Just Swell

Yesterday I was bragging to my mom that I haven't had any swelling at all. Today at church I looked down at my shoe and saw my foot was puffing out of it. Then I took my ring off and there was a nice red indent left on my finger. So it begins.

We went to the temple yesterday. It was just cleaned so the outside was super white and beautiful. I love the St. George temple so much.

This is our schedule for the rest of the day:

4:30 - my visiting teachers over

5:00 - home teachers over

5:30 - Jeff home teaches

7:00 - I visit teach until 8:30

Something tells me it's the last Sunday of the month...

Third Trimester

I have officially entered my third trimester! As of last Tuesday we have an empty car seat sitting in the back of our car. Call us antsy, but when my doctor made me go through the motions of having a baby at my last doctor's visit, reality started to sink in.

Here's a question: How much would our child's life be effected if he had the initials E.T?

And I'll finish this post with a conversation I had a while ago with a lady. I want to document it so I don't forget about it.

Lady: "Oh! I didn't know you were pregnant!"

Me: "Yup. I sure am."

Lady: "Do you know what it is yet?"

Me: "It's a boy."

Lady: "Did you have a preference on what you wanted?"

Me: "Yeah. I wanted a girl, but I'm just happy to be pregnant with a healthy baby."

Lady: "Girls are more fun."

Shucks. Better luck next time?

Jeff's First Visit to Granny's

A few months ago my Grandma pointed out that Jeff has never been to one of her famous monthly birthday dinners. I thought back and realized she was right! We made a special visit up North to show Jeff how the Wards throw a party.

My dad had conveniently ditched my mom for the weekend, so we had fun keeping her company.
After SIX days (if you ask my mom, four if you ask my dad) the lovebirds were reunited at last and we were on our way to Granny's.

Jeff was so happy to finally see my grandparents' place.
We sat with my cousin Bryce who always has good stories for us.

After a delicious dinner, it was time for dessert! My aunt made a strawberry dessert at my request and boy did it hit the spot.
Grandpa taught Brooke to play with fire.

Caroline was being adorable as usual.

And Brooke helped me and Jeff blow out our belated birthday candles.

Sadly, this is the only picture I actually took with my Grandma in it, but we want to let her know we had a really fun time and I will be sure to bring Jeff up more often!

A Quick Tour

Welcome to the internet tour of our home. Follow me into the living room where we have recently discovered cable television.
We don't have all of our decorations up yet, but here's the general idea of the other half of our living room.
And if you follow me into the kitchen, what's this? Counter space! Not to mention the cupboards that actually close and the drawers that glide open and shut without any problems.
Here's the hallway to the future nursery.
Stairs to the back door that have become storage because unfortunately we're still short on closet space. Maybe we'll get Jeff's linen closet next house.
Future baby room. That is now a mess. And has the biggest closet in the house.
And now to our bedroom. Ugly? Yes. We really need to have white walls with our current bed colors.

The sink is outside the bathroom. This setup reminds me of my sister's apartment when she was in college so it makes me feel like Jeff and I are roommates which is kind of funny. I've never thought of Jeff as my roommate before but I guess we are roommates after all.
There you have it. The full internet tour of our new apartment. It has really grown on me the last few days. I feel a lot better about it now that I've scrubbed every inch of the apartment. We are very grateful to all the people who helped us move and offered to help. We got everything done so quickly and we were extremely thankful for the extra hands.

All in a Day's Work

Months and months of planning your vacation. Your bags are packed and you're all ready to go. You just seem to have forgotten one thing...your brain. We're all guilty of it. When you're working the front desk, mindless guests become easy targets for sarcastic blog posts. So here are my latest favorite guest blonde moments along with what I would love to say if I didn't have to be so polite.

Guest: "What are the road and weather conditions from Utah to California?"

I have been stuck behind this desk for the last 4 hours. I know as much as you do.

Guest: "Your rate is 72.00? I saw a sign on the freeway that said $39."

Me: "We don't have our rates posted anywhere."

Caught ya.

Me: "How can I help you?"

Guest: "I'm doing good, thank you."

I didn't ask.

Guest: "I usually stay at the Hilton, but I guess this will have to do for tonight."

Your majesty, thank you for gracing us with your presence.

Guest: "The light in my room is burned out."

Me: "Did you make sure the light is plugged in?"

Guest: "I didn't even think of that."

The lights are on and nobody's home.

I get the guest all checked in and hand them the map of the property.

Guest: "Oh, I don't need a map."

20 minutes later, we get a phone call to the front desk.

Guest: "What's the pool code, where's breakfast and where's the ice machine?"

All of those answers are on the map you didn't need.

Me: "How many adults and children will be in the room?"

Guest: "Two adults...do kids stay free?"

Me: "Yes."

Guest: "And three kids."

Real sly.

Guest: "Do you have anything bigger than a room with two queen beds?"

Me: "Yes..." I explain all the options.

Guest: "We don't need all that. We're just here for one night."

So why did you ask?

Guest: "Are your rooms nice?"

Yes they are, but even if they weren't, would you really expect me to tell you that?

Guest: "How much are the other hotels around here?"

I only work at this one.

Guest: "Hi. I don't have a reservation but I have to have ground level by the pool, close to breakfast, away from the stairs, on the safest, quietest part of the building and no one on either side of me."

We're sold out.

So weary travelers, remember your brain for your next trip. Along with some common sense and a swimsuit. Happy trails to you until we meet again.

Running

The weather was nice and warm today. It was ideal running weather. While I was on my walk, I saw quite a few people who agreed it was wonderful running weather as they were sprinting around the town. I haven't really run since I got pregnant. First trimester I was too tired, and when I tried running early in the second trimester, every step I took made my bladder feel like it was going to explode. I decided to settle with walks instead of runs for nine months.

But today. Today was such a perfect day! It was like every person who ran past me was cheering me on to take up running again. I got to the top of a huge hill and on the downhill slope I just couldn't resist. I ran. I ran to my little heart's content. I kept waiting for my stomach to feel like it was going to fall off or my bladder to get uncomfortable or a sprained ankle. But I successfully made it all the way down the hill feeling surprisingly unpregnant.

Now, four hours later, I am feeling surprisingly way more pregnant than before my run. My back is hurting for the first time ever and I'm just feeling my muscles get more and more sore. What have I done to myself? And how the heck do those crazy pregnant ladies run marathons up until a few weeks before they deliver?!? Looks like I'm stuck in the slow lane.

The Final Countdown

In honor of our 100 days until baby comes mark, I decided to add one of those pregnancy tickers to our blog. It seemed so daunting when it said anything over 100 days to go, but now that we've reached the 100 day mark, I can handle seeing that countdown.

I guess this is where I will also say I'm pretty sure we have decided on his name being Eli. Not Elijah. Just Eli. Little Eli Excell. It's cute. I love it. It's the only name we've been able to agree on. So there it is.

We are all moved into our new place. It's much more homey than our other apartment. One day I'll get it clean enough to take pictures and post those. Until then, you get the messy pictures of us moving everything in.

Yup, that's pet odor febreeze. Let's just say the previous owner had a cat. A cat that didn't like to use its litter box.

Leslie came over for a little house warming The Bachelor season finale party. Leslie loves Vienna and I was rooting for Tenley. I won't give anything away in case some of you haven't seen it yet. Jeff was rolling his eyes at us as we were screaming at the TV for the full three hours of the show last night.

Busy busy weekend! Two more weeks until spring break when we can finally kick back and relax.