Random February Happenings

So, not much goes on in the day to day, but I thought I'd share a little bit.

The Young Women's program had a fundraiser one night, with a dessert auction and raffle. They had some delicious food prepared, and I baked a white chocolate pie for it.

It won $8 for their Girl's Camp! Overall they made a good amount of money.

The funniest part was that they had a raffle for different baskets at the end. Brandon bought a few tickets just because, and we ended up winning the biggest prize- a date night basket. I think it would have gone better to any of the other families who actually have kids, but oh well!

I haven't been crazy emotional with this pregnancy, but when I tear up I do a LOT. This was confirmed to me when I was cutting onions one night and couldn't stop tearing up. I went into the bathroom to wash my face and found this:

OH MY GOSH.

One of the best parts of our ward are all the grad students wives who are about my age. We're the last ones to have our first in our ward, so they're all nice and give us advice and are willing to share with us. I went to a baby shower for a girl who is in the adjacent ward. She and I are due a day apart and are going to the same doctor. There were 5 girls there who are due within March and April, so we lined up according to due date. The one in the back already had her baby!

Every week, the girls in our ward get together to have a playgroup. They're nice enough to invite me, even though I don't have a child to contribute. I got this funny picture from the Valentine's party. Poor neglected babies.

This was a funny one. Ezra woke up from a nap while we were eating Sunday dinner, and Tanner said his heart was racing. So of course Brandon went to pull out his stethoscope and listen to his heart.

He likes Brandon so he let him.

I also bought myself roses on Valentine's Day. I didn't blame Brandon, poor guy had 4 tests that week. I just wanted flowers, so I got them at Trader Joe's after I dropped him off to go to Orlando. He DID get me a manicure and pedicure at a local spa, so it was all good.

Finally, Brandon and I had the chance to help some of the new members in our ward go do temple baptisms. It was a good learning experience for both of us, since Brandon organized it. We know better what to do for next time, and it was so nice to help the new members with their temple covenants.

Brandon is working hard at his calling, which I'm pretty sure is helping him with his studies in school. He is not as stressed as many of his classmates, even though he has more on his plate. So I try to help him whenever I can to show I'm a nice wife.

Valentine's Day 2015

A few weeks into Brandon's new semester, he called me and told me about a PA conference in Orlando. I thought that would be great! Then he said, "Yeah, it's February 14". I thought he was kidding. Then I realized it was President's Day weekend so I said, "Hey, let's make it a fun weekend up there!" But he didn't have school off on Monday. So, I decided that it wouldn't be worth it to go.
I forgot how boring it is to not have Brandon around. It reminded me of when he would work night shifts, and I would crochet or go to the gym or watch TV or whatever just to keep my mind entertained. I would hang out with friends as well, but it's not like I could do that on Valentine's Day this year,
So, I didn't do too much. I read "Inferno", went on a walk, and decided that I should definitely go to the temple. So I scheduled my name for the last session of the day to make sure that I went and didn't read through it.

(Starting to feel large at almost 30 weeks!)
The session was beautiful. Little Tiny was NOT as reverent as she had been the last time I went, but that's to be expected I guess.
I really wanted to go to counter the nastiness that was taking over the theaters this weekend. It is so sad that the most popular movie of the weekend is one about domestic violence and abuse. That's not a love story, that's a horror film. Valentine's Day is about love, and we have love in our family. Love for each other, and for this little 3 pound lovebug.

I know all ultrasounds look the same to others, but to me she looks so cute. She was doing something with her mouth during this ultrasound and it was hilarious to watch.

Embracing my changing body.

I am finally to the point where I really like being pregnant. Baby Giullian is so active, even on her lazy days. See example here:

I have more energy, which is good because I'm trying to get my life in order before she comes. If I had been feeling like this my entire pregnancy I can see why people love it so much. As it is, I'm grateful for the chance to actually like it and I know it's going to be worth it in the end.

So I remember when I hit 14 weeks and started the second trimester I told Brandon, "Look I'm starting to show!" and had him take a picture of me for Instagram. Here's my belly:

For the record, that is more of a belly than I've had, but now I realize that was just a bunch of bloating from being so sick (and some nachos, I remember). I just wanted so badly to have a little baby bump so that people would see I wasn't faking being sick for no reason.

Compare that to my third trimester picture (taken 3 weeks ago):

I know I'm not huge by any stretch of the imagination, but sometimes when I get a look at myself in the mirror I think "I have THAT sticking out in front of me?!"

I know I look visibly pregnant now. Which is good since I'll be 30 weeks on Tuesday. I know that because everyone stops me to ask about the baby and if I know what I'm having and what we're going to name her. (By the way, we're naming her "Neveah", or "Heaven" spelled backwards. OR you'll find out when she's born...) Does the grocery store clerk need to know those things? No, but it's nice when people congratulate you on it.

I couldn't put my finger down on why it bothered me so much though. I had a talk with myself about why it might bother me. And after a period of self reflection, I think it's this: 1) I know better than to ask someone if they're pregnant. Ever. 2) What if they were wrong? That's going to make me feel really good if in 6 months someone asks me when I'm due. "Umm, about 3 1/2 months ago."

I've never struggled with my weight. Which I know doesn't warrant a ton of sympathy. But it hasn't been something that I've struggled with. From 20 weeks on, I've put on more weight than I care to admit. I've never bought into the mentality of "Eat for 2!" or "You can eat whatever you want, it's fine!" Because I know that you inevitably have to pay for that sooner or later. So I've been going on walks a few times a week (down by the beach), and I've been eating better than I had for the past 2 trimesters. My diet has basically broken down into this: 1st trimester=staying alive long enough to beat morning sickness, 2nd trimester=learning to eat a balanced diet again as I begin reintroducing foods into my system, and 3rd trimester= actually watching what I eat. So why do I keep packing on the pounds?! I'm not sure, but I know that I'm doing the best I can to make sure it's at least healthy weight. Even if I do gain 70 pounds, I know I did everything to stop it.

But I know it's messing with my head, and every time I eat something that basically isn't a fruit or vegetable I feel like I'm just adding on another pound to my weight gain. I had a dream last night that I gained 120 pounds in between my appointments, which was terrifying at the time (and yes, amusing now). I remember crying in my dream "But I don't even LOOK that fat!" So... yeah. I'm learning to embrace my body. I'm grateful that baby Giullian is still growing healthy, and I get my final ultrasound on Monday and get to see her again!

Girls' Trip to Dallas!

So around Christmastime, Brandon said I should go to Dallas to visit Alyse. He knew I was homesick, and while I would have loved to see my whole family it was more than enough fun to plan to go out to Dallas.

So I planned to come out while Tommy was in Denmark for his brother's wedding, and then my mom decided to come out too! So it was a girl party, just with Dane and without Bethany. We knew Dane would have rather it been a "boy weekend", with Brandon and Papa and Tommy, but he was a good boy to all of us. We actually think it helped improve his relationship with Grandma (apparently he wasn't that nice the last time around).

On my flight out, I got the second row aisle seat and it was great. I love getting off an airplane as quickly as possible. We flew over the Mississippi Delta, and I got as good of a picture as I could.

 Dane wasted no time in showing off his tricks, including "I'm doing pushups".

 One morning I woke up to two hands on my belly and a face near mine saying, "Hey Camille". Then he started jumping from air mattress to air mattress.

 See? Dane liked Grandma. He even let her sit on his bench... I had to sit on the other one.

My one request while we were in Dallas was to get In-N-Out. Ever since I have been able to eat red meat again, I've just wanted it. It was so worth it.

 Double Double. Mmmmm.

While we were in Dallas, we helped Alyse with a lot of the settling in jobs she hadn't been able to do on her own in their new house. The one that I documented was painting an accent wall on Dane's toy room.

We decided that if we were going to do it, we were going to do it right. We watched Youtube videos on how to paint a wall, and went to Lowe's to get the materials. We even found some paint that doesn't have the harmful fumes that are dangerous for pregnant women (although that was by accident). We wanted to make sure we did it right, since we have some boys in our family who would have judged us (cough cough).

(I did wear the mask when I was painting up high, because I didn't want to risk anything happening.)

And after the first coat, this is what it looked like!

 Dane woke up from his nap before we could put on a second coat, so I played with him while  my mom and Alyse worked on it. We gave it the night to dry off and get the smell out, then the next day we moved Dane's furniture into his new room. He wanted to be in a cage like the animals.

And this is an angle of the final product!

It's kind of a steel blue color, I like it a lot. That's an ABC's poster over his bed, and he likes it but apparently he's scared of alligators now.

One of the nights we were out we went to a gourmet popcorn place. It had some GREAT flavors. We got dill pickle (which I had at BYUI but not since) and some fantastic dessert flavors. Kind of pricey for the good stuff, but worth a try.

 Dane was climbing by the counter and kept saying "Look Mom, I'm so high!"

He LOVED all the candy.

He was a tiny bit scared of UF's mascot on the wall, saying it was a scary alligator.

We went to church on Sunday, but just knew we had to get a belly picture at least once on this trip. I'm almost 28 weeks here, and Alyse had just passed the 30 week mark! Those babies are coming so soon!

And Dane wanted to get in on it, but we had to try and convince him to look at the camera.

After church we went to Lantana to see Nathan and Kristin. They told us they were having another GIRL! Woohoooooo more girls! We did get a picture of the 3 bellies. Kristin keeps saying she's so big but she isn't... and it's #7.

We had a great time in Dallas! The only thing we didn't do that I had wanted to was go to the temple. We had a chance, but both pregnant girls' backs were hurting so we decided not to. We HAD just moved Dane's room.
Some other funny things that happened were:

 Dane was watching the video of the Good Samaritan (Or the "bad guys" story, as he calls it), and he was very concerned.

We played "Cars" with Lightning McQueen and tractor tippin' a lot. The blocks are the tractors, and I had Lightning. Frank the Combine was played by a school bus, and I just had to make sure that Lightning did get away from Frank.
We went on a lot of walks, and Dane wanted to talk to Grandma more than he wanted to sit facing the right way.

Whenever anyone would go into the bathroom, Dane would sit outside and say "Hey Camille!" One time he kept saying "Can you see me?" so I got down on the floor and could see a little eye looking back at me. What a hilarious person.

I was sad to leave, but happy that on both of my flights home my view was like this:

Second row aisle baby! If it weren't for the man who sounded like he was dying sitting next to me I would have been perfectly happy. Ugh. I'm getting so paranoid, especially since on my next flight I'll have an infant (!!!!! My own!!!)
And of course, I missed the beach. I will confess though, about 3 minutes after I took this picture I stumbled into the entrance of the nude beach... I am afraid to ever walk south again.

The Lion King

So Brandon's Christmas present to me was to go see the Lion King in theater. I had heard ads for it on the radio and was so excited that he picked up on my hints!

The play was FANTASTIC. The actors were so talented, Brandon said the older Simba sounded like Bruno Mars (he kind of did). It followed the movie pretty closely, although they did throw in a scene where Scar wants to make Nala his queen. That would have been way too dark for Disney.

But now that I know Brandon CAN like musicals, I am on to my next conquest- Wicked in March! We'll see if I can convince him.

We just love that we can do these things without driving for hours on end, like we would have had to in Idaho.

Baby liked it too, she was dancing the whole time.

15 weeks to go.

I've made it to 25 weeks.
Fortunately things are getting less "less dignified". I haven't gotten sick in over a month hallelujah!

I'm definitely getting nervous about everything we need to get done and buy before the baby comes. She could be born any time in the next 15 weeks, which is an alarming thought!

We've been buying some clothes and books for her, but I don't have any idea of what else I need to do.

I've finally gained back all the weight I lost in the first trimester. I'm trying to tell myself that it's GOOD to watch my weight climb on the scale. I've cut out candy (for now), which has helped me to not gain a ton. Also, since my belly has popped out, I wish I had counted how many people have congratulated me on my pregnancy or said "I didn't even know! Are you 3 months?" Nope, just 6.

(I feel like my face looks super bloated here, but Brandon assured me it was the wind blowing my hair around. Note the cruise ship in the background of the grainy sunset picture.)

Some signs of where I'm at in pregnancy-

I'm pretty sure I could be a dragon right now. Heartburn is killer! I feel like I should smell like smoke, because I feel like I'm on fire every night when I go to bed.

I've had some hip pain while sleeping. By hip pain, I mean it feels like my hips have broken off. That will be fun for the next few months.

But, my favorite thing is feeling this little girl dance all day every day.

And all night. This is our theme song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Hgz-q76KtQ

In fact, when I pulled that song up she stopped dancing to listen (I'm guessing). I guess we have a KISS fan on our hands!

When I lay down to sleep at night, she will start dancing. The other night, I felt her kicking the mattress on my left side. I rolled to my other side, and felt some movement before she started kicking the mattress on my right side. This happened 5 or 6 times. What the heck are we going to do when she's actually here?!

Whenever I sit down to read a book, she goes the craziest. So I just end up watching her ripple across my stomach and headbutt me. She will still get shy when I want Brandon to feel her kicking, but he has been able to see her moving a lot. It's still the most incredible thing to watch.

Beginning of Semester 2

Well, since Brandon's back at school (wahhhh!), I thought I'd do exactly what he told me not to do and brag talk about how well he did last semester.

We have been told since he got accepted into PA school that the first semester would be the hardest. We are still hoping that is true. Because after last semester, you would think he could do anything but we are having a baby right before his finals week! So the adventures never stop.

But when I found out I was pregnant just as his semester was starting, I had no idea that meant I would be basically out of the running for an entire semester. This semester, I've made a resolve to be much better about being productive and contributing to this household. But Brandon picked up the slack, and as hard as I knew it was for him he really did not blame me.

In addition to my being sick, Brandon was called as the Ward Mission Leader in our ward. I found out yesterday that they've never called a grad student to be the WML because it is such a time consuming calling. Naturally. But he really has never complained about it. He hasn't been able to do 100% of his calling, because there aren't enough hours in the day to do that and be a balanced student, but he has stretched himself to make sure he can get done what needs to get done.

I think that because he has taken on all this without putting anyone else at fault, and with a positive attitude, he did as well as he did. Because he got a 4.0! Thank goodness. He is the epitome of "Be prepared and ye shall not fear". From day 1 he made sure to set aside a few hours a day to study, and by the time finals came around he wasn't cramming to make sure he got the absolute best grade possible because his final grade depended on it. No, he went in with a clear conscience knowing that he needed to get above a B (or C, or D, whatever) to get an A in the class. Granted, he got A's on all his finals but he was not overly stressed out about it. He had already built up such a padding that he didn't need to pull any all nighters to make sure he was ok. 

I'm proud of how hard he has worked so far, and I know he will work hard this semester too. He did say that he will have a harder time studying for finals this semester, because he'll just be thinking about the baby coming. I'll keep pushing him to study, but I'll secretly enjoy that.

New Year's Resolutions- 2015

Time for resolutions again?

Well, my resolutions from last year kind of tanked. I didn't run much, I didn't attend the temple once a week, I didn't finish the Book of Mormon (I am so close though! Ether 7... I'm not giving up.)

But, we did have some successes. Mainly, we were able to budget and save enough to afford our entire move out by ourselves. We did read the Book of Mormon as a couple every day (And finished it for the second time since getting married!), and I did try my best to attend the temple.

So, here are some new ones for 2014:

- Make a real budget. We always have a budget that goes something like "Well, if we don't buy ____ then we can buy ____". And so far it's working fine, but we need to step up our game if we want to afford a baby. And along with that:

-Plan at least 3 meals a week. Planning meals are the bane of my existence right now. I just hate it, it's so boring. Standing in the kitchen either makes me nauseous or really hungry, so either way I need to eat while I'm cooking. Then I lose my desire to cook. I figure if I make 3 meals a week (crockpot, most likely), then we can have leftovers the other days. We are good about planning a Sunday meal, but other than that it's just kind of hit and miss.

-Log 200 miles this year. I don't care how it gets done. Walking, running, biking, whatever. I will go on long walks a lot, like 3 miles or so. Doing that a few times a week helps me feel better about not running. So I figure if I give myself a number, I can start working towards it. Starting with today.

-Bring 12 names to the temple. I want to do more, but I figure setting a low goal will help me feel better about myself if we meet it. As I said before, I will keep going while pregnant until it hurts too much to go. Hopefully I have a few more good sessions left in me! After that, Brandon and I said we would go separately, and the other will watch the baby. Again, who knows how that will go over but we want to take advantage of the temple being so close.

-Read 50 books. I keep reading Alyse's reading blog, and I'm jealous that she has the discipline to keep finding new books and reading them. So I decided to make something out of that. I already have at least 6 books in mind to start.

-Keep reading the Book of Mormon every day, together and separately. I am going to keep up with the "Book of Mormon 365" challenge, and I am working right now on finishing last year's reading.

I also told Brandon that I want to lose 20 pounds by the end of April... he didn't get it.

NYE 2014

We didn't have many plans for New Year's Eve. Let's be honest, it's kind of a boring holiday when you don't drink or party and whatnot. So we were just going to get Chinese food and watch a movie and call it good.

Brandon went to a baptism for an investigator (I had just gotten home from picking someone up at the airport, so I stayed home because of a headache), and on his way home heard an ad for the Orange Bowl. We hadn't realized it was just at the Dolphins stadium, which is 5 miles from our house. He came home and looked up tickets. THREE DOLLARS. He asked me if I wanted to go, and I said sure so we headed out. I wasn't expecting a ton on the location of our seats, but here we were:

11th row back, right behind Georgia Tech's end zone. It was fantastic. We ha someone take our picture to prove we were there.

Before the game they had parachuters come in with the flags, and the national anthem was sung by an up and coming artist, Christina Grimmie. She was really good.

The two marching bands performed before the game, and it was insane how big Mississippi State's band was!

The halftime show was by "Little Big Town", a country band. My favorite part was that amongst their huge group of backup dancers there was a girl who seemed to have a low functioning disability of some sort. It made me so happy to know that they included her, even though she didn't really participate. That is inclusion!

It was a pretty exciting game. Georgia Tech stomped on Mississippi State. Here you can see just how close we got.

I mean, I enjoyed it and I'm not even into football. Brandon was in hog heaven, jumping up and down and screaming. I was wearing my gold jacket so we ended up just rooting for Georgia. I'm glad we did, because they were really good!

We left with about 10 minutes to go, because Georgia was up 49-27 so we figured we wouldn't miss the comeback of the century. Right at we came over the Intercoastal Waterway the clock struck 12, and we saw tons of fireworks going off over the ocean. We parked in our parking lot and ran (yes, I ran. And only felt like I was going to explode a little.) to the Trump towers to watch the fireworks on the beach. We had Cherry 7Up because it was easier to open than Martinelli's, and drank some on the beach as all the rich tourists lit their fireworks.

And just like that it's 2015! I told Brandon it feels extra surreal this New Year, because we are having a baby in a few months. Now we are having a baby THIS year! What the heck.