Funny things Ryan said

I realize I am far behind on blogging (our move, new house, trip to Tenn/Miss, BYU game.... to name just a few). But since my evenings are precious "get unpacked" time (yes, still), I'll just mention a few things while I can.

~ The Sunday before BYU's first game I was in the kitchen finishing making dinner and I heard some rap song along the sounds of Eminem coming from the laptop Ryan was looking at. I asked Ryan why he was listening to Eminem and if what he was watching was Sunday appropriate (hello nag, but I said it teasingly). His immediate response: "It's actually TJ Fredette. And yes it is Sunday appropriate. It's a BYU football video and BYU football helps spread the Gospel. Last I checked, missionary work was an appropriate Sunday activity." This caught me off guard, but you'd think by now it wouldn't. I should have known. :)

~ Probably one of the worst parts about pregnancy for me is the lack of bladder control. I think we may have stopped at just about every gas station between Memphis and Columbus on our drive last week. Also, I got warning from my doctor about not drinking enough water (even though I already feel like I chug it), and was sent home with a huge hospital water bottle and told to drink about 3 of them a day. I went to the bathroom every 15-20 minutes at work yesterday and had to sprint there each time in order to make it. I told this story to Ryan at dinner last night. Then this morning as we were getting ready for work (and after my 3rd bathroom trip since we got up), he said in all seriousness, "you know, Britt, maybe you should take an extra pair of pants with you to work.... just in case." Ha! Yep, it's that bad... although I have yet to actually need that change of pants, thankfully.

~ This next one is not a funny Ryan story, but I'm saying it anyway. I am avoiding birth stories like the plague these days. Most are fine, but sometimes you run into a horror story that makes you never ever want kids. Well, I accidentally stumbled upon one of those horror stories yesterday and was reading it before I knew what it was. Now I am convinced that I am going to die when I have this baby. Not just of pain, but literally. Someone please tell me I am not going to die.

twenty seven

Yesterday I turned 27 and it was a FANTASTIC birthday. Some of the highlights were shopping (didn't get anything... I can't buy normal clothes and I feel like buying maternity is a waste of money... but it was still fun to get out and not be packing), eating out, visiting our house, and going to see the play Jersey Boys (soooo entertaining and fun!! Ryan and I were surprised that we new all of the songs!). We are having rainbow chip cake and cake batter ice cream (both favorites) tonight instead of on my actual birthday because we just didn't have time yesterday and my pregnancy taste buds couldn't take that sweetness yesterday. I got some fun gifts too... the book 'The Help,' along with a popcorn maker-just in time for carmel popcorn at the holidays, and a small chocolate fountain for some entertaining in our new home!

Anyway, thank you to all of my friends and family for all of the texts, calls, emails, cards, FB messages, etc. And to Ryan for making me feel so special on my day. I felt so loved!

I've also realized that I need to suck up the fact that wearing non-maternity shirts at week 28 is actually much less flattering than wearing maternity clothes. Maybe I should have bought a few things while shopping yesterday. :)

Don't judge the mess in the background... we're cleaning out and packing. Also, Ryan keeps forgetting I turned 27 and he tried making a 26 out of candles on accident before the 27 :)

It's not a cocoa krispy

I just looked up one of those counter-things today and discovered that I have 99 days until I'm due. Out of the triple digits! That seems like 3 years away right now, but really it's just over 3 months and with the way time is flying these days it might feel like 3 weeks.

Anyway, I had a little while where I didn't significantly grow each week, so picture taking was pointless. But, I have most definitely "popped" in the last few weeks and feel like I'm getting bigger everyday. So here's 26 weeks...

I know, it's extremely blurry. And I'm not lying that I get bigger all the time- in fact, I think I am a bit bigger than when I took this picture a day ago. Oh, and please ignore the huge pile of clothes on the floor. Okay, I cannot take a picture of myself. I get more of the wall than the mirror, I can't keep it steady, etc. Not sure what my problem is... Anyway, here's a few tidbits to date:

• I think more significant than my belly in the above picture is the fact that my hair is so long! This is not a good thing though since the last time scissors/color have touched my locks was January 28th. My hair is a disaster. Moving on...
• Ryan and I both thought that at this point it was pretty clear to everyone in the ward that I was pregnant, but we found out tonight that some people in the ward have been trying to hint around and ask questions to get us to confirm this fact and apparently we have not picked up on it very well. We thought everyone knew, but apparently my primary kids have not spread the word like I hoped they would.
• Story: I have a very deep belly button normally, and when I was a little girl and would look at my belly button, I always saw a little brown seed-shaped thing in there. I specifically remember always thinking I had a cocoa krispy stuck way deep in there and no matter how hard I tried to get it out, it was stuck for good in there. So recently, my belly button has become less and less deep and that brown spot has been getting bigger and I finally figured out that it is a mole! It was so folded in down there, that it never looked like one! Now I can sleep at night.
• Our house is done in one week from today and we close/move in two weeks. We can't wait!
• Ryan said something last Saturday that I was certainly not expecting to hear him say: "I want vegetables for dinner. Just vegetables." So we went by a little farmer's market that he passes on his way to work and bought a bunch of vegetables for dinner... zucchini and onions, corn on the cob, tomatoes, plums etc. and we ate veggies for dinner. It was SO good! Of course the only picture I got was Ryan cooking zucchini right before he slices his tomato. Better than nothing though, right?

Fear the Beard

As Ryan drove to work Friday morning, he was listening to ESPN radio and heard that his team, the San Francisco Giants, were playing the Reds in Cincinnati this weekend. A few hours later, we had ourselves some $4 tickets and headed down to Cincinnati right after work. We missed the first inning, which was fine because the darn game went a full THIRTEEN innings! Around the 8th inning, Ryan and I moved from our nosebleed seats down to the bottom level to stand and watch the last inning. After several more innings of just standing there watching no one get a run, we finally went and grabbed some seats that were way down in front, which worked out perfectly for when one of our favorite players, Brian Wilson ("the beard"), got put in to pitch (both teams went through every pitcher they had). Unfortunately, the Giants lost by one run at the bottom of the 13th. At least we got awesome seats for half the game, got to see Ryan's favorite team, and paid very little for the tickets... totally worth the money. The only downfall (besides the loss) was that it was in the hundreds with high humidity for the entire game! When we finally left Cincinnati at 11:45pm, it had cooled down to about 97 degrees but was still really muggy- it was worse than Arizona! I went through 8 cups of ice and 8 cups of water (resulting in about 88 bathroom trips!) Gotta keep hydrated! Anyway, we got home at about 2 am, but we had a blast! Next time we will have to go when we can see the city a little more, since neither of us has ever really been there for fun.

Some other things...

I got a bit behind on blogging and had some things I wanted to remember, so here is a hodge-podge of things I wanted to include...

My family was all out here for Aaron's burial (more on that to come- but again, I need to get pictures from Lisa/Dad). Anyway, we spent a few hours watching Ashlynn while everyone went and took care of paper-signing and burial stuff at the cemetery. We needed to get the girl outside, but it was pretty much the hottest day of my entire life, so we went to the park and I sat far away in the shade, stuck my zoom lens on the camera, and took some pics while Ash dragged Ryan around the park. She loves her Uncle Ryan and continually asks for him.

My whole family got to come down from Cleveland for an evening, and we showed them our new house and neighborhood, went out to eat, went shopping for some more baby clothes, and then came home for dessert. My parents headed back up to Cleveland and Lisa, Brandon, and Ash stayed here for a couple of nights. We got to hang out, watch movies, go swimming, etc. We had more outside plans but it was in the hundreds, plus crazy humidity, which made us happy to stay inside and enjoy the air conditioning. :)

Also, our house is really coming along! It should be done on August 18th, and we should close on the 26th. It will be fully landscaped (with grass too- thankfully!) and we get an extra tree in our yard since it's a corner yard. I'm beyond excited to get out of this apartment and away from the white-trash neighbors.

On a pregnancy note, I walked into the grocery store a couple weeks ago and the Doritos were on sale. All of a sudden I HAD to have Doritos and NOW! So I bought them and ate half the bag by myself as soon as I got home. Then the next day after work, I finished them off. Junk food has tasted completely awful this entire pregnancy and so I justified my bad eating decisions those days with the fact that I haven't been eating bad most of this pregnancy. That's allowed, right? Needless to say, I have not bought Doritos since then, because I know what would happen if I did! Just look at these nasty "Dorito-fingers." ha! That's shows some serious dedication to Dorito-eating. (I can't believe I posted this picture).

Lastly, we went to King's Island with Ryan's work yesterday. It was dang hot that day and crazy humidty (that's pretty much been the theme of weather around here the last few weeks). Although we didn't ride a single ride- well, besides the train around the park (I couldn't ride anything and Ryan didn't feel like it), we had passes for free unlimited drinks the whole day, and a free big lunch at the company pavilion for the day. We left just when the little storm was getting there. Even though we didn't ride rides, we still had a good time and it was fun to just go somewhere else for a while.

Ryan's Birthday!

We were home by July 9th and even though we had cake in Utah, we of course had to celebrate on the actual day he turned 31! We started off the morning with a big breakfast in which we splurged and even had juice and chocolate milk- a rare thing around here! After that, we went over to see our home-in-progress, which is a favorite pastime of ours these days. Then, per Ryan's request, we went and looked at some stores like Lowe's and Ace Hardware... which are actually fun stores to look through when you have a house that will need stuff from them! Following that, I stocked my purse full of Ryan's favorite treats (gummi bears, skittles, and starburst) and we went to see Transformer's in 3-D (Ryan's movie choice, of course). Surprisingly, I could actually follow who was bad and who was good during the fighting scenes... something that has not been possible for me in the first two Transformers movies. That made it a little more enjoyable than I expected. After that, Ryan was craving Chipotle, so we went over there and got some burritos. The weather was so nice and the sun was setting, so we ate outside and were the only ones out there after a bit, so we ended up sitting on their patio for quite a while just talking and relaxing! We came home and ended the night by hanging out, watching some t.v., and Ryan ate some of his favorite kind of Graeter's ice cream (black raspberry chocolate chip). Perfect end to a perfect day! Happy birthday, Ry!!

Utah trip

After Vegas, we drove back to Utah with my parents and stayed there from the night of the 29th through the afternoon of July 4th. We had a lot of fun family time while we were there and were so glad we could tag this trip onto the Vegas trip. On Thursday, I went and spent the day with Lisa and kids while Ryan ran around doing things with his dad, and then we ended with a fun picnic outside at Lisa and Brandon's. (I need to get these pictures from Dad or Lisa- whoever has them!)

Friday, we spent at the Martin's house swimming, relaxing, having a BBQ, watching movies, shopping, and catching up. We also got to meet our newest little niece, Lynlee, who was so precious and only about a week old. Then, we celebrated Ryan, Craig, and Jackson's birthday with the traditional marzipan cake from Granite Bakery.

I had to include these pictures because I think the Martin's have one of the prettiest yards. Also, the weather was fabulous the whole time we were in Utah!

Saturday morning I got together with friends for breakfast at Kneaders (mmm... french toast and strawberries!), and much to my surprise, they threw me a little baby shower! It was the first baby stuff I got and made me excited for this little girlie to come! After that, I got stocked up on a ton more baby girl clothes from my s.i.l., Amy, who was getting rid of all of her baby stuff. Big thanks to all of you!!!

Terrible lighting, but I couldn't leave it out- I love these ladies! (I just realized that the pregnant lady behind me is wearing the same maternity shirt).

The rest of the day was spent swimming, hanging out, and going out to dinner at Cafe Rio for Jonathan's birthday. Of course it also included the "get thrown in the pool on your birthday" tradition... which also ends up getting many others dragged in, fully-clothed as well!

When we got Bennett out of the pool following the "throw-in," his diaper was super big since it was not a swimming one. We were all cracking up about how puffy it was, which made him really concerned and he kept trying to reassure us that "Bennett not go potty in diaper!"

Sunday, after church, we went back up to my parent's house for hanging out and a BBQ dinner. Ryan and I got spoiled with a LOT of BBQ's this trip, which we loved since we can't BBQ this summer at our apartment complex! I spent a lot of time hanging out with little Aaron-baby and I'm so glad I got to! I also had fun playing with Ashlynn, who is bursting with energy these days. We stayed a while later that night and just chatted with my parents about all sorts of things, which was fun. (Again, Lisa and/or Dad- I need some of your pictures!)

Our last day there was Monday, the fourth of July. We had a big BBQ lunch outside at the Martin's with some homemade ice cream and then headed up to the airport to go home. :(

Here's Ryan trying to win the heart of another little one by "flying" Amyah. It's obviously not working... ;)

It was so sad to leave because I was absolutely dreading coming back to our smoky apartment. Oh well. We got to see some pretty cool fireworks from the plane. Our layover was in Chicago from about 8:45-10 p.m. and it looked like the whole city was little colorful bursts of fire. It was awesome. For the first time in a long time we really weren't ready to get back home yet. But we still had such a fun trip and tried to get as much in as we could since it could be a while before we make it back to Utah.