An Attempt to Return to the Blogging World

Ok, so I have really neglected my blog. Sorry about that. If you remember my last blog post, I was mourning the loss of my husbands Macbook, which had a very short life due to my poor aim during the heights of my morning sickness.

My very generous father-in-law gave us his year old computer! We are finally able to get reconnected with our blogs. I wouldn't really hold your breath for my husband to update his blog, but I will try my hardest to update mine.

We have just started working on our condo. We have literally not had five seconds to try and get things in order, but there has been a few moments of free time lately for Jona and he has done an incredible job! We put a wall up to close off the nursery, got rid of the popcorn ceilings, painted everything and are in the process of repainting our bathrooms. For the record, "we" means that he did the work and I ate and watched him. :)

Tomorrow I am officially a little bit retired! I'm not quiting work 100%, but its good enough! After Christmas break I am coming back to SCCS to teach elementary music, but I am no longer in charge of the choirs and the entire music program. I'll be honest, I am really going to miss it. I LOVED my students this semester. I am really excited to not have huge responsibilites looming over my head, and I think that for the most part, my Christmas concerts came off surprisingly well.

We are at 35 weeks! This pregnancy seems to have taken the last 10 years! I am now at the "can't walk, can't breathe, can't sleep, can't feel my arms, can't fit into any clothes" stage but I am so so happy for where I'm at! I feel better than I have this entire pregnancy and I am SO looking forward to my little Penny Mae arriving!

She has been breech for a while, which I know isn't a big deal. I've mentioned it a couple of times and all of the mothers of the world have sought to comfort me through it, which is actually very sweet :). We are not concerned at all about her being breech. She could be in my throat for all I care, just as long as I have her sometime soon :) It looks like we could have her sometime around January 10th, which would be wonderful!

Sorry for the random update. I will try to put more thought into the next post. :)

A Little Update

Again, I'm so sorry its been so long since I've written! I usually blog on our MacBook at home, but a month or so ago, I accidently threw up all over it and completely broke it. I know, thats gross huh. I felt so bad, yet it just showed me another way that my husband is amazing. He didn't get mad for a second. Needless to say, it's fried.

Things are going well! Praise the Lord, I am feeling tons better! I only have a few uncomfortable pregnancy symptoms, besides those, I am feeling great! Little Penny has been using my uterus as her own personal theme park and from what I can tell, she's having a blast.

We finally got some work done on our condo which is such a gigantic answer to prayer! We scraped the acoustic ceilings (who ever thought that would be a good idea?)so now our condo doesn't smell like smoking cats (or smoke & cats, whichever you prefer). I have stopped dry heaving every time I walked in the front door. I will try to post some before and after pictures soon.

I only have 35 teaching days until retirement!! I am so excited to be a stay at home mom and actually work on this whole cooking/cleaning thing. I am so excited to get more involved with friends with and without kids and get into women's ministry at Grace!

My husband is as sweet as ever and even though he has chosen to grow a mustache, I love him more than ever. He talks to Penny every day and tells her to get her act together and come on out!

My parents were just down visiting for preview weekend. They are coming down once every month until January for various reasons. I am so thankful that they get to be around for at least a little bit of my pregnancy. My dad is completely freaked out by my massive belly and keeps checking my hand to make sure there's a wedding ring on it. :)

Is that enough random updates? I will try to write again soon. I keep getting so annoyed when the blogs I read don't get updated, and here I am never updating! At least I have a puked on MacBook as my excuse!

Meet Penny's New Friends!

Lately there have been a lot of babies being born! As previously mentioned, my sister-in-law (Jonathan's brother's wife), Anne, and my brother-in-law Jedi just had my adorable little nephew, Ray Lawrence Johnson. Anne went through torture to have this little guy. I had to wait till I was discharged from the hospital in order to meet him, but it was immediately love at first sight! Here are some pictures of the little guy...

He has already been to his first Cub's game!!

His Uncle Jonathan absolutely adores him. Isn't this picture so precious?

A few days later one of the sweetest little girls on the planet was born. My friend Michelle has been such a faithful friend to me. She has taught me so much about loving my husband and is such a godly example. I love her!! We have been praying for a couple of years that God would bless her and her husband, Ryan with another baby (they have a son, Jack), and He did! This baby was a miracle baby in so many ways! She was born with both the cord tied in a knot and around her neck. Michelle also had one of the worst births I have ever heard of, but it was all worth it for beautiful Avery Elaine Anthony.

This is sweet Avery with her family! They are so cute!

Last, but most certainly not least, my best friend on the planet, Amy and her husband, John had an adorable little boy named James Ryan Carruthers. I am so sad that I haven't gotten the opportunity to meet him yet (they live in Washington) but it is going to happen soon! Amy is going to make the most incredible mom. She has always perfectly balanced me out. Her friendship has been one of my life's sweetest blessings. Amy had a total horror story c-section, but she is SO absurdly tough it didn't even phase her. I love this little man already! The way I see it, he will be my son-in-law some day :) Here he is...

Here is James and his excited daddy, John.

I don't know why God chose to give all three of them HORRIBLE labor and deliveries, but the way I see it, they already did the hard work so I'll just waltz on in and before I know it, it will all be over! :)

Thanks for meeting Penny's friends! She has been kicking me like crazy, I'm pretty sure because she is so exited to meet them! Especially, that cute little boy, James :)

Update on Penelope Mae

Well, life has been a little crazy these past few weeks! God has definitely been teaching us to trust Him.

Jonathan & I decided to take a vacation at an expensive, little Bed & Breakfast we like to call Glendale Adventist Hospital. It all started a few weeks ago when I came home from work with some weird chest pains. I had minor heart surgery in high school to correct an heart node problem and because of that, when we called our OB, he wanted me to come into the emergency room just to be safe. On the way to the hospital I also started developing a massive migraine unlike any headache I have ever experienced in my life.

Because of the pregnancy and the severity of the migraine they decided to admit me, which turned into about six days of constant vomiting and cardiology consultations. The final diagnosis was an inflammation of my chest wall caused by my growing belly, spreading my ribs apart. It sounds stupid but it can actually be somewhat painful and unnerving. It's called Costochondritis and it's said to feel somewhat like a heart attack so it can be relatively painful.

The unfortunate thing about the timing of all this was that my sister-in-law, Anne was actually on the other side of the hospital giving birth to my new (and precious) little nephew, Ray Lawrence Johnson. We were incredibly blessed by our family and amazing Bible study who provided endless amounts of encouragement and service to us.

I honestly think the whole thing was harder on Jonathan than it was on me. I barely remember anything from it, but he had to deal with the puking and crying from all of the failed IVs. God has blessed me with the sweetest, most patient and loving man that I ever could have asked for. He never once made me feel like I was an inconvienance. I am SO thankful for this incredible man! He is going to be the most amazing daddy!

Once we got home from the hospital things got a little worse before it got better. Now that I am feeling so much better I look back on the prehospital morning sickness and realize how easy I had it. I can't believe the things that I have taken for granted and I am daily asking the Lord to remind me of the countless ways that he has blessed me.

In the meantime, little Penny has been doing pretty well. She is kicking like crazy and Jona even had the opportunity to feel her kick after he played her a Beatles marathon through my belly. :) I would love to show you some new pictures of her because we have gotten several but she has been looking rather alien-like lately and they may scare you even more than the picture of me in the hospital.

We have had several doctor appointments to check up on her and so far the only thing they are a little concerned about are her dilated kidneys. Apparently this increases her chances of down syndrome. They made us go to genetic counseling which we found to be completely absurd. It is amazing to us that people would abort their baby just because of a slight chance of a birth defect.

We are so eager to meet this little one! I am at 23 weeks and it seems like it is just creeping by. I always found it a little interesting that people would tell me not to give up. That has never ever been an option. I truly believe that I would throw up every day for the rest of my life just to have this amazing gift. I can't imagine loving this little girl more and I can't wait to hold her and tell her what a little stinker she's been!

I Hate Pink

Please be forewarned. This blog post is going to be boring. For some reason, I decided to link my blog to facebook, which I now think was a big mistake. Now instead of people choosing to come to my blog, everyone gets a notification that I wrote a note. OK, now down to the reason for this post.

I have been so stressed out about the baby's room! I'm not typically someone who would spend hours and hours thinking about this, but I keep getting asked "what are your colors?", "what is your theme?" "have you chosen a crib?" and on and on. It's almost like I'm getting married all over again, minus the whole crib question.

So I decided to do some internet browsing and look at some nursery ideas. My dear husband eventually saw what I was doing and said, "Wait. We're actually gonna decorate a room for her?" After staring at him for a good 10 seconds he said "Never mind." That totally made me laugh. I think he thought we should just stick her in a closet somewhere because she wouldn't really know the difference. He has a point. :)

After I resumed my search I came to a shocking realization. I hate the color pink. Then I found out that I hate hearts and flowers and purple and everything else on the planet that's girly. What is wrong with me?! Is my poor little girl completely doomed by my apparent lack of femininity?

For example, this makes me want to puke...

And I showed some ideas to my mom and my sisters and they loved this room. Me, not so much.

I do have to admit that I found one room that's pinkish that I do kinda like it. And I really mean KINDA. The dumb thing is that one of the reasons I like this is because I love those gorgeous baseboards. Which has nothing to do with any of the baby stuff whatsoever. Although the baby stuff isn't too bad.

So my brother's precious girlfriend, Julie and I sat down and looked together for about an hour. Everything I found that I liked, Julie graciously reminded me that I'm trying to create a room for a girl not for a hospital patient. Which we found out, is my big problem. I love things that look clean and sterile. I know what you're thinking, "what on earth is this dumb girl thinking, having a baby and wanting to maintain a sterile environment". I KNOW!!! I'm crazy!

Anyway, here are some of the ones that I actually do like...

I like this one and it is girly, but I don't really like yellow that much. Which is the whole point of the room. But the stuff on the wall is adorable huh?

I like this one a lot but is it masculine?

Ok these next two are my two favorite nurseries. This one is adorable and pretty girly, but it is a Pottery Barn room and it costs about 4 billion dollars. Seriously, the crib alone is $1200!! And once again, I love the room mostly because of the mural but how on earth could I ever do that? And for the record, I think the peach is yucky. But the room is adorable huh?

Last one. I know this is really simple, but I really like it. Jonathan said that the crib makes him think of an animal cage, so maybe not, but tell me what you think of this...

Ok. I welcome your ideas, advice, whatever. If this bored you to tears, I apologize. If you think I am a failure as a girl, I understand. :) And just so you know, I honestly am not freaking out about it. We have a long way to go and for Pete's sake, right now we are only 80% sure its a girl any way!

One Hundred and Hell Degrees

I apologize if you are offended by this blog post title, but that is approximately how hot it is in SoCal today. I'm not even joking. Everything is sweaty. Everything. I think my fingernails are even sweating.

I was always known as a happy child growing up. Typically had a good attitude, never ever threw tantrums. Ask my mom, I was a pretty good kid. Until... it got hot. Every ounce of Christianity immediately left my soul the second I get over heated. I had been known to literally turn in to Satan once it got over 85. Since I have grown into a more mature adult, I have learned to take better control of my anger and the demon possession instead turned into OUT OF CONTROL crying. I'm not even joking.

I came home from school today, poured myself a big drink, spent a little bit of time trying to fix our crappy air conditioning and then I bawled. Like a baby. I can't help it. Heat makes me completely lose it.

I'm starting to think that baby Penny hates heat as much as I do. For the last three days there has been this ridiculously hard spot sticking out on the right side of my stomach. I think it must be a foot or elbow or something, but it's like she is saying, "Mom, what the heck is happening?! I will continue to stab you until you improve my living conditions". I can't say that I blame her.

If there are any of you who would like to confront my complaining and bad attitude could you please wait until December? This is more for your sake than mine. You seriously do not want to tempt the "heat" demon to come out of hiding. :)

It's A.... GIRL!!!

At least we think so :) Today was our OB appointment where we hoped to learn the gender of our little wee one :) I was very sick at the beginning of the appointment but very excited.

At first the nurse told us we wouldn't be able to have an ultrasound but I tried to flash my dimple and sweet talk our doctor. I should have realized that a fat, sweaty, pukey pregnant girl has no charm whatsoever, but he was very gracious and took the time to give us an ultrasound.

I'm coming to realize that what I think is cute about my kid probably no one else does (except for my faithful parents and in laws :)), but, THIS BABY IS SO STINKIN CUTE!! It literally looked like she was doing the "YMCA" dance, or some other form of aerobics (she clearly doesn't take after her mama).

Her arms were up then down, to the left, to the right. Then about ten more reps of that. She was in a pretty awkward position so my doctor took the ultrasound thingy and practically started punching my belly with it. She. was. ticked. It was like she new exactly what we wanted and there was no way she was givin' it up easy!

Our doctor said that he was 80% sure it was a girl and I'll take it! :) It's looking like this feisty baby will be named Penelope Mae Johnson :) Of course if it turns out to be a shy boy we will still be thrilled!

What's In A Name?

Oops, I just realized I left you three (sorry Bethy :)) in the dark about Pinkie! Here are some of our name choices, but first...

We have been talking a lot about the baby's name. I know we have a long way to go, but I'm not really a fan of calling the baby "it" for 9 months. I have always been one of those people who thought it was stupid to hide the name until birth. It's always really awkward when you ask expectant parents if they have a name and they respond with, "yes, but we are keeping it private". What are you supposed to say then? "Wow, a secret. That's really cool." I don't know, maybe I'm the only one who thinks it's awkward. But now...

I totally get it! I think I have learned a lot during the pregnancy. One major thing is that EVERYONE has an opinion. When it comes to morning sickness, food aversions, pregnancy health, I am totally fine with an opinion, especially because it is given as an encouragement, as a matter of fact I WELCOME opinions. So please don't think that I'm an arrogant brat that has to do this on my own, 'cause I don't want to! :)

BUT, sometimes I'm a little blown away that people will actually tell you to your face that one of your name choices is "a horrible name for a baby"! Isn't that funny?! On the other hand, if my parents had actually wanted to name me Zerubbabel, I would hope that some one would have kindly and graciously asked them to reconsider.

So with all that said, I'm a little insecure about our name choices at this point, but we still have a little time. Like I mentioned in the last post, in about 16 days we will find out the gender. I would love to be able to call that baby... "blah blah" (you know what I mean) from that day on.

Here are our top choices...

Boys-

Malaki/Macachi Rivers or

Dallas Philip

Girls-

Mya Pinkerton (hence the nickname "pinkie") or

Penelope Mae

So... now I feel like I will scare everyone away from commenting. :) Maybe we should just stick with "Blah Blah". With how original some people are starting to be with naming their children, he/she probably wouldn't even stick out!

Baby Update-15 weeks

I know I still have some things to cover as far as our vacations, but I thought I would give my readers (aka "Mom & Dad") a baby update.

We are currently at 15 weeks. We are getting so excited as the baby seems to be healthy and we have had more and more time to imagine what our lives will be with little baby whatever. :) We currently call the baby "Pinkie" (I'll explain in a sec). Words can't express how much we already love this little one!

It seems as though this pregnancy has been a little complicated. I put every ounce of hope that I had in July 18th. It was supposed to be the day that my 2nd trimester started, therefore sending the morning sickness on it's evil way. No such luck. My days are spent napping on the couch interrupted by violent dry heaving. I have really worked on counting every single second of nausea as a blessing. I honestly don't feel discouraged by it. I am thankful for symptoms that allow me to know this baby is healthy and growing, and in the meantime have caught up on my sleep.

In 17 days we will find out if we are having a little pinkie (girl) or if we have forever ruined our son's masculinity by calling him such a girlie little name :)

P.S. This ultrasound picture was taken at 12/13 weeks? I know our baby looks like it's armless, my kind Doctor informed me that he/she indeed possessed two perfectly normal arms. As a matter of fact, when the Dr. showed me the baby like this, I couldn't stop laughing, which made the armless baby look like he/she was dancing, which made me laugh all the harder. In explanation, those are the baby's shoulders :)

The Adventures of the Pecadillos Pt 1

So once again, it's been little while since I've written. Late last night I officially ended my summer vacation. A lot has happened in these last few weeks, I will try not to bore you with all the details but their are definitely some things worth writing about!

Pec (my dear husband) and I decided that we would try to get away up to Washington before I had to go back to work and before the baby comes. Due to the amount of "day" sickness (calling it morning sickness is a BIG FAT lie) I have been experiencing, we decided to find a hotel halfway up the coast.

We found an $800 a night hotel room for $150 a night! This place looked amazing and were so excited but we were soon to discover it was discounted for a reason! The drive up to Mendocino was a story all by itself. It took several more hours than we anticipated. Mostly due to the fact that we. got. very. lost. It is way too long of a story which involves 2 hours in the woods, demon statues, fire fighters and no bathrooms. Like I said, it's a long story and it would probably bore you. The real party actually started when we got to our hotel.

In order to do the story justice, I will allow my husband (who is a far better story teller than I) to finish telling this part of the story. These are his tweets that he wrote that night and the next morning...

Driving through cow country. This part of California smells like a giant, open-air AM/PM.

The journey to our hotel was a blogpost in and of itself. After we got settled in the room, we discovered we weren't alone.

There was a bat in our room and it was flying at us like a Japanese kamikaze pilot.

I've never seen a bat before aside from at the zoo. I nearly soiled my pants.

In fact, had I not been in the bathroom when the trophy wife discovered the bat, I'm quite sure I would find myself in need of a new wardrobe.

We're at a spa by the beach in Mendocino. There are only 10 rooms and no on duty staff after 9 PM. It's very secluded. Translation: no help.

Luckily, there was a hotel masseuse that looked and talked exactly like Peter Lorre, who was on his way out the door who helped us.

He was probably 7 feet tall—no joke. He had to do the limbo to get thru our door—and he had big Carly Simon/Gary Busey teeth.

He also had a creepy Eastern European accent that woulda sounded menacing had he not been prancing away from the bat.

Then another guy showed up with a pool net that was still wet and dripping chlorine all over our room and bed.

After literally 45 minutes of me & the pool guy trying to catch the bat in the room (Peter Lorre was in the hall, hiding) we finally got it.

Literally, for 45 minutes I watched this flying rodent soar all over our room, landing on our stuff. I'm pretty sure my luggage has rabies.

To be honest, I wasn't exactly John Wayne during those 45 minutes, although I did almost shoot it numerous times.

Let's just say I'm glad there weren't too many other people around to observe my "power stance" whenever dracula flew by.

Still, at least I was in the room. Peter Lorre was out in the hall and had to be consoled by the trophy wife.

The only person tall enough to reach the bat was the same guy who was trying to hide in the hall way. Wonderful.

Anyways, after 45 minutes of trying to catch the beast that wikipedia calls a "natural reservoir for many zoonotic pathogens" we got it.

We were trying to catch it in the net (the pool guy was a hippie) but accidentally hit it with the pole and it fell to the ground, lifeless.

With that, the pool guy scooped up little Adam West (we named it) in the net and left the room to go dispose of it. He was very apologetic.

Our room has chlorine water everywhere, net marks all over the walls and ceilings, and probably more viruses than a petrie dish.

And there's no one here who can get us into another room. Fantastic.

On his way out, Peter Lorre offered us 20% off the cost of a massage at the spa. Yeah, that's gonna make it all better.

Somehow, the trophy wife was already able to fall asleep. Not me. I want to be awake when lockjaw sets in.

Well, there you have it. We were originally planning on staying two nights but after deciding that the romantic atmosphere had been squashed (quite similarly to the bat), we chose to continue on our trip...

One Year of Bliss!

I have been so excited to write this post! Exactly one year ago today, I was getting ready to marry the man of my dreams. Jona and I are currently in Washington to return to the place we got married and spent our first two nights as a married couple.

In the days leading up to our wedding, I was so nervous I could hardly eat. I so deeply felt the weight of the commitment that we were making and prayed that in the hours that remained that the Lord would miraculously make me the perfect wife.

He didn't exactly do that :) but He did bless me with a gentle and patient husband and poured His grace on our marriage. I can't imagine a better life.

I LOVE THIS MAN! I can truly say that I am so happy and beyond content to be married to him! He is a man of integrity who cherishes me and

spends his days finding ways to serve and encourage me. Even right now, as I am writing this post, he is sitting across from me on the couch massaging my feet. :)

I love you my sweet husband. I can't wait to spend 70 more years with you. Our little baby is going to have the best dad ever! Thank you for being such an example to me and for loving me even when I am so unloveable. Happy Anniversary my love!

Happy 30th Anniversary Oma & Papa!!

Yesterday was my parent's 30th Wedding Anniversary. They deserve so much more than us kids could give them. Besides my husband, they are my closest friends. Not a day goes by that I don't think of reasons why I love them and why I am so thankful that they are MY parents. I could write for hours about their Godly character qualities, but since it's their anniversary, I will choose to focus on what makes them such an incredible husband and wife to each other...

Papa-

My dad has always said that the thing that he loves most about his marriage is that mom is his best friend. This has always been so evident. They stay up every night talking for hours. My dad's goal has always been to encourage those around him to grow in their relationship with Christ. It has been incredible to watch mom grow to love God more because of dad's leadership.

One of my favorite things is watching my dad watch my mom. We always tease Mom about her long winded story telling, but I love how dad watches her and smiles when she laughs. He makes her laugh so hard and also can encourage her like no one else in the world.

My dad has freed up my mom to do the things that she loves and enjoys. He loves her heart for the Lord which I believe shows so much about his character.

Oma-

My sweet mom couldn't be a better wife to my dad. She has been a perfect example of submission to everyone that observes her. She lives her life primarily to honor Christ and secondly to serve and be a helpmate to my dad.

My mom would never tear my dad down. As a pastor's wife people often come to her to give their list of complaints about my dad, she is faithful to honor my dad and his ministry in every conversation.

My mom has taught me countless ways to love my husband and show me how to respect him. Every single day she strives to know my dad better and pray for him. If I could be half the woman my mom is my marriage would be successful.

If it isn't obvious, I love them more than words can say. My husband loves them too which has always been one of the biggest blessings to me.

Praise God for the gift of marriage and for the men and women who show us how to love each other while loving God all the more.

A Little Distraction

Well it has been a long four weeks on bed rest. That amount of time spent doing absolutely nothing hasn't created a lot of blogging ideas. But I decided I would write a quick little post to distract me from my strong desire to vomit. (I know, that's gross, but get used to it, because you are now reading the blog of a sickly pregnant woman).

Here are some random tidbits from the last four weeks....

- My husband is INCREDIBLE. There has never been a kinder, sweeter more selfless man! He serves me every way he possibly can. He has had to balance work, me and trying to fix up our condo so that its livable. I love him more right now than I ever imagined possible!

-Peanut butter crackers are da bomb! I typically am not a fan, but recently I have eaten far more than my weight in these little "nausea killers". I thank God for them every day!

-People who smoke should probably be shot. I am thankful for the sweet woman who sold her house to us, but I wish that she had never smoked. I literally lay awake at night counting the number of cigarettes that she smoked. We are very SLOWLY moving from room to room to paint and scrape the ceilings so eventually the smell will be gone.

-Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is the sweetest show ever created. I every morning I watch it and bawl like a little baby. I asked Pec if we could try to stage some kinda disaster so that we could be applicants for the show. We're working on it :)

-Taco Bell is of the devil! The first couple of weeks Taco Bell was all that I could think about. Now I literally gag every time a commercial comes on. NO BUENO!

-I have the greatest friends, in-laws, and family in the whole world! I can't tell you how my parents & Phil and Darlene have served us in this time! Darlene texts me every day offering to make a meal, or get groceries or whatever! They are awesome. My family has been here the last couple of weeks and we have had a total blast together. They are the coolest people on the planet.

Ok, I think nausea wave #87 has subsided so I'm gonna try to hit the showers. Wish me luck!

Blogging For Two!!!!

Well I have the best excuse for my blog neglect! We are happy to announce that we are 7.5 weeks pregnant! We never expected to be pregnant after just ten months of marriage but we are so excited!

If you know me, you know that nothing really goes easily and everything must include some amount of drama! The way we found out about our new little baby most definitely lives up to my reputation.

It was the last week of school for me. I was supposed to work all day long and attend 4 graduation ceremonies that week. We also were two days away from closing escrow on our condo and I had only packed about 2% of our apartment.

On Tuesday, May 26th, Pec got REALLY sick. He had such a bad flu that he could barely even formulate sentences. He had a 103 degree temperature and was in the process of coughing up all of his internal organs.

I was running from school to home to try to take care of him and pack our house and practice for the graduation ceremonies that I was playing for. On one trip home I stopped by the drugstore to pick up some Gatorade for him. As I was strolling through the aisles I happened to walk by the pregnancy test section.

I thought to myself, "I'm pretty sure in one of Pec's extreme moments of boredom, he used up my last pregnancy test so I might as well pick up a few more"

So I did. I made it home in time to find Pec moaning and writhing on the living room floor. So I got him situated with his soup and Gatorade and decided I might as well take a test.

I must interject that we were not planning on getting pregnant any time soon. As a matter of fact there were several of reasons why we shouldn't have been able to get pregnant, but that's what makes it such a beautiful miracle from the Lord.

I took the test and left it on the bathroom sink since it takes a while. I continued helping Pec and I started packing and soon had forgotten all about the test. I eventually had to go back into the bathroom for something when I remembered the pee stick :)

I was just about to throw it away when I looked at it and saw the two little lines! I think I passed out for a couple minutes, came to, passed out again and decided it was time to tell Sicky (Pec).

I was bawling my eyes out and waving the stick around as I tried to communicate to my dear husband that he was now a father. He coughed out "Really? Really? What? How? Really?"

We spent the next couple of days in total shock then things actually got a little scary.

Four days after we found out we were pregnant, we learned that there was a good possibility that I was losing the baby. We prayed together harder than we've ever prayed and asked that the Lord give us peace if He chose to take our baby home. It took about two and a half weeks before the Dr. gave us the "looks good" sign. And now, even though I'm on bed rest and have morning/afternoon/night sickness we are feeling hopeful about baby!

We are learning to hold this baby loosely and to trust God with this pregnancy. We are celebrating the sweet gift that the God has given us and are so excited about entering this next stage of life!!!

YAY!!!!

Walk Off the Pounds!

I'll be honest, I have never in my life completed a workout video. Its not necessarily because I'm lazy (although I am), its because I have never seen one that isn't ridiculous.

I have tried a few...

1. Cindy Crawford- I always felt awkward because there is no way that working out in a swimsuit could be comfortable. She just irritated me.

2. Taebo- You have got to be kidding me. There is no way I could ever kick that high not to mention all of his back up women look like men. I may have been crazy, but I was pretty sure I saw him training this poor lady by my apartment the other day. She was carrying two tires. I drove away as quickly as possible in fear that he might make me carry my car the rest of the way home.

3. Jillian Michaels- I actually ordered these, and they accidentally sent me two sets, but I'm pretty sure that Jillian told them to because she could sense how incredibly out of shape I was. Anyway, I tried it (at least a couple of minutes) but she would tell me to do something then break into hysterical laughter. No thanks, I'll stick with the love handles. 

4. Yoga- Sure, I love resting the arch of my foot on the small of my back. Lets just say the "praying locust" position and I didn't get along to well. How is that supposed to be a workout anyway? It just looks like she's trying her hardest to cut off the blood flow to her brain.

Ok, so I may have exaggerated a little when I told you that I had tried all of these. What I really meant is that I put on my work out clothes and tennis shoes, I put the DVD in, then I sit down and watch it. They always move too fast and I just end up looking like a retarded break dancer on crack.

 I don't ever really do any of the exercises, I just think about how stupid I would look if I tried. Then I turn off the DVD and change back into my normal clothes. I always feel quite accomplished when I'm through. I think it's because, in my mind, I really did workout.

Well, all that changed tonight. I recently (ok six or seven months ago) purchased an exercise video entitled "Walk Off the Pounds". Two things caught my attention.... 

The word "walk" & the instructor's eyebrows (they're huge!)

I decided, if bushy eyebrow lady could do it, so could I! I actually completed an entire session, and no I didn't just watch, I participated! The great thing about it is that you don't have to run, squat, kick above your ears or anything like that. You just have to walk. For the most part it was great!

There are a couple of weird things about it such as...

1. Her back up aerobics people won't shut up. They talk the entire time. Every once in a while the instructor will say, "ok ladies, how ya doin?" which then would be a perfect time for a quick "good" or "great" but instead its, "I just had a baby... keeps me up at night... my uncle has diabetes... I need to get rid of this flabby bottom... I have a major in psychology...." I'm not joking, they won't stop talking and its about the most random things.

2. I mentioned that she addresses them as "ladies". That would normally make sense except for the fact that there is one old man in the back. They never talk to him and he never talks back. Its like he just snuck on to the set and they don't know he's there.

3. Another weird thing to add to that is that the girls are all wearing a different outfit every work out, not gramps! He wears the same black pants and grey shirt.

4. Her eyebrows. They are the true star of the video. They probably even have their own agent. I sometimes misstep just because I can't stop staring at them.

Anyway, Grandpa aside, I really like this work out video! I'll let you know if anything happens to my love handles or the lady with the caterpillars on her forehead.

How Cute is This?

So, there is another post coming soon, but in the meantime, I found this on my friend Leanna's blog. How cute is this! Stick with it till the end to hear what she says.

I tried to look up more videos of her on youtube, but apparently she grew into a bit of a drama queen and the other videos just gave me dumb-chills. I guess we all have to stop being cute at some time in our lives. I'm still waiting for it to happen to me ;)

O Sweet Carbs, I miss you!

So like I said previously, I have told all my little carb friends to run away and leave me alone for a little while, like forever. They refuse to stay away and like to dance in front of my face about every five minutes. 

I even dream about carbs, Seriously. In my dreams they look like those talking m&m from the commercials. Except for that they are completely white and smiley. They are sad that they can't eat lunch with me anymore. I'm sad too. 

Anyway... now that you think I'm a total freak, I found a couple of solutions!

By the way, if you happen to be more knowledgeable about nutrition than I (which believe me, isn't hard) and it turns out that all of these supposedly low carb foods I've found are actually extremely bad for you, don't tell me. If you rain on my health parade, I might have to kill you.

1. Cashews!!!

Who knew I would fall so in love with cashews! I can only eat like 10 at a time, because they're high in fat, but they are amazing!

2. Gum!!

I daily praise the Lord for the little blessing of sugarfree chewing gum! It curbs craving and leaves my breath oh so sweet!

3. Pineapple!!

Holy cow! Is pineapple not the best fruit EVER!! I'm falling more and more in love with it every day!!

4. Whole Grain/Wheat/Nut bread

I can only have one slice every morning, but it is like eating an ice cream sundae to be able to add bread to my diet! Ok, not really an ice cream sundae, but I'm counting my blessings!!

5. Crystal Light

Since I am drinking 500 (no, I am not exaggerating) gallons of water a day, its nice to give it a little flavor once in a while. Crystal Light pink lemonade is to die for!

6. String Cheese

I love this stuff! Its good and its fun! Be warned however, the low fat stuff is no bueno!

7. South Beach Protein Bars

I have never been a big fan, but these aren't too bad! Especially not the peanut butter ones! 

8. Trader Joe's Stuffed Chicken Breast

This is the by far the best thing that I have gotten to eat on this diet. Poor Pec had it for dinner three times last week. Sorry babe! But it actually feels like I'm eating real food!

Ok. As I'm reading over this list I'm beginning to see how pathetic I am. But... my body is supposed to be a temple and right now its still a Chuck E Cheese or something along those lines! 

For now, the rest of you can keep my little friends company while you eat your...

 :(

                                                                                                                                                                                

Happy Mother's Day Darlene!!

I am also blessed to have a new mom this year! Darlene Johnson/Mom/soon-to-be Grandma (again not by us :)), is a great mother-in-law!

If you have read my precious husband's story of how we met, you know that his mom is to thank for introducing me to my wonderful husband. I will never be able to repay her for the gift of her son!

Darlene is more generous than anyone I have ever met. If she hears of a need somewhere she is the first person to try to meet that need. Phil, my father-in-law, is hopeless without her. She is a master in the area of submission. She works tirelessly to serve her family. 

I cannot wait to see her in the role of Grandma! She loves children and I am so excited for her to be the Grandma of our future children (key word: Future). 

Pecadillo loves to tell people how his mom has always supported him and his brothers no matter what hobby or craft they pursued. She is loved by all of those who know her. I am so honored to have her as my mother-in-law!

I love you Darlene/Mom!

Happy Mother's Day Oma!!

Helen Zimmer, otherwise known as... Oma, Mommy, Marm, Bess, Mom, Helen Annie, Mother, Mommy Dearest (she hates that one).... I mostly call her Oma. Don't ask where it comes from. I think it means Grandma in German. Don't worry, she isn't a Grandma yet. Come to think of it, I don't think she's German either. :)

My Oma is everything I wish I was. She is fun, beautiful, submissive, EXTREMELY GODLY, loving, caring, selfless, kind, hilarious, adventurous, hard working... the list goes on and on. 

I have never in my life met a woman who reads her Bible more than my mom. She loves the Lord with all her heart and that carries down to every other aspect. I talk to my mom every single morning. She always listens, provides counsel when appropriate, makes me laugh and makes me love God more. 

One of my favorite memories of my mom was my seventeenth birthday. My family was in a bit of a hard spot financially and I wasn't really expecting anything big. I came out to the kitchen to eat breakfast and my mom was crying by herself. She gave me a hug and kiss and told me happy birthday. I asked her why she was crying and she told me that she wished that she could have done more to celebrate my birthday. Then she handed me a gift.

To continue my story you need to know that my mom LOVES "Happy" Perfume from Clinique. It was her all time favorite perfume, but its pretty expensive. Someone had given it to her for Christmas and she was SO excited. I'm pretty sure she sprayed it on herself like 4 or 5 times a day. She loves it. My birthday is January 18th, so she had only had it for a few weeks. So....

I opened my gift and it was the half full bottle of perfume. On it she wrote, "I know its not much but I love you. Happy Birthday." We both cried together. I will never forget the selflessness of my sweet mom, giving me the best thing she had.

I am so blessed to call her my mom and my friend! 

I love you Oma!

Where I've Been...

Hello to the two of you who still check this blog! 

I'm sorry that its been FOREVER since I've written last. I promise that I won't allow this blog to resemble my sweet husband's, who only graces us with his blogging presence once a year.

I don't think I was ever more busy than I was in college. People would always tell me, "just wait, life just gets busier". That statement always made me want to punch them in the mouth, but maybe there was some truth to it after all. 

These are a few of the things that have been taking up all of my time for the last 3 or so weeks...

1. Choir tour- as you learned about in my last post. I spent a few days with my screaming, texting, crying, laughing beautiful junior high and high school kids. 

2. Teaching Piano- I recently added 500 piano students. Ok, its only 10, but it feels like 500. If you are reading this and have ever had me teach you or your children, I apologize.  I don't think that I'm a horrible teacher. I just am extremely inconsistent because my life is way to busy and irregular to be able to block out a half hour every single week. I do love teaching piano though!

3. Starving myself- Yes, I am being sarcastic, at least kinda. The newlywed life hasn't treated my metabolism too kindly to say the least. I may or may not have put on a few pounds or 10 or 20. I have started this good/horrible Lindora diet, that actually seems to be working! I am proud to say I have lost 2 pounds! Just kidding, I'm up to 16. The problem with this diet is that if I eat a piece of bread that 16 pounds runs straight back to me and attaches itself to my rear. This is really no excuse for not blogging but it has made life a bit less funny.

4. Moving- YEAAAAA!!! I am still in the excitement faze and not quite into the "I want to shoot myself" faze. I've packed a whopping 10 boxes so far and that was only J's DVDs. Escrow is looking good, I think. It is absurd to me how difficult the process has to be. Why can't we just trade some cows and chickens and be done with it!

5. Work/The Play!!- I just finished my SCCS Spring play, And Then There Were None. It went really well, I think. The students did an incredible job. It was a little stressful, ok A LOT stressful, but I'm once again, glad I did it. This whole last week and a half I was putting in 18 hour days. It was pretty intense. But no one died, and I only sent one kid to the ER. So I'm thinking it was pretty successful! I now have two weeks until the elementary spring play. It never ends.

I'm not 100% sure what my husband looks like anymore, but summer is just around the corner!! J was talking to me about possibly getting a summer job. If you know anyone who wants to pay me to sit at home, watch movies and dream about carbs give them my number!

I am SO OLD!!!

Sorry its been a while since I've written. I went out of town with my high school choir from SCCS for about four days. My good friend from college, Greg Clark is the choir director while I help out and accompany for the group.

Greg and I are still in our early 20's so as far as I'm concerned, it was a rather large feat that we successfully took 50 junior high and high school kids on a four day trip up North without anyone dying.

Although my sweet husband couldn't be there, it was really a great trip. We sang in a couple youth groups, retirement homes and church services. I really love these students, they are great kids! It seemed like I would just be along for the ride and help Greg out with whatever he needed and accompany the choir, but as it turned out I was in for a huge shock...

I AM A GROWN-UP. 

Who knew!!!?? Not only am I a grown up, I'm a grandma!! I thought I was still a kid, or at least a teenager, but instead, I'm an old, boring adult!

I received this shocking revelation about 3 minutes into the trip. Here are some of the things that helped me to realize that I had indeed grown up...

1. I cannot and will not drink 5 Monster energy drinks within an hour

2. I do not think that finding out who can scream the loudest is a fun activity

3. I do not think its a funny joke to take a friend's wallet for 24 hours, while a church and their entire staff spends their whole day looking for it.

4. I do not enjoy being hit in the head repeatedly with a frisbee while trying to sleep on the bus

5. I do not ask the elderly if they were one of the first pilgrims to land in Plymouth

6. I cannot stay up all night long talking about how hot Akon is.

7. I cannot spend hours upon hours upon hours discussing Twilight

8. I do not desire to see how many times I can be slapped in face before I've had enough

9. I can perform for an entire concert without having to text someone

10. I would not purchase food Panda Express on Friday, keep it on a hot bus for two days and then polish it off on Sunday. 

I think I can say that I'm thankful that I've grown up a little bit, but it still came as a bit of a surprise. I would also like to take this opportunity to apologize to anyone who knew me as a preteen or a teenager. 

I should also clarify, that these were not all of the kids, and rotted kung pow chicken or not, I still adore every last one of them!

Women are like what?!!!

So to give you a little background to this story, my husband and I are currently house sitting for some good friends who are out of town on vacation. It is a pretty sweet gig because all we are doing is feeding their dog and cat. The fact that they have a dog is a huge bonus for Pec, since the chances of us getting a dog anytime soon (or ever) are not looking too good. The fact that we are watching their cat is a little less exciting for both of us, but we are willing to suffer for the sake of our mini vacation in this beautiful home.

Tonight we were sitting in the tv room, watching a movie when we started to hear the cat clawing at the furniture in the living room. My sweetheart kindly offered to get up and figure out what the cat was doing. When he came back he uttered these words...

"Cats are just like women".

Now if you know anything about me, you know that I HATE CATS. I don't get their purpose. All they do is come out of no where and scare the living daylights out of you, then look at you like you are an idiot who is just taking up space.

I tried to respond with a loving and gentle tone so I simply said...

"What did you just say?"

Pec- "Cats are just like women. They don't come when you call them, they only ever do what they want, and when you try to touch them they just look at you like you're crazy"

Me- "You have got to be kidding me!"

Pec-"Yeah. See, dogs are just like guys. You always know exactly what they want. They only need to do three things to be happy: eat, sleep and eat some more."

Even though I tried my hardest to be offended, all I could do was laugh at his logic.

ESCROW!!!!

We are in ESCROW!!! My husband told me that I should give an update about the house hunting. If you read this blog just to read about how dumb I am, this one probably won't contain many laughs (I just didn't want to waste your time)...

With all that said, I have to tell you how unbelievably kind the Lord has been to us!! We were starting to get a little discouraged. Over and over again we would look at something, start falling in love with it, then find out we couldn't get it.

It was like someone saying, 

"Here is an adorable puppy for you to keep"...

"Hold him, fall in love with him"... 

"Do you love him yet?"...."

"Ok, give him back"... 

"You can't have the puppy"... 

"Look, now the puppy is dead. Too bad"

Well, we had experienced several dead puppies until Monday. Our awesome, super hero, Mike Tagliere told me to meet him at a condo development. He showed me a condo that was pretty similar to the other ones we had seen. This condo was a bit over our budget, but we thought that if maybe Pec sold his kidneys and lungs, and I sold my heart we might be able to afford it.

It was a two level, the bottom level was all tile, and not pretty tile either. It looked like it could be a gigantic locker room. Or a massive slip-and-slide room, which to be honest, my husband would have loved. We walked up to the second level and one of the rooms looked like someone forgot where the bathroom was and the other room looked like they may have used it for a meat locker. I know it sounds horrible, but the fact that they had removed the cow carcasses for us was a massive bonus. Needless to say, I told Mike to make an offer. Yep, that's how desperate we were getting.

Well Mike and I were about to leave then he said, "there's one other one, its probably a total dive, but the price is incredible and we should take a look at it." I reluctantly agreed and we walked to this other condo. 

On our way, I imagined the cockroaches and termites that we were about to encounter. I imagined the numerous Nascar stickers that they used for wallpaper. Of course we would probably find one or two dead birds in the closets and the special "gifts" in all of the "toilets" (which we have learned, can at times be made up of a simple wooden box). The possibilities were endless. Mike informed me that this condo was currently occupied, which also brought to mind several images of Pectators. 

As we arrived at the front door, which was propped open, I heard a raspy voice say "don't let the cat out!" I looked down expecting to find a nasty cat trying to escape but I quickly realized that she was referring to a small ceramic cat that was holding the door open. I was trying to keep an open mind so I decided to let that one fly. 

We walked and at the top of the staircase that leads up to the condo there is a 60-65 year old, weathered and wrinkled woman named Kathleen. I hadn't even had the opportunity to say hello before she immediately began lifting her shirt up. I have to admit, even in our experience of meeting all of these very different, and somewhat special people, I was pretty shocked. 

As the shirt got a little higher and I was scrambling to protect Mike and I from who knows what, I began to understand that she was showing us her back brace, which was the reason for her not meeting us at the door.  As Mike and I sputtered out a breath of relief she barked out a few curses about getting old and having arthritis. She told us to take our time and Mike and I timidly made our way up the stairs. What met us there was.....

.... the most adorable and sweet little condo that I have ever seen!!! This eccentric yet unbelievably kind woman had poured her blood, sweat, tears and cigarettes in to this gorgeous little home. I fell instantly in love with every square foot of the place. It has two bedrooms and a precious little sun room/breakfast nook. The kitchen is large and she payed over 7k to install beautiful wood floors throughout the entire place. I truly love it!!

Mike suggested that I go downstairs and try to let her get to know me a little. I had such a great time talking to her and by the end of the conversation, I was as in love with her as I was the apartment. She is a criminal psychologist who used to be a teacher, so she has backgrounds in both our careers. She told us that she already had offers but she was going to decline them and told me exactly what to offer!! That's unheard of!

After Mike dragged me out of there, he and I went back to his office to write an offer. While we were there Kathleen called and told him, that once SHE ACCEPTS OUR OFFER (!!!!) she wants Pec and I to walk through the condo and choose whatever furniture we want!! 

Long story short, the next morning Pec and Mama Pec/Pyro looked at the condo and also fell in love with it! She accepted our offer within 24 hours and we are now in Escrow! The Lord is so kind to us and we truly could not be more excited!!