Dear BABY

Dear Baby,

   It has been almost 14 weeks since you officially entered our lives, but the thought of you has been floating around me and your dads head for much longer. Even before that, I have always dreamt of you since I was a little girl. It is safe to say, you are and will continue to be, very loved. We still don't know if you are a boy or a girl, and the anticipation is killing us! We are going to have so much fun with you, and together the three of us will share a tremendous amount of love.

6 weeks

   In the mornings and at night time your daddy gets really close to my belly, rubs it and talks to you, to let you know you are loved and so hopefully you can begin to recognize his voice. He says things like "Good Morning little one, this is your daddy", and it fills my insides up with happiness because those simple words sound so sweet. We aren't sure if you can hear yet, but we like to talk to you anyways. Your dad is truly one of a kind. He is a strong, smart, hilarious man.. and he is so excited to meet you. I try and picture a few years from now - me making dinner and hearing the two of you talk. I think he is going to make you laugh A LOT. This makes me so happy. I'm so excited to see the relationship you will have with him, because he is a lot of fun.

   You have been pretty kind to me during your stay in my belly. No morning sickness the first trimester, and even fatigue didn't set in for a while. I've been gaining a healthy amount of weight so far as well, I'm right where I'm supposed to be. My most prominent symptom has been me being extra emotional! Sometimes this is good (I can be sweet), sometimes it's strange (like crying all the way through 'Father of the Bride 2'), and sometimes it's bad (and I feel bad for you dad), but however it is, it is only temporary and what we get in return is so great. I feel so blessed that I get to share my body with you. Every week I update your daddy on your growth and little milestones you've reached (which I read online or in books), I do this so he gets to experience and connect with you right now as well, even though you haven't made it outside into the world yet. He is always excited to hear about you, and the crazy changes. For instance, you already have fingerprints! And if you have an itch, you scratch it! I enjoy talking about you with him. This gives me and him time to connect too.

8 weeks 5 days

   Food cravings have been minimal, but I can definitely name a few. Juice, Apples, Peanut butter and Jelly, Subway, and sometimes Pizza, are on the top of the list. Sometimes I have a random craving that usually can't fulfill, for example, last night I wanted an Oreo Blizzard from Dairy Queen, but I can't have those right now because we live in Germany (don't worry, by the time you are born we will be in Texas). I also haven't had Dairy Queen in years! The other day I wanted a root beer, and I don't even like root beer. Usually I don't have much of those types of cravings anyways, which is good because I don't want to eat completely unhealthy.
   The only other symptoms I've been experiencing with you is a crazy sleeping schedule and fatigue. I can fall asleep at 5pm for a quick nap and not wake up until 2am! Oops. I'm trying to adjust this so I'm sleeping at more normal times, but I'm also not fighting it if I'm about to doze off. I figure if I am tired I need the rest to help you grow healthy.
   Your dad and I are doing everything we can to make sure you are healthy and happy in there, and we will continue to do so for the rest of our lives. You are so important to us. I really hope you like us, I think we are pretty neat.
   We have been lucky enough to see you at every doctors appointment so far. The most recent one was the most amazing one yet, and they will only get better. At 12 weeks and 5 days (your most recent appointment), we saw almost every part of your body perfectly. We got to see your beautiful little legs and arms, hands and feet, and even your little face. The doctor was taking some measurements of you, and to get you to move, he shook the ultrasound stick a little bit. What happened after that was indescribable. You were moving all over the place! You wouldn't stop! I wish I could describe to you in words how amazing this was. You are a real little human inside my belly. I think you were trying to find another comfy position in there after the doctor prodded you, and I was a little sad he made you move... but I still soaked up every second of watching you wiggle around in there. It was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. It made me so happy I was literally laughing while watching you. Not because I thought it was funny, but because I think it was the only way my body new how to handle the intense amount of joy and excitement I was feeling. I wanted to cry. I can't wait until I can feel you move around in my belly. I'm surprised I can't now because you are the size of a lemon, or an adult fist! That is big for my belly.

12 weeks 5 days

   Although the only way to see you right now is through a fuzzy black and white screen, I already know you are the most beautiful and perfect little human that I know. I've heard a lot of moms say that the love you feel when you meet your child is like nothing you have ever felt before, well I think I have now experienced a small taste of what is to come, and I would have to agree. I can't wait to feel it all. I was having a bad day this past weekend, and after getting a glass of water and closing the refrigerator door, I glanced at your ultrasound picture that is on the door. Without even thinking I did a double take and looked over at it again, and the next thing I knew I was smiling. I was amazed at how much you could change my attitude so quickly. You are amazing. 

   I cannot wait until you are in my arms and I can hold you, and cuddle you, and tell you how much I love you. I promise you my love is unconditional, and you will never run out of hugs and kisses.

We love you SO much!

Love,
Your mommy

Healthy Snack

A couple of weeks ago I discovered a healthy ranch substitute.

If you buy a fat free ranch seasoning packet and mix some of it in non-fat plain greek yogurt, you have something that tastes pretty similar to ranch, and a lot more healthy. This is my study snack.

ALSO:
Matt and I traveled to Dublin, Ireland with 2 of his friends last weekend for Matt's birthday, hopefully I can make a post about it soon.

Wurzburg.

Last weekend Matt and I went to Wurzburg, Germany. A city that is only about 30 minutes away from us, and for some reason we never went besides going to the outskirts to shop at IKEA. Wurzburg has a castle, which was the main reason we went.

We laughed at how small and ridiculous European parking spots can be sometimes. In this particular parking garage, there are 5 floors and each one had only 1-2 parking spots left ...that were this size. Our Honda Accord is huge over here. Parking is not fun- sometimes we aren't laughing about it.

While we were there we also decided to get some lunch. I ordered a Margarita pizza. In America, a Margarita pizza is cheese with tomato slices and spinach on top, right? Here in Germany it's just a plain old cheese pizza. For shame! Also, after declining the english menu, what Matt thought was a baguette sandwich that he ordered for a meal turned out to be toast with garlic on it. Oh, the European adventures.

Wurzburg was really nice! It was really easy to get around and outside in the Aldstadt (Old City) there was a couple of stages set up with some music and vendors selling bratwurst and other German foods.

A-Z of ME.

I saw this on other blogs and decided to do it too.

A. Age: 23
B. Bed size: Queen. Hard. Old. It only cost $20 and was purchased off craiglist (i know) after I married my husband and we were sick of sleeping on an air mattress. I think it might be time for an upgrade. King, please?
C. Chore that you hate: Laundry and the dishes. hate, hate, HATE.
D. Dogs: None. :( I really want a puppy, but I have to wait until we move back to America (HELLO, MAY) to get one. I'm not fond of the idea of putting a pup in a crate in the baggage area of the plane. Especially during the summer.
E. Essential start to your day: Wake up, brush teeth, facebook, school. Oh and eat.
F. Favorite color: GREEN. I'm also fond of blue.
G. Gold or Silver: Both! I have some cheap fake gold jewelry from Forever 21, my marriage ring is white gold.
H. Height: 5'3"
I. Instruments you play: I used to take guitar lessons and could play a few songs. I probably still could if I tried.
J. Job title: STUDENT.
K. Kids: nope.
L. Live: Germany, thanks military. Until I get back to Austin!
M. Mother’s name: Susan
N. Nicknames: Bails
O. Overnight hospital stays: Never!
P. Pet peeves: Toilet paper put on the wrong way.
Q. Quote from a movie: "I always tell the girls, never take it seriously, if you never take it seriously, you never get hurt, you never get hurt, you always have fun, and if you ever get lonely, just go to the record store and visit your friends." That was my favorite movie quote years ago and was the first thing that popped into my head. 
R. Right or left handed: Left.
S. Siblings: Lyndsey, Martha, Rachel
U. Underwear: ? LOVE THEM.
V. Vegetable you hate: asparagus. I don't really hate it, but it's not a favorite.
W. What makes you run late: Refusing to get out of bed because I stayed up too late the night before. Other than that I'm usually 10 trillion minutes early to everything. I hate it.
X. X-Rays you’ve had: One on my chest. And some for my teeth!
Y. Yummy food that you make: Tacos! Pizza! Sandwiches! Chicken Parmesan! Eggplant Parmesan! Something I made up! I like to cook.
Z. Zoo animal: Zoo's make me sad, but if I had to chose one I would say monkey and then I would free them all. 

This is my the current state of my hometown:

Because of the severe drought, high temperatures, and recent heavy winds (the winds were caused from a tropical storm), Texas has been experiencing wildfires all over. I personally don't know about the rest of Texas, but I know the surrounding Austin areas have been hit pretty badly. One area alone lost over 700 houses the last time I checked. This makes me sad and wish I could be there to help out. Unfortunately, I'm in Germany. I hope they get the fires contained soon. It's so terrible!

FALL.

Today is the first day of September! That means fall is coming! Which means we are one more season closer to going home for Christmas!

Alright well, fall semester has started, in fact, I'm supposed to be finishing up the second week right now... but instead I'm blogging. Why? Because I'm really good at procrastinating (Notice I haven't made a blog post for a while, until today). I have a ton of Math homework I need to finish before Matt comes home from work today because this weekend he has a four day weekend. I'd rather have fun than do homework. 

Fall semester has been going swimmingly so far, minus one strange professor. I'm taking Web Design I- which has basically just been a review so far, Interface Design I- which is new but interesting, and taught by idiot professor, and another math class. I'm in Developmental Mathematics because I wasn't so great at math in high school. This kind of sucks because I could be finished with all the math I need by now, but I'm okay with it. One more developmental math class in the spring then it's on to college algebra. 

So, basically there has been a lot of this going on in my house the past couple of weeks:

Oh, school. 

A couple of weeks ago Matt and I went to Rothenburg, again, to walk around and explore. Rothenburg is probably one of my favorite cities I've been to since I've been here. It's an old medieval walled-in city, and you can actually get a sense of feeling like you are back in time. It's not a huge city like Munich or Berlin that is really loud and noisy, which I also like about it. 

I think the town we live in just finished celebrating there fall festival. That thing lasted for like 6 days! Every day there was some sort of parade and really loud German fest music. This is what I would see looking out the living room window:

It was cute at first... then it just got annoying. This was still in the cute stage.

Other recent instagram photos: (including the biggest, brightest rainbow I have ever seen in my life)

Yesterday Matt bought me roses, which was really sweet. I was feeling a little bummed and it really brightened my day. Matt normally thinks buying flowers is dumb (he's a guy), but it makes you feel good every once in a while.

This post felt really rushed, but homework's waiting! 

Pinterest.

I think everyone should have a Pinterest account. It is so neat. I think it might be similar to StumbleUpon (which I only used for about 5 seconds about year ago, so I might be wrong). Basically, you set up your account, and you get this little "Pin it" button at the top of your browser.. while you are surfing the web, which is something I spend way too much time doing, you can pin photos of things you like to come back for later. It's kind of like a bookmark... But it also shares your pins with the rest of the internet, or, at least the rest of the people using pinterest. Usually I just look at whatever people have been pinning lately and I can blow a good 30 minutes finding cool craft ideas, clothes I want to buy, home decor ideas, or... whatever else is out there, like this cat for example:

(not my photo)

Pinterest is really cool. It was using Pinterest that I found how to insert my own navigation bar at the top of this blog. Fancy, huh? Actually, I didn't do a great job at it.. but it's slightly time consuming and after I completed it I kind of didn't want to start all over. I will probably fix it one day... but not today.

Here are a few other things I found on Pinterest that I thought were neat:

this cool idea for an office:

this owl craft idea:

and this yummy looking slow roasted BLT sandwich recipe:

the above photos do not belong to me. :)