THANK YOU

The shower went well! Thanks to Rena, Jan, Dorothy, Mary, and Wendy for coming out to the shower! It was so much fun and it's was so great for you to meet Angie. Your gifts were adorable! Thank you Thank You THANK YOU for helping to support her during this time! I'm sure little Matthew will look absolutely adorable sporting all his new comfy cozy clothes.

Thank you to my mother-in-law who helped me get everything ready, ran errands for me and then stayed after to get my nursery all set up. The Blue room-as we call it, has gone from catch all junk room to a cozy nursery for new little guy. Without your help mom, I'm sure that room wouldn't have been ready until he needed to move in. Ava walked in there today and said, "ahhh cuuuuuute!" which in and of itself was way too adorable for words.

Thank you to Mindy for having a play date for Ava yesterday. I dropped her there about 4:30 and Chris got her about 8. She had a BLAST with her boys-Caydon and Davis and crashed on the way home. She woke up so happy and ready to tell me about their adventures...although she's so excited that I didn't understand much of it. It was nice to know she was having fun and being well taken care of so that I could focus on things here. Thank you!

And now....breakfast.

Katherine Tagged Me...here goes












7 random facts about me:

1. I can pop my toes without touching them and do it habitually about 7 billion times a day
2. When I am singing in a group of people I like to sing the tenor line up an octive. My choir director in college--Ms. Meg Chapman had me do it in Nearer my God to Thee and I've been addicted ever since. It's so awesome.
3. I had my first real growth spurt at 18 while in college. I grew 3 inches in a summer. finally passing that 5' mark
4. When I was a teen, I would pray for boobs. I mean, every night. My sister got them at 14, and by 16 I was still passing as 12. Well ladies and gents, be careful what you pray for! Height isn't the only thing I got in college.
5. 2 of my teeth are fake. I had "peg" teeth, which means they only grew in 1/2 the width they were supposed to and died. I pray every night that Ava gets Chris's teeth--even though they are HUGE!
6. I am double jointed in my thumbs and can bend them all sorts of disgusting ways.
7. last one..hmmm better make it good. I belong to a band that doesn't really exist. It's called 2 SHORTIES AND A MORMON. It was formed my junior year of high school of myself and my 2 best friends. at the time we were all about 4'10-4'11. We were inseparable. Our friend John created the name. One of them, VAL, is coming to my house for Thanksgiving. It'll be the first time I haven't seen her since my wedding reception in 2005.


The seven people who I tag are Becca, Nat, SaJ, Travis, Leah, Blake, and Kira.

Angie's baby shower is tonight at my house. 7pm. Please Come!!!

yesterday was my 20 week ultrasound. Simon is very healthy and very big already. He's already 14 ounces. His tummy measured at 21 weeks 5 days--the biggest part of his body--a whole week larger than the rest of his measurements! Chris was sure that the head would be the largest, since his noggin is above average in size ;) Ava has started grasping onto our statements that Simon is in my belly, and sometimes will lift my shirt, hug my tummy and kiss it and say HI SIMON! It is SO adorable <3

I want to take a minute to brag about my friend Ash. She moved here from PA with nothing but motivation to work herself ragged to become debt free and become the owner of her life. She's been out here a little over a month and is now working 2 jobs--average 60 hours a week. One is days and one is graveyard. She picks up any and every extra shift she can and is literally working harder than she has in her life. Her goal is to have her debt gone by late spring. She's spending 6 months of her 24th year of life working like crazy, so that the next 80 years can be free from the stress of payments. HOW AMAZING IS THAT?! Not many 24 year old cute girls would sacrifice family, friends, dating to become the owners of their lives. She is literally spending nothing so that she can get out of this mess ASAP! I am so proud of her. I wasn't excited about how she was coming to Utah, but she has proved to me, as well as everyone back home, that she meant business when she packed her bags and headed out here. She's fighting for her financial freedom...and is winning every single battle! Ash-you inspire me!
Thanks for embracing the nerd in me, and for giving me the privilege of being your accountability partner! I'm excited to see you pay off your first debt next month, and the next one the month after that...and scream with you the day we both become debt free!!!! Your life will NEVER be the same...and the memory of exhaustion that it took for you to get debt free, is VERY likely to keep you from slipping back into it. wooooooooooooooooooooooo hoo.

Things that make the preggy pessimism fade...in no particular order

• The knock on Ava's door every morning followed by "hewo??" and a big hug when I open it!
• The hugs from Chris when he gets home from work
• Surprise visits from Chris during the afternoon
  
• The huge hug I get on the mornings that Chris gets Ava and brings her to me, because I have no desire to leave my lumpy mattress--despite its lumpiness.
• Sunny days that mean Ava and I can venture outside for extended periods of time shoeless
• Lana and Hayden's greetings to Ava anytime they see her...big hugs and lots of energy and excitement to tell us all about their exciting adventures of that morning.
• Phone calls from Chris --his voice always soothes me.
  
• Random and totally sweet kisses from Ava. Sometimes she grabs my face and lays one on me like she's from a 1940s movie...it's so hilarious and totally sweet.
• Angie, Becca and Mindy being farther along than me...and therefore totally with me on my ironic and somewhat dark sense of humor that I have whilst pregnant.
• Ava singing "I am a Child of God" and telling me that I can't sing with her.
• Ava instructing me with an intensely furrowed brow "NO! A NICE!"
• Ava insisting that I "SEEEET DOWN!" next to her while she colors, eats, and doodles on her doodle pro...she loves to have my attention.
• FALL LEAVES!!!!!
• Dave Ramsey podcasts that aren't about government bailouts
  
• Feeling my baby move...even the kicks to the bladder aren't all that bad.
• a million other things that I'm too tired to remember. Mostly, this is for me to look up on days, hours, moments when I'm not feeling so swell.
  

Paper clips are officially banned from my house

Ava got up from her fabulous 4 hours nap--i love the fall by the way--and started playing. I was getting set to start up dinner, when she ripped off her diaper. So, we played the put the diaper back on game.
What I didn't realize...is that she had found a jumbo paperclip and had been hiding it in her mouth. She started choking when I put her down on the floor to put the diaper on. I flipped her over and started the whole "SPIT IT OUT!!!!!!!" routine. Usually, she does. In this case, she continued to choke for a good 4 seconds--which is painfully long in terms of choking. Then, it stopped...she looked at me for a moment got up and started running. I looked and looked for senior paper clip and he was NO WHERE. She SWALLOWED HIM!!!!!!!!

I had no idea how large the paperclip was, since the only time I saw it, was when it was 95% down her throat! We phoned her doc and they told us not to feed her anything, in case it got stuck somewhere or it may have been untwisted somehow when she swallowed, and to take her straight to the hospital. Chris took us to the ER and they X-ray her. It safely made it to the stomach and we were told to feed her and bring her back in the morning--or if she started to freak out. She was starving by the time we left the ER as it had been about 8 hours since she'd eaten or had anything to drink. She ate pizza AND noo-noos and milk and slept soundly. We took her back today and it's now in her colon. I suppose this is good news, as it looks like it will pass. They said if it had been any larger, they would have had to take it out with a scope--ewwwww.

p.s. the paper clip fiasco...happened right after I vacuumed my living room. Irony?

Eight Tag

Eight Tag

8 T.V. Shows I love to watch:

1. HOUSE
2. Gilmore Girls
3. Lost
4. Law & Order
5. HOUSE
6. Little Einsteins
7. Between the Lions
8. Micky Mouse Club House

8 things that happened yesterday:

1. Budget meeting with Ash to update her bill progress.
2. Riley brought me the food of the gods--cinnamon pull apart bread that her mom made
3. I made rice with 1 cup of water instead of 2...making it totally uneatable
4. Drew pictures with Ava
5. Tweaked my December budget--I'm a massive budget nerd
6. Loaded the dishwasher
7. Ignored the obvious need my carpet has for a good vacuuming
8. accused morgan of stealing my ultra fine point sharpie 23 color set...i know he did it!

8 favorite places to eat:

1. Ciotti home--haven't been there in YEARS
2. G & Pap Mancini home--also many years, but man the memory won't fade.
3. HDS in PA...the best kraut dogs and chili cheese fries in the whole world please come to UTAH
4. Sandi's house (my inlaw's) it's always amazing
5. The Prairie Schooner-so so yummy and I can actually hear what Chris says.
6. Red Robin-they custom make me a Buffalo Chicken Salad
7. Russ's house, because I love that house and secretly and openly covet the floor plan
8. BRUSTER'S ICECREAM

8 things I am looking forward to:

1. CALLING DAVE RAMSEY AND SCREAMING...I'M DEBT FREE
2. fall continuing...i like not having to use my AC or heater for days at a time. keep those utilities low
3. Trick or Treating with Ava and the massive tummy ache she's sure to incur
4. Finding motivation to cease ignoring my carpet's need for a vacuum
5. VAL COMING OUT FOR THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!
6. BLACK FRIDAY SALES
7. this migrain ending
8. Not being pregnant

8 things on my wish list:

1. Life without a car payment
2. A pair of black or brown flat boots that don't say "cowgirl" or "Indian" to wear in winter
3. Chris to graduate!!!!!!!!
4. A ranch style home with open floor plan and main floor laundry room
5. Better house wife skills
6. A date with my husband
7. An Osh Kosh outlet within sane driving distance aka in Davis or Weber county
8. A 350Z for Chris

Well, we made it! We had a great time in Montana with my grandparents. We hit I -15 about 2pm on Thursday, and pulled into their driveway about 9:30 that night. We made 3 stops on the way to let Ava, Chris and myself stretch our legs and run around a bit...also to gas up the SUV. It was a really pretty drive, and didn't feel as long as I thought it would.

I'll update with pictures soon with our adventures. The ride home was only 6 hours, because we only made one stop. Having the DVD player that Matt lent us, really made the trip MUCH easier on Ava. She watched Carebears and Veggie Tales--veggietales was her favorite though. She wasn't much into the Barbie Diamond Castle movie we rented--the sound was too low on the DVD to really hear it. SAD.

We are happy to be home! We stopped by Chris's folks house on the way home, and Ava got to play with her "boys" Caydon and Davis...her favorite people in the world. She played cars and horses with Davis and Caydon read her some stories...it was a really nice break for her to have some fun time with her favorite cousins and for Chris and myself to see his fam.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY today to DAVIS-who is 6...and my MOM who is "29 for the 23rd time"-direct quote from my dear mommy.