16 Weeks

We're getting our ultrasound in two days. I'm so excited, I'm having a hard time focusing at work. I just want to look at baby stuff. But more like shopping, not education.
I always felt like being more educated about a subject left less to fear and you're more prepared that way. HA! Not so with having babies. Jon has officially banned me from reading about child birth, and I have banned myself. I was freaking myself out way too much! I'm still not sure how we are going to get this child here without me freaking out. I don't want an epidural AT ALL! I am more afraid of the needle and being stuck in that freaking bed than the pain. But then again, I've never had a child so maybe I don't want the pain either. Who knows! And I won't even mention that fact that I am an EXTREMELY private person and being so...er...exposed makes me nauseated and enraged at the same time. Ya, I think child birth is going to be interesting for me...ha ha and poor Jon!
This is a little weird too but I am teaching myself how to meditate (yes you may laugh but it helps me cope when people just can't help but tell me the last child birth horror story they heard). I've never been able to do it but I've found something that works for me. If I listen to music, more of the alternative style, and really focus on the words, I can block out almost all thoughts except for the words of the song. Granted the words have to be happy or it doesn't help much, but I think I'm on to something.

So the avocado is because babycenter.com told me my baby is the size of an avocado this week :)

That's Right Folks....

I don't think we have really succeeded at keeping this a secret so we might as well get some guessing games out of it. Jon and I find out December 12 whether we are having a boy or a girl! Everyone venture a guess and we'll let you know who is right!


A little info on the baby:
Baby Brady is 13 weeks in the making
This little baby likes to make me insanely tired
Food has no appeal still, though I am lucky enough that it all stays inside
Expected due date: May 27th

Citizen or Not?

This article is really interesting. It's about Obama, and I know, the election is over. But this little detail has to be cleared up through the Supreme Court by December 1, 2008 (from what I have heard) or else the $20,000+ tickets to the inauguration might not be any good. Take a look.
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2066207/posts

It's FINALLY Here!

That's right. This little beauty makes me rich! Ha ha, not really, but it helps right? I passed my test in September so I feel that FINALLY is much the appropriate word. It's Christmas and Jon and I can definitely use a raise!

Things I Am Grateful For

I decided to start my "Grateful For" list early this year since I have LOTS to be grateful for but I seem to be forgetting that often right now.
1. My number one is most definitely my wonderful, amazing, handsome, charming, smart, hard working, adorable husband. I feel like I am the luckiet girl in the whole world and I couldn't have dreamt for better. Heavenly Father sent Jon to me as an answer to so many prayers. I love him with all my heart and I know he would do anything for me and I would for him.
2. My family. I actually have two families now and I have to include boths. I love my siblings and my parents; they're the greatest and I feel very blessed to have them and be so close with them. I also have great in-laws. They are just awesome and have welcomed me fully into their family.
3. My job. Now, this one is hard to be grateful for most days but I know that I have to be appreciative of the fact that I have a good paying job with excellent benefits, especially given the look of the economy these days. There are some pros to my job, I just have to really ponder why I got into Child Welfare in the first place.
4. My faith. I am very proud to be LDS and look to my religion as an answer to everything in life. I love that we have modern day prophets to guide us through the scary times and remind us to be optimistic and do the best we can.
5. My Health. I'm not out running marathons right now but I think I have a pretty healthy heart. Can't complain of too much these days and everything seems to work correctly. I know that is a blessing way too many don't have.

I think I'll stop there for now. But I'll start this as a tag to all my family and anyone else who would like to start their "Gratful For" pondering early.

New Look

So what do you think of the NEW look? Thanks to Lisa for showing me the new site that is so much easier to work with! And it doesn't delete your page gadgets if you want to change it. In case anyone is interested, cutestblogontheblock.com

All that JAZZ

The Jazz season has started!! Funny how certain things can make you so happy. I'd have to say the best things in life are as follows:

1. Lynette
2. Family
3. The UTAH JAZZ

Of course motorcycles, guns, scuba diving and Pepsi can be in there as well.

GO JAZZ!!!

Day Off From Everything....

Going with the Governor's order that all state employees work 4-10s, I now have Fridays off. To be honest, I think this is the first Friday that I have been at home just chillin and watchin cooking shows (nothing is on at 2:00PM in case you haven't had the leisure to check it out, so you're not missing much!) Earlier today I met Jon up on the BYU campus and got my official spouses card! How exciting right? Well, I'm not a converted Y fan yet (I vow it will never happen) but I am excited to have a free gym. However, it made me ponder on some serious differences between the good ole U (the REAL school ;) and the Y
1) What is the deal with gym issued shirts?! I hear it's an improvement from having to buy a uniform but still, who wants a stinky used shirt?
2) Posters around the school about dress code, hair length, and clean shaven
3) Prayers at the beginning of intramural sports (not that it's a bad thing)
4) Housing! What a nightmare! I don't think there is anywhere else in the world that has men's housing, women's housing, and married housing! And trust me, there are not a lot of married options--if it's nice, married folk probably aren't allowed
5) Men having an electric shaver on hand before intramural games or tests
6) Men with mustaches (it's making a point, but it's ugly!)
7) I realize I was only campus for short time, but it seemed like there were less minorities. I could be completely wrong on this one, but just a thought.
8) No one walks on the grass
9) Two old friends running into each other, only to find out they are getting married three days apart
10) No smoking! (The behavioral sciences building, where MOST my classes were, was a smoking haven right outside the door. I would always have to hold my breath to get past)

Evil Landlord

So, Jon and I moved to Provo the end of June. We moved from a rather spacious, nice apartment in Bountiful to a mediocre, very small apartment in Bountiful. When we went to sign the contract, the manager was slightly chaotic. I tried to read through the whole thing very carefully so that I wasn't signing anything I would later regret. I was slightly bummed when she said that the rent was going to go up in July and now tenants had to pay gas/electric. It had previously been included in the contract. Still, we decided it was a pretty good deal and signed. We had come to the conclusion that we had a pretty good deal. It's small but it has a dishwasher and sometimes our neighbors fight in the parking lot which makes for some exciting neighbor watching! Well, last week our landlord (who shall now be called the evil landlord) decided to drop the bombshell. Please notice the timing on this, after school has started and ALL married apartments (because there aren't many anyway) in Provo are full. They left us a note stating that we now had to pay a $25/mo communication fee, as well as $25 for a parking sticker. I was so mad that night that I could hardly stand it. It's not even the fact that our landlords are completely breaching their contract and trying to rip everyone off but where is the integrity? It makes me more mad that we're being taken advantage of than that we are starving students and that same $25 a month could go to a date night, groceries, car insurance, gas, phone bills, etc! Well, the story is much longer and aggravating and crazy but I just thought I would share my landlord woes. My lesson learned...Request a contract in advance so that your future landlord isn't staring you down while you try to quickly read for loop holes and crazy ways your crazy landlord can try to rip you off.

Jon is pointing at a red ant hill he "took care of" by
sticking a wooden spoon down the hole

Jon and I finally went back and finished the trail by Goblin Valley. We camped out next to the red cliffs and then did the hike first thing the next morning. We had a lot of fun, did some hiking as well as some shooting.

The trail started out pretty open but about a half mile in, it closed up and was sometimes really narrow. It was scorching hot but the canyons walls kept it cool so it was really nice. Jon and I are hoping we'll get a chance to go back and finish the trail before the summer ends.

I have been trying to eat healthier lately and have found that the hardest thing to be healthy about is snacks. Occassionaly I crave chips or something salty but usually it's just straight sugar. So, I have been on the look out for healthy snacks. Jon told me about this one. You slice tomatoes and mozzarella cheese and layer them. Then you add olive oil and whatever spices you want. You can dip or drizzle and it's really good! I don't really even like tomatoes but I love this!
PS- canola oil works if you don't have olive oil (like us our first try) but it doesn't taste that great.



The other snack is one I learned from Kim in Ecuador. Fresh avocado smeared on toast with salt. It's amazing!


Those are my only two great ones right now though so I am really posting this to get everyone to share their healthy snack recipes.(NOTE: EASY TO MAKE! NOTHING GOURMET HERE PEOPLE!)

This picture is old too but yet another I had just missed somehow. This was from when Jon and I took Micah, Sam and Breann to the Rec Center in Bountiful to go swimming. We had the kids all ready to get in the water (Micah was actually in!) before they told us that open swimming didn't start until noon. These are the looks we got when we tried to explain that we couldn't go swimming yet!

I just found this picture of Clay and I think it's so cute so I had to post it. It's at least a month old, from when Steph and Ryan were babysitting that kitten. Clay loved that thing and chased it all over the place. This was from one night when we went to visit. He's a pretty cute kid.

PRODUCT OF THE WEEK! So the other day I was looking for "healthy" snacks at the grocery store. I got this string cheese because it was the kind on sale at Smiths. But, it is seriously the best string cheese I have ever had. It's actually stringy! I love it. So, if you are also a string cheese enthusiast, you should try it because it is only one point (whatever that means!)

PROVO

So it's official. Jon and I are Provo-ites...gulp!!! I finished up work in Bountiful and transfered all my cases to a new worker, my last day was June 26th. Jon finished training the new hire for his position that same day and we kissed it all good-bye. Jon started school June 23rd and is loving every second of it ;) Today was actually my first official day in the Provo office. It was a piece of cake day and I only wish it would stay this way. I only have two cases right now. I had heard a rumor that caseloads were lower in Provo but such is not the case. They're the same. Boo Hoo.

But good news!!! Jon's family goes to Lake Powell every year over the fourth of July with some family friends. We thought we weren't going to be able to go this year but since school is out Friday, and Jon can miss his study group Thursday, we decided to head up around 2AM Thursday morning to meet up with the group. Matthew and Laura are going to go down with us as well so it'll be quite the trip. We're really excited for the break and who doesn't love Lake Powell?!

New York

Jon and I finally made it to New York! Even if it was only for a few hours. We took a red eye there and the last flight of the night home! We both loved it. I got a knock purse and we saw all the big sites of Lower Manhatten in record time. We saw the Statue of Liberty (from a distance, talk about a line!), Ground Zero, China Town (cheap purses!!!!), and anything in between. The Empire State Building was our last stop. We started to go up inside until we realized there were lines the whole way up the thing and we would miss our flight! I think we made it to the second or third floor though :) It was a lot of fun either way. This ended up being our last flight together. Jon took a day trip to D.C. but I wasn't able to get out of work. We'll miss our flight benefits for sure! But I guess we have to get back to reality and on to bigger and better!

That tiny little line in between the two of us is the Statue of Liberty. :)

Jamaica!!

The sunsets were amazing!

Lynette was waiting for me to join her.

The fish and coral were incredible... too bad we didn't have an underwater camera.

We mostly just lounged about on the beach the whole time.

Lynette was thrilled to find a starfish. We also found crabs, stingrays and high Jamaicans.

Walking on 7 mile beach.

She was turning heads the whole way.

This was our view of the beach off our balcony in Jamaica. The bar/restaurant straight ahead had a nice jacuzzi on top.

One of the most beautiful sites in the world... there's also a pretty sunset in the background.

Dinner at Margaritaville.

We had an easter egg hunt and Micah dominated in retrieving the lost eggs. However, the tree was too scary to approach and the egg wasn't worth the risk.
Clayton took on the evil tree and courageously took the egg without any fear.