So it has been a month.  I am ashamed to write this but here are my updates.

 Self
Spend more time with Jasmine  We have hung out once so far.
Change cell phone plan I’m going to postpone this for a few months.   
Clean house This house is a mess.
Mend broken relationships  Some relationships that didn’t need mending need it now for reasons I still don’t understand.  But on the other side, I have rekindled a friendship with a dear old friend from high school.  I have much enjoyed getting to know the new her and look forward to learning more about her all over again.
Move forward not backwards  I feel like with this pregnancy I am going forward!
Stop letting silly things bother me Still having a hard time with this.
Bite my tongue Oh gosh. This is really hard. My tongue has bled a few times.

Religion
Evangelize  Can’t say I have done this.  Haven’t put much thought into it.   
Pray the rosary more frequently with Frank  We haven’t done it once together yet!  
Attend daily Mass more daily  Well I was doing a good job until this week.  I haven’t gone once this week and probably won’t make it tomorrow.  My schedule is really off with Frank being sick.
Let God’s will be done through me in all my actions I hope I am doing this but I guess I am not the one to answer this question.
Stop confessing the same confessions I hope when I go in two weeks I don’t confess the same things I did at Christmas!
Finish listening to Jesse Romero cds  I’ll listen to one today!
Get articles in line for The Review  I am suffering from writer’s-brain-freeze.  I blame it on my nerves.

Brrrrrr!

I’m not sure if you caught the news last night about the recent flu epidemic sweeping the area.  According to the Post article, on Monday 14 or 15 St. Louis area hospitals had to turn away ambulance patients because the hospitals ER were filled with flu patients.  My favorite part of the article was when Dr. Dennis Keithly says, “The only way to prevent it is to stay away from human beings…”

Easier said then done.  So…Frank has the flu.  He has had this nagging cough for the last two weeks.  He felt better over the weekend and was able to get out of the house.  But on Monday the cough kicked back into high gear.  Tuesday he woke up and could barely move.  So he went to the doctor and was officially diagnosed with the flu.  Yuck.  So he will be off work for the remainder of the week.

Frank is so worried about me and the baby getting sick that he won’t let me near him.  I haven’t been able to kiss him on the lips in nearly two weeks!  It is so hard not to sit by him and rub his legs (which are very achy) or hold his hand while he coughs up his lungs.  So last night I sat in the dining room all night while he lay on the couch, coughing coughing coughing away.  So many times I wanted to just run over and help him.  But I couldn’t.  It’s so hard not to do something.  I feel useless as a wife.

But thank God for my wonderful mother-in-law.  She came over yesterday to take Frank to the doctor (he was too weak to drive.)  She picked him up soup, kleenex, medicine, and lemon lime soda.  And then she came over and did all the dishes!  She knew I couldn’t do anything to help him so she stepped in and took care of it for me.  No questions asked!  I’m very fortunate to have such an awesome mother-in-law.  Thank you Joanne!

So I’m starting to get this cough.  I am praying, praying, praying that it is just a weather cough.  I do not want the flu! 

Tabitha and I thought it would be a good day to head over to Creve Coeur for our lunch break.  We started to walk the trail but the wind got ahold of us so we decided to just sit and stare at the water.  The water was starting to break up the the ice chunks.  It was a sight to see.

And then all of a sudden it started to rain.

 And now it is snowing.

It was 60 degrees when we took our coat-less morning walk.  It is now 27 degrees and windy windy windy.  Good ol’ St. Louis weather.

Weight: 133

Signs of pregnancy: Same as last week.  Although this weekend I didn’t feel pregnant.  I know that sounds strange but I just didn’t have the feeling.  I’ve been told that is normal but it kind of freaked me out a bit.

Baby Development: Baby P is the size of a blueberry.  It amazes me how small this baby is yet all the symptoms it is causing me already!  I can’t imagine what I will be feeling in a few weeks!  The arm & leg limbs are starting to sprout out and grow in length.  Baby P is starting to form a mouth and tongue.  The biggest development this week is our baby is forming new brain cells at the rate of 100 cells per minute.  All this in the size of a blueberry!  Amazing!

Thoughts:  Will my baby be smart?  Will all these brain cells my baby is creating this week pay off someday and make my baby a genius?  Will I homeschool or send our baby to Sacred Heart?  Will my child have a desire to go to college or would s/he go just to please us?   

Concerns:  I read in one of my books that nearly 10% of pregnancies end in miscarriage.  I just found out that my friend, who was 11 weeks pregnant, had a miscarriage three weeks ago.  I can’t begin to imagine the pain she was feeling three weeks ago and the pain she is still feeling today.  My prayers go out to her and her family during this hard time. 

I’ve never wanted something more in my life then to have this baby continue to grow in my womb.  It scares me to think that I am still in such a crucial stage in the pregnancy.  Anything can happen.  I’m not even halfway through these crucial weeks.  I know I shouldn’t worry about something that may not happen.  I need to think positive.   I put it all in God’s hands.  I trust that He will do what is right and that I will accept His decision.  I’ve been praying a lot for God to continue looking over my health and my growing baby.  I pray a lot that I am making the right decisions in every thing I do.  Am I running too hard or too much?  Am I doing too much around the house?  Am I eating right?  Nearly everything I do, I pray that I am doing the right thing for this amazing baby.  

My doctor’s appointment went really well today and I was able to get an ultrasound!  My baby’s first photo!  It was so amazing to look over and see my little “blueberry” on the screen.  I didn’t get to hear the heart beat but I was able to see from the ultrasound that the heart was beating rapidly.  AMAZING!    

Dr. Gosser measured my baby and he believes I am exactly 6 weeks 5 days.  I find it so incredible that they can get that specific by measuring the size of the baby.  The human body simply amazes me.  God designed us this way for a reason!

My official due date is Sept. 20th.  Give or take.

I am in good health and Dr. Gosser said he has no concerns at this time.  He encouraged me to keep on running as long as I could.  WOW!  I wasn’t expecting to hear that. 

Dr. Gosser is a true blessing.  He is by far, the best OB/GYN I have ever had.  I am so glad my NFP nurse recommended him.  I wouldn’t want anyone else to deliver this wonderful baby! 

I had my first official doctor’s appointment today.  It went really well.  But can’t share the details yet.  Frank first and then you.  More to follow later…

Today I logged in my last mileage for the year in my Irish Runner’s Diary.  One year ago this week, I logged 13.5 miles in four days of running.  I did the Biggest Loser workout once and hill repeats twice.  I was sick on Saturday & Sunday so I took off working out.  The weather was 30 degrees and windy on that Monday.  At the time I was the half marathon coach for the St. Louis Marathon for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training.

One year later, a lot has changed.  I am pregnant so the intensity of my workout has decreased.  I am no longer coaching so hill repeats are non-existent.  However I ran more miles this week then a year ago.  In four days of running, I logged 15 miles this week.  The weather this week started off in the 20s but today it was 60.

In one year, I have logged 872 miles one my feet.  I went through 2 1/2 pairs of Mizuno Wave Rider shoes.  The best running shoes ever made.  I currently have 205 miles on my shoes.  

In one year, I coached one half marathon, ran in one relay race, completed the Lewis & Clark Half Marathon and finished my third full marathon in Memphis (St. Jude’s Marathon.) 

Sophie never joined me on my weekend runs with my friends.  She logged approximately 450 miles on her four legs.  No wonder she is so muscular.

This has been a good year running.  My best ever.  But I’m glad to see it come to an end.  It will be interesting to see my running log a year from now.  I hope to go through fewer shoes, log half the miles and have no medals to proof my accomplishment.

Last night I couldn’t sleep for the life of me.  I woke up this morning with a pounding headache and couldn’t get rid of it.  I believe the headache was brought on by a Déjà vu moment I experienced last night.  It happened right before bed and I couldn’t shake it.  I forced myself to sleep so I could get it out of my head but I woke up and it is still here.

There was this time in my life, so so many years ago, when I was young and naïve and I dated this guy who did marijuana every day.  Gasp!  No way!  But yes it is true.  He would smoke marijuana with his friends every day.  They would go in the laundry room to do this and I would stay in the living room by myself.  I can proudly say I never tried marijuana while I was dating him.  (Although sometimes he would kiss me and blow it in my mouth to be a jerk.)  But I did stay with him for six months and I put up with it.  So honestly, I can’t brag too much.  I didn’t do anything to stop it and I stayed in the situation.  I thought I loved the guy.  But I was young and stupid and didn’t understand love.  It was a really idiotic time in my life and I look back at it now and realize how much of a pinhead I was.  I mean, at any minute he could have been busted and I would have been there and almost certainly would have gotten hauled off to jail myself.  Stupid stupid stupid.

God had a greater purpose for me, I realize that now.  Even though I’m not proud of that moment in my life I don’t regret anything I did or didn’t do.  I learned from that stupid experience and I vowed that I would never date a guy who would place a substance above me.  But the experience made me learn to respect myself more.  I really grew from that experience and became a more independent person/women.  It became important to me to care enough about myself that I made sure to date a person that respected me.  If I started to date someone that didn’t show me respect, it was over.  I gained a lot of self-confidence from that experience. 

It would be nearly seven years before I would meet Frank.  I needed all those years to grow as an individual and learn from my experiences.  Frank is my knight in shining armor.  He puts the rest of the guys to shame. 

Last night I was reading this story about this girl who seems to be in the same situation I was in so many years ago.  I can’t help but feel pity for the girl.  The only difference is that she gave in and started using the drugs herself.  When I read the story, I felt like this girl was drowning in love and she may not be able to keep her head above the water.  She went past the point I went and now I can’t fully relate to her situation.  But her situation takes me back to mine.  I learned from mine and was able to move on.  I just hope she can do the same thing. 

I got my personal heater blowing hot flames onto my feet. It is making me very sleepy. Three people have already left the office. That leaves only four of us. It is very quiet. All I can hear is my fingers tapping and my heater blowing. The clock is tic tic ticking away…very slowly. Very very slowly.

This has been the longest and most unproductive day of my work life. I’ve tried studying for my real estate exam but it is making my eyelids heavy and I’m afraid my face will come crashing down onto my laptop. And if that were to happen my contact lens would fly out. I wouldn’t be able to find them (because I would be blind) and by the time I did they would dry out and be useless. These are my last contacts until Frank’s insurance kicks in. So these babies got to last another month. Therefore I can’t let my head crash onto the laptop so I can’t study. See how easy it is to get out of studying?

One of the managers called yesterday and asked if my windshield was ready to gather some Arkansas dust. That’s telcom lingo for, “are you ready to go to Arkansas for a few weeks.” One of the A&E guys in my office left today for Arkansas. He should be back in about two weeks or so. Once he gets back it will take at least a week to gather & organize files before they make the site acq. crew head out. I’m guessing the end of February. Hopefully by then they will find someone else to send instead of me. If not, it looks like I will be talking sooner then I thought.

I looked over my New Year’s Resolutions and I am not doing a good job. I am too embarrassed right now to admit my faults. I’m going to give myself until the end of the month to do my review. That gives me one week to kick some resolution butt.

I planned on going home and running. I think I have changed my mind. Its cold out there people! Plus it should be 50 tomorrow so I’ll wait until then. Only in St. Louis can it be 27 today and 50 tomorrow.

Today ends the Week of Pray for Christian Unity.

Another person just left. And now there are three.