And the winner is!!!

The winner of my little section of our Happy Blog Hop is...

Chelsea L

Check out her blog Scrapbooking to Stay Sane to see some of her beautiful work.  I had a BLAST reading everyone's responses and hope everyone will stay in touch!  

Sorry this is a little late - we have had some "excitement" the last few days - no baby yet but it wasn't for lack of him trying to get out!  Two trips to maternity triage, a shot of terbutaline and a couple of weeks of bed rest (aka working from home) and he should stay put for long enough to get us into the "OK to deliver zone" before he tries another jail break...I hope at least.  On the up shot - that should give me some time to scrap a little before he gets here!  **fingers crossed**

Chelsea - send me your contact information and I'll get your RAK out to you!  Congratulations and thanks for playing!

A little extra Happy for the Hoppers!

As if this hop weren't happy enough!!!  Our brilliant friend Erin has organized an online weekend crop at Have Your Way With Paper  Sign in to our message boards and Find the "Crop the Weekend Away" forum for some amazing, inspiration and scrappy (and non scrappy) challenges.

Don't forget to scroll down and comment on the blog hop post for your chance to win a Pack of Thickers, some GORGEOUS K & Co chipboard flowers, and a mystery embellie!  Thanks to all of our participants and new followers.  Welcome to the Paper Snob universe!

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Spread a Little Happiness - Blog Hop!

Hello and welcome to the Happy Blog Hop Sponsored by Have Your Way With Paper!  I hope that everyone is feeling inspired and - well - HAPPY today!  

For this stop, tell me about three embellishments that make your pages happy *and you scrap happy too...*

Mine would have to be: chipboard, layered flowers and felt, and THICKERS!

Post your top three embellies for a chance to win a prize pack with all three of my faves!  

When you are done continue hopping along by visiting the lovely and talented Lisa and let her positive thoughts lift you up too!

Crazy Day

Thursday was a day that can only be called crazy.  I have been fighting some back pain for a few days and, after Wednesday night's small group meeting I was convinced that I should call my OB's office before my next scheduled appointment on Tuesday to make sure everything is OK.  I described everything to the nurse on call and she said that it sounded like I was having back contractions and sent me into the maternity center at Mercy to be monitored.  I was a little dehydrated so they hooked me up to some fluids and monitored the contractions for a few hours - which remained mild and not regular - They did a test called FFN (Fetal FibroNectin) which is supposed to predict pre-term labor in the next couple of weeks.  Ooh BOY is that a fun swab to get done!  It came back negative and all of the exits are still closed up so they sent me back home on "modified bed rest".  Which basically means, "take it easy", no heavy lifting, no prolonged or repetitive activity, but I'm not strictly in bed for the next 8 weeks thank GOD!  So I went home, slept for four hours, drank a ton of water and felt MUCH better.

I did get clearance, as long as I made my brother carry everything and didn't overdo anything, to still go to the David Cook concert at Simon Estes 

Amphitheater that night! 

 It was SUCH a nice night, even a little chilly, and his part of the concert was only a little over an hour. It felt SO nice to just be me for a couple of hours - the last thing that I get to do that is all about me before everything gets more complicated for child care - especially since mom is going to be watching Joseph full time and she will have Jackson half days when he is in preschool.  It makes it hard to ask for a few extra hours in the evening even just Jack - much less with both boys...so the timing was weird but I'm glad I got to go before Troy gets married in a couple of weeks and I become mommy of two.  

I've also determined that I am not built to rest...I'm so used to doing everything on my own that it is SO hard to watch my dad mow my lawn for me and to not be able to lift my son whenever I want to.  I just want this baby to get here so I can get back to being myself again.  I just keep chanting - 8 weeks left - 8 weeks left - just hang in there...

Yes, I haven't updated in ages due to some home Internet issues. (God bless those dear folks at Qwest for completely ignoring my need for service...) It seems like a lot has happened since that but really not much has.

I crossed over into the single digits counting down the weeks left until Baby Joseph arrives! 9 weeks and some change. When last we left the saga I was having to repeat the torture that is the three hour glucose test. I got there as early as I could, got two blood draws into the darn thing and - well - lets just say that Joseph "rejected" the glucose solution and I was sent home without finishing the test. I was PRAYING that the doctor's office wouldn't make me retake it and, since the levels on my first two draws were fine, they said I wouldn't have to and just watch my refined sugar intake.

According to the ultrasound from a couple of weeks ago, JT is in the 78th percentile for size so he is still growing just fine even though I have yet to gain any of my 32 pound weight loss back at all. I have a goal of gaining two pounds before my 32 week appointment on the 22nd but I've been battling a nasty sinus infection so I'm not sure that's going to happen...anyway, here is the official 7 month photo - thanks to Terry for taking it for me at the last church crop! Man I really do look as tired as I feel.

AND I miss my hair! It got hacked off (way too short) at the salon last weekend so I am hiding from cameras until some of it grows back...it should be just about perfect in time for the wedding though so that's good!

4th of July weekend was a BLAST Jack and I got to spend some time with some good friends, Josie, Jeremy, Heather, Andrew and Jaci - we had 5 children running around and playing, got to see a great parade and between Thursday and Saturday got to see three of the best fireworks displays in Des Moines. We went to the annual concert at the capital and ran into some friends from Jackson's daycare. It was just a wonderful time! More pics to come when I can log on from my home computer.

I hope everyone's holiday went well! Love to all!