Quick Look For T

T and I did some fun relaxed pictures of her in her wedding dress.  Since she got married in the cold, snowy month of December she wasn’t able to get any fun outside portraits.  I have many more to come!

Spam Sandwhich Recipe

You have to trust me on these, they will change your life if you eat them. 

1 can Spam cubed.
2 1/2 cups cubed Cheese
1 can sliced black olives
2 cups sliced pickles
1 1/2 cups (+/-) Miracle Whip.

Mix together until everything is coated with Miracle Whip.  Spoon into hamburger buns and wrap in tinfoil.  Bake on 400 until cheese is melted.  About 15-20 minutes.  Serve with potato chips for best results!

John’s Weekend Home

A week and a half ago Johnny got to come home for the weekend.  It was amazing to see him again and I was so sad to see him leave again, but we had a super fun weekend while he was here.

He flew in on Friday morning at 8:30, he had taken a red eye from Alaska to make it home.  Before he left we scheduled my ultrasound and planned his entire trip around it.  It was important to both of us that he be there.  We had it planned for 3:30 which would have given him plenty of time to drive home from the airport, and take a quick nap before the appointment.  But we all know how doctors are.  2 days before he came home they called to tell me they would have to do my appointment at 10:00 instead.  Well that wouldn’t work because the the airport is over 2 hours away, and he had to pick up his rental car, so he would have missed the whole thing.  I freaked out and almost started crying on the phone to the poor girl who got stuck doing the doctor’s dirty work, so she was able to squeeze me in at 11:00 instead.  It was better than 10 so I took it.  They had to start without John, but the Dr was very sweet and felt bad about moving my appointment and knew about the situation so he took his time showing me the baby without showing me what we were having until John got there.  He was about 25 minutes late, but he came rushing in the room just as the Dr was running out of things to show me above the baby’s waist.  Not the way I imagined us greeting each other after 6 weeks apart, me laying on a table with my guts exposed and all, but it was still great.  As soon as John came in the Dr showed us that we were having a BOY!  We were beyond excited.

After that we went grocery shopping, and to get us a treat and a movie.  We stayed home the rest of the night and just hung out. 

The next day the weather was really nice for a change so we played a game of tennis before we went shopping.  We wanted to buy a present for baby and I had a gift certificate that I won in a photo contest, so we used that and found baby a few fun toys.  We decided to go to the movie theater, which we hardly ever do, and saw The Proposal.  It was funny and we had fun. 

I have been wanting Spam sandwiches forever, and they make too many for one person so I had to wait for John to come home to make them.  I know that they might sound sick, but I swear on my life that Spam sandwiches are SO STINKING GOOD!  You have to try them, I promise you will love them.

Sunday we packed a lunch of leftover Spam sandwiches and went to a pretty lake close to here in the mountains and had a picnic.

The bugs were a little bad, but we still had fun.  It was another beautiful day and I was glad we were able to spend it outside doing things we love. 

Only 15 more days until I get to go to Alaska and be with him again!

Weekly Gut Check

22 Weeks!

Things about baby this week:

• He moves like crazy all day, but especially when I eat something.  He loves a good treat, or piece of food.
• I was able to feel him kick my hand for the first time the other and it was amazing!
• Everyday at almost 4:00 PM exactly I get crazy heartburn if I don’t eat something.
• There is no hiding him anymore, he is getting fatty and I love it!

My Trip To Utah

The first of June I went to Utah to take the wedding pictures for Ben and Amy, and also the baby pictures for Baby P.  It was an insanely long drive by myself and I will never do it again alone if I can help it.  But once I was there I had a great time.

I met up with my friend Wendy and had lunch with her and her sweet boy Roman.  Wendy and I have been friends for years now and this is the first time we have met in real life.  We began being friends on babycenter’s LDS board on a thread for Mormon gals dealing with infertility.  There is a group of us who now have a private blog and they have been a great support for me.  We had a fun lunch at Bajio.

My cousin Shanna let me stay with her.  I love staying with Shanna, she is one of my best friends.  Whenever I stay at her house her husband Matty is so sweet to sleep on the couch so that her and I can sleep in her huge king sized bed together and stay up all night and visit.  We never get much sleep, but we have a blast visiting and laughing all night. 

We ate out, Shanna made cinnamon rolls which I devoured, and we watched movies.  We also went shopping so I could get a few things from real stores while I was around them.  Can I tell you how much I miss real stores like Nordstroms?  Sigh.

I got to watch her boy Punk compete in his first ever triathlon, he did awesome of course.

I loved on her sweet baby girl, they call her Tweeters.

Matty works part-time at Sundance, which is my favorite place on earth.  I don’t ski, but I go there almost every summer with Shanna and we ride the lift.  We usually eat at The Foundry restaurant there too, which is SO good.  If you ever want to be a sinner one Sunday, you really should skip church and go to brunch there, it is so yummy.  Please don’t stone me for sluffing church for good food, it’s a weakness.

Here is me and my weird twisted face riding the lift.

The view from the lift.

I haven’t ever seen my boyfriend Robert Redford there, but one day I am hoping to.  I love him!

We got off at the top and went for a short walk/hike.  Notice my sturdy hiking shoes I wore for the occasion.

Shanna and her cute babies.

Can I even tell you how much I miss living in Utah?  I would love to move back to SLC one day.

Baby P

This is Baby P, isn’t he adorable?  I have decided that I LOVE taking newborn pictures.  They are relaxed and so much fun.  Here are my favorites from this session.  Again you can see the full set on my flickr account. 

Him and his beautiful Mama.

P and his big sister.

I just adore this one.

Ben + Amy

Here are my some of my favorites of Ben and Amy’s wedding.  You can see the full set on my flickr page.

Weekly Gut Check

21 Weeks!

Monday Night Confessions

 

• I am not ashamed of my celebrity gossip addiction, well ok maybe a little ashamed, but you want to know what makes me feel better?  Having sisters and friends who are just as addicted.  I didn’t need to listen to the news to hear about Michael Jackson kicking it, I got texts about it from my sister and my friend.  And you know what, if I would have heard the news first I would have texted them too. 
• I have a love affair with cold ice water with sliced up limes in it.  We had this the other night at YW and I literally gulped down like 15 little Dixie cups worth of it.  I bought limes the other day and have been making my own lime water. 
• I sing in my car.  Not really so much during the day when people can see me, but when I am driving in the car at night and I am alone I turn my radio as loud as it will go and I jam out.  I also dance in the car too.  My favorite is to make John dance in the car with me.  I have only gotten him to indulge me a few times but I laugh so hard every time he does.  It’s like I won the lottery when I get him to be crazy.
• I am a creature of habit.  I eat the same thing for breakfast and lunch everyday.  And I don’t ever get sick of it.  I like it.  I like having stability, even in my food.  Dinner is another story, I always have something different for dinner and it sucks because that is where I spend the most energy trying to figure out what to eat. 
• I cried the other night because I am half way done being pregnant.  I cried because I don’t know if I will ever get the chance to experience this wonderful time again.  I cried thinking that my baby could be an only child.  I cried thinking about never doing this again, and that if I don’t ever get the opportunity again that my husband had to miss so much of it.
• I miss my husband like crazy and I can’t wait until the end of August when I get to have him back with me forever.     

And The Baby Is…..

 

A BOY!!

The Votes Are In

As of today we have 3 votes for a Boy and 10 for a Girl.  My appointment is at 11:00 so I will post as soon as I can!  I am so excited for today!!

 

Help For The Hess Family

I went to high school with Ryan and my heart breaks for him and his family.  They posted this on facebook and asked everyone to please re-post it on their blogs in hopes that someone can help.  I wish I worked for a federal agency so I could donate but I don’t.  If you know of anyone please pass along the information.  They are a very deserving family.

***FEDERAL EMPLOYEES- PLEASE DONATE LEAVE TO RYAN HESS***

My name is Margie Hess, my husband Ryan was diagnosed on June 12, 2009 with a rare and aggressive form of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Since this is an aggressive form of T-Cell Lymphoma, his doctor has put him on an aggressive chemo regimen that will result in him being unable to work for the next 4-6 months and possibly longer. At the time of diagnosis he was finishing up his 1st year as a Podiatry Resident at the V.A. in Tucson, AZ. Ryan is a devoted husband and father of two children, Hallie (5) and Max (2). By the end of this month (June 2009), Ryan will use up the last of his vacation and sick leave and will have to go on unpaid leave. Ryan is the sole provider for our family; I stay at home with both the kids. Without him working we have no income. I need to stay home to help care for him, so I cannot get a job right now, either. As difficult as it is for our family to have to ask for help, we have realized that we must do so at this time. We were told that any federal employee (ie: military, Border Patrol, DEA, FB I, Dept of Justice, EPA etc. EXCEPT Post Office employees) can donate vacation time to be used as sick leave for another Federal employee. We would be so thankful for any number of extra paid days we can accumulate. Thank you so much.

How can you help if you ARE a Federal Employee?

Go to your HR department and request to donate leave to Ryan Hess who works for the VA. (Your HR person will know the form that needs to be filled out- each Federal agency has their own form to donate leave)

Once filled out and signed, the HR person will then need to fax or e-mail the form to:

OLIVIA McCLURE – Benefits Specialist (TUCSON V.A.)
Phone #: (520) 792-1450 x 6076
Fax # : (520) 629-1849
E-Mail : olivia.mcclure@va.gov

ALSO, for those who are federal employees, please print out this message and post it in break/lunch rooms to help get the word out as well as emailing it to co-workers!

How to help if you are NOT a Federal Employee:

PASS this along to ANYONE and EVERYONE that you know and then ask them to pass the message along. Post it on blogs, Facebook…whatever you can think of.

Thanks again everyone- this will help SO much!
GO TEAM RYAN HESS!
(E-mail teamryanhess@gmail.com to receive updates or to send a message!)

Where Is My Mind

I thought people made up that whole pregnancy brain thing, but I am a firm believer now.  I have done the DUMBEST things ever since being pregnant and I am afraid it will only get worse. 

Names have become my worst enemy which isn’t good in my line of work.  When you have employees coming into your office for help and you stare at them blankly, it’s not fun.  I usually try to get them to keep talking long enough that I can either remember their name or they will say something that will jog my memory for me.  Most of the time I have to just apologize and ask them to tell me their name again, and then I feel so stupid.

I put things in odd places.  I find myself trying to put a plate in the freezer, or a tomato in the spice cupboard.  Most of the time I catch myself doing it but I am not looking forward to the day that I don’t catch myself and find rotten food in my cupboards.  It is so weird, why do I keep doing this?

Our dishwasher is one of those portable ones that you have to roll across the room and then manually hook up to the sink and plug in to make it work.  So I was so proud of myself because I had gotten the whole house clean and all the dishes done.  I put in the dish soap and fired her up.  It was about 15 minutes later that I remembered I hadn’t turned the water on.  I was so relieved to see that I hadn’t burned up the motor, I really didn’t want to pay my landlord to replace it. 

Another appliance nightmare was the popcorn popper.  I love air popped popcorn so I decided to make some the other night while I was talking to John on the phone.  I got it all ready, poured the popcorn into the little measuring cup, set the bowl out and plugged it in.  Again I walked into the next room while it popped.  5 long minutes later I was wondering why nothing was popping yet, oh that’s why I didn’t actually pour the popcorn into the popper, I just left it in the measuring cup on top.  I was using a metal bowl too and burned myself moving it out of the way because steaming hot air had been blowing on it for 5 minutes. 

Anyone else having good pregnancy brain stories? 

Plus don’t forget to vote on if you think I am having a boy or a girl.  So far a girl is leading 6-0!  My psychic mother Madam Rhonda, as my sister calls her, says it is a boy.  She has almost a 100% accuracy rate, so this will be fun to see if I can break her psychic streak!

Weekly Gut Check and a Poll

20 Weeks!

Monday Night Confessions

What should I confess this week….

• How about the fact that today I was driving past Carl’s Jr. and wanted a shake so bad I could taste it so I slammed on my brakes and pulled in and got me one.  I would like to blame it on the baby and pregnancy cravings, but it wasn’t.  It was my gluttonous self only who wanted that shake.  And once I got it and had a few sips it wasn’t all that I had hoped and I threw the rest away. 
• Tiny baby likes some sugar.  After only those few slurps on my shake today and this kid was squirming and moving and going crazy inside of me.  I told John that sometimes I feel like the old woman who swallowed the fly. 
• Speaking of feeling the baby move, it is hands down one of my favorite things in the world.  When I am quiet and still at night reading or relaxing and I can feel baby softly moving around, it is like heaven for me.  It is the most amazing thing ever and I will always cherish this time that I have being pregnant.  It is amazing.
• Last Friday I passed my Professional Human Resources (PHR) test.  This test has been hanging over my head for a year and a half and to have it done, and to have actually passed is a huge accomplishment and relief in my life.  I feel like I can breath again now that it is done.  First of all I have no idea how I passed because it was the hardest test I have ever taken, by far harder than any college exam I had.  Bonus is that I now get a raise since I passed!  I love extra money.
• 2 amazing things happen this Friday.  First my Johnny comes home for 2.5 days and I can’t wait to see him.  It will have been almost 6 weeks since I have seen him last and I am beyond excited.  And second is that we find out what we are having!  It will be so fun to actually know what we are having and give the baby a name.

I hope everyone had a great Monday!

Happy Father’s Day

Today I want to say Happy Father’s Day to my husband and my Dad.

To Johnny, the love of my life, and of course the father of our unborn child:
  I know you will be an amazing father and that is one of the reasons that I married you.  You are so kind and loving and patient, all qualities that I hope you can pass on to our baby.  I can’t wait for you to take our baby fishing and camping for the very first time.  To teach him or her how to play sports, and to listen to you read them stories at night.  I can’t wait to see you hold our baby for the first time, and wipe their tears when they are sad or hurt.  Thank you for being a wonderful person, and someone that I am proud to have babies with!  I love you Johnny! 

To Texas, my Dad:
  Happy Father’s Day Tex!  I couldn’t have ever asked for a better dad, not only growing up, but even more now as an adult.  You always made me feel important and special, which I can only imagine was quite the task with 6 other kids running around.  You taught me the value of hard work, and always being honest.  You have shown me so much about being charitable, and always helping out others.  You have always been someone that I can talk to no matter what.  I know that if I am having a bad day I can count on you to listen and to sympathize, and if I am having a great day I know that you will be there to help me celebrate all the wonderful things in my life.  You have always shown so much faith in me that it has helped push me on to always do better and try harder.  You have always been so tough and strong in my mind, and you have never let me down.  Thank you so much for all you continue to do for me today.  I love you Dad. 

Ben + Amy The Wedding (Preview)

More to come in the next few days!

I Love Some Good Talent

I have talked about my cousin Ashley’s cakes before, but in case you haven’t been to her site lately you should really check it out again.  She is AMAZING!  I can’t wait for a reason to have her make me a cake one day.  She is so talented and patient and she has 3 little kids running around while she bakes up these masterpieces.  Here are some of my favorites.

Weekly Gut Check

19 Weeks.

Monday Night Confessions

 

• I love to eat cold food.  I love fresh food hot like it should be, but leftovers, they are so much better cold.  Cold pasta, pizza, potatoes, Chinese.  You name it and I will pretty much eat it cold as leftovers.  John would rather die, so when we eat leftovers we split them so he can warm his up while I eat mine cold. 
• I have come to the conclusion that I cannot multitask in the kitchen.  I can’t.  I have tried and tried and I fail every time.  When John makes meals he can time everything out perfect and it always turns out amazing.  I can’t say enough about his cooking skills.  But when I try, like tonight for example it is terrible.  Honestly how can a person ruin minute rice and burn tortillas at the same time?  It’s not that hard, but I sure seem to struggle with it.
• On one of my favorite pair of capris I finally had to resign today and do them up with a hair thing so I didn’t have to button them.  I can still technically button them but then it squishes poor tiny baby all day and I am miserable.  I figure that is pretty good to have made it this far.  I can still wear my jeans and other capris ok for now…
• I think I must be a broken pregnant woman because I don’t really have mad cravings.  I mean every once in a while something random will sound kinda good, but I don’t have to eat it.  Most of the time I am too lazy to go to the store and get it, and usually after 5 minutes it has passed. 
• I have a mad week ahead of me and I can’t wait to get it over with.  Most of my weeks are crazy, but this one seems super bad.  Work is out of control and I will be putting in LONG hours this week.  I hope next week is better.  I am grateful that at least it keeps me occupied while John is gone.
• I haven’t had time to edit one of my pictures from my trip to Utah yet, but come Saturday I will be glued to my computer and I can’t wait.  I haven’t edited in such a long time with all that has been going on and I have missed it. 

Hope everyone has a great week!  Happy Monday!

Holy House

You have to check out this house that my friend Wendy got to tour.  It is right up by the Draper temple and the kids rooms are amazing! 

Here is the link to her blog: http://watchromangrow.blogspot.com/2009/06/anyone-have-extra-35-million-laying.html

Young Women’s Lesson #19 Personal Records

I haven’t made handouts forever!  Our teaching schedule changed and then I got a new calling to be a counselor so I won’t be doing lessons as much as I did, but I will always post them here if I do teach. 

For my lesson on personal records I went to Family Dollar and bought these cute little journals for each of the girls.  I also wanted them to have a handout with a quote and scripture on it.  The quote is from Pres. Kimball and I thought it was great.  It reads, “Your journal is your autobiography, so it should be kept carefully”.  The bottom is 1^stNephi 1:1-3 “And I know that the record which I make is true; and I make it with mine own hand; and I make it according to my knowledge”. 

Hope these help.

Click here for the handout:  Journaling

If the link doesn’t work please leave me a comment with your e-mail and I will e-mail it to directly.

Weekly Gut Check

18 Weeks.

(Don’t mind the terrible blurry picture)

Monday Night Confessions

 I am glad to be home from my whirlwind trip to Utah.  I had a jam packed schedule every day and it was nice to get home and finally relax and rest!  It was super fun and I was glad to get to do everything that I did.  I have 3 photo sessions I will post about in the next few weeks, and pictures of some of the fun things that I got to do. 

• I put over 1000 miles on my sad little old car this weekend, and I did it all by myself.  I hate driving alone and especially that long of a drive, but I am pretty proud of myself for doing it. 
• I think GPS systems are THE BEST THINGS EVER.  There is no other way to say that.  Everyone should have one.  It was by far some of the best money we have ever spent.  It was the only way I was able to make my trip to all the places I needed to go and not lose my mind.  Me and GPS lady are BFF’s after spending a good 5 days together. 
• Tonight I tried to cook chicken all by myself.  Let’s just say that I should get some points for effort here.  I am glad that I am the only one who had to choke it down.  John sent me directions, but I got distracted and didn’t watch it close enough.  It was edible, but just barely.  John certainly didn’t marry me for my culinary skills, he married me for my many other non-culinary skills
• I have gained an outrageous amount of weight since John left and it is starting to freak me out.  I know that I technically have an excuse, but that doesn’t cut it for me.  I way over indulged on my trip and now I have to do better.  No more treats for me….
• No more treats starting 5 minutes ago that is.  Stupid cream cheese pastry that I ate today.  It was SO good too.  Someone help me out here.  I am determined to not gain 100 pounds just because I am preggo.  Self control would come in handy right about now.  Does anyone know where I can buy me some of that!?!?  

Happy Monday Everyone!!!!

Monday Night Confessions

Better late than never I guess.

• I hate Wal-Mart.  I mean I hate it.  I hate it, I hate it, I hate it.  All the people and the giant carts and the store the size of North Dakota kicks my butt.  I don’t like going when John is with me so now that he is gone I really try to avoid it at all costs.  I know they are so much cheaper than the other places, but I think my sanity is worth the worth the extra money I have to pay at Safeway.
• On the other hand  I {Heart} Safeway.  When I go in the lighting is perfect, there are less people, they have nice small little baskets waiting for me by the door.  It smells like yummy bread all the time and it is small enough that I can find everything in half the time I can at Wal-Mart.  And it is close to my house and on the way home from work.  Plus they have delicious treats in their bakery section.  Again I {Heart} Safeway.
• I have a huge problem with people who try to make me feel guilty.  The only person who I let get away with this ever is Rhonda (my mom) and even she only gets so far.  And actually she has gotten much better over the years.  My real problem is with people that hardly even know me AT ALL who try to heap guilt on me for stupid things.  And even if they’re not stupid things, don’t ever try to make me feel guilty.  It makes me furious.  I’m sorry but I think we all put enough guilt on ourselves without other people helping out.  People at church, work, extended family.  No way, don’t do it to me, all it is going to do is make me not like you anymore and avoid you at all costs because I don’t need people like that in my life.  Sorry about the rant but some things have been bugging me can you tell
• When I go out of town I have this obsession with making sure my house is clean before I leave.  This is for 2 reasons really.  First I like to come home to a clean house after a long trip.  And second I have this fear of having something happen to me and other people would come in my house without me and think that I was a slob if it wasn’t clean.  So tonight as I am frantically packing I am also cleaning. 
• My bed has become overrun with pillows.  When my poor husband comes home he is only going to have about 1 foot left to curl up on.  Since I was about 8 weeks pregnant my back has slowly gone down hill.  Sleeping is a nightmare and I am usually awake around 3:30 or 4:00 in the morning and then I just doze lightly while I toss and turn until my alarm goes off.  It doesn’t hurt during the day, only when I sleep.  We even bought a really nice new mattress hoping it would help and it didn’t.  If any of you Mamas out there have any good suggestions to help sleep when pregnant please let me know.
• I am going to Utah this week and I am excited about 3 things:
  •  
    • Taking wedding and baby pictures.
    • Seeing my family.
    • EATING AT YUMMY RESTAURANTS!!  I have a list of places that I want to eat all planned out.  The sad thing is that I have more places to eat than I have actual meal times during my stay.  I am going to have to prioritize my list and just go for my favorite ones.  Oh how I love food. 
• I really love being pregnant.  I know that the aches and pains haven’t even come close to what they will be, but so far this has been some of the most enjoyable months of my whole life.  I have looked forward to this for so long, and so far it is even better than I could have imagined, sickness, back pain and all!