help me please

I am driving Slice crazy.
He knows it, I know it - and for the record, I am driving myself crazy too.
Call it "nesting" or whatever you want ... but all that I can think about now (day and night!) is what to buy, how to organize and rearrange and decorate our living room/storage room/bedroom before the baby comes. I've been shopping online and in stores and in my dreams, going over our options again and again.
In the last four days I've spent over 4 hours looking at car seats and strollers alone.
(The options are endless, you know?)

As I said before, we've been given a lot of things for the baby - for which I am eternally grateful. Not only because we didn't have to pay for them, but because I didn't have to decide on them.
See, remember a long time ago I told you that Slice has been hooked up with more free stuff than anyone you know? Well, what I didn't realize until last week was that, aside from the IKEA filing cabinet we bought over Christmas break, WE HAVE NEVER BOUGHT A PIECE OF FURNITURE. Everything we own was given to us by someone else: bed, couches (5!), TVs, table & chairs, dresser, bookshelves, desks. You name it, we haven't bought it.

What this means is that we have never had to decide what colors, themes, or styles we like. Even with all the HGTV we've watched together. I should be able to buy a dang bookshelf - or even a curtain - but WHAT IF I DON'T LIKE IT IN THREE YEARS??

Such anxiety!

Also, does anyone have recommendations/warnings about car seat travel systems before I make my final decision?

Name Game

I don't know why (besides the hormones) but I get a leetle irritated when people ask me if we've picked a name. Kind of like the people who ask every day "How are you feeling?" or "When are you due again?" or "Do you know what you're having?"
Oh, I think I figured it out.
It's annoying only when I don't think they want to hear the real answer.

All well-meaning people, for sure. But they want to hear
"David"
"I'm feeling great!"
"June 3"
or "boy"
when it's all so much more complicated than that.

I don't really believe in due dates; I feel differently every 10 minutes; and this boy/girl/name thing is borderline ridiculous. Slice is STILL convinced we're having a girl!

So yeah, a long time ago we pretty much had a name picked out, tentatively of course, because I think it's weird to name children before you see them. But then we didn't talk about it for months and now we are having serious issues.
One night Slice randomly asked "What do you think about the name Paul? Or Timothy?"
"Paul is all right ... Timothy, no. Not with Morgan. Where did these come from?"
He'd been reading in the New Testament or something.

Then a few weeks ago we were discussing names with my aunt and uncle, and again out of the blue Slice says, "Do you like the name Taylor?"
I thought about it. "Taylor is fine. Sure."
"With the middle name 'Made'?"
......
"Taylor Made."
"Or Cal?"
"WE ARE NOT NAMING OUR CHILD TAYLORMADE OR CALLAWAY. CRAZY GOLFERS."

The latest? He won't even discuss it with me, because now he's thinking of girl names.

This child is going to have identity issues.

On a brighter note

These things are making me happy right now:

• organizing closets
• fresh cut-up strawberries in milk for breakfast
• hot showers (as always)
• cool mornings, warm sunny days, pleasant evenings
• tinfoil dinners and s'mores
• a newly-painted bedroom
• new 500 tc sheets ($28!)
• a certain someone dating a certain someone else
• testing in the LMC = QUIET
• Slice's new pants that I picked out that look so good
• free baby stuff! so far we've been given a crib, cradle/cradle set, changing table pad, baby carrier, many blankets and darling clothes (not to mention all the maternity clothes I've worn this pregnancy). family and friends are wonderful!
• Baby's head is DOWN. GOOD BABY. Cue collective sigh of relief.

Comments I DID make in church ...

... but probably shouldn't have.
A response to this post by Carina.

• "I hate church. It's the worst three hours of my week."
• "I want to go home and sleep for the next eighteen hours straight."
• "You're sure you don't want to release me?"
  

Not because of anything anyone else said or did (or didn't do!), but because my legs and feet were so swollen they looked like marshmallows, my fingers and wrists ache all day long from pregnancy arthritis, no clothes fit me well, and I cannot sit on a piano bench for two hours straight. Especially not without food and water. Contractions, kicking, dizzy spells, headache.


I guess I've hit that point?


(Really it was just a bad time. My Dr. saw me at the end of church and asked how I was feeling; after my response he asked if I'd like him to write a note to get me out of church. "I do know the bishop pretty well," I said.)

I'm Off

to a "Girls' Weekend" with my mom and sisters on the Wasatch Front.

On the schedule:
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at Hale Center Theater in Orem
Breakfast Saturday morning with the Woodruff aunts/cousins
and ... that's it.

I'm packing three books and the good camera.
(Plus extra pillows, prenatal vits, fruit snacks, you know.)

Tschuss!

(P.S. Wouldn't it be GREAT if I came home to a clean, reorganized house?)

looking up

Let's get some of these blog drafts published, shall we? Maybe I'll just combine them all into one?

I've mentioned here before that I've been trying to find ways to get Slice to read - for fun. But all I've had to go on is that he likes Dan Brown and golf. (Go figure.)
(ALSO: HE THINKS LDS HISTORICAL FICTION IS "PRIESTCRAFT." THIS HAS CAUSED NO SMALL ARGUMENT.)

So a couple weeks ago I cataloged a bunch of new books and took three of them home. The first I read in an afternoon, the second is gonna take me a while to get through, the third I thought Slice might actually like. I asked him if I could read it aloud while we drove to Provo.
And ... BINGO!
I have created a monster. Since I couldn't help much with the priming/painting in the bedroom last week, I read to the husband while he worked. And if I ever stopped for more than ten seconds he said "Keep going! Keep reading!!" Like a slave driver. Sheesh.
(Chuckle chuckle.)
He wants me to read all hours of the day and night, even when I am so exhausted I can't keep my eyes open. Finally I refuse and go to bed, and he stays up and reads ahead of me. The book is strange, I'll tell you that; I've never read anything like it. But I am on to something here.


So yeah, the painting is done and most of the furniture is moved back in. But we don't have baseboards yet and I'm still trying to decide just how I want it configured. I've spent hours online looking at drapes and bedskirts and sheets and lamp shades, without buying any of course, because I have to see everything before I will buy anything. That's just how I shop. Doesn't that make you love me.
(I'll post some pictures later.)


Last Saturday Slice and I went to a wedding reception -BH style!- and then to Prom to take students' tickets. Weird for four reasons:

1. WAY WAY WAYYY too much skin. Not even pretty skin. Look, you shouldn't really be that immodest in the first place, but especially if you can't pull it off. Please be considerate of my gag reflexes.
   
2. Chocolate fountains and all the stuff to go IN chocolate fountains - but no toothpicks. Just finger foods in runny, drippy milk chocolate. Who thought that was a good idea? For Prom?
3. I am very pregnant and have developed elephantine feet. This is a shame because a) I have beautiful feet normally and b) now I don't fit into any of my shoes, even sandals and c) I wanted to dance! It was a dance! But Slice said no.
4. I am very pregnant (also married) and five years ago I was AT THIS SAME PROM in this same building, and boy did I think I would be back now?
   

The answer is no.


Today is Library Snapshot Day, and once upon a time I was surprised by how many kids came into this place, considering how I never ever came here except to make copies for band. And maybe you still think I'm exaggerating about how CRAZY the LMC is before school and during lunch, but look! I have stats! I've been keeping them all day.
Between the time I opened the doors and the time the bell rang to start school (7:55-8:20), about 140 kids came in. During lunch we had 120.
You probably don't care but I do, because I like statistics and I want to be a demographer someday. Demography. Yummy.


Oh hey, did you know that two incomes means more money than one? AWESOME. Spring/summer means we are out of the great money-sucking pit of winter (that traveling to Japan caused) in the Slice of Jean household ....
... for two more months, that is.

House of Chaos

My house looks, literally, like a tornado has gone through it.

We have nowhere to sit and eat "meals" except on our bed. Clothes, tools, rags and papers are strewn all over the furniture that is stuffed into the living room. Drywall in the hall blocks the entrance to the kitchen/laundry room, where an air compressor and shop vac take up the rest of the floor space. Buckets, brushes, rollers and dishes fill up the countertop and sink.

So the "weekend remodel" has, naturally, turned into a 3-week-long project that is taking its toll on my (already fragile) sanity.

STILL...
I'll take this tornado over the (two-month long) thunderstorm that was in my living room ANY DAY.

Lately

We are finally at the painting stage!
Although we'll be IN this stage for a while, because between the traveling and schooling and working and churching -and don't forget the coaching- we are both so busy we can't do anything about the room. Blech.
Still haven't decided on the color anyway...

In other news, last weekend was awesome.
I mini-golfed with my Slice for the first time ever. YES he took his own putter in and YES I was embarrassed about that, and YES he beat me, but I wasn't bad either so it was really fun.
We also ate some surprisingly good Japanese food and had a little baby BBQ with friends - which I cannot recommend enough. We got some darling baby stuff and visited with friends I haven't seen for far too long! Thank you everyone who came.
(No pictures though.)

Last night I was a judge for the Altamont Idol competition. Going in I had no idea what would be expected of me (praise? criticism?) so I was a little nervous. I've still never even watched an episode of American Idol. Fortunately, we had a rubric and gave scores and that was it. Phew!

Lastly, I somehow slept through Phil's win even with Slice right next to me, watching and hollering (and fist-pumping) every so often. I'm thinking that is the best way to watch sports.

Hey!

It's National Drop Everything And Read Day!

(I spent hours making these posters for teachers and staff. They still crack me up every time I see them.)

Is it weird

-that this is my 300th blog post? Have I been jabbering for that long?

-that I talk to other drivers from my car?
Not necessarily road rage phrases either, but "go ahead" and "sorry" and "thank you!" etc. Can't stop myself.

-that I still think of this baby as a girl sometimes? and that Slice does too?

I have this phobia that we will have planned for a boy for 6 months only to go through labor and find out it's a GIRL. Either way, it will be happy, but what if the ultrasounds were wrong? We've always thought our first would be a girl. And every time I tell people "it's a boy," it sounds weird.

Am I crazy?

small town living: I Am Speechless

I'm sorry to be politicking, but I've just been laughing so hard at this comment that I had to share.

A little background first:

Roosevelt's city pool is so old and rundown, it is literally a safety hazard. The managers of the pool have been saying so for years.
Said managers have been working tirelessly with the residents and political officials of the county to get a new pool built. They've taken polls (we want an indoor/outdoor facility! the people said) and gone to the City Council (we need the whole county in on it! the Council said) and gone to the County Commissioners (we won't do anything about this until the next election because we want to be re-elected! the Commissioners basically said). It's been such a run-around, you wouldn't believe it unless you lived here.

I KNOW times are hard right now, especially in our oilfield community. I KNOW no one wants to pay more taxes, even $30 a year which is like ONE meal "out on the town." But seriously? There's nothing else to do here, especially in the winter! We've got over 1100 signatures! Can we just agree and move on??

Apparently not.
I found this gem of a comment on the oh-so-scientific poll of the online UBStandard this morning. (It's comment #2.) And the "logic" has me completely baffled.

What the .... I just ..... how do you respond to that?

Why should I force my neighbor to pay for the roads that I drive on?! After all, I don't pay taxes. I'm still renting. What if everyone actually drove on the roads? We'd all have to ration our driving time! Or worse, build more roads!

The cost is your LIBERTY, people.

(At least the writer's English skills are acceptable, a small miracle in itself.)

Seriously though, how would you respond?

this week

Last Saturday:

I was a slacker and did not take a picture of this desk before we sanded it down. Just imagine dark wood with scratches and dents, tons of tiny holes gouged in the top (teenage boys are so destructive), and old brass handles. The actual wood is really beautiful, so we had a hard time deciding if we should try to refinish with new stain or just paint over it. Paint won.

(Less work AND I hate having several different shades of wood in one room. Bookshelf, table, entertainment center, picture frames - now I'm tempted to paint everything white!)

We spent the day sanding, priming and painting, and moving. I am now sitting at the finished product.

(old paneling makes for a great painting surface)

Tuesday:

Our light fixture is finally gone. Good riddance!

The new one-bulb fixture lights the room better than the old three-bulb one, that's how bad it was.
Slice and his mom also replaced the outlets in the room.

Yesterday:

Slice sanded and patched up all the tears in the drywall. I didn't help him.

But I read The Witch of Blackbird Pond again, in just a few hours. I love that book.

And I made German pancakes for two meals in a row. (Yum!)

And now I'm going to sit in front of the TV for at least eight hours in the next two days. I'll have to find some projects to do....

could be worse

Well, it's not last year's spring break, but I'll take it.

At least we don't have any snow!

(PS Bella is still a doll.)