October 2016

I  wish you could see the live photo of our sunday evening family walk. It cracks me up and my belly looks huge, because it must be pretty big in real life.

I enjoy Sundays. I enjoy going to church and setting the Chelsea reset or refresh button on life and self. I love seeing family and friends there. And today I really enjoyed the sacrament meeting talks. I didn’t enjoy sitting on the pews for 3 hours, since I’m heavy with child, but oh well. I can’t lay down everywhere and that’s okay I guess. I’m excited to have our little baby and take it to church and have it be blessed and take care of he or she. I think more people are thinking baby is a girl now, but a few weeks ago there were more boy votes. We don’t really know or have a preference. 

Sooooooo, today is October 30th, which means it’s my sweet Natalie girl’s birthday! She loves animals, Piper included. She’s so funny and curious and asks great questions. She’s helpful and compassionate and likes hearing old stories. This girl made me an aunt 10 years ago and I love her very muchly.

After church today, Chris and I went to family dinner/lunch at Natalie’s house. We made her a card, gave her a jar thing of bean boozled, and her very own can of whipped cream to eat whenever she wants. :) My nieces always get ribs as their birthday meal, so that’s what we ate today. Everyone loves them! Except me, I’m not a big rib fan and usually just have a teeny tiny bite to participate and to eat a bit of meat.

Chris and I came home and had the usual sunday sleepies, so I put on the Addams Family and we took nappies. His nap lasted for most of this weirdo movie, and I missed a few parts. What a bizarre story and kooky family, this Addams. But it’s October, so we must be festive and watch such things. 

As always, the cats napped it up too, and cuddled, then stretched out. Precious.

Then came our family walk with the beautiful sunset, and then my honey boy, Christopher Robin, finished painting the baby’s room that he started yesterday. Nice to have some fresh paint! We painted, I mean Chris painted, I didn’t do any painting… anyway, it’s painted FOG aka light gray. Bold, I know. I love our white walls in the house and now a bit of gray is good too.

I made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies tonight and added a bunch of mediocre christmas movies to our netflix watch list. Halloween is almost over and I’m ready for the Christmas season! Hopefully we…. I mean Chris… will get our lights up outside tomorrow.

Tomorrow I get to put the nursery back together! I love that room. We’re taking natalie girl to a birthday lunch tomorrow too. And I need to do some visiting teaching and deliver some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. :) And then it’s FHE and Halloween! Not sure what we’ll do… maybe go out trick or treating with the nieces. Or maybe watch Casper. What a classic. Or maybe we’ll watch a couple hours of Blue Bloods like we often do. Or maybe I’ll go into labor. Who knows! I do hope our bebe isn’t born on Halloween, but sweet babe knows when is best. 

Last niiiiight was the ward Halloween party. It turned out super great in my opinion, and I’m happy happy that it’s over! I do not like being in charge of stuff. I’m totally good helping out from beginning to end, taking orders, giving suggestions, doing whatever, but I’d definitely prefer to not be in charge. So, I’m glad the Halloween party is over and I don’t have to overstress about it anymore. Everything turned out pretty great, except for a poor little boy who was jabbed in the eye with a sword. I guess it’s necessary to write “no weapons” on the flyer now… Also, kids maybe filled up with cupcakes and candy, which parents might not enjoy too much. But the chili cook off was great, the costumes were great, the carnival activities seemed pretty good, and the turnout was really great. Hoppy Halloween!

And here’s my Wilson and Mr. Castaway. I love our costumes. <3

Same ol’ stripes around here. Stripes seem to be my signature color of pregnancy, and of course this nifty to plaid Sherpa flannel that keeps me warm.

Currently I’m annoyed at the dog’s barks. We have a bunch of new neighbors and some new neighborhood dogs that Edel barks with and it’s super annoying to me. Anyway…. I still like her. And I’m so grateful she gets me outside and walking and such. But I don’t want her to wake a sleeping babe with her barking sometimes.

Speaking of sleeping baby, our little one keeps moving around quite a bit and I still love it. I love being pregnant. It’s the best. I love it.

I don’t really love that my pants have been ripping lately, but I just sew them up until they rip again. :) It’s mostly the inner thigh that keeps ripping, I guess because they’ve been so well used haha. Especially now that I only have a few pair of pants low enough and stretchy enough to work for my pregnant body. I tried on some maternity jeans at target a couple times and they didn’t work for me, so still going strong with the regular pants, when I have to have pants on at least.

Today I’m writing thank you cards for all the loving baby gifts we’ve received, and I’m listening to Christmas music! TIS THE SEASON. Well it’s not quite Christmas music season, but whatever. It is definitely pumpkin pie and pumpkin chocolate chip cookie season.

It’s also Halloween season. We’ve got our ward Halloween party tomorrow night that the youth/youth presidencies are in charge of. That’s been plenty of work for me and I’ve over stressed, but oh well. The party will be grand and I look forward to mine and Chris’s costumes! Stay tuned to see how precious and Halloweeny we will be. :)

ALSO Chris is famous. Proud of my Chris the aviator.

Anchorage is 220 miles away, or a four hour drive.

In the summer months, Chris and I make it up there pretty regularly to pick up visitors from the airport and show them around the Kenai Peninsula. In wintertime, we don’t need to go as often, and sometimes the snowy roads want to keep you in Homer. The roads were great though, and so was my Odie’s sandwich on the drive up. Also, super glad I wore my sweat pants in the car. 

Anchorage has costco and the temple for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Other than the airport, that’s why we go to Anchorage. Oh! And for our favorite Moose’s Tooth pizza. :)

A purpose of this trip was also to see one of Chris’s good friends, who was in Anchorage on a big layover of flying a cargo 747 from Hong Kong to AK. It was nice to meet him and hangout and spend time in a cool book store. And we all ate moose’s tooth pizza together with our other good Anchorage friends too. Success.

With a little baby arriving soon, we decided we needed to make a trip to Anchorage to go to da Lord’s temple and da Lord’s costco. ;) My dear mother took care of our animals for us, and so it was nice to not bring Edelweiss, though sometimes it’s really really great to bring her on our trips with us. There’s a hotel that allows pets that we stay at when we have her. But our car was so full of costco and target goods that we would didn’t have any spare room for the pooch. Since we didn’t have Edel, they gave us a non-pet room, which was great! We got Wendy’s frosties and ate them. Funny. Haven’t had a frosty in long time

My dear ol’ dad happened to be in Anchorage at the same time as us! He was at the airport for a few hours going from the slope (work) to California to be with my grandparents. Nice to see him! It had been a while since he’s spending most of his time not at work with his parents.

I just got paid from a bunch of summer work, so it was nice to have monies to stock up on our food storage and get some last things we needed for bebe. And I went to Value Village too, which is always excellent. I found some perfect snow boots and a great basket. I love baskets. And I love thrift stores.

Going to Anchorage = going to the temple, or at least it usually should. :) We helped out with some sealings, along with many other people, and it was really really great. So glad to have a temple in our state and just 200 miles away.

October 17th.

I woke up at 2 am to pee. I wake up frequently to pee. But this 2 am wakeup was especially exceptional because I looked out the window to see beautiful snow fall! The white lit up the night, and I was excited for morning.

Chris and I got up probably about 8:30 or 9 and went for a lovely, snowy walkie with the animals. They were pretty happy about it too! Chris and I ate some snow and enjoyed the quiet stillness that snow brings.

I really love our morning or evening or afternoon walks. Our pup Edel is a lot of work, and in general, the animals wreak a level of havoc on the house, but I love being outside with them. If we didn’t have Edel, I would most likely spend much less time outside, which wouldn’t be good. And the cats… they’re so funny when they follow us on walks, and when they bolt around the trail or on the dead trees. Our walks are definitely a high spot of everyday.

And the snow… it makes everything so beautiful!

Funny picture of Piper in perfect Halloween cat form.

And my little Piper and I, the kitten who made my dreams come true, and now she’s the kitten the keeps me from dreaming…. she doesn’t have the same sleeping schedule as we do and expects to go in and outside through the window as she pleases, which disturbs our slumber. I guess she’s just helping us prepare for a newborn babe that will soon arrive. Thanks for looking out for us, Piper.

Here’s to high hopes for some good snow this winter.

Sunday. I’m 36 weeks pregnant. It’s still pretty dreamy to me and I love it. The baby moves around a lot – my midwife described it as breakdancing on it’s head. I love feeling and watching him or her move and drum around in there. Sometimes it is a steady beat and totally seems like drumming. My lungs and bladder are getting increasingly squished, so I pee a lot, especially at night, and sometimes I breathe heavier than normal. I still feel good and healthy and am staying fairly active, but I wish I was doing more regular exercises. I’ve gained 30 pounds the past 8 months and my belly seems to grow everyday. :) I like to lay down when I can, and subbing a couple days in a row last week was hard for me haha. I didn’t even get to nap at school! I guess that’s normal though, but I remember taking naps  in my kindergarten class back in 1994.

We had nice church meetings today. Sacrament meeting was enjoyable and the songs we sang were so lovely. Sometimes I sing the hymns in portuguese because I just miss that Brazil land and people and it takes me back to so many fond mission memories. Brasil Vitória <3.

After church, Chris and I arrived home with the usual post church hunger, nothing like those fast sundays though. :) I took this nice picture of him playing xbox Star Wars and waiting for rice to cook. I love that Bel is nestled up in the clean sheets and Edel is hanging out by the driftwood pile. Funny. And Chris’s concentration on his star wars games is comical sometimes, and annoying at other times haha. But usually not annoying.

Lately the cats have found a new place to nap. The crib. Bel is in there a lot and Piper recently discovered it. It’s a nice place where Edel can’t reach them to munch away at their fur. 

Speaking of Edel, she and I have had some good hangout time lately. We hang out at home together, go on walks, and we went to the beach to collect driftwood a couple times this week. My patience can get very short with her sometimes, but she surely is patient with me. Very patient. And she’s funny – any time she hears me chomp a carrot or slice an apple or open the fridge to take something out, she’s right there, ready for me to toss her some scraps of produce. Funny girl.

Last night at the beach with honey husband. I love this picture.

Cats… crib… again…

My big belly at the beach the other sunny day. This was the first time I had been to the beach in a while, and I was nice to have such glorious weather while there! Edel looooved swimming and chasing a big stick in the water. And I managed to bend over and gather lots of good driftwood for a nursery project that I hope to complete for babe arrives.

Cats… sleeping…

Dinner! I was doing a one time boat cleaning and got home kind of late, so Christopher had dinner and Blue Bloods waiting for me when I arrived. How wonderful. I had to take a picture of the happy moment.

And the harbor, the day I cleaned a boat at 8 months pregnant. It was worth the monies and quite nice to be in the harbor again. It was so quiet and peaceful and I just listened to stuff, talked with Edel, and scrub scrubbed.

I gotta go pee again and then I should probably brush and floss my teeth and start slumbering. Over and out.

Bel and I have been nesting. I love spending time in the baby’s room! I love reorganizing the tiny shoes, putting away diapers, and finding a home for all the tiny clothes. I love falling asleep in our perfect swivel, rocker, glider chair, and I love the Bel is loving the nursery time as much as I am. 
It’s still a work in progress. But I love being in here. I love our hand me down crib, all the things in the wall, and the dresser that my mom gave us. We still plan on painting the room, probably gray, and I want to make some driftwood ABCs for above the closet. 

 Before the room’s current state, I cleaned it up to this, so that the girls could stay with us for a week while their parents weren’t in town. 

And before that, it was like this. The past year+ that Chris moved his home office out of this room and out of the home, it’s never really gotten very cleaned out. There’s always been extra junk in it, and it’s been the catch all room for anything. The more space you have, the more you fill it, I suppose. I’m glad our house isn’t too big, and that we do work to not accumulate too much stuff. It’s all still a work in progress, but it’s progress!

Time for me to sleep now. I am subbing two days in a row of middle school intensive needs and I’m sure I’ll need some naps! And I’m 35 weeks pregnant. And it’s great.