pumpkins!

One of my favorite days of the year, pumpkin patch day! It turned out neither one of us worked today, so we went. I look forward to this SO much!

 I love our little tradition. :)

I'm bummed that we found out TODAY that dogs are allowed in, but Shasta and I will go back soon for her photo shoot. Stay tuned for this. I'm stoked.

Next year baby and dog will come with us. <3

lifted weight

It is crazy how secrets tear at you. Even super great, exciting secrets that you know people will LOVE eat you away in the meantime! We recently told our church homegroup family that we are expecting- such a relief! It was a blast telling them. So much love and support from people striving to be like Christ throughout authentic life. An amazing group.

I do feel much better now, but our friends are next up on the list. Yikes! I am nervous about their reaction... luckily I have a couple of weeks until we reveal the news to them.

A few other life altering events that happened this week:

1. Aldi grocery store had their grand opening. They are now the closest store to our apartment, and to my job. Woo! The prices are ridiculous... I purchased WAY too much for WAY too little! Example: avocados are just 39 cents each. Score. Weird thing about Aldi, you have to put a deposit down to "reserve" your shopping cart - yes that's what I said. Outside of the store, there was a bunch of confused older ladies staring at the shopping cart area. I walked over (needing a cart) and tried to figure out what was going on. It turns out that you need to insert a Quarter into the cart to unhook it from the other carts, but you get your money back when you return it after shopping. I was irritated about this new system at first ("What NERVE they have to charge me for my cart!"), but then realized how ingenious it was. There were zero carts left in the parking lot.
2. I got to go to lunch with my beautiful sister and bro in law, they were in town and it was great getting to catch up with them! San Antonio is just too far away. :)
3. Fortune cookies are a big deal to me. I hate them and love them. They make me laugh... in bed. But often, they place this teeny reminder on my heart that God actually did intend for me to read that fortune cookie (duh), and that's comforting! Here's my "fortune" from yesterday:

Yes, come May, the beat I dance to will be much much different.

SO looking forward to it!

videos

here's the heartbeat video, like I promised:

and another one TOTALLY worth watching. Best pregnancy video I've found yet... so informative on what is happening right now. :)

how we roll

I am open minded about a lot of things. I like to do my research, and look at several options, but once I decide... I decide. Because of this, I am finding myself more and more on the homeopathic side of life. You know, drugs versus herbal remedies, unnecessary surgery versus just taking care of yourself, cortisone shots versus massage techniques.

 doctors versus midwives ...(yup, I said it).

...especially when it comes to the birth of this baby. (To each her own, right? I am passionate about this topic, and for OUR FAMILY I know what we are aiming to do. Everyone has their own opinions.) Why in the world would I put myself (or my husband, and my baby) through a traumatic experience when it isn't medically necessary? I trust the way God made my body for this beautiful process. And it honestly freaks me out knowing that 150 years ago when DOCTORS STARTED handling birth - for the first time, ever - they needed something else to do and intervened when it wasn't necessary. Then, by 1900, physicians were attending about 1/2 of the nation's births, including nearly all births to middle and upper class women. Midwives took care of the women who could not afford a doctor (which they were then mocked for). That just seems so weird to me knowing that midwifery had always been viewed as a highly respectable profession, even warranting the highest priority on boats to the colonies! I don't trust that system. Please watch The Business of Being Born (on Netflix) if you haven't seen it already. SO much information.

We have selected an amazing Certified Nurse Midwife, Sherry Oldfield, to coach us and take care of us through this process. She is handling all of my checkups and prenatal care, and will catch our sweet child when he/she arrives in May. She is educated (at an insane level... the information she knows seems to be limitless), experienced, and most importantly more in tune with ME than any social status or "norm". The hospital norm is actually really really stupid. It doesn't make ANY sense to me anatomically (drugs, timing, labor inducing, fetal distress that THEY cause, c-sections that THEY often cause, what you are allowed to do in labor, birthing position...etc). 

God willing, I will HypnoBirth in a birthing tub. In our home. With dim lighting, quiet music, no screaming or hollering, and just peaceful joy. Ahhh, yes.

On a side note, I heard my baby's heartbeat for the first time yesterday. I'll post a video of this soon.

It was absolutely amazing.

fall

...it's finally here. High of 55 today, which is crazy. Yesterday's high for North Texas was 80 something. October is my favorite month! Pumpkins, crisp weather, fall food. I have made 3 pumpkin pies in the last 5 days (2 were gifts).

Last year we were in a little rental house, so we had the opportunity to decorate our porch and front yard. It was awesome. I bought a cheap scarecrow, some pumpkins at the pumpkin patch (our MUST every year since we were dating) and a couple of hay-bales.

I wonder how we will decorate our apartment this year.

"It feels like fall. It's cold today, brown suit, and pumpkin pie. Mmm." - J
Yes. I absolutely agree.

for starters

First of all, I can't get the font to work right on this first post. 
It is driving me nuts!!! 

A story for you: 
While packing up my car after an in-home massage therapy session yesterday evening,  a sweet guy driving the trash truck around the cul-de-sac (obviously a little bored) yells about the white apple shaped sticker on my car. He apparently had seen them everywhere and wanted to know what they meant. Dumb me, "Oh, like Apple products!" but of course that didn't help. "The iPhone, iPod, MacBooks... Steve Jobs?" and then he got it. I'm glad I could help him. 

Ten seconds later he asked me if I practiced yoga. Um ...what. My brain exploded a little! We proceeded to quickly chat/yell about yoga. What an odd exchange with the trash truck man. God's sense of humor is awesome. (Already know a lot about me? Hope so! I am going to try and not describe myself, because I'm learning that my selfish view of things is not always the truth. Hmph. It's a humbling process- J and I will spill our lives... and just... be. What do they call it, blog therapy?)

So this is entry #1. I had kinda started a blog before this, but it was more about me rather than my family. Here's to hoping I can translate all my thoughts about life in my 1 year old marriage, the new baby that's growing like crazy (I am 9.5 weeks preg!), and just daily blessings. I love the idea of 'bloggin it out' on a constant basis, but I make no guarantees. :)