kick kick

M and I have just three days until we face down our big tests. We both feel good about our preparation and we are mopping up the bits of reading, typing, and studying as we look to Friday. Abby has been in San Diego (she goes to Disneyland on Wednesday for the first time!) and we will get her back Thursday morning. We are all longing for Saturday morning--to wake up and NOT have to study will be amazing.

"Barbeque" has been kikcking me daily. We're 17.5 weeks along now, so BBQ is about 5 inches long (according to the books). We will have our big ultrasound on Dec. 15th (the half-way mark!!), but don't expect to know if BBQ is a girl or a boy; we are leaving that surprise until we see our baby in person! We fondly remember waiting outside the delivery room when our dear friends Pete and Melanie announced that there was a new baby girl in the world...well, Pete announced it; Melanie was a little busy. Anyway, that was a great moment and we look forward to our own big announcement in a little over 5 months from now. Keep us in prayer on Friday! I'll check back in after Dec. 1st!

prayer for Dustin

Friends and Family,

I ask your prayer for someone I don't know. He's a father of three, a husband, and he's the campus minister at Furman University with the same ministry Matthew and I worked for when we met. Here is what was sent by email: "Last wednesday Dustin was giving his new mountain bike a test ride with his two sons in their neighborhood when he somehow fell and received a massive brain injury. He was airlifted to the hospital, underwent surgury and is now in a coma. It doesn't look like this will be lethal, but there will most likely be serious brain damage. Brain activity is measured on a scale from 3 to 15--Dustin is at about 4 right now,while you and I are at 15. He has a wife and three children. The kids don't really understand that daddy "will probably not wake up"."

I know if it were Matthew in Dustin's place, I would want the whole world praying for his recovery.

If you want to pray and keep up with his progress, see our friend Grant Beechy's blog: http://www.redeemerchurch.net/dustin/

Barbeque

Matthew told me this morning at 4:40 am that he had just dreamt that we had a baby boy and that we named him: _John Barbeque Pearson (the underscore was part of the dream). I laughted for a long time; infact, neither of us could really go back to sleep after that. Seriously, those southern roots run deep! We don't plan to find out if the baby is a boy or a girl until his or her birthday, but we will let you know how little "Barbeque" is doing as we progress.

double whammy

We've just learned that Matthew is set to take his oral exam (to defend his dissertation prospectus) on Dec. 1-- the SAME DAY as my prelim! He is also presenting his research in South Carolina (Nov 17-21). Given the new twist, we realized that we would both be pressed very hard with our studies this month, so we called for help... My sister is flying up Nov.15th to pick Abby up and fly her to San Diego for a 15-day vacation with Aunt Andi, Alec, Mia, Mimi, and the cousins... I hear that a Disneyland trip is in the works!

So, this will give M and I study time and will make the time MUCH more fun for Abby. Yay for having help from a village! This also may be the last time M and I are together by ourselves for a LONG time (with baby coming in early May...). We will try to to take study breaks once or twice to go see a movie and have a dinner out.

the sound of childhood

I never had legos as a kid, but Matthew sure did. He and Abby went to Wal Mart tonight to hunt for legos. I never knew these things were so tiny (and, yes, I'm thinking that it will be interesting keeping baby Pearson away from them). One other detail about legos that I never knew: they are LOUD. Abby and Matthew have been digging around the bin, finding just the right pieces for their house, and I'm getting a little headachy. In fact, I think I am going to hide out and take a bath. I mentioned how loud the legos were and Matthew simply replied: "This is the sound of childhood." If we have a boy this time around, or a louder girl than Abby, I'll be needing ear plugs, aromatherapy, and maybe even quarterly massages.

I may be very slow to blog until after December 1--my PhD preliminary exam is on that date, and all of my time and energy is going to studying, managing nausea and fatigue, and trying to snuggle and love my family before I fall asleep at 8:15 p.m. So PLEASE pray for me and for us. Especially pray that I'll not be anxious and that I will somehow get the rest and peace that I need in order to manage this very stressful time.

props to Matthew

I mentioned that M has been a champ, but this deserves special mention. This past Saturday I got a serious headache--I'm not sure what sort it was, but it was awful. Tylenol wouldn't touch it and the doc said (over the phone) that I could take Vicodine. One vicodine and two hours later I was still in just as much pain. One more vicodine and thirty minutes later and my body decided to revolt. All night long. Dear Matthew held my hair and fetched washcloths as I threw everything and then nothing up over and over. Around 4 a.m. we quit trying to sleep and decided to watch a DVD. I took some anti-nausea medication, put the hot rice pack on my neck (THANK YOU, Bronwyn and Jeremy!) and prayed for relief. We both fell asleep at 5:30 and Abbs was up Sunday morning at 7:30, so we took shifts. If one must be sick all through the night, it sure helps to have a loving hubby to just be there and be willing to forego sleep if it makes things even a little more bearable. He earned some stripes this weekend, for sure.

I'll try to remember this the next time I'm frustrated with Matthew for declaring "spider amnesty day" when I beg him to kill a spider in our house.

a "miracle"

I came home tired after teaching from 4-6 tonight. Abby was pouting and grumpy because M wouldn't let her play a game on the computer. She started complaining about her leg, her hand, and her neck hurting; oh yes, and her eye was very itchy too. She was angry about her food (she wanted mommy's chicken tetrazini after she ate her own portion) and angry at not getting her way about the computer, so she decided to milk the owie card.

WAY too tired to put up with this, I calmly told her that the best course of action for someone feeling so blue and owie is to have a bath and go straight to bed. I walked out of the room a minute to take a deep breath and give her time to consider what I had said. When I walked back into the room, she sheepishly said to me:

A: Mommy, I know something great is happening, but I don't want you to think I'm lying.
G: What is it?
A: My owies are all better. My leg doesn't hurt anymore; my hand and my neck are better too. I'm not lying.
G: How did they get better so fast?
A: I don't know; they just did. (Pause) Momma, since I am feeling better, do I still need to go bed early? I'll stop whining, I promise.

we're still here

An update on our fam...
Matty: M is working on paper #1 of 3 papers that will comprise his dissertation. He has been the champ of champs at home during a long six weeks of G's nausea. He is a TA this quarter and is preparing for presenting his research at a conference in November.
Genna: I still feel cruddy in the evening and at night in particular, but we're officially at 11 weeks now, so hopefully after another week or so I'll be in the clear! I haven't gained any baby weight yet, but clothes are fitting differently for sure! I'm getting a little pot belly, which Abby LOVES to talk to. She thinks she can feel kicks (it is still early for that though). I'm teaching a writing class and trying to study for my prelim exam.

You can pray for encouragement for both M and I; we are tired and discouraged at times as we face mountains of work.

Abby: She is being a real trooper. Abby is especially excited about trying out the church (K-6) choir (starts Friday!). She has had the sniffles for a while but nothing major. A likes to look at ("read") books in bed at night (just like her daddy). Last night we found her asleep with sixteen large books; no doubt it took her several trips to get those into bed. She had school pictures taken the other morning. I saw something stuck on her face so I licked my pinky and tried to rub it off. She said to me: "Now rub your germs off too." Ha!

celebrate naked romantic fire

As I opened the fridge to get milk for my cereal, I saw that Abby's art work was being held up by four of the fridge magnets that Matthew gave me some time ago--they are part of a set of "romantic words" which presumably one can make sentences out of. Abby had made her own sentence: "celebrate naked romantic fire." Matthew thought this was hillarious.

how'd you know that?

Abby and I were watching Jeopardy yesterday. Trebeck yammers something about "this country" while the screen shows a grey continent with a large red section indicating the country. I looked at and thought, hmmmm, don't know. Abby yells out: "That's Russia! It's Russia! I know it!" Then the buzzers go off and the contestant says: "What is Russia?" Trebeck replies: "Correct."
I just looked at Abby in amazement while she grinned.

This morning Matthew was still wondering how in the world she knew that answer:
M: Abby, how did you know it was Russia?
A: Because on Elmo visits the doctor they showed pictures of continents and countries, and I knew it was Russia.

So there. Rock on, Elmo.

slow-mo

I feel like life is moving very slowly these days--not necessarily a bad thing at all; infact, we are usually moving way too quickly. My frequent naps (seriously, I took two naps today! The first one was more of a rest, but the second one was an hour and a half sleep!) seem to make the days surreal. I get drowsy every time I eat :) I think staying in one's pj's all day does that too--or perhaps it is the solitude (and the nausea) which makes one think that the world is moving in slow- motion? I teach Tuesday and Thursday afternoons 4-6 p.m., which makes the day/evening shift really odd for me. Anyway, I think I need to bust out more comfy daytime clothes to wear so that the jammies don't seem so enticing. My tummy just doesn't want to be pressed by jeans these days!

One interesting thing from the past week--I went to a "Women of Faith" conference in Sacramento. There are lots of great things I could say about it, but one surprise was that Robyn McGraw (American TV's "Dr. Phil's" wife) spoke compellingly about women and choices in how we live. Dr. Phil was there to walk her off the stage (as she has done for him so many times). They are both Christians--something I suspected, but not something they advertise from their national platform. All in all, I was encouraged and I've been pensively trying to process much of what I heard.

chicken pops

Abby does NOT have chicken pox, but her friend Abbey O. does. Abbs was supposed to have a play date yesterday; it was cancelled and we had to explain to Abby about her friend. Abby burst into tears about "chicken pops" and about how people would laugh at her if she had polka dots. Abby misunderstood Matthew when he said that Jess was not bringing Abbey O. over; Abigail thought that meant Jess was only bringing the chicken pops over! She then blubbered some questions about eating chicken pops??? I don't know what she was imagining these things to be (chickien nuggests?), but she had the impression that you got them by eating some chicken something or other. A little web MD sleuth work and discussion and she's a bit more clear on the issue now.

pac mom

While M was at a conference the past three days, I tried to keep up with Abby. Last night she was especially chatty and as I walked past a mirror, I caught a glimpse of us. I was walking and she was trailing right behind me, talk, talk, talking up a storm. The scene struck me at first as very duckling-like, but then I thought it was a little more like pac man, where pac man tries to outrun the ever-speeding ghosty-things. With Matthew away, there are no cherries for this pac mom to munch (making Abby momentarily unable to capture me). I'm thankful for her cleverness, her inquisitiveness and her loving spirit, but it is official--the kid can totally outrun, outlast, and out-talk me.

Birthdays

On the eve of my 29th birthday, I thought I'd share some special news... Many times in the last weeks I've thought to blog something, but (as some of you already know) I have a great reason for not having the energy: The Pearsons Three will be The Pearsons FOUR in about seven months! We are expecting baby #2. My pregnancy with Abby was perfect--very little morning sickness, no complications, perfect birth. This time around I have been socked with nearly 24-hour nausea. Thankfully, there are now safe medications to help with this sort of thing. So if I am not as quick to blog, be patient. There will be lots to write about as the months pass. Hopefully I'll be feeling terrific in about 3 and a half weeks (week 12). The due date is May 5 (though they say any time within the month surrounding that date would be considered "on time").

Abby is absolutely thrilled to be a big sister. She talks to the baby (puts her face right on my belly and has a chat). She talks about what the baby will and will not be able to do, eat, say, have... She is very practical about things, and she seems like a little momma herself! In fact, I think she's feeling much more "motherly" than I am at the moment. Now if that would only translate into her letting me take an uninterrupted nap...

moms don't do their hair.

Abby and Meemo are playing with Abby's dollhouse. Matthew and I overheard the following conversation...
(Meemo is the kid and Abby is the mom)

Meemo: "Mommmy, it is time to wake up."
Abby: "I'm getting up, but first I have to do my homework."
Meemo: "Homework? You mean you have to do your HAIR?"
Abby: "Why would I do my hair?"

This is so true to Abby's experience of a mom-- ponytails, no curling irons, homework instead of "homemaking." I try for a balance, but it is hilarious to hear Abby be the "mom."

abby and friends

abby and friends
Originally uploaded by gennabby.

Abby loves to snuggle. If mom and dad aren't available, she'll take the next best thing. Tonight she has Pooh bear, angel bear, purple pony and blue (from blue's clues). Cozy.

Back in the Saddle

My computer came home today. The best news is this: my hard drive was not wiped out!!! This means all of my prelim exam study notes are intact (3 months worth of notes for my December 1 exam). I'm very thankful. So, I'll be blogging again. Stay tuned. Hmmm, an Abby tid bit. She had a nightmare last night that her daddy put her in the pool with two sharks. She was mad at him. They made up and had a nice walk to school.

computer probs

Dear all,
My computer is being sent to Apple for repair (of some mysterious problem). I may be a bit slow with the blogging for a bit.
Be back soon.

Allez Allez!

Century Matty
Originally uploaded by gennabby.

This pic of Matthew was taken at mile 97 of 100. He completed his first century ride in Napa valley on Sunday! Way to go!

girl meets road

I was riding my daily-rider bike (not my road bike) on campus yesterday. A left turn over a slick man-hole cover took my bike from its upright position and laid it, and me, out on the street. My first crash. So I've got scrapes and bruises on my left knee and ankle and a couple of deeper cuts and a small puncture wound on my right ankle. Thankfully the x-rays were clear: nothinkg looks broken. To top it all off I got a Tetanus (Tdap) shot. I'm limping along and will soon be better, but I may have a little souvenier from Davis...there is a thin black line of bike grease still under the deeper parts of the cuts on my right ankle. I couldn't take any more scrubbing out by the doc; I decided to take the impromptu tattoo instead. Matty is so proud.