The Peterson's

The Peterson Fam Blog is MOVING!

2011-08-26T17:19:00.000-05:00

That's right! We have a new blog address and name. When I originally set up the blog, I had no idea what I was doing and the url is cumbersome and our title is boring. So Jared and I brainstormed for several months on what to call ourselves, and this is what we've come up with:

Urban Rednecks

We have laughing referred to ourselves as middle-class rednecks for a long time now, and we thought we'd just play that up.

So change our link on your blog rolls, head on over and keep up with our crazy life at:

http://www.urban-rednecks.blogspot.com/

10.5 Months

2011-08-09T18:10:00.000-05:00

Janae has changed so much in the last month in a half, and every time I think about it I have a mild panic attack. She's 10.5 months now, and as we get closer to her birthday I am struck again and again with how quickly time flies. I can't believe how much they grow in the first year!

A few things about her now:

1. She is quite the cruiser. She has been crawling all over the place for about the last two weeks. About the same week she figured out the crawling, she decided she wanted to pull herself up on stuff. She's becoming quite the pro at that, but hasn't moved on to walking around things yet. Thank heavens. I am so not ready for her to start walking.

2. I think she is also going to be a climber. She stands up but always seems to want to go higher. I can't imagine what kind of bumps and bruises we are going to see when that stage hits.

3. She has a tooth! Yay! It only took her forever to get one, but she has one. It's on the bottom. I would take a picture, but it's nearly impossible to look in her mouth unless she's laughing or screaming. The second one is also coming in, but hasn't broken through yet. We've had some pretty cranky days around here.

4. She loves the cell phone. When I'm talking to somebody she isn't satisfied until I'm holding her and she can be right next to the phone. She doesn't reach for it, she just likes to be included just in case she has an opinion or something. So far her favorite person to talk to is Jared. I'll put him on speaker phone and she lights up like a Christmas tree when she hears his voice. It's pretty dang adorable.

5. We're still struggling with the solid food transition. Some days she seems to do well, and others all she wants is her baby food. So far she likes blueberry waffles, yogurt and hot dogs. She's even starting to like the puffs, and that's just been the last few days. She doesn't feed herself yet. She can pick up the food and tries to get it in her mouth, but she grips it in her fist and then tries to stick her whole fist in her mouth. She's close though, I'm sure she'll get it soon.

6. She's down to two bottles a day. I stepped it down at 10 months from 3 to 2, and when she hits 11 months I'll take away her morning bottle and will only feed her right before bed. Then at a year we'll be completely done (yes! yes! yes!). I'm also going to try and take away her binks. I think she'll do okay, but I'm not sure how I'll do. It's what I use to keep her quiet in church and when we're out shopping, and I haven't found anything else that works. I'm nervous about it.

7. She's just a really good baby. She's okay playing with her toys by herself, and is content to crawl around the house all day exploring. For all my belly aching, she really doesn't fuss a whole ton. If she does cry, it's for a reason. She is really happy and smiles all the time. It's so wonderful and we have such a good time hanging out together. We're pretty good buds, and I wouldn't have it any other way. ;-)

Summer Girl

2011-07-18T21:50:00.000-05:00

We had a pretty low-key Fourth this year. The only fun thing we did was attend a bbq over at our bishop's house that weekend. It was blazing hot outside, but the food was good and the company even better.

As much as I want to, I can't claim credit for this picture. My good friend Meggan, who took these amazing pictures, was walking around documenting the event and she snapped a few of Sweet Cheeks. She's a pretty darn cute subject if you ask me. Meggan, you 'da bomb. I didn't even realize I needed this picture until it popped up in my inbox. Thank you for providing picture proof that we actually do stuff.

I remember last year on this holiday I was hugely pregnant and an emotional wreck. We stood in church to sing The Star Spangled Banner, and I sobbed through it. Then I looked up and Jared's at the other end of the pew looking at me like an alien had invaded my body. Then I sob some more, look up, and Jared has plastered himself to the wall. I think if he could he would have disowned me right then. That was a low point in our marriage. I'm still a little bent about it.

Thankfully, no sobbing this year, just enough sweat to fill a lake.

Why was I excited to move here again?

The Five Star Award

2011-07-14T16:54:00.000-05:00

Sunday afternoon I took Jared to the airport so he could make a quick trip up to Milwaukee for an awards ceremony. A few months ago, Jared's old boss nominated him for The Five Star award, which is a big deal in this company. All of the big wigs had to approve him for the award, including the VP and the CEO of FedEx Smartpost. The company hosted a lunch for all the of the recipients and gave each one a very nice plaque:

The inscription says:

In acknowledgement of your truly superior performance, you now join a selct group of employees...recipients of the FedEx Smartpost FIVE STAR AWARD. As a member of this prestigious team, you can be truly proud of your contributions to FedEx.

We sincerely appreciate your continuing dedication, and trust that by your example you will inspire others to this same level of excellence.

Cool, huh?

Here is a picture of him at the actual awards ceremony with the VP of the company, Mike I. (I have no idea how to spell his last name):

I'm so proud of him! He works so hard and while I might be biased, he really deserves this award.

Congrats Jared, we love you!

In Which I Post Another List

2011-07-08T16:22:00.002-05:00

I have a goal to keep each bullet point to a maximum of four sentences. Okay, five. No, four. I swear. Let's see if I can do it, eh?

1. I am so far behind on blogging, it's becoming ridiculous. I have pictures from Memorial Day weekend when my in-laws were in town that I still need to post. I have a few recipes that I've tried recently that were delish, and I thought I'd share those as well. Jared's flying out of town again on Sunday (for an excellent reason, and I can't wait to share when he gets home!), so maybe I'll catch up on Sunday afternoon.

2. Janae turned 9mo on the 26th, and she weighed in at 20.8lbs and was in the 75th percentile! *does a happy dance* Her pediatrician was so impressed with how much she has grown in the last three months. I can't remember her height, but it was in the 35-40 percentile. Shortie in the house!

3. Jared works. And sleeps, and then goes to work again. I'm pretty sure his employees see him more than we do. He did have a chance to go shooting last Saturday, and he came home a new man.

4. It's amazing what throwing some bullets down range will do for your mental state. Yes, I did just approve shooting as a therapy technique for taking out aggression. Of course, said aggression-taking-out must take place in an approved environment, following all safety precautions. Don't just wander into your backyard and pop some off.

5. That would an incredibly dumb thing to do. Have you seen CSI lately? You can't hide from those people man. And don't come running to me, cause there ain't no love for people who do incredibly dumb things.

6. I might even bust out "I told you so." Compassion isn't in my vocabulary.

7. Except to type it, I guess.

8. Where in the blazes was I?

9. Oh, me. Me, myself and I. Getting off Dr. Pepper is hard people. I'm sad to say that I've fallen off the band wagon several times since my bold declaration.

10. I spent lots of time reading. And feeding Janae. And trying not to snap at her when she doesn't eat fast enough. Yes, I'm a snapper. *shame face*

11. I hate it. And I instantly feel horrible after I do it. I've even made her cry. Trust me, I fire myself at least once a day.

12. Thank goodness my employer is so willing to work with me, and forgives instantly. I'm trying to be more like her. Have you read this yet? Our children are such great examples of the people we should be.

13. Janae is starting to crawl. It's freaking. me. out. And apparently crawling = excessive amounts of drool. As a friend so aptly put it, it's like living with Jaws. Her mouth is open all the time, and forget trying to keep her clothes dry.

14. Or our feet dry.

15. Just keepin' it real folks.

16. We have absolutely nothing exciting planned for this weekend. I'll be staring at my orange kitchen with utter loathing and trying to avoid lakes of drool. Jared has some random house/car/garage/lawn project planned, I'm sure. That man can entertain himself better than anyone I know.

17. On that note, I'll leave y'all alone and let you get back to your weekend. Hope it's a great one!

In His Spare Time

2011-06-25T21:32:00.000-05:00

You can take the man out of the Army, but you can never take the Army out of the man!

Plum Tuckered Out

2011-06-23T21:03:00.001-05:00

Yesterday we went to the zoo. It was our first trip ever, and Janae was, well, completely uninterested in everything. In fact, the only reaction I got to any animal was fright. From penguins. Clearly we need to teach this child to buck it up. So far she is afraid of the vacuum, the lawn mower and my blow dryer. And penguins. Bless her heart.

While she may be too young for the zoo, she does enjoy riding around in her stroller. She fell asleep somewhere between the zebras and the gorillas. Oh, the flexiblility of babies. If I were to fall asleep in this position I would wake up and walk around like a 90yr old woman for at least a week. Doesn't it make your neck twinge just lookin' at her? Yeewww... *shudders*

Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda

2011-06-18T15:17:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I wish that I would have prepared better to be a stay-at-home mom. I'm not talking about becoming an expert in child rearing or cleaning house, but specifically about developing skills that I could sell while still staying at home and raising my children. There are several women that I've met here that do just that. A few are fantastic photographers, one teaches sewing lessons, one sells beauty products very successfully and another teaches swimming lessons out in her pool. My sister-in-law went to school to be a nuclear technician and she works on-call nights and weekends and a few holidays out of the year. She definitely planned ahead on that one!

It's certainly gotten me thinking about what I can do to help my family out. Jared makes enough money to cover the bills, keep Janae fed and in diapers, put food on the table for us and get ahead on paying off our debt. There isn't a whole lot of room for fun stuff. Things like a new computer, a nicer camera, an X-Box 360 with Netflix, home projects and decor items, or stuff for Jared's hobbies like new guns or car parts. What extra money we have per month is put into savings for things like a new roof or air conditioning system (gah, life is so expensive!).

What skills do I have? Photography is out. Not only do I take terrible pictures, but I'm not sure I have the patience for it. I've watched a friend edit some photos and it's a TON of work. I don't know how to sew, so that's out. I can't play the piano, so no piano lessons. I have no interest in attending beauty school, so cutting hair out of my home won't work. All the typical, usual things that women do to earn a little extra income I either don't know how to do or require me to get a certificate of some sort.

Hence the title "coulda, woulda, shoulda". I wish that I had the forethought to developing a skill/talent/profession when I was a teenager or single and in college, that would prepare for today. Jared told me this morning that I could play that game all day long and not get anywhere, so we talked about a few things that would take some work, but were doable.

One of them is to write. I clearly love to spout off random nonsense on the blog, but I've always harbored a secret, deep desire to be an author. So I start thinking about it, then I get scared. Then I question if I have the talent. Then I question if the ideas are creative and if people will even want to read what I write. Then before you know it, practically in a span of two minutes, I've shot myself down before I even tried. *sighs* and then the cycle begins all overe again. Endless, endless cycle. I guess the question I have to ask myself is, do I have the guts or don't I?

Enclave by Ann Aguirre

2011-06-16T14:59:00.000-05:00

New York City has been decimated by war and plague, and most of civilization has migrated to underground enclaves, where life expectancy is no more than the early 20's. When Deuce turns 15, she takes on her role as a Huntress, and is paired with Fade, a teenage Hunter who lived Topside as a young boy. When she and Fade discover that the neighboring enclave has been decimated by the tunnel monsters—or Freaks—who seem to be growing more organized, the elders refuse to listen to warnings. And when Deuce and Fade are exiled from the enclave, the girl born in darkness must survive in daylight, in the ruins of a city whose population has dwindled to a few dangerous gangs. As the two are guided by Fade’s long-ago memories, they face dangers, and feelings, unlike any they’ve ever known.

Have you read The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins? If not, you're really missing out. Those books have started a wave of Dystopian novels being released, that equal the greatness of The Hunger Games. Enclave is one of them. Are you wondering what Dystopian means? Basically the genre contains books that are written the apocolyptic / end of the world type style. Futuristic books that deal with absolute government control, or cities that have collapsed. Like, The Hunger Games.

Enclave is set in New York City, and it begins underground. There are several small cities that have taken residence in the subway tunnels and are struggling to survive. The main characters, Deuce and Fade, are residents of the College enclave and are Hunters. Their jobs are to travel beyond the barricades for food and are responsible for the safety and security of the people residing in the enclave. Because the environment is so hostile and unstable, people do not live for very long. The leader of Deuce and Fade's enclave is 25 and is considered ancient. On each member's 15th birthday, they are assigned a name (up until this point they were just a number) and an occupation. There are Hunters, of course, and Builders which spent their days making supplies for the people, and Breeders, which I'm sure you can guess their function.

Deuce is now 15, and she is partnered with Fade and they start their partnership off on a rocky start. They disobey direct orders and are punished by traveling to a nearby enclave that is rumored to be overrun by their enemy "Freaks". I couldn't tell you what Freaks actually are, because it wasn't really explained. I just imagined a disease ridden zombie, so we'll just go with that. Soon after they return to their trip, Deuce and Fade are exiled from the enclave in an attempt to defend an innocent friend who was wrongly accused.

With nowhere else to go, our two friends travel topside and the rest of the book is spent describing their adventures up there. They don't have it easy, and it's a long journey to a place where they think they can find safety, peace and belonging.

The world that the author has created is bleak and hopeless. We're not exactly sure what happened to make it this way, but families and friends are torn apart and everyone is afraid for their life. I'm not sure why I love books that are written this way. They're not very happy or uplifting. But, there is a great sense of triumph when you read about characters in the worst possible circumstances that somehow rise above. This book made me cry, laugh, and gather my daughter close and be grateful for the easy life I have.

I absolutely fell in love with Deuce and Fade. They portray such strength throughout the novel, and I've added them to my literary list of best friends. If you are looking for a great read, look no further! This will do ya' just fine. Warning: this is the first in a series, and the second one won't be released until sometime next year. So if you're one of those that like to wait until the whole series is out, don't say I didn't tell ya!

Making Changes

2011-06-15T16:33:00.000-05:00

Jared and I are sick of feeling like crap, and in my case, being overweight. We're constantly tired, even when we go to bed on time and we generally feel run down and sick to our stomachs. Since moving here, I've gained ten pounds. Ten pounds. In 4.5 months. I avoid looking at myself in mirrors and I only have a few items of clothing that actually fit. My self-esteem has hit an all time low and one particular thought runs through my mind more than any other: "I am so fat." Jared has a high energy job, and also requires him to be out on an unairconditioned dock in the heat of the day. His performance at work suffers when he has no energy. We've hit our wall and are tired of living an unhealthy lifestyle. We have decided to make a few changes in the way we do things around here.

1. No more soda - This is HUGE for us. If you know us well at all, you know our intense love of Dr. Pepper. We have been buying it by the case load ever since we moved here, and I truthfully don't want to know how much money per month has been spent on it. We never used to buy it, but our addiction has gotten out of control. The few times we've tried to go off of it, we've only been able to go a half a day. So we're both cold turkeying it, and I'm heading out to get some Excedrin to help us get through the bad days. Even though the drink really is nectar from the gods, it can't be good for us if we are having such a hard time letting it go.

2. Adding more fruits/veggies - I will take the blame for the lack of healthy foods in our diets. I'm the shopper and so I pick what we eat, and I typically don't buy things that I don't like. And I really don't like vegetables. So I'm going to man up and learn how to cook them, and I'm going to buy fresh stuff that I can prepare and throw in lunches. If you were to look in our fridge at any given moment, it would be heavy on deli meat and cheese, with fruits and veggies practically non-existent.

3. Active lifestyle - Jared really doesn't have any problems with this. With the size of the warehouse he manages, I think he walks about five miles a day. Me, on the other hand, not so much. So this goal applies to me mostly. I live a sedentary life, and my main (and only, really) hobby doesn't require much movement except to flip pages. I've started walking in the morning, but I'm going to add in some weight lifting from p90x and a few aerobics tapes to my routine every week. Plus, I want to spend less time on the couch reading and more time "managing my house". It's only really clean about one day a week and the rest it's just a mess. I don't feel like I have an excuse either, because I have plenty of time to keep it clean. Also, we're going to get out more. A lot of museums here have free times during the week, and there are parks and several other places we could go that cost very little money. I've wanted to experience Memphis while we're here, and I figure this is as good a place to start as any.

4. Treats once a week - Jared and I are very fond of our baked goods. We love Ding Dongs and Twinkies, especially. Well, no more! I'm going to bake a treat every Sunday, and that will be our goodie for the week. This gives me an opportunity to try new recipes and actually do something I enjoy (if there are Ding Dongs in the pantry, then why bake?), and it will last as short or as long as it takes us to eat it.

5. Support eachother - I'm not sure if it's this way in every marriage, but we have a hard time saying no to eachother. Truthfully, it's gotten us in trouble a few times. Whether it's a new gadget we want, or giving in to going out for fast food, if one of us wants it, we usually get it. I'm grateful that this is a journey we're going on together. For once, we're both wanting to make changes and I'm hoping that this time they'll actually stick. I need to lose weight and Jared needs to have energy in order to perform well in his job, and have some left over for us when he gets home. We want to be healthy and happy, and we want to live it and teach our children the importance of it.

Wish us luck!

Belated 8 Months

2011-06-13T21:20:00.000-05:00

She actually turned eight months on May 26, but we had company in town and then I just became too lazy to do the post. But I couldn't resist writing about her, so here we go:

A few things about her at this age:

She's become a little scooter! We have hardwood floors, and she's somehow managed to learn how to roll/scoot/propel herself around. She's not going great distances yet, but it's enough to freak me out if I look up and she's halfway across the room.

She is incredibly grabby. Nothing is sacred, and we've had a few mishaps while we adjust to this new stage of moving everything out of her reach. Her favorite things are our glasses. She loves just ripping those right off our faces!

She's incredibly flexible. With time, I mean. I belly ache about her divaness all the time, but she hardly threw any fuss when my in-laws were in town for Memorial Day weekend, and we dragged her all around town. I guess it just took having an outsider come in for me to realize that she's actually an easy going baby. She can throw a tantrum, but I always made it out to be worse in my mind than it actually was.

Probably part of her ability to be flexible is that we have no schedule. I have tried to get her on a set schedule, but she wasn't having any of it. Our day is based on when she gets up. Sometimes it's 6:30am and sometimes it's 8am. So I adjust her naps and eating times accordingly. Typically she's ready for her first nap about an hour and a half after waking up. Then she eats, plays then is ready for her second nap. Do the same routine over again, and she's up from her third and final nap around 3, and she's up for the rest of the afternoon. She goes to bed at 6pm. Early! Maybe it's not what the experts suggest, but this schedule works for us. She's happy and growing, and really, what more could I ask for?

She is finally on board with her baby food! I feed her two meals a day: oatmeal mixed with fruit in the morning, and rice mixed with veggies for dinner. I've tried to get her to eat some big people food a few times, but the attempts haven't gone well. First, I tried Jello and she held it in her mouth for awhile, grimaced and spit it back out. Another time I gave her a bit of mashed potatoes, and she actually shuddered. It was a little funny, but at the same time.. she doesn't like mashed potatoes?! She doesn't like puffs, but she does like to gnaw on a graham cracker. I have to sit with her when she does, since she hasn't quite grasped the concept of chewing (or gumming, in her case). Like everything we do with her, it's slow going but she'll catch on eventually.

She's incredibly ticklish. I love it! I try not to torture her, but she just has the best giggle and belly laugh when I tickle her, and sometimes it's hard to resist. She's still a tough sell when trying to get her to laugh, but she has her favorite things we do that are fail safe. Her laugh makes us so happy! A little babies laugh has got to be one of the best sounds ever.

She's fitting into her nine month clothes now, so she's pretty caught up that way. I can't wait for her nine month appt to find out how much she has grown. I feel like she's a completely different baby than when we moved here. She's turned into such a chunk and we are obsessed with kissing her cheeks and squeezing her chunky thighs. Some of our favorite nick names for her are chunky monkey and sweet cheeks. She actually answers to sweet cheeks!

One more thing: this girl loves to go shopping! She is happiest when she is sitting in the cart wandering around a store. She can actually sit up in the cart now, and she enjoys it even more. Better range of vision, I guess. ;-) I can tell when we've spent too much time at home, because she starts getting really fussy and stir crazy. Just a quick trip to walk around Target, and my sweet happy baby is back again!

Slower-Cooker Pot Roast

2011-05-27T22:33:00.003-05:00

Don't you love the crock pot? You put all the ingredients together in the morning, turn it on, and then come home to a delicious smelling house and meat so tender it practically chews itself. It's especially great on Sundays, when you've come home from a ~~grueling~~ wonderful three hours of church, and are in no mood to prepare a big meal. I'm telling you, my crock pot and I are tight.

This is the best pot roast I've ever had. It's one of Jared's favorite meals and he frequently asks for it. And what makes the hubs happy, makes the house happy. This recipe makes it's own gravy, which makes this dinner even easier. Can't argue with that!

Photo Credit

Ingredients

2 (10.75 oz) cans Cream of Mushroom soup

1 pkg Lipton's dry onion soup mix

1 1/4 cup water

5 1/2 pound pot roast

Directions

1. In slow cooker mix soup, dry onion soup mix and water. Put roast in slow cooker and coat with soup mixture.

2. Cook on high for 3 to 4 hours, or low 8 to 9 hours.

Go here to print recipe.

Chubster McChub

2011-05-24T19:36:00.000-05:00

I'm sure there are chubbier babies out there in the world. Actually, I know there are. But if you consider what we first started with, My Girl is pretty chunky. Hence the title "Chubster McChub".

I love her double chins and her thigh rolls. I love her big, beautiful blue eyes. And did you see that hair? About 1/4 of it is bed head and the rest is all curls. She is going to have some adorable blonde ringlets when her hair gets longer. Know where she gets that from? JARED. I know, right? He had the most beautiful curly hair when he was a baby. My MIL kept it for a long time, until someone said "Oh! What a cute little girl you have!" (or something along those lines) and my FIL threw a fit.

Or should we call her Orange Glo baby? Clearly I need to cool it when it comes to editing photos. I'm pretty sure you won't be able to find a worse photographer than me. Ever. Thankfully, the subject is cute enough to make up for the photographer's deficiencies.

Jared and I do some dang good work. ;-)

Summer Movies

2011-05-23T21:04:00.000-05:00

One of the things I very most love about the summer is all the huge blockbuster movies that come out. Based on the trailers we've seen, this summer looks promising!

June

James McAvoy + accent = A drooling Cait. Seriously, he's a dream boat. I LOVED him in Becoming Jane.

Ryan Reynolds. Super hero powers. Tight. green. suit. I might need to remember to bring a personal fan to this one...

We don't own very many animated films (not yet, anyway), but Cars is definitely on our shelf. Why? Hubs LOVES this movie. I do too, actually, but I think the reasons are different. He loves anything and everything having to do with cars, and I love Mater. So, this one is definitely a must see!

July

Oh my GOSH I love these movies. They are so action packed, and they get my blood pumping like no other. Plus, I love Shia LeBeouf. Hopefully the love interest they got to replace Megan Fox is a better actress than than, uh, Megan Fox. I think her only purpose was to stand there and look hot.

This movie is going to be EPIC. Have you seen the trailer yet? Jared has been looking forward to this movie ever since I told him about the wicked wizard battle at the end of the book. I love all of the movies, but I have a feeling this one is going to be the best of 'em. It's also bittersweet. So excited for the movie, but bummed that the journey is finally over. No more books, and no more movies. Sad day.

Apparently, I love me some superheroes. I have no idea if this one is even going to be good (or any of them, really) but I'm crossing my fingers. Chris Evans stars in this, and I feel like he did a pretty good job in Fantastic 4. Plus, he's easy on the eyes.

I'm kind of iffy on this one. The concept is, well, strange. But with Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford, it just might be worth it. I sorta wish that Daniel Craig had been spending his time working on the next Bond movie, but nobody asked me. I'm thinkin' I'll wait 'til other people see this, and get their opinion.

Did anyone else grow up watching Conan? No? Huh, how strange. At any rate, this one looks to be pretty good. Jason Momoa stars in this, and this guy is HUGE. And ripped. He's currently playing on an HBO series called Game of Thrones, and the guy is a beast:

Yikes. I think I'll pick him to be on my team.

I know this post leans heavily towards "man movies", but I didn't see a whole lot of chick flicks coming out. What about you? Anything in particular you're looking forward to? Anything I missed?

Disclaimer: I have absolutely no idea what any of these movies are rated. I'm not purposely pushing R movies on you, so please don't be offended. While we might see it, I completely respect your desire not to.

Jared's Good News!

2011-05-20T08:03:00.000-05:00

Hubs has been working his butt of since we've moved to Memphis. He works long hours, with the crappiest schedule and the most responsibility on his sort/shift. Well.. it's paid off! He's been promoted!! He is now a Manager of Dock Operations (MODO) and is second in command at the hub. I'm so incredibly proud of him! This also means he doesn't have to work the night schedule anymore, so we might actually get to see him during the week. I won't even know what to do with myself. ;-)

Congrats honey! You deserve it!

A Wednesday List

2011-05-11T09:44:00.000-05:00

1. I just realized how long ago I did a post. I don't have any pictures prepared, so today you get a list. Don't be too excited.

2. This past weekend Jared and I went out on a date..without Janae! We finally got the guts up and asked a friend that lives down the street to watch her. She cried as we were leaving, and it was really hard to leave and let her be. Our friends told us later that she only cried for about two minutes. Whew! We went to On the Border, which was terrible, and then to see Fast 5. That movie was awesome! Best one of the bunch so far. We can't wait until it comes out on DVD so we can buy it and watch it over and over. Best part of the night: having some adult time with just the two of us. It had been so long that I'd forgotten what it feels like to just hang out with him. I highly recommend date nights!

3. There's been some serious weather issues happening since we've been here. We've had some pretty heavy thunderstorm action, and the Mississippi River has risen to 48ft high. There's some serious flooding going in the areas around the river, but we've been unaffected by it. Jared has been a mad man at trying to get some of our food storage set up. We've also had a bunch of tornado warnings and scares. I'm not sure if any have actually touched down, but there hasn't been any damage. Just the sirens, and they always seem to happen at night when Jared is at work. So I'll huddle with a book and my lantern on the couch until the storms die down and the sirens go off. I'm totally freaked out that I'll fall asleep and not hear it coming and not be able to get to Janae in time. I've lost a lot of sleep in the last few weeks!

4. I had my first freeway adventure last week. I drove down to Jared's work to bring him dinner, and it was the first time I'd been on the freeway since we moved here. Everything I need is right here in our area, so there really hasn't been a need to go anywhere else. The freeway system here is confusing. Sometimes the exits are on the right side, and sometimes on the left. The on ramps are so short that it leaves hardly any room to accelerate and merge. And sometimes the exits and the entrances are the same dang road! So you're trying to get on and merge at 15mph with cars that are getting off going 50mph. It's quite frightening. And TN drivers are not nice. They won't let you in and they are extremely aggressive. Aggressive as in "i'm nearly even with my exit but am in the fast lane so let me just cross five lanes and get off right now". Yeah, frightening.

5. My ward is doing something really fun this summer called "summer outing groups". Each woman in the ward is responsible for planning an outing for the other families in the ward one week out of the summer. Last week we went to the park, and this week we are meeting at a ladies house in the ward that has a bounce house. It's such a great idea! We try to do cheap and inexpensive things, and it promotes ward unity and gives all the moms an opportunity to socialize with adults at least once a week.

6. It's super hot and humid. It was 95 yesterday, and I'm not sure what the humidity was. I think this summer is going to put me through the ringer. I grew up in Dallas, but I think living in Utah for so many years made me soft. And there are no public pools here to go to for a break! Apparently no one in Memphis knows how to swim. I guess a bunch of people drowned so they shut everything down. Sucks for me.

7. Janae is doing wonderfully. She still isn't sitting up super great yet, but we do it everyday. It's definitely apparent how developmentally behind she is from other kids her age. I have a friend whose little boy is only a few weeks older than Janae and he is already crawling! Whenever I tell people how old she is, they always have a slight look of shock in their eyes. I always want to kick their butts for thinking poorly of my kid, but in the end.. they're just strangers so who cares what they think? The people who know us know that she was born two months early, and why she is "behind". Besides which, she is as stubborn as an old goat so I think even if she was full term she'd still do things in her own time. Oh, that kid and I are going to have some battles. She's almost 8mo old and she already thinks she's the boss. I seriously hope I make it out alive.

8. Jared is working and sleeping. We are on totally opposite schedules, and we only see eachother for a few minutes in passing everyday. It's a lot harder than I thought it would be. Janae and I really miss him, and our weekends are so precious because he's actually home and awake. He is working so hard right now, and we are crossing our fingers that something good is coming our way soon. We'll let ya' know. ;-) He's been trying to look for a new car, since gas is killing us right now with him commuting in a truck. I don't even want to tell you how much we're spending per month on gas, it'll make you sick. I had no idea the car shopping process was so in depth. Are all men like this or just Jared? Holy smokes.

9. Apparently I had a lot to say. If you made it this far, congrats! Give yourself a pat on the back. We're all doing great, and are lovin' life!

A Small Sort of Accomplishment

2011-04-29T10:35:00.000-05:00

We've been practicing every day, and she's finally able to do it on her own:

She's not super great at it yet, but she can sit there for longer than five seconds and not fall to the side. And she can play with toys a little, instead of fisting her hands and looking like a gorilla. That's an improvement in my book!

I can't believe how big she is getting. I think she recently went through a series of major growth spurts and it's left Jared and I reeling. I'm not sure we're ready for her to be a big girl!

It's All About the Dress

2011-04-25T09:07:00.000-05:00

Happy belated Easter! We had such a wonderful day. The weather was beautiful and all of the little girls and boys were dressed in their finest at church. We even had a few girls sporting hats and gloves! Very traditional. We didn't have any hats or gloves, but I still think she was super cute anyway:

Who knew Easter dresses could be so much fun!

The Perfect Man for Me

2011-04-18T10:13:00.000-05:00

Last night as Jared and I were dishing up our plates for dinner, he made a remark that perfectly illustrates how well he knows me. Jared had grilled up some chicken, and I was standing at the counter cutting it up. Normal people cut up their food once they sit down, so I can see how my actions might look odd. So as I was standing there doing weird things, Jared says: "Oh, are you cutting up your meat so you can read?" I dropped my utensils and look at him in surprise. That statement was so. incredibly. right. I do get my plate all ready to go so that I don't have to think about it while I read. I've been doing that for years, long before I met him, and the fact that he noticed, shocked me. I don't know why, it's not like he's completely unobservant, it just seemed like such a small thing for someone else to pick up on.

It reminds me of a line in a movie called Shall We Dance? with Richard Gere and Susan Sarandon. Susan Sarandon's character was sitting in a bar answering the question of why do people get married. Her answer: so that we may have a witness to our lives. Jared is the witness to my life, even the small, mundane things such as getting my plate ready so that I can eat and read at the same time. Or on Saturday afternoon, with no prior conversation or comments about it, Jared perfectly answers the question I rush into the room to ask him, "Do you know what comes out today?!?" His answer: "Harry Potter?" Because of course, nothing gets me that excited like Harry Potter. He knows that. He gets me. He understands me.

Here is a clip of the line in the movie that I'm talking about.

Amen, sister. Amen.

My New Toy

2011-04-15T18:13:00.000-05:00

Last Sunday was my 26th birthday. I love my birthday, and this year it was low key and spent with the two people I love most in the world. One of those two people was a little monster, but that's how our sundays usually go. And yes, I am referring to Jared. ;-)

We spent the morning at church, then came home and changed into our comfy pants and spent the rest of the day sitting on the couch doing a Harry Potter marathon. I made a delicious pot roast and yummy rolls for dinner (no veggies allowed on my birthday!). My pot roast recipe is awesome, and I'll post it for you guys tomorrow. Best I've ever had! I also made a chocolate cake, but screwed up the cream cheese frosting. Total bummer. That's what I get for eyeballin' it, I guess. Jared was a good sport and finished off his whole piece anyway. I told him he didn't have to (I didn't), but he's a stud like that.

I received this:

And I am in LOVE. I didn't know how I even functioned in my pre-Kindle days. It's extremely handy and easy to use. Only drawback is that it makes it way easier to buy books, as you can search and purchase right from the Kindle. I may or may not be getting in some serious trouble at the end of the month. I'm blaming it on the Sticksville library system they have here in Memphis. If they actually had books to read, then I'd use it and I wouldn't have to buy books. Think it'll work?

Happy birthday to me, and I hope my 26th year is a good one!

The Bib to End All Bibs

2011-04-12T21:17:00.000-05:00

We recently started solid foods and the whole process has been.. messy. I love my girl, but she has zero spoon eating skills. The first few days were awful. I'm not entirely sure if any food actually made the arduous journey from spoon to stomach. Plus, I decided to start her out on peas (what was I thinking?!), which did not endear her to the whole eating semi-real food experience. We've since developed a technique where she sucks the food off the spoon like she would bottle. I sincerely hope I'm not screwing up my kid.

As I said, we have no skills. I only have cloth bibs, which last for exactly half a feeding. I knew that I would quickly grow tired of washing them all the time, so I set myself a mission: find the ultimate bib.

And boy, did I.

It's like a space suit! NOTHING can get past this bib! The poor girl can't even move her arms.

Look mom, stop taking pictures and feed me already. I'm so obviously deprived of food that I have to resort to gnawing my thumb.

Why do kids always act like they've never eaten before?

Seriously. I'm about to scream.

Or smile, because you're making ridiculous faces at me.

There's my smiley girl. Hi. I love you.

In Awe

2011-04-02T08:40:00.000-05:00

It's been awhile since I've had real pictures done of Janae, and since she turned 6mo last week, I figured now was as good a time as any. My friend Meggan in our new ward took them, and I LOVE them. I am so happy and pleased with how they turned out. I have the most beautiful little girl, and it's amazing what magic happens when you have the right day, the right outfit, and the right photographer to capture it all.

Jared loved these pictures so much, that his exact response was "They make me want to change all her diapers!"

Who knew a mere picture could create miracles?

6 Months

2011-03-28T14:53:00.000-05:00

Wow, that picture sucks. I tried to be quick so that I wouldn't wake her up. Yikes.

Yes, this is how she really sleeps. She has a bazillion and one blankets everywhere and she sleeps with her arms wide out. It's quite a system we've got going on here. And her binks is probably somewhere buried underneath her head. It doesn't sound comfortable to me, but it works for her somehow.

She turned six months over the weekend, and we had her six month check up this morning. Our baby girl is growing! Here are her stats:

Weight: 15lbs (25%)

Height: (24in 10th%)

Her head circumference was 48in and some change, but I didn't get the percentile's on that. I was mostly excited about learning her weight today. I'm obsessed with how much she weighs. I guess every pound she puts on is one pound further away from her whole birth saga. I need to figure out a way to do it at home so that I don't have to get anxious about it in between check-ups.

A few things about this stage:

1. She is the least flexible baby I have ever seen. She can't play with her toes, b/c she can't bend enough to get to them! And you know how when you first try to sit a baby up, you spread their legs out super far to give them balance? Well, forget that with this child. Her legs just do not bend. I'm serious. We do "sitting up" practice and stretches everyday to work on it. A girl in my ward, who is a therapist of some sort, showed me a way to work on the flexibility without injuring her. Janae looks pretty silly, so I'll have to take a pic and post it.

2. She is is a pretty good sleeper. She goes down for bed at 7 and wakes up anywhere between 7 and 8am. There were a few days she woke up at 6 (agggh!) last week, but I try to just leave her in her crib until 7:30 when she does that. One day she went back to sleep, and one day she didn't, which happened to be Sunday and she was a total monster in church. It was not a good day.

3. She is sill super stingy with her laughs. I can only get one really good giggle out of her a day. She smiles a lot, she just isn't a laugher I guess. I love it when she laughs, so I do all sorts of crazy stunts to get more than just the one giggle. It never works, but I will persevere!

4. She loves to eat, but we are still working on what to do when we eat with a spoon. I gave her a small crumb of a chocolate chip cookie yesterday, and she really seemed to love that. Go figure. But no dice on the rice cereal or oatmeal. We'll keep practicing.

5. She is finally in her age size for clothes! It's awesome. Except we have hardly an 6mo or 9mo clothes, so I've been hitting up the clearance racks to see what I can find. Apparently it gets so hot here in the summer that she won't be wearing anything more than onesies anyway. Everyone keeps telling me how miserable the summers here are. I'm starting to get worried about it!

6. Overall, we couldn't be happier with her progress. Her pediatrician is very pleased with how she's doing, and developmentally she is catching up. She might be small for her age, but I don't think she's that far behind anymore. What's going to be weird for me is when we have our next kid and everything that kid does is "normal". All of the stages will be different compared to Janae, so I wonder if it'll be like having a first kid all over again?

Anyway, she's one of my favoritest people to hang out with, and it's getting so much more fun now that she can interact and play. We're heading out to a local park/trail this afternoon to go for a walk. We love to get out of the house!

At the Dinner Table

2011-03-19T19:45:00.000-05:00

Jared and I actually sat down at the table tonight to eat dinner. I know, shocking. It's probably because it's actually clean.. the first time in months! We didn't want to leave Janae out, so she sat in her bumbo chair and ate her hand. Which has become her favorite past time, apparently. Toys, who cares? As long as her hand is in her mouth she's as happy as can be.

I'm still giggling about how cute she was, with just her head visible across the table. Love this girl!

A Saturday Night at the Peterson Casa

2011-03-12T20:37:00.000-06:00

consists of extreme cuteness:

some dang good bbq from the man of the house:

and a double feature of Angels & Demons and Bringing Down The House, accompanied by the oh so sweet sounds of my baby girl. She's loud, which makes watching movies with her increasingly difficult. Thank goodness she has a 7 o'clock bed time and the rest of the night is ours. Ahh, bliss!

House Pics: Before

2011-03-12T20:18:00.000-06:00

All righty! Here are the much anticipated inside pics of our new house. We've been living in the house for a week now and we LOVE IT. It's the perfect size for our little family and we finally feel at home here in TN. We have so much more room than we did in that podunk apartment we were living in, and our mortgage is cheaper than our rent! Crazy sauce.

These pics were taken when on the day we signed the papers and got the keys:

View from the front door into the living room

Love the high ceilings!

Breakfast nook / dining area / pantry

Kitchen view #1

Kitchen view #2

Bedroom #1 which is kind of our multi-purpose room now

Bedroom #2 which is Janae's room

Opposite view of living room

Master bedroom, which is no longer green

Master bath, with walk-in closet

Master shower with jetted tub, and the commode is to the right in a seaparate room

And there you have it peeps! Obviously, our stuff is in the house now, and we're slowly putting things together. I'll post pics of the painted MB tomorrow, when there is some good light. It's the perfect color! Our next project is the kitchen, which needs some love. The stove and refridgerator were included with the house, and I love both. The stove is one of those flat tops and it's so nice not to have to deal with burners.

We love our house!

I just got done typing all that out and I thought maybe you'd want to see the front of the house. Yes?

Getting Dissed at Wal-Mart

2011-03-03T23:58:00.000-06:00

I set a goal when I had Janae that I was going to be a "cute" mom. I swore to myself that I would make an effort to wear real clothes (as opposed to comfy pants and big t-shirts), and do my hair and make-up as often as I could. It's so easy as a stay-at-home mom to just wear sweats all the time. Well, it's easy for me at least.

While in Utah, I did well on my goal and was always "dressed" when I went out in public. Here in TN, not so much. I know I'm not going to run into anyone I know, and I haven't had the desire/energy/heart to make an effort for those I don't know (which, at this point, is everyone). This week has been especially bad, since we've been painting and cleaning in order to move into our new house this weekend. I haven't done my hair or make-up all week, and have worn the same outfit every day. I just didn't see the point in getting all dolled up to just get dirty.

Today our story takes place in Wal-Mart, specifically in the chip aisle. There I am, in all my paint-smattered/dirty/bushy-hair/scary-face glory, trying to decide what kind of chips I'm in the mood for and I just happen to look up at the lady that is walking by. I move my cart and smile at her, because I'm in the south now and that's what people do here. What do I get in return? A strange woman who gives me a once over, followed by the ugliest smirk I've ever seen. I'm pretty sure I just got dissed by this youngish, well dressed, single (I'm guessing), kid-less lady because I dared to go out in public looking like a homeless bum. I imagine she thought something along the lines of: "well, aren't you the poster woman for the overweight, stay at home mom" or "you've really let yourself go" or "you disgrace all women everywhere" (okay, that last one is a bit of an exaggeration).

Maybe I have let myself go. Maybe I've gone too far into not caring about my appearance, and I know that's something that I need to be better at. But why should it matter to this lady? And who does she think she is, going around making people feel bad? I so wish in instances like this, that I was the kind of person that could come back with a witty comment to put her in her place. Alas, I am not that person and all I did was smile like a maniac and swear at her in my head.

I am not perfect.

Your favorite bag lady in TN,

Cait

5 Months

2011-02-27T18:42:00.000-06:00

Janae turned five months yesterday, and she is pretty much the cutest thing I've ever seen!

A few things about her at this stage:

1. She is up to 4 - 8oz bottles a day. She loves to eat!

2. She is on a pretty good sleep schedule. She wakes up at 7:30, and I feed her then. She goes down for her first nap at 9 and sleeps until 11:30. Feed her again, and she's up 'til about 1, then sleeps til 3:30. Feed her again, and she is mostly up until bed time at 8. She can't quite make it the full three hours though, and still needs about an hour nap in between 3:30 and 8. I've been trying to get all errands done in her awake times so that she's sleeping in her crib, b/c she takes much better naps there. She will fall asleep in her car seat, but she wakes up sooner than she normally would.

3. She seems to love having a bed time routine. We do bath at 7:30, feed her a bottle and then put her to bed at 8. Tonight I'm going to start reading her a book before I put her in bed, just for the heck of it.

4. She can only do an activity once a day. It's slightly frustrating. Play mat, one time. Swing, once a day. Her bouncy chair, once a day. The one thing she will never tire of is sitting on my lap and playing with me. We were going to go get her a bumpo chair this week, and I think I might splurge and get her one of those exer-saucer things. I'm in desperate need of some more activities!

5. I can feel and see her teeth under her gums, but they haven't popped through yet. Bummer.

6. We tried feeding her rice cereal yesterday. Major fail. She kept trying to suck the spoon like it was a bottle, and then would get mad when she couldn't get anything out of it. We couldn't even get her to swallow, so that she could figure out she was actually getting food! I went with the directions that were on the box for the first time feeding, but maybe next time I'll make it a bit thicker. I think we'll wait a while and then try her on it again. She doesn't appear to be at all interested in what we're eating, so I don't think it's computing in her head. But she is recognizing her bottles now, which sometimes isn't such a good thing. She tends to scream when she sees it and it's not in her mouth. Ga, the antics of a strong willed child! Hopefully she gets all of her stubborness out now and it doesn't get worse when she's a toddler.

Now What?

2011-02-24T20:33:00.000-06:00

We haven't quite got a handle on the whole toy thing yet:

She can grip them, but she doesn't know where to go from there. I put stuff in her hands and she always looks at me like "what am I supposed to do now?". She'll be movin' her arms and legs all around, and then as soon as I give her a rattle or some other toy, she doesn't move.

I'll start telling her "move your arms! move your arms!" at an insanely high pitched voice and she gives me a big grin.

Apparently mommy's crazy faces are still more interesting to her than toys.

P.S.

2011-02-19T22:53:00.000-06:00

I forgot to mention that we celebrated our four year anniversay last week! We didn't do much, just went out to lunch for some yummy bbq. It decided to blizzard that day, so Jared unexpectedly got the day off. It was lovely. We holed up at home and watched movies for the rest of the day.

Let's do a quick recap, shall we? I promise not to do this every year, as that might tend to become a little Twelve Days of Christmas - ish. I feel like we've had more happen in our lives than is normal!

Year One

1. Jared and I were married and sealed in the Mt. Timpanogos temple. On Feb 10, to be exact.

2. Jared left in June (yes, four short months after we were married) for a year deployment. It was incredibly hard to say goodbye to him! While he slaved away in a hot climate, I read my way through that year. I have never read so many books in my life as I have when he was gone.

Year Two

1. He came home! It was such a glorious day.

2.. Started up school again, and thankfully he only had one year left

Year Three

1. Graduation. Woo hoo!

2. Jared began working for FedEx. Love this company!

Year Four

1. After 13months of trying, we finally became pregnant!

2. Seven months later, we welcomed our little girl into the world. Two months early. It was scary. If you're new to the blog, go here for all of the sordid details. I've been seriously thinking of writing about the whole after saga, when we almost lost her. It's been weighing on my mind a lot, and I feel like if I write it all out, I can move on. I think that will come later this week.

3. We moved cross country to Memphis, TN. Enjoying life and lovin' it!

Hopefully this year things will calm down. My wish and hope is for this year to be boring and uneventful!

Happenings

2011-02-16T14:01:00.000-06:00

Yes, another list...

1. I have been in the weirdest funk the last week and a half. I'm not one to need a lot of friends, and I'm pretty good at entertaining myself. After awhile though, it gets old. I am in desperate need of a social group of some sort to go hang out with during the day. I love my daughter, but she isn't a super great conversationalist. And the one person I do know, is either working or sleeping. His new schedule is sucking MAJOR sand right now. Hopefully it'll get switched around in the next few months and I can actually have him home at normal times of the day. So really, I've been a little lonely. Last week I holed myself up in the house but ultimately decided that wasn't helping. So this week I'm making it a point to go at least one place a day. This week has been much better! And the weather has been wonderful, sunny and warm.

2. My girl is teething, and was a complete nightmare over the weekend. And I'm talking, complete. nightmare. I was reading up about it, to make sure my prediction was correct, and a few of the websites I read actually said "most kids sail through the teething process like champs" or something of that nature. Uhhh.. SO not my kid, and so not any other kid I've ever met. She seems to be doing better now, but the teeth haven't broken through the gum (I can see her bottom two teeth), so does that mean I have to go through this all again? Bugger for me, if that's the case. Well, and her too. I'm sure it probably hurts her more than me!

3. We've been actively looking for a house, and we think we might have found The One. We'll have a more concrete announcement next week...

4. Umm.. that's about it. I'm crossing my fingers that Jared has normal days off this week, and we can actually go do something fun!

Red Dress Writing Prompt #1

2011-02-11T08:02:00.000-06:00

I could never have imagined that when I woke up that day, the whole world would blow up. I turned off my alarm and spent a few minutes mentally preparing for another day in my life as a junior in high school. I showered, ate and then drove my brother and myself to school. I joined the other hundred teenage drivers to fight for a parking spot that wouldn’t require us to walk a mile to the school. I raced into school, not having found the perfect spot, and into my first class: Pre-Algebra, with The Wicked Witch. I slid into my seat, opened my back pack to get out my homework. I passed it to the student in front of me, dreading the grade I would get back. The Wicked Witch collects all the papers with an evil grin on her face, a knowing glint in her eye that she would go through yet another red pen in this latest batch of homework. Class begins as usual with The Wicked Witch teaching in what might as well have been a foreign language, and her students attempting to keep up. Suddenly, the loudspeaker crackles, signaling an announcement is about to be made. My classmates and I perk up, wondering what could possibly have happened to warrant such an interruption to our routine. It’s the principal, announcing for all teachers to turn on their televisions to a local news station. The Wicked Witch walks over and does as commanded, and we all watch in horror as an airplane flies into one of the World Trade Center towers.

The top half of the building collapses, imploding on itself, falling several hundred feet to the street below. The resulting fire and explosion looks bigger and more magnificent than any we’ve seen from the movie industry. We hear the silent screams of the men and women falling helplessly to their death. We imagine the prayers and pleading of the people on the plane, hoping that a higher being will intercede and a miracle will occur.

The reporter begins speaking, and we hear the shock and emotion in his voice as he announces the plane had been hijacked and deliberately flown into the building. The news station plays the scene again, as if we hadn’t already imprinted the event into our brains. We watch for a few minutes more, like spectators to a most gruesome battle. My teacher turns off the television and we all look at each other in wonder and awe that such an event could happen to our country. We thought we were invincible, that no one could touch us. We mourned together at the needless loss of so many lives. My teacher attempted to regain focus and return to the routine, but we knew that even her heart wasn’t in it.

A sudden feeling rose within our classroom. We were horrified, yes, and we would always remember, but we felt banded together. We were Americans, and together we could accomplish anything. We were juniors, just kids, and we knew that our world would change. We knew then that the whole world had shifted.

This is my first time to participate in The Red Dress Club's weekly writing prompts. I discovered this as of yesterday, so there wasn't a lot of time to revise or rewrite. I'm excited to have found this blog!

Babe in Bath

2011-02-09T22:38:00.000-06:00

I realize that this is the 1576th post containing pictures of Janae. But she's so dang cute, how can I resist? I do other things than take pics of my darling baby girl, like.. uhh... uhh... *scratches head*

Okay, we're moving on.

These are the token bath pictures, the first I've ever taken. Since Jared was here, I gave him bathing duties in order to free me up to take a picture or two. Or five. Same dif.

Why hello there, little tongue. Is that bath water tasty?

Yes, I know, I think Daddy is goofy too.

My next post is going to be something adult and very serious. I swear!

Love Her

2011-02-01T19:06:00.000-06:00

Need I say more?

4 Months

2011-01-30T19:55:00.000-06:00

I can't believe four months have gone by already! We celebrated by getting shots. My favorite thing (hope you're sensing the sarcasm here). Her stats are:

Height: 23in (39%)

Weight: 11lbs 10oz (10%)

Those percentages are without adjusting them for her shorter gestational period. Not that I care so much about the "charts", but it's nice to know that she is at least on them. I was nervous to look for a new pediatrcian without any recommendations, but it all worked out. I love J's new pediatrician! The appt actually made me realize that I didn't really like her old one. He made too many jokes and I never felt like he took my questions seriously. Her new pediatrician is very practical and answered my questions thoroughly. Plus, she was probably the happiest doctor I've ever seen! Some things about Janae at her four month mark:

1. She is finally sleeping through the night! I feed her at 9:30, put her down whenever she is done and she'll sleep until anywhere from 5:30 to 6:30amShe still wakes up a few times at night, screaming for her binks, but I am going to start letting her cry it out this week. It's not good for either one of us for me to keep getting up and putting the binks back in her mouth.

2. She eats a ton! She has six bottles a day, all at 5oz. Needless to say, she is taking up a huge chunk of our food budget. Her doc said that we can start trying to feed her rice cereal, but I'm not entirely sure she's ready for that yet. She can sit up and hold her head up, but after a few minutes she starts bobbling around. Plus, she has shown zero interest in what we're eating. But then again... she doesn't seem to be as satisfied with just formula bottles anymore. I'm going to get some tomorrow and maybe try her out at dinner and see how she does. Who knows? Maybe she'll surprise me and end up loving it.

3. As I said, she can sit up really well now. Well, "assisted" sitting up. She also started to stand this week, when we hold her on our laps. She doesn't last very long, but it's a start!

4. She has found her hand. She looks at it all the time, as well as sucks on it. She has also started putting toys in her mouth. Which also frustrates her because she hasn't learned to grip quite yet, and so she doesn't actually ever get anything in her mouth on her own.

5. She is in this weird stage of needing to be entertained all the time. She can't just lay on her play mat and play with her toys, I have to be there with her. I'm not sure if that's a stage thing, a Janae thing, or if that's just because she's still getting used to the new surroundings. Hoping she grows out of it soon...

6. She is smiling and cooing, and it makes all her grumpy moments (which are many) worth it. She's just not a chill kid, she cries at pretty much anything. Mostly when she is doing something she doesn't want to do. I have a feeling she is going to be a total toad in her toddler years. At the rate we're going, I forsee many temper tantrums thrown and battles between the two of us.

It's a weird transition stage for both of us, I think. She doesn't sleep as much, so I spend more time of my day playing with her. Which I love doing, I just haven't figured out how to work all of the other things I have to do around it yet. I sure do love her, grumpy-drama-temper-tantrums and all! She brings so much joy to our life and we couldn't imagine life without her.

Memphis So Far

2011-01-26T16:23:00.000-06:00

Well... we're here. I never, ever thought in a million years that I would be living in Tennessee. It has a lot of TX feel to it, which is nice, but it doesn't feel like home yet.

What a fast move! We literally had everything packed up and ready to go in a week and a half. I have never been so stressed out in my life. Many cans of Dr. Pepper and bags of peanut M&M's were consumed. But we did it. We absolutely could not have done it without my in-laws. They saved us! Not only did they come up and help us drive our vehicles down, they paid for a plane ticket for me to fly down with Janae. I love my daughter, but a three day road trip of non-stop driving would not have been fun with her! So we flew instead. First class no less. My in-laws left Monday night, and Jared went back to work today so essentially it's life as usual, except we're in a different state and I have no friends.

So, what's it been like so far? Weird. I swear, I think Janae is the only baby in all of TN. In Utah, you can go to any store at any time of the day and there are a bunch of moms out and about with their kids. Here, it's me and all of the old people. I am so not joking right now. As a stay-at-home mom, I am seriously in the minority. We went to Wal-Mart Monday afternoon and it was dead. If you go to Wal-Mart in the afternoon in Utah, it's a zoo! Every place I've gone Janae has been either the only kid there, or one of few. And definitely the youngest by far. I've also never had more people stop and want to look at her than I have here. Has no one seen a baby before? Really? It's like all the Tennesseians popped up out of nowhere straight into adulthood.

I went to the public library today. Oh, how I miss the Salt Lake public library! The Cordova branch maybe has 20 books in it. Including non-fiction. And it's so old fashioned! I had no idea how blessed I was to be a part of such an amazing public library system in Utah. I might have to break down and either buy an Amazon Kindle, or become a book buyer if the library system here just doesn't cut it. Again, it was Janae and I and all of the old people at the public library. Of course, she decided to be a stink today too, so everytime she made a peep all of the old ladies would "shhh!" us really loudly. I felt like saying "Do you think your shhhhing is any quieter than my kid? At least she has the excuse of being a baby!". But of course, I didn't. And THEN... oh, this was a real treat... I was out in the little lobby trying to quiet her down, and this lady stopped and talked to me for 20 MINUTES about her pug, her son and all of the rotten girlfriends he's had, her business and how great she is with kids. Can't you see I have a screaming kid here lady? I honestly don't care to know your whole history of pets right at this moment (or ever, really). First there was her dog named nootle (who was named that when she was drunk), then her dog Chicken (who died and was buried in her garden) and now her dog's named Isabella (NOT after Twilight, she made that very clear). Oh... my...holy...heck.

Our apartment is still mainly in boxes. I guess that's what we get for moving from a way bigger place to a smaller place. Thank goodness it's only temporary. It feels a lot like living in a college dorm room, which is not quite what we envisioned at this stage in our lives. I'm starting on the house hunting next week, so cross your fingers that it goes well! We actually really love the area. It's really close to all shopping (our apt complex is across the street from a Super Wal-Mart and Super Target), and the commute for Jared isn't really that bad. I think we're going to try to stick to this area if possible, so we'll see.

Really, besides the whole enviroment shock (I guess we just lived in Utah for way too long!), we are really happy with the decision to move here. Everything has fallen into place perfectly and it couldn't have gone any smoother than it did. I think that once we get to church on Sunday and meet some people we'll feel a ton better. I'll have pictures of Janae, the apartment and everything posted soon, for those who want to know. Janae is four months today! Can't believe it.

Now, I'm going to pop open one of the books I managed to check out at the library and get busy reading. I love nap time!

Daddy's Girl

2011-01-14T21:01:00.000-06:00

I love this stage that she's in. Well, not the whole still-not-sleeping-through-the-night part of it, but all of the rest is so enjoyable. She's starting to play, talk and is definitely a pro at smiling at us! Up to this point, she's mostly just liked me. Not that she disliked Jared or didn't know who he was, she just preferred me. I think some of her allegiance is starting to sway. Dad plays while I makes her do things she hates like sleep in her crib, get out of the bath and get dressed and undressed. She was making the cutest talking sounds to Jared the other morning, so of course, I had to snap a picture!

(By the way, now that I have a kid I've decided that I hate the flash on cameras. She was smiling so much bigger, but I had to sit there and wait for the flash to go off before it would take the picture. So. Frustrating.)

My heart melts whenever I see these two together! He is such a great dad and loves his little girl so much. Will definitely be snapping more pics of them in the future.

A Renewed Interest

2011-01-12T23:51:00.000-06:00

I've decided that pregnancy makes women temporaily insane. For example: before I became pregnant I absolutely loved my book blogging. During pregnancy, I decided I hated it and I shut it down. Now, after pregnancy, I have an itch to start it up again. So, here's my new and improved book blog:

Love Letters

It's actually a good thing that I'm starting over from scratch. I wanted to change the name and look anyway. I also wanted to change the content as well. I felt like in my last attempt, I was focusing on all the wrong things, trying to keep up with what I felt like was the "norm". So, I'm doing it differently this time. I want to keep it light, keep it fun and most of all I want to keep it interesting. For me and for whoever reads it. There isn't much content right now, as I just started it today. And there probably won't be much until we get to TN and get out internet back up and running.

Don't ask me why I had to do this today. Probably for the same reason why I had to bake today. An attempt to avoid packing? Maybe....

My Baking Assistant

2011-01-12T17:44:00.000-06:00

In the midst of packing, I got the sudden urge to bake. I guess I was getting a little sad that we're leaving this apartment. We have loved it here, and I wanted to make one last pan of brownies (and maybe a batch of Chex Muddy Buddies) before I packed up my mixing bowls and spoons. But in order to make the perfect pan of brownies and batch of Chex Muddy Buddies, I had to have my assistant:

She is absolutely the cutest baking assistant I've ever seen! She has this little chair that I sat up on the counter and she just watched me move around the kitchen. This may be silly, but having her there made this baking experience the most pleasurable I've ever had. I love that she is staying awake more during the day and is interested in playing. I'm completely in love with my girl! Er, baking assistant. ;-)

BIG Changes

2011-01-09T23:41:00.000-06:00

So,we've known about this news since Friday but we wanted to make sure all of our family knew first. Jared has received a promotion with his company that is requiring us to move... to MEMPHIS, TN!!! They wanted him down there as soon as possible, so literally.. we're packing up the moving truck and leaving in a week and a half.

We're equal parts excited and nervous. We both gew up moving around as kids, but it's completely different doing it as the parent instead of the child. Now we're making the choices and toting our kids around whether they're good or bad. It's going to be a great adventure, but we are realizing that we've built a life up here in Utah and are sad to see it go. We've made some really great friends and had some wonderful times with our family and it will be weird not to be apart of that anymore. But, this move is the right thing for our family and we know that once we get there and get settled we build another life with new friends.

I have a TON of things to do in order to get this show on the road so soon, so I might be scarce for awhile. Can't believe we're moving and still in shock that it's happening so fast! Wish us luck!

P.S. I swear a solemn oath that I will increase my picture taking and blogging efforts so that everyone knows what we're doing even though we aren't here. Promise! ;-)

Insanity

2011-01-04T10:11:00.000-06:00

I am tired of looking at my Christmas card, so I'm throwing this up really quick. I want to blog about Christmas, but silly me... I have no pictures. We used one camera and burned the pics onto discs for everyone and I, of course, forgot mine in TX. I may or may not be making a pit stop at my SIL's house to burn them from her.

Anyway.

There are two things major things that I want to have happen in 2011: me to lose weight and to pay off our credit cards. I want to lose the weight by June, and our goal is to pay off our credit cards by the end of the year. This is my second day of doing Insanity:

and it is seriously kicking. my. trash. I have never been to boot camp, but these workouts are a lot like what I imagine boot camp to be. I get out of breath and have to take breaks during the warm-up. It's intense, but I LOVE it. I feel so good at the end of the workout. And bonus, the workouts are only 30 minutes! I loved P90X but the workouts took up so much time. So I'm done working out after 30 minutes and then I can move on with the rest of my day. Anyway, I took a before and after picture, but am only going to post the before pic when I actually have an after pic.

So, wish me luck! And if you so happen to think of me in the mornings (not in a creepy way), send me silent prayers as I'll probably be huffin' it out in my living room. 2011 is my year!

Christmas Card 2010

2010-12-19T12:08:00.000-06:00

We did an extreme last minute Christmas card this year, and aren't mailing out very many. But we wanted everyone to enjoy it! Even though you see pics of us all the time, it's different on a Christmas card. Right?

We are leaving for Dallas this week, and I have TONS to do to get ready. So I'll be taking a little Christmas vacation from the blog, and will return after the holiday.

Hope everyone has a great and wonderful Christmas this year! We love you all!

Hodge Podge

2010-12-13T23:23:00.000-06:00

This is going to be several posts in one. I intended to divide it all out, but then I got lazy. ;-)

Janae's Blessing Day

Besides the horrible blizzard that happened that day, this day was absolutely perfect! My family (minus my mom, cause my dad was here) came over before church in the morning and hung out for a bit. Jared and I were slightly stressed, not ever having done this before so I don't think we were that great of company. We left our house 45 minutes early to drive 50ft down the road to our church building. But hey.. it's the memories, right? All of our families, plus our adopted family, the Hayden's, were able to be there. It was such an incredible moment. I, of course, absolutely lost it during the blessing. Jared became choked up and as a result, the blessing was a little short. It was beautiful, but short. We were just both so incredibly grateful that she was there and that we can do this kind of thing. There is nothing like almost losing your child to make you appreciate every single moment that much more. Afterwards we headed over to Hotel Rich (my SIL's house) for a big lunch. We took a few pictures:

(Morning of!)

Thanksgiving 2010

My in-laws were able to come into town for the holiday, so we had dinner with them on the actual Thanksgiving day. Oh my gosh.. so much food! It was so good. Jared's family does their turkey on the grill. Great idea, huh? I hope Jared got the tips and tricks, because if we ever have our own dinner then he's in charge of the bird. It was soooo tasty. Everything was good and the company even better. We started off the dinner singing a hymn (Because I Have Been Given Much), and then Jared's dad gave a really beautiful blessing on the food. When he got to the part about being so grateful that Janae was with us, guess what I did? Yep! I lost it. I've turned into such a cry baby. Ack, oh well. Even though Janae didn't do anything, it made the holiday so much sweeter with her there. Holidays seem to be so much more fun with kids! Again, we took a few pictures:

Grandma with her grandgirls. The whole family can't wait until March when Baby Boy Rich will join our ranks!

What a life.

Some of the spread.

I love this picture. I will also have you know that I took this all by myself. It's not perfect, but usually the pics I take turn out like crap. I just think it's a great pic of the both of them, yeah?

Audrey's Homecoming

My sister has spent the last 18mo in Brazil serving an LDS mission. She came home on Dec 3, and it was... weird, I guess, to see her. I guess that I had gotten so caught up with Janae and being a new mom that I pushed it to the back of my head and then all of the sudden there she was. Bad English and all. ;-) It sounds like she had a great time, she's older and wiser and is missing Brazil like crazy. The day after she came home we had a Hayes Thanksgiving dinner, and stuffed our faces again. Why does food taste so much better on Thanksgiving? Here's a few pictures from the airport:

"What's that word in English?"

I had to feed The Beast. Awesome timing.

Not really sure what's up with my face. I really was happy to see her, even if it didn't look it.

That's all folks!!

Photo Shoot

2010-12-06T00:57:00.000-06:00

I tried to attach these to the last post, but for some reason when I attach a picture and then go back to upload another, it won't let me. Does anyone else have this problem? I hate it when blogger makes changes... especially when they don't work!

My good friend Katie B took pictures of her a few weeks ago. Here are some of my faves:

Gotta show some company pride!

The only thing that I wish I would have done differently is had some kind of bow in her hair. Sometimes having pink blankets and outfits and such isn't enough for people to tell she's a girl! Lesson learned for next time. Thanks Katie for taking these, I love them!

2 Months

2010-12-06T00:40:00.000-06:00

I can't believe J is two months old already! Granted, she's not a normal two month old, but still. How time flies.

We had her two month check up this past Monday. Here are her stats:

Weight: 7lbs 8oz, 35%
Height: 19.5", 21%
Head Circumfrence: 58%

So basically, she's little. ;-)

She doesn't do much at this point. She eat, sleeps and poops. Oh, and cries. Boy, does she have that down pat! I have no idea what happened to my good natured child, but this last week has put me through the ringer. She screams bloody murder unless she is either being held or her binky is in her mouth. Unfortunately, she can't keep that dang thing in yet so she screams about every ten minutes. It's just awesome. My new best friend is this:

That way I can hold her and still have my hands free to clean the house or do whatever. It's amazing! Best thing is that it positions her just right so that the binky never falls out. Hallelujah!

She is eating between 3.5 to 4oz every four hours now. At night she goes a bit longer in between one feeding, about 5 to 5.5 hours. I have been pumping this whole time and feeding her with a bottle. My milk production has drastically dropped since she's been home. I am devastated about it, but I will soon be switching her to formula only and will stop pumping. It's just not worth it. We are doing every other feeding right now, since I still have some frozen and stored, but once that's out then she'll be formula only. I have no idea why it suddenly stopped. I have been really stressed and bummed out about it for the last few weeks but am now resigned. Nothing else about her arrival on this earth has gone right, so why should this? *sighs*

Really, I couldn't be happier with her progression. I don't really think about it until I'm around other moms that have babies the same age as her. I had the hardest time when she first came home until I went to her last doctor's appointment. I have never known anyone that has had a preemie and therefore have no experience on how to be a mom to one. I didn't know how to treat her, if I should be trying to put her on a schedule, if she was growing adequately for being a preemie and things like that. Thankfully her pediatrician is awesome and he really comforted me and told me that I was doing all the right things. Mentally, this last week has been the best for me since she's been home. I can only do the best I can, and thankfully she won't remember how much I floundered at the beginning of her life. We both love her to pieces, and she is seriously the cutest baby girl I've ever seen!

Giving Thanks

2010-11-24T15:19:00.000-06:00

I wanted to type this post up before the eating fest begins tomorrow. We're having Thanksgiving with Jared's family and based on how full my SIL's fridge is, I think it's going to be an all day... adventure. Jared may or may not have to roll me home. ;-)

1. First and foremost, I'm so incredibly grateful for my little family. Jared and I have had our fair share of struggles in our marriage, and there is no other man on earth I would struggle and suffer with than him. He is my best friend, my rock, my confidante and he constantly pushes me to be the best I can be. If there is such a thing as soul mates, he would be mine in every way. And Janae.. oh, how I love her. There is nothing that could have prepared me for how much I would love this little girl. And with her traumatic arrival in this world, that love is all the sweeter. I'm incredibly grateful that she's alive and healthy. I will probably never know in this lifetime why she had to go through what she did, but I will always be grateful for her presence and for the opportunity I have to be her mother. She is such a sweet girl and I am so in love with her!

2. I'm grateful for our home. We don't have much, and it's not the best decorated... but it's ours. We can shut the door against the world and our home becomes our sanctuary, our place of peace. I am happiest when the three of us are home, just being together.

3. I'm grateful for health insurance. The system is not perfect, but if we didn't have it we would be drowning in medical bills. Probably for the rest of our lives. Even though Janae's birth was a greater financial burden than we had planned, a lot of it was alleviated by our wonderful health insurance.

4. I'm grateful for all of the little blessings and amenities that make my life so much easier: electricity, washer/dryer, my beloved Tahoe, vacuum's, hot water, toilet paper, peanut M&M's and freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. Yum!

5. I would be a crazy person not to recognize and be thankful for the gospel and for everything that entails. I would be lost without it. It gives me direction and values to live my life by.

This is an incredibly short list, but I feel like it covers all the high points. I know that my Heavenly Father loves me and I see His hand in my life everyday. I love that we have a specific holiday every year that forces us to recognize this and be grateful for everything that we have. We truly are blessed!

Busy Busy!

2010-11-16T11:59:00.000-06:00

We were laying in bed the other night waiting for Janae to calm down and go to sleep, and we were reviewing everything we've got going in in the next few months. It always seems like November and December are so jam packed with events. Maybe one year we'll just say no to everything and actually spend the holidays just relaxing. (Ha. I wish!)

First and foremost, we bought our tickets last night for this:

I can't WAIT to see this! It seems like I have been waiting all year, and now it's finally here. We also have a babysitter (thanks Leesh!) so it'll be even that more special. I wanted to read the book again before we went to see it, but now with Janae home.. not sure that's going to happen. I've figured out that babies require a lot of time and attention. Who knew?

Next week is Thanksigiving, which we're spending with Jared's family. That Sunday we are also having Janae's blessing, with a big lunch afterwards. The weekend after that, my sister comes home from her mission! She arrives Dec 3, and then we are having another Thanksgiving dinner with my family on Dec 4. Can't believe it's already been 18months! How time flies. I'm pretty dang excited to get her home.

And then it's a few weeks break and we fly to Texas for ten glorious days to spend Christmas with Jared's family. I haven't been back to TX in over a year and I'm going into withdrawals. Seriously stoked for the day when we can move back and officially call it home again. Crossing my fingers that it happens next year!

So many major events happening in such a short amount of time. And yes, I do count Harry Potter as a major event. ;-)

Tales of a New Mommy

2010-11-10T12:33:00.000-06:00

I had this whole long post typed out but when I went back and read it, it sounded like I was on a rant. Which isn't bad, it's just not how I intended it to sound. Mommyhood is exhausting and my girl is putting me through the ringer, but I have never been happier. Which wasn't necessarily coming out in the post I had originally typed up. So, I'll save you the stories about poopy diapers and feeding times, and give you this:

My now 6lb sweetheart! Well, she's probably more than that now, since it was a few days ago she was weighed. It's been so fun to have her home. Exhausting, but so right. It took her a few days to acclimate, but now she's totally used to being here. I spend a ton of time during the day just staring at her. I can't believe how beautiful and perfect she is! I've only taken a few pictures since she's been home. One was a really sweet pic of her snuggling with her daddy. Unfortunately, Jared told me that I was never to post that pic on the blog, since it was taken first thing in the morning and he was still in his pj's. So... you can just imagine it I guess. I'll eventually take another one when he has his face on. ;-)

I'm totally in love with my girl and am so grateful for the chance I have to be her mother. Once I figure out what the heck I'm doing, it will be even more enjoyable. Thank goodness she will never remember what an idiot I was as a first time mother!

A Quickie

2010-11-02T19:06:00.000-05:00

Post, I mean.

I've been totally off the online grid for the last week it seems. I'm behind on everyone's posts and FB. But it's been totally worth it, since Janae is coming home on THURSDAY! Yes, THIS Thursday, as in two days from now. I'm so excited I can hardly stand it. I bring my car seat in tonight so she can do her car seat test, then I meet with the oxygen guys so they can set up her oxygen equipment and show me how to use it tomorrow morning. Then Thursday morning, we go pick her up. I'm stoked! She's been doing so well the last week. All of the sudden she just decided she wanted to be a big girl. She moved into her open crib Friday night, and then yesterday she was ready to do all of her feedings with the bottle. They removed her feeding tube this morning, and it's so wonderful to look at her face without all that tape (minus the tape needed to keep the nasal canula in). She's up to 5lbs 6.2oz and 17.4" long. I can't wait to get her home!

I have so much to do though. I was only going to get on the computer for five minutes, but it's now been an hour. *sighs* That's always the way it is. My house needs to be cleaned, laundry folded and I have some last minute things I need to get for her. You'd think that since I would have gotten all that done in the last 5.5 weeks she's been in this hospital, but that's not how I roll. Just call me Last Minute Cait.

I'll do another post this week with pictures. She's pretty much the cutest baby I've ever seen in my life. Really. One of my favorite things is when she throws her arms up when she's sleeping. Or when she smiles in her sleep. Basically, I love everything about her. I'm completely obsessed. And I'll be even more so when she's home. Let the games begin!

Updates

2010-10-14T17:06:00.000-05:00

1. Yesterday was our first day to feed Janae from the bottle. I did it yesterday morning, and I had a great nurse that sat by me the whole time and told me what to do. Jared did it last night and we didn't have a nurse do that, and we both were incredibly clueless. Feeding a preemie is completely different than feeding a normal baby. It's a very slow process, and we have have to pay really strict attention to her to make sure she's breathing and swallowing all at the same time. Can you say... intimidating? Thankfully, we laughed about it all the way home last night. I think it's partly due to the fact that we are a little punchy from lack of sleep.

2. She's up to 4lbs 5oz!! She is starting to look like a baby, and not so much skin and bones. Crossing my fingers that she'll eventually turn into a chubby baby...

3. I'm really tired. We've been going to the hospital at 11:30pm and those late night visits are wearing me out. I hear it's good practice for when she finally comes home. If I think I'm tired now, I can't imagine what I'll feel like when I have to wake up every three hours to feed her!

4. We got new callings in the ward. We haven't officially been called to them, so I can't say what they are. I will say though, I'm completely and utterly terrified of my new calling. I was hoping to get a calling that would take some stress out of my life, but this new calling is worse than the one I already have! I have never in my life been so tempted to say no.

5. I'm losing a ton of weight. It just keeps coming off, and I am wondering at what point it will stop.

6. I love hanging out in Janae's room. There isn't anything up on the walls yet, but I love looking at her crib, folding her clothes and just being in there. I can't wait to get her home so that it doesn't all look so lonely.

7. We got the medical bill yesterday for my whole hospital stay. Holy... freakin'... cow. We're still not sure what we have to pay yet, but we now know the total bill. I can't even imagine what Janae's NICU bill is going to be. I think I'll just not think about it right now. I am so grateful for insurance!

8. I've decided that being patient is really hard. It feels like this time in our life is draggin', big time. I felt the same way when Jared was in Iraq too. Am I destined to always be the one at home that just waits? Waited for Jared to come home, and now I'm waiting for Janae. *sighs* So incredibly frustrating.

9. I'm off to clean the house. My in-laws are coming in tonight and staying over the weekend, and I want to be ready in case they decide to come over and see Janae's room. I have no idea if they will, just makin' sure. Don't want them to think their son married a slob!

10. I hope everyone has a great weekend! If anyone needs me, I'll either be at the hospital or at home, comatose on the couch. ;-)

Pictures!!

2010-10-06T16:42:00.000-05:00

Janae is doing SO much better this week than she was last week. She has been unhooked from most of the machines, but it still on oxygen. Doctor said that she might still be on oxygen when she comes home, but I'm totally okay with that as long as she gets to come home. We've had lots of fun the past few days with holding her and getting to feed her. She is getting fed through a tube right now, as she is still too small for a bottle/traditional breast feeding. But that's okay.. she's eating like a champ! She's digesting everything we give her and is even starting to get upset when she gets hungry. Crossing my fingers that she continues on this way and that we can take her home once she gains a little weight! She's maintained her same weight since she was born, which is a really great sign, considering she was so sick last week.

She is making a name for herself in the NICU. Apparently my girl has some 'tude! When she is upset she let's everyone know. Not only does she cry, but she flails her little arms and stretches her little body out to it's fullest length. It's actually pretty darn cute, if you ask me. She's really making her nurse work, and they are having to use every trick in the book to soothe her. Janae is a huge fan of the binky. She can't hold it in herself yet, but she will go to town and suck on that thing for all she's worth if you hold it in for her. It's so cute to watch her little chubby cheeks go in and out and suck on her binky. When we feed her, we make sure to put the binky in her mouth so she starts associating sucking with eating. Those nurses are pretty darn smart. The binky takes up half of her little face, but it really calms her down. My aunt got me a package of the binkies that hospitals use, so I'm all set for when she gets home.

This morning I managed to remember to not only charge the camera, but to bring it. I know, right? Amazing. We got some pretty cute pictures, including our very first family photo. Here they are:

This is when we first got there. She's just chillin'! They had the warmer on her, and she loves the heat.

We get to hold her twice a day for 30 minutes, so Jared takes his turn in the morning and I take mine on our night visit. She doesn't like moving very much, and it seems less traumatic for her this way. Mostly the holding is for us, not for her. I'm sure she just loves to be under her warmer, sleepin' away and gets mad at her parents for messin' with her routine. Sorry Janae!

Close up of her tiny face.

LOVE it when she opens her eyes! There really isn't any color yet, but I love when she looks at us.

Such a good lookin' family. I've lost 26lbs since having her.. can you tell?

I love my girl!

Introducing: Janae Peterson

2010-10-02T23:53:00.000-05:00

What a crazy, crazy last week. When I was in the hospital, I was itching to write this all down so that I could remember every single detail (good and bad), but then I got home and all of the sudden... I couldn't. I don't know if my baby blue's are kickin' it or what, but it's taken me a few days to finally be able to sit down and write this out. I'm pretty sure the tears will flow, but writing is always therapeutic for me and perhaps this is what I've needed. So, here ya' go... this is the story of my beautiful daughter's beginning:

Friday, September 17

I had a regularly scheduled appointment on this day. I remember being really excited because after this appointment I would be going to every two weeks. I was counting down the days until I could meet my little girl and I knew that having my doctor appointments closer together would help it go by faster. The appointment did not go well. My blood pressure was SUPER high, and I had 2+ proteins from my urine test. The doctor felt it necessary to send me straight over to the hospital for additional monitoring. I drove across the street, they put me in a room and hooked me up to a blood pressure cuff and put a heart monitor on my belly for Janae. They took my blood pressure every five minutes for an hour, and it finally went down. It still wasn't great, but it did go down. Fortunately, Janae was doing perfectly. She wasn't bothered one bit by my high blood pressure and I'm sure that it wasn't until after I had several people confirm that she was doing just fine that I finally calmed down. The nurse came in and gave me some instructions to be on "activity restriction", handed me a large jug to collect my urine for the next 24 hours and sent me on my way. I had a follow-up appointment scheduled for Monday so my doctor could look at the results from the 24hr urine sample and check my blood pressure again.

Monday, September 20

I went into my follow-up appointment and was officially diagnosed with preeclampsia/toxemia. Apparently it's pretty common with first pregnancies. However, it's NOT common for it to appear so early. My doctor basically put me on house arrest. I could do daily tasks and light household chores, but I wasn't to go anywhere and I had to spend most of my day resting. He told me that instead of weeks to month for a delivery, we were looking at days to weeks. I left the appointment a little scared, but I knew that even if my baby was to come super early, she would be okay. Jared and I were naively expecting to be able to make it to mid-October. Ha. So much for that plan!

I spent that week resting. I didn't leave the house, and mostly I sat on my butt and watched TV. Occasionally I walked around the house, but that was mostly until I would get feeling back in my butt and then I'd sit down again. I honestly feel like I did really well at the resting. Maybe some people could argue against it, but I did the best I could. I did go to the hospital twice that week to get a few steroid shots, which would help her lungs develop a lot faster. On Wednesday I started feeling really run down and just.. icky. The feeling persisted, and I had an inkling that at my follow-up appointment on Friday I might get sent to the hospital again. I packed a bag before my doctor's appt Friday afternoon, and off I went.

Friday, September 24

Yet another doctor's appointment that did not go well. I completely and utterly failed my blood pressure test. It was super high, as were the proteins from my urine sample. My doctor sent me back to the hospital for additional monitoring. They put a blood pressure cuff on me, put a heart beat monitor on my belly and I laid there for awhile. Even with the "resting" while taking my blood pressure multiple times, it did not go down. I was admitted to the hospital that very afternoon. I called Jared, gave him the news and he handed the reigns over to his boss and arrived at the hospital. They put me on a 12hr magnesium drip, and that was possibly the worst thing I've ever had to go through at a hospital. It gave me a migraine, and even the pressure of laying my head against the hospital bed was at times too much for me. It also made me incredibly nauseous, and throwing up with the migraine... not the way I want to spend the night. It was a long night for the both of us, but Jared was such a champ and did the best he could to make me comfortable. Thankfully, Janae was doing fantastic during this whole experience. The nurses were surprised at how active she was, even while I was on the mag drip. They said that normally babies are super mellow while the mag drip was going. Not my daughter!

Saturday, September 25

They finally stopped the mag drip, and I spent most of the day recovering. My blood pressure went down, which was the goal of the mag drip. They still wanted to keep me at the hospital, as they wanted to take my blood pressure every four hours. They unhooked me from everything, sent me upstairs to a regular room and Jared and I settled in for the night. Gradually, with every test, my blood pressure went back up. By the morning, I knew that the mag drip didn't make enough of a dent and I would be meeting my daughter a lot sooner than I had planned.

Sunday, September 26

My doctor scheduled the c-section for 3:00pm. Jared and I just hung out in the room for most of the day. I was extremely nervous, as nothing was going the way that I planned. Having my child 9 weeks early AND delivering by c-section was not the way I envisioned welcoming my first child into the world. Jared was my rock. He was super calm and having him there to hold my hand through the whole thing made me feel so much better. I couldn't have done it without him.

The time came for the c-section. Jared got all suited up while they wheeled me in to get the spinal tap. Holy cow, it's a weird feeling to have not have feeling from my boobs down. They hung up the sheet, Jared came in and quickly gripped my hand, and they cut me up and my daughter was born. The whole surgery lasted about 30 minutes, with putting me back together taking the most amount of time. They showed Janae to me right after they took her out, and I remember thinking "That's my daughter! She's so tiny.. and blue!". They took her over to where the NICU nurses were, and she was screaming and crying like nobody's business. I remember laying there on the table, feeling but not feeling my doctor patch me back up and tears were rolling down my face as I listened to her cry. I knew that I wouldn't even be able to hold her for at least a day, as I had to be put back on the mag drip to prevent me from getting seizures. I will always remember laying there, listening to her cry and feeling such love for this tiny person that will change my life forever. This was my daughter, the light and joy of my life. The nurses got her all cleaned up and brought her back around so I could see her and kiss her before they took her off to the NICU.

My daughter Janae was born on 9/26/10 at 3:43pm, at 3lbs 10oz and 16.5 inches long. The NICU doctors and nurses were very encouraged that she was so big, for being born so early. Jared spent the next few hours traveling back and forth between our rooms, which was nice because he would take pictures of her on his phone and show them to me. The NICU hooked her up to a ventilator, gave her some oxygen and I'm sure did a bunch of other things that I will never know about because I was passed out on perkaset (spelling?) and back on the mag drip. This time though it was a 24 hr. mag drip, so I was stuck to that bed and that room until at least 4pm the next day. It was another rough night. I sent Jared home because he was going to work on Monday, and he wasn't going to get any sleep in that hospital room. Thank goodness I did, b/c the nurse came in every hour to check my blood pressure and other such things. At least this time the mag drip didn't make me so sick! I was just in a ton of pain from the surgery, wishing I could be with my daughter and desperately wanting to sleep for more than an hour at a time.

Monday, September 27th

They took me off the mag drip at 4pm. I was excited because after making sure I wasn't going to have any averse reactions to it, they were going to move me up to my regular room and when Jared got there that night he was going to wheel me down to the NICU so I could finally spend some time with my daughter. In the hospital it seems like you can wait around all day with nothing happening, and then all of the sudden everything happens at once. Apparently the nurses decided that I needed to go see Janae right then, so they got me up, got me cleaned up a bit, stuck me in a wheel chair and wheeled me down to the NICU. Can I just tell you.. the first day after a c-section is not the best day ever. It pretty much hurt to do anything: laugh, sneeze, cough, stand-up... it was incredibly painful. But totally worth it when I was able to touch Janae for the first time and spend a few minutes with her. It is so amazing to me how much I can love her, even though I'd just met her. Having a child is such an incredible experience! The nurse gave me an update and told me that she was doing well enough breathing on her own that they were going to unhook her from the ventilator and when we (we meaning Jared and I) got back later that night, we were actually going to be able to hold her. SCORE!!! Here are a few pictures from when we went back later and were able to hold her for a few minutes:

Here are the pictures of her right after she was born:

I honestly don't have a clue whose hand that is, but it shows you how small she is!

She had blonde hair! I was so shocked when I saw that. It actually took me a few days to get used to it. I guess I thought that since my hair was so dark, it would be the dominant color or gene. Guess not! She is a total blondie. I'm kinda hoping it stays that way. I guess we'll see though, since she'll change so much in the first year.

We had kind of a setback in her progression that Monday night, but I'm not quite ready to talk about that. We almost lost her, but that's another post for another day. The good thing is that she's now recovering, and is getting better everyday. She will be in the NICU for quite awhile, we're thinking she'll be home around what her due date was. It's really hard that we're home and she's not, and I'm suffering from some pretty awesome separation anxiety. But hopefully the next two months will fly by, and she'll be home soon. After Janae's scare Monday night (or rather, early Tuesday morning), Jared was able to take this whole past week off and this week coming up. We go see her twice a day, and it seems that with every visit there is some kind of improvement. I would spend every minute up there if I could, but right now the best thing for her to do is to sleep and to heal, and it seems like when we're there she gets pretty wiggly. It's comforting to know that she knows who we are.

Right now it's all about the small things. This morning she was awake enough (she's been pretty heavily sedated for the last few days) that she opened her eyes and looked right at me. I don't know how far she can see, and I got as close as I could to her. It was so awesome to be able to look into her eyes, and to think maybe she could see me. A few nights ago I had my finger in her little hand and she squeezed it. I was so happy, I got a little teary eyed.

I'm recovering well from the surgery, but I guess my "baby blues" are taking the form of that separation anxiety. I'm trying really hard to be patient and to be upbeat and happy about everything. Some times I fail miserably, but Jared is there to lift me back up again. We have had some wonderful spiritual experiences in the last few days, and we have never been closer in our marriage than we have since Janae's birth. We can't wait for the day when our little family is all together and home, where we are supposed to be! Jared and Janae are my whole world, and I love them with every fiber of my being. Even though this is not how we envisioned everything to go, for some reason this is the way it's supposed to be. I'm not sure if we'll ever find out why, but we have the faith and knowledge that everything will be okay. But you better believe that when I'm standing at the bar after I die, I'm definitely going to be asking why it had to happen this way!!

We decided not take anymore pictures while she's still recovering, but once all the tubes and IV's are removed, I'll be a picture takin' fool. We probably will always vividly remember the last week, but didn't want any visual reminders. Hopefully, if she keeps going as she is, we'll be able to take pictures and hold her again this week. Cross your fingers!

Whew. Sorry for the long post, but like I said.. it's been quite the week. Welcome to the family Janae!

Childhood Memories

2010-09-22T18:12:00.000-05:00

A few years ago my mom completed a scrapbook for me showcasing my life from birth to kindergarten. She spent a ton of time on it, and there are some really beautiful pages in there. Every once in awhile, I get a wild hair and pull it out and look at it. I love that there are pictures of things that happened when I was too young to keep the memory. I hope that I can provide that for my kids someday, even if it's not in a really elegant and beautiful scrapbook like this.

I took a few pictures to share, as some of the pages are just really great and it's fun to look back on a time when I was actually cute!

Here is the typical newborn picture, with a little card from the hospital with all the details of my birth:

A picture of my first experience with a chocolate chip cookie, a love affair that has lasted my whole life:

Me at 6 months:

Me with my first bike, and a head full of curls. Where did those go?!:

And then, the all so important first dance class:

Everytime I look at this picture I always wonder why the heck I have such a crazed expression on my face. Was it because it was a race and I was losing? Was I so happy to be hopping around like a bunny that I went slightly mad? Were there chocolate chip cookies waiting for me at the end? Or was it because I was actually let out in public with a mullet haircut?

Gotta love those childhood pictures. It always hits home of what a weird kid I was, and how that really hasn't changed... ;-)

Pregnancy Update

2010-09-20T19:26:00.000-05:00

I had my regular ol' monthly doctor's appointment last Friday. I went in feeling just like I normally do, and came away discovering I have super high blood pressure and might have toxemia. I had to head over to the hospital for some additional monitoring. They put a blood pressure cuff on me and took my blood pressure every five minutes for about an hour. They also put a monitor on my belly keep track of her heartbeats to make sure she was doing all right. Thankfully, my blood pressure DID go down and Baby Girl is right where she's supposed to be at, heartbeat and measurement wise. They put me on activity restriction and told me I have to drink tons of water and eat more meat. I left the hospital with a big jug to collect my urine for the next 24 hours, which I turned that in Saturday afternoon and waited until my follow-up appointment with my doctor that was scheduled this afternoon.

My mom picked me up, took me over to my doctor and the appt started off all right. My blood pressure was still high, but not nearly as high as it was on Friday. Then... my doctor read the results from the urine collection. Turns out that I do have toxemia, but so far it's pretty mild. From what I understand from my doctor is that my body and the placenta are fighting eachother. So, instead of weeks to months for a delivery, I'm looking at days to weeks. He said that it's concerning that I have it this early, but as long as I keep to the rules I should be able to keep her in there for a few more weeks. I'm hoping to get to mid to late October. That's my goal anyway!

Doctor has put me on a form of bed rest. Basically.. it's house arrest. I can still do daily tasks, such as dishes, laundry, dusting.. but I need to spend most of the day laying around. No shopping, no visiting friends, no going out to dinner, and no church. I'm going in to see the doctor about twice a week right now. I went into the hospital again today to get a my first steroid shot, and will go in again tomorrow to get a second one. The steroid shots are supposed to help Baby Girl's lungs develop faster so that she will be better off when she does come. Whenever that may be.

Strangely.. I'm at peace. Baby Girl is doing just fine as of right now, and that's all I can ask for. As long as she's okay, I'm okay! I'm not looking forward to bed rest, but I'd much rather do it and have my daughter be healthy and safe than be stupid and run the risk of having serious problems. She will come when she is meant to, and I know with every fiber of my being that she will be fine when she does. This just means I get to meet her sooner! And I don't have to mess with potentially having her on a holiday! See? Positives can be found in any situation.

Got any book or movie recommendations to share? Since that is pretty much all I'm going to be doing for the next several weeks, I'll gladly take any you've got!

Feeling Neglected

2010-09-15T14:46:00.000-05:00

This past Sunday we had Stake Conference, and instead of doing the right thing and actually going, I decided to start my Harry Potter reading marathon instead. It's been years since I've read books 1 though 4. When I get on a Harry Potter kick, I normally just start with book 5 and go up from there. So I decided to do it right this time and start from the very beginning. I've really enjoyed myself so far, but a few things have been neglected while I've been lost in my Harry Potter stupor:

1. The dishes pile up:

2. The clean laundry from last week never gets folded:

3. And the dirty laundry doesn't even make it into the hamper:

4. I haven't done my hair or make-up for three days, and I think I've forgotten the meaning of actually getting dressed. I'm starting to run out of comfy clothes!

5. I've eaten way too many chocolate chip cookies, and as a result, had a terrible stomachache last night.

I love Harry Potter, but every time I look at my kitchen I suddenly develop a nervous twitch. My poor house needs some lovin'!

What gets you so engrossed that you forget everything around you? Or is it just me that does that? ;-)

Slow Cooker Chicken & Dumplings

2010-09-13T10:14:00.000-05:00

This is one of our absolute favorite recipes! My crock-pot has recently become my best kitchen friend. I love that I can throw everything into one pot, turn it on and in just a few hours time my home smells good. When we finally sit down to eat, it's tasty too!

This recipe is just for two people, but you can easily tailor it to feed more if need too.

Slower Cooker Chicken & Dumplings

Ingredients:

2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
2 TBSP butter
1 can Cream of Chicken soup (10.75 oz)
1 1/2 cups (roughly) frozen mixed veggies
1 tube refridgerated "mini" biscuit dough

Directions:

1. Place the chicken, butter, soup and veggies in slow cooker, and fill with enough water to cover.

2. Cover, and cook for 5 to 6 hours on high. About 45 minutes before serving, place the "mini" biscuits in the slow cooker. Cook until dough is no longer raw in the center.

Project Update

2010-09-08T14:41:00.000-05:00

My dear, kind, sweet, loving husband decided to take the third bedroom under his wing. I guess he too decided moving all that stuff around would be too much for me and the baby, so I stood around holding the trash bag while he cleaned it up. It still looks like a storage room, but at least it's an organized storage room! It no longer gives either one of us the shakes when we go into the room to get something:

Okay, maybe in the picture it doesn't look that much different, but trust me.. there's a huge one! I would even like to mark down in history that my husband actually decided to donate a few things to the local thrift store. I...cannot...believe it. Jared NEVER gives anything away. It's always been a source of minor conflict because I don't hold on to stuff and he does. So, we got rid of a car full of stuff and organized all of our boxes and storage. Feels so much better!

On another semi-related note, I stumbled upon a gold mine last night while blog surfing. This wonderful blogger, whom I have never met, has gathered a bunch of pictures of the temple (that people have sent in, so they're non-copyrighted!) and antiqued them and made them available for everyone's use. Here's the link:

http://www.lilluna.com/2010/07/by-popular-demand.html

I have been wanting to do a project like this for awhile, so I saved a copy of the Mt. Timpanogos temple and sent it to my mom for her to blow it up and print it off at work. Here is the result:

Aggghh!! I'm so stoked. I've been wanting a picture of this temple ever since we got married, but to buy a nice picture at Deseret Book is a couple hundred dollars. Frankly, I'd rather eat. Can't wait to show you the finished product!!

A Dancing Competition

2010-09-01T23:49:00.000-05:00

Way back when, I attended BYU-Idaho. I hated it. I am a city girl through and through and moving to that tiny town of Rexburg was like Crocodile Dundee visiting NYC.

My third semester there, I signed up for a beginner's ballroom class. I was fortunate enough to be signed up for a class where there were more than two guys registered, and so I actually had a chance to learn how to dance. My whole world changed. I loved being swept into some guy's arms (he didn't even have to be cute, just as long as he knew the steps) and waltzing around the gym floor like Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. I loved learning how to move my hips to the beat of a latin tune, making me feel completely and utterly sexy for just that moment. Within the length of a song, I came alive in such away that I had never experienced before.

At the end of the semester, the school hosted a huge dance competition. Because we were in the class at the time, we had to put a group number together with other people in the class. My group's was actually quite awful. Let's just say my calling in life is not choreography. Any other level of participation was up to us. A guy in my class and I talked it over and decided that we really wanted to enter the beginner's cha-cha competition. We wanted to say that we did it, even if we didn't win.

So, we did.

I wore a flowy white skirt and a black top with some heels (low, because I can't dance in really tall ones like professional dancers), and my partner wore a slick white shirt and tie with suit pants. We were nervous, but we were ready. We signed in and got our numbers, then sat around and watched the other dances for awhile until it was our event's time to start. By some miracle, we managed to pull through the first round. Then, we got back on the dance floor and did it again. We pulled through the second round. By this time, numerous couples had been cut and there were only a handful of us left on the dance floor. That made us even more nervous because we weren't just in a throng of people in anymore. The spectators could actually watch every move we made.

The third round was the last and final round. Not thinking we would even get this far, we stepped out onto the floor and gave it our best. After the song was over, the remaining couples still left in the competition stood in an awkward line while we waited for the judge's decision. All of the sudden, third place was called. Not our numbers. Then second was called, not our numbers again. Then a pause. And silence. Then the judges called out first place. My partner and I were starting at eachother's numbers like they were lottery tickets and what do you know... the numbers they called happened to be the same numbers we were wearing. We had won! We continued to stare stupidly at eachother, not really believing that the two of us had actually won the competition. They placed shiny new medals over our heads and we bowed to the audience. We then walked gracefully off the dance floor like we had done this a thousand times before. After getting away from the crowd, we stopped and grinned at eachother like idiots and jumped up in down in complete amazement.

I will never ever forget that feeling of winning that cha-cha competition. I think about it often when I get discouraged or feel like I'm less of a woman because I don't do everything perfectly. I know that when we go out there and give it our all, we can be rewarded for our efforts. Even when we least expect it.

A Monumental Task

2010-08-30T17:35:00.000-05:00

Jared works in the shipping industry, and because of that, the last few months of the year are particularly ~~horrific~~ busy. I see him for a few hours in the morning before he leaves for work and that's it. He comes home long after I've gone to bed. I have become a pro at sleepily muttering "I love you baby" in the five seconds after he slips into bed and before he crashes in complete exhaustion. I spend a ton of time alone, and I've noticed in the last few days I've begun talking out loud while reading a book. Not reading out loud, but talking to the characters out loud. All I need is a bunch of a cats and my image as the crazy cad lady will be set!

To keep myself busy and to make the time move along a little quicker, I've been making a list of all the projects I want to get done before Baby Girl arrives. The weather should be pretty nice this week, and so that means I can work around the house without sweating to death. So, I'm going to throw open the windows and enjoy the cool weather, bake some yummy treats, throw on some good tunes and work on my first project (which is our third bedroom, but it's completely unusable, as you'll see below):

Gulps.

What am I getting myself into?

27 Weeks

2010-08-26T17:17:00.000-05:00

I'm not officially 27 weeks until tomorrow, but I figure I'm not really going to change that much between now and then. Plus, getting Jared to take my picture is like pulling teeth. I have no idea why it is so impossible for him to just press a button. I secretly think he just likes giving me a hard time.

Here I am. I look, and feel like, a bloated whale. But what can I do? I think I'm going to be all belly in this pregnancy. I've only gained 11lbs so far (yipee!!!), and I feel like I'm normal everywhere else except for my gigantic stomach. But we'll see. A lot can happen between now and Nov. 26.

Thanks Katie for taking the picture! I love having it available for posterity.

Right Time, Right Place

2010-08-24T11:28:00.000-05:00

We drove up to Ogden Saturday night (it's about an hour north from where we live) to have dinner with Jared's cousins. We went with just ourselves and our contribution to the dinner, but came home with this:

A beautiful, utterly perfect entertainment center. They were just going to get rid of it because they didn't have any room for it anymore. Jared and I took a look at it and immediately fell in love! It's absolutely everything we wanted in an entertainment center. The color is perfect, we love that it's modular and comes apart, and it has a place for our DVD's, plus more surfaces for me to put knick-knacks and other deocrative pieces. And did I mention that they gave this to us for FREE?! Woo hoo!

It also came with this cool addition:

A credenza, for when we someday get rich and can get a flat screen. Right now I'm using it as a buffet, and I'm thinking about storing all my craft things (what few things I have) in it. That way when I get a wild hair and want to sew something, I can just pull it out, set it up on the dining table and then put it away when I'm done. Same thing with all my scrapbook paper and whatnot. I know exactly how I want to decorate the top of this credenza-buffet piece, and I'm going to spend some time at the thrift store and the dollar store this week to price things out.

Now I just need to get my dining room table painted. It sure is an eye sore next to all this beautiful dark wood!

An Update

2010-08-19T10:45:00.000-05:00

1. Jared and I spent a few days in Monterey, CA last week and we had SO MUCH FUN. There are actually pictures to be posted, I'm just waiting for them to be sent to me. My wonderful MIL has them all on her camera, and when she sends them, I'll post them! We went with my in-laws, and Jared and his dad spent a few days at Meachum auto auction, and Lynette and I shopped and ate. The weather was beautiful, the company was fantastic and we have memories that will last us for the rest of our lives. Isn't family the best?!

2. I have really been enjoying my time at home. Baby making really wears me out! I have watched more crime shows in the last few weeks than I ever have in my life combined. I need to start watching some education shows or something. I have been doing a little bit of reading, but mostly I'm just out of the reading vibe. I don't know what my deal is. I've also figured out that there is absolutely nothing on in the mornings. Besides news, and who wants to watch that?

3. Jared has been traveling a ton this month. He spent the first week of Aug in Pittsburgh, then we went on vacation last week and then next week he's headed to Dallas (so jealous!). He's been having a stressful few days at work. How do you all handle husbands that come home stressed out from work? The only thing I've figured out is to just have the house clean, dinner waiting and give him the remote and let him zone out in front of the TV for a few hours. I feel bad, because really.. there's not a single thing I can do to help. Bummer!

4. I am craving Fall. I am so ready to get out my pumpkins and my Fall decor. I can't wait for the weather to cool down and for the leaves to change color. I keep watching the Harry Potter movies because it gives me enough of my Fall fix to be patient for a few more days. When is it socially acceptable to start decorating for Fall? I'm thinking Sept 1st.... ;-)

5. On Friday I'm officially 26 weeks! 14 weeks until the big day! I am so excited. I am actually taking my glucose test at my dr's appt tomorrow. I've heard horror stories about it, so hopefully it'll go all right. I'm also hoping to have Jared take a pic of me, since I'm starting to look like a total blimp. I am all belly in this pregnancy! I was over at my mom's house yesterday, and my brother was there as well and he actually asked me if I'd lost some weight. I thought that was a crazy question to ask, but whatev. I'll take it! As of my last dr's appt I've only gained 4lbs. We'll see what the magic number is tomorrow.

6. I absolutely love feeling her move. It's one of the most wonderful things about being pregnant. I'll take the lack of sleep, swelling feet and fingers and general feeling of being squished for every second of my daughter moving around inside of me. Jared actually felt her for the first time a few days ago. Her movements are getting a lot stronger, and if she does it right, I can actually see her through my shirt. She's incredibly active! If that's any indication of what kind of child she's going to be, I'm in serious trouble. I'm hoping my chasing her around will translate into me being skinny. Really hoping.

7. When I picked up Jared from the airport after his trip to Pittsburgh, we were driving out of the airport just chatting and catching up and all of the sudden he reaches over and rubs my belly. He had the hugest smile on his face and I just thought that was so sweet that he was excited to see his daughter, even though she hasn't arrived yet. There is a definite difference in her movements when he is around and talking. She's a lot calmer and quieter. She is probably going to be a total daddy's girl, which I'm really okay with. She couldn't have a better daddy to love!

8. Have you noticed that I have a one track mind these days? I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Curtains Complete!!

2010-08-07T09:21:00.000-05:00

And I love how they turned out! Mom came over Monday afternoon and literally, we tore my whole front room apart. We laid out all the tables so she'd have room to measure and cut, we threw on the A&E version of Pride and Prejudice, and had a grand ol' time. It took her a few days to complete both panels, and it was nice to have the company while Jared was gone. There were also a few chocolate and McDonald's runs... us sewers have to keep ourselves fortified you know! Well, mom sewed and I sat around and controlled the tv and movies we watched. Aren't I so helpful?

The actual workspace. Gott love having big rooms!

The pleating process, which was the last step of the drapery making process.

The finished product! With sagging curtain rod and all. I love, love, LOVE them! Although, I definitely need to go get a new rod. It's a little anemic.

Here is a close-up of the fabric. Isn't it cute? I couldn't be happier with the way they turned out. Baby Girl's room is actually starting to look like her room. Now we just need a few more things, and of course, HER, then it will all be perfect.

Thanks so much Mom for taking a few days out of your life to get these done! They look great!

Baby Girl's Room: The Fabric

2010-07-28T09:41:00.000-05:00

We don't have a name for our daughter yet. We have a few names we like, but don't know if they're "the one". I actually think we'll have to wait and see her before we can officially decide. I thought about referring to her as Our Nameless Daughter... but that sounds pathetic and like she's unloved. So, she'll just be Baby Girl Pete.

A few weeks ago Mom and I went shopping for fabric for Baby Girl's room. We live in an apartment, so we can't get too crazy on the decorating, but I still wanted the things that we can change to be unique for her. I originally thought I was going to go with black, pink and green and tried to look for fabric that I liked with those colors. As soon as I saw this fabric, I knew I had to have it:

I'm not normally a girly girl, but I LOVED the fabric that's on the left. And then the checked fabric looked so good next to it, and would be a good accent. Love it! We're (and I use the term "we" loosely as pretty much my Mom is going to be doing most of the work. All right, all right.. all of it!) going to make a crib bumper, bed skirt, curtains, and ottoman cover with these two fabrics. Can't wait until it's all done! Mom's waiting on my brother to move out so she can set up her sewing room, so it might be a few months before I have anything to show.

Although, next week while Jared is out of town we're going to set up a drapery station in my front room and we're going to make the curtains for Baby Girls' room, and then Mom wants to make curtains for her room as well. I found out yesterday that she hand sews all of her draperies. Uhhh... not sure if my swollen sausage fingers can fit around a needle to hand sew anything! But I'll give it a try, as making draperies is definitely something I want to learn.

Today though, it's going to be me vs. the machine:

Who knew that one little machine could strike fear in the hearts of so many? I'm going to make my apron today... wish me luck!

Pioneer Day

2010-07-27T09:18:00.000-05:00

Saturday

If you have ever lived in Utah, or been anywhere near Utah on July 24th, you'll know that Pioneer Day here in this state is HUGE. It's probably pretty safe to say they celebrate the holiday more than the 4th of July. I had a hard time with that when I first moved here. Pioneer Day.. Independence Day of our nation... to me, there is no comparison. But, it's Utah and what can I do? Nothing, so celebrate Pioneer Day we did.

We started off the holiday with going to the parade. Salt Lake City has a huge parade and it's wonderful! The floats this year were crazy good. Jared wasn't too jazzed about going to the parade, but since he's the most wonderful man alive, he went with me anyway. My favorite parts were the marching bands. I marched in the Arlington 4th of July parade every year in high school, and it was so fun. I do have to say... our marching band kicks any Utah high school marching band's butt. Go Warriors.

One of the very first parade attractions was a car containing President Uchtdorf (spelling? I could look it up but I'm too lazy). It always amazes me that I can be a half a street away from a member of the First Presidency. Heck, I can just go downtown and hang around temple square for awhile if I want to see any member of the twelve. Also unique to Utah is the very large group of missionaries walking in the parade, bringing up the rear. Strange group to have in the parade, I think. I have zero pictures because I forgot to take the camera, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself and look forward to many more years of parades to come!

That night we headed over to my SIL Alicia's house for a bbq and to sit around the fire pit in her backyard. Once the sun went down it was such a perfect night to be sitting around the fire. We toasted s'mores and had some good conversation. A night containing some of my favorite things to do in the summer: BBQ and sit around a fire. It's so relaxing, and even though you smell like smoke when you get home, it's totally worth it. Again, *sighs*, zero pics.

All in all, a great day even though it's weird to have two very similar holidays right next to eachother in July. But that's Utah for ya'. I'll just pretend to myself that it's a July 4th parade. ;-)

Summer Reading List

2010-07-23T10:15:00.000-05:00

One of the things I loved about being in school was that I was always learning something new. I always felt that I was progressing and I was going somewhere because my mind was being stimulated by my classes. Now that I'm out of school, and won't be going back for awhile, I'm struggling with how to keep that progression going. I love reading my romance novels, but they're essentially all the same and are mostly a way for me to brain out for a few hours. "Braining out" does not equal stimulation or an increase of knowledge. I'll never be an incredibly smart person, I'll never have facts readily available at my fingertips that I can spout off at any moment, but I do want to improve my mind and hopefully in turn.. improve myself.

The first thing I decided to do was change up my reading list a little bit. There are so many great and wonderful books out there, but I've never been interested in them. Maybe I've been too much of a book snob or something. The first book on my list for this summer is:

Jared swears by this book. He can't get enough of it, and he even asked me to read it around the New Year when we were setting our goals. I'm ashamed to say that I didn't do it when he asked me too. But I've started it and am reading it now! I would like to learn a little bit more about how to manage my time better and to be a more successful person. Hopefully reading this book will give me some good insights and I'll begin to develop better habits.

As we transition into a one-income household with the arrival of our yet-to-be-named daughter, I also want to take a crack at a financial book:

I truly believe that if we are making the sacrifice for me to stay home with our children, then Heavenly Father will bless us and we'll be okay. We're not going to be millionaires by any means, but I can definitely learn to shop smarter and save better. I've already begun to learn how to coupon shop and shop the sales at the store. I've been haunting the children's clothing section at some of my favorite stores, waiting for their summer clothes to go on clearance so I can stock up for next year. Jared has also read this book and I think it will help give me some useful tips on how to accomplish my goal to be the best stay at home mom I can be.

I do want to throw a little spiritual in there, as I want to be a balanced individual, so next I want to read:

Have you seen this book? It's huge! Like... 500 pages or something. Not that I am a stranger to huge books (the Harry Potter series), but for some reason this book has always intimidated me. I've always wanted to read it, but it seems like a daunting task. Well, the time for shying away from books that intimidate me is now past. If my sister can read it on her mission, then I can too! I might take me a few months, but it will get read.

Do you have any suggestions for some great books that you've read that have really helped you become a better person? I'm always open to ideas!

Some of my other goals this summer are:

1. I want to bake my first cake from scratch.

2. After I can make a good one, I want to take a cake decorating class from my local craft store. Even though I will never be like Duff on Ace of Cakes, I want to be a passable cake decorator so my kids and husband aren't embarrassed when I bring cakes out on their birthdays. Plus, it just looks like fun to me.

3. I want to learn how to make homemade bread. Not french bread, but sandwich bread. Bread that I can make to maybe someday replace store bought bread.

4. I want to visit the cannery and learn all about canning food. We are really focusing on building up our food storage, and I've heard that's the place to start.

5. I want to learn how to sew. I have a sewing machine, and I even have a pattern and fabric but I've never made it. I would love to make my little girl some cute dresses and hair bows and things. Again, I've always been intimidated by the sewing machine. That's perhaps why it's still sitting in the box. I'm planning to take it out next week and begin my first project, an apron!

I think I'll stop there for now. I don't want to get too overwhelmed with goals and then never accomplish anything. Which, sad to say, is the norm for me. I want to live the kind of life I want to teach my kids, and what better time to start then now?

The Weekend

2010-07-05T13:43:00.000-05:00

Friday

The weekend started off with Jared in Boise for a short business trip and me shopping for some maternity clothes. I literally only have a few shirts and one pair of maternity pants that fit me, and was tired of having to be super creative getting dressed every morning. I just hate the idea of spending money on maternity clothes when I'm only going to be wearing them for such a short time. After buying a few things though, it's SO nice to have clothes that fit! I went to Motherhood Maternity in the mall and it was a great store! I thought they had some really cute clothes. I couldn't stomach the idea of paying more than ten bucks for a shirt though, so I just bought a couple of shirts and a pair of jean capris. Love everything I've bought! They had one of those belly things you could put on under your clothes that adds a trimester, and holy cow! I am going to be super huge if that belly thing is anything to go by. But at least the few shirts I bought will cover the insanely large belly bump.

Saturday

Jared came home around 10am and went right to bed. Poor guy. He spent a total of ten hours in the car for a two hour visit. He slept for most of the morning, and I left him to go see this:

It was SO good! I thought that for the most part it followed along pretty well with the book and they didn't add anything too crazy to it. The acting and effects were so much better in this movie than Twilight definitely, and even New Moon a little bit. There were a few times where I actually laughed out loud. I loved how we were able to get a better insight into Rosalie and Jasper's previous lives. I know we get that in the book, but it was nice that they included that in the movie. I just thought it was really well done, even though I wanted to strangle Bella in some parts of the movie. I felt that way in the book as well, and I thought it was incredible that the director could take my same feelings from reading the book and make me feel the same way in the movie. Overall, really impressed and couldn't be more happy with it!

Later that day we got together over at my SIL's house for the UFC fight and some bbq. The guys mostly watched the fight while us gals talked around the firepit outside. This was AFTER all the kids were put to bed. It was a mad house at first when all of the kids were there and awake! I looked over at Jared and he had this deer-in-the-headlights look on his face. I'm not sure if he was just amazed at how loud kids can get, or if he was rethinking the whole kid thing. Either way, it was pretty funny to watch him. We went home at about 11pm and both of us just crashed. We are so not the kind of people that can stay up late anymore! Pretty much 11 is our limit.

Sunday

We had a pretty low key day at church. We stood up for the closing hymn in sacrament meeting and sang The Star Spangled Banner and I pretty much balled my way through the song. And I'm not talking just a few tears, I'm talking out right sobbing. Jared was looking at me like I was a crazy person (which I am) and kept asking what was wrong. I really have strong feelings about that song, our country, the military.. everything. I was thinking a lot about sacrifice yesterday and for some reason it made me really emotional. Not that that is too hard these days, but Independence Day is one of my favorite holidays. I've always loved it but now that I feel like I've actually given back to this great country, I feel the patriotism more keenly. Last night as we were laying in bed Jared told me that it was kind of a hard day for him, with missing being in the military and all. I told him that I miss it too, but still feel like it was the right thing for him to get out. I miss feeling like I'm a part of something great. The military is like one big family and it's sometimes hard not to be a part of that anymore. Now we're just regular ol' patriots. ;-)

That night we went over to my mom's for dinner. My little brother really wanted to get together, so we all met over there and ate some burgers and chocolate cake. Delicious! We had fun sitting around and talking.

Monday

I have the day off of work and Jared doesn't, so I'm probably going to tackle organizing my desk. It's looking pretty scary! I'll probably put on a movie or something and get it all cleaned up. I scraped up the Tahoe pretty bad this morning by running into a pole, and am feeling pretty bad about it. All of the damage that has been done to that car has been by me, and I hate, absolutely hate calling Jared and telling him things like that. This one isn't a little scratch either, it's pretty big. *sighs* Oh well, I guess. Maybe I'll make Jared a really good dinner or something. Oh! Or maybe a trifle. Butter him up so he's not so mad at me. Wish me luck!

18 Weeks

2010-06-27T10:02:00.000-05:00

Jared and I were finally in the same place at the same time where we could take an updated picture. I haven't gained very much weight yet, which is a plus! But my baby bump keeps getting bigger, and I love it. It's nice to actually look pregnant now, instead of just fat.

Don't ya' love my tan line? I've been sitting out by the pool on Saturday's to try and get rid of it, but I think wearing 55spf sunscreen every time I go out isn't helping my case. Ah, oh well. I guess I'd rather have a tan line than fry.

We also received baby girl's first bit of clothing last weekend on Father's Day. We went over to my mom's house for dinner and this was there waiting for us:

She picked it up in the little boy's section (we ALL really thought it was going to be a boy!), but I don't care. I think this is so cute and my daughter is going to wear it anyway. I'll put a bow in her hair or something.

I don't think I'll be able to resist doing a bit of shopping for her while I'm out and about this week. Shopping for girls is definitely so much easier! Way more options to choose from. And so many cute options too. ;-)

Happy Sunday!

Visions in Pink

2010-06-25T21:57:00.000-05:00

Today was THE day. The day we find out what we're having.

We arrived at the appt giddy with excitment, certain we already knew what the doctor was going to tell us. Our only worry was that the baby wouldn't cooperate and we'd have to wait 'til our next appointment.

Despite how much our child was moving around, she cooperated beautifully. My doctor got two really good shots of the crotch area. He said that if this baby was a boy there would be something hanging there, and there was obviously nothing. So, by our excellent powers of deduction, on Nov 26 the newest addition to the Jared Todd Peterson family will be:

A baby girl!!!

Really, we're quite shocked. We were convinced it was a boy. There wasn't a single thing that anyone could say to make us think otherwise. When the doctor said "You're having a girl!" I don't think you could have found two more speechless people on the planet. I swear both of our jaws were hanging to the floor and we were looking at the doctor like he just spoke gibberish.

I am going to have a daughter. I will be a mother to a little girl. I ... cannot ... believe it. The shock has worn down mostly since my appointment this morning, but I'm having to readjust everything.

Besides my unpreparedness for this child to be a girl, I am super excited and can't wait for her to arrive. I made Jared go with me to Old Navy tonight so we could look at little girl clothes so I could get in the little girl zone. One the way back to work after my appointment, I thought to myself how cool it would be to have a little girl who looks just like me. She would also be cute if she looked like her dad (or rather, her aunt Alicia as Alicia is pretty much the female version of Jared. I swear they were meant to be twins!). I know she is going to be a total daddy's girl. Jared doesn't believe me cause he refuses to listen to any more of my predictions regarding our little girl. Ah, well. Can't blame the guy!

It's so weird to say it.. I'm having a baby girl!!

P.S. We have zero names picked out. We will gladly take all suggestions, cause we're drawing huge blanks!

My Life @ 16 Weeks

2010-06-14T14:00:00.000-05:00

I completely forgot to take a picture on Friday, so I'll have Jared take one tonight and I'll add it to the post later. Oops!

I am now 16 weeks. I can't believe how fast the time is going now. I'm almost halfway through! It felt like the first trimester dragged on and on, but now time is steadily moving along.

Pregnancy is a weird state to be in:

-I have zero taste or desire to eat chicken. I can eat it if other people make it and it tastes fine, but if I make dinner with chicken in it, it always manages to end up on Jared's plate. I can't stand dealing with raw chicken! I'm almost at the point of putting a bandana around my face and wearing plastic bags on my hands so I don't have to smell or touch it. Weird thing: that's the only meat I have a problem with. I can deal with raw red meat just fine.

-I get really uncomfortable at night. Sitting on the couch makes me feel so squished and I don't last very long anymore before I end up getting up and reading in bed. Sleeping is also beginning to be uncomfortable. I have trained myself to only sleep on my sides, but for some reason that causes my butt cheeks to go numb. So I constantly have to wake up and roll over to the other side for awhile to give the other butt cheek a chance to go numb. My back also hurts in the morning. I'm not sure what to do to fix that, and have tried a pillow between my knees, under my stomach and wedged under my back as I lay on my side, but nothing seems to help it. I will definitely be asking the doctor for suggestions on how to sleep better next time I go in to see him.

-My sense of smell is sometimes like a hound dogs, and other times doesn't work at all. Jared and I went to see The A-Team on Saturday and I could smell the hair gel the lady in front of used. It was very strong to me, but when I talked to Jared about it later he said he couldn't smell anything other than the regular movie theater smells. Go figure.

-I have serious heartburn. Pretty much anything I eat after 4pm gives me heartburn and I get it every time I eat chocolate. Thankfully, all I have to do is chase my food with a glass of milk and the heartburn seems to not occur. My mom says that I'm definitely having a boy because only a boy wouldn't understand my need for chocolate while pregnant. Guess we'll find out on the 25th for sure or not! I'm so excited I can hardly stand it.

-I've started walking about 2 miles everyday and it feels SO good! I feel my body is pretty much the same except my stomach is getting bigger. Hopefully I will keep the weight gain down to a minimum so that I won't have so much to lose after the baby comes. I feel like I have more energy and it jump starts my day. I'm more productive and I love having the time for it.

-Besides the few minor things I listed above, I feel like this pregnancy has been pretty easy. Compared to some women's horror stories of being sick or on bed rest the whole time, my pregnancy is super easy. I'm really grateful for that actually. I don't know if every pregnancy will be like this one, but I'll take them as they come!

-Jared has taken to talking to my belly at random times. Mostly he's telling his kid that he better behave or else he'll be in big trouble. And since we both think it's a boy, he's telling our kid that he WILL like guns and cars. Apparently he has no choice in his hobbies, according to his dad. I asked Jared what he would do if our son was into sports or something else and Jared said that it was impossibly. I guess that's why he's "conditioning" our kid now. Yesterday he was singing this crazy song at the top of his lungs and then he bent over and starting singing to my belly. I'm sure the baby just loved that. I think me finally getting bigger has helped it be more real for Jared. I almost feel sorry for men that they don't ever get to experience the wonder of carrying a child. Sure, there's a lot of crappy side effects that go with it, but the end result is worth it to me. I always try to tell him how I'm feeling so that he'll feel more involved. I don't know if he ever felt left out to begin with or even cares, but it makes me feel better I guess.

-Really, my life at 16 Weeks couldn't be any better. I'm enjoying staying at home, where my only job is to clean house and grow this baby. I'm lovin' life and couldn't be any happier!

Missing Audj

2010-06-09T10:44:00.000-05:00

My sister recently sent another picture, and every time I get into my e-mail account I pull it up and look at it for a few minutes. I never knew how much I would miss her when she left for Brazil. I miss being able to call her and share a funny story about someone we both know, or tell her about a crazy thing that happened to me. I miss hearing her dramatic stories that she embellishes to no end and makes everyone laugh.

There is something in the bond of sisters. We grew up sharing a room, sleeping less than 10ft from eachother. We both are avid readers, and we'd spend Saturday mornings each on our bed reading whatever caught our fancy that day. Usually I was reading romance novels and she would be reading some classic or another. She knows me. She gets me. There are very few people who know me as well as she does, and I miss having that access to one of my very best friends.

She's decided to call me "Big Mama" during this whole pregnancy, and now addresses her e-mails to me that way. She also calls the baby "the creature" (followed by an evil laugh), which is typical Audrey. She's pretty dang excited for this baby, which will arrive a few days before she gets home. She's already decided that she first person she is going to hug and kiss is the baby, and I almost wonder if she could care less if any of the rest of us are at the airport as long as the baby is there! I'm trying to tell her it's okay for the baby to wait in line, and maybe hugging mom first would be better. Keyword "trying".

Here's her latest picture:

This is her with her mission president and his wife, who are shortly being released and she will be getting a new mission president and spouse. She looks good, huh? I can't believe how long her hair is. I have to say, I like getting these kind of pictures better than pics of detatched cow heads sitting in wheel barrows.

Yuck.

First Baby Purchase & 12Wk Baby Bump

2010-06-04T17:35:00.000-05:00

I took these pictures a few weeks ago and am finally motivated to update the blog.

We bought our first major baby items a few weeks ago: the all important stroller and car seat. We bought them online through Amazon and I love them! It was so tough to find something that was "gender neutral", as we wanted to use the items again for our next kid. Or two. We received them two days after we ordered them, and put them together the night they came. I just wanted to pull them out of the box, but Jared went one step further and put them together that night. Apparently he's decided I'm in a delicate mental state and he needs to walk on egg shells around me. I told him he needs to get over it and treat me normal. After all.. I only want to pull the pregnancy card when I actually need it!

Anyway, I'm off topic as usual. Here is our stroller/car seat combo:

I also took a 12Wk baby bump photo that same night:

Not the best picture of me, but what can ya' do? I don't think any picture from here on out is going to be spectacular. But I'm sure my posterity will appreciate it. Right? I feel like my baby belly grew pretty soon. In all the things I've read, I should start showing until four of five months. Nope, I was in maternity pants at 12Wks. Go figure.

I'm 15Wks today, so I'll take another pic at 16 weeks. We had a doctor's appt last week, and I tried to get the doctor to find out what the sex was, but he said it was too early. Ack. So, June 25th is the big day! I can't wait for that appt cause then I can start shopping! And so can the grandma's.... ;-)

Uhh.. that's about all that's going on. It got really hot here really fast, and I'm super tempted to go swim in our complex's pool. Sounds like a great saturday activity!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Thoughts On Getting Fired

2010-05-24T09:47:00.000-05:00

I was fired on Saturday. I have never before in my life been fired. The job that I was currently working was through a temp agency, and so the representative called me on Saturday afternoon to tell me that Challenger School did not want me to return. According to her, it was because "we were having a few issues with tardiness and we just didn't really feel that she was happy here". She = me.

I went through the stages of emotions over the weekend. When I first got off the phone with the temp agency lady, I was balling my eyes out. Poor Jared, he walked into the room and thought someone had died because I was crying so hard. I felt like a huge failure. What kind of person gets fired from a job where all they do is answer the phone? Me, apparently. I felt like I let down my family. I feel like I let myself down. I just felt like a huge disapointment and a waste of space.

My pity party continued on through Sunday morning, where I mostly thought about the blow to my self confidence. I thought about being a mother, and if I couldn't even manage to keep a job as a lowly receptionist, what kind of mom am I going to be? I focused on every little mistake and weakness that I possess, and couldn't seem to get past the negative.

Then I went to church. I took the sacrament, and I prayed fervently during most of the meeting, wondering why the heck this happened to us. In Sunday school the teacher read a really great quote about fairy tale characters, and how in between Once Upon A Time and Happily Ever After all of the characters went through trial and sacrifice. Just like our lives. Before we reach our own Happily Ever After, we experience trial and tribulation and are asked to sacrifice things that are important to us. I realized that it doesn't really matter what the reason was for me losing this job. I am incapable of seeing the bigger picture, and whether this was just an experience to teach me something, a consequence for something I did/didn't do, or whether there are bigger things in store for me than working at Challenger School.. what's done is done, and all I can do now is learn from my mistakes.

I realized that with the last few jobs I've felt like they were beneath me. They were boring, and a trained monkey could do the work that I was getting paid to do. I had a bad attitude. Even though I said I was grateful for the paycheck, I wasn't truly grateful for the job and I wasn't performing with excellence like I'm required to do. I KNOW the kind of person I am and the kind of work I can do. I can work hard, and do a good job and perform with excellence. For whatever reason, I haven't been doing that. It doesn't matter what work I'm asked to do, there is no excuse for me to slack and do a job badly. That's not the way I was taught and that is definitely not the person I want to be OR the example I want to set for my children. While it may be several years before I work full time again, I will always remember this experience and remember that I was fired because I didn't do my best. What's in the past is in the past, and I can't undo it. That doesn't mean that the next time around I can't do better and succeed. I'm so grateful that in life we are given second chances. We have an opportunity to ask for forgiveness and to move on and do it right the next time. So, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to put my heart and soul into being a mother and taking care of this household, and I'm going to do the dang best job I know how to do. Both Jared and my children deserve that from me, and I'm going to give it to them.

Speaking of Jared.. have I mentioned that he is the most amazing man? I've often wondered what the heck I did to deserve a man such as him. Especially in times like this when I completely and utterly fail. He was very calm and reassuring, despite my hysterical attitude and statements. He sat down with me and showed me that even though we aren't going to be able to accomplish the goals we wanted to before having the baby, we will be all right. We are going to have to sacrifice, and we are going to have to have faith that Heavenly Father won't let us fail. I'm grateful for Jared and his example. He works his butt off for this family, and I know that given a little time he will be successful and will accomplish the career and financial goals he has set for himself. I love my husband more than anything in this world, and he is always there for me when I'm in the middle of a crisis. Which, unfortunately, seems to happen a lot.

So, that was my weekend. I'm now a stay at home mom without the mom part until November. I'm going to look for a job that I can do at home, and I'm going to become an avid couponer and frugal shopper. I'm going to clean the house like mad, and think of all sorts of projects to do to get ready for the baby. I now have all the time in the world to nest and prepare myself for the wonderful role of being a mother. I would rather have kept working, but it didn't work out that way so I'm going to go with the flow and make do with what I've got. Which, right now is a bed full of laundry to fold and a fridge to clean. ;-)

Cookbooks

2010-05-13T10:10:00.000-05:00

My birthday was way back when, but I wanted to share a few things that I received. It was themed this year: cookbooks and baby stuff. The baby stuff I can't use for a little while, but it makes me happy to look at our growing pile of baby stuff sitting in the closet. Who knew that a box of diapers could bring such peace to my soul?

The first cookbook that I received for my birthday is this:

We all know of my slight obsession with this woman. I tell everyone I know about her site, and I've gotten my mom hooked on her as well. Have you read her love story? It's amazing! She's writing it into a book, and she mentioned in a post one day that the movie rights have already been sold. The rumor is that Reese Witherspoon is going to play Ree!

Anyway, like everything else she does, her cookbook is amazing. I can't wait to try some of her recipes. Jared and I are good ol' meat and potato lovers, and her recipes match our style. They're simple and delicious and make my heart go pitter pat. I'm thinking I might try her meat loaf first... it has bacon on it! Anything with bacon is bound to be yummy.

The other cookbook I received is this:

Awhile back I did a post on the movie, which I loved, and I was so excited to find out that I was getting the cookbook that inspired such a wonderful story. I spent a night reading through it to find out what kind of recipes it contained. The recipes in this cookbook are not very simple! But you know what? That's okay. Sometimes it's good to stretch and challenge ourselves, and my favorite way to do that is with a new recipe. Some of the recipes in this book look so delicious though. There are very few pictures, so I had to use my imagination. Thankfully, that works just fine and I have visions of these wonderfully cooked French meals. Yum!

Now if only I had the energy to cook.... ;-)

The Weekend

2010-05-03T14:33:00.000-05:00

Friday

I had a doctor's appointment. It lasted all of fifteen minutes! I think I spent more time commuting to and from his office then actually in the office. I did the protein test and they asked me how I was doing, all the while typing in a bunch of info into the computer. Then he listened to the heartbeat, which we could barely hear. Apparently that's supposed to get easier as I go along. There IS a lot of fat layers between my stomach and the baby. ;-)

Funny thing: I told him about my whole ER ordeal. You know what he said? "Oh yeah.. cysts are comming in many pregnant women. That is what is producing all of your progestoren (sp?) in the beginning weeks of your pregnancy." Uhh ......... I just sat there. I honestly thought to myself "why the heck couldn't I have talked to you before I spent all that time in the ER?" Grr... So apparently all the pain and throwing up and whatnot is also common. Who knew? He also said the cyst will go away at around four months. Why don't they talk about THAT in What to Expect When You're Expecting?

But, all in all, a good appt. I kinda wish I could have an ultrasound every time I go in, but that's just not meant to be.

That night Jared and I went to go see a movie, The Bounty Hunter. Not that great. Not 17 dollars worth, anyway. I must be getting cheap in my old age, but it seems like most of the movies that come out are waitable. I'd rather pay a buck for a movie I'm not sure is good or not than spend 17 bucks again and be disappointed!

Saturday

I sat on my butt all day and did nothing. Jared had to go into work for some training, and so I had planned to be this domestic goddess and get all of the cleaning done that I've been neglecting. That.. didn't happen. I didn't even take a shower for most of the day. That night we went over to a friend's house to watch the newest season of How I Met Your Mother, which they have DVR'd. It was fun! They have a new baby girl, and Jared wanted to hold her for a few minutes, and I got all teary eyed watching him hold this little baby. He's going to be such a great dad, and I can't wait for the baby to actually get here so he can finally be one!

Sunday

I was sitting in church, surrounded by all these little babies and small children, and the desire to see my child was so fierce that I just wanted to fast forward the next nine months until I can hold him and love on him. I've mostly been consumed with the pregnancy, and I guess I never seriously thought about what happens when the pregnancy is over. Screw being pregnant, I just want my baby to be here! *sighs* I know, I know.. I've got a long, long way to go. I'll enjoy the pregnancy bit after the next few weeks are over, but I am really ready to be a mom and experience the joy that comes from having children and raising them. All in good time, I guess!

My Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Friday Night

2010-04-26T10:29:00.000-05:00

I felt fantastic all day at work on Friday. No hint of an uspet stomach and it felt so good to not be nauseous for a little while. Jared and I went out for a quick lunch with one of his mission buddies that was in town, and the food was excellent! Gotta love Zuppa's. Then I finished out my afternoon at work and headed home, excited to be free for the weekend. That's when it all went down hill.

Around 5:30 I started cramping really bad. I've been lightly cramping this whole time, which is normal I guess for the first trimester, so I just laid down on the couch and tried to wait it out. Unfortuanately, it got worse. I was in so much pain that I threw up, and every time I moved I felt like I was going to pass out. I wasn't bleeding, so I knew it wasn't a major thing, but I was still worried nontheless. I finally decided to call the on-call pager to find out if everything was all right, or if I should head to the ER to get things checked out. By the time she was able to call me back, it was 11:30pm. I'd thrown up two, very painful times and was completely exhausted. Not to mention the cramping was still going pretty strong. She said the cramping could be caused by several different things, but if I was really worried about it I should go in and make sure everything was all right. Jared was working late that night, so I called my mom and she came and picked me up and took me over there.

My mom is such a trooper. I knew that the motion of the car ride was going to push me over the edge and make me throw up again, so I brought some grocery bags just in case. Sure enough... there I am, on the way to the ER puking my guts out in the front seat of my mom's car. It was definitely a low point in my life. I'm pretty sure she should get the Mother of the Year award just for sitting through that whole ordeal. And really, do you think anyone other than a mother could sit there calmly while their adult daughter is tossing her cookies for all she's worth? Probably not. Sometimes, even as an adult, you just need your mom.

We arrived at the ER without any further incident, was checked in quickly and I was immediately hooked up to an IV to get some fluids in me and so they could give me some morphine and a shot of Zofran (sp?) for the nauseousness. Which, by the way, is the coolest drug ever invented in the whole world. I was finally able to relax, and was really feelin' good while we waited for the ultrasound tech to show up. She wheeled me in there and got me all set up, and it was SUCH a relief to see the baby and hear his heartbeat. I think that right there made the whole ER experience worth it. And it was really cool because the baby actually looked like a baby this time. As opposed to my first ultrasound where it was just this little blip on the screen. She did all the measurements while she had me on the table, and apparently I'm not as far along as I thought. I was a week and a half ahead of myself, and am really only nine weeks along. I'm not entirely sure how that's possible, but I'm just going to go with it. She gave me a due date of Nov 26., so this baby really will be a Thanksgiving baby.

So. Good news is, Baby Pete is just fine. Semi-bad news is that they found a cyst on my right ovary. They couldn't find any evidence of it bursting, but all the symptoms that I was having said that it perhaps bursted a little bit, but the amount of fluid was not enough to be caught on the ultrasound. At least I know. If that should ever happen again, I know to just pop some pain relievers and wait it out. Jared arrived at the hospital around 1:30 or 2, and we were released at 3am. My mom stayed the whole time, even though she had to be to work the next morning. See what I mean? Mother of the Year Award for sure!

Saturday and Sunday I spent recovering. I also think I came down with a little bit of the flu because I was all achy and had a slight fever. I spent most of the two days on the couch or in my bed sleeping. I dropped Jared off at the airport yesterday morning, and he's now in Wisconsin. Poor guy. He was so stressed that he was stuck at work while I was going through my exciting ER adventure. He came right after the ultrasound too, so he didn't get to see the baby. Bummer.

Anyway, after my weekend of sleeping and resting, I'm back to my normal nauseous self. I don't want to be one of those pregnant women or moms that rushes to the doctor's office at every little thing, but I'm glad I went and now know what's going on.

I'm beginning to think that this pregnancy may not be as easy as I originally thought it was going to be. Oh well. It's totally worth it in the end when my kid arrives and I get to enjoy being a mom for the first time. Just that blessing alone makes all this drama and feeling like crap worth it.

Can't wait for my Thanksgiving baby!

Rant

2010-04-22T11:11:00.000-05:00

I apparently am not going to be one of those beautiful pregnant woman that only gains a little bit of weight. I am going to be a whale. Case in point:

I believe that I'm only 9 weeks along in this picture. If I'm already feelin' fat at 9 weeks, I can't imagine how big I'm going to be at the end of this deal. I'm not sure if it's because I already started out overweight, or if it's just in my genes to be a fat pregnant woman. I know there's nothing I can do about it now, so this will be my one and only complaining post.

It also seems the farther along I get, the more sick I am. Still not throwing up, just nauseous ALL. THE. TIME. I pretty much hate it. I so wish that I could throw up and just get it out of my system. But noo.. I have to constantly feel like I want to throw up and then never follow through. Grr.. This morning was awful. I learned early on that if I eat right when I get up I'm not as sick throughout the day. I woke up super nauseous and nothing I did made me feel better. I got so sick in the shower that I finally just gave up, resulting in only 1/2 of one leg shaved. I tried to lay down for a few minutes and what do you know? I immediately felt better. Today was one of those days I wish I could just lay down and sleep all day. Alas, I only had a few minutes then I had to get up and finish getting ready. Thank goodness for a job where I sit in one spot and don't have to move all day. I would be in serious trouble if I had a more active job.

The last thing I want to complain about is my lack of energy. I am so exhausted all the time. I go to bed anywhere between 9:30 and 10 and struggle to function everyday. I feel like a zombie.

I've had several people tell me to just enjoy the journey. I'm not quite sure how I can enjoy the journey when I feel crummy all the time. Any suggestions? Thank goodness I only have a few weeks left in this first trimester. Then hopefully I can be semi back to normal again!

All right, I'm done. I would like to say that I'm happy no matter how I'm feeling, but when I don't feel good I get kinda grumpy.

Ooh.. I just got a whiff of something that smelled like fries. Those sound good! Wonder if the stomach will agree....

Expecting!!!!

2010-04-16T10:32:00.000-05:00

I tried to think of a cute way to announce this on the blog, but I'm just too excited. In my usual fashion when something big is happening:

I'M PREGNANT!!!!

Oh my gosh, I've been dying to get that out. We told the last family member who didn't know last night, so I feel that it's okay now to tell everyone. Here are the details:

March 17th - I was working at B&N that night, and was not feeling good that whole night. I came home, sat on the couch and told Jared that either I was pregnant or something else was wrong because things just didn't feel... normal. He got his shoes on and rushed out to the store to buy three different pregnancy tests. I took one when he got home, and it was immediately positive.

It was actually kind of a shock, really. We weren't doing anything to prevent getting pregnant but we were both convinced that it was going to take some fertility treatments to get that way. So we'd decided to just take it easy for awile, get our finances a little bit more in order and then we were going to head to the doctor and find out what the next step was. Hah! That same month I got pregnant. The Lord definitely works in mysterious ways!

April 1 - We had our first doctor's appointment. I love, love, LOVE my doctor. He's fantastic! I had a papsmear (yuck), but he also did a vaginal ultrasound and we were able to hear the baby's heartbeat. Wow. That was such an amazing experience. It didn't really feel real until we heard our child's heartbeat coming through the monitor. Jared's eyes were glued to the screen and I'm so glad that he was able to be there. I asked the doctor if he had a ballpark date as to when the baby is going to be due. He said Nov 24, but I think that's too late. I counted it out on the calendar, and 40 weeks is the second week in November. So, I'm going to say Nov 16 since it's kind of the in the middle. Hopefully I'll have a firmer date at my next appt!

April 2 - We told my mom. My grandparents were in town, and we thought it would be cool to do them all together, since this is their first great grandchild. My mom was STOKED! To announce it, I went to Roberts and bought a cute frame that said "baby" on it and put a picture of the ultrasound in it. At first she didn't get it, but then she actually looked at it and then... well, I'm sure you can imagine.

Jared's family was a little bit more difficult. His mom, brother and sister are up here this week so we can drive them up to Rexburg on Saturday. We wanted to tell them in person, so we were even more ansy for them to get up here. Jared was having a mini mid-life crisis right after we found out, so I told him to call his dad and get some reassurance that everything was going to be okay. So his dad found out just a few days after we did. Then at bunco last week, my SIL Alicia found out by accident. I was having an insane hot flash while we were playing, and Alicia asked me if I was on hormones or something (thinking maybe I'd already started fertility treatments) and I said no, then another girl at the table asked if I was pregnant, and I had this split second where I had this look on my face like "Oh crap, how do I get out of this?!" and apparently it was enough for them to realize that yes, I was pregnant. I felt so bad that Alicia found out at the same time as the rest of the bunco group, but what can I say? I'm a terrible liar.

When Alicia dropped me off, she came in to give Jared a hug, and we found out that he had already told Craig (Alicia's husband) a few days ago when they went to the Priesthood session together! What a turkey. So now we thought everyone in the family knew except for the three that were coming into town that next week.

Wrong.

My FIL told Jessie and Cory before they came up. So really, the only person in the family that didn't know was my MIL. We told her last night and she was so excited. This will be their second grandkid, and they can't be more excited to have another baby in the family.

So, that's everything I think. I'm about 9 and 1/2 weeks along, and my baby is due in November. AGGHH!! I can't wait. For the most part, I'm not that sick. I haven't thrown up once, but I am nauseous a lot. It's like an intense case of motion sickness. But I figured out that if I eat every two hours, that goes away. My next appt is April 30th. My doctor said in my last appt that he can usually tell at 16 weeks what the sex is, so if the baby cooperates, we'll know at the end of May! Crazy.

Congrats to us!! And as my MIL said last night.. "It's about time!""

Quarter of a Century

2010-04-13T09:48:00.000-05:00

Is how old I turned on Saturday. And what a great day it was! I wanted it to be a low key birthday, so I went and got a pedicure and then we went out to lunch at The Cheesecake Factory. That place is so expensive, but sooooo good. I was finally able to get a piece of their Red Velvet Cheesecake and it was pretty dang good. Then we spent the rest of the night watching movies. It was just really relaxed and I spent it hanging out with my most favorite person in the world. We have such a good time being together, and I sometimes think we don't have those kinds of days often enough.

Sunday was my family party, where mom made my requested dinner and cake. She made these cute party hats (I'll post a picture later) for us all to wear so we could send a pic to my sister. Dinner was delicious and the cake was divine and company was the best ever!

Yesterday my SIL and super cute niece took me out to lunch. We went to our favorite place, Zuppa's, and B proceeded to eat most of my chips. But she's so dang cute I couldn't say no. Thank goodness I'm just the aunt! I can give her as many chips as I want and not have to worry about lessons and values and whatnot. Although, I'm pretty sure Alicia has some sneaky aunt tricks up her sleeve, especially since Jared taught B how to say "no". Oh, that uncle Jared...

Anyway, we've got a busy week ahead as Jared's family is coming in to town this week. We're taking his brother and sister up to Rexburg on Saturday and it should be a pretty fun road trip. Plus all the shopping and whatnot to get them ready to go! Jared has the week off of work and has been spending the last few days getting caught up on sleep and his "Honey Do" list (jealous...). SO excited for this week!

SYTYCD

2010-04-09T12:05:00.000-05:00

So I hopped online today to find out when the new season of So You Think You Can Dance is going to start. I don't watch much TV, mostly because we are completely incapable of watching a show when it's actually on, and we don't have DVR (what were we thinking?!). But the one show I watch religiously is SYTYCD. They are on their 7th season, and they are making big changes this summer. Here is the link to the article:

http://dance.blogs.fox.com/2010/03/29/new-changes-to-so-you-think-you-can-dance%E2%80%99s-seventh-season/

And here is the main portion of the article:

America’s favorite summer series, So You Think You Can Dance, returns for its seventh season with some exciting new twists, including 10 finalists competing, only one dancer eliminated per week and the return of dancers from previous seasons.

This year, the competition is the toughest it has ever been as the judges will pick only 10 dancers (five guys and five girls) – from the thousands that auditioned – to compete for the title of America’s Favorite Dancer. During the performance rounds, one finalist will go home weekly. Additionally, the competitors will be partnered each week with a different So You Think You Can Dance All-Star dancer – former SYTYCD finalists who are skilled in various styles of dance, including ballroom, hip-hop, jazz and contemporary. The All-Star Partners will be announced shortly.

_________________

I am not sure how I feel about these new developments. I liked having 20 contestants. I think it made the odds of the people trying out a bit better, and really made it worth it. How in the world can they only choose 10 dancers out of the thousands that try out? Also, it seems that in the last few seasons the judges have been mainly choosing contemporary dancers. Does that mean they are going to have a more equal representation of dancers this season instead of mainly contemporary?

I also wonder why they are making the change. The show has seriously good ratings with the old model, why change things now? I guess I revert back to the saying "Why fix it if it ain't broke?" The old way of doing things obviously worked, so why change things up now? Yes, we loved some of the contestants from previous seasons. But the whole beauty of a new season is for the 20 people to fight to find their way into the viewer's hearts. It's huge part of the show. Why give people who have already been on the show more limelight? They've had their time, they didn't win, so give some other people a try.

PLUS, these "All-Stars" are generally older and more experienced. I have a feeling that the contestants are going to struggle dancing with a partner so much more experienced and trained than they are. I just don't see any fun in that.

So overall, I don't think I like the new developments. I guess I'm just going to see how things go when the show starts. I am slightly nervous about it, and am hoping they don't ruin my favorite show!

**Edit: I check back, and they've already announced a few All-Stars. Here's the link:

http://dance.blogs.fox.com/2010/04/06/hint-shes-a-favorite-from-season-2/

Not too terribly surprised an who they've chosen, actually.

Could it be?

2010-04-07T17:19:00.000-05:00

Has spring finally sprung? The weather here for the last few days has been anything less than ideal. Try cold, windy and snowy. Great for the ski resorts, bad for the mere mortals who are ready for warmer weather.

I learned early on that it's never a good idea to put your coat away early, as it's been known to snow as late as June. Yuck.

Today, though, is beautiful. It's about 50, which means I can walk around in a sweatshirt instead of a big, ugly jacket. The sun is shining and there are only a few wispy clouds in the sky. It's hard to work full time in the spring and summer. Tough to be inside all day when I could be outside playing. Not that I would know what to do once I got out there, but still. It's the principal of the matter (is that the right principal? principle?). But, I will enjoy from afar, or rather the ten feet between me and the front of the office that's filled with massive windows.

I'm dying to be done with my work day so I can enjoy the weather for the few moments of walking to and from my car. Tonight's plans include cleaning the bathrooms. NOT my favorite job in the whole world. Although, I'd rather do that than fold laundry. I would have to say folding laundry is my second least favorite chore. My least favorite is mowing the lawn. Thank goodness I don't have to worry about that yet. One of the many benefits of being an apartment dweller.

Wow, talk about a tangent.

That's really all I had to say. Yes, I just wrote a whole post about the weather. What? You don't devote whole posts to the weather too? *snorts* Weirdo. ;-)

Easter Weekend

2010-04-05T12:09:00.000-05:00

We did absolutely NOTHING but sit on our butt's and watch TV this weekend. We were both sick, so we didn't get much done.

We spent the majority of the weekend getting caught up on this show:

Love it! We have some friends that lent us the last two seasons on DVD, so we were able to get caught up.

We also watched this movie this weekend:

Totally awesome!! If you haven't seen it yet, you need to watch it. Sandra Bullock does an amazing job and the message of the movie is inspiring and wonderful. I really recommend, and this movie is definitely a buyer!

We did manage to get ourselves together enough to have Easter dinner over at our house with my family. Mom did most of the food, she just brought it over and I finished it. It was quite delicious! Nothing better than Dr. Pepper glazed ham and mashed taters. Oh, and rolls. And carrot cake cupcakes with cheesecake frosting. Pretty much the whole meal was delicious!

So, that was our weekend. Completely relaxing and spent with just the two of us bein' lazy. Love it!

What I Love

2010-03-27T09:48:00.000-05:00

I love Saturdays. I don't have to be to work, I don't have any church meetings.. Saturday is my favorite day of the week. If only the weather wasn't so crappy, it'd make my day even better!

Spring in Utah is a crazy experience. One day it's sunny and warm, the next it's snowing. Yesterday, that all happened in one day! It seemed like every time I looked out the window the weather was doing something different. Can't wait until Spring is actually Spring and it starts warming up... I'm ready to ditch my jackets and get rid of my pasty white skin.

Right now I'm sitting in my pj's, catching up on blog reading and enjoying every minute of my lazy morning. It's been awhile that I haven't had anywhere to go or do anything at the crack of dawn, and it's been nice to have a bit of alone time with the computer.

I am... content. Happy. I love Saturdays! ;-)

You know what else I love? This little girl:

This is not a very recent picture, I don't think, but it'll do. This is my niece, who belongs to these awesome people. There is nothing that makes me happier when I walk in the door of her house and I hear a sweet little "Cait!" coming from upstairs. She then comes downstairs and I get a sweet little hug and I get to hear all about Dora and Boots. Then she looks outside and starts yelling "Ta-HOE!", because I think she likes our car more than us. ;-) I will always remember her opening presents at her 2yr birthday party and saying "I WUV it!" to everything.

I sure do love this little girl!

Hmm... what else do I love?

There we go! I sure do love this man. While I'm having my lazy morning on the computer, he is cleaning the house like crazy. I'm sure that when I walk out, the house will be spick and span and he'll give me a kiss and say something to the effect of "who love you?!" and I'll say "you do!" and try to kiss him and he'll push me away cause I smell. But he really does love me. ;-) Even though I laugh at him (on accident!) while he's golfing, which he'll never ever forgive me for. *sighs* My life is just so hard sometimes. ;-)

Well, I better get off my butt and do something productive today. We're venturing into the wild lands of Utah County today to go to a baptism, and I need a shower at some point. I really do smell. And with that lovely thought, ta ta for now!

It's Nights Like These...

2010-03-12T23:55:00.000-06:00

That I wish I had a best friend. A best girl friend I mean. Jared is still working his crazy night schedules, and I'm home all alone, dinkin' around with the blog and watching The Time Traveler's Wife. I would love to have a friend to go hang out with when Jared's not around. Or even when he is around, really. Just that one special woman who just gets me, and I can laugh and cry with and is there to witness my life and be there to life me up when I need it and vice versa.

I've never had a best girl friend. Isn't that sad to say? It's not for lack of looking or trying really. I just never found the one woman that I just connected with, and no matter what we did or at what stage of life we were at, we enjoyed being together and had fun.

Sometimes I wonder if my expectations are too high. Like maybe I'm wanting more than anyone is capable of giving. And then other times I know she's out there. Somewhere is a best friend who shares the same interests I do, that will laugh at me when I'm crazy and cry with me during sad movies and just share the joy of the journey. Hopefully someday I'll find her.

Last night was bunco night and I had such a great time. The group is getting a lot more comfortable with eachother and every month it just gets better and better. I never fully appreciated the awesomeness of girl's night. It rejuvinates me. It makes me better able to get through the rest of the month. It gives me a break from real life, a chance to be silly and ridiculous. We've decided to do a bunco overnight and I CAN'T WAIT. I hope that it happens, because I can't imagine anything better than spending a whole night talking and laughing with the girls.

I read a lot. It is truly what I love to do most in the world. But lately I've been wondering if I've been substituting real relationships with made up ones in the books I read. Who knows? Maybe I've met the ultimate BFF and I just don't know it because my nose has been buried in a book. What's sad is.. I'm sure that statement is probably true.

I was sitting there last night looking at all the girls in my bunco group, and it just hit me that what I get from them I can never find in a book. Huh.

So, there you have it. The crazy inner workings of my mind!

Worn Out in Utah

2010-03-09T19:13:00.000-06:00

I've had to get up at 6AM for the past two days and I am plum tuckered out! I started my new job yesterday, and it's 8-5. That's a long day! I'd forgotten what 6am looked like. Job is going great though! I work as the front desk receptionist in the corproate office of Challenger School, a private school with locations in UT, CA, ID and NV. I love working at a real job. I have to wear real business clothes and look nice everyday. Everyone is professional, nice and I don't have to share a bathroom with men. I think that's my favorite part, actually.

Anyway, I'm exhausted and hoping that once I have the first week under my belt, it'll get better.

Jared has been working nights the last two weeks and that's been... difficult. Last week wasn't so bad since I could see him in the mornings, but this week he gets up early in the morning and I'm up and out the door before he is even thinking about getting up. Then he's gone by the time I get home... I miss him. I think it's tougher for me when he's "gone" but still in the state, as opposed to when he actually goes out of town somewhere. Oh well, it's only for this week and then things will go back to normal next week.

I went over to my sister-in-law's house last week to get trained on couponing. I've got all the information, and am going to go on my first grocery store run this weekend. Wish me luck!

My sister's (who is serving an LDS mission in Brazil) birthday is tomorrow and she's turning 22. Yay for her! Jared's sister's birthday is also tomorrow (crazy, huh) and she's turning... 24. I think. Sorry Jessie if I got that wrong.... And sorry for not sending anything yet. I am the worst at remembering birthdays! Terrible, terrible me.

Uhh.. what else? I'm lovin' my book blog. I'm actually going to change the name, but I'm saving up to have someone do a blog design before I do. I'm really excited! I don't feel like All Things Print is an accurate represenation of what I read, so I'm going to do something a bit more romancey. Hopefully it'll go over well.

I think that's it! I just wanted to throw something up here, so you all know what's been going on. Mostly I'm old, overweight and tired. Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration but I am tired and overweight. Another thing I'm going to start again next week. *sighs*

Have a great rest of the week everyone!

P.S. I just want you all to know that I've been reading your blogs. I've become the worst commentor, but I have been keeping up to date on everything. Not that you were probably worried about it, but I just wanted you to know!

Bad News, Spirit Stick, Snowmobiling & Anniversary

2010-02-13T09:57:00.000-06:00

Wow! It's been awhile since I've last updated. This post is going to be a big one, just to forewarn you. I guess that's what I get for letting things add up.

Bad News

My full time job recently became not such a full time job. I work for a real estate appraisal company, and they aren't doing so hot, so my boss cut my hours down to part time. I knew it was coming, but it still sucks nonetheless. We've got a few different plans in the works, so hopefully the bad news will turn into good news soon!

Spirit Stick

The Peterson family has decided to do "Peterson Biggest Loser" this year. We all want to lose weight, and we thought that if we do it together as a family, it might be easier to actually do it. My sister-in-law Jessie went the extra mile and made a spirit stick for the event. We switch off every month, and it goes to the person who has either lost the most weight, or needs the most encouragement. I'm not sure which category I fell into (probably the latter), but I received the spirit stick in the mail at the beginning of Feb. Yay for me! Here's a pic:

I keep it on the counter, and every time I look at it I get motivated. This past week has been the best week both eating and exercising wise that I've had this year. It really does help! Now that I've got a bunch of time in the mornings, I've fallen into a rigorous work out schedule using p90x and running. Hopefully I'll see some results soon. Trust me.. I'm feeling the "rigorous" part today. I've got the I'm-so-sore-I-can-hardly-walk routine down pat!

Snowmobiling

My dad came into town this past weekend and took us all snowmobiling. It was so fun! Remember my snowboarding experience last winter? I didn't have a great time. Rolling down the mountain just didn't seem fun to me. I love snowmobiling. It's not as cold, you don't have to be good at it to do it, and it was fun to go super fast on the straight parts of the trail. Here's a few pics:

Uhh.. that's me on the right, in the bright red jacket. Just in case you couldn't tell past the helmet and snow gear. That's Jared on the left, he's such a stud!

Jared went a few feet off the trail and promptly got stuck. That's Jared and Zach trying to figure out how to get it out.

And that snowmobiel wayyyy out there is where my Dad got stuck. I think he found the "crick" the guy at the lodge kept telling us to avoid. While the guys were getting the snowmobiles unstuck, I did a video about it all and compared it to what happens when you let go of the Iron Rod. When you decide to wander from the designated trail (the rod), you get stuck in the snow (or the great and spacious building) and it takes hard physical exertion (hard work and repentence) to find your way back again. I amaze myself! That's future talk material right there. And wasn't I being so helpful to do that while the guys were getting the snowmobiles unstuck? Yep, that's me. Mrs. Helpful.

The gang with my dad. The other girl in the red jacket is Aubrey, my brother Ethan's girlfriend. I refuse to let them get married, as having an Audrey and an Aubrey is just way too much.

And that's my oh so wonderful hubby, posing for the camera. He's such a goofball!

Anniversary

This past week we celebrated our three year anniversary!! It was on Feb 10, and we didn't really do anything special. Ordered pizza and watched a couple of movies. Due to the above mentioned bad news, we've been tightening things up around here. And you know what? It's okay that we didn't do anything uber glamorous. We've got an anniversary every year, and I want to save the good ones for when we have the money to spend. But still.. three years! I can't believe it. I was thinking back to all the things we've done since we were married:

-A military deployment

-Moved several times

-Jared graduating

-Jared getting a great job

Okay.. so it's more what Jared has been doing because all I've been doing is pretty much supporting. And reading, and blogging. But we did it together and that's what counts. So let's take a trip down memory lane that fateful day three years ago when Jared and I were sealed in the Mt. Timpanogos (I'm pretty sure I just spelled that wrong) Temple in American Fork, UT:

Minus the crappy orange lighting, that last one is one of my fave's. We had them do it in black and white for the album, but this is the only disc we've got. So, there you go. That was such an exhausting day. Worth it, but exhausting. Three years down, eternity to go. Love you babe!!!!

What We've Been Up To

2010-01-18T12:02:00.000-06:00

We have never been so busy in our lives as we have in the past few moths. I thought that with the holidays being over our schedule would calm down. Ha! What a bunch of baloney. We're both super busy with our callings, work and finding time to just sit on the couch next to eachother and stare at the wall. Last week I worked three nights in a row at B&N and it nearly killed me. My feet still haven't recovered! I think I'm wearing the wrong shoes. I'm working again there tonight, and that'll be it for this week. Woo hoo! I love the job, but three nights a week is a bit too much for me. It's my own dang fault though, cause I volunteered to work the extra two nights. I've learned my lesson.

This past weekend we watched this movie:

If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it. The food in the movie looks amazing, so make sure you have a bunch of snacks on hand! It was really cute and it made me think about my life and what I'm doing with it. I really loved it and am definitely going to buy it and watch it again. There were parts that had both Jared and I laughing out loud. I love movies!

This year the Peterson family decided to do "Peterson Biggest Loser" and I did all right the first week, but last week was awful. I didn't exercise at all (too tired) and ate out way more than I was should have. Despite all that, I've lost 5 lbs. since the beginning of the year. Not quite sure what I'm doing! Whatever it is, I like it.

This week we've both got mutual to go to, Jared's cousin is getting married on Thurs night and I've got a few baby showers to go to this weekend. One of which, I'm actually throwing. What do you guys like to do at baby showers? I've only been to one in my whole life, so I have no idea.

My sister, who is in Brazil, sent a bunch of pics this week. The very first one was of a detached cow's head sitting in a wheel barrel. Blood, guts and all. I thought about posting it, but I know a few of you are pregnant and I didn't want to unnecessarily make you sick. Thanks to my sister for that lovely mental image that will never leave my head now. The past couple of weeks I've really missed her. I miss being able to call her at random times and talk about random things that only sisters can talk about with eachother. Now I'm getting all teary eyed, so I'll move on!

I know this post has been jumped around, but that's really what our lives are like right now. Crazy-busy. I long for the day when I can stay home all day and do nothing. *sighs* Someday maybe!

Highlights of Christmas

2009-12-29T12:44:00.000-06:00

1. Not taking a single picture of anything. Dangit.

2. My new loveseat! We now have places for people to sit when they come over.

3. My new pots and pans set! They are the Paula Deen set in red. I've been cooking all week b/c I just love lookin' at them!

4. Stuffing my face with appetizers on Christmas Eve and watching Elf with the fam.

5. Jared making biscuits and gravy (a Peterson tradition) for the first time in our own home on Christmas morning.

6. Jared playing Santa and handing out the presents

7. Going to see Sherlock Holmes. SUCH a great movie! Totally want to see it again, and am definitely buying it when it comes out.

8. Jared and I both having time off of work to be together and catch up on sleep.

9. The abundance of Christmas movies I watched over the weekend, including This Christmas and The Holiday.

10. Pizza and root beer floats for lunch with Alicia and Brooklyn. Yummy!

11. After Christmas shopping with our gift cards.

12. Listening to Jared give us spiritual thoughts on Chrismtas morning before opening presents. I sure do love that man.

13. Not having to work. Did I already mention that?

14. Talking to my sister, who is serving a mission in Brazil, and trying to figure out what the heck she's saying because she can hardly speak English anymore.

15. Watching Brooklyn open up her first present from us, which consisted of the Dora backpack set. She's so dang cute!

What a great Christmas! We just stayed here in Utah and spent time with my family. It was nice and relaxing and wonderful to take a few days to slow down and spend some time with Jared, who I've hardly seen this month. This is the busiest month I've ever had in my whole life! I hope not ever December is like this. But in the end, it all worked out and everything got done. Except for the Christmas cards, which were the only casualties. But we really enjoyed getting all of your cards! Such great pictures and it was fun to see everyone. Maybe we'll do V-Day cards or something. I dunno.

Anyway, hope everyone had a Merry Christmas because we sure did!

Still Posting Recipes!

2009-12-16T12:08:00.000-06:00

Even though I no longer have my own food blog, I still wanted to post recipes. If I make yummy stuff, I want everyone to know and have a resource to go to when you are looking for new ideas. So, I asked my aunts if I could join in on their food site!

Here's the link: http://www.butterrequired.com/

I just posted my first recipe on there for Homemade Oreo's. Super good! This site is great because it's an actual website instead of a blog so there are a lot of features. There is a print option so you can print the recipe without all the extra fuss. Also, it's nice that I'm not the only one posting. Even though you've never met my aunts, I can totally vouch for their good taste. They make great food! It's less stress for me and you have more recipes and variety to choose from. So head on over next time you're searching for a recipe and check it out!

Bunco Night and a tree

2009-12-11T22:38:00.000-06:00

It's Friday night and I'm sitting at home all alone while Jared is at work. We've been so busy with work and activities that we've hardly seen eachother in the last few weeks. What's a girl to do when she's all by her lonesome? Blog!

I actually managed to take pictures last night at Bunco. We had so much fun! The dinner was delicious, the company spectacular and I managed to come away with some serious haul. I love the fact that I still get a prize even I lose the most games...

Let the picture montage begin:

Eating the incredibly tasty dinner. Teriyaki chicken and rice, Yum-O!

Doing... stuff.

Robyn "The Hairdresser" is trying to add I think... ;-)

And this is the prize I won for getting the most losses:

These glass hurricane decorative pieces. Beautiful! I'm going to take them out of the box eventually.

Maybe tomorrow.

We also did a gift exchange:

Love me some Christmas towels!

And this cute winter, uhh.. sign? Stand-up thing? Not sure what the correct term is, but it's made of wood. And it's cute. And that's all that matters.

And lastly, this is my Christmas tree:

What a terrible picture! The lights are on, I promise. They're colored lights and there isn't much else on there besides that and ornaments. We don't even have a star! Geez Cait, where's your Christmas spirit?! And all those presents under the tree are for me. From Jared. I haven't done any of his shopping yet.. does that make me a bad wife?

And there you have it! Bunco was amazing fun last night and I am so glad I'm in the group that I'm in. It's so fun to have a girls night where we can talk about random things and laugh and win cool prizes. And eat lots of candy and gain 10lbs. Okay, maybe that part isn't such a good thing but what can you do? Eat and be merry I say! Wait...

Hope everyone has a good weekend! I'm shopping in the morning while Jared is catching up on sleep, and then I'm proclaiming tomorrow "Jared and Cait Day" where we don't talk to a single soul or see anyone but eachother and the strangers we happen to run into wherever we're at. So if you want us, you won't be able to get us until Sunday. Sorry! ;-)

Holiday Baking

2009-12-01T14:30:00.000-06:00

First of all, I saw New Moon. I just have one thing to say: FAB-U-LOUS!!!

Yes, I just said that like a gay man. For my thoughts on the movie, head over to my book blog.

Second of all, I've been seriously slacking in posts. Sorry 'bout that.

Third of all, I'm in a quandry. I don't know what to bake for the holidays. Now that I am in my own home, I want to have my own holiday baking traditions. But what do I make?

I'm throwing this question into the void in hopes that you, dear friends, will share your holiday baking traditions with me to get my creative juices flowing. Please help!

P.S. I spent 20 min. on the treadmill yesterday. Walking. I'm pretty sure that one workout will ensure I at least maintain my weight through the holiday. Don't you agree? ;-)

Great News!

2009-11-23T23:02:00.000-06:00

First of all.. where the heck is everyone's New Moon posts? I've been waiting all weekend for you guys to post pics and opinions. I'm not going until Wed night and can't wait!!

Second of all... I've had a dream come true. No, I'm not pregnant. Although I wish that was the announcement I was making. I'm talking about another dream. A dream of books. A friend of my SIL, Alicia, is a manager at a Barnes & Noble store close to where I live. I asked her at Bunco night if they were hiring seasonal employees, and I put in my application and... WAS HIRED! I'm extremely part time, like one night a week and a weekend shift, which is perfect. I'm doing this for fun and I cannot. wait. B&N book loan program, here I come!

I Heart Shoes

2009-11-18T14:41:00.000-06:00

I was lookin' at my feet while walking to the mailbox today. I thought to myself "Wow Cait! Those are awesome shoes you have there!" And they really are.

I bought these about a week ago, and I'm in love. They are so sweet. Warm, which is necessary in this bloody blizzard state. Comfy, which is necessary to me. And cute, which is... well, a bonus. I love cute, comfy and warm shoes!

Bunco Night & The Weekend

2009-11-16T21:52:00.000-06:00

I recently joined a Bunco group and last Thurs. night was our first Bunco night. I had a blast! There ain't nothing better than getting together with the girls and hanging out. At one point during the night I was sitting at a table with women who all had two kids a piece. So they were going around and saying their names and ages, then they turned to me. And... I had absolutely nothing to say. I held my hand up in the shape of a big fat zero. Thankfully, they didn't give me the stink eye they just went on and on about how much they miss those days of having no kids. But my heart broke, and I thought to myself "Well, I could go on an on about how lucky you are to have those kids. Cause there are those of us who would give anything to be pregnant and in your shoes!" So anyway, I had a slight moment of angst, but I quickly got over it and the night turned out to be so fun. I try really hard not to be a beast about the whole pregnancy thing. I don't want anyone to feel like they can't talk about their kids or be excited about being pregnant when they are around me. I love kids, and I love it when women are pregnant and are excited about it. That's the way it's supposed to be! Just cause it's not happening for me doesn't mean that it makes your experience any less great or wonderful. Anyway, that's not really the direction I wanted to go with on this post, but there you have it. We're having a hard time getting pregnant and it's beyond frustrating, hard and even sometimes so sad. I know it'll happen someday, I just keep wondering when the heck will it be my turn?

Anywho. We had a pretty fun rest of the weekend. Jared and I had a date night on Fri night, with just the two of us. Went out for sushi (yum!) and did some shopping. It was nice to see him and hang out with him for awhile with no interruptions. Saturday I spent the day shopping, and he spent the day in the garage working on his buddie's hot rod and then we all went out together that night for dinner and a movie. We saw 2012. It was... okay. It's was kind of meh for me. Kind of unbelievable. But John Cusak was adorable, as always, and if it had had anyone else but him in it I think it would have been a total bomb. He's pretty funny!

Sunday was church. I received a new calling. You are lookin' at the brand spankin' new YW president. It's not going to take affect for a few weeks, but they issued the calling yesterday. I'm a little bit nervous about it. It's one thing to be the counselor, but it's a whole new ball game to be the head honcho. My YW's experience was awful. Really terrible and I just want the girls to look back on their time with me with only good memories. My goal is to make sure that they are being taught the gospel, they feel loved no matter what their quirks are and that I'm preparing them to be future leaders. I had a ton of great examples of what not to do from my leaders as a girl. So I guess if I don't do those things I'll be good, right?

All right, enough with the novel. One of these days I'm going to actually post pictures instead of yakkin' your ears off. Maybe. Hope everyone has a great week!

A Picture

2009-11-10T17:26:00.000-06:00

My grandma sent me this pic from when we went to my dad's wedding and well, I stole it. I figured we all looked relatively good in the pic (I was having an excellent hair day!) and so I'm posting it. Thanks grandma!

P.S. For those Californians, the wedding was on Coronado Beach. When I go back to San Diego I want to go spend a day on Coronado Island walking down their main street and going into all the shops! It looked so fun.

P.P.S I can never remember... are we supposed to capitalize titles such as "dad" or "grandma"? My grammar education is failing me at the moment.

Something's Gotta Give

2009-11-03T11:40:00.000-06:00

Have you ever seen that movie? It's actually pretty good. And I don't even really love Jack Nicholson either!

All right, I've come to a decision. I love, love, love my book blog. I should have started one a long time ago. I've been reading a ton of good books lately, so if you're looking for inspiration head over there! However, it takes up a lot of time. I have to read the books, then post about them, then update all the ways that you can search for that review... it just takes a bit of time. So that being said, I'm getting rid of my food and craft blog. I just don't post enough on them to keep them, and frankly... I like my book blog more. So I'd rather get rid of them and have two blogs (this one and my book blog) that are well maintained and posted on regularly, then three semi-maintained blogs and then I post everyday on my book blog. Make sense? So any new recipes I try or crafts I do will be posted on this main blog. Not that I do a lot of either. Those hobbies can be expensive! Whereas with reading.. it's all free. So.. there you go. That's what's goin' on in my little corner of the blogging world.

Also.. would you mind going over to my book blog and signing up to be a follower? I'm trying to boost my numbers up in my little follower box. The more followers I have, the more credible the blog looks! You'd be doing me a huge favor and I'd love you for life. Seriously.

This is what else is going on in our life right now:

1. Jared has hit the busy season with work. The "hub" here in SLC is brand new and will be opening this weekend, so I expect to be spending a lot of time by myself in the next few weeks. Good thing I don't mind being alone!

2. I'm reminded everyday of the "Guns I Want" list. It's actually pretty cute and I feel bad that he can't just go out and buy whatever he wants. *sighs* Someday!

3. Both Jared and I received new callings. Jared is 1st counselor in the young mens program, and I'm currently an advisor in young womens. However, the presidency is going to be reworked next month, so I don't know where I'll be after that. I'll let you know. I'm the oldest in the presidency by two years! Our ward is made up solely of two apartment complexes, so the ward is a lot of young married couples with no kids, young married couples with small children, and then older single adults who are recently divorced or have never been married or something like that. When the bishopric issued the calling, they told us that Jared and I are on the older end of the young married couples category. Yikes! Nothing like being told you're old when you're not even 25 yet. But it's a good ward and we're happy to be in it.

4. I bruised my tail bone really bad last week and it hurts like the devil! Plus, my tailbone area is all purple and blue. I'm not sure what I did. Maybe I do too much sitting. It's been really annoying to only sit on one butt cheek. You'd think there'd be enough fat there to pad the area to avoid bruising!

5. Jared and I stayed at home on Halloween to pass out candy, but only had handful of trick-or-treaters. What really made me mad was that hardly any of them said "trick-or-treat"!!! What's up with kids these days? Next year I'm just going to stare at them until they say it. My niece came by dressed as a dalmation. She was soooo cute. I have pics, I'll post them when I get home tonight.

6. We're just really enjoying life. We have a great apartment that we love being in. We like our new ward, Jared loves his new job (and we both love having the paycheck!) and while this job still isn't my favorite, it's going all right. We're happy, and that's really all we can ask for.