The Happy Things

There have been a lot of happy things in my life lately. My dad was able to be here for Benjamin's blessing. He is deployed at the moment, so we waited until he could come. It was important for me to have him there. He and my mom were here for Thanksgiving and we shared our delicious food with Erik and Mariel. My dad loves Benjamin. He can't get enough of him, but then... neither can my mom. They are now Oma and Opa to avoid confusion in the future.

Benjamin is wonderful. He is learning and growing so fast that I can hardly keep up. He can grab things that are in front of him without help. He is learning to put everything in his mouth. He loves tummy time and will stick his little bum way up in the air as if he wants to launch forward. I won't lie, I don't want him to be mobile yet. Too much work for me =P. He still won't sleep through the night, but I made the decision to start putting him on formula. I agonized over it for quite a while before finally deciding that it is the best thing for me and it is better for him. He doesn't get hungry as quickly which means he sleeps longer. I can get 4 hours out of him instead of 3. He isn't a huge fan of formula and I am still nursing him every other feeding for now, but he is doing just fine and I am doing better too. I never enjoyed nursing. I never felt that bonding that so many women do. I felt like it was just a means to an end. I get more bonding from bottle feeding. I know I could pump and all that, but Benjamin also doesn't handle my milk when I have been drinking cow's milk. He spits-up a lot when I have milk and then he nurses. I am not a huge milk drinker by any stretch of the imagination, but I do enjoy it on cereal and whatnot.

On the eating front, Benjamin loves his rice cereal! He would probably eat that all day if I would let him. He took to it no problem and I can't wait for him to try other foods in a couple of months. He is doing pretty well with bath time again, but he wants to sit up on his own and it makes him hard to bathe. Oh babies, they are just so unpredictable. I sure do love my little boy.

Casey is now working a second job so that we can pay all our bills and have food to eat. He works at Subway in the mornings and the Hut at night. It is hard to have him gone so much, but we are managing the best we can. He is a trooper and I am grateful that he is willing to work so hard to provide for us. This coming week we are taking a trip for our anniversary. Yes, it was on the 24th, but that was not an ideal travel time. His wonderful mom is going to be watching Ben for the time we will be gone and I am looking forward to some uninterrupted sleep.

Margret and Benjamin... not fighting

We were The Who for Haloween

Matching argyle

Our Doctor Who pumpkins

Froggie bum!

He is pretty dang cute!

He loves the bugs

Remember That One Time?

Yeah, remember that time when I was going to be more consistent in posting. Babies just take so much time.

Benjamin is 3 and a half months old. He rolls over from tummy to back and back to tummy. He will be crawling before I know it. He can grab the bug toys that hang from his swing and pulls them to get them to make noise. I am amazed by how impressive he is. He laughs, smiles, and makes super cute noises. He is mostly in 3 months stuff, but he can wear some 3-6 and even some 6 month clothes. He is just so sturdy.

He has a little cold right now and it makes me sad. His little nose is all stuffy and he has a wet, but not hacking, cough. I just want to make it all better, but there is so little I can do.

Picture time!

10 Years

It is hard for me to believe that it has been 10 years. I remember everything so clearly. We had just moved into our townhouse in Burke. I was working on my schoolwork that morning when my brother turned on the TV. That was an unusual occurrence. My mom made a rule that we could not have the TV on if our sibling was on the computer working on schoolwork. I wasn't really paying attention until he called to my mom to come down to the basement. "A plane hit the World Trade Center." He said calmly.

My mom sat down to see what the reporters were saying and as she did we watched the second plane hit the towers. We couldn't believe it. She said it was a terrorist attack. I immediately freaked out and started crying. She calmed me down and soon after we got a phone call from my aunt who was in a panic. "Is Mike ok?" she asked frantically. We didn't know why until seconds later when the report came that the Pentagon was hit as well. My mom let her know that my dad was not in the Pentagon since he was in Arizona at the time. As soon as she was off the phone with my aunt, my mom called my Grandma Stacey to let her know that her son was ok. My grandma was never an emotional woman. My dad told me once that he had only seen her cry once. She cried when she found out her youngest son was ok.

We sat and watched the news all day. We watched the towers fall and brave men and women try and save lives. I can't even begin to imagine how the people in New York felt. It was all so surreal and scary and I was hundreds of miles away from them. I was not hundreds of miles away from the Pentagon. I went outside and saw a faint plume of smoke. I don't know if it was from the Pentagon or not, but I knew that my perception of safety here would never be the same.

I am so grateful to the men and women who risk their lives every day to protect this country. I wish that it did not have to come at so high a cost. I wish that there was a way to ease the pain of those who lost loved ones on that awful day. I wish that people would be quicker to remember instead of being so quick to forget. September 11, 2001 changed our country forever. Let us always remember what happened on that day, but not dwell on it. Let us learn from it and come together as a nation. On that day, a woman in France said, "Today we are all American." Politics, party lines, differing opinions. Let us set them aside and feel the way that french woman felt. Today we are all American. Don't ever forget that.

Ok, Seriously?

I fail at blogging. My sweet little bean is almost 6 weeks old and I have yet to say one word about him. So, here goes.

Labor and Delivery:
I woke up at about 6:30 on July 20th (4 days after my due date) with contractions. It took me about 2 hours to realize that is what they were, but they were contractions nonetheless. I woke up Casey, he showered and by that point the contractions were about 6 minutes apart. We decided to head up to the hospital (45 minute drive) and got on the road. Of course we called my mom and Casey's mom and they both started heading for the hospital. My mom had a 9 hour drive, Linda didn't.

We got to the hospital, checked in, and they checked me out. 1cm dilated... I just about had a fit. It was inconceivable to me that I could be having such close and painful contractions without being farther along. They had me stay for an hour, checked me again and... no progress. The doctor suggested we go wander around the mall for a while. That was not a possibility since I could hardly stand up when the contractions hit every 5 minutes. We went to the hospital cafeteria and had some lunch, I didn't eat much. Then we went down to the lobby and sat there until I couldn't stand it anymore.

We went back up and, lo and behold, 3cm dilated! Huzzah! I got checked in and sat in the jacuzzi for a while until I was in too much pain to even do that. Casey was a champ the whole time. I got back in the bed and they gave me some painkillers, but didn't want to give an epidural until I was a little closer to having the baby. I should have insisted. They checked me at about 5 and I was 5cm dilated. The midwife still hesitated to give me the epidural. An hour later I was 9.5cm and pretty much ready to push. My mom go there just in time. I pushed for 30 mins and at 6:35 pm...

Benjamin Casey Adams was born!


8lbs 5oz 19.75 inches. He is healthy and wonderful.

We took him home on the 22nd. My mom left on the 29th. That was hard. She was a big help. Fear not! Casey's birthday was not forgotten. We had a nice dinner at home with his parents and my mom. It was really nice.

Benjamin had his first appointment on the 26th. He was unhappy about being naked to be weighed and measured. He is not a fan of being naked. For the first month or so he wouldn't breastfeed so I had to pump and bottle feed him, then suddenly he started breastfeeding. Babies are weird.

He is almost 6 weeks now and he is awesome! He smiles and makes eye-contact. I have a ton of pictures still on my camera that I need to download. I will still put some of the older ones up.

He is a hipster baby


This might be my favorite picture of him so far!

This was a lucky pic. I love him so much!

He twitches a lot when he sleeps


I will try to update more consistently. We'll see how long that lasts.

Once More With Feeling!

We are moving to our "permanent" apartment tomorrow and Friday! I am freaking out a little bit. It is very short notice, but I am absolutely thrilled to have a more permanent home. I can actually get ready for the baby now. I've been having a really hard time with being in limbo for so long. We will be in the old apartment of two of our friends. Dave and Tara moved out and we are moving in. I am looking forward to making the apartment reflect our little family. I miss them being here, but it is all part of life.

Right now I am just grateful for all the amazing friends I've made here. It is a lot harder to be the one left behind than to be the one leaving. I am not used to it. I'm used to being the one leaving and having all the new and amazing experiences, but I am totally stoked for my friends to have such wonderful things happening in their lives. They certainly deserve it!

Maybe after we get moved in I will get some pictures of the nursery. I am so excited to give Benjamin a special place in our home. I'm terrified to have such a huge life change, but it is going to be well worth it in the end. All in all, life is not too bad.

The Final Countdown

Weekly trips to the doctor, waiting to move again, watching my friends leave, and trying to get ready for our little boy. That about sums up my life right now. We have less than a month until my due date. That is a scary thought. We have pretty much everything we need, but I don't want to set anything up because we are about to move again. I hate being in limbo.

We had some nonsense with our former landlord and ended up getting $125 of our $625 security deposit back. He was pretty much a jerk about it and didn't believe us when we tried to defend ourselves. Giving us 10 days notice to get out was really unprofessional and the whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth. Thankfully, that is over and done. We had a meeting at the apartments we are trying to get into and it is looking good. I just hope we can get in before the end of the month so we won't have to pay another month of rent for this one. We'll see, I suppose.

I also found out today that my senior paper either did not get submitted or was not good enough to pass. Either way, I have to resubmit it before I can get my diploma. It would be nice if I could have a relaxing final month of pregnancy, but life always seems to get in the way of my relaxation. It was nice to have my mom here for a week and then to go down to her house, but life was waiting for me when I got back here. Meh, life is just life and it always will be.

Sometimes I Wonder

Sometimes I wonder about myself. Why do I struggle so much to filter my thoughts and words sometimes? It gets me in to trouble too often. I really do try to keep my unkind or even moderately offensive thoughts to myself, but it is really hard sometimes. I suppose that happens to most people.

Anyway, back to more real things. We moved the last of our stuff into our temporary apartment today. I didn't realize how stressed I was about it until it was done. If this apartment wasn't going to be so gosh darn expensive during the school year. A lot of people are moving out of Treemont so I am not all that worried about having to stay here, but it is still a little bit of a concern. Casey is totally chill about the whole situation. He keeps me much calmer than I would be otherwise. I'm glad I picked him.

In baby news, at my last appointment my ultrasound showed that our son is breech. I am really hoping he will flip over because I really do not want to have a C-section. Everything is getting so close and I am pretty nervous about the whole thing. I have a few friends who have had c-sections and I just don't think it would be ideal for me. I suppose it is all in the Lord's hands in the end, so I will go with the flow.

It has been a long few weeks of what I thought would be a relaxing month. Silly me.

So Much For That Idea

Here I was thinking that life would be nice and easy after all our school stuff was over. Boy was I wrong. But first, GRADUATION! We are both college graduates. Go us! My mom came up and Casey's mom, dad, grandpa A, and sister all came down to support us. It was awesome.



Woohoo! Go me!

Casey is the second of his siblings to graduate, but he is the youngest to do it.


Casey, our friend Darla, and I all wore green Chucks in honor of President Smith.

And then we fake threw our caps for the camera.

So, that was graduation. I was happy to be a hermit and totally de-stress this past week. I was doing just that until we found out that our landlord found people to move in on June 1st. That means we have less than a month to find a new place to live. We would just pray that we get into Treemont, but we are 9th on the waiting list and only 2 people are moving out in the next month. So much for life being uncomplicated after graduation. Being seven and a half months pregnant and dealing with the prospect of moving a lot sooner than I was expecting is not so fun. Oh well, life must go on.

A Few Words on Procrastination

I have never really been a procrastinator. It just isn't something that is easy for me to do. I have to get things done in a timely fashion or I freak out. That being said, I am procrastinating doing anything for my Saints, Signs and Symbols paper. I have no idea where to start, what my thesis is, or where to look for good information. Believe it or not, but there are not that many reputable articles about Saint Barbara. So, of course, instead of working on my paper I am writing this blog post.

On an ecstatic note, my senior show is done! All I have to do is fix my paper and do my oral presentation (on the 15th, yikes!) and I will be done with senior show for good! Also, we went up to the temple with my parents on Thursday and my dad was sealed to his parents. It was a really wonderful experience. I love the temple. It also allowed me to be a social media missionary. My co-worker from the summer of 2009 asked what it means to be sealed. I feel that I gave an informative, but not overwhelming response and she said that it was a beautiful concept. I don't know if she will ever join the church, but it is nice to talk to people who are open-minded about things.

And now, some random pictures from the cruise because I keep forgetting to do a full recap.
Here we are at Tulum. The water was entirely too gorgeous

We are the three dwarfs; Grumpy, Preggo, and Cheesy (aka Zaphod)

Its a cactus... wearing a sombrero.

Sadly, Casey didn't win the hairy chest competition, but he did get a snazzy medal.

Casey loved the tiny turtles.

That's all for now. Back to attempting my paper.

The End Is In Sight

I have been less than diligent about maintaining this blog. I will have to consult my journal to remember everything that has happened since January 2nd when I announced my pregnancy.

January
~ I turned 22 on the 24th.
~We found out that my dad will get promoted and have to go to Djibouti on April 15th
~Classes started and were fairly unremarkable

February
~I finally started gaining weight
~I vacuumed up a freaking huge spider at 2:30am and saved Casey from it
~We were called to be on the Provident Living Committee
~I made boeuf bourgingnon for Valentine's Day and it was AMAZING!
~We bought everything for our new bed except the mattress
~The Jeep broke down... again
~Casey had a solo in The Redeemer and was absolutely wonderful

March
~Its a boy!!
~Our spring break cruise was amazing! I'll try and remember to have a separate post about it
~I had a Senior Show related epiphany that led me to change my style
~I finally had to buy maternity jeans

Those are the most important things that have happened to us over the last 3 months. As far as school goes, I still have to finish senior show, senior paper, my saints, signs and symbols paper, contemporary issues paper and presentation, and finals. Somehow seeing it all out there is not comforting. Casey has to finish his senior paper, write an America and the Enlightenment paper, one more German test, other than finals I think that is it for him. Also, he is playing one of the Muleteers in Man of La Mancha over Maymester. He is weirdly excited to play a creeper.

That is all for now since I am using this to avoid things I should be doing.

This Will Be a Good Year

I really do feel that way. Senior show for me, senior paper for Casey, but we can both handle it. We made it through last semester and now we only have one left. After that we have the summer for Casey to work and me to have our first baby in July.

Yup, I'm pregnant. 12 weeks right now. I am finally getting over the all day "morning" sickness. I am still tired out of my mind, but I am doing ok. Senior show will be interesting since I am doing oil painting, but I am going to take every precaution to keep from getting too many fumes. I hear linseed oil is a great way to clean my brushes instead of turpentine. We will see how everyone else's smells affect me. If it gets bad I will just do it at home. I figure Professor Himes can't really get mad at a pregnant lady for that, but who knows.

We had a wonderful Christmas at my parent's house. I got a sewing machine! I am super excited. Casey is far more excited for the Wii! I am pretty stoked about it too. We are going to try to get him to lose 26 pounds by his 26th b-day. It shouldn't be that hard. He loses weight pretty easily. I received a very special gift as well. My uncle Jim and aunt Rochelle decided to give me my grandma Stacey's wedding ring. It was very emotional for me, my mom, and my dad. I was never very close to her, but I really miss her a lot. I am the youngest granddaughter and I was not expecting to get something so precious. It is a beautiful ring and I am honored to have it. Anyway, Christmas was great. We played games, ate amazing food, and hung out. After that, we came to visit Erik and Mariel for New Years. They are awesome! We head back home today.

I have my second doctor's appointment tomorrow and I'm really happy that Casey gets to come. He couldn't come with me last time because he had class. He is going to be such a cute daddy. He is super stoked to have a baby. He wants a girl, which I think is the sweetest thing ever. I don't really care as long as it is healthy and happy, but mostly healthy. I am due sometime in July. My doctor told me around the 16th or so, but when do babies ever come on time? My mom is totally over the moon about this. She is probably more excited than anyone. This is, after all, the first grandchild.

That is all for now.