Oh, Baby! Update

As you know, we've had an eventful fall.  To be honest, I've been in survival mode. Working full time while pregnant is not easy! I have a few posts planned on pregnancy updates, mostly just because there are some things I don't want to forget (especially if I ever find myself saying, "I want to be pregnant again." Spoiler alert - I don't! It's miserable...)... But in the meantime, we are happy to announce that...

We were honestly shocked. We seriously thought it was a boy! I'm carrying very low, I've had headaches and other aches and pains... We also had a boy name picked out... and little boy clothes are so much cuter than little girl clothes. So we were very surprised to find out it's a girl! But we are happy nonetheless. I'm excited to share with her all the fun things I did as a little girl with my mom - tea parties, Betsy-Tacy, Anne of Green Gables, lots of crafts, etc. And my husband is excited to have a little daddy's girl to adore! 

Now comes the hard part - picking a name!  At least we have a few more months to figure that out!

XO,
Julie

Favorite Literary Quotes Part 2

Aliis Sinisalu

My first "Favorite Literary Quotes" was quite popular. So I thought I'd do a second version!

Here are some of my favorite quotes, from books, poems, essays, and other literary sources. Which one is your favorite?

Janko Ferlič

“She hoped to be wise and reasonable in time; but alas! Alas! She must confess to herself that she was not wise yet.” 

― Jane Austen, Persuasion

“Let us never underestimate the power of a well-written letter.” 

― Jane Austen, Persuasion

Álvaro Serrano

“The real things haven't changed. It is still best to be honest and truthful; to make the most of what we have; to be happy with simple pleasures; and have courage when things go wrong.”

― Laura Ingalls Wilder

“She succumbed to the eternal feminine passion for bargains.”

― Georgette Heyer, Cotillion

“She tried to act as though it were nothing to go to the library alone. But her happiness betrayed her. Her smile could not be restrained, and it spread from her tightly pressed mouth, to her round cheeks, almost to the hair ribbons tied in perky bows over her ears.”

― Maud Hart Lovelace, Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown

Alfons Morales

“Was life always like that? she wondered. A game of hide and seek in which you only occasionally found the person you wanted to be?”

― Maud Hart Lovelace, Betsy and the Great World

“I can live alone, if self-respect, and circumstances require me so to do. I need not sell my soul to buy bliss. I have an inward treasure born with me, which can keep me alive if all extraneous delights should be withheld, or offered only at a price I cannot afford to give.”

― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

John-Mark Kuznietsov

Sea Fever

By John Masefield

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by;
And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey dawn breaking.

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;

And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull’s way and the whale’s way where the wind’s like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over.

Diogo Sousa

What's your favorite literary quote?

Eventful

I can't believe it has been two months since I last posted about our move!  Soooo much has happened... As soon as we got back from Ukraine in July, we packed up our entire house, sold a bunch of our stuff, and moved back to California. As soon as we got to our apartment we knew we couldn't stay in it - it smelled like cigarettes! We realized that if we wouldn't stay one night in a hotel room that smelled that bad, why would we *live* in a place that smelled so gross? Luckily our apartment complex let us move to a different apartment in the same complex. So we had to pack up all our stuff *again* and move into a new apartment.

Meanwhile, my aunt, who I was very close to, passed away. It was such a sad time for my family. She actually lived very near to where I had moving to, and we had planned to meet up before school started so she could hear all about my new job.  She was also a very big supporter of our Ukraine trip, and I was looking forward to telling her all about it. She loves music and loves supporting mission trips, so I knew she would love to hear all about our trip. I still can't believe she is gone and I miss her so much.

But if the stress of moving across the country, having a close family member pass away, and then having to move again wasn't enough... I started a new job. Don't get me wrong, I was super excited about my new job. It's exactly what I was hoping and praying for! I'm teaching at an all-girls school, and I'm teaching only music! I love it!

BUT... of course, starting a new job is stressful - learning the ropes, learning a new system, meeting a ton of new people... And then on the second day of new-teacher orientation... I found out that I'm pregnant!

So... baby is due in April! Wow, that was unexpected! We actually were preparing ourselves for the fact that we might not ever be able to get pregnant.  We had been "trying" (not super duper trying, but not preventing) for four years. We actually went to our respective doctors last spring to find out if we had fertility issues. My doctor told me that, with my endometriosis and thyroid problems, it would be difficult to get pregnant. I would need surgery, and even then, it wouldn't be easy. We had decided to wait to do surgery, etc, until after we moved out to California. But I guess we got lucky, because baby is already at 13 weeks!

Let me tell you - starting a new job is hard. Starting a new job while in your first trimester is extremely hard. I haven't been taking well to pregnancy - been feeling very ill and exhausted. I just hope this baby is cute!!! ;)

So now you're all caught up! And now you understand why I haven't blogged in awhile!  Everyone keeps telling me, and I hope they're right, that I will start to feel better soon and have more energy soon.  I can't wait until the day when I can come home from work and not collapse in bed until the next day. But maybe this is just my life now. I'm destined for a life of exhaustion, aka motherhood...

I hope to blog some more and continue to share about our adventures in California. We plan to see the redwoods soon, and we I also want to take Peter to the Monterey Bay Aquarium (he hasn't been yet). I'll update here as often as I can!

Thanks for reading!
XO,
Julie