2006 June archive at Filtering Life

Archive for June, 2006

Oh happy days…

Published by Kelly June 28th, 2006 in Uncategorized. 7 Comments

Okay, I always feel like a schmoe when I can look back to a post I made the week prior and I am just whining and complaining about this and that. Then God does so many cool things all at once and I read back at how ungrateful and faithless I became when the going got tough. Will we ever learn to really trust His timing and embrace the challenges, that can mature us?
So I am still floating on cloud nine about my little girl. I am talking to her all the time and I love that I can call her by name. Now for more good news…yesterday, I called the broker at the realty company hoping against hope that I would hear some good news and wouldn’t you stinkin know it….THEY RELEASED US!!!! I seriously felt like I got a “get out of jail free” card. Praise Jesus. I had nightmares that we would be forced into buying the pee house. The shame of it all. No, God laid a giant smack down and we get out with no penalties. So I am dying to get out and see what is available but we have to wait until Monday, when my bro gets back. See, I told you it would be dramatic. I mean who doesn’t put an offer in, buy a house, pack and move all in 3-4 weeks. It can be done, right? It is going to be a whirl wind month! We are praying for the perfect house for us. The market SUCKS right now for our price range. Things go up and down within 2-7 days. All we need is one house…one perfect house.

Interlude…..Chloe is breakin it down in my belly. I am trying to teach her rhythm so I blast some Black Eyed Peas and we shake our junk together, although my shaking is looking a little more dramatic from the back, if you know what I mean.

Okay, so my precious little dog, Charlotte, has a major quirk. When the ground is wet, she WILL NOT PEE OR POOP! Period. End of discussion. Don’t even go there with her. As we all know, the East coast has been drowing for 3 days now. As we walk her out to her patch of the ground at our apt. complex, she immediately puts on the brakes. It is pretty funny (after the fact). She actually drops her butt to the ground and her front paws are straight out in front of her. If she had longer claws I am sure they would slice the sidewalk. I have had to adjust her collar 3 times to tighter holes because she pulls against me so hard she pops out of her collar. I swear I have her in a noose now. Once I jerk her onto the grass she just continues to fight and fight and fight or she just pathetically stares into your eyes pleading to take her back in. She will even alternate lifting 2 paws up at a time so they don’t all have to touch the wet grass. It is ridiculous…YOU ARE A DOG….freakin’ pee and poo outside! The second you bring her in she has an “accident”. Yeah, I would have an “accident” too if I was trying to hold it all day. I get so bitter at her because, let’s be honest, nobody is standing in line to pick up dog pee and poop off the carpet. That is what the great outdoors is for. I have come to forgive her because it reminds me that Chloe may have some ridiculous hang up that she will NOT budge on that majorly inconveniences me and I have to choice but to love her and accept her quirks too. So I am trying to make this a lesson of unconditional love. If Charlotte wasn’t so darn funny and cute I would probably drop her off in the woods on days like those.
Alright…I am seriously putting off a shower. I look a wee-bit skanky and it is time to wash off yesterday’s funk. The sun is finally showing and Candace and I are going to squeeze in a walk before they fly to Atlanta…sniff, sniff….don’t leave me.
Thank you all for your enthusiasm for our little girl. It is an awesome feeling to get so many calls, emails and blog comments. It has really sunk in and I cannot wait to meet her. Ryan and I keep saying we just want to rip her out of my belly so we can hold her. I remind him that she is pretty much smaller than 12 inches, clear and no body fat…so she would look pretty funky. So we will continue to let her bake in my belly for a few more months. I can’t wait to meet her!

Introducing…..

Published by Kelly June 26th, 2006 in Uncategorized. 17 Comments

Our beautiful and healthy baby girl, Chloe Grace Portnoy!!!!

profile of Chloe

Ryan called it! I was totally convinced we were having a boy and said “he” all the time. My intuition is usually 99%, but Ryan got it right this time. He really wanted a little girl, so he was beaming. My mom came with us and we had the same ultrasound technician that we have had the other three times. We just love her! She has been in the trenches with us with those scary, scary weeks early on. They are just a memory now replaced by serious joy. I wanted a girl so badly but I couldn’t shake the feeling I was having a boy, I even had two vivid dreams of a little baby boy. There was no mistaking the sex, especially this late in the game. Three bars says it all.

Chloe's bits

Everything else measured perfect, it was awesome to see her heart chambers and her beautiful profile…no cleft palate! The doctor said the baby was exactly on with height and weight for my due date. It was such a relief to have nothing but positive, assuring remarks made.
These are the shots that are a little scarier looking. She was looking right in the camera at us and kept smiling and then opened up her mouth huge so we could see right up her nose. It is good to see all the body parts, but these pictures are a little crazy looking! One looks like the Scream mask.

Chloe's mouth

The last two shots are of her feet and her trying to suck her thumb and pointing up at the same time. I can not get over how cool it is to see all the little bones…so awesome!

Chloe's feet and hands

She is positioned in the breech position right now so they had a hard time measuring her spine. I have to come back for another ultrasound in 4 weeks so they can complete the measurements. Now I know why my bladder is in so much pain and never feels relieved, she still has her feet way down low. Thank you all for your prayers for good health. I had a little “nervous poo” about 30 minutes before we left. All anxiety washed away as soon as we saw her moving all around. It is such a miracle!
We went and bought her a little winter suit with a hood with ears on it for the winter. That is what we showed Ryan’s parents to tell them what we are having a girl. My mom bought her the cutest onsie with little strawberries on the feet and a little puffy hat. Ryan’s mom had bought two yellow onsies to give us regardless of the outcome that are adorable and my friend Erin dropped off the sweetest little outfit with a package of the head bows in assorted shades of pink. I’d show you a picture, but I have already pressed my luck to get Ryan to scan in all the ultrasound shots. Maybe tomorrow! I laid everything out on the bed and just stood there in awe that this is really happening. We are having a daughter in just a few months and she is going to wear all these little outfits and bring them to life. Ryan is so over the moon, I love seeing him so excited and proud. God is so good to us, it overwhelms me how he gives the desires of our heart…perfectly….in His timing.

Portnoy Sex Day!

Published by Kelly June 25th, 2006 in Uncategorized. 12 Comments

Now my brother-in-laws would love for this to mean “sex, sex” but I am talking about the sex of the baby. This is the time to make your wagers folks, because around 2:00pm tomorrow we go in for THE ultrasound. I am so stinking excited to find out, but even more excited to see the baby again and only pray for a clean bill of health. I know this ultrasound can be very reassuring or this is where they can find that certain things are wrong. I choose to dwell on the thought that this will be an affirmation that God is growing a wonderfully healthy baby in my belly. Speaking of bellies, Lisa asked for this. Here is the 21 week bare belly shot.

21 weeks belly shot

My tattoos are taking on a little larger appearance. I think these pictures make my stomach look huge, I don’t look that big when my shirt comes down. It is all relative I suppose. So place your comment about which gender is growing in this belly of mine and see if you are right. Boy votes are like 10 to 1 to Girl for my family members and friends. It will be a total bummer if the baby doesn’t cooperate…I hope, I hope, I hope we will have an answer. I will post sometime after 4:00 tomorrow with the results. YEAH!!!!
I don’t think you’re ready for this jelly…. ’cause my body’s too bootylicious for ya baby!

What?…friends listen to Endless Love in the dark….

Published by Kelly June 23rd, 2006 in My sweetie Ryan. 6 Comments

What is that saying? When life throws you lemons, make lemonade? Let’s just say the stand is open and we are selling drinks a dollar a pop. We walked through the house last night and the second we walked through the front door we smelled….you guessed it….urine. I couldn’t believe it. I had a short frustration cry followed by…what do we do to get out of this. My brother has only recinded on one other contract so he said he would have to call the seller and let them know what was up and then talk to the broker at his reality company, who is also “the big cheese”, owner. The phone calls have been flying back and forth over the last 20 hours. The bottom line is, if they want to, they could sue us because they “did everything we asked them to and now we are backing out.” When my brother talked to the broker, he found a couple of key documents that were supposed to be initialed by us and aprroved by the sellers; and we, nor they, signed them…so that is a major bonus for us. The contract was contingent on the smell being removed and it was not, regardless of the processes they used. Anyway, I signed what I could and it was faxed off today and now we sit and wait on their countermove. I have run the gamet of emotions since yesterday and now I am at rest with it. I think about all that God has brought us through in the last 2 years together and this is just life, it doesn’t make it easy, but these are the things that refine us and teach us about putting things in perspective. I was reading Psalms 84 a few days ago and was reminded of a great truth of God’s character. He talks about providing a home for the sparrow and a place for her to raise her young. If He did these things for a sparrow, how much more will He do for Ryan and I? Ryan is always so calm and assuring in these situations which can tick me off or be a soothing balm. Today, it has been a balm. After praying about it and asking for God’s peace, I feel much better. We only pray that we won’t have to pay a million fees. We can’t look at any more houses until this gets resolved, so the pause button of life has been clicked again. Stay tuned for the exciting outcome…dunt dunt dunnnnnnnn…
Speaking of Ryan. Today marks our two year anniversary of dating. I know you technically don’t celebrate dating anniversaries when you are married, but it will be hard to let June 23 pass us by without going down memory lane. Of course I love going down memory lane at 11:00pm and Ryan feels tortured by my incessant talking, laughing and climbing all over him when he is trying to sleep. I don’t know why, I just come alive late at night. I know deep, deep, DEEP down he finds this endearing. At least he puts up with it and has a good attitude.

2 years of dating

Just a reminder, Ryan and I were friends first for about 3 years without the least bit of flirting or romantic thoughts between us. All of a sudden in May, 2004, I started to get butterfly’s when he would walk in a room. I tried to shake it off. I mean, come on, goofy, silly, wicked tall Ryan? It was too weird of a thought that we could ever cross the line of friendship into romance. Anyway, two years ago today we spent the whole day in Charlottesville walking around and flirting. Ryan is NOT a flirter, so I knew there was some mutual vibing going on. I really wanted to see how we would do spending the whole day apart from everyone….would there be sparks….would we be able to talk as easily as we normally did in front of people? It started raining so we ducked into a movie theatre and watched Dodgeball. It took the whole two hours of the movie for us to get the nerve to put our arms next to each other….OUR ARMS…how scandalous! Gotta love that first contact. After that, I am embarrassed to say, we took the scenic route home down the Blue Ridge Parkway and kept pulling over to walk different trails. We were a pathetic display of flirting as we kept pulling on tree branches and dumping leftover rain water on each other, play wrestled, the whole nine yards. The crowning moment is when we both slipped down to the ground. He helped me up and as we stood up we hugged. The hug must have lasted 20-30 seconds. It was intense because that was the first prolonged contact we ever had. Once we let go we just started talking like it never happened…nobody acknowledged it! So funny. Once we got back to my apt. we put “When Harry Met Sally” in (subconscious… friends becoming lovers…..maybe?) By the end of the movie we were officially holding hands. When the credits were rolling I finally got the nerve to face him and said, “Ryan, do we need to talk?” He thought I was about to give him the boot for making a move, so he asked me to go first. I just spilled the beans about having feelings for him but not knowing what to do about it and then he shared that the same thing was happening for him over the previous month. One thing led to another and we kissed. I knew this was the make or break part for friends crossing over. If it was bad or I started laughing, I knew I couldn’t do it. It was just the opposite…it was amazing! That boy can kiss and kiss we did. We logged some serious hours that first night. Within two weeks we told each other we loved each other and that we wanted to get married. I truly believe being friends for those 3 years solidified so much for us. It is so much easier to built romance into friendship, than friendship into romance. Here we are 2 years later, married and having a baby!!!! It is so amazing what 730 days can bring together. I can not imagine living life without him. He is so perfectly suited for me and is my best buddy. There is not a day that goes by that we don’t laugh ourselves silly. So that is our embarrassing confession of how we came to date. It was pretty pathetic and everytime we retell the story to each other we die laughing at how cheesy we were. I know we have all done some juvenile things just to get that one touch or one long look from the one we want….I don’t know if we will ever grow out of it.
Alright, well the baby is doing it’s afternoon dance on my bladder, gotta run.

Relief

Published by Kelly June 22nd, 2006 in Uncategorized. 6 Comments

Okay, now that I got everything off my chest last night I felt much better. My wonderful husband, who hates giving massages, gave me two last night to help my shoulders and neck feel better. I slept for 4 hours straight before waking up and then only woke up 3 more times…that is way better than normal. I definitely feel better today. While I was at my summer school training I got a call from my brother ( our realtor) and we found out we can walk through the house tonight. This both excites me and makes me nervous because I know this is where the rubber meets the road on our decision of whether to keep this house or not. Tomorrow’s post will be interesting. All in all, the cloud has lifted a ton and I know many of you have been praying for us and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Moving is stressful enough without having a bunch of other crap to deal with at the same time. I feel so limited with being pregnant. I am such a packing, painting, and moving nazi and it is hard for me to pace myself and not overdue it. Now I am not going to mind one bit when I see all the guys lifting heavy boxes and furniture…so relieved to get out of that part of moving.
So I got home at 3:30 and flipped on TLC. A Baby Story was half way through so I decided to finish it. The lady was laboring natural in a birthing tub. She did nothing but scream, cuss, and cry. I know my eyes were as big as saucers. I have seen a ton of episodes of A Baby Story, but it never hit home like it does now. Part of me is scared of delivery and part of me is fascinated at how God designed this whole process. As soon as the baby was born and she pulled her out of the water I just lost it! I mean really cried. I looked down at my belly and the tub of ice cream I was eating and just glowed with excitement that we will get to meet our baby in just a little over 4 months. I cannot wait until Monday to find out the sex. This whole process is so surreal sometimes and others the reality of it comes crashing in and it just makes me weep. I can’t believe we are parents!
So I dropped a hundred beans at Bed Bath and Beyond today. I couldn’t take it anymore. I bought a new body pillow and two memory foam cervical pillows. I sleep with 4 pillows right now trying to get aligned and give my back, neck and belly support. The pillows I have right now are all cheap, old, and deflated and I think this is just compounding my sleeping issues. I considered it a health investment and hopefully I will get some relief. My back is jacked up enough without my growing belly putting more strain on it.
Okay….leaving on a lighter and random note. I am passing on two of my easiest and delicious recipes. I double dog dare you to make them, they will change your life.
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins:

1 box of spice cake mix (dry, do not make batter)
1 can of pumpkin
1/2 bag of chocolate chips.
Mix the three ingredients together and bake for 15-20 minutes at 350. You will be addicted! They are the most amazing muffins in the world and your house will smell like heaven, not to mention they are packed with fiber so know where you will be a few hours later

Cream Cheese Dip:

Take one box of cream cheese, add garlic powder, oregano, and italian seasoning (around 1 tsp of each) melt together in the microwave and spread on the bottom of a pie dish. Put a cup of your favorite spaghetti or pizza sauce on top of the cream cheese and then sprinkle (liberally) your favorite shredded cheese. You can microwave or bake at 350 for 25 minutes. It is the most incredible dip in the world….eat with bagel chips, wheat thins, tortilla chips….whatever salty goodness you like.

ENJOY!

In 5 months when I am whining about my leftover pregnancy weight…remind me of these recipes which are my kryptonite.