A big weekend

This was a pretty eventful weekend. On Saturday, Chase and I attended a childbirth class from the hospital. It was ALL day long, from 9am-4pm. I felt like I didn't learn too much that I didn't know already, but it was good to hear it from a more dependable source than blogs from pinterest. I did learn that I actually have felt a few contractions already. My doctor has been asking at the last several appointments if I'd experienced any contractions yet, and my answer was always no. But the class instructor explained that a contraction may just feel like my whole stomach is hard, instead of just where the baby's back or bottom is. Nothing painful or serious, it's just interesting.

My dad flew into Atlanta on Saturday also, so we got to spend some time with him on Saturday evening and Sunday. We spent our time going to Ikea (Chase had never been to any Ikea before), eating dinner at the cafeteria, and buying a daybed. We had a lot of fun trying to fit it into our Nissan. Chase and Dad had some nice bonding time putting it together.

Obviously we're still working on the nursery. At least I got the gifts and clothes sorted. 

Brothers and Baby Showers

It was a pretty exciting week for us - a returned missionary and the baby shower (and a bunch of less exciting stuff, too).

Chase's brother Jordan came home from San Bernadino, California on Wednesday. We had planned to meet his family at the airport to welcome him home, but we got hung up in traffic. Fortunately we made it just in time for me to drop Chase off at the terminal to see Jordan come out. Then we all went up to our church building where the member of the stake presidency released Jordan as a full time missionary. Chase was SO happy to have his brother home, he was bouncing around like an excited puppy!
We also got to hear Jordan talk in church today, and he had some pretty amazing stories to tell about being led by the Spirit and the power of the priesthood. My favorite was about how they randomly knocked on the door of a woman who "no hable ingles!" Well, luckily these were the Spanish speaking elders! When they asked if she had heard of the missionaries, the Mormons, she responded, "oh yeah! My brother is a 70!" Wait, what?

After dinner on Sunday.

 On Saturday morning, my friend Kara Harward (from my old ward - Paper Mill) threw a baby shower for me! We had a really good mix of people there - ward members and family and friends of Chase's family, and my friends, and a co-worker of Chase's. It was really fun and I was gifted with lots of really adorable baby clothes and a diaper bag and some blankets.

I can't believe I'm almost 37 weeks pregnant! I'm feeling rather huge, but lots of people tell me that I still look (relatively) small. That's good, I guess. Good for my vanity, anyways. My newest development is swollen ankles. Not so good for the vanity. But all things considered, I'm feeling great and looking good!

Last week - 35 weeks, 6 days!

July 19 - 36 weeks, 5 days!

Meet the Newest Member of Our Family

Ta Da!

We've been wanting to buy a vehicle that would better accommodate a car seat and a growing family. Plus, Chase's car is falling apart and has no air conditioning. After some extensive internet research, we went to CarMax and decided that we really liked the Nissan Rogue. Small SUV, pretty good gas mileage, and a back-up camera.

Also our car seat and stroller came this week, courtesy of Mom and Dad Briscoe. Yay for having the necessities covered!

36 weeks on Tuesday, or one month from yesterday. We're getting close!

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!