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I keep meaning to write this post, but its been a crazy week and I've been distracted by other thoughts. In our condo complex there are several young married couples. Matt and I have become pretty good friends with two of the other couples. Well last Saturday, Matt went with these other two guys snowboarding. They had a blast! One of the other girls (Jill) who lives across the street is also pregnant with a little girl. She's just due one month after me. The two of us spent the day in Park City at the outlet malls shopping for little girl things. We had so much fun!! I bought a couple little outfits and got some more ideas for the nursery. (The other girl had a wedding, so she couldn't join us.) We both had gotten coupons in the mail for both Carters and OshKosh B' Gosh. So we had fun picking out little things and even got them matching outfits for when they get a little older. I could have spent so much money there! They have way too much cute girl stuff! I had fun picking out her little outfit for coming home from the hospital. Jill and I talked all day and had a really nice, relaxing time. Then that night, the six of us went out for Thai food. Jill's husband served his mission in Thailand, so he wanted us to try it. It was really yummy! Matt and I were planning on registering on Saturday, but then we were invited to go snowboarding and shopping instead. I'm really glad we went though, I think we both needed a day of fun! It also helped inspire me to do the nursery more girly. We were going to do it a neutral theme (winnie the pooh) in case we have a boy next, but I never loved the idea. Then inspiration struck and I decided I really wanted a girl room! After I showed Matt some ideas, he loved the new color theme too. I'm excited to make my vision a reality! We've ordered a few things so far and I'll take pictures as the room progresses. Yay for little girls!
I realize part of human nature is to ask silly questions. We, as human beings, often don't know what to say to each other so we end up saying the first thing that pops out of our mouths, if only to fill the silence. I am not one of those people who needs to talk. I am completely happy sitting in silence unless I feel I have something to say. But that still hasn't stopped me from unintentionally asking silly questions on occasion. So why do we do it?
You all know exactly what I'm talking about. You've probably been a victim to such questions as well as victimized another person at some point. Matt and I have been laughing over a few circumstances lately. Pregnancy seems to be a glowing beacon for silly questions. Some of our favorites are "So are you excited?" Honestly? How could we not be excited?! Matt has said that next time someone asks him this he wants to reply with "No actually, she told me she was still on birth control! I'm really pissed!" Just to see the reaction he gets. Another favorite is "So are you ready?" Really? Is it possible to be ready? I think Heather Harris Bergevin said it best, "We eagerly anticipated, but also realistically understood the changes about to joyously attack our home. We were as prepared as we could get. But, ready? Never."
That's a quote from "The Mother in Me", that book I told you all about last week. I think she words it so perfectly! Another classic one before finding out the sex of the baby is "So what do you want?" and now its turned into "So is that what you wanted?" Honestly people, what am I supposed to say? I wanted a baby and that's exactly what I'm getting! Matt's favorite response to this one is "No, I wanted a puppy." And of course "Have you thought of names?" Nope. Not at all. Are we supposed to name it? *Sigh* People make me laugh.
We work with a girl who is also pregnant and she just recently found out they're having a boy. Matt asked her "Are you excited?" Then almost immediately he said "I am so sorry! That was such a stupid question!" The three of us laughed over the situation, but it proves we can't help it! Even when Matt and I are bombarded with these questions day after day, we turn around and ask the same questions to someone else! I was very proud of him for catching himself, though. I guess its a start.
Matt bought me this great book for our anniversary back in October and I finally sat down and read it this last weekend. I highly recommend it to any and all women! Especially mothers! I'm kinda a literary geek, so you may not like it as much as I did, but I'm gonna recommend it anyway. It was written by LDS women for LDS women. It's mostly essays and poems about pregnancy and motherhood and the struggles and joys that come with it. I could go on about it, but I'll let you read it yourself and make a decision on your own.
This book really helped inspire me to get my butt in gear and spend more time writing. I have gotten out of the habit of writing every day, like I once did, and quite honestly I miss it! It reminded me of my college days of writing workshops and creative writing courses, which inspired this epiphany: I write more when I have an audience to write for. So I decided I should share parts of the book I am working on, instead of keeping it so secretive. Nothing inspires writing better than receiving feedback on the things you write (both good and bad). However, since my writing is precious to me, I don't want to post it on my open blog. I know it's cocky of me to believe anyone would swipe my work, but its not a risk I'm willing to take. So I decided to start a private blog just for my writing. I have already posted an excerpt from the novel I am currently working on, and I will continue to post as I make progress. So, if you have any desire to be invited to this blog, send me an e-mail and I will let you in. pinkstacy@gmail.com
LUKE: Uh, I made some brownies, I thought you might like some.
LORELAI: Oh, gee, since I just ate half a bag of marshmallows, six Pop Tarts, four bagel dogs and a really stale Cheese Nip – yup, it’s brownie time, thanks. Hey, here’s a question for you.
LUKE: Yeah?
LORELAI: Well, you probably have a diner full of people who would love these brownies – plus, I bet they’d pay you for ‘em.
LUKE: Well, I accidentally dropped triple the amount of cocoa powder in the batter so I either had to dump the batch or find someone with some sort of superhuman chocolate tolerance – only one name came to mind.
LORELAI: God, I love being special.
This is the scene that came to mind this morning when I sat in the doctor's office. Last week I had my gestational diabetes test where you drink that really sugary drink, wait an hour, and then have your blood drawn to find out how your body handles sugar. My doctor told me most women's levels are about a 130 after the test. They are concerned if its over 150. I'm at a 55. So basically, my body handles sugar really, really well! The funny thing is, as I was drinking the drink I thought "this doesn't even taset very sugary to me". I have an extremely high tolerance for sugar and Dr. Brown laughed as she told me I don't really need to worry about all the doughnut, marshmallow, and m&m cravings. I can eat as much as I want! In fact, my cravings for doughnut holes (my fav food as of late) might just be my body telling me that I need even more sugar. Darn. I would like to thank my father and all of the Howell's for this gift! Without whom I may never had succeeded in reaching such a high sugar tolerance level. Thank you!
Matt and I had a fun weekend, so I wanted to share our adventures before I forget. Sorry, no pictures. My ward has recently started doing enrichment groups and I was asked to be in charge of the game night. Pretty much we meet once a month at someone's home and they teach us a new card or board game and we all play together. I love games, so I said "of course" to being in charge. Normally we will be meeting on Tuesdays, but because I had been sick, we held our first one on Friday night. I taught the ladies Mormon Bridge, though most of them actually knew how to play already. We ate mango salsa and M&M's and chatted while we played. I'm looking forward to more games nights! Being in Primary, I don't get to know very many ladies in the Relief Society. So finally, here's my chance.
Saturday my brother, Bryan and his girlfriend, Ricci came up to Layton. We had a blast! They are so fun! We first went to the store and bought the ingredients for rotti, curry, and lime-wash then we went back to our house and made a feast. Curry is so yummy! It was really funny making dinner together because Bryan was in charge (being the only one who knows how to make curry) but he kept forgetting things. Everything turned out great anyway and we had a ball in the process. Then we played Mario Party and watched some clips of Jeff Dunham. It was getting really late, but they couldn't leave without Bryan's "new" couch. We have my parent's old hideabed couch in our basement, but to make room for baby stuff, we gave it to my brother. I was very impressed Matt and Bryan were able to carry it up the stairs by themselves! That thing is HEAVY! Thank goodness Ricci has a van!
It was so fun having them come up and play! But we promised next time was our turn and we'd make the trip down to Provo. Guess we'll have to do that soon!
Last night was the Jeff Dunham performance at Energy Solutions Arena that I blogged about awhile back. Merry Christmas to us! The show was AWESOME!! The evening started out by meeting up with our friends at Squatters downtown for a yummy dinner. I heart sweet potato fries!
On our way to the Trax station, we passed by this parking sign and Suzy posed next to it. It was just too good to pass up the photo op. You have to know Suzy.
We made it the the Energy Solutions Arena and found our seats, which ended up being great seats! We weren't on the floor, but we were in the next section, only 11 rows up, right in the center. We could see Jeff and the puppets clearly on stage without needing binoculars or anything.
Here we are waiting for the show to start. Matt and I were sitting in the middle, so he got a picture of me, Greg, and Steve. Then I took a picture of him, Breezy, Braiden, and Suzy. Then, of course, the classic shot at arms length of the two of us.
The show opened with Brian Haner (aka Guitar Guy, if you've seen the DVD's). I had no idea Guitar Guy was so hilarious!! He was hysterical! He said they don't let him talk on the DVD's, but they definitely should! We were all laughing really hard as he told his life story through songs. The guy not only is incredible on the guitar, but he can really sing too. After he finished, there was an intermission before Jeff came out.
Then the main event! Jeff Dunham was even funnier in person then he is on the shows! We were afraid that he was only going to do jokes we'd heard before, but this was definitely not the case! He opened with a hysterical true story about traveling on a private jet, landing at an unknown airport to avoid fog, being surrounded by 50 marines with guns pointed at their heads, then being saved by Achmed the dead terrorist. (The marines recognized him from youtube). He then brought out Walter and did an entire bit on Utah. We were impressed that he researched Utah before coming and made up all new jokes to go along with the area. He made fun of everything from being in Utah in January, to Tooele, to the little orange flags we use to cross the streets downtown (who came up with that idea?) A few of his jokes were ones we had heard before, but he improvved a lot as well as told some all-new jokes. Achmed came out next and did an entirely new bit on infomercials that had us about rolling in the isles. Jeff said "I don't know where that came from, but it might be on the next DVD". Guitar Guy came out again and Achmed sang a brand new song, "The blew myself up blues". Peanut came out next and didn't disappoint. He did a few jokes that are on the new Christmas DVD, but then he got out of control and we were all laughing hysterically. I'm impressed with how much Jeff can improv onstage! Its clear he is having a lot of fun! Matt said his mouth and cheeks haven't hurt so much since our wedding day, when we spent the entire day smiling for pictures. Jose Jalapeno came out for a brief visit, but he's not really my favorite. At the end of the show, we cheered so much that Jeff brought out Bubba J for an encore. I'm not really a big Bubba J fan, but what happened next was so funny! Jeff said Bubba wasn't normally in his show onstage, but he'd received many e-mails recently asking him to put him in the show. Since he hadn't worked with Bubba J in awhile he apologized but pulled out a piece of paper to remind himself of Bubba's jokes. They were all jokes from the DVD, that the audience knew well. The audience was saying Bubba's punchlines right along with him, so it sounded like Bubba in surround sound. Jeff stopped, he was laughing so hard. Then Bubba said "It's pretty bad when the entire audience knows your material better than you do!" Jeff commented on how that had never happened before and it all doesn't sound as funny now that I'm writing it out, but it was really funny to be there!
As we were leaving, I was amazed at how many little kids there were there! Jeff Dunham is Not a kids show! Matt jokingly said "What do you mean? They're puppets, so its like Sesame Street, right?" I said "Yeah, its like Sesame Street on acid!" Anyway, the show was awesome and we had a wonderful time! We got home after 11:00 and crashed, but it was all worth it!
Here's pictures of him with each of the puppets. I know they are dark, but I made them so big so you can hopefully see them anyway:
I do! I really, really do! However, this last week has been one that has prevented such happiness from occurring. I've been sick. Again. I wish those people who keep showing up to work sick would just suck it up and take a day off for once instead of sharing their germs with the world (aka me). I don't understand people who won't take a sick day because they are "saving" them! But that is a whole other story for another time. Matt has also started a new semester which means crazy schedule, lots of homework, and even less sleep for him. We make quite a pair. I had Monday off and was able to sleep and get a lot of things accomplished around the house. I had a rough night (not being able to breathe and constantly coughing will do that to you) but I made it through the day just fine because I was able to get up late and take things slow. Monday night I got to bed much later than I should have and then didn't sleep for more than an hour at a time. Bright and early Tuesday morning, we had to be to work at 7:00 am. I moved like a zombie through most of my 12 1/2 hour work day and we finally got home after 8:00 pm. But alas, the fates were against us. We had no food. Pregnant women need food. So we quickly made a list and went shopping (seeing as it was payday and all). Got home, unpacked groceries, made dinner, ate, had KILLER heartburn and then helped Matt with his homework. Got to bed well after midnight. Again. Didn't sleep well due to coughing, sniffling, potty breaks and heartburn. Again. Wednesday bright and early, to work by 7:00. After work had to eat and was able to enjoy almost an hour of relaxing before it was time for Matt's soccer game. Drove to Woods Cross, cheered on his team (who kicked butt and won 13-6), got home, made dinner, and surprisingly was able to get to bed BEFORE midnight. (11:32 pm) Hooray! Slept better than the last couple days, but was still up several times. Thursday morning, bright and early, to work by 7:00....I realize being in your third trimester and then becoming a new mother, you don't sleep anyway. So really I need to just suck it up and as Scar put it "Be prepared". I lived through 4 1/2 years of college, so I learned how to go for weeks on end without sleep. I can do this again! I keep a picture of Dori in my head, "Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming!" The reason I share this vastly boring tale of my week with you all is not to complain about my lack of sleep (though it may seem otherwise). I must confess my real beef is with those always too happy "morning people" who feel the need to greet you EVERY MORNING with a cheery "good morning!" in a sing-song voice. From the moment you enter a workplace its all you hear coming at you from every side, like being pelted with giant paintballs and having nowhere to hide: "good morning!" "good morning!" I really wish someone would tell me what the hell is so good about it!? (I'm not a morning person. Have I surprised you?) I do much better when I can sit at my desk and slowly come to life in my own time. Without useless chit-chat over no-one-cares events. I emerge from the darkness of the morning fog around 9:00 or 10:00. Then I am capable of being a polite human being once again. But really, I have never understood the phrase "Good morning". It's a greeting that comes across more as a declaration. You must have a good morning! Or you must believe this morning is a particularly good one because I told you to! Why can't people just say "hi"," hello", "greetings", "ciao" even (make us seem more exotic), anything but my least favorite phrase in the english language. I don't need to be reminded its morning, my pounding head has made me well aware. And please don't tell me its good. I'm at work. If I were in Hawaii waking up to a beautiful sunny day in my beach house, with Matt lying next to me then yes, THAT would constitute a "good morning". But don't lie to me. Mornings that begin with waking up feeling sick, puking as I climb in the car, and having to rush to get to work by 7:00 are never good. In the words of Lorelai Gilmore "Hate early! Must kill early!"
I keep meaning to write this post, but its been a crazy week and I've been distracted by other thoughts. In our condo complex there are several young married couples. Matt and I have become pretty good friends with two of the other couples. Well last Saturday, Matt went with these other two guys snowboarding. They had a blast! One of the other girls (Jill) who lives across the street is also pregnant with a little girl. She's just due one month after me. The two of us spent the day in Park City at the outlet malls shopping for little girl things. We had so much fun!! I bought a couple little outfits and got some more ideas for the nursery. (The other girl had a wedding, so she couldn't join us.) We both had gotten coupons in the mail for both Carters and OshKosh B' Gosh. So we had fun picking out little things and even got them matching outfits for when they get a little older. I could have spent so much money there! They have way too much cute girl stuff! I had fun picking out her little outfit for coming home from the hospital. Jill and I talked all day and had a really nice, relaxing time. Then that night, the six of us went out for Thai food. Jill's husband served his mission in Thailand, so he wanted us to try it. It was really yummy! Matt and I were planning on registering on Saturday, but then we were invited to go snowboarding and shopping instead. I'm really glad we went though, I think we both needed a day of fun! It also helped inspire me to do the nursery more girly. We were going to do it a neutral theme (winnie the pooh) in case we have a boy next, but I never loved the idea. Then inspiration struck and I decided I really wanted a girl room! After I showed Matt some ideas, he loved the new color theme too. I'm excited to make my vision a reality! We've ordered a few things so far and I'll take pictures as the room progresses. Yay for little girls!
