hopefully, in our next appt (early Feb). Yes we have names picked out and yes we're sharing. Annelise Mae and Carson Blake. I'll share the stories behind the names another time. No, i don't care what we have and neither does Scot, but just between me and the whole world, i think it'd a girl. don't ask me how, i just have a feeling. Only time will tell, and like i said, i would be happy with either.
yes, we've heard the heartbeat already and i think it sounded like a train, it was so fast!! No, the baby will not be born in Colorado, they'll be born here, but then we'll move about month later, so they might as well be a CO native! :) I think that's it for now. anymore questions, just shoot my way!!