First trip away

Well as most of you know I have to travel a good bit with my job. Well this is the first time I'm having to do so since we found out about the baby. I am grateful that we have family and friends that are close by and they can check on Joanna while I am gone. Joanna told me she did not need a baby sitter while I was gone but I quickly reminder her that she has not moved from the couch in two hours. I also reminder her that if making the bed took all of her energy how was she going to get dinner ready. She quit arguing with me after that. I reminded her to save all her energy and use it while at school and when she gets home to do nothing more than rest. Thank you to all who have called, emailed & sent text messages to check on her. I think I appreciate it more than she does.

Week 8 is here and it is not so pretty

Ok so I am a guy so I don't pretend to even understand what it happening with my wife. Just when we thought we were on the way up, week 8 appears and we come crashing down. Friday night came and Joanna hit a wall around 7ish. I figured it was the week and she needed to rest so off to bed I put her. Then came Saturday, and Sunday. The lack of energy and the feeling of constant not feeling well all came back, but this time it came twice as hard. Again I cannot even fathom what she is going through but I sure do admire her. I am most grateful for friends to whom she can speak with. Let me rephrase that, I am most grateful for honest friends. Not that people are dishonest but for those that she can talk to and say "Yeah these first 13 weeks, STINK". God has put some AMAZING people in our life and I cannot tell you how glad I am for that.

We all go through things and sometime wonder why, but let me assure you the difficult time, the struggle, or whatever you are facing there is a purpose. The purpose may simply be to share your experience with someone else down the road, who is going through that same thing and they feel all alone. So again I say thank you!

Be careful what you say

So let me set this story up for you all first. Joanna and I have been learning how to balance our schedule. As many of you know we have 2 "kids" Blitz and Duchess. Anyway it was their day at the vet today for routine checks ups, visit, etc... Now most of you may know that our cat is, well rather large, lazy and eats a lot.

Well this afternoon the vet calls to give me the update, of course everything is normal, so no worries. He ask me how she is and I tell him "Well she is fat, lazy and sleeps a lot, what do you think."

Now I have to tell you in the office I work in, I live the life of the cubicles, and most of you know I'm loud. So imagine if you will you are my neighbor and you are minding your on business. Hold on, it get's better...

So I'm packing up my things for the day and a coworker comes over with this concerned look on his face. I ask him "what is going on" and he says," I think I need to call your wife". I asked why and he said "I overheard you on the phone say hey Doc..... ok...... Well she is fat, lazy, and sleeps a lot, what do you think!" He then said I am glad I heard the rest of the conversation or I would not know what to believe!!

Feeling good, and then not so good

So last night was the first time I actually felt like myself. I had an appetite/craving for Papa Johns cheese sticks, they were wonderful!! Bryce and I caught up on a few of our shows and then off to bed. Woke up this morning and still felt really good. We went to Pet Smart and then Best Buy to buy the second DVD of Glee, yeah!! After that it started heading down hill. So after a quick trip to the grocery store we headed back home. I have been sitting in the recliner, watching football and debating about taking a nap. Oh well now that I am drained I think I will rest for a few hours and then I will watch our Bulldogs play.

I hope I feel better in the morning and can make it to church. Oh, and Bryce is so great, he is doing all the cooking, and laundry, and is absolutely the best!

And now everyone knows...

So when Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook he opened another way for people not only to stay connected but also for the entire world to know what is going on in your life. Joanna posted on Facebook yesterday the news of the new addition and as you can imagine the response has been overwhelming. People you don't speak to in years all of a sudden are sending you messages. Craziness I tell ya.

We both told everyone we work with today so now everyone that we know, should know. I did a better job then Joanna, she let it "leak" to a few of her teacher friends, I on the other hand kept quite until today, well somewhat quite.

We are both blessed with the groups of people that we work with. I could tell that they were just excited as I was, some were shocked because I had kept a great poker face. Joanna has already started receiving gifts for the baby!! I told her she really has an amazing group of teacher friends and you can tell that they are so happy for her.

It is amazing how tired Joanna is, I cannot remember the last time she was in bed by 8:20pm. Well that is not entirely true. When she and I were in Big Sky MT last year we were both exhausted and did not feel well. We got into bed about 7:45pm mountain time and slept till 8am mountain time, so I guess that was not that long ago.

Anyway Blitz does not seem to mind, it is amazing how much energy that dog has and then it's like you hit a switch and he is sound asleep. Oh well, tomorrow is Friday so maybe we can stay up late, like say 9pm??

First look at baby

So we had our first doctors appointment today and were able to see the baby and hear the heartbeat. Everything checked out fine and our baby is the size of a blueberry. It is an active little thing and it was the most amazing thing we have ever seen. We could actually see the heart beat! Below is the first image of baby Hopkins.

The "Grandparents" Reactions

So we had this great plan all laid out to tell our parents but we could not wait. Instead we went and bought a blue and pink bib and asked them to choose which one they liked better. I guess you can say we kind of knew how they would react so we were not 100% surprised, but it was a great experience none the less. See the video evidence for yourself.

The world is not ready for a little Hopkins, is it??

Well on Monday September 6th, the most advance technology you can ever pee on told me we are pregnant! Holy Crap life as we know it is about to change. We have been saying this is what we want and we are ready, but we are still adjusting to the news of this. I can tell you that night neither Bryce or I got any sleep. Tuesday morning came and it felt as if we had just crawled in bed. We were both running purely on adrenaline.

I called the doctor to setup our first appointment, which of course was going to be another week away, but the sleep got better. Funny how I was not feeling bad and life was normal until Saturday morning, September 11th. I know what "morning sickness" is like, it should really be called all-day-feel-like-crap-sickness.   I am hoping the doctor can give me a magic pill and make this go away. I am tired of eating crackers that don't work. Oh well guess Monday morning is coming whether I like it or not...