Date night achieved and other fun stuff

DJ and I finally got to go on our date night tonight. We went out to the Surprise Party and watched the hot air balloons get up in the air, saw the sky divers land in the dark from 4000 feet up and enjoyed a beautiful fireworks display. We shared a yummy bag of hot fresh kettle corn and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Then he took me over to the Golden Spoon for some dessert, mmmmmmmm mint frozen yogurt and chocolate chips, perfect. We came back to the house and watched a favorite - The Chronicles of Narnia (I bawl everytime Aslin sacrafices himself, in the theater the little girl next to me kept asking her mom if I was ok, lol). All in all it was a wonderful night that I loved, too bad the camera battery was dead and I didn't realize it =< We had a wonderful time talking about the baby and our thoughts on all sorts of stuff - we just really connected which was so nice

Tommorrow we get to go to a baptism, do a little grocery shopping then I'm going to my mom's for a girls night with some friends and DJ is heading off to a good friend's house to enjoy a little testosterone fest watching the fight. It will be a packed day, but I should be able to stay off my feet for most of it so I can tell the doc when he asks on Tuesday that I followed the rules.

Baby Caden had the hicups today for an hour, poor thing. It was fun to feel but I did feel sorry for him after a while. I only have two more weeks until I'm considered full term enough to have him. I'm gonna try to be a good girl and just let nature take it's course but I'm very tempted eat a habenaro pepper while jumping on Amie's trampoline to encourage this little man to join the world. He dropped about 6 weeks ago and I do believe I learned a new appreciation for the word unfomfortable, lol. But on the positive side I've not had heartburn related to him being high, only when I don't eat regularly and I've not had that can't catch my breath feeling that some of my girlfriends have told me about. My blood sugars have started to give me a bit of problem, but that was to be expected at this point in the pregnancy. For the most part they have been in great control and my A1c's (a test that registers your past 3 month average of your blood sugars, good control is 7 and pregnancy goal should be 6) have been 5.3 and 5.7. My doc is very pleased. He's also pleased with my weight gain, drum rool please..............a total of 1 pound at this point, lol. He keeps shaking his head and laughing cause I'm on a good dose of steroids for my arthritis and I should have gained a ton of weight. He laughs and tells me that he gains weight just writing my perscription for the stuff and that I will actually leave the hospital lighter then when I got pregnant. I told DJ that had I know having babies would help me lose weight I'd have been begging Heavenly Father for this a long time ago and he would be raising a football team!

And speaking of babies I'm super excited because after not being sucessful getting any of the 3 photographers I know booked I was able to book a maternity shoot with a photographer that my mom works with. Her name is Nancy and she's lovely and artsy and very talented. I'm very excited to try her out. She also is extremly talented with blown glass and beeding. I've seen some pieces my mom has received as gifts from her and I'm just in love with the beauty of the glass. I am going to get her website information so I can share it with you all, it's just so very yummy.
Then I was also able to schedule a newborn shoot and in March a family shoot with Kylie of Next Step Photography. She's Julie's sister in law and I really like her style. It will be so weird to get to let go and have someone else be in charge of the photography. DJ and I haven't had a shoot that is just us in a actual portrait session since 2003, the first offical pictures of us as a couple was the wonderful pictures Heather took at our sealing, can you believe that? Shame on me. Well it has been a combinaton of things that caused the delay but really that is way too long. Anyways was able to check those items right off the list - woo hoo!

And I booked a few Jobs myself. I took some family photos for my girl Amie & my co-worker Nichole. I have a maternity shoot for Casey coming up and a wedding in June. I'm going to start up again with weddings as of March and family shoots as of Febuary. I have to get a bit of research to get done on some advertising options so that I can make my little business better. In CA I booked a ton of jobs but out here I've not pushed the business very much cause I was a bit burnt out after 30+ weddings in one year, yikes! But with this little baby on the way and the very real chance that I will be out of a job come July of this year and if not 08 then 09 is looking very very likely with the state of the Surprise budget I need something in place for sure. So if anyone is looking for weddings and such I'm here, just give me a call. My studio lighting is going to be here soon and of course there is always outside.

Went and finished the shopping for the baby too. We got a ton of clothes and I mean a ton of clothes for the shower and through a huge donation from Casey Lu and Amie. Seriously the kid will be just fine until about a year old! So DJ and I were able to go out and get all the bottles, pacifiers, bath stuff, crib bedding, blankets, moniter, diaper bag and all the odds and ends of babydom. It was fun and we were blessed by my BIL & SIL giving us some $ so we could afford it all! I had so much fun shopping for the little man and everything really started to get real putting the stuff away => My mom came over and we sorted all the clothes by size and washed everything and got it hung up and folded, seriously baby laundry is just so much fun to do (I know, I say that now. lol). There are so many things that I can't wait to put him in!

This week coming up has all sorts of fun activities we are signed up for; a work holiday brunch, the drive we've been doing for the west valley crisis center is done and we get to deliver the goods, Heather and Dave's Christmas party - have to get my gift still and decide what yummy dessert I'm bringing, another baptism and my hunny and I are planning a night to finish the nursery. I can do everything from teh sitting position too, woohoo! It's gonna be a good week I can tell!

Ok this was seriously longer than I planned and I have to sign off so we can read tonights portion of Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol, a new tradition we started this year we read 10 pages a night starting Dec 1st and it should be done christmas eve - love that story, hopefully we can keep this tradition up!

Happy weekend all =>

Thankful, updates and some other stuff

I hope you all had a wonderful Turkey day! Mine was exhausting but just delightful. DJ and I cooked all the side dishes for the feast at my mothers house. We did pretty well too, only one scuffle in the kitchen and only one of the cats got stepped on. Not bad for me being 8.5 months pregnant.

We went over to my mom's house and met my grandparents, my uncle, aunt, 2 of their 4 boys and my in-laws. The Wii was rolling and food was everywhere. We were able to sit outside and enjoy the nice break in the storms then back inside for a little football action. Good times.

I challenged myself to come up with some things I'm thankful for outside of the normal list toppers and I settled on these:
-for being raised with a belief and recognition of what the holiday season is really about and not having any connection of that joyful feeling to how many presents are under the tree. With so many conversations around me on a daily basis these days being about how sad people are that they can't afford a bunch of gifts I have grown more thankful for how careful my parents were that I never had my focus on the number of gifts but instead the family and the time together.
-For the pregnancy being almost over, which means that I can start to recover and hopefully get healthy again soon so I can be with Caden a long time.
-For a husband who is so excited to be a dad that he can't talk about anything else, sings and reads scriptures and Dr. Seuss to my belly. And for how he has loved me with ultimate devotion and never once has he complained about my needing his help at 2am, or when he has a migraine or the flu, or when it was his first day off in weeks. I'm truly blessed.
-For parents who put off their own retirement by at least 5 years to help us with the 25K in unexpected expenses, and bills they paid off so we could afford child care and DJ could take this new job that cut his pay by a 1/3 but gives him the opportunity to be home nights and weekends. And they did it all without us asking - true quiet service and love. Seriously I have the best parents on the planet.
-For 3 of the best girlfriends anyone could ever ask for, who have helped me laugh through the hardest year of my entire life. There are no words for the feeling of being loved in spite of all my many faults, thanks!
-And finally for the absolute miracle of modern medicine. Without it I would not have made it this far and have only 5 weeks until I meet my son.

So looks like we will have the nursery done in 2 days! Ya. I can't wait to see it all ready for him to come home. My aunt brought over the family's bassinet and moses basket. They have held 3 generations of my mom's family in them. We didn't even know they still existed cause Kim's youngests are 16 year old twins. I can wait to clean them up and get them ready too.

My refrigerator died yesterday so today I had the pleasure of getting up and going to Sears and buying a new fridge. Yikes! I literally paid off the last credit card on Tuesday night, stupid Murphy's law! The new one will be here tomorrow some time between 9 and 9. Woo hoo!

And finally I have decided to sign myself off for a while. I have this problem saying no to people and will just let my free time be given away. My husband usually gets left behind while I run around and try and make everyone else happy. I have realized that we only have days left that it will be just the two of us (my selfish side is still a bit sad about this) and I have decided to devote myself to just hanging out with him and being just us. So before I have people stopping me in the halls at church and texting me that I'm never around I thought that I would let you all know why I may not be accepting offers for nights out or special events. Please know that it has nothing to do with you and in about 6 months I'll be totally ready for a night out =)

Well I'm off to go put up my Christmas tree and make my house all merry while the 22lb day after turkey cooks in my oven (totally spoiling my hubby with his very own turkey, it's his favorite thing in the whole wide world). Then we are going to have a date tonight, the first one in over 2 years, he's totally due, can't wait to surprise him!

The Nester is in a Fester

So the last few weeks I've hit the door after work and beat feet right to the bed, curled up, had the hubster rub my feet and my back and my shoulders, then cozy with my doctor ordered ice cream before dozing off to sleep. All of that only to wake up 4-5 times and struggle to get back to sleep. Or worse yet suffer a panic attack and be up for hours trying to regain my sanity (has anyone else suffered from panic attacks or anxiety attacks during pregnancy? and these are not about worrying about having a baby, they are more of the actual feel like I can't breathe, may not wake up in the morning variety). So I have been not even worried about anything outside of the work world or my bed. But this past weekend it all hit me about how I only have 6 weeks left and with my tired needy lifestyle my house has gone to pot! I looked around and everywhere all I saw was crud, junk, dirt, dust and clutter. I broke out the note pad and wrote a list room by room of all the things that had to be done before I would let life emerge from my body. I brought the list to my hubby and he worked really hard to not laugh at my list and then told me we would start on Monday after work.
So when we got home tonight we proceeded to tear apart my kitchen and we scrubbed, organized, sanitized and put the place into order. It made me down right giddy. I actually asked my hubby if the smell of the cleaner made him want to skip around too. He laughed and let me know that if was not making the impact on him that it made on me. Then he decided that he could kill two birds with one stone and help develop my skills as the future mother of his son. He put on Star Wars - A New Hope and proceeded to teach me all about Millennium Falcon's and the force. Now mind you I'm a huge Star Wars fan so I thought that this lesson was kind of funny, but quickly realized he was teaching his son by proxy and it made me smile.
In the end my kitchen is sparkling and I've decided that white appliances are pure evil for how much dirt they can hold onto. I decided that Harrison is a really great name for our second son. And I can sleep tonight (hopefully) knowing that should my son decide to come tonight I could safely let him sleep in the kitchen knowing that the room was clean.

Hello 3rd Trimester & I've been Sick

I have been SICK. And I don't mean oh I don't think I'll do the errands today cause I feel a bit under the weather, I mean praying for a quick death sick. And I have discovered a new form of torture that should with out question be used during any important interrogation from here on out. Friday while nursing my 101 fever and hugging my trash can I would finally feel a bit like I could lay down and rest for a while, it was then that Caden would haul out and kick me in the stomach so hard I jumped from the pain and grabbed the trash can again. Oh it was officially the longest day of my life. Then my poor hubby came home from work and he too was deathly ill. We curled into bed and both just laid there motionless.
We had to go to the grocery store Saturday night and that 30 minutes was enough to wipe us out for the rest of the night. This morning we are feeling better, but still not good and I've been contracting on and off since Friday so I've been instructed to stay down and quite. My mom broke her foot and is all alone today so we are going to pack up the pillows and blankets and go over to her house to help her out since she can't walk and hopefully by tonight the plague will leave us be so we can go back to work tomorrow.
Only 10 more weeks until the little man is here!!!!!! I'm scheduled for an induction on Jan 3rd at 38 weeks. I have started to go to the hospital twice a week for non-stress tests and fetal ultrasound monitoring. My office isn't thrilled with me having to leave early twice a week, but what are you gonna do right? The little man is doing great, measuring about a week and a half ahead right now, but taking practice breaths and everything he should be doing. He's still breech right now so we're hoping that he will turn soon so we can avoid a C-section since Dr. McKernan is worried about my ability to recover from a major sugary with my medical issues. Either way DJ and I are getting really excited for his arrival. He has been reading and singing to my belly alot lately. His current favorite song to sing is Child's Prayer, makes me tear up each time. We still have so much to do, paint, put up furniture, get some diapers and formula. I feel like I have nothing at all prepared, yikes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nesting has really set in this past week, and that with insomnia has made for some interesting 2am activity, lol.

8 Things
I was tagged by Toni so here it goes:

8 TV Shows I love to watch:
- Survivor
-House
-The Office
-CSI
-So You Think You Can Dance
-Law and Order
-Pushing Daisies
-Amazing Race

8 Favorite Restaurants:
-Oregano's
-Cafe Rio
-Carrabas'
-Arriba Mexican Grill
-Chipotle
-Pete's Fish and Chips
-NYPD
-Taste of India

8 Things That Happened Yesterday:
-Went to DJ's graduation from his security academy
-Got to work at 6am
-Went to lunch with my hubby
-Was treated to a pumpkin spice creame frappachino - yummmmmmmmy
-talked with my good friend Casey Lu
-went grocery shopping with my mom
-watched Survivor
- cuddled in bed and felt the baby move

8 Things I'm Looking Forward To:
- Caden's arrival
- My baby Shower
- Going to the Temple with my hubby tomorrow
- Thanksgiving
- Family get togethers
- The smells of Christmas
- Holiday baking
- The New Year

8 Things On My WishList:
-For DJ to get full time status and benefits
-Being debt free
-An honest to goodness date with my hubby - it's been 2 years!
-Trip to Disneyland - it's been 2 years!
-Paint and decorate the nursery
-Being perfectly happy
-a wii
-A free weekend

Dear Blog

I apologise for neglecting you, but this past month has been hard. See I use you as my journal with the added benefit of keeping my friends and family posted about the current happenings in my life. Well this past month has seen the demons creep back out from under my bed and I've been struggling. Frankly the things I've been struggling with are more than I really wished to share with the world. See I do really well faking being happy in small doses and quick visits, but when I sit down to write here I simply can't bring myself to write chipper things while crying. So I've just left you be for the time being. I can't promise when I'll be better because I don't even know, but when that happy day returns I'll make sure you are the first one to know.

Thanks,
Me


PS for those of you who don't know we've had to cancel all those lovely amenities that life offers including our home phone. That one doesn't really matter too much, it rarely rang anyways, but just in case you needed to call you'll have to use our cell #'s.

Hello September and August wrap up

It's September and I'm ready to decorate with all my fall pumpkins and colors. And I'm 20 weeks pregnant. That's right I'm half way there (well since the Doc is taking me a few weeks early I'm over half way there) and I still haven't felt the little bugger. I did finally gain 2 pounds though and that made the Doc very happy. We're all registered and a shower is in the works. I have another ultrasound on the 15th that is going to be 3D! We get to see little Caden's face. I'm so excited!

We've been plugging right along here at the home front though August was full of some serious tragedy in our friends and family's life. One of my best friend's youngest sister (22 years old) is dying of brain cancer. She was diagnosed 3 weeks ago and given 3-4 weeks to live. It's been rough and sudden.

Then I got a call from another dear friend that her sister whom I know well and have had the pleasure of photographing a few times lost their 8 month old son suddenly. Their story is also heartbreaking. They got pregnant many years ago and miscarried at 8 months. The struggled to get pregnant again for years. Finally turned to adoption and quickly received a baby only to 4 months later have the mother decide to take the baby back. Finally they got Hope and for 6 years were a happy family of three then finally came the news that they were chosen again and were receiving a baby boy, Logan. You've seen these two in a photo post last November. Not but two months after Logan joined the family Anna found out she was pregnant. It was a very difficult pregnancy and she was on bed rest for like 5 months, but Hayden joined the family happy and healthy last this January. Anna dropped him off at the sitters house and he was having a normal day. He went down for a nap and the sitter checked on him a few times, but the last time she noticed his color was off and sadly Hayden had passed away during his nap. My heart just broke to know the tragedy that this family has faced. I shared my religious beliefs about children how pass before the age of 8 and put all of their name on the prayer list in the Temple, but still didn't feel like I had done enough.

Then a good friend who has been struggling since her husband was laid off earlier this year lost her house and was telling me she feared where her family including her daughters were going to live. I was so thankful for my church and the community that is built in which proves to me that Heavenly Father's plans for us are absolutely perfect. I have been shown so many ways that I can be thankful this month that I fear I have not expressed it in my prayers enough.

I also go to spend a bunch of time with my girls Amie, Toni and Chris this past month. It was so nice to have that time out of my boring quiet house. With DJ working 6 days a week 12 hours a day I do hate all the alone time I end up having. I wish I was better at being on the phone cause then I could call people and chat but really I have such a hard time hearing on the phone and end up missing half of the conversations. And we have missed the dinner invites and hanging out opportunities. So to my girls who are always so much fun and I love dearly thanks for all the bonding, joking and scrapping - who loves ya babe!

And here are some scrappy pages I've done recently.