I'm Alive! (and so is Eden & Mt. Redoubt)

I've been a tardy blogger lately, partly due to how busy we've been, and partly due to my husband not having a chance to scan in the pictures we got from our most recent ultrasound.

But first of all, some of you might be wondering about the volcano that blew its top last Sunday here in Alaska (which has continued to erupt multiple times since then). The last time Mt. Redoubt erupted was back in the 80s, and when it did, it continued to erupt over a 6 months span of time. So far, we haven't seen any ash here in Anchorage, but that could be subject to change. It all depends on if/how often it continues to erupt, and the direction of the wind. It's erupted at least once every day since Sunday, and already twice just this morning. The Mat-Su Valley, 30 miles North of Anchorage (where my Dad lives), has seen a dusting of ash, and now this morning's eruption is sending ash 300 miles South from here to Homer where my parents-in-law live. We'll see how much they get. It's probably only a matter of time before we, too, see some of the gray stuff coat our city. gross.

Here are some pictures from a great website that's been tracking Mt Redoubt's activity.




There always seems to be something interesting going on in this great and wild state. They don't call it the 'Last Frontier' for nothing. I sure like living here.

Okay, moving on...

As I said before, we went in for our last ultrasound on Monday where we saw our little girl at 23 weeks. Look how BIG she's getting! :) She's definitely a Preston baby! Click on the picture to see them larger. I guess over the next few weeks she's supposed to start plumping up a bit. I feel her kick regularly now and LOVE IT. Charley can feel her kick pretty easily now too. I can't get enough of that... she's quite the little gymnast in there doing somersaults, cartwheels and leap-frogs (at least that's how my imaginative mind sees her).

Here's her little profile... she's looking less like an alien and more like a cute baby.

This picture still makes my head spin. I can't believe the detail that ultrasounds are able to capture now-a-days. I love her nose. :) The tech got this picture near the end when she was ready/wanting to go back to sleep.

I love her little fingers. Scott (the ultrasound tech) said that she was showing us "who's number one" with her little finger in the air, but I think my sister was more correct in that she's just making sure we all know who's boss... taking after mom already (oh boy)!

Wouldn't it be a bummer to be born with two left feet? or two right feet? This picture proves that we won't have a problem like that with little Eden. *phew*


This is my favorite picture of her, playing peek-a-boo. Maybe it's just me, but she looks SO DARLING in this shot.

Look at those cute little arms. Hopefully she won't take after my side of the family and be cursed with big, fat, amazon woman arms when she get older.

Yay for 3-d ultrasounds!

I'm finding that I'm developing an incredibly strong and uncontrollable love for this little girl. Amazing, seeing as she's not even here yet. I thank God for her every single day, and for the wonderful privilege of getting to be her mommy. I can't wait to hold her in my arms for the first time...

22 Weeks!

It's sad how inconsistant we've been with taking profile pictures throughout this pregnancy. Today, however, Charley took a few since we just hit 22 weeks! :)




Go ahead, say it. I'm enormous. According to my sister, though, this is what happens to us 'Wright girls' when we get pregnant -along with high blood pressure and 'mad cow disease' (as she likes to call our crazy emotional mood swings). We turn into huge whales. Lovely. Despite my huge belly, I can't help but be downright giddy when thinking about meeting our little girl for the first time! We have been busy getting things ready for her around here.

In other news, we are praising God for the Lockwood's new little blessing, Samuel Thomas. Jaynee and him are both doing well... all things considering. He is just over 3 pounds and is absolutely adorable. Thanks to everyone who was praying for their little sweetheart. Please continue to lift them up to the Lord. Both mom and baby are still in serious condition and need your prayers for a speedy recovery. Check out their blog for pictures and more info. But we are just thanking God for His goodness and provision in their family. Little Samuel makes 12!

My Ticket Out!!

When Charley and I met and began courting/dating (whatever you wanna call our 'hooking up'), one thing we talked about was my desire to be a stay-at-home mom, and his longing to marry someone who shared that desire. Some conservative, Christian ladies (and men) today believe that a wife should ALWAYS be at home, regardless of whether a couple has children or not. While that is a fine conviction and works for some people, it is not our particular belief. We did not see a problem with me working part time while we waited for God to bless us with little ones. Therefore, after we got married, we decided that it would be most wise and beneficial if I worked, contributing financially and keeping myself somewhat busy, until we had children. God has always, ALWAYS blessed me with wonderful jobs - everything from working with the elderly, to dabbling in real estate as an assistant to a licensee. Being in the workforce has been really good for me, and taught me a lot. I've learned many great skills from all sorts of different industries, as well as came to understand how to deal/communicate/work with various types of people. But what I've learned the MOST is that I am NOT cut out to be a career woman. Frankly, I stink at it. It's become clear to me over the past few years that while I'm somewhat social, I LIKE being a 'keeper at home'. I've come to find that being in my little kitchen (actually, it's kind of a big kitchen), baking bread, cleaning out my fridge and re-reorganizing my pantry is more fulfilling -by far- than sitting at a desk 7 hours a day answering phones. Doing laundry and mismatching my husbands socks (not intentionally, I should add) is far more fun than peeling myself out of bed at the crack of dawn to go off and file papers. So, all that to say, back in October when I got pregnant, I couldn't help but be excited knowing that there was now a date in the distant future that I would get to finally go home. Being only 4 months away from little Eden's arrival, I called today to talk to my company's maternity leave department (they don't really have their own department, but I don't know what else to call the folks who I talked to earlier), to find out what's involved in taking my 2 months paid leave - even though I plan to quit shortly thereafter. They said that technically, I could leave (and be paid for) 4 weeks before my baby's born, through 4 weeks after she's born, which would give me the date of June 18th (two days after my birthday) as my technical last day of work! That's only three months away!!

ANYWAYS, this is probably painfully boring to you all, but my sister is bugging me to blog again, and seeing as I've been sick (thanks to her) for the past week, I haven't got anything else to blog about... and this whole coming-home-for-good thing is exciting to me- so I figured I'd share.

So yah, I'm really excited to have a date in the future when I know I'll finally get to be a stay-at-home wife/mom. :) I know (and most of you out there can attest to the fact that) it's not all peaches and cream, but I think I'll do alright at it. I don't like being told what to do by random bosses (unless it's God or my husband). I like to make my own schedule, do what I know needs to be done, and not have some guy looking over my shoulder all the time reminding me to fax this, or file that. Besides, I'll have a baby to play with ALL DAY! How is that not the funnest job ever??

Speaking of baby, even though I've had the plague for the past week (bronchitis-like virus and bad cold), SHE'S doing great! It's fun feeling her kick and move and wiggle. She likes it when I play the guitar, or when her Daddy comes home from work and talks/sings to her. She moves the most at those times... and at 9pm at night -like clockwork. It's interesting getting a feel for her different patterns and such. We've been slowly working on her nursery. Weekend before last I totally emptied her room out and Charley put everything that was in there down in the crawl space (mostly just a bunch of junk since we had used that room as more of a storage unit). Now we're just prepping it to paint. I'll show pictures as we make some more progress. I'll also post some pics soon of my growing belly. She's almost a foot long now (sounds like a Subway sandwich), and weighs close to a pound...which is sad, considering the fact that I've gained almost 20 (something's not lining up- but it's not MY fault that she likes chocolate chip cookies so much).

Here's what my Eden is looking like these days according to babycenter.com:
Okay, that's about it for now. Oh, Please keep the Lockwoods in your prayers as Jaynee is in the hospital right now at 32 weeks pregnant with a baby who could come any day. Pray that her little guy would stay put as long as possible and that God would just surround her with His comfort, love and protection. He is so sovereign and it's wonderful to know that He's got this whole situation under control.