OK, I'm ready for the second trimester, please. All of the pregnancy books and websites and traditional wisdom say that with the second trimester come renewed energy, no more queasiness/nausea, and a greatly reduced risk of miscarriage, among other desirable improvements. I bought new lip gloss and nail polish for myself at Target on my lunch break today as a mini-celebration of almost reaching that milestone and in anticipation of that extra energy I'm supposed to get. I can paint my nails.

I came down with a sore throat/stuffy nose cold yesterday (woke up with it all of a sudden), so I'm not going to go over to Joe and Ricci's house like we'd planned to visit the parents and new baby. Even though I feel OK, I'd just as soon wait a few days to make sure Ricci feels comfortable with me coming. I keep looking on Mission Hospital's "View Our Newborns" page to see if there will be a picture of little Jeremiah (Miles), but I haven't seen anything yet.

I must be very busy to have not posted in almost a week. But I am as far away from busy at work as I've ever been. The past couple of weeks have just dragged by. If the proposal writer position weren't basically indispensable, I would wonder how much longer we'd be around, because no work is coming in for us (the reason being the sales force has been recently reorganized, and we work closely with them and depend on the sales people to bring proposal prospects to us). But really, if they were going to lay off any proposal writers, it would be proposal writer S and/or proposal writer J before me. They are slackers, slow learners, one of them has ADD and says the most nonsensical things all the time, and their proposals are sub-par. So there.

Phil and Katrina's wedding was this past Saturday. It turned out great. I had Friday off to do the bridesmaid stuff and go to the rehearsal and dinner... even took a few "girl talk" minutes with Katrina as she was quite nervous about the wedding night. The wedding was on Saturday at 11:30, and the reception was at the Summit House in Fullerton, which was really nice. Katrina was a beautiful bride.

This past week, I've had a few "sick" pregnancy days. They haven't been bad, but I'm definitely counting down the days 'til the second trimester. I'm at 10 weeks 3 days today--over 1/4 of the way through the pregnancy already.

One more tidbit of news: Joe and Ricci Brosseau's baby boy, Jeremiah (Miles) Tobin, was born late on Sunday, October 24. He weighed 7 pounds 13 ounces, was 19 inches long, and has light hair! Congratulations!

Pregnancy Dreams
For a few weeks now, I've been having very vivid dreams. I've read that this is a relatively common symptom of pregnancy. Weird! The dreams have mostly had nothing to do with our baby or babies in general. They've just been vivid and I've remembered them (strange for me). Last night, I dreamed that I completely forgot about the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner this Friday for Katrina's wedding--that I just showed up on Saturday for the wedding thinking everything was going fine.

A couple of weeks ago, I dreamed that Jon cheated on me and was not remorseful about it (I woke up sad but then realized that I'm actually married to the best man in the world). (I also read that "spouse cheating" dreams are common in pregnancy!)

Of course, now that I'm thinking about it, I can't remember the other vivid dreams I've had. I'll update periodically when I have them, though. I think they're interesting.

The cruise was great! The food was of course the best part. We were scheduled for the 6:00 "main seating" for dinner each night, and you dress up kind of nice and sit at the same table each night with a different menu. You can order as much as you want (it's free!--all except alcohol and soda). Each night, I ordered 2 appetizers, a main entrée, and a dessert. One night I had a virgin strawberry daiquiri--yum. Saturday night was the "formal" dinner, so we all dressed up.

We also went to the different comedy and musical shows, and Jon and Neil spent some time in the casino. The weather was just perfect, and we spent a couple of hours each day at the pool. Sunday was our day in Ensanada, Mexico, but we didn't stay off the boat long: Ensanada is only about a half notch above Tijuana in cleanliness and niceness. It was nicer to stay on the boat. We slept in Saturday and Sunday mornings and just had a very relaxing time!

We had the "inside information" on how to get off the boat early on Monday morning: we requested white "early debarkation" tags for our luggage and were the first called off our ship. We found out that Jon's and my deck, #2, was going to be the last to get off the ship, and that would have been around noon, even though everyone had to be out of their cabin by 7:00 or 7:30 or so. Anyway, we got off the ship by 7:30, and Jon went to work while Neil and Casey drove me home. It was all very fun!

So that was our weekend! I had yesterday off work too, and I unpacked, did laundry, went to the grocery store, and went to a tailor to get my bridesmaid dress altered for Katrina's wedding (which is this Saturday!). Now I’m back at work.

Our cruise is tomorrow! We've been planning this trip for over a year, so it's very cool that it's actually here. Neil and Casey are picking me up from our house at 1:30 tomorrow (I'm working a half day first), and we're driving up to Jon's office, since he's relatively close to the port. We'll probably make it over to the ship by 3:00 or 4:00, and I think we sail at 6:00. Saturday is our day at sea, so I hope the weather's good for doing activities. Sunday is a day in Ensanada, where Neil, Casey, and Jon have all been but I haven't. Then, we sail back to Long Beach/L.A. Sunday night and arrive Monday morning. One of the evenings is "formal" for dinner, so I'm bringing a long black dress with a silver spider webby design. I haven't worn it since 1999, but I tried it on last night and it looks just OK. It doesn't make me look like I'm pregnant--it just makes me look like I have a poochy tummy (it's a drapy/clingy fabric). Oh well!

Jon and I have never been on a cruise before, so I'm hoping Jon doesn't get seasick. :)

The doctor's appointment went well yesterday. It was basically just like an annual exam. The doctor also did an internal exam to determine how big baby is/when I'm due, but (maybe TMI for some of you guys) she said my uterus is tilted (I guess very common), so I'm going in today for an ultrasound! I get to see the baby and baby's heartbeat! I don't think Jon can come down for this appointment--it's at noon and he has a meeting at 10:00, so that's a bummer since the ultrasound is the cool thing. Anyway, just wanted to let you know everything went well yesterday!

Edit: the ultrasound was SO COOL! I saw our little baby and the heartbeat. The tech said the heartbeat is nice and strong, and I think she said it was beating at 167 (that's right--beats per minute! They're fast little tickers). After measuring the size of the baby, she said my due date will probably stay where it is at May 21--the computer calculated May 20, so we were pretty darn close with our own calculations. I got two little pictures of our bean-shaped kid, and Jon sounded excited to see those tonight. You can actually tell where the head is and even where the arm buds and legs are in the pictures. :)

A nice weekend
I think getting off work early on Friday started everything off right. We spent Friday evening at Scott and Kim's house for dinner and a rented movie ("Big Fish"--Jon and I saw this in the theaters and liked it even more seeing it Friday). On Saturday, we did lots of housework and yardwork (I used my new mop on our tile floors--loved it), but not until after we went out for a late breakfast at Ruby's (so late, in fact, that they had stopped serving breakfast, so we got lunch). Chris and Sabrina came over for dinner on Saturday night; we grilled tri-tip and had salad, potatoes au gratin, and French bread for dinner and Sabrina's homemade pazookies for dessert while we watched "Bourne Identity." (I've just noticed my tendency to sometimes italicize movie names and sometimes put them in quotations--oh well.) (Also, I did tell Sabrina that I'm pregnant--she was very excited and happy. When they came over, I told her that she was one of the only friends I'd known who had been trying to get pregnant--most of my other friends either got preg by accident or didn't tell me they were trying--so because of that, I had expected it to take a lot longer for us. I think she respected the fact that I had taken her experience into consideration.) Sunday was our usual nice Sunday: church (music, sound), lunch with friends at the food court, naps at home (and I am definitely pregnant--I slept for 2 hours!), and Jon's basketball game. We went to Scott and Kim's after the game (Scott's on the team too) and watched the Dodgers lose (sad for Jon). Also on Sunday, I told Katrina that I'm pregnant--and she too, of course, was excited. It's good to have that done now, because I can just focus on her wedding and helping her day be special.

Now I'm back to work for another week, but this will be a shortened one: I'm leaving work early again today, AND I'm only working a half day on Friday, because on Friday we go on our cruise! It's finally here! But more on that later this week...

Today is my first doctor's appointment. My cute husband is going to go with me, despite the fact that the appointment is smack dab in the middle of the day and is located nowhere near his office or any of his stores. I'm excited to talk to the doc!

Ahhhhh, Friday.
This is going to be a nice weekend. The past two have been busy (Katrina's bridal shower on the 25th; memorial service at church--Jon did sound and I played flute--on the 2nd followed by a fun but long 2nd birthday party for Sierra). And I even get to start out my weekend early today: I'm taking 3 hours of paid time off to leave at 1:30 and go get my hair cut/highlighted (I checked into this, and it's OK for me to do that while pregnant--just can't sit around inhaling from all the bottles and chemicals). Mmmm, and I think I will treat myself to a decaf frappucino afterwards (4 weeks of no coffee--even decaf--has already made me miss it a bit!).

I think we've told most everyone (besides my work) about our news... except our friends Chris and Sabrina. We met them through Nate and Louise (and although N & L know, I know they didn't tell C & S), so they are a separate set of friends from most of ours. (Chris and Sabrina go to a different church.) Anyway, I tried to get in touch with Sabrina yesterday but couldn't. I'm just a little bit worried about telling her, though, because I know they have been trying to get pregnant for well over a year. I don't know how to show my excitement and share the news but also be sensitive to how that might affect her (or not affect her--I mean, I know she'll be excited, but I'm not sure how much or even if it will hurt her). I don't think I'll flaunt the ease with which it happened for us. I was expecting a much longer wait. But, anyway, this is what I'm praying about and thinking through today.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Edit: I just remembered that I've also been wondering about whether or not to tell Katrina (college roommate who is getting married in 2 weeks). I don't want to "steal her thunder," though I don't think she would take it that way. I just don't see her in person very often, especially now. With her, I think I just need to call today or this weekend and tell her. That way it won't be a big deal on her wedding day, but she'll also know in case I don't feel good or something (then I wouldn't have to try to explain that on the day of).

A new, great, exciting update...
or The reason I haven't been posting lately

I couldn't just keep blogging as usual, when things haven't been as usual. And I couldn't start blogging about things that were going on--that wasn't the right order of events. Am I being cryptic enough for you? Here we go... I found out on Friday, 9/17, that I'm pregnant. Yes! I had to tell family and close friends before I posted on here--I don't think my grandmother would have appreciated finding out about her next great grandchild by reading it on my blog. As of today, I am about 7 and a half weeks pregnant (baby is about the size of a raspberry!), and my first doctor's appointment is Monday (this doctor group waits until at least 8 weeks). I am so excited! This is something I have been looking forward to for years. My due date is somewhere around May 21, though I'm sure the doctor will give me a bit firmer date after my appointment.

Some of the reactions of my family members and friends:

~From my mother - an actual squeal (I don't think I've ever heard my mom do this) and lots of happiness
~From my dad - "Well shucks, how did that happen?"
~From my grandmother - "Well, Katie, isn't that just absolutely perfect?"
~From Lucy - a couple seconds of silence. Then, "You are? Yaaaaaaayyy!"
~From Greg - after I told him not to cry: "Too late."
~From Scott and Kim - We were with them in the mall parking lot while they put their kids in the car, and Jon said, "We're thinking we're going to have ourselves one of those [kids]." Scott replied, "Yeah, any time in this lifetime?" and I said, "Around May 21st, actually." Kim popped her head back out of the car and asked, "What?! Are you pregnant?" Lots of smiles, hugs, and questions ensued.
~From some of our other friends - Some happy tears! They know how much I've been looking forward to this.

As far as pregnancy symptoms and morning sickness, etc., I'm feeling pretty good. There were about 10 days to 2 weeks there where I was feeling queasy or nauseous all day every day, with it being especially bad in the mornings. That made being at work all day very difficult, especially since no one at work knows--try explaining why I'm so tired and haven't felt good for so long AND that I'm not contagious, all without telling I'm pregnant! I won't announce it at work for several more weeks probably--probably until I'm just showing. Anyway, ever since last Wednesday, I've been feeling much better. I've learned I must have food in my stomach or else I start feeling bad, so I'm eating a mid-morning and mid-afternoon snack in addition to breakfast, lunch, and dinner. That helps. It looks like I'll be feeling good when we go on our cruise next weekend (yes we're still going! Of course! Not like I would have really had that much alcohol anyway), and I'm hoping I still easily fit into the bridesmaid dress for Katrina's wedding 10/23--so far so good on that front.

So, that's the news! And, as long as work stays under control (it has been busier this week and last week), I'll be back to posting more regularly.
:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

I promise a new, great, exciting update within the next 48 hours. Well, don't hold me to the "great" or "exciting" parts--but I'll try.

For now, here are two (digital) pictures from our trip to Europe:

In front of the cathedral in Strasbourg, France:


Heidelberg cathedral:

The bridal shower went very well on Saturday. I only got a little bit lost on the way to the location... It was a very lovely house with a beautiful backyard perfect for the event. We did the games I had prepared, had a really good lunch (which I just helped prepare--didn't make any of it), and watched Katrina open a bunch of cool gifts. I was exhausted by the end of the day, and I drove home and sat on the couch for the rest of the day until Jon got home. :) I'm glad this year's shower season is over!

Other than the shower (or in addition to it), this weekend was nice. We went to Macaroni Grill on Friday for Colleen's birthday, and Janel (Jon's sister) and Seth (her 9-month-old son) came too--they're back in CA! Sunday was our normal Sunday: church (Jon did sound and I did my usual music stuff), fellowship and lunch with friends after church at the mall food court, naps at home, some editing work, and Jon's basketball game in the evening. And now it's back to another week of work!

Tomorrow is the bridal shower I'm hosting/helping to host for my college roommate. This is the last shower I'm doing for the year...thank goodness. I really have liked doing them, but this one has been stressful. It turned into a lot larger ordeal (and a lot larger guest list) than I had anticipated.

My to do list before tomorrow:

--print/bring gift list sheet
--finish wrapping present
--print & cut sheets for picture game
--get together all game stuff (poster, 2 sets of papers)
--buy a few packs of pens
--buy bread
--decide what to wear
--find & bring name tags

Finishing the list would be easier if today weren't my mother-in-law's birthday. We're doing dinner for her tonight.

Thankfully, the lady at whose house the shower is being held is doing most of the food. I'll arrive an hour or so early to help set up. Hope I feel OK. I've been feeling blah all week.

I'm still not feeling like blogging, but I'm doing it anyway. I should be gearing up for my 100th post, which I think occurs next post or the one after that (it seems blogger has been stuck at 97 for a couple of my posts).

Those two prospective flute students from last night will now become weekly students, which makes my total student list add up to... 3. Actually, ideally I'd like to stick to 3, max 4, while I work full-time and edit (and cook/clean, etc.).

I haven't been feeling very bloggy this past week. So I'm just checking in. Here I am. I have some editing to work on, and two new flute students are coming by the house for consultations tonight. Adios.

Back in the swing of things
This is my second day back at work, and things are going fine. I didn't experience much jet lag at all, which is nice.

I miss Ellie (Nate and Louise's daughter). She's quite cute. One of her favorite activities is to say, "Sase! Sase!" (chase) and run around one of their armchairs while someone chases her. When the adult feels it's time to stop (it's tiring!), she'll say, "Mo-wee," which means more.

Upon returning to work yesterday, I found out that I had the opportunity to switch desks with someone (the situation is too lengthy to describe, but it involves a whiny guy who doesn't want to move back to his old desk though he's being asked, so instead he asked me to move to his old place and he'd move to mine. Gosh, I guess that wasn't so lengthy). Though I like my current location (it's tucked away and has a window view, and no one can walk up behind me without my knowing--and the other location has none of these benefits), this move would move me away from annoying coworker. Hmm. Tempting. It's funny to me that whiny coworker would even want my desk, though, because I don't think he and annoying coworker get along at all. I guess he likes the people over at his old desk even less. But I don't think I'm going to give him the satisfaction. Moving both him and me makes absolutely no sense; it would probably even ruffle some feathers (even with a "directive" from boss, annoying coworker would probably realize this was something either whiny guy or I requested--this may hurt her feelings, which I don't want to do. She may also be "mad" at me for having agreed to a move that would put whiny guy next to her, since I know she doesn't like him). So, I don't think I'm going to do it, but I just find it interesting. The end.

We're back and the trip was great
We got in to LAX last night around 8:00 and back to the house at 10:00 CA time (after having traveled for 21 hours...yikes). I'll finish my little trip log...

On Thursday, Louise and I went for those massages... they were heavenly. I have only gotten one professional massage before, and I loved it. This was just as good. In fact, this was the first time I'd ever gotten a facial, and I especially loved that because they rubbed my feet. I almost fell asleep! We bought a quick lunch after the massages, and drove to the next town over to go to a discount pottery place. I bought 3 square Christmas plates with their famous design on them. Louise and I had a good time talking while we drove around that day. We watched "Sweet Home Alabama" that night to complete our girls' day!

On Friday, it was the guys' day. They rented a BMW and enjoyed driving fast to their main destination: golf. Jon said he hit 210 km/hr on the way home (around 130 mph). I think they had a good time playing golf, though I guess they were paired with a VERY slow other 2 guys for their foursome (they said there were conversations of over a half hour in between holes...).

On Saturday, Jon and I went by ourselves to Cologne (Köln), a city about 1.5 hours away from Wiesbaden that has the largest cathedral in Germany (it was huge!). We ate at McDonald's (hey, we were by ourselves and we know no German!) and took a guided tour of the cathedral. We also walked around the train station and paid 2 euros to use the restroom. By that time, it was time to head back to Wiesbaden (and hit 220 km/hr on the way!), since Nate, Louise, Jon, and I planned on going back to that good Italian restaurant (Casa Europa I think it's called) one last time. They have bruschetta to die for and really good soup (I got the cream of tomato both times we went, and Nate loves the cream of broccoli, cream being the key word!). We watched "The Saint" that evening, and Jon and I stayed up late packing.

Sunday was time to go home. Our flight out of Frankfurt was at 10:30 a.m. (though with delays and a "Folks, we'll be returning to the gate momentarily to have a faulty temperature gauge checked out" from the captain, we didn't take off 'til noon). I finished Angle of Repose on this first flight, though. We had a long layover in Charlotte and were very glad to get back to L.A. last night. I got a rush of "been up way too long" energy last night and ended up unpacking and putting everything away before we went to bed. :)

I have the day off work today to recover from jet lag (actually don't have any...yet!), get film developed, catch up on e-mail and editing, do some laundry, go grocery shopping, etc.

Trip log
We are having a great time! We got in on Saturday morning 7:00, after having gotten barely 2-3 hours sleep on the flights (there were kids sitting behind us with no parents on the flight, and it was hard to sleep anyway), but we made it through the whole day just fine with a 1-hour nap. I did sleep 12 hours that night, though (9 to 9). :) I think it was this day that we went to downtown Wiesbaden and walked around. Jon found a T-Mobile store ("T-Punkt") and was impressed with how big it was and all the phones they had that still hadn't made it to the states.

On Sunday, we went to chapel, and then we went out to a GOOD Italian restaurant for lunch. I'm blanking on what else we did this day... I think we just hung out, napped, etc., and had a good dinner at Nate & Louise's house.

On Monday, we all drove the 2.5 hours or so to Strasbourg, France. We saw the cool church (neat stained glass) and walked around the city, and we ate at a little French café (I even spoke a little French!). Then we took the 1+ hour boat guided tour of the city, which was really nice and pretty, though it got very hot towards the end. (Speaking of weather, it has been PERFECT so far every day!—mid 70s-ish and sunny and breezy.) We got some ice cream at another place, and I mistakenly ordered raspberry for everyone, not strawberry (oops… framboise=raspberry… I think fraise=strawberry). It was still really good. In the afternoon, we drove to Heidelberg and dropped off our things and Ellie with Louise’s mom at their house. Then we went out to dinner at Die Kartoffel (spelling? It means "The Potato" in German). It’s a fun tavern-like restaurant where they bring you your meat raw on a very hot stone, and you cook it yourself. It comes with 3 good sauces, a big potato, and salad. It was really good! We also walked around that city after dinner (Laderbrunen?); it’s the oldest city in Germany and has a Roman column from the year 2. That night we slept at Louise’s parents’ house in Heidelberg.

On Tuesday, we spent the day in Heidelberg. Jon and I climbed the steps to the top of the bell tower of the church (very cool views of the city) and took a guided tour of the castle ruins. The city is really neat. Pepperdine has a campus there, though we weren’t exactly sure where to find it. We had lunch at Nate and Louise’s favorite Thai place in Heidelberg—it was actually very good! That evening we drove back to Wiesbaden and had fondu for dinner and watched a movie here.

Today has been a relaxing/home day, because Louise had a doctor’s appointment (she’s pregnant, due in March) and Nate has youth group today. Tomorrow, Louise and I are going to get 2-hour massages, and on Friday, Jon’s renting a car to drive the autobahn. :o)

Toodloo!
I'm hoping to blog a bit while we're gone (the Johnsons have a computer, and Louise is pregnant and will probably want to nap and have "down time") to keep up on the different things we've done, but I'm not 100% sure I'll be able to. Don't want to be rude.

We have no trip itinerary since we're letting Nate and Louise lead the way, but I do think we'll go to Heidelberg one day and maybe Strasbourg. We're staying in Wiesbaden. Here's a map of Germany. :) I think Nate has youth group activities at least one of the nights, so we'll probably participate in that.

Auf Wiedersehen!

Updated updated to do list
-change sheets
-pack toiletries and carry-on bags

DONE:
-buy BBQ sauce for Nate and Louise from Wood Ranch
-laundry
-Coinstar our "rainy day" change
-cash? traveler's checks?
-buy new camera (it's awesome--at least I love it! A Canon Rebel--I think that's the right one)
-clean out fridge perishables
-found out about sleeping pills; might have them or might not
-buy & mail b-day card for Greg
-get out passports and other traveling docs
-pack (at least I packed. Jon, on the other hand....)
-stop worrying

Updated to do list
-change sheets if guests are staying at our house
-clean out fridge perishables
-buy sleeping pills for flight???
-buy & mail b-day card for Greg
-get out passports and other traveling docs
-pack
-stop worrying

DONE:
-buy BBQ sauce for Nate and Louise from Wood Ranch
-laundry
-Coinstar our "rainy day" change
-cash? traveler's checks?
-get camera from Ray? film? (nevermind on this one; we might get our own camera)