Beginnings.

It took me a while to decide on a title for this post. I had the general idea of what I wanted to write about, but it's difficult to put a jumbled mess of emotions and feelings from a pregnant woman's brain into a format that makes sense to everyone who doesn't live inside my head. 

It's been a month since my mom went to Heaven. I know that line might make some of you cry, it makes me cry. But, I am aware that she is not crying. She is not sad that she is in the presence of our Lord. She is dancing and loving and laughing and singing more than she ever has. If anything, we should be crying tears of jealousy. Tears that we do not get to sit at the feet of our Savior. Tears that we don't get see the beautifulness that is our God. Tears that we are not with her. I cannot even imagine or begin to imagine what she is witnessing at this very moment. She is seeing all the beauty and glory that is our Father and his house. That is not something we can be sad for. We can be sad because she is not here with us. We can cry because we miss her and love her so, so much. But we should not weep for her current situation, she is taken care of. More taken care of than she ever was here. She is healthy and happy. God knows her better than any of us. He loves her more than we humanly could. One day, we will see her again. It will be the beginning our eternity. I can't wait. 

Thanks for being so wonderful and loving and supportive and great over the past few months. We have received more sweet letters, flowers, messages, visits, and meals than I could ever have dreamed we would. You have all been so wonderful. Thank you for praying for us. We are doing good. My dad is keeping busy doing his photography and giving our house a make-over (and joining a volleyball team, as of last night!). I am keeping busy growing a human inside of me. And Scott is busy being an incredible Marine and husband, like always. We are all okay. Thanks for taking care of us. 

Moving on, I'm still pregnant. This baby is HUGE. I mean, relatively speaking. I can feel all of her movements and kicks and hiccups. It kinda hurts. But, I'm not complaining. I love to feel her. I think she's really pretty and fun. The doctor says she's doing great. Scott and I have started baby classes. They are with a teacher who practices the Brio style of birthing. We do a lot of relaxation stuff. Every class is super informing. I have learned a whole lot. I'll share some with you. We've learned:

• The best way to sit. 
• The best way to lay. 
• The best ways to exercise. 
• The most important nutrients to get. 
• Stretches to do a million times per day. 
• More than I ever wanted to know about what happens when you have a baby.
• How to relax through contractions.
• How to massage me through contractions.
• Ways to sit during contractions.
• Ways to lay during contractions.
• Things to say to me through contractions.
• What medications do to you and your baby.
• What sonograms can potentially do to you and your baby.
• What certain vaccines can potentially do to you and your baby.
• The importance of breast feeding. 
• The importance of kegels. 
• How to avoid varicose veins. 
• Tools to help get that darn baby out of my ribs. 
• Types of music to download and listen to during labor. 
• Exactly how big 10 centimeters really is... whoa. 
• What the doctor will want to do at each check up. 
• What the doctor does and does not actually need to do at each check up.
• And much, much more...

I don't think I realized how much there is to learn about birthing a child. It's all great information and I am very happy we're doing this class. It's nice to have a heads up about things. I like to plan. This helps. 

Her nursery is coming along nicely. I'm not ready to post pictures of that yet, but just know it's way cute. 

I'm getting big. I caved and let my dad take some maternity pictures a couple of weeks ago when he was here in California. Surprisingly, I don't hate them! I thought that I would. Not because of my dad, he's a wonderful photographer! Check out his website here (you're welcome, Daddy)! But because of my massive belly and swollen body. I decided to post a few because I knew that if I didn't I would get lots of angry messages. WARNING: YOU ARE ABOUT TO SEE A NAKED PREGNANT BELLY. IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE A NAKED PREGNANT BELLY GO AHEAD AND CLOSE THIS WEBPAGE NOW. I'VE ALREADY SAID EVERYTHING IMPORTANT, I PROMISE YOU WON'T MISS ANYTHING. 

There ya have it. I did it. I posted belly pics. It's me, in all my bigness. Hope you enjoyed that. 

Other great things: Santa brought us a Vitamix blender! I know it's early, but when your dad is Santa you can get an advance on Christmas. We made our first grown up purchase, a Kirby vacuum. It's pretty awesome. We love it. My sister-in-law visited. She was beautiful and wonderful, as always. My dad also visited. I was so happy to have him here. I tried to get him to come back for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, his birthday (December 28th), New Years, and the birth of his first grandchild but I don't know if he will. He already missed Halloween, rude. And, Bruce got a girlfriend. I don't know if that's great or not, it actually kinda stresses me out. But, it makes me feel better to tell the world that our cat has a girlfriend- thanks for listening. Halloween happened and that was fun. November is here and that's exciting because it's one month closer to January! Jane Wayne Day was last week. I didn't get to do much because of the whole pregnant thing but I still managed to win some awards! There are pictures of all of this greatness in this facebook album. Unless you're looking for the Jane Wayne Day pictures, they are here. They aren't just of me, they are of everyone. I'm in several, though. If you want the description of what happens at Jane Wayne Day, here is the link to last year's JWD. Don't mind my lack of hair. 

Thanks again for being wonderful. We have needed the support lately and we sure have gotten it. 

Love you all forever and ever.