Here She Is

yes, I'm still pregnant.

Sometimes you need a prompt to be able to find something to write about. Emile had this survey on her blog, so I thought I'd fill it out. I was kind of shocked at how different our experiences at Massaponax were. I moved senior year, so I was the weird new kid that year. I loved being able to come to college and start fresh with people who were also new. I feel like I am much more defined by my college and post-college experiences than I am by my high school experiences. I'm sure my parents told me I would feel this way, but I wish my silly high-schooler self had listened! It would have been much less stressful if I'd known how little I'd remember of that year, and how I'd be able to laugh about it and about myself later. 

Think about your senior year as you fill out the answers to this survey. 

1. Did you date someone from your school? Not senior year, but junior year I did.
2. Did you marry someone from your high school? Nope!
3. Did you carpool to school? Yep. Allison or Becca usually took me. I still couldn't drive back then. That was a real self-esteem booster! Then I made sure I had tons of after school stuff so my mom would have to come get me, or else I'd have to take the bus. 
4. What kind of car did you have? an imaginary one. It could fly, too.
5. What kind of car do you have now? ’91 Mazda 323. Ruby Eleanor. And I haven't had to fill her tank in ONE MONTH! I think it's karma for being so patient to get my own car. 
6. Its Saturday night in HS...where are you? Either at work at the bowling alley, or at home reading a book. I read a lot of books senior year.
7. It is Saturday night now...where are you? Chillin' with Charles. Usually we go see a movie or go looking for an adventure. 
8. What kind of job did you have in high school? baby-sitting, and then I got a job as a waitress at a bowling alley. Klassy, I know! 
9. What kind of job do you do now? Secretary for a doctor's office. Soon to be a stay at home mom for three weeks!
10. Were you a party animal? Nope. I went to a lot of parties my junior year, but I was still more of an observer than a participant. I enjoyed myself, though. Senior year I didn't really get asked to a lot of parties, but my mom made me go to all the church dances, and that always made me cry. 
11. Were you considered a flirt? Not really. I was usually more of a background person.
12. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir? Nope, but I lettered in drama. Didn't know you could do that until they handed me the letter. I was invited to the senior awards thing, and I thought maybe I'd gotten a scholarship or something, and they handed me a letter and told me I'd lettered in drama and academics. That was kind of a funny shock!
13. Were you a nerd? oh, yeah. 
14. Did you get suspended or expelled? Nope. There was an issue with my attendance, since I was so sick, but we eventually worked that out.
15. Can you sing the fight song? Nope! I attended my first athletic event a year after I graduated because my sister took me to a soccer game she had to write about or something.
16. Who was/were your favorite teacher(s)? I really like Frau Kelly. German was my favorite class. 
17. Where did you sit during lunch? In the senior courtyard whenever it was warm enough, and inside when it wasn't. I used to love the salads they had at that school!
18. What was your school's full name? Massaponax High School
20. What was your school mascot? Panther
21. If you could go back and do it again, would you? You couldn't pay me enough or find something scandalous enough to blackmail me with. I really like my life right now, actually.
22. Did you have fun at Prom? Well, I loved my dress and my shoes and my hair, but I didn't realize how ridiculous it was not to have a date to prom, so my friend Nilo and I showed up and looked pretty silly together. But I still had a good time. We went to the cracker barrel beforehand because she had an employee discount there!
23. Do you still talk to the person you went to Prom with? The weirdo with no date....
24. Are you planning on going to your next reunion? Thinking about it. Mostly because I'd like to show off Charles and Tiny, but I doubt I'd recognize anyone I didn't also go to church with, so it'd be a short reunion for us.

In other news, I'm so ready to be un-pregnant! I just can't wait to see my little girl and bring her home to her room that's all ready for her. Charles and I have been so impatient the last two weeks. I keep calling him during the day to tell him to get ready because I'm having the baby TODAY. This is everyday, folks. I have yet to feel an unmistakable contraction, but tomorrow's Charles' birthday and we're hoping for a miracle! It would only be a week early, but I know that's asking a lot for a first kid. As of last week, I was 1 cm dilated and 70% effaced, with Tiny in a -2 position. Same as the week before. I have an appt tomorrow, though, so hopefully I'll have made some progress, and my late-night chats with Tiny will have made an impact on her desire to come join us. 

Even while I complain about how uncomfortable I am, I know I'll miss having Tiny with me at all times, and feeling her tiny little kicks. I know I'm going to worry my brains out about every little thing she does, whether or not she's breathing, whether or not we're teaching her the right things at the right times, whether or not I'm turning her into a tiny me. So I take time to remind myself of how lucky I am every day to be having this little girl, and tell myself to just take each day as it comes. 

But seriously, how soon after delivering can I expect this heartburn to subside? Other than having the coolest kid ever in my house, that's going to be my favorite result of birth. 

and I do mean the coolest kid EVER!

Remember me?

In response to everyone's very kind emails and voicemails, yes. I am alive. Charles, Wilson, and Tiny are, too. I've just been on kind of a writer's block lately. And the longer I wait, the blockier my writing gets, so I'm just writing to give you all a calm assurance that you are not rid of me yet. Nor can you get rid of me so easily. You'll have to try much harder. 

A few headlines from our day to day existence here in Orem:

1. Charles leaves tomorrow morning for our niece's wedding in CA! I can't believe Charles has a niece that old, but we're both really happy for them, and I can't wait to see the pictures. I can't go because at this point in Tiny's life, travelling so far could become very stressful very fast. And I don't think I can take any time off of work since I'm taking a maternity leave so soon (yay!) so I'm content to stay home and make Willy love me more than he loves Charles. It'll take at least the whole week of Charles' absence to make that happen, though. Charles and Willy are a match made in Heaven. 

2. Tiny wants OUT! She reminds me everyday by sticking her toes between my ribs and break dancing on my bladder. To be honest, most of the time it just makes me laugh. I can already tell she's gonna be fun to hang out with. And that she doesn't have her daddy's tiny hobbit toes. Those toes mean business. They are not to be underestimated. 

3. Still craving pineapple and peaches. Don't get between me and my topical fruit, man. This elefantine woman will bowl you over.

4. It was so nice and sunny for a few days, and then we had a freaking blizzard today. It made me so grumpy that I honked at a reckless driver. I am so anti-honking because you can never tell who it's directed at, and while I'm the world's most cautious and law-abiding driver, I'm always convinced that they're honking at me. And it infuriates me because I don't do anything wrong. But the snow made me so grumpy that I honked HARD at a really reckless, non-blinker using, lane swerving and lane-inventing jerk. I still don't feel bad. He was a jerk. He obviously didn't care about the safety of me or Tiny, because he tried several times to run us into on-coming traffic. Honk if you hate bad drivers.

5. I'm still working at Orem Internal Medicine. Charles is still looking hard for employment, and it's kind of easy to see how the economy has taken a toll on our area. There are not very many jobs to be had. But there should be a migration of students leaving in a week or two, so hopefully they're leaving perfectly good jobs behind for people like us to scoop up. I have to admit it's been really good for our family to have so much time together, and I feel like this time has really been a blessing. We both felt pretty strongly about Charles taking the semester off, but it's becoming a little more stressful every time Tiny threatens to kick her way out of my innards. I'm very grateful for my job, needless to say. 

6. Wilson has taught himself to play fetch. He especially loves things he shouldn't play with, like my ponytail holders and his dad's earphones. But it's so cute that we just indulge him. I love when he runs up to us at six (yes, six) in the morning and drops something into my hand for me to throw. And I don't even wake up at six for Charles. So this is love. 

Look what I can do

Yeah, I've been sooooo naughty, and Ive avoided cameras for the past five months. Since I started looking pregnant, anyway, which I swear was at least a few years ago.Anyway, here are some belly pictures for those who can stomach them. He, he. Stomach the belly pictures. I crack myself up. As you can see from these pictures. I realized that when I button all the buttons that can still reach on my black sweater, I resemble a penguin. 

I think that this probably bodes well for our daughter, since penguins are terribly devoted parents. Don't believe me? Ask Morgan Freeman.

In case you thought we were up to no good

We've actually been very busy lately. Doing very important things, ok?

For one, our family handed down a whole bunch of baby stuff for Tiny Campbell. She now has a swing that can go front to back and side to side. And she has a cradle that was handmade for Charles before he was born. It can swing from side to side, too. I love it. It's bigger than I imagined it would be, too, so I think we'll be able to use it longer than we planned. They even gave us bedding and a mobile to go with it, along with a mobile and crib toy for the crib Tiny will eventually graduate into. 

Charles insisted on setting it all up right away, even though we haven't really cleared a spot in Tiny's room for it all yet. He's a little excited. I kinda like it. I can't believe how blessed we are to have all this stuff handed down to us. 

I finally tried out my sister-in-law's recipe for blueberry bread pudding the other day, because there were fresh blueberries for sale at Target, and it was more than I could resist. I think it turned out pretty, don't you? And more importantly, it was stinking delicious. It just may become a Christmas tradition in our house. 

And finally, to prove to you that we'e been very busy and haven't had any time at all to play, we have a video for your viewing entertainment. 

I love you too

Yeah, I know. I've been a very naughty girl, and I should have updated weeks ago. But there's been so much to say that I'm a little overwhelmed! So I've decided to break it down into list form, just for now, and maybe I'll go back and explain things better later.
1. I am large with child. I dread what I'll look like in four months. And I don't know how much more my poor hips can take.
2. I am loving this pregnancy thing, hip pain and all. It's so worth it whenever I feel the baby move. I have an anterior placenta, which seems to absorb most of the movements, but every now and then I get lucky and get a little reminder that Tiny Campbell is thriving. So worth it.
3. Tiny Campbell is a GIRL!!! a thousand points to me for being right, although I'm not surprised. I'm always right.
4. I'm always right.
5. Santa Claus came late just for my family this year! The reason my family wouldn't tell me anything they got for Christmas was because they hadn't had Christmas yet. They saved it for Emile and Daniel and Charles and me, so we could all celebrate together. That was decided after reading Emile's heart-wrenching post on how homesick she was. I'm going to make her write that every year, because it was so awesome to have Christmas Eve with the whole family! Well, Emile and Daniel had to stay at a hotel because of cat allergies, but we still had the dinner and grab bag together, and the reading and stuff. It was stinking awesome. I love love love Christmas.
6. I love Christmas.
7. Emile's pregnant, too! She only three weeks behind me, due June 21. I'm due June 3. But she's having a boy, so my mom gets the best of both worlds with her first grandchildren. She's coming out to visit when the babies (babies- weird!!!) are born, so we'll each get some personal grandma time. (grandma- weird!)
8. I still love my apartment.
9. My Christmas tree isn't ready to be taken down yet. There are no immediate plans to take it down, either, so stop asking.
10. I cut my hair. I like it. I had to explain to Charles that while he dated and married a girl with long hair, I was never a long hair kind of girl. I'm a short hair girl who just happens to also be an extreme procrastinator.

Also, I've had tons of people ask me what we're naming Tiny Campbell now that we know she's a girl. Her name is Tiny, duh. Actually, we have lots of names that we love, but we want to meet her in person before we decide who she is. For now, though, some of our favorites are Norah, Olivia, Lily, Grace, Liesl, Laurelei, Ruby Eleanor, and Babette.
PS. One of those names is just a joke. Can you guess which one?

Christmas is coming, Tra la tra la!

The sky finally broke and poured snow all over us. Luckily, it was almost all gone by the time we had to leave for 2:00 church. When I woke up this morning and saw the sidewalks covered, I told Charles we were snowed in and not to wake me until spring. He did his best. He thought I was sick, so he didn't wake me up from my nap and was walking out the door to church when I realized it was time to get ready! He would have been mighty lonely without me and my bag full of chocolate chip cookies to keep him company. Today was the Christmas program by the ward choir, and it was so beautiful. I've never heard a better ward choir. I love musical sacrament meetings. I love talks, too, but I love reading the songs along with the singing. Christmas carols are the best. 

And we finally came home and set up our Christmas tree. We've been meaning to do it since before Halloween, but we kept putting it off because we always have something to do, or I'd rather go to bed. But I love our pretty little colored lights. 

There are two new members of our family, just in time for Christmas. Charles' mom has a brand new baby maltese named Boo, and she is a stinking cutie. And my parents just got a baby golden retreiver (my dad's always wanted one of his own) named Grant. I think they've taken to calling him Bozo, though. So now our house is positively crawling with animals. Two cats, two dogs, a guinea pig, and whatever insects Maggie and Cam are working on collecting right now. I can't wait to go home! 

Speaking of animals, Anna (whose nickname is animal) accidentally found my dad's grizzly bear pepper spray and the house had to be evacuated for a few hours for the fumes to clear out. I'm told Lizzy heroically braved the fumes to save my lazy cat Moose from a terrible fate. I wonder how effective that spray can be if it can't even get rid of a moose?