You Might Be Pregnant If... #2

My list continues, back by popular demand :)

First, HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMES! I love you so much!

Ok... now for the pregnancy humor...

You might be pregnant if:


*You start identifying with "Sam" (from Lord of the Rings) with wanting six full meals instead of just three. Currently I can't remember his clever names for them... second breakfast, etc...

*Instead of avoiding maternity sections in clothing stores for fear of someone asking when you're due, you go straight there and wait for somebody to recognize you.

*Clothing that shows off how big your tummy is becomes pretty appealing.

*For the past three months you've had constant nausea. Then in the space of 36 hours it's completely gone but replaced with random bouts of heartburn and indigestion.

*There seem to be a lot more commercials about stretch mark creams... and you pay close attention to the differences among all the products.

*Speaking of stretch marks... yesterday you didn't have any and today you wake up and find twelve.

*Inappropriate topics of conversation become commonplace, even with complete strangers ("how much weight have you gained?" "wow, what bra size is that?" "wait, HOW old are you?")

*Everybody and their mother has an opinion about what/how you should be eating/wearing/carrying/exercising/etc. Note, this is helpful information when it asked of a trusted friend or family member, but the voluntary suggestions and the chiding is getting old already! And I've heard it only gets worse when the baby gets here...

*You seem to be in training for the loss of your personal space (preparation for the human-jungle-gym function of motherhood, I believe) while adults routinely walk um and touch your stomach and check out your chest. (I don't think I'll mind this when we can feel the baby moving, but right now you're just massaging my flab, people)

*You have to pee as frequently as a toddler who's potty training.

*Your students start each class by asking "how's the baby?" and "are you going to name him/her after ME?!?"



And for those of you who are into food cravings... I don't currently "crave" anything, but any and all carbs sound great! Particularly potatoes and corn. And I love drinking milk. Salads taste great when I eat them but I have an unusually short attention span for chopping everything up (bought a bagged salad to try to help that...)

And now I'm off to my day of errands and appointments... looking forward to Texas Caviar with James tonight but a little unsure of how that's going to work with my confused little digestive system!

This is the day that the LORD has made, let us rejoice and BE GLAD in it!

Sarah

Texas Caviar

James' birthday is this Tuesday, March 23rd (so is my sister, Grace's, and my dad's is the 24th... March is a busy month :). So like any good wife would do, I asked him what he wanted for his birthday dinner/cake/etc.

While I was in Chicago, our friend Kathy gave him half of a huge cake she made. He called me in Chicago specifically to tell me how awesome it was (ps - Kathy told me it's the recipe on the back of the Hershey's cocoa powder box, topped with whipped cream and chocolate ganache.) So since Kathy's cake was so amazing, he told me not to make him a birthday cake.

No cake. Got it. What do you want for dinner?

Um.... Texas Caviar.

Sure! What do you want to go with it? I can do tacos or burritos or enchiladas or we can grill something...

Nope, just Texas Caviar. With Lime Tostitos.

Really?

Yep.

Do you want cinnamon buns for breakfast, or I could bake something and you could take it to school with you...

Nope. Just Texas Caviar with Lime Tostitos.

Um, ok... whatever you want!



So, for those of you who have not tried the Texas Caviar that James is so ardently in love with, the recipe follows here. Please note, that the original recipe is from our friends Robin and Aaron (and Evan and Baby #2) in Austin, but I've added more corn and fresh celery at the end (which makes it a little sweeter and adds crunchy texture). I've seen other variants with red onion and cilantro but haven't tried those yet.

1 can black eyed peas
1 can pinto beans
1 can black beans
1 can Mexicorn
1 small jar pimentos, chopped
1 1/2 cup celery, chopped, divided
1/2 cup frozen sweet corn

Marinade:
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup cider vinegar
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 Tbsp water
1 cup sugar

Rinse and drain beans. Dump beans, Mexicorn, pimentos, and 1 cup celery into a large Tupperware-type bowl. Boil all marinade ingredients until sugar has been dissolved and you can smell the vinegar start to boil off. Pour over bean mixture. Cover tightly and refrigerate overnight (or for a day and a half to two days, depending on when you have time to make it :). Drain marinade off and add remaining 1/2 cup celery and frozen corn before serving. Serve cold (frozen corn is especially great for keeping it chilled if you're serving at an outside picnic) with tortilla chips (James' favorite is Lime Tostitos but I prefer Fritos). It also works really well as a side salad and fits in the gluten-free and all-raw diets that some friends have.

Enjoy! And happy birthday, James!

What's with this weather?

Most of you already know that I picked the "coldest" winter/spring in Houston (in my short experience here) to purchase a tropical fruit tree. The winning foliage is a Mars Naval Orange tree - known for sweet, juicy fruit with low acidity. I had specific instructions to keep it inside when there is a threat of freezing temperatures (which is funny since I bought it at 11am on the coldest Saturday all year - it was only 40 degrees in the sun that day!) but by early March it should be warm enough to plant in my yard. So for two months it's been doing a do-see-do from the front yard to the garage to our living room.

I returned from Chicago on Tuesday to find low 70's, sun, and a very pleasant breeze in Humble, TX... perfect weather for planting a tropical tree :) Thanks to our friends Kevin and Kirk and my sweet husband, I went to Lowes and bought pots, dirt (who pays for dirt?!?), vegetable plants, and "moisture control beads" (for when it's super hot in July/August and ground moisture evaporates before your very eyes). A few hours outside in the beautiful weather resulted in my first garden - Roma, Beefsteak, and Grape tomatoes, red bell pepper, broccoli, thyme, mint, rosemary, and sweet basil (and the orange tree) - complete with birds chirping and sunlight filtering through the pine trees making a quaint speckled pattern on my grass. Oh the joys of spring!

Last night it got down to 36 degrees.

Right now it's raining and tonight it's supposed to be 35 degrees.

SO..... out come the beach towels and light blankets to wrap up the plants. Grace woke up to an inch of snow on the ground... apparently this weather pattern goes all the way from the Gulf up to the Great Lakes. (does anyone else feel the need to hear Al Gore's voice talking about global warming at this point?)

Chicago, Chicago, that toddling town...

Well it sure was an adventure getting here, but it was worth it to visit Grace! The saga started with a haz-mat spill on the highway outside my school which delayed dismissal. Another teacher watched my kids so I could get on the road and an hour later (after taking the mustang off-roading to make a u-turn) I actually got on the highway 1.5 miles from my school. Barely made it to the airport in time to grab dinner and had a great chat with a lady and her family on their way back from visiting their soon-to-be adopted daughters in Central America (they were the first 5 people on the 40 person stand-by list - so glad I didn't miss my flight!). After gate-checking my bag and not the smoothest flight I've ever taken, I arrived safely in Chicago, exchanging the new 75 degree sunny weather in Houston for 45 degrees and rain.

Grace and Mom went shopping for maternity clothes for me when Grace was in PA for spring break last week - so I did a fashion show while Grace opened birthday gifts. Thanks Mom and Grace!

Today after church we took a much-needed nap and then Matt and Grace drove me into Chicago for a tour of the city. Saw lots of neat things like Wrigley Field and several buildings and roads used in the recent Batman movie. We ended the day with Chicago deep dish pizza, a chocolate chip cookie pizza complete with whipped cream and ice cream for Grace's birthday, and just took her birthday cakes out of the oven. Tomorrow it's off to church for Grace's internship, class, more shopping, band rehearsal, and probably food in there somewhere!

In other news, my nausea is subsiding (praise God!) but is being replaced with heartburn and dizziness. The adventure continues! What a blessing it is to have daily reminders of the miracle happening inside me... otherwise I'd have to look at the ultrasound photos all the time to convince myself that I'm pregnant :) I can't wait to feel the baby moving!

You might be pregnant if...

Ok, so you know those great "you might be a redneck if..." one-liners? (I grew up in PA, people, we read them all the time.) Well, I'm going to do a couple for my pregnancy symptoms. Enjoy. And then write some of your own in the "comment" section at the bottom...

You might be pregnant if...

#10. …you eat a regularly sized meal and 45 min later are ready to have another one.

#9. ...the solution to nausea is to eat something, even though that's the LAST thing it feels like you should do.

#8. ...your nose and your stomach are continually at war. (sinus congestion makes me nauseated and gagging usually induces the need to blow my nose).

#7. ...your husband says you're extra crazy but is afraid to give specific examples...

#6. ...the bra you bought 3 weeks ago is now completely wrong.

#5. …there are some hilarious symptoms that belong on this list but they’re so embarrassing you just can’t bring yourself to publish them on the internet...

#4. ...you open a fresh steak to cook for your husband (who still likes to eat normal things) and the smell of the raw beef is so overwhelmingly delicious you try to justify eating it raw by comparing it to ordering a rare steak at a restaurant, and then get so grossed out at yourself you throw it under the broiler and run out of the kitchen to prevent taking a bite right then.

#3. ...you suddenly find it easier to decide where the line between "moderately annoying" student behavior and "unacceptable and deserving of a detention" is, and start writing detentions with a vengeance.

#2. ...suddenly ultrasound photos are the most beautiful things you've ever seen.

#1. ...you have waves of exhaustion completely unrelated to the amount of activity you've had during the day. (I fell asleep on the toilet a few days ago. what?!?!?!)

September 2010 = awesome month :)

It's official... I get to become a new Mom and a new Aunt in the SAME MONTH! How fantastic is that?!? I just saw the ultrasound of my new niece or nephew (whose mommy and daddy's names will remain anonymous right now because I don't know whether they're posting this info online yet... I figure between my married brother and James' married siblings there are enough options to throw you interested people for a loop, and if you already know then you already know :P ) This baby is due 3 weeks before mine... it's exciting that we'll have cousins so close together! (and as Jackie mentioned, if baby niece/nephew is late and I'm early, they could even share a birthday!)

ANYWAY, their ultrasound is amazing! It looks like a photo from a medical textbook - perfect little profile shot of the head, body, arms, legs, cord, etc. The baby (also dubbed "he" by "his" parents until otherwise known) is 13 weeks right now and he's so beautiful! Ok, I know, only pregnant women and grandparents think ultrasounds are beautiful/precious/cute/etc... we understand if other people aren't as awed by them as we are... but for those of us going through this major life change, it's just awe-inspiring to see a little tiny person being knit together by our loving creator inside our own bodies. It's kind of surreal.

My ultrasound still looks kind of alien-like. And I was even amazed by that one... I can't wait to see the next one when my baby will look more like his cousin does right now.

Isn't it amazing? Conception, pregnancy, and birth are such a miracle and we take them for granted so often! This is creation, people! These two babies didn't exist last November and now they do. They are brand new people who, although we have yet to meet them and give them names, are already intimately known by Jesus as He knits them together in our wombs. Praise God for his loving-kindness to us! May we be reminded of God's awesome power and majesty displayed in Creation and then awed by His tenderness in the delicacy of a new born baby.

Praise the Lord, oh my soul!

Please Pray for Katy & family

I'm writing this morning to ask all of you to continue to pray for my friend Al's wife Katy. Al is the percussion teacher at my school and his wife has been in critical condition for the past three weeks after delivering her third child. Praise God the baby is healthy and Katy is still alive! Al keeps a blog updating how Katy is doing (the link is under my blog list to the right).

For those of you who don't know about the situation at all, Katy had a very rare complication with type A strep. This particular problem only happens in 0.02% of all cases of women who even have that strain of strep to begin with. Usually it's dangerous for the baby, not the mom, so doctors/midwives test women going into labor and if it comes back positive the mom takes some antibiotics to protect the baby. Well, Katy's test came back negative three times. However, after baby Arielle was born the strep "kicked in" and attacked her uterus and colon.

After a few days she started having a lot of pain so she went to the ER. These events followed (if you have a weak stomach, please skip this paragraph, especially the end!): renal failure, septic blood, dialysis, toxic shock syndrome, emergency surgery (removal of colon, uterus, part of bowls = only 5% chance of making it through surgery), medically induced coma, naturally occurring coma, blood complication (I forget the name - blood thins and clots at the same time causing major clots in the extremities and the rest of the blood is so thin that it seeps through porous membranes, skin included), possible stroke during coma, MRI showing no stroke, woke up from coma and was coherent and able to respond to questions, lots of pain = medically induced coma, move to new facility (Dallas), dangerous situation with toxins from her extremities leading to the amputation of all four limbs (one arm below the elbow, all others just above the major joint). After last Friday's amputation surgery she was able to wake up and respond again to questions and conversation. She had follow-up surgery for the amputations on Monday and again today. She isn't breathing on her own yet but they are hopeful that she will be able to by next week so they are delaying a possible tracheotomy. They are now looking in to being able to move her back to Houston.

So again, please pray for Katy, Al, and their family. They have a daughter in high school, son in young elementary school, and the new baby. The outpouring of support for this family has truly been amazing. Katy and Al are both self-employed and uninsured so this is a very stressful time financially as well (there are details of how to contribute financially on Al's blog if you are so inclined).

I've been the main contact on campus up until Al started blogging, so pretty much any time I walk through the hallway I get stopped and asked for an update or for a listening ear while the faculty tries to cope with this situation. Please pray that I would have the words God wants them to hear from me when I speak with them. A few of our students found out the details yesterday and one came to my office with the horror of it clearly on her face. This is what I told her, and what I tell you as you think and pray for Katy:

When I found out last Friday about the surgeries Katy was having this week, I started praying for several things: First, that God would put Katy on my heart throughout the day that I would be reminded to pray for her (physically and spiritually); Second, that after I finish each prayer that God would protect my mind from obsessively thinking over the details and that He would protect my mind as I sleep that I wouldn't have nightmares about this; Third, that God would fill Katy with love and forgiveness and compassion for Al to prepare her for when she finds out what has happened to her and that ultimately this would lead to their salvation; and Finally that God would protect the new baby in order that her family would love her and bond with her and blame her for her mother's illness.

Thank you for your prayers for this family. Praise God for his sovereignty and that he will be glorified in everything, even when we don't understand.

Photos soon... I promise!

Yes, I will at some point upload a picture of my belly-baby (disclaimer here - we don't currently know the gender of the baby, but in the effort to not refer to him as "it" we will henceforth refer to the baby as "he," unless/until we find out otherwise/officially)...

We have a picture from 6 weeks, where he looks like a little peanut and a few from 9 weeks in which he actually has body parts. Watching the 9 weeks ultrasound was AMAZING! Not only was his little heartbeat clearly visible, but he waved his little hands, kicked his little feet, and nodded his head! It was incredible... the best possible thing since he's still far too small for me to feel him (even growing 1mm per day - no wonder I'm tired - he was only 25mm last week during the ultrasound... at this point he should be about 2 inches long). SO looking forward to hearing the heartbeat on the "doppler" (I still don't actually know what that is, just the mysterious thing that everyone refers to in reference to hearing the baby's heartbeat). I know seeing it should be better, but I'm a musician and can't wait to hear that little thump thump thump! And even more, I can't wait until I feel him move! It should be sometime around my birthday at the end of April :) What a great birthday present to look forward to!

So... I'll get on the photo upload soon... in the mean time, here's a photo of me and James on the first day I went off birth control. That may weird people out, but I was excited :) And I didn't tell James why we were taking a photo until afterward because otherwise he wouldn't have posed with me :P

Oh the Pressure!

So I've finally started the blog I've been talking about starting for about 4 years and now I can't decide what to make my first post about. The pressure! The pressure! What do I write about?

Seriously? I'm pregnant... there are lots of bizarre things happening to me that would make you crack up laughing if I wrote them down. Except I can't remember any of them right now. Isn't forgetfulness a pregnancy symptom?

Well, one thing's for sure - every day is an adventure! Praise God for the miracle of creation He's performing in me right now! What an amazing experience :)