Summer Adventures

Other than the fact that June has been unusually hot (the hottest June since I've been in Atlanta), life seems pretty awesome.

We're settling into our new house nicely. I haven't got the nursery painted or set up yet, but most of our other stuff is out and organized. I went on a garage sale / estate sale shopping trip this last weekend and found some great stuff: two matching 6' bookcases, some old kids books, some nice slacks for Chase, and best of all, my reading corner chair! I've been wanting a nice plush chair to put in the corner of our bedroom for a reading corner and I found the perfect one at an estate sale. Since it was the last day of a three day sale, it was 50% off - only $100!

My awesome reading corner with a beautiful chair and big bookcase!

I also found this super terrifying doll. But I didn't buy it - $20, seriously!?

I've been trying pretty hard to stay fairly active despite the heat and the increasing difficulty of simple tasks like putting on shoes. A couple of weeks ago we went to the cabin with our friends, Brad and Sarah Yates. On Saturday morning we hiked a little 3 mile portion of the Appalachian trail - it was gorgeous!

Oh yeah, funny story. While we were moving, Chase "found" his old hiking boots (they had been hiding from him at the bottom of his closet - where his shoes theoretically belonged). He was so excited to wear them hiking. Less than 5 minutes into our hike, the sole flopped off of his boot, attached only at the heel. He shrugged it off and wanted to keep going until two minutes later...FLOP. The other sole disattached. So we had to go back to the car so he could change out to his normal tennis shoes. Good thing, too, because we discovered we'd been going the wrong way! We eventually made it to Preacher's rock, which had this awesome view.

Chase's family likes to go camping up at Lake Lanier three or four times every year. And finally, two years after joining the family, I was actually able to join them. They were all there from Wednesday to Saturday, but Chase and I only made it up for Friday night and Saturday clean up. I slept in my hammock, which was surprisingly comfortable. Plus, the view when I woke up in the morning was amazing!

I got to go up to North Carolina  on a "work trip". This means that Fockele has a couple of sites in the Raleigh/Durham area that we sub-contract out to another company and we like to check up on them quarterly. I happily volunteer to go, since I get to see Mindy and Jeran. Plus, my company pays for my drive time, so that's awesome. I had fun hanging out with the Stratfords, even if baby Allison had a bit of a cold. She liked sitting on the hammock with me. It makes me very excited for a couple of months from now!

And now a quick pregnancy update - everything is going great. I am 33 weeks +5 days (meaning my week mark is on Tuesay. So this coming Tuesday I will be 34 weeks pregnant). I have had a little bit of ankle swelling, but so far it's not a permanent thing - just once in a while. Sleeping is sometimes difficult, but I really like (and/or need) an afternoon nape. I really don't like being outside in the heat (I'm not sure that's actually a pregnancy symptom, but I have a good excuse for staying inside more!). My right ribs feel pretty bruised. So pretty much, this pregnancy is going really well and I have nothing to complain about!

Two Months to go!

I can't believe it's already the middle of June! That came out of nowhere! I am happy that I only have two months to go before our baby gets here. I'll be 32 weeks (out of 40) on this coming Tuesday. It's kinda weird being at the point where people feel comfortable just asking when I'm due. I feel like my growth has leveled out somewhat in the last few weeks, so I haven't gotten much bigger. But I know my time is coming to get huge!
    (Apparently I don't have any good baby bump photos in my photo stream - I'll work on that and post one next week!)

Along with working to get stuff put away after the move, I've also had some fun putting together some of my new baby furniture! The pack-n-play was a baby shower gift from my aunts in Logan and the baby bouncer is from Grandma Hatch. Thank you guys so much! So far, that's all I have for furniture, but I do have a crib lined up. It's all so exciting!

Moving right along

We have several big changes in our lives recently. First, Chase finished up with his mechanical engineering degree and is now working full time at Arseal technologies. He's loving the freedom from homework, but not yet used to the 8 hours / 5 days a week schedule of working.

We also moved out of our first apartment. This is something that's been consuming my time and focus lately, trying to find somewhere to live. We'd been hoping for something bigger (not at all hard, since our first apartment was one bedroom and 750 sq ft) and more private - not an apartment complex. I spent a lot of time on Zillow, but it seemed like any time we found somewhere that looked decent and was in our budget, it had already been rented. Finally, one week before our move-out date, we met with someone from Smith's ward. She and her husband were moving out of her parents' finished basement apartment and they wanted someone to take their place.

There's a nice big kitchen with granite countertops along one wall. It's a lot roomier than my old kitchen, but less cupboard space.

The living room is nice and big, with glass doors leading onto the deck. They even left us their couches and entertainment center!

The bathroom is nice. But not as much storage space.

Bedroom A is accessed off the living room. It's really big, but doesn't have very good closet space. I'm still figuring out clothes storage.  

A nice hallway for pacing and putting up our computer desk....

And bedroom B (probably will be the nursery). Really big, small closet.

The redeeming feature is the HUGE storage room off the kitchen. It's almost 25 feet deep and 8 feet across with shelves down both sides. So I may not be able to store as many things in the kitchen and bathroom, but they will be nicely stored in boxes in the storage room.

Plus, we'll never need an extension cord. This is my hand after going around our house counting electrical outlets. (Each outlet is counted separately, not in pairs).

So far we're loving our new home. It's so much roomier than we're used to, and the basement has great insulation, so I can run the air conditioning more! We're also in a new neighborhood (a very, very nice neighborhood!) and a new ward.

Moving is such a fun adventure!