Army Men

Thank goodness the army men protected the Christmas village my mom had set up at her house this Christmas season! We can thank my nephew, Cody, for setting these men up for us. I don't know what we would have done without their protection. :)

Grampa Wiseman

This past September, I had the pleasure of meeting this man:

The man is Grampa Wiseman, Ross' paternal grandfather. Unfortunately, I did not get to meet his wife, as she passed away before I had that privilege and we were visiting for Gramma's funeral.

Grampa Wiseman is such a nice man, and if I remember correctly, he is 94 years old! He lives alone in his house and seems to be quite "with it." Ross had told me some about him and we were both excited to see him. When we arrived in Elkhart, Indiana, we went to Grampa's house for dinner with the rest of the family - Ross' parents, Ross' aunt, and two uncles. The only time I had met this side of the family was at our wedding, which really didn't leave any time at all for visiting. It was nice to visit and get to know them a little more.

At that time I was about 8 weeks pregnant and we got to share our baby news in person - very fun! At one point after dinner, Grampa took my hand and gave me the tour of his house. That made for a nice memory! He is such a very nice man and I can see where Ross and his father get their kind heart from.

I hope we will be able to take a trip to Elkhart sometime next year and introduce Grampa Wiseman to Lucy...four generations of Wisemans, how neat!

Ross and Grampa Wiseman

Ross, Grampa Wiseman, Me - love these types of self-portraits!

Three generations:  Grampa Wiseman, Ross Wiseman, Larry Wiseman

The {Awkward} Office Christmas Gift Exchange

For the past 10 years I have worked in an office during the Christmas season, and each year I'm reminded of the sometimes awkward Christmas gift exchange among coworkers. Take this scenario:

A coworker gives you a Christmas gift but you had no intentions of giving that coworker, or anyone else at the office, a gift. What do you do?

1. Say thank you and leave it at that?

2. Say thank you and frantically figure out what you can bring in the next day as a gift for that person? And if you go with this option, should you bring your gift in the very next day or wait a few days to make it look like you really did have it planned and are not just "repaying" the gift?

3. Say thank you and then be so bold as to say, "I'm sorry but I wasn't planning on giving you a gift?"

This situation has happened to me during my working years during the Christmas season. If I remember correctly (and I might not because being pregnant has just made me dumb and forgetful) I don't think I've ever given anyone at the office a Christmas gift until this year. I've received lots of gifts, mostly little gifts like candies, candles, soaps, etc., but haven't repaid the favor. I have felt kind of bad for not giving a gift to someone who gave me a gift, but not bad enough to go by one for them. 

This year I just felt like giving a gift to a few people that I'm "close" with at work and was really excited to do so. I gave four ladies a cute little Christmas box that looks like a Chinese food takeout box filled with three of my knitted dishcloths. I really enjoyed giving these gifts and did it expecting nothing in return. That's the kind of gift giving I like - when it has meaning behind it and is exciting.

A few days after I gave my gifts I came into work to find a bottle of Bath and Body Works soap and a box of chocolates on my desk (which both fit my tastes very well). The gifts were from two of the ladies I gave the dishcloths to. I wonder if they had planned all along to give me the gift or if it became a last minute plan once they received my gift, following option #2 above? 

Either way, I know it really doesn't matter at all.Perhaps I'm just mean or cynical or whatever the correct word is here, but these are my thoughts! I love to give gifts, and when I do, I want them to be meaningful, from the heart, or something that someone would really like or want. I am just not a fan at all of perfunctory gift giving. To me it's just exchanging money and most of the time you get a $5 or $10 gift that no one really wants or is very cheap looking. I would just rather keep the money for myself, physically exchange the cash between everyone involved and skip the presents, or take the money and donate it to a charity or to help a family in need at Christmas. To me helping others would be far more beneficial than just exchanging gifts for the sake of giving a gift.

The Bump Part 3 . . . Or weeks 17-20

Lucy is s-l-o-w-l-y growing! Here's the latest baby bump pictures!

Week 17

Thanksgiving Day, Week 18

Week 19

Week 20

I love this shirt!

Week 21

Lucy's First Presents

Lucy is quite a lucky little girl. She's only 21 weeks along and has already received books and some special presents from her Gigi (great-gramma) and her Mommy and Daddy!

Gigi (my Dad's Mom) sent these handmade booties and hat in the mail last week. I love them and can't wait to see her wearing them!

Mommy decided Lucy needed a teddy bear, so we did a little looking around but couldn't find one we liked. We decided to go to the mall and make her a special teddy bear from Build a Bear Workshop. Daddy and I made this teddy bear last week and can't wait to see her sleeping with it and carrying it around everywhere she goes. We haven't named it yet, but will let Lucy do that when she's a little older!

Lucy Lee Wiseman

I guess I haven't posted in a while and haven't posted some very fun news....

We are having a GIRL!!!

Her name is Lucy Lee Wiseman!

We had a little trouble during the ultrasound, as she was sitting on her bottom, cross-legged! She just did not want to be bothered by us that morning. The ultrasound tech kept trying to get Lucy to move around and when she wouldn't, she had me to go the bathroom, thinking that might move things around a bit to get Lucy moving. 

It worked and we were able to tell that she is a GIRL! Ross and I were very excited with this news and started calling her Lucy right away. We have had a fun time talking to her and calling her by name instead of it. :)

Here's a picture of our daughter. As you can see, she's laying with her arm up and her hand on her forehead....such a drama queen! 

She has been very active lately and kicking a lot. The kicks are getting stronger and I can even see my stomach move up and down when she kicks at times! I'm still having issues with morning sickness. I have tried so many things...eating crackers in bed before I get up, preggie pops, eating before bed, eating when I wake up in the middle of the night. Nothing seems to completely take away the nausea. It's not real bad nausea, but enough to be annoying and make me scared to eat for fear of throwing up, which has happened so many times now that I've lost count! I sure hope Lucy's drama queen style life in the womb isn't any indication of what her life will be like outside of the womb. Ross and I might have our hands full if so! :)

Baby Shirt

My mom gave me this shirt a few weeks ago:

She wore it when she was pregnant with me:

I am looking forward to wearing this shirt in the upcoming months! 
 

The Spaceship House

Last weekend Ross and I took a trip to Omaha to visit family and go to the zoo. I fell asleep for a little bit but was excited to wake up and realize I didn't miss seeing this:  

It's a house on the hillside off of I-29 near the Missouri/Iowa border. But it's not just any house, it's the Spaceship house! When we were little, our summer break usually consisted of spending one week each summer in Omaha visiting both of my grandparents and aunt and uncle. My mom, sister, and I would make the L-O-N-G car ride up to Omaha and always looked forward to seeing this house. It was so neat to us and also meant that Omaha was only about 1 1/2 hours away. (At that time the speed limit was only 55mph, not 70mph like it is today. A trip to Omaha, including stops, would average about 8 hours. Today it takes us about 6 hours.)

We called this the Spaceship house because it totally looked like a spaceship to us! To this day, 30 years later, I still look forward to seeing this house while traveling to Omaha. And someday soon, I can share the joy with my kids!

Baby Books!

Our baby is 17 weeks old and now has a few books for his/her library! My sister-in-law, Jennifer, sent this book to me in the mail just about a week after we found out we were pregnant. What a fun, fun book to receive for a little one!

And my Aunt Cheryl, a retired librarian, sent me these classic books in the mail a few weeks ago. I've heard of Goodnight Moon (and have already enjoyed reading it to ROSS) but haven't heard of the other two. This was such a fun surprise to receive!

His and Hers Dinners

Monday night Ross and I made Mexican Lasagna for dinner. This is a recipe we had on file from Ross' mom and discovered it a few months ago while looking through our recipe box for something new to make for dinner. We thought it sounded good so gave it a try and loved it. It's layered like lasagna, but made with a Mexican flare instead of Italian. I don't have the recipe with me to post, but it's basically a layer of chips, then hamburger meat mixed with tomato sauce, then a layer of a cottage cheese mixture, cheese, and then you start layering all over again until you run out of room and ingredients.

You'll notice in my picture below from our Monday night Mexican Lasagna that we have two separate dishes. These dishes are not different meals, but rather the same meal, just modified a bit to fit our specific tastes. My version, the smaller dish, simply has chips, hamburger, cheese, olives, and a little bit of salsa. Ross' version, the bigger dish, has everything exactly as the recipe called for - cottage cheese, chili peppers, and I'm sure some added hot sauce because Ross L-O-V-E-S hot sauce! 

When we made the meal before we put it in one pan and just basically drew a line down the middle separating "his" side from "her" side. It worked well, but this week I got the idea to use two different baking dishes and that worked so much better! Now I didn't have any of the cottage cheese mixture running over onto my side!

This isn't the first time we've made separate dishes of the same meal. I do not like beans and Ross does not like rice, as you can read about here, so when we eat out at a Mexican restaurant that has a side of beans and rice, he gets two beans and I get two rice! When I make chili we have two pots - one with beans and one without. Our homemade pizza is divided into two sections - one with mushrooms, one without. I really do wish we both liked the same foods, especially the little add-ons like mushrooms, beans, chili peppers, etc. In fact a friend of mine recently said to me, "Libby, you just need to start liking beans." I agreed with her 100%, but for now I'm so glad that Ross and I have found a way to compromise on our meals. :)

The Bump Part 2...Or Weeks 13-16

My belly is s-l-o-w-l-y starting to grow. Everyone says to just wait and someday before I know it, it will be B-I-G! It's fun and kind of weird to see it growing.

Week 13

Week 14

Week 15

Week 16 - happy birthday to me today!

15 weeks!

I had my 15-week dr appointment this morning and everything went well and looks good according to the doctor. The appointment didn't take very long at all. 

I wasn't supposed to, but the nurse let me record the baby's heart beat! I have it below, I hope it plays okay for you. I love listening to it!

We go back to the doctor for another check up on November 27. I am SO looking forward to this appointment because we'll also have an ultrasound and will get to see our little baby and hopefully it will cooperate so we can see if we have a little mini-Libby or mini-Ross!

Our Mysterious Pumpkin Man

This is a picture of a shelf I have on our family room wall. I decorate it for each season and have "everyday" stuff for it on the "off seasons." The shelf is on the wall where our TV is and our couch is directly opposite the shelf. Does anything look funny about the decorations on this shelf to you?

If not, look again at the little pumpkin man on the top left-hand side of the shelf.

Do you see it now? If not, compare the picture above to the picture below:

Notice the direction the pumpkin man is facing in the first pictures compared to the second picture. Also, notice the two pumpkins that are on the middle shelf and their placement in the two pictures. 

 If you still can't see it, here's an up-close picture of the pumpkin man. The first picture is from the first picture above, second picture from the second picture above.

These pictures are so funny to me! The pumpkin man and the two pumpkins have mysteriously moved on their own! One night I looked up at the shelf and noticed that the pumpkin man was facing to the left, which faces a corner! I knew I didn't place him on the shelf like that, but placed him to where he would be looking out at us, and even slightly to the right. I laughed to myself thinking how funny it was that the pumpkin man was facing the corner. I asked Ross if he moved the man and he had no idea what I was talking about. 

I moved the pumpkin man back into place and kept an eye on him over the next few weeks. I noticed that he slowly started turning back to the corner. Ross even noticed it, too. Then I realized the pumpkins were moving, with the smaller one about to fall off the shelf. 

At first we thought we had a ghost in our house. No. Not really. :) This shelf is on the wall of our garage and we think that every time the garage door opens and closes it shakes the wall, causing these light-weight figurines to move a bit. Whatever is causing it, I sure get a laugh out of seeing the pumpkin man facing the corner!

The Bump

There's not really much of one, but if you look really close, you can see a slight difference between week 6 and week 12.

Week 6

 

Week 7

Week 8

Week 9 - no belly shot this week. This was a B-A-D feeling day! I did good just to get this shot!

Week 10

Week 11

Week 12

Pregnant!

Ross and I are having a baby! We are due April 24, 2013 and are very excited about this little baby. We found out in August and have been slowly wrapping our minds around this upcoming life change ever since. Right now I'm 12 weeks along. That oh so glorious second trimester is just around the corner, starting in just a few days or one more week, depending on whose calculations you go by. I have felt pretty blah the past 4-5 weeks and am definitely ready for the morning sickness, which with me is sometimes all-day sickness, to end! I guess it hasn't been that bad, though. I've only thrown up a couple of times and that's probably pretty easy compared to other women. But for me who is never sick, it has been hard!

We had a fun time telling our family and friends. I love the pictures below of all the grandparents - you can definitely see the excitement on their faces!

Right after we found out.....

You can't see it, but there's a positive sign on that stick!

Do you think she's surprised and excited?!

Gumma and Poppy, ready for grandchild #3!

Because everyone should take 4 pregnancy tests.

Uncle Nathan and Aunt Stephanie

Gramma and Grampa Wiseman, surprised and excited!

They are looking forward to meeting grandchild #3!

A very surprised Aunt Jennifer!