Baby names

Welcome to the 3rd Trimester. Less than 3 months to go! I think we have decided on a name for our little girl. Emily Meg Lively. Emily because we both really like that name and there were very few that we actually agreed on and this was #1 for both of us. Plus, we just felt right about it. Also, we had the sweetest little Emily in our primary class and we thought their family was a good example of a good family and she was a good example of a good little girl. Meg is after my mom who is a good example of a caring, thoughtful, righteous woman.

I like to have a family name for the middle name because I think it's cool to have that connection to the person you are named after and also because they are good examples to look up to. Both Matt and I were named after our grandpas for our middle names.

Emily means to strive or excel and Meg means pearl. That means our little girl will be a sweet, beautiful, hard-working, intelligent, ambitious little gem right?

But who knows? She could come out and not be an Emily at all. I can't wait to meet her. :)

I made it!

Yesterday was my last day of grad school! I made it! No more classes, no more papers, no more driving to SLC every week, and I can finally read a book for fun! Hip hip hurray! It's been a long and tough 2.5 years, but I made it! The graduation ceremonies are next Friday. I already booked an appointment to get a massage before the ceremonies that day and I told Matt that he needed to get me a new dress to wear to graduation. :) You may now call me "master". hee hee.

Now we've just got to get Matt through his last year of grad school and we'll be done forever!!!!

Bryce Canyon

To celebrate the end of a tough semester for both of us, we decided to take a little mini-vacation to Bryce Canyon. It was National Park Week last week, which means you can get into all national parks for free! It was really nice to get away even if it was just for a weekend.

We stayed in the lovely little town of Tropic, Utah, which has a population of 420. We stayed at the Bryce Trails Bed & Breakfast. Here was our lovely room. And that bed was heavenly.

We drove down on Friday and it was FREEZING! It rained most of the way there and was super windy when we got there. We stopped at a couple viewpoints but it was really too cold to enjoy it a whole bunch.

But I love Bryce Canyon...it is seriously so amazing.

Saturday was much nicer. It was perfect for hiking. We went on a 6.5 mile hike down through the rock formations in the canyon. It was so cool. It was quite a bit harder than I was expecting it to be. Sometimes I forget that I'm packing around an extra 20 pounds and am sharing my blood and oxygen with the baby, and I think I can do all the things I used to be able to. But anyway, it was still very enjoyable even though I had to go kinda slow.

This was pretty funny...some people had built all these little rock towers in one portion of the trail.

I loved hiking through all the "hoodoos" as they call them. Every angle was a different sight and all of it was really cool.

There were these little rock windows throughout the trail. It's just amazing to me how these things form.

There was still a bit of snow, some of which we had to hike through. The trail was also pretty muddy in a lot of sections.

This was the switchback trail that led back up out of the canyon. Matt was tracking the grade on his GPS and some sections got up to like 28% steep! He was such a good sport for going on this long hike with me and putting up with my slowness.

Besides the hike we drove through the park to look at all the viewpoints.

We also went to an astronomy presentation on Saturday night that was really interesting. After the presentation they had a bunch of huge telescopes set up and we could see Saturn, Mars, some star nurseries, nebulus things, and some other cool stuff. The coolest thing was Saturn. You could see it so clearly and all the rings too.

This arch was pretty amazing as well. We were both pretty exhausted after the hike, but we had a great time!

We also had an interesting encounter with some of the local teenagers from Tropic. As we were driving back to our hotel in the dark, they were tailgating us down the canyon and being really annoying. They finally passed us, but then they decided to follow us. Since there is absolutely no one out and about in Tropic at 10:30 p.m., we couldn't really ditch them but we didn't want to go back because we were afraid they'd do something to our car. So we pulled into someone's driveway. They immediately turned around and left. Matt went up to talk to the guy who lived in the house and explained the situation so he would know why we were sitting in his driveway. He was a gruff old man, but very nice, and he said he knew who the little hoodlums were and he was going to go scare them. It was awesome!

Anyway, it was a great trip. And I did not back my car into a tree this time. Yay for Bryce Canyon!

Project #1

I have a bunch of projects that I want to make for the baby's room and I finally finished one! I had this old frame and mat from a long time ago and I just repainted it and put pictures of Jesus and one of the temple inside. I made a card for one of the spots that says, "I am a child of God". I think it turned out really cute.

I think I'll hang it up with some cute ribbon. One down...a bunch more to go!

Bike Marathon

Matt, my dad, Nathan, Caron, and I all participated in the SLC Marathon Bike Tour this past weekend. It's in conjunction with the marathon, and they open up the course to bikers before the marathon starts, so you get to ride through the Salt Lake valley for 26 miles without having to stop for red lights! It's great! Of course I didn't get any pictures, but it was so fun! I was hesitant to sign up because I wasn't sure how I'd do for that long on my bike and also because I get sort of nervous riding my bike around a lot of people who are weaving in and out around me.

But I decided to go for it and I'm glad I did. This is the 3rd year I've done it, and by far the most enjoyable. I was a lot more confident on my bike this year, so I think that helped out a lot. And I got my best time out of the last 3 years as well! I even beat my dad, which is a first. I've never beaten him in a race before, although last year at the Echo triathlon I came really, really close. He did have major surgery 3 1/2 weeks ago so he was in recovery mode and wasn't up to his usual best. It's too bad his $100 offer for beating him in a triathlon didn't stand for this race! :)

I felt really good until about Mile 21, where my bike shorts started to really bug me. They were just hitting my tummy in an awkward spot. And I think by then, the baby was tired of being squished by me all bent over on my bike and she started to let me know it! But it was great and I'm glad I was able to do it.

Graduated

I have officially graduated to maternity clothes. Well, pants anyway. My shirts mostly still fit. I still have some pants I can wear, they just aren't very comfy. I could probably make them last awhile longer with rubberbands or one of those belly band things, but I have been saving up to buy maternity clothes and everyone loves a new outfit right? I figure 6 months is pretty good for lasting in your pants when pregnant, so I'm ok with the graduation. Here I am at 26 weeks in my new maternity pants. 3 months to go! Yikes!

Perfect

I found this picture and decided it will be perfect for our little girl's room. And it just made me happy. I just love that the little girl has brown curly hair. :)

Deodorant dilema

Maybe this is TMI, but the last month or so I have been having serious problems with my deodorant. I cannot find one that works! I've tried those clinical kinds and even men's deodorant and they still don't work. I don't know what to do! Summer is coming and I need to find a solution! I'm not sure why all of a sudden I'm having problems when once I found a good one a few years ago, it hasn't been an issue.

On another note, I did my first 5K yesterday since becoming pregnant and it went great! My goal was to not be the last one to finish, even though I was fully prepared to be that person. But I wasn't! I was very pleased with my time, which obviously was not a personal record, but it was better than my very first 5K I ever did. I am glad I am able to participate in at least some of race season because I was really missing it.

Pass the Torch

With the complaining I have been doing about my job lately, I just wanted to say that my frustrations have nothing to do with the students I work with. They are fantastic and I enjoy working with them so much. At the end of each year, when we make the transition from the outgoing officers to the incoming ones, we have a little ceremony where they "pass the torch" to the incoming team.

This is one of the teams of students I have worked with this year. I am really going to miss them. They have amazing opportunities ahead of them...Chad's going to New York to intern at an ad agency, Nicole is getting married, I get to keep Scott around, at least for the summer!, and Audrey is probably moving to Deleware with her husband. I'm just so proud of them and I know they all have amazing futures ahead of them. They have accomplished a lot this year and are so talented and have had a lot to overcome, but they've done it so well. And I have had a lot of fun with them too.

Here is the outgoing presidency passing the torch.

And here is the new presidency that I will be working with during the upcoming year.

We've made some organizational changes that I am excited about for the new year and I am grateful to be able to work with such wonderful students.

Easter

We had a lovely Easter. We colored eggs.


I bet you can't guess which one is Matt's!

And the Easter bunny came to visit.

And we had to find our eggs.

But more importantly we were able to spend some time with our families and watch General Conference. And remember the atonement of our Savior. I loved all the talks about parenting. I needed it. Happy Easter!

I also went with my mom and sister to the Desert Star Theater to see a spoof of Pirates of the Carribbean during Preisthood session. It was hilarious! I highly recommend that theater. It is a dinner theater and so much fun.

Growing

Here I am at 24 weeks. I always thought that when I was pregnant, I would have this cute round belly like all the other pregnant ladies I see. But not me...I'm just getting fat everywhere and you really can't tell I'm pregnant. I just look like I've gained 20 pounds. Boo! No cute round belly for me. It's very sad. I'm tired of being fat. I just want to be a cute pregnant lady.

Over the past few weeks we have been able to see the baby move. That has been pretty exciting! Seriously, sometimes my tummy looks like it has a little jumping bean inside. The first time Matt saw it, he said, "Honey, that's weird. It reminds me of that movie Alien. I hope a little alien doesn't pop out of there." It's been fun to feel her and see her move.

Tell me I'm normal

Is there a such thing as pre-partum blues? Or a mid-pregnancy crisis? Cuz I think I'm experiencing both.

Terrified

As excited as I am about this baby, last week I sort of had a panic attack. Well, several. I realized that in just a few months this little girl is going to have to come out of me and that absolutely terrifies me. I've been thinking about some of the worst pain I've had in my life (aka...kidney stone, the marathon, etc.) and I don't know if I can handle childbirth.

I've been reading books and stuff on what to expect and I'm going to take a childbirth class, but I am still petrified. Any suggestions on good ways to prepare and calm my anxiety about the whole thing?

Also, I started worrying about everything. What if she's not healthy? What if something goes wrong? How are we going to take care of her? What if she ends up being a he? (I made them check again at my appt. this week.) What if I can't handle being a mom? How am I going to learn everything?

I still am excited, but for the first half of pregnancy, these thoughts never entered my mind and now all of a sudden I'm going into panic mode!