50 Things I'm Thankful for

1. My salvation and the hope and promises it brings
2. Matt and his love, commitment and provision for me
3. A sweet baby on the way
4. Family who would sacrifice anything for us
5. Friends I can call in a time of need without hesitation
6. A church family committed to spiritual growth
7. OSU football and the great season we’re having this year
8. Sleeping in and lazy Saturday mornings (I realize those are numbered)
9. Great coworkers who make my job much easier
10. A warm and comfortable home
11. Game nights with friends
12. Lovebug’s future church nursery friends (After another announcement on Sunday, there are four babies in our Sunday School class due between December and June)
13. Prayer nights wonderful women willing to share and lift up our burdens
14. The Office on Netflix
15. Harry Potter (This was a great distraction during Matt’s last trip to Florida, and I was able to finish all the books before we saw the 7th movie)
16. Warm baths with a good book
17. Fresh cookies right out of the oven
18. Pumpkin scented candles
19. Mature Christian women willing to invest in my life
20. An excited Rhapsody every time I walk through the door
21. Catching up with a good friend
22. Reliable vehicles
23. A stable monthly income
24. Family traditions
25. A safe neighborhood to live in
26. Home cooked meals and a husband who does the dishes
27. Sunday afternoon naps
28. Grandparents and the legacy they leave
29. Vacations and the memories they create
30. Evening walks around the neighborhood with an energetic dog
31. Tuesday night Bible study
32. Date nights
33. Driving in the “Arriving Flights” lane at the airport
34. Long weekends
35. My health and the health of my family
36. Girls’ nights
37. The sound of the garage door each night when Matt comes home from work
38. Maternity jeans
39. A work schedule that allows me to be home by 4:00 most days
40. Christmas music (not until after Thanksgiving though)

41. A college education
42. Shopping days with my mom
43. My KitchenAid stand mixer (It's been getting a lot of use lately)
44. A full house for Thanksgiving
45. Hot chocolate with lots of whipped cream
46. Target that is 2.5 miles from my house
47. Coming home to a clean house
48. Grandparents to be who want to play an active role in our baby's life
49. A Dish Network DVR and not having to watch commercials
50. Falling asleep in a comfy bed with a husband next to me and a dog at my feet

Thankful

Saturday was our 4.5 year anniversary, and as we were talking Saturday we realized that so far we have spent about 60% of our 4th year of marriage separated because of Matt’s work schedule and the project he’s been working on in Florida. We’re praying the project is drawing to an end, but it has already taken much longer that I had ever expected. As I was thinking back on the last six months and the struggles we have faced, I’ve realized that through this trial, God has continued to bless us and remained faithful in our lives and our marriage. So, since Thanksgiving is on Thursday, I wanted to share a few things I’m thankful for related to the trial we’ve been facing since June.

I’m thankful for God’s promises: This summer when I was dealing with the illnesses of Barry’s mom and my grandpa and coping with being separated from Matt, I spent a lot of time meditating on a scripture in I Peter.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 1 Peter 1: 3-7

I memorized it and had it taped to my bathroom mirror for awhile. It was a constant reminder to me that the trials we face are not wasted but have a purpose. Whenever I would have a hard day, I would pray that through the trials I was facing, my faith would be strengthened and God would be glorified. I found so much comfort in those verses and in God’s promises to take care of His children.


I’m thankful for our marriage: Honestly, I’m thankful that the time we spent apart has been so difficult for us. I think about how sad it would be if it wasn’t a big deal to be separated from my spouse for so long and what it would be like if we didn’t miss each other when we were apart. I’m glad it’s hard for both of us, because to me it shows the strength of our marriage. In my ladies Bible study, we’ve been studying the Song of Solomon the last couple of weeks, and it’s been a reminder of how thankful I am to have a loving husband and to be in a marriage relationship with him.

I’m thankful for my pregnancy: I know that our time apart would be much harder if we hadn’t been able to get pregnant so quickly. I can imagine how frustrated and discouraged I would feel if we were still trying to get pregnant and Matt was out of town 3 weeks of every month. The pregnancy has also brought some fun distractions that has eased some of the difficulty of our time apart. Plus, it’s hard to get down and feel sorry for ourselves when we have so much to be thankful for and look forward to in the coming months.

I’m thankful for overtime pay: In no way do I want to come across that the extra money Matt is earning from his time in Florida is worth the time we are spending apart, but having the extra money has been a blessing to us. We’ve been able to make some purchases we probably wouldn’t have made because of the extra cash flow including replacing the flooring in our kitchen with ceramic tile. Also, we’ve been able to make some large payments on our mortgage to bring our balance down and increase our savings account which has been a blessing especially with a little one on the way that brings lots of extra expenses with him/her. Plus, I can't imagine how miserable we would be feeling if Matt's company didn't pay overtime and he was across the country working crazy hours and not being compensated anything extra for it. I know my attitude toward the project would be much worse.

I’m thankful for lessons we’ve learned in valuing our time together: Since we’ve spent so many weeks apart lately, I’ve noticed that we both have been more purposeful in the time we do spend together. We’re more focused on valuing our time and doing things as a couple. We put more effort into planning our time together and ensuring that we are doing things that allow us to spend as much quality time together as possible. I hope we continue to be purposeful in the way we spend our time even when we get back into a normal routine after Matt’s work in Florida is over.

I’m thankful for Matt’s job: Whenever I get frustrated or upset about Matt’s constant out of town work, I’m reminded how great of a job that he has. He’s never really been in danger of losing his job, but this project has earned him credibility among his bosses and has secured his job at Flight Safety even further, and we found out yesterday that the next project he is being assigned is never leaving Broken Arrow. That is wonderful news!

I’m thankful that this is the trial we’re facing: I know of many other families whose current struggles and trials are more serious than ours. There are families with sick children, with financial troubles and other struggles that are more difficult than ours. When I start to feel down about our current situation, I remind myself of all the things we do have that many other families do not including our health, a comfortable home, financial security, dependable jobs, supportive families, Godly friends and an incredible church family. We are truly blessed beyond measure.

Special Souvenirs

You'll probably remember from my endless posts about our Disney World vacation that it was a special week in our lives, but for us it signified more than just a fun vacation. It was a celebration of our 4 years of marriage as well as a milestone and a marker in our marriage that we were ready, if God chose to bless us, to bring children into our family. (We didn't tell anyone of the significance of our vacation, but I still think a few close friends had it figured out). We had known for probably about a year the timeline of when we wanted to start trying for a family and when our Disney vacation landed around that time in our timeline, we thought it would be fun to celebrate our decision at Disney World. For us it made our vacation even more special and exciting. Babies and children were a frequent topic of discussion while we were at the parks (easy to happen when we were surrounded by them all day), and at our anniversary dinner we spent the evening reflecting on our fourth year of marriage and discussing how we hoped our fifth year of marriage would bring lots of excitement and change. And remember that wish I made during the wishing ceremony, well I bet you all now know what I wished for, though I will make it clear that I attribute about 0.00% of our getting pregnant to that wishing star ceremony and attribute 100% of it to God's grace and blessings in our lives.

While we were there, we decided to pick up a couple of special souvenirs in the hope that we would be needing them in the future. We had fun dreaming and talking about our future as we browsed all things baby at the gift shops. Here's what we ended up with.



They are currently safely tucked away in my hope chest ready to be used in 2011! Can't you just picture a chubby baby boy wearing that onesie with some tiny blue jeans, or a precious little girl with a big red bow in her hair while she's sporting it? I can't wait!

And just because it was in the hope chest with the other baby things we've accumulated, I had to share a sweet little gift Lovebug's aunt and uncle sent us.
Considering they are both 2 time OU alum, we know they already love Lovebug a lot!

First Trimester, Check!

I reached a milestone yesterday in my pregnancy. I started my second trimester. Since I got pregnant and started reading all about pregnancy, everything I read pointed to the second trimester as a dream: no more nausea, energy is back, etc., so I had been looking forward to reaching that milestone for awhile. Now that I'm there, I'm realizing how easy my first trimester really was. I think God knew that with everything non pregnancy related happening in my first couple months of pregnancy (Matt gone, family illnesses and funerals), that I needed an easy first trimester. With all that said, here are a few highlights of my first 13 weeks of pregnancy

Symptoms:

Fatigue: I have been pretty tired since I got pregnant. In fact, it had pretty much become routine for me to come home after work and crash on the couch for about an hour before starting my evening. Matt frequently finds me there when he comes home from work in the evenings (when he's in town). I'm glad my schedule has been pretty flexible so that I've had time to squeeze some napping into my schedule

Nausea: I've had VERY little of this. There have been a few times where my stomach has felt just a little unsettled, but no major nausea at all. I did get sick one time. I woke up in the middle of the night with a terrible headache, and we had gone to the fair that day, so I think the headache and the fair food, and pregnancy all combined for one minor bout of sickness. I will always remember Matt's response when he got up with me when I was throwing up in the bathroom. As I'm throwing up, he says, "Well, you said you wanted to get sick so you would feel pregnant." Yes, there was a time in my pregnancy where I was wanting to feel a little more pregnant, but I quickly told him that this was not the time to be bringing that up.

Sleep: The first couple of weeks after we found out we were pregnant, I had a hard time sleeping. It was probably a combination of excitement and nerves, but it took me a long time to fall asleep every night. I'm sleeping much better now, although I do get up more in the middle of the night. I think my body's getting me ready for the months of interrupted sleep that are coming my way :)

Other than those few symptoms, I haven't noticed any others. There seem to be a million other symptoms I've read about: sensitivity to smell, heartburn, headaches, food cravings/aversions etc, but I haven't really noticed anything else. I've been blessed that's for sure.

Favorite Moments:
Obviously finding out we were pregnant will be one of my favorite memories for a very long time.

Telling all our family and friends were also some of the best moments of the first trimester

Getting to see our Lovebug was a great moment. At my ten week appointment, we had our first ultrasound, and it was so fun. I used to wonder why all the pregnant women I knew showed off pictures of all their ultrasounds, and oohed and aahed over them in front of everyone. Now, I totally understand! Seeing our baby made the pregnancy feel real for sure. We got to see the tiny heart beating and the baby was wiggling all around. As soon as the baby popped up on the screen, Matt reached over and grabbed my hand, and exclaimed, "It's our baby." We definitely think our baby is the cutest baby we have ever seen :).

Shortly after we told my parents our news, I met my mom in Oklahoma City for a day of baby shopping. Really, we just went to browse around and plan, but my sweet mom did buy us this for Lovebug.
We spent the day looking at cribs, strollers, and bouncy seats and talking all things baby.

Maternity Clothes:
I haven't had to wear any maternity clothes just yet, but I have a feeling they will be coming out soon. My jeans have been getting a little uncomfortable lately. Last Spring I lost about 15 lbs, so a lot of my clothes were pretty loose which is delaying the need for maternity clothes for the moment. My mom was up a couple of weekends ago, and we went on a maternity clothes shopping spree, so I'll be ready as soon as the time comes.

Baby Bump pictures:

10 weeks

12 weeks

14 weeks

Matt and I can definitely tell there is a bump, but usually it depends what I'm wearing whether it's noticeable to anyone else.

It's hard to believe I'm already a third of the way through my pregnancy. I do realize that that statistic is a little misleading since we didn't have any idea I was pregnant until I was almost 5 weeks in. Still, at that time the second trimester seemed a long way off. I'm so excited to have reached this milestone though. I know the second trimester is going to be great. I'll get to feel the baby moving and kicking, we'll finally know whether Lovebug's room will be pink or blue, planning and decorating will move into high gear, plus all the holidays are coming up too. We've got an exciting few months ahead of us!

Relaxing Weekend

Matt came home from Florida on Saturday morning and I had been looking forward to spending the weekend with him all week long. We had plenty of things we probably needed to do over the weekend, but instead we just enjoyed a relaxing weekend at home doing very little work. It was just what we needed, time to relax, be refreshed and soak up lots of quality time together.
I picked Matt up from the airport at 10:30 on Saturday morning and we made it back home just in time for the OSU vs. Kansas State game. We popped in a frozen pizza and settled in front of the TV for the next few hours. The weekend is always better when OSU comes away with a victory! After the OSU game, we stayed on the couch and watched part of the Nebraska vs. Missouri game. I think we both actually slept through the first half though. I remember waking up and seeing that Nebraska was up by 24 points, so we weren't really interested in watching the rest of the game. Instead we took Rhapsody on a walk and then watched a couple of episodes of the Office on Netflix.

Later that evening, we got ready and headed out on a date. It had probably been months since we had been on an actual date. We had gotten into a pretty good routine last year and were having date nights weekly or at least every other week, but since Matt started working in Florida, it has been hard to stay consistent. Even when he's been home, we've had so much going on, that date nights really got overlooked, so it was a big deal to finally go on one. We ate dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant and enjoyed the quality time we had together to visit and enjoy some yummy food. After dinner, we went to the movies and say Life As We Know It. Matt had given me a coupon for Christmas last year that he would go to any movie of my choosing without complaining, and I finally got a chance to use it. The movie was definitely a chick flick, but I did hear Matt laugh during several parts. It had been a while since we had actually gone out to a movie, so even though it was expensive which is the main reason we usually avoid the theater, it was fun to go out together.

On Sunday after church we kept with our relaxing theme. Rhapsody and I took a nap while Matt messed around on the computer. Later that afternoon, we ran a few errands, and took Rhapsody on a walk. That evening we handed out candy to trick or treaters in our neighborhood and watched How to Train Your Dragon, a movie some of our friends recommended. It was a really cute movie. Although we didn't accomplish much over the weekend, and still have a long list of things we need to get done, I can't imagine a more productive way to spend the weekend than showing each other that our marriage and our relationship is a priority and refilling our love tanks.

Cowboy Nation

This last weekend was homecoming at OSU and a weekend that Matt and I had been looking forward to for several weeks. Our great friends, Corey and Brooke decided this summer that they were going to come to Oklahoma for the weekend and asked to stay with us. We couldn't have been more thrilled to spend a long weekend with them. They are some of our greatest friends and just incredible people in general. We were lucky that we've gotten to see them twice in the last few months since they came to Tulsa to visit in June. Matt got home from Florida just in time to greet them at the airport. I've actually made four trips to the airport since Thursday. It's a good thing it's just a few miles away. Corey and Brooke flew in from Houston Thursday evening. We picked them up and then headed back to our house. We sat and visited while we ate dinner and just enjoyed being together again and catching up.

Friday morning we just relaxed. Matt had to go into work in the morning, but I was off since it was my school's Fall Break. We slept in, ate breakfast and just watched TV and visited until lunch time. For lunch we met Brooke's brother and his fiance who also live in Tulsa. Her brother is an FBI agent, so he had some interesting stories to share. After lunch we came back home, packed up and headed off to Stillwater for the weekend. We made it to Stillwater around 4, and visited with one of Brooke and Corey's friends from Sugar Land for a little while. Matt and I also took the opportunity to walk around campus and visit some of the buildings we frequented a lot when we were in school. We walked past the library and there was no denying that it was Homecoming week with the orange fountain
That evening, we visited our good friends Matt and Amie who were gracious enough to host us for the night in their apartment. And let me tell you, they are great hosts. They are the sweetest couple and Matthew is such a great cook. We were spoiled all weekend long. He prepared us a delicious dinner of pulled pork sandwiches and sweet potato fries, and then we trotted across campus for the famous Walkaround. OSU boasts that they have the world's greatest homecoming. I haven't visited many campuses for homecoming, but OSU's is definitely spectacular. The house decs are phenomenal to look at and such a fun tradition. I've gone to walkaround every year for 8 years. We'll see how long my streak holds up. Next year will be different for our family for sure :).


There were a few standouts this year that were pretty amazing, but I will say the decs have lost some of their grandeur after we've seen so many of them for so many years. After walkaround we went back to the Allen's and spent the rest of the night visiting and eating dessert. It was so nice to spend some time visiting the Matt and Amie. Matt graduates with his Ph.D. in a couple of months, so we know they won't be in Stillwater forever, and we relish the time we get to spend with them.

Matt was still recovering from his recent 11 day trip to Florida and crashed pretty early that night. Corey was kind enough to tuck him in.
The next morning, Matt and Amie prepared a delicious breakfast for all of us of french toast, bacon, and fruit smoothies. We relaxed that morning and played a quick game of Settlers. Brooke and Corey and Matt and Amie have always been some of our favorite people to play games with, so it was fun to all be together again. That afternoon we all dispersed for a couple of hours. Matt and I had a few tailgates we wanted to visit while we were in town and so did Brooke and Corey. I was glad to get to see these lovely ladies and catch up with them for a few minutes that day.
I get to see Deborary fairly often, but I hadn't seen lyda in several months, so it was great to visit with her and hear how everything is going in her life. It's also fun to catch up on all the latest MFT news. I've felt really out of the loop since I graduated. She has plans to move back to Stillwater in a few months so hopefully we won't go as long without seeing each other next time. I could have sat around and visited with Deborah and Lyda all afternoon, but we had to cut our time short after about an hour. Before heading back to Matt and Amie's, we swung by the MBA tailgate and Matt got to visit with a few of his old professors. Even though we didn't have tickets to the football game, it was fun being immersed in the game day atmosphere and surrounded by so much orange.

We all made it back to Matt and Amie's about an hour before the game started and got a chance to play another board game before kickoff. The football game was disappointing to all of us (except Matt. A. who grew up in Nebraska and has been a lifelong Huskers fan), but it definitely didn't ruin our weekend. I think watching it on TV instead of in person led to less emotional investment in the game, and I really knew there was a good chance we wouldn't be able to pull out a victory especially since Nebraska had something to prove after their game against Texas. Plus, I thought our offense looked great and we had an exciting first half, so it wasn't a total let down. Matt and Amie were great at providing comfort food for us during the game too (including homemade soft pretzels which were way better than the cardboard one I would have made Matt buy me if we were at the game), which helped :). After the game, we played one last board game while we waited for the traffic to disperse and then said goodbye to Matt and Amie and drove back home.

We listened to the OU/Missouri game on the way home and watched the second half on TV after we made it back. That was a great game to watch (I'm glad we don't have to play Missouri this season). Sunday morning we went to church and then to lunch at Hideaway. We had a great lunch just visiting with Brooke and Corey and trying to soak up the last few hours we had together before they flew back to Houston. It was harder saying goodbye this time than last time because last time we had a scheduled time when we would see them again. I told them that we owe them a trip to Houston, and I think we're going to try and get down there sometime in the early Spring. We are very thankful for the great friendships we have formed over the years with some great couples!

Matt headed back to Florida early this morning so we spent the rest of last night doing laundry and getting him ready for his trip. We also just relaxed and soaked up some time just the two of us taking Rhapsody for a walk and watching some Netflix.

We had a great homecoming weekend and it definitely lived up to all our expectations.

Sharing the News

As soon as we found out we were expecting (well before actually), we started thinking about how we would share the news with our families. We hadn't told our families or friends that we were trying to get pregnant. In fact the only person I told was my mentor Judy so she could be praying for us (although I think a couple of my close friends had it figured out). We wanted to keep our plans quiet for a few reasons, one of which was that we wanted the news to be a surprise when we did get pregnant so planning how we told people was a fun task Matt and I took on. We discovered we were pregnant the weekend before Labor Day and immediately decided we would head to Weatherford the following weekend to share the news. Unfortunately we found out later that week that Barry's mom had passed away and the funeral was that weekend in Weatherford, so although we had already decided to head home for the weekend, we decided to go a day early to be with my parents. Each time we got off the phone from talking to our parents that week before we shared the news, Matt and I would just smile at each other and say, "They have no idea." It was fun keeping the secret just between the two of us for a few days.

We drove to Weatherford Thursday night and initially planned to tell my parents first, but because of all the family in town for Joyce's funeral, they had company, so we went to Matt's parents house first. I don't remember which one of us came up with the idea of how to tell his parents the news. I think I did. Matt's mom usually starts asking us for a Christmas list a couple of months before Christmas, so this year we made one in advance that looked like this:

When we got to Matt's parents house, Matt said that we had come up with a Christmas list and asked if they wanted to see it. It was fun to see their reaction when they realized our news.

After we spent some time at Matt's parents, we headed over to my parent's house. By this point it was late that night and I absolutely couldn't wait to tell my parents. We made it over there, and Barry's brother and sister-in-law were still there. We visited with everyone for awhile and eventually (I think it was close to 11 that night), they went back to the hotel and we were FINALLY alone with my parents and I didn't wait another second to tell them.

How we decided to tell my parents involves a little back story so hang with me. My mom and I have always been super close. She is my best friend and besides Matt is the person I'm closest to. We lived alone together for the last 3 years my high school and we had agreed during that time that there was no way we could live far away from each other especially when I got older and had kids. So we made a pact that wherever my husband and I ended up settling, she would move not to the same town as me but within an hour distance. In fact when Barry called and asked me permission to marry my mom, I reminded him of our pact, and he agreed to comply. Matt obviously knew about this pact because we talked and joked about it so often. He actually came up with the idea of how to tell them and told me about it before we even got pregnant. Here's what we did.

We got a map and Matt mapped out a circle of appropriate places they could move to that would meet the requirements of the pact. He made an inner circle that was our buffer zone (so we didn't turn into an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond). We also printed out a few real estate listings of surrounding towns.


I handed the folder to my mom and told her that I knew it wasn't the best timing, but we wanted to give them as much notice as we could since they only had until May. She gave me a confused look and opened the folder. She and Barry laughed at the map and my mom started looking at the real estate listings. They totally DIDN'T get it. They were obviously distracted with Joyce's death and everything that was going on and we had all tossed around the idea at times of them moving closer, so she just assumed we were helping them out and a baby didn't go through her head at all. She would browse through the listings and mention how one house was too small or another didn't have enough bedrooms. I kept saying, "You have until May", hoping it would register something. It didn't. She finally said, "Why May?" and I couldn't take it anymore and blurted out, "Because that's when the baby's due!" That's all it took and instantly Mom and Barry both jumped out of their chairs, my mom screamed, "You're pregnant" and they gave us huge hugs. Barry even got teary eyed mentioning how with one death comes another life. Their reaction was just what I was expecting (only I thought they'd catch on a little sooner). I don't think I've ever seen them so excited. They talked about grandparent names, Barry said he was going to teach him/her to fish and my mom said we needed to get to shopping. We sat out on the back porch for a while longer talking all things baby. It was such a fun night! Now we weren't trying to pressure my parents to move anytime soon. 3 hours is a little far but it's doable for now. Not that we would complain if they decided to move though :).

The next day we went over and shared the news with my grandparents. We went to Momoo and Papa's first. As soon as we got there, I told Momoo I had a picture I wanted her to see. I pulled out the picture of Matt and I holding up a positive pregnancy test. She smiled and excitedly said, "You're pregnant?" and hugged me tighter than she had in a long time. My grandpa was sick and having a bad day so I went over to his chair to show him the picture and he hugged me and told me congratulations. That's the last memory I have with Papa, and although I would have loved to see him again to make more memories that moment is so special to me.

Later that afternoon we went over to Granny and Grandaddy's house. We got there and I told them we had something for them. We handed them this card:

I loved Granny's initial reaction. She said, "Great grandparents, We're too young for that!" It was cute. As we were leaving she said I guess we have until May to get a cane. We stayed over there awhile and she told us about family quilts that we could have for the baby and seemed a little distraught that she had to keep the news quiet for a few weeks. She did a good job keeping our secret even though I know it was hard on her.

We also got the opportunity to share the news in person with my Jeremy and Anna and my step-sister, Tiffany and her husband since they were all in town for Joyce's funeral. We didn't think we would get to tell them in person because they live so far away, and although we wish they could have come home for happier circumstances, we were glad to get to tell them in person.

Since that weekend, we've gotten to share the news in person and over the phone with lots of our friends. Although it's been stressful trying to remember everyone we need to tell (and make sure they don't hear the news from someone else), it's been so fun to spread out the excitement of our pregnancy and let others share in our joy.

My family has had a rough summer/fall filled with two very bad doctor's reports, months of watching loved ones suffer, and two funerals. Matt and I believe that God provided this child at the perfect time to show his goodness and to bring joy to our family during our trials. He is taking care of our family through giving us this child, and we are so thankful for his faithfulness and love for us.