Thursday, March 27, 2014

Mini Book of Lists


I was originally inspired to do something like this a few years ago when I saw this, but I just never got around to it. My mom gave me some old coasters that she thought I could use to make a book, and that was probably 4 or 5 years ago too.. so this book should have been done a million times by now! But, I'm glad I waited, because now I have Cody's opinions in here too!


So I started out with beer and shrimp coasters and a home improvement magazine! I went through this magazine about a year and a half ago, and marked the pages that I thought would make good backgrounds for my lists. Well, my tastes have changed since then, so I ended up looking through the entire thing again and choosing completely different pictures!

I thought about choosing pictures that went along with my lists, but that would have been too much work, plus I only had one magazine, so I wasn't sure that I'd be able to find all of them in this one magazine. Then I talked to Cody and we came up with the lists, wrote down our ideas, and I put the whole thing together!

Here's the book! I chose to make a simple marking to tell who was saying what by just drawing tiny stick figures of a boy and girl on each page.





It's nice and short with only five lists, and I'm glad that I only had 6 coasters to keep it this simple!
I am super happy with how this turned out! I'm also really excited that this is something that I can take further, and make another book in about a year or so to see the changes in our thoughts and lives. I also love that this was an -almost- free project (minus the magazine that I bought a couple years ago).

Thursday, March 20, 2014

My little miracle.

I work with a girl who just graduated high school and is very... young. She's super awesome and I love working with her, but she isn't the most mature in some ways.

Because I'm out of shape and 29 weeks pregnant, my body is putting up with less and less, and the girls I work with see it all the time. If I stand or walk for a long time during the day (accumulatively, not consecutively), I start to waddle. My hips start hurting, and my left hip especially can't take very much weight by itself. Also, baby likes to go underneath my right ribs, and it's not as easy to bend over as it used to be.

Seeing these things every day, and then me making one comment about being uncomfortable, this girl said to me, "Why does everyone say that being pregnant is one of the most amazing experiences you'll ever have if you're just in so much pain all the time? It really doesn't sound that amazing." I responded with, "Well, if you think about it, I'm growing a human being inside my body.. he has every organ, major body part, and even a brain, just like you. It's not something your body's used to, so there's obviously going to be some side effects." She sat there and thought for a minute and said, "Yeah, I guess.."

It really made me think about this whole journey that I've been on for 29 weeks and 5 days, and how many other women have gone through this as well throughout the history of .. well, however long there have been people being born; and it really is miraculous! Our bodies can create another human being and then nourish it for 9(ish) months until it's ready to live in the world. There are many people that will never be able to have children, and others who have to try for months, years, or even decades to experience this.

Why do we so badly want to experience something that we've heard is terribly painful and disgusting at times? Because we are participating in a miracle. A MIRACLE, you guys!!! We learn and we grow and we become completely different people. I've already learned so much more about love than I ever thought possible, and my baby boy hasn't even left my body yet. I know that the feelings of love that I'm experiencing right now are going to be completely blown out of the water when he's born, and I can not wait for that day!

Being pregnant and growing a human being is an amazing experience. It's a miracle, a gift, and such a blessing to be trusted enough by God to let us carry one (or more) of his precious children. I'm grateful that I get to feel my little boy's kicks (click on that to see a video, and look at the left side of my belly) and hiccups and see his little body when I get an ultrasound. I'm even grateful for the painful and disgusting things that happen too, because it helps me appreciate what is going on in my body, as well as making me appreciate what it's going to be like to have it back to normal again. I am so grateful to have a son who will be in my arms in less than 2 and 1/2 months.

Thursday, March 13, 2014

PLT

I kind of decided that trying to create these pages with pictures from that week only was getting a little difficult. I sometimes had a lot of photos, and I usually try to take horizontal and vertical photos just in case I need one or the other for a specific PL spread, but that gets difficult sometimes! And sometimes a vertical picture is needed when the rest of your week is in horizontal photos. I did just learn how to put two 4x6 photos into one 4x6 to create two 3x4 photos for the small insert areas, so that helped out a ton! But sometimes you just need a big 4x6 of a picture to get the full effect! So to avoid putting all of my horizontal photos in the 3x4 spots, I came up with another solution.

So sorry for that disgusting picture. I was almost throwing up when I put that picture in my book, but maybe I'll be glad I did someday. That's what Cody told me anyways..

 I decided to place the pictures where they looked good and fit with the page protector. I'm trying to stick to a "within this month" limit, so I don't end up having pictures from a whole year all in one spread. And you know what.. I'm having so much more freedom! I really suggest doing this if you are in a rut with your project life!
 Cody suggested that I put the exact date on or near the pictures, especially now with them randomly placed, and I thought that was a great idea! Some of these pictures were taken before I added dates, but I'm definitely going back and adding the dates! Just cause, yanno, what if I want to know the exact date that I terribly burnt my hand? Or when we hit 123456 miles on our car? Cody's pretty intelligent, that's for sure!

 Also, I have a little confession. I had actually finished quite a few spreads to where I was in the end of October, when I looked through my pictures and figured out that I didn't do any pages for a huge section of pictures! But that's the greatest thing about project life.. I just went back to where the pictures would have fit in, and added another insert right there! The last 3 pictures and the one below this were the result of adding in some extra inserts, and I'm so glad I did it! If I didn't include these pictures, life would have gone on, but it would have been a sad thing to miss out on in the future!
I'm just so happy with the progress that I've been able to make, while at the same time, maintaining a regular schedule throughout my day! I'm not just stuck over at my desk the whole day, I just do it in segments each day! I just freaking love Project Life... have I mentioned that before?!

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Going on vacation!

You guys, I'm so excited to take a little break! This weekend, Cody and I are headed down to Nevada for a relaxing couple of days. We really wanted to go to California with a group of friends, but I'm already struggling with walking for long distances (hello, hip pain!) and I didn't want to be a burden. Plus, this week is Spring Break for UVU so Cody doesn't have to miss any class! We are taking work off on Friday and heading down early in the morning to get the most out of our day as possible!
Honeymoon to Mexico
We booked our hotel through hotwire.com and got a great deal on a hotel about 30 minutes away from the strip, which is nice because we really just want to enjoy the nice weather, but we are going to walk around the strip for a little while, but then we'll get to leave the hustle and bustle and go back to peace and quiet.

Cody's birthday is also this weekend, so it's serving as a birthday trip as well as a little babymoon! I wish it could be longer, but hey.. I'll take what I can get! And, it's supposed to be in the high 70s and even in the 80s when we're there, so that definitely doesn't hurt!

Anyways, I'm excited. Even if it was poopy weather and we don't end up doing anything, we'll at least get to relax, which is totally worth it all for me!

Friday, March 7, 2014

Because I Often Wonder If I'm Growing,

(which I hope is a normal thing for pregnant women.. if not, well.. I'm just strange I guess) I decided to put all of the belly pictures together that I've taken into one easily viewable image. And guess what?! I've grown a lot since my first "15 week" picture! (Duh, obviously.)

So if you were ever curious to see how my belly has grown over the last several weeks/months, here you go.


It's funny to think that I got upset when people said I didn't really look pregnant when I was as big as I was in the top row of pictures. It's much different when it's your body and you're used to seeing it every day of your life. So when you see a bump that wasn't there, and that it's HUGELY different than it was the week before, you expect everyone else to see it. But alas, you must wait a month or two for it to be noticeable. It wasn't until I was about 23 weeks when I had someone come up to me at church and say, "This is the first time that I've even been able to tell that you're pregnant! Congratulations!" and then last week we went to Burger Supreme and the cashier asked if I was having a boy or a girl... and she didn't even know me! I will admit, it took me WAY off guard, but it was cool to know that I'm far enough along that she didn't need to hesitate to ask if I was pregnant.

So my advice to you first time pregnant women, if you're wondering why people aren't recognizing your most exciting new body change, it's because there really hasn't been any noteworthy change, in their eyes. But don't worry, it will happen.

Also, this is crazy. It's no secret that I feel as though this pregnancy is moving slower than a dead slug, but I just looked on my pregnancy app on my phone, and it gave me this little reminder:

85 days to go! I have been trying to forget about time lately, and we're already less than 100 days! I'm pretty excited, but also freaking terrified. Giving birth?!? BREASTFEEDING!? My golly, I need to buck up.

Thursday, March 6, 2014

PLT - Remember these?!

I'm so happy to say that I'm making some progress with my Project Life album! I did about 3 pages while I was in Washington over Thanksgiving break, and then NOTHING until this past week or two. So now more than ever, it feels so good to be back! Last time I played catch up, it was painful. I was doing so many spreads a day just to get caught up and I wasn't really enjoying the process. But I'm taking it much slower this time around and it's working out a lot better already!

I'll just start sharing from the beginning of my album, since I'm pretty sure I haven't put these on here yet.

Say hello to my title page! I decided to start my new album in August because my first album covered 2 years from July-July, so I put pictures from my birthday last year, and then a few cards that fit really well together. I'm still in love with this page, and I did this one 5 months ago. 


These two pages were all about my family being here for my birthday! I tend to make a full spread (or two) of one event if it was particularly special to me rather than just choosing one or two pictures. (I did two whole spreads for August 2012 when Cody and I went to Washington for a week, and then again for December 2012 when we were in WA for Christmas!) We had so much fun celebrating together, and I'm still so glad that they were willing to come out and spend so much time with us!


I'll have a few more spreads up next week, plus a handy little trick that I've found out works really well for me! Happy project lifing!

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Life Update

27 weeks and 2 days
Right now, life is pretty great! I'm still working as a preschool teacher down in Springville, and while I don't love taking that drive twice a day, it's been really good for me. I'm really getting antsy to leave though, so it's getting pretty difficult to want to go to work every morning. I'm just ready to have my baby!!!

Cody started his new job this week, and so far he's really liking it! It's his first office job, and he says that he just keeps comparing everything to "The Office" (the show) because that's the only knowledge of office life that he knows about so far. He's working at an HR company which is perfect, because he wanted to get into a more "technology" centered career field, and this is it! We're just really happy that he can be there rather than doing more manual labor (bleh!).

Baby is doing just fine! I took the glucose test last week, and thankfully, I don't have gestational diabetes! Phew! We heard his heartbeat last week which was sounding just great, according to the doctors! I'm able to see my belly move when he's awake and kicking/moving around, and Cody feels him on a pretty regular basis. Speaking of baby kicking, he does it ALL THE TIME now! It's super cool to feel and know that he's just dancing around in there! I'm still able to sleep through the night, except for waking up once in the early morning because I'm blazing hot. But then a few minutes later I'm pretty cold, so I get back under the covers and fall asleep until my alarm goes off. I do have to pee pretty dang bad when I finally wake up though, so I can see that becoming an issue in the near (hopefully distant) future.

The weather has been so beautiful lately!
As far as my body goes though, it's getting more abuse. I can't stand/walk around for very long anymore or else my hips and inner thighs start killing! I understand more why pregnant women walk funny.. it's painful! Also, I've been taking Dexter on walks around our block, and I get cramps in my belly! I'm used to getting side cramps if I ate/drank before a walk, but now it happens every time and I end up having to go super slow for the rest of the walk. Not ideal, especially for Dexter (he gets crazy hyper when we get home), but I'm still trying to do that on a regular basis regardless.

I'm still terrible at cooking, but I did make dinner on Monday (and I'm hoping to get something going pretty soon for tonight's dinner)! We had sweet meatballs, rice, and green beans. It was freaking delicious! I have to share the recipe though, because it's just that good. This is on the back of a "Chili Sauce" bottle, which is usually located near the BBQ sauces in grocery stores.
I definitely just use a pound of hamburger meat and smoosh it into little meatballs instead of using pre-made meatballs, but this recipe couldn't be easier! You can make it on the stove or in the crock pot, but I tend to not plan ahead enough to do crock pot recipes lately, and you can make it on the stove in about 20 minutes.

I follow this blog and she just posted about monthly meal planning. I've kinda done this once, but it definitely works better for me than weekly planning, because whenever I have something planned for the day, it doesn't sound good. So this way, I'll have plenty of meals to choose from, as long as I have the ingredients. I really need to find some good freezer meal recipes so I can spend less time in the kitchen standing up every night.

Anyways, that's about all! I'll have a post about my Project Life spreads that I've been working on lately up here tomorrow!

Saturday, March 1, 2014

Happy March!

I'm so happy that it's March!! I love that it's one day closer to spring, and now I'm only 2 month away from having my baby!! (Give or take a couple weeks, cause yanno, babies don't always like to be precise). One thing that I've been thinking a lot about is pictures. I've been getting back into Project Life, and trying to play catch up again... (remember when I said I wouldn't let myself get 6 months behind ever again? Well, I let myself.)



I'm actually loving that I took a little time off. I really feel like that time that I took off from it got me super amped up to get working again, and since I wanted to work on it a few months ago but didn't have picture printed, it got me even more excited! So now I'm stoked about it! I absolutely love anytime that I have an extra half hour to dedicate to PL. But I'm realizing that I haven't been taking the best pictures. I realize that that's not the biggest of deals, but I'm liking my pages less and less when the pictures are dark and terrible quality. But when I get those few that are super well lit and just great overall photos, I'm so excited to get them in and use cute 3x4 cards to accentuate them!

So my goal for this month of March is to be more intentional when taking pictures. I will still probably take crappy-lit photos for those moments where I won't have time to adjust the lighting or even where I'm at, but I want to really try to find the best light, the best part of the day, the best part of our house/outside.. so I can get really meaningful, beautiful pictures. And I need to remember to take out my big camera more often and not just use my phone!



So there we have it. March's goal.

PS. Speaking of goals, I don't like the goals I set at the beginning of the year. They're too broad, and I can't cross them off as soon as I finished because I chose many that would have to happen over the course of months. So, I might still do a few of them, but I'm not keeping that as my strict rules.

PPS. Happy 27 weeks of cooking, baby boy! Stay in there for a few more months, okay?