Here we go...

This first entry is a bit long. It tells the story of how James and I met, fell in love, got married and decided to start a family. I wrote this when I first found out I was pregnant. I hope you enjoy our story...

9/24/09
James and I met in 2004. He was a friend of a friend and I had seen him many time when I had gone out on Saturdays to my favorite place, the Cactus Moon. I was a bit surprised when he came up to me out of the blue one day and asked me to dance. I was slightly intimidated by him since I’d seen him dance and he was GOOD. I was holding a drink in my hand so I said, No I’m busy drinking! He walked away and I thought that was that. However, as soon as I finished my drink, Mr. Persistent came back and said now that I was done with my drink, we could dance. I think I tried to get out of it again but he would not take no for an answer. He took me out on the dance floor and it was the most fun! After that we became regular dance partners. Eventually we became close friends. One night after a few slow dances that were quite close, he walked me out to my car. I was driving my friend Nicole home that night and as she got in the car, James kissed me. We then began dating. It was right near Christmas when we began talking abut our family lives. I told him all about my big, fun, family Christmases and he told me that he had NEVER celebrated Christmas!!! WHAT?!? So being the family person I was, I decided to invite him to Christmas with my family that year. My family was more than willing to share our craziness with my new friend. He came to Christmas and fit it perfectly well with my family. We’re all a bit crazy and it turned out, so was he! A short time later, I told him about an awesome New Year’s Eve party that was happening at my friend Mary’s house. So he fit in with the family, would he get along with my friends? We had a blast! He even took care of me the day after since Mary and I had partied a bit hard that night! Everything was going great! We had celebrated two holidays together in our short time together, he got along with both my friends and family, things were moving along. Then we hit a few snags. We weren’t sure how to move forward with so many differences between us. Politics, religion, hobbies, etc... We both have very strong personalities and didn’t want to give up anything. We broke up and got back together half a dozen times or so. Every time finding our way back to each other. The last time we broke up after New Years 2006 I thought we could never resolve our issues and we were done. I talked to my dad about it. Being a pastor, he always seemed to be able to help me through not only my religious problems but my personal ones too. I knew my dad would tell me the truth and help me make the right choice. He told me that God kept bringing James into my life for a reason. He obviously made me happy (most of the time!) and I was unhappy without him. That Valentine’s Day, I got a sign. James showed up at my house out of the blue first thing in the morning with roses. He had apparently been doing the same type of soul searching I had been doing over the last few months. He asked me if I could look past all our previous issues and give us another try. I was still so unsure. Could this finally work after so many failed attempts? I didn’t want to continue hurting myself so I told him if he came with me to talk to me dad and if we could work through our problems, I could consider a future with him. I had thought James would have an issue with this but it seemed he was willing to do whatever it took to get me back. I was glad to hear that. So we went together to see my dad. After some work with him, some advice from my mom and some more talking with James, we got back together for good. That summer, James came with my family to the beach. The beach has been a very special place for me since I was little. Apparently, James knew this, as he was conspiring with my mom to plan something special for me. Once we got to the beach we spent a fun day swimming, building sand castles with my sisters, laying in the sun, etc... It was a great day. We went back to our little apartment to clean up and relax. I had always loved walking on the beach at sunset. I had mentioned this to James and off we went. James and I were talking as we walked. He had done a little math and it turned out we had been together for exactly 555 days. Nice round number, I thought. Since James and I had always loved dancing, it came as no surprise when he started dancing with me on the beach. As he spun me around, I turned back to face him and he was down on one knee. I was shocked! He asked me marry him and of course, I said yes! We celebrated with my family and I called everyone I knew to tell them I was finally getting married!! Then begun the year-long wedding plans. We needed some time to save some money and plan for the happiest day of our lives. My mom, bless her heart, wanted to give me the perfect wedding. She wanted to make sure we had everything we wanted. My dad was going to marry us so my mom wanted to make sure she contributed. And boy did she ever! She went out and got a job to help pay the wedding bills. With my mom’s help, we planned a beautiful wedding on June 23, 2007. Everything went perfectly and we were so happy to finally be starting our lives together. We honeymooned at the happiest place on earth, Disneyland and had soooo much fun! I had been many times in my childhood and was so happy to be sharing it with my new husband. James had never been much of a planner. That all changed when he met me. I introduced him to the Spencer way. We have plans for EVERYTHING, including trips to Disneyland. After seeing how much more could be done with a plan, James came around to our way of thinking. Disneyland became another special place for us. We loved it so much we went back the next year, summer 2008, with my mom and sisters and had even more fun! We decided that three times was the charm and went AGAIN in summer 2009, just us. We didn’t tell anyone at the time but we went this third time just for us because we were planning on being very busy the next year and we knew we couldn’t make it back to Disneyland for several more years. Our 2009 trip was very memorable because it was to be our last trip as a family of two. Like I had said before, I plan for everything. As soon as James and I got serious that Spring of 2006, we began discussing our family. We decided that we wanted two solid years of marriage before we brought another person into our family. We wanted time to solidify our relationship so it was as strong as possible. The question was never IF we were going to have kids it was WHEN, which now we had decided, and the bigger question now, how many. James comes from a VERY big family. He had NINE brothers and sisters! I knew from the get-go he wanted a bunch of kids. I come from a pretty big family too, I have two brothers and two sisters. We had to come to a compromise though because he wanted a football team and I wanted, well not nearly that many! So finally we settled on two. Two kids in two years, sounds perfect! As my two year deadline fast approached, so many of my friends were beginning to have kids. I started getting what I referred to as “the question,” When are you guys going to have kids? I started to resent it. I knew what our plans were but I didn’t want to share my plans with others. I felt it was a private choice between me and James. So I kept quiet time after time the question was posed. The more it was asked the worse I felt. My confidence in my ability to be a good mother faded. After teaching for six years, I had seen far too many messed up kids, messed up parents and I began questioning whether I could do it at all. Then something happened that I still can’t quite explain. It may have had something to do with my friend Ami. After years of trying to have a baby, she ended up with three! I went to help her every so often and I just loved it! It reassured me of my ability and it made me feel like maybe I could do this after all. So on our two year anniversary, James and I revisited our original goal and felt like we were both ready to take the next step. Now that I was ready, I was READY! I didn’t want to wait a minute longer. Luckily, God liked my plans and helped us along. We only really had to “try” for two month before we got pregnant. I felt very blessed to have had no difficulty conceiving. So now here I am, 28 years old, married for two years and six weeks pregnant. I could not be happier! :) James and I have had a long difficult road getting here but it was all worth it. I feel like if we had not gone through some of our difficulties, we would not be as strong and as prepared as we are for this next big adventure. Of course, now we have to plan for a whole little person to join our family. From what I hear, it’s something you can’t really plan for! That will be a big step for me, but I think I’m ready! So far, things have been pretty smooth. We found out September 12th. I had a feeling that something big might be happening. So after dinner at my favorite place, P.F Chang’s, James and I went to Walgreens to get a good old HPT. I took it and within minutes, our lives had changed forever. One little word appeared on the screen... PREGNANT. James and I looked at disbelief at the little screen. Then we hugged and cried and laughed together. We are going to have a baby! We had gone home that weekend to celebrate my dad’s 55th birthday. James and I had decided we didn’t want to tell anyone until after we went to the Dr and were positive. So it was very difficult to see my family and NOT say anything. I am terrible at keeping secrets. But I was able to keep the biggest secret of my life! I had thought I’d only have wait a few days before going to the Dr for a positive test but when I called to make an appointment on Monday, they scheduled an appointment for me on October 7th, nearly four weeks later. They explained that this was because the Dr wanted to find a heartbeat. So the nurse gave me a list of do’s and don’ts, and told me congratulations because a positive HPT was very accurate! Nothing seemed real yet though. I felt fine. That next week was Parent/Teacher conference week. Late nights and lots of work. That Thursday, the 17th, while waiting for a late conference, I got so tired that I actually fell asleep on my desk in the classroom! That had never happened before and was one of my first symptoms, fatigue. It got worse that next week as I would come home from work and literally sit down to watch TV and fall asleep. Then the end of that week, the 25th, I got my first taste of the dreaded morning sickness. I had been feeling ok as long as I had plenty to snack on and keep my stomach full but that day nothing I would eat tasted good so I couldn’t eat anything to keep my stomach full. Strangely, my morning sickness seemed worse at night. That weekend, smells got to me in a big way. James cooked eggs for breakfast and I almost lost it. Then later that day we went shopping and we were looking at some of my favorite things, Yankee Candles. I smelled a few really bad ones and I totally thought I wold lose it right there in the store! Luckily, I have had nausea but no vomiting... yet. I’m in for a long road but I know I can do it!!!