May the Fourth Be With You!

These pictures were taken at the Free Comic Book Day event in Idaho Falls but were a precursor to May the Fourth. :D It was so exciting to see a few folks from the 501st there and to get their pictures! (And, yes, Clark did go up to the guy on the right and say, "aren't you a little short to be a storm trooper?")

Oregon Vacation - Yaquina Lighthouse

Have I ever mentioned how much I love lighthouses? With the exception of living in Puerto Rico, I don't think I've ever really been near them, but I think they're gorgeous, elegant, and historical, to boot. Our beach house was just a couple miles down the road from the Yaquina lighthouse, so we headed over to pick up a three day pass. There were tide pools, crazy amounts of birds, and seals dozing on rocks. And I'm pretty sure I'm going to get a couple of my pictures put on canvas for a bathroom in our future home. Because, really, lighthouses and ridiculously beautiful (and so is that sky! Dang!).

 

 

What the?

    

We've hit a weird point in Azucena's growth--lots of exhibitionism and also lots of things up the nose (I keep crossing my fingers that nothing will get stuck up there, but we'll see). The first set is while eating breakfast, the second, while watching "Little Einsteins."

 

Polls!

I'm super behind on blogging (I know, I know, I always am) but I realized that I'm two weeks away from finding out whether or not Azucena will have a baby sister or baby brother this Christmas and I wanted all y'all to have a chance to guess the gender (remember, you had a month with her!).


Also, I've been trying to figure out what the big deal with Matthew McConaughey is. So, yeah. Take that poll, too. And if you want to elaborate your answers, you're welcome to in the comments. :)

Random Rants, the Honor Code

If you attend BYU (or any of its affiliates), you're aware that students must adhere to an Honor Code.

Considering how specific this code is, there is an awful lot of debate about what it means to follow it. And the BYU-Idaho campus has even more restrictions.

Today, a new rule was set up there. (See this article.)

I have a few thoughts about this. But first, let me share a couple of personal examples:

1. Walking on campus, I passed a girl who was wearing modest attire: a long-sleeved top, boot-cut jeans, boots, and a jacket. However, her jeans had horizontal slits up past her front pocket lines. (I have actually seen the horizontal tears more than once, but this was the highest up the leg that I'd ever seen them. Usually they stop mid-thigh [which is technically still against the Honor Code]. I've also seen them on both endowed and non-endowed students.)

2. While visiting Clark on campus, I passed several girls who wore long-sleeved tops, boots, skirts, and leggings. However, their skirts did not even extend past the reach of their hands. (Did your mother ever enforce that rule?)

3. I remember that it started raining one night while I was headed home. I had a lot of trouble walking because I was wearing flip-flops (permissible on BYU-Provo campus) but they had no tread. I also remember silently denouncing the Honor Code because it specifically states, "shoes should be worn in all public campus areas."

Now, I don't share that last example to say what a saint I am compared to these other girls I have mentioned (and don't worry, while all my examples include females, I've seen plenty of guys try and flout the Honor Code, too), I just wanted to share it because it's not always clothes that are in question. Also, to say that I don't always have warm fuzzies for the Honor Code.

However, I was a student then and I had signed the Honor Code which meant I had agreed to follow the rules. I knew what I was getting into when I agreed to come to school here, so I just went with it.

I was listening to a talk by Elder Neil L. Anderson a couple of months ago and he said the following: "There are times we honor our agreement simply because we agreed to it." A few minutes later, he continued, "obey them [the rules] because you signed your name, saying you'd obey them."

What other argument can I make? When an apostle of the Lord says that you should hush up and buck up, you do it. No arguments.

When we're bored . . .

Yesterday (or maybe Friday?) Clark decided to rate how Peruvian I am compared to my siblings. The verdict (in order from most to least):

Edgar
Nathan
Natalia
Nicoel
Daniel

I don't know how I feel about this, but I think it's funny that my RM brother beats me. :D

**Also, if you have not yet voted, there's a poll for when you think I'll go into labor! (I'm within two weeks of my due date, so I'm allowed to ask!)

Butterflies

are NOT what's in my tummy.

I think it's interesting that every time I start to feel like something might be wrong with the baby because I haven't felt her in a little while, she REALLY makes herself known by starting something akin to mini-conga line in my stomach. It's like she knows (or Heavenly Father does, or both) that it's really important for me to have the constant reassurance that all is well.

I don't know how I'll handle the next five and a half weeks of waiting!

The Walking Dead

For three or four weeks my mom and sister have been asking how I've been sleeping. They both mentioned that at the end of the pregnancy you can't ever get comfortable, you're too hot, you have to eat, you have to use the bathroom, etc. and this leads to a lot of restless nights. I figured they were making it sound worse than it was.

I was wrong.

In the last week, I've woken up a lot more easily to random noises (i.e. train whistles, cars driving past our house, everything but Clark's alarm, basically) but last night was the beginning of what I think my (loving) family was trying to warn me about.

Clark and I went to bed sometime around 11:30. We read from the Book of Mormon, Clark turned off the light, then fell asleep about two minutes later. (Side note: how on earth do people do that? It still boggles my mind.) I lay there for a while, listening to him breathe (and snore, he's been a little stuffy, poor thing) before finally stealing his iTouch and starting a game of Boggle to pass the time. After a few games, I turned it off and tried to sleep again. No luck. Played another few games. Tried to sleep again. Played some more. This trend continued until nearly 2 in the morning. I finally started to drift, but was awoken at least four separate times before I finally got out of bed at 5:30 to use the restroom and not be able to fall asleep again. So I stole the iTouch and played Boggle for another hour and a half. Luckily, it started to get bright enough outside that I could start reading but, sadly, my eyes were so exhausted from a) not sleeping enough and b) looking at a bright screen all night long that reading didn't bring me nearly as much joy as it should have. I finally dozed again, but woke up when Clark did a little after 8.

Not terrible, but not fun. Let's hope that I can get the sleeping thing down again over the next few weeks. Also, I'm putting in Sabrina and snuggling with a blanket on the couch in an attempt to get a nap this afternoon. Wish me luck!

Throwing Up

::This may be gross. You're warned::

I've decided the one good thing about throwing up is that you then know how good of a job you're doing of chewing/digesting your food. I mean, can you still identify everything or is it mush like it's supposed to be?

Letter 1

Dear baby,

You make me cry a lot more than necessary. Don't get me wrong, I've always been a *little* emotional (especially about certain topics) but that's what comes with being a passionate person in general, right?

So why must you make me cry at every single Christmas song ever?

I love you, but, man, we're going to have a chat when we meet.

Love,
your mother

You know you need new glasses . . .

. . . when you're driving past a sign and get really excited because you see hoverboards only cost $1. Then you realize it's a Bowling Alley ad for $1 a lane (or something) in NOVEMBER. Obviously those two words get mixed up all the time. Really.

::sigh::

What's good for you could kill you . . .

This post is more for me than anyone else. I just want to be able to look back and remember some random, funny things about this pregnancy.

Like the fact that everyone keeps recommending crackers/dry cereal and ginger ale to help with the nausea.

And if I eat crackers and dry cereal my body automatically gets rid of it.

And ginger ale tastes like hot dog water. (Good thing I paid $2 for the 2 Liter, eh?)

Also, both toothpaste and Clark's mouthwash make me throw up (and, no, I will not go into how horrible my dental hygiene is right now).

You know, those kinds of funny things. :)

The pregnancy so far

Talk about a roller coaster of events! Life has certainly been interesting the last month (since I found out I was pregnant October 4th it'll officially have been a month tomorrow). I'd been a little nauseous before that (just couldn't stand up too quickly or move too fast without feeling a little light-headed, etc.) and Clark and I *wanted* a kid, but we didn't want to get our hopes up, so we waited a few extra days to make sure it wasn't a mistake to take a test (also, those "pee-sticks" (as Clark calls them) are expensive!) and find out.

Happily, the stick said yes.

I was good for about 4 - 5 days after that and then either my mind decided to go with the stereotypes or the hormones really kicked in because, ever since, I've not been able to really force myself out of bed before 10 or 11 in the morning (my body refuses to get up because even trying will result in a HUGE wave of nausea which tends to lead to throwing up) and, up until this week, meant I couldn't really eat much besides dry cereal, saltines and baked potatoes (and not the good kind, either).

This week, my body has upped the ante, in that I still feel nauseous, still can't move too fast, still have absolutely no appetite, but my stomach starts wigging out like I haven't eaten a crumb in over a day if I don't feed it every hour or so. However, to top it all off, I feel like all the food sort of settles in my esophagus which makes me feel like I'm constantly about to throw up.

I swear, my body is the weirdest. I've never even heard of this being a problem for anyone else. I was prepared for using the bathroom every hour, back pains in the third trimester, maybe some throwing up every morning . . . but the nausea threw me for a loop. And the hunger + nausea just leaves me confused.


::sigh::

Anyway, now that we have our health insurance stuff sorted out (::knockonwood:: ::crosses fingers::) I should FINALLY be able to set up an appointment with a doctor to get things figured out. And let's hope s/he can give me some nausea medicine. Or really, really good advice. :)

Random Quirk

So, don't know if anyone else has read my posts about 25 random things about myself, but, as I get to know Clark and he gets to know me, I discover more and more weird quirks that I have.

Something that may frustrate Clark but that I've done for as long as I've been driving a car, is finishing songs on the radio. If there is a song on the radio when I park the car and it hasn't finished, I'll sit in the car and jam out to the song until it's over. If I don't turn the car off immediately and the next song starts, I'll wait for that one, too. (Granted, these all have to be songs I love and want to hear.) I was just reminded of this tonight when "Friday, I'm in Love" by the Cure was still playing when Clark and I got home and he turned off the car before it had finished the second verse. I must have made a sad look or something, because he turned the car back on to let it finish.

Which makes him my favorite. :)

Picky Eating

All my life I've been a crazy picky eater. I'd try things, sometimes, just to have an excuse to say that I knew I didn't like it.

I've been surprised in the last couple of years how, even if I really don't like an ingredient, sometimes I can find a way to still incorporate it into a meal. Two examples that come to mind are onions (which I will now eat in their french-fried form) and spinach (which is okay when it's a ravioli filling).

I still don't like fish, though.

Let's Take a Vote

Everyone who thinks my nephew is in desperate need of a haircut, please raise your hand:

::nods:: That's what I thought. :)

Projects

I love having projects, but sometimes I forget that I'm not Wonder Woman and can't do everything I want to all the time. It's hard that I have three intense creative projects and (what seems like) no time in which to actually get all this done. Grr.

Boo to my body

For some reason when I'm completely exhausted, my body likes to play the "how long can I continue to stay awake, even though I'm in dire need of sleep?" game. Which is stupid, frustrating, and pointless.

What ethnicity do you THINK I am?

I'm forever sad that Panda Express doesn't automatically give you chopsticks when you order a meal. I mean, if the lady at the Conference Center thinks I need translator headphones, that's gotta count for something, right?

Hamburger Helper

I now know the reason I haven't eaten Hamburger Helper in the last four or five years (at least): it's nasty. When I purchased the box, fond memories of learning how to cook when I was a young tweenager and baby-sitting my younger brothers and sister came to mind. Last night, while I was cooking the stuff (not food; I'll never call it food again) a nasty smell permeated our apartment. I can't believe I actually thought that stuff was good. Or that people still go around eating it now . . .