utah driver

old license, meet new license

today i bit the bullet and got a utah drivers license. :(

it's a long story, but between letting my CA license expire almost a year ago and the slowness of the CA dmv bureaucracy and the pending move, i decided i'd just rather get it done NOW.

wasn't so bad, i suppose. fees are cheap here and dmv lines are short [two non-existent things in CA], so i didn't have too hard a time. they even let me keep my CA license after they punched holes in it [see above], something i was a little worried about. [why does my face always look SO fat in d.l. pictures??]

anyway, as part of the deal, i had to take a 25-question driver's ed exam and i was nervous about it. if i remember correctly, i barely passed that when i was 16. BUT, my worrying was for nothing! today i passed with 100%!

when i turned in my paperwork after the test, the utah dmv man said "congratulations! that is especially impressive seeing as how you came here from california. and we all know how californians drive."

you think california drivers are bad?!?! when you live in UTAH, the state with the stupidest drivers on the planet?? it was all i could do not to start ranting. i have mentioned it before but people around here DO. NOT. KNOW. how to drive. it makes me craaaaazy. and now i have PROOF! i get 100% on my driving test which shows i actually know what i am doing. i wish i could teach driver's ed classes around here to point out all the dumb things people do.

take that, utah.

okay, rant over. i'm sure not everyone is bad around here, but i've been cut off or annoyed a few too many times. at least in CA people know to get out of your way. bah. that's all. my official license comes in the mail in six weeks and now no one will ever know i'm not really a utah driver. [though my plates are still californian, thank heavens.]

bump update

tonight i wanted to take a new bump shot but felt the need for a different background. so, we walked down the street to a pretty little orchard near our house; these things are common in orem. the backdrop also provides a nice illustration of our schizophrenic weather -- springtime buds on the trees and snow on the mountains. make up your mind, winter! [and hopefully make it up to get the heck out.]

so we played in the trees for a bit. i'm 30 3/4 weeks today. i like to think i still look normal if you look at me head-on...what do you think? [black shirt probably helps camouflage, btw.]



but then i turn sideways and BAM! baby dub in all his glory:



p.s. don't mind my ghetto hair & makeup. we stayed out waaaaay too late to watch the jazz v. nuggets playoff game last night with friends, so this morning i opted for the lazy look.

b said "do your sound of music jump" so i tried to hop -- and almost ate it. i didn't realize it until today but my balance is SHOT. i even do yoga every week still, but apparently by holding onto the chair for my 3rd trimester-friendly poses i haven't noticed that i'm totally front-heavy. oh well. i held this pose for less than two seconds.



b got to make a cameo [and yes, he's growing a beard again]:



then we walked home and it started snowing. on april 29. barf. the end.

monday notes

1. today might be my last monday working full-time EVER. or at least for a very long time. this is both scary and liberating. i celebrated by having bottomless french toast at maqleby's fresh with b & my parents, who were in town this weekend. then i rolled into work late. oops.

2. one week & one day till we move! this is also both scary and liberating. have i started packing? nope, not at all. but i have a really awesome list going of things TO pack, once i start.

3. i have a nice little headache from said french toast. that syrup is just too good not to lick right up, but another fun pregnancy side effect no one told me about is that i just can't process insane amounts of sugar like i used to. boo.

4. remember when i hated boy clothes? tooootally don't anymore. you'll be happy to know there are actually a ton of cute baby boy things out there! big kudos to my crafty sister for making me some adorable male-friendly accessories...all those baby girls with ginormous flower headbands & tiny bracelets are gonna have NOTHING on baby dub.

5. only 10 weeks to go till we meet this baby! my feelings on this? see #1 & 2 above. basically i live my whole life these days alternating between terror and excitement, on every subject. be careful when asking me to make simple decisions like which jamba juice smoothie i want or whether i realllly want to buy those toms. i am prone to burst into tears [or a hysterical laughing fit] at any moment.
[just kidding. my emotions are actually pretty stable these days, unless someone decides to share a terrible story of a stillborn baby with me. other than that, i'd say i'm rolling with the punches quite well. bring on the job change / internship / move / baby!]

happy monday!

april showers

last week was party central around here. on thursday night my MIL threw me a lovely baby shower for all of b's family in the area [some of whom i swear i had never even met...thanks for coming, peeps!]. food was delicious, we got a ton of clothes for baby dub, and this is the sole photo representation i have of the night -- oops:



i think my stomach looks HUGE in that picture...maybe it's just the shirt? i hope?

THEN my wonderful friend erica threw me a shower on saturday for a few of my college friends. we had it outside and it was such a gorgeous day -- and it was so so fun to catch up with people i barely get to see these days. plus i have way better pictures because i gave my camera to a designated photographer [thanks britt!].

you can never go wrong if there's a delish dessert spread [and please note the adorable giraffe toy]:



my cute grandma, aunt & cousins all came:





everyone ate and opened presents and had a delightful afternoon just chatting and hanging out.















i have the most amazing friends! thanks again to everyone who came. little baby wells is already stocked up on tons of fun things...now his momma just needs to figure out how to get half of it to denver and how to store the other half until the fall. two weeks till colorado!

btw thanks for all your well wishes on my last dismal post...im still feeling kinda crappy but a bit better than before. i would also like to throw a request out into the universe that i stop being a veritable black hole for terrifying, depressing baby stories -- for some reason, last week everywhere i went i heard a super sad story about stillborn babies, dying newborns, families with tragedies, etc etc etc. i could barely sleep for two nights out of paranoia and a constant need to make sure this baby's still kicking. no one ever told me how STRESSFUL motherhood is -- so much to worry about and he's not even freaking here yet! oy. this is going to be quite a transition.

two steps forward, one step back

this past weekend i officially entered the third trimester. i keep telling people this, like i should deserve some recognition or something, but i guess i'm just excited to reach the last "big" milestone of pregnancy. i'd been looking forward to this because now i feel like we're getting close to actually having the baby, but so far the 3rd just feels a lot like the 1st.

this morning i had to sit down while blow-drying my hair. that is a habit i adopted back when i was in my 24/7 nausea phase, which usually was followed by sitting down next to our hallway mirror to gag down some cereal and put on my makeup before crawling out the door to work. mornings were hard during the 1st tri, and my usual activities seemed to wear me out. i even had to sit down in the shower a few times because it was just so. much. work. around week 15 my energy levels started picking back up and -- miracle of miracles! -- i could actually stand up again while putting on my mascara!

sadly, not anymore. this morning it was back to sitting down. i've also spent a great deal of time trying not to throw up over the past few days, which is odd because i thought THAT WAS OVER.

let's be clear: i have not actually thrown up during this pregnancy. i chalk this up to a strong stomach and a severe aversion to said activity [it's been years since i actually got sick...maybe i've trained myself away from it?]. b likes to tell people this, usually coupled with an air of "so she's never really gotten that sick while pregnant." WRONG. this could not be more wrong. just because i'm not physically barfing doesn't mean i don't want to, or that i don't feel just as awful. nausea is no fun, my friends. and now it's back with a vengeance. along with headaches and going to bed before 10 p.m. every night.

i guess the only big difference i've got going on between now and the 1st tri is that i have a giant stomach and can feel / see the little guy moving around all day long. that is definitely my favorite part of being pregnant. so i guess i can hang in there for the 11 weeks i have left. :)

oh, and just fyi, i woke up to 3 inches of snow this morning. did you think spring was here? nope, it's not.

the elder has left the building

we dropped my little brother off at the missionary training center today! sad? kinda. unexpected? definitely.

in the aftermath of his appendectomy, his doctors told him to wait a month after his first checkup for another checkup. if that one cleared, he'd be free to notify the mission office and get his new missionary start date. last thursday was the final doctor's appointment and everything looked good, so grant's stake pres called the mission office and we just waited to hear more.

didn't hear anything until thursday morning at 730 a.m. when they called and said they wanted him there FRIDAY morning. barely 24 hours to get it all together! [apparently because missions operate on a transfer schedule, he had to either go today or wait 6 weeks to go in with another batch of mexico-bound missionaries.] luckily he had already started packing before the appedicitis popped up, so he was mostly ready. just had to finish up, get set apart, have a final dinner at outback steakhouse with the parents and then sleep one last night in his own bed.

this morning b and i picked him up from the SLC airport and got to drop him off. we stopped at my grandparents' house so they could say goodbye to him, and then took him to the MTC. we got to take pictures and hug him and quote the simpsons one last time, and then he was off! they checked him in and he got his official "elder payzant" name tag and that was it. i cried when we left.


[granty + my cute grandparents]









he was so cute and so grown up...not too nervous or anything, just happy and ready to go. he is going to be such a great missionary, teaching the people in mexico about the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints, and i know they're going to love him.

i, on the other hand, will miss him! a lot. and it's weird to think about having a missionary out...i haven't "sent" a missionary away since i was in college, and even then i didn't really care about them enough to write every week or send packages :) guess i'll have to start my letter writing soon.

yay for elder payzant!

april fool's indeed

i hate april fool's day. i always fall for pranks. but imagine my surprise when i walked outside to THIS today:




april 1 indeed.

we have one covered parking spot and one open spot. during winter i always made b park in the uncovered spot because i hate hate HATE scraping my windows from snow. i suck at it, it makes me late, i always end up w/ snow in my shoes, and it's cold. when he got the new car i said ok, now you can park in the covered spot because winter is over and you have a shiny new car. imagine my regret this morning. although you can't blame me for thinking i was safe because after all it IS april. barf.

then on my way to work i encountered some incredibly stupid people on the roads and proceeded to write a very strongly-worded blog post in my head about why i hate all the drivers in utah. it was vicious and made me wish i had a gun to blow out some tires. i also wish there are more ways to tell other drivers they are stupid besides honking and flipping them off. [i honk; i do not flip off. but i usually think about it.]

but now i'm at work and i've eaten my cereal and have had time to cool off. and i decided that life is good because i have a three-day general conference/easter weekend coming up and i have a healthy little baby rolling around in my stomach as i type. so i shouldn't let these minor things get to me. UNLESS someone pulls a stupid april fool's joke on me. then i'll be pissed.