Valentine's Day

Well for most of Valentine's Day, I hung out with Jeni and Lizzie who were visiting for the day. Elizabeth enjoyed investigating Wade's parent's house where we are living-she was pleased to see they had many toys. Then we went to Joann Fabrics. Elizabeth was trying to convince Jeni to buy her a treat. Jeni said, "Are you gonna share it with me?" and Lizzie says, "No," and pointing to the word Reeses, says, "it says 'own'," indicating it was meant to be one's own, and not shared. She is so funny. Then she picked another treat and said that that one said "mom" on it while the other one said "kid". We drove buy a pretty Catholic school and she said, "It's the temple!-a house of God a place of love and beauty!" all in one breath. She is such a funny little cutie. We also went to Old Navy where I got a new maternity dress and sweater with some gift cards I had and then had lunch, well i guess it was dinner, at Olive Garden.

That evening, Wade and I went to the very lame stake dance where I did not win a prize. But at least I got to wear my new pretty dress. For Valentines, I got Wade some new pajama pants and a candle. He got me a candle holder and a 48 pack of Snickers! I am always craving them, so now I have a huge stash! Woo-hoo!

My back has been doing better, but now I think I have a bladder infection or something. Or maybe the baby is just pressing on it a lot. I dont' know. To think-I'm only half way there! ugh! 20 more weeks of this!

This baby is getting on my nerve!

Lately, I have been getting some really bad back pain. It is in my low lower back, almost my butt I guess, on the left side. It is a sudden and severe pain that hurts when I move, I never know which movements will trigger it so I have to go slow. It's kinda funny-it reminds me of when dad would do that yelp thing like he was in awful pain and we'd all look at him and then he would just go on with whatever he was doing like nothing happened-no explanation or anything. It reminds me of that only in that sometimes it will be very quick and I will make some painful noise and then it will be over. Sometimes it is longer though, or I get stuck in a position that I can't seem to move out of. On Thursday night, I couldn't get off the bed. In my n, I kinda slid onto the floor. I had to wait there for a few minutes till I could try getting up. On Friday I called the doctor and the doctor said, "No more monkeys jumping on the bed!" Just kidding, anyways, they couldn't move my appointment up but made some recommendations. So on Friday evening, we went to get a brace thing at a pharmacy but we are not sure if we got the right one. Plus, I realized it is too small so I will ask the doctor specifically what brand and also get a bigger size. On Saturday, Wade and went to a really nice spa/gym that his mom is a member of and got us week long passes for. We went in the pool and hot tub. I tried to move around a lot in there and do little exercises and stuff. I also have been icing it and then using a heating pad on it. All these were things the doc said to do. They said from the sound of it, the pain is probably from a nerve, like maybe the baby is pushing on one or something. Well, today i was having a nap and tried to turn over but it was so painful that I couldn't at all! At least not for several minutes. So I am going to call the doctor again tomorrow. I originally had an appointment for this coming Friday, I just really would like to get in before then because this is seriously hindering my job search. Plus it just really hurts. I am afraid I will get stuck or fall when nobody is home. Wade's parents have both been nice enough to offer to take me to the doc tomorrow if I can get an appointment. My problems sound really similar to what Robin (Wade's mom) had during her last pregnancy. I just hope it can feel better. Well, that's what's going on with me!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Well, today is my birthday, I am now officially 30 years old and honestly I don't mind a bit. Last night Wade and I went to the Portland temple. It was very pretty and reminded me of visiting the DC temple because it was in this wooded area with all these nice homes. It was a good thing we went then because it is now closing till the 23rd.

Afterwards, we went out to a Japanese restaurant for my b-day with Wade's parents. It was very yummy. Today Wade is making me a tasty birthday dinner and a cake.

Wade was offered a sales job which he has decided to take. I have an interview on Tuesday with Kay Jewelers and Motherhood Maternity said they will call me this week. They are both only hiring part time so maybe I could do both. That would be nice. I think I could make more money at the jeweler but the maternity store sure would be fun at this point in my life. Both stores are at a mall in downtown Portland so I would probably end up taking the Max train to work. Portland is a really cool town. There are so many neat shops and the color and decor of everything is so pretty. I wish it was more sunny though.

Whoever reads this, particularly family, please feel free to leave comments. It lets me know someone actually reads this. Plus I just like it. Later!

Our stopover in Prosser

Well we arrived safely in Hillsboro, Oregon late last night. We were able to stop at Jeni's overnight on Wednesday and Elizabeth was as cute and funny as ever. Me and Wade were trying to tell her she is too big for a pacifier. She thought about it and explained to us that no, it still fit in in her mouth just fine, and that it was a pacifier for a big girl. She sat next to me and we looked in the "Grilchin Graphic" (National Geographic) and she told me all about her interpretations of all the pictures, which was very comical. She saw a picture of a cow fetus and was a little freaked out by it. She got this scared and disgusted look on her face and said, "I don't want to look at that one." Once I explained what it was, she was a little more intrigued. It was also really funny when we showed the video of our ultrasound. She couldn't see how it looked like a baby, but then she said it looked like an animal baby. She said she could see its' horns, and something about sharks swimming in my tummy. She is very imaginative and tells great stories that make no sense whatsoever. Wade and I walked to the store and had lunch at the Blue Goose, taking her with us. She saw two ladies there who she thought were very silly because one of them was "talking like a man". I really hope the lady didn't hear her say that. It was really funny though because she clearly thought the lady was trying to be silly. Elizabeth liked to sit in my lap and stare at me and stroke my face and tell me she trusts me, which in her mind apparently means the same as I love you. She is such a cutie. She slept with me in the bottom bunk on Wednesday night and when we heard her little voice say, "Will you scratch my back?" , Wade started laughing from the top bunk saying he guessed this must be a family trait.

For those of you who thought Matty's picture this year looked like he was being abused, he told me that he was about to smile and that they just took the picture too early. When we left on Thursday, he was fighting some imaginary foe in the yard.

Lindsay and Brandon were fun too, I just got to spend the most time with Lizzie because the others were at school but I am excited to see them more often now. Later!

It's a Girl!!!!

Well we had our ultrasound appt. today. I have been wanting a girl and it just felt like that's what I would have. Well, I was right! They showed us the cute little footsies and the alien face and the little kickin' leggies and the little girlie parts! It was very cute and since we wouldn't be here for the next appt. when they usually give the DVD, they gave it to us today.

We are trying to get ready to leave for Portland tomorrow but Wade's electronics are taking up all the space in the car. Hmph! We'll see if we ever get out of here!

16 weeks pregnant

Well, for those of you who don't know, I'm pregnant. Wade and I went to an appointment last Tuesday and they said I was 15 weeks, just as we had figured. The doctor said we could come in in one week to find out the sex. We had heard we wouldn't be able to find out till the 20th week, so we were pretty excited. I got a call from the doctor's office on Friday evening at like 5:45 pm saying to call them back and that they would be open again on Tuesday. Well, that is when my appointment is, so.....I just hope it's not anything bad.

Wade and I moved back from Hawaii at the end of December. The job didn't work out. Going to Hawaii set us back financially quite a bit, but we had some fun experiences. My parents came to visit the week before we moved back and we went on a fun snorkeling trip on a boat. We saw whales and I was very excited about that. We flew out from Maui on December 16 into Portland to spend a few days with Wade's family. We were supposed to fly to Salt Lake on the 22nd, but we got snowed in till the 27th. Then we came back to SLC and we intended to stay with my parents for awhile, but last week we decided that Portland would be better for us. So as soon as we can get packed up, we're off to Portland to live with Wade's parents! I am sad to leave my family again but I will be happy to be closer to Jeni. I will only be about 3 1/2 hours away from her. Later!

Flora and fauna on the Road to Hana and Halloween in Hawaii

On Tuesday, Wade and I did "the Road to Hana" Hana is on the east side of the island, we live on the west. The official road to Hana starts about 45 from where we live and then goes for 32 miles, but it takes awhile. It is very twisty and turny. I took some ginger capsules ahead of time, it's supposed to help with carsickness, but I still felt carsick. We saw many beautiful sites, including waterfalls but Wade did not want to go swimming under them. :-( We even brought our swim suits, but alas. He said we could do it next time but I'm not sure if there will be a next time after how sick I felt the first time. I think it would be fun to take Mom and Dad on the Road to Hana but I would have to advise dramamine and that might just knock us all out. At one of the places we stopped at, I saw the coolest mushroom, or at least I guess that's what it was. I will try to post a picture of it. We also saw some beautiful flowers and a really cool spider in the center of his web. I did take a picture but when I tried to get closer, he dropped out of his web. It looked like something from the nature channel! We went through Paia again too, and ate at the same place as last time. We saw this “all natural” couple. I don’t know what the heck their baby was wearing. He kinda looked like a scarecrow. He had some weird homemade hat on his head. They looked like they made his clothes but had no experience whatsoever in sewing. And then there was the fact that he had no diaper on, and yet could not have been potty-trained. I realized this when the dad pulled up his little dress for some reason. And the mom had on major flower power pants.

Last night for Halloween, Wade and I dressed as Troy and Gabriella from High School Musical. My costume ideas went all over the place. I had decided against those costumes at first and was thinking about being Hannah Montana but then what would Wade be? It would have been fun if one of us was her and the other was Miley Cyrus, but one of the rules for the ward party was no cross-dressing. ;-( So I found the graduation gown (or maybe it’s a choir gown-don’t really know) at the Salvation army and bought the accessories such as a trendy hat for Wade, a brown wig and a hat that said “I LOVE TROY” and jewelry for me at Claires.

I carved 2 pumpkins using stencils and got rave reviews at the ward trunk or treat. Nobody else around here seemed to use the stencils to make the cool designs, so they were very impressed.

The pot luck at the ward trunk or treat was interesting to say the least. I even wrote down some of the dishes purely so I could write them on this blog. There was some sort of salad with lettuce, peas, bacon bits, cheese etc that could have been good, if it did not have pure mayonnaise on it. Then there was the 3 or 4 hot dog dishes, in addition to the regular main course of hot dogs. There were even red hot dogs. Very disgustingly red. There were pig in a blankets with these little sausages, a hot dog casserole in a pumpkin, spaghetti, a pork and beans like dish, homemade sushi, (now, I like sushi, but only from restaurants-there was some brown stuff in the middle that I was just a little too nervous about), chicken nuggets from the grocery store, along with some McDonalds Cheeseburgers and Chicken sandwiches. I think there were also spam burgers. You really had to see it. I brought apples and caramel. Wade could not find anything he could stomach and had to make a run for the border. Taco Bell that is. One of my favorite costumes was a little kid dressed as a sushi roll-with her little baby brother as wusabi! It was so cute. I had to get a picture. I got to hold a little baby girl dressed as a fairy as she fell asleep. She was so cute but she had the funniest look on her face as she slept, like she was disgusted or something.

After the ward party, we went down to Front St. There were some crazy costumes! Mostly it seemed like people were walking along the streets just to show off and to see others’ costumes. We saw some guys dressed as Mormon missionaries and I went closer to see what their tags said. He was smoking and asked me if I wanted to join and I said, “I AM Mormon.” I think he felt a little dumb and said, “oh sorry”. They were not the only Mormon missionary costumes we saw though. There were some very scandalous costumes there. Many people were a lot more than half naked. There were some really funny costumes too though. I saw a whole group of people from super Mario brothers. There was Mario, Luigi, the princess, a mushroom, and a few others.