30 Weeks

How far along? 30 Weeks. I feel like the past two weeks, since my last update have FLOWN by! I'm kind of hoping that trend continues.

Total weight gain: I'll find out for sure on Wednesday at my next appointment, but I'm guessing I am between 18-20. I feel like I "thinned out," a little over the last 5-6 days, perhaps due to lack of appetite. Or lack of desire to prepare food.

Baby Bump? Oh, yes. Definitely. It doesn't look quite as full as it did at 28 weeks but it is large and in charge!
{picture taken at 29 weeks and 2 days. Don't worry, our tree is finally put away. Hello, February!}

Maternity clothes? Yes, maternity pants or pajama pants constantly (apparently I don't like pressure of any sort on my belly. Who knew?) and I got 3 new maternity shirts while in the big city last week. They are super cute and comfortable! Plus, I got them each for about 10 dollars!

Cravings: Water maybe, but other than that my appetite is WAY down. I eat more out of nutritional obligation than anything.

Symptoms: A little heartburn, a little back pain (our break from school has been awesome for my back!) linea nigra since about 20 weeks, and stretch marks. The stretch marks don't bother me as much as I thought. I have stretch marks from previous weight gain/loss and it just is part of life, I think. The only part that bothers me is I have one developing almost in a ring around my belly button and that is just weird.

Sleep: I have good sleep/bad sleep on alternating nights. I am not really sure of the cause of it and am trying to narrow it down. Hopefully once I figure it out I can fix it!

Movement: Yes! I'm not really sure of her "schedule," but definitely when I switch from laying on one side to the other and nighttime (past 9pm,) is her most active time! {exactly the same as last update!} Still have never felt the "hiccups."

Gender: Sugar and Spice and everything nice! A little girl will be our first child. I can't wait to meet my Grace Madeline!

Belly Button in or out? In, all the way! Despite my last couple of updates saying it looked like it was about to "pop," it is definitely in. I attribute this to the "thinning out," that I feel like happened over the last week.

What I miss: Being able to comfortably put on socks or shoes!

Best moment this week: Being woken up in the middle of the night by such a strong kick that my covers "bumped," up and came back down. Strange!

Weekly Wisdom: I got nothing....

Milestones: 30 weeks! Every week feels like a milestone now.

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30 Weeks

fill in the blank friday

I'm joining up with the little things we do today to "fill in the blank."

1. If my house was on fire and I could only grab 3 things I would grab: My purse (it has all of my important travel documents ready to go, kind of important when you live in a foreign country, hours from an embassy,) my computer, and my books {because those count as one thing, right? well, I'd grab whatever I could shove in my purse, how's that?} My theory is, if your home is going to burn down, you can find clothes and bedding and other necessities pretty easily, but you'll probably feel guilty spending money on entertainment items in the near future, so have something to do!

2. A smell I really like is: freshly baked cookies or a real Blue Spruce Christmas tree.

3. Something you might not know about me is that: When I'm nervous, I rub the knuckle of my left thumb with my right thumb. I've been known to rub it raw in the past, but that has stopped since Ian's been in my life. He's my calming influence :)

4. Some of my favorite websites to putter about on are: Besides the ubiquitous facebook and blogger, I love going to teacher's and homeschooler's pages and getting ideas. I might not be a teacher anymore, but I'll always be one at heart. I have dreams of writing my own curriculum.

5. This weekend I will be: Encouraging my husband to recaulk the tub while I clean our windows {fun, no?} cooking chicken curry for a Saturday feast, and traveling to the interior of our country for a visit with a {near} stranger that my husband met at the hospital last month.

6. Nothing makes me happier than: snuggling into bed at the end of a long day, be it good or bad.

7. A bad habit I have: Erm, refer to #3. Or know that I have no self control whatsoever when it comes to the making and consumption of sweets. I made PW's cinnamon rolls yesterday and have consumed 4 since then! Good thing we gave away40 of the 60 rolls it made!

~~~~

On other news, we had a wonderful leisure week, spent with sleeping in, watching season 9 and 10 of FRIENDS, accomplishing small tasks on my never ending to-do list, and playing games.

We took a trip to the big city on Monday and got to eat some amazing "American," food. We might have overeaten a little, but we also wandered around one of the biggest malls I've ever been in for nearly 8 hours. Whew my feet were tired! We were able to find some amazing deals on a few maternity shirts and ordered the curtains for Grace's nursery. Other than that we just wandered the mall (didn't really go into shops!) people watching, looking at fountains and domes (the malls here are amazing,) and ate our dinner outside on a terrace while watching the fountain show. What a great mini-vacation, even if it was only for a day!

Some of you asked why we didn't spend at least one night in the big city, since we weren't going on vacation like we planned, and the answer is: we're cheap. Since we spent the money for vacation on Grace's furniture and other things, we don't have budgeted funds to spend on a night in a hotel. Plus, even if we wanted to, there is a HUGE shopping festival going on right now and the hotels are all booked.

My mother-in-law celebrated her birthday on Tuesday and my parents celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary on Tuesday as well. What a special way to end the month!

We also got Grace's crib and changing table all set up. The room looks like a real nursery now and it's hard to believe that we are almost to 30 weeks (in a little over 24 hours! Crazy!)

I'm looking forward to the next {and final} week of vacation because it means more relaxation and rest! We'll go to the interior (Or coast, I suppose,) of our country for a quick day trip on Sunday and we'll go to the medium sized city over the border on Wednesday for my 30 week appointment. Other than that, we have nothing on our plate! Lovely!

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fill in the blank friday

Extending Christmas

Well, it's done.

It's January 26th of 2011 and I packed up our Christmas decorations today.

Tree and all.

My reasons for not packing up Christmas around New Year's, like most families were three fold.

1. I love the sparkly lights and they bring me much more joy than the average person. I turn them on as soon as I get up and just sit and stare while I eat my breakfast.

2. Language school and pregnancy was kicking my butt for the first three weeks of the new year. I prioritized and decided that having enough energy to, you know, walk was more important than looking insanely tacky by leaving my tree up.

and 3.

Well, 3 is the real reason.

And the most important.

3. We've decided to "Extend Christmas," as part of our family tradition. Meaning the tree and decoratations will go up about a month before Christmas and stay up until about a month after Christmas.

Why?

It comes down to two things.

#1- We want Grace and any subsequent children to truly understand the meaning behind Christmas. I always marvelled at the fact that adults and teachers would ask "What is the real meaning of Christmas? Not presents, not decorations?" and we'd all say "Jesus!"

But then, on Christmas day, the moment the presents are opened and the tree looks all lonely and deserted, you just know Christmas is over. Even if you still have a family dinner or other traditions in the next day or so.

Why then do we rush to put all of our Christmas decor away right after the presents are done?

Why not make it so the emphasis isn't on the presents and show that Christmas still happens even when the suspense and excitement of presents are over?

We haven't figured out what the details will look like, but we plan on studying and focusing on Jesus' birth in the month before Christmas, and His infancy and childhood in the month that follows. We're even reading up on the celebration of Epiphany, since neither of us even know what that is.

Perhaps we'll do an Advent calendar in December and a Jesse Tree in January. Maybe we'll have an increase of family devotions. Maybe we'll figure out and write our own "Post Christmas," tradition. We definitely want to have a distinction of before Christmas day and after, so that it won't feel like just a long drawn out Christmas season. We want it to have meaning and to be special. We aren't too rushed to figure it out, seeing as Grace won't really be comprehending Christmas for at least 2-3 more years.

#2- Lesser of the two reasons, of course, but still very important, will be an increase of family time during these two months. With everyone else only celebrating Christmas in the 3-4 weeks leading up to Christmas day, the holiday season can seem rushed and frenetic. There's a company party and a school party, a Sunday school party and a cookie exchange! All wonderful things but can leave you feeling pulled in a million different directions, helping you to further forget the purpose and meaning of Christmas to begin with!

We'll have 3-4 extra weeks where we can establish family traditions together, at a slower pace! A walk in the desert, a bonfire, making cards as a family, or finally having time to actually decorate those elusive Christmas cut out cookies! I don't know what this part will look like, as I'm sure the traditions will establish themselves over the years, but I look forward to it greatly.

So, that's it. That's why our tree was up through January 25th. I'm proud and excited about our decision to step outside of the norm (as if moving to the other side of the world wasn't crazy enough,) and dare to be different in order to remember the meaning of the season!

So, what do you think? Is it crazy? Do you feel like it will be stretched out too long? What would be something you implement to help your family remember the reason for the season?

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Extending Christmas

At Home Vacation

As I mentioned before, we were originally planning on going to Jordan to for our between semester break. Unfortunately, we weren't sure if our friends, who we would be staying with, would still be living there or not, so we did the grown up (aka, not so fun,) thing and decided to save the money and use it towards Grace's nursery.

Our plan was to stay home, hang out, and spend some down time in between semesters all the while getting things done that we had been putting off.

Alas in all of our grand scheming we forgot about the all important factor of "cabin fever."

Unfortunately our little town has zero to no places that a woman can go and "hang out," and about the only family places to go are the grocery store (oh boy,) and a park outside of town.

So far, we are a little over 72 hours into our vacation time (out of 2 1/2 weeks!) and are starting to go stir crazy.

Awesome.

Turns out, we don't have that many things that we want to do in our house. Ian plays a video game, I read my blogs and then we switch. That covers about 2-3 hours, if we really drag it out. ha!

We planned 3 "big city," days over the next two weeks, so those will be beautiful respites in this dulldrum of a break.

One day, we'll go to the mega city and spend the day at the HUGE mall there with a gigantic book store (heaven!) We'll eat out for lunch and for dinner (no dishes! yay!) relax in the bookstore, buy a few things for Grace's nursery (curtains, mainly,) and watch the fountain show while sipping hot chocolate all before heading home. I'm very excited about this little outing.

Another day, we'll go to the not so giant, but still big city that neighbors our little town for a doctor's appointment and I'm sure we'll eat lunch there before coming back for a birthday party in town.

And finally, we'll venture into the interior a little more to a city where we hope to see the ocean (? Maybe, I don't know anything about this city.) and visit with a man and his family that Ian met at my last doctor appointment. I'm a little more nervous about this trip, because it involves visiting in a local home, which can be fun but always puts me at my shyest!

Other than those three outings, we plan on rearranging our rooms, taking down Christmas decor, doing some house projects, and installing Grace's curtains.

I try to set small little goals for each day, so that even if I lay around and do nothing for most of the day, by the time bedtime rolls around, I'll at least feel like I accomplished something. Today's goals? Wash our bed linens, move our office into our bedroom, finish two rows on Grace's blanket, and read 3-4 chapters in a book for work. See? My days aren't complete wastes of time!

We also have work to do (you know, for work, ha!) and will spend the last couple of days preparing for the beginning of a new semester of Arabic.

In case you were wondering, which I'm sure you've been at the edge of your seats now for days, my exam scores came back beautifully. No, I'm not at the top of my class, but I'm also not at the bottom. I scored perfectly for a student who has never been exposed to Arabic before this semester (they told us that I should get between a 1 and a 2, and I got a 1.5!) and got an 85% on my Classical Arabic written test. I'm really happy with the results and even prouder of my insanely smart husband who scored at the top of the class! Good job, Ian!

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At Home Vacation

Language, Pack N Play, and Cookies

Alot has been going on around the Galloway household, or, rather, I should say alot of little things have been going on. Not things that some would find important or interesting, but I do!

Today we had our first of two exams. Today's exam was an oral interview of sorts. There wasn't many ways to prepare ahead of time, I felt. It was one of those situations where you would be showing off what you actually knew, instead of cramming and expelling information.

I was a little shakey and nervous walking into the interview, but tried my best to speak clearly and answer correctly. We started off with a round of greetings (their greetings are very extensive, repetitive, and structured, and can take close to 5 minutes! Though I only have 1-2 minutes worth down.) next we moved onto a question about me and my "bent," (little girl,) before moving on to a question about travelling. I didn't conjugate my verb correctly (drat. I put it into past tense when I meant to say present.)

Our final open discussion question was on what I would want my "dream house," to be like. Unfortunately, I didn't remember all of the names for the rooms so I just did a general 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms with a big kitchen. They were surprised that I didn't want it bigger and I told them that I like my small little house and that I didn't think I would ever want a huge house.

We had two picture based questions, one where I told a story in sequence and one where I described what I saw in the picture. The final part of the interview was me reading out loud a narrative.

Overall, I thought I did pretty well! At least, I felt like what I did in the interview was a pretty accurate description of what I actually know in Arabic! It will be exciting to compare this interview with my interview at the end of semester two!

We have an early morning written exam on Wednesday morning and then we are finished for the semester! So hard to believe.

The whole thing only took 5-10 minutes and then we were done for the day with school! We spent a leisurely day hanging out at the house, watching FRIENDS, eating salad (a new obsession of mine,) and reading.

Speaking of reading, I'm so excited that I am finally back in a reading mood! I went from reading 50 books in 2009 to hardly reading 20-25 in 2010. I haven't set any goal specifically for this year, but I am glad to see my reading is picking back up. I just finished Terri Blackstock's Newpointe 911 Series which was very interesting, if anyone is looking for a good Christian Fiction series.

I can't wait to share with you the book I am reading now. Super interesting. And a real story!

Ian and I capped our day off by doing 3 exciting things.

1.) We pulled out the pack n' play we had bought and put it together. I moved it into our room, where it will be once Grace makes her appearance near April, and stood in wonder at the fact that we actually have a baby on the way! we'll probably pack it up into it's storage bag later this week, as I don't really want it sitting in our room for the next 3 months if not necessary, but it was still a sweet moment of realization!

2.) We went for a walk! The wind was blowing and the temperature was just perfect. I put on my tennis shoes, which I haven't worn since we got here, and we went on a 30 minute walk around our area, before stopping at our local market to get some milk.

3.) Then we hightailed it back home to eat some fresh chocolate chip cookies. Delicious! For some reason those little cookies totally made my night.

I have a final confession to make:

We still have our tree up.

As in, our Christmas tree.

And we left it up on purpose.

More on that later.

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Language, Pack N Play, and Cookies

28 Weeks

How far along? 28 Weeks! Officially in the third trimester and so excited to meet our baby girl in 12 weeks (or less!)

Total weight gain: As of January 5th, I am up a total of 15 pounds, which puts me right at where I thought I would be. I really think I am 2-3 pounds less than that though, since we finished all of our "holiday food," right around the time of our Dr visit and are back on track with healthier eatin.

Baby Bump? Heck. Yes. I'm as big as a house. I have an extraordinarily small torso and abdominal cavity (as in, between my hip bones and rib cage,) so baby Grace only has one way to go- straight out!

Maternity clothes? Yes! Some friends of mine have loaned me some maternity shirts and I imagine that the next time I am in the big city I will find a few more. Although, now, as soon as I get home I am changing straight into super loose PJ's because they are much more comfortable!

Cravings:Nothing really. I think my appetite is diminishing slightly so I am trying to get my calories in nutrient dense foods. Lots and lots of salads, beef, and milk!

Symptoms: The back pain has gotten alot more routine. I have found that as soon as I lay down on my side it is better and pretty much come home from language school and lay down for the rest of the day. The heartburn flares up every once and a while but it's not bad either!

Sleep: So much has changed in the last month! My nap is NOT back as I try to just "rest," during the afternoon and save the sleeping for nighttime. My nighttime sleep is horrible, to the say the least. I've been having charlie horses at night and waking up unnaturally early. I've had a few nights of low grade fevers with the chills but it always breaks by morning and is just annoying enough to disturb my sleep all night. Boo. I love my sleep, so that is SO hard!

Best moment this week: Ian and I spent our Friday evening, cuddled up on the couch and watching a movie. Ian had his hand on my belly because I felt like Grace was going to have an active night and WOW did she ever. Almost 45 minutes straight of nearly constant kicking. She gave us quite the show of flutter kicks and jabs! So special and since we don't slow down enough to let Ian feel her move often enough, I loved that he got to share in that moment!

Movement: Yes! I'm not really sure of her "schedule," but definitely when I switch from laying on one side to the other and nighttime (past 9pm,) is her most active time!

Gender: GIRL! Grace Madeline is her name and I can't wait to see her beautiful little face!

Belly Button in or out? In, but at the end of the day, and especially after a big dinner it starts to "bulge," a little.

What I miss: Solid sleep!

Weekly Wisdom: Enjoy every last day as your last "day," before baby comes. We celebrate every little thing as it means that we won't ever have a January 10th without being parents again!

Milestones: The third trimester! And though 24 weeks is viability week in the States, out here 28 weeks is closer to being her viability week. So comforting knowing she could make it now!

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28 Weeks

Monday Monday

Thanks so much for all of your kind words about our Grace Madeline's name! We L-O-V-E it and can not wait to meet her in 13 weeks (or less!)

Baby plans are in full swing, with the purchase of our crib, changing table, and pack and play last week (33% off everything!) I have some sweet friends here in town who are throwing a baby shower for me in mid February and I am so looking forward to it! I've tried to keep myself from buying all of the little baby things until we know what people are gifting us but I feel like I'm not doing enough to get ready for her arrival!

We have final exams next week and then a two week break between semesters. We were supposed to take a vacation to Jordan to visit some friends, but due to some circumstances we decided to stay in town and use the money for baby gear.

I'm really looking forward to those two weeks! We will still be using our vacation days from work (they expire in March, so we might as well try to use some of our 28 days that we haven't used!) and we plan on hanging out in the house, moving our office furniture into our room, putting together the crib, and having Ian teach me how to drive manual.

I have a feeling January is going to go roaring by and although it won't be the most interesting month, I will end it by looking back on all that we have gotten done!

Also, on a totally random point, what do you guys think of having breakfast for dinner (Brinner.) Yum, and always a favorite OR Save breakfast for Saturday mornings? Ian and I were talking about how we love brinner but feel like we do it more often than most people (once a week or every two weeks!) In our defense, we roll out of bed and have to eat right away so cooking a big breakfast isn't really an option.

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Monday Monday