Half of Labor Day Weekend

I went on our second annual Swiss Days weekend with my mom, sister, and sister-in-law. It was much cooler this year, but no less crowded. Just like last year, I didn't take many pictures, but check with the other blogs, to see if they happen to post any. I did take a picture OF a picture. I bought a framed pictures of the Salt Lake Temple to hang in the house (another nail hole... Justin might not be very happy).
It's a little hard to see, but it's a chunky black frame and the temple has American flags all out in front of it.

We spent the next day at the outlet mall, and I made a few purchases there as well. Namely these

I haven't bought a single baby outfit in the last 6 (almost 7) months. I hope this doesn't open the 'flood-gate' so to speak on buying baby stuff, but I don't think it will. I bought this little girl and little boy sleeper to take to the hospital. One will come home with a baby in it... and the other won't.

What else could it be?

I'm not sure how many of you have had the unfortunate moment where you asked a woman if she was pregnant, and she wasn't. It's not something I'll do twice. I still remember who and where I did it (and I still see this person every once in a while because she works with one of my 'work kids'.) I will never ask, if I'm not already sure.

I quite enjoy watching people look, and squirm, and you can just see it in their face that they think you're pregnant, but they don't want to ask. Sometimes, if the situation warrants it, I'll say something, but other times I won't -either because it's kind of fun to watch, or it's just not the right time or place to have to announce I'm 'with child'.

However... I am now almost 7 months along, and I'm 'showing' no matter what I'm wearing. In addition, today I'm wearing this shirt

Is there really a question as to whether or not I'm pregnant? (hint- my belly is quite a bit more pronounced than this little not-pregnant model). Our receptionist saw me this morning, and said, "Can I ask you a really personal question?" Yes. "Are you going to have a baby?"

I'm sorry if I'm being insensitive, or I'm missing something, but what else could it be? On top of that, most of the office knows I am, so if you were wondering, don't you think you'd ask someone (just in case I'm just gaining a large amount of weight in my stomach and I am now buying maternity wear for the fun of it?)

Just to clarify... I'm not upset or even annoyed, I just think it's kind of funny. I've never asked for people to answer questions in my comment section, but I'd be interested if you've ever asked if someone was pregnant, and they weren't, it's not something you soon forget!

A little out of the ordinary

I'm not normally a very romantic or sentimental person.

That's not to say I don't recognize or appreciate romantic or sentimental things, it's just that I don't show a lot of excitement when they happen. (For those of you in my family, just think to yourself, "Oh my heck, pants.")

I could blame it on one half of my parents, who in turn could blame it on at least one half of his parents... I guess Hardcastles just don't get excited about stuff.

Luckily... opposites attract and I married a very romantic and sentimental person. Otherwise, as I mentioned to him last night, it just wouldn't have worked out.

If Justin had married someone more like him, NO ONE would want to be around that couple. They'd never stop saying I love you, or touching, or any other number of annoying public displays of affection, and it would become quite sickening to any bystanders.

On the flip side, if I had married someone like me, nothing important would ever get talked about, and the romance would probably be a thing of the past.

So, if I may, step out of my comfort zone and say Thank you, and I love you, to my husband. Because, "Oh my heck, flowers" were waiting on my desk when I got back from a morning appointment today.

PS.... These are not the flowers, but fairly close. I don't have my camera with me.

Randomness without pictures (the worst kind)

I hate posting about things we've done when I don't have any pictures to go along with it. But... here it is, Wednesday, I haven't posted about the weekend, and I'm feeling like I'm neglecting the blog. And both of you who read it with any regularity.

We went on an activity with the youth in our ward this last weekend. The kids went boating on Friday, we camped that night, and then they floated the Provo River in tubes the next day. I say 'they' because I did none of it (well, I camped -and cooked) but other than that I was a bystander. Which only adds to the fact that I neglected my role as a bystander to take photo's. It was a fun weekend (despite the massive amounts of dutch oven cooking and cleaning that took place and NOT sleeping Friday night) and I came home very tired.

Justin enjoyed floating the river, and was a pretty good sport on the 2nd and longer of the two runs. One of the girls had a tube that was just too small, so he switched her. Which meant he essectially floated the river in a life jacket, spending some stretches running along the side of the river because the water was so low, all the while getting his legs pretty banged up by all of the rocks.

I had a water camera that I sent with one of the kids, and my plan is to take it in this week and get a CD with the images. So... who knows, maybe you WILL see a few pictures of the festivities.

I wanted to add one thing. This probably should go on the Baby Blog, but tomorrow I go in for my glucose test so I'll probably post about that later this week.

Don't you love it when you order things online (I'm addicted and do it FAR too often) and it ends up just being perfect? I've been looking for a diaper bag forever (or at least the last 26 weeks) and was really worried about buying one online, but the ones I have found in the store... just don't do it for me.

So, I ordered this bag (the green one) last week and it came yesterday. I'm not a mom yet and haven't even used it, but I love it already. I think I'm going to be very happy with it. I might not even mind carrying it around for the next couple of years. (What a committment.)

Seriously?

I wasn't going to post this little story, I've told a few friends and coworkers, and was going to leave it at that.

That was before I saw this cartoon over at Garfield Minus Garfield...

I was at a home this week of my 'work kids' and his foster mom (who, to put it kindly, is a little nutty) figured out I was pregnant the week before at a court hearing.

She said to me, while we were talking at the kitchen table, "Why don't you wear those pregnancy shirts?" I was wearing a regular shirt, that still fits and I thought was still acceptable at this stage of the incubation. I answered that I do sometimes, but sometimes I wear other shirts too.

"Oh... well you just look FAT! If you wore those pregnancy shirts, you wouldn't look like you had one of those... what do they call it... a MUFFIN TOP".

Oh... okay, thanks.

If she was half-way sane, I may have actually taken offense.

Too funny

I just had to share... I got this yesterday in an email. I couldn't find a youtube clip without talking, but I have a file that just loops the fall over and over again, if you want it.


It reminded me of this little gem...



I'm not sure how 'real' either of the videos are... but they sure make me laugh.

D.I.N.K.

Have you ever heard of the term D.I.N.K.? I hadn't, until one of Justin's coworkers called him a 'dink'. Dual Income, No Kids.

I guess that's us (for the time being).

And what do DINK's do, when they have a few months savings in the bank and are expecting to shortly become... non-DINK's (I'm not even going to try to make up an acronym for what we will be becoming)? We furnish our home that we haven't paid much attention to for the last few months.

Also... it helps if you have a husband who is now working from home.

For those of you who don't check the baby blog (if you want to be added, just let me know) we have half of the baby's furniture...

And yesterday I came home to this in our bedroom (I'll post pic's of our actual bedroom when I get home from work today)

****Clarification**** the following are photo's of the pieces of furniture from the website... NOT my bedroom. I'll post photos' of MY bedroom (a bit smaller, and less of an interior decorating masterpiece) a little later.

Okay... here's photo's of our actual bedroom. You'll probably notice the lighting isn't as good!

See ya in another Ten

I went to my 10 year high school reunion last night.

To quote one of my friends from yesterday, -It was kind of anti-climatic.

I should preface with this by saying, I really enjoyed high school, particularly my senior year. I was looking forward to seeing everyone (or at least a small chunk of 'everyone') and catching up with a few friends that I haven't seen for a while. Friday night they had a "bring your kids if you got 'em" evening at a park, and we didn't attend that, but yesterday was a dinner at another park and it turned out really nice. I'm not sure how it compares to other reunion's... but I thought there were a lot of people there and it was a fun evening.

I have a confession to make... I didn't really take any pictures (I know, that's pretty bad) but I'm pretty sure Andrea will be posting some soon, if anyone is all that interested. (By the way Ange, feel free to crop me out of any and all photo's -you already know what I look like).

Justin survived the night, and enjoyed seeing a few people he new on our senior video that played during the night (especially a certain someone in her cotillion dress and another someone singing during an assembly.) I guess we'll see everyone in another 10 years or so.

10 hours and counting

*Warning, this is a highly charged and one-sided editorial*

I don't think I've mentioned this on the blog, but if you've been around me (or any other State employee) in the last month, I'm sure you've heard about it.

(According to my new voicemail message) "Due to the Governor's Initiative ALL state employee's will now be working from 7am - 6pm, Monday through Thursday...". Yep... In an effort to 1-save the state money, 2- reduce energy costs (to the state, NOT individual employees), and 3- spend more time with family (you mean, losing time in the evenings with family, while being home on Fridays when your kids are at school and your spouse is working), we are going to 4-10's.

Okay, no one is complaining about the 3 day weekend -yay! Also, we'll be driving to work one less day a week (that eliminates 20 miles a week for me -not too bad). And... I'm searching here for more Pro's... seriously, I am.

If you're in Utah, you may have your own opinions about this new direction. Maybe you've even read or heard about the survey state workers took and came up with a 70-80% approval rate for the change (I have no more than 2 or 3 undergraduate research classes under my belt, and even I was quite impressed with the ability of the survey authors to word things in such a way or offer multiple choice questions where you couldn't NOT be for the change). Or... if you ever watch national news shows and have seen our lovely Governor Huntsman and all of his glorious media attention he is receiving, you may think this is great, maybe you're even saying to yourself, I wish I had a 3 day weekend.

Can I just vent for a few minutes? (Of course I can, this is my blog, and that's what it's for, you don't have to read it -or agree with me).

I work for Human Services, more specific, Child and Family Services. I'm not the DMV or working in a lab... we're responsible for thousands (not me personally, although it feels that way some days) of children and their families. We're a little concerned about the lack of contact these cases will have 3 days out of the week -not to mention our community partners (school, the courts, shelters) will still be operating 5 days a week without support or input from us. We're a little nervous about this.

And one more comment and I'll be done, I promise. Most workers had essentially 3 weeks to plan for this. To arrange new or adjusted child care schedules, second jobs, many of my coworkers are in the middle of graduate degree programs. Not to mention, the administration had about a month to plan for increasing on-call workers, working with the Judges to beg them not to schedule hearings on Fridays (it's about 50-50 of judges that won't), and informing other community partners. In short... we had a very limited amount of time to make a lot of big changes, and a week into the new schedule, very little has been worked out.

In a more selfish, self-centered rant...
It's Thursday morning at 8:30am. I've been at work for over an hour. I'm tired, and I'm just hoping I make it to 6 today. I have ZERO energy at the end of the day, and yesterday I almost got teary just thinking about waking up early and coming into work. I'm sure the majority of us will get used to the new work schedule, and maybe it's just cuz' I'm pregnant... but we're struggling around here!

A few girls

Okay... my computer is back, I uploaded pictures, so here's an update over the past week (and a half).

I went to Girls Camp last week. I should clarify and say I spent one evening (Tuesday) with the girls and then about 24 hours with them from Thursday to Friday. They -and most of the other leaders were up there from Monday -Thursday. Between work and... an excuse of being pregnant, I got a lighter duty.

The camp area was pretty nice and they had a lake/pond that the girls swam, went canoeing (I looked up if that was a real word, and how to spell it) and jumped (or fell) off a zip line into. The leaders in charge of the whole camp (stake leaders) tried to kill us that afternoon (I'm sorry, but it was just TOO HOT to sit in the sun for 2 hours, are you KIDDING me?), had dinner with other ward members and then packed up the next morning. It was a nice time, but I'm also glad I only spent one night up there.

On Saturday a friend and coworker got married in a backyard ceremony. A few of us went and had a really good time. Bobbie looked very calm (she said she wasn't) and it was a nice, relaxed evening. I didn't get a lot of photo's, but here are a few.

It's coming

A new post. I promise. I finally have my computer (not to mention my husband) back in the house.

Pictures will be uploaded. And a new post will be here shortly.