What a family/person eats in a month: Around the world

You may or may not have seen the post I did last December on what families around the world buy as groceries for one month. As I was looking over those pictures again, I read a comment about how much of a contrast monthly meals for those in the service compares to these families. I thought I'd post this picture of the MRE to represent how many people eat when they are serving our country. This is far below the standard you can see in the picture of the American family, and in many other cultures as well. Thank you, men and women, for what you sacrifice to protect and serve America.

The Double-Bind Supreme: Loving Relationships

A friend recently shared this quote with me and I was touched. Enjoy!

Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket - safe, dark, motionless, airless - it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.

--From The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis

Baby's First Photo Shoot

Cuddled warm, from the rear

Right lower arm and hand

Profile shot

Head down at cervix, open space is my full bladder

Left and right feet

Head cross section, notice measurements

Heart cross section

Heart, you can see all the chambers

Spine and scull

Umbilical cord, showing blood flow routing around the baby's bladder.

Gingerbread Village

To celebrate the Christmas season a bunch of our friends from church got together to make gingerbread houses last weekend. It was a blast! We had more candy on the table that you could imagine, and in total made 14 creations. Here are some pictures of the whole village. Matt and Jack worked on the castle, but because of the tediousness, asked for help decorating it. I was glad to help with that. My house is the one down and right from the castle, and it's a church. I was pretty proud of my work: red shingles, stained glass windows in front and back (not pictured), rolled out gumdrops made to look like window panes, window boxes and a stone pathway. Enjoy!

Belated birthday post...

I celebrated my 27th birthday this year in a relaxed way this year. Jack and I went out to dinner at a Mongolian Grill a few days before and enjoyed yummy stir-fry. On the actual day, Mark (church friend) and I had agreed to a join party at the indoor climbing wall in the evening. So, we gathered a few friends and family and headed to the community center. It was fun getting all geared up (I actually inherited a pair of shoes I've only used once before) and getting on the walls. The climbing routes ranged from 5.6-5.9 and I started with the easiest one. It really worked my forearms, fingers, hands and back. Lauren, my brother's girlfriend, advised me to keep my knees bent and arms long, instead of standing and bending my arms to hold on to the wall. Her advice was very helpful! Here are a few pictures from the event.

To add some sweetness to the event, we headed to Whole Foods after the climb to enjoy some awesome ice cream sandwiches made by a local vendor: Ruby Jewels. Her flavor choices and quality are great! Check them out: http://www.rubyjewel.net.

Mel and Linda sent some sweetness my way too, with a gift certificate to Sees Candy. Here's the delicious box I picked out.

I'm beginning to look (and feel) a lot more pregnant!

Dear friends and family,

I realize that I have set-up an expectation for this blog to be a very unreliable and out of date way to keep up on our lives. And I want you to know, that I plan to change this. I can only say that I will do my best to make sure this blog is a place you can read up on how Jack and I are doing, especially with the coming changes in our family.

Let me give you an update on how the first half of my pregnancy has been going (since I completely neglected to blog about this until now!). That's right... we are almost halfway through. Our ultrasound is scheduled for one week from NOW (as I write this). I have to say I'm really looking forward to seeing the little person inside me. I've certainly been doing my best to take care of it: sleeping/napping, eating healthy foods, taking vitamins, avoiding smoke and harmful other things, exercising.

And in past few weeks I'm pretty sure I've been feeling the baby move. One friend described it as butterflies. I've become pretty acquainted with the digestive changes now, and this is definitely different. A few nights ago I was laying flat about to go to sleep, with my hands resting on my belly and could literally feel the "flutter" and a slight push from it. I tried to get Jack to feel the same thing, but he couldn't. Too soon to share this experience I suppose.

Our appointments with the midwife clinic have been great. Very friendly people, knowledgable, not too invasive and supportive. I've dealt with a lot of nausea and they have done their best to advise me on how to best deal with it. We are thrilled that this place also offers water birth, which is an option we are SERIOUSLY considering (could have guessed that one, given that I've been a fish my whole life!). So far the testimonies I've heard on this type of delivery have been wonderful. We'll share more once we know more.

As for preparations, there has been little going on so far. I've had to change my wardrobe drastically. Thanks to the Veteran's Day sale at Value Village and the GENEROUS loans from friends I feel fully out-fitted now and have some really cute stuff to sport with my new body. I'm at the point now where people are actually asking if I'm pregnant, thanks to the clothes and the growing bump. It feels nice to look how I've been feeling for several months.

I have to be honest though, it hasn't all felt great. I've really had a hard time with nausea and vomitting. No matter how many times I do it, I hate every time and literally feel dread for the next one. I've tried my best to always have snacks, eat small and frequent meals, include more protien, drink red raspberry leave tea and get enough sleep, but my poor body is just plain uncomfortable some days. I have yet to try accupuncture or change my prenatals, though taking them at night has helped me avoid most of yucky feeling they cause.

Jack and I will have to find a bigger place, as the first 3 years of our marriage we've been living in a 1 bedroom apartment. I really like it there, the back patio opening to green grass and trees, the free pool, the open floor plan, it feels like home. However, babies take up space.

Beyond maternity clothing and more frequent visits to the clinic, we haven't really changed much. We're busy with church, friends, my work, family and enjoying the outdoors.

Pictures will follow soon, but I hope this update helps you feel more informed.