Good Luck Jonathan!

It's a beautiful fall day today! I get off work at noon to head home to Jonathan and I can't wait.

We are driving to Columbia tonight to stay with his aunt and uncle because he is taking his Professional Engineer test bright and early tomorrow morning.  My prayer for him is that tomorrow all of his many hours of studying will pay off and he will recall everything that he has learned these past couple of months.  He's missed weddings, parties, family gatherings, and seeing friends so that he could attend classes and study for this one test - he has been so dedicated and I couldn't be more proud of him!  I'm most excited to see his stress level go down after Friday - we won't find out until January if he passed, but at least he can relax until then.  Maybe I'm especially biased, but my husband is seriously the smartest, hardest working, sweetest, most loving man I know and I feel like the luckiest girl in the world to have found and married him :)  Good luck tomorrow, baby! You will do great!!

26 down, 14 to go!

Weeks, that is.

After being hounded for months by belly-crazed friends and family, I finally took a picture of myself in the only full length mirror that we own (in the garage).  I've gained 11.5 lbs so far!


25 weeks, 3 days

On October 11, we had our third ultrasound.  Our baby boy is developing normally and is already the cutest little guy in the whole wide world!!!  We can't wait to meet him :)  Here are some pictures!

3D image - left profile

standard image - profile (look at that little nose and chin!!! AWWW!)

3D full facial

If you're wondering how I'm doing with that daily prayer journal... well... I've got exactly two entries.  I feel like the days are a blur sometimes; I really need to take a breather and dedicate some time to God!

On a not-so-lazy note, I have gotten all but about 50 of our wedding Thank You's finished! It only took me five months... Procrastination really should've been my middle name. My goal is to sit down and knock out about 20 of them tonight, but my 5 AM wake up, two hour drive, followed by an 8 hour work day will probably force me into napping from dinner until bed time. So is life.

"Pray, and let God worry." - Martin Luther

For the past couple of years I have been meeting with a small group from my Quincy church, Blessed Sacrament.  We have been working through the Why Catholic? study books for a Fall and Spring session each year.  Last night was our first night of this year's Fall session.
I love talking about faith, religion, God, and the Church, but more than that, I love having the safe place outside of work/friends/family where I can interract with other Christians.  Our group is diverse and everyone has an interesting "story" of how they came to be where they are today.  It's so fun for me to get to know these people more and more every session.

This six week session is dedicated to Christian Prayer.  I have a lot of experience in the Protestant religion where praying is spontaneous, natural, and is an open dialogue with the Lord.  In the Catholic religion, there are many structured prayers and I was actually pretty resistant to learning these prayers, as I felt conversation directly with God was more natural.  However, the more I read these written prayers that have been said for so many generations, I began to realize how meaningful they truly are.  Even though the majority of my prayer life is still speaking to God like a friend, there are definitely times when I have to turn to a memorized prayer to help me focus on Him, during times when my brain seems to only want to focus on Me.

This week for "Living the Good News" (suggetions our book makes for a personal connection between faith and action) I am committing to keep a prayer journal for the next six weeks.  I think if I write down the things I am thankful for/struggling with/needing that I will be more aware of answered prayers.  I know that I am constantly missing the little things that God provides, so I think to see them on paper will bring me closer to the prayer life I aspire to have.

"Give us ears to always hear your voice, a heart to listen to the message, and a will to live it out."

Long overdue!

It's been 10 weeks since my last post, which means I am now 23 weeks pregnant! We've hit some major milestones these past 10 weeks.  I've definitely got a nice baby bump going on, we have both felt the baby kicking, we've had another ultrasound and discovered that we are having a BOY, and have been making plans for the baby's room. It's been a very busy 10 weeks so I'll try to play catch up with a shortened version:

• My nephew, Ostin, turned one on August 14 and we had a pool party over at our aunt and uncle's pool.  Mom came in town too and stayed with us for a couple of days.




Ostin covered in blue birthday cake!

• The following weekend, Jonathan and I went to Kansas City to visit our newly engaged friends, Nathan & Sarah.  We also got to spend some fun times with Daniel & Wendy and two of my closest girl friends! It was a fun weekend and we should not wait so long next time to make a visit to KC!
• Roger, my father in law, and I went on a trip to Tennesse on August 25-29.  On the first day, for the first time ever, I felt the baby moving! I would call it a fluttery feeling... but I knew exactly what it was! We went to a BBQ and music festival in Nashville, ate our way across the state, went on a couple of touristy visits, and all in all had a great time.  Roger may have gotten food poisoning though because he became super sick on the last day of our trip :( 
• On September 12, we had our 20 week (halfway mark!) doctor's appointment.  We had an ultrasound, standard and 3D, and found out that Jonathan was right, we are having a boy! The ultrasound technician could not see a certain valve in the heart due to Baby's positioning, so we will have another ultrasound in 4 weeks to determine that this valve is developed correctly.



profile and left shoulder - 3D Ultrasound

• For my birthday, we had all of our immediate family over to announce it's a boy! We surprised everyone by coloring the inside of the cake blue. My friend Lauren made this cake special for us :) It was a really great day and I loved having everyone over to our house.  The next day, I was laying in bed and felt the baby kicking and moving so hard - I looked down and could actually SEE him moving in my belly. It was so weird/amazing!  It didn't happen again with Jonathan around until a few days later, so when he finally got to feel the baby, it was twice as amazing!

Baby Reveal Cake by Lauren Kerkhoff

These days my only symptoms are a sore back and uncomfortable clothes.  I finally bought a pair of maternity jeans.  They were $56 from the Motherhood store in the mall.  Of course I ended up having to buy the designer jeans because I would not fit in any of the generic smalls or mediums... I'm in a halfway size which stinks.  I can't even button my "fat" jeans anymore so now I'm down to wearing my one pair of maternity capris and one pair of maternity jeans... of course at home I only wear sweatpants and oversized basketball shorts though!  Luckily my friend is coming over this weekend to let me look through her maternity clothes to borrow.  How sweet of her :)  Cold weather maternity clothes are definitely not on sale yet and of course that's exactly what I need most!

I've been down in the back every few days in these past 4 weeks or so.  After talking to my friend Ashley, I think the baby may be pressing on my sciatic nerve.  When she was pregnant she described her pain as identical to what I've been feeling - shooting pain through my lower back, into my butt, and even upper legs.  When we go back to the doctor I'm going to ask her what I should do because there are some days when I can barely even move... it's a miserable feeling. 

On October 28, Jonathan takes his PE Test (Professional Engineering).  This is a very important test that he's been studying many hours.  He also has been taking about 16 hours per weekend in online classes to prepare.  This test is only offered twice a year and so if he does not pass, he won't be able to take it again for another 6 months.  I'm very optimistic that all of his hard work will pay off and he will pass with flying colors :)

WEDDINGS

Jones & Jesse got married on September 17... beautiful wedding and even better company! Had so much fun catching up with Bo and meeting new friends at the reception :)

Andrea & Ryan get married on October 15... absolutely can't wait! I'm so very happy for them and have had a lot of fun with her as she's planned for this wonderful day :)
Alexis & Joe... newly engaged! They haven't set a date yet but they would like to get married ASAP. This couple is very special to my heart and I think they are wonderful together! Also, I initially set them up so that makes me the ultimate matchmaker :)