Halloween Breakthroughs

  Today I got the kids ready for the day, had them help with chores, and then we got down to the fun stuff: Halloween stuff!
  Last week we had made a monster out of garage. It turned out great, until a windstorm that night hit and continued with rain relentlessly throughout the week.

If you look closely you can see the dead people stuck in the monster's teeth, Emily's personal touch.

 We had also made a Halloween wreath, adding plastic bugs and spiders to the Mother's Day wreath. That also fell victim to the wind, as well as cutouts of the kids' hands and feet with ghostly faces drawn onto them. 

So cute! Finally got a DNS decal.

    Well, today we had a new wave of Halloween spirit rolling out, and a hot-glue gun to reinforce what could be salvaged from last week!

 We made a batch of "baby cookies," made out of the baby oatmeal everyone loves. It tasted simple, delicious, and wholesome. There were only two left of them by the time the real deal (the sugar cookies) was done, cut into teams of pumpkins, ghosts, and bats. 
  After a few hours of nap-time-slash-Halloween-movie-time to recover from that work, and helping a wandering three-year-old find her mother, we rallied again. I fired up the hot-glue gun to reinforce the Halloween wreath, "fix" my cherished but chipped Halloween candy jar ("eat, drink, and be scary"), and piece back together some marble chess players the girls got a little too rough with. Then we broke out the acrylic paint sets and brushes to not only paint faces on pumpkins and make miniature pumpkins out of baby-food jars! (I'll show those after they dry and we put the faces on those little suckers.)

L clockwise: Hattie's, mine, Jeremy's (not done yet), Emily's, sugar cookies, baby cookies

No, it doesn't say, "Steal pumpkin." It's #teal pumpkin. It means I have non-candy "treats" as well as candy (for those with allergies or whatever).

 Amid this whole day was a teething, sick, yet somehow happy 13-month-old sweetheart I call Jeremy. Every day I find delight in making his existence a little more pleasant just to see him bask in it. I marvel at how easy he is in many aspects. Hattie enjoys teaching Jeremy how to clean up and other loftier tasks she has mastered. And Emily's appetite to discuss everything and anything that pops into her head makes me glad I have the time to discuss any and all philosophical, existential, practical, ethical, otherwordly and otherwise topics. That and choosing which of her many, many projects to tackle in real life, be it scientific, artistic, festive, civic, and otherwise. 
  They and my brilliant husband keep me on my toes and passionate about my life and all I choose to bring into it. Just last night, after what was going to be a quick discussion over dinner about a book idea of his turned into a two-hour discussion and counting, we looked at each other, exasperated at the time, tired, but amused. I said what we were both thinking: "Why do we have to be so damn mentally stimulating for each other?"
  In short, the past two days have opened doors to accomplish much I haven't had either the time nor the energy for, and surprisingly it has been in the middle of a family-wide cold! 
  It must have been the meditation I started the night before yesterday, but I felt many mental and physical blocks drop out. My ears didn't hurt anymore. In quite a revelation, I organized and labeled the kids' toys and books in the most efficient way. I stayed on top of the kids' medication to ensure they dropped like flies for nap or bed time. Waking up at night to attend to sick kids stopped, and Jeremy's night feeding didn't bother me, because Jared (who was also sick) let me sleep in. 
  Even this morning (Jared having to leave early for work) left me energized after a quick plea to give me the energy I needed, and there it was, like a slow-releasing cup of joe! My spirit is still quietly humming like a motor, vibrant and ready to rest in my gratitude, after adding a few more insights in my private journal. For that, I'm afraid I will have to leave you out.

Jeremy's closet with books and puzzles put away for the night.

The girls' closet, their books, puzzles, and games safely kept from baby.

Playroom toy organizers, labeled so everyone knows where it goes. J's bookshelf, blocks, make-believe, bins for little toys.

You can see I need shelving but Jeremy isn't complaining.
F to B: instruments, balls, cars, soft toys, hard toys, gear game & stacking cups, tools, dolls, and stuffed animals.
Large balls behind the couch.

Thought I'd show the new couch set I randomly got for free that I've literally imagined down to the color. 

Chipped but still kickin

My favorite

33 & 34 Weeks

Here's me @ 34 & 34-1/2 weeks.

 The end of June, I got to see my good friend, who, on behalf of her, her sister Tess, and her mother, Trudy, gave me a gift basket. The theme is "What you need in the middle of the night," and includes a thermometer and stuff for dehydration, teething, gas, and general pain. Smart idea!

I also got a beautiful quilt from my Gran that she made herself!

July 2nd, we went to Kristen Lundgren (Nielson's) wedding, which was so fun and a great reason to buy a new dress. Unfortunately, I was sick the rest of the weekend.

I also got a package from my sister, Penny, who got me the cutest outfits with bows to go with them!

30 weeks

Here's me at 30 weeks

 I finally found Emily's bedding set. I'd wanted purple and green, but this is the only set I could find that has a deep purple. I decided not to register it & get it from eBay because it's so expensive and the only thing from JoJo. (Well, I still won't have the mobile, lamp, and wall stuff, but that's okay.)

Cami and Mike came by Sunday. I love full houses!

Here's my mom and I. She just left yesterday and I already miss her! Besides being treated to a daily massage and stretches and meals, we got a lot of projects done, too. She has been such a cheery ray of sunshine and makes everyone feel good about themselves. I will treasure all the great memories from this week.

Sara and her Nana

They made a "tree fort" out of a felled tree in the next lot.

These are the kind of sunsets we have everyday. *sigh*

 

Pregnancy Hiccup

A pretty scary thing happened last Wednesday (June 2nd). The day before, I couldn't sleep because my abdomen and back were cramping. Work and piano teaching the next day was pretty painful. I thought it was my back pain returning from the accident five years ago, so I went wading in the pool, which made it much worse.


The obgyn on-call sent us to the labor and delivery wing of the hospital to make sure they weren't contractions. After hooking me up, the monitor showed they were contractions. They were one minute apart for awhile. It felt to me like my abdomen was slowly hardening into a shell. I asked if this was Braxton Hicks; they said no, this was certainly not normal.


The contractions continued for a couple of hours, until they gave me a few shots to get rid of the contractions. Man, did it make my heart race! I felt like crawling up the walls. Then I got to go home. With contractions continuing into the morning (Thursday), I called in sick.


The coolest thing is that we already had plans for my mom to visit my sister and I for a week, so she arrived that afternoon to take care of me! Talk about great timing. She's been here ever since yesterday.


Friday, we saw the doctor, who put me on *du-du-dum* bed-rest until further notice.


So I want to give a shout out to all the people who have to stepped in to help. My mom; my niece, Sara, my RS president; Cami and Mike who shared Mom with me; my other sisters and mom-in-law who have called in; and most of all, Jared.


Jared has also worked night and day this weekend to finish framing a room of the basement downstairs. This is so we can move the office equipment downstairs so we can start on the nursery upstairs. Since we thought we had ten weeks left, we hadn't put it at the forefront of our minds. But the way things are going, we've decided we'd better hustle!

27-1/2 weeks (Almost 7 months!)

So today I finished "What to Expect When You're Expecting." I gotta tell you, the closer it got to the delivery, the more it felt like reading an thriller. This isn't necessarily because it's a sensational book with unexpected twists and turns; I just have an active imagination. The only parts I didn't read completely was Chapter 17: Fathers Are Expectant, Too (that's for the daddies) and Chapter 20: When There's a Problem. (It's way too unnerving to see all the things that can go wrong in a pregnancy.)

About a week ago, after finishing dinner, Emily was kicking exceptionally hard. Jared & I were impressed. "I bet we can see it, too," I thought out loud, then moved my shirt out of the way. Sure enough, we could see little jabs in the same spot every couple seconds or so. (She must have had the hiccups.) The movements looked even bigger when I put my water bottle on the top of my stomach.


27-1/2 weeks, and finally starting to show in the stomach as well as everywhere else!


So I went swimming today for only 15 minutes when the pool closed @ 11 am. Luckily the pool opened up in an hour, so I came back home and thought to myself, "What can I do in an hour?" There was a pair of Jared's jeans that got torn in the butt (ha ha!) that I never had to time to fix, so I got to work on them. Normally I wouldn't care, but they were Jared's favorite pair, and what I thought was expensive, and lately we've had to cinch our belts around here (hyuck). So I got my sewing machine out.

Jared had already ironed on a patch in the back. All I had to do was take off the back pocket, reinforce the patch around the perimeter, reinforce the hole so it didn't start ripping again, and sew the pocket back on. Jared was just as curious as me on how to work the sewing machine and in the whole sewing project. I only broke one needle (because I didn't have it screwed on tight enough), but then I found my heavy-duty sewing-machine needle and that worked. In the end it didn't look half bad. I even had the right color thread! I bet you can't even tell which cheek had the tear, huh?

It's this one!

This is getting me psyched up for my next project, one that's been in the making since high school: my jeans and T-shirt quilt. I have a decade of our jeans and T-shirts, cut up into squares and put away to be made into a patchwork quilt. I just didn't want to give away shirts that were too tacky to wear but that held a memory to me. I wonder if I should just start patching them together, or be too afraid to start a little bit longer?

I do have a lot of time on my hands ever since school ended, maybe I should just go for it...

Last of all, Monday we had Mike and Cami over, so I decided to make Tabby's recipe for chicken lettuce wraps from PF Chang's. I had a food processor and a bunch of other kitchen toys I'd gotten from a couple a long time ago, but I had never learned to use it. Since the chicken in the recipe had to be diced, I determined this was the day I was going to learn how to use the food processor. So with Jared's & Mike's help, we got it working. Although it took 1/2 an hour to figure out how it worked, chopping the ingredients took 1/2 a minute, so it was worth it. I'm going to have to double the recipe next time, though; it was so good!

Since then, I've learned (I think) how to work my manual chopper (another hand-me-down) and my hand blender (garage sale, $1). So helpful! The only kitchen toys left to learn are the two pasta makers I inherited. (I didn't realize I had two until we were unpacked, tee hee.)

Cute Ultrasound Video

This is where the song "Jump Around" needs to play.

What the Heck Happened This Spring?

So, the spring semester is finally over! Almost straight A's again, except for a B+ in Curriculum. Nuts! It was a great semester; I just hope I remember all the creative lessons to use when I'm a teacher.

Going through my 1st and 2nd trimester in school while working 30 hours on the phones & more hours teaching piano was pretty difficult. But now that school's over, I'm not sure what to do with myself. I'm picking up extra hours at work, recruiting more piano students, brushing up on my piano, and doing pregnancy workouts.

I often go walking, but love to swim. I used to swim laps to help my back from the car accident I was in five years ago. (Wow, I can't believe it's been five years!) The past year, though, my back got so much better, and I've been off meds for a long time now. But the past few weeks, my back and neck have started hurting more, so being in zero-gravity has been my saving grace.

I've also been going to a prenatal yoga class the past month. I didn't think I would enjoy it so much, but at the risk of sounding cliche, it's helped me get in touch with my feminine side. I feel a lot more nurturing when I'm there. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of people in the class, so I'm trying to spread the word. You'd think I'd recruit an entire class myself; there are over 20 pregnant women in my ward! But I can't seem to find anyone that wants to do it, too. Maybe it's me...

So last Saturday I volunteered at the Special Olympics. I signed up to be the staging supervisor. What was I thinking? I had to coordinate the other volunteers to put the right contestants in the right lane. This had to be done a couple heats ahead of time.

It was pretty hard since the contestants often didn't answer to their name, and didn't know where to go themselves, and the volunteers I was in charge of didn't know either because I had the only copy of the forms. Luckily I had training in thinking outside the box from my elementary education program.

Things were pretty unorganized though. We were in so much disarray & there was no one there to help us. A lady eventually came up to me in a huff about how everyone's waiting on us, and what are we doing? I fought the urge to throw the papers in her face and remind her that I was only a volunteer! I swallowed my pride in the nick of time and got help without hurting anybody.

Sadly, I was so busy organizing, I only got glances of the actual races. When I did I was pretty inspired. I'll definitely help next year. I'm doing this for them and not some ticked-off lady.

So I volunteered for a couple of hours, then trained a replacement & left to go to work. Then I took Jared out for his 28th birthday to see Iron Man 2 with his friends. Yeah!

I'm so glad to have him in my life, and I can't believe it will be ten years this July 24th since we first met. It seems like we've known each other much longer than that.

Jared, as you may know, lost his job a few weeks ago. He's getting certified in A+ and a couple other computer-techie things. It's been stressful for both of us, with things up in the air financially, losing health insurance, and a baby on the way. But it's actually been a real blessing for us.

Working at Jared's previous employer made his digestive problems so much worse. He had an ulcer just from work. Now he looks so much healthier. Before, we only saw each other a few minutes each day. Now we have had so much more time to be together. I feel like I have my husband back, now that he's not getting the life sucked out of him. We laugh all the time. It's almost like a second honeymoon.

And can I just tell you how glad we are to have set aside food storage? We even have medical insurance worked out for now. So we know things are going to be okay, and our relationship has been closer than ever. Weaker men would have given in to fear and despair, but Jared has been working so hard and making use of every minute. He's just brimming with confidence, ambition, and ingenuity. So here's to you, Jared, my own Iron Man. Happy birthday!

Sunday was my first Mothers' Day, by the way. It wasn't much different, because Jared has always celebrated me on Mothers' Day, as the mother of his future children. Isn't that sweet? He took me to Park Discovery (a big playground). I loved crawling around the maze of twists and turns and activity spots. I got a wake-up call to all the things I can't do anymore, or can't do as easily, now that I'm 6 months pregnant. Some examples include bending over a lot, hanging from a bar, and swinging on a tire swing. But I enjoyed what we could do, and despite the weather, it was a beautiful Mothers' Day!

More Ultrasound Videos

Here are some other flics from the ultrasound.

When we saw this video, Jared said, "It looks like she's throwing up!"

New Ultrasound

Jared and I had another ultrasound with Baby Whitefield at three weeks. So adorable! We're so excited to find out we are having a girl!!!




So the other day we started talking about names. I hadn't said anything recently about the name Emily, although I've always liked it. Then Jared said, "What about Emily?" And it was just right! It says seems like that's her name. So we're going with that for now.

Spring Semester

Here's what's happened since my last blog was written (Dec 4th, although I posted it just today). Jared and I had our first prenatal visit January 6th (lucky Shayla's birthday). Instead of 10 weeks like they had said, we found out I was only 8 weeks. We discovered this when the ultrasound showed a peanut and not a 10-week-old fetus. Well, it's our peanut! We could see the heartbeat, too! Pictures to be posted soon!

I'm now twelve weeks along and had another checkup yesterday. I didn't bring Jared because it was supposed to be just a routine checkup. Then Dr. G did a microphone-ultrasound thing to hear the heartbeat, which we haven't gotten to hear before. So I call Jared (who was in St. George) right then so he could hear the heartbeat, too. It was this wahk, wahk, wahk sound, but it was super fast, 167 beats/minute. Someone told me that means it's a girl because girl's hearts beat faster. I have a feeling it's a girl, too. I have to admit I've been wanting a boy, though. The thought of an fearless and adventurous boy running around the house tends to waylay the feeling of anxiety I feel as a first-time mom. Plus a big brother to watch over the little girls is a good idea, right? But I'm starting to warm up to having a girl. She'll have her daddy to watch over her, and I'm sure Jared will be wrapped around her little fetal finger.
My fatigue didn't get much better after school started in January, but I'm somehow still in school full time w/ two jobs. So getting it all done has taken a monumental effort. NO ONE could have prepared me for how tired I've been. January was the month of gagging, too. I couldn't brush my teeth or even say the words "prenatal vitamin" without gagging. Normally though I wouldn't actually throw up, which is good, right?

*Dream corner: So almost all of my dreams since the first month of pregnancy have been about houses, and I usually never dream the same dream twice. It's usually a new huge house we've just bought that's too big for us, and we're remodeling and preparing to have people live there. Once we bought a house then discovered my dad & stepmom lived across the street; I spent the rest of my dream scrambling to flip it. Haha! But most of the time they're huge luxurious houses and I keep thinking to myself, "Did we really need a house this big? It's so empty. Oh, well." and start decorating or landscaping. I know, wierd.
But last night I finally dreamed something different. My baby was born. Actually I dreamed I was about to give birth, then they knocked me out and I woke up with the baby in my arms, which annoyed me, cuz I I missed the whole giving-birth part.

Oh, one more thing: when I told the girls in church I was pregnant during our traditional "good news minute," three other girls announced it as well, making the total number of pregnant women in our ward 27 at the time. One score and seven!!! The diva in me does not want to share the spotlight, but it's nice to know they're all going through the same thing.

Tour of the House

This was written around the beginning of December. Then my first trimester hit me like a brick wall, and I haven't touched my blog since then. Enjoy!

For anyone who still might not know, Jared and I are going to have a baby!!! I found out during the last week of fall semester, so you can imagine how distracted I was, which is my excuse why I got got all As except one B+. I feel more reassured that Jared and I are now in our own home, that Jared's job is more secure, and, most of all, that my back and neck have improved a lot and I'm on medication that is safe to take while pregnant.

So Thanksgiving had come and gone and I was still "late." So I took a test, which showed not pregnant. But I was still late a week later, so I took another test and this time there was a very faint line showing pregnant, but the control window was faded and not completely filled out. Huh?
So I told Jared over the phone about it (he was in St. George working), and he thought I was already saying that the test was positive, and he was so excited. But I told him I was going to stop by my OBGYN's and get another test. The whole time I was waiting I kept thinking, "I must be making such a big deal out of nothing. Don't get yourself all excited, Kim." But the nurse came back with the faintest of faint lines on the test, saying I was pregnant! They decided to count it as six weeks along, but it's possible I'm less weeks than that because the line was so faint.
I told Jared over the phone. I was so excited, it didn't even cross my mind to think of some creative way to say it that night over dinner or even wait more than a minute to tell him. He kept saying, "Six weeks? Six weeks!" I told him I only wish I could have seen his face. So in response, he sent me this picture: So our first checkup & ultrasound will be January 6th, and did I mention we're so excited?
During the first weeks I knew I was pregnant, I didn't feel anything weird, except having such dry skin I developed a rash across my chest, back, neck, and scalp. I've never had a rash before, so we have to attribute it to the baby. That and I had one crazy day of emotional hormonal insanity. Oh, and a general aversion to food; I wasn't nauseous; it's just that nothing seemed appetizing enough to get up *sigh*, take it out of the box *groan*, and eat it.

Now that I'm further along, I get nausea, which gets exponentially worse if I don't eat something right that minute. Heaven help me if I'm actually hungry.

The biggest problem I've had is being so TIRED! The other day, I went to bed @ 10:30, exhausted, woke up @ 5:00am (6-1/2 hours), went back to bed at 7:00am, and slept until 1:30pm (another 6-1/2 hours). When Jared woke me up with a phone call, I was still so tired I was literally shaking! Thank goodness this hit during my Christmas break.

I only hope the symptoms will lessen by the time school starts next week, that really has me worried! I had all these plans this break of studying for the Praxis exam, but I'm lucky if I survived the day without a three-hour nap in the middle of it, so I've hardly gotten anything done!


By the way, to celebrate the end of finals, Jared and I went to Off The Cuff, a local improv show. It's like "Who's Line is it Anyway?" but I call it TV for ADD viewers. I love trying to think of all the paths a scene can take and always being surprised.
It's so much more fun than watching a stupid show full of filler and cliffhangers just to keep the series going for as many seasons as possible.
But IMPROV is all about finding unexpected resolutions and opening up possibilities in a story. So it's always super-fun.





Last note: Jared and I spent a few hours making a video to tour the house and putting it together in Vegas Movie Studio, but now I can't open it, so the grand opening is postponed once again until Jared can get home & do his tech stuff.

I gotta say we love our house to bits though. It has been so fun hosting events. First, for Thanksgiving, we had my sister's family over (Cami, Mike, & Sara). Then for Christmas we had Jared's parents (Rob, Phemie, & Granny). I don't think there's anything more fun than having people over and making a fabulous meal for them, just knowing your friends are comfortable and having a pleasant time at your house.

Revision on my last post

So it looks like I actually had the brother of Mike Leavitt over to my house, Mark Leavitt. They look so much alike, though, and why do their names have to sound alike?!

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?

So, we had the Christmas dinner party tonight for our ward. I played some songs, including "Grown-Up Christmas Wish" for a sister named Kaitlynn and "Three Kings," from The Forgotten Carols for one other guy named Mike. The both had come over today to rehearse the songs. Mike had this an amazing tender tenor voice. I told him how nice it was to accompany for someone who could really sing like he could, although he admitted the song was a little low for his range. We threw some ideas around but Mike mostly deferred to me. When we finally performed that night during the dinner party, it ended up sounding so beautiful, I got a little teary during the dinner party. After performing, he patted me on the back and commented on how well I had done, which made me feel better because I was nervous from playing for the first time in front of my new ward members.
I left the ward party early to catch SUU's symphony concert, which was great. By the time I got home, Jared was home from having to work in St. George. So we talked about each others' day, and I mentioned the people who sang. He asked me to repeat Mike's full name again. I repeated it, asking if he knew him. Yes, he had given Jared a special presidential commemorative coin for the Department of Human Health Services for giving his office a free copier.
Wanting to make sure I was talking about the right person with that name, he found a picture of him on the internet and pulled it up. "Yeah, that's him, that's Mike Leavitt." And it hit me that the former governor of Utah and former cabinet member for the Bush Admin had been in my house, taking my lead. wow.