So many things to post about, so little time to actually post them

I've had so many fun things happen lately, but just haven't gotten around to blogging about them.  I use my blog somewhat as a journal, so I've missed writing on it.  So here's a bit of a laundry list of some of the things I want to remember from the past month.

1. Christmas was AWESOME.  Bill and I spent it with his family in Henderson and it was just so much fun.  We got to go do a few things while we were there.  We took a trip down to Nelson, NV to take some pictures with Miriam, my SIL.  It's right by the Colorado River, so is very pretty.

We also took a day trip out to Death Valley.  I've never been there.  It was a pretty fun day, albeit a bit longer than expected.  What a cool place, though.

I don't have any pictures of actual Christmas morning or anything else while we were there, but we had a fantastic time with our family and it really was a great vacation.  We spent more than two weeks there and it was really nice to relax and rejuvenate a bit before this semester starts, the baby comes, and life gets insane again.

2. Bill's mom and aunts threw me a baby shower at the end of December.  They were so generous and seriously spoiled me.  This little guy has a serious amount of clothes and blankets and diapers and toys.  He is going to be stylin'. :)  I really do have fantastic in-laws.  I couldn't ask for a better family to have married into.

3.  Over New Years Bill and I headed down to Phoenix for a Jones Family Reunion.  My family usually only gets together for weddings or funerals and we haven't had so many of those lately so it's been awhile since we've seen everyone.  My aunt generously offered to plan and sponsor a 2-day get together and it was fantastic.  Several of my siblings weren't able to make it, but most all the Jones cousins made it and we just really enjoyed a couple days of food, games, catching up with each other, and just having a great time. A few highlights:

 My brother-in-law Kelly is magic with the kids.  He had them all sitting in a circle around him ready to play a game minutes after he arrived. 

 Playing Kubb with my parents, Bill, and my sister.  It's a highly entertaining lawn game Bill made a set of for us this summer when we lived in Henderson.

 Bill and my cousin's 3-year old son Gabe chatted for like 20 minutes one day while Gabe told Bill about everything from his toenails to whatever else he could think of.  Adorable.  Three years from now that will be our own son.

The last event was a family memories session where all my aunts and uncles shared memories of their parents, both of whom are gone now.  It was so awesome to hear about my grandparents from their kids' points of view. 

4. My little guy is working his way towards actually gracing us with his presence.  I've been having braxton-hicks contractions since December, but lately it seems like my body has gotten into gear to make this happen for real.  As of my appointment today I am 1 cm dilated, 60% effaced, and the baby's head is at a -1 station.  He had a bit of an irregular heartbeat back in December, so I have been doing weekly non-stress tests this month just to make sure all is well.  I did one this afternoon for an hour and he passed with flying colors.  Seems like he's healthy as can be and will arrive when he so chooses.  People keep giving me advice for how to make him come, which I find entertaining, but I think I'll just let him come when he feels like it.  Based off of all the kids at the family reunion over New Years, it seems Jones girls do pretty well having babies, so I think I'll be just fine. :)  It would have been cool if he came today, 1/11/11, but no such luck.  He has definitely dropped. 

 Me at 36 weeks

Me at 38 weeks last Friday. 

5. I'm back in school and enjoying my semester.  It's going to be crazy when the baby comes, but this is my last semester of grad school and I'm trying to enjoy it.  I don't have definite plans to come back to school and particularly BYU, so even though this is going to be a crazy semester I want it to be great.  I have good classes, good jobs (that's right, jobs), and Bill's schedule is great too, so I'm trying to make the most of it.

6.  My sister, soon to be sister-in-law, and mom threw me a baby shower on Saturday.  It was also fantastic.  My family gave me a super generous gift too.  The only picture I have for the moment is the super cool method of delivering part of the gift.  How cool is having my very own hot air balloon to deliver it in? :)

 
7. I finally got around to getting my very own purse from my sister's Etsy shop.  It arrived yesterday and I love it!  It's a clutch purse with a flap, but it's in this material: http://www.etsy.com/listing/64487548/handmade-business-card-holder-or-small  I can't wait to use it.  You have got to go look at her site and buy one of her purses or little card holders or anything else she sells there.  She's pretty much amazing and totally self-taught to sew. 

I think that's about it for the moment.  Maybe the next time I post I'll have a baby to announce.  How fun would that be?! :)

Sewing Projects!

I spent the first few days here in Henderson tying up loose ends with my TA job.  I'm still doing that really, but now it's just the final projects.  The last big project is about done.  This week I've finally been able to really relax and do a few things I want to do.  And what are those things?  Sewing!  I've been waiting to get down here to work on a bunch of projects for the baby that I didn't have time to do during the semester.  The last two days I have made two car seat covers, two receiving blankets, two covers for my boppy pillow, and I still plan to pretty up some cloth diaper burp cloths. I would like to make a baby carrier as well, but I'm waiting for my parents to bring the pattern down next week on their way down to Arizona.  I conveniently forgot it among the rush to get out the door last week. Oh, and I'm going to try my hand at a cute moccasin pattern Tori made and put on her blog.  That will be so fun too.

My projects all turned out so well!  I haven't really been able to sew anything for a very long time and I forgot how much I enjoy it.  I'm mostly done now and I totally wish I weren't.

Anyway, onto the projects.  The first two are my boppy covers.  The green polka dot one is out of minky.  It was a beast to sew right, but it works perfectly on the pillow and I love it.  I wanted to do a second one just because, so I used cotton to make it, and it didn't work nearly as well.  It will be fine as a backup, but since it doesn't stretch, it doesn't fit nearly as well.  The material is adorable though.  Those bugs are so cute!

 These are the two receiving blankets I made.  They're flannel and different material on either side.  The red material is actually cars.  Kind of hard to see, but so cute.  The blue on is trains.  The yellow side is yellow with brown animals and the green is just a random pattern that Bill found and both of us really like.  They're so soft and they were ridiculously easy to make.  I found a blog post online where a lady put ric rac around the outside edge, and that was super cute.  I might have to do that for a gift sometime. 

 These might be my favorite of the projects I did.  Two covers for our car seat.  You can buy these things on Etsy for anywhere between $40-$50.  I can't believe how expensive they are.  They are SO easy to make.  The first one is hands down my favorite.  I love the colors!  The turquoise fabric has green turtles all over it and then I just love the lime green on the flip side.  I just used velcro for the straps and it works perfectly.  Suzanne was nice enough to let me use some of her fabric for this, so it was free except for the velcro.  Yay for that!

 This bug fabric was Suzanne's as well.  Since it's winter, I wanted to make another cover that is warmer, so the bug fabric is cotton, but the blue fabric is corduroy.  Hopefully that will keep the wind off a bit better.  Bill and I picked up the corduroy for less than $10.  Such a good deal for this very useful little cover. 

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 And last but not least, our super cute car seat.  I absolutely love the hounds tooth pattern  and the green trim is fantastic.  I can't wait to have a baby to put in this next month!  My guess date is one month from today.  Yay!  I'm getting more and more uncomfortable as the days go by.  It's nice to be on vacation though so that I can do things at my own tempo.  This vacation is fantastic.  I haven't had so much time off in a row in a long time and it is just really nice.  Hopefully I'll be rested and ready for the crazy marathon of a semester by the time we get back to Utah on the 3rd.  Here's hoping!

December Happenings

December has been a blur.  Blogging has definitely taken a backseat to everything else going on.  Finishing up final projects, grading projects for the class I TA for, and finals took every last second I had for the first half of the month.  I haven't stayed up so late in years working on school projects or grading.  Thank heavens the projects and finals are over.  I am still grading final papers for my class but that is not nearly as big a project as all the others. 

Bill and I managed to get most everything done and we were out the door to come down to Las Vegas at 7PM on the 15th.  Talk about cutting it close.  We wanted to drive down that day, but it's a 6-hour drive, so we weren't sure we'd finish everything in time to leave that day.  I ended up taking three finals that day to make it happen, one of them as we drove down to Henderson.  It was pretty crazy, but we made it through.  We arrived in Henderson safe and sound at 12:15AM and just crashed.  It feels so good to be away from school and relaxing.

The Monday before we left we did manage to get in a trip up to Temple Square.  I always love doing that.  The lights were gorgeous as always.

Also, a new picture of my ever growing belly.

I haven't gotten much bigger lately, which is a plus.  He's growing well.  I did have a bit of a hiccup the day before we left when I went to my midwives appointment.  The little guy has a bit of an uneven heart rate, which is not unusual before they are born, but my dad has major heart issues that he has had since birth, so anytime any of us kids have any problems or our children do, the doctors always take major precautions to make sure everything is well and good.  I ended up over at the hospital for 2 or 3 hours getting a non-stress test and an ultrasound.  Good news?  He is moving like crazy ALL the time and looks healthy all around except for the slight uneven heart beat.  I did get to see him again in the ultrasound and he's cute as ever.  Can't wait to meet him in a month!  I do have to do a non stress test weekly now just to make sure he's good, but he seems to be developing just fine.  That chunk of time was what triggered me taking three finals the next day, but I was glad to find out he is healthy, so the time was worth it.

That gets me to Henderson.  I've been doing some fun stuff here, but I'll put that in a separate post.  Suffice it to say I am so happy to be on vacation finally and am thoroughly enjoying the few weeks off from school. 

Cleared for Travel!

At my midwife's appointment yesterday I got cleared to travel over Christmas!  Two weeks or so from today Bill and I will be heading down to Henderson for several blissful weeks of vacation doing absolutely nothing but hanging out with family, eating good food, and playing in general. I can't wait!  I don't really want to contemplate the sheer enormity of the list of things I need to do between now and then.  I vaguely can't imagine how I'll have enough time to fit all the hours of work and projects in, but it has to happen, so it will. :)  Yay for Christmas and vacation and family and all the good things that happen this time of year!

Battle Creek Falls

A couple weeks ago I posted the list of things Bill and I want to do this season before Christmas or shortly thereafter.  One of the things is go snowshoeing.  We made an effort to do that Wednesday on our first day off from school for the break.  The weather didn't cooperate with us, but we did end up doing a very pretty little hike.  I haven't been hiking since we got back to Utah.  The altitude change had quite the effect on me being pregnant, so my exercise routine severely diminished.  The weathermen predicted a blizzard of epic proportions on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Having actually experienced a blizzard or two in my youth in Colorado Springs, I was pretty skeptical that the few inches of snow forecasted would really count as a blizzard, but I was hopeful that it would happen. I love the snow!  Well, when we woke up Wednesday morning to find Utah County had been completely missed by the snow, I was rather disappointed.  Ah well.  It happens.  It snowed today, so I got my wish just a few days later.

Anyway, Bill did a service project a couple weeks ago at Battle Creek park and heard there was a pretty waterfall nearby that was worth hiking to.  It was a tiny little hike, only .6 miles up to it.  We decided to do it, hoping for some snow to snowshoe in.  There was about 1 inch of snow on the ground, so snowshoes were definitely not necessary, but we still had a great time.  I didn't know the area he was referring to as Battle Creek until we were in Pleasant Grove heading up the road to the trailhead.  It was then that I recognized where we were going and knew what waterfall he was talking about.  I'd been up there in the summertime a number of years ago and so I got really excited to see it in the snow.  We were not disappointed.  Here's a few of the shots we got on the hike and at the waterfall.  The elevation change the last few hundred yards got to me pretty good, but it was totally worth it.  The coolest part, besides the half frozen waterfall, was how the river had frozen in parts.  It was still running strong, but there was a thin layer of ice over a lot of it.  It made really cool shapes. What a great little adventure! 

Calling #3

I love my bishop.  We've had several meetings with him lately between my callings and tithing settlement.  Every time we come in, he sheepishly says they usually try to keep things pretty light for their pregnant and new mothers so they can handle everything happening in their lives.  Then he proceeds to ask me to do something new in the ward.  It makes me smile.  This happened when I got called as the music chair and it happened again last Sunday as he asked me to do something new.  I'm so excited about it though.  I got called as the Mia Maid advisor.  We only have 8 young women in our ward, so it is going to be tons of fun.  The first question I asked was if that meant I'd get to go to girl's camp.  I think it might have taken my bishop aback a bit, but I've always been excited about having young women's callings because I love the girls, but also because I love girl's camp and want to go. :)  This year I'll have a 6-month old, but that will work, right?  We shall see, but I sure hope so! 

Speaking of my 6-month old, this weekend marked my 32-week mark.  According to the little floating baby app on the side of my blog, I have 55 days left.  That would be impressive if I actually delivered on my due date, but I think at this point I can safely say I will deliver in less than 2 months.  Woot!  I can't wait to meet this little guy.  Time is starting to go super fast.  It's fantastic.  Hopefully we'll be ready by the time he makes his big debut.  Or at least have all the gear we need, that is.  I'm not sure we'll ever be ready for the changes that are coming, but they're going to be great regardless.  Here's what I look like these days.  Bill always ends up cutting off my head when he zooms in, but you just really want to see the baby anyway, right? lol  I don't actually feel that big most of the time, though when I see these pictures I'm always surprised how big I look.  

This is what we woke up to this morning.  Well, minus the shoveled path.

That's courtesy of Bill.  Our managers are out of town for Thanksgiving, so we don't know where the actual snow shovels are, but Bill's doing a great job with a normal shovel he found.  Yay Bill!

Loving the holidays

Being in school makes it so easy to totally miss the Thanksgiving and Christmas in the rush of classes, tests, work, etc.  I hate it when Christmas Break arrives and I realize I haven't even noticed until then.  So in an effort not to miss the season this year, Bill and I just made a list of some things we want to do in the next few weeks or month and maybe in January too.  It goes something like this:

-see lights on temple square
-drive around and see people's Christmas lights
-go caroling
-making homemade apple cider
-go snowshoeing
-LOTR marathon
-board games with fam and/or friends with tasty treats involved

Hopefully this list will expand as we think of other fun things to do, but I think it's a good start. 

10 weeks left or 3/4 done

 Our new glider rocker!

As of today I am 3/4 of the way done with my pregnancy.  That also means I have 10 weeks left.  Somehow 3/4 done sounds so much better than 10 weeks left.  That still seems like a long time.  But I'm a glass half full sort of girl, so I'll go with 3/4 done.  :)  Plus, it's only two weeks until Thanksgiving and I have three weeks of school  after that and then Christmas break comes and I will technically be full term on January 1st and he'll come sometime after that and it will be great. 

He's moving so much these days.  It's pretty fun minus the occasional sharp pokes.  I can feel that it's his elbow or foot now rather than just a general bump from the inside.  He's seemed more like a little alien than a baby until recently and I really like this change. 

And this is what he's making me look like these days. 

And for comparison sake, this is me at 16 weeks, the first picture I have that I looked any kind of pregnant.  It's amazing what a few months will do for you. :)  I thought I was showing a lot at this point in my pregnancy. 

The question now is how content he is to stay inside me all the way through the holidays.  Bill and I want to go to Las Vegas and Phoenix for Christmas and New Years, but we don't want to deliver a baby in either of those places.  I think we'll be able to go, but we will have to see in the next month.  Here's hoping!

Midwives Appointment

So I went to my midwives appointment today and met with a different one than I usually see.  She was nice, but way more worried about everything in general.  The one I've been to before seems to think I actually know what's going on and this one was less that way.  She did need to familiarize herself with my medical history, but she was all worried about me measuring big and made sure to totally emphasize to watch for pre-term labor and she almost ordered an ultrasound because I'm still measuring 2 almost 3 weeks ahead, but the fact that my baby measured totally on schedule at my last ultrasound despite me being big didn't seem to matter.  Oh and that I'm 5'2" tall and carrying all in front. And that I haven't had any complications my whole pregnancy.  And that my mom had the same type of pregnancy 7 times where she got big early and I've generally followed in her footsteps my whole pregnancy.  I guess none of those really matter if I have complications now, but I think things are fine.  The little guy is kicking up a storm most all the time and seems to be doing fantastic.

I did have one hiccup this week.  My glucose came back measuring high, so I have to go do the 3-hour test on Thursday morning.  That's no fun, but hopefully I'll pass it.  I would rather not have gestational diabetes, that is for sure.  We'll see in a few days!

Halloween, Talks, Callings, etc

Bill and I are on the activities committee in our ward and we had a ward trunk-or-treat last night.   It was pouring when it was supposed to happen, so we set up all the people in classrooms around the church.  I kind of killed the decorate your trunk part, but all the kids still had a great time.  There were games and food in the gym and the kids kept doing circuits through the rooms around the perimeter accumulating mass amounts of candy.  Fun times.  We had wanted to come up with some great idea for a couple costume that would incorporate my pregnant belly, but everything we thought of took more time, effort and particularly money than we cared to put into it.  Tori saved the day though.  She told me about her costume last year and said I was welcome to copy it.  So we didn't have a couple costume, but we still looked pretty good.  Bill went as a cowboy and I went as a magic 8 ball.  I even had pieces of paper in the pocket I made between the 8 and my shirt with all the responses on it, so people could come up and ask me questions.  It was fun.  I've historically not had very good Halloween costumes, and this one turned out to be a hit, so way to go Tori for saving the day. :) 

Bill and I gave talks in church today.  They went really well.  I probably shouldn't admit it, but I really like to talk in church.  I like giving lessons too.  I like to teach in general.  This semester I am teaching the lab for the class I TA for and I love it!  I get pretty good feedback from the students on my teaching abilities, so that makes me feel good too.  Way back in the day I decided not to go into teaching because I don't care too much for the lesson planning process.  I've come to find out over the years that most teachers don't like that part.  Funny how that works. :)  Who knows, maybe sometime in the future I'll be able to get to teaching.  Bill is also interested in teaching at some point in his career, so maybe we'll end up at a university together or something like that.  How cool would that be?  PhD anyone? lol, not anytime soon.  And I don't even know in what subject, to be perfectly honest.  But the thought does cross my mind when I think about how much I enjoy teaching.  I need to find an area I would love to research in too and then I would be set. 

I got a new calling today to be the ward music chairperson.  I'm pretty excited about it.  I'll still be on the activities committee, but do this also.  I always love music callings and this is one I've never had, so it should be great.  It's probably better with the little guy on the way because there's already a couple ward organists, a choir director, and a ward chorister, so my part won't involve doing one of those things every week.  Maybe I'll put together a music fireside or something like that though.  That would be so fun.

And for the standard prego picture, here's what I'm looking like these days at 28 weeks. People keep asking me when I'm due.  Either I look farther along than I am, or just so pregnant they're not afraid to ask anymore. :)  lol

Third Trimester

I'm 27 weeks tomorrow and so happy to be in my third trimester.  13 or so weeks left and I can't wait!  Bill laughed at me last night because just last week I said I was totally content being pregnant and was enjoying it.  That might have been before the 3 nights of interrupted sleep due to waking up with an ache in my side every couple hours all night long.  I've slept pretty well up to this point, but apparently I'm getting big enough now that sleep is getting harder.  Ah well.  I still do enjoy being pregnant, but I'm getting more and more excited to have my little guy here and get rid of the stomach.  Here's some of my more recent pictures for all of you who want to see how pregnancy is treating me.

This is me and most of my MPA friends at ICMA this weekend in San Jose.  It was a great conference, though I am very happy to be back home now.

We took this picture for Bill's cute aunt's birthday who gave us this adorable outfit among others.  It still seems a bit big though.  :) 

22 weeks

24 weeks

 26 weeks

 And yes, I have been the same size for like 5 weeks.  It's pretty sweet.  I'd be okay with staying the same size for awhile longer.  My back doesn't hurt this way.  It's fantastic.

Thank Goodness for Volleyball

I've noticed lately that I have a really fantastic memory of some things I learned as a teenager or right at the beginning of college, but have completely forgotten some of the intermediate things I've learned between now and then.  Like programming.  I took a couple programming classes in high school and several my first two years of college.  I haven't programmed since 2003.  This semester I'm taking an Excel Visual Basic class.  I don't remember the specific programming languages I used before, but I totally remember all the logic and the basis for programming and all that good stuff.  It's making this class both doable and really enjoyable whereas some of my friends in my program just dropped it because they didn't have a clue about programming. 

Today I was grateful for all the years I spent in middle and high school playing volleyball.  I may not have reached the goal I set at 14 to play in college at BYU, but learning to roll without hurting myself all those years ago really helped this morning in tennis class.  I was rallying back and forth with a classmate and came up to the net as part of it.  He hit a ball way to my backhand side and I twisted and lunged to get it.  I haven't really noticed a difference in my equilibrium for the most part, but I totally overbalanced and ate it on this shot.  As I was falling my thought was how to do this without smashing my stomach.  I chucked my racquet, hit my hands first, but then tucked my right shoulder and rolled over it and back up to my feet with about as small of an impact as I think possible in the circumstances.  It was awesome.  And by that I mean it was awesome that I didn't smash my stomach and hurt myself and the baby.  Like I said, thank goodness for things I learned so many years ago. 

My Talented Sister

My younger sister Tori has always been creative and in the last year or two she has turned her  talents to learning how to sew.  I know how to sew, but she has taught herself to sew really, really well and she can make some really beautiful things.  Her most recent project has been purse making.  She opened an Etsy store to sell her purses this weekend and I highly recommend heading over there and taking a look.  She has made these adorable clutch purses that can double as a wallet and small purse that you can toss into a bigger bag or just take as a clutch.  She blogged about her new store today if you want to see some more pictures.


My First Six Bags


I happen to know that she has a bunch more purses on the way in the next few days or weeks, so go back often.  

Fall Colors

There is a somewhat little known fact that Squaw Peak Road continues far past the little make out point all the teenagers go to and actually goes all the way over the mountain down into Hobble Creek Canyon.  Bill and I decided it was imperative that we drive the whole road to see the full extent of the changing of the fall colors this year.  Last year we just went a little ways up the road in my car, but this year we took the Jeep.  It was awesome.  A little bumpier, or a lot bumpier, than I we would have liked, but the colors were beautiful and if you're up for a 30+ mile 2 or 3 hour drive, I would recommend it.  Only if you have a 4-wheel drive vehicle though.  This is not for low clearance cars.  We saw some and wondered how in the world they made it.  Here's a few of the pictures we got.  Not a one of us in the bunch, just pretty colors.

Laying on my stomach

One of the things I miss on a rather frequent basis being pregnant is laying on my stomach and my back.  I used to go to sleep on my stomach but wake up on my back every morning.  Now if I wake up on my back it is accompanied by a serious lower backache.  If I lay on my stomach it just feels terrible.  Well the other night Bill built me a nest of sorts with all the pillows on our bed so that I could lay on my stomach without squishing the little guy.  It was awesome.  He's the best. 

As of today I am 22 weeks.  According to my midwife at my appointment yesterday, I am measuring 27 weeks in size.  The wee one isn't, just me.  Gotta love it.  There's no question as to my pregnant state these days.  I feel cute though.  I think it's fun to be pregnant.  There are plenty of somewhat annoying aches and pains and I'm sure by the time it comes to a close I'll be very happy to just have this baby, but I love how excited people are for me and all the fun conversations I have with friends and random strangers.  Babies just bring out happiness all around and I think it's great.