Happy Halloween!

Do you remember when TY Beanie Babies were the biggest thing ever? Maybe I only remember because my grandma was a huge collector. I remember going once with her to Salt Lake and we stopped at five different McDonald's on the way and she bought me kid's meals so that we could get the five different mini-beanies that were included with each kid's meal. I think it was during the Olympics, actually... each a different color and the Olympic circles on it.

My mom also got very excited about beanie babies. I loved them, too. In fact, I still have a bunch. I could probably sell them to collectors because they are in great condition and the tags are still in tact. I still have all mine and my mom still has all hers, but my grandma ended up giving most of hers away to grandchildren or to children in Israel. Pretty cool, right? I thought so.

Anyway, all this really has nothing to do with Halloween, except that those ghosts that make such a lovely family are all TY Beanie Babies and stinkin' cute.

So, wherever you are and whatever you're doing tonight - be safe & get more treats than tricks!

Happy Halloween!

Quick Trip to Heber

This morning when I woke up and saw purple fingernails and Snoopy socks, I knew it would be a good day.

For the record, I've never painted my fingernails purple before. Ever. In fact, I never paint my fingernails. Toes, yes, but not fingers. So the fact that they are purple is really weird but makes me extremely happy.

Today we drove to Heber to meet up with my Grandparents. I commented to Daniel on our way out of town how nice it was to be doing something different than the usual. We were really excited to be taking a drive.

On Main Street, we noticed that the city is hanging up Christmas Wreaths. Halloween is tomorrow! I don't understand why they can't just wait. I felt the same way walking through the grocery tore a couple days ago. All the Halloween stuff has been crammed into a third of the space that it used to be and the rest of the aisle is covered with Christmas trees, wrapping paper, and snowmen decorations. Crazy!

We didn't go to Heber just to get out of town, like I said, we went to meet up with my grandparents. Part of the reason we were seeing them was because they very generously bought a car seat for our baby. We were so excited to bring it home that we pulled it out of the car as soon as we got back and played around with it. Yay! We can't wait to put our little girl into it. :)

And hooray for relaxing, awesome trips with my favorite Daniel. It was a blast & I'm grateful that we got to go out.

Pregnant Woman Rant

This was me at 35 weeks. This was last week. Now I am 36 weeks. I am freaking out that we are so close to meeting our little girl face to face and holding and kissing her. Freaking out in a good way, of course. But oh man! It's so close!!!

Random fact: When a woman is 8 months pregnant (32 weeks) she has 8 weeks left. When a woman is 35 weeks pregnant she has 35 days left. At least to the 40 week mark and the 'due date' (which we affectionately call our guess date since we are pretty positive our baby won't be coming on that day). Pretty cool math, right? Yeah. I thought so. I must have too much time on my hands to be figuring out such weird math stuff. Ha.

Ok. Today I want to rant. Just a little, though, I promise. There are two things about being pregnant that drive me CRAZY. Up the wall crazy.

1. People touching my belly. Especially when I'm in the middle of a conversation (like at church) and all of a sudden I feel a hand on the side of my belly sliding around to touch the front of it. I'm not kidding, this happens every week. Sometimes more than once. I got so startled by it the first time that I slapped the hand that was touching me away before I realized what was going on. Now I just try to step away, because slapping hands is probably not a good thing to do. But really! Since I have a pretty big "bubble", most people don't get the chance to get close enough to touch my belly and if they do, I have come to recognize the warning signs (eyeing the bulge & hands twitching) and so I just neatly place my own hands over my belly and that tends to discourage most. *sigh* I have been told this is something that the majority of pregnant women experience but I. Don't. Like. It.

2. People asking me how I feel. The exception to this rule is people to whom I haven't spoken in a while - family that lives far away & I only see very rarely or people that I just don't see frequently. I think the reason that this bugs me is that I haven't been asked how I am doing in the longest time - it's always how I feel. And when I say "Great!" no one believes me. It bugs me that people expect pregnancy and illness to go together. I know that it often does, but I don't think that I look sick or act sick and my condition isn't likely to change in the two days between seeing people that ask how I'm feeling. I don't know. This is more selfish than the other one I guess and I'll probably be getting this question more than it's "doing" partner for the rest of my life. Nevertheless, it is one of the two things about being pregnant that bugs me.

Short little rant, and now I feel better. Thanks. :)
End transmission.

Choir Concert

Sometimes we do cool things. Like go to concerts in which my sister & brother sing and my mother plays the piano.

These two silly boys just can't get it together. :)

 

 

 

My family is very good at not looking at cameras. Stinker heads. Granted, my mom was actually playing when I took this picture, but even if she wasn't she wouldn't have been looking. I guess I know where I get it from. I don't like pictures being taken of me unless I'm forewarned. But concert pictures are different!

Anyway. It was fun to go and support my family and do something different for an evening than we usually do. Daniel and I are both choir nerds, so it was great for me to watch how much he enjoyed himself.

Yay for concerts! And Happy Monday!!
May your week be full of Halloween-y stuff. ;)

I believe in prayers.

(with a quick back story)

Remember when I told you about how Daniel & I used Hypnobabies in real life a couple weeks ago? We got to try it again a couple of days ago when I woke up screaming with my first 'real' Charley horse.

I have never experienced anything like it in my life. It was in the middle of my calf, and when I've had smaller ones before, I only have to flex my foot and it goes away after a minute. This one wouldn't ease no matter what I did. Poor Husband got to wake up to his wife shouting and sobbing. It was a very rude awakening, but he dealt with it in spectacular form. He got me a hot towel and wrapped it around my leg and very gently rubbed the muscle.

Then he asked me if I would like to go into hypnosis. I said yes, and so he helped me out. It was amazing. My head immediately cleared, the pain lessened, and I was able to direct anesthesia down my leg with instant results. I still had a small ache, but it was easily managed and I was able to breathe and calm down. It was amazing. I went from a howling lunatic to being relaxed in a matter of seconds. I am sure that I couldn't have done it without Husband's help - he is the one that got me started in the right direction and helped me clear my mind so I could take care of myself. Wonderful.

The reason I believe in prayers is next:

Despite the lessened pain, I had an ache in my leg the rest of the day. It hurt to walk on it and even sitting on the couch made it more achy after a while. I was very worried about going to sleep, partly because I was worried that I wouldn't sleep because of the pain and partly because I didn't want to be so rudely awakened again. So, during our nightly prayers, Husband prayed that the pain would go away and that I would be able to sleep through the night. I will be forever grateful to him for that.

Not only did the pain go away - my leg was a little stiff when I woke up, but no more pain or aching - but for the first time in weeks I slept until 5:30 am. No matter what time I go to bed, I always wake up every two hours beginning at 2:00. But thanks to Husband's prayer in my behalf, I slept the majority of the night and I slept  good. It was incredible.

I am grateful for faithful prayers made by faithful people and for a God who always hears and answers them.

Happenings in Life and How We Feel

We have had an emotional roller coaster of a week.

Cold Stone has been up and down. I'm not sure how much I should say on a public blog, but suffice it to say, we have had some major problems. Like, losing people that said they would be working for us and having to find new people all over again. Also falling behind schedule, again, because we can't get people in the store to work.

Some of this is out of our control.

However, we have been able to find a couple of ways to take control and change what is happening. It has been stressful and Daniel has been running around town like crazy meeting with people and getting commitments. We feel as though we have moved forward more in the last two days than we have in the last two months. Nothing has been done physically at the store, but we feel really good about the new direction that we are headed.

All these changes - unexpected & unwanted initially - have been very emotional stressing. I have cried more in the last two days than I have in a long time. I blame pregnancy hormones in part, but I realized that this whole process has been emotional and that's ok. I also realized that it hasn't been as emotionally taxing as I would have expected it to be if I'd known that this was coming. I know how bad stress can be for babies, and I feel as though we have really been blessed and protected by the Lord.

Here's the rough of it: we came into this situation expecting that the store would be open in May. We spent May through July wishing and wishing the store would be open, or that we would at least have something more to do than sit around and talk to each other all day. However, come August we started to feel grateful that we were having this time together - though we still wanted the store to be open as soon as it could be. August was also our last paycheck. We have been so grateful for the guidance of the Lord and His promptings to have savings in place because that is what we have been using to pay bills while we haven't been getting a paycheck.

Now it is October and we are still unsure when we will be opening. 6 to 8 weeks if we get equipment ordered tomorrow. Longer if it takes more time than that to get equipment ordered. We won't know until tomorrow how that is going to work out. Despite being unsure about everything in that area of life, we are still feeling good.

I am so amazed at the goodness of God that we have seen plainly in the last couple of months. Having the time together that we have had has been the hugest blessing. We have been able to support each other in ways that have been more meaningful that ever. We also have seen the Lord's hands supporting us as we have been able to pay all our bills and do all the things we need to do, despite the worries that we had. We have been so happy - happier than we have been...ever. I know that this happiness comes from the Lord - from staying faithful and trusting that He is leading our lives. We know that we are where we are supposed to be and doing what we are supposed to be doing, even though it isn't what we planned for. We know that as we allow God to guide us through this journey, we will continue to be happier than we have ever been.

A year ago...

I wrote this post about not knowing anything about being a mom but comparing mommy-hood to teaching.

Sometimes I go back and reread my old posts and I grimace at my silliness. Other times I go back and reread my old posts and I feel so proud of myself and what I accomplished then and have gone on to accomplish. 

I think I need to reread my posts more often. They are very insightful to me about me. Funny how that works, right? I think sometimes we (people in general) are inspired in what we write about - good or bad - so that if we take the time to go back we can learn from ourselves and the Spirit that led us. Like taking notes of General Conference and then rereading them. 

Huh. That was an interesting epiphany for myself. :) 

Happy Monday!

Back to Basics

One of my favorite dance classes to take at both Snow College and BYU was Ballet I. I don't know how many times I took Ballet I, twice at Snow and twice at BYU I think, not to mention a few times while growing up. I also did a couple of intermediate and advanced ballet classes, but my favorite was always always the beginner ballet class.

I'm not sure what it is about beginning ballet, but going back to the basics always made me feel so good. It was nice to have a relaxing class that reminded me about all the important parts of dancing ballet. I feel as though often as you move up in the ranks in dance (and life in general), the beginning - where we started and the importance of the basics - is forgotten. We get so caught up in the excitement of new and challenging things that suddenly our toes aren't pointed, legs aren't turned out, and our arms droop (keeping with the dance metaphor, still with me?).

However, then we go back to the beginning, we remind ourselves of where we started and the importance of doing all those 'basic' things that sometimes slip away and all of a sudden, the dance becomes more beautiful and more meaningful. Yes, sometimes it is a little more difficult because there is more to remember and do all at the same time, but often it is easier because we are doing things the way that we should be.

We are never so old or experienced in anything - dance, our career, life - that we can't afford to look back and appreciate the building blocks that have led to where we are. We all start out as beginners, and our growth in any area of life is best facilitated by remembering where we come from and the basics we started out with.

My family of pumpkins!

I decided to take a break from reading my book the other day and make some pumpkins for my door to make it look more Halloween-y. I was actually going to do some bats, but I didn't have black construction paper and since I had orange construction paper, I did pumpkins!

I'll be honest - I had a lot more fun doing this quick little crafty project thing than I should have. It was a very entertaining 30 minutes. Simple & fun. Just the way I like it.

24/7

You see this good-lookin' man right there? He's mine. He is all mine. I love it. I'm the luckiest girl in the world.

Now. Lest you be deceived, being the luckiest girl in the world doesn't mean it's all rainbows and glitter (which Husband actually hates, funny enough). Oh no. Being the luckiest girl in the world means that I have had lots of talks with God and Husband that have helped me to recognize some of my blessings. One of those things we've talked a lot about is how Husband and I spend 24 hours a day 7 days a week together.

Actually, I am being very serious when I say that. It doesn't just feel like we're together 24/7, we are actually together for all that time. The only times we aren't together are Sunday morning from 8:30 to 11 and Wednesday from 7 to 9:30 - these are the times when Husband has church meetings. So... subtracting 5 hours of the week, we are together all. the. time. Sometimes one or the other of us will run errands or do a project, but we are really truly together more than we've ever been before.

It has been a crazy experience. When you date someone, you have work & school & separate homes to go to in the evening, so you aren't together as much as when you are married. When you are married, you still have work and often school and so, while you live together, you aren't together all day every day. Vacation is different than living at home. That's obvious, so even being on vacation one-on-one for an extended period of time isn't the same as being at home one-on-one for an extended period. And being together for a couple days, even a couple weeks, is different than being together for FIVE MONTHS.

Then add kids and the situation is totally different.

What I'm getting at is that not many married couples get the ... unique ... experience that we have had. No work, no school, no kids (well, not ones running around or wanting attention). We have been in this situation since May. I have written about it before, but not about how it has effected our marriage.

Honestly, I don't know if I could tell all the ways that it has effected our marriage. What I do know is that we both feel very blessed to have had all this time together. We know that it will never happen again (unless we go on vacation without our kids) because we will soon have a baby and Husband will be working full-time. We have learned more about each other in the last five months than we knew before. Maybe we haven't been learning things that are completely knew and different, however we are learning how we react in new and unique circumstances.

It has been hard. So hard. We definitely did not expect to be in the situation that we are in now. There are days when we, frankly, get a little tired of each other and the mundane routine that we often find ourselves in. We have a lot of down-time which was nice at first, but frequently makes the days pass slower than we would like and the waiting for Cold Stone & Baby Girl to take longer and longer.

With all that said, I would not change the last five months for anything. Despite the hard days, I have come to realize how much I love Husband and how much I appreciate our time together. We are grateful for this unique experience and all that we have learned about each other and ourselves. And that is what has come from spending 24/7 with my Best Friend. It's pretty amazing.

Fall Colors

 

 

 

 

 

Are fall colors not the best? Because really... I think they are. Especially when against a backdrop of still-green grass and the bluest of blue October skies. I think it is pretty well perfect to look at.

Oh, and did I mention, that picnic table shown up there? That was painted a fantastic fire-engine red by my dear Husband earlier in the summer as a favor for my mother. Isn't he the sweetest? I sure think so. He did a fantastic job, too.

What I think I know about our baby

This is what our little girl looked like 24 weeks ago. Wow. Time has flown.

I'm excited to see how much "Mother's Intuition" and things that I picture and imagine our baby liking or not liking when she is born actually comes true. Some people put a lot of stock in Mother's Intuition - the things mothers think about their baby's personality, etc. Others don't. I'm not really sure, having never had a baby before. So I am writing down the things that I imagine so that I can remember them and see how she is different or the same when she is born in about 7 weeks.

- Baby girl loves being warm and hates being cold. Hence, she loves taking showers and doesn't like the colder temperatures outside or having our midwife squirt cold goo on my tummy so we can listen to baby's heartbeat.

- Baby girl does not like Asian foods or flavorings.

- Baby girl is a night owl, staying up late and sleeping all morning.

- Baby girl loves music. Especially church music - hymns and primary songs.

- Baby girl does not like loud noises. She had a hard time being at the pageant the other night with all the crazy screaming and applause.

- Baby girl is a happy mover. She loves wiggling and reacting to me or Daniel pushing on or rubbing my tummy. She will be one busy baby - probably even an early walker like me, which my Dad is thrilled about because I "deserve to experience that". Or something. ;)

- Our sweet little darling baby girl is fiesty. Oh yeah. She has a very strong personality and I am excited to see how that comes out as she grows and experiences life. She is also happy and cheers me up all the time.

Best Weekend Report

 

Last Friday I told you that I expected the weekend to be the best weekend ever. And it was. Friday afternoon when brother P and sister Meg got home, we threw them in the car and drove as fast as we could out to Orem where we ate a quick dinner with my grandparents & family who was already out there and then went to the Covey Center in Provo to watch sister M compete in the first preliminary competition of Miss Utah's Outstanding Teen. She did beautiful and amazing and I was so glad we got to watch her.

Saturday was spent running errands and watching General Conference. We got to see Winona (one of my roommates from Snow College) for a little bit in the middle of the day and that was fantastic after not having seen her for months and months. We also ate dinner with the two couples that lived in the same house as us when we were living in Provo - the Ulmers & the Lindstroms. It was so fun to see them and catch up with what they have been doing. After dinner, Daniel went to hang out with his brother Mark while I went with my family to the final night of competition of Miss Utah's Outstanding Teen. Normally we would have gone to Salt Lake to see Daniel's family, but I wanted to watch my sister compete, so we stayed in Provo. She did awesome and I was so proud of her and so glad that I went.

Daniel picking grapes at my grandma's house. Such a good helper ;)

Sunday morning we watched General Conference with my grandparents & brother T before going to the Conference Center in Salt Lake City to attend the Sunday afternoon session. It was the first time that we had been to a session together in the Conference Center and it was amazing. We are so grateful that we managed to get tickets, get a fantastic parking spot so I wouldn't have to waddle across the town, get great seats, and have a wonderful, spiritual experience.

We left immediately after the session to drive back home. We got back and ate some dinner that my sweet mommy had saved for us, then played Star Wars Trivial Pursuit with my dad. It was a really fun night. We went home early and went to bed early. It has been a long time since we've had such a busy weekend and I realized that travelling while 8 months pregnant is t o u g h. But we had a blast and are now grateful that we have some time to recuperate and catch up on sleep and all that good stuff.

THIS was one of my favorite conference talks. I'll probably share a few more because they were awesome.

How was your weekend?

The Best Weekend Ever Is Coming

How do I know?

1. The trees outside are starting to look like the above picture. YAY! It's so beautiful.

2. General Conference is this weekend. The best weekend ever always comes at General Conference time. General Conference is when God's living prophet on the earth speaks to all of His children. That's right - ALL of them. You don't have to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to listen, just a child of God. Which includes you. That's right. YOU. It is free and available for anyone to listen to at any time. Cool, right?

3. We are making our last trip to Orem/Provo/Salt Lake this weekend as a couple without a baby. Next time we go, we will be taking a baby with us! Now that is something very strange to think about... as well as very exciting.

4. Sister M is competing to be Utah's Miss Outstanding Teen! She will be in Provo for three days with a bunch of other Outstanding Teens from across the state, competing in talent, evening wear, interview, and fitness. I hope she does amazing. In fact, I'm sure she will because she IS amazing.

See? 4 reasons why this weekend will be the best weekend ever. I am so excited.

What are you doing this weekend?

Hypnobabies in Real Life

I feel like my diet with Donna Young (our midwife) is preparing me physically for giving birth and Hypnobabies is preparing me emotionally and spiritually.

(In case you don't know what I'm talking about, you can look at our pregnancy story for the update.)

It's been the coolest experience to be pregnant, like I've mentioned before, and to see the changes in my attitude as I've made changes in my thinking about pregnancy. It's especially wonderful that Daniel gets to be a huge part of it. He has been a full participator in the diet we are doing and Hypnobabies does a lot with birthing partners (husbands). He even has a whole section in our manual and a CD dedicated just to him!

One of my favorite parts of Hypnobabies so far has been doing our "Partner Script" every other night before bed. It is basically me practicing going into deeper hypnosis with Daniel's help. He has specific things that he can do and say to help me relax during our birthing time (labor) and we practice them faithfully. I love doing it - it is a great opportunity to spend some extra special one-on-one time with Daniel and get really relaxed.

The other day, we got the chance to try out our Partner Script in real life - something I didn't think we'd get to do until it got closer to when baby is coming. I had eaten breakfast and was sitting on the bed with Daniel while we were reading our scriptures. Suddenly, I got chills, my vision went blurry, and I got a headache. I immediately laid back on my pillows and tried to breathe deeply so that I could relax and put myself into hypnosis, but I started shivering because I was so cold and had the urge to throw-up which really scared me.

I reached over to Daniel and told him that I needed him to "do the forehead thing"...or something. I'm not really sure what I said, but he thankfully understood and was able to help me. He kind of made up what he was saying as he went, but followed the general outline of what the script would say, and it worked immediately. I was so surprised when I realized how quickly I had relaxed and that the gross-ness I had been feeling just a minute earlier had disappeared. It was gone. Daniel talked to me while I was in hypnosis for a little bit, then told me I could come out of it when I was ready. A couple minutes later when I opened my eyes, he was still sitting next to me and asked if I was ok. Amazingly - I was! It was as if it had never happened. Just to be safe, I stayed in bed for a little bit longer instead of getting right up, but I felt so much better.

I am so grateful that we have been using Hypnobabies and think it is incredible that I can use it in all areas of my life and at any time that I want to! I am especially grateful that Daniel gets to play such a huge role in helping me be successful throughout the program, and especially on the day that our baby will enter the world. I am glad that we had the experience we did, and the faith in each other that we do, because now my confidence in our ability to have a successful birthing time has increased 100 times. :)

I just love that God directs our lives in meaningful ways, don't you?

Music in Heaven

So... I have no clue what Heaven is like. Well, I have a small idea that I've gleaned from the scriptures and from church leaders and stuff, but not a solid idea. However, I feel like a Heaven without music would be no Heaven at all. If nothing else, there needs to be music in Heaven. That would make me extraordinarily happy.

I'm not too worried, really. I have good reasons to believe that there will be music in Heaven. One of those reasons I have learned (perhaps relearned?) from recent experiences with my baby. Let me share:

A couple of weeks ago, I substituted for the Primary pianist. My baby loved being in Primary. Every time I played a song, she moved for the entire thing. It was hilarious. She was so excited. Now, I know there is a lot of dispute about how much babies can hear while they are in the womb, but especially with being so close to the piano I believe she could hear the music a little. If she couldn't, then I believe she definitely could feel the Spirit there as the children sangs songs about Jesus.

I talked with Husband about what I had felt during Primary and about how I believe there is music in Heaven. In fact, I believe that Primary songs & Hymns are inspired from God and are songs that we sung in the Pre-existence. I think part of the reason Baby was so excited while I was playing the piano and the Primary children were singing is because she recognized the songs from when she sang them in the presence of God with the other angels.

Obviously this isn't doctrine, and I don't really know what happens in the pre-existence especially in regards to music, but... I know there was a reason that Baby loved being in Primary, and these are my thoughts about why. :)

What do you think? Will there be music in Heaven?

Decorating for Halloween!

Yay for Halloween decorations! This is all I have. Not much, especially compared with the three full boxes of Christmas decorations that I have. But in the end, it's ok because I have never really liked Halloween until this year. I'm not sure what changed, but all of a sudden I'm excited for the wonderful Halloween trick-or-treat-i-ness. :)

Before we got out the decorations, I asked Daniel to spray the garage for spiders. There are lots and lots in there and I didn't want any crawling out of the decoration box while I was trying to figure stuff out. In order to prevent him getting the poison on him, he got all dressed up... including a bandana. He looked very Halloween-y himself. Take a look:

Happy Halloween (almost) and Happy October!
Hooray for Fall!