Baby boys, rain outs, weddings, showers and everything else in between.

I am starting to notice a pattern here, I am a "once a month blogger". Oh well... it works right? Either way, one month later than my last blog and ooodles and oodles of information to share to the world! Hey... maybe when I become a stay at home mom, I'll have the time to post more often... Ha! Yeah right! Fat chance at that, I know... but either way..... here I am with lots to share.

First and most importantly, my pregnancy is going amazing! I still haven't had one spout of morning sickness, my hormones are starting to not rage AS much, so my skin is starting to clear up and actually get that "glow" that everybody boasts about, that I personally thought was a load of shit, and I haven't put on alot of extra weight(although I am sure that'll change come month 6) I am now 21 weeks pregnant and can't believe how fast the time has gone so far. We had our 18 week ultrasound a few weeks back, and found out we're having a baby boy! We're both really excited about having a son and I have visions of him throwing touchdown passes at the Super Bowl some day (NO racecar drivers if I can help it, I want my kid to have a NORMAL life!) But it's funny, Michael seems to be more concerned now that we're having a boy. He's afraid, because of his age, that he won't be able to teach our son to play football or baseball or do any of the other things dad's do with their sons. He's deathly afraid of embarrassing our son, if his friends ask him, "Hey is that your grandpa?" I definitely understand why he would feel this way and I keep telling him that he's not ancient at 42 years old and that even at 42, he definitely doesn't act 42, so I think he'll be just fine when it comes time to start teaching our boy how to be a boy. It's hard to remember sometimes, that men have just as many fears about becoming a parent as women do, so we do really well at supporting one another to overcome the normal fears of bringing our first child into the world.

At the same appointment for my Ultrasound, they gave me a blood test to check and see if there was any risk of my baby having any sort of birth defects, so that was definitely a little unnerving, because you always assume your baby is healthy. We went back two weeks later for my 20 week appointment and everything was looking great with the baby and with me. I've gained 13 pounds in 20 weeks, so I am right on track where I need to be weight wise, and my blood pressure was perfectly normal and healthy. Everything looked great with the baby's ultrasound and my due date is targeted between June 13th and June 14th. The blood work also came back negative that the baby had any risks for birth defects, so we definitely breathed a sigh of relief over that one. We finally decided on a name for our son, and we decided to name him Noah James. So now, we've got a name everything its starting to feel more real. I am finally starting to show now, but still not as much as I had hoped I'd be showing. I still think I look like I've just become a chubby ass and not a woman growing a child, but everybody else seems to disagree. Although, It's probably wise NOT to upset the hormonal pregnant woman by telling her she looks like she's a cow... MOO!

Another exciting part of being 5 months pregnant, is now I can feel him move and let me tell you... he moves ALOT. I swear that kid must have so much damn energy! He's always kicking and nudging me all day long. I love it though! It's so amazing to feel my son move, I can't even describe it. It's so funny, at night, Michael and I have become accustomed to when we lay down to go to bed at night, Michael lays his head on my belly and starts talking to the baby and feeling the little movements. Well since the baby is getting bigger, so are his movements and the other night, he lets outs this huge kick and nails Michael right in the face! We were laughing so hard! It's so funny how much enjoyment two people can get from laying in bed a feeling their kid kick, these are the exciting things we do these days... LOL.

Another exciting piece of news, I have to share is Michael and I decided to get married on Valentines Day... And we decided this about... ohhh.. a month ago. LOL. Actually we planned a very small intimate ceremony to take place at Sunset on Butterfly Beach in Santa Barbara with about 25 of our closest family and friends. We plan on having a HUGE reception in August, after the baby is born, to celebrate with everybody we know, but until then, we opted for something small and easy. Actually the entire thing has been very simple and alot of fun to plan. I've pretty much planned everything down to the tee, and doing so on a strict budget, and it's still going to come out looking beautiful. I've really had alot of fun planning everything and I am really getting excited for the finished product. The only issues I've run into with my wedding is other people. No, not family, not wedding planners, not photographers.... but friends who haven't exactly been there like I had thought they would be, or friends who aren't supporting our decision to get married with such a small ceremony and taking their absence personal and putting guilt upon me.... It's really been an eye-opening experience I can tell you that much. In fact, I had a few people offer to throw me a bridal shower, when the news of our Valentines Day wedding became official. Everybody talked about it, but nobody made it happen, in fact, up until last Sunday, I had just assumed I wouldn't be having a bridal shower, only because nobody had mentioned anything to me about planning one, so I just figured it wasn't going to happen. It wasn't until my mom and brother stepped up to the plate (Yes.. my 19 year old BROTHER) that they started to put the last minute plans into motion, so that I could have a bridal shower, the weekend before my wedding. So it kinda sucks to see that the people you thought you could depend on the most, totally flake out on you. But that's the reality of it all, some things are alot more important I guess, either way it opens my eyes alot as to who I can really count on for support as I begin this new journey in my life. I mean this isn't high school or college anymore! I am getting ready to walk down the isle and become a wife and shortly after I'll be giving birth and becoming a mom! That changes EVERYTHING! This is the big leagues now! I've got alot to worry about and that doesn't include which bar I am going to hit up for drinks this night or that night. I've got to grow up, ready or not, as I am now responsible for another human life, and that is just another journey I'll be taking in my life.

So another big event that took place... or strike that... was SUPPOSED to take place, on January 23rd, was the Toyota All Star Showdown at Irwindale Speedway. *For my non-racer friends.... long story short.. it's supposed to be the Daytona 500 of short track racing and if you don't know what the Daytona 500 is... I sure as hell can't help you there* Anyways, 100's of cars from across the country showed up to race with the best of the best, live on the Speed Channel, and we were blessed with rain! It was, by far, the longest most miserable weekend of my LIFE! It was supposed to be a good time and it was anything but. Michael and I decided, since we were supposed to be there all day Thursday and all day Friday that we'd just bring our 5th wheel and camp in the parking lot. My parents even decided to rent a motorhome so they could do that too, because being at the racetrack for 2 full days takes ALOT out of you, that even that one hour drive home is way too long. There were also a few other friends of ours who decided to campout too. So we're thinking a great weekend of racing, camping with our friends.. what can be better?!? Ummm apparently repeatedly stabbing yourself in the eye with sharp objects would have been a trip to effin Disneyland compared to what we went through.

It's not raining on Thursday night, so that works out ok, everybody is able to get parked and get a few laps of practice down and back to the campers without any moisture. However, Friday morning rolls around(mind you the day we're supposed to qualify and race) and the skys open up and it rains.... and it rains and it rains and it RAINS... ALL friggin day long. Everybody is wet, cold and exhausted and nobody at Nascar is calling a spade a spade and just calling the races off.. because live TV is involved (and there is another set of live TV races scheduled for Saturday) they were going to do everything it took to get our races on. So we sit around all day, up until about 7pm Friday night, when they finally say, "we're not racing tonight.. but don't go anywhere yet because the rain is supposed to subside in a few hours and we *MIGHT* practice and qualify tonight for tomorrows race. Meanwhile, my mom, who got tired of sitting around in the rain, decided to head back to the motorhome to stay warm. I get a call from her on my cell phone telling me that a man and a woman had walked into Michael and I's trailer... I instantly panicked! I went to Michael to tell him this and come to find out, one of his crew members(who is very immature and disrespectful) had decided to take some skanky ass girl back to another crew members motor home, parked by us, to do obviously more than share a soda and a hot dog and chat about lilies and daisies and the meaning of life. Apparently, (which I still stand by my story that I think this is bullshit... but whatever) they decided to check out our trailer and put her purse in there. I was livid... BEYOND livid! Talk about an invasion of privacy... and I don't want to be a hormonal judgmental bitch or anything, but I knew the skanky woman he brought back to our trailer and she is the appitemy of a dirty filthy whore. I truly believe that just her presence alone could cause you to break out in a case of gonorrhea or herpes. Needless to say, furious was not the word to describe how I felt about this situation. SO of course, Michael and I got into a fight over it, because I was "blowing the situation out of proportion" and said the only thing his friend was guilty of was not telling us he was going to walk into our trailer and that how dare I scold his friend. So what... Maybe I was blowing the whole thing out of proportion. Maybe if I hadn't been exhausted and sitting in the rain for 14 hours I might have been a little more receptive to the situation... or maybe had I not had such a profound dislike for the piece of trash that accompanied him into our trailer, I might not have blown such a gasket.... oh well... who's to say what would have happened, all that I know was that I was heated to the max over it all (in fact... I find as I am writing this my toes are starting to curl... which is an indication I get when I am really pissed off... so apparently the situation is STILL under my skin!!!) UGH! Blame it on my hormones or something.. yeah that's it. :-)

So along with the trailer fiasco Friday night, lack of sleep, more rain on Saturday and the fact that Nascar put our race LAST and only gave us 30 minutes for 53 cars to run 150 laps (which didn't work out too well, we only got 12 laps in) they called the race and said it was time to go home, and in fact, they were going to honor the finishing order of the 12 lap race (4 of those laps were the only green flag laps we had, the rest were under caution!) And considering it was a $10,000 purse, nobody thought it was fair that the declared winner, get to walk away with 10 grand for a measly 12 laps. So everybody at this point was pissed, filing protests, screaming at Nascar, threatening to sue.. it was a nightmare! On top of that, I, personally, had allowed myself to do entirely too much physical exertion over those long days at the racetrack, on limited sleep and limited food intake, so I was done. Every part of my body ached and I was ready to cry at the first person who looked at me wrong! When would this nightmare be over!!! So, unfortunately what was supposed to be an awesome weekend of racing turned into hell!! (Another reason why I am going to try to talk my kid out of racing and make him play football!!! LOL Although considering racing runs way too deep in his blood, between Michael and I, I have a feeling I might lose that battle!)

Well I suppose I've covered just about everything up till this point. Next time I write(because we all know I am a once a month-er) I'll be a married woman, so I am sure I'll have some interesting scoops to share about the wedding and all that jazz. Hopefully that'll go through with little no no hiccups! But of course... it wouldn't be me if there wasn't some sort of disaster happening... that's what makes my life so interesting right? LOL