Four Great Years!

Last week was our fourth anniversary and I have to say, it feels amazing.

We had a great time celebrating by going to see Phantom of the Opera at Gammage. Leland's first and only encounter with Phantom was the movie so he was excited to see it in person. He said he actually preferred it to the movie. I hadn't seen it in so long it was great to reexperience the magic of it all on stage. The flash of light and loud bang at the beginning of the overture startled me (and Carter) and got my eyes watering a little. Leland thought I was crying (maybe I was, a little). All in all it was a fantastic night and we had a wonderful evening together.

(Of course I don't have a picture of us at Phantom because I'm totally lame. Note to self: stop being lame and take more pictures.)

I've been contemplating the last four years of our lives and it feels pretty great! Of course we've had the little ups and downs, but never anything major. And then getting sealed in the Mesa Temple two years ago. Many struggles were placed in front of us as we made our journey towards the temple, but we overcame them all with each other and the Lord's help. There have been a few health scares (Leland's dirtbiking accidents, my heart condition and the procedures for that) but we've always come through.



Then our big surprise this year, a baby. I can't say enough how grateful I am that our prayers were answered regarding my heart condition before I got pregnant. That was biggest reason we pursued the most aggressive treatment option, so that it would never be an issue during a pregnancy. And so, even though we weren't making any baby plans, the Lord was watching out for us and taking care of things before we even knew we would need them. Not six months after my third and last procedure to stop the electrical "short circuits" in my heart, we were pregnant, and not of our own choosing. The Lord certainly does do things in his own time.

We're also excited to be buying our first home (hopefully to be closed on next Monday, the 23rd). This is a huge event for us and we're very grateful to be blessed with the opportunity and ability to do this, especially since our family is growing by one.

I'm starting to get a little teary eyed writing this (dang hormones!) but I just want to wrap it all up with how amazing my husband is. He is my rock and I can't imagine what my life would be without him. I'm so proud of all he's done for our family by finishing his Associate's program at ITT Tech last year and becoming an elder as we were preparing to go to the temple. I know he's going to be an amazing father to our son (and any other children we have). I'm so blessed to have him as my eternal companion and I'm excited for what our future will bring.

Quit Touching Me...

I'm aware this isn't a new subject for a pregnant woman to have an issue with, but bear with me because I need to vent my frustrations. Anyone reading this should know ahead of time, if we are close enough that you know about and read my blog, I'm not talking about you in this post.
I have never been incredibly comfortable with touching other people or having them touch me. Hugging, for example, is one of these touching scenarios. I only do the "side hug" with male friends because I'm of the opinion that, as a married woman, I shouldn't be pressing myself against a man that isn't my husband. This doesn't apply to all men; I have no problem with normal hugs with male family members who I'm close with (i.e. my dad, brothers, cousins).

Another example is the pat on the arm/back vs. the rub on the arm/back. If we are friends, I don't have a problem with a pat on the arm and a, "How are ya'?" But don't come up to me and start rubbing your arm up and down my back and ask me, "Are you doing okay?" Friction of any kind should be kept out of platonic touching. I certainly would not want my husband doing this with another woman or a married woman for that matter.

And now for my belly. I have not had one woman touch my stomach without asking or me offering. This is because women understand that, though there is another person occupying my abdomen, it is still MY personal space. While my female coworkers (and even my mother-in-law) have all asked if I'm okay with them touching me, a few of my MALE coworkers have assumed that it's fair game and have repeatedly touched my belly without permission. Granted, I am on good terms and friendly with everyone who has done this AND I really don't mind a small pat or brief touch. But in what part of our culture, is it appropriate for a male, non-relative to attempt to rub another man's wife's pregnant belly? When I say "rub" I mean in circles over and over. Some of these guys are married; I'm pretty sure I wouldn't even want my husband touching another woman's pregnant belly, let alone rubbing it. I'm not a freakin' Treasure Troll! And some people are getting kind of offended that I'm telling them to stop, like I have a problem with something that's totally normal. It's not normal! And I'm the one who gets to be upset, okay?

Example (and not the only one I have): I went to the movies with my mom last and as she and I were leaving the theater we ran into a male friend of mine from work with his sister going in to see a movie. During our brief conversation, he went to touch my belly and started to rub in a circle. AWKWARD! I said, "Dude, don't go rubbing on it." He responded by laughing and reaching for my stomach AGAIN. I had to wrap my arms around my belly and turn away to get him to stop. Even his sister said, "You can't just go rubbing on pregnant women like that."

So thank you all for letting me rant (not that you had a choice, I'm posting this whether you end up reading it or not).

Our Fishies

So one of the big issues with our moving in with David and Lawanna's house was what to do with our fish tank. One of our fish has been pregnant and releasing babies as they get big enough to survive on their own, but we were concerned that during transport some of the little guys would be hurt or eaten since there wasn't anywhere for them to hide. We ended up separating the momma fish and the babies in one of Bryan's extra tanks and then we set up the rest of the big fish in another small tank. We're going to wait until we get into our house (or wherever we're going) to set up our big tank again.

Here's some video of the momma and babies. She just released five more little ones (they're schooling at the top of the tank) and the few that survived our big tank and the move are all down at the bottom. You can see the momma still has some incubating in her mouth because of how puffy the underside of her mouth is.

This is the rest of our fish or at least the ones not hiding behind all the rocks at the time I took the video.

Great time at the Baby Shower

My girlfriends, Tina, Kelly, and Anna, did a baby shower for me today at work. It was so fun and lunch was really yummy. I got all kinds of cute PJs and things for the baby.

It was great that Lawanna and my mom were able to come spend some time at the shower. My friend, Tina, got me a tiara that said "New Mom To Be" so I had to wear it for a little while.

As for the "Guess Lauren's Belly Size" game, everybody OVERestimated except for my boss, who won with a perfect match on the ribbon length. Here Tina and I are measuring my belly to check everyone's guesses against.

Just one of the many cute outfits and PJ sets. Mom gave me this one with the fire truck on it, very appropriate. She also managed to find one with little weiner dogs all over it. So adorable!

Moving is a lot of work

We moved in with David and Lawanna over the weekend. Friday night was our last night sleeping in the apartment. I'm still getting used to being in a house with other people. I've had four years of just me and Leland so I never had to worry about being so quiet in the morning or late at night.

The apartment is pretty much empty now. I have a few last things to get into a "miscellaneous" box but it's down to bare bones. It's been really great that David and Lawanna were willing to clean our their gym room and let us invade their house. My parents volunteered to have us stay with them but it ended up being less of an intrusion to be at the Daniel home since they just have one left at home (Bryan) and my parents have three.

Also yesterday I worked our annual Fire Prevention Week Kick-off which was fun, but tiring. At least I earn time and a half and I can save it up for my maternity leave. Here I am eating a popscicle trying to keep cool. The weather was great but it got warm a few times when the wind died down.

Here's our fire chief in the dunk tank to raise money for a local charity. He was such a good sport; the two firefighter clowns that were running around the event decided to shovel a ton of ice into the dunk tank when it was announced that Chief Campbell was going into the tank.

The House Hunt

Here's the skinny on what's going on with our house hunt. We haven't been too vocal about the fact that we were looking because we weren't sure how successful we would be.

So, the lease on our apartment is up on October 13th. We had been contemplating what kind of move to make with the baby coming in December since we would need a little more room than our current 2 bed/2 bath apartment has. I know that sounds like plenty of bedrooms, but with Leland's work in IT and all the "stuff" we had stored in our office closet, there really wasn't room for a baby since we need a dedicated space for an office.

Leland was really pushing to buy a house because of the market and because he doesn't want to keep moving around. I had been fighting this because I am still wary of home buying ever since our bad experience two years ago. We had gone through the process of building a home from start to finish and ended up walking away from it. We lost our earnest money ($1500) but it's a good thing because we probably would have lost our house when the market collapsed. Anyway, we talked about renting a house because the rent on quite a few homes was the same as our current rent, but Leland kept coming back to buying. Long story short (or maybe not) we currently have offers in on two houses in Leland's parents' and the Gallachers' neighborhood.

The first offer is on a short sale and has been accepted by the seller. We are waiting for their lender to approve it, which shouldn't be an issue since they had a previous buyer fall through after this purchase price was approved by the lender. Now it's just a matter of waiting for their official response. This house has 4 bedrooms, which Leland likes because our office will always have a dedicated space even if we have more kids.

The second offer went in late last week and we are hoping for a response sometime today or tomorrow. This one is a bank-owned home and is a smidge bigger than the first. It has 3 bedrooms and a larger living room than the first house, which I like because I want to be able to have people over without feeling crowded and have lots of room for our kid(s) to play where we can see them.

While all of the offers were going in and we discovered the second house, I was going through some really stressful emotions. We were concerned that we might lose our earnest money (since we've done that before, it's a little more of a big deal to us) if we had offers accepted on both homes, but we didn't want to put all of our eggs in one basket just in case something crazy happened with the offer on the first house. But after a little clarification from our realtor (I'm sure he thinks I am crazy because I've called him 10 times in one day and that's happened more that once) we are much more calm about everything because we won't lose our earnest money if we end up having to choose between two houses. I had myself so worked up and one point I was ready to withdraw our offer on the first house because I thought there were too many things I didn't like about it.

I realized I had to take all my stress and scared feelings about this and turn them over to the Lord. I asked for guidance in making the decisions regarding this and also asked for help in knowing that everything will work out the way it's supposed to. Since this I've felt a huge part of the burden lifted from me and I feel like I will be okay with either house. I am just feeling so blessed that we can even buy a house, it's such a blessing to be able to provide that security for your family and I needed to realize this and focus on it. I know that no house will be perfect and that we'll need to make adjustments for the little things we don't like and REALLY I should be grateful for my wonderful husband and the healthy baby we have coming and that we will be happy no matter where we live as long as we have the gospel and love each other.

In the meantime, we'll be moving in with Leland's parents until we can get through escrow with whichever house we end up buying. This is another blessing that I'm grateful for. This will allow us to save paying rent for the next month and a half (at the increased month-to-month rate) and that extra money will help us buy the baby's furniture as we move into our house.

My family came over to help us pack on Saturday and it was such a huge help. I'm not able to bend over or lift anything anymore since my ever-expanding belly is getting in the way. We got so much done and it was such a relief to come out of my room where I'd been packing my closet with Leland and my mom and see that dad had finished packing all my photos and decor items in my living room. We'll be moving our furniture and boxes to a storage unit over the next two weeks and moving our bed and clothes to David and Lawanna's house this Saturday. Thank you to everyone who has helped take parts of the stress of this away from me.

24 weeks and counting...

Today we have reached 24 weeks (16 to go) in the pregnancy. Man, does this little guy like to punch and kick his mommy. You can find Leland and I most evenings laying on the couch together which gives Leland lots of chances to feel our little guy moving around. My mom finally got to feel him. She actually felt a little one and then a couple minutes later happened to catch one of his big ones and boy, was she surprised how hard he kicks. It amazes me every time he gets on a roll and I have to stop whatever I'm doing and just look down at my belly. I even started seeing his kicks pop up all over my tummy, it's so fun to watch.

This past week has been fairly relaxed but mentally hectic. Allow me to elaborate...

I was able to spend some time with my coworkers at a Girls' Night get-together on Tuesday which was very fun. I don't usually see them outside of work though a few of us do regular lunch dates.

Thursday night was Beauty and the Beast at Hale Theatre which was enjoyed by all. Leland especially like LeFou (Gaston's lacky) and I enjoyed the music/singing. I've never heard any of the additional music that was added for the Broadway show so I had fun hearing all the new (to me) songs.

Friday night we watched Coraline with Tyler and Angie at their place. Definitely not a children's movie, but I really liked it. It's very Tim Burton, except for all the color (and no Johnny Depp). I think I'll be adding it to our movie library.

Saturday morning mom and I met and drove together to Kara's baby shower. One of the games was to cut a piece of string to guess the size of the mommy-to-be's belly. I looked at Kara, then looked at myself and decided to measure my own belly as my guess. My string was 3 inches longer than hers!!! And she's due in 3 weeks while I still have 16 to go. Someone explain this to me, please!

Saturday night was a spontaneous trip to the drive-in movie with Leland's sister, Ashley and her friends. We saw G.I. Joe and Transformers (I had trouble keeping my gaze from drifting over to the Time Traveler's Wife screen). I had a blast! Not only has it been forever since I've done a drive-in movie, but I've never been to one with Leland. I definitely want to make this a regular occurence, but we need camping chairs or something because my pregnant back was not appreciating sitting in the bed of the truck through two movies, even though I was sitting on much blanket and pillows.

Now for the mentally hectic week: We are moving in approximately 7-8 weeks and I haven't started packing or found us a house to rent. Everyone I call says I'm looking too early and they don't even want to show me their properties, but if they need 3-4 weeks to process my application than don't I need to be looking now??? It's very frustrating. Today's errands include going by Uhaul to get a few boxes and start the packing of the office. I just hope everything with this move works out smoothly because I can't handle any extra stress.

Weekend in Pinetop with the Daniels

We did a 3 day trip to Pinetop this past weekend with Leland's family. It's so nice to get away and be able to relax. Lawanna (Leland's mom) asked me to do breakfast for the weekend which was fun. I love having something to plan and it's nice to be able to contribute.

We left on Thursday evening after work and picked up Bryan (Leland's younger brother) and Ryan (Bryan's friend) and we were on the road by 6pm. I don't know what I was thinking, but I decided to read for the first part of our drive, which was on a fairly winding road. At least the carsickness dissipated after we ate dinner at Arby's in Payson. We stopped at Walmart to get just the necessities for the next morning's breakfast (french toast and fruit) and arrived at the cabin just before 10pm. Grandpa and grandma Burgess were already there, along with David and Lawanna.

We made the obligatory trip to Walmart for the weekend's groceries on Friday morning after breakfast and also picked up a few DVDs for the weekend and some makeup for me (I left mine at home, guh!). I wasn't about to have pictures taken all weekend without makeup...Sorry. Ashley (Leland's sister) and Corinne (a friend of the family's staying with Ashley while her parents are out of town) arrived Friday evening and we had fun chatting and catching up on the latest that's been going on with all of us.

Tyler (Leland's older brother) and little David (our nephew) made it up on Saturday and they made lunch for us. It was a Chilean way of eating hot dogs, called completos in Chile, with all your condiments (ketchup, mustard, mayonaisse) topped with diced tomatoes and then sealed inside the bun with mushed up avocados (not guacamole). It was really yummy! Apparently in Chile they eat their french fries with mayonaisse so a few of us tried that also. I was boring and stuck with ranch for my fries. We played a few rounds of Phase 10, a game new to most of us, and then yummy dinner made by Lawanna.

Sunday was great! I got up and made my Grandma Jane's Peach Breakfast along with eggs, bacon, and hashbrown patties and then we watched the second of the Work and the Glory movies called American Zion. I've never seen any of these movies and I'm looking forward to buying/watching all of them. Peach Breakfast (like cobbler, but more breakfasty since there's oatmeal in the topping) was a huge hit with the family! Grandpa and Grandma Burgess left a little after breakfast to get back home for the monthly home evening with the extended family, but the rest of us stayed for the rest of the day. We didn't on the road until around 5pm because it started raining (the only rain we got) and we wanted to sit and enjoy it. The drive home was fairly short (3.5 hours) and then we were home.

I sure do appreciate that Grandpa and Grandma Burgess allow us to use their cabin as a getaway during the summers. It's always great to get away from all the technology and errand running and just spend some good time together with family.

The Twilight Pilgramage to Forks

Okay, I know I am playing catch-up because we went to Forks two and a half weeks ago. But I thought you'd like the run-down of the trip.

Who came on the trip:

Bennings - Kelly (the mom), Ashley (the oldest, also trip organizer), and Laura (the youngest)

Clarks - Lisa and Lauren

2 friends of Laura's (the three of them just graduated high school)

1 Benning cousin

2 teacher friends of Kelly and Ashley's

Thursday, 7/16: Phoenix to Portland

Mom and I flew out of Phoenix and arrived in Portland. That night we went with our whole group (they drove from LA) to the Viewpoint Inn, the sight of the filming for the prom scene in Twilight. A friend of Ashley's who she met by submitting a paper for TwiCon (the Twilight convention) happened to be in Portland while we were there and came with us. She fit in with all of us perfectly! Dinner was amazing and dessert was even better. There were eleven of us for dinner that night so we bought one of every dessert and just kept passing them around after one bite. It was so fun! There was a mishap with a brandy soaked cherry (my mishap...for the record we were eating outside and it was pretty dark at this point) at which point I told everyone NOT to eat the berry things next to the whipped cream. Three people chose NOT to listen to me and all made the same gaggy faces and noises. Then the plate got around to one of our non-member friends who tried it and explained what the deal was. All in all - a GREAT evening!

Friday, 7/17: Portland to Forks

We stopped at Multnomah Falls just outside Portland (rumored to be the waterfall from the baseball scene in Twilight...It totally wasn't unless they used some serious movie magic and just put the waterfall in the background). Then we drove 5 hours to Forks and arrived at our rented cabin. It was BEAUTIFUL! Everything in Washington really is "green and squishy" just like she says in the books.

Saturday, 7/18: Forks and La Push (it's La Push, baby...)

We had lots of fun driving around and visiting the Welcome to Forks sign, the many Twilight stores, Dr. Cullen's reserved parking place at the hospital, and having lunch on La Push beach.

Sunday, 7/19: Sequim Lavender Festival.

A couple hours drive from Forks the town of Sequim (pronounced squem) is the North American lavender capital and happened to be having their annual festival while we were there. We had lots of fun shuttling from the street fair in downtown out to the different farms where you could pick your own lavender, buy all kinds of lavender products, make lavender crafts, and even eat lavender lunch. We ended up at a farm with a restaurant at lunchtime and had lavender lemonade, cranberry lavender vinaigrette on our salads, and mom and I split a lavender creme brule for dessert. It's funny, lavender doesn't taste like how it smells. It's a very light flavor that you almost miss if you're not looking for it. It's in the rosemary and thyme family of herbs and can be used in all kinds of cooking.

Monday, 7/20: Olympic National Park, Hoh Rainforest, and Sol Duc hotsprings.

We did some hiking in the morning in the Hoh Rainforest, a part of the Olympic National Forest. Mom and I even did a 3/4 mile hike (GO MOM!) and then rested while everybody else went for another hour. The afternoon trip to the Sol Duc hotsprings was fun. Not quite what I expected, but good. Ashley (my best friend and organizer of this amazing trip) said it made her think of human stew (it totally was human stew). I knew it would be smelly, but really the only bad thing was walking through the locker room to find a spot to change, and spotting a REALLY naked person in the showers. YIKES! Let's just say none of the people in our group were really comfortable with the semi-public nudity. The evenings festivities included playing Twilight Monopoly (created by my friend, Ashley) and a poetry reading by the younger girls on the trip. They wrote an Ode to Forks which included all the little fun tidbits of the trip.

Tuesday, 7/21: Farewell to Forks.

We packed up and drove out of Forks. The convoy dropped us off at the airport in Portland with my friend's younger sister (she was flying back to BYU in Provo). About 20 minutes after we all checked in and got rid of our luggage, she realized her backpack (containing laptop and schoolbooks) was still in the car. The convoy had to turn around and bring it back to us at the airport. We all left on our respective flights and finally arrived home.

This trip was quite an adventure! Our group was so much fun and I was really surprised that with 10 women in one house and two cars, we didn't have more issues. Mom and I had so much fun together and I'm glad I was able to do this with her since I'll have a little person in my life to coordinate things around shortly.

Click this link to view our group's blog. The Ode to Forks is on there, along with some other pics of the trip. http://welovethecullens.wordpress.com/

Lots to do and playing catch-up...

Back at work again on Monday and I'm a little overwhelmed. I had to get map books copied and bound (of a neighboring city) so they could be distributed today; that took all morning. And because I'm leaving for a week of vacation, I've got to push my deadline up for sending my updated data to Mesa for the new dispatch maps. I was supposed to have another week after I got home from vacation to get that done, but he pushed up the deadline to while I'm gone, so I guess I've got to get it to him before I leave.

Mixed in with my deadline for work, I need to get my Mythology homework done for this week, because I certainly don't want to have to do it on the trip.

Now that I've ranted, I can talk all about how much I'm looking forward to this trip to Portland, OR and Forks, WA. Mom and I will be flying out on Thursday and meeting everyone else in the group (a few of the Bennings and some other friends) in Portland for the first leg of the trip. Friday we'll drive up to Forks. I'm so glad that my mom is able to come with us. This is going to be so great for us to spend time together and for her to have a chance to really relax. She's excited since this will kind of be my "last hurrah" as I'm going to be a little more confined in my vacation taking ability once the baby comes.

Now to catch up on what's happened since my last post: We had our Level 2 ultrasound last week on Tuesday which was quite fun. Both grandmas (Lisa and Lawanna) were able to come with me and Leland and we'll all enjoyed being able to see our little man in all his glory. Apparently, the tech at our first ultrasound wasn't able to get the angle right while viewing his heart, so they wanted to do another one to get all the pictures in detail. I'm not complaining. It's made it feel a little more real being able to see him. I still don't quite believe it and even though I'm constantly feeling all his little pokes and kicks now, I still have trouble imagining that in about 20 weeks I'm going to be holding a tiny person in my arms.

Schoolwork has been a struggle since I've been so preoccupied and, let's face it, just plain tired. I need to be better at not procrastinating until the last minute. At least it's online and I don't have to go to campus or anything, but the reading is quite time consuming.

Speaking of reading, I reread the Harry Potter books over the last couple of weeks (well, I listened to the audiobooks at work, it just makes the day go faster) starting with Half-Blood Prince. Then continued to 7, the Deathly Hallows, and back to the beginning with 1 through 5. I'm hoping to get through Half-Blood Prince one more time before seeing the movie on Wednesday afternoon. I wanted to see it at midnight on Tuesday night, but I don't think I could function at work the next day with how tired I've been lately. Some of the photos for the movie look great, so I hope they do it justice.

Great News...

So Leland and I finally got to go to our ultrasound this past Monday. Last week went by at a snail's pace since we were anxiously awaiting this appointment. We were really hoping to find out if we were having a boy or a girl.

Our little one was quite squirmy and did lots of flips and kicks (which Leland found amusing) during the ultrasound, but stayed still long enough that we could check on the gender.



And it's a BOY! I can't describe how excited we are and Leland, of course, is elated that he'll have a little man to play with and teach to dirtbike. We already have a couple of little dirtbiking onesies a friend gave us when we first found out we were expecting. I was a little nervous that a girl would look silly in a Travis Pastrana onesie, but Leland said she'd have to wear it and we could just put a bow on her head. But it's a moot point now. Our little man will look so cute in them, I'm sure.


I do have another ultrasound next week. The doctor looked at the pictures from the one we had this week and said the baby's position stopped them from getting a good view of the heart. I saw it fluttering just like it should, so I'm not worried. Maybe we'll get some more pictures to post of our little guy. In the mean time, I'm just bursting with excitement over this news.