Harry Potter Harry Potter (said in a British accent really fast)

Don't you crazy heads worry, I'm not a spoiler.  I will tell you, in a careful way my feelings though. Yesterday, from 9:30am on Thursday until 2:30am on Friday, was waiting in line and talking and laughing and waiting and laughing and finally getting to see the FINAL installment of Harry Potter.

my feet did end up swelling a little bit but not too bad.  I'm not going to lie... being 20 weeks preggo and sitting on concrete or lobby floors wasn't the most comfortable of situations, but Harry Potter is worth it.

crowd photo taken by my hubs.

Ignore my looks.  Being in the heat from 9:30am until 5:30pm does NOTHING for my looks obviously, but I had to get some pics with Tiff and Dave.  I have ONE pic of Leez and my bro, and since I don't think Liz or Anthony would really like the picture being posted I will refrain, but they were there and I was very glad.  Tiffany took the above two pics btw, with her handy dandy iPhone. :)  THANKS TIFFANY!  I may have her guest blog someday.  She's awesome.

Like I said.  I am not a spoiler... and I will not give away any specific details of the movie... but just in case I do spoil something for you... you can skip over this paragraph.  To sum up my feelings about it: the parts I loved... I LOVED.  The parts I hated were really sucky.  So there.  I will tell you that Snape is my most favorite character of the books and for you amazing book readers out there... while movies shorten and take away... I adored seeing Chapter 32 & 33 come to life even in a condensed way.  I BAWLED like a baby.  LIKE A FREAKING BABY! ha.  Alan Rickman is amazing and he REALLY nails his role in this last installment.  That being said, I did NOT love this movie (EDIT: wanted to clarify that I didn't hate it either... email me if you want to know more).  It was fantastic and it was great and I don't expect movies to "get it right"... but as a reader of the books there are some things that I found pivotal to the WHOLE STORY, that either got messed up or left out... so go see it and make your own decision.

Harry Potter has been such a fantastic world for me to escape in.  I am so heartbroken that there are no more movies or books to look forward to.  When I bought the last book at Walmart, at 12am in the morning in 2007, I was excited and so very sad to know that my favorite story of all time was coming to a conclusion.  I took comfort in the fact that there were still a few movies to come out... I think at the time Order of the Phoenix was about to be released.  Now, with this last movie... it's the end of a wonderfully magical era.  I'm so glad that I can revisit the books as often as I like and that if I need a quick fix, there the movies are... but this is a very bitter sweet time for Harry Potter fans.

To all of you who may have not read the books, or who maybe won't read the books for religious reasons.  I have to tell you, you are missing out.  For the religious ones who are worried about the books being evil... these books are not evil.  These books contain amazing stories of love, strength, the bond of friendship, the triumph of good over evil.  These books are good to the core.  They show the importance of love and loving, persevering, and overcoming.  Good moral lessons, and a brilliant writer at her best.  Parents, at least read the first 3 or 4 books and... don't be afraid to let your children read these books.  To the people who have only watched the movies... READ THESE BOOKS.

To all my fellow Harry Potter fans. HIGH FIVE! and YAY for being a fan of one of the most AWESOME AMAZING FANTASTIC MAGICAL stories to ever be written.

Week 20 WOOOOOH We're Half Way Theeeeeere!

Ok.  If you didn't catch that my title is a song... it is.  I thought about, for a half second, posting the video of "Living on a Prayer" but I thought the wiser of it.  Google it if you must. ha.

I'm not going to keep you in suspense so that hopefully you will read the rest of the post and not just skip over to the gender reveal ha...  So here it is... Belly Pic and Gender Reveal...

Ignore the toothpaste and dirty mirror! ha ha ha.  Ooopse.  Sorry.

This is how my Dr. visit went... Got the ultrasound done.  My tech was awesome.  She allowed me to view in 4D and I was so excited.  I didn't even ask, she just flipped it over and it was so awesome.  She talked the whole time letting me know what she was checking for and what she was measuring.  An old trick is to drink orange juice if you want baby to move and kick, so I did JUST to insure that baby would be moving to get that money shot.  Well.  The ultrasound tech told me I am banned from the juices because baby was moving so fast that the computer could barely keep up ha ha ha.  So funny.  Baby is definitely a girl :)  Which I am happy about for 2 reasons... 1.  Because I want Brendan to at least be the only boy if he is going to have to be a middle child and 2. Because I didn't want to have to deal with the whole circumcision thing.  So.  AVERY CLAIRE is the name.  :)  According to the Ultrasound, baby is measuring 4 days behind my due date, but since it isn't a week, we are sticking with the December 1 due date.  I could have sworn that I was a little bit ahead of my due date, but nope.  Ultrasound measurements put baby at 19.2 weeks.  So.  Because of this, I will be updating my pregnancy posts on Thursdays instead of Tuesdays now.  That's that.  Here are some of the pics from the ultrasound.

Aaaaand I have a shot of the girl parts, but not sure if I should post my daughter's genitalia in sound wave form on the internets for the whole world to see, so just trust me.  It's a girl. ha.

I am back into my walking routine after having not been able to take my walks for a full week due to vacation.  Because of that and my very lax eating habits over the past week, I tipped the scales at 146.5!!! ha ha ha.  NOT GOOD.  So.  Getting back to being super careful with my eating and super diligent with my walks.  No crazy cravings, but my emotions have been crazy.  I have been having a lot of Round Ligament Pain, which I didn't really experience with my previous two pregnancies.  Baby has been moving.  Right now it feels like muscle twitches... Wait until later... it's creepy.  I will likely post videos of the insane way the belly looks when baby rolls around in there.  :)

All that being said, I have a FUN rest of the week coming up.  Going to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows pt 2 midnight showing.  :)  I am really excited about this... and sad... and emotional.  ha.

Hope you all have a Brilliantly Wicked rest of the week.

I Love Vacation... Just Sayin. [PHOTO HEAVY] + week 19

I had such a wonderful time in Texas.  I feel like that is a slight understatement.  I love my Aunts and Uncles so much and spending time with them, my sis, my cousins, and my grandma was just the escape and relaxation that I needed.  It began with an overnight stay in Harrison... I took my last "exercise" walk for what would be a weeks time.  I snapped a few shots with my iPhone and thought I would share them here since I liked them so much.

It's because of these types of pictures that I get upset when people make fun of Arkansas.  It's such a beautiful state.

Then we hit the road the next day to make our way alllllllll the way down south in Texas.  Once there the fun began and didn't stop... This will be a mix of Instagram pictures and SLR pictures...

I got my first yellow jacket sting... those things are viscious. In Missouri yellow jackets are smaller than bees and are little whimpy things, but nooooooo, everything has to be BIG in Texas! Their Yellow Jackets are the size of wasps and look like them too, only they have the yellow and black striped body. Dude that sting hurt. Leez helped me by getting my ice and baking soda. Let me tell you, baking soda is magic on a sting. Keep that in mind.

After we spent a couple days at the Lakehouse, Amanda and I, along with the kids, spent 5 more days at our Uncle Jeff and Aunt Liz's house. We had so much fun playing Apples to Apples and swimming... if you haven't played Apples to Apples, you must, it's a really fun game.

I also got introduced to Julio's chips and salsa... SOOOOOOO good... you can only get it at H.E.B.

I LOVE palm trees. For some reason, they make me happy...

I am so excited I got this picture. This is my cousin Courtney, isn't she beautiful? Next to her is my Grandma. She NEVER lets me snap her picture, but I got this one and was so happy. They both look beautiful.

And that is all for my vacation pictures.  I took so many more than this, but I didn't want to overwhelm you with tons of pictures...  I had an unbelievably good time.  I cannot WAIT to do this again next year.

Last!  I wanted to give you my pregnancy/belly update from Week 19.

I actually smiled, are you proud? ha.  I am feeling baby movements.  Nice and low on the belly.  Started really feeling the baby move during my 19th week.  I will have another belly pic for you on Wednesday, as well as the verdict of the ultrasound!  Yippee!  Can't believe it is already time for my ultrasound.

Thanks for hanging out to the end of this post.  Hope everyone has a brilliant week.

Week 18

This is just flying by isn't it?  Pregnancy is usually annoyingly slow! ha.  I feel like this is progressing at a nice pace though.

Week 18... let's see.  Heartburn is the dominant symptom.  That and a growing belly.  I have been wanting lemony things this past week.  I didn't realize it until today when I was looking up recipes for Lemon bars and Lemon cupcakes ha ha ha.  I didn't make them, but I am tempted.  I have the stuff to if I decide I can't stand it any longer. ha.

So here I am at 18 weeks.  Hello belly.

It's surely growing.  I'm just glad that it seems that my belly is the only thing growing :) I think I have gained a little bit in my legs, but not much thankfully.

Keeping my walks going everyday.  I actually look forward to them because they are a huge stress relief and help me to deal with a lot of the crazy hormones flying through my body right now.  My walk today was a tad traumatic.  I walked into a spider web with a HUGE spider on it.  I ended up having to walk home and have Dave check me over to make sure the spider was gone.  YUCKY!  I am not arachnophobic, but I don't like the buggers I tell you.

Cry It Out.

Those who know me well, know that I RARELY cry. It takes major emotional distress to induce tears out of me. Yet here I am... in hysterics... tears streaming down my face... for no good reason at all except that I am OBVIOUSLY hormonal. I feel trapped by my emotions right now. The normal for me, is to assess most situations with logic and common sense. Not the case as of late. The littlest thing that goes off plan is a huge deal. The littlest thing sets me off. It really sucks to know that there is something wrong with the way I am behaving, but feeling so trapped within myself that I can't do anything about it. I feel sorry for Dave because he doesn't know how to handle this Amy. He is probably wanting the less emotional Amy back. I want me back too, so I understand. This isn't for a pity party. I kinda just wanted to write this out to get it out, ya know? Since I am having a hard time thinking, I thought writing it all out would help. I am much calmer now and the tears have stopped so I think it did help. Sorry to be a downer. I get so envious of people who can take all situations in stride and have a generally happy take on everything in life.  Hopefully I'll be able to reign this in and end this day well.

All in a Weekend

How eventful was my weekend?  Well.  Not very to be honest.  Not in a bad way, but just a non-eventful way.  What did I do this weekend?  I walked.  Stocked up on as many maternity clothes as my limited budget would allow. Splurged on probably our most exciting event this summer... Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt 2 tickets MID NIGHT SHOW!  Watched fireworks shot off by the city of Ozark.  Hung out with Leez.  Hung out with Dave.  Met my mom in Branson to pick my son up, he spent the weekend with her.  Hung out with Tiffany. Oh, and MORE WALKING. ha.

One last thing I did this weekend was I watched a documentary called "The Business of Being Born" and I really liked it.  I started out with the attitude that I was going to hate it and disagree with everything, but I actually ended up thinking a lot of it actually made sense.  It has me really confirming some ideas and plans that I have in mind for this delivery.  I would blog more in depth about this, but I don't know if you all would be interested in a detailed blog post of my thoughts on this documentary... if you are interested then speak up... however, I do recommend that you all at least watch it.  The cool thing about documentaries is that you can watch them and still enjoy them even if you don't agree with them.  You may end up like me, thinking you won't agree, but find that you actually do.  It's on instant queue in Netflix if you do want to watch.

Week 17

Worry Worry Worry.  That seems to be the theme of week 16 moving into week 17.  I'm not showing much, my pelvic bone feels like it is going to break in two before the end of my 2nd trimester, every time I think I feel the baby move... I am greeted with a fart... nope, just gas (sorry people, it's the ugly truth, pregnancy isn't glamorous), and sometimes I wake up on my belly or back (for those who have been pregnant before, you know us pregnant ladies are supposed to sleep on our side, preferably the left side).  So all of this has me worried.  I feel like this is the first time I am doing this thing.  I might as well have no experience at all for how different this pregnancy is.  I can't compare it to my other two by any means.

Here I am... 17 weeks.  I feel like I should be showing more, but I was too self conscious during my other pregnancies to take pictures so I have nothing to compare it to.  I guess I'm on track...  I feel like I'm not growing at all...(excuse my lack of make up)

However, I remember not LOOKING pregnant until week 20 with both of my kiddos.  I never lucked into the showing early due to having been pregnant before.

My monthly check up was today and here is how it went...  Got to hear the heartbeat again which eased my worries a lot.  My Dr. wasn't concerned about anything so medically everything is normal.  I told him about my pelvic pain (basically THIS) and he told me to take it easy on my walking.  PSHA!  If I take it easy on my walking this little girl will turn to Fluffy Stay Puff Marshmallow Man status in no time.  I asked him if I keep walking my 2 miles a day will it cause damage or will it just cause me pain.  He said that it probably won't damage anything, but pretty much insinuated that he would be happier if I agreed to not over do it and not take wide strides.  So... I am going to keep doing my walks and try to take it easy.  Besides this pelvic pain is nothing compared to giving birth ha.  I can take it.  Add this pelvic thing to my floating rib that I developed while pregnant with Lindsey... PREGNANCY IS FUN! ha.

Almost forgot!!! Weight gain.  I weighed in last month at 138.8.  This month I weighed in at 140.8.  NOT BAD!  Starting at 135, that's not bad.  5.8 lbs in 4 months.  Hopefully I can keep this trend going.

July 13th is my ultrasound.  They will check for things like spinabifida and markers for downs... they will check to make sure all the vital organs are there and seemingly functioning.  AND... I get to find out what I am having.  The kids are wanting a girl... I am starting to show a bit and it is looking awfully low.  If the old wives tale of carrying low rings true then it's a boy.  I just want the baby to be healthy!  Only time will tell and 3 more weeks. WOO HOO!