I almost forgot...I got a blog award! :-)

While I was out of town, my good friend Megan over at Magnolias and Mimosas surprised me with my first blog award: the "Friendship Award!" Getting this award means the following:

"These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find friends and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships will be propagated. Please give more attention to these writers."

Deliver this award to four bloggers who must choose four more and include this cleverly- written text into the body of their award.

I'm sending this award to the following:

Back to Megan because she's been such a good friend and has been encouraging me to get a blog for a while now! And D thinks she's a pretty awesome friend as well...she did introduce us!

Steph because she's become such a good friend out here in California and was the first person to show excitement about Baby T (not to mention now she gets to share the knowledge she's gained over the last 4 1/2 months!)

Team Holt because we will always have a connection because they refer to themselves as a Team just like we do (okay, they did it before us since they've been married longer but we didn't steal it from them, I promise!) and their son is super cute!

Yvonne LeBrun because I love, love, love her photography! And she's a pretty cool person too! I can't wait to set up a session for D, me and my belly!

I gained another pound! (And other exciting happenings...)

So I weighed myself today before getting into the shower and discovered that I've gained another pound. Before you get it in your head that I've been obsessing about getting bigger, I haven't. I've actually been surprised that I've only teeter-tottered between the same 3lbs from my weight at the point of discovering I was pregnant. I guess I always expected that you immediately started gaining weight right from the beginnng. I haven't, and I won't complain. (But I will continue to eat pretty much what I want, when I want because I haven't been able to do that in a really long time! :-)

Now on to the more exciting happenings of the last few weeks:

As you all know from my last post, I was in Virginia visiting D's family and getting ready for C&G's wedding. C and I took a break from wedding stuff to go meet their new family addition, Maggie...
Big surprise, D received a text after this visit asking if I could bring a Dalmation puppy home with us...response = "No." It was a joke, honest! Aside from getting kicked out of base housing, I think I'll have my hands full with Luna, Boo and a new baby.

Then G invited me to come visit his firehouse and I got to have fun (like a kindergartner!) with some fireperson equipment:

After a busy week running errands and getting the small details taken care of, C and her wedding party had a much needed spa day at Elizabeth Arden the day before the wedding. Because I'm preggers they wouldn't give me the leg massage that came with my pedicure package but instead gave me a complimentary parafam treatment...I think it's some kind of hot wax type thing. Whatever it is, it felt wonderful and I could have easily fallen asleep during my manicure and pedicure.

Another big surprise, I got emotional during C & G's thanks you at the rehearsal dinner. And as you can see D made it just in time for the big day! :-) Thank goodness for red-eye flights!

Wedding day!! Off to Elizabeth Arden again for hair and make-up....this is the before picture...

And the after! There were no hiccups with the day, everything went according to plan (from what I remember!) and everyone looked beautiful! It was frigid outside but I'm pretty sure our excitement kept us just warm enough during the brief outside periods. The ceremony was lovely, I don't think anyone will ever forget the organist who was oblivious to her surroundings and played the wedding march at least 3 times (would have been great except the aisle wasn't a mile long!)

Despite a few directional issues between the church and the reception and the reception and back to Springfield, the day itself was as perfect as could be for G & C and we were so happy to be a part of their very special day!

We left Virginia the next evening and got super lucky that G&C were seated in the row directly behind us for the first flight! That was great considering the second flight I think G, C and I all slept and D stayed awake since his "awesome first row seating" was actually not that awesome in that the arm rests didn't come up. He was happy with the extra leg room though.

Before they took off for their Temecula vineyard/resort getaway, D took them to the squadron and showed them around a couple CH-46s:

We took a day trip to Sea World sans D who had to work, but still had a blast in an almost empty park. Note: best time to go to Sea World and not deal with crowds? January during the week.

Kids' meals and Beer...what do you mean that doesn't go together?? C and I were nice enough to help G out and get him 4 more free beer samples than the two he was allowed. We also went to the Beer Tasting after this where G score even more free beer (albeit 4ounces at a time) since C doesn't drink any and I obviously could do little more than sip politely as the person bringing us the beer commented on what each sample was. G was a very happy camper for the rest of our time at Sea World!

Icy, icy cold water!! Sadly there was a family across the pond lifting the star fish out of the water :-( which we were specifically told not to do.

C and I getting ready for the Shark Encounter...gotta love the Jaws-like music throughout the exhibit!

Let's see, next came the 80's themed squadron hosted party. I was supposed to be decked out in a flight suit styled for the 80's but with being out of town and not getting the flight suit at the begining of the week, C and I did our own thing:

A day to the outlets for C and I produced quite a shocking picture for G...


He gave us exactly the reaction we were hoping for! :-) Just a little view into the future, that's all! Thank you Motherhood Maternity for the fun little pregnancy pillow you offer in every dressing room.

D needed to go talk to a guy downtown San Diego about a tall ship as a possible location for a squadron event...we got to tag along and check out the tall ships!

Overal it was so much fun having them come visit after the wedding and getting to spend some time with them without all the demands of being at Place A at such and such time. :-) We're excited about our upcoming trip back to VA next month for a longer stay than this time around. It's been a busy few weeks and I think after a day and a half of almost pure resting, my body is finally recovering. (Though, I'm sure I'm not feeling half as bad as C and G who had to be at work today after traveling all day! Ouch!)

On a completely side note from our adventures the last few weeks: it's always interesting to be at or a part of a wedding ever since getting married. I always take a few minutes to look at and reflect on my marriage and relationship with D. We're not perfect, but no one is. We both make mistakes on occassion, but these last few months especially, after discovering I was pregnant, I've learned that despite all his flaws, he's always there when I need him. Whether it's standing outside the bathroom with a glass of water waiting for me to finish vomitting, patting my back for an hour before bed while I belch uncontrolably (that was quite the romantic night, let me tell ya!) or just knowing when to take the baby book away from me when I've read too much for my own peace of mind. I can't imagine spending my life or starting a family with anyone else. We won't be perfect parents, and we're both (okay, maybe more him) have a lot of growing up to do in the process, but we'll get through it all - together.

Whew! Ok so this was a long post...I thank anyone who actually took the time to read it all!

Sleepy in Virginia

Ok so I'm not so great at the posting on a regular basis...I'll work on it.

I'm in Virginia visiting D's family and getting ready for our close friends G&C's wedding. D's best man, I'm maid of honor and I'm so incredibly excited the wedding is finally here!!! The second half of this week will be full of tons of errands run with C and finally getting to really fill my MOH duties...but this leads me to the title of the post...

I'm so sleepy! My internal clock won't adjust to East Coast time so I'm sleepy at "normal" times, however, my body thinks it's just nap time and therefore I wake up 3 hours after falling asleep and I'm wide awake. Then I'll get tired again at oh 2 a.m. when my body thinks it's 11 p.m. which leads to the "wake up and start my day" at 10 a.m. Eastern time and I'm ready to go by noon....blech!! Half the day is over!!

Today's nap, that I was going to try and avoid but simply couldn't, was timed earlier so maybe tonight I'll get more "normal" sleep. Otherwise I'm going to be the one person of the wedding party begging someone to find a cot so I can just get 30 minutes of sleep to make it through the reception! :-(

There is the other alternative...forgo the no caffiene rule for 24 hours and make the most of it. Of course that could lead to twice the number of bathroom runs.

What did C tell me after I went through the list of fabulous body changes going on - "It's a magical time, Jess, magical!"

Starting to look like a baby!

So we went to the first OB appointment and after being poked and proded for a few minutes we got to the part of the visit I really cared about...seeing Baby Thiessen and hearing the heartbeat! And boy did we see Baby T! Turns out he or she is quite the acrobat inside my womb. If he/she decides to keep it up, I'm sure I'll have no problems feeling the movements for the first time! The first few pictures were quickly done when Baby T would stop moving for a millisecond of time. Our nurse/midwife didn't really warn us that he was going to turn on the doppler, but there was no mistaking it when he did. :-) By far, one of the best sounds I think someone could hear; not to mention, just plain cool. Then I laughed and Baby T started moving around again making it harder for the nurse to measure his/her heart-rate...my bad!

Overal, it was a very special experience and I'm overjoyed that D was able to be there with me and will definitely be able to make at least one more appointment before he leaves. We'll set up the 3d ultrasound we want to do at some point before he leaves so we can *hopefully* determine whether Baby T is a him or her! Big smiles, all around today. Enjoy the pictures!

This was one of the second sets of scans after the nurse/midwife discovered someone had messed with the contrast settings so the first few didn't come out very clearly. I tried my best to clear them up through editing. :-)

Already has a little pot belly! :-)

Baby Feet! And look how modest Baby Thiessen is; didn't show his/her bottom for the camera!

I think this one makes Baby T look a bit like a Glow-worm! :-)

Bottles and Diapers and Pacifiers, Oh my!

Ok, so here we go, post numero uno...

First of all, I'm starting this blog to provide a place for family and friends to keep updated on Team Thiessen's adventures through life... ok, mainly so that family and friends can keep updated on our coming new addition's progress because in about 7 months, he or she will be the star of the family. Let's just be honest with ourselves (and not share that with Luna or Boo!)

Yes, yes, for those of you who don't know yet, we're expecting our first child...well, human child, in July. Our two fur-babies have no idea what's about to shake up the household and their very spoiled lives!

As Baby Thiessen is a huge surprise and wasn't exactly scheduled in either of our calendars for at least another three years, this is going to be a very exciting, interesting adventure for us.

So that's that, a snip it of what lies in store for Team Thiessen. I can't guarantee that everything I post will be interesting, but I can guarantee that it'll likely be humerous (even if at my expense).