Didn't keep my promise

Oh well.

So I am now 24 weeks pregnant. Seriously, this pregnancy is going by faster than I ever imagined it would. I mean, I could have this baby as soon as 13 weeks from now. Or as much as 18 weeks, since the normal range for delivery is between 37-42 weeks. As you can probably tell, I'm not exactly obsessed with a due date...I mean, only 5% of babies are born on their due date anyway. Did you know Stephan was one of those babies?

Yes, we know what we're having. We're having a baby GIRL. We were totally convinced we were having a boy, for various reasons. But like my mother before me, I have no intuition concerning the gender of my children. She was wrong for every single one of us, no joke. Ironically, she guessed girl for this one...maybe she has grandma's intuition *laughs*. But we are excited to be having a girl, and yes, we have a name picked out. However, we aren't revealing it to the public until she is born. Our immediate families and a few select other people know the name, but everyone else is just going to have to wait ;) If you know me well enough, you know that the name we have chosen is perfectly boring and traditional.

Stephan has been doing quite well at school this semester. He thinks it was a bad idea to take on the grading job along with everything else, but we've adjusted accordingly. He has been on top of his studies and has performed well on most of his tests--I'm very proud of him, naturally. Finances have been tight (again, the grading job wasn't such a good idea), but somehow we've trudged through. Next semester is going to be very nice: he only has one class! With our little girl expected in March, this will make things much more manageable! He'll also be able to work more hours (more money!), and have plenty of time to apply for jobs.

Our washer died two weeks ago. It's a bummer, but the washer was about 15 years old, so it lived a good life. Our dryer is still in good condition, and we have coin-ops just down the hall, so we'll be using those to wash our clothes, and lugging them back to dry them. We didn't feel like it was worth it to buy another washer, especially since we're most likely moving next summer and would just have to sell it again anyway. That's our decision, and we're sticking with it.

Ummm....don't know what else to say. Have a good week!

I'm lazy

...about blogging...even on my other blog

Part of that is because I'm pregnant.

That's for those of you who don't follow my other blog or who aren't my friends on facebook.

But yes it's true, Stephan and I are expecting baby #1 sometime in March 2012. We're very excited. I am coming close to being 14 weeks and officially in the second trimester.

How have I been feeling? Well, the first trimester was no picnic, but all in all, the discomforts were very mild compared to some. For all of this, I am truly grateful. I am getting a pregnant belly, and some people have told me that I am a cute pregnant lady (awww...). We heard the heartbeat on August 17, and it was joyous. This will be grandchild #1 for my parents, and grandchild #4 for my in-laws, but the first to carry the family name.

Now that I've got that out of the way, I'll update you on everything else.

Stephan is still in school, but this is his last year (FINALLY! FOR REAL THIS TIME!). He is on track to May 2012 graduation. He is working three jobs--the math lab, grading for a professor, and iPhone programming. The last two are ones he can do on his own time, so it's not like I never see him.

I am no longer watching Aiden. They moved away because his mom got remarried and they wanted to live closer to their jobs. I miss them, but it was all for the best. My little Aiden is in kindergarten now *sniff*. Now my time is focused on incubating another life form, and trying to pursue actual hobbies outside of web surfing.

My younger brother is coming home from Brazil on September 15 (our mom's birthday). I can't be there for his homecoming, mainly because we were just down in Houston last month. Hopefully we'll get to see him for Christmas--we just have to get the holiday situation figured out.

I guess that's all for now. Maybe I'll update in less than two months ;)

Sorry...

I know I haven't been posting much here, but I have been posting a fair bit on my other blog.

But I'll give you a few updates:

--We're going to Cedar City for our anniversary again. We didn't think we would be able to do it this year because of finances, but after taking a closer look at things, we decided we could :) Plays we'll be seeing: A Midsummer's Night Dream and The Music Man. We're pretty excited :)

--My nannying days are numbered. Misti (Aiden's mom) is getting re-married, and they're moving to Lehi so they can be closer to her and her soon-to-be-husband's job. It's too far for me to drive that early in the morning, plus she has a sister there who can help out. I'm very happy for them, I mean REALLY happy, but I'm a little sad that I won't get to watch him anymore. Heck, Stephan is bummed too. We both love the little guy, what can I say? He has really changed our lives. I don't know what I'll be doing about work yet, but I'll figure it out. No unsolicited job advice please. Thank you.

--Stephan has a second job. He technically got hired for it in April, but hasn't really started it until now. He is an iPhone programmer for his brother's business, and let me just say that it pays a lot better than his current job. In fact, he will be cutting back his hours at the Math Lab this fall so he can devote more time to the iPhone programming. This will look REALLY good on his resume :)

--I'm reading a lot more.

--I've been doing Bountiful Baskets and enjoying it.

--My house is always a mess, and I'm always trying to procrastinate it.

--We have church keys. Jealous? It's part of our calling as meetinghouse librarians.


That is all for now.

What do I say?

Having two blogs is somewhat overwhelming. One of them inevitably gets neglected.

So, what's been going on besides me venturing further into the blogging world?

Let's see...

My parents came to Utah a few weeks ago. The main reason for their visit was because my mom's youngest sister was (finally) going through the temple for the first time. Let's just say this was an event that the family was waiting for since before I was even born. She was endowed in the Bountiful Temple, and her oldest daughter (who got married six months after I did) acted as her escort. It was a good day. After the endowment session, Stephan and I had dinner with them at a really tasty Chinese restaurant in Bountiful (Mandarin, if you're wondering) and then we went to a concert on Temple Square.

Then the next day, my dad flew home, and my mom came to church with us...in Pleasant Grove. My brother-in-law was giving his homecoming talk, and my mom needed a place to attend church. Afterwards, there was a reception of sorts. Stephan spent most of this working on a final project for his game programming class.

The day after, I spent a few hours with my mom. It was really nice because I don't get to see my folks often. She helped me figure out my sewing machine, take some boxes to DI, and then we had sushi. Then she left to visit other people (it was a short trip).

Stephan also had finals that week. It was a hard week for everyone, even though he only had three. He was really nervous about his Partial Differential Equations final, because he had been struggling in the class all semester. He had a pretty crazy professor whose teaching method didn't agree with him. On the day of that final, I put out a request on facebook for people to say prayers or send happy thoughts his way. I think it worked because when I picked him up, he was really positive that he had done well on the final.

Although we had to wait a week for grades to come out.

Stephan wasn't very easy to live with during that week.

When the grades came out, he was scared to even look at them. But when he did, there was great rejoicing. He passed his Partial Differential Equations class, as well as the others. Hallelujah!

Now he's taking summer classes--only one per term. He's still working at the Math Lab, although only 11 hours because it's summer. Stephan will also be doing work for his brother's business, and he is starting a computer building business. Ask us about it :)

As for me, I'm still nannying Aiden. He has been having a hard time lately because his mom just got engaged, and his dad has a new girlfriend. On the plus side, I've gotten him to eat regular meals rather than snack all the time. And I've been able to limit his TV watching, although it's really hard to get him to play by himself when I need to get something done. He's an only child of divorced parents, so he's used to having constant attention by one person. I've just got to keep trying, I guess.

I forgot to mention that it's pretty much official that Stephan will be graduating next May. This time, it really does seem to be set in stone. He only has a few classes left; most of them are not going to be horrendous like the last few semesters have been. In fact, he only needs to take ONE class next spring. That will give him enough time to look for a post graduate job...hopefully one in Washington State. Like I said, he has his heart set on getting a job. there. Me, I don't really care where we go, as long as we move out of this state.

And there's my update.

New blog

Hey all, I have a new blog. Don't worry, I'm going to keep this one, so no need to change your URLs. This blog is my attempts at a homemaking blog (and possibly get a little income off of it). Check it out!

My new blog

You can also find me on twitter under the name the_sushi_snob. Find me!

:)

Remember...

When I complained about not having any hobbies?

Well, now I have many.

Crocheting, gardening (fairly recent), cooking, baking, reading...

Just added knitting to that list because I FINALLY found a casting on stitch that worked for me.

I'm going to start sewing.

One of these days, I'll practice my violin more regularly. And study my French.

And this last week, I've been taking joy in completely reorganizing my apartment.


Was I born in the wrong decade?

It's graduation season...

And Stephan is not one of the graduates.

Last summer, we honestly thought he would be graduating this month. But in November, we found out that he had underestimated what requirements he had left, and so his graduation date moved to December 2011. Rough at first, but I dealt with it. I made the best of the situation. And then, Stephan found out that while he passed certain classes, the math department requires higher grades in those classes for him to get the credit for his major. Now it's looking he won't be donning cap and gown until April 2012.

*insert high-pitched blood curdling scream*

It's really hard for me to see so many people on facebook announcing, "I'm taking my last test EVER!" and the like. It's hard to see people moving on with their lives while we are stuck here in a tiny apartment with a scary looking number in our bank account. 

Everyone says, "Enjoy this time!" "Make the best of it!" and all that crap. I've really been trying to make the best of our situation, I really have. I think of the advantages of living in a small apartment; the things I don't hate about living in Utah; the advantages of Stephan being a student; etc. etc. and so forth. 

I want us to make more money. No, I'm not asking for tons of money to fall into our laps. I just don't want to constantly worry about paying the bills every month. I want to get out of this state. I want a baby (and to be able to afford it). And yeah, I would like a little extra space. 

Some of you may be saying, "Get a real job, Laura! Stop nannying the kid! Make Stephan's life easier!" As if nannying isn't hard work? Please, it's the hardest thing I've ever done. And I've gotten a lot of spiritual confirmation that I need to keep nannying him, even though it doesn't make a lot of sense. 

I should also mention that the good Lord has helped us out in little ways. Stephan recently started tutoring a few people privately. My family has always been willing to help out with money, even though I really dread asking them when we do need it. We also dropped our old health insurance company and got less expensive (and better!) coverage with another company. 

I suppose that I just need to suck it up and make the very best of the next year. It's hard, but somehow it will be worth it in the end. At least, it had better be!