Been a long time. Glad to see your face. I knew we'd meet again. Another time. Another place...

Ok...so I can't really see your face, and really this is the same place we met last time...but I always have to sing that line when I say "Been a long time."

So much has happened!!! I've had SEVERAL days that I've thought I should come blog...but I've been trying to keep a secret from blog-land, and I knew if I came here, I'd spill the beans. But now it's ok to spill!!! (LOL since most of you who I know read this already know!)

We're expecting another little bundle of joy and sleeplessness!!! Yay!!! I'm so dang excited!!!

It's really rough to determine when to make the announcement on your blog or anywhere online really. You don't want someone that you've been waiting to tell in person or otherwise to stumble across it so impersonally for the first time. But when do you give up on that if you haven't had a chance yet? So I chose now!

So we will be four months along on Saturday. It's going REALLY fast! - most days. We're due November 21 - the Saturday before Thanksgiving! So that will make for something INCREDIBLE to be Thankful for!!! No questions of what I'll be writing down and putting in the hat/boat/bread bag/whatever we use this year!

Everything is going fabulous! Minimal weight gain so far...baby looked great on the sonogram...Heartbeat is fabulous...and Molly has even decided that it makes an awesome dance beat! LOL I laughed so hard that day!

I won't lie...I was VERY sick for a long time. I vomitted way too much and had way too many days sitting in front of Uncle Ralph. But everything's clearing up nicely. I feel much better. I only slightly gag when changing a gross diaper or coming upon anything else that is especially disgusting now. I've got much more energy. Before, I was often falling asleep BEFORE MOLLY at like 7pm and sleeping all through the night until she woke up the next morning. But now, for the last WEEK I have stayed up until at least 11pm without having to try very hard. Yay for betterness!

We have our big sonogram where we will find out what we're having at the end of this month! I'm so excited! I hoping for an elephant! Then we could call it Ellie or Eli. haha! Ok just kidding! I'm just praying for a completely HEALTHY baby with NOOOO FOOD ALLERGIES!!!!!!!!! Please Lord!!! Or if it has to have allergies..at least be the same as Molly's so I don't have to have two separate types of diets. LOL... yeah...not kidding.

Some other really exciting news is we're taking a vacation!!!

The last vacation we took was to Kaua'i, HI. It was SO MUCH fun...but you know what? It was over 3 years ago for our honeymoon! We definitely deserve another very soon! All winter long we kept talking how as soon as tax season was over we were going to head out to Vegas for a nice vacation. Well...then we had to replace our furnace and A/C and that was a huge chunk of money...and then at least once a month after that we've had something that costed at least a couple hundred dollars happen to our house or our car. And then we became pregnant...which entails medical expenses and other things. And plus we'd imagine Vegas is pretty smokey and that wouldn't be so good for my pregnant self - not that I think spending just a couple days in a smokey environment would hurt the baby too much...but it would most likely make me SOOO sick, just the smell! So the vacation became a lost idea.

Well Richard, during college once, went to Denver to a water park called Water World. He talks about it anytime the thought of a water park is spoken about. And so about a month or two ago I told him that this summer as our last Hurrah! before having multiple children we should drive out to Denver and hang out at the water park...leaving Molly with his parents on the way out. We thought it'd be a lot of fun! But then we were like...hmmm..we don't know ANYTHING about Denver, besides it the home of those nasty Broncos...and we'd hate to get lost out in Bronco-land...We hear the diseases out there are pretty contagious. ;)

So we kind of started looking around elsewhere. Still in the mood for water parks...I checked into them everywhere. First I thought the Water Park of America would be fun, because we could do that for part of a day and for the rest hang out around Minneapolis...and then spend another day at the Mall of America. We started thinking that flying there would be more money than we were able to spend on this "little" vacation...so we considered driving. But that would likely mean we'd have to leave Molly for more than our planned on 3 nights...and we didn't really feel comfortable with that...since she's never been left ANYWHERE over night without one of us before. And I started reading LOTS of bad reviews about the Water Park. - Which by the way...it is SOOO hard to read reviews about places! People are so darn negative. Richard kept reminding me that most of the time people who go somewhere and have a good time don't go online to leave a review...they just have a great time and tell their friends and family when they get home. People who have a bad time go online to complain and "forewarn" anyone they can get their hands on.

So we kept looking. Just being crazy I started looking at bigger vacations. I liked the idea of Aquatica in Orlando and Rich really wants to go to Universal Studios again...so we started rethinking our budget. Maybe it would be worth spending a little more to have a really good time. But the Orlando idea was pretty much out because there is just SO MUCH to do there, I wouldn't have been able to control myself and we would have stayed much too long and spent way too much.

Then I kept looking and Rich began asking me multiple times daily if I had found anything to do. I couldn't make any decisions. The decision pool was growing every time I did research and that wasn't helping.

Finally I HAD to narrow it down. So we decided if we were going "higher-to-us" end, our options were San Antonio (a flight down, SeaWorld, a fun water park, and a few other free things,) and yeah Vegas had come up again (a show or two, sightseeing, and maybe a little casino time.) If we were going "lower-to-us" end, our options were just driving to either Omaha, Kansas City, or Oklahoma City and just hanging out doing whatever the cities offer..some shopping..and just doing whatever, we really have no idea what's available in Omaha or OKC, but we would figure something out and have a good time regardless.

I think we were both leaning toward the higher end ideas. They just seemed more exciting. lol. Although we weren't quite in agreeance on which one. I've ALWAYS wanted to do something like SeaWorld...and the water park was sounding really fun. Richard has ALWAYS wanted to go to Vegas. Period. lol. Both of us really wanted what we wanted, but both of us fought harder for the other person's wants than our own. Don't ya hate that? I really wanted him to get complete enjoyment out of it. He really wanted that for me. And so we were at another stand still. Until one day he said...actually...you're going to be almost 5 months pregnant and San Antonio is going to be VERY hot...which means a day of walking around SeaWorld is going to WEAR YOU OUT! He was completely right! And I added to it that in Vegas, we'd be sleeping in more and be out more at night, so that should be cooler - even though it will be HOT in Vegas too, and more things are indoors there. And he started asking some people what they thought about the smokiness of Vegas and they seemed to think that it would be ok - that the casinos and such are well-ventilated. I figure as long as I don't get stuck sitting NEXT to someone smoking I should be ok. And almost ALL of the poker rooms are smoke-free now (not that I'll be playing poker.) And there are "smoke-free zones" in several of the casinos.

Then we went back to the "Can we really afford this with all of our upcoming expenses???" Of course we're praying really hard trying to figure out what to do. And finally the night before last at supper I said, "To heck with it! We're going to Vegas!!! Life has a way of working itself out and then we die and none of this will have mattered anyway! So let's do it!" So we made a huge spreadsheet with all of the travel websites and all of the hotels on the Strip and tallied up the best bang for our buck. Then yesterday morning I booked it all! At that point, the excitement FINALLY kicked in completely for me. And now I'm SOOO EXCITED!!!

Richard is off work the week before July 4, and my job is letting me take the time off to go. We're leaving the Sunday morning before. Leaving Molly with my parents most likely. (They may end up sharing her with Richard's sister.) We're going to stay at the Monte Carlo - which got us free tickets either the Cirque du Soleil show of our choice or The Lion King. The only thing is, you just put in your top three choices and within three days they email you back with the one you got. Of course, our top three choices are all Dark the nights we're available, but we put in some other choices anyway...a free show is a free show, I'm sure we'll enjoy it anyway. And then to end on a bang - We fell in LOVE with Terry Fator on America's Got Talent two years ago and every time Vegas talk comes up we know that's who we want to see. And he happens to have a show on our last night and there's an online deal right now for 25% off tickets and so I booked tickets for that and we are as centered as you can be in the theatre and 4th row from the stage! I'm so excited!!! Then we'll fly back Wednesday and get here just in time to spend a little time with our much-excited-to-see-us daughter before putting her to bed and relaxing some more for the evening! I can't wait!!! This is definitely MUCH needed!!!