26 weeks

So today I'm at 26 weeks, and I can tell I'll be getting into the 3rd trimester soon. All of the things I've read refer to the 2nd trimester as the golden age of pregnancy. You typically are over the "morning" sickness and you aren't so big that you're uncomfortable. For the last few weeks, off and on, I've noticed some swelling in my feet. I thought maybe I needed to limit my sodium, because I realized I was eating things with quite a bit of sodium, so I thought maybe that was causing me to retain more water. But even today, my feet were swollen. I know it's normal, but now I'm starting to get nervous about just how big I'll end up getting. Most people say with a girl you gain all over. Great. I've also been hearing from more people lately that they think I am pretty big for how far along I am. This was all of a sudden, as for a while I was hearing how small I looked. I know everyone's pregnancy is different, but I do try to compare when I see others' pictures. But I guess all that matters is whether the baby is healthy, right? But I'm also starting to feel just slight discomforts. I feel like it's the beginning of all that you hear, and everyone's ready to get the baby out of them. Well, we'll just see what happens.

I'm almost finished with work for the summer. I go in on Monday, which is my last day. Then I'll be able to focus more on preparing for Emery. I have a lot to look forward to in the summer. There are a couple of showers planned, I'll be having a couple more sonograms, I've scheduled a maternity shoot with my brother-in-law, and we'll be going to the beach for a weekend with Jason's family. But best of all, my sister and nieces are visiting from Germany. She'll be here for one of my showers, and I just can't wait. Last summer she was trying to get here, but ended up only in town for a couple of days before she had to go to Texas for a wedding. But this time, they've bought a ticket rather than fly space available, so it's pretty much certain. So that will be nice to be out of school and get to hang out with them while they're here.

I'm also hoping to get a little more exercise in over the summer. I keep saying I plan to live in my parents' pool. It just sounds so refreshing, especially considering how hot it will be this summer. I keep hoping I can keep my weight gain to a reasonable amount. So far I have, but this week, I've noticed the numbers are starting to creep up a little higher than I'd like. Here is my 26 week belly.

26 weeks

I guess it really isn't that big after all. I have been getting on the elliptical, but not as much as I probably should. It's just when my feet swell, my shoes hurt them, and it's not that comfortable. That's another thing about the pool. I keep reading that swimming is a good exercise when you're pregnant, so I'm looking forward to that.

I'm still enjoying feeling Emery move. I usually feel her the most when I'm laying in bed, but lately I've been feeling her at other times, too. Jason finally felt her, too. Well, when I pointed it out, he said he'd been feeling that for a while now, so I guess he just didn't realize it was her when I asked if he had felt her.

So we have been doing more house renovations. Well, really, Jason and his dad have. They painted the house, put in a new door, and are putting in new windows. They've done most of the rooms' windows, the last one is our Florida room, which has 9 windows. But it looks really good. I'll have to post more when all of the windows are in, but this is the idea.

I am thankful for a handy husband and the help of his dad. They've done a good job!

Oh-one more baby-related thing. We take our childbirth prep class on Saturday. I'm kind of looking forward to it, just to know more about what to expect when the baby is born. So that's where things are right now. All in all, pretty good!

This year so far...

Most of the people who actually read this blog are my friends in real life and/or on facebook, so this shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, but I'm pregnant. I wanted to capture more of my thoughts about this then I'm able to on facebook. I also figure I'll have more to write about now that I'm having a baby, so that may be good for keeping up with this blog. (I feel like all of my posts lately have been talking about how long it's been since I last blogged.) Needless to say, that is what most of my year has consisted of, so here's the scoop:

Jason and I were finally comfortable with the idea of trying to have a child. We wanted to try to time it as close to the end of the school year as possible (as if we're in control of that), so I would have the summer break as a built-in maternity leave. Once we passed that, I knew that we would conceive whenever God wanted us to, so I was just excited to see when it would happen. There is this song that Prestonwood Choir sings, which I love ("God (You Are My God)"). The words start, "Oh, Thou who knowest my beginning, Thou who created the plan. Who orchestrated my life's journey, God, you are my God." (I love the concept of God orchestrating things in my life, hence the title of this blog.) Anyway, I kept thinking about how God would know my baby's beginning, even before I knew of it. How cool is that?

In the middle of January, I started to suspect that I may be pregnant. I had been tracking my temperature, and based on that, I was thinking that I may be. I told Jason that I was planning to take a pregnancy test the next day. So on the morning of January 16, I got up and took the test. It immediately flashed the word "pregnant." Gulp. Now, even though I had been wanting this for a few months now, I think I sort of felt like, "Oh, no, it really happened." Not that I didn't want it or anything, I think all of a sudden all of these nerves and fears shot through me. I went back to bed, where Jason was, and I just said, "I am." All he said was, "You are?" It was surreal. Of course, once we got up, he immediately modified the budget for this year. We also moved some of the furniture out of the baby's room. (That is definitely one of Jason's strengths--he gets things done right away.)

My original plan was that I didn't want to tell anyone, not even our parents, that we were pregnant until I was 12 weeks. Partly to make it to the "safer" time, and partly to do something creative to tell them. Well, the more the day went on, I just wanted to be able to share the news with them. So we decided to call our parents and tell them our news. Of course, they were so excited. And I probably wouldn't have been able to get done the creative way of letting them know anyway.

One of the main things that I remember thinking at that point was that I knew things were going to totally change, even though I didn't fully comprehend how. Also, I knew my body was going to totally transform, in a way I couldn't imagine. It was weird knowing that something was in there and not coming out until after all these huge changes occurred. And even then, things would never be like they were before. From what I've read, that's totally a normal feeling. Of course, there's excitement, but there's a lot of fear of the unknown, too.

Soon after I found out I was pregnant, I already started to feel queasy. That is definitely not the fun part of being pregnant. I'd say my "morning" sickness (which was pretty constant) lasted for about 6 to 8 weeks. Thankfully, I was not one of the minority who are sick throughout their whole pregnancy.

It didn't fully hit me, though, until my 8-week sonogram, the first peek we had at our baby. As soon as I saw that picture and realized that that was inside me, it was just a weird feeling. I did tear up, especially knowing that the baby was measuring at the appropriate size. It was at that point that I let my friends know and announced it on facebook. Before that point, I had figured we were having a boy, but after seeing the little peanut picture, I started thinking of the baby more as a girl. By the time we found out, I was pretty sure it was a girl.

First photo of the baby

I was so excited for my mother-in-law to find out, because since she has 2 sons and a grandson, she was itching to have a granddaughter. We had had an early peek from my friend and former roommate, and although she didn't give us a definitive, she was pretty sure that it was a girl. We didn't tell people at that point, but waited until my 16-week sonogram. My mother-in-law, Barbara, was there for that. It was funny, because when the scan first started, she was referring to the baby as "he." She told Jason, "I think he has your foot." Then, when the tech said she was leaning toward a girl, Barbara said, "What?!" She asked us if that's what Debra told us. When we said it was, she gave out a little scream. Jason joked that everyone at the doctor's office knew what we were having. It was so fun to see, though!

It's a girl! (16 weeks)

 

We've decided on the name Emery Elizabeth. We've actually had the name for about 4 and a half years. Jason's grandfather was named Emory. It's also Jason's middle name. He told me about 6 months after we were married that he wanted to use the name Emory for either a boy or a girl. I've always wanted to use Elizabeth for a middle name, since that's my grandmother's first name (she goes by her middle name, though.) So when he said that, I immediately thought Emery Elizabeth would be such a pretty name. So I've been hoping for over 4 years that we would have a girl so that I could use this name. And sure enough, that's what we're getting!

16 week profile. Isn't she cute?

As we get our nursery together more, I'll update and post more pictures on here. I'm now at 23 weeks, and I'm definitely a lot more ready for these changes. I know I'm not fully prepared. I hear you never really are, though. But I can't wait to see what she looks like, which of us she favors, what her personality is going to be, and all of that. Within the last week I've been feeling her move a lot more, which is really cool, as everyone has told me. Then last week, I read these verses from Psalm 139:13-16. I've heard them for years, but they definitely take on a different meaning now. "You made my whole being; you formed me in my mother's body. I praise you because you made me in an amazing and wonderful way. What you have done is wonderful. I know this very well. You saw my bones being formed as I took shape in my mother's body. When I was put together there, you saw my body as it was formed. All the days planned for me were written in your book before I was one day old." Again, knowing that God knows all of the days of Emery's life, already, even as she is still being formed inside of me, it's just really comforting. And amazing!

What's Goin' On

I've been thinking about blogging for a while, I just haven't taken the time to do it. Mostly I've been doing photo stuff, or I've been reading, so I just hadn't had the blog on the top of my priority list.

One thing I have been wanting to blog about is the fact that I am back at all elementary schools in my job. (The last 2 school years I have been at 1 elementary and a middle school.) I wanted to try out middle school to see what it was like. The first year was good. I did more counseling (it's mostly testing and problem-solving for interventions in elementary) and I liked the kids I saw. But the second year was a little more stressful and the kids I had to counsel weren't as receptive. I decided I am more comfortable and skilled with the problems of elementary school, rather than the issues of middle school. So, even though I'm REALLY busy at both elementary schools, I am enjoying work so much more! I hate to say it, but it got to where I was really dreading going in those days last year. The best thing about it was that I got to go in an hour later. Of course, I had to stay an hour later, too, so that part wasn't as fun. Bottom line: work is going well.

I can't believe it's already Christmas again. I hate to sound old, but time really does go by faster the older you get. But, this was the first year that I was not in Idlewild's Christmas presentations since I started singing in them in 1988. Last year I was still in it, even though we had already started going to Grace. I welcomed the extra time this year, but the presentation had a story line, which are my favorite kind. We went to see it last week, and I have to admit, I teared up a bit a couple of times, just from the nostalgia, and that initial feeling of "I should be up there." It was so great to see people, including some that are back after having been gone for years. It was a fun night.

Christmas came early for the Johnsons this year. I decided that I really wanted a DSLR camera, so Jason decided that we should get it before Thanksgiving. (He said this was so I would know how to use it by Christmas, when I would want to get good pictures.) I got a Canon Rebel T1. I also was able to get the newest version of Photoshop, so I was very excited. (Since I work for the school system, I was eligible to get the student/teacher version for much cheaper.) So, now I will be able to do some awesome scrapbook layouts of some great photographs taken with my wonderful camera. Yay!

I'm just going to say, I am loving the cold weather we are having right now. I honestly can't remember it ever getting into the 30s this often, before Christmas. Yeah, January and February it does, but the beginning and middle of December? I just wish I was already on break so I didn't have to get up and out in it. I wonder if this winter is going to be another extreme one like last winter was. I hope so, it's fun.

Pictures

Last post I said I would put up pictures of Desmond playing with my uncle's dog when I visited my grandparents. So here they are.

I think they had a good time. I had to put Desmond in his crate, though, because he wanted to continually play with Rusty, even though they were both tired.

I'll have to take him up there again some time. He needs to socialize with other dogs more.

We have been taking him to a training class at PetSmart. He is a stinker, though. He learns pretty quickly once he realizes he's getting a treat for it. But, boy, is he talkative. He comes in the store yelping so loudly. The other day one of our classmates said she knew that was us. How embarrassing. But I guess it's a schnauzer thing. Gotta love them.

Last post I also was hoping that Amy would make it for a visit, which she did, even though it was so short. They got on a plane in Germany last Saturday and flew to an air force base in Mass, then drove 20 minutes to a Connecticut airport to fly to Tampa. So they got here on Sunday. I saw them Sunday and Monday evening, then they flew to Texas for the wedding that Ben and Jordan are in. At least I got to see them for a little bit. I had said I wanted to be able to see Ava one more time before she turned 1, so I got to do that. I got some good pictures, though, which was good.

First me and my sister.

Then my niece, Jordan. What a little "poser."

Then this picture of Ava. SO cute!

My parents with their grandchildren. All of them are so cute.

Then just my nephews and nieces. Love this picture. Don't know the next time they'll all be together :(

The next day, Jason was with me, so I got this picture of him reading to Jordan. It was so cute, he was reading the wrong words on purpose, and she was laughing and correcting him. (She starts kindergarten this year, so she's more advanced than a lot of the kindergarteners I see in my schools.)

 

Lazy Days of Summer

Well, my summer is over, as of tomorrow. They go by so quickly now that I'm an adult. I'm not surprised. I knew going into it that it would be over before I knew it. Although, I have to say, in some ways it does seem like a long time. I was off for just under 8 weeks, and, yes, I know that most people only get 2 to 5 weeks off. And my husband always reminds me that I also get 2 weeks at Christmas, a week of spring break, a week (since this last year) at Thanksgiving, and a few single days in between.

I didn't do a ton of things this summer, but I really enjoyed it. We did go to Memphis for my family reunion on my mom's side. It was fun to see my cousin who I hadn't seen since high school. I also met her daughter and niece, who I had never met before. Jason and my dad played pool most of the time. My grandparents' farm is really nice. We were just there for the weekend, but it was relaxing. We went to Graceland when we flew in, which was interesting. I've been to Memphis many times, but I had never gone to Graceland, so I figured I might as well. First of all, the house was not nearly as big as I would imagine (by today's standards). Then, it was kind of weird to walk in there and see things the way they were back in the 70s when he died. I mean, I know that they wouldn't change it, but it just felt really weird to be in there. The decorations were very tacky, but at the same time, it was kind of cool to see. It was weird to see gift shops coming out of all the exhibits. It felt like being at a theme park. I wonder what Elvis would have thought if he had known his home (technically the gift shops were all across the street, but still) would be turned into that.

Jason had the rest of that week off, so we hung out at home, then went to Orlando for a few days. We didn't do Disney, but we did go to Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, and Sea World. It was so nice. We also got a good deal on a hotel room, so that made it even better. I definitely miss when we had our Disney passes and went over there all the time. Maybe one day we'll be able to do that again, but it doesn't seem to be in our near future.

I read a lot over the summer. If you haven't heard of the website goodreads.com, and you enjoy reading, you should check it out. It's a good way to find new books to read. You can also write reviews on books you've read, but I haven't done that too much yet. I think I'm too afraid that people will be critical of what I say. Yes, I'm that sensitive and care what people think of me. Maybe I'll get over it some day.

Of course, I also scrapbooked. I really worked a lot on my honeymoon album, that I tried to start last summer, but I wasn't as good at it then. I got a good amount done, and I feel like I've learned a lot about it at the same time.

I got together with a couple of good friends that I don't see that much anymore. I had a great time with both of them. It's cool how you can pick up where you left off. Of course, I wish that I did still see them, but going to different churches now and busy lives equals not much time for getting together.

I went to see my grandparents like I usually try to do. I brought Desmond with me, at my grandmother's request, so he could play with my uncle's dog, Rusty. More on this later, cause I want to post pictures, but I haven't taken them off my camera yet.

The one disappointment of the summer, was that I was hoping that my sister and the girls would get to visit from Germany. Because she's flying on a military plane, space available, she basically was on stand-by every day. She went to the airport for 12 days, with the girls, only to find out that she was not getting on the plane. I had no idea that it would be that unlikely for her to go, so I had expected to hang out with her for the last couple of weeks. Now, I'm hoping that she'll at least make it over with Ben and Jordan (they're flying to Texas for a wedding) for a couple of days so that I can at least see Ava one more time before she turns 1.

So all in all, it was a nice summer, even though not really exciting. Kind of lazy, but I need that sometimes. Especially since now that work is starting, there's no more time for laziness.

Monthly Challenges

In addition to participating in the Project Scrap Girls challenge, I also try to participate in Scrap Girls' monthly challenges, where they pick a different theme to scrap about. Note--I did participate in January's challenge, but I will post that later. February's challenge was to scrap about family. I really liked this quote that I had found by Gail Lumet Buckley, "Family faces are magic mirrors. Looking at people who belong to us, we see the past, present, and future." I decided to use pictures of me and Jason from when we were younger, along with pictures of our parents from around that same time. Then I used a picture of me and Jason from when we were engaged. I used Brandy Murry's Background Blenders for the layout design. That's what made all of the photo masks. I altered it a little, since there are 9 photo masks, set up like The Brady Bunch. If I had a child, I would have done a solo picture of Jason, me, and our child, but I guess that can be a future layout. The background paper is actually a combination of 2 from Trish Yochum's Mosaic Retreat. All of the embellishments also are from that collection. 

March's challenge was to scrap about a smile. My nephew, Kyle, had just lost his front tooth, so I thought that it would make an adorable layout. The polaroid template is from Brandy Hackman's Write It Down. The background paper is from Brandy Murry's The Bees Knees collection. The journaling tag and cut papers are from Amanda Sok's Watercolor Whimsy (the Assemble Your Own Zoom Page) collection. The letters that spell out "smile" is from her Watercolor Whimsy collection. The handwritten "Your Smile" is from Brandy Murry's By Hand word art, and the buttons are from Amanda McGee's Applique Flowers emellishment template.

For April's challenge, they said to scrap about silly pictures or antics. Well, I had already planned to one day do a layout featuring the MANY pictures I have where Jason is being goofy, making a silly face, etc. I figured this template by Syndee Nuckles was perfect for a lot of pictures like that. It's from the Quick Collage collection. All of the papers are from Chere Edwards' Bliss collection. The circle tag and bow also are from this collection. The word art "a playful expression" is from Amanda Sok's Watercolor Whimsy (Assemble Your Own Zoom Page).

Project Scrap Girls (March)

This was the first layout I posted for the 2010 Project Scrap Girls challenge. This was the first time I extracted a photo, and I really liked how it turned out. The pictures were from one day when we were at my in-laws' house, and my husband was playing with his nephew. You can tell how excited he was, just clapping Jason's hands while he would say "Boom. Boom." I really like using the film strip for similar pictures like I had, then for the one I caught of him looking right at the camera, I enlarged it and extracted. The film strip template is by Sarah Batdorf. The background papers and the template to blend them together are by Brandy Murry (The Bees Knees collection and Background Blenders II). The "March" letters are by Amanda Sok from her Watercolor Whimsy (this is the same for all of the March layouts).

My second layout, from my nephew's birthday party. For the red background paper I used a paper template from the Panagea collection by Durin Eberhart. The red and yellow paper also was a paper template from the Appassionata collection by Amanda Sok. The layout of the photos was from Caroline Kaiser's Squares and Strips collection. The letters for "4th" are from Trish Yocum's Mosaic Retreat collection. The other font is Glitter Font that I got from a website, but I don't remember where.

This layout was commemorating my birthday, even though it was a very low-key day. I didn't have a picture of me from that day, so I just took one of myself when I was doing this layout. It wasn't that great, but I wanted to try out this new action that I had bought from the site. An action is basically a bunch of steps that are saved together so that you don't have to remember all the steps. You can buy the actions to load into Photoshop. Originally, I hadn't wanted to buy anything that I would be able to do myself. However, I really don't know that much about the settings for certain things I am doing (like blurs or filters or things), so when someone has already figured it out for you, and it only costs a few bucks, then yeah, I'll buy it. So this was a sketching action, which just turns your picture into a sketch. But the settings include the color as you see. (It's from Brandy Murry's Sketch It 2). The paper and flowers were from Brandy Murry's The Bees Knees (I recolored the paper). The frame is from her The Bees KneesAssemble Your Own Zoom Page (also recolored). The ribbons are from her Wrapped Frames collection. The 37 is from her Nuptials collection. (If you couldn't tell, Brandy Murry is one of my favorite designers. Love her designs!) This layout also was the second one of mine that has won as a weekly layout winner in the Scrap Girls newsletter. Again, I was surprised, but excited.

Lots of birthdays in March for my family. This layout is about my niece's birthday. She lives in Germany, so we didn't get to celebrate it with her, but my sister sent me pictures. The background paper is from Trish Yocum's Mosaic Retreat collection (recolored). The layout template was from Caroline Kaiser's Squares and Strips. The other papers, the little flower in the frame, and the "5th" is from Amanda McGee's Gleeful collection. For the other font I used a glitter style by Cheryl Barber.

In January and February I did a good job of getting my 4 layouts posted on the site by the end of the month. But I got behind in March, mostly because all of my events were from the 20th and after. Then, I was waiting for my sister to send me the pictures of my niece, so the last layout wasn't done until April. Then I've been stuck on one April layout, so I am really behind now. Oh well. I definitely want to stick with it, because it will be nice to have a completed album for 2010 (whenever I choose to print it).