B-day Celebrations

I had a great birthday! I went to work and during the day my boss took me out for a chocolate shake at Hoos Brews - SOOO good! In the evening, Dan took me to Red Robin to redeem my free gourmet burger. I got the Bacon Guacamole burger which was fantastic. And Dan got a burger and a chocolate shake which he shared with me. I know, I'm an addict. Then we went over to our friends' place to eat guess what? That's right, ice cream. And to celebrate the fact that Sarah and I were born on the exact same day. It was fabulous!

My favorite part of the day, however, was opening the presents that Dan got for me. In addition to some scrapbooking stickers and a really pretty necklace, Dan got me something that I LOVE! A coupon book - complete with illustrations. Some of my favorite coupons include one complete week of him doing all of the dishes, and one gallon of Moose Tracks Ice Cream. It's pretty much the best thing ever.

Here are some sweet pictures that Dan created in my coupon book:

I must preface this first one by saying that Dan thinks I don't like his back rubs...

And I would like to comment that my feet do not smell. Dan is just dramatic.

Either way, I love it! He's the best. And he's done with law school classes FOREVER! Very exciting. Here he is on his last day of school. I'm very proud of him for all of his hard work! (Don't mind our messy apartment...)

Happy Birthday!!!

Today is Kristen's birthday. She's telling me that she's over the hill. But to me, she's the best looking 34 year old around. Happy B-day, sweetheart! You're the bomb-dot-com.

Sorry for the lack in posts. We've been pretty busy! Our second birthing class was SOOOO much better than the first! The normal instructor was back and she was so practical and down-to-earth. A night and day difference. And FAR less into random acts of nudity. At least so far. We toured the labor and delivery section of the hospital and it looks pretty nice, so that's eased some fears as well. The only thing that concerns me is that there are only 10 rooms. Good thing out of the 7 girls in the class, I have the second earliest due date. I've got to stake out my territory. The third (and penultimate) class is tonight. I think we're supposed to learn more about delivery itself. That should be fun, right?

Saturday morning Dan and I went around for about 20 minutes while he took some maternity shots of me and my large belly. Here's one. I'm sure we'll put up some more soon.


Until our little bundle is born, if you would like to see pictures of one of the cutest new editions to the world, take a look at this guy - our newest nephew. He's now 8 days old.

Childbirth Class - Part 1

For those of you not interested in hearing about our first childbirth class, sorry. This post is not for you. For the rest, here's how it all went down.

We arrived at the hospital and went up to the room. There were 7 couples there (one left halfway through - perhaps they had the gift of foresight)... The instructor was a nice woman from Slovakia. We began by introducing ourselves and answering the question, "What do you hope to get out of this class?" which I thought was kind of pointless because I'm sure we all just want to know more about the birthing process. I mean, that's what the class is for! It's called "Preparing for Childbirth."

Anyway, so we do that, then she has this huge PowerPoint with all of this interesting and helpful looking information like how to get rid of back pain and good positions for taking stress off of your hips, etc. but then she cruises by all of the promising slides and stops on slides of miniature babies formed out of marzipan (which, until this point, I thought was just the female character in Homestar Runner. I've never had marzipan). Think I'm kidding? Take a look.


Then she keeps halfway telling us about things and then says, "But we'll talk about that later." Did we? No.

Right before our five-minute break, she shows us a video called "Michelle's Story" and promises us that it has a lot of relevance and we'll all be able to fully relate to the story of this woman. Who gives birth in Guatamala. In a hot tub. With her father videotaping. While she and her whole family are naked. And she sucks on the fingers of her newborn right after she pulls her out of the womb. What the heck! And let's not forget when her Dad zooms out of the birth and focuses on a pair of dragonflies mating.

So Dan and I passed a good 10 minutes awkwardly staring at the ground and being thoroughly
weirded out. Goodness!

The second half of class wasn't as bad. We talked about signs that accompany different stages of labor and she had a fake pelvis and baby doll that each of the men had to pass through the birth canal. As if they'll be doing that in real life, too. We ended class by dimming the lights and "relaxing" while she said such things as "Imagine your mind is a lake. Without any ripples. With cool, crystal clear water." At this point, I was thinking, "What kind of ice cream should I have when I get home?" And Dan was thinking, "Is there any way we can get our money back?"

Can I handle it?

Tonight Dan and I take the first of four classes entitled "Preparation for Childbirth" at the local hospital. Many of you who know me well might consider me a little prudish - I like to think of it as modest. How am I going to handle a childbirth video?? Yikes! I about died when watching a nature video in which it showed fish mating (gross! Thanks, Katy) so we'll see how this all goes down.

I'll just have to practice some of the breathing techniques that I'm sure they'll be teaching us as well.

In other news, I signed up for the Wilton Cake Decorating Class Part I at Michael's beginning May 6th if anyone is interested in signing up!

Yay for General Conference!

That's all I've got to say this week. That and buying things for a baby is stressful.