Food-based Fun

I was going through the pictures on my phone and Kyle's phone...and realized how ridiculous we are.  We are constantly taking pictures of our food.  The vast majority of our fun is centered around food (just how I was raised) and I guess that leads to a weird amount of food related pictures.  Here are some highlights:

After Gavin's wedding, some of us went to Star of India, our favorite Salt Lake Indian food restaurant.  We ate ourselves sick.  The food was so good that I'm pretty sure we all experienced Pure Being.

We've been eating a weird amount of food with Alan lately.  We should document it more.  Here is Alan eating some pizza from The Slab.

Whenever we have time to kill up north, Kyle and I hit up Nielsen's Frozen Custard.  Their concretes are UNREAL.  Definitely worth the drive.

Ok this isn't food.  It's Eliza.  I just love when she makes this face.

Hello, Rice King potstickers.  I am not much of a potsticker person, but OH MAN.  I order these every time now, as my meal.  They are SO GOOD.  I used to only be able to eat 3 or 4, but now with Velocity to feed as well I can eat all 6.  Basically the only good pregnancy symptom.

And, of course, my beloved Hokulia snow cone.  The second they place that cone in the neat table with holes cut out, I am in heaven until I finish it.  And then I am sad because it's all gone.

Today our food-based fun was the rosemary peasant bread we made and ate with a gross amount of olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  It's all gone or I'd put up a picture of that too.  Now I'm going to go have some chocolate-milk-related fun.

I suck.

Yesterday I felt gross enough for long enough that I bit several of my nails.  I now feel better physically but am depressed about my lack of self-control, follow through, will power, coolness, and pretty hands.  I've had like 3 or 4 months of pretty hands and now...I feel the lack.  I think that feeling miserable leads to feeling destructive, and my nails were definitely the easiest and most accessible thing to destroy.  It's a good thing they're there, I suppose, or my destructive urge could have been satisfied by blowing up buildings or something.

Goal=more frequent blogging

Three things:

1)My insurance covers the epidural!  We had heard that it wasn't covered and that made me MAD.  We were still going to fork over however much cash it was, but I just thought that was lame.  So now I don't have to be mad AND the whole delivery process will be cheaper than we expected.  FYI--it costs a lot of money to carry and birth a baby, even with insurance.  Good thing Kyle is an excellent saver and has taught me his ways.

2)Hair trauma.  Oh man.  This is why I should never color my hair.  I do it on a spur of the moment impulse once in a million years, and then I have to suffer the consequences when it starts to grow out because I'm not willing to do the upkeep.  In the past, I've only dyed my hair darker (and I guess that was like 5 or 6 years ago--remember my black hair phase? Yikes.).  So no growing out problems.  BUT 3ish months ago I decided to dye it a shade or two blonder.  The difference wasn't extreme--just barely noticeable.  BUT that wasn't taking into account that my hair would GROW IN DARKER because of the whole pregnancy-changes-everything-about-you thing.  So now I have The Root Issue, which I have never before faced.  I don't want to just dye it again because then I'll just have the same problem later and I don't want to be someone who constantly dyes their hair.  So what do you do in this situation?  Dye everything darker? That sucks, because it's already hard for me that pregnancy is dampening my blondness, I couldn't purposely do it to myself!  I'm tempted to just chop off all my hair so drastically that roots are a non-issue. Or would blonde highlights help disguise the issue, and not be a problem later?  I know this is extremely stupid to blog about.  It's just been BUGGING ME and I feel ugly and I don't know how to solve the problem.  The moral is: I should never dye my hair EVER.  Lesson learned.


3) Kyle just got home from work 4 hours early because he had to work late every day this week!  Best day ever.  I will now hang out with him.

oh, blogging

Miracle of miracles, it didn't rain on Memorial Day!  That hasn't happened in ages.  (Ok, I actually don't remember if it rained last year, but it CERTAINLY did the year before that.  I only remember that because we were moving in to our new apartment and I have pictures.)  That meant that not only did Kyle wear TEVAS (the first teva day of the year is always very exciting) but we also had a fun barbecue (hot dogs and chicken and MUDDY BUDDIES, the latter was not grilled) and played games with friends and whatnot.  ALSO we went shopping for KYLE--that never ever EVER happens.  The only new clothes he ever gets are gifts from both sides of the family.  For such a snazzy dresser, this has to be hard on the guy.  Buying clothes for him just about made my day.   Spring is certainly here finally, evidenced by our blasting air conditioner (pregnancy makes you easily overheat, okay?) and lack of full length pants.

We continue to:

--get snow cones at every opportunity

--play with Eliza every day

--look forward to our Tahoe vacation in just two weeks!

--decorate the baby room (it is looking awesome)

--enjoy our Netflix on the Wii

--get excited about the upcoming Top 20 of SYTYCD

--stay late at work nearly every day (just Kyle, my "job" is babysitting Eliza every day and I just do that at home)

-- take lots of trips to Joanns

For the first time we:

--ate Thai food 

--have enjoyed playing games with friends (several times even! we usually hate games!)

--have had long nails for at least two months now (ok that one is just me)

--don't throw up all the time (me again)

--ok I actually can't think of anything else that technically applies to this category

I had my 6 month doctor appointment yesterday--nothing exciting.  Velocity's measuring a week bigger than normal--instead of meaning an earlier due date, this means a good-sized baby.  Andersons don't have puny babies so this comes as no surprise to me.  Doc also said my weight gain is "outstanding"--that isn't something you usually hear so I felt like giving him a hug.  I'm actually just barely back to my pre-pregnancy weight so apparently very little weight gain is great weight gain at this point.

Lots of you probably already read Christy's blog about starting IVF--as the one going through it she has to be reserved and everything when she talks about it.  I, on the other hand, feel no such restraint and let me just tell you we are SO THRILLED and EXCITED and FREAKING OUT.  This is a huge deal and everything is just falling into place and I know that it will go really well, even though the process obviously sucks.  They beat the crap out of cancer and are now totally going to dominate infertility.  They are cool folks, guys.  We'll definitely be praying for the happiest of outcomes, which will be another baby to kiss.  Christy and I have always talked/dreamed about being pregnant at the same time, and there's a chance that can happen, which makes me feel like crying.  Anyways.  This is the thing that I think about the most so I had to blog it!

Eliza is waking up in the Pack n Play so I gotta run give her a bottle and a squeeze!

Ok...I'm cringing

I need to get over my awkwardness about tummy pictures.  I mean, I love when other people put them up!  They are cute and I am always curious about how big people are getting.  So last night, after Christy told me about how I'll regret not documenting my pregnancy, Kyle and I took a couple pictures on our way to dinner.  And it was SO MUCH WORSE than I thought!  I was embarrassed in front of KYLE, which is just ridiculous.  I just can't get the hang of it! It's impossible for me to not have an ugly sheepish look on my face, showing my awkwardness.  SO here's one with my face cut off.  It's a step in the right direction, okay?  I'll work on including my whole body next time.

Anyways, here is my stomach at 23 weeks, nearly 6 months!

Kyle felt left out so he took this next one.  He thinks it's hilarious.  I think my stomach looks freakishly huge.  Like...GROSS!

EDIT: Ok, ten minutes or so after posting this, I am hating how it ends on that creepy picture, but I also think it's funny so I don't want to delete it.  I decided this next one isn't SO bad, and it's almost LESS awkward if it's my whole face and not just my torso.  Am I overthinking the tummy picture concept?  YES I AM.  

What are you supposed to do with your arms? I see everyone cradling their stomach in these pictures...but I felt like an idiot doing that.  So I just kind of...stand there.  Kyle admonished me for hunching over so in this one I threw my shoulders back and it looks weird. 

Anyways...

Today I am saying goodbye to all the clothes that won't fit me anymore--at least for the next several months.  It feels great because now I won't have to look at them in my closet anymore and miss them, and it always feels good to have plenty of space in my drawers!  My motivation: all my new maternity clothes.  I'm blessed to have a generous aunt in the area who just had a baby, so she passed on her stylish maternity wardrobe to me.  The amount of maternity clothing I have now is slightly shocking!  I feel very prepared and organized now.

I KNOW it is my moral obligation to put a picture on here of my pregnant self. It's what pregnant women DO. It just feels so awkward,  especially if I try to take one myself.  Someday I'll force Kyle to do it and then we'll see if it gets posted.  I wish I was one of those Every Single Week pregnant picture posters, it just turns out that I am not.  Originally Kyle felt strongly about photographically documenting the pregnancy...but we just never got around to it.  I think a lot of the motivation fled when I started feeling awful all the time.  Now that I feel pretty good during the day (just not at night, when the migraines/heartburn/back pain/various other maladies strike) we should try again to care.

ANYWAYS I am actually feeling really great and having fun.  My sleep schedule isn't as terrible as it's been, so I wake up and feel human and am able to go to sleep when Kyle does usually!  That is a HUGE deal and makes me really happy.  I work on some baby room projects while Eliza takes her nap (I am back to watching her every afternoon while her parents are at work), and I'm feeling much more alive and social then I've been for the last 5 months.  I really want to make the most of this summer (while I can still move around pretty normally, at least).  I want to take advantage of Saturdays when Kyle is at home and do fun things together!  I want to hang out with all of my friends, especially friends in the area who for some reason I never see.  Once I have a baby it seems like I'll be so busy being a mom that fun social activities will fall by the wayside.  So even if I'm tired and uncomfortable now,  I need to buck up and take advantage of the kidless life.  Christy always tells me to GO TO THE MOVIES, because once you have a baby it gets much harder!  I want to go camping, go on a spontaneous road trip, go to local events, etc.  I know you can do all of those things with a baby, but it is certainly more complicated and, knowing Kyle and me, we'll decide the effort just isn't worth it and we may as well just put the baby to sleep and watch tv.  YES, we are very cool like that.

In Which I Gush About Good Things

The Hokulia Shave Ice stand is open!  I COULD NOT BE HAPPIER.  This stuff is UNREAL and unlike any shaved ice I've ever had.  It's all the way by Helaman Halls (probably the one reason I regret leaving Provo--we're now like 20-25 mins. away) so I promised Kyle we wouldn't have to go every day--but maybe like 3 times a week?  Ok twice?  What is acceptable in this situation?  We went on Monday and it was every bit as good as I remembered.  They have a ton of new flavors (Kyle tried and enjoyed the strawberry cheesecake) but I am unable to order anything but black cherry.  It is just the best and why would I risk having something less than perfection?  ANYWAYS I constantly think about the next time I can conceivably go and get one.  They have irregular hours, which is the only drawback.  Last summer we often would drive (like 4 mins.) to get one and they were closed.  The disappointment of that after 25 mins. would be DEVASTATING.

Over the weekend Kyle's anniversary surprise was AWESOME.  We drove up to Salt Lake to stay at the Grand America Hotel!  Guys.  Wow.  This hotel is MAGNIFICENT.  I have never known such grandeur. I am so obviously a little poor gauche girl, because I spent the weekend gawking at the finery instead of taking it in stride.  Being surrounded by such luxury motivated Kyle to get really rich and have that all the time, but I reacted differently--I kept thinking about how awesome it would be to work in a place like that!  I could TOTALLY man the expensive (for us) continental breakfast in the lobby lounge (awesome croissants), or keep the public bathroom stocked with paper towels.  OH wait they don't even USE paper towels, they are far too fancy for that, they have elegantly stacked hand towels.  And every stall is it's own little room with a real door, marble floors, crown molding, and crystal chandelier.  Yes, even the public bathroom was exciting.  To say NOTHING of the bathroom in our room--I am still pining for it.  I never dreamt that I would ever stay in such a hotel.

What else can I gush about?  How about this quilt that Ashley made me for the baby room?  She knew I wanted purple and green and then spent her whole spring break at home sewing this.  I LOVE it.  It's beautiful and exactly what I want the room to feel like.  I think most of the things I get will be bird/tree oriented.

Speaking of which, I've just about decided what decal to put on the wall over the crib.  We don't want to do anything permanent like paint it, and I am nowhere near crafty/talented/confident enough to just paint a tree myself.  So we decided to go vinyl decal, and I think I've decided on this one:

It's pretty cheap and I like the swirly branches and fat bird.  There aren't too many things going on and I like to keep it pretty simple.  Those won't be the colors of course.  I'm thinking white branch (on our light brownish walls) and lilac bird (because I don't like the shades of green they offer).  It's girly but not like FLOWERS AND FAIRIES!!!!!!

And finally: Kyle felt Velocity kick for the first time last night.  I don't know why, but I have been really excited about that happening.  It can finally be real for him too!  And then Velocity/pregnancy made up for all the preciousness by keeping me all night with terrible heartburn.  Do you know how hard it is to sleep propped up while not sleeping on your back?  YOU CAN'T.  I nearly broke my back trying.