July

Lets see, where did we leave off in the updates?  July.  Lets see what happened during the month of July? 




Work:  Work was a complete nightmare during the entire month of July.  We were remodeling the Valley View Room, something which was much anticipated and now has taught me that I will never build/remodel my own place (at least if it means I have to hire a contractor).  We moved all of the 'necessary items' down to the food court and 'merged' business with them for the month.   Needless to say by the end of the month EVERYONE was glad to see us go.  David's work continued to be great.  He has a wonderful boss and co-workers.  He looks forward to going to work and gets anywhere between 38-50 hours per week which has been great.  I am truly grateful that he was able to get this job, especially at this point in our marriage where a little more financial stability is much needed for my sanity, or at least what is left of it. 


Family:  My family did not do much that I can think of during the month of July.  We had a BBQ for the fourth with the Cordners, that was a lot of fun.  That evening we went to Magna for the Dexter annual Fireworks extravaganza.  David's cousins put on an insane show where tanks battle it out and there are random explosions.  The excitement for the newly legalized areal fireworks spread to the family and we had those as well.  Granted they were not so much fun when one tipped over and erupted into the crowd.  All in all it was good to see the family.  David has two cousins that are also expecting children in the next few months.  Actually, one should already be here.  Life in the Dexter clan is always hopin and the addition of three little ones will be no exception.


In the middle of the month we
July 23rd we were able to celebrate our two year anniversary.  Someone asked me if we were out of the hard part yet and honestly I don't know.  The first year of marriage we were so polite and cautious of causing problems that we each bottled everything inside.  The second year was the exact opposite.  We are ourselves and snap whenever needed.  I prefer the second as bottling led to a lot of resentment and problems.  I would rather we snap over the small things and get over them before they become something even bigger...you know?  Anyway, David made reservations at the hotel we went to for our honeymoon.  I love this place it is luxurious and not expensive, close to everything and easily assessable.  We spend Saturday in Park City shopping, and can I just say the baby made bank!  Sunday we checked out of our hotel and spent the day at the zoo.  David had never been to Hogle Zoo before so that was fun, just blasted hot.  After that we headed home and slept the rest of the day.  It felt wonderful to relax and be pampered and I will admit I wish we could go again, and again, and again. 


For the Twenty-Fourth we spent the day with my family, kind of.  We attended the Fiesta Days parade, booths, food, relaxed in the cool basement, more food, saw the community theater version of Hairspray, and then went home to crash.


 Later in the month the Dexters had their three year Dexter reunion.  This included family that I had yet to meet.  You see, the Dexters, unlike my family, are spread from California clear too Tennessee (about six months ago I could have said Germany...but that distance has now been bridged).  It was fun to meet everyone, especially my doppelganger.  David's cousin Orion married a really nice girl named Kayde.  That's right there are two of me!  I still claim to be the original but he says that she claims the same thing.  David's family all came down for the reunion and spent a couple of nights at our place.  Let me say the addition of five extra people in a small two bedroom apartment was quite the feat.  We were able to drive up each night for the family firesides before returning to the daily grind.


Baby: As previously stated we found out in June that we were having a girl.  It was not our 'official' pronouncement of gender but we were excited none the less.  July 11th we went in for our twenty two week ultrasound/anatomy check and gender analysis.  Well, we learned a few things, and changed a few things.  During the ultrasound the doctor was impressed with her strong heartbeat and how perfectly formed she was.  Thank you, thank you apparently I know how to bake 'em.  He had a bit of problem actually getting a shot for the gender, but when he did it was golden.  We definitely have a little girl on our hands, there were no if, ands, or anything else to complicate that matter.  The only issue came up when he started measuring her for growth.  Our little tatertot is in the 3rd percentile, technically she is below it and that is a big concern.  If she is really measuring that small it means that something is wrong and he wants to send us to a specialist.  I explained to him how we received our due date and he left to look at our past ultrasound.  When he returned he said that she was actually measuring true to the past ultrasound and that he feels that our due date is off.  At this point I was very relieved and did not care that he was pushing us back about a week.  Really, she will come when she wants to come.  So as of now we are not really expecting a tatertot, but a Turkey!  David had no idea how true it would be when he told me one day my 'turkey timer' would pop (belly button) to show us when she is done baking.  Hopefully that is still a ways off however. 


Early in the morning on July 28th I lay as I felt our turkey kungfu fighting with my insides.  I noticed that these kicks were particularly strong and so I grabbed Davids hand and placed it on my stomach.  Until this point he had never felt her move and I was still in awe that anything of the sort was happening inside of me.  Well he felt her alright, it was awesome.  I am still pretty excited but we can't get her to do it to him often as every time he places his hand on my stomach she becomes completely still.  I think its pretty funny.


Well thats about all I have for now, and you don't want to read anymore so I will update August next time (hopefully a lot sooner too!)

The epic long saga of June

After a few insane weeks it looks as if life is almost back to 'normal.'  Honestly it has been so long that I don't even remember what normal is anymore.  I guess that is a good thing as life is about to be turned completely upside-down once our little one arrives. 

After two weddings, a road trip, and a bit of food poisoning, I think everything is going great.  This second trimester has been interesting.  Didn't have many symptoms before, save exhaustion, and they seem to be even fewer and farther between. Time to catch you up on what has been happening the past couple of months:

May:  My cousin Marielle got married.  Mom and I were in charge of the refreshments at her wedding.  All drama aside it was an amazing backyard wedding and the food turned out gorgeous.  Mom pushed herself WAY to hard and was in bed the next day.  I was there along side her and we slept the rest of the weekend away. 

June:  David started his new job with a local restaurant called Communal.  This is a huge blessing.  He was getting maybe six hours a week.  Don't even get me started about that one.  Truth be told he is taking a full load of classes this summer to bring up his GPA in order to MAYBE get an internship with this company with the end goal of making a good impression and getting a job.  Well....he just skipped a few steps and got the job anyway.  He loves it.  The guys are great.  Most of them are LDS and married which allows for them to all understand each other and get along great.  Unlike many other kitchens it doesn't tend to get lewd or vulgar in its joking (at least not that I have noticed or that he has pointed out.)  Communal is a part of Heirloom Restaurant Group, currently they own Pizzaria 712 (my personal favorite restaurant!), Communal, and Heirloom Catering Co.  David says there is talk of even a possible bakery in the future.  From things I have heard from past employees this company is run by two chefs who worked up at Sundance.  They decided that there were no good local restaurants.  All Provo and Orem seem to have are 'box' straunts to eat at.  After tasting their inventions I agree and agree whole stomachly!  I love these guys.  They make everything on site, buy locally and support other local business doing the same thing.  With their plans for growth in the area we are hoping that this could turn into a career.  Check them out.   They are different but you will not regret the experience.  

On other news the Dr. did not allow me to go to girls camp after all.  The venue was changed last minute, which would cause me to do alot of hiking.  He was all on board with me going camping but completely against any hiking.  I had to agree with him, I have never been known as a coordinated person.  It turned out that not going to camp was actually a good thing.  My cousin Abbie got married the first weekend of June.  We went to St. George for her wedding.  It was amazing.  Proves how powerful the sealing power really is.  After the ceremony and luncheon we did a bit of shopping and watched as my aunt and uncle said good by to their oldest son and his family.  They are moving to Texas for medical school.  Afterwards my uncle took us to his office and took a peek at our little one.

All little bitty of our Irish step dancer.  The entire time we were doing the ultrasound the baby did not stop dancing its little legs around.  It was really neat.  My younger brother Todd was able to be there, and that was a neat experience to share with him.  We got a couple of good shots, no this is not my prostate as the photos would have you believe.    After our wonderful time at the office we headed out to dinner and back to grandma and grandpa's for the night.  The next morning we enjoyed a huge breakfast prepared by grandma and headed on our way home.  

Seems the drive was what tried to do me in.  I have never had problems with motion sickness of any type, but somehow I could hardly handle the four hours it took us to make the trip.  We no more made it to mom and dads before I had to rush in and loose what little lunch I had eatten.  This continued for the rest of the day.  Poor David was a trooper and took care of me like no one else.  Come to find out Todd got sick later that night and it was decided we had gotten food poisoning, and that David just has an iron stomach.    

After this it seemed to be one thing after another at work and the rest of the month just ran on by.  Another fun side note was the 2011 Shop Hop.  Mom, David and I went to as much of it as possible.  David seemed to win a prize at the games at every store (which worked for me as the prize usually got handed to me) and I ended up winning $100.00 to my favorite quilting store Gracie Lou's in Salem.  Mom was pretty mad about this but in the end she calmed down as she also won $100.00 at the Corn Wagon (because I put her name in when she wouldn't...hehehe). 

During all of the ShopHop insanity we decided that we MUST know the gender of the Dexter to be.  We were able to find an independent ultrasound tech who could fit us in for an appointment.  It took her a woppin 10 minutes....IF that and we had our answer.  ITS A GIRL!  Now lets just hope that gender doesn't change before our next ultrasound next week.  Fingers Crossed.  Sorry it has taken so long to post.  I have a ton of pictures and seem to have lost my uploading cable...oops.  I kept telling myself when I find it I would post but as an entire month has passed by with out so much as a how do you do, I couldn't wait no longer. 

Heartbeat

Well a month and a few worries later I was able to go in for my next doctors appointment.  This past week my stomach has been feeling very sore, and I have been experiencing sharp 'gas'-like pains.  You know like when you have had surgery and they have pumped air into your body.  Yeah, NOT fun.  I arrived a bit late to the appointment so I was put straight into my room where the doctor came in and tried to find the little heartbeat.  It took a while.  He could not find it at first and I was slightly worried.  Could those pains have been the beginning of a miscarriage?  Another part of me worried that he would not find it because I had to much fat blocking the way. 

Eventually he found my heartbeat and then a strong rapid fire baby beat appeared.  It was at this time that I remembered that I wanted to record the event as David had not been able to make it to the appointment.  The doctor readily agreed and grabbed the camera for me.  Thus started the search again.  We tried the same spot, moved a bit, moved to the other side, and tried again.  No luck.  Every time we would get close and hear a little something the baby would move away.  By the end the doctor and I were both laughing at the fuilty of attempting to capture this beautiful sound.  Sadly David was not able to hear the heartbeat.  However, we do know that we have a mover on our hands.  Hopefully we can see that on our next ultrasound.

In other news:  School ended the last week of April.  David got great grades and is pumped to begin his next semester in the culinary program.  I on the other hand am a little nervous about how I will be able to handle him working and going to school when I have a new baby to deal with.  Oh well, that's life I guess.  This month things at work got out of control on David's front.  He finally caved and applied for a new job.  (I have been begging him to do just this for months.)  Lucky for him he happened to catch the owner for our favorite restaurant group Heritage Restaurant Co. at Communal.  He was interviewed on the spot, asked to come back for a second, and quickly asked if he would mind a working interview.  Long story short, he got the job!  He starts the 6th of June and is WAY excited.  In all honesty this is our dream job.  If he can work with this company and they are as good as we have heard, he may be able to work his way up and we can stay in the valley.  I'm praying for just this. 

Ta DAH!

I did it!  I was able to finish scanning all 200+ photos for my mom's crazy projects.  I can't really make fun of her projects though as they are all good idea, just mean a lot of work for me.  We are scanning a whole bunch of old family photos for a digital photo frame she gave my grandma for her birthday (in October...oops) and then I was volunteered to make a wedding video for a lady she works with.  Granted the video is going to make me money so I should have jumped on this and had it done by now.  What can I say, exhaustion makes a great excuse? 

The past month has been insane.  Between barely being able to put one foot in front of the other once I get home from work, helping push David through the last bit of classes, try to tie up a few loose ends for work and home, visit with out of town (and in for that matter) family and friends, work work work, SLEEP, and an attempt at seeing my significant other...yeah its been a mite crazy.  The sad thing is I have spent HOURS on the computer and much of that on blogger, stalking other people...just not updating my own.  Yes I am guilty and I am here on Easter Sunday asking for your forgiveness. 

We were able to go Friday and see our little Tatertot.  I am currently convinced it is a boy (that way I am right, or pleasantly suprised when it is a girl).  I have had a hard time with this the past few weeks and feel as if I am a horrible mother.  While I have been trying to eat better, and have stopped drinking the nectar of the gods, Diet Coke, the whole experience still seems very surreal.  Does that make sense?  I have little to no symptoms (which is great don't get me wrong), unless you count actually listening to my body and its fatigue, I am loosing weight (15 lbs and counting)-which is nice, and had yet to have a real doctor confirm it.  So here we are at the doctor on Friday, we meet our new practitioner, great fellow, and are able to see said tatertot.  Well, I saw him, saw the heartbeat, and...well it still does not feel real.  I'm currently wondering when the sense of surrealism will wear off and I can come to terms with reality.  My guess is in about twenty or so years.

Our current Due Date is scheduled for November 18th.  Which means no black Friday shopping for me.  Cool thing is we will definitely have something extra to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, even it its a bit late.  Even neater is the idea that IF (BIG IF) we go early, we could have our baby on 11-11-11....I wish.  Doc says everything looks normal and good so we will keep praying for that.  He sees no complications and I hope to keep it that way.  Either way our little tatertot will soon be here to make a whole lot more complicated. 

Cutest thing.  David just asked me at how old does a child need to be before going to Disneyland.  Awwww I have a keeper.  So excited!

Well...its official...we have an IT!  All 10 weeks of it.  My favorite part of the little jelly bean look'n object is its adorable legs stickin up.  More later, gotta finish scannin stuff for a huge family/etc project.  I WILL get these finished today!

March

Wow what a month! I did not realize that I have not updated in an entire month. Oops. Lets see what has happened?

• Beginning of the month: I finally went to the doctor. As expected there is something wrong. I really like this guy, he explained things to me and actually listened to what I had to say. I even let him take my blood and did not cry, or faint! Instead I agreed that we needed to set up an appointment for a scope to the tummy and sadly a colonoscopy as well. My only requirement was that we wait to do the scope until May as I did not want to take anymore time off of work. This kinda confused him and eventually he agreed as he gave me yet another medication. We will see how that helps.


• Middle of the Month: SPRING BREAK! We went to Cheyenne for spring break to visit David's family. It was great. We were able to relax and spend time with the family as well as sight see and visit a bit more of the city while we were there. During this time we started to have a strange inkling that there might be something about to change in our lives and decided to follow up on our thought. Surprise, surprise, the test was positive. We should soon become a family of three on November 18th, 2011. Totally not expecting this one. Read what happened at the beginning of the month....yeah. I am supposed to be having surgery not poppin a baby! The sad part is I had just decided that I did not want to get pregnant as I would feel like a single mom with the way David's schedule is going as of late. It totally sucks. Oh well. Things happen on someone elses plan not our own right? The plan was to keep it under wraps until Easter....yeah, come to find out we are really bad at keeping secrets. We spilled, and fast. It took about a week and the cat was out of the bag. Hence my post. I have been abstaining from posting as I knew my fingers would become traitors and tell you.


• End of the Month: I is tired. How bout you? Slept for 14 hours straight this weekend and still just want to rest. Looks like its going to be a fun eight months.