January 2012

So... I'm pregnant. We found out that we were expecting at the beginning of December. This means that for the past 3 1/2 months I have been in absolute survival mode. Morning sickness will do that to a gal, after all. For some reason, when I'm pregnant, I'm not just one of those gals who gets sick in the mornings, or up-chucks when she wakes and then is all rosy and glowing for the rest of the day. Nope, not me. When I'm pregnant, it's like my body is in a knock down, drag out fight with itself. My sense of smell is cruelly keen... I'm talking like I can smell skin, yes, skin. Weird stuff. The nausea never, ever, ever lets up for a full 20 weeks. It's enough to make me cry just thinking about it, mostly because I have to give up any and all dairy until my nausea fully subsides. Can you imagine a life with no cheese or milk? Tragic, absolutely tragic.

Anyway, like I said, I was in survival mode. Cleaning had to wait, diapers were changed on an absolute-need basis... Sad to say, but I was living each day on the couch just waiting for the hour when I could go to bed for the night and not feel nausea during sleep. Poor Gordy, and poor, poor Jack. They deserve so much better. Needless to say, things like blogging were easily cut from the list of necessaries. Thus, my need to now do 4 months of catch-up work. Aye, Aye, Aye... the things you do for love.

Memories of January are a bit fuzzy. Not only because it was so many months ago, but also because I truly believe that God helps you forget the most awful parts of pregnancy (or no one would ever have a second child). I'll do my best to relate what we were up to, for posterity's sake.

At the beginning of the month, our favorite Mid-West friends Rodney and Kylee came to Bloomington for a visit. We always love seeing them. Despite the fact that I spent the entire time trying to hide the fact that I was 7 weeks pregnant (because we hadn't made our BIG announcement yet) and in the deep end of the morning sickness pool I still had such a good time. They showered us with gifts of Chicago's famous Garrett's popcorn, we went to the winter's farmers market, frisbee golf, and some of Bloomington's finest cuisine. Sadly, I didn't take any pictures of their visit... that's another thing that falls to the way side when you are trying to keep your lunch down.

Later, we finally took Jack to the Wonderlab, an interactive Children's museum here in Bloomington. He had such a good time playing with all of the exhibits. It is so fun to watch him grow into a little boy, and do things little boys do, like splash in the water exhibit or want to touch everything he sees. He's definitely not a baby now...

The only other thing of note that happened in January was that Gordy went back to school.