Week 17 and 18 and a whole lot of life

Wow–so its been a few weeks since we updated the blog, so here goes. We have been really busy with what I guess some people would call life…so we have been neglecting the blog.

Last weekend, I (Mary) went to a bachelorette party in Carolina Beach/Wilmington and had a blast! It was so much fun to be around this core group of girls, most of whom have been friends since high school. That group can make me laugh until my sides hurt! I am so happy for Katy and Robert (the couple who is getting married in May). They are so good for each other and I love when people truly have each others best interest at heart–and these 2 do.  I was talking to some of the girls at the bachelorette party and we were talking about how this baby was obviously meant to be. I am not going to go in to my beliefs on here, but I am a firm believer that when things are meant to be, they are meant to be.  If you look at the all of the reasons that it would seem like Machelle would not have been able to conceive and then think about the fact that she did, I understand the meaning of the word miracle like I never have before. Machelle spent last weekend resting up and taking it easy. She has been pretty tired lately and I think enjoyed the time by herself.  We went to lunch on Easter Sunday with my mom, dad, sister and brother in law at a nice seafood restaurant in Wrightsville Beach. I spent the rest of Easter resting and trying to get ready for the week that was ahead.

Doodle is moving around like crazy—hitting, kicking, punching–all the time, but more often when Machelle has just eaten.

We are getting very excited about the 20 week ultrasound! My parents are coming to it and that is very exciting as well! I want to know that everything is progressing like it should be, although I feel pretty optimistic about Doodle anyways!  You can ask Machelle, I am not an extremely optimistic person and tend to think the worst to try and prepare myself–then when things turn out better than I expected, I am pleased! But for some reason, I feel pretty good about Doodle.

The other day I found myself looking at something that will happen in October at work and I thought, “Oh, I better pass this off to someone because I don’t know if I’ll be at work then.”  It’s wild to think that there will be another life that will be totally dependent on us.

Today, Machelle and I went and walked around Southport while I took pictures. I love photography and the joy I get when trying to actually capture what I am seeing. I think, with some much needed advise from a friend this morning, that I am going to try to start selling some of the local pictures. I don’t think that they are good enough for someone to actually buy them, but I am going to try. I guess the worst that happens is that they don’t end up selling and they will just remain in our house on the walls.

Tonight, we went out to dinner with a group of friends and one of the couples is thinking about having a second baby. We were casually discussing names and it turns out the name that we had been leaning towards, is also the name that they have had in their “name bank” for about 2 years. Machelle says that it is going to be difficult to name a child without seeing them first and I can’t say that I disagree with her.

I guess I have to put this on here because one day we will laugh about it. The other day, Machelle came down the stairs and said she felt like her belly had popped out..not in a bad way, just that she was getting bigger.  I mistakenly and dumbly asked her if she could suck it in. Word of advise to anyone who is ever near or living with a pregnant woman, DO NOT say that. I think Machelle wanted to slap the crap out of me. For the record, I did not mean suck it in like that–It’s just hard for me to imagine that your stomach can grow like that so quickly and you aren’t able to suck it in–it all made sense in my head.

Sorry this has been a random assortment of word salad like ideas, my brain is just all over the place right now–stay tuned for more organized posts in the future.

Have a great week y’all!!!!!

Mary and Machelle (who is currently upstairs sleeping–because growing a skeleton is hard work)