Warming right up.

4th of July 2013

 Is anyone else extremely excited for summer? I am. I cannot wait for the sun, warmth, bike rides, water play, and happiness that is associated with being outside! I get the worst winter blues and as I've complained previously, this winter has been the worst. Stopping at that. Look at the next few days:

While Monday is not ideal, I'm still quite pleased with the lack of snow and freezing temperatures we had been experiencing. We don't have any summer plans so far for Carl's 3 week break in August. We have toyed with the idea of camping across the Midwest heading West for 2 weeks so that we can visit family. But, that seems overwhelming with the kids and a lot to plan. Other possible plans are:

- hold a multi-family garage sale to get rid of crap (our junk, your treasure!)
- visit some more of the East/South, like Tennessee, Kentucky, DC and NYC. Perhaps the Carolinas. We are not sure when or if we will ever be this close to the East again and there are states to be visited!
- stay home. Requires no planning and just being a homebody, enjoying local eats and events.

After this summer, Carl will begin his clinical portion of PA school! It's exciting to only have a year of school from that point on. I can't believe the school years are coming to an end. Speaking of school, exciting news for me.... *drumroll*

I just registered to finally finish my Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) online with BYU-I! I have four nursing classes and one non-nursing course- it will only take three semesters! So technically, I will graduate at the same time as Carl ha! I started it with BYU-I shortly after graduating AND having Ezra, but I deferred because I was trying so hard to find a job and moving all around was tough too. While it was a bit disappointing to stop, I'm glad I did because I gained valuable experience in my professional career while not having to sacrifice much family time. It's been even tougher trying to decide when to go back to school though. I'll tell you this- it does not get easier as the years go by. I have been an RN for 4 years now and there hasn't really been a "perfect" time to return. I think if we didn't have any plans to have any more babies, then I would have waited until both kids were in school, but we don't plan to stop at two :)

Moving on, we have more future planning in the works- I promise to get around sharing one of these days. As for now, I'm going to enjoy this "heat wave!"

Hey.

Alright, it's true, I have been putting off blogging. My only excuse is I'm very lazy after work every day. Sorry.

First item of business, the weather.

It has been amazing. The snow is completely gone. And it's the middle of March! We have seriously had sunny, 60 degree weather for a week. I'm sure there will be a dreary day soon to ruin this beautiful glimmer of spring, but I don't care. I worked Monday through Friday. Every day I parked my car on the roof of the garage and had my lunch there. Absolutely fantastic. Carl has been going on a bike ride almost everyday too! We have a bike trailer, so he's been able to get around town with Ezra too. He's like an ox. Seriously. He'll go downhill to the grocery store and then tote Ezra, 3 gallons of milk and 8 bags of produce and other grocery items back up the hill! I always thought marrying a man with big muscles was a smart idea :)

Second, my 36 week appointment.

WARNING: IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO READ ABOUT MY CERVIX, STOP NOW AND PROCEED TO THE THIRD ITEM OF BUSINESS.

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Ok, so on last Sunday night and through the early morning of Monday, I had consistent contractions that were 5-7 minutes apart lasting about 1 minute each. They weren't very strong and never did intesify, but I called my OB anyway because with Ezra, the first time I felt contractions was when I went into labor. I just ended up staying home and waiting to see if they every got stronger per her direction. I slept a few hours total that night, but while I wasn't sleeping, I finally packed my hospital bag, took a bath or two, bounced on my yoga ball, had carl paint my toes (can't have plain ugly toes for everyone to see :), and read a few encouraging birth stories.

I ended up just going to work that day anyway because my contractions weren't consistent anymore by morning. The rest of the week was full of braxton hicks and uncomfortable pressure with the widening of my hips. At my OB appoint, we talked about all the contractions and pressure, so my doctor offered to check to see if I was dilated at all even though normally OBs don't check until 37 or 38 weeks (dilation and effacement aren't good predictions of the onset of active labor since you could be 0 cm one day and completely dilated and ready to push the next day or be at 4 cm for 3 weeks, etc...). I was curious if the contractions were productive at all, so I agreed- I was surprised to find out I was already 3 cm! Yes. Almost a third of the way done!

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and Third item, St. Patricks Day.

What a wonderful day! I can't remember a St. Patrick's Day that did not include eating corned beef, red potatoes, carrots, and cabbage- kind of a funny holiday my mom chose to stick to since you know, she's Chinese, but I'm so glad she made a traditional St. Patty's dinner every year as far as I can remember. I continued on the tradition and even made traditional Irish soda bread (whoopdeedoo really. it was tasty, but seemed like a giant glorified biscuit in my opinion).

Forgot the carrots. Oops. And the cabbage looks like a glob of slime. It was all tasty at least :)

It was so nice out yesterday, that we drove to the local outdoor mall and strolled around the sidewalks, had frozen yogurt, checked out the apple store to see the iPad 3, which didn't seem that much more amazing than the iPad 2 (no offense, Drew, we still think you are great), and then headed home. Such a relaxing day.



As usual, if you haven't made a prediction yet and want to participate in the contest, leave me a comment or let me know on facebook. Game closes tomorrow, 37 weeks! Details here: http://teamleder.blogspot.com/2012/02/prediction.html