Thorns or Flowers

As promised, here is a picture of our little one!  Isn't she cute? ;)

Not only did we get to celebrate knowing who our little one is, we also got to celebrate being married for our first year!  Wow time flies!  

One of my counsellors has been married for 21 years and she made an interesting comment that made me think.  Right now, most of us are dreaming of our future.  Where will we be?  What will our children be like?  What will we be doing?  What have we accomplished?  She and her husband were married here (Gold Coast) and then moved to the Cook Islands to where she was from.  They only recently moved back and she finds it interesting to be living in her "future."  Once we get to our future, will we be excited that we're there?  Will we have gone through life loving every minute, or always dreaming of the next step?  It is so easy to think, "Once we have a bigger place, we'll be happy."  "Once we have the perfect jobs, we'll be happy."  My guess is that happiness will continue to elude us until we figure out how to enjoy the little things around us.  I'm not going to lie and say that I enjoy my challenges in life, but I can at least hope that I've learned something that will make my life richer and deeper.  I also hope I learned enough that I won't have those particular challenges again!  

So, after a year of marriage, is it all I ever imagined?  No.  Was it as hard as I thought it would be?  Harder.  Have I enjoyed every minute of it?  No.  Who ever made marriage out to be a 'Happily Ever After' *cough Disney cough* must have been living in their own fairytale.  However, along this trail surrounded by thorns are the flowers that can be simply overlooked by all the scratches and dreariness, or they can be focused on to see the happiness surrounding us.  Flowers like spending an afternoon running in and out of the waves to collect rocks while trying (failing) to keep our pants from getting wet.  Coming home from an evening of meetings to find the dishes done and the house cleaned up.  Curling up together under a blanket to get warm and falling asleep.  Phone calls asking if it's okay to buy me something.  Almost giddy excitement whenever dinner happens to be meatloaf (I make one killer meatloaf).  Being told it's a girl (notice the flower on her head?).  No matter what we do, life will continue to be its trail through thorns with scratches here and there, but the great part of marriage is that now there is someone else to help point out the flowers if we might have missed one along the way.  Some day I hope it will be like a rose bush, where the thorns are forgotten, or at least completely disregarded, and the flowers be the complete focus.  Maybe that's why roses are such a symbol of love.  There are always the thorny parts, but the beauty makes it all worth it!

And for my very own reminder.......

 

Thank you, Love.  It has been a great year through it all.  Looking forward to a life full of roses!

Sore Belly

I'm not the biggest fan of ultrasound technicians anymore.  After almost 2 hours of poking and prodding, slathering and poking again, I feel like my whole stomach is bruised!  Hopefully baby didn't mind too much.  Oh wait.... did I say baby?  What I meant was Charli!!  We are indeed having a girl. :)  Took her a while to get over the shyness, but she cooperated in the end and let us know who would be joining our little family.  We'll get the pictures on Monday, so I should be able to post her little profile then.

Beware of Steam, You Will Get Burned

This last week has been interesting.  I've had a few really really bad days, and a few really really good days (yay!!!).  However, mixed in with my own physical state have been little things nagging at me mentally and emotionally, so warning: the vent has been opened to release the pressure.


First, the most common comment I have received during the past week is along the lines of, "Wow, when did you get so big?" or "You're really popping out now!"  Although I'm sure these statements are all meant with the sweetest intentions, they do tend to grate on my nerves a bit.  For one, yes I am pregnant and will continue to "pop out" until the baby decides to make its entrance.  For two, thanks, I didn't notice on my own and appreciate you pointing it out to me!  Okay, so maybe a little harsh, but I do realize that I'm getting larger with each passing week.  Some of my loose fitting clothes don't even fit anymore, so that's a pretty big clue.  Oh, and I do look in the mirror on a daily basis.  Even full length ones as our closet doors are mirrors.  I'm at the point where I do realize I have a baby growing inside of me, but I feel more on the getting fat side than the miraculous growing a baby side.  I've had to start going through my clothes and putting aside some of my favorite things that no longer fit.  And to go along with that, I've had to look at buying maternity clothes.  If you're trying to live on a budget and can't afford to spend $100 on a shirt and $200 on a pair of pants, you will be wearing a mu-mu and sweat pants.  Great, not only do the clothes I love not fit, but I will look and feel like I'm wearing a tent for the next 5 months.  *To keep myself in line, I will be making some shirts that I found online that I think are super cute (hope they turn out so I don't spend $100 on one!!) and I just bought a pair of comfortable, but not lounge type, dark grey maternity pants that are kind of normal/cute*  Oh, and the next person that mentions that I'm waddling before I get to at least 30 weeks will probably not appreciate my response to their "well intentioned" comment.


Next, although EVERYONE notices my belly now, I personally have regained my invisible status.  I'm sure people are a little tired of me responding that I'm still sick whenever they ask how I am, but guess what.  I think I'M a little more tired of it than YOU, but I still appreciate it when people genuinely care about how I am doing.  I'm sure this is a bit on the selfish side, but I want people to care about me before my life becomes my baby's, and there isn't a whole lot of time left for that.  If someone asks how I am doing, (or going as they say here) I may respond that I'm fine or that I'm still sick depending on the day/person asking/sincerity of the question/etc.  However, when I get asked how my belly is instead, I may start responding with the exact measurement of that day, amount of gas cramps, or what I've eaten so far.  Those must be the details in question, right?  


Finally, to go along with my invisible status, (just on a different tangent) I believe I still have the same name that I had before I was pregnant.  ***Disclaimer-some of my best friends and family members may fit into this category and I have NO hard feelings towards any of you, so please don't take it personally.***  I realize that major events during life's course cause nicknames to pop up, and said nicknames tend to disappear once the novelty wears off.  Examples would be the Graduate, Newly Weds, Greeny/Newbie, etc..  We are all typically fine with these nicknames for a short amount of time, but would prefer for the novelty to wear off a little quicker than it sometimes does so we can get back to our real names.  I'm sure most are familiar with the names most prevalent in a pregnant woman's life, but my main two are Mummy-to-be and Prego.  Now, I do resemble those remarks, so to a point I don't mind.  My only complaint is when these nicknames become more dominant than my given name and my physical state becomes who I am.  I am pretty sure that last time I checked I wasn't in elementary or jr. high where Fatty, 4-eyes, Pimples/Zits, Baldy, Shorty, and the like became the person's identity.  I'm sure there are plenty of other names that I could be called that would be worse, like stretch marks or cankles, (don't have either yet thankfully) but if you feel so inclined to use my name versus one of the nicknames, I guarantee it will be taken as a more sincere interest on my behalf and a welcome breath of fresh air.


Now, on a more pleasant note, Prego would like to share a glimpse of the "popped out" belly of which she has recently acquired.

HAPPY 18 WEEKS!

Food, Glorious Food

With the wonderful condition of being sick almost endlessly, *seems that way anyway* Blake and I don't get to go out much.  By the end of the day, the last thing I want to do is move from my comfortable spot on the couch and go navigate my way through jostling people.  However, for Mother's Day this year I managed to convince Hubs that as I have a growing baby inside me, I deserve to get some special treatment.  And, lucky for me, the day before Mother's Day I actually felt mostly decent and could go out.
Now, in the raging free spirited artistic loving realm that is Utah...*quilting, etc. not included* .. there aren't many novelty food hot spots.  Yes, I love my Leatherby's and Iceburg and the likes, but it's just not Quite the same as Max Brenner.  Now if you're lucky enough to frequent Philadelphia or Broadway in New York, then perhaps you have seen a Max Brenner!  Have you ever stopped at one?  I have passed the one here quite a few times and never really felt the desire to go.  You see, the novelty that is Max Brenner is chocolate.  I might offend a few of the female kind by saying that I would prefer some fresh fruit to chocolate, but the last thing I have on my mind is eating anything of the processed sweets category.  However, it is a very 'hip/cool/in' place to go, so we decided that would be my Mother's Day treat.

Mine

Blake's

   Um.... yeah it was good!  I probably couldn't have downed my belgian waffle without all that fresh fruit, but it was SO good.  Blake's was a chocolate souffle that was so rich he had to keep stealing my fruit to help it go down.  Now that I've gone, would I go back again?  Unless baby starts craving some serious chocolate, I'll stick to one of the dishes that has something other than chocolate as it's base and add some fruit for good measure, but yes.

On another food note, I have gotten a little sick of the pop and pour dinners that are pretty common around here, *Hubs has been doing the cooking and it's one of the quickest meals to prepare so he can get some school work and contract work done* so I challenged him to make me something from a recipe instead.  I personally think he enjoyed creating something like he did.  Maybe I'll get recipe meals more often?

Dinner last night

Up close

It was prosciutto wrapped lamb with mozzarella, sweet potatoes, and garlic bread.  First time I have really had a meal with lamb or prosciutto and it was pretty good.  I'm not sure he's making me want to get back into the cooking shoes if he can pull out some dishes like this one. :)   I think we'll have to start taking turns once I can stand the smell of cooking again.

*Sorry for the camera phone pictures.  We wanted to eat and didn't want to try and find the real camera.*

Say Cheese!

Alright, it's picture time!  Taken at 14 weeks, I know that I have a long way to go still, but sometimes I feel big even now.  Then again...

Look at me from the side.  Do I look different to you?

See Nat.  I TOLD you I was jealous...  Okay okay, so maybe I don't quite look this far along.  Not yet anyway, but someday you'll see a picture of me pretty similar to this!  However, I do look a bit more like...........................................

...............................................

................................................

This

Then again, maybe this is just my good side and it's all just an optical illusion! .......  er somethin'.  Not too much of a baby bump goin' on quite yet, but some days it sure seems bigger than others.  I'm hoping for a basketball baby, but I guess we'll see in which directions 'Out' decides to go.

Can You Hear Me?

"Baby, baby, I can hear your heartbeat.  You're the one I love..... you're the one I love."
Yup, I heard the baby's heartbeat this week!  Blake wasn't too happy that he wasn't there for it, but maybe next time. :)  Seeing baby in the ultrasound was amazing, but hearing the heartbeat was even better.  I even heard baby flop around a little bit; made some funny noises even though I still can't feel it.  Only a couple more weeks now though and I should be able to!  It will be 14 weeks this week and I can't believe how fast time is flying by. Let's just hope that 15 is the magic number for the lousiness to be gone...

On a different note, our ward council had to host the stake's youth dance this year.  Primary and Relief Society were put in charge of the food/couple activities to get to the food.  For a fairytale theme we had some fun ideas, but after a few budget cuts, we ended up with some really really good fruit.  Mmmmm fresh pineapple...  SO GOOD!  The decorations were awesome too.  However, on to the point of putting this in the blog.  One of my counsellors and I were put in charge of the activities, so we had pin the lips on the frog, quiots (ring toss), and about 30 fairytale questions for the kids to answer.  The best part of all, we are both at the same point in our pregnancies!  Luckily she's been mostly hit with just the energy loss, so we didn't have two sickos trying to keep it up all night.  Chairs came in very handy though and we got to chat the night away about our ever changing lives.
Question.  Since when did the youth get so big?!  It may be that we were trying to think we were way past that stage in life, but some of those kids...  However, the youth go to the dances up until they are 18 whereas the region dances back home you stopped at about 16.  Ah well.  But, as this was a fairytale theme, some of the kids did dress up.  One of my favorites (2 girls did this) was a glowstick fairy.  These girls used lots of glow sticks and connected them into rings and then used something like velcro or laces or something to space and connect about 8 rows of rings as their skirts and then had glow stick antenna headbands and wings.  They wore all black underneath, so it looked really cool.  As a leader I was supposed to dress up as well, but didn't want to go all out as I had very little energy/desire to do so.  So, peasant look for me!  Every fairytale has peasants doing the royalty's dirty work, so I figured it would count.  Now, I've worn this outfit before, just in a different way to make it normal.  For one, the skirt wasn't inside out and the tank top was under the puffy shirt.  But, I think it worked out pretty well with what I had, don't you?

This is also your very first pregnancy picture, although there isn't much of a bump to see quite yet.  (real reason for this second half of the post)  We'll get a real side shot here soon though.  Hopefully a clearer one as well. :)  Oh, and possibly a less messy house shot too!

Celebrate The Good Days

In a French accent singing, "Those unsick days, where have zey gone?  Where diiii...........iiiiiiiid zey go?  Eh bien, eat your crackers, for some unsick days......."

Okay, so it's not really 7-years-of-famine depressing, but a good day would sure be nice!  For those who haven't heard, yes, I am pregnant!  So far, I'm at 12 1/2 weeks (due October 21st), but unfortunately no let up from the quote/unquote morning sickness quite yet.  We're hoping for it to pass here quickly though.  Blake has been amazing through it all and has taken over the kitchen duties so I won't get sick more often than necessary.  Something about smells........?..... ;)

We are getting more and more excited as the threat of miscarriage lessens with time and get to tell more and more people the fun news.  It will be Blake's family's first baby and so far the only other kids in his extended family are his cousin Jodi's.  She has 2 1/2 boys, so if we happen to have a girl, I think she'll be pretty spoiled from all around.  If we have a boy, he'd get pretty spoiled from my side of the family as we have only had our special angel Solomon for a short time and no other boys.

As we have been asked by quite a few people that have found out, we have picked out some names, and I think the only thing that may change them is if we meet the baby and find it doesn't quite fit.  However, the plan is: Boy - Mark Lyle, Girl - Charlotte Marie (aka Charli).  We both have an idea of what our Baby Sprout will be, but to make things fair, we'll let you vote as well.  Upper right hand corner if you will.