Saturday Plans!

Saturday is going to be an exciting and eventful day. Andy and I are going to meet my dad and step-mom in Kansas City to spend some long-overdue time together. At which we will drop the news to them that they are going to be grandparents. I am an only child to them, so this will be a milestone moment for them (well, I hope so). I am not good at words sometimes, so I figured I would get them a gift that says it all. Below is a the picture frame I bought for them.

It says, "Grandparents Make Smiles Happen" I Hope they get the point!

I don't get to see my dad very much since he lives in Omaha, Nebraska. I know I should make a bigger effort to go up and see them more. Sometimes life just gets so busy and before you know it, it is six months later. I feel guilty all the time. I love my dad so much, and miss him everyday. We are so much alike that can be scary. He is so much fun to be around, because he knows no stranger. He can makes friends with a person sitting in a car next to him at a stop light, that is how much of a people person he is.

Always a Daddy's Girl!

HuHots!

Andy and I are very traditional when it comes to eating out for dinner. We like places like Applebees, Colton's, Ruby Tuesday's, etc. The ones that serve Steaks and Chicken Strips. This past January we went to Columbia for my brother's birthday. When we arrived we were all debating on where to eat (including Ryan's friends who were coming along). One of them made the mention of a place called HuHots. I had never heard of it before, but we all agreed. When we got there I was having severe doubts. It was a Mongolian Restaurant! Meaning no steaks, no chicken strips, no Cheeseburgers! WTF!

To our surprise, this is now me and Andy's new favorite restaurant!

When you go there for the first time, it is kind of overwhelming because you don't know what to do. We waited for our waitress to come around and give us directions before we took off to the food bar. You pretty well play follow the leader. You get a bowl and at the first stop you select your type of meat (steak, chicken, pork, crab), then you go on to the next station here you choose you choice of noodles (I have no clue the different types of noodles). The next station you pile on all different types of vegetables (you know what veggies are!). And the final selection is the types of sauces. There are probably 12 or more different sauces. You then pour (at least 5-6 ladles) or your sauce/sauces over your meet, noodles and veggies. The final step, hand it to the men at the grill and watch them prepare you dinner.

Andy and I are hitting up HuHots on our way home from Kansas City. I cannot wait! Did I mention that they have Crab Rangoon as an appetizer! Sweet!

What the Hail?

Yesterday, being the wonderful and productive little insurance lady I am, attended a seminar in Columbia, MO with my boss and another insurance agent. I always am comfortable with leaving my vehicle parked at the bank when I am going to be gone for a long period of time, because we have surveillance cameras that can catch any activity in the parking lot. So if some ignorant person decides to vandalize my vehicle, I just pull the video footage and justice is served. Well, what do you do when Mother Nature is to blame? Apparently while I was "Attentively paying attention" in my seminar, Mother Nature what pouring pea-sized hail all over Vienna. Including my Jeep! Everyone here had my best intentions in hand, when they were scrambling around trying to decide what to do with my Jeep because I had it locked and the keys were with me in Columbia. Kara was able to pull her new vehicle underneath our drive-thru in time to prevent any harm. When I returned back to Vienna, I inspected my Jeep for any damage. And from what I could tell there weren't any dents. It wasn't until I was driving home (and the rain started to run off my Jeep) that I began to see some dents. Damn Hail! While the dents aren't bad and hardly noticeable, it sucks because it is a new vehicle. Well I guess they can't stay new forever!

Above are some pictures they took from the Bank during the Hail Storm!

Stuffy!

For a girl who never gets sick (Knock on wood!) I have officially hit a brick wall. None of which is pregnancy related. I am so congested and stuffed up! My doctor gave me a general list of medicines that are safe to take during pregnancy for a wide range of symptoms and sicknesses. So for a cough and congestion I am limited to 3 items: Robitussin DM, cough drops and throat lozenges. Since I have been eating cough drops like it was candy, I headed to Dollar General and bought the Robitussin DM. We’ll see if that works. I have developed one of those deep raspy voices. I am beginning to sound like some of our heavy smoker customers that call in and hack up a lung through the phone. Lovely!

Last night Andy had me gargling warm salt water. Let me tell you, this was an interesting sight to see. I had tucked a kitchen towel in my shirt to act as a bib because every time the salt water got remotely close to the back of my throat, I would gag and spit it all out into the sink. Andy wasn’t much of a supportive coach. He was in the living room hollering at me from the couch (as he was watching The Hills…HeHe) He kept saying, “You’re doing it wrong,” “Just do it, and get it over with.” While they were annoying…they were also a good distraction. Because I began to think of ways I could drowned him with my 8 oz glass of salt water instead of my gag reflex. So thank you honey!

Weekend Re-Cap!

Friday Night: Guess what I did? I went to another fish fry! Which I was more than willing to attend knowing that it was the last Friday of Lent! Meaning the next of many Fridays I will be eating only foods that come in the form of beef, turkey and pork! The fish is going to be put on the back burner for awhile! All in all, we all have a great time when we get together. Us ladies have it figured out when it comes to fish fries. As soon as we are done eating, we all begin to play our famous card game, Nerts! This leaves the men having to do all of the dishes. Which only seams right since I can probably bet that none of the men attempt to do the dishes at their own houses!

Saturday: I took the initiative to go into work all day, since I need next Saturday off. Which worked out good because we were having our annual Kid’s Club Easter Egg Hunt at the bank. Due to the cold weather and flooded highways, we didn’t have as good of a turn out as we were expecting. That just leaves more cookies for me! After I went home, I became very productive and did a lot of cleaning. The cleaning that has needed done for the last month that I have procrastinated about because of my recent need for 18hrs of sleep everyday! That evening Andy and I watched the movie, Good Luck Chuck. Hmmm, this movie has kind of left me speechless. While it was good, there were some disturbing parts that I really didn’t need to see.

Sunday (Easter): We went to a very long Easter Mass in Argyle. I spent most of the mass talking myself out of getting sick from the overwhelming smell of the incense! That was a close call. We then headed to Andy’s grandparents for breakfast with the whole family. Biscuits & Gravy….Yummy! After stuffing our faces there, we headed to my grandparents house for lunch, which was good as well! We wasted the rest of the afternoon by watching college basketball and taking naps. All is all, it was a successful and fulfilling Easter!

Now it is Real!

It is official...I am carrying a beating heart! All of my nerves, worries, and anxiety were put to rest when I finally heard my baby's life beating inside of me. I don't believe anything can prepare you for that roaring, train-like sound. The feeling just took over me that....WOW, I am pregnant and there is a human being growing inside of me. The heart rate was 170 bpm. If I remember right, there are theories around the heart rate and the sex of the baby. I believe a fast heart rate = a girl! Only God Knows!

If you remember me saying, I was taking my camera so I could capture this moment for Andy. The night before, I placed my camera on my charging dock so I would be all ready to go. I did indeed remember to take my camera, but it wasn't until I was to ready to record the sound that my camera started blinking a bunch of messages at me. It was then that I realized, I did not put my memory card in my camera. And for those of you who have a digital camera, you know there is barely any internal memory. Because of what little memory my camera had, I only had 10 seconds to capture this for Andy. Luckily the nurse was able to find the heartbeat back in time for me to press record.

Below is the 10 seconds that have changed Andy and I for the rest of our lives!

Flood 2008

Doctor's Appointment

Tomorrow is my second doctor’s appointment. With this appointment I will actually get to meet with Dr. Lynn as opposed to just her personal nurse. And best of all….I will get to finally hear the heartbeat. I am actually pretty nervous about going. My biggest fear is that they can’t find a heartbeat. How depressing is that? I pray that my continuing symptoms of pregnancy such as nausea, ever increasing waist line and bra size are signs that everything is continuing as planned.

It is still hard for me to think that I am pregnant. Up until tomorrow the only visual confirmation I have got was the view of two pink lines on a pee absorbent stick. (Which they confirmed at the doctor's office) Since Andy doesn’t plan on attending this particular appointment, I am going to take my camera and do some video footage to record the sound of the heartbeat. I thought it would be sweet to have something to bring home for him to hear for himself.

I also hope to walk away tomorrow with a confirmation that I am only carrying one child. Not two, not three, or even four. Andy thinks multiples are “NEAT!” I know this is hard for them to detect by the heartbeat, but it is worth a shot. I would embrace all my children no matter how many came out at one time. But damn, I would hate to screw up more than one kid my first time around at being a parent!

Nursery Debate!

Who would think the largest debate Andy and I have had about the new baby is the theme for the nursery. Last I checked I didn’t think the men cared about anything related to decorating. Andy’s idea of the perfect nursery is everything camouflage! You have got to be kidding me! I am totally fine with my children wearing camo, using camo blankets and other baby camo accessories, but to completely theme a room around this is out of the question. What if we had a girl? She would be scarred for life.

I have been looking around for some nursery theme ideas. I want something that would work for either a girl or a boy. I don’t want to completely buy a whole new bedroom set should child number two turn out to be a different sex. There are so many options out there! While the look of pastels says “BABY,” I am more of a primary color person. I did stumble across a set called Alphabet Soup. I really like it a lot. The colors are bright and could totally work no matter what the sex of the baby was.

What do you think?

Audit or...AwDamn it!

Nothing like coming to work on a Monday morning and being audited! Yuck! Someone going through all of my files and making sure I have every “i” dotted and “t” crossed makes me anxious! I don’t know why I get so nervous when it comes to things like this. I am anal/a perfectionist) when it comes to my files. So I should know I have done everything correctly. I am just like that. Someone could be missing $10, and I know I did not take it, but I always have this feeling like they think I did it. I have a constant guilty conscious even though I know I am not guilty! What’s up with that?

Weekend Re-Cap!

Friday Night: We attended another Fish Fry. I don’t know about anyone else, but I cannot wait for Easter! I can go a couple days without eating meat and be fine, but when I am told I can’t eat meat on Friday’s….that is all I crave that day! We have attended these fish fries for the last few Fridays and I am nearing the verge of being tired of fish and Mac & cheese. But I can still go for a potato sandwich. Yum!

Saturday: After attended a half a day of work, I went to the local legion hall to prepare for my cousin’s wife’s baby shower. We had a really good turnout. There were plenty of snacks and cake for everyone. They got a lot of cute gifts. My favorite was the large wooden barn built by the grand-pa to be. You could open it up and place toy farm animals in it or up in the loft. It is one of those gifts that can be passed down for many generations.

After the shower, I got home just in time to leave to go bowling with the family. We always have such a good time when we all go do this. I think it is because no one takes it serious. You could get a gutter ball every frame and we would just laugh at you and go on. Andy and I can get pretty competitive between the two of us. I was thinking all of my practice I have got on our Wii would help, but I totally sucked on the first game. Andy only beat me by a few points. The second game was a different story! I kicked his ass up and down the lane! I beat him by 60 points; he wasn’t so cocky after that!

After bowling, all 30 of us headed to Jeff City to a restaurant called Oscars. I had never been there before. Damn it was good! I was waiting for us to get kicked out because a few people in our party (mainly my husband) were throwing stuff (straw wrappers, sweet N low packets, TOMATOES) at each other. I pray that one day his maturity with catch up with his age….before it rubs off on our children!

Sunday: I played house wife. I cleaned and did laundry. I watched out the window as Andy and his dad and brother worked around our house. I was particularly paying attention when they began to burn brush right next to the house. I could only see about 15 feet outside my front window from all the smoke. But they had it all under control, or at least it looked like it.

Let 'R Rip!

It is finally Friday! Yay! In advance honor of St. Patty’s day we got to wear a green shirt and jeans today for a $3.00 fee. All the proceeds go to the Relay for Life! Somehow it makes it easier coming to work when we can wear denim. But just twenty minutes after walking though the door, I knew this was not going to be a pleasant Friday! It was brought to my attention that I had a 5 inch rip/hole on the ass of my jeans. This is the second pair of jeans I have done this to in the last month or so. At least the last time I did it, I was at home. I may be pregnant, but I didn’t think the baby grew in your ass! So I had a decision to make…. Either

Number 1: Go all the way back home and change my jeans or
Number 2: Stay glued in my seat all day!

My decision… Number 3: Use the Schwartze motto “Anything can be fixed with Duct Tape!” That’s right, the only thing between my jeans and the view of my green St. Patty’s underwear is an 8 inch strip of duct tape!

How is your Friday going?

REBA!!!!

When you speak to anyone who knows me and ask them who is my favorite singer of all times....you will hear time and time again.....REBA MCENTIRE! I don't even know how or even when my love for her music began. And it is not just her music, it is her as a person. She just seems to be so normal and down to earth for someone in the spot light all the time.

On February 16th I got the privilege of seeing Reba in concert for the second time! The first time was as at the Missouri State Fair and I was 16 years old. And as soon as she came out on stage I began crying like a big 'ol baby! It just completely took over me. My face and hands went nub as tears poured down my face!

At this second concert, I held my composure and merely teared up. The concert itself was awesome! It was called 2 Worlds...2 Voices. It stared Reba (herself) and Kelly Clarkson. They put on such a good show! We had really good seats. We had a side-stage view. I would on occasion run down to the front row and take pictures....lots of pictures and video clips.

The opening act was excellent! It was Melissa Peterman! Do you know who she is? I didn't think so. Not many people know her by that name. Most people know her as Barbara Jean off of the Reba Show. That's right, she is a stand up comedian! Damn she is funny!

All in all, it was a great time had by all. I got to go with some of my great friends. It was worth every penny I spent for the tickets, gas, parking and souvenirs! I would go again tomorrow if I could!

Let's Try This Again!

I have every interest and desire to become a good and regular blogger. I have never felt like my life was interesting enough to have anything to talk about everyday or even once a week. About a year ago I started a blog....and that was it! I had placed two post on it and then forgot about it. So this is my second attempt at having a successful blog. I love getting onto my friends blogs and reading what is going on in their lives. So maybe their success will motivate me to keep up with my own.

Wish me Luck!