Good News & False Hope

GREAT news! Travis and I, as of Monday night, were able to purchase a new mommy car for me! We had originally been looking for an explorer or something similar. We found one we liked online and headed to the dealership to take a look at it. It was an '07 Eddie Bauer Ford Explorer. Looked awesome in pictures but once we got to the dealership, we were pretty disappointed to say the least. However, we got them to work up an estimate on how much they would sell the vehicle and also how much they would give us for Travis's truck as a trade-in. While they were working on that, Travis felt it was too nice inside and wanted to just walk the lot. As we were walking I noticed a different vehicle. It was a 2005 Eddie Bauer Ford Expedition and had really low miles for being an '05. I immediately wanted to test drive it. We did and after climbing in the vehicle, we recognized all its many features since it was an Eddie Bauer. It is fully loaded, with leather seats, 3rd row seating, power everything, and of course, a TV and DVD player for our future little stick. To make a long story short, we were blessed to have the right pricing and opportunity fall in our lap and we are now the proud owner of this pretty new vehicle:

I love it!!!! Thank you, Lord for giving us a beautiful day and giving Travis the desire to walk that lot. He truly put us there for a reason.

• Hope. To look forward to with desire and reasonable confidence. To feel that something desired may happen.

I have hoped for the last 3 months that I would just feel NORMAL. I have hoped that what everyone was telling me was true--that nausea is only for the first trimester, that in the second trimester you feel the best you ever will in your life, that headaches would subside, and other symptoms would just plain go away. I have since learned that pregnant women will NEVER feel normal while they are pregnant. Some of you may be wondering why I ever thought I would feel normal...remember, I'm new at this, okay? But, I've accepted it and with the Lord's help I have been reminded of the blessing growing within my sweet little nothing of a stomach. That's right! Still not showing...and while, yes, I am frustrated, I have come to know that while I listened to everyone's advice and false hopes, it is Him who I should be trusting and listening to every step of the way. The second trimester is definitely different. I can tell there's been a decrease in the nausea and such but I was thinking I would be done as soon as I hit 14 weeks. Maybe soon I will feel complete relief. Until then, I am resting in Him knowing that I have been blessed with this child. And even though his/her movements are still concealed, I know that I have a healthy, growing, BEAUTIFUL baby coming our way very soon.

Trusting Him,

The WalkingSticks

Catching Up

I am trying not to be the blogger that never keeps up with this thing so excuse the lack of blogging in the last week.

For those that don't know this, our latest doctor's appointment (Monday, Sept. 20) was a big disappointment for us. Why? At our appointment at 11 weeks, we were able to see a baby that started to look like a baby. And we couldn't wait to come back for another ultrasound. Unfortunately for us, we were not told that after that appointment at 11 weeks, we would not be having another one until 20 weeks. Travis took off work and we went in with the expectation of having another ultrasound to see the little papoose growing inside my belly. They brought me back on the opposite side of where we usually go and I knew something was up right away. They informed me then that we were just getting the heart beat measurement. Don't get me wrong, that was AWESOME to hear. By the way, it was 153. However, the appointment was not something Travis should have taken off for, and we were both extremely disappointed that we had literally counted down every day until this appointment. I left crying, upset for the simple fact that I wasn't told that. After voicing that, a friend gave me encouragement and a different vantage point. She said that there are LOTS of people who have to have an ultrasound at every appointment not because they want to but because they're baby has "issues" that aren't what you want to experience in a pregnancy. That there are people who have to have them because their baby isn't healthy and they have to check the status every appointment. I had to stop and realize that my baby is healthy. How selfish was I for being that upset? I shouldn't have been and it doesn't change the fact that I still would have wanted to know beforehand but I am thankful that the Lord has blessed me with a child that is healthy and growing just as he/she should.

Monday-Wednesday I had a rather fun job (yes, seriously). I won't go into details about the job specifically but I met a girl I think I can be great friends with. She goes to my church and our husbands are pretty much the same person so this should be a relationship filled with lots of laughs. I had Thursday and Friday off so Thursday I did some massive cleaning in our house and Friday I did absolutely nothing. It was GREAT! Saturday, Travis and I woke up early and got to see our baby thanks to Michaela's sister! She is in school for this kind of stuff so she wanted to practice and who better to practice on than an actual pregnant chick?! We got TONS of photos. At first, our little papoose was sound asleep. Didn't move at all. After the sound waves woke him/her up, we spent a good 45 minutes just watching his/her movements. From hiccups, to stretches, to even an Aggie Gig 'em! We saw the brain, spinal cord, stomach, feet, hands, lips, nose, etc. I am amazed at what God has formed on and in our little papoose since the last ultrasound when I was 11 weeks. We have a hunch to the sex of the baby due to what we were able to see BUT the legs were crossed so we aren't too sure still. And no, I will not be telling what our hunch is. I won't even tell my family. My baby bump still hasn't appeared to everyone else. I know my stomach sticks out farther but right now it just looks like I have an extra layer of fat. Lovely. After our ultrasound, we headed up to Lake Conroe to hang out with some friends. Every time we leave from hanging out with them, we always say, "I really like them! Wish we lived closer." But I guess the occassional visits once a month will have to do. We had lunch on the lake, and Travis got to go tubing. It was hilarious! After leaving the lake, Travis and I went to a birthday party for a friend from our church. It was so great seeing them because we hadn't seen them in about 2 months. We chowed down on mexican food and had some yummy yellow cake with chocolate icing! By the time we left, we were sooooo full! Yesterday was spent watching football, as usual. The Texans lost which was a huge bummer but we watched it with my parents and my older brother which was fun! We made queso and ordered some pizza. Real healthy, right? haha!

This morning I woke up to something we don't normally experience in September. 60 degree weather!! YES! I immediately thought it was the perfect excuse to throw on my fall/winter boots that I was so worried I wouldn't get to wear due to a developing baby bump. Whether it gets up to 90 degrees today or not, I am sporting my fall clothes and boots. I am blessed to have received another call to have work today. So while everyone else complains about Monday, I am in an unusually happy mood. Why wouldn't I be? Great weather, fall clothing, work, and this afternoon we are checking out cars again! Man, people told me the second trimester you feel great (as in the sun shines, the birds chirp and nothing can get you down) but I didn't believe it! haha!

Things to come:

• We have our next appointment Oct. 18. Prayers are welcomed for that! We should know the sex of the baby at the following appointment either the week after or 2 weeks after that Oct. 18 appointment. We have to travel to the medical center for an anatomy exam where, hopefully, the baby will not have it's legs crossed. Mommy and daddy (as well as the entire family) are dying to know what we are having.


• Also please be in prayer that we can find a buyer for Travis's truck. We are trying to get me an SUV before the baby gets here but need to sell his truck first. We are trying to sell it on our own before getting the trade in value since it won't be the amount we should get for it. If anyone knows anyone interested, please let me know!

Here is one of the pictures from our ultrasound on Saturday. You Aggies will appreciate this:

Thanks & Gig 'em!

The WalkingSticks

Feeling better...

For most that follow me on facebook, you may have noticed a slightly (sarcastic) raging, hormonal post on Monday morning. For those that don't, here is what happened.

Sunday night's dinner (mentioned in my previous post) was phenomenal. Wasn't so phenomenal the second time, if you know what I mean. We went to bed late Sunday night after watching some football. I remember climbing into bed and dozing off around midnight. 2 very short hours later, something woke me up that never has before. Nausea. Really really bad nausea. I lay there thinking, "if I can just go back to sleep, maybe this will go away". An hour passed. Still there. Only this time, stronger. I couldn't get to the bathroom faster. For the next 5 hours, I camped out in the same spot. No sleep. Not even sorta. Tried breakfast and it made it worse. Doubled over and weak, I managed to get myself dressed for work, and headed out the door. I cried the whole drive to work. I'm sure most of it was from exhaustion and my swirling hormones, but I still felt stupid for just crying about it. For the remainder of my very long day, I battled being tired, nauseous and extremely frustrated. I counted down the hours before I got to go home. The drive home was hard as I nearly had to stop twice to pull over and relieve my nausea. I pulled into my driveway and did 2 things: took my night time nausea meds at 5:30 and changed into pajamas. At about 8:30, Travis woke me with pasta and homemade sauce he spent a good hour on. My stomach couldn't take it. I took about 5 bites and was done. I felt so bad but I know he understands. We finished watching the Jets game, which was terrible to say the least, and I was back down for the count. I slept all night long and woke up feeling better than I had in a while.

The last couple of days have been great. I have had some random food cravings but NO NAUSEA (PRAISE THE LORD)!!!! Today, my food craving was cookie cake. So on my lunch break, I went to Memorial City Mall and got a nice-size slice of cookie cake from Great American Cookie Company.

I ate about half of it before baby said "okay mom, enough!" It was sooooo good! Yesterday, I had a bad craving for boneless buffalo wings so I was thrilled when Travis said he wanted Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner. He read my mind. Afterwards, we went to Wal-Mart where Travis bought the new game Halo Reach. Well if he gets something new, so does mommy and baby! Right?! I splurged and got all the soundtracks from the first season of Glee (there are 4 CDs). Baby got some adorable onesies. Since we still don't know the sex, we went neutral.

Today after work, I am heading over to the Nelson's to take care of Ashlee while her parents enjoy a date night out before their second little bundle of joy arrives! Ashlee was a toddler in my preschool class I taught. The Nelson's are also who we bought Travis's motorcycle from. It will be nice to see them and earn some extra money.

This weekend is packed full of plans. Tomorrow night, we are heading over to my inlaws to have dinner with that side of the family. Saturday morning, Travis is playing an intense game of flag football. He is more than ready. That afternoon we will be getting him fitted for his tuxedo for the Hinson/Zeller wedding in just a couple of weeks and also looking for SUVs for me. What better way to end that day than to spend it celebrating a marriage of 50 years?! It isn't often that you find couples that have been together that long, as sad as that is to say. I am so excited to see family and use this time to celebrate this special couple. Sunday, I hope we will get to go to church. I pray this baby will chill out for a bit so that we don't miss anymore. Even though our church is broadcasted via the internet, it's just not the same as being there.

And now for the most important news of the week: I won in fantasy football. Ha. Okay so it's not the most important news but now you know. My first opponent was one Mr. Chris Walker. I pride myself in saying, I have never lost to him in the now 3 years of playing. TAKE THAT! The first week is only behind us but I am currently leader of our league by several points. This next week, I take on Michaela. I am really confident of another win, especially with my lineup. Check back later for more fantasy updates in my next blogs...oh yeah and about the baby too. ;-]

The WalkingSticks

Rough start to a great weekend

This weekend got off to a rough start. On Friday, Travis and I had plans to eat at Becks Prime with his parents. However, there were different plans in store for us. Travis got home around 2:00 (he gets off early on Fridays in the summer) and discovered our newest animal, Tank, had gotten into something while in his kennel. His kennel was spotted with white "stuff" and there was clearly a plastic Kroger bag that had been shredded and partly ingested. After further investigation, SOMEHOW (we still do not know how) Tank managed to get a hold of a bag that had to have had super glue in it. The evidence was all over his face, paws, teeth and whiskers. But there was no bottle or any sign of a piece of bottle anywhere. After I got home around 6, I read the packets of the glue we carry in the house. The packages all said that if it were in your system to call poison control immediately. I couldn't get to the phone fast enough. The animal poison control told me they were going to charge a $65 consultation fee. For simply telling me what I need to do. Um...no thank you. I hung up the phone, called my vet and told them I thought he had eaten super glue. They basically told me I had to get here...fast. The tone of the woman's voice made it sound like life or death. Who knows how long he had it in his system but we knew it was at least 4 hours. The drive to the vet is about 30 minutes for us with traffic. We made it in about 15-20 but that felt like the longest ride. I cried the whole way hoping it wasn't fatal. Tank hadn't been acting funny which was my only hope that things were fine. They were. The vet simply told us to cook him white rice and boiled chicken. Bland diet. Well, thats actually what his food is now. Just dried. They sent us home with stomach protector meds and caution to just watch him. The vet's main concern was where the bottle that held the super glue was. We still don't know but Tank is perfectly fine. Whew!

Saturday, Travis woke me up with pink sprinkled donuts. For those that don't know me, that's extremely sweet. Before any tests, before any sports games I played, graduation, and other big events (even my wedding), I would wake up the morning of and need a pink sprinkled donut from Shipleys. It was just my thing. Travis snuck out and went to Shipleys and suprised me with his version of breakfast in bed. It was perfect. We continued our day with a little housework and yardwork. After a nap, I was off to the Texas A&M vs. LA Tech football game in the best town on earth--Aggieland. Travis's friend (now mine too) invited me and I had the best time! It felt soooo good to be back there. I can't wait to go again with my hunny so I can kiss someone when they score. And they scored a LOT that game!

Today, I woke up with a sore throat and nausea. I thought it was me getting sick but it turns out that it's more than likely me getting hoarse from the game yesterday. Nevertheless, we missed church again. After downing 4...yes FOUR eggos, I felt better. We made our trip to the grocery store in preparation for the Patterson's coming over. Travis and I haven't seen Megan and little Aiden since Brian and Megan got married over a year ago. It was so good to see them! Travis and Brian whipped up steak diane, red potatos, fresh green beans and garlic bread while I prepared the dessert, apple crumble. Needless to say, dinner was a great success.

Other than that, all we have to say is FOOTBALL IS BACK!!! We are very excited the Texans started off with a big win over the Colts. It was great. All our screaming at the TV freaked out the dogs. Kinda funny. Now, we finish off our night with hoping that the Cowgirls end up with a loss. So far, they are scoreless at half time. Yessss!

Until next time...

The WalkingSticks

First trimester

As of today, I am 12 weeks and 5 days pregnant. My weeks change over on Sundays which makes it easy for us to remember. Not that we don't have it written down on the calendar for the next several months ;-)

When we found out we were pregnant, nausea wasn't even a thought in our mind. I was 3 weeks pregnant though and knew it was too soon. Everyone kept telling me, just wait until about 6 weeks. At 7 weeks, it kicked in. In about 8-9 weeks it kicked into high gear. I wasn't throwing up as much as I hear some people do. I just was ALWAYS nauseous. Which, no offense to those that violently threw up, but I would rather do that then feel sick the whooooole day. At about 10.5 to 11 weeks, I was feeling GREAT! I thought I got off easy. Now at 12 weeks, it's back. I currently do temp work all over Houston so running to the bathroom in front of a bunch of people I don't know (and who don't know I am pregnant) is a little...no...VERY embarassing. Today, I seem to be doing much better but I guess I just have those random days where I just don't want to get out of bed. This is so hard on Travis and so foreign to him because of that helpless feeling. My nausea meds only work so much and Travis (being a guy) has only so much sympathy before it turns into frustration. I constantly have to remind myself that this is a whole new world to us and we are BOTH going through changes. I, for a while, thought it was just me. But through much prayer and advice from many friends with children, I have had to learn that it's not. It's a learning process but I think we are getting the hang of it.

In 8 more weeks we find out the sex of the baby. 8 WEEKS! I think we might cheat. Travis's sister, as well as my friend's sister, both are in the ultrasound world and have offered to tell us sooner. While we will be using "polite persistance" (as one friend put it) at our next appointment, I have a feeling our ultrasound tech won't tell us. No worries. We have connections! It's so hard going to friends' baby showers, or going grocery shopping for that matter without wandering into a baby department or wondering what color clothing we will buy. Travis tells me that we will be going shopping the moment we find out the sex. Hey! No complaints from me!

People have asked which gender we would like. Our response is simple: we are going to be happy no matter WHAT we get. I think we both have said having a boy first would be ideal but lately (ever since Travis met little miss Mackenzie Rogers) he has been secretly hoping for a girl. As of right now, I have this instinct that it's a boy, he still is saying girl. We will see!

People have also asked if there is anything they can do to help. Right now, we have one request. Prayers. At the beginning of this pregnancy we had a small scare that I was going through ectopic pregnancy. **Side note: to all pregnant women out there, DO NOT READ ONLINE ARTICLES! You're just going to scare yourself silly.** After confirming that our little papoose was tucked away in his/her correct spot, we were at peace. Now this ongoing nausea seems to get the best of me. I have had to miss church, missed out on fun during family gatherings, and cried...a lot. At our second appointment, our ultrasound tech put the baby on the screen. He/she is growing healthy and just as expected but let me just say, I have never seen something move so much. It was kicking, moving, punching, and all but flipping inside me. While I cannot wait to feel that, his/her movements are what's causing me to be so sick. Pray that this nausea soon passes and that our baby continues to grow the way he/she should. I look forward to that first kick and to that second trimester. Pray for us during our third appointment which is September 20. That we will see good results from my blood work and that maybe, just maybe, we can find out the sex!

Have a great weekend!

The WalkingSticks

Pregnant!

A little background of our story:

Travis has always said (before we even got married) that he thought it would be the best present ever if he found out I was pregnant on Father's Day. We weren't necessarily trying for that but on Father's Day, I took a pregnancy test anyways, just to see if I could give him that present. The test came back negative. Bummer. About 2 weeks later, I received a text from a very good friend from college telling me her and her husband were pregnant. We were so excited for them! The way she told her husband was by writing "Happy Fathers Day" on her tummy. I was sad I couldn't give my husband that gift, but so happy for our friends! A few short weeks later, it was Travis's birthday. We had both taken the day off of work with the expectation of doing something fun together that day. I woke up super early for whatever reason and lounged on the couch while he still slept. A couple of hours passed and he woke, asking me to come into our room. I had to go to the restroom first and as I headed in, I wondered, "Since I couldn't give him the present on Father's Day, why not today, his birthday?" It was still early and so taking a pregnancy test was a huge shot in the dark but I did it anyway. Within 10 seconds, that EPT test showed up PREGNANT. My reaction? OH CRAP! I DIDN'T THINK I'D ACTUALLY BE! (But in a good way, not as if to say, "oh crap, no!") I was shaking as I walked back to our bedroom with the test behind my back. I simply said, "Uh, babe..." and handed him the test. He looked. Looked again. Looked again. Then said, "Is this real?"

Travis and I laughed and were so excited that we couldn't stop smiling. We are pregnant. That initial feeling was something I cannot explain. And I know that feeling will happen again when we feel he/she move for the first time and when he/she is born!

The WalkingSticks