Friday, March 29, 2013

Count Down to Baby! {2}

Date: 2/17/13

Due Date: We're still estimating around 10/14/13

How far along?: 
We'll still be estimating until we see the doctor on Wednesday, but according to the Bump.com I just finished my 5th week.

Weight Gain:
None

My baby is the size of a:
Appleseed

Maternity Clothes:
No, but I'm going to have to invest in a belly band soon. I'm loosing weight in pounds but all my fat is redistributing to my waist line and my pants aren't comfortable anymore.
Oh the lovely pregnancy bloat!

Stretch Marks:
nope.

Belly Button In or Out:
In. 

Wedding Ring on or off:
On. :)

Symptoms:


I've got them all apparently: Muscle and joint pain/fatigue, exhausted, I have to pee all the time, painful boobs, some mood swings (but not awful thank goodness!) and some indigestion.
On the bright side? I have the best complexion I've ever had! Amen for the Pregnancy glow!!

Cravings: 
none. This is what has surprised me the most so far!

Aversions:
none!

Sleep:
Eh. I'm exhausted during the day but then can't get comfortable enough to sleep at night.

I am loving:
Having this secret between just the two (well 3...) of us!

I miss:
Dr. Pepper!

I am looking forward to:
My first appointment with the midwife on Wednesday next week!
Telling our immediate family!

I'm freaking out about:
Being evasive about the pregnancy. I was asked point blank "you're not pregnant are you?" by a co-worker on Monday.

I'm also freaking out about telling some of the family. After the Doctors visit, we've decided to tell our parents, his grandparents and my brothers at the beginning of 9 weeks (3 weeks away). I'm worried about the reaction from his grandparents at first - they gave us a second honeymoon to Hawaii as a wedding gift. It's been booked for a couple of months now - and of course it's planned for the week before we're due.

Best moment this week:
Realizing that I can feel my uterus when I press down on my stomach!
I know, I know - I'm probably feeling the stretching muscles around it, but it is something clear and distinct that was not there before!

Or - looking at baby things with John while we shopped for our friend Tiffany's baby shower!

Worst moment this week:
Oh gosh, I'm not sure if I'm ready to share that one yet...

Emotions:
Great! I don't feel too terribly moody - not at all like I am when I'm PMS-ing. (John is singing his praises I'm sure)

Milestones:
Another week completed!

Movement:
none.

It's a...:
baby!

Exercise:
Still walking some.

Diet:
Normal.

Goals for the upcoming week:
Figuring out how we're going to tell John's grandparents.
Getting our 8 week appointment scheduled.

Nursery:
not worried about that yet.

Bump watch:


Thursday, March 28, 2013

Count Down to Baby!! {1}

We've got some catch up to do - though we hadn't announced yet, I was too excited not to document everything!

Date: 2/10/13

Due Date: We are estimating that it will be about 10/14/13
(and I'm praying that our wee one really likes staying inside mommy so I can get through the 10/15 tax deadline!)

How far along?:
Again, with estimating because we haven't been to see a doctor, but I believe we're concluding our 4th week.

Weight Gain:
none. I'm down 3.5 pounds

My baby is the size of a:  
Poppy Seed!

Maternity Clothes:
Not yet. But I'm already looking into them!

Stretch Marks:
Nope! John had been joking around forever that when we are pregnant he'll rub cocoa butter on my belly every day. I'm going to hold him to it!!

Belly Button In or Out:
In. (I won't lie, not looking forward to it being out. My belly button is already sensitive to touch, I'm pretty sure that won't be pleasant)

Wedding Ring on or off:
On & loose.

Symptoms:
Maybe it's TMI, but my boobs hurt!

Cravings: 
None yet. 

Aversions:
None! :)

Sleep:
Great! I'm pretty easily tired right now, so I'm out like a rock!

I am loving:
How attentive John is being! 

I miss:
Cokes. I hadn't been really drinking them but I miss the possibility of them.
What you can't have you want?

I am looking forward to:
The first doctor visit.

I'm freaking out about:
Telling people. The doctor, I'm not a big fan of visiting the lady doctor. 
Guess I'm going to have to get over that.

Best moment this week:
The positive test!


Worst moment this week:
I've been cramping pretty badly. It was a great deal of the reason we didn't think I was pregnant before. Now that I know I am it scares me. Laying down seems to help stop them.

Emotions:
Excited. Nervous. Anxious... Excited!

Milestones:
Positive Pregnancy Test!

Movement:
None.

It's a...:
Baby!

Exercise:
We're going for walks each day. Roughly 2 or 3 miles.

Diet:
Normal, minus processed foods and caffeine.

Goals for the upcoming week:
Get an appointment with an OB/GYN. I'm pretty sure that I'll need to find a new one, so that search should be fun.

Nursery:
We won't start on that until we get into a new house.

Bump watch: 

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Living the Journey: Cancelling Hawaii





A picture of Iao Valley in Maui from the Bestie's recent trip to Hawaii


So, we've cancelled our trip to Hawaii for this October.

As I've mentioned before, we were booked to visit Hawaii, Maui more specifically, the last week of September into the first week of October. This trip was a wedding gift to John and I from his grandparents as a kind of second honeymoon. We've known that we would go on this trip this fall for almost 3 years now. 



I have been so excited about the adventurers, sandy beaches, beautiful waters and well heck - everything, because after all it's Hawaii. 

but the reason we're not going is way better than what some old island can offer us!

3 weeks after we were booked to be in Hawaii - we will be welcoming our first child into the world!!




How are you Living Your Journey this week??
I hope you'll join us!

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Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Living the Journey: A Servants Heart

Recently, our pastor has been going through a sermon series on Spiritual Gifts and accepting the talents that God gives us. 

My parents made it a huge priority in life that their children serve the Lord and serve the Church.
Using their talents, they taught us how to use our talents in our service. 

When we were young they were simple projects, my mom taught us how to pull music for the orchestra to help our music minister out.
(Mom is where we got our music talent from)

In middle school I kept up with the music and folders for the youth choir and started preparing the slides to go along with music in church.

Over the years I remember multiple projects preparing video feeds for large funerals with expected overflow. (Dad is quite the techie)

My Mom taught children's handbells and children's choir, my Dad ran sound and video - each of their jobs involved overflow that incorporated the whole family.

Little projects have changed and evolved over the years into larger projects.
For our church's Christmas production, my father and brothers (and some from me) put in hundreds of man hours preparing special lighting, tech and sets. 

The middle brother spent several years on church staff using the talents he learned from Dad and his natural, God-given talents serving the church as the Media and Technology Minister. 

Today the service goes on in many ways - it leads me to wonder if serving is my Spiritual Gift or something I've learned over my life.  
I believe God has blessed me with other Spiritual Gifts, but I think Service is my primary one - not because it was something I was taught and reared in as a child, but because it is where my heart lies. 
When I see a project or hear of a need - I want nothing more than to fill that need. 

Do you know what your Spiritual Gift is?



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Friday, March 8, 2013

The time I woke up to hair...

I might as well come on out and say it, this is a long post - kind of creepy but funny & ironic too.

I am a sucker for the puppy dog face... literally.  Our dog, Pepper was a stray and during the time we've lived in the country we've temporarily (until we've found them homes) taken in more than our fair share of strays. 

A while back, we had two strays staying with us Bella & Sasha.
They were pretty good dogs, but not very trusting. They were definitely not indoor dogs - they hated it inside, which was fine by me... until we had an awful storm come in. There isn't exactly a lot of protection from the elements outside so we coaxed the dogs indoors and pinned them into the dining room/sitting room area where we have cement floors.   How much of a mess could they make on cement floors? Right?

In the middle of the night Sasha starting making rustling noises that woke me up, I open our bedroom door to see what she has gotten into, expecting trash - but no. Surprise! I found hair everywhere! Not dog hair, not cat hair (both a possibility in our house...) but lots and lots of human hair. Long locks of blond and brunette hair of varying shades. 

I freak out, as I am sure you would too!
I inspected it - thinking it couldn't really be hair, but it was - some of it was loose and wavy, the way your hair looks as locks are cut off. While other bits were wadded and compact like they had been inside something.
The storm had passed so I promptly put the dogs back outdoors and tried to get back to sleep, hoping to leave the dilemma of where the hair came from to the morning. 

Of course I couldn't get back to sleep - I laid there with my mind racing thinking of all the places this hair could have come from. All the while in the back of my mind I couldn't rid myself of the annoying chant of "demons, demons, demons" (kind of like when your mind decides to think about ghosts or other things that go bump in the night when you're walking through a creepy, unlit area...).

I woke John to get his take on all of this - but he just looked at me like I was a lunatic "there's hair in there??" and went back to sleep.

Around 4 am it suddenly hits me - the couch!! The previous weekend we had moved a very old couch and chair set into our sitting room area and unfortunately, in the moving process the couch was ripped on one end. When I say very old - I didn't think it would be stretch of the imagination for the couch to be stuffed with hair. And if you've sat on this couch you would probably agree - it could use some work in the comfort department. 

I hopped out of bed, overjoyed to find logical, real answer to the problem (pssh, Demons) - I went in there and poked around in the couch only to find that it wasn't stuffed with hair. Horrible, primitive stuffing (aka wadded up fabric scraps) but not hair.

Discouraged as ever, I returned to bed for a restless night filled with dreams of Satanic dogs and Voodoo dolls (I joke not - I had nightmares like a kid after watching a scary movie I wasn't supposed to watch).

The next day I had John clean up the hair because I was still far too creeped out to touch the broom that touched the hair, much less touch the hair itself.

About a week later, I had chalked the whole incident up to a mystery we would never solve.
I had exhausted every avenue of looking for the source.
Did I have old dolls around that the dogs found & tore up? no.
Was I sure it wasn't the couch?? After I ripped it open more and closely inspected inside, I was assured it was not from the couch.

Then the next weekend we were cleaning house and I moved one of the antique chairs to sweep. Underneath I found more hair (eww...) and this weird scrap of fabric. After picking up the fabric (paying special care not to touch the demon hair), I realized it was the remnants of a Pin Cushion!

Apparently in this antique couch and chair that we had taken from storage (previously belonging to my grandparents), a pin cushion had fallen out of the chair. My Granny believed that using hair in her pin cushions would keep the pins and needles from rusting.  I even remember her using some of my hair to stuff a cushion after a haircut at her house. 

Mystery Solved!! Sasha had ripped up a pin cushion!
I don't think I've ever been so happy to find that a dog had destroyed something!

________________________

Do you have any creepy unsolved mysteries in your life?


Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Living the Journey - This Week

Life isn't all about the major moments and that can be hard to remember.

When we have a major life crisis, or even something as simple as a stressful deadline - all of our focuses tend to direct to that looming matter.

This week though I have more than enough big stuff on my plate, I've made an effort to notice the little things that make me happy and highlight how I'm Living my Journey.

  • - I've had a short lived love affair with Campbell's Chicken Noodle soup! For several days it has been all I am interested in eating.
  • Watching my hubby play softball with a bunch of overgrown children his co-workers.
  • Several days in the last week I've driven by the square in Denton, every time I go by it seems there is this one lady and she is always walking her Standard Size Poodle as she runs her errands! It makes me smile every time I see her! I now fondly refer to her as "the Poodle Lady".
  • Watching my children's choir get really excited and dance around to a new song!

  • Suddenly deciding that life cannot go on if I don't go down the street and get fried chicken and mashed potatoes! Yum, Yum!!
  • Helping my Dad & brother with projects for our church.
  • Paying off a credit card!!


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