goldenpallooza comes to an end

My golden birthday has come and gone, but it will always be a memorable one for sure! David spoils me waaay too much, and this year was no exception. I continued to draw my "gift"every day and every day it was a surprise! Among my favorites are (still) the foot rubs! He has no idea how much I love them! My feet ache so much, I couldn't ask for anything more then a foot rub! By the end of the month, he has gotten REALLY good at them! One morning I drew "Dave the poet" he wrote a poem about me and read it to me. It was so sweet and mushy-gushy! It had me in tears.  My new christmas cd is also among my favorites! Of course I can't forget the body pillow, with the snuggly cover, either. This thing is awesome and really helps me sleep better at night. I keep it on my side of the bed, cause if it was in the middle, I would be fighting him for it all night! ha ha  For my actually birthday, Dave brought me breakfast in bed. Actually it was more like brunch in bed ha ha cause all I want to do is sleep these days. French toast made with Texas toast (seriously the best french toast I have ever had!) and turkey sausage with orange juice! My favorite breakfast foods. It was delish! My day was casual, more like dragging,(which included a nap. Thats right I said a nap, even though I woke up around 10, I was ready for a nap by 1 ha ha) and before I knew it Dave was home from school. While I went to the store, Dave cooked me dinner. I don't know why he has been hiding this secret talent of his, but it is time for it to come out! He made us rosemary lemon cornish game hens, artichokes and yummy Italian garlic bread. Every thing was cooked to perfection! It was like I was at a 5 star restaurant. The flavors blended perfectly together. Seriously, soooo good! And for dessert, my absolute favorite, a sonyo from Carrabbas! Layers of brownie cake, chocolate mouse and whipped cream with chocolate sauce drizzled on top. MMMmmmm!  He really out did him self! I choose to stay home for the rest of the night. We watched a movie at home, instead of going out. It was perfect! I felt like a queen being waited on hand and foot. Thanks Boo for such a great birthday and a way fun birthday month!

While I am talking about how awesome Dave is, I might as well keep going. He would probably never tell anyone this, cause he just isn't like that, so I guess that is what wives are for right? To totally brag about their husbands when ever they get the chance. Despite his little freak out right after blocks, Dave is doing awesome at school! He is going to pass all his classes! Which we are finding out is not the case for most of his classmates. Many of them are going to have to remediate a class or two. These classes are tough, and Dave makes it look easy! He just told me that in Anatomy, he only missed 3 or 4 questions on the final! That is pretty amazing in and of itself, but then he told me that there were only 6 people in the entire class that even passed the test, and of course he is one of them! Dang boy! So proud of my man!

After re-reading this post, I realize that when Dave reads this he is going to get a big head about how awesome he is, as we can't have that now can we? Ha Ha, so to include a minor and freaking funny detail I left out earlier, Dave practically burt the house down while cooking my birthday dinner! Ha Ha Seriously I had to evacuate the premises because the smoke was SO thick I could NOT breath. He had steamed one artichoke and just put the second one in. He didn't check to see if there was enough water left in the bottom pan for the second one, and unfortunately there wasn't.  He just plopped it in and went on cooking. He was putting a few things away in the fridge and in 2 seconds it was pure smoke in the kitchen. The pan basically started cooking itself. Ha Ha Ha Ha. It was the funkiest smell ever! Burnt artichoke with teflon. Ha Ha. We opened every window and door and took the pan outside. We were coughing so hard cause the smoke was so thick. Fire alarms were going off like crazy and our neighbor even came to check on us it was so bad. The bottom off the pan was bubbling and completely ruined.  The smell was not going away and there was no saving the pan. I didn't want to be eating the bottom of the pan for the next few meals. Ha Ha. Man+Kitchen=Adventure=Yummy food despite the adventure!!! Ha Ha. Still proud of him though, and he is still just as awesome!

ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Well, another weird and annoying side effect of being pregnant has been discovered. I have started SNORING! I'm not talking about a little snort hear or there. I mean full blown, wake my self up 20 times  a night, sounds that could wake the dead, need to get breathing strips, I think I am taking after my dad cause you can hear me through out the house, I am so embarrassed I can't even believe I am writing about this, snoring!  I have never snored in my life! Maybe the occasional cute little girl snore would come our every now and then, but that is not what is happening now. I really think its because of all the extra fat I have on my neck and chest (you know all big fat dudes snore!)  Poor Dave wakes me up every night to get me to stop or to roll over, but as you can see in the video, I even snore on my side ha ha ha ha so there is no rolling me over to get me to stop! I am snoring like an old grandpa! Dave has heard me snore while he is in the other room studying, with both doors closed. He was in the other room when he heard me the other day and decided to get it on video. I do sleep with a fan blowing on my face and unfortunately you will hear the fan in the video. Just imagine how loud it would be without the fan! 

chica, fille, ragazza, devushka, girl!

Its official. Our little poppy is absolutely, 100% with out a doubt a...GIRL!!!  Modern science, holistic medicine, old wives tales and my own "mothers intuition" have all come to the same conclusion! Yahoo, we are so excited to have a little girl in our home. We went shopping and bought a ton of pink stuff after the ultrasound. I can't wait to make cute little (or big ha ha ) flower hair bows and head bands, and have a closet full of ruffles and sparkles and pretty things. We decided that the cutest outfits were the "big people" clothes for babies. Like little Puma, Nike or Polo sweat outfits, or a puffy vest with jeans etc. outfits that adults would wear are so dang cute! Poppy, I hope you are up for playing dress up with me!


                
   

Her cute little adorable face. Of course she had her arm in front of her face the whole time we were there. I can't even begin to imagine where she gets this weird sleep with her arm on her face thing! Bwahahahahah! Looks like a Daddy's girl already!

Aunt Cassidy

I got the cutest text from my sister Cassidy the other day:

"Dear Miss Poppy,

 I love you so much. I can't wait to meet you! We are going to have SO much fun and I will teach you things your mom and dad won't want you to know:) you are going to be absolutely beautiful. Thanks for being part of my life. Love you so much.

Love always,
Aunt Cassidy

P.S. Jessica, please read this out loud so poppy hears. Thanks:)"

What a cutie! So glad Poppy has Aunts to spoil her! Cassidy has been begging me to get married since I moved out of the house when I was 18. She has wanted me to have kids almost more then I have. After the first month of being married she started asking me if I was pregnant yet. Ha ha. I am so glad that Dave got accepted here, so we are only a 5 hour drive home! Love you Cass! You are the best!

Sunday Lesson

I taught Relief Society today. The lesson was about the signs of the Second Coming and also the Second Coming ( 2 lessons combined into one). This was a really fun lesson for me because I love learning about all the signs that are/have/will happen before Christ comes again. Some of them are major huge, make no mistake about it, like the building of the New Jerusalem,  and others seem to be happening all around us and we hardly even notice anymore because its so common like wars and rumors of wars.  Wikipedia has a page that shows all the wars that are currently going on now and also all the countries that are "near war". Sooo many of the countries are "near war" its not even funny. That is definitely a rumor of war if you ask me.  We discussed several other signs of the times as a class with lots of scriptures as well. Like the Book of Mormon coming forth. E.B. Grandin was commissioned to print 5000 copies of the Book of Mormon in 1830. Today we are almost at 150 million copies! That is some major growth! We talked about the constitution hanging by a thread. I read a quote from Brigham Young who said it would be the Mormon Elders who would save the constitution. I tried to keep it as unpolitical as possible, but healthcare reform was brought up, as was gay marriage.  We briefly talked about, mostly in regards to healthcare, that those kind of ideas take away our freedom to choose for ourself, the very freedom that this country was preserved for and founded on. Mitt Romney was also mentioned. Regardless of if he wins this election or not, anyone can see that he is laying some ground work for the "Mormon Elders" to save the constitution. Many other signs were discussed...these woman are smart and they know their stuff! Ultimately at the end of the lesson I realized that the signs we are given are not there to scare us. Although they may seem scary and even life threatening, God doesn't give us signs to make us afraid. Instead He gives us signs to remind us to prepare our selves.  "No man knoweth" when Christ will come again, only Heavenly Father and because He knows, He us just giving us little warning signs along the way because he loves us and wants us to succeed in our life mission and be prepared for anything that may come our way.

random thoughts since I've written last...

First, an update on my birthday pallooza! Its been the best birthday ever! Every morning Dave brings his little box of "gifts" for me to draw one. Is been so fun, and he has been really creative in his gift giving.  Some of his gifts have been...a foot rub (my favorite), he's made dinner, rented a movie and bought me a treat, gave me a cute little outfit for poppy, I got a guitar lesson (which I love as well, I took lessons once and, well you know how life gets, so hopefully he can help me pick that back up again), he bought me a scrabble board (ha ha I think he bought it for himself though).  We are always playing words with friends and I think out of 100 games he has beat me twice. Maybe he thinks that with an actual board he'll have an advantage? Ha Ha Doubt it! If you can't see the score you Dave: 189 Me: 321. Ha ha. Keep trying boo boo!

 He gave me a gift certificate for a 60 min deep tissue massage with an additional 30 min foot rub (heaven!!!) I even drew a wild card, which means I can choose whatever I want for my day, so I chose to have the carpets cleaned. (They have been looking pretty scary these days)

       
                       (now that is sexy!!!)
I know in my little box I will be drawing an ultrasound of poppy so we can once and for all find out what this baby is!!! Unfortunately I haven't drawn it yet. This has been so much fun and I can't wait to see what the next half of my birthday month has in store!


Last night we went to the temple.  We were the last ones to leave the Celestial room. As we were leaving the cute little worker stopped up and said " You two are a beautiful couple. You look like a couple of movie stars. You are just stunning.  Your husband is striking. You are just beautiful together." I just about burst into tears right then and there!!! I wanted to pick her up and put her in my pocket and take her home with me. She was so sweet and I am sure she was inspired to say that, cause I'm definitely not feeling that way, quite the opposite actually. Pregnancy is taking its tole on my body and my self esteem.    And it doesn't matter how many compliments Dave gives, I just can't always believe him because 1. he is my husband and HAS to say those things to me and 2. Its not what I see when I look in the mirror. I don't know why hearing that from a total stranger is so nice, but it just is. If you are a woman, you know what I mean. I felt like that was just a little tender mercy, as silly and vain as it may seem.  Its nice to know the Lord is aware of even our simplest needs and sends others to lift us up when we need a boost.

Dave has survived another block week. He studied so hard! We hardly saw each other. I could squeeze about a half hour out of him for dinner and that was about it. He took his Physiology test on Monday, Bio-Chem on Wednesday and Anatomy on Thursday (well only half of it because the computers all crashed when they got to a particular answer, so he will finish anatomy next Wednesday) any how he felt really good about Physiology and felt pretty bad about Bio-Chem. He got his Physio scores back and they were not what he expected. They were lower then he was hoping for. Which was fine, but then he really started to question himself about Bio-Chem. He was positive he was going to fail the class. He was so down on himself. I felt so bad for him, but just kept telling him to wait and see his scores, and I kept reassuring him that he would still get into the DO program next year. He was all doom and gloom, jumping the gun and assuming he was out of the running for next year. He was saying things like, "what am I going to do? I don't want to be a Physicians Assistant, or a Physical Therapist, or a Naturalpath, I just want to be a DO!" I told him to keep his blinders on and not worry about other careers right now. It will all work out. Last night he got his Bio-Chem scores...he got an 80% on his test! Yahoo! Who gets an 80 in Bio-Chem? Freaking geniuses thats who! In a snap of a finger, the old Dave was back and happy as ever. Nice to have him back. I am glad we are there for each other to help out when we have those freak out moments. These last few days really opened my eyes to the pressure Dave feels to suceed and accomplish his goals. I am so proud of him and all the hard work he does!






               

David's blessing

Today David got set apart as the Sunday School President. His blessing was so great.  The blessing told him that although he has councilors and he should utilize them and get their opinions, He is the President and the mantle rests on his shoulders and he is ultimately in charge of all decisions. They reminded Dave that his family comes first, even before this calling and there will be times when he will have to decide what is most important to him. (Later when we were talking about this, we were wondering what this could possibly mean, since the Sunday School President is pretty much a "Sunday calling" but I am sure we will find out exactly what it means eventually). The blessing talked about our "choice" spirit coming into our home soon and how that will bless our lives. Also, that as Dave magnifies this calling, he will be given the righteous desires of his heart. The blessing finished with letting Dave know how proud the Lord is for the decisions he has made in his life.

What a good man I have! Grateful that he is mine forever and that the Lord is so aware of us.

7 months

Yesterday was Poppy's 7 month mark, so the countdown officially begins! According to my electronic counter, only 83 days till birth! Crazy how fast its gone when I look back and how far away it still seems when I look ahead. This baby feels like it is training for a MMA fight or something. I can see my whole stomach shake at some kicks and punches. Of course I notice it the most at night, while I am TRYING to sleep. Ha ha. Yesterday our midwife came over for a check up and we were able to feel the baby's little head and feet! So adorable and tiny! I don't know how I can feel like a professional line backer when the baby is so small. One of life's little mysteries I guess. I am gaining more and more weight. Its weird, and it doesn't seem to matter what I do, I just keep gaining more. I already asked santa for a treadmill for Christmas, since I won't be able to go to the gym with a little one to take care of, but hopefully I can sneak in a mile or two while baby is sleeping (after my nap of course!) This has certainly been an experience in life I will never forget, and I am grateful I have a chance to be a mom!

Golden Birthday

This year is my golden birthday, which means I will be turning 29 on the 29th. I'd never heard of a golden birthday before I met David, but apparently its a thing. Golden birthdays are supposed to be extra special, thats why they are "golden." Unfortunately this does not mean that I will be getting gold for my big day, but Dave is determined to make it special so he is celebrating my birthday all month long! Starting today, every morning I get to reach into a little brown box and draw a "thing" for the day. I'm not exactly sure what that means just yet, but Dave told me some of them are really awesome and some are just fun or cute little things. I don't care what they are! He is doing/giving/making something for me every day for a month!!! YAHOO! Today my little drawing was for him to make dinner tonight. (I know I have mentioned before how much I love it when he cooks.) He made buffalo chicken wraps, and they were delish! More goldenpallooza to come...