Another belly pic, and school update...

Wow...I never realize how big i've gotten until I see a profile...looking down I don't look big at all! Here i'm GIGANTIC!!

See? This is what I see sitting down and standing up...no big deal.


Then I pass a mirror or a reflection in a window (I KNOW i'm not the only girl who pays attention to reflections...) and have to try my hardest not to let my jaw drop to the ground!

In the second picture, if you look closely, you can see sparkly pink toenails...Mitch paints them all the time, but gets to pick the color :o) So, I let him go to town :o) He's so good!

Our little Nathan has been a good boy to his mama so far, which we've all been grateful for. Despite 14 weeks of throwing up, everything has been smooth sailing! And the 14 weeks of puking is normal, or so i'm told! :o) Right now he's sitting at 34 weeks and 2 days, but he's measuring around 32 weeks. Apparently this is nothing to be concerned about since both our moms had small little babies. Good boy, Nathan! We don't mind a small baby! :o) Oh, and his other shining accomplishment of being head-down is grand, too!

Mitch and I have been working really hard in school. We've been trying to sluff (sp?) away old, bad habits of "skimming" material instead of actually reading it, doing the minimum amount of work, etc. We're getting really good grades so far and learning to manage our school and work schedules. Every once in awhile we'll slip, but we're nowhere near making a habit of it. We didn't design the most "fun" semester--we're both mostly knocking out Generals--but hopefully the grades will make the work worth it!

Look at me and my petite little post. Yup, time to get back to homework! :o)

Oh, by the way...I found the CUTEST little baby coat today at D.I. Baby Gap. $2. Yeah, it's living at our house now! We don't have many coats, just lots of warm outfits and blankets for our little arctic baby!

I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello...

...hello, hello! Oh, Beatles...love that song.

Our family has had two exciting new editions in the last 24 hours, but it meant saying goodbye to two of our favorite little "members" of the family...

...let me tell you a story. (Ignore my un-makeup'd face and unflattering figure! :o))

My little laptop has had quite a rough existence. Mainly it's put ME through a rough existence. In the 3 years we've known each other, his hard drive has crashed once, his operating system has crashed once, and his hard drive has been reformatted twice. Oh, and i've been through two charging cables with this poor guy. The repair guys say one in four computers is a dud...I guess we found one! The poor little computer always worked so hard for me. Never gave up when I was writing a paper or in a time crunch for a deadline. Never told me to go back to homework when I was on Facebook (or Blogger!).

So, I was quite disappointed to find out yesterday (by three repair places), after my computer refused to charge for anything, that the charging port inside the computer was shattered to pieces. Apparently this is a very fragile part of a laptop, and my laptop has been quite mobile over the last three years.

Last night, Mitch and I made a very "adult-like" decision...since my computer was going to be $250 to repair, we decided to break down and buy a desktop. I was lucky enough not to lose any of my information, (i've already done that TWICE!) I was just told that at the end of its battery life, may or may not ever charge again. So, with me taking a full load of classes, including 4 online classes, something had to be done.

We decided on a desktop because 1) i'm a year and a half/two years away from being done with school and wouldn't need a laptop much longer, 2) my major doesn't require me to have a laptop in class much, 3) they're generally cheaper, and 4) they generally last longer, if you don't tote them all over the United States and subject them to horrible treatment on airplanes like mine was.

So, it was off to the store. And the internet. And our pocketbooks...thank goodness for financial aid, right!? This is the exact reason we are so grateful for grant money, and I feel like it was the exact use it was intended for this semester!

Mitch mentioned on the way to the store that he didn't want his computer anymore if we were getting a desktop, but he WILL still need a laptop. His laptop is beautiful; it was a $900 HP a few years ago when he bought it, and NOTHING has gone wrong. However, it also weighs as much as a baby elephant and is very bulky and wide (ya know, he got one of those cool ones that has the HUGE-O screen for movies and fun stuff...)

So, we made another adult decision. Turns out, after turning 21 on Sept. 20th, the adult decisions are now swarming me (and Mitch, who's been and "adult" for awhile now)...computers, babies, marriage, jeez! When did I become an adult? Oh, right. September 20th.

We decided to sell both mine and Mitch's computers to a computer repair place in town and buy a desktop and a simple laptop. We wanted a netbook, but lots of the anatomy programs Mitch has to have won't display on the small screen.

It was kind of sad to see them go this morning! The money we got from mine bought a new monitor for our desktop, and the money we got from his basically paid for the desktop itself and part of his laptop. Sweet deal, huh?

We are in love with our new computers, and having a little "office" space set up in our apartment makes us feel all the more grown up! Our baby room was an office for awhile, but we never sat down at the desk. Here we have a place for both of us to sit and do homework and feel very organized! Everything has a little place and has fit well so far.

We also are in LOVE with Windows 7! I had XP on my old computer, and Mitch had Vista (but never had a problem with it! Lucky guy!) However, I LOVE all the fun little tricks! There's Home Sharing, where we can access each other's files when both the computers are on, etc. It is something to get used to to have two family computers, not one of "mine" and one of "his."

We had to make a few minor adjustments; we took the leaf and four chairs away from our table. One of the chairs sits at the computer desk now, (which is now in the dining room instead of the baby room) and the three other chairs are spread out around our apartment--one in the baby room and two in our room.

We still have a few adjustments to go: hanging a bulletin board or picture or something over our awful gray electrical box, etc.

One day we'll have more room to spread out, but we love our little apartment, even if it does get a little tight! We're just college students...we don't need it all :o)

(PS--another reward is well-deserved by the people who make it to the end of my long, jabbery posts!! Sorry I don't have a picture of our new laptop...it's in Mitch's backpack at nightclass with him! :o)

A huge kick in the pants...

Today is Saturday. We just finished our first two days of a new semester. Mitch is taking online and evening classes, since this is his off-semester, and I'm taking online classes and three that are only half a semester long (they end October 22nd; i'm due November 7th...don't come early, baby boy!).

This will definitely be the hardest semester we've EVER had, complete with more self-motivation than Mitch or I feel like we have (yay, online classes!). We're both carrying a full credit load, we both have jobs (Mitch has two), we have a baby coming smack in the middle of the semester, and i've never had as much work to do at church as I do now!

Ooh--another fun stressor...no Pell Grant or loan money has been seen yet!! Our financial aid dept. decided it was a brilliant choice to switch their software programs right before this semester started. When I worked in an office on campus last semester, we were upset about having to make the switch in the middle of last semester. Financial Aid is the only office that refused to change...so, now we all get to pay for it! (Literally! They may not have the money to us by the time tuition is due on the 16th!)

*Sigh...* Okay, onto a more positive note! Wow, that was depressing!

Mitch and I went to see my boss on campus the other day, and she sent us down to another office run by another lady we've both worked for in the past. She offered Mitch a job right there on the spot!! He starts on Tuesday, and it will give him 12 hours a week, which will help us greatly! Plus, after I have our baby he can take over my campus job and keep his, too! This new job works out perfectly with his schedule. I mean, it's incredibly perfect! What a blessing!!

We love being back in Rexburg. As much as we miss family, it's nice to actually be able to buy a week's worth of groceries without having to think about what will go bad while we're gone! Plus, we'll get to see both our families a few times before the year ends, so we shouldn't have to miss them too much! :o)

Well, I think that's it...we've set up a very strict schedule and we're trying to keep our heads above water. We both have a huge determination to get the best grades possible this semester (something else that I think is divinely inspired!) and, so far, we're lined up to get them. I know it doesn't sound like much since we're only in our first week of school, but I think in the last week we've had more asked of us than in a month of school during any other semester!

My Sweet Man!

I just wanted to take a post to talk about my sweet husband! :o) I feel like I don't give him enough attention on this blog, and that it's all about my random (disorganized) thoughts and feelings.

Tonight we are preparing for tomorrow's special Sunday meeting (in our church, called a Sacrament Meeting) with Mitch's family. Mitch and I were asked to talk for 10-15 minutes on the topic of strengthening families. This was a perfect topic for me specifically, and I was excited as I thought all week to write down my thoughts and get a talk ready. My minor is Marriage and Family Studies, and, because we're currently expanding our family, the topic of strengthening families has been on my mind almost constantly.

As Mitch and I went to our room to talk about this subject, he told me that he had a great scriptural reference that would complement our talk well. He started telling me his thoughts and ideas on this subject, and I was shocked at how much thought he had put into it. Not that I expected him not to, I just didn't realize how much instantly came to mind for him, that he could relate to this topic and apply in our talk.

I realized then how grateful I am that he worked so hard as a missionary for our Church. He devoted two years of his life--every minute in those two years--to serving the Lord and spreading the Gospel. Because he worked so hard (it takes a lot of self-motivation to keep going for two years!) and gained so much knowledge of the scriptures and Gospel topics, he is able to serve our family very well. I am seeing the beginnings of this as we prepare to teach his own family.

I am so grateful that he served a faithful mission, when he had the choice not to, or to serve a lazy, selfish mission. He is showing a great example to our little baby already, and i'm sure he'll continue to show a fabulous example to our little family, and to those around him.

I love you, Mitch! The last year has been amazing, and i'm grateful every day that i'm lucky enough to be your wife! :o)