the swing of things

Why do people say "back into the swing of things"? Swings are fanciful and freeing. The "swing of things" is anything BUT! We are having a very large scholarship competition at our university on Sunday/Monday. I have over 250 people showing up on campus and I am the host for every one of them. Planning for the event has been smooth enough until yesterday. I am thoroughly wiped out, and there is still 5 days before it is over. I am supposed to be grocery shopping right now and planning for the week, but instead, I am camped on my couch...unable to move.

There have been many things that I have been mulling over in my mind over the last month, and I will write about them next week. Also, I will post a belly picture. :-) But for now, in the midst of all this craziness, I am celebrating this good news for a sweet friend.

God is still so good and very faithful. What a friend we DO have in Jesus.

I am back

December was a blurr. I could not even tell you what all happened during the month. I feel like life is just charging by and I am being trampled. I want to stop, and (pardon the cliche) smell the roses. Anyways, so that is what I did during the last three weeks. I took two full weeks off of work and though we spent a good chunk of that visiting family, which was great, I did manage to just veg out, not answer my phone or e-mail, I didn't get on my laptop and it was FABULOUS! I admit to being a hermit, but I am starting to feel a little refreshed.

We went to the doctor's today for an appointment! We are 12 weeks, 4 days though the pregnancy. I haven't really felt sick at all in the past week and, other than being extremely hungry ALL the time, I don't feel different than my non-prego self. Jason came with me today and we heard the heartbeat of our little peanut. It was amazing to hear that little pitter patter and know that it is growing and moving. Everything is going well so far, and we are right on track.

Next week will be a little crazy. I start back up to school and then we also have our annual scholarship competition at work, so I have roughly 120 kids and their parents coming to school. Needless to say, I am not ready to relinquish my holiday or "hermithood". :-) Happy 2009!

perpetually car sick

So, it has hit! I haven't really ever had the urge to run to the nearest bathroom and camp out near the toilet, BUT almost continually I feel like I am in the back seat of a 15 passenger van that has been driving down Hwy 16. All in all, not fun. Friday I woke up to my alarm and just could not physically open my eyes, so I called in sick/tired to work. It was fine for Friday, but I can't do that every day. I am slightly worried about the next few weeks. Between not being able to keep my eyes open and having a hard time wanting to put food down my throat, I guess I would say that I am exemplifying the classic symptoms of being pregnant. :-) Not great, but totally worth it (at least that I what I keep telling myself, since this is the first time....I don't actually KNOW that the outcome is worth it. Just kidding!)

No other big news. I have a final in class on tuesday and a presentation. One more paper and this semester is over! 18 hours down, 49 to go. I am making a dent in this program, the progress feels satisfying. We are heading to Wichita, KS the weekend before Christmas and are staying until noon on Christmas day and then we drive out to Colorado to see my family. Mom said she would hold Christmas dinner till we got there, but I told her if she is making a turkey, to please eat before I get home. The very thought of that for dinner makes my stomach turn and I want to gag. I think Jason's family does ham for Christmas, which does sound edible. ;-)

Hope all is well for you. Have a lovely Christmas seaon.

We are the proud parents of....

Just ONE new baby. :-)
We saw the baby's heart beat...which was AMAZING. I totally fell in love with my baby right then (not that i didn't care about it before). It looks like a blob, but it is MY adorable little blob. It is 1.08 CM long, so about 1/2 an inch and it is 7 weeks, 3 days old. So, the new due date is July 20th. We are totally thrilled and I am slightly relieved that it is just one, and not two. I know that God would have provided the strength for two, but I am glad to ease into this thing called motherhood.

In other news....here are some pictures from my trip to Colorado:
My 16 year-old brother Jon was in the play "The Music Man". He did a great job and I am SO proud of him.


This is probably one of the cutest kids ever to grace this planet, my niece, Isabella:

This is me and my four brothers:


And lastely, my darling husband put up and decorated our Christmas tree this year. He did a stupendous job:
That's it for tonight!

Why do I live in Siloam???

I have been starving latetly...no joke, I am ALWAYS hungry. I read somewhere that you only need 300 more calories a day when you are pregnant, but that is only like a glass of milk, a tablespoon of peanut butter and an apple. My stomach is not in agreement with the online source of information. But, my dilema today was that I got home from work and had a snack before Jason got home. I flipped on the TV and watched a little "Anthony Bourdain, No Reservations". He was in Ghana, eating what looked like the most delicious food. (For those of you that don't know, I grew up in South America and also in Spain, we spent some time in Morocco and my mom loved to cook ethnic food. So, for me, non-American food is normal and WAY better than a burger and fries.) Anyway, all of the sudden I had this enormous craving for Indian food. The thought of curry, dahl, nan and yogurt sauce sounded amazing. I pulled out my Indian cookbook and realized quickly that my local grocer (aka: walmart) does not carry fenugreek seeds or another 1/4 of the ingredients that ALL the recipes were calling for. "Well", I thought, "I could wander down to the new Thai restaurant and have some rice and some chicken satay with peanut sauce". So, I called Jason to remind him that my tummy was having a hard time being patient. He came home, picked me up and off we sped to the new restaurant....only to find that it was closed! My dreams of rice and some savory sauce were quickly going down the drain. We ended up at the old standby of Thai Spice...and dinner was still very good, but it left me asking one VERY important question tonight: Why in world do I live in little Siloam Springs? If I was in any metropolitan city, I could have popped around the corner and solved my belly's ache. If this is what this pregnancy is going to be like, then I have some serious spice shopping to do the next time I am in a town of greater than 13,000 people.

(PS...I am working on getting some pictures up, I promise!)

Very fun stuff

Hello to all my friends in the blogging world! I have missed you. :-) The past month has been incredibly hectic and I have no idea how it is November 26th today. Where did the time go? Work has been super duper busy and I made a trip out to Colorado to see my family (will post pictures asap) and then we have Jason's family here for Thanksgiving. They flew in on Saturday and Sunday, so we have been just up to our ears in activity and busyness. Thankfully this weekend we have not much planned. I think a trip to pick out a Christmas tree is on our top priority list along with some serious homework time. Actually only two more weeks left and then this semester is done, crazy to believe! I am so looking forward to my month off of school...it will be a true holiday!!

So, the latest on our baby front is that on day 29 Jason and I woke up and took out the perfunctory little dixie cup to pee in. (does anyone else hate holding the pregnancy test while trying to get pee only on the little felt tip?) I started to brush my teeth and figured that once again....it would be negative. My heart started pounding though when I looked a little closer and saw a line start to appear on the "positive" side. I thought...no, just bleery eyed and surely it is negative! BUT....it wasn't. Yup, folks it is true, Jason and I are going to be parents. :-) We took a few more tests to be sure, but they were all positive. I went early that week and had some blood work done and my HCG levels were totally high and my progesterone was at 43. Now, for those of you that know about progesterone levels, they were just looking for it to be above 11. With such a high level (two weeks ago) and the fact that we were on 150mg of clomid, I am to go back to the doctor next week to do an ultrasound and to do a "head count". AH! When it rains it pours. It doesn't mean that there are twins, but it is an indicator that it could be. We are still trying to absorb all this information and not get too anxious until we know for sure. Looks like the due date is July 19th...so I am only 6weeks and a few days. Still pretty early, but feeling good overall! I am just hungry ALL the time. The nurse told me today that I can only gain 20-25 pounds for the whole pregnancy unless there is more than one and then I get a higher range. (great....doesn't that sounds fun!)

We are so thankful to all of you who have so faithfully prayed for us and walked this long journey with us. God has been so good! This past month I finally reached the point where I was truly at peace with NOT being pregnant and just being content to live the life that God has placed before me. Whatever happens, whether one or two (or more....but I kinda hope not) we know that God will continue to be faithful and ever so present in our lives. We have felt your love and support and know that it means the world.

If anyone has any mommy or pregnancy advice, please send it my way! There is so much to learn and so many choices....who knew there were so many options to car seats? Gosh, I totally thought you just buy one and then sit in it all strapped in. Got a lot to learn. God is GOOD!

Not so fun stuff...

This weekend Jason and I took off work a little early on Friday and headed up to Wichita to visit Jason's mom and we were hoping to get together with some good friends, Jared & Heidi. We had been looking forward to this trip ALL week as a chance to get away, spend some time together and just relax. So, we asked Jason's brother to house/dog sit for us while we were gone. We got to my mother in law's house in time for dinner and we were watching a movie when we got a phone call. It was a dreaded phone call. It was my brother-in-law, calling to say that he had just flipped Jason's car on it's side into a ditch. When he called the car wasn't on 4 wheels, which is never a good thing! He and the girl were ok, but we spent the next hour and half calling the insurance company, a tow truck and friends to see if someone could show up to the scene and make sure everyone is ok. Daniel and the girl riding with him were both ok and it could have been a LOT worse, considering they were driving super fast around a 'S' curve with the top down on the miata. Thankfully they were wearing seatbelts. The two of them came out without a scratch. The car, on the other hand...was not so lucky. My poor husband has dreamt of having a car like that for years and we were finally able to afford it and make it happen. We haven't seen the car yet, but apparently the driver's side was the side that is torn up, chances are an axle is broken and the engine joints are damaged. The maddening part is that neither of us can remember exactly what our insurance policy covers. We are praying that it will cover all the repairs or the cost of a new car. In the meantime, we are praying about how to react to Daniel and what to say. He isn't our kid, so there is only so much we can do. We need wisdom and grace. Needless to say, our weekend was not the same and Jared and Heidi...we are sorry we didn't get to call you to hang out.

Life sure is crazy, huh? Hope you all had a better weekend than we did. (Oh, I left my cell phone with Daniel in case of emergency (glad I did!), but I am not sure where my phone is at the moment. You can call me at 479-427-9094 for now...sorry, but I don't have any #'s stored in my work cell).