2008

2008 has proven to be quite the eventful year - and probably the most eventful that we've had together so far as a married couple. Here are the highlights of the past year:

• The Big Move. We moved away from the town we met. Our first big move as a married couple. I learned I do not like moving (never really did anyway) but I learned that more conflicts seem to rise when a married couple has to move. Ha ha. We drove each other nuts through the whole moving process! I consider moving a great opportunity to work together as a team...but I don't want that particular opportunity again any time soon!

• New church. What a neat place to be a part of. Before Joel and I had even found this church, we had a mental "checklist" of characteristics in a church that we were looking for in the next church that we seeking. This new church fit our "checklist" to a tee. I love this place.

• New jobs. Joel got a job as an engineer and I got a job as a photographer in a studio. I learned a ton from the studio, but ended up quitting in the summer, due to repeated scheduling conflicts and the fact that we had big change coming our way...
• New adventure. I started doing free lance portrait photography outside of the studio. I had plans to move a little quicker in this business venture, but life interfered.
  
• Pregnant. Our long awaited baby was finally on his way into the world. Many people have assumed that this baby was an accident. But let me assure you that, we've planned this baby for YEARS. Before this baby was on his way, we wanted to make sure that we had plenty of time to spend together as a couple before adding children to the mix. I'm so glad we did. We now have confidence in our ability to work as a team and raise children. And the pregnancy timing was also planned. I planned on being pregnant through the winter to have a baby during the spring time. However, being pregnant wiped me out, and I found it difficult to accomplish my tasks and goals without a nap.

• Reunion. I had no plans to attend my 10 year class reunion, however was persuaded by a close high school friend. I'm so glad I went. I had a great time seeing several of my classmates from high school, regardless of the fact that I was not in the "popular" clique through high school. It also gave me a chance to prove to myself that I was no longer the same insecure girl that I was throughout high school. It was great to have a point of reference to measure my personal growth. I feel proud of myself.

• Halloween. Normally I could care less about this holiday, but this year I decided to take advantage of my "unique" condition. Joel and I dressed up like Juno and Bleaker from the movie Juno. It was hysterical and we had a great time.
  

• Holidays. Oh the holidays. Such a busy time of year, and once again, they were quite busy with various Christmas parties, Thanksgiving with my in-laws, Christmas with my family, and lots of celebrations in between. I was dreading the Holidays this year, due to my pregnant state and never knowing who was going to do what to draw attention to me and make me feel like the awkward pregnant woman that I already feel like. Fortunately for me, none of that happened. And I couldn't be happier. And I also made it a point to be more tolerant of people too - I even allowed someone at my husband's office Christmas party to rub my belly. I didn't even give them a dirty look. I should be rewarded.
  
• Anniversary!!! We celebrated our 4th anniversary this month. It was amazingly exciting for us - mostly because we were able to look at how far that we've come as a married couple and a team. This year has been such a great year for us, and moving provided a great opportunity to us to draw even closer together and solidify our team working skills. I'm so pleased to be married to Joel! And to celebrate our anniversary we ate at our favorite asian restaurant called the Banana Leaf, and then went for a very frigid walk (it snowed earlier that day) on the River of Lights (which is a Biological Park near a river completely decked out in lights for the Holiday season.)

We still have New Years to celebrate tomorrow before the year is officially over. Tomorrow we will be joining several people in our church for a progressive dinner. I'm totally looking forward to it. And you know what? I'm totally going to be honest here, I've caved in over the holidays and allowed myself to indulge in more holiday snacks then I probably should have...so after tomorrow, I'm back to my healthy eating again. I hope my holiday indulging doesn't effect me too much down the road!

4th Anniversary

Tomorrow is a special day for Joel and I. We will be celebrating our 4th wedding anniversary! I have to say that being married to Joel is one of the best things that ever happened to me. I love him so much more than I did when we first got married. He is my best friend, my spouse, my companion, my lover, my support system, still my original rival (in a fun loving non-destructive sort of way) and so much more. Now four years later, we've been through job changes, moved to a different city, changed churches, and are on our way to starting a family. Life hasn't always been easy. We've had some very difficult circumstances to deal with over those years (which have not all been mentioned), but I'm so glad we have each other to lean on (and of course, God!). I am happy. I am happy with my life. I am happy with my marriage. And I am more than happy to be carrying Joel's child. I couldn't have asked for a better man to have a baby with - and the best part is that I'm married to him! I look forward to what is in store for us. I look forward to the fact that our family of two will soon become a family of three. And I know that in a society filled with divorce and infidelity, no matter how hard things get, we have confidence that God will help us through every moment, and we will make it through. Just wait and see.


Here is proof that Joel is not as angelic as everyone thinks he is. This is just a taste of the real Joel.

Two Pictures

Two pictures to share, since I haven't put up any in a while. My photography website is currently down. (Boo) There's some kind of mix up that happened with my website's service provider. (Grr...) AND THEN they deleted my whole site. I'm sad about it. But this is the perfect opportunity to redo it even better. So hopefully we will have it up and running again soon. It may take a while, depending on how much time we can spend on it. But ANYWAY, here are two pictures I took in October at the Balloon Fiesta.

Toasty Sandwiches.

For those of you who went to college with me - Do you remember making a sandwich and then toasting it in one of the waffle irons in the cafeteria?? Lol! Those sandwiches were the BEST. Oh, how I loved those sandwiches - the melted cheese, the warm lunch meat, squished just right between two pieces of toasty bread. Ha ha. But the problem was, that putting the sandwiches into the waffle makers would ruin the coating on the waffle irons. (I have no idea how, but somehow it did) So then those who actually used the waffle irons to make waffles, would end up with waffles that would stick to the iron. You would have to scrape off the your waffle in pieces. It always ruined the waffles. But you know what? We wanted our sandwiches toasty from the waffle iron! So we kept on doing it. After a while, a sign appeared in front of all the waffle irons, telling us that we could no longer use the waffle irons to toast our sandwiches. The sign deterred us very little. We continued making our toasty sandwiches in the waffle iron. Then they put a cafeteria lady to stand guard over the waffle irons, to make sure we didn't use the waffle irons for our sandwiches. But when she wasn't looking, sometimes we would sneak them into the iron anyway. Eventually the cafeteria got some kind of toaster conveyor belt thing for our sandwiches. It helped for a while, but it didn't squish the sandwich the right way - back to the waffle irons. Ha ha! Those poor cafeteria people! We must have drove them nuts! Eventually they set aside a waffle maker designated for sandwiches. Now why in the world didn't they think of that in the first place? Good memories.

I was thinking about those lovely sandwiches last night, and kind of wished I could eat one of those again. But there was no way I was going to ruin my waffle iron to make a toasty sandwich! But then the thought occured to me - why not just use the George Foreman grill? So you know what? Today I made a toasty sandwich again - just like the kind of my college days - but with George Foreman grill. The cheese was melty, the lunch meat was warm, all squished between two slices of warm toasty bread. It was good. And I highly recommed it. Why didn't I think of this sooner?? So for those of you who would like to relive those silly college memories of those lovely sandwiches (or those who would like to try something new), I encourage you to try making one of those sandwiches on the George Foreman Grill! It's still good!!

And one more thing - since I'm on the subject, I think I want one of those new George Foreman Grills! They look so cool and you can make so many things on them. I have no idea why I'm sharing this with you. I just am.

A Kicking Baby & Santa Claus

Tonight I feel like Levi is trying to beat me up from the inside out. This little boy seems to get more and more active these days. I feel him kicking inside me just about everyday now. Tonight as Joel and I were watching Heroes, Joel had his hand on my belly. Levi was wiggling inside of me, and then all of the sudden, he kicked so hard that it startled both Joel and I. I literally jumped from surprise...I'm kind of a jumpy person anyway. It's not hard to startle me. It's such a weird feeling to feel something moving around inside of you. I feel like there is an alien inside of me. Most of the time I feel like I'm being poked from the inside. So weird. But kind of cool and exciting at the same time. I'm getting more and more excited about meeting this baby.

I have a question for you guys. Did you believe in Santa Claus when you were younger? And do you plan on telling your children about him (or have you already)? I'm just curious. Joel and I do not have any plans to tell our children about Santa Claus. My sister and brother-in-law do plan on telling their children about Santa Claus, which is fine. Joel and I just don't see the point (but just for our kids) - I think it's mostly because neither one of us grew up believing in Santa Claus, so it's not that important for us to pass on something that had very little impact on our childhood...

The News You've been waiting for

I recently mentioned that we found out the sex of the baby, but were not going to tell anyone for a bit. I have to admit, it's been fun to have our little secret. We kept it a secret so that way we could tell our families before we told everyone else. I know that several of you are dying to know if it's a boy or a girl. I've found it funny how offended some people have gotten when we refused to release the information to them. But the time has finally come, and I would like you guys to know that we are having a BOY! You know what though? I knew this all along. I had a feeling from the very beginning that it was a boy. How did I know? I just did. I don't know. I just knew.

One small rant here (because what blog of mine would be complete without a rant on pregnancy these days? ) - I've had people come up to me and say, " I knew it was a boy because of the way that you are carrying the baby." (supposedly because I'm so big) I've also had people tell me that it looks like I'm carrying a girl. But you know what? I've done extensive reading on this subject, and talked to doctors, and the truth is, that that's just not true. You really can't predict if it's a girl or a boy by the appearance of the way the mother is carrying the baby. It's nothing more than an Old Wive's Tale. You just can't. Everyone woman is different. And every woman carries her baby different. The reason that is seems that I'm larger is because I have a small frame - I don't have as much room to carry the baby internally as other women do. Plus it's also genetics. My mother got really large with me too. She also has a small frame. It's not about the fact that it's a boy or a girl, it's more about genetics and the uniqueness of each woman. Some people may have correctly guessed that my baby is a boy, but it wasn't because it was of the way I'm carrying him, like they think.

So the name - the first thing people ask after they find out we are having a boy is the name. Have you thought of any names? Yes, we have. His name is Levi Harold. Now before you get carried away with comments about his middle name, let me just say, that Harold wasn't exactly on my list of favorite names. However, it happens to be a family name on Joel's side of the family. There was no persuading him on any other name. Harold happens to be Joel's first name, Joel's father's name, and one of Joel's grandfather's name. It's definitely a family name. And although I'm not crazy about the name itself, it has a good meaning - "Leader". I do like that. "Levi" means "United" or "Joined". So my baby's names mean "United Leader" I like that. And I can live with the name Harold. Marriage is about compromise (and you don't always get your way!).

Here are two pictures of Levi at 19 weeks, who used to look like a blob in the sonograms. It's fun to see the changes between now and the first sonogram he had.

His head is in the upper right corner. He is facing upwards. His belly is in the middle, and the white circle above his belly is his hand.


this is my favorite picture. Levi is sucking his thumb. This picture is mostly of his head. His head is in the center of the picture, facing upwards. The lighter part of his head is his face. And then his hand is just above his mouth, you can see his fingers, and his thumb is in his mouth. So cute!

When we show the sonogram pictures to people, Joel's friends and family say that Levi has Joel's head. But then when we show them to my friends and family, they say that Levi has my head. HA! To tell you the truth, I don't think you can really tell yet. I think his head is still developing it's shape.

One more fun thing - Joel finally got to feel Levi kick! It was really neat. It made me happy that he could finally feel what I feel Levi doing inside of me.