It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!

Or so I hope.

Wow...I have been off the blog-grid for a little while now.  Why is that?  Well, I found out at the end of September that I'm pregnant.  I felt great for 2 weeks after that and then it went downhill from there.  I felt nauseous all the time.  Vomited 1-2x/day for weeks.  It was AWESOME.  During this time, I did NOTHING.  At all.  Everyday.  I lounged* in my bed or on the couch.  I flexed** at least once a week, so I only worked 2 of my 3 scheduled shifts.  I focused all my energy on those 2 days of work.

Side note:  I work with babies.  There are many sights/smells I encounter every work day that make me want to throw up.  And that's when I'm NOT pregnant with a sensitive nose and even more sensitive stomach.

Around 10 weeks, much earlier than I expected this to happen, I started to have some better days mixed in with the bad.  I could eat on those days.  I felt hungry.  I didn't throw up.  This felt encouraging!  Thankfully, my cousin Michelle's wedding day was one of those good days.  I was so excited to eat wedding food and CAKE. :)  This is an iphone picture from the wedding. (in not great lighting with no flash, sorry for the quality)

At the 13 week mark, I got dramatically worse all of the sudden.  As it turns out, I had some sort of stomach/intestinal virus that has been going around.  As my sister would say,  THAT'S JUST RUDE.  I just started to eat again and I get slammed with a vomit-bug.  I gotta tell you, if vomiting were a game on the Wii fit, I would be not an amateur, not a professional, but a CHAMPION at it.  If you've never played Wii fit, you have no idea what I'm talking about.  That's okay.

       Here's a picture of my belly (or lack thereof?) from 14 weeks.

I'm down 4 lbs since the beginning of the pregnancy.  I'm 14+ weeks now.  Feeling good.  Loving eating.  Not throwing up.  I'm BOUND to gain some weight now!

On to Christmas!  Illness aside, I have been enjoying the holiday season.  Yesterday I made a lot of cookies.  (please refer back to my "loving eating" comment)  So far I've made Chocolate Crinkles, M&M cookies and sugar cookies.

My mom helped me decorate the house and make it look Christmas-y. Note the surprising lack of presents under the tree.  1) This is actually not surprising at all considering I haven't shopped for any yet.  2) Because once I wrap them, if I put them under the tree, the Grinch's little helper-cats like to UNwrap them.  Or at least poke holes in the wrapping paper with their teeth.  They also try to ingest all the ribbons.

I went to Pier 1 to pick up a couple missing items.  Like a tree topper:

And 2 cute candle holders:

I am not a shopper.  Every once in a while I'll get excited about going to look for a particular item.  This was one of those times.  Pier 1 had a million cute Christmas things I could want.  I did well.  I only bought 3 things. :)  Seriously, how cute are the penguin and snowman??

So....life is getting back on track for me.  I am so grateful.  I know tons of people deal with much worse than "morning" sickness, and for much longer time frames.  I'm thankful that this is the only illness I've faced in the recent past.  I'm grateful for a husband who has cared for me well during this extended period of under-the-weatherness.  Scott has been kind to call on his way home from work to ask if he needs to pick up anything for me.  For example, for a few days, KFC's mashed potatoes and gravy was working for me.  Every afternoon he'd bring me some.  :)

Oh, forgot to mention this:  WE MOVED!!  Thanksgiving weekend.  We had planned to stay put in our 1 bedroom place until the baby was 6 months old or so.  All of the sudden, a 1 bedroom with a "den" (it has a door and a closet, that's a bedroom to me) came available for cheaper rent than we were paying.  So, in a matter of 5 days, we moved.  Found out about the available apartment on Tuesday.  Moved on Saturday, thanks to some extremely gracious family and friends.  We're in the same apartment complex, just around the corner from our old place.  Now we have a place for baby stuff!  I really felt like this was a God-type blessing.  It's not a common thing to go up in square footage and go down in rent.  Again, I am grateful.

I'm working on Christmas cards.  If you receive one, make note of the new address.  If you need our new address, email me at baacuff@mac.com.  I'll send it to ya.

That's all for now, folks.  Be blessed this Christmas season!

-BA

*I used the word 'lounged' here because I couldn't decide how to say "I layed on my bed."  Is it "I lied on my bed?"  Lyed?  You see now why I opted for "lounged".  Less controversy.

**'Flexed' means that there were more nurses scheduled to work on that particular day than were necessary for the number of patients (babies) in our nursery.  Sometimes you can request to flex (ie--stay home) if they have too many people.  Sometimes you are forced to flex because nobody has requested to do so.  If they force people to flex,  they go by dates, so it's more equitable.  For example, if the last time you flexed was in October and everybody else on that work day has flexed in November or December, then it's your turn to flex by dates.  Make sense?  Good, now you can too can be a nurse. :)

Yesteryear

When my mom was little, she wanted to be a ballerina.  She took years of ballet and dance classes up until her family moved to the country in Williamsburg, Virginia.  Because of that move, her access to classes ceased, right before she got her point shoes.  Is that what you call them?  Toe shoes?  Something like that...  Anyway, when she grew up and had kids, she decided to give Nikki and I the honor and privilege of attempting to be the ballerina she couldn't be.  I don't believe Nikki and I were the most willing subjects.

I give you Ballerina Betty Anne:

Don't I look SOOO excited?!  Yeah, I felt as excited as I looked.

These pictures are from 1983.  I was 5.

What am I even doing in this picture??  Standing around?  THAT'S talent...

Dave Ramsey

If you've spent any amount of time with me, you know I'm a HUGE FAN of Dave Ramsey.  Who is he?  Why, I'm so glad you asked!  According to wikipedia:  David L. Ramsey III (born September 3, 1960) is an American financial author, radio host, television personality, and motivational speaker.  I call him a financial guru.

How I found out about Dave:

When Scott and I got married, we knew we'd have to change how we handled our finances as individuals. Neither of us were big into keeping up with the checkbook.  We would routinely check our balances online and that was about it.  (Some of you are identifying with this methodology.)  For our wedding present, our dear friend Peter gave us a Financial Peace University kit.  It included everything we needed to get started with our "revamp the finances" project.  Thanks Peter!!  On our honeymoon, which included some lengthy plane rides, we listened to some of the cds.  We were hooked from the beginning.  Dave doesn't teach graduate level financial planning concepts.  He uses basic common sense that not too many of us like to put into practice, such as SPEND LESS THAN YOU MAKE.  Wow...there's a novel concept.

In July of 2008, Scott and I started on our path to financial peace.  Combined, we had $75,000 in debt.  Two car loans, two credit cards, and two huge student loans.  The first baby step is to save $1,000 in a starter emergency fund.  We did that.  Then on to the debt.  Baby step two is pay off all your debt except your house using the debt snowball.  Scott is a teacher.  I'm a nurse.  We make decent livings, but we're not rollin' in it.  I was sure it was going to take us 5 years to pay off all our debt.   But it didn't.  We put together a modest budget (or cash flow plan, for those of you that hate the word budget) and threw every extra dollar at our debt.  It took us two years.  Twenty-five months to be exact.  Now we are DEBT FREEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!  (I have a copy of our debt-free call to the Dave Ramsey Show, but I'm not smart enough to figure out how to upload it here. :-/)

In tiny print at the top of the picture is Scott and I's name in the queue waiting to scream 'We're Debt Free' on the Dave Ramsey Show.


It wasn't easy.

I like to take lots of trips.  We didn't take exotic trips.

I want to decorate my house.  We didn't.

Scott wants a big, flat screen tv.  We didn't buy one.

Being disciplined isn't usually "fun", but the rewards are HUGE.  What I really love about following a cash flow plan/budget is that it makes some decisions very easy.  I don't walk into the grocery store and wonder if I'm about to spend our electric bill money.  Everything has a category and a budgeted amount and I have peace of mind knowing groceries, eating out, rent and other necessities are covered.  Even none-necessities like entertainment have their own category.  We can go to a movie without spending our food money. :)  We save all year for Christmas.  I have a per-person amount that I can spend.  There's freedom in that.  Is it hard?  Yes.  I want to buy extravagant gifts for people.  But we're not there yet.  For now, those of you on my Christmas list will have to deal with your $30 gift. :)

What's the point of all this?  To me, the point of being disciplined with your money is not to get rich, although that's a very real possibility.  The point of being disciplined is to be able to help others and give, give, give.  I don't know who said this, but I liked it:  Nobody would know who the Good Samaritan was if he didn't have any money.  In other words, he wouldn't have been able to help out if he was broke.  My job as a Christ-follower is to point people to Jesus.  One of the ways I hope to do that is by financially helping people in need.  What if Christians were, on the whole, diligent with their money?  What if that led to Christians funding programs that help those in need instead of the government? What if we led by example how to love and care for others?  I don't mean to make this a political thing.  It isn't.  I just mean to say that if people we wiser with their money, there would be more available to pay rent for a single mom or fully staff an orphanage and supply the needs of those children.  It could happen...

Dave says within a marriage, there is usually one nerd and one free spirit.  Nerd = spread sheet keeper, keeper of the books.  Free spirit = dreamer, big spender. Scott is a free spirited nerd and I'm a nerdy free spirit.  He doesn't like to keep up with the check book or write out the budget each month, but he's not a big spender.  I like the spread sheets and for my check book to match the bank to the penny, but I also love to spend money. :)  Somehow we make it work.

Soooo...Scott and I are on our way.  We're on baby step 3:  fully funding our emergency fund.  Appropriate, since we have a baby on the way.  A fully funded emergency fund is supposed to have 3-6 months of expenses saved up.  Not INCOME, expenses.  To me, this is a tricky target number to come up with.  Imagine if we both lost our jobs.  What would it take to keep us afloat until we started working again?  We kinda laugh at this (we shouldn't).  If Scott the teacher AND Betty Anne the nurse can't find work anywhere, we've got bigger world problems.  In that case, should a bomb shelter and supplies be included in our emergency fund?  I digress...

One of the funny things Dave says is to "put the dog on craigslist, sell the cat on ebay".  Scott was ALL ABOUT us selling the cats.  I put my foot down.  NO WAY.  First of all, what are we going to do with $2 extra dollars that we would get from selling them?  Second of all, NO.  He said I wasn't being gazelle intense.  I said......mean things.  We're better now.

My cousin Jon works for Dave Ramsey now.  He has a blog you should check out:  Stuff Christians Like.  Jon is my hero now because he works with Dave.  I mean, he was cool before, but NOW...  I already looked for nurse job openings at the Ramsey Headquarters.  No such luck...

I know I'll have more to say in the future about Dave Ramsey, but for now....  I'll end this mini-novel.

"Live like no one else so later you can GIVE like no one else."  -Dave Ramsey

In front of the Dave Ramsey Headquarters in Tennessee!
www.daveramsey.com

Nausea

Tonight I went to get my nausea medication refilled. I thought this time I would give the brand name, Zofran, a try instead of the generic.  I had hopes that the brand name version would work spectacularly better than the generic.  We'll never know.

Generic: $20.

Brand name: $889.

Guess that decides THAT for me...

In other news, I have two cats.  Cats are vomiters.  Hair balls, ate something funny, or just having a bad day, cats throw up on a semi-regular basis.  Or at least MINE do.  With all this vomiting going on between the 3 of us, I feel we're really bonding on a whole new level. >^..^<

Here we go....

Scott and I still aren't sure what we've gotten ourselves into, but it's too late to turn back now!!  I give you our TEDDY GRAHAM:

AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!   We are really excited.  Scared to death, but excited!  We've got so many decisions to make before the baby even arrives.  It's overwhelming.  But exciting.  Did I mention exciting?

I say it's a teddy graham because it looks like one!  Don't you remember those lovely little snacks?

You've got to admit, there is a resemblance there (minus the ears).  No, we will not be making a snack out of our baby. I'm just sayin. 

For you numbers-people:

•   In the above picture, I was 8 weeks, 2 days.  Today I'm 9 weeks pregnant. 
•  Due June 8th, 2011.  
•  I throw up 1-2 times a day.  It's a BLAST.
•  This is my 2nd pregnancy.  My first child I placed for adoption when she was born.  We'll talk more about that in another post.
• With my first pregnancy, I threw up 6+ times a day.  This time is slightly better.
• This will be my parents 5th grandchild.  They are ecstatic.
• Mom has made me 2 batches of chicken and dumplings (so far).  One of the few things I can keep down.
• This will be Scott's parents' 1st grandchild.  Let the spoiling begin!
• 9-10 hours:  the number of hours of sleep I require these days.  EXHAUSTED.

We have another appointment in 2 weeks, so hopefully I'll get more teddy graham pictures then.

Nick names already being used on this baby:  teddy graham, sprout, bean, lizard, harley (as in davidson).  Others you'd like to add?

Watch out world, here comes Baby Davidson!

Diving In Too Soon

Here I am, all excited about having started a blog.  Except I'm not sure what to write about.  I can think of lots of things, but it all seems "too deep" for this early in a blog-relationship.  I feel like I need to go through routine pleasantries before I dive in to the meaning of life and all.  So, allow me to introduce myself:

Hi.  I'm Betty Anne.  Please don't call me Betty.  It drives me CRAZY.  Although, as my grandfather used to say, it isn't a long drive.  My grandmother's name is Betty.  My mom's name is Anne.  Calling me either name just isn't me.  I'm a combo girl: Betty Anne.  For the record, I would never name my child a double name.  It just doesn't work.  People will ALWAYS shorten your name to the first name only.  It goes like this--

Me:  "Hi, I'm Betty Anne."

Insensitive new person: "Nice to meet you, Betty."

If I'm never going to see this person again, I'll usually let it slide.  If I will have regular interaction with someone now determined to call me Betty, creating a nails-on-a-chalkboard-type reaction in me, I'll say "It's Betty ANNE."  There, I feel all better having cleared up this issue.

Moving on...  I'm a nurse.  I work with itty bitty babies in the NICU.  I love what I do.  I work with great people who teach me lots.  I used to be a vet tech at an emergency clinic.  Getting bit, scratched and peed on is a regular occurrence in that job.  At least working with newborns I get bit and scratched less.  Getting peed on is still a more-frequent-than-I'd-like kinda thing.  People often ask me if it's hard working with sick babies.  I don't think that it is.  Not all of them are truly "sick".  Some are just early and need time to grow and develop.  Others really are sick, but usually for a brief period of time.  In my particular nursery, we have predominantly positive outcomes.  I like that. This picture is a random picture from the internet, not an actual baby from my nursery, fyi.

I'm married to Scott.  He's a high school math teacher.  God bless him.  He moved from Columbia, SC to Raleigh to marry me, for which I am extremely grateful. :)  Scott is a huge fan of dogs and all things football.  I'm not a big fan of either, but I'm learning...at least about football...  This past summer he was on Wheel of Fortune.  This picture is of him after the show, complete with a spray tan and his Wheel name tag!

You can watch his episode of Wheel of Fortune on December 30, 2010.  Don't miss it!

I have two cats.  I LOVE THEM.  If you continue to read this blog, you will hear more about them.  Otto is 11 years old.  He is orange, persnickety, meticulous and very dedicated to ME.  He tolerates Nestle.  Nestle is an 8 year old torti who is sloppy, easy going, forgetful, pudgy and ridiculously sweet.  She LOVES Otto.

I'm guessing this is enough getting to know me information for now.  Was this superficial enough?  Was I too harsh about my double name issues???

  

Humble Beginnings

So, I did it.  I started a blog.  Aren't you sooooo excited??  I am. :)  I've been wanting to for a long time.  What can you expect to read about here?

My life as a:

Christian.
Wife.
Birthmother.
Nurse.
Friend.
Military Kid.
Cat lover.

And probably other things I haven't thought of yet.  Stay tuned!

Now for a random picture:

Scott and I in Vegas in 2008.