Random Stuff

I guess I have missed filling you all in on our day-to-day lives, so I felt like blogging. The problem is, I don't really have much to talk about. But, I will give it my best shot.

Since finding out I was pregnant and enduring the sickness of the first trimester, I have not been responsible for many things around World Impact. The one thing that I did put my personal touch on was our recent 100 Hole Golf Marathon. Many of you that know me well might know that I know nothing about golf and really have no interest in the sport. But, I do know how to organize things, so that is where I helped. I helped with details stuff and coordinated things on the day of the event. Here is the picture postcard I created to send to all the people that financially supported the golfers. We are on the far right!Ryan has started teaching a class here! I am thrilled about it because he is loving it so much. The Urban Ministry Institute (TUMI) is a part of World Impact. Wichita has a TUMI satellite and the missionaries in Wichita teach the classes (well, those that are qualified...never fear, I will never teach a class). The satellite in Wichita is new and this is only the second class they have offered. Ryan is teaching The Old Testament Witness to Christ and His Kingdom. He has six students total. Four of them are fellow missionaries (including me) and the other two are community people that have a relationship with World Impact missionaries and are desiring to be in a more leadership position in their church. Here is a picture from our first day of class. That is me in the cute yellow and black maternity top, but my back was itching right when she took the picture. Oh well.Since I don't work outside the home much, I have tried really hard to be a good housewife. Ryan comes home for lunch everyday and I like to have it ready when he walks in the door. And, I have gotten more adventurous with my cooking skills. I am still learning. I was a pretty good cook in college because I did most of the cooking. But, once we were married, I quickly realized Ryan was the better cook and gave in to the life of a dish-washer. Well, now I am both. But, I don't have a picture to share of myself cooking. However, I do have this great photo. The stove we were given for our house was previously cooked on and took some special cleaning. However, I could never get the stove drip pans (what are those things really called) sparkling clean and I like them to be sparking clean. So, I invested in some new ones and thought you should see them too. The old, dirty ones in the middle don't look too bad in the picture, but they just wouldn't come clean. I promise!
One last thing...
Have you ever had sour towels? Oh, I despise sour towels. We don't even live in a wet climate, but it is our tiny little bathroom that causes me this frustration. The bathroom is so small that the towel rack was hung behind the door. So, when we are finished in the bathroom and leave the door open, as one would naturally do, the towels are smushed (yes, that is a word) behind the door. It took me a while to put two and two together, but that was causing the terrible smelling towels. So, I got out the tape measure, found another place for the towel rack. Got my screwdriver set (yes, Ryan bought me one because he was tired of me using his) and went to work on my bathroom. It isn't ideal. I would love to redo that whole bathroom (but that will never happen). However, I am hopeful for fresher smelling towels. Maybe if I can remember, I will do a little scientific study and sniff them for you each day and report back later!

Smushed Towels


Unsmushed Towels


Pregnancy News: We go for our 16 week appointment next Monday, so we will have some news for you then. Right now, my tummy is just getting bigger and bigger!

Christmas Came Early

I love the Christmas season. I love buying gifts for others and (I must be honest), I love opening gifts too. I have a good friend in Dallas named Jill who welcome her third child to their family this past May. She has no plans for more children, so I asked if I could have her maternity clothes. She was thrilled to send them to me and yesterday, I was thrilled to receive them! My closet has just grown exponentially. Thanks, Jill!

But, there was just one problem with getting all these wonderful clothes: laundry. I did eight loads of laundry yesterday and have one more to go today plus the sheets. Friday is my usual laundry day, so I had all the new stuff and our week's worth of laundry. I guess it was a good problem to have. Now, I can see my glaring pile of ironing. I know many of my friends don't iron, but I do! I hang-dry all my clothes or else the legs of pants get too short or the arms of shirts get too short. The pain of being slightly taller than the average woman.


This weekend we tried a little Wichita culture by going to the Wichita State University Volleyball game. I love volleyball and we have heard that the Lady Wheat Shockers (you don't hear that name in Texas) are very good. The tickets were cheap and the parking was free - even better. We knew the team color was a very bright yellow because we have seen it in every store at the check-out counter, but that day we just both happened to wear red, not really thinking about going to the game. And, neither of us have any yellow. We got to the game and realized that we were two of maybe ten people NOT in Shocker Yellow. Oops. If we go again, we might invest in a Wal-Mart $4 Shocker t-shirt. We took the picture to hopefully remind us of just how wrong our Cougar Red (University of Houston) looked among the Shocker Yellow. The picture is mostly our faces, so you don't really get a good view of just how much yellow was in the stadium, but you can imagine.


Pregnancy Update: Morning sickness ended just after 12 weeks, so that was a great change. My struggle now is that there is no real evidence that I am pregnant. I can't tell that my belly is getting bigger each day and I don't visit the toilet anymore, so what 'proves' that I am pregnant? I am just anxiously waiting for my next appointment (Oct 8) to hear the heartbeat again. I do feel pretty normal though - almost normal amount of energy and not starving all the time. I still forget everything, so I try to write it down. Even yesterday at the grocery store, with a list in hand of only five items, I would look at this list, take a couple of steps and then have to stop and look at the list again. Crazy!

First Baby Gift and Losing My DVR

FUN! Baby Carter received his/her first gift today. My grandma sent this gorgeous blanket for the baby in which he/she can come home from the hospital. The pictures don't do it justice because it is so soft. I love it! I have been telling everyone that I want pink if it's a girl and blue if it's a boy, no green and yellow. So, my grandma bought white! I think that is hilarious. This will be her first great grandchild! I hope she continues to feel the need to shower my baby with gifts (I know you read my blog Grandma!).
In other pregnant news, I have lost my internal DVR. We don't own a DVR for the TV, I am talking about my memory. I have always been known as the person that can remember anything - just ask Ryan how that works when we disagree on what one of us said :) I can rewind any instance and play it back for you as if you were right there when it happened. But, not anymore. At work, I have been forgetting to do things or confusing what people said to me. It is driving me crazy. I have not forgotten that I usually don't forget things! But, I was so relieved when I opened my daily email from WhatToExpect.com entitled Forgetfulness:

Forget about it: Pregnancy forgetfulness isn't in your imagination. Like so many other pesky pregnancy symptoms, it's in your hormones (and there are studies to back that up — just in case your partner doesn't buy that there is a legitimate physical cause you neglected to pick up his prescription on the way home). Even the most organized type A personality can take a disconcerting turn for the scatterbrained during pregnancy.

(I can't seem to turn off the italics) I felt better about myself after reading that. I have many friends that were recently pregnant and I heard them talk about this. I must admit, I thought they were just making excuses. But, I sincerely apologize to all of them now, because I am a believer - pregnancy makes me forget everything.

Other than that, my belly keep growing and we are getting more and more excited. Ryan finally said to me this week, "You are really starting to look pregnant!" I tired to suck in my tummy and it didn't go very far! I have embraced the joys of pregnancy and love shopping for maternity clothes - even though I usually don't buy. I don't want Ryan thinking I spend all his hard-earned money at once.

Brief Fright

Ah, in all my preparation and trying to plan for everything, I was not quite ready for this doctor's appointment. Ryan and I just got home from my 12 week appointment with my doctor. At first, the nurse thought my blood pressure was too high. She took it again and it was fine. Whew. Then, she was listening for the heart beat and she kept listening and listening and listening and nothing! I was getting scared! It seemed like forever. She changed machines and tried again. Nothing. A tear slid down my cheek as I realized I hadn't thought about the "what if's" of this situation.

So, they moved me into the sonogram room and my doctor came in to try to listen. She and Ryan thought they both heard the heartbeat, but I couldn't hear it. She did an actual sonogram to let me hear it and it was loud and clear! And a bit fast because mom's heart rate was through the roof by this time! I'm even getting a little emotional as I sit and type this. It was scary. But, all is well with Baby Carter. We got to see him/her moving all over the place which was fun. His/Her little arms and legs were pretty spastic. Oh, another thing, my hemoglobin level was just barely in the safe zone, so she told me to start taking iron pills just to be careful of getting anemic. I don't care how many pills I have to take as long as it keeps that little heart beating strong!

By the way, I really like my doctor. She is very kind and seems to really care (even though she probably doesn't even remember me yet) and they are very fast. I have always been accustomed to waiting about 30 minutes to even get back to a room and then another half hour sitting there in those lovely paper clothes while my toes are freezing. At this doctor (I have been twice now) and we were in and out of the office in 30 minutes total! And, they are cloth clothes, not paper. Life is good!So, I thought I couldn't blog this long without a picture to keep you interested. We just took this picture of ourselves standing in our backyard. We are wearing jackets! Yes, today is September 8 and we have had yet another cold front come through and it is currently 64 degrees outside. We love it! It has been very cool for a couple of weeks now. We even made a soup and some chili over the weekend while we watched the US Open.

My next doctor's appointment is in 4 weeks. It will just be a regular appointment and then I will probably have another sonogram at 18 weeks and then we will be able to find out the gender!
Keep praying for Baby Carter!

Gettin' Bigger

8 Week Belly & 12 Week Belly (and a haircut)

I am not very good at blogging yet. I will practice and try to get better!