I. Am tired.

Tired. Constantly. And whale-ish. My biggest pregnancy problem has been that my busy-body nature is still in full swing, but my energy level is at an all-time low. The combination of these two things has created...hard times for Heidi in the last six months. Hence...the blogging has come to a halt. (Also, no thanks to the new firewall on my work computer that blocks blogspot. Boo!)

In a desperate attempt to keep up with everything though, I'm actually going to start "budgeting" time to blog, every Sunday. This will involve itunes and quarantining myself in the lower level, without the t.v., as to avoid any and all distractions.

So...deep breath...here's the shortest possible version of what's happened in the last six months...

I've become, well, increasingly pregnant. I'm on the downhill side of it and, in the last week and a half, have begun to daydream about what it will be like to NOT be pregnant anymore. Ah...back in control of my body, back on Weight Watchers (the program for nursing moms, of course!), back to jogging, back to sit-ups and squats, back to not having to pee EVERY HALF AN HOUR.

I longed for pregnancy for so long. And please, understand, I'm savoring every bit of it. Every kick I feel (and see!), every appointment where I hear his little heartbeat, every weekly email reminder of how he's growing. I'm loving it. To bits. But you know what I'm also going to love? Having him here and not having back acne anymore. Hormones are a bitch.

Aaaaand, here we are. 25 1/2 weeks pregnant. Have officially begun to have a hard time bending at the waist. (Also, don't mind the toothbrush hanging out of my mouth.)

Aside from pregnancy, the biggest event in the last few months, by far, has been my dad's open heart surgery. He was supposed to go to the doctor for an angiogram, no big deal. I called my mom to see how it went later that afternoon, and lo and behold, he was scheduled for double bypass surgery the next morning. After calling Dan through tears, we bought a plane ticket and I was on my way to Idaho about 36 hours later.

Praise the Lord for a successful surgery and a great surgeon...and a Cardiac I.C.U. staff of angels. Seriously...those nurses were awesome.

I arrived in Idaho Sunday around noon, about 24 hours after the surgery. They had just taken out the breathing tube and he was still exhausted and even talking made him have to close his eyes and rest. It was a hard thing to see, but I'm so thankful that Amanda was there with my mom through the surgery. And...secretly, I'm glad I never saw him waking up with the tube in. I don't know if I could have handled it.

Kootenai Health...our daily hang-out location for the week with dad

The day I got there. This was tough. Poor guy...so tired.

Amanda and Bennet...in his little dog harness. LOVE. HIM.

After leaving the I.C.U...day before discharge. Lookin' good, old man!

Winter hit hard and early this year for us. And...it happened. My first ditching. Every year I wonder, "Will this be the year?" And folks, this year was it. And it was a doozy. No gentle sliding off the side of the road to a gentle halt.

This involved wild fish-tailing, followed by 2-3 spins into the other lane of traffic and landing, hood pointing up, in a ditch full of snow. Sadly, I was on my way to a doctor's appointment and had to re-schedule. What a pain. 

I cried and called Dan while my adrenaline was still pumping, so, naturally, I was weeping in fear and shock. Knowing it'd calm me, he gave me a list of things to do: 1) Call AAA, 2) Call mom & dad, 3) Call the doctor's office.

Three people stopped to see if I was okay, and one kind gentleman was nice enough to point out that my exhaust was buried in the snow, so to turn off the car so as not to, you know...die. Thankfully, Dan's parents live about two minutes from "the incident" and his dad came right away to shovel the snow away from my car door so I could crawl out and wait in his heated truck for the tow.

It could have been a MUCH worse situation, but still, it was quite jarring and something I'll always remember when approaching the intersection of Byron Center Avenue & 108th Street. Black ice is no joke, kids.

Thankfully I'm ended juuuuust out of the way enough to not cause a traffic jam. Wouldn't want to be THAT person.

There she blows. Nose up and helpless.

For Christmas, the baby got his build-a-bear. Dan and I have put a lot of thought into this new bear addition, and have spent the last few weeks preparing Heidi Bear and Schubear about the change. Luckily, it went well and all three of them love each other and have taken to each other swimmingly. Although, the bed is getting a bit crowded with us two, the snoogle (my amazing pregnancy pillow) and THREE bears to wrangle throughout the night. Here we are...Christmas morning. All five of us. (You can judge, we know it's judge-able...but the bears are part of our family.)

L to R: Heidi, Baby Bear, Heidi Bear, Schubear, Dan's glasses :)

So...my fall and winter have been consumed with an overload of tasks, peeing a LOT, sleeping fitfully, TRYING to exercise (but finding it difficult with a growing human inside of me), and my feet hurting. And this super short, super lame blog post is a feeble attempt to get back in the swing of things. Keep me accountable! Make sure I make another post next Sunday!

On that note...beautiful Michigan in the winter... :)

Things happening this week? My replacement starts at work and the three month training begins!, my birthday, and one of Dan's college friends' wedding! Come on...if that doesn't provide blog material, nothing will!

Until next week!