The Woes and Triumphs...So Far

We just made the big announcement so by now, everyone knows that Shelby and I are expecting our first baby! My due date is on June 6, 2014 and we couldn't be more excited! This puts me in week 14 so I'm just at the beginning of the second trimester.

Since I've never been pregnant before and I have absolutely no clue what I'm doing, I have really been trying to prepare for this baby and the pregnancy by reading articles, open forums, and asking advice from other moms. What should I expect this week? What works best for this? What do I need to prepare for this trimester?...And so on. The one thing that I have learned is that every woman is different and every pregnancy is different. If I could guess at what a really rough pregnancy looks like (bed rest, throwing up EVERY DAY, any sort of complication, etc.), I'd say I've had a fairly easy pregnancy. But, like I said, everyone is different. What may be easy for me is hard for others and vice versa. Here are some of the woes and triumphs so far in my first pregnancy.

Woes 

1.  I won't eat meat. On a normal basis, I love meat but if you put a steak or a piece of chicken in front of me right now, I won't eat it...lame. My one craving has been Italian food. I'm always in the mood for a good pizza, or pasta!
2. I'm always soooo tired! Normally, I get enough sleep to last me the whole day without feeling tired. Now I can barely get out of bed, let alone last through the day without needing a nap or just going to bed at 8 PM.
3. If there is one feeling I hate, it's nausea. I cannot stand the feeling like I'm going to throw up!
4. My clothes don't fit anymore...A lot of people know that I've spent a lot of time and effort loosing weight (almost 30 lbs.). It's really hard to watch your body get thinner and leaner only to see it get bigger. I have to remind myself that this is good weight gain.
5. I am far more sensitive to things people say or do. I feel like I anger quickly and take offense more easily now than I ever have before. If you talk to my older brother, he will tell you that he stopped teasing me when we were younger because I wouldn't get worked up and mad. Now if he said something to me, I think I'd have a freaking fit!
6. I cry...a lot...even over dumb things. I went on a Disney movie kick the other day (yeah...still love Disney) and cried at the part in Robin Hood when the rooster sings the song when basically the whole town is thrown in jail. WHO CRIES OVER THAT?!
7. I have almost no motivation to do anything. It takes everything I've got just to clean or make something for dinner...even then I don't do it half the time.

Let's move on to happier things.

Triumphs:

1. We heard the heartbeat! I cried (see woe #6).
2. In the last 13 weeks, I've only really gotten sick a handful of times! I said how much I hate nausea, but I hate actually throwing up even more. To only have that happen a few times is a total blessing.
3. I lost 2 lbs in my first trimester! Even though my stomach got a little bigger, I still lost weight!
4. I never wanted to be one of those women who stopped moving and going to the gym because I'm pregnant (sorry ladies, it's a bad excuse). Fortunately, with the help of a couple of good friends, I have still been exercising on a regular basis. This will be a huge benefit after I have the baby. Easier recovery and easier post-baby weight loss.

According to this, there are far more woes than triumphs but as far as I'm concerned, I would say that the triumphs greatly outweigh some of the woes (except for being tired...that just sucks). I would definitely say that this pregnancy has been pretty easy compared to what I think a hard pregnancy is but don't get me wrong, there are definitely things on this list that have been really hard for me. I just want to enjoy the rest of this pregnancy because I'm just so excited to start a family!

A Time Travelling Missionary

Well she's off! Sister Merrill is now in the beautiful land of New Zealand. It was hard saying goodbye to my best friend yesterday at the airport, but she is doing something that is very important so I couldn't be happier for her.

I spoke with my mom at lunch today. She was telling me that Emily was landing in about 30 minutes (from the time we were talking) and I asked, "Well what is she going to do until tomorrow when she needs to report to the MTC?" My mom then told me that it already is tomorrow there! New Zealand is 19 hours ahead of us so it is currently Thursday, November 7th. My mind was blown! It only took one night for her to get there and she completely skipped Wednesday...WHAT?! She is proof that time travel is real! Crazy stuff. I'm so excited for her though. We got an email from her and she was just telling us how tired she was from the trip but that she got there safe and sound.

I couldn't be more proud of a sister! Good luck Sister Merrill!

Proud Sister

Proud sister moment...This last Sunday, my brother and sister had their missionary farewell talks (most know that we are members of the LDS church or Mormons). Both talks were so beautiful, thought-out, and very well-written. Emily spoke about faith and related it to stories in the scriptures and to her own process of finding herself. It took a lot of controlled breathing to keep it together. In....out....in....out. Thankfully I made it through with only shedding a couple of tears. By the time Hunter started talking, I lost it. Between me and my older brother, Niagra Falls was going on in our pew. Hunter spoke about repentance and the important "tool" it is in our lives. He related it to his own journey of choosing to serve a mission. He shared a beautiful scripture that I'm sure all of us can relate to;

"Awake, my sons; put on the armor of righteousness. Shake off the chains with which ye are bound, and come forth out of obscurity, and arise from the dust."

I'm so proud of the choices that these two have made to go serve a mission. I can't believe that they are both leaving so soon. Emily will be on a plane to New Zealand in 6 days! It's amazing how fast time goes by. I'm excited to see how they grow and who they are serving. I think that is definitely something to be proud of. May the Lord bless them and their efforts and keep them safe for the next 2 years.

2013 Update So Far...

Okay, it's official. I'm awful at remembering to update my blog. Oh well...we are all human right? This year has just been one big whirlwind of awesome! So much has happened and it's really amazing how fast the time has gone by.

Shelby and I have really settled into our new life together. It's amazing how much you don't know a person until you are married. I've known Shelby since we were six years old but now I feel like I'm really getting to know him; his habits, personality, moods, etc. They say that the first year of marriage is always the hardest and I can see why.  This isn't the same as living with roommates in college, where you can share but really what's yours is yours. This is learning that nothing is yours, everything is OURS; our things, our cars, our money, our house. There have been some bumps but I feel like we have truly embraced OUR life. I also can't believe that it has almost been a year since we were married! One month away from our first anniversary, which I am stoked for! One year down, an eternity of happiness to go.

 As many know, I went to school at BYU-Idaho for about 4 semesters a few years ago, but I never finished any degree. I decided earlier this year that that needed to change. Of course, I couldn't move to Idaho again because our jobs are here and the military is here (Shelby is in the National Guard), but I could take my remaining 8 credits online to finish up my Associate's Degree. So I did. It was probably the hardest semester of my life but I'm glad that I suffered through it to accomplish this. Now I can continue to work towards my history degree at UVU. Not only am I proud of myself, but I am so proud of Shelby for getting into school. This is his first year of college and I am so happy for him. He has so many goals that he wants to reach. Couple that with his strong determination and I'd say that is a recipe for success! On top of going to school full-time, he is also working full-time. He is so busy but I know that he will do some great things.

More things to mention...

1. My brother got his mission call to Ghana, Africa! He is leaving in exactly one month from today.
2. My sister also got her mission call to Auckland, New Zealand. She leaves a week before my brother!
3. My oldest brother just got married a couple of weeks ago! I'm so excited for them. His wife is just the cutest and funniest girl!
4. The Brown Family Reunion! This year we took an eventful road trip to Indiana to go stay at some lake-side condos at Raccoon Lake. That is a very long drive (24 hours) and I can now say that I've had a cop point a gun at me (that's a story for another time). Boats, tubes, wake boards, card games, multiple games of Settlers of Catan...could it get better than that? I don't think so! It was a good thing that we went to this reunion because it was the last time that I would see my grandpa. He just passed the other day and we are very sad about it. However, we are grateful and happy to know that he is no longer suffering from his illnesses and is with our Father in Heaven. We will see him again. The Brown's are coming here for his funeral this Saturday.

This year has been such a happy year so far. I can't wait to see what is to come.