Birthday boy

Brandon turns 26 today. I have only known him for three of those years but with all of our adventures together it feels like I have known him for much longer. I'm so happy to be with him and here are just a few things I admire about him:

He has fabulous hair

He is a great brother (most of the time)

He has awesome dance moves

His sense of fashion

His ability to adapt to any situation

I love you, little Brandon! Happy birthday.

Shirts (first attempt)

Poodle showed me some embellished shirts that she wanted, so I tried one on my own. Unfortunately, the store only had black or white shirts, so I got black and the flowers are a silvery purple. I think it turned out pretty well, although the flowers could be a little bigger. I haven't attatched them to the shirt yet, so I can still change those. If Poodle likes it, she can have it. If not, I can make new flowers, or find more shirt colors, or some other small girl can take it. But I will definitely be making more of these; I think they are pretty cute.With one more flower (and some loose strings to be fixed):

Pillows

Here are the first two pillows for Mom's bed. I finished two more, so they are almost all done. They are in the crib for now because they match the baby's room. In the background is the dresser that I painted blue. I think it works. And don't worry, we won't actually keep pillows in the crib with the baby. We know all about suffocation hazards.

Diagnosis, please

I know how much mom loves diagnosing people, so I am wondering if she can diagnose a couple of people that I see at work sometimes. I'm not sure there are medically accepted conditions for these people, but there should be.

First, there's the guy who will only speak in third person. I am not kidding. I thought he was joking at first, but I have seen him at least 10 times and have never heard him use the pronouns "I" or "me."

Then, there is the bag lady. She wears plastic grocery bags over her hands and keeps extras in another plastic bag, which she carries. When she orders food, she makes us take the entire tray out so that she can pick the biggest one, and she will spend up to 5 minutes deliberating about which brownie is the biggest.

Seriously, I have been wondering about these people for a long time.

Sick

I officially ready to have this baby. I have been sick with a cold the past couple of days and I am very congested. Combined with the baby crushing my lungs, it makes breathing a real pain. It would really help out if she got out of my belly so that I can breathe again, as long as she doesn't come as fast as little Leah did. For now I am stuck deciding if I want to breathe through my nose (very labor-intensive) or breathe through my mouth (very dry and makes me drool).

What would you do?

What would you do if you had no job, no school, no kids, and very little money? That's where I am stuck right now. I feel like Mom, only I am in Provo instead of Mexico and I can't fly up and visit people every month. I am making a list of things to fill my time before the baby arrives.

1. Get a library card, as Fernash suggested. A good idea since the only books in our apartment have titles like Applied Hydrogeology.
2. Sew pillows for Mom's bed. The only thing between me and those pillows is not being able to find the perfect shade of purple at the fabric store. Life is tough.
3. Learn how to cook. Maybe if I start baking cookies all the time, people will want to be my friend. After all, Bexar is one popular girl.
4. Start editing our thousands of pictures. We have a brand-new computer; I just need to find someone who has photoshop.
5. Learn how to paint again, because after 4 years of not doing it, I really suck. I think I will start with the painting that Brandon started that he will now have no time to finish.

baby pic!

Here is the ultrasound. Definitely my lips and nose.

More on baby

Yesterday I went in for another ultrasound and I learned a lot about our little baby. She is super active (well, I already knew that) and she already has lots of hair. I was pretty surprised by that; I always expected a bald baby. She had hiccups, but she gets those a lot. She is still about a week smaller than she should be (they estimated her weight at 4 lbs, 3 oz) but she is doing fine. They had a good shot of her face so they showed me a 3D ultrasound. Brandon and I think she looks like me, so Fernash might have to stop calling her "Sad Eyes." I guess we will find out sometime in the next six weeks.

Did I say that?

This week at BYU is Education Week, meaning that tons of people come from all over the country to get BYU brownies (with the excuse that they are attending classes). They all wear name tags with their home town printed under their name. Today at work I saw someone from a certain town in Utah and I remembered that my mom's uncle lives there. I was about to ask him if he knew my mom's uncle when I realized that I would be saying "Do you know Dick Fagg?" to a complete stranger. Fearing a gross misunderstanding, I held my tongue.

Our teeny tiny baby

Yep, apparently she is really small. Despite what Ashley says about my eating habits, I am pretty small for being 7 months along. The girls I know that are due well after I am already have bigger bellies than I do. I actually lost a little weight since my last doctor's appointment and my belly is the same size as it was two weeks ago. I was pretty freaked out about that at first. So, I am going in next week for an ultrasound just to make sure that she is still growing normally. I am really excited to see her at the ultrasound but I hope she knows that she is not allowed to come while Brandon is out of town. I'm sure everything will be fine.

Cool weather

It appears that we are having an early fall this year. It rained all last night and all morning and it has been in the 60s today. It's beautiful! The only bad part about it is that our slip 'n slide activity had to be cancelled because it's too cold. That's okay. Time for me to start making pumpkin bread and soup!

Visits, plans, and more

I was lucky to have two sisters visit me this week. Fernash fed me lots of food, made fun of my waddle, and attacked my belly in an effort to make the baby kick. Apparently the baby does not like being bossed around, so she didn't respond. Bexar proved that her kids really are as crazy as she says they are and shopped for fabric with me. We also got huckleberry shakes at Arctic Circle. I don't care what anybody says; Arctic Circle shakes are just as good as Iceberg ones.

Brandon is getting ready for the GRE and I am getting ready for his fieldtrip. I made a list of projects to keep me busy while he is gone so our apartment should look great when he gets back. I even looked up how to make a banana face mask last night. I asked Brandon if he wanted to make one with me and he said no, so I will do it when he is gone. I also decided that our baby will wear lots of skirts because they are much easier to sew than pants. That is all for now but I will be sure to blog a lot when Brandon leaves because I will be so bored.

All done

Complete with bottle straps, a cell phone pocket, and a key hook. My head is cropped out because I am making a really unattractive face. I think it turned out pretty well, but the button kind of looks like a puzzle piece from far away. It was really fun to make, though. Brandon helped quite a bit.I got so excited about it that I decided to start another project, so I crocheted a little hat for the baby. Brandon showed me how to do it, but it was my first time doing a hat, so it's a bit lumpy.

Freebies

This weekend has started out great-- Brandon and I are getting tons of free things. It started out with free Cafe Rio and Thai Chili Gardens from Ashley because she is the coolest, free tomatoes and other vegetables from the in-laws, free baby clothes from Sheri, and finally, free tuition from Obama. Awesome!

Also, my diaper bag is coming along nicely. I will post pictures as soon as it's done.

Project/experiment

I have looked at diaper bags lately and came to one conclusion: I hate them all. I just don't like plasticky, bulky totes. The semi-cute ones cost $60 and up. Well, I foud this one online, but it's not a diaper bag. Still, I like it, so I spent this evening cutting out a pattern to sew one that looks like it. I will make it with heavier fabric, line it with something water-resistant, and make it a little roomier inside. The best part is that I can make it in any color I want. It is an experiment but we will see how it turns out, and I'll post pictures of the finished product.

Topaz Mountain and Dugway Geode Beds

We took a rather rural camping trip this weekend. By rural, I mean driving for hours on unmarked dirt roads that even Google Maps couldn't find and not seeing another car. Anyways, we started at Topaz Mountain. Don't be fooled; I'm pretty sure there are no topazes there. We dug for them for quite awhile and all we found were tiny quartz crystals. We had better luck at the geode beds. We didn't find anything spectacular but there were lots of little geodes and other nice rocks. I didn't do much digging at either place because I have a hard time squatting because of my belly. It was a fun trip, and we brought back lots of rock samples.

Geode beds

Topaz Mountain

Since Poodle and Fernash keep asking

I put an updated belly picture. Sad Eyes is getting very big, which is good. As for me, I really like the shirt. And the earrings (thanks, Poodle). Also, my highlights have grown out quite a bit, but I decided I kind of like the brown, so I'm not going to redo them. That's all.

Dear Mom,

I found a countdown widget that doesn't have a "creepy rotating baby." I hope you like it; it's just for you.

Work

Yes, that is all I'm doing lately, so that's what everyone gets to hear about. Apparently, not a lot of people that buy ice cream are very smart. I always get people asking for ice cream on a cone with a topping. I always ask them if they want it in a bowl instead, and they look at me like they are really confused. I guess they don't realize that toppings don't stay on cones; they fall off. I'm pretty sure everyone is familiar with the shape of an ice cream cone so it should just be logical that toppings do not stay on a rounded surface without anything to catch them. It is especially annoying when they ask for something like caramel or raspberry topping. One of these days I am tempted to just put in on there and give it to them and let it drip all over their hands and say "Well, what did you think would happen?" As Bill Murray said in What about Bob, that was NOT SMART.

Relief

It has been a little hot here lately. I know, Texas is hotter, but we don't have AC in our apartment OR our car, so it is pretty bad. I am especially hot right when I get to work because I have to walk there, and going up a hill when I weigh 20 lbs more than normal is hard. Then I get to put on long pants, closed-toed shoes, and a sexy apron just in case I'm not hot enough.

Well this week I had enough of that, so now when I get to work I come in a little early and sit in our ice cream freezer. It is about as big as our extra bedroom and it is kept at -10 degrees. Needless to say, it feels nice. Getting samples once in awhile is nice, too, but we are down to a pathetic EIGHT FLAVORS since the Creamery STILL hasn't been rebuilt. They are telling us that it will be running again in October, but if we don't get Graham Canyon back before I have my baby, I might just go into labor right there at the store.