Secret Friend

Over the past month or two, I have received two gifts with notes left at my work desk. We lock our office each night and it stays locked until my boss comes in at 7:30 a.m. the next morning, so whoever it is has to have keys to my office or is coming in right after I leave at 5:00 p.m. A few full-time people stay a little later, so the doors don't get locked for the night until 6:00 p.m.

So far I have gotten a primary hymn book and this morning I got a Twix. The handwriting is the same and the notes are written on pink sticky notes. I am pretty sure the handwriting is a girl's. The thing is, all of my friends that worked at BYU have moved away or no longer work here. I have absolutely no idea who is doing this. I have concluded that whoever it is doens't know me that well because they left a Twix candy bar and all my close friends know I don't eat candy. Still, I have never had a "secret friend" and it is kind of exciting!

Baby Birds

We currently like in BYU on-campus housing. Our neighbors put a decorative floral wreath on their door a couple months ago (when it started getting a little warm). The husband noticed that everytime he would come home, a bird would fly out of their stairwell. One day he happened to examine the wreath and saw it had a bird nest in it. Thinking it was simply part of the wreath, he pick up one of the eggs and pinched it. After the egg broke and yolk spilled out everywhere, he realized it was not originally part of the wreath, but that a bird had built its nest in the wreath hanging on their apartment door! Take note that this is the only door into their apartment, so everytime they want to leave, they have to bang on the door first and everytime they want to enter, they have to make loud noises so the bird knows to fly away.

A couple days later, they noticed the bird (a sparrow of some sort) had layed another egg to replace the smashed one. Then last week the eggs hatched! So now they have four little birdies chirping away on their front door. The only problem is they move in one month, so those babies had better learn to fly sometime soon, although I think they are not going to take their wreath with them for future use.

The Flu

So I am back at work again after an encounter with the flu. I had a major headache and a double whammy on the throwing up. All I have to say is never eat french fries WITH ketchup if you have an upset stomach. My throat feels like it is burned to a crisp! I will never understand what comes over bulimic people...I hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend!

How do you do this!?!?!?

Does anyone know how in the world you center your heading pic? I cannot figure it out! Also, how do you make it go across the whole page? I am so not good at blogspot...

Our Weekend

Over the weekend we went up to Jeff's brother's house to help out finishing some home projects. Pretty much Jeff helped out and I watched Brooke, their 10 month old baby, who is so so cute! Here is a picture of her. Apparently she got into the Cherrios box and started eating them by the handful!

This pic is of all of us when we are pretty much done. I shouldn't really say "we" though because really it was Jeff, Rob, and Nick who did it all, sanding down the boards, laying carpet, and putting up the baseboards. This pic is about 11:45 p.m. on Saturday night. I had just woken up from a nap in time to participate in the pic. From left to right: Nick, Julie (8 months pregnant), me, Jeff, Rob, and Jeana).

Our New Home-Heaven or H...?

When we were out in Lexington looking for a place to stay, we drove everywhere for two days straight. We looked at tons of apartments and narrowed it down to a few the final day, but still none of them felt right. Then I had the brilliant idea of picking up a Renter's Guide, like our sister-in-law had suggested. We pulled over to the side of the road and I looked through everything while Jeff took a nap (he couldn't handle the stress). I circled a few and then we were off...they were all no-go's and we had one more left. We drove there, walked in, looked at each other and realized we both felt great about this place, so we signed right then and there! We signed for two years for a 2 bed/2 bath that was over 1,000 sq ft and the best price we had found with a dishwasher, patio, fireplace, and washer/dryer hookups. It is also right next to a park, has a pool, great workout facilities, and is less than 1/2 a mile away from Jeff's brother and his family's place. We felt like we had made a great deal...until we got home and I checked out the ratings on the place. Here are a few examples:

EXAMPLE #1
01/10/2007
1.0 (rated out of 5.0)
I just moved from here on a 6 month lease. I noticed the other reviews on accident trying to track down one of the "so called" idiot management people. The other reviews hit directly on. Stay away from this place ...

EXAMPLE #2

10/17/2006
2.0
While living at Shillito Park, we haven't had many complaints, until recently. My boyfriend has had the apartment for 4 years, and I was recently added to our lease. When I moved in (from out of state), above our mantle was a leak and they just painted over it instead of actually fixing it. They also played our video games...

I will just suffice to say that every single place we looked at (even the trashy smokey ones) were rated higher than this place...Needless to say, I am nervous! I will keep you updated and let you know how it goes!

Cousins/Nieces and Nephews

A couple weeks ago Jeff and I went out to Kentucky to look for a place to live in Lexington. We will be moving out there to go to dental school the middle of July. We stayed with Jeff's sister, Cheryl, and her family. Jeff's brother also lives out there with his family. Here are a couple pics of the cousins. From left to right is Eric, Liam, and Garrett. Garrett is known in the family as being very creative (can't you tell?). Apparently he missed having it snow, so he put baby powder on the ceiling fan in his room and turned it on...you can imagine what happened after that. Another favorite of his is leaving a string of toilet paper in the toilet water, so it soaks the whole roll.

Here is a pic of all the cousins together (minus Brooke, who is in Utah and ?, who is in my tummy). From left to right, Garrett, Amanda and Will (all sis/bro) and Samantha, Eric and Liam (all sis/bro). Aren't they so cute?

First Doctor Visit

Mainly because I want to kind of have a journal of how I am feeling and how my body is changing, I will probably enter quite a bit of entries on my progress, so sorry if this bores anyone. There will probably not be a lot of pictures, although when I am really showing I will post one.

The first thing I want to mention is that I am 11 1/2 weeks and I barely fit in my pants! They were so loose before and now I have to unbutton them when I am sitting down! This is way too early to show, isn't it? I haven't gained a pound since I got pregnant, but my belly sure looks it. I am wearing jackets to kind of cover it up at work, although they know I am pregnant because of the sickness. Did anyone else pop out that fast? It is kind of embarrassing because there is another girl in my office (but a different department) who is stick thin and 22 weeks pregnant and is barely showing! I guess I just have really weak stomach muscles and can't hold it in or I am going to carry my baby sticking WAY out like a torpedo!

I got to hear the baby's heartbeat again yesterday at the doctor's office. It was 174 beats per minute. They also drew my blood to test for HIV, blood type, hepititis, etc. I sure hope I don't have HIV... :)

As for my morning, or should I say day/night/24/7 sickness, it is coming and going, but isn't nearly as bad as it was at the beginning. When it ends, do you just wake up one morning and it is gone for good, or does it slowly taper off? Mine seems to be getting better, but some days are better than others. Any advice?

I found out the official name of the tear. It is called a subchorionic hematoma. The doctor wasn't concerned because mine is so small...about 1 inch across. She did say that if I start to bleed at all, then to call and we will do another ultrasound right away to make sure it isn't any bigger and the baby is okay. I am still worried though because I have had two early miscarriages already and don't want to lose this one. We think the other ones were because I have low progesterone, which I felt might be my problem, so I requested a blood test of my progesterone levels early on in this pregnancy and they discovered it, so now I am on a prescription (Prometrium). Just a side note: you know your body best so listen to it, even if the doctor says you are fine! If I hadn't requested that test, I would definitely not be this far along.

Anyway, thanks everyone for the congrats! We are so excited! My due date is December 2, right before Jeff's dental school finals, so I hope he/she (I think it is a "she") isn't late!

Heartbeat

One more thing...we got to hear the heartbeat. It was 164 beats per minute and very regular and strong. :) Today I go to the doctor to find out more about what I need to do now. I am guessing this whole tear thing happened from me throwing up so violently and so much!

Why I have been sick...

So I went to the doctor yesterday because I haven't been feeling very well the past month or two. I have been really nauseous. They did an ultrasound on my stomach and this is what they found:

For those of you who still can't tell what is "wrong" with me, I am 11 weeks pregnant and sick as ever! When I went to get the ultrasound, I thought I was only 10 weeks pregnant, but after measuring, it turns out I am actually 11, which I was not going to argue about...one week closer to not being sick all the time! Really, waking up at 4:00 in the morning to throw up (which I did this morning) is not my cup of tea. However, it is a good sign.

I went in to get the ultrasound because I had been having some really really bad cramping (but not bleeding) for the past week and a half. We did find the source of the pain. The yellow words say, "Hi Mom and Dad." Just under the Dad part of the sentence, you can see where the embryonic sac has torn away from the corrionic sac...I am not sure if those are the correct terms, but you get the idea. The ultrasound lady said she sees this quite a bit and that I needed to be on pelvic rest for the next two weeks, which means no exercise and no lifting, so it can heal. However, she did say that where the tear happened, that area has filled up with blood and it probably will come out. She told me to expect some bleeding, which will totally freak me out even though she said not to worry.

Anyway, it was so neat to see the "thing" (in Jeff's words) and "it" (in my words) moving around and kicking and waving its arms. She said the baby was extremely active and 4.4 cm long and looked very healthy, so that is good news! I am due around the beginning of December.

Scooter

Jeff and I have talked a couple times about getting a scooter...actually he really wants one and mentions it every once in awhile. He argues that we will need another form of transportation when we get out to Kentucky for dental school and we will not have a ton of money to spend on purchasing, insuring, and gasing up a car. Thus, he thought we should get a scooter.

Soooooo, I started looking on Craig's List every once in awhile for one here in Provo for a good price. Yesterday I found one. I called Jeff and told him to call the guy. He did. We went after work and looked at it. We said we would need to talk about it just a bit and would let the guy know by tomorrow afternoon. We left. We stopped at the bank on the way home to withdraw the money. We called the guy and went. We picked it up that night. Jeff couldn't wait! He was so excited! Of course, he was frozen when he got home because it was like 40 degrees F outside. Here is a picture of the scooter. In case any boys read this and care, it is a 2007 Roketa Tahiti 150 cc moter scooter. Although my dad was not happy when I told him we bought one, he would laugh at the fact that I was sold not because it was a good quality scooter for a good price, it was because it was a pretty color and pretty looking. That was how I picked my sea foam green carpet in my room at home in Montana and my car. They were pretty!

Here is another picture:
We can save TONS of money on gas. This thing gets 80-85 mpg, so we will probably fill up once a month, if even that! Jeff will just be riding it to work and school. Now, according to my dad, we just need to get flourescent helmets, leather jackets, and hunter's orange vests if we want to ride it! Don't worry Dad, we will be safe on this. Afterall, I have always been the responsible child, haven't I? I was usually always home early and had dorky friends and straight A's and went to church and never got in trouble, except when I wrecked the minivan and drove the Camry into the freezer/house/kitchen... :)

Funnies

This an email I got, thought they were funny... cuz they are true.

Why, Why, Why
Do we press harder on a remote control when weknow the batteries are getting dead?

Why do banks charge a fee on "insufficient funds"when they know there is not enough money?

Why does some one believe you when you say thereare four "billion" stars, but check when you say thepaint is wet?

Why do they use sterilized needles for death by lethal injection?

Why does Superman stop bullets with his chest, butducks when you throw a revolver at him? Why do Kamikaze pilots wear helmets?

Whose idea was it to put an "S" in the word "lisp"?

Is there ever a day that mattresses are not on sale?

Why do people constantly return to the refrigeratorwith hopes that something new to eat will have materialized?

Why do people keep running over a string a dozen times with their vacuum cleaner, then reach down, pick it up, examine it, then put it down to give the vacuum one more chance?

When we are in the supermarket and someone ramsour ankle with a shopping cart then apologizes fordoing so, why do we say, "It's all right?" Well, itisn't all right, so why don't we say, "That hurt, youstupid idiot?"

How come you never hear father-in-law jokes?

Why do we drive on parkways and park on driveways?

Why are the keys on the drive up auto teller in braille too??

The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four persons is suffering from some sort of mental illness. Think of your three best friends -- if they're okay, then it's you.