Making an appearance

You can only tell a little bit in the picture, but my belly is starting to argue with my buttons! The rubber bands tying me up are coming in handy, but I think I'm days away from purchasing my first belly band at Target.

Am I the only one who feels a little sad that my body is changing for this little guy I don't know? It's not like I had this fantastic body to begin with, but at least I knew what clothes were going to fit me on any given day or that I wasn't going to need to unbutton my pants in my psychology class and then forget to button them again when I got up to do a presentation. Sheesh! I feel like I should be announcing to people as I walk by that this isn't ALL FAT PEOPLE.... I have a human in here! I highly doubt that people are looking at my half pregnant, half fat stomach, but this extra bulging is sure making me self conscious! Don't get me wrong, 90% of the time I'm super excited, but honestly... this is all a little weird.

This will be the start of my weekly belly shots... I guess I'll have to blog away my fears and curiosities and peeves and everything else.

13th Week Ultrasound

The tuesday before Thanksgiving, Jerid and I went in for my 13 week appointment. When the doctor was doing the ultrasound, we were shocked to see how much our little munchkin changed! He/She looked like a real baby! (I can't stand saying "it", so I'll be referring to the baby as He or She, randomly) She was jumping up and down and sucking her thumb and she even had the hiccups! Her heart beat was strong and fast and darling altogether. Each week I read up on the developments he'll be going through and I almost get a little sad at how quickly things are moving. He developed his eye lashes and eyebrows this week... it seems so soon! My baby bump is starting to really get going this week. Although all my clothes still fit me fine, I get super uncomfortable with any pressure on my lower stomach, so my buttons are definitely getting undone every time I sit down. :) I'm sure by next week I'll have a photo worthy belly picture to put up.

As for Jerid and I, we are finishing up our finals this week and next. I'm really struggling with confidence for my Anatomy exam, so I'll be bearing down extra hard the next four days to prepare. Jerid has done well on his first test and seems to be heading into the next few strong. He's been an amazing support for me the last few months and has been working so hard at school as well. I'm so thankful for him.

We're due to be moved out of our place on Wednesday (which is also the last day of our semester). We'll be taking our stuff up to my parents house in Shingle Springs then heading to Fruitland for Christmas and the month of January. The break couldn't come at a better time. We can't wait to see all of our friends and family!

My next appointment isn't until December 29th. Hopefully they'll do an ultrasound and we'll find out if the baby is a girl or boy. We can't wait, more than anything so that we can start buying things.

Until next time,

Happy Holidays!

2 Year Anniversary

Yesterday was our two year anniversary, even though Jerid and I both thought it was the 28th. Sunday we were a little bummed that we didn't get to celebrate because we were with my family in Shingle Springs and we didn't want to take away time from them. But... I got a text from my friend Amy yesterday wishing us a happy anniversary so I looked up a 2008 calendar and sure enough, we were both wrong on the date! Jerid still didn't know so after class I rushed out and did a little shopping and picked up our favorite chinese takeout, cleaned the house and had a candle light dinner for the two of us. He was very surprised!

Love you, Jerid! Thanks for a wonderful 2 years!

Our New Addition

8 wk. ultrasound

Jerid and I will soon have a family of three! Well, four, if you're counting our four legged daughter sitting beside me begging me for pizza. We couldn't be more thrilled, or surprised! I'm due May 31st, 2011, and I'm hoping the next 6 months will fly by!

Finding out: Jerid and I had both been in school for about 3 or 4 weeks when we found out. We hadn't talked a word about getting pregnant and I hadn't even thought about when to expect my period because I was going through my first set of tests that held me in constant panic mode. A few days after our week of tests I woke up in the middle of the night to a weird, awful, crazy dream and instantly thought of my girlfriend Laura telling me all her weird pregnancy dreams. I instantly pulled out my calendar and couldn't believe what I saw. I was 12 days late! I took the day to talk myself out of the possibility, but grabbed a test at the store anyway (without saying a word to Jerid). The next morning, I woke up early and decided to take a test. It took less than a millisecond for those lines to show up in a big plus sign. My heart just stopped. I was more in panic than anything. I rushed out of the bathroom to my sleeping husband and screamed.... I'M PREGNANT!! He was dead asleep and thought that I was screaming at him because he was late for class so he leaped up from bed, but saw me standing there with a white face holding the test. He was speechless. The shock took a few days and a few more runs to Rite Aid for more pregnancy tests, but we told our parents right away and are still in disbelief half the time.

Change in Plans: So, I'm due the week of finals for my school and a few days after Jerid ends school next semester. I really wanted to try to work it out so that I could get more nursing pre-reqs in, but after speaking to my Anatomy professor (who just had a baby) she assured me I would be much better off taking the semester off. I'd also have to wear a face mask in two of my classes because of chemicals. That didn't sound too fun to me. Our insurance doesn't have provider coverage in our area so I'm going to be having the baby up at a hospital near my parents house in Sacramento. I'll be moving up there in February for the last 3 1/2 months and Jerid will commute to Monterey a few days a week for classes. The summer will hopefully bring an internship for Jerid, so we may have to be hauling our little newborn across the country for the first three months of her life. After that, we'll head back down to Monterey for the remaining 9 months of Jerids program. So much going on, it's going to be busy!

My pregnancy so far: The last 6 weeks have been pretty awful for me and Jerid. It started with 24 hour nausea for about 4 weeks, then when I got that under control the migraines and acid reflux started. The good news is that I have a ton more energy now that I'm able to eat more than toast! That is a huge blessing! I'm at 12 weeks now and officially out of the first trimester at the end of this week, so I'm hoping for a complete 180! I can do it! I can do it!

I'll be trying as hard as I can to blog everything about my pregnancy. It's such an exciting time in my life and I want to get it all on record! It's always been so much fun to have girlfriends pregnant and watch their lives and their bodies change! Half of that excitement is imagining yourself in their shoes. Now I get to go through it and I'm trying to embrace every minute of it, even if I'm embracing the toilet at the same time! :)

Stay tuned!

Hunger Games

Last night I finished reading "Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins. (Thanks for the suggestion Dani, and thanks Kelsie for letting me borrow it!) Unfortunately, when I say "finished", I also meant started. Yes, I read it in one day. I hate to admit it, but we left church a little early partly because I COULD NOT stop thinking about getting back to my book! I LOVED IT! What is it about fighting with evil and doing it while trying to figure out who you love as a teenage girl that gets me hooked? I mean, isn't that what Twilight was basically about? Another book that is hard to put down. Although this book is NOTHING like Twilight, it does bring you back to a certain vulnerability of a teenage girl fighting through life with a few handsome boys around. So here's my recommend for the day. Jump onto half.com and grab this book. The best news about it though, is that it's part of a trilogy. I'm not going to start the second book today because today is my first day of school... woot, woot, but I'll be reading it for sure at the end of the week. I'll let you know how it goes :).

Our little cottage in Monterey

So, I know that I haven't finished all my posts on our middle east adventures, but I just have to cut in and put up pictures of our little cottage in Monterey. We LOVE it! The day we got home from Jordan, my Mom picked us up in San Fran and drove us down to Monterey to look for an apartment. We looked all day with no luck. Everything is sooo expensive and tiny. We were having a really hard time finding anything in our price range that also accepted dogs. We had finally given up and were heading home to Sacramento when my Mom spotted it on the corner of Parcel and David St. It just had a sign in the window FOR RENT. We jumped out and looked inside and saw that it was just darling! I called the number on the paper and the woman who answered said that she had rented it out this morning. DANG IT! I kept talking to her about the yard and how cute it was and that we were having such a hard time finding anything, blah, blah. We talked for about ten minutes when she said... "I don't know why but I just think I'm about to change my mind and rent it to you." YES! I smoozed my way into it and came out the winner! We moved in earlier last week and are loving every minute of it! It's tiny, but perfect!

Israel: Part One

A few weeks ago, Jerid and I had the opportunity to go to Jerusalem with our friend Alex Hawks from our church. I may have said this before, but his family has been in Utah for the summer so he has been our buddy on a few adventures, this being the greatest.

We decided on a Saturday/Sunday trip in which we would just stay one night at the YMCA right outside the old city walls. We figured if we left early enough on Saturday morning we could get through border control and customs quicker than waiting until it filled up later in the day. It's illegal to take any cars across the border in exception to diplomats, so that was our saving grace! Alex works at the embassy so we happily made it through every line and obstacle in record breaking time (even for diplomats). We made it through in around 45 minutes! You could tell that the arabs waiting in line to get across were going to be in line for hours and hours. Poor folks.

We made it into the city from the Hussein bridge in about 25 minutes. (I'm not going to get into too much detail about the differences in the city with the Isreal/Palestinian parts of the city because the more I'm here and the more I learn the more upset I get about the entire thing. So, I'll save that for another day, but let's just say this experience has opened my eyes to the reality of the situation.) So, entering the city we immediately went up past the LDS Jerusalem center to a lookout where you can see the entire old city. That's where our picture tour will begin.

I thought this sign was funny.









Hate, hate this picture, but this is Jerid and I standing in front of a view of the old city. You can see the dome of the rock above my left shoulder. Ohh... the spot of earth that holds the answers and dilemmas to nearly all of the worlds problems.








We found a parking spot right in from on Orson Hyde Park and we headed down the hill about 1/4 mile to the Garden of Gathsemene. Jerid joined the groups of crazy christians who tried to lean as far over the fence as possible to grab a piece of olive branch to take home. Luckily his arms were long enough, so we have a wonderful 3 inch piece of olive branch to remember it by :). Thanks babe!

















Next we headed over to the supposed place of Mary's tomb. This was the first taste we had of mere scary, dungeony, dark and gloomy sites where over the centuries places that should have been bright and lovely and peaceful have become, well, like this....








We didn't take too much away from this other than wanting to escape pretty quickly.








Next we headed to the cemetery that is parked in front of the East Gates of the city of Jerusalem.






We headed into the city in the newer East Gates. First we stopped at the old washing pools where Christ healed the blind and sick. We had to go down pretty far to get to the area that was being used when He was around.






Jerid, Melody, Alex and Matthew





Next we headed into the small streets of the city, walking the path of the Via Dolorosa. The path that Christ took while carrying the cross to be crucified.





There were marked spots along the way citing where Christ may have fallen, or where he received his crown of thorns, etc.











The last thing we did on our first day was visit the Garden Tomb. This is where I know that Christ was crucified and laid in His tomb. It was a wonderful experience because of the wonderful Christian group from the UK who preserved the site so well and carried the spirit with them while they let the public in. They really let open it up for you to chose for yourself whether this was actually the true Galgotha or not. They lay out the facts and tried to preserve the area to the best of their ability to resemble what it looked like 2000 years ago.

My favorite place in Isreal, by far.







Behind us in this picture is Galgotha (the skull). This was once a quarry that was set just outside the city walls. It was also on the side of a major street way. You can see the face of the skull directly between Jerid and I. Back in Christs day they would often times use the quarry as a place to stone people in punishment of crimes. We know this to be where Christ was nailed to the cross and died.





This was our tour guide. He was a wonderful man who cared deeply for Christ and for his atonement for us. He really drilled into us that this should not be a place to mourn but a place to celebrate that He Lives!





Inside the tomb. The only finished side of the tomb where one body laid. The other two spots were never finished.











Such a beautiful site! Jerid and Alex talking out side the tomb.









- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Jerusalem, Israel

Jarash

A few weeks ago we went to Jarash to see the old Roman ruins. We found some guy on the side of the street who offered us a ride up north for 1 JOD each. We couldn't refuse. So, we headed up the hill, about 45 minutes north, to see the city. It was super hot this day so we didn't stay exactly as long as I would have liked, but we had a nice audio tour with our portable device that explained a lot of what we were looking at. Because it was a few weeks ago and we've done a lot of touring since then, I don't remember a lot of details, so I'll just put up the pics and a website where you can learn more about the old city.

Jerid tried on a traditional Kafia that he ended up buying. He looked pretty sexy in his arab wear :) We also bought an original oil painting from this guy. We're bringing home quite the collection of art, hope we can get it all back on the plane!


The southern gate to the city. Just inside these doors were stables to the left where you could drop off your donkey, horse or camel.


Inside one of the old palaces that is now used to display the most detailed stones that they've found. The ceiling is, as you can see, covered in soot and smoke from the hundreds of years of candles and fires inside.


Heading onto the main street toward the city center where the markets would have been. The layout of the city would have been pretty spectacular then. As you can see from the cracks in the streets, there were quite a few earthquakes that helped take down this city. The main quake in 700 something AD left the city lifeless.


Detailing on a fallen stone.


This was my favorite place. This was the public pool/bathhouse. In each of the crevices there were roman statues that had water fountains pouring out of them into the pool below. You can see the holes in the stones fed the water. There would have been huge canvases threaded through wooden beams that covered the top of the semi-circle so that the pool was partially shaded. when you look inside the pool, under all the garbage and fallen stones, you can still see the details of carved fish at the bottom of the pool.


This was some queens temple, I can't remember, but it was HUGE! As you can see by the pictures of Jerid at the top and me at the bottom, this was quite a trek to the top. Everything was still in great shape.





Jerid standing at the entrance to the northern ampitheater. The people must have been pretty short back then because Jerid had to duck in a lot of the doorways.


The Temple of Zeus (from the side) the temple is being excavated right now, so we couldn't get to it or get a great view of how magnificent it really is. This is set up on top of a hill above the city center.


A great view of the great size of the city. You can see the south gate at the very furthest point in the photo. About 1/4 inch right from Jerid's right shoulder.


Another great outing in a fascinating country. Can't wait to see it again when Jerid's parents come out. They're coming out for 12 days on July 11th, we're very excited! What a great opportunity they have to see this part of the world!

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Mustanji Family Dinner

Jerid and I took a trip to Dead sea about two weeks ago with our friends Matt and Melody. They are the other married couple that is here with BYU doing the same internship. While swimming in the Dead Sea (I'll have to tell the story of that experience another time) we met this family that was infatuated with talking to us and feeding us their home grown VaGoose (similar to a cucumber). The didn't speak an ounce of english but they managed to get our phone numbers so to invite us to their house for dinner. We didn't expect the call the next day but we were happy to meet them for some great Jordanian hospitality.

Matt and Melody weren't able to come out with us so we invited our friend Caleb to join us. We met the Father of the family as well as his brother (the only one with a car) at the seventh circle. Their house ended up being about 45-50 minutes outside of Amman in a little farming village. When we pulled up I knew we were in for an eventful afternoon.

The women and girls greeted us at the door with huge smiles and hugs and kisses to go with it. They had four beautiful teenage daughters that I couldn't help but notice, stared at Jerid and Caleb with googely eyes. :) The women do not eat with guests, so it was us three and the two men sitting around a big oval table being served by all five girls. They brought out the largest platter of Mansiff I had ever seen! This is the traditional Jordanian dish although they prepared it with chicken instead of Lamb (the Palestinian way). Thank goodness! It was actually pretty good other than the bowls of lemony goats milk that they are supposed to drench the rice and meat in. In the Arab tradition the more you eat, the more you love them. We ate until we had rice halfway up our throats and that wasn't the end of it. Lubna, the wife was hysterical. She would laugh and laugh and she kept grabbing huge spoonfuls of the disgusting goats milk and would feed it to me. I honestly thought I was going to loose it! They boys just sat there laughing. Jerid was sure I was going to puke but I held back and kept showing the family that I "loved" them.

After dinner they proceeded to feed us desert and then some weird fruit off their trees, and spicy trail mix, and dates, and candy, and on and on. This is on top of the orange soda and Coca-Cola that they are refilling every time we take a drink. They were just so happy to have us! We laughed through the evening as we tried miserable to understand one another. We ended up having push-up contests and fun holding their pet turtle. It was a great time. They wanted to take a million pictures of us on their camera phone and I snapped a few with my camera. We ended up getting home around midnight, exhausted and grateful for our experience.












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Location:45 min. outside Amman

BBQ at the Hensley's

Jerid and I invited Yazan and his friend out to our house for a little BBQ. They told us that they would give us a call around 6 to get directions to our house. Little did we know that that didn't mean we would be eating any time close to 6 or 7 or 8 or even 9. We both had a late breakfast so we thought we'd just wait and be extra hungry for dinner. Was that ever and understatement. Nine o'clock rolled around and they still hadn't arrived. Finally we got a call around 9:15pm so we headed out to the town to meet them at the circle with the giant coffee pot. They took us to the butcher to get the meat that we needed for dinner. The butcher literally took an entire lamb hanging in the window and chopped a few pieces off and did whatever they do, right in front of us. I have to admit that I gagged a few times but other than that it was cool to see what they actually do before it gets in the plastic wrap at our grocery stores back home. We then stopped by the fruit stand to grab veggies and fruit for a fruit salad, then off to our house.

Yazan and his friend did all of the work for the BBQ. They prepared all the meat and veggies and started up the BBQ by putting a piece of coal on our gas stove until it was red as can be then they put it in the BBQ and put a fan to it so that the rest of the coals would catch fire. It wasn't until around 1:00 in the morning that we finally feasted. It was fantastic traditional Jordanian Lamb kabobs and bread. We had so much fun with them, we can't wait to do it again!












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Location:Marg Al Hammam, Jordan