elf yourself

So this is only part of the reason why I have the best sister ever. Because she makes things like this, that make me smile and make my day. Just wanted to share it with everyone. Hope it makes you laugh too :)

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9635455174

Thanksgiving

We had the most amazing Thanksgiving this year. We definitely have an enormous amount of things to be thankful for. My whole mom's side of the family (aunt, uncle all the cousins, and my grandparents), were able to go to Galveston, TX for Thanksgiving. Since John and Erika were not able to come back to Kansas this year we all went to them. Jeremy and I actually stayed with John and Erika, which was awesome. It was great to see where they live and what they talk about all the time! It was such a great break away from everything here. Mom and Dad rented a mini van and the five of us rode down together. That was a treat in itself :). We really did have a great time in the van for 11 hours there and back :). And it was a very good idea of dad's to rent the minivan, because I am pretty sure Jeremy, Erin and I would not have lasted in the back seat of the VUE together for that long.
We left Wednesday morning and arrived in Galveston that evening around 10:30pm. Thursday Erika had planned and AMAZING thanksgiving lunch for everyone. Keep in mind, there was 14 of us!! And she cooked for us for all but 2 meals from Thursday-Saturday. They were wonderful hosts!!
I know that while we were gone Wichita got a little cold front, and Galveston got that as well. Just not quite as cold. It was in the 50's every day we were there. Just so everyone knows, 50 degrees in Galveston is colder than 50 degrees here. I guess because of all the moisture in the air, and the breeze off the gulf. Well Erin and I were a little disappointed that it was a bit chilly, but that was not going to stop us from swimming in the gulf. So Erin, Annette and I went swimming while everyone else sat on the beach wrapped up in blankets watching us :). It was a bit cold, but as long as we stayed under the water it was not too bad. Annette taught Erin and I how to boogie board, which was a lot of fun.
Friday, all of the grandkids, but John :) had bought tickets to the amazing water park in Galveston called Schlitterbahn. So despite the chilly weather we all went, and had an amazing time. It was enclosed pretty well, but was still pretty cold. We will be lucky if we get out of this weekend without getting a cold :). Before we went to Schlitterbahn a lot of us went shopping on the Strand, which has a lot of custom boutique shops. It was a bad place for me to be because they have the most adorable baby things at these shops!! But I had to hold off. Friday evening we all went to the Festival of Lights at Moody Gardens. They have an amazing display of Christmas lights, that you walk through by the harbor.
Saturday, we ate lunch together and then Mom, Dad , Erin, Jeremy and I left and went part way back to Dallas that evening. Everyone else stayed until Sunday morning. It was just an amazing time away with our amazing family. It really could not have been a better Thanksgiving. Thank you John and Erika for making our time in Galveston so amazing.

Little Ones to Him Belong

The past couple days at work...lets just say, they could have been better. When I arrived at work on Monday, I found out that one of our nurses was in a very bad horse accident, while riding with her daughter, and was on life support in the SICU. Her family was most likely going to take her off that afternoon. I was not very close with her, but worked with her quite often, but there are a lot of nurses who were close with her, so it was a very rough day on the labor and delivery floor. Her family did decided to take her off life support after confirming there was no brain activity, and she passed away around 4pm. The atmosphere was something like it had never been before.
Then early in the afternoon I took a patient who was 22 weeks pregnant, fully dilated and about to deliver. I had taken care of this couple last week, and we had been able to hold this off for a few days at least, but now there was no holding her off. The age a baby is viable is not until 23 weeks and even then there is only an 8% chance of survival. So there will be no resuscitation done for this baby. This couple had been trying for 6 years to get pregnant and this was their first pregnancy. This is going to have to be one of my questions for God some day. Why does this have to happen to such a loving couple who wanted this so badly, and who had tried for so long? Needless to say, my emotions were overboard especially being pregnant. I went back to work, for one more day of fun today, to find another situation (though not my patient) almost exactly like the couple the day before.
Before the past couple of days, I have been feeling really good. The nausea is so much better, and I am almost reaching the 12 week mark, which dramatically decreases my chance of miscarrying. Which has always been a concern in my mind, just because of where I work. I am still feeling better physically, but still worry very much about every little complication possible just because of what seems to be around me every day. Lately as I have been worrying about this, God brings to mind the simple song of "Jesus Loves Me". The part that says "little ones to Him belong, they are weak but He is strong". I just keep reminding myself that our baby is in God's hands, and so are we. Then I look at our sonogram pictures, and I cry (tears of joy), mostly because I am a hormonal emotional wreck, almost all of the time, but also because I cannot believe what God has blessed us with. It is the most amazing thing.
I am sorry, I rarely post about such depressing things, but I really felt like writing all of this out. I hope I didn't ruin anyones day! :) I also want to share a new sonogram picture from our last appointment on Friday. I like to think the baby is waving, but if you look where I put the "Hi!" caption, you can see the little hand and all 5 fingers! That was very exciting, and we got to see the little guy or girl move around like crazy!
Thanks for bearing with me through this post :).
WE ARE WEAK BUT HE IS STRONG...

best friends...

Here is a non-pregnancy post! :) It is still kind of about our child...even though he is a dog :). Yesterday we were at Josh and Tessia's for 6 1/2 hours, and this video shows how our dog (Emmett) and their dog (Ace), played the whole time. They seriously went this hard and fast the whole time we were there. I thought surely they would run out of energy soon, but they just kept going! They are so cute playing together, they were definitely our entertainment for the evening. Ace is a huge golden retriever who thinks he is a lap dog, and Emmett thinks he is much bigger than he is, so it works out quite well. When we are in Galveston over Thanksgiving Josh and Tessia are watching Emmett for us, and I think they will have their hands full, if this is what the dogs are like the whole time! Needless to say Emmett has slept most of the day today. Here is the video...you don't have to watch the whole thing, it seems kind of long, even though it is only 2 minutes :) Oh, by the way, I decided I am asking for a little video camera for Christmas, because my digital camera just doesn't cut it...and with a child on the way, I am thinking it is a must :) ...hint, hint, mom :)

week 10

Ok so I promise I am going to try to not make all of my posts pregnancy posts, but that is about the most exciting thing going on around here lately :). Jeremy and I continue to get more excited by the day!! And I feel like I continue to get larger by the day. Tonight at work was a fairly slow night, so the girls and I decided to try to listen to the baby with our doppler and then also did a sonogram. With being only 10 weeks it can be very difficult to hear the heartbeat already, without using a sonogram machine, but we heard it!! I recorded it with my cell phone and sent the recording to Jeremy so he could hear it. We will be able to hear it again on Friday at our appointment. It was between 160-170 bpm tonight.
But I wanted to share the sono pictures with everyone. It is amazing how much the little guy or girl is growing!! You could actually see he/she moving around!! It was moving like crazy on the sonogram!! It was the neatest thing to see. So I have tried to edit the pictures so you can see them a little better and maybe define what you are looking at. Our sono machine is really old, so they are not the best pictures, but we think they are quite amazing! We got a couple good profile pictures, and then the one where I have the leg labeled; we were able to freeze it while it was kicking its leg!!

8 weeks

Here is a post for Erika's request. She said she heard I was getting a belly and wanted to see pictures. So here is a picture. I am now about 8 1/2 weeks and I feel huge already. I feel like I have to have the biggest 8 week baby ever. I don't think anyone looks as big as I do at this early!! But I guess I could be wrong :) I think the best way to describe how I feel now, is, bloated...all the time. Lovely, I know. I just can't suck my stomach in anymore!

There is really nothing new going on with us. I have been trying to think of things to post on, but there really has not been much excitement in our lives!

(Oh, if someone can tell me how to get the pregnancy ticker that I have at the top of our blog, readable, that would be great! I have been messing around with it, and you still can't read the words underneath!)

our baby.

So we had our first appointment today, and we are now totally excited. Not that we weren't excited before, but now we have seen the little guy or girl and heard and seen the heartbeat!! Dr. Kauffman said that it looks like everything is going great, and the baby is growing as it should be for this stage. According to my last menstrual period, my due date is June 7th, which puts me at 6 weeks and 6 days today. According to the sonogram he got me at 7 weeks and 1 day. Since it is very little difference we are sticking with the due date according to my LMP. So the official due date is June 7th, of 2008!!
So we wanted to share our sono pictures with everyone. In the first picture you can see the little peanut in the black sac (in the lower left corner of the sac). In the second picture you can see the baby in the same spot (the little sac to the right of the baby in this picture is the yolk sac, that is where the baby is getting its nutrients from right now). The lines at the bottom of this second picture is the tracing of the babies heart beat. It was 139 when we listened :)....oh...and there is just one :) Thank goodness!

psalm 23

Ok if you guys have not seen this video it is worth watching. This little girl is SO adorable!! I only hope Jeremy and I's child is this cute! :) I have watched this video over and over again.

baby stuff...

Ok so I promise not all of my posts from now on are going to be about baby stuff, but I'm sorry it is just really exciting :). I wanted to post a picture of some of the stuff people have already given us and I have bought. I know I am still so early, but I just can't help but look at baby stuff and want to buy it all up! In the picture above, I bought all the cute little outfits...I went to Von Maur, and they actually have decent sales on newborn stuff! So I couldn't resist. Notice all of the colors in the outfits are neutral. That would be because, we are not finding out what the sex of this child is. Jeremy really really wants it this way, and I keep trying to convince him otherwise, but he isn't budging. I always thought I wouldn't want to find out, but now that we are actually pregnant, I kind of want to know, but Jeremy really doesn't, so it will be a surprise!
The wall hanging is from my mom. I just love it, it is so cute. The quote on there is an Abraham Lincoln quote and it says "The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time." Which I have to keep reminding myself since every day I just want to be further along than I am!! Also, the Baby Einstein CD is from my mom. She said we should start playing it now. I told her, why don't we wait until the child actually has ears :).
The beautifully crocheted blue blanket and the cute pink bunny are from my grandma butch. I just love that blanket. It is so soft, and I don't even care if we have a girl, she will just have to have a blue blanket :)
Well nothing else too exciting going on. Time is still going by very slowly ever since we found out, and every day I think it sinks in a little more that we are going to be parents...scary. I have started not feeling too great. Just nauseous and tired...and I feel like a have a bladder infection because I pee all the time! All of this just kicked in this weekend. It is definitely hard to drag myself out the door and to work, but I just remind myself why I feel the way I do! I am not a huge fan of the way the first part of pregnancy makes you feel, but I don't really know who is :).

new baby

Now I think it is safe to put it on the blog, that Jeremy and I are pregnant! We are so excited! It was not exactly planned, but evidently not prevented well enough :). So, I know that we are really early, but we cannot help but tell everyone. I am somewhere in between 4-5 weeks, which puts my due date at the beginning of June....which is SO far away!! This is going to be the longest pregnancy ever!! Ever since we found out on Friday, each day has crept by. It has already been the slowest weekend ever...only 35 more weeks to go. Wow. I need to stop counting. So far everything is going really well. I am starting to dread the next couple of weeks, because that is when I hear the morning sickness kicks in. I have not been very sick yet, occasional bouts of nausea, and being a little more tired. So far so good! We are really excited to go to our first appointment which will be in the next couple weeks. Then you can expect pictures of the little bean on the blog :). Because I am pretty sure that is all it looks like right now. I know once I see the heartbeat it will put my mind at ease. Being in my profession I can't help but worry about every little thing. So I guess that is one thing we could use prayer for. I know God has this baby in His hands, and that is what I keep telling myself :).
It has been so much fun watching Jeremy tell his friends over the past few days...he is completely ecstatic. Two nights ago, I had him pick up a couple things at the grocery store around midnight so I would have them for work the next day. When he got home, he said he got really excited when he was at the store, because he thought of all the nights that I am going to crave something and send him to the store in the middle of the night. I thought that was really cute...whether that will really happen or not, who knows, but if it does, I wish that I had recorded what he said, because I am thinking he will not be as enthusiastic about it at that time :).
Well below is video of the reaction my mom and sister had when we told them we were pregnant. We were at my grandparents house, and wanted to tell them then because we knew it would be one of the only times we saw grandma and grandpa for a while. In the video you will hear us talking about Mexico, and that is because we started out by telling them that we will not be able to go to Mexico at the end of May with the rest of the family.

babysitting

Jeremy and I had an absolute blast watching Sophie this past Thursday evening. I wanted to share a couple videos we took of her, and a couple pictures. I love the age she is at!!! She is so much fun!! She talks non-stop! Jeremy and I got some good laughs at these videos.

job & baby

Good news...Jeremy got the job!!
Jeremy heard from the head video guy at First United Methodist, and he got the job!! It is
a huge answer to prayer for us! He finally has a job that will be using his degree. He is very excited...a bit nervous, because there is a lot he is going to have to learn working with this church, but I know he will do great. We went a signed all of the paperwork on Monday and they are going to decide on a start date at the beginning of next week. While we were up at the church on Monday I got to go to the studio where he will be working, and meet the guy that will be his boss. He seems like an awesome, laid back guy to work for. And, the studio...well lets just say, I might never see Jeremy again once he starts working here. He has a pretty sweet set up in his little office area. In front of where he sits are two, 23 inch widescreen Apple monitors, for video editing. I'm pretty sure that is like a dream for him. He kind of has his own little studio. It is really neat. He is not only going to be doing a lot of video shooting, and editing work, but will be learning the audio aspect to a lot of what he does. So this is going to be great experience for him.

Kaitlin Grace Kelley
09.11.07 11:42 pm
7lb's 7 oz's 21 in.
She was born to Ryan and Kylie Kelley. Kylie has been my good friend ever since kindergarten, and we have grown up at church together. Ryan and Jeremy have been friends since high school. I was so blessed to be her nurse during her labor yesterday. It was fun...well, for me at least :). Kylie and Ryan did such a great job going through that together! I just had to share some pictures of little Kaitlin. We went back today and saw them, and they are doing great!! Thanks guys, for letting me share in your day!

father daughter time/job opportunity

Yesterday was a beautiful day for working outside! I was at mom and dad's all afternoon helping dad in the yard. It was actually a lot of fun! We got all of their stone laid around the front of the house for the flower beds. We also dug up a lot of dirt and transferred it to other parts for the garden. Yesterday reminded me of fall, with how cool it was, with the nice breeze. Which means that the sweats and hoodie weather is almost here, and that is my favorite time of year!!
It was great getting to spend the whole afternoon with dad. I took some pictures of our work. Mom and dad also had trees put into their yard this past weekend. It is all starting to look really nice!

The other purpose for this post, is to let everyone know of another job opportunity Jeremy has. He has had a couple interviews with the head video guy at First United Methodist in downtown Wichita. This is the church that broadcasts on Sunday mornings on ABC. These interviews have gone really well, and this past Thursday he wanted to take both of us out to dinner, which we had to decline because of family pictures....haha. But he and Jeremy went out on Friday for lunch, and he told Jeremy that he wants to hire him. Which is great news, and a huge answer to prayer! He just has to get this position approved by the head pastor, who will not be returning until this coming Wednesday. So that is all we are waiting on. This job is going to pay really well compared to the coffee shop :). We would also be eligible for health benefits, which would make me a little more flexible with my job. We just would appreciate everyone's prayers for this. It seems like a great opportunity for him, and so far everything is falling into place!

sophie.

I think the highlight of my week was stopping by KT and Julie's and getting to play with Sophie for a little while...three more months and she will have a little sister! I am pretty sure Sophie is a genius. Are 1 1/2 yr olds supposed to be able to count to 10, and know that the "p" comes after the "o" in her name?? I was pretty amazed! :) I can't believe how much she is talking and how big she is getting. So I just wanted to brag on one of my three cutest cousins ever (Chloe and Mason being the other two). I thought I got some pretty cute pictures, so I thought I would share. When Jeremy and I were leaving KT and Julie's, Julie came out and said that Sophie was saying "Kellie, bye bye". Yeah, pretty sure my heart just melted right then and there.

ice ice baby

Here is some more humor for your day :). I just love these girls.

you sexy thing you

For those of you who know Jodi and Erin I thought you might think this is funny.
They made a couple other videos but I couldn't upload greater than 100MB. I will try to get them uploaded somewhere else. We miss the Birkey family so much!! Jodi and Erin have been making these videos since they were 4 and 5 years old and got "married".

...a place in my heart...

...where we have seen 10,183 patients so far
...where 11,784 locals have learned how to better take care of their health
...where God has provided 31,921 prescriptions to be filled
...where 1,571 surgeries have been preformed
...and most importantly, where 859 people have committed themselves to Christ

This is where I will be from January 26th-February 9th of the coming year...The Dominican Republic. And I can't wait, I feel like God has been calling me to go back over this past year. Three years ago, I went on this same medical missions trip, and now I have been given the opportunity to go again. God has been so faithful. Now I just need to keep putting my trust in Him that everything regarding the details of the trip will be worked out!

The statistics above are provided by Medical Ministries International. They are an amazing organization that sends teams all over the world. For 2 weeks at a time, these teams, provide necessary medical services to countries in need, and share the good news of Christ. I will be going to Monte Plata, Dominican Republic. This is a town of about 14,000, north-east of the capitol of Santo Domingo. Our team consists of a medical and a surgical team. The medical team, sets up a clinic in Monte Plata, and sees patients every day for two weeks. The surgical team (which I will be a part of), goes approximately 20 kilometers, every day, to the town of Bayaguana and operates in their OR's, providing free surgical services. The hearts of these people in this country are amazing. They are so un-believably grateful, for the little that we can give to them. I am really excited to be going back, and just wanted to share with you all. I decided to just answer God's calling on my heart to do this, that has been there for a while. I might not end up knowing many who are going (which would be a big challenge for me), but I am trusting that God has it all worked out. And as for the money...it will come...it always does :). Some of you, might be receiving a letter for support within the next couple months. And because of my husbands amazing support I will be going. I was still very hesitant about a week ago, but he said, that I am going, so I guess I am going!! I can't wait to see what God is going to do this year. I want to share a few pictures of mine from three years ago.

Dominican baby that was treated in the clinic (sorry I couldn't keep
the picture rotated the right way)

The houses in the town we stay in.

Jesus is the light of the world. John 8:12

Local boy.

Me bagging a patient during surgery. (Sorry I couldn't keep this one rotated either.)

new tattoo.

I never imagined myself as a person that would have two tattoos, but ever since I saw this drawing I have been thinking about it...and today I did it! (Thank you to Anne Morrow for the excellent artwork.) Jeremy and I both finally had a day off together, so he went with me. It was actually a lot of fun...besides the whole needle sharp pain on my shoulder blade, but it was short lived :). He was there to hold my hand. I am really glad I got it, so I wanted to share pictures!






...This is my, oh my gosh this hurts really bad, but I am trying to laugh and have fun, face :)

Birkey Time

Our favorite family was in town this past weekend!! We got to spend time with them Saturday evening and Sunday morning...it was great. We really don't get to see them enough. They had just got back from family camp in Colorado, and were on their way back to Iowa. Jodi is getting ready to go back to school, after spending the summer in the Dominican Republic. Justin and Amy are going back to K-State, both will be graduating this year, and Melisa is getting ready to start her second semester (?) of ARNP school at WSU. So this was about our only time to see each other before everyone gets really busy again. Erin already moved back up to Sterling; I helped her move in yesterday.
Here are some pictures from our weekend!

Pies with Grandma

So last weekend, Erin and I went out to Grandma T's, and baked some pies. It was great to go out for the afternoon and spend time with her. We made a rhubarb and a dutch apple pie. I was surprised at how easy it is!! I thought pies took a really long time to make, but really, it just takes a long time to bake them. If anyone else has good pie recipes, feel free to share!