New Developments

So, the Federal Government has been shut down for a week. 

How does the shut down specifically affect me you might ask?

Well, I am considered to be essential - the one thing that the Federal Government doesn't want is to ever have a lack of law enforcement presence, even if we are not getting paid. 

Nothing proved that more than the incident that happened on Capitol Hill this week where the young lady was gunned down by Secret Service Uniform Division after using her vehicle to pass through barricades and flee through the streets of D.C.

My office had an influx of foolishness as well... 

This explains the mindset right here: 

No Fools, We are NOT!

This week alone I sent away two guys - within one day and I am sure there would be more except unfortunately the Parole Commission is shut down, so my warrants are on delay. 

So I know what you are saying, but they voted to give you back pay!

That means nothing to me! If not anything it makes me more upset!

It just says that those that are HOME on furlough will also get a check, just like those of us who have still been getting up to go to work every single day thus far of the shutdown working for our "essential" IOUs. If anything I would've preferred the week vacation. 

Also, now that doesn't hurry along our funds or guarantee an on time pay check. 

After my pay check that comes on Saturday - by the way, its only a HALF check, we will not get another check nor be paid back until after the shutdown is over.

So each day that passes, morale goes down and we feel more and more like slaves. 

In other news, in the midst of the shutdown, I found out that I am getting transferred out of the S.E. Washington, DC area office. Can we say "AWESOME!" 

No longer in the "hood" and better food options because my new office is actually downtown closer to the U.S. Capitol and Courthouse. I am excited for the new experience but sad that I am leaving my coworkers whom I have created a great bond. 

Also, this weekend, I went to yet another concert at my husband's church that was hosted and produced by the local Gospel Radio Station. 

Kurt Carr, Donnie McClurkin and Isaac Carree were there to name a FEW!

Backstage, Uncle Donnie was so happy to see that me and my husband were expecting. He has been coming to my husbands church for so many productions over the years. He talked to the baby through my belly and told her "now when you come out, please don't hurt anything." I couldn't do anything but laugh! He loves children.. 

Case in point, our good friend brought his 6 month old son to the concert. He was fighting sleep the whole time because there were so many people coming in and out of the holding room. 

Uncle Donnie decided he wanted to tell him a bed time story. 

He decided that acting out Shakespeare was the best way to go.

While we DIED laughing, my friends son actually fell asleep. I think almost out of fear. 

It was so cute. 

At home, I finally got her bassinet up for our room! 

That's one small step because as of right now thats ALL we have complete for her arrival in about 9 weeks.  I keep giving Amos strong hints about what I want him to put together and he keeps dragging his feet... in a minute, I am going to really have to lay down the law to get him to get this nursery together. Even our doctor today laughed at how much we have not done. 

Speaking of Doctor's visit, all is well with Baby Girl. 

Heart rate is normal - I definitely only passed my glucose test by one point, but a pass is a pass. 

She also confirmed that thus far I have only gained 5 pounds this pregnancy. 

I swear it must all be in my FACE!

I feel so pregnant in the face even though at times I can easily conceal my belly. 

I am excited that we are finally in the single digits of counting down the days. 

Also, terrified!

Hope you have a wonderful week!

P.S. I am now experiencing Pregnancy Carpal Tunnel and can't wear any of my rings - who knows now when I can update my blog. But I will make a valiant effort as long as its not painful. 

I.O.U.

 

Yup! This is what an I.O.U. gets you -

As you know the Federal Government has been shut down. I am still perplexed as to why and can point a lot of fingers at the egos that are going back and forth while the American people who work for those "secure" Federal Government jobs (like myself) continue to get the short end of the stick. However, while I am pregnant, I am trying not to continuously stress about the fact that I have already been furloughed 9 days and not making a single dime each day the Government is shut down...

9 days may not seem like a lot - but when you factor how much we get paid per day, you are literally watching about 9 bills not get paid this pay period.

So to my fellow Federal Government Workers, those who are non-essential and won't even get the benefit of the I.O.U. and to those who are essential and are working without an I.O.U. guarenteed to you, just know that you aren't alone... I am praying for us and our Congress. Something has got to give!

I have never had this issue in any other career before and its so frustrating and very hard to stay on task when you really aren't even sure why you are doing something and when you will be compensated for it.

Sigh -

I hope you enjoy your week.

Outstretched!

My husband has been busy for the last solid six months, but roughly ten months, planning a major Worship Concert at his church. My husband and I presently go to two different churches because he is the Minister of Music at one church and I am on the Ministerial Staff of another church. From time to time, I get to support his church and love that they embrace me each time I come with open arms... and put me to work, which is something that I also love to do.   After seeing my husband stress out for several months, I am: 1. Relieved that it is all over and his stress level can come back to normal for a bit. 2. Glad to have him back because when he is planning mode nothing else can really get done. 3. SO PROUD OF HIM!  

Up until the night of, we were not sure how successful the event would be.

You kind of have a vision and soft gauge for what it could be like, but until it happens, you never really know. I think I was just as nervous for him as he was.

But then I knew once I was about to turn into the Church Campus that this was a night that we would always remember. 

Before the concert began, I came out on stage just to get a feel for the crowd, while I made sure that my husband was getting dressed and doing what he needed to do in order to be in the right spirit to minister that night as well as give him confidence in knowing that his staff are awesome at hospitality and that his guests artists were in good hands.

Me and one of the dancers Backstage before the show

Once the concert began and the praises went up!

It was a WRAP! The Holy Ghost moved and we set out what was planned for the evening : to be in pure Worship mode for the rest of the evening.

Here are few more pics from that evening -

 

Now, I can't wait until Outstretched Worshipper's Concert next year!

 

Name Change?

From time to time, I think we all get to that place where you contemplate how as our life is changing, how it then changes what we blog about and how that may change the name of our blog.  For me, this has been on my mind for quite some time. 
Probably because when I first started this blog, I thought that I would be blogging mostly about my new home and the decor as we had set aside a great deal of funds to paint and decorate our home and I wanted to share that, in addition to trade information and tips.  I named my blog Hello, Good Morning Sunshine because it was the first thing I said, the first day in our new home as there is a huge like 5'-6' tall arched window in our home on the main living floor and we live on the sunny side of the street. 
I swear we never turn on a single lamp in our house because its unnecessary, even on a cloudy day.  The first purchase of course was light blocking shades for the bedrooms.  But ummm, yeah - I think I can count the number of posts I have ever written on my home because I have come to realize that decor changes happen in spurts around here since we both work outside of the home with the exception of Mondays. And who wants to do housework on Mondays - I swear when I make lists of things I want to get done, thats when my husband retreats to the basement where his music studio is. LOL. 
Now, newlywed no longer applies. Years later, "new home owner" doesn't really apply.. but what still applies, I am still married to a professional musician where I have to drop all plans to go to random concerts on work nights, I am pregnant with my first child, which I already know will come with a whole bunch of experiences in itself, I still work in law enforcement in the District of Columbia, hmmm ... I still have other aspirations like book writing with a pending book deal and other goals in the forefront that I want to accomplish... 
All that to say, I think I want to change the name of my blog to something more generic and encompassing of ... ME. 
Probably something more simple - because when Baby Girl gets here, since we have no family here - this will be the one place where they will be able to keep up with her ... and us for that matter. 
Le Sigh. 
Lately though, after seeing pictures of what my daughter looks like now, I can't help but to think that she's going to have so many fun daddy/daughter moments. 
Just like this video on YouTube.  I swear this would be my husband and our daughter.  Poor girl kept thinking she was hearing fireworks and wouldn't go to sleep so her daddy did the one thing I know my husband would do..   

Birthdays, Baby Girl and Bump Update

September 14, 2013 was my 31st Birthday (YOIKES!) - I can NOT believe that I am that old. It has not even sunk in yet. I think that I will probably still hold on to 30 (not that its any better) for a little while longer. 

This year of course being pregnant, I honestly didn't feel like celebrating in ways that I would have if I wasn't pregnant. But that doesn't mean that I didn't celebrate at all. I had a great time celebrating this year. 

I spent the day with my husband going to brunch at my favorite diner. 

He took me to get my nails done right after - 

It was only right that since the Football Season just started that I would get my nails done in my favorite teams colors: Purple and Gold for my Baltimore Ravens Baby!

It would later be a pre-cursor to the best Birthday gift my husband could've ever gotten me. 

We travelled down to Annapolis, MD to go try this Ice Cream shop that I had heard so much about. 

Its been voted the "Best of Annapolis" for like the last 6 years even while its surrounded by other ice cream shops on the same block. 

So who better than me than to see what the hoopla was all about?

Hubby had Coffee Cookies and Cream in a waffle cone. I couldn't decide so I went with Mint Cookies and Cream and Coffee Cookies and Cream. Grant it I didn't want to show you just how big my bowl of Ice Cream was. LOL it was kind of bigger than I expected and sadly I ate the entire thing - I was so ashamed. It was totally worth it!

We walked down to the Boardwalk and sat there reflecting as we watched the water and the Yachts go by. It reminded me of my childhood where we would go down to Annapolis to visit my grandfather who lived down there and had a boat. He would take us out on the boat and we would go check the crab traps and go fishing and bring back the catch of the day and indulge. 

Well on Sunday, my Birthday gift from my husband was tickets to the home opener in Baltimore to see my Super Bowl Championship Winning Baltimore Ravens!

We played the Cleveland Browns that day. 

Truth be told, I really thought that there was a chance that we may actually lose this game. 

The turf appeared to be super slippery. Our receivers were not catching the ball to save our life. Our brand new defense doesn't play with the fire that my Super Bowl Champs did so they weren't making stops as quickly as they used to. 

It ended up being a low scoring game, but in the second half my team managed to at least score a few touchdowns while Cleveland was held to two field goals that were kicked by our former kicker. 

And now a Bump Update - We are Officially in the 3rd Trimester! 

28 weeks!

It's like getting to Senior Year of High School ... and I am trying hard not to get Senioritis and start to dread the last days. I want to continue to enjoy it to the very end (probably to prove all the debbie downers wrong even more). 

I got every horror story once people found out I was pregnant and what I have learned is that we really are that much more different. Where someone can only remember the miserable, I can still remember all the good times despite being sore at times. 

So now as she is approaching her arrival, you can imagine that people are giving me the whole "get your sleep now because you won't sleep once she's here" speech. 

That doesn't stand true for everyone. I'm going to pray that when she comes out she gets her nights and days right. (one can pray right?!) Because right now, lately, she has kept me from going to sleep at 11pm with her latest gymnastic routine and then she goes into a straight Floyd Mayweather mode at about 4am. I literally have to rock for her to go back to sleep and then I am up for the next hour... smh I can already see how this is going to go. 

She wears me out I tell you.. after work if I make it upstairs in the house, I just have to lay down to stretch out and hopefully give her more room because thats what it seems like she is looking for. 

I get into my "cleaning the floor" stances in order to help her turn because she is still breech and of course I read some where that would help. We shall see. 

Either way, we did a 3D sonogram - So HERE SHE IS... 

Isn't she a cutie pa too tee!?!

Poor thing is JUST like her momma, even though she looks just like her father - she loves wearing her umbilical cord like a necklace. That was exactly what I did in the womb. I got myself all wrapped up that I gave my mother and the doctor a great scare. I am hoping that baby girl continues to wear it like a Lei instead of getting wrapped all the way around like I did. 

Someone was good and sleep but was smiling the whole time.

She is so funny to me. 

Someone was definitely a sleepy baby and could care less about which position mommy got in, she was still fast asleep. 

She is so anti-paparazzi. She was like Mommy ENOUGH! LOL this little girl is going to be so funny to me. 

So what say you?! Who do you think she looks like?

I would be so tempted to go back in a few weeks, but I am going to sit on my hands and try to be patient until she comes out so I can love on her even more. 

But I can not lie, seeing what she looks like has definitely made more excited than EVER!