The incredible shrinking man.

So I wasn't going to post about this because he'll probably get embarrassed but whatever. Jeff has lost 33.4 lbs since New Year's Day. Probably more than that since that weight in was almost a week ago. We're doing a biggest loser competition with his siblings & spouses and he is a machine. His sister's husband won their weight class the first week and that's all it took to get him motivated. . . now he's dropping weight like it's his job.

I, on the other hand, am losing weight like a part-time fill-in temp. But what do ya do.

Halloween costume dilemma.

I haven't dressed up for halloween for A LONG TIME. To be honest, I don't remember the last time I dressed up for Halloween. This year, Jeff's work is having a Halloween party AND if I'm gonna dress Elea up and possibly use her child status to get some candy, we should probably dress up to.

BUT

I have zero ideas. Jeff mentioned a smurf costume for him which would involve blue body paint and white spandex. . . hence this desperate cry for help.

I was thinking of a fairy costume for Elea but Jeff wasn't a big fan of the idea. Our brother-in-law justin suggested dressing up elea as an 80's aerobice instructor with the sweatband and poofy hair. If I could get my hands on a pair of white princess high top reeboks and spandexshorts with a thong leotard to go over them for her-- it might be a possibility. But then again-- wouldn't a bunny or some other cuddly animal be a lot sweeter?

No, I haven't had the baby yet . . .

At my last Dr. appt. (on Monday) I was almost 2 cm dilated and 75% effaced. He even said that he wouldn't be surprised to see me in labor & delivery before my next appointment.

BUT

No go.

Since my mom can't get to town until Monday night I am not getting too impatient. I always said that I wouldn't be one of those pregnant women who get impatient before the baby is even technically due. However, I also said that I wouldn't gain more than 30 or so lbs. and we all know THAT didn't happen so whatever.

Yesterday at Wal-mart the girl at the check out stand asked me how far along I was. I told her 39 weeks. Her response: "you look like you're about to pop."

Gee. Thanks.

The good news is that since I've finally officially moved to Cedar I have had time the past couple of days to get some good cleaning done. I am still in the process of hanging picture frames, etc. but I've already hung more at this house than any of our previous places. (Mostly because Ang came to visit with her girls for 2 days and as per Jeff's instructions, did most of it for me!)

I'm going to go figure out how to post messages from my cell phone so that when Elea does decide to "come out" (as Jeff puts it), I can post. Wish me luck.

NO MORE SCHOOL FOR JEFF!!

Jeff's finished with his student teaching!! What a relief.

It will be great for him to be able to just go to work without having to worry about school stuff anymore.

Almost finished . . .

Jeff should be completely done with his student teaching and teaching licensure requirements in general TOMORROW.

HALLELUJAH!

I am so excited for him to be finished-- probably not as excited as he is to be finished, but close. This week he has football camp in Cedar at 6 am in the morning, then he drives to St. George to student teach, then turns around and goes back to Cedar for football camp in the afternoon. Luckily, Wednesday should be his last day of that nonsense. My first reaction was to try and talk him out of going to the camp in the afternoon because it's mostly defense and he is working with the quarterbacks, but he handled me well. He just reminded me that he needs to be there for everything to show the Head Coach and the High School Administration in general that he is serious about wanting to teach and coach, etc. I am so used to him bending over backwards with stuff like this, without any real payout at the end, that this time around I need to remember that this just isn't something fun that he is doing cause he is bored and someone asked him-- it's for his career. The cool thing is, he loves it-- more than anything I am grateful that he has found what he loves and will hopefully be doing it for the next 3o years.

I am staying in St. George because my sister and her girls are here- but as soon as we figure out a way to get our bed moved up to Cedar, I will be there. In the meantime, I am too selfish to try and sleep on the queen size bed in Cedar with Jeff another night-- it just doesn't work out to well-- we're both just too big.

Dr. Appt.

I had one of my weekly dr. appts. yesterday. Jeff thought it was hilarious to watch me struggle with the stupid paper "sheet" they give you to cover yourself from the waist down. I was so uncomfortable sitting on the stupid table thing waiting for the doc and so I kept trying to rearrange myself to get more comfortable, but there are only so many ways a girl can sit/lay down while trying not to flash whoever enters the room. So he started laughing at me- which made me laugh, which made my belly shake "like santa" as he put it, so then he laughed even harder, and the cycle continued. I am sure the nursing staff outside the room were trying to figure out why we were so dang happy to be in there-- the paper sheet usually doesn't bring much joy to their patients, I would assume.

So the Doc *checked me and I am 1 almost 2 centimeters dilated and 50% thinned out. So not bad for being 38 weeks on Wednesday. His guess was that I would go into labor anytime from the 13th-17th. Pretty safe guess-- any day during the week I am due.

Being up in Salt Lake all last week, and being busy and up on my feet almost all day everyday made my feet swell up ridiculously. They look like cartoon feet because my toes don't swell, and my ankles don't really swell either, just my feet from the ankle bone down. It sounds stupid probably, but when my feet are all swollen, it makes me wish the baby would come ASAP, but today, the swelling is practically gone, and I am totally okay with being pregnant another couple of weeks.

One of the great things about my Doc is that I told him in one of our first appointments that I my goal is to have a natural childbirth. No drugs, limited monitoring, not stuck on the bed because of IVs, etc. He has TOTALLY remembered that and has brought it up in my last few appointments, saying that he really hopes that I go into labor on my own, etc. and am not weeks overdue because once there is any sort of medical intervention, it tends to put you down the road to more medical intervention. At this point, Jeff would be spiking my drinks with pitocin if he could get his hands on it-- but I want to avoid being induced at all cost.

*Note to self: whether "being checked" is just uncomfortable or hurts enough to make your leg cramp totally depends on the position of your cervix. The first couple of times I was checked over the past 2 months or so, the experience wasn't so bad. Yesterday was definitely not something I look forward to repeating next week- especially if there hasn't been any progress!

Jeff's Grandpa

On Tuesday morning I was upstairs in Jeff and my room packing up some more stuff to move to Cedar that afternoon when he was done at work for the day. I went downstairs and his mom was crying and told me that Ray, Jeff's Grandpa, had passed away. So I went back upstairs to call Jeff and tell him but he told me when he started his student teaching that if I went into labor or some other emergency I should text him to call me and then he would know that it was important. So I just text him, "CALL ME" and he called me right back. I felt bad though because I knew that with my due date so close that he probably thought it was something to do with the baby and for that minute between my text and his call he was would be getting excited. So the second I answered the phone I just blurted out that his Grandpa had passed away. Although "blurted" isn't necessarily the right word since I had been fighting back tears. Anyway, he was able to get off work right away and come home. In the meantime, he called his brother Derek and told him.
But then I went downstairs and his mom had found out more information, his Grandpa hadn't passed away, he just wouldn't wake up that morning so they had called an ambulance and he was on his way to the hospital. So then I called Jeff back and told him his Grandpa hadn't passed away. So he came home, his Dad got on a plane to Salt Lake City, and we all just sort of paced randomly around the house trying to figure out what we should do. Jeff was supposed to have one of his University Supervisor's come watch him teach the next day but they were able to move it up to that day, later in the afternoon. Ang & Der decided to get in their van right away and make the 12+ hour drive to SLC because if Ray (his grandpa) was going to pass, they wanted a chance to say bye, and if he wasn't, then they would get to see family for a few days and then go home again.
We decided to drive up to SLC for those same reasons and by the time we were on the freeway headed North his Grandpa had been put on a respirator and they had found a lot of bleeding in his head. On Monday, he had fallen in the kitchen and hit his head on the counter but had seemed to be fine the rest of the day. It just took 12+ hours for the bleeding to get bad enough to affect him. Jeff's parents called and said that the doctors were going to take him off the respirator, but they didn't know how long he would breathe on his own. Needless to say, Jeff was flying more than driving up I-15.
When we got to the hospital his Grandpa had been off the respirator for a couple of hours already and was breathing on his own. It was labored breathing and he was in a coma-like state, but still alive. I love Jeff's Grandpa- ever since I met him back when Ang & Der were engaged 8 years ago, he hadn't been able to communicate very well because of previous stroke(s), but he was always excited to see you and tried really hard to get across what he was wanting to say. Him and Jeff had always been really close and Jeff looks up to him a lot. So anyway, it was difficult to see him like that because he obviously wasn't the same as he had been. But for me it was even more difficult to see Jeff sit and hold his Grandpa's hand, knowing that these were the last hours he would have him on the earth and in his life. We stayed at the hospital the rest of the evening, alternating between the waiting room and his room. The nursing staff were great, and didn't make a big deal about all the people going in and out, although I am sure it added stress to their jobs.
By about 1 am, everyone was pretty worn out, and Ang & Der weren't there yet, and their cell phone batteries had died so we didn't know if they were going to make it. It's a surreal feeling to sit and watch the monitor with the heartrate, blood pressure, and oxygen level, as all the numbers and lines go up and down. A couple of time his oxygen level went to unrecognizable (<1 & normal is between 90-100) and those of us still in the room didn't think they would make it, but then it would hop back up to 50 again. So finally, sometime after 1 am, Ang & Der made it and they were able to see him and say good-bye. Jeff was determined to stay through the night and at one point I was going to leave and get some sleep, but decided to stay with Jeff. We left his Grandpa's room at about 2 and came back at about 2:20 am. Jeff's Dad was in the room, and his brother Jace and his cousin Spencer were heading back to the room. When they got there at about 2:35 am, all of a sudden his vitals started to detoriate really fast. At 2:45 am, he stopped breathing, but his heart didn't stop fighting for 7 minutes. I didn't know that was possible.
So then we left the room while the nurses cleaned him up and then went back in the room to wait for the mortician. At about 4 am the mortician came and we left pretty soon after that. Jeff refused to leave his Grandpa (or his Dad for that matter) alone at the hospital.

One of my greatest fears(or dreads) since Jeff and I have been married is I knew the day would come when his Grandpa would pass away and I didn't know how he would handle it. I am so grateful he had the chance to say good-bye. But, I shouldn't be surprised that he has handled it well from the minute he got the news-- he knows that his Grandpa was getting more unhappy and frustrated everyday that he lived in the body that wouldn't cooperate anymore. At one point he was consoling me. Go figure.

So now we are just hanging out in SLC until the funeral on Saturday.

** The good news about all of this is that my sister is coming to stay until after the baby is born instead of going back to Omaha. Yippee!**

Unpacking.

Jeff and I went back up to Cedar yesterday afternoon to continue unpacking and sorting through our boxes. When we unloaded the truck, we put a lot of the boxes in the garage so that we would be forced to go through them and chuck the stuff we have been needlessly carrying around for the past 3 years. Or longer. This was our 7th move in less than 3 and a half years- so you would think that this little project would have been done on move 3 or 4. But no.

So last night Jeff came across this huge box. I knew it was clothes and old jerseys that his parents had kept for him. As he started to go through it, he became more and more perturbed and I started laughing harder and harder. There were shirts and pants and old sweatshirts that he hasn't been able to fit in since he was 16. And they haven't been "in style" (since we all know how much he and I worry about that) since then either. I ran and got my camera and took a couple pictures, I will post them later. When he put them in his back seat to take to D.I., they almost filled up the entire back seat.

I think I did the attractive, belly laugh/guffaw about 10 times as we were unpacking last night but the other time that I remember specifically was when he found a box of baseball cards that he has had for over 10 years. The box said 1996 on it but I haven't looked through any of the cards yet. But figuring that the point of owning baseball cards is to save them until a couple of them are worth good money sometime down the road I started to holler at him not to throw them away as he was heading towards the garbage can. I even physically got up and went over to him-- which means a lot these days. He started to argue with me that they aren't gonna be worth anything as he opened up the box. He grabbed a chunk of cards and then looked at the card on top. It was a Ken Griffey Jr. card. The same Ken Griffey Jr. that hit his 600th home run that day.

He decided to keep the box of baseball cards without any physical intervention on my part.

It's June.

And we still don't know what Jeff will be doing for work in the Fall. If someone had told me back in March that we would be in the same exact position in June that we were in then, I would have probably smacked them.

The only thing I know for sure is that we are going to have a baby girl in July sometime . . . beyond that I have no idea. This past week or so Jeff has kept bringing up my offer from a year ago when I tried to talk him into being a stay at home dad and letting me go get a graduate degree-- and then work.

He said no. Many times I asked and many more times he said "no."

Now he wishes he would have taken me up on the offer and now I am so grateful he didn't because I have come to really appreciate not having to show up to work everyday. And I am pretty excited to stay home with Elea.

I honestly don't think he would be happy staying home all day every day with a baby because he goes stir crazy by about 8 pm Sunday night after being home all day. But it is pretty funny to hear the different angles he uses to bring the subject up- trying to talk me into it without being too obvious.

Jeff passed his licensure tests!

Jeff got his scores for the Utah Licensure Praxis exams today. He passed both with flying colors. I always thought he would but I guess he has been stressing about it so it was a huge weight off of his shoulders to get the results. So yay for that. Especially since he found out that his Health minor that he completed this past year won't show up on his transcript, but since he passed the Health licensure exam, it can be added to his teaching license.

Now he just has the 2 tests for an Arizona teaching license next week and both states will be covered. And then finishing up his student teaching will be the last hoop he has to jump through.

At least to get licensed.

Nervous.

Jeff is pitching in a baseball game today. Probably only 2 innings. I am anxious about this little adventure because he hasn't really pitched in 2 years. And his last season playing he spent more time with a sore shoulder than a healthy one.

I really shouldn't be that worried except for I have this ominous feeling that something bad is going to happen. In the 6 short weeks we were engaged he managed to bust his hand open and had to get stitches in his palm, he got bucked off of a horse and landed on his back on a rock and cracked a vertebrae or two, and there was something else too-- I just can't remember now. At the time, I joked that he was subconsciously trying to kill himself off or at least hurt himself bad enough that the wedding would have to be postponed.

Now about 8 weeks from the baby coming he is gonna try and chuck a ball over 80 mph. I'm just gonna pray he doesn't re-pinch a nerve or completely rip his shoulder out of the socket.

Wish us both luck.

I'm the lunch lady

Jeff's new work schedule makes it possible for him to leave everyday for an hour for lunch. Which is awesome and I have think I've celebrated about it more than once so far in my blog.

It makes my day go by incredibly fast because I have/get to shower and get ready and be to his work to pick him up at noon then we hang out for an hour and then I drive home. Big whoop, right? But here's the thing . . . it forces me to get up and shower and get dressed in regular clothes everyday by noon. There was a stretch there that I would go days without leaving the house. Which makes for a REALLY SLOW pregnancy. So it's been good the past 2 weeks to leave the house to hang out with Jeff one on one and we usually just end up sitting at the park eating sack lunches. Living with his parents, we don't end up talking one on one very much and I miss it.

He has decided to start Weight Watchers next week. He isn't gonna do the meetings, but I am trying to talk him into doing it on-line so that he has something to be accountable to. So needless to say, we are going to the new In-n-out in town today for lunch as a sort of last hoorah before sticking to just sack lunches while he is doing the weight watchers thing. For my sake, it's probably really good that he has decided to start doing it, because I got on the scale today and it ain't pretty. I sort of just stared at it with my mouth gaping open. Gaping open so long that I almost drooled on myself. If I was stuffing my face with crap food all day I would understand a little better-- but I've been waking up in the night starving so it's not like I'm eating TOO much. AND lately I've been craving crushed ice, shaved ice, any ice that I can get my hands on, and last time I checked, the caloric count of ice is just a little less than a milkshake which is what I was craving a couple of months ago. Who knows.

I think maybe I won't get on the scale again until 6 weeks after the baby is born, when I can start exercising again. Because obviously, walking or no walking, swimming or no swimming, yoga or no yoga, my body is doing whatever the hell it wants and really isn't bothering to ask my opinion in the matter.

. . . I really didn't plan on ranting about the pregnant weight gain thing but it sort of just happened. So . . . sorry, I guess.

*** I started to read over my post and realized that I wrote about our plan to go to in-n-out and within 2 sentences was complaining about my weight gain-- but in my defense, the last time I remember stuffing my face at a fast food restaurant was in March, this isn't an everyday or even every week thing!***

playing catch up. again. . . and again.

I have not been doing too hot with blogging lately. (As is obvious by the consistent drop in the number of posts per week and/or months.) But let's be honest, no matter how happy I am with my life right now, it just ain't that exciting on a day to day basis. Except maybe to me, but that's mostly because I get a big thrill out of trying to figure out how the baby is positioned from one moment to the next and feel pretty cool if I can almost "catch" her foot as it juts out of my stomach.

However, I have decided to start writing about the mundane-- and if you decide to read it and are bored, well I guess that is just your own fault.

First of all, Jeff started student teaching last week. This is pretty awesome because he is getting paid to do his student teaching where he was already working. The place sucks, to be honest. He is stressing out right now because he is supposed to teach a unit on basketball and there are only 7 basketballs for units (classes) of 21+ kids. And he is at a "youth treatment facility" but really it is just a warehouse for teens who have gotten in trouble and their parents and/or the state can't deal with it anymore. The majority are from california, were adopted, have gotten in trouble, their adoptive parents are sick of it, so they or the state pays $6,ooo per kid per month for them to be warehoused there until they turn 18 or graduate from the program (aka, turn 18). It's challenging teaching P.E. when there are kids in the classes who aren't allowed shoes because they are a "flight risk." So they are wearing slippers or slide ons. Real safe. Also, there are a couple of basketball hoops, but Jeff has already gone out and bought nets for them because they didn't have any and so far every attempt on his and the previous teachers part to get more equipment or current equipment fixed has been denied.
The ridiculous thing is that his University student teaching supervisor said that he would try and find some old equipment from one of the high schools in the area for them to use. How much sense does that make?! His work is bringing in $150,000 per month per class and they can't afford to buy a couple of basketballs?! So ridiculous. And there isn't any grass. Anywhere. Or a legitimate gymnasium.
But, on the positive side, it is a place that is making it possible for Jeff to get his student teaching done this summer, and he is getting paid to do it. So I am very thankful for that. But Jeff is a perfectionist-- so just doing the bare minimum is not an option and he is not okay with lazy teaching so he's spending a lot of time and energy worrying about how he is going to pull it off the next 55 teaching days. I'm just praying that his University supervisor will grade him within the context of the "school" he is teaching at and not expect him to pull some crazy rabbit tricks in his classes.
The other good news is that since Jeff will be used to working with classes made up solely of troubled kids who don't even have the motivation to do enough not to fail because most don't even need the credit-- teaching at a regular high school with only a few troublemakers and students who need the credit to graduate will probably be much easier for him.
One of the points I was going to make before I started ranting about Jeff's work was that his new schedule is fantastic. He leaves at 7:45-ish in the morning, I meet him with lunch from noon-1 and he is home by 3:30- 4 pm everyday. So cool. It's been a good adjustment to make because I was used to him being gone by 7 everyday and most days not home until 11 and then we was also working every other weekend-- 14 hour shifts. So now he is just gone for about 8 hours, M-F. I also realized that besides coaching games, he will never have to work a weekend ever again. Knock on wood.

So what have I been doing? Besides a whole lot of nothing . . .

I have started making tutus for little girls to sell on-line. I finally got a shop on etsy.com set up. It's http://tutusbytina.etsy.com . For those of you who have never looked at etsy.com, you should. It's one of the coolest sites on-line, I think. It's kind of like ebay, but instead of auctions, it's just stuff for sale. So every seller has a little "shop." AND it's all homemade stuff or supplies to make homemade stuff. There are some pretty crazy random things on there- I love it. You can also put up an ad saying what you want made and how much money you are willing to pay for it and people will bid to be the one you hire to make whatever it is that you're wanting.
Once we are in our house and settled in a bit, I plan to use Etsy purchases to decorate my house. Maybe some random artist selling their artwork on Etsy will be famous someday and then my grandkid will get to go on Antique Roadshow and find out that a painting I bought for $25 bucks is worth $25,000 fifty years later.
My goal is to start making all sorts of little girly froo-froo things to sell . . . but for now I am sticking with just tutus, if for no other reason than I just don't have any space to keep and/or make anything else. I'll probably start sewing and selling shoulder bags, etc. too, but that is more time and cost intensive so it gets to wait until we are moved into our house and the baby is born and a little older too.

Seriously, I am sitting here trying to think about other stuff to write about. One of the weird things that has happened lately is I am unable to sleep in. I recognize that "sleeping in" is relative. To me, anything before 8 am is waking up early. And for the past couple of weeks, I have been unable to sleep in past 8. Hence the reason I am blogging at 7:30 am on a Sunday when church doesn't start until 1. To put this in perspective: before this little biological sleeping clock upheaval-- Church at 1 pm on Sunday meant sleeping in until 11 am. If I was feeling full of "get up and go" then I would be up by maybe 9:30 am.
To be honest, I am feeling sort of ripped off by this wide-awakeness-as-the-sun-comes-up because I recognize that my nights (and days) of sleeping when I want, however long I want, are coming to a sure and speedy end in less than 10 weeks!

Jeff has an interview the first weekend in June with Mesa School District. It's just a preliminary screening interview with a randomly assigned principal in the district so we aren't expecting a job offer after the interview or anything because he'll need to interview with the specific principal with the job opening after he gets through that interview. Mesa school district doesn't post specific openings for positions. So for all we know, there could be zero openings or 15 openinngs. If that makes sense. He also has the Arizona licensure tests that weekend so we're going to go down to get a crib while we're there. I'm crossing my fingers that we'll be able to find a good one on craigslist that weekend! (Jeff isn't a big fan of the craigslist idea, but I'm hoping to convince him and save ourselves some $$). I'll be 35 weeks pregnant by then so Jeff is sort of nervous about me flying-- but really, the drive down is pretty crappy and I'll probably swell up like a balloon after 8 hours in the car-- so I think flying is a better idea.

Anyway, my stomach is growling so I'm gonna go eat some cereal.

Jeff just woke up and told me "Happy Mother's Day", I am sort of in pre-mom mode but it is still getting me out of helping cook and/or clean up Sunday dinner today so that is pretty fantastic. This will be the first non-awkward Mother's Day at church since we've been married. Yay for that. So HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY if you're a mom.

No more school!!

Jeff's last day of school and commuting to Cedar was yesterday! Yay! AND he is doing his student teaching where he works and so they are treating it more as a paid internship so he gets to clock in and out everyday while he is student teaching instead of having to work the crappy every other weekend and night schedule. So this weekend will be the last weekend he has to work for hopefully the rest of our marriage! Yay! I was more excited about him being finished yesterday than I was last year when we graduated because last year we were still thinking that he would be in school for the next 2-7 years. Now he just has his student teaching (and one more semester of tuition) and that is it! There is light at the end of the tunnel.

Honestly, time has gone by really fast. We were talking today and it doesn't seem like that long ago that we were sitting in church not paying any attention to what was being said because we starting scheming about him moving to Utah to start school fall semester. He literally was in the car on his way up to his parent's house within 2 hours of that conversation. So crazy. I'm so glad he is done going to school full-time while working full-time! Yay!

Oh, Jeff talked with the principal on Monday and she asked him to send his letters of recommendation. He originally turned them in with his application so it is strange that they had part of his packet but not all of it. Either way, we faxed them on Monday so hopefully she will be calling him back soon. . . we'll see.

playing catch up

Okay so here is a quick over-view of our few days in AZ.

Jeff was able to turn in applications at 6 of the 7 school districts that are within a reasonable distance and he met with some of their human resource people. He met with a principal in the Apache Junction school district. She was really cool and nice and the school in relatively new-- but they are the lowest paying district in the area so we'll see. At this point none of the school districts are able to offer positions because the existing teachers have until mid-April or so to turn in contracts for next year, etc. So they told him to be expecting calls in the next few weeks. But he feels pretty good about it in general and I am just really relieved to have his applications turned in and his fingerprints done down there. Also, AZ is stuck up and won't accept any other licensure tests. They will do a 1 year reciprocal license if you have a license in another state, but you still have to take their own special tests. This was good for Jeff to hear directly from the lady at the Arizona Dept. of Education because I told him that's what I thought but all the education people at SUU told him differently. So now he gets to take the Arizona tests on top of the Utah tests. Needless to say, he isn't thrilled.

But the good news about that is now we don't have to wait for Utah to get him his license before applying for an Arizona license-- he'll just apply for both at the same time. Sweet.

We ate at our favorite restaurant in Mesa- Uno's. The waitress we kind of got to know before we moved was our server when we went and she seemed kind of different. I couldn't tell what was wrong until after we were done eating she was standing there talking to us and we were explaining about our planned move back, etc. And then she said, "So... is anything else new?" And then I told her I was pregnant. She looked all relieved and said that she thought that maybe I was because I had only gained weight in my stomach but she was afraid to ask. So then she wasn't awkward anymore. I guess I am still in that no-man's land between full-on-pregnant-mama-comin-through and that-girl-looks-like-she-just-ate-too-much.

On Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday night we went over to Kade & Maddie's house and played Canasta. Maddie and I managed to kick the boy's butts 2 out of the 3 nights. Thank goodness too because Jeff has killed me every time we've played a two player game. Their baby is due in a month so it was fun to hang out and talk about all the random things that no one tells you about before you get pregnant. Today Jeff said that we will only be able to afford 2 kids. I told him I agree because I don't know that my body will be able to afford any more than that either.

Yes. I am vain. I admit it.

We went to a Spring Training game on Tuesday. I was an idiot and didn't bother to put on any sunscreen. And I forgot that I was in Arizona so I wore a dark colored shirt thinking I would need all the help I could get not to get cold. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. I was literally baking the entire 3 hours. I'm surprised I don't have 3rd degree burns from the metal buttons on my shorts. But it was nice to be outside in the warm weather. And I think it was only a sweltering 77 degrees but I still managed to burn my knees to a nice shade of purple and my nose is going to be red and peeling until the 4th of July. Oh, Jeff was an idiot and didn't wear any sunscreen either. The only difference is he just got more tan.

Our trip also included a stop at Ikea, Babys'r'us, (we managed not to spend a cent in either place) the biggest Super Target I have ever been in, and about 10 shakes &/or bowls of ice cream. I am sort of really incredibly terribly scared to hop on the scale tomorrow at the Doctor's office. Wish me luck but don't expect me to put my weight in print. I think at this point an official gag order is now in place.

Oh, one last thing, Jeff about lost his mind on the drive home yesterday. 4 hours into the 8 hour trip he was asking if we were almost there yet. If we ever have to make that trip from AZ to UT again, I am going to drug him and just plan on driving the entire time. More than once I had to seriously weigh which would be worse-- wetting my pants or hearing him cry out in sheer desperation as the car rolled to a stop in yet one more gas station.

"well that's not cute"

Jeff and I are heading to Arizona for his spring break next week. We're gonna be staying in our house for a couple of days and he's working to schedule interviews with some of the school districts down there. I had been in the mindset of living with the in-laws with a baby and not having any type of baby's room or anything, but now that we're moving back at the end of the summer, I at least want/get to buy a crib. About 2 seconds ago, I was looking at Pottery Barn baby rooms (a girl can dream, can't she?) and Jeff was sort of falling asleep, sort of looking at them with me.

I told him that I thought we should just use the old extra dresser we have at the house for a changing table, and just put a pad on it. His response:

Well, that's not cute. And I want it to be cute.

And he was 100% serious. Sometimes I wonder if somehow we got mixed up and he should be the one carrying this baby! At least now I have proof in 6 months that he really did agree and want me to fix up the room, even if by then he has changed his mind. In the meantime I get to find myself a fairy godmother to make it happen.

It's already started . . .

Yesterday Jeff and I took some more of the boy baby clothes back to the store. When I was standing at the front counter returning them I turned around and saw Jeff looking at the girl clothes in the back. So when I was finished I walked back to him and this is what I found:

He was in the same mindset as me with the boy clothes: 100% bargain shopping only. This however, is not the case with baby girl clothes. His reasoning:

She's worth it.

Friday's Dr. Appt. & other random thoughts

As I've already posted, we are having a girl not a boy!* The ultrasound was pretty funny. This was our "for real" ultrasound so he spent a half hour looking everything over. I guess Dr. Chalmers realized pretty quick that it was a girl and he had been mistaken a few weeks ago, and I don't know if he was delaying the inevitable, trying to just give Jeff a hard time, or wanted to make real sure it really was a girl, but either way, he put off telling us that until 20 or so minutes into it. Which is probably good because I was so busy laughing after he told us that I would have missed out on all of the really important stuff like the heart, kidneys, stomach, etc. I am so grateful that we are able to know ahead of time that everything looks like it is developing correctly. I had started to cling to the hope that the 5 lbs I gained in the last week was all placenta, but no go on that one, it is where it is supposed to be though, so that is good. As for the baby, it's a pretty crazy thing to see the 4 chambers of the heart pumping. Yay for a healthy baby so far.

The doc had a pretty difficult time getting the 4-d picture of her because she never holds still. Ever. Actually, that is an exaggeration because she has to sleep sometime, I am sure, but in the ultrasounds she moves around the entire time. And it was pretty cool that when I guessed her head and her feet were positioned, I was right. I didn't know that one of the reasons for the 4-d imaging was to make sure the baby doesn't have a cleft pallet-- and she doesn't. :) I am all about having a natural childbirth with as little medical intervention as possible but I am not of that same mindset when it comes to the pregnancy. We've been thoroughly spoiled with an ultrasound every doctor appointment so far and I love it. I don't think I could deal with never seeing the baby before it is born. I'm such a spaz and worry so much that being able to see the baby helps me not stress out so much that something horrible could happen. (Although at this point having the sex of the baby stay a mystery would have saved me a few hours of buying and returning baby clothes).

About the belly and I say the not because it is huge and an entity unto itself, yet, but because it has ceased to feel like mine. It just looks really strange to me and my belly button is all flattened out weird. Pretty sure to most people it just looks like I ate a lot and should suck in, but to me it feels and looks huge. I cannot at this point even imagine the monstrosity that will be entering the room 12 inches before the rest of me within the next few months. Oh, that reminds me! Jeff, being the sweetest man ever, the other day after school stopped at the mall and went into motherhood maternity and bought me maternity clothes! I had tried to go myself last week but couldn't will myself to buy more than a couple t's and a pair of capris. I had mentioned to him that I needed to do laundry that day because I was out of pants and so he just stopped there and went shopping for me. Love him! He did well too, I only had to take back one pair of jeans because they are high waters. I don't know why companies think that only short-legged women get pregnant but I have not been able to find a size "long" anywhere!

Back to the ultrasound, Dr. Chalmers is doing another ultrasound in 4 weeks just to make sure that it really is a girl. I think it is quite possible Jeff's head will explode if it turns out to really be a boy. . . In the meantime we get to start thinking of girl names all over again. :)

*Yay!

just kidding!!!

Oops!

We went to the Dr. today for my 19 week appt./ultrasound and . . .

IT'S A GIRL!

So funny. I was cracking up. Jeff was almost pleading with the doctor that it wasn't true. Poor guy. But, alas, it is a girl.

And I am glad.

he's got hiiigghhh hopes

So last night before falling asleep Jeff instructed me that I needed to listen to more music. Especially classical music because the baby can hear the music and supposedly it makes them smarter. After that he bent over to my belly and was saying, "Hiii *Cllaayyynnee." Then, "Hi little baby, so little, don't even know a wooord yet.

For those of you fortunate enough to have never seen Talledaga Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby that probably isn't funny.

But, if you have seen that stupid, stupid movie, you will understand the irony of Jeff chastising me on my lack of musical interest followed by him quoting Will Ferrell in a movie about a Nascar driver.


*If it really and truly is a boy then we have decided on the name Clayne Jeffrey.