Starting to Show

Don't get too excited. It's definitely not much of a "bump" yet :) But I figured, what the heck, I'll go ahead and post some pics, especially since family and friends that don't live here have no idea of the changes as they slowly start to happen.

Week 8 - nothing at all, but it's a good pre-bump picture that I'm sure will be fun to look back on later...

Week 11 - still nothing really...

Week 15 - it's not much but it's a bump! Our baby right here is around the size of a navel orange :) 

And then wow, this past weekend, I really just popped out...

Totally kidding! It's not real. We went maternity clothes shopping and the dressing room had a 7 month belly you could try on with your clothes. It was neat to feel that pregnant though!

A Rockin Women's Conference

Holy moly, time is flying. I seriously can't keep up right now. And it's obviously apparent through my lack of blogging as well. Sorry!!


Quick run-down of the weekend (even though it's Tuesday) is that my church put on an amazing Women's Conference and I was so refreshed by the Lord through it. The key-note speaker rocked my face off - I literally found my jaw wide open just listening to her in awe. I could've skipped lunch to keep listening to her and that's saying a lot from a preggo girl, ha ha. Her name is Christine Caine. She's on the leadership team at Hillsong Church in Australia but her and her husband also founded and lead the A21 Campaign which is helping abolish human/sex trafficking across the world. I HIGHLY encourage you to go listen to her if she is ever close to you or I'm sure you can find some stuff online. She will no doubt FIRE you up.


Here's a link to the campaign website: http://www.thea21campaign.org/
And here's a link to a video she showed us - it's short (4 min) so check it out - http://youtu.be/stxmmQqKL0E


Christine talked about the A21 Campaign but she talked about so much more too. She talked about being light in the dark places. You can't see light in light places. You don't notice it. She talked about how life is risky no matter what and to not be afraid to be light in the dark places. She said that somehow we've equated the blessed life with the safe life. I think in most circumstances she's right (in that we do equate it that way) but that's not truth. The Lord gave me such a peace through her words about where we are living right now. It's ok to step out of your cookie-cutter safe life and be light in potentially some dark or darker places. The Lord needs and wants us there. She also talked about what compassion really is. Compassion compels you - it causes you to GO, to do something. If you just watch a video or hear a story and your heart hurts for what is going on, that's just emotion. It's not compassion. Compassion is inconvenient. It interrupts your religious schedule. WOW, that hit me hard. God stirs our hearts for different things but the important thing is to make sure we are going into those dark places, wherever they are or whatever they look like. I don't think God is stirring me to do something with human trafficking right now but he is re-igniting my flame for Woodlawn. And if not there for the rest of my life, I just want to make sure I'm shining in some dark place. I can't not shine and I can't shine among light all the time. 


So yes, it was an amazing conference. I am so grateful for my church. And I thank the Lord for refreshing me and speaking to me this past weekend in such a vivid way. 


And speaking again of time flying by, we go back to the doctor this Thursday for my 15 week check-up! I'll definitely start posting some bump pics soon as I'm slowly starting to show so stay tuned...

Home Sweet New Home

I'm writing this post from the back deck of our new townhome...sipping coffee, reading the Word (and now blogging), and enjoying this chilly morning. I love it. First off, this is the first time I've made coffee since I found out I was pregnant - I just haven't had the taste buds or desire for it until now. Maybe it's the cooler weather or maybe it's the 2nd trimester, but whatever the case I'm glad to have my coffee back. 


I'm also loving this morning because change is hard and I've already found several things I love in our most recent change - moving from our apartment to this townhome. Moving is always bittersweet. I'm always excited to move to a new place but I'm at the same time reminiscent about the old one. Things are great so far in our townhome. We have so much more space, it's very cozy already, it's in a great location that's close to our works and church, but it's still different. It's a different community. I get so used to routines in life as silly as they may be - my Molly-walking route, my running routes, the fact that I could walk to Magic Muffins on a Saturday morning and get a delicious blueberry muffin :) And all that plus more changes when you move. 


Back when we were looking for places to live next, I broke down in tears one day. I was doubtful about finding a place, about liking the place we found, and well, I was just whining that while I wanted to get out of the apartment I was so sick of moving. I actually counted it up the other day and this town-home is the 7th place I've lived in the past 8 years. Hogan really encouraged me by saying that I've always ended up loving the next place I move. At the end of the lease, I'm always bittersweet about leaving it whether it was the community, the memories, the actual place, or all of it combined. As simple as that was to say, it really encouraged me. It's true. It's that way in all circumstances in life. We doubt and fear change but God has always and will always be faithful. Look at your life in the past. Has he ever failed? No. He can't and so when we are trusting in him, we have nothing to fear. He turns bad into good. Things always work out, whether it's how we envisioned them working out or not. He shows us new things everyday if our eyes and hearts are open. 


So I'm excited about our new home. I'm excited to see what memories will be made here and I know when the time comes to move again, I'll once again be bitter-sweet about moving. I'm not going to lie though, I'm looking forward to that day when we buy a place and hopefully get to live there for several years!  

Our 2nd Visit

It's a lazy Sunday for Hogan and I which thankfully gives me time to catch everyone up on what's been going on.

We had our 2nd visit to the doctor this past Thursday. At first I thought pregnancy was going to creep by but that quickly faded. I can not believe it's already been a month since our first visit to the doctor when we saw the baby via ultrasound and heard the heartbeat for the first time. Since then, not much has changed physically. I've developed what I call a slight rounding of my tummy (ha) but nothing that can be seen by others. It's a strange feeling knowing that you are pregnant and there is a baby growing inside but not really seeing much physical proof of that. It took the 2nd doctor's visit when we heard the heartbeat again to reinforce the fact to me that I'm pregnant.

The heartbeat was strong at 150 and the doctor says everything looks and sounds great with me and the baby. Praise the Lord. It's not that I have doubt everything is ok but it's just a new feeling knowing that you are pregnant and that there is really a baby growing inside of you. It's just good to hear that heartbeat when you go back to the doctor :)

I've been sleeping a ton and Hogan has been such amazing support to me. It's not rare these days that my eyes start to close around 8 or 9 at night and he pushes my stubborn self to bed on those nights. He encourages me to rest and nap and is taking care of a lot of the things I usually do in order to increase this rest. This entire weekend he has taken our Molly girl out in the mornings in order to let me sleep in. This is huge because her wakeup time is 6am. My wakeup time this morning was 9:30am. So refreshing.

We've yet to do much preparing. I just don't think it's all sunk in yet. As I near the end of my 1st trimester though, that's gonna have to change. We have been taking baby bump pictures even though there is no bump. We started at 8 weeks - nothing. We were going to do every week but as the weeks passed with not much change, we decided to space them out some more at least right now. I'll post some in a few weeks when you can actually see some change, lol.

Word on the streets is that I am going to start getting back most of my energy soon and I'm going to feel like a brand new person - looking forward to that! But in all honesty, my pregnancy so far has been ideal. I'm very grateful for that and I've definitely enjoyed it so far, especially knowing what the end result is going to be.

Skinny Recipes

I hardly ever cook. And honestly, I'm not a huge fan of it either. But I know I need to for the health and money side of it at least. I've tried searching for recipes before but it's really hard to keep my interest in a recipe since most involve SEVERAL steps and NUMEROUS ingrediants.


Recently, I stumbled across this website:

http://www.skinnytaste.com/

I started browsing the site and was hooked. I spent at least an hour saving recipes to my recipe box and picking out which one I wanted to make first. The layout of this website is great, the recipes are healthy (which I'm just believing because they tell me they are), and they seem relatively easy.


So I picked out one to try and I actually bought the ingrediants and tried it:

http://www.skinnytaste.com/2011/08/sesame-encrusted-baked-chicken-tenders.html

And it turned out great! Disclaimer: that is not my picture above - it's the one off the website, BUT the tenders I made really did look pretty like that too :) I had to tweak the recipe a little bit - add some more soy and sesame sauce (I think our chicken tenders were pretty thick and sucked up more of the sauce). But it really didn't take me long to make at all and Hogan even enjoyed it - at least he said he did. I told him to tell me the truth because if he did like it, then I'm probably going to make it again :)


So anyways, I know there are a ton of recipe websites out there but for a girl that doesn't cook, this site seems like a good place to start. Maybe you'll have some luck with it too. If you do, please share what recipe(s) you try and how they turn out!

Jehovah Jireh

The Lord is our Provider.

I believe this with all my heart. It's easy to worry in this world but over the past couple of years I have seen God supernaturally provide in my life in my job, my finances, my relationships, and my soccer ministry. It leaves no room to doubt him. And I stand on that. I know he's provided in the past and I know he'll provide in the future as I keep trusting Him and handing things over to Him.

And he continues to provide. Hogan and I have a lot of things on our mind lately (pregnancy, a new place to live, job situations, a new car, vision for ministry, etc etc) but we know without a doubt that the Lord will take care of us. Not in our timing of course, but in His perfect timing. One thing recently though that we can check off the list and give God all the glory for is our next home. We aren't ready to buy a house yet but we definitely need more space than the 1BR/1BA apartment we are currently living in, especially with our new addition coming in late March. So we've been searching for where to rent next and with rent fees as high as the sky, it's been a little discouraging. But through talking with friends, we found out about another friend who has an empty townhome that he's willing to rent to us at a reasonable price. It's a great location for both of us and just seems perfect for this next year of our lives.

I never doubted my God though. It was just a matter of being patient. And here we are with a place to live an entire month before we even have to move out of our apartment. That's a record for me at least! It's just one of the many things we have been trusting Him for. He is so faithful.

Expecting

This picture is so cute (found it on Pinterest), I couldn't not post it. And while it's not Hogan and I in the picture, we are expecting a little one soon!

We found out I was pregnant last month but obviously have kept it somewhat a secret, at least until we went to the doctor. Our plan was to keep it under wraps until my 2nd trimester but it is too exciting and honestly too exhausting to NOT tell people. So here we are in my 8th week and word is getting out!

We went to the doctor for my 1st appointment on August 11. It didn't feel "real" until then. At that appointment we got to see the baby and hear the heartbeat.

The heartbeat is strong at 143bpm and doc says everything looks great. We are beyond excited. We definitely wanted a child sooner than later and the Lord has fulfilled that desire. The due date is March 29th which is super close to my own birthday (March 26th)! We plan on finding out what the gender is, but it's still so early so we really do have some time before that happens.

So far in pregnancy, I've learned that naps are essential and I'm always hungry. I NEVER took naps before and now they are vital to my days. It's amazing how tired and hungry you are for something so small inside of you! If I can make it until 11 every day to eat lunch, that's huge, and that's with breakfast and 1 or 2 snacks before then. I know, it's crazy! Thankfully I have not faced any nausua and am hoping not to. Besides a few food aversions, it's been smooth sailing from the beginning.  

We are so excited about this new season of our lives and would love your prayers and support too!!

xoxoxo