14 weeks = 2nd Trimester!

There's a bit of a difference between the beginning of 4 months (top) and the end of 2!

Misc. Pics

This is Travis being attacked by a dog. Tough guy.

My good friend Paige looking beautiful on her wedding day, and me in my wedding dress.

My favorite part of Denver - FOCUS missionaries (the one on the left is a former roomate, the male a former coworker and the one on the right a friend from Robert Bellarmine Newman Center).

Last night's dream

This is a good one:

I am a guest of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's as they join the Church and have their marriage blessed. The ceremony is in a small grey stone church in Tibet (there's mountains and besides, I just know it's Tibet, even though it looks more like Rome and all the locals look like Europeans). Brad looks like Brad but Angelina isn't really herself - she looks quite plain with smaller lips and a bigger nose.

It is not a normal Catholic Mass. In fact, it is a Tibetan service and some of the things make orthodox me uneasy. However, many of the brothers from the Community of St. John are there and none of them are saying anything. In fact, I am sitting right next to Fr. Joseph Mary and he looks pleased so I don't say anything.

Then, during the service a bunch more guests arrive (their plane just got in) including most of my mom's side of the family and a few people I went to high school with (Natalie W. and Tim M.). They crawl over everyone in the pews to get seats.

When the ceremony is over we all leave and suddenly I'm hanging out with two of my cousins. One of them, the incredibly slight Megan, tells me she is pregnant and though I am happy for her I begin to cry. I tell her through my sobs, "You'll just get a basketball belly and I'll be so FAT."

Whew...

Life has been so, so busy... Travel season is really in full swing for my job so I'm working in the suburbs, driving all over northern Illinois and when I'm in the office I'm more focused on catching up with all my work here and getting ready for the next day's travel that there's little time to blog (I mean, what's a lunch hour anyways?) Maybe one day we'll get the Internet at home and then I can blog there, instead of at my parents' house or on breaks at work.

I do have stories about my older brother's wedding in Colorado.

There's updates on the house.

I have a new picture of me and my belly (which is getting big - oh my!).

I'm still sick most of the time.

I'm still tired most of the time.

I feel like there's never enough stamps.

I'm appalled about Maine giving out birth control pills to middle schoolers.

I saw and loved 3:10 to Yuma and wish they'd make more Westerns.

I am a big fan of the new show Life on Wednesday nights.

I'm super glad Halloween is almost here.

Who's the Bigot?

Recently I was at an event where I was talking in a group of people, one of whom was a lesbian. The conversation turned towards religion and someone in the group made an ignorant, thought not disrespectful, comment about the Catholic faith. After I clarified the Church's teaching one of the people I was talking with asked if I was a very religious person.
"Yes," I said, "I'm the kind of person who has five friends who are all nuns."
When the lesbian heard this she looked at me with a bit of disgust, eyebrows raised. She whipped out her cell phone and began texting someone while shooting glances my way. She did not look me in the eye for the next 1/2 hour and would address everyone else except me when she spoke. This behavior was quite different from the friendliness she had previously shown me.
Perhaps she's had bad run-ins with Christians in the past, but I was the one who was being judged. I had nothing against her until she was rude.

The Doctor's Appointment

Wednesday was my first doctor's appointment with the baby. I got to hear the baby's heartbeat again (until she swam away) and had a small check-up.

The good news: the baby is healthy - I'm healthy - everything is normal and okay. Everything and one is growing like they should! And she said that I'm at 11 weeks instead of 10, which makes me very happy about how big my belly is getting!

My nurse practitioner (whom I love and almost want to name my child after) sat and talked with me for a long time answering all my questions and addressing all my concerns. One of the big ones Travis and I had was how the office handles Quad Marker tests that come back positive for a birth defect or Downs. We've heard stories of doctor's softly suggesting abortions for such children and, though we do not intend to have the test done, we still wanted to know what kind of people we were working with. I was soooo pleased that my np gave a disgusted "NOOOO" when I asked if they suggest abortions in any way. I chose this office based on the advice of several devout Catholic woman, and there's crucifixes in most of the rooms, so I'm glad to know that even though they give out birth control they're still pro-life in a lot of ways.

I must remember

Travis is my husband, not one of my girl friends.
I cannot expect him to have converstations with me like I would have with a girl friend.

I have to tell myself this at least once, almost every day. It's all part of that learning to be a newlywed thing.

Morning Sickness

This morning I called my doctor's office to find out what "excessive vomiting" is exactly.
The conversation went like this:

Me: I'm 10 weeks pregnant and I'm wondering what excessive vomiting it.
Nurse: How often to you get sick?
Me: 1-4 times a day.
Nurse: *chuckles* Oh, honey, you gonna be throwin' up a lot more than that! There's women who throw up 6,8 times a day. It ain't excessive until you can't pee!

Good to know.