Nesting

Seems pretty early on in my pregnancy to start nesting, but tonight was unusually productive. I worked ten hours at the restaurant and you'd think I'd just crash the second I got home. Nope! I did two loads of laundry, loaded up the dishwasher, washed a ton of dishes by hand, detailed the microwave, soaked the grates on the stove, detailed the stove, organized two closets, wrapped a present, and as I'm waiting for the final load of laundry to dry, I'm going to start setting up the crib. Whew! I feel exhausted just typing this, but it feels SO good to get all of these random tasks done. I hope that this is a new phase for me and that I get on a cleaning streak until baby arrives!

Belly Bump(s)

I feel like I have been waiting my entire life to be pregnant. Now that I finally am, I have been so anxious for my belly to start showing! I know a few pregnant girls right now and none of them were excited about their growing bellies. I'm the complete opposite- I've been dying to wear the tightest of shirts to show off this little miracle inside. But my belly just isn't growing the right way! Baby Jane is hangin out below my belly-button still and I'm just not getting that round look. You know, when it looks like a bowling ball underneath a t-shirt! I'm stuck in that stage still where strangers can't tell if I'm pregnant or just fat.
I have been so excited to start photographing the progress of the baby bump, but I just haven't felt motivated to do it yet since I'm not quite there. Hurry up, belly! I want the world to know about my little bug inside!

Karl Strauss: Beach to Brewery- Beer & Music Fest

What a fun weekend! We serve Karl Strauss beer on draft at First Class and Jacob has always had a great relationship with our sales rep. We've had dinner and drinks comped on a date night at the Karl Strauss restaurant, and when our friend Jimmy (who was also a manager at FCP) was moving out of the country, our sales rep comped all the beer 8 of us could drink at Jimmy's going away party. Needless to say, they hook it up for us and it is so appreciated!

Saturday was Karl Strauss' 8th Annual Beach to Brewery event. Jacob first told me about this about a month ago and it didn't even cross my mind to go. I'm not a big beer drinker in the first place, but being pregnant doesn't really give me that option anyway! Jacob brought up the idea again on Friday when our sales rep dropped off 2 free tickets to the event. I was sold when Jacob mentioned a tour of the brewery and 4 local bands. We invited our best pal, Kevin (who Karl Strauss also hooked up with a free ticket!) and we made the trek down to San Diego for the afternoon.

When you walk in, you get a commemorative cup and a wristband with 5 tabs on it. Each tab was good for a taster of one of the 22 beers Karl Strauss had on draft. First off, tasters are usually about 3 oz pours... they were filling the commemorative cups halfway full! If you happened to finish your 5 tasters and had room for more, you could purchase another wristband worth 5 tasters for $10 or you could buy drink tickets for $5 that got you a full glass of beer. Kevin made the mistake of buying full glass tickets, because again, Jacob continued to get hooked up. Right when he walked in, he saw one of his beer reps who gave him 2 tickets for full cups of beer. Then we ran into the tech guy who installs and maintains the beer lines in our restaurant, he gave the guys two full pours, as well! As you can tell, Jake and Kevin were having a pretty good time :)

The food wasn't bad (Wahoo's was there with chicken or fish tacos and burritos, and there was a pizza place which we probably put out of business with the amount of slices we consumed!) and the music was about the same. It's always cool to hear local bands and despite how loud it was, they sounded pretty good.

Four hours into it, we decided to take the brewery tour. The brewery was way smaller than I would have ever imagined and the tour guide didn't use lamen's terms for describing the brewing process, so I was pretty disappointed. It was cool to see where all our beer for the restaurant comes from, though! After the tour, we hit the merch booth and the boys got sweatshirts, a hat, and a bottle opener. We are Karl fans :) We walked at least half a mile back to my car and then drove home. It was a long and tiring day for this preggo girl, but it was a really fun event! I always love spending time with Jacob and Kevin and they kept me entertained the whole day! We finished off the night at Island's for dinner and dessert that Kevin treated us to. Turned out to be a great day!

Mother's Day

This year was officially my first unofficial Mother's Day. There's a little debate whether or not a pregnant lady gets to celebrate-- I say yes!

We spent the morning at the Sustacek abode, chowing down on fruit, cinnamon rolls, a breakfast biscuit casserole, and banana bread. It's always fun spending time at their house because you never know who is going to show up. Angie has always had an open door policy since I've known her. It was always Jake's house we chose to go to... he had a huge comfy couch in his bedroom, we would spend hours watching movies and hanging out, and there was always food waiting for us. Seriously. I remember coming over at 10pm and Angie had dinner waiting on the stove. I think the woman is just always cooking! She still has that same open door policy and holidays are no exception. Our Obachan (Japanese for Grandma) and her husband came over, and the Arteaga family. I spent most of my time hanging out with Julia, though! When everyone left (and Jake had to go to work) Julia and I decided to take Angie to the movies to see a chick flick. Unfortunately we were a little late, and there was no seating available. So we made a quick stop to browse Babies R Us and then viewed some model homes being built next door to us.

Julia is such a sweetheart- she is always writing sweet things and pouring out her heart. She made this for me :)
Mary Jane's first pair of shoes! Thanks to Grandma Angie and Papa Sus!

I headed over to my Mom's house and made dinner for her, Jen. Ryan, and Kate. I made my go-to dish, "Creamy One Pot Pasta" - it seriously never disappoints! Jen made her amazing Pina Colada cupcakes for dessert that we enjoyed while playing The Office version of Clue. I always have such a great time when I spend time with my family. We joke and laugh and it never seems boring. I'm really lucky that we all live close enough to be able to see each other for every holiday and the in-betweens!

My sister is so talented! Jen made this flower hair clip- I love it!

Beautiful

You've got to get up every morning with a smile on your face

And show the world all the love in your heart

Then people gonna treat you better

You're gonna find, yes you will

That you're beautiful as you feel

I have often asked myself the reason for the sadness

In a world where tears are just a lullaby

If there's any answer, maybe love can end the madness

Maybe not, but oh, we can only try

Those are just a few of the lyrics to one of my all-time favorite songs-- "Beautiful" by Carole King. It's one of those feel-good songs that you can't help but smile while singing along to. For some reason, I can't get this one outta my head! I seriously find myself singing it at some point during my morning routine every day. But...why the heck not? What a message!

Jake and I bought tickets to see James Taylor and Carole King back in July. We had a crazy busy month and a week after the show, we realized we had forgotten all about it! This is one of my biggest disappointments. I still cringe every time I think about missing the opportunity to see these amazing artists together!

Calling

I was raised in a Christian home. I wore my pretty dresses to church every Sunday. I went to a private Christian school from preschool thru eighth grade. Most of my summer memories include one church camp or another. I've had highs and lows with religion and have had to take a good hard look at my beliefs over the past 5ish years.

At first, it was really difficult to determine whether I believed in God because that was how I was raised, or if I believed in God because He was present in my life and I had faith that He was my truth. I guess the answer to that is a little of both. The next toughest aspect of this was questioning the way I interpret the Bible. I don't have all the answers- and I'm not trying to. I just know what I believe in my core and I know what feels right in my soul. I believe in a loving Father who gives me freedom and will to choose Him. I don't follow a literal translation of the Bible, but I see it as the greatest reference guide to life. I am so turned off by the idea of church- for one, it just seems for conforming (yes, I guess that's the rebel in me), but mostly it just seems really fake. There is such a huge need for love and compassion in our world and the doors of a church just seem so closed off by that. I definitely see the good in church and think it's a great way to stay connected with other believers, but I still feel like there is a huge lack of acceptance and being able to truly show who you are. I'm sure this isn't true of every church, but it is true of my experiences.

I digress. Basically, I just wanted to share about where I stand with the Big Guy. Never more than these last few months have I seen Him in my life in a really big way. Not just because there are some really awesome and positive things happening in my life-- there are quite a few of those! But I am seeing Him in every little decision. I feel like my heart has expanded so much and I just feel this huge sense to LOVE on others. Skip all the verses in the Bible, the sermons at church, and the daily devotionals-- the big picture is that God calls us to love. I am so excited that I finally have this very clear picture of who He is and who He desires me to be. I may not follow a Christian lifestyle-- I still feel like church is an akward place and not somewhere I care to be, I still cuss like a sailor, and I don't give my time or money to a church-- but I do feel like I have been called to show his love and compassion to others. I am so excited about really exploring what that means outside of my little bit of life.

Oh Sweet Mary Jane

Our sweet baby girl is 20 weeks in the womb-officially halfway there! Words cannot express how excited we are to meet her and hold her for the first time. I sit here wondering whose fingers she'll have, what color her eyes will be, if she'll have a Sustacek build or a Brown build. So many teeny tiny details that God is busy preparing and we'll have the joy of discovering in 20 short weeks!

The hubs and I were busy picking baby names before we ever knew we were pregnant. We wanted to stick with the "J" tradition in his family (John, Jeff, Jacob, Joel, Jade, Julia) and we love classic names. Mary Jane is not the most modern of names, but it is the one we have fallen in love with (we will call her Jane, for short!). The rest of the world, however, is not so in love with her name. It seems that everyone has a say in it. We are constantly being encouraged to change it to something more modern like "Brooklyn" or "Janessa". People love to list baby names they think we should use. Thanks, but I do have access to baby name books, I am aware of the other names out there, and-no, I'm not interested.

are you really naming her Mary Jane?

you aren't joking? That's for real?

which hippie picked out that name?

etc., etc.

People don't seem to understand how offensive these comments are. I don't expect everyone to love her name, but I would love if they could just skip the comments and move on to the next question, like "When are you due?" Yes, we love the name Mary Jane. No, we are not naming our daughter in support of Prop 19. Yes, we are aware Mary Jane is a term for marijuana. No, we were not high when we conceived her.

I'm beginning to understand why our good friends, Tiffany and Brian, decided to keep the sex and name of their baby under wraps until its birth. Nobody has time to criticize!

Proud to Be

I must be one of the most unpopular Americans today. I'm sure of it.

While our nation was celebrating the death of a terrorist, I sat horrified, watching so many people rejoice in murder. Did Osama Bin Laden do alot of bad things? Absolutely. But I have a hard time believing that any one person is all bad. I bet he still had a family - one that is now mourning his death.

Watching the news last night, I did not hear a single reporter, analyst, or commentator say anything other than "justice has been done". Why is that our job to create justice? If he was a threat to our country, why wasn't he simply captured? There is so much hype about his body being in US hands- this is something we are bragging about! Analysts are even saying that we will probably be able to see pictures of it to prove that he is actually dead. How sad.

What happened to mercy? I believe in a God who shows endless mercy. Who says that it is not our responsibility to show justice to others, that HE will punish the sinners on judgement day.

It has already been argued with me that "we killed him the right way, though! We didn't kill any women or children. He massacred thousands of innocent people!" I'm sorry- I don't agree. A death is a death, and to me- there is nothing justified about it. I understand the "bad guy" needing to be found and off the streets, but this just doesn't sit comfortably with me.

Another thought that kills me is the thousands of people rejoicing in front of the White House. We didn't win a war - in all actuality, we probably just started one. Analysts said that Al Qaeda was not a hierarchy, but a network. Bin Laden wasn't in charge. Getting rid of him does not get rid of Al Qaeda. Killing him does not stop terrorism. It just sent a big 'F you to terrorists. And what about Pakistan's involvement? The guy was living there in a million dollar home, surrounded by barbed wire fences, two security gates with guards, and no telephone or cable service. As if the government had no idea he was there. So now what does all of this mean? I think it's scary to think about what is coming as retaliation.

Like I said, I am a very unpopular American today. You probably disagree with my thoughts. This is why I hate talking politics and religion-- there's no way to discuss my side without an opposition. But watching the news and then seeing so many of my Facebook friends rejoicing over this just makes me sick. We are a country who is celebrating death and it just doesn't seem right. I may not feel proud to be an American today, but I am Proud to Be a believer in our Lord, who calls us to show mercy to others.