the blog of randoms

random thoughts by katie:

i do, in fact, have the best husband ever.

i'm not a fan of feeling like i've been riding a horse (bareback) for 5 days straight… every day.

the baby in my belly is most likely going to be a kickboxing-juggling-wrestler-insomniac.

multiple strangers in the past 3 weeks have told us that we are definitely having a boy (including a toothless, homeless man in atlanta). what do they know? no clue. but ant is convinced now.

i really don't like the show 'america's got talent', but for some reason i keep watching it. every week. guess that's what happens when you only get 4 channels.

i like atlanta, but not enough to live there.

if you go see 'bodies - the exhibit', don't do it in your first trimester… you might throw up everywhere. however, if you aren't in your first trimester, i highly recommend it. although, take a brochure to fan yourself b/c it's really hot in there.

i am really excited about our bambino showers coming up… the first of which is this weekend in spring hill!

my belly button has yet to 'pop'.

my sweet tooth is getting worse and worse every day, but i'm doing my best to supress it.

i'm still watching 'america's got talent'… WHY?!

i love it when my sister, brother, niece and nephew visit… it makes for a really awesome weekend.

my med dosage has been upped from 150mg/day to 500mg/day, so i'm pretty much a full-time zombie and i'm napping like i'm in my first trimester again. sorry, work.

we cut our cell phone minutes from 1400/mo to 700/mo, so if i don't answer during the day… now you know why. send me a text instead… i have a phone with a keyboard now!

i like our new friends in savannah. ant thinks that all of my baking gives off an 'i'm desperate for friends and must bake to win you over' impression, but really, i just love to bake for people. i doubt they are complaining.

our first anniversary was great. a trip to atlanta, 2 doz roses, dark knight, awesome t-shirt and guitar hero… great husband! fantastic first year!

i'm definitley not a fan of tossing and turning at night. it's happening more and more these days.

having a crib in my bedroom is very surreal.

i am now convinced that 'AGT' is fake based on who just won.

and now, some random pictures for you…

30 weeks:


















us at the 10th anniversary taping of Good Eats with Alton Brown in Atlanta:














us at the Atlanta aquarium on our anniversary trip:

































































up next: some awesome footage from the sib visit!

heartache

I got some bad news last week and haven't really felt like writing about it until now. It's hard to put into words how sad this makes me, but here goes:

As most of you know, I have been sponsoring a little girl in Sierra Leone since I met her in 2006. Her name is Amie and she was 10 or 11 years old at the time. For some unknown reason she took a liking to me and stuck by my side during that first trip. And when I went back in 2007, it was like no time had passed. She was my little side-kick — always there, but so timid, meek and quiet. She doesn't speak english and pretends not to understand it, but I think she understands much more than she leads on! (when i tell her that, she just smiles and laughs so I know it's true!) One day she took me into her hut and pulled out all of the letters and pictures I had sent her over the past year. She was so proud and everything was still in mint shape, like she treasured them dearly. I was brought to tears knowing that I had touched someone's life like that.













She has the most beautiful smile and the best laugh that is contagious. She is sprouting into a beautiful teenager and is now 13(ish… noone is ever really sure how old they are over there).

Last week I was so excited to come home from spending the weekend in Orlando. About 5 minutes after walking in the door, Ant says, "Did you see that letter from COTN? (that's the organization that we sponsor through) If not, I think you should read it." I got really excited and thought it was a letter from Amie. Well, it turns out it was from someone at COTN corporate:

"… The purpose of this letter is to update and inform you that your sponsored child, Amie Ellie, recently became pregnant and is currently not attending school. Amie is receiving medical and social care services through our program. Once she gives birth and is done nursing her baby, she plans to return to school. Your funds will continue to support her needs and the village programs and school she attends.

We would ask you to join us in continuing to pray for her and her baby's future. It is our sincere desire that all children in our programs would continue to grow and mature in their understanding and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ…"

Needless to say my heart fell on the floor and tears welled up in my eyes. I immediately thought the worst possible thoughts: could it have been RAPE? defeat by controlling men in the village? Or did she run off with a boy and bring this upon herself? And then a stream of horrific thoughts followed randomly: secret societies, female circumcision, I bet she's scared; fear, shame, embarrassment, regret, rejection, etc, etc, etc… Does she have a future? Will she really go back to school? Hopefully, but most-likely not (based on what I saw when I was there).

She wanted to be a nurse.

UGH.
I am
SO.
SAD.

my heart is physically aching for her.

All I want to do is talk to her, pray with her, hug her, reassure her that everything is going to be ok… you get the gist. But I can't. It's such a helpless feeling. Wanting to be there for someone so incredibly bad, but you can't. All I can do is ask God to fill that void that she might be experiencing. I pray that she is turning to Him and trusting that He will provide.

How ironic that my 'little girl' and I are both going to be moms soon. Never in a lifetime would I have thought she would be the one to go through this.

I'm still trying to get more info from my friend in SL, but I don't know how much he'll be able to tell me. If you would like to write Amie a little note, I am going to be sending her a letter soon and I know it would be really inspiring to hear from some of my friends and family. Please pray for her and her baby… it is a rough culture over there… no telling what she's going through.

drumroll, please…

i'm going crazy not being able to grasp onto anything with this pregnancy (aside from the fact that yes, we are definitely going to have a baby in november). no pink, no blue, no transformer toys or 'daddy's girl' clothes. you get the point. i feel like i can't fully prepare, but we all know that i'm not HUGE on preparation anyway. i guess where i'm getting is that i have felt like i just need something to grasp on to. something nailed down and solidified instead of saying, "nope, we don't know what we're having".

sooooo… we have finalized our names! (you thought i was gonna tell you the sex, didn't you?!) even though we don't know what it's going to be and still have absolutely no 'gut feeling' one way or the other, i now have something to tell people. names!

so, here they are: if it's a girl, her name will be Amelie Faith.

our inspiration?
Amelie is a French name and we were totally inspired by this movie:



If you haven't seen it, go rent it now… it's amazing! [it's in french, so be ready to read subtitles]
As far as where Faith comes from… our faith is the basis of our relationship and we have completely relied on God from day one… with our relationship, our jobs, school, finances, and especially this pregnancy and the fact that God has blessed us with a baby. so, how could we not name our little girl Faith? Plus, it's just a beautiful name!

And if it's a boy, his name will be Reece Anthony.

our inspiration?
If any of you know us at all, you know that we LUH-HUV reese's peanut butter cups! (we put them in our brownies, for pete's sake) Ok, so that wasn't the whole reason we like the name Reece, but we just really like the name (and we're spelling it with a 'c', not an 's'). After doing some research, i found out that it means 'enthusiasm'… and judging from the activity of this baby, i'd say it's pretty enthusiastic about something!! I think this retro commercial says it all:



I don't think you need an explanation for the name Anthony. Afterall, it's daddy's name and daddy is pretty amazing, so that wasn't a hard choice :)

So, there you have it! If you like the names, that's awesome! If not, too bad… it's a little late for suggestions now… I'm already attached! Hopefully you will take joy in having something to grasp onto as well.

athmp.athmp.athmp.

we were just sittin' around chattin' tonight and the baby was moving around like crazy, so we decided to listen to the heartbeat. and, we recorded it for you… :)

[sidenote: morgan wanted to say hi, too so don't turn your sound up TOO loud!]



as you can see (if you can read backwards) the heartbeat is about 140-145ish (a good heartbeat is between 130-160, so i've been told) so all is looking (and sounding) swell!

pretty exciting!

I just got an email from one of my clients and got pretty excited, so I thought I would share. They are a cupcake company in Orlando called Sweet! and I did their logo and some of their design back when they got started.







Needless to say, they are doing pretty well and this email was about them partnering with the Britney Spears tour (random, I know). Anyway, my logo is on the Britney Spears' website! Go check it out. Also, check out the Sweet! website… and if you are in Orlando, stop by and have a cupcake or some tart frozen yogurt. The cupcakes are a little piece of heaven!!