6.30.2011

Coming soon...


...hopefully a baby. Even though my due date isn't until the 19th officially, I'm really shooting for next Thursday. Sounds like a good day to have a baby. Plus, 7-7-11..how cool is that? Maybe she'd get free slurpees at 7-11 for the rest of her life. And if that's not a good reason to be born...I don't know what is.

At my doctor's appointment on Monday (37 weeks) I was almost 2 cm dilated and 75% effaced, which apparently is pretty good for 37 weeks. So let's keep up the progress, shall we? My next appointment is Tuesday- fingers crossed. I'm shooting for at least 80% effaced and 3 cm. Especially if I want baby action to go down by Thursday. Speaking of which, delivery FREAKS ME OUT.
FREAKS. ME. OUT.
Not so much labor, I mean that will suck, but epidurals are God sent so it only has to suck for so long. But the whole idea of pushing this bulge OUT just blows my mind. I feel like I'll break myself. Or my, ya know, parts.

But most of my "stuff" is done. All I have left to do is buy a bassinet and swing (should happen today), make a weeks worth of freezer meals (should also happen this weekend..maybe) and get a pedicure (check! happened yesterday actually). The baby isn't allowed to come until I've had a fresh pedicure. I mean seriously, your feet are hoisted up in the air.

Speaking of all this baby related stuff, I got the pictures back today from the previously mentioned cheesy/mandatory belly prego pictures! James was REALLY looking forward to them ;-) He was a good sport though. Here's a sneak peek:



The rest are on my facebook page because I can't figure out how to upload them at a high enough quality on here where they don't look grainy...so just look at my facebook. :-)

6.26.2011

Make way for...

So I think one reason that you're pregnant for almost a whole year (holy cow I'm so ready to NOT be pregnant) is that you really need quite a bit of time to get everything ready. Maybe not everybody does...but I definitely have found things to fill my time/more things to add to the "to do" list...and usually just when I think everything is done, nope. Not really.

I saw on A Baby Story that it's a tradition in the Orthodox Jewish religion not to bring anything into the house for the baby, until a healthy baby comes home. AH! How do OCD Orthodox Jews handle themselves?! I'd be going insane. Major props for patience.

Anyway, I can confidently say that we have about 98% of everything ready/done. Things that still need to be done:

-finish packing the hospital "go" bag
-install the car seat
-buy a swing and pack n' play thing or bassinet
-wash baby clothes size 6 months and up (so I don't get to that drawer and think...have these been washed already?)
-buy baby friendly stain remover for poopy clothes

Not bad. The list has been narrowed down from about 23,098,134 things, to these 5. I think I can handle it. Fortunately, only the first two things are absolutely necessary before she arrives, so really we're set if she wants to come like tonight. I'm down.


But her room is set and ready to go. Well, her HALF of the room I should say...the other half is James' office space. He didn't really have a choice in sharing, but I don't think he minds.


just realized the sign is slightly off center...note to self- go scoot the crib over.




The only thing not pictured is the glider/rocker. And that's because it is en route as we speak. :-)

In other baby news, we took our standard and cheesy "look at my cute belly" pictures yesterday, so those will probably be up some time next week. I know...you're SO excited to see them. Me too. heh.

6.22.2011

Sometimes we all make bad choices

So I LOVE the girl who does my hair (shout out Jaime Williams!). She's the only girl I've been to in Utah that knows how I like my side swoop bangs. And I'm pretty particular. Michaela agrees. Girl cuts bangs.

But a small problem is introduced, when I decide that I'll do something "different" and go for blunt bangs instead. Now I had these bangs once in college..it actually came to be by accident (never try trimming your own bangs ladies- don't we all make that mistake at least once?). Flashback? Okay, okay:

Disregard my complete stoner face...it was probably very late.

She did a great job though, and always does. I just don't know how I feel about how these look on me in particular. I almost feel like an 80's cheerleader. Or 70's go-go dancer.

I think I'll be letting them grow out a bit so I can go back to the comfort of my swoop bangs. Unfortunately that won't happen before my standard cheesy prego belly pics on Saturday. Guess I better figure out how to rock these things.

Crap.

And so you can get some humor out of this as well, here you go:

And for reals...could my dimples be ANY bigger? Nay. They could not.

6.21.2011

Today I don't feel like doin' anything

Seriously. Bruno Mars? Love. I'm in love with this song...it also happened to describe my day yesterday where I literally did nothing. I did rotate the laundry once though, so I guess that counts as something right?

I feel completely okay with it.



6.17.2011

Ocupado

Summer is a beautiful thing really. Especially for teachers. I always give myself the first half of the summer to do whatever the heck I want, then spend a good part of the second half slowly getting ready for another school year. But it's still the first half :-) So I've found plenty of things to occupy my time (aside from A Baby Story or I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant marathons on TLC in the mornings).

I made a car seat canopy (using this tutorial) for baby J:



Adorable fabric, no? I'm in love.

I also added some fabric to the bottom of some burp clothes to make them prettier and such. Granted they'll soon be covered in baby barf, she still deserves to puke on pretty things. As long as they're HER pretty things and not MY pretty things. Let's make that distinction.




I've also been working on TWELVE of these fabric rosette necklaces for my friend Cammie's bridesmaids. She's getting married in July. Seven down, five to go.



And I jazzed up my KitchenAid with some vinyl designs using my new Cricut. Eeeee! I think soon everything in my HOUSE will have some type of vinyl on it.



I'm having way too much fun. But now I think I need a break. Will that last? Mmm...we'll see.

It's been kind of weird to be home by myself all day. I went from talking basically non-stop for 6-7 hours a day at school, to hardly talking to anyone all day, until James gets home. Strange. I miss my own voice! But I don't plan on starting to talk to myself anytime soon. Singing to myself, that's a different story. Pandora keeps me company most of the time. Adele is my music idol. Hands down.

In other news, it's been 2 hours and 20 minutes since breakfast and I'm STARVING. Adios.

6.13.2011

Happy Birthday to us

So June is the official month of birthdays. James' birthday was on the 6th (and he turned 26..whoa! 26 on the 6th. Cool.). We went out to eat with the usual crew at Goodwood Barbecue. Super good food, but we both got MEGA sick from it. Which was weird because we ate NONE of the same food. It must have legitimately been contaminated...yikes.

We also went to this new-ish place in Riverwoods called Provo Beach. Seriously...Provo Beach? That's a mean tease. (Insert random tangent): Last year I was talking to some of my students about the beach for a descriptive writing activity, and they had absolutely NO schema for it at all. The closest thing they could come up with was like Utah Lake. Poor kids. Haha. Thank goodness for technology and pictures on the net right?
ANYWAY. It's this like game/arcade place and they have a golfing simulator that James has been wanting to try out. So he did. It was pretty cool.



The thing about birthdays when your older, or holidays really, is that your gift wish list gets progressively more expensive. I guess since these were our last birthdays before the baby comes and we spend all extra money on her, we decided to spoil ourselves one more time. James got an iPad 2 (should be coming in the mail this week!). I had to order it straight from the Apple store online, because I called SIX stores in Provo/Orem that were all sold out. Walmart even said they get them in the morning sometimes and they're gone by lunch. Whoa. Thank you James for wanting the Tickle-Me Elmo of grown up toys.

Moving on to my birthday toys, James got me a cricut! AH! I die. If you don't know what one of those awesome little things are, it's like the ultimate in scrapbooking/crafting. It's looks like a printer, but you put paper/vinyl/fabric in it to cut out letters and shapes. FAB! My Mom also got me a sewing machine, which I'm trying to learn how to use for a few projects. I set it up Saturday and within 20 minutes it broke. Haha! I tried to keep fixing it, but kept getting frustrated with it. Then James looked at it and did THE SAME THING I'D BEEN DOING THE WHOLE TIME and it started working again. Aye aye aye. So expect to see some of the random projects I've been working on soon. Maybe by the end of the week. And yes, they're mostly adorable things for the offspring. I don't plan on becoming like an expert sewer or anything, like making my own clothes and stuff...that's a little TOO June Cleaver for me.

Also on Saturday, after the sewing machine fiasco, we went to celebrate my birthday (the 23rd one in fact) at Olive Garden- my fave- and got dessert at The Chocolate- another fave.




Which I just have to insert, that whole notion that pregnant women eat like grown men is completely false. Yes, I do eat more often, like every 2-3 hours, but I can't eat as much in one sitting at all. I fill up SO FAST. It's come to the point where when we go out to eat, I only order a side salad and appetizer. It's really annoying, because mentally I'm not done eating, but the growing human in my belly will not allow another ounce of her space to be taken up by food. Depressing.

In other birthday related news, the whole family clan came to our house last night to eat homemade pizzas, watch the NBA finals game, and celebrate the previously mentioned birthdayness. Good times had with the fam.

Birthdays this year were good. I'm only 23 but I feel so much older than that. haha. I think I have a fear of getting older. Is there a medical name for that? I think 25 will be a rough one for me, mentally. Oh well. Better enjoy the next 2 years...

6.04.2011

I have a variety of crap to say.

There will be no theme to this. Just random things that are on my mind:
Bullet points? Yes.

  • Lots of things be changin' round these parts. Thing 1: Kimber left yesterday with the girls to move to FL with Ryan where they will spend at least the next 4 years going to FSU's Med School. I am now the only sibling in Utah. It's slightly depressing. Thing 2: School is over, it's summer time, and I get bored way too easily. Thing 3: My sister graduated from high school- whoa! I feel like I just graduated high school...but that was 5 years ago. Holy smokes. I'm getting OLD. Thing 4: My belly is getting unbearably HUGE.

  • I was super excited to watch the premier of My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding on TLC last night. I even stayed up until 11:00 when it came on (rare for me to do), but it was lame. I only watched the first 22 minutes. Blegh. Let down.

  • Speaking of TV shows, I've been watching way to much day time TV, which usually includes at least 3-4 episodes of A Baby Story and I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant.My neighbor came over to chat and borrow some yeast the other day. She has a 2 week old baby girl. She told me that delivery really isn't that bad and you kind of have to hype it up for your husband...the women on those TV shows beg to differ. I only hope I'll be saying that in 6 weeks, " Probably not the best shows for me to be watching right now. "Oh yeah, I pushed a bowling ball from between my legs, but it really wasn't that bad!" Her baby was also only 7 lbs. And considering this baby has a 50% chance of getting THE SHANNON FAT GENE, I doubt I'll be in such luck of a petite little miss. Then again, she does also have a 50% chance of the Houlin chicken legs gene.

  • Someone gave me a plant on the last day of school as a "thank-you for being pretty much the best teacher ever" gift. A plant? A plant. It's like they were saying, "Here, kill this before you have to keep a real thing alive." WELL GUESS WHAT. It's almost there. I'm trying though. I put it outside on the front porch so it will get some sunlight, and it's rained the past couple of days so I haven't had to water it. Am I missing anything here?! Why is it all droopy looking? Maybe I should move it out of the direct sunlight for so long in the day. Maybe I should read the tag sticking out of the soil and see if that helps....

  • I'm considering opening a shop on Etsy. Crazy, no? I've been making a ton of crap lately. Currently in the process of making 12 fabric rosette necklaces for a friend's wedding for her bridesmaids. Meeehhhh. I dunno, I go back and forth.

  • Lately I've been waking up around 5am every morning (to make a trip the the bathroom). Do you know birds are already singing at 5 freaking am? Talk about the ultimate morning person. This morning when I woke up it was raining. Some days I LOVE waking up to rain, especially on a Saturday. It's like someone is saying, "You don't have to do anything today. You can just read a book on the couch in your favorite blanket- I give you permission." Which would have been nice today, except I'm ridiculously ready for the full heat of summer. It's been in like the mid to high 60's here, which is nice, but it still doesn't feel like SUMMER. Bring on a heat wave. Me and my super hot maternity swim suit are READY for some pool action.

  • June is awesome birthday month. James' b-day is on Monday (26..he keeps forgetting) and mine is next Sunday (23). Score! I LOVE birthdays.

6.02.2011

Onesie love.

Onesies are a fabulous idea.
They have some pretty cute ones, but the cutest ones I've found were embellished and given to me as a gift, or they are super expensive on Etsy (like $22 each) because they're hand-embellished. So I browsed around {Etsy} for a little to get some ideas, went to JoAnn's (my new favorite store), came home and turned on TLC, and got to work- pretending like I know how to sew.
Here are the results:





*Sigh. I don't think I'll ever be able to put Jillian in JUST a white onesie. :-)