She's HERE!

Norah was born Sunday July 4th at 7 am.

7 pounds 2 oz
21 inches
We are SO in love with this baby girl!


We had a rough go for a few days. I had some major hemorrhaging after Norah was born and had to receive 4 units of blood the next two days. It was pretty scary for all of us, especially for Ben, but he was amazing and immediately stepped up to the role of super dad. The doctors were two steps away from performing a hysterectomy when thankfully the blood slowed down and I began feeling a lot better. We are so thankful to be home now with a happy and healthy baby. She is such a great baby and we are falling more and more in love with her every minute. Thanks for all your love and support!

Good for Nothing

Doesn't this baby know that when the ticker gets to 0 DAYS she is suppose to be here?! Some help this blog "widget" was. Still waiting for her and the anticipation is CRAZY, but I'm not going to lie, I am enjoying my last few days of me time :)

Sweet Slumber

Remember this great bed frame that Ben made with his own two hands?? When we moved from our house we had to leave it behind because it was too big to fit out of the bedroom without tearing it apart. We have been sleeping with our mattress on the ground for the past year, but decided it is time to get another bed frame. We like the platform style since we don't have box springs, but are not sure where to look for one. Does anyone have experience with Ikea's bed frames? They seem to be the only thing really in our price range right now. I would love something like this...
but i think it's REAL wood and therefore REAL expensive :) Hopefully we can find something soon though-It will be nice not to have to crawl on my hands and knees into bed anymore!

Benjo

No, we haven't been boating recently, but one can dream! I am just showing off my hottie husband. We are celebrating Father's Day tomorrow, and this guy is gonna be a good one! He tells me at least once a day that he is ready for our baby girl to come and play with us. I wonder if he knows that it's not going to be all play all the time ;) I love you darling, Happy Daddy's Day!

I'm including this picture for my sake; I am ready to be active again. All this rolling around and waddling is getting kinda old :)

I DID IT!

When we moved to Washington last year I was desperate to quickly find a job with good pay and benefits while Ben attended Graduate school. Everything worked out perfectly and I was able to land a job a few weeks after our move that paid better than any job I had up til then and also provided benefits. It didn't take me long to discover that this job was going to be less than ideal for me. I had just graduated with my Masters in Social Work and was hoping to find a job as a school counselor. Unfortunately for me, in Washington they require a counseling degree, not a social work degree. But I had found a job as a "Behavior Intervention Technician" in a middle school. This job wasn't exactly what I wanted to do but it was right up my alley as I had been working with teens behavior issues since I began my college experience. Turns out I was to be little more than a babysitter in the In School Suspension room at the middle school. My initial job description promised things such as classroom interventions and student counseling, etc. Well I soon figured out that there was no possible way for me to be in the classrooms when the ISS room was always full of students. And how could I counsel the students when I was constantly watching the room to make sure kids were working, keeping their cell phones put away, and not talking with other students. Needless to say it was a hard job and the staff and administration were not interested in my ideas for improvement. All they needed was a place to put kids when they misbehaved but not drastically enough to merit them being sent home. The days were long and I tried to do what I could to counsel the students and keep them from coming back to ISS week after week, but I spent most of my time with the same group of trouble makers.
I am sure I made a difference somewhere along the line, and the teachers and staff report never having had a better ISS room, but I can't help but feel like I just wasted a year of my life. I am so thankful to have had a job though, especially in a school setting; I love working with adolescents. However I am thrilled to have worked my last day yesterday! It was such a long year, especially towards the last few months with a bun in the oven. I am ever so anxious for our baby girl to arrive now and unbelievable grateful to have the opportunity to stay at home with her for a few years. I think once life settles down I might try and work in the schools again someday, but I am so ready to be a mommy.

Ben and I went out to lunch to celebrate after school. Its crazy to think that every restaurant outing could be our last with just the two of us. We also went and walked through some of the beautiful parks and gardens here in town. I didn't take a camera but we will go back soon and take pictures. My mom is coming into town soon and she is a master gardener so I know she will appreciate this place called "Manito Park".

Our last stop was the grocery store to load up on ice cream. At my last doctors appt they told me to keep eating my ice cream and taking long showers while I can. So I am just following doctors orders! :0 Ben also agreed to watch all the Harry Potter movies with me. I haven't seen the last two movies and he has never seen any of them. So we will be eating ice cream and having a Harry Potter marathon for the next few days.

We've been trying to get out and see the area around our home little by little. We took a trip to a nearby resort town, Couer D'alene, Idaho. They have a cool boardwalk but we were really wishing we had a boat or some jet skis :) I was too hot to walk around for long, so it was a short trip, but we will definitely have to get back there again sometime. I've been told they have a floating golf course and lots of other fun attractions. But you have to fork out the money to do anything really great. You can swim for free though, and they even have lifeguards on duty, so maybe when my belly is gone.


I am going on 38 weeks now. Doc says she could come any day! I'm already 1 cm and 90% effaced, so we are crossing our fingers that it is not too much longer. School is out at the end of this week, so with work out of the way, its all baby after that :)

Sunday afternoon naps are always a favorite around our house, but it seems lately we have established a new routine. Ben and I are always fighting to lay on the long couch, neither of us wants to go upstairs to nap on the bed for some reason, and the love seat is just too small to lay on. Since I have been pregnant I find it harder to stay in one position for too long without getting uncomfortable or having to go the restroom. On more than one occasion Ben has taken advantage of this by "stealing my spot". You see I was the one laying on the couch and although his gesture to lay by my side today was "sweet", I am realizing that he had alterior motives. He was just waiting for me to get uncomfortable so he could claim my territory! I guess I could go back and scoot him over, but like I said, its hard to stay comfortable for long anymore, so my nap time is over for the day. I sure do love my naughty husband though :)


We both can't believe that we only have a few weeks left until our family of two will be a family of three! Ben confessed to me that he is somewhat nervous about knowing how to hold a newborn baby. How cute is that?! He doesn't want to break her. Speaking of "her" what should we name her?? We decided we want to wait and see what she looks like before we make the call, but we would love to hear suggestions.

In other news...Have you ever watched Rugby? I think it might be one of our new favorite sports. Ben will usually watch any sport, but Rugby is one sport neither of us are really familiar with. We watched a movie a few weeks ago called "Invictus" that we thought was pretty good though and introduced us to the "manly" sport. And then we came across this huge tournament on TV this weekend and discovered that the U of U was in the lead and on thier way to the final game against Cal State. Like I said, we don't know anything about Rugby but apparently Cal State is pretty dang good. We also found out that BYU is awesome at Rugby too but they were not invited to the Tourney probably because it was on Saturday and Sunday. SO we cheered for the U, and they took home the GOLD this afternoon. It was quite comical to hear Ben yelling at the refs although he wasn't quite sure what the rules to the game were. I guess once a sports fan always a sports fan though, its in his blood. We are learning more about the game now, these guys are huge, fast, and amazing...ly good looking :) Just kidding, but I was pretty impressed with the buff bodies! So if you've never seen a Rugby game, check it out, much more impressive than a game with lazy football players(in my opinion). And go U of U, even though we still don't like you better than BYU!

Ready for July!!

Ben tells me I need a new blog background because my old pink one was too Valentinesish. I let him choose the pattern for the new design. It's funny that he even cared because he never reads the blog, just looks over my shoulder when I am posting something. Bring on July!

Great Weekend

Ben was a sweetheart and cleaned our home from top to bottom while I was at work on Friday. It made for a wonderful weekend as I didn't have to worry about a thing come Saturday morning. I can't really sleep in much anymore because I get hungry and uncomfortable, but I did get another hour in and then woke up to do the cereal and cartoon routine; you're never too old for cartoons.
After lounging around a bit, Ben and I went downtown for a walk. This weekend was the Lilac Festival here in town so it was pretty busy. While walking around the river we got caught up in a marathon. It was funny because everyone was cheering us on like we were participating. A big ol pregnant lady...I think they probably just felt bad for me because they kept saying, just a little bit further! A lot of others were walking it too so I guess we just blended in.
Later I got to take a nice bath, we did some grocery shopping, and went out for a movie. We rarely go to the theater but we had a gift card that we wanted to use before baby came. It is probably going to be quite sometime before we make it out to a movie again.
6 weeks to go now! I am not counting down the days though because I have a feeling I will get to my due date and she won't be here until another two weeks later! I hear the first time you usually go past the due date. I haven't mentioned yet that we are moving. Not too far, just down the street. Our friends manage some apartments for senior citizens and are moving next month, so thankfully we were able to interview and get the position in their place. I am nervous to be moving right before I have a baby, and to be in a new environment, but we are grateful for the opportunity to still have an income since I am done working next month when school gets out. Our new apartment is going to have cable, which is a good and bad thing. Ben will get sucked in to ESPN again, but I will be able to get back to good ol' TLC. A new season of Cake Boss is starting again my friends :)

Happy Mothers Day!

I love the Primary Mothers Day songs. It is so fun to see the primary kids on the stand with their smiling faces searching the crowd for their moms while they sing at the top of their lungs. While watching them today I couldn't help but feel excited at the prospect of having my own child sing to me someday, but then I also felt a wave of panic! It's getting closer...

The first year Ben and I were married, Ben bought me a box of chocolates for Mothers Day with a sweet letter something to the effect of how I wasn't a mother yet but that he was excited for the day when I would be, etc etc etc. This year, although I still don't have a baby in my arms, we both thought it was worth celebrating, because with every kick and roll, this baby is reminding me that yes, I am beginning the path to motherhood :)

Ben was so cute and kept hinting all week long that he had a surprise for me. He was so thoughtful and had made me chocolate covered strawberries! They are so stinkin good too. He also downloaded some of my favorite music and put it on my ipod and everything. What a sweetheart; I don't know how I could even contemplate motherhood without an amazing man like him in my life!

Also have to say how thankful I am for my own wonderful mother. It's nice to have so many motherly figures in my life to look to for guidance and support as I begin this journey, but my ultimate source has got to be my mom, she's already raised 8 children with great success. You are the woman mom, Happy Mothers Day!