May's Mayhem cont'd

May 12

With Mother's Day around the corner, I started to wonder if Nate was going to get me anything. Technically I am a mother, right? Baby-in-the-womb. Nate enjoys freaking me out about remembering important dates--I hate it sometimes. I really tried hard to not ask about it all weekend...I made it to Sunday as we were heading home. Nate said he had a gift for me, but I had to wait until after church to receive it.
After church, I received a gift that was really really thoughtful!

Knowing that in the coming months, I will be on my feet a lot with teaching and my feet will potentially swell up to balloons, he got me a new pair of moccasins and coupons for foot rubs with lotion and oils. I love it!

May 16

Before we could move in, we had to address the rushed, terrible paint job that took over the apartment. Our previous tenants didn't want to tape off the ceiling or the baseboards in the apartment, so they painted the walls, the baseboards and the ceiling all the SAME color. The coats weren't even, some paint got on the carpet and it just looked....ICK!
With the terrible paint job, it was up to us to redo it in the kitchen and living room, plus paint the baby's room and our room. We asked Mallory and Randall to come over to help us that night. We had pizza and drinks plus a lot of work ahead of us. 

 BEFORE (the ceiling matches the walls--brown)

 Taping off the walls so we could paint the floorboards and ceiling the RIGHT way!

Do you see how much better it looks?
It looks more modern and homey. I forgot to take pictures of the AFTER before we moved in, but I promise to snap a photo of each room and get it up on the blog.

May 18 

Moving day has arrived! I really hoped we packed up most of our stuff so that our helpful neighbors have something to move. 

I couldn't believe how much help we received from our neighbors. Nate's home teaching companion even let Nate take his truck to transport our washer and dryer. We had about 10-12 people show up to help us and another family even brought everybody lunch with subway sandwiches, a selection of chips and drinks plus cookies. It was really good! 

One of our neighbors even stayed behind to help me clean. I love our ward!!! I can't believe we got it all out in about 2 hours.

May 24

In the last two weeks, we've been packing up my apartment and I've been packing up my classroom. It had been decided that I teach 2nd grade the following year. With two of the current 2nd grade teachers leaving, I got to not only take one of their spots, but I also choose one of their rooms. I decided on the room with the windows (I didn't get any last year, which was a struggle when the power went out). Anyways... with the help of my first graders and a few second grade students, I was able to move all of my boxes and bins to the other classroom. Man, I collected a lot of things over the last year! After all the kids left, it was tradition for all the staff to ring blue bells as the students went--that was kind of fun! I finished cleaning my room, moved the last of my things to the new room, and organized the boxes a little bit (7-8 year olds don't really know how to organize...it was a heaping pile when I got there). I was one of the last teachers to leave.
Nate and I finished packing and headed toward Grouse Creek for Memorial Day weekend.

We first went to Meadow Creek to attend to the cattle. Nate and Larry used the 4-wheeler to round them up so they could brand the new calves. Once they were all in the corral and sorted through (adults from the calves), I took the 4-wheeler for a spin of my own. I kinda got it stuck in mud at one point, but I didn't mind. It was a blast!

I got back in time to watch Nate and Larry cowboy it up with branding calves. 

After the work was done, they wanted to do some shooting. We used Larry's revolver and .22 rifle, taking turns. Did I mention that this was Barbara's first time shooting a gun?

She did pretty well. We all took turns with the revolver trying to break the old beer bottle that was put on the fence post. Guess who hit it?! ;) I was shocked, but felt pretty cool to break it.

Later that Saturday afternoon, Emily and her family came up to join us. We visited the Warburton graves in the cemetery, putting flowers on the grave sites. We also went to a local legitimate barn dance that actually turned out to be a stake youth event. Irregardless, it was a TON of fun! There were burgers, fries and root beer--ALL homemade. It was SOOO delicious! I especially LOVE homemade root beer. MMMmmm! I wish I had some right now. Nate and I also enjoyed the dancing. We were both a little rusty, which was probably a good thing considering I was about 4 months pregnant. I really miss it. Vernal doesn't really have dancing places like Salt Lake or Logan.  At night, we played games and enjoyed the evening.

On Sunday morning, we went to church with the fam. There was this 14 year old boy who was quite literally AMAZING at the piano--child prodigy, no joke. He was playing the prelude music before the meeting began and after it ended, he played some pretty challenging classical pieces in the primary room.
We had to hit the road after Sunday lunch/dinner, but we really enjoyed our time with Nate's family in one of Nate's favorite places. 

May's Mayhem

May 3

We've been looking a for a cheaper apartment to rent. But if you know or live in "the Basin", you understand that trying to find any apartment or house is an expensive ordeal. If we aren't able to find anything cheaper than what we are currently paying for the same amount of space, we will probably just stay here.
We found this place in the Vernal classifieds, but the number was wrong. We decided to stop by the apartment to see if we could get in contact with the landlord and look around. It is a little smaller than our current place, but it meets our needs. As it turns out, not only was the number wrong, but the price was off by about $100 in rent. Crazy! Nate is really good at getting good deals, so after talking to the landlord for about ten minutes, it went from 'send in an application' to a 'you can take it'. Not too bad looking, right?

May 4
My best friend, Tania, had her Air Force commissioning, so of course I had to go! Nate had to work and study for a test, so he couldn't come. On my way out of Vernal, I somehow ticked off this SUV from Oregon. Did I really do anything wrong? No (we were both turning left in the turning lane and needed to be where the other person was). But he got offended enough to turn around from where he was headed, tail me into a parking lot and pull up along side my vehicle. (I was dropping off a textbook for Nate at the UPS store on my way out). This road raged driver proceeded to wait outside his car for me to get out. Terrified? Oh yes!!! After a couple minutes, I decided to face my fears and get out of the car with the package. He quickly railed off on how I need to retake the driver's test, dropping the f-bomb about 7-9 times. He also said the middle lane is a passing lane (wrong). I couldn't move like a deer in headlights. I tried to defend myself, but it didn't matter--he hopped in his car, dropped the f-bomb one more time and drove off. I know I look like I am 15-16 years old so that didn't help the situation at all! I dropped off the package and got back in my car, seriously shaking the WHOLE time. My heart was pounding and I was seriously scared to drive at all. I called Nate for some reassurance...apparently there was bear mace in the glove compartment that I could have used. I was seriously terrified to drive after this experience and I didn't do ANYTHING wrong!
I got to Tania's house in time to get ready for the big ordeal! We headed up to Brighton ski resort for dinner and the award ceremony. Dinner was delicious! I just wish that someone told me that the white creamy sauce next to the salmon was horseradish--BLEH! 

I'm so proud of this 2nd Lieutenant! Go Air Force!

It was such a great party and she really looked happy! I'm grateful to have her as a friend for these past few years. She graduated from the nursing program at the U the night before. This was her coat and stethoscope from her experience. Florida is going to be so lucky to have her! 

May 8

Finished C's birthday gift! She used to be obsessed with crocodiles, but recently it has been puppies. So I made her a puppy towel. 

What a great model he is! I think he had a little too much fun with it as well... :)

May 10

On a usual Friday, teachers have to stay until 4 because it's our contract time. But we had an OB visit at 2:00 pm that we couldn't change. Luckily, my co-workers in 1st grade were really understanding and sweet as I left in time to make the appointment in Roosevelt. We got to see more development of our little one. 

Kind of looks like a demon child! :S

After the visit, we continued to Salt Lake to visit my family. Mike and Jess got a good offer on a house in Kearns. They took us over to show off their soon-to-be new place. For what they need and the how the space is laid out, it was perfect for them. This little girl couldn't have had more fun running around and playing in her empty room-to-be. 

May 11

The next morning, Nate and I decided to visit his brother Seth to get our xbox back him. Britt was a rehearsal for her upcoming play, Peter Pan, so it was just Seth and his two kiddos. Nate and I played with Shaely and Jonathan for awhile. They wore us out with everything we did. 

They love the kinect and xbox...if you couldn't tell. 

Later in the afternoon, we went to my niece's birthday party. Friends and family of the parents, fun games like volleyball with a bbq and cake, what more could you ask for? It was so much fun! We socialized for awhile before eating, playing this cute Little Mermaid game and opening gifts. It was a lot of fun! I hope this two-year-old loved her party. :)

She loves books!!!

Besties in the making! :) Little Reagan is adorable with her antennae pigtails :)

Isn't she cute? She made me feel loved that day as she kept reaching for me and snuggling with me. I hope my child loves her mom and aunts like her cousin does. 

I just love this triple picture of her eating cake and ice cream with her mom. Had to post it. I am sure she had a blast!

April in a Nutshell

Since I am still behind in posting all the fun and exciting things that have happened to us in the last few months. So to catch up a bit more, I am going to briefly wrap up all that has happened.

...

April 1

To get a reduced rate on our health insurance, I have to participate in a health screening each year. I invited Nate to do it too since we are both trying to get healthier. I couldn't complete the BMI because I was pregnant, but everything else was really good for me--that makes $100 in the bank. Nate has to loose some weight or put on more muscle, something like that so he only got a $50 rebate for that.

April 5

We went out to eat with some friends of ours to our favorite sushi joint in town. We decided to tell them the big news. We ate our favorite Vegas roll, a tuna roll, cucumber roll and a plate of fried rice. It was fun to go out on the town with our friends and just enjoy ourselves. I got super full, couldn't eat another bite of the delicious sushi. We headed back to our apartment and played some wii games together. Usually my stomach  simmers down after being so full, but it didn't. It actually started to hurt a little bit. After the Dunbars left around 10, it started getting worse. I struggled to move or walk, I was in such pain. Nate helped me down the stairs to our bedroom. We didn't know what to do. I started to panic a bit since my stomach/intestines hurt so bad; we almost went to the emergency room. Very lovingly, Nate just held me as I took deep breaths and calmed myself down. Later, at our first doctor's appt, we learned that eating sushi or any meat raw while pregnant, is never a good idea. Lesson learned!

April 6

General Conference is here! Nate had to work the first part of the morning during general conference. It was  such a good session! I loved the talks. After the Saturday morning session, Nate and I went to pick up Bountiful Baskets over in Naples. We ran into several of our neighbors from the ward and one of my student's parents. It was kind of fun. 

We looked around at some yard sales and then headed back to the apartment. Around 6ish, Mallory came over and Nate and Randall went to the Priesthood session. We grabbed ice cream afterward.

April 7

General Conference continued. Can I just tell you how much I love Elder Holland? He is my favorite apostle.  after the afternoon session, we went over to Randall's parents' place for dinner and games. It was great! Ginny and Wayne are great people. :) 

Did I mention that we were playing March Madness and I beat Nate for the first time ever!

Bwahaha! :) Nate always kicks my butt at this, but since there were SOOO many upsets this year, it ruled in my favor. 

April 12

I got a cold or the flu and wasn't feeling too great all week, so I got a sub (per request of one of my sweet co-workers) and took a sick day. It was good to just relax and take a day for myself. It was much needed. 

When Nate got home, he surprised me with these

April 13

Nate wanted to hit the yard sales again (I swear he is obsessed), so we drove around town looking at different things at the yard sales. We then went to our first OB appointment in Roosevelt. Our doctor is really nice and was able to answer all of our questions. It was confirmed that we were pregnant. And we even got to see the little one.

It was so cool to watch the little leg pop up and down. Seeing the little baby confirmed to Nate that we were  pregnant. The doctor said, "Well, it's definitely not twins." Nate's response, "Twins?! I didn't even think of that"--big sigh of relief for him. Lol. It was pretty hilarious. After the visit, Nate and I went to an endowment session at the temple. It was such a great feeling walking out of the temple, like everything was going to be okay with my family and our little one to be. 

Later that evening, Nate and I went over to the Dunbars to play games. So much fun!

April 19

It was Mallory's birthday! They were having a princess party over at their place with a bunch of their friends. We went over to Randall and Mallory's and had a great time. I mostly talked to some of my co-workers about school and stuff for the first little bit while Nate wandered around with the guys doing who-knows-what. After Ashley and Mary left, we played a round or two Catch Phrase and then we played the Game of Things, which got kind of dirty pretty quickly. Lol. What a fun night!

April 26

I got the day off to go watch my sister-in-law graduate from UVU. Nate had a big test coming up on Monday so he couldn't come with me. I left Vernal around noon, getting to Salt Lake around 3:00.

The ceremony was interesting. They got caught up so that when an individual walked across the stage, it was  a different name. It wasn't until Jess had walked across the stage and had been sitting down for awhile that her name was called. I felt pretty bad, Chloe had a fever and looked terrible. Poor girl! 

We went to this diner in Orem with Jess's mom and sister. It was really good food. 

April 27

My dad and I decided to go to the Mummy Art exhibit downtown the following morning with my little bro. It was pretty cool to see the variety of mummies from plant and animal life to human beings. Due to the authenticity and preservation of the mummies and the relics, guests weren't allowed to take photographs, so... I drew pictures. It felt so good to get into the zone again with drawing. 

 Human anatomy is such a beautiful, dynamic creation. So much fun to draw!!!

 After the exhibition, we walked around the floor above where they had a different art exhibition that focused  on movement with light, nerves in the body, flight, tinker toys, etc. It was pretty cool to see. Did you know that the frisbee was invented by tossing a pie tin plate around and eventually they flattened it out to make it more aerodynamic. For all my ultimate frisbee lovers, thank a pie plate for the beginnings of your beloved game! Haha

Later that night, we had a big birthday celebration for my mom. It was her birthday after all. We had cake, ice cream and drinks for everyone that came. Everyone that came had to get their picture taken with a small polaroid that develops in 5 min. We put all the pictures in a guest book and had our neighbors and family friends sign it with a little message for my mom. It was such a great turn out. 

 It was like a ward party! ;) So many came to show their support and love for my mom; it was so cool to see! I know my mom loved all of the attention. She was so happy that night!!! 

Happy Birthday Mom! Grandmother-to-be! 

Easter at Bear Lake

The night before we left for Bear Lake, we told my family the big news through a video chat. They knew something was up with the random and spontaneous desire to have this call, but oh well.

We showed them the sign on the right and the reaction was great. Unfortunately, Boomer thought we were having twins--he just saw the two grandbabies part. :S Silly guy! 

We had planned to tell his parents the following day when we were up at Bear Lake with everyone on Nate's side of the family. We had a suspicious hunch that Jake and Kim might share similar news, but that was to be determined when the moment arrived. 

March 29-March 31

We drove along highway 40, right out of Vernal, toward Bear Lake. As we headed through the no-where landscape, travelling through Manila and other various small towns, we came to a point in the trip where we had to slow down for a large herd of sheep moving to a different field. We were literally surrounded on all sides by sheep. Nate thought I was weird for taking pictures, but I thought it was interesting. Hello buddy, I grew up in Salt Lake where there are little to no sheep, let alone a large migrating herd of sheep!
We made it to the condo, waited for everybody else from the family to show up before all of the ladies decided to go out to eat for Barbara's birthday, leaving the men with the kiddos. Ashley has been in New Jersey working as a nanny for a sweet 16 year old girl, Rebecca, with autistic tendencies.
Before heading out, Jake made a big push to pass out the gifts now. Hmm.. Jake, what are you up to? Rob, Scott and Barbara all opened their gifts and then Jake and Kim's gift got everyone excited. They're pregnant! !! Nate and I gave Barbara a card soon after announcing the same news. Pretty sure Barbara was a bit overwhelmed, but it was all good.
We went out to eat and I got a delicious shrimp alfredo pasta.

All the preggies talked about how we found out, possible name choices, etc. Barbara and Emily told stories from their own preggie experiences. It was a really great outing with the women of the family. After most of the food had been eaten and the dessert had been ordered, we went around the table telling Barbara what we loved about her and her wonderful qualities. 

I really love my mother-in-law. Especially at this point in my life with everything going on with my own mom. She understands the teacher part of my life and is there for me in the way I need. I can talk to her in a similar way of how I used to be able to talk to my own mom. It has been so helpful over the last few years to have that relationship and trust where I can out my frustrations, vent and discuss as I need to about the many things going on in my life. 

Later that evening, in case we didn't have enough good news, Ashley got her mission call!

She's going to Canada!

The next day, I wasn't feeling too hot, but we had our traditional easter egg hunt hidden by Nate's parents. Everybody got to look for their color of eggs and then it was on for the search of the golden egg which has $10 inside. Barbara will usually give one clue and then everyone can search for it. I found it last year. 

After the egg hunt, it was time to bring out the newest toy...marshmellow shooters. Everyone got involved and had a little too much fun shooting them at each other and having distance challenges. 

I went inside since I wasn't feeling very well, but it was fun to watch from the balcony.

I took a much needed nap, everyone else went to the pool and then we ate dinner.

We hung around afterward talking and playing games, including Cards Against Humanity after Barbara and Larry went to bed. It's like playing apples to apples, but deals with scenarios plus horrible things instead of the pleasant one word objects or pro-nouns. I felt a little bad because as we played, I could tell Ashley was a bit uncomfortable. Some of the cards dealt with things that married or older adults would understand or be able to joke about. For everyone else, it was ridiculously funny. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. Nate decided to play black ops with the boys and I went to bed.

Sunday morning, Larry, Barbara, Ashley and Rebecca went to the earlier sacrament meeting to work on dinner when they got back and everyone else went to the later time. After sacrament meeting, we went home for dinner. Larry's lamb was really good! We hung around for a bit more and then Nate and I had to head back to Vernal.