I am just amazed at the new technology that is coming about. On the 19th of January, Paul and I are having a 3D ultrasound done of the baby. From what my friend, Jenni tells me, it is just like putting a camera inside there and looking at what the baby is doing LIVE. She wants to have the 3D ultrasound done with any future pregnancies. So we decided to have it done too.

Paul and I are planning on bringing our video camera so we can get the live movements to keep forever, I hope that it will pick up the pictures. The office also said that we will get a cd of still shots. I will definately be adding them to the blog.

We will also be able to see what the sex is. So just under a month away and we'll see the baby live.


Christmas Eve at the Decock Home, enjoying fondue and opening presents afterwards. I think we had a great time and Sammie told me that her favorite gifts were her dollhouse (which I found at Wal-Mart) and her little tiara and clip-on earrings. Thank you Jesus for a wonderful evening!!

Christmas

A couple things I finally thought were worth blogging about:

After being in Wal-Mart for close to an hour yesterday and then going into Lowes Hardware, Sammie heard this comment for the last time....

"Are you ready for Santa to come and see you"

Normally Sammie's response is a slight shake of the head with an expression on her face like the person had just said a very bad word. Then very calmly stating,

"We celebrate Jesus, not Santa." (This is always met by the almost instinctive response of, "well He is the reason for the season").

But after an hour and a half in two stores with all those people, a wonderfully sweet woman asked Sammie that great little Santa question and was met by.....how can I describe it....yes, I got it.....the "Opa frustration grunt." You know which one that is; where he is talking and someone was not aware of him talking and interrupts him. She was not pleased and was not even going to dignify this lady with a response.

I had to laugh.

What to get for Christmas

A good dollhouse is soooo hard to find.

Paul and I knew that the best present for Sammie this Christmas would be a nice dollhouse. She loves to pretend with her little dolls and that would be the perfect addition to her playtime.

So today we went on the internet to see what was out there....yeah, maybe we're running a little on the late side but there's always Wal-Mart. Hail, Wal-Mart; you are good, Wal-Mart.

So if we wanted to spend $60.00, we could get the plastic dollhouse that wasn't quite what I had invisioned. If we wanted that multi-room, victorian style, wooden, fantacy dollhouse we were looking at at least $150.00! Wow! I didn't realize they were that much. Oh well, after all, who's going to be playing with it.......me? Sammie would probably be perfectly ecstatic about the plastic one.

The Tree

We went out on Sunday and bought our Christmas tree! It's amazing how much they are now compared to when I was little. I don't think my dad would've spent over $15.00 on a tree back then. That's probably one reason why he would wait til the week before Christmas to buy one. I never really knew why he did it until last year, when we didn't think we were getting a tree and then a week before Christmas we were able to find one at $25.00. That was a bargain!!

I even remember when I was little, going to the convienent store with a dollar and getting a whole bunch of candy! Sammie and I went in the other day for some m&m's (or smarties) and it was 91 cents for the small bag. What a rip.

Oh, that brings me back to whether Christmas trees are something that's proper for a Christian to have in their home. I know they have pagan roots, but they are just so darn beautiful. But I'm sure some people make that same excuse about Halloween. I have a friend who adheres strickly to Christian practice and they put up a cross to decorate at Christmas. I think it's a great idea, but I just love seeing that Christmas tree in the room with all the lights and the smell of pine.

What do you think?

$$$

Okay, so I was just sitting down to print out some pictures for Sammie's class when what happens?.............The printer completely runs out of ink!! And I don't mean it gave me that cute little message on the computer saying,

"Warning, you are getting close to needing another ink cartridge. Please, go out and spend $50.00 to replace it before you notice ANY difference in your printing quality. Your printer really doesn't need it yet but since you have an abundance of money, you won't miss what's left in your cartridge."

My computer was at the point where it would've said,

"Okay, so you've ignored me the past 10 times I've told you to change your ink cartridge. I've tried being nice, leaving you little hints, giving you polite blinking lights; but no..........you don't care. So now you're out of ink completely and what am I going to do....Laugh silently at you while you get mad."

So now what do I do? If I think about it, that money could go to buying that new pair of boots that I have been wanting. Not the $200.00 pair like Monica probably could get, but the $50.00, made out of some sort of conglomerate of plastic and "poly-dehyro-techni-carbon-helix" stuff that I would put on and prance around like I had just had a cow slain for my very own boots. I would be in hog heaven, thinking I was the most stylish girl in Sanford. Wait a minute, I probably would be.

So off to Office Max I go...

Our Christmas Parade

We have our annual Christmas parade tonight! I was sooooo looking forward to it, but it has been so rainy lately and today they are calling for rain the whole day. I would much rather it snow. If it snowed, it would be so perfect, except for all the crazy southerners who would get into car crashes because as soon as they see a flake fall, they think the road is a sheet of ice. Thank God we have more Northerners moving down, maybe some of their common sense will rub off on the red necks around here.

Okay, so anyway, I was talking about the parade right? So there should be almost 100 "floats" this year. It seems to get bigger every year. I really enjoy it, even though it is mostly people pulling flat beds behind their monster pickup trucks. And of course, I see about 50 people I know......well, maybe that's an exaggeration but it's fun living in a smaller town.

So God, please let the rain stop or the snow start.

A new me

Do you ever have one of those days when you're willing to do something drastic just because.
Well, yesterday was one of those days!

I was standing in front of the mirror, starting to blowdry my hair, when the thought of bangs came to me. I haven't had bangs in years and I was tired of my hair....the samed tucked behind the ears look. So out came the scissors and off went 4 inches of hair. Other than the fact that I had bangs sticking out at a 45 degree angle, I felt quite liberated and I didn't even have to burn my bra.
I didn't have to go call my hairstylist and make an appointment. I just wacked them off. Boy it felt good.

Oh yeah and on Monday (it must be one of those weeks), I went down to the Clinique counter at Belk's and had a makeup remodeling (what am I, a kitchen?). My friend Jenni took Sammie for the day and so I had an hour to sit there and let someone else fawn over me for a while. Considering money seems to be tight, it was wonderful to go in and not have to pay to get pampered. Of course, I felt compelled to give the estitician a nice tip. And to top it all off, she gave me two samples of facial moisturiser, a sample mascara (which will last me 6 months) and a full size eyeliner. I was thoroughly satisfied.

So now, I feel completely redone.....a new hair style and a new way of doing my makeup. Paul is happy too because I'm now spending more time on my hair and makeup (I'm sure he often fondly remembers the time when I would not come out of the bathroom for over an hour and my hair resembled the bride of frankenstein. He would be thinking.....ahhhhh, those were the days.