Hello week 7, again.

Week 7 has come in with a vengeance. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I ended up having to get the doctor to call in an anti-nausea medicine to keep things down. First it was out with the oatmeal, then the ginger ale and saltines and finally the Popsicle. Thankfully today, I kept down toast, nilla wafers and finally some very yummy mashed potatoes courtesy of Super Husband/Future Super Dad, Stephen.

Despite the miserable feeling of keeping nothing down and being even more fatigued because of it, we've had some fun times talking about baby's upcoming arrival. Saturday evening, as Stephen and I have decided we want a jungle/Lion King themed nursery, Stephen got a kick out of thinking about a future Christmas card on the edge of a lip in the Palo Duro Canyon holding our child out like Simba. We were thinking about channeling our current President for inspiration.

 If you've never heard Stephen's opening scene impression before, trust me, it's pretty dead on. Add this fun little musing to sitting with the Wells who have confessed to thinking about the Lion King as Stephen presides and he had a pretty hard time holding it together presiding on Sunday morning. I looked over at Megan and asked her if she made a face, but really I think he tickled himself and refused to look at us. <Which if you've ever seen me get tickled in church, that was a well played move on his part.>

The next night we mused a little more...Always keeping adoption in the back of our mind for our family, I confessed to Stephen that I now understand why the biological argument of loving a biological child more has absolutely no ground. As far as I'm concerned, biologically speaking this kid's not doing itself any favors. I'm throwing up, and if not, I feel like it, I want to do nothing but sleep, my skin is breaking out and thanks to this medicine I'm getting more constipated by the minute! (TMI!!!)...I mean kid, get yourself together because right now, having someone do the hard work next time sounds fantastic!

Ok ok, momma breakdown aside, we are looking forward to our little jellybean. It will be fun to see if it gets my pale white scotch-irish freckled skin, or Stephen's tan European skin. <For the sake of yearly Friedrich family beach trip, I'm hoping for his skin! That or between the two of us, we'll buy stock in sunscreen.> His blue eyes, or my hazel, his static mohawk baby hair or my next to nothing blond hair from when I was little. His structured nose or my bulb of a nose that wrinkles when I laugh too hard, his height or my....lack there of.

So despite the rough week, we're still very excited to what's to come, both so I'll feel better, but also because I can't wait for this little trouble maker to make it's way to the world!

First meeting, hello Rice.

Today, we had our very first meeting with our tee-niny little grain of rice. That's right, our baby is the size of a grain of rice which means we really are around six weeks pregnant. If you're calculating from our previous emergency room data, that means we really were only about three weeks pregnant at the hospital.

There were many great things confirmed today. One, although we couldn't really see much, we did figure out that our rice grain is in the right place (as in my uterus and not my tubes). Two, we saw the littlest flicker of a heartbeat thanks to my doctor's expert positioning skills with the sonogram machine. Three, our new due date is June 10th.

We were a little dissapointed that we're two weeks later, but decided it sounded more than it really is because it pushed us into a new month. On the other hand, both families will officially be out of school, so we're hoping this means family can get into town in ample time to be here for Baby Friedrich's grand arrival.

On the other side of things, this mom is so thankful to have seen proof of life today because so far, pregnancy is nothing to be excited about. Pregnancy fatigue is a different kind of tiredness that I never knew exisisted. If gives me new prospective for people who deal with chronic fatigue and how easy it is to get discouraged with it. Although I haven't yet thrown up, I feel like I should probably 80% of the day. I have to say, so far the only good thing about pregnancy is the sex that started it. (Sorry if that's TMI for the family members, but it's no secret how babies are made - and if it is, you're too young to be reading this...:-)

All in all today's appointment was a good thing because I saw proof of life that will make this all worth it in the end. It's hard to believe we all started so incredibly tiny. In theory we all learn about it in anatomy but seeing that little bitty heart beat that lives inside my tummy makes gives a totally different perspective. My little grain of rice is so cute already!

In other news, Happy 30th Birthday to Uncle John!

My brother who hates that he's turning thirty will be an uncle of a 4 month old on his 31rst birthday, so I promise unclehood to be the best part of his thirties!

Two Tennesse Texans and a...Texan?

Say WHAT??

Well, that's pretty much what our response to the ER doctor  was when he told us we were pregnant. Oh, it wasn't that we weren't trying, we were. It's just that was the second visit to the emergency room for ovarian cysts and 2 blood test at LEAST 4 urine tests, an ultra sound and a CT scan from doctor's offices and let's not forget to mention Stephen and I could buy stock in Target's "up and up" brand just because of the number of pregnancy tests I'd used.

So you can imagine that while I was writhing in pain from bursts ovarian cysts and they asked me if I was pregnant I shot them several dirty looks. We had been trying and I had already resigned myself that to go through this much pain, there's no way I've held on to a baby (not to mention this is two weeks post menstrual. <if that grosses you out, you may not want to read for the next nine months - or - ever.>) I had grieved over this "not being our time" and we weren't going to try till later after Christmas, because who wants to be in the final trimester of pregnancy in the dead of a Texas summer in hundred degree heat? So amidst my pain and our frustration at no one really taking my abdominal pain seriously, I think we both blinked and let our mouth hang for a little bit when the ER doc dropped the baby bomb.

Naturally, we were both a little scared because pain and pregnancy this early in the game are not good things. So as we were wisked off for yet another round of ultrasounds, we were told that a blood level would be run.

<Fyi, I'm leaving out a lot of detail about what Friday night/Saturday morning looks like in the BSA ER, like the shirtless guy that got beat up in the parking lot because he was running a way from people "he didn't know why" were chasing him, the cop detail that surrounded him, and the stabbed lady that was later intebated when we got back from ultra sound. If you want to hear about that exciting bit you'll have to ask, there is way too much else to tell.>

It took forever to hear back from anyone, as you might imagine in the ER at that time of day, so in the mean time prayers were said, Fernando Ortega tried his best to lull me into an ER room sleep, and we waited, somewhat impatiently to hear the confirmation of this so called "pregnancy".

The Doc came out and told us our  hCG level (pregnancy hormone) was a 99 <Great, out of a 100, right?> To which we were clueless what that meant. We were explained that it was a low number which could mean I was miscarrying, so we wanted the number to grow. By the way, this girl who was two weeks late was only 2 weeks pregnant, explain that - especially given the ban from sex we'd been put on since all this cyst stuff started? <Don't worry, I will.>

Now, stop right there because a girl dreams about things when she's little - one is getting married. After that, she dreams about how she's going to drop the baby news to her parents and suprise the heck out of them that they're finally getting grandbabies. Now forget all that because I ended up freaking out and calling my mom and laying it all out there. If anyone knows what becoming a mother is like and the emotional rollercoaster, it's well...mom. And at the end of the day, this new mom just needed her mommy. <Yep, totally feeling capable of raising my own child, why do you ask?>

As any good mom would do, my mom kept calm and told me a bunch of things I can't remember that seemed to comfort me and offered prayers, and because that meant so much, Nancy and Jim were soon called in on the prayer chain as well.

By Monday, the number of our hCG (which we later found out would be in the hundreds of thousands by full term...so much for 100...) had jumped to 321.4. We felt a little more confident exchanged hugs and tentative congrats with each other but still felt mostly too scared to be excited. We weren't really sure what that meant and the whole 2 weeks pregnant thing freaked us out a bit.

Tuesday morning, we arrived at our new OBGYN office (which is another store in itself), to a friendly new NP who threw all kinds of "swag" at us immediatly. Pre-natal vitamin samples, a tri-mester by tri-mester journal, FitPregnancy magazine and a whole other host of "welcome to Parenthood" propaganda. Like it was just assumed we new we were having a baby and everything was going to be ok.

Through the course of the apointment, we were assured that my ovarian cysts were likely just an unfortunate event that occured right around the time I was supposed to find out I was pregnant. Since the pain was subsiding, the risk of a tubal pregnancy was down and by all accounts, we are 6 weeks into a healthy pregnancy.

What? Six weeks, yes. OH, yeah you see, the medical community measures to the point of conception or something like that. The REST of the world including the OB world measures pregnancy from the date of your last missed period, August 20th. Which if you do the math, by the time this hits the world-wide-web, we are 7 weeks along.

I think it took us a couple days to really soak it in, and I'm not entirely sure it has at this point. After talking about when to tell everyone you always hear "wait till 12 weeks to make sure you don't niscarry". Well, quite frankly, my baby has lived through radiation and narcotics for pain at this point, so I'm pretty sure he/she is as strong as ever, but I also just can't seem to understand the reasoning. If I miscarry this child, I certainly don't want to have to grieve about it by my lonesome. What's the need for secrecy, especially since miscarraiges are so common, we're talking 20% of all pregnancies!

Now that all the excitement is starting to settle in, we're getting used to the idea, and Stephen is doing fall youth gathering next weekend, we have decided to tell the congregation. Because I just couldn't wait any longer.

I'm not sure what that will be like. I do know from my wrist problems that everyone and their uncle from tim-buk-tu has a cure for this or that. I'm not terribly looking forward to that part, or the judgement that may come from choosing this over that, the rolled eyes when we mention cloth diapering or any other thing people may find naive. I am NOT at all looking forward to the fact that suddenly people feel it's ok to touch a pregnant womans belly because when I got pregnant my personal bubble seemed to just dissapear. But mostly, I'm really looking forward to this incredibly supportive congregation that loves us, cares for us and will be JUST as excited as we are.

And so as the chaos of the baby annoucnment is about to insue, I have three things to say.

1. THANKS BE TO GOD!
2. Sorry Mr. Cat, you're about to become a little less cute in this house hold!
3. May 27, 2013.

February, WHOA.

Phew! It is hard to believe it’s been so long since I’ve updated! I know you all have asked, but life took a very unexpected busy turn two days after my last update! I am now the manager at Viking Sewing Gallery here in Amarillo. Many of you know this is the company I worked for in Columbia selling Husqvarna-Viking and Singer Sewing and Embroidery Machines. I am in HOG HEAVEN. However, it has left little time in the way of blog updating.

Let’s start way back at Christmas. Many of you know because of my new job I was unable to go home for Christmas. I must say, I was really bummed, but loving my new job helped. Much to your all’s disappointment, I have to say Christmas Day’s unexpected snow fall also helped boost morale!

Yes, in true Amarillo weather fashion, it was forcasted to be a gloomy mid-forties rainy day on Christmas, but instead it never got above freezing and we received six inches of snow! 

This was our trek to Christmas Day service!

And this is what happened by two hours later!

Conditions continued to deteriorate, but the airport continued to say Stephens flight was still slated to fly. So he dug out a path for our new-to-us CR-V (bought quicker than originally planned due to quicker employment for myself) <I quickly commandeered the car with little fight after I exclaimed about actually seeing the lane markings on the road - being up high is SO COOL! That was easy. ;-) >

In the meantime we went to have Christmas Dinner with the Berg family. The meal was delicious as usual, but the fellowship was even better! It made missing Christmas dinner in NC more bearable for sure. 

Stephen packed his bags and put them in the CRV to take to the Berg's. Checking flight status again before heading to the airport, the flight was still slated to leave so we headed out on snow packed icy roads passing several wrecks. I was less freaked out by driving in the road conditions as I was about Stephen's plane taking off in the conditions. As the sun went down, things were quickly going from bad to very bad. But alas, I dropped him off with a quick kiss eager to get the drive home over with.

A good 20 minutes later, I was a little over halfway home and received a text from Stephen saying his flight had indeed been canceled. <Rest assured, I pulled over to check it before turning around thinking it had to be him - or PRAYING it was him to tell me it was canceled to ease my nerves aka KEEP ME FROM FREAKING OUT!!!!>

Come to find out, they could put him on a plane, but they weren't going out of Houston until the next morning. Stephen thinking he could either spend a night in a crappy hotel by himself in Houston or at home warm in bed with his absolutely charming wife, made the appropriate decision to ask me to come back pick him up. <It was tough, but I braved the elements once again to pick up my husband so that he may spend Christmas night comfortably. I hated he couldn't leave...really....>

Turns out due to more mechanical issues, he couldn't leave until Tuesday. This was actually sad because it meant missing a lot of extended family and Craig. 

And the rest of the story of Christmas is history.

January bought new changes for me once again as my store got moved to a similar location and format with in JoAnn Fabrics as the store where I previously worked. After five weeks of dust and multiple inconveniences - like a recurrent cough and eventual illness making me feel the sickest the longest I ever have (hence the blog update)- we moved the store. My area manager came in and we set up.

I have not taken a full picture of the finished product, but this picture featuring the 160th Anniversary Limited Edition Singer Sewing Machine shows some of our progress.

<Isn't that the cutest machine EVER? It's made to look like the old Featherweight! *Droooooll*>

Stephen and I are continuing to settle nicely. Of course, the new schedule for myself has proved difficult to adjust to and spend appropriate time together. Stephen has been a pastor-on-wheels for most the month of January going to various "mission area" gatherings including a "Think Tank" for the future of our mission arear, a tri-synodical gathering, and first-call theological education. The trips back and forth to Dallas and Waco left him exhausted and me sad for our lack of contact. Thankfully, things have slowed down AND the mission area has dedicated funds from their Disciple Life Alive campaign to update technology. One of their goals is to create web conferencing so that Stephen and others so far from the mission area offices will not have to hit the road and skies so often. It's cost efficient, wife-approved, and pastor appreciated (tending to a flock is hard when you're on the road so much!)- a definite win-win.

Our house is slowly coming together...some clearance shopping piece by piece has helped our living room feel homey and warm. Post this pictures, we've put up red curtains, and I've worked on some pillows.

Things are going well, and when you leave work with a few like this - it's hard to complain.

Snow Day!

Hello to our friends and family out in the world!

We have had an interesting week of weather. We were supposed to get ice and snow all weekend. We were all prepared. I went to the grocery store and got ingredients for chicken and dumplings, we have left over chili, and the makings for potato soup. All things warm and comforting!!! But, as most people here have said, the weather forecasters here almost never get it right. While I tend to agree this is a problem across the country, the high plains here have exceptional weather. It is so erratic you wonder how they could even venture a guess.

Lo and behold, we woke up this morning to the beginnings of a winter wonderland! <And a very warm cat at my feet. He stayed there all night - which is not common. A testament to the chill in the house! As you can imagine, I was in heaven!!!> It will continue to snow all day today and through most the night (if that forecast is correct!). Temperatures will stay between 20 and 25 degrees the next to days with lows in the single digits. <BRRRRRR!> So whoever said it would be hot all the time in Texas clearly had not lived in the high plains! Add these temperature to the norm of blowing winds and you have the makings for some wicked wind chills!

Another interesting tidbit about the weather here is that it could hypothetically end up being in the upper/lower 60's-70s next week. Yes, indeed the weather is never boring.

Here are some pictures from the front and back doors.

Stephen walked over to the office this morning through those trees into the back of the church. I plan on remaining comfy-cozy inside all day. It gives me a good excuse to focus on finishing putting my sewing room together and finally organizing the closet and the rest of my clothes. 

In other news, yesterday church was wonderful. I sang a beautiful anthem with the choir. First service was absolutely PACKED! It was so good to see so many people there!

We were also given the most incredible gift by a woman here. Two hand stitched Christmas stockings. The picture does not give justice to the intricacy of the cross-stitch, but trust us, it is beautiful! I greatly appreciate it in particular because spacing in cross-stitch like that always ends up hap-hazard when I do it. Not to mention I've never done something so huge OR even completed it. <Some may call me a cheater, but I am much more patient with my machine!>

Things are well here! We hope you are!!

Merry Christmas!!

Yes, it's Christmas time in the Texas Friedrich house.

Well sort of...

Ok, we know it's not even Advent...and we did have a discussion about whether or not we could even put it up yet. But, as I pointed out it is a CHRISTMAS tree, not an Advent tree, so we might as well.

Of course, Stephen played devil's advocate to tell me not to put it up until December 25th, at which point it will come down a little over a week later.

As you can see...I won. :-)

But not without Stephen pitching Jesus, because, he must.

Don't ask who he's looking it. It's an ad.

Going to pick out the tree ended up being a bigger deal than either of us anticipated. We have never had a real tree...well we had a small one in Roanoke given by a friend that was about 3 feet tall (maybe), but that doesn't count...

So when it came time to pick a tree, the question was, pre-lit or strand lighting.

<Enter - 26 years of Christmas histories we never really talked about before --- (new premarital counseling unit?)>

I (Betsy) am used to BIG FAT colored blinking lights. Stephen recalls festive non-blinking less round lights.

I (Betsy) wanted to get a regular tree with BIG FAT colored blinking lights. Stephen reminded me what a pain it is to put up lights every year. I recall Mom and Dad fighting over light strands every year as more of a fond memory than a painful one <hehe, sorry mom and dad>.

And so, when we approach the pre-lit trees at Lowes, much to my chagrin, the tiny bulbs were dissapointing. And they didn't blink.

Then we went to Walmart, the source of all evil devices of Christmas cheer. And guess what I found? Bigger, fatter rounded, blinking, cascading, alternating, ascending lights on a pre-lit tree, that are still LED's! OH yes, it was a winner. But not without a little bit of a fight.;-) Stephen thought it was a bit over-the-top. I dare-say, ugly. TO which I reminded Stephen that he hates the consumerism of Christmas and therefore, I should win because he shouldn't care anyway But it was a compromise, he get's pre-lit, I get big and fat. <Light's, I mean.>


So while you can't tell the tree in all it's glory from the picture. It is a fantastical piece of Christmas glitz!

But of course, 26 years of Christmas histories did not just die with big flashy lights. Stephen says his family arranges the tree theologically with the holiest representing ornaments on top. I think this sounds contrived in a Stephen Friedrich-made-that-up kind of way, but Nancy, Jim, feel free to correct me. :-)

So I think we tried to compromise putting pretty delicate next to holy, so that the cat would not be tempted to go after pretty and holy. <Which, currently, he has demonstrated that he cares less about the fantastical piece of Christmas glitz in our living room corner - WIN WIN!!>

Then comes, the star. Now, for the longest time, my family had the tackiest star from a drug store. It had plastic fringe with lights in the middle. LOVED it. Shortly after, Mom decided we needed an angel, but the plastic fringed star lives on in my heart.

Stephen grew up with a cardboard cut out aluminum foil star. Given my obsession with tacky Christmas trees (only because non of our ornaments matched growing up because they all had stories and were mostly homemade), I really wanted to go get a tacky star. But the aluminum foil star lives just as strongly in Stephens heart. And so, as you can see from the picture at the top, there sits a beautiful silver foil star. Which, I might dare-say, is the classiest part of this tree. We need some more Friedrich classy-ness on our tree.

Either way we have a shining example of memory making sitting in our living room. Our first big tree, in our first house, in our first Christmas together as real adults. <Not to be confused by the past two years of working my rear off while Stephen was in school- that was child's play *HA*.>

So, I hope you all enjoy your Christmas, but before that, I hope you eat lots of food tomorrow on Thanksgiving. :-)

Love and Peace!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, today, my (Betsy) family is making the trek to good 'ol Ruffon and Forest City for Thanksgiving. It has always been a tradition that we get to listen to Christmas music on the way, so in honor of them, I've been playing Christmas music all morning!

But things in Texas are a little different come Thanksgiving. Richard, who happens to be the son-in-law of Karen and Wally (whom some of you have met), came to finish installing our new screen/storm door. And so on November 23rd in Amarillo, Texas I am enjoying pulling the window of the door down to expose our nice roll-down screen. I'm listening to the breeze and thoroughly enjoying my 70 degree, sunny blue sky day! And while the 71 degree high tomorrow is seriously causing an issue with my traditional Thanksgiving fall ensemble for tomorrow, I am doing a-ok adapting to such beautiful weather.

I will say though, that while Richard was installing the door there came a foul stench in the wind that smelled nothing short of manure. <HEY, that's not nice - you shouldn't think that way - it was NOT Richard!> No, it was the wind coming up from a town called "Hereford"  which is actually akin to it's name...it was cattle feeding day in near-by 60 mile away Hereford. And yes, the smell wafts this way from 60 miles away when the wind is blowing just right. <And although I am incredibly notorious for being a tad too far on the gullible side, it's really the truth. We smelled the same foul smell upon our arrival at the Drury when we first drove into town...and again when the Rodeo was here. So to answer your increasing disbelief, it really wasn't Richard.>

Tomorrow, we will have two Thanksgiving feasts <because after-all my 26 year long tradition of TWO thanksgiving meals (Willis Family Reunion/Ward Family Thanksgiving) in one day would leave me feeling really sad all the way here in Texas>. We start first at 1:00pm with Dorothy Bivens and her family, and then head to Karen and Wally's house (sans Karen and Wally who are in Kansas) to join Richard (the son-in-law) and Ingrid (the daughter) with two other BSLC families. And because of course, my 26 year long tradition of Thanksgiving is NEVER without my mom's dressing, I made two batches this morning. Successfully <felt the need to qualify>.

Before all our Thanksgiving festivities begin, Stephen and I are headed to Big Lots to buy our first Christmas tree! And though my 26 year long tradition of a REAL tree has never been broken <until last year when my parents betrayed me> we are indeed buying a fake one for several reasons.

1. Texas is still in extreme fire danger. I feel the need not only for the church and the sake of the parsonage but as well as for the many houses around us NOT to contribute to fire hazards by putting Christmas lights on what would no-doubt be a very dry tree.
2. The cat has discovered he likes drinking water everywhere but his bowl, and gosh if that tree stand wouldn't be enticing.
3. The cat has never had the privilege of a Christmas tree, therefore his parents aren't sure how many times he will try to climb up it. (Fallen "real" tree = lots of needles to fall, precious ornaments to be crushed, and lights to be smashed, as opposed to normal crushing of ornaments and smashed lights)

<Yikes, why did I say I wanted to do this?>

ANYWAY...

So while we are going to miss our families terribly this year, we are thankful for so many reasons!

1. We are in Amarillo.
2. There is actually a call attached to our stay - Stephen has a job, we have a house, and the world is restoring to it's less chaotic nature...sort of...
3. I am a big girl and can make my own dressing. (Although it will never be good as yours MOM!)
4. Stephen and I are together for the holiday. <Aw, shucks ;)>
5. My back is on the mend, Stephens finger tip has less of a hole and more of a divot, and the cat has stopped throwing up everywhere <at least, I think what I'm finding is old...TMI>
6. People are taking care of us and inviting us to eat with them.
7. Thus, I escaped having to prepare a turkey. <Although one day, I will use the le cruset pot Mari Brooks got us as a wedding gift, and I will be thankful...particular if my back feels good enough to lift that beast of a pot with a turkey in it.>
8. God, the creator of the universe <put that in for you hun ;) >, provides so much for us that we cannot even begin to list it or be as thankful as we should be.

We send much love and many thanks to our family and friends out there! You all have been so supportive the past few months and we are truly grateful!


Peace!