it's a girl!

We had our 20 week ultrasound on Friday and found out that we're going to have a baby girl! She was being pretty funny because she had her arms and legs over her head the entire time, making it difficult to get the right pictures. I had to keep coughing and rolling over to try to encourage her to move...but she stayed put where she was comfortable. Maybe she'll be a gymnast!

We are both super excited! As soon as we were done with the ultrasound, we went to the mall to get a frilly dress. :) Of course I had to go to about 10 stores before I found the right one (since I'd promised to only buy one...).

But that promise apparently didn't mean today too. After destroying my favorite winter hat in the washing machine, we took a trip to Kohl's to get a new one. After finding a cute little hat with a knitted flower on the side, I asked Ryan if we could look at dresses. He said ok, as long as I was just looking. Yeah right....$60 later we walked out of Kohls with my $6 hat and $54 worth of little girlie outfits for our baby. The funny thing is that Ryan picked out all of them! It's a little ridiculous. I will have to stop going to stores for a long time.

We hadn't really thought about names at all, but almost as soon as we found out she's a girl, we picked out the name Eliza. We haven't officially decided on it yet, but we've been calling her that for the past 3 days, so it will probably stick.

So we have a lot of things to think about coming up in the next four months!

Jesus, thank you for our little daughter! Please keep her safe and healthy as she grows and help her come to us safely in May!

snow day

I know, it's true...I am a terrible slacker! Here's the update:

I've been married 4 months and Ryan has turned out to be more wonderful every day. I am truly grateful for all that he is to me, in the ways he challenges me and makes me smile. You can see some wedding pictures at Chris & Sarah's Blog. They did a fantastic job!

Our honeymoon to St. Lucia was fantastic! You can see photos on facebook. We enjoyed scuba diving, snorkling, sailing, mountain biking, learning about the island, dolphin watching, relaxing on the beach, having free drinks, and trying new fruits.

We are also expecting a little baby! Baby is due May 29th and we are super excited! Unfortunately, I have been feeling extremely nauseated the whole time. :( Sadly I no longer have "cake dreams" because the idea of eating cake makes me feel very sick. It has been starting to get better for the past week, off and on, so hopefully the good times are coming soon! You can also follow baby pictures and belly pictures on facebook!

Other than that, not much has changed. We got our Christmas tree up. Actually by we I mean my sister and me, with considerable assist from Ryan. Each time I yelled "Ryan, can you come spot me?" he ran from the other room to make sure his pregnant wife did not become impaled on a 7.5' fir.

We had our first big snow of the year. It's snowed a couple of other times but hadn't really stuck yet. In the past two or three days, it's snowed 17" and last night the 40mph winds created 4-5' snowdrifts! Poor Ryan has been very good about shoveling, a task at which I am fairly useless. I tried to help, but he laughed at me so much that he decided he should just do it all himself. Apparently the 3' that I got in the 5 minutes of trying wasn't very fast.

Hope you all are having happy and safe Christmas preparations!

in sickness

It has been a while since the creepers...and a lot has happened. Ryan and I have gotten married, gone on our honeymoon, and begun our life together as husband and wife! :)

Today is our first "monthiversary" since our wedding and guess how we spent it...

That's right! I cut my finger open while chopping onions...right down to the bone! (I knew I didn't like onions for a reason!)

I will definitely need stitches, but MyNurse said that I can wait until an urgent care clinic opens...which I'm going to do. I am not going to the ER to get 4 stitches in my finger!

Other than some throbbing from a very tight bandaid, I feel ok...and Ryan finished chopping the onion.

What a good husband I have!

creepers

I am excited to live with someone again...more specifically to live with a boy. Living by myself has been ok, but it gets really lonely and I get freaked out easily...especially since I know Kim and Andrew no longer live across the hall. I never felt unsafe living with Kim, Meggan, and Chelle, but I do now because this world is full of creepers, and unfortunately, they all seem to congregate around the places I frequent...

1. Yesterday I was leaving Staples and heard someone whistle in the parking lot. When I looked up, a middle-aged man was taking my picture with his camera phone. When I looked at him, he rushed over to his car and drove off. Creepy.

Then there's my creeper neighbors...

2. The first time I met my neighbor to the right, I was leaving for work and he pops out of his apartment, asks my name and then asks, "So are you single or what?" To which I replied that I was practically engaged. And he left.

Then a couple weeks ago, I hear someone knocking on my door at 1am and am totally freaked out. So I peer through the peephole and it's my neighbor to the right. He talks to me for a while, asking if I like to party, to which I reply that I don't. Then he sees my ring, asks if I'm engaged, and when I say yes, he left quickly.

3. Now for creepy neighbor #2. He lives to the left of me. The first time I met him, I was walking to the gym and he introduced himself and asked me to come to the bar he owns sometime. Seemed normal enough. I've seen him a couple times and he's always been very friendly to me.

Then last night I saw him at the gas station at midnight as I was buying milk after work. He was very drunk and very insistent that if I heard loud music from his place that I should come over and party with him. He kept trying to get me to walk home with him. Luckily I was driving. So I drove home as quickly as possible, but he was there practically at the same time as me. He remembered my name wrong and I could hear him yelling "Hi Kristen!" as he approached the apartment. I rushed inside and ran to my apartment, locking myself in.

Then I immediately started packing boxes. I'm getting out of here ASAP! At 4am, I had to mail a letter and figured it would be safe to venture out of my apartment. I find a note on my door with his name and phone number and a request that I text him if he's too loud. Don't think so!

4. And I don't know which is more disconcerting: that people follow me around being creepers, or that my fiance always laughs, tells me to take all of this as a compliment, and cannot fathom why it would freak me out.

return to me

Last night I went to a youth Mass. Granted, I had no idea that's what it would be until I was there, but I'm glad that I accidentally stumbled upon it. It's always nice seeing "young people" participating and taking leading roles in music, reading, etc. (Saying that made me feel a little bit old.) I'm just glad we didn't have to do hand motions...never liked that, even when I was "young."

During communion, we sang "Sweet Redeemer" by Steve Angrisano and Sarah Hart. The refrain...

Sweet Redeemer, I surrender
All I am to You.

As I struggled to pay attention during Mass, that song jumped out at me and made me reflect on the past. It reminded me of the good old days when I was totally head over heels in love with Jesus. ...And of course I got a little sad.

Back in the day, Jesus was all I could think about. I was freely, totally, faithfully, and fruitfully in love with Him. I have many memories of high school marching band and calculus where I'd pray the rosary rather than pay attention to what I was supposed to be learning. I would go to daily Mass and daily Adoration, weekly confession, and Jesus was all that my mind cared to ponder.

I loved Him. I wanted to marry Him. I thought I would...

But it was so easy back then. It felt good and I had so much consolation in prayer. My life was so free and I had no responsibilities beyond caring for my soul and nurturing my relationship with God.

After NET, things got harder. I began school, working, dating. Life was more complicated and there was so much more to think about besides Jesus. I had no consolation in prayer and struggled with complacency of heart. But I still try to be faithful, and honestly I kind of suck at it.

But I try...hopefully that's worth something. I was told once that faithfulness in dryness is worth more than when it's easy. And I pray it's true! I just want to love Jesus and be faithful to Him!

I often think of this song (I think it's by Jim Cowan but I'm not sure) when I get in these moods.
Return to me that first love That I had when I gave my life to You

diving

I have some irrational fears. One of them is that I'll drop my keys into the dumpster when I'm throwing my trash bags into it. Now this has never happened to me. And it actually hasn't even come close to happening. Still, I'm petrified of it.

Today I was daydreaming, trying to fall back to sleep after waking up early, and I imagined that it happened. I couldn't get back into my locked entrance apartment and my phone was inside, otherwise I would have called my dad.

So I had to buzz the only other person I've met in the apartment, my neighbor who tries a little too hard to talk to me. (One of the first things he ever asked me was if I was single.) But together we climbed into that dumpster and retrieved my keys. Then I baked him cookies and made a thank you card.

Crazy irrational fears! At least now I have a backup plan!

& guest

My poor dad. He wanted to look over the guest list before I start making wedding invitations and just about had a heart attack. Originally, the wedding guest list I had comprised of 825 people. Ridiculous.

But after 4 months of painstaking, heartbreaking slashing, I've gotten the "number invited" down to 538 people. The reception hall doesn't really hold more than 375 comfortably, and I'm pretty sure fire code allows 400. So hopefully not everyone comes. (That's kind of an awful thing to say!)

But everyone involved has gone through the list and said who they think will and will not show up. The "number expected" currently sits at 380 people. So still iffy. I know some of those people won't be able to make it either.

If worse comes to worse, I hope we can do banquet seating or something. I don't know what we'll do if all 538 people decide that August 8th is a nice day to go to a wedding. :)

So needless to say, as my dad is reacting to the list I showed him (which was 559 at the time), I was glad I had never showed him the list of 825 people.

The way I was able to cut 21 people off of the list? I cut out a lot of & Guests. Every time my dad saw one of those he exclaimed "What are you trying to say by adding '& Guest'?! This person is single and it's insulting to put that on there. They'll probably feel pressured to go out and get a hooker as their date!"

That's my dad...the classic over-reactor.

So I'm sorry in advance if you either aren't invited, or there is no "& guest" on your invitation. Apparently both Ryan and I have huge families.

duplex

Ryan and I have been doing some planning this week. It feels like we haven't done anything for quite a while! But this week we bought our wedding rings, put a deposit down on a duplex, are working on getting all of the addresses we need for the guest list, and bought all of the paper to make the invitations!

I'm pretty excited about the duplex. There is a strawberry patch, herb garden, and vegetable garden growing along the side of the house! Also there's a duck nest in the strawberries and a bunny nest in one of the flower beds! Yay nature!

This Sunday Joyce is throwing me a bridal shower and I'm super excited! Apparently there will be games...I know one is a questionnaire type game with consequences if I get the answer wrong...so hopefully I've got enough Ryan trivia stored away. I was trying to ask him questions on our way to Virginia last week for my cousin's wedding...but he found me out right away!

C'est la vie!

furry friends

It's been 3 months since Heidi died. It's funny how I miss her in ways I never imagined. Every time I eat steak, I think about saving the "grizzle" for her. I am still careful not to kick her water bowl over when I run into the kitchen. When I go to my parents' house, I'm surprised not to see her running up to the door to greet me and wonder if she's shut up in the basement or office.

My dad adopted a new little friend. It's a squinty (Des Moines terms for a chipmunk) that has been living in our front yard. Everyday my dad leaves a little stash of peanuts right by his front door. One day my dad was moving the lawn as I came over for dinner. He stopped mowing and proudly showed me the front and back door of the little squinty home and told me not to get into his peanuts.

Last night Ryan and I rented "Marley and Me." I had read the book about a year ago and I loved every minute of it! The book is so hillarious! I was laughing out loud every other paragraph at work! The movie isn't quite as good, but still worth seeing. Of course I knew the ending and thought I would be ok, but I broke into hysterical sobbing by the end of the movie. Poor Ryan just held me as I cried myself to sleep.

...I still miss my poor little puppy.

eighty-six

Again, laziness (or busyness) is the way with me. Sorry to anyone who has been frantically checking for updates! Your patience has paid off.

So what's new with life? There are 86 days left until Ryan and I get married. I have a wedding checklist, courtesy of theknot.com that says I have 86 items complted. (And only 184 more to do.) By my own calculations, I have nine or so...

1. Finalize food/alcohol plans
2. Find a place to live after August 8
3. Make and send invitations
4. Decide on accessories for bridal party
5. Decide on decorations for the wedding
6. Plan the wedding ceremony
7. Buy gifts for everyone involved
8. Figure out banking/insurance/etc. for marriage
9. Make the cake

I am probably underestimating how long this will take.

Recently Sarah and Chris took our engagement pictures! I love them and look at them several times a day! Here's a sneak preview...

Other than that, I've been trying to work on invitations. I'll post some sample pictures when I have a clearer idea of what's going on.

So this is really random. I need to get on the computer more often.