Been awhile...

I've been meaning to post since Thursday three weeks ago, but have been caught up in all manner of other things, mostly school. Trying to keep up in school, mostly. I've still been really sick (when I announced we were having a baby I should have said morning sickness IS bad, not that it WAS) and have missed a lot of class because of it. Both my teachers (I only have two classes) have been really nice and have been working with me, but it's always stressful to be behind.
So, Thursday three weeks ago is when we heard the baby's heartbeat for the first time. It was awesome- there's actually a baby in there!- as well a relief to know that everything is going well. The nurse said that this baby was going to be a handful, she kept having to chase him/her around with the doppler. But really, who holds still while they're being poked? After hearing the heartbeat, we ate at JCW's to celebrate.
My desire to blog was renewed last week or so by a really fun day Mike and I had. He had to go down to our insurance office to show them my ring's appraisal, so I went with him because I wanted to go to the Thai market down in Provo. On our way there, I got really hungry so we stopped at a French bakery that I've been wanting to visit for several months (it's by the Xpedx just off State Street as it heads down into Provo) and had wonderful wonderful pastries. Wow. Among other things, I finally had a pain au chocolat (chocolate bread), which my french teacher in high school said was the best food in the world.
After the pastries, we went and got the insurance stuff done and headed for the Thai market. When we got there, Mike noticed that a few stores down was an Italian market, advertising gelato. So we had some. I got rasberry and lemon and he got pistachio and chocolate. Mmmmmm. Then we finally got to the Thai store and I got my sweet chili sauce, coconut milk, and ginger. We also got some of the Thai "soft drinks" they have there- lychee and guava. That guava juice is great. It reminds me of the stuff that my grandpa would get when I was a kid. I don't like the guava nectar that is sold as the real stuff now- it's too sweet.
That was our excellent international foods day. French, Italian, and Thai. It was wonderful.
It occurred to me the other night when I was making some Thai coconut chicken soup (because I have the ingredients now!) that it would go perfectly with my favorite Japanese salad, tsunomono. It's super easy and yummy.

Tsunomono
two cucumbers, peeled, cut lengthwise, de-seeded, and chopped so they form little "C"s
rice vinegar (white works fine, too)
grated ginger
sugar
salt

Toss the chopped cucmbers with the vinegar, ginger, and sugar. I just do it to taste, hence no actual proportions. Then I salt it lightly and it's done. It's so good.

To finish the catching up with the blog, Mike and I had a great conference weekend. It was nice to sit back and listen to the leaders of our church. Saturday we just hung out at home for the first two sessions, then I went to my mom's during priesthood to hang out with the girls. Sunday was a little busier, but still very enjoyable. We rolled out of bed to go have eggs benedict at Mom and Dad J's, then back home for the afternoon session and to get ready for family pictures (which were cancelled), then back to Mom and Dad J's for Mom's belated birthday Greek dinner, which was delicious (thanks Kati and Rach!). Then over to my family's for more hanging out. Then home to bed. Mike and I have been trying to go to sleep earlier than we have (we're both definitely night owls), especially since he has work at 6:30 in the morning and I apparently can't function with less than 10 hours of sleep these days.
Oh! I forgot! We went to good ol' American Fork High's homecoming game last Friday, or Friday a week ago, whichever. It was fun to see some people from high school, even though the Cavemen lost horribly. At least the band was good, right?

This was fun. I also got 90% on the Disney quiz.

Adding to the family....

We got a kitten! A few months ago, but whatever. We renamed her Danger, which turned out to be pretty ironic, because she is afraid of EVERYTHING. She was Candy, because her mom's name is Sugar, but hopefully someday our niece who gave Danger her first name will forgive us. Not yet, though. Last word from Maddie was that "Candy" is unhappy at our house and wants to go back to her "real" home. It might be true. On Saturday I was carrying a basket of laundry downstairs (couldn't see my feet) and that dumb cat got herself stepped on. Actually, I feel really bad. Poor thing. She wouldn't come near me for the rest of the day.
Having a cat is pretty ok (I do prefer dogs as animals, but they don't hunt mice, plus they take a lot more time and attention), especially since I have not yet had to change the litter box.
PREGNANT WOMEN AREN'T SUPPOSED TO!! HAH! That's really what the title is referring to!
My little joke probably would have worked better if Mike and I had actually waited to tell people that we were pregnant, but that obviously didn't happen. Most of you reading this blog probably already knew, and have known for some time. And yet, I could not resist my little joke.
I'm officially 12 weeks today, which is when Mike and I agreed to make our news the most public, meaning mentioning it here and changing my facebook status to "is with child." Also changing my little stick figure person on facebook to a pregnant stick person. I don't think there's any way to make it more official.
So, the facts about the pregnancy-
-Morning sickness was BAD. It was one reason we had to tell more people than we had originally planned on (the professor I was working for over the summer, my thesis advisor).
-I'm due on March 29th. Or 28th. The doctor's office said one, but the internet said the other and I figure I probably won't go into labor either of those days.
-Mike and I will find out the sex of the baby on November 14th. I'm considering counting it as a birthday present for him.
-We're going to hear the heartbeat this Thursday. I'm very excited.
-I plan on opening up all kinds of "betting" pools about the baby's birthday, weight, eye color, and time of delivery. The winner will get some candy or something. I just really like speculating about the baby in general.
This is me, earlier today. I was overcome this morning by the desire to wear a maternity top (sparked by a top my mom got for me, but I couldn't wear because it has long sleeves and it was so so hot today), so I looked through the communal pool of maternity clothes that Kati and Rachel provided (thanks, guys!) and found this shirt that I really like. So comfy. Anyway, the point of the picture is that I'm starting to show, although I think I'm kind of exaggerating it in this one. Ohwell.

Moved...pretty much

So, Mike and I live in Lehi now. So far we love it. I love this house, the yard, the ward is great, I love that I have walls that aren't white. However, I hate unpacking. I like getting to reorganize everything and put it away all neat, but it takes me sooooo loooong. And since I'm hosting a bridal shower here this Saturday, it seems like I should really get on the ball. Yikes. Back to work.

Mike and I are Heroes

Twice in the past two weeks, little animals have gotten trapped in our bedroom window well. Both times, we helped them escape. The first little animal was a mouse. We put a board in the window well, as well as a bunch of sticks in the corner for him to climb out on. He wasn't there the next day, so I assume he got out. It actually just occurred to me that maybe a cat got him and that's why he's not there anymore. That's awful. I like to think that he escaped unscathed. Then, yesterday, the bird noises out the window were really loud and it sounded like little chicks cheeping. So I peaked through the blinds and there was a whole family of quail. Except a mother. Anyway, there were six little tiny guys and a dad (I think it was male because it had the feather on its head). I watched them for awhile. The mouse escape board was still in there, but the birds didn't figure it out. The dad kept flying out of the window well and calling and then jumping back down when the babies didn't come. It was so sad. Mike came home for lunch and by that time they had kind of given up and were just roosting under the board. I was going over to the house to work on it after Mike went back to work, and I didn't want to leave them there because we weren't going to be back until after it was dark, so we decided to rescue them. We got gloves and got down in the window well and freaked the poor things out. The dad flew out, but kept running around a safe distance away, calling like crazy. We had to be really careful where we stepped because the babies blended right in with the leaves and we didn't want to squish any of them. The first one I caught, I let go right outside the window well and it freaked out and beelined for our kitchen window well and fell in. Mike rescued it a second time. After that, we learned to take them a little farther away before we put them down. I was worried about the dad taking him back, but after Mike and I came back inside, I could hear him calling again. So yeah, we're pretty much heroes.Poor little things. I didn't take any pictures of the mouse, but I did shoot a few short videos. Actually, they're kind of a long time to watch a mouse run around in a window well, so don't feel bad if you quit a quarter of the way through. In the beginning of this one, he's burrowed under the leaves, which I thought was extremely cute.



Since it's been awhile since my last post, here's a quick update on what we've been up to:
One of my awesome good friends, Leda Wilkins, got married and is now a Johnson as well. She had twelve bridesmaids (!), of which I was one. Part of the Elms/roomates classification of bridesmaids. Shaliese, Megan, Jeanette, Claire, me, and Ang.Mike and I at the reception. The cheesecake was delicious.We also went to the Lehi Roundup that Saturday. I took a few videos of the bull riders, but none of them made it to eight seconds. I felt like I was jinxing them.We decided against cowboy gear.The biggest time consumer, by far, has been getting the house ready to move in to. For those of you that haven't heard, Mike and I are moving to Lehi, to the house his grandpa built. We're incredibly excited about it, even if we are sick of painting a little bit.
We got rid of the carpet that had been in the master bedroom and Mike has been refinishing the floor underneath, which is gorgeous (I love old wood floors). This is before, you can see the discoloration under the window there.This is Mike applying the second coat of varnish to the floor. We don't have any pictures of the floor all sanded down, because I forgot the camera that day. Anyway, the floor looks great and only 2 more coats to go!!This is the other bedroom. It was a pinky lavender color, but since we don't know what our future baby will be (that's not an announcement, I'm just saying that we don't know the sex of any babies we may or may not have in the future) we went with yellow. The living room area and hallways are green. A green I love. Finally. For those of you I haven't complained to already about how hard it was to find a good green, let me now. I tried out 5-6 little quarts of greens that should have looked good but instead looked HORRIBLE. What I mean is every paint chip looked good, but after it was mixed as a paint, turned out to be some other gross color. The first two tries turned out minty green (like hospital scrubs), the next two were basically brown, and the last was much to blue. And there may be another I'm forgetting. Uhg. Similarly, finding a yellow took 4 tries. Thank heavens I only bought the quarts to start off with.
So, Mike and I are hopefully moving stuff into the basement, living room, kitchen, and future baby's room this weekend, then our bedroom on Monday/Tuesday. The varnish on the refinished floor has to try over night after every coat, so that's kind of taking forever. Then we have to paint. But we're pretty much pros by now, so hopefully it won't take too long.