So I'm 20 weeks now and all of you with kids know what that means...time to find out the sex of the baby! I made my whole family guess what it was before I told them, so make a guess first before I tell you and then tell me if it was right or not!!! It was so amazing to finally see it and realize there really was something in there responsible for making me so sick. I think it really hit us that we were actually having a baby!
Da, da, dum....It's a GIRL! When the tech told me, I was like... really? I honestly just kinda figured it was a boy, because it seems like that's all my family has, and Ben's too! The tech was awfully sure it was a girl though. We are completely THRILLED! I am so excited to do the girly, girl thing. As of like 3 years ago, whenever I go to Target, I look at the little girls stuff just because I think it's so darling! And I think because I had such a good relationship with my mom, I can't wait to have that with her! After the tech told us, I asked Ben what he thought. I thought he might be disappointed, because he loves to rough house with boys! He said, "that's cool". I didn't really know what to think. Then afterwards, he said he didn't talk much, because he was teary and was afraid he'd cry out loud if he tried to talk. I'm glad he is experiencing the emotions, because I'm always trying to hold mine back for some reason. I did feel it too though...that overwhelming sense of thankfulness and spiritual connection. I know she'll be here before we know it though, so here goes with the preparations!
This is the cake Ben made me for my Birthday. He reminds me of his mom so much when he bakes, because everything is always way decadent and perfect! He's definitely a perfectionist when it comes to food and it's presentation. And with school out, he's done a lot of cooking lately! I'm pretty sure the ladies at work like him better than me, because he was always bring in treats, and dips, etc for all my co-workers over the holidays.
This was Ben and I's THIRD Christmas just the two of us! Sometimes I hate being a grown-up with a real job, but honestly I should just be thankful I have a job! We've made a pact to get to our parents' for Christmas sometime within the next two years. Anyway, we've had fun doing our own little thing. This is Ben with a present he got from his parents...a toy! It made me laugh because my grown up brothers still wanted toys when they were older too!
This is Ben ready to get his stocking! I know he's not gonna like this photo...sorry honey! :), but I think he's cute!
This is what we encountered Christmas morning in our driveway! At least the landlord had plowed a little bit. When we moved here, I thought the winters were going to more mild than Utah..I guess I was wrong!
I worked through the night on Christmas Eve and so Ben picked me up Christmas morning. Ben had to get out of the car twice on the way home (5 miles) to dig our car out of the snow, because it had bottomed out! Apparently this town doesn't plow and we've come to see a lot more of that since then. The town just cancels school and everything, because you can't get anywhere just because they don't plow. It seemed wierd to me, but I guess they just don't have the money for it.
We took our friend to the airport in Kansas City last weekend, and since I've been feeling better, we decided to stay the night and hang out in Kansas City the next day. We went shopping at The Plaza, which was a big outdoor mall with higher end stores. It's been awhile since I've been into some of these stores, so it was fun to look around. We got to eat at P.F. Chang's and the Cheesecake Factory too which are two of our favorite places. The only restaurants Emporia really has to offer are Applebees and fast food so it was a good change.
We're taking this picture in front of a fountain, because apparently it's the city of fountains...which is fitting, because they are definitely everywhere!
While we were there, we decided to go to Liberty Jail which is only like 15 miles from the airport. We didn't realize it was so close. Anyway, you can see behind us in these pictures how small it was. One of the men that stayed there with Joseph was like 6 foot 7", and after being released he never could walk straight up again, always with a stoop. They were there for like 4 months. It was freezing and they were often sick from the food they served them. It was really neat to hear about the history of it all. They said one time Emma visited and Joseph asked her if she had a blanket he could have, because it was so cold and she had to say, "Joseph, I honestly have NOTHING, the mob has taken everything! I thought that was so sad! I mean nowadays, we'd run to the store and put it on our credit card if we didn't have money. I honestly can't imagine living in the midst of all that. Anyway, it made our problems seem very small and helped us remember how much we do have, even in the midst of our struggles.
Merry Christmas everyone! We'll be staying here just the two of us. I work on Christmas Eve through the night and we'll do our little Christmas together when I get home. I can't wait to be able to move closer to family so we can spend the holidays with them!
Thanks to Ben and his candid camera...this is a horrible picture, but it explains perfectly where I have been the last 3 months and why I haven't been blogging much. I have been super sick with....pregnancy! Yep, that's right..I'm pregnant! I feel like I have to apologize to all my friends who've been sick when they're pregnant for not doing more to help out. I'm so sorry, I had no idea what it was like! I never REALLY knew how being sick for an extended period of time is depressing! I feel like I kinda understand how my cancer patients felt, although usually for a whole year while going through chemo! All I did was lie on this couch and I only got up to pee and go to work if I could. Let me just say I am so thankful for my health! Ben has been the best helper though..I haven't done dishes or laundry or made food since recently. He totally did it all. So anyway, I'll try not to expound on the sick part and just say we're excited to be having a baby the end of May. I'm about 14 weeks along and I'm starting to feel better. We've heard the heart beat, but it's still such a wierd thought that there's a baby growing inside me. I keep thinking, Am I really cut out to be a mom? which is funny, because when I was young, I was always the one babysitting and taking care of the babies. Ben is super excited and is already sharing his ideas of parenting with me. It's funny and cute! Anyway, so I guess we'll find out in about 6 weeks the sex of the baby and yes we are going to find out, because I'm too much of a planner not to. I'm still working nights, but am very excited to take a few months off when I have the baby and go home to see our families. So anyway, that's our big news!
So Ben and I went to a Joshua Radin concert last night. It was awesome! He has such a great voice. If you don't know who he is check out the link to his website.
During the concert there were some girls in the front row that were making out and he noticed so he was like "wow, you guys are making out... that's awesome..." But the way he said it was totally awkward in a funny way so it was hilarious. I guess you would have had to have been there. One of the girls had the lyrics to one of his songs tattooed on her boob and he was all weirded out by that (what normal person wouldn't be?) But of course he brought it up through out the entire show. Funny guy.
Anyway, so the girl behind him in this picture is from England. She and her sisters have a band called the Staves. Her voice was beautiful. I wouldn't mind looking into their music either. Good times.
I haven't posted anything for awhile, because I've been busy with work and getting settled I guess. I've worked 3 whole weeks of night shifts so far and it's not as hard to stay up as I thought. The night thing isn't really my preference though, so we'll see how it goes. I'm not excited about all the flu stuff going on now.
Ben is enjoying teaching his classes. He said the other day he had his students write comments about how he was doing as a teacher and how he could be better. He told them not to write their names on the comments so it would be anonymous. So the students told him what he did bad and what he could do better and one girl wrote her name on the card and at the end of it said, And you're HOT..at least I think so! I thought it was so funny, but Ben was feeling pretty wierd about it. He said he's mentioned me several times in class and he always has his ring on. Anyway, he's debating whether he needs to tell his teacher, etc. I remember having crushes on my grad student teachers, but I never would have done anything like tell them they're hot. Anyway, I thought it was funny.
We'll post more when we get new pictures...but for now we're just livin life.
