Wow

**1.26.08 - When originally posted on MySpace, this was a private post. But the need to keep things secret have obviously passed. :P **

Wow - just....wow. So I found out today, Tuesday July 17th, at approximately 1:15pm that I am pregnant!!!! I was really starting to wonder as typical pre-period signs weren't really showing up. By Tuesday, I was 2 days late according to my normal schedule. I'd been entertaining casual thoughts on Sunday and Monday (while in LA) on what it would be like if I actually were pregnant, and how we might share the news. But I didn't want to get too attached to the idea in the event that my period showed up after all.

I was so nervous while getting ready to take the test and waiting the 2 minutes for the results to show up. I think I knew deep down that I was pregnant - I just needed confirmation. When I walked back into the bathroom to check the results, I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw the "+" symbol in the window. There were lots of "oh my god" utterances as I paced around the bathroom and bedroom in a partial state of shock. For the most part, I just couldn't wait to tell Brian and was trying to figure out how I'd be able to concentrate on anything else while I waited for him to get home from work!

Luckily, he forgot his badge and had to come back home to get it. I told him to come meet me inside when he got home. I left the test stick and the instructions sitting on the kitchen table for him while I sat on the coffee table and waited. He came into the room and asked what was up. I kept gesturing to the table with my head until he finally looked at what I was referring to. After a few seconds he was all, "wow - you're pregnant!" I was still kind of dazed, but we were both happy with the news and started hugging each other. I think it took awhile for it to sink in for him.

**later updates**

According to the doctor, my due date is March 25th, 2008. One day after my brother's bday! There's also the chance that I could end up delivering a St. Patty's day baby!

1.26.08 ETA: The new due date is March 27th.

It's been really hard keeping the news to ourselves. I remain steadfast in our decision to wait until the first trimester is over. I want to make sure that we are past the danger zone when we start telling friends and family. We have told a small group of people - but these are people who need to know for health and financial reasons. My eye doctor, chiropractor and our financial adviser know, but that's it. Hopefully we'll be able to plan a trip home in Oct to share the news with the family. I really want to be able to tell them in person.

I am particularly excited to tell Brian's family. This will be a first for many members of his family. Amanda will be a first-time auntie, his folks will be first-time grandparents and his GPs will be first-time great-grandparents. It'll be so much fun to share the joy with them!

So far I've been pretty lucky - no signs of morning sickness yet. I'm exactly 3 weeks pregnant now (July 21st), but according to the traditional tracking method I am 5 weeks along (since often times a woman doesn't know when she conceived tracking begins at the first day of your last period). I've just started taking my prenatal vitamins and really starting to think about trying to eat healthily.

According to some websites I've visited, the baby is now an embryo and is about 1/16th of an inch long. He/she is beginning to develop the brain, spinal cord and heart. I can't believe how quickly the baby develops!

I'm excited to begin looking for visible changes in my body. I feel like my clothes are fitting a little differently, but I am definitely not showing yet. That doesn't happen for another few weeks. I'm curious to see if anyone is going to figure out I'm pregnant before we share the news.

I've just ordered some books for us - What to Expect When You're Expecting, My Boys Can Swim!, and a baby names book.

Wow - I'm still trying to wrap my head around this whole thing. Sometimes I'm really excited, sometimes I'm scared shitless. Most of the time I'm just amazed.

Here's to hoping that everything works out.

All's quiet on the blogging front

Looks like everyone's been pretty busy lately judging by the number of crickets chriping on my blog list. I think it's time to break the silence and update you all on what I've been up to these last several days!

The berry season has finally quieted down round these here parts. The frenzy of strawberry jam, strawberry bread, strawberry ice cream, raspberry jam and raspberry sorbet has now passed and we have a freezer chock full of goodies to prove it!

Since I clearly couldn't get enough of the kitchen with all the berry love, my friend Megan came over for a bakefest! I made cookies and she made this lovely lemon cake.

Fast forward to last weekend when a dear friend of mine, Erin, came in for a much anticipated visit! She was doing her "West Coast Tour 2007" which included a stay at the Duchek Inn West West. I had so much fun hanging out with her! At one point, we were sitting at the kitchen table playing around on our respective laptops waiting for the Challah bread to rise, and I had this sense of overwhelming familiarity - it felt like no time had passed and we were still roommates in our college apt.

We had a fun weekend touring Seattle and Woodinville. Of course we made our way to the Farmer's Market on Pike Place because no visit to Seattle would be complete without it!

The weekend passed far too quickly and I found myself bidding her a fond farewell all too soon at SeaTac airport on Monday. I hope she comes back to visit again soon!!

Our 4th of July was spent with my friend Heather, her boyfriend Tamir and some friends of theirs. We hung out at their place where our gracious hosts plied us with so much wonderful food and drink! We had a great time and managed to stuff ourselves silly. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures to share as I foolishly left my camera in the car. Doh! Brian and I did make it to watch Bellevue's firework's display, but it wasn't too spectacular. I tell ya - nothing compares to Rolling Meadow's fireworks show.

Fast forwarding yet again to this weekend found us fairly low key. We spent Friday night with Rob and Kristi getting our fill of Buffy and Angel. Saturday was our first annual community picnic. I made my lemon bars and am happy to report they were a success! Brian was the grill master and even brought his grill down to the picnic. So much good food!! That evening we went out to dinner to Seattle's version of the Brazilian Steakhouse with Brian's friend Colin and his girlfriend Ami. Sunday will be fairly quiet - we need to get cracking on our "financial homework" for our next planner meeting.

Finally I leave you with the suggestion to check out Geni.com. This is a way cool interactive website for charting your family tree. Kim turned me on to it and lemme warn you - it is HIGHLY addictive!!!