Announcing...My Little Roommate!!!

Warning: This post shares somewhat personal details for journaling purposes that may not be of interest to some...

I have a confession...In my post about getting blood work done I was not entirely honest about a few things. While I told people that my doctor was making me get blood work because she had to test some things; I happened to leave out that the reason for for the test was because I had missed 2 periods. I know what you may be thinking, "Hello stupid, you're pregnant." Believe me I had taken this into consideration, but after 2 negative tests I pretty much ruled out the idea. So, I scheduled an appointment with the girly doctor. I told her what had been going on so "just for kicks" she too took a pregnancy test. Again, negative. At this point I am thinking something is wrong. This is where the blood work comes into play. Anyone who has experienced my fear of shots knows that I would NEVER go get blood work done just because the doctor says so. I need there to be a potential problem or it's a no go. Fast forward a couple of weeks. I had still not heard anything back from my test results and was starting to get nervous. Eventually (on Feb. 25th to be exact) Matt says call the doctors office again. As luck would have it I was able to reach the head doctor of the practice. She says she will track down my results and have someone call me back very shortly. Soon after, I get a call from a lady at the office. She tells me that the results from my "girly" test were all normal. Feeling relieved, I ask her about the blood results. She says she is going to have the doctor look them over and places me on hold. I really had no idea what to expect, but I was in no way prepared for what she was about to say. She comes back on the line and says, "Well, it looks like you are pregnant." At a complete loss for intelligent thought I reply, "WHAT?" Let me interject with a little background information. I went off my pill approximately 10 months ago. After nothing was happening for this long, I was starting to worry that we would be one of those couples who would have difficulties getting pregnant or even worse one of those couples who could not get pregnant at all. This is my frame of mind which may explain as to why I was in complete shock! The poor woman on the other end probably thought she had just dropped an atomic bomb on me after my reaction. I explained to her that this was good news, but I was just as such a loss. I mean, 3 negative pregnancy tests? It was just not adding up. I had her verify that the test was mine (several times). She proceeded to tell me that I should be somewhere around 6-7 weeks. I do not remember much else from this conversation, but I am pretty sure that NOTHING I said made any sense at all. Eventually Matt came out front (I don't always get service in my house...stupid Queen Creek) to see what was going on I looked and him and just smiled. I will never forget his face when he looked at me and said, "You're pregnant?" I got off the phone with the woman and gave Matt a big hug. Then, I paced around the house several times rambling off more nonsensical thought. We immediately called our 2 best friends who had known about everything along the way. Naturally, they were very excited for us. Then I decided that I needed to see it for myself so I went to take another home pregnancy test. Finally, this one came out positive. Matt wasted no time at all. He ran and got in the shower because he wanted to go tell our families right away. We had decided before all of this that we wanted to wait until I was about 2 months to tell our families and I was pretty much there so he decided that there was no sense in waiting. We swore them all to secrecy for the time being, but they are ecstatic! It was so much fun telling our parents and siblings. My mom was over the moon elated and Matt's mom has already started giving me books about being pregnant. She has wanted to be a grandma pretty much since we got married. We will have our first appointment on Monday where I get my giant list of things I can't have. I am really excited for that (not so much) Let's hope all goes well!

Strawberry Pie Recipe

I got this recipe from my grandma years ago. I am not much of a pie fan, but this one is awesome.

1 recipe=1pie filling
1 C water
1C sugar
1/4 C Strawberry Jell-O Powder
2 T cornstarch

Directions:
In a saucepan heat the above ingredients to a boil stirring very frequently. Once it reaches a boil let it go for another minute or 2 until it reaches the consistency of a thin syrup. Let cool.
Prepare and bake pie shells (I use the store bought ones that you can just roll out)
Slice strawberries and fill pie crust
Once the filling has cooled pour over the strawberries. It will most likely go under the crust. I have yet to figure out how to keep this from happening.
Refrigerate over night.

Here is the finished product:

(I doubled the recipe) ENJOY!

They're Back!!!

A lot has happened lately in Sun's news. It all started last week when they fired Terry Porter (the Sun's head coach). I would say that I am a pretty loyal Sun's fan, but to be honest I had lost interest almost completely this season. Simply put, I was BORED! I missed the run and gun style the Sun's have become so famous for. To be completely honest at this point I would would rather watch the Sun's have fun playing basketball than win a championship.
Our very first game without Porter we won with 140 points! In a regular 4 quarter game too! Then, as if that was not enough we won the next night with 142 points! Pretty unbelievable. It was like they were free again...finally :) Now, to be fair they were playing one of the worst teams in the league, but honestly, this is a team that could have easily beaten us before with the way we were playing. Perhaps my favorite moment of Wednesday's game was this:Shaq actually ran the ball the entire length of the court! Steve Nash even tried to take the ball and Shaq just kept on truckin'. It wasn't pretty but he made it. He made the pass to Nash and Nash finished the play with a lay-up. The best part was the reaction of their teammates. I love this! I have not seen the Sun's have this much fun since the Dantoni era. I am really exciteed to see what Alvin Gentry (our new coah) is going to do with this team. Go Suns! Welcome Back :)

On a side note though, we did find out today that Amare is going to be out for the rest of the season. While this may be a major blow, I have confidence that we can pull something out this season (even if it is not a championship. I have pretty much just accepted that at this point). I cant wait to see this team play Boston! I hope we can maintain our little streak :)

Valentine's Day

Matt and I recently bought a mattress so we decided to keep Valentine's Day low key this year. We stayed home and I made a candlelight dinner. On the menu: homemade mac and cheese with sugar cookies for dessert. I know...high class right?The best part. It was easy and very tasty!

I tried to get a picture of my husband, but he was feeling particularly ornery. This was my first attempt:And my second:

And my third:

Hilarious isn't he? He seems to think so anyway.

As always, Katie joined us. She was much more willing to participate with the photo taking than my husband!

I also had to take a picture of the sugar cookies that I made. Matt was not prepared to let up yet so here is what I got:

I frosted them green because that is Matt's favorite color. The pink was for me ;)

We finished off the night watching Nights in Rhodante. I will say it was pretty good, but sad which isn't exactly what you want on your Valentine's Day. Oh well. Let's hope next year I have some more exciting stories!

A few nights later we gave Katie a much needed bath. Doesn't she look so excited about it? I still think she is the cutest dog that ever was! She loves her blankie just like her mom :)

I did it...kind of

On Wednesday of this week I faced my biggest fear in the whole world...needles. Let me start by saying that I am not pregnant since a lot of people seem to think this is why I am having blood work done. My doctor told me that I needed to get some tests done and while I tried my hardest to get out of it Matt had other ideas. I explained this crippling fear to my doctor so in true doctor fashion she wrote me a prescription for an anxiety pill (but I will get to that later). I was able to push it off for about 10 days to "prepare" myself (or at least that is what I told Matt I was doing. I was really procrastinating). Any way, Wednesday rolls around. I drank tons of water just like I was told to (apparently this makes it easier?) and at 2:15 exactly I took my anxiety pill hoping that it would kick in in time. We drove straight to the sadistic vampires office after work. Just for the record, I have NEVER been to a doctor's office where you get right in. There is usually at least a 30 minute wait. Wouldn't you know it, I got right in! And no, my pill had not yet kicked in! I sit down in the chair and start crying immediately. I do not know exactly how old I was the last time I got blood taken, but it has been since childhood and from what little I remember it did not go well (I'm talking doctors...yes plural...holding me down). I am feeling completely ridiculous, but I literally cannot control it. With my hands shaking and my palms sweating she has me take my jacket off and I just loose it. I will say that she was very patient with me, but I could not help but notice the "sympathetic" glances that she made across the hall to the receptionist. They proceeded to clean the area and feel around for a vein. According to her I had good veins and I should hope so, I drank about a gallon of water at work. After this everything was pretty much a blur. I buried my head into Matt's stomach, started hyperventilating and just waited for it to be over. They were talking to me the entire time, but I was not really listening. It probably only took a minute or so, but it seemed like an eternity. They tied the little cotton ball to my arm and told me I was done. Needless to say I was far from that champ that I hoped I was going to be, but I did it. I gathered my things and walked out of the office trying to not look at anyone. Since the room was open I am sure everyone was able to hear the scene I had just created. Embarrassing I know, but like I said I do not know how to control it.

On the drive home Matt was being very sweet and complimenting me and trying to instill feelings of relief, but I was still too worked up. I pretty much just felt violated not relieved. We went home for a minute so Matt could take a shower and I could clean up the make-up that had run down my face. Naturally I was not up for making dinner so I told Matt that I wanted to go get a pizza. While I was waiting for him I started to get really sleepy. An hour and a half later that little pill was kicking in in a big way! I was high as a kite. It's too bad it didn't work earlier because I think this really would have helped. Dinner was interesting to say the least. We came home and I got right into bed (it was now 5:00). Aside from waking up from the occasional phone call, dog barking and insane need for water I slept through the ENTIRE night! 12 hours with ease! It was pretty ridiculous. That next morning was interesting. I still found it very hard to focus and teaching 1st and 2nd hours did not help matters any.

Several days later I can now say that I am happy to have it done. Unfortunately I do not feel that I am any less afraid of shots that I was before. Like I told Matt, this may be something that I am never ok with. All I can say is let's just hope that I don't have to do that again any time soon.

Another Reason I Love AZ!

To me there is nothing like driving along a tree lined road in Maryland in October, but I will say this is pretty cool too:These were the Superstition Mountains on our drive home today. In Arizona we get the luxury of snowy mountain views without all the hassle of driving in snow/ice. I am bummed I didn't get a picture earlier because at this time it was about 4:00 and most of the snow had melted already.

My Sweet Husband!

Last Saturday after working an entire day my very thoughtful husband came home with this:Pretty nice huh? I'm a pretty lucky girl :)

OOPS!

I am pretty sure that I have mentioned a time or 2 on here that Katie loves her toys...Today she brought that to a new level. Now I will say that Katie is generally a really good dog. She does not chew things other than her toys and she NEVER goes to to the bathroom in the house. She has been known to get into the occasional trash can, but then again what dog hasn't? So to my story: I was in the computer room (as usual) and I kept hearing her whine. Not like she was in pain or anything. This was the kind of whine she does when she wants something and we ignore her. Finally, I get up to see what she wants. I go down the hall to our bedroom (the area in which she spent that last 15 minutes whining) and I see this...What could have possible provoked her to unleash such fury on our bed skirt? Well it would be her favorite little orange ball of course! Apparently she felt that our bed skirt deserved to die since it was hiding her ball from her.

This is one of those situations where Matt and I have very different reactions. Matt feels that it is appropriate to repeatedly tell Katie that she is a "bad girl." I swear its like he sentences her to a specific amount of time in which he will be mad at her (this offense may last for an hour). I on the other hand find this whole debacle slightly comical. Am I happy about having to buy a new bed skirt? No, but what can you do? I guess this is the price you pay for owning such a neurotic dog!

Changing the subject...
Matt has joined a men's basketball league this year. I went to his game last night to cheer him on, though his team didn't really need it. They won by about 40 points! It was like the Suns/Kings game the other night. Man-o-man was that a blowout! He's number 44. This was the only picture I got. I am really happy that he is able to do something like this. Since playing in high school he has really missed it and this is fun for him. Go Matt :)