Happy Anniversary...

Well... I decided I should take a break from the pictures and the updates of getting things done, and the great things that I get away with because I'm pregnant and talk about why I am so happy in life. Today is Dan and my anniversary! We have been married for 4 years and it has been wonderful! We have a house, good jobs, good family, good friends, we are both healthy, and of course the baby on the way that we are both very excited about.

As I lay in bed WIDE AWAKE from 3-5 AM this morning, I thought of all of the great things about Dan and why I am so lucky to have him as my husband. Of course there are all of the little reasons, the obvious ones, but one of the greatest things about Dan is that he makes me laugh. Every day has new surprises, he comes up with something unexpected that I cannot help smiling and laughing about. One day we may get old & ugly, but he will always make me laugh-we'll always have that.

One of my favorites: A couple months ago, we are sitting in church and Dan turns to me and says "I think I am going to be Santa Claus when I grow up." (Little did I know that was an option...) With a confused look, I asked him why. He said "Because all of the little kids like me and smile at me. They know."
With a smile, I chuckle and return my focus to the meeting. My eyes wander, and sure enough, the little kids' eyes wander over to Dan at some point in time. Maybe because he is funny looking, but maybe... just maybe... he will be Santa.

The perks of being pregnant...

I beginning to realize that I have been fairly low maintenance (comparatively) for being pregnant. I am still up and about, doing most everything for myself. I do dishes, do laundry, take 3-4 trips from the car to unload groceries. Whatever I need done, I do it. Not because Dan won't, but because I still feel good and can, why not?

From time to time, I don't mind using the excuse "I'm pregnant."
Here's the latest...



I think Dan benefitted just as equally... Also, we did share a really delicious piece of carrot cake at the restraunt that night. The waiter brought it out, drizzled in caramel with great cream cheese frosting on it. It was so BIG, I can't even describe how good it looked. Then, the waiter served Dan his half. I'm sure we are no one special, but I like to think we got an extra large piece because I am pregnant.
I'm sure no one thought it was odd when the pregnant lady grabbed a handful of mints on the way out the door either. :)

Only 5 weeks left... any suggestions on what else I can get away with?

Oh what does a husband do on his day off???

Dan has been very busy at work and has not had a day off the whole month of November. He has worked 10+ hour days, a couple 5:30 AM jobs (remember the Monday snow storm) and some last minute night jobs. We can't complain, when there is work to do we make more money… right?

Well… Dan informs me Tuesday night after playing volleyball at church (10 PM) that he has the day off on Wednesday. He is THRILLED!!! Me- I am happy for him but considered, just for a second, taking the day off too so we can relax together. I decided against that and wanted Dan to enjoy his day doing WHATEVER he wanted.

So… what does Dan want to do??? I thought to my self on the way home from work… Maybe he washed the 3 dishes that I had left in the sink- a pot, a mixing bowl and a cookie sheet. I didn't expect, just hoped.

Let me tell you what I found when I came home from work.

The garbage out

His bench cleaned off (where he stores shoes, jackets, hats, gloves, old work schedules, everything he uses EVER)

The bed made

2 loads of laundry folded/put away (2 small loads, but still 2 loads!)

A lightbulb put in the hall light (that burned out the night before)

Sidewalks & driveway snowblowed/shovelled

And the kicker… THE BASEMENT CLEAN!!!

* storage containers closed, boxes stacked up, garbage emptied, stocked the fridge with water bottles, old 12-pack boxes condensed and gone, our work supplies neatly piled against the wall, I know I am forgetting something but it was spotless. In fact, I was on the phone when I first saw it all and about fell over. (I know you don't care about our basement clean, but when I am usually tripping on all of our stuff and it isn't there to fall over, it's a big deal!)

What does a wife think when the house is clean and she didn't do it… My first thought: "That was so good of him! This really helps my stress levels."

Then…

1- What does he want?

2- He must really be sick of me whining about everything I have to do (whining/complaining/venting… whatever you want to call it.)

3- He really wants my craft stuff OUT of the baby's room and into the basement (so we can get the crib and dresser and I won't be nearly as stressed.)

4- What did he do?

5- I must really be neglecting things that it bothered him enough to do it

6- He must have REALLY not wanted to do the dishes (that were still in the sink)

Push comes to shove, he did it all and the only thing he had to say was "it didn't take as long as I thought it would."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

As we crawl into bed that night, he says to me, "Can I tell you something and you promise you won't be mad." I asked him if it was mean, I expected something like "you've really let yourself go since your belly has gotten bigger" or "you smell" or something odd like this (which he wouldn't say, but it had been a long day. I didn't know what I could handle.)

"With my $50 tip from last week, I went out and bought a new video game."

How could I argue?

Monday Mornings...

So here goes...

The weekends are always TOO short, and as always I dread Monday mornings. This week, Monday hit me like a storm and ALMOST took me out.

5:30 AM- Dan had an early early morning job so he was up, he looks out the window in the kitchen "Oh crap!" I of course panic in the bed and get up. We had 2 inches of snow that we had NO idea was coming (yes- we are the idiots that watch football or TiVo-ed things at night as opposed to the news...)

I had to move my car for Dan to get the work van out (he would have done it, but I was up anyway) so I just decided to shovel. The snow just kept coming down, so I had no idea when it may stop. After 40 minutes of shoveling & spreading salt (thinking how strange it must look for a pregnant woman to be doing this in her sweats at 5:45 AM), I decided I should put the lawn mower to the back of the garage and move our new snowblower out, so it is easily accessible for Dan when he came home from work. I decided that we should make sure it is all ready with oil and gas, so I found the instruction manual and did a little light reading. 1 hour later I was in the shower, and after all of that was only 5 minutes late for work.

Sadly, it stopped snowing and the sun came out. The snow pretty much melted, so my 1 hour + of hard work was not all that necessary. Kind of a let down.

THEN- to make it better... One of my friends at work stopped in my classroom to chat. She tells me she can see the baby (pretty much anyone can by now) and asks if I have put on some weight. WELL, OF COURSE I HAVE!!! I kindly joke back that my belly is a little bigger than usual. She then proceeds to question if I have put on weight other places, I said "Yeah, I'm sure my butt is a little bigger" She then points out my face is a little rounder, maybe my thighs, etc. I kindly ended the conversation and went on with my day. Who tells a pregnant woman she is fat all over????

I am NOT looking for compliments here, but I thought this would be a good lead in to show you that I am not all that fat, but I am showing. I went to the doctor last week (27 weeks) and I am measuring 26 1/2 cm (that's 1/2 of a cm smaller than the books estimate at this point. That's not a totally accurate estimate but it made me feel good I wasn't like 30+ cm!)***October 30th, 24 weeks (I think)******This picture is 27 weeks, All maternity clothes just because they are SO COMFORTABLE!***

I survived the Monday and the Tuesday & Wednesday and thank goodness it is a long 4 day weekend! I so needed it! :)

Have a great Thanksgiving Day!

Still our little man... October 19th

Ultrasound #2

Our baby is still a boy! We went for a second ultrasound so they could get some better pictures of the baby's heart and lower spine. It was great because we had to go to the other office and the ultrasound tech didn't know exactly why we were getting another ultrasound so she did a VERY THOROUGH ultrasound. We were in there for at least 45 minutes and she just took picture after picture. It was GREAT!
At one point I asked what a 69% and a 91% meant, she explained that the baby's head circumference is in the 69 percentile and the diameter (Left to Right) was in the 91st. I think we may have a big baby on our hands... at least his head is big.

After all of the measurements, the computer calculated our baby weighed 1.2 lbs and is in the 88 percentile for a baby at 22 weeks. (or, that the baby is measuring about 6 days big but that's not enough to change the due date.)

A couple pictures...

This is a front view of the baby's face... you can see his eye lid pretty well (on his Left eye) so it's kind of cool. :)Oh... And my belly is bigger-much bigger! When I download more pictures I will post that too!

Camping in October...

Dan and I both grew up "camping" but have not been since we've been married. We've always kind of talked about it, but never actually did it. We decided it was this year or maybe never... we have a baby on the way and if we don't know what we're doing, it's probably not a good idea to bring kids into the mix. It was a great refresher/learning experience for us.


Thank goodness for nice weather (well, not too cold) and no bugs. We will definitely go again! (Of course, with people who know what they're doing- we're not pros yet. Thanks Hatch's!)

Utah Part 3- The Guys

Just to be fair to Dan's trip to Utah, I thought I should include some of the highlights.

His (our) friend P-Math (Paul Matheson) picked us up from the airport. We went to Lost Hermanos in Provo and then ended up at his house to play ping pong and HALO (yes, they have HALO anywhere...)

P-Math served his mission in Wisconsin and he would come over quite regularly for a meal and a good old-fashioned butt-kicking in ping pong. He is also one of our good friends that helped us move into our house 2 years ago and joined our PAINTING PARTY! I love having friends that are willing to help with the things you really HATE to do (or that you just really stink at doing-like painting for us.)

Dan spent the majority of his trip in Logan Utah for his work conference. He said that he learned a lot of good things and never went hungry. One of the highlights- They had a belly dancer show for the entertainment and Indian Food (that was not very good) on the last night. The weird thing- one of the belly dancers was a presenter for the conference (or a Harris Research owner- or something), just kind of odd that she would want to share her "hobby" with the Chem Dry Franchise owners who were there.

Also... Dan decided to take the stage on Kereoke night and sang "Baby Got Back" for $100 ChemDry dollars. Dan is the first to admit he is not a singer... so I am sure it was well worth the $100. :) He was pretty proud though.

After the conference was done, we saw his (our) friend Coriander (Cory Anderson) who also served a mission in Wosconsin. He went home just a couple months ago so it was fun to see him. At one point we tried to hook him up with one of my sisters, but he's a football player and that took priority when he got home.

The last day... Dan HAD to get some frisbee golf in so he met up with Mike Plum, another missionary from Wisconsin.

It's kind of nice... I go to Utah to see my friends and family, he has friends there too! He doesn't mind the yearly road trip (or flight if we're lucky) to go see everyone. We both had a great trip and were sad to leave! We will be back soon!