Ketchup Crisis of '09

Many of you who know my husband well know that one of his great loves is....ketchup.  Yes, ketchup. When we first got married, one of our house rules he insisted upon was that we never ever be without at least two extra bottles of ketchup in our pantry. We're coming up on our two year anniversary in a couple of weeks and I must say I've done a great job of holding to this rule of keeping extra ketchup in the house because I know how much my husband loves it and how quickly he can get through a whole bottle (even the bulk ones from Sam's). Well, let's just say it's a good thing I can blame my forgetfulness on being pregnant because we have been out of ketchup for almost a week! Sorry babe. So on my to do list weekend you can guess what is on the top of that list. Adios blogging world, I've got to get ready to head out to Sam's to stock up on ketchup.

Memorial Weekend

Josh and I had a really nice Memorial Weekend together. Josh kind of took a break from studying this weekend so we could spend some time with each other. When he was studying, I was attempting to be  productive around our townhouse. I was able to get some much needed cleaning done, laundry, and I began a project I have been looking forward to and dreading at the same time...cleaning/organizing our basement. I've been looking forward to it because usually when I'm at work, all I've been able to think about is all the work I want to do around the house before the baby arrives. And dreading because who really wants to spend their weekend cleaning and re-organizing there basement on a holiday weekend. The basement isn't finished but at least I was able to make a small dent in my project.

Super excited for a four day week at work. With the weather getting warmer work I've been busier at work making my days and weeks go by pretty quickly. And this week, the girl who will be replacing me is starting and I will begin teaching her all that I know.

I still need to post pictures from my baby shower I had a couple weekends again in Michigan. Those to come later this week. And I think I have FINALLY made a decision about the baby bedding. Choosing baby beddding has been way more stressful, more about this later.

And because my adorable hubby loves for me to post a picture with my blog post here in the picture....

Last week our friend Brooke took pictures of Josh, me, and my belly. Josh hadn't shaved in almost a month and I told him he needed to shave for the pictures. Reluctantly, Josh headed up to the bathroom to shave. To my surprise, he came out with a handle bar mustache. With my huge sunglasses he looks just like my brother's Mii we created for him. Kind of scary huh?

He is faithful

At this very moment I feel like there is no possible way for my belly to get any bigger. Eating a bowl of chocolate ice cream with bananas probably doesn't help how I feel either (hey, I skipped the chocolate syrup tonight, thank you very much. Oh, remind me later to tell you about the time when I talked my father into letting me have ice cream sundaes for breakfast when I was about 11 years old). As I was preparing dinner I felt like the baby was trying to kick his way out of my belly through my belly button. I think we're going through a growth spurt over here. It's still hard for me to believe my belly is going to get even bigger, but I still have two months to go. How about his realization....this entire pregnancy I've been looking down at my growing belly. The view looking down is a whole lot different than when you look at yourself in the mirror from the side. Holy cow! (No pun intended here folks.)

Well, things have been a bit crazy here in the Glupker household. We had a lot of trials last week and we were really challenged to put all of our faith and trust in the Lord. We praise the Lord for always being faithful to us. We trust in his faithfulness even when things don't look the way we thought they were going to look. But he is faithful and we cling to him to get us through this season.

James 1:2-8
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.

Romans 8:28
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Week 31 & the Snoogle

Week 31

Can you believe I'm already in my 31st week of pregnancy? I know it's pretty crazy to think I only have 9 weeks left. This time has been flying by. I still have a long list of things I want to get done before our son arrives, so hopefully I'll use this time productively to get most of those things accomplished.

In other pregnancy news, I got myself a Snoogle. I was very reluctant to buy this pillow but my girlfriends up here had been encouraging me to make the investment since I still have a couple of months left of my pregnancy. They were probably just sick of hearing me complain about my nerve pain around my ribs. Anyways, the Snoogle is a pregnancy pillow designed to give extra support to your head, back, hips, and of course your baby bump, all in one pillow!

I am still having the nerve pain but I am sleeping much better. Before the snoogle I was using 3 pillows - a normal size, a king size, and a body pillow. They all had to be in a specific position in order for me to get comfortable to fall asleep and that was a task in itself. Josh would still say it is a process for me to get comfortable in bed but he has hated every single pillow that comes between us in bed. He should know that he could never be replaced by the Snoogle.  

Special Mothers

She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue...Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also and he praises her: Many women do noble things but you surpass them all. Charm is deceptive, beauty is fleeting but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

Words cannot express how much we appreciate EVERYTHING you have done for us. Thank you for all of your love, support and the many ways bless us. Happy Mother's Day!

Horror Stories

If there is one thing I have learned during my pregnancy it's that every single woman's body is different and all of our pregnancy experiences are going to be different. And when it comes to pregnancy horror stories, I try my best not to listen to the women around me because I certainly do not want to hear them. This is my first baby and I don't want to go into labor thinking the worst. After we've all had our babies then we can talk. But for now I don't want to hear it!

I was standing in the check-out line at Wegman's the other day and the cashier lady saw I was pregnant and so did the girl behind me (who also happened to work at Wegman's). The girl behind me started talking about her first pregnancy and how she gained over 50 pounds and the cashier said she had twins and gained almost 100. At this point I'm just nodding my head and smiling at these girls but then the conversation took quite a different turn. The girl behind actually asked me if I wanted to know how long she had to push during labor. In the most polite way I could I told her I'd rather not know. Turns out her labor wasn't so bad except her boyfriend or doctor tricked her into thinking she was getting an epidural when she actually didn't. And the cashier lady followed her story by informing me she had her twins naturally also and pushed for a very long time. When she started going into more detail about her labor, I stated very clearly to both girls to stop talking. Not sure where this courage came from but I'm glad I said something. I told them this is my first baby and I don't want to hear about all of the bad things that could happen. Clearly they should have known to stop talking when my eyeballs about jumped out of their sockets in shear horror of their stories.

Can you tell I'm a little worried about actually having this baby? So women of Erie, if you see me coming, please keep your pregnancy horror stories to yourself. Like I said above, we can dish about it after I've had my baby.

One more story.....a guy at work looked at me today and said, "So, are you due any day now?" I kindly informed him I have about 10 more weeks until my due date. "Really?" He says. "Yep." I reply and walk back to my desk to give myself a quick pitty party.

***************************************************
Josh asked me to make sure I post a picture with my blog post but since I haven't taken a recent pregnancy picture yet (sorry Brittany), I figured I'd post a cute picture of Nola. But I came across this one first and Marcky you are the lucky winner! Josh I bet you love this picture since you and Marcky share something very special. Very special as in you would probably be okay without me as long as you had Marcky. That's okay, I've learned to accept it.

A Worried Father/Grandfather

On Saturday morning I was trying to call my parents while Josh and I were driving down to Grove City to do a little shopping at the outlet mall. No particular reason I needed to call them, just wanting to say hello and see how they were doing. I am their daughter, do I need a reason to call them? Anyways, I tried to reach my parents at their house and on both of their cell phones but no answer. No worries, I figured I'd talk to them sometime later during the weekend. A couple minutes after I tried to reach them my mother sends me a text and asks if I am okay and says she can't talk she's at the grand opening of the new neonatal intensive care unit (where my father is the director). I completely forgot about the grand opening of the NICU, I have Josh text back (since I was driving - safety first) we are fine.

Yesterday, my sister calls to chat and during our convo she mentions I gave Papa a pretty big scare this weekend. What? Oh, with the phone call on Saturday. I guess my mother told Brittany that I called right before Papa was about to speak and when he saw my call he got a worried look on his face. Brittany also mentioned Papa has been a little on edge ever since my 23rd week.

I called my father today after work today to tell him not to worry about me. He told me he was on stage about to give his speech when he looked into his pocket and saw my missed call. He got my mother's attention, mouthed "Call Bethany" and that's when I received her text. Boy am I glad I called before his speech and not during. I told him he has to stop worrying about me because now I feel like I can't even call them without them worrying about me. He said he will try to not worry so much.

I'm sure when our son is born I will be worrying and fretting over ever little thing too. I guess I can't blame my papa for worrying.

Thanks for loving and caring for me so much Papa!

Happy Birthday Nola!

Today my sweet Nola turns 3 years old and since she lives with her grandparents in Ohio, Josh and I aren't able to be there to celebrate her birthday. We got Nola when she was only three months old and she only weighed 3 pounds. She has currently doubled her weight since and has easily made her way into all of our hearts. You can't help but love her!