END OF SEMESTER!!

Today was my last final, which means I just have one more semester left to finish my degree! I am so excited (and ready) to finally be done with school! I can't believe all I have left to do is student teaching! Yay!

Also, a quick bumpdate! Baby is healthy and running out of room! Sometimes I feel like I can't possibly grow any more, but then I remember I have ten more weeks of this! Oh man!!!

As I was driving home from the final, I started to reflect on this past semester. Six months ago I imagined myself somewhere completely different, in a totally different situation, on the other side of the world. During a really hard day this past week, I stumbled on a quote that has really summed up my entire experience these past six months:

This really hit home for me, because I remember laying awake so many nights crying  and wondering why life wasn't working out the way I had planned. 

Well that's life for ya. You can plan all you want, but in the end, everything works out how it's supposed to, probably not in the way you wanted but in the way you needed. I still don't know why everything worked out the way it did for our little family, but I'm choosing to have faith and be happy about the future. Thanks again for all the support you all have given Blake and I these past few months, we love you all and really appreciate it. Thanks for reading!

A bump update... bumpdate? Is that weird?

Hey everybody! These past few weeks I've been terrible at documenting, and I'm sorry! I'll try to be better. I also learned that I'm really bad at taking selfies haha!

Here are some pictures I took on Sunday. Bathroom selfies, you gotta love em! :)

Me trying to figure out how to take a selfie lol.

Success! Kind of. haha 

And then here's a pic from thanksgiving.

Blake is such a cutie, I hope our son looks like him! :)

So ya, as you could probably tell I'm a whale now ;) but don't worry, people tell me it only get worse.

Some thoughts on keeping an "Open Mind"

We live in a crazy world. Recently it feels like I've been bombarded with news articles, political viewpoints, ridiculous health trends, religious viewpoints, etc. I don't even talk to people really, but I know through Facebook how everyone feels about everything. Literally. Everything. 

With so many things going on in our world, I know I'm probably not the only one who feels a little lost, and that's hard to admit. I think it's human nature to want to appear like you have all the right answers, like you've never been lost in your life, like you know exactly where you're going. But most times, I think people don't feel like that. 

 I'll see a link on Facebook and think to myself "Wow, I never thought I would have to form an opinion on this, but it looks like it's a major issue now," This happens to me almost everyday, so I know it happens to a lot of you too. 

Recently I stumbled across this quote on greatist.com that totally resonated with me, and helped me process a lot about whats going on. 

Powerful right? This helped me so much. It's important to keep an open mind, be open to fresh and new ideas, right wrongs and be kind to people. It's equally important to make sure we are not blindly jumping on every social bandwagon we see. It's ok to disagree with someone else's views, we live in a great country that allows us to have our own opinions and be vocal about those opinions. It's never ok to tear someone down because of what they believe. We can argue all day about what is morally or socially right, but in the end that's all it is. Arguing. And it usually never leads to a solution.

I'm not going to share my opinions on every social issue right now, just because I would rather talk to someone face to face, in a safe conversation instead of posting and expecting us to argue across screens and keyboards. Just be aware of other people feelings, accept that you may not be right on everything, and most of all be kind to people. Just because you don't agree with the way someone is living, doesn't give you the right to bully them into your way of thinking. This holiday season, instead of focusing on what makes us different, brings us apart etc. lets all try to focus on positive things and be kind to people. I think that is what our crazy world needs. 

Gender Announcement!!!

Hello friends and family!! We have another announcement, and we are SO excited to tell you!

We are having a BOY!! :)

We went in on Monday the 28th for our ultrasound appointment, and right when his little picture showed up on the screen (we saw his face first!) I had the feeling, that's my little boy!! But I didn't say anything out loud. Our ultrasound tech went through all his anatomy first, showing us his cute little head/face, his arms (he was waving at us!), his abdomen, his legs and his tiny feet! After going through and showing us everything BUT the gender, our ultrasound tech finally moved the camera and said "That's a boy!!" and we went crazy! Blake and I would've been happy with either, but I'm so happy we are having a boy first and all of our other kids will have an older brother to look out for them.

Here's our cliche gender reveal pictures!

Thanks for reading guys!! 

COMIC CON

It's that beautiful, lovely time of the year again when the leaves fall off of trees and the weather starts getting colder!! You know what that means?

COMIC CON!!!

Forget all the pumpkin flavored stuff that usually rules this time of year!! Once I walked into the nerd paradise that is Salt Lake Comic Con and saw all the fun cosplayers and smelled people who apparently don't know about deodorant, I knew it was going to be a good time. I LOVE Comic Con, and I have fully accepted how nerdy it is for me to say that. 

Best Costumes

Blake and I don't dress up for Comic Con, but it's so fun to see everyone else's costumes! Here are some of my favorites!

Look at this cute Orc family! They were posing for someone else, but I had to get a picture cause it was so clever! Love it!

LEFT SHARK!!!! I saw you walking by, and my camera wasn't on fast enough!! I love love love this costume though, so clever!!! The rest of the Con I kept looking for him to take a better picture, but he was elusive. 

My favorite costume of the day! This is Pattern from the Stormlight Archive books by Brandon Sanderson. Basically the BEST BOOKS EVER. 

Best Panel

This year Comic Con scheduled the two best panels (Con Man and Shanara Chronicles) AT THE SAME TIME!!! I can only express how I feel with Tobey Maguire memes, CAUSE THAT"S HOW I FEEL COMIC CON. You make me feel like ugly spiderman. 

Anyway.

We ended up going to the Shannara Chronicles preview while our friends went to the Con Man preview, that way we could not completely miss out on one or the other. At the Shanara preview, there was a writer of the show (far right) Terry Brooks (the author, middle) and the actor Manu Bennett! (Left) All of them were so nice and excited about Shanara, I can't wait for it to come out next year!!!

I kept getting closer to their table, trying to get the best picture, until a security guard asked me to go back to my seat! :) Haha oh well, I got a few good snap shots of them!

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 Also, Manu is the coolest person ever, he was so nice when answering questions, and his New Zealand accent was so. COOL! Great job Manu, you're awesome!

Coolest Author 

 Usually I would say that Brandon Sanderson is the coolest author, but he wasn't at Comic Con this time around! We did, however, get to meet Tracy and Laura Hickman, and they were so nice! They let Blake and Brian go back in their booth while I snapped a picture of them!

Overall, Comic Con this year was so fun, I can't wait to go back next year! I'm thinking of writing a "What I wish I would've know before I went to Comic Con" or a "Comic Con guide" for people for next year, so look out for that! Thank you beautiful people! Have a great week!!!

An update

Hello everyone! Let me just start out by saying thank you for all the support Blake and I received after our announcement, not only were all your comments so kind and sweet but so many people reached out to us personally. The day after that blog post, we actually got to listen to our baby's heart beat! It was so fun, and I kept thinking how lucky we are to have such a great support system! Thank you all for that!

So anyway, there's a hill behind our house, and I've been wanting to take pictures back there every since we moved in! What I didn't know was that this particular hill is covered with weird sticker plants and crazy jumping spiders, every picture it seemed something was crawling on me!

Look at those beautiful blue eyes! I'm so lucky to have this man for eternity! :)

Seriously though, look at this stud!

I know this picture is mostly of my hand, but it's one of my favorites. The sun was pretty much gone and we were just goofing off, but those are the best pictures right?! Right. 

Well there you have it! Thanks again for all your love and support! We love you guys! 

Why aren't you in China?

Hellllllloooooooo!!! You guys!! This silence on the blog has been going on way. too. LONG!! I've had so many posts I've been needing to write, but it seems like so much has happened since my last post and I was too overwhelmed with catch-up. I'm sorry!!!! I promise I will get more posts from our summer up on the blog.

So many of you may be wondering why aren't we in China. As of August 24th, we were supposed to be living in Nanjing, Blake would've been going to school at Nanjing University and doing an internship while I would have been teaching English, but as we have learned these past few months, things change!

WE ARE HAVING A BABY!!! 

What the heck, right? It just goes to show that when you're making a life plan, write it in pencil!!! :)

The story:

Alright, I realize this is a weird topic to talk about, but it's gotten to the point where it's weirder for me to see people I know and have them ask "Why aren't you in China?" So I'm hoping that this post will prevent me from having to tell the story another thousand times. Alright! Let's begin!

So I think it all kind of started with when I was first married and first on birth control pills. Normal, hormonal birth control options were really hard on me. Not only did they make me super emotional, after just a few months of using them I started to experience really scary side effects, so after a few months my Dr. suggested I try other, non-hormonal options. Well, as many of you know, there aren't a lot of other non-hormonal options out there!!

So I did some research and asked around, and finally came to the decision that, because we were going to be living abroad, I wanted something that I wouldn't really have to ever think about, and something that would be easy, effective and last a long time, at least until we were back and both of us had finished our schooling. My Dr. recommended the Copper IUD so that's what I went with. It worked for about six months.

Then it was July, and I was really, really late. To set my mind at ease, I took a home pregnancy test, which then led many more home pregnancy tests, a frantic call to my Dr. and an emergency appointment on the 4th of July followed by a million blood tests. (okay, 3, but when you're as terrified of needles as I am, you get to exaggerate!)

The next part is really hard for me to talk about, and I know it's probably all the hormones coursing through my body but I'm tearing up just thinking about it. I was feeling so many different emotions and, don't get me wrong, Blake is an amazing husband and he has been there for me through every step of this crazy journey, but I still felt so alone. 

The Copper IUD, or Paragard, is supposed to be 99.4-99.6% effective, so pregnancy is extremely rare on this kind of birth control. When pregnancy does occur, the IUD has to be removed very quickly, or it could cause problems such as infertility, miscarriage and even death to the woman. Because Blake and I were traveling at the time, I didn't get my IUD out immediately upon finding out, and I had to wait until we were back in town. Because of that, my Dr. told me that I had an extremely high chance of miscarriage. 

This was so hard for me to deal with at that time, Not only was it a month before our grand adventure to China, but we also weren't done with our degrees, and we had no jobs or housing lined up for the fall if we chose to stay here. I felt really angry that this was happening to me. I was having frequent panic attacks for weeks after we found out. I had nightmares about going to the ER. I felt weird grief for the baby I never knew but my doctor assured me I had lost. I didn't tell my family, I had crazy anxiety even thinking about it. It was a very difficult time for me.

After a few weeks we had a scheduled ultrasound to make sure it wasn't an ectopic or molar (yikes!) pregnancy, and the weirdest thing happened. There was a healthy baby growing! I remember it was so small on the screen, just a tiny little bean thing inside of a tiny black circle, but I saw, ACTUALLY SAW its little heart beating. Our baby was alive! It had somehow beat the odds! Later my Dr. congratulated us, but told me that if I felt any pain to go to the ER. By that time, he said the odds were better for our baby, not as drastically stacked against it like before, but we still had a natural chance of miscarriage within the first trimester.

Fast forward through a few long weeks of morning sickness and here we are, in the second trimester and expecting our baby in March. It's crazy how life can change so quickly!

Now when people find out, the most common thing they ask is how I feel about it now. I'M STOKED! WE ARE HAVING A BABY!!! Yes, at first I was not totally on board, just because there were so many unknowns and it was such a shock, but now I'm just excited to start our family.

The truth is, I've wanted to be a mom WAYYY longer than I've ever had the desire to live in China. It's just been this past year that we were making preparations and plans to live abroad, but I've been preparing my whole life for motherhood, and I couldn't be more excited. And besides, China isn't going anywhere, we have the rest of our lives to visit, but now we can share it with our new baby. :)

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Thanks for reading guys! Again sorry for the silence! If ya'll have any other questions, feel free to ask in the comments, email me or message me on facebook! I love you guys! :)

The dress, one year later

So this post was brought on by two things:

1. There has been so much rain recently! But rainy days make our neighborhood gorgeous, and literally everything is green!! I really wanted to get out and take some pictures, but I didn't really want to just do landscape photos so that led to...

2. An idea I got off the internet a looong time ago, I don't even remember where I saw it, but it was some girl who, a year after she was married, she and her husband put on their wedding clothes again and did sort of a "second bridal photoshoot" :)

But after a year of sitting at a desk job and frequent midnight pizza runs I was super nervous my dress wouldn't fit anymore!! But I am happy to announce...

IT STILL FITS PERFECTLY!! Well, maybe not perfectly, I had to shimmy a bit to get my butt in it!! Probably all those squats (lol not) I've been doing. I guess the quote "I love you with all of my butt. I would say heart, but my butt is bigger," really applies here, my love for you has grown Blake!! :) hahaha!

Also, a side note for the above picture, Blake is in the background, putting on his suit and mumbling "didn't I already go through this? I thought we were done!" haha sorry sweetheart!

This picture was me goofing off before blake was outside, but it turned out to be a cool picture. We also had random lilies (one of my favorite flowers!) in the house, which was awesome but we only used them for one picture haha.

"By the way, I'm wearing the smile you gave me" ;)

"Someone who really loves you sees what a mess you can be, how moody you can get, how hard you are to handle, but still loves you :)" Thanks for loving me through all the hard things this past year sweetheart! 

See what I mean about everything being so green?! I had a friend from school drive up to my house, and she said the place reminded her of her home state Maryland cause it was so vibrant! 

"When you meet the one who changes the way your heart beats, dance with them to that rhythm for as long as the song lasts."

I love you so much sweetheart! Thanks for taking pictures with me, I know you hate it but look how cute we still are after a year! Thank you all for reading, we love you!

Las Vegas Day Two AKA the most embarrassing day of my life

Hey y'all! So Las Vegas had treated us well up to this point, but little did I know day two would be the most fun/MOST AWKWARD DAY EVER. So, let's begin.

First we started off by going to the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay which was so. fun. We discovered that when we were younger we both wanted to be marine biologists! Even after a year we are still learning about each other haha!

By the way that sign that says "Perfect Predator" is referring to blake, not the crocodile haha. 

This was my favorite part! I loved the shark tunnel, it was so cool being surrounded by so many fish, it helps me deal with the fact that I am not a mermaid.

This was Blake's favorite part, he loved touching the stingrays. Not for me! haha

Pretty cool life-sized lava lamp.

And then there's this guy with the saw for a face. Straight out of my nightmares. 

After the Shark Reef, we explored the strip and got Lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, a favorite from my childhood!

Blake's pretty hangry (hungry + angry) in this picture. 

 After that we walked around some more and explored the Coca Cola factory, M&m factory and the Hershey's Chocolate Factory!

Also you see some pretty weird stuff in Vegas. Just throwing that out there. 

World's LARGEST Chocolate Bar! We had the self control to not buy it... this time.

We did buy a brownie from here though, which was the best purchase of the day. 

 I know this post is turning out to be so long, but I promise the best part is coming up. In the evening, we had planned to go see the Blue Man Group do a show. We had seats that were pretty far from the stage, but when we walked up to the balcony the usher told us to go down and sit in seats that were right up by the stage! We were so excited, we were so close to the stage!!! :) The show was awesome, I don't know if you've ever seen the Blue Man Group, but they are so entertaining!

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Ah yes, it was all fun and games. That is, until the blue men went out in search for a "volunteer from the audience." That kind of thing always makes me super nervous, so I tried not to stand out. I turned around to make sure one wasn't behind me and I LOCKED EYES WITH ONE OF THE BLUE MEN. He jumped over like three rows of seats and grabbed my hand and pulled me up on stage! Oh my gosh my heart was beating so fast, I was terrified! Luckily (for you guys, unlucky for me), Blake filmed most of the ordeal, so now you guys get to watch the most embarrassing moments of my life. Also sorry the camera is a little shaky and it turns every now and again, but I promise it is every bit as awkward as promised haha! Enjoy! :)

Have a great week everyone! Thanks so much for reading ;) We love you!!