New Form of Transportation!

Ok... so my dad has been staying with us on and off for the last couple of weeks... and he's been awesome while he's been here. Steve and I haven't washed a single dish for probably two months, yet we always have clean dishes! And today he cleaned out our microwave.. a task that neither of us EVER felt up to. Anyway... He did the coolest thing today. Yesterday, we were all talking about rising gas prices and how expensive it is to drive all over the place all the time, especially when we only have one car right now. We started talking about how we really need to buy a bike and just ride to work, since Steve works so close and it would save a ton of money.. Mind you, this is all just small talk.. Well, My dad came home with a little surprise today!

YAY FOR MY DAD!!!!! He went to DI this morning and bought a bike for freakin 8 bucks! So what we are going to do, is Steve is going to wake up like, what... 15 minutes earlier than he normally would, and bike to work (75% is downhill). I go ahead and take the car to work, and when Steve is ready to come home from work, I can go pick him up (since on the way back it's 75% uphill, in the heat of midday). I'm SO excited about this... and I was like... Hey.. I can ride the bike to work! I'd love to do that! I've always wanted to ride a bike around town.... but Steve just laughed at me and said I wasn't allowed to since I was pregnant... :P Anyway... I was really excited about this, but I think it caught Steve offguard... he had this "someone just sucked all the oxygen out of the air" look on his face... I think he'll like it once he gets used to it though. And if not, then it was only 8 bucks, and I'll ride it when I'm no longer "with child".

Anyway, once Steve got used to the bike, my dad and I rode it around for a little bit..

Dance Workshop & Baby Lilly

So this last week I had a week long Summer Ballet Intensive class. Holy cow it was amazing! Every day we had a two hour technique class, an hour of repertoire, an hour of pointe/pointe prep, an hour of conditioning, and sometimes an hour of modern. Then the tough girls stayed for an extra 1/2 hour of pointe repertoire... We all had so much fun! Can I just say that I have the coolest job in the world! I absolutely love it! I get to hang out with goofy girls all the time and watch them learn and grow and gain an appreciation for the arts!

The whole year I had been struggling with the girls because it seems like they all just really like the fast, exciting, "poppy" stuff... and as soon as I would pull out an adagio, or something slow and pretty... they would automatically get bored with it, and do it only halfway. Well this week one of the major accomplishments was that we did a waltz across the floor. Waltzes are not neccesarily slow, but they are smooth, and beautiful, not fast and poppy... they are, by far, my FAVORITE thing to do because I just feel so pretty when I move across the floor! I had one teacher of mine tell me that I should dance as if I was wearing this huge ballgown and the prince was sweeping me across the floor! Every time I do a waltz I just feel like the Queen! I LOVE it!

Well, I gave my girls a waltz combination, and for the first time, I actually saw them "Dance"! I've all seen them dance before... but never actually "Dance"! I saw arms lifted and floating, and I saw expression, and beauty... and good turns that were finished correctly! And then I asked the if they enjoyed that combination and they all said that they had loved it! OH MY GOODNESS!! We may not have done a lot in the way of "technique" but I feel like we definitly accomplished something.

Moving on, This week I enter my 30th week of pregnancy... yeah.. I only have 10 more weeks. I can't believe how close I am! It seems like just a few short weeks ago I was asking Steve if he thought I looked fat, and him saying yes, and that being a good thing because I didn't want to look pregnant yet, because I didn't want people at work to know I was pregnant yet! It's so weird having people just walk up to you and grabbing your belly and asking about the baby... sometimes I still forget that I have a huge belly and bump it into things... poor baby Lilly! However, I have to say that pregnancy is one of the funnest things! It's so much fun because you actually can play with her even while she's in my tummy! Steve and I take turns poking her, and then she pokes back... We know what foods she likes... and we know she gets hiccups all the time! I honestly just have to say that despite all of the uncomfortable-ness (if that's a word) and swollen feet, and not being able to lay on your back or your tummy, and sickness, and heartburn, and the fear of stretch marks (I haven't gotten any yet... pray for me!) and restless legs, and cramps, and not being able to take medicine, and all the stuff that scares pregnancy away from people... I absolutely LOVE being pregnant! It's so worth it! The symptoms aren't really that bad, but when you feel your daughter dance after eating a yogurt (one of her favorites... good thing cause it's mine too) you would be willing to endure much worse then a little heartburn. Seriously, the only thing that I don't like about pregnancy is that you can't actually see her yet... That's the only reason why I wish my pregnancy was over! We want her to be healthy, and we know that means a full term, but Steve and I can't help but think to ourselves... If she were born now... then she would be fine! But we do want her to stay in the oven a little longer!

One Year

July 7 was Steve and I's first anniversary. Oh boy... it was crazy. I told Steve that since he planned the honeymoon, I would be fine taking charge of the first anniversary. I planned this whole thing... it was going to be amazing! First of all, I was going to take Steve to a park we used to go to when we were dating. I was going to play music and have a letter there for him, and we would have an appetizer there, and just have a picnic.. Then I would take him over to the park where he proposed to me, have dinner, another letter, and music. Then I would take him over to the temple and have dessert, the third letter, music, candles, gift exchange... the whole thing... it was going to be so romantic!


"Was" being the key word...

So we went to the first park, where my dad was supposed to have set up the blanket, and the food and everything, so it would have been already done and everything, however... we found a blanket on the bench, and no appetizer. I had to set it all up myself with him there, and all I did was make Steve read the first letter, and then we left. LAME-O.

So then we went to the second park, and my dad had totatally redeemed himself. I didn't tell him exactly where to set it up, but he found the exact spot Steve proposed. Our food (and appetizers) were there and everything was set up really nice. I started to set up the music.. and it decided not to work... oh well. So he read the letter and we started to eat our food, just as a swarm of mesquitoes started to eat us! It was absolutely ridiculous! I have like, 10 bites from the 10 minutes we were out there! I'm allergic to mesquito bites, and I can't take Benedryl cause I'm pregnant, so we had to go sit in the car! I didn't have the nerve to stay there another second and get a picture... sorry.

So then we went to the temple, and I got everything set up. It was so romantic looking with all the candles, and sparkling cider, the music, chocolate strawberries, our top layer of our wedding cake... beautiful.

And then there were sprinklers....

Yes. My attempts at having a romantic anniversary celebration was totally crushed... That's ok though, because it will definitly be memorable! Plus it didn't mean any less to Steve or me! Either way, we are both so happy to have eachother, and we are both still SO in love, and we both look forward to the many anniversaries to come!

St. George

So, this last weekend we went down to St. George to Max's temple endowment. It was pretty...bitter sweet! We drove down to St. George with my dad on Friday night, expecting my sisters family who lives in Kaysville to beat us down there because they were saying they were going to leave early. When we got there, we found that they hadn't even left their house yet. They finally got out of their house around 10:30 PM and didn't arrive in St. George till 4:30 AM! Apparently Sarah and Noah were sitting in the back seat, taking turns puking into a cup! Noah was feeling better in the morning, but Sarah was not! We all felt so bad, but she was too sick to go to the temple with Max! So there were only the five of us that went, and it was beautiful! Max said that he loved it and it was such a wonderful experience to see my family in there together! We ate down in the temple cafeteria and it was delicious! Max's girlfriend, Lindsay, waited outside the temple for us and we took pictures! It was GREAT!
When we got home, Sarah was feeling better and we decided that we should take the kids out of the house! We went to "downtown" St. George, where the new water fun stuff is on Main Street. The boys loved it! Here are some friggen cute pics of them playing in the water!

The next morning, I woke up, went upstairs... thinking that everyone had been healthy when we went to bed, so I was expecting that everyone was healthy in the morning. I was wrong. I heard the weirdest heaving noise there ever was! Brad sounded like a friggen donkey! Anyway, it was very sad that Brad was sick. It pretty much kicked his butt all day. He was pretty annoyed when I took this picture.. he said that it made him look really pathetic.. I said, "You are pretty pathetic looking right now, so we need to remember this moment!" We left that night and later on found out that my mom had also caught the sickness. Steve and I, however, remain healthy! Good thing too, if one of us would have gotten sick I probably would have had a meltdown!

The Pregnant Husband

Ok... So since I've been pregnant, I have changed so much! I was ridiculously moody and tired and in so much pain the first three months that I probably wasn't very nice to my husband... (ask him.. he'll tell you). But now that I'm feeling great, and being pregnant is actually really fun, I've begun to learn a few things about the pregnant husband.

Ever since I got pregnant, I talked about how during the summer months I would want to like, live at the pool because it would be so hot. Well, I haven't been at all! I asked Steve last week, (Steve doesn't like swimming, BTW) and he said no... I asked him again yesterday, and he said no. I asked him again today.. and he, very hesitantly, said Yes. Then he immediatley went in to an excuse about how he didn't have a swimsuit that fit him anymore, and that maybe we could just go tomorrow.. and blah blah blah.. I didn't want to fuss, so I just said... ok. He could tell I was sad, So he started to ask me.. well, what if I went and got a really cheap swimsuit.. what if I just went and watched you swim, what if we just took a bath instead!? I insisted that if he didn't want to go, then he didn't have to, and that I could just go by myself... Finally he went into the bedroom and put on some basketball shorts and said, Ellie... you said you wanted to go swimming.... we are going! I may not like swimming, but I want to be able to have the memory of you, giant belly and all, splashing around in the water.. we are going!

Another one, Steve has a HORRIBLE hatred for feet. Ever since I started dating Steve, I just understood that I could never expect a foot rub from him, just like he could never expect me to clean up puke. I would NEVER ask him to do that. Well, one night, we decided to give eachother massages, because both of us were pretty stressed out. Well, while I was giving him his massage, I decided to just rub his feet while I was at it. He immediately felt bad for me and kept saying, "You don't have to do that!!" When I was done, he said that he would rub my calves... which he did. Oh my gosh he was so cute! He was rubbing right around my ankle, and he looked away, because I think it might have been too scary for him... but he slowly moved to the tops of my feet, and then just went right into a full on foot massage! Holy cow it felt so good!!! I almost cried because it meant that much to me that he would do something he hates so much to comfort me just a little bit. It was so sweet.

I think Lilly was appreciative of the foot rub also, because as soon as he finished, she started kicking. And not just randomly.. it seemed like every time Steve spoke, she would kick in response. On cue, Steve started saying "Lilly, you gonna give me a good kick?" and she would kick! Hard too, one time she actually kicked him in the face! Which was my third thing.. I can tell he's already falling in love with his daughter! He didn't used to be so patient to feel her kick.. he would just say, oh well I missed it. But now, it's like his favorite TV show! He asks me all the time if she's kicking and if he can watch! And not only is he entertained at my dancing belly, but he talks to her all the time! I catch him staring at the nursery every so often. He even didn't make too much fun of me when I wrapped up a teddy bear in a blanket and pretended it was a baby!

My husband is going to be the best daddy ever! I love him so much!

Steve's Promotion

Hey! So I finally decided to jump on the Blog Train! Everytime I read someone elses blog I get really mad at myself that I never take the time and energy to create my own blog. But here I am on a Saturday afternoon, waiting for Steve to get home, so now is a better time than any!

Steve's been working at Teleperformance for 6 months now as a Dell Technician (Tech support.. it's a phone job). He has sincerely disliked his job since the day they put him on the phones, but he has stuck with it because he knew that with a baby on the way, we would need the benefits as well as the pay.

About a month ago, he told me that there was a few openings for a trainer position at Dell, but neither of us expected that he would even apply for the job. He was merely letting me know because a few of the other technicians were wanting to apply, which we thought was HILARIOUS because going from a technician to a trainer is ridiculous! We could understand them taking supervisors, or RS's... or even dispatchers, but not technicians... they are like.. bottom of the ladder!

Well, A couple weeks ago, Steve ran into his own trainer and sat down to chat with him about the hilarity of the open positions and the people who were lining up to fill them... To his surprise, his trainer actually said that Steve should at least try for the job, because if these other people have a shot, then he should too! After a little while, Steve decided... why not?! It's worth a shot... and who knows... maybe he would actually get it!? He turned in the paperwork, and kind of forgot about until the day after our vacation. Steve went in to work and was told immediately that he would be interviewed the next morning. He came home with a stack of papers that he was supposed to give a presentation on the next morning during the interview. He looked over the papers for about 5 minutes, then did a test presentation on me. We threw together an outline of the presentation, and we were done.. Prep of about 20 minutes. The next morning, he dressed up to go into work, and although we both understood it was quite a long shot for a technician to become a trainer, especially since a lot of the other interviewees were supervisers and such, we couldn't shake the feeling that he might actually get this job! We tried not to get our hopes up too high, but we did. Steve told me that he though his interview went well, but it was really hard to read them. The next day, I picked Steve up from work and he had a really weird smile on his face.. I couldn't tell if it was a smile like, "oh well.. it was fun while it lasted" or a smile like "Holy Crap I got the job!"

I pulled up next to him and he said.. "Ellie.. I have some good news. I got a 93% on my last quality assurance call.... oh and uh.. I got the job!"