Blargh.

A few things I'm grateful for today:

• Antibiotics
• Herbal tea
• Homemade chicken soup
• Ice cold orange juice
• THE comfiest sweater ever (bought on sale). I have worn it almost daily since fall because I love it almost as much as my husband and maybe even a little more than Krispy Kreme. That's a lot, in case you were wondering. A LOT.

37 weeks, 5 days

• Long hot showers
• Humidifiers
• The luxury of being a bum all day with just myself to take care of. I crawled back in bed after Dallin went to work and slept for another 3 hours. It was glorious.
• The fact that it looks like I *should* be able to kick this sickness before going into labor (knock on wood!)
• Cough drops with pep talks

In other words, I'm sick and have been all week. Ready for the incessant pounding in my head to disappear. Hoping and praying it does before I have this baby. Thankful to be getting better, even if it feels like it's happening slower than the proverbial molasses in January. Since it won't be January tomorrow, maybe I'll be better then, no? 

(Side note: holy toledo it is really February tomorrow!? WHAT.)

Okay. Pity party over. Mikaela out. 

Five quick takes

1. I wore heels to seminary today and nearly fell flat on my face when I tried to bend down to pick up a marker I dropped. Bending over is getting hard enough lately... I should have known that trying to do it when I have an extra 2-3 inches to go and a shifted center of gravity would be a joke! Silly, silly Mikaela.

2. I wish all Christmas songs made me as happy as the Hanukkah Song. Pure gold that never gets old. The end.

 

3. If you need a laugh, check out the reviews for these gummy bears on Amazon. I've never really liked gummy bears, but I don't think I'll ever be able to eat one again. Ever ever ever. (Oh, and lest you think I was shopping for a 5-lb bag of sugar-free gummy bears, lemme clarify that I found this because someone shared it on Facebook simply for the comedic value of said reviews, just saying. Haha!)

4. Most of the food I consumed today was peanut butter kiss cookies. I feel like I should be ashamed. Unfortunately, I'm ashamed to say that I'm not ashamed. I blame my husband for not coming home for lunch today, thus sending me into pregnant-couch-potato-with-no-motivation-to-make-food mode. ;)

5. While baking said cookies yesterday I managed to burn my wrist on the edge of the cookie sheet. It's shaping up to be a nice scar, so that's great because what better place to have a scar than on your wrist, right? I promise I'm not depressed, just remarkably prone to accidents lately. Promise.

Five things Friday

1. I am a major pyro. I love fire and I could play with it, or even just watch it, for hours on end. Maybe it's a redhead thing? My mom wisely never allowed candles in our house (except on birthday cakes), and now I feel like a rebel when I use them.

2. Besides taking a couple of classes in high school, I was home schooled until I enrolled in a community college when I was 17. It makes me happy when people are surprised to hear this. What, do you expect me to wear a bonnet or something? And be completely socially incompetent? It cracks me up every time to see the shock in people's eyes!

3. I could eat salad for every single meal, no joke. That is how much I love it. On a somewhat related note, I love tomatoes so much that I eat them like apples, sometimes with a little salt sprinkled on top. So good. 

4. I'm an introvert. Even though I love being around people, I tend to be more of a quiet observer, and I love  (and need) my alone time. (Currently working on a post about this!) 

5. If could wear sweaters and scarves every day of the year, I probably would. I'm anxious for it to be cool enough to bust out my fall/winter clothes! 

Happy Friday! 

5 happy thoughts

Because sometimes writing them down makes them come into my head, and if we're being honest there aren't very many happy thoughts in my head at the moment as I lay in bed grouchy, sick, and tired.

1. I will be sleeping in my own bed tonight! This babysitting gig has been (for the most part, as seen by my last post) easier and more fun than I was anticipating, but 10 days is a long time to live in someone else's house and it will be nice to get back to normal life.

2. I married a keeper. He really is the best. Patient, sweet, and always making me laugh. I can't believe he was crazy enough to want to marry this crazy goof of a redhead, but I'm sure glad he did!

3. One of the little girls in the family we've been watching loves to come up, pat my belly, and say, "Hi baby" several times a day. She is also really excited to find out whether it is a boy or girl (as am I!) and has made me promise to text her mom when I find out in a few weeks so she can tell her. It is adorable. I might have to sneak her home with us tonight. Her parents won't notice, right?

4. It's Friday! I get my husband all to myself for the next couple of days! Yippee!

5. My almost 2-year-old sister makes my little heart melt every time she tells me "Lah-loo" (Love you) on the phone. She is pretty stinking cute. (And I'm not biased or anything....)

Funny to look back at these happy thoughts and see exactly what is on my mind... sleep, husband, and babies/kids. Must be pregnant or something... eh? :)

On an unrelated note, you should watch this. And all the other Kid Snippets while you're at it, because they are hilarious. Almost as hilarious as listening to the youngest kid we are watching start quoting lines from it at random and then bust up laughing. THE BEST.



Happy Friday!

Pterodactyls, blackberry jam, and Duck Dynasty

Well, this week was a doozy. A real doozy. I am so thankful today is Friday. Rather than whine about everything that went screwy this week, although I am tempted, here's a list of five happy things. :)

1. We got to see our little jelly bean yesterday! Annnnd... I'm pretty sure I am going to give birth to a pterodactyl. Either that or a chicken.

(P.S. Here is an even more hilarious ultrasound picture... bahahaha!)

2. I needed to switch to a different OBGYN. Usually this would be no problem, but in a town that only has two of them and the one I wanted was supposedly not accepting new patients, it was kinda stressing me out a bit. That's a major understatement, by the way. If I couldn't switch I was going to have to find one somewhere else, and the idea of traveling to all my appointments didn't really appeal to me, but sticking with the one I have been seeing was not an option. 

A couple weeks ago I called to see if there was anything that they could do, anything at all. That's actually a really funny story, but long story short I guess sometimes being a somewhat emotionally unstable pregnant lady has its perks. I completely broke down in violent tears which conveniently touched the heart of the sweet receptionist who made it her personal mission to get me the good doctor. This week they called to let me know she decided to take me on, and I am so thankful for that. So thankful. She is much more supportive of the birth and pregnancy I want to have, and it really puts my mind at ease to have her as my doctor! 

3. I found a blackberry patch not to0 far away from our house and I picked enough to make a triple batch of jam. Now, homemade jam tastes much better on homemade bread, so I made my mama's whole wheat bread to go with it. It was so worth the time and effort to enjoy this deliciousness. Mmmmm... :)

4. Duck Dynasty started again this week! :D My husband and I are big fans. It's really nice to see a wholesome, hilarious, uplifting show for once... makes me happy, happy, happy. ;)

5. I get to visit my sister in CA very soon! I can't wait to go to the beach. As much as I love my mountains, there is something about the sand and the sea that makes me happy. P.S. She is pregnant with twin girls due about 2 months before our baby! So exciting! 

Happy Friday! :)

So long, summer (kinda)

Seminary starts next week. It is so close! I can't believe my lazy summer is almost at an end and that today was my last lackadaisical weekday morning for a while. Here's some of the things I'm mourning already...

• No more going without some of the non-essential pieces of clothing that one doesn't need to wear when they are a bum at home all day. In other words, I will now have to wear a bra. Life is so hard sometimes... *sigh*
• No more sleeping in until 7:00am every morning, which is my favorite time to get up. Early, but not too early. 
• Likewise, no more staying up "late", which for this old fogie means any time past like 9:00 or 9:30. We're pretty exciting around here, lemme tell ya. 
• No more leisurely weekday breakfasts with Dallin. 
• No more showering in the morning. (Ain't no seminary teacher got time for that!)

On the bright side, there's a lot of things I'm really looking forward to, such as...

• Teaching! It can be difficult some days, but I love that it challenges me, and I hope I can do some good in the lives of my students. I know high school was a very defining time for my character (in other words, it was misery... but I learned from it!), and I know seminary played a part in helping me avoid bad influences and decisions. 
• Preparing lessons! I learn so much when I'm studying the scriptures and lessons manuals. It really helps me study with a purpose. Also, the new manual is going to make this much less stressful than last year... yippee! 
• No longer being a bum all day. It was nice to take it easy for a little while, but I've started to feel a little useless just hanging out at home all day by myself. There's only so much cleaning, reading, and Netflix-watching one can do before it gets a little very monotonous. I kind of wish I could be working, at least part-time, but employment around these parts is hard to come by, especially good employment (as in something that doesn't make me work on Sunday and isn't a bad environment like the job I quit a while ago).
• Being forced to get dressed and "prettied up" in the morning. It really makes a difference in my day to get home at 8am already dressed and with makeup on. I tend to be much more productive when I start my day early.

Wish me luck! (I need it...)

Summer, slushies, and sunsets

I haven't been in the blogging mood much lately. It's not due to a lack of time; in fact maybe the overabundance of free time I've had lately is making me feel a little... blah.

Seminary starts in two weeks, and although that partially makes me freak out a little bit with all the things I need to do to prepare, I'm also looking forward to having something to occupy my time. And trust me, seminary is very good at that, meaning I will probably be whining about how stressed and busy I am in a few months. (Go ahead, judge me. DO IT.) Also, fun fact: I accidentally wrote "busty" instead of "busy" at first and it made me giggle.

Moving on.

Summer is in full swing at our humble abode. Here's some of the signs of summer around these parts:

• Slushie/vanilla malt/oreo mcflurry runs. All day erryday. Sometimes I feel bad when I go on one of these runs when Dallin is at work, but clearly not bad enough to stop it. (Sorry babe!)
• Never wearing pants (or any other unnecessary layers) in the house if I can help it. It gets too dang hot to keep them on! Unfortunately, the UPS man seems to time his stops at our house perfectly with No Pants Time, so I've started keeping an emergency pair of shorts around just in case after having an awkward experience in which I hid behind the couch after we had made eye contact. Because I'm that smooth and totally not a weirdo at all. (False!) 
• Spending lots of time downstairs, where it is much cooler. Unfortunately since this is where our TV is I usually end up wasting too much time vegging out on the couch. Working on that. (which is why I'm blogging as I sit on said couch watching TV... because somehow that makes it okay, right? Right!)
• Thoroughly enjoying afternoon monsoons. One of my favorite things about living in AZ! I absolutely love how it makes my house smell.
• Eating outside on our brand new deck furniture! We got this a few days ago and I might not eat inside ever again. 

We live on a bit of a hill, so the view from our deck involves surprisingly few houses, and lots of trees, peeks of distant mountains, and a painted sky every evening at sunset. Last night was especially beautiful, and the fact that it was lightly raining, our bellies were full of our amazing homemade pizza, and I had that cute husband of mine holding my hand made it the best.

I'm looking forward to many more lovely summer (and fall and winter and spring) evenings with him. He makes my life pretty darn happy indeed.

Better enjoy the beautiful summer while it lasts... I am not ready to trade my summer wardrobe of t-shirts/sweats for dresses/skirts once seminary starts, but I guess I'll probably survive. Wish me luck! ;)

Five Hap-pay, Hap-pay, Hap-pay Things

I've been in a funk lately that I just can't seem to shake, so here are five happy things to replace the slightly disgruntled post I was writing (because ain't nobody got time for being disgruntled, right?).

Numero Uno: This video of me smashing an egg on my head.

This is what happens when my siblings and I get together. Yes, we are crazy, but the skin on my forehead does feel silky smooth now! ;)

Number 2: These pics from our hike on Saturday. 

This place was beautiful and I'm glad I went through the trouble of waterproofing and lugging along my good camera. 

Thank you Dallin, for being the only person in the world that is whiter than me!

Number 3: Studio C

Dallin and I are a little obsessed. They are just too good. This one is my favorite!

Number 4: Baby hands and dandelions

I made a surprise trip to visit my family a few days ago, and caught my sister E picking (and then squishing) dandelions for my mom. She melts my heart (and makes me exceedingly baby hungry).

Number 5: THE PIANO GUYS!!!!

We are headed to Mesa tonight to see them! Can you tell I'm a wee bit excited??? :D

Five beautiful things

I think it is a well known fact that this world is full of a lot of ugly, sad, scary things. 

I'm not one to watch the news very much, but I did have it on for a few minutes the other day and it was really depressing. There's so much crazy stuff going on that it can be easy to forget what a beautiful place this world is, and I do still believe that the good and happy and beautiful things in this world outweigh the bad. Sometimes you just have to work a little harder to find them.

Here are five of the beautiful things I've been loving lately.

1. This song by Gungor 

All around

Hope is springing up from this old ground

Out of chaos life is being found in You

You make beautiful things

You make beautiful things out of the dust

You make beautiful things

You make beautiful things out of us

I love this. So peaceful, hopeful, and inspiring. 

2. Tulips

I don't know if it is possible to be a tulip addict, but it so then I am one. Daffodils and tulips are my favorite flowers of all time, and that is saying a lot because I am a flower lover. 

P.S. Thank you Dallin for surprising me with a sweet new lens for my camera!
It was fun  testing it out on my tulips. :)

3. This shadow dancing performance

I mean... seriously? This blew my mind, and maybe even made me a little teary-eyed. Maybe. ;)

4. The Temple

Mesa, AZ Temple. Photo by me, taken a couple months ago.

This is one of my favorite places to go to find beauty, peace, and deeper purpose in my life. I love it here. It always feels like home to me. 

5. The Gospel

This morning I was reading my scriptures and it reminded me again of what a beautiful blessing the gospel is. It provides me with the peace and power I need to be happy and successful in life. For that I will always be thankful. One of the things I love the most about my faith is that it makes everything okay.

Because I know God and that He is aware of me, I have no reason to fear, and that knowledge is the most beautiful thing of all.



What are some beautiful things in your life lately? How do you stay positive and happy?

Top 5 worst fears {Friday five}

I like to think of myself as a pretty fearless person, but I do have some things I am afraid of.
Here's five of the biggest ones. 

P.S. Don't judge me, I'm a weird person with some weird fears. ;)

1. Heights. 

This is kind of ironic since my husband and I love to canyoneer. Most of the canyons we do are technical, meaning they require rappelling and/or climbing, and quite a few of those rappels are pretty high. So far, the longest rappel I've done is about 200 feet. 

See little me at the top? I was probably about 1/2 of the way down at that point. Eeep!

And yet, even though we do this often, I am still pretty scared of heights. However, I do think I am slowly getting over it. Slowly. Also, I'm very thankful that I am totally fine with airplanes, tall amusement park rides, etc. 

But things like this make me very dizzy. 

And especially things like this. Oy.

These pictures could be scenes from my worst nightmares. Seriously. 

2. Getting abducted

Speaking of my worst nightmares, most of them involve big, scary guys and dark alleys. I have had some scary real life experiences that contribute to this fear too. I take several security measures to protect myself, and just do my best to stay safe but even so this will probably always be a fear of mine. 

3. Passing cars on 2-lane highways

This is pretty silly, but I am deathly afraid of passing anybody unless there are more than two lanes. I will do it on occasion, but only if the road is straight so I can see far ahead and there are no cars coming my way at all. It doesn't matter if the oncoming car is a mile away, I will not pass it. Dallin is not quite as patient as I am (and also isn't paranoid like me) so he will pass if he has enough time, even if there is oncoming traffic. Every time it absolutely terrifies me to be in the same lane as a car coming directly towards me at 55+ MPH. (shudder)

 My husband gets a kick out of this sometimes, and I can't blame him for laughing at his white-knuckled, wide-eyed, hyperventilating wife in the passenger seat freaking out about the car that is half a mile away from us. 

4. Being asked to play the piano/organ in church

I can count the piano lessons I've had on one hand. I taught myself quite a bit though, and I know how to play a handful of hymns. Unfortunately, even though I am not very good, there have been a few times when I had to play the piano at church functions and I was the seminary pianist (or co-pianist) all four years. It terrifies me. Usually I get through the first verse or two okay, but it is downhill from there! Ever since we got a piano I have been practicing, but let's just say I don't practice anywhere near enough... haha! I have a feeling that one of these days I'm going to be asked to be a Relief Society or Primary pianist. Maybe that will be what it takes to purge that fear. ;)

5. Swimming in the dark

Because obviously that is when all the scary water creatures come to the surface with their tentacles and sharp teeth to prey on unsuspecting humans. ;) This fear is totally irrational and very ridiculous, but even just thinking about being in dark water gives me the heebie jeebies. (Although I did swallow this fear once to play a game using glow sticks and water bottles at Lake Powell once, and it was a awsome.)

Well, there you have it. Do we share any of the same fears? Can we be phobia phriends? 

(Yeah, I think I'm pretty clever sometimes... heh heh)

And will you ever believe me if I say I'm really not living in fear all the time, even if this post makes it seem that way? :) 

Awkward and Awesome

I don't know who started it, but I've noticed a couple bloggers (here and here) that do an "awkward and awesome" segment on their blogs. I like this idea, so I am going to steal it. ;) Here's what's been awkward and awesome in my life lately.

Awkward:

• My stomach has been a little wonky today. I mentioned it to a few people and each asked me if I was pregnant. (In case you were wondering that yourself, I'm not. :P)
• I cannot eat chocolate without getting some of it on my face. No really, I'm serious! It's embarrassing. 
• I'm at least 2 weeks behind posting my Pin a Week projects. Eh. 
• I almost smacked a random guy's behind a couple days ago thinking it was my husband. Crisis avoided (Hallelujah!), but still awkward, at least for me.
• I may or may not have stepped out the door to get the mail today with nothing on but my undies and a t-shirt. Thankfully the cold wind on my bare legs alerted me of my pants discrepancy right away. Crisis #2 avoided. (Hallelujah again!)
• Speaking of cold wind, it snowed today. Nothing stuck, but it just a reminder that I do still live in AZ where the weather doesn't stay the same for long. Hopefully my warm spring weather comes back soon!

Awesome:

• This morning's seminary lesson actually went quite well!
• My little siblings are really fun to talk to on facetime, especially since my baby sister blows me lots of kisses and makes my heart melt into a little puddle of happiness. 
• This quote by Aesop.

(Made by me using Picnik and Phonto)

• Dallin made me some grilled ham & cheese sandwiches for dinner since that is the only thing that sounded good, and I didn't even ask him to. 
• I am slowly but surely getting more familiar with my camera and weaning myself off of automatic mode. Here's some pictures I took of our beautiful lilac bush yesterday. 

Spring flowers make me happy.

• I finally put away all of our clean laundry today! It was getting pretty bad, take my word for it. 
• I spent some time working on my smash book today. It feels good to do something creative. 
• There is Ben & Jerry's pumpkin cheesecake ice cream in my freezer. Walmart has been getting this in stock not and then, and it's APRIL! I'm very happy my pumpkin ice cream addiction doesn't have to be restricted to the fall. P.S. If you haven't tried it yet, you are missing out. Big time.
• I got tickets to see The Piano Guys in June! SO EXCITED!

Well, there you have it. What has been awkward or awesome in your life lately? Tell me about it! :)

Five things you might not know about me

Because I love lists. And I've got writer's block. ;)

1. I love thrift stores. Some of my favorite articles of clothing, furniture, decorations, etc are from thrift stores. Oh, the things you can find! I might have to do a post on some of the best and worst things I've found. 

2. I have a secret dream of being a fashion designer. When I was little, I would draw pictures of dresses I wanted to make. One of the reasons I want to improve my sewing abilities is so I can create some of the visions I have in my head. I need lots of practice before then. :)

3. My favorite food of all time is Dallin's pizza margherita. It is perfection. Homemade crust with a little rosemary mixed in, sauce made from fresh tomatoes, and basil leaves on top... Mmmm. I think the fact that we pick the rosemary and basil from our own plants makes it even better. ;) I might have to post the recipe one of these days. It's making me hungry thinking about it so let's move on, shall we? 

Picture taken last summer. Looks amazing, right? And the pizza looks good too. ;)

4. I'm a little overly sensitive about the sounds some people make when they eat. I can handle a little bit of noise, but anything else is enough to make me nauseated. When dear Mother Nature is on her monthly rounds it is 10x worse, so I'm kind of worried that I will be eating in seclusion when I'm pregnant. ;)

5. I hate shaving. No really, I do. I've made a goal to do it once a week. We'll see how that goes. ;) When I was in Russia, I decided I wouldn't shave for the 4 months I spent there, and I stuck with that decision... even though towards the end even I was getting a little grossed out. (And that's saying something.)