TGIF

Well, today I worked the "early shift" (7am-3pm) so that I could get out early and work with my daughter's Girl Scout troop. Today we made cookies and decorated them for when we go caroling at the nursing home next week. I hope the cookies keep for a week! Well, I get there late (which was planned) because school gets out at 2:15 and by the time I get there, all of the girls were good and "sugar'd up"! They were soooooo hyper!!!! I helped the other moms get them back to down to a somewhat quieter level, but holy cow! It was so crazy, I forgot to take pictures! I am so mad! I brought my camera and everything! Oh, well.
Tomorrow morning I'm going to this place called The Children's Orchard here in Richmond and they are having a "fill-a-bag" event. For only $5, you fill the bag with as many clothes as possible. Luckily, I am only shopping for my little guy, so I can REALLY cram those clothes in there!
So far, I've gotten some really great deals there. I kind of knew I was having a boy before we officially found out because his heartbeat was low. I know it's an old wives tale, but I took a chance and it worked out! Here are a couple of my favorites. Mind you, I didn't pay more than $4.00 for anything!
This was $2.00 - "Little Bear"! I can't wait to see him in it!

This is from The Children's Place. This was my big $4.00 "splurge"! I hope he doesn't look to "girly" in it. It's light green with peas on it! 5 Pieces all together, including a bib! Not a bad deal if I do say so myself :)

This is my collection of clothes for him up to today. I will definitely be growing tomorrow!

Who to vote for??

So, did anyone watch the Republican debate last night? It was really good! Very eye opening, that's for sure! I went into watching the debate a Guiliani fan, yet, somehow when the debate was over, came out a Huckabee fan. So, I have no idea who I'm voting for, now! I still have quite sometime to think about it, but I really like Huckabee!
Anyhow, on a separate note, since we are not telling anyone what we are naming our son, it's driving Alex nuts. She absolutely can NOT keep a secret (i.e. telling Rebecca I was pregnant when I was only like 9 or 10 weeks along), so we can't tell her, either. So, she's been bugging me and bugging me about it. Finally, last night she pulled the "If you don't tell me, then you don't love me" card. So, thinking quickly, I told her we were naming him Carl, after my grandfather on my mothers side (totally not true, but it keeps her quiet). She was like "CARL????!!....Like the nerd on Jimmy Neutron????!!!" I just said yes, it is a family name and that's the name we like. So, obviously not thinking about my consequences, Alex goes to school and tells her teacher, friends...etc. that her little baby brother is going to be named Carl. Carl Rivera. Yea...that "flows".
So, tomorrow I am doing a Girl Scout project with her and the troop again and all the moms will be there and I know they are going to be all fake and like "Carl....that's a um....nice name". This should be interesting! I'll keep you posted on how that goes!
Aside from Christmas coming up, I have to plan Alex's birthday. She wanted to go to Great Wolf Lodge and I was all on board until I found out they charge a mere $400 per night! I could buy this child a Playstation 3 PLUS games for that amount! So, looks like we are doing an old school birthday party at the house. Ugh....holidays are extra stressful for me because of her birthday, too! Oh, well :)
I'll keep you all posted on the fun adventures of my life!

My son just loves me!

Well, I've got GREAT news! Thank you so much for your prayers! God is so good!
We just got home from the High Risk Dr.'s office and my baby boy has no other signs that would even remotely indicate Edwards Syndrome (Trisomy 18). His little cyst was so tiny, it took the U/S tech AND the doctor 45 minutes just to find it! He said he sees this all the time and in his many years of practice, he has NEVER come across a case where a cyst like this has not resolved on it's own before birth. My regular doctor told me the same thing, so I'm feeling really good right now :) It was so funny, during the U/S, the doctor started laughing and pointed out that my baby boy was "playing" with his "boy parts"! It was great!
Here is my son telling me he loves me! The first one is his profile and the second one is of him signing to me!


Eddie and I felt so great afterwards, we started our registry at Babies R Us. Thinking that it wouldn't take us very long, we only had an hour, but had to leave to go get Alex from daycare, so our registry only has like 10 things on it! The bright side is, we picked out the crib set and accessories (which is what I was stressing the most about). I love pirates (which was my original theme), but the only pirate crib set I could find was too busy and just wouldn't look right in his room. So, looks like we are going with sail boats! Here is what it looks like...


My next appointment is Dec. 19th, although no ultrasound will take place. The next Ultrasound is on January 8th, which is when they will hopefully confirm the cyst has gone away.

The Little Train That.........

Well, today I go to the High Risk dr. to see if there are any other indicators of Trisomy 18. As I was looking over his beautiful ultrasound pictures from Friday's appt., I noticed his hand was in the "I love you" position. You know ..... the pointer and middle finger down. I thought that was really sweet and everytime I look at it I cry. As soon as I set up my scanner, I'll scan it and post it. That same picture has also brought lots of stress to me. When the baby's hand is in that position, that could also be another indication of Trisomy 18. Gosh....just please pray for my little guy. I can't sleep, eat or concentrate on anything. I've never prayed so much in my life! My appt. today is at 2:30, so I'm trying to keep myself busy. I have off today, so I'll be cleaning up the house from this weekends Christmas decorating.
I found this old train set that I bought at a yard sale last year for $1. Eddie wanted to put it together. Now I know why it was $1. Most of the train is broken and some of the rail was missing. Eddie wanted to put it together anyways and he is REALLY proud of it. Isn't it a hoot?


For those of you who don't have kids, well, enjoy your Martha Stewart Christmas tree while you can! Ours is a little better this year than in years past. I tried to get away with all white lights this year, but Alex really wanted the liquid bubble lights on there! She also helped decorate! Not too bad, actaully.....


Also, for Thanksgiving, (actually, the day after Thanksgiving) we were in Lynchburg, so the ENTIRE family (had to take 2 cars) went up to LU to visit Jerry Falwell's gravesite. I don't think it's 100% done yet, but you can tell it will be beautiful when it's finished. He has done so much for little 'ole Lynchburg and for so many people across the world. One can only hope that we can all leave some sort of amazing mark on this world when we leave.


I'll keep you posted after the appt. If all goes well, we will be registering at stores afterwards. We were supposed to do that this morning, but we didn't want to register, then find out bad news. Keep the prayers coming......

Happy and Sad :(

First off...sorry I wasn't able to post earlier. A combination of really bad news and being rushed to pick up my uncle and drive to Lynchburg made it virtually impossible to post. My mom's dial up is horrible and I would have been on there hours compared to the few minutes it takes me here.
I'll start off with the good news....Eddie and I are having a BOY!!!! We are very excited! We have a name picked out, but aren't telling anyone until after he is born :)
Ok...the bad news...After being in the doctors office an hour longer than expected on Wednesday, the doctor came in to tell us that our baby boy has a Choroid Plexus Cyst on his brain. Basically, this is an indication of a disease called Trisomy 18. This disease is "not compatable with life" (That was the exact usage of words from the doctor)..basically, if our son has this disease, he will not survive outside of the womb. We are having a more detailed, specialized ultrasound on Monday that will look for other indicators. They say this cyst is present in 1-2% of all pregnancies and usually will dissolve and go away on it's own. There's nothing we can do but wait and pray at this point.
I have never been more scared in my life and at a time like this, I should be happy and celebrating, but I just can't seem to bring myself to do that :(

The anxiety is killing me!!!

So, I get to work at 7am today, knowing that I have to leave at 2:45 in order to make my Dr. appt. So, the rest of the crew comes in around 8:30. The boss just ran around to everyone's offices and told us he is closing the office at 2pm today. So, I got to work early for nothing. Oh well.
Only 2 hours and 15 minutes left until I find out. Ugh.....crazy. I just ate some chicken and mac-n-cheese and this little baby is going crazy. He/she either really loves it or really hates it!
I will have a few minutes to post from my own house before we leave Richmond. So I won't have to fight with my mom's dial-up computer! Yay!
Well, more to come :) .........................................

Oh, boy...or girl?!

So, today is the last day (hopefully) of guessing what is in my belly. I am so excited to find out tomorrow! That's pretty much the only exciting news I have today, really.
My mother-in-law was rushed to the ER for a condition called Trigeminal Neuralgia. It's very painful, but not life-threatening, thank God. Eddie and I were just kind of waiting by the phone last night to see what was wrong, so we are somewhat relieved. No one ever wants to wait by the phone to hear news of why their parent is hospitalized.
On a different note, we were supposed to have a sales meeting today. I have been dreading this meeting for at least 2 weeks. Last night I just prayed and prayed that my boss wouldn't point fingers and try to publicly humiliate me and loe and behold, the meeting was cancelled last minute :)
Tomorrow will be busy, but I will try to get on here to let everyone know what went on at the appt. My mom's computer is dial-up (old-school, I know) and super slow, but I'll do what I can with it!
If for some reason I can't log on, everyone have a great Thanksgiving and remember the true meaning of Thanksgiving...no wait...that's Christmas. Gorge yourself!

Hurry Up Wednesday!!!!!

It's been about a week since I have been able to blog! I've been crazy busy!
St. Louis was "OK" at best. There was a huge metal arch...."Gateway to the West"...woohoo. I took a picture from my hotel room for you....


As soon as I got back it was catch-up time at work and next thing you know....here it is...Saturday! I want Wednesday to get here sooooo bad! Not only is it the last day of work before Thanksgiving, but it is when we find out if we are having a boy or girl - Providing the baby cooperates :)
If we find out, we will register on the Monday after Thanksgiving. It's pretty much the only day I can do it! I am not even going to try to register on a weekend or weeknight during the holidays!
Also, I have this killer recipe for the best, spicy fall cookies you will ever have. Seriously, if loving these cookies are wrong, I DON'T WANNA BE RIGHT! Aside from my sweet skills of capturing these little morsels on my camera, I have posted the recipe for them. If you have any spare time at all and you want a little bit of heaven here on earth.....trust me....try them!!!!

CHOCOLATE-GINGERBREAD HUGS


3 squares (1 oz. each) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate (I used semisweet)
2 Tbsp unsalted stick butter
1 box/bag mixture of Betty Crocker gingerbread cookie mix
1 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup hot water
30 Hershey's Hugs, unwrapped

1. Heat oven 375 degrees. Melt chocolate and butter in microwave (usually about 2 mins.) Stir until blended and smooth.
2. Stir gingerbread mix, chocolate mixture, flour and hot water in large bowl with a rubber spatula until blended.
3. Put sugar in a small bowl. With floured hands, shape dough into small balls (about 1 inch), roll in sugar and place on cookie sheet.
4. Bake 10 minutes (until tops crack slighly but are still soft to the touch.
5. Place baking sheet on a wire rack. Immediately press a Hug in center of each cookie. Transfer cookies from baking sheet to rack to cool completely.

ENJOY!

Craziness!

Wow! I can't believe I got through this weekend AND survived! First of all, the reason why my blog is so easy to read a senior citizen could read it from a mile away, is because my pictures kept getting cut off. This is the only template I could find where it didn't cutt off my pictures! I'll change it back to normal sometime next week or so.
Anyhow, on with my weekend. It started Friday with Girl Scouts. We volunteered at a local organization called Sargeant Santa. This organization does no advertizing at all whatsoever, but is driven by word-of-mouth and donations alone. Santa is a retired Sargeant and he collects donations and dresses up as Santa and delivers them to local families on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The "workshop" is not in the best part of town and believe me, all the girls were talking about it! It made me wonder......I think my daughter is just a little too comfortable with her life. By this I mean that I don't think she truly appreciates what she has. There are soooo many local families that are so poor, that they would be so thankful for just a used, rusty old bike for Christmas. What does my daughter want? An iPod. Of course she is not getting it, but it's these kind of situations that really make me think - What can I do as a parent to make sure that she is aware of families like this and try to educate her on how to help them? I think the Sargeant Santa was a start, but I feel like, as Christians especially, that we should be doing more. Anyhow, that's my random thought for the day. Here are a few pictures from the Sgt. Santa Girl Scouts trip.

they stuffed baggies full of girl scout cookies for the poor-


Here they are with Sgt. Santa-

Then, it was off to the race on Saturday. I would have loved to have done the 8k, but my doctor suggested against it. I did the 10k in April with my dad and it was awesome!
Alex ran with her running club from school. They had special lime green shirts on so they were easy to spot! Here they are getting a prep talk from Miss Tracey before the race!

I am one proud momma! My little girl made the Richmond Times Dispatch! Question is....can YOU find her??

Here's Alex at the start of the race....it was like 35 degrees outside!

After the race was over, Alex got a little r&r and after she received her medal, a street vendor selling flowers gave her a carnation, then a clown painted her face. We all had such a great time!

Tomorrow I'm off to St. Louis, Missouri. I'll be back LATE Wednesday night, so I'll try to blog while I'm there!

Busy, Busy, Busy!!!

This weekend is going to be crazy!
Today at 3pm, I am working with Alexandra and her Girl Scout troop as we go to Sergeant Santa's workshop and volunteer to put goodie bags together for them. I never did Girl Scouts as a kid, because well...honestly...if you did Girl Scouts, then you were a nerd. So, of course, I didn't do it! I am so sorry I missed out that opportunity because Alex has just learned so much from it! The troop always volunteers at places, goes camping and learns how to do things that I would not even think to teach her! Like, starting a fire, the proper way to ride a horse....etc.
My daughter has such a big heart. She loves helping people! For instance, last weekend was my Uncle Fred's birthday. My family took him shopping at the mall for new clothes. My daughter always feels like she has to take care of him and hold his hand and things like that. My uncle was in a car accident around 40 years ago and he lost the use of his right arm and he is not able to walk normal or talk normal. He is "all there" and totally self sufficient, but just a little slower than other people. I posted a picture of him below with a GIANT bowl of watermelon balls).
Anyhow, I guess my point is, is that when I look back at myself in 4th grade, I never cared about people like that. Alex wants to volunteer at a nursing home down the street from our house. I really think she is going to be a nurse when she grows up! She is so into that stuff!


Also, tomorrow we get to wake up at the crack of dawn and watch Alex run the Richmond Times Dispatch Kids Marathon! I am excited to see her run, HOWEVER,
it's frickin' freezin' Mr. Bigglesworth!!!! We have to park blocks and blocks away and downtown Richmond is all downhill, so of course when the race is over, it's all uphill back to the car!
Of course, I'll be posting some pictures of my adventures this weekend. In the meantime, here is a picture of Alex at the race two years ago. Precious :)

Down with pantyhose!

I'm not really a fan of pantyhose or tights, but now that the cold weather is here, I really have no choice but to wear them. On church on Sunday, I thought I could get away with wearing my regular old tights. Well, on the way to church, I almost passed out, so I ripped my tights at the top (Hulk-style) and the whole time my daughter is just looking at me like I'm crazy. Eddie had already gotten to church early because he does the media stuff. So, here I am driving my car and multitasking the tights and driving. I'm so glad there was not a camera around, although-that would have been a pretty funny picture. So, today on my lunchbreak, I ran to Mimi Maternity and forked out the $10 for maternity tights.
By the way, I am soooooo glad tomorrow is Friday. There's just something about Fridays that I love! They go by so quick, I guess!
I find out what baby Rivera is in exactly 13 more days! I constantly go back and forth between boy/girl. I really don't prefer one over the other, but I try to imagine my family with a boy...then imagine it with another girl. It's really hard to grasp that my small family of 3 that has been going strong for 10 years now is going to be bigger! As Kramer would say "I'm freakin' out,Jerry!!"
Lately, I've been obsessed with this show on the Discovery Channel "Mysteries of the Bible". It's like I can't get enough!!! Do they sell a dvd set??!! I've seen episodes here and there in the past, but now, I'm just REALLY into it! I find myself challenging the scholars that are on that show! Eddie really likes it, too!
Another show that they have is "Pregnancy for Dummies". Yes, it's a show, not a book! Although, they do have the book, but I'm so not investing any money in it.
Since Eddie has never been through this before, I watch it with him and laugh. He asks questions like "Well, that doesn't happen to you....does that mean there is something wrong" and things like that. I laugh because there are so many weird old wives tales out there that people still believe in! The weirdest one they mentioned on the show was "If a pregnant woman sees something horrible or ugly, her baby will be ugly".....um.....yeeeeaaaahhh.
Every day Eddie talks into my bellybutton (like it's a microphone) and talks to the baby. It's pretty funny. Now Alex is doing it. When my parents try to do it, THAT'S where I draw the line!!!!!
Anyhow, gotta get, but I'll post more later!!!!

Finally some pictures!

Well, we finally found the dock to our digital camera, so I'm posting some long overdue pictures up here today. I'm feeling slighly under the weather today and I had some really bad indigestion last night (I know, TMI!!!) so I had NO sleep! I also have a parent/teacher conference at 3:30 today (not because Alex is in trouble, it's just that time of year again when all parents meet with the teachers). So, I'm taking it easy and staying home. The baby movement is getting stronger, which is really neat! I'm also very emotional! I am NOT an emotional person, but I found myself crying in my car the other day to an NSYNC song "God must have spent a little more time on you". Also, I was crying my eyes out last night on Desperate Housewives when Danielle had her baby. This is getting ridiculous!!!
ANYhow, this first picture is of my mother-in-law when we told her I was pregnant-hilarious! The other three are of Alex at Halloween. GOOD TIMES!




This one is of our skilled Hollywood make-up effects of a pencil going through Alex's hand! Ha!

Oh, baby!

Is it just me, or does that baby over there to the left look HUGE today??!!! I am feeling movement more frequently, so that is really comforting. I only have 19 days to go until I find out if it's a boy or a girl!!! I am so excited!!! Alex is going to come with us when we find out. She is really excited for "her baby" to get here as well :)
They have this whole organized pregnancy planner that your supposed to go by. It states that you should start working on the nursery at 28 weeks. Well, I'm in my 18th week right now and I can't even imagine starting to work on the nursery in 10 more weeks!
I'm going to St. Louis, MO November 12-15, then Thanksgiving, then Alex's birthday, Christmas, New Years, going to Seattle Jan 13-17...so...when exactly am I supposed to work on the nursery again? I hope all of these things keep me so busy that this pregnancy just flies by! I can't wait to meet this baby!
Eddie and I are taking Nov. 26th off to register at Babies R Us and Target. Of course, Alex will be coming with us as well. She's pretty much got everything picked out already!
It's so funny-not so much "ha ha funny"- but I digress...It's funny how different this pregancy is from my last one with Alex. When I was pregnant with her, I was abandoned by her father, shunned and looked down upon by several people in my community, talked about and I felt like I had to be ashamed by my pregnancy. I never had the opportunity to have a nursery and decorate it. It was just a very hard time for me personally and as I compare that pregnancy with this one, well, there is no comparison really. I have a wonderful husband who spoils me rotten and drives to the store at 11pm and buys me whatever I'm craving. I have a best friend in my daughter who I can talk to about anything and even if she doesn't understand, she pretends to. I have a house with a bedroom that will be the nursery for this baby. And I have a church that I love and truly feel a part of.
Oh, also, for your viewing pleasure, I have attached two pictures of my grand-nephews. I guess that what you call them. My niece Sara and my nephew Keith each have a baby. And the last one....well...I just thought it was funny. It was on Perez Hilton's website. Random. I know.
The first one is Sara and her baby, Schuyler on his first birthday. The one below that is Keith's baby, Caleb.