For those of you interested in pregnancy updates, this post if for you.  Yesterday was a momentous day in Pregnancy Land.

* It was our 18 week birthday which means I am 4.5 months now.  Crazy how time flies.

* It was my first day to wear maternity clothes.  Last Friday I finally had to unbutton my pants and wear a cami to try and cover it and still had the muffin top effect so I knew it was time for my soon to be new best friend…elastic.  I’m so thankful for Laura, Missy & Michelle in loaning me their maternity clothes so my frugal clothing budget can remain intact.  A special thanks to Laura who loaned me an entire suitcase full of clothes which should have me well taken care of for awhile!

* It was not only my first day to wear maternity clothes, I actually enjoyed it.  From others that have gone before, apparently I will end up hating them by the end of it but I don’t get the big deal with it so far.  Granted, I’m a total newbie and just haven’t lived in this clothing world long enough but I tend to be pretty content with only a few new things a year and right now I feel like I have a whole new wardrobe.

* The little baby is moving like crazy now and for the first time, someone besides Daniel and me was able to feel the movements.  Alexa happened to be sitting next to me last night at Foundry when this little one would not calm down so now she gets to claim first dibs on prego pics and feeling the baby move.  I’m sure she will use this to her advantage in her name negotiations, won’t you Alexa?

* It also marked 10 days until our decision deadline for finding out the gender.  Our anatomy ultrasound is scheduled for next Friday so we must decide by then.  I’m still totally on the fence so if you have any new reasoning to throw my way, I’m listening.  Notice I said reasoning and not just preference.

* And now what most of you want to see…the pic below…taken, by the way, in front of what was the hole in our house this weekend.  We are doing some finishing work tonight so hopefully I’ll have pictures of that tomorrow.  It is actually a horrible picture but I waited until we got home so this was at 10:30 PM last night and the lighting was really bad and we were too tired to fix it.  So my 18 week belly.  (My 13.5 week belly was me leaning back and trying to poke out whatever I had.  This is totally relaxed.)

Today is 9/11/08, 7 years later.  I’m not watching the media coverage of today’s events so I’m not as intune with what is going on this year.  Check out my post from this day last year: The 6th Year.

After being sick last weekened and also missing out on Emily M’s planned visit, it ended up being a very low key weekend.  I ended up watching movies and laying on the couch trying to eat rather unsuccessfully but finally felt better on Sunday.  Daniel was in Tampa and got back in time for us to go to Fellowship on Sunday which had an awesome video about www.frontporchministry.org.

I’ve felt really good this week and was able to get a lot accomplished.  I’ve also been walking in the mornings about 2-3 times a week with my friend Missy and that has been a very good thing.  Emily M & I met for lunch in Ardmore, TN (what a name!) at our little mexican food restaurant and enjoyed a good four hours of conversation.  Always a plus and she gave me our first official baby gift!  SO fun.

I listened to the Dave Ramsey Small Business Theme Hour on Wednesday and finally got to here Daniel’s radio ad about Entreleadership!  It’s been running for awhile and he keeps getting calls from friends across the country about it but every time I listen, I never hear it so I was way excited.  We’ll be heading to Cancun in November for a spectacular event.  I actually did some quick maternity sale shopping because I realized I will need off season clothes and a bathing suit and did not want to pay full price at a specialty store that carries those things year round.  Thank you Target.  And I hope they fit.

We’re heading to Atlanta today for Daniel’s business trip and I actually need to go pack.  Since the last 4 weekends he has been out of town or we’ve been busy with the wedding, I’m really looking forward to getting to be together all weekend.  Atlanta is not really one of my favorite places (I think I’ve been there too much) but you can always find something to do and somewhere to eat so it should be good.  I’m also hoping we will have plenty of time to talk and make decisions about baby stuff so we could have the answer to the “finding out question” when we get back.

I’ve been really into keeping up with the hurricane news and am concerned about the Texas coast and what Ike wil decide to do since I have a lot of family in the Houston area. I also hope my brother & sister in law decide to update their blog about it. Hint, hint.

And for the pregnancy update many of you want….I’m 16 weeks as of yesterday and I think I may have felt the baby move this morning.  Not sure, but I think so.  I’ve got the very painful sciatic nerve pain going on too so I had to lay on one side all night long.  That’s hard for me because I tend to change sleeping positions often.  But because of that, I think the baby was hanging out on one side so when I pressed on that side of my belly, I definitely felt a reaction.  So then I did it a lot and then had Daniel try and we both felt something.  I’m not totally convinced and it wasn’t spontaneous movement so I’m still waiting to call it official.

So there’s this week in review.  Happy Weekend.