Fancy Toes!

I finally got my first pedicure. It was lovely. I highly recommend it...and I will be doing THAT again in the near future. My friend Sandra went with me. Here are our toes...

Here are our faces...

Me at 7 months and 1 week, or 29 weeks, or with only 1o weeks and 6 days to go. Whichever you prefer.

"You have a beautiful belly"

The other day, one of my co-workers told me I have a beautiful belly. I thought how nice a comment that was, even though it was coming from a guy. I guess he could have said, "Hey you cow, your belly looks pretty fat today," but he didn't. It totally made my day, too. I always feared that I would retain a ton of water and my face would break out into one giant zit when I was pregnant. Luckily, I have been able to ward off such nonsense. But I still have 3 months to go...so I'd better find some wood to knock on QUICK! In other news, I have just completed my first 4 weeks of school teaching my new middle schoolers. Even though most days are pretty similar, each day brings with it new and interesting "items of business" shall we say. Sometimes these items are pretty down right hilarious. Not so hilarious however are the moments when one of my students decides he is going to throw a big bowl of chocolate pudding across the kitchen in protest of cooking-time and then yells at himself while I make him clean it up. Okay...that last part falls into the 'hilarious' category. Oh...kids! Also, I have just signed up for my master's exams and will be taking my orals October 1. So, please don't curse my name or think bad thoughts about me until after that date...for I shall know it was you. I will finally be done with stupid school in December. I have been going to school now for 10 years (my fault, I guess). I could have been a full-fledged doctor by now. Well, almost. Anyway...to close, here are more pictures of me and my "beautiful belly" at 6 months. Just FYI: I am now 6 months, 3 weeks and counting...

The Best Birthday Present Ever!!!

Yesterday I got to spend an entire 1/2 hour with my baby girl. What a great birthday present! That's right...we're having a GIRL!!! The doctor knew we wanted a boy, so she looked real hard for a penis, but to no avail. Oh well. That's just more incentive to try again. It's just going to be very hard to choose a name now. Reed and I had already agreed on a name we both liked for a boy. Now, we have to start all over. Reed doesn't like the name I want to choose for our girl...but who's doing all the work here? Oh, that'd be me. Who's gonna bring this baby into the world? Oh, that'd be me. So I think I'm entitled to have dibs on the name...right?? Maybe if I convince him to let me name this girl, I will let him name all the other kids whatever he wants. That shows you how much I like this name I chose. Anyway...back to my joyous 1/2 hour birthday present. I am simply amazed at not only nature and God's beautiful creations in action, but the technology we have now to see it happen. I saw just about everything you could see on a human...and she was perfect. Everything was developing normally and she just looked so perfect. She moves around a lot too. It was fun to see her mouth open and close and her arms and feet move right in front of me. It didn't really hit me just how amazing an experience that was until later that day at home. During the appointment, you are so focused on what the doctor is saying and what you are seeing, and then of course the big revealing of the gender. It's hard to really soak it all in and realize what you are priviliged to be seeing. But once I let it all in and was able to concentrate on it, it was the best feeling ever. My first baby. I am already in love with her.

Road Trip!

So, we're back from our very long, but beautiful trip across the country. We flew to West Virginia and met up with Reed's parents and nieces there. We stayed with a very nice couple (my mother-in-law's cousins) for several days. They had such a nice home and lived in a fabulous neighborhood. I was starting to look at real-estate ads. WV is so green and lush. I loved it! After our stay, we began our voyage across the US. We drove through 13 states and eventually ended up in California. We were supposed to end in Utah for the Seamons family reunion, but this ended up being cancelled due to a family member passing away. The family packed up and headed over to California for the funeral. The funeral was very nice and this woman was loved by all. I wish I could have met her. It gives the phrase "never too late" a completely different meaning. This trip allowed me and Reed to meet family we had never seen before, and we are glad to know them. Below are some of our pictures from the excursion. The rest can be found here.

An awesome waterfall just hangin' out by the side of the road. Much more tolerable than stupid, ugly cacti!

WV countryside.

Some of the family...Reed's mom's side.

The state capitol.

Here are some pictures for my mom's viewing pleasure...

Maybe it's a good thing I was born without a butt. These are of my pregnant glory at 5 1/2 months.

Reed and Jen and then...

Reed and I were thrilled when we woke up the other day to this...




He was in our backyard stealing some shade. Guess we'd better put those screens we bought in the openings in our wall now. This sucker was over 4 feet long and looks as though he's staring right at me in this picture. Reed discovered him (luckily, because he didn't have a rattle) and ran upstairs to share the joyous news with me. I threw some clothes on and hurried downstairs. Reed was a little upset that I just waltzed outside to find it with seemingly no caution at all. Especially because in other news...





I'm pregnant!! I figured it was okay to tell now because:

1. It's getting too hard to hide it and


2. People are probably wondering why I'm "letting myself go" and


3. I'm 4 and 1/2 months





So there ya go. I will finally breed. Watch out world!!!!!!


We'll find out on August 6th that it's definitely a boy...cuz that's what I want!

Independence Day 2009

Reed and I had his family over for the 4th's celebration this year. We usually just watch the fireworks on TV or go up to the second floor of our apartment complex and see what we can see, but this year we decided to mix it up. Being a homeowner sure does open up many more rooms of possibilities. Reed and I thought it would also be more fun to have a BBQ at the very nice and spacious park by our house. Well, when we arrived to clean off the grill that other nasty people have used and start the coals burning, the very nice and spacious part was drenched in about a million gallons of water (courtesy of the downpour we had the night before). Apparently this park also serves as the drainage for our community. Brilliant!! Reed had actually gone over earlier to check the park's availability of crusty grills but decided not to tell me about the water in hopes it would all be gone in the next few hours and I suppose in fear of any yelling that may ensue upon me hearing the dreadful news. So, Reed and I enjoyed cooking and semi-hosting our first BBQ in pools of molch sprinkled with rabbit poo...and the aroma...mmmmm! I say semi-hosting because instead of Reed's whole family attending like we thought and were hoping for, Reed's parents came. (That sounds bad...we did enjoy their company). The other family members showed up in small numbers eventually. The night ended up being rather enjoyable. Reed did a wonderful job with the burgers and hotdogs, he even fed one to the rabbit pooed water. They were tender and juicy. Yummy! We ended the night at the Fireworks Spectacular held in Marana. Next time we'll have to bring lawn chairs, even though we thoroughly enjoyed sitting in the ant-ridden dirt hoping that one would not crawl down my pants.

Reed and his BBQ-ing skills!

Only a fraction of the drainage aftermath...and my father-in-law, Darwin.


My mother-in-law, Jeannie, waiting for her food in the van. She did not want to hang out with us in the rabbit-poo water for some reason.

Now there's the spirit folks!!

Knock Knock...It's Kirby.

The other day, there came a knock on the door. Crap!...a visitor and I'm in my PJ's. So I creep up to the peep hole (so she doesn't suspect my presence) and there is a nice looking girl with a clip board. Should I answer it?...I thought to myself. I can just smile and nod and then nicely decline whatever she was selling. WRONG! Always creep back away from the door quietly and pretend you're not home. Think Jen!!! Anyway, I actually open the door (no thanks to the involuntary muscle reactions of my upper extremities) and listen to her schpeal. She was selling a vacuum and proceeded to explain its glory and wonder with a bonus deep-cleaning of the fabric in the house of my choice. All I basically heard was that I will get a piece of my house cleaned for free. When she's done with her lecture, smiling like she'd like a response, I say "Sure". STUPID! What follows would take me through a 2 and 1/2 hour adventure (which I'm sure you don't care to indulge in) of how this vacuum works...who said anything about a vacuum...and why I should buy it. So basically my morning (and afternoon) consisted of needlessly starving myself for three hours just to get my couch cleaned. By the way, this vacuum (Kirby is his name) costs more than the down payment on our car. I made sure I mentioned that in lou of today's economic crisis before passing out after viewing the price tag. This vacuum is amazing though. Dang it! It not only vacuums...oh no...it is a leaf blower, car detailer, deep-cleaner/shampooer, sweeper, tile cleaner and many other things in one. "Hot Dawg!" you say? Well you can have one for the reasonable price of 2500 dollars. Not so hot anymore right? That's what I thought. The owner guy was totally willing to bargain with me though. However, he was just not going for the 60 dollar price tag hanging above my puppy-eyed head. Guess I should have slipped into something more sexy than my pajamas that morning. To make him feel more successful and less like he had just wasted a good majority of his day, I promised some customers to him. So...anyone who wants this delicious deal...just let me know. I'll send them knocking on your door. Enjoy the hours of fun!

All joking aside, it is a tremendous vacuum, and he is willing to make a deal. Payment plans are offered too. Anyone, anyone?