baby brother's birth (oh and our cross-country move)

you guys.
seriously.
this month has hands down been the absolute CRAZIEST month of my adult life. bar none. no competition. i'm surprised we made it through alive and in one piece. my mind is blown. let's take a look, shall we?

May 23: my mother flies to connecticut to help us prepare for the movers to come wrap up our house

May 27: mom, bea, and i fly to utah on the longest travel day of my life. if you want to avoid crusties from every human in an airport, don't fly after 36 weeks pregnant. actually, how about just never fly in your third trimester? it is miserable and awful and i will never do it again (also i will never be pregnant again. beside the point.) luckily, with the help from my amazing mom, bea was completely entertained and i at least got to read in peace during the flights (there were two.) rather than wrangle a disoriented toddler.

May 28: we pick up my sister (who has last-minute returned home early from her mission due to a nasty case of mono) from the airport

May 29: i begin house-hunting with my mom, sister, and daughter in tow

June 1: i meet with my new OB/GYN, we go over my birth plan, which is very specific because we want to avoid the horrible recovery i had after delivering bea, all looks good. we make weekly appointments until i deliver.

~somewhere in here, i buy a minivan~

June 5: movers pack up our CT apartment and load up the truck with the estimated utah arrival window set to "june 9-29" awesome. gotta love some precision.

June 6: our car back in CT is loaded up to be shipped to utah with an esitmated arrival window of "2 to 20 days". again, with the precision. loving it.

June 7: Bradley FINALLY joins us in utah

June 9: bradley and i sign a lease on a home in sandy that will remain empty until our movers decide to get here

June 10: bradley's first day on the new job! lots of fun, lots of excitement. he's a happy dude.

~i am extremely uncomfortable and hugely pregnant~

June 14: i turn 26! adulthood! happy birthday to me!

June 15: i go to the dr. i'm 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced! progress is being made!

June 16-18: i waste away in 39 weeks pregnant misery

Friday June 19: i watch paul blart mall cop with the fam. i have consistent contractions the whole time and several hours after! could this be it?! i call the hospital. they say don't come in unless you can't talk through your contractions. they don't admit you unless your water has broken or you are at a 5 (?!WHAT!). i stay at home. contractions stop by 5 am.

my mom kept following me around friday to take pictures of how ridiculous i looked bc i was so big. isn't she great?

Saturday June 20: contractions continue on and off throughout the day, in the evening severe back pain sets in. is this the dreaded back labor? it is pretty much the most painful thing ever. i don't sleep all night.

i had my surge of energy that day. i still haven't gotten it back...

Sunday June 21: back pain continues throughout the day, contractions are on and off but not regular. (somewhere in here brad gets the phone call saying, hooray! the movers will be at the house tomorrow morning at 8 am!) by evening the back pain gets too much to bear, it's constant, unlike contractions, and i'm getting to the point where it hurts so bad it's hard to speak. at 8 pm we call the dr on call, who says to come to the hospital, get checked, and if i'm not yet to a 5 we could always call my dr to ask permission to induce me. sounds legit. bradley and i go to the hospital (a 45 minute drive. with contractions and supposed back labor. not fun.)
we get there, they check me, and i'm at 3.5 cm, 80% effaced. not enough to admit me, esp since my contractions are still so inconsistent. the nurse asks about the nature of my back pain and then whacks me in the back. it hurts SO bad it knocks the wind out of me. she says it seems not like back labor but a kidney problem and sends my urine for a culture. turns out i have a UTI?! no other symptoms except the kidney pain, no fever, no pain urinating, no blood in the urine. we are stumped. the pain flares up again so they give me pain pills and antibiotics for the UTI, which i promptly vomit up because i am in so much pain and they also didn't give me anything to eat with them and it's midnight at this point and i haven't eaten since 5. they try again, but i am still writhing in pain, whereupon they give me a fentanyl drip in my arm. it lasts an hour whereupon they tell me to rest while they wait to hear from my doctor about whether or not they can induce me. an hour later, the fentanyl drip wears off and i am again in excruciating pain, when the midwife concludes that i most likely have a kidney stone that has caused my infection, that it is agitated by the baby's movements and my contractions, and that is the source of the pain i'm feeling, and the only way to deal with it is pain management and trying to pass the stone and kill the infection with antibiotics. oh and to get the baby out asap. since they still haven't heard back from my doctor about inducing me, she won't be in until 8 am, and their policy says they can't keep me for longer than 6 hours without admitting me officially, they decide to send me home at 4 am, crying hysterically in pain, with a prescription for pain pills that i can't fill until 2 hours after the current ones wear off because there are no 24 hour pharmacies for miles. yay. we return to my mom's house. she is outraged that we have been sent home but tucks me in and tells me to try and get some rest. my back settles down enough for me to get some rest around 5 am.

Monday June 22: at 6 am my back flares up again, tears ensue, bradley wakes up and has to head down to sandy to meet the movers. i drift off but wake up again at 7 screaming and throwing up from the back pain. mother has had enough, she calls the hospital in a rage demanding they take me back immediately and admit me and at the very least get me some pain relief. the midwife who attended to me the night before says mother is completely right, the hospital's policy is ridiculous, i should never have been sent home in that condition, to bring me back immediately and we will get that baby out and fix that kidney. i get a blessing from my dad so i can endure the long drive to the hospital and my back settles down. my dad brings bea to my in-laws for the day, and mom, abby and i head to the hospital and make it there in one piece.
we check in and they are all wildly accommodating, saying they are expecting me, they've talked to my dr, they will admit me immediately, give me an immediate epidural after giving me iv pain meds to relieve my back, and start pitocin once my dr arrives. my nurse is awesome. i am making a mental note now that i still need to send her a gift. we call brad and tell him i'm going to be induced like right now and to make it over as soon as the movers are done. he is very excited and says they are almost done (at this point it's like 10:30 am) and he will grab something to eat and then head over
my doctor arrives, the epidural kicks in, my back is finally somewhat relieved (it doesn't completely go away because my kidney goes slightly higher than where the epi goes in, but it is significantly reduced. eventually it goes away at some point in the day.) she checks me, i'm at a 4 and 80%, the pitocin starts at about 11 am. THE BABY IS COMING SOON!
abby ducks out of the hospital for a bit for an appointment somewhere. my dad works at the university so he pops in for a bit to keep us company. brad makes it over by 12:30/1pm. we all hang out and chit chat for a while. abby comes back at like 2, dad leaves. bradley decides that his outfit just won't do for having a baby, because he is in his grubby moving clothes and abby just likes shopping so after i get checked and am decidedly only at a 6, we figure they have time to dart over to the nearby nordstrom rack and grab him a new shirt.
the dr comes in like 45 min later and says i'm at a 9 and 100% effaced, let's prep for pushing! she'll be back in a few to get started! we frantically call brad and abby and tell them to come back. they are checking out and say they will be back soon. we text dad and he comes back. abby and bradley make it back just after the dr comes back in at like 3:45. by just a little after 4, i am all set up to push, and after some great pushes, oliver is born at 4:55!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the first thing everyone says is "WHOA HE IS HUGE!!!!!" and "I KNEW HE'D HAVE HAIR!!!!"

pink, purple, and smushy, just how i like em.

look at that guy. a natural. and how about that shirt?

when bea was born, she was silent and wide-eyed for like a solid 45 minutes until people started poking and rubbing her down. oliver screamed for 25 solid minutes until i could finally sit up after delivering my placenta and getting stitched up (2nd degree tear! that baby was HUGE.) and then i could nurse him (he latched almost immediately which is surprising, considering he is tongue tied! we're getting that fixed in a week, i am not excited about it.) after adequate soothing, they weighed him and lo and behold, he came in at 9 LBS!!!!! I DELIVERED A 9 LB BABY!!!!!!!!!!!! he's also 21.5 inches long, which i could have told you. that kid took up soooo much space in there.

we were wheeled off to the maternity ward, the in-laws came to see the baby with bea in tow, she was a little bewildered but mostly excited. and after that, honestly it's a blur, i do not remember most of the rest of that day. 3 sleepless days and nights ending with the biggest feat of humanity takes a lot out of you. the rest of the hospital stay was (thankfully!) uneventful compared to last time, they scanned my kidney and it was clear of any stones so we suppose it either came out in my catheter (which they searched each time they emptied it and didn't catch anything but they could have missed it) or that my kidney was just extremely inflamed from the UTI and the baby's constant agitating it and my contractions were exaggerating the inflammation pain. good news is, i do not have to pass a kidney stone unassisted. hallelujah.

we came home on wednesday, my mother in law was at our new home with bea waiting for us, and bea was SO EXCITED to see baby brother again. we walked in the door and she ran up to us screaming "OLIVER!!!!!!!!!!" it was painfully adorable. the house was in surprisingly good shape considering the movers had only come 2 days before. my mom and mother in law and brad had been working feverishly while i was in the hospital to get things more or less ready for us to settle in by the time we got home. over the next few days, i laid around a lot and my mom and bradley finished unpacking our house. by saturday, everything was done! hooray! i still have a little organizing projects to do here and there but it looks like we've been here forever. and brad still has a whole week left of paternity leave! i am very excited for this week because it feels like a do-over come-home week from the hospital. now that we don't have a ton of moving tasks to do, we can finally relax and focus on getting used to becoming a family of four.

this post has mainly been a "facts only" post because i honestly don't have the energy to write about all the feels i'm having right now. i am all over the place emotionally. a lot of it is post partum hormones (let's be real, most of it), but obviously all these changes happening at once has thrown me (and bea) completely for a loop. i'm sure it's thrown brad too but he has totally been our rock in this situation since getting to utah and i am eternally grateful. luckily, oliver has followed in his sister's footsteps and is a fantastic sleeper. he would sleep through the night if we let him, but he needs to get back to his enormous birth weight before we can let him do it. so he does 4 hour stretches at night, brad wakes up at 2:30 and 6:30 to feed him, making sure that i sleep as much as possible. he is such an amazing dad. it's amazing to see how comfortable he is with oliver right from the start compared to how tentative and nervous he was when bea was born. he is a skilled professional now. superdad, if you will.

i'm physically feeling much better now, a week later, with only a little bit of pain leftover from my stitches but that's basically it. sticking to my detailed birthplan made an ENORMOUS difference and i had a completely normal recovery, free of extreme swelling and distended bladders and foley catheters and all that ugly stuff. i didn't realize i could feel so normal so soon after having a baby and it is such a blessing. i am so grateful to have such a healthy recovery this time! it has really taken my stress levels down a notch, so that's good.

i could NEVER have made it through all of this without the help of my family and my in-laws. they have all been so helpful and have confirmed that we have definitely made the right choice in coming out here to be closer to them. is being in utah hard? it is. i look out the windows and don't see any tall trees for miles and my heart sinks a little as i remember that i now live in a desert, thousands of miles from new york, but the trade-off of being close to family is invaluable and i am so grateful to be here. i hope i get used to it soon. i hope i get used to a lot of things. luckily, life is not a race and i have all the time in the world to figure this out.

Caity and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

you guys.
there are bad days, and then there are BAD. DAYS.
today was the latter.
maybe when i look back on this later i'll laugh and think i was overreacting in a big way but man oh man. today just was bad.
maybe you will laugh when you read this. if my misery brightens your day, you're welcome.
and you know what?

i mean what good are horrible days if they don't brighten someone else's day right?

ok. so. it started out great. wait no let me start before that.

this pregnancy, i have been all-over-the-place emotional. my hormones have been so crazy and i find myself crying or raging over the DUMBEST *dumbest* things. so let's just preface with that.

ok so today started out just fine. bea slept til 7:45 (decent, right?!) and went potty first thing and stayed dry all morning! ballet was cancelled but she played independently, ate a great lunch, and was very cheery. 

then i put her down for a nap. instead of sleeping, though, she kind of just sang and played with her stuffed nemos (there are 3, all different, and all gifts from different people) for like an hour, as she will often do, so i went in to tell her it was time to put the toys down and sleep, which usually works. but today for some reason she had a tantrum about it and demanded to sleep in my bed. i felt like taking a nap anyway since i am third-trimester-exhausted, so i figured she could just come in and sleep by me, which has also been successful before. not today. she was quiet for 15 minutes and then harassed me for the following 45, all through my empty threats of putting her back in her bed. i figured harassment from a 2 year old is easier to sleep through than a temper tantrum in the other room through the monitor. i chose the lesser of 2 evils.

after an hour of being tormented, i needed to get out the door so i could pick up some supplies before my webelos lesson today. i gave myself an hour, what i thought would be plenty of time. after 3 stores and no success i went to scouts empty handed with basically no lesson. so that sucked. i was also starting to feel super nauseated for some reason and i had no idea why. add a couple ADHD 10 year olds with nothing to do for an hour and you get some really good times. 

then, after suffering through the most haphazard slapped together den meeting ever, i got a text from brad reminding me that he wouldn't be home til 9:30 because of that work thing tonight. #huzzah.

so i try and make the best of it. i decide that bea and i are going to go to panera, gorge ourselves on mac and cheese, and then go home and watch a movie and eat popcorn til daddy gets home. turn it upside down right?! so we go to panera with our spirits high, though both exhausted and run a little ragged. 

we get our food and get settled and have a great 20 minutes eating our dinner. there are several families at panera but it's not too crowded and we find a corner of the restaurant where there is no one around except for one guy on a computer. after i finish eating, i patiently wait for bea to eat her food (she is hardly eating anything which is weird for her). the guy at the computer puts his earbuds in and starts a phone call in another language that i don't understand. bea asks for some help with her go-gurt and i oblige. the corner of the go-gurt package pokes her in the arm. rage ensues.

she starts SCREAMING uncontrollably. this is a girl who got shots and blood drawn 2 weeks ago with no tears, but apparently the pain of the corner of your yogurt tube poking you in the arm is just TOO MUCH TO BEAR. i try to calm her down but to no avail. the conference call guy is glaring at me. everyone is staring at us. i am shh-shing her as much as i can but the tears keep flowing and the screams keep coming. i pick her up and put my hands over her mouth. she screams even louder. i realize now this would have been the time to just grab my stuff and leave, bussing my table be damned, but i was flustered and hormonal and not thinking clearly, so i just hold her, humiliated, trying to get her to stop screaming. bea is usually freakishly well behaved so it throws me for a loop when stuff like this happens. she had kicked off her rainboots while she was eating so just as she is calming down a bit and i am thinking about picking them up and putting them on her so we can go, she VOMITS PROFUSELY! ALL OVER THE BOTH OF US. so not only is everyone staring at the pregnant lady who can't control her kid, they are staring as the pregnant lady who can't control her kid gets barfed all over by the sick kid she shouldn't have brought out in the first place. and then they all watch me as i awkwardly squat with my giant belly to clean bea up, clean myself up, and clean the puddle of barf up, all while fighting back tears. i wanted to scream at them all and tell them "I DIDN'T KNOW SHE WAS SICK! SHE HASN'T THROWN UP IN MONTHS! I'M JUST AS SHOCKED AS YOU ARE! SHE NEVER BEHAVES THIS WAY! AND WHY AREN'T YOU OFFERING TO HELP ME, YOU HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE PEOPLE?!?!?!?!"

i cleaned as fast as i could, bussed the table, grabbed our stuff and bolted. and then i got in the car and cried. then i got it together and fought bumper to bumper traffic all the way home.

i decided to just get her in bed as soon as possible so when we got home i stripped her down, when she told me she had to go potty. so we ran to her bathroom whereupon she peed all over the bathroom rug. she has never done this before, she just decided today would be the best day to try it out.

i finally was able to throw the vomit-clothes in the laundry, get her in bed, and now here i am.

please, someone, please tell me i will laugh about this someday. please.

about to pop. also an ode to my awesome husband.

so here are hopefully the last bump pics i will take before this little diva decides to make her appearance:

Taken on Friday (38 1/2 weeks). As you can see by my not so flattering faces, these are not fun for me anymore. On the plus side, everyone keeps saying to me: "Wow!! You still have your waist!!!!" That is my only comfort.

here are some snippets of our little baby corner in our teeny 1 br apartment:

i love all the stuffed animals we've accumulated. my favorite is the Ugly Doll. His name is "Big Toe." the sock monkey snuggler is a close second.

i went to my 39 week appointment today. apparently i'm measuring great and baby is just "happy as a clam" in there. yes. yes i know. happy enough to never ever ever leave. I AM READY FOR YOU TO COME OUT, YOUR HIGHNESS!

i sleep about 20 minutes a night, i am so congested i worry that i will never learn to breathe through my nose again, it is uncomfortable to sit down, stand up, and lie down, i have the lung capacity of a field mouse, and i am GRUMPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

in other news, i've been checking up on the message boards of my "birth club" on the what to expect when you're expecting site to see what other people with my due date are up to, and i tell ya, the one thing those ladies are good at are complaining about their husbands!

here is the thing. i am a champ at complaining. i am probably the world's best complainer. you can ask bradley, he says i am a complaining boss. but if you asked me to complain about my husband i would have absolutely zero material. i would have less than zero material. there is simply nothing to complain about. bradley is the kindest, most helpful, patient, hard-working, un-lazy person i know. that's sort of why i claimed him as my own. i don't know what i'd do without him! it's so sad to me to see all these women on these message boards whining and complaining about "all my husband does is sit on the couch while i do dishes and blahblahblahblah!" or "my husband won't wake up to help change/feed the baby and gets mad at us for being 'too loud' in the middle of the night!"

can you believe these men?! i can't imagine a life where the man i'd chosen to spend the rest of my life with would be such a lazy piece of garbage! how blessed am i? and really, how blessed are most of us ladies in the church who have husbands who GET IT! the reality in our house is...I am the one sitting on the couch doing nothing like monstro the whale while BRADLEY is up on his feet doing dishes and making dinner! even if i wanted to help (and trust me, i don't. i weigh a gazillion pounds, it would take an hour just to get off the couch.), he wouldn't let me. he is just the best. and i'm pretty sure our fights once the little princess arrives will sound mostly like this: "bradley, i am fine, will you just let me change her diaper now? you get to do allllll of them!!!!"

now if only she would just like...be born...that would be great...because i'm totes uncomfortable. all the time.

big and fat.

welllll here i am at 35 weeks! (i am now 36 weeks, i am just a slacker). and i am even bigger than that now! if by some miracle i feel cute someday soon i will snap my (hopefully!) last few bump shots before the little nugget arrives! 

christmas day, we (husband, parents, and siblings, minus 2) all went to go see les mis (which i enjoyed a lot, much to my surprise!), and i spent the second half of the {3 hour} movie in false labor with a strong, uncomfortable, and eventually painful, 1-2 minute long contraction wrapping from my back to my belly, every 3-5 minutes. this was a littttttle bit of a wake up call for me. baby girl will be full term in just a week! and even so, if she arrived now, there would likely be no complications! so, after my family ditched us on saturday for california, bradley and i decided now would be the time to pack a hospital bag. which warranted us a day at target! (to get fun little toiletries and stuff to make what will probably be very unpleasant a little more exciting!) AND we hit up the container store! both in one day! {what were we thinking?! so much temptation!} but we made it out without spending ALL of our life savings. i am proud.

our christmas was awesome, we did our first very own little christmas morning, just bradley and i, early christmas morning, where i gave bradley what i think was our favorite gift this year:

(there is a third monogrammed stocking in our collection as well, BUT we're not giving that name away just yet!)

we then headed over to mom and dad's for family gift giving and our traditional christmas day full of lazing about and movie-watching. this year we did a lot of blu-ray experimenting, primarily with star wars, on my parents' new LED tv. pretty epic. 

now, i'm taking it super duper easy and trying not to "exert myself" too much. so basically, this is the most guilt-free new year's twilight zone marathon i have ever experienced. (:

all about childbirth class. and a video of my belly.

when you're pregnant, everyone always has something to say to you about every choice you make. so when i told people i was going to a childbirth class, naturally, everyone had something to say about it.

"omigosh you are totally wasting your money, those things are so stupid."

"oh....i never did that." (what's that supposed to mean? lol)

"so awkward! never again! nottttt worth it!"

and a couple positive "i'm actually really glad i did it"s.

so, naturally, i was a litttttle hesitant before our class started, and a little leery about what we'd gotten ourselves into.

but. i LOVED my class! it was a 6 hour program, taught in 2 evenings, and it was NOT like everyone says! we spent like maybe 20 minutes total on those dumb "breathing techniques" everyone always cringes at (my instructor included. ha.) and the rest was a super informative breakdown of hospital procedure, specific to the hospital i'm delivering at, concluding with a tour of the L&D and maternity wings. it was so, so, so, helpful and really helped to calm my nerves about delivery. i would highly recommend going to a hospital-offered childbirth prep class to ANYONE with their first child. because my mom couldn't deliver babies vaginally (she has a crushed pelvis from a car accident injury and had us all via cesarian), i really had no reference point at ALL about what labor and delivery are like. this class went through every single birth option my hospital offered (medicated, natural, planned/emergency c-section, you name it) in great detail and included info on interventions and emergency situations and everything. i feel so much more prepared now! i know exactly what the delivery rooms are like now and what to expect (pun!) when the big day arrives. i honestly was completely clueless before. not about how babies are born (duh) but just like....what they do with you when you get to the hospital? i seriously had no idea. and now i do!

and the class was only $225. small price to pay for peace of mind, in my opinion. i mean this is kind of a scary thing that i'm about to undertake here! and i am like a billion times less scared now. so, for any of you on the fence, if your hospital offers a class, GO. 

now. get a load of this:

see that little movement around 00:08?! it's sort of hard to see on camera...

also, that is boy meets world you hear playing in the background.

also, i am starting to get a little too over-excited about this whole baby thing. exhibit A: i ordered a ton of diapers and wipes from diapers.com (a pack of 276 pampers diapers in size 1 and 900 kirkland wipes, dunno how many packages that is... all for 50 dollars and free overnight shipping! too good to pass up.)

i also put all of the clothes i've gotten/people have given us into her dresser.

 ahhhh!!!! this is real life, people!!!

positively rubenesque: the third trimester begins

almost 29 weeks! i look super giant from one side and not so huge from the other side. guess she likes hanging out on the right?

i suppose you could say i am a pretty lucky girl. aside from the fact that i have probably the best husband that ever was and the fact that we are about to meet our offspring in just 12ish short weeks, i have a couple other things going for me. like the fact that i am an all-around weight gainer. i have probably gained 30 pounds so far (i'll find out at my next dr appt on monday, but i think thats a pretty accurate estimate) but i am happy to say that it has come on quite evenly, and i don't look at all mis-shapen!  hoorah! that was a worry of mine. and i am pleased to say that a very generous amount has gone to my formerly non-existent boobs and the basketball sized belly i have acquired. people are starting to give me that tender "oh, how sweet, she's pregnant" look in the store, too, which is much better than that "yikes how many burritos did that poor girl have for lunch???" look. the only things that aren't so pleasing to the eye are the rolls of backfat that show up if i bend the right way and glimpse in the mirror before i get in the shower and the weency little stretch marks on my thighs and butt. but no one ever will see that.

i guess noticing all this stuff is making me realize how worried i was about gaining baby weight. that worry is mostly behind me now... i don't look fat really, i just look softer and perhaps a bit rounder. which i can live with for the next few months i suppose. i hear it's worth it.

i absolutely cannot believe i am 2/3 done with my pregnancy. seriously, it has floowwwnnnn by. and aside from being super duper tired most of the time, it's really been pretty painless...i'm pretty lucky. i'm definitely not one of those people who throws up constantly until the baby comes. blessings: counted.

also, she moves around connnnnnnstantly. it is pretty awesome. i can shine a flashlight on my belly and she swats at it, which is pretty great. she also hates it when i lay on my left side to sleep. it feels like jiffy-pop in there whenever i lay on my left side, which, ironically, is the "healthiest way to sleep" when you're pregnant. she already hates rules. just like her mommy (:

oh, and i believe we have selected a name! but i'm not telling. HA. to see our short lists though, you can check out this post.

now that i'm rounding one of the last corners of this whole process i thought i'd list the things that i craved during my pregnancy, just because that's one of the things that people ask all the time, and it'd be fun to remember for myself further down the line. so i'll list the things i wanted, in order of when i wanted them:

1. macaroni and cheese. there was like 6 weeks where i had to have it every single day.
2. cheerios. during the nausea phase, the only thing i could really stomach at any time was plain cheerios and milk.
3. HAM SANDWICHES! oh my gosh, i know paranoid people will tell preggos to stay away from cold cuts but screw it, i needed me my ham sammiches! i had like 3 straight weeks of having at least 1 ham sandwich a day. it had to be on white bread, have boar's head ham, boar's head american cheese, tomato, shredded lettuce, mayo, and yellow mustard. anything else was simply unacceptable.
4. pickles. no lie.
5. smoothies. any type of smoothie.
6. ramen noodles
7. peanut butter and jelly
8. mashed potatoes and gravy
9. orange juice
10. milkshakes
11. MEXICAN FOOD! esp enchiladas. always promptly followed by heartburn but man oh man so worth it.

now that i'm at the end, i pretty much eat whatever, but when i'm feeling particular, it mostly consists of the above. those are the things that always sound good no matter what, but it's not concentrated like it was before.

in other news: bradley has a convention in the city this weekend so he's busy tomorrow night annnnd all day and night saturday. do you know what this means?! it means i have to wait until MONDAY to see skyfall!!!!! daniel craig is going to have to wait. i don't know if i'll last.

also, we finally got our power back tuesday morning!!! after just 8 short days! -sarcasm- (we lost it bc of hurricane sandy, which you can read about in this post.) just in time too, because we just had a noreaster yesterday! it snowed from noon yesterday until about midnight. this morning, i woke up to this:

i would just give up on life right now but it's supposed to be 60 degrees and sunny on monday sooooo i'm pretty sure i'll survive. *weird end-of-days weather.*

alrighty loves i'm off to pop some TUMS. smile! tomorrow is friday!

What fall leaves look like to me. and my 26 week old bump.

During the fall, I always wish I can whip my phone out whenever I drive around and just take videos of all the beautiful trees that are all over this lovely Connecticut town. But alas, phones are outlawed whilst driving here annnnnnnd I would also probably kill myself if I attempted driving/filming at the same time. I barely make it out alive just doing the driving part by itself most of the time. So, I snapped some shots at red lights today on the sly. And here's the thing. Every year when the leaves start to turn, I always get this association in my brain with the colors of the leaves and my favorite sugary snack. Yes. I am THAT obsessed with food. I think the early phases of fall leaves look EXACTLY like the Color by the Foot flavor or Fruit by the Foot. I will illustrate:

Article 1: Fruit by the Foot.

Article 1a: Some personal snapshots of Fruit by the Foot

Article 2: Some leaves outside my house

Juxtaposition. Now you tell me if those aren't the same color scheme!!!

Britney's mind is just as blown as yours!!!!!!!!!!! also....I made this GIF all by myself!!!!!!
#proudestmoment

I have wanted to tell someone that for a long time! And now it is finally off my chest! I just felt like I couldn't do it properly without the visual. I feel better.

Now for the bump pictures. Let me just say that I put off taking bump pictures as lonnnnnng as possible. I don't usually like taking pictures of myself and I HATE having pictures taken of me when it's just me. I feel like an absolute dork. But since I started taking le bump pics (around 20 weeks?) it's really helped me focus on the fun and positive parts of pregnancy. So even though I worry that it makes me look like an attention ho, I think I'll be glad I documented this time of my life somewhere down the line. So there we go. Here I am at almost 26 weeks:

I wish she would just get here already!!!!! I am so jealous when I see everyone holding their newborns in their arms!! 14 weeks is an eternity away!!!!! Childbirth classes start in a couple weeks, can't wait to see what that will be like.....yikes. That could make for some interesting blogging.....

Anyhoo! Bradley and I are now going to take our change from my recently emptied piggy bank and buy us up some moobies!!! (movies.) Our temple plans for the evening got de-railed tonight when rain/traffic made getting to the city a way longer ordeal than time would allow. Boo. Ah well. Next week. Ttfn! Ta ta for now!

Some Pics and Some Tunes

Ok so, I'll just give people what they want and start with the latest bump pictures:

That's me at almost 23 weeks. It's FLYING by! And my fears have turned into reality, my nose HAS grown. I thought it not possible to have a bigger nose than I did, but alas. Look at it.

Also, on a completely unrelated note, last night, I went to a RS dinner and found THIS in my quinoa salad:

That there is a FACE! Isn't that insane? The quinoa shreds were perfectly assembled into a face onto that little tomato chunk. I had to take a picture and share with SOMEONE. 

Anyway. Onto the posty part of the post.

Used to be, when I was a weency bit younger and a little more not-married, I knew what-was-what with what was cool. Turns out, something happens when you are wed to someone: you stop being cool. I cannot explain why this is. I just know that it happens. The time it takes for me to discover a funny new YouTube video or a hip new song is directly proportional to how long I have been married. Which explains why all of our parents are so behind the times! They have been married for forever!

I've been married for three years. Lucky for me, I was super-dooper cool before I got married, so while my exponential downward curve of "with-it"-ness is plummeting,  I am still treading in the "acceptable zone". (Teenagers in my ward will acknowledge and welcome my presence.) However, no matter how many times I see a new YouTube clip (and I suppose I use "new" lightly) and share it with my sister, (who is 18, a freshman in college, and with negative years of marriage, thereby cooler than me on all accounts), I am always humiliated with the "OH MY GOSH I KNOW, I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU JUST SAW THAT! ISN'T IT HILARIOUS?! " comments.

I suppose the reason I am going on this mini-soap box is because, I was thinking the other day.... I used to be THE go-to girl for the coolest new tunes! I mean, if people wanted those oven-fresh hits, it was all "Hey Caity, can you make me a playlist?" or "Hey Caity, will you be in charge of the music for my partay?" I guess now that I am boring and married and with child, I don't go to a lot of parties or spend a lot of time perusing new music. And all of the friends I have who knew that I had a knack for teh tunes are all living far, far, away from me currently. So with the fall in demand, I have witnessed a plummet in supply. I am not always up on the newest of the new tunes. But I still love music and am always on the lookout for cool new stuff. Which is why I LOVE Spotify by the way. If you don't have it, get it. (We can share playlists!) I even bought a subscription so I can use it on my phone and listen without commercials. I think I am starting to value my Spotify subscription more than my Netflix subscription....I digress. This is not a Spotify ad.

I decided I would do a post about what my favorites are right now. It seemed like the thing to do since my last post was about books; I figured I'd do a music post! Since my taste is all over the place, I thought I'd separate my selections into categories: On the Radio (Top 40 favorites), On My iPod (self-explanatory? top plays on my iPod recently),  and On My Mind (songs that I CANNOT get out of my head at the moment, for better or for worse). I'll try and keep it fresh and newish, with a few oldies-but-goodies scattered here and there.
So. My favorites of late:

On the Radio

Maroon 5 - One More Night
With all the racket of their new single "Payphone" (which got REALLY old REALLY fast), this fun and utterly danceable jam from the same album is a DELIGHT.


Taylor Swift - We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together
Ah, T Swift. The girl I love to hate. I've ranted about her hypocrisy of Facebook several times, but what can I say? Her stuff is CATCHY!


Owl City and Carly Rae Jepsen - Good Time
Bradley HATES Owl City. It's hilarious. Maybe that's why I like blaring this one so much...



On My iPod

Kate Miller-Heidke - Album: Nightflight
This WHOLE album is AWESOME! I've liked this artist for a while now and her latest album did not disappoint  Here is a fun one from her latest, but I highly, highly recommend giving the whole thing a listen. She's got a pop-ish sound with some 90s influences and a hint of indie rock.... This track is called I'll Change Your Mind. I couldn't find a lyric video, apparently the music video is violent? So if you're not into that just minimize while you listen. Or check her out on Spotify.


The Lumineers - Ho Hey
If you know me, you know I love me some folk tunes. These guys are a folky good time. This track is bouncy and fun (:


The Shins - Simple Song
Gotta love an indie classic. From their latest album, Port of Morrow, which I really enjoyed. Not my all time favorite Shins album but it definitely had its share of treasures.


Agnes Obel - Riverside
I love her! This whole album, Philharmonics, is awesome.



On My Mind

Psy - Gangnam Style
They've even started playing this on all of our NYC radio stations. It's everywhere. Including my brain. *sigh* Y'know, my dad speaks Korean, I should ask him what this clown is saying....


Imagine Dragons - Radioactive
Spreading the Provo love! These guys are from P-town, so naturally I had to give them a listen. This song is great!


Ladytron - Mirage
I'd heard of Ladytron before this song, but I have never been obsessed with one of her songs until NOW! Her sound is so cool! It's got an 80s vibe...think Berlin meets Madonna meets the Bangles meets Goldfrapp.



Anyhoo, that's all I could think of right now. I might make this kind of post a habit. It could be my motivation to stay on the ball with finding new music!
And since you have all been very good, I will leave you with my favorite YouTube video of the day:

I like the slinky and the walrus and the dog 'Nam vet. And LeBron. And the Snuggie family. OK I like it all.
There you have it people. Happy Friday! Have a great weekend!

Bump Pictures!!!! And Books! And a surprise at the end!

So here it is, the long awaited bump! I took it on Saturday just before walking to have brunch in town with the hubs. So yes, I know, I'm not showered or cute or blahblahblah. Who cares. The belly is what matters!

I know it doesn't look like much, but I feel HUGE! And the top picture is my actual shopping list from yesterday. The whole pickles and ice cream thing truly was a complete accident. I guess that's what's on the brain! (Beneath "total accident" it says "preggers, maybe?" just in case you were wondering...I wrote that for Bradley, who was my grocery store buddy yesterday.)
In other terrible food news, our ONLY Taco Bell within 15 miles randomly closed this week, much to my surprise and chagrin. We discovered this surprise yesterday, when baby girl decided she wanted to try one of those Doritos tacos (NO JUDGING HERE, OK?!), SO we had to trek 2 towns over to get to the nearest Taco Bell. Good news is, 17 hours later, I still feel like I ate a live animal that is clawing to get out of my stomach. Now I won't want Taco Bell probably for the rest of my life. Which is great, because, you know, I don't have one anymore.

Now I FINALLY am going to do my book post! Hooray!
So, last November...no wait let me start earlier...Ok so a long time ago (2 1/2 years?) I read the Hunger Games. (yes, yes I know, didn't we all). Loved it, 5 stars, yaddayaddayadda. Bottom line, I really wanted more dystopian books to settle my "Hunger Games Hangover" (a popular phrase these days throughout the interwebs, I hear). So, when my mom handed me a book she picked up at CostCo by some Mormon English teacher that happened to be a post-apocalyptic, dystopian novel, I was all:

The book, called Matched, has accumulated quite a few readers, and it's not a bad first effort. It's no Harry Potter or Hunger Games or anything, but it's fun and engaging and creates a really cool world.

 

Not to mention the cool cover art! So yeah, read that one shortly after the Hunger Games, and then went on a reading hiatus, as I often do when I just cannot find ANYTHING to read anymore for a while. Well of course, this book is simply part one of a trilogy, because apparently, you're only allowed to write trilogies anymore. So. Last November, part II came out!

 

Naturally, I re-read part I, then proceeded with caution to part II, which was an improvement on the first, and a really good time. Only problem: I was hungover again! I had POST-post-apocalyptic dystopian blues. I needed recommendations, stat! Sooooo I reactivated the goodreads account! (My profile is here, in case you're curious. That's where all my opinions and reviews/ratings are for all these books). Then, the binge began. I thought I'd share my list from my last reading binge because I found some real gems that I feel are worth sharing. I won't share more than a quick line and a star rating because that's what goodreads is for. Duh. I've tried to link the pics of the books to their goodreads page; hopefully it works. So, here is my last reading binge list (they are pretty much all dystopian unless I mention otherwise):

Loved this one!!! 5 Stars! DareIsay better than Hunger Games...? Optioned for a movie in 2015, so read, read, read!

Part II just came out in May (the last book of my binge):

4 1/2 stars. Just couldn't top the first one. 

Not a fan. 2 Stars. (Not dystopian or anything, btw.) A lot of people LOVE this book. I didn't like some of what it was trying to say about relationships.

Ok this one was really fun, and super quick. 4 stars. Next one comes out next year sometime.

 

LOVED this one! Almost as good as Divergent. So so so so so so good. 4 1/2 - 5 stars. Couldn't decide. Honestly, you MUST read this if you're into future-y books. It's great. And part II is already out!

Almost as good as the first, DEFINITELY worth the read. Part III due sometime next year. 3 1/2 - 4 stars.

Meh this one was ok. Some people REALLY like it but I wasn't crazy about the protagonist and I thought it read a little too much like a romance novel. Still, couldn't put it down! 3 stars. Part II comes out next month, not sure if I'll pick it up.

This was another "meh". It was action-packed and fun, and it was really short and quick, but some things about it just rubbed me the wrong way. 2 1/2. I wouldn't say it wasn't worth the read though. That said, I haven't picked up the second one.

The caboose of the "meh" train. Not my favorite. 2 stars. I didn't pick up the sequel to this one either.

Not a Beatles book!. It's about SPACE!!! And man oh man is it cool. It was a bit predictable, but I didn't care because it was just so much fun! And it did have some surprises. Couldn't decide between 3 and 4 stars. I picked up the second one IMMEDIATELY! I hope they do a movie of this one, it could be so neat.

Even better than the first. Great character development and world creating. 4 stars. Can't wait for part III next year!

I ran out of dystopian books/sequels to read so I dipped into regular YA fiction, and this book is an absolute treasure. I laughed, I cried, blahblahblah. Seriously though, this was so beautifully written. 4 1/2 stars; HIGHLY recommend this.

So! There you have it. My last book binge. I snuck some British Chick-Lit in there too (Little Lady Agency series? anyone? really cute books.) which was fun but not really relevant to my list. And of course I re-read the Hunger Games before the movie came out. My binge ended in May after I finished second installment of Divergent and my job got time-consuming enough that I didn't have time to read books I wasn't crazy about. I have yet to find a book since this list that I've been like "OOO I need to read this!" So, if you have any recommendations, please-oh-please leave them in the comments! Lucky for me, the next installment of Matched comes out this November, and then a slew of part IIs or IIIs are due for release, so another binge is in order here pretty soon. Annnnyyyywwwaaayyyy. I know this post was super-long, sorry, but I always like to know what my friends have been reading so I figured I'd share. Golden rule!
Until next time, enjoy this picture (linked to story) of the new and improved Furby toy released this past weekend; it's sure to freak you out even more than the first Furby.

note the new, creepy, pixelized, all-seeing eyes.

Ta-ta, my lovelies!