Alaska

October 17th.

I woke up at 2 am to pee. I wake up frequently to pee. But this 2 am wakeup was especially exceptional because I looked out the window to see beautiful snow fall! The white lit up the night, and I was excited for morning.

Chris and I got up probably about 8:30 or 9 and went for a lovely, snowy walkie with the animals. They were pretty happy about it too! Chris and I ate some snow and enjoyed the quiet stillness that snow brings.

I really love our morning or evening or afternoon walks. Our pup Edel is a lot of work, and in general, the animals wreak a level of havoc on the house, but I love being outside with them. If we didn’t have Edel, I would most likely spend much less time outside, which wouldn’t be good. And the cats… they’re so funny when they follow us on walks, and when they bolt around the trail or on the dead trees. Our walks are definitely a high spot of everyday.

And the snow… it makes everything so beautiful!

Funny picture of Piper in perfect Halloween cat form.

And my little Piper and I, the kitten who made my dreams come true, and now she’s the kitten the keeps me from dreaming…. she doesn’t have the same sleeping schedule as we do and expects to go in and outside through the window as she pleases, which disturbs our slumber. I guess she’s just helping us prepare for a newborn babe that will soon arrive. Thanks for looking out for us, Piper.

Here’s to high hopes for some good snow this winter.

Sunday. I’m 36 weeks pregnant. It’s still pretty dreamy to me and I love it. The baby moves around a lot – my midwife described it as breakdancing on it’s head. I love feeling and watching him or her move and drum around in there. Sometimes it is a steady beat and totally seems like drumming. My lungs and bladder are getting increasingly squished, so I pee a lot, especially at night, and sometimes I breathe heavier than normal. I still feel good and healthy and am staying fairly active, but I wish I was doing more regular exercises. I’ve gained 30 pounds the past 8 months and my belly seems to grow everyday. :) I like to lay down when I can, and subbing a couple days in a row last week was hard for me haha. I didn’t even get to nap at school! I guess that’s normal though, but I remember taking naps  in my kindergarten class back in 1994.

We had nice church meetings today. Sacrament meeting was enjoyable and the songs we sang were so lovely. Sometimes I sing the hymns in portuguese because I just miss that Brazil land and people and it takes me back to so many fond mission memories. Brasil Vitória <3.

After church, Chris and I arrived home with the usual post church hunger, nothing like those fast sundays though. :) I took this nice picture of him playing xbox Star Wars and waiting for rice to cook. I love that Bel is nestled up in the clean sheets and Edel is hanging out by the driftwood pile. Funny. And Chris’s concentration on his star wars games is comical sometimes, and annoying at other times haha. But usually not annoying.

Lately the cats have found a new place to nap. The crib. Bel is in there a lot and Piper recently discovered it. It’s a nice place where Edel can’t reach them to munch away at their fur. 

Speaking of Edel, she and I have had some good hangout time lately. We hang out at home together, go on walks, and we went to the beach to collect driftwood a couple times this week. My patience can get very short with her sometimes, but she surely is patient with me. Very patient. And she’s funny – any time she hears me chomp a carrot or slice an apple or open the fridge to take something out, she’s right there, ready for me to toss her some scraps of produce. Funny girl.

Last night at the beach with honey husband. I love this picture.

Cats… crib… again…

My big belly at the beach the other sunny day. This was the first time I had been to the beach in a while, and I was nice to have such glorious weather while there! Edel looooved swimming and chasing a big stick in the water. And I managed to bend over and gather lots of good driftwood for a nursery project that I hope to complete for babe arrives.

Cats… sleeping…

Dinner! I was doing a one time boat cleaning and got home kind of late, so Christopher had dinner and Blue Bloods waiting for me when I arrived. How wonderful. I had to take a picture of the happy moment.

And the harbor, the day I cleaned a boat at 8 months pregnant. It was worth the monies and quite nice to be in the harbor again. It was so quiet and peaceful and I just listened to stuff, talked with Edel, and scrub scrubbed.

I gotta go pee again and then I should probably brush and floss my teeth and start slumbering. Over and out.

Bel and I have been nesting. I love spending time in the baby’s room! I love reorganizing the tiny shoes, putting away diapers, and finding a home for all the tiny clothes. I love falling asleep in our perfect swivel, rocker, glider chair, and I love the Bel is loving the nursery time as much as I am. 
It’s still a work in progress. But I love being in here. I love our hand me down crib, all the things in the wall, and the dresser that my mom gave us. We still plan on painting the room, probably gray, and I want to make some driftwood ABCs for above the closet. 

 Before the room’s current state, I cleaned it up to this, so that the girls could stay with us for a week while their parents weren’t in town. 

And before that, it was like this. The past year+ that Chris moved his home office out of this room and out of the home, it’s never really gotten very cleaned out. There’s always been extra junk in it, and it’s been the catch all room for anything. The more space you have, the more you fill it, I suppose. I’m glad our house isn’t too big, and that we do work to not accumulate too much stuff. It’s all still a work in progress, but it’s progress!

Time for me to sleep now. I am subbing two days in a row of middle school intensive needs and I’m sure I’ll need some naps! And I’m 35 weeks pregnant. And it’s great. 

My cute little nephew took me for a bike ride today. I’m grateful for FaceTime! How magical. 

I have a little cold and I’m so sneezy right now. 

I love being an aunty. 

And I love having a baby grow inside me. 

My amazing sister gave birth to another healthy, happy boy tonight! I can hardly believe she just had another baby! It all happened super fast and I’m excited to hear more about it tomorrow, and to meet little baby sometime in the next six months. I’m feeling proud of her and her wonderful family. 

Look how happy Brady is. That boy is the sweetest. She gave birth at home, and I think that sounds so fantastic. My midwives do it through our hospital, but home birth sounds great to me someday. 

I had another midwife appointment today, 32 weeks! My iron levels are going up, I didn’t gain any weight the past two weeks, blood pressure is great, belly is measuring normal, no stretch marks… Everything is going pretty great and I’m happy. 

I love feeling sweet baby wriggle inside of me. It’s the best. 

Man, I can’t believe Stacy just had her baby! Can’t wait to hear more about it tomorrow. 

Saturday, what a great invention.

Chris and I stayed up late ish watching Blue Bloods on netflix last night. It’s pretty much what we’re doing every night these days. Normally I’m not into cop or crime shows, but Blue Bloods is hitting the spot for me.  Each episode is about 42 minutes and when once finishes, another is all queued up and ready to roll! It’s hard to say goodnight to the blue blood Raegan family and go to bed, but alas, it must be done.

This morning we laid in bed till a slightly shameful hour of 10:30 or so. But it was nice! The baby was moving a lot in my belly this morning and I love love love that. The cats and dog were being rambunctious while we were sleeping, but we still managed to not get up and going until almost 11 am. These are the days! :)

I made blueberry flapjacks for me while Chris walked the pooch in the rain. When he came back, he ate left over tonkatsu for brunch and played xbox while I took care of my sims haha. Those sims. I spent time cleaning the house, as per usual, and Chris went to his office and did some work for a while. Then we met up at Homer’s perfecto farmers market!

I love our farmers market. What a wonderful place to get healthy produce from our hard working farmers, and to see friends from our community. I hear there’s going to be a feast party at the last market of the year in a couple weeks! We’ll need to go. :)

Only had one boat to clean tonight and husband went to the harbor with me, so it took us 20 minutes. Nice. Boat cleaning is winding down, which is nice.

I have jury duty this month, which is a slight annoyance, but I can handle it. :) I’m happy for where our life is right now. I love having a growing, moving, baby inside of me. I love our home. I love the changing weather. Church is great. Family is great. We’re healthy and happy and things are pretty good in the hood.

(If I would’ve written a couple days ago when I was in a debbie downer mood, my words might not have been the same.:) Great day today though!)

One of my childhood BFFs, Jane, is back in town with her husband, Jeff, sooooo we went flying with them! It’s so nice that flying around has become accessible to Chris, thanks to the fairly affordable airplane he found to rent. Flying isn’t an inexpensive endeavor, but it keeps husband excited and motivated. And duh, the sights are beautiful, especially around here!

Chris and I have flown around Kachemak Bay and over a couple certain glaciers multiple times, but on the weather was so great on Friday that we explored new territory. It was so neato and beautiful. Being up in the air gives quite a different perspective.

I love our bay and our mountains and our glaciers and our ocean and our land and our life. I think it’s okay to call it “ours,” as long as we help take good care of it. But really, it’s all part of God’s magical creations for us, and I’m happy we can enjoy it all.

I can hardly believe I’m 30 weeks pregnant, but week by week, it has happened! Just over 2 months to go till we get to meet our little babe.

I’m able to see my belly button like never before. My belly is still stretch mark free which makes me very very glad. I’m working to get my iron levels back up, but everything is pretty good other than that. I love being pregnant and I love this baby bump very very much.

Bebe was moving lots this morning when I woke up, and I love feeling that. I got to sleep in this morning, and that was nice too. :) I have a midwife appointment shortly, and I don’t really feel like going to it, because I don’t really feel like I need to. But I guess I need stronger relationships with my midwives to prepare better for the birth day!

We’ve been learning how our healthcare works, and so now I need to get our maternity bills paid. Financial stuff is kind of stressful to me sometimes, but it’s part of life.

Yesterday at in our young women class, our lesson was: How can I strengthen my family? We went over this talk by President Uchtdorf and it was so good. Nothing more important than marriage and family and home and homies. :)

Carla girl has been my BFF since we met in 3rd grade. I feel so lucky and blessed to have her as a part of my past, present, and future. She came up to Alaska last week and we of course had lots of fun, ate great food, took pictures, adventured, and laughed ourselves breathless. 

Here’s some pictures from the days she was HOME in AK. 

iSleepy. But I’ll try and post and remain coherent. But when I’m sleepy I can fall asleep and start having mini dreams instantly. I was actually just drooling on my arm like twelve seconds ago. And now I almost just dropped my phone on my face – gotta hate when that happens. 

Buuuuut, today has been a grand day of blueberry picking! We took a couple friends a lot too, which more people can always make adventure merrier. Buuut we didn’t have enough berry pickers ! So I stopped at handy dandy Ulmers on my way out to pick up one up. I got a yummy, fair trade, chocolate bar there too. Thanks, Ulmers! 

I really like chocolate, and I’d like to eat more fair trade chocolate and less regular chocolate. There was an African guy at BYUH who started an organization to help stop child labor in the cocoa plantations in Africa. Well Africa it’s called. Anyway, I can do more to help the world. I’m not saying that me eating fair trade chocolate will change the world, but anyway, it’s better than regular stuff, and like 5x more expensive, but that’s okay. You get what you pay for. 

So Dad called me up about 9 this morning asking about berry picking across the bay. I was cozy in bed at the time, waking up, and thinking about spending a nice day at home taking care of stuffs. I hadn’t even moved to look out the window yet so I didn’t know the daily weather report. My pops said it’d be good to go, but maybe we could go next week too, when it was sunnier. So I decided to think about it, and was feeling kind of tired to adventure. Summer can wear us out up here with lots of visitors, work, and play! Fortunately I have been getting plenty of sleep, but I still get tired. But thank you naps! Oh these baby free, pregnant, summer days. They’re good ones. Looking forward to holding a sweet babe though. 

I decided to go berry picking. I felt like I should so I did. I took Edel (and Piper) for a nice morning walk and playtime, then came home and got ready. I showered, ate some flapjacks, and got a few snacks together, since we’d be gone all day. I was a few minutes behind schedule, but that can happen. 

Jakolof Bay was our destination today. I’d  only been there once before and it had been about 8-9 years. It’s an interesting little place and I want Chris to go too. So the day turned out gray and drizzly, and I’m glad! It kept some bugs away!

We had to do some bushwhacking to find some prime blueberry patches. My pops and I have done plenty of that in our time. This time it was extra worth it because holy berries!  

It was lovely to harvest from the earth’s bounty and plenty. The berries were better than I’d ever seen them, and we each just spent lots of solo time with our berry pickers, filling big ziploc bags. It was a soggy time, but the weather was pretty perf in my opinion, because very few pestering bugs! And I wasn’t hot and sticky worrying about spiders either. 

All of us were decked out in our rain gear, and we picked for a number of hours. I eventually had to pee, and that was slightly difficult, because it was a lot of layers to pull down, and I didn’t want any bugs to get my tush, nor did I want to get poked by Devils club. But alas, you got to do whatchu got to do. 

I got tired and burnt out after a couple hours, and I laid down with my berry picker and dumped berries in my mouth. Hahaha. 

I pretty much stayed in the same tiny area the whole time, with a few big, plentiful blueberry patches. At one point I trekked it up the hillside looking for more berries, but I only found some salmon berries, many of which were surprisingly dying, and lots of thick Devils club. So I decided to go back down the hill because Dad yelled over that there were more berries by my original picking patch. It’s nice he looks out for me so much. He calls me his favorite youngest daughter (or FyD) and he’s my favorite oldest dad. I’ve actually got lots of titles for Dad, many of which come from the childhood days he and Carla and I adventured around the peninsula for years. 

He came back over and we worked on a big berrylicious area together. At this point I was getting fairly wet and bit cold and was ready to be done. When the bugs came out and I had to out on the head net, I knew I was ready to head back to the boat and warm up. So I filled my fourth gallon ziploc bag, said adios to Pa, and headed through the soppy greens with a pack pack full of blueberries. Perfect. 

My backpack was kind of heavy actually, but there was no one around to listen to me complain, so I didn’t complain. I was probably walking down the road kinda funny with my berry filled pack, my berry and baby filled belly, my wet clothes, and full bowels haha. 

As soon as I got back to the boat, I took off my rain gear, put on a dry sweater, and busted out my half of my PBJ. Gotta love them. After I grabbed the tp and wipes and headed to the port a potty at the top of the ramp. And omg, it was so full of poo that I headed straight for the woods instead. So, that was good. :) 

There’s my load of berries. I didn’t get as many as Dad and our two friends, but how awesome to get so many perfect blueberries! They don’t get much better than that! I want to make muffins, lots of smoothies, flapjacks, and more muff muffs. 

Our boat ride back was nice and calm, with plenty of sea birds and sea otters and a seal on the way. We all ate snacks and talked about how great the berry picking was. 

I had a couple boats to clean as soon as we got back, and that went well. I took my fellow boat cleaner girl, Annie, a little bag of blue berries and she was delighted. I’m really grateful she’s in the harbor and that we’ve both been cleaning for 10+ summers. It’s always good to see her. We bring each other treats sometimes and that’s fun. One year she shares some smoked salmon with me, and it was one of the first times I had enjoyed it. And she’s brought me yummy muffins she’s made too. Good stuff. Muff muff. 

At night, it was great to get back home to Edelweiss and our cats and our clean, welcoming home. Oh how I love our home and I love being here. I watched toy story 2, looked at great deals on Craigslist for baby stuff, and I somehow ate a delicious pint of Belgian chocolate haagendaz. Oops. I’m not sure how I ate it all… One delicious, chocolaty bite at a time I guess! I only regret half of it, because what a not healthy load of sugar and fat for me and bebe, but a girl’s gotta have dinner! ;) 

I’d like to find some delicious and healthier ice cream that is nice and chocolatey and doesn’t take advantage of child labor or cocoa plantations and doesn’t mistreat milk cows. :) Normally I get the talenti double dark chocolate gelato which is delish. Yum. But it’s really important to me where my food comes from and I like to be aware and mindful, ideally, not that I always am. 

Guess I should just be eating my delicious blue berries! So grateful for harvest times here in Alaska in our lovely summer. What a good place for us to life and be. 

I like to wear Chris’s shirts when he’s gone. And now that I have a baby belly, I like to wear them anyway since my shirts don’t really fit anymore. :) Bel was sweet and cuddly in the morning and got under the blankets for a bit. Cuddles are always nice. I wrote in my journal and read my scriptures before getting up this morning, which was unusual and really really enjoyable. When I got up I brushed my teeth with my nifty sonicare, and I’ve even been flossing regularly too!

Making the bed is much easier to do when just one person sleeps in it, though sleeping without Chris isn’t the greatest. I love this cream colored quilt of ours, my favorite color. :) But since the animals get on the bed all the time and half the time they’re dirty or hairy, we try and keep this blanket covered up. It IS really nice having Edel on the bed with me while Christopher is away though, and of course my faithful Simba. 

I usually like to eat or maybe have some tea when I first get up. I should drink more tea. 

Here’s our ever growing pile of mail that we don’t go through very well…and the exercise band next to the door that has been there for three years, and hasn’t been used for three years hahaha.

And there’s Edel, patiently waiting to get out, and little Piper outside wanting to come in. 

Piper says that she wants breakfast. 

Sometimes Bel and Piper follow along on our morning walks, and it’s so funny and wonderful. Usually they bolt down the trail in front of us at top speed. 

Today it was just Edel, my belly, and I. The cats were inside eating breakfast so they missed the family walk. I found a  few raspberries today and I loved that!

And while I was taking this picture I guess I dropped Edel’s ball launcher on the ground. 

Because when I get to the field, after Edel annoyingly pulled me down the muddy hill, I no longer had the launcher. So back to the woods I went. 

Found it.

Instead of going to the field like usual, we spent some time on the trail. Big juicy watermelon berries! These are fun for me to eat no matter what their stage of ripeness is. I even really like the green buds before they turn into berries. 

I was sloshing around in my Dutch girls, those yellow clogs, and my leggings were soaked. The forest was really wet today. 

And the devil’s club leaves are as big as ever.

Edel loves her walks each morning. We throw the ball and she runs and runs and loves playing fetch. We went to the field but there was already a lady there with her dog on leash, who said her dog is still getting used to other dogs. I put Edel on leash too, but then we headed back to the trail instead.

The fireweed has come early this year with the warmer weather. And it is ever so lovely. 

I’m so glad we have these trails and the field right next to our house. I love spending time out there, especially since my allergies seem to be getting better and I no longer die by just walking on the trail. I love this time of year, and my morning was a delight, until I got home and realized I had twenty minutes before I had to be at work haha. I had to shower and get ready really speedy, but I did it. Yay yay.

Piper cat is scratching at our bedroom window right now, wanting to go out and frolick in the dark rainy night. Our animals crack me up. Piper and Bel cuddle all the time, and the play fight a lot. Piper just lays on top of her mom and makes herself nice and comfortable. And she’s always going up to Edel and cuddling her too. Or if she isn’t, Edel is chasing her around the house to pin her down and munch on Piper, while Piper purrs along. 

I just let her out. Hopefully she and Bel don’t kill any birds or mice tonight. And since the window is closed, I know they won’t bring any live birds or mice inside to play with and kill, like they have previously done about ten times. Oh cats. 

Now I’m getting to sleepy to write about anything but our animals…

Well, the baby is moving lots and lots! Right this second he or she is wiggling around and I love it. Oh I love love love feeling it move. I love everything about being pregnant. Yes, I really do. 

I love the random comments and compliments from strangers and from friends. I love how beautiful the pregnant belly is. I love that I can nap when I’m sleepy. I love that I didn’t have to clean the litter box when we were cat sitting. I love how happy all our family is about our pregnancy. I love that my nieces always give me and my belly a hug. I love dreaming of the baby’s room. I love wondering how our half Chelsea and half Chris will become. 

Here’s a magical maternity photo that our friend Jeanee took the other day. 



I have one boat to clean. It’s been in for just over 3 hours. But I haven’t yet gone to the harbor because I’ve been occupied hanging out at home with the animals.

Chris’s brother and two oldest nephews have been here this past week, and they just left this afternoon. They all got some great man/boy/Alaska time, which was perfect for all of them. I got to spend some time with them too and I’m so glad they were able to come.

Honestly, sometimes you’re very glad to see people come, and you’re sometimes very sad to see them go haha. It’s just nice to get back to your regular life I guess. However, it would’ve been really nice to have Lincoln, Logan, and London around longer. Logan and I just started playing Super Mario World last night and we could’ve done more of that! :)

We usually get plenty of visitors here to Alaska and it’s nice to show people the land and life we love.

Some other visitors were the Darlings. We grew up with them as close family friends, and they hadn’t been here for 15 years or so. So nice to catch up with Frances and Amy and it was wonderful for them to be back here.

I’m so grateful to have Holly girl around. So glad we’re friends and that we have each other here. We miss our other sister Stacy girl too. How lovely to have siblings for BFFs.

And here’s my honey boy and I on a little boat ride. Boats… how nice they are! I love exploring around the bay and hanging out on different beaches.

I’ve done a little adventuring with my sister and brother in law and the girls, and that’s always a good time. Here’s me and my two favorites getting pulled in the zodiac behind the Arctic Assault. Haha it was so funny.

Our friend Jeanee took some pictures of me and of Holly and the girls. It was fun fun! Nice to get some pictures with my perfect belly that I love so much. I’m loving being pregnant and I love feeling the baby move inside of me~Dad and I went on a boating/kayak trip to Prince William Sound with a couple from our ward, Dave and Ann. They are actually the owners of the cabin my dad built and one of my childhood homes. We had a great few days on the water with them. I love this picture of Dad. I took the canon 60D with us and snapped some few pictures. It was nice to use a nicer camera than the iPhone, though the best camera is the one that is with you 

I love living around family and am grateful for all of them. My mom has been gone a lot this summer and we definitely miss having her around! My dear brother Jake and his girlfriend live just about an hour away, and it’s so nice to see them more often! I haven’t seen Chris enough lately though – WE MUST GO TO SUMMIT PASS.

Our weather has been stupendous, which of course makes life much nicer. I’m so glad to be tan again! Or to at least have a tan head and arms and some color on my legs. My belly is pretty white, but it’s stretch mark free, so that’s good!

Allergies haven’t been great for me, which has made me look forward to winter. I can’t be allergic and exhausted like this next summer with a little babe around. I’m excited to meet our little human and to become best friends with him or her!

I love feeling the baby move inside of me. Love it. I’ve gained about 15+ lbs so far I think. I’ve been trying to eat healthy and not be a sloth, and I’ve been doing alright with that. :) Been drinking water pretty well – gotta take good care of the bebe!

Oh! I watched a birth video and have been reading more about it, and I’m scared and nervous to push a baby out of me! But women have been doing it for ages, and if I’m good and in tune with nature :) my body should know what it’s doing. I need to do mo’ yoga because that’ll help me with everything. But seriously, birth, wow. But then… BABY!

Boat cleaning is going great, since I pretty much have one boat. It’s so nice to not be down there till 11 or 12 every night. Usually I’m always done by 8. Today I could’ve been done at 6, but here it is 9 pm, and now I’ll head down there. :) I wonder how many boat cleaning procrastination blog posts I have…

I feel really blessed and grateful for my good life full of people I love.

Hay-cent-chee-ment-chee… that means recently. 

Here’s some pictures that I’m too sleepy to write much about. :)

I LOVE MY BELLY. Thanks so much to our good friend Jeanee for taking some stellar photos of us!

A great kayaking trip. 

And Chris has had some great airplane time. All is well with us. 

What a great day. So many fun memories were made today. But Chris just left for Anchorage/Talkeetna for a few days, then I’ll be gone kayaking for a few days, so I won’t see him till Saturday night or so, and that makes me really sad. I just like him and I love him and I don’t want to sleep alone or be alone or take care of all these animals by myself. :( He told me to have fun while he was gone, but I’ve just been moping around the last hour and haven’t done anything but take care of my sims hahaha, and scroll through the same Facebook feed a few times. I need to go take the pooch for a walk, which will make us both happier, but I don’t want to get more allergic outside. Anyway….

Today was such a good day. We had the best boat ride ever across the bay to Seldovia this morning, to participate in the 4th of July festivities. We listened to some great classic music on the way like Peter, Paul, and Mary and Neil Diamond. And we cruised across the sea super speedy and even saw a whale!!

My house is so messy right now and it’s really bothering me. I don’t like having all this extra stuff around that we need to get rid of. Stuff stuff. I’m not doing much to fix it right now though, because I’m sad Chris is gone and don’t want to do anything. I’m maybe slightly more emotional being pregnant, but I’m still pretty level. 

I did run into the airplane wing the other day with my head, and that made me really sad even though I was laughing too. It was so funny when it happened. It knocked me to the ground and Chris and I started cracking up. Then I started crying and that was funny too. That was a day Chris left for a couple days, so maybe I was just sad too. 

Back to today… Lots of fun and festivity! And I saw one of my favorite high school teachers who I haven’t seen for years! It was so great catching up. It’d be wonderful and rewarding and difficult to be a teacher.

Seldovia is a pretty cool place, especially on the fourth. What a unique little town. I wonder what it’s like living there. 

We got a big cinnamon roll that I enjoyed some of, and ate too much of. :) And we watched Jordin and some others do some snagging. 

I came to Seldovia two years ago for Independence Day, but Chris didn’t. Our first time was a few years ago, which I can’t find the picture of. But we have some great fotos from that day, and this day as well! 

On our boat ride home we saw a load of whales! Most likely humpbacks in pretty sure. It was so awesome. We all loved it. What huge creatures… 

Chris and I started watching the Patriot when we got home. Good movie, but wow, it’s so graphic and violet! I turn my head away for plenty of it, but good and well done. And then Chris spilled his salsa all over the carpet haha. Good thing I haven’t cleaned the carpets yet! 

We all watched our Homer parade which was a hit, as always. Then we are at my sister and her husband’s house. Good food and good family! Then Chris helped me clean a couple boats. What a peach he is. 

I’ve been doing the spit run since the beginning of time. It’s our local 10k from the high school to the end of the spit. My BFF Carla and I did it together many years, and in the picture about, we made our outfits match perfectly.

This picture below, of me and my fam was probably in 1993 or 1994, and probably the year before I started doing the race. The past five years I’ve missed a few spit runs with being out of state or something, but it’s usually always a “fun” thing to do.

This year I wanted to do it again! Being prego with child I figured I should take it kind of easy, not that I’d normally over exert myself anyway hehe. I knew that my little niece, Natalie girl, would be a great race buddy and it would be her first time. We had talked about it for a few weeks and she wanted to, but didn’t have any tennis shoes that fit her. Her parents decided to do it though, and they registered.

Saturday morning came around and I woke up at the typical 9 am. The race started at 10. I called Natalie and we face timed and she found some shoes that would work, and we decided to do it! We got to the high school too late to register, so we were little bandit runners. But registration was $30! and I didn’t want to pay that. What happened to it being $5 like the old days?? Hopefully my silent protest made a difference and it’ll be $5 next year. ;)

I loved that Natalie and I both decided to wear tie dye! I had a really great time with little Natalie girl. We even found our friend on the way and spent about 4 miles with her. I only had to take one bathroom break on the way and I managed to control my bladder well, something that is becoming slightly more difficult. 

Natalie ran the first mile really great. My belly kind of hurt the first mile, maybe baby was bouncing around a bit too much. The rest of the race I did a slow jog and my belly didn’t bother me at all. Natalie walked along a lot, and we were great race buddies. Sometimes we held hands and ran along, sometimes she’d run up and dance around, and sometimes she’d walk slowly and I’d turn around and pull her forward. I had a great time with her.

We talked about how we wish we were registered. And we talked about how it’d be funny if her little sister, Katy did the race, running along in her high heels. I’m really proud of Natalie and me (and baby!) and her parents who did the race so speedy! Jordin got 19th place at 43 mins and Holly was at 53 mins. Fun day and I’m surprised I haven’t been more sore! It’s not like I trained much, unless you call running a mile or two every few weeks training. :) I’m grateful for my body and that we take care of each other.

And here’s a throwback from my 3rd spit run. 

Never mind. I can’t find the picture. But it’s a picture of when I made the paper! I was so proud. I was wearing my pink Pochahontas shirt and some clod hopper shoes. Good times.

Well, it’s 1 pm. I guess I better get dressed. I like summer. Except for the allergies, which have been bad. Okay, bye.

I love being pregnant.

Chris and I went to our first ultrasound yesterday and it was soooo neat. Our ultrasound tech was a delight and checked everything out, to make sure baby is growing and developing normal. All looks good! It’s amazing there’s a little baby growing inside of me, just amazing. Bebe baby was moving around quite a bit during the ultrasound, and so I think that’s helped me be more aware of when I’m feeling it inside of me. The past couple days I’ve felt a lot more movement and I love it. I love being pregnant, and I love that I have a baby belly.

I have neglected blogging lately, and plenty of other things, which is annoying. I have lots of free time right now and I don’t feel like I’m doing greatness with it. I just expect more of myself I guess, but my yogi yoga video today left me with a mantra that “everything is as it should be,” and that’s a nice thought. :) There was another mantra she said too, but I forgot it, but I’m really grateful for Yoga With Adriene.

I love doing yoga, just here in my living room. Yoga classes with a little community would be nice too, but yoga with the cats and dog is good for now. I don’t do yoga as often as I’d like, but some is better than none!

I’m just about to go clean boat, and I’m taking the pup with me. I just came home to pick her up to discover she had eaten part of our tasty watermelon! I left it cut in half on the counter a few hours ago and she decided to get it down and dig into it a little bit. She’s been a touch more rambunctious with getting into food she’s not supposed to when we’re gone, so I guess we just need to take better care of her. She’s still pretty good though. Good Edelweiss.

Hmmm, what else… we went to Utah for a week for Chris’s grandma’s funeral. It was a really wonderful and special week, and I’d like to blog about it later so I don’t forget about things!

Our summer weather has been spectacular so far. I’m so glad to be getting some brown on my skin again! I have a red, vein-y spot on my nose that I need to get checked out, but the rest of my skin is happier to be tan. My dad is finally home so it’s been nice hanging out at his house with his great property and view!

Allergies have been super annoying for me this summer. I hate it. I haven’t been walking with Chris and the dog in the morning hardly at all because I don’t want to go trampling through the grass. Bah, allergies are really frustrating to me.

I’ve been building houses for my Sims on the iPad, which is funny… I’ve been listening to lots of Harry Potter audiobooks. And I’ve been reading my scriptures everyday! I’m having a hard time managing my time, but I’m learning and growing, so that’s good. Gotta go clean boat now. Cheers cheers.

Landlines are almost obsolete, but my sister and her husband have to have one for emergency work purposes. So from the landline phone, I occasionally get happy calls from little Katy, “Hi, Chelsea!” It’s wonderful. Sometimes I call that house phone to talk with my nieces (it’ll be weird when they have cell phones someday). And yesterday I called to invite the girls over for a sleepover!

I prefer having Chris around, because I get bored if I spend too much time at home with just myself and I get sufficient alone time most days. So while he’s at scout camp this week, he told me to spend lots of time with my fam and to play with the girls. So I am. Well, now I am, since I finished watching the Great British Baking Show yesterday. I love that. :)

After I washed my uno first boat last night, I picked up the girls and we came home, after jumping on their new, borrowed trampoline for a few minutes. Katy played with Edel while I ate the tin foil dinner Sister made for me, then we played some gooooood Mario. 

Natalie has played quite a lot of super mario world on Super Nintendo, but Katy is a lot more timid with it. However, she was playing some last night and that was great. It’s always a good time when you get to those switch palaces!

I fell asleep on the floor – I’m kind of extra sleepy these days – but woke up to help build our fort! It turned out great and it we had a nice bed in there for us three and the dog and our stuffed animals. 

It was 11 at the time, so we decided to watch a movie. :) We could’ve easily gone to bed too, but it’s just fun to watch a movie in the fort. We all agreed on Pocahontas 2, and I made us a little fruit plate. I’m loving fruit more than usual lately and probably eating too much of it. I’ve been doing good with water drinking though! Need to exercise more. 

In the morning, after I had read my scriptures and taken a nap, and after Natalie played some Nintendo and read the gnomes book, we woke Katy up, made a smoothie, and went for a walk. We took the soccer ball and had a great time playing on the field. 

Then we came home and tie dyed! I love creating tie dye and have some old sheets that I’m excited to turn into a work of art. :) I love spending time with these girls!