My thoughts on this Pregnancy thing...

Since I've been feeling a lot better lately, and looking at a monitor no longer makes me quite as nauseous, I decided I would share my thoughts about our pregnancy. I've also been reading a pregnancy journal on one of those baby websites, and they are blogging every week, so I thought the least I could do is maybe once a month or so!

First off, I am really super excited. This kinda comes as a surprise to even me, as I'm not the oogely-googely baby type, and really don't have that much interest in kids in general. But good ol' mom was right - I DO feel differently now that it's my own! I'm sure the pregnancy hormones really rev up that maternal instinct. And, seeing the ultrasound was simply amazing - there it was, a real live little person moving around inside me! That was definitely the coolest moment of pregnancy so far.

One of the challenging parts right now is not having health insurance. Jay's work has the customary 90 day waiting period, so we won't be insured until Nov 1st. So, for the first dr visit, we just paid cash, and then we were able to schedule the next visit after Nov 1st. We have temporary, emergency-only insurance, which of course does not cover pregnancy. And even if it did, the deductible is so high it would not be worth it to actually use it! The only thing that is a bit scary about it is what if we/I/the baby needs something before Nov 1st...though I'm sure it will be fine, and I know this is just another one of those "tests" God throws our way to make sure we are fully reliant on Him and not our own little helpless selves, as much as we want to be the ones in control!

Other things Jay and I have been doing/experiencing since becoming pregnant - Getting bombarded with free magazines and pamhlets and advertisements from all sorts of baby and parenting sources; Getting free formula and diaper cream samples and passifiers from the OB/GYN office and the maternity store where I bravely entered to buy a "belly band" (a contraption designed so a newly pregnant girl can wear her normal pants unbuttoned when she is just feeling a bit fat and bloated, but not big enough for maternity wear); Starting a list of possible boy and girl names; Thinking about baby furniture and decorating a baby room which we will hopefully have soon; and, Trying to figure out how we're going to cope with (and be good parental figures to) a tiny newborn, a baby, a toddler, a preschooler, a grade schooler, a jr-higher, and a high-schooler! God help us!!!

And now, for your viewing pleasure, here are the pics of the 2 home pregnancy tests I took (Jay didn't believe the first one), and also a profile of me with a barely pregnant, just starting to pooch out stomach (oh, and ignore the date on the pic, we hadn't set the date thingie on the camera yet - who knew it didn't just come programed with the correct date?!):

Ella's Adventure

Today it was gorgeous out, the sky was crystal clear and the mountains were freshly capped with snow.


It was in the upper 60s, so we decided to take Ella on a walk to the local park we found recently. There's a pond in the park with signs that say "please don't feed the geese". I've never seen geese in it until today. Neither had Ella. Here's a pic of her gazing longingly at the geese that were parading around in front of her:


Shortly after this picture was taken, she decided she couldn't take it anymore and dove into the pond! Ella hates water, she normally avoids puddles and runs from the rain, but in this case apparently the drive to destroy the birds taunting her overrode that natural tendency.

She had her leash on (and choke chain), so midair she was spun around and was out of the water about as quick as she was in it... but it was hilarious. That water couldn't have been warm, either, its been in the low 40s every night for the past few days. The funny thing was, she didn't give up there. As we walked around the pond, she never took her eyes off the geese. I let her get close to the edge again, and she kept crouching down like she was stalking them, ready to pounce. She tried diving in a second time, but I yanked her back midair and she landed back on the ground. Needless to say the geese weren't too thrilled... here's one batting its wings


So we've decided if we ever want to train her to swim, all we need is a fake duck or something and she'll go right in!

Also, there was a field with a ton of prairie dogs right next to the park (which surprisingly Ella had no interest in). Here's a picture of one of them poking his head out and nervously chirping to warn the others that I was intruding on their territory.


So Ella will definitely be having some good dreams tonight. Lots of critters to dream about killing.

Jenna Has a Bellyache

and it looks like this!

(coming to a bassinet near you, April 20th)

Jay's Creativity

so Jay found a new use for Ella's crate - a breakfast (or dinner) in bed tray...so ingenious... the top of the crate comes off the base, and then it has a hole on one end so you can actually put it over your lap.

Dollar Movies!

Since we're on a tight budget with the double house payments and all, we've been looking for things to do that get us out of the apartment but without spending a lot of dough.

I decided to look for a dollar theater, but quickly realized that they're hard to find. They're not necessarily called "Cheap Charlie's Dollar Movies" or anything like that. So I did some searching on the web, and came across a website called www.boxofficemojo.com that has a list of every movie theater in every state, along with ticket prices (click on "showtimes", then click "theater index" on the top bar). I found a theater right near our area that was $1.50!



The theater wasn't exactly top notch (as you'd expect at a dollar theater). It was a little run down, the audio wasn't exactly THX, and the place was messier than most theaters, but it wasn't too bad.

We went to go see Nacho Libre, but it turned out they didn't have it that weekend for some reason (it is a dollar theater), so for $2 (it was a matinee) we saw the movie 'Click' with Adam Sandler and Cristopher Walken. It was actually a decent movie - kind of like a modern 'Its a Wonderful Life' only a little different. Its about an architect (oddly enough) who is a workaholic and always chooses work over his family. He gets ahold of a "universal remote that controls the universe" from Christopher Walken, and discovers he can fast forward through the mundane stuff in life and get right to the good parts. Its a good deal at first, but then it goes bad. Its one of those "life's a journey, not a destination" movies. I'd definitely recommend it for rental (or dollar theater).

If you're wondering, I also found a dollar theater in Irvine, appropriately called "Starplex Cinemas - Woodbridge Dollar Movies 5" for you Orange County types (which you may already have known about).