Ultrasound Update

I went in to the Doctor today and I thought I was really only going to have my blood drawn but to my delight, they said they were going to do another ultrasound. It's amazing how different the baby looks just after 3 more weeks in the oven. It definitely looks a lot more human. Below is a sketch from a book I have of what an 11 week fetus looks like. Below that is our 11 week ultrasound with with the 8 week ultrasound for comparison. If you click on the 11 week ultrasound and make it bigger, you can see the baby's nose! How amazing! It only measured 1.6" from crown to rump so far. It's got a ways to go. The heart beat was 174 bpm. Boy, was I glad to hear that heart beat again!

Lucy's Mortal Enemy

Lucy makes vacuuming a much more exciting event around our house than it had been previously. Check out this video:

October Happenings

So it hasn't felt like fall at all here in Houston. We may have a few mornings that are a little less humid and maybe there'll be a cool breeze but most the time it's in the mid-80's. I love fall and the feeling of fall. It starts out with conference which means a family get-together. Then there's Halloween, and then MY BIRTHDAY which leads into the best holidays ever: Thanksgiving and Christmas!!! I haven't seen a single leaf change color here. I was complaining about this to my friend Brianne (who is a Halloween nut!) and she suggested that I decorate our house to make it feel more fall-like...so I did. And she was right...it does feel more like the holidays. Here are the decorations I made:

Our Fall Centerpiece:

Wreath for our Door:

My favorite day to go running is Monday morning a.k.a. garbage day. As I run through the neighborhood behind our complex, I scout out things in people's piles that I may want to acquire. The findings have been especially good since the hurricane because the piles have been a lot larger. I recently found a shelving unit that I put in the walk-in closet in our extra room which now holds all our food storage. I also found some screen mesh that I'm going to put over our herbs that I just planted in little planter boxes cause Lucy likes to eat the little plants just as soon as they pop up. Matt was a little embarrassed at first to discover that his wife has been rummaging through the neighbors garbage like a homeless woman, but I think he's catching the spirit of it. All I have to say for myself is that I am my mother's daughter.

There have been many downed-fences showing up in the piles lately. This is also due to the recent hurricane. As I was cleaning out our closet to make space for the shelving unit, I realized that we had two 4'x1' mirrors. The space above our couch has been crying out for something to be put there, so I decided to snag (or reclaim...if you will) several pieces of fence wood out of someone's garbage pile to make frames for the mirrors. They look very rustic and weathered...I love it. I am planning on carving something super cool into the wood, but I haven't decided what yet, but I cut the pieces for the frames with our circular saw yesterday and here is one of them:

My good friend Brianne (the Halloween nut) recently threw a Halloween themed dress up party for her son's first birthday party. I was a little worried cause Matt and I don't really have any costumes and I didn't have much time to get ready. I sifted through Matt's clothes to see if I could find anything inspiring...and I did...a John Deer shirt. I decided to be a trucker-farmer type. I tucked half my hair up in my hat and powdered the rest with Matt's Gold Bond powder. Did a little face paint and voir la! (or however you spell "Vwala") (Results can be seen below). Pretty much no one recognized me, including our dog. And no, I'm not THAT pregnant yet. That is a pillow...OK?

Prenatal vitamins do WONDERS for your fingernails. I think this is the longest my fingernails have been in all of recorded history. They were still going strong, but I couldn't stand them any longer so I chopped them off. (My cuticles still need some work)

My Search for Meaning

I put the ice cream in the fridge last night. This morning when I went to get the milk for breakfast, I saw it there....a whole yummy carton of plain vanilla ice cream reduced to a large puddle of just cream with no ice to be found. What a heart break.

Much like the ice cream, I'm feeling a little on the "blah" side. I realize that "this too, shall pass", but for the time being life is kinda gettin' me down. Think of how the cream must feel when it thinks about times past...it's days of glory in the freezer. Isn't it interesting how a small change in circumstance can have such a dramatic affect? I too find myself thinking lately of times past and MY days of glory. Since I came into being, or very soon thereafter, I've had a very strong inborn desire to be productive and have a life of meaning and purpose. Viktor Frankl in his book, "Man's Search for Meaning" suggests that this is true for all people. Everyone desires to have a task or purpose in life that only they can fulfill. Since we've moved here to Texas, I've been on that search. What is it that I'm really meant to do, and what is it that I am really supposed to be?

Often times in my desire to achieve, succeed and feel productive, I can be little hasty. I hate floundering. For instance, during my freshman year in college, I was completely uncomfortable with saying that I was "undeclared", so I quickly chose a major...Civil Engineering. Those of you who knew me prior to that time were probably surprised by my decision. When I got home from my mission, I could hardly sit still. I had to DO something. So after a week of being home, I moved to Heber City and got a job there. And how about when I decided to get a Master's in Civil Engineering!!! Yeah, I know, a little hasty. Lots of good and lots of not so good things have come from these choices. I don't know that any of them really helped me to achieve my real purpose in life...but then again maybe they did...it's hard to say.

The moral of the story is that after nearly 26 years of hastily trying to achieve my purpose on earth, I don't know that I really have ever felt completely fulfilled in my life or am any closer to finding my purpose than I was many many years ago. I realize that one of my major purposes in life is to be a wife and mother, and I am achieving those things but that's not really a full-time job for me right now. The days are very very long when you are waiting all day for your husband to come home from work. I try to read good books including text books, do geneology, meet my neighbors, etc etc all of which are good things, but I still feel so empty. It's gotten to the point that I've actually resorted to applying at hole in the wall temp agencies to at least kill the boredom of the day. I've also thought that maybe I need to do more with my talents and write/illustrate children's books. Maybe I'll really like that, but I don't really feel an intense desire leading me in any direction. I'm floundering, and I hate that feeling more than anything. My most intense desire right now is to go back to Utah and sit on top of a mountian. But I'd have to come down someday.

Our Little Blob

We just had our first ultrasound yesterday. How amazing!!! I'd been told that we'd be able to hear the heartbeat, but I didn't know that we would be able to SEE it!!! It was so surreal! How can that be inside me??? I don't really FEEL pregnant. How is it that only after 8 weeks, there can be a heartbeat? Life is SO amazing!! It is so difficult for me, especially after that experience, to understand how people can say that it's not really ALIVE yet, and use that as rationalization to kill. Abortion is legal up until 3 months. I'm only 2 months along, and and our little blob looked very much alive. Isn't it awesome that Heavenly Father lets us be a part of the creation of the bodies for his spirit children? I feel so blessed.

Taiwan Aborigines

This is a video we took while in Taidong, Taiwan. The Taiwanese aborigines have flutes that they play with their noses. It makes a very cool sound, eh??

Matt took this video of me "dancing" with the aborigines. He thought it was pretty funny that I am a good head taller than everyone else.