Meet the new hyper homemaker

and her helpful husband! My mom sent me a link to this blog the other day. I only read a few of the posts but I must say I was impressed. I realize that I will never be near the homemaker that this lady is but occassionally it's worth trying. I decided that for the Super Bowl I should make some football sugar cookies. Below you can see the process and the beautiful results. Truthfully, they don't all look as good as our model cookies below but we tried! :-)

Mark made a football shaped cookie cutter because I could not find one at the stores. He's so creative! If you look very closely you may see that he makes good use of his company displays!

While we were decorating I commented to Mark that he always enjoyed decorating baked goods with me. He said, "Yeah, it's like art and stuff."

The finished product! Aren't the pretty? Notice the lovely new apron I'm wearing and the new glasses. Santa brought them to me for Christmas. :-)

I'm looking forward to my next adventure of hyper homemaking with my helpful husband!

No sleep yet

Lately my favortie time of the day has been bedtime. I try to coerce Mark into bed earlier and earlier every night. By the end of the day I am worn out. I am physically tired but also just tired of my head spinning with the days to do list. It's the most wonderful feeling to crawl into bed and snuggle up in the warm covers, finally feeling myself relax. However, I think my most favorite part of going to bed is getting to talk to Mark. Of course, we have lots of evenings together and we no longer have tv to keep our minds occupied. But, the conversation in bed always seems the best. Then, there is really nothing else around to distract. Almost every night I say to Mark, "I'm so tired but I don't want to go to sleep yet." It's a strange feeling. It's kind of like I'm afraid that if I go to sleep I will miss something. At night time, there is a peace and quiet; the world has slowed down. In the back of my head I guess I just realize that when I finally allow myself to go to sleep I will awake in the morning with another to do list. I will be "separated" from the people that I love in order to take care of things that "have" to be done. It's a strange cycle...this thing called life. We keep moving and moving and things rarely slow down. I just want things to move at a slower pace all the time so that at the end of the day I can feel peaceful going to sleep, not feeling like I am going to miss a sweet, quiet moment with those that I love.

It definitely makes me contemplate how I am spending my days and especially the order of my priorities. Mark and I went out to breakfast this morning and then we hiked Kennesaw Mountain. We talked about making breakfast out (and maybe a hike) a weekly tradition. I'm not sure if that will happen but I like the thought. I am now (writing a blog) and getting ready to bake some cookies for the Super Bowl party tomorrow. Mark is out working on the dresser for the baby room. It feels good to know that we have already spent some quality time together and that now we can do our separate things for awhile. However, I'm sure tonight I will have the same feeling of, "I'm tired but I don't want to go to sleep yet." You see, this will be our last time together for awhile. We will be at church tomorrow morning, visiting friends who just had a baby tomorrow afternoon, back to church tomorrow night and then to a Super Bowl party. Mark will leave early Monday morning for out of town and will not return until Thursday night (small group night) and then work all day Friday. I will not really get to have another peaceful, quiet moment with him until next Friday. Maybe my thoughts of wanting to not let go of the moment aren't so crazy after all!! Or so I would like to think...

Hungry again...

One thing that I didn't realize about being pregnant was that I would be so hungry, so often!! Of course, people always tell you that you are eating for two. However, the books/doctor tell you that it is mostly your hormone changes that make you hungry and that you should only add about 300 calories a day to your diet. 300 calories is sure not feeding a whole other human being, that being said I guess it's appropriate for a baby!

Back to the hunger though, it's the craziest thing ever. It's not just a feeling of I'm hungry, I should eat in a little bit. It's the feeling of a deep, dark, empty pit in your stomach that says I'm hungry, feed me NOW! So I've been doing my very best to keep my stomach happy while still eating especially healthy. My meal times are mostly the same as before, shredded wheat or other healthy cereal for breakfast, a sandwhich and piece of fruit for lunch and some kind of meat/veggie/healthy starch for dinner. Nothing exciting. It's the snacks throughout the day that are overtaking my life. Today alone, I snacked on 1/2 a cantaloupe, 1 orange, 1 hard boiled egg, and a bowl full of veggies (tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, squash and zucchini). I'm now sitting here typing this at 9:30 PM and I'm still hungry! :-) Friends that have been pregnant before tell me that it's normal but I don't know. It's hard to get used to eating this much and not worry about gaining major weight! In my defense, I did stand on my feet for four hours at work today and then teach a water aerobics class tonight! I guess the hunger will just continue...

Our sweet child

I know I am pregnant with our first baby but I have had a child to practice on for seven years now! Her name is Sophie and she is the sweetest, smartest, cutest dog around. Lately, I have been practicing some new parenting techniques with her. For example, giving her choices so that she can be strong and independent, like I read about in the "Love and Logic" parenting book. "Do you want to be quiet and play in here or would you like to go play in your room?" Translation, "Get out of here, I can't stand to hear you anymore!" I've also been trying to establish a bed time routine for her so that she knows when it is time to settle down. That's what all the good parenting books tell you to do, you know.

Sophie has actually had the same bed time routine for awhile now. Every night we let her outside before we go upstairs to bed and every night without fail she looks at us through the back door and says, "Please don't leave me. Let me back inside!" We let her back in without her ever going potty (notice my child language). She then proceeds to hold it for the next 10 hours while I sleep. Once upstairs Sophie jumps right into bed and onto my pillow. I brush my teeth and then she begrudgingly scoots over so that I can lay in my spot. Of course, her next move is to Mark's pillow. When Mark finishes brushing his teeth and doing all that men do before going to bed, he then scoots her off his pillow and she finally finds the pillow that we have put on the bed especially for her. It's the craziest thing to me...the same exact thing happens every single night! It would be nice if she went to her pillow right away but maybe she thinks she is being nice by warming up our spots! So we would like to think about our sweet dog...

Well, last night Sophie did not follow her normal routine! For the first time ever, we get upstairs, ready for bed and in bed and Sophie is running around like a crazy lady! I finally determine that she needs to go outside. Who knew! I take her down the stairs and proceed to watch her as she prances around the back yard. She seems to think it's time to party. She finally does the deed and comes back upstairs with me. Mark and I are talking sleepily in bed and about to turn off the light when we realize Sophie is not with us. I look down at the side of the bed and she is standing staring at me with a ball sitting next to her!! She NEVER brings a toy upstairs, much less at bedtime! Mark and I being the bad, non-routine oriented parents that we are decided that the poor dog needed attention so we proceeded to get her all riled up. We played fetch with her for several minutes before we finally wore her out and turned out the light!

She has just been really funny lately...wanting to play all the time. This morning she brought Acorn, her stuffed squirrel upstairs to play. Below are some cute pictures of Sophie playing with Acorn. Even though being a parent will be much more difficult, I think having a dog really is good beginning practice! I just can't imagine all the love that will be there for a child, when I have this much love for Sophie. For goodness sake, I just wrote a stinking book about her here!

Mark practicing the baby hold = Sophie not excited!

Sophie and Acron playing together. Awww....

Belly Laughs!

Just a quick note to say that I am sitting here watching Mark read a book by Jenny McCarthy entitled, "Belly Laughs." I've only read the first few pages but it is apparently a raunchy book for women about being pregnant. Although Mark has never been one to like raunchy humor, he seems to be enjoying it...and I'm getting a belly laugh out of that!

Update: After reading the post above, Mark stated, "You don't know me very well." Hmmmm....

New Clothes!

Today Lindsay and I got to spend some wonderful sister time together. I called her this morning and promptly woke her up from her deep sleep. I then convinced her that she needed to go clothes shopping with me. Yipee! An hour later we were off to the stores in search of some great bargains. We first went to Ann Taylor Loft, my favorite store and least favorite place to work. They carry used to carry maternity clothing. To my great dismay, ATL is no longer carrying maternity clothes. When we arrived at the store, there was a single rack with 8 pieces of leftover maternity clothing. Luckily, I found 2 pieces that worked. I also did a little "regular" shopping and bought 4/5 other pieces that could be worn with a small belly in the future. I was thrilled to walk out of the store with not an item above $5.93! Then we headed off to Gap Maternity where I bought several other items on sale. I got one pair of shorts for $2.50 and one pair of shorts for $1.50! Unfortunately, I will not be wearing those shorts around here anytime soon! It was 10 degrees this morning... and I thought we lived in Hotlanta. I also bought a couple of cute shirts that were on sale. I really just hope these things fit in the summer when I am feel monstrous!


Overall, a great shopping trip and a wonderful time to visit with Lindsay. It really is fun to be pregnant at the same time and be sooo close together. A special yea for embarrassing questions that you can ask your pregnant sister, hoping that she is feeling/experiencing the same thing as you! It's also really funny the reaction we got from people at the stores today. "You're both pregnant!?! You're sisters?!? Due 9 days apart!??" It really is unbelievable but lots of fun and I'm glad to be sharing this time with Lindsay!

Getting Ready

So we're doing a few things to get ready for the baby. Yes, we have
SIX MONTHS left, but I figure that we should strike while the iron is
hot. I'm building a changing table out of red oak that will "convert"
to a dresser for the second phase of its life. I'm trying to figure
out how best to attach the sides to the horizontal pieces that will
make up the structure of everything. It's silly I suppose, but I
spent a good bit of time thinking about it on my drive home from
Nashville today.


Nicole wants to "get ready" by putting curtains and pillows and other
girly things in our bedroom. I really couldn't care less what's in
the bedroom so long as I can get to the bathroom and back in the
middle of the night without tripping on anything. Other than that, we
could decorate with pink fuzzy dice and I wouldn't care. It's funny
that Nicole wants to make the room so fru-fru-y. She thinks it's
funny that I ponder sticking two pieces of wood together.


I guess we're both right.

Stay at Home Mom!?!?

I never in my life thought that I would be a stay at home mom. I think truthfully I never really thought about having kids or what that would be like in general. Not that I didn't want kids, I just didn't think about it. I always thought that I would work. My parents instilled in me a strong desire to work and to succeed at whatever I did. However, as Mark and I have talked about having a family, it has become more clear that I would be staying at home or working just a small part-time job. Mark works really hard to provide for us and with him traveling a good bit of the time it does not make sense for me to work too. Our poor children would feel parentless! For several months, I really struggled with that idea. I want(ed) so badly to contribute. A great deal of my self worth was attached to how much I worked and what I did for a "living." Taking part time jobs was very humbling, to say the least! However, the past couple of weeks I have finally felt a little more peace with this role. There is always so much to do around the house and I have begun to find the importance of keeping things organized and in good shape. When things at home are calm and orderly, it allows Mark to feel peace and for us to enjoy time together when we are not working.


Although, I have come a long way in dealing with this, it's still a struggle. I occassionally still look for jobs that I might enjoy. I sent Mark a job posting last night and said, "What do you think?" I truly wanted his opinion. He said I would rather have you stay home than work (this is not out of his selfishness or him trying to keep me caged up and not pursuing my "dreams" - I realize it may sound like that). The truth is that I am grateful for a husband that knows me and knows my struggles. The job that I was looking at was working at a non-profit with abused and neglected children. Mark said that my heart was too big for a job like that and that I would be sucked in and be torn between my family and my job. So smart! After thinking about that for just a short moment I knew he was right!


So, I'm still adjusting to the idea that I will be a stay at home mom, realizing that my worth does not come from a job title or a paycheck. I know once the baby arrives that I will realize it is the right decision. And honestly, I keep saying I will be a stay at home mom but really I will be keeping two of my part-time jobs (teaching water aerobics twice a week, working at the hospital one day a week). I enjoy these two little jobs and they will give me time to be out in the "real world" but plenty of time to be home and take care of what is most important! There are lots of lessons to be learned and I know I should be grateful to be learning this lesson before the stress of a baby arrives!

12 Week Doctor Appointment

Nothing exciting to report, except that everything is looking good. We saw our midwife Julie today. Our doctor, who no longer delivers babies, recommended her to us. Mark and I both want a midwife to deliver anyway, unless of course there is a medical emergency and then a doctor will do just fine. Anyway, Julie was really nice. We both liked her and would feel comfortable if she was able to deliver the baby...

Rant: Too bad we can't control such things! I'm sure you've all already heard my rantings about the terrible state of the medical system. It seems so sad to me that you spend 9 months preparing for this little one to arrive, going through awkward tests, asking awkward questions and being touched all over, only to get to the hospital and find out that your doctor/midwife is not on call that day and will not be delivering your child. Now you get to experience all of those awkwards all over again with some strange personality that you have never met. I know, I know they recommend that you switch doctors/midwives at every appointment so that you will get to know them but with 8 doctors and 4 midwives in the practice, there is no way to see them all before the baby arrives. Just a sad thing to me...

Back to the good news...everything looks good. We heard the heartbeat today and it was 150, just where it is supposed to be. All of my blood work was good too. Everything seems great. Although, time is moving along, it still seems like there cannot possible be a baby inside me! Even hearing the heartbeat still doesn't make it seem real. I'm sure the next few weeks will provide lots more changes to confirm that there is in fact a little bundle of joy growing inside me!

Pictures

So I have been asked to post some pictures. A little backtracking at this point... Mark and I had been talking about having a baby for awhile. However, I had gotten very stubborn about taking tests. It was such a bummer to think, "Ooh, maybe I am pregnant this time." only to find out that it was not the case. Mark had been asking me for days to take a test but I had refused. The day following Mark's birthday, Friday, Nov. 21st I finally gave in and took a test and was shocked to see the results below! I did not find a creative way to tell Mark, it was all I could do to let out a little shriek and Mark came running.
Later in the morning Mark and I took this picture together. We were so excited and in disbelief and in many ways still are!There will be more pictures to come. I do have a little belly now, however, it looks like I just ate too many donuts at this point and not really like a baby belly. Tomorrow we have a doctors appointment so hopefully there will continue to be good news to report...

New Blog, New Journey

This is the first blog post for our new blog...yipee! Mark and I will be sharing writing duties. We wanted to create a space where we could share what is going on in our lives and especially about the new baby that will be joining us in July!

I have just made it through my first trimester today! Overall, I have been feeling really good and for that I am thankful! I have certainly had days where I felt nauseous, tired and yucky but nothing compared to the horror stories I have heard from some. The past couple of days I have had very strong cramps which I had not had before. Mark was in Canton with work and I was home fending for myself. :-) I was doing fine but I called Mom just to chat. An hour later, Mom called back and surprised me by saying that she was on the way to see me and take care of me! It was a nice surprise to have her here for the night! We enjoyed some time together chatting about girly things. I am feeling a little better now though...maybe because Mark is home again!