I'm getting kicked!

Norah has been quite active lately! We went to a restaurant today to watch the Brown's game and I was leaning forward over the table and she kicked so hard that I sat quickly back from the table because she kicked right at the part of my stomach that was touching the table! It was such a weird feeling.

She kicked later tonight and I had to shift positions in my chair. It's just a strange feeling, but so fun at the same time.

I will be 30 weeks on Wednesday! I can't believe how fast it all seems to be going now. We feel ready in the sense that if Norah came earlier we could sustain her in this world with what we have set up in the apartment, but it will just be a big change and I do not know how to prepare for that. I guess I can't, but I "prepare" in my own way and do anything that I can control.

We just got our diaper bag this weekend so we are going to be packing it this week! You never know! :)

We started our birthing classes last Tuesday and have four more Tuesday night sessions to go! Last week our instructor walked us through the whole process from when contractions start to when the baby is born. It was great! I'm definitely an information gatherer, so these classes are helpful for me. I'm looking forward to the hospital tour so I can see exactly where we will be and all the machines, tools and other things that might come into play during the labor.

Another interesting thing that we just learned is that our doctor likes to be standing when he delivers babies, so they crank my bed into the air at his level of standing to deliver the baby. Now, this raises a concern for me being that we Elek's are short and I fear that I will need to yell down to Josh to let him know how I am doing! We have an appointment on Friday with the doctor, so we will be looking into our options! :)

So, that's an update for now about Norah and all that's been going on!

I cooked dinner!

We also reorganized our kitchen a little to make room for baby stuff and I cooked dinner last night for some friends! I had this great dinner at my friend's bachelorette party last week and I got the recipe.

Josh typically cooks, well cooks all the time, but I can make something every once in awhile. (It's actually wonderful to have a husband who cooks!!! I'm sure I do not appreciate him enough for it.)

I woke up at 7:45am and prepped the meal so that I could get some work done during the day. I couldn't wait to eat it later because it is so good. It is Chicken and broccoli stuffed shells with an Alfredo sauce. Here is a picture of it in my favorite purple casserole dish that I got for our wedding over a year ago and am using for the first time because we have a full kitchen now!

JOY!

Last year, we did not have a kitchen in our apartment. We pretty much made up a kitchen, but the biggest challenge of that living situation was the dishes.

I was happy to take the challenge on though and after some brainstorming and shopping around we purchased a cart on wheels and made it into our "dish washing center."

Below is a picture of dishes after they were completed. We would put dirty dishes into the white plastic bins in the three basket drawers underneath and then roll the cart into the bathroom (2nd picture) and wash dishes in the bathroom sink and put them on the dish rack on top of the cart and then roll it back into the kitchen.

"Dish washing center"

It was quite the process!!!

Well, after finding out we were expecting, it became pretty apparent to us and the university that we were going to need a new living space. So, this summer we moved into the graduate apartment building just off campus and they began working on a new living space for us. We were not expecting as nice of a kitchen as we got! We were really excited about it even when it was not completed. I teared up the first time I walked into our new kitchen. It is just beautiful!!

Now the best part of the kitchen for me is the sink!!! The first night the water worked, I did a bunch of dishes and it was stress free!!! Just like the good'ole days! I love my new kitchen sink! We will be able to put the little baby tub right on the counter top to give little Norah a bath and when she is able to sit up we can give her a bath right in the sink! Like I used to do, which I only know because I saw pictures of it! I took some pictures after doing the dishes because I was so excited!!

So now, there is even more....

in my life!!!!

Officially done & Les Miserables

So today I am officially, officially done with grad school. I had my last day of my internship with Hospice Care of The Washington Hospital.

It ended up being a very productive day. My supervisor had to go take care of an emergency situation, so I was left with a long list of things to do and I was the only social worker on the in-patient unit. I had a great initial assessment with a new patient and their family. They were a very pleasant family to work with. I also took care of a discharge plan that ended up being a little complicated, but I handled it just fine. The nurses were looking to me for help and I just felt like I was in a groove.

I felt sad though towards the end of the day because I do not have a job lined up to keep that momentum going. I am very glad to be done with grad school, but all that hard work and still no job. It just feels strange.

So, on my way home from my last day I was listening to the second cd of the musical Les Miserables. For some background info, Joshua just finished reading the book Les Miserables on Sunday, I rented the movie (no music) Sunday night and we have the Original London Cast Les Miserables 10th Anniversary Concert cd, which is the greatest and their is a DVD of it as well.....


Anyways, I am driving home feeling a little strange about being done with my grad program and being unemployed and as I listened to this fabulous musical I cried most of the way home and especially every time someone died or hit a high note!!! Regardless of my pregnancy hormones, this very well would have happened to me on any given day. I just love this musical and am hooked on the music right now.

I wish I could say that I read the book or will someday, but that's just not who I am. I can love a musical without reading the original story. Joshua on the other hand does not care for musicals, but I think this might be the way to go for him. I think he is enjoying the music now that he knows the real story behind it all. I may win him over yet!

I do own the VHS of the 10th Anniversary concert, but we do not have a VHS right now. Our friend Damian does though, so we are going to watch it with him soon! OH! I almost forgot! The best part of the concert is that at the very end actors who played Jean Valjean (main character) from around the world all come up on stage in tuxes and they sing a famous song from the play and each of them take a line and sing it in their native tongue!!! It is one of the most beautiful things I have seen/heard!!!

So, that was my day today. My mom comes to Wheeling tomorrow to help me organize the chaos in our new apartment and then my college roommates come tomorrow evening for the weekend! I can't wait!

Graduate Degree -> Check!

So I am officially finished with my graduate degree! I had a final presentation today and then I left the University of Pittsburgh for the last time....and had a parking ticket! Of course!

It felt a little strange to leave and drive out of town. I almost teared up a little. It's just so nice to be done. Three long years have come to an end. I can remember going to my first class. I was excited and not sure if I would be able to do it. I've never been one for the class room setting. I really did well in grad school though. I got higher grades than ever before, I got published in an online magazine, I worked for two Hospice organizations and wrote a lot of papers. I feel good about all that I accomplished.

It took me so long to fill out the application to apply for grad school and lots of encouragement from friends to just do it! :) I'm glad I did.

I also had an interview with a Hospice program and should find out in a few days if I will be hired. This job would be huge for me in the long run. I never expected to get hired into a Hospice program right out of grad school. I feel like there is a good chance that I will be hired, but you never know.

We went to dinner tonight to celebrate! It was fun! Then we went to our favorite coffee shop and played a speed game of Monopoly and I dominated!

Well, I need to go rest up for our big vacation. We leave friday for Bryson City, NC to stay in a cabin with our friends Babs and Carrie. (Babs=Adam)

I am officially an MSW!

Norah!

We are having a girl!!! We just found out on Friday! We loved the ultrasound because she is so much bigger than the blob we saw a few months ago. We got to see her spine, head, eyes, nose, heart and the blood running through it, we saw her kick her legs out and move her head back and forth. The best part was that she stuck her tongue out!!!

Our technician is so great because she gets just as excited as we do and this is what she does all day long!

From the title you can guess that her name will be Norah. We have not picked a middle name yet. That's the harder part for us for some reason. The name Norah means honor, from what I found. That was not a driving force behind the name, we just really liked it!

I am definitely starting to feel her kick now. I think it was helpful to see her do it on the monitor. She is 11oz. and in the 50th percentile for weight and length.

We left for Coopers Rock, WV about 3 hours after we found out about Norah. We had planned a camping trip with our friend Damian who will be moving to California in a few short months. (Joshua will be posting pictures, I just don't have the patience right now to upload them.) It was actually nice to get away and I had busted my butt on one of my final papers Thursday night so that I could go camping and not worry about it.

It was nice to get home and take a shower and clean!!!! I think it's funny that people keep saying things about "nesting" in my pregnancy becasue to tell the truth I think I have been "nesting" since the day I was born!

Alright, I'm off to finish my paper.

Lots going on....

I've been really busy as I near the end of my grad program!!! I have a total of 5 more classes left. I will be finished with my very last grad class on July 25th and I will be done with my last day of Hospice (for my grad program) on August 9th! I can't wait! It's so close. I am supposed to be working on one of my final papers right now, but I'm too distracted.

I just talked to my sister Amanda who is also pregnant!!! She is 11 weeks! I'm so excited that we are pregnant at the same time! She lives in Utah though so we will not get to see each other too much, but we are making plans to fly out there with our little one about a month after she has hers!

We will find out next Friday at 8:30am if we are having a boy or a girl. We both want a boy, but we think it will be a girl. Not sure why, we just do. We will be excited either way! We already have names picked out for either.

Two days after my last class we are going on vacation with our good friends Babs (not a women, his last name is Babcock) and his wife Carrie. We will be staying in a cabin in the mountains of Bryson City, NC which is just a few miles away from the bottom of the Smoky Mountains. We will be spending a day touring The Biltmore Estate, the three of them will be going white water rafting one afternoon. I asked my doctor if I could go and I thought she was going to scream! She was funny! I figure there's no hurt in asking. I've been promised a slow canoe ride on a calm body of water!!! We will also spend a day in Cleveland, TN visiting the area where Babs and Joshua spent a summer at a pre-school camp teaching Bible lessons and chaperoning, "The Lions Den." They also want Carrie and I to eat some type of beef sandwich which they cannot stop talking about. It should be a nice time. I got a maternity bathing suit the other day for the trip!

I have been applying for some jobs as well. I have received one call back, but they are not sure if I have enough experience. I should hear back from them in a few days. We will see.

So, that's my update. I'm trying to find a picture, but I do not know what to put up. We will see.....


You might ask, why would she put a picture of elephants up? Well, that is going to be our nursery theme...boy or girl. We found a cute gender neutral crib set at Target that has little elephants and the main color is green with some brown. It's really cute! We are excited about it! The designer is Amy Coe.

Anyways, hope to hear from some of you!