Monday...hmm...baby...?

Monday but yet the baby has not come yet.  Two days late.  I am just very thankful that I am feeling great though.  I am feeling my time with continuing cleaning and such.  Today I made sugar cinnamon pretzels, but I don't think they turned out that great.  I need to do some more research on how to make them delicious.  I think I am going to the mall sometime to see if i can watch how they make theirs and maybe buy one if needs be to know how to improve mine.  I do think I have almost perfected my salty pretzels though.  They sure are delicious.  If I could let you all taste them through this, I would love to share.  I am planning to make some for the 4th of July (we will see how this works with when the baby comes), if not I guess I will have to make them for another occasion.

"Is the Baby Here Yet?"

I know everyone is anxiously awaiting the arrival of our first baby.  You are completely glued to your phone for the text that says, "Annette's in labor" and the second one that says, "The baby came!!!"  But alas, the baby has not come yet and Charles has not sent these texts out.  Although the baby's due date is this Saturday, tomorrow`, I don't think he will come.  Call it motherly instinct, a hunch, or what have you, I just don't think he will come.  I think he is much to comfy in the womb to want to leave it yet.  Thankfully I am pretty comfy too.  The baby and I are doing great and are enjoying our 100% time together.  I feel like this is the only time in my life that I will be able to give my baby a "hug" 24/7.  I would have to say that I am slightly jealous that the doctor will be the first to hold my baby.  I wish I could be the first, but then again that would be a bit hard to do.

Here I am today, 24th of June 2011, one day before the baby's due date.

These last few days are going to always be had with anticipation.  Every night when I go to sleep I think, "The baby could come tonight."  When I wake up I think, "The baby could come today."  But even though we are anxiously awaiting our baby, I make plans for every day of all the things that I want to do: clean the bathroom, make pretzels, go to gatherings, do dishes, wash the laundry, go to doctor's appointment, reorganize the pink room, organize our files, write our blog, take a picture of my belly for blog, ... You get the idea.  Life is planned, but sometimes I ruin my own plans with a 3 hour nap (twice a day sometimes).  It is just too hard to sit at home in anticipation with nothing on my agenda.  It is funny how having a baby is one of the biggest days of a mother's life, that will change it the most, but yet you can't even know when this big event is going to happen.  I guess if you have a planned c-section (ugh, not fun) or a planned induction (I hope this doesn't have to happen) then you can kind of plan for when the baby comes.  I sure hope I don't have to be induced.   That just sounds like it takes all the fun out of it.  As for a c-section, that is the last way I want to give birth to my baby.  Getting cut open just sounds awful, I don't understand people that voluntarily have their baby that way.  I do understand the need for them when it is used as a life saving measure though.  I want this baby to come as naturally as possible.

In my spare time between not wanting to clean the toilet and sleeping, I have been actively reading some parenting books.  I know what you are thinking, "What? The baby isn't even here and heck, for the first little while he won't need 'parenting'!  Why are you using your time reading parenting books?"  I say to you, "It is never to early to learn to be a good Mommy."  As well, in the Doctrine and Covenants 68:25 where it says that if a parents don't teach their children righteousness, then "the sin be upon the heads of the parents."  I would really like to avoid having my children's sins upon me because I wasn't a good mom and didn't teach them well.  I have always been slightly scared of that scripture, even before I was ever married.  I don't need any more sins; I have too many of my own to take care of.  I do love that scripture though because it means that when a child was not taught correctly, he can't be the only one to blame.  If you are never taught what is right, how can you be expected to do that which is right?  It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from "Ever After" where Danielle says while talking to Prince Henry, "If you suffer your people to be ill educated and their manners corrupted from infancy and then punish them for those crimes from which their first education disposed them, what else is to be concluded, Sire, that you first make thieves and then punish them."

Well, this is much, too much, rambling.  I should probably end by saying something profound, but nothing is coming to mind.  So, in the famous words of my hubby.  "Thus it is. The end."

Youth Conference!!!

It was so fun going to Youth Conference as a leader instead of a youth.  Charles and I teach the 14 and 15 year-olds in Sunday School so they had us help out.  It was such a blast.  It was a Ward Youth Conference; I guess that is something they do in Utah.  And it was only two days.  The Bishop felt inspired that the theme should be "Family History".  We could tell that the youth weren't particularly thrilled, but it was amazing!

Friday:

We gathered in the church parking lot and had a little prep talk by the Bishop and ate homemade cinnamon rolls (Yummy!!!).  We then headed to Orem to learn about Name Indexing.  The youth got a bit bored with the presentation, but once they got on the computers they had a great time.  They sure were fast with the program and ate it up.

We headed up to Salt Lake City for the rest of the Youth Conference.  They did a hike up to Ensign Peak (I didn't go, I was saving my energy for Saturday) and had a delicious lunch at the park next to it.  At the park I was in charge of having the youth put together a time capsule.  While I was rounding up one of the youth to come contribute, I got tackled by the ensuing pick-up football game our youth had started.  It was a simple slide tackle and the youth broke my fall.  I wasn't hurt at all; I was more concerned about the grass stain on my nice white shirt.  Everyone was quite concerned, but I bounced up quickly and all was fine.

Around 2 o'clock we were at the "This is the Place" monument area where they have a little pioneer village set up with activities.  The youth got to learn about pioneer courtship, etiquette, flirting, games, and dress.  They fed us a nice big dinner and then taught the youth pioneer dancing.  After the instruction they then had a regular dance with modern music.  The dance ended at 8:30 so that we could get to our campsite before dark.

We camped at a KOA (I don't know what that stands for, but I guess it is a type of campsite) campsite in Salt Lake, off of North Temple, just east of Redwood Rd.  The youth were kind of sad that we didn't have a bonfire and that they had to be quiet at 10.  Charles and I camped out and got a bit of sleep.  I slept on a cot which made it quite easy to sleep, just a little noisy when I would move around.


Saturday:

We had a delicious breakfast and made sack lunches, put away tents, and got the kids organized and ready for the day's adventures.

We went to the huge Salt Lake Cemetery where many of the prophets have been buried.  We were split up into our "families" (about seven youth with 2-3 adults) to find the graves of certain people.  At each person's grave we read a short one page bio about them in first person.  It was a very neat experience to see their graves and to learn more about them.  The youth seemed to really enjoy it.

We had our sack lunches next to Temple Square and then went and saw the Beehive House and Brigham Young's grave site with a few of his wives.  We toured the Conference Center and went through the Church History Museum.

We headed back to our church for a dinner/activity.  The youth we put into a dark room in the church, sat on the ground, and had to be quiet.  They were told that they were in Spirit Prison and couldn't leave until their temple work was done, or something like that.  I wasn't there for the little speech by the Bishop.  A few at a time were allowed to leave and join the party in the cultural hall that the Relief Society put together.  When they entered we cheered for them and greeted them into "heaven".  It was a great visual aid type experience.  During the dinner we watched a slide show of Youth Conference that I threw together.  After dinner a brother from the Stake talked to us about Indexing and how it can help family history.  The Bishop gave a great little short testimony about family history and doing temple work.  It was a great ending to a great Youth Conference.

Sunday:

In Sacrament Meeting, Bishop had a few of the youth and leaders talk about their experience with Youth Conference.  It was very nice to hear about their feelings and testimonies about the experience.

We had such a great time getting to know the youth in our ward better!

Baby Shower and Random Thoughts

Charles and I get together with some other couples in our ward that all have one child or less and have FHE together on Sunday evenings.  This last Sunday evening they said they wanted to do a Break-The-Fast dinner together.  What a great idea.  So Charles and I get there and when we walk in they yell, "Surprise!"  I looked at them and went, "Huh?"  I thought they were just being silly.  (Being pregnant my brian's default is always on "off" and comprehension has gone down.)  As we walked in I saw streamers and thought, "Hmm, they sure went all out for this dinner."  The Young's baby, James, was on the floor so I sat down and started tickling him.  While doing so Zack brought out a pile of gifts.  I looked at them and thought, "Hmm, I wonder who those are for.  Why did he put them next to me?"  Wow, I was really not getting it.  Finally they told me straight out that this was a surprise baby shower.  I was flabbergasted!  I couldn't believe it!  I am still a little stunned.  We have the best friends ever!  They all gave me the cutest things ever and I am so grateful to them for it!  After we got home from the fun baby shower and dinner I stayed up taking the tags and such off of everything and was so excited to put it with all of my other baby stuff.  Charles wanted to go to sleep, but I was too excited!  But after all that excitement I really couldn't sleep and got about 4 hours total.  I am slightly surprised I haven't taken a nap yet today.  I will probably sleep great tonight though.

On a side note, I have become very forgetful being pregnant (did I talk about this already?).  Last week for our Sunday school class I forgot where I had put our fun chalk that we take.  This week for Sunday school I didn't have the chalk still (it is somewhere, but I just can't find it) and I lost our manuel.  Thankfully I had done a pretty good job with studying the lesson and had almost everything marked in my scriptures.  The lesson went quite well (I think) despite the fact that I had no manuel.  Over all, being forgetful will probably mean that I will forget all the difficulties with being pregnant and will do it again without any hesitation.

There are many good things and bed things to being pregnant and most are obvious, but there is one of each that I find particularly specific to me.  The worst part is not being able to eat raw eggs.  I talking about not eating them in batter or cooked sunny side up.  The best part is how my belly button changes.  I think it is the funniest thing ever.  I have always had a weird fascination with skin and how it feels so my belly button is now highly interesting to me now.  Over all pregnancy is amazing!

Front Sight

Charles and I had a great time down in Pahrump, NV so Charles could go to Front Sight.  He had a great time learning all about guns and gun safety.  He sure ate up everything that they taught him and is excited to go back!

The drive down to Pahrump from American Fork sure is long.  I drove on the way down while Charles finished his MBA final on his laptop and then he drove on the way home.  Wow, that drive is NOT super thrilling.

While Charles was shooting, I stayed at the house in Pahrump and did my daily reading/homework and cleaned the place.  The master bathroom got a good wipe down, it sure needed it with all the pink mold in the shower.

Well, I guess I must really be nearing the end of my pregnancy because my wedding ring no longer fits.  While we were in Pahrump I tried getting it off and it wouldn't budge at all.  I was pretty scared that I would have to have it cut off because it was so tight that I was afraid it was going to cut off circulation.  The next day though I lathered my hands in lotion and pulled with all of my might and it barely came off.  I never take my wedding ring off so I am glad that I tried it before my finger fell off.

So, on our way to Front Sight, we stopped off in St. George where my family has some stuff in storage.  I got many of my things that have been packed away for many years.  The most exciting thing of all was my Playmobile sets.  I haven't played with them for 10 years and when we got home I spent all of Monday setting them all up.  It took me straight back to my childhood.  Charles thought it was cute.  I had such a fun time.  I also got some of my stuffed animal collection.  Our children will be well outfitted with toys that it will save us so much money down the road :)  Here are a few photos of them.  I could only set up half of it because I only had one banquette table.  I have to take them down and set up the other half.

I am so excited to have this baby come.  I am now down to three weeks left!  Crazy!  When I was a kid and knew that pregnancy took nine months, I thought that it would be SOOOO long.  But this has been the shortest nine months of my life!