Strange Dream

In the beginning of my pregnancy I was doing a lot of reading... from What to Expect When You're Expecting to Jenny McCarthy's book, Belly Laughs.

Belly Laughs is just that... hysterical.  She has a funny take on the common pregnancy symptoms to things that she says people don't talk about.  Some of my favorite (and blog appropriate) chapter titles include "I Can Either Pee On You or Get Out of My Way!" and "So, Anyway, Like I was Saying...Wait, What Was I Saying?"  The funniest ones probably have an inappropriate word in the title so I'll let you read for yourself.  But in the chapter, "Freddy Krueger Ain't Got Nothing on Me!" she talks about weird dreams during pregnancy.  In one dream, she gave birth to a slimy green cocoon that flew away.  In a different recurring dream, (prepare yourself) she would take a medical tool and perform her own C-section.  She would take her baby out, play with him in the bed, realize this couldn't be good for him, and put him back in her stomach and sew herself up.  Freaky right?!  Well the dream I had last night isn't that extreme, but it was really strange.

My immediate family and I were spending some time at my grandmother's house in Louisiana.  I was telling them about how I can feel my stomach and tell pretty good now where the baby is.  Outside of dream world, this is also the case!  Sometimes one part of my belly will be extremely hard and I know that Haven is resting right there!  But I'm not able to distinguish body parts or anything... but I could do that in the dream.  I was insistent that what I was feeling was her elbow and forearm.  Then not too long after that I made all my family gather round and look at my belly.  I had a distinct bulge that looked like a fist.  But it gets weirder.  The fist-like bulge kept protruding further and further out from my belly until it looked like there was an entire arm coming out of my belly!  Imagine a normal, pregnant belly... with a random, tiny arm hanging off of it.  Then the fist opened and we could see her fingers.  It honestly looked like my belly with a Mr. Potato Head arm sticking out of it.

Am I giving a good enough visual?!  So so so strange.  But my dream self was like "oh wow, isn't this so cool??  We can see her arm... aww, there's her fingers!"  Seriously?!  Creepy!  I woke up so weirded out but thought it was funny.  It will be interesting to see if I have any other crazy dreams as we get closer to Haven's arrival!  

Painting the Nursery!

 Dear Baby Haven, in the past couple weeks I have asked your Dad several times, "will you please let me help you paint?"  (We have the pregnancy-safe paint by the way).  Every time his answer was no.  I finally stopped asking because he explained his reasoning to me.  He said, "You get to carry her for 9 months... you get to have such a unique bond with her... you are doing so much for her every day.  Prepping, painting, finishing this room is my contribution to her and you that I can do all by myself.  It's my way of bonding with her."  Precious right?  He finally let me put some tape on the base boards, but other than that he has literally done everything in taking this room from a sandy color to pretty in pink!  Here are some pics of the transformation!

Primer

"Innocence"

"Pressed Flower" - weird lighting

Cutting chair rail molding

Details!

Installing molding

Finished product!

Ta-da!

I don't know who was happier... Russell to be finished or Copper to have his daddy back!

It turned out SO great!!!  I am so proud of him!  As much as I wanted to help paint, it's pretty awesome that it's all done now!  Now I can't wait to get furniture, bedding, chandelier, etc!  So fun!

  

Spring Break In Pictures

This year we went to Branson for a few days with Russell's parents and his sister and her family.  Our nephew Grayson is almost 3 and niece Garner is almost 4 months!  We had a great time!!!  How could you not with these cuties?!

Getting his initials on his ball!

"Here's your Dr. Pepper Uncle Rusty!"

Our favorite pic... drinking a sippy cup, watching Uncle Rusty fish - this is the life!

Fish #10 - this was a GOOD day!

26 weeks :)

Bigger and bigger and BIGGER everyday!  And I still have a long way to go!  I used to think pregnant women that said "I feel so huge" sounded ridiculous b/c I thought, you're carrying a baby!  You're supposed to be big!  But now that I'm pregnant, I'll go ahead and say it... I feel so huge!!!

First Gifts

Haven update!  We had a doctor appointment on Friday and everything is good!  I am measuring the right size and her heartbeat is nice and strong!  I had to drink the orange stuff to test my glucose...I think?  For those of you that haven't had babies, it's like really sweet Sunkist with no carbonation.  Sweet, syrup-y overload.  It wasn't terrible but the nurse had to watch me drink it so I felt pressure to chug.  I guess they can't take the risk of leaving the room and someone pouring it down the drain?  But seriously, chugging = disgusting.  Then I had to wait an hour and have blood drawn.  I should know the results sometime next week.  Hopefully everything is ok, b/c if it's not you have to do a 3-hour test, complete with more monitored chugging of flat Sunkist and blood-taking!  Hoping I won't have to do that!  Ok, on to the title of this blog post...

Haven's first gifts!  I've been holding on to these pictures for a couple weeks now and have to share!  I got a package in the mail one day from my sweet friend Heidi.  How adorable is this outfit?!?

I love it!!  I took this with my phone so it's not the clearest.  But I love polka dots and I love pink!  So this is perfect!  Heidi also sent the sweetest card... I let Russell read it and he cried!  Thank you Heidi!!!  We love you!!  Havey baby will love you too!

One of my cute Tippi Toes dancer's moms knitted the next few things for me!  I almost cried when I opened them!  Just that she took the time to make these from scratch is so sweet!!! 

They even have a little pearl button on the side!  So cute! 

Could they be more perfect?!  Her first ballet shoes!  I'm thinking we might have to do some newborn pics in these, a pink tutu, and a pink bow.  How precious would that be?!  Aaah!

And her dance wardrobe wouldn't be complete without some handmade leg warmers!!  Are you kidding me?!  Absolutely adorable.  I can already tell baby Haven is going to be one spoiled little girl!  I am so thankful to these sweet people for some of her first gifts!  I don't have pictures of all the fun things my mom and Gran have gotten for her, but I think the camo tank dress is Russell's favorite! :)  We have started working on the nursery... I'm sure a future post will show the progress!  So exciting!

Meme Remembered

Sorry it's been a while since my last post!  I will have to catch up on baby news soon.  But this post is dedicated to my sweet 93 year old great grandmother that left this earth to be with Jesus last night about 11pm.  Her name was Mabel Haven (where our baby girl's name comes from originally in the family line) and we called her Meme.  She was a tough old lady.  Her health has been declining for years, but her quick wit and sense of humor would still come through every once in a while, even as recently as a couple weeks ago.  My grandmother was visiting her and Meme's mind was stuck in a rut and she kept repeating, "I want to go outside."  "I want to go outside." And after repeating this several times, she had a moment of clarity and said, "Why am I saying that?  I don't want to go outside!"  Haha!

She was one of 11 children... yes, I said 11... and next to the youngest.  All of her siblings have already passed.  Her husband passed away in 1973, way too early!  My mom has great memories of him and he definitely was gone too soon.  But that is one thing I am SO happy about... that she is with her hubby in heaven right now!  What a sweet reunion that must have been.  And with all her siblings too!

I could say lots and lots about Meme... and I will... here's some highlights!

One of my vivid childhood memories with her is helping her make coffee.  She would plop me up on the counter and let me scoop the coffee grounds into the coffee maker.  Then we would sit there and watch it drip.  I thought I was such a big girl helping out!

Speaking of coffee, coffee time is 3:00pm.  (That has held true with my grandma, my mom, and now my sister and I some days!)  She liked hers black with no sugar.  Guess she wouldn't approve of my Vanilla Caramel creamer.  My sister recently did this fabulous piece to commemorate the almost daily event...

We spent hours watching Price Is Right.  Seems like it was always on tv when we would go visit her.

She loved the Dallas Cowboys, go figure.

She made the best homemade biscuits, fried chicken, and gravy.  Yum!

She would always give us cash for Christmas, birthdays, etc. and it would always be in 1's.  We would freak out thinking we had so much money, when it was really 20 1's.  Smart lady.

She loved peppermint candy.  Always had some around and we were willing to dig into her stash!

She called Doritos, "Dordidoes." Lol!

She had the best costume jewelry and fancy hats.  I loved playing dress-up in her long pearl necklaces as a child.  One fancy hat made it to college with my sister.

Her mother's rocking chairs have been passed down through the family and they are now on my front porch!  I'm sure I will enjoy rocking baby Haven there. :)

Her first and only time to travel by airplane was in her 60's.

She had a birth mark on her cheek that looked like Mickey Mouse.  But in her later years, my sister would joke with her that it looked like a Playboy bunny. She loved to cut up and be silly so she got a kick out of that.  Played along and they had a whole running joke about the men at the assisted living place coming after Meme for her good looks!

When she was around 6 years old, she got in trouble for riding a bull.  Who does that?!  I guess she did in the 1920's!

She came to one of my bridal showers.  My grandma has a picture of Meme and I at the shower on her fridge.  She gave me this sweet gift.  It says "The Russell Friske Family."

I just looked inside and at that time her 89 year old handwriting warms my heart.  "Brittany and Russell, on March 24, 2007, at Bridal Shower, by Meme.  I love you lots.  I hope your life will be very very happy."  So special.

And I cannot leave out a funny quote from the last time I visited her (my mom and sister have seen her since.)  I forget what we were talking about but someone said "Clean as a whistle."  To which she replied, "but some whistles are dirty!"  Haha!!!  Still makes me crack up thinking about it.

One of the first times she met Russell, he was napping on my grandma's couch.  She walked by with her walker, bent down, and kissed him on the cheek!!!  And she had a certain kiss... she moved her lips really fast and said "num num num num num."  Scared him to death but it was hilarious to watch!!  She wasn't shy with her affection for my hubby!  Haha!

I could go on and on and on... I love her so much.  And I know she loved me too.  She knew about the baby and what we were going to name her.  And in the last 2 weeks she was coherent enough to remember that we were naming our little girl Haven and to accept Gran's offer to buy me a baby book from her.  So glad we did that last weekend.

But most of all, I am so thankful and blessed that she brought this lady into the world...

And that she brought this lady into the world...

And that she brought these ladies (and young man) into the world...

And in June I will be bringing this sweet girl into the world...

That's what I would call a pretty awesome line of people!!  I love you Meme and you will be missed.  I'll see you again one day.  :)