Bien Venido 2nd Trimester

I am loving being in the second trimester. If it wasn't for my growing tummy, I would barely know that I was pregnant. I have my energy back and I don't feel nauseated anymore. I also started working part time at Rick's recruiting office as a tutor to help people prepare for and pass the ASVAB exam.
My doctor had my get a flu shot a little while back. This was the first flu shot I've ever had. I usually don't get them because it always seems like everyone that gets the shot comes down with the worst flu! But, I figured I had better get it, just to be safe (even though I loathe needles). I also went in to get more blood drawn. I hated that as well.
Next week, on Friday, we are going in for our first ultrasound so that we can find out if it's a boy or a girl. We are really excited to find out! Rick is anxious to pick a name for the baby-to-be so that he can get a new tattoo with baby's name. ;)
I haven't really felt any definite kicking from baby yet, but I am hoping that will happen soon. I did throw up for the first time in my pregnancy a couple of weeks ago. I think the problem was that I took my prenatal pill in the morning, instead of at night as I usually do. About a half an hour later, I threw up five times. Since then I haven't had any problems with that.
The picture of me above was taken yesterday. I'm currently 18 weeks along.

Merry Christmas!

Rick and I stayed home, for once, this Christmas. Last Christmas we flew from Hawaii to New York for a few days and then to Washington state so that we could see both of our families. This year Rick wanted to just relax and stay home. He works a lot of hours every week (from 8 a.m. - 8:30 p.m.) and needed the rest. We were going to drive up to his Mom's house for the day on Christmas Eve, but it was snowing heavily where she lives and there was freezing rain here. We had a nice time with just the two of us on Christmas. We opened presents, watched movies, and played a lot of Srabble.
Our Christmas tree was supposed to be a REAL one, but we ended up getting a fake one. Rick wanted a fake one, and I was hoping for the real thing. Unfortunately, there wasn't a single Christmas tree stand to be found anywhere, so we had to opt for the fake tree this year.