Pregnancy Updates!

I went for another doctor's appointment on Tuesday! Oh, the joys. I found out I have a UTI and am now on antibiotics. Also my doctor said I gained 8 pounds in two weeks, but not to worry since it's all probably from my water retention since I look like a balloon now. And...my measurements from two weeks ago jumped up more than normal, cuz my belly's so big, so she has ordered an ultrasound for next week!!! She wants to check out how big my boy is and if how much fluid I have in there as well. So I could be having a 12 pound boy!!!! So we get a sneak peak on how big he really is....very scary. She said it could be that he's measuring big becuz he hasn't dropped very much yet so we'll see! But I've been trying to walk around more, but I need to keep my feet up so they don't swell so much and if I walk too much my insides just ache anyway so it's no good! And my left foot is twice the size of my right foot, which is still really big! I can't wait til he's born!!!!!

And Monday Archie slept wrong on his back or hit a pothole that was too big becuz when he woke up his upper back was in excruciating pain. So we're both pretty out of commission right now! But we're keeping the faith, keeping the postivism of life!! HAR HAR!!!

25 Random Things About Me

I was tagged to list these! So here you go and enjoy or not!! hee hee!

1. I have two wonderful kitties named Frodo and Wolfgang. Wolfgang has six toes on three of his paws and a big thumb on the other! He's our mutant kitty. Since Frodo was weaned too early as a kitten he still loves to suck on my arm sine I'm his momma!

2. My most awesome and amazing husband cries in movies more than I do! I love not being the biggest boob in the family when it comes to hallmark commercials!

3. I served a mission for my church to the Canary Islands, which are apart of Spain, but located off the coast of Morocco in Africa, where I learned to speak a bit of Spanish!

4. I graduated from Portland State University in Portland, OR in 2007 with two Bachelor's degrees in Spanish and Applied Linguistics. I love learning anything and everything about language and how we use it! Though, I'm not really great at learning other languages....

5. I love to watch movies. Archie and I are up to about 430 DVDs in our collection, including TV on DVD!

6. I'm studying to be a medical transcriptionist so I can stay at home and work and be a mommy as well! I now know where my metacarpals are as opposed to my metatarsals!

7. I have two relatives in the "bighouse", but they should not be in there!

8. I love to digital scrapbook since it's a bit cheaper than regular scrapbooking, but I can't sit for very long right now since I swell to whale size due to being huge and preggo! So I'll get back to it soon!

9. I love to read! I could start my own mini library if I wanted to! My favoritest book is "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Bronte. Good reading. I love fantasy books, mysteries, John Grisham's older lawyer books like "Pelican Brief" and "The Firm," of course "Harry Potter," and I actually enjoy textbooks relating to what I graduated in Spanish and linguistics! I'm a nerd!

10. I also love to play computer games and console games. I also have a bit of an itch at times for role playing games with my hubby. My faves on the Xbox 360 are Rock Band and Guitar Heroes!!! Plus Karaoke.

11. I love to sing, thus the karaoke! Though, I'm not the best singer, I still enjoy it!

12. I played the flute in junior high, but gave it up in high school since I just didn't want to study the whole idea of music theory! It was math all over again!

13. I had a very short career as an actress back in ninth grade! I was the innkeeper in the play "The Pied Piper of Hamlin."

14. Spent a month in Guatemala for school! It was an amazing experience!

15. Held a job where they paid me to watch and transcribe the news!

16. I hate peas when they are steamed or cooked out of a can. Still in the pod in a salad or stir fried not too shabby, though.

17. I love anything and everything to do with peanut butter! And if it has chocolate as well so much the better! I go through a jar of peanut butter in about a month!

18. Lived in one house for seventeen years! And I think it was slightly haunted...my bro. Roger can tell you more!

19. I'm also a published author...two of my poems in fifth grade were published in the school newsletter!!!!! WOOT WOOT!!!

20. Starred in my bro's home made Star Trek movie where I was cast as Deanna Toi! Good Times.

21. My waist is over 47 inches at almost 37 weeks of pregnancy!

22. Even though I'm a woman I have never been baby hungry nor am I now that I'm about to have one! Crazy! Just getting prepared to me a mom and that's that!

23. I hate to cook unless it's something really simple and yummy like muffins from a box. And I don't sew to save my life. If something needs mending it's Archie I run to! He's borrowing my mom's sewing machine to he can make our couch a covering!

24. Am not very glamorous, only wear makeup on rare special occasions and even then it's pretty mild. I take 5 min to 10 min in the shower and hardly ever blow dry my hair or use any styling products! I'm a wash and go girl! And the highest heeled shoes I've ever worn were 3 cm off the ground!

25. I love to play sports! Basketball is my favorite followed by volleyball and softball. I love the Utah Jazz. And walking and doing aerobics (along with sports) are my favorite ways to stay in shape (when I'm not pregnant, that is).

Here was plenty of random and boring things about me!

Baby Showers!

I had my last baby shower today! I had my family one two weeks ago and my friend one today! They were both so great. Archie and I got a lot of nice things for baby Gabriel and are so thankful to everyone who came to support us as well as those who wished they could make and couldn't! I thought I would throw in a couple of pics of the exciting events! Hope everyone can enjoy!

Me, opening a gift!
My sister Cheryl, cousin Kareena, Sis in law Cristi, Aunt Christa
Cousins Becky and Trisha
Fun gifts!!!!
My friends Jeanene, Annie, and Jan!
My friends Renae, Amanda, Rachael, and Ruth!
Gabe really needs to come out now!
Here's Sarah, who threw the friend shower, sitting on the chair!

I just want to shout out a big thanks to my sister DeAnn, my mother, and Sarah who took the time to help me out with the showers! You are the best! They were so fun and it was great to see everyone again! Lots of love to you all!

Countdown...

Well, I realized that I haven't put up my ultrasound pics of little Gabriel on my blog so I'm doing that now. I will share with the world what a cute little guy he's going to be!!! Hee hee! (Even if he's not, we'll still take him)!!

He's definitely our little boy!

Here's his chicken leg!
Profile shot!
Cute little face!
His hands and arms
He's clapping!

We now have, at the most, 4 1/2 weeks left. If he doesn't come by February 21st then I'm going to be induced on that day! So I can finally see an end in sight when I will get my body back!! Yeah! And we get to finally meet him!

Guatemala Trip

I thought I would add a few things into my blog about what I have done instead of what I am doing (since I just started blogging a couple of months ago). I went to Guatemala for the month of July in 2006 for school. We went there to help the schools of the indigenous populations there. We went to the area of Panajachel and installed computers and repainted their buildings and helped out with activities and teaching supplies as well. We all stayed with host families in town and then in the mornings we traveled up to the schools, which took about an hour since they were up in the mountains. The kids were great! It was such an awesome experience to be there. The government doesn't spend a lot of money, if any, on the indigenous population out there, so they have to get donations where they can. In the area we were at they spoke Kaqchikel and K'iche as their first languages and starting to learn Spanish as their second. So the lingua franca was Spanish when we were with the kids.

I lived up the street from this pic

This is one of their natural resources Lake Champey

It's beautiful with the flower!

One of the students!

We also were able to go on some field trips while there to different historical sites, which was also very exciting. Guatemala has beautiful country!

What the native dress looks like

Some of us girls on the trip

The lake around Panajachel!

Some more of us on a rainy day driving up to the schools!

It was great to be able to speak Spanish again on a regular basis since I got home from my mission to the Canary Islands. I got to meet new people and enjoy their culture and history and add that to my growing knowledge of the world. It's an experience that I'll never forget! So I hope you enjoy these photos of Guatemala and the experiences that they share! (disclaimer: these photos are not all taken by me, but by various students on the trip. So please do not use them without written permission from me! Thanks)

Some more beautiful pics

Me with the local teachers and teachers and students from PSU

Saturday Night Fun

OK, it wasn't really fun. I've been having some contractions at night over the last week or so and some cramping that has been really uncomfortable and painful. And last night it got progressively worse so off to the hospital we went at 1:30 in the morning or night, whichever. They monitored me and Gabe for about an hour and checked my cervix. Basically, they said that some women just get these kinds of contractions the last few weeks of their pregnancy that slowly move along the cervix, which means I'll probably have my baby early. I'm at a 2 right now. They said that most first-time moms don't get that "lucky," since they usually go late. So they filled me with some pain meds and told me to check with my doctor on Tuesday to see what else I can do to help with the horrible cramping accompanied by contractions. So I have lots of these fun nights to look forward to. And I'm officially at the point where if I do go into labor then they won't stop it! But, man, if I'm dying with these contractions and cramps now....I don't even want to think about actual labor ones....I'll be calling labor and delivery early to tell them to get the epidural and drugs ready for when I get there! I hate the pain!!!!!!!!!!! So I finally got to sleep by 4:30 this morning! What fun Saturday nights we have!!!!!!

Being Pregnant

Wow! Can I just say that being pregnant is really hard?? I think so...I have about six weeks to go and I'm miserable! I got a sinus infection a few weeks ago and had to go on antibiotics and then a week later I got a viral infection as well. So I have been out of commission for about two weeks now and to top that off I've been having contractions that are keeping me awake more than usual at night. It's crazy. Me and the sofa are now new friends, since I spend most of my waking days there and now Archie can no longer sleep by my side at night; I keep him up with my every hour pee runs and my tossing and turning and complaints at night! So he and the sofa are lovely friends at night. One advantage is I don't feel so guilty about peeing and keeping him up and another is my kitties now seem to think that only one person in the bed leaves room for them to sleep in it now! So I get my cute kitties at night. I'm also measuring about two centimeters above normal so I fear little Gabe isn't so little. He's so big now I can actually start making out his foot or elbow when he starts moving around! I also never imagined I would be so immobile while pregnant. I saw women waddling around at about 7+ months, but I never actually thought it would happen to me. Since I'm so short Gabriel only has one way to grow and that is out. He is putting a lot of pressure on all my joints, especially the pelvic bone. So doing anything really hurts and is comfortable, thus immobile and I waddle! And I have panic attacks about whether he's doing all right or whether labor and delivery will go well and all the crazy things that could happen run rampant through my brain. OK, so enough complaining. Archie gets plenty of it from me on a daily basis! Oh, the joys.....only six weeks to go.....

I thought I'd add these pics too of my computer kitty!

Frodo loves to stay warm on the monitor.

My husband, The Tailor

Archie has been very adamant about learning new skills and hobbies. His recent acquisition is that of sewing! He has borrowed my mother's sewing machine and he has it in our room. My mother came up Friday to show him how to use it!

He's so excited!!

Here he actually starts using it!!

He definitely is the domestic in our household. If I have a button that needs mending he's the one who sews it back on! His project right now is making a cover for our couch since the kitties back claws sometimes get caught on it. So he's practicing with some basics for right now as he continues to acquire this new skill! I don't think he'll get into the making clothes scene, but just a few odds and ends. Maybe I'll get him his own sewing machine for Christmas this year!!

2008 Survey

I saw this on Jeanene's blog so I thought I would answer the same questions for fun! So I hope she doesn't mind!!

1. What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before?
Got pregnant.

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Nope. I gained a lot more weight, but that was because of being pregnant!

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
My sister-in-law Sarah

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No.

5. What countries did you visit?
Just the states! One day I may get back out there in that world!

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
A more stable money situation. A job as a medical transcriptionist. To not be pregnant for over six months of one year!

7. What dates from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
The day I found out I was pregnant at the doctor's office, when I quit ebay and started up Career Step, the day we found out we were having a baby boy.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Getting pregnant, starting school at Career Step, working for a whole year at a full-time job.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Not getting as much as I wanted done with school, not saving as much money as I should've.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Sinus infections, colds, back pain, you know that works!

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Stuff for the baby.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Archie's, lots of friends and family.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
I'd rather not talk about it.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Food, baby, DVDs

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Hmmmm....quitting eBay! I'm still in trepidation about the baby...

16. What song will always remind you of 2008?
Jason Mraz' song

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder?
more stressed out!
b) richer or poorer?
Poorer

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Worked harder to save money and get more done in school.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
probably eating!

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
We went to friends' house Sarah and Matt's it was fun!

21. Did you fall in love in 2008?
Already was!

22. What was your favorite TV program?
Bones, Fringe, Medium

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
No.

25. What was the best book you read?
Atonement

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Didn't have one.

27. What did you want and get?
A new/used computer for us! Oh, and getting pregnant....

28. What did you want and not get?
More money

29. What was your favorite film of this year?
Walle and Kung Fu Panda

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I had a fever/sinus infection, went hiking to Timp cave and ate at the Cheesecake factory with Archie.

31.What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Having a back yard!

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
Whatever is comfy.

33. What kept you sane?
My hubby Archie and my kitties Wolfy and Frodo!

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Tina Fey as Sarah Palin!! Some good laughs!

35. What political issue stirred you the most?
Presidential election.

36. Who did you miss?
The Frey's, Catie, Ruth

37. Who was the best new person you met in 2008?
Jeanene!!! She's my MT buddy and super talented and sweet!

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008:
Being pregnant is hard and thus being a parent will be even harder.

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
If only you believe in yourself, I know you can achieve...you won't be scared!