Sugar, spice, and a very busy med-school hubby.

It seems like so much has happened since I have last blogged. I will start out with the most exciting news first...the baby updates.

Here she is at 20 weeks, they though she was sucking her thumb here.

Craving: While I still haven't had any crazy strong cravings, the type where I force Tom out of the house at midnight to fetch me something, I have really be craving sweets in general this last week. Most of the time I can't fight the urge to resist but always feel guilty when I divulge and eat unhealthy foods.

Gender guesses: No more guessing here, its a girl!!! The last few ultrasounds she has had  her ankles crossed but this last time she stretched out for just a second and we caught a glimpse of the gender. We are so excited to have a little girl. Tom is a little nervous about having a little girl, already thinking about her dating and things like that. It is so cute to already see him so protective and loving. I get so excited when I see hair bows, think about dressing her up as a princess for Halloween, and teaching her how to cook. It will be so fun to have a little girl!

Symptoms: Really most of my symptoms have subsided, for now. Wahoo! Occasionally I get heartburn, I wonder if she will be more like mom and have lots of hair as a baby. A couple days ago my stomach kept getting rock hard and felt extremely tight. I wasn't in pain at all, just was uncomfortable. After talking to several people I believe they were Braxton Hicks Contractions or something similar. Guess its a good thing that my body is preparing for the great feat it is about to accomplish. Also, feeling kicks regularly. I love feeling those little jabs, just can't wait for Tom to feel them!

Weight Gain: I have gained 4 pounds! My stomach is starting to get a couple stretch-marks, battle scars! My baby bump is starting to become much more apparent, very exciting to see the baby is growing. Baby weighed 11 ounces at our last appointment, can't believe she has so much more to go, I can't even imagine.

Names: Right now Tom and I both like the names Aubrey and Emily, we have lots of time to change our minds though so we will see if they stick.

Forgot to take a picture at the Halloween party but here is my Halloween costume this year. the mirror made the lettering backwards. Do you get the costume? :)

In other news I have started teaching at Cumberland Gap High School. I am teaching 9th grade physical science. The class sizes are very small, my smallest only has 15 students in it, it is awesome! the subject is very fun, even though its not my strongest area. The job is through December and possibly longer. It feels so good to be productive and help students learn in a fun way.

Tom is doing fabulous as always. He has been studying so hard, had nonstop tests lately. Still hard for me to be independent sometimes. Tonight I wanted to do nothing more then cuddle up and watch a movie with my best friend. I go into his office and he is studying so hard. To see him work so hard helps me realize the goal we are both working towards and so I then walk right back out of his office. He is so awesome! Doing really well in school and gaining immense amounts of knowledge. I am so impressed and proud of him, and he even finds time to take the trash out and sometimes make dinner for his working-pregnant wife. I am a very lucky woman.

This coming weekend we are going to North Carolina to see Tom's family. I cannot wait!! It will be so fun to be with everyone, be in a big city, and talk with everyone!

Here Comes Baby Woodson....

Tom and I have wanted to have a baby for a long time now so this post is especially exciting! We found out in July, while staying with Tom's sister, that we were pregnant. Both of us could hardly believe it. The first ultrasound at 7 weeks, when we saw the baby, is when it became more real for both of us. I love our doctor, he is so kind and compassionate. Every time I have gone to see him he does an ultrasound, which I love. Every time we do an ultrasound he says, "Wow! Your baby is SO active, that's good, healthy." Every time we have seen the baby it has been doing flips, waving, kicking and stretching. Tom and I already feel so much love for our baby and are so excited to be parents.


Craving: So far I have generally craved salty things which is weird for me, normally I have the biggest sweet tooth. Specifically I have craved cinnamon (I smell it at random times of the day and have to have it), apples, carrots, cheese its, and corn-dogs (which I try to avoid).

Gender guesses: Tom thinks its a boy. I am 100% sure that I have no idea what it is.

Symptoms:  In the first couple months I was nauseous all the time (but only threw up once, thank heavens), had to go the bathroom every hour, and my breasts were unbelievably sore. Now those symptoms have gone away and I am hungry all the time, tired more often, and lately have been getting really bad headaches. Really my symptoms haven't been all that bad, sometimes it even doesn't seem like I'm pregnant.

Weight Gain: So far I haven't gained any weight but have actually lost about ten pounds. I know the baby is growing though because some of my pants don't fit anymore. I have also bought a couple maternity shirts and LOVE wearing them. Right now I am at the awkward stage where you can't tell if I just have a lot of fat going on or if that is actually my baby bump, so I love the loose maternity shirts that fit well and cover up so to speak.

We go in for another appointment in a week and a half and are hoping we can beg the doctor to take a guess at the baby's gender. Life is great and am so happy to soon be a mommy.

9 Week Ultrasound

12 Week Ultrasound

Getting Started...

For months, and probably even years, I have had so much anxiety and fear of what medical school would be like for Tom and for us as a couple. Naturally, I have heard horror stories over the years. Stories of  never seeing your husband, statistics on increased divorce rates, the works. Now Tom is a couple weeks into school. Granted our experiences are probably a little different because he is doing the masters program and not taking all the first year med school classes right now, but I can honestly say for us it has been nothing but a happy experience. Alot of times I was terrified of Tom going to medical school and sometimes would even ask him if he really wanted to do it. It has been so much more wonderful than I could have ever imagined! I have felt our relationship has been strengthened in so many ways already. I think that God has blessed me greatly in that I have made wonderful friends already and haven't felt lonely.

Right now Tom has been studying anatomy pretty much sun up to sun down. It has been fun to help  him study, its a fun way to get to squeeze in more time with him. He does get stressed every morning that there is so much material for him to memorize, but by the end of the day he always feels good about it. I have gotten good too at recognizing when I need to pull him aside when he is really stressed and give him a hug or back scratch so he can regroup and keep going with a fresh mindset. I have been so grateful that so far he likes to study at home!! I try really hard to not bug him while he studies (largely because I don't want him to say this isn't working I'll just study on campus). Just knowing he is here in the house and seeing him when he takes a snack break is awesome. He is doing so great, and I have become so incredibly proud of him these last few weeks. That to me is a fun thing about marriage, you always find new things to fall in love with in the person you married.

I have been keeping busy with exercising with friends, housework, supporting Tom, and other things like that. We have put a lot of work into the house we are living in now and I still need to do some more. It is so nice to actually live in a house! I also would like to start subbing here, just need to put in my application. That is one thing I have really missed so far...Teaching. That and having bigger stores and restaurants in town

I haven't taken any pictures here really but will have to post some as soon as I do. So far our experiences here have been nothing but happy and fun, I hope the next few years have the same trend!

Tennessee or Bust!

Day 1/2

So we made it to Kansas City which marks the half way point in our cross county journey. In a few days we will head to North Carolina to see the majority of Tom's family before heading to Tennessee. We have decided to stop along the way to North Carolina to see several tourist sites. That will really help break the trip up and will be really fun for us. 

So first thing I want to write about is all the (now funny) disasters that have happened along this trip. In Wyoming we pulled into a hotel at about 2am to stay the night. Tom and I both agree that it was the nastiest hotel either one of us has stayed out. Then after a few hours of sleep we made our way to Missouri. The wind through Nebraska was ridiculously strong, so strong it ripped Tom's brand new bike off the bike rack. Luckily, the driver behind us swerved and missed it.  Tom walked the highway and found the bike, it was amazing, only the wheels were really damaged. We made it to Missouri and in helping Tom's grandma prepare to sell her house we ended up pulling a whole bunch of poison ivy.   

The view from Tom's grandma's house.

Day 3

Lately things have calmed down and I now have nothing but positive things to say.

We got Tom's sweet grandma all moved, caught a few fireflies, and headed out the door to St. Louis, MO. There we saw the arch and rode up to the very top, I have never done anything like that before! We ate at the best root beer restaurant ever! It was so so good! We finished the night off by looking over the Mississippi River. Tomorrow we head to the country music capital of the world, Nashville, TN. It has been so fun to road trip cross-county with my mother-in-law and husband, I am seeing and experiencing so many new things!

Inside the St. Louis Arch

Mississippi River

In other news, we just got Tom's orientation schedule for his program and purchased him a bunch of scrubs. He is getting set for school, it is very exciting. Only a few weeks left!

Harrogate, Tennessee pronounced Hair-a-Git

You may be wondering more about where we will be living since you have probably never heard of it before. When I found out where we were going I instantly googled Harrogate and I was floored, it is so gorgeous! Looked like a beautiful city with tons of shops. Then I realized I was looking at a photo of Harrogate in the UK. Harrogate, TN is also very beautiful but lets just say doesn't have quite as many shops or people...more like cows.

The population is about 4,000 and I wouldn't  be surprised if that included medical school students and their families. Yes, Rexburg friends, Harrogate is 6 times smaller than Rexburg. There is one apartment complex there but really it isn't the nicest so we opted for renting a house. In our hunt for a house we found several on about 40 acres with livestock on the property, thank heavens we found one that doesn't. 

Tom's school is about 3 miles away from our house. He is going to Lincoln Memorial University-DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine. You guessed it, the university is all about good ol'  Abe Lincoln. They have parades for Lincoln and you will see several Lincoln monuments and quotes all over their campus. In looking at the school website I found this little tidbit;

 "Grant-Lee Hall Ghost: Constructed as the luxurious Sanitarium of the Four Seasons Hotel in the 1890s, Grant-Lee Hall burned in 1904 and again in 1950. Stories are told of a woman in a red dress who appears and knocks on doors in the residence hall. Some say that she is trying to warn residents to escape before those historic fires destroy the building!" 

apparently part of the school is haunted, hopefully our house isn't! Harrogate is really beautiful with tons to do outdoors. You can even go to this place and stand in all three states ( Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee) at once. The people so far have been very friendly. I have already talked to the bishop and he said that 90% of the ward is med school students and their families. I am really excited about that, I think it will really give us a better chance to make new friends.

The town does have a walmart and several mom and pop type stores so that is really good. It will be so fun to live in and experience a new place, plus we will be much closer to Tom's family. I am so excited to move to Tennessee, it will be such an exciting journey. 16 days till the move!

Great Things to Come

Having had a blog in the past I know I am not that great at blogging, but I feel like it is important to document our next chapter in life because....... 

TOM IS GOING TO MEDICAL SCHOOL!!!

Of coarse, like any nervous wife would, I have searched the web for any tips from other medical school student wives but really there isn't much out there. Who knows, maybe someday my stories and words can help calm another spouse of a newly accepted med student.

Tom starts the program at the end of July so we are moving to Tennessee July 1st! I cannot believe how soon that day is coming. We have been waiting so long for him to get accepted and to be able to say where we are going, it feels so good. His years of hard work have paid off and he has a chance now to achieve his dream. The application process has been so difficult and expensive, I guess it is only just a taste of what will come. He is so smart I know he will do great. Honestly, while we were at BYU-I together I became very jealous of his intellect. Naturally, because I had a biology emphasis and he had to to take premed classes, we ended up taking several of the same classes together. Most people think that is cute but oh, most of the time it just made me frustrated. I would study for hours for a test, he wouldn't study at all and he would still get a much higher score than me. And then there were the days were he would try to teach me something I didn't understand from my chemistry class. Oh boy, ladies, all I can say is just hire a tutor. He did great, it just didn't click for me when he would try to teach me then we would both just get frustrated. Then there were times when we would disagree about a topic we heard in class, 90% of the time though he was right. He just is so smart and capable, I love that man. I am so lucky to marry someone who is so intelligent. 

I'm going to try to write honestly about what happens so the story of our journey is accurate. So, honestly, as much as I am excited to go to Tennessee and to get him going with his schooling I am equally terrified. I am so nervous about making new friends, about living in such a small and foreign town, about finding a job, and about having to give up so much time with my husband. I am a little bit of a clingy wife  so this change will be interesting for me. I have heard from some people that you won't see them at all, all week when they have tests (which she said is about every other week) and from others that it should be about 9-5 (I think that would be too good to be true). Guess I will know in the next few months. 

So excited for our journey into the next chapter in life. I'm excited to actually be living in a house and hope I can have a garden! I'm excited to go see Tom's family before it all starts. Mostly I am excited to be able to help support my husband in any way I can to achieve his dreams. It will be incredible to watch him grow as a person and hopefully into a successful doctor.