this past week

So this past week Rick started working!!!!!!! Hooray! It's been just less than 6 months that he's been technically unemployed and we have been so blessed with surviving two months without me getting paid at all! Yikes! The only way we were able to do it was careful budgeting AND paying our tithing.

Rick works for a company called 2Wire doing technical support. His first two weeks of training (this past week and this upcoming week) he works Monday through Friday, 3:00 PM to 12:00 AM. Totally lame, I know. Especially since I get off of work at 2:30, so basically we've just been calling and talking on the phone and he wakes me up when he gets home and we talk a little bit then also. Thankfully, this isn't his regular shift. Starting on Tuesday, the 8th, he will be working Tuesday through Saturday, 11:15 AM to 7:45 PM, which is much better! We are so blessed to have Rick's shift not on Sunday. We've been holding out on this job, hoping to get him a Sunday free shift, and I've been wondering if it would work out for us. Well, it sure did and I feel very blessed for that!

Baby is doing good--- no results from my ultrasound because they couldn't see everything so they want me to get another one, in two weeks. Sorry, but if it's that big of an emergency, why the heck am I not in the hospital???? It's totally lame, and I am going to talk to my doctor about it on Tuesday (next doctor's appointment).

So excited for September to come-- on the 16th I am going out to California to see my family. My sister Sarah is flying in from Virginia and we'll all be able to spend time together (minus Rick of course :( ) Oh well. So excited for the baby! I'm 30 weeks now and I am absolutely stoked. Hopefully he'll come a little bit sooner than November 7th (I am hoping he's actually going to come on Halloween) but not too soon because we want him to be healthy!!! One more week of the crazy job shift of Rick's and then I'll be able to see him during the week again. Hooray!

Baby Stuff

Here are the pictures of our baby Evan's crib:

Hooray for our free mattress that really wasn't free! (we had to pay about $90 on shipping and handling) We are so excited to have this big ticket item!
Here is Rick, the proud man, for putting together the crib in less than an hour. Good for him!

Other baby news: I had my 28 week appointment on Wednesday. Apparently my glucose screening test I passed; My iron levels are some of the best that my doctor's seen in a long time (12 in first trimester; 11.9 in July); and my fundal height is measuring 33 cm when it's supposed to be 28 cm... uh oh.

That was interesting. She took the measuring tape, measured my stomach, and then went back to my file, and measured me again. She repeated this process about 3 times. For all those that don't know, the fundal height is the measurement from my pubic bone to the top of my uterus. The measurement is in centimeters, and it is supposed to be the same as how many weeks you are. For example, I was supposed to measure 28 because I was 28 weeks at this appointment. Then I am measuring 33.

So, being the great doctor she is, she gave us a referral for an ultrasound since the ultrasound tech is on vacation this week and she wanted to know as soon as possible what was going on. We were able to get in Friday afternoon for an appointment for the ultrasound. It was not a fun experience. The technician didn't talk very much, I was laying flat on my back the entire time, while she asked me random questions that worried me to no end, like "Where was your placenta positioned before?" and "Do you have Diabetes?" When I told her that I didn't have Diabetes, I asked her, "Why, is he big for his age?". She said that she wasn't able to disclose that information to us (which I was kind of expecting). Now I am waiting for Monday to come in case I have a phone call from my doctor's office saying I need to come in earlier than my September 1st appointment. Or just an appointment to tell me if there's anything wrong with the baby or me.

I take a lot of comfort in the fact that he is a little worm, squirming around all over the place. He's going to be a great soccer player, with all the hard kick's he's been landing. :)

In other baby stuff, Rick and I have been debating on whether to use cloth diapers OR disposable diapers. Now, we are not what you would call "green" or "organic", but I do like more natural things. However, the main reason why we've been looking into cloth diapers is because they are less expensive than disposables, something that Rick and I are concerned with. Of course, we won't be using completely cloth diapers. Maybe to just start out with during the day, and then when I am out and about, using the disposables.

Anyways, here is a great website that we stumbled across given from our friend Adree:

http://yournaturalbabyandmore.com/

And this the place where we'll probably be buying our cloth diapers from:

http://www.cottonbabies.com/

Some of the fancy cloth we'll eventually get into (Bumgenuis or Fuzzi Bunz), but they're too expensive right now for us. So, we're going with the prefold diapers, and maybe buying one or two of the more expensive cloth diapers per paycheck!

24 years old!

So, school started this week. I had a great weekend with my parents before the first week of school. It was a great time to relax. They came out for my birthday--- we hung out, went swimming, my parents took me grocery shopping, clothes shopping and then crib shopping. We ended up buying a beautiful crib. We went into the store and attempted to order it from Babies'r'us. Needless to say we had a terrible customer service experience there. We left, and my parents and I bought it online from our apartment. The deal was buy a crib, get a mattress for free. The mattress was free but the shipping of it cost almost as much as a mattress, so that was pretty much the lamest thing ever. The nice thing though was that we didn't have to deal with the idiots at Babies'r'Us and we got our crib this past Thursday! We hung out some more, and tried going to the Bookman's in Mesa because it's supposed to be a bigger store and have more selection. My dad loves Bookman's because of the records they have there. Well, he wasn't able to find any good selection there. We went to Kohl's and Ross and I got some cute blouses and shirts for going back to school on Monday. Then my mom and I went to Baskin Robbins for an ice cream cake, and then we all went to Red Robin. Rick's parents and sister Renee joined us at Red Robin since it was her birthday also! My parents ended up leaving on Sunday morning. I was so happy to have them out visiting us! I miss my family and it was really nice to seem them for a few days. Okay... enough talking, here are the pictures!

First picture my mom wanted to take was my pregnant picture. So this was me last week at 27 weeks.

Rick and I waiting to order at Red Robin.
My dad and I. He spoils me so much!
My parents. I am so happy that they were able to visit this weekend. This is a really good pictures of the two of them.

They sang happy birthday to Renee and I when we got the sundaes. It was totally embarrassing though!
The birthday cake. We love ice cream cakes in my family. This one was really yummy.
My mom and I Sunday before we left. This is definitely not the best picture of me since it's totally obvious that I just woke up and I have no makeup on!!!

Thanks for the wonderful birthday weekend! I enjoyed turning 24 with my parents there! Rick and I are so grateful for everything that they do for us and we love them so much!

Update

On Monday I started back to work at the district office. Kagan structures training. I was exhausted when I came home today, and I slept for about 3 hours.

But the highlight of the day was when my friend Megan emailed me to let me know I won a diaper bag from Graco!!! So excited.
This diaper bag is soooo cute and I am stoked that I won this. It's really exciting that we got this bag, because it's nice to know that's there's something we won't have to buy. Check out Megan's PR blog: justformeandyou They review products, which I absolutely love and then they have giveaways also. I am so lucky that I actually won the diaper bag, and I believe it was the first giveaway that I tried to.

Randomly enough, I made Steak Diane tonight with mashed potatoes and some biscuits. Bisquik is awesome. Here is a good idea and way to make easy, yummy biscuits.

Yummy Cheese and Garlic Biscuits
--2 cups of bisquik
--1 cup of milk or buttermilk
--1 cup shredded cheese
*** Mix these three together.
--Put on greased cookie sheet, 400 degrees
--bake for 8-10 minutes of until lightly browned
--pull out biscuits, brushed with margarine and sprinkle with garlic powder

These biscuits turned out really yummy and I really enjoyed them.

Rick had a couple of interviews the past couple of weeks. He also applied to the Officer Training School for the Air Force. We find out in September whether he gets in or not. Now we're hoping for him to at least get a small job, if nothing else right now. The best part about going back to teaching is getting the pay check.

Just a couple of updates for everyone! Hope that everyone has a great week!

the potential evan?

So, we decided to morph our baby pictures to see what our baby could possibly look like. We went to morphthing.com and added in our baby pictures, and here's what we got.



1 baby Rachel +


1 baby Rick =



Evan???

I really hope the kid doesn't come out with that nose.

It's a Boy!

One of the key and huge things that happened in California is that we went for a second ultrasound. My first one through the doctor's office was interesting because the baby would not open his legs (little punk) so we couldn't see what we were having. We decided to look up the 3D and 4D ultrasound places and there was one in Rancho Cucamonga for a really awesome price. Well, when this girl was doing the ultrasound, we could tell right away that it was a boy.
So excited that we're having a boy. It makes figuring out his name a lot easier. Rick is a second, so we are naming our boy after Rick. Richard Evan Chappell III.... Yeah, but we're going to call him Evan. So I am really excited about our little Evan, and have started registering at places for him.

Besides the picture that told us the sex of the baby, she showed us a bunch of close ups of his face and body... it was totally weird seeing it in 3D. When she first showed me his face in 3D, I was like, "ewww.. he looks like an alien." She just laughed and said that they get more normal looking on the 3D screens at about 26 weeks or so. I was only about 21 weeks at the time, so I still have a ways to go. Anyways, you can see some humanoid features to the baby. AND he's a thumb sucker already! Had his thumb in his mouth almost the entire time!

ALIEN BABY! Look how huge his head is compared to the rest of his body. I am so glad that he will be getting cuter than this (hopefully) before he leaves Mommy.

Eyes, nose, mouth, face, ears. It kind of looks like he's smiling. I hope he's smiling... that or he has a wide mouth. Anyways, it seems like Evan is having a lot of fun. He is always moving and swimming around. He's all over the place! And he likes to kick! I love it when he kicks hard (right now at least) because it makes me proud of my boy. He's going to be a great soccer player! I am at 23 weeks now!!!! Less than 4 months is my due date. I know that it will be coming really quickly! It's kind of weird and exciting at the same time! Scariness isn't a biggie right now, but I am sure it will be in the upcoming months!

Our California Summer Trip!

Rick and I went out to California for the past ten days. We just got back on the 8th. We had a great time with family and friends in Rancho Cucamonga and other places!! Here were some of the highlights!

Highlight 1

We went out to Santa Clarita to visit with some old college friends and have lunch at the Route 66 Grill: Aaron, Jen, and Brian in this one!

Me, Rick, Aaron, Jen, and Sarah... It was so fun seeing my friends! Jen, Sarah and I were roommates. Aaron was our FHE brother and now is married to Jen. Loved seeing them.
Me with the two roomies. I lived with Jen longer in college than anyone else! (I think about 6 semesters in a row or so!) and Sarah was only my roommate one semester, but she is still one of my bffs!

Highlight 2

We went to the beach with my family. It's been about a year since I've been to the beach and we had such a great time.

My adorable nephew Ollie fell asleep while Grandma was holding him.
My nephew Casey running around. He absolutely LOVED the water and insisted that we always go down to it!

Bethany and her adorable little boys. We went to the beach for her birthday and it looks like she enjoyed it!
Grandpa holding Ollie. We call Ollie the Michelin Man because of all of his rolls!

Poor Rick! He's still freezing from his boogie boarding. He's not used to the cold Pacific ocean like my family is. The water was 55 degrees that day! Awesome!
Casey having a grand old time running around! He loved the beach!


Rick and I on the beach! We loved going to the beach with family. It was a fun trip! Not so much of a fun trip home! It took about 2 hours to get from Corona del Mar beach over to Rancho. I am so glad that my mom was driving, and it wasn't me! California drivers in rush hour= scary... especially on the 57 freeway.

We spent most of our time in California hanging out with family, watching "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", and just having a great time hanging out. I also had a great time seeing Kajsa and Kersti Spjut (forgot to take pictures) and Nicole! Rick and I loved seeing family, especially spending time with my nephews, who I probably won't see again until I have my own little baby! Yikes!