Birthday

MaryAnne is on the east coast and was first to call. Made me smile. Mom followed. A little later Devanie called and that was interrupted by Thomas. I also got an e-card from Dove in my email. This morning I got a message from Molly that she left after 10pm. I must not have heard the phone because I was watching a movie. I felt loved.

Mike, who has been coming home from work between 6 and 7 got off at 4. We had a $50 gift certificate from a friend for an Italian resturant in the fancy part of Dallas. It was a wonderful meal. I don't know if I have ever had service as good as they had there. My absolute favorite part was dessert--Spumoni ice cream. It is a tri-color ice cream pink (red), white, and green (as in the colors of the Italian flag). Cherry with marachino halves, vanilla, and the most amazing pistacio I have ever tasted.

We stopped at the store on the way home and bought me a necklace and earring set. Then I went to blockbuster to pick a movie. I ended up with Dream Girls. It was a good movie, but it was too long. Mike got really irritated with it because of the drawn out musical numbers. He is also not a fan of Black wailing (not to be confused with black whaling).

Being 35 means as little to me as being 25. The years go by, each one much the same as the other. We'll see, though how different having a baby is at 35 than it is at 25. Speakin' a which, I finally have firm little pooch that can't be sucked in. I get some occasional ligament discomfort between my hips and belly and I have to be even more careful when I sneeze--not just so I don't pee my pants, but the strain on my c-section scar is creating additional discomfort if I don't lean forward before I sneeze. It is all very minor, but being pregnant is becoming a noticable reality--even though according to growth stats, the baby is only about 3 inches long "the size of a large jumbo shrimp." I am 13 weeks along, which means I have only one more week of my first trimester. I used an online calculator and it says January 29th--the way I run, it will be on or after Amber's birthday. I majorly miscalculated, though, because I was thinking it would be at the end of February or beginning of March. I think that is because I counted from estimated conception, rather than first of last.

O! Pioneers

Today is July 25th. Yesterday was Pioneer day. Kim is talking about sewing pioneer clothes for treks, Devanie is talking about Pioneer costumes and I have not managed to tell anybody that last week I made 8 pioneer bonnets and four aprons. I have 5 more bonnets cut out to sew, but I ran out of the elastic I need for the back. Mike's parents own a store in Far West Missouri and they can't keep those bonnets on the shelf. They are super-sellers. They even jacked up the prices to slow things down, but she has been out of them for a month and the people who say they are going to sew them don't seem to. Sew I took it upon myself. They will be getting their first shipment from me tomorrow.

Mike's dad called me this morning to ask what I wanted to sell them for. I said that was up to them. I just used fabric that I bought at Wal-Mart for $1 a yard that I have had sitting around forever, so my expenses are absolutely minimal. When they sell, they will give me half. Anybody else up for sewing bonnets and aprons?

Of course, now that my daughters have seen that I can make them, they want one for themselves. Andrew enjoyed trying them on for me so I could check their size and shape on the child's size head they were being made for. He looked so cute in his bonnet and apron. I thought of Thomas.

Book Mania

You other bloggers and your Harry Potter this, Harry Potter that, blah, blah blah! : ) I love the books, but I haven't gotten around to reading The Half-Blood Prince, let alone Deathly Hallows. I bought half-blood when it came out in hardbound for the kids, but have not made reading a priority these past years.

Emylie went with a friend to the Barnes & Noble release party and was there until after midnight. She had a great time, and I am happy for her. She did not get the book because she is hung up on the Warrior series right now. Devanie gave her a gift certificate that she was able to buy the rest of the series she didn't have. Then she bought me the most recent in a series I have been reading since I was pregnant with Isaac. The 11th book in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time has been out in paperback for over a year, and I never got around to reading it. Mike has read the rest of the series as well, so rather than fight over who gets to read it first--or when, I have been reading it to him. That is how we spend all of our time together lately. We will finnish the last three chapters tonight. I have really enjoyed the experience--837 pages of mouth-numbing, throat-parching fun. We stay up too late reading "just one more chapter." To me, it is better than watching a movie together.

I don't know if he has read the Half-Blood Prince yet, but if not, we may do that next. Forget books on cd, we do live books!

Something more solid

We finally have a more definite view of our future. Mike has a job. I would put exclamations and stuff like that, but I still have reservations about the reality of it until he gets his first paycheck. He has successfully completed one week of work. It is a six-month contract position with the potential of becoming a full position with the company. I do not even know the name of the company or what they do. I know he is to be paid $29 an hour doing some sort of Network administrator-type thing. They issued him a laptop, and though he can access the server and do some work from home, most of his work is on-site.

On-site includes a few different locations, all of which are within 15 minutes of our house--in the same place he was working before, which is why we moved to this side of town in the first place. Therefore, we will not moving out of this area. Therefore, the kids will start school in here on August 27th. We would like to get a 3 bdrm house where the rooms actually fit the childrens' beds AND allow the closets to open. We might even get rooms big enough to walk between the beds, but I don't know. I would wonder if it would be worth the hassle of moving, but we are already halfway packed. Either way, we are staying in this area.

I went to Bed Bath and Beyond today and got my old job back. Rather than folding towels, though, I will be working at the customer service desk. Mike's job will more than cover our expenses, but I want to have a special savings account, and that is all my paycheck will be for--except maybe purchasing a few more household items at employee discount.

Back

It was so nice to see everyone last week. I have to admit I was in a really grumpy place. I think I didn't have enough to eat on a pregnant stomach--especially on Lagoon day. It made me nasty.

Big thanks to Devanie for everything. Thanks to Lee Joe and Kim as well as MaryAnne and, of course, mom and dad, without all of whom, I would not have been able to be part of it all. The kids had a wonderful time. It had been five years since they had seen Molly's kids. Memories with cousins are so important.

After everyone left, we met some of Mike's family on Monday at Temple Square. The kids actually enjoyed that a lot. Claire would have talked to one of the sister missionaries for an hour if I had let her. She told me she was shy about asking her a question, and I told her that the missionary would love to answer any questions she had. I wouldn't be suprised if Claire ended up serving a mission. When we got home, I notice there was an article in the July Ensign about the Temple Square sister missionaries and had her read it.

Tuesday, though, was my favorite day of the trip because I got to go to the temple with my husband for the first time. Now that he is endowed, we can move forward so that our marriage will be sealed for eternity. I really wanted to do it where family would be able to participate, but we may end up doing it in Dallas, where we can at least have friends there. We would like the baby to be born in the covenant, so doing it before February is the goal, but also doing it before I am especially bulky is a nice thought. It will take at least six weeks to clear my previous sealing.

Mike and I went to the temple together this morning--on his initiative. It is really a wonderful feeling to share that with him. I have a feeling he will want to go back again and again. He is out right now putting in job applications for basic retail jobs so we have something between now and whenever he gets a more ideal job. It will probably end up that as soon as he gets an 8.50/hr job and works a day or two, he will have to give it up for one of the jobs he has been waiting for. Of course, he is currently applying at Golf stores and may be reluctant to leave before even qualifying for employee discounts.

We talked today, though about maintaining focus with his business project because we feel like that is what we are really supposed to be doing. Sunday after Kim and Lee Joe left, we went to Heber City to see one of Mike's distant cousins, Van and his wife, Heidi, in their lavishly modest home on 5 acres. Van is an investor. We talked to him in some detail about Mike's business project, to which he responded enthusiastically. I guess Mike started a business a few years ago that Van helped him on the capital with, which he sold a short time later for, like, five or six million dollars. (I'm here to help the man keep the money he makes.)

The kids got along great with their five and Emylie came home with some books that she has gotten really excited about. It is the Warrior series, which I know nothing about. Devanie gave her a Barnes and Noble gift card that she was able to use to complete the series. She is excited.

I had written another posting on Devanie's computer, but it probably got deleted before I could post it. It it is still sitting on your desktop, feel free to post it, Dev.