Tuesday, March 31, 2009

SHINGLES STINK!!!

I am gonna try and blog about the "fun" in the Phelps home, if I can tolerate the pain of sitting up long enough to get it written.
As you may have noticed from the not so subtle title, I have shingles. No it is not common in pregnant women, but thank goodness it is also not dangerous for the baby. Quick medical course for those who need it. Shingles is caused by the chicken pox virus. After you have the chicken pox or the vaccine this lovely virus takes up permanent residence in your nerves. For some reason, later down the road it sometimes decides to rear its ugly head again. It is EXCRUCIATINGLY painful. Just think about it...a virus is iritating your nerves relentlessly. It is not contagious, thank goodness. The rash that also accompanies this does contain the active chicken pox virus so someone who has never had chicken pox could catch chicken pox if they touched the open sores, but that is it.
My shingles has decided to attack the left hand side of the middle of my back. This makes sitting and standing for more than a couple of minutes very painful. I spend most of my days in the recliner or stretched out in bed trying to find some relief.
I don't want to be a whiner, so I will switch gears and tell you the good that our gracious Lord has brought out of this.
My wonderful husband has really stepped up. He has jumped in with both feet. He has taken over everything in our home. He is the driver, the cleaning crew, the wait staff, and even the chef. Yes, Jeremy is actually learning to cook because I can't.
I can't imagine how I would get through this with out him. His support and help allow me to, and encourage me to be tough and struggle through this.
Thank you Lord, for giving me such an awesome husband and such a wonderful life.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Welcome to the 3rd Trimester!

This was the greeting I recieved at my dr.'s appointment last Monday. Little did I know at the time it was not a "friendly" welcome...lol.



No, seriously, it was a very good day with drs. First I had my 3rd level 2 ultrasound and I guess they finally saw all the organs and stuff they wanted to. David is still measuring right on track, he is growing consistently, and kicking me constantly. Many of you know I was also concerned that some of the symptoms I was experiencing were pre-eclampsia, I am happy to say,



"I was WRONG!"



Dr. Travias said I was right they can all be symptoms of it, but lucky for us, in this case they weren't. The two missing pieces were the blood pressure and the protein, the 2 I couldn't check at home, and they were both fine. So Yea! we made it 7 months, so far, and momma and baby are both doing great.



Well...I don't know if I'd say momma's "great"??? Healthy, yes. But unfortunately all the symptoms are real, and while they're not serious, they're still quite uncomfortable. And the reason why I question whether Dr. Travias' welcome was actually friendly is because, he told me they will just get worse...



So now I have resolved myself to the fact that I am going to be exhausted and completely uncomfortable for the next 10 weeks...yeah, "Welcome to the 3rd Trimester!"





Here are the newest pics of our little guy:





this is his profile










this is him looking straight at the monitor

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

A tale of functions, furniture, and friends...

This week has been a busy one for us...well especially me. I haven't been feeling well, but that's a topic for another blog...at another time, and this week was gonna be busy. Tuesday night we had our quarterly, Ladies Refresh event. Ladies Refresh is our women's' ministry at church. We have been doing quarterly functions to help the ladies of the church connect, be fed, and most importantly get refreshed. We have had speakers talk to us about organizing our homes and our lives from a christian perspective, encouraging each other, etc. We have had soup nights and tea parties and, this past Christmas, we had our 2nd annual Cookie Swap and Craft night. These events are no small affairs. We try our best to go all out and I am fortunate enough to be part of the planning/organizing team for these fun events.
Tuesday night, unfortunately, I did not feel good and did not feel "fortunate" to have people counting on me to do my part. This quarter's Refresh event was "A Word Aptly Spoken". It was all about having the right word, at the right time, to encourage someone and speaking it. We had a wonderful speaker and we were making cards to send to whoever God put on our hearts to encourage. I was the one who would explain the craft/card making process. I was also going to help with some set-up, decorating, and make over 4 dozen brownies/cookies. So after spending Monday evening and all day Tuesday baking, I dragged myself into the church, Tuesday evening. Thank the Lord that he has provided such a wonderful team of ladies to plan, host, and set-up these events, because I was pretty much useless. I tried to help with what I could from a chair, but the other ladies had it under control.
I am so glad I "dragged" myself there. I was totally blessed by the whole evening. The woman who spoke, Deb Hogan, had such an incredible testimony. Not to mention, a lovely voice. By the time I needed to explain the craft, I was feeling a little better and it was so refreshing to see all these awesome women having fun making cards and socializing. (Even Kathy D.-I have no thumbs, so I can't do crafts-made a card, ALL BY HERSELF.)
I got home about late Tuesday, and then of course couldn't sleep. (story of my life lately)
Long story short, after about 4 1/2 hrs of sleep the delivery guys showed up to deliver our furniture. Now, since when, do they give you a 3-hr delivery window from 6:30am-9:30am and actually show up on time.
Not only did they show up on time...they were at our door at 6:40am to deliver our new living room furniture. We desperately needed it. Anyone who has visited us lately...well actually the entire time we've been in Mass., and the last year or year and a half we lived in Hawaii, knows our old furniture. It was hand-me-down from a friend about 6 1/2 or 7yrs ago. I don't know how long she had it before us, but needless to say, it was shot and it was killing my back, especially since I got pregnant. So we went and got new stuff with our income tax refund.
Wow...it's only Wed!
Tomorrow I have a fun day planned...but it's another day I have to get up, get myself ready, and go somewhere. I think it will be worth it, too.
First, I get to spend the morning with my good buddy, Paulette, just relaxing, and knowing the two of us...laughing a lot.
Then I have a lunch meeting with one of my bestest buddies, Dani...oh but she has to wear her other hat to the meeting...her Pastor Danielle hat. LOL
She is meeting with a me and a couple of other ladies, who were not able to make it to a children's ministry meeting a couple of weeks ago. I am gonna bring lunch for us so even though it's "business", it should still be nice.
As far as I know, so far....that's it for this busy week.
Unless...the people who were interested in buying our house, (again...another blog, for another time...) decided they'd like to come see the house on Saturday.
As much as I want and need to rest...I sure hope they do. And it's the perfect house for them and they want to buy it...
...Am I asking too much?

Here are some pics of our new furniture:


"my" new rocker/recliner.


our new sofa



and our new loveseat. (Yes, they are comfy..and they don't hurt my back. Yea!)