It's a Boy!!

Now that the word is out, I guess it's time to tell the blog world our big news. Ryan and I are having a baby!! We're having a baby boy in April. I'm at 23 weeks (almost 6 months). We're so excited and can't wait to meet our new little bundle of joy. Well, we can wait a little bit longer...

We found out that I was pregnant on Aug. 3- my birthday! That was a fun present. We wanted to wait to tell people until at least the first trimester was over. My mom always told me that if you want your pregnancy to go by fast, don't tell anyone right away. The longer you wait to tell people, the faster it will go by. So, taking my mother's advice, we decided to hold off. The first trimester wasn't super fun. I felt sick almost all the time. But luckily, I never threw up. I just felt nauseous constantly. The severity of how I felt differed from day to day. I always felt better at work, but I think that was because I didn't have time to sit and think about how bad I felt. I haven't experienced many cravings and in the first trimester, I could only eat whatever sounded semi-good. Cooking wasn't super fun because the thought of food made me feel sick. There were days when only one thing sounded good to eat, but the next day that meal would sound awful. I'm glad we're past those days. Luckily there's only a few foods that were ruined for me because of this... Spinach Artichoke dip (good thing I never really eat it anyway), a restaurant here called "Haven" (just driving by it makes my stomach churn) and hamburgers never sound good, but I'll eat them if I have to.

My first doctor appointment was when I was ten weeks along. At that appointment they could not hear a heartbeat at all, so they took out a mini-ultrasound thing and showed us the heartbeat. That was very anti-climatic because I could not see the dot they were telling me was my baby. They also measured me and said I was actually 2 weeks behind what we thought I was. At this point, I was done being excited about this pregnancy. We felt like it was going backwards. And with how I was feeling, I was not happy about feeling this way for one more month.

Luckily, time went by quickly and we still didn't tell anyone. With each appointment I set up, I thought, we can just wait to tell people after the next appointment. I wasn't really showing at all and we don't live that close to family that we see all the time. This kept going on until we made our appointment for the ultrasound. That's when we knew we could wait just one more month to let people know our good news. Right about this time, we were done with keeping the secret. But we did it! We found out that we were having a boy on November 18. That's when we could finally spill the beans. Ryan was so excited to call and tell everyone. For some reason, I wasn't as excited. I wanted him to just let everyone know. When I told my family, it made it more exciting to me. It's been fun to talk with my mom about it. I still feel weird telling people I'm pregnant. In fact, I only told a handful of people from work and have just let the news spread. It just feels awkward for some reason.

Everyone's been asking how I feel. I feel great now. I just feel normal, except I feel extremely fat. This is the heaviest I've been in my whole life, and I don't love that feeling. And I know it's only gonna get worse from here. It took me a couple months to flip that switch in my brain that says weight gain is ok. I'm still in normal clothes and am dreading the day when the maternity clothes are a must. I just don't want to spend money on clothes I'll only wear for 4 more months. Some of my pants are getting a little tighter and not as comfortable, but they still fit fine.

We haven't picked out a name yet and the more I think about it, the more I hate thinking of names. It's a lot harder than I imagined and boys names are impossible. We had girls names picked out and both of us were already sold on a girls name. We'll come up with one eventually. I think what will happen is we'll pick out a couple we like and when we see the baby, we'll decide then. I'm not too worried about having a name picked out today.

We're excited about this new adventure we're about to take in our lives. We can't wait to see what lies ahead.

We're Alive

The guilt of not updating this blog has finally overtaken me. We've been really busy settling into new jobs and our new life in St. George. We're having a blast living here. We like it more and more each day.
Our summer's been pretty fun. We've made a few trips up north for some family and friend fun. We were able to go up for the Fourth of July weekend and spend time with all of Ryan's immediate family. I amazingly got that weekend off, so it was even more special. We also got to see some of Ryan's high school friends.
We also went up for my friend Karen's wedding. One of my closest friends from Iowa got married in the Draper Temple and we were lucky enough to spend that day with her. It was so neat seeing that experience and meeting her new husband. We're so happy for her and for their new life together.

Ryan's been more than busy with his new job. He's been traveling a lot to different satellite offices all over Southern Utah and he's now adding Vegas to his itinerary for a few months. He's doing great and his boss only has positive things to say about him (like I'm surprised). He's learned so much and has grown so much in his clinical skills in just a few short months. We've been happy with the experience he's getting, even though he's been putting in some long, long days.

As for Wal-Mart, they have finally taken pity on us poor Assistant Managers. They've been testing out a new schedule for management in other markets and they've discovered that Assistant Managers actually like having a life outside of Wal-Mart. So, at the beginning of this month we started a new rotation of schedules. I now work 3, 12 hour days, followed by 3 days off. It's been really nice during the days off. I actually have time to do other things and have now taken up new craft projects. The 3 days on are a little more stressful than I would prefer, but we're still all getting used to our routines. The cool thing about this schedule is that I can plan out the whole next year or so. I actually get Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve off. (Even though I'm still a little skeptical that something is going to change so I don't.) Either way, I feel like it's about time they revamped our scheduling. They were using us for too many things and taking advantage of being salaried. I'm enjoying my store just fine. I feel like I got a lot more respect right off the bat here than I did at my previous store. And I also feel a lot more appreciated. That's been a really nice transition.

My newest craft project was an idea I got off TV and thought I'd try it. I think it turned out pretty good. Let me know what you think. It's just a simple picture frame where you place ribbon where the glass goes. Then you can just slide pictures throughout the ribbon. It's a fun new way to display photos. The picture don't quite do it justice.

Our home in St. George

We made it. We are here in beautiful St. George, Utah and ready to enjoy our next year here. We drove up last Saturday from Tucson. Our brother-in-law Troy flew down just to help us drive up. Lucky him, he was the one in the big Budget truck. The drive went very smooth and we made it up here in pretty good time. We were all a bit nervous for Troy during the whole drive, but he did well and the truck did well (except for the air conditioning going out). This week Ryan and I have been unpacking, hanging up decorations, spending way too much money and touring the city. It has been so nice to be able to spend this week together and get settled into our new home.

We really like our new home. It is very spacious compared to our last place. As we were unpacking, we realized we had plenty of stuff to fit into a 3 bedroom. I have no clue how I got it all into a one bedroom. I must be more organized than I think. There are definitely some quirks about the place. The last renter did something crazy to our walls, so there are big miscolored spots all over our walls. They're in weird places too- it's not like they hung up a picture and filled in the hole. We're not sure what happened. We're trying not to worry about it and it's less noticeable with our pictures up. Overall, we are excited about our new place and have plenty of room for visitors. So, please, feel free to drop by if you need a place to stay.

We really enjoy St. George already. Each day as we drove around, we both grew to love the city more. It's extremely smaller than Tucson and it feels so much more like home. We're excited about living here, nervous about work, but it should be good. Due to requests, we have posted a slideshow of pictures of our home. It's hard to capture everything in a picture, but I tried my best. We still have some decorating to do, but this is it for now!

Update

I know, I know, it's been way too long since we actually paid attention to this thing. It's not like we don't have anything to report on, it's just that we've been busy. Ryan has been busy trying to finalize everything with his last semester of actual school work. He has different comprehensive exams he has to take, a national exam and he has to finish up his thesis project. He's been super busy with that and trying to balance it with his calling at church. I have been busy with work as usual, but when I do get a day off, the last thing I think about is this blog. But here we are. Ready to give an update of what we've been up to...

As most people know, we're moving to St. George, Utah next month. In March, we took a week off during Ryan's spring break to visit family and find a place to live. We took our trip up slowly and stopped to see two of my brothers and their families on our way up to St. George. That was a lot of fun and we're so happy we were able to spend time with them. Our time in St. George was super stressful, but we found a place to rent for a year. We're really excited about it. It's a 3 bedroom/2 bath town home with a 2 car garage. We can't wait to actually have some space to live. We figured after living in a one-bedroom apartment since we've been married, we can spoil ourselves and upgrade. And we're hoping to have space so we can have lots of visitors. Consider this a standing invitation! After our time in St. George we decided to rush up to Utah County to see some more family. Plus, we hadn't been to Utah since Oct. 2007, so we were excited to go back. We got to spend time with one of Ryan's sisters and her family and Ryan's mom. We also saw the rest of my brothers and their families (except one brother was missing, but his family wasn't). All in all, it was a successful, fun trip.

My bro Jeff and his wife Shar

We're planning on moving away from Tucson next month. We're aiming to leave around May 15th. It all depends on my work situation. Yes, I am getting a transfer. It has been such a hassle to get a transfer. I had no idea it would be this difficult. The Human Resource manager I've been "working" with up in Utah is brand new and has no clue what she is doing. I tried to contact her numerous times and didn't hear anything back. When we were up in Utah, I decided to just drop by the Wal-Mart market office to see if I could catch her. Luckily, it worked, but she gave me the run around and said it would be hard and that I needed to get some higher up's approval. So, I did. No big deal right? That was easy. I call her back- she tells me there are no openings in St. George and asks if I would be willing to step down and take a lower position (ie- cashier, not really a cashier but probably something similar). I told her I couldn't do that. She told me to call the store managers to see if they needed an assistant manager, yep, her job. So, I did. No big deal. The store manager I talked to was great and he put the wheels in motion up there. So, 2 weeks later, a few phone calls and unanswered emails, I finally found out that I got the transfer. I have a place to work in St. George. I'm so glad. We don't have any other specific details. I'm just glad I don't have to stress about not having a job.

So, slowly our move is finally in motion. We can't wait to get up there. I have a feeling this year isn't going to be super fun. Ryan is starting a new job and that's never fun. I'm starting at a new store, that's not easy. I'm just excited for a new start. It feels like we're getting out of the playing house stage and actually becoming established. It will also be nice to feel more settled and we'll hopefully be staying in the area for a while.

In other news, my store that I work for won Neighborhood Market of the Year for our Region (a few states in the west) and our Division (all the western states) and there was a nasty, humongous cockroach in our shower this week.

Things That Are Awesome

The following are things that Ryan currently thinks are awesome. They are not necessarily, however, listed in order of awesomeness.

#1: My Skull Sweater

I was at the mall with Schuyler earlier this month and I was in the middle of telling her that I was tired of skulls on every shirt. I mean, skulls were maybe cool in 2007, but not any more. We then happened to enter Aeropostale and stumbled across a skull sweater all alone on a rack full of pants. A check of the price tag revealed that the skull sweater was marked down from $79.50 to $9.99. I couldn't stop laughing about the sweater and I pretty much had to buy it, despite Schuyler's protests. Blurry picture warning (it's the price tag):

#2: Hand Held Yahtzee

I've always loved Yahtzee. My sister Patrice and I used to play Yahtzee all the time. We even kept our old scorecards and would occasionally examine them to see who had the all-time highest score and such. Well, just this last month, I found that Schuyler has been holding out on me and actually OWNS an electronic hand-held Yahtzee. I've been in heaven ever since.

#3: The Biggest Loser

Schuyler and I have a DVR and we record a lot of shows. Of all the reality shows we watch, the Biggest Loser is my favorite. This particular season has been fun so far -- two teams of Mormons?! I'm hooked.

Happy New Year

We'd like to explain our last post. The pictures were of a "saint" and a "george" implying that we're moving to St. George this May for Ryan's externship. We are so excited to get back to Utah, be closer to family and still have warm weather. Sorry if those pictures frightened anyone. Boy George was especially scary, that's why we chose him.


In other news, we had a wonderful Christmas. We wish we could have been with family, but we had a blast with just the two of us. We enjoyed a nice Arby's dinner for Christmas Eve. We were going to cook a roast, but got too lazy that night, so Arby's was our solution. I promise I'm not that bad of a wife usually. Christmas day we slept in, opened presents and saw the movie Doubt.We really liked the movie and even got free movie passes from it because of technical difficulties during the film. For Christmas dinner we grilled steak and shrimp (that's become our Christmas tradition). Hopefully in the next few years we'll be able to host Christmas at our house.