Half Way There...

So we've made it half way there.  Honestly, I thought the day would never come.  We've had so much going on lately that some days, my head spins.  Mid July we got our new office for the business.  Here are a few pictures before we moved in...

Store Front
This was a massage place...

 

Front Room (craft side) 

 

Front Room (computer side)

Hallway...
Left side door - Alex's Office

Right side front to back - Restroom, Storage, Kitchenette.

Alex's office

Back room

My craft space and future class area.

Many things fell into place, others, not so much.  Once again Heavenly Father was teaching us patience.  Over all things have come together.  We hoped (and budgeted) finding as much as we could used but had very little luck.

It took a whole day and a little frustration but I got Alex's desk put together.

While I worked on the desk, Alex worked on building/painting his workbench.  

The second day I spent putting the hutch together for the top of Alex's desk. 

Our front room was looking a little bare has we were having a hard time finding what we were looking for.  We finally found this little table and chairs that worked great for our front corner. 

We never were able to find a front desk that worked for us so we improvised and made our own and I have to say, it worked great.  This is half of one of our shelving units with board that we painted black and fixed to the front and sides. 

Please excuse the mess in the background, we were still moving in.

We created mini pallets using 1"x 2" wood to hang my jewelry on. 

A week ago we went in for our ultrasound.  Our child is a wiggle worm...I knew this.  What I didn't know was that it was going to take an hour and a half to get all the measurements and find out the gender...

WE'RE HAVING A GIRL

The ultrasound tech was hesitant to say it, in fact, at first all she said was "hmmm I don't see any little boy parts".  All this did was make me hold my breath.  Then she told us she was pretty sure we were having a girl but she was going to get a second opinion at the end.  In the mean time baby did everything she could to cover her face so they couldn't get a picture for us.  Finally she had me get up and move while she got the other technician. That lady was fast and she manage to get the above shot of her profile.  Then she went down and said "yep thats a girl".  I couldn't stop smiling, I'm sure I looked like the biggest idiot on the planet but I'm okay with that.  Alex was happy too, but he just shook his head at me and said "what have I done".  :~)

After we were done we went up to the birthing center where we were given a tour by a wonderful nurse (Praying she's my L&D nurse).  She gave us some information about what was and wasn't available, things to bring, things not to bring, and a little info on writing up our birth plan.  We'd written up our birth plan but now that we knew what we had as options we could finally edit it. 

FAMILY WEEKEND

On Thursday my parents headed up to see us and Luke was ecstatic.  It was nearly impossible to get him down for a nap but in the end his busy little body got the best of him and he passed out in bed.  It was perfect timing because they got here and got backed in before he woke up.  Each morning he got up he'd say "grama & papa come today".  We had to remind him that they were right out in the driveway in the trailer.  He usually tried to bolt out the door to go 'see dem'.  I have to say, it was cute. 

Friday we took my parents up to see the lighthouse.  Unfortunately Luke isn't quite tall enough to go up so we stayed down while they went up. 

You can't see them but they are up in the lens room now.

The next morning I had to go into work and Alex had to go out to the Run for the Light(house).  My parents were able to take Luke for a little while till I got off work.  Once I got off we went down by the marina to meet up with Alex and to take them through the museum before heading back home to finish up lunch. 

Alex's parents came up for a little while on Saturday and we got to take them up to the lighthouse and museum.  For the first time, I got to climb the light house and it was really neat. 

Looking down the 'floating' stairs.  These stairs are only attached to the wall at each platform to prevent any extra structural damage to the physical lighthouse. 

Where the old chains used to run up to.  This lighthouse used to work like a grandfather clock.  

The break room below the lens room.  You can see the base of the lens through the grate. 

The old fresnel lens.  It is no longer in operation but it is still beautiful. 

Looking down through the grates at the gears in the break room that use to turn the lens.

Our replacement for the fresnel lens.  It still flashes red/white at the same rate as the old fresnel lens (16 seconds) but its much smaller an is only on one side of the lighthouse.

Fact: All white light means to stay away as it was a dangerous area (i.e. rocks, ship wreck, etc), red and white means safe harbor.  Also you can see the light for 21 miles which is how far out it is before the curvature of the earth is too great to see.

The water used to be 300ft from the lighthouse.  When the jetty was put in for the Columbia River it caused the land north to grow and now the lighthouse is 3000ft from the water.  You can see the tree line in the picture below.  The trees are much shorter and have only grown there in the last 70 years. 

Below is the picture of the plaque stating that the lens for this lighthouse was made in France for Westport, WA. 

From the bottom looking up.

It was really neat to see it from the inside out. I love the history of our little town.  

Alex's family got us these cute outfits, a pack of diapers and a teething toy for our sweet little girl. 

 I have to admit, I'm still a bit giddy about the whole having a little girl thing.  

I'm not the only one though. :)  Oh and I do not remember Luke ever being this small...

It was nice having everyone up to visit and for the most part the weather was pretty good.  Right before my parents left on Sunday the sun came out and we were able to go out on the beach for a short while.  Tide was coming in but the boys were having fun playing in a hole someone else dug out.  Luke was itching to get int too but he'd easily been underwater once the waves got up high enough to really go in the hole.  

20 Weeks and Counting

   On Monday we went in for my 20 week doctors appointment.  I expected a little bit of a wait because we were about half an hour early.  When I checked in the lady at the front desk said that they'd had 5 to 7 no shows and doctor was running on time so they should be able to get me in a bit early.  I honestly wasn't going to complain...that was until two of these no shows rushed in a few minutes before my appointment was supposed to start and they still let them go ahead of me.  I was a little irritated because I really try not to be late, and if I am, I shouldn't hold those who were there on time up. 
   In the end it was worth the wait though because my doctor was able to sit down with us and look over our birth plan.  He helped us edit it a little to word things better and make things more clear for the nurses that will be there during labor and delivery. We discussed with him a little more about birthing in a hospital and what to expect.  We also went over more of what we wanted and he was SUPER flexible, and really supportive of having a natural birth.  :-D
FACT: About 90% of mom's have an epidural in the U.S.

While I wasn't (and still really am not) too thrilled about having to have a male OB, at least I've found one who listens, is flexible, and really tries to avoid C-sections.  I feel like he was the answer to a great prayer because I had a lot of fears about giving birth in a hospital and being pushed into having a c-section that I don't want. 

20 Weeks

I look NOTHING like I did at 20 weeks with Luke.  I've gained almost as much weight this time as I did the entire pregnancy with him. 

GRAND OPENING

   This week was our grand opening for the new shop.  Because it was a Tuesday we figured it would be a little slow but we did get a decent amount of people dropping in for what it was.  We decided to carry out our special offers and drawings through the weekend.  Today was also a good day, we're being seen and gaining new customers which is a huge help to growing a business.  

   I've even managed to sell a couple items which feels great.  We've been praying for a way to grow our businesses while I am still working and this is it...although I do love the kids and I'm not sure that I want to give up my job any time soon, especially since its only part time.  Best of both worlds right? 

Recent Happenings

First, I'm going to forewarn you that this post is long. 

Now that I've started feeling a bit better and getting a little energy back, we've been a bit busy.  We did go in for my 12 week doctors appointment and he said that baby isn't quite bit enough to move my due date forward...BUGGERS. Oh well, its just a date and most babies aren't even born on their due date anyway.  We did get to hear babies heartbeat again although he was having a hard time finding it because he wasn't over baby.  He kept looking for it really low but baby is sitting higher this time around so it was very faint. We are going to have our ultrasound right around week 19 to find out if its a boy or a girl. 

I've loved the sunshine and to be honest, it has helped me feel a bit better.  Unfortunately, most of the sunny days I've ended up sorting through a bin of rocks we've picked up on the beach trying to find unique ones that would fit into the wine bottle tiki torches...and I've ended up sun burnt.  

 

We also started making some really neat driftwood wind chimes and mobiles.  Below is just one of the ones that we've made.  

Since we've had fairly good weather, we've had our 10x10 tent up on the weekends working on selling some of my crafts. Its felt good to actually watch things sell.  We are working on switching to more 'beach' like items so that people will buy them as souvenirs.

Last week Alex got a call from Service Live, a company that contract out work for other companies.  We ended up taking a little trip yesterday.  We drove up to Lake Quinalt area.  It was very wet (imagine that, a wet rain forest). We wanted to hike the falls but between it raining cats and dogs and not having the cash for a (state) park pass, we decided we wouldn't go hiking but I did get some really pretty pictures.

 

On our way home we made a side trip out to Ocean Shores to see what was out there.  It reminded me a lot of Long Beach.  It made us grateful to live in such a tiny town.  While it would be nice to have a little more traffic through here, it also is nice not to be a bigger town. 

When we got back into Aberdeen we stopped at the Home Depot to pick a microwave since ours started smoking all of a sudden.  We found the one we wanted and headed back over to Walmart to pick up the couple things we needed and drove past Safeway...State Bomb Squad truck?  Caution Tape? It was a little scary.  Apparently they had recieved a bomb threat shortly after 10:30 in the morning and evacuated calling in the WA state police and bob squad.

Once we got home we plugged in our brand new microwave and guess what...it didn't work, at least not like it should.  Ugg we called the company and they told Alex he could repair it as long as he didn't break anything.  Sadly we didn't have the tools to do so so Alex called up home depot and the manager was great.  She told us to bring it back and we could exchange it for a new one and she gave us a $20 discount off because we had to drive all the way back.  We really didn't want to but we drove all the way back in.  Safeway had reopened after nothing was found and we got our new microwave which we tested before leaving the store.  :)

OUR GARDEN

 Because of the mosquitoes, we don't spend much time in the garden on cooler days but when it gets hot I try and get out there for a little while because they all seem to disappear. Here are a few picture from this morning...

Here is our cabbage.  Our broccoli and cauliflower are about the same size.  They are growing quickly which I'm so grateful for. I'm hoping that it will keep growing at this rate because I love munching on fresh veggies.  

This was Luke's favorite...our pumpkin plants are growing in leaps and bounds considering they were one of the last things planted.  As soon as they get a little bigger I'm going to build them a trellis to climb up so they aren't on the ground.  

This is one I'm excited for...our lettuce all of a sudden got its second leaves and now they're getting big.  I may have to thin them just a bit.  

I've never had swiss chard but I've heard a lot of people talk about it so we're trying it along with Kale.  Both are doing really well and getting big. 

These were the first things to come our...our beets and I thought after they got their first leaves that they were never going to grow but this heavy rain has done them some good.  Their leaves are now 2+ inches long.  I am kind of miffed that something has been nibbling on them though.  

Here is our one large bed.  Our strawberries got so big they started climbing out through the tops of the bottles so I had to take the bottles of and pray that they could fend for them self.  Our carrots have started growing really fast on top.  I was really hesitant to even plant tomato after all the things I've heard but so far they are doing well and growing quickly.  I had to thin them out yesterday because they all came up and they were bunched.  Our artichoke came up recently and I was shocked to find it growing so quickly even though it took so long to get started.  The tiny little bell pepper plants just came up.  I don't know how they'll do but its our first year and everything is trial and error.  the back row is our butternut squash and its doing quite well.  I'm hoping we get a lot that we can freeze and can so that we can make our own fresh baby food next year.  Its a little hard to see but in the back the pop bottles are now protecting my sunflower plants...something is eating them and I'm just waiting till I can catch what ever it is.  I doubt its a bug since they all had their tops last night and by this morning, the top of the one I couldn't over is totally gone. 

Our green bean plants are looking good although I've found something munching on them.  The cucumbers are taking a little longer to get started but they're hanging in there and our corn, well some of it is growing quickly and some is taking its sweet time.  

Here is one of the corn plants.  Its one of our larger ones and I'd say its about 6 to 8 inches tall...if you held all its leaves straight up, I'd guess it would be close to 10 to 12 inches tall.  

Here is our bed a pea plants, corn and pickling cucumbers.  The pea plants took forever to come up, once they did they've taken off, especially with the rain.

Here is Luke's garden.  Its coming along slowly because he likes to mess with the plants...a little tribulation will only make them stronger, right?

Last but not least is our zucchini plants.  They ended up in one of the big buckets outside of the garden because I thought I'd planted some but realized I hadn't.  They've come up and have grown really fast, probably because Luke is obsessed with watering that one bucket.  :) These I'm not going to thin.  They do get bushy but we got a ton of zucchini off the ones we had a couple years back and we love zucchini.  

 This morning I got a weather alert saying that we might be getting temperatures well into the 80's and 90's and even possibly over 100.  I'm praying it doesn't hurt the garden. 

Bigger by the day

On Monday as I was heading into work I heard my phone ding so I picked it up to find a voice mail but no missed call...so I called my voice mail to see who it was, "hi this is ____ from Grays Harbor Hospital calling to remind you about your ultrasound tomorrow, June 11th".  Um what?  My ultrasound wasn't until Tuesday, at least thats what the lady at my doctors office put on the paper.  Alex dropped me off at work and I started trying to get a hold of my doctors office to get the number for the hospital.  It took me calling over and over again but I finally reached someone who gave me their number.  When I called up to the hospital, the lady verified that it was on Tuesday and asked if that would still work...um, sure, I'll be there.  I was so excited Monday night that I had a hard time sleeping.  Actually, to be honest, there was a lot of anxiety mixed into the excitement which is what really kept me awake. 

Tuesday morning we got up and went up to the hospital.  I checked in and got everything needed filled out.  Lucky for us, there wasn't a long wait because I was anxious...not to mention the full bladder they make you have.  So we go into the room and get situated and she starts the ultrasound.  I can see the top of baby's head and I couldn't help but smile.  She checked on everything and then went to looking at baby.  She got a couple pictures for us and then started measuring...12w 1d. Oh wow, apparently one of two things have happened...baby is either slightly bigger than he/she is supposed to be, OR I'm a week ahead, which doesn't hurt my feelings.  A couple different times, baby would start waving at us.  At another point, you could see baby wiggling their toes.  She gave us a whole bunch of pictures to take home with us which made me totally happy, especially since you can see baby's toes in one of them. 

 You can kind of see baby's toes on the picture below.

When we got home I scanned all of them into my computer and let Luke pick out the one he wanted to put in a picture frame that GGma gave him when he was born.  We were kind of shocked when he pointed to one and said "heartbeat, baby".  He recognized the heartbeat lines from on the ultrasound screen.  We printed it off and put it in his frame which he likes to carry around and tell everyone "baby, heartbeat". 

Luke also loves to listen to the recording of his first heartbeat that we have now that he's heard baby's.  We're excited to find out what this little one is in Late July or early August.  We're also excited to welcome him/her into our family in December. 

One week down, so many more to go...

Gardening is not something to do while pregnant...not because its harmful but because I CAN'T REMEMBER ANYTHING.  Seriously, I know I have a bad memory but this is bad.  I have had to map out the garden square by square.  A few days ago we picked up some herb seeds to plant amongst the garden.  I went out yesterday afternoon to do just that and by the time I was done, realization hit me, I'd already planted pumpkin in the same (cinder block) holes that I just put chives...so I'm hoping that the two can get along, at least till I know what is what coming up out of there. 

We've had a few things like lettuce, spinach and a few other things coming up but tonight when I went out to water, I was shocked to find so much stuff. 

RIGHT BACK BED

The back half of this bed is onions.  None of these have come up yet but the front half has lots of beet sprouts that have popped up.  I love the bright green leaves with the dark reddish purple stems.

RIGHT MIDDLE BED

This is one of my favorite beds, not necessarily because of what is in it, but because it was the first one to start sprouting.  It made me happy to watch these tiny little plants pop out of the ground.  In this bed we have three squares of beets (we really like beets), two squares of spinach, one swiss chard, two lettuce, two kale, and two celery.  Everything but the celery has started sprouting. 

RIGHT FRONT BED

This bed has broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage in it.  I'm excited that all three plants have come up.  Around the perimeter we've also planted dill which is supposed to help with a cabbage beetle or something like that.

MIDDLE BED

 This is our middle bed and its a little bigger than the rest.  Since it was the last bed planted, nothing has come up quite yet but it contains two types of carrots, four types of tomatoes, artichoke, bell pepper, and butter nut squash.  In the back holes we planted some mammoth sunflower seeds.  Apparently I wasn't paying attention when we picked these out because they can get upwards of 12 feet tall, but they are supposed to produce lots of sunflower seeds.  The pop bottles up front are covering our strawberry plants since our fencing isn't quite done yet and I didn't want to invite the deer in.  They actually seem to be doing quite well under there.  Down each side is some basil and chives.  

LEFT BACK BED

 LEFT MIDDLE BED

LEFT FRONT BED

Each of these beds have one corn per square.  I was worried about them being too close but apparently many people have had success with Square Foot Gardening and corn.  Around each corn is four green bean or four pea plants.  They will use the corn as a trellis. There is also one cucumber (regular or pickle) in each square.  These will wind around the base of the corn and help with predator prevention (racoons don't like the spiny vines) and they also help to crowd out the weeds.  Being that by the end of summer I will be over half way through my pregnancy, I see this as beneficial.  

Last but not least, Luke's Garden...

Up until tonight, there hasn't been anything.  I was rather shocked when I started watering and there was three different sprouts in his garden.  Sadly I don't know what they are because he was taking random seeds from me as I planted in the other beds.  His garden is our mystery garden and probably will be until things get much much bigger.  

Along with growing plants, we also have a growing baby.  I'm very excited for this week.  Tomorrow is my last day of work with WSU until next October.  I have mixed feelings about this because I've fallen in love with teaching the kids and it makes it even harder when you're walking through the store and all of a sudden a child yells out "HI MRS. JOHNSON".  I am excited to get a break before next falls packed schedule.  It will also give me time to start organizing and working on our property.  

This week is also our first ultrasound.  We wanted to put it off till week 12 rather than going in at 8 weeks along for medical reasons.  They got us in towards the end of this week so I'll be about 11.5 weeks along and baby should be big enough.  Baby is between 1.5 and 2 inches long right now and I'm so excited to see him/her.  I wish we could find out the gender but we can't find that out till late July/early August.  My morning sickness has subsided for the most part but I am dealing with some horrid heartburn now.  Most nights I have a hard time getting to sleep and I often wake up earlier and earlier.  I will post pictures this next week from the ultrasound if we get them.