Can I get a drumroll, please?

That's right everyone. We're having a baby boy! We have already chosen a name but we decided not to share it until the baby is born. I will tell you that the baby's middle name will be Paul since both our dads are named Paul. Convenient, eh?

Here's his face! He was looking right at us. You can see his right hand up by his ear. He was waving at us! Right after the ultrasound we went out to eat at Pantrucha's (our favorite Chilean restaurant) then Tyson took me to Gymboree. Here are the two outfits we got. 

 This is Tyson's favorite. He loves dinosaurs!

 This is my favorite outfit. Octopus pirate. Can you get cooler than that?!

So there you have it. Our baby boy. My son. EEEEEE!!! I'm so excited :) The nurse said that he's measuring at 20weeks even though I'm only 19 weeks. That makes me a little bit nervous because my due date now is August 22 and my graduation ceremony is August 11 and 12. If this kid comes too early I won't be able to walk at my own graduation. I certainly hope I get to walk. I've worked for five years on this degree and I've earned it, dang it. 

My mother-in-law (who is awesome, btw) is coming down Saturday morning to take me shopping for more baby clothes and for fabric. She loves to sew and I'm going to have her help me make new bumper covers for the bumpers my lovely Aunt Nimmie sent me. I also bought a panel of fabric from Wal-mart but now I have to do something with the edges. I'll take a pic of it and post it. Maybe someone out there knows how to do it!

Fabulous Monday

Today has been a fabulous Monday. 
First, I got my ultrasound changed from next Monday to this Thursday. Yay! 
Second, I got my midterm back from my senior course. I was really nervous about my grade because it was worth 50% of my final grade. I didn't fail! I actually did pretty well. 
Third, I got the internship I had been waiting to hear back from but I posted about that already.
Fourth, I got my "Into the Woods" DVD in the mail. My mom had given me an Amazon gift card for Christmas but I couldn't decide how to spend it. I finally got two Glee CDs and two DVDs: Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and Into the Woods.
Sigh. Happy Monday everyone. 

Interview Results

I GOT THE INTERNSHIP!!!!!!


Yup. I'm pretty stoked. Mel called me while I was in the Library and offered me a position at the HPC for the spring/summer. I can't wait to get started! The best part of this internship is that I get to work with my aunt who is the whole reason I wanted to be an editor in the first place. I bet she didn't even know that. This is so great! I might have a chance at a career! Woo!

Re: The Interview

The interview went very well. I think.


Mel said I did great on the editing exercise (even though I forget some obvious things. Stupid pregnancy brain) and that he'd love to work with me. However, there were three or four other applicants who did just as well on the exercise. Ultimately it comes down to the Church. Yup. Some of the students who currently work for the HPC (Humanities Publication Center) applied for internships this summer at the Church. The Church is taking their SWEET TIME getting back to people. So everyone needs to pray that these students get internships at the Church so I can work at the HPC :) Blessings for everyone! 


I would only get maybe ten hours a week since there are only eighty hours available to students. Luckily, my current boss said I could probably still work there even if I got this internship.


Something fun I didn't know about the internship: I would be working under my aunt for part of the summer. How cool is that! Kinda scary though too. That would make me like...a zillion times more motivated to be perfect in my editing since I know she'd be looking at my work. 


Anyway, Mel said I should hear from him sometime next week. This internship is exactly what I want to be doing for a career: scholarly journal editing. It would be a wonderful opportunity and I'm just dying to know if I got a spot!

The Next Month

I have got so much to look forward during the next month or so. Starting with tomorrow!


Tomorrow: NO CLASS. Word. Banish myself to campus to do research for my senior project. Not so word.
Saturday: Time to chill with the in-laws and check out our (maybe) new car.
Sunday: Choir practice for the Easter program and for my solo in church.
Monday: Humanities paper #2 on Dante's Inferno (first draft) due. Rawr.
Wednesday: Graduating seniors banquet with for the ELANG/LING departments.
Saturday, April 2: General Conference and then Hairspray that evening to see the amazing Tierra as Motormouth.
Sunday, April 3: My half-birthday! Oh yeah, and General Conference haha
Monday, April 4: ULTRASOUND DAY. That's right! Just a week-ish until we find out gender. There will definitely be a post about that one. No worries.
Friday, April 8: My senior presentation. I should really start that...
Sunday, April 10: Solo in church. I am singing "His Hands" and my friend, Steph, is going to sign it in ASL. We did it last year in our single's ward. Encore!


Then later in the month my sister-in-law is giving birth to a baby girl. They are going to name here Briella. Cute, huh? And April 28 is the first day of Spring term at BYU which marks my absolute last "semester" at BYU! It also is the first day of Women's Conference which I will be working. Woot.

Interview Tomorrow

I have an interview tomorrow for an internship at BYU with the Humanities Publication Center. This would be an awesome opportunity for me and I'm pretty nervous about this interview. Honestly, I'm surprised I made it this far in the process. Here were the steps of the selection process:

1) Collect resumes and cover letters.

2) Administer editing exercises to some applicants.

3) Schedule interviews with those who demonstrated good editing skills.

So, here I am. Interviewed scheduled and terrified I'll not get this internship. This type of editing is EXACTLY what I want to do for a career. Pray for me. My interview is at 2pm. I'll update with my musings about how it went and any other tidbits.

Pregnancy Dreams

Pregnancy dreams are weird. They are super vivid and I can usually remember the multiple dreams I've had in a night. Sometimes they are totally random, sometimes they can be linked to some part of my day, or sometimes they bring to life things I've been thinking about.


Random
Annalise, Noelle, Natalie and I all were in Valencia near an old-time Western train. But Valencia had very similar topography to La Crescenta, just more desert and Western like. We were trying to catch the train but ended up getting ahead of it somehow and we had to jump into this giant puddle which ended up being more like a lake.


Linked
1. Dream that me and a friend (unknown) were in a swimming pool with Alfred from the new Batman movies and Booth from the TV show Bones. My friend and I were reporters and trying to get them to talk to us. I was accusing Alfred of being a shallow and mean person which contrasts starkly to the majority of characters he plays. I was accusing Booth of just being a jerk to me in general. This is linked because I watched Bones yesterday and was thinking that Booth and Bones just need to get together already. I was frustrated with him. I don't know why Alfred was there but it was kinda fun to dream about him. He's a fav.
2. I was in a hotel on a band or choir trip. A lot of my high school friends were there, both from FV and CV. Also among the group were members of Glee and other random singing/drama type kids who frequently perform at BYU. Linked because I love Glee and seeing musicals. It's fun to see community theater here in Provo because many of the actors stay the same.


Contemplative
1. My family found a baby and decided to take it in. For some reason this really perturbed me. I spent the dream stomping around and making a fuss at being ignored. I don't know what this really has to do with anything. But I imagine it's what Jane may have felt like after Katie was born. After being the youngest for five years, having to share the love would be tough.
2. (I only remember the last part of this dream) I was in some third-world-country but from the look of the people I would guess somewhere in Africa. I'm leaving a compound of sorts, like a Hooverville during the Depression, and I am standing up in the bed of a truck. As we're driving away I can see into some of these huts and into one in particular. I see five or six kids fighting over blankets and such. Except the blanket a few are fighting over is actually a towel that I donated to DI a while ago. In the hut I also see some of my old shoes, clothes, and other blankets that I have donated. I must have been thinking about African orphans because Tyson and I had lunch at Malawi's Pizza a few days ago. When you buy a meal from them, they will donate a meal to an orphanage in Malawi Africa. 


So there are some of my dreams from the past few weeks. I pulled that all from memory. Can you remember dreams you had weeks ago? Moms: did you have crazy pregnancy dreams?

Oedipus Rex and New Furniture

Tyson and I are taking Humanities 201 together this semester. Yay! But it's a GE class. Boo! For the first paper of the semester, I wrote it on truth and appearance in Oedipus Rex. I hate writing papers on literature. This is why I'm an English Language major. I like writing papers about verbs and adjectives.

Our teacher required us to work with The Writing Fellows, a group of students who are paid to help other students figure out tough spots on their essays. I've never used them before but I am so grateful that we were required to use them for this paper. My writing fellow was awesome! At our last meeting I had already written my paper, she had looked over it and made suggestions, and I had revised it. My main problem was that I had all these great solutions to the questions she posed but I didn't know how to incorporate them into my already-written paper. As I talked she took notes and then showed them to me and said "Okay, this is how you organize all that." It was great! I was able to just ramble off the thoughts that had been bouncing around in my head and she organized them. Love it!

I finished writing my paper this morning. Here is my favorite sentence: "Oedipus’s reasoning follows the path of least resistance: his fluid thoughts seep into crevices of plausibility and he remains trapped in the visible evidence that surrounds him." I read it to Tyson and he was impressed. I'm sure you've all heard loads better but I liked it. So I wrote it. And I liked it some more.

In other news, a furniture store in town is going out of business. Tyson and I have been looking for a new bedroom set since the one we have actually belongs to his parents. We found a beautiful five-piece set at 60% off the appraised price. Not bad, huh? We got a bed frame, two nightstands, a dresser, with an attachable mirror. It's all black wood which is my favorite (as attested by the two black wood bookshelves we have in our front room). The nightstands and dresser have silver handles and it's all super beautiful. We forgot to take pictures of it yesterday so after we get it set up today I'll take pictures and post them. Tyson and I are so blessed. I swear, Tyson has a gift for getting good deals. It's awesome!

Second Trimester Woes

Every pregnancy is different for every woman. No two women have the same experiences. I am 16 weeks into my first pregnancy. The baby is doing well, all my tests came back normal, and even though I haven't gained any weight, my doc says I am right on track.

So what the heck is going on!?! My first trimester was pretty uneventful despite getting sick over Christmas break. That illness was not due to pregnancy though. Tyson and I spent a whole day at Disneyland in the pouring rain; we both paid dearly for it. I never threw up which didn't really surprise me since my mom didn't throw up during her pregnancies either. I had some nausea but it wasn't that bad. I slept pretty okay and everything was great until maybe two weeks ago.

Welcome to the beginning of my second trimester and the end of my sanity. Good glory! I thought things were supposed to get easier! Sleeping has become significantly more difficult. I can't get to sleep until 2am or 3am. The fatigue is ridiculous. I'm frequently shaky and I have to take showers when Tyson is home just in case I faint. I've never passed out before but I know what it feels like to be approaching a faint. It's a weird sensation. My hearing starts to go and I get tunnel vision. At least I get some sort of warning so I can sit down and take some deep breaths.

Eating is nearly impossible but not due to nausea. Every time I eat something my stomach gets all angry. I think my baby is a really picky eater because I can't eat anything without feeling terrible. My doc sort of reprimanded me for having lost weight since my first appointment. He wants me to gain one or two pounds before my 20-week ultrasound. He told me to eat more frequently and to snack on high protein snacks like nuts. The only problem is the baby is anti-food. I can't figure it out!

Skin care is another issue entirely. I've struggled with acne for a long time but pregnancy has sort of calmed that down. Yay! My skin gets super dry though. I use a Vaseline lotion for my face to keep it from cracking. My mom got me some concentrated cocoa butter which is supposed to reduce the appearance of stretch marks. I've been using it on my tummy morning and night but my skin is still flaking. No good! After showers I use Lubriderm pretty much everywhere to keep my skin nice and moist and reduce itching. That seems to be working out well.

Aches and pains seem isolated to my shoulders but Tyson is such a sweetheart, he'll give me shoulder rubs whenever I ask. I love that boy :)

I thought that second trimester was supposed to be easier than the first but I think my body is doing things progressively. Sigh. I just want to sleep and eat without an issue! Where are the cravings? My sister-in-law is pregnant and due at the end of April. She puked for her first trimester but she's pulled out of it and now eats all the time. I am glad she's doing well and I only hope I get so lucky.

PS Four week countdown to April 4th: Ultrasound day!

A Friend Who is Awesome

Tyson and I have a friend. If I were to try and sum up this friend in a word that word would be "amazing." He's one of those people that is always willing to help out, super fun, and has a great testimony. I knew this guy from my single's ward and when Tyson and I got engaged, Tyson and he became good friends. Our friend came to our sealing and he has fed Tyson and me dinner multiple times. We are constantly impressed by this friend. He was one of the first people Tyson and I told about my pregnancy once we started telling people.

Our friend is studying in Jerusalem and today he asked me if I would like a baby blanket from Bethlehem. HOW AWESOME IS THAT?!? He told me they were really cute and he thought it would be a great baby gift. He also said he'll be sure to get a big one so I can keep my baby warm in "swaddling clothes." Man, our family Nativity re-enactment this Christmas Eve is going to be legit. I'm grateful that Tyson and I have good friends who look out for us and our baby. Pretty sure our kids are gonna grow up calling this friend, Uncle. I love that!

Testimony-type Songs

For those of you who have spent any time around me, at all, you know that I have a passion for music. And not just any music. Churchy music. Weird, right? I know, I know but I have a really good reason for it. Here's the story:

Once upon a time, there was a young woman who was terrified of giving talks in church or bearing her testimony. Why? Because she could never find the right words to express how she really felt. This young woman went to college and became active in her ward choirs, school choirs, ward music council, and was even a choir director a few times. During those few years, the young woman realized something brilliant. If I keep organizing musical numbers for sacrament meeting, or leading the hymns, or directing the choir, they can't assign me a talk in church! I'm too busy singing! In her attempt to avoid speaking her church, she discovered something else about singing praises to God: her testimony was growing. About what? About whatever she sang about. She found that focusing on the words, understanding the emotion behind a song, and trying to express that to the congregation led to something much greater than just a nice song. She would sing songs and people actually felt the Spirit! Her favorite thing in the world is to hear people say that they were "moved" by a performance. Who cares if she messed up on that one line, or if the pianist dropped the book off the piano, or if the tenor in the quartet couldn't quite hit that last note. That isn't important. This young woman learned how to share her testimony through music and has loved every moment for the last five years. The end.

Now, I bring this up because of two things:

1) I saw a video on Godtube.com of a 7-year-old girl singing "Amazing Grace." This little girl has got skillz. With a 'z'. She rocked that piece. She should have been singing at the Super Bowl, not Black Eyed Peas. Yes, the song was great but it also felt a little bit...wrong(?) for her to be singing it. Let me explain. This girl is seven. She's missing her front teeth. There is no WAY she could know the true power of the Atonement. She's not even at the age of accountability yet! All I'm saying is that the song lacked true emotion. She can't know what it's like to be in the depths of despair and only have God and Jesus Christ to turn to. She can't know the glorious feeling that accompanies true repentance. While the song was nice to listen to, it didn't touch my soul. Get Gladys Knight to sing "Amazing Grace." She's just as "gospel" as this little girl, but I'm sure I would be more moved by Gladys's version.

Here is the video of that little girl singing. What do you think?

http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=767YGLNX

2) On April 10, I will be singing "His Hands" as a solo with my friend, Steph, who will be signing the words. (Signing=in American Sign Language) We did this last year for our single's ward's Easter Program and it was awesome. Since this is the last Easter Steph and I will probably ever spend in the same state, much less the same ward, we're doing it in our married ward. It's really moving to watch because Steph does a really good job signing and the congregation ends up watching her and not really focusing on me. Love it! Here's the problem. This song is super emotional. I mean, geez. How did the lyricist really expect anybody to sing this song without tearing up? I practice a lot but every time I get to the end I get all choked up. It's a problem. I don't want that to happen during sacrament meeting but I don't know how to stop it. It doesn't help that we have a bust of the Savior sitting on our piano. There I am, singing about His life and miracles, and then the atonement, and then I look over and He's like...watching me...I can't handle it! Anyway, I'm working on "keeping my testimony in check" so I don't break down into tears at the pulpit.

Here is a video from YouTube of the song. Not me and my friend but just the song so you can know what I'm talking about. It's not my favorite recording but just listen to the words. What do you think?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5EOtUEWIDo&feature=related

Friendly Friends

Since Tyson and I have been married we have been very lucky to have some close friends with whom we can hang out with. Most of these friends are single. This isn't a problem but I feel more comfortable in pairs. Lucky for me, Annalise, one of my good friends from La Crescenta got married in November and she and her hubby, Ryan, have moved to Provo. Recently we've had the chance to hang out with them pretty frequently. It's been so great to reconnect with her. The other night Annalise and I went to a Chanticleer concert at BYU. At intermission I received a text from Tyson asking me for Ryan's phone number. Kinda weird. After the concert, Annalise called Ryan and discovered the boys were at my apartment playing on the XBox. It makes me so happy that Tyson and Ryan can be friends without Annalise and me. We had them over with another couple in our ward to play board games and it was a blast. I am so grateful that we have good friends who will be at BYU as long as we will.