Bigger (not really) and Better

So David apparently has been thinking for a while about selling his truck. We hadn't talked about it a ton and I loved the truck so I never really considered it seriously. We bought the truck back in Dec 2008 for a great deal and have loved it and gotten good use out of it since. With gas prices rising however its become somewhat of a stress. David and I started taking turns about guessing how much it was going to cost to fill up his truck, lets just say it was never pretty and according to the "gas specialists" it was only going to get worse it the upcoming months. Well with this child coming before too long we're trying to find ways to save our little pennies. One Monday afternoon I get a call from David talking about all the research he had done that day on cars with diesel engines and how much it would save us monthly to trade in the truck and get a little TDI Jetta. I said we could talk about it and look over the numbers later. That afternoon he decided to just "drop in" on a dealership and look at some to see what he thought. 3 hours later I got a call about how he was driving the car to our house so I could see it. I was so frustrated that we were in this position already without even talking it over that he was test driving one to our house without the dealer so we could talk about it. Who makes decisions like this in one day. So I was in no mood and then for the cherry on top of it all, he pulled up in a TDI Golf. Right off the bat I was like, NO! I'm not getting rid of this huge truck that we utilize just to replace it with a Golf that we could fit in the bed of your truck. What a toy of a car. No way. I was very against it that first day. Then I woke up the next morning and maybe being blinded by the money savings I started to warm up to the Golf slightly. I told David we'd talk about it that night. So being my extremely thorough husband he got all his graphs and charts together (no joke) and brought them home. We looked over all the numbers and statistics and decided together that this was the best switch for our family. It has great safety ratings, it really is bigger then it looks, and the amount we'll save in gas is worth it alone. So we decided we'd be selling the truck ourselves and then buying the car versus trading it in since the number the dealer gave David was like $8000 less then the truck was worth. The next day David got a call from the dealer that was trying to jip us and having nothing to lose David gave him a little piece of his mind. I think the dealer learned real quick, David is not the guy you want to mess with in a sitch like this. Of course he apologized a bajillion times and asked David to come back in and meet with him again. So that afternoon David went back in and after swindling his little heart away left with a brand new teeny weeny white Golf. I really don't like making decisions like this as fast as we made this one but when its right why wait. I will miss the truck and I didn't get a lot of time to say goodbye but we handed over a F150 with an empty gas tank and got in return a brand new Golf with a full gas tank and a 49 mpg rating. I still feel kinda silly riding around in it but its got a quick turbo in it so if anyone wants to look at how stupid we look in this little toy car we can just speed away real quick. :] Sometimes in life you have to do things for the better of the situation. I wanted to save lots of money and be stable that way with all the cards we already had on the table but it wasn't going to work like that so we changed a couple cards. Its for the better. Lets all take a moment and say goodbye to this beauty...And lets give a quick shout out and hello to this beauty...

28 Weeks

You know whats awkward? Standing in your living room by yourself and smiling as your husband (or anyone for that matter) takes a picture of you. You can see it all over my face in this shot that I feel awkward just standing there smiling. haha So ignore my face and just look at how huge my freaking belly is getting! I made David take this picture that night because I could feel there was a big pop coming. At work that day I could almost feel some ripping or tearing or something in my stomach. I was full from lunch and I couldn't stand up straight without feeling my stomach pull. I went to the bathroom expecting to see my stomach covered in stretch marks all the sudden or something but it wasn't, I guess its just expanding. Since this picture (which was taken 3 days ago) my belly has gotten significantly bigger..or at least I feel that way so I'll take another shot soon :]

Something Funny

I have a lot to blog about and catch up on so I'll do that soon but today I just felt like telling you about something funny that happened. Remember this post from awhile ago? Well I still feel that way. Nothings changed, I don't think anyone lives in North Dakota. However, since I started my new job I've had to work with Medicare Insurance a lot and the PO Box on Medicare cards is in North Dakota. I'm sure all they have there is an office with robots that just forwards the information on to some other state with actual human beings, lets be honest. Today a patient at my work was looking over her information to verify it was correct and said...

Lady: "Is this po box in North Dakota right?"
Me: " Yes. Medicare's office is there." (I didn't want to launch right into my theory, although I was thinking it, so I just left it at that.)
Lady: "I didn't even think that was a State!"

Haha I love her. She was of Medicare age so at least over 65. We should pay attention to her wisdom. You're right lady, it shouldn't be considered a state because no one lives there. Anybody reading this disagree? Prove it ;]

SL Marathon

We had a fun outing on Saturday with David's family. They came up so that David's step dad Ted could run the Salt Lake Marathon. I was so ridiculously impressed with him I started to wonder why I've never trained or signed up for a half marathon or something. What an accomplishment. Then I saw him after and I realized that whatever was in the air was tainting my thoughts and running half marathons or marathons was not for me. :]
Great moments for the day included:
1. Learning who the heck Flat Stanley is. (Just in case you don't know, he's a little boy who was crushed by a chalkboard so now you take him with you and take pictures of him "traveling" so you can make a scrapbook and teach kids about all the cool places he went.) I know right.
2. Watching a dad and 2 kids cross the finish line of the half marathon. He was cheering and yelling for his kids (who were maybe 9 and 11...?) who had ran the whole race. I totally cried. No joke. It was adorable.
3. Watching a lady who had already finished the half marathon cheer on every single person that was nearing the finish line. My eyes totally welled up as I watched her too. She yelled encouraging and supportive things to everyone and I love her guts whoever she is.
4. Watching every marathoner get applause as they ran towards the finish line. Everyone was so proud of each others huge achievements.
5. Standing on a bench with Kelly playing eye spy Ted.
6. Watching Ted come around the corner towards the finish line. I was jumping and cheering and screaming with everyone else.
7. Kelly handing Ted Flat Stanley to finish the race with him and having the lady and her kids next to us say, "Is that flat Stanley?? He's going to get a good time!" (How was I the only one who didn't know of this little flat man and his story?)
8. Seeing Master Chief (if you don't know who he is you don't have a nerdy husband like I do! He's the Halo video game guy) just walking on the sidewalk. David said if the Master Chief guy had been on the same side of the sidewalk as us David would have asked for a picture with him. I said I would have ran in embarrassment of my husband taking a picture with the 40 year old man who has enough money to buy an entire Halo mascot outfit. This isn't Disneyland David, we don't take pictures with people in costumes..
9. Walking around with a marathoner after Ted finished. I kept thinking "Yeah, we're with him..the marathoner. He's kind of a big deal."
10. And of course, the 3 hour nap that David and I took after getting home from this marathon. I mean we had worked hard you know. Riding Trax to get there was another great part. No traffic :] Thats Flat Stanley....and Allie Gwen and KellyTed coming in! Ted and Flat Stanley heading towards the finish line! Way to go you two.

I'm So Crafty...

NOT! If you know me at all you know that is a huge fat lie! I'm not crafty in the least bit. David is the one thats got that eye for building, creating, and designing. Backwords right? Yeah well, its my reality. He has decorated our whole house and whenever anyone comes over and tells me how darling I've made it I just nod and say..."Oh thanks. I know I'm pretty talented". I'm kidding I've never said that, I always say..."Yeah I wish this was me but its all David". They look at me all shocked but its true. Oh well I can't be perfect in every way right? ;] So now that you know that little tidbit about me on to my story.

Have you ever seen those temple pictures at Costco? They look like they're on fabric and kind of antiqued and worn looking? They're GORGEOUS and David and I have always dreamed of getting one. They sell for like $200 dollars there if I remember right but its a huge deal because if you buy them through the actual company its a lot more. We decided a while ago we would just save up for a little bit and then treat ourselves to one. Well in church a month ago or so I got a sign up sheet during primary for a relief society activity coming up. It had a picture of those temple pictures we love so much and it said you could get one for only $53 dollars! Of course I signed our names right up. I don't remember where I was when I heard the news but I do remember the devastated feeling I got. I was told we have to...like make them. You get the picture but you have to build the frame and paint over the picture with some stuff and lots of other stuff I didn't understand. There was talk of hammers and nails and I panicked. Right then and there I knew I had thrown $53 dollars down the drain and I MOST CERTAINLY would not be able to do any such thing as building. I begged David to go to the Relief Society activity for me. He refused. I told him I didn't want to go and I would just ask for the kit and then he could do it at home. He said no way. So I went to the activity last night. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The frames are built so all the images I had in my head of saws and trying to cut the right angles and stuff fluttered away immediately thank goodness. You had to wipe your frame down to get the saw dust off of it and then you painted your frame. Only one coat needed. Then you go get the picture of the temple you ordered (I got the Bountiful temple since its where David and I were sealed) and the lady who knows what she's doing puts some glue stuff on a board and you match your picture all up and stick it on. Then you take a scraper, lay your picture flat, and get an arm workout by trying to scrape out all the air. The lady specifically told me to scrape harder then you think you need to. So I was scraping the living breath out of that painting...until I realized that there were some areas that had air bubbles that weren't going away. The harder I pushed I started to notice the picture creasing and I was not about to ruin my picture already so I took it back up to her. She looked at it and said it had dried so leave it and we would see what we could do with the next step. Perfect, I thought. Should have never put me in charge of scraping my own picture then huh! I can't be trusted with anything that supposed to be built to be pretty. After we laid them flat for a while to dry we coated them in some type of modge podge. Don't know what that is? Me either but its this white thick paint type thing you spread all over your picture. Its what makes the picture look like its fabric and give it that worn look that I love. It also covers up any scratches from when you were scraping those air bubbles out and the smart craft lady told me that it would hide the bubbles too. So while I let that dry I screwed in 12 screws and 12 brackets into my painted frame all by myself! It was a great moment for me. As my modge podge was drying I was noticing how visible the air bubbles were in my picture. I was so sad. I knew the only thing I would see when I looked at the picture would be those stupid air bubbles. I took it up to the lady with all the answers and I asked her what I could do about them. She said to lay it flat to dry, which would take 48 hours, and they would work themselves out. Yeah right lady that knows everything! Air bubbles work themselves out, psssssh do I look stupid? There is nothing I can do to get rid of them is there, you're just too afraid to tell me that I muffed my beautiful temple portrait and that I'm screwed. Oh well, I just thanked her and called David to come help me carry it home. When we got home we screwed it into the frame I built...er...painted and laid it flat on the table to let it hang out for a couple days. David told me over and over how great it looked and how happy he was with it but I was so bummed. Those stupid air bubbles ruined it for me. I warned him that I couldn't be trusted with this project and I had just proved my point. This morning I came down the stairs and immediately went over to look at my bubbly painting. NO BUBBLES! What! You could see the part that creased but just slightly. I was beyond thrilled. I thought to myself, "I AM crafty!" Then it got even better when I came home from work. You can't even see the crease anymore! What a freaking miracle. Its a beautiful picture of the temple that we've wanted for so long reminding us of the best day of our lives so far and the best part is, I built it. So what I recommend to anyone like me that loves those pictures but can't afford to drop $200 dolla's on one, go to poppyseedprojects.com and look at some you could make. They do classes like this all the time. You can do family portraits or temple pictures with little sayings if you'd like. Another perk is if you get a family picture one and then your family grows or whatever so you need to replace the pic, you can replace just the picture for 25 dollars! Oh its so great. I liked them on Facebook too because they do updates about new projects and stuff all the time. So drum roll please......

Here's my picture! Now just to find where to hang it. :]

Nana's 75th

Saturday we went up to David's Aunt Julie's place to celebrate Nana's 75th birthday! It was a surprise party and Nana says she doesn't think she's ever had one before. Julie stated to me she was a bad liar and then proceeded to call Nana and make up some huge story about having a picture she took on display in the lobby of her complex and asking Nana to come over to see it. Nana had no idea. She walked in to a room full of family and friends and we had a great afternoon. All my grandparents have passed away and I'm so grateful for David's grandparents that I can call my own. Nana is such a special lady and the highlight of my day was putting her hand on my belly while baby girl was moving all around and having Nana feel her. She was thrilled. Here's to many more birthdays Nana! Love you. David's cousin Nellie's little girl Lilly. Another one of Nana's great grandbabies but soon she won't be the youngest anymore!

Promises, Promises

I have not been very good at keeping my promises. I'm tired, cut me a break ;] I have gotten around to posting my belly shot and an ultrasound pic finally! David took this belly shot picture and it really isn't the best angle....but you can see it, I definitely have a belly.This was me at 24 weeks. I'm currently 25 almost 26 weeks and I swear I'm getting bigger by the day so I'll take another one very soon and I'll have David take a better shot.

Here is the little nugget at our 25 week appt. It was so cool to feel her kick and watch her kick at the same time. She kept her hands up across her forehead almost the whole time and she was not happy with everyone poking her and trying to get her to move so they could get better angles. haha, I love her so much already.