Nesting Habits

The past couple weeks Heather has been really excited about getting our house/lives ready for the baby.  She keeps reminding me that she is getting into her third trimester and if the baby comes early we need to be ready.  Thankfully we have gotten some help from friends and family with toys, clothes, and blankets.  (A special shoutout to Heather's older sister Sandy who gave us a stroller, carseat, and a bunch of other stuff.)  We have been working on cleaning up our second bedroom so it can function as a bedroom instead of a storage room.  We repurposed our tiny entertainment center as a toy box and bought a cheap dresser form a local thrift store (hooray PTA!) to store his clothes and blankets.

All of this work catalyzed Heather's first impulse buy for our son.  She was walking through the store yesterday and found what she called "the most adorable piggy bank."  She had to have it.  Mommy hormones raging she didn't think twice about putting it in the cart.  Granted it is a pretty awesome piggy bank.

Toothless, the guardian of our son's financial future!
(For you uncultured types out there Toothless is the main dragon from the animated movie
"How to Train Your Dragon.")

Seriously, what better piggy bank than a dragon?  Dragon's love treasure.  Who has ever heard of a pig being big on money or treasure?  Dragon's love to sleep inside beds of gold coins.  Pigs though?

Pumpkins!

Happy Halloween!  Heather and I have decided to start a tradition of doing neat pumpkins.  "Neat" being something besides that standard toothy smile and two eyes.  Heather really wanted to try to do Smaug/the Lonely Mountain this year so I decided to do a Middle Earth theme as well.  Unfortunately we are pretty sure that lighted pumpkins are against our neighborhood's rules because ours were the only ones out tonight... We lit ours long enough to take pictures and show the kids next door.

Heather's rendition of the Lonely Mountain!

 

My version of a balrog,

Heather did two sides of her pumpkin.  The second was a home from the Shire but she wasn't as pleased with it.

It's a Boy!

First things first, yes, Heather is pregnant with a baby boy!  She is 20 weeks along and we are super excited.  We just found out the gender this past week.  It was a fun ultrasound, our son was curled into a ball and would not straighten out so the tech could measure his length.  She even tried poking Heather's belly and rubbing vigorously with the ultrasound receiver/emitter (whatever its called).  He was unmoved. They were able to estimate his weight and I'm proud to say that he is exactly average!  I know with our genes there isn't much chance of that continuing throughout his life but I can hope.

Heather is still working in Raleigh as an RD at a retirement community/nursing home.  She enjoys getting to know her patients and her coworkers.  It has been a little difficult because most of her patients are at the end of their lives and Heather has seen several pass away.  It makes her sad and wish she could do more but she takes comfort in knowing that death is not the end.

I recently scheduled my preliminary oral defense for November 3rd.  I'm pretty stoked because 1) I might get an increased stipend once I finish it, 2) it puts me in a position to finish my degree quicker than average.  I have one paper in the works and in the next week or two I should finish up a study that will provide enough data to write a second paper.

On Wednesday Heather's parents drove up to our house on their way to our niece's wedding in Washington D.C.  We rode up there with them on Thursday, the ceremony was on Friday morning.  I had never been to the Washington D.C. temple before.  It is really beautiful.  We say the lights come on Thursday night while we walked the grounds, it was impressive. I love the peace the temple brings into my life.

At the Washington D.C. temple.

So this is Heather speaking.  Life is crazy sometimes.  It's been almost a year since we last posted.  Here's the update.  I'm still working at Springmoor part-time, Robert's still in school working with his professor on photovoltaics.  We still love each other after 3 years of marriage, and we both still feel lucky to have each other.

Just after my last post, my knee had issues, so the  exercise thing was put on hold (since our last post had that going on in it). Still taking it slow, but at least walking is not a problem, just scared to run on it.  It's still a goal.

In October of last year we miscarried.  A sad occurrence, but we know we will see that special spirit in the next world and will be able to have them in our family.   Thank heavens for the knowledge and peace the Gospel brings.

We did go to a Ren Faire in November last year and I had an absolute blast and plan to go again this year.  I've discovered painting board game miniatures can be fun... slow, but fun; and they look awesome afterward.  Christmas was spent with our families, which was good.  It's always nice to see family.

Other things I've discovered about myself: that Spring is my favorite season, I love gardening and miss my parent's farm so much that sometimes it hurts ( I miss my parents too ;) ); though maybe it's just missing the secluded farm-life in general. Continuing on though, I wish I had a talent that I was known for, I care too much what others think,  I love Indian and Mediterranean foods, I like Lynn Kurland books for they are the right amount of romance and fantasy fiction for me, I still feel like I should be 21 and in college at times (time sure does fly), I want a hobbit-hole for a house and am drawing up floor plans for it.

Robert's younger brother, James, is still on his mission  for our church in Chile, and was asked to have an extension to go be on Robinson Crusoe Island for the last part, which means he'll be gone a little longer.  We think that's pretty cool he gets to do that though.  My niece, Sara, is serving a mission now in Denver, Colorado area, which is also pretty cool.  I think it will be a great experience for her.

I've recently reinitiated daily scripture reading, which I've done in the past, but once I got in the dietetics program, I let my reading slack and had trouble getting back in the habit.  Daily reading has already blessed my life and the underlying peace with the knowledge that my Heavenly Father will always be there to take care of me is strengthened.  I am grateful for my savior, Jesus Christ, and his atonement that allows me to return to my Heavenly Father.  I am grateful for the scriptures and the restoration of the Gospel to the earth.  I know that by living the Gospel, I can have peace, and that peace allows me to be happy.  I am grateful for the resurrection that will take place and that I have been sealed to Robert for time and all eternity and that I will be able to be with all of my family forever.

I think that pretty much covers the updates.  I will ask Robert to make his own post to fill in any of the holes. Until next time!