Two pictures

First, these are the flowers Husband brought me on Saturday, which was our anniversary -- you should all be impressed. My bouquet for our wedding was blue irises (also one of my favorite flowers), and he threw in some yellow lilies because yellow was my other color and also lilies are my other favorite flowers. They are so pretty!
He worked until about 1 and then picked up the flowers and some chocolates on the way home. That evening we went out to dinner and did a little bit of shopping. One stop was Deseret Book, where we bought the first Fablehaven book (it was pretty good, we'll have to get the others sometime...) and Husband insisted on buying me the pregnant Willow Tree figurine. I had to laugh. :)

And second, here I am at 22 weeks.
For reference, you can find the 18-week picture here and the 20-week picture here.

My poor husband

[Another really long post. My apologies.]

Steven's job right now is with a carpet-cleaning company. They also do carpets repairs, floods, etc.

They take turns working Saturdays and being on-call after hours. Last weekend it was Husband's turn to be on-call.

They don't always get called in to take care of a flood, but Sunday afternoon when he was on his way home from Church he got a call -- a sewer had backed up and flooded two neighboring apartment units. Because it was a pretty large problem, another person was also called in to help.

He left our house at about 1:30 to go to the job, and they finished it around 7. (They were probably there for about 5 hours.)

As he was about to leave to head home, another call: another flood. Thankfully, this one was much smaller and did not involve a sewer backup.

He got home around 9.

So, this week has been a long one already, and very exhausting.

A couple of days ago the boss let everyone know that they would all be working on Saturday, at least for the morning. An apartment complex had called needing all their units cleaning...and the only day they could do it was Saturday.

Saturday is our anniversary. The boss happened to know this and told Husband that he was hoping they'd all be able to work together and get it done by noon and then he could have the rest of the day. [I really hope that works out. We've got a few plans, like going to the temple and maybe doing some baby shopping.]

Anyways, this all adds up to 3 weeks of work with only two days off (last Saturday and this Sunday).

And then guess what happened.

You'll never believe it.

At about 10:15 tonight, Steven got a phone call.

There are NINE HOUSES in Midvale that are flooded, and everybody is getting called in to go take care of that.

NINE HOUSES.

In MIDVALE. That's a half hour away.

I grabbed some drinks and all the granola bars and other snacks I could find and stuck them in a plastic bag for Husband to take with him. He left about 10 minutes after he got the call.

They all met at the shop, and he called me at 11 to say that they were just leaving and heading towards the highway.

He also gave me some more details. Some of them are rather graphic, so you can skip the next paragraph if you'd like.

Not only are there nine houses that are flooded, all in the same neighborhood, but it's because a sewer line backed up. (He doesn't think it broke.) Apparently, some of these houses have a good TWO FEET* of raw sewage in them. LOVELY. Don't you think? Ugh.
[*This seems like a lot to me...maybe he meant two inches, I don't know.]

There are 6 people and 6 trucks on their way to Midvale right now. They'll split up the houses between them.

Remember how it took Husband and one other guy about 5 hours to do two apartments the other day? These are HOUSES. And they're in a lot worse shape than those apartments were.

Needless to say, everything Husband is wearing tonight will probably be BURNED.

He just bought new work shoes on Monday because he threw out the ones he wore on Sunday.

He didn't wear those...he found an old pair of shoes that will do the trick and that he doesn't really need. Not work shoes, just old shoes. But sturdy.

So basically, if all goes well [if none of the trucks break down, Husband says], they will be there for probably at least 8 hours.

And tomorrow's schedule? VERY BUSY. There's a 6am job and several 9am jobs, and some of those might have to be canceled.

And then they get to work all day. On NO SLEEP. And it's Friday tomorrow, but that doesn't even offer any comfort because they ALL have to work on Saturday as well.

Poor guys.

At least they will all be well-compensated. Oh yes. (Pretty sure that's the only reason why the boss took this flood job in the first place.)

I'm going to try not to wait up, but it's going to be hard. Especially when I find it easier to relax when I'm not alone and trying to sleep.

And tomorrow is my early day -- my shift at the temple starts at 6 am.

At least I can come home and take a nap.

Adventures in finals

[This is a really long and slightly rambling post. Sorry. Read at your own risk.]

Yesterday (Wednesday) was the last day of finals for winter semester.

I had three that I had to take during finals week, all that I could take any time I wanted.

I planned on taking one Friday afternoon after the temple, one Saturday morning, and one Saturday afternoon.

Didn't happen, because I woke up sick on Saturday. I did get the one done of Friday, but I didn't get any done on Saturday.

Sunday, of course, is a day of rest :) plus I was still sick.

Monday I was still too sick.

By Tuesday, I was feeling some better but not well enough to do two finals on the same day. I needed to finish studying, anyways. But I took one of the two that day.

Wednesday around four in the afternoon I decided I was as ready as I was going to be for my last final, and that I might as well go take it.

So I headed to campus. I knew that the line for the testing center would be long, but I had NO IDEA just how long.

There is a reason why it's a bad idea to wait to take a final on the last day. Thank goodness this is my only experience with this, ever. Because it WILL NOT be happening in the fall. You can count on that.

The line wound all the way through the testing center and out and past 3 more buildings.

BIG buildings.

And it was HOT yesterday. At least 80, and very sunny.

This is NOT a good thing when your baby already doesn't let you be on your feet for more than half an hour without getting dizzy and passing out. (No, I'm not anemic, my blood pressure is fine, I eat plenty, I do my best to stay hydrated...nobody knows why but it keeps happening so I deal with it.)

So I stood in that line for about 15 or 20 minutes and got maybe a third of the way from where I was when I started to the building (but I'm sure the line inside the building was at least half as long as the line outside the building). Then this testing center employee starts coming down the line with a list asking people what test they're taking, because some tests had been changed to a different location.

[During finals week, there are THREE separate testing centers. One houses most tests, including the tests for pretty much all upper-level classes. Another houses mainly HUGE freshman-level classes, like American Heritage 100, Biology 100, and Physical Science 100 (among other things). The last is for all religion tests (and there are a lot, because it's a private Church-owned university). But, the religion testing center closes early on the last day of finals, and certain tests from the main testing center are sent there. They do this to make the line shorter and also so that they (the employees) won't be there all night long. As long as you're in line by 9pm, you'll get to take your test, it just might be a while. A couple of years ago the last person didn't finish until about 3am.]

Phew.

So, I had to leave the line that I'd just spent 20 minutes in and go to another building and stand in yet ANOTHER line.

I was in that line for another 20 minutes.

By the time I had been in that line for about 10 minutes, I was feeling pretty dizzy.

By the time I actually got the the front of the line and told them what test I needed, I was about to pass out.

AND THEN. And then they didn't even have a copy of the test I needed available. Apparently they only had a couple of copies of that test and they were all being used.

Fabulous, eh?

And then I promptly passed out.

Of course I was able to communicate this with those around me before I actually did. And I was able to catch myself so I didn't actually hit the floor.

[Is it bad that these are things that I am good at? I've had a lot of practice...]

Well, they were very nice and helped me to a chair and wrote down which test I was waiting for and told me they'd come get me when they had a copy.

FORTY-FIVE MINUTES. That's how long I waited for a copy to be available.

By this time I was so ready to be done that I took the test in about 30 minutes.

100 questions. Multiple choice.

I only got a B, but I say that's PRETTY DARN GOOD considering what I went through to get that test done.

Name Suggestions

These are the names that my brother Robert suggested for his nephew:

Billy Bob
Bubba
Spike
Spot
Cowboy
Fred
Cowboy Fred

I told him I'm keeping a list that I can give to his wife when he gets married.

Anybody want to add more to the list?

And the verdict is...

Kristen had asked if I was feeling one way or the other before the ultrasound. At the very beginning, I was kind-of-sort-of thinking girl, but the further along I got the more I was thinking boy. Husband really really really wanted a boy and kept insisting that that's what it was.

The vote was pretty well split, though. Up until last night it was showing girl slightly ahead, but the final results are 21 for boy and 18 for girl.

Before I tell you what it is, there are more important things...like the baby's health...and I've got good news there! Everything is looking perfectly normal and healthy. The baby is measuring a few days behind schedule, but that's not a big deal.

I've got my ultrasound pictures, but they'll have to wait to be posted later when I can get to a scanner.

So, have I driven you crazy yet? (Some of you probably skipped down to this part to begin with, I'm sure.) Well, looks like we're having a boy! The ultrasound tech said she was sure, but she did have a hard time getting a good picture of it. Anyways, we're pretty excited. Husband is thrilled...he got just what he wanted!

As for names (Jenilee asked), we do have a list of names that we like. We're lucky that we agree about most names. All the names on the list are very traditional, and many are biblical. We probably won't give him a definite name until he's born, though.

Although, there is one definite in this area: If he's born on 5 September, we'll name him after his uncle and his daddy, because that's their birthday, too.



And before I go, I thought you might like to see a picture I took from my balcony today:

Ugh.

Halfway

Today marked 20 weeks, the halfway point of this pregnancy.

Although I don't know that you can see much of a difference from the picture I posted here, here's a picture of me this evening. (Thanks for the dress, Britt!)


Thanks for voting on the poll. It's pretty close to equal at the moment, with girl being just a bit ahead (has been since voting started). If you haven't voted yet, please do :)

I'll post tomorrow night. I might even share an ultrasound picture or two...we'll see.

--------

In other news...

Today was also the last day of classes. Tomorrow and Thursday are reading days, and finals start on Friday. Two of my classes had in-class finals, so I'm done with those. Just three more tests! I'm planning to be done by Saturday (think I can do it?) but finals don't end until next Wednesday, so I've got plenty of time if I need it.

Almost time

Wednesday is my ultrasound! Finally.

So, I'm putting up a poll on my sidebar. Do you think it's a boy or a girl?

The poll will remain open until Wednesday at 4pm MDT, which is the appointment time.

Basically, I rock

Today I had my first final of the semester.

100%

Of course, it was a religion class, but whatever.

I think that's my first perfect final ever.

Conference

(For the not LDS readers of my blog, every six months we have what is called General Conference, and it was this weekend. It is a broadcast originating in Salt Lake, and we have the opportunity to hear talks about doctrine and receive counsel from our world-wide leaders.)


I'm currently working on writing a 7-page paper that is due in 5.5 hours (I've got almost 5 pages, which is 5 pages more than I had when I woke up this morning...yeah), so I don't have time at the moment to write anything really meaningful about the talks I enjoyed and the things I learned from Conference. But, I did want to share something that I read on another blog (just now while taking a quick break from writing) that sums up my feelings quite well. This comes from Emily at Light Refreshments Served:

"The conference as a whole seemed largely geared to helping us deal with change and loss and adversity, though never in a context of sadness but always of hope."

I think she got it exactly right.

Isn't the whole point of having a tournament to make the championship game really close?

Didn't work this year.

89-70, GO HEELS.

Hurrah

I just registered for my classes for fall semester - the last 3 classes (9 credits, even though I don't need that many, because it allows us to continue to live in Wymount until I'm done) I EVER have to take. I'm taking clinical psychology, western humanities 2, and intro to art history. I'll have classes M-Th evenings, and that's it.

Unless I decide sometime down the road that I want to go to grad school.

I'm also taking 2 classes (6 credits) during spring term: Abnormal Psychology and Intro to Social Psychology. Both classes are TTh.


THE END IS NEAR. HURRAH.

You asked, I answer

A couple of people have asked questions in the comments so here are my answers:

1) Are we going to find out what we're having and if so when?
The ultrasound is on 15 April (only 2 more weeks) and if the baby will cooperate then YES we will be finding out.

2) Will we be coming to NC this summer sometime before the baby is born?
Probably not. We'd like to, but travel gets pretty expensive... I would have loved to have a baby shower with everybody from home, but at this point it just isn't looking like it's going to happen.

Any other questions you guys want me to answer?

For those of you who have requested

18 weeks and 1 day

This is the best I could get in the mirror. I'll have Husband take some better ones later.

Hahahahaha

Go here. JustRandi strikes again!