sick of this part

I have had a couple requests for pictures of my belly, but I always find excuses to not take pictures of myself. I'm either too busy to think about it and when I'm not busy I usually don't look photo-worthy. Tonight was one of the non-cute-looking nights. So I will try to look cute tomorrow and post a picture. Actually, I should be really busy because I have a ten page paper due on Saturday that is not even half way finished, but I'm having a hard time staying focused and writing what I want to write.

Anyway, here's an update for you: I'm sick of being pregnant.

If you were to ask me in each trimester how I was feeling, this is how it would go:

First trimester - "I feel sick and tired and I don't have energy to do anything. But mostly good." Not much to say here mostly because I can't even remember the first trimester. It seems like that was ages ago.

Second trimester - "I feel AWESOME!" (I remember telling Scott once that I could be pregnant forever if this is how it was going to be.) The second trimester is seriously the best. Not too big but people can see your belly, still able to move around comfortably, still able to sleep through the night without waking up to go potty. I sometimes wish I was back in those days, but then that would mean that I would have to endure the third trimester again. So I take that back.

Third trimester - "This is horrible." Actually, I really tell people that I'm feeling great, but that's not the truth. Everything is so much harder. Little things like putting on my pants in the morning or shaving my legs have become almost impossible. Plus I don't get much sleep because of my constantly full bladder. Sometimes I even have to have Scott push me out of bed in the morning. Braxton Hicks contractions are seriously annoying and probably the only good thing about this trimester is that it means I'm almost done! That and feeling the baby kick. That never gets old, even when his head hits my bladder or he gives a little kick to my ribs.

I am just mentally ready to have this baby, even though realistically we're not. We still have a lot to do before he comes, so I'm hoping he'll hold out for a few more weeks. But that may not be the case because I went to the doctor today and my blood pressure is a teeny bit high. So if it's too high when I go in next week, I'll have to be induced early. Even though I'm not dilated one half of a centimeter or thinned out at all (which was kind of disappointing). So for now, I'm just kind of trying to take it easy and drinks lots of water so my feet don't swell like they did that one time you all remember (luckily they haven't since then).

Anyway, I will try to look cute tomorrow and post a picture of my belly for you all to see. It's getting pretty huge! Someone said to me the other day, "I just don't know how your belly is going to get any bigger!" Thanks, but even though I'm pregnant and supposed to look like that, I'm still sensitive to comments about my body looking massive. It doesn't help either when people say, "Well you're supposed to gain weight. You're pregnant!" I now know never to say those kinds of things to a pregnant woman because she is even more hormonal and crazy-emotional than before (if you thought that was possible).

hello

So I guess it is time for me to be a better blogger. I don't really have any excuses. I can't say we have been busy...because we have definitely been busier. I think it's just that thing we call laziness. Here is an update.

I went to the doctor today. I'm now twenty eight weeks and feeling great. Everything looks good so far and I am just counting myself really lucky that we haven't had any major problems so far. Besides a little traumatic experience a couple weeks ago and a back ache every hour of the day, this pregnancy has been easy! We're now officially in the home stretch and I can't really imagine how I'm going to get much bigger. I feel pretty huge. Maybe I'll post a picture sometime.

Scott has his first triathlon this Saturday. I'm excited for him because he's been training pretty much every day for the past two or three months. He will do just fine. So everyone wish him luck and we're hoping that he doesn't drown in Utah Lake. Oh wait, is that possible? I think the deepest point of that lake is two feet. Right?

I had my twenty-first birthday a few weeks ago. How exciting! Yeah, I know I'm young to be married and six point five months pregnant, but I do things my way. So there. Anyway, it was a lovely day. My favorite present was something I still haven't received. I found out that Coldplay is coming in November and I've always said that if I had to die to go to any concert, it would be a Coldplay concert. So whenever the Energy Solutions Arena decides they want to start selling tickets, I'll be in line for sure. Oh and Scott also gave me their new album which arrived in the mail today, which I'm listening to right now. So far, so good.

Anyway, I think that's it for now. Scott and I are just living the dream as they say. Life is good and we can't complain about much of anything besides gas prices, and still we don't complain too much because it won't get us anywhere.

well, well, well.

Were we ever surprised when we found out that we're having a boy! I thought for sure that it was a girl, but I guess I don't have that mothers' intuition they speak of yet. It was a really good surprise, though, and we are extremely excited. I'm looking forward to our other children having an older brother and having a momma's boy. Scott is looking forward to the years ahead of basketball, baseball, and football games and basically living his dreams through his son. He is also looking forward to us dressing our son like a stud. He threatened me that I better dress him well, or else...Or else what? Like I'm going to have an ugly-dressed son! Oh and good news, my due date didn't change. Woo hoo! Here is an ultrasound picture of the sweet boy's little face. My sister thinks his little hand poking out looks like he's doing the Soulja Boy dance. Sweet! He's going to be so cool.

a few things

I haven't posted in a while because from the time of my last post (March 30th) to April 15th, I was basically living at work, coming home, eating, and then sleeping. From April 16th to the present, I have had a very blissful and stress-free week, so I was pretty much milking it for all it was worth. So here are a couple of things:

• Last Saturday, Scott and his sisters began their racing careers. They ran in the Salt Lake Marathon 5K and did pretty well, meaning at least they didn't finish last. Just kidding, they did great! It was fun to watch them come in at the finish line. I brought my camera and of course the batteries died right after I turned it on, so I whipped out the Blackberry and now I can't figure out how to get the pictures onto my computer. So if anyone knows how to do this, please help me. I consider myself pretty "computer smart" but I'm struggling with this one!
• I'm really excited about spring! I have been waiting and waiting and waiting for the tulips to start blooming and the trees to get green and it seems like I walked outside on Sunday and all of the sudden, spring had arrived. The world is so much more beautiful when it's green outside.
• Since Scott decided to start training for two triathlons this summer, we decided to leave the good old gym and get memberships at the new rec center so he could do the running, biking, and swimming all in one place. I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but I pretty much hate running and it's really tough on my joints now that I'm getting fatter by the minute. So now I swim and I love it! I've always enjoyed it, but now I feel like I can get a really good workout without feeling the pain and the heat of doing an aerobic exercise outside of the water. I've gone every day this week so far and I think I'll finally be motivated to exercise now that I've found something I actually enjoy. Plus, I really like the rec center because I don't see many hopped-up-mid-life-crisis-stage men who go to the gym not to work out (hey, the drugs do the work for them), but to hit on the mid-thirties-blonde-hot-moms.
• Speaking of getting fatter by the minute, I've really grown in the past week. We visited my family on Saturday and when my five year old sister saw me for the first time, she said, "Look at all that fat in there!" Thanks a lot! I'm growing a flippin' baby in there.
• Speaking of growing a baby in my stomach, tomorrow is the big day! No, we're not having the baby tomorrow, we're just finding out what exactly is in there. I'm halfway through the pregnancy and I'm feeling better than ever. We're pretty excited for tomorrow and I still am betting on it being a girl. If it's a boy, we'll definitely be excited, but every time I talk to the baby in my head, I talk to it as if it's a girl. So that might be a little weird and might take some adjustment.

Anyway, we'll be sure to let everyone know how tomorrow goes. I'm really just nervous that they're going to tell me "You're not measuring at twenty weeks, it's more like you're about 12 or 13 weeks along. Your new due date is October 31st." We won't be able to wait that long. We're already so anxious to meet this baby!

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!

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.

Top Ten Newsworthy Stories of 2007

All right...I know that it's February 6th and that it's a little late to be blogging about our favorite things of 2007, but maybe after you read the list, you'll understand why I've been such a slacker. So here is our "Top Ten" of 2007:

10. We moved! I don't really have any pictures of this event, but it sure was big. We had a lot of help from our great friends and it only took a couple hours to get everything loaded, driven to the new place, and unloaded again. I decided that we moved from a really cute (but teeny) apartment to a really ugly (but huge) one. I can't decide which I would rather have...I think in a couple days I'll be posting about the ugliness of our apartment.

9. Attending Will's football games. We love football! And it so much more fun when you have someone specific to watch. We were pretty good at going to support him and it was a blast, especially watching my dad coach. It's a side of him I've never seen before. Here's a picture with both of them. Doesn't Will look huge and so intense?

8. Lots of weddings. We attended lots of weddings in 2007, which was awesome because I love it when our friends get married! That mostly means that they don't feel awkward hanging out with us old married people anymore, so it's easier to stay in touch. One wedding in particular was really special. My cousin, who was baptized two years ago, got married in June...in the Salt Lake Temple! We were so excited and it was a really special experience for me and my parents to be there.

7. Christmas. Christmas was great this year as you know from my previous post. We loved being with family and celebrating the season. I love Christmas!

6. Trip to Pineview. For my family's family vacation this year, we took a weekend and rented a condo at Pineview. We went boating, ate good food, watched the premiere of High School Musical 2, played games and just hung out. It was awesome!

5. Flaming Gorge. Scott and I decided to take a little weekend trip by ourselves sometime in June or July up to Flaming Gorge. I love that place more than words can express. It reminds me so much of being a child. My grandparents have a trailer up there (yes, it is in a trailer park, and no, we're not white trash) so the best part was that it was free. We drove around the lake, barbequed some hamburgers, went fishing at my family's secret spot (which is secret for a reason, see picture below), and had a nice, relaxing time.

4. Island Park. Every July, my dad's family heads up to Island Park for a family reunion. Not everyone was there this year, but we still had a great time hanging out. We, of course, went boating, played games, ate amazing food (the married grandkids were each in charge of two meals this year....that was really scary for me), hiked at Yellowstone, saw Footloose at the Playmill, walked the streets of West Yellowstone, and as always, had a great time.

3. Thanksgiving. We drove down to Orderville, Utah for a traditional Thanksgiving with the Russell side of the family. We don't see Scott's dad's siblings very often so it was nice to get to know them better. They are really awesome people and I'm glad we went down there. We went to Orderville because that is where Sterling grew up (Scott's dad) and they still own his parents' house but they are getting ready to sell it. So it was kind of a little bit of a last hoorah. Orderville is a REALLY small town and we had fun walking around the whole town in oh, about....thirty minutes. This picture below was at the cemetery where Scott's grandparents are buried. This headstone was classic. We're probably related to him in some form, but I thought it was appropriate especially because he died on our wedding day (but two years earlier). I think Kyle Nelson would get a kick out of this. Is it bad to laugh at the dead? Sorry....

2. Washington D.C. In August (don't ever go there in August), we took a little trip to our nation's capital. It was a blast to say the least! We had an amazing time seeing all the sights. Scott just got excited to see everything in real life that he had only seen in movies before. And I was just amazed the whole time that we were actually able to do it. It was just so funny to me that we could just get around Washington D.C. all by ourselves! No parents, no other adults...I guess it was my little taste of freedom! But of course we would have been dead meat without the GPS that came with our rental car. That was a life saver. So we did all the normal stuff...Mount Vernon, Arlington National Cemetery, the mall, Lincoln, Washington, and Jefferson Memorials, the Smithsonians, the White House, the FBI Headquarters for Scott, the Washinton D.C. temple, yadda, yadda, yadda. We also visited our good friends the Stevens. They took us to dinner and Nick's football game and then we came home and watched home videos of us when us kids were all little. It was great, but I think Scott felt a little awkward. Anyway, it was the trip of a lifetime! And again, don't EVER EVER EVER go to Washington D.C. in August, unless you're used to 98 degree weather with 100,000% humidity. It was unbelievable. I thought Utah summers were bad, but I had no idea. You can tell it's definitely hot by my bright read face in this picture at the White House. Over all we had a great time and we're excited to continue traveling. When? We don't know, probably not until we're retired.

And drumroll please..............

The number one most newsworthy story of 2007 for the Russell Family is................

WE'RE PREGNANT! Yep, it's true. We found out on December 27th. I'm ten weeks along, my due date is September 7th, and I'm feeling really crappy. That is why I don't blog much anymore. Good excuse huh? And that is why I'm blogging right now in the middle of the day. Lucky me, I'm sick as a dog and I get to stay home from work! But hopefully it's just a couple more weeks and then I'll be on to feeling great. We went to the doctor last week and she said everything looks great. We even got a little ultrasound, which I wasn't expecting. We're getting really excited to welcome a little baby into our humble family and we're just praying that everything goes well. Here's a picture of the little person. It's the blob inside the black hole. I think it looks like the cutest baby ever, but am I just being partial? I also think it looks like a girl, but we'll be excited for whatever we have, just as long as it's healthy.

So as you can see, 2007 was quite eventful for us. We had an amazing year together and we're counting on 2008 being even better!