So Long Barber Shop

My brother called the other day mad that I hadn't updated him on our "news." Allow me to update any of my other offended family members of our news before I get more angry phone calls:

We're moving out of our apartment THIS SATURDAY!!!! Goodbye smelly perms, yappy dog, neighbor's midnight parties, mold, leaky everything, creaky floors, bumpy walls, painted bathtub, cracked ceilings and everything else we're sick of. (Click HERE in case you forgot what we're living in.)

Hello two bedroom apartment with a (da da da da) garbage disposal! You should have seen our excitement when we noticed this new place has a garbage disposal. The guy who showed us the apartment seemed a little concerned about where we're currently living when we gasped at the sight of a garbage disposal, windows and a moldless bathroom.

Wow, we are really moving up in the world.

The barber shop apartment was the perfect first apartment for us, and of course it will always hold a special place in our hearts. But I am not too sad to be saying so long! I'll take the memories and leave the apartment for a more recently newlywed couple to start their adventure.

Birthday Extravaganza

We started Jeff's birthday off with a trip to Zion National Park.
It was much colder, snowier, and muddier than we expected.
I like this series of events. Zion gave Jeff a mud pie in the shoe for his birthday.


Then we went to the Excell home for some of David's famous fried rice.
The only way Bryan would pose for a picture is if it was abstract with serious faces...
Jeff got to open presents with some strategically placed birthday balloons.
Mary gave Jeff a super cute Dodgers blanket. Now Jeff won't be so cold when he is in the doghouse and has to sleep on the couch.
Then we played a little game where we blew up balloons and tried to have them hit a target as the air was shooting out of them. It was much harder than expected.



We had angel food cake for the birthday boy with trick candles, of course!
The night closed with us sampling very sour fruit after eating a "miracle berry." The miracle berry is a weird fruit that makes a chemical reaction on your tongue with sour things to make them taste incredibly sweet. It made lemons taste like lemonade, strawberries taste like they were dipped in sugar and vinegar taste like sugar water. You have to buy it online because they don't sell the berry in the United States...I kind of felt like we were doing recreational drugs. But it was a fun party idea!
Now we're just waiting for the next member of our family to have a birth day. June 10th here we come!

The Many Faces of Jeff Excell

I love them all. Happy Birthday Jeff!

Always Kiss Me Goodnight

One of my favorite things about being married is hearing Jeff talk in his sleep and hearing about the weird things I say while I'm sleeping.

Last week we had a sleep talking incident. I had been asleep for about an hour. I think I woke myself up mid-dream because I had to go to the bathroom. I woke up, looked at Jeff and said, "We never kiss each other goodnight!" To which Jeff leaned over and gave me a big wet one and then I was off to the bathroom.

I didn't fully realize what happened until the next morning. I remembered I was having a dream about those signs that couples hang up in their house that look like this:

Apparently I was really upset we didn't have a sign to remind us to kiss each other every night.

These pregnancy dreams have been so funny. I've dreamt I had the baby at work while I was checking a guest in, and a few nights ago I had a dream that when I had the baby he looked exactly like me as a newborn...

only bigger and minus the bow. When I tried to pick him up he kept punching me. I think that dream stemmed from my fears of having a 10 lb. baby and being able to feel his little kicks and punches now.

In honor of Valentine's Day, don't forget to kiss your love muffin goodnight!

For Leslie

My friend Leslie requested an updated pregnancy picture.

Current Cravings:

Toast with strawberry jam

Creamies

Chocolate milk

Cereal

Oranges

And who would have guessed but pregnancy has been the cure to my gum addiction! I can't chew gum anymore. My gum aversion has resulted in a quest for a really good mouthwash. Let me introduce the blogging world to TheraBreath:

(and just in time for Valentine's Day!)

Sick Day

There's nothing better than laying in bed, telling Jeff how much I don't want to go to school today and that I will probably be ditching my classes. And getting on my e-mail mere minutes later only to see a message from my professor saying he's sorry but he has to cancel class because he's sick.

Take all the sick days you need.

Productive Procrastination

I had a presentation in one of my classes this morning. So last night, instead of practicing for my presentation, I decided it was time to deep clean the house. Jeff got dragged into the middle of my cleaning rampage. Here is Jeff working on cleaning out our closet. It was the inspiration of my rampage.

Our apartment only has two closets. We use one for storage and then we have this one which is our clothes closet. As Jeff was throwing rolls of toilet paper, ties, suitcases and other things out of the closet he kept saying things like, "I wish we had a linen closet." "I can't wait until I have my own closet." "You're such a woman." (because he only gets 1/4 of the closet hanging space and I get the rest.)

Jeff decided he was going to create a make-shift linen closet so we don't have to keep our towels in the clothes closet anymore. He cleaned out his bathroom cupboard to make room for our "linens." I love this.

And finally, all the clothes we decided we can probably part with. You're welcome, D.I.
It's SO refreshing having a clean house. Nothing like some early spring cleaning!

Pregnant Awkwardness

You know what's a little awkward?

Being pregnant

and sitting without a husband

in singles ward.

The little guy in the womb was being so wiggly last week in church. It is a fun distraction to sit and watch my shirt move as he punches me from the inside. It reminded me of when I announced the new addition in singles ward good news minute. This was how it went down:

RS President: Does anyone else have any news they would like to share?

Me: I'm pregnant!

*gasp*

RS President: For those of you who don't know, Sarah is married to Brother Excell in the ward.

*sigh*

In the ward, people are constantly in and out. I think most of the girls know me now, but when I announced I was pregnant, I'm guessing only about half of them knew me. As I thought about the big gasp followed by what now seems to be a sigh of relief, I realized half of them probably thought I was just another single member of their ward. They're used to hearing about engagements, missions, and dates so hearing a baby announcement must have been a bit startling.

Another awkward situation was when a lady thought I was engaged because I don't have a wedding band. She told me I was getting married too young. I just thought, "Lady, I'm already married AND pregnant, but I'm not about to tell you that."

Or when one of my professors started making fat jokes about pregnant ladies shopping at Motherhood Maternity, oblivious of my growing belly.

So as if I wasn't already awkward enough, pregnancy has only enhanced this for me. It's all most definitely worth it though. And at least I get some funny stories out of it.

See Ya At Eleven

Jeff and I have crazy schedules this semester. Jeff goes to work at 9:00, comes home for a lunch break, and then gets home at five for the night. That doesn't sound so bad, right?

Until you factor in that I go to class about 10 minutes before his lunch break, get back a couple hours after he's gone, go to work a couple hours before he gets home for the night, and I finally get home to greet my husband at 11:00 pm.

We started saying, "See ya at eleven..." as Jeff leaves for work in the morning. I've even joked that I hope Jeff and I still like each other once we do get to consistently spend our time together.

This weekend was just what we needed. I had all my homework for this week done by last Thursday night, so I was ready to relax and not worry about anything for a few days. When Jeff got home from work on Friday, we were able to just sit home and be with each other. That never happens! We sat on the couch and watched old episodes of "Friends," we actually ate dinner together, and finished off the night by playing Sudoku to our little hearts' content.

Saturday I woke up to Jeff making me breakfast, and then we ran errands around town for most of the day. We ended the night with a movie and popcorn, and even held hands like the good old days.

Sunday we spent playing games with the Excell family and just being goofy over there.

It's weekends like this that assure me I did marry the right person. And even though we don't get a lot of time together, I love the time we do have together. I can't wait to have even more time to spend with my husband once our schedules become a little more stable. Even though we just spent the weekend doing regular things regular married couples do, it was nice to be a regular married couple for a change.

Now it's back to our crazy schedules this week.