I'm Back, Again!!!

Well -- I have a good reason for my absence from blogging this time. Several reasons, actually. But, the first reason is that I have tried and tried to figure out these changes that Blogger made to their set-up, and I have failed miserably. I haven't been able to put a lot of time into it, but it seems that the changes that they made to make their site "easier" to use have actually made it more difficult to use with templates and backgrounds from other sites. I finally got a new background to work today, but now I simply can not find how to change the colors in the header and text of my posts. I searched "help", and people seem to be referencing some "Fonts and Colors" tab that I do not see anywhere. I'm wondering if using a background from another site somehow makes it so that this tab does not show up? Hmm... Let me know if you know anything about this site and have figured it out. I'll keep looking around to see if I can find it so that my blog is not quite so mismatched. :)

The second good reason that I have not been blogging is that I have been quite sick for nearly 4 months now. But, sick for the best reason possible -- Baby Shirk has been growing and giving this mom-to-be quite an experience along the way. The nausea started, for me, around week 4 -- no, I'm not kidding. My first night of nausea was the same night that I found out I was pregnant. And, it hasn't stopped since. In the early stages, it was nausea without uhhh...throwing up. (Are you allowed to talk about throwing up on a blog? I always feel a little bad talking about these things, but it's where I've been and what I've been up to for multiple months.) However, that was the worst possible nausea because it was constant, and there was no relief that came with actually just uhhh...throwing up. Within a couple of weeks, I moved out of that phase and into the "I can't keep anything down phase." This was, of course, also while Drew was gone for 5 weeks this summer, and I was on my own. We had only told a very few friends that I was pregnant, so I only had those few friends to call on for help while he was gone. It got bad. I went 36 hours without keeping down water or food -- almost ended up heading to the emergency room for some fluids. I know we would have gone if Drew were here, but frankly, I was not really even feeling up to driving myself to the emergency room, and there were the factors of Toby and Rocky, as well -- I wasn't sure who would be able to take care of them, as all of the friends who knew that I was pregnant happened to be out of town while this was all happening. I could have told some other friends, but thankfully, just as I was getting desperate enough to do that, I also turned a corner and got some fluids down, and eventually got some food down, too. It has improved a bit ever since. The doctor prescribed zofran, which has been a wonderful, wonderful thing for me. I can't even begin to imagine how bad the nausea would have been without it, and how many times I might have ended up in the emergency room for fluids. Having the medication has enabled me to function and be a productive human being for the last couple of months, and enabled me to keep the things down that this baby needs to grow and be healthy. So, I am now 15 weeks pregnant -- into the early parts of the 2nd trimester! I am hoping for the relief from the nausea that others have told me comes with this stage in the pregnancy.

And, it is FALL! I feel like I profess my love for Fall each year on this blog, but it is absolutely my favorite time of year. I love pulling out our big, heavy down comforter to sleep under each night, and I love sweaters and warm cups of coffee, tea, hot chocolate, etc... I love the colors of changing leaves, and I love the flavors that come with fall food. I love when the heat of summer breaks, and you start to get the hints of crisp fall air to come. And, I love how peaceful my heart feels in the fall, even when life is still crazy. Fall, to me, is, as my friend Kristen would say, "like a big puffy vest hug." To explain: she is referencing the experience of hugging someone who is wearing a big fluffy, cushy puffy vest, and it feels sort of like hugging a pillow. Silly, but I get it. :)

And, real estate -- it's coming! I am so close to done with my class that I can taste it!!! I will go in and take a test at the end of the class. If I pass that test, then I can sit for my national and state boards to get my license. So, I would take those, hopefully pass (seriously...pray for me!), and then have my license within a few months, hopefully! I'm not quite sure exactly how all of this will go -- starting into real estate, and having a baby. But, I know that if God wants me to do both, there will be a way. Some folks have asked me if I'm nervous about it, and I think the answer is yes -- occasionally, I do get a little nervous about trying to do both for the first time, at the same time. But, I usually just have a sense of freedom -- I am free to work or not work. We're free to make that decision for our family. We are incredibly thankful for that, and I know that this child will come first between the two. I'm hoping that because real estate can provide such a flexible schedule, I can make it work well. Maybe I'll just have to invest in a good sling, and take Baby Shirk along to show some houses and write some contracts here and there, if clients don't mind. haha. :) I think the thing that makes me more nervous than making it all work with a baby is whether or not the clients will actually come and make this work. Real estate is one of those things that you have to put a good bit of money into up-front, and hope to make it back. That always makes me very nervous. But, I suppose that even if it doesn't work out, I will have had a great experience and gained a whole heck of a lot of knowledge about homes, buying and selling them, the mortgage market, etc... For now, though -- we're just focusing on trying to make it work. :)

That's my long update for now! More to come, I hope!