17 Weeks

Today I felt my baby move! Yep, there was definitely something weird going on in my stomach area, something I'd never felt before (though similar to gas pains) and then suddenly there was a shifting of weight to the right side of my body. It actually felt harder on the left then on the right for a few minutes. Several minutes later I felt it again. Today's belly movements are big excitement in my life. Now I will top off my evening with a gigantic bowl of Taco Rice, which I will probably have to eat in two sittings an hour apart, because my stomach seems to have shrunk (though my belly size is considerably un-shrunk).

Fhqwhgads, etc.

(Photo courtesty of http://www.johnrandallyork.com/ )

All sorts of thoughts in my head tonight and things I want to blog about. Seems like everyone blogged today, all my relatives here on blogspot and a bunch of my friends on myspace. When you comment on people's blogs and it has you type in that "code" of a jumbled bunch of letters, it always makes me think of "fhqwhgads." If you have not heard the word, fhqwhgads (pronounced fhuwgods) before, then you haven't browsed the homestar runner webpage enough. Click on my link to "Strongbad emails" which actually takes you to the Homestar homepage. Then click on "toons" at the bottom, followed by "Powered by The Cheat", and finally click on "Everybody to the Limit." Be prepared for some complete nonsense, silliness, and surprisingly, a bit of entertainment.
Second: I went maternity shopping on Saturday. Got some great stuff (on sale) at Target. Also bought a few shirts off e-bay and some pants from oldnavy.com.
Also went into TJ Maxx and discovered they have no maternity clothes but do have great Halloween and fall decorations. I snatched up some cute mini-lantern lights to go in one of my windows. Halloween decorations go up at our home promptly on September 1st as to take advantage of two full months of spookiness. I don't have nearly enough Halloween decor, but I also don't have many places to PUT decorations. I would like to put spiderwebs up somewhere this year. We'll see... Fortunately on Saturday the girl I was shopping with (we'll call her "Lacey", cause her name IS Lacey) shared my glee over holiday decorations. We decided to make one final stop on our shopping trip. We popped in at Hobby Lobby just to enjoy the aisles and aisles of "harvest" decor:) Oh joy!
And lastly, I'd like to mention that stretching Romeo and Juliet out to 22 one and a half hour lessons is a lot of work. And it is to that work that I head again now.

Nursery

If I have this baby at the beginning of February, that means we'll only be in the apartment for 4 or 5 months before moving. I don't think we'll really convert the den into a nursery. I think we'll just have the baby in our bedroom. Should we get a crib or just a basinet before we move? What other furniture items are necessities in the beginning? If it's a girl I want bedding, etc. to be light purple and green. When we have a nursery I want to decorate it with fairies. If it's a boy I want to do green. Maybe dragons or frogs. What do you think?

Quick Update

I still get to teach high school this year!! It's just an hour and a half a day now, but I love it. I am the Literature (English, writing, grammar...) teacher to two students. So now my weird schedule is 7 hours a week at the preschool, 8 hours a week at the high school, and 8 hours a week tutoring (all my kids are elementary age there so far). It's part-time, but I think I'm just going to be okay with that and get used to being poor for awhile. We've begun with Romeo & Juliet. We watched the Baz Luhrman film first and we'll be reading it beginning next week. Lots of work for me to do. The kids are at two very different levels and this may be the only work we are reading together. Anyway, I'm excited.
Today: taught in the preschool, had a veggie burger for lunch, had a sealant done at the dental school, returned books to the library, rescheduled my physical therapy appointments, ran to Petsmart, fiddled around online. I'm off to make some dinner and take Brandon to see X-Men 3 at the dollar theaters (I already saw it once awhile back, it's great).

The Past Two Weeks

So much has happened in the past two weeks I hardly know where to start. I left for Utah the afternoon of the 10th. I had layover in Phoenix where my sisters Sarah, Robin, Karen, my brother Mark, 3 of my nephews and my tiny neice Charlotte all met up with me. Sarah cried a little when she announced that, "There's a bump!" and indeed there is. She brought me a bag of maternity clothes and books. Yippee! We sat and talked and ate cookies for a glorious hour and a half. Jackson, 3, fearlessly walked up to any stranger in uniform to introduce himself and make a new friend. Tucker, also 3, oohed and awed over the airplanes and cried when his mom wouldn't get him a ticket to go on one. It was great to see my family!
Friday, August 11th began hanging out with Brandon's family. For lunch Brandon, his 16 year old sister Katie, and Kathy (a cousin of sorts), and I went to have my favorite burritos in the world at La Puente. Delicious! Later that afternoon the four of us, plus Brandon's dad Alan, his wife Linda, and two dogs all drove up Parley's Canyon headed for the family reunion. We joined up with Alan's two brothers, his sister, and various other relatives for an evening of food, fire, and fun (s'mores too). The next day around noon, Alan, Brandon, and B's cousin Jamon took off farther into the Uintas for a 4 day backpacking trip. The rest of us stayed and enjoyed our little campsite and a short, lovely hike up to another lake with most of the family.














More tales of my trip to Utah to come...

February 6th

February 6, 2007- that's my due date. That's right, you are reading my official pregnancy announcement! As of today I am 14 weeks along. After 3 years of trying, with several complications and setbacks, we are finally having a baby!!! And wouldn't you if you're husband was this cute as a kid?

My first trimester wasn't bad. I was nauseated a lot but only threw up twice. If I ate, the nausea usually went away. It isn't over yet, but I hope it won't be long now.

All of my pants and skirts got tight last week when I gained my first two pounds. I'm excited to look pregnant and to get maternity clothes.

Answers to your questions: I have known I was pregnant since I was 4 weeks along. We didn't share the news with our families or anybody until I was 12 weeks (because of my miscarraige last summer). It was really hard to keep the secret to myself when I was SO excited! We won't know what sex the baby is until about 20 weeks. That is also about the same time I should start to feel the baby moving. The baby is currently about 3 inches long and has all of its major organs, etc. We have a few name ideas but we are not sharing them, so don't ask. I don't care if it's a boy or a girl (Brandon already calls it, "my boy" though. Not that he really cares either).

Well, that's all I can think to share at the moment. Feel free to ask questions. Love you all!

Saturday Night

Saturday night we did something rare; a double date. We had our friends Jennifer and Andy over. I made "waikiki" meatballs and rice. Brandon made the salad. Dinner was a hit. After dinner we decided to play games. We began with Rook (of course). We had never played with four people before (only 2 or 3) and it was fun. You have to have partners. Then we moved on to Hoopla, one of my favorites. Then we played True Colors (my favorite in high school and still great). Then we played Bop It Extreme, don't laugh. To end our evening we showed each other our favorite funny videos online (on You Tube, etc.). Jokes of the evening: "Beat 'em up and take their shit" (a quote Andy had heard earlier in the week from a military guy/judge) and "It's 7:45." Apparently, Jennifer gets tired as soon as she hears it's after 8pm (mental conditioning?) and starts yawning/dozing, so Andy never let her look at a clock and all night it was 7:45, even though they didn't actually leave until 1:15! Well, that's it, fun at the Jensen's place.

Mac n' Cheese

Isn't it funny how when you're in the mood it's the best food in the world? When you're not in the mood, you're NOT in the mood. Brandon will eat them as leftovers the next day and I won't touch it then- yuck. And is it just me or do they make the boxes practically unopenable?! I have to scratch and tear at the top and side to finally claw my way into the noodles. "To Open Push Here", HA, what a joke!
They recently released Supermac & Cheese with whole grains. The first time I tried it I didn't like it as much, but the second time I really loved it. Yeah, extra grains for me. I like the cartoon shaped noodles the best, not just because they're fun, but because they somehow hold the cheese better and just taste better, I swear. Sponge Bob noodles are a regular at our house (and we have no kids). Brandon loves Mac n' Cheese even more than me, sometimes he binges on it and often we buy it in bulk at Sam's Club.
I like how you can add almost anything to Kraft's mac n' cheese and it all goes. Brandon likes red pepper flakes. I used to like mustard. We both like throwing in a can of chili or some frozen vegtables (brocolli, cauliflour, corn and peas are all good).
This week I tried a very fancy mac n' cheese at a nice restaurant. It had asiago cheese, leeks, and tomatoes. Very good, though not enough tomatoes.
My mom used to love the kind you buy frozen and bake in the oven. I should buy that sometime, I haven't had it in YEARS.
Well, I'm off to eat lunch. You'll never guess what I'm having. It has spiderman noodles.

Grrrrrr

I'm in a bad mood, so deal with it.

Rook

I grew up very close to my dad's side of the family, The Brimleys. He has four brothers and one living sister. When I was a child they all lived close-by. All (except for the youngest) began their families in Mesa, AZ. I have lots of memories of the cousins up to 8 years younger than me (those younger I barely know). We celebrated Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easters together every year. We had waffle dinners at my grandparents house almost every Sunday. I moved away when I was almost 11, but we were still "home" at least once a year (usually Christmas) every year until my family moved back to Mesa when I was 18 (I didn't join them).
A common family activity among the adults was the playing of Six-Handed Rook. The kids always played Life, Dominos, Connect Four, Checkers, Monopoly, or SkipBo. I remember as I got older wishing I could join in the "adult" game. I can only remember actually playing once. Our family got scattered and the whole group is rarely together anymore. We still like to play SkipBo and Rook though.
This past Christmas my Grandma Brimley gave my husband and I a deck of Rook cards and the instructions for the Brimley version of Six-Handed Rook. We have only been able to play the Two-Handed version so far, but we are loving it. In the past week we must have played 15 times, which is especially great because Brandon and I don't play games together all that often and I LOVE games. Thank you, Grandma. We are keeping the tradition alive!

Robbed

In May I began my dream job. I spent the month student teaching at a high school of eight students. Four of them graduated at the end of the month. At best, we hoped for an enrollment of 5 or 6 for fall. Lately it looked like we were only going to have 3 or 4, weird, but still cool. Today I found out that one student is going to juvenille detention, one has decided to try public school again, and one has to go to a public school or she can't get her driver's licence. That leaves me with MAYBE two students, maybe none. So basically, at the end of August I don't really have a job anymore, let alone the job I've been looking forward to and heavily preparing for all summer.

Brandon thinks I should just stay on as a part-time preschool teacher and part-time tutor, much like I've been doing all summer. I really had my heart set on working with teenagers next year, but it's probably too late for me to do that for a different private school or any of the public schools. I don't even have my temporary teaching certificate yet cause I didn't need it for this school. I'm bummed. Another possibility is advertising as a private tutor. I could work 8-12 hours a week from home at $20+ an hour doing that, IF I could find enough students. Two of my principal's daughters do that and they get plenty of work. I like that idea, only I wish I could work daytime hours and not afterschool hours. Oh well, I have a lot to think about.

My boss was really sweet and encouraging. She also gave me one of the greatest compliments. She said she interviews a lot of people, they often know more about teaching and education than I do, they know lots about english and reading and writing. But she said nobody she's ever talked to knew books like I do. She loves that I have such a broad knowledge of books and could talk about so many specific books in such detail. She was very complimentary. She loves my enthusiasm for teaching and learning and reading and kids. It made me feel good. It made me feel marketable. She said I am professional and personable and made me feel reassured about my ability to teach.

Anyway, I'll keep you all updated as I figure things out. I'm feeling frustrated by my inability to be better housekeeper, scrapbooker, cook, reader, etc. I have no motivation as of late. All I want to do is sit in front of the TV and yet, I don't really want to do that. I want more.

Adam

Continuing with Robin's idea of posting a blog about each of our siblings. I began mine with my post about Sarah, which you can find at http://blog.myspace.com/listlady . I will continue the rest of them here.
Adam is the 2nd of my parent's nine children and is almost 2 years older than me. It was both good and bad growing up with a big brother.
Until about age 10 I shadowed Adam whenever possible. I loved playing legos and running around the neighborhood building forts, etc. At the age of four I confided in him that I had a crush on Robert Ellingson who was a year or two older than me and had very cute dimples. Adam then forced me to confess my feelings to Robert in front of several other boys. It was very embarassing! My other early memory with Adam is "dancing" around Sarah's Spiderman record player while listening to Barry Manilow.
When we were young Adam and I used "tickle" each other's backs before bed. In high school when we were no longer friends (Don't feel bad Robin, Adam also claimed that me and my friends were the biggest losers alive) I remember one night running into eachother in the kitchen. We stayed up late chatting and snacking, friendlier than we'd been in years, we decided to tickle eachothers backs that night before going to bed. It was a nice feeling knowing he didn't really despise me.
Adam has always been a huge tease. He tormented each of the siblings, he had a talent for finding what were our biggest irritations or the things we were self conscious about. When I was little he used to make fun of the way I cried, he told me that I'd stop crying if I ever just looked in the mirror while I was doing it cause I'd start laughing at how funny I looked (it didn't work).
I remember in high school him asking why I didn't work out, "Don't you want to be buff like this?" he asked as he flexed (senior year I took weight lifting and did get pretty buff).
Adam was a state champion wrestler in high school. I remember his gross techniques for losing weight which sometimes included an all-carrot diet. All my friends in high school (and beyond) thought my big brother was so hot. I told them that they were beneath his notice because they chose to associate with me. He also made it clear that his friends were not worthy of me, I was surprised at his protectiveness but found it cute and flattering. I told him if they weren't good enough for me than maybe he shouldn't be hanging out with them either (which was true cause most of them were potheads).
I think Adam's passion for cooking and food began as a teenager. I remember him making himself German pancakes regularly and buying himself a juicer. He really wanted a dehydrator! He is a health nut and knows as much about nutrition as a dietician. He loves his olive oil spritzer, his "green juice", and his Ezekial bread.
Adam is a great story teller and just the other day my husband said that Adam is one of the funniest people he's ever known. Adam loves to sing along to music and he is very uninhibited. Adam has always loved babies and children, not just more than most men, but more than most people. He is great with kids. He married a wonderful woman who had two sons of her own and took up the father role almost immediately after meeting her. He is a bit of a perfectionist (think temper tantrums during piano practice as a kid) and a fairly strict disciplinarian. He is now also the father of a beautiful daughter.
Love you, brother!

The Best Movies You've Never Seen

Wives and Daughters- If you love the 1995 BBC Pride and Prejudice, you'll love this too. I actually like this even more!

The 10th Kingdom- originally a made for TV movie series. It's 7 hours long and fun every minute. No, the acting isn't the best and the trolls are ridiculous, but I guarantee that you'll laugh, a lot. Magical.

Cold Comfort Farm - Kate Beckensdale and Ian McLellan (sp?) in a little known British gem of a film. Kate also did a version of Emma that is very good and her character in this movie is very similar (I can't spell).

Darby O'Gill and the Little People - Do you like leprechauns? Me too. I believe this was Sean Connery's first movie. I love the part with the Ban-shee.

Horatio Hornblower (Any or all 8 movies) - the perfect man. A truly noble hero. I love him.

Incredible Adventures of Wallace and Grommit - all three are great! Better than the wererabbit.

Legend - Why haven't people seen this? I think it was Tom Cruise's first movie. The ultimate Good vs. Evil. Tim Curry is unrecognizable as the devil and oh, so scary! The heroine is the gal from Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Noises Off - Carol Burnett, Christopher Reeve, Nicolette Sheridan, John Ritter, Michael Caine... an all-star cast. SOOOOO funny! If you've ever been in a play, this should be mandatory for you to see.


Why Didn't They Ask Evans - An Agatha Christie murder mystery. Very British, loved it.

Any Miss Marple movie (starring Joan Hicks, not the other ones) - I can't get enough of this knitting old lady detective. Another Agatha Christie creation.

The Thin Man (or any of its sequels) - The funniest, cutest couple you'll ever see on-screen. Murder, intrigue, and a clever dog.

Scarlet Pimpernel (1982 version) - Again, I'm scandalized if you haven't seen this. This is one of Brandon's all-time favorites (mine too). If you like The Count of Monte Cristo, you'll like this too. French revolution, British fops, Ian McLellan, Jane Seymore, lots of laughs and a plot that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Village of the Damned - black & white, classic horror, horror is really too strong of a word. Suspense/Mystery is closer. Either way, it's facinating.

The Manchurian Candidate (original) - Angela Lansbury as the villian! I mean come on, just knowing that should make you want to watch. She's evil.

Free Advertising

Who doesn't want to be a photographer? I mean really, it's a dream job. Strangely enough, most of my friends in California actually ARE photographers. All of them extremely talented.

www.annieballard.com
I believe I've known Annie since 2nd grade. She is a truly fantastic photographer. I remember being jealous of the telephoto lens she got her senior year in high school to take pictures of the football games, etc. She did nearly all the pictures for our yearbook that year plus layout, etc. Annie is currently based in San Francisco.

www.nathanpetty.com
One of Brandon and my best friends from BYU-Hawaii. He worked tirelessly for the campus newspaper. He also took great shots of us at parties, the beach, dances, etc. Love his work. He takes great surfing shots too. Nathan works out of San Diego but will travel.

http://amelialyon.com
One of my little sister, Robin's oldest friends. I was truly blown away by the shots on her website when I first saw it. When Robin had her baby in December, Amelia visited her shortly after and as a baby gift gave her a wonderful photo shoot and lots of fabulous pictures of her beautiful baby girl, alone and with the family. Amy is based in Orange County.

www.stephaniemillerphoto.com
Steph is another friend from Hawaii. Recently she'd gotten pretty into photography as a hobby and then it seemed that overnight she had opened her own studio in San Diego. What a bold move! I hope it turns out to be very profitable. She has always especially liked pregnancy shots. I remember she and I talking about how gorgeous Demi Moore's nude photos of her big and pregnant were and how we'd love shots that wonderful of us with big bellies.

There is a link on here to "friend Alicia", she is an ameteur photographer with a great camera. We hired her to take pictures of our family in Arizona in March and she got some great candid shots:) Thanks again.

Is it weird if I end this post with no pictures? I could post one of (me with) each photographer or one good one that each had taken or one they had taken for me. I dunno. I'm just going to give the world the links to their websites.

Satisfaction

I've always been an X-files fan, unfortunately I never really got to watch it all that much when it was on. In 1998 I watched fairly regularly, but that was really the only time. About three years ago I joined Netflix, an online movie rental club, which I highly recommend, even over the Blockbuster one. At that point I began renting the X-files episodes beginning with season one and finally started watching the show regularly. Brandon and I rent a disc of 4 episodes about every other week. It has taken us three years to get to season seven, disc one. At it was there, at the end of the fourth episode, Millenium, where I finally got the satisfaction I'd been craving. Upon the stroke of midnight, the beginning of the year 2000, after the ball dropped in Times Square and the people there on the TV kissed under the streaming confetti, Fox Mulder, ever so casually leaned over and kissed Dana Scully. And she kissed him back. It was the perfect on-screen first kiss. I was over joyed, it was LONG overdue. It would be fine with me if the show ended there. I still have the rest of season 7 to watch and after that, Fox leaves the show. I've decided to watch seasons 8 and 9 anyway, despite having protested them the first time around. I hear the new guy is pretty great, despite not being David Duchovney, whom I adore. Well, anyway, a truly satisfying episode and overall X-files experience.

Pizza

I had a restless night with lots of intense dreams. I woke up at about 4 needing to pee. I had been dreaming about pizza. As I fell back asleep I was wondering if there was ANYway I would be able to find somewhere serving pizza during breakfast hours. I dreamt more about pizza. Intense, cheesy, saucy, mushroomy dreams. I awoke at 8:20, I have to leave for work at 8:30 (AHHH!). I hate being rushed in the mornings. But I made it to work on-time, looking lovely. No seriously. I actually put on a little makeup, forgoing breakfast. I had chocolate milk for breakfast instead of pizza. I wasn't even craving pizza when I woke up, but I had vague recollections of several dreams, most of them centering on pizza. On my way home from work at lunchtime, I stopped at Dominos. Delicious!

Put-put

Went miniature golfing last night with Brandon and Lacey. I can't even remember the last time I did that! It's been YEARS. Tons of fun. Also, Brandon made me rent Flash Gordon after hearing the theme song on my Queen cd. If you have seen this movie, I must know. It is a 70s sci-fi movie that's SO bad, it's almost good. Hysterical actually. Elements of both Star Wars and The Wizard of Oz. Definitely a cult classic.

New Church Calling

It's what I've been waiting for! Today I popped by the bishop's office to let him know that I have been feeling really burnt out on Primary. I'd already let the new Relief Society and Primary presidents know about two weeks ago, but hadn't been able to speak with the bishop yet. He said he'd already penciled me in in a new area. Then said, "While you're here, let's have a little chat..." So, I've been called as a teacher in the Relief Society. I've always thought that was an ideal calling because I love teaching, plus it's a once a month assignment instead of every week. I am so looking forward to getting to know the sisters in my ward again!

Another good thing at church today, I met a new friend. A gal about my age who just moved into my apartment complex and is married to a non-member. We instantly bonded as we sat and whispered to each other during sacrament meeting after she bore her testimony. I look forward to getting to know her better. I believe she said she is from Nigeria and she is married to a military guy and she graduated recently with a degree in Biology. She was baptised at age 18.

Well, I'm off to cook dinner and tidy up the house. Thanks for reading.

My place in the Ward

I've been serving in the Primary (children's area) of my ward (parrish) for about a year and a half. Last year I taught the 4-5 year olds and loved it. Since January I have been teaching the 6-7 year olds and it's not nearly as much fun. Plus, I am now teaching Preschool 4 days a week and I'd love some consistent adult interaction on the weekends. Also, my 3 best friends at church have all moved out of the boundaries since I started in Primary and are either living in another state or across town. I feel very isolated at church, having nobody to consistently sit with during the first hour and then being with children for the last two hours. I know church's purpose isn't socializing, but I should get to do some of that too. The women's group does not have regular monthly meetings anymore and two weeks ago the geographical boundaries of the ward were changed, so a lot of the people I knew now attend a different ward.
I only have a year left to live in Oklahoma and I want to enjoy it to the fullest. I going to suggest (not ask) to the bishop that I be released from my calling in the Primary. I have already let the Relief Society (women's organization) President and Primary President know that I'm feeling burnt out and ready for something new.
The good news from church? Brandon's cousin Jamon and his wife Alisha and year old daughter Joselyn have been brought into my ward with the boundary change. Yeah! Now I have family in the ward, people to sit with in Sacrament meeting, and extra incentive for Brandon to go to ward activities. Yippee!

In Wonderland?

For as long as I can remember there have been two fictional characters that I felt deeply connected to: Alice in Wonderland and Anne Shirley (of Anne of Green Gables, etc.). I'm not entirely sure why. Could it be that I am extremely talkative, curious, opinionated, I like to explore? It could be a lot of things. But, ever since childhood I've felt a kinship to these girls. I still think of myself as a girl, and though I've changed a lot and I am definitely an adult now, some things don't change.