Update

Well I just got back from the knee specialist and I have kinda good news, well better news than I was expecting!
THE GOOD NEWS: It looks like I did not re-tear my ACL, the doctor is not sure that it is not torn but he thinks after doing a few tests to my knee that the ACL is still intact! YEAH!!!! We will not know for sure if it is torn or not till I have an MRI but I am not going to get and MRI till after little Brooke is born (just to be safe)! I will most likely get the MRI by the end of July which will tell us EXACTLY what I did to my knee!
THE BAD NEWS: It looks like I did tear something and the doctor is suspecting the Meniscus Tendon. I was pretty sure I did something pretty bad since it has been almost 2 weeks since I hurt it and I am still hobbling everywhere most of the time with 1 crutch! The Meniscus Tendon needs to be repaired if it is torn but the surgery is much less painful then the ACL surgery and the recovery and physical therapy are faster so that is fantastic!
SO it looks pretty much like I will be getting some sort of surgery very soon after I have our first little baby. This kinda freaks me out but I know that I have a ton of support and a ton of help and that we will be ok! Brooke is totally going to laugh at me later on in life when she see's what a dork her mom is! I know I may sound crazy but I feel kinda cool that I will have another surgery to check off for my life. This will be #4 and #3 on my knees! I prey my children do not get my knees, I hope they get their daddy's joints and bones!!! I also will not be able to serve tables the rest of my pregnancy and can not really work out much! Once my knee gets back to where I can comfortably walk the doctor says I can ride a stationary bike for exercise. So does anyone have one that lives close to me so I can come over and work out???
Well that's the update......yes I know.....people call me injury prone but I say I am just VERY ACTIVE!!!

You Might Have Married A Redneck If.......

....you wake up at 8am to the sounds of a pellet gun going off in your house!!! Yes it is true! Yesterday, and today I wake up to the sounds of a gun going off in my bathroom. I get up and out of bed, grab my camera because I just KNOW what I see is going to be picture worthy, and head into our bathroom. This is what I find.......


...I laugh at the sight and ask him what in the world he is doing and this is his response "I am eliminating the four legged, flea bitten, disease carrying threat to my landscaping", again I laugh!!! My husband CRACKS ME UP!!! I call him a Redneck and he smiles with pride :)! He ended up hitting three squirrels which is pretty dang impressive to me. Here are some shots I got from our bathroom window of him searching for his kill with his trusty hunting dog :)......




.....this is just SO FUNNY to me!!! He is SO PROUD!!! In this last picture of him in the field he is taking a picture on his cell phone of his kill, I am pretty sure to send to Clint Hannon who has inspired this hunting streak in Kipper! So of course we had to end with this photo!......

I LOVE MY REDNECK HUSBAND!!!! He always makes me laugh and my yard will always be perdy because if his care and concern!

My mom always said I was special...

.... now I know what she "really" meant!
So my lovely Easter weekend began like this!
My husband decided last minute to not take a trip with his parents up to Arizona to visit his family. He really felt like he needed to stay with me for the Easter weekend. I had to stay here because I had a photo shoot scheduled down in San Diego on Saturday and a bunch of stuff to do in church on Sunday. Our plan was to go down to Diego right after I got off of work on Friday and stay till Saturday evening with my parents! Then Easter Sunday all to ourselves at our house! PERFECT!!!
Friday we wake up and I TOTALLY do not feel like going in to work at all! I even asked a friend the night before if she could cover my shift just because I did not feel like working. All morning I fought the urge to call in sick but really needed the money so never ever gave in!
I get to work and have a great station and all of the tables I am serving are totally cool! Making great tips, totally on my game, not running behind, and so glad I decided to come into work.
.... this is where it gets exciting......
So I am just starting a larger table of teenage boys. As I am passing out their drinks I have to turn my body sideways, first of all because this is a deep and big table so I can reach all the way that I need to, and secondly because I now have this big belly in front of me! Well all of my weight is on my right leg practically (and I weigh more because I am 6 months pregnant) and my foot is planted and my body twisted strangely to deliver these drinks (a menouver I do ALL THE TIME) and then suddenly PAIN!!!! My right knee slips out of place and pain shoots through my whole entire leg!! I WAS STANING IN ONE SPOT, HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN???? I did not fall but almost did and just gasped!!! The teenage boys see this big pregnant woman gasp in pain with fear and pain all over her face suddenly get worried...."WHAT HAPPENED???", "O I just hurt my knee :)" then I turn to walk away and as I step onto my leg PAIN!!!! I can not even walk away from the table so I do a one legged, 6 month pregnant bunny hop to the back where I tell my manager I am done for the day and I sit in the office crying till my husband gets there! Not so much crying in pain but STRESS!!! I NEED TO BE WORKING!! I HATE MY STUPID KNEES!!! And "O' not this again" just keeps going through my mind over and over!!!
Due to the fact that I got hurt at work it is a workers comp thing so that is a thank goodness!! My work has me go to the doctors imediatly. Kip takes me and I get there looking SO GHETTO!!! I have mascera in clumps on my eyes from crying, I SMELL like food (NASTY), I have food spots all over my shirt, I am pregnant, and hopping on one leg, o' and somehow I still have a tomato piece on my shoe? Poor husband of mine must have been so embarassed!!! They have me change out of my work pants into some really nasty HUGE doctors shorts type things so the doctor can see my knee. Now I look even more silly! Then as we are sitting in the office waiting for the doctor to come in to examine me I HAVE TO PEE and BAD!!! I ask the nurse if I can use the restroom and she says yes but that I have to be wheeled in a wheel chair to the restroom. As I am being wheeled to the restroom another doctor tells me not to lock the door of the restroom just in case I fall down they can get in there to pick me up, "OK DO I SERIOUSLY LOOK THAT SPECIAL??? AM I 90 YEARS OLD OR SOMETHING???". Finally we get situated again and the doctor comes in. With a short exam the doctor can't tell me what is wrong and asks me to come back on Monday (today) to see if there has been any progress made?
(this is me right as we walk in the door at home from the doctors office, see the cute doctors shorts??)

We end up just staying home Friday night and I am thanking my lucky stars that Kip randomly decided to not go on this trip with his parents and that he had to be with me! I love my husband!!! I call my family I am supposed to be shooting the pictures of the next day and they are SO SUPER COOL about the whole situation and tell me to call back and re schedule when I am better! Thank goodness for cool people!!!
We go down to San Diego early Saturday morning and hang with the fam! I had to register this weekend as well because I wanted to have my mom and sis help since they know more about being a mom than me! So here is a shot of my pathetic self outside Babies R Us as we prepare to go in and register :)

This is how I cary my purse when I do not have a helper to help me out! It looks super silly because it is pushed way out in front of me from resting on my belly!

And this is just me before we leave my parents house and head home, which by the way was a fun trip down there to visit the fam!

So yeah!!!!
I went to the doctors today and my knee really has not made much progress so far. I now know exactly where it hurts and what I can do to make it hurt. It is very similar feeling to when I tore my ACL's before so this is all familiar to me. I obviously can not do all the testing and take all the pain meds due to being pregnant but its ok. Little Brooke is our #1 priority and I am #2 for sure!!! My knee was still to swollen for the doctor to feel that he could tell me what was going on so we have another appointment for Wed morning and hopefully we can move forward from there! I need an MRI and to go see a Orthopedic Specialest if you ask me? But it is up to the doc!
I do not know what the future holds here for when I will be off these crutches? For how our finances will be? For what will happen to my knee? Or so many other things... but I do know that my attitude is one of the ONLY things I can control right now so I am going to have a good one! I am going to believe that EVERYTHING happens for a reason and that the Lord has a plan for us! I know that Kip was supposed to stay home with me this weekend and I am SO glad that he did! He is my ROCK and is SO much help!
Feel free to laugh, tease me, or make whatever comment you need... I am totally laughing at my poor, poor, retarded self too!!!

6 Months!!! WOW!!!

Well I have officially made it to the 6 month mark! For some reason before I was pregnant 6 month pregnant people seemed REALLY pregnant to me, so I guess I am officially REALLY pregnant now! AND I LOVE IT!!! It is CRAZY how time is flying by and is crazy to think that she is going to be here in 3.5 months, SERIOUSLY??? It still does not feel real and I am beginning to wonder when it will?? I still LOVE being pregnant and actually am seeming to REALLY love it lately!
Well I will recap on the last month for your enjoyment and my journal purposes but first the updated BELLY SHOTS!!! And yes, you get my WHOLE body this time, I am getting more comfortable with the fact that... yes pregnancy makes my face fat and looks like I am dead or tired or something, and yes SHE IS WORTH IT!!!



Yes, I know you need all angles!!! And yes, I am getting the beloved line down the belly, I was hoping to avoid that but nope! I still love it!
Ok so I was looking at pictures of people 9 months pregnant and can not believe what this belly is going to become in the next 3.5 months.... YIKES!!! But I can't wait and I suppose it makes since, she is about 2 lbs. now and we are anticipating her to be around 8 lbs. so yeah.... I am going to get WAY BIGGER!!!
Ok so this last month has been a pretty fun one for us! I have really liked the 5-6 month spurt! I have energy again, I LOVE FOOD (especially chocolate), and I love working out, I am feeling her move a whole lot more these days, especially the past 2 days, daddy has felt her a bunch, I can see my belly move now which is exciting to me, people can now tell I am pregnant and ask me how far along I am, random people now touch my belly (which can be kinda weird), her movements feel more like pokes and stuff like that rather than a random movement, and I can tell she is getting bigger and it makes me SO HAPPY!!! What else have I loved about this month??? O' we are starting home improvements to prepare for her, we picked out and got the paint color for her room, her crib and changing table have arrived, and I am going to register this coming up weekend!!! Can you tell I am excited??? I still feel like I have SO MUCH to do to prepare my home and myself for her but I know how I am and I KNOW that it will get done if it means pulling all nighters to do it!
I am still working 5 days a week and am not feeling that it is hurting the service I am giving to my tables but I do notice how much more tired I am at the end of a shift and boy do my feet and back hurt! But I have to keep trucking along till I have her so we will make it work. She IS helping me get bigger tips which is SO NICE!! I think I am going to buy a fake belly after I have her to work the system and keep getting these sympathy tips, it is NICE!!! Plus my tables are way less demanding on me and are more understanding, I really dig this pregnancy thing!
Ok well I think that is it for the most part! Yeah for finally being REALLY PREGNANT!!!

ATTACKED!!!

By a Cactus!!! Seriously???
So today I was totally motivated to get some sun and go on a good, long, fast walk! I was totally in the mood! So we ( Echo & I ) set off in a tank top to get some sun and some water packed for our long walk/hike!
It was WONDERFUL I was making great time! We get to a few spots where I can let Echo off the leash and hike off into the hills a little bit and I love those moments! Echo gets to run everywhere and get the endless amounts of energy he has out of his system and I get to enjoy not being pulled by a huge dog for a few moments!
Today... not so good! I see Echo venture off the path and right past a cactus, suddenly I see him FLIPPING OUT he is flying in the air contorting his body in all sorts of ways and I am like "what happened to my dog??" I call him and the poor pup comes trotting over with cactus needles ALL OVER his body!! His mouth is bleeding and totally watering. I start to try to pull out the needles but realise they are REALLY stuck in there and this is going to take some time! I call Kip and ask him what to do because... well... boys are supposed to know! And he says we need to pull them out. I make Echo keep on walking because there is no way I am going to pull these all out in the middle of the trail on the dirt. We finally get to one of my friends houses who is not home, but I decide this is the place I am going to pull all these out. By that point I had gotten a good 3 miles in so I could rest too! I just felt too bad making him walk ALL the way home with these needles all over his poor body! I do my best and he takes the ones all over his body like a total champ! He just lays there while I pulled needles out of his chest, legs, bottoms of his feet, head, neck, side, well everywhere!!! Then I get to his face which is the worst part! My 6 month pregnant self is trying to pin him down to keep him still while yanking needles out of his lips, gums, nose, in between his teeth, the roof of his mouth, and even in his tongue! The dog never growled or snapped at me which is amazing to me because that must have HURT, but he was wiggling everywhere! So I call my friend Megan who I know is driving around in the neighborhood and ask her to meet me to help pin him down. She has 2 huge dogs and totally knows Echo and is a WONDERFUL friend so she was PERFECT!! Thanks Megan for letting my dog bleed and slobber all over you! She helped me with all the rest... I think???
I just have to say, my dog is the SWEETEST thing ever. The poor thing had me sticking my whole hand in his mouth to rip out needles that were stuck in the roof of his mouth and gums and in between teeth, and his tongue and he NEVER EVER tried to bite down on my hand! Never even whimpered or growled! He is ONE GOOD DOG!!! I do have to say, when I began this process I was nervous, he is a Doberman with a BIG MOUTH and lots of BIG teeth, but I knew he trusted me! I now have NO WORRIES for little Brooke! She could probably take pliers to his teeth and he would lay there and take it! I love my dog!

I LOVE PEOPLE!!!!

This post is a BIG HUGE THANK YOU to all of the wonderful people in Kip and I's lives! I just feel so amazingly blessed to have so many people in our lives that we know love and care about us and will do anything to help us out!
Lately Kip and I have been struggling financially with him loosing his job and us having a baby on the way (along with the rest of the world). But SOMEHOW every single month with the help of the Lord and our wonderful friends and family we make it through!
Lately we have been receiving so much help that I just HAVE to say THANK YOU!!! Thank you for allowing me to borrow your maternity clothing, thank you for the baby stuff, the hand me downs that are so super cute, the diapers, the hook up's for paint and supplies for the nursery, the side jobs, the photo shoots that I have been able to do on the side, EVERYTHING is appreciated!!! You all have made this time in Kip and I's live a blessing and a time that we really have seen how loved and blessed we are by the lord for putting so many wonderful people and opportunities into our lives! You all are fabulous and THANK YOU!!!
I LOVE PEOPLE!!!