Third Trimester!

In this picture I'm about 28 weeks and sporting my new $6 maternity khakis
from the DI. Sorry it isn't a great picture... :) Baby is about 2 1/4 pounds and 14.8 inches
long as estimated by Baby.Center.com (or likely somewhat smaller). I still get comments
and disbelieving looks after I tell people how far along I am, but I am very used to it now.

We are super-excited and have been enjoying my being pregnant. The other day she had
a major dance party in my belly. Her movement had never been so consistent for so long.
It had also never been so many strong movements for such a long time. I felt her on both
sides of my belly at the same time several times too - that was my favorite.

Occasionally I think of all the things we need to do, get, learn, etc. and I feel a little
anxious. But I've been writing things down that I need to do, get and learn (especially
because I forget even more now) and working on it here and there.

Some of my mom-friends have given great advice and suggestions and I have really
appreciated that. If anyone has something to share, please do. I'm in collecting-info
mode so I can sort it all out and figure out what works best for me.

Isn't President Monson Great?

Nathaniel came across this story from the May 2005 Ensign. It was from
President Monson's talk given during the General Young Women Meeting.
It gave us a good laugh so I wanted to share:

"May I share with you an experience which took place several years ago
when Sister Monson had been hospitalized because of a fall. She asked me to go
to the supermarket and purchase a few items. This was something I had not done before.
I had a shopping list which included potatoes. I promptly found a grocery cart and placed
a number of potatoes in it. I knew nothing of the plastic bags in which purchases are
normally placed. As I moved the cart along, the potatoes fell out and onto the floor,
exiting through two rather small openings in the back of the cart. A dutiful clerk
hurried to my aid and called out, “Let me help you!” I tried to explain to her that my
cart was defective. It was only then that I was told that all the carts had those
two holes in the back and that they were meant for the legs of children.
Next the clerk took my list and helped me find each item..."

Bonus!

We were sad to leave our garden in Logan but were happy to move in and
have grapes growing all over our backyard.

This picture is taken from the underside of some of our grape vines.
Can you see the bunches of grapes everywhere?


Here are some of the grapes I froze.
I really enjoy frozen grapes and fruit- especially when I'm pregnant.


Here are 3 LARGE bowls full of grapes that we picked on Saturday.
We have picked AT LEAST 4-5 times as much as this and have another few
bowl fulls still hanging on the vine. We were also blessed to get those two boxes of
apples for FREE! There is a house/business nearby that we pass on our
way to church. We were always sad to see the spoiled apples all over the ground,
so Than went to ask if we could pick some. They had gotten what they wanted and
said we could take all we want. We might go back for more.


The Orem Library is a 2-3 minute bike ride from our house. I have still
been busy with projects and haven't gotten back into reading much yet,
but I have listened to the several books on tape in the last few weeks.
I listened to "The Work and the Glory" 1 and 2, "The Old Man and the Sea"
and have almost finished "The Scarlet Letter."

Nathaniel and I like to get General Conference on DVD and listen to one talk
each morning as we get ready and eat breakfast. We often end up listening to all the
talks 3x (which is great) and still have time before we get the next set. So we'll go back
and listen to some of our older ones. Now with the library so close we can check
them out from a large variety while we wait for the next conference. I got the
April 1984 session on tapes the other day just for fun -
we were both born in 1984. I love it!


I have had those ugly-ish pink slippers for ten years or so. I hope I have
sufficiently used them up, wore them out and made them do. They are now VERY
dirty black and quite sticky on the bottoms, thus they leave marks on the
kitchen floor. So I decided to start looking for new slippers and got
the very warm and comfy slippers for $1.06, a savings of over $21.00! Hooray!


Last but not least, we went to Olive Garden for my birthday. We don't eat out very much-
especially at more expensive restaurants- so I don't know if this is common or not,
but we were SOOO impressed with our service there nonetheless. Our waitress was
happy and patient and brought me a sample of a dish I was considering. She checked
up on us and made sure things were great. When we asked for to-go boxes
she asked if we would like an order of breadsticks and another re-fill of my
raspberry lemonade to-go (we splurged and bought a drink). We left with about
2 more meals worth of food in a handy Olive Garden bag.

Some pictures...

I finally got the camera out...

Here are some pictures of our new place before we moved in.
Some of them aren't the best - I was in a hurry.

Front room (taken from front door)


Front room (taken from dining room)


Kitchen without our black fridge (taken from dining room)


Dining Room (taken from kitchen)


1 of 2 small upstairs bedrooms. Sorry for the terrible picture.
I really should have taken a picture of the closets - we have closets!


Master Bedroom - sooo much bigger than our last one! And it has a closet too!


I guess I didn't take pictures of the bath and laundry rooms...

Help, we need HEPA

Does anyone have a vacuum with a HEPA filter that we can borrow?

Pizza and Midwives

I have dreams ALL the time now. Sometimes I'm sure it must be one after the other all
through the night. My dreams have mostly been random but funny - at least the ones
I remember. Lately, however, they have just been bizzare. A few weeks ago I kept
dreaming about pizza. I want pizza all the time! In one dream I was just about to start
eating my piece when Than woke me up for breakfast. I don't hold it against him though.
In another dream I was at my in-laws and had to leave to go somewhere when my sister-in-law
invited me to stay for lunch. I told her I really needed to get going. She said, "We're just
having Totino's Party Pizzas." As soon as she said that I thought, "Oh, I LOVE Totino's Party Pizzas!"
In my dream, I was really torn. I don't remember what I ended up doing, but I got a kick out of that.



I've been asked some questions about the group of midwives I am seeing, and I thought I
might clarify a little. Their clinic is right next to the hospital and they deliver in the
hospital. They do everything an OB/GYN does at appointments and during delivery (epidural, etc.)
except they actually stay with you during delivery - the whole time. The only thing they don't
do is surgery/c-section or if there is some sort of major problem. If that is the case, the doctor
(an OB/GYN that they work with) will take over. They support whatever way you want to give
birth; but I'm not sure what I want to do yet. They have great bedside manner. I see any one of
the group for my appointments and will hopefully get to know and like all of them because whoever
is on call when I go into labor will deliver. That could be the downside, but I've heard so many
people love midwives. So it isn't what most people think about when you say "midwife." They are
nurses with a masters in midwifery. My sister-in-law said her midwife even gave her a
massage during the labor.

Still no pictures... tidbits

Even though I don't have a job I have been quite busy. Therefore, I haven't gotten
the internet set up for our new place and don't have pictures with me to post...
Plus it keeps me from wasting my life away online.

We love our new place and still have a lot of things to finish. Nathaniel is making a
sort of end table with his dad and maybe some other shelves for our food storage.
I have done some sewing and still want to make curtains for our bedroom, re-cover
our kitchen chairs, etc. Not to mention anything for the baby's room. We need to
re-paint some of our furniture and finish decorating. It has been fun.

I've also been able to help at my parents' house several days. My grandpa just moved
in with them so I painted my old bedroom for him and helped with some other things
before and after he moved in. So I guess I've kind of been working.

Nathaniel rides his bike a lot (everyday to work and then some) and I have a little
here and there. We are quite close to most everything we need. We got Orem Fitness
Center passes and have been using them 3-4x/week. Nathaniel is the new Scout
Committee Chairman and I am the Nursery Music Leader for the 3 classes of nursery
kids. It is possible that I'll have more nursery kids than he does scouts - we'll have to see.

I am 24 weeks, still hardly showing and am measuring two weeks behind. I had my first appointment
since we moved with the group of midwives I am seeing. They aren't (or maybe I should say,
"she isn't," I've just seen one so far) too concerned yet, but I better get growing. I should
probably get Than to take me out for ice cream a few times a week so I can gain some
weight, right?. :) There haven't been any signs of problems and I feel and even see
our baby kick/move regularly, so we hope for the best.

I feel sooo much better than I did the first few months. It is sooo nice! Since I am not
super big yet, I am still enjoying a few perks. I can bend and move easily for the
most part still. I have enough energy to keep pretty busy during the day;
well, except for my nap. I haven't had to buy hardly any new clothes so far. It helps that
I had some clothes that were a little too big that I've been saving. I did get some
cheap maternity jeans because I can't comfortably squeeze into my old ones very well anymore,
but they are still too big and I have to pull them up all the time.