Bump Watch Continues..

I've grown! (a little bit) This picture was taken at 17w 3days. I'm now 18 weeks along - almost half way done. Wahoo!




The last couple weeks I've been feeling a lot better. Meat is still mostly not so great, but I did find a new protein that tasted delicious - Salmon! I've never liked fish before, but I had this on Sunday and made a brown sugar glaze to go with it, and it was fantastic!! Salmon is definitely becoming part of the weekly menu. It's crazy what pregnancy does to your taste preferences. Foods I've loved my whole life now have no appeal, and other foods I've hated have suddenly become superb! Who'da'thunk.

Whether we'll be celebrating with pink or blue is still to be determined. We have the big ultrasound where we find out the sex in 2 weeks. I honestly have NO impressions about whether it's a boy/girl. Hmm... So much for motherly instincts. I can't wait to find out because then we can seriously start to think about names. Fun!

The Yearly Road Trip Down South

Every year for the past 5 years, Deke and I have somehow or another found ourselves in sunny St George for his spring break. This year, our friends Danny and Sarah invited us down for the long weekend. It was fantastic! The girls shopped, the boys 4wheeled, we ate out the entire time and found some time to relax in the sun. A few pics from the weekend:

Since none of the pools were open yet, we ventured out to the sand dunes for some beach time. Yes. We were that desperate. Danny and Deke raking out our sun deck:


It was a little chilly at first (at least to Sarah and I!) so we layed out in our sweatshirts for the first few minutes. Apparently, Danny thought we were a little pathetic and thought it felt just fine:


Me Amour:


Me Amour was not smart the first day and got a little crispy, so the aloe become his best friend:


So, Sarah's dad keeps a sporty little convertible at the Weinert abode down south. She and I drove it around all day Friday and then Saturday we attempted to fit the 4 of us in it in which we were demoted to the back seat. Ok, I don't think these pictures give the back seat justice but it's TINY. Or should I say tiny. I really think it was just an ornamental seat or something. But here we are being squished in the back:


The whole group at dinner:


It was SO nice to get away even for just the few days we were gone. We had gorgeous weather and an even better time. Thanks Danny and Sar for the fabulous weekend!

The Perks

So, I feel like I've been a bit of a Debby Downer lately about the whole nausea/sickness/pregnancy thing. Would you believe it if I told you there are actually some changes that I really, really love? Though the list may seem a little sparse, they are nothing short of fabulous:

• My hair is growing like a weed. I've been trying to grow my hair out the past year, and the process has definitely picked up the past few months. AND I swear it has more volume too. Pretty soon I'll be shaking my mane on the Herbal Essence commercials.
• My nails are growing super fast.. They're also noticeably whiter and stronger.
• The Victoria Secret effect. Wow. All I'll say is I'm a big fan.
• Experiencing first hand the creation of life. I continue to stand in amazement over how intricate, well designed and flat out awe inspiring this whole process is. Heavenly Father really knows what He's doing. I'm really not sure how anyone could not believe in a divine creator after witnessing such a miracle.

Well, there you have it. It's pretty short and sweet, but I'm hoping it will grow with time. And yes, I realize I haven't posted any pictures the past few posts, but this is because of 2 reasons 1) I haven't taken any pictures recently. and 2)A lot of times I'll blog at work when it's really slow and I don't have any of my pics saved to my work computer. But, I'm pretty sure there are some fun things ahead in the next week which will provide the perfect opportunity to remedy my picture-less posting.

So, I'm writing a talk right now..

...and came across this gem of a quote:

"Both abundance and lack [of abundance] exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend . . . when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that's present--love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature, and personal pursuits that bring us [happiness]--the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience heaven on earth."

-Sarah Ban Breathnach, in John Cook, comp., The Book of Positive Quotations, 2nd ed. (2007), 342.

Pres. Thomas S. Monson referenced it in his talk, Finding Joy in the Journey. I just really, really liked it. Happy Friday!

Will it ever be the same?

Foods that have consistently tasted good:

• Fruit
• Ice-cream
• Smoothies
• Lucky Charms, Cheerios, & Cinnamon Toast Crunch
• Taco Time's Veggie Burrito
• Milk
• Ice Water
• More fruit

Foods that had their moments of glory and now I'm not so sure about:

• Einstein's bagels w/cream cheese
• Beef Jerky
• Saltine Crackers
• String Cheese
• Fruit snacks
• Bananas
• Vanilla Wafers
• Top Ramon

Foods that always make me want to hurl:

• Meat
• Apples
• Alfredo sauces/cream sauces
• Meat
• Garlic
• Most veggies
• Especially cauliflower (thanks mom :) )
• Meat
• Did I mention meat?

And weirdly enough, even though it's not food, anything that has to do with Christmas makes me want to throw up. Isn't that so odd? Seriously anything related to Santa, Red/Green, Christmas, etc... makes me sick. Weird.

Sick.

So, have I mentioned how long the first trimester was? Apparently my morning sickness lasts all day - no breaks ever. I really didn't throw up much, just a whole bunch of dry heaving. It was terrible.

Then a beautiful thing happened.

I started feeling like a functional human being. This started happening about a week ago. And instead of every day being bad I only had, like, 1 or 2 days out of that week that I felt nauseous. It was amazing! I felt somewhat normal (as long as I ate at least every 1-2 hours)!

Then Monday I woke up with a scratchy throat and runny nose. It's progressed to a pounding headache, watery eyes, achey ears, and both nostrils full to the brim with snot. Gross. Yesterday I thought I was starting to get better and then it took a sharp turn for the worse last night. Ugh. I don't remember the last time I had a cold like this. All I want are some hard core cold meds. But unfortunately with the whole pregnancy thing, Tylenol is all I get, and let's be honest, Tylenol is pretty weak stuff. The only times I've been getting any relief is when I sit in the shower and let the steam semi clear my nose. I've been taking a lot of showers lately.

What kind of irony is that? As soon as I'm starting to feel a little chipper, Mr. Killer Cold comes to visit. I'm really looking forward to feeling like a normal person. At least now I'm getting to switch up the sicknesses right? Instead of dry heaving it's sniffing and a pounding head. I should be grateful for the variety, but I'm having a really hard time appreciating it. Anyways, I hope your week has been going better than mine.