My Life

Ah pregnancy…..this one is turning out to be different from what I can remember my last two pregnancies being like. To give you an idea of what I’m talking about, all I can say is that I’m nauseous as I type. The last three weeks have been a bit rough on me physically. I’ve been very tired and nauseous and not feeling up to being on the computer or blogging much lately.

Then when I think things are starting to look up and I have 2 or 3 “good” days, I’ll turn right around and have a couple of “bad” days. Yeah, its been rough.

The good news is that I’m now 10 weeks pregnant and the sickness should be subsiding very soon. I can’t wait for the relief. But through it, I am thankful that Ruben and the kids have been understanding. I think the older kids are starting to get used to me waking up AFTER them for the time being. That was a little weird for our early bird, Nathan, who is used to getting up early and seeing me up already. I used to be up around 5:30am, but now I’m settling for getting out of bed sometime around 7:00am. I’m going to bed earlier, too, usually around 9:00pm. Getting 10 hours of sleep a night is a new thing for me – for sure! 🙂 But my body is calling for it, so, I don’t have much choice. I do miss getting up early, though, and hopefully, once I’m around 12 or 13 weeks, I’ll be able to tolerate early mornings again. I hope!

Ruben has been a trooper and has been helping me with lots of the household duties among them, David’s diaper changes, which I can barely tolerate without gagging. Smells are a real problem for me right now, too. Lotions, perfumed body washes, diapers, etc…are hard to tolerate at the moment. And forget about brushing my teeth. I mean, I do it, but now without gagging. Did you ever have that problem? I’ve gone through gagging and even throwing up while brushing my teeth will ALL of the kids, so, I knew it was coming with this one, too. Sigh.

On a different subject, I’ve been going back and forth about taking summer classes. At first, I was thinking I probably wasn’t going to take any classes. Then, I had a couple of days where I started feeling better and decided I’d try to do two online classes. However, after those two good days, sickness followed, and I’ve been rethinking my decision to do even the online classes. Now, I’m 99% sure that I’m not going to take any classes at all this summer. Instead, I’m going to focus on spending more time praying, more time with the kids and helping them with school, and concentrating on ways to get us all exercising more because of the wonderful way that the pregnancy hormones s.l.o.w. your body down and cause you in turn to put on the pounds.

I know I have to gain weight while pregnant; I’d just prefer it all to come in the last trimester. 😉 Sad to say, that isn’t happening. The pounds are already creeping up on me, and I feel like even when I do eat healthy, I still gain weight. I’m hoping that getting outside and taking more walks after this crazy weather stabilizes will help.

Anyway, that’s what I’ve been up to. Sorry I didn’t update sooner, but I’m hoping to be blogging more often as I begin to feel better. I’m also planning on doing a few blog design projects this summer, so, if you’d like to be added into the queue, just let me know. 🙂

It’s official. The spring semester is over for me. That means no more homework, projects, tests or quizzes. I can breathe and not feel nauseous when I think about a certain project that caused me so much stress over the last couple of weeks. It’s done, and I’m happy.

I’m actually thinking about taking the summer off entirely and withdrawing from the classes that I had signed up to start in the next few weeks. I’m still praying about this, but so far, I really feel like I need a break – a long break. I’ve gone to school for three straight semesters (Summer, Fall, and Spring), and now that I’m pregnant and sick, I just don’t have the motivation to start back up in a couple of weeks, especially when I know that classes are going to be intense and time consuming. You see, when you take summer classes, you squish 16 weeks worth of work into only 8 weeks. Yeah, it’s not for the faint of heart. It’s a lot of work. And, at the moment, I don’t feel up to it.

I could change my mind before June 6th when classes are set to start, but right now, I’m just not feeling it.

But that means good things for you dear readers! I’ll be around a lot more this summer and finally start posting with more consistency. 😉

I also want to offer another giveaway at some point, although, not for a total blog design. This one will be smaller scale, but good nonetheless!

I can’t wait to get more fun time in with the kids, too, and be able to spend more one-on-one time with them. I actually started a Saturday afternoon swim class with Isaac, our 4yr. old, and he LOVES it. It’s so much fun to see him enjoying the water. He does keep me on my toes, though, with his consistently asking me to let him go on his own. He THINKS he can swim already. Don’t worry….I’m there to catch him.

I have one more week of school left, and then I get a  4 week break before I have to start summer classes. I. can’t. wait.

I’m sure you’ve noticed that I’ve been absent around here the last few days, and that’s because I had a few school projects to finish up – one being a HUGE project where we are building a website for a real non-profit organization. That project has been difficult for me for a variety of reasons, but the main reason is how time consuming it has been. I’ve spent hours and hours on this project, and it still isn’t finished. I’m planning on putting the finishing touches on it over the weekend and will try to make it live so that my group can present it on Monday. (I’ll be sure to share the link if we do get it live.) This project is for the class I’m taking in Adobe Dreamweaver.

I’m happy to say that I’ve finished up everything for my Web 2.0 class where we were learning about blogging, podcasts, social media, etc…. I did my PowerPoint presentation last night, and it went great. All I have left for that class is the final exam which should be very easy. I did want to say that it was funny to see how others in my class came to feel about blogging after having to maintain one for a few months. Let’s just say most of them want to run as far as they can from blogging and will probably never blog again! 🙂 Really, it was just how time consuming blogging was for them. Blogging is certainly time consuming, and it’s definitely not for everyone, so, I totally understand how they feel.

This semester really started out better than last semester did because the classes I chose for this semester seemed more manageable to me, and I didn’t feel like I was being crushed by them…..until the last few weeks with this non-profit website project. I’ll be fine, though. And I know I’ll feel better and recharged to begin the summer semester once I get a break! I’ve chosen to learn Adobe Illustrator this summer – a program commonly used to create vector graphics and logos, and I’ll be taking a Spanish class online – hoping that will be a breeze! 🙂

What are your summer plans?

We bought our first family ornament with all of our names on it.  Hopefully, this will become a tradition for years to come.

We had a Christmas cupcake “cake.”  I promised Breanna that we’d have one of these made for Christmas when we saw it at Target.  The kids loved it, and as you can see from the picture, someone couldn’t wait.

We made the most delicious chocolate chip cookies to give away and eat! We followed a recipe from The America’s Test Kitchen cookbook, and these came out big, chewy, and oh so good.

David adored the Christmas tree.  It was wonderful to see him enjoying it so much and asking for it to be turned on each day.  However, we did not enjoy toys and other random items such as potatoes being thrown into it.

That’s a peek into our Christmas.