The pregnancy so far

I consider myself one of the luckier women regarding pregnancy.

Nausea
Starting last week, the nausea has calmed down, and that makes me SO happy!! I can actually sit on the couch without being bothered my the smell of the wall flower, the oven (except when pizza is being cooked in there), most of the food, and John's deodorant. I can actually handle raw meat and start cooking again. I feel so bad that John has to feed himself for the past several months and that means junk food mostly.

I am grateful for my cousin Megan. She basically fed me for the last couple of months. I would send her raw materials and she would cook them for me. I'm so spoiled right now having had a great personal cook for so long. She has made me less homesick. I think I might have jumped on a plane and went home if she hadn't been here!

Cravings
I did have some strange cravings: green apples, grapefruits, RADISHES, nectarines, dried Chinese plums, SPAM, and fermented bean-curd. I'm just glad that most of them are healthy. The first 2 caused teeth problems for me so I had to stop. I don't know how I started the radishes craving, but OMG I would buy all the radishes at Macey's every time I go and devour them in a couple of days. The grocery guy there finally asked me whether I had a secret recipe with radishes :-) John thinks I at least tripled the radish sales at Macey's :-)
I first started eating nectarines because they were on sale at Buy Low. I remember eating 8 pounds of nectarine over one weekend- that is two days ladies and gentlemen!! Crazy! John was afraid that I was going to have a fruit instead of a baby.
I think I know why I liked the SPAM, mostly because it reminded me of these sausages I love from China. I've always loved the fermented bean-curd, but it has too much sodium in one little chunk, so I decided to stop eating them.
the Chinese sausages (just looking at them makes me want have some)

the fermented bean-curds

Food aversion
I LOVE FOOD, almost any food! So I never thought one day certain food would make me sick, especially food that used to be my favorite, namely seafood and meat! Fish used to be my favorite, but I couldn't even stand the thought of it for the past little while; same with shrimps. I never liked pizza, so it's no surprising that pizza would make me sick. I could look at the ads and throw up :-)

Energy level
At the beginning of the pregnancy, I was tired all the time. I remember coming home from work at 5, and falling asleep on the couch by 7. When I was tutoring in the lab from 3 to 5, I couldn't keep my eyes open sometimes.

Now it's a lot better. I still sleep a lot but I think that's just because I LOVE sleeping and my body is giving me a perfect excuse to sleep as much as I want :-)

Hopefully the baby continues to treat me nicely so I'll have the desire to have another one someday :-)

I love my young women!!!

Being the Young Woman Personal Progress Specialist, I was in charge of the new beginnings activity this year. I decided to do something fun to review the YW values and standards. So I downloaded a jeopardy template from the internet and put together a show. It turned out great. Everyone loved the game and more importantly they learned something from it.

What's New with Personal Progress.

Jeopardy!!
Notice the 80s theme!

We had color-coded food for each value color :-)

I love my calling!

Double Happiness: Year of Tiger+Valentine's Day Part 2: the Valentine's

There's a story behind these sugar cookies. My first batch didn't turn out at all because this would be the 1st time I'd ever baked sugar cookies. I made several mistakes:

1. I thought sugar cookies were just like any other cookies-they'd flatten out when they baked. So I put a huge ball of cookie dough on the cookies sheet, and that was a disaster. The middle was still gooey and the outside was almost burned. John enjoyed eating it though.

2. I used my problem-solving skills and figured out I needed to flatten the dough before I baked them. So I did. Later John told me I was supposed to cut the cookies into hearts first.

So we have a bunch of my failure cookies at home to satisfy John's sweet teeth for a week.




Now dessert time!!
Our friends Mark and Callie brought over these fancy and fun creme brulee for desserts. Everyone had fun with the torch :-)
Then we played Loaded Questions while eating pistachios (a.k.a the Happy Nuts). We had a blast.

Double Happiness: Year of Tiger+Valentine's Day Part 1: the Chinese dinner

This year, the Chinese New Year happened to be on the same day as Valentine's. So we celebrated both on the same day. We made Chinese food and decorated heart-shaped cookies. Thanks to Megan and her friends, I didn't have to cook most of the dishes. All I had to prepare was the stuff for dumplings. Judson brought some delicious Korean drinks that reminded us of China.

2010 will be a great year for all of us!!

First Baby Gift

A couple days ago, we got our first baby gift in the mail. Well, I should say the 1st hand-made gift because the Mckays got us some cute stuff from Alaska during Christmas!
I can't wait to put my baby in it! (click on the picture to see it bigger.)

(click on the picture to see it bigger.) This is made by Viola Bean, one of the first group of BYU teachers I know from China. They live in Boise, Idaho. They are the ones who cooked me my 1st home-made hamburger! Now they also made the 1st baby quilt for me! I love them so much!

This picture was taken in 2006, when my parents came over for my graduation. The Beans came in town to visit families and got to meet my parents. Mr. Bean is one of the greatest gentlemen I've ever known. I love him so much!

With all the baby stuff lying around, and my belly starting to stick out, the fact that we're having a baby is finally sinking in :-)

The sweetest treats

For the young women activity last night, we made valentine's day chocolate!! It was so much fun making the sweetest treats for our sweethearts :-) This year, Valentine's falls on the same day as the Chinese New Year. So we're going to celebrate our romantic day with many of our good friends at our New Year Party!! I can't wait!!

With Sister Wilkinson and Callie
This is my favorite: caramel with macadamia



Happy Valentine!!!!!!!

A broken blog

Something happened to my blog. I can only post pictures for now. I'll have to wait for John to come home and fix it.

Happy Birthday, Kate!

For Kate's birthday this year, we went to the Peruvian restaurant in Orem, La Carreta with Emily and Mama. We had a great time eating good food and catching up. Someday, some lucky guy will discover Kate and count himself one of the luckiest guys in the world! Happy birthday, Kate!!!

a lazy January

We've had a very laid-back January, mostly because of me, the prego blob. Nothing makes me want to leave the couch or the bed. I ate hundreds of pounds of fruit, watched several Korean dramas, and complained about different smells, and hated all the pimples that kept popping up on my face.

But there are a couple things we managed to do and have fun.

For one of John's classes, he has to go to the Bean Museum to find certain animals. This childish homework turned out to be fun. It was the 1st time I've been at the museum, so I had a great time learning about different animals and taking pictures.




Loved the snow!
The teachers at Selnate made Waffle breakfast for the students.
Annett and I both wore our "flirty aprons" :-)

We loved babysitting Addie a couple times. This cutie pie actually makes me want to have a baby more.


Hopefully February will take my sickness away and bring us more sunshine and fun!!!!