Saying Goodbyes

As mentioned in a previous blog post we had a "24" group of friends with whom we watched the show 24. Mostly Stephen's mission buddies who have remained good friends after the mission. Well, we are all parting this year to go our own ways since we're done with school. The first to leave are Cory and Charisse Stephens. Charisse, who is only 23, got a full ride to get her Masters and PhD at Berkeley. (In other words, she's a genius.) And Cory is doing Teach America in the Bay Area. So we had a little good bye thing going on this weekend. Charisse's grandparents have a cabin down in Parowan, UT, or Brian's Head, UT and so she and Cory invited us and Chris and Valerie Harmon (our 24 group) to spend the weekend there. (Valerie by the way is 19 weeks pregnant, and just found out last week that they are having a boy!!) The first night there (Friday night) was a little, okay...VERY, nerve wracking for me. First of all I'm not a bug person, so it didn't help that the place was infested with spiders. Not little ones mind you, the BIG MOUNTAIN SPIDERS. In our room alone Stephen killed 5 big ones within the first 15 minutes. Not to mention there were some in the bathroom, the kitchen, the living room, etc. As we were going to bed I told Steve to inspect the room. So he looked under the bed and said that there were just some dead ones. So I had to look, I don't know why, but under the bed there were like 10 huge dead spiders curled up on their backs. I started panicking and could feel an attack coming on, I was about to get into my side of the bed when I thought about there being spiders in the bed. So I told Stephen to check the sheets. Boy am I glad he did. The minute he flips over the sheets (on my side of the bed) I spot something black about the size of my two thumbs put together, but there were no legs, (or at least there weren't any long visible ones like a spider with a body of that size should have). As we looked closer (it was at night and the light was dim) we heard a low rumble. It was a flippin' BUMBLE BEE! IN THE BED! (WHAT THE...?) And it was huge and still very alive. I started screaming "kill it, KILL IT" and handed Stephen my shoe. He had to hit it like, 5 times before it finally was pulverized. Needless to say, we ended up sleeping with the light on, at my request. But other than that we had a lot of fun, watching movies, playing games, taking turns cooking meals and then eating them together. I even went on a hike with everyone, Stephen had to walk about 1/2 a mile behind everyone to help me, but we did it. It was a lot of fun. We attended sacrament in Parowan on Sunday, and driving through the city every house had a flag in front of it. As we got out we made a comment about how patriotic the town was. At this Charisse informed us that it was "flag day." Yes, I'm an idiot. Anyways, it was a fun weekend, and once I get some pixs back I'll post them. :)

The Tour

Stephen and I have started taking a 4 week prenatal class at the Utah Valley Regional Hospital. This last Monday was our second class, there are only four classes once a week. This last time they had us watch a birthing video. One word: AAAAGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Well I guess that's not really a word) I don't do well with blood and stuff, and apparently Stephen doesn't either because his eyes started watering, NOT because he was getting emotional but because he thought he was going to gag. THEN... the baby appeared and you kind of forget what it is your looking at and just focus on the baby's head and then its' body. Even Stephen's watery eyes transformed into tears of joy as he started imagining himself as that future father holding the baby newborn boy. We watched about 5 different births; from the woman with pre-eclampsia to a c-section to the woman who did it without the epidural. Yes, we saw it all. After the video they took us on a tour of the hospital. The room where the baby would be delivered, the nursery, and our room that we would stay in after he comes. It was all so surreal to believe what we will be experiencing soon. Not soon enough and yet, "aghhhh" when he does come. That's all.

P.S. I fibbed a bit on the pregnancy ticker. My original due date was August 10th, but when we had our ultrasound the lady said he was further along, or further developed and said there was a good possibility of him being born about 10 days early. BUT it wasn't officially official, she just said there was a good chance. So I started telling people that asked that my due date was August 1st. Wishful thinking. Maybe if I believe it, it will happen.

Taylor fun

This last weekend we had family visit...again. But this time it was on the Taylor side. Stephen's older brother Karl, his lovely wife Megan,



and their little bundle of joy Camryn came to visit us.



Coincidentally the day they came I got sick, as usual. I always seem to get sick at the most inopportune times. Like when I got mono right before our wedding, or that sudden fever two days before leaving for Ecuador. Luckily I got better (if not a little) so that I could spend at least some time with them as well. Saturday we went over to Karl's (and Stephen's friend) Craig's house and met up with some of their other friends, and wives as well. Good times. Then we played host and hostess Sunday evening and Karl, Megan, Camryn, and Megan's twin sister Katie and her husband Kenny came over. We ate, watched The Onion News Network, and laughed. For those of you who don't know what the ONN is, you have to check it out, it is hilarious. Especially the boy scout clip about breast cancer awareness, but I'll let you look that up. Karl and Megan brought with them this movie called "The Happiest Baby on the Block."



Something that they used to help them with their little bundle of joy, and have lent to us to have the same luck as them. It gives useful advice on how to calm a crying baby and help them to sleep longer. We'll have to use it for an FHE activity. Thanks you guys!

P.S. Sorry that there aren't a lot of posts, but I hate posting things without pictures. I'm sure we'll get another digital camera someday. :S
And by the way those pictures above aren't from this weekend, I stole them from their blog so you could see which of Stephen's brothers I was talking about.

Funny Story

The last time my parents were here they told me a funny story about the Bishop in my brother, Caleb, singles' ward. His Bishop, I don't know his name so...we'll call him Smith. Bishop Smith recently went to Disneyland with his wife, Sister Smith. They were at Disneyland when they saw something on one of the benches. As they get closer they realize it's a Blackberry. So they decided to try and contact one of the numbers on the Blackberry so they could find the person and give it back to them. Not only are Blackberry's not cheap but they store a lot of information that would not be good to lose, plus this bishop and his wife are just good honest people that return lost items to their rightful owners. So they call, and end up reaching the wife of the person who lost the Blackberry. They were both still at Disneyland, and asked if they could meet at a certain spot to get their Blackberry back. So it's agreed. They go to the spot and the woman is there. She thanks them for returning the Blackberry, introduces herself and then says, "My husband is HUGH JACKMAN, would you like to meet him?" Talk about the surprise of your life. At this the wife (of the Bishop) starts hyperventilating and panicking; screeching like some teenage girl back in the 60's at a Beatles concert saying, "Oh my gosh HUGH JACKMAN! HUGH JACKMAN! Her husband then has to calm her down before he comes over to meet them. By the way she, Hugh Jackman's wife, calls him "Hughie." So they start talking about his new movie "Wolverine" and how he had to buff up (even more than he normally is) for the movie. His wife also teased him about how he's constantly flexing in front of the mirror before going to bed, at which she rolls her eyes. She said that she preferred him the way he was before, and that he's too buff now. Anyways, just thought it was a funny story, and that I'd pass it on.

Memorial Day = 4 Day Weekend!!

Stephen and I realized Thursday night that Monday was Memorial Day, meaning paid holiday, meaning, we should go do something fun. We were going to go down to St. George, but when we called up my parents turns out they had already planned on taking advantage of the holiday by going to Moab. So we ended up inviting my brother Jeff to come spend the weekend with us. It was fun. I don't have a car during the day, so Friday I had my own chauffeur. First he took me to Joann's to get some things that I needed for my many sewing projects I have going on. Later Friday night we went to go see the movie "Knowing" at the dollar theater.
Maybe you've seen a preview for it, it has a very "end of the world" feeling to it. In fact, I wouldn't recommend seeing it. It seems like some one's interesting interpretation of "The Rapture." Then on Saturday we were on our way to take Jeff to see the thrill of Provo...Farmers Market, when we saw a Yard Sale. Turned out to be a girls camp yard sale from our old ward. The girls were trying to raise enough money to go to girls camp. We got there towards the end, and they were just trying to get rid of stuff at that point, so they handed us a grocery bag and said whatever we could fill in the bag for a total of three dollars. We checked to make sure they had baby boy stuff, and they did, so we decided to do it. We were able to fit 32 things in the bag; receiving blankets, hats, clothes, hooded baby towel, etc. all for three dollars. That's like, what? 9 cents each. Not bad, huh? (I didn't think we could beat last week, when we went on a yard sale shopping spree. This one family with like 4 or 5 kids were getting rid of all their baby and kid stuff for 25 cents per item. We got like 70+ items for about $18. Again, things like blankets, shoes, hats, hooded towels, clothes, etc. Plus, a Graco baby swing for $2, and an infant car seat head pillow thing for $1.) After the yard sale we went to Farmer's Market. In the last two weeks they grew twice as big. Stephen and I shared a Belgian Waffle, and it was THE BEST waffle I ever had.

They reminded me a lot of my favorite cookies, which actually aren't really cookies but Dutch waffles called "Stroopwafels."

There was a girl on my mission that was Dutch who spoke perfect English by the way, and her mom had sent some of these cookies/waffles. Anyway...) Stephen bought me some Lavender bath fizzles that smell awesome, and then we got to this one booth that was selling these little wooden Hungarian dolls that have rose oil perfume on the inside. We were about to keep going when we read the sign that said it was for orphanages in Hungary. The girl at the booth had served her mission in Hungary and had gone back there after her mission to help in the orphanage. She had brought back the dolls to sell in hopes of raising money for the children in the orphanage.

So we decided to get one of the dolls. Something I forgot to mention, when my brother came out he brought two episodes of Horatio Hornblower that he had rented from his local library. Stephen looked at me and smiled making some comment about how his mom and aunt thought he, Horatio Hornblower was "dreamy". Obviously he expected me to develop some kind of crush on Horatio from watching the show. Funny thing though, because after watching one episode Stephen was the one to get hooked. So Saturday after Farmer's Market he and my brother went to the local library and Stephen got the first four episodes to watch.

Don't get me wrong, I like it too, but Stephen loves it!! (For some reason Horatio reminds me of a gecko.) Sunday after church my brother and I went to the cemetery in American Fork to visit our grandparents graves.

First we went to my mom's parents. Beth Shelton Jorgensen and Leo Jorgensen, my step-grandfather John Dean was also buried at the same cemetery, and we thought we remembered where his grave was, but we looked forever and couldn't find it. My grandfather Leo served in the Korean War and brought back some china with him that I've inherited. We forgot that it was Memorial Day weekend, so the cemetery was packed, there were so many people there. Afterwards we sung by and visited my grandma Dean. She was so excited and said that now she could brag to her friends and say that she did have a visitor over the Memorial Weekend. (I really need to go visit her more frequently.) Monday there was a free breakfast special going on at Ikea.

Not that breakfasts there aren't already cheap, but this was free. So we went, I had wanted to go look at the baby/kid stuff. There were some finger puppets there that I wanted to get, but I started to get tired and, don't get me wrong I LOVE Ikea, but to get to the register you have to walk through the whole flippin' store. I asked a worker if I could just go through to the front to get to the register and just buy my stuff and even explained I was tired and pregnant and she said I couldn't. So I told Stephen we'd just come back another time to get it. After breakfast Uncle Stephen and Aunt Tracy invited us over for lunch, then Stephen and Jeff went and saw Terminator 4.

Fun weekend, I love holidays.

I Love to See the Temple...

Yesterday evening Stephen and I finally were able to visit the temple again. We use to go once a month after we got married. We even went to the temple in Ecuador while we were there...

...and to the Portland, Oregon temple when we were there for four days last August.

(Funny thing, a woman in the Portland temple pronounced the word "Washington" as "Warshington." Crazy accent lady.)

It was so nice last night to finally be able to go. I think the last time we went was with Sarah and Micheal last November before I got the pregnancy sickies. Since then I haven't felt well enough to go, except for this last month. Every weekend we kept saying we'd go, and then forget. So I finally made it official...I wrote it on the calender. Impressed? That's some serious stuff. The man told us while we were there that the Provo temple is the busiest in the world, and that's 3:1. He said they get about 3 million visits a year. The second highest is in West Jordan, UT and they get 1 million. There is just an incredible peace that comes from going. Feeling not only closer to Heavenly Father, but also your spouse. I think Stephen and I were the only ones in our group making googly eyes at each other, or puppy dog eyes, whatever you call it. (Probably made everyone else want to throw up, but we don't care.) It's amazing how many temples are in such close proximity to us right now. We were commenting last month at my uncles house, the one in Draper, just how many temples we could see from his balcony. Then Stephen and I made a proposition to try and see all the temples in the area, if not the whole of Utah before we leave. Whenever that might be. So far we've been to the Salt Lake Temple, the Timpanogas Temple, Manti, and St. George. That leaves, what? 7 more? 8 more? No worries, it'll happen. Here are some pictures of the Provo Temple for your viewing enjoyment. (It really is lovely this time of year. Very green.)

The Empress' New Clothes

As mentioned before, some of my maternity clothes don't fit anymore. Pants are especially out. (I just don't like anything touching my belly) So last Friday, May 8th, after going out to dinner with my parents at Costa Vida, (a less crouded version of Cafe Rio), Stephen and I headed over to Ross. When they say dress for less, they really mean it. I was never really into Ross, but my sister in law Becky converted me. It's a good place to go, especially if you constantly are out-growing your maternity clothes, but don't have the money to constantly be upgrading your wardrobe. I got 2 skirts for $10 each and 5 shirts that all ranged between $5.49 and $6.50. Here are the Empress' new clothes (no worries; they are more tangible than the Emperor's New Clothes)




Here is me modeling one of my outfits.

I got this jacket over a year ago at the BYU Bookstore 90% off sale. I got it because it was on sale for about $2.50, but it was too big for me. My sister Sarah was pregnant at the time, and I was going to send it to her as a gift, but forgot. Now I'm pregnant, and it fits me perfectly! Plus, look at the hat. Can you believe I got it for $1 at the dollar store?
Not bad, huh?

Just call me Mrs. bargain shopper. :)