{spontaneous}

Last weekend we decided very last minute to go up to a ranch in Oklahoma to meet up with some friends from JBU.

Thomas and I went to the same ranch back in March for a weekend getaway.

It's a beautiful place.

Caleb is living and working at the ranch (renovating the entire ranch house). Matt and Haley were living across the border in Arkansas, but they moved up to Missouri this week so we wanted to see them before they moved further north.

We did fun stuff like driving around in a Jeep and on a four-wheeler to see the ranch.
Thomas & Matt on the four-wheeler 

Matt & Haley on the four-wheeler through the dirty back window of the Jeep.

Me & Thomas on the four-wheeler.
Thomas wore my sunglasses so he wouldn't get bugs in his eyes.

Exploring.

And we went swimming in the salt water pool.

We ate good food.

Caleb and his steaks.

S'mores for dessert.

Haley and her tiny little baby bump roasting marshmallows.

Hobo burgers for lunch the next day.
If you've never had a hobo burger, you're missing out.

Basically, a hobo burger is ground beef, potatoes, onions, garlic, carrots, peppers (whatever veggies you want), and cream of mushroom soup wrapped up in aluminium foil and thrown in the fire for an hour or so.
SO good.

The boys

A few goodbye pictures before we parted ways...

The boys and the obligatory Squatting Felix picture.

Matt & Haley & Baby Boyd!

 The group of us :)

What a fun weekend!

6 weeks {I think}

How far along: Around 6 weeks! Will have a better idea next week at our ultrasound appointment.

Baby size: A sweet pea :)

Total weight gain/loss: I don't think anything has changed so far.

Sleep: I sleep like the dead... SO tired.

Movement: Nope... that won't come for another couple of months.

Food cravings/aversions: For some reason, I don't like butter anymore. Ewww. I tried eating a piece of toast with butter on it and it was just gross. I've been craving spicy and salty things... I make my own fresh salsa and I put a lot of jalapeno peppers in it this time! Apparently craving spicy and salty things means I'm having a boy. [Craving sweet things = girl].

Pregnancy symptoms: The usual first trimester stuff... I'm tired all the time, I have to pee all the time, I have very sore *certain parts of my anatomy in the chest area* [The hubby gets all uncomfortable when I use the word "boobs", hahaha, so I really have to come up with a code word... hmmm]. I've had some mild queasiness every so often and I'm hoping that's as bad as it's going to get!

What I miss: Nothing much right now.

What I'm looking forward to: Our first ultrasound next week! I can't wait to see Baby Appleseed, and maybe even hear his/her heartbeat.

Milestones: Baby Appleseed's tiny little heart started pumping blood this week!

Best moment of this week: Just waking up every morning and my heart jumping with happiness when I remember that I'm pregnant :)

Pregnancy moments with the hubby: I'm just loving explaining pregnancy and baby stuff to TAC... he's pretty clueless :) But it's also really cute when he goes and looks stuff up. I told him this morning that I'm feeling more tired than usual these days, and he said "apparently that's pretty normal for the first trimester"... so cute!

The story of how we found out.

Before I forget, I want to write down the story of how we found out about Baby Appleseed... you know, for posterity. In case posterity is interested.

It was a blisteringly hot late Sunday afternoon (the 12th of June) and the hubby and I decided to go for a run around the 2-mile loop near our apartment. The temperature was at least 100 F and humidity was so high I had a hard time breathing - I felt like I was sucking in water instead of air. I have no idea why we thought it was a good idea to go running when it was so ridiculously hot. But off we went... we walked the first little bit to warm up, then start jogging. I barely made it half a mile before I had to stop. I felt SO overheated. The sun was beating down and I felt like I couldn't catch my breath, it was just too hot. We ended up walking most of the rest of the way, jogging occasionally when we came to a shady area where it felt slightly less unbearably hot. The hubby could have run more, but I was just too tired.

I was so exhausted when we got home - my feet felt like they were boiling in my shoes and the rest of me was just radiating heat. We both just sprawled out on the living room floor with the air-conditioning blasting, trying to cool off. Once I was decently cooled off, I decided to take a cold shower. Before I got in the shower, however, something made me pull out a pregnancy test and take it.

Here's a little back story: I have very irregular cycles, so I keep a little stockpile of pregnancy tests so I can test to make sure I'm not pregnant. Also, for the two weeks before this fateful Sunday the 12th of June, certain parts of my anatomy in the chest area *ahem* *cough, cough* had been very tender (but that's also not uncommon with my irregular cycles). So it was a combination of that, and the fact that I just felt unusually exhausted after this run/walk, that made me take a test. I was FULLY expecting it to be completely negative, like every test I'd ever taken before.

After I took the test I set it down and walked out of the bathroom to grab my towel. I returned only a few seconds later, and there staring back up at me were TWO PINK LINES. * cue panic attack * When I got my voice back, I yelled for the hubby to come see, just to make sure my eyes were not playing tricks on me.  They weren't.

Here's the picture again.

The rest of the evening was spent in a daze. I think we watched some TV, ate some dinner, and just sat on the couch trying to wrap our minds around the idea that I was pregnant.

Oh Baby Appleseed, how you have turned our lives upside down! In a good way, of course.

Happy Father's Day!

I just wanted to do a quick post in honor of my hubby, the new father-to-be. I'm pretty sure I got the best guy out there, and he is going to be an amazing father. While we are both currently overwhelmed by the surprise that we're having a baby, he has been my rock during my pregnant/hormonal/emotional breakdowns. I'm sure he feels every bit as scared as I do, but he stays strong for me. He works hard to make sure we will be well provided for, and I never doubt that he will take care of our new little family whatever comes our way. I'm loving  every moment of this new journey with him. We have times where we just get so excited about Baby Appleseed, and other times where we feel completely out of our league... but we are always together, and that's what matters. Our relationship has reached new depths in the past week since we found out we were pregnant.

I love you, TAC! And so does Baby Appleseed :)

I'm really am pregnant.

Those pee-on-a-stick pregnancy tests are obviously very accurate, but nothing compares to the doctor's office calling to give you the results of your blood tests, which resoundingly say I'm pregnant.

I had my first blood test on Tuesday. Blood tests are fairly traumatic for me... I've had bad experiences with them since I was a little girl. I've fainted twice and I come close to fainting every time. I was nervous because my husband couldn't come with me and I would have to drive myself home afterwards. I ate lunch just before I went to keep my blood sugar up, and I drank LOTS of water all day long to keep my blood volume up. Both of these tactics worked... and I told the technician I would need to lie down for the test because I'm a fainter. The blood test was over in about 5 seconds. I stayed lying down for a couple of minutes just in case and got up slowly and I was fine. I got a fairly bad bruise at the site of the blood test, though.

On Wednesday the doctor's office called and told me my progesterone level was 18.5, which was very good. Apparently they want it to be at least 11. My HCG (or beta) level was 253. I asked if this gave them an idea of how far along I was, and the nurse who called said if she had to guess she would put me around 5 weeks, which is what I was thinking.

I had another blood test on Thursday to make sure my HCG levels were going up. The nurse told me they like to see them about double every 48 hours. This blood test was worse, for some reason. The technician put the rubber band/tourniquet around my arm, then got a phone call and left for a few minutes. By the time she got back, my arm was throbbing. She did the test on my left arm, since the first blood test had bruised my right arm, and she did it on the outer part of my elbow crease because apparently that's less prone to bruising. This time around I could feel the needle going in and coming out, and it took longer (maybe my blood volume wasn't as high as the first time?). Whatever the case, I felt pretty shaky when it was over and had to stay lying down for a while and then get up really slowly.

Ah, the trials I am already going through for you, Baby Appleseed! I am fully aware that there are much scarier things (ummm, LABOR!?) to come, but we'll take it step by step.

Blood test battle wounds. Bruise on my right arm, bandaid on my left.

The doctors office called yesterday (Friday) and told me that my HCG/beta level had gone up to 668. It more than doubled, and the nurse said that was very good. We set my first ultrasound appointment for the 29th of June. I can't wait to see Baby Appleseed and hear his/her heartbeat!

Little outfits that the hubby and I got to take pictures with :)

A Very Congdon Week

I meant to write this post earlier, but the past few days have been quite the whirlwind of crazyness.

{Warning: long post with many pictures coming right up}

Last week Thomas's parents and his two youngest brothers came to stay with us along their road trip around the U.S.

It was such a fun week. They arrived on Monday evening and left on Saturday midday.

Unfortunately I was not very good at taking pictures throughout the whole week... we did lots of fun things like eating at our favorite Thai restaurant, going out for Ethiopian food, and exploring our favorite places in Dallas.

The first pictures I have are from last Thursday, when we went to Six Flags Over Texas.

{Which is a big amusement park with lots of rollercoasters, for you non-Americans.}

Poor Thomas had to go to work while the rest of us were having a grand old time.

Waiting outside the gates for the park to open.

The very first thing these crazy people did...

... was to go on the Titan rollercoaster.

Someone had to stay behind with the bags and the camera, so I volunteered... and took pictures :)

I preferred the tame rides, like the antique cars.

And the mini mine train.

 Getting on the mini mine train.

You can kinda see me and Paul in the middle there...

They went on a slightly more adventurous ride close by...

After Paul had ridden the Titan he decided he'd had enough of a thrill, so we were the stuff-watchers and picture-takers while the rest of the fam went on the Shock Wave.

Dr. Rob and James went on the new Texas Giant. 

It's like a straight drop... eek!

I was happy to stay behind and take pictures.

There they go! (They are in the seventh row from the front).

 

On the home stretch, looking rather windswept.

It was really hot, so we interspersed the day with water rides, like the log flume.

This water ride took you up high and then dropped into a pool of water, soaking everyone.

You can sort of see the Congdons there in between the trees, going up, up up :)

 

... and completely soaked at the bottom

 

Candids throughout the day,

 

Right after getting soaked by the roaring rapids.

It was an amazingly fun and exhausting day.

On Friday we drove to Corsicana (an hour south) to meet up with some dear friends of the Congdons who were in Zambia with them when all the boys were little.

Lou and Jerry Schaefer with the Congdons.

A few random pictures from the week, just hanging out at home:

Gathered around the computer watching a funny Youtube video... and James, deeply engrossed in the "The Hunger Games" series.

What a great mother-in-law... doing the dishes :)

The computer & the Ipad again... more Youtube videos

We could hardly tear James away from these books all week!

[I can't blame him though, I've read them twice myself].

And Paul, with his rasta Tweety bird that he won at Six Flags.

Then on Saturday they had to leave :(

But first we went over to the country club to feed the fish & turtles and take pictures.

Hundreds of turtles appeared to eat our stale bread.

And then, they drove away :(

Sad day.

We had such a great week with six Congdons all under one roof (even though we live in a small one-bedroom apartment we didn't feel crowded at all!). Family time is always treasured when we all live so far apart.