14 Weeks

I love/hate being pregnant! When yet again I feel disgusted by the sight of all food known to man I hate it.  When I see my little bump growing, I love it.  If that sounds a little bit hormonal, it probably is.

But the good news is that my nausea and tiredness are both abating to the point where I feel like getting ready enough to take a decent picture and then blog about it! Oh my, it has been a long time since I have felt normal, so I am really excited to be in the second trimester.

But pregnancy so far hasn't been too awful.  Most of the time.  I have only thrown up twice but I have just felt really nauseated for the past three months.  But that is a lot better than some people have it, so I try to think about that a lot and count my blessings.

So I have only had two appointments so far, and each one has been at a different doctor's office and I have to say I only recommend one of them.  If anyone needs a gynecologist I recommend Valley OB/GYN.  It is a group practice, but I am totally fine with that.  Anyway, it is awesome because at the most recent appointment, we got to hear the baby's heartbeat.  It was the funnest thing I have ever done in my life!

It took a little while for the doctor to find the heartbeat, which made Brad really nervous, but the doctor found it and it was so loud and fast! It was amazing! We loved it so much! As soon as he took the Doppler thing off my belly I immediately wanted to hear it again.  We are totally going to try to listen to the heartbeat with a stethoscope later on on our own.  I'm so excited!


The other good news is that I got maternity clothes! I am still transitioning into them.  The maternity pants don't stay up super well, but when I safety pin my normal pants and then accidentally pop the safety pin open, they don't stay up super will either.  But my appetite is finally kicking in so I am assuming that my belly is going to get bigger very soon and help keep the maternity pants up! Woohoo!

Redemption

Brandon Flowers (lead singer of 'The Killers") is a Mormon and he has a video on mormon.org.  You can watch it here.

I found this to be very interesting, so I of course Wiki'ed him.  Even as a Mormon, I find it fascinating that a rock star is a Mormon.  And I always love it when people who are famous are Mormon.  It makes us seem more normal.  Which is good, because I really don't think we are that weird.  But this story reminded me of a theme in life that I absolutely love - redemption.  Stories of people overcoming are just the best.

The twenty minutes I spent reading up on Brandon Flowers on the internet made it clear that he has had his share of struggles living exactly what he believes all the time.  But "there is still a fire burning" for him in regards to Mormonism. And the fact that he acknowledges both his mistakes and his testimony is the winning combination that will lead to repentance and more happiness as his actions better align with what he really wants in life.

I love this. I love that we all have the ability to choose and to change. I love that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a church for sinners.  I think that when we are truly trying our best, we are in a state of triumph.

Clearly, Mormons aren't the only ones who triumph over their problems.  Which brings me to one of my all time favorite movies, "Walk the Line" which is about Johnny Cash. I have also read about him on Wikipedia.  And it is true that Johnny Cash was definitely not a perfect person.  In fact he did some pretty terrible things.  But he decided to change, and he never stopped fighting to become better.  I am sure it was really wearying for him that he had to keep checking himself into rehab for his addiction to amphetamines, but the point is that he kept doing it over and over. 

There is a guy in our ward that just got re-baptized into the church, and I loved hearing his story as well.  It was painful to hear about because he clearly had to go through a lot of pain to admit his mistakes and change who he was, but the result made me so excited for him! His future is so bright.

I just think that there is really nothing more noble than changing yourself for the better.  And I think that there is nothing to be more grateful for than our Savior and Redeemer who gives us enabling power to do what we wouldn't be able to on our own, after we have done all that we can do. I hope that I can be the type of person who never gives up on making changes for the better.

Guess Who?

We are way excited!!