These Days...

I'm wrapping up my second term of grad school and it is HECTIC! Just a couple of more weeks though and I'll get a break... School ends July 10th, I am due July 16th, then I will take 8-10 weeks off of work for maternity leave, start school again August 30th and go back to work half time. That is our plan anyways, if all goes well. I really hope she comes on time because I simply don't think I can wait any longer to meet her! I just can't wait to see her soft little butt and hopefully cute little face!!! I am dreaming of the day I can dress her up and take her out for a walk in her cool stroller that Jared and I had no trouble putting together! People said putting together the crib, changing table and stroller would be really hard, but not for us! :-) Makes me kinda proud...especially since Jared did the crib and changing table by himself. He took the BEST photos series of himself doing it, which is on Facebook and if you haven't seen it, you have been missing out, trust me! Our dog and cat have been learning to live in mutual disgust better and better and I am curious to see what they'll think of a little baby that steals all their attention! Also, I want to eat healthy, but there is junk food all around me. I don't even have to buy it! It is all up in my grill all the time and there's just no avoiding it. I guess I should just hope what some of my friends have been saying is true that if I breastfeed I won't be able to keep the baby weight on if I try! We shall see though, if I do ever learn to say no to things like muffins and chocolate and coffee cake and soda and cake and ice cream, etc., it will be a glorious day! Other than that, things are good and healthy as can be! She measures just about right, she moves around and gives me lots of heartburn, which I have heard means she's a hairy little beast, and I've begun to waddle a bit. I can't believe I only have 23 days left! Still they are too long. But then again, not really because of all I have to get done...not for her, but for school. Her nursery is ready except crib bedding, but I know that's on it's way and she will be in a cradle for a while anyways. Sorry I don't make paragraphs. I just write and write and write, but you know me.

Chuggin' Along

Brief Update:
Pregnancy still going well.
Glucose test thingy next appt. - gross.
Getting bigger around the mid-section.
Sorry no photos to be seen yet.
School still going well.
Lots of reading and papers to write.
Jared stressed from hard classes he has.
Hope he makes it through.
Taking life one step at a time.
Collecting lots of great hand-me-downs for Olivia.
Sooty still snorty.
Sweetie not so scared of Sooty and seen more often outside the laundry room.
Hungry all the time, or at least I think I am.
Wearing some great maternity clothes friends gave me.
So thankful.
Life is good and full of blessings.

Strange Dreams...

I had heard that people sometimes have wierd dreams or more dreams when they're pregnant, but seriously?!!! I have been having random and vivid dreams almost every night! Plus, when I get up to go to the bathroom as I have to every crack of dawn (just before it's almost time to really get up, but I can't hold it any longer), if I don't like the dream I was having I try and discontinue it, but then I'll have another wierd one before I start to hit the snooze button! Some of them are really too bizarre and sometimes almost embarrasing to share, but they have had to do with everything from being in the middle of the ocean for a class(???) with no lifejackets or anything when suddenly the student in front of me is face to face with a dolphin, which is kind of cool, but still makes me nervous because they can be wiley! THEN there are sharks and I'm thinking, OK, is the dolphin gonna defend us or WHAT is going to happen here?! THEN there are HUGE baluga whales and they are like jumping all the way up out of the water and splashing around and I'm like dang I wish I could do better than doggy paddling!!! THEN there's like a huge wave, not tidal, but big that starts pushing us all toward the shore and I'm like are we going to go crashing into some sea wall or buildings or how is this gonna stop without drowning me?!?! THEN it does slow down enough that I can sort of get my feet under me and walk out, but only into this house that is half way broken open and you have to go down these stairs that are like into a subway tunnel. THEN I end up in the kitchen of this house and I'm like I hope no one's home! THEN I have to break out of this door in the garage that is like locked from the inside and just when I think I've escaped, I see that like a family of ten neighbors is watching me wide-eyed from across the street and this little hispanic boy comes running out yelling at me (and the two random classmate/friends I am with) and they are like, Ok Ali, do your thing and explain to him what happened in Spanish. So, then I start, but with Spanglish, but he says he speaks English, so he tells us we better run........





WHAT a doozie!





Then, this morning's dream consisted of my office being PACKED with people on meeting day and a new agent asks me if we have a return address stamp, which we don't cause we just moved and the one we had has our old address on it, but I said no worries, we have label stickers. I go to get one and they are buried and when I get them there's only one left and it's mis-printed, so I'm like dang! Then, I think Ooh! We have letterhead envelopes with the address! BUT they are all gone and there's only garbage where I keep them (in real life my job is to keep all this stuff stocked and I am dang good at it, ok?! So get off my case!)! THEN I think ok, well I have a bunch of old letterhead envelopes that I put stickers over the address on, which would work, but they are gone and replaced by junk too! So I think I will just print him some new stickers, but he is getting impatient and is really unimpressed with the new real estate co. he signed on with....not cool. Then this other agent is like shoving me fighting over my computer and I'm like JUST LET ME DO MY FREAKING JOB! It was a very stressful, rediculous dream! I did not like it!





Anyways, it's still kind of fun going on these crazy adventures at night, even though they can be scary and make no sense...at least I get to share them with my husband in the morning and now with the rest of you! :-) I just got an idea for a book! Pregzilla Dreams: A Compilation of Crazy Dreams From Sane Pregnant Women

The real one (in my dream) was MUCH bigger and MUCH more menacing than this one!!!

The Day We Went to the Beach With Grandma and Grandpa

Someone mentioned Bruce's Candy Kitchen today on Facebook and it just reminded me to share a funny story, so I thought where better to share it than on my blog?

It was a nice summer day and my sweet grandparents had decided to take some of my cousins and I to Cannon Beach. I'll never forget it...they took us there to see the taffy being made at Bruce's Candy Kitchen, BUT the machine wasn't running when we went in, so while we looked around and drooled at the candy that WAS made, they decided we should just leave without buying any of us any candy! It had obviously not crossed their minds how much torment this would be especially for my youngest cousin Mark. So, as we walked out empty-handed and continued along the sidewalk, he moped, hanging his head as low as he could, until BAM! He walked right into the rearview mirror of a big truck at which point he was wounded both psychologically and physically. What a day at the beach for little Marky (and the rest of us)! I just remember thinking to myself, "How do they not see that this is just not right?"

I'll always remember fondly all the times when we would be riding in my grandparent's car and they would have Altoids or gum, so of course because their main ingredient is sugar, we would always ask if we could have one. They would oblige, but not without specifying that we were to "keep it in our mouths." I always thought this was funny because the last thing I'm ever going to spit out is candy!

You Can Call Me Super Ali - Rescuer of Babies

No, I didn't adopt one of those malnourished African children for $19.99 a month or anything saintly like that, but I did save a baby from certain injury last Sunday! We were all at my parent's house baking cookies, playing Settler's of Catan (I know - NERD alert!), and rough-housing with the kids so that my mom could present us all at once with our traditional early Christmas gifts. Usually we get them on Christmas Eve and we always know what they will be, but we don't know what they will look like. This year we did it early because we weren't sure all of us would be there for the actual night since we are all married and have in-laws to tend to as well. The gift is pajamas. Doesn't sound exciting to you? Well, they're not for you and I LOVE them! Maybe this is why every night I sleep in long pajama pants and a big, baggy t-shirt, even in the hot summer months and even though they ride up past my belly button when I tuck myself in and Jared makes fun of me. Once we'd all opened them my mom insisted that we put the huge gray sweatpants and brightly colored, long-sleeved t-shirts on immediately. The pajamas had ironed on Settler's of Catan board game covers that my mom printed. We're not obsessed or anything, just don't play with us if you want to chat and take it easy or have fun. We play to win! Sometimes even storming off dramatically if a streak of bad luck strikes. We each had a different color of the rainbow. I ran into the den to change, but the pants were so big and there was no drawstring so I had to use a chip clip to cinch them from falling down. It's all for the picture... SO, getting to the exciting stuff - we all posed and took about 4 pictures with the timer so no one is missing and then people started to get up off the couch. I was sitting on the back and Jared was on the arm next to me. I was holding baby Joshua, so tiny and so helpless, WHEN Jadon ran to our side and the whole thing began to tip! I screamed and someone stopped it from tipping, but because I wasn't sure if we were about to crash into my mom's Christmas village on the table next to us, Joshua started to slip sideways and almost bonked his head, did a flip and fell. Instead, he just did a flip and I caught him in the very knick of time by his elastic waistband! Bungee jumping freaks out babies apparently because he cried the loudest I've heard him cry for about the next 5 minutes until Lindsey could call him down. His head was a little red perhaps from the crying or blood rushing to it in the flip, but he didn't appear to have bonked it. Lindsey and Bryce called their pediatrician or someone anyways and monitored him closely for the next day and they said he seemed fine. Thank goodness for once in my life, I had reflexes fast enough to do something awesome!!! Ha ha! I will post a picture soon!

It's a fetus!

We're pregnant with our first baby now and I just got into grad school. The feelings of shock and overwhelmedness are fairly accurate ways to describe me right now. I am getting more excited by the day though. Yesterday my sisters and my mom took me out to get lunch and a pedicure, then we went shoe shopping and had a cook-off at my mom's house! It was a blast! The cooking was lots of hard work, but now we have like 10 meals worth of food in our freezer, which is totally awesome!!! I sure do love my family! Everyone is excited because they've been wanting us to have kids for a while. I'm nervous and so is Jared about how to make it work financially and time-wise, but we know we can and we are looking forward to a baby belly and then a cute little baby boy or girl. We already know names we like! Logan Kyle for a boy and Peyton Olivia for a girl. My niece Elie even said she wanted us to have a girl and name it Olivia before we told her the name we'd picked! Jadon of course wants us to have a boy and name it John... Better than Flippers or Fattest! It was so good to see everybody yesterday and I'm really looking forward to the holidays. Then school will start and let the madness begin! Morning sickness hasn't been too bad, I haven't thrown up once still, but I am only about 7 wks along, so we'll see how it all goes down... It will be an adventure for sure! But a beautiful baby will come of it and bless our lives in ways we cannot possibly imagine yet. We are so fortunate that God know's perfect timing better than we do and has a wonderful plan for our lives that never ceases to excite!!!

Studying with my Sweetie

Not that sweetie, my cat Sweetie (who is really usually a witch). Every time I start to try and study, which is important, ya know? Sweetie wants attention and gets in the way. Other than that, she loathes attention. But as soon as I look like I need to focus, there she is purring and snuggly. Here is a picture of her saying, "Don't even think about opening that book, Ali! I am here and I want your attention now." (until I try and shove her away and she scratches my neck. Ow. She is truly a witch...