There's Something in There!

Just a few more weeks (actually less than 2!) until we find out of our little one is a boy or a girl. We are very excited!!

I used to be staunchly against this...I liked the whole romanticized idea of the big announcement taking place at the birth. But, now being pregnant, I see how easy it is to get excited about finding out, wanting to plan, or just plain ol' tired of calling the baby "it" or always having to qualify phrases with a cumbersome "his or her this" or "he or she that."

So February 11th is the big day!

They also have to check for any abnormalities, so I suppose it wouldn't be a bad thing to pray for us and the baby that everything checks out A-Ok.

Right now, the baby is really busy poking and prodding Mom. He or she (grr!) noticably made movements last Wednesday, and gave me a good solid couple of kicks on Thursday. Since then, each day I feel movement and today, they've been getting a bit stronger.

It's very cute because I noticed that the baby seems to move a lot more whenever Michael is around, and lately I've noticed it moves a lot when I talk to Michael on the phone. I know by now, the baby can hear things on the outside so it's no wonder it hears Michael's voice, but I think it's really cute that it seems to respond to him more than any other sound. In terms of talking to Michael on the phone, the baby probably feels a change in my heartbeat, or hears my voice that I'm happy to talk to him :)

We still can't feel movement on the outside yet...so I can't put my hand on my stomach or have Michael do that, and have us feel it. Just on the inside right now. It's kind of a weird feeling. I have to admit that for some reason I get worried a little whenever I feel it move because normally unusual things happening inside our bodies is a sign that something is wrong! It still takes me a split second to remember that it's a good sign and is supposed to happen.

I was trying to prod it and poke at it to see if it would poke back at me, or I could feel it better, but admittedly, I chicken out a little bit because I think I would freak out if I did feel something poke back at me...Ah! There's something in there!

First Post

It's obligatory for the first post of a new blog to explain why the blogger is adding this blog, offering some justification for creating it.

Knowing how cliche' this is, I therefore would like to forego this and not tell you my motivation for assuming others want to know what's going on in my brain.

Thank you for your time.

Wedding Dress Nightmare

Considering I'm not all that stressed about the wedding, I was pretty
surprised to have a mini-nightmare about it.  I'm working on this
Bible Camp (prayers please!) and am more stressed about that than the
wedding.

But this nightmare seems like it was a merging of the two.  Last
night, I dreamed that I was trying on my dress again, just to make
sure it still fit right.

I tried it on, and looked in the front and everything was great. I
looked behind me at the train only to discover that someone had
altered it and instead of the beautiful white fabric with beads and
sequins, it was multi-colored in the pattern of, well...a bandana.
Youknow that sort of semi-pasley pattern with swirls.  That was my
dress. Different colors, as if strips of bandana were sown together.

I guess it wasn't so bad, but I remember being really really
distraught about it, and couldn't figure out who did this to my dress
and I couldn't get a hold of the dress maker to have her fix it.  I
remember hopping on a bus, wandering aimless for help. I found a
church, sat down to pray and ate french fries.

Weird.

We'll see what turns up tonight!

NB

Join group to reply 8/4/07

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA...

That's sad, but...

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA...

- show quoted text -

MB

Join group to reply 8/15/07

It wasn't me!! ;)

HAHAHHA!!!  Awww!!  That's so sad. I guess you eat french fries in
times of distress. ahhahaha...

Wedding Prep Class

Below is a sketch of what Michael and I learned at Wedding Prep class:

1) Lay people are more important to the Church than priests
(Hmm...I can't remember the last time I saw a lay person confect the
Eucharist or absolve sins...)

2) It's impossible to dissolve a covenant. Marriage is a covenant. If
you want to ever want to dissolve that covenant to get an annullment,
it's really hard to do.

3) Preparation for the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony has nothing to do
with religion.

4) In an 8 hour class preparing for marriage, children didn't make the
cut on the list of things to talk about. However, the benefits of
having separate checking accounts...did.

5) Separate checking accounts solve many financial struggles of the
couple.

6) Prayer is important for the big things and the little thing. But if
you try it and it doesn't work, maybe it's not for you. Feel free to
try something else.

7) It is possible to go an 8 hour class preparing for a sacrament, and
not mention "Jesus" until the 7th hour.

Well, perhaps this little sketch doesn't do the class justice.
Actually, I think Michael and I had a good time. We talked a lot,
which is always fun. And we met a really nice couple who have been
married for 53 years with 8 kids and are really involved in the
Church.

That couple co-taught the class, and they were really nice and you
could see how pivotal the faith was to their family. But the other
couple, Ken and Lisa were so totally opposite. In the segment on
"Dreams and Goals" they seemed to omit "children" from their plan
altogether in favor of jobs at Hollywood studios or retirement in
Hawaii.  They were like low-budget actors who were thrilled whenever
they got a role as an extra....it was pretty sad.

They also had this ability to conduct the class in such a way that
many of their marital struggles were advertised in every example they
gave. I mean, more than an idea of how to have a successful marriage,
we got to see many intricacies of what goes wrong in theirs. I mean,
any marriage has its share of struggles, but they seemed totally
incapable of teaching a class without exposing all their problems, but
the sad thing was, they weren't even consciously doing it! They didn't
mean to be "open" and "vulnerable." They were just self-centered and
used the class as a forum for exposing their frustrations with each
other.

The highlight for me was when they were talking about the merits of
separate checking accounts, and I told Lisa that that doesn't really
seem to jive with the whole idea of unity they were trumpeting
earlier.  Lisa didn't know how to respond except give an annoying,
super-chipper, condescending bellow "Ding, ding ding! You go to the
head of the class for that answer."  She did that so she could have a
few spare moments to get out of the logical trap she set for herself.
It didn't help. The best she could come up with was "You should be
united in your decision to have separate checking accounts."    Please
see the picture of "crazy lisa" in the "Pages section."

If it hadn't been for that older couple, the day would have been much
worse...but we still would have enjoyed it, I think.  The thing is
that both Michael and I have grown up in oving homes our whole lives
with parents who love and respect each other...so we;ve really had
nearly 30 years each of good, solid, loving and faith-filled marriage
prep.

Thank you to Mom and Dad Barber and Gilmore!!

NB

Join group to reply 7/7/07

But if it was a good class, you really wouldn't have anything that
interesting to write about here.

So thank you, Ken and Lisa! =]