Yesterday

Yesterday was an uneventful day, but with those uneventful days, dumb things seem awesome-er. So, I took pictures of some moderately interesting parts of yesterday.

First, I found my lost wallet (which I lose like, once a month), so I could go get the oil changed in my car. Yay! I was at Walmart, and saw this interesting thing in the media section. Can you see what doesn't fit? (I know it isn't a great picture):


What doesn't fit is second from the left and second from the top. Among "Singles Ward," "The RM," "Sons of Provo," "The Book of Mormon Movie" and many others, "Rambo" has been added to the collection of LDS movies. I love Idaho.

When that was done with, I wanted a treat, but didn't want to spend any money on it, and I remembered I had a coupon for a free beverage at Starbucks, and there was one right across the street from Walmart! So, in I went and read their non-coffee menu and decided on the chocolate-y-est thing I could possibly get, and it looked like this:


Yummmmmmm!

Next I went to the DI to see if they had any bikes. You can't just only look at their bike section, so I looked around at other things and saw a skirt I thought I might like for 4 dollars. However, when I put it on, I found that it was a bit questionable---it looked like a skirt from the outside, but the lining was pants!



I didn't buy them because they didn't fit around the waist, but they were interesting enough to me to take a picture of.

After the DI I went and saw The Emma Smith Story at the dollar theater. I guess it just hasn't sunk in that I'm prego and super emotional, because I cried through the whole 98 minute of the film. It was also surprising to me (and maybe a little not surprising) that all the other movies I've been to at the dollar theater, I've been in the theater with a max of 6 other people, and sometimes I'm the only one. I don't know if it was "movie night" at the senior citizen center or what, but every single seat of every row (except the first 3 rows) was filled with a geriatric. I couldn't believe how many people were there---the dollar theater definitely made money that night.

Last but not least, the belly showed up yesterday. It didn't seem like a huge deal until I tried sleeping on my stomach when I was trying to sleep---my uterus was not standing for that.


It isn't super big, but it certainly is hard, and cannot be compressed or sucked in!

The 4th with No Pictures

The 4th was good. It was fun to be with both Tom and Trav's family. The parade was much better than I've ever seen it (it was like, 45 minutes!) and they threw out lots of candy.

We had a really good time with the lunch at Grandma June's and the great food and great company just made the day. We had the usual sloppy joes, Carol's beans, fruit salad, chips, and lots of soda. Desserts were also the usual, there was Texas sheet cake that Madlyn brought, of course the marshmallows with caramel and rice cereal, and then some brownies, and cookies, etc. Theresa didn't get in a political or eco fight with Ray or anyone else this time so that was different than usual.

We went to a softball game that Wasey (sp)'s sister played in. I couldn't tell if they won or lost, but it was fun to watch them.

All of the Hallidays were there. Macy came for the first time in the 4 years since I've been going and she's a pretty cool girl. She's leaving for her mission to the Palmyra church history sites on July 30th, which she's really excited for. She says that after Hawaii she thinks California's cold, so I gave her some tips on how to keep warm. I guess all the people in my (Utica) mission complain about how cold it is, but say "At least we aren't in Rochester" which is the mission she'll be in, so I hope she doesn't die. She's also a vegetarian, so she's trying to decide whether to tell everyone about it or to just eat meat when she goes to the member's homes for dinner...we'll see what happens.

Malad Idol was different than any other year. Usually it's a bunch of 12 year old girls singing Shania Twain or Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats," but this year it was a bunch of older girls singing in prom dresses songs like Mariah Carey's "Hero" and "Under the Sea" from The Little Mermaid---not the best. There was a 5 year old kid who wore a wig and sang Michael Jackson's "Beat It." But, he didn't know the words so they had to take out the karaoke television and have him read the words from that...it was interesting.

After that we all went to the fireworks. They've stopped doing it at the high school and now do it in the fair grounds, so we all go there and lay on blankets or sit on Grandpa's white chairs. They were really good (they're always really good), and it seemed like they went on for a long time.

We all then went back to Grandma June's and lit some fireworks. Of course, Jordan was in charge of the whole thing, so they did things like jump over the fireworks while they were going or the ones that had flashing lights (like a strobe light), they danced around them. It was pretty cool.

It was then time to drive to the Ranch to call it a day.

The next day was super fun. Trav brought 5 dirtbikes (which I had never driven before, only rode on, one time before), and he let me drive Dillon's little 90 (super fun, especially because I'm awesome at it), so we had pancakes for breakfast, went on a drive, ate lunch, watched The Office (we brought Season 3), went on a drive, ate dinner, went and looked at the house/went for a drive, watched The Office, and went to bed. The next day, it was pretty much the same thing, only there was an hour of church in there for Sacrament Meeting. It was a good weekend. Trav's the most fun to watch The Office with because he laughs at every little thing that's funny. It's awesome.

Chinese Food

I love Chinese Food. It is my favorite kind of food and I get to eat it the least out of all of them. We don't have Chinese food in Rexburg ( don't argue with me about Fongs---Fongs is NOT Chinese food ), so I went online and found the best reviewed Chinese restaurant in Pocatello and they also said it was pretty inexpensive (which it was!) so I went to Ming's Cafe during lunch! The lunch specials were very inexpensive and VERY TASTY!!!! I had the sesame chicken with pork lo mein for a grand total of 5.29! IT WAS SO GOOD! I also couldn't eat the whole thing, so it lasted two meals! I was so excited about it that I took a picture of it.



Yay for the asians!

Shoes

I bought these shoes last week. I spent 45 minutes in front of the mirror convincing myself I would wear them everyday, and then I finally called Jordan and asked him if I could spend $9.99 on a pair of shoes and he said yes. Yay!

Boy or Girl?

So, we don't know if the baby's a boy or a girl yet, but I've been thinking about either one.

Fun stuff if the baby's a boy:

Nautical themed room:


Super cute clothes

Awesome birthday cakes


Fun stuff if the baby's a girl:

These super awesome beanies

Super awesome Princess Room



Super cute clothes

Awesome birthday cakes

Doctor's Appointment

So, we had a doctor's appointment this morning (which I was really excited about), and we got to hear the baby's heartbeat (super cool) and so we know it's still growing good and strong, but I wanted to have an ultrasound! I learned that I don't get another one until we find out what the gender is (September 1st)...grrrr.

So, no new pictures of the baby. But, if you want to see what it would have looked like if we had seen it, you can watch this video on YouTube.

Yay for baby!

Quilting

So, I left my camera at the Ranch this weekend, so I can't put any new pictures up about the last little while until next weekend, so I'm just going to keep going with stuff that's going on now.

The 4th weekend was awesome and something that made it awesome was that I got to talk to Jordan's cousin Gina Halliday about all the stuff she's doing right now with her company (Quilters Buzz). She's a super big deal quilter and she's getting more famous by the day. Her website is really cool, and even though the set up of it is a blog, she's set it up like she's writing magazine articles. She's been in two quilting magazines (I have no idea what they are) and she also has some videos on YouTube. She's super cool. She's going to send me a couple patterns of quilts that can be done in an afternoon or two (which would be so awesome because my attention span is not that long) and so I've started looking at different fabric patterns. Here are a few I really like:



I don't know if they can all go together, but we'll see! It would be fun to be able to make some before the baby comes!

A Day at the Races

So, after seeing the baby in real life (and by real life I mean, seeing that it was actually, truly, living inside me), I decided I didn't really want to strain my body so much to run a marathon. Also, like 3 weeks before the marathon, I didn't run for a week and a half straight because I was sick the whole time, so I figured a 10k was a good length that I'd be able to run without too much strain.

I was moderately nervous that morning, but ate an orange and sacrificed 2 dollars to buy two songs off I-tunes (first and hopefully last time ever, because I think it's a waste of money) because I really wanted to listen to them (which I did, the whole time).

From my house (Jordan's house) to the starting line was all downhill, so that was my warm-up:

View Larger Map

Here's the map of what we did, and the next picture is the elevation change throughout the run:




I forgot my number at home, so I got Jordan to bring it to me, along with making him pinning it on me. He said it was just like Prom all over again.





That super sharp increase in altitude all of a sudden means a hill that I didn't really feel like running. So, I didn't! I got Jordan to walk with me for part of it.



About the top of that hill behind me was when I hit my stride. It felt like a really good run from there on out!



Right after that last picture, I found someone I knew! It's the wife of one of Jordan's co-workers who's super nice! She was running the 5k and the 10k and 5k came together at that point. It was great to run with her! Her pace was just a hair faster than me, so I just kept up with her! It wasn't competitive at all, but I was happy to have someone to run with.



Right before this video started, was had just gone up our last hill and Alisa was the only reason I didn't walk. I just figured, if she's not walking, I guess I don't really need to either!



From then on, I was listening to Tim McGraw's "Something Like That," which I had been rotating through with Taylor Swift's "Our Song," and Carrie Underwood's "All-American Girl," but the sweet huge hill going down from the temple was the last mile and we just booked it. It felt good to just let it all out and run as fast as we wanted. It was good too, because Alisa and I pushed each other a little. I would get ahead, and then she would get ahead, and we did that way until the end.

Here's a video for the finish line. Sorry there's no sound---I guess our camera doesn't have sound. Anyway, Jordan asks me how I feel and I say "Tired, but really fun. Ok, turn that off." Yay for being done!



After that, there was a little area where only the 5k and 10k people could go, and there were oranges, bananas, watermelon, and a pancake area. It was fun. We all wished we were in the Half Marathon or Marathon category because there were massage tables in that area...oh well. Yay for oranges!



All in all, it was a good run. I'm glad I did it, and I'm glad it went so well. I felt like I could do anything after I had done that! It hasn't all the way worn off either, because I'm considering singing in "Malad Idol" on the 4th of July...hmmm....

2nd Ranch Adventures

Mending fences...ah how I don't want to do it anymore. But, we did it that weekend! We were up behind the cabin, and it was cold and rainy. But, not to Steve who what kinda mad the whole day for thinking it was going to be colder, and wearing pants...



Isn't he so handsome...



Then we went fourwheeling. None of these were in focus, so I just got the closest one. We took them all during movement which is why it's blurry.



And then here's where we went and put a rock up on top of the sheep herder's rock pile:

Update: 1st Ranch Adventures

Alright, now that I've finally finished one of my more difficult computer programs, I have time to update.

The first ranch visit with Brett and all them was fun. I already put some pictures, but there were more adventures.

One of them was while we were fourwheeling. Inside a shack on the side of a mountain, we found a little...I dunno what it's called. Someone can write it in a comment. Anyway, it's this little canister, which we all thought was a time capsule when we first saw it, but inside has two pieces of laminated paper, a notebook and a few miscellaneous objects. The laminated paper said that there were thousands of these canisters all over the country and it's our job to write what we were doing when we found it, and trade something inside for something on us (some little trinket or something). We thought that was pretty cool. We looked in the notebook to see what other people had written and there were a lot of hunters' accounts, a couple of "we're just exploring and found this cool thing," messages. Could we be normal like everyone else? NOPE!? This is along the lines of what we wrote (and by we, I mean Jordan):

It's been a cold, long winter.
Sally's had a fever for a week straight,
and Little Johnny's cough is getting worse.
To be honest, I don't think he'll make it
through the night.
We wanted to leave something behind in the
canister, but we have nothing nothing left to give.
We hope someone, somewhere, someday,
will remember we were here.
This is our last farewell.

I know, hilarious/ridiculous.

Here's a picture of us all reading what it is and Jordan creating brilliant ideas about the tall tale he was about to weave:



We also found this great bit of snow that Jordan had a jolly good time skidding on:



And then there was the slide connected to the treehouse:

This is Jordan getting his body into a child's toy


The rip on the shoulder of Jordan's right arm is a show of the dangers of playing on less than new tree-houses



This is Britt gracefully going down the slide



And Steve not wanting to tear his sleeve going down



This is Jordan and Steve doing the dishes. Jordan is in the middle of having a gas movement, and Steve is clenching his gluteus maximus...interesting. Also, I can't remember why, but Jordan's wearing Steve's "I'm Keanu Reeves from Speed" pants.

Really Behind

There are a lot of things that I haven't taken the time to write about during the last three weeks, and I'll write about them soon enough, but real quick, here's a link to listen to the baby's heart beat this week (at 10 weeks)!

Ranch Visit #1

A couple weekends ago we had Brett Campbell and a girl, Brittany and Stephen Keller, Jordan and me up at The Ranch for the opening weekend to get some fencing done. I didn't take any pictures of us fencing the first time, but I did take some pictures of us having a good time.

Not only did we do a lot of stuff but we ate a lot of stuff. We had a super good meal every single time because each couple brought a meal and then of course Madlyn is a great cook so she took care of the rest of the meals. We had fetticini alfredo, shepherd's pie, a broccoli and cheese...something, and many other great meals.







We went four-wheeling for the first time this season and there was still a lot of snow that got in our way. Some of it we plowed on through, but some of it we had to work our way through. After three or four of these huge snow banks, we decided to call it quits and head back.

It was a great first visit, and as soon as I get new batteries for my camera I'll put up the pictures of this last visit.

All American

No one in the entire universe could ever say that anyone at or anywhere near The Ranch is anything close to un-American. They're the most American people that exist on the planet. They're honest people, making an honest living, just trying to enjoy everything about America that's good. They even only buy American made cars (and if they don't, Buster will nag 'em about it until they do). I therefore didn't see anything surprising about seeing this sign in a mom 'n pop burger place at Alpine Junction, ID.

Baby

Alright, this isn't going to end up being a blog only about the baby, but I have to say at least one thing about it...so, here are the pictures of the baby:



Basic information:
Due Date: January 19th
Gender: Won't know until the end of August
How many weeks am I along?: 8 weeks
How big is the baby?: 2 centimeters
How do I feel?: The carsick feeling is going away and I'm pretty much just exhausted all the time.
How do I look?: I won't start showing until when we can find out the gender, but I am bloated all the time so I look a little bigger.
Do we have names picked out?: Drew and Emma
What do we want it to be?: Jordan doesn't care, but I'd like a boy.

Anymore questions, just ask! I'm really excited about it, so I'll talk to anyone about it for as long as you want!

The Library

I am still without a friend in Pocatello, so I've decided to use that time and do some volunteer work. So, I started volunteering at the library on Monday. I volunteer twice a week for three hours at a time. My job right now is to sit at a table and sign kids up for the summer reading program. So far we have 697 kids signed up.
Here's my desk and name tag:




I like it and it's ok work because all I do is read and wait for kids to come, but I'm hoping in a while they'll let me start putting books away and setting up displays. That's what I'd really like to be doing.

Books

I've been reading lately like it's going out of style. Here are the books I've read lately and how I feel about each one:

The Anybodies-This was a spectacularly interesting book. It's by the same author as Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, and since I enjoyed that movie so well I looked for other books written by the same author. I was not disappointed. The path the plot took was not something I saw coming, and every detail in it was enjoyable. There were several references to other books which was lovely (maybe because I knew them all) and I plan on buying it and reading it to my children. It is a book that will bring their imagination alive. If I was an elementary school teacher I would read it to my class every year.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret- I loooooove this book. Children's books are becoming just so much more sophisticated and therefore much more enjoyable for everyone. The book is 533 pages, but 300 of them are pictures that instead of illustrating what the words are saying, there are 5 or 6 pictures in a row that tell the story and then the words pick up where the pictures have left off. It's very creative and I look forward to reading the rest of his books. There is so much passion in the subject that he's writing about, it makes me want to be a clockmaker and build automata. Looooove it.

The Time Traveler's Wife-This is a beautiful love story that definitely does not follow your average plot line. It would almost be my favorite book if there wasn't so much sex and drugs in it, but there are, so it isn't. It's a very interesting book with the plot maneuvering in places you wouldn't think it would go. It doesn't end has happily as I would like it to, but it has a satisfactory ending.


I'm about to start I Capture the Castle which I hope is good. We'll see...