Apology to a Wonderful, Patient Husband

This morning I woke up at 5:00am to use the bathroom, not at all uncommon being 8 months pregnant. But when I woke up, I noticed something that made me feel silly and then I started thinking and thinking and getting ideas for this post. I never did fall back asleep. So I want to apologize publicly to my most wonderful, patient husband for all the annoying pregnant sleeping stuff I put him through every day. Here's a list:

1. My bed-hogging--So when I said I woke up and noticed something that made me feel silly, what I meant was that I looked over at Rob and he had barely enough room on the bed for his body to fit! We're talking zero clearance on either side of him. There he was, sound asleep, never realizing that if he moved an inch in the wrong direction, he'd be off his comfortable sliver of the bed and onto the floor. Meanwhile, I'm surrounded by a total of four pillows, taking up the rest of the space.


2. My falling asleep/waking up routine--Rob has learned that he can't lay down and get comfortable until I have plopped into bed and adjusted everything from my body to my clothes to my pillows for 4 minutes before I get comfortable. Then, finally, he can lay down in whatever space is left and fall promptly asleep for another 4 minutes until I'm so uncomfortable that I need to roll over, which wakes him up with my "OW, OW, OW." Then I adjust for an additional 4 mintues. Then he's finally able to sleep in peace. At least until half-way through the night when I go through the whole routine again when I get up to go to the bathroom or roll over.


3. My complaints about being tired--We both go to bed at the same time, but I wake him up once or twice a night. Then he wakes up at 5:45 to get ready and drive an hour to work where he is all day before another hour drive home. As soon as he walks in the door, Nate wants to wrestle, sometimes he makes dinner, we hang out and put Nate to bed, he does four hours of homework, and then finally gets to bed again. This happens every single day. Meanwhile, I wake up around 8:00, usually get a nap while Nate is napping, and then don't have homework at night. But I complain all the time about how tired I am!

I know I can't be too hard on myself because taking care of a very energetic toddler while being pregnant is super hard work. But taking care of me has to be almost just as hard!! Thanks, Rob, for being kind, always willing to serve me, being a fun dad, and working really hard every day to provide for our growing family!!! I love you!!!!!!!!!

San Francisco Babymoon--Day 2

Our second day we took a bus tour (I'm not usually a big fan of bus tours, but due to my condition and not wanting to rent a car, we thought this the best option) to the Muir Redwood Grove about a half hour north of San Francisco. It had been raining quite a bit so the ground was saturated, the river flowed deeply, and the trees were soaked. It was such a beautiful place!! It was very serene and humbling to look up and see how tall and to know how old those redwoods are. We loved our visit there.

Then the tour went to Sausalito, a small, Mediterranean-like town across the bay. There wasn't much there and it was chilly, but still a nice stop. We also got to see quite a bit of the city of San Francisco as we drove around on the tour bus.

Next we did the "Alcatraz at Night" tour but Rob's still working on those pictures. He took a ton and wants to sort through play "artiste" before posting them for all the world to see. So we'll put those up later.

Just for fun!

pacman cupcakes
Originally uploaded by hello naomi

This is just so creative! I didn't see any cupcakes like this at Nate's birthday party last year!! We'll keep practicing I guess.

San Francisco Babymoon

We heard the term "babymoon" a while ago and thought it was an ingenius idea (not the word, since honeymoon comes after the wedding, it seems a babymoon would come after the baby. But, hey, who cares?). Anyway, we decided that instead of going on a little vacation later in the year, while trying to juggle a toddler and a newborn, Rob and I would go away for the weekend for the first time since our crazy little son was born. Afterall, it'll be the last chance for quite some time, so we thought be better take advantage of it.

Since we couldn't stay more than two nights and didn't want to spend too much money or too much time flying somewhere, we decided on a weekend in San Francisco. It was perfect!!

We flew in Friday evening, the 25th of January and stayed at The Palace Hotel. It was stunning and in the perfect location which is what I needed since I can't walk a lot. We rested, got dressed up, had dinner, and then went to catch the cable car in the rain. While we were waiting at the stop (in the middle of the road), a car drove in front of us and hit a big puddle. We were hit with a wall of water, soaking us! Then, 10 seconds later, a car drove behind us and splashed the back of us! It was hilarious and just like a scene out of a movie. We laughed quite a bit over it. We went to The Top of the Mark, a jazz lounge on the top floor of the Mark Hopkins Hotel on Nob Hill overlooking the city. It was so nice to be out as a couple on a real date. We ordered an an $11 strawberry colada and an $11 hot chocolate. We listened to the great band and enjoyed being in each other's company. It was expensive, but a very fun and romantic night out. Then we rode the cable car back down in the rain. I thought it was beautiful and terribly romantic, but I guess Rob was just worried the whole time about me falling and getting sick.

I also endured many comments on my very pregnant belly. Everyone thinks I'm having twins or am due any time. But I'm not. At the time, I still had TWO months to go!! I was a total novelty there, like no one had ever seen a pregnant woman before! One lady got up told me that she was so happy and proud of me for "getting out there and actually doing it." Another lady just stared at it for a minute and then asked, "Is that real?!" Those are just two of the many, many comments I received over the course of the 3 days we were there. Very, very odd. It's a good thing I was on vacation and in a good mood, or I would've been terribly annoyed.

Well, that was our first day. Two more days to come. Stay tuned!

URS Lunch Party

So what do you do when someone you work with recently moved from a tropical area of the world, has never played in the snow, and is completely terrified of it!  We have a snow party over lunch to conquer her fear! I took a bunch of pictures at the party and have included a few here for your enjoyment! 

Juliepages Gets a Facelift

Julianna just updated her blog template.  The new site looks great!She did some work to add some style and new features.  For those of you that do not like checking websites all the time or just plain forget, you can now subscribe to her post via email!

Death of the Travel Blog

The Travel Blog is hereby dead. The posts in that blog have been included in this blog on the original post date. Some might consider it a tragedy; we just don't think we needed to have another blog. Continue to expect travel posts here in the main blog.

December 2007--Part II

Here's our second and final post for December.



Rob and I took Nate to see the lights on Temple Square on the 17th. We first ate at the Nauvoo Cafe on the main level of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. Rob and I both REALLY enjoy their grilled cheese sandwiches dipped in the cheesy potato soup. Just perfect for a cold night out. Then we wandered around and took pictures of the temple and lights. This was our first time using our new camera at night so we were curious to see how the pictures turned out. Pretty tricky, but I think we got a couple of good ones. It was VERY cold, though, so we didn't stay long. Besides, I think Rob and I were having more fun taking pictures of the lights than Nate was looking at them. But it was a great night out together.

Nathan had his 2nd birthday on December 20th and we celebrated with a family birthday party on the 22nd. It was pretty fun! We had all the kids do silly games (races, bowling, popping each other's balloons). Nate really liked participating in the races. We thought he'd be too young to understand the point of it, but he thought it was hilarious. All the kids had good sportsmanship most of the time and there were only a couple tantrums and tears :) But that's to be expected from a group of this age. Then they all decorated their own cupcakes with colored frosting and candy. This went better than expected as there was total concentration on their works of art and no food fights. Success!

Then of course there was Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve with the Raines family and Christmas Day with the Snow family. We always have such a great time talking and laughing with family and love everyone dearly. Thanks to both families for all the wonderful and thoughtful gifts and especially for your unconditional love. We're very blessed.

December 2007--Part 1

December was such a busy month, as it is every year with an anniversary, a baby's birthday, and Christmas all packed into the same week! But we had tons of fun. The 17th was our 5th wedding anniversary!! We were thinking about all the amazingly fun memories we have together over that short span. We've moved a bunch of times around the valley, gone on lots of trips, both graduated from college, and are expecting our 2nd baby! WHEW!! I wonder what memories the next 5 years will bring...

In order to celebrate the big 5, we had Nate stay at his grandparent's house so that we could actually stay out after 8pm. That alone was pretty cool. We went shopping at Trolley Square, visited the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, had a URS work Christmas party to attend, and then made an appearance at another party given by a friend in the ward. It was all really fun.

Here are a few pictures from that day and a few of Nate driving (and crashing) Lighting McQueen. Isn't Rob the most handsome man ever?! And Nate the cutest boy ever?! Man, I'm one lucky girl!!

Poetica

So I have recently come across a very good local band called Poetica.  They are a very talented group; each member showing great skill and also blending well with the other members of the band.  I must admit at this point that by brother Kelly is the drummer of this band.  With that stipulation, I can honestly say that I was blown away the first time I went to their myspace page to listen to their first song.  I liked it enough that I just had to extract the song from their page to listen to it on my IPOD whenever my heart desired!  They are having a concert on the 18th (details here) that I am very excited to attend.  So if your looking for some really cool local music, check out my brother's band Poetica.  They come highly recommended.