Mmm, Sunshine...

The sun came out today. It was out yesterday too, but I noticed it especially today. Sunshine always brings a flutter of hope to my heart. I feel stronger, healthier, happier when the sun is shining. Even more so when I can only feel its intense heat on my face and skin. I happen to love having really dark hair because it heats up so quickly in the sun. Of course, sometimes in the middle of a July I might feel a little less happy about that fact... But in the dead of December, its awesome. I'm staring out of the big window my desk faces in my office... and pondering all the ways that God shows His love for me, and for us as people. When I see the stark contrast of snow white mountains against a beautiful blue sky, I know that God loves me. I feel like He is speaking directly to me saying "Look Dawn, I know you're unhappy about some things here, but look at the beauty I am giving you today. Let it lift your spirit." And it does. I just wish I could be better about keeping that with me when things aren't sunny and beautiful. I wish I could still see the beauty in things when the sky is cloudy. Oh, all the different ways I mean that....

But today, at least, I am happy. I feel like I could do anything, be anything. I am so excited to see what the next few months will bring. We will know soon where we're headed after April is over. I am looking forward to a new adventure some place I've probably never been. I am still holding out hope that it will be somewhere sunny! Haha. But that will come in time. More than anything, I am excited to start living again. I am excited to make friends again and to be myself again. I feel like I've been hiding in a shell for the last two years here. I can feel the shell breaking. I can feel all the remnants of my old self returning. I am happy to talk to strangers again. I am getting comfortable in my own skin again (which, oddly enough, looks nothing at all like it used to!) and I am feeling confidence I haven't felt in years. All this excites me beyond words. I am so looking forward to meeting my baby girl and showing her all the wonderful things about this world... and I'm so excited that I actually feel like there ARE wonderful things to show her still.

Mmm... Sunshine. It makes me feel particularly insightful. In case you didn't notice... :) Sorry, I know this isn't really just MY place to talk (its Derek's too) but I just had some things to say and no journal with me, so you get what you get. Haha.

Peace out homefrys!

Christmas! (and some other stuff)

This is my bass guitar and Derek's Guitar Hero guitar. He bought me an amp cord so I can play her (her name is Cherry, by the way.) and my parents bought us Guitar Hero so Derek can practice some more. We love playing Guitar Hero and Rock Band with my family. They are nuts!!














You'd think he was a 5 year old getting his first bike for Christmas by the look on his face.... But that's my Derek! It is actually a 3 pound bag of gummi bears.












This looks like a ball of wrapping paper garbage, but its really a tie wrapped like 6 times and with 13 bows. I thought the bows might distract from the ugly wrapping...








So Christmas was a lot of fun this year. We went to my grandma's house on Christmas Eve and had so much fun at our party there. After the party, we went to my mom's house with all my family. Cliff and Melissa had family pictures taken and they turned out SO cute! Cayson is such a little stud. We opened our presents that we got for each other and had a lot of fun. We got totally spoiled by everyone. We got some really fun gifts. Liliana even got some adorable Oklahoma Sooners binkies and little OU pajamas. SO CUTE!!! My mom gave me some more ornaments to add to my collection, including a cute Coke can (that looks awesome next to my ketchup bottle) and a cute one for me and Derek. Derek got a huge padded frisbee that reminded us of the time when we were playing frisbee in the park and he got hit in the face by it. I'm not sure if getting hit by this one will hurt more or less.... We laughed and laughed until my face hurt. We finally had to go home around 11 or so. The drive home was pretty scary when we got to point of the mountain and the wind started blowing snow around so bad that we could hardly see the road. It was nice to finally be home and safe from the storm.
Christmas morning Derek tried waking me up WAY too early. I really felt like the Grinch when I talked him into going back to sleep... but I didn't feel bad enough to actually get up. Haha. We finally got out of bed around 10 and opened our gifts. It was fun to wake up to our own little tree on Christmas morning. We played Guitar Hero for a while and some of our other gifts. Then we got ready and went to Derek's grandma's for a party there. It was fun to hang out with everyone. It is crazy over there b/c I'm so used to my family. We don't have any little kids in my family anymore. All of my cousins are older. But Derek is the oldest grandchild in his family, so there are tons of little kids. Our baby is going to be the first great-grandchild... which is so weird to think about b/c Alice and Dan (Derek's grandparents) do not seem anywhere NEAR old enough to have that title!!!

Needless to say, it was hard to get back to work yesterday! Right now I am just waiting for Derek to get off of work. I really hate that he has to work Saturdays, but I guess that's just the way it is sometimes. Soon enough he'll graduate and then be part of the normal 5-days-a-week workforce! I am looking forward to that!

Today we are going to go to dinner and a movie to celebrate our second anniversary! It is actually tomorrow, but since tomorrow is Sunday we're celebrating today. I can't believe its been two years! It has been so much fun and I'm looking forward to what is to come.

Oh, one more thing...
Do you people realize that it is almost JANUARY?!?! And it's almost 2009??? OH. MY. GOODNESS. That means that our baby is almost here... Derek's graduation is almost here... my days in Utah are NUMBERED!!!!!!! Woo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So many awesome things to look forward to in 2009.... and I just can't wait!!

We hope everyone had as wonderful of a holiday as we did!

Peace out homefrys!

Alright, I'm Giving In...

This is my baby belly at 27 weeks.














This is a candid shot of me looking at my belly. She started moving all weird right when this pic was being taken...

It's Like A Book, Just Look At The Pictures And You Get The Basics!

Aw, look at our cute little purple Christmas tree! Derek must love me b/c he lets me have a girly Christmas tree. See Kitty? Haha. It is adorned with some of the ornaments my mom has given me over the years. Some are very girly, like the "I Love Dance" one that is pink and glittery. Some are totally random (but totally ME) like the Ketchup bottle. I love it. There are awesome stories about all of them and why they apply to my life. And so much evidence that my mama knows me sooooo well!

So it snowed like 5 inches today. Maybe more, but that's what my hand measurement said. (B/c that is sooo accurate!) It stopped right before I got off of work, so the drive home wasn't too bad. I hope it isn't awful tomorrow or Wednesday so we will still be able to go up to Clearfield to see my family. I love the Christmas party and the food! Haha, it seems like all my happy holidays involve food...

The baby moves a LOT now. She's always wiggling around. I spend who knows how many hours staring at my weirdly moving tummy all day. I'm still pretty excited.... For her to come?? HAHAHA I totally lost my train of thought right in the middle of that sentence...

I think I should stop this post now b/c who knows what might come out of my...fingers, technically... next. I'm thinking I should just delete this whole thing. But the point was to put the pic on here. So maybe I should stop typing all this nonsense now and delete everything but the point of this post...

But I won't.

Peace out homefrys!

I'm Not A Grinch...

Hello again! So we've been getting ready for Christmas. I wouldn't let Derek play Christmas music or put up any decorations until after his birthday on the 7th (and 8th, haha) so he was excited when I "finally" gave the go-ahead last Tuesday. We had his brother Stuart over for dinner and to help us decorate our Christmas tree. I think we were all feeling a little nostalgic for past Christmases. It was fun. Derek and I continued our own tradition of making the star to put on the top of the tree. Last year I made one side and Derek made the other. This year we just designed one together and Derek assembled it. He is really the one that designed it; I just provided the paper. Haha. It totally puts last year's star to shame. Our cute little tree is 4 1/2 feet tall, but it sits on our end table so it looks normal from across the room. I thought it was only 3 feet tall and I was feeling VERY short next to it... so I'm glad to find out that it is 4 1/2 feet tall. Someday we'll have more than just my uber-girly ornaments. Hello Kitty has taken her place right below the star. Poor Derek... if he thought I was bad, just wait til our daughter gets here! Knowing our luck she'll be even girlier than me! EDIT: So Derek told me that I didn't prove that I'm not a Grinch. Here's why I think I'm not a Grinch: I HELPED put decorations on the tree; I SANG ALONG to the Christmas music we were playing while decorating said tree; I bought some lights to go on the front WINDOW for even MORE decorations; and... well, I guess that's really all. I did it all, tho, without complaining about it and I even smiled!!! So there. I'm not a Grinch!

Speaking of the baby, we got to see her today. She's huge!!! Well, she's still only like 2 pounds, but compared to the little blob she used to be, its pretty crazy that she has grown so much in a few months. Everything looks good with her and I'm doing much better with this whole pregnant thing. Of course, now that I'm not that sick anymore I can see all the other not-so-fun pregnancy symptoms MUCH more clearly. I still think of the alien movies whenever she kicks or stretches. She really likes to kick my ribs... which tickles for now, but I've heard it can be kinda painful. I'm officially 6 months... so only 3 more to go! We'll start a countdown at the beginning of the year.

So December brings another special occassion for us... our wedding anniversary. This will be our two year anniversary! It's been so much fun and we're looking forward to many years to come. :)

Peace out homefrys!

Football, Food, & Fun!

The week of Thanksgiving is always one of my favorite times of the year. I am a HUGE football fan, and the games are always great. (Especially yesterday's whomping of the Cougars... sorry, Derek) I also look forward to my birthday most years. I'm happy this year b/c it hasn't snowed yet! Haha, I can almost always count on snow for my birthday. And the best reason for the season? The food!!! I LOVE Thanksgiving dinner at my grandma's house. We always have the best food there! It's fun to get all the family together and eat and hang out for a while. It gets a little more complicated when you get married and have even more family to see on holidays, but it is still fun.

This week has been really busy. I am working full time now as the other lady is too sick to work for a while. My boss said she won't be back until "after the holidays at least." I'm still trying to get used to working full time... it is a lot more tiring than I remember!! But then again, the last time I was working this much, I wasn't very pregnant yet. Speaking of being very pregnant, I feel like a whale. And, no, there will not be any pictures posted. Well, maybe some from the shoulders up. Everyone says I'm still really small, but I don't feel so small. And what's with all the weird things that come with pregnancy??? Like memory loss, weird rashes on my arms, and dropping every thing I pick up??? Oh well, it won't last forever, right?

Derek has been sooooo busy with school. I think this is the busiest semester ever for him. Probably b/c he is working a ton of hours too. I really appreciate all that he does for our little family. We are both super tired all the time, but we will have a little break for the holiday. Then its back to the grind til the semester is over. After that... Only one more semester to go! I don't know if words can describe how excited we both are for school to be over. I'm sure Derek is more excited for that specifically, but I am excited at what that means: we finally move!!! We still aren't sure where we're gonna go in May, but we know it will happen.

We had another ultrasound this past week. It is always fun to see our baby girl and how much she is growing. She was HUGE in this last one compared to the previous one. We will get to see her again at the next appointment. She is already learning well how to avoid the paparazzi and has not let us see her face. Good for her, I say! But we do need to see her face so the doctor can rule out... something.... I don't remember what. Derek probably knows. I am feeling pretty good most days, with the exception of being dead tired by like 6. I have even had enough energy to feel hyper on a few occassions lately. Sources say that will end soon. Haha. I do have to say one thing, I am SO glad that I get to go thru this with Heather. It makes it easier to feel good when I can talk to her and we both know that we're normal and things are going well. And its fun to share stories of baby hiccups, getting kicked in the ribs, and whine about not being able to sleep.

Oh, the Cowboys game is starting... That's pretty much all I have to say! Hope everyone has a fun and safe Thanksgiving!

Peace out homefrys!

Wanna Know Why Life Is Good?

So, I am abusing my posting rights, but I don't care...

AFI WENT BACK TO THE STUDIO THIS WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Know what this ridiculously awesome piece of news means? That a new album will be out soon!!!!

I could die right now and be the happiest girl on the planet! (well, you know, not REALLY)

Peace out homefrys!

Interviews, Interviews, Interviews....

So, I asked Dawn if she updated our blog and she said that I should do it. It's my first time...

Well, we have literally been interviewing all week. I went out to Washington D.C. last week to interview with Lockheed Martin. It went pretty well and sounded interesting enough to keep me entertained. D.C. just seemed a little overwhelming though. It was just HUGE. Luckily, I didn't have to drive anywhere since the airport and hotel and interview were all within a mile of each other, and the hotel took us in a shuttle.

I got back Friday night from an another interview I had just outside of Boston. It was for MIT Lincoln Labs, a research and development facility that is run by MIT. This sounds like the funnest job so far. They also have a program where they would pay me to get a master's degree at MIT or one of those Ivy League schools up there. It sounds like a pretty awesome opportunity for us.

And we can't forget about Dawn - she had an interview of her own. The way I understand it, she was just sitting at home (like she tends to do lately... lol), and she got a call from a real estate agent here in Orem. This agent is the very one who taught her old bosses everything they know, who, in turn, taught Dawn everything she knows, so she already knows everything this agent knows. (You might have to read that one a couple times, sorry!) She went and interviewed on Thursday and she will be starting a job there on Monday working part time. A part time job in real estate was exactly what she wanted, and it just fell out of the sky.... pretty awesome, huh?

For now we're just waiting to hear back from all these jobs and figure out where we are going to live for the next little while. We're also excited for another ultrasound that we are having next Monday. Oh, and we can't forget about Dawn's birthday in a couple weeks. She really wants a puppy. (After taking care of Clif's golden retrievers for a weekend, she says that she only wants a robot puppy right now...)

Texas & Stuff

So we got back from Texas on Sunday. It was pretty fun. I do have to say, what's with the MEAT??? It was literally a meal of meat with a side of meat with a meat salad for some "veggies". But this is a pretty common thing. It's called "Texas BBQ". Hmm... not so sure that's the thing for us. But Austin was beautiful. There are SO many trees all around the city. We were pleasantly surprised by that. The weather was wonderful and warm while we were there too. All the locals were wearing sweaters, but we were just fine in our t-shirts. Derek's interviews went well and he actually ended up liking the company more than we were expecting. We'll see what happens tho. We're still looking for greener pastures. We hung out with Derek's cousin Peter and his wife Michael and their little boy Anden. It was fun to meet them and hang out with their cute little guy. It made me even more excited for our baby to get here.

... I'm going to be more excited when I feel a little more prepared for having the baby here! I just remembered that I know nothing about babies! Ah! But that's what grandparents are for. And we really don't have to prepare a nursery or anything, so I think it will be ok. We get to hang out with our adorable little nephew Cayson this weekend, so we'll get some experience with taking care of a one year old. I'm so excited to play with him!

Well, its already been a busy week and will only get more busy. Derek leaves to Virginia on Thursday for another interview. He will be back on Friday and I am so happy for that! We're pretty attached at the hip :)

Peace out homefrys!

Drum Roll Please.......

We are having a baby girl! Yaaaaaaay! She is the exact size that she is supposed to be, so our due date is still March 17. I felt like Rachel from Friends during the ultrasound. Derek could see what the technician was pointing out but it just wasn't working for me. It all looked like blobs or TV static to me... It's a good thing that she labeled the pictures for me, otherwise I'd be acting out the Rachel scene and crying right now. Haha. So I will post them when I can figure out how exactly. I need to get a hold of a scanner and then I can post them. Hmm. We are so excited to know that our baby is growing just the way she should be and looks healthy so far. I am excited that I am on the last half of this pregnancy adventure! Haha. So anyway... I suppose that's all for now.

Peace out homefrys!

UPDATE:
Derek fixed the pictures for me so I'll post two. Haha. I'll have to go scan the others, so for now you only get these two. I am debating the face picture too... but I think we could all benefit from my mom's advice: Protect your eyes and ears always! Since I am already scarred for life, I'll spare you all. So, the first picture is her little hand waving... and the second is her little bum showing that she is really a girl. We just barely realized that we don't have a full body picture of her at all... But we're getting another ultrasound in a month, so we'll get one then.

And... I'm still kinda special ed with this blog thing... and I can't figure out how to get the pictures at the bottom instead of the top... so it looks funny but whatever. You get what I'm going for.

That's all folks!

For Reals This Time!

Ok, so I was just trying to figure out how this whole thing works with the first entry... now I'm pretty sure so I'll actually post something of value now.

Hmm....

I guess I'll start with the latest developing news? Whatever. We are going to have an ultrasound on Monday and see our baby for the first time (hopefully) looking like a baby and not a blob anymore. I'm pretty sure it has at least legs b/c I have been feeling kicks for a few weeks now. We'll see about arms and organs and all that other stuff. We will also hopefully be able to find out what the baby is! Other than human, of course. Then we can pick a name and all that other fun stuff that comes along with this baby business. Little do you know what the master plan is.... Mwahahahaha.

In other news, we are going to Austin, Texas next weekend so Derek can interview with some company. I don't remember which one. I am sad b/c Maggie lives in Houston, which is 3 hours from Austin, but we won't be able to go see her. Lame! But it will be cool to get out and see the city where we could potentially be living. Derek will be going to Virginia the following weekend for another interview with some other company. Haha. You'd think I'd keep better track of my future... but whatevs, man. Sick, I don't think I've ever used that word before. I blame Heather. It will be nice to know where we are going so I can put it on the calendar and start the official countdown. I think I'm almost more excited to get out of here than I am for the arrival of our baby! Haha. In my defense, I've been waiting to get out of here for almost two years and only waiting on the baby for 4 months.

I am looking forward to Halloween again this year! Not that we ever do anything fun, but I just love the holiday in general. I'd like to carve a punkin but I soooo don't trust the bratty neighbor kid or the other (million) bratty neighborhood kids.

Anyway, I guess that's really all I have to say for now!

Peace out homefrys!

Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3...

Mwahahaha! Take THAT blog thingy!