I got the fever!

I totally have the house buying fever!!!  So since we have been in Vegas, we have discovered that so many houses have gone up for foreclosure in the last few years. Bummer for those people who lost their houses, yeah for us poor college students who can now afford to buy one!!! A few weeks ago we went to visit my cousin and her family and I could not believe how freakin awesome her house was, so I did a little prying into their personal finances. She is a nurse and is the only one who works, her husband is in school right now. They bought their house as a foreclosure. The original owner bought the house for $350,000 (its cute, but not worth that, but I'm sure that was when the housing prices were outrageous) They bought it over a year ago for $125,000!!!! Their mortgage is WAY less then our rent!  Its got 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, nice kitchen with all the upgrades (which is the most important part of the house if you ask me) dining room (not a necessity for me, I'm too casual) just an all around great starter home! So, I totally had house envy when we left her place. Thats what got me looking around, and i think it is totally doable for us! So once Dave gets accepted to Touro for the actual DO program, the search is on!


These are a few that I have already got my eye on.  Its only the kitchen, again most important.  Whether or not they will be available in a few months, who knows! But its fun to look and get an idea of what I really like. I would really like to keep the loan around $100,000 since Dave is in school, and we will probably only be there for 4 years before we move out of state for his residency.Plus that keeps our payments around 500-600 a month! Woot Woot! No point in going all out just yet...there will be plenty of time for that in the future.  





110,000 I like this one but I would be adding a colored, textured back splash. It just seems a little too neutral. 






  
 110,000 This is my least favorite kitchen. I really prefer an island, however this house has 5 bedrooms and a huge back yard (with grass ha ha). No, we don't need 5 bedrooms and we certainly don't need to pay to run the air conditioner to cool 5 bedrooms, I just can't get over the fact that a 5 bedroom house is only 110,000!


  
105,000 Way cute!



102,000 I love love love the dark wood with the stainless steel appliances! But, no granite counter tops? Come on! Ha Ha Ha I guess I could live without. This one for sure needs an island (if you are up for it Dad?). 





109, 000 ISLAND





99, 000 This is my favorite! Even though it is the smallest of all the kitchens, it just seems so welcoming plus the rest of the house is way cute as well. Maybe its because the counters are completely cleared off, just like I like my kitchen to be, NO CLUTTER! So I can easily imagine its mine. Love it!


While I am dreaming, I might as well keep going. These are my DREAM kitchens! Some day...right Babe?










I LOVE the refrigerator disguised as cupboards! And the double oven. I had one of those in my last house and it was awesome!

minus the funky vineyard pictures!

Dear Weight Watchers,

Dear Weight Watchers,

I think I need you!  Last night I had a wake up call to how big I am getting, and I did NOT like it! I turn to you because I recently came across some before and after pictures of Jennifer Hudson. Can you do that for me too?  I would be eternally grateful and forever in your debt!

Let me explain why I am in such a panic. Last night, I was in my favorite comfy pants. They are cute, light weight and have an elastic waist band! I pretty much live in them these days. I went in the bedroom to talk to Dave, and as my bottom approached the floor, I heard the awful, dreaded rrrrrrrrrrrrip. I instantly assessed the damage, hoping for only a small and repairable hole. To my horror, I found a hole about the size of David's head! AHH! In his most sympathetic voice he could muster, while holding back his laughter,  David said " Oh sweetie, did you rip your pants?"  I was already on the floor laughing. I laughed so hard I cried, or maybe those were real tears? Hard to tell.

I hope you can help me. The things I have heard about you are great! You have quite the reputation for helping girls like me. I hope we can be friends even though I have gotten so big. Please don't judge me.   I look forward to meeting you in the near future, and hope we can have a long, meaningful friendship!



Sincerely,



"Bare"ly covered

Sunday School

Dave got a new calling today. He is the new...Sunday School President! It's perfect for him. It will allow him to still focus on school cause its more of a "Sunday" calling, but he will still be able to give the calling the time it needs.  Good job babe! I'm so glad I have a husband who is always worthy to hold a calling in the church!

Pumpkins and Eggnog

Last night fall was in the air. We carved pumpkins, cooked the seeds and made our own home made egg nog! I didn't actually carve, I drilled, but same idea.

                                            Our little family! 

                       Poppy's pumpkin! Its my favorite one. Dave did it.

EGGNOG! 

This was so good! I just put all the ingredients in the magic bullet. Of course I never measure anything so I have no idea how much of each. Just till it tastes good. 

Whipping cream

Evaporated milk or Almond milk, frozen in ice cube tray (good idea mom!)

Rum extract

Vanilla extract

Nutmeg and pumpkin spice

Few drops of stevia

and a raw egg in Daves 

coupons

So I jumped on the couponing band wagon, and I think its time to jump off. I had a friend in Utah who did it and taught me the ins and outs of how to use coupons and get great deals. What really inspired me was her food storage room! It was incredible! Plus, she had gotten really sick and they had been living off their storage for the past year, because she never felt like going to the grocery store. She said she spent pennies on the dollar for everything in there and often times got things completely free. I was all excited about it after talking to her. She made it look so easy.

So we started getting the Sunday paper and I started saving the coupons. Every Sunday I would flip through them and MAYBE pick out one or two coupons that we would actually use. It was a little depressing at first, but I kept with it thinking that this must just be a "bad week" for coupons. The following week was always the same thing. My problem is that most of the things that go on really good sales are things that we don't eat, like Fruit Roll-ups, or Lucky Charms, or Hamburger Helper or Dorito's. (don't get me wrong, Dave still loves his Dorito's and occasionally we'll get them, but not often enough that I am looking for coupons to save us money cause he habit is getting expensive ha ha). Its all the processed things that only actually cost 10 cents a bag that go on such great sales, cause they can afford it.

So what about the good food? Do we ever get a break on that? As far as I have seen, No. Does anyone out there coupon? Am I doing it all wrong? Or am I missing an important step? Do the coupons I am looking for only come around every blue moon? If anyone has any suggestions, I am all ears! Now that Dave is in school, I'm definitely willing to do the work if it will really save us food money every month!

sunday stuff

I really love my calling!  The sisters are awesome! They are so engaged in the lesson, they participate, ask questions, many of them read the lesson before class, tell of their own experiences and share their testimonies. No one sits there with a glazed over look on their face (like I was used to with my massage students ha ha ha). Its how every ward should be! I love my calling because it is helping me get to know the other sisters in the ward.  When they announce over the pulpit "so and so had her baby, or so and so is in the hospital" I actually know who they are talking about. Knowing them, makes it easier to love them and want to serve them.  I always felt so disconnected to the Relief Society in our other ward, being in the YW, I never knew anyone and they didn't know me, and I had no clue as to what was going on one week to the next. While I still miss being in the YW, I am really glad to be teaching the Relief Society sisters. Mostly, and most selfishly, I love my calling because of how much I learn! I teach out of the Gospel Principles manual, which can be a little dry and very plain. So I always try to "beef" it up a little with additional quotes and stories. Its fun! I always stay within the bounds of the lesson, and never include "twinkies" as we called them on the mission (stories passed down with no factual evidence, just mormon folk lore that won't really help your spirit grow, like a twinkie! They taste good, but no nutrients to help you physically grow).

Todays lesson was on the spirit world. The lesson was so short in the book, only 2 pages long, so I definitely needed to help it out a little bit. That was tricky, since its the spirit world, its not like there are a ton of personal accounts/testimonies about the spirit world like there are about tithing, word of wisdom, sabbath day etc. But I was able to come up with a few things. I started the lesson with a story of the Smith family (reason 962 why I am glad I served a mission, random Smith stories swimming in my head. And who doesn't like a Smith story. I love it, cause I like to include stories but don't always want to talk about me and my experience or in this case, I didn't have a story that would relate.) I told the story of the death of Joseph's oldest brother Alvin. He was young, engaged to be married and building a big beautiful home for his future family and also for his parents to live as well. He wanted to ease their burdens and make them more comfortable . On his dying bed, he said good bye to the kids one by one, and to Joseph told him to take care of their parents and to do all he could to obtain the ancient record.  He died of gangrene in his stomach, due to a lodged dose of calomel administered by the doctor. Much later, Joseph received D&C 76 as revelation to the after world that gave him comfort to know that anyone who did not receive the gospel on the earth, but would have accepted it had it been available, will inherit the Celestial kingdom. After the story, to start the lesson I posed the question, what happened to Alvin after he died?

We talked about the spirit world, what its for, what we do there, where it is located, what the spirits look like and the 2 divisions there.

I used D&C 138 especially while talking about spirit paradise. This is a very cool section. It was a vision Joseph F Smith had, and then gave as his talk for General Conference. Shortly there after, the 12 and patriarch decided it was revelation and added it as scripture.  He sees the spirit world as Christ is there visiting the righteous after his crucifixion. Christ basically organized the righteous to do missionary work to those in prison. What I never realized before (and its kinda a duh, I guess I just never thought about it) is that missionary work on the other side did not exist until Christ's death. Christ had to bridge the gap between the 2 different places. Can you imagine how many people where in prison from Adam to the time Christ died? WOW!

Smith mentions how the righteous gathered to get started on the work. He specifically mentions several of the righteous who were there. Adam and Eve, and their worthy children. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Moses, Noah,  Daniel, Ezekiel... Wow, imagine that gathering of saints. And imagine your missionary is the senior couple Adam and Eve, or you get Abraham and Moses showing up to preach the gospel to you.

Dave and I wondered if there is a prophet on the other side?( I definitely did not bring this up in class) Who knows? What I do know is the same organization that exists here, is there as well. The same priesthood callings exist as well. If that is the case who would the prophet be? And how long has he been serving? Prophets here are done serving when they are dead...ha ha ha Poor Adam, he's been at it a long time. Ha Ha Ha. That is totally me making speculation!!! And getting into my "What if" doctrine that I will never know the answer to in this life. But it's still fun to think a little deeper and go out side the box a little to look for answers.

I  love learning about the gospel. There are so many layers to the church, that it is perfect for everyone no matter where they are in life or in their knowledge of the doctrine.

jealous?

Yesterday morning I woke up to my husband cleaning the bathrooms! Woot Woot. Both bathrooms! That means he scrubbed 2 toilets! Ha Ha Ha. There really is no better sound to wake up to then the swooshing sound of the scrub brush in the toilet bowl! We reinstated date night, now that I'm up to it again, so later that night Dave made me dinner for our date. Delicious pork chops in a yummy marinade, and greek pasta (burnt butter with lots of garlic on rigatoni with parmesan cheese...to die for!) with a green salad. It was sooooo good. Dave is a great cook! He doesn't do it often, but when he does, wow! Then we went and saw Harry Potter 2, finally! Ha ha. What a great date day! I'm definitely counting the bathroom cleaning as part of the date, cause that was the best part!!!!!

                       

Top 10 things that have saved me while being pregnant

This top ten list will probably change as I get farther along but for now it stands as this...

10. Lemon juice and stevia- during my first trimester water made me gag! Even the thought of it would make my stomach start turning. Normally I love water and I drink it continuously through out the day, but that came to a screeching halt! I know better then to believe that getting some sort of liquid down is better then nothing at all. I need water. So I stared adding lemon juice and stevia to my water and was able to get it down. I could drink my regular amounts every day and keep the baby healthy by not drinking sugar pop all day.

9. Dresses- I bought 2 floor length dresses with an umpire waist. I seriously wear them almost every day. Besides Dave's sweats, they are the most comfortable thing! Ha Ha Ha. Best investment I've ever made!

8. Tennis shoes- Oh my feet! First of all, after I got home from my mission my sister started calling me "hobbit feet" because they had flattened out from all the walking/standing all day. So my feet are already in bad shape it begin with. Now, they are much worse! The only thing that brings any relief (besides sitting) is to wear my tennie's. I wear them as often as I can. Yep, I even where them with my dresses. Ha Ha, those who know me are probably dying laughing.  They give such good support I just can't resist.

7. Realizing its OK if I hate being pregnant- Many women say they love being pregnant, and they have never felt more beautiful! That is a bunch a crap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  But of course I felt like there must be something wrong with me for not loving it. I started really getting in my own head and thinking that I am going to be the worst mom ever because I am not enjoying it now. Then one day I snapped out of it and realized that it was totally ok that I'm not enjoying this right now, and I will still love my baby, and we will still have a special bond, and I'm going to be a great mom! Whew, glad I figured that one out!

6. Chocolate Greens- While I was going through my really sick stage, I wondered how the baby was possibly growing with out getting any nutrients? While that is a miracle I will probably never understand, I found the best solution. At any health food store, they'll have a selection of "greens" Its a small jar of all the best things for you, dehydrated and ground up. It'll have around 10 servings of organic fruits and veggies, antioxidants, fiber, enzymes, probiotics, vitamins, minerals and even a little protein. The kind I usually have is more veggie based, so it is literally a green drink. But there is enough fruit in it that it really doesn't taste so bad. (Trust me, I have the gag reflex of a 3 year old eating brussel sprouts). Despite the not so bad taste, there was no way it was going down, and staying down!  SO, I found a chocolate greens! They add organic cocoa to the mix and its delish! I would mix it with Almond Chocolate milk (the only kind of chocolate there is if you ask me. Its dark and sooooo creamy! And that is coming from the girl who will drink whipping cream out of the carton) Anyway, I was able to get something healthy to the baby every day and if nothing else, it gave me peace of mind.

5. Bare Mineral Makeup-  I have been wearing this for a few year and I love it. I love it even more these days, now that I really need it! I have gotten the ever so lovely pregnancy mask.  Which is basically dark spots on your face. (Very similar to age spots) I have a pretty big spot on the bridge of my nose, on the right side and a lighter one under my left eye. Yep, I look like a boxer who just lost! Ha Ha. Dave, my Dad and sister Cassidy have all tried to wipe it off, thinking I went a little crazy with the makeup. I just sit there while they wipe it and wait for them to realize it aint goin no where!  Bare minerals is the only thing that even comes close to covering them up. Just a few extra dabs and it just about disappears. Other concealers don't even compare!  They say that baby girls steal they're mom's looks while in the womb. If thats true, then its definitely a girl!

4. Netflix- I don't know what I would have done without Netflix!!! I watched sooo much T.V. while I was sick. Not my proudest moment, but some days it was all I had the energy to do. I stared and completed Mad Men (thanks Ya Ya), I watched at least 5 seasons of Seinfeld (thanks Dave) I finished the last 3 seasons of Lost (Dave again), All of 30 Rock and Battlestar Galactica (ha ha, yep Dave) a ton of sappy romantic movies and at least a million documentaries. Undoubtedly the most unproductive time in my life. Dave would argue that it was THE most productive time of my life, growing a baby and all. Thanks for the perspective babe!


3. Midwife- My midwife Kat has been the best! She comes to my house and usually spends about an hour and a half with me. She answers every question I have and then some. She has really tried to inform me about what is going on with my body. I feel very empowered with the knowledge she has give us. I always pass the info on to my mom and many times she will say " wow, I never knew that". or "I wish someone would have told me that."  It feels good to be doing things the way I am comfortable with, and what I think will be healthiest for the baby.

2. Organic Ginger Tea- If Dave wasn't so great, this would be #1!!! To put it bluntly, I had pretty much stopped pooping. I would go about 2x a week. And it was awful every time! I started taking a ton of flax seed morning and night (which normally would clean me right out) but it didn't do a thing! I was miserable and started hating going to the bathroom cause I knew what I had to look forward to. Well, before we moved my sister Davi brought me some ginger tea for my nausea. One wiff of the tea bag, and I packed it up and put it away. I wasn't going to put it near me because of how sick it instantly made me feel. After my nausea went away, I was reading the box and it said it was used for digestion. I was desperate to try anything. After one cup of tea, the next day I though I was sick because of how much I was going.  The tea cleaned me out for about a week. Then, I was going normally and regularly!!! Now I have a cup every night with cream and stevia and I no longer suffer from the typical "pregnancy constipation" This may not seem like such a big deal, or that it should be at #2, but trust me, it totally is #2 worthy!

1. Dave- of course my sweetie pie husband is #1. He has been so great through all of this. He has been supportive of my changing body and moods and acts as though he doesn't even notice them (maybe he doesn't and I am giving him more credit then he deserves ha ha). He has never once complained about a lack of prepared dinners. He didn't get a cooked meal from me for 5 months, so that is pretty impressive. (But during his first block week, he was home most of the week and I tried to cook him breakfast, lunch and dinner to makeup for it). What I appreciate the most is him never making me feel guilty for taking care of my self. That means sleeping in till 10 or 11, watching T.V., taking a nap in the after noon, more T.V., buying Arby's for dinner and off to bed. All the while he would go to school early, stay late, study all night, do the dishes, take out the trash, check on me if I was "sleeping too long" and get me what ever I needed/wanted to make me more comfortable. What a man! So glad he is MY man! I couldn't have made it through with out him.  Those days are behind us now, and just the other day Dave said to me, "Welcome back!" Ha Ha Ha. It feels great to be back!

mystery of the missing mole

Dave has really great skin. Especially on his back. He maybe has 3 hairs on his shoulders, depending on his hair cycle. Thats is. Its smooth and soft and delightful to the touch,  but he has these 2 gigantic greek moles on his back. He told me he wanted to get them removed, but never did because he had a huge one on his arm removed and now there is a shiny scar on his arm about the size of a lime.  Not worth it.

But then I come along with my "voodoo hippy magic cures" and had just the solution. Its a salve called Can-X used to remove any growth on the skin, and can also be taken internally in a pill form to remove cancer. I got it from my dad, he is the real genius when it comes to this kind of stuff.  My mom removed a mole, so I knew it would work, and with just a little sweet talk Dave was ready to try it. 

First you have to poke the skin with a needle just around the mole, then you put the salve on. Dave said it really stung, but not unbearable. After the first day you just clean it off and put on vaseline and a bandaid. Every morning after he showered, I would slather on some more vaseline and put on a new bandaid. At first it was totally fine and didn't bother me at all, and then it got NASTY! The salve starts eating around the mole (where I poked the holes). So the hole gets deeper and deeper, and the mole gets looser, but it stayed attached at the "root" for about a week. It was mushy and gushy and I could hardly look at it anymore.  It was making me gag every morning, but I started it, so I couldn't abandon the mole now. 

So one night...in the middle of sexy time...and I swear I am not trying to write this like a romance novel ha ha,  I reached around Dave to rub his back. I just put my hand down and and left it there. Now obviously my mind was only registering one thing at a time, and it wasn't focusing on my hand or where my hand was or what my hand might be touching.  I felt something wetish on my hand, but I had a way delayed reaction to what it could possibly be. Then it hit me! I jumped of the bed  and screamed. I started doing the spider dance (you know the one where you think there is a spider on you so you jump on one foot, brushing your hands all over your body, mostly on your shoulders and arms. You shake your hands in the air incase the spider has somehow survived the vigorous jumping and might be spinning a web in between your fingers. And of course you shake out your hair cause if the spider layed her eggs in your hair, well you're going to die. Yeah, I did that dance.  And yep, I did it naked) I can only imagine what was going on in Dave's mind. Wondering what in the world did he do to cause that kind of a reaction. Ha ha ha

I screamed, "YOUR MOLE!!!" We both instantly started cracking up. He knew exactly what I meant. By now we are laughing so hard we are almost in tears.  Our stomachs hurt so bad from laughing so hard.  Just because of the whole situation. How could you not laugh?

In the bathroom light, we discovered that sure enough, the mole was gone, and the whole was gone.  In its place was fresh pink skin. Dave was so excited to find it cause he wanted to examine the underside of the mole. We started looking on the bed, and it was no where to be found. I took off all the sheets and shook everything out, while he watched, hoping to see his mole come flying out. Then we searched the floors with a fine tooth comb. No where. We even looked on the walls and shelves, thinking maybe I flung it off my hand in the middle of my dance. Ha Ha. It wasn't anywhere. How could something so big and dark just completely disappear against our beige sheets and light carpet color?

We never found the thing. We looked everyday for a while, but eventually we just gave up. When we moved, we joked that maybe it would pop up, but no, its still gone. Maybe it dehydrated and shriveled up when it came off his body? Who knows? All I know is that is definitely one way to ruin the mood!

                  WARNING! THESE PICTURES ARE NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART!!!
                                         (but I want you to feel my pain for how nasty it was!)


                                           
                                                                       First few days

Totally gross how the salve eats away at the mole. But cool how it only attacks the mole, 

not anything else. 

                                                    All done. Mole is completely gone!

6 months today!

Today Poppy is 6 months old B.B. (before birth) and is growing, growing, growing. In 4 weeks, my stomach has grown 6 inches! According to (her?) age, she is about a foot long and weighs just over a pound (and gained 4 ounces last week)!  My Uterus is the size of a soccer ball and I am really feeling it! I have started to notice a slight waddle when I walk, my feet feel like they are going to pop at night because they are so swollen by the end of the day, and I have gained about 30 pounds so far  (notice the double chin? AHHHH). But I know it will all be worth it in the end!

       Ok, Ok I've gotten a lot of requests for belly pictures...these were taken today, at 6 months along

                                             

Look ma, I finally finished it!

We went to Utah a few weeks ago, and my mom and I went to my favorite store, The Wood Connection. They precut all sorts of cute things to make all you have to do is get a little creative and put it all together. They had soooo many cute things, but I finally decided on this "fall" sign. I turned it into my own and made it completely different then the display they had up. Its taken me a few weeks to get around to it (my desire to accomplish anything has gone out the window since being pregnant, I hope thats not permanent!) It was easy and fun and actually really relaxing! I can't wait for our next Utah trip so I can buy more holiday decor! (I'm sure Dave is glad we've put some distance between me and The Wood Connection! Ha Ha Ha)

6 a.m. this morning

Ew! Ew! EW! EW EW EW EW!!!  Woke up this morning to a cockroach between my boobs! Ha ha ha. Not really sure how it could even fit in there, since by boobs have grown exponentially while being prego, but somehow it found a nice little warm, dark spot and was probably hoping to set up camp for a while. I was just laying there in bed, waking up, and my whole body felt itchy. I kept scratching my back and head and then I felt it! I reached down and FREAKED out. I flung it right on out of there. Dave bolted up out of bed faster then I'd ever seen him move in my life. I felt kinda bad cause I think my sudden movement scared him. Ha ha But he is the man (said in a deep strong voice, while pounding a fist to your chest) so he was instantly up and crushing the thing to death. Oh man, what a great way to start the day. The worst part is I have been feeling "phantom cockroach" all day. Now I have two complaints about Las Vegas. People smoking in buildings and now of course, cockroaches!!!

ha ha ha David

Dave is crackin me up (as usual). He just watched True Grit last week, where John Wayne taught him the proper way to drink his alcohol from a big ceramic jug. You gotta throw the jug up on your arm and use your arm to lift the jug to your mouth. So since we buy our water in gallon jugs, thats the only way he can drink it. He looks like a pirate. Of course its awkward to drink that way, and half the water falls out of his mouth cause the angle is weird, but he's gonna keep on doing it till he finds the next trick to amuse himself with. Ah, I can't wait till our babies pick up on all the "daveisms" they'll be surrounded by. Flicking their boogies on the floor, walking to the bathroom with a way exaggerated hip swing, weird voices, filling in words with the word "place or thing" when he can't think of the right word ( I have to admit I do that one too now) and now drinking out of the jug like a real cowboy! Ha ha ha ha