One Week of Progress...

Alrighty, so we've been asked (by several avid blog viewers, as well as some other family & friends) to post some pictures of our progress on the room. As of 7 days ago, the spackling on this first wall was still incomplete... Jason's dad came to the rescue and that night (after sanding) we began painting... I've taken shots of all 4 angles of the room, but I'll only post two corners because it gets a little redundant (being as it is a small room...). When we complete the whole room I'll do a post with a 4-corners "before" shot and a 4-corners "after" shot, since with furniture and such it won't look as repetitive. Alas, for your viewing pleasure.......... I introduce to you our weeks worth of progress:

The walls aren't as dark as they look in these pictures... it's actually a very bright room! (especially during the day... these pictures just happened to both be shot at night with bad lighting....). If you notice, in the last shot, Jason has started laying the flooring!!! WOO HOO! (Should be done by tomorrow!).

Notice the excersize ball in the bottom right corner? That's what momma Kris has been sitting on to paint drawers and dressers and stuff! It's soft on my bum and gives me a little mobility to roll around lol. I'm sure I've been pretty funny to watch.... but unfortunately, we haven't been taping me work! :)

I'll try to post another set after tomorrow's "session"..... We should have some furniture back in the room by then!!! I didn't take before shots of the furniture... but the furniture appeared in some pictures so I'll be sure to show you (as best I can) what I've done with the furniture!

Love you, Poppy!

Norman C. Stinger

12.24.30 - 7.22.09

Some of you may know my grandfather just passed away this past week. He had been battling Parkinson's Disease for about a decade but it got really bad over the past few years. About a month ago, some tests came back that said he had cancer and it was basically everywhere so he didn't have much time. He passed early in the morning on July 22nd... so it's been a pretty rough week (and busy... preparing the service and everything).

He was quite the "free spirit".... and he always said he wanted us to have a big party when he passed. So... after the viewing and funeral and everything, that's exactly what we did. We went to the 25 club in Maple Shade, where he was a member for a LONG time! We've had tons of family parties, anniversaries, weddings, holiday parties, etc at this place so it feels a little like home for us.

We had tons of food and had the slideshow Jason & I made playing for most of the event, but my uncles (Kurt on the red keyboard, Mark on the microphone) sang a few songs and played some of my poppy's favorites; all dedicated to him, of course. It was really cool.

My cousins are goofy...
My mom & her siblings got to see some of their cousins from out-of-state... which was really nice.
I am the first grand-baby on my mom's side of the family... and following me was alllll girls! He didn't have any grandsons! So, you can imagine how thrilled he was to learn that he was having a great-grandson!!! Every time we saw him, he kept telling Jason "good job... I'm finally going to have a grandson!"
Sucks that he didn't get to meet him, but... I think I might call him peanut every once in a while since that was my poppy's nickname for me!

Love you Pop!

The Last Shower (I promise)!

So, as most of you know, my bridal shower was ENORMOUS! There were something like 88 women there and it was awesome but I felt like I didn't have time to do anything but open gifts and I felt like such a spoiled brat! lol. So, imagining myself 8 or 9 months pregnant in the middle of the summer, I requested that if any showers were going to be thrown, could we do a few small ones instead of another huge one? Well, I really liked having the time to hang out with people at each shower this time! But I STILL feel like such a spoiled brat! At least now, I know these gifts really aren't for me! They're for the baby... but it's still overwhelming to be "showered" with so much love!

Candace & Steph planned this shower... and they got a bunch of help from awesome friends like the Minter clan (which still includes you, Shannon...) and Bernie and Alicia and Beck and I'm sure many other people I'm forgetting. Thank you everyone!

Steph drew this sign behind me in this picture! So cute! Look at all the monkey paraphrenalia surrounding me in this picture! I sure hope this kid doesn't grow to HATE monkeys!

Christin was my very special helper all day! She brought me gifts, took away trash and made sure I didn't miss any extremely important photo ops! :) She kept me on track!

Shannon made this AWESOME cake! I really really really didn't want to cut it, but I think everyone appreciated that I finally made myself, because even better than the decoration was the taste! WOW! Everyone was raving about it!

This is me "trying on" the baby's clothes at Nana minter's request... (corrected by Shannon to hold the onesie upside-down because that's most likely how he's positioned). I think they'll fit...
Just a shot with me & bester...
Here's the typical Messiah friends picture.... Amy wins the prize for traveling the farthest distance to attend! She came from a REAL jungle to the jungle themed party... and back to Africa she goes!What a pathetic "camp friends" picture..... WHERE THE HECK IS EVERYONE!!! lol.And one with my high-school girls! Jenna, Mandy, Rachel, & Kristen... can you tell we were all at the beach together the day before the shower? lol.
And Leeshie-poo....
And the baby kicking Alicia.... this was totally her idea............ :)
And while we have our bellies out, might as well compare to Aunt Candace..... who is not expecting.... so this makes no sense but it doesn't have to because it's Candace! I'm re-thinking this shot now that I see how stinkin skinny she is and how HUGE she makes me look! lol. I'm like 3 times her width!!!
And what would a baby shower be without a disgusting poopy-diaper game!

SPECIAL THANKS TO EVERYONE! Karson can't WAIT to see his new room decorated with all the fun things everyone bought and I don't know if he'll even be able to WEAR all the clothes he's been given!!! Again, Jason and I feel so spoiled and blessed! Thanks to everyone who worked so hard to bring it all together!

Week 37

The baby is officially considered "full-term" this week! Of course, that doesn't mean he's finished growing — in fact, he's still packing on about a half pound a week (at this age, the average fetus weighs about 6.5 pounds). Right now, he is busy rehearsing for his big debut, inhaling and exhaling amniotic fluid (to get the lungs ready for that first breath), sucking his thumb (to prepare for that first suckle of milk), blinking, and turning from side to side, which Aunt Kacy got to feel the other night!

There's not much else to report this week... as he's pretty much just packing on the pounds over the next few weeks. One thing I just read was that mother's carrying boys tend to eat more than mother's carrying girls.... and since I really haven't been eating much more than normal (even less, actually since there's no room in my belly!) Jason and I just started cracking up thinking about how ridiculous it would be if the anatomy ultrasound was wrong and he's actually a she........ oh well, she'd be dressed like a boy for about a year or so! lol. Let's just hope that's not the case!

Straub Family Shower!!!

Okay, so Jason's sisters threw us a baby shower for his side of the family/family friends... and the amount of detail that went into these decorations is unbelievable! First, you have to check this out... They bought six blow-up monkies (monkey theme...) and realized that there would be six grandchildren once Karson is born so they got this AMAZING idea to put diapers on the monkeys and name them! First, we have the eldest grandchild/cousin, Kylie... she'll be 4 in October.
Next, we have Cameron, who just turned 2 in March.
And Savannah... who is about a year and a half old...And Emily, right behind her... also about a year and a half old!
Next, we have our newest addition, Peyton... born May 3rd, 2009... (notice the nook in his mouth to signify his infant-hood... :)
And finally, (also with a nook) is Karson, hanging from a lighted palm tree right over where I sat to open my presents! lol. So cute, right?

Laura made this amazing diaper cake... I still haven't taken it apart.... I can't bring myself to just yet...

and they made a ton of these chocolates as the party favors! It must have taken them FOREVER! Some of them have 6 different colors of chocolate.... which is just SO tedious! I can't believe they did this!And here is the beautiful cake!They also made banana pudding, monkey bread (note the theme), and tons of other desserts in true Straub fashion!

Jason's cousin's made us this pizza!

Inside the box are clothes in ths shape of a pizza! SO CUTE!!!! What a creative idea, right? I loved this!Kylie was such a great little helper!

I don't know if you can see Kylie's shirt, but all the girls were walking decorations as well, decked out in monkey outfits! ADORABLE!

It was a really great shower!
I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE BABY TO COME so he can appreciate all the beautiful gifts he's been given! (and I mean that in the actual shower gifts, but also the gift of what an awesome family he's being born into! Thanks everyone! :)

Week 36

It's a good thing this baby's almost done cooking, cuz my body is feeling pretty "done" by now. I keep saying "I'm finally starting to understand why women are considered disabled around this time... I'm really starting to feel disabled!" In the morning, I literally feel like I can't walk for a while. I feel like my limbs may start falling off behind me as I go. And depending on the distance or really just randomness, I've been starting to do the full-term pregnancy waddle, which is apparently the result of hormone-triggered loosening and softening of my connective tissue. I really just do it because it hurts not to sometimes. Unfortunately, those loose joints can lead to some pretty serious hip and pelvic pain. They say the baby could be about 6 pounds by now, but I'm wondering. I think our little one may be a little one. :)

One exciting thing is that most of the baby's systems (from circulatory to musculoskeletal) are ready for prime time, though his digestion system — which has done only practice runs so far — will kick into gear as he takes his first shot at a meal through the mouth!

Everyone seems to have gotten the memo to start telling me (this week) all about everyone they know who ever gave birth 5 weeks, 4 weeks, 3 weeks early..... I think just to freak me out maybe! I dunno. lol. but it's working! I can't imagine going that early for my first baby! Ahh!

I went to Ikea with Renee this week. She was about ready to burst but she was so cute! She's officially 2 days late as of today!

Last night, Jason and I went on a tour of the maternity ward at Underwood Memorial Hospital! Parts of the tour made me really nervous/scared... (because I'm sort of a wimp) but a lot of the tour made me really excited too! I just kept feeling a weird sense of eeriness about what our future held in that very hallway or room... It was a very surreal feeling to think "In about 4 weeks or so, we'll be in here doing this for real...I wonder what that will be like...." It's strange when you're in a place where you know you'll soon be experiencing something completely life-changing!

Today, Jason and I are celebrating our 36 monthiversary since we officially began dating!

Oh yeah, this is a fun story too... last night, Jason was singing to the baby as he does many nights. Once he was done he hummed the tune "pigs in the barn yard, pee yew......" (you know the tune?).... Except he hummed the equivalent of "pigs in the barn yard, pee......." and paused... and the baby kicked or punched or something very abruptly right near his face as if to finish the line "...yew". We were cracking up because this is now the THIRD time the baby has done this... bringing the song back to the tonic when Jason leaves him hanging, so to speak! Jason is convinced he's beginning the journey of raising a musical prodigy! I, however, am convinced that this baby has inherited my intense fear of performance (which I've grown out of quite a bit since childhood)... but, I swear that every time I want to let someone feel him kicking or want to let someone watch him squirming and moving all around, he stops. I don't know if he gets distracted by my changes in breathing as I'm concentrating on watching him or what but I swear that it's just that he isn't a performer! I guess we'll see. Tonight was the first time I was able to have my mom and Kacy actually catch a good session of squirming and wiggling as I sat my cell phone on my belly and told them all to be quiet and "NOT TO LOOK AT ME".... and once they "weren't looking".... they got to catch quite a show of cell phone surfing and shaking! FINALLY!

Anyway, musical prodigy? Consummate performer? I guess time will only tell!


*** NOTE: for some reason I find it easier to see what's going on when you can't hear Jason narrating... so if it helps to mute it, try that! We caught him at the end of a really active spell but he was starting to calm down when we were taping this.

bum genius!

So after talking with many a friend and researching quite a few brands & sites, Jason and I finally decided to make the commitment to cloth diapering (at least for when we're at home, anyway) and we decided to go with bumgenius! Their design is SO cool and they've gotten GREAT reviews online but also from some friends of ours who have used them!

One of the coolest things about them is that they fit babies from 7 lbs to 35 lbs (or from newborn to potty-training) just with a few snaps to change the size!

Below is a little bit of a clearer picture... and it's in one of the colors we ordered several of. I got so excited when they came in the mail! They seem like they're going to be really easy to use and will work really well! Let's hope so!

We also got these colors too...

Week 35

A rapidly growing brain makes the baby's head weigh more and that means more pressure on Mommy's bladder! I never imagined I'd literally wake up in pain, having to pee so bad that I'm afraid I won't make the 10 foot trip to the bathroom after only two hours of sleep! It's unbelievable! But what's even more unbelievable is that Jason has started getting up just as many times per night to pee as I do! But we don't wake each other up and we're up at different times! It's TOTALLY sympathy pee! I feel bad because there's really no reason for BOTH of us to be that exhausted... but it is sorta sweet. lol.

The baby should be measuring in at about 20 inches this week, continuing his steady weight gain to about 5.5 pounds. While he won't get much longer now, he will continue to pack on the pounds — including large amounts of baby fat — right up 'til delivery day. Fetal brain development is moving along at a mind-boggling pace these days as well! Good thing Daddy has been reading some of those books to him at night! Hopefully he's switched to being head-down in preparation for delivery, which is hopefully why my bladder is feeling the squeeze, causing an occasional leakage when I sneeze (or cough or laugh) without much notice. :(

Mommy & Daddy celebrated their 2 yr anniversary this week! We had SUCH a great time together on Tuesday (7/7/09)... we spent the whole day at the beach with each other, went back to the campground to get showers and were planning on finishing out the night on the boardwalk but it started storming! So, we changed plans, went home and caught dinner & a movie! We saw The Proposal with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. It was a great movie! We had such a great day together! We probably won't celebrate another anniversary without thinking incessantly about our kids for quite a while... :)

Week 34

So, apparently a change in eyesight is another fun pregnancy symptom (but thankfully one that I haven't experienced!) Not only can your vision seem less sharp, but a decrease in tear production can leave your eyes dry and irritated... which is certainly happening! The baby should be clocking in at five pounds and could be as tall as 20 inches by now! Holy moly! This week, a boy's testicles should start making their way down from his abdomen to their final destination: his scrotum. His tiny fingernails have probably reached the tips of his fingers by now also — and getting ready for that first postpartum manicure... which reminds me of a really funny story.

At Renee's baby shower, Justin's mom was telling me how he was like 2 weeks late and she could feel his fingernails scratching from the inside! When he was born, he had scratches all over his face! That's so sad but it is sort of funny! She said it was like the hottest summer in years so Christy and I were just cracking up picturing him dragging his nails down his face screaming "WHY!!!" about his being stuck in his mom 2 weeks late during the hottest summer in years! Ahh...

So, Jason thought it'd be fun to DRAG me up to Massachusetts for a wedding while I was good & fat... uncomfortable and insomnia-ridden!
(j/k... we were so looking forward to seeing Mandy & Vinny get hitched!) We had a really great trip with relatively NO traffic even though it was 4th of July weekend! It was a nice way to start celebrating our 2 yr anniversary!
The location where they were married and had the reception were beautiful and the weather, even though it looked really scary for a while there.....
really turned out to be a beautiful night!
These will have to suffice as my "34 weeks" pictures... I hope y'all aren't disappointed!!! I'm still waiting for this kid to freakin' DROP already! He's basically IN my bra.... especially when I'm sitting down I can feel him moving the underwire when he wriggles around! Crazy, right?