Flattering...

Wow. Well, a lot of people have been asking for a pregnant picture. Turns out, we have no idea how to take these in a flattering manner around our home. We discovered quickly that we have no blank walls, so we had a picture or a doorknob or a lightswitch in every picture (or both a lightswitch and a doorknob as in the one below). We will definitely have to work on this... but nevertheless, I sacrificed to meet all my friends desires. So, in what might be possibly the most unflattering picture I have ever posted of myself anywhere public, here is our first pregnant picture-- I am 14 full weeks along today. I have quite the pooch going on, which I didn't exactly expect for being only 3 1/2 months, but hey, babies come in all shapes and sizes, and so do their pregnant mommas.

Note to self for next time-- wear something cuter than a white t-shirt (which obviously did not help the flattering-ness of this picture).

On a completely unrelated topic, if you're interested, there are a couple new cards on Buttoned Up Cards as well as a bunch of new pictures in the Gallery to the left on this page!

Another one?

I know. 3 posts in 3 days seems like an awful lot for me lately, but I couldn't pass this one up. It is not often that I wax mushy on this blog, and I will try not to go over the top, but I couldn’t help but give Justin props he deserves for being the good guy he is. Last night was the works— heartburn; nausea; gas; headache; the shakes; sore, stretched out muscles (they just feel really tired after holding up what little belly I already have after an entire day—good luck to me when I’m actually big!); too weak to stand, heartburn too bad if I laid down; feeling like I had already thrown up from all the acid from the heartburn… needless to say it was pretty rough. And Justin, who got approximately three hours of sleep the night before just sat by me trying to help me think of things that might make me feel better and scratching my back instead of sleeping while I moped and felt nasty.

Now Justin, I know you probably wonder sometimes where your old wife went—you know, the one that might occasionally wake up and make you a lunch for the day, or make a dinner, or clean something, and who didn’t have acidic dragon breath and didn’t complain that she had no clothes to wear every morning, or who might play a game with you or be fun sometimes. Well, luckily that wife is coming back slowly but surely (you know I have my fingers crossed as much as you do). But in the meantime, you’ve been quite the trooper and you haven't uttered one word of complaint, nor have you taken your post as “endless lister of things that might taste good” or “endless thinker-upper of things that might make you feel more comfortable” or “endless detailer of possible sleep positions to maximize comfort and minimize heartburn” grudgingly. You of all people know best that with me it’s either the best of times or the absolute end of the world and you laugh with me through the best parts and talk me down when I morph into that 'end of the world' crazy lady. You’re the greatest.

Tell you what, to make up for it, I’ll give you a cute little baby in like 6 months (hey six months exactly from today if that doctor didn’t lie to us!).

Are you freaking kidding me?

Is this still happening?? This is what we woke up to this morning.

It has been snowing all DAY! GET OVER IT ALREADY MOTHER NATURE! It is SPRING NOW. TOUGH IT UP! Our grass was up and everything! Now everything's RUINED!

Recent Happenings

There hasn’t been any one single event in the past week that merits an entire blog entry, but I’ll give you a recap of my life as of late just for grins.

- I went to New York. It was fantastic and I did so many fun things with my mom and family. We went to Saratoga with Sharon, went to a delicious crepe place called Ravenous, went to a bead store, a stationary store, went maternity clothes shopping and got some very cute things with Mom (thanks, Mom!), went with Lauren to donate her hair to Locks of Love (her new ‘do is awesome), got some scrapbooking stuff and a "Baby's First Year" type calendar from Sharon (thanks, Sharon!), went to Friendly’s with Mom and Dad (though I never got their ice cream… sad), went to the High School musical (no, not that High School Musical)—Beauty and the Beast, went to Stake Basketball where my cheering and years of bad luck directed good karma to both my brother’s and sister’s teams who won the Stake Championships (Go Glenville!), watched some 30 Rock, got Dad to help me put some episodes on my mp3 player without corrupting it’s little brain (Thanks, Dad), went to the gym with Mom, went out to lunch at Homestyle Pizzeria with my Grandma Brooksby, broke the news about our baby to everyone in NY, found out Uncle Evan and Aunt Suzanne are expecting four days before our baby is due (what are the chances?! Congatulations!), went to Panera Bread with Lauren (yum!), finally had to admit that it really is me and not Justin that rips all the sheets off the bed at night and sleeps like a wild person, and did a ton of other fun things with my that I would never have time to mention them all. And I took no pictures. I stink.

- New York is home to a delicious shop called Dunkin Donuts. Jenell (Kalen’s fiancée—by the way, as of Saturday, I’m going to have a new sister-in-law! Congratulations, you two, neither of whom read this blog…) and I have joked about how you can see on Dunkin Donuts from another on the east coast. I tried to take a picture of one of these situations while there, but it didn’t come out so great (though they were only about 100 yards down the street from each other on opposite sides). But I did get a great picture of their delicious donuts. If anyone from Dunkin Donuts corporate reads this blog, PLEASE PUT A DUNKIN DONUTS IN LOGAN, UTAH. I will singlehandedly keep you in business. And put one in Salt Lake which Jenell can keep running.

- Note to Panera Bread's and Friendly’s corporate offices- you should also put your stores in Logan, Utah and I will make sure you stay in business.

- I returned from New York. It was sad, but I was happy to see Justin again after more than a week apart. I flew through Denver for the first time. It’s a pretty awesome airport for those who haven’t gotten the chance to stop there before. This is part of the C Concourse where I was:

- My first week back was beautiful. I wore capris all week and didn’t even need a jacket. I took a walk on Saturday all the way to the grocery store in a t-shirt and it actually made me sweat it was so warm!

- On aforementioned Saturday walk, I called a few places for rent (if you know anywhere great with 2 bdrms and lots of storage or 3 bdrms, or any apartment complex manager-type positions, please let us know! We are looking to move in August- our place is too small for us and little baby!).

- Also on my Saturday walk, I took a picture of a peacock on one of our neighbor’s lawn. Yes, a peacock. I don’t know if it’s theirs or if Logan is secretly a natural breeding ground for exotic birds, but I have never seen the peacock before and it was quite the sight. Beautiful feathers and all. You can kind of (and I really mean kind of) see it in this picture- it’s the bright green thing towards the center of the picture. It looks like it has no head (head was behind that thing with the pot on top).

- Going back to Thursday of last week, Justin and I took a walk because again, the weather was awesome. We walked around south Logan so Justin could take some notes for a class, and we saw several things:

The Whomping Willow from “Harry Potter.” That’s right, they must have filmed here in Logan!

A car with an open trunk absolutely FULL of miscellaneous bread products along with a wheelbarrow full of more of the same. Totally unsupervised. They are just lucky we aren't starving.

- This morning I went outside to see if it was warm enough for capris again and it was like 34 degrees and it had SNOWED. I had to scrape my car. It has snowed all day. I blamed it on Emma. She left for vacation and we had 50s and 60s and beautiful spring. She comes back and we have snow and ice and the miserable dearth of joy that is winter. Thanks for nothing.

- I got the results of some of my blood tests back. The blood type came back a totally different blood type than it says on all my documents from birth and what I’ve been told my whole life. They’ll recheck it the next time I’m back, but until then (2 weeks from now) I am really hoping I don’t need any blood transfusions.

- I have come out of the throws of nausea and entered the throws of heartburn. I have discovered that taking TUMS one at a time (even if you end up taking the max of like 4 within 5 minutes) is relatively useless. You must take at least 2 at a time. Then they work like a charm (most of the time).

- And last but not least, I am slowly regaining my taste for Costa Vida (You're welcome, Costa Vida. Sorry, Justin)! Yahoo!

It has been a really great few weeks full of lots of family fun and good news. Now if we could get the snow to disappear for real, my bliss would be complete....

Ode to my former life...

Things have been a bit crazy lately and I am starting to miss parts of my former life:

Actually sleeping soundly instead of dreaming about tarantulas and breaking into my friends houses during my lunch hour and other friends getting into trouble with boys named Plantain.

My love affair with food-- what happened to you? I used to love food! I used to love lots of foods. Now everything is mostly repulsive, and mediorcre if I'm lucky...

On that note, I must apologize to one restaurant chain in particular. I'm sorry that I hate you now Costa Vida. It is one of the saddest things that has ever happened to me.

I miss knowing what size clothes to buy. Goodbye online shopping. Hello driving around like a little lost lambie wondering where all the cute clothes on clearance are.

I can now unfortunately pick up on the most minute traces of smell. I can smell what someone's cooking for lunch across the office in the break room, what Justin ate 3 days ago by catching a whiff of his skin (weird!), and, most unfortunately, the smell of every farm in Cache Valley when I walk out of work every day.

I miss the days when tooth brushing was just another part of daily hygeine. Now toothpaste tastes like actual paste to me and not like minty freshness. Its enough to gag me every morning and night.

Staying up late and sleeping in on Saturdays. Now I'm lucky to make it past 10:30pm and I'm woken up not by the soft morning sunlight streaming through the window, but by the feeling that if I don't get up and eat an English muffin right NOW, I just might start chomping into Justin's arm.

But I'm not going to lie, there could be nothing bad enough about my new life to make me the least bit sad. I guess that just goes to show what things you will gladly go through for your own children! Yes, my friends, you read that correctly. September 26th (or with my luck, about 10 days after that), Justin and I will be introducing our first child! Our little secret has been literally killing me, but I am about 11 1/2 weeks along and we are so excited.

AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There are some things that can make a week

Like Bumpits. The fabulous tool for getting the ginormous teased hair look that all the other Utah girls have that you have always wanted!! HOORAY! This day couldn't have come soon enough!

You'll need to watch the movie here. Yes, that link is to "bighappiehair.com" Happie.

All I can say is that:
1) I definitely can't wait to "bump my bangs"
2) I even more can't wait to "rock a pony"
3) I need the Asian girl who is "rocking a bob" to teach me how to do that stellar dance move ASAP.

Well, I certainly hope that me and my big hair will be seeing you and your big hair soon!! Until then-- BUMP IT UP!!!!