This is how you have a breakdown.

The past couple days have not been good ones.  I've been exhausted.  Cory has had to work super late.  I haven't slept or felt well. I feel like Lydia Jane's due date gets closer and closer and our to do list keeps getting longer and longer.  I've felt a mixture of discouragement, exhaustion, anxiety and just plain grumpiness.   It's been really lame. 
This morning I got a summons for jury duty, my first ever.  Really, you want me to decide the fate of drug dealers and theives as an 8 month pregnant woman?  "Off with their heads!" is the only response that seems like a good one right now when I even think about it.  If I were drug dealer or other criminal type, I would definitely not want a crazy me on the jury. 
When I get to work, I have a million things to do.  This is because my boss is determined to get every last ounce of work out of me before I go out on maternity leave.  I had planned to have nice, simple projects and take it easy the last few months of my pregnancy but instead I'm having to figure out the design for a huge mapping project and then write instructions to show everyone else how to do it.  There are a million other reasons why this is annoying, but I will spare you.
While at work, I got an email about an activity tomorrow night I'm supposed to bring snacks to.  Of course I completely forgot about this just like everything else and had to stop by the grocery store on my way home where I realized my tire is going flat.
When I get home and Cory looks at it, there is a huge hole in the side wall and I need a new tire.  He is behind the car and tells me to pull forward some so he can get a better look at it.  My exhausted brain must have been on autopilot because I put the car in reverse instead of drive.  I start to freak out when my car starts going backwards and press the gas to help it up the hill.  This of course sends to car into my husband who starts rolling down the driveway. I slam on the breaks and burst into tears because after everything else, I have almost run him over.
At this point the missionaries call to remind him that he is going on splits with them tonight.  So now I am home alone having this breakdown in cyberspace.  It is oddly theraputic. 
Did I mention I have an 8:30 doctors appointment tomorrow morning so Cory is going to have to put the doughnut on my car after he gets home? 
So now that I have gotten that out of my system I will say that I am very grateful that:
I live in a free country that has a decent judicial system.
I have a job I enjoy doing most days and where my abilities are appreciated.
I work with some amazing women in my calling at church and groceries are so easy to find and purchase.
I realized I had a flat tire before it blew out while I was driving.
I did not run over my husband, only bumped him (quite hard, but he is fine).
My husband is so willing to serve the Lord.
I have access to wonderful medical care. 
My prayers are answered and the occasion vent session on my blog is allowed.

32 Weeks: Gobble! Gobble!

Not much exciting has been happening on the baby front this last week.  The kicks are getting stronger and the naps are getting longer.  That about covers it.  We did have a great time celebrating Thanksgiving though! I only took one picture the entire time and it was this one of Carson eating my blueberry pie.  He loved it and that made me super happy! :)

 I also took a belly picture in my same outfit from the first belly picture to really see how much bigger I've gotten. I probably should have taken the same side and angle as well, but you can definitely see how much the belly has grown!  I'm kind of afraid to see what it looks like in January!

26 Weeks

32 Weeks

Thankful

Today I'm feeling really thankful.  I sort of hesitated making the "thankful list" but I'm totally giving in.  Here are just a few of the things I'm super thankful for this holiday season.
*My husband, who, I'll be honest, has had to put up with quite a lot of crazy.  And sickness.  And extra work.  All without complaint.  I get to take naps while he does the laundry.  He has totally taken over so much and I've never been so grateful for his ability to make me laugh no matter how badly I am feeling.
*Our sweet little girl.  Even though it's started to feel like she is trying to kick her way out of there, I still love feeling her little kicks.  I love preparing for her arrival, wondering what she is going to look like and planning our future as a family.
*My family. Super supportive and awesome in so many ways.
*My friends, fellow blogging moms, everyone who has made this journey a little easier.
*My ward family, who can't keep secrets to save their lives and have been both secretly and not so secretly checking up on me since the very beginning.
*All the trials that have come from this pregnancy.  They have helped make me a mother.
*My Savior who has helped me to do so many hard things over the past few months.

31 Weeks: Growing Girl

I had my 32 weeks appointment today.  Somehow, I got a week ahead in my appointments.  Everything looks great.  I had an ultrasound to check Lydia Jane's growth and she has gained 3 pounds!  She now weighs 4lbs. 2oz. and is in the 65th percentile.  I'm definitely happy about that because she was only in the 10th percentile at 24 weeks.  Our girl is definitely catching up! 
She also has a big head. haha.  When they measured it, it measured 33 weeks 4 days and I said "She has a huge head doesn't she?"  The ultrasound tech just laughed and said "Not necessarily" which totally means yes.  As a big headed girl myself, I'm totally okay with that. 
I didn't get to see much of her face today which was sort of a bummer but when I told Cory that he just said "Well, we will see her for real soon enough so that's okay."  He is totally right but I still wanted to see her little face more! 
I'm now in the single digits for the due date count down!  Only 9 more weeks!  Even though I totally expect her to be late, I will still be happy to reach that point.  So I say now, right?
My health hasn't really changed much.  I have become a zombie again, falling asleep at 8 or so for the night.  I think Cory is starting to get a little bored. I feel badly that he is having to spend his nights alone these days but there is honestly nothing I can do about it. 
I guess my body is prepping to have a newborn by behaving like one.  I basically have two main wants:  to sleep and to eat.  I do both way more than I used to but I'm fine with that! :)

The Nursery: Phase 1

My mom came to Columbia on Friday to help me get started on Lydia Jane's nursery. We got all the current furniture arranged, picked out some fabrics and made lists of things still to make. Here's an overview:

 Her crib and dresser.  We are painting the dresser white and adding ruffles to the lampshade.

 Her little animals!  My parents got the sheep for her in England this summer.

 Bed really not at all looking like it will.  We are making new drapes and adding lots of pillows.

The pink and brown fabric is to make my rocking chair cushion and the others are for pillows.

It's not much at the moment, but I think now that the basics are in place it will be a lot easier to add things.  I am starting to get a mental picture of how everything is going to fit and look now, which is exciting. 

Tonight I'm starting on my first craft for the nursery.  These pom poms:

Source: jessicademaio.blogspot.com via Emily on Pinterest

So I'm really excited about that even though it is most likely going to take forever.  Hopefully they will look really cute in the end though!  I will definitely post my progress!

30 Weeks: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

I can no longer make it through more than 5 minutes of testimony meeting without crying.  The absolute dumbest things irritate me beyond belief.  One minute I'm happy, the next I'm sad.   I literally do not enjoy being around myself most of the time.  Even I do not know which of my personalities I will be pulling out of the hat any given morning.  People of Columbia beware:  there's a mad woman on the loose and she looks a lot like me.
That may be a slight exaggeration, but only slight.  My emotions have been all over the place this past week and it is starting to make me a little nuts.  Also, I have been starving ALL THE TIME.  I will have just eaten breakfast and I'm already ready for second breakfast.  The other morning my stomach was growling after I had eaten a waffle and an apple.  I don't know what this little girl is doing in there, but she is burning up the calories!   She is starting to get more on a "normal" schedule.  Her daytime movements are becoming even more frequent and her nighttime movements are starting to slack off a bit.  Unfortunately, I've started to have a little trouble sleeping.  This week marked the beginning of Nighttime Pee Runs: Part 2.  Between that and my low iron, I am pretty exhausted most of the time.  In good news, I'm only 10 weeks away from my due date! AND Cory felt Lydia Jane kick for the first time this morning!
When I was having cory take my 30 weeks picture, he kept telling me to do all these silly things and I was cracking up the whole time.  I thought it was only appropriate to add one of them.  Please excuse the roughness.  I'm pregnant and do what I want, right?

Mom came today and we worked on the nursery a good bit.   Hopefully I will have time tomorrow to take and post some pictures of the progress!

Book Worm Wednesday: The Sources

It's been a while since I have done one of these so I thought I would do a quick one this week!  I have been so busy that I haven't really had time to read as much as I like to.  I still get to listen to audiobooks at work though, which is nice.  I always loved to read, but I really started to read a lot when I found a book I loved and then tried to find more like it.  When I discovered an author of a beloved series had an entire page of book suggestions on her website, I was in book worm heaven!   These days, almost all authors have a website or blog of some kind and most of them have lists of books similar to theirs and some of their personal favorites.  
One of my current favorite authors to get suggestions from is Sarah Rees Brennan.  She is very funny and periodically posts book recommendations on her blog.  Her most recent one is here: http://sarahtales.livejournal.com/191570.html
I have read books from her suggestions before, but none on this list yet so I can't say if they are good or not but her descriptions alone are very entertaining. Lots of other authors do similar things so if you have a favorite book or author, google them! Chances are you will find some great recommendations for new books to enjoy.

29 Weeks: Hopin' and Dreamin'

Things are moving right along with the pregnancy.  Lydia Jane's movements have become a lot more frequent throughout the day.  She still has some "super spurts" of movement but the random punches and kicks have become a lot more common.  I'm still the same health wise, I've just started having super vivid dreams.  I think I read somewhere that this happens sometimes during pregnancy but I'm not sure.  Also stretch marks:  why did I not know these things were going to hurt?!
This week we finally cleaned out Lydia Jane's nursery (for the most part, at least) and it is ready to be redecorated. My grandparents came in town on Saturday buy her crib. This is it:

 I love it!  We haven't gotten the bedding yet, but I wanted to see how the breathable bumpers worked and looked so we put those on.  I have to say, I like them a lot more than I thought I would.  When I woke up Sunday and walked out of our room to see her crib set up it made me so happy!  I can't wait until our sweet girl is in there for me to wake up!
And of course, a belly picture from this week!  Also, I think this picture is a little deceiving, it looks a lot bigger to me in real life. AND I have the stretch marks to prove it is indeed getting bigger!

29 weeks.

Halloween Weekend 2011

Friday night we had planned to go to our wards annual "just for adults" Halloween party.  By the time I got home from work though, it was evident my body was worn out and it was just not going to happen.  By 7 pm, I was asleep on the couch.  What can I say?  You win some, you loose some. 
I woke up Saturday morning ready to hit the ground running and did.  My craft room/library now looks really good!  I have a few more little things to do in there, but otherwise it is completely organized!  Considering it was a junk room in it's former life, this is a great accomplishment. 
Saturday afternoon we had our ward Halloween carnival.  I have never been to anything like it.  Insane doesn't even come close to describing it well.  I was in charge of monitoring the bounce house and basically had to become a nazi to have any type of order.  People let their kids run wild and free which was very unfortunate for the rest of us.  I somehow survived the night, but I don't know that I want to be involved in another Halloween carnival anytime soon.  It was exhausting and afterward there was more crashing on the couch.
Cory and I had originally planned to go as kissing cousins but he had to work in the haunted house so I switched.  Not the most flattering costume ever, but it was comfy!

Me as a basketball player.  Lydia Jane as a basketball. :)

 Me and Cory in his "costume" he put on for the last 10 minutes.  Someone asked him if he was Billy Ray Cyrus! haha. 

 Jenn with a not cooperating Carson.  He was a monkey and looked super cute walking around the carnival.  I still can't get used to him walking!

This is a little too close to tell what Trevor was, but he was a banana!  It was so cute!  I wanted a picture of him and Carson together but I waited until the end to take pictures and that boy was not in the picture taking mood.

Sunday was wonderful, as I have already said.  All of our meetings were centered on missionary work and I felt the spirit so strongly all morning.  One of the talks that really hit me was by one of the members of the ward mission whose conversion story I already knew but the way he presented it was wonderful.  He talked about the friend he had who had to go to seminary and invited him to wait outside.  It was hot outside so he waited inside instead and really enjoyed the lesson.  Another boy in the class invited him to come back the next week.  And that was it.  Two simple invitations were all it took for his conversion to the gospel to begin.  He also talked about other times in his life when he was struggling with things and similar experiences happened to him.  One person issued one invitation and it had a huge impact on his life.  It really made me think about how simple it is to share the gospel with people the Lord has prepared to recieve it.  All we have to do is issue one invitation and He will take it from there.  In Sunday school, we have two great teachers.  They switch off Sundays and I just love them both.  They make the scriptures feel so relevant, which they definitely are but sometimes I think it is easy to get bogged down.  Anyway, they are fun and class is fun.  The ward mission leader spoke to the youth during our 3rd hour and I was pretty jealous of how many answers he got to his questions.  When I teach, I feel like I'm pulling teeth getting answers from these kids.  He did a great job though and the kids really liked him and seemed to pay attention which deserves some type of award in my opinion. 
On Monday we finished up Halloween weekend by passing out candy at our house for the first time.  Last year we went out with Mike, Jenn and the boys, which was way fun.  I also loved passing out candy at our house too.  Cory was super excited about it and you would have thought he just won a prize when the doorbell rang for the first time.  We had some super cute kids and they were all so polite.  I am pretty sure they all said "thank you" which is amazing these days.  We ended up having about 20 or 30, which isn't a ton but we don't have many young families in our neighborhood so I thought that was pretty good.  We still have more left over candy than I would have liked though!  I have avoided all stores the past few days.  Me and 50% off candy is definitely not a good mix!