14 Weeks

I love/hate being pregnant! When yet again I feel disgusted by the sight of all food known to man I hate it.  When I see my little bump growing, I love it.  If that sounds a little bit hormonal, it probably is.

But the good news is that my nausea and tiredness are both abating to the point where I feel like getting ready enough to take a decent picture and then blog about it! Oh my, it has been a long time since I have felt normal, so I am really excited to be in the second trimester.

But pregnancy so far hasn't been too awful.  Most of the time.  I have only thrown up twice but I have just felt really nauseated for the past three months.  But that is a lot better than some people have it, so I try to think about that a lot and count my blessings.

So I have only had two appointments so far, and each one has been at a different doctor's office and I have to say I only recommend one of them.  If anyone needs a gynecologist I recommend Valley OB/GYN.  It is a group practice, but I am totally fine with that.  Anyway, it is awesome because at the most recent appointment, we got to hear the baby's heartbeat.  It was the funnest thing I have ever done in my life!

It took a little while for the doctor to find the heartbeat, which made Brad really nervous, but the doctor found it and it was so loud and fast! It was amazing! We loved it so much! As soon as he took the Doppler thing off my belly I immediately wanted to hear it again.  We are totally going to try to listen to the heartbeat with a stethoscope later on on our own.  I'm so excited!


The other good news is that I got maternity clothes! I am still transitioning into them.  The maternity pants don't stay up super well, but when I safety pin my normal pants and then accidentally pop the safety pin open, they don't stay up super will either.  But my appetite is finally kicking in so I am assuming that my belly is going to get bigger very soon and help keep the maternity pants up! Woohoo!

Redemption

Brandon Flowers (lead singer of 'The Killers") is a Mormon and he has a video on mormon.org.  You can watch it here.

I found this to be very interesting, so I of course Wiki'ed him.  Even as a Mormon, I find it fascinating that a rock star is a Mormon.  And I always love it when people who are famous are Mormon.  It makes us seem more normal.  Which is good, because I really don't think we are that weird.  But this story reminded me of a theme in life that I absolutely love - redemption.  Stories of people overcoming are just the best.

The twenty minutes I spent reading up on Brandon Flowers on the internet made it clear that he has had his share of struggles living exactly what he believes all the time.  But "there is still a fire burning" for him in regards to Mormonism. And the fact that he acknowledges both his mistakes and his testimony is the winning combination that will lead to repentance and more happiness as his actions better align with what he really wants in life.

I love this. I love that we all have the ability to choose and to change. I love that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a church for sinners.  I think that when we are truly trying our best, we are in a state of triumph.

Clearly, Mormons aren't the only ones who triumph over their problems.  Which brings me to one of my all time favorite movies, "Walk the Line" which is about Johnny Cash. I have also read about him on Wikipedia.  And it is true that Johnny Cash was definitely not a perfect person.  In fact he did some pretty terrible things.  But he decided to change, and he never stopped fighting to become better.  I am sure it was really wearying for him that he had to keep checking himself into rehab for his addiction to amphetamines, but the point is that he kept doing it over and over. 

There is a guy in our ward that just got re-baptized into the church, and I loved hearing his story as well.  It was painful to hear about because he clearly had to go through a lot of pain to admit his mistakes and change who he was, but the result made me so excited for him! His future is so bright.

I just think that there is really nothing more noble than changing yourself for the better.  And I think that there is nothing to be more grateful for than our Savior and Redeemer who gives us enabling power to do what we wouldn't be able to on our own, after we have done all that we can do. I hope that I can be the type of person who never gives up on making changes for the better.

Guess Who?

We are way excited!!

Mr. Handyman

Girls like guys with skills.

I like this guy because he has major skills.

The skill most crucial to getting our car fixed for the lowest price possible was his "I must conquer every challenge" mindset. And I am pretty sure that 100% of the time he conquers anything he sets his mind to.  I am so proud of him!

So the side mirror got hit by another car, and torn off, and Brad bought the part online and fixed it all by himself.  It was awesome and saved so much money.  Good job honey!

My Husband My Hero

Brad and I went to Newport Beach with my family this past weekend and it was awesome!  We had so much fun hanging out with everyone, laughing at Eli and his adorable antics, and playing at the beach every day.  

Maybe a little too much excitement happened at the beach on our second day though - we were all pretty much done with the beach for the day so Brad and I went back in the waves to rinse the sand out of our swimsuits.  While we were doing that we got a little distracted when Brad was teaching me how to dive through the big waves.  So without noticing it we got pretty far out there as we were trying to find bigger waves to dive through.  Soon I couldn't touch the bottom any more, and big waves kept coming one right after the other.  Pretty quickly, I was feeling panicky because I couldn't get enough air.  Lets be honest even though it’s dramatic  - I felt like I was drowning.

This is where Brad’s heroics come in.  He was able to keep track of me in the waves and started coaching me to either jump/swim to try and go over the wave or to duck under it and hold our breath.  After a little while, I was literally just hanging on him and trying to use his height to get some air.  As we were drowning, several thoughts ran through my head.  First, I wished that I had enough breath in my body to yell for help from the lifeguards.  Second, I thought, “Oh my gosh, Brad and I are going to die here together right now.”  But Brad kept me above water and calm enough that I wasn’t choking/swallowing any sea water and he kept us from being pulled out even deeper.  So when I finally saw an opportunity in the waves to get to shore, we raced for it.  My muscles were burning so bad because of lack of oxygen, but we made it.

Two lifeguards met us with their little buoys in hand at the edge of the water.  They apparently had been on their way to get us.  I was so ridiculously dizzy at this point.  They told us to sit down for a while, and if my dizziness didn’t stop we were supposed to let them know so they could have a medical person check on me.  But after five minutes or so of lying on the beach I got my breath back.  The lifeguards also explained that we were in a riptide and we should have swum parallel to the beach to exit it instead of trying to fight forward.  I didn’t know that, and in the panic of the moment Brad forgot. 

I quickly started feeling guilty because I clearly had been contributing to Brad’s drowning instead of helping him like he was helping me. But also I was so glad that Brad was with me during this little adventure.  I am almost glad that this happened because is not everyday that the love of your life saves your life, and it made me love Brad even more.  He was so selfless during the entire episode, thinking of me the whole time and doing whatever he could to help me - it was so sweet!  I am so grateful for my tall, strong man and this experience reinforces my desire to have him with me at all times! He's my hero! :)

Sunday Blues

Do you know what the best remedy ever is for the Sunday blues? (Sunday Blues: the depression you feel when you know that the weekend is drawing to a close and you have to go back to work after a truly awesome weekend.)

The cure is Galaxy Quest.

This is seriously the most underrated movie, and also one of the funniest movies ever.  Brad and I quote it constantly. The characters are hilarious and so is the plot.  I highly recommend it because it is funny the first and 50th time watching.  Check out the link on Rotten Tomatoes where it scored 89%.

Some of the things that made our weekend so awesome include: a dinner birthday party for my aunt at Porcupine Grill (such good food), a farewell party for Lene (we LOVE you!), breakfast with Brad's friend Aaron, the Provo Farmer's Market (yay for fresh produce AND cute earrings), 7 Peaks (yay for the pass of all passes), our awesome and amusing Nursery class, and a fabulous Sunday dinner of Pioneer Woman's Pasta with Pesto Cream Sauce using our homegrown basil!

You can see why I have good reason to mourn the conclusion of such a weekend.

The only down side was that our tire blew out on the freeway on our way back from SLC.  But it was all good, we survived it without a scratch which is all that matters.  It was definitely an adventure though.  Standing six feet away from cars flying past you at 70 mph is slightly nerve wracking I must say.

Anyways, watch Galaxy Quest! "By Gripthor's hammer, you will be avenged!"

My Favorite Book

Check it out...

http://mormon.org/book-of-mormon?cid=bom-email