29 weeks

My hair was really curly on Sunday morning, so I went with it, only then it went afro-ish on me...so I ended up pulling it back. But luckily, I got an ADORABLE new little flower from my good friend Aleesha, and it made my hair look so much prettier!

So this is me at 29 weeks....I feel like I'm at that point where I'm getting REALLY excited, and then kinda disappointed that I still have two months. Two months left? Really??? But I want to play with my baby! She still kicks like CRAZY (except randomly last night, when Jenny really wanted to feel a baby kick) and everything is going really well. Pretty much just the same old thing, I'm just getting fatter and fatter. Haahaa. Kiersten and Anders talk about my baby all the time when I babysit, and its really cute. I told Lynnaea that if I ran out of money to fund my baby's education, I'd borrow from her, and she laughed so hard! (They were counting up their money because Kiersten got a dollar from the tooth fairy, and they have a lot stored up!)

The shirt I have on is actually not a maternity shirt, just one of the loose-fitting, flowy shirts that I used to wear to work at JCP all the time, and I have found it VERY useful to wear with skirts on Sundays.

This is me and my good friend Aleesha at her baby shower on Saturday. She's due the end of June, and I am due the first of August. But I always say I"m due the end of July---it might be a little disappointing if I actually do go into August. Don't look too closely at the picture though. For some reason the lighting did weird things to my skin, and my smile isn't the greatest either.Congrats Aleesha!

Day 3

This was basically our campsite...right by the Colorado River. It was so beautiful!

The petroglyphs were STerling's FAVORITE part...he wanted to see more, but it was a couple hour drive out of our way.

Canyonlands...on our last day.

This is Sterling, demonstrating that he could use his leatherman to chop up a cactus and save us if we ran out of water in the desert. Good to know.

These are our AWESOME chaco sandals. We both have CRAZY tan lines now because they are all we wore the entire trip.

Mesa Arch..its the only arch in Canyonlands I think. We liked it.

This was the moutains coming out by Provo on our way home...so pretty!

Day 2

Look at me all tiny underneath Delicate Arch!

Some nice young man took this picture that didn't speak English...I wanted him to take a picture closer-up of us, and not so much of the arch. he did a fabulous job...but what is with my face???

Trip to Southern Utah: Day 1

Okay-these pictures are in no particular order, because I am too lazy to reconfigure them all about. Sterling and I went on our FIRST (and probably last) trip with just the two of us. We wanted to do something before the baby gets here, and before the summer gets all hectic with family agendas. I have never been to Moab, Arches, or Canyonlands...and Sterling thought he hadn't either but his brother just informed him otherwise. Anyway, obviously he didn't really remember. Sterling packed EVERYTHING and had it ready to go so that we left as soon as I got off work on Tuesday night. We spent that night at a hotel (probably because we spent too long wandering Ikea on our way) and it was the very first time we've ever spent a night together at a hotel! Lots of fun. When we got there, we discovered that Sterling had only grabbed the shell of the tent we had borrowed from my sister...not the poles or anything useful like that. So we had to spend a little more money than anticipated, and we purchased our own lovely tent for the trip. Although, kudos to Sterling, he packed LITERALLY everything for the trip, and that was the only thing he forgot, except our cooking pot. He even remembered games and hot chocolate!

This is Sterling and I (and my big baby belly) beside Landscape Arch...the longest arch in the entire park!

This was my favorite part of the trail...crawling up this big rock. It was really beautiful. The first day was rather chilly, so I had a hoodie on most of the hike, but it warmed up the next two days!

This is Double O arch. It was a really fun hike getting out there.






This is Dark Angel. It is REALLY massive. The pictures don't really do it justice.

These are our new beautiful camp chairs we purchased for the trip. We were thinking it would be our one new addition to our camping supplies, only then we ended up with the beautiful new tent as well.

My Mother

I was going to find and put new pictures of my mother up...but I got lazy so I just stole these from my sisters' blogs and previous posts that they have done about my mom. My mom is beautiful. I consider it lucky that everyone says I look like her. Also, it is what convinces me that I was not adopted into the family...because she is the only one I look like. I don't look like my sisters at all really. (I decided to post a pic of me as well, and you can decide how much I look like my mother)

My mom is an amazing person-she knows how to do EVERYTHING! I used to get annoyed at how often my older siblings called home to get recipes/advice/etc. from her, and I'd say "She's MY mother right now, you moved out!" But, ahem, I have to repent for that, because I do it ALL THE TIME! She is amazing at cooking, cleaning, and organizing. A kid I was dating once said "You say nine kids and all I can think of is a sticky house" which is kind of a weird thought, but anyway, not at all true with my mom. She is also helping me get a fairly decent food storage going, even if we only live in an apartment...and its amazing.

My mom also has incredible energy. Sometimes I get tired just watching her fly around doing a thousand things. You'd think as an empty-nester this year she would find some time to herself...but she always says 'yes' to a thousand things and a thousand people, and is running all over the place. Not that I can complain, cause that means she says 'yes' when I ask her to help me make bibs and sew up a hole in my quilt, etc., etc. She is like an energizer bunny. I get tired babysitting my sisters six kids for one day. Makes me nervous that I'm not destined to have the energy she possesses.

She taught me tons and tons and tons of things. But I still have to call home all the time to glean her head. One time I was calling my mom about something and Sterling asked "Why don't you just google it?" Well, dearie, because my mom has years of experience to back up all her information and, therefore, I trust her lots more than google! My dad commented a while ago that it was rather funny that I never cooked a thing in college (I don't think making 5-minute rice in the microwave counts as anything in his book) and then suddenly started making bread regularly as soon as I graduated. Lets just say, when you grow up with my mother's marvelous cooking, it takes a lot to get used to anything else. I managed three years of college (my year of early college I still lived at home) without decent food...but I had to find a way to remedy that as soon as possible...and the first step was homemade bread. I can't eat store-bought bread. And now, neither can my husband. I've spoiled him as well. But really, when you could have homemade jam with homemade bread...why in the world would you ever go back???

She taught me how to make strawberry jam...and I LOVE strawberries!!! (so does she, the last year I lived at home, we ate them for every meal for a couple of weeks while they were in season) I just made three batches yesterday, all by myself, because she flew off to Switzerland to visit my sister.

I don't know how pioneer women did it without Kitchenaid choppers! Lifesaver!

Mmmm...strawberries!

All chopped up and ready to make into jam! Last year, when I had mom's help, I was rather lazy and left my strawberries rather large for jam, so this year I overcompensated, and maybe made them too runny. Oh well.

My mother is also an AMAZING grandmother...my baby is going to be number THIRTY-FIVE! (And this is me a couple days ago...26 weeks) and I just hope I can be half the mother she is!

Perio

I work at a periodontal office. A place where people come to get treated when they have periodontal disease. This disease is in your mouth. Specifically to do with your gums (gingival tissue) and your bone. Not your teeth. And it fascinates me to be able to clean up every little nook and cranny in a diseased mouth. It gives me a feeling of accomplishment. Usually. Today the last patient of the day made me queasy. I am quite over the queasy stage of pregnancy. Queasy just to sit next to and talk to. Because their breath was THAT BAD. Just talking to them. I don't think the general populace understands. We're talking a DISEASED MOUTH. BILLIONS OF BACTERIA. DISEASED. And, overall, smelly. I have smelled perio before. This was BEYOND perio. I felt bad for the poor pt. About four teeth in I realized it would probably end up being full mouth extractions and dentures. Thats what happens when I can sink my probe 10-12 millimeters around EVERY TOOTH! (healthy is 0-3mm...most roots aren't much longer than 12 mm)And the teeth that I couldn't, was probably just because I was blocked from calculus build-up. There was more calculus build-up along the inside of their lower teeth than actual tooth. This patient was almost forty and had not had their teeth cleaned since 18. But this patient had every single tooth still standing inside the mouth...including wisdom teeth. I have been working at a periodontal office for almost five months now. I have been cleaning perio patients for two years in school. And this brought a whole new meaning to the word 'perio'. This patients wants to keep their teeth. Our dr. warned them that when I'm cleaning the teeth, they might just come out, because the only thing holding them in might be the calculus build-up. Oh what an experience. And people wonder why we tell them periodontal disease affects your entire body's health. Can't you just imagine what all that is doing to this patients immune system? And where all that bacteria is going? That, my friends, is why they make you clean up your mouth and get it healthy before they'll do a transplant, or a joint replacement. It's overworking your body's capabilities.

Oh, and I was blacklisted by my dr. because I forgot to chart mobility. Again. Oops. Can I blame that on pregnancy?

Other than that...I was looking at my blog ticker (is it lame that thats the only reason I know how far along I am????) and realized I am having a baby in LESS THAN ONE HUNDRED DAYS!!!!!!! When did that happen???!!?!?!?!! I think I should eat some ice cream in a hot bath (but not TOO hot for baby Ruthie) and forget about my patient and digest this information. There's going to be a carseat. And not my sister's kids' carseat. One that stays in our car always.

Which reminds me: I had a mom moment yesterday. Or a pregnancy moment? I didn't bring a diaper bag to drop my nephew off at preschool...cause its two minutes away. Meanwhile, Sterling calls me to see if I can pick him up (he was going to take the bus) because a lady from WSU called and said he could tutor if he came right over for an interview. And he really wants to. So I head to Ogden. Still with no diaper bag. So even though Devaney had spent the morning loving me and being an absolute adorable angel (she's hated me the last three times I babysat) she picked this moment to have a blow-out diaper. And remember...no diaper bag. Silly Aunt Lindsay. So I bought a diaper and wipes at Wal-mart, and we continued our afternoon without any pants on.

And this is really long...I keep thinking I need to keep my posts to one thought only. But then I think of more things. And if I didn't put it all in one post, it wouldn't ever get posted. The end.