Rock-a-bye Baby!

It's official, world, Keaton and I are having a baby! Perfect timing for Mother's Day!

I can't believe it! I am, of course, thrilled, but I'm still having a bit of trouble wrapping my head around it. It was a bit of a surprise. I mean, we were basically not doing anything to PREVENT having a baby, but we weren't necessarily trying down to the little timing details, either. We were just waiting to see what happened. I can't believe it happened so soon!

We found out on Friday, 23 April. Keat was in class and I was about to leave to pick him up. That was the weekend we were going to Sea World for his birthday. My period was a little late, so I decided to take a test just for the heck of it. I had a few minutes to waste, anyway, so I figured why not? Turns out:

Yep, it was positive. I thought maybe it was wrong (I realize now how silly that was but at the time I just knew it was wrong!) so I took a couple more just to "be sure":

Sure enough, they all came back positive! I was so excited. I remember just running around like an idiot gathering up last minute things with a silly grin on my face. I put together a little "Daddy gift" for Keat so I could tell him. We stopped at McDonalds to grab a bite to eat before we got on the road to Orlando. I was so anxious to tell him! He was pretty excited! It was so cute. I even took a video of it:

Telling Keat about our Baby! from Kara Z  on Vimeo.

I am so glad that he was as thrilled and excited as I was. I can't image if my husband wasn't on board with it! He's going to be such a great Daddy!

We told our families yesterday, for Mother's Day. We started the day at my parent's house, where Mom got a card from Keat and me and then another card saying "Happy Mother's Day Grandma!" and signed Baby Z. She was so cute when she opened it! She just screamed and cried and laughed all at once! It took the rest of my family a minute to figure out why she was acting so crazy!

After lunch we went to see Keat's parents, who we told in the same way. At first, his mom was shocked and couldn't believe we hadn't told them when they were in Florida for Keaton's graduation and commissioning! Then of course, they were both happy for us.

Today we told our Grandmas (the babe's Great-Grandmas) through Mother's Day cards as well, and they all cried, too. It was fun getting to tell everyone! It was kind of exciting to get to spread the news on Mother's Day! Our baby is already so loved!

2 Lt Z

As of Saturday, Keat is officially commissioned into the United States Army! I had never been to a commissioning before, but it was truly one of the coolest things I've ever seen in my life. I felt so patriotic!

I am honored to be an Army wife and couldn't be prouder of my husband!

Keat with my parents.

Keaton's grandpa was in the Navy for years. Officers receive their first salute from an NCO and Keat asked his grandpa to deliver his first salute. So cool!

Keaton and his sister.

My handsome soldier.

Keaton and the girls: His grandma, my mom, my sister-in-law, me, and Keat's mom.

The whole family.

9 Things

As of yesterday, Keat and I have been married for nine months! It hardly seems possible; time is flying. I don't usually take note of "month" anniversaries, but I thought I would share nine things I have learned about marriage so far.

1). Marriage is one of the most wonderful things a human can experience, but it is a lot of work as well. It's hard work, too, much harder than anyone truly told me before I was married. It definitely is worth it, though!

2). It is okay to not always go to bed at the same time as your spouse. This was something we were adamant about in the beginning, but I quickly realized it is much better for us both that Keat gets to sleep early (he rises early for PT). Since I have a hard time falling asleep, it makes us both cranky when I toss and turn and keep him awake. We've figured out a pattern where we read or watch TV together before bed, then I get up for a bit while Keat goes on to sleep.

3). Marriage is not what you see in the movies. Of course, I knew this, but still, there was a small part of me that hoped I would suddenly wake up every morning with perfect hair and no morning breath, and neither of us would ever feel the call of nature and stink up the bathroom. After the honeymoon, reality sinks in. After reality does sink in, however, you quickly realize that reality is not so bad! In fact, reality is pretty darn good.

4). The best thing Keaton and I decided was to never go to bed angry. That has saved us from excessive hurt on many occasions.

5). Communication is absolutely key. This one was very difficult for me, as I tend to keep my feelings inside, but it is so important to let your spouse into your deepest parts.

6). Assuming you have a good relationship, I don't think you can trust your spouse too much. There is nothing better than the security that no matter what, he or she will be thinking of you in every thing that they do.

7). It is important for each person to stay in contact with your families. Especially for us, being such a young married couple, I think it is vital that we maintain a good relationship with our parents.

8). Once you are married, don't forget the little things you used to do for your spouse. I remember when we were dating long-distance, we were always sending each other cards and emails and texts just to say hi. Things became a little more "business-like" after we were married, texting each other if we needed the other one to pick something up or to say we're on our way home, and never giving each other cards. I realized I really missed this! We've gotten back into our old habits a little bit more, and it's wonderful to get communication just to say hi. I think it makes both of our days a little better.

9). This is probably the most important: I will never learn everything there is to know about marriage - and that's okay! I am looking forward to learning more everyday, though!

Testing, Testing, 1-2-3

Okay, this is just a test post.

I realized a few days ago that my posts, while showing up under my account, are not actually showing up on the blog. I think I discovered the problem (user error, by the way!!). If this post does indeed post correctly on my blog, I will spend some time tomorrow re-posting everything from the past week and a half.

Just a head's up!

Not Me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

As for me ...

This week I definitely did NOT forget to give my husband his Valentine's Day card. That must have been the same person who also forgot to give him his Christmas card - certainly not me. And if it were me, there'd be no way I still have NOT given it to him!

While Keat was gone for training this week, there is absolutely NO way I played "Words with Friends" with myself using both of our iTouches. Nope. I'm NOT too embarrassed in my skill -- err, lack thereof -- to play with a random person or with anyone else I know.

And my all time favorite thing I did NOT do this week ... Oh, boy. I needed to pick up some floss threaders while shopping this week (little blue plastic things that thread floss through my retainer so I can floss those teeth, too). While comparing prices, I figured it was better to pay the same price and buy Super Floss, which comes with the floss attached to a threader, rather than buy just the threaders and then have to purchase floss in addition. You know, the 50 cents for floss (after coupon) was just too much. I ended up saving $.50. The Super Floss definitely was NOT a lot thicker than regular floss. There is NO WAY that while flossing with said "Super" Floss my retainer came un-bonded on one side!! (For those of you who haven't had braces, it basically came unglued on one side.) This is something I had to get fixed; who wants a loose piece of metal poking into their tongue all day? Plus there was the risk of completely breaking the retainer if it wasn't repaired soon. There is NO way I called every single orthodontist and about ten regular dentists in the phone book and only one had an opening for the week. I did take the appointment, but there is NO WAY it cost $80.00 to get the retainer fixed! It would totally NOT be worth the saved $.50 to have to repair a retainer, so that definitely did NOT happen this week!

What did you NOT do this week?

R-E-S-P-E-C-T Part I

I have been thinking a lot about respect lately and what it means to give and receive respect. I think it has a different significance to everyone.

According to Webster’s dictionary, respect means “esteem for or a sense of the worth or excellence of a person, a personal quality or ability; proper acceptance or courtesy; the condition of being esteemed or honored“, but the things I perceive as respectful may be different to someone else.

My husband and I were talking about this the other day. I have been trying really hard to talk about my feelings with him (something that is very difficult for me) and not keep things inside like I’m used to. I had just spent the entire day cleaning the apartment from top to bottom. When I got to “his” room – no, we don’t sleep in separate rooms; it’s just our spare bedroom where he keeps all his Army stuff and game systems and does homework; he calls it the Man Cave – I couldn’t do any cleaning in it whatsoever. It was a mess. There was stuff everywhere. Granted, it’s all stuff that he uses on a weekly, if not daily, basis, but it was still interfering with my ability to do my job. I was kind of upset about it, but couldn’t figure out why. Later, when we were talking about it, it finally hit me: I felt disrespected when he didn’t keep this room picked up.

Keat had been having a hard time understanding why I was so upset just because there was some stuff out in a room I hardly even enter. But as soon as I said the word respect, he completely got me. It totally clicked. I went on to give him some lengthy explanation about how, because I feel called as a homemaker, I work extremely hard to keep the rest of our home clean, orderly, and comfortable. Because I strive to keep things in order, that one room disrupts everything and I feel like the rest of my work was all for nothing. (That may just be my OCD coming out!) I explained all this to him, but I could have stopped at the word respect. That was all he needed to understand how important this was to me.

Men crave respect. That should be a well-known fact. Men need respect. Ephesians 5:33 says “… the wife must respect her husband”. We are commanded to respect our husbands.

I think that men and women both need respect; however, I think men and women have entirely different ideas of what that means. My husband appreciates when I transparently show respect to him as the head of our household. When I submit to his will in any area of our marriage, that shows Keaton respect. When I take his advice on something, when I request him to pray for something, when I rely on him, even when I ask him to do something for me, he takes that as a sign of respect and shows that I see him as the leader in our relationship.

Respect is also important to me, but I see completely different things as respectful. To me, I feel that Keat respects me when he keeps the Man Cave clean. I feel respected when he listens to my ramblings at night even though they don’t interest him just because he knows it’s important to me that he listens. I feel respected when he prays for me without me asking him to.

Okay, wow, I just took a break to read over what I wrote and remind myself exactly where I was headed. Completely unplanned, look at how I described what Keat and I each see as respectful. Unintentionally, I used the word “show” when describing what Keaton appreciates and “feel” when saying what I appreciate. That right there may be the difference in respect for men and woman.

As a woman, I want to feel appreciated; that is what makes me feel respected. As a man, Keaton wants my actions to show him respect. That makes complete sense. Men are (typically) not very in touch with their feelings, so they probably didn’t even know whether or not they “feel” respected. It is important that men are shown respect. It is important that women feel respected. Without even knowing it, when I didn’t feel appreciated by Keaton, I in turn felt disrespected.

I used to claim to be “different” from every other girl (I’m really not an emotional person, things like holidays and anniversaries are not important to me, and I really am bad at talking about my feelings) but now I am learning to embrace the fact that I am very much a woman. Being emotional and “feeling” things like respect is not a bad thing!

I think it’s awesome how men and women were created to balance each other out. If both people needed to see respect to know it’s there, no one would ever be respected! And if both people wanted to feel respect no one would be respected.

It’s the perfect equation!

Thirteen on Thursday Plus One

14). My mom told me tonight that she reads my blog. That makes me happy!

Thirteen on Thursday

First 13 random thoughts to come into my head:

1). I was working on a post about respect, but I'm not finished with it yet. I want to think on it a bit more before posting so I decided to do this instead!

2). There are only two of us, but it seems like I'm always doing laundry! Actually, I only do it once a week but it just feels like a lot. It's probably because I have to do lots of loads due to all of Keat's PTs and ACUs. Man, they stink.

3). I can't wait to watch "16 and Pregnant" tonight! Is that bad? I missed the premier Tuesday so I'm getting caught up. Forty more minutes. Watching Olympic coverage and blogging until then.

4). I think my "status" on Facebook was the name of my aunt. For like four days. I was trying to look up her profile to see if her phone number was on there by using my iTouch. Instead of searching I guess I posted her name! Whoops!

5). It was so fun to watch Shaun White last night. Keat is a huge snowboarding fan, so he was rooting for him even before the Olympics started. His anticipation got me a little excited, too, so I felt a little invested in his runs. That trick thingie at the end was amazing. I don't know how they do that on snowboards.

6). My email is STILL not working. I can't get any messages to download onto my Mac. I'm STILL frustrated. I have someone I'm going to email for advice. If that doesn't work, I wonder if I can take it into the Geek Squad or something. Can they do stuff like that?

7). I made myself a huge To-Do list for this weekend. Keat is gone for training, so I figured I should get some stuff done. I've already done almost 1/3 of my tasks! Whoo-hoo! Now if only I hadn't done all the easy stuff first ....

8). Before leaving for the weekend Keaton took me to breakfast this morning. It was lovely. We should do that more often.

9). I just read an amazing article in Women's Health magazine. It's about abuse; the kind of abuse where women do not always know they are being abused because it's not physical. It really, really hit home. Not for me. For a dear, dear friend of mine who is in a damaging, abusive relationship but she can't see it. I cried when I read it. I still cry almost every day for her. Too bad crying doesn't fix things or she would have free a long, long time ago!

10). Wow, I shouldn't have thought about that. Now I'm sad again. God is in control. I recognize that. I know that beyond the shadow of a doubt. It's still hard though, so I'm moving on now.

11). It is so true what they say about gaining weight when you get married. I need to get in shape. I'm not sure I've actually gained pounds, because I can't remember the last time I weighed myself but I'm sure I have. I don't feel as good about myself as I used to.

12). Yes, I know there is an easy fix to this. Either change what I eat, how much I exercise, or both. I actually do pretty well on the days I work (I babysit Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday). I keep a log of what I eat and exercise while the baby is napping. For some reason it's just so much harder on the days I'm off. I should just get up and do something but most days I just don't want to. I'm stubborn.

13). Okay okay, fine. Before finishing my post about respect and watching my show, I'm gonna do some push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, squats, and lunges. Okay, actually not pull-ups. I need Keat to hold my feet for those and he's not here. I'll do everything else though.

I promise. :)

Not Me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

As for me ...

This week, there is NO WAY I stayed up until 3 am baking kale chips and making meatballs and sliders to freeze. I always plan ahead and get things done at a reasonable time, not the wee hours of the morning.

It also was NOT me who, while cleaning out the glove box in my husband's car, found the Christmas card I had bought for him for this past Christmas and apparently forgot to give to him. I would never do that, certainly not on our first Christmas together! And even if, for some reason, that had happened to me, I would NEVER quickly consider whether I could just keep it and give it to him next Christmas ... at least until realizing I had written "The first 6 months of our marriage have been fabulous!", at which point I would decide to just present hubby with said found card almost 6 weeks after Christmas. Who would do something like that?

It could be the same person who forgot to thaw out dinner not one, but TWO days this week. This person wouldn't be me, remember, because I do NOT forget things like that on my busy mornings.

There is NOT A CHANCE that there are still empty photo frames sitting around our house because I haven't ordered pictures yet. Considering we moved in here nearly 8 months ago, you can bet I have everything in its place, including all of our picture frames filled. Nobody, I repeat nobody is lazy enough to display empty frames for eight months. Especially NOT ME!

What have you NOT done this week?

Valentine's Day Extravaganza Day 8

Here it is, for the last day of the extravaganza: Ten Things You Love About Your Love.

1). I love his blue, blue eyes.

2). I love the way he never calls me "Kara" unless he's mad at me. I like this for two reasons. First, he uses cute little names instead like love or babe. Second, I can always tell when he's upset about something (which is hard to do with any man, but especially military men!) because he'll use my name.

3). I love that he is going to be in the Army and that he can't wait to deploy.

4). I love that he is never too "manly" to help with things like laundry or cleaning.

5). I love that he supports me 100% in whatever I might be doing, even it means being apart (like with all the travel I did for work for the first few months of our marriage).

6). I love that he's goofy. I laugh every day just because he's being silly and having a good time.

7). I love that he likes the way I cook. I'm still experimenting with new things and flavors and he will patiently try everything. I told him he has to be honest so I don't make something he doesn't like again, but there have only been 1 or 2 times he's said that. He generally likes everything I make.

8). I love that he always looks up what the weather is going to be the next day and tells me because he knows I never know. Since I babysit and like to take the little boy on walks, he lets me know how much I need to bundle up.

9). I love that he's a provider for our family. I think he takes pride in being the head of the household, and I admire and respect that.

10). I love that he wants to have children someday. There are so many of his qualities that I would love to see passed on to our kids, and I can't wait to see him as a father.

"I Wanna Be A Hippie!" Sunday

As I mentioned in this post, I am in the process of educating myself on "natural" living. I'm not sure yet how I personally am going to define that for myself and my family, hence why I am doing research.

What I learned this week.

For the month of February, I've been concentrating on researching organic food and the benefits of eating organic. I've been reading some books on the subject (I'll share which ones I think are most helpful later) and researching online.

Something I've found extremely useful are two lists: The Dirty Dozen and The Clean Fifteen. Several sources produce similar lists, so there are a few foods that vary depending on whose list you look at, but this is what I like the most (combined from all lists):

THE DIRTY DOZEN

These are food items you should purchase organic whenever possible.

1). Peaches

2). Apples

3). Strawberries

4). Pears

5). Grapes

6). Raspberries

7). Spinach

8). Bell peppers

9). Tomatoes

10). Celery

11). Potatoes

12). Cherries

THE CLEAN FIFTEEN

These items are typically OK to purchase conventionally.

1). Asparagus

2). Avocados

3). Frozen corn

4). Blueberries

5). Frozen peas

6). Cabbage

7). Garlic

8). Kiwi

9). Mango

10). Onion

11). Pineapple

12). Bananas

13) Broccoli

14). Watermelon

15). Papaya

I hope that helps as you do your grocery shopping! I carry the two lists with me when shopping.

How I was a hippie this week.

Keat might have made fun of me this week for doing these things, but I felt good about them.

I used an avocado masque for the first time this week. My skin felt so good and so soft afterwards! It's really simple:

Mash 1/2 avocado with 2 tablespoons olive oil

Apply to face and rinse once dry. You can also use it on your hair. Apply, then wrap hair in a hot towel and rinse after 20 minutes.

Make sure that you use an avocado that is room temperature. I used my avocado straight from the fridge, so at first it wouldn't blend very well on my face. Once it started to warm up it went a lot smoother. If avocados weren't so expensive I would do this a lot more often! (They were on sale last week.)

I also made kale chips last week! They were SO DELICIOUS!!! If you like kale and you've never had these, you must stop everything and make them immediately. They are awesome!

Just tear your kale into pieces (I just used bagged organic kale greens), then spread on a baking sheet in a single layer. Sprinkle with olive oil and fresh ground sea salt. Bake at 400 degrees for about 15-20 minutes or until crisp.

Keat doesn't eat kale, so the batch lasted me several days as I was the only one eating on it. The chips started getting a little soggy after a couple of days, so next time I make them I will probably do it fresh every couple of days.

That's it for this week! The next two weeks I'll talk more about organic food. Then in March I am going to talk about natural health products that I use!

Please post any information you'd like to share about your experiences with organic food!

Valentine's Day Extravaganza Day 7

For today's post: Share Your Favorite Photo Together. Well, that's impossible because I like a ton of photos! So I just randomly picked three (hehe):

This is one of our engagement photos:

This isn't technically a photo of us taken together, our photographer just put them together, but I still like it!

This one is pretty old, but it still made the cut!