Halloween?

Instead of studying or doing something productive, I am day dreaming about Halloween. I have always really enjoyed this particular holiday. Last year I was SO excited to actually live in a house in a neighborhood instead of the typical college apartment because I thought this meant that children would come trick-or-treating at our door. I went out and bought pumpkins to make the door step look appealing and 5-6 big bags of "good" candy- you know, mini candy bars. None of those tootsie rolls or dum dums that always get traded right off. Scott and I set ourselves up with a scary movie and waited. And waited. And waited. All night. Not one cute little goblin or princess came to obtain any candy from our house. I was so depressed that naturally I was forced to eat all the candy myself and 4 of the 5 bags where gone within 2 days. This year I will be a bit or miserly. If no one comes to an actually house, they for sure aren't coming to our current tiny apartment.

I also like dressing up for Halloween and usually sport at least 2+ costumes per year to various events. I guess we don't have enough of a social network anymore because this year we havent been invited to one dress-up event! I have a feeling, however, that some opportunity may present itself. In which case, I have absolutely no idea what i will do since I am huge and pregnant. I decided to google it. This is my favorite idea so far haha


I think the costume will be a little too much work for me though. And Im not crazy about exposing my bare belly painted white. So, i need ideas! Anybody seen any cute and easy pregnant costumes I can copy?

Picture Updates!

It's what you've all been begging for so finally I will acquiesce. This is the official 33 weeks pregnant belly pic AND my new haircut.

I like my new hair, but when I see the before and after, I can't help but miss my long locks! I am afraid my hair will never ever be long again. Short hair is just too easy. Here's a before and multiple views of after. I had to include the new 'do curled and straight.






So there you have it. Short hair.

In pregnancy updates, I got to visit the labor and delivery unit of the hospital not once, but twice this past week- don't worry, I wasn't in labor but did discover I had a really bad UTI. The second trip was three painful days later when I finally decided the antibiotics WERE NOT WORKING! Luckily I got an amazing shot of super-antibiotic and am feeling SO GOOD today! I won't go into the details of my suffering, but it was a very intense weekend.
Now I am getting ready for more school and tests and clinicals. I am VERY ready to be done with it all and focus on the baby, but unfortunately I have 4 more weeks until the bulk of the work is over. I hope I survive! It really isn't THAT hard, but it is getting more challenging by the day. Anyway, that's it for now!

I'm here

I guess it's time I gave a little update. Since I haven't blogged in many months! I am still alive, and still very pregnant- 32 1/2 weeks!- and barely surviving school. It has been a really busy semester, but time is just flying by! I can't believe our little boy will be here in less than two months! I am so excited. I am starting to feel all the aches of being very large in the abdominal region- inability to breath or eat more than about 1/2 a cup of food- and can not longer walk without the signature waddle of a pregnant lady.

We still haven't decided on a name yet. I am in my ICU and Psychiatric nursing clinicals right now. A couple of days ago I was at the State Mental Hospital for my first clinical day there of 8 days. About 5 seconds after I passed through the locked doors, a lady comes up to me, gets down by my tummy, and starts rubbing it. "Oh! There's a baby in there? You know his name? Well his name is Joshua." Here she starts yelling at my stomach. "Hi Joshua! What did you have for breakfast? What is mommy going to feed you for lunch? Are you pulling on your umbilical cord?" She let up a little when the psych tech reminded her she should be working on "boundaries." Haha! I guess we could always name him Joshua since apparently that is his predestined name according to the lady at the mental hospital.

Seriously, I think we are just going to have to get a look at his cute face before making a final decision. Why does naming a child have to be so stressful.

Anyway, everything else is going well. I have had 3 tests and 3 big assignments due within the last week, so that was pretty horrible but luckily it is behind me for awhile! School is keeping me extremely busy but a lot of it is due to the fact that I am working ahead so that I won't have too much to do when the baby comes (hopefully). Maybe I will take a picture of my pregnant self someday, although I currently avoid picture taking at all costs. We'll see.

In Washington DC!

Well, I've arrived! I actually got here to DC two weeks ago and Scott and I have been very busy having a blast! I figured I had better catch up before I get way too behind. We had been having fun seeing the sights around DC. This is an incredible city with a lot to offer- it has been really fun to be here so far. Scott and I live in housing provided by the church/BYU for BYU interns. It is just like a dorm and really reminds me of the way I lived when I was a freshmen at BYU in Deseret Towers. Our room is pretty small but we do have a fridge and microwave at least! We live on the girl's floor so that is interesting for Scott sometimes :)

The night I arrived, we decided to go out on the town to find something to eat. Our apt./dorm is about a 4-5 minute walk to Georgetown so we headed in that direction. There is quite a night scene here with TONS of college students out and about at midnight. A real city feel. We ended up just getting burgers and fries, but it was fun to be in the atmosphere. The next day we attended the ward Scott has been going to and that was really fun as well. About half of the members are African American and French speaking. The other members are also very diverse and multi-cultural so there was a really cool and different feel to the ward than the very mono-culture experience of a BYU married ward. After church we got off the metro at China town and took our packed lunches to the National Sculpture garden to eat. They had a huge fountain there and some really interesting sculptures. Unfortunately, jet lag, a killer headache and pregnancy combined with some huge blisters from my church shoes dulled the experience a bit. It has taken me quite awhile to condition myself to Scott's pace and the walking lifestyle we have. And form awesome callouses. Ha Ha

That week Scott had his internship every day so I was able to slowly adjust to being awake during the day (I had been working nights) and get unpacked etc. It has been SO nice to take it easy during the days- I almost got a volunteer position somewhere but decided that I would rather spend the short time I have here enjoying myself. There is some great shopping in the area which I have been taking advantage of. I bought my first pair of Haviana flip flops (Scott swears by them) AND my first little baby item- it's just a little blue onesy but I was pretty excited about it. I have also been taking some exploratory/exercise walks around the city during the day and visiting a few museums (most recently the Holocaust museum- highly recommended).

Without further delay, here are some of the sparse pictures from the past two weeks:

Scott and me on the Mall one day after Scott's work



We went to Alexandria, Virginia last week and had such a good time! It is the third oldest historic district in the nation. Washington, Jefferson, and many other important figures came there. It is right on the water and we ate seafood at this cute restaurant for lunch


We spent the fourth of July right in the heart of DC. The parade was awesome- notice how many tons of people were there! And the fireworks on the steps of the Capitol with the National Symphony playing in the background complete with cannons blasting was amazing as well







We went to a place called Ben's Chili Bowl for excellent chili dogs last weekend. Apparently it is a really famous place- Bill Cosby, Obama, and many other celebs have their pictures on the wall there


The following are from our trip to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on Saturday.




We also went to a cool historic town called Harper's Ferry, West Virginia on our way home from Gettysburg on Saturday. This was where a famous civil war battle occurred, as well as the attempted slave revolt led by James Brown.





Finally, yesterday before church Scott and I visited Arlington National Cemetery and saw JFK's grave, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the Iwo Jima monument. It was really beautiful there and humbling to see so many thousands upon thousands of gravestones. Here is Scott in front of the Iwo Jima monument:

It's a Boy!

So, it's official- my motherly instincts came through. I guess I had a 50-50 chance in guessing the gender correctly, but I have had very little doubt that our new baby would be a boy.
Sherry (my mother-in-law) and I went to the ultrasound this afternoon and had so much fun seeing the baby! He was apparently asleep at first, but with some gentle nudges from the doctor, he quickly awoke and started moving all over! Kicking his legs, stretching his whole body and curling up again. It was amazing. It's crazy that I'm not really feeling any of that movement yet. I am feeling lots of hunger though. I have never felt this hungry this often in my life. I can be really full then about 1.5 hours later, absolutely starving again. It is so strange. Anyway, here's a nice little photo of baby Jensen!

I Made It!

In case some of you didn't know, Scott and I are officially going to have a baby! And, I am very proud to announce that I have finally MADE IT into my second trimester and no longer feel nauseated 24 hours a day!! Energy levels are rising and I am starting to feel like myself again! And we are so excited to be having a little baby come live with us. I am 16.5 weeks pregnant at this point, and the baby is due Dec. 1.

Scott has been at an internship in Washington DC since the end of April, so it's been really tough going to school full time, working full time (I am now an LPN instead of a CNA- thank goodness), and feeling generally crappy without him around. But luckily, I get to fly to DC next week and I'll be there for the whole month of July!

I am also supposed to find out what gender the baby is next week! Apparently, they can tell as early as 14 weeks these days, but I have my doubts about whether they will be able to see anything or not. I really hope they can though- I can't stop thinking and wondering about it! I have a feeling it is going to be a boy, but I would love a sweet little girl too! Either one would be great.

Anyways, I just wanted to give an update since I am a neglectful blogger. Scott has the camera right now, so no pictures yet! But soon!

Eventful Weeks

A lot has been happening in our lives... which is one of the few sorry reasons I use as an excuse to not blog! One of the BEST things is that I recently found out I got a $5000 scholarship for next school year! I applied to this scholarship a few months ago thinking I'd never get it- and here I am! It is kind of a funny story how I found out I got it. We were at Scott's parent's house in Sandy for conference weekend and during the opening song of the LAST session, his mom says "hey, before I forget I got this piece of junkmail for you." I put their house as my permanent address because I thought I wouldnt hear back until we moved from our current place. I opened it to a CONGRATULATIONS! and was very surprised. I was glad she remembered the piece of "junk mail" because I had to mail it back in with my signature immediately to be rewarded!

In other news, we will be moving from our first home together in less than 2 weeks. I am really sad to leave this house because we have made so many happy memories here and it is so cute. We did, however, find a great apartment which is VERY close to campus and a lot less expensive than where we are living now, which brings me to my next news:

Our car broke down today. After 15 long years of life, two of which were spent in diligent service to Scott and me, it's time to say goodbye. This is why we are glad to get a rent break- because we will now be taking on a heafty car payment. I have never bought a car in my life. It stresses me out to think of having the responsibility to choose a car, then actually having to maintain it, insure it, gas, registration, emissions/saftey, etc. It has been so nice to have an old car for the last few years which was payment-free and stress-free. It's had many dings and scratches, but it's an old car, so who cares? A newer car will be all different. Not to mention that we will probably need to get one ASAP as I will be commuting from Sandy to Provo or Salt Lake daily in only 2 weeks time. Hmmm...

Finals are just ahead of us now as there is only 2 schooldays left. Scott and I are flipping out just a little trying to study, move and look for a car, but luckily the light at the end of the tunnel is drawing nearer and the semester will be over soon whether we are ready for it or not!