Bonfire on the farm!

Prayer before our family bonfire dinner. September 25th, 2009

Martina, Teresa, Sophie, & Winston Jr. (My in-laws)

Winston Jr & Sr., Lynda, & Kim

Josh & I on the farm. =)

I am about 19 weeks pregnant here.

Mark & Caitlin on the farm. =)

Caitlin is about 29 weeks pregnant here.

Josh with his little sister, Jasmine.

Caitlin & I with our lil Pike baby bellies!
I'm having a boy & she's having a girl!

Kim & Jordan Goodrich. Jordan works/lives on the farm!

Kim is about 25 weeks pregnant here! (Don't drink the water around here unless you want a baby!)

This is hilarious. We had a big fire going & Josh was being silly.


So they all joined in. This was too hot to fix the food on. Just a fun time!
Mark, their Dad & Josh

Obama or McCain?

So I'm hoping to get more than 3 comments on this blog. I live to see how people will respond to my blogs and when I only have 1 or 2 comments, it makes me sad! =( So, I figured this would get people's attention. If you'd like to share:
1) Who you will vote for in the 2008 Presidential election?
2) Also, why have you made this choice?
3) Do you really think this person will/can make a difference in our country?
4) Do you think the government is really doing us any good right now?
5)What do you think about a country that is run 'by the people and for the people'? Does that still exist?
6) Do you think we're heading for another "Great Depression"?

Please keep in mind I would only like to get people's opinions & not an argument against my own personal judgements.

My answers:

1) Obama
2) I think we need a leader who can keep his cool and who has a vision of hope for the important issues in our country. Obama comes off as a calm, collected individual. He climbed from the bottom up. He will make rational decisions based off the people's best interest. We need a young, fresh personality to reach out to all kinds of people in this "melting pot" of a country.
3) I think he will try his very best to do so. Every President hopes to change and make the country a better place; but in fact it isn't always the outcome. I believe he has the best of intentions.
4) Pfffff. No! This bailout deal is a joke. The government helped out the idiots who screwed up and made bad financial decisions and then they went off and bought out all the bank's who were doing the right thing. Now they're all screwed because those idiots are just going to do the same thing, most likely. Banks piss me off. It's the financial institutions who push loans and credit cards that people can't afford, yet still give them out. While it is the people's own fault for accepting and buying into the whole minimum payment scheme, it is ultimately the bank who is evil in my mind. Also, our children need to be better educated on how finances work. I didn't learn JACK until I got myself into debt and learned the hard way.
5) It should be run by the people and for the people, but no, it's run by only the rich people and the corrupt government. Less government regulation is better, in my opinion.
6) I think everyone is saying that, but I don't really believe it. I guess because I've lived in a society that never anticipated that to happen again. I'll be proved wrong if it happens, but I should hope that we're smart enough to not let it get that far. At least I know we are a little better off because we have a lot of our own organic food to live off of. Apparently in the words of Daniel, "All you need is a cow and a gun!" That's Josh's brother. I would need toilet paper too. =)
Thanks for reading and please comment!
Peace!
Jamie

Incontinence

Incontinent:
 /ɪnˈkɒntnənt/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [in-kon-tn-uhnt]
–adjective
1. unable to restrain natural discharges or evacuations of urine or feces.


While I'm glad I don't have to deal with restraining my feces, (because I'm mostly constipated as a result of being pregnant) I do however, experience the joy of pissing my pants when I sneeze or cough...even if I laugh really hard. I have a chest cold right now. Yeah. Coughing all the time. I just know to grab my crotch and try to hold it in through a long spell of hacking and coughing. Isn't it a beautiful image in your head? I'm not shy about these things. I'm pretty open about bodily fluids and gas. I find this amusing and ridiculous at the same time. It's funny because I am now a pregnant lady who will soon be a mom! The whole transformation is crazy, exciting and weird. I still feel like Jamie. I don't know how to explain what I mean. I still like rap and hip hop music, I will still get drunk after I have our baby, I still want to be young and free---and yet here I am pissing my pants because I'm carrying a baby. I suppose the action in itself makes me think of my own mother and she is not any of those things I mentioned I am. (well except for the music...she likes to get down.) =) hehe. I hope that sums up the funny and ridiculous idea of having pee streaming down my leg. And I HATE pads! Fuck pads! I'll just piss through all my pants and laugh about it. Pads are itchy, sticky, and just plain ANNOYING!

That's all. =)

Farm Pics!

This is Florence, one of the dairy cows.

Cute baby piglets!

First of all, I got a new camera! It's a Canon Powershot SX110IS and I am in love! I tested it out at Target and discovered it was my favorite among their selection. It was out of stock. Good thing too, because I wrote down the name of it, went home, and searched the web for a better price and succeeded! $40 cheaper! Wooot woot! I ordered it on Sunday and it arrived on Wednesday. I was totally stoked; I know I'm such a hippie, right? Or is that surfer lingo? Whatever, I try to use a little different vocab. every now and again.

Today I decided to take a picnic to Josh on the farm! I ordered pizza from Bill's Diner, which is just down the road (takes 5 minutes to get there). I filled up a couple of Ball Mason Jars with water, grabbed my camera and went to get the pizza. I was blasting the radio on the way back to the farm and was soo excited to surprise Josh with this whole thing. We haven't had any picnics on the farm this year, which sucks because we did it quite a few times last year and it was fun!

Josh & I-Pizza picnic on the farm=)

Me trying to get a belly shot.

After our picnic on the trailer I took some shots of the animals and attempted to collect eggs, but there were NONE! You should see my baking cabinet...just waiting for eggs to make pies, cakes, cheesecakes, and cookies-oh my! I guess I'm going to have to drive up to Lexington this week and stock up on what Whole Foods has to offer. I just can't go back to what Wal-Mart has to offer. Egh. Also, I'm about to attempt my first video...so I hope it works. It's of the turkeys.

I am officially on vacation for one week! Yay! I have enjoyed it so far with my hubby by doing nothing. Aaaaah. I love it! I'm so excited for Halloween because Josh is going to paint my baby belly like a pumpkin and it's going to be so cute! =)

Choc-o-holic

Hi, my name is Jamie and I'm a choc-o-holic, sweet lover, and sugar craver! So I was raised as a junk food junkie and didn't have a problem with it. Little debbie's and ice cream were always stocked at our house. I was a teenager and had great metabolism. Then I went to college. My metabolism slowed down and I started binge drinking on the weekends. Who didn't? That's what college is for! lol. So, I met Josh and he is NOT a junk food lover. He is the guy who looks on the back of the package of chips and reads the ingredients. The first time I saw him doing that, I asked, "Why are you reading the ingredients? Hahaa!" His response was, "So I can see all the shit I'm putting into my body." We were at a gas station late at night and desperate for a snack. After that night, my eating habits changed...or so I thought. I stopped eating fast food on a daily basis and cut out pop. I lost five pounds in the first week! I started pilates at home with a DVD I bought from an info-mercial. (1st time I ever did that!) My point here is that I LOST weight after we got married. Most people GAIN weight. So, I'm pretty proud of that. It was a total of about 15 lbs I kicked. Yippee! Then, we started eating the organic food that Josh raised on the farm. Even better! I will NEVER eat Tyson chicken again. (blah!) Almost 3 years later after meeting my love and making the lifestyle change, I pretty much kept the weight off within 5 lbs.

Then I got pregnant. =) I am now 23 weeks pregnant with 16 weeks to go (having a c-section at 39 weeks) and have just reached my weight from 3 years ago when we got married! I'm pretty stoked about that! I know I have some more to gain, but I figure I'm doing pretty good! And it's mostly just my belly, which makes me a happy camper! I always hoped I would be a cute pregnant lady and I think I am. I hope so, anyway.

Back to the sweets. I have craved donuts since the minute we conceived. Not just any donut; a very specific donut. It has to be a cake donut with chocolate frosting. Burke's Bakery in Danville and Kroger have these. Well, so does Dunkin Donuts, but the last time I got 'em from there the icing was chincey. No bueno. I want my donut dripping with chocolate frosting! And Burke's is the best place for that. And I can get a dozen for only 6 bucks. Holler. The past 2 weeks it's been snicker bars and butterfingers. Ice cream with chocolate chip cookie dough was just bought from the grocery store today and it's waiting for me at home. I've already had my snickers and a chocolate covered chocolate chip granola bar. Hey at least I got some whole grains in there! Half the ingredients I bought from the store today were to make pumpkin pies, cheesecakes, and cakes. They will all have cool whip on top of them and most have sweetened condensed milk in them.

This is BAD! Our child is going to be addicted to sugar! I swore I would continue to eat healthy for the sake of our baby's nutrition. I do still eat good stuff, it's just I have some sort of sugar at least once a day-usually more. I didn't think cravings were real until I got pregnant. Well, they are and they are strong! Apologies to my little baby in advance. I love you and please forgive me if you are a sugar addict.

I don't know if I want to be THAT parent that denies my child's right to sugar. It's not technically necessary for our growth and development, but ooooh is it good. Plus, most kids can totally pull it off and not gain a pound. I guess that's the least of all the things I'm faced with as a new mother. Whew! I'm looking forward to it, but sure don't know what in the hell I'm doing. I think I'll be pretty awesome at it, though. I've always wanted to be a wife and a mommy. I feel like one of the lucky ones in the world. I'm so happy! =)

Shout-outs!

I have more things to say other than "shout-outs." But, first of all, I have to give a shout out to KYLE BOWMAN who leaves me comments and doesn't even have a blogger website of his own. He just comes here to read my blog and leaves me love! Thank you!!!! Josh and I are excited that he and his wife Sarah will be moving to the farm in a couple of years or so, as they have 4 acres of their own land now and are planning to start a vineyard! Woottt wooot! (Yes....free wine for me!) They currently reside in San Antonio, Texas and are friends of Daniel and Kristin's. Both of the guys are in the Army there. Daniel is Josh's younger brother who is closest in age to him. Also, thanks to Kristin for always leaving me love--and posting blogs everyday! I love it! Thanks to Teresa as well and glad you're feeling better. I so would have gone to the orchard with you guys if I had more notice! I was not showered and in sweat pants when you stopped by on your way there. Last but not least, Aimee, my new blogger friend and big time Pike Valley Farm supporter, thanks for your love as well!

About a week ago I started really considering the thought of writing children's books. I took an aptitude test for a course at the Institute of Children's Literature. They guarantee that by the end of the course (if you're offered a chance at it) you will have a published manuscript! They also guarantee that if you're not completely satisfied once you're finished and have your diploma that you can get a complete refund of your tuition (which by the way is only $700). You work at your own pace, can take a leave of absence at any time, and work directly with a published children's author as your instructor. How cool is all of that? I think it's pretty awesome. So, the aptitude test was fun for me, and I had to write an essay that would appeal to kids. I eagerly awaited a response in the mail from this Institute and they said, "...,I'll add that your essay entitled "Rivers, Mountains, and Bears, Oh My!" impressed all of us. Your work was rated acceptable or higher in all of the test parts you completed, based on form and content, style, and your grasp of fundamentals." I was so excited to read this! What I was really looking for was acceptance and the say-so that I can do this, or that I'm capable of doing this. As much as I'd love to get the training from a published author, I don't think we're going to be able to pay for this course. Instead, now that I know someone out there is impressed with my work, I am going to try to self-teach myself the business of children's books and getting published. Wish me luck! And if this is something that interests you, I say go for it! The aptitude test is free and it's fun!

We did see that movie today, and it was good. I would wait until it comes out on DVD, though if I were you. I really want to see The Secret Life of Bees. No apple cider, it was dark by the time we got home...because we got dinner at TGIFriday's. I'm reheating my leftovers right now. Actually, I took one bite of my sandwich and realized I didn't want it because it was cold (I thought it was a hot sandwich). So, my sweet hubby gave me half of his baby back ribs and I loved 'em! Now we're watching movies at home that we rented from RedBox at McDonald's.

Jamie

Plan? Ha!

I amaze myself that I attempt to plan anything in my life. I had a 5 year plan before I graduated high school, after I married Josh, and for this weekend. Well, I'm a silly girl!

5 year plan before high school graduation:

May 2002- Graduate High School
Fall 2002-Spring 2006- Attend & Graduate from University of Indianapolis with a degree in Elementary Education
Meet my husband in college
Summer 2006- Get married after graduation
Fall 2006- Get a Teaching job
Fall 2006-May 2007- Buy a House
By May 2007-Start having babies/get pregnant

What actually happened:

May 2002-Graduated High School
Fall 2002-Summer 2006 Attended, Partied, & didn't graduate from UINDY (yet!)
July 2005-Met my future hubby!!!!!
December 2005-Got married to Joshua Pike =)
December 2006-Moved to Kentucky
Spring 2007-Attended classes at Eastern Kentucky University
--stopped attending classes with one semester left to complete to work full-time
Summer 2007-Spring 2008-Became supervisor at Starbucks full-time
*No degree, no house, no teaching job, no babies (yet).
----------------(end 5 year plan)------------------------------------------------------
February 2008-June 2008-Worked as a server at Saul Good (made damn good money!)
May 2008-Got pregnant!
July 2008-Contract until July 2009-Full-time Nanny
February 2009-Have our first baby!

But, you know...I don't regret anything! I will get my degree, it's just that I'm being smart about paying for my last semester. I didn't want to continue getting loans and accruing interest over time. Our goal is to be debt free, and continuing school would have contradicted that. Plus, I was happy with my job at Starbucks and was in no rush. I'm still young, and still have a lot to accomplish in my life. I love our apartment. It's plenty big, brand new, and we have an extra bedroom for the baby! And I'm a nanny now, so I'm teaching! I love my job & it fulfills my teaching dream. Plus....I don't know that I want to teach in a classroom setting anymore. I just want the degree.

As for this weekend, well, HA! Last night we bummed it around the house and I made banana chocolate chip Belgian waffles ale mode. Yes, it was delicious! We were gonna go to the movie but were too tired by the time we should have left to see the 10:00 show. Then at about 12:30am our home phone started ringing. We were in bed and didn't get up to answer. Then Josh's cell started ringing. I'm thinking to myself....oh crap.....somethings wrong, somebody is hurt in the family (all this stuff with Teresa going on is what popped into my head). Then someone was knocking at the door! I immediately thought it was Josh's dad coming to say something terrible. As I dashed to the door with my purple sash wrapped around my pregnant body I eagerly opened the door and was relieved and kind of surprised that Bradly Carver was standing on our front porch. This is Josh's good friend who lives in Louisville. I told him to come in and was still half asleep (even though I had all these heightening thoughts) when I went back into the bedroom and woke Josh up to say Bradly is here. He got up with a smile on his face and searched for his pants to throw on. I knew my weekend wishes were ruined at this point. Poor Brad just left everything in Louisville and came straight to our place. He was asked to leave his job, found out his partner was cheating on him, negative in the bank, and depressed. He is living with us for the weekend. It's ok, he needs Josh, and Josh needed him.

What actually happened this weekend:

Friday: Cuddled (no problem there!), ate waffles, went to bed.

Saturday: Ate biscuits and gravy, watched tv, ate cheeseburgers, chocolate candy bars, took a nap, & tonight Josh & Brad attempted to visit friends in Richmond, but they weren't there. So, they came back! I was so happy to not be alone for the night.

Sunday: Sleeping in, and hopefully making apple cider!


Jamie

It's Friday! Yay!

I am so excited about this weekend! Last weekend Josh was out of town so I am attempting to steal him for the entire weekend for everything that I want to do!! Waah ha ha! (think evil, dorky laugh.)

Weekend Wishes:

Tonight:
Make dinner together
Movie-"Max Payne"

Cuddle and smooch the rest of the night

Saturday and Sunday:
Make homemade apple cider with our farm's apple's (guzzled up 5 gallons last week!)
Pumpkin patch
Scenic drive (head banging and singing along to radio is involved here)
Kissing and Cuddling anytime in between
Cooking meals together...some ideas:
Homemade sausage biscuits & gravy
Green bean casserole
From-scratch chicken noodle soup
Belgian waffles ale mode
Steak & garlic mashed potatoes
And possibly some laundry/cleaning--probably not, though

Random movie quote: "Let's have sex! .......On Saturday!" Do you know which movie this is from? Josh and I joke and use this line sometimes. It's funny, I think. =)

Hudson is in the lead for our baby boy's name favorite! Are you voting more than once?!! No cheating! I talked to my daddy on the phone today and he asked if we had come up with another name besides Shepherd. I asked why and he replied with, "Well, it's just that I'm gonna hafta introduce him sometime...(chuckle chuckle)." He and my mom think it sounds like a dog. We were raised with 2 German Shepherd-Husky's. Mom barks at me anytime I bring up the name. I just laugh back at her. She likes names such as: Jaxson, Grayson, Brody...and so on. My parents live in Decatur, Indiana. It's a 5-6 hour drive from where we live. I'm looking forward to seeing them for Thanksgiving. I know it's hard for them to have their little girl so far away....let alone while I'm pregnant for the first time. They are really excited about being grandparents for a 2nd time. (My brother has a little girl, Lexie, who will be 4 in January.) Love her! I miss them, too. But, I don't regret moving here. It's so beautiful and I just feel like this is where we are meant to be to raise a family; especially with wanting to be farmers.

Josh made cheese last night! He didn't come to bed until after 3 a.m.! We have 2 dairy cows that just had a calf and so now we have raw milk! Yay! Yes, I am drinking it, and yes it is safe. The cows are raised organically and Josh tests the milk before we drink it. See below to learn more.

This is a blurb from a great website to inform you about REAL/RAW Milk:

Pasteurization destroys enzymes, diminishes vitamin content, denatures fragile milk proteins, destroys vitamins C, B12 and B6, kills beneficial bacteria, promotes pathogens and is associated with allergies, increased tooth decay, colic in infants, growth problems in children, osteoporosis, arthritis, heart disease and cancer. Calves fed pasteurized milk do poorly and many die before maturity. Raw milk sours naturally but pasteurized milk turns putrid; processors must remove slime and pus from pasteurized milk by a process of centrifugal clarification. Inspection of dairy herds for disease is not required for pasteurized milk. Pasteurization was instituted in the 1920s to combat TB, infant diarrhea, undulant fever and other diseases caused by poor animal nutrition and dirty production methods. But times have changed and modern stainless steel tanks, milking machines, refrigerated trucks and inspection methods make pasteurization absolutely unnecessary for public protection. And pasteurization does not always kill the bacteria for Johne’s disease suspected of causing Crohn's disease in humans with which most confinement cows are infected. Much commercial milk is now ultra-pasteurized to get rid of heat-resistant bacteria and give it a longer shelf life. Ultra-pasteurization is a violent process that takes milk from a chilled temperature to above the boiling point in less than two seconds. Clean raw milk from certified healthy cows is available commercially in several states and may be bought directly from the farm in many more. (Sources are listed on www.realmilk.com.)

Well, I am going to sit down and poke at my belly now. Have a grrrreat weekend everyone!

Love,

Jamie

Keeping Busy

Well today is Tuesday and I apologize for no blog yesterday. Haha. I really want to write a blog everyday...we'll see how that turns out!

Let me tell you about my job. I am a nanny to Grace who will be 2 years old on November 14th. She is very well behaved, happy, eager to learn new words, has blonde hair, and big beautiful brown eyes. Jennifer and Anthony, her parents, live just across the road from us and the farm. It literally takes me 2 minutes, count 'em, 2 minutes to get there. So...me being the notoriously late person I am, scored big this time! Even if I leave AT the time I'm supposed to be there, I am only a couple mins late. Which, I still need to change all the clocks in my house because they're all different...because as hard as I try, and think I'm going to be promptly on time, I'm not. It's kinda like living on campus at college again. I always rolled out of bed for my early classes and showed up in sweat pants and a t-shirt. Aaaah I hated class. Haha! Loved college, hated classes. But in contrast to that, I LOVE my job. Jennifer, Grace's mom, is totally cool. She is all about going green, recycling, organic food, works out, adores her daughter, and has been generous enough to hand me down maternity clothes, baby books, baby clothes and toys...you name it-she rocks. I feel very comfortable when I am here. (Here now! Grace is taking a nap.) Both Jennifer and Anthony work from home, so one of them is at least always here in their basement offices. They travel alot for work, so this week it's just Anthony here. The point in you knowing that is that I'm working overtime this week while Jennifer is out of town--no complaints here! They pay me time and a half like any other job does, and should. Yay! =)

After work last night I accepted a babysitting offer from my in-laws so they could have a date night out. Off at 5:30pm, babysitting at 6-11pm. Long day, but great! Josh is still out of town, so this was perfect for me. Otherwise I'd do nothing at home and moap around wishing he were there with me. He will be back tonight, for sure. So, I hung out with all my little sissy's last night! Martina is 11 years old-she's my little bud. I think we have alot in common. Except I'm pretty sure she's smarter than me! Not kidding! She is homeschooled by her mother, my step-mother-in-law. Got it? She is taking an advanced level of curriculum and is ahead of the program and only goes to school for half of the day. That's how fast and knowledgeable she is. Good job Mar! Then there's Jasmine, or Jazz, as we call her. She is 3, going on 6. Tall, lanky, boyish but totally a princess at the same time. She lives on a farm, come on, she has to be a bit tom-boyish. She runs around barefoot everywhere and loves to sing you songs---twinkle twinkle little star or just ones that she makes up on her own. Haha, and the songs are great! She could totally be a songwriter--just like her mommy! Teresa is a Christian songwriter/artist and has her own CD! Last but not lease is Sophie, who is 2. She just joined the family from Kazakhstan and is loving her new home in our family. She is truely one of the Pike's. She just struts around and yells out grunting sounds and laughs. lol....it's making me laugh out loud just thinking about her. She's so funny. We ate pizza last night, played hide and seek, read some Dora the Explorer books, and laughed with each other. Did I mention this was the first time Teresa and Winston "left" Sophie alone with anyone?! It was, and it was ME! I feel special. She did awesome and I'm so proud of her.

So now Teresa is in Cincinnati with Sophie for 4 days doing a series of medical tests to make sure she is taken care of properly. I couldn't begin to tell you some of her medical issues, please just pray for her. Teresa also needs prayers because she just got out of the hospital herself this past weekend with esophogial ulcers! (In other words, she couldn't eat for a week, was dehydrated, starving, in severe pain when she swallowed a tablespoon of water to get her medicine down, and had a fever that wouldn't come down.) She was also supposed to have her pacemaker replaced, but couldn't because of the fever. Now, she is having that surgery next Tuesday and her arm will be in a sling for a week after that. That's a hard thing to deal with in itself, let alone not be able to pick up your small children. Her October has been spent sick and in hospitals-no one deserves that. We should appreciate being bums at home on the couch, if we can.

Well, I think that's enough information for one blog! I become disinterested in long ass blogs, so I will stop now. Love y'all!

Jamie ;)

Bored out of my mind!

Sooooo, Josh drove up to Indy last night to hang out with the guys & I'm at home doing NOTHING. I attempted (for hours) to put a slideshow on my blog homepage, but it was disatrous. Ugh. I'm whining here, so bare with me. I'm hungry but "have no food." (ie. too lazy to make anything and would prefer it if Papa Johns could deliver to me out here in the boonies!) Colts are playing right now and I have my Manning jersey on. Go Colts! I have yet to get up from the computer to turn the game on. That's how lazy I'm being. Haha. Kristin called me today!! Yay, the best part of my day so far! Thanks sis. =) Poor thing had to get off the phone to attend to her part-time job of breast pumping for Ezie. (Well worth it PT job! Keep it up hun.) Josh started "organizing" the living room and left all the clutter, books, magazines, picture albums, etc. on the floor. It's right in the path of walking, but I am not too motivated to pick it all up. He'll be home tomorrow night...I might just leave it for him.....even though I said I would pick it up and told him not to worry about it. Gosh, I just get so lonely without him! I got married for a reason! I don't want to be alone, damnit! Of course I have had my "I need to get the hell away from here and have some fun with friends moments myself" but now I'm pregnant and hungry all the time and I just want to cuddle! Haha. I think I'm gonna have a bowl of GoodFriends Kashi cereal with some raw milk and take a nap. That sounds great.

Baby Belly Pictures

Didn't know I was pregnant! Almost a month along! 6/7/08

2 months (me anyway). Look at all the preggos! (July '08)

Three months preggersFour months
Five months

We're having a boy!

Hello all! Welcome to our new blog! Everyone else in the family has this thing, so we might as well join the bandwagon. =) We are so stoked to be having a little boy & can't wait to meet him! We found out on October 1st that our lil baby has a penis! (see picture, above). It wasn't hard to spot at all. We both laughed out loud in disbelief of how obvious it was that it was a HE. lol. I had no idea what it was until the morning of the Dr. appointment. Then, I felt like I was seeing "signs" that it was a girl. Josh never claimed to know or guess what it was, but I was wrong and that's okay with me. I'm tickled to have a boy first, and hope he is as healthy as can be. I hope for him to be the big brother that the rest of our future children will look up to and see as a role model.

We aren't choosing a name until he is born so we can see what he looks like. But, right now our top two names are Shepherd and Hudson. His middle name will be Evans, after my maiden name...which is also Josh's middle name, his dad's middle name, and his grandpa's middle name. Whew! Got a lot of family covered in there!

I will be 22 weeks along in my pregnancy on Sunday October 12th. (About 5 1/2 months.) Last night I could not get comfortable in bed! I guess it's gonna be like that for the rest of the time. The worst part (which isn't too bad) is the lower back pain I have now. If I could just get Josh to give me those massages the midwife perscribed...haha. We don't have a midwife, but my doctor's office has one on staff. When I met with her a few months ago she wrote out a "real" perscription for Josh to administer back massages every night specifically around my tailbone area, and she signed it with a smilely face.

The best, absolutely best part of being pregnant is feeling him kick! I wait every day for a nudge, a kick.... anything. It makes me smile and I talk to him. I poke back at him in hopes he will retaliate. Josh felt him move for the first time last Saturday!! (October 4th).

My next appointment is the 30th of this month. I think they said I'm getting my finger pricked for blood to do tests for sugar levels or something. I have no idea.

I suppose that's all for now. Thanks for reading. Love you all!

Jamie M. Pike