momentous

Friday was a most momentous day in the history of the Russell family. Two very special things happened. First, I went ahead and bought my first MATERNITY PANTS. Yes, no more zippers and buttons here. Just elastic waists from here on out. Embarrassing huh? I do have a couple pairs of pants that I can still wear but most of them are getting a little tight on the waist and it mostly hurts to wear them. And I'm not going to lie, maternity pants are actually quite comfortable.

Second, we bought a car! And wow, is it the nicest car ever! Just kidding, we are the proud new owners of a 1994 (yes, 1994) Mazda 626. And we are pumped about it! We are mostly pumped because we paid cash for it. Let me tell you, probably the best feeling in the world is to have one more car but not one more car payment. We figure if it lasts us two years then it will have been more than worth it. Scott gets the privilege of driving it (which is FINE by me) and he's loving it so far. We were thinking about buying a small SUV for me and keeping the Volvo for Scott but we just didn't feel good about spending $15K on a car (who can feel good about that when you're newlyweds, students, and have a baby on the way?). We finally humbled ourselves and I'm telling you, we feel so great about it. We had a lesson on financial preparedness today in Sunday school and the whole time I was thinking about how guilty I would have felt the whole lesson if we had bought the Explorer we were looking at. So for anyone who wants to join the Crappy Car Club, we are now accepting applications and pictures of your crappy car. We highly recommend it!

Here's a picture of the car (and yes, it is light blue!). We're also taking name suggestions.

In other news, our baby is now about the size of an avocado--in height, not width thank goodness. I'm starting to feel some flutterings. It's the coolest thing in the world! And apparently our baby gets excited about bowling. We went bowling last weekend with some friends and every time I sat down when my turn was over, I could feel it flopping around in there. We're getting so dang excited and it is definitely becoming more real to us. We can't wait until April 24th when have our big ultrasound. We'll be sure to let everyone know what flavor we're having!

something really neat

I would like to tell you about something pretty cool. I should be in bed right now because I'm pretty sick and tired, but I just found this really cool thing and I think you should know about it as well (you're welcome) and my homework's done so it's okay--I can do whatever I want now. Here's the really cool thing: radio on the internet. I know you're thinking "Mattie, you're a little behind the times. I can just go to the website of 101.9 or 100.3 or 102.7 or whatever and listen to it, duh." But no, this is much better. Following is a list of benefits:

a. It's totally free.
b. There are virtually, no I mean literally, NO commercials.
c. It doesn't take forever for songs to download, even on your really slow Qwest Broadband at your grandpa's house that takes thirty minutes to download a two minute video. In fact, they don't even have to download. You don't even have to wait half-way through a song for it to "buffer" (whatever that means).
d. You can pick your songs.
e. You can skip songs you don't like (there's a limit to how many songs you skip) and you can tell the station to never play a song again if you absolutely hate it.
f. You can create multiple "stations" with different genres of music to fit your every mood.

Okay, so now are you excited? Yeah, it's really awesome. I've been listening to it for a while and I really enjoy it and I'm really pumped to use it at work tomorrow because I'm thinking music is probably about the only thing that will get me through another day of tax season. If you want to try it, just go to www.pandora.com and register. I'm telling you, it's a pretty cool thing.

a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders

I really cut my hair! I was really proud of myself because I did it in a style that I haven't had for the past twelve years of my life. So anyway, I didn't cut off ten inches. I was pretty unsure about it and Kylee told me, "You don't have to cut off the ten inches just so you feel like you're changing the world." So I thought about it and I knew she was right. I've already donated my hair once so I think that's enough. We decided to cut six or seven inches off instead and thin it out a lot. I should have taken a picture of the pile of hair, but I think it weighed probably twelve or thirteen pounds (not really). Kylee did an awesome job and I am extremely happy with the results. So shout out to Kylee and please go visit her because she's the best! Plus she's fun to chat with, not awkward like most hair-cutter ladies who try to talk to you like they're interested in your life but you know they're mostly not. This was my inspiration for the haircut and it turned out pretty much like it but better and without the bangs. I think Reese shows it off better and I don't like taking pictures of myself.

i'm really doing it...

I made an appointment for a haircut. Tomorrow at 10 am. I'm pretty nervous about it and I don't think I'm going to cut off ten inches. I just don't know what style to cut it in, but I'm confident Kylee will come up with something good. She's pretty amazing like that. So wish me luck and maybe I'll post some before and after pictures when it's all said and done.

typical

I'm always tired. I hear it's pretty typical for the first months of pregnancy. I always make Scott late to things because I wait until the very last second to drag myself out of bed. It doesn't even matter if I go to bed early the night before. I guess I have always done this, but it's a lot worse lately. And Scott has never once gotten mad at me (at least to my face). He's very patient with me.

Anyway, last Sunday Scott had to be early to church to put the hymn books out and make sure there were enough deacons to pass the sacrament. I woke up a little late and was really trying to hurry to get him there on time, but I didn't make it. He decided just to get a ride with his grandpa and that I would meet him there when I was ready. I was honestly ten minutes away from being ready. So I finished getting ready and walked out the door at 8:55-sort of on time. I got to the car, tried to open the door, but it was FROZEN SHUT. Oh great, I thought. Perfect. I finally got one of the back doors open, started the car, blasted the heat, and found an ice scraper to scrape the four inches of ice all over the car. After doing that for five minutes, I decided that the doors were probably unfrozen, but no. I thought I could climb over the seat, but our car is so dang small that I couldn't make it. I tried to open the driver's side door from the inside, but it still wouldn't open. I thought, even if I can climb over, I'm not going to be able to get out of the car when I get to church! So yes, I decided that I would just have to walk. It's not that far of a walk, but when I got there my cheeks were very rosy and my nose was very runny. I made it to church by 9:15 and Scott and I had the giggles all through sacrament meeting because of it. The thing I can't believe is that the morning before it was 60 degrees outside! I am SO sick of this winter. And I need a hair cut because my hair takes me the longest to do. I am going to chop ten inches off and donate it again. Don't worry, it grows back in a few months (literally). This morning, I had to finish doing my hair at work because I was running late again to take Scott to school. That's it...I'm going to be a mother, and with that comes the opportunity and responsibility to chop off your hair. My hair is down to my butt, so it won't be that short. Anyway, my hope is that soon I'll find some energy somewhere and be able to get up on time and get to the places I need to be on time.