Oops!

Have you ever showed up to the airport to check in only to realize that your flight will not be leaving until the next day?

That was Doug and I... yesterday.

REALLY.

We had arrived at the airport in plenty of time and were checking in. Doug typed his frequent flyer number into the machine and it spit back that our flight information was not available. Doug's first thought was that our flight had been canceled, but soon he came to the horrid realization that our flight would not depart until the next day.

Yeah. Doug's dad had already pulled away and his cell phone battery was dead. Expletives were uttered. Not by me. Of course. I was extremely quiet worrying about Doug going postal on the ticketing agent or whichever victim crossed his path first.

It turned out being the lady at Dollar Car Rental. Upon realizing his mistake, Doug booked our car rental online immediately through Kayak and got a discounted rate. We walked over to the car rental counter and it turned out that it takes TWO HOURS for an online booking to make it to Dollar's computer system. Our choice was to wait the two hours or to pay double the online rate. I tried my best to make eye contact with the lady at the desk and somehow relay to her with a desperate look that she should use her words very carefully because my husband was about ready to blow a gasket.

She didn't get the message.

I took our luggage and furthered myself from the counter. Words were exchanged. We ended up paying double the rate. Doug will need to argue with someone else to get his discounted rate.

All in all, it was a $39 mistake with the rental and the gas to fill it up. Not too bad. We got an extra day to hang around with Doug's family. Doug calmed down as soon as we were in the car and took full responsibility for the whole mishap.

We aren't dummies. Really. Two months ago when we booked our tickets, we were originally going to fly out on Sunday morning, but we hesitated and the price jumped so we just booked for the next day. Doug has flown about 4 times since we originally booked and I'll just blame my end on pregnancy brain.

Today, we are flying out for REAL. :) It's a little snowy out there. Hopefully there are no delays!

Progress!

Yesterday, I ordered all the furniture for the nursery! I'm getting a convertible crib with a three position mattress, a shorter dresser that will be good as a diaper changing station, and a glider and ottoman. All for under $600! I'm a little nervous about it all matching. I'm pretty sure from the reviews that the dresser and crib will match, but I'm unsure about the glider. The crib and dresser are an espresso cherry and I decided to go with the cherry glider rather than the espresso one.

I always say that I'm taking this one kid at a time, but I'm hoping to be able to use all of this furniture for our next one if we are blessed once again. During this last doctor's appointment, I talked to my doctor about future pregnancies. She said that I will basically be on some form of hormonal birth control to treat the endometriosis for the rest of my life unless I am pregnant, but that I should be able to get pregnant again.

The nice thing about pregnancy is that it actually TREATS the disease. They've been keeping an eye on my endometrioma during each ultrasound and it's actually showing the improvement that my doctor wanted to see with the Depo Lupron that put me through a temporary menopause earlier this year. So far, pregnancy has been much better than menopause because I'll get a baby at the end!

The furniture will be here in a couple weeks. Hopefully, I'll be able to decide on a nursery color (most likely a light green that is a warmer-ish shade) and paint the walls while the room is still empty.

This will all seem a little more real once I have a genuine nursery set up!

Busy

...doing nothing. I'm at the in laws' house and apparently pregnant women are mentally and physically disabled. I was going to help bring a suitcase (like scooting it on its wheels along the ground) out to the car and it was a little icy. Doug says to me, "I'll take care of this. You were a klutz before you were pregnant. Now you're a walking disaster waiting to happen." I think I may be developing a very slight waddle.

I've been reading Atlas Shrugged since this summer. It is REALLY long and I haven't had time to read since school started. At least it's keeping me busy. I have a belly shot with my book. Leah moves around a lot, so the book bounces around on my belly as I read.

I'm also doing some color scheme things for Leah's nursery. I think of purple whenever I think of the name Leah, but the baby industry has more pink available (which I like anyway) so I think I'm going to go with a pink, green, brown color scheme. I don't really want any bright colors in the nursery because I want it to be a calming place. I found this app called Color Concept by Glidden Professional. It's free and a pretty cool way to put colors next to each other. You basically start with a picture that you like and pull colors out of it. This is my current brainstorm, but I'm not sure if it will end up brighter than I want if I use these colors. I'm also wondering if I'll need more variety than I currently have. Any input?

What else... Last night before I was going to bed, I was thinking, "Today, I'm 25 weeks. That's a little more than halfway! Yay! :) Then my brain realized, Ahh! That means you only have 15 weeks left!" I haven't painted or ordered furniture for the nursery yet, so I guess I better get on that. I HAVE cleared out the room that will become the nursery, so I guess that's something.

All this down time has given me time to think about this big transition I'm about ready to go through. I only have 3 months or around 11 weeks left of teaching which is pretty unreal!

I guess things will be getting pretty busy here in a little while, so I should just enjoy this down time while I have it.

Christmas 2012

Doug and I flew out to Utah to stay with his family this Christmas. We have a rotation where we switch the holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas with our families each year. We have actually stuck to this schedule for the last 5 years that we have lived in Virginia. Unfortunately with a little one on the way, it won't be as simple to just jump on a plane out to Utah. (Doug has a major pet peeve that involves screaming children on airplanes.)

We borrowed the Jeep and spent our first weekend down at my grandparents' house in Provo. I got to see several cousins on my mom's side of the family. My cousin Richard and his amazing wife, Mindy had a party at their new beautiful home. We had a white elephant gift exchange where Doug and I made out with some yummy chocolates and Martinelli's. We had a blast! It was a good thing that we drove the Jeep because we started getting a pretty significant accumulation of snow Sunday night and I-15 can be pretty treacherous.

On Christmas Eve, we made and decorated sugar cookies, exchanged gifts with Morgan and her husband Brad, ate our traditional meat, cheese, and crackers dinner by candlelight, and then drove to see some Christmas lights displays. Morgan crocheted a cute little lamb for Leah's nursery and included a gift card and a mustache pacifier. :)

That night, I had a really hard time sleeping. I was so excited to give Doug his presents!!!! See, my husband is notorious for being able to guess Christmas presents before he even opens them, and I was extra sneaky this year. He had NO CLUE what he was getting!! :)

We did go a little more overboard this year than we usually do, but this is the last Christmas that will just be about us with Leah on the way and my last Christmas for a long while with a full time job since I will be staying home. So, here's the official run down on the Christmas presents this year.

What Doug got Jenny:
-Thai Ruby and Diamond Necklace
-Hand-carved Teak Hope Chest from Thailand

What Jenny got Doug:
-Cherry Display Rack for his Challenge Coins
-Monopod/Walking Stick for his Camera when he travels
-Microsoft Surface Tablet 64GB with Black Keyboard

Doug is much more of a thoughtful person than I, but I think I was able to make him feel special for Christmas! It was a great Christmas, but I can't wait for next year when we will get to celebrate with a little one!

Choroid Plexus Cysts

About three weeks ago, I got the anatomy scan that you usually get around 20 weeks. We were overjoyed and surprised to find that we were having a girl. (I had been thinking boy all along!) I remember back to the ultrasound thinking that the ultrasound technician was being REALLY thorough. Doug and I were in there for almost an hour!

I remember during the ultrasound that the technician kept on measuring these two smallish black spots on the brain, but it didn't alarm me at the time because I know nothing at all about how ultrasounds are supposed to look. They told me at the end of the appointment that results would be back within the week and then I could discuss them with my doctor. I figured if there was anything really bad that the radiologist looking over it would let me know right then, but we were free to go with a smile and a congratulations from my technician.

Fast forward two weeks... I realized that my appointment wasn't for another whole week and I just want to MAKE SURE that everything was okay. I called and the nurse set up a phone appointment with my doctor for that evening. Whenever my doctor called, she seemed confused and told me that she usually does this appointment in person so she can show you the images. I told her that I didn't need the in depth review just yet and that I just wanted to make sure that everything was okay.

She paused for a moment and then said that she doesn't like to talk about ultrasound abnormalities on the phone because her patients usually get really upset. It hadn't even dawned on me at that point that I was the patient she was referring to that might get really upset.

Without warning, she started rambling on about something called choroid plexus cysts. I didn't even realize that she was talking about something that showed up on my baby... I just thought she was talking about some issues that some OTHER babies had sometimes. Then it dawned on me... she was talking about MY BABY. I got a little weak in the knees and started pacing.

She told me that USUALLY the cysts were nothing and that they should go away soon. Their presence is not damaging at all to the baby or her brain and that ALL babies have them, but they usually go away by 20 weeks. The only reason their presence was noted at all is that there is a link between their later presence and some genetic abnormalities (trisomy). EVERYTHING else from the ultrasound was great and that itself was very indicative that everything would be okay. For one thing, babies with trisomy usually curl their fingers and we had several shots of Leah's hands with all five fingers straight out. She told me that it REALLY was probably nothing, but that they were going to schedule a follow-up ultrasound to look again.

She was surprised at how calm I was (more like in shock and unable to speak or react) and said that she would talk to me more in depth in just a week and that they would be scheduling another ultrasound. She made me promise not to do any scary google searches. I promised (mostly because I had no clue how to spell choroid plexus).

I was doing fine, REALLY. My doctor said that there was nothing to worry about and well... She does this for a living, so I had no reason not to trust her. I continued doing fine until Saturday evening when I started worrying. I was talking to my mom about it and suddenly got all emotional. I told her that it didn't matter if anything was wrong with my little girl's brain because I loved her already, but I was worried that it would be something that would shorten her life. I asked my dad to give me a priesthood blessing of healing and comfort that Sunday and I started to feel better.

I had my official appointment with my doctor Tuesday after school. We went over the prior 20 week ultrasound results and everything looked really good besides the cysts. My doctor still was not concerned because nothing else on the ultrasound came up as abnormal. I felt very blessed that there was an appointment the very next day at the ultrasound place, so I wouldn't need to wait and worry any longer.

I went on Wednesday right after school and actually had the same tech as before who was extremely nice and thorough. Leah looked great on the images. She had moved herself out of breech position (which I definitely remember feeling!) and seemed pretty comfortable in a head down position. I talked more with the tech during the scan and before I knew it, she was done and talking to the radiologist. When she came back, I asked her if the cysts were gone. She hesitated at first but then told me they were... and that I didn't hear it from her. ;)

So at this time, I'm especially thankful for good news and for a healthy, active baby girl.

The Name Game

So, our little girl needs to have a name... I've always loved long family names with stories behind them, but I was kind of striking out. I loved many of the names of our little girl's aunts and great aunts, but there are so many of them that most of the names I liked are taken! This little girl will have 9 aunts! Combined with the fact that I've been teaching for 7 years, there were a lot of names put on the chopping block.

Luckily, the one thing that Doug and I have agreed on is that traditional names and Biblical names sound great to both of us. We were set for boy names. I really liked the name Luke Douglas. (and I still plan on using it for any name stealers out there. :P) My dad was already ready to say in his best Darth Vader voice, "chhh, Luke, I am your grandfather!"

Doug has had this mini obsession with Catholicism ever since his site seeing trip to the Vatican about a month ago while he was in Europe, so he put out there that he liked the name Mary. I like it too, but I'm not sure how well I like it with our last name. She might get some "Mary had a Little Lamb" jokes.

Recently, the name that I've fallen in love with is Leah.

Hopefully, I can find a good family middle name to pair it with. Maybe I'll be more sure once we get closer to her due date, but at this point I want to have my options open with a few names. I have this worry that I'll see her and think, "She's not a Leah!"

Now the only question is, do you think Leah will want a pink or purple room???? :)

New Family Treasure

Doug has family down near Richmond that we started visiting more frequently about 2 years ago. When grandma was diagnosed with cancer, she went to go live with Al and Leslie. Al is a doctor and Leslie is a nurse, so grandma was in good hands. Two years later, there hasn't been much of an improvement in grandma's health, but I have been able to get to know Doug's family better through our visits south.

Al and Leslie have several grandchildren and a Al has a very unique hobby. He finds antique woodworking tools and restores them. He has handcrafted several different things, but one of his specialties are cradles that he has made for his grandchildren. I never thought that I would even be considered for such a treasure, but the last time Doug went down to visit (I was unfortunately unable to go.) he came back with this...

A hand-made, custom designed mahogany cradle made especially for us. You can only imagine the all of the balling I did upon seeing this in my living room.

Sharing the News with my Class! :)

I had been doing parent conferences the first two weeks of November and I was hiding my pregnancy pretty well (or so I thought!). I wanted to tell everyone at the same time. About a week or so before Thanksgiving, I had started to show pretty obviously and had somehow made it into the PTO gossip ring at my school. I decided that it was time to tell my class.

I decided that I was going to ditch the loose clothes and go for belly-hugging shirts starting the Monday the week before Thanksgiving. We had our American Education Week activity that Thursday and my plan was to tell my students in the morning, so that they could tell their parents when they came for the activity before lunch.

I didn't really know how to tell a bunch of 9-10 year olds that I was knocked up, so I was hoping that with all the hints in my clothing that week they would be able to guess. We had just had a guidance lesson and the class was settled down pretty well. I started by saying that I had some exciting news to share with them.

Several bounced up and down in their seats and one yelled, "It's Jeanmarie's (one of my students) birthday!" I responded, "Yes, it IS Jeanmarie's birthday and that is incredibly special, but I wanted to share some NEW news with you." Another student exclaimed, "You finished organizing the bookshelves!!" And several smiling heads bobbed up and down in agreement.

I responded once again, "Yes, that IS right as well, BUT this is something NEW about ME!" I look at at my students and see some rather baffled faces. I then turn in profile and start rubbing my obviously protruding belly in desperation. There are some audible gasps in the classroom and I hear one girl whisper to another, "Hey, you're not supposed to say that!!" And then the hands start to gradually go up. I called on one little girl who seemed to have it figured out. "Ella?"

She stood up at her desk and exclaimed, "You're going to have a baby!?"

I answered in the affirmative and then the class erupted!

There were several shocked faces. One kid yelled, "I knew it, but my mom said I shouldn't say anything!" Others hugged one another and ran around giving high fives. Several came up to hug me, and a very few just sat there and pondered it over. It was complete pandemonium. :)

We had a question and answer session for about 10-15 minutes afterward to get all of the excitement out. Several questions were centered around whether or not I would name the baby after them. :) (The class has centered around the names Rufus?!? and Isabelle.) Others wanted to know with sad faces if this meant that I would be leaving them. Luckily all comments and questions were appropriate and there was only a little talk in between two boys about how they would be learning all about it in Family Life Education this year and they didn't want to because it was "disgusting!"

They asked me if I could feel the baby yet and at that point it hadn't been too regular, but I did tell them that the baby could hear them. (I had just read about it on my babycenter update.) They immediately jumped out of their seats waving and started yelling, "Hi Baby! Hi Baby!" Over and over again. One of them asked, "Do you think the baby is learning what we are learning?" Before I could answer, another exclaimed, "The baby must really know their multiplication facts!" They've been quizzing her since. "Baby? What's 0 x 1? Did you hear that? She didn't answer because she already knows its zero! She's a genius already!"

My class this year has truly been a blessing! They are extremely well-behaved and all around good, sweet kids. Now that they know, I find many of them speaking directly to my belly instead of to me, I get hugs from a couple of them with belly rubs in the morning saying, "Good morning Baby!"

It's all very sweet and exciting and I'm glad that I get to share this special time with them.

Good Luck Charm

There is an optional ultrasound that you can get done around 12 weeks called the Nuchal Translucency Test. It is basically a detailed ultrasound where they look at the thickness of the skin on the back of the baby's neck along with other data from blood work to determine the chances for downs and trisomy.

I decided to go ahead and opt for this test mostly because I wanted Doug to be able to see an ultrasound of the baby. There is a very strict window of dates during your pregnancy that they need to schedule it for and Doug had only been back from his travels for 48 hours whenever we had the appointment.

I still wasn't showing too much at this point, but as soon as the tech put the little ultrasound transceiver thing on my belly, I could see a BABY in there with a face and hands and everything!!! I know it's a silly thing to say, but before in earlier ultrasounds the baby looked more similar to a kidney bean than a baby.

The ultrasound tech was great and took her time to show us a lot of great shots of the baby. After a while of her scanning, I said something to the point of, "Will we get to see the baby move?" She replied that she would be waking the baby up in a second, but that she was still taking some measurements. Immediately after the tech said that, but before she jostled the baby, the baby started stretching out and moving around. It was an amazing experience that I will never forget! I hope our little girlie is as good of a listener outside of the womb as she has been inside!

I asked out of curiosity if they could do 3D ultrasounds and the next thing I knew, the tech switched wands and image changed to 3D. I could see the baby's fingers and even her cute little butt! The tech then gave us a DVD with captured video from the 3D ultrasound! Afterward, we went to speak with the doctor who reviewed our results and told us that our chances for downs or trisomy were as low as they possibly could be!

It was a good visit! :)

We decided to go to Capital Grille, this crazy expensive steak place in Tyson's Corner, to celebrate. The waitresses seated us in this awesome corner booth where we could sit next to each other and talk. It was perfect! When our waiter came to the table, he asked us if we were celebrating anything in particular that night and I of course pulled out my long stream of ultrasound pictures. :) Several of the wait staff came by to congratulate us and ooh'ed and ahh'ed over our little baby.

Doug and I usually dine on the cheap if we decide to eat out at all, but this particular night we ordered lobster bisque soup, side dishes, and the tastiest looking steaks we could choose irregardless of the price. We were enjoying our soup and Doug was telling me all about his travels in Europe when we noticed this huge party of expensively dressed execs filling up the party room directly next to us. There was a man nearby talking to the manager that seemed to be in charge of the party that kept on eying our table. I whispered to Doug, "I think he's coveting our table."

Not 10 minutes later, our waiter came over extremely apologetically and asked us if we might be able to move to a different table, so that the overflow guests from the party might sit there. We would have happily moved anyway, but then he said that the gentleman hosting the party had asked if he could pay for our meal to express his thanks. UM YES! We had already accumulated over a $150 dollar dinner bill for just the two of us without even ordering dessert.

..we got dessert. :)

This little girl is my good luck charm!

Here are her ultrasound images from 12 weeks 6 days.

Morning Sickness

I have to do a little backtracking on my blogging because I waited so long to go "public," but I wanted to share a few stories from earlier in my pregnancy.

About a week or so after we found out that I was pregnant, Doug found out that he was going to need to take a last minute trip to Germany for work for the next 5 1/2 weeks! Yuck!

A couple of days after he left, the morning sickness started to kick in. I was really bummed because my mom was one of those lucky people that did not experience morning sickness with any of her kajillion pregnancies. My morning sickness was a slight annoyance at first with just some minor nauseous feelings, but I was surviving just fine. About a week in (the first week of school coincidentally) the "morning" sickness started to get worse. It got to the point where I was puking almost daily in the shower and during my 45 minute morning commute. Luckily at school I just felt queasy and only had to step out of the classroom about a half a dozen times or so a day to pull myself together. I would then leave school ASAP and end up puking on the way home.

It was during this time that I ended up telling my principal I was pregnant because she wouldn't leave me the heck alone over my plans not being done. I was about ready to chew her out, so it was a good thing I told her. :) I don't think that I was necessarily hormonal... I just didn't feel good about 16 hours of the day every day and it made me not a happy or very nice person.

My class was wonderful during this time and an absolute blessing. I was sure they were wondering what in the heck was wrong with me. Sometimes I would randomly stop teaching in the middle of the lesson and walk out of the classroom or just sit at my desk with a trashcan between my legs and ask them to read for a couple minutes. No questions asked. They just went a long with it! My class should be sainted.

My house became a total disaster. I had been forcing myself to eat breakfast every morning, but when I couldn't finish it, I would leave whatever it was on the floor for Darwin to eat. (Here cat, have some oatmeal.) Darwin doesn't even eat people food, so I ended up having an accumulation of eggs and cereal bowls collecting on my kitchen floor! Yeah, haha it was a sight to see! :)

It turned out that the time difference between Germany and the United States was a lot less convenient than Thailand and Doug and I were only able to actually talk about 1-2 times a week. It sucked and I complained a lot. Glad that's over with.

I finally caved and asked for the anti-nausea medication that my doctor offered. It helped take the edge off of some of the sickness and return some of my functionality. I was able to get my house picked up enough to host a dinner with my family for my brother in law, Jon, to visit on his way to the Middle East for 6 months. It really helped me keep the 5 1/2 weeks that I was complaining about in perspective.

It was during this time that I took my first belly shots. The first in the red shirt was at 6 weeks (I think I was probably pushing my belly out in excitement. Haha!) and the other one was around 9 weeks. I also got two early ultrasounds. One at around 7 weeks and then one at 9 weeks to officially date the pregnancy. (When I called to tell my doctor I was pregnant, I could hear her jumping for joy on the other end of the phone, so she prematurely scheduled my first appointment a little early resulting in the next one being only 2 weeks later.) The picture I posted is of the nine week ultrasound. I was fortunate enough to hear the heartbeat both times.

Baby Stuff?!?

I was very hesitant to start looking at baby stuff this time around. Last time, when I had my miscarriage, I had been a big dummy and made a registry the day after I found out that I was pregnant. I kept on getting reminder emails afterward and it was incredibly painful.

This time I waited until I was around 20 weeks to even start looking. Holy crap! There is A LOT of baby stuff...cribs, bouncers, car seats, gliders, changing tables, bibs, strollers... the list goes on and on! I started over Thanksgiving break and was becoming completely overwhelmed. Not only was I concerned about the financial impossibility of purchasing all of these items, but I also wanted to get good stuff that I would need and actually use.

I delved into all of the research and read hundreds of reviews on everything from strollers to baby spoons. I thought I would feel better, but it all felt so complicated. How did women do this whole parenting thing before bathtub rubber ducky thermometers and video baby monitors?

I want a stroller, but I know that I'll probably end up getting one of those simple umbrella strollers eventually so why should I invest in something that is so bulky that I'll use for such a short time? Answer: infant stroller that will work as a jogging stroller. Problem: the one I want is cheaper and everyone talks about how the straps get tangled up in the infant car seat. Is that a deal breaker?

What about getting a breast pump? Oh man, are those things expensive!!! I'll be staying home, but I want to introduce a bottle and allow Doug some bonding time with our little girl. I also think that it might be nice to be able to just take a bottle out in public instead of yanking my boobs out all the time. What if Doug and I are lucky enough to have a date night and my parents are baby sitting?

Do I really need a bouncer, a swing, a play mat, etc? I hear and read conflicting views about how, "The bouncer saved my life!" Or "My daughter was never really interested in the swing." I don't know what my little girl will prefer.

Don't even get me started on nursery colors!

I was at my wits end with baby stuff and about ready to give up on it all when I grabbed Doug's baby book off the top of our bookshelf in the bedroom one morning. I only needed to flip through the first couple of pages to feel better. Doug was a BYU baby and his parents were POOR college students when he was born. They had basically nothing and he turned out just fine!

I don't need to worry about all of this stuff! It will all be OKAY. Any helpful advice about baby things though would definitely be appreciated. :)

I took some grainy pictures of some pictures in Doug's baby book with my iPad, so I will leave those with you.

Paradigm Shift

Right now I'm home sick from school with some sort of cold/flu thing. It sucks. I just want to be able to breathe through my nose again and not feel all achy.

So all of this time in bed has given me time to think. Becoming a mom has been something I have dreamed of my whole life and now at 22 weeks pregnant, it is turning into more and more of a reality. I can feel my little girl moving daily now and I am so excited to meet her in April!

As if becoming a parent isn't a big enough change, I'm now thinking about how my life will be as a stay at home mom. It has been mine and Doug's plan from the beginning for me to stay home with our children. We are not loaded by any stretch of the imagination, but we are really good savers and not very good spenders. These two things combined with the fact that it took freaking FOREVER to get pregnant have allowed us to prepare for this day financially.

I truly do love my job... especially with the amazing group of kiddos I have in my room this year. I'm having a really hard time saying goodbye to the teaching profession even if it only is temporarily while I raise my family. The parents that have asked about next year have all been visibly disappointed when I tell them that I'll be staying home. I expected a bunch of "Good for you's!" and "They don't stay young forever!" Instead I got, "I was hoping you could be (younger siblings)'s teacher." and stuff like, "You have a gift for teaching. You shouldn't leave!!!"

The people-pleaser in me wants to make all of these people happy. I mean, there are tons of GREAT moms that do it every day... work full time and parent. I just don't know if I can be one of them. Teaching to me is more than a full time job. Yes, there is the grading and planning that happens outside of school, but it is MORE than that. I am 100% dedicated to my students each year. They are my life. I think about them when I drive home, sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night worrying about them, and they are usually one of the first things I think about in the morning. Is that weird?

I don't think that I can give 100% to them and still have enough left for my little family. I honestly don't know how people balance it all. If I am going to teach, I want to do it the way I always have. My job makes me really happy most days and is very fulfilling. I worry that I'll miss it terribly. My friends at work tell me, "When you hold her in your arms the first time, none of it will matter!" I've seen huge changes in my friends that have become parents recently and I still think it is the craziest thing. I feel this big change coming in my life and I have no clue how I am going to be afterward.

My plan right now is to work up to spring break which is the last week in March this year. Over the past 6 years that I worked for the county I'm in, I have only taken maybe 2 sick days (not counting this week) so fortunately I have a TON saved up. This will allow me to have a few weeks at home to prepare for our little girl's arrival if she is on time for her April 11th due date. A BIG part of me wants to work up to my due date, but I hate to lose the 30 plus sick days that I will have remaining AFTER I take my maternity leave. Right now, when someone asks me my due date, I tell them the beginning of April. ...darn guilty conscience.

My life sure is changing quickly. I'm gearing up for a major paradigm shift!

I'm going to be a MOM!

For those of you not on Facebook with me, you may not have heard the news.

After years of trying naturally unsuccessfully, surgery, and then other medical interventions, it took just one month of COMPLETELY giving up to it to happen. No fertility drugs, no counting, no temping, no sex... Well just kidding on the last one. ;)

I just wish I would have known giving up worked so well earlier! It would have saved three years of heartache. Giving up for me was the hardest part though. It was the conclusion that I had come to after I realized that I didn't have much fight left in me. My raw emotional state, the monthly roller coaster ride, and the harsh medical interventions I had been going through had all been trying on my marriage and on me personally. I had to honestly accept that it might just be Doug and I and that I was going to have to be OKAY with that.

I do realize that I could not have gotten to this point without my doctor. I also realize that my Heavenly Father had this planned all along for me. I couldn't have planned it better myself! I can honestly say LOOKING BACK that learned a lot about patience and planning and I grew a lot through my experiences.

PLEASE don't let me be one of those stories that you tell your friends who are having fertility issues. "I had this one friend that just gave up after YEARS of trying and now she's pregnant!" Although well-meaning, it does absolutely nothing to make your friend feel better and in fact makes her feel more defective. Just be there to listen and be supportive.

Finding out:

It was Wednesday, the first day of August and I had just gotten back from a day at Lake Anna with my friend Caitlin and her family where I got to do some kneeboarding. (pretty successful kneeboarding, I might add!) My arms were pretty sore still a couple days later, so I decided to take some ibuprofen (I hadn't taken the stuff the whole three years we were trying to get pregnant.) I hadn't done any counting the whole months of July or beginning August, so I honestly didn't even know when I was going to get my period. As I was going to bed a couple days later that Friday night, I started doing some back counting in my head and realized that I was three days late. I made a conscious decision to not get my hopes up and just go to bed.

The next morning on Saturday, I woke up a little before 5 and decided that I was going to test. There were two pregnancy tests in my bathroom cabinet. One of them was a first response and the other was one of those more expensive clear blue pregnancy tests that my friend had given me once she found out she was pregnant. I had decided in my head a while ago that the clear blue one would be the one that I would use when I REALLY thought I was pregnant. I have lost count of how many of those darn first response ones I have seen with negative results.

Anyway, I decided to use the first response one because I wasn't going to get my hopes up and it turned out unmistakably positive.

What?!?!?!?

I started shaking immediately, fell to my knees, and said a long, tearful prayer of thanks.

I'm going to be a mom to my little girl due in April!

Summer, Where have you Gone?

Okay I swear this was the fastest summer on record! I go back to work tomorrow!

I started off the summer by focusing on my social studies textbook and that is DONE.  Turned in and sent to the printers 2 weeks ago.  I sent the lady at the print center a few emails with VERY specific instructions for printing and a cover change color. (from goldenrod to a light yellow)  I'm glad its done and I can't wait to see the finished results.  It should be at the school tomorrow!

In July, I headed out to Utah to visit family.  I spent the first week at my grandparents scanning in over a THOUSAND family portraits. My grandma is big into a family history.  She has four full-size filing cabinets full to the brim of family history.  I'm helping her go digital, but it will take many MANY more man hours.

Here's a picture of Grandma and I about 25 years ago!

  I also had some fun restoring some pictures of some of my ancestors.

These are the before and after pictures of my ancestors the Arnold's.

I scanned in about a kazillion more.  Here are some of my favorites from my family.  Notice how we start to look a little more ragged as the years progress and more kids join the family.

1984 or 1985 (Me as Baby!)

1987 or 1988 (Kate as baby)

1990-ish (Eliza as baby.  I don't even know where my parents are for this picture.)

1991-ish (Chris as baby.  Check out the huge pink ring on my thumb that ruined the whole picture!)

I think my parents stopped sending pictures of the family at this point or they didn't make it into the album that I was scanning, but my parents had two more kids, Shelly and Johnny after this last picture! 

I am going to need to spend more time up there next summer scanning some more pictures because this project is FAR from over.

After a week at my grandparents, we headed over to my in-laws for some rest and relaxation.  We spent a lot of days at their pool, went camping in the mountains, went to a concert, hosted a family reunion, and lots more.

Here are some random pictures from my time there that I took with my new phone.

I admit I was a little obsessed with the chickens!

Fresh eggs every morning! Yum!

New Hair

Lots of pool time with a great view of the mountains at the in-laws

Science Center in SLC

So its seems that summer is officially over. :( I start in my classroom tomorrow and MAYBE this year I'll take before and after shots so you can see how much work it is to set up the room!  Wish me luck!

Dad's Progress on Childhood Home

So I'm blogging from my new phone which I am ABSOLUTELY LOVING. It is amazing and I can do everything on it.
Well the post title says that this will be about my childhood home, so I guess I'll share the pictures that I took today.

About two years ago, my family randomly bought a new house. Now most people when they buy a house, they sell their a old one. Well, not my family. My dad is fixing up the old house so that he and my mom can retire in it. There's nothing wrong with the new house. But the stairs are kinda steep, so he figures it would be better to have a one level house.

The thing that I can't get past is that my dad has been doing this whole project by himself. When I look at it, it just seems crazy. But seeing my dad do this all on his own, makes me feel like I can do anything that I put my mind to like my dad did.

Oh and one last cool thing about my phone. I didn't type a single word for this post. My phone is listening and it's typing for me.

I'm Interesting.. Really!

So I was looking on my camera and I remembered that I've actually done some things as of lately and actually brought my camera.

The first pictures are of a recent camping trip Doug and I took to New Germany State Park in western Maryland. Doug used to go to this campsite as a kid and always talks about it. Now that I've gone, I know why! The park is absolutely breathtaking. We went on several hikes and there were just green ferns everywhere covering the forest ground. We had NO cell phone reception at all, so it was pretty weird being completely cut off from the world... but nice, I guess. I'm still trying to decide if I like sleeping on the ground, but I know FOR SURE that I enjoy campfire food. Whenever we go camping Doug cooks all the meals. The summer he worked at scout camp, he taught the cooking merit badge!

The next pictures are of Brooke and Maggie, the two newest little ladies in my life. Their mom's, Caitlin and Melissa came over and hung out at my place for our weekly Tuesday Girls' Night Out.

The last pictures are of the family room and dinette/kitchen area. I FINALLY, after like 4 years of indecision picked out paint colors that I thought would go well enough together since the rooms border one another. I do have to say that I LOVE the colors, seriously the pictures don't do them justice because it doesn't quite show up as good as it is in person.

Family room

The dinette off of the kitchen painted blue!

These are the two colors next to each other.

Still not done, but it will have to wait until after my trip to Utah.