Ash + Me + Baby = 3!!

Well, its official.

I am knocked up:) Of course my hubby is like "Can you put it in a better way?" I have been waiting to announce it until Ash's family found out at Christmas. So today marks three months which means I am almost done with the first trimester.

If any of you have read the Jenny McCarthy books on pregnancy and babies...they are hysterical. Somewhat raunchy, but funny. I thought I would blog about the joys of pregnancy from my point of view. So, here we go......

From some friends and family members I have heard that in their first trimesters they lost alot of weight. They were sick alot, which I totally sympathize with. I only threw up once, but that could have been caused from the gigantic cinammon roll I bought at Publix. Other than that I have felt ok. Whoever called it morning sickness is a big fat liar. I was sick all day long at work and at home. I am finally getting over all that which brings me back to the weight issue.

I cant stop eating.

Its that simple. All I want to eat is macaroni-n-chesse. I havent touched a salad in 13 weeks, and for those that know me that is very weird. My husband is totally confused at my recent appetite. I no longer graze off his waffle fries from Chick-fil-A. I get my own and do not share under any circumstance. I am pretty sure I have not lost any weight this first trimester. I can still fit in my clothes because thankfully I am still exercising. But as I sit here and write this in my jeans, the top button is unbuttoned. :)

Also, my face has broken out like a freakin 13 year old. Its getting better but come on already!! I cant handle too many changes at once. I bet my body is freakin out from all the mac-n-cheese and chips I am pouring into it. Another good example---the other night we went to eat at Chili's after visiting my friend Keeley and her sweet baby Reed at the NICU . Of course we got chips and salsa, but then I got the fajita pita but only ate the fries. Skip the protein--head straight for the carbs. Nice Mere.

Ash and I leave to go snowboarding on Tuesday for the new year and I can barely get into my ski clothes. Good grief. Oh well. I have said that if I was ever blessed enough to get pregnant I was gonna enjoy it. So the time has come. Let the blizzards from Dairy Queen come a plenty!!

If any other friend has eaten alot in your first trimester,,can you send me a little note of encouragement? Cause at the moment I have no idea if its baby down there, or if I am just bloated from the 3 biscuits I ate at Cracker Barrell.

So I am gonna go get into something way more comfy than these stupid jeans.

Goodnight!!

Under Construction

ok. I know everyone thinks I have completely dropped off the face of the earth, but the truth is that I am still here. Thankfully. I will be starting my blog back up here pretty soon, but I need some new renovations to it. Kind of like the wall paper in my parents bathroom....mauve and green flowers. UPGRADE!! So i need to redo everything here, and especially rename my blog cause "Merediths Melodrama" is just ridiculous. Since when am I dramatic? :))))

Please Stay tuned!!!!

Happy Mothers Day!

Happy Mothers Day to all the mothers out there and soon to be new mommies! I hope everyone had great day with family! Ash and I came to Memphis for the special weekend to see Nana and also for my cousin Courtney's baby shower. She is due in July and looks absolutley precious!! She is expecting baby Sam in a few weeks and we cant wait to meet him!

We then had a cookout at my Aunt Carols house last night which was awesome! It truly is hard to beat Memphis bar-b-que! The highlight of the night happened with my dad. Here is the story: Mom, dad, Ash and I were getting ready to leave Aunt Carol and Uncle Jerry's house for the night. Ash and I talked for awhile with everyone, but I kept hearing a light knocking sound. I thought it was the girls out on the porch so I kept talking. I heard the knocking again a few minutes later,, a little louder this time,,but kept on going. ( I had to get through my conversation!) Then I noticed dad was nowhere to be found. I heard the knocking again, and mom went through a hallway and to a bathroom where my dad had been locked in for several minutes! He said he was starting to sweat thinking he would be stuck in the bathroom for the rest of his life! He emerged safely and we went home exhausted.

But I love coming to see my grandparents--Gran and Nana. Always love coming to their house, with its beautiful landscape and warm smells of great cooking inside. They always make you eat until you are literally about to pop by saying, "Come on Mere. Get you some more! Finish it up!" Why do grandmothers do that? In the mornings, its hard to sleep in cause Nana is right outside our room talking to mom saying she cant hear mom, and wondering when we are going to get up. Meanwhile mom is talking quiet so as not to wake us but Nana cant figure that out. So, therefore I am wide awake in there just listening to their conversation. (Just wear the freakin hearing aids please!) But now we are waiting on everyone to get here to celebrate Mothers Day Nana style. I can smell the roast, hashbrown casserole, corn, and of course--Nana's rolls. I know everybody's grandmother makes good rolls or something,,,but Nana's are ridiculously good. I shall eat several in fact without hesitation.

I was just informed that this year,,,for the first time in family history,,,,the kids are eating where the grownups used to eat!! NO MORE KIDS TABLE!! There was a mutiny arising and Nana surrendered but switching. I am so excited! We will take pictures by the same hydrangia bush we always have, then come in and eat ourselves sick. I will in no way contribute to the ride home also. I will sleep in the back while Ash drives with Dad in the front telling stories about anything and everything. Here is a pic of the family in front of said hydrangia:

i read a quote today at church about mothers that I thought was awesome!

"To the world you are one person, but to one person you are the world!" (love you mom!)

Hope you all have a great day!

13.1 miles baby!

So, since the last time I have written I have been to sunny California and also walked/ran a hlaf marathon!! I have been a busy girl!! Lets start with Los Angeles, CA:

I went with some girls from church for a few days. We stayed in Santa Monica right on the beach which was GORGEOUS! No wonder people stay there for the weather! After some extensive shopping we went to the Tonight Show with Jay Leno for a taping. Then the next day went to a taping for "According to Jim". It took about 4 hours to do a taping of the show, and during breaks between takes a guy would entertain the crowd. Well, we happened to be on the front row right next to this guy. He was stinkin hilarious! He then wanted to have a dance competition and guess who he picked for one of the three people? Me of course! So, I had to break out all my best moves to try to make my friends proud. Idid not win,,,,,,but I did win a Sprite which was perfect cause I had worked up quite a sweat. So for the rest of the time I tried not to make eye contact with him so he wouldnt call on me anymore. Remember in class when you tried to avoid to teacher so they would not call on you? I was totally doing this.

So, then we went to eat at a place where they had a mechanical bull. Yep, you guessed it. I was dared to ride the bull and I did,,,,for about 15 seconds. Those are not as easy as I thought! So I thought I had humiliated myself enough for the day and went to bed.

On our flight home at LAX airport I ran into Bob Harper--the trainer from "The Biggest Loser". You don't undestand--I was totally freaking out inside but was trying to be cool. I love that show! So I got my pic with him,,,,,,,

He was on my flight home to Nashville, and I had tons of questions for him, but decided to let him fly in peace.

So, last weekend I did the Country Music Marathon,,but just the half. It started out raining on us, and it was the crack of dawn on a Saturday. It turned out to be really cool and fun. Here is my medal that I have been wearing daily since then,,,

I will stop wearing it soon, cause it is in the way as I work on my patients:)

So, that about does it for now. I go to Michigan next week to see Palmer and Lainey Hope so I will post more then!! Have a good one!!

Just a little "chop",,,

So, we recently returned from our second trip to Colorado this year. We went to Aspen with my cousin Courtney and her hubby Garrett. We (me, Ko, and G-man) had a great time. Ash on the other hand had the worst four days of the year thus far. Here is the low down on the down low:

Friday:
Ash and I arrive late to Eagle County, CO. We thought we were going to be able to ski that day, but alas--we did not because our flight got cancelled and re-routed and all other nonsensical things. I should have turned right back around for Nashvegas. We drove to Aspen, checked in and then went out for dinner. Nice night,,it will be a great weekend.

Saturday:
WRONG!!!! About 4 in the morning Ash woke up with an upset stomach and proceded to make what seemed like several hundred trips to the bathroom. I, being the attentive wife, asked if I could do anything, and then fell back asleep. About 7, Ash was miserable. I ended up taking him to the minor clinic about 10 and they hooked him up to an IV and pumped him full of fluids cause he was very much dehydrated. I read the latest "O" magazine and caught up on the Britney scandle that is her life. What is wrong with that girl? I think it went wrong when Justin dumped her! Ooops, I did it again! I digressed---- We left around 12:30 and went back to our room where he slept the rest of the day.

Sunday:
I checked on him before going out snowboarding,,,,,still sleeping,,,,so I am off to the slopes!! :)
He watched the Super Bowl with us for a bit, before falling asleep. Bless his sweet heart!

Monday:
He comes out that afternoon for a couple of hours with me on the slopes. Obviously tired but desperately wanting to salvage some of the trip, he bravely conquered the snowfall and winds!!

Tuesday:
This begins our travel nightmare! We woke up at 4:30 to get to Eagle County by 8 for our 8:30 flight. Of course we get there by 7 and the flight was delayed until 10:30 due to storms. Then 10:30 turns to 12:30 and we finally board to Dallas. We were supposed to be in Nashvegas at 2:30,,,,but that would be hard considering we didnt leave Dallas until 6:30! Again,,due to high winds.

Finally we take off,,,but the flight was extremely bumpy. Don't you hate those flights? I was sitting next to a pilot who informed me that it was just "chop" and it was more annoying to the captain than anything. I was about to lose my lunch and was gathering all the bags behind each seat just in case. I kept poking the pilot and asking him "is this normal?" I am sure he was totally annoyed by me but who cares! We had to go a longer route because apparently there were tornados right in our area. Perfect. The flight soon was bouncing all over the place and I was sure this was it for us. The airport traffic control wouldn't let us land for the longest time due to the winds. Thankfully we finally landed and drove to our house only to hear the tornado sirens going off in our neighborhood. Awesome. Best trip ever. Really.

We made it fine, but as you saw on the news it was pretty bad other places. So, sadly we packed our snowboarding bags up the year. I do know that I need a break from flying for while also. Just cars for me. Maybe horses, trains, taxi's. But next time you fly, and the plane is bouncing like crazy, just remember that is only a little "chop" and nothing to worry about!

Have a great week!

We have returned from Colorado and it was an injury free week praise the Lord! We go out at 8:30 in the morning and dont return until 3:30 or 4 in the afternoon so you can imagine that my legs are on fire by the end of the day! We usually eat in at night and watch movies, and this year we have been watching "Las Vegas" seasons. (That is a pretty good show by the way. ) Also we have been watching episodes of "The Office" which is the greatest show ever.

(this picture has nothing to do with Colorado. it is in our back yard two weeks ago. awesome.)

The only semi-injury was today when me and Ash were going in and out of trees. There are paths through the trees that are pretty narrow and are probably more for skiers but snowboarders can make it ok. He was ahead of me and I was trying to follow him but on one path I chose not to at the last minute. It was too late to turn and so I totally hit a tree head first and fell back into like waist deep powder snow. Thankfully I had my helmet on so hitting the tree didn't hurt, but digging myself out of snow almost made me have a heart attack. Seriously, I thought I was in good shape but obviously not.

So, we leave tomorrow but we come back to Aspen next weekend with my cousin and her husband for a few days. Hopefully another injury-free week will be in the forecast. Here are some pics from the week:

this is Ash winding in and out of the trees--he really scared me when he would do that!~



me going through a tee-pee but trust me I did hit the stupid thing several times.

sorry-i dont know how to rotate it. Leslie-you can help me with that.


me and Ash

me, Ash, his two brothers and Jennifer (sis-in-law)

We go back this weekend so I will put more up! Have a good week!

Back in Colorado....

Here I am in Beaver Creek, Colorado for another family vacation with Ashley. We love to come up here and do some serious snowboarding for a week. This hopefully will be an injury free week since 2 years ago I was laid up with a compression fracture! Maybe this year I will get the nerve to do some jumping or some rails. I went through a tee-pee last year after several collisions into the tee-pee. It is always encouraging to sit and watch little 3 year olds on skis go through the tee-pee like it was nothing. Anyways, I digress...

Last week before I left I took a kickboxing class. This is like five steps up from Tae-Bo for sure. I took this class with a teacher who is just starting out so it is only me. I told him I was athletic and that he didn't need to take it easy on me. Well, he didn't and I almost died! I could barely work the next day! I did however feel like the "Million Dollar Baby" in her opening training scenes. I have gloves and am totally pounding on this guy. It was awesome! I will keep you updated cause I may join the cagefighting or something!:)

Happy 2008!

Literally, Kelly forced me to update and I confess I had forgotten how to login correctly. Give me a break, I have my hands in peoples mouths all day and talk to them as if they can talk back. Why do hygienists do that?

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Years! Mine was especially good because my whole family was together for several days including all three grandchildren. It was so good to see Lainey Hope who is just a couple of months older than Bennett. Here she is with her beautiful mommy Kim.

We had a family portrait made for my parents for their birthday/christmas present so that is always fun. Mom made all the guys wear red sweaters. Just the guys. Red sweaters. Kind of like when the boy had to wear the bunny suit in "The Christmas Story" that is on 24 hours over Christmas. But they survived and it turned out great. (sorry this pic is so bad! )

We also got my nephew Palmer the Wii. Has anyone played that? That is totally awesome! I was sweating so bad when I played boxing. I felt like I was playing the Italian guy on Mike Tyson's game. Very empowering. Like Tae-Bo on crack. Wish we could have had this for our famous Siggie workouts after club that year. I am terrible at bowling but this was no surprise. Palmer just wanted to create people, but that in itself was really fun. So, hats off to the Japanese for getting us off our rear ends and getting some exercise.

Well, I better go see if Bennett needs his Aunt Mere to give him kisses. They are leaving tomorrow and we are so sad. We have had so much fun with everyone and will miss them terribly!

One more thing-I already talked to Leslie about this but go see the movie "Juno". It was the best movie I have seen in a long time. Also, the book that I just finished was "The Pillars of the Earth" which was fabulous and my new favortite cd that I can't get enough of is the "Hairspray" soundtrack. Does anyone else like any of these? Tell me yours too! I need a new book!

Ok seriously this time. My New Years resolution is to blog more and keep up with the world through this technology. This is my goal. Talk to you soon!