Baby Shower

A few pictures from the shower my work threw for me. We got some really cute outfits. Is there anything cuter than little baby clothes? I think not. Well, except for maybe little babies dressed in their cute clothes :) Anyways, it was a sort of combined baby shower/going away party. My last day is Friday March 26th (unless baby has other ideas and decides to come early). I've loved working here at the chiropractic college. Not only for all the perks I get (free chiropractic and acupuncture care, discounted tuition for Cory, lunch time with Cory, etc) but because I've loved the people I've worked with. I was truly blessed to land this job. It's been the perfect fit and has blessed our family tremendously. I'm excited for baby to come... but I'm definitely going to miss working here and miss all the great people who make this a wonderful place to work!

32 weeks

Alright, as you can see from my weird smile, I dislike posing for pictures. But it does show off nicely our growing baby. I'm now 32 weeks (almost 33) and feeling more and more uncomfortable. Baby seems to be growing straight out... looking at me from the back, you wouldn't even know I was pregnant. Various muscles and ligaments have all started giving me grief, so thank heavens that I'm married to a wonderful man... who (conveniently) happens to be a chiropractor! I was already a big fan of chiropractic... and now I'm an even bigger fan. It's helped so much ease some of the aches and pains.

Baby is very active, kicking and punching me quite often. He even gets the hiccups. He's head down and his little feet are up in my ribs (just one of those aches!) I can sometimes feel his feet through my skin and see them as he's moving them... which is a fantastically strange sensation!

We don't have much other exciting news to share. I pretty much go to work, go to the gym, make dinner and then sit on the couch (or sit on the couch while Cory makes dinner). It's a really exciting life :) We've started to pack some stuff up, so we can sell some furniture that we don't plan on bringing with us. We've got a tour of the hospital planned for next week, we're going to a cloth diapering class, and we've been reading lots of books and watching natural childbirth videos. Like I said, exciting.

I am putting together a list of what needs to go in the 'take-to-the-hospital' bag (for both Cory & I). I've got a fairly extensive list, but feel free to comment about what you thought was essential. There's always the chance you think of something that we haven't. Also, for those couple of people who have asked - we are registered at Target. Please don't take this to mean you have to buy us presents... it's just an FYI. Our ward is throwing us a shower, and the college is throwing us a shower/goodbye party and we're telling people that gift cards would be wonderful gifts. The less stuff we have to move, the better :)

Less than 2 months 'til baby makes his big debut! We're so excited!

How cute are these boots?

My birthday was this past Sunday, and these boots were my present from Cory. So cute! We went out to dinner on Saturday to Buffalo Wild Wings (which I'd been craving for weeks) to celebrate and unfortunately, my food didn't stay down. Sigh. But it sure was yummy while it lasted. We had a nice, laidback Sunday and Cory made me dinner. Luckily that stayed down :)

I've wanted a rocking chair for years. Even more now that we're expecting; I want to put it in the baby's room. This was my dad's present to me for my birthday/Christmas. It's genuine Amish handcrafted. It's so pretty and I'm so excited about it. It will be nice to have a tangible souvenir to take home to Utah with us from New York. Other than all the pictures and memories, of course.

20 weeks

Yep, it's official. I'm definitely pregnant.

I think I feel more pregnant than I look in these pictures. I'm at 20 weeks, so about halfway done. In that first month of being so sick, I never thought I'd get this far. I couldn't fathom being pregnant and sick for one more day, so even one more week felt like an eternity. But here I am, halfway done! I can't believe it. Now we've got to think of things like a registry, names, etc. I find myself talking to him all the time. Sometimes I still can't believe I've got this little miracle growing inside me!!

We're made the decision to stay here through mid-April. For lots of reasons that I won't get into -- but the main one was insurance. We'll stay here, I'll continue to work and be insured, Cory will also continue working at the school, and we'll have the baby here. Then in mid-April we'll pack up and move back to Utah. A cross-country drive with a 2-week old... wish us luck. Better than going at 6 months pregnant and in the middle of December, right?!?! It will be adventurous, that's for sure.

And we're starting to think about getting stuff for the baby. So I'm open to suggestions from all you experienced moms. Stuff you can't live without... stuff that seemed cool then wasn't worth the money... pretty much any advice you want to throw my way!

Quality Award

As most of you know, I work at New York Chiropractic College. I work in the Office of Institutional Quality and Assessment (long title, I know). Basically, we're quality, which means we're responsible for a lot of stuff at this school. I work with accreditation for our various programs. I administer and then analyze a bunch of surveys. I keep track of board scores. Etc etc.

Recently, NYCC applied for a Malcolm Baldrige Award, and that effort was spear-headed by my office. Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Awards are regarded as the “gold standard” of quality awards and named after Malcolm Baldrige, 26th Secretary of Commerce. They are bestowed through a program managed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology to promote excellence in organizational performance, recognize the achievements and results of U.S. organizations, and to publicize successful performance strategies.

Since 2001, only seven educational institutions have received the Baldrige Award – none in the area of natural healthcare education (which is what we are). And of the seven education winners, only three were higher education.

Basically, it's the most prestigious quality award you can win, and if you do win, there's a fancy-smancy ceremony in Washington D.C. and the President himself gives the recipient the award. So yeah, this is a big deal.

So you're probably thinking... "wow, they won one?" Alas, no. At least, not yet. We were awarded what's called a 'site visit', which means that certified Baldrige examiners come to our campus and verify what we wrote in our 50-page application. It’s still quite prestigious, since over 70+ companies applied for the Baldrige award this year, and only 15 were awarded a site visit… and out of those 15, only one education institution was awarded a site visit. Us. Stinking cool, huh?

They started their visit yesterday, and they’ll be here through Wednesday. It’s been so cool to watch the process (I’m a nerd, what can I say?) Still… it’s been a hecka lot of work. Hecka lot. I’m going to be so glad when they go away and even happier when it’s the weekend. We won’t find out til November if we won the award or not… but win or not, I already feel very proud of NYCC. This is one very good institution.

The bump

I'm finally getting to the point where I actually look pregnant, and not just fat :) Some of my regular clothes still fit, and some... well, not so much. I bought a few maternity things and Em was kind enough to lend me some of her stuff (thanks Em!) Plus my mom promised to take me shopping when we're home in a couple of weeks. We figured since I'm finally looking pregnant, it was time to start taking some pictures. So here's a few.

I'm not photogenic and I hate posing for the camera... consequently, I just look awkward.

This was Cory's suggestion for a pose...

I wish I could report that I'm feeling fabulous, but no such luck. We went to the doctor last week, got to hear the heartbeat again, and were basically told by the doctor to "hang in there!" We did get an ultrasound appt for November 2nd, so assuming baby is cooperative, we should be able to tell whether we're having a girl or boy. I'm putting a poll up on the right hand side of the blog, so people can vote (you've got 3 weeks). I'm not telling what Cory and I think we're having until after people vote, cause I'm interested to see what others think. Enjoy!

My brakcet: an update

March Madness is officially history. I officially didn't do too poorly in my bracket choices... though I did not win, which makes me annoyed. In our little bracket competition of 14 people, I placed 3rd. Cory placed a very respectable 4th place. We both beat Brett, which was really all that we were going for... (love you Brett!)

And now, for some things we've learned from this year's competition:
1. Utah teams suck in the first round. Of the 3 Utah schools to make it into the Big Dance, only Utah State got close to winning. BYU and the U were embarrassments. Next year, I am NOT putting BYU to advance, and probably not Utah, either (though we'll see how their seasons go...)
2. Sentimentality has no place in the competition. I totally thought 'Nova was going to beat Duke... and yet since I like Duke so much, I picked them over 'Nova. Stupid, stupid. I also told anyone who would listen to me that Arizona would upset the Utes, and yet I had the Utes to advance. Next year, it's all business.
3. Memphis is overrated. Seriously.
4. So is Oklahoma. Assuming Blake Griffin goes pro, they won't even have a team.
5. North Carolina deserved to win. Aaah, it pains me to say this, since to cheer on North Carolina is to cheer on the enemy. I thought they would win it all this year, though I picked Louisville to beat them in the championship (again, with the stupid feelings clouding my judgement). I'm actually happy they won, since I believe they had the best team this year - and the best team deserves to win.
6. Big East teams are pretty good, even if they didn't make it into the championship game.
7. Do your research. Cory got UConn and Pitt confused... and put Pitt to win it all. He meant to put UConn. Not that it matters now, since they both got beat...

As always, it was fun to make picks and cheer on my teams. It was fun to write all over my bracket (which I crumpled up and threw away after Louisville lost...) I'm proud to get 3rd, though next year I intend to take 1st. The gauntlet has been thrown. In the meantime, I have nothing to watch on Saturday afternoons, and may need to take up a new hobby :)

Confessions of a college-hoops crazed fan

March Madness is one of my favorite times of the year. It's the "official" beginning to spring, the sun is starting to shine with greater frequency, and the best of college hoops is on glorious display. It's such a great time of the year!

One of my favorite annual traditions is making my March Madness picks. This takes me many tries to get it just how I want it. I print out like 5 brackets, fill one out ... think about it ... crumple it up and throw it away ... and repeat the same process. I read any and all online advice, from college hoops experts to 'bracketologists'. Once I get my bracket how I want it, I cling diligently to it, and cheer with gusto the teams I've picked to advance. I carry it around with me for the entire tournament. When my teams win, I happily circle or highlight them (and tell everyone within earshot how smart I am) and when they lose, I angrily 'x' them out (and get sulky).

I watch as many games as possible. I watch them on TV; I watch them online, streaming live. When not watching, I check the scores online, and refresh the page about a thousand times so I am updated with the latest information. As soon as the game is final, I whip out my bracket and circle or 'x' them. By the end of the tournament, my bracket has been folded, crumpled, scribbled upon, stained with food and generally battered (and occasionally cried on).

Since it's so abused, why fill out a bracket? Something magical happens when you have a bracket and you're cheering on a team with all your might. There's always one team that no one saw coming that swoops in and destroys your bracket. The surprise, the riveting games, the buzzer-beater shots, the agony of defeat and the thrill of advancing ... that's what March Madness is all about ... and I love every minute of it. Bring on the madness!!

The proof is in the pudding

As many of you know, I work in the Office of Institutional Quality and Assessment, at NYCC (the school Cory attends). A few months ago, we got a new boss. As a getting-to-know-you exercise, he thought it would be fun for everyone in our division to complete an online questionnaire, called a DiSC profile. It's based on the Meyer-Briggs personality test, and you're supposed to answer the questions to describe your work persona. When you're done, they label you as a D (dominance), I (inquisitive), S (steadiness) or C (conscientious).

Anyone want to guess what I am?

Apparently, I am an 'S'. Coming in a very close 2nd place was D. Coming in at a not-so-distant 3rd was I. And coming in at the very bottom (meaning apparently I have none) was C.

Yep, I am an achiever. This really didn't come as any surprise.

The profile they give you also comes with some adjectives that supposedly describe you. Some of mine are: adventuresome, decisive, competitive, inquisitive, charming, confident, amiable, convincing, serene, possessive, self-assured, generous, defiant, obstinate, sarcastic.

*Sigh* It's pretty spot-on. At least I've got some positive traits in that list. When I told my mom that it had labeled me as competitive and obstinate, she just laughed. Sad... but true.

When it rains, it pours

The sayings "when it rains, it pours" and "trouble comes in threes" seem both to be true - at least for us. First, our heater is on the fritz. Our landlords are working to get this fixed, and luckily, we've been having a week of Indian Summer, with temps in the 70's. It's been gorgeous - so no need for heat!

Second, our oven broke. We are fortunate to have awesome landlords, so they ordered us a new one and the installation guys took care of everything. It's a flattop one, so no more cleaning those yucky burner pans!
Third, our fridge/freezer decided to die. So we spent our Saturday night cleaning out all our food ...


Then moving the old one down the stairs, and the new one up the stairs ... yep, we have a spiral staircase, so this was no small feat ...


(This picture is for you, Mom)

You can't see it very well, but I have a deep cut right across the bridge of my nose. The perpetrator of this wound?


That's right, it's our cooler. As I was unloading the frozen goods out of the cooler and into our new freezer, the lid fell down and the edge of the lid caught me on the bridge of my nose. Yeah, I bled all down my face for a while (ewww!) It looks a lot better today (when the picture was taken) than it did Saturday night. I'm starting to get a little black and blue under my eyes, so I think I'm going to tell everyone that I was in a fist fight ...

Sigh ... I lost to a plastic cooler. Plastic! That's totally my luck ...

At least my Gators won! Go Gators!!

Tag, I'm it

Well, there’s not too much to report from our lives as of late. We’re back in the grind of work and school, day in and day out. Cory’s got big national board tests up this weekend, and I’ve got plans to watch USC thump Ohio State. Exciting, huh?
So here’s another tag …

The rules: List 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 goals, 3 current obsessions/collections, 3 facts about yourself.

3 Joys
1. My husband and family. How did I get so lucky? I have the best family and the most wonderful husband!
2. Traveling and exploring new places and new cultures.
3. Reading books. I am a true bookworm at heart. Books make me insanely happy.

3 fears
1. Having my husband, parents or sibling die young (I know there is a better world after this one, but I don't like the idea of cutting this one short. Dying old is fine. I don't fear it).
2. Grasshoppers … yep, weird, I know but they give me the heeby-jeebies.
3. Drowning … yep, also weird, but I have this insane fear of drowning (or being caught in an avalanche – anything where I know I can’t breathe …) I’d rather just get shot than drown. Morbid, but true.

3 goals
1. Stop being so lazy …
2. Get more exercise than I currently do …
3. Gain better eating habits … I’m trying, I really am … I just don’t like stuff that’s good for me! But I’m trying …

3 current obsessions
1. The whole Twilight series. I’m reading Twilight again, along with the part of Midnight Sun that Stephenie posted on her website. And even though I have read Twilight 4 times now (this makes 5) I find myself unable to put the book down. Yeah, this obsession seems to be getting stronger, not weaker, even though the series is done (sniff!)
2. Trying to catch up on “scrapbooking” all of our summer photos. I’m way behind … and my version of scrapbooking is not at all elaborate. Printing them and putting them in books is about all I can manage.
3. Well, we got all our canning and freezing done – so that’s been an “obsession”, I guess. We did corn, peppers, peaches, tomatoes & raspberries. Food storage is complete! YEA!

3 facts about myself
1. I like to win. Beat me at Harry Potter trivia or Clue, and we will no longer be friends. I hate losing so bad. And I hate it when my teams lose – I take it waaaaay too personally.
2. I have 2008 Olympic tennis shoes. They are white and orange and the cutest shoes you will ever see. I bought them in China in 2002 and they say “Olympics 2008” on them. Every time I wear them, people comment on how cute they are. I even hiked the Great Wall of China in them … good memories.
3. I love life … and I am very, very blessed.

I’m not going to tag anyone in particular (except you Andrea :) so everyone can do this so I can enjoy all your answers.

Me, the Sugar Mama

People always ask me what I do for my job and I tell them I work at the chiropractic school that Cory attends. Then they ask me "are you, like, a receptionist or something?" I tell them I work in the office of quality and they just look confused. It's always very amusing.

As much as I love my job, I have the hardest time explaining to others what I do for work. I work in the office of Institutional Quality and Assessment (I know, could our title be any longer?) I do some things secretarial (like keep track of my boss, an assistant vice president) but I mostly make use out of the statistics degree I earned from USU. We do a lot of surveying (and when I say a lot, I mean a lot) and trend-predicting. I work with accreditation, strategic planning, protocols and a lot of data. We believe that we are the best chiropractic school in the U.S. and we work really hard to stay that way.

So here's a link so people can actually see the surveys that I have to put together (click on the link that says "data" to see what I mean about a lot of surveying). http://www.nycc.edu/webdocs/ic/IQA/IQAFiles/IQAFiles.htm

I know, it's way geeky. But I love it. It affords me the opportunity to be intimately involved in the school that Cory chose to attend - and lets me eat lunch with him some days. All the benefits are fantastic (my favorite being the free chiropractic care, of course, but discounted tuition for Cory is also pretty fabulous!) And I am truly a geek at heart, so it's right up my alley. I'll be very sad when I have to quit (not for a while though, since Cory still has a year left.) I'm very blessed to work here!

One week down, one week to go ...

Last week was week 1 of finals for Cory (with this week being week 2). When you have 30 credit hours, the traditional "finals week" that we all dreaded as undergraduates turns into finals weeks. He had 9 tests in 5 days. He did amazingly well ... but by Friday night, he was burned out from so much stress and test taking, and I was burned out from so much work and the stress of watching him study like mad in preparation for said tests. So we ordered pizza and we vegged. Nice.








While vegging, we watched the opening ceremonies for the Beijing Olympics. Man, it was amazing!!!! Amazing doesn't really seem like the right word ... it was a sight to see, that's for sure! I borrowed these images from google and they are something to look at - what a ceremony! Those Chinese sure can throw a party! (click on the images to make them bigger - what attention to detail they have!)

I have always been fascinated by China. Ever since I was a little girl. So when I got the opportunity to go there, in the fall of 2002, I jumped at it. I spent 4 months in Wuhan, China, teaching English to young children. I will be forever grateful for my time spent there. I met my amazing husband there. I learned new levels of patience (though I'm still working on that one). I stretched and grew and matured. I ate some truly disgusting food. I made some amazing friends (both American and Chinese). I saw some spectacular sights. My love for the culture of China grew immensely. China is such a complex country, with amazing people. The music, the food, the smells, the language, the sense of unity and regard for others - China holds a very special place in my heart.

I'm so happy the Olympics are being held in Beijing and I get to watch them on TV. Of course, I would rather be there in person ... but hey ... one day we won't be so poor and we can go back. Plus I love competition and so watching the world's top athletes compete in a country I love is sweet.

I also finished reading Breaking Dawn, for the 2nd time. Yep, it should come as no surprise that I decided I am officially obsessed. I managed to read the book twice (all 574 pages) in a matter of 1 week. I loved it the first time, and I loved it the second time. My opinion that it's perfect and delicious and hilarious was only strengthened by my second time through it. I put more thoughts on our book club blog (here) if anyone wants to see what insights time #2 through the book brought me. Now I'm feeling quite a bit of a letdown ... the series is done (and while done wonderfully) it leaves me feeling ... uninterested in anything else. I've got a couple of books to tackle (the Eragon series is next) but I'm having a hard time getting into anything. Anyone have any really good book suggestions for me?

Another tag ...

Thanks Andrea, for the tag! This one was really fun ... lots of nostalgia.

10 Years Ago...

It was 1998. Hmm, I was a sophomore/junior in high school. It was a great year! So many friends and such good times together! Be-bopping to the Backstreet Boys, going to Denny’s at 5:00 AM, attending Viewmont football and soccer games, trying out for the high school musical, hanging out at the local Dairy Queen …

5 Years Ago...

It was 2003. I had just returned from China and I was falling in love with Cory. I was determined to marry him (though I don’t think he realized it yet) and so I spent much of my time wooing him - and in turn, he spent a lot of his money on me (trying, apparently, to woo me). I did one semester at Weber (taking 2 measly math classes as review) and worked as a graphic designer. Saw Phantom of the Opera in San Francisco and sat right under the chandelier when it dropped. I transferred to USU in the fall, lived next door to Cory and decided to major in math and stats. GO AGGIES!

5 Months Ago...

It was January. I was busy wishing I lived somewhere warm … and wondering why we didn’t go to southern California for chiro school. Cory was starting his 6^th trimester and I was trying not to freeze to death. I was also wishing I wasn’t poor so I could have gone to Utah for Andrea’s wedding.

5 Things on my list to do tomorrow...

Clean my house
Buy a chest freezer
Pick strawberries so I can make some jam
Call a tailor and make an appointment to get Cory’s pants to him so they can be hemmed
Run errands (bank, groceries, library, anywhere else I decide I need to go)

5 Things I would do if I was suddenly a billionaire...

Get Lasik surgery
Buy a house – with lots of room for a garden
Get an electric car (or a hybrid, or something so I don’t have to pay these ridiculous gas prices!)
Travel to Egypt, Greece, Guatemala … and lots more
Invest it (I know, I’m a math geek – I can’t help it!)

5 Bad Habits...

Being waaaaay too opinionated
Being a neat freak (I hate clutter; can’t stand it)
My obsession with ice cream and French fries
Sleeping in so I leave no time for exercise in the morning
Always wanting to be right :)

5 Places I've lived...

Farmington, Utah
Rexburg, Idaho
Wuhan, China
Logan, Utah
Seneca Falls, New York

5 Things people don't know about me...

*I love watching college football and basketball – and I scream (loudly) at the TV and cry when my teams lose. I take games way too personally.
*I broke a bone near my thumb and was in a cast for 6 months! (well, 3 different casts but a total of 6 months combined time) I went swimming and everything and when the last cast came off, it was SMELLY!
*I’m deathly afraid of grasshoppers … I don’t know what it is, but they give me some serious heebie-jeebies!!
*I love to play board games, but I can be a very sore loser. Beat me at Clue and you will find out for yourself. I try to keep in under control, but sometimes it doesn’t work and I get really ornery. I hate to lose!
*I once broke my neighbor’s foot with my rollerblades since he refused to stop interrupting our street hockey game. Serves him right!

Tag...

Mable, Jade, Kelley, Shar and anyone else who wants to do it …

This is for you, Jade

Well, there you have it Jade. I'm sorry hon, I love you - I really do - but I couldn't resist posting it on my blog :) Cory was actually the one who put me up to it and he was the one who took the picture. I know you said if I posted a picture of me wearing your favorite shirt that you would hunt me down and kill me - but I think the chances of you flying to New York and hunting me down (when I do in fact live in the middle of nowhere) are pretty slim. You would definitely get way lost before ever being able to find my house. I figure I'm pretty safe. And besides, I think it looks pretty good on me!

For those of you who have no idea what this post is about, which is going to be pretty much everyone but Jade, you can read the background here - if you really care to know.

Oh and I mailed the shirt back to her, before you all go thinking that I am some sort of really mean person :) But it's way fun to tease her, first.

On another note, since people are asking me about it - we are driving down to Philly today. My parents and Tyler & Joel (2 brothers) are flying out today. We will see Kendall (brother) on Sunday in the area he is currently serving in as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He will be released from his 2-year mission on Monday, and we will all be there with him for one last fireside (spiritual meeting). HURRAH! I can't believe that he's been gone for 2 years! And I can't believe his service is up and we will get to see him oh so shortly! And yes, I am quite excited!