Stuff

A few random thoughts (because really, when else do I blog?)

1. If the dishes fairy was looking for a house to stop at, I would nominate mine. Apparently I haven't done the dishes in a few days, and last night and tonights dinner both used a few pots/pans. 

2. Sitting at church for 3 hours is really hard when you're 36 weeks pregnant. Luckily I get up every 30-45 minutes to go to the bathroom and take the chance to roam the halls a little before going back to whichever class I'm supposed to be in.

3. Ovens with a delay-start are genius. I had our dinner in the oven before we left but the oven didn't heat up or do anything to my food until about 40 minutes into church. Now we got home and had time to cook a vegetable and dinner is just about ready!

4. My second baby shower was yesterday. There were 6 types of cookies served at it. Even if you held a gun at my head and made me pick which one was the best I don't think I'd be able to pick. Even just the simple chocolate chip cookie was divine. I love my friends. And I love cookies. It was a book shower. I got lots of fun books for baby girl, and surprisingly I only got ONE book that I already owned, and it's one of my favorites (But Not the Hippopotamus by Sandra Boynton). As I opened the gifts everyone would comment "oh, my little girl LOVES this book" or "my little girl cries if I won't read her this book" or "this was our favorite version of Brown Bear, Brown Bear because it is interactive" and it was really fun! Book showers are totally the way to go. Well, if you like books. :)

5. We got our crib set up this week. Opened the Amazon box with the crib mattress in it to find a big ole slit on the topside of the mattress. It quickly went back in its box and went back to Amazon. The replacement should be here by Wednesday. Hopefully it doesn't have a huge slit in it. That just defeats the point of protecting the inards of the mattress from any sort of moisture that may find its way near the mattress.

6. Baby girl's room is starting to really come together. This week I washed all the newborn and 0-3 month clothes and put them away in her dresser. She has some really cute clothes. Again, I have killer friends, an awesome sister, and was the first one through the 0-3 month section at a big consignment sale a few weeks ago. Super stoked. I <3 Carter's onesies, and their footie pajamas. Basically my baby will be living in those two things til she's about 6 months old, or until she fits into the 6 month clothes, whichever is first.

7. At my 36 week appt on Thursday I measured 32 weeks! That means I grew a tiny bit in a week. Doc said that depending on how I am measuring at my 37 week appointment this coming week we may get sent in for another ultrasound. Baby girl measured just fine at my last ultrasound, and she's still pretty active, so there isn't a ton of concern, but it's better to be safe and get an extra ultrasound than not.

8. Chick-fil-a makes DELICIOUS strawberry milkshakes. Definitely better than Jack in the Box's strawberry milkshakes. Too bad Jack in the Box is around the corner and Chick-fil-a is kinda far.

9. I haven't really been reading much lately which is a bit of a bummer. I've got some good books on my kindle right now, and a good book checked out from the library. Hopefully I get the chance to read them a little more once I finish getting babys room put together (which hopefully will be this week!).

10. After I got to share my thoughts in RS last week, I've had a few well-intentioned people come up and offer to me what they thought was great advice about health problems. There is a total of one woman in our ward who understands what I'm going through because her husband has Meniere's as well, it's funny how all she did after last week was give me a hug and tell me she was sorry that Chris had not been feeling well. And the others... no, I'm not going to send my husband to a doctor you recommend who lives in Michigan. And we're already following the diet plan that his doctors have given him, so we're not going to try whatever fad diet you think may help even though you don't even know what is wrong with him, but thanks for sharing your opinion with me. I know people wanted to help, but it makes me laugh a little at how quick people are to offer their suggestions without knowing what the problem is. I'm just grateful we have a good team of doctors that we're seeing- our PCP (you already know we LOVE him!), our ENT (don't love him as much but he is good and does know all there is to know about Meniere's right now), his Opthamologist (don't see him regularly, but it's important to make sure we keep his contact/glasses prescription accurate so as not to make his headaches worse), his Neurologist (we finally saw him the first time this past week and we loved him, and he suffers from headaches himself so while he doesn't have Meniere's he at least does suffer from some of the same symptoms and was great to talk to), the Allergist... I'm trying to think if there are other doctors, but I can't think of any more off the top of my head. Between all of our doctors I think we've got enough to keep up with and do. 

11. Yesterday we bought Baby Girl a Sophie the Giraffe. I hope she loves it as much as some of the other little kids I know have loved it. 

Okay, now that I've reread #10 it makes me sound a little like a brat. I'm keeping it as is anyway because I blog my thoughts, and those are my thoughts. I appreciate the intentions of the sweet sisters in the ward, but they better not be offended when I don't ask for the name of their doctors or start buying whatever health products it is that they are selling. 

Relief Society

I went to Relief Society for the first time in about a year today, and ya know what? I LOVED it. A friend was teaching and she wanted to show a Mormon Message video but didn't know how so she asked me to help. When Chris got called as Building Technology Specialist two years ago it gave me the knowledge needed so I can handle hooking up my laptop with an HDMI cable to the flat screen tv and getting it to work so the audio will play through the tv not my computer (that's the part others struggle with).

The lesson today was from the Lorenzo Snow manual (I think that's the right prophet, I'm normally in YW so I don't pay attention to stuff like manuals). The lesson was about trials, and how having faith can help us during trials we may be going through.

This particular friend happens to be married to our most excellent home teacher, the one who has mowed our lawn, washed our cars, helped us set up a dresser, brought us dinner a few times and given us a ton of blessings. Because of that she was/is well aware of how the last year has been for us, so she asked me ahead of time if I'd be willing to share some thoughts about trials and faith and lessons we can learn as we go through trials.

As I sat in RS thinking about what I might share I realized that one of the things I've learned this time around with Chris being sick is that we can't (and shouldn't!) try to do everything on our own. Last summer I wasn't sick or pregnant so I was able to do pretty much everything that needed to be done around our house, even though it got overwhelming. This time around, I haven't felt as up to doing everything (like washing the car, or mowing the lawn, or assembling furniture) and have learned the really hard lesson of accepting service from others. Our home teacher has really helped me learn that lesson by recognizing that I have a hard time accepting help. Instead of asking "can I bring you dinner?" he now says "Would you rather have me bring you dinner on Tuesday or Wednesday?" and instead of "is there anything we can do?" he notices specific things and has asked "would it be helpful if I mowed your lawn? and is Monday afternoon okay?" He doesn't give me the chance to turn down his offers of service.

A few weeks ago a friend had a baby and I offered to take her dinner. The next week the compassionate service coordinator asked me to take them dinner as well. As I got to serve this friend it gave me the chance to remember the blessings that come to those who do service. I couldn't turn down people who were offering to do service to me, it would deny them blessings.

It's really hard to admit that you can't do everything on your own, and that you need help, but once you accept that fact and allow others to help, it really does make life better.

As much as I LOVE my calling in Young Womens (because really, it does rock!) I am so glad that I was able to attend Relief Society today and to be asked to share my thoughts on trials. The last year has not been easy, but I think we've learned some good lessons along the way.

Tomorrow yet?

I'm ready for it to be tomorrow night. Chris has been gone forever and I'm so ready for him to get home. I haven't gotten everything done that I wanted to, but I've done enough to feel good about it all. I wish I had more thank you notes written (my baby shower was this week, and it was awesome-it will get a post of its own once my friend sends me all the pics she took) but my fingers are a little swollen and writing with a pen hurts after a little bit, so I can only write so many at a time.

I watched Les Mis, and a few other movies that I checked out from the library. Wish I had gotten a few more to keep me excited. I also wish I had been able to find a pack/packs of cute buttons that I liked to do a craft for baby girl's room, but oh well. That will have to wait til I find good buttons.

I've wandered Target a few times. I just got my 10% off coupon so now I can go and buy things off my baby registry that I still want/need. I think I'm going to wait and have Chris come with me. It may help control my spending a bit... maybe. I probably should've added a few things to the registry when I was there tonight. Whoops.

And I've definitely not cooked much AT ALL! It's been great. I made a huge batch of pasta salad and just eaten that. Or gone to Wendy's/Taco Bell. I also had grilled cheese. And I've eaten a box of cereal. Yum.

I need to go to the grocery store tomorrow. And then I'm helping a friend work on some budgetting (because apparently she thinks I'm a pro). And then I might go to a girls night/movie night. And then eventually it will be midnight which is when Chris's flight lands. And then a taxi will eventually bring him home, and by then I'll probably be asleep. But he'll probably turn a light or two on and that will end up waking me up and then it will be a happy day, because I'm so ready for him to come home!

Also. This week I had an ultrasound! At my 33 week appointment I was measuring 31 weeks. So yesterday I had a growth scan. I was 34 weeks, 6 days, and baby girl measured 34w 2 days, which is pretty much perfect! They estimate that she weighs 5 lbs 1 oz, which is in the 28th percentile. My doc was happy with that, said it was a little small but not small enough to be concerned, especially since her weight is just an estimate right now. Today was my 35 week appointment. I still was only measuring 31 weeks. Funny how in 2 weeks you can gain 6 pounds but not have your belly grow... oh well.

And now it's 10:30, and I'm going to bed. Because I can and I want to, and I'm tired.

For the record though, Chick-fil-a has delicious milkshakes. I especially liked the Strawberry one that I got myself tonight.

Getting Stuff Done

Someone I know and love is on a business trip this week, so I've been doing all sorts of things so far to keep myself busy!

This morning I assembled my rocking chair and ottoman! I moved the rocking chair into the nursery, but I've been enjoying using the ottoman to put my feet up as I watch tv and read my book! I love Ikea, and I love this rocking chair. It's comfy and it's cute!

I made a big batch of Southwest Pasta Salad this afternoon! It's something that Chris can eat, but something that I absolutely love and wanted to have a big batch of! It's nice to know that I have leftovers in the fridge for later this week... I've got a long list of projects I want to get done!

I've done some other things so far too, they just weren't picture worthy. We recently ran out of pesto in our freezer. I like to freeze my pesto in an ice cube tray, and then just pull out how many ice cubes I need when we have pesto pasta for dinner. This afternoon I filled my ice cube tray with pesto and threw it into the freezer.

I cut up all of the boxes from Ikea. This rocking chair/ottoman had about 5 boxes... the shipping boxes, plus the boxes the products were actually in. The recycling man comes tomorrow, and now I have these ready to go.

I did a batch of laundry.

And as I did all of this I watched 3 episodes of The Price is Right.

Now that I've eaten some dinner and am feeling pretty great, I'm ready to put my feet up and sit and read for a while. Maybe I'll even eat some of the muddy buddies that I made last night.

oh, hello

First, I posted this link on my Facebook page, but not everyone does Facebook. About 10 months ago my friend Jordan's dad was diagnosed with brain cancer. One of his dreams is to participate in the Kona Ironman Competition. This link is his video to get people to vote for him to get the chance to go to Kona. While I've never met Dean, I would love to see him reach his dream! If you have 1 minute and 31 seconds, watch this video, and vote for Dean (please!) You'll have to copy/paste the link to get to the video, I don't know of a better way to share the video since it isn't a youtube one. 

http://konainspired.thismoment.com/base/kona?region_id=us-en&content_id=634&tab_id=20

Now that that's been said, I'll move on to my normal "random stuff" post.

I'm pretty sure that Baby Girl is either a ninja or a gymnast. She was all over the place yesterday. Last night we were watching some episodes of Jeopardy! (because we're super cool like that) and she was going nuts, to the point where Chris could totally feel it and see it. 

Chris is kind of doing better! He's been going in to work all week and most of last week too. We remembered that his allergies really seem to make things worse so we talked to his dr about his allergy meds and added another allergy med to his list of meds. Since then he seems to be less congested and that has helped him to sleep better, kind of. He still gets headaches and has to be careful, but it seems like he really is doing better. 

After a follow-up with the ENT yesterday we got test results back for him that show improvements over the past two months, so that's nice. While he was there he also spoke with their allergist, which is where he got his allergy testing done last summer. The Allergist was able to give him some really good info about his specific allergies, including some precise data of what he's allergic to and how badly he's allergic to it--before we just had a list of things they tested and if he reacted to them they circled it. We didn't realize before just how horribly he is allergic to Live Oak, and apparently the last two months are known for being really bad months for people with oak allergies. Maybe that is what triggered this whole relapse? We're going to start him on allergy shots (or allergy drops, which we learned may be more effective for his specific allergies) soon, we're just waiting to see how much it will actually cost. Hopefully we'll get the shots/drops started soon. 

I haven't really felt like cooking much recently. Yesterday we were supposed to have omelets, but I didn't feel like trying to make something new... so I made chicken fajitas instead. They were delicious, and something that I always have all the ingredients for (except for right now, because we finished off our tortillas yesterday), but I don't think Chris appreciated having fajitas again... they've become one of my go-to meals recently because of how little prep work they require and how tasty they are, AND because the way we make them actually fits with Chris's diet restrictions. 

I'm 34 weeks now. Next week I have two dr appts, one for an ultrasound and one is just my normal 35 week appt. At my appt last week I was measuring two weeks behind so I get to go see baby girl and hope that she's measuring fine. I'm pretty sure last week she was just in a position that makes me look smaller, because it felt like the next day I looked a million times bigger. Hopefully that's all and everything is okay. I'm not too stressed about it, if they were really concerned they wouldn't have had me wait 2 weeks for an ultrasound, right? 

It rained the other day! I was almost asleep one night and then all of a sudden I was seeing tons of lightning and then... BAM! Major thunderstorm. I couldn't fall asleep for about 2 hours as this freak storm came. Then yesterday I was doing some dishes and cleaning something up when it just started pouring outside! It was nice to be able to sit in my house and watch the rain. I'm glad I didn't need to go anywhere yesterday because the roads by our house get flooded pretty easily during these freak rain storms.

OH! And because I know everyone is wondering... I went to taco bell last week and got my Cool Ranch Doritos Locos Taco. It was better than I remember the Nacho Cheese one being. I'm not in a hurry to go back for another one, but it was pretty good. I'm more likely to go back just to get a Caramel Apple Empanada, because those things are freakishly tasty and I had forgotten about that.