Shout Out to My Love

Yesterday was my hubbie's 26th birthday and boy he has never looked hotter. I've always heard people that have been married for years and years say that they love their spouse more and more each day. I'm now realizing how true that really is. I think the reason for this is that each day you have together you have time to find something new about them that you absolutely adore.

There are so many things about Matt that make my heart flip flop and wow the hormones are kicking in because I'm getting teary eyed just thinking about it. One of my favorite things is his sense of humor. He constantly keeps me laughing whether it's with his impressions or his one line zingers. Another thing that has always drawn me to him, besides his incredible good looks, is his confidence. Matt knows who he is and what God has made him to be and he's great with it. He takes that confidence with him in whatever he does. I believe that's why he excels at so many things.

The thing that means the most to me is that he is a godly leader in our home. He makes it easy for me as his wife to do my biblical role and submit. His love is so evident to me in all his actions and every decision he makes. I have full confidence that he will take care of me.

With this new stage in our relationship I've discovered how great of a dad he is going to make. I never knew that Matt would want to be so involved in each detail of our pregnancy. He'll never know how much that has meant to me.

I'm sure that this blog is starting to make you feel ackward Matt because your love language is not words of affirmation, but I just want you to know that you're extremely loved and appreciated and I'm so blessed to have you as my partner in crime.

Happy Birthday Baby! I love you!

Pregnant Brain (by Matt Bryant)

I am writing this on behalf of my wife whose brain has slowly become less focused over the past few weeks. A symptom that we will refer to as 'pregnant brain.' Pregnant brain seems to manifest itself in much the same way as what some people refer to as a person who is a dumb blonde. This does not affect complex problem solving or even the ability to preform advanced physics calculations. However, it only affects the most simple and common sense situations. Here are a few examples.

1. Burma Bombing - My wife and I where watching TV when we came across a news channel with the following subtitle on the screen: "Burma Bombing - 25 years later." My wife, obviously suffering from Pregnant Brain looks at me and asked. "Who is Burma Bombing?" As if there where a new presidential candidate she hadn't heard about.

2. Odd Questions - A few nights ago my wife and I where lying in bed talking and my wife ask. "Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be the opposite sex?" "No" I responded using my most masculine voice. "Yea, me neither." she said back.

3. Complete sentences - As we where watching game 1 of the world series the announcer commented on fans who where using cowbells to help cheer on their team. Apparently the word 'Cowbell' triggers enthusiasm from pregnant women. I assume that my wife had intend to pose the question. "Why do they have cowbells?" instead this is what came out.
"Why...um...bells...ua...with...the Iraq...cow...bells...why...why...they have....bells?"

More to come later.

I know I know I'm terrible with keeping this thing updated. Good news though, I come bearing pictures from our beach trip with Matt's family.

Before we get into looking at pictures, I must explain my great passion for the beach. I know that most people enjoy the beach, but there's something inside me that absolutely loves the beach. Every summer since I was 4 months old I have gone to the beach. There's something about the smell, the breeze, the sand and, of course, the water. My family and I seem to go absolutely goofy when we start talking about the beach. It kind of reminds me of Yoda when he smells peanut butter.

Every time when we get ready to cross over the big high rise bridge we roll all of our windows down and take in the beach air. My sister and I use to see who could get a glimpse of the ocean first and the funny thing is I still like to be the first one to see it no matter who's in the car with me.

As I thought of my huge obsession with the beach, I realized what made the beach so special to me. My family, that's what made it the great experience it was and will always be. When I picture the beach many times I think of boogie boarding with my dad and sister, walking down the beach with my whole family, watching and laughing as my dad would annoy my mom as she tried to lay out, catching crabs at night, floating in our black and yellow boat, fishing and just hanging at 24/7 with my funny, loving absolutely incredible family. I get so excited thinking about our little boy getting to experience the beach with my family. Each and every trip will always hold a very special place in my heart. We might be like the "Griswold's," as Matt has described us, but we know how to have a good time at the beach and make awesome memories.

So now that you've read my rant about the beach, here are some pictures. Oh and if anyone has a beach house that they need for someone to occupy for a week, I'll be glad to help you out with that.






Unkie Matt and Caden chillaxin together.



Family Picture



Matt and Caden building sandcastle or Matt builds castle and Caden knocks down. Don't worry he only cried a little bit...Matt that is.



My 5 month pregger belly on the beach.



Caden in his safari hat getting ready to hit the beach.



Precious baby Caden footprint...I mean melt my heart.

It's a .....

BOY! We're having a little baby boy! We have officially become members of the boy club. I know everyone was thinking that we were having a girl because of the boy trend we've had over the past couple of years, but it looks like we're adding another boy to the nursery at Rich Fork. I could not be any more excited. Being in that ultrasound room was so surreal. I just kept looking at Matt in amazement. Our little boy was was sweet on the video the doctor made for us we could see him moving around, opening his mouth, sucking on his thumb and waving at us. I couldn't believe that we were actually meeting our child. I've had an overwelming feeling of gratefulness ever since we left the doctor yesterday morning. This is the child that God has put in our care, that He specifically made for Matt and I to love on this earth.

Besides extreme gratefulness, other thoughts have popped in my head since yesterday. First, how could anyone not believe in God if they've ever experience an ultrasound? Which goes along with, how can people say that a baby is not a human being at that point? It makes no sense, we can see it with our eyes. My second thought, will I be a good mom to our little boy? Lately I've felt bombarded with so many different decisions to made before he's even born, such as, what pediatrics to use, and spacing out shots. Am I qualified to makes these decisions? Whew, sometimes the feeling of inadequacy is too much.

It's a good thing that God didn't ask us to do this whole parent thing on our own. Besides having Him, which is most important, he has given me an awesome family and friends who are here to walk with me every step of the way. Another thing to be grateful for.

I'll try in the next week to post some pictures and videos of our day at the doctor.

I'm Back!

Sorry for my delay in post. I haven't had much energy lately. I'm waiting for that burst of energy everyone keeps telling me you get in your 2nd trimester. For now Mr. Energy is no where to be found. I keep thinking that I need to take full advantage of all the naps and lying around because each will be hard to come by in a few more months.

Anyways, I'm 14 weeks now and Matt and I went to the doctor this past Thursday to hear the baby's heart beat for the first time. I can't even explain how incredibly awesome it was to hear our child's heartbeat. It made it so much more real to me. It was crazy hearing my own slow heartbeat and then seconds later hearing another heartbeat much faster than mine coming from inside me. After our visit I kept thinking, how can people not believe in God? For me it seems so easy, let's take every unbeliever into an OBGYN and let them hear a baby's heart beat and see an ultrasound. That would work right? People would surly come to Christ right there in the doctor's office. If only it was that easy.

This summer I've truly been challenged by our amazing teenagers. One word to describe the youth this summer would be "servants." This hasn't been a one week camp summer. We have many of our youth still serving at certain camp sites and other youth looking for more opportunities to serve. I'm so proud!!! With that being said, I now want to find different capacities to reach out and love people. This summer has made me look at situations differently to see what ways I can love others. I'm so excited to see what else our youth will challenge us as youth workers with next.

Now that I got all the mushy gushy stuff out, here is a picture of my small baby bump. You might have to squint.

What you do...

when your husband's in Romania. If you've visited Jessica's blog today you probably saw the craziness that occurred last night. The craziest part about these videos is that it all occurred before 1:00am. I hope you enjoy.






Watch out though we're like Walt Disney you never know when we'll open up the vault and bring out another installment.

Hormones On The Loose

I know I haven't blogged in awhile, but I've been a little distracted with Matt leaving for Romania with the youth. Anyone who knows me knows that I am petrified of flying and even more scared of people I love (i.e. Matt) flying, especially LONG distances. Before Matt left the pregnancy hormones were in full gear. Everything Matt said triggered my tear ducts. The day before Matt left we decided to spend the whole day together cuddling on the couch and watching movies. Actually, we cuddled for like 30 minutes and the rest of the time we set on opposite sides of the couch. We all know Matt's not the cuddling kind. Anyways, we ended up watching a movie about a guy who started selling drugs to support his family, but his plan backfired because he ended up going to jail for life. His daughter was so mad at him that she never came to visit him. I know it was the "feel good" movie of the year...not. Well after the movie was over we both felt very uplifted and took a time out on the movie watching. About five minutes later I look over at Matt with worry in my eyes and ask with all seriousness, "Have you ever thought about selling drugs?" He looks at me and says, "Seriously?" I precede to go into a rant about how I never won't him to feel that he has to sell drugs to make money for us. By this point I'm crying pretty hard and finally get him to promise me that he'll never sell drugs. It's crazy because during our conversation I remember thinking "I'm being completely rational. This is a very serious concern. This could happen." About an hour later I finally realize that I was being pretty ridiculous and Matt and I had a good laugh about it.

So, that's my funny story for the week. I'm doing better a lot better than I thought with Matt being gone. I've realized that I have the most important job of all and that's praying for him and the group and the lives that they will touch. I know that he is where God wants him to be right now and I'm so proud of him for doing so. Another thing that has been so evident in just the couple days he's been gone is that I have some AMAZING friends. I don't show or tell them enough how much they mean to me. For example, on Saturday I had a yard sale with my family. It wasn't a big deal, it was just something to distract me, get junk out of my house and of course make some extra cash. During the sale Sarah stopped by to give me some much needed comedy relief, which doesn't seem big but I think she knew it was something I really needed. A couple of hours later Amy calls and leaves a me message telling me that she was thinking about me and wanted to see how I was doing. It was a simple message, but much needed. About 30 minutes later Jessica calls to see how the sale went. All three of these incidents got me thinking about how incredibly blessed I am. God definitely knew what He was doing when He put my friends in my life. I think we all compliment each other so well and in so many different ways. My prayer is that I'm am able to be the kind of friend they are to me.

Sushi...NEVER again!

Well, my streak has been broken. Until last night I had gone a whole 5 days with out visiting the porcelain throne. I had actually felt like doing more than watching Saved By the Bell reruns and checking everyone's blogs. So yesterday I started feeling a little brave. I hadn't had sushi in months and for some reason thought that yesterday would be a perfect day to have it. My dear in-laws picked up the sushi for us and brought it to the house. Oh it was so so yummy going down. (For all of you who are worried, the sushi I eat is not raw. No worries. I got it under control.)

while I was finishing my last piece of sushi that feeling hit the back of my throat. You know the feeling I'm talking about. It's when you're in mid chew and you start to feel like you might not be able to get the rest of the bite down, so you chew and swallow as fast as you can in hopes that you've beating the monster. Well, I did that and for a while I felt like everything was going to be okay.

About 2 hours later I had a bad headache and I was feeling very flushed. Everything in me was saying "Don't do it you'll break your streak!" Moments later I was paying homage to my friends toilet. If anyone ever wanted to know what the most disgusting thing to get sick on is, I can first hand tell you that it's sushi. Sushi use to be one of my favorite foods, but now I don't think I EVER want it again. Take my advice if there's a chance you could get sick or you have been sick, stay as far away from sushi as you can.

Betty Yates

I know that I've already blogged today, but something came up that I just had to share. I just got off the phone with my dad and for anyone that knows him knows that he always has a story to share and today was no different. Like always he asked me how I was doing and of course I use my "little girl" voice and tell him that I'm doing better than I was. We celebrate together as I tell him that I went the whole day yesterday without tossing my cookies. He then tells me that at least I haven't had to go through what his mom, my grandma, had to go through when she was pregnant with him. So, here comes story time with Randy "tenderness" Yates. When my grandma was carrying my dad, my grandpa had been laid off from his job, which was huge since my grandparents didn't have much in the first place. So, without complaint my grandma went to work. As she progressed in her pregnancy a huge ditch was being dug for sewage right before she got to her work place. There was no other way to get where she needed to go, but to go through it. Now at this point I know you're probably thinking that I'm going to say she had to walk through the sewage, but I'm not that would be completely gross. Luckily (i guess you could call it that) the workers had put down some rickety planks that went across the ditch. So, in my grandma's last couple of months of pregnancy she had to cross these planks with her big ol' belly everyday. Besides the fear of falling and hurting the baby, I'm sure the smell was not so pleasant. Now this story doesn't surprise me one bit, because my grandma has to be the toughest woman I have ever met. My dad didn't know it but when he told me that story he was really helping me put things into perspective. It made me think of the countless women in the past who had to just suck their ailments up and deal with whatever life was handing them. I truly admire my grandma and would love to have just half of the determination and strength she has

Sleep?...Not So Much

In my past life, approximately 3 months ago, I would say that one of my favorite things to do would be to curl up in my warm soft bed and cuddle up with Matt and Yoda. As soon as my head hit the pillow I would be out and wouldn't move the whole night. I was an extremely deep sleeper. Now let's fast forward 3 months into present time. My bedtime routine now consist of tossing and turning to try and get comfortable, frequent bathroom visits and rearranging Yoda so he will stop snoring. Yoda is probably my #1 annoyance when it comes to sleeping right now. My precious puppy has always sawed logs like a 300 lb man, but for some reason I'm much more sensitive to it now. It seems that every time I get in the perfect position and have finally started to drift off to sleep I'm jolted awake by this 11 lb ball of fur. The first few times this happens I give him a nice warning shake. The shaking for the most part doesn't work, so I have to then result to reshaping his body hoping that will loosen whatever is stuck in his nasal passage. My last result is to pull as hard I can on the covers and sigh very loudly in hopes to wake Matt up so he too can participate in the suffering. All hopes of getting a good night's sleep is out the window at this point as Matt pulls the covers back, turns over and begins snoring in unison with Yoda. I think I might be investing in some ear plugs in the very near future.

"umm...so how does this work?"

My first ever post! I'm not sure if I'm doing this exactly right, but I'm sure Jessica will tell me exactly what I'm doing wrong. So, since this is my first post I thought I would start it out with a lighthearted and somewhat humorous pregnancy story. I like to title this story "Peaches." About 3 weeks ago, I started getting the whole morning sickness (more like all day sickness) deal. One day as Matt and I were driving back to our house I suddenly felt the whole can of peaches I had just consumed start to creep back up out of my stomach. I told matt to pull over and I proceeded to "discard" my peaches. Thinking that I was finished with business Matt started driving again. All of a sudden panic hit me as I felt round #2 coming. I reached for the door but found that it was locked. It was then that I put my hand up to my mouth, which at the time seemed like a good idea. Seconds later and explosion of peaches came through my fingers covering me and the dashboard. To the left of me I hear my supportive husband say, "Whoa!" Not knowing what to do with myself I start to cry and tell Matt not to look at me for fear that he might never look at me the same. We make it home peaches and all. Later on, I finally find the humor in it all and Matt tells me that the whole way home it took all he had not to bust out laughing. Now, most of you will find this story extremely gross and I did too at the time, but the more I think about it the more I realize something. God knows that as women we will endure some not so pleasant times during our pregnancies, but I think God gave Matt and I that story to help lighten things up. It helps me remember that all the sickness, emotions and pain is so incredibly worth the end result. So, this post could be the first and last post you read of mind depending on your gag reflex. Don't worry though my post won't always be about being sick...I hope ; )