.nesting.

Week 28 update:

The further along I get with this pregnancy, the more different it's becoming.  With Finn I waited and waited for my nesting instinct to kick in.  I was waiting to feel all those urges to clean, organize, and prepare.  But I waited in vain, because it never came.  I think if it hadn't been for all the showers we would have been very under prepared in the way of diapers, wipes, and other little things needed for Finns arrival.  And I never got around to deep cleaning my house, or cooking all those frozen meals in preparation either.  I thought perhaps, I just wasn't the nesting type.
But folks I'm here to tell you I am!  For the past month I haven't been able to stop myself from making lists, organizing, and cleaning like mad.   I find very real satisfaction and comfort in knowing that my floor boards (which I've NEVER cleaned) are dusted, and that our office desk has been organized for the 2nd time this month.  Or that there are large amounts of diapers and wipes on order with Amazon.  It's a little bit crazy but, nesting...it's real...I'm living proof of it!

.fall walks.

With the weather finally changing over to the cooler range these past few weeks, my walks have become more frequent.  With my internal temperature ranging around 120 degrees these days, the summer did not see many walks from me.  Finn and I have especially taken advantage of our Saturday mornings, as we are often stuck without the car for part of the day.  Today was just beautiful after the rain and wind of yesterday.  The leafs down here are still in their fall limbo with some trees turned completely yellow or red, others only a few branches, and some still in full summer green.  This morning there was a distinct smell of fall in the air...kind of that sweet smell of decay as the gardens are cycling back the old squashes, tomatoes, and other such things.  As I walked I talked to Finn about how  when I was little I would spend hours out in our garden gathering the old produce that lay on the ground.  I loved to pretend to make all sorts of glorious food with all the old zucchinis and crookneck that had grown to large for harvest.  I'm sure my mother was none to happy with here measuring cups and bowls along with assorted utensils (that probably are still scattered around her yard) being taken out and filled with mud and other exotic ingredients.  But those fall days are some of my fondest memories that I could vividly recall with just a simple smell.  It was a good walk!

.seasonal goodness.

I've made no slight hint at the fact that Fall is indeed my favorite season of the year.  In fact the only thing I dislike is the short amount of time I get to enjoy it.  Perhaps it's better that way, because it makes me appreciate the few weeks I do get of autumn.
With our canyon leaf harvesting done, we moved onto pumpkin picking.  We spent a night out in the pumpkin patch mulling over the best gourds, and choosing just the right ones.  I found a nice squat round one, Finn picked an oblong medium one, and of course Roy chose the largest one that he could manage to pick up.  On our way to purchase our selection, I noticed a section that had all the gnarly, disfigured, and odd colored pumpkins that are worth more for their uniqueness.  I found a perfectly peared shaped gourd that was just begging to be bought by one who shared in it's likeness all to well.  So it was determined that the first pumpkin I chose would be representing baby M on our porch this year.  As was expected, Finn enjoyed the haystacks, and tractors much more then the actual pumpkins.

Of course we had to finish off the night with a pumpkin shake (and when I say we, I really mean me and Finn since Roy is a no go on the ice cream...especially pumpkin flavored).  I know Finn is still really too young to get or understand all that we are doing, but I want to make it magical and fun for him just the same, because that is what this time of year is to me.  Roy, as always is such a patient man with all of the things I want to do, especially since he could really care less about it all.  He knows it's important to me and so often times just asks what I want to do.  But, I've discovered that Roy is pretty much in heaven when Finn is having a good time.  So it works for both of us!

.life goes on.

I was so excited that today was the first day of October.  We went up to the Zoo this past weekend and had a good time with our cousins, Lucas and Emory.  After the zoo we drove over to Millcreek for a picnic lunch a view of some of the fall color.  The kids gathered hundreds of leaves...some pale pink, and golden yellow, while others were crispy brown or lip stick red.

 
With our little outing, I had great plans to deck the house in all things fall and get myself in the autumn state of mind today.  I put a cider scent block in the scentsy and cleaned in preparation.  But the day has worn on, and after a VERY long trip to the grocery store with a whiny toddler, and with the weather in the high 80's today, my energy and motivation have been sapped.  So instead of decorating for fall, I put Finn in the high chair with his crayons so I could sit with my ice water and blog.

Speaking of that Finn of mine...
We had an unusual occurrence this past week with our netflix.  Roy was on Thursday adding some movies and adjusting the order of the queue.  We thought we knew what we were opening up when the red envelope came in the mail on Saturday, but upon opening the pouch, we discovered a surprise..."Big Trains, Little Trains".  Since Roy and I both had not placed that DVD in our queue, our only assumption is that Finn must have managed some trickery with the blue ray while we weren't looking.  It turned out to be a movie that he most emphatically enjoyed!

I had an appointment with my mid-wife this past week and baby M is sounding stellar and moves for all to see.  Two things noted at the appointment is that she is in a breech position (which I see no point in telling me except to make me worry), and that I have excellent abdominal tone.  I don't know quite what that means, but being pregnant with what I assumed as zero tone...it made me happy.

No matter her position, baby M is definitely not staying quiet.  I have discovered that if I drink any amount of caffeine before bed, she will indeed keep me up most of the night.  I've also had a few bouts of heart burn, but I haven't figured out what food seems to be the trigger yet.

Roy seems beyond busy these days with work, callings, and skating.  When he is home though, he and Finn our inseparable.  He stayed with Finn while I went to women's conference this weekend, and I came home to discover the house in total disarray and told that the men had eaten meatballs and popcorn with orange juice for dinner.  Not exactly what I had in mind when I planned dinner, but it doesn't happen all that often so I let it slide with only a few words of exasperation.  As for the house, well of course daddy had to make every room a fun zone.  Oh well, the house is now cleaned, and I know that those boys of mine had a rumpus good time.  Next time though, I think I'll be a bit more specific about my expectations for dinner and messes.

.it takes work.

Last night I had a dream that I was running really hard to keep up with my friends Jude and Jess (who also happen to be sister track stars).  I can't even remember the entirety of the dream, except that I was physically working so hard.  I woke recalling all the hard workouts, time, & energy it took to be where I was physically before I was pregnant, and I felt overwhelmed.  While reading a friend' s blog the other day, she was relating here own year of weight loss and how hard she has had to fight.  I have nothing but respect and admiration for her, because I know it is not easy!  I laugh sometimes at the things people say to do like...park you car farther away in the parking lot, go for walks, do 25 sit ups a night, or just take the stairs.  Don't get me wrong, these are all great things to do and should be doing, but you're kidding yourself if you think you're going to loose any kind of weight with just these simple habits.  It takes time, discipline, pain, tears, and a lot of patience.
I guess what I'm saying in all of this is that, emotionally there are days when I think about all the work that lies ahead of me after little girl is here, and I want to cry a little because....it's a fight!  I look forward to the fact that I'm already ahead of where I was when I was pregnant with Finn, and that will hopefully make it just a bit easier, but it's still going to take time.  This isn't meant to be a downer about being pregnant with my wonderful baby girl...in fact I feel truly blessed to be pregnant and know that what I'm doing has an even greater purpose then being fit and healthy.  However, I feel completely normal in saying, there are days when I mourn the loss of my pre-pregnancy body.  So what does one do to get through some of the dark days of pregnancy?  You try to make yourself a little less frumpy with something you do have control over.  In my case, get a hair cut.

Ignore the crazy eyes

.24 and some change.

Being productive and pregnant sometimes dont mix together so well.  Yesterday I really felt motivated to get some things done for preparation for fall and of course baby girl.  I went through and sorted all of the clothes we got for her.  It was wonderful to see all the piles of clothes for her,  I was beginning to feel like she was going to be looking more and more like a boy.  However, with all those clothes, there needs to be a place to put them.  That meant going through all the closets and dressers dejunking.  It felt really good to just get rid of so many things we had been holding onto.  I love me a good de-cluttering! I also cleaned a good deal yesterday, and went grocery shopping.  On top of all of that, I got the urge to craft up a project for baby girl.  I was up until past 10 (late in my book...I know lame) finishing the sewing.  I went to bed with my body tired and hurting in all my joints.  Unfortunately, I woke feeling the same way, and Finn has been an ornery cuss on top of my tired soar body.  I was really looking forward to our rainy day, but now I'm not so sure.
Here's baby update!

YOU WILL HAVE TO CLICK ON TO SEE BETTER...SORRY!

.gus.

I'm happy to report that the car searching has come to an end, for we have welcomed the newest member of our little fam.  As I mentioned in the last post on Saturday... it felt like the universe was conspiring against us, what with how demoralizing it was to try and find a car, and then having the money and ID fiasco at the bank.  To add to that, we heard that the vehicle we had been interested in buying had broken down.  Roy proposed that instead of spending the whole check on the car, we should find something a little cheaper and that way have some money to put towards licensing and registering, and then save the rest.  I must admit I broke down a little in my frustration getting angry at Roy for wanting us to drive a piece of crap car (not one of my shining moments).  I looked at ksl for what seemed like the millionth time in the last week, and found a Honda in South Jordan.  I thought, "at least we can go look because it's so close".  I won't go into the entire story, but the guy selling it turned out to be so great (you never know who you might meet when you buy from a private seller), and I felt like he was very honest and upfront about the whole thing.  We ended up buying the car, and I have felt so much better since.  I don't know if I finally came to the conclusion that buying a car is always a risk, and that we will have to take the chance no matter what we buy.  Or that I felt like I could stand driving this car vs. the one we had thought about.  But ultimately, I feel like we found something that we work for us, and we were also able to save some of the money...and that feels nice!

Our new 2001 Honda Passport...GUS

Finn enjoyed getting to know the lay of the car