Drum roll please........

It's a..............GIRL!!!!!

We found out yesterday that we are having a healthy baby girl who is even measuring a little bigger but due date is the same. Sorry. No ultrasound pics. The cd is not cooperating. I thought I might as well announce it and we'll try to add pics later. We are both super excited. I can't wait to find cute girly stuff to buy. Now there will be 4 little girl cousins all the same age coming within months of each other on my side! YES!

The Last Three Crafts and Some Birds

So I'm pretty much the slowest blogger ever right now. I just have a couple of updates 'cause Chad is gone and has all the other pictures on his camera with him. More is to come. Just thought I would share some of the last few months crafts.
This craft was done just this week. I really like it more than I thought I would.

And then the spring blocks were done a couple of months ago. If you want to see close ups you can go to http://www.gettinghercrafton.blogspot.com/.

This last one I did about 3 months ago. It's a scrapbooked picture frame that I gave to my Mom for Mother's Day. This is one of the last pictures taken of my Mom and Dad and it's probably the best one my Dad ever took. If you've ever seen our family pictures my Dad either has a goofy face on (not on purpose sometimes) or his eyes were closed. Ha. What a goofball! Ahh I miss him.

And this last part is for Carter since he is such a nature lover. You can't really tell that well but there are four, yes four baby birds in a nest on our front porch. I can peak through the little windows through our door and they move around and open their mouths. As soon as I turn the lock they hunch down and hide. Sadly for this group of birds, this is the last year I will let them bum off of us. They need to start paying some rent or at least clean up after themselves. There is seriously a ton of bird poop everyday from them. I've sprayed it off the last two days because I didn't really notice until my visiting teachers came by the other day and I was walking them to the door. I said "Oh you should look at our baby birds." They said "We already saw." I look around the brick and see all this bird poop. And I'm like "Guess it's hard to miss now with all the bird poop." Awesome. How embarrassing. Stinkin' birds. The novelty has obviously warn off.

My Awesome Hubby's Surprise Birthday

For a few months now, I 've been trying to decide what to do for Chad's birthday. He had told me previously that he would like to have a BBQ this summer and invite some friends over. So I thought what a better way to do that than do have his birthday be the BBQ.

Yesterday was his actual birthday. We went out to dinner at Market Street Grill. I didn't get him anything because I really wanted him to think that I hadn't put a lot of thought into his b-day. I wanted to throw him off totally. I ended up feeling kinda bad 'cause I could tell he felt bad that I hadn't really gone any extra miles for him. Little did he know.

So my biggest dilemna today was figuring out a way to get him out of the house at least until 6:45. The party started at 6:30. I finally just told him to leave at 5:00 and come back at 6:45. I said I had to 'finish his b-day present'. When he asked me if he should eat anything or just wait I knew he thought I was just going to make him dinner. Mewhahahaha.

As soon as he left, I was running around the house, setting the food up, decorating the front and back with balloons and streamers. Pretty much going a little crazy until Jami and Blake showed up. They were nice enough to bring two long tables and chairs. Blake was also our grill master which was very helpful. So after the set up everyone started showing up. I taped an invite (that I made for work people with the picture above) to the garage door so that Chad would read it when he got home. He was very much surprised. I love doing stuff like this! I am sneaky, sneaky. A big thanks to Kirsten for bringing the drinks, Carrie for the paper plates, cheese and onions, Seth and Amy for your chairs and ice cream, and everyone that showed up! WE LOVE YOU!

Speaking of love......you can stop reading now if you are getting bored.....I love my husband. He is such a great man. He has been very good and supportive especially the last 7 weeks that I've been sick and tired. He's always bringing up ways for us to do service and share the many blessings that we have with others. Improve who we are. That is one of the things he is very good at. I've always known that many people like Chad because I see him take an interest in everyone he talks to. He also likes to tease people which reminds me a lot of my dad. I can also see how much people like him because I'm always getting asked at work how he is doing. Even people I don't know but know I'm married to him ask how he's doing and they always say they miss him. I very much appreciate the hard worker he is. He sees something that needs to be fixed and improved and he doesn't stop until it's better. He is so intelligent and works to know more about everything. I love him and know he will be a wonderful father. He makes me very proud to be his wife.

Spring Toys and Projects!

Spring has finally arrived and we have been able to get some projects accomplished outside and inside the house. Also, we finally got rid of Chad's dresser that was purchased during his first year of college at the University of New Mexico 11 years ago. It was bought used and had to be sprayed down with Raid to get rid of all the baby cockroaches who called the dresser home. That same year Chad purchased the bed spread that we used until one week ago. Gross!!

We added some outside lighting under our eaves to brighten up the place.

Chad was so excited to buy his first lawn mower and gas powered pressure washer. The grass looks much greener now!! He has such an affinity for yard work that I'm going to 'let' him do all the yard work that he wants to. I know. I'm such a nice wife.

After getting rid of the dresser, we finally found a bedroom set that we both really liked. I'm loving it! I also purchased this lovely bedspread and took it back two days later after noticing it was DRY CLEAN ONLY! Come on Candice Olsen! Oh and it was also linen and super wrinkly. Amateur bedspread shopping mistake for sure. The dresser below looks lighter but it's just the flash from the camera! It actually matches the set.

But soon all of our other projects will be put on hold while we undertake a 40 week long project...

We are both very excited! I'm very excited for the first 12 weeks of this project to be over so I can stop feeling nauseated all the time! I'm due on November 29th. We are hoping for a boy but will take whatever healthy baby comes our way. But I just got told tonight by my Uncle Roger (after he looked at my eyeballs) that I'm having a girl. The odds are that he is 90% accurate (so he says). I guess we will have to see. The name game has already started and for a girl I like: Marie, Caitlyn, Samantha. For a boy, I've always really liked the name Owen. We can't wait to find out what we are having!

Easter Festivities!

Chad and I had a lot of fun this Sunday for easter. We made our very first honey baked ham, my mom made a really good spinach salad, and Kelli made angel food cake! It was a very last minute planning so only some of my family could make it. Chad's cousin Amy was actually able to come too! As you can see from the picture below, I forced Chad into dyeing some eggs. They didn't turn out that pretty but we had a good time and that's all that matters!

Finally good enough weather to be outside without a jacket!

The boys had a good time playing soccer around the backyard!

Mom and Hailee chatting it up!

Joel getting in on the fun with Josh and Jayden!

And last but not least the two blondes take a picture together! Who's cuter? J/k. I know it's Hailee!!!

Hope everyone had a good Easter! Getting together with family always makes me feel very blest to have them around.

Latest Craft

For my latest craft this last month, my craft club did these cute luck blocks for St. Patrick's Day. I was sick the night they did it so I went over to my friend Melissa's house this week so she could help me make them. First, we cut the letters out with a bandsaw....sike! They were already cut out. So first, we hand sanded the letters, painted them, used an electric sander to sand the edges, covered them with wood stain, and lastly sprinkled the 'U', 'K' and shamrocks with glitter. Oh and I glued the shamrocks on the 'L'. It actually took a few hours to do these but well worth the effort.

P.S. Happy St. Patrick's Day on March 17th drink lots of green beer....I mean green milk!

And now...I must VENT!

Hospital Etiquette

1. Just because you are paying enough money each night to be at some swanky resort does not mean you can treat me like your hotel concierge. We don't have a scheduled release time of 11am. I'm sorry. It sometimes takes a few hours for you to leave but we are trying to get you out as fast as we can so we can get another one, just like you, in an hour or so.
   


2. I know they told you you're surgery will be at 8am. Guess what? Many things can cause you to be late. Your doctor could be late, the OR team could be unprepared or (the biggest one of all) there is an emergency surgery that is in need of more help than you. Crazy. For sure. There is someone else in this lonely little world that needs a life saving surgery quicker than your stable broken bone. Who would have thought?
   


3. No I don't know when your doctor will be in. They are busy. They have days that they are in surgery or in clinic at there office. A.K.A. You are not their only patient. I can tell you that they will see you sometime today and that is all I know. I'm not their scheduler.
   


4. Please don't leave your food tray outside your door on the floor. Again, this is not a hotel. You have know idea how annoying it is to see someone do that. Thank you for letting me pick up your tray off the dirty carpet and strain my already strained lower back while doing so. Hit your call light and someone will be more than happy to come get it.
   


5. Speaking of call lights. Just because you hit it and someone answers doesn't mean that I will drop the pain meds I'm giving to your neighbor, stop doing the open abdominal dressing change on your other neighbor, let the old lady across from you fall that I was helping to the bathroom, to run to your room so you can ask me when your doctor is coming in. Give me at least 15-20 minutes to get to you before you start going crazy on the call light. Most of the time I'm in there in 5 minutes. SO chill out!
   


6. When you ask me if there are any 20 year old blondes around that will come lay in bed with you I will tell you 'We don't do that here.' And then precede to tell all the other nurses what a dirty old man you are and that males should only be assigned to you. No joke. A patient has said that to me.
   


7. If you tell me that your pain is 10 out of 10 then fall asleep before I can even step one foot out of the room I will have a hard time believing you are in the worst pain of your life. I'm not sure people know how often I've heard these same lines. Believe me, I'm onto you. And don't get mad at your nurse if he/she looks a little sceptical when you really are in pain. He/she has been trained to be so sceptical by your neighbor who is just looking to score. We definitely try not to judge but occasionally it can happen.
   


8. Which brings me to my next point. Nurses, doctors, pharmacists, therapists, aides, are not perfect! I know, shocker. Most of us do the best we can and still miss things sometimes. I don't like it either. I wish I was perfect then I wouldn't feel the gut wrenching feeling you get when you've messed up. Big or small. Any good RN will tell you they have screwed up and feel like they just got punched in the stomach.

Now don't get me wrong. I'm not writing this post because I hate my job. Okay. That's a lie. Occasionally I hate my job. But seriously, it surprises me on a daily basis how high people's expectations can be. I run my butt off trying to be a good RN and there is always that patient that doesn't think that's enough. Doesn't think anything is enough. In fact, there are too many patients like that. So next time you go to the hospital, I want you to remember this post. Remember that first, you are not my only patient (day shift 4-5, night shift 5-6), second, most health care workers are doing the best they can*, and third we actually do care about you and your ailments despite your stupidity for driving drunk and slamming into a tree on the way to your girlfriends house at 2 am.

*Disclaimer* Some health care workers are crappy. And by crappy I mean, they only care about doing there 8-12 hours and getting the heck out of there. Should you make sure the care you are getting is making you better? Yes. Should you go to the point where you are judging and being rude to your workers because they are trying to do their job? No.

**Disclaimer** These are things I could/would never tell my patients. I try to treat every patient with respect. I'm just giving some friendly advice. Take it or leave it. I wanted a good chuckle and to vent. A little:)