4th of July

It's been a very rainy holiday weekend. Chase and I both had Friday off as a paid holiday, which was wonderful. We had Kara and Richard over to see our new apartment and have lunch (quinoa, lentils, and cashew stuffed bell peppers - surprisingly wonderful).

On the 4th we woke up late and had a lazy morning - no where to go, especially in the pouring rain. But by noon or so it was clearing up, so we headed over to Smith's house. They live next to the neighborhood pool, and there's traditionally a pool party for the 4th with hot dogs and hamburgers and pot luck sides. Thank you, Lisa, for the maternity swimsuit. I finally had the opportunity to hang out at the pool and get some sun.

Eventually we packed up and headed into town for the fireworks at Lenox. We left a lot later than we did last year, and consequently were stuck in much worse traffic. Luckily Chase agreed to the driving for me. We finally got to the family fireworks spot - a small lawn area next to a parking garage and some restaurants about two blocks from Lenox Square. We hung out there for a while eating food and chatting before we noticed the flashing blue lights. Some cops had decided to enforce the "no parking" zone where we traditionally park. Rather than pay for parking, Chase and I decided to go home and watch Captain America. It's the most patriotic movie I could think of.

Here's a 4th of July baby bump picture featuring the fun shirt Kara gave me!

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!

Virginia Trip

I've been wanting to take a trip to Virginia for a while now, mostly just to see my friends from my internship summer. Since Chase likes history and free things, it wasn't too hard to talk him into it. We were able to stay with the Jenkins, eat with friends, drive instead of fly, and free monuments and museums. A wonderful trip for newlyweds. Or recently married, anyway.  

First stop on Thursday, we went to The Care of Trees where I did my internship four years ago. I got to chat with some old coworkers, which was fun. 

Jeremy Baker was an awesome boss!

 By lucky coincidence, we visited DC and the monuments on June 6th. It was really cool to be there on the anniversary of D-Day. There was a ceremony at the WWII memorial, a park ranger giving a lecture about D-Day, and lots of veterans wandering around the memorials. It was fascinating and gave an extra gravity to the historical monuments. 

Chase loves hearing about history, so this was an awesome day for us. 

Washington Memorial

You can't tell from this picture, but we're at the WWII Memorial watching a ceremony honoring the veterans. 

Tidal Basin by Jefferson Memorial

Lincoln Memorial

 We went to the Smithsonian castle, and stopped by the Natural History Museum. There were SOOO many people, especially school groups. We had been walking all day and and we only managed about thirty minutes of museum time before we cried uncle and drove home. 

Survival Hint: Don't get eaten! 

This is his "Oh look, I was right and you were all wrong. I did get eaten by a shark" face.
And that's a megalodon jaw, not a shark (prehistoric ancestor of the great white shark).

 We had dinner with the Anderson family on Friday night. It was so fun to be "home" and I loved having Chase meet them. Chase was thrilled to be gifted with an old punching bag that had been hanging outside for years. Gail was equally thrilled to be rid of it. 

Saturday morning we went to the DC temple. I've been wanting to go through a session ever since Kalie was married there. It was so busy, and big, but it was beautiful. I'm very glad for that opportunity. 

 After the temple, we went to Arlington National Cemetery. We even walked up to the Iwo Jima memorial.

 Chase found Audie Murphy's grave. Audie Murphy is one of Chase's biggest war heroes. So I guess it was a pretty big deal. 

 On Sunday, we went to Church with the Jenkins and spent the day hanging out with them. I love my Jenkins so much! 

It was a great opportunity to see all my friends (or family, really. I like adopting family, and being adopted.) 

Hopefully, we'll be back up to Virginia before too long. 

Summer is Probably NOT my Favorite

As a kid, you grow up thinking that summer is the most wonderful time of year. Or at least, I did. No school, lots of time to read and hike and play and sleep and do chores and mow lawns and read some more. It was nice and hot which meant that playing in sprinklers and going to the pool were awesome activities.
Now that I'm grown up and work in landscaping in Atlanta, GA...not so much. In fact, I feel a lot more busy and tired out during the summer than any other time of year. It's true that we have some more free time because Chase isn't in school, but we're also trying to pack in all of our activities and social life that we couldn't do while he was busy with his crazy engineering classes (which he passed all of, yay!). Also, summer is the busy season in landscaping (I had thought that winter/early spring was busy, but now I know better!). I'm working 9-11.5 hour days, four days a week, and have to cram in laundry, grocery shopping, house cleaning, doctor's appointments, and hopefully some cooking for the week on my one day off (which is usually Friday, but might not be if it rains during the week and we have to change our schedule). I usually get home too tired and worn out to even cook dinner.
However, we do get to cram a lot of fun stuff into our weekends. Such as:
Chase's best friend's sister's wedding! Rachel Baesler got married on May 24, so Chase's friend Lucas got military leave to come home for a week. Chase spent almost every evening hanging out with him. Being especial friends of the family, we got to attend such events as Family Party two days before the wedding! Rehearsal dinner! Setting up for the wedding! Ceremony and reception! It was really pretty fun. I like their crazy family. It's also the most elaborate "traditional" (non-Mormon) wedding I've been to, which was fascinating. And we even got some pictures! Of the boys, at least.

Memorial Day with the Asay family! Hanging out with Kevin and his family reminds me of our Briscoe family parties. He has several older siblings who are married and have little kids running around. Made me happy to see the chaotic family fun, and sad to miss the Briscoe clan.

Hiking! (Well, occasionally). I even had Kevin take a picture of us.

Watching all those movies that we didn't have time for during the school year! Seriously: Star Trek 2, Thor 2, Captain America 2, Frozen...

We also took a trip up to Washington DC, but that's a whole other post.

Christmas Decor

I was pretty excited to decorate for Christmas this year. I guess it's because it's my first year to decorate my own space. I've always been in an apartment (or at Kara's) and headed home for Christmas. So this year was exciting. Here's some of what I did for decorating:

My first real Christmas tree!

Paper star from a Pinterest DIY.

Gold pinecone (and I collected all the pinecones!)

Cinnamon ornament (Pinterest, of course)

I have a mantle this year!

Wreath - with bows and pinecones!
First attempt at making a wreath, it turned out well, I thought. 

Balcony garland - I had no idea what I was doing, but it looks ok.