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! :)