Where are my contractions?!

We went to the doctor (again) last night. He said I'm a good 3 1/2 almost a 4 and that my cervix is really good. Once I have contractions, I'll do great. He told me I need to get out and do stuff. Problem is, it doesn't work! After doing a lot of work when we went camping, I still haven't had contractions. With Crue, I tried walking (even pushing a stroller with a 18 month old up and down hills on a 3 mile walk), and a bunch of other things. I think we're going to see about a four-wheeler ride this time. That's the only thing we didn't try with Crue that might work. If not, at least I get to have fun trying! :) I'm hoping to wait until Monday anyway. Then it would be June and my awesome neighbor, Jessica, will be working that night in the OB so she could be my nurse! I guess the next update will either be when the baby comes, or after my appointment next Wednesday.

Crue's new ride

My mom found this four-wheeler on clearance at Cal Ranch. It comes with a SWAT guy and a gun. I think the gun got lost in the toy bucket but Crue has fun putting the guy's helmet on. He calls it a "hat". He points at Jared's helmet and calls it a hat too. Yesterday Crue decided to start riding the four-wheeler. It was hilarious! He sat on it and just used his legs to move. I got a video but it was at the end of when he was riding so it wasn't very good but you get the idea. The picture shows how small the four-wheeler is compared to him.
I have a feeling we'll have to be getting him a four-wheeler someday:) He sure loves anything with wheels! (Not much of a shock coming from our family.)

Memorial Day Camping

I was excited to get one more camping trip in before the baby comes. Not that we won't go camping again this summer but it'll be a little harder with two kids (one being fairly new) than it is with one. We went to Oak Grove - my favorite place - and had a lot of fun. Jeremy and Molly and their kids were there the entire time (Jared's brother). Molly's sister, Amanda, and her husband were there but left Saturday. Molly's sister, Erin, left Sunday, and her other sister, Jen, came for Saturday night only. We just hung out Saturday and played a few games or hung out around the fire. It was overcast and cool but it felt good. That night a storm came and it about blew away a screen house (it was staked in but the wind pulled a few stakes out) and it pulled one of our tent stakes out. It rained too - thank goodness for awnings and trees. Jared's parents joined us for dinner Saturday night. Molly's friend joined us on Sunday. A few people went hiking Sunday and for dinner we had Jared's parents, my entire family, Molly's dad, and Jen's husband. Jared and I were in charge (luckily we had lots of help) and we did Jared's famous dutch oven bbq chicken and potatoes and I did two kinds of cobbler. Six dutch ovens at once! We had both camp chefs set up and I used charcoal for the cobblers. It was SO good!
I only got one picture the entire time though - how terrible am I! We had gotten some pallets from my brother-in-law. Jared's brother had talked to the camp host and he remembered us from last year. That was good because he didn't care that we had more cars and people than were allowed per site (he said he remembered us being quiet so we were ok). He said he knows that old pallets need to be burned but he hates the nails that always end up where they shouldn't be so Jared tore the pallets all apart and the kids helped put the nails into soda cans to throw away. On Saturday Crue "helped" Jared take some pallets apart. He was helping to hold a pallet while Jared hammered on it and then later he was sitting on the edge of the cement with the can and helping to put the nails away in it. When I went to get the picture of him sitting on the cement he stood up so I didn't get it but the one below is of him "helping" hold the pallet so Jared can break it apart. I love seeing those two together - it's so cute!

Hard work

Rachael and I decided that it is much better doing a garden together rather than Jared and I doing one, and Tyson and Rachael doing one. Monday night we started working on it. The guys (Jared, Tyson, and Kevin) all helped till the front flower bed so I could plant some seeds I had bought. I had edging that I had bought the first summer we were here and I was finally able to put that up. Rachael, Rachel, and Kevin all helped get the edging in and then Kevin and Rachel went home and Rachael went to help with the backyard while I planted seeds in front. So here's my new flower bed:

Because of the wonderful clay here in Cedar, Jared and Tyson have had a rough job (I bet they're probably glad we're only doing one garden instead of each doing their own too). They tilled the ground for the garden but that stuff is basically rock hard. They got one big area tilled that we are growing tomatoes, onion (green and yellow), carrots, beans, peas, corn, and potatoes in. Then they tilled 8 circles off to the side (and Rachael and I sort of dug out another one) that we planted different kinds of pumpkin in - for carving, decoration, and for eating - along with zucchini, cauliflower, and squash. I think that might be everything. Tyson's mom is going to come down this summer and teach us how to bottle so we can bottle a lot of the food for food storage and just to have in the winter and stuff. I'm really excited. I hope everything grows and grows well! The only things we have left to do are to plant zucchini (I need to get seeds), get more tomato plants and plant them in the garden along with the ones I already have (they are still sitting in pots on our deck), and cut up potatoes and plant them. Other than that, everything is planted and ready to go! I'm so excited!! This is my first garden so I'm really excited to see how it goes.

I tried to get a shot of the entire thing but I couldn't fit all the holes in the picture from where I was. I'll get better shots when things are growing!

Jared is tilling where the potatoes are going to go - we already had everything else planted except some of the corn that we'll start in a couple of weeks so that we can have two rows of corn ready to be picked at a time instead of 4-6 rows all at once.

Rachael watering the seeds.

Tyson watching the rest of us do all the work! j/k Actually, he was taking a break from tilling while Jared took his turn. These are all pictures from the second night of work. I forgot to get some of the first night with all of us working when Kevin and Rachel were here too. More garden pictures in a couple of weeks with some sprouts hopefully!

Doctor

This appointment was a lot faster than last week. We were home half an hour after my appointment! Things went pretty good. My cervix was off to the side a little bit so that sucked when he was trying to figure out what I was at. He asked what I was at last time and he started to say a 2 but we told him and he said, yeah, you're a 3 - 3 1/2. Apparently my cervix is moving forward meaning he's dropping to get ready. So hopefully that means I'll go into labor on my own. I'm good waiting until June though. They always say something when I'm there about how they feel for me but in all honesty, I am having a great pregnancy and am just fine waiting. They're really nice though and I love going there. It was funny because while we were talking to the doctor when he checked me he told me I need to go garden. We laughed and said I had been doing that the last two nights and it obviously hasn't worked! Speaking of garden, I'd better get pictures of that posted!
Also, the doctor talked to us about an option to help with money. He said as long as I have a good delivery (so basically like Crue's) they can discharge me after 6 hours instead of waiting 24 hours. He already wrote me the prescriptions that I would be getting after the baby is born. If I want to stay in the hospital I can if there's empty rooms and basically pay room and board so that I'm there while the baby is (since they keep him 24 hours for the testing). I guess the only difference is that I have to take my own pain medication rather than the hospital charging $5 a pill every time a nurse has to give me something. I don't know how much it really is but it's a lot cheaper if I do it myself than to have to pay for the hospital to do it. I'm excited for that. My doctor is always trying to think of ways to help save us money and make it so that we are excited for the baby and not so worried about the money part. It's been really nice.

Not so fun weekend....

Friday night we had a fun girl's night out planned. We were going to the What Women Want Expo in St. George and then to dinner and out for ice cream. The expo was really fun. I started getting a little sore during the last couple of rows but figured I'd tough it out since we were almost done. It was also after dinner and I was hungry. We went to Texas Roadhouse after and I was so excited - I have been wanting to go there for a long time. I ended up getting sick and threw up twice while we were there and wasn't able to eat any dinner. We went to a shoe store after and I stayed in the car (Rachael stayed with me). Rachael ended up driving after that because I was getting worse. We stopped at Cold Stone (I stayed in the car) and then headed home. I kept throwing up, even once everything was out of me, until about 3:30 am when I was finally able to go to sleep. I kept Jared up too and he had to be to work at 8 am (and work 16 hours!). I felt bad. I was sore from walking around and trying to throw up half the night. I ended up going to my parents' house so that they could watch Crue and I could sit and relax. I was able to eat a little bit and that was good. I felt a lot better, especially by Sunday, but my stomach still hasn't fully recovered. I still can't eat as much as before and I don't want much sugar which is unusual for me.

Jared felt sick at the first of the week but never threw up. Then in the middle of the week we were at Jared's friend's house getting a helmet that he was giving to Jared and Crue threw up a LOT - and all over me. Luckily his friend was pretty cool about it. Then on my one night of fun, I end up getting it and got it worse than both of my boys! It went progressively worse from one of us to the next. I'm just glad it's all over with now!

Tonight Tyson and Rachael are coming over to plant a garden in our backyard. They are going to be doing stuff to their backyard so it's not ready for a garden but they don't want to wait any longer so they decided to do it in our backyard. I'm glad because I wanted to do one but don't know what to do and figured it wouldn't get done this year (we're only good at growing weeds). Since they're coming over to do one, we're all going to work on it and do a community one - so I'll add what I want to it and we invited some other friends to come add to it if they want. I'm really excited to learn how to garden. Tyson's mom is going to come teach us how to bottle later this year too so we can bottle some of our stuff. I'm excited to be able to add to our food storage, especially stuff that I've grown and bottled myself! I'll post pictures of the garden and hopefully of us working on it. I also got some flower seeds to put in the flower bed out front so I'm going to get that done tonight with the edging I have to go around it. Hopefully it'll do good and the front of the house will look a little better! I'll get pictures of that too when it's done.

Giveaway

I saw this on my cousin's blog and thought it was so cute.
Now I'm entering so I can win it! Just go here to check out her cute ideas and for info on entering. I'll have to keep checking her blog out for more ideas!

Free Chocolate!

I found this today and got one for me and Jared so I thought I'd let you know so you can try each week to get your free chocolate. Just click here (RealChocolate.com so you don't have to come here every Friday unless you want to:)) and if you're one of the first 500,000 people each Friday, you can get a coupon in the mail for a free Mars candy bar! You have to enter your birthdate and then it'll take you to a page that tells you if you're one of the lucky ones. Hurry and do it before everyone else finds out about it and it's hard to get one without waking up super early! You can click here to learn more about it and why they're doing it. Pretty cool! You have to wait for your coupon to get mailed to you but it would be worth it for free candy!

Appointment

I had another appointment last night (only two more before I'm due!). We had a long wait which was unusual. There was two people that came in after us that got called back before us (they may have been there for the other doctor or the PA) and then we waited for a while before the doctor came in once I was in the room. He checked me and said I was a good 3 1/2 almost a 4 and my cervix is really soft. I'm glad I went back up instead of being smaller. Even though I don't expect to go into labor soon (at least before my due date) I still like to be dilating and have hope that maybe this time I'll go into labor on my own. We'll see. When the doctor came in he apologized for taking so long and said the girls were telling him he needed to come see me because I'd been in there a while and was going to get a paper mache butt from the paper I had around me! I had a good laugh at that one.

Happy Birthday!

Yesterday was Jared's birthday. It was a busy day so I wasn't able to get on here to post. To him, it's just another day. I love birthdays though so I always try to surprise him with a few things. Crue and I got him garments and temple shoes that he knew about, clay pigeons and a clay pigeon thrower. My parents got him a gun case for his 22. When we got home from my parents' house he went and put his gun (plus the clip) in the new case. I surprised him with a cake at my parents' house after dinner. He LOVES ice cream sandwiches so I made him an ice cream sandwich cake that was really good. He asked if we got to take the leftovers home and I told him of course - it's his! Today at lunch I told him not to forget dessert and he said don't worry about that! I'm glad he really liked it.
I just want to tell him thank you for being the best husband and father. He was definitely worth the wait. :) I'm so glad I get to be with him for eternity. He may not be perfect but he's the perfect one for me. Now that we have one child and another one on the way, it's so fun to watch him be a father. I think he's liking it more and more as Crue gets older and they can play together. One day I was in the hall and happened to look towards the living room. All of a sudden I see Crue go running into the living room and Jared following close behind. So cute! He works so hard for our family. I am grateful for him every day.
I love you!!

We made it!

I had another doctor's appointment last night (imagine that, we made it to this week like Jared and I thought:)). He checked me and said I was a 2 - 2 1/2. So either I shrunk or because it's just opinion, today he was saying smaller numbers. Who knows. Oh well. We'll see how next week goes. They said I tested positive for Strep so I'll have to get an antibiotic when I go to deliver.

New additions

No - our little boy is not here. I forgot to tell about Jared's recent purchases that we're excited about. And the fun he had trying to get them. GM does training all year long and the technicians take tests (and the parts guys) and depending on how well they do (and how early they get their tests done) they get rewarded at the end of the year. Jared earned Platinum this year in his area! It's the highest you can get. Congratulations! I can't remember everything he gets but I know he gets business cards, a certificate, a medallion, a gold ring with a diamond (they add a diamond to the ring each time after this that he gets a Platinum rating again instead of another ring). They usually give them "money" (points) that they can spend in the GM store but this year they let each person decide to get the points for the GM store or take the points in cash. Jared got his in cash and had already decided last year that this year he wanted to get guns with his money. (He was going to just get a gift certificate from the GM store for Sports Authority or another sports store and then go get his guns until they changed and let him just get it in a prepaid card.) Luckily we know lots of people that know a lot about guns. Jared knew he wanted a shotgun and a 10/22. He talked to Max and decided on a Remington 870 Express for the shotgun.
It looks like the one above. He wanted the synthetic instead of the wood look and he got a 12 gauge.
The other gun he got was a Ruger 10/22 like the one in the top of this picture:
The other one in the picture is a stainless steel barrel and they're at least $20 more so he stayed with the black. We had to pay some money out of pocket but it was less than what just the Ruger would have cost if we had just gone in there and bought it. And we got a gun cleaning kit, ammo for both, and a 50 round clip for the 22. So we were pretty excited to not have to pay much.
Poor Jared sure had a hard time getting them though. We had gone into stores looking at what they had and the prices to decide where to get them. We decided that Walmart had the best price on the shotgun and Cal Ranch had the best price (and the only place with a black barrel) on the 10/22. His prepaid card finally came in the mail and we went to Walmart on a Thursday night to get the shotgun. The guy that was there is actually our neighbor's dad. He asked for Jared's license and asked if it had his current address on it. It's the same license he got when he turned 16 so of course it was old and had the wrong address. He said it has to have your current address on your license. Of course with it being a Thursday the DMV was closed on Friday so Jared went before work Monday morning to get it. Then Monday night we went to Walmart thinking we were good to go. They call in to get his background check and they end up sending it to research. That means no gun until they call back and say he's good to go. They call back Thursday I think and say he's good to go and we can go get the gun whenever. We end up going Friday night and finally get the shotgun. We leave Walmart and head straight to Cal Ranch for the 10/22. (It was cheaper to pay for two background checks than to get the guns at the same place and pay for one check because of the difference in prices on the guns.) They call in for his background and it's sent to research. You've got to be kidding me! He was just cleared the day before! The guy gave us a number that we could call and they tell us once someone is cleared or denied their information is shredded so they didn't have a record showing he was cleared. And all she said was if we could see what she saw then we would know why they send it to research but she couldn't tell us what she saw. So we leave empty handed. If we had known that, we would have gone there after Walmart so they could do both background checks at the same time. They called Monday saying he's cleared so we go back to get the gun and clip. I swipe Jared's GM card saying we were putting part of it on that and the guy had to cancel it because he has to put in the amount being charged to the card. So he does that and then I swipe it again and another guy takes over and for some reason he canceled it again or did something and it denied the card. What?! It's prepaid and we know exactly how much is on it. We even tried a few dollars less and we still got denied. Jared called the number on the card and found out the first time we did it (after the first cancelation and when the second guy came in) it had gone through so it was good to go. But for some reason Cal Ranch was showing that they weren't paid. The lady Jared talked to when he called about the card said they might not have Cal Ranch's merchant ID number so she gave him a number and said they could call them with it and have it go through. We were ready to pay the rest with another card but then it wouldn't let us because according to the computer Cal Ranch still hadn't been paid. After quite a while trying to figure it out they finally just put that we paid the first part in cash and then the rest we paid for with another card. They took the number the lady gave us and Jared's number in case something didn't work out and let us go ahead and take the gun. They said they would call if there's any problems. So far no call so we're good to go! What a mess. It was so nice to have the guns now.

On Wednesday night Max called and we went out shooting with Max and Jenny (Max had bought a Remington 870 shotgun with the wood look with his money from GM). It was really fun. We shot clay pigeons and I felt better after not hitting any when even Max and Jenny (who hunt and have other guns that they've taken shooting before) only hit 2 out of 5 (Jared hit the same). I guess I need more practice so we'll have to go shooting more often:) My dad has guns but we didn't go out much so that's why I'm not the best. Crue did really well being around the guns. I was worried because I had never been shooting when I was pregnant with him and I thought maybe the shots would scare him but they didn't bother him one bit! Maybe in a few more years he can shoot the 22. :) It'll be fun to take them camping (depending on where we go) and just go out shooting with family and friends.

So that's our excitement for now. Jared had a hard time finding 22 shells (ever since Obama was put in nobody can keep them in stock) but he finally found some at a pawn shop. So we are good to go now. Next year Jared is going to get a 30-06 with his money so we'll have a full size rifle, a fun smaller rifle, and a shotgun. Maybe someday we'll get to go hunting!! (I'd better learn to shoot better first!:))