Marli's Birthday

So, Marli's birthday is going to be November 29th!! :)

37.5 Weeks!

Wow!  I'm almost there.  It seems so crazy that Marli is going to be here so soon.  I'm really excited for her to be here, and luckily, I don't feel as nervous as I thought I would.  It just seems kind of surreal that she will be here so soon.  For the past 9 months, I have thought that my due date was sooo far away and now it's almost here!  Lately, we've been working on setting up her room and I've been working on a few projects for her.  Here are some pictures:

 We bought this swing used for really cheap.  It came with a boy-ish cover on it so I decided to make a cute little pink one for it.

  This is a wall hanging I made for her room.

And this is her room:

And this is a dress that I sewed for her!  It's been hard to find really small dresses for the first few months after she's born.  So I made this dress and I've also been working on a little onsie dress for her.  I found the tutorial for it on Pinterest.  I'm not quite done with it yet, so pictures of that dress will come soon!

And here's a picture of my belly at 37 weeks and 4 days!  It was hard to see my belly because my shirt was pretty baggy so please excuse me for lifting up my shirt and showing my undershirt haha.  

I've been pretty uncomfortable lately.  Marli has decided that the best position for her to hang out in is up super high, so that her head is putting constant pressure on my rib cage.  It makes it really hard to breathe and it's really been hurting my back and ribs lately.  And so yes, that does mean she is still breach.  We've been talking with the doctors a lot about our options and thinking and praying about it a lot, and we've decided that in our case, the best decision is to have a scheduled C-section.  When I met with the doctor last week, she said that they usually do planned C-sections at around 39 weeks!  That really took me off guard.  The whole time I've been pregnant, I've been thinking that there's a good possibility I'll come late since that's what happened with my mom and my pregnancy has been pretty similar to her's.  So then to hear that she'll be here at 39 weeks surprised me.  But now that I've had a week to get used to the idea of her coming a week early, I'm okay with it.  I'm meeting with the doctor again tomorrow afternoon because they wanted to check one more time and see if she's flipped.  But as of right now, she has not flipped yet and I am pretty sure she won't be flipped tomorrow afternoon when they check.  Every time she flips down, she flips right back up within a few minutes.  And I haven't even felt her flip down and flip back up since last Saturday.  So tomorrow the doctor is going to talk to me about scheduling a date and time for the C-section.  I'll have to post tomorrow after my doctor's appointment about when it will be. 

-Tracey

I Don't Want Your Help Anymore

One day in preschool, one of the little boys came in and was trying to take off his coat.  He said "Teacher, I need help!  It's stuck!"  A teacher came over to help him and she didn't think it was actually stuck so she pulled pretty hard to get his arm out of the sleeve, but it actually was stuck.  So the force of her pulling on his sleeve knocked him down to the ground.  Obviously, she felt really bad so she said "Oh my goodness I'm sorry!"  He just looked up at her and said "I don't want your help anymore."  Haha!  What an honest little boy.

Later that day, we were walking outside to do an activity.  This same little boy was holding hands with another little girl, and they were not getting along.  They were pulling each other's arms and squeezing each other's hands and complaining about each other.  So I said "Let's switch and have you come hold hands over here".  The little boy looked up at me and said in a very matter-of-fact voice "I think that's a good idea".  Haha I love when the preschoolers talk like they are way older than they actually are.

...I've been trying to remember to write down funny preschool stories more.  I always come home and tell my husband about them and he always tells me I need to write them on our blog before I forget them.  I always say "Oh I will".  But I end up forgetting a lot of them, haha.  I'm trying to remember them and be better about writing them down.

Does Anyone Have Any Questions?

In preschool lately, we've had several guest speakers come talk to the children.  All of the guest speakers have been great.  A lot of them make the same mistake though of asking the 3-5-year-old preschoolers if they have any questions.  Haha anyone who has worked with this age group knows that you'll get a lot of interesting responses when you ask that.  So the other day we had two firefighters come talk to the preschoolers.  The firefighters were great with them.  When they were done, they said, "Does anyone have any questions?"  One of the little boys couldn't contain his excitement and had his hand up in the air before the firefighter could even finish his question.  So the firefighter called on him and the little boy immediately had this look on his face like "Oh crap I didn't think this through".  Haha so there was just an awkward pause as the little boy looked around trying to think of anything to say.  Then finally he said in a quiet voice "Not right now". Haha poor little guy, he looked pretty embarrassed.  So then his friend who was sitting next to him raised his hand and said "If there was a fire in my background, my dog would get all burnt up!"  And the little boy who was at a loss for words just a minute ago said "Yeah, and he'd be toast!"  Haha!

34 Weeks!

As of today, I am 34 weeks and 5 days!  I can't believe how close it is getting.  I went to the doctor on Monday and they told me that my stomach was measuring small, so they wanted to do an ultrasound and check on her.  They scheduled the ultrasound for two weeks from Monday.  I asked the doctor what they wanted to check on and they said they want to make sure that she is getting enough nutrients to grow, and make sure that there isn't any placenta problems that's causing her to not get enough nutrients.  That made me pretty worried.  The main reason I felt worried is I thought maybe it was my fault she wasn't getting enough nutrients and that's why she was small.  I thought maybe I wasn't eating enough or eating healthy enough.  It was bothering me all day on Monday and Jacob was worried about it too so he suggested that maybe I could ask if I could reschedule the ultrasound for earlier so we wouldn't have to be worried for two weeks.  So later that afternoon I had to go back into the doctor's office to pick up the papers the nurses were filling out for Jacob and I to take leaves of absences from work.  While I was there, I asked the receptionist if I could reschedule the appointment for earlier.  She checked with the doctor and he said that was fine.  So we rescheduled the ultrasound for today, which is Thursday.  I went in this afternoon and.......

her measurements look great!! It was a big relief to be able to see her and know that she is healthy.  The reason my stomach is measuring small is because I'm holding her so high and inside.  I knew this already; I can definitely feel her bothering my rib cage and making me short of breath all the time because she is up so high.  It was just a relief to find out that is the reason why my stomach is measuring small, and not because Marli is un-healthy.  She is breech right now though, so they're going to do another ultrasound in about a week and a half to see if she has flipped yet, and if not, we're going to talk about options.

It was so interesting to me though to find out that she is breech.  Three times in the past two weeks, I have felt terrible pain in my stomach.  Each time, it has felt like my whole stomach has tightened up and the pain has been so bad I have had to sit down.  It's lasted only about 3 minutes each time it has happened.  I thought maybe they were Braxton Hicks contractions, but I wasn't too worried about it. So today when I found out she was breech, I asked if you can feel when the baby flips from one position to the other.  The doctor said that yes, a lot of times people say they can feel it and it is painful when the baby flips.  And so I was like OOOHHH.  It makes complete sense.  The first time she flipped was 2 weeks ago.  She flipped from head down to head up and that was when my rib cage started really feeling uncomfortable because her head was up by my ribs.  And also, I stopped having to go to the bathroom so much.  We just thought it was because she had moved up, but it was because her head wasn't down by my bladder anymore.  And then I felt the second pain on Tuesday morning.  And so on Tuesday and Wednesday, I was going to the bathroom a lot more frequently and had to wake up both nights to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night.  We thought it was just because she was moving back down, but it was because her head was back down by my bladder! And then I felt the third pain this morning, and now she's back to being breech!  Mystery solved.

I told the doctor that whole story and he said it made sense and hopefully since she is so mobile, she'll turn back to head-down in time for me to deliver her.  Hopefully this post wasn't too boring because it was so long haha.

-Tracey

Why Do We Get Sick?

Preschool has started again.  It's super fun for me.  We have a really good class of children this semester.  I think I will be posting a lot of funny stories on here!  So here is funny story #1 from this fall:

The college students that I am in charge of have to "preassess" the children on a topic they want to teach on.  For example, two of the girls decided to teach on doctors so they gave the rest of the teachers in the classroom questions about doctors to ask the children to help them decide how much the children already know about doctors.  So I was eating snack next to one little boy and I asked him why we get sick.  Without missing a beat, he responded with "You get sick when you eat poop!"  Haha!! I was at a loss for words when he said that, that is definitely not what I expected him to say! Haha.  So I said "Yes, eating poop would make you sick."  He then told me about how his dog eats his own poop all the time and then he pukes it back up.  I asked him what else makes you sick and he said "Um, I don't know."  Haha!!

Exciting News!

Exciting News #1: We moved into our new place and we finally got everything organized and set up.  It took us about 3 weeks.  I felt like it was taking foreverrrr. We're really happy with all the extra space we have.  Our new apartment is 200 square feet bigger than our old place and we love it.  Adding a baby to our old apartment was going to mean getting rid of some nice furniture that mine and Jacob's parents gave us and we didn't want to do that.  We found this new place and it's only $25 more a month.  And we don't have to pay gas anymore, so the cost comes out to about the same.  Eventually I'll post pictures of our new place, but for right now I have lots of other pictures I wanted to post.

Exciting News #2: We decided on a name for our baby girl and we decided we're not going to keep it a secret so here it is:  It is Marley Ann.  We haven't settled for sure on the spelling yet, it's either going to be Marley or Marli.  We have a couple of other names in mind just in case we decide another name fits her better when we see her.

Exciting News #3: I've had a break from my preschool job and I've just been working some hours at Melaleuca, but in my spare time I've been sewing for Marley!  It's been really fun for me, I'm definitely not a great seamstress but I enjoy sewing and crafting a lot, I'm pretty sure it's something I got from my mom.  Here's some pictures of some projects I've been working on:

Burp Cloths!

 Bibs

Baby Quilt

Pillowcase Dress...Hopefully it will fit her next summer!  By the way, baby girl clothes are so fun.  I'll have to post sometime with pictures of some of the cute clothes we have for her so far.

...And many more projects still to come!

At Melaleuca, we get points for the calls that we take.  I got a super cute wall hanging with my points from work:

(I noticed just now that my feet are in a lot of these pictures...whoops!)

And....one last picture.  A picture of my baby bump at 26 weeks!

Preschool/Shoe Fight!

So I have this great job as the Head Teacher for one of the preschool classrooms on campus.  I've been doing it ever since January and I love it.  I still work about 3 times a month at Melaleuca but it's nice to spend most of my time working in the preschool rather than at Melaleuca.  I'm grateful for my job at Melaleuca, but answering phone calls and saying the same thing on the phone every day gets a little old after a while.  I definitely prefer my job in the preschool.  I was going to have to give up my job this month after I graduate because you have to be a student to have the job.  
But, I just found out a few weeks ago that I'm going to be able to keep my preschool job for the fall!  I'm way excited about this.  They couldn't find anyone to replace me for the fall, so they told me that I could still walk at graduation this month, but keep my independent study class that I've been taking, so that I'm technically still a student and can keep the job!  I told my supervisor that I wasn't sure if he would want me to do it, because I'm due 2 weeks before the end of the semester in December but he said that it would be fine.


Jacob keeps telling me that I should post funny stories about my preschoolers on our blog.  I come home pretty much every day that I have preschool with funny stories about things the kids said or did, and I'd like to start writing them down so I don't forget them.  I like sharing these stories with people, but I'm not sure if they'll be as funny written down as they are when I tell them.  So, as you read them, just imagine me telling the story haha.  Soo, here's the first story:


One day, we were sitting at circle time and one of the teachers was teaching the kids.  I guess one of the little boys got board, so he took his shoe off, raised it above his head as high as he could reach and yelled, very enthusiastically, "SHOE FIGHT!!"  Then he threw his shoe across the circle.  All of the other kids just kind of looked at him...haha. Then, one of the other little boys tossed his shoe back to him, and he just put it back on and kept sitting there quietly.

Finally Posting!

It's been a while since I have posted anything...I have decided that I am way better at reading others' blogs than updating my own.  I am going to try to start posting more, and we'll see how that goes haha.


This is my last semester of school and I am super excited about that.  I graduate on July 22nd!  And on July 18th, we find out the sex of the baby!  I've been taking pictures of my baby bump but it's nothing too impressive yet.  I can definitely feel myself getting bigger; my tummy is way bigger than it was 4 months ago.  I wish I would have taken a "before" picture because I think you can tell a difference if you compare how I look now to how I looked before I was pregnant.  My clothes are definitely tighter now.  It's been kind of annoying because I feel like I'm too big for my normal clothes but still too small for my maternity clothes.  I think everyone goes through that stage though.


I went to an awesome consignment store here in town and got a few maternity shirts for only $4 each.  Sometimes it's hard for me to find things that I like at second-hand stores but I found some really cute things at this store.  Oh and I also got this:

It's called a "bump band" and it's been a life-saver for me.  (That isn't my stomach btw, I googled a picture of it and couldn't find a picture of it without a person in the picture haha)  It's kind of like a stretchy belt.  You can wear it over your normal pants so that you can wear your pants unbuttoned and unzipped and the band covers it up.  It kind of turns your normal pants into maternity pants.  It's been awesome because I definitely can't button my pants anymore and this makes it so I can still wear my pants and not worry about people seeing my unbuttoned pants!


So anyway, here are some pictures of my baby bump:

This is when I was 14 weeks and 1 day.  

This was yesterday when I was 16 weeks and 2 days.

-Tracey :)

Cincinnati!

We're sitting in the Salt Lake airport right now waiting to board our flight to Las Vegas.  We have a short layover in Las Vegas, then we're heading to Cincinnati! Wahoo! Actually we're flying into Louisville because it's so much cheaper, and my mom is picking us up there, and we're driving up to Cinci.  I'm really excited for Jacob to see where I grew up and all of my friends and everything.  I am also SUPER excited to eat Skyline!! And we're going to go to King's Island and a Bengal's preseason game.  It's going to be really nice to have a break from work and have fun.


-Tracey :)

School's Out!

So this past semester, from April until July, we were really busy.  Jacob took 18 credits and I worked full time and took 12 credits.  I have to admit I got pretty burnt out by the end of the semester, so I was really glad when the semester ended last week.  I'm switching from full-time to part-time at work next week so I'm excited to have a few weeks to relax until school starts again in September.  Oh and our grades were posted today... I got 2 A's, 1 A-, and a B+! I was pretty excited about that.


We haven't updated in a while so I'm trying to think of what exciting things have happened since I last posted:
1. Kayla came and visited!
2. Alex had her baby!
3. Rachel and Stacy came up to visit for 4th of July.
4. Kaeli came up and stayed with us for a weekend!
5. I won Lagoon tickets at our Company Picnic haha, so we're taking a little mini vacation next weekend to go down to Utah and go to Lagoon.
6. We bought tickets to go visit Cincinnati!! Wahoo!
7. David and Olivia are in the process of moving in next door to us! 
8. And finally..........
...........
.....
...
We got a cute little netbook for me:

It just came in the mail today.  We found a good deal for it on woot.com.  It was kind of funny because Jacob found the netbook on woot for really cheap several weeks ago, but it was only available for one day.  I told him that I wasn't sure if I wanted to get it or not, so we'd have to think about it more.  We talked about it and decided we wanted to get one, and so a few weeks later they were on sale again.  I told Jacob when we got home, we'd get online and buy it, but when we got online, there were no pink netbooks available.  I was disappointed and wasn't sure if I wanted it anymore because I really wanted a pink one.  Jacob had his hopes up though so he looked up pink netbook covers online and convinced me we could get a blue netbook and just get a pink cover for it.  Haha so anyway,we ended up getting it and it's hard to tell from the picture, but it is super cute and tiny.  I love it.  I would have taken a picture of it but our camera is really old and only works every once in a while.  Haha.  


-Tracey :)

Funny/Embarrassing Story

So I just have a quick funny story. I was wearing this cute flowy skirt today.  There is a tall skinny model wearing the same skirt in the picture to the right.  When I wear the same skirt, it DOES NOT  look the same, haha. It comes almost to my ankles.  Anyway, it was really rainy and gross outside today.  Jacob came to pick me up from work when I got off 7:00.  So I get in the car and shut about HALF of my skirt outside the car door.  You can probably imagine the outcome: I get out of the car and find that my skirt has been dragging in the gross rain water the whole way home!! Haha it was pretty funny.  I think only I am capable of something so clumsy.  And I was thinking, I'll bet it looked pretty funny to have this huge amount of material hanging out of our car door the whole way home.  But good news: The skirt was not ruined.  It was just a little wet and dirty so I put it through the wash and it came clean. :)

-Tracey

Springtime!! (Finally)

So it's finally been warming up here in Rexburg! After the crazy blizzard we got last week that resulted in 6 inches of snow, I think the weather has finally decided to cooperate and stay warm.  The spring semester starts tomorrow.  This semester I'm going to be working a lot and taking a few easy classes and Jacob's going to be working very little and taking a lot of hard classes, since I'm ahead of him in school. So it should be interesting, but I'm excited. I love the spring semester up here.  


Lately, I've done a couple spring crafts to keep myself busy:

I got this cute little "Color your own pot" kit from the craft store for only a dollar haha I thought it was cute.

I made a cute little spring wreath to hang on our door. I made the flowers out of felt and then put buttons and pom poms on them and hot glued them to a wire wreath frame.

Close up view of my wreath. (Please note Jacob creepily peering through the window in this one haha)

Sugar cookies I made for a cookie contest at work. Olivia gave me the recipe and they were super easy to make.  They didn't win...but they were definitely the cutest cookies there! :)

-Tracey 

One Year!

Saturday was our one year anniversary! We went to Olive Garden to celebrate and these are the flowers Jacob got me! :)

-Tracey

A tour through our cute apartment!

After living here for almost a year I finally got around to taking pictures of our apartment!

Our living room...Complete with our awesome TV we got for free from Melaleuca! :)

Our kitchen with a few burn marks on the floor from when Jacob exploded a pan on the stove haha.

The view of our kitchen from the hallway

The hallway.  To the left is a closet and our bedroom, to the right is the bathroom and the extra bedroom.

And behind the closet door in the hallway is...

...A washer and dryer! My favorite part of our apartment.

The bathroom

Two different views of our extra bedroom.  Notice my cute pink chair :)

Our bed!

The wonderful TV stand Jacob built in our bedroom

Another view of our bedroom.

:)

-Tracey

Here I am

Hello, sorry I have not been updating regularly.  Tracey and I are just working full time at Melaleuca.  Sometimes I get so frustrated working there in customer service, but I realize that Melaleuca is probably one of the best paying jobs in Rexburg.  It helps me realize how much of a blessing a college education is.  I do not want to be working in a call center the rest of my life.  None of the jobs there appease me: Supervisor; no.  Call center manager; nope.  I'm actually looking forward to school starting again, I'm worried I'm starting to get rusty when it comes to school work.
Tracey and I are happy together!  We are visiting her family down here in Utah and it is so warm here.  The snow is melted and it makes me long for summer in Rexburg.  ( I was about to type that I couldnt wait for 'spring' but I realized that springs are usually bitterly cold and snowy up there.)  We're going to go and visit my sister down in Levan at the end of march or early april.  I cannot wait to see them all again!
-Jacob

I want a kitty!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnagRjxp7v4&feature=channel

I saw this video on facebook and loved it! It made me want a cat.  Jacob and I almost had a cat a few months ago.  It was in November and on our way into our apartment one day I saw this tiny little kitty.  I felt so bad for him because he was so tiny and looked so cold sitting there in the snow.  So I picked him up and decided to name him Gary.  I convinced Jacob that we needed to take care of Gary because he was so cold and so little and so hungry.  So we made a little bed out of a basket and a towel and put it on our front porch.  We put out tuna and milk every day for Gary.  One night a big fat ugly cat was eating Gary's food and so Jacob threw an oreo at him.  Then he kept whipping the door open because he wanted to catch the fat cat in the act again so he could dump water on him. Haha but bottom line: We loved Gary! One night we even followed kitty footprints all over our apartment complex looking for Gary because we hadn't seen him all day.  But then the next day, he came to our apartment with a collar on!!! So Gary was cheating on us that whole time! He had two owners!! Needless to say, we took his bed inside and have not put food out for him since.  Haha, but I can't wait until we can get a house so we can get our own cute little kitty!!

-Tracey

Rexburg Winter!

This is my first winter in Rexburg and it is cold! Right now it's -15 and -27 with the wind chill. I didn't know it was possible to get this cold! Luckily since Jacob and I go to school during the summer and fall semesters, we don't have to walk around campus in this weather.  We're just both working full-time at Melaleuca right now.  Jacob works from 6-3 and I work from 10-7 every day.  This is our first week with us both working our full time shifts and it's going pretty good. We've been going to bed at 10:00 every night so that Jacob can wake up at 5:00 and get ready for work and I can roll out of bed at 5:40 and drive him to work.  I thought it would be kind of hard for me to adjust to spending my mornings getting stuff done around the house, instead of the evenings, but it hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be.  The worst part for me has been that Jacob and I don't get to spend any time together from 6am-7pm.  I know that sounds lame, but we're used to seeing each other pretty often throughout the day in between our classes.  But at least we've been able to spend our evenings together watching TV shows and working out and eating dinner.  


So anyway, I kind of got off-topic there, but the main point was I'm really grateful we're not in school this semester, AND I'm not a fan of Rexburg winters.


My sister sent me the picture below and I couldn't stop laughing. Any ideas what the heck it is?? Haha
-Tracey

Booty Pop!

K, so everyone remembers the Bump-it, and Snuggie infomercials, and how ridiculous they are.  I found a new one on my sister's facebook page and I couldn't help but post it. Hahaha. Enjoy :)
Booty Pop!
-Tracey

New Traditions

This is our Christmas ornament. I think traditions are great and every family should have them. If you ask me I cant remember any really huge or significant Christmas traditions in my family. (Mom or Dad if you want to jump in here and let me know of any I've forgotten, that'd be great) I mean, we would have one person be “Santa” and give out the presents every year. We would all put on ornaments together as a family. We would watch “A Christmas Story” every year. (You'll shoot your eye out!) Our traditions were simply and subtle I guess. Tracey and I have decided to purchase a Christmas ornament every year that we are married. I just think it'll be awesome in 40 years or so to hang forty ornament on our tree marked with each year we've been together.

On a completely separate note; school went great last semester. I got all B's in my classes. My calculus class went great and I would've gotten an A if it hadn't of been for the great habit I got into during high school; the habit of not doing my homework. Ugh. I'm kicking myself in the face now thinking about it. Oh well, I've gotten all B's so I'm happy.

My History of Economic thought was hard and a real pain to get through. It was rewarding though, because it made me think in depths about a range of different subjects. We had to write an 8 to 10 page paper almost every week on different subjects including Wal-mart, health care, and the cause of the great depression. It was a real eye opener. I think a lot of Americans don't really think about important issues as much as they should. The general feel seems to be “If the idea sounds good, go for it! Ah, don't worry about it, we'll work out the details when people start complaining.”

I got a full time shift at Melaleuca. I will be working 6am to 3pm. This is great because I'll be done at 3 and have the rest of the day the goof off. Tracey will be working until 7, so that'll suck, but we'll have the evenings together to watch the new season of LOST and work out.

There are some more pictures of me putting up the lights and of our tiny Christmas tree. Enjoy!
-Jacob

 

Our tiny Christmas tree!

Jacob putting up Christmas lights in our window :)

 

The presents for our families!