12 weeks pregnant...

I'm almost 12.5 weeks pregnant....it's crazy to think about how fast time has flown by! I can tell I'm already turning into a mom who is going to think that my kids have grown up so fast.

A few facts about what I'm learning is going on this week from my subscription to babycenter.com:

1.) The baby is about 2-3 inches long.
2.) Reflexes are being developed this week.
3.) Kidneys begin excreting urine. (does this mean I will have to pee more?)
4.) baby weight is about 1/2 an ounce.

Right now I'm still in normal clothes, especially since this is my first baby and I can still get away with it. However, my normal clothes are the clothes I had labeled in my head as my "fat" clothes. The jeans I am now wearing are jeans I haven't worn in a few years after I got more in shape. I won't tell you what size my "fat" clothes are, because it would still probably make most of you sick. But I guess I'm learning that "fat" is a relative term...

At work today we had our Christmas party for transplant. Forgot to bring my camera, so I don't have any pics. HOwever, a few co-workers said that they noticed a little bit of a bump. I think it was more of the outfit I was wearing, as I don't see a bump yet. But I'm guessing it won't be too much longer. We'll have to see.

I'm still feeling good, which I'm thankful. Just really hungry around mealtimes & need snacks often. I had to raid the nourishment room on the transplant floor this morning for some graham crackers to tide me over until our Christmas lunch! Thankfully, everyone understands.

Thanks for all of your continued prayers for me, Kyle, & our little blessing!

Praise God for organ transplants!

I just wanted to take a moment to praise God for the opportunity that many people have with a second chance at life through organ transplants. Now that I've been in my current job of working with liver,kidney, & pancreas transplant patients for almost a year, I have come to appreciate this even more than when I first started.

It's awesome to see a patient who desperately needs a new organ get one. There is a patient who just this weekend got a new liver who has been sick in the hospital the past 2 weeks. I have come to know this patient & his family pretty well. What a praise it was to walk in this morning & see that he now has a new liver! Even though his road to recovery will be long, I find it such a joy to see the happiness in the eyes of the family, for the way this family has thanked everyone on the transplant team for their support & kindness.

This is just one of the reasons I do what I do. I love to see answered prayers. This patient & his family are one such answered prayer. In the words of his daughter, who is probably in her 40s, "this is a Christmas wish come true and an answered prayer." God is good! I couldn't agree with her more!

We are pregnant!

After almost 6 years of marriage, we are so excited & praising God to be entering into the world of parenthood! In mid October, I found out this wonderful news & have been dying to write on this blog, but have had to keep it a secret. Now y'all know why there hasn't been much activity. Hopefully this will change, as I want to do a better job at blogging. Maybe it can be my new year's resolution.

So, for the beginning. I was 1-2 days late and decided to take a test. This time around, it actually came back positive....I was so surprised!

Of course I had to think of a cute way
to tell Kyle when he got home from work. So I went to Big Lots down the street, bought a baby rattle & made a note on the back of it that said something like "surprise! In June 2009, you are going to be a daddy!" I could hardly wait for Kyle to get home from work, as he was the first and only person I wanted to tell my news to, other than God, who already knew. I did bow down on my knees in my bathroom closet with tears in my eyes, praising & thanking God for this blessing from Him.

When Kyle got home from work, I had the baby rattle in a Victoria's secret bag on his desk, just to trick
him into thinking I bought him something else. Sorry buddy, not this time! :)

Here is a pic of Kyle with kind of a shocked look on his face...he really shouldn't be that shocked. He was there too, after all.

So then we both had the task of trying to keep this secret a secret for about 3-4 weeks (I was only 4 or 5 weeks along when I found out). It didn't turn out to be much of an issue for a while, except that some girlfriends at work had me targeted as the next one to get pregnant and point blank asked me 3 days after I had found out that I was pregnant if I was pregnant. I'm not a good liar, so now these girls admit that they knew when they asked me that day at lunch. They are sweet for not saying anything (or at least that I know of)>

We ended up telling Kyle's parents, along with future Aunt Amanda & Uncle Brett one night while watching a Cowboy's game. We told both of our parents the news through purchasing cute
"grandparent" picture frames from Kohl's. Inside the frame, I customized a poem I found online. Here is what the poem said:

Dear Grandpa and Grandma (last name),

I do not have a face to see, or put inside a frame.
I do not have soft cheeks to kiss; I don’t yet have a name.
Not yet can you hold my tiny hands, nor whisper in my ear.
It’s still too soon to sing a song, or cuddle me so near.
But all that will change come this
June 26, 2009 when they say I am due! I am your very first grandchild; and I can’t wait until I meet you!
All I ask between now & then is your love for me to grow.
I promise I’ll be worth the wait; just think of all the joy we’ll know!
So as you’re waiting patiently, please pray lots of prayers for me.
I cannot wait to be part of this wonderful family!


My mother-in-law is a sonographer, so she was able to do my first ultrasound since I couldn't get into my doctor until after the Thanksgiving holiday. It was really cool to have Kyle, Paula, & Billy all there to see the first ultrasound of our baby/grandbaby. She also got some great video footage that I need to figure out how to post on blogger. The ultrasound picture you see here is not the one Paula took, but is the most recent, 11-12 week ultrasound done by my doctor. The picture of me with my belly is my 10-11 week belly picture. I'm trying to take some shots here & there throughout my pregnancy. My friend Staci did this & I thought it was a good idea.

We waited to tell all of my Ohio family the news until we were there for Thanksgiving, which was 10 days later.

When we arrived in Ohio, my mom & sister picked us up from the airport around noon on Wednesday. My dad recently started a new job, so he was working until 9:30 at night. Yes, that means I had to go all day Wednesday and not say anything to my mom. This was really hard because I was so excited! We ended up going to lunch at Bob Evans, one of my favorite Ohio restaurants, then to see my Aunt Amy & cousins who were going to Chicago for the holiday. It was also hard not to tell her at this time, especially when she asked if anything new was going on. Oh how I wanted to spill the beans, but somehow God gave me the power to resist.

The rest of the day I relaxed at home, mom made a delicious soup for dinner, then we watched a great tear-jerking movie "The Christmas Shoes." This movie is a tear jerker in itself. However, now that I work in organ transplant, it tugged even more at my heartstrings. I would highly recommend it to any of my Transplant RD friends out there who may have found my blog URL from the Christmas card. :)

Finally dad walked in the door from work, right at the part of the movie when we were all emotional. (or maybe it was my change in hormones?) Kyle & I talked with him for a few minutes, then I went back to get the picture frame with the poem. I handed them the frame & told them that we had an early Christmas gift for them. I wanted them to have it now so that we could have fun with it while we were visiting.

My mom took one look at the frame, started crying, & saying "oh my!" over & over again. These were tears of joy & excitement. She couldn't believe that I kept this secret from her the whole day without saying anything...I told her I couldn't either.

My sister was out at Starbucks when we told my parents, so we waited up for her to get back. When she came back, we said "hello, Aunt Kristen." She got all excited & then said "finally! It's about time!" My brother Tim & his wife Julie were out of town in Michigan with her family for Thanksgiving. So we didn't end up telling them until Friday when they came over. Everyone is very excited!

So, as you can tell, I have had a lot to blog about. Now I just need to find the time to make it consistent so y'all will keep reading. And, I need to figure out blogger & it's software.

Thanks for sharing in our joy, all readers out there! June 26, 2009 is going to be here before we know it! Please keep us & our future baby in your thoughts & prayers. God bless!

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

Happy Belated Thanksgiving, everyone! Whew...what a busy time of the year! It's been total craziness around here ever since we got back from being in Ohio with my family at Thanksgiving. I also contemplated switching from blogspot to a different blog server because I really don't like blogspot, but couldn't find anything better. So here I am again.

So much has happened I'm not sure where to start. What you see are a few pics from our time with family at Thanksgiving in Ohio. We also celebrated Christmas with my family after Thanksgiving, which was lots of
fun. So, in a way, I feel like I've already celebrated Christmas and that it's over.

On Thanksgiving, we arrived in Ohio the day before. I'll tell you more about that day in the next post I do. Thanksgiving was at mom's house, which she had decked out, with lots of good food, of course! The day after Thanksgiving we did a little bit of shopping, I went to see Twilight with Kristen, and we had a yummy rib dinner at home everyone, including Tim & Julie. Saturday we went to a bridal shower for a friend at church, celebrated my bday, celebrated Christmas, had Grandma & Grandpa

over. My mom also hurt her foot from being on them too much on this day. Thanksfully, her foot wasn't broken, but she was in a lot of pain the rest of the time we were there. On Sunday we went to church and enjoyed time with our friends from our church in Lima at a Mexican restaurant. On Monday mom & I did some cooking. I had lunch with Amy and then dinner with the everyone but Kristen, who went back to Harding on Sunday morning. On Tuesday Kyle & I woke up to 1/2 inch of snow on the ground in Ohio prior to flying back to Texas. This is probably the only snow we will see all winter, which is fine with us! We got to see

way too much of it when we lived in Lima!

Lately Kyle & I have been busy with work, BSF, Christmas musical stuff at church, Christmas parties, time with friends, cowboy game parties, etc.

We have also been busy about something else very exciting as well. If you don't already know, you will have to read our next post, which will hopefully be posted later today if I can get to it. Sorry to keep you in suspense....I don't think I have that many blog fans anyway, so I"m not too worried.

Hope everyone else is enjoying this fun, but crazy, time of the year! Be on the lookout for the next post!

Halloween...Transplant Style

Yesterday was Halloween. Until this, I had never worked anywhere that actually dressed up on Halloween. Most of the transplant team & workers dressed up as dalmation dogs for a "101 dalmations" theme, complete with a dog catcher (Dr.Levy) and Cruella Deville (Dr.Murray). Yesterday was one of the most fun days I've ever had at a job before. Needless to say, we didn't get much actual work done, but we had lots of fun!

The Fort Worth fire department even brought a fire truck for us "dalmation" dogs to get a picture in front of it.

We even went upstairs to round on patients in the hospital with our costumes on....we looked so silly that they brought smiles to the faces of the patients. Many patients took our pictures with their phones!

Dr. Levy (dog catcher) and Dr. Murray (Cruella Deville) pose for a picture catching a dog.

The puppies with Cruella

There was also a dessert contest at work. I made these batty cupcakes. They were cute, but didn't win. They were very yummy!

I don't know what next year's Halloween fun will bring, but I"m not sure how it will top yesterday's fun. Good memories!

I praise God for this new job everyday! As you can tell, I"m in a much more enjoyable work environment!