Wha...?!

So, today I had the first of my once-a-week doctor appointments. This time also began the resurgence of regular manual exams (as in doctor's hand up in my grill.) Well, the first thing I heard was "Baby's measurements are perfect." Great, I think to myself. The second thing I heard (after some squishing of my belly) was "She's head down!" Even better! I am so not wanting a c-section, so that greatly lowers the chances. Then, my doctor asks if I've been having contractions, and I say "Maybe?" I mean I've had some occasional pain or discomfort, but nothing severe and not what I imagined contractions to feel like. Well, once she does her business, she says "Well, looks like you've been having contractions-I'd guess you are dilated to 2.5 or 3."

"WHAT?!" I think in my head. Doesn't that mean I should be moving in, then? I mean, active labor starts at 4 centimeters, right? She says "no guarantees, but this is a great sign she'll be on time." Yeah, I hope so-dilated for 6 weeks? Can that be normal? I don't know the total deal, but she just proceeded to give me all the instructions about when to come in and what to do, not alarmed at all. It majorly caught me off guard-I mean, you need real contractions to dilate!

I thought this quite an interesting development. I would not be sad if Amelie came early, but 4 weeks seems a little scary. On the other hand, we are trying not to get our hopes up and end up having to wait until mid-November, ugh. You can be sure you'll get updates here!

FHE and Belly

Last night for FHE, Jeff decided to humor me and we went to have a fire up Millcreek Canyon. I've been wanting to do this for awhile, and it's only getting colder! We prepped for cold weather and brought food. We had dinner there (hot dogs roasted on sticks and potatoes from foil packs) plus hot cocoa and I brought some sweet rolls I made. We had so much fun and the setting was gorgeous-even the weather was nice! For our "lesson" we each listed 10 reasons our lives are better now that we are married. It was a fabulous night-please, feel free to steal the idea for yourselves!

Here's my sweet boyscout of a husband making a great fire.


It worked wonderfully!


A little woods action




And finally, the latest belly photo. Oh my word! When I looked back through older belly pics, I couldn't believe I even thought I was big! Less than a month now, and I can't wait!

Still no photos... Devoted readers only.

So, I had my final meeting with my Master’s Committee this past week and everything was, passed, approved and signed. The paperwork has now been sent to the Graduation office with a nice letter about counting retroactively. Their approval is the only step left… and I have NO idea how long that will take to find out. I feel good about it, though. My committee really worked with me after it all went to pieces. It feels good to have my part of it behind me, and to know that I did what I could in the process.

Now that that’s out of the way, we are getting SO excited fro baby Amelie to come-we are only 33 days away now!! One month, really-that just makes me so happy. I definitely now understand the hype about rib-kicking, being uncomfortable and not being able to breathe. (I was asked to sing at a Stake Relief Society function on October 21st… yeah, that’s not gonna happen!) It’s funny – I can’t tell if everyone thinks I am supposed to be bigger or smaller. Almost my entire pregnancy, people kept telling me how small I was and that I didn’t really even look pregnant until I was like 6 months along! Now, it’s also the opposite. The other night, some woman I don’t even know told me that she NEVER got as big as me, even through the end of all her pregnancies. Ew! Some people have no concept of boundaries. Either way, my doctor has consistently said I am exactly on track with measurements and weight the entire time, so Neener Neener to all of you who have commented on the outrageousness of my size, either way! :) No matter what you’ve been thinking, though, my belly is now undeniably large and in charge! Promise I’ll try to get a good picture up soon.

We’re very excited for this week-end. My cousin’s wedding open house is tonight, followed by Jeff’s mission reunion, then tomorrow we’re doing a sweet conference breakfast, of course. (Jeff has to run out during one of those times to go study protestors with the Academy. Funny!) Then, all of conference and dad’s birthday celebration. I hope your week-ends are going to be just as great!

Meanwhile, we’ve kinda got some serious spider action at our house. Any tips, anyone? Besides paying the exterminator, of course. We’ll get to that when we can…

How about that Utah game, eh? Go Utes!

Nothing much.

So, there really hasn't been a ton of news, but I feel the need to add to the blog since it's been a few weeks.

The biggest drama in my life right now has to do with graduation. Yeah, that was supposed to be awhile ago, right? I wanted to wait to expel all the glorious details until I was closer to resolution, but it still appears as if that may be awhile. At any rate, I hate talking about it, so here's the short version. Basically, through lack of communication (vastly not my fault) we missed the paperwork deadlines for summer graduation. I was not even aware of this until my Master's Committee Chair called me an hour and a half before the tuition and class add deadline for fall, asking if I was registered. (Apparently you must be registered for a minimum of 3 hrs in your last semester.) Let's not forget to mention that 3 hours (of nothing) would cost me $1200. Needless to say I was quite taken off guard, upset, and not to mention unable to produce $1200 in an hour. He apparently wanted me to apply then, and when I said I couldn't he said to apply for a leave of absence and do it in Spring. Also not really an option for me. After many phone calls and emails and meetings and discussion of options, I have my final meeting set for next week to sign papers, and then we appeal that my paperwork count retroactively for summer. I am so grateful this is where I am at the moment... Although there is no guarantee it'll happen. But enough about that, I don't like thinking about it.

Jeff has been getting worked to death, most of it fun, not always. He spent a week at the shooting range in Park City doing firearms, then a week at the EVO course by Camp Williams (emergancy vehicle operation??) driving cars and doing pursuits. I think it was nice for him to get a break from the classroom routine, but it's killing our gas bill! He'll now go shooting for training one day a week. Of course, they still do lots of defensive tactics, physical training and legal junk. He's now past the half-way mark, and currently graduation is set for November 26th. (Although this changes to various dates in November almost weekly.) Either way, he's only got about 8 or 9 weeks left! Then, he'll move to Field training, where he'll train with all different departments and different shifts. That should wreak havoc on his sleep schedule. :) Finally, in April (after the grand tour) he'll be off and in his own car... who knows what area or shift?

As for Amelie, she's quite the active little girl and still seems to be developing exactly according to schedule. If all keeps going well, she'll be here in under 7 weeks! I can't believe we're finally getting closer. It has seemed long, but I never thought the day would come! Her bedroom is pretty much ready for her, too. (We have been generously stocked with furniture and clothing from all sorts of sources!) We did a registry for the shower because there are so many things we don't really need. Really the things left missing are a crib mattress, high chair, diaper genie (I wish,) and bottles... diapers... a pedicure for mom... :) Just kidding. We've been really REALLY blessed to have so much come our way-if it was left all to our budget, she'd be sleeping in a drawer, wearing onesies made out of my old t-shirts!

Thanks to all who have helped us out with buying/gathering baby stuff!!
Stay tuned for some more exciting news.

Anniversary and other stuffs

Jeff and I went to Denver for our Anniversary weekend. Why Denver, you ask? We say why not? We needed to go somewhere close, as I can no longer fly, and found a great deal there. All it takes is a bit of research and anywhere is my favorite vacation spot. We had a great time!
We left super-early on Saturday morning (by car,) stopping at Winter Park on our way there (for mini-golf, human maze, scenic chairlift rides, Alpine slides.) After our mountain fun, we grabbed lunch at Chedd's-it's a gourmet grilled cheese restaurant, and it was amazing! Then, we went to the Denver temple, but Jeff left his recommend, of course. So, we settled for a few pictures outside before finally heading to our hotel. We went for a nice swim and had the pool to ourselves. After a much-needed nap, we went to this restaurant, Texas de Brasil, it's like Rodizio or Braza, though slightly more upscale. Well, since they have a set dinner price, there is no menu. I wanted to ask about the price, but never did. Well, we ate and enjoyed it thoroughly. They had all the unlimited skewered meats, as well as a bar of sides. This one also happened to have an amazing cheese bar that was very French and very delicious. When it came check time, we were quiet unpleasantly surprised by the price of our dinner-it was MORE THAN DOUBLE what we had planned! (It happened to include $13 worth of drinks... the waitress conveniently refilled our drinks without telling us that EVERY refill cost extra.) I hate to say it, but that was one of the worst tips I ever gave. It would have been a great tip on what we expected to pay for dinner. Sad experience.
Sunday, we went to church, then the zoo. It was a great zoo and we had a great time, but I was SO hot, it completely wiped me out big time. We had to go home for another nap after that. That night, we ate at the Aquarium Restaurant (luckily this one was less than we planned.) It was a really fun place surrounded by huge aquariums with giant fish, sharks, barracuda. Food was delicious, too. The next morning, we took our time getting up, eating and heading out. We took a more scenic route home via I70 and US6, which was worth it I think. We listened to 2 books on tape during the drive, and I worked on a blanket for Amelie. Jeff was such a trooper-he did all the driving both ways! Thanks, bud!

Denver temple... from the outside, of course.

Jeff spent lots of time hanging with the gorillas at the zoo, so I made him squish in for a picture.

Denver Aquarium

At the Aquarium Restaurant... Which took a bit of time to find... (check out my zoo sunburn.)

We drive a slightly longer route to get the beautiful scenery. (8 hrs through Wyoming is torture.)

Jeff got me a third ring to go with my bridal set-it's gorgeous! (I know you can't really see it.)

Winter Park, the pretty Colorado Ski Resort we visited.

Havin a blast!

The scenic chairlift ride.
The beautiful view from 10,000 feet up.


A couple of weeks ago, we had a nieces and nephews sleepover at our house, with all the kids from both sides (2 and up, that is.) It was really fun, but it made me glad that I don't have 8 kids between 2 and 9. We made pizzas and ice cream sundaes, Jeff took them out to play hide and seek, watched movies, and slept slayed across the living room (I was in my bed, of course.) Then the morning held chocolate chip pancakes and EARLY pick up. :)

New inseperable buddies.

Enthused? She slept the most.

Yay for the swing set-it doesn't get much use from Jeff and me.

Chocolate chip pancakes... on faces


And more swing set. Thank goodness Jeff had the energy to play with them outside-they couldn't get enough!

Premature?

I have, what I hope, is a beautiful announcement.

Ahem.

I have finished my Capstone Paper!

I think.
It is 42 pages on the use of music in Recreation Therapy. I believe it is well-written, but I probably wouldn't encourage anyone to read it (i mean, it's 42 pages of scholarly-talk.) Anyway, right now, my committee chair has it and is reviewing it. When/If it gets the ok from him, we give my entire committee a copy, have a meeting, then sign some papers, and voila-I'll be officially graduated! The problem comes if/when my instructor does NOT sign off right away, and I have to do more work. Fingers crossed everyone... Here's hoping.

Birthday!

Third Trimester, now. Yes!!! (The belly is starting to get in the way, though.)
Now for... My birthday!

I had a most excellent birthday weekend. It started, really, on Thursday when the lovely ladies I work with brought doughnuts and a sweet card to our meeting-thanks guys!

Then, Friday night, Jeff and I got to go to the Melting Pot, where I have been wanting to go forever. It was FABULOUS! We dropped a lot of money there, but even I don't regret it. It was super delicious.

Me with our simmering meats... mmm.
ALL the different kinds of (raw) meat they brought us.

Jeffy with the cheese course.... Yum, yum, yum!

Then, the next morning, we got to have a Sister Breakfast. We've done this a few times before, but it's been awhile. They're my favorite. It was a little rough getting everyone together at the same time, but I very much enjoyed it nonetheless.

Mal, me, Jaimie, Melissa... all with their eyes closed but me!

That night, we went to Spaghetti Mama's with the buddies and then played games at our fabulous new home... They all lasted longer than the birthday girl, though! I turned in first.

THEN, on Sunday, we had family birthday dinner. In our house, the person of honor gets to choose their meal. I chose this super pizza that my dad always raves about from his time living abroad. To say it is deep sich would be an understatement... the photo here is from the SIDE. Yep-it was that tall. And even more amazing to the tongue! Mm, mm. Thanks dad!

Then, the pink and purple marble cake picked out by my niece :) - thanks Stacey! It was delish.

Thanks everyone-it was a super-great weekend! All except for the 25 yr old milestone, that is. But all-in-all, I don't have one thing to complain about from this past year. About a million of my goals and dreams have come true. Here's to one more!

Addendum

And when I say honeymoon trip, I mean anniversary trip... ANNIVERSARY. Oops. Can anyone believe it's been a year that we've been married? I most definitely cannot! Wow wow wow. A lot has happened for us in just a year. We are so blessed!

Meet the homeowners!

It's official-Jeff and I are now homeowners! (Or at least severely indebted to Wells Fargo.) Everything went super-smooth and the whole entire process only went from June 29-July 24. We were incredibly blessed with all the right help and connections. We are very grateful. Our little place is perfect for us and we have absolutely loved being there. (Especially being out of the 3rd floor, 500 sq ft apartment.) We got a lot of help with moving and cleaning from our families and a few friends. Thanks guys! (I don't have any good pictures yet, as we still haven't had time to get batteries for the camera.) This is one poor view from our inspection report. I promise it's cuter in person.

With all the closing details and moving amidst Pioneer Day events, we have been pretty unbelievably busy and you guessed it-exhausted. It has been literally inpossible for me to get enough rest formy body and the baby. I've started looking into my liberties of taking days off. I don't really have any in my contract, but if I'm sick, I'm sick, right? I'm down to the last week and a half of my internship. I've enjoyed it, but its end will be a huge relief for me. It's about all I can make myself do in the day. The ambiguous deadline for my capstone project also looms very very close, and I'm not much closer than, say, a month ago. Eesh. That will actually be the number 1 stress reliever, getting that off of my hands. Hopefully soon. (It's just so hard when all you want to do is set up house, prepare for baby and sleep!)

I'm one week away from trimester #3, which makes me happy and sad. Happy cause we're getting closer to being done. Sad because I know I will only get more worn out. I really just need to quit focusing on it and just focus on my project right now. :)

Jeff's plugging away in the Academy, loving every second. Well, most every second. Some classes sound much more exciting than some others. He's been kicking butt on tests, usually in the 93-100 range, as well as mastering physical training. He also loves defensive tactics and says he's good at it. :) We think he will be undergoing his pepper-spraying the day we want to leave for our short honeymoon trip. That will be exciting, since the after-effects last for dozens of hours, and he has to do all the driving! We're going to Denver for the last weekend in August-its still away, but not too far for my poor pregnant body. We're pretty excited, we really enjoy just getting away, no matter the place.

Finally, only 3 days until my birthday! Normally, I would have had a 3-month-by-the-day countdown or something going on, but I've been so preoccupied lately, I barely got in 2 weeks of counting down! I'm pretty excited. I'm debating taking the day off, and Jeff and I are going to the Melting Pot that night. I can't wait! I've been dying to eat there for years! Not much else is going on this weekend. Hollah!

Does it ever slow down?

So, remember how in my last blog I mentioned we wanted to start looking for a house soon? Yeah, well, it turns out that this comment now turns into a little story. We were told by our office that our lease would be up at the end of August. Then, just a few days before June ended, Jeff gets a call from them saying-your lease is up in a few days and we haven't heard from you. What will you be doing? ...What?! Not only did they tell us that our lease was up in August, but they never gave us the reminder asking for our notice (which I have seen numerous times on neighbors' doors.) Jeff was pretty unhappy and asked them if we could stay 'til August... that was a no. Luckily, he was persistent and convinced them to let us stay until the end of July on our current terms.
Well, that got us immediately started on looking. We had exactly one month to figure our budget, look at houses, make offers, get loan approval, go through the entire process (inspections, appraisals, disclosures, PAPERWORK,) pack and move in to our new place. What's even better, is this one month we had to do it all also was the same month that there were TWO holidays that gave our realtor and lender long weekends off, Jeff was starting a new job, I would be finishing my internship and also the 30-page paper that goes along with it to allow me graduation... Oh, and let's not forget that I'm already exhausted trying to create another human being. BUT, even though it sounds like I am, I don't have much to complain about. Aside from being constantly busy and exhausted, the process has been pretty fun (and a little scary.) Luckily, we got some good referrals of people to work with - otherwise I think we would definitely have been easy prey! (My home buying advice: start early. Very early. Do lots of homework.)
So, as it currently stands, we are under contract with a house in West Valley (don't worry, the area's not too ghetto,) and if all goes well, we close next week!! Today is our inspection-I'll see if I can't snag some pictures. It is a one-story, 3 bedroom 1 1/2 bath. The home was built in the '60's but has had lots of work done in the last few years. New roof, brand new floors and carpets, new furnace. It's on a corner lot with a big yard and a swing set. It's also painted... and I actually love all the wall colors, so no worries of lime green or purple walls to hide. Really, we just need to know if it will appraise for our loan amount-that's about the only thing that is pending for us. We couldn't be more excited. Things have really fallen into place in the shortest amount of time! We definitely have to recognize some celestial help in the matter.


Jeff began the SLC PD Academy this past week. He came out of his first week with about $1000 worth of new gear and the biggest blister I've ever seen. They do a lot of physical training and he's just as tired as me these days. (Even in spite of that he has still been excellent with helping around the house-making the occasional dinner and doing some dishes. What a great guy!) The training process is long, but he's already enjoying it. He's looking forward to things like Night Driving, Defense Tactics and don't forget-he'll have to be tazed and pepper sprayed!


I am coming up on the last leg of my internship at the VA Hospital. It has been a good experience overall, but I have to be honest-I'm looking forward to its end with everything else we have going on. They are opening a part-time job there in Rec Therapy soon, and I'm still unsure as to whether I would want it or not. I definitely don't want full time, and right now, the break that lies ahead of me is the glaring, blinding light of my life. We'll see how that goes. I think I will revel the free time to set up house before baby comes.

That reminds me, in case you haven't heard, we decided on a name for our girl. It will be Amelie Josephine. The name Josephine runs in my family (I'm middle named Jo) and we though the two French names were beautiful together. Things are moving along just great with her. All of our measurements and ultrasounds still tell us things are right on track. I've got another appointment this Wednesday. Sadly, it will be the first that I have to go to alone-no taking off of the Academy whenever Jeff wants! I'm accepting volunteers who want to accompany me and hold my hand in the future, as Jeff will be training the entire rest of the time. :) I'm now at week 24, and I've got 5 1/2 good months behind me. Almost to third trimester, and I can't lie, I'm pretty happy that we're getting closer and closer. (Due date is still Nov. 5th, but we're sending out last-of-October vibes...)

And now, because 1) this post has no other pictures, and 2) somehow Jeff's birthday weekend never made it to a post, I've included some pictures of his birthday weekend when we went with friends to the lake house in Delta and went golfing.

This one might perfectly explain each of their golfing (and life) personalities. (Jeff, Anton, Bry)


Hello Tami! Us girls manned the golf carts.


Didn't you know golf is a team sport? (Anton's sacrificing his beautiful clothes for the perfect digital video shot. No pressure Bry.)



Yeah... it's blurry. But I love him blur or not.


And, the final news for today's post-only 18 days until my birthday! I really almost completely forgot in all the hustle.