a·ne·mi·a –noun

1. Pathology. a quantitative deficiency of the hemoglobin, often accompanied by a reduced number of red blood cells and causing pallor, weakness, and breathlessness.

2. a lack of power, vigor, vitality, or colorfulness: His writing suffers from anemia.

According to my blood test results from my last doc appointment, I'm border line anemic. Basically meaning I don't have enough iron in me. So they basically have put me on a high iron diet. BOO! They gave me a list of foods to start eating everyday....now you tell me if any of this sounds good to you:

• Malt-O-Meal
• Lima Beans, Refried Beans, Soy Beans
• Kidney Beans, Black-eyed Peas, Lentils (?)
• Cashews, Almonds
• Walnuts
• Spinach (YUCK!)
• Prune Juice (who drinks that?!)
• Beef
• Tofu (make me THROW UP!)
• Soy Milk
• Sesame Seeds
• Sardines, Shrimp (not for me!)
• Tuna (can't take the smell right now..)
• Broccoli (COULD do...)
• Wheat germ (NEVER bought or had in my LIFE)
• Apricots, Raisins
• Prunes, Plums (plums are fine)
• Molasses (SO SICK!)
• Total Cereal (maybe if I add alot of sugar)
• Cream-of-wheat (mom made that too much that I hate it)
• Captain Crunch, Kix, Trix, Wheaties, Cheerios (SO COULD DO THESE!)

So as you can tell there's not too much fun things to eat on this kind of diet. Luckily I wasn't out of luck though because they decided to give me prescription for iron pills. ALTHOUGH the pharmacist warned me that constipation could be a likely side effect...oh well, I'm willing to risk it. BUT I was reading the label and it says "Take withOUT food and don't lie down 30 minutes after taking and take with 8oz of water." FREAK! Its harder to take this pill then you would think! The things I do for the little one I love...

Cell Phones....

As I said a little bit before, Kent has spent much time lately dealing with Sprint. First, may I advise EVERYONE to stay clear of them and NEVER EVER have them as your phone company! I HATE having them!

For the past ummmm...lets say 4 months, Kent and my 5 month old phones have been jacking up! Whenever people call us we can't hear them but they can hear us. We freaking just got these phone in June and only had them a few months before its started happening. This isn't the first time this has happened either....its the second. Our last phones had problems charging and we'd only had them for about 9 months! So we invested in new phones and had to resign another 2 year contract. We supposedly paid extra for their best phones so we wouldn't have this problem again....well that's crap because 5 months into having them we have problems. So finally after letting it slide for a few months I got pissed and made Kent call. After much research they said nothing was wrong and basically said "Have a good day!" Well we weren't going to have that so finally after talking to about a bazillion people Kent demanded we get 2 new phones worth the same amount as we paid for the phones we currently had and that we didn't have to resign a freaking contract. I swear they rig their phones so that this kinda stuff happens and we have to resign and resign and stay FOREVER! Well I told Kent I wasn't going to have it because once we are done with our contract we are NOT signing up again and we're not getting screwed into resigning with having to get NEW phones which isn't our fault!!!!! So after much talk and frustration, my amazing hubbie somehow convinced them to not have us resign and to give us two more phones for FREE! Ok well not necessarily for "free" because they were only going to give us $600 to put toward phones and Kent supposedly needs a Blackberry for work for internet/email so we had to pay like $99 or something but thats still not bad....although he decided to wait until LATER to inform me the internet on it will be $40! WHATEVER!

My new phone

Kent's New Phone

But just because Sprint did give us new phones doesn't mean I like them because I still totally dispise them! In fact, I always make sure that every month I call in and get my $10 credit each month of dropped calls. We can do that per phone so total we get $20 off our bill each month! HA! I'm going to get all I can out of a stupid company who tries to screw over all their customers! SO SCREW YOU SPRINT!!!!!

Ok, so the past week has been a total BORE and to top it off this week hasn't been too great either! WHY?!?! Well last Tuesday, Kent was in Boise and then he left again on Wednesday to fly out of Salt Lake that night to head to Phoenix for pre-season knocking (which by the way he did really well so I guess I should be proud and not complain....). He then came home Sunday late afternoon and informed me that he's flying to Boise AGAIN on TUESDAY!!!! UGH! So he's gone again ALL day today! Yes, he was home on Monday but he was busy meeting with some recruits, manager meeting, and going out with some possible prospects later that night. So if you want to count that as him being home on Monday....go ahead. Am I complaining too much?! Well, I should be clear that yes I love that he is happy and that he got sales and that he's getting recruits BUT it stinks that it takes up SOOOOO much time! Because when he does get free time he uses it to call freaking Sprint to complain and get things straightened out, figuring out our health insurance, and straightening out school stuff...all of these things which I can not do because supposedly a MAN can get them to act faster and get more out of them. Sure...


Although I'm complaining about not seeing much of my hubbie I will say that I actually had a good weekend. My mom was so gracious to come in town to visit me for a few days! PERFECT TIME MOM! We had a fun weekend of shopping (although more window shopping than anything), going out to eat, movies (Music and Lyrics and The Devil Wears Prada), and bowling (YES we went bowling and it really was alot of fun and I was quite impressed with my mom's bowling skills!). She kept me busy and entertained although I don't think she enjoyed Stella's pestering too much. The second my mom would walk out of her room while getting ready, Stella would some how manage to unzip her bags and pull things out consistently! INCLUDING taking her brand new $150 boots and chewing up the heel! I felt terrible! My mom seemed to try to laugh it all off saying we need to rename her "Snoopy" but I'm sure that she was quite annoyed by the end of it all. But thank goodness she was a good sport anyway. That dang dog sometimes!!

I haven't been completely bored today either....to an extent. I woke up at around nine (Kent had already left at about 4:45 am). I got up, watched a lil Regis and Kelly then hurried and cleaned up a little because people were coming to look at the townhouse at 11. Once they left, I showered and got ready, made some lunch and realized how pretty it was outside. I decided to take Stella on a walk---I'm so sweet to her! HA! After a long walk, came home and left to make a deposit at the bank, stop by the post office and then go vacuum out the car. I was even so good as to get the wipes when I got home and clean all the leather and dash! Kent will be SO happy when he comes home.....lets see if he actually notices. The Real Housewives of Orange County is on tonight (so sad that I like that show) so I'll probably get together with my good friend Amanda (whose hubbie is off with Kent) and get some dinner and sit and watch that tonight. So I got some stuff accomplished today and not a terribly BORING day but not too thrilling either. I'm really excited about the weather though and I've even checked the 10 day forecast and its supposed to be in the high 40's to 50's--although all days except for today are supposed to be rainy! BOO! But I can't complain because its FINALLY warming up!


Now all I wish is that I could go get my Tutti Fruittie snow cone because it feels like summer today!

ADDICTIONS

I have 2 new recent addictions that I just can't get enough of.

#1 Now and Laters

I have eaten 3 packs in less than 24 hrs

#2 The Work and the Glory Books
I'm officially almost finished with the 2nd book. It has only taken me about 1 week!

UNEXPECTED Purchase

Yesterday, Kent and I made a very much spontaneous buy. We went to Wal-Mart to pick up some things and on the way home, as Kent ALWAYS does, we drove through some of the car lots around town. Well, one of the car salesmen convinced us to get out of our car and come inside to "talk." Kent being a salesman himself has a hard time turning these types of guys down. This all began our long 4 hour day at the car dealer yesterday.

We test drove/looked at a few cars-Cobalt, Corolla, Civic, Accord, Mazda6, and Camry. Our fav was the Mazda6 by far. Well then the car salesman, "Dave", did his magic and before we new it we drove off the lot with our new 2005 Green Mazda6 V6 (Kent wouldn't have it any other way)!

**Not pics of our ACTUAL car but its just the same**

We've been talking about getting a second car for a long time but we have just put it off and put it off. We wanted to buy something with better gas mileage for the summer time to take to sell and something we could put miles on so we didn't have to load them on the Lexus. So just like that it just happened. Now Kent wants to sell the Lexus since we'll not be bringing it down this summer and since it'll just be sitting he wants to get rid of the expense. He swears he can make money on it and says that if we sell it before we leave then when we get back he'll buy me a Infiniti QX56, the newer Tahoe, or newer Lexus RX330. I told him if he bought me my Range Rover or Escalade then I'd be SOLD! He hasn't quite convinced me just yet but we'll see. WE JUST BOUGHT IT AND I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY HE WANTS TO SELL IT! But hey I must say I do like the idea of getting new cars like this all the time. I'll have to test drive a few before I'm 100% sold because I really do LOVE my lexus...

I am completely bored today. Why? Well...Kent left to go meet with some recruits in Twin Falls with Brandon (our good friend/co-manager with Kent). He left me with no car because he wanted to take it in while he was gone to get the brake pads changed and the tires rotated. GREAT DAY TO DO THAT! So in the meantime, I sit at home trying to do something to pass the time away until he gets home and we can go get the car. I've made lunch (MADE LUNCH I DIDN'T GO OUT AND BUY ANY...YEAH!), dusted, swept, caught up on my Oprah's, and I just got home from trying to wear out Stella and taking her on a walk (she must be pretty tired now because she came home and PASSED OUT!) since it is such a pretty day outside. I will probably throw in some laundry and do some needed vacuuming soon enough.

I would say that I'm looking forward to a relaxing weekend but I have a feeling that that won't happen. Kent is busy doing recruiting--if he gets 5 guys signed by next Saturday we get an Apple Labtop and if his region has 100 recruits at their Super Saturday its an all expense paid trip to Vegas the first weekend of March! So I'm totally supporting that because even if he gets 3 signed he gets a video ipod and the looks of us going to Vegas are pretty high. But its still not much fun for me because that means he's gone and I'm pretty much stuck at home doing nothing! BOO! I shouldn't complain because he really is a hard worker but its just not much fun for me right now. I'm just anxiously awaiting the summer in Charlotte, NC!

Only about a month and a half before we head across country! We're only two hours from Myrtle Beach and the plane tickets out of Charlotte aren't too pricey! It really is a beautiful city and I'm really excited to go and experience it for a few months! I'll be laying out with the girls by the pool everyday which I've never really been able to do because I've always been working. Now I get to take the baby and just relax!

VALENTINE'S DAY

I hate to brag about how good my hubbie was to me this Vday, but he's not always much of the romantic who plans in advance for such events like this so he deserves it! After all, this is our last Valentine's day together until we have the baby and have him take over our lives!

We kind of started Valentine's Day early. It was actually the result of a misunderstanding. I had some things planned and needed him out of the house for a few hours. He had left Tuesday (Vday eve) for a meeting with work. I figured this was my time to prepare. So I texted him to see if he wanted me to do his Valentine's day early so that I could have everything done while he was gone. He said "sure" and so I started preparing. I baked cupcakes and sugar cookies (well bought the cookies) and put my whole "decor" together for him with his presents. He came home completely surprised that I had done all that and had thought I was only preparing for tomorrow not doing my whole presentation that night. So to make a long story short we ended up exchanging gifts early BEFORE vday! I gave Kent some new jeans from Buckle he's been in dying need of, socks, batteries, razor blades (he asked for all that for Christmas but didn't get it...ha....everyone I guess thought that was TOO practical but that's just Kent) and then I gave him 2 books about plants and their uses. Sounds nerdy I know, but Kent wanted some books that told him what plants in the wild you could eat, use for medicine, etc. He's a nerd like that! Kent completely surprised me with my gift. WHY!?! Well #1 he doesn't plan ahead and it was the DAY BEFORE vday and he was PREPARED ALREADY and #2 he actually got me something! He surprised me COMPLETELY with a beautiful diamond/shapire necklace! At first I opened it and said "diamonds and navy diamonds?! Why navy?!" STUPID ME...ITS MY BIRTH STONE! How sentimental is he?! LOVED LOVED LOVED IT and totally and completely suprised! He's the best! So that kicked off our great Valentine's Day!

Like I said, Kent planned very well for this vday. Starting the day he brought him heart shaped donuts, Martinelli's, and strawberries after basketball for breakfast. While sitting and relaxing their was a knock at the door and the florists was delivering a dozen red roses (HE ACTUALLY CALLED AHEAD!!!) After relaxing with each other, he took me too lunch. Once we got home, he said he had to leave because he had some MORE things to take care of. What more could he be doing?!? A few hours past and he came home telling me to get ready and pack my bags because he had another suprise.

He took me to AmericInn where to my surprise was a African hut theme room waiting for us with roses petals, candles, chocolates, and MORE MARTINELLI'S awaiting our arrival! The room was SO beautiful! Theme rooms may sound tacky to some but I promise that this room was VERY nice! I LOVED IT! I think I LOVED it even more because he totally did this on his own and totally surprised me. I told him I HAD to take pics before we touched anything so I whipped out my camera and went to town!

All in all it was a GREAT evening. We left and went to dinner then came back and just had a relaxing night. Its not everyday that I get spoiled like this. Kent was so sweet! I know I'm biased but he really is the best husband EVER!

THE NURSERY aka Lil Boss' Room

Boston's Crib

The Changing Table

Rocking Chair(but will be white not cream)

Bedding (I won't do initials though)

**Courtesy of Pottery Barn Kids

The New Year

Since I have been terrible at posting, I have never gotten on and posted my New Year's Resolutions. I know its now February but I decided I should post them so that it will really seal the deal. I only have two that I've been working on, but for me they are pretty big.

#1: Cook more, eat out less.

Kent and I seem to have gotten in a terrible habit of eating out this summer. I mean it has gotten so bad that I hate to admit that we were eating out for lunch and dinner ALMOST every night of the week. It was terrible! Not to mention UNHEALTHY! We tried to control ourselves by saying we'll just eat out twice a week but that plan never got put into action. I NEVER grocery shopped...EVER! I mean when I say I had no food in my house, I literally had NO FOOD in my house. Which is probably why we ate out most of the time on top of my laziness to get to it and cook! Well, at Christmas, Kristin came to my rescue and gave us all this HUGE 3 inch binder full of recipes from my mom, herself and some of her friends. I decided it was time to me to start over. I have to admit that I really have been doing MUCH better! I cook almost EVERY night except for maybe 2 nights a week and even on those nights we don't necessarily eat out! Its amazing the difference this has played on our weight, health, and bank account! Hopefully I continue to stick to it!!

#2: Shop less, save more.

Since Kent and I have been married, luckily for us we have never really had to worry too much about money. I am very grateful for this. We've never really been in a financial bind and had to struggle like our parents had to. If we needed or wanted something, we never seemed to have the problem of being able to afford it, not to say we're rich by all means but we've just always been financially stable. I would never say that my shopping got out of control but I guess for some reason it hit me this year that I probably shop WAY too much and get things that I don't necessarily HAVE to have at that time. I'm not used to having to save up to get something because the money has always been there. For some reason this all of the sudden hit me and I've become more a stickler about what I decide to buy and if I really NEED it. Let me tell you just with small things it has amazingly saved us LOTS of money. Don't get me wrong, I still spend on occasions but I think I'm learning to appreciate things more. We aren't stingy with our money nor do I think we ever will be because that's just not how we are but I've decided to be a little bit more reserved with our money. I have been able to see our savings account increase dramatically and it gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling inside! Lets up I stick with this when the baby comes...

The Joys that Come with Pregnancy

I decided that since today is such a snowy day, I would take time out to FINALLY update my blog. I've realized that I'm worse at this than I thought I would be!

Anyway, so for the past few weeks life has been pretty much miserable for me. If I could explain the physical pains of what I have had to endure...I swear! It all happened about 3 weeks ago. Right after dinner, when I was cleaning everything up, all of the sudden I had this SHARP, KILLING pain the my lower right back. Nothing helped, not walking, not sitting, not laying down.....NOTHING! It was hurting so bad that it finally brought me to tears! Kent called the doctor and they said it may just be a pinched nerve and to continue walking around and take a warm bath and that if the pain continued call back. Well, the pain somewhat subsided and I guess you could say I made it through the night.

The next day, I already had my regular appointment scheduled to go in and get an ultrasound and confirm the sex of the baby (and YES it is FOR sure a BOY!). I told the tech about my pains and she sent in the R.N. After giving her a pee sample and telling her of my pains, she said to take Tylenol around the clock and they would call me in 2 days with the results (she thought it MIGHT be a urinary track infection or just regular pain that just "comes with pregnancy!"). Whatever, I new it was more than that and that this was NOT normal! So, STILL in pain, we left a lil pissed (well me mainly) that we had to wait a whole freaking TWO days for the results! HELLO I don't think she understood what kind of pain I was in!

After continuously taking Tylenol every 4 hours and still enduring MUCH pain, I started vomiting that night after dinner. I told Kent I couldn't do it anymore. Finally, around 11:30 pm I had Kent take me to the ER. As soon as I got to the room, I threw up some more and then they started running all kinds of tests the rest of the night. I got blood drawn, urine tests taken, I.V.'s run threw me for fluids, and xrays taken. All this time I am still freaking taking on this STRONG MISERABLE PAIN!!!!!!!!! They thought it could either be a kidney infection, appendicitis, or a kidney stone. They couldn't know FOR SURE because I couldn't have a cat scan run since I'm pregnant. Well they ended up ruling out appendicitis and checked me out of the hospital at 6 am. I was so drugged up from the pain killers and meds (WHICH NEVER SEEMED TO HELP!) that I couldn't even keep my eyes open. Kent was so great to just sit there patiently while all this was going on all night. Well we went home and slept for about 2 hrs then we had to go meet the doctor at 8:30. After our visit with him and finding blood in my urine, he checked me back into the hospital. For the rest of the day I was up there getting fluids/meds pumped into me. I wish I couldn't have taken a pic so I could have shown how swollen I got from pumping all that into me. My lips, face and arms were freaking HUGE! Anyways, around 4:30 they sent me home because I had held down food for a few hours and I had finished all the fluids the doc prescribed. But low and behold shortly after I got home I started throwing up AGAIN!!!! I had pain meds the doc prescribed and antibiotics. Neither seemed to work that well. I went back to the doc on Friday and he decided that I needed to get an at home nurse to come pump fluids into me all weekend because I had lost 7 lbs in 2 days since I couldn't hold anything down. They still didn't necessarily no what was going on and basically seemed like all they could tell me was to freaking endure it and wait it out! These stupid docs must not have known what kind of pain I was in!!!!

So after a long weekend of pretty much just sleeping (cause that's what those fluids did to me), a funny nurse who agreed with me about the doctors, and 8 liters of fluid later I went back to the doctor to take more blood and more urine samples. Well apparently, according to them everything LOOKED normal. No more blood in the urine and my white blood count was back to normal. He was about to let me go when I got a lil impatient and told him I was still in pain and nothing feels different!!! He then set up an apt for me to get an ultrasound done on my kidneys to check for blockage or a stone...why they couldn't of done this a week ago I don't know!

Back off to the hospital I went the next day for the ultrasound. Apparently she said I had fluid in my right kidney and some sort of blockage on that side as well. There was no stone that was in my kidney but could have been moving on down and be the cause of the blockage. Supposedly since the baby's head is in the way she couldn't do much more investigation. I waited a few more days (STILL IN PAIN I MIGHT ADD AND THROWING UP AGAIN since I wasn't on fluids anymore) for the doc to get the results...because apparently even though his clinic and the hospital are right next door it takes that long for him to receive them. Whatever!

By that Friday when I met with him, much of my pain had miraculously subsided. I still had it on occasion but nothing nearly as severe. He said I had mild to severe blockage but that since my pain is much better if it WAS a kidney stone, it had probably past and then he sent me on my way and that was pretty much the end of it!

It took a few days for the pain to stop completely after all that. I attribute no thanks to the doctors though. They were the most frustrating part of it all. Kent was my rock through it all! He really was great! I will say I haven't had to take any of the bazillions of meds they have had me on at all this week. YEAH! This is also the first week I haven't thrown up! So things are definitely on the up...thankfully! I don't know if I could have taken that much longer. They say that what I went through is worse than labor and let me tell you IT BETTER BE or else I don't know how many kids I'll want after this!