PREGNANCY

Okay okay! People keep telling me I need to post some pictures of my pregnant belly on the blog. Honestly, the reason I haven't done it yet, is that I keep waiting for my tummy to look more pregnant. I don't know if I just have in my mind some huge tummy, but really, sometimes I feel like I hardly look pregnant. People still come up to me telling me that they barely became convinced that I really am pregnant. They say there is no way I am 6 months along, and that I look tiny. I don't feel tiny, but it does seem like my belly could still be hidden as chubby if I wanted to.

So here's one of just me, although with the dark table behind, you can still barely tell. But the second one where pmc is trying to look pregnant too.....that one is good! Then this one of me at the Baby Expo is pretty good because I got some new cute pregnant clothes!

This week, baby is what we've been about! We are really enjoying our childbirth classes, which we go to weekly. We got to go shopping for a maternity swimsuit (which will provide you with another pregnancy pictures next week, after we go swimming for FHE tomorrow night!). We also got some cute maternity shorts, and the above outfit (the pink shirt being pmc's favorite!). Then on Saturday we got to enjoy the Baby Day Expo at the South Towne Expo center for free. ONEiTY was at the expo on friday and saturday, and I ended up manning many of the hours because employee shortages mean the manager gets all the leftovers! It ended up working out pretty well, even though it ended up being a long weekend for me! We enjoyed entering ourselves in drawings for all kinds of baby things. But we were really upset when, as we were entering the drawing for a pack-n-play, the girl next to us popped the balloon with the winning ticket! ARGH!

Then, last night we had the Married Student Association spring social at the Institute. Even though we are in charge of the activity with two other couples, we nearly forgot. We had stopped at Babies-R-Us to roam their goods, when we got a phone call asking for advice on the limeade......we were so glad they called because we would have forgotten entirely! It turned out to be a lot of fun, even though that and the Expo added a bit of stress to our week. There was a bigger turnout than expected, good food and fun - even with the fire-alarm being pulled in the other half of the building. I couldn't quite get the timing right, but that alarm was flashing and making obnoxious noises!

From This Little Cundick Family...

The last thing we have to share is that today pmc ran out to the car to grab something for me before church, and came in to share that the weather was rather strange. He described it as a the kind of precipitation we call "misting" (under "fog") in Maryland, but with snow. This is where the precipitation just hangs in the air rather than falling to the ground, and everything just looks foggy. But as you walk through it, it really feels like it is raining or snowing. This picture doesn't capture it well at all, but I want you to know that this is exciting to me, it makes me feel at home!

SUNDAY, MARCH 23, 2008

Zoo, Games and Easter

Yep, we're going to pretend that we wrote and posted this last week!!!!

Our week was pretty typical even though pmc was on spring break. We both worked, the only difference was when he worked and having no homework.

Luckily on Wednesday afternoon we both had work off and got the chance to go to Hogle Zoo with Grams, tec, jbc, rvc, tlc, and scc. We had so much fun looking at the animals. Rvc (age 4) wasn't too impressed, often expressing how boring it is to look at the animals in their cages (doesn't seem like the typical child). So pmc and I made up for her by our excitement over the animals: talking about how interesting it would be to live with a long neck like a giraffe, a hump on our backs like a camel, or the thick skin of a rhinoceros. Mostly we really enjoyed the time with family (pmc loves his brother tec!), especially in the nice spring weather!

On Thursday afternoon we enjoyed a game night. First we played Ticket to Ride America with some of the Olsen's, and then headed to the Naylor's to play Phase 10 and Popomatic Trouble! Now since these are two very mindless games, it turns out that pmc and Mike couldn't help but try to make it more exciting. Enjoy their attempt:

Haley and I were rolling with laughter for about five minutes. But the BOYS kept it up the entire game.

On Saturday we enjoyed dying eggs together, although this time we opted for painting them. That night we attended "The Redeemer" at the Salt Lake Tabernacle. For those of you who don't know, pmc's grandfather is a well-known musician who wrote the piece to honor the life and works of our Savior. Even though his style is very different from my "tonal harmony" background, he is very talented and his music is very touching. I'm grateful to be part of such a musical family!I must digress here to tell a funny story, as this blog is intended for our posterity, it's good to have a record of this. Pmc's family may find this funny too, just don't embarrass me by telling Boba! When I was a senior in high school, I played in an orchestra called the Young Artist Chamber Players (YACP). Well, pmc's grandfather wrote a five-movement piece about the cabin (that we love so much) called "The Cabin Suite." Well, YACP was privileged to be the first orchestra to perform The Cabin Suite, during my senior year! However, my stand partner and I really did not enjoy rehearsing this piece, as it isn't the style that we were accustomed to. We often talked about how we didn't like it. When pmc and I were dating and he told me his grandfather's name and what a famous musician he was, and how much he loved a piece called "The Cabin Suite," I kept quiet until we were engaged, before I finally admitted to him that I didn't like it. I guess I was afraid that he wouldn't like me anymore if I told him.

Anyway, we enjoyed our Easter so much. The Easter Bunny brought us a Dutch Oven and Camp Utensils, which we were so excited about! After our egg hunt we enjoyed the afternoon by watching "Special Witnesses of Christ."

We love listening to latter-day prophet's testimonies of the Savior. We know that Jesus Christ is our Savior, and that He lived and died for us, and that He lives again! We know that He has given His authority to our generation and that He stands at the head of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

We then got to enjoy a special Easter Dinner at Grammie and Boba's with more family around!

Oh Sweet Suzie!

On Thursday, I went to pick up Suzie from the mechanic. I drove her home and was entirely impressed with how smooth she ran. But seeing as she's not registered or insured, we didn't really drive her. On Friday, pmc went to get in Rowland to take him to work. No go. Literally, wouldn't turn over, back to the same problem we had BEFORE we replaced the starter (hoping that would solve the problem). UGH! After about 20 minutes, it did finally start, and pmc went to work. He came home in a bad mood, and I was doing everything I could to cheer him up....mostly to no avail! I had taken Suzie to get an emissions inspection so we could get her registered, and they had told me since it had been so long since we drove her, we needed to drive about 100 miles and bring it back. So we finally decided a trip to IKEA might do some good. Within ten seconds of turning on the car and starting up the street pmc had a grin on his face the size of Texas. (this is only about 1/2 as good!)

Suzie has not let us down since, and we have decided to keep her! I am so pleased at this, because after all, she is my dream car. So we're moving in! It's time to put my AGGIE sticker in the window, slap on the UTE license plate cover, as well as the RED SOX license plate cover, and an air freshener! YAHOO! (click on the link, very interesting!) After the last two posts aren't you excited for us? We're excited to be sticking with a good family car.

We attended our second childbirth class this week and talked about how we need to get a car seat, or they'll never let us bring our child home (when the time comes). So we started eying Craigslist, and found a sweet deal on a stroller/car seat combo, Eddie Bauer Special Edition. So we picked that up on Wednesday, and maybe we'll strap in our car seat now, just to make Suzie feel special!

More on baby, we had a doctor's appointment this week, and were disappointed to find out our doctor is leaving for Africa on June 13th (aka 4 days before my due date!). We decided that since we like her so much, we'll stick with her, and have some residents and hospital staff on hand too. Pmc started praying that our baby will come on June 10th (no earlier!).

We've been discussing two names for our little boy ever since the ultrasound. Clark & Cannon. Until now, Clark was pmc's #1 choice, and Cannon was atec's #1 choice. However, lately I've just been feeling like he's already chosen his name, I think he's a Clark. So from here on out (unless things change when he arrives!) we'll be referring to our little Clark Thomas Cundick (ctc).

Aren't these flowers beautiful? They are a symbol of relishing the moment! I've been thinking a lot lately about how if we're not careful, life passes us by too fast. That's one of the reasons we have a blog, and try to update it weekly, so that we don't forget the joys of life! Well, lately, I'm trying to really enjoy pregnancy. My whole life I've looked forward to having children, and pregnancy is part of that. I don't want to wish it away, even though it is full of struggles (sleep-deprivation, backaches, breathing issues, etc.). I am so grateful that I have a constant reminder of the new life growing inside of me, his kicks and punches, his taking up all the space I usually have to fill my stomach, lungs and bladder! Isn't it amazing that Heavenly Father made my body capable of growing another one of His children inside of me? Besides, I can never be too anxious to have him out of me. His cousin smc came at 27 weeks (about what he is!), and while she's healthy, she's very lucky!

Just Waiting...

So, the title of this post is an allusion to my overall position in life right now. Patience is a virtue that thankfully I'm blessed with an above-average amount of (though many of you know that I'm far from perfect.)
First, I'm waiting for life to quit kicking me squarely in the behind. If you read our post from last week, you may remember that car problems had us feeling a bit unlucky. Well, a line from "Pirates of the Caribbean" has taken strong hold in my mind today: "My sympathies friend, you've no manner of luck at all!" This morning, as we headed out to our 7:30 AM meeting, our Subaru (which we're only driving because the Corolla is still in the shop) was putting up a fuss. It was hesitating and sputtering a bit as we headed up the first hill, then as we headed up a second hill, it really didn't want to go and the check engine light came on. We were floored, and truly feel like we have no manner of luck at all. However, after coming home from church and listening to a talk on remaining cheerful despite adversity, we feel like there must be something special in store for us if this keeps happening to us! We didn't think it could get worse, but it has. Fortunately, the Corolla is finished and we can pick it up tomorrow, and we'll probably drop Suzie off too.
The second thing I'm waiting for is an answer to prayer. I have had the hardest time figuring out what I want to be when I grow up. In the blessing my stake president gave me before my mission, I was told that I would have times during my mission that would give me insights into my future career. Well, I sure wish I knew which times those were! I'm really wavering on the Law School thing now, and I really don't know where to go from here. All I know is that I care about people and feel like I could help people find balance and harmony in all aspects of their lives to achieve overall wellness. Maybe I should be a Psychologist? Or maybe I should just write a few books and then supplement by teaching or woodworking or something. I don't really care how much I make as long as it's enough to support the spending habits of my wife and our children (oh, and me too.) There is One who has the answers, but I haven't got them yet.
Thirdly, I'm waiting for the baby to come. And that is one thing that I can wait for! I'm not in a hurry to get him here. On Tuesday night we had our first birth class up at the U hospital. There are four couples in the class (one girl is doing it with her mom), and it wasn't nearly as bad as I had imagined it would be. Everything is still going well with our baby. He really does seem to know when I'm around because whenever I put my hand on atec's tummy, he starts kicking. It's so regular that it has to be more than a coincidence, and that makes me feel good to think that he's getting comfortable with me too and not just atec.
Anything else I'm missing? Oh, I'm waiting for baseball to start, though it's not like I zero in on every game and live or die with wins and losses. If the Red Sox are on, I watch. If not, I usually don't. But it will be nice to have games to help me relax a little. I'm also waiting to get an iPhone... that one is hard for me to wait for. but i hope that when I do get one it turns out to help me as much as I think it will with school and with deliveries at work.
As for this week's song, I HATE IT! It's so dumb to think that we should just wait for everyone else to change things we don't like. If you've got a problem, do something about it. (And, I completely disagree with John Mayer's feelings on the war in Iraq and such, but that'll have to be a post for another day.) That being said, I used this song anyway because if you ignore the verses and just listen to the chorus (J.M. does put out a pretty catchy melody), you can learn something positive from it. That is, your world is going to change whether you cause the change or not. So you need to develop an attitude that you can adapt to the changes and make them work for you, not against you. And when things happen (like car problem after car problem) that make you feel crummy and irritated and tired and forgotten, remember that things will change and when they do you'll feel happy and easy and energetic and proud.
Actually, now that I've written that, I think I'm going to put on a different song... well, I'll do both so that the message still gets across.

Lucky and Unlucky

There is some kind of magic that people talk about referring to young couples with 0-2 children. There is the excitement of still being young and in love, the joys of a simpler life, and the stresses of learning how to handle....real life? UGH!

There are the weeks where we feel on top of the world, like everything is going so right, and we are so blessed. Then there are the weeks where it seems like we can't break even, let alone get a step ahead. But mostly there are the weeks where it seems to switch every few hours! I guess I can see why it could be referred to as magic, but mostly we think it's just a roller coaster.

This week we had one of those lucky and unlucky weeks. Our baby is seemingly as healthy as possible, atec is finally gaining some pregnancy weight (it has been a concern), work and school and home-life have been balancing well for both of us. We spent Saturday doing chores and running errands. Upon finishing our final errand at the grocery store, we hop in our car, only to discover that it won't start. Now this wouldn't be a big deal really, we know that's normal. But we are literally playing games with our finicky cars!!!! Every time we've gotten one fixed, the other one breaks. Really all we're trying to do is get one sold, and go with one car. But, now we have to go through the whole process again of deciding which one we really want to keep. Which one will turn out most reliable and helpful to the family life we are embarking on? If it's having this problem, what other problems will be caused, and where do we end up financially after taking care of them? But aren't we just lucky that we have this problem, that we have two good cars to choose from? Aside from that, there's the ongoing question of what we're doing with our lives, what specific education do we want, and how are we going to balance school and work once we have a child?

Obviously we don't know all the answers and some things will just have to wait, sitting on our minds until we have more opportunities and information. But in the meantime, I guess it's best to just record these things. Did you ever hear your parents tell you about their "first car" when they were married? For posterity's sake, here are our two lovely cars. In all honesty we're rather attached to them. We've named them both.

Suzie is atec's purchase. She loves this car! She bought it on her 23rd birthday. Her whole mission she told her companions that her dream car was a Subaru Legacy Outback. The details of coming up with the money and the courage to actually put all that money forth to make the purchase aren't necessary here, but it really did take hard work!

Rowland is a sort of inheritance for pmc. His car (a cadillac deville....which was the same kind of car atec first drove much) was sold against his will while he was on his mission. So this was kind of the replacement for him when his brother left on a mission. Rowland has some definite loyalties: a Red Sox license plate cover, a baseball stick shift, a Utes license plate cover, and a Ute football helmet hanging from the rear view mirror.

So, even though these cars are giving us serious issues, we recognize that our children will definitely rival them with issues (and expense). And we love them and are grateful for them anyhow!