Baby Oh Baby!!

We are having a BABY!! Most of you already know this to be the case, but it is a surreal feeling that leaves me feeling terrified and excited all at the same time.  Sometimes I feel like I have been pregnant forever already, and other times I feel like my pregnancy is going by far too quickly.  I imagine that's the way the rest of my life will be with this child of mine...exciting and terrifying!

(At our 9 week ultrasound)

We found out we were pregnant on March 12!   It was pretty exciting because we found out I was pregnant for Erik's birthday (March 18), and we will have the baby around my birthday (Nov. 17).  Our official due date is currently Nov. 11 which means I am at 16 weeks right now.

What most of you don't know is that Erik and I already know what we are having!  I am an impatient person and we decided to go to The Fetal Studio in the South Towne Center in Sandy.  Turns out that:

Little Baby Schollenberger is a BOY!! 

I am thrilled!  Terrified, but thrilled! We have loved listening to his little heart beat and seeing him on the ultrasound.  He appears to be sucking his thumb at every ultrasound we have had (even at 9 weeks he had his little hand by his face).  I fall more in love with him every day and I haven't even felt him move yet!

(At 15 weeks, 5 days)

I know so very little about boys that I feel less prepared to raise a boy than I felt to raise a girl.  Yet ever since finding out it is a boy I have become more and more comforted that this is right for Erik and I.

(Sucking his thumb, how can you not fall in love with that cuteness?)

Babies truly are miracles sent from heaven, and I am so overwhelmed that Heavenly Father has entrusted me with one of his little spirit children.  I feel blessed and excited for this opportunity and look forward to all the coming adventures!

An Amazing Lesson

I read an interesting article the other day that spoke so closely to my heart, I couldn't help but share it. Here is the article, I encourage you to read it. Basically it so closely resembles mine and Erik's relationship and it was the first time I have heard someone coherently put into words the way I feel about Erik and I. It was an amazing reminder and lesson to me that it is okay for Erik and I to be the way that we are. I cannot actually express the number of times I have heard from people, "You need to make Erik do this, or that." nor can I express the number of times I have thought that it was my right as his wife to make him act a certain way. Reading this article helped me reaffirm that the way Erik and I are is not incorrect or wrong...but it is different. Different than a lot of relationships we see, and different scares people.  It scared me for a long time, and sometimes it still does.

"Marriage is a union, to be sure, but it's a union that should liberate, not incarcerate. Real love shouldn't limit a person's potential, it should expand it."
~Seth Adam Smith

Just as the couple in this article are vastly different-one being a "fish," the other a "bird"-Erik and I are different. I love being outdoors, socializing, spending time with family, having a clean home. Erik loves playing games, learning about technology, being alone, and doesn't care if he is living in a mess or not. I love school, and Erik hates school. We both love learning, but we learn different ways. I enjoy camping and being in the mountains. Erik would rather go to the dentist than go camping. I like going to the dentist. Erik dislikes going to the dentist. Erik loves talking about how to build webpages, and learning all the different web building languages. I don't care how the webpage was made, I just care that it works. 


Want to know what's crazy about all this: WE MAKE IT WORK! We may not do it the way you do it, and you may not do it the way we do it. I think the important thing is that we strive to let each other be the very best person that we can be. We are not always perfect at it, but we are learning to be perfect at it. We are changing, growing, and becoming better than we ever have been. 


I love my husband.  I love that he sees this world differently than me. I love the way his face lights up when he is talking about the beauty of the video game he just played, or the new javascript function he just learned.  I love that he will drop everything to listen to me. I love that he will be late to work to spend an extra 10 minutes lying with me in the morning. I love that he encourages me to do what makes me happy, and he provides ways for me to have the experiences that I desire. Erik does an amazing job of letting me be who I want to be, even if he does not want to be it too.  I love that Erik is patient with me when I am upset and I struggle to come up with the words to say. I love that Erik understands my fears and my concerns. I love that Erik stands by what he believes is right even when others don't agree with the way he does things. Erik is an amazing man, and I love him very much

Life Moves Fast

It has been a while since I have posted, and I feel like it is time to catch people up a little bit. I have come to realize that life moves faster and faster. We have things happen all the time that completely changes us and the way that we live. Here are just a few updates:

Internship
For the last part of school, I was required to complete a 14 week internship. I did my internship at Maple Lake Academy (I had worked there as staff before interning). MLA is a residential treatment center for adolescent girls and boys with learning disabilities. Basically the kids all have either Non-verbal learning disorders or are on the autism spectrum. They are all high functioning and just have troubles because of their learning differences. My internship supervisor was absolutely incredible, and I couldn't have asked for a better internship. I learned a lot about myself, about becoming a Rec. Therapist, and about how to help people. I will have to write more about this at another point, but I am grateful for my internship. I miss it all the time, but am happy that I had the opportunity.

Me and my Internship Partner, Coriann

New Jobs
Both Erik and I have new jobs (or at least fairly new). Erik went from delivering pizza to working full time with the church on the Family History webpages in the last 7 months. If that isn't a jump, I don't know what is. It has been an amazing opportunity for him. He is being challenged to learn new things all the time, and being taught by some amazing people. He has grown and been stretched in so many ways. I am so proud of the hard work he has done. There is no doubt in my mind that Heavenly Father had a hand in getting him where he is, and that it is exactly what we needed to have happen. The church is an amazing company to work for, and we are very blessed. Erik also spent a couple of months translating from Finnish to English for American Express. It was good supplemental income while I was doing an unpaid internship, but definitely not a long term job he would like to do.

I started a new job working at Cottonwood Treatment Center.  It is a Residential Treatment Center for at-risk youth. I am one of two recreation therapists that works with the kids. It is an 84 bed facility that helps treat a variety of conditions ranging from depression/suicide to schizophrenia. It can get a little bit intense sometimes, but I am enjoying it and really learning how to be a Rec. Therapist without my internship supervisor guiding me every step of the way.  I feel like I am finally getting the hang of it, and I am happy to be there.

Graduation
I have officially graduated from BYU! What an exciting and crazy notion! I remember when I started college, I believed that it was something that lasted FOREVER. I was so very wrong. College went faster than I even imagined, and looking back I can only think about how much I did, didn't do, learned, and didn't learn. There is no way to accomplish everything you hope to in four years, but you walk away from the overall experience with more knowledge than you ever thought you would gain. I have made some wonderful friends, amazing connections, and been given the chance to really do something great. I am grateful for BYU and the education I was able to receive there. I learned a lot about who I am, where I am going, and how to get there.

My Family that came to support me


Me and my friends Kristin and Shayna



Well, I will update again soon on Christmas and other adventures...I just need to get my camera back from my Dad's house first :-)!

Thanks for reading!