my whole foods escapade

Dear Whole Foods, I love you. I have always loved you for your great produce, good prices on healthy foods and proximity to my house. But yesterday I re-fell in love with your sweet checkers.  Love, Amy 

Here's the back story: I went to my midwife on Friday cause I wasn't feeling well. We suspected I picked up  a little virus, which meant no student leadership retreat this weekend for me :( Sad, I had been working on it and looking forward to it for a while.) My orders were rest and fluids. Saturday Adam was at work and I was home alone, feeling sad and bored. So I started flipping through recipes, which is actually what my grandma does to pass the time as well. Daisy is a smart one!

 

I decided I needed to get out of the house and was inspired by a delicious Real Simple recipe Michelle had made for Adam and I a few weeks ago. I was cruising the aisles of Whole Foods and noticed I was starting to feel pretty nauseous. I made my way to the check-out line and thought I was just having a morning sickness episode and was trying to compose myself until I got to the car :)  I swiped my credit card and leaned over onto the counter. My legs started tingling, I started sweating, colors started changing and then fading out and I realized I was about to black out. I managed to tell the checker that I was about to faint and I stumbled over the a booth right in front of the check out stand.  One of the checkers brought me a cup of water and offered to call someone for me. I told her it would probably pass and I should be fine.  Then after about 5 minutes, I came to more of my senses and realized I should NOT be driving, let alone walking to the car with bags of groceries.

 

Then came a tear-filled call to Adam asking him to leave work and come get me.  I knew I was going to be fine but I had never come close to blacking-out before so I think it startled me and I was slightly embarrassed. Adam said my face was pale white when he got there. The checker came and checked on me a couple more times before Adam showed up and I really appreciated her caring concern!!  When we got home he made me a protein shake and gave me lots of sympathy- which we have discovered makes me feel better when I'm sick :) {Note to any pregnant women: drink protein shakes! They have been my lifesaver for morning sickness and weakness. I used to think all powdered protein was gross but I use Cinch protein by Shaklee and I love it. I just use one scoop instead of two.}

  

I spent the rest of the day on the couch watching a marathon of Deadliest Catch concluded by How the lose a Guy in 10 days. My conclusion: I have no desire to ever fish for crab and How to lose a guys in 10 days never gets old. I texted my sister and mom (mainly cause I wanted their sympathy:) and I found out my mom experienced the same thing a couple times in her pregnancies, which made me feel normal. 

Today I am feeling better and am finally tackling the chipotle tacos- they are in the slow cooker now :)  And since my bracket is already ruined- I hope VCU beats Kansas. Time to root for the underdogs!

Tuesday of rest

the start to our day of rest

For Lent, Adam and I decided to take a sabbath day every week- a real-deal day of recognizing God can and does control and work out all things for good without my anxious intervention all the time.  Between our two work schedules, Monday and Tuesday are our "weekends" that easily get filled with to-do lists, errands, emails and voicemails.  So this past tuesday, we silenced our cell phones and steered clear of checking email all day- A big accomplishment for both of us :)

Our day of rest started at Wash Park, where we had high hopes of reading, journaling, contemplating life etc..... but then it got too windy, so we figured going to get sushi fits into the "rest" category.  After sushi we walked down to my favorite home store where we laid on the couches I had fallen in love with back in December. In the past three months we have probably spent a total of 6 hours lounging on these couches in the store. So we "rested" on our couches and by the time we were done at the store, we bought them! What?!  Definitely not the most restful or unstressful purchase to add to our sabbath day- which of course we didn't even realize until after all was said and done and I was laying in bed verbally processing my potential buyers remorse to Adam who was desperate for sleep.  What can I say- we are works in progress :)

Then we came home and measured them and realized they are going to be absolutely ginormous in our little living room, but we will love and accept them anyway :)  After our couple hour distraction from "sabbathing" we finally got some peaceful quiet moments at home to read, pray, journal, listen, process life and it was actually a really sweet time. So here's to our next sabbath- may this day of rest be evermore restful and present with the Lord in mind, heart and spirit than the last. 

completing the rhyme

That's right! Baby Callaway is coming soon! This is my excuse for not blogging very much in the past month- way too hard to keep a secret!  But now that I'm ending my first trimester, the flood gates have opened.  So here's the story. January 22: Adam runs to walgreens to pick up 3 boxes of pregnancy tests after a mild melt down by yours truly- crying about feeling tired, emotional, stomach ache, etc.  Adam does dishes in the kitchen while I do the test in the bathroom; totally expecting the same negative result I had the month before when I thought I was pregnant. I took the test, laid it on the counter and washed my hands, I looked down at the test and noticed a blue line I had never seen before. My heart started beating in my ears. I cracked the bathroom door and called for Adam. Adam and I stood in the bathroom in total shock and then googled how common a false positive pregnancy test is... Not common.  So after chugging water and watching a movie, I tried test number two. Same result! Then Sunday morning I tried with another test... just to make sure. And once again a bright blue line confirmed that I was not lazy and emotional- I was just pregnant! 

The rest of my first trimester included lots of shock that we were actually pregnant, excitement to start our family, fear of miscarrying, trips to the midwife (who we l.o.v.e.), deeper awareness that God is the author of life and death, thankfulness for this little life, no hot yoga, grieving our newlywed lifestyle coming to a quicker close than we anticipated, wandering through the baby section at target together, feeling totally unqualified and not ready to be parents, celebrating with friends who are also pregnant, sadness for a few friends struggling with infertility, hearing the heartbeat, morning (all-day) sickness that has made me all too familiar with the inside of my toilet, figuring out finances, gratitude for God's gracious provision over the past year, daily reminders I am not in control, naps, daydreaming of what our baby will be like, hiding motion-sickness wristbands under my long sleeve shirts from my students, tears that seem to come out of nowhere, saltine crackers, thinking about names, loneliness from days spent exhausted in bed, morning protein shakes brought to me in bed by my sweet husband, using the "fake belly" at gap maternity while trying on maternity jeans, joy in finding out Hapa actually has a variety of baked sushi rolls (which made my day on Tuesday :), reading, and lots of praying and dreaming of what God has in store for our family and for our little one.     

gone puritan

Two things:

1. We have had some beautiful days here in Denver recently and today Michelle taught me the "lion and lamb" March myth that I apparently never learned in school cause I didn't grow up with snow.  Since this March has started off with warm "lamb" weather, it will allegedly end as a "lion" with lots of snow and cold. I'm hoping that myth is wrong this year!

In Breckenridge right before my birthday- hopefully my last look at snow for a the year!

2. I had a lazy morning curled up in our bed reading and I thought I'd share my literature with you :)  Adam and I both love reading this old collection of Puritan prayers called the Valley of Vision.  Here was part of the prayer  I read this morning that felt really timely in my life today.  Hope it encourages you! 

  

God the Source of All Good

O Lord God, who inhabitest eternity,

The heavens declare thy glory,

the earth thy riches,

the universe is thy temple;

Thy presence fills immensity,

Yet thou hast of thy pleasure created life,

and communicated happiness;

Thou hast made me what I am, and given me what I have;

In thee I live and move and have my being;

Thy providence has set the bounds of my habitation,

and wisely administers all my affairs.

I thank thee for thy riches to me in Jesus,

for the unclouded revelation of Him in thy Word,

where I behold his Person, character, grace, glory,

humiliation, sufferings, death, and resurrection;...