Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving has come and gone and may I just say that I am more tired now, then I was before the holiday! I was off from Tuesday-Friday, which was really nice.

Tuesday I took my dad to lunch at The Sweetery! Yummy.. He loved the sandwiches! After lunch, I went and had my blood work done. The girl drawing my blood had the word STUDENT plastered across her name tag, which was scary enough, but while she was taking more blood from me than dracula, she informs me that she hasn't started school yet, she plans on doing that next fall! I was a little freaked by this statement, but at this point, we were three vials of blood deep and two to go! So I grinned and went with it. I also had the old pee test, I know, TMI, but they made me leave the door open! I guess they have to do that to make sure it's your pee, and you aren't a druggie, but still!

Then Wednesday, Brandon was off with me, and we went and got my oil changed. My dad came and picked us up and we ate lunch in Easley with him. While waiting for dad to come get us, we saw my soon to be sister in-law on the Rachel Ray show! She and my brother went to the

Thanksgiving taping. We went to Copper River for lunch and got one of my favorites, BBQ chicken nachos!! My dad was seriously so excited to eat with us two days in a row! After picking my car up, we stopped by an antique store, and we bought an antique wooden rocking horse for the baby! It looks similar to this one!

Thursday was of course was turkey day!! We ate with Brandon's family at noon and then with my family that night. Ang and Leighton came up from Columbia for Thanksgiving, and it was awesome to spend time with them! The next day mom and and I had our annual after Thanksgiving Chinese lunch, at our favorite, Lieu's! After lunch, we went to the grocery store to get last minute stuff for the party Saturday.

Most importantly, I found and bought our baby bed! This is a picture of it! This is what it looks like as a big bed too!

I am so excited! Our goal this week is to take down the bed in our front guest room, so we can put the baby bed up. I didn't get any of the other furniture, just the bed. The rest of it, honestly, looked like dining room furniture?!? I know that sounds silly, but, I really wasn't a fan. Plus, I have furniture we are going to go use for the rest of the room. Now, we just need to know what we are having, so we can pick out fabric!!

One final thought for the past week. We found out Brandon's Papa has thyroid cancer and he is having surgery Thursday. Please pray for papa! This type of cancer is very, very treatable. However, he will be on the mend for a while, since he is 80! And I won't be allowed to see him because of the radiation, which makes me really sad! :( Again, just keep the Blackwell's in your prayers! Thanks!

Updates

So, last week I was slack. I didn't blog. But here are some highlights. Last Sunday Brandon took me shopping for some maternity clothes!! I have never been one for wearing skin tight pants, so for me, the second my pants got tight through the tummy, I wanted/needed some relief. Plus, as sick as I have been, I think he just wanted to do something nice for me! (He reminds me of my dad that way) So then the rest of the week I actually felt comfortable at work!

Friday Christian and Stephanie came to stay with us for the game, and you would of thought people had never been to Clemson before! Traffic was crazy when we went to dinner. Saturday we left our house at 10:15 to go tailgate for a 3:30 game. I know it sounds early, especially if you know we live 15 minutes from the stadium! But we like to get there and have everything set up in time to see the noon kick-offs. Between my mom, Pat, Stephanie and I, we had a spread that could have fed the half of lot 6! I mean we are talking brats and hot dogs, grilled veggies, chili, fried chicken, mac and cheese, sweet potato souffle baked ziti, meatballs and like five kinds of dips! It was nuts! And the tigers won!! So we tailgated for a while after game, enjoying the fact the tigers are headed to Tampa!!

And now it is Sunday again. Today was cold and rainy. We spent the entire day at home, expect for the trip to Clemson for some Sonic! yum! This next week will be a great week. Because I am only working one day and Thanksgiving is Thursday! I am so looking forward to Thanksgiving!! It is by far my most favorite non-religious holiday of the year!! Food, food and more food! My mom and Brandon's family never cease to amaze me with the yumminess! And on Friday, we hope Brandon and dad get to play their annual Thanksgiving golf game. Dad's been in so much pain with his back, shoulder and head, we hope he will feel up to it. But even if he's not, we will have a great day just spending time as a family. Hopefully, I will post pictures of the amazing spread and decorations we have for the holiday, but I won't make any promises.

Baby Stuff

So I have discovered a few things about life. When you are dating someone, everyone asks, "when are you going to get married?" And when you are married, everyone asks "when are you having a baby?" and then when you get pregnant, everyone asks, "what do you want, a boy, or a girl?" And of course ever since Brandon and I made the announcement, we have been flooded with that very question. The thing is, we really don't have a preference. I know people will say, "we want to be healthy of course, but we r-e-a-l-l-y want a ____. Well for us, that isn't case. We legitimately just want a healthy baby. Ideally for us, we would love one boy and one girl. What God has in store us, remains to be seen. So at least this go around, we really don't care. We will find out January 7th. Which seems like ages from now!!

As far as old wives tales go, At my 9 weeks and 4 days appointment, peanut had a heart rate of 183. Dr. Hearn says anything between 150-200 is great! So I am completely satisfied with that. He also told me not to believe that the gender has anything to do with the heart rate. So, I am listening to Dr. Hearn.


Yes, this is Dr. Hearn. Not the best picture, but this is the only one on the web site. I have to say, this man is truly an amazing doctor. I have been around physicians basically my entire life, and not many have as good of bedside manner as my dad, but Dr. Hearn has it!! He is so reassuring and caring and loves spending time with his patients. There aren't many like him. I think that is why he is the most sought after OB/GYN in the Anderson area.



According to babycenter.com our baby has reached the size of a medium shrimp and weighs nearly an ounce. (Length: almost 3 inches, head to bottom.) Fingerprints have formed on the baby's tiny fingertips, the baby's veins and organs are clearly visible through the still-thin skin, and baby's body is starting to catch up with the head — which makes up just a third of the baby's body size now. So here is picture of a medium shrimp! ha!


Also, I have been trying to research baby gear, so if you have any ideas of things that work and don't work, please let me know. So when we go to register, we know what to get. Speaking of registering, if you know of good places we should be registering, besides like Target, tell me!!

Finally, I am having an attack of the hormones! I cry at dumb commercials and I have been sort of mean to random strangers! Not really on purpose, it is just happening! I hate it! I can hear the words coming out of mouth, but can't stop them! Also, I am having crazy dreams!! About all sorts of nutty things! :)

Drum Roll Please.....Announcing.....

Brandon and I are having a baby!!

Well if you are here, you know that! But let me tell the story any way.

First of all, if you are just finding out via the internet, sorry! Brandon hates all things social networking, i.e. facebook, twitter and even blogs! He thinks that too many people, know too many peoples business because of the internet. So, I have resisted the urge to take the plunge into the internet announcing until we got through the first trimester. And well, we are through it! :)

Let me catch you up on the last 13 weeks. Brandon and I found out on September 5th. Opening day for Clemson football. It was a great day all around, we got a positive and so did our Tigers!



We immediately told my parents at the game, and Brandon called his brother. We waited to tell his parents until the next day, because we wanted to tell them in person. We also decided to tell one friend each, because we were so excited!

Brandon decided to tell Christian, because he and Steph were staying with us and heard me frantically call Brandon upstairs after reading "pregnant" on the test. We were sure they thought something was up any way! ha!

I picked Samantha. She had been a rock for me in the months prior, being a sounding board for me. Samantha has this great ability to listen to you, and not tell you what to do. Which, is what I had needed. So for me, it only seemed natural to tell the person that had to listen to me complain, listen to me rejoice!


On a sad note, my momagin passed away a week before we found out. I can honestly say, I have never been in more pain, ever. For those of you who don't know, my Momagin was my grandma, but she was so much more! She kept me every single weekend when we lived in Ohio. And all the way through high school each summer, I went and spent with her and my Papa Dave.So needless to say, she was not just an average grandma!


I had been asking her for like a year to crochet a baby blanket for me, because one day Brandon and I would have a baby. Plus, she had terrible arthritis, so it took her a really long time to make blankets. You will be happy to know, the last thing she ever crocheted was in fact my baby's blanket! When we went to clean out her house we found it, along with several items she had bought for her great grandchild! That was just the kind of person she was! :) I know that our baby has a special angel in heaven looking out for it!





In the weeks that followed we told our family and close friends. And, I began to worship the porcelain god. The baby refused to like anything I ate, and I could keep nothing, and I mean nothing, down! My fabulous doctor, gave me a prescription for Zofran. God's gift to cancer patients and pregnant women alike! If you are ever pregnant and have terrible nausea, beg your doctor to hook you up with this stuff!! It has alleviated almost all the sickness. It is not full proof, but I can actually eat food! Which, if you know me, is a big deal, because I love to eat!

So here we are, 13 weeks later. Most of the fatigue, nausea and bloating have passed. And I am just waiting for the day that I actually look pregnant. I know, that sounds like the dumbest thing ever, wanting to be fat! But, right now, I am not really showing. My pants are tighter that is for sure. And occasionally, I may put something on that sort of kind of shows a stomach, but I think it just looks like I am eating too much in hopes of getting a job as a mall Santa, instead of preggers!

Well, that is all have right now.