Drills, Cakes, and Baby

Joseph got a drill last Christmas but we had no reason to use it until now. We got some curtains and needed to hang some curtain rods. Here's Joseph using a drill. He felt like a real man.

 I've been working slowly but surely on making some cool things for our baby. This is one I finished last week. It's a crib mobile. I doubt our baby will like it very much but I think it is fun. It was pretty easy to make and cheap too. Just used some ribbon, a wooden hoop, and felt.

 We celebrated Father's Day with some friends from Church. It was fun to have a reason to decorate a cake again. It tasted pretty good too. We had dinner at a friend's house and then played some fun games like Farkle.

For those who care, here's an update on the baby/me. There is definitely no way to hide the fact that I have a baby inside me. No longer can I squeeze through small areas. I forget that I can't just "suck it in" and pass through small/narrow areas. My current cravings include Kool-Aid (I know, not the healthiest thing in the world. I try to limit it to one glass a day) and crackers. We've gone through so many Ritz Cracker boxes since we've moved to Texas. Our baby has a tendency to keep me up at night so my day often consists of a nap. Other than the normal aches and discomfort, I've been feeling alright. Hoping our baby stays healthy and strong for another few months!

Lessons Learned

We've learned a few things about Texas since we moved here. In case any of you have the strong desire to move to Texas, let me offer some helpful advice.

1) Even if you have gone through the hassle of changing your married name over two years ago, Texas doesn't care. You still need to prove you're married when you want to get a Texas driver's license. Even if you have a new Social Security card and a current license with your married name on it. So bring your marriage certificate with you wherever you go.
2) You need to have your car registered in Texas BEFORE getting your driver's license. AND... you cannot do both of these at the same office so be prepared to drive four lights down to the tax office only after waiting in the DMV line for an hour.
3) The DMV is so small that the line goes outside. You'd think that in the hottest state, they would think about this when building DMVs. Thankfully they put some chairs inside for pregnant women.
4) The GPS doesn't work the best in Texas because of frontage roads. The GPS gets very confused, which means you get confused. Now, you could pay to update your GPS but it's doubtful that will help.
5) Mosquitoes come out in full force roughly 6-7 days after a rain storm. They like to hang out by the front door. Buy Cutter Mosquito repellant BEFORE this happens or else you have dozens of mosquitoes inside your house.
6) Always carry an umbrella with you. Random storms come when you least expect them, or at least at an outdoor volleyball tournament where there is one tree in the entire park.
7) In Texas, you can either enroll in a driver's education class or be "Parent-Taught." This fully explains why Texas drivers are crazy. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Enroll your children in drivers education for my sanity please.
8) Buy the energy efficient, room-darkening curtains. The price at the store makes you think twice. But then when you hang them, you realize how useful they really are.

You can tell what we've been up to based on the lessons we've learned. Good luck if you decide to move to Texas anytime soon.

Happenings of May

We continue to settle down in Lake Jackson. We like the town. When we asked some teenagers at our church what they do for fun, their first answer was "Go to Walmart." So obviously, the town lacks some sources of quality entertainment. But, we can still have lots of fun. Joseph and I went to the beach last weekend and enjoyed just sitting on the sand, watching the waves come in. The town is getting a Texas Roadhouse, which opens sometime this month. I'm very excited to go there! We also found a fun park on Saturday.

For Memorial Day, we drove to Austin and enjoyed seeing Joseph's brother and his family. We met our nephew, Oliver and were there for his baby blessing. He's about five months old and we had fun playing with him and his big brother, Caleb.

Joseph looks like he is doing a ballet move with his foot pointed.

 Also, we found out the gender of our baby. So we went for our ultrasound and it was awesome to see the baby for the first time. I didn't have an ultrasound in the first trimester because there were no concerns with the baby. The ultrasound tech was pretty nice and explained a lot of things. Having taken anatomy at BYU, it was cool to see the vertebrae and different organs. The baby was is an odd position for the ultrasound so the tech pushed on my stomach a bunch to get the baby to move. But the baby is just like me, STUBBORN, and wouldn't move. The tech made her best guess and said our baby is most likely a little GIRL! I will believe it more when I actually see our baby this fall.

Her hands

Other than that, I finally don't fit into my normal clothes so I had to buy some maternity clothes. We have also felt the baby kick a bunch lately, which is always fun. She hates it when I lie on my back because she will kick non stop until I move. I think she feels crunched when I do that. I went shopping for baby clothes finally. One morning after going to a few garage sales and here is what I have:

I hit a jack pot at one place. The mom had a little girl and was selling all of her baby clothes. For about 30 dollars, I got over 40 outfits of all different sizes.

We bought this at Target right after we found out we're having a baby girl.