Fun and Interesting Prego Update and Other Randomness

I had my OB appointment this morning.  Apparently I am measuring three weeks ahead of schedule.  No wonder I suddenly popped out recently.  At least it feels like I did.  I still don't look that big but you can definitely tell I'm pregnant or just seriously gaining weight only in my stomach. :)  Maybe one of these days I will actually post a picture.  The PA was so surprised she started searching for a second heartbeat just to see.  No worries folks, none was found.  It did prompt her to have me schedule my ultrasound before I go back to Utah, three weeks from today.  I'm so excited!  I can't wait to find out if it is a boy or a girl.

I had this memory of something like that happening with my mom, so I gave her a quick call after the appointment.  Turns out I was remembering right.  She always measured big, so they always made her go do an ultrasound.  Apparently when she was having kids ultrasounds were not automatically scheduled.  She would always tell the doctor that this was normal but they would schedule the ultrasound anyway to see if her due date was wrong.  It's kind of fun to find out I seem to have inherited that same trait, at least for this first pregnancy.  I did not inherit her pattern of being so sick she was almost green for the first three months for which I am grateful.  We shall see if I get as big as she did early on. She hit her biggest size at 7 months and stayed that big all the way to the end without gaining much more weight.  I could do without that, but it wouldn't be the worst thing.  Mostly I'm just excited to be so close to finding out this baby's gender.

In other news, we're off to Utah for the weekend for a family reunion.  I'm so excited!  It's for Bill's family, and then I am staying longer with my sister to find an apartment.  I can't wait to see everyone!

I learned the fine art of dehydrating fruit this week.  I successfully dehydrated strawberries, apples, bananas, mangoes, and some nectarines.  They are so good!  Here's a few pictures.  Bill's parents kindly let us borrow their dehydrator.  That is definitely on the list of things to purchase sooner than later.

And finally, the finished dining room that I have been posting about all summer.  One beautiful table, six chairs, and a console table.  I'm a bit biased but I think it's a good looking room. :)

An annoying symptom

Does being pregnant include having a headache EVERY DAY for anyone else?  I drink enough water, try to eat when and what I'm supposed to and it doesn't seem to matter.  I've always gotten headaches easily growing up so it shouldn't be a surprise to me, but it's getting old.

In better news, I finished the last coat of polyurethane on my last two kitchen chairs.  Inexplicably, the back rest on one of them is a little crooked.  No idea how that happened.  Yay for DIY!  Maybe that will be the chair that gets pulled out when we have guests instead of always being around the table.  I am so relieved to be done staining and finishing wood items.  I am not a fan!  It is really hard to finish a piece well.  I've heard painting is way easier.  Maybe I'll go that route the next time I feel like building something.  I didn't take pictures of the chairs, but I do have a picture of how our table turned out.  I love it.  The chairs match it and it looks great. I made a couple cute placemats with material I had left over from a runner, so I'll take a picture of the finished project with it all there and post it the next time I have my camera, am at home, and actually have internet. 

Random Things

I haven't posted in a couple weeks because I honestly haven't thought of anything worth posting.  It's been a bit boring around here lately, but that's all good... Here's a few of those not too interesting things :)  :

1. I played the organ in sacrament meeting for the first time in four years on Sunday.  Loved it.  I kept sliding off the bench that was too high.  They always are. Skirts have no traction on them.  It might have helped if I had my organ shoes but I left them in Utah and my feet were a bit sweaty from nervousness.  Oops.  Sorry whoever played after me. :)  My playing could have been better.  I blame it on sliding off the bench.  Maybe I'll get called to be organist in my new ward in Utah if we are actually in a church.  I would love that calling.

2. I also taught Relief Society at church on Sunday.  It was the Jolena show all day for the ladies.  The lesson went well.  I love all the wonderful women in my ward.  I will not miss the heat, but I will miss how accepting and fun and lovable these women are.  Most of them are old enough to be my mother or at least a significantly older sister, but they are just fantastic.

3. I finished the table I posted about the last few times I blogged.  Sorry, didn't take a picture, but I will sometime.  It's beautiful.  I have one more coat of polyurethane to put on the last two chairs and then my carpentering plans for the summer will be complete.

4. I read the entire Harry Potter series in, I think, 5 days.  I definitely won't be able to do things like that any time soon after we go back to Utah. Two crazy semesters and a new baby might fill up my time just a bit. :)  Loved it.  Book 7 is much better than I thought the first time I read it.  I missed half of the interesting stuff that time because it had been too long since reading the others and I was trying to read it so fast.

5. Found out Bill's aunt is going to give us a bunch of her baby stuff.  Can I just say that is the nicest thing in the world?!  Thanks Debbie! 

6. Bill left the light on in the Jeep the other night and the battery died.  Oops!  The heat is not helping it come back to life.  We have jumped it a couple times, but it is still struggling to fully recharge.  Cross your fingers it's not dead. I'd rather not buy a new car battery, but we shall see.

7. Will be moving back to Utah exactly one month from today.  Have 2 trips planned there between now and then.  I'm so excited!  I will be sad to leave my ward and in-laws.  They've been wonderful to be around this summer.

That's about it for today.  Anyone know of any interesting things to do to pass the time that don't involve spending money, going outside in the 110+ weather, or internet? I'm running out of ideas.

More Work on Projects

My MIL kindly let me use a piece of fabric from her VERY large collection of fabric to make a tablecloth for the console table I made.  I finished it today and it looks great!  I won't have the plants on it when we go back to Utah, but it will still be so cute.

I also finished staining the kitchen table and it looks amazing!  I just need to de-rust the screws, hopefully get new wheels, and put it all back together.  It's going to be gorgeous.

The Little Squirt is Active

I had my first real appointment with my OBGYN yesterday, and got to hear little squirt's heartbeat.  So cool!  The first thing the doctor said when his PA was trying to find the heartbeat was, "There it is! Oh wait, this kid is active!"  No surprise there as Bill and I are the parents, but apparently the wee one was doing somersaults while we were trying to hear the heartbeat.  Good times.  It feels just slightly more real now.  It amazes me how unreal it feels to be pregnant right now.  I'm just feeling strange and sometimes nauseous and expanding in interesting directions.  But that doesn't signal to me that I have a baby growing.  Yesterday made it a little more real.

Next Step: Staining

I woke up earlier than normal this morning so I was able to get out working at the same time Bill left for work, around 7AM.  It was great because it gave me more time to stain before it got too hot for it to work well.  I stained all the table parts save for the back of the tabletop with one coat of stain and all the parts that you can see I even had time to get a second coat on.  It worked out almost perfectly with the amount of stain I had left.  I had to scrape the bottom of the can to finish the last table leaf.  I did realize that I missed one inside edge of the tabletop, so I will have to get some more stain to do that, but I have two more chairs to make anyway, so that is fine.  Here's the results:

And here are what my feet looked like afterward. I had already washed my hands and arms so I couldn't take a picture of those. Staining is messy work!