Sick again, plus some good news.

Poor Jeric.

He was sick exactly once while we lived in Utah, and it started while we were in NC for Christmas. (He also had eczema, but that doesn't really count as sick. I think it must have been from the dry climate because he hasn't had it since we moved here.)

He wasn't really sick at all this summer. But the moment it turned to fall and the weather started changing and the pollen got bad, he started getting sick! Doctor says it isn't related to allergies but I'm not so sure. (I have been allergy-sick every time he's gotten sick this fall.)

He currently has his 3rd ear infection since his birthday! He also has bronchiolitis (thankfully he tested negative for RSV) and has been fairly miserable.

I took him to the doctor yesterday and he had a nebulizer treatment that helped immensely, though he is still wheezing a good bit. He's been clingy and fussy and really sensitive about things that normally don't bother him (like tripping and falling down). But, he has actually been getting down and playing almost like normal today, so he is feeling much better. It makes me very happy.

Something else that makes me very happy: I HAVE A PIANO!! It is old and rather beat-up and rather out of tune (less than I'd expected, which is good) BUT IT PLAYS AND IT IS AT MY HOUSE AND I CAN PLAY IT WHENEVER I WANT provided the baby isn't sleeping. :D

Now I can actually practice and become decent (again). I haven't had reliable access to a piano since high school and it has really hurt my playing ability. I really regret that I didn't save a couple hundred dollars when I was a single student and a part time TA and buy a little keyboard that I could move from home to home. Hindsight is 20/20.

I loved this

Go read this post, right now: Matching


It's absolutely beautiful and inspiring. I admit I cried just a little bit.

Then come back and tell me what you think. Shouldn't we all try, just a little bit harder, not to match?

I wish I could form more coherent thoughts to tell you why I loved it so much.

Yeah!

I got an email this morning that my diploma is in the mail. :)

We're moving

In a couple of weeks, we are moving.

I'm not going to tell you the name of the city we're moving to for security purposes, but it's several miles south of where we live now. (If you're curious/want to know more, leave a comment with your email address.)

We can get into our new place on November 1 (it's a Sunday so we probably won't do more that day than drop off a couple of boxes and measure so I can decide how to arrange the furniture) and we don't have to be completely moved out of our current place until November 14, so we'll have a couple of weeks to move everything, clean here, and unpack at the new place. That will be nice, especially since it's a mid-semester move.

And, luckily, it's right off the freeway, so driving times aren't that different for Husband to get to work or school. I'll be driving significantly further to get to my school, but that will only be for a month or so before I graduate, so no big deal.

We're really excited! It's a big step up from where we live now. It's a 3-bedroom duplex.

Things that make me really happy:
1. Dishwasher (hurrah!)
2. Washer/dryer hookups (so we're saving up for those)
3. An actual dining room
4. More counter space and cupboards (unfortunately no pantry, so we'll have to adjust there)
5. Not on the 3rd floor
6. Trashcan and mailbox outside the door (no more hauling the trash to a far-away dumpster or walking far away to get the mail)
7. Two parking spaces that are ours
8. One bedroom for us, one for Jeric, and the other will be the office/guest room (currently, it's one for us and Jeric, one for the office/guest room/most baby stuff)
9. The landlords are awesome, then they have a little baby boy too! He's 3 or 4 weeks younger than Jeric. We are very fortunate.

There's probably more, but that's a good list for now :)

Song

I wrote a little song this morning. Want to hear it? (Well, not hear, but you know what I mean.)


Happy due date to me,
Happy due date to me,
Happy due date, dear me and baby,
Happy due date to me.

I'll be back later with a picture and an update.

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.

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?

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.

Hahahahaha

Go here. JustRandi strikes again!

I think my baby likes to pray

Because whenever I do it gets really active.

It cracks me up.

We interrupt this blogging break to bring to you the FUNNIEST THING I HAVE READ IN A WHILE.

Go HERE.

Sorry it's not a real post yet. I hope none of you got your hopes up too high. I'll be back soon.

Cake Wrecks Rock. No really, they do.

If you've never heard of the blog Cake Wrecks, you're missing out. This is a blog full of pictures of professional cakes gone "horribly, hilariously wrong" -- to quote the tagline. There are some classics here. Today's post was especially funny...the commentary is quite clever. Here's the permalink to today's post: When Gangsters Go "PC". Go there. Now. And then go through the archives. And laugh.

Yes, Another Post Tonight

You can't say I didn't warn you.

So just a moment ago in my last post, I mentioned that today wasn't the best day ever. I had some assignments that were not going well, and some panic issues, etc. So that was fun. And really, this whole week has been extremely stressful.

That is why this post is going to be about things that have made me happy this week. Look for the silver lining, you know. This, my friends, is what it's all about.

1) A letter from my missionary brother.

2) A husband who will do laundry and make dinner while I am doing homework...without even being asked!

3) A teacher who was unexpectedly understanding and kind. I think this might have had something to do with the fact that I was sobbing and shaking uncontrollably. (Let's just say that I do NOT do well in debate situations.) But hey, all's well that ends well.

4) Friends who will listen to me and comfort me even when I'm being irrational and just a little bit crazy.

5) Random flowers from an anonymous sender (not my husband). I think I know who it was, because she's the same person that I'm specifically talking about in #4 (although there are a lot of people who also fit this description).

6) Blogs of people I don't even know that remind me to look for the good in everything. (I just realized that I have 115 blogs on my Google Reader...that's a lot)

7) I won a contest! I correctly guessed what day would be the first official, measurable snow in Alaska where Scribbit lives. (You should read her. She is awesome.) Anyways, my awesome prize came in the mail on Monday and absolutely made my day! Such a simple little thing, but it really made me happy. Scribbit, if you happen to read this, thank you. He's such a sweet little guy :) and you can't even imagine how perfect the timing was! Also, you have really pretty handwriting (and I am very random). Anyways, I'm posting pictures of the coolest contest prize ever.

He is a Plaja Pet. (The link is to a giveaway Scribbit did last month, not to the contest. You can find the link to the contest here, and here is where she says that I won...along with three others. Way to go, us! The announcement of winners is at the bottom, but you should really read the story at the top of the post first, because it's amazing.)

Here he is:



Magnetic head.



Magnetic tail.



I'm thinking I'm going to have to get a couple more at some point, because I think it would be so much fun to rearrange the parts! Does that make me weird/disturbed? (Don't answer that.)

Why I am really tired right now, Part I

Yesterday we climbed a mountain.

We climbed up to Squaw Peak, which overlooks Utah Valley. It was a pretty fun hike. Well, once I got past the I-can't-breathe part. It wasn't the hardest hike I've ever done (that distinction will probably always lie with Mount Timpanogos, which I hiked almost 2 years ago), but it was challenging in its own right.

We hiked with two couples from our ward, the Rostrums and the Sharps. The Sharps had to leave early because Nate had to work, which was sad. But we and the Rostrums finally made it to the top after almost 4 hours of hiking. (It only took us two hours to make it down...going down is so much easier...)

All in all, it was a lot of fun. I'm glad we went...and that I made it! haha.

After almost 3 hours of hiking...yeah, I'm looking rough :)

A butterfly in one of the meadows near the peak.

Pretty meadow.

Us on the top of Squaw Peak. Husband decided it would be funny to hang his feet off the edge of one of the ledges...I was slightly less amused.

Tim and Jen, mountain climbers extraordinaire.

The Provo Temple.

Our apartment building is right in the middle of this picture.

View of Utah Valley from Squaw Peak.

I thought this mountain was very pretty. It's just south of Squaw Peak across Rock Canyon.

Hoorah!

It's back.

Sometime between 3:30 (when I went to sleep) and 7:00 (when Husband got up to check), our water was turned back on.

I'm taking this as very good news :)

Thanks to Brad who was willing to help us out this morning. You're the best.

Hooray!

Our car is fixed!

It was the distributor. Getting it fixed cost us a pretty penny, but we have car again. Thank goodness.

Can I just say...

My husband is amazing. I've had a couple of not-so-good stressful days and he's just been so sweet. Some days I come home from school and all the dishes are done, even though he worked all day (I take evening classes, they're just better for me when I'm in a can't-sleep phase like I have been for the past YEAR...they usually don't last so long). Once he came home from work with a book that he knew I'd like. Sometimes I can even get him to give me a foot massage...but he has to be in a good mood for that one. Haha.

I love you, Husband!