Wednesday, May 12, 2010

What if you go in there and YOU CAN DO IT?

Isn't it weird how in the smallest, weirdest place we find inspiration or a moment of deep thought. Tuesday night while trying to sleep I was watching Biggest Loser and found a thought that won't let me go. My inspiration was not related to weight loss specifically (unfortunately), but has a broader implication to all areas of life.

Ashley, a member of the Pink mother/daughter team, has always been overweight, but packed the pounds on when her father (who was overly critical of her weight) passed away without Ashley telling her father how his actions hurt her. I can't imagine what life would be like living in constant criticism, it's ridiculous.

While Ashley was talking with her mom she said 'What if I go in there and I can't do it?' speaking of the Biggest Loser gym, her Mom replied 'What if you go in there and you can do it?'. Wow. For me it was earth shattering - What if you go in there and YOU CAN DO IT?

As soon as I heard the remarks I couldn't get them out of my head. They have caused me to live, work and play differently the past couple of days. I have asked more of myself and more of my work team and surprisingly we all have delivered. Can you imagine if we lived our life without fear of failure? What would life be like if we looked at every adventure as a possible success instead of an assumed journey to failure? There are many things that we think about doing or want to do every day, but fear failure or rejection.

What are some things you would do if you believed you would be successful?


Monday, May 10, 2010

Happy (belated) Mother's Day

This Mother's Day was very emotional for me for many reasons. 

1) I really miss my mom and my family in East TN. My next sister down, Rachel, graduated with her associate's degree on Saturday, turned 20 on Sunday, and leaves for Costa Rica today (Monday). I was not there to help her celebrate any of these achievements or help her pack for her big adventure. I haven't spent many of the past Mother's Days with my mother due to usually working or Joe working, and it is always hard for me to know that all of my family is together eating at my Nana's house. I miss those delicious meals and lively conversations around the dinner table. I have always loved my mother, but she is someone that as I "grow up" I depend on her wisdom more and more. I hate that we are so far apart, and we can't spend nearly enough time together. I am truly blessed to have the best mother in the world. I know that I am a lot like her, and I hope I continue to become more and more like her as the years go on.


2) I am beginning to reach burn out from school. I have now completed four large exams in a little over a week. The exam that I had today was awful. It was a national NBME physiology exam. I LOVED physiology in undergrad thanks to Dr. Reese, but I have not enjoyed it as much in medical school largely due to pretty crappy lecturers. I have done fairly well considering this year, but after today's exam, I feel like I haven't learned anything all year. That realization scares the crap out of me because physiology is a large part of Step 1 that I will take next summer in order to advance to my clinical rotations. 

3) This may sound crazy, but even though it "hit" me a long time ago that I was having a baby; it didn't hit me until this weekend that I was going to be a "mother." There is so much involved with being a "mother," and to tell you the truth, as of now I am scared to death. I am very excited about Blueberry, but I worry about being as good of a mother as mine was to me. I pray that God will continue to guide me and help lead me on the correct path. I also know for sure that I am not feeling Blueberry kick. I have felt several times little flutters, but I honestly didn't know if it was air or baby. This weekend Blueberry let me know that legs are growing strong. It is such a weird sensation. It feels like I am getting thumped over and over again on the inside of my stomach usually in the same spot for minutes on end. I was able to feel them outside of belly with my hand, but I couldn't get Joe's hand over it fast enough for him to feel. I hope that he soon gets to feel our little one practice soccer on my uterus. 

4) My wonderful husband did a great job of treating me right for Mother's Day. He let me sleep in, and then brought my new beach bad full of goodies to bed for me to open. He then had to go to work, and I went with him. I hung out and studied in Columbia while he worked, and then he took me out to eat afterwards. He took me to Carraba's, one of my favorites and then treated me to Cold Stone. We then came home, and I studied more while he watched 30 Rock. He really pampered me and made me feel special even though I was crazy emotional all day.

Baby Bump on Mother's Day 2010. Please ignore how terrible I look at this point in the day!!

Friday, May 7, 2010

Baby Buys Advice

Its been almost 4 years since Rebecca and I registered for anything. And to be honest I'm not sure a whole lot of thought went into our wedding registry, save our china pattern. I do remember stealing away the Target scanner from Rebecca to scan items that I wanted - workbench, bungie chords, etc. Later on I heard that those were some of the more fun items that couples picked out.

I feel like registering for Blueberry is a much different situation. Registering for a baby isn't about emotions or feeling, it's about research, ease of use, and practicality. This is where all of you come in. I would love to hear about your experiences with baby products, whether you are the Mom, the friend, Nanny or Lala.

We've already gotten some great tips from Renee Hall (mother of triplets and wonderful blogger). And will pass those along with the rest once we have received a bunch.

So, I would love for you to use these categories:

Couldn't live without...
Used only once/Never used...
A great 'nice to have', but not an absolute need...
*If you loved specific brands or realized that store brands were sufficient, we would love to hear that too. As well as specific information about baby monitors and strollers.

Happy thoughts and thanks for helping us register for Blueberry.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you'll miss it.'


Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you'll miss it.'
-Ferris Bueller

Ferris never said anything truer. Life over the past couple of weeks has been amazingly busy.

Rebecca is celebrating the end of her first medical school year with four year end exams. They are topical and the information begins back in August. Fortunately she doesn't have to heavily excel in them to keep her grades high, but that doesn't alleviate the stress of them. These exams, Shelf exams, are designed to teach medical students how to prepare and study for Step exams (or at least this is how I understand them). Her tummy as continued to grow making space for Blueberry. Rebecca had a doctor's appointment last week for blood taking, no fun stuff. It looks like we'll be waiting another 4 weeks to find out Blueberry's gender. We're a little tired of waiting. :)

According to BabyCenter.com Blueberry will double in weight and grow inches in the next few weeks. Blueberry is the size of an AVOCADO. Hmm...no, guacamole jokes. Legs are more developed, ears are close to final position and the 'patterning' of his scalp has begun - I pray for no cow licks. They are awful. Blueberry is also started growing toenails (wow). Also, his Grandma Pierce bought Blueberry the first gift - a 'My First Medical Kit' with fun medical stuff.
Blueberry also got a great little picture frame for the sonogram picture from Lala! (Pics to come.) When were we in the Bahamas we searched high and low, close and far for a onesie and found this great one!
Life for me is going well. It's been a tad difficult balancing a new store and school. Sometimes when I get so passionate about something I'll let others slide. I think we all do it. I am thankful that I recognize when this happens and am able to fix it pretty quickly. My family made the trek to visit us two weekends ago and it was great having them here. A lot of time was spent on the front porch relaxing.
I'm gonna try and take Ferris' advice this week and slow down a little bit. I believe golf will be on the agenda Thursday. I'm pretty pumped about that!