Saturday, July 17, 2010
Birth Faith: Preventing Morning Sickness
One of my favorite Birth Bloggers, Birth Faith, has both announced a new little one on the way (hurray!!!) and posted a most interesting article regarding her thoughts on morning sickness prevention via diet. This is not the same diet information I'm going to write about (whenever I manage to get around to it), but it's fascinating and contains a lot of the same information. Both theories center on pre-conception diet. Thoughts, anyone?
Reviewing Morning Sickness History
~ TMI Alert ~
This week I received the news that my fertility has, alas, returned full force. I had hoped to stay it off with extended exclusive breastfeeding, but no luck! So now it's back to the two weeks per month of stressed-out wondering - "Is this the month?" and the 2-5 days of semi-panic while waiting for my period. *Sigh.* Well, it's been a nice year and a half!
So I got out my NFP charts yesterday and started a new chart, and it was interesting to see the history of baby's conception. With our first, I was not charting, so I don't have definite dates - all I know is that the nausea started up about a week after I got a positive test (so somewhere around 5w0d). With our youngest, I have chapter and verse for every date from ovulation onward, and I saw on my chart that I noted nausea beginning at 3w3d - almost 2 weeks earlier than with #1. I had to start taking front-line anti-nausea meds (that is, Unisom/B6) at around 3w6d, before I could even get a positive test (I got a positive test the next day - on Christmas!). Yikes. Does my body get more sensitive to baby-hormones with each baby? That makes me very nervous about future pregnancies.
Fun to look back, though! What a Christmas that was. Moving into a new house, dealing with nausea, and keeping a baby-secret from my folks (we told them 2 days later), which was both fun (a baby!) and panicky (nausea!). Now that our precious little one is here, it's fun to look back on!
More later on that diet I promised to tell you about....
This week I received the news that my fertility has, alas, returned full force. I had hoped to stay it off with extended exclusive breastfeeding, but no luck! So now it's back to the two weeks per month of stressed-out wondering - "Is this the month?" and the 2-5 days of semi-panic while waiting for my period. *Sigh.* Well, it's been a nice year and a half!
So I got out my NFP charts yesterday and started a new chart, and it was interesting to see the history of baby's conception. With our first, I was not charting, so I don't have definite dates - all I know is that the nausea started up about a week after I got a positive test (so somewhere around 5w0d). With our youngest, I have chapter and verse for every date from ovulation onward, and I saw on my chart that I noted nausea beginning at 3w3d - almost 2 weeks earlier than with #1. I had to start taking front-line anti-nausea meds (that is, Unisom/B6) at around 3w6d, before I could even get a positive test (I got a positive test the next day - on Christmas!). Yikes. Does my body get more sensitive to baby-hormones with each baby? That makes me very nervous about future pregnancies.
Fun to look back, though! What a Christmas that was. Moving into a new house, dealing with nausea, and keeping a baby-secret from my folks (we told them 2 days later), which was both fun (a baby!) and panicky (nausea!). Now that our precious little one is here, it's fun to look back on!
More later on that diet I promised to tell you about....
HG Study - Controls Needed
Rixa at Stand and Deliver has posted this request from the ongoing-HG study - they need controls! That is, they need women who have not had HG to register for the study to act as study controls. Therefore, if you can, please forward the request to your non-HG friends (or HG friends - they really need both). Participating in the study is easy - you just register, and they send you a swab for you to send in a saliva sample, and you mail it back. That's it!
I, unfortunately, can't participate in the study because I don't fit the bill for their definition of HG or non-HG... so I'll just do my bit by spreading the word.
I, unfortunately, can't participate in the study because I don't fit the bill for their definition of HG or non-HG... so I'll just do my bit by spreading the word.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
The Road Untraveled
Or, "How Our Trip to Texas Became a Vacation in Tucson."
Alternate (and alliterative!) title: "The Diary of Direful Disasters that Derailed our Dallas Destination into a Different Domain."
Here we go! What an adventure we have had!
This year we decided to bite the bullet and make the long road trip out to visit DH's grandmother (who is the most adorable woman in the world - I wish you all could know her!) and associated family. We have wanted to go for a long time, but the 18-hours-each-way car trip has discouraged us from it (yes, yes, I know you all do twice the distance regularly without complaining). We did consider flying out, but the fact that flying would quadruple the price made us decide that the car would be best.
We set our departure date for this past Saturday. But then, due to some health issues of DH's grandmother, we were asked to delay our trip a week - so we reset our departure date to this coming Saturday. Then, last Thursday, they asked us to reset our date back to the original time - meaning that we had less than 36 hours to prepare for a 10-day trip, with all the associated shopping, packing, cat-sitting arrangements, yard care, irrigation plans, etc. YIKES! But we succeeded. After a crazy day of preparation, and working till 10 a.m. on our departure date, we finally set out - only 3 hours late!
So we started out! With only half of our worldly possessions packed into the car! Almost immediately we were hit with the fabled "Are we there yet?" - in multiple forms! I hadn't yet experienced that parental legend, so that was amusing - apparently it's an inborn trait in all children. I handed out stapled bags with little surprises in them at intervals, and that helped a lot (thank you, Laura!).
We stopped for lunch in Marana, which is just north of Tucson. It was blisteringly hot!
After lunch (by which time both DH and I had decided that we thoroughly despised long car trips), we headed back out and got on the freeway.
About 3 miles down the freeway, our car sputtered. And then sputtered again. And again. After a moment of shocked silence, I shouted "Quick! Get off the freeway!" while DH cut across three lanes of traffic to catch the off-ramp we had nearly missed. The car cut out completely on the off-ramp, and we glided silently to the bottom of it.
After five minutes of unsuccessfully trying to restart the car, three people from the gas station kindly came down and helped us push the car around the corner and into the gas station.
At this point, things were interesting. DH (by now a stress-case) was feverishly looking under the hood while I poured water into and over the kids to keep them cool (it was brutally hot). DH wondered if it could be vapor lock, although he thought our car was too new for that. He undid the gas cap, and coincidentally, the car restarted, so he wondered if we had found the problem.
We drove out of the gas station and drove up a street so that we could talk. Should we continue to Texas? Stop and find a mechanic? Was this a one-time thing?
After about 4 minutes of driving, the car sputtered again. And again. "Quickly!" quoth I - "Get over! Now!" So DH did - but for some reason, he got over into the left-turn lane (on a major street) and the car promptly died. We were now stuck again.
DH tried to start the car while we waved people around us. This time, a man so kindly stopped his car across the street and ran over to help DH push the car while I steered through the intersection into a bus stop.
At this point, we knew that we needed a mechanic. The car restarted after 10 minutes or so, so we kept going.
(If you keep in mind that my DH lives on adrenaline-overdose in any stressful situation, and the fact that our 4yo degenerated into panicked hysterics every time the car quit - he told me later that he thought the car was going to sink into the road when it quit - you will get an idea of what was going on.)
This time the car conveniently quit just in time for us to slide into a gas station. Hurray!
We unloaded everyone into the mini-mart in order to cool off, and for DH to ask for the whereabouts of a mechanic (and one, moreover, that would be open on Saturday). We also bought ice creams (my first time ever in a mini-mart!) for DS and myself.
By this time, to be honest, I was really enjoying myself. I had been positively dreading the trip to Texas (due to the travel time), and by this time it seemed like there was a good chance it would be called off. Additionally, I found it quite easy to assume an amused, detached attitude that looked on the day's occurrences as an adventure. I was along for the ride and having fun, though it was quite stressful at the same time - kind of a "Let's see what on earth is going to happen next!" sort of thing.
We hopped back in the car, and it (of course!) started up again. We got a mile or so down the road and saw an open Midas, so we pulled in and DH asked if they could help.
They could, so Joe told them he would bring the car back after getting us unloaded into a hotel room.
We headed off down the road. This time (#4) the car quit, again conveniently, in front of another gas station, so we again slid in, parked, and unpacked everyone to head inside (it was too hot to wait 15 minutes in the car).
On our next attempt, we made it to the hotel! It took us about 30 minutes to get settled in before DH could set off back to the Midas. Our adventure, from first-stutter to hotel, had taken about 3 hours. Our youngest was so exhausted that he fell asleep on my shoulder. Our eldest was just happy to have somewhere to play with his new train (his big "trip toy").
DH made it back to Midas and was shuttled back. The Midas people got back to us shortly to tell us that our fuel pump was out, and that they could fix it but not until Monday. We were stranded for 48 hours!
At this point, I was shocked but also in seventh heaven. We were ON VACATION!
I should explain. In my family growing up, "vacation" meant hopping in our trailer and traveling the country to see the sites, hike, camp, eat outside, see new places, etc. etc. In DH's family growing up, "vacation" meant driving to stay with family and visit with family. Period. Now, while I love visiting with family, that is not "vacation" to me - it's "visiting family." During our entire marriage (7 years) we have NEVER once been on vacation as I define it - that is, traveling together as a family (or even as a pre-kids couple) to see sites and spend time together. I have been longing for it, but we have never been able to afford it (couldn't now either, but thankfully it was forced upon us!). So I was absolutely delighted to be stranded.
We had a wonderful 48 hours. We swam in the pool both nights, spent time hanging out in the hotel room, had ice cream at Dairy Queen, etc. The first night we walked to a darling little plaza:
We also walked down to a golf course near the hotel and watched bunnies on the green, as well as the most curious lizards that had banded tails which they curled up over their backs as scorpions do (looked it up; I think it was the zebra-tailed lizard).
We also had a fun experience at the pool. When we were wheeling our stroller around it, two girls in the pool shouted out "Stop! Don't roll over the bat!" They had found a little bat drowning in the pool and had pulled it out and plopped it on the side. We thought it was dead, poor little thing, but as we swam it started to lift up its wee head and look around. We decided that we didn't want to leave it to get doused and stepped on, so we put a washcloth in a basket and took it with us by scooping it in (it was 3-4 inches long). However, we decided on second thought that to have a panicked bat in our hotel room would not be good, plus the fact that the hotel was cold, so we put the basket (with some fruit) under a bush to conceal it (by which time said bat was crawling about quite smartly). DH went to check on it later, and it was gone. Farewell, sweet bat! May you live a long life, quite unassociated with future bouts in the pool! (I love bats - they are beyond cute.)
On Monday our car was finally ready, so we got it, jumped in, and went site-seeing (we'd decided to stay another day and then head home). We went to the Mission San Xavier del Bac (the "White Dove of the Dessert" mission), about 16 miles away - lovely! We stayed about 30 minutes and saw most of what was there - it is still an active church. DS did quite well, though his only comment was "I want to go back to the hotel room." Clearly a connoisseur.
We also brought home our one and only souvenir of our trip - two empty (used) candle jars - they give them away for free (I'm cheap!).
On our way back, we decided to stop along the road and take pictures of the places we'd broken down (hence the pics). DH decided that he wanted Chick Fil-A for lunch, so we pulled into the drive-through.
And then the car stuttered. And stuttered again. DH and I glanced at each other with a "You've GOT to be kidding" look, and then the car died. Joe gave it one push with his foot out the door, and managed to push us onto the slope so that we could pull into a parking space. Since I conveniently still had the camera out, I was able to turn around and take a picture of breakdown location #5.
We went inside, ate lunch, nursed the baby, and let DS play in the play area. Then DH dropped us off at the hotel so that he could take the car back to Midas. So much for our planned site-seeing! We were stranded for another 24 hours.
Midas discovered that the true villain was the feeder pump, which, being broken itself, had killed our original fuel pump and then the new fuel pump just installed. Now we needed a new fuel pump (again!) and a new feeder pump.
So we went for more walks, swam, walked to get dinner out (at Las Margaritas, now one of DH's favorite restaurants) and enjoyed the time.
Tuesday afternoon, we got the car back. After nap time, we headed out to a local historic cemetery. We started with the Protestant side, and enjoyed looking at names and dates. I know it's weird, but I do enjoy cemeteries - the older the better. It's a melancholy experience, but very peaceful. It always reminds me of the verse in Ecclesiastes: "It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart." (v. 7:2) We saw some graves that were very sad (babies, teens) and some that were very sweet - of old couples who were married for 50 years and had loving inscriptions or Scripture verses on their tombstones.
Here are some pics (yes, that is our Midas in the background):
This was definitely not DS's favorite place. We didn't really want to get into what cemeteries are (haven't had to deal in depth with the death issue yet), so we were a bit cloudy on information - and it was again extremely hot. His main concern was how soon we were leaving.
This was one of my favorite stones - you can't read the bottom inscription, but it says "A True Woman of God." That is my life-goal! I had to get a picture with it.
We then did a drive-through of historic downtown, but by that time it was rush hour and pretty much a hopeless endeavor. Maybe next time!
Wednesday morning we did the other cemetery - the Catholic cemetery (they also had a Jewish cemetery that we drove through). The Catholic cemetery had the loveliest statuary - quite beautiful:
We then went back and checked out, and drove through the University of Arizona on our way out. What a beautiful place! And BIG! At my college one could walk to all of one's classes, but definitely not here:
After lunch, we were off home! The kids slept most of the way home, and we were able to talk and relax.
Our conclusions:
- We loved Tucson. We want to go back to see more! There is SO much more to see! (DH loved it so much that he spent part of our trip trying to convince me that it would make a great place to live.)
- We want to make family vacations a yearly reality. We're working on the budget issue.
- If we want to make vacations a reality, we can't eat all our vacation meals out! Yikes!
- We had a lovely time, made wonderful memories, grew closer as a couple and as a family, and have unforgettable memories.
- More than anything, we are and were blessed beyond measure. God blessed us so much on this trip - by letting us break down in town, and not in the stretch of dessert between Phoenix and Tucson.... by sending wonderful people to help us move the cars and give us advice.... by helping us to break down in convenient locations.... by helping us to find a mechanic open on Saturday.... by keeping the kids from suffering any ill effects from the heat.... by gifting us with the vacation we have been needing so badly.... in so many ways, we were blessed.
And with the trip and the car combined, we spent more money than if we had just bitten the bullet and flown to Texas! :) Of course, our car would have gone out sooner or later.
We still have our trip to Texas to do, but we will have to wait for fall for more vacation time - and we will most likely fly out, despite the cost. DH and I have decided that we are simply not cut out for long car trips with kids - we both despise them like poison (the trips, not the kids!).
And there ends our first family vacation!
Alternate (and alliterative!) title: "The Diary of Direful Disasters that Derailed our Dallas Destination into a Different Domain."
Here we go! What an adventure we have had!
This year we decided to bite the bullet and make the long road trip out to visit DH's grandmother (who is the most adorable woman in the world - I wish you all could know her!) and associated family. We have wanted to go for a long time, but the 18-hours-each-way car trip has discouraged us from it (yes, yes, I know you all do twice the distance regularly without complaining). We did consider flying out, but the fact that flying would quadruple the price made us decide that the car would be best.
We set our departure date for this past Saturday. But then, due to some health issues of DH's grandmother, we were asked to delay our trip a week - so we reset our departure date to this coming Saturday. Then, last Thursday, they asked us to reset our date back to the original time - meaning that we had less than 36 hours to prepare for a 10-day trip, with all the associated shopping, packing, cat-sitting arrangements, yard care, irrigation plans, etc. YIKES! But we succeeded. After a crazy day of preparation, and working till 10 a.m. on our departure date, we finally set out - only 3 hours late!
So we started out! With only half of our worldly possessions packed into the car! Almost immediately we were hit with the fabled "Are we there yet?" - in multiple forms! I hadn't yet experienced that parental legend, so that was amusing - apparently it's an inborn trait in all children. I handed out stapled bags with little surprises in them at intervals, and that helped a lot (thank you, Laura!).
We stopped for lunch in Marana, which is just north of Tucson. It was blisteringly hot!
After lunch (by which time both DH and I had decided that we thoroughly despised long car trips), we headed back out and got on the freeway.
About 3 miles down the freeway, our car sputtered. And then sputtered again. And again. After a moment of shocked silence, I shouted "Quick! Get off the freeway!" while DH cut across three lanes of traffic to catch the off-ramp we had nearly missed. The car cut out completely on the off-ramp, and we glided silently to the bottom of it.
After five minutes of unsuccessfully trying to restart the car, three people from the gas station kindly came down and helped us push the car around the corner and into the gas station.
At this point, things were interesting. DH (by now a stress-case) was feverishly looking under the hood while I poured water into and over the kids to keep them cool (it was brutally hot). DH wondered if it could be vapor lock, although he thought our car was too new for that. He undid the gas cap, and coincidentally, the car restarted, so he wondered if we had found the problem.
We drove out of the gas station and drove up a street so that we could talk. Should we continue to Texas? Stop and find a mechanic? Was this a one-time thing?
After about 4 minutes of driving, the car sputtered again. And again. "Quickly!" quoth I - "Get over! Now!" So DH did - but for some reason, he got over into the left-turn lane (on a major street) and the car promptly died. We were now stuck again.
DH tried to start the car while we waved people around us. This time, a man so kindly stopped his car across the street and ran over to help DH push the car while I steered through the intersection into a bus stop.
At this point, we knew that we needed a mechanic. The car restarted after 10 minutes or so, so we kept going.
(If you keep in mind that my DH lives on adrenaline-overdose in any stressful situation, and the fact that our 4yo degenerated into panicked hysterics every time the car quit - he told me later that he thought the car was going to sink into the road when it quit - you will get an idea of what was going on.)
This time the car conveniently quit just in time for us to slide into a gas station. Hurray!
We unloaded everyone into the mini-mart in order to cool off, and for DH to ask for the whereabouts of a mechanic (and one, moreover, that would be open on Saturday). We also bought ice creams (my first time ever in a mini-mart!) for DS and myself.
By this time, to be honest, I was really enjoying myself. I had been positively dreading the trip to Texas (due to the travel time), and by this time it seemed like there was a good chance it would be called off. Additionally, I found it quite easy to assume an amused, detached attitude that looked on the day's occurrences as an adventure. I was along for the ride and having fun, though it was quite stressful at the same time - kind of a "Let's see what on earth is going to happen next!" sort of thing.
We hopped back in the car, and it (of course!) started up again. We got a mile or so down the road and saw an open Midas, so we pulled in and DH asked if they could help.
They could, so Joe told them he would bring the car back after getting us unloaded into a hotel room.
We headed off down the road. This time (#4) the car quit, again conveniently, in front of another gas station, so we again slid in, parked, and unpacked everyone to head inside (it was too hot to wait 15 minutes in the car).
On our next attempt, we made it to the hotel! It took us about 30 minutes to get settled in before DH could set off back to the Midas. Our adventure, from first-stutter to hotel, had taken about 3 hours. Our youngest was so exhausted that he fell asleep on my shoulder. Our eldest was just happy to have somewhere to play with his new train (his big "trip toy").
DH made it back to Midas and was shuttled back. The Midas people got back to us shortly to tell us that our fuel pump was out, and that they could fix it but not until Monday. We were stranded for 48 hours!
At this point, I was shocked but also in seventh heaven. We were ON VACATION!
I should explain. In my family growing up, "vacation" meant hopping in our trailer and traveling the country to see the sites, hike, camp, eat outside, see new places, etc. etc. In DH's family growing up, "vacation" meant driving to stay with family and visit with family. Period. Now, while I love visiting with family, that is not "vacation" to me - it's "visiting family." During our entire marriage (7 years) we have NEVER once been on vacation as I define it - that is, traveling together as a family (or even as a pre-kids couple) to see sites and spend time together. I have been longing for it, but we have never been able to afford it (couldn't now either, but thankfully it was forced upon us!). So I was absolutely delighted to be stranded.
We had a wonderful 48 hours. We swam in the pool both nights, spent time hanging out in the hotel room, had ice cream at Dairy Queen, etc. The first night we walked to a darling little plaza:
We also walked down to a golf course near the hotel and watched bunnies on the green, as well as the most curious lizards that had banded tails which they curled up over their backs as scorpions do (looked it up; I think it was the zebra-tailed lizard).
We also had a fun experience at the pool. When we were wheeling our stroller around it, two girls in the pool shouted out "Stop! Don't roll over the bat!" They had found a little bat drowning in the pool and had pulled it out and plopped it on the side. We thought it was dead, poor little thing, but as we swam it started to lift up its wee head and look around. We decided that we didn't want to leave it to get doused and stepped on, so we put a washcloth in a basket and took it with us by scooping it in (it was 3-4 inches long). However, we decided on second thought that to have a panicked bat in our hotel room would not be good, plus the fact that the hotel was cold, so we put the basket (with some fruit) under a bush to conceal it (by which time said bat was crawling about quite smartly). DH went to check on it later, and it was gone. Farewell, sweet bat! May you live a long life, quite unassociated with future bouts in the pool! (I love bats - they are beyond cute.)
On Monday our car was finally ready, so we got it, jumped in, and went site-seeing (we'd decided to stay another day and then head home). We went to the Mission San Xavier del Bac (the "White Dove of the Dessert" mission), about 16 miles away - lovely! We stayed about 30 minutes and saw most of what was there - it is still an active church. DS did quite well, though his only comment was "I want to go back to the hotel room." Clearly a connoisseur.
We also brought home our one and only souvenir of our trip - two empty (used) candle jars - they give them away for free (I'm cheap!).
On our way back, we decided to stop along the road and take pictures of the places we'd broken down (hence the pics). DH decided that he wanted Chick Fil-A for lunch, so we pulled into the drive-through.
And then the car stuttered. And stuttered again. DH and I glanced at each other with a "You've GOT to be kidding" look, and then the car died. Joe gave it one push with his foot out the door, and managed to push us onto the slope so that we could pull into a parking space. Since I conveniently still had the camera out, I was able to turn around and take a picture of breakdown location #5.
We went inside, ate lunch, nursed the baby, and let DS play in the play area. Then DH dropped us off at the hotel so that he could take the car back to Midas. So much for our planned site-seeing! We were stranded for another 24 hours.
Midas discovered that the true villain was the feeder pump, which, being broken itself, had killed our original fuel pump and then the new fuel pump just installed. Now we needed a new fuel pump (again!) and a new feeder pump.
So we went for more walks, swam, walked to get dinner out (at Las Margaritas, now one of DH's favorite restaurants) and enjoyed the time.
Tuesday afternoon, we got the car back. After nap time, we headed out to a local historic cemetery. We started with the Protestant side, and enjoyed looking at names and dates. I know it's weird, but I do enjoy cemeteries - the older the better. It's a melancholy experience, but very peaceful. It always reminds me of the verse in Ecclesiastes: "It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart." (v. 7:2) We saw some graves that were very sad (babies, teens) and some that were very sweet - of old couples who were married for 50 years and had loving inscriptions or Scripture verses on their tombstones.
Here are some pics (yes, that is our Midas in the background):
This was definitely not DS's favorite place. We didn't really want to get into what cemeteries are (haven't had to deal in depth with the death issue yet), so we were a bit cloudy on information - and it was again extremely hot. His main concern was how soon we were leaving.
This was one of my favorite stones - you can't read the bottom inscription, but it says "A True Woman of God." That is my life-goal! I had to get a picture with it.
We then did a drive-through of historic downtown, but by that time it was rush hour and pretty much a hopeless endeavor. Maybe next time!
Wednesday morning we did the other cemetery - the Catholic cemetery (they also had a Jewish cemetery that we drove through). The Catholic cemetery had the loveliest statuary - quite beautiful:
We then went back and checked out, and drove through the University of Arizona on our way out. What a beautiful place! And BIG! At my college one could walk to all of one's classes, but definitely not here:
After lunch, we were off home! The kids slept most of the way home, and we were able to talk and relax.
Our conclusions:
- We loved Tucson. We want to go back to see more! There is SO much more to see! (DH loved it so much that he spent part of our trip trying to convince me that it would make a great place to live.)
- We want to make family vacations a yearly reality. We're working on the budget issue.
- If we want to make vacations a reality, we can't eat all our vacation meals out! Yikes!
- We had a lovely time, made wonderful memories, grew closer as a couple and as a family, and have unforgettable memories.
- More than anything, we are and were blessed beyond measure. God blessed us so much on this trip - by letting us break down in town, and not in the stretch of dessert between Phoenix and Tucson.... by sending wonderful people to help us move the cars and give us advice.... by helping us to break down in convenient locations.... by helping us to find a mechanic open on Saturday.... by keeping the kids from suffering any ill effects from the heat.... by gifting us with the vacation we have been needing so badly.... in so many ways, we were blessed.
And with the trip and the car combined, we spent more money than if we had just bitten the bullet and flown to Texas! :) Of course, our car would have gone out sooner or later.
We still have our trip to Texas to do, but we will have to wait for fall for more vacation time - and we will most likely fly out, despite the cost. DH and I have decided that we are simply not cut out for long car trips with kids - we both despise them like poison (the trips, not the kids!).
And there ends our first family vacation!
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Jumping to Conclusions
Over the past few weeks, I have been doing some research into a pre-conception diet that may have the possibility to mitigate morning sickness and/or HG. It's been very exciting stuff, and I am going to post about it soon.
Of course, I mentioned this to DH, who was immediately enthusiastic.
DH: "Great! So that means you'd be willing to have another baby?"
Me: "Mmmm..... Maybe."
DH: "Terrific! I think we should get pregnant right away. Immediately."
I found out later that he spent the last week telling his coworkers that we were going to have another baby.
That was a "MAYBE," my dear! A very "maybe-ish" sort of "maybe." As in "give me another five years to think about it, and I might get back to you on that one" sort of maybe.
And now, having whetted your appetites suitably, I shall have to leave you in suspense for a while, as we are leaving on a trip quite soon. But as soon as I can, I shall publish what I have found out. No promises, but it should be interesting reading at least!
Of course, I mentioned this to DH, who was immediately enthusiastic.
DH: "Great! So that means you'd be willing to have another baby?"
Me: "Mmmm..... Maybe."
DH: "Terrific! I think we should get pregnant right away. Immediately."
I found out later that he spent the last week telling his coworkers that we were going to have another baby.
That was a "MAYBE," my dear! A very "maybe-ish" sort of "maybe." As in "give me another five years to think about it, and I might get back to you on that one" sort of maybe.
And now, having whetted your appetites suitably, I shall have to leave you in suspense for a while, as we are leaving on a trip quite soon. But as soon as I can, I shall publish what I have found out. No promises, but it should be interesting reading at least!
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Summer Challenge: Again, 3 Weeks Behind
I..... will..... catch...... up...... sometime!!!
The challenge for Week #3 was to pray for my husband daily. Check! Thankfully that's something I already do, so I don't have to do anything except write this blog post. Hurray!
Of course, there is vast room for improvement! I am by no means the woman of prayer that I want to be... but progress is being made! Let me tell you about my latest improvement.
I am terrible with being regular about prayer and prayer requests. Why? Because whenever I write out a schedule (i.e. on Monday pray for A, B, C; on Tuesday pray for D, E, F, etc.) I get overwhelmingly bored with the repetition and predictability within a week or two, and out go my careful preparations. This has happened more times than I can count.
A few years ago, a friend of mine told me that she wrote her prayer requests/concerns on popsicle sticks and kept them in a jar, and picked out a few every day. I thought that that sounded lovely (no more predictability!), and decided to try it.
And then began a several-year-long saga of trying to remember to buy popsicle sticks at the grocery store!
Last month, I finally tracked down those wily popsicle sticks.... only to discover that they bleed horribly when written on with black sharpie pens, and that I couldn't stand the messy look! So I ended up cutting up a cracker box and using the strips of cardboard instead. So much for my popsicle-stick quest. :)
And there you have it! I have written out all prayer requests, both permanent (i.e. "DH - job concerns") and temporary (i.e. for a friend's troubled marriage, etc.). I pick out three every night, at random, and then put them in another box till I work through them all, and then I can start again. Out-of-date requests are culled in-process, and new ones added as I think of them.
Hopefully I've found a method that will work for the long-term!
And now I'm only two weeks behind! Hurray!!
The challenge for Week #3 was to pray for my husband daily. Check! Thankfully that's something I already do, so I don't have to do anything except write this blog post. Hurray!
Of course, there is vast room for improvement! I am by no means the woman of prayer that I want to be... but progress is being made! Let me tell you about my latest improvement.
I am terrible with being regular about prayer and prayer requests. Why? Because whenever I write out a schedule (i.e. on Monday pray for A, B, C; on Tuesday pray for D, E, F, etc.) I get overwhelmingly bored with the repetition and predictability within a week or two, and out go my careful preparations. This has happened more times than I can count.
A few years ago, a friend of mine told me that she wrote her prayer requests/concerns on popsicle sticks and kept them in a jar, and picked out a few every day. I thought that that sounded lovely (no more predictability!), and decided to try it.
And then began a several-year-long saga of trying to remember to buy popsicle sticks at the grocery store!
Last month, I finally tracked down those wily popsicle sticks.... only to discover that they bleed horribly when written on with black sharpie pens, and that I couldn't stand the messy look! So I ended up cutting up a cracker box and using the strips of cardboard instead. So much for my popsicle-stick quest. :)
And there you have it! I have written out all prayer requests, both permanent (i.e. "DH - job concerns") and temporary (i.e. for a friend's troubled marriage, etc.). I pick out three every night, at random, and then put them in another box till I work through them all, and then I can start again. Out-of-date requests are culled in-process, and new ones added as I think of them.
Hopefully I've found a method that will work for the long-term!
And now I'm only two weeks behind! Hurray!!
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Summer Challenge: Only 3 Weeks Behind
Sheesh! You'd think I could do better than THAT!
To try to keep up on the summer challenge I committed to - here is the assignment from 3 weeks ago:
"June 21 - Remember Your Vows - post pictures of your wedding day. We will review the sacredness of this day."
Well, I flop on this one - I have no idea where our wedding photos are! Okay, actually, they're in an album in the living room, but as far as the CD of pics that my sister-in-law took and gave us (and is around... somewhere), I couldn't find it if I had to! (I am really, really bad about photos and keepsakes. Really bad. Number of photos I've printed out of either of our children = zero. Yup, bad.)
So I'll tell you our wedding story!
There actually isn't much to it - not because there isn't a big long story, but because I really didn't have much to do with it. Long story.
Anyhow, DH and I got engaged after 1 1/2 years of dating, and then were engaged for one year before getting married after I graduated from college. Since I was the organist at our church, and Joe was the youth pastor, we knew we'd be inviting the whole church to our wedding, as well as family and friends. So it was a pretty big event! We chose to do it at a grumpy Lutheran church a town or two over, as my church was too small (and too ugly!!!). I say it was a grumpy church because we actually had a really hard time convincing them to let us have our wedding there - my pastor had to intercede for us and twist their arm (he had done his internship there, so he had a bit of pull). It was an absolutely gorgeous church - like a mini-cathedral.
There was a ton of prep work to be done - all the usual shopping, dress-hunting (I still can't believe I paid $700 for a dress I wore ONCE - if I had to do it over again, I would borrow, rent or find one used), etc. A lot of fun! I had 3 bridal showers - one for church, one for friends/family, and one for my girlfriends, who brought me a bunch of darling little "outfits" (tee hee) - none of which fit now, LOL!
One absolutely hilarious bit was having to deal with the church's wedding coordinator. My mom dubbed her the "Wedding Nazi" because she was so, so, so uptight about every detail and every rule. She enjoyed enforcing rules just because they were rules, and it was sometimes infuriating. "Why can't you have a ribbon on the unity candle? Because it says right here in the rule book that there shall be no ribbons upon unity candles! That's why!" And etc. etc. etc. A few years later, upon talking to a member of that church, my mom learned coincidentally that the wedding coordinator was also called the Wedding Nazi by her own congregation!
We had a lovely wedding - very relaxed, no major crises. DH and I were very strict about not seeing each other before the ceremony, so we kept in contact via cell phone to make sure that we did not accidentally run into each other beforehand.
A funny note on that one: We interviewed one wedding photographer who was adamant that photos should be shot before the ceremony. He came to my house and gave us a 30 minute lecture on why we should do photos before the wedding, and why anything else would be a disaster. It was like being in the principal's office. Afterward, he said "So, what do you think?" DH and I looked at each other and said "No." That was the end of that. We hired another (much better) professional photographer who easily managed to do all of our wedding photos after the ceremony and get us back to the reception before all of the guests had even exited the church.
We had a beautiful cake, made for us by my SIL. The reception hall was so incredibly hot (mid-June, California, no air conditioning) that the cake began to melt before the ceremony even started. The crew went to work frantically setting up fans to cool it, and trying to prop it - and it survived beautifully, and was absolutely delicious (my SIL does everything well!).
Our reception was lovely. DH and I, after a brief break, decided that we really ought to greet our guests, so we spent the entire evening - about 4 hours - going from table to table, taking about 5-10 minutes per guest/group, saying hi and talking. It was so much fun. We were actually the last to leave, pretty much, and they ended up chasing us out and telling us to get lost. :) My SIL and her husband gave us a ride to our hotel, their car suitably soaped for the situation (thankfully they avoided the rice). Their gift to us was two nights at the Mission Inn, a lovely time that I shall remember - we want to go back there to stay sometime (when we have mega bucks - not cheap!).
One of my clearest memories of those two days is of DH in the bathroom, suddenly deciding that it would be a great idea to see if he could belch the lyrics to some song or other. He could, and did. What a honeymoon memory!
Our honeymoon was a camping trip - something I was quite used to, but it was DH's first camping trip. Such fun! We had a rough start, though - Our first night was in Pismo Beach, and the state park was full - so we had to camp in an RV campground - about 10 feet from the train tracks, so we were blasted all night, and then soaked by the sprinklers in the morning. The next night, DH insisted on a hotel! Thankfully he agreed to give camping another go, and we became pros. We camped up and down the coast of CA and OR, and had a lovely time - and ate wayyyy too much fried fish. And we broke our bank account going back for blackberry cobbler at the Trinidad Bay Eatery in Trinidad, CA - one of my favorite restaurants in one of my favorite towns.
And then we were off for Arizona!!
Much love, all! I'll go do something productive now! I'll try to catch up on last week's assignment soon.
To try to keep up on the summer challenge I committed to - here is the assignment from 3 weeks ago:
"June 21 - Remember Your Vows - post pictures of your wedding day. We will review the sacredness of this day."
Well, I flop on this one - I have no idea where our wedding photos are! Okay, actually, they're in an album in the living room, but as far as the CD of pics that my sister-in-law took and gave us (and is around... somewhere), I couldn't find it if I had to! (I am really, really bad about photos and keepsakes. Really bad. Number of photos I've printed out of either of our children = zero. Yup, bad.)
So I'll tell you our wedding story!
There actually isn't much to it - not because there isn't a big long story, but because I really didn't have much to do with it. Long story.
Anyhow, DH and I got engaged after 1 1/2 years of dating, and then were engaged for one year before getting married after I graduated from college. Since I was the organist at our church, and Joe was the youth pastor, we knew we'd be inviting the whole church to our wedding, as well as family and friends. So it was a pretty big event! We chose to do it at a grumpy Lutheran church a town or two over, as my church was too small (and too ugly!!!). I say it was a grumpy church because we actually had a really hard time convincing them to let us have our wedding there - my pastor had to intercede for us and twist their arm (he had done his internship there, so he had a bit of pull). It was an absolutely gorgeous church - like a mini-cathedral.
There was a ton of prep work to be done - all the usual shopping, dress-hunting (I still can't believe I paid $700 for a dress I wore ONCE - if I had to do it over again, I would borrow, rent or find one used), etc. A lot of fun! I had 3 bridal showers - one for church, one for friends/family, and one for my girlfriends, who brought me a bunch of darling little "outfits" (tee hee) - none of which fit now, LOL!
One absolutely hilarious bit was having to deal with the church's wedding coordinator. My mom dubbed her the "Wedding Nazi" because she was so, so, so uptight about every detail and every rule. She enjoyed enforcing rules just because they were rules, and it was sometimes infuriating. "Why can't you have a ribbon on the unity candle? Because it says right here in the rule book that there shall be no ribbons upon unity candles! That's why!" And etc. etc. etc. A few years later, upon talking to a member of that church, my mom learned coincidentally that the wedding coordinator was also called the Wedding Nazi by her own congregation!
We had a lovely wedding - very relaxed, no major crises. DH and I were very strict about not seeing each other before the ceremony, so we kept in contact via cell phone to make sure that we did not accidentally run into each other beforehand.
A funny note on that one: We interviewed one wedding photographer who was adamant that photos should be shot before the ceremony. He came to my house and gave us a 30 minute lecture on why we should do photos before the wedding, and why anything else would be a disaster. It was like being in the principal's office. Afterward, he said "So, what do you think?" DH and I looked at each other and said "No." That was the end of that. We hired another (much better) professional photographer who easily managed to do all of our wedding photos after the ceremony and get us back to the reception before all of the guests had even exited the church.
We had a beautiful cake, made for us by my SIL. The reception hall was so incredibly hot (mid-June, California, no air conditioning) that the cake began to melt before the ceremony even started. The crew went to work frantically setting up fans to cool it, and trying to prop it - and it survived beautifully, and was absolutely delicious (my SIL does everything well!).
Our reception was lovely. DH and I, after a brief break, decided that we really ought to greet our guests, so we spent the entire evening - about 4 hours - going from table to table, taking about 5-10 minutes per guest/group, saying hi and talking. It was so much fun. We were actually the last to leave, pretty much, and they ended up chasing us out and telling us to get lost. :) My SIL and her husband gave us a ride to our hotel, their car suitably soaped for the situation (thankfully they avoided the rice). Their gift to us was two nights at the Mission Inn, a lovely time that I shall remember - we want to go back there to stay sometime (when we have mega bucks - not cheap!).
One of my clearest memories of those two days is of DH in the bathroom, suddenly deciding that it would be a great idea to see if he could belch the lyrics to some song or other. He could, and did. What a honeymoon memory!
Our honeymoon was a camping trip - something I was quite used to, but it was DH's first camping trip. Such fun! We had a rough start, though - Our first night was in Pismo Beach, and the state park was full - so we had to camp in an RV campground - about 10 feet from the train tracks, so we were blasted all night, and then soaked by the sprinklers in the morning. The next night, DH insisted on a hotel! Thankfully he agreed to give camping another go, and we became pros. We camped up and down the coast of CA and OR, and had a lovely time - and ate wayyyy too much fried fish. And we broke our bank account going back for blackberry cobbler at the Trinidad Bay Eatery in Trinidad, CA - one of my favorite restaurants in one of my favorite towns.
And then we were off for Arizona!!
Much love, all! I'll go do something productive now! I'll try to catch up on last week's assignment soon.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)