Happy New Year!

Since it's New Year's Eve and since Ashton is currently out walking Dusty, I decided that I would update the blog.

Our Christmas was pretty uneventful, which suited us just fine. We went up to Ashton's mom's house for Christmas Eve and spent some time with her as well as Nate and Anjanette. We enjoyed the time just visiting, eating, and opening presents. Christmas Day we stayed at home enjoying the sunshine and warmth (yeah we didn't get any snow for Christmas although we got some yesterday and it has actually stayed). We played lots of games and had fun.

Ashton has actually had this week off from work and it's been great! I've enjoyed having him around. We haven't done a whole lot, although we got to visit with some friends that we don't get to see often, but it's been great to just relax and spend some time together. We won't have this opportunity again for a while so we've taken advantage of it. Hopefully, it won't take us too long to get back into the daily routine next week when Ashton has to go back to work.

It's hard to believe that in about a month and a half, our family will have a new addition. We've been preparing for it, but my mind has just recently been realizing how soon it will be. The time will either go fast or slow, but it'll go and, hopefully, I'll be ready when it happens. The baby is getting me used to waking up in the middle of the night with his kicking so that's at least something I guess.

Of course, you can't get to hours before the new year begins without thinking over the past year. This year has brought with it a lot of changes for us. All of them good and a few of them were pretty big changes. Next year will bring some more changes and we're pretty excited about that. There will of course be ups and downs, but it should prove to be an interesting year I think.

Christmas Stuff

This past weekend, we got our Christmas tree and decorations out of storage so that our apartment could look more festive, although we still have yet to get snow. For some reason, I really want it to snow this year. Not some major amount of snow, but a little would be nice. Enough to make it feel winter and like I'm actually getting closer to having this baby. Even if the outside doesn't look like it's getting to be Christmas time, our apartment does!

I was worried that we wouldn't have any space for our tree, but I misjudged how big our tree really is. The only thing I really had to move was a plant and it fits so nicely. I did have to move a picture frame so that I could put our Nativity scene up, but that wasn't hard. I thought to fit the tree in that I'd have to do some major rearranging. So I was happily wrong. Our tree is all decorated now and even has a present under it.

I think Ashton dreads the present part of Christmas. He's fine with buying gifts and receiving gifts. The only problem is that while I love surprises, I do not like waiting for them. So, I end up bugging him endlessly about what he's gotten me even before the present is sitting under the tree. It doesn't help that I "made the mistake" of guessing what some of my presents were, and I happened to guess correctly. So now he thinks I'm too good at guessing. As punishment, I get no hints and I'm not allowed to shake presents for more than a couple minutes. On the other hand, I get so excited about what I've gotten him that usually I'm bugging him to shake his presents and guess. It's also become a sort of tradition for me to make him open one of his presents a week early because I can't wait anymore. I might try to hold out this year, but we'll see how that works out.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Thanksgiving started out with me getting up at 6:30 because I couldn't sleep. Although I haven't really gotten any bigger, sleeping has been difficult. Partly due to being uncomfortable and partly because the baby has decided that kicking me in the middle of the night or early in the morning is fun. This has been going on for about the past week at least so I'm a bit sleep deprived. It was kind of nice on Thanksgiving though because I was up early enough to be able to watch the Thanksgiving parade. All 3 hours of it. Although I missed some of it due to making breakfast and getting ready for the day. I had never watched the parade before so it was pretty fun.

This year for Thanksgiving we went up to Ashton's mom's house for "dinner" (it was more like a huge lunch). There ended up being lots of people there, most of whom we don't get to see too often so it was nice to see everyone! The food was great and it was nice to fulfill some cravings. I think Ashton is happy that he doesn't have to listen about how badly I want turkey anymore.

There were a few little girls running around and playing with toys the whole afternoon, which was entertaining to watch. Our little boy will be quite outnumbered when he gets here. He might just have to tag along with the "big" boys, although this picture doesn't show their age. I guess put any guy in front of something to build and they become a little boy again.


This little cutie wanted me to take her picture after I got done taking pictures of the boys. She kept posing and then showing me how she had posed. She, of course, wanted to see the picture after I had taken it, although, she was a little more interested in having her picture taken.


The rest of the weekend was spent at home just hanging out and running a few errands. I'm not really a shopper and Black Friday shopping sounds like more stress and hassle than I'm willing to put up with. On Saturday, we did a few chores around the house. Ashton decided to vacuum for me and this is what ended up happening.


Yes, that's right. Ashton vacuumed the dog. She was lying in the middle of the floor while he was trying to vacuum and wasn't interested in moving so he could get that spot. So, Ashton decided to vacuum her as well. To her credit, she took it very well. He thought she would bolt, but she almost seemed to enjoy it. Of course, I had to get a picture although it just encouraged him.

What would a blog post be without a small baby update? I'm 28 weeks now. It's exciting to be in my third trimester even though it will come with it's own kind of crazy. Although I'm not too thrilled about the kicking during the night and losing sleep, it's nice that we have an active boy. We've decided that he's a bit of a showoff. I had my 28 week midwife appointment last Wednesday, and my midwife was showing us exercises to start doing for optimal fetal positioning. Well, after doing them, the midwife checked to see where the baby was, listen to his heartbeat and all of that fun stuff. Now, my baby likes to lay sideways or diagonally, which is fine except he's getting a little too big to do that comfortably. This time, however, when she checked he was laying in the perfect position with his head down and feet up by my ribs. A little bit of showing off on his part, but hey I'll take it. Of course, he moved soon afterward. I haven't really popped out yet so I'm not much bigger than I was before, but here's a picture anyways.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

During this time of year, Thanksgiving and Christmas, I try to focus on the real meaning of the holidays so as not to get caught up in the food, however wonderful it is, and buying gifts. This year, I have felt that come easily to me. Maybe it's because I have so much to be grateful for, which is true, or maybe it's because I have heard so many people talk about the need to be grateful, which is also true. In reality, it's probably a combination of the two and many other factors like this constantly kicking reminder of what I am most grateful for.

Now, I don't usually write out long lists of what I am grateful for, because I could never write a complete enough list of everything that I love and appreciate. I'm certainly not going to try to attempt the feat here. What I do want to do is to mention two things that I am grateful for that I don't usually talk about or even think about in my day to day life.

I first want to express my gratitude for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and more particularly the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I love going to church. It's such a blessing to be able to go, take the sacrament, and then be able to do my calling in Primary. The ward we are in right now has been wonderful and we're hoping when we have to move into a bigger place that we'll be able to stay in this ward. We've always been blessed with nice wards, but I don't think we've ever quite fit into a ward so nicely as we have here.

I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to take the Sacrament every week. One of my friends had to give a talk yesterday on covenants and she shared her talk on her blog. She focused a lot on the sacrament and, while I already appreciated the sacrament, I have gained a new perspective on the ordinance. I am looking forward to next Sunday to be able to take the sacrament with a new view.

I love my calling! Primary pianist is simply one of the best callings I've ever had. It's usually a thankless calling since most people don't think to be appreciative of those who can play the piano or lead music, until they don't have someone that can do those things, but I've been fine with that. The past two weeks, however, have been touching. Last week, we had our Primary program. It turned out to be a nice program and, although some last minute music was added, I was able to play everything well. A few people told me that I did a good job, including my hubby, but what touched me the most was that one of the classes in Primary took the time to each write me and the music director a card. So, I was handed 4 cards at the end of Primary that day that were made specially for me. One of the little girls was so excited to give me the card that she came up to me and told me that they had made me cards. Then she gave me a hug. Yesterday, she even came up to me and asked if I had read the cards yet, since I didn't read the right away the week before. The cards were very sweet. The two girls that were in the class wrote, "Thanks for our music. Congratulations on your baby!" The two boys were just thankful for the music. Yesterday, I also got a card from another class where they again thanked me for the music and then signed their names. It's the unexpected gifts, and the simplest, that touch me the most.

The second thing I am grateful for, is this great country and those that serve in the military. I don't express my appreciation for being born in America enough. I too often view it as a fact, almost as a right, instead of a privilege. This is a great country, full of great blessings and opportunities, as well as great responsibilities. Freedom doesn't come cheap and I am trying every day to be the person that I need to be, responsible, self-sufficient, selfless, and mastering self-control in order to be worthy of the freedoms I have been blessed with.

Those that serve in the military are incredible. I am proud of my brothers, cousins, and grandfather who have served and still do serve. They have each taught me a lot. I grew up hearing about my grandfather's war stories and I could see how proud he was to have served his country. He has taught me a lot about hard work and dedication, and I will always be grateful to him for those lessons. My brothers and cousins who have served and still serve are also great people. They work hard for their country and often for little thanks. So thank you to all those who serve in the military, but thank you especially to those I call family.

I also want to mention the family of those who serve in the military. Those wives and children that I know personally of those who serve, are amazing people. They are some of the strongest people I know as well as some of the happiest. I'm not sure I could ever be as strong and supportive as they are. I am grateful that there are people out there who are so supportive of our troops. So, thank you.

Baby Projects

Lately, I've been making baby things. I actually had several baby things made previously. Since learning to crochet, baby blankets were the easiest to make so I've made a few of those over the years, and I made some booties back when I made them for the pregnant sisters in our ward. So I had a small collection of baby things already started, but I wanted to make a few new things for David like this hat and these booties.

The hat took me a while to figure out since it was a pattern I had never used before, but it wasn't too hard. Making the earflaps, which you can't really see in this picture, was difficult only because it didn't go the way I thought it should. It also took me a few tries to figure out how to make the ties, and I'm hoping that I did them long enough. The hat is done though and I'm happy with the way it looks. Now I only hope that they fit!

Since I'm done with baby projects for me, or at least the ones that I wanted to get done right now, I'm working on other projects that I want to get done for other people. I want to have all those done by the time the baby comes, although, I'm hoping that they won't take me that long.

I'm so excited for Thanksgiving! I've been craving Thanksgiving food for the past couple weeks so as far as I'm concerned, Thanksgiving can't come fast enough. However, Thanksgiving isn't just about the food and it's been great to think about all the things that I'm grateful for. It's something I try to do daily, particularly during this time of year.

Major Accomplishment

It's kind of sad when finishing a puzzle feels like a major accomplishment, but it does! Granted, this puzzle was no ordinary puzzle. Not only was it a 1500 piece puzzle and more like a painting than a picture, but we had started this puzzle before and had given up on it because it was so hard. It took us a while to finish this time, but we did it! Ashton, I'll admit, did most of the work. I wasn't patient enough to sit there for hours and hours working on it. Normally I can do something like that, but this time I was too antsy to sit and look for the pieces I needed. They all looked so similar. It went much better when I had a set number of pieces to try in a certain spot. It went even better when I was able to pick out the exact piece to fit in the spot I was trying to fill without much effort. In any case, we finished it and it's so nice to have my table back. We had to pull out the leaves to get the puzzle to fit so now that the leaves are back in, I can fit around the table to get to the washer and dryer without much effort and the apartment doesn't look so full. We took a picture of the puzzle before taking it down so that we had proof that we did it. I have vowed never ever to do that puzzle again.

Tonight, I am planning a date night for Ashton and I. Actually, I didn't plan anything, not in advance anyways. After Ashton left for work, I decided I wanted a date night and told him that we were having a date night. Thankfully, I have a wonderful hubby who is willing to go along with such last minute schemes. I am letting him pick out where we're going to eat all on his own, which is either a blessing or a curse (blessing if he's been wanting to eat somewhere but I haven't, or a curse if there is no such place and he doesn't know what he wants). Usually, where we eat when we go out is heavily influenced by what I've been craving. The other part of our date night, which is a surprise, I planned. Again, last minute but oh well. Guess we better be spontaneous while we can.

(I forgot to add the picture earlier, so here it is:)

Organizing

I'm an organizer. I like having things put in specific places and I'm always trying to figure out the best place to put things. Ashton has come home a few times to find that I've reorganized the closet or something because I was determined that it could all fit better in a different arrangement. I used to pack and repack my suitcases about 3-4 times when I was in college, and going back and forth between Utah and Maine. This was for no better reason than knowing that I could somehow pack it better.

Well, my brain has been turning to figure out where all the baby stuff is going to go. I decided a couple months ago that I was going to use the wooden shelves in our closet for baby clothes. I think it was originally intended for shoes or something, but we've used it to put our clothes in and now I've rearranged stuff so we could use it for baby clothes. Mission accomplished right? Wrong. I've been looking at it recently and wondering if a different arrangement would be better. The nice thing about rearranging stuff so many times is that I usually do find a more efficient way to do things.

To keep the blog updated with the progression of my baby belly, here's a picture of me as I am right now at 24 weeks. At my midwife appointment last Friday, they told me that I would be getting a lot bigger in the next month, so I'll try to be better about documenting it. I have to admit, when the midwife told me that I looked down at my stomach and couldn't quite picture how I could possibly get bigger than I was already. I knew I would get bigger, but I just can't picture how that's going to work.

My Hobbies of Late

Lately, it feels like all I do during the day is read books and look at baby stuff. Not that I'm complaining. I enjoy both activities. For those who are curious, the books that I've read are Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, 1984, and the Hunger Games series. All were good books and I would recommend them. If there weren't so many books that I've finished in the past month, I'd write a review of each, but that would take too long.

As far as baby stuff goes, we've decided to name the baby David Michael. He loves to wiggle and kick it seems. On Saturday, he apparently decided to show off and gave lots of big kicks to show his daddy what he was capable of. I think Ashton was impressed and for good reason.

We've been slowly gathering baby things. We've had a stroller and car seat for a while. We bought baby clothes and some blankets, although I would like more baby quilts. Buying baby clothes is a little difficult since we have no idea how big David will be, but we've got our bases covered. In any case, it feels like we've made some progress on getting ready for David's arrival. It's been nice to slowly collect things rather than getting it all at once right before the baby comes.

Public Schools

Ashton and I have had several discussions over the years, and particularly lately, about public schools. We had different experiences growing up in the public school system, which have led to different opinions on what's best for our kids. We do agree, however, that public schools today have many things wrong with them.

Some of the biggest problems with today's public school system come from this increasing argument that things should be fair. I don't mean fair as in students not cheat on tests, or anything like that. No, I mean fair as in everything should be equal. One school went so far as to say that kids in an AP class couldn't use any outside resource for homework. They were also not allowed to discuss homework or what they learned in class with anyone, including parents. (Click here for the story.) Why would they do this? Their excuse is that it's not fair for some students who don't have as many resources as other kids do.

What these teachers don't seem to grasp is that life isn't fair. Some students don't have as many people or resources to fall back on, but that's a good thing in some ways. It means that they'll have to work harder, which will make them stronger. They will learn to compensate for what they don't have with what they do have. Why would you hold back a class from using their brains and creativity merely because some aren't as fortunate as others? It's the worst kind of pity, because it's damaging. You will not only teach the students that aren't as fortunate that they should expect to have their hand held through every difficult situation, but you will also keep other students from learning to their full capacity. If you want to actually help those kids who are behind or struggling, help the kids gain access to the resources. Make yourself more available if possible, or suggest they use the library, or suggest that students pair up to work on assignments.

Certainly, it's not all schools or all teachers who exclaim the need for fairness in classrooms, but it does seem to be an ever growing concern. There are people protesting various political issues exclaiming the want for fairness or equality between everyone. There are also people who try to make sports fair by bizarre methods. I've never heard or seen anything quite like this. Life is only fair in that every person can make what they can from it. I may not have the same opportunities as my next door neighbor, but that doesn't make me worse off. It just makes my life different.

I won't get into the other things that drive me nuts about the public school system. Sorry for the rant, but I feel much better!

More Than Halfway There!

I am now 21 weeks! I have finally gotten used to my baby belly although it still gets in the way. Thankfully, I don't bump it into things too often. I have purposefully, and gently, bumped Ashton with it. It's hard not to when you're trying to get a hug. In any case, to celebrate the halfway mark (I was going to take a picture at 20 weeks, but that didn't happen), here is a picture at 21 weeks:

It's a....

boy! We're so excited that we're having a little boy. (I couldn't resist saying, "I told you so" to Ashton when we saw that it was a boy.) He looks healthy and all of his organs look good. We couldn't get a good shot of his face since was sleeping with his hands in front of his face, and he was content to stay that way. The doctor tried to get him to move, but there was no persuading him.

We're naming him David Michael. It was actually nice that we had a boy's name and a girl's name picked out before I even got pregnant so we were prepared for either a boy or a girl. It took a while to agree on a middle name for David, but he's got one. David is getting more and more active it seems, or at least I'm feeling him more and more, which is good. Ashton's also has got to feel him move around, which is exciting.

We love our little boy so much already. Now it's onto buying baby stuff.

What a Month

The month of September was the month of trips. We started out with a weekend trip to Utah for my freshman roommate's Open House. It was so good to see her and meet her new hubby! It was also nice to see friends and family that live out there. We had about a week to recover from that trip before going to Maine for almost 2 weeks.

It was so nice to have Ashton come with me on this trip to Maine. Usually, I'm traveling by myself and it gets stressful. It was a nice change to be able to walk around without lugging all the carry-ons with me, especially when going into the bathrooms. It was also nice to be able to have him around visiting with my family. My nieces and nephews loved having Ashton around, too. He's much more fun to climb on. It's always nice to have a new person around to try antics on.

I didn't take as many pictures as I usually do, but I did take some. My nieces and nephews are getting so big. I keep trying to tell them that they need to stay small, but they're not listening. We had a good time listening to everything they had to say though and they said some pretty funny things.

One of my nieces took to calling Ashton "Ducky." I'm not exactly sure why, but the whole ducky thing came up when I called her a "lucky ducky." She thought that was funny and kept saying "ducky" the whole night. Somehow, it became associated with Ashton and he was "Ducky" for the rest of the trip. When we went up to my other brother's house, I related the story to them and their girls overheard. So, they took great delight in calling Ashton, "Ducky," "Mr. Duck," "Mr Pig," "Peanut," as well as some other names. Ashton was a good sport about it all. It probably helps that they all called him by his actual name as well.

The other things they did or said, weren't as long lasting, but still funny. It never seems like I get to spend enough time with them. All I know is, we might be in trouble if we have a little girl. Ashton would be wrapped around her little finger in an instant.

We had such a great time seeing everyone that we could. I think we actually did a pretty good job of being able to visit with the majority of the family that we have there. Not always an easy task. The majority of the time we spent in Maine was visiting with family and catching up with some friends. We did get to go to the Common Ground Fair, which was so much fun. They had such good food there, and it was nice to walk around and see some of the things they had on display there.

I also introduced Ashton to Gifford's ice cream, which is the best ice cream ever. Ashton tried a couple different flavors and loved both of them. He tried one that was called "Maine Lobster Tracks." The description is this, "Pure Vanilla Ice cream with loads of lobster colored chocolate cups filled with a thick caramel swirled with a unique eclair crunch whirl." The funny part was when he ordered it, the lady went to scoop out the ice cream and when she came back she said, "Here's your Maine Lobster Tracks, and here's your lobster bib." Yes, she did hand him a lobster bib. We got a good laugh over that and brought the bib home with us.

Now that we're home, it's back to the daily routines. For those of you who want to know, we're finding out the gender of the baby next week. So, if you care to guess whether we're having a boy or a girl, you better get your vote in soon! We're hoping that the baby isn't feeling shy or something. It'll be nice to be able to get the pronoun right for the baby. I've been feeling the baby kick and move, which is pretty amazing although a bit strange at the same time. Ashton thinks he might have felt the baby kick, but most of the time, as soon as he puts his hand on my stomach, the baby seems to stop or moves locations. Ah well, I'm sure Ashton will get to feel the baby soon.

I Just Love You

I started writing a post about how I wasn't sure how we'd fit the baby and all of the baby stuff in our tiny apartment. Right now, we're living in an one bedroom apartment. It's not the biggest apartment we've lived in, but it's definitely not the smallest. Thankfully, the list of true baby necessities is short. There's no way that we'd fit bigger things in our apartment. Two people plus a dog doesn't make for much room to spare.

So, I started writing this post about how I've been looking at baby things just to get an idea of what we'd need or want and how much it will all cost. I kind of got stuck in my writing and decided to move on to other things until I figured out what else I wanted to write. During this time, I turned on some music and one of the songs that came on was Five For Fighting's "I Just Love You." If you haven't heard this song, you really should listen to it. I first heard it when I was in Maine a couple years ago and it touched my heart then, but it touches my heart even more now.

The song is about a dad who is away from home and receives a phone call from his little 4 year old girl saying that she just loves him. It's a sweet song and although it's specific in its message, I started thinking about the little baby that I have growing inside of me, and what a miracle he or she is.

Some of may not know that I have waited three years to get pregnant. The reason that I have waited so long is not because of any planning on my part, in fact, quite the opposite. I just wasn't able to get pregnant for whatever reason. At first, it was sad for me, but I realized that sometimes it took time for it to happen. Eventually, however, it became hard on me and it was hard not to indulge in self-pity. I struggled some weeks to go to church and be around the other sisters who, for the most part, all had kids. More particularly, I struggled in trying to find other things to fill my life with.

I've always wanted to be a wife and a mom. Even when I was little, I never really had any aspirations to have a career, none that stuck anyways. Even when I made it to college, I had a hard time picking a major and sticking to it. After I picked a major, I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it. Nothing sounded all that appealing for that long. When it became clear that having kids wasn't something that was going to happen right away, I had no idea what I was going to do to fill my time. I knew stressing about having a baby wasn't the answer and that I needed to focus on something else, but I had no other plan. No job option seemed to feel right. Even the jobs that I did try to get just fell through. Instead, I picked up hobbies and learned new skills. It was the first time in my life that I had continual quiet surrounding me. It nearly drove me crazy and Ashton didn't really appreciate the fact that, because I had spent almost the entire day by myself, when he finally got home from school and work, I just wanted to spend time with someone else.

Eventually, life got easier and I learned to appreciate where I was in my life and, although I still wanted to have kids, I was happy. It was a long hard road to get there, but I learned so much. I grew closer to my wonderful hubby and Heavenly Father. So, it was a huge surprise when I found out that I was pregnant. I stared at the pregnancy test for a long time. Even now that I look pregnant and am almost 18 weeks, some days it still doesn't feel real that I'm going to have a baby. It's something that I'm grateful for and I thank my Heavenly Father every day for this blessing.

So, although every baby is a blessing and a miracle, this is my little miracle baby.

Belly Shots

The moment that you've all been waiting for is finally here. I'm posting pictures of my pregnant belly. I already posted them on facebook, but figured that I'd post them here as well.

This is my belly at 13 weeks. You can't really see it because of the shirt that I'm wearing, but trust me it's there.

16 weeks

The Thrill of the Hunt

Things haven't been too exciting here. I'm showing more and more, which is kind of exciting until I looked down yesterday and realized that my feet are starting to disappear from view. I'm comforted by the fact that, as Ashton puts it, I have "little Zarah feet." So, I guess it's not too hard to lose them. I'm mostly excited that, although I still have some moments of queasiness, my nausea is gone! I'm also mostly over all the food aversions that I had developed.

In funnier news, my dog is quite the hunter I discovered. I knew that she'd chase rabbits, cats, squirrels, and the occasional bird if it hopped on the ground long enough, but I had no idea that she'd go after bugs. That's right, bugs. I was sitting on the couch yesterday and I saw some bug on the carpet. Not knowing what it was, I started to call to Ashton to come get it when I saw Dusty staring at it. So, I told Dusty, "Go get the buggy!" To my surprise, and entertainment, she tried to get it.

It turns out the bug was a fly so it was pretty impossible for her to get, but that didn't stop her from trying and me from encouraging her. It made for a fun filled 10 minutes or so of me pointing where the fly had landed, it kept landing on the carpet, and then telling Dusty to go get it. She attempted to pounce on it, she's not as spry as she used to be, and if it flew near her face, she'd snap at it. The best part was that after the fly flew away, Dusty would start sniffing around in search for her missing quarry. She never did actually get the fly, but the fact that she tried amuses me. Now I know who to call on to kill bugs for me while Ashton's at work.

Video

I came across this video on Facebook and I just had to share. So, for all those who want a laugh, particularly if you are a wife, enjoy! (Oh, and thanks for all the congratulations, well-wishes, and support! We appreciate it!)

Happenings Around These Parts

Big things are happening in our house. We're having a baby! The due date is February 19, but I tend to just say that the due date is in February so as not to get attached to a certain date that the baby is coming on. As everyone knows, babies come when babies come. For those who are curious, we both would be happy with either a boy or a girl (since I'm 12 weeks along, it'll be a little while before we find out the gender), but Ashton thinks (not to be confused with "hopes") it's a girl, and I think it's a boy. No real rhyme or reason to our thinking.

We're very excited about having a baby, although, I was less thrilled about the morning sickness part. The sickness has been subsiding though and I got to enjoy sick free days for the most part this week. Hallelujah! I'm still expecting to have a few days where I feel horrible, the whole "it gets worse before it's better" thing.

So yesterday, I had my first appointment with the midwife. Ashton came along with me, which was nice. Most of the appointment was spent filling out paperwork and talking, but then we got to do the more fun things. The most exciting part was that we heard the baby's heartbeat! It definitely brought a smile to our faces. It took a minute to find the little guy and when the midwife found him/her, baby decided to disappear for a few seconds. Not to worry, we found baby again and got to listen to the heartbeat. There's nothing like hearing that your baby's heartbeat is strong and fast. Of course, I did enjoy hearing the midwife comment on how good my ab muscles were.

Book Recommendation

So a few posts ago, I mentioned that I was working on reading a couple of books. Well, I finally finished one of them, I had gotten a bit distracted by the World Cup. Yesterday, I finished Codependent No More: How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring for Yourself by Melody Beattie.

It was one of those books that I had thought to read for a long time, but had just never gotten around to it. I'm actually really glad that I waited, because when I bought it and received it, I was really excited and ready to read it. It was no longer a book that people had been merely recommending, it was a book that I wanted to read. I needed it.

People always say that a certain book changed their life, and they say it for a variety of reasons. Perhaps that book opened their eyes to reading, a certain style of writing or genre, to politics, or to how they saw the world. This book changed how I, not only see the world, but how I see myself. There are finally reasons for the way I do certain things and even reasons for why I think the way I do. Those reasons aren't necessarily pretty; I admit I got a little depressed when I read the characteristics of a codependent and realized how many applied to me. What is pretty about those reasons that I do certain things, and the book itself, is that there are practical solutions. I have a lot to work on, but who doesn't?

I would highly recommend this book to everyone. Even if you don't think you have a problem with codependency, you should still read it. I think we all have at least a touch of codependency in us.

Concert

Last night, Ashton and I had the opportunity to go to a James Taylor and Carole King concert with his company. We ate dinner with his company. I got to meet a lot of the people that he works with, obviously, and talks about. It's nice to put names to faces. After dinner, which was in the Pepsi Center, the same place as the concert, we went into the concert.

I can't say that I knew who James Taylor or Carole King were before this concert. Ashton didn't either, so that made me feel better. We had gotten a CD of some of their songs with the invite to attend the concert from his company, but we didn't listen to it. I figured that if I didn't like the music, I didn't want to know until I got there. So, I was surprised when I started hearing their songs how many I recognized and could sing along to. Ashton knew a few as well. That made the experience all the better.

The performance was also amazing. For being as old as they are, they were doing a whole lot of jumping, kicking, and dancing. It was entertaining to watch to say the least. It was also fun to watch other people really get into the songs.

So although we stayed up way late and today we're suffering from that, we had a good time!

Why Can't We All Get Along?

If there's one thing that bothers me, and there are plenty of things that bother me, it's people demanding tolerance while showing intolerance. What I mean by this is that there are people out there who want, even demand, that people accept them and their beliefs. There is nothing wrong with that, except for maybe the demanding part. There's no sense in demanding that people accept you because you can't control what other people think or do.

What is wrong with this is these same people who want to be accepted, immediately point a finger and announce "racist" or "discrimination" to those who disagree. Certainly, not everyone is like that. There are plenty of people who will be respectful of others' beliefs no matter how different those beliefs are from their own. It seems to be a growing trend though to point fingers and react violently toward people who aren't "forward thinking" enough.

What's wrong about this way of thinking and action should be obvious, but apparently it isn't. The best way of describing why pointing fingers and being intolerant of others while demanding tolerance from them is by asking this question, "Why would you expect people to respect you and your beliefs if you don't respect what other people believe?" We each have the right to express our views, especially when they differ. No one has the right to force their opinions on someone else or rather no one has the right to make someone else believe the same thing as another.

Great Book!

When I read books, I read a lot of books. I have currently 5 books that I've started reading and have yet to finish. That's not including reading General Conference talks and the scriptures. There are some of those 5 books that I haven't picked up in months. The reason for so many books is that most of the books that I'm reading are informational books so they're a little harder to get through in one sitting. There's also the fact that there are just so many good books that I want to read so I try to, at the same time. I wanted to mention one in particular that I just picked up again. It's called, Just and Holy Principles: Latter-Day Saint Readings on America and the Constitution.

This book was actually a required book for my American Heritage class at BYU. I kept the book after the class was over, because I thought that it'd be a good book to keep. I saw it in my bin of books that my mom brought with her when she visited. I've been thinking a lot lately about the Constitution and was really excited to read what prophets, apostles, and other church authorities have said about America and the Constitution.

I've only made it to the prologue, because it's amazing. I kept reading parts to Ashton yesterday and we'd talk about it. Then we switched books and he read parts to me from Ezra Taft Benson, Wilford Woodruff, Dallin H. Oaks, and others. I couldn't believe how right on they were about what we'd be facing, or what we were facing and what we continue to face. It really shouldn't amaze me, because these are inspired men, but it was like they were here and, of course, some of them are, like Elders Dallin H. Oaks and Jeffrey R. Holland. They talk about communism, socialism, the separation of church and state, the Constitution, and other topics.

There are so many good quotes that I could pull out from the book. There are so many that I want to share because they address problems that we are facing. One of the sections that impressed me was President Ezra Taft Benson's talks. Among other things, President Benson talked about 5 principles that are basic to understanding the Constitution. He talked about the principle of agency. We have the right to choose for ourselves and not be forced into "government guaranteed security programs" (117, 119-120). The next principle is the proper role of government in which he quotes Doctrine and Covenants section 134 verses 1-2 and 5. The third principle is the source of human rights. God gave us our rights, not the government. It even says so in our Declaration of Independence. The next two principles go hand in hand and I want to quote them.

"The fourth basic principle we must understand is that people are superior to the governments they form. Since God created people with certain inalienable rights, and they, in turn, created government to help secure and safeguard those rights, it follow that the people are superior to the creature they created.

The fifth and final principle that is basic to our understanding of the Constitution is that governments should have only limited powers. The important thing to keep in mind is that the people who have created their government can give to that government only such powers as they, themselves, have in the first place. Obviously, the cannot give that which they do not possess.

By deriving its just powers from the governed, government becomes primarily a mechanism for defense against bodily harm, theft, and involuntary servitude. It cannot claim the power to redistribute money or property nor to force reluctant citizens to perform acts of charity against their will. Government is created by the people. No individual possesses the power to take another's wealth or to force others to do good, so no government has the right to do such things either. The creature cannot exceed the creator (120-121)."

(These principles came from President Benson's talk The Constitution - A Heavenly Banner on September 16, 1986).

I think the role of government has gotten way too big. It's a big problem when the government is creating more jobs than the private sector, not to mention spending way more money than we have. We're paying for those government jobs, bailouts, and everything else the government does. The creature, the government, is exceeding the creator, us, and that needs to stop.

Weekend Full of Fun

It was a long weekend, but a fun one. We started by celebrating my birthday on Saturday. I realized Saturday that this is my last year of early twenties. Then Ashton pointed out that this was his last year of twenties. That made me feel better. Ashton did a good job of picking out my presents and I only guessed one of them so he was pretty happy about that. It doesn't get much better than a Spain World Cup jersey and two music books for the piano, especially since it was the music for Phantom of the Opera and Wicked. We got to spend some time with his family too since they were up for the weekend and the Bolder Boulder which was yesterday. We finished off the day with dinner at Red Robin and watching soccer at home. While we were at Red Robin, Ashton asked me if he should tell the server why we were there. Thankfully, the server wasn't there to overhear. I had to remind Ashton that if he did that, his birthday was next and that I'd have no problem telling the people at whatever restaurant that we went to that it was his birthday. He really does not like it when people at restaurants sing to him. He looked a little sad after that and said that sometimes he wished that his birthday was first. I'm not. He didn't tell anyone that it was my birthday so I didn't have to sit through people singing to me. Ashton did sing to me later so that was fun.

Sunday was just nice day at church and then at home. I actually got to see some people from Maine, too! That was a surprise for both of us. They were in Colorado visiting family and their family happened to be in my ward! It was fun to see them and catch up a bit.

Yesterday, we spent most of the day up at Ashton's aunt's house hanging out with family. They allowed us to bring Dusty with us so she got to participate in the festivities too! The kids loved her, although they were a little scared at first. Dusty was very good with them although I'm sure she would have liked them better if they had fed her. It was fun to see everyone and hang out.

Today is our 3 year anniversary! We probably won't do anything too special for it since Ashton actually has to make up the hours he got off yesterday. That was kind of a lame deal since the building was probably closed for Memorial Day so he couldn't work (and didn't really want to), but he didn't qualify to get holiday pay. In any case, I'm glad that he's such a hard worker and willing to make up the hours so we don't have to take the hit in pay. I love my hubby and so happy that we've been married for 3 years. Here's to many more!

Hope and Gratitude

This morning I was reading blogs. In my sister-in-law's blog, she talked about a woman named Stephanie who had been in a plane crash and suffered severe burns. My sister-in-law also included a video of Stephanie's story and it was a huge inspiration to me.

There are many days that I struggle with the challenges I face. Those challenges vary from day to day and some are as simple as struggling to find stuff to occupy my time so that I feel like I've been productive or trying to reassure myself that it's alright to have a day where I just read. Some are more extreme like trying to deal with an abuse that happened years ago and not being able to have kids.

As I watched Stephanie's story, I was impressed with her courage, faith, and optimism. I felt hope for my life and gratitude. I felt a reassurance that every day does not have to go perfectly for things to be alright. I don't have to be perfect for me to be alright. There is always room for improvement, but that improvement does not have to happen all at once or even in a short period of time. I felt that things would work out even when it doesn't seem like it ever will.

Some days, I struggle with all of these trials, but other days I only struggle with a few. I'm grateful for the days that I don't struggle so much; for the days that I feel great and can conquer the world. I'm even grateful for the days that I really struggled to do anything, including getting out of bed. I'm grateful for those days because they've helped me get to this point where most days, I feel good. Through all of this, I was reminded of this quote (I need a plaque with this quote on it so that I can read it every day):

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity. It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow." -Melody Beattie

Faith, Hope, and Charity

There are so many things that I've been meaning to write about. So many thoughts, too little time. Recently though, I've started watching Glenn Beck on Fox News. Usually, I don't get into politics, but the things that have been happening lately have been worrisome enough to me for me to watch Glenn Beck every day and look up some of the stuff that he's talking about. The part that I find even more interesting is how to fix the problems that we have. Mainly, he subscribes to faith, hope, and charity as the general principles that will help guide us back to safety, along with individual rights, equal justice, knowledge of the Constitution, love of our Founding Fathers, and faith in God.

The reason that I find the solutions to the problem interesting is because no matter what you think the problem with our country is, if we go to these principles, I think we'll find our answers. Also, these principles are simple solutions. They are not the complex solutions that Congress and the White House try to bring with 2,000 page bills that no one has really read. These simple principles, particularly faith, hope, and charity, are easy to define and understand. I don't think it's too much to ask for our laws to be easy to define and understand.

One of my favorite days on the Glenn Beck show is Friday because Fridays are Founding Fridays, where Beck talks about one of the Founding Fathers. Now, I love history so I love hearing about these men and how the influenced our country. I'm sad that I don't remember more about them from school because they are truly inspired men who were incredible and had a great vision of what this country should and could be. They were not perfect, but what I love about them is that they tried to live the best they could according to their faith in God.

I scribble down every book about these men that Beck recommends that were written by historians, and I wish that I had the money to buy every one of them. What I love about history is that the truth is the truth. When you have the facts, and when you look at what people actually said, in their own words, you can see why things happened the way they did, whether the consequences were intended or not. Unfortunately, there are those who try to "rewrite" history by giving a skewed perspective on it; telling only one side of the story. When we narrow our scope of vision, we miss out on the big picture. Looking at the other side does not necessarily mean that you have to believe that side, but at least you know what it is.

No matter what we believe in, when we come together with faith, hope, and charity, we can find solutions for the problems we face. We may not always agree on the way there, but we need to find the truth and come together for a solution.

By Popular Demand...

So I've had people ask me to take pictures of our apartment for a while, and well it's been a bit of a mess, still is, but I decided to take the pictures anyways. Please don't judge me, too harshly anyways. I still have to get Ashton to finish putting up the rest of the pictures on the walls. The slacker, but he has had a cold the past couple days and has been all stuffed up. So I guess we'll give him a break.

This is the living room. A little hard to see, but it's a good size. This is what you see when you walk through the door. The door that you see in the picture goes out to our balcony.

"Dining room" and you can see a little bit of the kitchen and the outside door. The folding doors behind the table are where the washer and dryer is. I was so happy that my piano fit underneath the kitchen bar!

This is the kitchen. It's usually cleaner then this but oh well. The door that you see goes to the pantry. I love our pantry!

Hallway. You can see how the rooms fit together.

Bedroom. We're missing the headboard to our bedroom set because it's too big to fit in our car.

Our closet. It's a little stuffed.

The other side of our bedroom. Like I said, Ashton still has to put up the rest of the pictures.

Bathroom! There wasn't any good angle to take this picture and particularly not without getting me in the mirror, so that's all you get!

Pictures!

Since getting back from Maine with a bunch of pictures to play with, I've been spending a lot of time working on my pictures. It's so much fun. I seriously spend pretty much all day doing this, only taking a break to eat or do something else when my eyes start to hurt from staring at the computer. I'll post some of the pictures that I've been working on, but I also wanted to mention one picture in particular that I've worked on.

A couple years ago, we got to go to Sadie's blessing and to a family gathering later on. I brought my camera and had fun taking pictures. Well, I happened to take a picture of Ashton's grandma holding Sadie. I loved the picture and wanted to make it special. I tried various techniques using Gimp (a free photoshop-type program, which I love), but couldn't figure out how to make it work to my liking and gave up. Well, the other day my screen saver was on and the picture popped up. I remembered the disappointment I had in not being able to do what I wanted with it and started thinking of how to make it work. It wasn't until yesterday, while working on some other pictures, that I had an idea to use the same techniques that I was using on other pictures (I'm not telling you what that was so I don't ruin the surprise). It took a little bit of time, but I was happy with the end result. As always, even though I thought it was good, I wanted to make sure that it really was good and showed it to Ashton when he got home from work. He loved it. So, here is that picture and some of the other ones I took and worked on from Maine.

Let me know what you think!

All Over the Place

So, I've fallen behind on blogging. Mostly for a lack of time recently more than anything. This month has been a bit nuts for me.

A couple of weeks after moving into our new place, I left to go to Maine to help my brother Jacob and his family get settled into their new house. The trip out in and of itself was eventful since I missed my connection by a few minutes (thanks to a combination of snow in Colorado while trying to fly out and having to go from concourse C to F in 10 minutes) so I ended up having to sit in the airport for 8 hours while waiting for the next flight. No, I'm not kidding. I was there for 8 hours. Good thing I had brought some books. I was very grateful when I finally got to get on the flight and land in Maine.

There was still construction going on in Jacob and Heather's house while they were trying to get settled, so that made things interesting. Although I got a chance to paint and peel wallpaper off, the wallpaper part isn't always a whole lot of fun when it won't come off easily, those tasks were made all the more difficult while trying to keep little hands out of the paint and away from the putty knife. I didn't think that gouges in the wall would make anyone happy. It's also hard to convince a 2 year old that the new toy she discovered, namely the spray bottle filled with water and vinegar, doesn't need to be used constantly. Although the girls were dedicated to taking wallpaper off, that is until there were only little pieces to be peeled off. I had a great time though. It's always fun to play with the girls and see how big they've gotten since the last time I was out there, although, that part is a little sad too because they get so big so fast. I was definitely tired and ready to sleep for days on end when it came time for me to fly back home.

The trip back out was also stressful since my connection times were a bit short and I had two of them. I made all of my flights though, thanks to making up some lost time in the air on the first flight, and landed on time in Colorado.

That trip alone was enough traveling for me to last a little while, but the next day, Ashton and I left to drive to Utah for Lance's graduation. It was a little strange to unpack some of my clothes only to leave some of them in the suitcase, and pack a few different ones. It was nice to see everyone though even if it was only for a short while since we left Saturday to drive back home. I was happy though to get home, unpack all of my stuff, and put away the suitcase. Living out of a suitcase is fine for a little while, but it's so nice when you don't have to do that anymore. Ashton was also nice enough while I was in Maine to transport the empty boxes and the boxes that were only partially unpacked back to the storage unit. So when I got home, I was pleasantly surprised to not see boxes everywhere.

And of course, I have pictures! What kind of aunt would I be if I didn't take pictures of my nieces? Although, I missed taking pictures of some of my other nephews and nieces when they came up to visit. I missed the boat on that one. Anyways, here's a sampling of the pictures I took. As always, I took more than I can post.

Jane was learning to crawl while I was there, so that was fun to see.
She's much bigger than the tiny baby I remember.

The girls were out riding bikes whenever they could.

Liliana was more interested in taking pictures than having her picture taken, but she let me take this one.

Dress up time! I love Mattie's look. Kind of reminds me of an older woman/tourist.

Such a cute face.

Playing on the playground.

Musical Chairs

So, it's been a while. A lot of things have changed since the last time I wrote. For starters, we moved into an apartment closer to where Ashton works! Ashton is loving the shorter commute and who wouldn't with the commute dropping from an hour down to 10 minutes?

We love the area that we're in. We took a drive Sunday, since it was so nice out, just to go exploring and we had a lot of fun. There were a lot of people out biking, and I mean A LOT, so that made it interesting, especially when we were on windy roads with hardly any shoulder.

Since we moved last weekend, this week has been quite a bit of unpacking. There are still things to be unpacked, but all the essentials are out and in their new homes. I'm discovering things that we need that we'll have to get out of storage, and things that we don't need that can go back in. It's like a big game of musical chairs.

I am happy that we've managed to get everything installed (washer, dryer, internet, etc) without too much hair pulling. Good thing I've had stuff to do while waiting for people to come. Less stressful that way.

On a completely different note, I saw this video and wanted to share it.

One Down, Many More to Go

Well, Ashton's had his first week of work. That's right, I said work! For those of you who haven't heard, Ashton has a job now. He got offered a job last Friday and started Monday. The job is here in Colorado although it's about an hour away. For right now, he's just been commuting down there.

We're pretty excited about the job. Hooray for money coming in! It's been a bit of an adjustment though. For starters, no more sleeping in for him. With the hour commute either way, it's a pretty full day for him and he comes home pretty tired. Of course, for me, it means an empty house to myself. I know for those mothers out there, that sounds pretty good, but believe me, it's not all that it's cracked up to be. Doable, but not preferable.

There are still a lot of things to figure out now that Ashton has a job. Such as, housing. We're still not sure what we're going to do, but we'll be figuring that out soon. Moving into a new place is always pretty exciting, although picking out a place can be a bit of a headache. It's nice though to have progression.

Of course, now that we have income, I can do some much needed shopping! I've been holding off as much as possible so as not to deplete our savings. I still won't go crazy with the shopping, but I do need some new jeans.

Procrastination

Ashton and I were asked to give talks this Sunday and while I've started writing mine up, I'm now taking a break. I haven't gotten too far into it, but in my defense, what sounded good and complete in my head, has turned out to be far from the truth. I always spend a lot of time thinking about what I want to say and then write it down on paper. It's taking a lot longer than I thought it would to put this to paper.

Although it's taking a while to write down the talk, I'm more nervous about getting up there and actually giving it. I hate the whole feeling of shaking knees, heart pounding, and what ends up being a race to finish my talk and sit down. A deacon had it right when he said at the end of his testimony this past Sunday, "I can't stand this anymore" and sat down. I get nervous when I make a comment during Sunday School or Relief Society, so the idea of actually standing up in front of a large group of people and talking for however many minutes (we weren't actually given a specific amount of time to talk...do I hear 2 minute talk?) is rather nerve racking.

Since I'm so nervous about this, I'm in the process of trying to bribe Ashton into giving the talk for me, but he's not going for it. I've even offered to write it up just as long as he gets up there and reads it for me, but even after throwing in the promise of cake, he's still not going for it. That just means that I'm going to either have to wear him down, or suck it up and do it myself. Wearing him down sounds like way more fun though.

In other news, we are still looking for work. Right now, Ashton's still interviewing with Amazon for a job in Seattle. He's actually been granted a face-to-face interview and we're waiting to hear back about what day that is! This is definitely a big and important step towards getting this job, so we'd definitely appreciate any prayers on our behalf.

A New Blog

Ashton started up a blog of his own to talk about his programming projects. He's much better than I am about the whole updating thing seeing as he created the blog yesterday and has already written twice. I thought, however, that I'd create an entry with the link to his new blog for those of you who would be interested in reading it. http://halla-dev.blogspot.com

While I'm here, I might as well write an update about what we've been up to. While we're still looking for a job, we've taken up projects to keep us busy and entertained. Some of the projects are individual. For example, Ashton is usually on the computer doing some programming and reading up on stuff (news, more programming stuff...). I usually bounce back and forth from the computer (when I can steal it or I just use the laptop), to reading books (picked some up from the library), to anything else I can think of.

Other projects, we do together. Usually that ends up being a game. Sometimes, however, we'll watch the news together or take a trip somewhere. Last Saturday, we went down to Colorado Springs to do some sight seeing. We went to the Garden of the Gods. There were more people there than I expected, but it still was nowhere near as busy as I'm sure it gets in the summertime. It wasn't too cold out as well so that made it even nicer. I, of course, brought my camera and had a blast taking pictures. We'd start walking and then I'd all of a sudden stop because I had seen something that I wanted to take a picture of. Ashton was a good sport about it. I took about 140 pictures there so there was a lot of stopping involved. Ashton would sometimes suggest that I take a picture of something, so he got into it as well.

On our way home from Colorado Springs, the sun was beginning to set and it looked like it was going to be a cool sunset. So, we headed over to Waneka Lake so that I could take some pictures of that. Well, the sunset wasn't as spectacular as we thought it'd be, but still good enough to take pictures of. Not to mention, there were lots of flocks of geese on the lake so they made fun models. Too bad it was a bit too dark to see them really well. I guess I'll have to head over there during the day to try to get some better geese pictures. It was a lot of fun.

So I'd post some of the pictures I took except for two things. One, I discovered after I put the pictures on the computer that I apparently had some spots on my lens. Spots that I'm pretty sure that I've cleaned before and had tried to clean off just before taking the majority of these pictures. Apparently, it didn't work. So now I have about 200 pictures to clean up on the computer. It makes a good project no matter how redundant I'm sure it'll feel while I'm doing it. This brings up reason number two that I won't be posting the pictures yet: in order to clean up the pictures, I need the desktop to do it because it's faster than the laptop and because that's where the pictures are. Unfortunately, this is also the computer that Ashton uses to do his programming because it's faster and that's where his program is, and as I said earlier, he's on the computer a lot. I'm thinking we need to talk over some custody rights.

Well, seeing as I have the computer for a little while, I better get going on those pictures...

It's Been a Year Already?

Generally, I'm not one for New Year's resolutions. I figure that it's not going to last very long anyways, so why bother going through all the trouble of making special goals simply because that's what you're supposed to do at the beginning of a year? Not worth it. I prefer to make my goals because that's what I want to do.

Looking back on the last year, I did accomplish some goals that I wanted to. I did lose the weight that I wanted to, dropping 10-ish pounds and reaching the 130's! More importantly, I can fit into some of my old pants again and fit into them comfortably. It's rather exciting. Now if I can only maintain, I'll be set!

Speaking of maintaining, last year I did start running like I wanted to for a while. Thanks to Tiff for being a great motivation to getting up and running. Unfortunately, I haven't been running since we moved, although yesterday I did get up and go. I also dragged Ashton out of bed to go with me although he walked while I ran. I'm thinking that I'll probably have to go by myself from now on though. Getting up early and walking in the cold is not Ashton's idea of fun and while it's not my idea of fun either, if I want to keep in shape, I need to do it.

One of the biggest goals that we have accomplished this past year was moving out of Utah. Probably the more exciting goal anyways, not to mention the most stressful. Although we're still looking for a job, we're happy to be out of Utah and the craziness that is there. I'm starting to get to know my way around Colorado, or at least this area. The amazing thing is that I'm not just learning how to get to different locations (the store, Aunt Marcia's, etc) and back (always important to know how to get back home), but I'm learning where the street names, where they come out, and so forth. I've never been too good with directions, getting turned around quite easily. Directions were always given by landmarks and familiarity with different areas. So, to be able to tell you what street to turn on to get to the store, where a street will take you, and to be able to visualize which streets are parallel or perpendicular to other streets is quite amazing for me. It's not like I'm an expert yet, but I'm getting there.

As far as goals for this year are concerned, we've made a few and I have a couple of my own. Some of the more obvious ones are getting a job and then a place to live. Hopefully, it'll happen soon. We're still optimistic.