Any guesses?

We had yet another ultrasound yesterday. I'm starting to feel like I need a "frequent customer" card punched every time I go for an ultrasound. Maybe after 6 scans, I will get a free gift!

The doctor said that the baby is perfect and right on schedule! We go back in another two weeks for another ultrasound so they can check out the baby's face, provided it cooperates this time. The technician tried to have me shift my position to force the baby to move. The baby started out on its back and then instead of moving a little, made a full turn over onto its stomach and curled up into a ball. This made things a little difficult!

We're not sharing the gender with everyone until after Christmas. But here's the latest ultrasound image from yesterday!

This will likely be the last post until after Christmas. We hope that everyone has a wonderful holiday!

Stress? What stress?

We've had an eventful past couple of days. I mentioned in the previous post that my blood pressure was high and my doctor wanted me to come back two weeks later for another check. That was last Wednesday. As it turns out, my blood pressure had gone up even more! My doctor had me admitted to Gwinnett Medical center that afternoon. I had the privledge of staying in the hospital for 30 hours, while they did blood work, urine tests and took my blood pressure every 3 hours.

Thankfully, I was released on Thursday night with normal blood pressure and no medication to take. We were extremely happy to find out that nothing was terribly wrong and the baby was still just as healthy as can be! They did do an ultrasound while I was in the hospital, and the technician gave me a little hint as to what we're having. She didn't say one way or the other, but offered a few tidbits of information that I have of course gone over and over in my head!

I went back to the doctor this morning for a follow-up regarding my blood pressure. My blood pressure was still normal, and they are going to keep me off medication and continue to watch things carefully.

Now we're on to the BIG appointment next week. We have hopefully our last ultrasound on Wednesday afternoon, and this is where we will find out for certain what we are having. I'm so excited ... I can hardly stand it!

More news after next week, I suppose!

Pregnancy Update

Apologies for not being consistent with updating the blog lately!

I went to the doctor yesterday for a routine visit. I'm nearly 18 weeks into the pregnancy, so we're starting to be asked to make decisions about how we're going to finance the birth, what types of birth we want, etc. Honestly, I expected these questions to come later! My doctor's office doesn't waste any time apparently! I spent a few minutes with the OB Coordinator to sign paperwork and discuss what insurance does and does not cover. Thankfully, my insurance covers more than I anticipated, and our out of pocket expense will not be nearly as large as we had anticipated. Oh, its still a large expense ... but I guess it could be a lot worse!

The baby's heart rate was at 155 bpm, which the doctor said was great. She had trouble finding the heartbeat at first (little panic there) but it was because the baby was moving around so much. I'm glad to know that there is movement in there, because I haven't felt anything as of yet. I'll look back at this in a few more months and wince as I'm being kicked in the ribs.

Unfortunately, my blood pressure was elevated yesterday. They had me lay on my side for a while and it did go down, but I go back in two weeks for another check. I feel pretty certain that my blood pressure was up due to the stress of this time of year. Thanks to these lovely pregnancy hormones, I'm a little more emotional about things that I normally would be. And next Wednesday the 26th marks two years since Mom's passing. This year is feeling a lot more difficult to swallow than last year, maybe because it forces me to reflect on my relationship with Mom and how much I hope that my children look up to me like my brothers and I did to her.

The appointment ended with the scheduling of the all-important ultrasound. The big one. On December 17th, if the baby cooperates, the gender will be revealed. Before all my loyal readers get their hopes up, I will say that we will not be told the gender right then and there. Wade would prefer to not find out at all. I, on the other hand, am a planner. I MUST know. We have agreed to delay the revelation a few more days and will have the gender put in an envelope which we will open at Christmas. Some of you will have to wait just a little longer.

So what's your vote? Do you think its a boy or a girl? We've added a vote counter on the right hand side here. Vote as many times as you like!

After Christmas, I will update the blog with the ultrasound pictures.

Happy Thanksgiving to each of you!

Watch HGTV's "Designed to Sell" on Wednesday, November 12th!

Mark it on your calendars, set your DVR and plan to camp out on the couch ...

The Gilbert house will FINALLY be featured

on HGTV's "Designed to Sell" on

Wednesday, November 12th @ 8:00pm EST!

The episode will focus on my brother Grant, and his wife, Brooke, as they renovate our childhood home. After 30+ years of abuse from the three Gilbert kids, it needed a boost! I can assure everyone that the results are absolutely phenomenal (Dad couldn't believe it). Mom would be so proud of what they've done to help us get the old house in Stone Mountain ready for the market! We are so thankful for the help of the "Designed to Sell" team and HGTV!

I hope that you all will tune in (or DVR) the episode next Wednesday. Please feel free to spread the word to anyone you feel may be interested!

If any of this information changes, we will be sure to let you know.

Check HGTV's programming schedule for more information.

Thanks everyone!

And growing ...

Here's our latest ultrasound at about 10 weeks - - -

The doctor said that the baby's heartrate and everything looks great. Our due date has not changed, so the countdown to April 27, 2009 is on!

I'd like to take this opportunity to say that my doctor's office, Preferred Women's Healthcare, has been outstanding so far. I have a few friends who also use this practice, and I am so happy that I made the switch!

Something else to write about!

It occurred to me this morning that my last two posts (and heck, maybe more?) were about Hudson. For nearly two years she has been our only child of sorts. Granted, she has fur, horrible breath and ears that just can't seem to stay in place. But she has been such a source of entertainment in the house since the night she arrived.

Hudson is in for a RUDE awakening come late April of 2009.

Wade and I recently found out that we're having a baby!

We're having another ultrasound on Thursday of this week along with our first "long" OB appointment where they will poke and prod and ask lots of questions about our family medical history. We've already seen the baby's heart beating and thankfully I am not dealing with a great deal of morning sickness as of yet. I realize that I jinxed myself. But so far, its just bouts of exhaustion and mild nausea.

So obviously this signals a new chapter in the lives of the Garretts. We're definitely embarking on one heck of an adventure now - full of hormonal rage and inexplicable headaches. And that's just Wade trying to put together furniture and get through all these books I've brought home! Just kidding. Those things are 100% my domain.

Here's a snapshot of our baby bean ------- MORE TO COME!

Take your dog to work day!

This past Friday, my co-worker and I decided that since we had quite a few people out of the office, it would be a great day to bring our dogs to work. Thankfully, I work for a very small company that is flexible and family-oriented.

So instead of going in the boring crate in the garage all day, Hudson got to come to work!

She and Rix, my co-worker's dog, ran circles around the warehouse and the stock yard. They would greet anyone who came out of the doors from the first and second floors and into the warehouse space. I was impressed that both dogs got along so well with each other and everyone in the office.

As a result of the long work day, Hudson was caught sleeping on the job a few times.

I am so thankful to work for a great company. And so relieved to have a well-behaved dog. I don't think that she has fully recovered from her busy day at work. As you have read in previous blogs, she has great "problem solving skills" ... but will need to work on paying more attention!

The Suspect Had Brown Fur

Those of you that have kept up with us for the past few years know that we initially had a lot of trouble with our dog, Hudson. She was a rescue of sorts – bounced from place to place before finally ending up with us. We quickly discovered that she had all sorts of “emotional” problems stemming from separation anxiety. Within a week of her arrival, she had decided to remove all the carpet from the base of the stairs in our bonus room. This was an obvious desperate ploy to dig out of the room. Too bad for her we live on a slab. She also learned how to open doors with her paw!

A few weeks after we adopted Hudson, we decided that she would simply have to be crate trained. Wade and I quickly realized that a dog with separation anxiety does not agree with being crate trained. We endured many nights of her howling and barking. Her crate had been in our sunroom and one day we came home from work and she greeted us at the door. Her supposed steel crate lay mangled in the sunroom, the plastic base completely destroyed. We were desperate because not only would she escape her confines, but she would mark her territory while we were gone. Wade and I took her to Petsmart to return the crate that they had told us was strong enough for our neurotic dog. They politely told us that our dog had “issues”. Our vet recommended using Children’s Benadryl to calm her down during the day. Unfortunately, Hudson reacted to the Benadryl as if it were speed. It made her crazy and her escapes from the crate happened even more quickly.

After several weeks of using zip ties to keep the old crate held together (and her consistently daring escapes), we decided to get a stronger airline crate and that she would just have to stay out in the garage. We were wise to her tricks by this point. As much as we loved Hudson, we were determined to keep her in that crate while we were at work or out running errands. We used a tie-down strap from Wade’s truck to reinforce the door to the crate and hoped for the best.

For the most part, the reinforced crate has worked. She has only made it out a few times, usually when we have a friend check on her if we’re out of town and they don’t know how tight we keep the straps. Most people underestimate her strength and determination, like we did! We gave her the nickname of “Houdini”.

It has been a while since Hudson managed to get out of her crate …

On Sunday, Wade and I went to run errands. We put Hudson in her crate, secured everything and went out our way. When we returned home less than three hours later, we opened the garage door. Wade said “Wow – she moved the crate! Look at that!” I walked around to the front of the crate, which was still secured – door shut and locked, strap tight. Except Hudson was not in the crate! Wade and I start spinning around looking for the dog. We thought maybe she ran out of the garage when the door opened and we just did not see her. But by now, she would have been all over us. Wade turned around and noticed that the door leading to the house was barely cracked. I went and opened the door, and Hudson was sitting in the foyer with her tail wagging, as if to say “What took you guys so long?”

How on earth did this happen? The crate looked as though nothing had changed. All we can figure is that the strap wasn’t in just the right place and she hit the door with enough force to bow out the bottom and squeeze (and I do mean squeeze) out. But how did she get into the house? The door was shut! Wade saw that there were some obvious claw marks on the door frame. Hudson clearly managed to open the door with her paw again. Thankfully, she went into the house and did not destroy anything or mark her territory.

I suppose this is what we get for having a dog that is apparently smarter than us. But we do think that this was one of her more humorous successful escapes simply because we were so stunned that she made it into the house. And at least she had the sense to close the door behind her.

Coming Soon –
Pictures of a miraculous nature!

This blog is brought to you with limited commercial interruption by …

Over the weekend, Wade and I realized that for the past two weeks we’ve been more invested in watching the Olympics than in all previous competitions (hence the silent blog). Not even when the Summer Games were in Atlanta did we watch this much coverage. I think a large part of it is due to the obsessively continuous coverage aired by NBC on their conglomerate of 2,394 channels. We were of course enthralled with the swimming and gymnastics competitions. I tried my best to keep up with the women’s soccer games. We became fans of the men’s and women’s beach volleyball teams. We’ve even watched mountain biking, BMX biking and whitewater kayaking. Doubles ping pong? Insane. I won’t even go into the mess that was race walking – I can only tell you how hard I laughed.

The one area that could never attract our attention was track and field. My disdain for running goes back to my soccer days, where running was used not only for conditioning, but punishment when a drill did not go as planned. I have never been able to really run since. So now I find myself in a position where I do not understand the sheer joy these athletes display when they are dubbed “the fastest man in the world”. I also realize that they probably feel the same way when they see soccer players celebrate goals. They just don’t get it. And neither do I.

Now we find ourselves without Olympic coverage for the first full day in some 19 days. The new seasons of our favorite shows do not start for another month or more. It is as though we’ve forgotten how we spent our evenings before the Olympics.

So Wade and I return tonight to our normal marriage. Without promotional consideration from Speedo, Nike, Oakley, Coca-Cola and Visa, the only card accepted at the 2008 Olympic Summer Games in Beijing.

If cooking was an Olympic sport, I would be disqualified.

I am sure that everyone has, even if for just seconds, seen some of the Olympic coverage so far. Wade and I watched bits and pieces of the Opening Ceremonies on Friday evening. We made it through the first two hours and then I moved to another room and caught the last part of the parade of nations and then the lighting of the torch while Wade played on his Playstation 3. I was amazed at the pageantry and creativity that went into the Opening Ceremonies.

But can you imagine the conversation they had with the man who was selected to light the cauldron?

BOOC: “We would be honored to have you light the Olympic flame for the Beijing games!”

Li Ning: “It would be my great honor to represent our country. Thank you.”

BOOC: “There is one tiny detail we have not covered.”

Li Ning: “Do not worry. I knew this was coming, and I have been running in preparation for this day for months.”

BOOC: “Yes, that’s great. How comfortable are you with heights and climbing harnesses?”

On another note, I had my first real kitchen blunder in years. We wanted a simple dinner Sunday night since we had been cleaning the house all day and were exhausted. I decided that tacos would be the easiest thing to fix. While chopping the lettuce for the tacos, I managed to get my right index finger in the way and gave myself a nasty cut. I am normally good with the knives in the kitchen, so I stood there in complete bewilderment for a few seconds before dancing around the kitchen yelling “Ouch. Oh man. OUCH! This is not good. Brittany, this is NOT good.” Thankfully Wade helped to get the situation under control. I’m left handed, and until today I never realized how much I needed my right index finger.

Seriously, who cuts their finger while chopping lettuce?

Ode to a blue shirt (repost)

Some of you may recognize this post from my MySpace account. I decided to move it on over to this site. Enjoy.

Oh how I loved you. You were such a lively color of blue. I remember seeing you on the display in the store. I thought "that's a shade I haven't worn before". And I took a chance on you. I sifted through the pile until I found you. I don't even recall checking the price tag. We walked happily to the counter and you were placed in a perfect bag and carted proudly out of the store along with others that caught my eye that day.

Did you see it coming? When I placed you into the laundry basket, could you sense that the end was near? Did you cry ever-so-slightly, knowing that the next time we laid eyes on each other, something would be different?

I feel as though I let you down, my little blue shirt. I should have checked to make sure there were no imposters in the washing machine. But alas, it was not the washing machine that caused your demise. I suspect that you survived your tumble with the detergent, along with the others.

Into the dryer I tossed you, careful to set the temperature on low so you would not shrink or lose your vibrant shade. I did not realize the evil that lurked in Wade's jeans. I had no idea that the pen Wade left in his pants would hurt you. Oh, how the heat must have caused that pen to leak its toxic color onto your sleeve. And collar. And the other sleeve. Its useless, as the putrid black ink had turned you into a spotted wonder.

By the time I found you in the dryer, all warm and clean smelling, it was too late. No amount of Spray-N-Wash could reverse the damage. I gasped in horror as I saw the top to the pen. Then I found the spring. Next the plastic casing. Finally, the final blow - the empty barrel of ink.

Rest assured, my favorite blue shirt, that you are not alone. Many before you have endured the same plight. May you take comfort in knowing that you lived a full and wonderful life.

I know you certainly will not be the last. There will be others.

And Wade's clothes will NEVER again be washed with mine ...

Its getting hot in here ...

Wade and I had a bright idea the other night at Home Depot. We were armed with a $50 gift card and a little too much time to wander the store. We have talked for a while about getting a better programmable thermostat for our house. So we made our way to the appropriate section of the store and began to ooh and aah over the many wonderful features of the available thermostats. Some had touch screens, others were just plain. We opted for a lovely model that we thought would make our AC/Heating fully automated and we'd never have to touch the thermostat again.

Friday night Wade decided to install the new thermostat. He turned off the circuit breakers labeled with "AC" and "FURNACE". He removed our existing thermostat and the temperature of course began to rise. I know that Wade was very careful in labeling the wires, so when he connected the new unit and had no response, he was truly puzzled. He attempted to call the customer support service that the manufacturer offers, and of course they were "experiencing higher call volume than usual". At 9pm at night? Really? There are that many homeowners installing new thermostats on a Friday night? Apparently its time to bulk up your staff!

The hours slid by last night with Wade growing increasingly more frustrated. After no response from the manufacturer's supposed customer service, he decided that we had a faulty unit and began the process of re-installing the old thermostat.

Around midnight (now six hours without AC), here's what was on our wall ... the temperature wasn't THAT bad, but when we tried to turn on the AC, the furnace came on. So after a few minutes of blowing heat, things got a little sticky. We slept with every portable fan in the house in our master bedroom.

As you can see, this is probably not the ideal situation for a thermostat. This is the old thermostat, which is STILL not working after a nice sweltering night in the humidity of Georgia. Today's temperatures are predicted to reach the high 90's here in Monroe, with the heat index pushing things over 100 degress. AND WE HAVE NO AIR CONDITIONING.

Anyone want to come over this afternoon to hang out? No? Aw, come on.

Its just past 9am here. We have already had our neighbor draw a diagram of their connections, which show that Wade hooked everything up just fine. However, he just noticed that our stove went off when he flipped the breaker switch labeled "AC". Hmm. Wade thinks that he *may* have fried our AC system. Excellent. We have placed a distress call to a local AC company. Hopefully they will show up at some point today and save us from this inferno!

So who wants to let us (and our panting dog who will shed all her fur in this heat) come over?

You can try to avoid change, but sometimes change finds you.

I am unfortunately not one of those women who can ask their mother for advice and encouragement.

That statement is probably one of the toughest things I have had to come to terms with since my mom’s passing. When something like that happens, I imagine most people are filled with a multitude of questions. You want to know why this had to happen. You want to know how this void can be filled in your life. Yet my biggest question was incredibly selfish. I wanted to know who was going to teach me how to be a wife and eventually a mother.

In the grand scheme of life, I suppose that my burning question is rather insignificant. The world’s great minds have asked far more important questions than this. But still, I asked the question and it has bothered me ever since.

I felt like the little girl who so badly wanted to be in the same class as all her friends in school and was instead put into another and forced to start over. But my teachers are not who I expected they would be. It was not until recently that I realized that I am surrounded by teachers with such a huge wealth of advice and love. These new teachers are my friends and family. I wouldn't allow myself to see them through all the tears, I suppose. In a relatively short time frame, I have been told stories and given advice that I feel will be invaluable as I reach certain points in my life. I actually look forward to learning more because everyone has, in forms large and small, contributed to my continued growth as an adult.

Wade once told me that he believes the most sincere showing of appreciation one can give is to simply say “thank you”.

And so I say to everyone, thank you!

Orange Beach Trip

As I mentioned earlier, this past weekend I took Wade's fourteen year old sister, Erin to Orange Beach for the weekend. My aunt and uncle have a house there and were gracious enough to let us stay and track sand everywhere.

We left Loganville around noon on Friday and it took about six hours to reach Orange Beach, AL. My aunt and uncle were at a meeting that evening, so we found their house, threw our bags into our rooms, changed clothes and headed to the beach. Erin had never seen the Gulf of Mexico before, and she was certainly amazed at the white sand and blue-green water. The weather wasn't entirely perfect for sunset pictures, but my little camera did capture a few nice scenes.

My pictures probably pale in comparison to those of our budding family photographer ...

Hopefully Erin had a great time!

After taking pictures at Alabama Point, we drove circles around Orange Beach and Perdido Key. Erin had never been to Florida, so I drove her there. Took about 2 minutes. We struggled to find any places to eat dinner that weren't crowded. There were massive groups of beach goers, I assume mostly families, since they were all wearing their white shirts and kakhi pants and shorts as if they had just finished taking their family pictures on the beach. Around 8pm local time, we finally settled on Cosmo's on Canal Road. They were on a hour and a half wait, so we opted to order our food to-go, which still took thirty minutes. I had to remind myself that I'm traveling with a teenager, since she ordered a rather expensive pasta dish that I had to pay for! I should have been more specific by suggesting a budget friendly shrimp po-boy.

While we were there, my aunt wanted us to try a Smoked Tuna Dip that she bought at their local seafood market. At first I thought it was rather like tuna salad, but after a few more trys, I was hooked.

Erin even liked this stuff. We ended up finding the seafood market and buying another container to replace the one we devoured and another one to bring home. I just had to put it back in the fridge so that Wade could at least try a little. At $8 a pop, I sure don't need to eat a whole container at once.

Saturday morning we went to the beach. We learned that if you arrive around 10:30am, you won't find a single parking space at the local public beach access. We had to shark park for about fifteen minutes. But finally we were at the beach. Just the two of us with a small cooler and two beach towels. No chairs. No umbrella. No little canopy. We looked like amateurs compared to the sight we encountered. After two hours, we were cooked and decided to go home and shower and go find lunch.

We ended up at The Wharf, where my cousin works. Erin had wanted to go shopping with the spending money her dad had given her. Spending money? Wait - you had spending money this whole time yet you ordered a $20 pasta? Needless to say, The Wharf is a relatively new development in Orange Beach. However it is a little more high-end than Erin was hoping for. We couldn't even walk into stores. I suppose if they had a Hot Topic or similar store, she would have been happier. We found a little pizza joint and inhaled a late lunch. I was just thankful to be inside. It was sweltering! Erin finally settled on a cute t-shirt at The Wharf Store, a trinket of her productive shopping excursion I suppose.

Our initial plan had been to catch a sunset dolphin cruise on Saturday evening. But Mother Nature had other plans. There were big storms rolling through the area and the dolphin tour companies just had some silly hangups about putting tourists on a boat in the middle of a lightning storm on the bay. Erin had to settle for jumping out of my car at the docks to take a few quick pictures. Here she is running from lightning --

So Saturday night was a bust. No dolphin tour. No good pictures on the beach. We retired early and hoped for better luck before we left on Sunday.

Sunday morning we woke up early and were on the beach by 9:30am. Erin learned that you don't sit in the surf and expect to be left alone.

Overall, this was a great little weekend escape. I just wish that we could have stayed there longer!

Said one guy to his wife ...

When I got home last night, I decided to tinker a bit with this blog. If anyone has any suggestions on how to properly use a different template, I'm interested to hear about it. Every time I tried to make a change, I received error messages!

Moving right along ... while I was attempting to understand HTML code, Wade came upstairs and asked me what I was doing. The conversation went a little like this:

Wade - "What are you up to?"
Me - "I'm trying to make some changes to our blog."
Wade - "We have a blog?"
Me - "Yes, as of today."
Wade - "Why do we have a blog?"
Me - "Because I thought it would be fun."
Wade - "Are you mentioning me in the blog?"
Me - "Well, its called "A Tale of Two Garretts (and a dog), so yes."
Wade - "Don't mention me on there!"

Points go to Wade for knowing what a blog is after all. Then all points are revoked because I said so.

Welcome!

Thanks for visiting the Garrett's blog! Okay, so its really Brittany's effort. Wade will only be mentioned and in a few pictures here and there. I don't know if he's ever seen a blog, much less thought about posting events and pictures for the world to see.

I'm heading to Orange Beach, AL this weekend with Wade's little sister, Erin. This will be her first trip to the Gulf of Mexico and my first trip to Orange Beach. She's fourteen years old, so it will be interesting to find things to do that don't make her roll her eyes. At the advice of my aunt who lives in Orange Beach, I suggested to Erin that maybe we take a dolphin cruise. She loves photography and animals and I figured it would be a good opportunity for her to show off her mad picture-taking skills. She makes my pictures look like a three year old picked up someone's disposable camera, licked the lens and then tried to get as close to the object as possible before blinding them with the flash. I'm still planning on taking my camera, mind you. But I am a little intimidated.

This weekend marks the first time I've been to a beach since going to Negril, Jamaica last fall. I'm pasty white and expecting a fierce sunburn. No matter how much sunscreen I use, the SPF or how many times I reapply, I will be crispy like a Thanksgiving turkey. This is also the first time I have travelled with someone considerably younger than me. I don't want to be the annoying "adult" who has to remind her to use sunscreen. She's old enough to where I won't need to escort her to the ladies room, right? Man, I'm in trouble!

Well this introduction turned out a bit longer than I had anticipated! Back to work ...