Nesting and Newscasters

I've always heard that in the last trimester you hit the nesting faze where you want to get everything ready for baby to arrive.  Well, it's happened...to Brad.  I came home from work one day and he started talking about getting plastic bins to organize all of our stuff.  We have a bin that we have been putting my crafts into, and a bin for baby gifts, but he was talking about putting all of our storage stuff that is currently in boxes into bins.  He researched prices at different stores and everything.  I agreed.  I came home Wednesday night to find our place a mess - there was stuff scattered everywhere from Brad organizing and repacking everything!  I was given the assignment of going through one box of my stuff to decide if it was all worth keeping.  I basically spent 30 minutes on one box while he successfully re-packed everything else.  I've always told Brad that he is really good at tetris (he can make anything fit into our car for instance).  Well, when all was done at 11pm, he showed me the storage room, which he managed to fit more things into now and there is still room available for more.  Brad is very happy and pleased with himself.

Wednesday night was also the last night of one of our favorite newscasters, Bruce Lindsey.  I know, weird to say that we are attached to newscasters, but we are.  For the past week the station has been doing little stories about Bruce's career in news casting, then they did a final story/montage Wednesday night.  He is retiring to go be a mission president in Australia.  It was all very touching and emotional.  I just love Bruce, he is so good at reporting news.  It probably doesn't help that I am overly emotional, but it is still sad.  

Everyone is noticing my bump now and commenting on it.  I'd say at least a third of the patients now ask me about it.  It makes rooming patients take a little longer because they all want to know when I'm due, what I'm having, if we have picked a name, and of course all of their own stories and suggestions.  It's nice, they are all very sweet, but sometimes I really do not have the time to stand and talk when the provider is ready to see them.  Oh well, one patient did guess that I was 3-4 months along and was shocked when I told him that I'm actually 6 months.  Everyone tells me I'm just so cute and little.  I feel big, mostly because I can't hunch over and still be able to breathe, but I guess I should be enjoying my littleness while I still can.

I figure I'm probably due to put up a picture.  Brad does not like baby bump pictures.  He thinks they are awkward, I dunno.  But I have him take one every week to send to my sister in California.  So here is week 26!

Wow that baby is growing!

So last week we went to good ol California and visited my parents.  This was the first drive we have had that allowed us to drive through Reno during the day.  Brad looked at me and said, "Wow, this is a totally different city during the day!"  He also said that he didn't know you could cross the Sierras without chains and snow.  So we laughed and thank goodness did have run ins with snow.  And luckily not much road construction (that is until the drive back to Utah).  

We left Wednesday, May 9th, the day after my birthday.  Everyone kept asking me if I had a good birthday, and well my exact birthday was not so fun cause I worked 13 hours and did not get home till 9:40pm and then had to finish packing.  But if our trip is part of my birthday, then it was good.  We rolled into Rocklin at about 2:30 on Wednesday (nice and early!) and got to talk with my Mom until Dad came home.  Then we went to dinner at BJ's Brewery for my birthday and we finally got to meet Mark, my older sister's fiance.  The food was delicious as always, I had a pzookie even though we went home and had ice cream cake (you cannot not get a pzookie).  And guess what, we do like Mark.  

My mom bought me a cute elephant ring that I just have to get sized because apparently size 7 is like size 9-10 in Monterey, CA.  Oh well.  Thursday we (Brad and I and my parents) drove to the Jelly Belly Factory.  Brad had never been and it had been years for me.  It was fun, and we disgustingly learned that Very Cherry is the #1 flavor, Buttered Popcorn is #2, Juicy Pear is #4, and guess what #3 is?  Yup, I guessed right, Black Licorice.  Yuck.  We tried lots of flavors after the tour (they have a sample bar, how awesome?), Dad bought belly flops, mom bought lots of red apple and baby socks that say "You know what I mean Jelly Bean?" (my nickname was jelly bean growing up so my mom could not resist), and Brad and I got an assortment of yummy jelly bellys.

After that we drove through no man's land California to the Ghirardelli Chocolate Outlet.  My dad treated us to ice cream sundaes and my mom bought lots of cheap(er) chocolate.  Then we went up and visited my 97-year-old grandma, who broke her hip and has since been in a rehab nursing facility.  It was nice to see her and visit with my aunt.  After getting home, we ate dinner and my mom took me shopping for maternity clothes.  Busy day.

Friday, we went to Folsom Lake!  I have not been for 5 years (since Brad and I were engaged).  It was a very warm day.  Brad, Dad, and I threw around a football and my Dad was happy to see that I can still throw a mean spiral.  Then I had to go swim cause I has hot.  My dad went in with me while my mom and Brad sat in the shade.  That night Brad and I went out with Katie and Mark.  We went to Lorenzo's mexican food.  Then we went and played minigolf at Sunsplash.  Now Brad and I do play a lot mini golf during the summer, but Brad usually always wins.  Brad told them about our contest for whoever gets the first hole-in-one gets to pick dessert (since Brad typically always wins overall, hole-in-ones are much more evenly matched).  Katie and Mark agreed.  The very first hole I got a hole-in-one and then Brad did.  Brad got the second hole-in-one so he said he won the contest (since no one else got a hole-in-one that hole).  Well, Brad, Mark, and I are competitive.  The entire game we kept trying to be better than each other.  Mark finally looked at us and asked if we practiced before because Brad and I were doing good, much better than normal (at least for me).  Katie and Mark kept joking that we had lied about how good we were.  Well, at the end of the game Brad totaled the scores.  And guess what, I won!  I apparently got 7 hole-in-ones!  Crazyiness!  I had 39, Brad had 41, Mark had 43, and Katie had 53.  Katie was a good sport.  Due to my winning Katie sided with me getting to choose dessert, so we went to Coldstone.  It was definitely fun hanging out with them and getting to know Mark better.

Saturday my Dad made yummy waffles for Mother's Day (church was too early Sunday to make breakfast).  I learned how to make syrup and my mom made lots of fruit syrups (apricot, plum, and rhubarb).  They were all very yummy.  Then it was craziness while my mom did last minute cleaning before the baby shower. Brad and Mark went golfing during the baby shower and Dad took a nap.  The baby shower was good, my mom had lots of games planned.  Older women and games can be interesting.  But it was fun to see my friend's Katie and Tamie and chat with women who I have known since I was 12.  Our baby will be well dressed!   Dad really wanted to see Avengers, and my mom did not, so Dad took Brad and I.  He loved it, and Brad and I loved it just as much the second time around.  However, I did find it interesting that there were different previews.  Does each theatre/state play slightly different previews?  

Well Sunday was church and then everyone made dinner (except Mom).  It was delicious hamburgers, fruit salad, and potato salad.  Yummy.  

All in all, we had fun.  We left monday morning, and apparently were awful at checking to make sure we had everything because I left my keys and Brad left a pair of shoes and his church clothes.  Oh well, thank goodness my parents are nice and are mailing them to us.

Going back to work was hard this week because I was so tired and Tuesday was a long 13 hour day at work.  But thank goodness for my long weekends so I can clean and try and organize our baby gifts.

My Dad said something really funny Sunday night before bed.  He looked at me and said, "Wow she really is growing in there!  You have gotten bigger just in the few days you have been here!"  He also told me that I  just needed to live long enough to have his granddaughter.  Oh Dad.  I told him that was not nice and he laughed and said that he didn't want me to die.  When we left Monday morning he told Brad to take good care of his granddaughter, which he told me included me as we are a package deal.  I told him that deal again ends as soon as she is born.  Dad thinks he is so funny!  But it was fun.  Trips are always nice.

I did take my camera with us.  But once again, I never used it.  Brad just laughs.  I need someone to follow me and take pictures of what I do.

Ready To Go Eat Fruit!

Next week is my birthday.  I can't say i'm super excited cause I'm getting a little too old to be excited about birthdays.  This year I'm working a lovely 13 hour day on my birthday.  As we are leaving really early the next morning to start our trek to Rocklin, Brad told me that he might just be asleep by the time I get home.  Lame, but I understand.  Last night he decided he would just take a nap and then wake up when I got home so he could load the car.  But I am going to have ice cream cake at work at least on my birthday.  Poor Brad has been very frustrated trying to get a birthday list from me.  The movies I want aren't out yet and I want music.  I told him itunes gift cards would be perfect.  Apparently this is not good enough.  It's not like he gives me good lists.

I'm really excited to go to Rocklin because it will be nice to see my parents, fun to be somewhere other than Utah (I mean that in a non negative way, it's just nice to be somewhere different), I get to finally meet my future brother-in-law, and my mom is throwing me a baby shower.  We are going to go to the jelly belly factory (Brad's request) and possibly the beach (my request).  Brad is also going to go golfing during the baby shower. I have told Brad about how Rocklin is obsessed with Parker Whitney, some guy who helped found Rocklin I think (I can't be sure since I was fortunate enough to not have to go to elementary school in Rocklin and learn about him).  But there is an elementary school named after him, a high school, lots of roads, a gated community and of course several golf courses.  Brad finds it all funny.  I'm a little bitter because when they built the new high school (I was a senior) they had originally planned on calling it Liberty High, and this name was voted on by us students.  But the school board stepped in and decided the mascot would be a wild cat, so Whitney would be a better name for the school.  It made everyone at the current High School pretty mad, since we were supposed to be the deciding factor.  The old farts of Rocklin worship this guy.  Ridiculous. 

I'm already planning on eating at BJ's Brewery (yum!) and Awful Annie's (breakfast), and maybe Pancake House.  Plus my mom promised me that she would have strawberries for us!  I love fruit so this is big!  Last weekend at Sams Club, they had orange samples.  Now, I'm not a big orange person.  I love orange juice (no pulp), but navel oranges don't do it for me.  There are to difficult to eat.  When we would be given orange slices as a snack at soccer games, I would suck out the juice and throw everything else away.  I hate getting the pieces stuck in my teeth.  If I peel an orange, which takes forever because they don't easy, I have to peel all the white off.  I love mandarins/cuties because they are so easy to peel.  Well, anyways.  This sample included mandarins, navel oranges, and this redish orange called Cara Cara.  I have tried Blood Oranges before and love them!  The flavor is worth all the effort.  These Cara Care oranges looked kinda like Blood oranges so I got a sample.  They aren't blood oranges but they are super sweet and yummy.  So Brad and I bought some.  I like them so much I just cut them up and actually eat everything out of the peel.  This is a big step for me. Turns out Cara Cara oranges are seedless (big plus) and they are called the Power Orange.

While on the subject of fruit, our little baby is now the size of a mango - weighing about a pound and being more than 11 inches long (from head to toe).  I can tell she is bigger because she is kicking higher.  I still have not gained much weight at all, but I do have more of a belly.  I finally had to buy a maternity shirt yesterday because my regular shirts are getting stretched.  Time to buy bigger shirts I guess.  (I only bought one maternity shirt because most of the shirts are either ugly or expensive).  Fun fun fun.  I told Brad he could get me maternity shirts for my birthday, but that was another not qualified birthday present (and baby clothes don't count either because it is MY birthday).  Oh well.