So Blogger and I are not friends!

Well... I had been doing well: I put up my second post about 3 weeks after the first and went to do the 3rd about a week after that, but lo and behold, only my first post is on here! After tons of complaining to tech support, I didn't seem to get anywhere. It seems that this was a wide-spread problem and that a lot of my friends' posts were coming back on their own a few days later - but not mine. So I'm going to try to backtrack and get this back up and running since SO much has happened since the first post!

On April 16th, I took the girls to Raleigh with me to do our bi-weekly shopping at BJ's (since we don't have one in Greensboro and I HATE Sam's and Costco).  Unfortunately for us, there was some particularly inclement weather involved and with torrential downpours and tornadoes touching down all around us, we got stuck in Walmart when the power went out.  Megan, of course, took the opportunity to document the moment via her iPod as if we were the new crew for "Survivor: Tornadoes + Walmart"!

April 18th = SURPRISE!

We'd been trying to get pregnant again, and with all the specialists involved in my care, it seemed like it was going to be a little while before this happened.  I saw a Reproductive Endocrinologist on the 6th who ordered a bunch of tests (and the HcG level didn't come back for whatever reason) and he said that he thought I'd ovulated recently (TMI? Sorry!), so we were hoping and praying. With my last pregnancy, I took 5 tests over the course of a month and a half that came back negative before the first one (one of the expensive brands) finally came back positive - and by then I was already 8 weeks.  Considering that, the timing on this one seems a little strange, since on the 18th, I took one from the DollarTree, one Target brand, and then one of the fancy-schmancy Clear Blue digital tests - and they all quickly came back positive, even the cheap one!  Now generally, they don't read HcG levels until you're about 5 weeks, so I'm not sure how the timing is playing out.  We went back to the reproductive endocrinologist on the 27th and got to see our little "peanut" - and we go back for an ultrasound again on the 11th and get to hear the heartbeat.  With all the complications that label me "high risk", we'll have to find a speacialist to follow me throughout the pregnancy, and we'll probably end up in Chapel Hill.

Easter was fun again this year; we gave the girls mostly non-sugary stuff as we were going to my parents' house and knew that they'd be jacked up on sugar from them and my grandmother.

On April 30th, Mommy and I decided to take all the kiddos to pick strawberries near her house.  They were huge... and guarded by turkeys!  The kids seemed to have a great time, and we're still making our way through the loot.  Being as pasty as I am, I ended up getting a sunburn from walking around (half the time in shadows) for the hour that they were picking!

During the time we were out there, we drove through the "warzone" where one of the aforementioned tornadoes demolished a couple neighborhoods.  While there were only a few fatalities (our hearts go out to the 4 children in the mobile home, hiding like they were supposed to, who were killed by a tree falling directly on top of their hiding place), the neighborhoods seem to be banding together and putting themselves back together.  The destruction is detrimental, but luckily homes can be replaced.

On May 1st, Nate's work, DriveTime, sponsored a 5k for ALS research.  One of their customers has a family member suffering from ALS, so the day was dedicated to him. We showed up early to set up for the post-walk cookout and get everything situated and once we had everyone accounted for, we set off on our walk in a nearby park. The walk was surprisingly relaxing as it was shaded and only slightly hill-y. I was worried at first that Nate, being overprotective, wasn't going to let me do the walk, and Angela, being the renound chef wasn't going to let me help grill, but finally he relented. We were entertained the entire time by Kory (Nate's Senior Sales Advisor)'s girlfriend's son, Blake, who was regaling us with tales of being a werewolf/superhero/spy/rock. Since it was a short walk, we all made it back to the "campgrounds" and started grilling and dishing out food goodies. After everyone was miserably full, the family member who has ALS stood up to give a speech about how much he appreciated our walk and the awareness we're bringing to his disease. He still goes to the gym 4 days a week and walks miles each day to keep his body in shape (though I'm sure few of us can claim that kind of dedication!) - WOW!

For Mother's Day, we changed up our tradition a little bit. A few years back, on the first Mother's Day that I spent away from my mom since she was pregnant with me, at a wedding in Myrtle Beach with a friend, she unfortunately suffered a miscarriage. Since then, I'm terrified of being away from her on Mother's Day, but this year, we set the tone for something different. Saturday, she and I met at Southpoint to see a movie, do some shopping, have some dinner and spend some girly time together. We watched "Something Borrowed" - which surprisingly I enjoyed as much as the book, wandered the mall looking at maternity clothes (though I was too small to wear any of them at that time) and searching for the perfect gift for my Grammy. I was telling her how much I desperately need a new purse since the strap of mine is plastic-y and cracking, which scratches up my shoulder and pulls my hair, so we walked to Target - which was supposedly in the adjacent parking lot, but ended up being about a half mile away. By the time we got there, we wandered a bit, got pretty tulips for being mommies, and headed back towards the mall and our upcoming dinner... totally forgetting about the purse purchase!