Mother's Day 2012

Today is Mother's Day. Which has always meant for I get to show my gratitude and love for all the amazing women in my life who have helped raise me, teach me and love me. For that reason alone I love it.

But for the first time, it is actually kinda sorta applicable to me! Or at least so my husband and sweet family and friends tell me. I have talked before however about how typically Lester and I tend to forget to do sweet things for each there on holidays like this, Valentines Day, etc. So about a week ago when Lester asked, "Now that we are pregnant, do I have to get you something?" I honestly had forgotten..so I told him he didn't before, but now that he reminded me he would haha!

Fast forward to yesterday, when he had a 24 hr shift. He left at 8:00am and didn't get back until this morning at 8:00am. Again, I had forgotten that today was Mother's Day, and I knew he'd only be home for about an hr before he had to head out again for more meetings. So I wasn't expecting anything. But my AMAZING husband came in smiling and awake, despite his long day and night before, and was so happy to give me a gift card to a day spa! Not only did he remember the holiday, but he also listened to me when I said my lower back had been hurting! Which is why he got me this gift..to get a massage so my back would feel better. HE IS THE BEST!

I've heard a quote that best thing a Father can do for his children is to love their mother. Believing this is true, I know that our kids will have the best Dad in the whole world, because he loves me so well!

To all you Mother's out there, Happy Mothers Day! I hope it was spent in relaxation with lots of the love you so clearly deserve! 

Seriously, how did I get so lucky with all these ppl in my life?

These Days

Well, I don't really have anything exciting to say. But I don't know when I will, so I might as well record whats going on with us.

I am now in my second trimester, and feeling over all a lot better and more myself. I am no longer nauseous all the time, and I have quite a but more energy which is nice. Of course, I have traded old some symptoms for new ones, like intense lower back pain [which I thought wouldn't start till later] and occasional migraines, but over all I am liking everything now a lot better, and I think the baby is to. Its exciting bc for the first time the other day I am pretty sure I felt the actual baby move not just my organs and what not haha. I love this little monster of ours. 

As a result of this renewed energy, I have been able to go back to work. This has been nice both for our finances but also my sanity. Lester is busier then ever these days, and I was starting to go a little stir crazy over here by myself. Its funny because while I don't really ever look forward to working the job I do, and I do like having something to do and a way to contribute to our family while I am still able to. So that has been a plus over all. Plus Lester and I are both excelling, and getting a few small bonuses or what not here and there. So thats good.

I've also been cooking and baking a little bit more again. Nowhere near as much as I used to, but still some, which is an improvement. I made some cookies and cream cupcakes the other day and decorated them all cute, and they were a huge hit. It felt so good to be able to both eat them, and get a little ego boost with people being impressed my them. I just enjoy baking, and I didn't realize how much I missed it till I couldn't. Over all, its just nice to actually be able to eat again, but I think I've kinda done a but of a 180 with that. At my first doctors appointment, I had lost 3 lbs since I went in and found out I was pregnant. At my second [which was about two weeks ago] I found I had lost 5 more lbs. The doctor said that he wouldn't be too concerned because of how sick I was and how well the baby was doing, but he expects me to be gaining a lot more weight this trimester, now that I am feeling better and the baby should be getting a lot bigger. At first, I was worried about making that happen, but now that I want to eat almost everything in sight, I am worried I will gain way to much weight haha! Whatever.

As I said, Lester has been very busy. He spends every week day at school, then either has a hospital shift, fire station shift [meaning he is doing ambulance rides], work, or bishopric meeting/duties. He is truly one of the hardest workers I know and he doesn't complain, no matter how tired he is or how much attention I need when he gets home. He still makes me and our family the priority, and I can feel that and I don't know how I scored such an incredible husband. He really is my dream come true.

Hm, what else? I've been making more friends in my ward and getting closer to some old friends, which has been WONDERFUL. I even have two close friends who offered to throw me a baby shower while I'm here-it will probably be sometime in July, and I am both flattered and excited! Erica and I have been friends for almost two years now, and she has been one of the funnest, craziest, and compassionate girls I know! I know we will be friends for years to come. I don't know why, but I don't think guys fully understand how women sincerely NEED other women sometimes. Lester gives me everything I want and more, but he is gone a majority of the times these days, and that is hard. But without fail, almost every day I have some friend or another who calls or visits or wants to hang out, and I feel like that has definitely been a tender mercy Heavenly Father has sent me right now. Especially Ms. Brittney. I was worried when Lester's best guy friend said he was bringing over a new girl, but from the second I met her I knew she was the perfect yin to his yang. She has laughed with me [sometimes at me haha, and visa versa], let me be a baby and cry sometimes, and just checked on me daily, all while not making me feel like a pain her butt, and it has meant the world to me. I guess I just feel that sometimes, a girl just needs to feel completely understood and validated, and no one does that better then a good girlfriend. So this Sunday when Lester is doing a 24 hr shift, I think I'm going to have a girls night and have a bunch of ladies over just for fun.

Well this has been a lot longer then I anticipated but this is all whats going on with us. I suppose I will blog when something exciting happens next. Until then!

PS: Did I ever mention that we find out on June 7th what gender the baby is? Mark that on your calendars  peeps-I know we have!

Call Me Maybe

About a week ago, I heard this super corny song. You've probably all heard it, and I'm sure many of you hate it. But no matter how you feel, there is no denying that is is one catchy tune! Its called 'Call Me Maybe'.

In over analyzing why I like this teen song, and not others, I realize that its because I remember being there. That age where I was a teenager and thought EVERY single feeling I had was the biggest, most important thing in the whole world, like if so and so invited me to her sleepover or not, or if Lester was flirting with me because he liked me or because he was just a little playa. My cares were so much smaller, but still so significant to me, like in this silly little song.

Lester says to this day that he was in for the long game. At first, he made me think he was to cool for school, which made me mad, but successfully got my attention. Then he started being paying attention to me and flirting to confuse and intrigue me-which again worked. So then, when it came down to it, and I was starting to think maybe he wasn't the worst ever, he convinced me we should talk more 'outside' of church. So I looked at him, smiled a little, and wrote down my number, handed to him and said, "Well then...call me maybe" at mutual one night. What can I say, I've always been REALLY shy haha. Anyways, after that, we were both history. As the years went by, we fell more and more head over heels for each other, and now here we are, 8 years later, married with a kid on the way.

I guess that is the reason why I like this song. Each line of the chorus is us in a nutshell-like when she says "Its hard to look right, at you baby!"...I remember liking each other so much that we could only look at each other only for so long before we'd turn away, because we were so nervous excited to be looked at like you were the only thing in the world! Or when she talks about the other boys trying to chase her-I had tried going on dates with a few other boys in my ward, but none of them ever caught my attention the way Lester did! Right guys? I can't be the only person who's been there! Remember those days where you felt like you might explode because you liked you someone so much? I JUST LOVE IT!

So, we may be older, and we may be more responsible, but when I hear this song, all I can see is high school Julia & Lester with that feeling of a new, earth shattering crush, so new and exciting it makes you want to sing and dance your heart out because  of all the wonderful anticipation of what can come!

Why Do This

When Lester and I were engaged, we talked about future things, like how many kids we wanted to have. Both of us agreed that we wanted at least a few. However, since being pregnant I have rethought that haha. So a few weeks ago, I posed a question to some of my good friends who have recently had kids. We do it in forum style, and in reading some of their questions and feedback on other subjects, I knew they were the right people to ask. I felt like I could trust them to answer me without judging haha! Here is what I said:


"I have a question..as you are all well aware, pregnancy is ROUGH. Between the lethargy, nausea and vomiting, migraines and all around achy-ness, my self esteem is SHOT haha! My question is, how in the WORLD do people talk themselves into doing it more then once? Do you just forget how awful it is and block it out? Because at this point this growing baby is going to be an only child haha.."


Of course, when I wrote this, I was feeling pretty down. But as they always seem to do, these amazing women all had excellent things to say that were honest, and encouraged me and reminded me why I'm doing this. I hope they don't mind that I quote some of the things they said here, because I think they should be shared.


Their responses were extremely honest, which made me feel better:


"So far I'm not talking myself into it. IF we have another, I'll let you know how I convinced myself. That's going to take A LOT of convincing. LOL"


"I definitely think there is a certain amount of amnesia that you experience after you have your baby. I knew my first pregnancy was pretty rough, but I think I really did forget until I got pregnant with this one. Then suddenly it was like "Was I really this sick before? Was I really this tired before? How did I DO this before?!"


They were also extremely heartfelt and encouraging:


"You'll probably think all this yuckiness was worth it for this little one, and then when you get pregnant again you'll probably wonder it all again until you have your next little one in your arms. The 9 months might be rough, but I think you'll think it's all worth it once the little one has arrived! :)"


"Once you have that little one in your arms, the feeling is indescribable. It's funny, because almost as soon as they put *my daughter* up on my chest, I seriously didn't feel any pains anymore. No wonder we choose to have more babies!"


Of course, all of the responses were thoughtful, and full of great advice:


"Pregnancy/motherhood is NEVER without its challenges, but I think that's what makes us as moms fight so hard for the well being of our babies, as well as what makes us grateful for the good times. I struggled while being pregnant with my loss of independence (we moved two times and I could hardly do anything to help), but I would always come back to the fact that it was worth it for the end result....in short- being pregnant might not be fun, but you get something good from it that will keep you learning, growing, and depending on the Lord until you're old and gray and don't care about your physique any more! "


"Just don't be afraid to ask for help on anything and don't get down on yourself, your body is working so hard to create that beautiful baby. "


They all ended with words of excitement for Lester and I on this journey, and I could feel their love and support of me and I do this. Someday, I hope to make a book out of this blog, and these are things that I hope to look back on when a need a reminder of the reasons Im 
doing this. 


PS: The font is being funny, sorry about that! 

Teeth Misery: A Rant

*I hope if you are reading this you are prepared to hear me be a bigger baby then the one growing inside me right now-bc I am feeling pretty discouraged. So stop here if your not interested.*

All I want more then anything in the whole wide world right now is to be able to brush my teeth. I know how ridiculous this sounds, but I am currently sitting here balling my eyes out because without fail, every time I stick a toothbrush in my mouth, even for two seconds, I throw up. I don't know why this bothers me so much-obviously I don't want cavities and the taste of vomiting is not appealing, but I think more then anything I just feel completely out of touch and out of control of my own body. When even hygiene becomes a task, my already fragile self esteem takes another huge hit. Every morning, I think to myself . "Before Lester gets home, I want to smell good. I want to look pretty. I want to spend one measly little day ralph free." But I can't. Which means I feel stinky, ugly, gross, and guilty because Lester's so nice about it. I AM OH SO TIRED OF FEELING LIKE THIS.

If I don't brush my teeth, I not only have bad breath, but also a bad taste in my mouth potential teeth corrosion. Yet when I even attempt to brush my teeth, I barf, which means its defeating the purpose anyways right? Because then I still get a bad taste in my mouth and am hurting my teeth. I just feel like its a lose lose situation. Sometimes, I will throw up even if I haven't eaten anything recently. For the last three mornings, it has been water mixed with lots of yellow bile. And of course, the closer I have to get to the toilet, the more grossed out I get, which means I throw up more. Its just a bad cycle all around.

I have taken to having about 4 Altoids every morning after I attempt the teeth brushing, just so I can stop tasting. Is this to be my routine for the next six months? Or is there another solution? Does ANYONE ANYWHERE have any input or experience with this? If so I would appreciate the help. If not, I understand, and I will see you in six months, when I actually am fit to be seen in public again.

Vacation & The Home Stretch

So-as you all know we have been having a very busy semester, full of new responsibilities and plans coming our way! For this reason, when the semester ended, and we had an opportunity for a break we figured we would go for it! So on Friday, we took our first pregnancy road trip, and used it as a trial run. While we did have to make more bathroom stops then usual, it went very well and we had a lot of fun just talking in the car.

Before heading all the way to Provo, where we would be staying for the trip, we stopped at SLC's famed Red Iguana for lunch. Maybe we just got the wrong thing, bc it was good, but we didn't fully understand the hype. Once at Hillary & Andrew's place, we caught up for a while, then called up some friends from home and spent the night playing ping pong, pool, ticket to ride and monopoly deal while catching up. There is something about lifetime friends that can't be replaced-it was a lot of fun.

On Saturday, after sleeping in, Lester and I met up with Mariah back in SLC. It was her 20th bday, so we took here to a bakery/cafe we'd been wanting to go to called Gourmandise. Now THIS lived up to our expectations! We had delicious sandwiches, pasta salads, and of course, cake and treats. We spent a few hours there just eating, laughing and talking. It was alot of fun and I'm glad that we were able to see her on her special day! After changing, we headed over to check out the new City Creek Mall. Again, super impressive-but we'll go over that more later. We then headed over to our friend Giddy's wedding. It was at a gorgeous old mansion called the Victorian, and it was a beautiful reception-almost as beautiful as the bride herself! We had a lot of fun seeing her and dancing. Upon heading back to Provo, we spent a few minutes enjoying the hot tub, before playing some monopoly deal in the lounge while watching Phantom of The Opera.

On Easter Sunday, we enjoyed several excellent lessons centered on many things, but especially Christ and his resurrection. We then went home, met up w Mariah and our friend Andy, made a cake and rolls for that evening, then headed over to my cousin Melissa's and her husband Zach's for a family Easter dinner. Everything was DELICIOUS and it was so much fun catching up with many of our cousins and family. We finished the night playing more games.

On Monday, we spent some time on campus, meeting up with one of my best friends, Michelle. We made plans for later that evening, and caught up on the basics, then headed over to J Doggs to meet up with Scotty, Andy and Jared again for some more good times. Then Lester and I headed back to SLC to further explore the City Creek Mall. The stores and the architecture were simply amazing-I highly recommend checking it out if you have the chance. After some shopping and eating, we went to the Jazz game, for which Lester had scored us some free tickets by shouting at the top of his lungs "beat the spurs." It was kinda surreal walking back into this place where I had spent so many hours working, but in a good way. The Jazz won, and we ended up seeing some old friends so overall it was good. After driving back to Provo, Michelle joined us as did Andy and we talked, played some more games then headed over to Denny's for shakes and some food. It was like the good old days, except I felt the affects of staying up late the next afternoon till I woke up haha! I guess I'm getting old-either that or the baby can't handle staying up late. After packing it all up, the 4 of us met up with Scotty and Andy for one last hurrah at Jdoggs. We said goodbye and thank you to Hill and Andrew for their wonderful hospitality and fun, then hit the road back to Rexburg.

Honestly, it was such a good time, and we felt so at home that we didn't want to leave. But such is life I suppose! Next week, Lester starts his LAST SEMESTER EVER at BYUI, and then we head home for a few weeks. Were in the home stretch!

I Miss You Excedrin

Sometimes, I wish my brain was made out of ice cream, so when I get migraines or head aches, I could just use an ice cream scooper to scoop out the painful part. Then I would replace it with a fresh new flavor and everything would be perfect. I would also never get brain freezes or fevers this way.

Have I mentioned I've taken a few tylenol and its late and I'm feeling a bit woozy?