Do you have Pandora?

They play their same commercials over and over, so you may have heard the one by H&R Block.

It starts with a woman's voice telling her husband that they really need to settle on the name of their son. She suggests one.
Then a man's voice chimes in with his suggestions.
Then a second male voice comes on saying, "C'mon Mom and Dad, I'm graduating soon..."


Ryan and I heard that ad and laughed.
Yeah.
I think that may be our poor son's fate. You know, what's his name? Yeah, that son.

@#$%^&*! My Feet

I really have very little to complain about with this pregnancy. But what I've got I'm gonna share--cuz what's being pregnant and having a blog for-- other than whining? :)

For about 3 weeks now my feet have been hurting almost constantly. I'm sure it's the hormones making all my connective tissue looser and that, mixed with the weight gain, exacerbates my high arches. My heels get swollen and hurt--I'd love some Ibuprofen or some sort of anti-inflammatory, but of course all I've got is Tylenol. I soak my feet sometimes in ice water in the bathtub. I put them in until they ache and pulse and then take them out to warm up. Then back in again for another two dips. It helps the inflammation.

For the same amount of time my feet have also started to swell. I've now purchased 3 pairs of compression hose for work. That helps, but they can only do so much when I have to be on my feet so much. It's not only work days either. My poor feet spend probably only 20 minutes of the day their normal size (when I first wake up). Luckily on my days off I can put them up often and take breaks, but they, as Ryan says, look like dinner rolls most of the time.

These are my feet after work. You can see the lines from my compression hose and socks. The left is always worse than the right. You can see where my shoes hit and all the swelling above it. It's so sexy...

I should have been prepared for this. I'm already prone to foot issues. My feet get swollen on long plane rides, and my arches are always sore if I wear crappy shoes for too long. It's good encouragement to never actually get fat. It could make this a more permanent condition.

Roaming About My Guts

I know it happens to all mommies, but my new favorite thing ever is feeling the baby move. He's still not quite strong enough for anyone to feel it on the outside, so it's like a little mommy-baby secret. I fine myself smiling at random times because I can feel him wiggling around. I always want to tell people--hey! he's moving! I can feel it!-- but most people I'm sure don't really care. I tell Ryan lots of times because I figure he might care a little. And even if he doesn't-- who else can I tell stuff to?

I used to only be able to feel him when I held still, or when something was pushing into my belly--like my pants. Now a days though I can feel his wake/sleep cycles. He'll move consistently for a period of time, then stop, then move again later. I can even feel him moving when I'm moving which is new.

This morning I was just barely awake as Ryan's alarm was going off, when I was suddenly poked in my hip/waist. It was a sharp hard jab and actually startled/tickled me. I jumped and laughed and Ryan asked me about it. I told him, and he said, "Only you could be tickled from the inside." Then the little guy continued to patter around my right side. Ryan still couldn't feel him, but he's getting really strong!

It's such a precious experience that makes being pregnant seem real. I sure am loving this part.

Barbs are Bullies

Apparently, unless you have at least 6 of them, Tiger Barbs become the bullies of the tanks. They especially like to go after fish with long flowing fins... sorry Spot. :)

We no longer have The Barbs. Which is a little sad, because they were the most active in the tank, but we couldn't have them killing off all our other fish from stress. And we can't have 6 of those things schooling around our tiny tank. They survived a night in a measuring bowl, and went back to the pet store yesterday.

The orange dudes still aren't named, but they actually come out more now. They must have known about them Barbs before we did.

I know, our lives are that exciting that we're blogging about our fish.

Names

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."
Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)

What Juliet says about roses is very true, but like Juliet, I've realized there really is more to a name. Ryan and I go back and forth on names for our little dude every day. There's a lot of pressure! This is the name a human being will be known by for their whole life, it's a pretty defining thing.
We're choosing the name he could potentially be teased for. The name he'll carry into his adult and professional life. The name his sweetheart will think of and sigh. It's harder than I thought it'd be.
We've tried out a few, calling him that name every time we talk about him to see how it'd be. Ryan even tried yelling names at my abdomen to see if he'd respond more to one than the other, forcing him to choose his own name.
There's just no name in particular that I'm totally in love with. But whatever name we choose, we've decided it will be a surprise on his birth. It'll be kept a secret until then. Even the choices we're trying to decide from will be secret, just in case. It'll make it hard for personalized gifts and things, but I think it'll be fun to at least have something to be a surprise in this day and age of knowing the gender by 20 weeks.

One things for sure, it's easier to name fish.

Ryan got new fish yesterday to keep our goldfish and algae eater company and almost all of them have names as of today.

Our goldfish is Spot. That's him top right.

Below and to the left of him are The Barbs: Barbara and Barbara.
They're tiger barbs--ha!
I'm pretty sure one of them likes to go by Barbie, but I can never tell which...

If you can see him blending into the wall back there, that's Rodney.
Rodney the gourami.

Rodney is a ladies man. That is, he's a kissing gourami. (Ha!)
He makes adorable kissing faces while he's "breathing". Although he's a ladies man among the fish ladies only. He's afraid of human ladies--and men for that matter.

This lovely's name is in a state of flux at the moment.
She's the algae eater.

Ryan suggested she be named something Hispanic since she's "the help". Apparently you don't have to be politically correct when naming fish. Or being Ryan.
He picked Margarita.
I thought it'd be funnier to have her be a french maid and name her Bernadette (al la Clue).
What do you think?

This guy is also part of a pair, the other looks just like him, but is apparently better at hiding.

Neither of them are named yet, but I'd like to name them a famous couple or duo, I haven't found the perfect set yet.
Any suggestions?

This post is obviously Ashley, but I was signed in as Ryan--woops!

Winter Scout Camp

A few months ago I was called to be the Assistant Scout Master in my ward. I was excited about it! I like working with the youth and we have some great young men in our ward. We don't have many, we have about 7 who come to church and about 7 (not all the same ones) who come to scouts during our mutual night. They're all spread out age wise from 12 to 18 so we all meet together. It's cool to see how everybody is friends depite the differences in age, schools, and stages in life. We have a lot of fun.

In February we did a winter camp down in Provo Canyon near the Sundance ski resort. Kent, the Scout Master found a great secluded spot on the other side of the mountain from the ski lifts that required a small hike in. This was a welcome change from last year's camp where we couldn't go five minutes without hearing about the "awful, difficult, hilly climb that was the two miles to the campsite". This was barely 200 yards through the deep snow. Difficult, but managed in only a few minutes. It left us plenty of time to dig our caves/trenches.

When I was a scout I missed the snow cave trip for some reason. During our prep meeting Kent was teaching us how to dig a snow cave and he drew a mountain on the board with a poor stick figure scout in a small hole underneath the mountain. As a semi claustrophobic guy the picture was freaking me out a bit. I said so and he erased most of the mountain. That really helped. Instead of digging a cave I decided I would dig a snow trench, which is essentially a deep ditch that keeps you out the wind but is open on top. Much less chance of death by snow. Turns out almost all of the rest of us decided on trenches too for the quicker dig it'd be. Two of our boys decided to dig out a cave.

Leaving the parking lot, looking at something


Arrival at camp


Digging the snow cave

The spot Kent found was beautiful. We were in a small valley with high mountains. It was a clear night with a full moon. We all slept really well and we had zero cold boys. A major success. The best part about the night was being woken up by an owl hoot hooting away for a few minutes. Being out in nature in the stillness of clear night can't be beat. You can really get a sense of how small we are and how merciful God is to have given us such a neat place to live.

The valley we slept in


My trench and another leader's trench. Some of us were more meticulous about how we dug. Some of us just wanted to hurry and eat dinner.

The next morning we woke up to some heavy snow and fog. We broke camp and learned about avalanche safety. We learned about the different layers of snow, how to tell how deep the snow is below us and how to choose a good spot for digging or hiking in avalanche country. I learned as much as the boys did. We also did some sledding and had a snowball fight.

Breakfast


Sledding

The Bishop chatting


Heading out

It was a great time!

Remember 4 Years Ago?

Sometimes it seems like it was forever ago, sometimes it seems like it was only yesterday. But no matter when it feels like it happened, I'm sure glad it did. I'm grateful every day to have the eternal companion I do. So happy for the adventure it's been and for the new adventure we're about to have together. Yay for 4 years and for many more to come!

Ashley's 26th Extravaganza in photos

The fabulous Mary took all these on her Intstax Mini--which is like a Polaroid, but not Polaroid brand. And uh, mini!

Happy Birthday to me!

Wow! 26 years old? Usually a couple months before my birthday I start calling myself by my new age. I've usually already started to think of myself as the next age by the time it rolls around. This year though, I didn't remember I was going to be 26 until the day before! Maybe because I liked being 25. It was a good age I thought. It was old enough I thought I had fully established myself in my brain as an adult. (Though after getting pregnant I had to keep reminding myself I'm 25 and now is a good time and I'm ready. ha! Whatever.)
But now I'm 26. And meh, it's okay.
I feel a little old-ish. I'm glad I'm having a baby. 25 feels like: 'a good time to start having kids' and 26 feels like: 'I better have a kid already--sheesh.' :)

Well now that I've shared all sorts of totally pointless information about being 26....
My 26th birthday went like this:

• I slept in. (yay)

• I went to Taco Bell for lunch with Ryan cuz that's what I wanted. (I know, weird right? But I actually really like Taco Bell. Call me crazy, but I love me a burrito supreme.)

• I went shopping for partay food.
• I went shopping for new clothes. (double yay) I found too many things I liked. But I did get some full panel maternity pants--so comfy! I'm for rizzle now folks.
• I paid the first 1/2 of our new windows! ack!
• I had some friends who couldn't make it to my Girls Night party because of sicknesses (Boo. So sad to be sick.), so it turned into a bring your S.O. party.
• We had tons of fun eating food and playing games and chatting with friends. I was really pleased with it afterward. I was worried since numbers had been so cut down, but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. I know I did! Yay for good friends and good times! (Pictures to be posted later after I steal them from Mary, who took some. I was enjoying myself too much to make people pose.) Thanks to Mary, Laura, Andrew, Nicole, and Jeremy for coming! It was so fun, and so good to see you!
• I went to bed late, and forgot all about my ultrasound appointment the next morning. So I slept through it. SO embarrassing. I feel so stupid. Oh well, I'm glad my mom is a midwife so I have the hook up on already having seen the little dude and his "parts". I'll still stick with the due date and timing according to that U/S for now.

Yay for birthdays! Yay for friends! Yay for Yay!

20 Weeks

Halfway there!

Well, there it is, my 20 week bump. Feel free to compare to my "13 week" bump--ha ha. Really my 16-17 week bump.

At 20 weeks I'm feeling great! People ask all the time, "How are you feeling?" and I have so little to tell them I wonder if I should be feeling more... something?

Other than a little round ligament pain when I stand quickly or twist and stretch, I have no problems. I've started to support my belly while I sleep on my side because it feels a little heavy. I also don't feel comfortable on my back for very long at all--I'm not supposed to lay supine anyway.

I still have lots of energy for exercise and I try to stay active. Though I've already started to notice a little decreased lung capacity. Sometimes when I yawn, especially after eating, I run out of room for my diaphragm to expand for a full yawn.

The best part of the pregnancy right now is that the little tyke is starting to get big enough I feel him move. Almost all the time I'm sitting still, I can feel him moving around. It's even moved from just little "flutters" to actual pokes. Sometimes in the bladder--not funny baby. It's still too soft for Ryan to feel from the outside, but I'm sure in no time he'll get strong enough to say 'Hi' to Daddy too.

It's still insanity to me that there's an actual person inside me. But it's sure not that cookie I ate poking around in my guts.

Speaking of cookies, I've gained about 20 pounds. I'm pretty sure I'm going to overshoot the 25-35 lbs I'm supposed to gain. I've got 20 more weeks to go, and at this rate, I'll gain 40 lbs by the end of my pregnancy. Eek! I try not to think about it. It's not really something I can control anyway.

We've almost got the nursery painted, the colors turned out cuter than I expected. It'll be lots of fun painting a "mural" on it when we get the walls all done. (not really a full blown mural, just some things here and there.) I'll post all about it when it's finished.

New News and Other News

Well it's inevitably time for another catch up on the blournalog (journal and blog--get it?! I know. dumb.)

1st- A LONG time ago, we had a HUGE windstorm before a rather measley snow storm. The wind managed to tear the already barely hanging on gutter off the front of our house and pulled off some siding too.

Seen here:

We called my dad and brother to help and found that we could have done it, we just needed the right tools. (Namely something that cuts siding and a really big hammer). It was a pretty tired and emotional day for me I guess because I spent a good 20 minutes crying over why had we bought this stupid old house and why did it have to be windy and why did we move to this stupid area anyway and why can't everything just be totally fine all the time? It was obviously a very rational thinking day as well. Cuz I really like our house and where we live and all that.
psha. Hormones.

Speaking of hormones, we were playing Cranium at my parent's house last Sunday and Ryan had to do a charade of the word hormones. We found out that he does a very lovely impression of a prostitute. (ya know--a whore. The first syllable.)

Next- Ryan got a new job! For all of you that really know Ryan, you know that he is awesome. And not just awesome, but hard working kicks booty awesomely awesome. Where he's been working has served us and him rather well, but really had minimal opportunity for growth. His awesome bosses seeing how awesome he was at being awesome decided it wasn't awesome they wouldn't be able to pay him more and give him more opportunity in the future and therefore keep his awesomeness around. So they proposed what is now a lateral move within the company, but to an area that has greater opportunity for growth. I can no longer tell you what he does. But he is the Assistant Legal Manager. He does some administrative stuff and some legal stuff and some Spanish speaking stuff and other stuff stuff.
and it's--you guessed it-- awesome.

Last- we are in the market for new windows. We've had 4 bids already with prices ranging from $5000-$18000. Wholey Moley. We are still debating if we can even afford it right now, so I guess more updates on that later. But it's interesting to see the different types of sales people that come in and their different products and different ways of dissing on each other. Ryan said he wanted to challenge the next one to tell us why we should go with him without him comparing himself to his competitors. Seriously, I don't know who to believe.

And finally- the end.

Spring Fever

Spring Fever has sprung a little early this year. Last year it didn't stop snowing til June, but I was strangely okay with it.

Now it's barely March and I'm ready for some warmth and some time outside! I'm really looking forward to some vacations we've got coming up. Really, our only vacations this year thanks to Maternity leave taking up all our PTO. Though I'm sure we'll find some weekend adventures here or there.

First, Loufa is taking her bridals down in Southern Utah, so we're tagging along for an excuse to be with some red rock.

Then--most exciting of all-- Ryan and I are off to our "Babymoon" in Glenwood Springs, CO. I've been there before, but not since I was 7? or 8? It'll be practically brand new to me really.

The best part though? We're going via train!!!!

That way we get to "extend" our only 4 day vacation by having the travel days not be driving, but sitting and relaxing and enjoying the scenery on a choo choo train! So excited!

Can April please come sooner?

What some of my extra shift money is gonna go to

I am very low on dressess/skirts that are still fitting. They seem to be my most "fitted" clothing and so most of them are not working now a days. These are from Motherhood Maternity, and I love them! It'll be my "halfway done" present to myself--20 weeks next week! ack!

Unplanned Adventures

The weather yesterday was sunny and warm (50 degrees), so I thought I'd get some vit D and go on a walk on the Jordan River Parkway. I drove to the Parkway and wasn't 10 feet from my car when I realized I'd locked my keys in my car. Luckily, we don't live more than 1/2 mile from the Parkway, so I figured I could just walk home and we'd come back for the car later.
It would have been shorter to just go straight home on the road, but I really wanted to walk on the parkway. It tricks me into thinking I'm out in nature--which I suppose technically I am, but I'm also in the middle of suburban Salt Lake.
I ended up not regretting my choice. It was a beautiful clear day, and it was a very soul-healing walk. I love the parkway--well most stretches. It follows the river and rivers are so healing.
It was just a lovely peaceful walk.

I had some fun with my Hipstamatic photo app. You can give it a shake and it randomizes which "lens" and "film" you use. I know I've talked about it before, but it's a fun app. I never know what I'm gonna get when I take a picture with it. It's usually best if I don't try to get a good picture, and just snap and see what happens.

(no face shots, I wasn't even sure I'd wiped off my slept-on-mascara before leaving. Day after night shifts are hard.)

My plan to walk home all worked perfectly until I got home and realized I didn't have my keys... those for the car and for the house. I had to call Ryan to bail me out after all. It's nice that he's only 6 minutes away!

Afro through the sliding door. He kept scratching and meowing at me. He didn't understand my commands to "go unlock the door". Bummer.

Waiting on the front porch for Ryan. There's that ever-growing bump.

Total walk distance? (according to Gmaps pedometer): 2 miles! Wow!

Practicing Botulism

I sent Ryan downstairs for some tomato sauce. When he returned he handed me a can and let me know it had expired in 03/2009.

"Okay? So why are you giving me this one if it's expired?"

"Because then you can use it, it's the oldest one!"

"You want me to use it? and risk Botulism?!"

"Yeah. I've been a Mormon all my life, I could be a 'botule' for a while."

A Milestone?

Today marks the first day that someone who did not previously know I was pregnant, could tell I was.
My patient asked me if I was okay lifting when I was pregnant.




It's reassuring that they didn't think I was just chubby.