Baby kicks and new Bible studies

From some awesome highs to some really low lows, my past couple weeks have been kind of an emotional roller coaster. I guess I should appreciate it since it's the only roller coaster I'll be riding for a while! :)

Last week the baby, who I hadn't really felt moving around much before, decided to start a danceathon that hasn't really let up much since. I was really excited that Shaun was there, so he didn't miss it. :-) Every little kick's been enough to make me emotional. I love feeling him move around so much! Baby's been somewhat more laid back today, but I can tell you for certain that he dislikes my seriously uncomfortable desk chair at work just as much as I do. He'll kick me until I stand up, then start all over when I sit down again. I concur with his opinion, so I've been trying to get up and move around every now and then, but it's a lot more difficult in the building I'm in now since there's not really any place to go.

Speaking of the building I'm in now for work, I still don't like it. I have to park freakishly far away (I used to park 10 feet from my office's door), the bathroom situation is awkward, the kitchen is entirely too crowded at lunch and I'm not a fan of sitting in a room with  like 20 other people and no dividers of any sort. I'm too easily distracted for that. It's a pregnant lady's nightmare.

I've been kind of down in the dumps lately over a bunch of stuff, but my Bible study just started a new book by Kay Arthur called Lord, Give Me a Heart for You that is absolutely amazing. It focuses primarily on 2 Corinthians, and the first chapter alone had me in tears reading about God's purpose in affliction and the comfort only He can give. It's a great study that covers a lot of ground, and I highly recommend it. I promise you'll see yourself reflected in it, and what's more - challenged.

On to other cool, Bible-related matters, yesterday Bob Cornuke spoke at our church. He's a police investigator turned Bible investigator, I guess you could say. Taking what it says in the Bible he goes out and looks for things like Paul's shipwreck, Noah's ark, and Mount Sinai. He's definitely found where Paul's shipwreck occurred and has seen the anchors that were left in the ocean as a result, and he's also given tons and tons of evidence for where the real Mount Sinai is. It's so cool seeing proof of the Bible's accuracy.

He's also done research into the ark of the covenant, and apparently he showed some really cool stuff about it on Sunday morning, but I was in and out of the auditorium feeling really sick. :-/ I don't know why I always feel sick when a really cool guest speaker comes to church!

Well, that's all I've got for today! My brain's feeling pretty fried lately, so trying to remember what happened last week is kinda hard. :-) In parting, I leave you with two of my favorite quotes from chapter 1 of Lord, Give Me a Heart for You:

"When we go beyond our limit, then we experience the supernatural intervention of God and we know that we know it's God."


"And the more intense the suffering, the more abundant the comfort. In other words, He assures us, precious one, that we can never 'out-suffer' His comfort."

My pants don't fit! And other life stories...

I realize I've been absolutely terrible with the updates lately. I'm sorry about that! Life has been absolutely insane lately. In September I had loads of Scottish things to do, including dancing at the Tulsa Scottish Festival and flying up to McPherson, KS, for the festival there (and it was my first time in a small plane! So much fun). This October has been hectic and full of things both fun and frustrating.

After a lot of hard work, mostly on Shaun's part, we finally had the Ink For Your Letter launch party at the Conservatory last Saturday. It went really well! Shaun and I manned the merch table, with help from Jay, and I got to be in charge of the drawing for the XBox 360 and other prizes. That's too much power for me, I tell you! ;) I also had a tip jar that said "Tips, please! I'm pregnant!" but all I got was a dollar bill, four pennies, and a handwritten note from Jay that said "Tip: eat more pizza." I hope you people tip better at restaurants!

My job description also changed this month...twice. If this was a baseball team I'd be listed on the roster as a utility player. I also changed office buildings. I'm now in the production building, which I hate because there are not NEARLY enough bathrooms. It never fails, every single time I feel nauseous and have to make a mad dash to a bathroom, there's someone walking in to the only available one right in front of me. Today the guy who did that turned around, looked at me as I clutched my hand over my mouth, and still went in. I don't know how I managed to hold it in til he vacated the bathroom, but I swear next time I'm puking on the offender! That'll show him.

We've had a lot of house guests of the touring band variety lately. This month we've had Ten After Two stay over on their way to Little Rock, and next month we'll have Decoder and Woe, Is Me. I love seeing all those musician guys. They're highly entertaining! Seriously, lots of laughs with them around.

Oh, and did I mention? We're officially having a boy. :) I'm constantly expanding and starting to feel a bit like a balloon. Hope no one tries to pop me! I'm starting to regret owning fitted clothes at all. None of my pants fit! I have maternity pants, but I pout about them. Pants should NOT come up over one's belly button.

I'm sure there's more updating to be done, but at the moment my brain doesn't want to work, so that's all for now! Stay tuned for more baby updates :)

Hey look! A pregnancy update!

I guess I should get better at updating this with what I'm actually up to lately! People seem a lot more likely to ask a pregnant woman than a non-child-bearing one. ;)

So, what's up with me? Well for starters, I'm really looking forward to the imminent move from first trimester to second! Right now I feel queasy a lot (the puking portion of this pregnancy is slowly wearing off) and I tend to start nodding off if I sit still too long, but my appetite is definitely getting better. I'm also finding that I'm craving a lot healthier food than I used to. I don't eat near as much fried food as I used to, even though it's still a beloved part of my diet. The weirdest thing is my love of Dr. Pepper is completely gone. This former DP addict hasn't had one in at least 6 weeks!

Shaun's birthday was Wednesday, so we kind of made a week of it. On Sunday we had a party with his family, then Monday we did dinner at Abuelo's (free birthday dessert! Enough to share!) and finally watched Deathly Hallows Part 2 at the mall. For his actual birthday we totally pigged out on Mom's crunchy chicken and cookies & cream cake. I think it's the first time I've pigged out in a few months lol.

I still have a while before the doctor can determine Peanut's gender for us, and it's driving me crazy! I keep seeing pretty little girl onesies I want to buy, and on the flip side I also really want to buy Atlanta Braves and St. Louis Cardinals onesies that are available on the MLB site. So dang cute. I guess I'll just have to use some patience 'til I find out!

Back to the subject of food, because that is my favorite subject lately, this weekend is the OCCC Arts Festival! I highly recommend it. Cheap admission - $5 for parking and that's it - amazing art, and of course the FOOD. We normally only stay for a couple hours, but I'm wondering if my fam would willingly go for a late lunch and stay til an early dinner. I have plans to eat roasted corn, a funnel cake, tater twirls, and maybe throw something else in there somewhere. That's doable, right? :)

First trimester: new habits!

As an 11 week pregnant lady, things are a-changin'! I've started a list of what's currently going on with me about one million times, but then in my usually sleepy state I'll discard it and have to start all over the next day. So here's what I've got so far! I bet I've left out quite a bit:

Naps occur frequently nowadays. If Shaun doesn't wake me up, I'll sleep for four hours, wake up for a snack, then go to bed at 9:30. I'm basically a hibernating bear.

I've found myself craving things I didn't even like previously. Namely, chicken pot pie. I find myself thinking about it all the time. At work, in the car, while drifting off to sleep...chicken pot pie is taking over my world.

*Note* I finally got my chicken pot pie last night...and found I couldn't eat more than like 1/16th of it. I don't know why my stomach waits until I get something I really really want to eat then ruins it for me.

I've also found myself craving things that really weren't high on my priority list before now. Here I speak of fair food! Thankfully next month I'll get to go to the fair, the Tulsa Scottish Festival, and the OCCC Arts Festival, all of which are gloriously packed full of fair food. My tummy rejoices...I think.

My favorite perfume now makes me queasy. This is sad.

Since I let people know that I'm pregnant, all pregnant women in the world have decided they need to discuss what they have in common with me. I've been told their due dates, the gender of the baby, etc., and in the back of my mind I keep thinking "did I ask?"

I might also be slightly grouchy. I've been told I'll get over it.

Mexican on a bicycle

I think the high water mark of my experience at USAO was the night we saw the Mexican on a bicycle. Mind you, to my friends and me he would've just been a man on a bicycle had the police not been involved. Anyhoo, it was one of the most eventful nights of my life and as a result I've told this story to everyone I know entirely too many times. For those who haven't heard it, though, here it is.

Chickasha, where USAO is located, is a rather sleepy town where everything but Taco Bell and Walmart closes early. Since there's hardly anything to do at night, my friends and I would take long walks through the neighborhoods surrounding our school's campus. We were out doing just that on this particular night, and we had brought along my friend Jay, who happened to be visiting from out of town. For some reason Jay and I together seem to draw in trouble like a magnet. I blame that on what happened as we were walking back toward campus.

Here we see 4 out of 5 of the persons involved in said walk. Jay is the one who appears to need to pee.

Police cruisers seemed to be in abundance around USAO that Saturday night, and every one of them would slow down as it passed so the officer could glare at us like we were a bunch of hooligans. Finally it occurred to us that Chickasha High School was holding its prom at USAO that night, and those students genuinely were hooligans, hence the heightened police circuiting the school.

Since Chickasha happens to be a very redneck town, all the prom-mobiles probably looked something like this.

Eventually one of those police cars slowed to a stop next to us as we walked down the wide median and the officer glared at us in a manner I assume he picked up in police academy. I attempted to glare back. Jay and my fiancé (now husband) Shaun walked up to his car and asked if there was a problem. The officer continued to glare for a moment, then asked a question that will stick in my mind 'til I die:

"Have you seen a Mexican on a bicycle?"

Did he steal your donuts, sir?

We all stared incredulously for a moment as crickets chirped in the background. Just as Jay was saying "no...should we be worried?" the police officer's radio crackled to life with the words "He's on Arizona!" and off he sped.

We continued on our stroll, pondering all the crimes this Mexican on a bicycle may have committed. Then we heard it.

Creak creak...creak creak.

All five of us stopped in unison and watched as a very large Mexican on a very tiny bicycle slowly pedaled his way down a cross street. It must have been a strange moment for him, seeing five college students standing open-mouthed and turning their heads as he passed like we were one organism.

Imagine this, only ghetto.

When he reached the other side of the wide intersection, he stopped and looked back at us just as a police cruiser turned onto the street and headed our direction. Immediately we realized he couldn't see the Mexican from his vantage point, and by golly we weren't going to let him get away. We sprang into action.

My reaction was to go running toward the cruiser, waving my arms and yelling. My friend Aiden followed. Meanwhile, Sunny jumped up and down where she was while Shaun and Jay pointed toward the cross street. Presumably after he surmised that we weren't leading him into a trap, the cop sped over and rolled down his window just in time to hear "He's on California!"

Califooooooooooooooornia!

Off he sped once again, and soon we could see lights from multiple cruisers on the next cross street. We ran toward it just in time to see the Mexican being pushed up against one of the cars and handcuffed. We helped catch a wanted person!

We never did find out what crime the Mexican had committed, so I've had to come up with scenarios of my own to satisfy my imagination. It usually ranges from murdering a fellow patron at the classiest bar in Chickasha, a lovely heap of rotting wood called the Wan Dora, to throwing a bowling ball at an opposing team in the bowling alley. Whatever the case may be, I'm sure it was a sight to behold.

- LL

It's the little things...

Earlier today, Shaun did one of those things that bothers me. In a good way...but it still bothers me. We were IMing back and forth, and out of the blue he said "Maybe your surprise will come in the mail today."

Surprise? What surprise? Is it in a box? In an envelope? Was it expensive? Can I find record of it on our bank statement? What is it???

I'm impatient, therefore I dislike knowing there's some surprise in store for me. I have to know now, thankyouverymuch. Somehow I made it through the remaining hours at work and managed to not look like a crazy person when I walked in the door, but you better believe it was rough!

I walked into our room, and sitting on our bed was a familiar green, yellow, and pink box. I could rattle off a ton of nerdy facts about just exactly what is in the box, but just know that it's a Baby So Beautiful. A gorgeous redheaded doll in a pink-checked dress.

You see, when I was little I religiously saved my allowance each month until I could afford to purchase a Baby So Beautiful. They were the most beautiful dolls you've ever seen, and you'll never see two that are alike. By the time they quit distributing them (1996 I believe), I owned between 15 and 20.

Fast forward to this year, and those dolls were all carefully stored in tubs at my parents house. My Mom kept asking me to take them to my house, but I didn't really have any place to store them. Now it makes me really mad that I didn't.

As we were packing up everything that wasn't destroyed by the tornado, I realized that my dolls weren't anywhere to be found. In the midst of all this, it was the straw that broke the camel's back and made me cry like a baby. I'd been saving those to give to our daughter someday, and they were gone.

Shaun knew how much it bothered me, and a couple weeks later I got my surprise: a mint-in-box BSB he found on Ebay. It made me cry all over again. That one little doll made up for the numerous dolls I had lost.

It's amazing how sometimes the little things in life, like buying a doll for someone who's probably overly sentimental about her lost childhood toys, can make such a huge difference. I'm blessed to have such a great husband who realizes that. :)

[Note: I tried really hard not to be nerdy about this, but I'm about to post every nerdy thought I've had about my lovely new doll] HolycowIfinallygotmyredheadBSB! And she's mint in the box! And she has the same color eyes as me! Which means she has the same color eyes as my personal favorite BSB in my collection, Meagan! Can I take her out of the box? No, I won't. I want her to stay in perfect condition. But I waaaaaaant to take the hairnet off her hair so I can see her curls! No...I won't. She'll stay in the box. I am NEVER letting my daughter play with her. She's mine. No wait...I need to share. No I don't. Yes I do. No...she'll stay in a box. On a shelf. A high shelf. Yes, that sounds good. A very, very high shelf. This is a good plan. Ahhhhh, look how cute her chubby little toes are! Nope, my daughter is NEVER, I repeat, NEVER playing with her. What should I name her? This could take a while...

Hey look, everyone! I'm grouchy!

*Warning* This blog is ridiculously long and probably only interesting to anyone wondering why I'm such a grouch lately. Just so you know. I promise I'll post something less depressing soon to make up for it.

I talk a lot, so I know it's hard for people to understand that I really don't verbalize anything about big problems very often. When I do talk about them, it's usually to downplay the situation, offer up humor about it, or let someone know just enough that they understand what's going on. Rarely do I share how it makes me feel or what the problem actually is. Today I'm offering a glimpse into what my life is like right now for the third reason I gave: to help you understand why I may seem a bit crazy right now. This isn't a comprehensive list, and some of the "big stuff" has been left off simply because it's not something I want to share.

First off, most of you know we're currently dealing with the fact that my parents home was blown away by a tornado. The only house I remember living in with them is gone. My Mom's wedding china is gone, along with a lot of their other belongings. A lot of things I was saving in hopes I could give them to my daughter some day are gone forever. It's hard to describe the feelings that go along with all this. From the outside it's easy to say "at least everyone's unhurt." Yes, that is an awesome thing, but there's also a whole mess of weird feelings that come in the aftermath that could definitely make life suck if you let them. (Not saying anyone is letting them. Just saying that those feelings exist. I know a lot of people on Mom and Dad's street are struggling even more)

Now for something that not everyone knows. A friend of mine died in the Chickasha tornado and I'm having trouble coming to grips with that. I keep expecting her to get on Facebook and say "just kidding guys!" When an elderly family member or an acquaintance from church dies, I can have peace about it. When a friend who didn't share my belief in the Savior dies it's incredibly hard to find any peace about it.

My stomach literally hurts all the time. When I wake up in the morning there's always a sense of dread because the moment I stand up the pain hits. Motivating myself to do anything but lay in bed is becoming harder. I know it's mostly "stress-related," but how do you reduce the stress causing the problem when there's no way you can block out everything occurring lately?

Things don't always turn out the way I'd planned. Actually, they never do. I know that ultimately that's a great thing, but right now we're in the middle of things that I never planned because they totally suck. A lot of the things I haven't mentioned are smaller than those I've listed and some of them are even bigger. The result of all this is that I'm constantly tired, stressed out, and grouchy. It's a daily struggle to not snap at people and it's hard to look interested in things that used to be fun for me. I'm so blessed to have a family that rallies so well in hard times. Especially Shaun. He's my rock, and I also think he's the keeper of my sanity. God has given me an amazing support system.