Last Day At Work!!!!

Today is my last day at work, before I have the baby. I am glad I decided not to work right up to having the baby. I think I would have lost my mind. I still think I may loose my mind.
I am looking forward to making to do lists everyday, that include things I want to do!
Like pedicures, reading, making pies and cookies, walking, scrapbooking. (I am trying to catch up with my scrapbooking right now. I am barely into summer 2008. I would really like to keep up with this, my whole life. I really enjoy doing it. For me Scrapbooking is like a family journal with pictures and things we have colected from trips, outings, and fun around the house. I really like adding little stories to the pages as well! so much fun!)
I digress...
I have been working on getting things set up for when I am gone for the last month or two, updating the testing bible, cleaning out files on the computers, training, fileing, and cleaning. I spend most of today creating tests. which was nice because it made today zoom by!
I am going to miss it here. I really love working at East Shore. (probably why I have come back 3 times!) I am looking forward to February when I do come back to work, and work nights. Also I am really happy with who they hired to replace me durring the day! He will do a great job! Infact I have felt like the third wheel for the last week because he is doing so well. That is a big comfort to me, because I have put a lot of time and work enforcing the rules, so students know I don't mess around when they are naughty.
This also means my posts may be less frequent. Oh well, maybe there will be more substance to them... I don't know
Also on a funny note:
I have been walking wround UVU while Justin has his early class. It has been great exercise, and I feel much better throughout the day because of it. In the last month though The Daily Harold has been at the school petitioning to get their newpaper in the school. Which it ok, I don't have a problem with it. But as the weeks have gone on they have become more and more agressive. Usually I walk in a group and try and avoid them. Why, I don't go to school at UVU and if I want a newspaper I will pick up the New York Times. They also have the Deseret News for local news. (sorry Daily Harold) When they have asked I usually politely decline. Well, yesterday I got a petition shoved in my face, I didn't like that at all. So I told them flatly No I would not sign. Today they were in the halls again. And they asked me agian and I said no politely. (Seriously, I am the only 8 1/2 month pregnant woman walking the halls of UVU at 8 in the morning. You would think they would have recognised me by now. And known I was not going to miraculously say yes.) As I was walking away one of the guys said It dosn't cost the students anything, and a few other things I didn't catch, so I said "Yeah well what does it cost the school?" He said nothing, and I kept walking. (At this point I am thinking UVU could spend their money on something worth while, like a track...)
When I walk I also make a circut, so, I got to see them again, and they started to ask and then realised it was me and said, "you said no". I smiled to myself, finally they get that I don't want to sign the dang petition!
Thankfully, I will not be seeing the daily harold people anymore at UVU. And I am sure they will be glad not to see me either.

16 days?

Whoa! only 16 days!! That is insane! Seriously, seeing that makes me want to go home from work right now and do a ton of things. I need to make a to do list...

Nosferatu

I thought it would be fun to update you on our new rat.
He has improved socially since we got him last week!!!!! I am so happy about that!
Yesterday we observed him climbing on the cage! Also, I got him to come to me, which was really cool. He still does not get the whole treat thing. We gave the rats peanuts in the shell last night, and I though for sure he would attack it, nope he wouldn't touch it. But, he does love toilet paper rolls. He just devourers them. We gave him a paper towel roll yesterday, and he spent most of the evening trying to drag it into his apartment. Silly guy. He is also not clingy anymore, mostly he wants to get away and run around so that is great! ( I kind of miss him clinging to my feet and resting in my arms.) He is still a little timid, and not potty trained. But I think we are on the right track and even making progress!
Magellan still does not like him, he tolerates him a tiny bit better now, but he still tries to get at him. For instance, he will reach through the bottom of the cage and grab his feet, or if he is out he tries to dig through the bottom of the cage to get at Nosferatu. It is kind of funny to watch, but still not good. Macbeth could care less most of the time, but still is not ready to accept Nosferatu.
We still have work ahead of us, but it is nice to see progress.

Pum[kin picture!

Ok, I am super glad my sister got this shot with her son. It is super cute, but it is a really good picture of what my pumpkin looked like. (I REALLLLLY REALLLY loved it)

Enjoy the glory of my pumpkin!!!

oh, and the cuteness of my nephew, the bee.

New rat and sickness

Well, last week was super fun for me. I started to get some nice painful contractions. (nothing close enough to even think about going to the hospital) I was also very uncomfortable. And I got sick, I woke up and my neck felt swollen, and my nose was out of control. So, I decided to not go into work. I ended up staying home for the week, sleeping, eating bananas and drinking lots of fluids. I am feeling pretty good today, apart from a little stuffiness, and being uncomfortable. Justin was also sick. It was actually really nice just to spend some time together. But, with a baby on the way we decided to get some projects done. So, over the course of the week, I finished a stuffed animal or 2, re arranged our room, built a crib, took down Halloween decorations, and started scrapbooking.
We also took a quick trip to Petsmart to get some rat supplies, Justin also wanted to look at the rats, and maybe get one. We got there and looked at them in their cages. They were pretty cute. We held a few, and I picked one out. He is now my rat, Justin informed me, I named him Nosferatu. The name for some reason just fits him nicely. We have been working on integrating him with Magellan and Macbeth, but no real success stories yet, unless you count terrifying the new guy so he hides everytime youget him out. But progress was made yesterday! He now will explore and is also getting better at being picked up an handled. So hopefully we are on our way to getting him integrated better. We also maybe getting a couple more rats. A neighboor had some and her kids are having an allergic reaction to them so she is looking for a new home for them. So in the next few weeks we may be getting 3 new additons to our family!

Guy Fawkes 2

The moral of the story: Don't try and blow up parliament, unless you want people burning you for the next few hundred years.
the reason we decided to celebrate Guy Fawkes Night was because we had a scare crow we were going to throw away from Halloween. It happened to be November 5th, so why not celebrate Guy Fawkes day! Afterward we thought that this could be a fun/silly family tradition we could have. Next year we will invite a few more people and have marshmallows and maybe baked apples.
Currently Guy Fawkes day is celebrated with fire works and bon fires all over the U.K.

Guy Fawks Night

Guy Fawkes Night is celebrated in Britain annually on November 5th. The event is accompanied by firework displays, the lighting of bonfires and the ceremonial effigy-burning of one Guy Fawkes. The origin of this celebration stems from events which took place in 1605 and was a conspiracy known as "The Gunpowder Plot," intended to take place on November 5th of that year (the day set for the opening of Parliament). The object of The Gunpowder Plot was to blow up English Parliament along with the ruling monarch, King James I. It was hoped that such a disaster would initiate a great uprising of English Catholics, who were distressed by the increased severity of penal laws against the practice of their religion.

Gifts

Last night I registered for baby gifts. It was super fun! This was the first time I have registered for anything. .
No wonder people register at 3 or 4 places.
Anyways, for those that would like to know I am registered at Target. I am surprised at how many books I registered for. But, I really like books. And, most of the ones on the list were some of my favorites as a child. I just couldn't help but scan them. I am really excited to have this baby! There are just so many fun things I want to show him!
Every day it gets closer!!!
And I get a little more uncomfortable and excited!

1 month

1 month!
I can't believe I made it this far. I really thought I was going to die the first few months. (It made me wonder how people can do this over and over again. Stronger women that I, that is for sure.)
My biggest issues right now are swelling and weight. I just hate how much my feet swell. It is so nasty and uncomfortable. Weight... I know I have gained 15-20 pounds more than I should have. I just feel unhealthy. But in a little while I will experience the quickest weight loss one can, in just a few hours. So I guess there is that too look forward to. Oh, and also I get a baby!
Really, if that is all I have to complain about at this point, I am Very, very, grateful.
at this point I wonder if the baby will be early, late or right on time...
What do you think?

Unbelieveable kids meals

I read this article on MSN today: The 20 Worst Kids Foods in America
I was completely shocked at how high some of the calories were for children. Seriously, there are a few meals that go over 1,000 calories!!! No wonder we have a problem with childhood obesity in the U.S.
Also, this makes me want to make home made dinners for my family even more. There are also alternatives with the article, usually blasting the high calorie dinner in half and sometimes more. Gosh it seems like they will soon need a little green leaf next to items on the kids menu saying which ones are more healthy...

Totally blew me away.

Camra Sadness, Halloween Fun, and New Washer and Dryer!

Well it was a fun weekend here is a small play by play of what happened.
Friday Night: Got home relaxed, and found out my family was going to be gone for the night. I was able to have a spooky romantic dinner with Justin. We then decided to relax and watch T.V. together. While in our room the rats had a fight, a BIG fight. Justin got them separated, and found that he had blood on his arm. We both were scared, there really isn't much you can do for such a small animal, especially one who will just eat any bandage you put on it. It was Magellan who got hurt, on his foot. We watched him to make sure the bleeding stopped and that he was not in any danger. Then we knew we needed to put him in a sterile environment so the wound would not get infected. So we got out their travel cage and added some clean bedding, and food and water. Well, they did not like being separated. Macbeth spent a little bit of time running around looking down at his brother. Magellan, was wondering around the small travel cage looking up. It was pretty sad.
So, somewhere in the last 2 weeks I broke our camera. The display does not work anymore. I am going to see how much it will be to repair of replace it. Man, this could not happen at a worse time. I am about ready to pop, and we would not have any pictures! I am also super bummed that I didn't get any pictures from this weekend.
Saturday: We woke up to Magellan pounding his little hands on the cage trying to desperately get out. He looked a bit stir crazy. We let them out and played with them for a little while. After we put them back into their separated cages, I wen toff to eat. When I came back in the room Justin told me to watch Magellan in his cage. So I did. After a min. or so he started pushing on the top of the cage and was able to open it!!!! Crazy! So, we had to put little book on top to keep him from opening it. I then spent the rest of the day helping my sister get ready for the party. We decided not to do the sugar cookies, because she didn't want to. (which was fine because I don't think we would have had time) The chocolate ghosts turned out really great! It just took a few to practice on (the first 5 were pretty bad looking). And, When it says teaspoon they mean a spoon you serve iced tea with, not a measurement spoon. One I got all that figured out they turned out awesome. I am going to try and do snow men this Christmas with the same recipe. We got everything set up and ready around 4ish. Justin and I then were off to the pet store to get more bedding for the rats. It was nice and relaxing to see all the cute puppies and various other animals. It made me super sad to see the feeder rats and mice. I really like our rats. It is pretty hard to not want to come away from a pet store without wanting to take all of the pets home. We got back to the house and I was off to get myself ready. I decided to be a pirate, because it was super easy and I knew we had pirate stuff in the house. (I am really sad I don't have any pictures of my costume because I thought it turned out pretty dang good. It was around 6 when I was finished getting ready. I had to hop on getting final details ready outside and inside. I frantically made a quick Halloween mix for the party. Alas, I wish I had more time. but next year I can add a few more scary songs to the mix.
We also got a new (used) washer and dryer. My parents Dryer was finally dieing after about 23 years working. (For the past few months we have been hanging our cloths out on a line.) It has been nice but really hard to spend all day doing laundry. My dad and little sister were great and took over dinner duties for me. (I was annoyed with myself, we were supposed to eat at 5. Just not enough hours in the day...) Mean while, Justin was out back cutting off dead branches from the willow tree and prepping the pit for a large bon fire. Guests and trick or treaters started to arrive!
It was great to see my sister and her family! They were Dressed as the little bee and the BeeHive. Super cute! After all or most of the guests had arrived they spent some time out at the bon fire. It was pretty huge! Justin burnt 2 more broken chairs on it, which made it super bright and very hot. The guests then went inside and started playing games and generally having fun. I was able to go outside and spend most of the evening with Justin, it was a perfect Halloween night, no wind not too cold and almost a full moon! We had a few surprise visitors, My cousin Berlin and a friend came by to say hi and visit for a moment. And my cousin Laura and her roommate stopped by for a quick visit too! It was fun fun to see them all. Laura was dressed as the queen of hearts, the coolest part of her costume was that she had a pink croquette flamingo from the movie! I loved that! Justin and I then prepped things for the glow stick fight my sister had planned next. (Basically you cut off the ends of glow sticks and fling the liquid at each other. I know it sounds dangerous, but that is what she wanted to do.) It was fun to watch the kids run around glowing. Then a little bit later my brother and his friend with came over with their Rave car. Seriously, he has a fog machine, laser lights, a disco ball, and a good sound system. Such a silly looking this to see in your drive way... We also had another really fun house on our street this year, they had tons of pumpkins lights and a grave yard, all synchronized to the music from the Haunted Mansion. It was fun to go over and see it. Then all the guests left for the dance, and we started to clean up the worst of it. Then I was able to spend another hour or so out side with Justin, and that was really nice.
Sunday:Well I spent Saturday Night and part of Sunday morning feeling sick. I suspect it was from over doing it Saturday combined with being kicked in the stomach on the hour every hour all night long. So, I was not going to go to church. I slowly got up and ate, and started cleaning things up. I spent the morning with the rats, while Justin cleaned out their cage so we could put them back together again. They spent the morning on my shoulder while I cleaned. The rats were super happy to be together again. Afterwords, Justin was like shoot, since I am home I am going to switch out the washer and dryer. I was like wholly crap that is a HUGE project. But once Justin sets his mind on doing something, he does it. (oh, my parents also went out of town that morning for a funeral) So, he got started cleaning out the laundry room and moving out the old stuff. (Also, after 3 or 4 hours I was feeling much better that day. Which makes me think it was my silly baby kicking me...) I was sent out to get some pipe dope for the gas hook up. Which made me laugh because I was super afraid I would go into Home Depot and ask for dope pipe or dope for my pipe. Something silly like that. But I didn't! And, the guy knew precisely what I needed. By the time I got home Justin and my little sister had removed the old washer and dryer and had moved in the washer, and were getting ready to move in the dryer! Justin installed everything while my sister and I worked on organizing and throwing away old socks, and other things from the laundry room. My brother came home and helped us finish everything up. and we ran a few loads through the washer and dryer and no leakage from the gas!! It was a big thing to get done. I am super glad to have that project out of the way. I think my parents are too. The house is looking really nice right now. Unfortunately this week I need to take down all the Halloween decorations which will make another temporary mess. Thankfully the next big decorating project is not till Christmas. I just have a few more projects to do before then, making stuffed animals, finishing a crib...
I just hope I will be up, and able to get everything done before the baby comes!