New to this whole thing...

Some of you might think I'm talking about our pregnancy... yes, all that is new to me as well. But what I'm mostly referring to is blogging. I know most of my friends and family have been doing it for years [Emily :) ] but besides from reading an occasional Emily or Bacak entry, this is all brand spankin' new to me. So bare with me, I'll catch on quick as I go but if you have any helpful suggestions, I'm more than open to anything you might want to toss my way.

I entertained the thought of blogging when I first learned that Shawn and I are expecting our first child, but I haven't decided to do anything with it until now. I have however been keeping a written journal and come to think of it... this is practically the same thing, only I can share what I'm thinking and what's going on with our family and friends. Very cool.

So far my pregnancy is going quite well. I had a little sickness but nothing to complain about. The strangest changes in my body that I've noticed is that my body temperature is much warmer than usual. I get hot easily and I'm told this only gets worse. My feet constantly sweat and have developed a stink... I've never had stinky feet until now. I mentioned this to my mom and funny thing, she had a case of the prego stinky feet syndrome too... whoda thunk it?

I've been feeling the baby moving for about a few weeks. I really have to say, it is one of the coolest things in the world. Knowing that God made a little person and that it's growing inside me... wow! Most women I've talked to said it feels like a flutter or a twinkle.. but I'm not even sure what a flutter or a twinkle are and don't think I've ever felt anything that resembles either of those words, not being pregnant. So to the men and those ladies who have yet to have had the awesome experience of having a little one doing karate in your belly, to me it feels like a muscle twitch (a feeling I can relate to). Shawn felt it for the first time the other day. It's very random and right now, can hardly be felt on the outside... very awesome to say the least.

I'll be 22 weeks tomorrow.. 4 more months to go. For those of you wondering, we do not know the sex and we decided that it would be more exciting if we didn't find out. The only problem now is that I want to buy things, but find myself holding off since I don't know if we will have a boy or girl. Come to think of it, that's probably a good thing.

As most of you know, we have 4 dogs.
Tuff (pitt bull), Ruff (catahoula), Sandy (lab mix) and Jack (jack russell and fox terrier mix)
they are inside-outside pets and I constantly find myself picking up after them. Right now, I'm looking at itty bitty pieces of a cardboard box that Jack recently demolished. I vacuum frequently and do a pretty good job of keeping the house clean considering the 4-4 legged creatures and 1-2 legged husband who track in more dirt than it would take to fill the holes in our dirt driveway. So, on Friday and Saturday while most of you were relaxing, out to eat or enjoying a movie, I was cleaning our carpets with a rented carpet cleaner. It was much easier than I expected it would be but it took Friday night and most of Saturday to finish. The pups slept outside Friday and Saturday because I refused to let them in until they had all been thoroughly bathed. Before church on Sunday, Shawn helped me bath all 4 of them. I used to bath them in the bath tub but when the hair started clogging the drain, we started bathing them outside. They are all pretty good when it comes to bath time and this time, I had the brilliant idea of putting them in the back of the truck to wash them. Having them at standing level instead of having to bend over to scrub them made the whole experience so much easier on our knees and backs. This was only Jack's 3rd or 4th bath and he still kinda freaks out a little, but he's getting better each time. I also have the pleasure of telling you that for the most part, our dogs don't stink. They have never been stinky dogs and I am so grateful for that! However, recently, Sandy has been very stinky... I'm not sure really what to contribute the smell to, her fur, the grass or other things outside that I may be totally unaware of. Anyway, even after her bath on Sunday morning, she was still stinky. So, after work today, I hosed her down one more time, dumped a ton of baking soda on her, rubbed it in real good, let it sit for a little bit and said a prayer. 15 minutes later... walllah... it worked! No more stinky Sandy :) So, if you ever find yourself in a "I can't get the stink out-stinky dog" situation, look to your pantry for the ultimate solution (except instead of a mini box, you'll need one of those huge boxes that you find in the laundry section of your local shopping establishment).

Well, that's all for now. I'll try to figure out how to add photos so we can share the latest development of the baby bump.
More photos on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2779433&id=8331474&l=6590b47f9f
-Mary