weekend in PC.

so like i mentioned in a previous post, we spent last weekend up in park city with jae's family.
all of his family came into town and we threw a surprise bday party/weekend for his dad's 60th birthday.

his dad (george), stepmom, and brother got here friday evening and stayed at our house. saturday we met everyone up at jordanelle reservoir for a day of boating. by late afternoon, it started to get really windy and dark and a storm looked like it was rolling in, so we hurried and packed up and headed out (while george was still out on the boat, so when he got back, we were all gone - we pretended we were all just heading back home, but really we were waiting back at the condo we had rented for the weekend to surprise him). saturday night we fooled george with some made up story about needing to stop at a friends condo to grab something and that's where we all were waiting with a big 'surprise!' and a delicious dinner of grilled salmon, shrimp, and chicken. he was definitely shocked and confused, and even got a little teary-eyed when he realized what was going on. plan worked!

a lot of us stayed overnight saturday night, and we kind of came and went as we needed to with our schedules, but we all met back up at the condo by sunday afternoon. some of us took rides up the gondola (we stayed at the canyons resort) and spent time at a little hidden lake up there. some went swimming at the condo, some took naps. our resident professional photographer (jae's brother jaron) took some pictures of all of us together. just a really chill day. then sunday night we had another yummy dinner of chicken tacos and just hung out. we had to go back home that night for work on monday morning, but some stayed to swim and sleep overnight.

of course, when it comes to family events, you can't always get away without a little family drama, but all in all, it was a good, fun weekend with everyone.

and did i mention the weather was so much cooler (like upper 70's and overcast) and so nice??!
because it was.

 

attack of the giant baby mama.

oh yuck.
so let me just tell you what happened last night....
(i'm sure most of you will not care one bit but it was dramatic for me so i'm writing it so i can remember this terrible experience.)

so i took zoey out to go to the bathroom once more before bed last night. it was dark already, so as we were walking back inside there wasn't much light (just one lamp on in the living room). i looked down as zoey walked in the house in front of me and saw a ginormous spider crawl in real quick and under the door. i thought about trying to kinda escort it back outside, but was afraid it would run off into the house more and i'd lose it and then where would we be. so instead, i closed the door and grabbed one of jae's flip flops while never taking my eye off of it.

i should mention - it was on our rug, which is black so it was difficult to keep track of cuz it just blended in.

anyway, zoey had seen it, too, but i told her to stay back! she knew something was up, so she just sat back and watched me. i noticed it had a big black something on the back end of it. we have had a lot of these huge spiders in and around our house lately, and i recognized it as being the same spider, except for this big extra something on the back of it. i was confused and only slightly terrified, but i have killed them before and knew i just had to do it!

so, with flip flop in hand, i smashed it! i noticed immediately something kind of flew off the back end of the spider, and then the spider took off running forward. what the??! so i hurried and smashed it again and got it. then i went back to inspect whatever came off the first time i smashed it. after seeing a few little tiny things running around, i quickly realized it was a big huge MAMA SPIDER WITH A HUNDRED TINY BABY SPIDERS ATTACHED TO HER.

you guys.
UGGHHHHHHHH!

i went to grab some tissues and the garbage can and told zoey to stay! don't want her messin with no gross baby spiders. i came back and cleaned them up and tried to smash any of the tiny little buggers i could find. but there were A LOT and even though i did kill most of them with the first hit, a bunch got away, i'm sure. trust me, i did not realize this was a sack of babies or else i would've come up with some other plan of attack.

i hurried and called jae (who was at work) and told him all about it and how creeped out i was.
just writing this out right now is grossing me out and making me itch again.

hundreds of tiny tiny babies. seriously, it probably doesn't look like much, but i promise they were so little, and there were so many of them.

here, a little closer....

i'm sure you can imagine how nice and easy and pleasantly i was able to fall asleep after that....

8 things on a monday.

Zo and i are feeling the same way about today - 'please don't make me get up.'

.1. whether it be because it's almost fall or because i'm feeling overly large lately and just want to feel 'normal size' again, i have been super de-duper craving wearing a nice pair of slimming, comfy-fit jeans lately. i just want to wear some jeans ok??

.2. Jae's dad, stepmom, and half brother flew into town for a quick visit this past weekend, and his brother and family drove down from washington too. we threw a little surprise 60th birthday party for his dad and rented a place in park city for the occasion (they did spend one night at our house, though, so we had a full house for sure!). he was definitely in shock - the surprise worked out well.

.3. family time is great, but family time is also exhausting.

.4. the cooler, overcast weather up in park city was AMAZING. there was enough sun time saturday morning/afternoon to get some boating time in at jordanelle, but then later afternoon the storm clouds were rolling in and we made it back to the condo without getting rained on. it was so cool - 70's most the time and just lovely. i would appreciate that same weather for the next month please.

.5. i find when i don't get my nap time at least once over a weekend, i am very grumpy. lack of sleep in general makes me grumpy, but i believe saturday and/or sunday afternoons are meant for napping and relaxing so when the weekends are too busy to fit one in....let's just say i try to keep my mouth shut so i don't snap at people.

.6. we got new windows installed in our house this past week. although the whole process in general has been less than satisfactory (perhaps i'll blog about that later...i'm still too annoyed about it at the moment), the new windows are nice and look so much better and you can definitely tell a difference in outside sound coming in.

.7. i'm wearing a scarf today (i wore one for part of yesterday too), trying to lure fall weather in. think it'll work?

.8. bending over hurts. that's all.

pregnancy thoughts {pt. 6}

*today i am 33 weeks! 7 more weeks. it seems so close but so far away all at the same time.

*i feel like i've been having some braxton hicks contractions on and off for the last week or two. not a lot, just every once in a while i'll notice the tightening and even some pain sometimes. it's exciting and scary.

*i finally bought my second official maternity shirt haha. i bought some other shirts (non maternity) in bigger sizes too, since my belly is so sticky-outy these days, but i'm starting to realize that plan doesn't work so well because while they fit over my belly, they just look huge on me everywhere else. and it's not a great look! i just hate that even when you find 'cheap' maternity shirts, they're still $5-$10 more than regular shirts just because they're maternity shirts and they can be. dumb.

*i went to the doctor last week and she looked at me and said "are you sure there aren't twins in there??". ugh. my doctor isn't supposed to tell me that! geez louis. i am measuring right on still (i was sort of hoping i was measuring like 2 weeks ahead...dang). she said i just have a shorter torso so baby girl is just all out front. i kinda feel like the skin over my ribs is gonna break in half. you can see the very top of my ribs through my skin - the skin is just pulled so tight!

*i'm feeling pretty good, i guess. considering i'm 33 weeks pregnant. i had a bad week a couple weeks ago where i was just sick and nauseous and threw up and yuck. but it only really lasted that one week and i've felt ok again since then. not sure what that was about. just an official welcome to third trimester, maybe?

*speaking of third trimester - I AM TIRED! it feels like first trimester all over again with the tiredness and lack of energy. except 10 times worse. i do a few things and then i'm so tired and have to sit for a few minutes and catch my breath again. kind of ridiculous.

*she is a MOVER! we're talking kick boxing, synchronized swimming, crazy drum playing MOVER. which is good and i love it, but sometimes it's just like my goodness, child, take a chill pill! like, for example, at 4 in the morning last night/this morning....it makes me smile but at the same time i just really wanted to go back to sleep haha.

*at my19ish week appt/ultrasound, she was breech. the last couple appts my doctor is feeling around and thinks she's turned and is head down now. i feel like that's probably the case, just judging where her kicks are coming from. so hopefully she really is and hopefully she stays put!

*my belly has DROPPED. she is sitting so much lower the last 2 weeks or so than before. my clothes fit different (there's just no room for pants, i tell you), my belly physically looks lower, and i swear sometimes her hand or whatever it is must be centimeters away from sticking right out of me. yes, she feels that low.

*i'm pretty excited for the thought of fall coming up and the fact that we're just about into september. (hallelujah!!!). this hot weather has been bearable most all summer, but these last few weeks have just been killer. plus, september means a couple fun baby showers and a couple birthing classes that i'm super excited about! it also means one last full month of baby prep time. eek!!

*all things considered, i'm doing pretty good and just glad she's still cookin and growing and getting ready to come out and meet us :) i'm kind of dying to meet her.

husbands top chick flicks.

my friend torrie did a post a few days ago with her top 5 favorite chick flicks ever.  jae read her post and was inspired to make a list of his own. a mix of that inspiration and my lack of inspiration when it comes to blogging lately, jae told me I better blog about them! (thanks, love!).

when jae made his list, though, he had up to about 16 movies written down. he wasn't ready to narrow that all the way to just 5, so he narrowed it to 10 instead. so without further ado....

JAE'S TOP 10 BEST CHICK FLICKS

10. 50 First Dates

9. 10 Things I Hate About You

8. Jerry Maguire

7. Pride & Prejudice

6. Pretty Woman

5. Far and Away

4. The Notebook

3. The Girl Next Door

2. The Princess Bride

1. Meet Joe Black

i must admit, i was pleasantly surprised with some of his picks. of course, on the other hand, some of his other picks i've never even seen (and some might be more comedy or at least romantic comedy, but i guess romantic comedy's can be considered chick flicks too?). but i'd say it's a pretty good list! there are some real good ones on here, yes? i haven't gotten around to making my list yet, but when i do, i'll be sure to post it.

thanks jae!

miss zoey.

I don't really know where to start nor am I really in the mood to tell the whole story right now, so I'll just tell you this - zoey has been in the vet hospital for over 24 hours now. She is doing ok, it's nothing super serious. She's just been sick and we're trying to figure out exactly what's wrong and get her feeling better.

We left her there yesterday afternoon and I held it together while we were there but as soon as we got to the car, I lost it. I cried the whole way home.

These last 24 hours have been the longest and worst 24 hours ever. I know what some of you are thinking - she's just a dog. Well if you aren't dog people then i guess you wouldn't understand. And that's fine. I just miss her terribly and want to see her and bring her home. Hopefully today is the day.

I mean, look at that sad, scared face we had to leave :(

***since writing this post but before I had a chance to post it, I finally got a phone call from the vet and she is doing well enough to come home. HALLELUJAH. we just picked her up, brought her home, and gave her a bath. she has perked up a lot since being home and we are so happy she's ok and she's back home with us.

tbt: first kiss

for those that don't read the life of bon, she does a throwback thursday post each week with a new topic assigned to each week. this week is first kiss!

i don't usually write stuff about my past on here, but i guess why not? it's supposed to be a record of me and my life (and jae's life and zoey's life...). i'm not very good with remembering specific details like others are (i wish i was!). maybe that's why i don't write more often about the past? especially at this time in my life called "i'm pregnant and lost half my brain cells", who knows how good my memory will serve me, but we'll see how it goes.

my first kiss was when i was about 13(ish. torrie & kayla - is that how old we were?). i guess if you want to get technical, my neighbor and good buddy jordan and i used to touch tongues through the fences separating our backyards when we were like 5. yes, you heard me right - touch tongues. weird right? not sure why or how or what inspired us to do that. but we did. not really kissing though, plus we were 5. doesn't count. and then there was the time my buddy brian and i kissed because "we were in a movie and we had to kiss for the movie". but again - when you're under the age of 12, does it really count as a real first kiss?

i think not.

so back to the age of 13. his name was also brian. imagine that. he happened to be the cousin of one of my best friends, and he lived in texas, so we only saw him during the summers when he'd come to visit for a couple weeks.

{the oldest picture i could find at the moment....high school graduation - me, rach, torrie, kayla}

anyway brian didn't actually like me. he liked our other friend, torrie. i knew this and torrie knew this and everyone else knew this. he flirted and tried to win torrie over, but she wasn't having any of it. not interested. i don't know if i really liked brian or if i made myself think i liked him and want to win him over just because i knew he was way into torrie and not me, but it's all the same in the end, i guess.

so when brian realized it wasn't going anywhere with torrie, he decided i was an alright second option, and "liked" me. again - who knows if he really liked me or not (i'm leaning towards not), but it didn't matter to me at the time, anyway. i remember one 24th of july specifically, we had all gone up to the park at st. olaf's (if you don't know bountiful, utah, then i'm sorry, you won't know these places. but just go with it) to watch the mueller park jr high fireworks. it was dark and we were waiting for them to start, and brian had drawn in the sand a giant heart with what i think was a B+M in it (i think...again - my memory is fuzzy). i vividly remember the heart, though, and i remember getting all twitterpated and blushing and thinking 'yay, he likes me!!'.

there was some hand holding and awkward arm-around-shoulder cuddling that went on and i was just loving it. then one night, we were walking around the elementary school just down the street from our houses. again, it was evening time and getting dark outside, and torrie and kayla were there, but took off on their own to give us some 'alone time'. {oh my, this is so ridiculous just remembering it.} we walked around holding hands, talking about who knows what, and finally decided to sit on the back steps of the school. we talked some more, and i vaguely remember i thought torrie and kayla were over to the side, hiding in the shadows of the trees. so there we sat, on the steps of the school just chit chatting. i don't remember details of what was said. probably a little of 'i like you' and 'i like you too' mush. and finally he went in for a kiss. honestly i don't remember many details except it was weird and i didn't know what i was doing really but i could tell he didn't either. it didn't last long. i was a little unsure about the kiss, but i was happy and excited about this boy and that we 'liked' each other.

that little relationship was (very) short lived. he went back home to texas and nothing else ever happened. i think the next summers when he came to visit were awkward and neither of us really wanted much to do with each other. i think in the back of my mind, i knew he never really liked me, he really just liked torrie. i was the second choice. and he just wanted to kiss someone.

and that was that.
not the most exciting first kiss story, but there ya go. first kisses and junior high and relationships when you're that young are just weird and awkward and meant to be that way, right?
good times.

selfies.

i don't know what came over me, but i guess i was just so excited that 

one - i did something with my hair today other than throw it up in a bun and 

two - i don't feel so sick and can (mostly) eat like a normal person!

so yes, as embarrassing as it may be, and as much crap as i may or may not get for doing this and providing proof that i did it....i did a little photo shoot. of myself. in the bathroom at work.

ain't no thang.

 PS: my shirts don't fit my belly so much anymore. granted, 99% of them are non-maternity that i've just been 'making work' up until now. but they don't so much 'work' anymore.

and i'll tell you what - belly shirts on a pregnant chick are not a good thing.

PPS: i confess - i'm not actually 32 weeks. i'm a couple days shy. wishful thinking, i guess.

PPPS: you guys. my belly is HUGE. how am i supposed to fit 8 more weeks in there?

our weekend.

weekends always go too fast, don't they?
even when i work extra during the week so i can have fridays off and make it a 3 day weekend, it's still not long enough somehow.

this past week has been yucky for me, as far as pregnancy goes. i've been feeling like i'm back in my first trimester, but even worse. so so tired all the time and sick to my stomach most all the time, too. zero.fun.sir. (name that movie?!)

so this weekend we still tried to sneak in some fun even though i was probably a less than desirable person to hang out with (sorry Jae! but you're the best!)

first stop: IKEA.

we picked up some awesome stuff, probably my favorite being this super cute little shelving unit/bookcase for baby girl's nursery :)

we also got some curtains for the nursery (even though Jae protested pink at first, he kinda just caved and we got pink. where else can you decorate with some pink and not get crap for it? duh), a few randoms for the kitchen, oh and these super fun canister thingies that i have no idea what we'll do with yet but we loved them and had to get them! (can't find a pic so i'll have to take one and post it later).


next stop: SCHEELS.
scheels opened a few months ago, but it's so far away and we've never had a real reason to go yet, so we had yet to make the stop. but this time, leaving IKEA, i knew Jae had really been wanting to go, and my stomach was ok for the moment, so i said sure, let's stop.

it is quite the place! not that i took any pictures of the awesome inside, of course (if you haven't been, think a store similar to cabella's, the size of a small mall just by itself, ginormous fish tanks, and a ferris wheel in the middle). it has everything from clothing to guns to paintballing stuff to shoes to sports stuff to a food court. Jae ended up with a handy dandy new knife. he was pretty pleased.

saturday morning started with breakfast!
i really want to try to make the most of these last few weeks just Jae and i before baby comes, so i make it a point to have husband take me out on a date every weekend. usually we go to dinner somewhere, but this time, i woke up saturday feeling half starved and suggested we do breakfast instead of dinner. so we did.

of course, a few bites into it, i was feeling pretty iffy again and had to stop eating. but what i did eat was good still, so it was ok.

and yes, Jae decided it would be so hilarious when he was shaving his face friday night (after much prodding and elbowing from his wife) to leave a bit of a 'stache. he purposely smiled like this to emphasize the mustache when i took this pic. don't worry - it only lasted a day.


saturday afternoon led to the usual - grocery shopping.
blech. one of my least favorite things. but this time, we stopped by the home decor section (smith's marketplace - gotta love that store!) and found their lamps were on sale plus they had a coupon for another 20% off. we've been looking for lamps for our night stands in our room for awhile now, and just never found any we liked enough to buy, or didn't want to spend the money at the time. but we found some we liked and with the sale, could hardly pass them up.

 

dinnertime: grilled burgers.
since we had gone out for breakfast, we decided for dinner to pull out some burgers and grill em up! (yes, i got about halfway through mine and again - the stomach. ugh! it was good up until then, though!)

sunday was just the usual - church, Jae had a couple meetings, nap time for pup and me, and family dinner at my parents. didn't take any pictures. it's nice to lay low with the cell phone on sundays. know what i mean?

hope you had a good weekend!

get-together that lasted all of 5 minutes.

last weekend, a few of my friends from high school (and before) got together while some out-of-towners were in town! mary was gracious enough to host (and in letting me steal a couple pictures...thanks mary!). but you know how these things work - it's so hard to find a day/time (especially in the summer) when everyone can be there. it just is! life is busy. so the night that worked best for everyone else in the group was the night we had plans with my family already. boo. but we were able to make a quick stop and say hello to everyone for a few minutes before meeting up with my family. it was fun to see faces that we only see maybe once a year and catch up real quick :)

newbies.

Jae and i finally switched back to verizon wireless after having crap at&t for 3.5 years. (he actually had it longer; i made the sacrifice and switched over when we got married. bad idea.)

anyway, we are back in the verizon saddle (i actually have service while at work, it's a christmas miracle!) and we got some new phones to prove it.

downside? i lost all my beloved pictures in the process.
upside? we were able to save all of jae's to a memory card.

i haven't gone through them yet and there are one's i need so i can post about some recent happenings, so hopefully that'll happen by....this weekend? sure.

anyway, i gots the iPhone 4S and jae got the Galaxy S4.
i think we're both pretty happy :)

so while we're busy playing around and getting to know our new phones (you all do that too, right? something new and exciting to mess with!), i'm sure i'll get back to blogging some day.

happy tuesday!

pregnancy thoughts {pt. 5}

*this pregnancy post will be a little different. Camille over on My Mommy Style is also pregnant and does this cute questionnaire thing as her pregnancy progresses, and i thought it'd be fun to steal the questions and post them myself.

{i do not enjoy any pictures of myself these days, but i'm forcing myself to post them for documenting purposes. and trying to keep a little perspective while i'm at it...ugh}

How far along? 30 weeks (!!!!!)
Maternity Clothes? heck yes. well, my pants/skirts/dresses are most all maternity. but i actually only have one true maternity shirt (and just others i bought a size {or two} up).
Sleep: meh. who needs sleep right? i'll never get "enough" sleep for the next xx years anyway. i do sleep, but i wake up every time i switch sides, or when i need to push pup out of the way, or of course - to use the little girls room. so yes, i sleep. but no, it's not great sleep. oh and yes - the heartburn has appeared recently. holy worst thing ever (so far).
Best moment this week: does getting some Zantac finally and not having heartburn last night count?? besides that, a couple of my nieces got to feel baby girl move around, and that was fun and sweet :)
Miss Anything? SLEEPING ON MY STOMACH.
Movement: it seems i mostly feel her around 9-10pm and then around 2am-ish. and then just sporadically during the day. she's getting big enough now we can just sit and watch my belly move rather than putting a hand up to my belly to feel her move. weird and awesome!
Food cravings: haven't really had any substantial cravings at all, ever. i seem to like salty things a lot, which is probably not great for my swelling feet and ankles, but i figure i drink tons of water to help balance it out. cutler's sandwiches and cookies sound really tasty basically every day of my life, so i guess that could count as a craving. i also eat a lot of peanut butter.
Anything making you queasy or sick? not really. my appetite feels like it's changing a bit again since i stopped feeling sick after my first trimester. and mixed with this heartburn starting up, it just makes me not want to eat at all sometimes. but it's not necessarily the food making me feel sick. hello pregnancy weirdness.
Have you started to show yet? uh....yeah. started that about week 13...
Gender: GIRL!!!!!! (although i'll be honest - i have anxiety about her coming out a 'he' sometimes. not because i wouldn't love having a boy, but just because everything is ready for a baby girl to come..).
Labor Signs: nothing yet, which is good. although sometimes i wonder if i'm feeling braxton hicks. but i don't think they really are.
Belly Button in or out? belly button is.....flat? i started with a pretty far in inney. it's been gradually making its way out for weeks now. it's not quite out yet, just kind of in a mostly flat, still partially in stage. it's one of the weirdest things about pregnancy to me.
Weddings rings on or off? unfortunately, as of about 2 weeks ago - off  :( they were just getting really tight and difficult to get on and off and i really didn't want them being stuck on my finger and my finger falling off. so jae graciously picked out a 'new' wedding ring for me and reinacted his original proposal haha. so i still have one on my finger, just not my real one. felt weird to just not have one at all.
Happy or Moody most of the time:ummm maybe this is a better question for my co-workers or Jae to answer haha. i think i'm still happy most the time. but i feel less and less comfortable as the days/weeks go by, so maybe more moody than say, last week? depends on how well i sleep the night before, i guess!
Looking forward to: september. i'll be 35+ weeks and it will be (better be) cooler than 90-100 degrees.

feeling more blessed and more humbled as each week passes. 

i am so excited to meet this little sweetheart.