Babymoon

Part One: The Journey

Dustin and I had this San Diego trip planned for a while. I wanted to take one last vacation together as a couple before the baby comes. We get free flights through Dustin’s work, he had won a free car rental at Christmas, we are able to get discounted hotel rates through Dustin’s uncle, and I had been diligently saving my tip money for awhile. I was so excited we could afford a vacation, and that we could do it with cash! Sounds perfect right? Well that all unraveled yesterday.

Our original plan was to catch a flight to San Diego at 5:30, pick up our car rental at the San Diego Airport, and drive to our hotel.

In order to fly for free, we have to fly stand-by. Which is always a little stressful. Dustin called me early that morning to let me know that our flight had completely filled up.

Argh!

On to Plan B.

I decided to call Thrifty (the car rental company) and try to transfer our reservation from San Diego to Phoenix. My reasoning was that driving would take just as long as waiting for the next flight that was at 9:00pm. I explained that this was for a free car rental that we had won, and that the reservation needed to be transferred, not canceled, because in order for the gift certificate to work it had to be booked 14 days in advance. She assured me that this is what she had done, and that we needed to present the gift certificate at the counter.

Dustin picked me up from home around 5:30 and we drove to Thrifty car rental. The workers there had never seen a gift certificate before. They had no idea how to redeem it. Finally they brought out their manager, he clicked some buttons, and said that we couldn’t redeem this certificate because the reservation wasn’t booked 14 days in advance. I told them that it was, and that the lady I had spoken with earlier had transferred the reservation and that she told me everything would be fine. He said that she had canceled the San Diego reservation, and made a new one in Phoenix. As a result of that, he could not give us our free car rental.

This is my all-time, number one pet peeve: People who are incompetent at their jobs.

First of all, if the reservation wasn’t able to be transferred- she should have let me know. If that was the case we were just going to wait for the 9:00pm flight. Everything would have been fine. I don’t know if she just messed up, or if she was just telling me what I wanted to hear. Secondly, the workers at Thrifty should have taken ownership of their error and tried to help us out. But they didn’t even try, not even a little bit. The manager just kept saying, “I can’t redeem this.”

So because of their mistake we couldn’t get our car rental. We couldn’t even take the 9:00 flight anymore because the lady had canceled (not transferred!) the San Diego reservation. Also, by this time it was after 6:00 and it was too late to cancel our hotel reservation without being charged.

We ended up driving our own car. Which is fine, but it was just very frustrating to have to do that when we were supposed to have a free flight, and a free car rental.

We arrived here in San Diego after midnight. We went to sleep and had a much better day today.

28 weeks

I have officially entered into my last trimester! It’s hard to believe that in just 12 short weeks Dustin and I will be parents! Here are some pictures of how big I am. They are not the best pictures, but it’s hard to take a good picture of yourself! I’ve gotten comments like “Wow, you must be almost done!” to which I reply, “Not for another 3 months”. Or the most common one is “When is your baby due?” and when I say “Not until April” people look a little shocked and confused.

I am afraid of how big I’ll be by then. I’m already having difficulty doing normal things. I waddle when I walk, and the stairs up to my apartment are getting harder to climb. Things at work are getting harder too. I’m short, so coloring and cutting hair is already a challenge for me, but lately my belly has been literally bumping into clients! I do love working, but in a month or so, I probably won’t be able to reach my clients!

Other than those complaints, I’m still feeling great! I still have energy (most of the time), and I still feel like I can do most things. Dustin and I are going to take one last trip together this weekend. We’re going to San Diego! I’m very excited.

Things are looking good on the medical side too, the baby is doing well, and we have another ultrasound scheduled in 2 weeks. Unfortunately, I did have to get tested for gestational diabetes. Everyone gets screened for it around 28 weeks, but my basic test came back too high, so I had to return for another one. It was brutal. It takes 3 hours. When you arrive at the lab, they draw your blood. They then have you drink a really sweet liquid (it tasted like sno-cone syrup). Then they draw your blood every hour for three hours. On top of it all, you have to be fasting. No food or drink. So, people that know me know how much anxiety I have about doctors, hospitals, and needles. I have to have Dustin with me every time because I almost pass out every time. Add not eating on top of that (I get light headed when I don’t eat anyway)-- I was terrified I was not going to make it through this test. But Dustin gave me a blessing that morning, and I ended up doing just fine. I did have to go in a back room and lie down once, but other than that I did okay. Afterward we celebrated with all-you-can-eat pancakes at IHOP. I don’t know the results yet, but I’ll keep everyone posted.

Dustin and I are preparing ourselves as much as we can. I don’t know why (maybe it was all those years of writing research papers for Mrs. Platt), but I like to do my research. I bought a lot of good books off Amazon. The Baby Book, The Birth Book, and The Vaccine Book by Dr. Sears, The Nursing Mothers Companion by Kathleen Huggins, and the No-Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley. We also purchased a childbirth class on dvd. I work at night, so finding a time to take an actual class would have been difficult. Plus, the dvd was $30 and the actual classes were $65. It’s also nice because you can freak out at home instead of in a room full of strangers. The lady on the dvd is a little cheesy but it’s been really informative so far.

We’re slowly getting everything we need for the baby. We still need some bigger things like a mattress for the crib, a changing table, etc. The one thing we do have is clothes! Of course we can always use more, but I’m feeling pretty good in that department. When my mom and sister came to visit two weeks ago, we went to Once Upon A Child. It’s a second hand store, but most the stuff there is really nice and hardly used. They were having a 60% off sale that Saturday. So we ended up getting outfits for about $2 a piece!



I also got a lot of clothes from a co-worker of mine. So here’s a picture of all the clothes getting sorted and organized. She now has at least 5 outfits in every size.

We are so excited that she is almost here! Let’s just hope she is cuter than this:
Scary right? And what’s with the duck costume?

Do you think there is a little boy out there praying that the Cardinals win the SuperBowl?

Are we going to see thousands of Cardinals fans stand up and do this next Sunday?


Maybe.


Because I never thought I would ever say the phrase “The Arizona Cardinals are going to the SuperBowl!"

GO CARDINALS!

The Lion King

For Christmas this year I bought my mom and my sister tickets to The Lion King. I had seen it once before when it came to Phoenix about four years ago, and I had been wanting to see it again ever since! Out of all the shows that I’ve seen, this one is my favorite. It’s the most unique thing you’ll ever see.


On Friday the day had finally come. Mom and Jennifer arrived around noon. I colored and cut their hair. Jennifer’s turned out so cute!



Then we all got ready and went to Paradise Bakery for dinner. We left from there to get to the show.


Needless to say, the play was absolutely awesome! We loved it! Here's a little taste for all those who are curious. http://disney.go.com/theatre/thelionking/#/home/

Click on "Get a Sneak Peek" in the upper left hand corner, and it will show you a preview of the play.

A question...

Does anybody know how to make these adorable headbands? I've seen them on some of your daughters before, so somebody should know either where to get them or how to make them. I haven't found them in stores, and I was looking online tonight and I found some really cute boutiques, but $10 for a headband? I know... I'm super cheap. I'm thinking $5 or less is reasonable for me. Can anybody help me?

What The?!?

I was sitting in church yesterday morning when I started to feel sick. I whisper to Dustin, “I don’t feel very good.” He starts to rub my back and I try to pay attention to the speaker. Then I started feeling really dizzy. I sit up straight and take some deep breaths and whisper to Dustin, “I think I’m going to pass out.” He says, “Are you really?” and as I’m nodding, my hearing becomes muffled, I get really hot, but my skin is cold and clammy. All I can think about is getting to the bathroom and putting some cold water on my face. I turn to Dustin and say, “I need you to help me get to the bathroom.” We both stand up, and as we’re exiting the chapel, I run for the bathroom and I throw up.

What in the world was that? I felt fine that morning, I felt fine after Dustin took me home and I rested, and I am continuing to feel just fine! I looked it up in my pregnancy book and on the Internet, but the only thing that comes up for “dizziness and vomiting” is morning sickness. I’m 6 months pregnant. Not morning sickness. Also, I never got morning sickness (I know, I’m really lucky.)

Low blood sugar? I ate breakfast before we went to church. I had a bowl of Life cereal (my fave), so maybe that wasn’t the best, but it’s never made me sick before...

Stomach bug? Maybe… but wouldn’t I still feel sick?

Sometimes I can feel ill when I’ve eaten a lot of junk food. I did have a small burger for lunch and pizza for dinner the night before. But I also ate my healthy staples of crackers, apples, raisins and yogurt. Usually when I get sick from food, it’s when we’ve been traveling and eating out every meal for a while.

Dehydrated? No. I’ve been drinking close to a gallon of water every day lately. I’ve been really thirsty.

I’m stumped. I feel perfectly normal. The baby is kicking. She’s good too.

Does anybody know what this randomness could have been?

How I fell in Love With My Husband

You might have heard Dustin or I say that we have no idea how we ended up together. That’s true. We don’t have the regular relationship milestones. We didn’t have a first date, he never asked me to be his girlfriend, and our first kiss was well…not the best experience (because of me, not him-- but that’s another story). Dustin and his friend Vernon would come over and hang out at my college house (aka The Fire House). Vernon liked my roommate DawnSheree, Dustin was Vernon’s best friend, therefore Dustin was at my house all the time. We started out as kind of “cuddle buddies”. I didn’t think too much of it, because he had also cuddled with one of my roommates (what?!? yeah…again another story). Then we started kissing, making out, and being together more often. All the while never defining what we really were. My fault. I was young and got really freaked out whenever I thought about being in a relationship. I was in college now, away from my family, dating could lead to…gulp…getting married! So lets just say that went on for a really long time. We were “unofficially dating”, I tried to go on dates with other guys, we even broke up once (a hilarious story, but one I will never blog about).

Just for kicks, here’s some pictures of Dustin and I when we were first dating. These were taken 5 years ago. That’s right, 5 years!It’s funny, because the two things that irritated me the most are in these pictures. That hat, and those ugly red pants!


During this time I went on a date with a boy named Jacob. Jacob was cute, and I wasn’t “dating” anyone right? So I went. (Why Dustin married me, after all I put him through, I’ll never know) Jacob had a really nice expensive truck. In fact, it was all he would talk about. He would talk about his truck and his goal to purchase a Hummer. He asked me if I wanted to marry a returned missionary. I said yes. He then went on a rant about why this shouldn’t be a priority for girls. I said how I realized that there are plenty of good guys out there, who didn’t go on missions, but it was just something that was important to me and it was on my list.

Ahh… “the list”. Does everybody remember making those in Young Women’s? I remember not ever being serious about my list writing, but four things always wound up on them. 1. He had to be funny. If he could make me laugh, I knew we would be able to make it through anything. 2. Returned Missionary. I wanted my future son to go on a mission, so his dad would need to be an example. 3. Goal oriented. I wasn’t going to be married to a burger-flipper. 4. Good with kids.

That night after I got home from this date, I remembered my list. Dustin’s goal wasn’t to buy a hummer, his goal was to go to ASU and get his degree in Graphic Design! Dustin served a mission in Argentina. He was good with kids, and most importantly—he made me laugh. Dustin’s first “love note” to me went like this:

Most roses are red,
But this one is yellow,
So shut up about it!

He had asked me to homecoming by filling my room with balloons and writing this story on four poster boards about how they had came to be there:

Roses are red, violets are blue. It would take my breath away (almost as much as these stupid balloons did while I was over at Vernon’s trying to blow them all up. In fact, I was doing it for so long that I started getting all light headed and crap! And once in the middle of the entire episode, I tried to stand up and fell flat on my face on Vernon’s bed. Then when I finally got up, I was soooo mad at the freaking balloons that my eyes went red with rage and I started popping them all! Then I was even more angry cause I had to buy more balloons, that I let the rage take control of me and I told those dang balloons, “You won’t like me when I’m angry!” And I turned into the Incredible Hulk and stormed over to Wal-Mart where I destroyed the party section seriously injuring and possibly killing 4 old women greeters and 1 young cashier (who was kinda hot) grabbed my balloons and ran through the west wall. Where to my surprise was 4 military tanks and 12 fighter jets. As they started to fire, I grabbed one of the tanks (after I had stuffed the balloons down my pants for protection) and threw it, knocking out the 3 other tanks. As the fighter jets started to turn in fear, I leaped out of the back of one, busted out the cockpit window and as I was brutally mutilating the pilot, the thought of you and your beauty came into my mind and calmed me down and I changed back into my normal self. The authorities then took me into custody and transported me to a sanitarium where I sat for 3 days until Vernon appeared out of a tunnel he had dug in which we escaped in Lance;s car. Then I realized that the balloons were still down my pants and still without air. So once again I began to blow them up. So after all that was over it came time to transport them into your room. This task proved to be most strenuous, and made me extremely angry, and as I said to the balloons, I now say to you- “YOU WON’T LIKE ME WHEN I’M ANGRY!”)

So—how bout homecoming?

So after remembering all this, I called Dustin and told him to come over. I told him how funny I thought he was and how I was so glad that he had goals! He didn’t quite understand why I was saying these things, but then we made out and everything was okay.

I wish I could say that it was smooth sailing from then on, but it definitely wasn’t. The Adversary knew how good we would be together, and he did his darn-dest to keep us from falling in love, getting engaged, and getting married. But we did. We don’t really know how, but we did!

And for all those who didn’t think Dustin had a soft side, here is an email he wrote to me shortly after he had proposed.

Hey sexxxy lady, just wanted to write you and let you know how much I love and appreciate you. You’re better than anything I could have imagined and more than I ever dreamed of having for a girlfriend, fiancé or wife. Thank you so much for everything. You make every day worth living and even make going to that job I don’t care too much for worthwhile. I love you more than I ever thought possible, especially the way my life was before we started dating! I want you to know that although I will never be able to give you everything, that I will spend the rest of my life trying to make you happy. Never before has my happiness depended so much on the happiness of another. You are truly a blessing from heaven and I will always be in debt to my father in heaven for having put you in my life, I love you, I love being with you, and I love who I am when that happens. Until forever…Dustin

Awwwww.

I love you too Dustin.