Who would've thought?

So several exciting things have happened in the last month and I decided that it was time to stop relishing the freedom and get my act together. So here's what's been going on in the Ellis household as of late:

1. Shannon is officially engaged. She is marrying a guy she met at BYU named Travis Adams. He is a good guy who is from California and he served his mission in Ogden. I tried finding a picture of her ring that I could post, but nothing could quite do it justice. Suffice it to say it is a ring that only Shannon could wear. All the diamonds in the ring probably equals out to about 4 karats. It is quite the site to behold. I'll see if I can get her to send me a picture that I can post. The big day is on the 25th of July, two weeks after the baby is due. It will be a really exciting summer!

2. Not only did I successfully complete my student teaching, and my ESL practicum, but I graduated! I wasn't really too keen on walking at graduation, but then I devised a plan to get my parents out here for the occasion. Not only was my plan successful, but I got to spend an entire week with both my parents and grandparents. It made the whole event worth it. It has been realistic for me to push aside how much I miss my family whenever I can't be with them. The week that my parents were here however, I just loved having a mom and a dad again. I miss them so much. It was nice having my mom here during a time when I am trying to adapt and prepare for so many physical, mental, and emotional changes in our home. It was so fun to have my dad out here, see him having fun and smiling all the time rather than bending over a laptop most of the time (there was a little bit of that, but not much:)). So, I am still doing everything in my power to get them to move out here. We'll see how that goes, but I think things are working in my favor with Shannon getting married, McKay headed to BYU-I in the fall, and grandchild numero uno due in a little less than nine weeks.

Okay story time. So, I borrowed a black cap and gown from my mom's friend Patty who had graduated from BYU Idaho just the year before. I thought it was a sweet deal because I could slide out of paying the $45 for something that I would only wear once and probably never want to look at again because of haunting maternity memories. The night before graduation I had a nightmare that everyone else was in a blue cap and gown instead of black and that everyone else had green and yellow tassles instead of white ones (nightmares have seemed to be a regular occurance during the latter part of this pregnancy - I just get too darn hot at night!). I woke up all in a panic and then fell back asleep chuckling and feeling relieved that it was just a dream.

The next day we showed up a graduation and sure enough, everyone was in a blue cap and gown instead of black. I guess they'd decided to change it this year (although I have no idea why, that's just what I heard). Anyway, my tassle was the right color, but needless to say I got a few funny stares from people who were wondering what the heck I was doing. Whenever someone would ask about it I just told them they didn't have maternity sizes in the blue.

Despite the color catastrophe they gave me my diploma (or the holder for it) anyway. I was super excited and it will probably now be a new running family joke for the next 20 years of my life. What can I say? I am here to entertain.

3. We got a crib and dresser for the baby!

As a graduation present, my grandfather decided that he wanted to splurge on his first great-granddaughter and get her some bedroom furniture. I was trying to stick on the conservative side in terms of cost. However, because my mom and grandma came along for the trip, we ended up getting something a little more...to my tastes? It is so beautiful!4. We got our gardens all planted!

Yay for planting season. Joe and I both love this time of year! Joe has been so giddy about all the veggies we planted, literally checking on them everynight and investing a great deal of time and effort into the perfect watering system to keep them adequately hydrated. My flowers turned out better than I could've hoped and I'm excited to see the bulbs and seeds my mom and I planted while she was out here come up! What a wonderful time of year!

5. Our little girl is getting bigger and bigger everyday.

After taking these pictures Joe and I were in consensus that they just don't do the belly justice. For some reason it just doesn't look as big as I feel (as is probably only natural).

Well that is about it for now. Life is good. We are very happy and getting more and more excited for the arrival of our little girl every day.

3 more days!

That is right ladies and gentlemen...only three days left of student teaching and then I will be able to graduate on the 23rd and 24th of April! I am so excited! I think the best part is that my parents will be out here for a week staying with us! It will be so nice to have them here!

So a quick update on the last few weeks. A few days after my last post, I was in a car accident. A teenage driver pulled out from a residential road right in front of me. It was pretty scary. All I know is that the baby and I were very protected. I got to take my first ride in an ambulence, which was rather interesting and extremely uncomfortable! Once they determined I didn't have any broken bones they took me up to labor and delivery to monitor the baby and check fluid levels. I was a wreck for several hours because I hadn't felt the baby move after the accident. It was such a relief to be able to hear her heartbeat.

I've been to the doctor several times since then for various things they wanted to check because of the accident, but in the end we are both well. Since the crash I have had an increase in contractions, which at 25 weeks has had the doctor a little worried. I've been ordered to take it easy and I've decided that I really don't know how to do that very well. When I feel well I want to be busy doing the things that need to be done, not sitting around hoping that I have enough energy. So, that has been an adjustment - haha and so much for my new found exercise routine that I was so ecstatic about! Oh well - having a baby that goes full term will be much more worth it than being in shape.

Shortly after the accident Joe and I went out for a treat and got to see Shannon perform in Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story - two back-to-back productions that BYU's Theatre Ballet put on. It was wonderful and once again I have to play the bragging sister - Shannon was incredible; literally the best one on that stage.

I love my cute husband who indulges his wife and goes to ballets! He is such a good sport! He even poses for pictures afterward. He is wonderful!

Belly

Well, here are a couple belly pictures. I look funny in them, but oh well. Is it really that obvious that I've never posed for one of these before?

So, what do you think? This is the 21 week picture.

It has been so fun feeling her moving around more and more. She definitely has a little personality. She loves to wiggle. Something that is fun now, is to wake up early in the morning and just feel her move. I've really enjoyed it! Joe is so eager to put his hand on my belly to feel her move whenever I start to giggle that she's moving around a lot. We are so excited to be parents!
Oh, and I feel like I've finally hit my stride with this pregnancy in last two weeks. I have so much more energy than I did before! It is wonderful! I ran a little bit for the first time since October and I was so excited. Joe and I went to the gym and normally I just take it easy, but I was on the treadmill and was feeling good, so I decided to see if I could run a little. It felt so good, and I was really sore the next day, but I can't wait to go again. It has been really hard for me not to run these last five months. Funny how much you come to appreciate activites you didn't really like much as soon as you can't do them anymore!

I thought I would post this picture for fun. Here is Joe wanting to be included in the belly pictures:

Drumroll Please....

We are going to be the proud parents of a little baby....

G I R L ! ! !

We are so excited (and pretty darn proud that our vibes were right on)! She was wiggling around like crazy yesterday as we were trying to get all the different angles we needed to make sure everything was okay. The thing that cracked us up was when the nurse said, "Man this little girl isn't modest at all!"

The majority of my students are going to be devastated - we took a poll in class about the gender of the baby, and a boy won by a landslide. Interesting how off they were.

It was very obvious and easy to tell - she is unmistakably a girl. Does anyone have any good name suggestions?

Oh baby!

So almost as if it is right on cue, I felt the baby kick yesterday for the first time. I was sitting in Relief Society and I felt my mind wander just a little bit. Then suddenly these tiny little movements brought me back to reality. I put my hand on my belly just to make sure that's what it was, and sure enough, our little duder was moving around! It is the coolest feeling! Joe got to feel it a little later when we went to Bill and Gretchen's for dinner.
We find out tomorrow what we are having. Joe is almost positive that it is a girl, and I'm feeling the same way. At the same time, I'm trying not to get to excited one way or the other because we are just so excited to have this baby come period! I'll make a post as soon as we find out! The whole thing feels a little more real now, being able to feel the baby kicking and anticipating knowing the gender as of tomorrow.
As for posting some belly pictures, we will keep working on it. We can't find out camera which has made me crazy. A lot of people have looked at me and told me I don't look that big at all, other's have told me "it's definitely a Joe baby!" I'm not an expert, so hopefully we'll get some pictures up so we can get a few more opinions. I do have a really long torso, so I have a tendency to think that I'm not popping as much as other people. Then again, what do I know? Stay tuned for more!

Oh and by the way, I love Valentine's Day! It isn't that we had an extraordinary one, but it was just fun to make sugar cookies, get roses, and watch sappy movies like Sleepless in Seattle. I also should mention that before getting married, all of those things probably would've made me gag, but now I just relish every moment. Odd how things like that can change! Hope you had a great one!

Finally decided to update!

So I've been stalling writing a post since Christmas simply because I had the excuse that I was waiting on my mom to send me pictures so I could post those...then my mom sent me the Picasa albums and I am out of excuses! Here is what has been going on since November:

I was wondering why I'd been so tired and my back was hurting so badly...go figure! We're having a baby! I was feeling really great for the first little while, no nausea what so ever. Then the morning of my 12 week appointment made up for it. Then I went in and they told me there was no way I was 12 weeks, so the bumped me back to 10 weeks (and I was so excited to get out of the first trimester too!) and changed my due date to the 10th of July. It actually ended up being a really big blessing (for insurance stuff, and for my mom's availability to be here).

The nausea stuck around until about week 13ish, but I am doing just dandy now. We are at week 16 now and loving it! The hardest thing for me to figure out is if I'm regularly getting bizarre indigestion or if I'm feeling the baby move! We find out if we are having a boy or a girl on Feb. 17th, which seems really far away, but I know it will come a lot faster than it seems it will.

So far the wierd cravings have consisted of:

• Popcorn with butter and salt (plain popcorn was making me sick...wierd)
  
• Cheese quesadillas (or really anything with melted cheese)
  
• Tomato soup
  
• Fried rice (just randomly one night)
  
• Fresh squeezed orange juice with a little bit of grapefruit in there
  
• Spaghetti (for a while with the nausea we were eating this every night because it was the only thing that sounded good!)
  
• Chocolate Ice Cream (I can't really tell if this was legit or me just really wanting it! Either way it is delicious!)

My last appointment went well and when we listened to the heartbeat the doctor commented, "Man, this little one's got a really strong heart." He could've just been saying that to be nice, but it did make me feel good. There are so many little things to worry about that it was reassuring to know that so far everything is going as it should.

As for Christmas: We spent two wonderful weeks in Jersey! Here are some photos of our adventures!

We made an attempt to go to the Statue of Liberty, however, there was so much fog that they shut down the ferry and we didn't make it past Liberty State Park. That didn't stop us from having a great time though!

Here is my cute husband being a dork

Here is cute little Erinn's modeling pictureI really liked this pictureShannon's gorgeous ballet moves on the foggy bridge

The rest of us trying to follow suit

Shannon's reaction to our ghastly attempts Here is the famous family stair picture that we take every year on Christmas morning

It was a wonderful Christmas and it was so great to spend it with my family again. I couldn't have asked for a better vacation.

Joe and I are now back into the swing of things with school and work. I am doing my student teaching this semester which means that graduation is right around the corner (I keep telling myself that I can make it to April). YAY! Student teaching has brought its own challenges, but I'm glad to be getting the experience. I'll work on getting better and giving regular updates!

Digging a little deeper

I wish I knew where to start. Giving status updates isn't very satisfying and it probably makes for rather boring reading material, so in an attempt to switch things up I'll explain a few things that have been on my mind.

The last few weeks, amid the insanity of everything that Joe and I have going on, I have had a few brief moments to stop and just think. In these moments when the world slows down, for a very short period of time, there are brief glimpses of the person I am becoming. I realized how many parts I have to play every single day, both literally and figuratively. There is the student, the teacher, the business woman, the professional, the air head and attention seeker (for Sleepy Hollow of course:), the wife, and - the culmination of all these roles - the adult (one I am still coming to terms with).

For some odd reason, since the age of 12 (my parents would probably argue 2), I have felt the need to be successful, accomplished, and most of all, independent. That doesn't sound so unreasonable. What I never really grasped is that all of these qualities I wanted were ultimately a search for one thing - validation.

In one of my religion classes at BYU, my professor told us that love is expressed by meeting the needs of another. There are nine basic needs that we can fulfill to let someone know that we love them. For anyone who is curious, they can be remembered by the acronym "Civil Wars":

• C ompetent- to feel like we are good at certain things
• I ntimacy- a need to feel close to someone
• V alidated- to feel accepted
• I ndependence- space and privacy
• L ove- we have a need for it and we have a need to give it; if we don't feel love from someone, we probably aren't doing much to show are love for that person
• W ell Understood- one of the biggest blocks to communication is the fear of being misunderstood
• A ppreciated - not just the things that I do, but the effort that is put into it as well
• R econciled with God- if we are not at one with God, it will flow into our relationships
• S ecurity, Safety

There was a disjunct between my association with independence and love. I didn't really think it was validation that I needed. Independent people don't need to be validated! I thought I knew where I wanted my life to go, and how happiness would be within my grasp. But then, various experiences convinced me otherwise. I got accepted to a school which is now teaching me that the greatest education I could ever receive isn't found in a college classroom, but serving those outside of our campus; I got a job which helped me discover capacities I never knew I had; I got a second chance to foster and develop talents I didn't know I'd ever be able to share or enjoy again; I fell in love with the most incredible man I've ever known, the only person, next to God, that I am completely dependent upon.

Then I realized, I don't have to do any of these things. These are things that I choose to do. I choose to take on these roles because they make me happy and they make me better. It is amazing to me how easy it is to forget why they make me happy when things get a little bit crazy. So, I am extremely grateful for these little moments that help me remember my life is being sculpted rather than forced in to a mold.