Sarah's comment from my last post was dead on. The reason I haven't been posting much is because I've been siiicck (that's whiny in blog speak for you). Although I think I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I haven't vomited since last Wednesday although last night I was pretty darn close. I have to keep eating pretty often to keep the nausea at bay. Of course I'm having food aversions to just about everything so that eating all the time thing is hard! This pregnancy is starting to feel more real each and every day. Hearing that heartbeat was so, so wonderful. I actually started tearing up a little during the appointment. And I think I'm starting to show just a little bit. I'm in that "is she fat or pregnant" stage right now. I'm rapidly growing out of my pants and some of my shirts are starting to pull across my tummy too. (I may need to go shopping this week - anyone want to go with??) I asked Kris yesterday if I looked fat or pregnant and he said I looked more pregnant than fat because my tummy was looking pretty round. Good answer Sweetie! I have an absolute ton of pictures to upload and have been getting plenty of heat from Gramme to get that done. This week! I promise!

Friday was Great Grandpa Stuart's funeral. The service was very nice and the church, although un-air-conditioned felt pretty comfortable to me. There were lots of funny and touching stories and good food and fellowship. And there was a lot of people! Clearly that is a testament to the man Great Grandpa Stuart was.

Saturday Kris, along with Grandpa Dan, Uncle Dusty, Jon and Chris, started on the deck. They were able to get the whole thing framed up on Saturday and Kris was so pleased. That was the part he really needed help with. It looks great already! It was only (Ha!) 99 degrees out that day but the guys were pretty diligent with the taking breaks and drinking lots of water. They were wiped out at the end of the day but otherwise still in good spirits and good shape. This week I'm going to go get some gift cards for them all as a token of our appreciation. Because seriously, 100 degree weather, no shade and the goodness of their hearts? That is some serious friendship and love right there.

Yesterday we spent most of the day with Uncle Dusty, Aunt Kim and Aunt Carrie before Aunt Carrie had to fly home to NC. We had breakfast and then did some shopping at Ikea. And yesterday evening Kris went to dinner with Papa and Steve. And guess what? Steve offered Kris a coaching job for this fall! He wants Kris to be his defensive coordinator for the sophomore football team at the high school. Kris wasn't expecting to coach this year but I think we'll definitely try to make this work. We'll need to find child care for Annika (2:30-4:30) each day for about 6-8 weeks this fall. And I'm not sure if the team will have any practices before school starts. Does anyone have any ideas where I can find child care for that time period? Last year we relied on friends and family but two of those people will be unable to help this year and I'm not sure Gramme will sign up for 4 days a week (I'm home on Wednesdays so we really only need child care M-T and Th-F). I was wondering if any of the local day cares (KinderCare and the like) have any "after school" programs we could enroll her in. We don't really know any high school girls in town to ask. Yikes! Help!

And in between all of his social calls yesterday, Kris still got about half the decking screwed on. He is a machine, I tell you!

And an Annika highlight for the day: Annika still remembers the fireworks from the 4th of July. She often goes to the window, looks out and says "Sireworks gone." Yesterday she heard a loud noise from outside and looked up excitedly saying "Sireworks!" Then she scampered to the window to look. Nope, no fireworks baby girl. And Saturday night she was up later than usual due to having a late nap. Someone must have found one last firework because we heard one go off. Annika rushed up on the couch and looked out the window. She looked for a good 5-10 minutes, hoping there would be more. Then she sat back down and said "Sireworks gone" in a sad little voice. It is just too cute.