SoCal treats us oh so good!!

We headed back down to Southern Cali this last weekend... Jason luckily had another "business trip" and I had another opportunity to lay pool side. Yes! Honestly, I've never loved a pool more than during pregnancy. I'm just starting the 3rd trimester and bouncing around in that weightless environment is heaven sent. It was great! Hard to come back when upon landing the pilot announces that it's 38 degrees in SLC. Ouch! It's only almost May, don't worry. Welcome home mama!

Here's us with some of the NorthStar peeps at Claimjumpers Friday night. Yum!


So, I have a strange relationship with this exotic fruit they call mango. I LOVE it. Adore it, obsess over it, yearn for it. The strange part is, I had a severe allergic reaction to it on my mission, when over the course of 3 days I ate about 30. (Not exaggerating, not at all. What? you've never done that? We had two HUGE mango trees in our yard!) Never quite figured out if it was a true allergic reaction or if it was just the consequences of my disobedience to the word of wisdom, "moderation in all things." At any rate, my lips blew up to hot dog proportions, and I broke out into the WORST hives all over the bottom half of my face and hands. Lasted about a week. Was pure hell. Members and investigators would gasp at seeing me. Children would burst into tears running and screaming for their mothers. One man even turned and vomited when he looked at my face. It itched so bad that I'd wake up in the middle of the night rubbing in between my fingers together so hard that they would bleed! Well you'd think that would cure me, right? That I'd never go near the stinking fruit again right? WRONG. It intensified my passion. I guess it's sorta like the abuse cycle. I'm addicted to being battered by mangos, and I defend them if anyone has anything bad to say about them. I always go running back. So when I saw the little mexican man taunting me with his cooler of chilled mangos... I fell into the addiction yet again. Luckily this one I hoovered, against the stern exortions of my husband, did me no harm. I made it away safely... and yes it was delicious beyond description.



Plus, it's so sexy to watch someone eat a mango on a stick. My husband thought I was particularly irresistable... mmmm hot.



Favorite Dave quote of the weekend:
The scene: riding to Baskin Robbins, Jason driving, me in the passenger seat and Dave sitting behind me.

I make some smart remark about Dave, mostly for comedic purposes (I have no idea what it was) so he reaches up, hands clasped around my neck, and starts choking me. Not really cutting off air supply, mostly just pretending to. Then he makes the comment:

Dave: “Wow your neck is really skinny”

Me: “Yeah it’d be fairly easy for you to actually strangle me, huh.”

Dave: “All I’d need would be my rubber mittens to hide all the evidence and I’d be set.”

Awkward silence fills the car.
Me: “Did you just say ‘rubber mittens’?”

And it was over from that point on. He tried to correct himself “I mean rubber gloves,” but the damage had been done. That brought in at least a good 15 minutes worth of laughs.

So this picture at last night's Jazz game has nothing to do with the subject of the post, I just thought baby girl is turning out pretty photogenic so far...

What I wanted to talk about is general conference! Wasn't it most superb? We were able to go to the Saturday morning session. When President Monson was sustained I kept getting goosebumps over and over again. I'm so grateful for the gospel. I feel so richly blessed that I have it in my life, and that it gives me so much purpose. I was sitting there listening to President Eyring speak... and I found the quote that in particular touched me.

"My sense of gratitude stems also from blessings to my family. It is the sealing power and our knowledge of it which changes and transforms our family life here and our expectations for the joy of family life in the world to come. The thought and the hope that I can have eternal relationships carries me through the trials of separation and the loneliness which are part of mortal existence. The promise to the faithful in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is that we may have associations and an expansion of families in the eternities. That assurance changes forever and for the better all of our associations in families."

Not to get too Hallmark on you, but I was sitting there with Jason, one of his hands holding mine and the other on my belly feeling baby girl move...you add pregnancy emotions in there and I was completely gone. I could not stop crying! The spirit touched me, and for that moment everything in life was sublimely perfect. There are things we hear over and over again in the church like "families are forever," and it can become so routine. Once in a while I really internalize the fact that I have the blessing of knowing I can be with Jason eternally, and our family, and it makes me so happy. There are moments that certain gospel truths ring overwhelmingly TRUE to my heart. I need those moments. We all do. Sometimes it all just seems too good to be true, doesn't it?

P.S. speaking of the wonderful husband...(I know, I'm obsessed with him) I was thrilled this afternoon to see that he discovered the posh new dish gloves I bought... he seemed equally as thrilled... He loves doing the dishes! They look great on him.

So I feel like going nuts with spring cleaning. Anyone with me? (Feeling much like Rosie the Riveter. Isn't she just hot?) I'm not talking about the surface stuff either. I want the deep stuff. I am going through my closet today and D.I.ing ridiculous amounts of junk. So if any of you have been secretly eyeing any of my items, they might show up on the shelves at DI within the next couple of weeks. Then again, that might be awkward when I see it on you and ask where you got it. Dang it, if you are eyeing it just tell me and I will give it to you! I am trying not to be too drastic or rash because I obviously don't happen to fit into like 90% of my clothing right now. It's sorta like the seasonal temporary insanity that comes over me every winter, I want to throw away all my summer things because I just think, "Well I really don't wear this lately." Does that happen to you? Yeah that's how I am feeling about every last pair of jeans I own, besides the maternity ones with the huge fabulous belly strap. (PS bless those maternity jeans, bless them bless them and bless the soul who came up with them. ) I think I will most likely move onto my husband's closet next (which is bigger than mine by the way, who does he think he is? Doesn't he understand the rules of life?!?) and begin a trashing tirade there as well. Women, I've realized it's just much easier to de-junk your husband's stuff when he is at work. I promise he (at least Jason) will not even realize there is a single THING missing, even though I will be hauling out 2 huge black garbage bags from his closet alone. I think they call this phase of the pregnancy "nesting," and I happen to just adore that term because every time I hear it I imagine myself as this big fat hefty hen waddling around searching for mud and twigs. And it makes me laugh. Hooray for nesting! Hooray for spring cleaning! It really is therapeutic. Feels great!

Ok so I am obsessed with being pregnant. Anyone who has been pregnant or who is knows exactly what I mean, that's all you really want to talk about, at school, and church, everywhere. It is all consuming. So, just in case you couldn't see baby girl as well in those other pics, I'll throw these up too:)... some days she really looks bigger than others.

She is growing like a WEED! I feel her kicking all the time and seriously, it is the most thrilling feeling in the world! Jason has felt her a handful of times as well but sometimes I swear she gets stage fright because she will be doing an aerobics routine in there and then as soon as he puts his hand on my tummy, she freezes. Then she'll start up again when the pressure's off. It's so funny!

Here we are the night before at the ESPN zone in Downtown Disney... We went to dinner with some of NorthStar's managers and their wives that live down there and had a BLAST with them! Honestly it was such a fun night, we laughed so hard at dinner.

We finally got away... headed down to Southern Cali for a long weekend and it was honestly exactly what we needed! I can now stand another month or so of on and off snowstorms, (like the one we got today) without testing my mental sanity. We stayed in Laguna Hills most of the time with Dave but spent some time in LA and San Diego. The weather was SUBLIME, about 75 to 80 degrees the whole time with the most excellent breeze!

Watching the sea lion show at seaworld

Dave had a strange connection with this eel... sorta like how Harry Potter speaks to snakes haha

After the day at seaworld (and getting soaked from the shows) we drove down to embarcadero in SD before going to dinner. We were so tired and just wanted to lounge in this park and watch the sunset. We had a little fun with the photo shoots and ended up drawing a lot more attention to us than originally planned, especially when Dave scaled that tree behind us- Mogley style.

He also had a really strange allergic reaction after the mexican food we ate... his nose would not stop running. (haha yes folks we are adults!)

OH, THE MISSION...

I've been home now for 2 years. Holy cow. So I found some pics of me on the mish and I couldn't resist. They make me laugh so hard, I honestly hardly even recognize myself. Paraguay threw me for a loop. That experience feels like I dreamt it. It was the "best of times and the worst of times". Honestly, the hardest thing I have ever done in my entire life, hands down. I was determined to stay a "cute sister missionary" and was committed to not let myself completely go but it really didn't take me long to not give a crap about what I looked like nor how much weight I was gaining. I put on a hefty 20 pounds, mostly on my chin. I couldn't even wear any of my rings, my fingers were completely swollen, due to the horrendous heat and I had a constant glistening greasy face, covered in sweat with accompanying pit stains. I had the worst cankles you can imagine, and they were covered in mosquito bites at all times. I am sparing no details, but it was not pretty. The best part was that I just did not care. There were more important things to me at the time, and at one point I accepted the fact that I might probably never get back to normal. I really didn't care! I referred to myself all the time in my letters home as "fat 'n happy." haha!
Note the glistening face below... and the depth of the dimples which had much more cushion


And that hair... Doesn't even look like me!


Here we are sitting on the temple grounds, the week before I came home. (Me on the far right, notice the pudgy fingers).

HOORAY for Cosmic bowling. Well actually it probably wasn't the cosmic bowling that made the night, it was the company. Dave was in town from Cali over the weekend so Saturday night we had to hit up Joe Veras for some good mexican grub and we decided we hadn' t been bowling for a long time so we went! My bowling scores were horrendous (must have been that shift in center of gravity thing they talk about during pregnancy) but we at least got some funny shots in while we were there. I told Jason to make a sassy face for that pic... sassy indeed!

Audrey is one of the funniest girls I know, we forgot socks so we had to buy them in the vending machine... and they were huge! Mine were hidden at least under my pants but hers were bold and beautiful with her cut offs... and glowed in those black lights. Here's a good shot of victory dance after a perfect strike... hahaha I love you Aud. LOVE YOU!

Audrey and Dave (in my posh leather jacket) getting into the groove.

People don't think pregnant women get down with a good beat but oh, we do! Jason doesn't really like to dance but humors me and lets me pull him up out of his chair and at least dance around him haha