The Scrapaddict boards are having weekly challenges. Here is mine!

ABOUT ME

• favorite color: BLUE - specifically teal!
• word I most liked to be described as: Happy
• best meal I cook: Oh, there's a few. Joe likes my shrimp fried rice, chicken parmesan and mongolian beef.
• favorite dessert: Cheesecake
• favorite book: I don't really read books. I used to when I was a child. I love magazines now - parenting and scrapbooking.
• favorite outfit: Well when I was a size 10/12 it was anything that made me look good! LOL. Now that I'm 6 months preggo, it's usually a sleeveless shirt and shorts that don't make me look like a cow!
• usually in bed by: 10:30
• favorite sounds: birds chirping, my son laughing OR ocean waves beating on the shore.
• I wish: for our families health and happiness
• What I crave: food - all the time. Damn pregnancy
• Surround me with: My family. They make me happy.

That's it for this week. Another challenge next Friday! Fun fun!

So here's a funny thought for today.

Today I have to go to Livonia for Joey's ear checkup appt. I actually got there early for once. As I was getting Joey down I thought I smelled something foul. A check in his diaper confirmed my suspicions. So I cleaned him up, put the dirty diaper aside and then rummaged around for a new diaper. Looked in the car for the stash I usually have on hand and they are gone. Pull EVERYTHING out of his diaper bag and there are NO DIAPERS! Augh!!! What to do, What to do?!! I have never been without diapers before.

A quick glance behind me I spy target. Put pants on Joey and put him back in his seat and rush over to Target. I put him in the cart and pray that he doesn't pee while we are in the store.

I'm practically running (and it's not pretty because I'm preggo) through the store to the diaper section. I get him diapers, and butt paste for a little diaper rash he has and then rush to the checkout.

Once checked out I run into the bathroom and put a diaper on him. Whew! Crisis averted! He never peed in the short time it took for me to run him from the doctors office to Target and through the checkout. A bet most mommies have been in that situation before!! Whew!!

So anyhow the Dr. said his ears look great. Yay! I'm happy to hear this. The tubes are still in from Feb 05. Good!

Yesterday afternoon I met Melissa (My buddy on the side bar blog) for lunch. She met me at work and we went to Macaroni Grill. We had an awesome lunch and I had a great time! She gave me a bunch of clothes her son outgrew - THANK YOU MEL!! :) Here's a photo of Joey and I playing this new toy she gave us last night. I am pretty good at these type of toys and can usually pound out by sounding out the keys any nursery rhyme. I was doing twinkle twinkle little star, mary had a little lamb, happy birthday to you and a few more! I think I was having more fun than him! He also loved his Thomas the Train puzzle and made Joe put it together for him last night. AND thanks for the mound of clothes for Joey! I'll take ANY hand me downs!

Yesterday evening it POURED here. Bad storms, thunder and lightening. When it would thunder Joey would yell THUNDER! I'm just glad he's not afraid of it.

Those keeping up on the Jimmy Hoffa search (which is happening in my home town) - Here are the latest funniest signs in town:

Old McMaster had a barn - E I E I O!

Hoffa Mile Ahead. Experienced Diggers Wanted!

Welcome to Milford! Hoffa nice day!

and the best - a small store on main street is claiming to be selling 'Hoffa Artifacts'. Not sure what they are selling but there was a sign in the window. What a riot! Joe thinks this is silly but I get a total kick out of the ingenuity of the people who think of these witty signs!

I just wanted to give a shout out to all of you who read my blog and don't comment. I know there are a lot of you because you tell me from time to time you came to my blog. I just wanted to say thank you for reading!!!

Everyone - have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!

About a month ago Joey had photo day at his daycare and these are the results. Actually I was very happy with the photos, mostly because Joey will NOT smile for me when I take his photos! They said the way they got him to pose was with the truck or props. He did such a good job! He's wearing the sweater that my mother knit! Isn't it a gorgeous sweater!?

So anyhow, I wanted to update you on some new 'Joey'isms'. Last night we took a walk around the block and every time he got to a road crossing he would look both ways and say 'No cars'. My not-even-two year old child is already looking for cars when he crosses the street! We've been trying to teach him but he seems to be understanding! I love it but it's sad at the same time because he's growing up SO FAST!

Yesterday we were walking back home and Joe had Joey on his shoulders and Joe kept dropping down and saying 'Pop goes the weasel' and Joey was saying it too! He's saying EVERYTHING!

A week or so ago we saw a rainbow in the sky on the way home by our house. The next day we drove through the same spot and he yells out 'rainbow'. He remembered where it was the day before! Amazing!

He still loves Thomas the train more than ever. I swear every day he's been wearing Thomas the train shirts. Thanks to Nic (see friends to the side)! She sent me a few Thomas the Train shirts her son had outgrown and Joey has been wearing them daily! Ever since we saw Thomas the Train in person, he's been even more nutso about it!

If we go to the fruit market down the street - they have trains that run on rails over the heads of people in the store. When Joey sees a train he YELLS 'HI TRAIN', 'HOW ARE YOU TRAIN?', 'HAVE A GREAT DAY TRAIN'. It's so cute. I think everyone in the store can hear him when he yells it! LOL.

If the cat pukes a hairball on the floor, we've taught him to say 'Silly Cats', 'Puke'. I swear - every time the cat does it, I have a hairball patrol on the lookout! LOL

He loves his new bed. He's doing so well! We are so proud of our little guy!

When we ask Joey if he wants 'some' of something, he'll say 'Some'. It's so cute. Let's say I have some ice cream. Joey, do you want some? 'Some' he says. So cute!

The age of 2 is amazing! I'm sure he'll make the best big brother!

I'm sad. Tonight is the last night of American Idol! We love Chris and was so sad when he got voted off the other night! Augh!

First off the morning started really really weird. It's 9am and Joey is still sleeping. I close my eyes and drift off until 9:30 when I wake up. I'm supposed to be ecstatic my son slept in, instead I'm worried! Joey is STILL sleeping. I walk in his room, yep, he's breathing. Whew! You know that feeling, I better check on my child to see if they are still alive - yep, that was my thought.

I could not believe he slept this long! So I checked my email, cleaned the house, checked on Joey again and again. Joe was so happy Joey slept in because today was his day to get up with him. He said, "Haha, I picked a great day to get up with Joey! haha'. So finally 10:30 rolls around and Joey wakes up. 10:30! My child normally wakes up at 7am during the week for daycare and sometimes will sleep until 8am on the weekends, but sometimes he only sleeps until 7am because of his routine. 10:30? I was still in shock. I figured he was nixxing his nap today. (See photo left of Joey in his cow pajamas that Grandma Char made. Aren't they cute?!)

Joey and I hung out while daddy was outside mowing grass. He was really hamming it up for the camera and actually WANTED me to take photos. How cool is that? He kept saying, 'More cheeser' because I tell him to say 'Cheeser' when he smiles for the camera! He's sitting on his superman chair with his bean bag in front.

I called our friends (Ryan and Sara and baby Hannah (14 months old)) and told them we could be over earlier for their bbq. They said that would be great, come at 2pm. Joey mowed the grass today and I cut some fruit salad for the bbq.

On the way there my boss paged me to dial in, and I told him I would once I got to our friend's house.

To make the long story SHORT - I got paged three different times over a period of 4 hours, and had multiple phone calls with people from work about password resets and our application being completely down. It was unreal! THANK GOD for monitoring! We found out on a Sunday -when no one is in the application that it was completely down and was able to fix it before the business day started on Monday. Whew!

Sarah and I ended up running to the drug store to get benedryl for her daughter because she broke out in hives and no one knows why.

Joey had a great time playing with Hannah's toys (Sara and Ryan's daughter) and playing with their dog Walter (a dachshund). They also had a pretty cool hammock in the back yard that Joey liked to swing on! We had a great bbq dinner - hot dogs, hamburgers and fruit salad that I brought which everyone loved. Hannah is such a great eater - ate lots of hamburger, hot dogs and fruit. So cute!

When we were done we battled the cold 53 degree weather to walk a 1/2 mile to the local ice cream place near their house. It was really good. Once we got back to their house after we walked back, we packed up and left. It was 8 pm already! Where did the time go? We got there at 2pm! We had a great day.

Not even 5 minutes into the car ride home Joey was fast asleep. What a great day to spend with our friends!

Week 25 now! Wow! I can't believe I'm in week 25!

I went to the dr. this week and everything seems to be good. Heart rate was 156. Justin is still kicking away like crazy. In fact the cat is sitting on my lap and I'm surprised the kicking isn't scaring the cat off. It's not even phasing the cat. I guess we'll see when the baby gets bigger!

I feel huge for 25 weeks. The dr. has asked that I go on a 1800 calorie diet (the diabetic diet) and start eating better. Next appt is the gluclose tolerance test and my rhogam shot - ick. For those that don't know - the glucose test they make you chug this pop type substance and get your blood drawn an hour later to see if you have any gestational diabetes. The Rhogam shot is for woman that has a blood type and their husband has the opposite blood type. For instance I have a negative blood type and Joe's is positive. How lucky am I?! - that means another shot. (and then another after I give birth! augh).

The only good thing about having a big tummy is my bust doesn't look so big now. Haha, there had to be ONE advantage to all of this!

Week 25: This week your baby is about 9½- 10½ inches in length (crown-to-rump) and weighs almost 1½ pounds. This week your baby’s heart should be so strong that it may be possible to hear his or her heart beat by placing an ear on your belly. The retinas (in your baby’s eyes) have developed all the layers they will have at birth and your baby‘s eyes are blue, no matter what race because the pupils don’t acquire their final color until a few months after birth. Besides being wrinkled, your baby’s skin is also transparent and very thin, but it’s starting to thicken gradually and smooth out. While premature babies have a long difficult road ahead of them, if your baby was born this week he or she would have a good chance of survival, because of improved medical advancements.

Your uterus is approximately 2 inches above your belly button and you may have gained around 15-22 pounds so far. As you get bigger you may suffer from a number of discomforts, including back pain, because of the strain of your growing belly. Backaches can also be caused by your body preparing itself for labor and delivery by loosening your joints. Make sure you always bend at the knee, not at your waist and walk barefoot as much as possible, avoiding high heeled-shoes. Sleeping with an extra pillow between your legs at night may also help.