20 weeks, 2 days

Wow, you must all be in shock since I am doing a post for the 3rd day in a row! :) I finally have a picture! Even though I don't have much else to write about today, I thought I shouldn't wait to share the picture! :) As you can see, my belly seems to be ever growing. Actually, it really isn't my belly so much as the baby! :) We love our baby!

I am off to do some shopping for the weekend. Much going on around here. Although yesterday was a nice relaxing day and I enjoyed a quiet afternoon with my Hubby while we watched Meet Me In St. Louis with Judy Garland! Such a great classic.

Movement

Okay, so I still don't have a picture yet (I'll work on it... :) .... ) but I just had to post because I was so excited today! As I was putting dinner together in the Crock-Pot (Lemon Chicken) I felt the baby moving a LOT! I have felt it a few times, but not when I was "trying" to feel it. :) In other words, concentrating and just waiting to hopefully feel something. So I am very excited. 20 weeks, 1 day! :) Haha, can you tell I'm counting????

20 Weeks

Today I am 20 weeks pregnant!!!! Woohoo!!! [Approximately] half-way there! Hopefully this baby comes on time (or even a little early would be nice! :) ).

The baby weighs between 9 and 10 ounces and is over 6 inches long (head to rump). Including it's legs, the baby is approximately 10 inches long! So, all in all, the baby is somewhere around the length of a banana. Which seems very strange when I think that I have a baby that is that long in my belly! :) Unfortunately I have not taken any profile shots lately so I don't have a picture today. :( I will however try very hard to make sure there is one for my next post.

I know I haven't written in over a week, and I am sorry to say that it is because my mind seems to have shut down a bit. What I mean is that every time I think of writing a post, I can't think of a whole lot to write about. We are greatly enjoying being home and back with family. It seemed like we were gone for so long.

I am enjoying being home so much that I have been neglecting my computer. I have 100+ new emails and sometimes it gets a little too close to 200. I go through and delete the ones I can every few days, and tackle a handful of the emails that need responses and so on, and so forth. I think I got backed up when we first got back to CT and I didn't touch my computer for over a week!

Scott and I have been married for 10 months and 1 week. The day we got back (after driving 12 1/2 hours from NC) my husband ended up driving 12 1/2 hours back to NC that very night because of an emergency in his family. I stayed up here because mentally and physically I was not prepared for the trip so shortly after arriving home. The next day felt like torture. I started off the day trying to be cheerful and get the errands done that needed to be done (mind you I cried myself to sleep the night before). But it was not easy. In the entire time that we had been married, we had never spent more than 9 hours apart and knowing he was so far away did not help. He decided to fly back the following morning which meant so much to both of us, but I was very glad to learn (as a result of our short seperation) that I loved him so much I couldn't bear being apart for even 36 hours! It gave me a greater understanding of what it must be like for all the wives of our men overseas and made me value my time with my husband even more. I know that in the future there will be nights when we will not be able to be together because of book stuff and what not, but I am determined to keep the number of those nights as low as possible! The baby and I will go wherever he goes, no matter what it means. I am so thankful and grateful for my husband. God continues to amaze me in how His blessings continue to overflow.

This month is a very special month as it is my parents' 25th wedding anniversary and my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary. I am so thankful that God has given me such a great example of what it means to stick things out and be willing to walk together through the thick and thin.

Well, I guess I did find something to write about. I hope it wasn't too confusing! :)

Update - Long Overdue

I am sorry that it has been so long since my last post. We have been rather busy and I must admit I have enjoyed my little "sabbatical" from my computer. For the past week I haven't even touched my computer except to charge our ipod and have used my Hubby's to check my email real quick when I have gotten a chance.

We are finally home. Not in our own place yet, but home! We have been home for 1 week now after spending several days with our dear friends Tony and Shayna and visiting with Shayna's family. We had so much fun there and you can see a couple pictures here. We played lots of Uno Attack and had some yummy cheesecake with strawberries our last night. Sadly, I forgot to take out my camera during our stay there :( and so wish I had taken some pictures! I had intended too, but the only time it crossed my mind was when it was inaccessible.

It is strange to think that it has been over 4 months since we started out on our first Book Tour, but it is also so exciting to be done and wonder what God has in store for us now! :)

The prenancy is going well. Here is a picture of me at 15 weeks and my friend at 25 weeks...

I am now 18 1/2 weeks along and had my first prenatal visit today. We got to hear the baby's heartbeat which the midwife had no trouble finding (she didn't have to try at all) and it was so cool! I am starting to feel some slight movement and know it will only get more intense as time goes on. :) I am sure I am feeling the baby more than I realize too, because since it is my first, I don't necessarily figure out right away that what I'm feeling is the baby.

My siblings love just looking at my belly which seems to be growing little by little every day. :) They are almost as excited as I am... :)

We are starting to adjust to being home and knowing that we're not driving off to some other state in 2 weeks. :) We aren't completely settled in yet, but we're getting there. I am enjoying catching up with our families. Even though we all talked on the phone and skyped several times while we were gone, it's not the same as being in person.

There's an update for you all. :) I will try to make sure I don't let 2 weeks go by before posting again. There is just so much other stuff going on to keep me busy right now that I'm hardly getting a chance to go online at all never mind write a blog post. :)

SMILE

Smile. Lately my darling husband has had to remind me to smile more often than I realized was necessary. What I mean is that I hadn't realized that I hadn't been smiling as much. During the first trimester I was feeling pretty miserable every day and so I know that I must not have been smiling as much. Sad to say, I think it started becoming a habit. When I'm looking at things in a store or just sitting around relaxing, I have not been smiling. The thing is, I have so many reasons to smile. My Husband, the Baby, family, how God is continuously showing Himself to me, good friends, and so many, many other things. So I asked myself, "why aren't I smiling?" Do you know what my answer was? "I don't know." I try to make some lame excuse only to realize that it isn't even valid.

I think that sometimes we get so caught up in all that is going on around us and where we are, thinking about what's going on now, what has happened in the past, the future, or whatever that we forget to smile and think about all that God is doing and be thankful. It takes such few muscles to smile and we never know how our smile may be blessing someone else.

So, just smile. Think of one thing you can smile about and let it radiate through you! :)

No, I'm Not Dead :)

I know, I know, there has not been a new post in over week! I am still alive, I just don't have wireless internet access and am not getting much computer access either. Sad to say, you may not get much of a real post for the next week or two.

Everything is going well. We are in North Carolina and enjoying visiting some of Scott's family in between book events. I am finally completely out of the first trimester sickness stuff and am just waiting to get home and go to my eye doctor to see about helping my headaches/migraines become less of an issue as currently they are a daily occurrence! :) (No, it is NOT fun!)

Baby seems to be doing well and I can't wait to here the heartbeat when I have my first prenatal visit! I must say, I am TOTALLY siked about this baby!!!!!!

That's about it for now. My eyes can't take much time on the computer without giving me a headache and my head is reminding me that I've been on here too long already.

9 Month Anniversary

9 months since I said "I do!" 9 months since my new husband carried me over the threshold into our first home. 9 months since my entire life changed. 9 months since my life became centered completely around my husband. 9 months.

As I look back over the past 9 months, I am just in awe as I see all that the Lord has done (knowing that there are things He's done that I can't see and may never see). I also feel strange thinking about how much I've grown in such a short time. I feel so much older and yet I find it hard to think that I'm old enough and mature enough to be a parent this year. That alone scares me. But God wouldn't give us this baby if He didn't think we were ready, and I rest in that knowledge.
So much has happened over the past 9 months and through it all I've grown in the Lord, grown in my relationship with my husband, grown in my relationships with my family, and grown in my roles as wife and homemaker. God is doing so much and sometimes I think I take too much of all that He's doing for granted.

It is so amazing to me how He has used the past 3+ months to teach and grow me in little things along the way. My routine is so different from what it would be if we were more stationary. It's more like I don't have a routine right now. :) One thing that I think has become part of my routine is that when we arrive at our next destination I "let things go" in a way. I know that once I need to start preparing for our next trip, I'll be packing things totally different, and I stress less over things by not worrying about keeping it all neat and organized for a week or two. Now that is NOT me! I am always so organized and keep everything so neat. But right now, until we get back to Connecticut, I am much more relaxed letting things just go until I need to prepare for the next trip. And, because of our consistent travelling and being on the go pretty much every day, that is what I need. When I was trying to keep it all together every day, I was stressing myself out and not getting much of a chance to relax. I've always been a perfectionist and although I thought I had been growing out of it, God has been working particularly on that area in my life. As I think about it, this is probably a good thing for me to be learning right at this time, because as our family starts growing, I am not going to be able to keep everything perfect every day. Now mind you, I'm not learning that it is okay to just leave everything here or there and not pick up after myself, I'm learning that everything doesn't have to be absolutely perfect all the time.

One thing is for sure, I'm always learning. There is always something new that the Lord is teaching me, and when it comes to marriage, that seems to be more true than ever! I know I will always be learning and growing in my marriage and I am just so thankful to have a Husband who is just as eager to learn and grow and is determined to keep our marriage focused on God. Marriage is not always easy because you have to communicate with someone else and you have to be willing to give up your selfish ways to include your spouse, but it is definitely the most wonderful thing in the world!

I am so excited to see all that the Lord has done just in the past 9 months and can't imagine all that he has in store for us in the next 9 months!

The above pictures were taken while we were waiting for some lunch after a signing last weekend.