Carmen

Last Friday evening Mitchell got to go out for a date! We are trying to take advantage of the next few months while we are still baby free to go on dates and enjoy activities that will be harder once our little girl comes. Last year Mitchell took me to an opera, The Marriage of Figaro, in Salt Lake City. It was performed by the Utah Opera Company. We loved it and hoped to see another opera some day. Mitchell has continued to receive emails from the Utah Symphony and Opera and was able to arrange for a great deal on a partial season pass for the two of us! Last Friday we saw Carmen and it was the first of 3 operas and 2 symphonies that we will attend in the next few months! Carmen was wonderful! The songs are all familiar and fortunately there are subtitles projected above the stage for those of us not fluent in operatically sung French. To start out the evening we had a wonderful dinner at Outback Steakhouse, courtesy of Mitchell's parents. Thanks for the gift card! May I recommend adding the lobster and mushroom sauce to a steak the next time you go, it was so yummy! Good thing weight gain isn't a huge worry for me at this point, although I may pay for that steak later! Then we headed to the Capitol Theater in Salt Lake City. It is a gorgeous theater and they put on wonderful shows! It was fun to see Carmen because the music was so familiar and the story line was pretty engaging. Next up: The Italian Girl in Algiers. It's another opera but I know nothing about it. Should be great!

In other news, I am definitely loving life right now! I work about three or four 8 hour shifts per week, a lot of them night shifts, and I have a lot of time to myself during the days. I have been loving reading again! Shortly before Christmas some friends of ours gave us a couch that they had replaced and it has become my "reading couch." I think it's where I spend the majority of most of my days. I am halfway through my third book since December! I am reading a book right now about child birth and (this may sound really weird) I am getting so excited to give birth! In fact, I keep dreaming about giving birth and some of the dreams have been more than a little strange! Mitchell and I have also been enjoying exercising again and are getting a lot more use out of our gym membership lately. Oh and I am preparing for my nursing licensing exam on February 1st! I finally broke down today and took a practice test. I plan to do some low-key studying this week and be ready for Monday!

Mitchell has finished and submitted the first draft of his Master's Thesis Proposal and he will be defending the proposal to his committee next Friday Feb 5th. So far his advising professors have had positive things to say about his research and his proposal. We are hoping he gets the green light next week because he is definitely on schedule to finish his Master's by (or before) August! We are still waiting to hear back from the 4 universities about his PhD acceptance. We are hoping to hear soon and maybe take a trip out to check out the east coast campus before its too late for me to fly. We shall see!

Girls Weekend in California!

Last Friday I flew home to Sacramento for a girls weekend with my mom, sisters and adorable niece! It was the best time! We stayed in a nice hotel on the coast near Monterey, CA and enjoyed a long weekend together! It was the perfect pace for all of us because we had plenty to do for the trip to be super fun and enjoyable but not so much that it was exhausting for any of us, even the baby. My mom wrote a great synopsis of all of the events of the 3 days so I will post that since pregnancy brain renders be unable to recall even what I ate for breakfast today let alone all the details of a whole weekend! Let me just say that is was wonderful and we can't wait to do it again!

Friday, January 15th. Melanie arrived in the morning and Lynn and Eileen picked her up from the airport. They visited with Jahmese and then Melanie visited with Sandra Stockman and my parents. She also stopped at Chris and Carrie's. Lynn, Jarrel, Summer, Melanie, Eileen and Brian gathered for me to open my birthday presents. Mom and Dad gave me a sweater and the kids and Brian gave me a tahitian pearl and diamond slide for my omega. It is very pretty. We left for Seaside at about 6 pm. Brian had told me to cut off when we reached Santa Nella even though the GPS would send us toward the Bay Area. I didn't realize that he travels down I-5. The GPS took us down I-80 and we called him when we got to Berkeley to see if we had missed the turn off. He suggested 680 to 880 which is exactly what the GPS suggested, too. The nice thing about that was that we drove right past the Oakland Temple and the girls thought that was great. After about 2 1/2 hours, Summer became a little fussy (so were the rest of us!) and we decided to stop at In and Out for a milkshake and some fries. She was happy for the rest of the trip. We arrived at the Embassy Suites in Seaside at 9:45 and checked into our room. The room was great. Very spacious. We had a bedroom with 2 queen beds that Melanie and I shared. The living had a pull out queen bed that Lynn and Eileen were happy to share. There was also a table with plenty of room for us to play games and a microwave and refrigerator. There was ample room for Summer's pack-n-play, too. We unpacked our bags on Friday night and settled in.

The walk on the beach. Summer slept through the whole walk!

On Saturday, we got up and ate breakfast at the hotel. They have a full hot breakfast--omelets, eggs, sausage, bacon, pancakes, toast, yogurt, fruit, biscuits and gravy--you name it. After breakfast, we took a walk (Eileen took a run) on the beach. The beach was only 2 blocks from our hotel. Lynn has a front pack that we shared to carry Summer while she took a nap during the walk. The weather was perfect. We went shopping at Kohl's and got a few things (picture frame perfect for our girls weekend) and then to Old Navy. Old Navy was having 1/2 off their clearance merchandise. Eileen found a great coat and some socks and skirts. Melanie didn't get anything. I bought a shirt and an outfit for Audrey. Lynn found the best deal. She found some Old Navy jeans that were an old style that fit her well. There was no price tag and the associate could not find a price via the SKU. The manager came over and said $3.97. SOLD! After shopping we went out to dinner at Olive Garden and bought some chocolate cake at Safeway for dessert. Lynn and Eileen went swimming and to the hot tub. Melanie and I read our books. We watched Return to Me and played Golf with cards.

I got to feed Summer carrots and she loved them! She is such a fun baby!

On Sunday morning, we got up, had another delicious breakfast at the hotel and went to church in the Seaside 1st Ward. It was raining on Sunday morning. The ward was having ward conference and I believe that there were a lot of visitors. It was a nice crowd. A member of the stake presidency was the dad of a friend of Melanie's and she greeted him. In Sunday School, Melanie saw an elder from her mission. They had lost track of him and she was so glad to see him and meet his wife. The Sunday School lesson was delightful. The sister who taught had a lot of interesting commentaries to share. We didn't talk much about the creation but it was enjoyable nonetheless. The RS lesson was designed for ward conference. The RS president, a counselor from the stake RS pres, the Stake RS Pres and the Stake President all shared some remarks. There was a nice spirit there. We went back to the hotel and took a rest. Lynn and I played Yahtzee and SET while Melanie, Eileen and Summer took an extended nap. Afterward, we decided to go to the butterfly sanctuary rain or not. Surprise--it wasn't raining anymore. We stopped at the Natural History Museum in Pacific Grove and were delighted with the animals exhibited there. They also had some Native American baskets that were beautiful. We walked around the museum and took our picture by the whale sculpture. Then, we drove to the butterfly sanctuary and walked down the path to the butterflies. The weather was a bit cold and we weren't able to see the butterflies extremely well but what we saw was beautiful. We got a few good pictures of the specimens. After that, we drove along the coast for a bit. We were going to drive through Pebble Beach and down 17 mile drive to gawk at the houses but it costs $9.25 to access the road. We decided to just drive along the beach where the driving was free. We stopped at one point for Eileen to take some pictures. Then we ate at Hula's in Monterey. Melanie's friend recommended this restaurant for its sweet potato fries and they were truly delicious. I had some along with lobster bisque. Melanie had a tuna burger, Lynn had a hamburger and Eileen had some potstickers. Mmmmm. We went back to the hotel and Eileen and Lynn went swimming again while Melanie and I looked after Summer. :o) Interjection by Melanie: [Once Summer fell asleep Mom and I exchanged hot stone massages! So wonderful! I had to be propped up on a bunch of pillows so as not to squish my growing belly but the massage was incredible!] We decided to watch First Knight but I think we all ended up sleeping after awhile.

In front of the museum

Large populations of Monarch butterflies migrate to Pacific Grove, CA for the winter. We visited a butterfly sanctuary. It was a bit chilly that day so most of the butterflies were huddled together to keep warm. This one decided to let us have a look at her beautiful colors!

On Monday morning--another great breakfast. We were going to go to Point Lobos to look for whales but it was too far to drive and still make it back to Sacramento in time for Melanie's flight. So, we headed out. The trip home was lovely. We decided that the 101-I-80 route is very scenic and just as fast as the I-5 route. We stopped on the way home at Denny's to give us a chance to get out and stretch. Melanie, Eileen and I all ordered a chicken, pecan and cranberry salad. Lynn had a BLT and shared her fries. As her usual, Summer happily occupied herself on her blanket and charmed everyone.

At Denny's on the way home

We arrived safe and sound and dropped Lynn and Summer off at home. We took Melanie back to the house to look at the jogging stroller and to open her Christmas gift from James and Eileen. Eileen decided she had had enough of the car and stayed at home while I took Melanie to the airport to drop her off.

And now, by popular request I will post another pregnant belly picture. This is me at 24 weeks. My hair looks gross because I went running today but I am so happy to still be able to go run 5 miles on sunny days!

Happy New Year and updates

Mitchell and I had a great 2 week vacation in Seattle with the Harris family! We drove out after finals and seriously enjoyed the break from school. Not only that, we were busy having fun with the family and seeing the sights in Seattle. Due to my extreme forgetfulness lately (sorry daughter, you are taking the blame for that) we didn't have our camera so there are no pictures of any of the adventures in Seattle. We saw 2 movies in the theater and 2 plays, Mitchell helped with a house construction project and I shopped with my sister in law, we celebrated Christmas and Mitchell and Tyler's birthdays, ate yummy meals, and saw beautiful things. The afore mentioned forgetfulness is causing me to draw a blank on many of the fun details but it was a great trip!

Oh, Mitchell learned a new skill on Christmas Eve! He learned how to replace the starter in our car. Apparently we have bad luck with car trouble while traveling on holidays. Last year on Thanksgiving our alternator completely died in Middle-of-No-Where, Idaho. We found out that there are exactly 0 mechanics open at 8:00pm on Thanksgiving in Middle-of-No-Where, Idaho. Well, this year we were a bit more fortunate that the starter went out in the driveway of a friends house and there was 1 auto parts store open on Christmas Eve. Mitchell was feeling adventurous and the testosterone in his system told him to tear out the old one and replace it himself. It was a success and the car was running in only a matter of a couple of hours later. Good job Honey!

Baby update: Most people already know that we are having a girl! It's so fun to know her gender now, it all seems a little more real. The frequent kicks and somersaults also remind me there's a growing baby in there! I have to say that is the best part of pregnancy so far! The second best part is seeing how much Mitchell already adores her. He loves to feel her kicks and talk to her. On Sunday he decided he was going to have a Fast Sunday Interview with his daughter. I wasn't invited (there was a pillow placed over my face) so I don't know all that went on but it was very sweet. Before we left for Seattle I found a great deal on some beautiful crib bedding and took advantage! It is so pretty. I have included a stock photo from the manufacturer since we don't have a crib yet. It's hard to tell from the photo but the fabrics are very luxurious. It is satin, silk and minky, all machine washable of course!

Mitchell is so happy to be back in school and at work. He loves to learn and work hard! I am enjoying the time off. I am working rotating shifts but still have plenty of time to myself to finish projects and read books! I'm definitely enjoying the time to read! Life is great!