Baby Carr the Grand Finale (hopefully)

If all goes well this will be my LAST pregnancy! I was a little farther along than I thought and will be 8 weeks this Saturday. The baby's heartrate was 145 at 7 weeks and 7 weeks and 3 days gestation (Jakes was 155 at 6 weeks 5 days and Mari's was 133 at 6 weeks 5 days). Estimated due date from the ultrasound was February 21st. Jake and Mari both came before their due dates. According to those dates I will enter the second trimester the week I go back to work and enter the third the week of Jake and Mari's birthdays which is just two weeks before the close of the semester. Second trimester is the best time to be in school if I have to when pregnant! I am still sick and so far this pregnancy reminds me more of Jake's than any of the others. Aversions to meat, only want to eat carbs, I have already gained almost five pounds (from all the carbs I am sure). I am trying to adjust to a more healthy system of eating but it is already very different than my pregnancy with Mari, where eating healthy wasn't that difficult (I didn't have many aversions just cravings!). James is busy painting the house, but he promised he would quit in a little bit so we can go on a walk. I haven't walked at all since he was gone last week and I know that is probably part of the problem. You can't go from walking 5 miles 5 nights a week to nothing at all and expect not to change your eating habits and not gain weight!

More pictures from work on the house today

As you can see James has been really busy! When I took the kids outside earlier Jake exclaimed: "Oh Daddy, I love that color it is just like mayonaise!" It does look like mayonaise now that he mentions it. He is so funny!

He has already got the first (of two) coats on the back and one side. He also got half of the front done.

I took this picture from the street so you can see how much work James has done on the grass. You can cleary see where our yard begins and the lot next to us begins!

Our grape tomatoes have gotten huge (they almost look like Roma's instead of grape tomatoes) and they still haven't started turning red. Below are some pictures of some more peppers that have just started turning red!



A regular (slicing/sandwich tomato) the only one we have so far (but we have TONS of the grape tomatoes). Above is Jake's birdhouse that he got from Nana and Papoo for Christmas. We posted pictures of him painting it in January or February.

Above is the Spanish moss in the crepe myrtles and below is the crepe myrtle blossoms.

A close up of the two types of vines we have planted on the back of the fence (the lattice work James put up for this reason). I got both of these from Mama, the top one develops pretty purple flowers and decorative purple bean pods and the bottom one makes dainty pink flowers (it is called cyprus vine).

Here is a hot of most of the patio (the length of it anyway) so you can see what a big improvement it is.

This is the flower bed to the side once again.

Here is another shot of the flowers in the back.

Here is the back going in the other direction (behind the swings and grass part of the yard, where as the other picture is of behind the patio.) You can see our humming birds have drank all their juice (as Jake calls it).

Above is another shot of the vines (the purple bean ones are more visible closer to the ground in this part of the yard). Also it looks like the moon flower is coming back on its own (yay!). The tiki torch is blocking our bird seed feeder, but it needs refilled too!

Here is a shot from one end of the back flower bed to the other. The two trees closest to view are birch trees and then we have assorted zinnias, dhalias, assorted marigolds, daylillies, lantanna, moon flower (not blooming yet), one group of four o'clocks came up, cyprus vine and the purple vine whose name escapes me at the moment. If you click on the link below you can see a post I made in March 2007 (well I actually posted it in April but it is about March) and you can see what the house and yard looked like when we bought it.
http://islanne.blogspot.com/2007/04/march-madness.html

Around our house!

The flowers at the end of the patio.
The "flower" bed to the left of the patio (when you walk out the door). We moved Daisey's house in the corner of the fence underneath the Crepe Myrtle tree (Natchez variety- tree not bush, white not pink).

Flowers at the back again, with an unexpected shot of the compost pile. If you enlarge the picture you can see the vines are starting to climb back up the lattice work.

All of our junk! James pressure washed the house yesterday in anticipation of painting it today and he decided to power wash the patio as well so he moved every thing onto the grass. It doesn't normally look like this! You can see he has finished the brick work around most of the patio. There is just a little bit left as you can see at the bottom right of the picture above.

Our tomatoes and peppers (and one surviving eggplant). That coiled up wire is my clothes line (it hooks to the house when in use).

The front of the house with everything pulled off the porch (and in the yard). You can see where James has started painting. The new color is a light yellow. MUCH better than the peach it has been!

Here is a closeup of the color. Old color (peach?) on the left, new color (silk sail) on the right.

Coat one of two on the pack! Looks good. You can see the difference in color in the one little strip he was working on painting (behind him) when I took this picture.

Another close-up of the difference in color. When he is finished I will post before and after pictures. Two years ago (this past March) we moved in. Since then we have put up a fence completely landscaped the yard (it didn't even have grass), leveled the yard, poured the patio, and a few other little things. We still need to paint the interior, put the other door on the panty/ washroom, replace the ugly countertops and clean it really good before we put it on the market (hopefully before September).

Also, we picked our first ripe pepper today!