Blessed Beyond Measure

It's been a bit of a rough week for us. 

Sunday 

I was throwing up and really dizzy all day. 

I was asked to sing in church and had committed months ago. 

Miraculously I was able to get through my piece 

without any serious problems. 

(Answers to my pleading prayers)

Both Trav and I were relieved when I finished...

I could go home and rest.

Monday 

I had a THROBBING headache, blurred vision, and nausea. 

No puking though! 

I spent the day cleaning, trying to get my mind off the pain. 

That didn't help as much as I had hoped 

but we had a nice clean kitchen. :)

Tuesday

I was cramping/contracting nonstop I was in pain 

all of Tuesday, Tuesday night through Wednesday morning. 

I couldn't do anything to relieve the pain either. 

I stood - I cramped. 

I sat - I cramped. 

I laid down - I cramped. 

It was awful. I spent all day in bed. 

It was a miserable day.

Wednesday

I woke up around 4:00 and couldn't go back to sleep 

because I hurt so bad. 

At 6:30 I finally turned to Trav and told him 

we needed to go to the hospital. 

We needed to make sure everything was okay, 

make sure I wasn't in preterm labor/dilating. 

It was terrifying and incredibly painful. 

Trav was pretty concerned at this point. 

Going to the hospital was emotionally overwhelming 

for both of us. 

After being monitored for nearly three hours, 

having tests taken and waiting for results 

we were told my body was not producing the labor hormone 

(I don't remember what that is called) 

and I was NOT dilating at all.

 (Thank goodness!)

They said some bacteria was in my urine 
so I may have a bladder infection. 

They're hoping my body was cramping/contracting as a way 

of fighting the bacteria. 

I was given some antibiotics and sent home. 

Later that evening we went to our doctors for a follow up 

and he checked everything again. 

Same results: 

Baby is healthily and happily nesting 

5 centimeters above my cervix 

no dilation/preterm labor taking place whatsoever 

and still cramping like mad. 

Our doctor told us he didn't want us traveling 

as a precaution. 

He said every woman's body is different and responds differently 

to pregnancy, infection, ect. 

He said he felt the bladder infection was the cause of the cramping 

but couldn't guarantee it - so no traveling. 

We called and cancelled our flight to Minnesota. 

Thankfully the airlines credited us our airfare 

down to the penny of what we paid. 

We can use our credit anytime within the next year. 

What a blessing! This is especially wonderful 

because we didn't insure our tickets. 

(Stupid of me, I know.)

We're grateful our doctor was willing to write 

an official letter to the airlines validating our situation. 

Once that letter was received we were given the credit 

without any problems or additional fees. 

Again, what a blessing!!! 

Thursday 

was spent in bed. 

The cramping/contracting was considerably lighter 

but still enough that I was feeling like I should take things 

much slower 

and lower my activity for the day. 

I spent the day in bed or sitting while with family. 

It was Braxton's 15th birthday 

so we went up to Cam and Alicia's to celebrate 

and I seriously just sat the entire time. 

But hey! I felt good enough to go so I was thrilled. 

Progress is progress and I'll gladly take what I can get. 

Another blessing! 

Friday (today) 

We were supposed to be flying to MN 

but instead it was spent in bed until 1:30 this afternoon. 

My antibiotics have a drowsy side-effect warning on them 

and let me tell you: 

I AM DROWSY!

I went to lunch with my mom, sister-in-law and some friends 

which was nice 

but I'm still slow moving. 

Tonight is going to be the same as the rest of the week...

not much going on and that's okay with me. 

My cramps are mostly gone

just stabbing pains every now and then. 

If I sit too long I get a bit crampy when I stand back up. 

Other than that I'm doing much better. 

I really think it was a bladder infection causing the cramping. 

I hope it was anyway. 

I don't want to feel that level pain 

until we are MUCH closer to our due date 

and baby is safe to be delivered. 

So, that's been my week. 

Travis has been incredibly supportive and patient with me. 

Earlier this weekI would nearly collapse in pain just from 

bending over to pick something up off the floor. 

Travis has been wonderful to jump in. 
He carries things, 

picks things up for me, 

brings food/water to me in bed 

just so I could avoid the increase of cramping. 

I haven't been trying to be needy, but I'll tell you what, 

when the pain is consistent 
AND NOTHING HELPS 

it's hard not to be needy. 

I am so grateful to have a husband 

who looks past the neediness 

and sees the pain and suffering - 

the reasoning behind it all. 

I am so blessed. 

I love him so much.

We are bummed our annual trip to Minnesota had to be cancelled 

but looking at the big picture we're 1000% okay with it 

if it means our little girl is staying put 

and I'm not [unintentionally] hurting her. 

So, I guess we'll have to take our little girly to Minnesota 

after she's born!

We'll show off how adorable she is then. :)

That's something Trav and I

happily 

and 

gratefully 

look forward too.

We are so blessed. 

Strawberry Days: Our One Rodeo For The Year

We were able to go to the Strawberry Days Rodeo last night with some family and friends. It was so much fun! Well, it was fun until it kept going and going and going. Both of us can only take so much, since deep down we are NOT cowboys/cowgirls. We finally left around 10:30. I think it went until about 11:00. Long night considering we were there shortly after 6:00 to find our seats and eat some good ol' hot dogs and hamburgers - and of course STRAWBERRIES AND CREAM!! 

YUMMY! 

Here are some pictures of us chillin' on the bleachers. It was a gorgeous night out. :)

Scarlet (I call her "my bug") and me cuddling. 

Isn't she just a doll?! I'm madly in love with this little blue-eyed beauty.

Me, Trav and the cutest little bug ever. 

Scarlet is so fun to hang out with because she's so chill. 

She just goes with the flow and takes everything in.

Ash, Scarlet and a good family friends, Chad & Donna 

(Donna's behind Chad, in the pink)

Where's waldo? Hint, look in the middle of the screen. 

We're in that crazy crowd, promise!

We're such wannabe cowboys (sp?). 

We both look dorky, we know.



-------------------

We're so madly in love with this little girl we take every opportunity we can to love her.

We baby sat for Nic & Ash while they went on a little anniversary get-away last weekend.

Scarlet LOVES Uncle Trav...I dare say he's just as smitten. 

"As I have loved you, love one another."

A great article expressing the importance of loving people, regardless of lifestyle. This is a long read but well worth the 15 minutes. I had to share this because it's important to me.

Blessings,
Adrienne

http://www.joshweed.com/2012/06/club-unicorn-in-which-i-come-out-of.html?spref=fb

A new hobby of mine

Since I am no longer working outside of the home - still plenty busy though - I have taken up a new hobby. This is something I feel is going to take some time getting a grip on but I feel it will totally be worth it. I am learning how to work the couponing/sales thing. I tried to do it earlier this year but didn't have the time to really sit down and figure it out. Being that I am going to be a stay-at-home mom, I have decided to give myself the working title of "MONEY SAVER".



Yup! That's my job - well besides raising and nurturing our children - to save money. This is something I feel will contribute to our family more than my working out of the home ever would. Trav and I are both realistic enough to know that when the time comes for us to move out of my parents home, a teachers salary isn't much to live off of. So, I'm going to make it more of a reality for us by doing all I can to save money. We'll do this by shopping sales and couponing our groceries.
 

For the last three weeks I have been slowly, painstakingly looking through the Sunday adds, cutting out coupons, and trying to match the items on sale with the coupons I've collected. To help with this little endeavor, which I am determined to master, my mom has put me in charge of coming up with a grocery list (based on sales/coupons), purchasing the listed items (she goes with me so we can tag team this), and creating a menu for the week based off of what we bought. She gives me a weekly budget and I try to stick with this budget.


My hope is, with time and experience, I will have the budgeted amount down to a shockingly low amount. However, I am trying not to overwhelm myself, thus making me feel like a failure at this whole thing, so I am allowing myself time to master this. I'm hoping by the time our little girl comes I'll have things figured out, for the most part. The budget may not be down as low as I'd like but at least I should have a routine down so it doesn't take so long.

Today was the first day I actually went shopping with a pre-determined grocery list based off of sales and coupons. I had a couple of positive reinforcements along the way, which made me feel as if I'm doing things the way I should:

1) A woman smiled at me as I was walking down an aisle, looked down at my massive binder full of coupons and adds (I'm required to bring adds from the newspaper as proof the sales are legit) and said, "Ah, you must be couponing." I smiled and said, "I'm attempting. I am determined to learn how to do this! Today is my first attempt at it." She kindly responded, "Well good for you. Good luck!" That was nice!

2) I had decided I wanted to make this happen with as little bumps in the road as possible. So last night my mom and I sat down and wrote out a list. We organized that list according the categories I have in my coupon-binder (ex. dairy, meats, produce, hygiene, etc). I wrote the sale price and the name of the store next to the item we were planning to purchase. I then flipped through my binder and marked each item on our list with a large "C" if I had a coupon to go with the sale. Once at the store I taped each coupon to the item as we picked it off the selves (I brought my own tape...yes, I'm that OCD). This saved us and the cashier a HUGE headache because as she was scanning each item I told her to look for an attached coupon. If there was a coupon taped to the item, it was [obviously] applicable. This was awesome because when checking out my mom and I weren't fumbling through the binder looking for coupons; We had already found them.

3) We also put our groceries on the check-out register in the order we had them on our grocery list. This was awesome because when price matching (we price matched nearly every item we bought...trying to shop sales!) it was clean and efficient. I just followed my list and was able to tell the cashier the sale amount and what store was offering the sale. I had my nifty little newspaper adds on hand in case the cashier asked for proof (which she didn't).

4) After ringing everything up, the cashier honest-to-goodness looked at me and said, "Thank you. The way you did this was much easier then what others do."

This was awesome to hear because I didn't know if there was a more efficient way of checking out. And let's be honest, checking out is the thing that causes me more anxiety than anything else when it comes to couponing and shopping sales. The cashier can get annoyed, the people waiting in line can get annoyed (although I told those who got in line behind us we were price matching and couponing so they weren't surprised), etc. I'm please to say it took less than 10 minutes to check out, from beginning to end! Not bad for two carts full with nearly every item being price-matched plus applying coupons!! 


5) Saved my parents nearly $100 bucks! Seriously. Not bad for a first run, eh?!

I'm excited to keep trying this out - and learning how to master this in a more efficient, clean way. It feels so good to help save money. Seriously, I'm on a high right now. =D

*All pics were taken off the Internet via google*

New month, new hair, new niece :)

So, it's June. Yay...good month. May was good but super busy and tiring. Here's to hoping June is just as good but not nearly as exhausting! The best news of all is that Trav and I booked our flights to go visit his family the end of this month into early next month!! YAY, I LOVE MINNESOTA! So, already June's lookin' pretty darn good!


After posting the pictures on the last update I felt I needed to make a change with my ugly hair. It looked like someone made a wig based off what men had back in the 60/70's and I was wearing it. Ew. I definitely needed an updated cut that was more flattering and more "me". I must say, though the changes aren't super dramatic, they're enough and I'm loving it. :)


Trav and I have another little niece to add to the wonderful handful we already have. My older brother and his wife welcomed their first child, a little girl, into their family yesterday morning. They still haven't been able to decide on a name but that's okay. It's a pretty big decision - one they and she will have to live with for the rest of their lives so they're allowed to take a few days to really decide what they feel fits her.

She's a doll though! She was born around 8:30 yesterday morning, weighing 5 lbs. 12 oz, and was 18-1/2 inches long. She's such a cute little peanut with lots of brown, beautiful hair!

 

Thinkin' PINK or are we thinkin' BLUE?!

The oh-so typical pregnancy pic. We just had to get one (please excuse the ugly mess on my head. I'm still figuring out how to fix it). :)

We wrapped four presents, one for each of the cousins (Braxton, Marin, Grayson, and Keegan) to open. We thought it'd be fun since they're such a big part of our lives and this baby will definitely be a part of theirs! The first present had diapers and wipes in it. The second had bottles and unisex toys, the third and fourth had all things gender-revealing in them (three and four were to be opened at the same time). The kids had to pick an envelope. Inside it had a card with one word written on it. They had to put the sentence together to find out what order to give presents. For example, the sentence was: (1) What (2) Is (3) Baby (4) Braun???

Grayson drew the card that said "IS" so he had present number two. Here he is opening it...only I wasn't thinking (pregnancy brain) and didn't double check to make sure it was, in fact, number two. I accidentally ended up giving Grayson box number four which was FULL of...

PINK!!!!! Trust me, I really am thrilled! I was just bummed I put the presents out of order! I was hoping to tease everyone before making the big announcement! Ah well, it was still a HUGE surprise because nearly EVERYONE thought we were having a boy! :D (Braxton is in the back ground opening his present (number 3) since the surprise was unexpectedly early. I let Marin open hers too because we wanted each of the kids to be involved.)

Ashley, Me, and my mom ready for some delicious salted-caramel cupcakes from Sweet Tooth Fairy (kindly provided by Ashley) and ice cream (kindly provided by Cam & Alicia). I mean, what's a party without ice cream and [cup] cakes?!?! Balloons and eating supplies - all of which were pink and blue - were provided by Dad and Mom Braun! It was such a fun little party!

Hehe! Love my boy! :)

The proud, expecting parents! (I wish I realized how bad my hair looked! Ahhh!)

This is a BEAUTIFUL baby blanket Dad & Mom Braun gave us as a pre-baby gift. It's all white and it's from Bethlehem, the birth place of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. We plan to treasure this special blanket. It will be used when our little girl is blessed. We love it.

So the next obvious question is, "Have you thought of names yet?" The answer is, "Yes, but we're still thinking. We'll keep you posted when we have a better idea." :)