Christmas and Then Some

Wow! Time flies when you're busy. Let's do some catching up shall we?
First off... my sugar test. I failed it miserably. I needed to be below 135 and I was 217 so I got to skip the 3 hour sugar test and schedule an appointment with the Diabetes Center. That appointment was on Monday (the 28th). They put me on a meal plan and gave me a monitor to check my sugars. My only issue so far has been that I'm having to eat too much!! Go figure. I'll have to talk to her about that because I can't make myself eat like that but my sugars have been good. Hopefully the diet changes will work =o)
Next... Mom came into town last Tuesday and is leaving town tomorrow. We've been busy but we finally have everything ready to go for the shower that is in a little over a week. We went to our friends house on Christmas Eve so it was great getting to see them. Unfortunately there was a little boy there who was sick and throwing up. Well... the day after Christmas guess what? My mom and I were sick. I got so dehydrated that my pulse was 160. To make a long story short I was admitted to the hospital over night so that they could pump me full of fluids. At first my mom and I thought we just had food poisoning from some banana pudding. (I didn't talk to my friend until I was out of the hospital to discover that just about everyone that attended the Christmas Eve shin-dig got sick.)
Now onto Christmas. What a great day. Cameron was so excited! He couldn't wait to open each one of his presents and once he was done he was ready to play with each of them. It was nice. We all got great gifts but I think the best was being together =o) Wish my dad could have been here to spend it with us but we will all be together next year. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Frankie and I on Christmas Eve

Cam opening his spy remote control car... his favorite gift I think

Mom opening her favorite gift... We got her DeAngelo jersey signed

3 Months To Go

Today I am officially 28 weeks pregnant.





I can't believe how fast the time has gone by. It seems like we just found out! Yesterday Cam got to feel JD kick. He jumped a little because he thought it felt weird. I'm glad he was able to experience that because we found out he never got to feel Riley (his lil brother at his mom's) kick. I have a doctor's appointment in the morning. I'm getting my sugar test done as well as my Rhogam shot. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I pass the test because I DO NOT want to come back and do the test again. Tomorrow I will have to sit for an hour, and if I don't pass I will have to come back and sit for 3 hours.
Tomorrow is also the day that my mom should be here. The Winter Storm of '09 prevented her from being able to travel today so we are shooting for tomorrow. Unfortunately my dad will be unable to join us this Christmas as he will be spending time with his mother. It's more important that he be with her so that she doesn't have to spend the holidays alone.
I'll be sure to post an update after my appointment. Everyone keep your fingers crossed =o)

Baby Kicks

Lately lil JD has been kicking up a storm. At times I can just sit there and watch my stomach moving along with him. The other night Frankie was listening to a voice mail and put his phone on speaker and then laid it on my stomach. JD kicked so hard the phone almost fell off. I decided to lay my cell phone on my belly in hopes of catching him in action. As usual, he got shy lol. I did manage to catch a few small kicks on video, but nothing like the other night. Hope you can see it too!






Look for the phone to lift around 6 seconds and then the baby kicks again around 15 seconds.







Look for a big kick around 7 seconds.

Ready to Ring in the New Year

All I can say is come on 2010. This year has been rough for us and I think we are both ready for the start of a new year. This year started out rough with my not being able to find a job. Then things turned for the better; we were both working and found out we were pregnant. The same week we found out we were pregnant, I got laid off.
Being laid off was a plus in that I was able to rest my fist trimester but we really could have used the extra income. While laid off, we dealt with the deaths of two family members... both in the same night.
Now I'm back to work and things were starting to look up again. Unfortunately my boss keeps hinting to the fact that she is going to run out of money again and that I may be getting temporarily laid off again (probably in the Spring if not sooner). Of course she would start mentioning the threat of job loss just as we purchased new living room furniture and our full insurance coverage ran out (Don't worry... its just that now we have to pay 20% of the medical bills until our new PPO coverage takes affect in February).
What else could go wrong? Well we have 3 cars that we drive. Frankie alternates between his truck and his mustang. Well the transmission started messing up in the mustang (4th gear apparently) and it seems like the rear end or a bearing is going out in the truck. Perfect timing for the vehicles to start falling apart when we've been Christmas shopping and what not. Luckily Frankie's uncle sold him a transmission for about $200.
Surely that's all that could go wrong right? Nope. We were watching TV the other night and the convergence in it messed up. We have only had this TV for 3.5 years so its ridiculous that it is already messing up and the warranty was only for 2 years. A television definitely is not a necessity but it would be nice to have to watch movies on and what not while my mom is in for the holidays... especially since its the TV in our living room which is also the "guest" room. But once again we were fortunate to find someone to come out and fix it this morning for about $200. This is so much less than it would have cost to get a new TV.
And last but not least Frankie's grandmother was admitted to the hospital last night. She is being treated for congestive heart failure. We are praying that she is able to recover but Frankie's parents don't think the chances are good. So please keep her and Frankie's family in your prayers.
All I can say is I'm glad there aren't many days left in 2009. At least we know 2010 will start out better because our bundle of joy is due in March =o)

Time With Friends & Family

These last couple days have been spent with friends & family. My dad came in town on Thursday. That evening we went to dinner with my aunt, uncle, and family friend. It was good to see them. There are always laughs shared throughout the evening and Cam Cam looooovvvveeeessss spending time with Poo Poo (don't worry... that is a nickname for my uncle). We used to all do dinner every Friday night but since my parents moved out of state, we try to do dinner when they are in town.
Our old neighbors, Adam & Tina, came by to visit us yesterday evening. It was nice hanging out and catching up with them. It was just like old times when they used to live down the street. They brought their daughter Emma over too so she and Cam had a blast playing together.
Tonight we went out to dinner with my nursing girls- Kerri, Ashley and Jessica- and Kerri's fiance Jamie. We all bought a Christmas gift and exchanged them over dinner. I love that we have all managed to keep in touch with one another. We do our best to get together once a month for dinner. I love these girls to death! You meet people during the course of your life and never know if the relationship will last. I was worried that when we graduated last December that we would eventually lose contact. We had all grown so close during the semesters that it's hard once you graduate and don't see each other every week. I'm happy to say that so far we have managed to meet up each month; some of us went on a cruise together; some of us went to the beach together; and we do our best to get together for birthdays. It's nice having a group of girl friends close =o)
I'm happy to say that I only have about 3 more gifts to buy and my Christmas shopping will be done! We went to Concord Mills before dinner tonight (WHAT A ZOO!!!) and I was able to finish up a couple people. It will be nice to finish up, hopefully tomorrow, so that I don't have to worry with it anymore =o)

'Tis The Season

The past couple days haven't been as busy as our last couple of months. I got the baby shower invites in the mail and sent our Christmas cards out yesterday. This year I decided to start doing a "newsletter" in our cards because I figure with the arrival of a new baby next year, it will be nice to update everyone on how our year has been every Christmas.
This year we have been fortunate enough to give back a little. We were able to fill a stocking for a friend. Her church is doing a program called "Just Stuff It", similar to the Samaritan's Shoe Box drive. Unfortunately we missed the due date for the shoe boxes but we were happy to participate in the stocking drive. I even spoke with my best friend and she was able to fill a stocking as well. Every little bit helps and to know that those stockings will put a smile on a child's face is very rewarding. Frankie and I also heard that a friend of ours was having some financial problems and would more than likely not be able to buy any toys for her children for Christmas. She is a single mother of two so we were glad to lend a helping hand. We have been going through Cameron's toys because, well if you know him, he has EVERYTHING!!! It is ridiculous how many toys this child has. His room literally looks like a toy store. We were able to get rid of two trashbags and a storage tub of gently used toys to give to our friend to wrap as gifts for her little boys. And when I say gently used... I mean Cam may have played with them a handful of times, if at all.
Can you believe Christmas is now 15 days away?!?!? Guess I better hurry up and finish my last little bit of shopping so I don't have to be out in the mad crowds. Poor Frankie... he hasn't even started. But every year he is one the people out doing all their Christmas shopping 2-3 days before Christmas... more power to him =o)

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas....

We began decorating the house last Monday and I'm happy to say we are finally done with that task =o) I had everything on the inside of the house complete. We waited until we had Cameron on Thursday so that we could do our tree as a family. He loves helping put the ornaments on the tree so it's fun to watch. Frankie had some things to do before we could start on the tree and I thought Cameron was going to bust if he had to wait any longer. Friday night I wrapped the gifts that I had purchased so that we could have some presents under the tree. This year we decided to take out Camerons' big train set and place it around the bottom of the tree. I think it's very cute and brings back memories from when I used to place a train around our tree as a child =o)

I would have to say that the most difficult task of decorating is doing the lights on the outside. It has been hard to do the lights with the rain and leaves all over the yard but we got it done. The leaves were cleared so that the stuff in the yard could be placed. Then we had to tackle the house lights. We have had this set of icicle lights for about 5 years now so every year (with the exception of maybe the first two years) we have to change out light bulbs and tug and twist to figure out why a section of the lights refuses to come on. Why should this year be any different? Well you know how our luck goes, we got half of the house done and the last three strands of lights refused to all light up. We spent about an hour trying to figure out what was wrong. In the end, we went to Walmart and bought all new lights just to come home and take down the strands we had already hung. Poor Frankie. His knees and back were killing him by the time we were done from climbing up and down the ladder. Not to mention it was freezing cold outside. In the end, the house looks beautiful, and even Scrooge himself (Frankie) was happy with the way things turned out.

I almost forgot, we did our baby registry! I thought this would be a difficult task but it went well. Frankie was like a kid in a candy store with the registry gun. I would tell him to register for an item twice and I swear he would register for four. We decided to register for the necessities (ie: bottles, bibs, pacifiers, bath stuff, diaper stuff, sheets, etc) and for toys. The main toys we registered for were educational stuff (Leap Frog and Baby Genius) and some stuff for the stroller/car seat. You would have thought the toys were for Frankie. He was so excited to make sure he clicked on all the "cool" things. You should have seen his face light up when we got to the walkers/bouncers. They had this one that looked like a classic car so of course we registered for both of those =o) We planned to register at two locations but by the time we finished with Babies R Us, I was pooped. Now all I have to do is get the invites in the mail!

Out with the old... In with the new

Things are still non-stop in the Hudson household. I don't think we have stopped since the beginning of November and we are both getting exhausted. My "To Do" list is getting shorter. This week we went and got our new living room furniture. With the arrival of a new baby, we were forced to do away with our guest room. Unfortunately, that meant nowhere for my parents to sleep. We went to Ikea and purchased a sofa bed so that they would have somewhere to sleep without having to get a hotel room =o). Our house looks so much different, but I'm liking it. We have slowly been transforming our house to a more "grown up" look lol. It will be so nice this year to have our Christmas tree in the living room instead of in front of the kitchen window.
We hated to get rid of our old furniture because it was so comfortable but we had no choice. Our good friend Harkey decided he would like to have it so it's all his!

Frankie's truck was LOADED down with all of the new furniture. The guy at the store asked what kind of vehicle we drove (because we were concerned that it would not all fit in Frankie's truck). So we told him a small S-10 pick-up and his exact words were "Oh no problem. It'll fit." I'm thinking he was just desperate to make a sale because we looked like the Beverly Hill Billies (minus Grandma in her rocker). As you can see from the pictures, Frankie and Harkey drive smaller trucks so, in order to get the old furniture out, we had to load up both of the trucks.

Now it's time to finish the Christmas decorations, get Christmas cards out, register, get my baby shower invites in the mail, paint the living room ceiling, and touch up all the doors/trim so we can put on the new doorknobs before the shower in January. That's not too much right? I guess I need to leave some time to do the last of my Christmas shopping and get the presents wrapped too huh? 'Tis the season... to be busy =o)