Match Day and Pregnancy #3!

I know I haven't blogged in so long, but really I have been so busy/worn out with so much to post about that every time I thought about sitting down to blog, it seemed like such a daunting task that I talked myself right out of it. We'll see how it goes today...

Firstly, I must tell those of you who may have heard a rumor going around that yes, it is true. I am pregnant with my third child. I am almost 11 weeks pregnant now (due in October), and so almost out of the sicky/exhausted/blah phase, YAY! We really don't mind if we end up with a boy or girl this time. After all, if it is a boy, we are set with boy stuff. If it is a girl, YAY! One of each!

With both Jackson and Samson we battled to the bitter end to agree on a name we both liked, but we have already decided that if it is a boy, he will be Anderson (Andy) and if it is a girl, she will be Allyson (Ally). Middle names are not completely decided on, but right now, it looks like James (my dad) and Anne (both my grandmas). We are VERY excited to welcome our new addition! One of us is VERY MUCH NOT excited to get fat all over again and have to bust it to get it all back off, but...as I tell Jackson when he has to do something he doesn't want to "This is just what we do," and I am willing to do it. By the time Baby #3 is here, Jackson will be 4 and Sam will be 2.5.

We moved Samson into Jackson's room last weekend. We broke down Jackson's bunk beds and made them into twin beds. Sam is very excited to be sleeping in a "big boy" bed and in the same room with his brother. Jackson is equally excited to have a companion. Sometimes they are a little TOO excited, and no one gets ANY sleep. :) Since Jackson was starting to not nap during the day, we extended his bedtime to 8:30-9, and we put Sam to bed alone at 8:00. This seems to work for bedtime, but naptime has been another story. On the weekends we do the same thing - put Sam down first since he usually falls asleep quickly, but during the weekdays when I have my preschoolers, this is a little tricky. I'm still working on a solution. I don't want to confuse Sam by putting him in his crib sometimes and big boy bed other times. And some days Jackson just plays around in his room and wakes Sam up.

The biggest news for us lately is that we found out that Ben matched to a residency program at his second pick. This is wonderful because a lot of times people match waaaay further down their preference list. For us, this is especially awesome because our second pick was to stay here in Fort Worth so we could stay in our house and that is what we got! Ben signed a contract with John Peter Smith, the Tarrant county hospital in the Emergency Medicine Program. He works 8 hour shifts, gets a great salary, and full dental, vision and health insurance paid for the whole family! Plus we have saved a bundle by not having to sell our house in this economy. I am excited because our house has PLENTY of room for us to grow into, and I was worried that if we sold our house, we wouldn't find a house with even half as much space for what we pay now. Ben finished his last day of rotations today (!!), so now he is done with all school work until he starts his residency in JULY! He has 14 weeks off to do whatever he chooses! He is so excited because how often has he had ANY time off in like the last 7 years that we have been married!? (Not often.) He graduates in May, and he will be Dr. Benjamin Blake, D.O.!! I can't tell you how proud I am of him, and how excited I am for our family!! In three short years, he will be finished with residency and we will be free!!! Free of school, free of being broke (except those pesky student loan payments), free to live wherever we want to, free to go on vacations, FREEEEEE!!!!!

When we moved to Texas when we first got married, I taught 3rd grade and Ben was finishing his undergrad at UNT in Denton. I knew we'd be here for those 3 years, but I never expected that we'd only be moving 30 minutes South to Fort Worth for another 4 years for med school and then get to stay again for another 3 years for residency. This is unheard of for med school/residency! We will have been in basically the same area of Texas for ten years! I love it! I love Texas. I was born here, and I'd be perfectly fine if we never moved out of Texas! (Of course, Ben does NOT agree...)

On March 5, Ben and I celebrated our 7 year anniversary. Wow, it has been a wild ride and so much has changed about our family and our realtionship. But I can honestly say, there is no other man I'd rather be attached to in this life and for eternity. We are so blessed!