Killer Boogers, and Happiness

We have had a good couple of past weeks. I have spent the last five or so years of life in a constant state of stress. Seriously. Basketcase stress. Enough already. My life is now dedicated to happiness.
It does help with stress levels that even though I am on a wicked mad job hunt, I get to wear pj's all day and am learning to knit. Evelyn, the fearless rockstar, knitting? Yes, I'm HARDCORE, YO!!! Knitting brings happiness, I tell you. ...OK, I really need a job...

One more thing that brings me happiness: the Neti Pot. For a few weeks now, my husband (who will be totally mad at me telling this story but this is what he gets for never reading my blog) has been complaining of severe pain in his nose. He keeps thinking it is some sinus infection but I think it is either a tumor or a killer booger. Maybe it's the little man my mom told me about that bites your finger when you pick your nose. Anyways, Jake keeps whining about it and we have tried everything to get rid of it. Since our health insurance doesn't kick in until June 1st, we are all about home remedies. I followed Oprah's advice and got him the Neti Pot. Worth the eight dollars and MUCH MUCH more for the sheer entertainment value of watching him pour water up one nostril and it come out the other.

Take Luck!!!

Around 7:00 Friday night Jake and I met our friends Rob & Ashley for dinner. They were on their way to St. George because they had tickets to the sold-out show of the best comedian ever, Brian Regan (get some leaves!!!!).

Then we had a brilliant idea.... we should go TOO. It didn't matter that the show had been sold out for months.... we were going to be like ROCK STARS, living on a WING AND A PRAYER. That's right. We were going to try and be... spontaneous!! Duh, duh, duh (that is the evil music).We had a blast. We ended up packed and on the road by 9:00 p.m. and rolled into St. George around 1 a.m. I even stayed awake. Rock star. We spent Saturday hiking through Red Rock which was awesome. Saturday night we still didn't have tickets but went anyway, praying somebody would scalp them. Five minutes before the show started, I think my quivery lip worked, because a guy approached Jake and sold us TWO THIRD ROW TICKETS. Yeah. It was awesome and if you don't already know Brian Regan, make him your friend. He will change your life.

We spent the next day waddling through Zion's and Bryce Canyon. It was so nice to be out in the sun (I may have caused a few traffic accidents with the glow off my skin).

Here are Rob & Ashley in his pimp car. He can do THIS, but I can ride a bike with no handlebars.

Worst part of the trip, though, was when we went out for breakfast. I was STARVING. I ordered a double order of crepes. The waitress looked disgustedly at my big swollen 'pot belly' and said, "You sure you don't want a half order? That's one whole crepe." And I said, "DOUBLE order. With HASH BROWNS. And four tons of BUTTER." Rude.

It was a wonderful impromptu weekend. I think the baby liked it too because I think I felt it move for the first time... or it was gas... from the crepes. Either way, fun.

And if you haven't heard already, my little sister Becca has the best news ever!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!! Preggers!!!

I miss my friend sanity.

Well, it's not like I ever had MUCH sanity but any inkling of that has been lost.

We are officially Utah-rds again and honestly we love it so far! We are doing our best to fit in and say words right like 'moun-ennnn' and 'oh my HECK.' We are worried if people are around us too long, though, we might get kicked out.

I have officially spent the first two weeks in almost 10 years without a full time job. Oh dear. That's all I should say. I have enjoyed so many things, like wearing my robe until noon and never missing an episode of Price is Right. I have even tried cooking but I almost blew up my house so we'll see how far that goes in the future..... I am so used to being busy that I'm not sure what to do with all this time. I am on the hunt for another job but I am starting to look more pregasaurus than having a big donut belly so I'm a little concerned about people wanting to hire me.... oh, the woes. Woe.

The hardest part is having all this free time to think. I have been so excited about the baby and how things are going. ...but now, I have started to realize that one day this baby will come OUT, and then... oh crap. We will be responsible for it. Some nights I get so scared that I can't sleep, just worried that I will forever traumatize and screw up our helpless little miracle. Plus I also have a fear it will be ugly. Rude, I know. (I have thought of MANY ways to cover it up, though, involving hats and helmets).

Thanks to savvy Becca, though, I have discovered that I can still look AWESOME while I vacuum with my baby. Check this out:

And one more thing: Stretchy pants were sent from heaven.

Changes. Ah.

It’s official – we are moving. We know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is the right thing to do, even if we don’t have it all figured out yet.
This has been a stressful thing to say the least, since we had a week to prepare. Jake and I went down this weekend to find a place to live. That was a scary experience. I am still rocking bath and forth from the trauma. We went to countless places where I expected to find dead hippies in the closet among the cockroaches. By Saturday we were getting really discouraged. We decided to just drive around to areas we liked – we found the cutest little townhome for rent in Pleasant Grove that was an AWESOME deal. Yay for not living in a place with cottage cheese ceilings where we will die when we lick the walls! Here is a picture and since I am what people call 'slow' I can't figure out how to rotate it in the right direction.
One of the ultimate signs to me that this was meant to be is how everything has fallen into place. We have already found a nice CLEAN little family to rent our house and they will move in this weekend. Can I get a halle-freakin-llujah and a WHEW in da house, people??!!! I have been finishing out the last week at my job while Jake is at home packing. I am under orders from the doctor to do no moving, which is actually more frustrating than anything because I feel like a lazy, dictator cow. I hate asking for help and I hate having to see him work so hard and I get to eat chicken wings and massage my belly. Oh well. This is how I am handling the stress. I decided I am a walrus.
I am excited to be in Utah again but hate this moving thing and having to start over. I pray we survive it through this week!! Jake is handling it by pretending to be Japanese.

For those in Utah, please come visit. We need mental help!

Decisions, Decisions

I have always and forever HATED making decisions. I can be opinionated, bossy, obnoxious, and gassy, but regardless, big decisions are always hard. We are in the midst of a HUGE, MIND-BLOWING decision that has me all wrapped up in turmoil and uncertainty. (OK, I’m dramatic, but it’s still a big decision).

Jake lost his job several months ago. It has been a trial for us, unlike anything we’ve been through before, but we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we have looked on from a power greater than our own. Even on the day he was laid off, I never felt stressed because a peace came over both of us - that we would somehow be OK. It was only the week after he lost his job that we found out we were pregnant. It has been confusing to think that we felt so strongly we were to come to Boise, for Jake’s job specifically, only to lose it and then be blessed with something we always wanted but not know how to take care of the future…. again we somehow felt we’d be OK.

Jake was wonderful to bounce back and applied at hundreds of places, from Home Depot to selling cell phones. I have been amazed at his attitude during this process. I also know I have been fortunate to have a good job, but it pays nowhere near enough to support our family, including an expensive, diaper-wearing miracle that will soon join us.
A few weeks ago Jake got a job painting – definitely not the dream but something he was willing to do to get money in and to make ends meet for our family. That same week we heard from a web design company down in Orem, Utah that he’d applied to more than a month ago. We had decided after he applied that we should stop looking for jobs in Utah because it is just not good timing…. We had kind of written it off.
Jake still did several phone interviews with this company and not surprisingly, because he is FABULOUS, they loved him. They met with us last week when we were down for Easter to offer Jake a position. It is a good offer which would enable us, if we’re careful, to be able to have me stay home with Piddley.

Here’s the problem: our wonderful house. We had every intention of being in Boise permanently and bought our house because the buyers market truly was awesome. We have called our realtor back and even though we got our house for an amazing deal, the market up here is still horrible to sell and there’s no way we could sell it. Yeah. Crap. It also means having to change insurance/doctors/hospitals for my big old preggo self. It means leaving so many good friends and familiarity that we have made, and probably moving into a 1 bedroom basement apartment.

Pros: Jake would be HAPPY in his job (they have rock band parties every week, come on!) and we would be closer to family (Becca is cringing).

We have been fasting and praying and thinking hard. What do we do?

Ramblings of a Freaking Crazy Preggo

So I have determined that being preg-a-saurus is not so much an easy thing. Really…. Yeah. We have wanted a baby for a long time, and we are so thrilled (thanks for all your congrats!) but I never thought much about the pregnancy thing…. So I feel guilty for complaining about being pregnant, because it’s a miracle, but it is TOTALLY not what I expected. I have such new-found respect and admiration for all my friends that have been through this, and even so many more that have felt it worse than I have!

I do not have morning sickness – I have all day long sickness. The smell of my very own dear husband sends me into instant gagging and convulsions. The other day I exorcist vomited over my friend’s shoes because she ate yams in front of me, and just the name of ‘yams’ made me sick. We can no longer watch food commercials because I need a bucket close by.
And to make it worse, my boobs have NOT gotten bigger yet. What's the deal??
Then there’s the tired thing. I think I could sleep for 4 million years. I actually kind of like that, but it doesn’t help when it’s 11 a.m. at work and I’m in a meeting and I start drooling. Yes, it happened. They call me Drooly, the 8th Dwarf.
And I swear, I already waddle. I am 12 weeks along…. I shouldn’t even show, but I waddle. Sigh.

So let me sigh to you about the drama of this weekend. My body has been going through all these wonderful changes and if you can even imagine, the hormones have made me even MORE crazy. I decided it was time to get a new haircut and highlight so I could feel somewhat better about myself. The hair change ALWAYS helps. The lady that normally does my hair quit because she had a baby, so I made an appointment with another lady at her salon. I was paranoid and she re-assured me the hair dye and everything would be perfectly safe and normal. She was a liar.
Everywhere she tried to put brown, it turned fluorescent orange. No joke. Like a hunter hopped up on 80’s pills. I started BAWLING right there in the chair. I told her to just shave it. Bald is better than looking like one of those things they flag planes with. She told me that she has never seen it happen, but my hormones must have been so crazy they made my hair turn orange. Cry. So she ended up putting blonde everywhere to get rid of the orange, but now I look like a wanna-be Dolly Parton. I am BLONDE. I am too afraid to get it fixed, for fear it could turn green or rainbow or just fall out…. So the next 6 weeks I will be a waddling, Dolly-Parton, drooling, cry-at-car-commercials psychopath. It’s going to be a long time until October…….

BIG, HAPPY NEWS!!!

I've been waiting to say this news for over four years....

WE ARE GOING TO HAVE A BABY.

Somehow miracles and tears and prayers all worked together and I am on my way to being a baby mama.
Little Piddley Poo will be here around October 23rd. (Considering our family history, though, we should expect an 80 pound monster sometime around Thanksgiving).

I just want to say... YAY!