Othello Christmases

My family lived in Othello, Washington, from the time I was 2 or 3 until I was 10. Those young years of Christmas are so magical. Unfortunately, my memory is not as magical, and I have a hard time remembering a lot of details about those Christmases. But here's what I do remember:

Cutting a tree. Several of the years we lived in Othello we would go to the woods and cut down our own Christmas tree. I've never done it since, but I remember the excitement of hunting around for just the right tree and drinking hot chocolate out of the back of our van. It seems like our trees were sometimes bigger inside than they seemed outside.

Christmas Cantata. My parents sang in the community (4500 people) Christmas Cantata several times, and I remember going to hear them perform and thinking it was so cool that my parents were real performers!

The Christmas I peeked. Every child has to do it at least once, right? I was either 6 or 8 the year I woke up very early Christmas morning and began to scheme about how I could sneak a peek at the presents without anyone knowing. I quickly came up with a brilliant plan - I would go into my parents bedroom, wake them up, and ask them if I could go to the family room to see what time is was on the tv clock. In order to get to the family room you had to go through either the kitchen or....the Living Room, where the tree and all the toys were. DUN, DUN, DUN!!!! This was pure genius! At once I leapt into action. Just as planned, my parents (who I'm sure saw right through my plan the second I opened my mouth) gave me permission to go to the family room to see what time it was. "But," they warned, "be sure to go through the kitchen and not the living room." Oh, I went through the kitchen to get there all right. But I went through the Living Room on the way BACK! Ha! And there, standing on it's own beautiful kickstand, was a yellow banana seat bicycle just for me. But that wasn't all - next to my stocking on the couch was the Pound Puppy Travel Carrier. I was floored. Santa was AWESOME!!! I went to bed, but I couldn't sleep. Quickly and forcefully a new realization dawned on me - in a few hours when everyone else woke up, and we all trooped out to the living room to see our presents, I would be the only one not seeing it for the first time, not feeling the adrenaline of anticipation. I'd squandered my moment in the dark all by myself, and there was no getting it back. And what was worse, I would have to pretend I was surprised in order to conceal my early morning deception. It was one of the more disappointing moments of my early childhood, and I vowed never to let it happen again. I never have. :)

Christmas Pictures

I have very few pictures of Christmases from years past, but I scavenged around and came up with these for your viewing pleasure:

The Christmas is all began. My dad and mom in Seattle the Christmas they got engaged - 1974. Love my mom's dress. :)



Christmas 1984 in Provo, Utah. We drove to Utah and all met for Christmas at my mom's youngest sister's BYU student apartment. I had just turned 7, and yes that is me looking off to the side. What strikes me about this picture is that we're all dressed! I don't remember the particulars, but most Christmases we are still in our pajamas. This Christmas we got a wooden train set, as you can see in the next picture. My favorite part of that picture is that my youngest brother Bryan is wearing his cowboy boots. He ALWAYS wore his cowboy boots.





This picture from 1986 shows one of my Aunt JoLynn's beautiful gingerbread houses (she's on the far right holding it) like I described in an earlier post, except this one doesn't light up like the one she gave us a few years later.



Christmas 1998 - just one week before I left for my mission to Frankfurt, Germany. At our house in Missouri.




My second married Christmas, 2007, at our home here in Provo.

Arizona Christmases

We lived in Phoenix, Arizona, for Christmas when I was 11 and 12. I've always thought it was funny how our house there had a fireplace but no pool. We never once used the fireplace, but I can tell you that if we'd had a pool, it would have gotten plenty of use. Anyway, I remember how astounded I was our first Christmas there that you could put Christmas lights on a cactus. The thought had never occurred to me. I just figured people would stay as far away from their cacti as possible. But it was so fun to see how creative the Arizonans were, and it dawned on me that it could be Christmas even without cold and snow and pine trees. My Aunt Kelley and Uncle Craig lived in Phoenix at the time, too, and it was so fun to spend time with them and their little girl(now on a mission!).

For one of those Arizona Christmases we were joined by my Uncle Rod and Aunt JoLynn's family who drove down from Utah. JoLynn is one of those people who has more creative talent in her little finger than I do in my entire body, and she shares her talents so freely with others and is incredibly generous. That Christmas she brought us a gingerbread house she'd made. The gingerbread houses I make are the kind you pick at through the season and then throw away right after the holidays. JoLynn's gingerbread house held a place of honor in our home for months and months. It plugged in, lighted up, and had stained glass windows! It was the Taj Mahal of gingerbread houses. It was beautiful. Just now I wondered how in the world she transported it from Utah to Arizona in a car with 2 small children and all their stuff. WOW!!!! Thanks for making Christmas special for us, JoLynn!

New job? What new job?

So after quite a stressful few days, we've decided to return to Walt's old job, Procerus Technologies. This is a good thing. It was our choice. And BOY am I glad that decision is over. MAN am I glad. It was doing unnatural things to my stomach and my sleep patterns. (Did I mention I'm glad the decision is made and done?)

Remembering

One of my friends is posting 12 days of Christmas memories on her blog, and it got me thinking about the Christmas memories I have that are probably not written down anywhere. So I'm going to write out a few of those here so I have a record of them (thanks, Laura! I hope you don't mind me borrowing your idea). It might take me a few days.

Christmases in Missouri:
1. When we lived in Missouri (7th-12th grades for me) there was an amazing family in our ward with many, many children. During my Laurel years in Young Womens they had 4 boys in Young Mens, and those boys were fun, responsible, polite. We love the Howalds. Anyway, one year when I went home for Christmas from college we were enjoying a quiet evening when the doorbell rang. We answered it to find the entire Nativity on our doorstep. The Howalds had come to tell us the Christmas story complete with Mary, Joseph, wise men, shepherds, and angels. Their home was a good half hour drive from ours, and this was no small feat for them. I remember being so touched by it. So if any of the Howalds happen to read this, Thanks for a great memory and a touch of the true Christmas spirit!

2. Our second year in Missouri (I think), we made the drive to Maryland to spend Christmas with my grandparents. My Aunt Kim and Uncle Mark went, too, and we had so much fun together. I remember Kim filling a pair of pantyhose with gifts for Mark since he didn't have a stocking there. That really made an impression on me as a 14 year old. :) We acted out the nativity there, and I was an angel and made my appearance at the top of the stairs leading down to the family room. I also remember getting a BYU sweatshirt that year, which I still have 18 years later (now a BYU alumnus!)

3. In our family the Christmas morning tradition was that we kids (four of us) got up early and played Monopoly until Mom and Dad were ready for us to come open presents. We would hear them start the Anne Murray cassette tape (later CD) upstairs and walk around, and the anticipation would build. Finally they would call us up, and we'd ascend the stairs in giggles. This tradition continued through high school and into college. Until one year....

I went home for Christmas from BYU, and on Christmas morning my younger brothers and I began the traditional game of early morning Monopoly downstairs. Eventually we heard my parents get up, turn on the music, walk around. We waited patiently for them to come get us (yes, we were a little old for this, but it was tradition!!), but the time went on, and no summons was made. Fifteen minutes went by, then 30, then an hour. All walking around upstairs had long since ceased, and we were still waiting, totally puzzled. Finally we three decided to go up and peek into the living room to gauge the situation. I still shake my head in disbelief when I think about what happened next. There were mom and dad sitting on the couch, surrounded by all their opened presents, torn wrapping paper strewn across the floor. They had opened all their presents without us while we waited for them to call us up! When they saw us they said, "We waited and waited for you to come up, and finally we just decided you weren't going to come, so we opened our presents without you." What?! Inconceivable! Had they forgotten that for 20 years the tradition had been for them to call us up?! Yes, they had forgotten. And didn't quite believe us when we told them. But we know; yes, we know. And for all the Christmases since it has made a great story! :)

Open Mouth, Insert Foot

Literally! Last night for the first time, Isaac discovered that if he bends just right, the big toe is not only functional for transportation purposes, but also doubles as a teether! Mmmmmm....Delicious!

Does anyone else remember sucking on their big toe? I have a distinct memory of it, which I'm hoping means that I have a great memory and not that I was way too old to be sucking on my big toe.

The other evening as I was getting ready for bed, Walt suddenly remembered something: "Oh, I forgot to tell you that Isaac peed into your contact case from his bath last night, and I forgot to clean it out." Thank you. Apparently a little pee never hurt anybody - in fact, my vision that day was as good as ever. Who do you think won't forget to put the lids on her contact case from now on? Lesson learned. Hee hee. :)

Twin Cousins

We just returned from a delightful trip to Arizona to spend the holiday with Walt's siblings. Walt and his brother went mountain biking and shooting, we all went to the Mesa Temple to see the Christmas lights, the women had a breakfast out while the men watched all the kids, lots of talking and eating was accomplished, and a good time was had by all!

The highlight of our Thanksgiving trip was having Isaac meet his "twin" cousin, Sam. They were born 10 hours apart and turned 5 months old on Thanksgiving Day. We hope they grow up to be great friends!

Early Christmas Present

For Christmas this year my maternal grandparents gave the family an experience. They bought tickets for all 35 of us 8 years old and older to attend last night's performance of "Savior of the World" at the Conference Center on Temple Square. Wow. It was wonderful! I felt the Spirit testify strongly to me that the events and circumstances of the Savior’s birth, ministry, death, and resurrection as we read in the Bible are real.

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for giving us the opportunity to have that witness and to feel the strength of family as we all experienced it together! What a perfect Christmas gift.

Honestly

Ok I've been tagged with an Honest Scrap award (thanks, Crystal!). The rules are I'm supposed to tell 10 brutally honest things about myself and then tag 10 people. So here goes...

1. Most days I don't get out of my PJs until the afternoon (gasp!).

2. If I'm in my PJs I don't answer the door unless it is a good friend or the mailman. The Jehovah's Witnesses have given up on me.

3. I feel bad throwing food away, so even if I know I'm not going to eat it, I keep it in my fridge until it starts changing color. Then I feel totally justified in throwing it away.

4. I really like to cook, but I'm a very practical cook. I'm all about casseroles and easy homestyle meals. No gourmet for me. And most of what I make tastes a lot better than it looks - I'm not so good with presentation.

5. I love love love to read. Bookworm.

6. I love love love to play the piano. I play for Isaac a lot, and he loves it. He will sit and listen to me play for 20 minutes easy and be perfectly content. But sometimes I worry that it'll cause him to love music so much he won't want to do boy things like play sports. I know this is irrational and gender steroetyping and silly and stuff, but this is supposed to be a totally honest list, right?

7. I enjoy keeping my house neat and orderly, except for one tiny thing. Mopping the kitchen floor. Then all my stalling tactics come into play and sometimes it is...dare I say it?..... 2 MONTHS (say it isn't so!) in-between floor moppings. And then I usually get Walt to do it. :)

8. I love to drink orange juice while eating chocolate.

9. I get squeamish around spiders.

10. There are two kinds of people in the world - those who like Neil Diamond, and those who don't. I happen to like Neil Diamond. And What About Bob. :)

I tag all of you. Ha!

New Job

Walt was offered and accepted an electrical engineering position with a new company in Spanish Fork this week. On Monday he will start working 2 days a week for imSAR and go full time January 1st. Until then he will continue to work 3 days a week for Procerus to ease out of the work projects there and allow them time to find a replacement for him. We feel so blessed in times of economic instability to have a choice of places to work. Walt is really looking forward to the chance to expand his skill set and get a new experience. Procerus has been a great place to work for the past 5 years, and we're excited to move on.

Rice Job!

Isaac got his first taste of rice cereal this week (did any of it actually get in his mouth?). We've worked up to eating small portions twice a day, and tomorrow we'll add oatmeal. He has loved it. Fun!

First Halloween

Isaac was a football player for Halloween. His costume resembled a bib, so he initiated it right off with some spit up. There's lots more where that came from. :) He had fun seeing the kids come to the door. Walt's sisters provided him with this cute costume (yikes!).

Napoleon Dynamite Moment

Yesterday was Walt's birthday, and it was fun to do special things for him and to remember the first birthday that I knew him. It was October, 2005, and we'd just started noticing each other. I left a cupcake and a note on his truck that morning before he went to work, and in the evening when I was coming home from my cousin's house I noticed his truck driving slowly past my door. I parked and got out, and he and his sister invited me to come to a movie with them. My thinking was something like "Oh Baby! YESSSSSSSS!" But I just said, "Sure, that'd be fun!" :) And here we are four birthdays later.

My Aunt Kelley and some of her family came to visit from Arizona and were staying at another aunt's house in Highland, so yesterday I packed Isaac up and spent a good part of the day with them having fun. On the freeway as I drove there, traffic suddenly slowed to a crawl. I could see flashing lights ahead and thought there must be an accident. But moments later a trooper SUV passed me on the shoulder, parked a few cars ahead of me, and the trooper jumped out with a rifle! "Oh there's a bad guy! This is getting exciting!", I thought. It wasn't long before the bad guy ran past my car window. But he wasn't a bad guy at all - just a poor frantic cow trying to figure out how he got on the freeway. The trooper pointed the rifle at him (must have been a tranquilizer gun)and I suddenly saw in my mind the scene from Napoleon Dynamite where the farmer shoots his cow right as the school bus full of children drives by. Luckily no school buses were around, and cow was faster than the trooper. Traffic picked up again and I'll never know the rest of the story. But it was sure a unique experience!

Things and stuff

I've put off writing a new entry because I can't think of anything interesting to write about. I mean my life is interesting to me, but I'm not sure the day to day ordinary stuff will always be very interesting to other people.

Hey, tomorrow I get to go to the church meat packing plant to help pack meat. That's cool. Hmmm. BYU lost their game pretty badly yesterday. But at least we got to be at my grandma's house with lots of family to cringe and sob through the game together. Oh, I finished making a quilted table runner (my first) and received a walking foot I'd ordered in the mail for my sewing machine. Walt said he's going to tell people I've started using a walker, and he mentioned with a twinkle in his eye that the new foot "seams" to work really well.

Please vote on my poll on the right side of my blog. Thanks!

Moab Trip

We left Thursday evening for a weekend in Moab. Walt and his brother love mountain biking, so the last few years they've met up to do several rides together. I think we're starting an annual tradition. Stan and his riding buddy drove up from Arizona, two more friends from their graduate school days drove down from Logan, we drove from Provo, and one of Walt's co-workers and his wife (who is an awesome biker) drove down from Salt Lake. They decided to do a ride called "The Whole Enchilada". Turned out they bit off almost more than they could chew once several repairs and a broken foot were factored in. Walt left the hotel at 8:00 in the morning and they got to the end of the trail at 6:30 that evening. The friend who broke his foot had to be carried out for the last mile and taken straight to the emergency room. He was a trooper! The break was pretty bad and will require pins. Ouch!! They were all exhausted but loved it. The next morning we all went shooting for a couple hours. I shot five bullets and got a bullseye and knocked a can off an old couch. Just call me Crackshot Johnson. :)

Yesterday we hosted a Graden family Birthday Bash. My brother and step-mom have the same October birthday, Dad and step-brother have the same October birthday, and Walt also has an October birthday. We put the couches downstairs and had tables in the kitchen and living room so there would be seating for all 20 people to eat dinner. It was a blast!!

Here are a couple pictures from the past week:

Lilli helping me wash the carrots from our garden. We love carrots with character. This one would like to give you a High 5.




Isaac waking up from a nap.

Hey, I made cinnamon rolls and they actually turned out really good! Wow! Last time (5 years ago) I had to throw them all away. Be excited for me. :) And come over and get one if you want!

Sweet Memories

Walt and Isaac accompanied me to my 10th Mission Anniversary last night. It was so fun to see my first two companions there, both of whom I loved dearly and had great experiences with. I couldn't stop smiling remembering the sweet time that was for me and the personal growth I experienced. Difficult, yes, but so worth it!

On Sunday in Relief Society Isaac perked right up as soon as the opening hymn started and began "singing" along with a big smile on his face. Made the sisters giggle. I love my boy.

Isaac Goes for a Ride on Daddy's Shoulders

The perfect excuse to mop the bathroom floor is to have the toilet overflow! Dang. I admit that's sometimes what it takes to get me to mop because the floors for some reason are my least favorite task. I decided to go all out and have the toilet water pour down the heat vent, too, and drip through the screw holes onto the laundry room floor so that I could clean those floors, too. A job worth doing is worth doing well, right? To be honest I just sopped up all the water, and Walt mopped the floors when he got home. Thanks, Honey! I needed that.

This week our good friend John returned from 5 months in Iraq. We sure appreciate the sacrifice he and his wife and little boy made to serve our country in such a difficult way. God bless the USA!

Isaac has been fighting his nap all morning, and still isn't asleep, which means my visiting teaching appointment will need to be rescheduled...again. And I had to make the crust for the lemon bars twice because the first time they were in the oven Isaac was supposed to be sleeping but needed my attention, and I couldn't get away so the crust burned. But you know, it's okay. This morning those things aren't bothering me. This is what life is all about - learning to sift out and not stress about the things that don't matter much and really focus on the things that do, which often means rolling with the punches and changing plans. I'm not always so good at that. But this morning I'm at peace.

Another First

This weekend we took Isaac on his first camping trip! It was only 30 minutes away, so we figured if it was a disaster we could always pack up and come home in the middle of the night. But Isaac slept great all night, and we had a lot of fun. It was actually a ward campout, so the best part was talking and having fun with other ward members, and the second best part was that we didn't have to bring any food! The ward cooked dinner and breakfast for us. That was awesome.

What wasn't so awesome was the BYU v. Florida State home game yesterday. No, not so awesome. (Byu 28, Florida State 54).

My talented sister-in-law took some family pictures of us at the retreat I talked about in my previous post, so here are a few of my favorite shots. If you have a minute, go to her website and comment on the photos she posted of us. If we get 15 comments we get a free 5x7 print! Thanks! http://bellepetitephoto.blogspot.com/

Togetherness

For the Labor Day weekend my family rented a vacation house outside Heber City for our third annual Graden Family Retreat. We had such a fun time talking, eating, playing games, watching BYU beat Oklahoma (Go Cougs!), having a family testimony meeting, going on a walk, taking pictures, and just generally enjoying each other. The house was really nice. My 2 year old niece said the blessing on breakfast Monday morning and among other things thanked Heavenly Father that we could be there to take a nap and go potty. It made us all smile, but I had to agree - the bathrooms were so fancy it was fun to go potty! :) Next year when we have our retreat there will be at least one more member of the family - another niece is due in just a few weeks! Wahoo!

Pinewood Derby

Yesterday was the Ward Pinewood Derby. Anyone could enter in either the standard category (following the normal rules) or the open category (anything goes except flying and open flames). There were about 15 cars entered including one that Walt helped one of the Young Men with. Walt took the motor and propeller off his model airplane and the Young Man taped them to the derby car block of wood. It's name? "The Beast". It was operated by remote control and SMOKED all the competition. It could easily drive back up the ramp, too, so at one point they put all the starting gates down, got a blanket to catch it, and launched it off the ramp going full speed. It flew 15-20 feet before landing. Good times. :)

Shots

Isaac had his two month shots today. We both cried. I swore I wouldn't, but when he got that startled look on his face and cried so hard he could hardly breathe, I just felt for him. Poor little guy. He didn't even see it coming. I told him that if he was old enough I would have taken him out for ice cream, but he's not, so I just ate some ice cream at home, and he got it second hand later.

Isaac is going to bed around 9:00 now (and sleeping until 7:00ish!), so that leaves me an hour or so before bed to use both my hands to do other things! I usually clean the kitchen because there is nothing like waking up to a clean kitchen. If the kitchen is clean I can handle life (I obviously spend a lot of time there). But right now I don't feel like cleaning the kitchen. Especially because I just knocked a big tuperware of watermelon off the counter upside-down onto the floor. Sad. It was good watermelon, too. And now the floor is all messy. But I'm just leaving it there for a while.

Play group this week had three moms, three kids, and no bee stings! Ah, success!

Last night the Beehives did Tie Dye. I should have taken one of Isaac's white onesies! I'd never done tie dye before, and it was a lot of fun and not hard at all. Of course, it remains to be seen whether we did it right or not because the shirts have to sit overnight and then be washed before the final outcome is known. But the girls had a great time! I will sure miss them. I'm being released next week and have already received a new calling - Achievement Day Leader for the 10-11 year old girls. I'm so excited! If any of you have done this before, please share successful activity ideas!

We got a new camera last weekend, so we can finally take more pictures of Isaac. We had two cameras several months ago - one that I brought into the marriage that just finally gave up the ghost, and one that Walt brought into the marriage that had it's unfortunate demise under the wheels of our truck. Oops.

Here are my sweet, tired boys:

I'm So Glad When Daddy Comes Home

Walt gets home late tonight from a 5 day business trip. It's always so nice to have him back. Absence makes the heart grow even fonder (is that possible?!).

Isaac slept 8 1/2 hours straight last night! Yay! I'm trying to move his bedtime a little earlier so that we can get to bed earlier. Tomorrow he will be 7 weeks old.

So this week I invited a bunch of the young moms in the ward over for play group at my house on Tuesday. I'm trying to be more social now that Isaac and I have the eating and sleeping thing down a little better. Four women were planning to come, but you know how the best laid plans don't always pan out? After all was said and done, one mom and her cute son came (Hi Nicole!) only to be stung by a bee on our swingset after being here just 10 minutes. I felt so bad about the bee sting, but it did make me laugh to think about how we just totally struck out as far as the play group went. Better luck next week, right? Right!

Family Picture

Had fun this week with visits from Walt's Dad and sisters. Will write more later!

Harvests and Diaper Heads

We harvested 3 zucchini from our garden this week. I made zucchini bread, zucchini casserole, and fried zucchini. Luckily there aren't any more growing at the moment, so we have a few days break. But with zucchini you blink and there are more, so I'm sure it won't take long. We also weeded the garden, which had been a daunting task in my mind. Our garden looked like an overgrown lot. But with Walt and I working together it only took an hour or so to get it under control. We have some tomatoes that are almost ready to pick, and I'm so excited! If I had to live off of one food for the rest of my life it would be either homegrown tomato sandwiches or rhubarb pie. It's a toss-up.

Isaac rolled over again yesterday, so I guess that first time wasn't a fluke. He just goes from his tummy to his back, though, not the other way around (yet).

Friday night Walt was changing Isaac's diaper, and this was the result. Walt dubbed him Mr. Diaper Head. Dad's are way more fun. Although from the looks of it, Isaac seems to be merely humoring him. :)

Fluke or No Fluke?

Isaac just rolled over. He's 18 days old. Isn't that a bit early? I thought I'd be able to leave him on the bed unattended for a few more weeks. I had put him on his tummy to try to help his gas, and he got his arm under him and just flipped right over. He was flailing around pretty good when he did it because of the gas, so it may be just a fluke thing. But maybe not. That's my boy!

By the way, does anyone have strategies for dealing with baby gas? Isaac seems to have it pretty bad. Poor kid.

"This is not a small child"

That's what my doctor said when he saw Isaac this morning for his 2 week appointment. At 17 days old, Isaac is weighing in at 9 lbs 6 oz (95%ile), 22 inches long (100%ile), with a head circumference at the 90%ile. He's one big boy. I think he's trying to keep up with the neighborhood boys close to his age.

Sleep deprivation is a bit of a battle right now. I keep falling asleep while Isaac is nursing. Poor kid. Suddenly my muscles will slack and he'll be dumped in my lap. A few times I've woken up with my chin practically on my knees and baby in my lap, both of us having been totally konked out for who knows how long. One strategy I've begun to employ is reading while I nurse, which works really well most of the time. I've gotten through several books already. But sometimes I get Isaac all situated only to realize I didn't leave my book within reach and it isn't worth it to go get it.

We're getting really excited about a visit from Walt's dad and sisters in a few weeks! We'll have Isaac blessed while they're here.

Double Digits

Isaac has entered his 10th day of life! He's such a fun baby. When I was in labor Alan (my brother), Liz, and Lilli (2 years old) came by for a bit to bring dinner to Walt and Heather. While they were there someone said, "Lilli, Julie is about to have her baby." Lilli came over to me in the bed and said, "He will be meek and mild." My jaw just about dropped to hear that from a 2 year old. It was so cute! Apparently a line from a primary song she's been learning. It turns out, she was right! So far he has been a very easy baby as far as temperament. Here's a picture of his first bath. He screamed, and we loved it! He used my shirt for target practice. :)

New Daddy

Walt has been such a wonderful husband and daddy through the past few days. I changed my first Isaac diaper yesterday because Walt did all of them up until then. Isaac is getting daily daddy tummy time, and their first mountain biking trip together is already planned for next week apparently..........

Isaac Graden Johnson

Friday morning 3:00 AM: checking in at the hospital after my water broke at home. So exciting! The labor was long and slow. The doctor finally ordered me on pitocin at 1:00 in the afternoon to get contractions going stronger and harder. After increasing the pitocin 4 times and me on 2 hours of sleep, no food, 12 hours of labor, and at least another estimated 5 hours to go, I finally got an epidural. At that point it was the right thing for my body. At 8:00 PM I started pushing. 2 1/2 hours later, the poor baby still had a ways to go, and his heartrate was dropping and taking a long time to rebound after each push. The doctor recommended an episiotomy, which I agreed to. He cut it, and I began to throw up, which propelled the baby out hard and fast, causing 3rd degree tearing beyond the episiotomy. Ouchie.












Baby was here!!! all 8 pounds, 4 ounces of him. It was very exciting! I'll have to write more later.... :)

Belle Petite Photographie

I was just browsing my sister-in-law's new photography website/blog and was so impressed I wanted to share it. I didn't realize until now that she had the website, and it is fabulous. She also does adorable photo collages, so if you need pictures taken, you might want to call her! She's local. Click here to view her site.

Hot Date

Last night Walt and I went on a super date since it may have been our last chance to get out and do whatever we want together for a while. We ate a frozen pizza at home, then caught the 8:00 Comedy Sportz show. It had been years since I'd been there, and we got lots of good laughs in. I thought if I laughed hard enough maybe labor would start, but nope. :) Afterward we got shakes at the Malt Shoppe. I asked them what their most chocolaty shake was and ended up getting a chocolate shake with brownie and cookie dough. Good thing I hadn't eaten any other desserts that day because that had to have counted for at least two. Yum! It was really nice to spend time with Walt. I lucked out with him. He is such a good husband.

We finished painting the office, hallway, and a few doors, so that leaves just 3 more doors left to complete our projects. Wahoo!

My sisters-in-law came over on Friday and helped me make three freezer meals and brown 15 pounds of ground beef (on sale at Buy Low for $.78/lb through Tuesday) for after the baby comes. It was so nice to get that all done and just to be together.

I have a cold. Anyone know of pregnancy-friendly ways to relieve congestion/sore throat?

Getting There

We have new carpet! It's kind of like walking on new socks all the time. Ahhh. The baby room is all ready now except for the closet doors being put back on and pictures being hung. We painted the family room yesterday and moved the furniture back in, and we got a coat of primer on the office walls. We're getting there!

Walt had the very creative idea of painting two walls in the office deep red and two walls dark blue. He was so excited about it. I, on the other hand, was not excited about it. But I had told him earlier that, since the office is primarily his domain, he could choose the wall color. My veto powers seemed to have little effect, and he insisted I would love it and it would make him happy. So what is a wife to do? In the eternal scheme of things, the color of paint on the office walls makes no difference, right? So I gave the (reluctant) go-ahead. Yesterday when we went to Home Depot to get the paint, he pulled out only the red sample, said, "Happy Mothers Day", and proceeded to order only red paint. What a sweet boy! I always know he loves me, but there are certain times when the proof is undeniable. This was one of them. :) (Another is when he washes my flexible cutting boards for me. He hates washing those.)

Chaos - the first step to order

Sometimes things have to get pretty chaotic before they can be effectively organized. That's what I keep telling myself about our house these days. With the exception of the bathrooms, our bed, and the kitchen, there is no usable space in our house until the carpet gets installed this week. At least, no space with either no furniture and no flooring or all the furniture piled up. Just 2 more days. Yay! There is method in this madness. I can handle it pretty well if I just remind myself that all this chaos is just the first step to more order. It'll feel great!

This baby is getting big. When he moves I feel bad that he seems so cramped. I've officially gained 50 pounds (gasp!), and it must be going somewhere besides my legs, so I'm guessing he'll be a big boy. Please take my poll and let me know what your guess is! :)

Also, I'm wondering what things I'll really wish I had with me at the hospital when the time comes. If you have any input, I'd love to hear it.

Walt took the Varsity/Venturer scouts on a mountain biking trip to Moab this week. They had a great time!

Our new son, Hot Wheels

The neighbor boy, Keith (4 years old), stopped by on his bicycle the other day to chat. I was in the garage and he wanted to know why I had put our flag out for Memorial Day and which of our bikes was Walt's and whether it had a kickstand, and if my dad had the same truck as his dad, and if he could see our backyard, etc. It was very cute. It reminded me of a statistic I'd seen earlier in the week about how the average 4 year old asks 437 questions a day. So then I had a question for him: "What do you think we should name our baby?" He didn't have to think long: "Hot Wheels. My friend named her cat that, and I think it's a good name." Why I didn't ask him sooner is beyond me. Any kid would want a friend named Hot Wheels.

Yesterday we hired 7 youth from our ward to come over and work for us for 3 hours. They moved LOTS of furniture, pulled up carpet and padding, washed and painted baseboard, took off and painted doors, etc., etc. I was so impressed with how hard they worked! We got soooo much done. Our baby room is entirely painted, all the baseboards and door trim in the hallway, office, and family room are painted, the doors are almost all painted, and with the exception of the master bedroom the floors are ready for new carpet. My brothers and sisters-in-law and nieces also came and helped so much. It was such a blessing to get so much done in one day. We also posted Rocky online again, this time for free since we weren't getting any takers, and he was picked up and gone within 2 hours. I miss him.



Friday was my last day of work. One chapter of my life is over and another is about to begin. I've had some mixed feelings about it, but mostly I look forward to being a full-time mom.

Farewell, Rocky!

We're selling Rocky. I haven't given him the attention he needs the last few months (I've been a little distracted), and he deserves better! So if you know of anyone who is in the market for a guinea pig, send them our way! We're selling him for $50 including his cage, house, water bottle, food dish, brush, nail clippers, extra bedding, extra food, and LOTS of extra hay.

I feel like we're hurtling towards my due date! There's no stopping this now! I know it can really drag on the last few weeks for some women, but I haven't felt that "get this baby out of me now" feeling yet. I love being pregnant - swollen feet and all. And besides, I'm not ready! We are painting the baby room on Saturday and then getting new carpet the next week. Yay!

I have one more week of work left, which means 3 days, since I'm part-time. I already cleaned my office out and brought all my things home. I have to turn my laptop back in to work in a few days (sniff, sniff - I love my mac!), so we bought a Dell desktop computer that arrived yesterday, and I'm re-learning windows.

I hope everyone has a lovely Memorial Day with fond memories of loved ones who have passed on and gratitude for those who gave their lives protecting our country. Walt and I are looking forward to visiting the gravesites of both our moms. Thanks for loving me, mom!

Crystal is Coming!!!

Breaking News: My college roommate and wonderful friend Crystal is coming to visit in the Fall!! Her thoughtful husband is getting her a plane ticket to come see me sometime after her baby is born, which would be October/November. We don't get to see each other nearly enough since they live in New Jersey. I can't wait! Yippee! It's so great to have something to look forward to for the next months. Anticipation is half the fun, right? Well, I don't know. I think we're going to have LOTS of fun. Can't wait to see you, Crystal! (p.s. Surprise! :)

Happy Mother's Day

It's so exciting to really feel like a mother today. Our little guy is moving and kicking around regularly, reminding me that it won't be long until I'll be carrying him around in my arms instead of my belly. Just 6 1/2 weeks left! Walt is making breakfast for me right now - scrambled eggs, cinnamon cake, and fruit shakes. Yum!! This evening we are having Dad and Julia, Heather and Jon, and Alan, Liz and Lilli over for dinner. Julia requested homemade chicken noodle soup, homemade wheat rolls, and salad for dinner, and we're throwing in homemade strawberry ice cream for dessert. Why is it that food is such a central part of all celebrations in our culture? I think that is true for most cultures. One of the first things I think of when I consider a holiday or gathering of any size is "what will we eat?" And of course there are so many traditional foods for different holidays and different families. I love food!

Yesterday we planted our garden. We're a little late on this, but I think it will turn out. We ended up buying our tomato plants this year instead of doing starts in the garage like we usually do. We also bought some corn, which we've never done, so that'll be fun. Our rhubarb has been growing really well on its own, and we transplanted onions, carrots, green peppers, butternut squash, and zucchini from the starts we did. I keep going out to look at it. It's so fun to grow things!

Full Life

The past month has been so full and fun. Conference weekend we spent with family in Provo and Salt Lake, Easter weekend we had family friends staying with us for a few nights and had a wonderful family gathering at my dad's. The next week we took a road trip to Phoenix to visit Walt's siblings and my aunt for 4 days. The next week was BYU graduation. My two sisters-in-law graduated, and Liz's mom and sister stayed with us for the four days they were here. The next week was BYU Womens Conference, which I attended on Thursday with my aunts and cousin, and Friday I was helping put on a School Psychology conference in Salt Lake, and my sister threw me a family baby shower that night. Her family spent the night and next day with us so they could attend a local wedding. The next few weeks should be slower at home, and crazy at work trying to set up all the end of year meetings for the students we serve.

I'm starting to get really excited about this baby. There is a lot to do to prepare still - paint the baby room, buy supplies, freeze some dinners, do a hospital tour, etc. I'm banking on having at least a couple weeks in June after work ends to do most of that.

Yesterday we walked to the church for a potluck, and on the way we saw a cow that had just given birth to a calf. The calf was curled up behind it in the grass, and the cow was eating her placenta! It was so neat! I felt like I was on the nature channel. I didn't realize cows did that, and I've definitely never seen it before. I wish I'd had my camera. I would have posted a picture. :)

Baby Bump

My cousin Amber requested I post some pregnant pictures for those who live far away.  The only problem was, I didn't have any!  So I took a few and now I've posted them.  I'm so glad she said something because otherwise I might not have any pregnant pictures of myself at all!  I'm not so good with picture taking.  So thanks, Amber, and I hope you enjoy!  I'll post a few more as I get bigger.  :)

Missing Items Alert!

Anytime I would lose something my mom would ask, "When was the last time you remember seeing it?"  The last time I remember seeing them was about a week ago at church.  But today at church they were no where to be found.  It's official, my ankles are missing.  People tell me they'll be back after the baby comes.  Let's hope so!  I didn't realize I had any vanity about my ankles until now.  I guess this is good for me.

    

This past Monday I decided to strike out on my own and make a maternity skirt. I used a pattern and bought all the materials, found my size, cut out the pattern, sewed it up all by myself! Not a bit of help from anyone! I was so proud. Unfortunately, I measured my current waist size (this is a maternity skirt after all!) rather than my pre-pregnancy waist, which resulted in a skirt several times too big. I was laughing and laughing when I tried it on the first time because Walt and I could both have fit in it (though we didn't try). My sewing teacher showed me how to take it in, which wasn't so hard actually, and after subtracting about 4 inches on each side, it fits perfectly! I'm wearing it right now, and it's so fun to feel creative, even if I did follow a pattern. The maternity dress I'm making should be done this next week, and then I'll have three things to wear to church. Woohoo!

We started attending childbirth classes this week, taught by the doula my aunt used for her two boys. It is just a 4 week course, but already I've learned so much. At the end she showed us a video of multiple women doing natural childbirth, and I cried. It did NOT look fun. I was trying so hard to contain myself because no one else in the class was crying, and it was a small room with only 4 couples. I think I fought it back pretty well in the end, but it sure made me think twice about what I'm getting myself into. I'm feeling fine about it now, though, and I'm still committed to going natural. The more I learn the more prepared I feel and the calmer I get, even if hearing some of the stories can be kind of unsettling at first. I can take it! My body was made for this! Our doula also brought the fresh placenta from a birth she'd helped with that morning. "No one else wanted the placenta! Can you believe it?!" she said. I said, "Should I want my placenta?" It was very cool to see the one she brought, but I have no desire to keep my own. Although someone was just telling me that they saw a childbirth book from the 70's with a recipe for placenta casserole.....

Easter Formula

According to my survey, only one person knew how to calculate when Easter will be, and they didn't share it with me, so I looked it up! It's actually quite simple, though a calendar with lunar cycles is required. I personally don't memorize the cycles of the moon.

First, find the Spring Equinox (either the 20th or 21st of March, typically). Then find the first full moon after the Spring Equinox (this will be Passover). The following Sunday will be Easter.

EXAMPLE: This year, the Spring Equinox is March 20th. The next full moon falls on April 9th. So the following Sunday, April 11th, is Easter. Ah ha! Not so hard after all.

This week we attended our last required adoption seminar. That's one part of the process that is complete, and now we have several more steps to take which will include two more rounds of interviews and two home visits. I need to buy a carbon monoxide detector, so if anyone knows of a good one, please pass on the information!

At this week's prenatal appointment my doctor suggested that before I eat anything I should ask myself, "Would I feed this to a newborn baby?" Dang. So I've decided to limit myself to two dessert a day, one helping each. Pathetic, I know. The good thing is that for the first 4 months of my pregnancy I hardly ate any dessert - just didn't want it. That was then. This is now. Did anyone else get a mean sweet tooth when they were pregnant?

Nesting

In the past week we've given away my home organ and sold my car, Sam. Not to mention a trip to DI, giving away a file cabinet, sorting duplicate books out of our bookcases, cleaning out our sock and underwear drawers, organizing my cross-stitch floss, clearing off my night stand, trimming my plants......this nesting instinct has hit hard! I find myself constantly looking around and into cupboards and drawers for the next project. If this is a symptom of pregnancy, well I'm not complaining! It feels great.

As far as the Easter Sunday survey, after 31 Easters, I still have not taken the time to learn how to calculate when Easter Sunday will be. If you know, please tell me! It'd be more fun to find it out from you than to look it up!

How do you spell BYU?

We got to spend a lot of time with our nephews this week who were visiting from Phoenix. We took them to a BYU basketball game, and my 4 year-old nephew, Josh, said, "Julie! I know how to spell BYU! B.....uh....U...uh..wait,no...um...B.....hmmmm...Y........U! BYU! I did it!" Was so cute.

Today I substituted for our organist in sacrament meeting and our primary pianist in primary. I absolutely love playing the organ. It was fun to have a change of pace, though I missed sitting by Walt and being with my Young Women.

Walt and I went to our Stake's Valentine Dance last night, which was surprisingly well-attended. I felt like a wimp when my legs started aching after only an hour and a half, and my pregnancy heartburn (almost a daily occurrence now) was getting the best of me. Walt and I have never been dancing really, so it was fun to have a novel activity and to be close to him all night. I tried my hand at a homemade chocolate mousse recipe, which turned out really well, so we ate that up with fresh raspberries before going to bed. Oh contentness!

It's A.........

BOY!!!!!! Woohoo!! And boy are we excited. :) Everything looked normal, and he was a little squirmy, which was comforting since I haven't noticed movement yet. That gives us the green light to redecorate the baby room. Right now it has the cutest border of flowers and butterflies that the previous owners painted. I'm sure boys like flowers and butterflies too, but you know. Thanks for all your guesses on our poll. It was so fun to see what everyone thought.

Cold Hands and a Warm Heart

I can't remember where this comes from, but we joke about it all the time. "I may have cold hands, but I have a warm heart." Hee hee. Actually, I just have a cold. I just went to sacrament meeting Sunday, sat around and napped yesterday at home, intended to go to work late today until I lost my cookies mid-morning. But I think I've got the worst of it behind me, and tomorrow I should be back to my normal schedule. Sure makes you grateful for the times you feel normal. Normal feels sooo good. At least Walt and I could be sick together. That was kind of fun, actually.

This morning I called 911 to report a suspicious character wandering the neighborhood. I was making toast at the kitchen window, and he was walking through the street for several minutes looking at people's houses in a strange sort of way; then he went in my neighbor's backyard and walked around. I didn't recognize him, so I called the police, and they came and investigated. Sick pregnant woman making toast stops would-be thief in his tracks! I can see it now! He wasn't to be found by the time they got here, and he may have been totally harmless and innocent, but better safe than sorry!

We have our gender ultrasound in 2 weeks, so we'd love to get everyone's guess as to whether we're having a boy or a girl. It doesn't matter at all to us, but it's fun to speculate.

This was one of those crazy weeks when it seemed there was hardly time to eat or breathe. But I'm sure breathing a sigh of relief now that it's over and the next week promises to be more manageable.

Geography Bee

In a moment of weakness last year I signed up to chair the School Geography Bee. Not sure how that fits into my duties as a School Psychologist, but hey. The bummer was that no one signed up to help me, so I was pretty much on my own. And the other bummer was that we had a mom whose kids didn't make it past the preliminary rounds of the Bee in December, which she had been banking on, and apparently that was my fault. As a result of our meeting with this parent, the principal suggested I invite all 4-6 grades and the parents of the finalists to the School Bee. So as the Bee crept closer, I had visions of angry parents chasing me off the stage and rotten tomatoes and things. The Bee was held this past Friday at 9:30 in the morning with the 8 finalists from our school. And despite all my worries it came off wonderfully! Not a single parent said anything to me during or afterward, so I assume they are satisfied, although they may have just needed more time to plot my demise. The principal was thrilled with it all (which is what really matters, right?), and it actually was a lot of fun. A bit of a shocker that some of our school finalists thought Myrtle Beach is in South Dakota and that Generals Lee and Grant had a Civil War to-do at Appomatox Courthouse in the state of California. We obviously have our work cut out for us to get our students up to speed in the geographic realm of study.

Guten Rutsch!

Happy New Year! Our trip to Illinois was wonderful! We got to spend lots of time with Walt's dad, sisters, and his brother's family. Highlights included Christmas dinner, bowling, baby blessing of our newest nephew, ice skating, lots of hanging out and talking/playing games/eating/etc. We felt very blessed on our way there that things cleared up and our plane was able to land without problems (albeit 2 1/2 hours late), and the roads driving to Dad Johnson's home were clear. 100 flights to Chicago were canceled the morning we flew there, but ours wasn't! Yea!

Our trip back was eventful. We left in the morning to drive to Chicago and spend the day at the Field Museum before our evening flights. We had several interesting hours there, then went to a pizza place for dinner. Part way through dinner we realized that time was getting tight to drop Walt's sisters off for their flight. We finished quick, got in the car, and realized we hadn't factored in any extra time for rush hour traffic. By the time we got them there, it was 30 minutes before their flight. Their luggage got checked in, but they didn't make it to the plane in time. They were put on stand-by for a flight the next morning. Meanwhile, we rushed to fill our rental car with gas, return it, and get a shuttle to the airport before our flight. We got to the check-in desk about 22 minutes before our flight. Too late! They wouldn't check us in. We were put on stand-by for a flight the next morning as well. So the four of us found each other in the airport, got a hotel, and spent the night in Chicago. Everyone had really good attitudes about it, and it was actually really fun. We all got on our flights the next morning and made it home. We also learned that security will not allow you to carry orbital sanders onto the plane. So in case any of you were wondering...