With everything that happened on Monday, I forgot to tell you how the Super Bowl Brownies turned out! And pictures are always better than words:

I used a Duncan Hines box mix and made a quick powdered sugar glaze for the laces (powdered sugar mixed with water until the right consistency is reached). They were actually pretty easy! And the plate I found at Target a couple of years ago in the $1 section. Love it!

I’m SO excited as I write this, because in FOUR days, I will be able to tell all of you whether our little one is a girl or a boy! We can do away with the “it” title the baby has right now! No more of this: “Let’s decide how to decorate it’s room.” “Gosh, it’s moving a lot right now!”

I hate the word it in relation to our baby. It makes the baby sound like he or she is not really a person, just a thing.

But, enough of my soapbox. 🙂

Yesterday was a great day! I had lunch with a good friend of mine and we started a Bible study that is awesome! It’s called Because of Jesus and I highly recommend it. We ended up talking for two hours at an adorable little tea room. Such a great conversation! God has been teaching me so much lately – Monday’s reminder of how He protects us has just been the tip of the iceberg. The fact that He loves us so completely, so thoroughly…wow. It just amazes me!

I went and met my Mom and sister afterward at the mall. I needed some black ballet flats for the upcoming Christian Writers Guild conference (it’s February 18-21 in Denver – I’m SO excited to go!!! If any of you are going to be able to be there, send me an email so we can meet up and get coffee or something!). I found some shoes (cute and actually relatively comfortable – SCORE) and my sister applied for a job and got it (yay! The mall is very close to my house, so I’ll get to see her more!)

After that, I met some girls from my Bible study for a quick coffee before dinner. It was so nice to get a chance for some girl catch-up time! Jon had a family night thing that lasted late at his school, so when he finished, he came and picked me up from coffee and we caught a quick dinner at Flying Star (favorite local place here!) and then watched the American Idol episode we DVR-d (my thoughts: Group Day = Weird).

Today is going to be a quieter day. I’m working on some writing and I might have to clean out the closet in what’s going to be the baby’s room (right now, it’s the catch-all room) just to make the time pass faster. I’ve been trying to come up with all kinds of things to do this week to keep my mind off of this coming Monday’s festivities! You know – because a watched pot never boils and stuff like that. 🙂

And I’ll leave you with a picture of my constant companion:

🙂 Have a great day!

~~

Yesterday morning started out like any other Monday morning. Weekends are typically more filled with activities around here than my normal day during the week, so I’m usually exhausted come Monday morning.

So, I sleep in. My excuse? I’m pregnant. 🙂

Well, yesterday morning, Jon kissed me goodbye, I went back to bed and woke up about 9:15. I was still very tired, so I decided, “Eh, I don’t have that much to do today. I’m sleeping more.” So, I fell back asleep.

At 9:40, I heard someone yell, “Erynn!”

I sat straight up in bed, put on my socks since it was cold and walked out into the family room because I figured Jon was home and it must’ve been a snow day.

No Jon. No snow. No one but Kody, who was sitting there just blinking at me.

I decided I must have dreamed it and went back to my bedroom to brush my teeth and blow my nose (I seem to be suffering from the weird stuffy nose of pregnancy…who knew it existed?). Right after I blew my nose, I started smelling something weird.

I sniffed all around our bedroom, the guest room, the office, the bathrooms, the laundry room and finally came back out to the family room and kitchen where one of us apparently accidentally bumped our gas stove knob. It was on, the flame was not.

I immediately opened all the doors and windows and Kody and I hurried outside (yep, bathrobe and all). I ran back inside, threw on some pajama pants and a long-sleeve shirt and Kody and I went to my Mom and Dad’s for about three hours yesterday morning, leaving my house to air out.

I didn’t experience any of the symptoms of exposure to fumes (headache, nausea, dizziness, fainting), but I went to the doctor this morning just to make sure that everything is okay with our peanut. And everything is perfectly fine – a heartbeat of 144 and he/she’s a busy little thing! I bet the baby is just excited that we’ll finally start calling it by it’s proper gender and name soon! Six days away!!!

I truly believe that God or an angel yelled my name yesterday morning. If I hadn’t heard it and hadn’t woken up, I would have slept probably until close to eleven in the morning and by then the gas would have been on for several hours and I and the baby might have been feeling the effects of it.

I have been SO reminded about how much God loves us and how faithful He is to protect us! Most of you know that Psalm 121 is my all-time favorite chapter in the Bible, but I’m so comforted by it now:

And that is my miraculous story for this week! I love that our God is here and present with us, don’t you? 🙂

And, without further ado, here’s my 18 week picture! I took this on Sunday, so it’s actually a little bit past the “official” 18 week mark, but close enough:

Growing, growing, growing! Counting down the days, hour, minutes and milliseconds until we get to find out what God already knows – whether this one is a boy or girl!

Love to all of you and a very heartfelt THANK YOU to all of you out there who have been praying for me and this baby. 🙂 I can’t even put into words what that means to me and Jon!

~~

Not to ruin anyone’s weekend, but Friday is SO CLOSE to Monday! Which will mean only one week until we find out! 🙂

I’m only a little bit excited. 🙂

Today was a good day! I got some mailing stuff taken care of at the post office, went to a store that carries previously owned maternity clothes and found nothing (sad), Wal-Mart and the Sunflower Market (love that store!).

We’re spending Super Bowl Sunday with my parents and siblings and I decided we are going to make guacamole (because it sounds really good right now!) and brownies. Only these brownies are going to look like this:

Aren’t they adorable? I saw them on the Betty Crocker website and just couldn’t resist them! What are your plans for the game? Anything fun and exciting? And who are you rooting for? I’m not really tied to either team, but I’ve always been a Peyton Manning fan so I’m going to go for him in between mouthfuls of guacamole and brownies. 🙂

Tomorrow, we’ve got a birthday party for a little guy in our Bible study. He’s turning the Big 2, so of course we’re going to live it up a little bit for him! 🙂 I just love little kid birthday parties! We went to another little boy’s 1st birthday party a couple of weeks ago. All of the other kids were trying to get in on the unwrapping. Hilarious! It’s even more fun for me and Jon because we get to just sit back with our content, just-barely-kicking-in-there child and watch all the parents go crazy trying to corral and feed their kids.

It’s entertaining. 🙂 We have great examples of parenthood in our circle of friends. I love, love, LOVE our Bible study!! 🙂

Well, tonight is Friday which means we’re having leftovers from this week for dinner. And since they sound so good right now, I might have to toss a couple of baked potatoes in the oven too. 🙂

If you’re in the northeast part of the country, I hope you are bundling up! Stay warm out there, everyone! And have a fabulous Super Bowl weekend!

~~

Today is a cold, dreary day and it’s been snowing almost all day. But we’ve got little to show for it. Again. 🙁 I think, if it’s going to snow, it should snow. After we’re all safe at home, of course.

I got my haircut yesterday and I took some before pics, but they aren’t loading onto my computer for whatever reason. So, all I’ve got is the after pic. To give you an idea, I ended up getting about four inches cut off yesterday. My hair feels so much healthier! I’ve decided that long hair is just a hassle. And mine gets so tangled and yucky looking on the ends way too quickly.

Pardon the poor quality. I took it with my MacBook. Gotta love that Photo Booth application! You can’t see much of it, but this is my glider that I got for Christmas from my mom and dad. I sit here almost every day to either write or read or catch up on the things I call “marketing strategies” but are really just Facebook and Twitter. 🙂

I am at 17.5 weeks today and Big News! I have felt the baby moving! 🙂 YAY! It’s the weirdest feeling EVER and nothing like I imagined it would feel like. Almost like a little thumping in my stomach. Very, very odd. Still, SO exciting and I can’t wait until Jon is able to feel it!

Speaking of my dear husband, he went snowboarding this past weekend, as you guys know. Well, apparently somewhere halfway down a black diamond slope filled with moguls (bad news for snowboarders), he did something weird to his back. He could barely bend over on Monday, so he took a sick day and went to the chiropractor.

Chiropractors have the strangest jobs. This doctor wasn’t a tiny guy, but he wasn’t a big guy either and Jon is not small (you don’t play football at a college level by being a little guy!). So, the doctor is almost jumping on Jon and Jon’s making cracking noises all over and I’m standing in the corner not able to watch. Bleugh. I can’t even stand it when someone cracks their knuckles, cracking a back is WAY worse. But, I was there because I’ve been to the chiropractor and unable to drive afterward. So, I was the designated driver.

Anyway. I think it’s safe to say that I will not be going back to school for my chiropractic degree.

Did you guys watch American Idol or Chopped last night? Chopped was a rerun (boo!), but American Idol cracked both Jon and I up (wow – way too much cracking in this post). I normally don’t start watching until the auditions are over and they are in Hollywood, but it was a good show last night. Though, I have to confess – I thought guest judge Victoria Beckham looked way too dark last night for it being February. I mean, I’m all for fake tanning (as most of us heavy-on-the-Swedish blooded girls are), but there needs to be some realism to the darkness of the tan, I think.

Hope you are having a great day today! I’m going to leave you with something I saw on Facebook today that had me giggling:

“Let’s eat Grandma!” OR “Let’s eat, Grandma!”
Punctuation saves lives.

Have a wonderful night! 🙂

~~

Today is Monday and I officially love Mondays!

Or at least, I do for the next two weeks. Because Monday, February 15th, is when we find out whether we are having a boy or a girl!!

I’m SO excited!! (In case you couldn’t tell!) I can’t wait to get the baby’s room all ready and start collecting some of the adorable baby clothes I’ve been seeing. AND I have this great plan of how to tell the family and you guys what we’re having! I’ll be sure to take tons of pictures!

In other news, I’m coming off of a great weekend with my mom and sister. We were supposed to go to Colorado Springs to visit our friends, Jen and Greg (who just had the cutest baby boy!) and Jen’s parents, Barb and Walt, but the snowstorm on Thursday and Friday kept us from going. Jon, my dad and my brothers all went to Durango to do a little skiing and snowboarding, so Kody and I packed up and spent the weekend at my parents’ house. We’ll have to find time to go to Colorado Springs soon!

We had such a relaxing weekend! We went to go see When In Rome, we ate out, Cayce and I helped my mom redecorate her living room and we watched the Miss America contest (I was rooting for Miss California – though Miss New Mexico did great!). When In Rome was adorable – though we were all laughing at the height difference between Kristen Bell and Josh Duhamel.

Jon and the guys had a good time too – until yesterday afternoon when Jon did something to one of the disks in his back. So, Jon had to take a sick day, we spent this morning at a chiropractor and Jon’s busy icing and heating his back today. Poor guy!

I finally get my hair cut tomorrow (yay!) and I’ll be sure to post before and after pictures for you. Still thinking about going closer to shoulder-length – I think it will just be so much easier!

Jon’s watching The Rookie right now as he has the heating pad on his back and I have a confession: I cry like a baby during this movie. And even though I’m trying to get some work done today, I can’t help watching bits and pieces of it and I’m now sniffling through this blog.

What did you guys do this weekend? 🙂

~~

We woke up this morning to snow and it’s been snowing ever since. I guess we’re supposed to get a couple of inches today.

So, I am going to stay home in my sweatpants, I think. 🙂 My car is not, by any means, a snow car. Which is fine. I have laundry and some cleaning to do today. Fun day ahead! 😛

I’ve been getting asked a lot (and asking Jon a lot!) whether we think it is a boy or a girl. I know all these people who told me they just knew which one it is. At this point, the only thing I know is it’s one or the other. 🙂 I honestly have no idea! I wish I did, because all kinds of adorable winter outfits are on sale right now! 🙂

I got a welcome surprise from my editor the other day and I just had to share it with you!

This is the cover for the third in the Maya Davis series. I’m SO excited for you guys to meet her! April seems like so far away, but I know it will be here before we know it! Here are the other two book covers (Cool Beans is the first in the series):

I’m so excited! As of right now, I believe the release dates are April 1st, July and October (I don’t have definite dates on the second two). And since Cool Beans is coming out in April, I think we might just have to have a little contest soon to win an autographed copy of it. 🙂 Yay!

Well, my laundry and day of cleaning and organizing is waiting for me. 🙂

Stay warm out there!

I had to get blood drawn Friday.

If by any chance there is a nurse reading this blog who had to, along with three of her fellow nurses, hold down a 5-year-old blond girl during a round of shots about 20 years ago, I’m really, really sorry. And Mom, I’m also going to apologize to you – I’m sure that you got many a dirty look thanks to me.

Sorry about that.

I’m still not too fond of needles.

But, I made it through getting my blood drawn with minimal screaming. 🙂 Actually, no screaming and the sting wasn’t too bad either. I want the lady who drew my blood Friday to do it every time I need it done now. She was awesome. Quick, fairly painless and I was on my way with a purple stretchy bandage thing wrapped around my elbow.

We got to hear the baby’s heartbeat again and we’ve got a nice strong one on our hands. And, this baby has officially popped – I’m most definitely showing now! I had big plans to take the 16-week picture about six times this weekend, but every time my makeup was on and hair was decent, I wasn’t around a camera. So, you get this picture:

This is me – sweatpants and all. And this is a pre-pregnancy shirt, as you can tell. It’s getting to be a bit small. And no, I didn’t get my face in there and that’s on purpose. 🙂

When did you moms first feel your baby move?

We get to find out whether we’re having a boy or a girl on February 15th and I’m SO excited I can hardly stand it! Jon and I have been talking about this for weeks and it’s only three weeks away. Yay! 🙂 We already know exactly how we’re going to tell our families, so I’ll have to come up with some cute way of letting all of you know on here as well. 🙂 And we have a few names picked out, but nothing set in stone, so I’m going to keep them quiet until we know for sure! It’s seems like such a huge responsibility to name this baby! But, God already knows exactly how many hairs will be on this baby’s head (I might know the answer to that one too – zero), and He also knows what his/her name will be. 🙂 That’s a comforting thought!

Have you guys seen previews for When In Rome? I think that looks so cute! I really want to go see that (plus, you really can’t beat movie theater popcorn!).

I’m getting my hair cut next week (thank goodness!) and it’s been a long time coming. I’m thinking I might go back to somewhere around shoulder-length. 🙂 It’s just SO much easier than having long, straggly hair like my is right now. We’ll see though! I always get to my hairdresser’s and chicken out right at the last minute.

I hope you all have a fantastic Monday! 🙂

I was going through pictures yesterday and found this one of Kody back in the puppy days. I just love how he had to grow into his ears!

Last weekend, as I’m sure those of you who are in school know, was Martin Luther King Jr. weekend.

And so I give my deepest thanks to MLK for having a weekend that usually falls either on or around my birthday. I loved it when I was in school and I love it even more now because Jon got Monday off. And since my birthday was on Sunday, I ended up getting something like a two-day birthday celebration. 🙂

We spent Sunday with my family which was amazing! I love spending time with them. And Jon and the fam spoiled me rotten with gifts. Don’t you just love the birthdays where every gift you get is something you are excited about?

We went to a Japanese restaurant and did the whole Teppan grill experience. And here’s the thing – I TOTALLY spaced that they cook 1) eggs and 2) chicken right in front of you. Oy! I just focused really hard on the soup and salad and didn’t eat much of the fried rice. But other than that, it was delicious and I’m so glad we went! My mom and Jon made my favorite dessert ever, Oreo Smush (I reference it in one of the Lauren books!), and it was just the most perfect day!

And…drumroll please… I finished my deadline! Yay! Now, I just need to make a few corrections and send it off! I love being ahead of schedule!

Which means that this week has been chill week. I’m just letting my brain take a vacation this week, so I’ve been hanging out at the house, today I’m meeting a friend for coffee and just relaxing. I’ve got a stack of books I can’t wait to dive into!

In other news, I’ll be 16 weeks along on Friday and I’ll be sure to take a decent picture then. I’ve also got a doctor’s appointment that morning and I have to get blood drawn. 🙁 I’m not a fan of needles. Never have been, probably never will be. I’m really not excited about it.

BUT…I’m not going to think about that today! I did want to mention, though, if you’ve sent me an email in the last, oh, four months or so, I promise I WILL respond to you! Hopefully between this week and next week I can write all of you back. I’m so sorry for the delay – morning sickness combined with a deadline didn’t make it easy to get very much done. But now that those are both over, I should have more time to write you back!

Hope you are having a great week so far!

Today, I’ve been struck by this:

* Clean laundry that has been shaken out but not put away and is laying on my couch.
* Dishes in the sink because the dishwasher is full and needs to be run.
* A fridge overflowing with leftovers I need to throw out because they went bad.
* A bed that needs to be made. Bathrooms that need to be cleaned. Carpets that need to be vacuumed.

How much I take for granted. I tend to look at the above list and think, “Oh gosh, I have a lot to do today and I need to get writing done!” Or, “Our house is a disaster.”

But our house is not a disaster. Our house is as far from being a disaster as it can get. We have clean clothes. We have dishes. We have food, electricity, a bed, running water and clean floors.

We have all probably seen the pictures of Haiti where people are in a genuine disaster. In a country that started off very poor, this earthquake is only worsening conditions that were already deteriorating. It makes my heart hurt to think of how many, many times I have wished for more – a bigger house, a bigger eating out budget – when there are people who are suffering so deeply right now.

I know that a lot of you are in the same boat as Jon and me – we don’t have thousands to give, but we do want to help. Compassion International is a wonderful organization that is built on Christ and is already working hard to help the people in Haiti. By texting “disaster” to 90999, you can donate $10 to Compassion for the Haiti relief. The donation will be added to your next wireless bill.

Above all else, let’s commit to praying that this earthquake will give workers in Haiti an opportunity to share the love of Christ. I don’t know why disasters like this happen, but I do know that our God is the same yesterday, today and forever and He is completely in control.

So, has anyone else seen the previews for the Style Network show that’s called something like, “Things I Hate About Myself” or “What I Hate About Myself”?

And I thought we had already scraped the bottom of the TV show barrel with “Man vs. Food” (which, by the way, happens to be one of Jon’s favorite shows. Ugh. Warning to all women in their first trimester, do not watch that show).

But, it appears I am wrong. And not only can I not think of a worse way to damage women’s fragile self-esteems than with a show pointing out everyone’s flaws, but seriously how much lower can we go? Next thing you know, there’s going to be shows about people who are proud of their Christmas sweaters and like showing them off. It could be called “Sweater Swagger”. 🙂

Anyway. Enough of that soapbox.

I’ve been battling a small cold the last few days, so I’ve been spending the downtime writing like crazy and last night I watched Penelope while Jon worked out. I love that movie! Such a sweet, happy feeling movie. If you haven’t seen it, you should. It’s adorable.

I’m set to finish my February 1st deadline next week and I am SO excited for the week after that! Because, not only does my birthday start that week off right (wow, that’s such a sad excuse for a few birthday wishes! 😉 ), but I’ve also got plans for a completely relaxing week. I’m going to read all the books I haven’t had time to read, I’m going to paint my toenails (sorely needed) and Jon even gets Monday off for MLK Jr. Day, so I get to hang out with him too! (Maybe I can convince him to paint my toenails?) 🙂

And, since it’s Friday and I’m officially 14 weeks, here’s my first pregnancy picture (like I said, I’m fighting a cold, so ignore the glassy eyes, pale complexion, crazy hair and sweatpants):

Not much to show for the pregnancy yet. According to one of the baby websites, the little one is the size of a lemon now. So small! 🙂 And Kody must know something is up, because he has become the most depressed, needy dog! He just follows me from room to room – he’s never more than a few feet away from me. Anytime I sit on the couch now, he thinks he gets to put his head in my lap. Someone is going to have a rough summer.

Have a wonderful weekend!