Our Weekend Food Diary

Friday Night: Homemade Enchiladas. With hamburger--but nonetheless wonderful!

Saturday Morning: Mark had a Breakfast Cereal Bar. I had Nothing because I slept in.

Saturday Afternoon: Olive Garden. I had Salad, Breadsticks, and Ravioli di Portobello. Mark had five gallons of Soup and boxed his Supreme Pizza.

Saturday Afternoon Snack: a BYU Creamery ice cream - Raspberry Cheesecake on a Sugar Cone.

Saturday Night: Mark's leftover Pizza.

Sunday Morning: Mark fasted. I ate a bowl of Marshmellow Mateys.

Sunday Afternoon: Two last Ravioli di Portobello for me. Mark had his last pieces of Pizza. We each ate a Pickled Egg.

Sunday Night: Homemade Chicken Pot Pie and a "Mixed" Drink consisting of Orange Soda, Orange Juice, Lime Sherbet, and Frozen Strawberries. (By the way, I don't necessarily make beautiful pie crust, but I make nice, flakey crust!)

Cuppycake

I've told Mark quite a few times that I love "cuppycakes." I got an email with this sound file on it AGES ago--when I was an undergrad. And I just love it. Today one of my friends mentioned cupcakes, and I, of course, immediately thought of this. So, I looked it up. AND I FOUND IT! Ah, wasn't she sooooooooo cute?

American Idol - March 25

OK, OK, there is the possibility that I may update you on my American Idol opinions every week. Maybe. Maybe I won't. But, here's my very brief update from last night.

Who should go? Michael Sarver and Scott MacIntyre. Sorry, neither one is that great. Michael's fun, but he's not an American Idol. I never thought he was from the beginning. And Scott has bugged me from the beginning--because he seems to sing the same stuff every week. I think he's amazing at writing music and playing the piano. But he can't sing. Face it.

Who rocked it last night? My top three were Kris Allen, Adam Lambert, and Allison Ireheta. Kris and Adam seriously are artistic. Even though Adam creeped me out last week, I have to admit, it was really awesome (AND CREEPY!!!!!). And Kris just seems to have it going on--he is an American Idol. I like Allison because she seems so funky--but in a good way.

I don't know if I even like our Utah girl. She's...um........different.

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Update: Michael Sarver did indeed go home last night. Good. I love the guy, but he's not an American Idol.

Cleaning the Bathroom

There are a few things that I could post today - like how I almost got in a car accident on the way to work this morning, or how Mark might take me on a babymoon, or how I'm absolutely intrigued by how close the voting is for the gender of our baby (it's been either dead even or within two since we posted the poll), or that I haven't buttoned my pants up for the last two weeks, or the dream I had last night about me and my brother planting a garden--High School Musical style, or how today is our 10-month anniversary. But, instead, I'm just going to share this little chuckle with you. Enjoy!

I Think I Look Pregnant

I think I'm starting to actually look pregnant. Mark says he can't tell--and claims it's because he's a guy. But, I think I do.

I can't fit in most of my pants any more. And, I'm tired of wearing my t-shirts. I'd like to wear a button-up shirt now and then, but, there are a couple things that are preventing that right now.

American Idol - Top 11

I love American Idol. I've watched it pretty regularly for the last six years. Not every night. And not even enough that I always have all the contestants memorized. But, it's one show that I enjoy watching. I've been making Mark watch it with me this season too. Let me give you a rundown of some of my thoughts about last night (Top 11, Grand Ole Opry Night).

Bad
Scott MacIntyre: He sang Martina McBride's "Wild Angels." I was quite disappointed with this song. Actually, the whole way through it, I kept thinking how it sounded so much like a sitcom opening song. You know, like "Full House" or "Cheers" or "Perfect Strangers." It was quite a let-down.

Lil Rounds: She sang Martina McBride's "Independence Day." Eh...... blech. Not only was I really not impressed with her song, but her dress was really distracting to me. She kept telling everyone how she was trying to step out of her R&B, but--she didn't. She couldn't pull Martina off. Kind of sad, because I like Lil. But, she's pretty much only got one style of singing: R&B.

Adam Lambert: He sang Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire." I WAS SCARED OUT OF MY MIND! I'm surprised I didn't have nightmares. This was the craziest version of any country song I've ever heard in my life. It was icky! I kept shaking my hands like something got stuck to them. Simon said that it was "indulgent" and that it sounded like Nine Inch Nails. I agree! SCARY!!!!!!

Decent
Alexis Grace: She sang Dolly Parton's "Jolene." I was quite unimpressed. I missed my Dolly. I mean, it wasn't the worst girl song of the night (Lil), but it was not the best either.

Matt Giraud: He sang Carrie Underwood's "So Small." The judges liked him too--but I wasn't impressed. Just...okay.

Danny Gokey: He sang Carrie Underwood's "Jesus Take the Wheel." The judges thought he did really well. But, I wasn't mega impressed. In fact, I was missing Carrie.

Good
Megan Joy Corkrey: She sang Patsy Cline's "Walking After Midnight." I thought she did well. But, it sounded kind of fake. It was strange somehow. Apparently she's battling the flu right now. But, still, it just sounded different. Mark claims to have never heard the song before. But, I knew it.

Michael Sarver: He sang Garth Brooks' "Ain't Going Down 'Til the Sun Comes Up." He did it well. It wasn't that amazing. But, it was fun. It wasn't Garth-fun. But, nonetheless, he did it country. And, as he said, "Country is supposed to be fun."

Awesome
Allison Iraheta: She sang Patty Loveless' "Blame It on Your Heart." I thought she did very well. In fact, she was my third favorite of the night. I enjoyed it, I had fun, and she hit it. At least, that's my opinion.

Anoop Desai: He sang Elvis Presley's "Always on My Mind." WOW! I usually can't stand Anoop. There's just something about him that bugs me. But, last night, I couldn't hate him at all. I loved him. This was my second favorite song of the night. Mark was just as impressed as I was. Wow. He did very, very well.

Kris Allen: He sang Garth Brooks' "To Make You Feel My Love." WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This song was killer awesome! I mean, WHOAH! Both Mark and I looked at each other and were just blown away. I love Garth's version, but Kris did some good stuff to this song. I mean, I would buy it for sure.

Here is Kris' song before it is blocked by Fox:



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Update: Alexis Grace was kicked off. I'm kind of sad. I actually liked her a lot. But, she did choose a song/arrangement that didn't work for her. And now the weird thing is that there are THREE women to SEVEN men left on the show. I've never seen that in any other season.

A Very Busy Week

Sunday
Sunday night we went to the Stake Young Men and Young Women Awards Night. Our stake doesn't have a ton of youth. No young men received their Duty to God award. Only two women (one from our ward) received the Young Woman Recognition Certificate and Young Womanhood Medallion. We're very proud of our young woman.

Monday
Monday night was our only night that we didn't have anywhere to go. We had our family home evening and watched a movie.

Tuesday
Tuesday night we took our youth to the Jordan River Temple to do baptisms for the dead as part of our Stake Conference preparation. We took five young women and five young men. Of those that came, only two young women had been before and only one young man. We tried to answer their questions. They were all so happy to be there. And, we tried to remind them about reverence. Many of our youth don't understand reverence yet. We're trying to teach them though.

There was also another couple from our ward that joined us. They are the parents to one of our Beehives. The mom has just recently been baptized. The dad has been inactive for a long time. It was their first time too. When they realized how busy the baptistry was, they said they wouldn't participate at all. But, we convinced them that they could do confirmations. They did. And they were so happy they did.

Wednesday
Wednesday night Mark and I went back to the Jordan River Temple to do sealings, also as part of our Stake Conference preparation. We participated in a sealing room with our bishop and his wife, a couple named the Martins, a couple named the Painters (their first time ever), and one of the single brothers in our ward. It was so nice. I really appreciate that Mark takes me to the temple to strengthen our relationship, to give me an opportunity to grow, and a chance to spend quality time together.

Speaking of "spending time together," Mark talked to one of his friends this week. She's considering getting a divorce. Mark asked her if they are reading their scriptures together, if they are praying together, and if they are going to church together. She told him "no" to all of those. She told him they go to the temple, but not together. He asked why not. She said because they didn't want to spend the money to get a babysitter for their kids. Mark said, "It's cheaper to get a babysitter than to get a divorce." It is.

Thursday
Thursday night we spent with the youth again. This night we took them to the Draper Temple open house. I loved this too. Most of it, they were reverent. Some of it, they were bored--like in the hallways between rooms. But, it was nice to be able to answer their questions and to tell them about the rooms they were in. It was nice, too, to be able to just teach them things when they didn't know what to ask.

It was nice, too, for me to see that beautiful edifice. I want to make my life a temple-centered life.

Friday
Friday I left work at 3:15. I met Mark at his office at 4:00 so we could drive to Castle Dale. We went down for the night to go to my aunts' play, "Nunsense." I loved it. It wasn't the best play in the whole world, but it was AWESOME because my aunts were in it. They crack me up.

Saturday
Saturday morning Dad made us breakfast. Then we went to the nursing home to see Grandma, but Uncle Paul and Aunt Chris had already taken her away. So, we had to meet them in Lawrence. Mom wanted to fix Grandma's hair so it would be pretty. That was the first time I told Grandma that we're expecting. She's very happy for us.

We left Lawrence about 11:40. We got to Price just a minute behind my parents. They had to take their truck over to get it services. We had lunch together before Mark and I headed back to the Wasatch Front. Yum-o!

Mark had Priesthood leadership meeting (Stake Conference). Then we both went to the adult session. It wasn't just talks--part of it was participation from the audience. It was pretty great. The presiding leader was Elder W. Douglas Shumway of the Seventy. He is a pretty great man.

After that, Mark and I met up with some of our best friends at Cold Stone. Yum-o!

So, yup, we definitely had a busy week. A very busy week.

The Cabin

On Friday, we went up to Midway to a friend's family cabin. Yes, we do have a life beyond thinking about this baby. We invited some of our friends from our ward. That meant there were three couples and one 2-year-old.

Mark and I had never been there before. Boy were we glad that we got up there when it was still light outside. By the time the third couple got there, they couldn't tell which way they needed to go--and it was snowing! But, Mark and I found it by dumb-luck. The map was a little hard to follow and the directions weren't very detailed.

When Mark and I got there, we found a car parked in front of the cabin. We were confused, because we were pretty sure we were the first ones of our group to get there. And, we didn't recognize the car at all.

Turns out, it was one of the family members and his girlfriend. They had come up a few days before and were intending to stay for the next three nights. Um...can you say, "Awkward"?

We reserved the cabin through my friend, Peggy. Peggy is married to a brother of the family that owns the cabin. Peggy had scheduled the cabin two weeks before for us with the "scheduler." Yes, that would be the person who schedules the cabin. The guy that we met there at the cabin had asked his mother. She had not asked the "scheduler," but had instead told him that there ought not to be anyone up there and to go ahead.

Yah, "awkward." He invited us in and told us that it would be no problem if we stayed the night there. We told him that there were five other people coming too. He said that wouldn't be a problem either.

Well, it turned out to be a problem. Probably because we were talking about families and church and babies and such. You know, wholesome things. Perhaps that's why they left, because they weren't exactly there on a wholesome weekend.

When the other couples finally managed to find the place, we had such a great time. We ate wonderful veggies, a Jell-o salad, and lasagne. Yum-o! We laughed and laughed. We talked and talked.

We fully intended playing games, but it was so good to just talk about stuff, that we didn't play games on Friday night. Instead we stayed up talking about everything from maternity clothing to the economy and Obama. We also all decided that we're really old, because around midnight, we were all shutting down. TIRED. Ha! Old farts.

The next morning, we woke up and had us a few bowls of cereal and some fresh fruit. THEN we played games. We played Nertz for about an hour and a half. Maybe longer. Mark won by one point. Stinker. hehehehe.....

We left the cabin at noon.

What did we think of it? It was wonderful! It had three bedrooms, each with a queen sized bed. Then there was the big room on the same floor as the bedrooms where five double (or queen) sized beds and two twin beds were all lined along the walls. Yes, that room would be a nightmare for parents/a dream for kids to sleep together. Then there was a loft that had about ten or so mattresses stacked up that you could throw anywhere in the cabin you wanted to sleep. The dining room table was large and sturdy. And the two bathrooms in the house both had showers.

The Poll

Mark put a poll up on our blog to vote whether it's going to be a boy or a girl. Cast your vote.

Cloth Diapers

I am seriously considering using cloth diapers when this little one gets here. I hadn't really thought about it at all, until one day, right after I found out we were expecting, my old roommate posted about cloth diapers on her blog. Since then, it's pretty much what I've been keeping on the back burner.

Are there any of you out there that use(d) cloth diapers? If yes, I would love to have an email conversation with you. Or, you can post for all our zillions (maybe that is an exaggeration) of readers to read.

My roommie didn't answer all of my questions--but that's because I didn't ask them (it was still a secret). So, now I want answers.

Mark's initial reaction was just what the first commenter said: he wasn't going to change cloth diapers. I said, "The same thing is going to be in cloth diapers as in disposable: pee and poo." Mark said, "You have to wash them." I said, "That's fine."

The main reason I am considering this is the cost savings. Not because I'm a tree hugger. In fact, I'm really not a tree hugger. I rarely recycle and I don't feel guilty about throwing things away. I just want to save money and I figure this is a good way to do it. Not to mention, if I invest in good ones now, we can use them for the next kid(s).

Small Thoughts on Life

Today I read two very touching blog posts. Each were about the loss of a child.

Nancy is a friend that I grew up with. She saw a story on the news about an infant who was bitten by the family dog--and ended up dying.

A LEGO a Day is a photo blog that I stumbled across. Usually, I get a good chuckle from this simple site. But, today, the author/photographer wrote about the loss of an elementary child he knew who lost the fight to a rare childhood cancer. The picture on it is beautiful.

Right now, I feel so incredibly blessed to have the husband I have, the family I have, the friends that I have, and the opportunity to have my own child. I know that I need to cherish the important people in my life even more. And, I also know that I need to do my best in all my responsibilities.

Pregnant Friends

So, my friend at work has been sharing with me over the course of the last couple weeks about how many pregnant friends she has and how many pregnant friends I have (that I'm aware of). We've counted them. We've also counted our friends who have delivered a baby since the beginning of 2009. My friend has 30 on her list. I have 25 (counting myself). There are also three more in my ward (at church) that are pregnant, but I don't know who they are because it's still on the down-low.

The other night I dreamt that three of my seminary council (from my senior year in high school) friends are pregnant too. One of them currently has four girls, but in my dream she said that they decided they really wanted to have a boy scout. I liked that dream a lot...hehehehe......

Since my blog is not private, I won't put their names, but just their initials. Check it out:

Already Delivered in 2009
1. C. B. - January
2. M. G. - February
3. E. H. - February
4. G. B. - February
5. S. R. - February
6. R. S. - February
7. M. A. - February
8. C. M. - March

Still to Come in 2009
1. J. V. - April
2. G. E. - April
3. M. C. - May
4. M. F. - May
5. A. C. - May
6. M. B. - June
7. C. L. - June
8. B. B. - June
9. M. S. - July
10. E. B. - July
11. S. F. - July
12. K. A. - August
13. S. B. - August
14. C. E. - September
15. J. C. - September
16. E. G. - September
17. Me - September

Crazy, huh? Am I missing anyone?

Update:
Born Already

9. V. P. - January

10. A. K. - February (TWINS!)

Still to Come
18. S. B. - April
19. S. H. - July
20. D. C. - August
21. S. S. - August
22. S. G.'s wife - September
23. K. Y. - September
24. A. C. - September
25. L. B. - October
26. Parliament Park Lady - November

We Heard the Heartbeat

We went to the doctor again yesterday. Mark went with me (because he's so amazing).

Last month when we went to the ultrasound, we saw the heartbeat and saw the monitor record the rate. But, we didn't hear it. The heart rate was in the 140s--perfectly normal.

Yesterday when we went to the doctor, we heard the heartbeat. It was awesome. Mark told me last night that it was "encouraging." I think that's a good description. It made both of us very happy, grateful, and humbled. The heart rate was in the 150s--perfectly normal.

All is well!

Favorite Countdown Widgets

These are the widgets that I like most. You may think I'm a dweeb, but we're going to have two of these on the sidebars--one so we can see how many weeks along I am and the other so we can see the animation (change in baby size and shape).






Pregnancy Tickers from WiddlyTinks.com

We Are Expecting a Baby

We didn’t believe the first one. So, I took a second one the next morning. Both said YES!

I was having some weird bleeding, so I went to the doctor at seven weeks. He ordered an ultrasound. That’s where this picture of The Bean comes from.

I’m now almost 11 weeks. The Bean is due around September 22. One of the first things Mark said was, “I don’t want to share my birthday!” Silly man. Most likely, this kid will be here before his birthday, so they won’t have to share.

We’re both really, really excited. Mark says he already knows the sex of the baby. I don’t. And, frankly, I’d be happy with a boy or a girl.

Oh yah, and I’ve been a little shocked when a few of you have so easily jumped to the conclusion we’re expecting. I find humor in it too, don’t worry.

Luckily, I haven’t experienced morning sickness. The closest I’ve come is feeling a little queasy a few nights before going to bed. I’ve solved it by having something to eat. I have been extremely tired, extremely hungry and thirsty, and strangely cold.

I'm the second counselor in our Young Women's leadership. The first counselor is pregnant too. She's due about a month and a half before me. It'll sure make for an exciting summer with girl's camp and youth conference if the president and/or the secretary get pregnant too.