Blueberry

I wrote this post ahead of time to chronicle our pregnancy journey before we made the big announcement for all the world to see! 7.31.12

Seven weeks is hard. I've had about every possible symptom several times thus far. I have had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Vomit. I'm so tired, pretty much all of the time. And, of course, we've been having record high temperatures. I am looking forward to the weather cooling down enough that I can at least get outside and enjoy some fresh air.

7 weeks already...and I don't look a bit different :)

Symptoms this week: like I said, pretty much everything. You name it, I can probably tell you about it. We went to the Ozarks with some family this past weekend. It was nice to get away, because I was able to forget about feeling sick sometimes and have fun. Other times, I struggled a bit to make sure I was staying hydrated and getting enough rest.

I've enjoyed settling into the idea of being pregnant. It was all so new the first few weeks, but now I feel like I'm getting into the routine of doing things a little differently. Our first appointment is still four weeks away, and I'm okay with that. I feel like there is no need to rush to do anything right now, which is a nice place to be during the exhausting first trimester.

The sign says "Blueberry" because that's how big our little Kiwi is right now.

The hardest part right now is pushing through the naseau and forcing myself to eat. Yesterday was an especially bad day for many symptoms, so I literally had to call my mom and force food down my throat. That's fun. I eventually did feel better. The sickness usually eases up around dinner time. How kind of it to torture me all day, just in time to cook dinner.

Grant and I have been reading pregnancy books and learning a lot from each other. It's been fun to enjoy this process together.

Love, the George family

Sweet Pea

I wrote this post ahead of time to chronicle our pregnancy journey before we made the big announcement for all the world to see! 7.23.12

6 weeks, and we have a little Sweet Pea growing! :) We have decided to stop calling it "it" or "baby" and have finally settled on kiwi. We went through several names before settling on that one, but found it to be most fitting because of our recent adventures in NZ.

It's been a rough week. I started out with the same symptoms as last week, but they peaked on Saturday morning and I was sick all day. I've had digestive issues, naseau and dry heaving, food and smell aversions, exhaustion, headaches, and soreness. I'm feeling better today and have even been able to get quite a bit of cleaning done, but it's been a much slower process.

I'm also feeling rather bloated these days, although I don't really look any different.

I've been reading "The Pregnancy Book" by the Sears, and it has been very helpful in encouraging me that my symptoms are normal, even good, you may venture. It means that kiwi is growing strong and my HCG levels are soaring to new heights (and giving my body a run for it's money).

I think the worst part for me is convincing myself that nothing is wrong - I don't need to fix something or eat better or work out more...I need to rest, eat whatever I can handle at the moment, and do my best to stay healthy for this little one. Now that's encouragement!

Our first baby purchase - a ducky tub organizer! Half price and too cute to pass up :)

We've now told our immediate families. They were both very excited, and it will be fun to tell some more of our family and friends in the coming weeks. Some people wait until the second trimester to tell anyone, but this news is just too good to completely keep quiet!

Love, the George family

Alma mater

Grant and I met at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, OK. Being from Iowa, many people wonder how I ended up at a small private university in Oklahoma when I tell them where I studied. I ended up there because of some good friends in high school who invited me on a college weekend.

A junior at the time, it didn't seem like I needed to make these big decisions yet. My mom didn't want me to go because it was so far away and we would be gone for several days. I really wanted to go on an adventure with friends, and my parents finally agreed. Much to everyone's surprise, I fell in love with the school and decided that it was where I was going to attend college.

I applied early and even sent in some scholarship applications, which resulted in an 80% tuition scholarship - I don't know if I would have otherwise been able to go! It was definitely a huge blessing and seemed like a miracle to me.

My first birthday in Tulsa my friends threw me a surprise bowling party - it was so sweet!

A year and a half later, I found myself on the campus of Oral Roberts University. Grant and I recently figured out when we first met: He was selling t-shirts for the Honors Program during registration and I stopped by with my family. He told us the price, I looked at my dad, and Grant said something to the effect of, "Well, now dad has to buy her a shirt." Ha! If only dad knew that there would be a wedding to help pay for down the road. ;)

We didn't start dating until over two years later, but we developed a friendship through several classes we had together, especially walks back to the dorm after Marriage and the Family (ironic, right?), and sitting next to each other in Spanish class.

The praying hands statue at the entrance to the University.

It's a great school. We both cherish the experience we had there, and Tulsa will forever be a city that is near and dear to our hearts. We learned a lot about ourselves and our faith. We developed into the people we are today. And, of course, we met each other. :)

Just a litte history!

Love, the George family

Applesauce Love

For our wedding anniversary in April, I wanted to do something special but we weren't supposed to do anything expensive. My friend, Bethany, had introduced me to the idea of doing an "I love you because..." board that she found on Pinterest. The materials cost me about $10-15. It took some work, but you can make them much simpler than I did. I wanted to use complementary scrapbook paper for the background and letters, so I had to cut each letter out by hand. I also secured a matching ribbon that the frame can hang from, but we just have it standing on a small table for now.

Grant's anniversary gift from me!

Well, since he had his special board, he wanted me to have one. He found this adorable chalkboard at Target, and it became my board.

So cute!

He's been really creative with it, too! I love all of the little drawings. :)

His message was inspired by my applesauce experiment earlier this week. When he was young, his nana got him an apple tree and a peach tree for his birthday one year. The peach tree was fruitful, but is no longer at his parent's house. The apple tree was fruitful, but the birds always got to the apples first. This year, though, his mom noticed that they were ripe enough to eat, so we picked several apples and took them home.

Fresh picked apples - we had about 20 more!

Now the question was what to do with all of them. Applesauce was thrown out as a suggestion, and initially I decided I'd rather do something else that wasn't so much work. But, I had some extra time last week, and it IS one of his favorite foods, so I went for it. This is the recipe I used:

4 apples, peeled, cored, and chopped

3/4 cup water

1/4 cup white sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinammon

In a saucepan, combine apples, water, sugar, and cinnamon. Cover, and cook over medium heat for 15 to 20 minutes, or until apples are soft. Allow to cool, then mash with a fork or potato masher.

It doesn't get much easier than that! It took time to peel and boil and cool, but it wasn't complicated. And...it tastes great! I'd love to try a stevia or xylitol version sometime, but I didn't want to experiment too much on Grant's apples.

These apples are smaller than store bought, so I used a lot more than four and figured it equalled about six "normal" sized apples. So, I adjusted the recipe accordingly and it seemed to work well. I think you could use less sugar than what is suggested...at least it tasted pretty sweet to me.

The finished product! He's already enjoyed quite a bit of it :)

Love, the George family

Chickpeas and Avocados are Oh So Good!

Chickpeas became one of my best friends a few years ago, when I drastically changed my health lifestyle. Although I no longer monitor my diet quite so closely, I still adore those darling little legumes.
Avocados have been a lunchtime staple for me over the past year or so. My sweet college roommate, Kelli, introduced me to quacamole and it's been a love affair ever since.

When I saw the recipe for "Smashed Chickpea and Avocado Salad Sandwich," I had a feeling that we were a match made in heaven. And, oh, were my suspicions correct!

Here's the recipe that gave me the idea (I got it from a blog via facebook):

Smashed Chickpea and Avocado Salad Sandwich
1 (15 ounce) can chickpeas or garbanzo beans (I use Bush's Garbanzo Beans)
1 large ripe avocado
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped green onion
Juice from 1 lime
Salt and pepper, to taste
Bread of your choice (I use whole wheat bread)
Fresh spinach leaves or other sandwich toppings: lettuce, tomato slices, sprouts, etc.

1. Rinse and drain the chickpeas. Place on a paper towel and remove the outer skins. You can leave them on, but I like to remove them.

2. In a medium bowl, using a fork or potato masher smash the chickpeas and avocado together. Add in cilantro, green onion, and lime juice. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

3. Spread salad on bread, add toppings, and enjoy!

I changed the recipe quite a bit. I cook and freeze fresh chickpeas, and I happened to have a thawed out bag of them in the fridge. With half an avocado leftover from yesterday's lunch, this was the perfect recipe! My chickpeas didn't get all mashed up because I didn't remove the outer skin and they were cool. I added some lime juice, garlic salt, onion powder, and pepper (very similarly to how I like my guacamole). I chilled it in the fridge for a few minutes, spread it on my bread, and added a few spinach leaves. No extra sauces needed - it was delicious! I even had some leftover and ate it as a snack later with green pepper slices, which was equally as yummy! It is better to eat it the same day you make it, just like guac, because the avocado will turn brown.

The most exciting thing about this recipe is that it's a great alternative to "sandwich salads" with mayo or other processed dressings/sauces.

Love, the George family

Our Little George-y Appleseed

I wrote this post ahead of time to chronicle our pregnancy journey before we made the big announcement for all the world to see! 7.15.12

5 weeks today! It's kind of fun to get dressed up knowing that my belly will be growing over the next few months. I've also been mourning the fact that I will not be able to wear some of my favorite clothes. Sounds so petty, I know.

I had my first bout of naseau today at lunch. Everything was going along fine until I took one bite and it just hit me. We were at Outback, so there was really nothing I could do with the food except for swallow. I made a beeline for the bathroom and relieved the ever-full bladder, which helped some. It's been a few hours, and I'm better but still not feeling like normal...or maybe I just have a new normal.

5 weeks - nothing to see yet

Not much news this past week. It's just been a long one. Keeping an exciting secret is hard, but we plan to tell our parents first :)

Baby will develop a heart beat this week, as well as other major organs and systems! It's so neat to read about what's happening to a tiny little bunch of cells!

Love, the George family

Divinely designed

Grant's fingernail that got smashed our first day en route to New Zealand (March 23rd) has finally come off! He's pretty excited that he will soon have a normal fingernail again! Yay! In the meantime, it's kind of gross. It's been interesting to watch his fingernail heal. I ask him several times a week if I can inspect it. It truly amazes me that our bodies can heal themselves so well! We are Divinely designed!

It snagged on something at Target and started coming off.

He thought this picture was especially awesome. I thought I might get sick...

Despite our busy-ness this summer, we have managed to work on a few, smaller house projects. We've been trying to fix the remaining bad patches that we had to do - they just take a lot of mudding and sanding...so much fun! ;) We've been taking down the old trim from the basement. We've bought a lot of materials that we are going to need soon. We've been planning how we want to do the bathroom. And we've been doing some maintenance work in our yard - trimming the trees and bushes, we put some flowers in a hanging planter on our patio, etc. Probably nothing you would notice if you came over, but we know it's all coming along.

Love, the George family

Poppyseed

I wrote this post ahead of time to chronicle our pregnancy journey before we made the big announcement for all the world to see! 7.12.12

S-L-O-W is the theme of this week. I've had plenty to do, but I have had my eye on the clock all week! It's so hard to keep a secret, and we aren't sure when we will tell everyone, but we know that we want to let it sink in a bit more for us first.

We've had fun taking some pictures :)

I've had some of the signature early pregnancy sypmtoms, but they've been pretty mild.

• I felt pretty faint during my friend's wedding 2 weeks ago (about a week after conception), but I thought it was due to lack of sleep. I guess there was a little more going on :) I also felt lightheaded in church last Sunday, about four hours before we took the test!
• I've had some light cramping, which completely seemed like normal PM symptoms, which is one of the main reasons I was so shocked to find out they were a different kind of cramps!
• I've been a little more emotional than usual. I cried during a morning talk show make-over. I do tend to tear up about things like that, but this wasn't just a tear or two.

Other than that, nothing seems different at all. It's a weird stage to be in. We are anxiously awaiting our first appointment at 11 weeks.

Love, the George family

Boom! Hiss!

Louisville was my temporary home last weekend. I was there to celebrate a dear friend's wedding, which was a blast and completely wore me out. Grant didn't come because there wasn't much down time and an extra plane ticket would have cost a lot. Here is a picture of Karli and I right before she tied the knot!

Beautiful bride! :)

Grant and I haven't had to spend too many nights apart, especially in the year since I finished grad school. It was one of very few times that Grant has been home while I was away. I always thought it was harder to be the one at home. I think that was true last weekend, especially because we had a busy schedule for the weekend that kept me occupied. What we definitely know is that we'd prefer to be together. I had a chance to catch some rest for a couple of days before the 4th, which is one of my favorite times of the year.



We spent the 4th of July with Grant's family. We hosted everyone at our house and then went over to shoot off some fireworks. I didn't take as many pictures as I planned on because I was having too much fun!

Red, White, and Blue

We have loved playing with our nephew, Kellen. He enjoyed watching just about everything. He loved all of the fireworks, especially the loud ones, which he repeated "Boom" after. He also enjoyed the snakes. In fact, he got so excited that he started running around in circles saying, "Hisssss" and asking for us to light off snakes.

Grant and Kellen playing around a smoke bomb.

They were running in circles around it.

Happy Independence Day! (even if it's a few days late)

Love, the George family



one + one = three

I wrote this post ahead of time to chronicle our pregnancy journey before we made the big announcement for all the world to see! 7.8.12

So, for the good news!

We are growing a poppyseed...

IN MY BELLY!

We were so excited to find out, among a mix of other emotions! I took three pregnancy tests!

 The expensive test because I doubted the other ones. I just couldn't believe it.

Grant was shocked. The first test I brought him was a cheap test strip, and he didn't know if the lines were a good or bad thing, so he didn't know how to respond right away.

So, there it is :) We found out at about exactly 2 weeks after conception!

Love, the (expanding) George family