9 weeks along

Here is my 9 weeks belly pic.
(please disregard my scrubby pants and the same shirt that I had on last time! When I think to take a picture, I'm usually in my comfy clothes on the couch, relaxing!)





This is why I'm getting to the point where I have to rubberband many of my work pants and some jeans right now! I've got a little BUMP! :)

I've borrowed a LOT of maternity clothes from my friend Blaine and will be going through those this weekend. I'm in a weird stage, because it seems silly to wear maternity clothes, but I am uncomfortable in some of my regular clothes.

I am still so tired. I've started taking Zofran for the nausea and it is helping tremendously. I can actually function in the mornings now and I don't constantly feel like I have to eat or I might die but don't want to eat because everything made me want to gag. That's how I've felt up until this point, so this is a nice change.

Our baby is the size of a grape right now. It is amazing to me how much is happening in our baby's tiny body already. Truly amazing. I love to read updates on babycenter.com about what's going on with the baby. It is such a miraculous thing to have another human growing inside of me and for that teeny tiny little human to be developing so quickly! I love it!

Sick as a dog...

What does that even mean? Sick as a dog? Let me tell you, my dogs have never seemed to feel as sick as I have lately! I must say though that part of my sickness lately came from a nasty 24 hour bug that pregnant people should be immune to. Not nice.

Let me back up though, because I have tons to share!

Wednesday, January 28
Courtney sent his dad and Donna a text message to tell them. That might seem a little impersonal, but it really wasn't. It was meant to be funny and it was! His text said,

We have to remain POSITIVE if we want a playoff BIRTH. It's best if we take BABY steps. We have a lot of JUNIORS on the team.

His dad read it to Donna and said he didn't think this text was meant for him, maybe it was a mass text for his basketball team and he sent it to him accidently. Donna said, "Mike, they're PREGNANT!" She knew immediately. Love it!

Friday, January 29
My parents were supposed to come to town for the weekend to watch one of Courtney's basketball games. We found out on Wednesday that we were pregnant but wanted to tell my parents in person about the baby. So, we waited on pins and needles for two days for my parents to get here. We were also supposed to have our first doctor appt that day. The weather turned bad, snow, and we weren't able to go to our doctor appt. My parents braved the weather and came anyway (thank goodness cause I couldn't keep the baby a secret much longer!). Boy, were they glad they made the trip when we showed them this video:

Make a Smilebox slideshow

As you can imagine, there was a lot of squealing and tears! So fun! Courtney's mom and Carl came to the game and we told her then. She had a hunch and brought us sausage balls to celebrate! HA! She thought the baby might need some food! Really, it's the baby's momma who needs the food!

Monday, February 1
Our first doctor appt was rescheduled for Feb 1. We were so excited and nervous too. We were unsure about whether they would do an ultrasound or not since we were so early because at this point we were 5 weeks along. Dr. Walsh made us promise we wouldn't freak out if we couldn't hear a heartbeat. We had been researching and knew that the heartbeat couldn't be heard til 6 weeks, so we promised. This was our first ultrasound:

.

The baby is that teeny tiny little dot in the middle! No heartbeart at that point. The baby was the size of a sesame seed at that time. I was not feeling sick at all at that time. In fact, I was really hoping for some sickness so I would know all was fine and good. ;)

Shortly after that first appt

I started feeling sick. I am tired all the time. I am STARVING all the time. I'll eat and 30 minutes later, I'll feel so hungry, famished. I have to eat constantly. The weird part is that something will sound good to me and then an hour later, the thought of that food makes me want to gag. I'll crave something and by the time I get it to eat it, I can't stand it. It's very bizarre. Courtney and I were watching a movie the other night and the guy in the movie got sour licorice and then ALL I could think about were sour punch straws. It's all I wanted. I called a neighbor to see if she had any sour candy, cause it was snowing outside (again) and we wanted to avoid getting out. About 10 minutes later, her husband showed up with a bag full of sour candies for me!! So stinking sweet!!

Wednesday, January 17, 2:00am

I woke up and had to rush to the bathroom to vomit. Now, I've been sick and feel like I want to puke all the time, but I never actually do. So I was sort of surprised to feel this sick. I continued to alternate between throwing up or having diarrhea (sorry, too much information...) all night long. Then the fever set in. Oh.my.goodness.miserable. Needless to say, I didn't go to work on Wednesday. I just stayed in bed and felt sorry for myself. That is, after I made Courtney research if throwing up, fever, and diarrhea were going to hurt the baby. at 5am. He wasn't too happy! HA!

TODAY, February 18

I woke up feeling SO much better. Tired and weak but sooo much better. I also had something great to look forward to. We had another doctor appt and ultrasound today! We were extra nervous and excited about this appt because now we are 8 weeks along and KNEW we would hear a heartbeat for sure! Sure enough, we got to hear it! Our baby has a strong, steady heartbeat!! 162 bpm. The ultrasound pics are more fun now too! The lines at the bottom of the first picture show the fetal heartbeat. God is good!! Baby bean is the size of a kidney bean. So sweet.

Regular ultrasound

3-D ultrasound pic

Amazing! Truly amazing!

More to come later. I am going to try not to wait so long in between so the posts won't be so long. I've felt too tired and icky to even get on the computer most days! :) This will pass, I know! And it is WELL worth it!

Oh, and here are some belly pics...

8 weeks

going to have to change my blog name...

CAUSE WE’RE HAVING A BABY!

We are so very excited! I plan to keep up with my adventures in pregnancy here. Take it or leave it, like it or not, I want to document this joyous process for myself. If you enjoy reading about it, then that will just be a bonus! Hopefully I will keep up better than I have been lately!

Here’s how it’s gone so far…

January 27, 2010
I decided to take a pregnancy test because I was anywhere from 2-9 days late. Why the range? Well, my cycle has been between 28-35 days. Those first few months of trying I would take a test on day 28 if I hadn’t started yet. After repeated negative tests for a few months, I decided I needed to stop doing that! Not to mention that my husband put the crack down on that and told me to stop stressing over it. Hmmph!
So, back to January 27…I decided maybe I should take a test. Now, we’d been trying since the end of June, so I my expectations were very low for this test coming back positive. But, that test turned positive so fast!! I wasn’t even done peeing before it showed up with 2 dark lines!

WHAT? No way!! Oh.my.gosh!!

Courtney was taking a nap. Now, I’ve always thought of the fun, far-out ways I would tell him we were expecting. My friend KB said this is the female version of the proposal. They get to announce marriage, we get to announce baby. So, obviously, I had to figure something out! I didn’t have any baby items purchased or anything spectacular, so I used our doggies in my announcement. That just makes sense as they are our first “babies.” When Courtney woke up (yes, I waited until he woke up—I have the patience of Job, let me tell you!), I brought the dogs in to him. Here’s how it went.

Me: The dogs have a question for you.

Him: No, I don’t want to take a walk.

Me: No! Not that. They want to know if you will still love them now that you will be a daddy to a real boy or girl.

He looked up at me so fast, with a look of complete shock and surprise on his face. Man, I wish I had my camera ready to capture that face. Priceless! It was great! But a camera would have been way too obvious…

Him: Are you serious??

So, I showed him this:

Then we spent some time being all happy together and yay, yay, yay! Then he asked if maybe I should take another brand of test to be sure. So, off to the store we went to get more tests! I know, ridiculous! But we couldn’t help ourselves. Two tests later (so 3 total) and I was STILL PREGNANT! Praise God!

January 28, 2010
I woke up and took another test! Just for good measure. You guessed it! STILL PREGNANT!! hehehe

As everyone says to me, “yeah, that’s kinda the way it works.”

That puts our due date at September 28. A fall baby. Ah, I love fall! Now I have just another reason!

:)

Keep checking back for my pregnancy updates. Thanks for taking this journey with me.

All moved in!

We have gotten all moved in to our house and are loving it here! Now that I have internet all set up again, I figured it was a good time to update.

We are all moved in and getting settled. Our house has wallpaper up in the kitchen and bathrooms and so I am working on getting those areas textured and painted. It's actually pretty fun to texture, but I am not looking forward to painting. But, I am trying to use my summer time wisely and get some of it done now. Can't wait for the finished product!

Good news, I got a counseling job!! I will be a middle school counselor at Nocona Middle School in Nocona. It's about a 20 minute drive for me, but it is all highway...but not a busy highway, no traffic at all. It is a super easy drive. I've been to my new office and met with my principal now and am going to take my stuff up there and get my office ready next week. I am so excited, but I will admit that I am quite nervous about working with middle schoolers. Only because my focus has been elementary kids up until this point. But I am ready for the new opportunity. My principal seems fantastic and he seems like he is going to give me the freedom to create the role I want. He has not had a counselor in the past, the high school and elementary counselors have filled the role, so I really have freedom to start a brand new program. That is very exciting for me!

I will post pictures of our new house soon. As soon as I can find the cord to my camera so I can upload the pics!!

We're Moving!!

Courtney got a new head basketball coaching job in Muenster, TX (yes, like the cheese!). Muenster is a little German town near Gainesville and we have heard nothing but great things about it since he started checking into it when the position opened up.

This move is a hard move to make because of the friends we have made here. We've made some dear friends here...but these are people that I know I will stay in touch with no matter where we end up in life.

I must say, it is nice to not be selling a home this time! If you've been reading my blog since our move last year (and since before I deleted it accidentally), you will find that this one will be much less stressful as far as the house goes. I've grown to be okay with, and even really like, our home here in Queen City, but I do not have the attachment to it like I had to "our home" in Sachse. Gosh, it was so hard to leave that house!! I've come quite a long way in a year as far as my attachments to material things is concerned.

So, what about me? I am on the job search for counseling positions. You may also remember last year I said that I was going to trust God and I knew he WOULD PROVIDE a counseling position for me. Then I got anxious and took the very first teaching position that I found. Then many positions opened up in the area, but I was locked in to the teaching position. Well, this year I am going to be still and truly trust God. I'm not even applying for teaching positions. I am looking in Gainesville, Denton, and many, many smaller districts near Muenster. Prayers for my job would be greatly appreciated!

We are moving at the end of June. Our lease is up here July 1. My June is going to be crazy...I am going to Europe with my mom and a group of students from her school for 2 weeks at the beginning of June, then I get home and we leave for Mexico with my HS girlfriends and our husbands for 5 days, then we will MOVE! Whew. I guess I will relax in July!!

So, check back for all those adventures to come!

Worth sharing...

I love this excerpt below. First of all, let me say that I got it off the blog Bring the Rain, which you can get to (if you want) from my blog list. Secondly, I love to pass on inspirational things and this is more than inspirational. This is true love, the kind that we can only receive from Jesus Christ.

This is from a children's Bible that Angie was reading to her children. Yeah, I said 'Angie' like I know her, but I do not know her, have never met her, but feel like I know her heart from following her blog. She would want me to pass this on.

So, enjoy!

They nailed Jesus to the cross.

"Father, forgive them, " Jesus gasped. "They don't understand what they are doing."

"You say you have come to rescue us!" people shouted. "But you can't even rescue yourself!"

But they were wrong. Jesus could have rescued himself. A legion of angels would have flown to his side-if he'd called.

"If you were really the Son of God, you could just climb down off that cross!" they said.

And of course they were right. Jesus could have just climbed down. Actually, he could have just said a word and made it all stop. Like when he healed the little girl. And stilled the storm. And fed 5000 people.

But Jesus stayed.

You see, they didn't understand. It wasn't the nails that kept Jesus there.

It was love.

We are so lucky to be loved like that.

Great Worship, Right Object

I went last night to the Rock & Worship Roadshow featuring MercyMe, Jeremy Camp, Tenth Avenue North, and Hawk Nelson. Can I just tell you that it was completely awesome!!


I remember our pastor at Fellowship Church in Plano (Ed Young) saying that he went to a secular concert and stood back and thought, "Great worship, wrong object." Well, last night there was GREAT worship and the object was completely right. It was so awesome to stand in that arena with thousands of people and see everyone singing out in complete worship of Jesus.

MercyMe ended the night by leading us in singing "I love you Lord" and it took me right back to Kanakuk camp. He had us sing it with no music, and then he stepped away from the mic and walked off stage. We all continued to sing, most everyone with eyes closed and arms raised. Hearing all those people singing together in one beautiful voice brought me to tears. It was a really cool moment of praise and worship. The best part is that most of the people there were high school teenagers brought there with their youth groups and friends. Seeing the worship from those kids absolutely moved me.

I love you, Lord

And I lift my voice

To worship You

Oh, my soul rejoice!

Take joy my King

In what You hear

Let it be a sweet, sweet sound

in Your ear

MercyMe's mission is to make this roadshow a free concert so they can reach more and more people through this ministry. What an amazing goal!

After the concert ended, we saw that Tenth Avenue North was signing autographs, so we got in line. We felt pretty old standing in line, waiting to talk to them, but we just had to! I have their song, "By Your Side" as my ringtone and have for a little while, so we couldn't resist...when we made it up to them, Kristy called me and we played their song for them. It was pretty funny.

We had a great time. It was such a fun night of praise and worship and it came at a time when I really needed it. Doesn't God work that way? Love it!