First Trimester

I'm a couple weeks past my first trimester so it's about time to share my thoughts.  And I promise not to talk about just my pregnancy on my blog.  It will be a good majority tho, so sorry if you are uninterested.

Have you seen the movie What to Expect When You're Expecting?  Well, I LOVE that movie!  And basically I am the uncomfortable blonde in the movie.  You know, the one with all the annoying problems.  Unlike the step mom who floats through her pregnancy with an energetic glow.  Not me.  My two main thoughts throughout this pregnancy have been THIS SUCKS, and, to quote the movie, "Making a human being is really hard" with tears in my eyes.  

I cannot deny the fact that the only good thing to come from being pregnant so far is the fact that I am pregnant.  I wanted this, and I am super excited, don't get me wrong, but so far this sucks.  My symptoms include nausea, acid reflux, headaches, possibly heartburn (although I don't actually know what that is), exhaustion, weakness, muscles spasms, backne (from the movie), tender breasts, and an uncomfortable bloated stomach feeling.  Let alone my fat new look.  It's hard to describe how it really feels, but it is mostly like the day after you have the flu, when you are simply weak and tired and still feel sick.  Or possibly being punched in the stomach but it's all over your body, or carsickness.  But it's 24/7, and worse at night.  The worst part is that it won't get better in a couple days, it lasts a couple months.  So I just have to bear through it.

I have not worked out, or cared what I ate, or really cared much about anything.  I hardly left the house for 2 months.  I still don't know if work was a good distraction or if it just made life harder.  But all I can say is that January and most of February were really hard months.  And I really hope this lets me have an easy baby lol.

I am 14 weeks now and it's starting to get better.  Yesterday I didn't feel sick until dinner!  I was able to enjoy going out and going shopping.  Bought my first maternity jeans, which are awesome!!  Very comfy and cute.  I think I will be wearing them for Thanksgiving from now on.  :)  I hope things just get better from here.

If you haven't seen this movie, you have to see it.  Whether you have kids or not, it's hilarious.

What I Would Tell My 23 Year Old Self

Well, there are a lot of things I would tell myself at 23; newly married, just graduated from college.  Like:

• Working full time is hard, there will be less time to run errands and meet people for coffee
• But the free time at night to do nothing but watch TV will quickly get old, so pick up some hobbies
• Sometimes a degree doesn't mean as much as you thought it did; it better be a degree that's useful
• Remember to keep doing little things to show your husband you love him
• Balancing work, school, and marriage is hard for him too
• Don't forget to keep in touch with your friends.  Just because you're married doesn't mean you can ignore everyone else, even if it was on accident
• Let your husband be himself, let him be free to do what he enjoys, not always what you both agree on

But these are not the main reason for this post.  What I really want to talk about is not to continue waiting for your life to begin.  Don't wait till you are done with college, wait till you have a baby, wait till you get the job you always wanted, wait till you have more money, etc.  My husband has just over a year left of school, we are about to have a baby, and I will be quitting my job in May.  I will be closer to the life I was always waiting for.  I'll be in "the SAHM club."  But now that I look back, I spent the last 3 years just waiting.  Nothing else.  I accomplished a lot and still had fun, but I was always just waiting for real life to begin.  

"Real life" is such a silly term.  What does that really mean?  Life is life.  It's always real.  I don't know if everyone feels this way sometimes or if no one does, but I did.  Maybe that's just part of what happens when you are married and still trying to get through college.  I remember waiting till I could go to high school, then waiting for my first boyfriend, then waiting to graduate college, and waiting to get married.  I guess there's been a lot of waiting for different stages.  So no matter what stage you're in, it's best to just live it up.  Easier said than done, I know.  At the same time, I know that hope for something in the future is important.  It helps us get through what we need to.  Hope should never be taken away.  But wasted time is not going to help anything either.  So there's my two cents, younger me.  :)  

The Big News

The moment I had been waiting for had finally come!  Glen and I had started trying to get pregnant; which is a somewhat more complicated and annoying process than I originally thought.  The previous month I started having tons of symptoms, thinking I was pregnant.  Plus I was 8 days late!  I knew for sure I was pregnant.  I planned to call the doctor the next day to set up an appointment to make sure.... The next day I started my period.  :(  So when the next month came and I had absolutely NO symptoms, I figured this wasn't our month.  I decided I would take a test if my period didn't start before Saturday.  Saturday was also Glen's birthday and I just thought that would be so awesome!  But I still didn't think I was.

On Saturday morning I got up early to take the test.  I wanted to do it before Glen got up and had to go to work.  I had 1 test left, I took it, and it was a dud!  Ahh!  Seriously!?  I had heard that you can actually use ovulation strips to test pregnancy too, so I took a couple of those and both lines showed up strong....  Hmmm, now I need to get a test!  I ran to walmart, still in my PJ's and glasses!  Haha.  I got the test and ran back.  I hurried to use it....  and ta da!  It was positive!  I couldn't believe it.  Especially because I hadn't felt different at all.  So I quickly got my little display ready.  Yes, I had this quite planned out.

Glen woke up and I showed him the display and said Happy Birthday, you're gonna be a daddy!  Or something like that.  He was super excited!!!  Yay!  Best birthday present ever, he said.  Then I had to just keep it to myself for a month or so.  That's the hard part.  And I took another test the next day just to make sure.  For a while it would be our little secret.  :)

I just had to get that book to tell Glen.  Plus we love Seinfeld.  But after I got that book, I read it, and I'm not a huge fan. And that onsie is a 6 month onsie, so it's a little big.

The more faded line is actually the test line, so yeah, we're definitely pregnant.

We're due August 20th.  :)  I am not looking forward to the hot hot summer in Yakima.  Ugh.  But we are very excited.  I just want to start feeling better now.

The Meaning of Christmas

Everyone remembers Christmas's as a kid, when all we thought about was presents.  Seriously, I remember not wanting to have to get through the "boring" parts, so that we could open presents.  We would have to wait until a certain time, that my mom told us was acceptable, to wake her up.  Then Christmas would begin!  I couldn't sleep because of excitement.  But I can't lie, I still get probably just as excited, but now it's for somewhat different reasons.

I absolutely LOVE watching my loved ones open presents that I pick out just for them.  I love finding the perfect gift, and cannot wait for them to see my handiwork.  Sometimes creative, sometimes not.  I love seeing what other people get.  I love seeing what people pick out for me, not so that I can get something but because I love seeing what others think looks like me.  It's sweet.

I also love our Savior!  I love that I have a relationship with Jesus Christ and I love that I can talk to him whenever I want.  I love that he died for us so that we can have eternal life and live with him again.  I love that God was willing to give the most precious gift of his son for us.  I am grateful for the perfect example Jesus was, and the goal we can work towards.  He is my redeemer, my salvation, my comforter.

Sharing all of these wonderful things with family means everything to me, and that is why I love Christmas time soo much.  It is a magical time of year.

Merry Christmas to everyone!!!!!

Thanksgiving 2013

I had a feeling that this blog would slow down.  I think it's because I still haven't decided if I want to be a post all the time about anything person, or a rarely post, only for special events type of person.  Whatever tho.  I think it's becoming an only post about special events blog.

It was Thanksgiving last weekend.  Yay!  I really needed a break.  My mom, step-dad and sister drove up from Arlington and my brother and sister drove up from Rexburg.  So we all met in Pullman.  Easy for me.  My grandma is still here so we all chilled at her place.  

My grandma didn't want us to have to cook (and make a mess in her kitchen), so she decided it would be easier to all go out to eat somewhere.  We got reservations at the University Inn in Moscow.  I think we were the only people under 60 there.  It was good, but since I'm a relatively picky eater, it was not my style.  Actually I don't really like turkey...or ham...or stuffing...or yams.  Appetizers, yummy drinks and dessert is all I really want haha.  Plus, it was a little weird not spending the day cooking with your family.  It almost didn't feel like Thanksgiving.  But we were all together, and this gave us more time to spend with each other. 

We decided to take family pictures while everyone was here.  Sweet!  I've been telling my mom that we should all do photos for a while.  It's been 10 years!  The last professional photos we took (other than weddings) was when I was in 9th grade I think.  It was time.  So we spent a day scouting out locations.  I brought my camera and we got some ideas.  The photos we took actually turned out pretty good.  Jessica Damstedt agreed to take professional photos for us, even tho she is 38 weeks pregnant.  She did great!  She made us feel relaxed but still directed us.  I cannot wait to see them!  We didn't have long to take them because Glen worked on Friday and Saturday so we had to do them during his lunch break.  But it totally worked out.  :)  Below are just the pictures Glen too with my camera while we were looking for locations.

The rest of the weekend was spent watching The Middle, playing Bunco, and black friday shopping.  We are not crazy black friday people, but there's not much to do.  And black friday is not that crazy in Pullman, especially when you go at 1 in the afternoon.  Old Navy was 50% off everything in the store, but the line was an hour and a half!  Yikes.  We got a lot of good deals, and I'm about 85% done with my shopping.  Pretty dang nice weekend.  And only 3 weeks till I see them all again and have 2 weeks off work!

Nature

There is so much beauty in life,
Beauty in the human soul,
Beauty in the heart and in the mind
Of the good man and woman.
There is beauty in nature,
Beauty in the sky and in the clouds,
In the mountains and in the sea.
There is beauty in the creative work of man,
Beauty in true friendship.
And immeasurable beauty in love.
All God's blessings
To delight us in this world. 

Emmy Nielsen Reyes de Gaspar

The visiting teaching message this month is on beauty, the beauty of this great Earth.  It's amazing to behold this earth.  Fall my favorite, as it is many people's.  It is unreal how beautiful it is in Pullman right now.  We talk about it at work basically everyday.  The leaves are turning from green to yellow and red.  The air is crisp but the sun is shining!  Coat and boots weather.  Yes!  When I was on my run this morning a single leaf floated down and landed on my hand.  It was a simple reminder to me that God is watching me.  Not just the whole world, but ME.  He knows my pains, my happiness, my dreams.  And he wants the best for me at all times.  I am grateful for everything that Heavenly Father placed on this Earth for me to enjoy.  If only Glen and I could have a day off together to take pictures.  Someday I look forward to having regular days off together so we can do things like take pictures together in a beautiful location.  At least we are planning a date tonight when he gets off work.  

Improvements

How do people work full time and still do everything else??  I know I still have hours after work to do things but it just seems to go by in an instant.  Between working out, dinner, errands and cleaning, it takes up all my time.  To counter that, I also feel like all I do when I'm home anyways is watch TV.  Here are some of my goals to accomplish outside of work:

• Keep the house clean, not uncluttered, but actually clean.... at least never let it get gross, haha.
• Apply to grad school
• No TV 2 days a week
• Read more
• Laundry once a week, even if it doesn't look full
• Go to more social activities
• Not get caught up in "my plans"
• Lighten Glen's burden
• Make homemade dinner once a week. lol  (Glen's the cook, not me)

Please say that other people have these basic items on their to-do list.  I really want to stop saying that I will be better when I have more time, when I'm a stay at home mom.  Ha!  I realize that this might be totally unrealistic.  So, I've decided to start working on these things before I'm done working outside the home.  

Besides, I have finally realized what people mean when they say good job to me, for being a wife of a student.  What's the big deal?  I'm not the one doing the work, it has nothing to do with me.  But now I see that all his stress and work rubs off on me.  His hard weeks become my hard weeks.  Therefore, I need to step things up when work gets hard for Glen.  That's how I can lighten his burden.  :)  Someday both of us will have less to worry about.