FALSE ALARM

I went in for my ultrasound and she is just fine. What a difference having a REALLY nice ultrasound machine makes. She has plenty of fluid and her tummy is measuring perfect. It said she was measuring at 38weeks and 2 days...which was right on. And she is definitely an Olivia and not Oliver, thank goodness! I guess she is going to be tall because at both of my recent ultrasounds they said, "she's going to be tall, is the father tall?" Now Andrew is asking me, "Is the father tall?" He thinks he's so funny (probably because he is).

Amniotic fluid

On Thursday I was supposed to leave for Seattle at 2:35...but of course Reno is lame and my flight was delayed until almost 5. Our plane finally arrived and as we were taking off Olivia went NUTS! She didn't stop kicking and moving until the plane leveled out at its cruising altitude. Then as we were landing, same thing! I just about peed my pants and if the decent were any longer I probably would have from her kicking my bladder so hard. So the plane landed and I was so happy to be in Seattle. Then over the intercom they told us we might want to sit down because they can't pull the jet way up because there has been a security breech in the terminal (isn't that what the security check point is for?) So I got to sit on the plane for another 15 minutes thinking, just let me off the plane and I will kill whoever is causing this stupid security thing. But I made it home : )
Friday morning I went to my new doctor who is going to deliver Olivia. After about 15 minutes she had already talked to me more than my Dr in Winnemucca did the whole 8 months I saw him. As she was doing an ultrasound on my belly she found out it was a BOY! Just kidding! But she did find that her abdomen is measuring at about 35 weeks and she said she didn't see enough amniotic fluid. So I have to go in tomorrow for another ultrasound in the hospital, because I guess sometimes the baby will shift and they can find more amniotic fluid. But if they don't find anymore they might have to take her early C-section. The problem with not having enough fluid is her umbilical cord can get pinched so she doesn't get enough nutrients and oxygen. She said that everything else looks really healthy and that if she were stressed she wouldn't be doing some of the things she saw, so that's a good sign. They did a stress test to see how her heart rate was doing. I guess baby's hearts will spike and then calm down and spike and calm down, to practice for when you get scared and your heart rate goes up. So they strapped the machine to my belly and I sat there for about 15 minutes listening to her heart beat. After a while her heartbeat didn't spike, so the Dr got this little buzzer thing and said she was going to put it on my belly to wake her up. The Dr tested it on me and that's all it took, her heart rate went zooming up from 145 to about 175 (the highest it went the whole time). So all she needed was the threat of being buzzed, it was pretty funny.

FREE TREE

Because I am leaving Dec 10th to go to Seattle, I decided that I didn't need to get a Christmas tree this year. I was a little sad about it, but okay with it because I will be gone for most of the month. But as I was talking to my tenant, she asked if I had a tree and told me that she had an extra one. So she brought it over and gave us a 6 ft fake christmas tree. I was so excited! Andrew and I went to Wal-Mart and bought some lights. It only has one ornament from my mom that says Baby's First Christmas...but it's still so much fun to have a tree up! I LOVE CHRISTMAS TIME!

Almost Done

I have less than a week left of work until I officially quit, but I have already turned over all of my duties over to the people I have been training, so really it's like I have already quit. I thought I would be really excited about leaving, but I am starting to get a little sad.
Things I will NOT miss:
1. Being called right after the pharmacy closes to let me know that someone is out of meds
2. Wiping the butts of grown men
3. Having my hair pulled, being slapped, pushed, punched, and screamed at
4. Being interupted at dinner to have to rush to the pharmacy before they close
5. Going to the pharmacy just about everyday
6. Having poop smeared on me

Things I will miss:
1. Angel aka Meho saying "I want you to sit down please"
2. Deandra teling me I'm pretty
3. David's quiet chuckles to himself
4. Eric telling me he watched Bob Bark and that someone won a car
5. Cody screaming "DANGER" and "I wanna go home" everywhere we go
6. John saying Hi to me until I respond to him
7. Lena's cackle
8. Erin letting me know about all her Dr appointments and meds (like I don't know already : )
9. Blane singing Happy Birthday
10. Cheryl always asking me "How you doing girl" and walking me to the car when its dark
11. All the clients at Sonoma Industries treating me like a celebrity when I walk in the door

Some of my favorite memories of working with the clients:
1. Music in the background--Go Shorty, it's your birthday, were gonna party like its your birthday and Meho shouting "DECEMBER" because thats when his birthday is
2. Going to Denny's with Cody and having some strangers pay for our lunch even though Cody was screaming at the top of his lungs the whole time we were there
3. Cody screaming "Donna!" at Donna's memorial service as all the ballons were floating up to her in heaven with everyones notes attached to the ballons
4. Blane getting hit in the head and getting really angry at the automatic closing hatch on the car

As much as I complained about my job, I really grew to love all of the clients (even though we are not friends, we are staff).

TIME FLIES WHEN YOUR HAVING FUN

I guess I have been having alot of fun lately because it feels like it should be about Sept 3rd and not October 12th. Don't get me wrong, I love the fact that its getting colder and that Christmas is just around the corner, but it seems like the months are just zooming past. In August I was thinking, wasn't it just July 1st? Then in September I was thinking, wasn't it just August 1st? And now in October I am thinking, wasn't it just September 1st? I wouldn't mind time slowing down a little bit so I can enjoy my last few months of being childless and carefree, not having to schedual my day around naptime, mealtime, and will you ever stop crying time. So Father Time, just because you don't enjoy your job and want to hand it over to the new Baby New Year doesn't mean you can keep making time fly!

HARVEST TIME

After all summer of waiting our corn was in need of being harvested...badly! Andrew and I didn't know when corn is ready so yesterday he went out and picked all of our corn, most of which was getting old. So we decided to make freezer corn out of it. We ended up with a pretty good crop. While Andrew was out in the garden he found a zucchini that was hiding from us all summer. Our garden was alot of fun this year and it is coming to an end, we are supposed to get a pretty good frost this week : (

YARD SALE

Yesterday I finally did it, I had my first yard sale. But unlike most yard sales, I didn't sell anything that I purchased. The people who were in our apartment and left all of their stuff made me about $120...well sort of...it makes up for all the utility bills they left for us. But I got rid of all of their stuff. A gal came by earlier in the day and was interested in all the clothes I was selling for 25 cents each. She bought about $5 worth of clothes and said she would come back. When my yard sale was just about done she came with a 20 dollar bill and asked if she could have all the clothes. I told them go right ahead. She explained to me that she has a ton of family and friends who really need clothes and blankets. I am really glad that she came back and that the clothes and blankets went somewhere useful rather than the dump. Then another lady paid me $10 for all the stuff left at the yard sale. I didn't want to do the yard sale another day (especially since all the clothes were gone and that's where I made most of my money) and the two thrift stores in town are not accepting donations. So I let that lady take the rest of it. It was a pretty productive day;I made $120, helped people, and got rid of all the stuff in the cargo trailer (which is going to be used to help some people move in the next 2 weeks).

Dreams

Lately I have been dreaming alot. Usually I am such a deep sleeper that I don't recall any of my dreams, but not this week.
Dream #I had a dream where my ultrasound tech was wrong and I had everything all ready for our little "girl" which wasn't so girly afterall, she was a he! In my dream I had made everything in the nursery pink, but in real life everything is going to be neutral so that if we have a little boy in the future I won't have to change a thing. I'm pretty sure its going to be a girl though : )
Dream #2 So Andrew and I apparently got in with the wrong crowd and we tried robbing a bank with 2 other people. As we were putting the money into the get away car the two others sped off in the car leaving us stranded and we got arrested. Then somehow my bike was outside of the jail and we somehow escaped on my bike. Then Andrew said we needed to seperate and I should fly home to WA and he would go to MN. So while in the airport I went to check in and I didn't have my licencse (it was at the jail), but they let me through anyway. Then the dream changed from Western bank robbing to a horror film. All of a sudden we were in a creepy train station type place and there were these creatures crawling on the ceiling that were eating people. But I was smart and instead of going with the cops who always get eaten in movies I went and hid by myself and then I woke up (I think the last part has to do with watching the X-Files recently)
Dream #3 I guess polygamy came back and Andrew got a second wife. My dream was on their wedding day and Andrew didn't talk to me the whole day. So I packed up my things and took the car and left him. Because the car is in Andrew's name he called the cops and reported it missing so I got pulled over because I was driving a stolen car. I told the cop he could have the stupid car. I woke up as Andrew was getting ready at 4:30 am. I told him I was really mad at him (and I really was). He says I have dreams like that because he is such a perfect husband I have to dream of him doing bad things...I laughed and went back to bed.

UPDATES

Here are a few updates going on in our lives.
1. It's a girl! Andrew and I found out that we are going to be having a little baby girl. We are still thinking of a name, even though we have had lots of help thinking of one. One of the girls I work with who is disabled thinks Octavia Universe Smith sounds adorable...I have to think about that one a little more ha ha! Then my sister Sam thought Catherine Abagail Jessica would be a good name. So until we get that figured out she will still be Pinto for now.
2. Eviction! On Friday our Tantrum Crooks (name given by Sam) were officially evicted. I felt pretty powerful with two Sherrif Deputies with me while I was changing the locks...once they left I felt like a little school girl dodging the bullies on the playground. They didn't pack up one thing except for their TV. So this week Andrew and I get to go through all of their crap and inventory it and keep it for 30 days by law. If they want to get anything out they have to pay a reasonable storage fee (we are saying $15 a day) and then they can get some stuff. After 30 days anything they left becomes ours...or mostly it will be in the possesion of the dump. But we are so glad to have them gone! Now we won't have the cops at our place once a week (which I was told by the deputy that 5 times in one month isn't bad for them, SERIOUSLY?!) Now we are trying to get the missionaries to be our tenants, that way cops will never be there, they won't be home all day and will go to bed early, cigarette smoke wont be wafting into our house. We are really hoping it will work out.
3. Utah. We went to Utah this past weekend for a baby blessing, birthday party, and to see the Backman fam. We had alot of fun, especially hanging out with Sammy. On Sunday she was hilarious! After eating dinner she cleared everyones plates and my grandpa said to save your forks for dessert. Sam wouldn't have anything to do with that, they were dirty and we needed fresh forks! She yelled at my grandpa "Seriously though!" Never heard that one before. Then she dropped something and made this face and said "My Bad!" I didn't know if I would ever breathe again I was laughing so hard. I love that girl and miss all the funny things she does.

So now we are back in Winnemucca until September when we are going up to WA for labor day, so anyone is invited to stop by anytime they want : )

WORST DAY EVER

This morning I woke up around 6, ate breakfast, then went outside to pull weeds for about 30 minutes until the sun started making me hot. So I came back into the house and cleaned up a little bit, vacummed, put stuff away, the usual. Then I got ready to go to work. Went out to my car and found that an un-opened pop can had burst and blew pop all over my car, I hate the desert! I didn't have time to clean it up and my car is a mess anyway from our recent roadtrip to Minnesota. I arrived at work and it seemed like everyone I was working with was in a bad mood because they had all just gotten back from their trip to Lagoon and nobody wanted to be at work. All of them were agitated and everywhere and got into everything. Then one of the clients pooped his pants so his staff brought him home to change and I had all three crazy boys. Then she got back and we noticed that one of the clients didn't have the right meds for noon, so she left again leaving me with all 4 boys (it was lunch time so they were mostly occupied with lunch...until they finished). So after lunch everyone went back to work and one of the clients was sitting in a corner doing his own thing, until I realized he had taken out his meds from his backpack and was overdosing...so he went to the hospital while I went with someone else to his Dr appointment. The client I took to the Dr appointment was way aggitated and didn't want to be there AT ALL. He doesn't talk much, but I know his mannerisms enough to know he was pretty ticked off at me and wanted to leave. So after finally being done at the Dr's I brought him back and now I just realized that I forgot to pick up the eviction papers that were served to our tenants who are currently in jail, so I am off to the sherrifs office. AWESOME DAY!

NASTY

A while back we had a plumber come out to do some other work and he noticed that the main water line coming into our house should be replaced. So Andrew dug most of the trench, then some friends of ours came over to help the rest of the way. What do you think, did it need to be replaced? I don't think so, it looks fine to me! NASTY!

FINALLY!

After more than a month of washing dishes in my bathtub I finally have a kitchen sink, dishwasher, stove, counterspace, and everything else that comes with a kitchen. It is so awesome! I just want to sit in there all day. This has definitly made me grateful for things that I usually don't even think twice about. I have never been so grateful to be able to sit in my kitchen this morning and be able to grab a bowl out of a cupboard, not in the spare bedroom or on the drying rack in the bathroom, get my cereal in another cupboard in the same room, pour milk, get a spoon, and eat all in the same room. Oh and then I could simply place my bowl and spoon into our dishwasher...I know you are all thinking GET OUT! ALL OF THAT IN THE SAME ROOM! Yes siree! When you go into your kitchen just think how blessed you are to be able to do your dishes in the kitchen and not where you wash your butt.

DEMOLITION

It’s begun…our house has turned into project headquarters. We are starting with the kitchen. Turns out the heating duct didn’t work in the kitchen (inspector didn’t catch that) so Andrew cut a hole in our floor and went down to take a look. Found the problem…a dead cat was under the house. We think a cat was under there and knocked all the ducts loose (because the morons who built the house didn’t tape them together). So he fixed that and insulated the walls. Andrew spent a lot of time down there and said it was really bad because he had to exhale to move. While down there he found some buried treasure, a really old Pepsi can in almost perfect condition. Another hidden treasure we found was that underneath the laminate floors is a real hard wood floor! We were pretty excited about that one, the house finally gave us a good surprise : ) We hope to have our kitchen finished by the end of the month, keeping our fingers crossed.

Ripping out the cabinets to make room for our Ikea ones

Andrew underneath the house in the "crawl space"

The cool Pepsi can Andrew found

Putting insulation down the hole for Andrew

Uncovering the hard wood floors

WHY I LOVE MY HUSBAND

In our kitchen the faucet had a leak. At first it was just a little drip, so I thought no big deal. But when Andrew went to class Monday night at 6pm the water drip turned into a steady stream. I took it upon myself to try and fix it, all of Andrew’s tools were out from working on other things in the house. So I started messing with it and I was able to tighten something down and it brought the stream back to a drip. Mission accomplished I thought…no. After I put the handles back on the stream came back. So I thought to myself, it worked last time, maybe it just needs to be a little tighter. Unfortunately the shut off valves to the sink our really old and won’t turn, so at this point the water is still on. When I started to tighten the handle again something popped off and all of a sudden scalding hot water was shooting out of where the handle is supposed to be. Lucky for me we had the plumber out who showed me where the emergency shut off valve to our house is. I ran to it and turned the water off (even thought it takes forever for that knob to turn all the way off). When I got back into the kitchen everything was soaked! I thought to myself, its only 7 I can have this fixed before Andrew gets home. Oh how wrong I was. I went to Wal-Mart (the only place open that had a kitchen faucet) and bought a new faucet. I came home and started to take off the old and broken faucet. Since it is so old I couldn’t unscrew anything. I used half a bottle of lime away trying to unclog everything, but it didn’t work. I waited until Andrew got home at 10pm. I was worried he was going to be angry since he has to get up at 4:30 every morning and now I was making him stay up even later. He just laughed a little and took his angle grinder to the screws and tore the old faucet apart. He got it off and hooked up our new one. Now there is no drip : )

ONE DOWN AND MANY MORE TO GO

We made it to the first year mark as of Sunday April 26th. A lot has happened in those 365 days. First we were married in Utah and after spending a few weeks with family we went back to school. Summer semester we moved into a town home, camped for 7 weeks and then were separated for 7 weeks. During fall semester we moved to Heartland apartments third floor, for some reason I remember the move very well but Andrew can’t seem to remember it…oh yeah that’s because he was in NV and I moved our stuff up 3 flights with the help of Brent and Jess. When apple season came around we learned how to make applesauce and Andrew made a lot of it and I burned a lot of it. We finished up school and we both graduated with our bachelors degree in geology and Andrew got a job with Marigold Mine. After graduation we went and spent Christmas with the Backmans and were able to go to Hawaii for the first time. After Hawaii we moved to Winnemucca, NV. I found a job in town working with the disabled people in Winnemucca and I love it. While in Nevada we lived in the Marigold company trailer, Val-U Motel, the Felshaw’s guest room above their garage, and finally our HOUSE! Our house is so much fun even though we have already had a plumber come out twice and bought a new water heater (the first time the plumber came out he turned our water on while it was raining…when it stopped raining our water heater which is under the house kept making puddles, hence the need for the plumber the second time). So in 12 months we have moved 9 times, graduated college, got jobs, bought a house, and a lot more. Our first year has been a busy one and I am sure our next one will be just as busy and fun!

Wedding day April 26, 2008

Field Camp 2008

Making applesauce

Graduation December 12, 2008

Moving from Rexburg...goodbye stuff until we meet again in 4 months

Christmas 2008 at Backmans. Sam and Andrew picked out the tree

Hawaii January 2009

Welcome to Winnemucca January 24, 2009

Our home for 5 weeks, the Val-U Motel

Our house April 24, 2009

Flowers at our house

MOTEL LIFE

As many of you may or may not know, Andrew and I have been living in the Val-U Motel for the past couple of weeks and for the next week or two. This is how we got ourselves in this predicament. When we moved to Winnemucca, NV Andrew’s company set us up in their company trailer for 30 days or until someone new comes in. Well since a lot of the mines aren’t really hiring right now we thought we would be safe staying in the trailer until we got into our house…but we were wrong. We were told that someone was coming to stay in the trailer and we had to be out at the end of the week. Well at this point we had made an offer on the Hoskins house and were waiting for our closing date, April 15th. We looked for an apartment, but nobody wants to rent to you for a month except for motels. So here we are living in the Val U Motel until our house closes which could be as late as the 21st now. I know everyone is jealous and wishes they could live the life of luxury…room service, free breakfast (which consists of toast and stale muffins), ice machines (which is broken), pool (which is closed for winter), and all that fun stuff! I would post a picture of this place, but every time I try to upload pictures the internet here doesn’t allow it, but when we are out of here I will try to put one up so you all can see how classy we have been living.

DRIVE TEST

Now that I am done with school, I still have one more thing to study for, any guesses? Bet nobody guessed the driving test, you know the one you take the day you turn 16 because you are so excited to get your license? That's the one! In the state of Nevada when you move here and need to get your license switched, if you are under the age of 25 you have to take the written test again. So now all that teasing about Andrew being so old came and slapped me in the face because he doesn't have to retake the test and likes to rub it in. Thankfully I passed the stupid thing, how embarrassing if I didn't. We are now officially Nevada residents : )

MY QUILT

Since I am still unemployed I decided to take up a new hobby…quilting! I finally finished it and I think it turned out pretty cute considering the limited supply of fabric at WallyMart and that I have never quilted before in my life! Andrew helped the first day or two when he didn’t have work. It was a fun thing to do to keep me busy.

MUCCA HOUSE HUNTING

Moving to Winnemucca has been an experience, especially looking for a house. Back in November when we looked at houses for the first time I thought, who are these people?! because some of the weird quirks in their homes. We are still on the hunt and here are two of the recent homes we have looked at, both of which are foreclosures.

Shepard House
So this house is a little more expensive and is also in a little bit better shape. We really liked it but it has been pulled off the market, so we are waiting for it to come back on.


Hoskins House
For some reason I really liked this house, I don’t know why. I love the bathroom, I think it is so cute! This house comes with an apartment that is sealed off from the house, which we could rent out and make a little extra cash which is a plus. Also I think it comes with a cat, haha! I think the people who had to leave there home can’t have animals or something because there is a little bed set up for the cat in a utility closet outside and it has been there every time I have been to the house. I think someone is feeding it though, but who knows, maybe it will become ours, haha! Unfortunately neither Andrew or I like cats, but Andrew said he can stick around outside if he takes care of any rodents : )
This is the cat hut

HAWAII

Andrew and I went to Hawaii Jan 10-19, 2009 with the Backman fam. It was so much fun! Before we left, during the packing frenzy, Andrew tucked a stow-away into Jord's backpack. On the flight Jord found the stow-awayed chicken (don't worry it was fake!) and we decided to make a travel log of the chicken. Here were some of Chicken Joe's highlights of the trip...
Well the chicken was not the only one at Hawaii, there were 15 of us actually. My parents (Bret and Ruth), their parents (Ray, Shirley, and Dorth), my aunt and uncle (Steve and Sheri), all my siblings (Andy, Ashley, Jord, Sam, and Dani) Ashley's grandmother (Sybil, or Stella to my mother, and whatever name Dorth fancied to call her), then Andrew and me. While we were in Hawaii we stayed on O'ahu first and then we went to Kaua'i. We did alot of beach time, and I think I may have gotten over my fear of the ocean (I've watched to many Shark Weeks on discovery channel). Other highlights of the trip were a beautiful hike that we did, unfortunately it was cut short, but it was still fun. We also went to the Polynesian Cultural Center which was fun. Hawaii was a blast and we had so much fun being in nice weather and good company.