Locks of Love

Ever since her friend Blake was diagnosed with leukemia, Cassidy has been itching to cut her hair again and donate it to Locks of Love.  

It was fairly long to begin with, but we've been waiting for it to be long enough to cut.  Yesterday was the day!  Aunt Noelle came up to do the haircut.  

Noelle straightened it first, and we were happy to see there was 11 inches to donate.  

As soon as the ponytail was cut off, she exaclaimed, "Whoa!  My hair feels so light, it's like there is nothing there!"

Cassidy was thrilled to "do service for other children," and she loves her new haircut.  In fact, as soon as it was finished, she looked in the mirror and proclaimed, "I look adorable!  Is that OK to say?  I don't want to sound like I'm bragging, but my new hair is REALLY cute!!!!"

I think her new haircut is adorable, too.  She wore it straight today, and we'll see in the next few days after we wash it again if it as just as curly as it was 2 years ago when she cut it for her first Locks of Love donation, or if it is getting a little straighter as she ages.  

We're pretty sure it's still curly.  :-)

Now She's a Creepy Baby

I sat in the living room in a chair after dinner last night, talking the day over with Nathan.  All of a sudden I gasped, sat bolt upright, and eyes wide, said, "GROSS!"  The baby had decided it would be a good idea to give my insides a massage.  She took her foot and ran it top to bottom all along the internal wall of my uterus.  It was the most disconcerting and horrible feeling - almost like someone had snuck up behind me to run a finger down the length of my back - but it sure wasn't on my back.  

It begins:  the time period in which it can sometimes be not as much awe-inspiring as it is annoying to have the baby move inside me!

P.S.  I also had a dream last night that she decided to turn, and I could feel it happening in slow motion.  I was so excited in my dream until she got halfway around, decided it wasn't comfortable, and turned right back around the way she came.

P.P.S.  I just read an article on the internet that said women with breech babies experience more shortness of breath because the head crowds the lungs worse than the feet do when a baby is vertex.  I get winded going up and down the stairs, and lately when I've headed up to my room to work out for the day I've needed to take a one minute rest and sit down before I get up to work out for my 30 minutes- which seems totally counterintuitive!  No wonder I've been feeling like such an out of shape wimp the past few weeks!!  

Husband Tag

I don't know if it is kosher/legal/acceptable to start your own Tag, but I'm doing it.  I saw these questions on a friend's blog and thought they were good stuff.

What is his name? Nathan David

How long have you been married? 9 years

How long did you date? 7 months (2 months dating, 5 month engagement)

How old is he? 31.  But he doesn't know it.  He always asks me his age.  For better or worse, this also means he doesn't know how old I am either.  The other day when I mentioned 'people in their 30's' he informed me I was included in that category.  I am NOT, not until December.  

Who eats more sweets? Me, for sure.  He is a salty snacker, and I love midnight cookies and ice cream.

Who said I love you first? He did, and I burst into tears.  I was just a few weeks away from turning 20, and it scared me to fall in love, even though it was what I wanted. Crying, I told him, "You're not allowed to say that to me.  I'm too young."  After we were married, he told me the moment I started to cry he thought he had totally blown it and he would never see me again.  Silly boy, I still wanted to be with you, I just needed to compose myself.  It took me a week to get used to, but the next weekend on our date I told him I loved him too.

Who is taller? It would be sad if I was.  At 5'1", I was never concerned about needing to find a particular height of man to marry.  He's 5''10", which is just great.  Oddly enough though, he is one of the shortest of the people I dated or had crushes on.  I gravitated to the 6 foot and up crowd - probably in a subconscious attempt to improve the gene pool.

Who can sing better?  We both sing, but I get more compliments on my voice from other people, so probably me.

Who is smarter? We are tied.  We joke about the fact that we got the same ACT score.  He has more street and practical smarts.  I am a better writer, speller, and thesaurus.  He is better with business, computers, and math.  I am better at life sciences, and he understands physics and chemistry...  Overall, he is really smart and I admire the skills he has.  I'm also glad I found someone who understands the big words I use and seldom pokes fun at my verbosity.  

Who does the laundry? Me (on Mondays, remember?) but he could if I needed him to.

Who pays the bills? This is a trick question.  Technically, he pays all of them, because he is the sole breadwinner in this family.  But I do the actual budgeting and paying.  We have long said that if I died he and the kids would be fine food-laundry-house cleaning wise, but he would slowly go bankrupt.  Lucky for him, I'm a fan of Autopay, so all he'll have to do is check for the credit card statements and he'll be fine!

Who sleeps on the right side of bed? Me, at the beginning of the evening.  But he is fond of telling me that I "kicked him out of bed last night."  Yep, I'm a crowder.  One of these days we'll get a king bed to replace our queen, and he'll have more of a buffer zone to move into before he actually falls to the floor.

Who mows the lawn? Nathan.  I used to do the trimming, but he's taken over the whole thing this summer.  I don't know if he doesn't think I did quality work or if he wants to give the prego a break, but I'm not complaining.

Who cooks dinner? Me, but he can and does it a lot on weekends.  He's actually a pretty good cook. I'm great with a recipe, but he can create his own things and they usually turn out to be very tasty.

Who drives? Nathan, ever since we met.  Even before we were married I let him drive.  

Who is more stubborn? Yes.  (That means we are both stubborn.  Neither one of us is very patient either.)

Who asked out whom first? Nathan asked me to the Christmas concert and lighting ceremony at Temple Square.  But if I hadn't asked him out for a second date, we would never have ended up together, because (sound familiar?) he thought he blew it.  In reality, he kind of did blow it, because he was obviously nervous and it honestly wasn't a great date.  Lucky for us both, we were attending different universities and had spent a week or two emailing before we went out. From his letters, I knew he was better than his first date showed.  Heeding advice from Jackie and Sandy, the Fitting Room Ladies at Target, I called him up and gave him a second chance. I'm so glad I did!

Who proposed? Nathan, of course.  He got down on one knee on the top floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building while we were looking at the night view of Temple Square.  I cried again, but this time it was out of joy, not fear.

Who has more siblings? Nathan has 5, I have 3.

Who wears the pants? A lot of the time I do, but I think that is because he loves me so much and wants me to be happy, so he defers to me unless it is really important. When it's important, we each wear one leg.

Nathan makes me so happy.  I'm glad he is mine and I am his.

Now I tag Karen, D'Neill, Nicki, and Amy.

Braden's Queer Eye

Braden likes to comment on my outfits during pregnancy, and he always notices if I am wearing a new dress or blouse.  It's actually quite endearing to hear my five year old boy say (in a completely masculine, un-gay way of course) "I like your uternity shirt, Mom."  Other synonyms for the elusive 'maternity' word he is unable to master include eternity, internity, & aternity.  I keep thinking he'll start saying it right, but I don't really care if he does.  :-)

He just came in after playing outside for 20 minutes, and he smells like it.  I call the scent "Outside Kid."  Not quite sweaty, not quite stinky, but distinctively stale.  He'll be having a bath sooner rather than later.

Rude Baby

This is a profile shot of the face.  Her hand is pressed to her cheek right by the eye giving a little wave.  Maybe she's waving to Cassie, who got to come to the appointment with me this time.

Another profile shot.  Let's hope it's just the angle, and that she really doesn't come out with such a prominent nose.

This one made the doctor and me laugh.  Somebody, apparently, is Number One!  You can see her two feet just to the right of her hand.

And... she's still breech.  Dr. Boheen says we won't worry about it until 34 weeks, because most babies turn by then.  She weighs 2 1/2 pounds.  On the bright side, I have been contracting much less recently, and much less than in previous pregnancies - and the doctor said that the breech position likely has something to do with it since there is less pressure on the cervix.  

I did the glucose tolerance test today too.   The orange drink doesn't bother me to take like most people (I even took it fasting, first thing in the morning,) but I have decided it tastes like Tampico, so it's still not my drink of choice.

Zucchini Bo-nini

I love zucchini, but really all I've ever done with it is steam it, sautee it in olive oil or butter, and shredded it for zucchini bread or chocolate zucchini cake.  If I'm honest, the real reason I plant it is for the zucchini bread... BUT, luckily, I happened upon an article in a parenting magazine that had recipes for summer garden vegetables.  

Some, like the zucchini pizza and meatless zucchini tacos, will be forever untried, because, Yuck.  However, I thought the recipe Grilled Zucchini was great!

Grilled Zucchini

2 medium zucchini, cut into quarter spears

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp red wine vinegar

Ground pepper to taste

1/2 tsp salt

Chopped thyme, to taste (I have an herb garden, so I like fresh.  I'm sure dried works too.)

Mix oil, vinegar, and seasonings in large bowl.  Add zucchini and toss with hands until well coated.  Grill over medium heat for 4-6 minutes.

On a side note, Cassidy was with me at the grocery store when I purchased the red wine vinegar.  She is so conscious of trying to choose the right, that she became very concerned when she saw I was buying something with the word WINE on it.  She then asked me if I thought someone could get drunk if they drank it.  She felt a little better (but not all better) about my purchase when I explained to her that vinegar is so gross that no one would ever be able to drink enough red wine vinegar to produce intoxication.  I still don't think she's totally on board with my RWV, but at least she stopped talking about it...

The Taxman Cometh

I just glad that the first time in seven years that I have wanted to dispute my property taxes is also the first year we had an appraisal done in April.  Now we can prove for sure that the county has overvalued us by $17,000!  Whew.