Our Weekend

This weekend wasn’t too eventful, really none of the past few weekends have been eventful. Jon didn’t have any jobs this weekend, so it was nice that we had all day Saturday and Sunday to spend together.

Saturday morning we slept in very late…which was so nice! Then we went to breakfast at Magnolia Cafe…yum. I love getting blueberry pancakes when I got out to breakfast. The two places with the BEST blueberry pancakes in town are Magnolia Cafe and Kerbey Lane, so I was happy. After we managed to stuff ourselves at breakfast, we did our usual errand running. When we got home we got the house clean, and spent the afternoon watching movies…we love Netflix!

Saturday night we went out to dinner at Dog Almighty…guess what the serve? They have every kind of hot dog topping you could think of, plus they even make everything on their menu vegetarian if you want…not bad. :) After dinner we headed over to our favorite dessert trailer, Hey Cupcake. After picking up a Vanilla Dream (for me) and a Standard (for Jon), we enjoyed the cool (can you believe it!) evening with a walk down South Congress.

Sunday was all about laying around the house. I did a little bit of school work. Why is it okay for professors to require work before the semester has even begun?? Ugh. And of course we watched more movies. :)

Oh last weekend we went out to the movies and saw 500 Days of Summer…it was really good and I recommend it! :)

-Lauren-

A Friday Survey

I found this a friends blog and thought it was cute. Since I have been so bad a blogging lately, I thought this would be fun.

♥ What are your middle names?
Lauren Elissa, Jon Michael

♥ How long have you been together?
4.5 years

♥ How long did you know each other before you started dating?
Not long, we meet when I was visiting family one weekend. I think we knew each other about a month before we were officially dating.

♥ Who asked whom out?
He asked for my number, and I happened to be coming back into town a couple of weeks after we meet so I asked if he wanted to hang out.

♥ How old are each of you?
Me-25
Jon – 28

♥ Whose siblings do/did you see the most?
We see one of Jon’s sisters frequently, since her family lives here is Austin. Next to that we probably see my sister the most.

♥ Do you have any children together?
We have one on the way!! We can’t wait to welcome our baby just in time for our 3^rd anniversary in March.

♥ What about pets?
Hiro is our chocolate lab. He is pretty much our baby (Jon refers to him as his first born son). Hiro just turned 2 in May.

 
♥ Did you go to the same school?
Nope, I started a Baylor and graduated from the University of Texas at Dallas. Jon started at Laterno and graduated from St. Edwards University.

 
♥ Are you from the same home town?
Nope. I was born in Dallas and grew up in Plano. Jon was born in Austin and grew up in Tyler.

♥ Who is the smartest?
I think we are equally intelligent but maybe in different areas. For example, when my computer is broken I take the push every button until something happens, whereas Jon fixes computers for a living.

♥ Who is more sensitive?
I’m not sure. I think we can both be pretty sensitive on the inside but we probably both hid it from others.

♥ Where do you eat out most as a couple?
We haven’t been out to eat in awhile since I have been so sick, but we both love Curras. They have amazing tex-mex and wonderful avocado margaritas (they are one of a kind and sooo good).

 
♥ Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple?
We have been to San Francisco and Napa Valley for our honeymoon and we have been to DC and Disney World together.

♥ Who has the craziest exes?
Hmm...I think I’ll skip this question.

♥ Who has the worst temper?
I would say Jon, but he might say me...I’m not sure.

 
♥ Who does the cooking?
Ha...Jon does ALL the cooking. I am one lucky wife.

♥ Who is more social?
I like to be around people more, but we are both pretty introverted.

 
♥ Who is the neat-freak?
Me for sure! These last few weeks I haven’t cared cleaning, and Jon has been so sweet to take care of everything for me.

♥ Who is more stubborn?
He is, no question about it.

 
♥ Who hogs the bed?
I hog the covers, but he hogs the bed. Of course maybe he is just trying to find the covers that I have stolen (in the winter we have to have separate covers so he doesn’t freeze to death).

♥ Who wakes up earlier?
I usually do, unless Jon has an early job.

 
♥ Where was your first date?
Our first date lasted all afternoon and evening. We met at Mozarts (a great coffee place here in Austin), then we went to look at the view of downtown from St. Edwards, followed by a little window shopping on South Congress, dinner at Frank and Angie’s, a walk around the capitol and dessert a Amy’s Ice Cream.

 
♥ Who has the bigger family?
Jon has 3 sisters and they all have kids, so I think his family wins for size.

♥ Do you get flowers often?
Not too often, but I like to have fresh flowers on our kitchen table as much as I can, and since we grocery shop together we usually grab an inexpensive bunch once a month.

 
♥ How do you spend the holidays?
Trying to split our time with both families as well as some time just for us.

 
♥ Who is more jealous?
Neither of us is jealous.

♥ How long did it take to get serious?
We dated for 2 years before we got engaged, but think it was pretty serious when I moved to Austin after I graduated.

 
♥ Who eats more?
He eats more but he eats healthier too, you should see how many vegetables he can pile on a veggie sandwich.

 
♥ Who does/did the laundry?
I do the laundry, but I get him to help me put them up, because that is my least favorite.

 
♥ Who’s better with the computer?
See the question about who is smarter.

 
♥ Who drives when you are together?
He usually drives when we are together. He is a horrible backseat driver so instead of us arguing, it is just easier if he drives. I don’t mind at all.

Happy Friday everyone!

-Lauren-

Week 9 (a week late)

Here is my week 9 picture. In pjs just like week 8. I think I have spent more time in pjs than regular clothes over the last few weeks.

We had a doctors appointment on Tuesday. We got to hear our little one’s heart beat with the doppler. My Dr. said everything looked great! My thyroid levels were a little high…she asked me if I had been throwing up much. Um, yes!! She said that’s probably the reason the levels are high, but she wants to keep an eye on it. She also gave me a prescription for some medicine so that I can keep down more than just one meal per day. :) So far it is working pretty well.

I’ll try to post my week 10 picture before I hit week 11. :)

-Lauren-

On NBC

I got  an email from the Thoughtful House in Austin with some exciting news. The Thoughtful House is a wonderful recourse here in Austin for families with children on the autism spectrum.

They have doctors, nutritionists and other specialists. It is the one place in Texas where medical care, behavioral analysis and education, and clinical and laboratory research, can be found all under one roof (they have clients that come from as far as Dubai)!

The doctor that founded the Thoughtful House is Dr. Andrew Wakefield. He has done a lot of controversial research into vaccines and the possible link with autism. I know there are TONS of opinions out there about what causes or does not cause autism. The truth, is we are really not sure what causes it. In MY opinion there is definitely a genetic predisposition and then something in the environment triggers it (in some but not all cases). The autism spectrum is huge and each child is different. My professor likes to say “if you have met one person with autism, then you have only met one person with autism”.

I in no way think vaccines are bad, however I do not believe they are one size fits all. I think the vaccine schedule should be flexible and take into consideration the size of the child, their medical history and general health. Some kids may not be able to handle receiving multiple vaccines at one time at such a young age.

Anyway, like I said this is just MY opinion and I am in no way an expert.

All this to say, NBC is featuring Dr. Wakefield and the Thoughtful House for a full hour on Dateline this Sunday night and it should be interesting. Tune in if you can!

Oh, and I promise I will post my week 9 and week 10 belly pictures soon! I have been feeling pretty bad all week, but I got some medicine from my doctor on Tuesday and yesterday and today were much more bearable. I am hoping to get back into the swing of blogging regularly again!

-Lauren-

Before I let another week go by

I thought I should post something. We haven’t been doing much around here, just lots of lazy days at home, running errands and of course a little bit of work.

Jon finally had a few days off which has been great! His next few jobs are remote, which means he gets to do them from the house. I’m glad he won’t be traveling for at least the last part of this week.

School goes back on Monday around here, so my work schedule is about to change. I am going to be picking up a few morning hours with ECI (early childhood intervention) services. I’m excited about getting to do therapy with some little ones (they only work with kids under the age of 3).

My favorite client is starting second grade this year. This is the first year in 3 years that I won’t be going to school with her. Since she is going to public school, her therapist aren’t allowed to go in. I think its a good move and I think she is going to love her new school.

My other client has had a few rough weeks and I am not sure what to do. He is 4 and he throws some pretty bad tantrums…like throw himself on the floor, kicking and screaming. My Dr. said I shouldn’t lift anything over 20lbs…but there are times when I have to lift him off the floor. I am very careful about the kicking, but I’m not sure how to get past the lifting. What do you all think? Should I think about coming off the case? I know its just going to get harder once I start getting bigger, I’m just not sure how long I should wait.

-Lauren-

Kitchen Clean Up

Since Jon has been in Houston for work all day, I decided to take on the kitchen. I clean out all the drawers and cabinets, as well as the pantry.

I took before and after pictures of the messiest cabinets and drawer and of course the pantry.

Our kitchen utensil drawer before.

And the drawer after.  

 

The spice cabinet before.

 

The spice cabinet after. I am planning on buying some cabinet wheels so that we can easily find the spices that are hiding in the back.

Probably the most embarrassing…the tupperware cabinet…yikes!

After some cleaning out and rearranging, I moved our tupperware to a bigger cabinet…much better!

The full pantry before.

And the pantry after, looking much more organized.

And here is my nice clean, organized kitchen. Ahh, much better.

 

Now I just have to figure out what to do with the stuff I cleaned out of the cabinets.

Oh well, that will be a job for tomorrow. :)

-Lauren-

8 weeks

Here is my 8 week belly picture. Since Jon was out of town most of the week we didn’t take it until last night so its a little late.

The Unisom and B6 combo my Dr. told me about works really well, but it totally knocks me out for a couple of hours so I really can’t take it in the mornings. I have been feeling a little better throughout the day and I have been able to get a lot of rest this week, which was great!

Jon has to work all day tomorrow, so I think I am going to attempt to start cleaning out the kitchen. We have decided we need to go through each room and do some cleaning out and organizing. I think I want to start in the kitchen. I will make sure to take some embarrassing before pictures and hopefully some impressive after pictures. :)

Have a great weekend!

-Lauren-

I’m still here

I’m just taking it one day at a time, and haven’t felt like blogging much lately.

This weekend (after my staycation at the Four Seasons), my family got together at my grandparent’s house. It was great to see everyone and luckily I felt pretty good the whole time. Two of my cousins are also expecting which means in the next few months my grandparents will go from having 4 great-grandchildren to 7! So fun!

Since we graduated from our fertility specialist last week, I had my first appointment with our new regular OBGYN today. It was great. My doctor seems really nice and upbeat and her nurse was so helpful. The nurse told me to take 1/2 a B6 vitamin and 1/2 an Unisom tab every 8 hours to prevent my “all day sickness”. I immediately went out and bought the 2 pills. I took a dose about an hour ago, I will update on how/if it works. Keep your fingers crossed!!

I had another ultrasound today but since our scanner is not hooked up and Jon is out of town it will be a few days before I can post it. Speaking of which, Jon left this morning for CO. He is helping a good friend of ours drive back to Austin tomorrow and Thursday. Jon’s flight left this morning at 6:30. We were supposed to leave the house around 5 so I could drop him off at the airport. Unfortunately his alarm volume was turned down and we didn’t wake up until 5:47! I kid you not, we were out the door by 5:50 and at the passenger drop off at 5:56 (it is very helpful that we live 5 minutes from the airport). He was able to check in just in time and make the flight! If it had been me, I’m pretty sure I would have missed the flight…from bed to car in 3 minutes! It takes me a couple of minutes just to put my contacts in. Hehe. Anyway, I’m glad he made it safely and am looking forward to him coming home on Thursday.

My Staycation

This week my parents are in town for a conference my Dad is attending at the Four Seasons. So this is where I spend the afternoon today and I plan on spending the morning tomorrow.

It’s okay, you can be jealous. :)

My day started off a little rough (basically every morning is rough right now), but once I get past the throwing up, I feel good for most of the day. This morning I had my last appointment with our fertility specialist. My Mom came with me to the appointment, which was great. She got to see our little one’s heart beat (a strong 165 bpm).  My Dr. said everything looks great, and we officially graduated and are ready to go to a regular obstetrician. Yay!

After my appointment, my Mom and I ran some errands and then headed to the pool. Even though its 105 here, we still enjoyed sitting under the big umbrellas and floating around the pool. The pool guy brings out snacks every hour…frozen grapes, smoothies, etc.  It’s a nice life.

Now I am home and I am feeling pretty good, so I think I am going to force myself to do some cleaning. At least I have another day of my “staycation” to look forward to tomorrow.

Oh, I got more ultrasound pictures. I will post them later today or tomorrow. Everything looks great and right on track. My official due date is March 23,2010. Our anniversary is March 25, maybe we will have an anniversary baby. :)

-Lauren-

7 Weeks

Here is my 7 week picture…not much has changed, other than the fact that I am sick! It has been a rough week so far, and I have a felling its just going to get worse.

This not the best picture, we waited too long and the sun was down, so we had to use the flash, thus the shadows. Maybe we will retake it tomorrow.

-Lauren-

Blog Award!

I love blog awards, and guess what? I got one from this sweet blogger.

I am passing of this award to these lovely bloggers

Meet the McCrady’s

The Kenningtons

Back in Texas

Wivelihood

A Day In My Life

The Bally Family

Love Leslee

First Come Love…Then Comes Marriage

The Knepp’s

The rules of the "One Lovely Blog Award" are:
Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link. Pass the award to a few other blogs. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

Happy Blog Award!

-Lauren-

Look what came in the mail today…

The UPS guy dropped of my first preggy package! Our good friends, Ally and Steven were so thoughtful and sweet and put together the perfect package!

Oh my gosh, look at all this stuff! It totally made my day.

The picture frame is so cute, it has little caption cards that are interchangeable. I put in our first ultrasound picture (I’m going to keep changing it as we get more recent ultrasounds), and the caption “coming soon”. Too cute!

The Beband is going to come in so handy. I work on the floor chasing after little kids all day and I have already started using a rubber band with my button on my pants so I have a little more room.

They also gave me a keepsake journal that is just so perfect! It is going to be so fun to fill out as I go through the pregnancy and it will be so special to look back on years from now.

I hadn’t seen the Baby Bargains book before, but I can already tell it is going to be so helpful. It ranks all kinds of baby stuff, which will help us in deciding what to splurge on and what to save on when it comes to all the baby purchases we will be making.

The other book is our little one’s first baby book! I Love You Through and Through is so sweet, I know we will be reading in to my belly in a few months!

I am so looking forward to trying the tea and preggy pops! Last week I was just feeling nauseous, but yesterday it was hard to keep any food down. This morning was rough, but I am doing pretty well tonight.

And of course, last but not least, they sent me a sweet sweet card. I am so thankful we have such loving friends. I know our little one is going to be blessed by all our family and friends!

Thanks Ally, Steven and Jackson!! You guys made my day!!

-Lauren-