Baby OH Baby!

Guess who's pregnant?!?! ME!!!!!!!!!!

I wasn't exactly expecting it, so I bungled my way to finding out and went two weeks thinking I was definitely NOT pregnant, but surprise, surprise - I am :) What happened was I went off birth control knowing that we wanted to get pregnant in a few months and thinking that it might take awhile for that to happen (so I heard...). When I started noticing that I wasn't "regular" (you know what I mean) I thought, hmmm, I must be one of those people that needs a few months to get their cycle back on track again. Then I also noticed that I was dizzy sometimes in the early morning, my chest was tender constantly, and I got out of breath easily. So I bought a First Response pregnancy test. It said that one pink line meant no, two pink lines meant yes. So I took and it came back with one bold pink line and one teeny tiny almost-impossible-to-see line. So I thought, "not pregnant." When I still wasn't back to normal a week later, I took another one. Same thing. One bold line.

Then that week my brother and sister-in-law came to visit with their baby and I shared with Rochelle that we wanted to get pregnant but "couldn't" because my cycle was messed up. She gave me a hard time about already being pregnant, but I said no way, I had checked. It got me thinking though that maybe the test I took was defective, so I went back to Walmart and bought the Clear Blue digital kind (it was more expensive which is why I didn't get it in the first place.) That night (Thursday May 29th) I took the test and it said PREGNANT! Cole and I both started yelling with excitement! But wait - what if this one was defective and the other ones weren't??? So, I took the second Clear Blue test and we held our breath as we waited for the outcome. PREGNANT!!!

So gosh, there we were with two that said not pregnant and two that said pregnant. One more test to try. I had one of the First Reponse ones left over, so I said "Alright Cole, this one determines the truth." I took this last test, praying for it to say pregnant, but once again it came back with one bold pink line and one teeny tiny almost-impossible-to-see line. I showed it to Cole, all disappointed, and he started laughing at me! He was like "Julia, it doesn't matter how big or small the lines are! You've been pregnant the whole time! You're five for five!" So yep, turns out that the test tries to trick you.

The next day my doctor reassured me that I was indeed expecting and that I was actually six and a half weeks along! Woo hoo! Since then, I've seen several advertisements for the Clear Blue pregnancy test which start out with, "Did you know that 1 in 4 women misread their first pregnancy test?" Why yes, I do in fact. Be clear. Choose Clear Blue. :)

Being grateful

I guess I've got a confession to make - I'm a really discontent person. I struggle with being grateful for the good things in life and I tend to dwell on the bad. Like right now I'm struggling to be content in my job. It's not a bad job and the people I work with are wonderful... it's just that it's totally out of my area of interest, talent, or gifts. I was an English major in college because I loved to read and write. My job now is with an asset managing and financial planning company - totally not my cup of tea. Going in to it I thought that I would learn quickly and adjust well, but that has not happened and everyday I feel lost and insignificant in what I do. I'm jealous of my husband because he LOVES his job and gets satisfaction out of it almost every day. I on the other hand come home every day tired and frustrated because I'm in a world in which I don't fit. So what do I do? I complain. I whine. I think about quitting because I'm sure that the grass is greener somewhere else. Yeah right. I know that I need to be content where I am RIGHT NOW or I will always find something I don't like. So I guess this is a sermon to myself to be grateful for a) having a job in this economy, b) earning a good amount of money that will help us later on, and c) having the opportunity to expand my horizons by learning something new.

Mother's Day

I love mother's day and hopefully one day I can celebrate it personally! In the meantime, I enjoy celebrating the great moms around me!

One of my friends just found out she's pregnant and it was so much fun to wish her a happy mother's day, even though I still can't even tell she's expecting. I imagine the world wouldn't call her a mother yet, but because I believe that life begins at conception, I wanted to make sure I congratulated her on being a mom to that tiny life inside of her.

I didn't think I would be able to see my own mom on Sunday, but when I found out that she, my dad, and my little brothers were going to visit my grandparents at the lake an hour away, I decided to surprise her. So after making lunch and celebrating with my mother-in-law and their family, I jumped in the car with my sister-in-law while my sweet husband stayed behind and cleaned up for me :) When we got there I snuck around back where everyone was sitting in the gazebo and yelled "SURPRISE!" It was a lot of fun to see their faces and I think it meant a lot to my mom. We spent the rest of the day swimming, jet-skiing, and catching up... it was wonderful.

I am so thankful for the three mothers in my life: my mom, grandmother, and mother-in-law. They are all special women who support me, love me, and show me what a joy life is.

(The pics are of my and mom andthen my mother-in-law, sis-in-law and me.)