Critter's Heart Goes Boom Boom Boom

This morning was very wonderful. Jacob and I had our 3rd doctor's appointment. It was a quick one but special because we got to hear Critter's heartbeat through the doppler device. It looks like a little microphone with a speaker. She held it up to my tummy and it went...BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM. 160 beats per minute. She said everything is perfect! Jacob and I were just thrilled and so happy to hear such a sweet sound. My blood pressure was good and I haven't gained any weight! Obviously my stomach is growing so hopefully that means my butt and legs are shrinking :) A girl can dream. I was told that I need to be exercising now that the extreme fatigue is wearing off. She said since it is so cold outside I should get some videos to do in the house. That could be entertaining...seeing as I'm not very coordinated! Ha. Oh...and next month we get the "big" ultrasound but remember we're keeping it a surprise so we will not be finding out what we are having. Well, I just wanted to share in my excitement. Have a great day!!

2007 SoRuck

Well, I’m a little behind on my past several weekends so allow me to quickly fill you in about MLK weekend. Three weekends ago Jacob and I drove to the Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC) for the 2007 SoRuck. The SoRuck is a gathering of Appalachian Trail hikers and enthusiasts. Jacob went last year and I was unable to go but this year I decided to take off MLK day with him and travel east for the jamboree. We arrived around midnight and slept in Penelope.

Saturday morning we woke up for breakfast and a 7 mile group hike along the AT. It always brings back fond memories when we hit THE trail. Critter enjoyed his first hike (I guess). We’ll see if he comes out wearing hiking boots or not. I thought I’d be exhausted but it was actually quite invigorating. That afternoon we just hung out and watched a few slide shows that people had created on their hikes of various other trails. In the evening I helped in the kitchen cutting potatoes and apples for our feast. I’ve never seen so much food (some yummy…some scary).

Sunday morning Jacob and I slept in. I was a little disappointed as I was hoping to attend the morning devotion. That afternoon Sally and Clarence and Lauren and Chad met us for a vomitous drive up to Wayah Bald and a nice picnic of Zaxby’s. Yum. Sadly they had to leave us because they had to work on Monday. Jacob and I went to our tent and we slept for like 14 hours. That was much needed!!

Monday morning we left the Ruck and headed home (with a stop at Cracker Barrel in between). I enjoyed the meeting with people who have hiked the AT or who plan on hiking the AT. There were certainly a myriad of different people there…professionals, hiker bums, young, old, clean, dirty, etc. Maybe we’ll attend again next year…who knows though b/c things are definitely changing in the Cartner household and we can’t wait!!

This is me atop Wayah Bald on our 2004 thru-hike. Brrr.

Jacob and I stayed with Stanimal and Officer Taco under their bunks at NOC on our 2004 thru-hike.

"Buuuudddyyy. Why are you taking a picture of your poor pregnant wife while she goes to the bathroom??"

Uncle Chad and Auntie Lauren

Old Grandparents :)

Wayah Bald Fire Tower

Silly Girls. Don't ask. Lauren sure does look like she is putting a lot of effort in her wipin.

Baby Cartner and Tummy Update

This past Saturday, Baby Cartner turned 12 weeks old. This is a huge milestone for us because that means the risk of miscarriage is virtually 0% and we are in the 2nd trimester. Praise Jesus for His grace!!! Critter seems to be growing along just normally (at least my stomach is!!!) so hopefully everything is just perfect. My next appointment is January 31st and I can't wait. Here is an excerpt from my doctor's website that tells you what is going on inside of me...

Baby's Physical Development
Baby weighs 8-14 grams and is 2.5 inches long.
The placenta has reached full functional maturity, acting as the baby's lungs, kidneys, liver and digestive and immune systems.
Urinary tract is on line and working fine. A big portion of the amniotic fluid from this point on will be baby urine.
Lungs are developing.
The pituitary gland is beginning to make many hormones.
Bile is being secreted by this time.
The arms have almost reached their final relative lengths, but the legs are still not so well developed and are slightly shorter than their final relative lengths.
Finger and toes have separated.
External genitalia are beginning to show distinct signs of male/female characteristics.

Critter and I have been reading stories every night before bed. It's my favorite thing to do. I can't wait until he's really here and I can rock him and read to him and watch him giggle at all of the funny stories. I absolutely love children's books and am thankful for the collection I have aquired over the years. Many are from my childhood and some I have purchased over the years and then Sally & Clarence always get us good ones for Christmas. This week I have pulled out some old school "Golden Books" like The Tawny Scrawny Lion and Panda Bear's Paintbox. These sure do bring back some memories.

Anyway...I gotta get back to work. But a parting shot before I go...Here's my growing belly! I plan on taking a photo every month until the end. We'll see how long this tank top lasts :) I think this picture makes me look a little bigger than I really am right now (don't they say cameras add like 15 lbs?). In all fairness I had just eaten dinner :).

P.S I will post about the past 2 weekends here in a little bit. It's no fun writing posts without pictures and I always forget to get them from Jacob!

God's Grace is Sufficient

I have been excitedly looking forward to writing this post for several weeks now but wanted to wait until I saw some special people in person before breaking the news on my bloggo.

If you read my second blog back when I joined the blogging world, you will remember that Jacob and I had a miscarriage in July. It was a very difficult time for me but never once did I feel like God's hand left me. I have felt His arms around me over the past seven months comforting me and reminding me that I am His child. I know that God has great plans for me and Jacob...and our new little one that is on the way!!! Jacob and I are so blessed to announce that we are expecting our first little baby around August 5, 2007!!!! I am ecstatic and in love with this new little friend that is growing in me. Please be in prayer for me over the next seven months as I grow into a mother (and into bigger pants). I am 10 weeks and 5 days along today.

My prayer is that of Hannah after she gave birth to Samuel..."My heart rejoices in the Lord; in the Lord my horn is lifted high. My mouth boasts over my enemies, for I delight in your deliverance. There is no one holy like the Lord; there is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God." 1 Samuel 2:1-2

So far I have had two healthy doctor appointments where I had ultrasounds of my little sprout. He (I use that term neutrally because we do not know the gender) has a beautiful heartbeat and the cutest little legs and hands (which he was swinging all around). Please pray that he will continue to grow into a strong healthy baby. He's exactly the size he's supposed to be right now (about 1.5"). My next appointment is on January 31. Jacob and I do not plan on finding out what we are having so we look forward to hearing when our sweet baby is delivered, "It's a boy" or "It's a girl" and being completely surprised.

I think that is all for now but since everything is out in the open, I will have lots to write about. For those who don't see me too often, you can watch me "grow" on my bloggo.

Our sweet baby at 9 weeks and 4 days along

December 3 when we took our pregnancy test. Can you tell how happy we are??

My existing "pooch" at only 6 weeks along. I believe that is leftover turkey and mashed potatoes from Thanksgiving :) I will take another one at 12 weeks.

Birds of a Feather...Flock Together

Just wanted to share some pictures Jacob took out at Shelby Farms last night. Kind of makes me think of Alfred Hitchcock...and yes, Jacob did get splattered on!

Ragtime = Funtime

This past week I made my friend Hillarey a Ragtime Quilt. It was my first Ragtime quilt and it was pretty easy. I did the whole thing in about 4-5 hours. The toughest part was cutting all of the edges. Hillarey is having a baby girl due any day now. Her nursery is done in Precious Moments so I chose fabric that would go with her room. I’m still having a little trouble getting my corners to line up but hey…I’ll get there one day. My new sewing machine I got for Christmas from my lovey dovey works just wonderful. I did the entire quilt without having to redo a single stitch!!!! That in my book is a BIG deal.

Saturday Hillarey had a baby shower so I went to that while Jacob continued to work on our fence. He’s getting so close!!!

Sunday night our friends Ali and Keith came over for dinner and played games. We sure do enjoy game nights.

This formatting is making me mad...

Happy Anniversary to Us!!

January 3, 2004

This past Wednesday, January 3, Jacob and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary. It's so hard to believe that it has already been 3 years since we said "I Do." I'm still loving every minute of being his wife and enjoying seeing how God is changing us and shaping us. To celebrate, we went to dinner at Steak & Ale and then to see the movie "We Are Marshall!". We haven't been to a movie in a long time and it was great to go on a date on a "work" night. And I got some gorgeous orange roses too :)

In our 3 years of marriage we have done the following things together:

Honeymooned in Kauai, Hawaii.
Hiked 2200 miles along the Appalachian Trail.
Adopted a puppy and fell in love with him.
Moved 500 miles from Greenville to Memphis, TN.
Purchased (and fully paid off) 2 cars.
Bought a house (and certainly not paid it off).
Tore out our kitchen and replaced it.
Went Skiing in Utah and Whistler/Blackcomb.
Reached the highest point in 26 states. (Mississippi, Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Louisiana, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, California, Utah, Kentucky, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Iowa, Arkansas, Illinois, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Texas, and Connecticut --not in this order though)
Went to Alaska.
Mourned the loss of our first pregnancy.
Celebrated 3 Thanksgivings in Pennsylvania and 3 Christmases in South Carolina.
Made many friends.
Got real jobs, and raises.
Jacob got a masters and started his Ph.D.
Backpacked many miles on other trails.

All while falling even more in love :)

If our first 3 years of marriage had all that in store for us, there is no telling what the next 60 have ready for us :)

Thanks for all the good times best friend in the whole world!!! I love you.

New Years

I told Jacob I was too tired after all of the travel that we did to go anywhere over New Years. We stayed home and worked around the house. It looked like a tornado had gone through it!!! Jacob spent the whole weekend working on our new fence and I cleaned the house and started a quilt I am making for a baby gift for a friend at work. On New Years Eve we went to our friends house from church and celebrated the year in. So here it is 2007 and I'm all caught up with my blogs. Sorry they aren't too exciting but it's hard getting caught up! Maybe my resolution should be to do a better job at keeping in touch with people and keeping up to date with my blog. Well, I'm going to bed now. I'll talk to you later.

Christmas in South Carolina

I sure do love Christmas...I especially love being home with family over Christmas. We returned from Whistler on Friday, December 22 after a long red eye flight that was delayed. Our luggage also didn't make it. It wasn't a big deal though because it arrived on the next flight and they delivered it to the house that afternoon. As soon as we arrived we got showered and then headed to North Carolina to spend the day with Jacob's grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. We had a good time there with them but I was very tired after all of that traveling. We got back to Greenville and went to sleep.

The next day I got up and had lunch with my good friends Lindsay, Cindy and Lauren. It's always so great to get caught up with them. I'm sorry to all of the other people that I didn't get to catch up with over the holidays. There is never enough time!!

Christmas Eve we went to church in the morning and then relaxed for a while before heading to the Bunnells for a drop-in. After that Jacob and I went to the Christmas Eve service at Brushy Creek. I haven't missed it in years. It's great to spend the evening preparing for Christmas day and to get caught up with people I only see once a year.

The next morning was Christmas...yeehaw. Jacob and I got some great gifts and ate some yummy vittles. Some of the gifts I got: a new sewing machine, the Willow Tree Nativity, a bird feeder, clothes, gift cards, etc. We spent the rest of the day playing games and then got to hang out with Brad working on a crazy puzzle until Dad and Martha returned from Vancouver and we hung out with them.

The rest of Greenville was just hanging out and eating. Can you tell I'm getting tired of writing? I don't have any pictures on this computer to share but I'll try to ge the uploaded later.

Whistler/Blackcomb

To begin our holiday adventures we left on Friday, December 15 after work towards Greenville. We decided to drive to Greenville and fly out of there in order to avoid having to drive to Greenville after our ski trip. God's arms were certainly around our vehicle on that drive. Shortly after we left, there was a pile up on the interstate that caused Jacob to have to swerve off the road only to end up in a ditch. We were stuck in the middle for a little bit. Jacob had to push the car out while I floored the gas. Thank you Jesus for your protection!! The rest of the drive was uneventful. Jacob drove the whole way because he thinks he makes better time than I do. We arrived late that night and had to get up at 4 am for our 6am flight. Thanks so much Pam for taking our Siler dog to the kennel. We're sorry he growled at you :(.

The flights to Dallas and then to Seattle were uneventful. We made good time but because of some bad weather, Chris (a friend from work who went with us) and the Jarvises were delayed. We had to hang out at the airport for a while waiting for them. We finally all met up and began the 4.5 hour drive to Whistler. I'm sure it was beautiful but I couldn't see much because it was dark. We arrived at the lodge at around 9 o'clock.

Our lodge was extremely nice. Each condo slept 6, had two bathrooms, a kitchen, living room, fireplace. It was right on the slopes and had access to several restaurants and shops. Whistler is a gorgeous area. They have had a record year for snow and it was everywhere. Absolutely gorgeous. The weather was nice while we were there. It wasn't too cold, as I dreaded. The skiing was good, the food was delicious and the fellowship was perfect. I sure enjoyed our trip to Whistler.

My brother Brad showing his mad ski skills on the moguls.

My Crazy Jacob :)

Beautiful Blackcomb Mountain (The Glacier)

Getting Caught Up

Well, I brought home our laptop from work with a wireless card so I can get caught up on my blog. My deepest apologies for not posting "a big, long, bloggy" while in Greenville. Time with family is special and I didn't want to spend all of my time on the internet. I am going to do my best to get caught up but I will probably post several blogs in order to keep things organized. So here goes...

Wow...

I am one pathetic loser!!

Ok, not really but I wanted to quote Dumb & Dumber. So...sorry about getting behind on my blog! Things have actually been going on but I've been so busy at work that I haven't had time to get caught up.

We leave today to drive to Greenville and then have an early flight to Seattle tomorrow morning. We then drive to Whistler/Blackcomb for some fantastic skiing. We return to Greenville on Friday morning and get to spend until the day after Christmas with family and friends. I'm so excited.

So...when I get to Greenville, I'll write a big, long bloggy about our trip and hopefully get caught up on everything else. Just bare with me :)

Now This is Funny!!!!

I hope these pictures of my brother make you laugh as hard as I did. Have a happy Friday!!!

Thanksgiving Was Great...but I have Countertops!!!

Ok...so I know you guys would like to hear about my Thanksgiving but the big news for me today is... I HAVE COUNTERTOPS!!!!!!!!!!! Some of you may not realize what a big deal this is. I have had plywood countertops for a year now...and a temporary sink...and no dishwasher. Today the fabricators installed my new GRANITE countertops. Let me just tell you...they are BEAUTIFUL. I feel like throwing a party. The company did an AWESOME job and I am so pleased with their workmanship. Pictures will come soon but I didn't have the camera this morning when they finished. I'm debating if I should make you wait to see them after I get my backsplash installed or if I should give you a sneek peek :). If anybody in the Memphis area is getting new countertops...I highly recommend American Granite & Marble. They were very easy and flexible and affordable to work with.

So enough about my countertops...Thanksgiving was wonderful as well. I always LOVE visiting my family in PA. We spend the first couple of days with my mom's side of the family in Johnstown and then the rest of the trip with my dad's side of the family in Kittanning. My mom's sisters remind me so much of her. This year we ate a lot of food, played Mexican Train, played Phase 10, went bowling (Grammy was the oldest one cosmic bowling with the young, teenage, tight-shirt wearing, hoodlums), ate some more, walked around "town", ate some more and drove. This year the weather was warm (in the 60's). Big change from the 14" of snow we got last year.

I guess it's time to get the Christmas decorations out. I can't wait for skiing and another holiday....and did I mention I got new countertops???

Happy Thanksgiving.

Enjoy some Thanksgiving Pictures. We are still in PA but wanted to give you something to enjoy from my Mom's side of the family. More when I return. Sorry they are not in chronological order.

Brad, Elise and Me. Elise was one of my mom's best friends when they were little. I always thought she was an aunt when we were younger because we saw her as much on visits as we did family.
Me and my cute grammy breaking the wishbone.
Me teaching everybody to play Mexican Train. Brad won.
That's a lot of taters!!
The feast!! Aunt Jeanie only made 8 pies this year for 13 people. Not to mention she made a goody box for each of us that had a loaf of pumpkin bread, cookies, muffins, gobs and some other yummy stuff. She's crazy!!

Thanksgiving Can't Come Soon Enough!!

Well, I don't know about you all but I am ready for a break! I am so looking forward to Thanksgiving and the fact that I only have to work 1 and a half days this week. Yep, it's Sunday night and I am at work right now. I was at work last night too. Obviously I'm not working this very second but a girl's gotta have a break every once in a while. Tomorrow I am starting a new "normal" project. I say "normal" because I will not be working on all of these "fire drills" that are requiring late hours. Friday night I was able to go with Jacob to Arkansas to return Bouncer to his owner and then we camped and hiked 10.4 miles on Saturday. It was a beautiful day and I enjoyed going with Jacob. I didn't think I was going to be able to. So...we no longer have Bouncer. He seemed excited to see his owner again which is a good thing. I do not have much to talk about but enjoy these few pictures of Jacob and I. He sure is a cutie. :)

By the way, those curious...we will be leaving Tuesday afternoon and driving to Pennsylvania to spend Turkey Day with my family. I LOVE this time of year. I will have lots to post about I'm sure. We will return Sunday night. I hope your Thanksgiving is great!

Jacob and I at Brandon and Layla's Wedding a week ago.

Jacob and I (and Lucy too) at the Epicurean Dinner Group on Thursday. This is a group of people that I work with that get together once a month to try different ethnic foods and restaurants. This month was our first time attending and it was at Happy Mexican. The restaurants pick out what we will eat and we eat family style so we can try things that we wouldn't know to order. I look forward to some of the more interesting places.

Penelope's Wild Escapade

So…I think this is pretty funny. You guys might not think so but humor me.

I get home one night and get the mail from the box. In it I find a letter addressed to Jacob from Germantown Law Enforcement and I think, “ooo what has he done now.” I try to read through the envelope and all I could read was “CITATION.” He opens the envelope and in it is this piece of paper…I started laughing at him for getting caught running a red light. I just assumed it was him because he goes out to Germantown (a suburb of Memphis) every Wednesday to play basketball and often drives my car. Anyway, to make a long story short…it was me!!! I had gone out to my boss’s house to deliver drawings on Halloween and that’s when it happened. Ha Ha Ha. I had no idea that they actually used those red light cameras. So…beware when you run a yellow light…it could turn red…and you could get caught.

P.S I told my boss he owes me $50 bucks…he just laughed.

I erased parts of it just incase any creepos are reading this.

Have a Good Weekend

Just wanted to tell you I had a good week this week. Work has been pleasant. Things I did this week (this includes last weekend)

Friday: Good-bye party for Tonya and Jason at Carie and Chris' (funny pictures to come one day)
Saturday: Worked on Fence, Went to Wedding (Yay Brandon and Layla), Watched Windtalkers
Sunday: Went to church, ate roast, green beans and mashed sweet potatoes for lunch, cleaned house, watched t.v.
Monday: Worked
Tuesday: Worked, Tech Lunch, Voted, Cooked Dinner, Bible Study at Hunter and Emily's
Wednesday: Worked, Dinner at Texas Roadhouse to say good bye to Tonya and Jason, Target with Carie
Thursday: Worked, Tech Lunch, Game Night with Jacob...I beat Jacob at Risk!!!! And he didn't do it on purpose.
Friday: Worked, Going home...

Happy Birthday Lauren!!!

Today is my sister-in-law's 23rd birthday. Yay for Lauren. I wish we were there to celebrate with ya!!!

I didn't want you to think she was too normal :)

I made her a tree skirt for her birthday.

Getting Caught Up

Apologies for getting so far behind…I’d hate to turn into Carie or Tonya :). Anyway, things have been pretty busy lately and I haven’t had the time to write. I do however owe you some stories about the dog, the owl and Chilympics. So here goes.

The Dog...

Jacob went backpacking a couple of weekends ago with Siler. This dog began following him for several miles. He’d disappear and then return. That evening he disappeared but when he woke up in the morning…he was sleeping outside his tent!! So the dog continued to follow him and disappear and then return again until he was done backpacking…now 20+ miles away from where they first met. Jacob got to his car and called the owners to let them know he had found their dog. They never answered. He kept calling. Not knowing what to do, Jacob felt like he should stall a little bit until the owners called him back, but still needed to get home (which was over 4 hours away). So…since they never called back he brought the dog back to Memphis with him. He didn’t want to just leave him on the side of the road to die. He calls me to warn me and let me know. I thought it was a trick at first to talk me into allowing him a new dog. The poor little guy was malnourished and tick infested. We gave him a bath and as much food as he wanted. We didn’t know his name so Jacob insisted on calling him Roscoe. That evening the wife of the dog’s owner calls back. We tell him where we are and she said she needed to have her husband call us. Obviously she didn’t want to deal with it. The owner calls us and informs us that he is in Nebraska!! and will not return for 2 more weeks. We told him we would watch him and return him when he got back in town. It’s been 2 weeks now and we haven’t heard back from the guy. Jacob doesn’t want to call the guy back because he wants to keep him…who by the way is named Bouncer. I’m not really ready for another dog. Bouncer is terrified of new people (maybe he was abused?)…and he still smells…and he doesn’t listen worth a hoot...however, he doesn’t bark which is nice. We are going to have to bathe him again. So…until we hear otherwise, we have this new dog. Oh, he’s a hound (white with tan and black spots), about the same size as Siler. Siler doesn’t care too much about him but does get jealous if we play too much with him.

The Owl…

This story is short. Jacob walked out into the yard and there was a dead owl. That’s really all to the story but how often do you find dead owls in your backyard?? Not to mention, I was wearing my new shirt with owls on it the same day we found it! Spooky. Pretty random, I know.

Chilympics 2006…

Chilympics was a yearly chili cook off that my work, LRK held in the past. When I started working here I was so excited about it but they had stopped doing it. Well, now that Stewart has returned to LRK, he resumed the Chilympics (apparently it was in his job description). The object of Chilympics is to have a team building experience with people that you do not normally get to work with. The teams were selected at random. Not to complain too much but my team was not very good. Most of the people on my team didn’t really care to participate. The other teams however seemed to have a blast. There were judges that evaluated your display and other judges that evaluated your chili. My team didn’t win anything. Apparently my chili came in 3rd place but there were some discrepancies with the judging that caused us to not place. I was pretty disappointed to get a poopy team but there is always next year. The teams that did participate were HILARIOUS.

Sally’s Visit…

I had a blast with Sally last weekend when she came to visit. She took me shopping and bought me 2 new pairs of pants and a sweater. Thanks Sally!!! The rest of the weekend we did some funny stuff but I can’t talk about that just yet. I’ll talk about it after somebody’s birthday.

Halloween…

I worked sort of late and didn’t do anything for Halloween. We are grinches I guess. Frank Ricks (of Looney Ricks Kiss) dressed up as his cousin Henry and handed out candy at the office. We laughed SO hard. Can you believe this guy owns a reputable architecture firm?? Hehe.

Our 8th Dating Anniversary…

Today is 8 years since Jacob and I started dating. Wow…can you believe that a lunch date to Schlotzsky’s led to this? That was the best lunch I ever had. I love you buddy and can’t wait for 80 more years of dating. We went out to dinner to celebrate last night because tonight we are attending a bye-bye party for Tonya and Jason.

I think we are caught up now. Hopefully I won’t get so far behind again.

Disclaimer: This post is really long and I do not feel like re-reading it for errors and typos…so please forgive me!