Cravings

I've had my fair share of cravings since I've been pregnant. At times I'm really grateful for my cravings because if I'm nauseous it will usually take the nausea away. Such a blessing! The majority of the foods I've been craving since I've been pregnant are not things I normally eat. The first craving I had was even before I knew I was pregnant. It was for a cheese burger. It is very rare for me to eat a cheese burger and I never go to the restaurant and order one! We had been working hard all day so we decided to get some burgers. Well, that craving didn't stop for a few weeks! I wanted burgers all the time!

My next consistent craving was rasberries. Luckliy rasberries are very good for you so I didn't feel so bad about eating these. The bad thing about rasberries is that they are expensive. So thankfully that craving has died down.

And the food I have been craving for the majority of my pregnancy.... POTATOES! I have always loved mashed potatoes but I would really only eat them at holidays. Except before and after my jaw surgery. I would eat them during that time becaues they were soft not because I really wanted them. But now I crave all types of potatoes... mashed, french fries, potato skins, tater tots, potato salad (which I normally don't even like!), and etc. I love them. My midwife told me (in front of Joseph) that I should stay away from potatoes now that I'm out of my 1st trimester. But it's so hard! Every time I talk about potatoes Joseph "kindly" reminds me I shouldn't eat them. I've been really good about it. I really only eat them 1-2 times a month which I think is pretty good considering I want them all the time! LOL.

If you can't tell, I'm really hungry and ready for lunch! That's what prompted this post. I was trying to decide what to eat! LOL

PS. To clarify, my midwife said I should stay away from potatoes because my fibromyalgia has been really bothering me since I've been pregnant. She said one way to help it from getting really bad is to try and only gain about 20 - 25 pounds. I've gained about 5 so far. I don't know what I'll gain later on but I'm trying to stay active (at least taking a walk every day) and eat healthy.

Being Pregnant

We are SO excited that we are pregnant! I am just over 15 weeks pregnant. Our baby is due March 8, 2012. It seems close and far away at the same time. I'm not going to lie, it was REALLY tough being pregnant for the first trimester. I am lucky that I never threw up, but I was nauseus everyday, all day. That was TOUGH! The other symptoms I have/had are fatigue, headaches, feeling hot all the time... You know what, I thought I would be able to list everything that happened to me the past 3 months, but I don't really remember. I guess if I forget how miserable I was the first 3 months then hopefully I'll forget the pain of labor that quickly too. What do you mom's think? :)

With some research, help from friends, and a presentation from a doula, we decided to go to a midwife instead of a traditional doctor. I'm not a crazy hippy or anything, I'm just trying to do what I feel is best for me and our baby. Our midwife will try to help me get through the pain naturally but if it comes to the point where I need an epidural, she'll let me have it. I'm excited that I won't have to be laying down in a bed the whole time and that I'll have options for birthing positions. We really like our midwife. Our first appointment was great. Excpet for when she couldn't find the baby's heartbeat! That was a little scary. She held the doppler to me for a few minutes and then brought in the ultrasound machine so she could find a visual heartbeat. It took a little while to find that but she finally did and I was relieved! I was glad that Joseph was there because I knew he wasn't worried and that he knew everything was ok.

Here's the picture of our ultrasound. She said that the little white spot was the baby, but then my friend Lindsey pointed out that it looks like there is a facial profile on the left hand side. What do you think? I like to believe that is my baby's head! :)

So for now, I'm mostly just tired all the time and nauseous. But my nausea only lasts for about an hour in the morning. Oh, and I also have really bad preganncy brain. Apparently I can't form sentences correctly anymore so I apologize for any weird sentences in my blog posts from here on out!

Best Week In A Long Time and Day 6

Here is a post that I made on my Sparkpeople blog :) I originally posted it yesterday.:

On Tuesday I found out I received the Employee of the Quarter award for my division at work. I am pretty impressed with that because there are over 1,200 people in my division! Then yesterday I officially found out that I received a new position at work! I'm really excited about it. I'm staying in my same division, but I have different job responsibilities. Then last night I had a great time with friends at my house playing bunco. And because I did all of my cleaning yesterday, I don't have to spend my Saturday doing it!

Today I took my dog for a 3 mile walk. It was pretty hot outside (about 90 degrees) so I did work up a good sweat on my forehead. When I came home I did the Biggest Loser Wii game and did an upper body work out for 16 minutes. That is about all I could handle because upper body is so weak. I hope to strengthen that through out my 30 day streak.

Also, I may have found a new favorite snack! Take some mozzarella cheese (about 1 oz), cut it into chunks and place it on top of a slice of cucumber instead of a cracker. The 2 flavors together tasted great! I'll need to try that snack again later today or tomorrow to make sure it really does taste good and not that it just tasted good because I was hungry

I'm pretty excited about reaching day 6 on my workout streak. I haven't worked out this many days in a row for a LONG time!

Garden and Baby Birds

Back in March or April we planted a garden at the stake plots and we are finally starting to harvest our veggies! We've had tons of summer squash and zucchini so far. I made a stuffed zucchini and baked ziti with zucchini chunks in it. We've also had steamed summer squash. I'm so excited for our tomatoes to turn red! I'm going to learn how to make my own salsa.

Stuffed Zucchini

About a month or so ago a momma bird built a nest on one of our outdoor surround sound speakers. We decided to let her do her thing. We watched her get chubby, lose her chub, start watching her babies hatch, bring them their food and then finally we were able to see their little heads poking out of the nest. It was really cool to watch. The past couple of days the 2 birds started getting bigger and started to flap their wings. We knew any day they would be leaving the nest. This morning we came down stairs and there was only one bird left. Unfortunately he was stuck to the nest! He was hanging upside down, flapping his wings, and trying to get away. Joseph took the ladder to help him back into the nest. The baby bird had some of the nest wrapped around his little feet. Joseph took the baby out of the nest, untangled his feet and placed him back in there. A few hours later we went back to look and the baby bird was gone. It was a neat experience to see them grow up. We even saw one of the babies come back today and land on the hammock outside. We knew it was the baby because his feathers were still fluffy and his beak was still yellow. Here are some pictures from the rescue:

Please don't look at my dirty window :)

And here is a funny picture of Sammy for good measure. Have a great week!

Happy Easter!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter! One thing that I'm saddened about with the "west coast" is that people don't really gather together as families on Easter Sunday. It's not a huge deal like it was in my family. If I didn't have a root canal on Friday then I would have planned a big feast. We are getting together with Kacey and Chris today, but it's more of a BBQ. I want to have an Easter with ham, mashed potatoes, corn and all of the good stuff. Maybe next year when I can actually eat it! :) Luckily my jaw and mouth don't hurt as much as I expected them to. That makes me REALLY happy!

My friend shared this link from Fox news. http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/04/22/especially-easter-easy-mock-jesus-christ-dont-dare-mock-faiths/ I was surprised that it was actually shared on the news. It seems controversial because it is about Jesus. I guess we are just so conditioned to think since we're not supposed to say Happy Easter or Merry Christmas anymore at work that we can't talk about Jesus period. So needless to say, I enjoyed the article. They made a good point about Lady Gaga in it too. About a month ago she changed her profile picture on Facebook to the cross and the name Judas. It really disgusted me. There have always been some things that I disagreed with her on, but I let it slide because I liked her songs. Well, no longer.

It is important for us to understand the importance of today, Christ's resurrection. We should surround ourselves with those who also have a love and appreciation of Him. Happy Easter, everyone!

It's Been A Long Time

Hey All!

Sorry it's been a while. We've had a lot of great things happen lately. 1) Joseph had 1.5 classes left until he's done with his Associate's Degree!!! 2) Joseph passed the first part of his A+ Certification yesterday and he will take the 2nd half this coming Friday. 3) I'm finally off all of my pain prescriptions for my jaw!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My jaw is feeling so much better now. I still get some headaches and my jaw hurts a little bit now and then, but it's really nothing I can't handle.

We started a garden over at the Stake Plots this year. We planted tomatoes, bell peppers, yellow squash and zucchini. I'm really excited for these to start growing.

Next week we are going to SeaWorld with some friends of ours. I'll be sure to post pictures from that. ... I swear I had more to write when I started this post, but now I'm drawing a blank. Oh well!

Hope you are all having a great Saturday!

Testimony Time

Since I am home sick and I'm not sure if I'll be able to go to Testimony Meeting on Sunday, I decided to share a true testimony builder from today.

It started last week when I still hadn't received my short term disability check and Joseph got his normal paycheck. We went to church and as Joseph was filling out his tithing slip, he handed one to me and asked me to give a fast offering even though I wasn't fasting nor have I been paid in the past month and a half. So I did. I knew that if I was going to make this fast offering then I really had to make it a sacrifice or else it wouldn't be worth it. As I mentioned, I have not received a paycheck since the middle of December, and even then, that paycheck was only for $40. Big whoop. We had to start dipping into our savings this week to pay our bills. Once we started doing that it felt like it drained so fast! It really scared me. I have been working with the short term disability people for a few weeks now because there were some complications with my claim. yada yada yada, I called them yesterday and was told I may not be getting paid but he had to research something and that I would get a phone call back in an hour.. but never did. I was laying in bed last night and just kept thinking about my upcoming physical therapy appointments this week and that they only accepted cash. I didn't think we would have enough money to even pay for those or the gas to get there, even though I really need them to help with my recovery. So I prayed for help.

On top of everything, I've been sick since Monday. So I went to my new primary care doctor today (Dr. Stoeckmann at Agave Family Physicians in Maricopa.. she was awesome btw) and she told me that I had bronchitis. That meant we had to pay the co-pay and for any prescriptions she gave me. So we dropped off my prescriptions at CVS and went home for an hour until they were ready. In the mean time I called the short term disability people again where they put me on hold for about 5 minutes. The woman came back on the line and told me they are mailing out my check on Monday!!! Yes! AND not even 2 minutes later, Joseph pulled up our bank account and saw that our State Taxes Refund was deposited!

This was such a strong testimony builder for me. I know that if we make sacrifices for the Lord, He will bless us. I am so truly grateful for this experience.