Diaper Duty

I’m really enjoying reading all of the comments!  I really hope I can meet those of you who I haven’t met yet!  You’ll all just have to come over and visit– especially when the baby comes…we can have like a diaper-shift rotation or something!  Our close buddies Kerri and Daniel just had a baby 2 months ago, and they’ve been telling us what raising a baby early on is like.  ~ 10 diaper changes a day!!  I couldn’t believe it.  So, you can all come and share in our joy.   

Anyhow, Israel made it back from Spain safely this past Monday.  He’ll be off to S. Africa, though, this coming Wednesday for 3 weeks.  Then I’ll have to take care of our zoo by myself again!  I might have to hire Justin or something.  Anyway, I should get back to lesson planning and correcting papers.  Oh!  An update on the ultra-sound…we scheduled it for this Monday!  Let’s all pray that the baby will be in the right position to tell the sex…   

Preggo Teacher

It’s my second official day of teaching.  For the past two weeks of school I had to get a long-term sub because I was not feeling too hot.  Anyhow, I’m happy to say that I’m now about the same weight as I was before I got pregnant!  I know, I know, what progress I’m making.  God has been good though.  I’m about to enter into my 16th week on Friday and my tummy is getting noticeably larger.  None of my pants/skirts fit.    The nasty-bile-saliva taste is almost gone–praise the Lord for that.  Israel is currently in Spain right now for some England Youth Conference…so it’s been quite busy taking care of our zoo.  Next week I’m going to my OB for my next check-up and I think I might be getting an ultra-sound then.  If so, there is a good chance that we will find out the gender of the baby!  That will be exciting.  Well, I need to get going now.  Wanted to let everyone know how we’re doing and we pray that each of you are doing well too… 

I Hate Planes

Yes, yes…I’m still alive and kicking. It’s been a rough past couple of weeks…especially going on all of the airplane trips. Before we’d get on the airplane, I’d start begging Israel to let us drive….or EVEN WALK to our next destination. There were also several times where I was hoping our Lord, Jesus Christ would just take my life. But you know…I’m sure hormones were partly responsible for those feelings. (Ladies, before you get pregnant, don’t say I didn’t warn you!!) I’m just kidding (somewhat). I’m sure at the end of it all, it will all be worth it. AND, I’m one of the rare few who experience really bad sickness. Some people say they felt their BEST when they were pregnant. What blessed people. Keriann, thanks for all the advice! A few ladies in my church have been warning me about the IV and dehydration too. 🙁 I’ve been trying to force liquids down and have been monitering the hours between urination. Okay, I need to get out of this house now…it smells. -JR

We Need Gum

We’re back at home now. Judy’s still sick. For a while, I thought she was about to get better, but she was just kidding. We were at the mall because she wanted to walk. And while we were walking, she was about to … B. So I had to go up to some couple who was chewing gum and ask them for some. The guy looked at me like I was crazy and said no. After I told them that my wife was pregnant and pulled my loot cakes out to pay them, the lady said she had gum. And they didn’t take my money, so that was good.

My parents are getting a little too crazy. After ASI, we stopped by their place to visit them for the first time since we found about about Judy’s “Condition” (Dr. Michael Orlich). My mom called family members I never even knew we had, and they all came over to see us! Half of our “vacation” was spent me repeating over and over what I work in, and Judy trying to understand spanish. They got us so many kid’s clothes that we didn’t have enough room in our bags to bring other important stuff with us.

We supposedly got lucky. They were going to throw us a baby shower even though we’re still in our first trimester. I think my family just comes up with any excuse to party!

I should call Justin now. He said he needed help moving in to Ann Arbor. He’s pastoring in Detroit and working with CAMPUS.

B I L E

That’s Judy’s new word.  She says her breath TASTES like bile, smells like bile.  She “BARFS” bile.  And she just got mad at me and punched me because I accidentally burped. 

That’s it for now.

Bile…I  mean, bye.

IR

All-day Sickness

CAMPUS l.e.a.d.s. has just ended and life is settling back to normal…until we leave on Wednesday to go to Sacramento!  Israel is crying because he’s complaining that it’s HIS turn to write on the xanga…however, if you snooze, you loose, baby.  muahahahahaha!

All-day sickness is a drag.  The taste of bile in my mouth is heightening as the days go by.  I have no cravings whatsoever so I just don’t enjoy food anymore.    Bye, now.  Israel doesn’t want to write because he is still crying…

“Morning” Sickness

I think my “morning” sickness is more like “all day” sickness.    I barfed for the first time today…and Israel missed it!  I was hoping he’d be there to see to the fullest extend how much I’m suffering.  heh heh heh…  Just because I know you want more details, I barfed up Gatorade lemonade…now I’ll never be able to drink lemonade again.  What a bummer.

I can’t eat anything!!  It’s so depressing.  If I eat, I feel like I’ll barf.  If I don’t eat, though, I feel like I’ll faint (and barf).  And the weird thing is that I get hungry, even though I feel like I will barf most of the time.  SMELLS.  I have like this super-natural sensitivity to smells.  I smell anything, and I feel like I want to barf.  Do we see a pattern here?  Yes, that is correct…BARF is the key word to how I’m doing.  I can’t stand the smell of laundry detergent (I loved it before!), my shampoo and conditioner give me extreme nausea, I can’t cook anything lest I feel like…yep, you got it, BARF…ing, and at times I can’t even stand the smell of my very own husband!  Now that is got to hurt his feelings.  Does it?  ~~waiting for response~~ 
He doesn’t want to answer that.  (It’s a sensitive topic.) 

Okay, well, if all who read this could just remember to say a quick prayer that this would pass…it’d be much appreciated.  Other than the above, life is going swell.  Okay, toodles… -jr  

Judy went to the dr. today…it was like some “women’s clinic” right by her school.  Her principal and school board chair made her go there.  It ended up being some ghetto clinic place where they do abortions…

But they did another test and confirmed that we haven’t gone mad.

Anyone know of any secret medications for morning sickness?  Give us one that works and I’ll give you a million dollars.  I think that Jude is starting to get some of it…and it affects the whole family.

This is Just the Beginning

It’s been exactly one year since we got married!  To celebrate, we decided to create a Xanga page!!  hahahahahaha    j/k.  We are actually chilling in the exact same hotel suite that we stayed in after our wedding.   Israel surprised me by booking this room (which cost too much $$!) at the Troy Hilton.  It’s in the same hotel where we had our wedding reception for those of you who remember.  We ordered-in dinner, went swimming, enjoyed drinks (virgin strawberry daiquiri & pina colada–YUM!), enjoyed dessert, and now we’re chilling back in the room creating our xanga page.  How romantic!  We’ve also been doing on-line research on pregancy…because for those of you who don’t know yet…last Sabbath we found out that we’re expecting a baby!  7 weeks and counting!!  Okay, now Israel wants to write…

First of all, we got a really good deal on the hotel room.  We got the suite AND an additional cool kickin it place with a discount, free b-fast, and some free drinks 🙂  I also got Judy some roses for the first time in our life.  Fellas, take notes.

Judy and I are taking suggestions for names for the baby.  Please submit.

l.e.a.d.s. is coming up, then we go off to Sac for a ASI Youth for Jesus Program and Judy & Justin run the youth program at the ASI convention, and then we visit our parents (my parents :)) in Mo Valley.  West Side.  Judy says “put busy summer”. 

Write to us sometime.

In the mean time–Power.

…and now, back to Judy.

Okay, Israel is weird.  Anyway, we do hope that you all will write to us!  Also, please keep the baby in your prayers (as it’s going to have Israel as it’s Dad!  haha, jk).  Until next time…  

In Virum Perfectum