it's a...

well, it's an 85% chance girl! the doctor was pretty confident that it was a girl, but said she didn't get a convincing enough look to say she was 100% sure. and now she wants to look AGAIN during our next visit. sheesh.

we're pretty sure it's a girl! haha... it's hard to rely on 85% so we still feel pretty up in the air about it. it was fun to take a little look at the baby though!

Walmart & Target bags everywhere!

Well, since we don't get the newspaper, we decided to use all the Walmart and Target bags from under our sink to pack all the fragile things. So far it's working well and we have many to spare. Every time I finish a box, I get this gratifying feeling like we're that much closer of getting out of this dump and well, yay for that. And while a house is a LONG way off for us still, I feel like this is a move up for us, which is definitely a good thing.

Some of the things I REALLY like right now:

• Walmart brand vanilla ice cream (it's Blue Bunny just in a cheaper box, did you know?) with crunched up Golden (vanilla instead of chocolate) OREOS in it. YUM.
• www.failblog.org - SO FUNNY.
• free digital scrapbooking websites (I can link to some in a later post if you're interested)
• duct tape
• feeling the baby move pretty much every day now
• finding Ben Folds Five (the CD with the piano on the cover) for $3.50 at Goodwill - I'm SLOWLY rebuilding my CD collection since all my CDs got stolen earlier this year, which includes burning copies of a lot of the ones I had backed up on my computer.
• all the boxes Becky collected for us from work (THANK YOU!!!)
• using large plastic totes for moving

I am really looking forward to this next week. We get out of this dumpy place on Tuesday, then my best friend Jenn gets home from her mission on Wednesday!! Also, Luke's brother is coming into town and staying with us starting Tuesday night and my little brother Eric and brother-in-law Chris have a birthday on Thursday. MOST IMPORTANTLY, we have an OB appointment on Wednesday, which will include another sonogram, meaning we better find out the gender of our child this time! If not, we'll live... and we'll be able to tell said child many stories of how difficult it was before it was even born (I hate that I have say it), but we're hoping!

It's going to be a very busy week, but a good one for sure. Wish us luck!!

you see...

the purpose of the poll was to help us deal with the fact that it's 50/50 and have to wait until the 30th to find out the gender of our child! this tied at 24 nonsense isn't helping the suspense any! :P

i thoroughly enjoy working on saturdays (no i don't) because it's extremely slow... i've only had 3 short calls in the past hour. it forces me to find alternative ways to pass the time. one of my favorites is eating the food that luke packs for me pretty much on a daily basis. he's cute. he made the mustard on my sandwich into a smiley face.

yesterday luke and i went to see the dark knight (that's the batman movie, for anyone living in a cave) for a little day date. i cannot tell you how well-done that movie was! especially heath ledger. it is definitely unfortunate for the movie scene (and his family, etc) that he is gone, but i will say that this is by far the most powerful and convincing role i've ever seen him in. even if the character was extremely creepy and psychotic, i'm glad that he will be remembered for this.... and he absolutely will. overall it was a very well made movie and i was impressed. i would definitely recommend it.

i've been thinking a lot about the things i want to accomplish before the baby comes. some of them are on hold until we find out the gender, but i'm excited to start working on some of these things:

• I've mentioned before that I want to learn how to make a quilt for my baby... I'd like it to be a gender-specific blanket, so that's on hold until after the 30th, though I'm very excited to do it.
• I would like to get caught up on my scrapbooking, especially the holes in my high school scrapbook, like showtime, prom and graduation. those are big ones... and part of being able to do that deals with actually getting those pictures from people who actually have them.
• Organization! Right now our second room is just full of unorganized stuff. I'd like to clean it out/get everything organized so that when we move, we'll actually be able to use it as a nursery (which will be practically empty until we find out the gender and start finding furniture).

those are the main things i would like to work on. i would also like to go through and get rid of a lot of stuff we never use before we move, so that we're not just lugging a bunch of junk with us.

am i too ambitious? we'll see, but i'm excited to get started. that counts for something right?

do you have any project/"spring cleaning" goals that you're working on?

blech.

So we're moving into a new apartment on the 28th and I CANNOT WAIT. i'm really sick of the poor condition of our apartment. even the air quality is poor... it will be really nice too to live on the side of town where our new place is. We have a lot to do before then, but we're up for it.

I'm having kind of a rough day, just not feeling great, so I'm going to follow Kaysi's example and post a yay list for today, although mine might be slightly more surface level because my brain is near shutdown level.

yay for:

• Luke
• banana bread
• Waffle Crisp cereal
• blogging
• Lori letting me borrow lots of maternity clothes
• getting to move into a better apartment in 2 weeks
• vitamins
• Mary in HR who gave me some cheerios to snack on
• not having to work tomorrow (it's kind of strange having Fridays off instead of Saturdays)

what makes you say yay today?

traditions

i've been thinking a lot lately about traditions. my family doesn't have a lot of formal traditions, but we get together for every holiday and celebrate birthdays together. one of my favorite family traditions is Dirty Santa. every Christmas Eve (or Christmas day if people have other commitments on Christmas Eve), each of us contributes an anonymous gift so we can do a white elephant gift exchange. each year there are a couple of repeat gag gifts and we always have a lot of fun doing it. anyway, i want to begin our own traditions as our kids are growing up. i came across some ideas on a baby website recently and here are a couple of the ones i liked:

• Create a "YES Jar". Into it, put all the "NO's" that you're willing to put off until another day: "NO, you can't go to the zoo." "NO, you can't stay up late." Choose one day a month where your child can pick out a few "NO's" and turn them into "YES." "YES you can have ice cream for dinner." "YES you can skip your bath."
• For birthdays, let each family member choose his favorite meal. Then everyone but the birthday boy helps make it. Or write a letter to your child every year on their birthday. Give them the stack when they're 18 (or in my case I'd probably put them in a scrapbook or something like that).
• Give each child a new pair of pajamas on Christmas Eve.

do you have any favorite traditions that you hope to pass down? i'd love any thoughts, ideas, or feedback...so leave a comment.

the atrocity of daytime television

At the beginning of the month, Luke and I changed to $10 cable where we just get the limited network channels, you know so we could cut down on some expenses. I have Fridays off from work and instead work on Saturdays and when I sat down to eat my breakfast in front of the TV, there was NOTHING on, so much so that I ended up leaving it on QVC because there really was nothing better to watch. I'm sure it sometimes has good things on it, but today it's ugly jackets and clothing lines, as well as now big ugly bug windchimes... I just don't know how they get people to spend so much on items that are so unnecessary. They just stand there and talk about how great they are and say "almost sold out..." over and over again and then it's "this type sold out, so hurry and get the other type," convincing people to buy things that are not only ugly, but overpriced and completely unnecessary for life. Yikes.

Happy Belated Independence Day!

HAPPY 4TH!

I finally got my camera back from my parents' house, so it's time to see some of our 4th of July festivities.

Introducing my newest nephew, Nathan. I got to spend some time holding Ashley and it made me think a lot about 4 1/2 months from now when it's my turn!

Everyone brought something to share for our little 4th of July cookout. Here's Ryan enjoying some black cherry jello.

We had lots of yummy treats, including watermelon, canteloupe, rice crispie treats, root beer floats, and s'mores! Elise had fun eating her watermelon.

The kids had fun jumping on the trampoline, even though it made their feet turn black. Even after Kate's daddy washed off her feet (those are Kate's feet), she came outside and wanted to get right back on.

We did get a few small fireworks for our own entertainment and set them off in the backyard. Ryan and Elise especially enjoyed them... here's Ryan just sitting in his lawn chair enjoying the view.

Ava was less than excited about the fireworks. At one point we found her under the trampoline with her hands just like this over her ears. She eventually just went inside because she couldn't take it anymore (most of the ones we got weren't even loud, but she didn't care). The little smirk on her face is because I couldn't help but laugh a little about how scared she was.

I guess I don't take very many pictures of adults when my cute little nieces and nephews are around... maybe I should work on that. It was a great holiday and helped us to be grateful for the many freedoms we enjoy!

there is a very high correlation between my mood and my food intake. today i forgot to bring my lunch to work and i've just been a little irritable all day. i did go get lunch, but i usually have snacks here during the day and i've accidentally deprived myself of that. let's just say i cannot wait for dinner time!

for everything there is a time and a season

For 4th of July, we went to my parents' house to have some festivities. We did a cookout, then just hung out, lit off some fireworks, and then my fam headed to the city fireworks. Luke and I planned to go to the city show, but we waited a little too long to get there and it was just ridiculously packed. The parking was a nightmare and neither of us had the energy or patience to wade through the traffic, so we just decided to go home. I had to work the next morning anyway. But it was a fun holiday and any holiday is good if you get to spend it with family, which we did. I took some pictures, but I accidentally left my camera at my parents' house, so I'll post pictures at some point.

Today was the great day where most of the EFY counselors were in our ward, since the KU session starts tomorrow. I saw so many familiar faces and it was really fun to catch up with them. I really loved the EFY years and learned so much about myself, about the youth of the church (who truly amaze me), about teaching, and so much more. Seeing the counselors today was a great reminder of that. I hope the weather cooperates with them this week. KU is always a rough session when it comes to the humidity and heat.

Yesterday marked 9 months for mine and Luke's marriage. It's crazy to think that we've just now been married for the amount of time it takes to have a baby. BUT I'm in my 20th week, so come Friday my pregnancy is halfway over! So far, the time still seems to going by quickly, but I'm sure that feeling will change come October or so. The only awkward part of it right now is that yes, I'm showing a bit, but I'm still at the stage where people might think I'm just getting kind of fat in the belly. Ah well.

I'm becoming more motivated to get some things done before the baby comes. I guess I'm starting to realize how different life will be once that happens... especially at first I'm not going to have much time to be concerned about anything else. So, I guess this is the time.