I

got to stay home with damon all day after church got cancelled because of the overnight snowfall.  it started out a little rocky (the thought of staying home alllll day and not even being able to walk over to hyvee to look around or ANYTHING???) but we actually got some things done.  we fixed the crib- we'd put the mattress support upside down making the mattress waaaaayyy too low for me to reach in, even on the highest setting.  we straightened damon's hair with my chi.  we watched 2 episodes of grey's anatomy.  we made homemade cinnamon rolls (paula deen, of course!).  so we're sitting right at about 6:45.  who knows what we might do next!

just ate a cinnamon roll and some chicken ramen for dinner.  for breakfast i ate chocolate chip pancakes with peanut butter and syrup.  for lunch i had a small bowl of white rice and black beans.  i'm pretty sure the 34 black beans in my rice were the only nutritional thing i had all day.  i'm also out of prenatal vitamins.  so kid is getting no nutrients today.  bummer.  i have had 2 glasses of water, so i guess we'll see how tomorrow goes.

suck at calling people.  unfortunate sign of my times: i'd rather text or email than call anyone.  i'm part of that sad generation that is losing the ability to communicate.

think we have moved into the best ward i've been in since i joined the church in the brushy creek ward. maybe even better. i can't brag enough about my ward family, but i just love them all!

haven't had my hair cut in a year and 2 months. which is gross. i can't trust new people with my hair. and so i don't know what to do. bite the bullet?  wait till i'm in utah again?  i'm getting sick of wearing it up in a messy i-just-graduated-high-school-and-still-wear-my-hair-like-life-revolves-around-cheer-practice sort of  crazy ugly look. although i did take the time to blowdry my hair straight last night.  and then, remember, church was cancelled.

have started hearing the really obnoxious comments that people feel like it's ok to say to pregnant women.
 guy at costco: wow, you're due soon!
 me: (inside: do you consider 10 weeks soon, jack... you know what?) not really, still have like 2 months
 guy: oh, it's gonna be a big baby!
 me: (inside: gee, you're single huh?) hope not...  (this olive oil sucks, by the way)
seriously, why do people have no common sense when it comes to these things?  instead of asking, 'are you due soon?', ask 'when are you due'  (that is, if you have lost all sense alltogether and are going to assume a girl is pregnant. which is never a good idea).  instead of 'you look like you're going to pop', you could maybe say 'you look great!'.
last week, the checkout lady at hyvee was all, 'have a nice thanksgiving, it'll be the last one you'll get to enjoy!'  seriously?  i CHOSE to have a kid.  i know, hard to believe.  i don't want you to tell me how horrible life is going to be after having a baby.
and, if you are a stranger, why would you feel it's ok to grope me?  (ok, i admit this hasn't happened. i'm hoping i'm putting off a really good don't-get-near-me vibe)  why would i want you to touch me in a place nobody ever touches me except my husband?  or do you normally go around touching peoples stomachs?  i don't know, if you've never laid hands there before, it seems weird to do it once i have a being inside of me.  maybe that's just me.

can't wait until texas in just 5 short days!  my family and christmas parties and warm weather and rudys/chuy's/any other restaurant i can think of, damon out of school and with me allll day... ahhhh...

\

i call this one, prenatal nutrition.

Things I Miss...

D.I.
Good ol' Deseret Industries (it's my Church's Goodwill).  Everything is clean (mostly members donate, so no smokers- plus!) and there are so many options, and I happen to think Mormon ladies dress pretty well.  I've been to the goodwill and the salvation army here, and both time I looked for about half a second through clothes before I was more than turned off.  I really really need some long shirts, cause leggings are quickly becoming my staple outfit piece.  I also want some tall brown flat boots.  You know, nothing specific, just something kinda perfect.  Cognac.  Almost to my knee.  Not many buckles or other deterrents.  That's all.  I saw a pair at Marshall's a few weeks back and didn't buy them. Still wondering why not...


Milo.
I've been as dog hungry as baby hungry since we gave Milo to the family in Texas.  Worst. Mistake. Ever. I want him back so bad, sometimes I scan the Austin craigslist ads to see if he has shown up on the 'lost' posts or, heaven forbid, the 'needs a new home' posts.  Though we told them (and I've re and re told them through a few emails since July) that if they ever for any reason need to get rid of him, to call us and I'd drive down to Texas to get him.  Apparently they aren't giving him up though.

Also, I feel like a huge traitor that I look at other dogs.  If we get a new one, will I love it as much?  Will Milo know, from 1000 miles away, that I got another dog?  Oh, the angst. 

Utah. People and restaurants.  People more. (most days) the mountains (never thought I'd say that, but it's so much easier to orient yourself against a mountain than try to figure out what direction you are going).  On that note, the grid system.  I hate named streets.  I dream of the grids of Utah towns and cities.

The Temple.  I can't fit in my temple dress. We keep wanting to go out to Omaha and I really want to go in San Antonio over the break, but I'll have to figure out the dress situation.

elephant dude

After seeing about 10,000 cute prints on etsy that I wanted for the nursery, I decided I'd have to take matters into my own hand if we didn't want to completely break the bank on this room.  So far we've done everything on a pretty steep budget, buying and refinishing a craigslist dresser (which turned out awesome) and using stuff we had and hopefully some crafty skills to make decorations.  Today I decided to finally sit down and paint something for the room.  I'd gotten stuff on sale at Hobby Lobby (and then used their 40% off one item coupons on top of that) to craft with- canvases and acrylic paint and brushes and such.

This is what I painted today, I love it so... Our 'nursery' colors are gray and yellow (goldy/mustardy yellow, not pastel) and deep blue, so this painting fit perfect.  I have lots more that I plan to make, and luckily with Damon completely swamped with school the next 2 weeks before break, I've got plenty of time on my hands to get stuff like this done!

(it's a little dark cause I took it with my phone...)

Can't wait to show you my next one!  It's gonna have an owl in it!

just sayin'...

feeling a human being inside of you is the coolest thing ever.  (not so cool when it's the middle of the night or he completely flips positions- then it's kinda painful)

right now the little dude has the hiccups. baby hiccups are super fast, like one every 2 or less seconds, which is funny to me, but probably annoying to him.  i know annoying, because after a minute or two, he gets super T.O.'d and starts moving around a lot.

i can't wait for this little man to get here, even though i feel like we completely aren't ready in terms of stuff.  but he definitely has enough clothing (thanks Tara and Pam and our new neighbors downstairs!) and he has a crib and well, he has me, so the three basics of food, shelter, and clothing are taken care of.

29 weeks!

Thanksgiving break

I'm thankful that Damon had 5 days off of school and we got to hang out the ENTIRRRREEE TIIIIMMMMEEE... I hadn't seen him this much since summer!
We got lots of fun things done and just sat around picking our noses a lot, and it was perfect.

Tuesday evening we had a fun date at Costco!  Haha, we picked up our 20 lb turkey and ate some pizza and a hot dog and a sprite for dinner... Costco is our favorite date place!  Then we went over to Brandon and Michelle's to watch Biggest Loser Makeover night!!!  We even all wore an accessory/clothing article in honor of the show that we could share about- Michelle was definitely best prepared and presented her black boots wonderfully!

Wednesday we went to my 28 ish week appointment, I did my glucose test that morning.  No results yet (perk of having your blood draw the day before Thanksgiving- so I actually got to enjoy all the food I wanted no matter what the result!), but I should find out tomorrow if I'll be going on a fun low carb/sugar diet!  How depressing. We also watched Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World.  It was a weird movie, but ok...


Thursday we ... I don't remember what we did in the morning besides hang out and get our dinner ready!  We had a few friends from our ward over for a nice Thanksgiving feast, it was all so good!  We had a huge turkey for just 7 people- lots of leftovers!

Friday we watched football allllll day long.  Until the evening, then we watched Elf, the greatest Christmas movie of all time. We even ate spaghetti so we could be like the movie and made an eggnog cheesecake which is. so. GOOD.  Damon's eaten about half of it today, just a bite here and there from the fridge at a time.

Saturday we went to Home Depot just to look at their trees and ending up finding that they had such good deals that we had to buy one!  Also, we finally put together the crib!  We've had it for a few weeks but it's just been in it's box in the extra room, till now!  It was actually way easy and didn't even take us half an hour. We love it!  We're so grateful to my Dad and Pam and Mom for getting it for us!

lovely main architect...

finished!

Today we went to church, came home and were visited by our home teachers who gave an awesome sports-related message, and then we put together our Christmas tree!

It's been so nice having Damon home, I can't wait for Christmas break in just 3 short weeks, I can't wait to go home and hang out with my man again!

just a warning

saw this on a baby board today, thought i'd put it out there for any of you who have video baby monitors or are in the market for one...

http://www1.whdh.com/features/articles/hank/BO144489/

Dear Baby,

5 a.m. is not the funnest time for you to get hiccups.  Just because your dad is awake and moving around the room doesn't mean you should be awake and moving around in your nice waterbed I made for you.

Why I cried today:

Elder Holland

I love everything Jeffrey R. Holland says. Not to have favorite apostles or anything, but he's my favorite person to hear speak.  I would love to spend an hour sitting with him talking about the gospel- his spiritual understanding and drive is astounding.

The other night I dreamt that I was the keynote speaker (ha, yeah right) at a big conference in a huge hall in Salt Lake City (in my dreams I still live in Provo, naturally).  I was late cause I was taking a shower at work (awkward- yes, PCS) and I had left my clothes in the building across the street. I raced over there in just a towel and turned on the TV to see my conference already going (it was, of course, being broadcast far and near)... And who had they pulled from the audience to take my place last minute?  You guessed it. Elder Holland.  He ended up giving one of the talks he'd given in conference over again- and I'm pretty sure it was this one below.  Cause I think it's in my top 2 talks of all time, I just love it and I love him for giving it so boldly.

When I told Damon my dream in the morning, all he said was "I'm glad you think so highly of yourself."

Maybe one day I'll be able to bear testimony so eloquently... Probably not though.  But I'm glad I have it, at least!

too fast

days are flying by right now, it feels like... it's already almost another weekend?  how did that happen?  i guess i've been keeping more busy since i ended my job than i did before working last month, and that's good. 

but maybe things could slow down a bit?

i had an appointment with my midwives this morning- measuring right on schedule for 26 1/2 weeks... my next one is in 2 weeks... that's right, i'm now in the appointment-every-2-weeks part of pregnancy, which i know will make it feel like it goes faster. i have my glucose test the day before thanksgiving.  so hopefully i won't get my results till the day AFTER.  cause even if i were to fail, i don't plan on holding back on the greatest food holiday of all.  

our crib was delivered today. it's in a huge box next to the door. it's crazy to think i'll be walking into what is right now damon's study room and seeing a crib.  the swing and bouncer and stroller and billions of clothes seemed to fade into the background along with the (now gray- i painted it!) desk covered in anatomy pictures and bookshelf full of steinbeck and the big blue dresser.  

and my rings are getting a little snug.  my grandmother's ring already has come off, it's really sad to not wear it all the time, but i can't take the risk of having to have it cut off.  i may have to hit up claire's for a fake wedding ring next. 

this baby's coming faster than i can wrap my head around, it feels like. 

i just don't know if i'm ready to share my handsome husband with somebody else!

Chicago anniversary

This last weekend as you all know was our one year anniversary. Tara took the initiative to show how great our wedding was but she didn't say anything about our trip to Chicago. Here are a few pictures of where we went, unfortunately they are just taken from online. We'll put some personal photos up later.

We ate at a wonderful Mexican restaurant called cemitas puebla. It was awesome and could be the best Mexican food that either of us have had out of Mexico. We went to the zoo and of course had to hit up Ikea and Nordstrom's. They aren't close to Des Moines.

Tara is the greatest thing in my life, and marrying her was the greatest decision of my life. She is always bending over backwards for me, which is even harder with a baby in the belly. I look forward to every day I have to spend with her and eternity to be with her.

what the heck?!?

i don't know what he's doing in there, but today he's been all over the place. i caught a little video clip on my phone. it's kinda dark, you'd be able to see it if my shirt was lighter, but you can see enough. all the moving on the left side of the screen is him.  it starts around 18 or 20 seconds in.

1

year
that's how long we've been married.
it's been awesome.
we've learned a ton, had a lot of fun, made goals and plans and even a human.
who'da though?

it's been the best year of my life, but i know it will only get better.  i love this guy. he's everything i'm not and better than me in most every way (except cooking. sorry damon).

hard to believe it was a year ago that we headed out to wheeler ranch (thanks jack!  you're our wedding hero!) with all of our family and most of our closest friends to celebrate our wedding...

we bbq'd. we stayed in luxury (huge) cabins on a huge ranch full of jeeps, 4 wheelers, a hummer, a natural spring, lakes, a waterfall, lots of guns, targets and a shooting range, even some wild hogs to shoot. it was the best wedding ever.  i promise. if you weren't there, i can't really describe how awesome it was to play together before the big day, and then play some more!

here are some pics i stole from people. some are mine, but most aren't.....

the reception hall half of "the barn" (the other half was a gormet kitchen/living room, 5 bathroom living space where damon's siblings/parents slept. the rest of us spread out over 3 more huge awesome houses, wish i had pictures of those)

just some views of the ranch, from another of the houses

Austin, my friend/caterer jumping off the waterfall into the natural spring pool

oh you know, just out shootin'.  this is about all we did the day before the wedding, drive through mud and water and shoot guns. robbie, anna, joe, janel

austin, john

damon's mom, and jr in the backround

jenna, in the hummer. this bad boy was incredible.

matt, at the shooting range

joe, levi and mandee, one of the many 4 wheelers

johnny, janel, damon and i

me, damon, joe. i'll give you a guess who was the best skeet shooter. not to brag, but it starts with a t and rhymns with 'ara'

and then we had a huge bbq that night with everyone and woke up the next morning to go here:

just a few of our amazing friends who flew in for the wedding

my best family photo. if only kristi was in it...

bffeaeaeaeae's. kami and matt flew in and drove with dre and zac from dallas...

and derek, who flew in from san fran. crazy to think that he introduced me to the church 8 years before this, scary to think where i'd be without that.  it was great having him in the sealing room and see things come full circle.

damon's family, they took good photos!

haha... don't mind the cheeto stains on kristi's dress... she rode the whole hour to the temple sitting on a pile...

the whole group 

and then we drove back to the ranch to take a few more pictures and do our ring ceremony down by the water, under a chandelier my mom had put together....

        

probably my favorite shot... damon got me this on a canvas print for our anniversary! i love it!

we wrote our 'non vows' last minute before the ring ceremony.  we both wrote them in our 'adventure book' (that damon had made me for my birthday after we saw up in early summer) so now we have them to look back on.

drive down to the waterfall, where everyone was waiting. i had had about a gazillion stickers stuck to my dress that we had to pick out first. thank goodness i switched to cowboy boots...

my handsome dad... walking me down the... grass.

our sweet Bishop Mackay.  he was our bishop in the ward damon and i met in at BYU, and was the watchdog over our blossoming love... haha. he even got my roomate jenn married to a guy in the ward- our apartment (of us 2) was a 100% success for him! him and his sweet wife flew down for our wedding and we were glad to have them at the ranch to play and eat good food and enjoy the time with us.

and then we went back to the 'barn' and ate incredible food and danced and partied... for like an hour and a half. then we peaced out.

we drove off... but don't worry, we wrecked this car (my dad's) into my mom's truck the next morning. awesome. 

i've been listening to our song a lot this week, i love it so much and never miss an opportunity to put it here on the blog. so without further, here for your listening pleasure, benton paul and our first dance song, i only see you.

that was a lot.
happy anniversary babe!
the end.

I love

Ellen DeG. You know, the one from the show?

I'm watching her show right now (best part about not working), it's so a million times better than Oprah ever was.  The dancing, the giveaways, the monologue, the web clips. Oprah who?

Today she's interviewing her wife.  It's a good one. I'm crying.
They love each other.
Um, Portia, why did you go on Oprah before your Ellen?  Lame.

I don't care what people think about gay people or gay marriage or whatever, I really like them.

In other news, The View has to be the worst show on TV.  All those women need to be shipped to a deserted island so they can destroy each other and the rest of us don't have to hear all their loud yelling and arguing.  I hate turning on the TV during their time slot cause the channel may already be on that station and I can't help it but hear their ugly voices arguing before I can get the channel to change.

I promise I'm not sitting around watching TV all day, but I do turn it on in the morning to watch the news/weather (I'm cool) and if I'm here, at 4 to watch Ellen.  And learn dance moves.

We're going to Chicago tomorrow.
Cause a year ago we were about to head out to Jack's ranch to start our festivities leading up to our Marriage.

And now we are less than (hopefully) 15 weeks away from meeting our son.

Back to life.

Now that my horrid temp job is finally over, I've reclaimed my throne (the couch) and am back to my regularly scheduled program.  Which mostly consists of: eating. watching mtv's 16 and pregnant or Teen Mom online.  eating.  laying on the couch reading. thinking about food. reading restaurant menus online. Oh how I miss Utah with it's plethora of good dining options.

Some things I really want right now:

A Strawberry Shortcake cupcake from Sweet Tooth Fairy

A slab of pizza from Slab

A sweet pork salad from Costa Vida (no surprise there)

A coconut/pina colada shave ice with ice cream and a snowcap from Hokolia's in Provo

Tacos from Lone Star Taquiera in SLC

What the deuce, Iowa?  You have the crappiest food ever. 

If any of my Utah peeps are feeling kind, please go eat all 4 of these things for me today (cause that's what I'd be doing) and then tell me about it. You can write an email with descriptive words and pictures if you'd like. 15 hours is starting to look like a short drive...