Heartburn and Heartwarming Times

Well folks, we are down to the last month of school and pregnancy. Needless to say, times being the way they are has put both Josh and I on edge. Really, he is the one coping well as I fall apart over the stupidest things such as grocery shopping, children's movies, and Pampers commercials. One day, people, one day I look forward to having my hormones in check and behaving like a sane person again...if I ever was sane. So far, within the last three months, two people have asked me if I am having twins and three+ people have asked how overdue I am. "No," to both questions. Not carrying twins. (Apparently I was for the first while but we are now having one baby, and he is sitting cozy all up front.) As much as I wish I was close to being overdue, it is still a while away. I think the worst incident happened when we were on a date at the Garden House and after the waitress seated us at a booth, my tummy prevented me from sitting down all of the way. I was stuck between the booth wall and our table. Luckily, they were not busy and we were able to find an open table with movable chairs.
This last week was marvelous. We were able to go home and watch my brother (Nic) be the stud of his high school play and a wrestling star. On top of that, my whole family (minus the two youngest kids) sang in the church choir while they were accompanied by my second youngest sister (Anna) on her flute. My siblings are very talented;)
Thanksgiving was a blast. We went with my family to Grandma DeGraffenried's and gorged ourselves on everything from sweet potatoes to a variety of twenty-eight different pies made by small children and adults alike. --Heartburn and water retention in my feet were the result, but SO worth it. Josh and I loved holding my little cousins and imaging what our own little boy will look like. I have to confess that about the cutest thing is seeing Josh with babies. Until he married into my obscenely huge family, he had never held one and to see him interact with them is heartwarming-- and not in a heartburn heartwarming way;).
My mom was a gem and hosted an incredible baby shower which most of my aunts were able to attend. It was a soup buffet of sorts and the end result was that Josh and I are financially able to purchase some of the big ticket items we need such as a crib and car seat. My relief society is hosting another shower for our ward this Saturday. We feel very blessed to have such generous family and friends. Thank you! Thank you!

Skilled in Pumpkin Carving

My hubby is skilled in many ways, but recently he has taken on a new challenge in the art of pumpkin carving. Although I would like to take credit for the cat one, he perfected it;) These are his creations:


Supposedly the Mickey Mouse one is for "Jr.", the goofy one is Josh's, and mine is the cat one. I have always been a big fan of Halloween (the fun, decorative parts- not the creepy, bloody parts) and so I insisted on celebrating Halloween a couple of days early rather than skip it because of Josh's odd schedule on the main night. While he went to work Saturday night, diligently outlining and then carving masterpieces, I attempted to make my mom's apple fritters.... It's true: nobody can cook it like mom can. They were OK, if you don't mind a super crispy outer shell and a doughy inside. We watched "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" and then concluded that even though we could stay up 'til all hours continuing our party, something about being married makes it so we simply choose not to keep teenager hours anymore, despite there being no children to run our schedule...yet;)
By the way, has anyone else noticed fall in Utah lasts about a week tops? Yesterday we took a Sunday drive up Cedar Mountain to look at the colorful leaves only to find that they had already taken the plunge. Maybe next year.
Happy Halloween!

...there was no room for us in the inn.

This was me at 28 weeks. Large and growing.

And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Barack Obama, that all America should be taxed, and with such a tax should be so poor that the price of many goods, from market supplies to transportation, increased.
And Joshua also went up from Cedar City, to be taxed with Adell, his espoused wife, being somewhat great with child.
And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. Nevertheless, it was not the desire of Joshua nor Adell to bring forth their firstborn son and wrap him in swaddling clothes and lay him in a tiny pickup truck because there was no room for their meager student loan at the car dealerships.

Now this story may seem incomplete at this point. It is. This is due to the fact that for the last two days we have scoured every car dealership in Iron county and have come away from all of them feeling a bit more like Mary and Joseph (no sacreligiousness intended)-- that after checking out my large front and our dumpy truck, there is simply no room for selling to students. So far we have only been laughed out of each dealership (literally) when we tell them the extent of our small loan. Heck, two of the places didn't even bother to try and convince us of anything on the lot and just shook their heads in apparent sorrow at our circumstances. Apparently, with the economy being the way it is, used cars have drastically gone up in price since many cannot afford to buy new cars anymore. Three times we were referred to KSL. We will most likely end up buying a car from said website...if we can ever find the time to make it up to the SLC area. Hopefully it will happen before I bring forth our firstborn son.
If anyone reading this has a car in mind, please let us know;)
Along with car shopping, we have gone to some prenatal classes at the hospital. They were a bit helpful in easing the ball of tension that builds within me whenever I think of giving birth. However, we both gagged during the C-Section video and I nearly passed out at the sight of an epidural needle. If nothing else, the classes made this baby seem more of a reality for Josh, which is a really good thing, since he is very convinced he is still too much of a child at twenty-four to actually have one. Truth be told, I don't think either of us feel adequate, but ready or not, we will learn together.

Labor Day and then some.

Along with the joys of having zero ventilation in our basement, our lovely home has also been invaded by much black mold. Josh discovered this a few weeks ago when he moved a tote I had against the wall and found that it was sunken in and covered in the most foul smelling kind of ugly mold I have yet encountered. Our landlord was kind enough to give us the tools to fix the problem. While we were going about said problem during this last Labor Day weekend, I had the brilliant idea to paint the room sky blue in honor of our new arrival. I have never been a creative person when it comes to crafty things like decorating or sewing or even cooking for that matter, but a little color sure can add alot to a room. That same day we splurged and bought paint for our little half bedroom and began painting. This is us going about our project. It was much needed time to spend together outside of Josh's super busy schedule.
Monday was no school or work. We had a delayed birthday celebration by going to "The Little Mermaid" at Tuacahn, eating Olive Garden, and getting me a couple of maternity shirts. Needless to say, it was an amazing day and I cease to be blown away at the incredibleness of Tuacahn's performances. I could go on for quite a while about the special effects they did and how phenomenal their musical numbers were, but I will just say that if you can spare the time/money, it is definitely well worth it to see "The Little Mermaid".

Before and After- For hair and belly;)

Before picture of me around 14 weeks. Not much showing, but then again, at this point I was too busy being really sick to gain anything.


This is me around twenty-two weeks. HUGE difference, is there not? Josh was telling me that I am lucky, because at least I have a large backside to balance out my growing front... He really has a good point. Up until now, I guess it was wasted;)


This is how long my hair was at twenty-two weeks.


And then this is me, later that day. Very happy with the change;)

I am officially out numbered.

That's right, folks. We got the news today that we will be expecting a bouncing baby boy. Josh has been really cute from the beginning, always referring to the baby as "Jr." and "little guy". This habit became so regular, I changed my mind about wanting a girl and decided, for Josh's sake, I would like it to be a boy. Both of us got our wish! The new expected due date is December 22. We hope he comes sometime before Christmas Eve/Christmas OR sometime between that and New Years...just not on the actual holidays. From what I hear, we have about as much control over that as the gender of our baby;)
I apologize for anyone who is offended by ultrasound posting, but I don't see any harm in a face shot. This is a 3-D image of his face, and although it still is pretty alien looking, I like to think he is kind of smiling.

The funny thing is, it wasn't much of a surprise to me. Granted, there was still an element of suspense and excitement about having our baby's gender confirmed, but I have had these little feelings that it would be a boy before we even knew he was coming. Guess I passed my first test of mother's intuition. JK. Now rather than dreaming of making headbands and girly frills, I am setting my sights on adventures with insects and dirt- preferably more of the the latter;)

P.S. The Joys of Basement Living.
Speaking of insects, I am revisiting one of the very first blogs I wrote about married life, only this time it involves a much more dangerous brand of arachnid. A giant (the biggest I have seen thus far in my short lifetime) black widow was crawling on the couch next to where I was sitting last night during scripture study. Josh was the conquering hero and killed it and the egg sac it left under our couch, and then proceeded to spray our apartment with spider killer to calm my hysteria. I don't know if it was the Lord shaking me from my spiritual repose, but if it was, He surely did the job because I don't think I can even sit on that couch without being very alert from now on.

A New Addition

I bet most of you have heard me whining about the big news on facebook and those of you who haven't, heard it from my mom. So this could be old news but for the sake of the blog not falling into cyberspace, I figured we should write about it. We are expecting a new addition to our home!
Guess the former paragraph needs some clarification. Both Josh and I are beyond excited to be parents and welcome a baby into our lives- that's something I don't think even I could be selfish enough to whine about. Surgery, and lots of prayers made this possible and I wouldn't take it back for Wonka's Chocolate Factory. (BTW- chocolate used to be my main food group and now even smelling it makes my stomach feel like hot tar.) My source of contention comes from the all day, every day "morning" sickness. I have a hunch that whoever named the dreaded baby disease "morning" sickness was a man doctor who had a scientific, but fairly lame explanation behind the title. Although still ill, this last Thursday was my one week anniversary in three months of not puking or napping vicariously (this is the part where everyone knocks on wood). With the passage of time, my midwife prescribing me Zofran, and "Dr. Who", things are looking up.
Josh exchanged his summer for a Physics class and very odd and long work hours punctuated by his wife's pleas for sympathy and exotic foods. Poor guy. He is surviving and so am I.
Wish this wasn't such a morbid depiction of our lives right now, but be grateful that I am writing a mostly honest blog. It could be the first you've read in a while. All puking a physics aside, we are blessed beyond measure and very happy to have this marvelous blessing;)

Finished here.

Things are changing for us. Some for the good. Some for the bad. Really sad thing happened today: I saw my co-workers for (most likely) the last time today. Even though we will still be in Cedar next year while Josh finishes, leaving the Writing Center is going to be like severing my left arm; for my whole college experience, it has been my constant...my home away from home. After working there, I can't image loving another job as I have this one. There is such immense satisfaction gained when a tutee walks away from our session with a big smile on their face, confident in their ability to go forward and write great things.
Another sad thing: leaving this department. Substituting for the secretary upstairs, working with writing contests, grading papers, working in English 1000 groups- it's been my life for quite some time now. Since it's not all that big down here at SUU, most people get to know their professors within their department on a pretty personal basis. Although I will miss them, more than anything, I will miss my friends and co-workers that I have made so many good (and bad) memories with more. You guys are awesome and I have so much faith in you going on to write amazing, wonderful things.
Happy thing: I am graduating Magna Cum Lade with my Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing and my official Tutor Certification. This is not so much of a brag as a fact: I am satisfied with my work here.
Happy thing: Josh is my constant and he will always be there, graduating or no.
Happy thing: New things are coming our way. Good, new things. Not sure what they are yet, but you know what they say about how when one door closes, another one opens? Doors, here we come.

Pet Onion

For those who don't know, Josh and I live in a basement. A fairly moist and stuffy (but very cute) apartment. Now I'm not sure if it was the environment of our apartment- it being moist and all- or if it was simply the age of the onion, but the fact remains that we had a pet onion. Yep. A pet onion. We named him after the editor of Josh's design book- Kicklyder. Josh and I learned our lesson about onions this last January when we bought a large bag of them, in hopes that we would have more time to experiment with onion recipes this semester. Unfortunately, after our first couple of real meals that called for onions, we got sucked into the black hole called "life" and never took notice of our onions again until I saw a sprig of green growing through the top of one of the onions. Fascinated, we began to think that our apartment had magical growing powers and let the onion alone to see what would develop. The last time I had cut one of this specific onion's brothers, it made me weep from the incredible strongness of it's odor. From said experience, I knew this onion had the potential to do great things. Over the span of a month, our onion prospered and grew into a full-fledged plant, strong and healthy. We contemplated planting him, and letting Kicklyder grow to his full potential in a proper home, but in the end we let him die in our kitchen trash can. Several morals come from this story. A. Don't buy onions in bulk, especially when one member of the two member family does not like them. B. Throw out the onions once the smell becomes so powerful it invades the food you are eating. Maybe put in a cupboard instead of a shelf? C. Find something worthy of blogging on other than onions.

Shark music.

Do you ever have a moment in your life that fits perfectly with nearly all of the suspenseful soundtracks made for that creepy movie you don't want to see again? Well, as Josh and I made our way to the top of a very steep hill, I kept hearing the high pitched violin music that comes on right before someone dies. After breaking four bones throughout my short life, I have come to familiarize myself with said feeling of suspense.
During our month off between Fall and Spring semesters we spent a lot of quality time with our families, doing worthwhile things. But for some reason, I kept having an itch to do something adrenaline pumping. Unfortunately, it wasn't until the weekend before school started that I finally was able to scratch that itch. Josh and I went to Sports Authority and bought a two person sledding tube with a weight limit of 250 lbs. We asked the sales person if it would pop with both of us on it, and she said if the thing popped, we would get a full refund. I think that was the selling point for Josh, because secretly, I think he was hoping for some tube-popping jumps. I was sold on the purchase the moment I realized there was a ferocious Yeti cartoon depicted on the front of our tube;)
We drove quite a way up Cedar Mountain before stopping at the coveted playground hill. And it was not until we began the long, but thrillingly fast descent down that we understood why the weight limit on our Yeti was meant to be so low. With our weight distributed unevenly, we always wound up going down backwards...which was, for the most part, all the more thrilling. At one point, we got going so fast that Josh had to plant his arms firmly into the already packed snow to keep us from running into a telephone pole.
The peak of our tubing experience came when we went as far up the hill as we dared go. Looking down from our precipice, I could hear the suspenseful shark music egging us on. We went faster than Chevy Chase on his Christmas vacation. That is, until we came to the 8 ft snow drift blocking us from flying into the road, jumped it, and came to a halt only when we reached the other side of the road. Miraculously, both of us landed on the tube (which didn't pop!) and managed to sustain no serious injuries. Yeah! The best part was that when a man from a pavilion witnessed the jump, he stood and cheered for us. And it was like our Yeti and us were the stars in a movie about tubing.