Life

There have been some exciting things going on in Jeff’s and my lives lately, the most obvious one being the baby, but most days are pretty ordinary and very much like the last. I just thought I’d give a little update on some of the things we’ve been up to.

First, we got to go to an awesome event just over a week ago: my cousin Tiffany Searle’s Wishing Mile. Tiffany is my dad’s sister Valerie’s daughter. She is so cute and sweet. I don’t get to see their family very much even though they live pretty close by. It was great to get to see everybody at the race. Tiffany is very sick and has been getting worse. Make a Wish helped put on this race for her because it was one of her wishes to run again. Jeff and I got to visit with everyone before the race and cheer Tiffany on as her family ran her around the track. BYU’s quarterback, Max Hall pushed her across the finish line. Then, he held her for a long time while they were handing out medals to all of the runners. He was very sweet with her. I was glad Jeff and I got to be there. They are such an awesome family!

There were so many people there!

One of the cute signs with a picture of Tiffany after one of her races before she got sick.

Max Hall running Tiffany across the finish line

Tiffany with Max

Tiffany with her parents, Scott and Valerie and Max Hall giving her a jersey.

School has been very cooperative with my pregnancy this semester. I’m taking 15 credits, just like last semester, but somehow, it’s been significantly less busy! It’s fantastic! I have enough wiggle room to be extra tired some days or to get really baby crazy and look up baby stuff online all day on occasion. And most recently, I had enough extra time to spend an unexpectedly large number of hours working on a Valentine’s Day gift for Jeff (I’ll post about that later). My classes are interesting and enjoyable enough, but I’m definitely ready to be done! Just 3 more classes to take during spring semester and that will become a reality! And just 20 days later, the baby is due! I’m taking my capstone credits this semester even though I still have three more classes to take. I have it really easy! I’m just watching a bunch of teen movies all semester and coding them for teen love/romance and aggression within romantic relationships. The study involves 30 movies from the 80’s, 30 from the 90’s and 30 from the 2000’s. My group recently established reliability on our coding so now we’re on our own. All of the movies are divied up so that we each have to code 4 per week. Jeff is jealous that my capstone is so much easier than his was (building a machine used for dipping catheters for heart surgery).

Jeff has been very very busy as always! He is jamming through grad school at a ridiculous pace. This is his last semester of classes and then all that’s left is his thesis. He’s expecting to be done by August. He is taking 4 classes, all with pretty heavy workloads and working hard on his research. His physics class is particularly difficult, but of course, my brilliant husband has been able to figure out some seemingly impossible homework questions when virtually everyone else in the class hasn’t. He is also working on a project with one other guy in his manufacturing class and not unlike his previous group project experiences; he is carrying the majority of the load. Oh well. I guess he’s used to it.

The baby has been kicking like crazy for the past week or two. Still not hard enough for Jeff to be able to feel it, but it has definitely gotten stronger since the first time I recognized it. It’s one of the few things that reminds me that I really am pregnant! Although, I have gotten significantly thicker in the waist, I’m still not very round and I still don’t really look pregnant. I know that once I have a giant belly that is constantly in my way, I’ll wish I was smaller, but at this point, I am just dying to have an obviously pregnant belly!

In other baby-related news, I have THE best grandma! Mamal bought Jeff and I a crib, mattress, mattress pad, and changing pad last week and we are so excited and SO grateful! Mamal has got to be the most generous person I know! She also bought me a bunch of really cute maternity clothes (6 shirts, a dress and a skirt). Hopefully I’ll fill them out a little better soon! I’ll be wearing them regardless because I don’t fit into my regular clothes anymore. I’ve been alternating between sweat pants and my one pair of maternity jeans lately. Thank you Mamal!

Most weekends are still pretty low key for Jeff and I since I can’t do most of our physical date night activities as easily anymore and some are just too dangerous for the baby. We had fun hanging out with friends at the Higley’s for the Superbowl last weekend though and recently, we’ve been given a couple of really fun options for future weekends that we’re excited about. Doug and Tricia want to take a group laser tagging at a new place nearby soon. I know I might run out of energy much faster than before I got pregnant, but with a group, Jeff can have fun running around with people that can keep up with him a little better, while I lag behind or find a good spot to snipe people from. We’re looking forward to it. Also, a friend of mine’s husband works at the Quarry (indoor rock climbing) and we can get in for free if we go with them. That used to be one of our very favorite date activities, but it’s pretty expensive and it didn’t seem worth going knowing that I would very likely tire out way before I used to. But now we can get in for free! We’re stoked!