36 Weeks

I decided to dress up for our date.
Casey thought I was beautiful and decided to take a picture! :)
  

Then I decided we might as well take a 36 week picture while we were at it.
Baby Bunny is the size of a Large Cantaloupe.

This shirt really has a way of making me look pregnant!! :)

(Or maybe it is not just the shirt... LoL!)

• So excited the beginning is so near.  I hear most people say they are excited for the end of pregnancy, but really, it is just the beginning of the rest of our lives.  I'm also kind of getting a little nervous.
    
• We saw Baby Bunny on Thursday.  He is head down!!  The doctor thinks he looks really good and her guess is she will be a large kiddo.  I asked her if she could tell how much he weighed from the ultrasound and she said that it was totally inaccurate so they don't even bother with that.  (Funny because one of my friends has been having routine ultra sounds because she is high risk and they have been telling her how much her baby weighed the whole time.  I talked to her about it and she said she was recently told that it is only 33% accurate....)
    
• We have another ultrasound scheduled next week with the actual ultra sound people--not just the in office thing we had with the doctor.  My fluid level was questionable.  Moral of that story--I have to drink water like we are preparing for a drought. :)
    
• Only 4 more days of school left!  Yipee!!  I'm so grateful that I will have some time to myself to rest and prepare before Baby Bunny's birthday.  But I am beyond thrilled that it is 4 more days total, not just until the end of the year.  I'm so eager and excited and happy to be a full time mommy next year!!!  We are going to go on walks and go to story time at the library and I will actually have time to make dinner and I get to teach Baby Bunny in ways that are pleasing unto Heavenly Father instead of hoping a stranger at the daycare would.  (I know it will be hard and tiring too--but I'm willing to face it and learn from it!)
    
• I finished making two nursing covers!  The best part about making something is that I can make it have special features.  Both of mine have little extras, which I already predict I will love when I'm using them.  I will have to post pictures!
    
• I am now working on making a "Rings Sling."  I was tempted to just order one online to save time but when I saw the cost, I decided I would pay myself with the savings!  My total cost is about $22 (still sort of pricey).  The cheapest I could find it online was for about $80 plus a huge shipping fee.  I can't finish this yet though because I ordered the rings and they are somewhere in the mail right now.
    
• My next project is making binky clip/ holder things and some more baby ties.
    
• The nursery is almost ready.  Still need to sort and organize and decorate a little.  (Goals for today.)  We also need to pack the hospital bag, setup the pack'n'play for our room (which requires rearranging our room), register for the hospital, choose a pediatrician, (the list goes on...).  Still a lot to do before Baby Bunny's Birthday!

Toy for my Boy

Yesterday we had to take Casey's car to the shop. Hank now has new shoes and holy moly were thy expensive.... Sigh.... But that is another story.

Anyway, my sister was kind enough to let me borrow her car for the day. When I left to go home from school, I was greeted by Snoopy on my seat. It was so cute!

The attached poem says,
"It's almost summertime
So here's a little rhyme
Snoopy will be a good toy
On the 4th for your little boy."

P.S. I have already been telling Casey how excited I am for July 4th. I can hardly wait for the fairs and parades and fireworks! :)

I'm "TIE-ing" to be like Daddy

I just finished making a tie for Baby Bunny. It took about an hour but I imagine the next ones will be even faster now that I know what I'm doing.

It velcros in the back. (It has two pieces--the actual tie part and the neck band part....) Cheating, I know but it works pretty well and makes it so I won't have to re-tie it every Sunday. And I might have to adjust the length when my handsome baby is actually here. :)

P.S. I bought the white shirt and pants. There is NO way I would make a collared baby shirt--that would be a nightmare.

The Hardest Decision...

All growing up and even throughout college, I always knew what my decision would be. Ask any of my students who share my common dream and the decision is easy. They can all tell me exactly what I should do. And I thought I would know instantly too. But no. This really was the hardest decision.

The hardest decision. It does not involve anything along the lines of being temple worthy. Those are all easy choices. It does not matter what I wear or what we decide to order when we go out to eat. Deciding where to live and what to major in even seem easy in comparison.

The hardest decision. Do I continue working next year or do I stay home and be a mom? Is this my first and last year of teaching or is Baby Bunny going to be raised by someone else? I always thought the choice would be a piece of cake because the only thing I have ever dreamed I was being a mom.

When I was little, and others would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I had one answer-- a mommy. The reason I chose my major was because it was the closest thing I could find to teaching me motherly skills. I worked hard and graduated from college with an excellent GPA but always planned on using it to bless my children-- never to actually teach.

So why when I'm faced with the opportunity I have always longed for does the choice all of the sudden become the hardest one with no clear direction?!

I was torn. My students need me. My baby needs me. We need the money. We need things of far greater worth than money. Casey needs to finish school and have a stable income. Baby Bunny needs a mommy and have a stable life. I enjoy my job, I like teaching, I want to become a level 2 teacher, next year would be SO much easier. I think I will enjoy being a mom but really have no idea. Back and forth like a see-saw. My principal pushing for an answer, one way or the other and me being scared to step forward in either direction.

I was stuck. Unsure, hesitant, scared.

Finally we turned the matter over to the Lord. And decided to just walk forward trusting either answer by making a commitment of yes or no. Teacher and Mother together or Mother.

General Conference hit me. Going to the temple hit me. My constant thoughts hit me. I knew where I am meant to be next year. I was still terrified. I had no idea what to expect from my principal. Her initial reaction was far from what I could have ever guessed would happen. We ended up talking about General Conference and the temple and the most important work I will ever do while I gave her an answer to my hardest decision.

And so the hardest decision melted away. I'm at peace.

I get to stay home and raise Baby Bunny. I get to answer his questions when they arise and find joy in the everyday things he does. I get to be a mommy! :)

I will miss my students (on most days). And I will miss talking to friends (co-workers). And I have no idea what it is like to stay home with a constant tag-a-long and to rarely have break. But I'm excited to learn.

And we are still keeping our faith in Heavenly Father and trusting that He knows what He is doing!

Making Progress!

I came home from work today to find the crib assembled with sheets on it. And our mobile works! So cute!

We are not ready for Baby Bunny yet... But we are definitely making progress! :)

Ready for Spit-Up

I just finished making Baby Bunny's burp/ spit-up/ drool rags. I might make some more if I find cute/ seasonal ribbon in the future but we are at least in business! :) Crossing our fingers that he won't be a total spit up baby but we are prepared now just in case!

BTW: These are tri-fold cloth diapers with the machine washable ribbon. These are perfect for baby drool because they are absorbent (and now cute)! And they are also totally affordable -- I made a couple for each of the other babies at my combined work baby shower. :)

Goodbye Teacher Fairy

To My Favorite Teacher Fairy,

I will always cherish this first year of teaching and the light you brought to my life.

When I think back to the first week of school, I am grateful for the beautiful flowers you had delivered to me.  I assumed that all the first year teacher's had a Teacher Fairy and it was something nice my principal was doing for us.  Little did I know, at that point, that I was and am the only teacher blessed with a fairy.

And then there was my birthday!  I was so excited to have flowers for my birthday at school.  Casey was busy with his own school and did not have time to do anything for me during the day.  It would have just been an ordinary school day but you reminded me that I was important to someone.

I must give thanks for your special visiting in Thanksgiving.  I LOVE the adorable "Happy Harvest" decoration.  I'm excited for fall again so I can get this out and think of you.

Ooooh and then came Christmas.  You were able to share the magic of Christmas both in my classroom and at home.  The countdown was intense as I would go day after day to school just wishing it was already the break.  The wreath I had at school kept me in the Christmas spirit and made the countdown bearable.

That brings me to that difficult day in January when my car died and I sat crying in a parking lot waiting to be rescued.  And then trying to fight back the tears all day long at school.  The timing of the lavender oil (and other flavors) could not have come at a more needed time.  I doubt I would have slept very much that night but your huge tender mercy helped calm me.  I totally know that Heavenly Father must have inspired you that day--thank you for listening!

Next was the Purple Valentine.  That was SO, SOOO sweet and creative.  "Everything I love is red and baby bunny is blue so that meant a purple valentine for me."  Seriously, ADORABLE!

And the timing of the violets and mini chocolate eggs.  Um, definitely inspired.  Intervention days = tiring and boring!  But anything can be endured when a simple reminder lets me know that someone cares and is thinking about me.

Finally today.  I almost got teary eyed reading the poem as I reflected on this entire year that we have shared together.

Thank You Teacher Fairy!  Thank you most sincerely and kindly for bringing excitement to my first year of teaching.  Thank you for taking the time to care about me.  Thank you for making me feel like the most special teacher in the entire school--after all, no one else had a Teacher Fairy. ;)

Love,

A HUGE Thank You!

Allow me to set the stage...

1st period -- Sewing. I like sewing but not with 7th graders because I spend the majority of my time trying to fix machines.

Advisory -- Ironing. Strange activity for advisory time but we were trying to iron on school logos to shirts for the students. It is part of the school wide service day. Needless to say we ruined one shirt.

Passing Time -- Fight starts right outside my room with two of my students.

2A -- The rest of my class wants to continue the fight inside my room. It took a lot to settle them down. Finally I get them mostly calm and we start sewing. This is seriously the most challenging class I have so take my sewing dislike and times it by 100 to equal a nightmare.

Now that the stage has been set... During the middle of 2nd, one of the secretaries walks in my room carrying Otter Pops with a poem (read below).

Seriously Teacher Fairy thank you!! Today was not a horrible day but it was such a sweet reminder. Thank you for your thoughtfulness!!! I feel so loved!

"No more pencils

No more books

No more students' dirty looks!

"Look who's made it one whole year.

Mrs. [Lisa], let's give a cheer!

"School's almost out,

My job is done,

Enjoy Otter Pops--

You and Baby Bun'.

"This school year sure has been swell.

Who I am, I'll never tell.

Knowing you smiled on days so rough

Was all I needed; it's thanks enough.

"Love, The Teacher Fairy"

Car Seat Cover

Time consuming? Yes!

Difficult? Moderately Yes.

Have mistakes? Absolutely Yes.

But was it worth it? Do I like it? Does Casey like it? YES! (However, I don't think that I would ever make something like this again.)

I like the window and if you notice the picture with the cover open, I love seeing "baby bunny" in it! ;)

(I will have to re-find the pattern/ website I generally followed and post a link...)

33 Weeks

* 33 weeks, 1 day
Baby Bunny is the size of a honeydew melon

* Hello allergies. Never had allergies before and now I'm a sniffling, coughing, eye dripping mess. The only benefit to this is my students have to be quiet to hear me because I can't shout over them.

* Casey rearranged Baby Bunny's room while I was at school. It now looks more like a nursery instead of a furniture storage area. Still need to work on decorating everything.

* Still need to finish the car seat cover. Sigh.

* I decided we should be calling Baby Bunny BABY FURNACE instead. I'm always hot now! So grateful he is due near the beginning of summer and not end!

* Looking forward to... our baby shower, only 18 more school days, taking maternity pictures sometime, oh and meeting Baby Bunny soonish (Not until after school ends though kiddo. Just hang tight for right now!)

Mission Mommyhood

As I was sitting through my sister's missionary themed Sacrament meeting a couple of Sundays ago, I was kind of feeling a little bit sad about never having the opportunity to serve a mission myself. Instead, I married my best friend about five months after he came home from his mission. And seeing how we are the same age, a mission for me was out.

My thoughts have continued to chew on this. And someday when we are all grown up with silver hairs sprouting up all over our heads we are going to serve a mission together. I'm so excited for that because I will always get to be with my favorite companion!

But as for right now, we have a whole life ahead of us to live together. And I thought my mission would have to wait. But I realized I have been called to a different mission...

I am hereby called to serve as a mother. I am assigned to labor in my home. It is anticipated that I will serve for not only a period of 18 years but for all eternity.

I should plan to report to the hospital on or around June 23, 2012. I should prepare to preach the gospel in the English language.

My purpose is to invite Baby Bunny "...to come unto Christ by helping [him] receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end...."

"The Lord will reward you for the goodness of your life. Greater blessings and more happiness than you have yet experienced await you as you humbly and prayerfully serve the Lord in this labor of love among His children. We place our confidence in you and pray that the Lord will help you become an effective [mommy]."

I have been called to a mission! The most sacred and honored position and one that I have been preparing for and anticipating my whole life. And I'm ready to serve!


(Quotes and ideas were taken from my sister's mission call. This post is in no way intended to make fun of or degrade her or any missionary's sacred calling.)

Today, I will cherish...

1. My two challenging classes both behaving!

2. Finishing everything on my school to-do list during my prep. This never happens. The only reason it did today is because I was able to have someone help me type up several things that I already had written out.

3. Starting the wash when I left in the morning for work and coming home to find it all done. Thanks sweetheart for babysitting the washer and dryer!

4. Hairspray!! Seriously! Though not used how you would likely assume. One of my students accidentally got black ink all over my pale pink jacket. Thank you hair spray for removing ink stains!

5. Homemade Orange Julius. Oh. My. Yumminess! It tasted exactly like the real thing and was absolutely incredible. I can already predict the future-- Orange Julius is sure to be a frequent flyer on our menu!

6. My package arriving from FedEx. I can finally start making baby shower gifts!

7. Baby Bunny kicking like crazy because I won't feel it for too much longer. {However, I am very grateful that Baby Bunny listens to Daddy though and calms down when Casey tells him to be nice to Mommy!}

"You say it best...

...when you say nothing at all."

Casey had a surprise waiting for me when I arrived home. A just because, no reason, I just love you forever surprise. I squealed with delight when I saw the lillies!

I'm so grateful to have such a sweet best friend! I make sure to count my blessings everyday and he is always at the top-- and normally counted twice! ;)

I'm Going There {Today}

I think most people remember the primary song, "I Love to See the Temple."  It was definitely one of my favorites growing up because I always looked forward to being able to go the temple to be sealed to my best friend.  And one of the phrases, "I'm going there someday" seems to be plastered in every young child's bedroom with a picture of the temple--as a gentle reminder of the ultimate goal.  I know Baby Bunny will grow up seeing it!

Anyway, with my sister getting ready to serve her mission soon,  (She is going to the Texas, Fort Worth--Spanish Speaking.) she recently was able to attend the temple for the first time.  It was a wonderful experience for her and for me as well.  My mom was her "escort" but I was allowed to be her "second escort"!  A very sweet occurrence for me; one that I will always cherish! :)

I wanted to make something for her to remember her special day.  I decided to make a card that all of us at the temple could sign.  And inspiration struck!  I thought it would be so cute to use the phrase, "I'm going there someday!" just changed a little bit.  I have no idea if this already exists on pintrest--probably.  But I have banned myself from pintrest and don't have an account. (Maybe someday that will change but for now, I'm too busy and I have heard it is a huge time user and highly addicting!)  So, I'm excited to report this is totally an original idea!! :)  And you are welcome to borrow it for the next person you know going through the temple!  Also, for your information, we bought her some Downeast undershirts to go with-- the perfect present to make sure you are modest!

Outside of Card:

I found a picture of the temple I liked, traced it and then colored it in for light/ dark contrast.
I just free-handed the words but I think they turned out cute!
And a little ribbon never hurts! :)

Inside of Card:

Julie was no longer just going there "someday."
It was TODAY!!  And I wanted her to have something to remember it!

All Together:

Please ignore the slightly blurriness of the picture.
Of course we forgot a real camera but cell phones proved to be better than nothing! ;)

 

Remembering the Olympics

So I know this is about from forever ago...  But better late than never right?! :)

Remember how I had the opportunity to listen to Derek Parra and actually hold his Gold Medal at an assembly? Well, later that same week, there were a lot of celebrations going on to remember the Salt Lake 2002 Winter Olympics.  Casey and I went down town and enjoyed the sun (though still cold temperatures) and the festivities set up.

We make a great bobsled team! :)  {Truthfully being pregnant, I doubt I would have been a great partner--but basically I just love any time that we are a team!}

We are keepers of the flame!

Casey competed in the weight lifting competition.

And even being 22 weeks pregnant (at the time), I was able to compete in the competition as well.  {Yes the thing is fake. But surprisingly a lot heavier than I would have thought a fake bar to weigh.}

We both rocked the event so much that we tied for first place!!  The lovely (sarcasm...) banner across the bottom cuts off Baby Bunny.  Sad!  But we will just call it a three way tie. :)

Discovered It

On Thursday March 22, the new City Creek Center mall opened in Downtown Salt Lake.  I was excited to go see it but did not want to face the crowd so we figured we would wait for a bit until the grand opening hype calmed down.

Well, we went downtown for a dear friend's reception on Friday the 23rd.  The reception center validated our parking for THREE hours and needless to say (thankfully) the guest line did not take that long to get through.  We had FREE parking now and decided to take advantage of it--City Creek crowds or not.

The advertising slogan for City Creek is using the "IT" in City and then putting words above or below it.  Casey and I definitely Discovered It!

I think one of the coolest things about this mall is that it can be both indoors or outdoors.  Outdoor malls are really catching on.  But lets remember that normally (though not this season) it snows all of winter and it is cold.  Um, outdoor malls are not so popular then.  This mall can be both though based on the sliding glass window/ ceiling.  I know this picture is slightly awkward but it was the best I could do to show the movable ceilings.

And there is a lot of water throughout this mall.  Seriously.  "Inside" there is a small creek.  If the roof were closed, this really would be all the way inside and I thought that was kind of cool.  This picture was taken on the second floor looking down.  Ignore all of the random people.  LoL!

Another water thing is this sweet fountain.  I know that fountains are common in malls but I thought this was neat based on the way it curved from side to side.  Definitely modern artsy.  Again, a great "people" shot.

The last water thing that we took a picture of was a different fountain.  And because it was basically dark by the time we had wandered over to this part of the mall, it is almost impossible to see the reason for this picture.  You can see the fountain directly in front of us.  And the Salt Lake Temple is off in the distance to the right.  (I'm impressed how bright the temple is and shows up when so dark.  I'm so grateful that the temple is a constant guide and with our eyes focused on it, we will make it safely back Home--even if everything else around us is dark.  Anyway...)  The pool of water directly in front of us, makes a straight line up to the water falls flowing from the Conference Center.  It is like the water from the Conference Center is flowing outward for all people to partake of.  Whether or not that was intentional that is what we got out of it! :)

Another cool part about the mall is that it is located on two sides of the street.  There is a glass walking overpass over the street to connect the sides.  I love that this picture has the temple (again) in the background.  But most of all, I LOVE how you can see both of our reflections (and even Baby Bunny's)!!! :D

The mall also had live entertainment.  There were several different bands/ soloists playing upbeat music throughout all of the mall.  I have no idea if this was just for the grand opening or a part of the "climate" they are trying to create.  But the best live entertainment was this lady.  We saw a few flower statues throughout the mall.  They kept their eyes closed (I think you would have to out of embarrassment!).  And I have never seen people just standing around staring at something for so long--myself included in that.  I don't know why it was so memorizing but trust me it was.  Occasionally the flower girl would move and change to a new position.  The rest of the night I kept telling Casey that I could never do that as a job!!  I could not stand still enough nor be able to keep my eyes closed and not smile while I felt everyone just gaping at me.  So grateful I have my degree and have a real job instead of a random job like flower girl while trying to pay for college while going through!

Oh and one last thing.  Did I mention there were crowds... EVERYWHERE?!  Because there were.  We saw so many people standing in lines, casually wandering in and out of stores, eating at the gigantic food court, carrying countless shopping bags, taking pictures, taking in the moment.  (What these people were lined up for, we never could figure out.  We saw one line trying to get into a chocolate store later.  But this line was long and as best I could tell, just standing in line to be in line. :) LoL!)