Wednesday, April 27, 2016

A Grand Adventure.

I had to write this post a day in advance so that I could compose my thoughts well enough that any single person who is not me can actually understand what I am saying. And rereading it this morning, I see that I didn't do a very good job haha. Here's the thing: I'm pregnant and my brain has turned to mush. Literal mush. Sometimes I feel like I'm lucky to be able to string together five cohesive words in a day.

Let's start with the whole "I'm pregnant" thing: I'M FREAKING PREGNANT! We had been trying for a while, and things just weren't working out, so we kind of just assumed it wasn't in the cards at this point. Then we moved to Utah and I drank the water, and if you've ever been to Utah you know what the water does to the women around here. It feels like literally everyone is pregnant. Just in the past three weeks I can think of at least five people who have announced their pregnancy on Facebook. But how fun will that be for our little nugget?! So many potential friends for them! A few details:

1. As of today we are thirteen weeks along. We decided to wait until now, just because of the whole risk thing, but I am honestly surprised that I haven't badgered Brandon more about telling everyone early. He was the first one to know, and then I told a few of my friends, then after what seemed like a million years we finally told our families, but I am happy for word to finally be out. Not that it makes a difference that the whole world knows, but it will be nice for it to not be a secret anymore.

2. We are due November 2nd which seems like a couple thousand years away at this point, but I know it will go quickly. We are mostly just ready to start buying stuff and start prepping, but even now feels a little early.

3. Food cravings/aversions are weird and I sort of hate them. I love eating, so I hate not knowing what to eat/feeling like I don't actually want to eat anything.

So far, I feel like I have been pretty lucky when it comes to symptoms. I haven't been sick at all, just nauseous, so that is a huge blessing. I have mostly just been super tired, and keep waiting for that stage to go away, but then I remember that I'm going to be tired for the rest of my life, so I just keep chugging along!

Sometimes it still doesn't feel real, and I feel like I'm just this big hypochondriac that is making up all these ill symptoms, but then I see the ultrasound posted on the fridge and remember that the tiny thing is inside me all the time. It's the weirdest, coolest thing I think I will ever experience. Which is actually what I think I said about the catacombs in Paris too, but being pregnant definitely wins. We can't wait to meet our little nugget!!

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Family Vacay.

I'm not quite sure how I overlooked this, but somehow I never blogged about our short vacation in California with my family. My spring break was a measly Thursday-Sunday, and we were originally planning to go to Boise to visit the fam, but easily changed our plans (because California, duh) when they invited us to join them the last half of their spring break in Anaheim. We flew in late Wednesday night after our flight had been delayed, which is seemingly becoming the norm for us and I don't like it. Anyway. The whole family-parents, brothers, grandma, and girlfriends-all piled in the expedition and met us at LAX. My favorite thing was the cargo carrier they had attached to the back of the car; it just made me think of all those family vacation movies, where there's just too many people and suitcase and not enough space. I could not stop laughing. I probably was mostly delirious from flying so late.

That first night was my mom's birthday, and the next day was my grandma's birthday! She had wanted to go to Disneyland, so we all woke up bright and early to make it to the happiest place on earth! The park was pretty busy, considering it was probably most of the country's spring break, but we didn't have to wait in line for anything longer than 45 minutes. We rode all the best rides, ate all the necessary foods (dole whips, Mickey pretzels, and Mickey ice cream bars) and had some good old-fashioned family fun. My parents even treated us all to lunch at The Blue Bayou inside of Pirates,  and it was amazing. I had this sandwich that came with three different sweet sauces to dip it in...I still dream about it all the time. It had been a while since we had done Disney with my family, so I was happy that we were able to go and have a magical day.

The next day was Adrian's birthday! My baby bro is eighteen now...weird. He wanted to spend his special day at Six Flags, so the adventurous group (everyone besides mom and grandma) went and rode rides, ate more great park food, and spent time in the warm sunny weather. That night, per Adrian's request, we had Panda Express for dinner and watched Modern Family in the hotel room while we ate.

The morning after, my family got on the road early to make half the drive back to Boise. It was a quick trip with them, but we were happy to have some time with them! Our flight didn't leave LA until five that night, so Brandon and I spent most of the day shopping and eating at Downtown Disney. We bought our traditional Mickey caramel apple, and spent hours searching for a puzzle we had seen in the park, but so stupidly waited to buy until our time in Downtown Disney. We never did find the puzzle, but we did get sunburned from spending so much time just hanging out outside.

I wish we lived closer to Disney, we would totally get annual passes and go all the time. We are going back over Memorial Weekend with our friends, and this time are doing California Adventure, and also Wizarding World! Now that Wizarding World is open in California, maybe we'll splurge and get annual passes to both anyway. We'll see what happens.

Monday, April 11, 2016

six years later.

Today is the anniversary of something randomly wonderful for me, something that I feel like needs a blog post dedicated to it. I can't even write this post without getting sentimental and making the whole experience seem like a bigger deal than it probably is to most people, so sorry in advance for making it sound like the most magical thing in the world.

Six years ago today I had my first day of work at the movie theater. It was meant to be just a second summer job, something else to occupy my time in addition to my library shifts and help me earn extra money to put toward a new car. By the end of my first shift, I could tell that not only was it going to be a super fun second job, but also that it was probably going to change my life somehow.

It was so much fun working with as many people as I did, and meeting a whole new group of people my own age. I made a lot of friends quickly, and developed a strong friend base that I hung out with the good majority of that summer and fall. The job allowed me to develop a life  outside of campus life, and start fresh with new people, which allowed me to be myself and not feel like I didn't live up to the standard of "good enough" which is how I felt during the school year. I fit right in at the theater, and being myself was good enough.

The environment at the theater was loud and crazy compared to the nice quiet that I had at the library every day, and I loved it. We were a well-oiled machine that got to hang out with friends (each other) in between sets, and have free popcorn and soda as often as we wanted. And free movies was a perk too. I went to movies all the time with my new friends, and felt so at home. It was like a tiny piece of my heart had been saved for me there, and I got it back when I started the job.

That summer at the movie theater led to some of the worst, and the best times of my life. It was supposed to be a four-month job, but I ended up being there for sixteen months. Without the theater, I wouldn't have figured out what I wanted to do with my life. I probably would still be struggling through a Spanish Ed. degree, hating life. Without the theater, I wouldn't have met Brandon, and I don't even need to go in detail about what a wonderful thing that is.

To sum it up, I just am really grateful for the start of a super important time in my life. I think back on those days a lot, and I honestly am not sure where I would be without them.