Autumn is in the Air.

Hello my friends!! I’ve been feeling really homesick lately. Zack and I are coming home to Utah for a couple of days around Thanksgiving and I am already counting down the days! I’ve enjoyed Hawaii a lot more this year than I did last year. I can appreciate the laid back style a lot more and I am starting to think maybe there are things that I will miss when we leave.

Zack graduates in SIX months! (OMG can that be right??) That means I only have 4 more months until baby is due!! What the??? Then we’re off to grad school somewhere else! I wish I could say grad school was going to bring us to Utah but right now it seems it’ll be a long time before live close to home. The scariest part is adjusting to a new place, far from family, while still learning how to be a Mom. I know we have big adventures ahead though! I’m sure I’m going to love wherever we end up for grad school. It’s only temporary right?

Plus, Zack finally admitted that he might possibly, MAYBE, see us POTENTIALLY living in Cedar City near my family! I literally almost cried when he said it. We probably won’t even be thinking about settling for another 5-7 years though. So, I’m going to just keep talking about all the benefits and hope when the time comes he’ll be on board. I think we’ll definitely end up in Utah or nearby, but it’d be a dream to be so close to my parents and siblings!!

So pregnancy perils have been minimal these last couple weeks. I’ve had a lot more energy and I haven’t passed out in a while! Woo! I have had some pretty bizarre and extreme dreams lately though. Every night random things from throughout my day appear in my dream. One night I dreamt about Joe Biden hand feeding me chicken nuggets. I wake up almost every morning and can’t believe the things in my dreams.

A few months ago I bought a bunch of fabric to make baby blankets and I FINALLY finished the first! They are so so so simple. Its basically like muslin fabric with a hem. Haha. But, I’m really excited about them and you can order the fabric millions of colors. I just need to put more time into it and I’ll get them busted out in no time!

It’s finally starting to feel like “autumn”. The winds are picking up, so the air is cooler. It’s been rainy and gloomy. That’s the closest I’m going to get to real autumn. But, I have a new goal to make Zack understand the world’s obsession with pumpkin. His dad is extremely allergic to pumpkin, squash, yams, and zucchini, all of those things. So growing up, he never carved pumpkins or had pumpkin cookies or bars or milkshakes. The fall I’m going to make everything pumpkin that I can. The only thing is, he doesn’t like cream cheese frosting… which is half of what makes pumpkin things so yummy. But, I’m going to make him see the light. If any of you have amazing pumpkin recipes please, please, please send them to me! I feel like I’ve got to do something to get in the holiday spirit! Why not bake yummy treats?

Well my friends! Life is so good and we are so blessed! I hope that each of you is feeling the joy and excitement of this time of year! I ache for the day when Zack and I can be surrounded by ALL those we love, friends and family. You guys are in my thoughts and heart daily!

Mahalo and Aloha!

SD

I'm Back!

I've been off the blog for the last 6 months or so! Real life got so busy and exciting I didn't have much time to update! But I'm back in Hawaii and Zack is very busy... so i have a LOT of extra time on my hands! I'm hoping to fill my time with sewing projects, cleaning, and a lot of reading. Since I'm pregnant again I have five or six books about pregnancy and delivery that I really want to read, but I haven't made them a priority yet. I am thinking I'll just take my book and chair into the back yard, put my feet in the water, relax, and try to stay cool!

I'm so excited to be pregnant again! It happened crazy fast but was definitely a welcomed surprise! The last time I posted I was healing from a miscarriage. I had my D&C in March and got pregnant in May! The ironic thing is one night Zack suggested we take a break from trying; that we just take a few months to heal and get ready to try again. I agreed; I thought we could both benefit from a few months to focus on other things. Two weeks later I got a positive pregnancy test. Once again, the Lord's time table was totally different from ours. I have to admit, this may be my favorite example of when the Lord knew better.

This pregnancy has been such a blast! It certainly hasn't been a walk in the park... but luckily I know how to laugh at myself. I hope my description of the perils of my pregnancy don't come off as complaints. I really only share them because A)I think I'm funny and B)I'm sure many of my friends who have been pregnant can relate! My due date is February 18! I thought "Oh! This will be great, I'll be pregnant through the winter, I won't have to deal with the summer heat!" Then I remembered that I live in Hawaii, land of the eternal summer. This is such a positive to so many people, but not this pregnant person. At 21 weeks, I can barely wear clothes. I'm dying. Today I made myself a lunch and sat, soaking my feet in an ice bath. My favorite thing is to just sit (as still as possible) with my two big fans pointing at me. I think these are just the dog days of Hawaii though. There is no wind these days. The hot, humid air just sits. Hopefully with the change of seasons we'll get more of a breeze coming through. I don't remember feeling this hot last year, so hopefully it won't last!

My first trimester consisted of a whole lot of puking. So far, the only change in my second trimester is I get really dizzy... and faint occasionally. Hahah. So embarrassing. But my appetite is back at about half force. I do get hungry, but a lot of times nothing sounds good. I eat a lot of granola bars, celery, bagels. I'm sorry to report have yet to have any crazy or creepy cravings. But, I'm excited that pregnancy has curbed my appetite for really unhealthy food. I'm trying really hard to focus on being as healthy as I can for this baby! I keep thinking that once this pregnancy is over I'm going to have like an actually baby to take care of. I'm going to need to be healthy and in shape!! It is amazing how much that motivates me!

During the first part of my pregnancy, I was in Cedar City with my family. Since my dad is an OB/GYN I was really lucky and was able to get ultrasounds at least once a week. It was so fun and really helped me to relax and know that everything was going alright! I left there when I was 13 weeks and Zack had already come back to Hawaii, but we really wanted to see if we could find out if it was a boy of girl. I wanted to share that with my family! So, we got Zack on Facetime and filled the ultrasound room with as much family as we could and, lets just say, our little guy... is NOT shy. He was happy to show us what he had to offer. Hahah  Zack and I are both really excited to be having a boy! We would have been thrilled either way, but its fun to think that we'll have a big brother for the rest that follow!

Since I've been back I've really missed the easy access I had to ultra sounds. If it was up to me I'd have one everyday just to see how he's growing and watch what he's doing in there. The last few weeks have been really fun though because I started to feel flutters. I think I felt the first flutters around 18 weeks; now I'm feeling straight up kicks and nasty bows. I seriously wonder what he's doing in there sometimes. Especially at night, when Zack and I are laying in bed talking about our day, he really seems to get wild. I'm thinking we better start trying to change his sleep schedule though. I can sleep through the kicks now, but once he's born I'd really like for him to sleep when I want to sleep. Hahaha. Do I sound really naive and overly optimistic? I know.

Anyways, the last few months have really been full of so many new, fun experiences. The Lord really poured out so many blessings upon us. I feel blessed to be back here in Hawaii with my best friend and the love of my life! I'm really excited/terrified to become a mother! All of my wise friends, I'd love any advice or fun experiences you have to share!

Love to all of you!!
Sal