A little bit more pregnant and Charles' run-in w/ the law

Here I am at 21 weeks, three weeks ago, hmm maybe I should take another picture that is actually current

For Valentine's Day Charles made me a bling board! I love having my jewelry all organized!  Yea, now it won't get broken all the time

Now it's Long-winded Charles talking...

Last Saturday, I was pulling into my cul-de-sac and saw two cop cars slowly circling around by Karl's house.  I wondered what they were looking for.  I drove to the end of the cul-de-sac where they were and pulled into Karl's driveway.  One of them decided to turn into Karl's driveway, got out of his car and started to come up to me.  I kind of got excited...you know, hoping he might ask me to keep my eye out for America's Most Wanted or even just wondering if I had seen any suspicious characters walking around lately.  Instead, what I got was a very unpleasant surprise.  


He said that he did NOT like the way I pulled into the driveway.  I was shocked.  I have a car that rides pretty low and Karl has a driveway with a fairly large bump that you can't take fast if you cherish your chasse.  In addition, his driveway is at MORE than a right angle to the road.  You have to do a lot of turning to get into my parking space.  I must have looked like an idiot as I was dumbfounded by his comment and the aforementioned barrage of thoughts contrary to the possibility of the accusation.  Oh well.  Instead of arguing said, "I'm sorry.  I didn't mean to be reckless."  Well, this cop only had his foot in the stirrup for getting on his high horse.  He said, "Do you see all of these little kids playing around here?"  I looked around and saw two older boys playing basketball at the other end of the street and I think one little girl was also playing down at that end.  Not an impressive showing for his use of the words "all of”.  "If one of them had been playing right here, you would have flattened them!” he screamed.  "Ok," I said in partial disbelief that he was getting so riled up over it and partially because the possibility does indeed exist that I could hit a child if you were to take a red-hot poker to my eyes.  "NO!” he said.  "It's NOT ok!"  "Now, I want you to come to a complete stop before you enter into your driveway from now on," he commanded.  I was blown away.  "A complete stop?” I asked incredulously.  "A complete stop," he reaffirmed.  


I don't remember if I said I would, which would have been a lie, or if I just stood there silent, but then he asked me what I was doing because I was half in and half out of my car.  I told him in a I-hope-you-know-I've-lost-all-respect-for-you tone of voice that I was putting my computer into its case which I had been doing before he approached me.  The way he asked, you might have thought he was paranoid that I was loading my shotgun...or maybe a bong.  After all, you can never be too careful as a cop when you're dealing with hoodlums with BYU stickers on their rear windshield.  He waddled off and I would bet you that he looked up my license plate to make sure I didn't have any warrants out for my arrest or that it wasn't a stolen car.  He would have found, to his chagrin, a flawless record.  


I mulled the whole story over in my mind trying to make sure I acted reasonably and appropriately given what just happened and I woke Annette up from her nap and we scoured the internet only to find that there is no law that you must stop as you enter a driveway.  There IS a law that you have to stop before you cross the sidewalk when exiting a driveway, but not entering.  Can you imagine the havoc that would ensue if everyone who lived on a busy road had to stop before entering their driveway?  Anyway, I wrote a little email to the AFPD telling them about my experience and let them know that their cops need to be a little more amicable.  I'm totally down with friendly driving advice from a cop and I'm okay with him delivering his advice in a serious but friendly way as long as he’s not making up laws just for Charles T Martin Jr. to follow.  I'm trying to give this poor man the benefit of the doubt.  Maybe his kid was killed by a crazy driver.  Maybe he just got demoted.  Maybe he had a rodent climb up his pant leg that morning. Maybe...any ideas?

The Job Hunt

Finding a job reminds me of dating. This is NOT the sort of association that makes me love job hunting. Of course I'm talking about the kind of dating that led nowhere; dating Annette led to the most blissful years of my life so she's excluded from all future derogatory comments in this post.
Parallel #1: It seems hard to even get an employer (girl) to give your resume (me) more than one quick glance up and down and once they do, 90% of the time, it's all over.
Parallel #2: Once an employer actually takes a little bit of time to get familiar with your resume, they find ALL SORTS of imagined things wrong with you. One of the things most common is they say I don't have enough years of experience which also parallels my dating at one point when a girl thought that she would have dated me except I didn't have enough "years of experience" being a boyfriend and she didn't want to train me. Funny how girls think they can train their boyfriends/husbands, isn't it? Annette knows better. She doesn't even try to train this old dog new tricks. Good thing she loves dogs unconditionally...
Parallel #3: Every now and then when the stars even begin to align, you get a job interview (date). And just like every first and second date, it's just one big exercise in talking about the weather. I mean, come on! Are you really going to get to know truly important information about a person in the first interview? How do I convey to them that I work hard by sitting there chatting about work experience? How can I show them them that I'll bend over backwards to be friendly to everyone and not perpetuate office gossip while I am talking to them about computer programs I know? How do I prove to them that I won't steal their proprietary information by mentioning that as a BYU grad, I am sure glad that Jimmer Fredette was born? And just like your resume, they can still construe anything you say against you if they so choose.
Parallel #4: The costs are huge! Both monetary costs and opportunity costs abound during the job hunt. The cost of gas driving to SLC and back. The cost of certain job hunting sites. The time spent in professional networking seminars, webinars, career workshops, and looking at countless opportunities you're under or overqualified for. (I know those weren't complete sentences and I would only care if I were to send this to a potential employer). And in the end, you could end up single...I mean, jobless.
Parallel #5: You really don't know if you're going to like the job after you get it. The overall compensation might be meager and you can't even guarantee that they won't breech their contract or dump you. Luckily, I ended up with Annette who overcompensates me to the tune of trillions of dollars per year, and I can only hope and pray that I'll be that blessed in the world of employment.

That's more than enough. You've probably all passed out by now and are slobbering on your keyboards. Thus it is. The End

Married Life

Annette thought I should share this story. I was awakened the other night in the wee hours of the night/morning by Annette slapping me in the face. I was, as you might expect, jolted awake unlike ever before. To make things weirder, she was saying, "Say something!" It seemed as though she thought I was somewhere in the Land of the Living Dead. So I probably said something like, "What!? What's wrong?" In my mind I was saying, "Stop slapping me! What the devil!" She asked if I had been awake and I told her I had been sleeping like a baby (or better than a baby since most don't sleep very well) until she started slapping me. Apparently, she had awakened and looked over at me. Even though I was sleeping, she thought that through the darkness she could see me staring at her and just smiling and not saying anything at all. She thought that eventually I would say something, but since I wasn't it was creeping her out and she commanded me to say something. When I didn't, she started slapping me and that's when I woke up as though someone was experimenting on me with automated electronic defibrilators. I told her that I didn't know how she could think such a thing since I'm not a smiler during the day (I'm happy, but don't smile as much as I should) so why would I be at night? Anyway, we both think this story is kind of funny. Just one of those quirky fun things that make marriages cute--REALLY cute when someone as cute as Annette is involved. :-D

Speaking of cute, here's a picture of my beautiful wife (and me) at the American Fork East Stake Valentine's Day Dance on Friday.

Baby Boy!!!

Here are two pregnancy photos so far.  I think that I might be slightly bigger now, but not too much.

The ultrasound was a fun event.  I didn't know if Charles would have a job by the time it came, so I invited my mom and my mother-in-law to accompany me.  It was such a fun experience!  The sonographer was very nice and thorough.  She explained what we were looking at and what types of problems she was looking for and such.  Near the end we finally got to see if it was a boy or girl.  It was pretty obvious that it was a boy.

Charles had thought it was a girl and was pretty sure about it.  I wanted a boy, but I really wasn't leaning one way or another too much.

Here are some of the boy's first pictures:

After finding out that it was a boy, my mom and I went maternity shopping and found lots of cute clothes.  I never knew that maternity clothes could be so cute and comfortable.  The best thing is that we were able to find three nice dresses that were actually modest!

Later that day we picked David up to go see a play at the Hale Center Theatre to watch The Foreigner (It was the best play EVER).  When I went into his apartment I by far got the best reaction from my cousin Cody about me looking pregnant.  It was great!  The little bump is hard to see depending on my clothing choice so whenever it seems like I look more pregnant it makes it a lot more real.  With seeing the baby, finding out it is a boy, and buying maternity clothes, I started to feel pregnant.  But with Cody's reaction to my size, I officially feel pregnant!  Thanks Cody!

As you can see with my greater use of exclamation marks, this is obviously a very exciting time for me and love being a Mommy-to-be!

The Baby ! ! !

The baby enjoys doing many things, such as:

• jumping on the waterbed (Mommy's bladder)
• kickboxing
• ninja moves of all kinds
• rolling/twisting
• the hokey pokey
• stretching all limbs at the same time
• waking up early in the morning (4:30am) and creating just enough movement that it wakes Mommy

Those activities are fairly recent and still quite infrequent (except the morning one, that happens everyday), but I assume that this baby will really start being quite active as the time passes.

We get to find out if the baby is either a boy or a girl on Tuesday the 8th of February. It will be good for us to start trying some names out on the baby to see what names he/she likes. If you have any opinions on the gender or good names let us know.

Other neat things in our life:

• Charles might get a job soon . . .
• I am doing well in my classes and really enjoying all of the classes and teachers, this is quite a change from last semester where I didn't like the classes or the teachers.
• Our living room is officially all finally put together and looks quite nice for using what we have.
• The rest of our house is coming along quite well. All but two boxes are unpacked, but we fear we are missing a box. We keep thinking of things we just can't seem to find and all of those things fall into the same category of items that would be packed together. The mystery of the missing box . . .
• We have lots of friends in our new ward and we are absolutely loving it. I have never had strong feelings for a ward and was always pretty okay with moving out, but I LOVE our ward and really never want to leave. If we have to move, leaving our ward will be the hardest trial for me.
• We are loving being Sunday School teachers for the 14 and 15 year olds. We have quite a large class, but are having fun learning.
• My work has officially ended! It was a great job, but it is definitely nice to have time to do well in my classes, clean our house, and cook. With Charles being unemployed he has done all of the domestic house things, but once he has a job he won't have much time for those things with him being in school as well.

Food Storage

I don't know if I'm the only inspired person I know in this valley or if I'm the only one I know completely off my rocker (probably the latter), but a series of events has made me passionate about food storage. I'm not talking about buying a large bucket of oats and thinking, "Gee, this outta get us through a tough time. Maybe I'll call this 'food storage'." I've done that. I'm talking about buying a FULL YEAR'S supply of food for the whole family. This is a much bigger task than I realized. Right off the get-go I realized it's going to cost well over $1,000. Perhaps double that. I won't break it down for you completely or this list would be way too long, but here's a condensed list that one website suggested (and I went to lots of websites and liked these numbers the best) for me, Annette, and our little baby, Giacomo:

• GRAINS - We need 748 lbs - We have 381.8 lbs
• FATS & OILS - We need 33 units (lbs, qts, gals) - We have 21.16 units
• LEGUMES - We need 144 lbs - We have 23.75 lbs
• SUGARS - We need 149 lbs - We have 40 lbs
• DAIRY - We need 212 units (lbs, cans) - We have 160.375 units
• COOKING ESSENTIALS - We need 22 units (lbs, gals) - We have 44.5 units (This is the only category we have fulfilled and even have a 2-year supply of some of it.)
• OTHER - We need 45 gal - We have 8 gal

I've got a detailed Excel spreadsheet that outlines what we need, what we have, shelf life, and what I spent on it. The other thing that makes a true food storage difficult is the idea of using it and replacing what you've used. In other words, you need to be eating your food storage to some degree so that your bodies don't freak out in an emergency when you have to change your diet from Chocolate Frosted Sugar Coated High Fructose Balls to real food like bread, beans and rice. Luckily, I come from a family that likes to cook--I mean, REALLY cook, like using home grown canned vegetables to make a wicked stir fry and NOT homemade like you just opened the package, added water, and popped it in the oven. Also, Annette comes from a family whose middle name is Emergency Preparedness so I'm sure they will have lots of helpful suggestions on this as we work our way towards self-sufficiency. Anyway, I'm sure I'll blog about this again when we have our entire food storage and EVEN BETTER THAN THAT, I'm sure it'll be time for you to help us move once we've finally amassed it. Thus are my ponderings. The End.

Baby ! ! ! !

Babies are adorable and soon we will have one of those cute little bundles of joy! Around Valentines Day we will be able to find out if it is a boy or a girl. I want both a boy and a girl, I really can't decide. I guess that is best because then I will be happy no matter the gender. Our little bundle will arrive on or around June 25th.

So far, the pregnancy hasn't been super bad, but it seems to just keep getting worse. I was hoping for the 2nd trimester ease, but alas. With backaches and acid reflux, I am getting very little sleep. Trying to sleep upright or at any sort of angel is very difficult. I am not sure why because sleeping in high school science classes was a way too easy. People always say to enjoy your sleep now because once the baby comes you wont get much sleep. At the rate I'm going, I am sure I will get more sleep once the baby comes since I don't get much sleep after 1 or 2 A.M. If anyone has good ideas for sleeping in uncomfortable positions, let me know.

Besides the baby occupying my mind ALL the time, I have to try to refocus my brain to school once again after the holiday break. Thankfully there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I am pretty excited for my job to be ending though to give me more time to study. Hopefully Charles will have a job by the time mine ends.

I really haven't been to worried about him getting a job. I figured that after the holiday season and with companies starting their new year they will have money to hire more people. As it turns out, it looks like things are going well since Charles had a phone interview with a company the other day and will have another phone interview with another in a few days. As well, our Bishop thinks he might know of a job for Charles. I am quite excited and we sure are rooting for the job in Provo.

Life is fun and as long as you have a smile, things will always work out!

A COUPLE WEEKS LATER...

We had another baby appointment yesterday. It went well. I (Charles speaking now) heard the heart beat. I have the feeling we're going to have a little ball o' energy with the way it was moving around in there. What are some good energetic names? How about Watt if it's a boy and Joule if it's a girl? :)