Slideshow

Seattle

We made it back from our trip to Seattle, and because of returning to a load of responsibilities that piled up I haven't been able to update until now!

We had a fabulous time and pretty much got to see everything there is to see in Seattle. We did it all! I've posted some pictures of the highlights in this post, and then I added a slideshow to show our other dozens of photos.

First stop: Pikes Place Market! If you've been to Seattle you'll know that this is mostly just shopping for food and gifts and witnessing all the crazy musicians that play for money on the sidewalks. Here's a picture of Mike standing on the corner of Pike Place and me gazing at the delicious looking fruit:

Seattle has tons of art sculptures EVERYWHERE. They even have a park called "Olympic Sculpture Park" dedicated to the random artsiness that Seattle people seem to love. This is a picture of me standing next to one of the funnier sculptures:

We went to a place called Experience Music Project Museum, where you get to do hands-on stuff with music. Play drums, sing, guitar, play in your own "virtual" concert ect. It was pretty fun except for the fact that you had to wait in line for what seemed like forever to get a turn on any of the instruments. Here's Mike learning how to do a scratch table (is that what they're called?):

At the top of the Space Needle:

We took a ferry across the Puget Sound and drove over to the penninsula of Western WA. On this map where it says "Hurricane Ridge" is exactly where we drove to. It was a lot of driving in the car, but we stopped and walked around a lot. The area was gorgeous. We got to the tippy top part of Washington to the point where we could see Canada on the other side of the water.

Us on the ferry with Seattle in the background:

For all of you Twilight book reader fans...Do you recognize the name of this town? I was tempted to have us drive over to Forks but considering we were in the car for already an unbearable amount of time (as you might be able to tell from my crazy car-hair in the picture) the extra 50 miles wasn't worth just a picture.

At the Seattle Aquarium: My long-time Moses Lake friends Rachel and Jenny, and each of their 2 kids were kind enough to drive the 3 hours to meet me in Seattle and hang out with us for the day! We had a great time seeing them again, its been forever!

The last thing we did before we went and caught our plane was go to the Pacific Science Center. We had a good time goofing around. Here's Mike on something I don't know how to describe. He got on a bike and rode around in a circle without anything attached (although I think the wheels were a bit larger than normal wheels). He said it was pretty scary and wanted me to go. But I don't think the image of a pregnant woman falling into that net below him would be a good one. :)

Pictures

Things have been quiet in our house lately. Mike left for Seattle on Wednesday, which left me a little too much peace and quiet (not that our house is ever really loud). He is in Seattle for work until Tuesday, and then Tuesday night I'm getting on a jet plane and meeting him out there to spend a few extra days enjoying the sights. Mike has never been to WA before, and I've been dying to go back ever since my family moved away 5 years ago. Unfortunately we won't be making a stop in Moses Lake but I'm excited to go back and be in my homestate again.

I bought my first pair of maternity capri's yesterday. Talk about wierd. I'm just getting so sick of leaving my pants unbuttoned all the time though and trying to hide it. The capri's are not the most flattering since they "Don't make maternity clothes for 12 year olds" one lady was kind enough to tell me. Which I think I'm far from looking like. But at least they'll be comfortable.

Mike and I decided it was time to buckle down and get ourselves a decent camera. We splurged and I was having some buyers remorse considering we have a baby on the way, until we finally got notice that our Uncle Sam's check FINALLY came in (which is a heck of a story all in itself that I won't bore you with). woo hoo. So that took it away. We got the Nikon D40 and we love it.

So we decided to take the camera out and test its functions. Here's a few pics we took at Memory Grove, Ensign Peak, and a few other randoms we took throughout the week as well.

The action shot.

Can you see Mike?

Hey, I wonder if I'm related to this guy...?

Mike dared me to to do it...haha

Mike working in the garden

Mike teaching me how to use the camera

19 weeks!

OH BOY!

Its a beautiful, healthy boy!

A Butte-iful Weekend

Well, even though its Thursday now I'll still post about what we did for Memorial weekend. I would've posted earlier but as luck would have it, the flu joined our household which slowed me down a bit.

For our long weekend we decided to drive up to Butte to see my parents since we hadn't been home since Christmas. Saturday we went to the matinee and watched Indiana Jones and fulfilled my husband's childhood dream since he's been looking forward to this movie pretty much since the last one came out. All in all we weren't disappointed and Mike decided that Henry or Indiana might not be such a bad name for our little baby.

Saturday night my parents decided to take us about 45 min away to a town called Wise River, MT. The town probably had a population of no more than 100 and I only saw a total of 3 buildings, (one of them being a bar). Rumor had it that Wise River put on an exceptionally cute/funny little hometown play and provided a dinner as a fundraiser for the volunteer firemen in the town. So we drove up there and had dinner. I felt like the total outcast, if any of you are from a teeny little town everyone knows everyone and I'm sure they were wondering who the heck we were. But anyways, the memorable part was when we got to the play. The only words I can think of to describe it was jaw dropping-pure torture. From the very beginning they started with some jokes that were similar to the "pull my finger" type jokes and went downhill from there. The people in the audience just laughed and laughed. I was wondering if I was missing something but I don't think I was. We sat in pain for about 2 1/2 hours and when it was over walked away with plenty of 'inside jokes' that we had to keep repeating to each other the rest of the weekend just to find some humor in the whole situation. Overall it was quite the experience. When we first got up there Mike kept saying how beautiful the area was (which it was) and how much he wants to live somewhere like that someday, but once that play got over, he didn't say another word about it. hahaa.

I didn't take this picture, but this shot was taken by Wise River, MT, it was very beautiful. We didn't bring a camera unfortunately. We could've had some nice memories to show off from that trip.

After our nice trip in MT...we brought home the un-welcomed flu bug. I don't know how you women out there deal with barfing and morning sickness. This is the 2nd time I've barfed being pregnant, and both times were a result not relating to pregnancy. I know, I know. I'm a pansy. Its awful though. But anyways I think I totally dehydrated myself because as I was getting ready for work today I pretty much blacked-out. I don't know if thats such a good thing. But I'm feeling better now and drinking lots of water to hydrate myself again. I feel the baby dancing in my tummy all the time now so at least one of us has some energy. Sorry, no pictures this week. After the way I've been feeling I wasn't really up to smiling for the camera.

Sick of Keeping it a Secret

Yes, we are totally sick of keeping our big secret a secret from the rest of the world and we're so excited to finally announce that Mike and I are expecting!

And in honor of me finishing school about 2 weeks ago, here's a multiple choice test you can take that will tell you a little bit about my pregnancy...Good luck!

1. How far along is Lisa?
a. 8 weeks
b. 12 weeks
c. 15 weeks
d. 4 weeks

2. How has Lisa been feeling?
a. HORRIBLE, sick sick sick, this is going to be her only child.
b. Nauseated, but can usually keep her food down.
c. She throws up at least once a day.
d. Absolutely great. No barfing, no nausea, big appetite.

3. Has Lisa felt her baby kick?
a. Yes
b. No
c. Unknown
d. All of the above

4. What is Lisa Having?
a. Girl
b. Boy
c. Unknown
d. A and B

5. Are Lisa and Mike going to find out the sex of their baby?
a. Absolutely
b. No, we want it to be a surprise
c. Can't decide

6. When is Lil' G expected to make a grand entrance into the world?
a. November 4
b. October 31
c. October 18
d. November 12

7. How excited are Mike and Lisa to be parents?
a. It wasn't expected, but we are excited!
b. Didn't want to have kids for another 2 years
c. Like most couples would be, really excited.
d. YOU HAVE NO IDEA. They are so freaking excited words cannot express it.

Answers:
Answer to question 1 is A. Lisa is approximately 15 weeks pregnant. (Now you know why I'm sick of keeping it a secret).

Answer to question 2 is D. I have felt great from day one. No barfing or anything. I have felt slight bouts of food aversion and tiredness here and there during the 1st trimester, but nothing to complain about. Probably the strongest symptom that I've felt is a huge increase in appetite. I eat ALL THE TIME.

Answer to question 3 is A and C, Yes and Unknown. I believe I have felt Lil' G kicking me in the belly, but then again, I'm not quite sure what its supposed to feel like. So considering I am small in frame and I am in my 2nd trimester I give myself the benefit of the doubt and say yes, I have felt the "popcorn popping" already.

Answer to question 4 is B and C, Boy and Unknown. We don't find out the sex of our baby until June 10. But for some reason I have a hunch I think its going to be a boy. We'll see...

Answer to question 5 is A. Yes, we absolutely want to find out what we're having.

Answer to question 6 is A. November 4 is our actual due date. (Yes, thats one day after my own B-day)

Answer to question 7 is D. YOU HAVE NO IDEA. We have been waiting for this for what seems like forever. It is such a huge answer to our prayers and a real miracle. We are so excited words cannot express it. The first time I saw our little baby's heart beating away on the Dr.'s ultrasound machine was amazing because of FINALLY being able to see a heartbeat. It really is our little miracle.

Well, I think I covered it all! Hope everyone did good on the test! Here's your reward...a picture of me and my bump:

Extreme Hall Makeover

Mike and I have completed another project! We started this one back in JANUARY. We were trying to figure out what room to do, and decided on the hallway, because its such a high traffic area, and it needed a face-lift. So, in our spare time (which is slim) we've done a little here and there, and finally finished after 5 long months! (I know, so embarrassing). I've been waiting to post pictures on it because I wanted to wait and show before and after shots. So, we've finally completed it and it looks great! (And sorry, there's a ton of pictures)

PHASE I

Here are some before shots- it had paneling up and down the hallway that was way too tall, and the colors were blah.

I took a picture of the casing around the doorways because we replaced that too...

PHASE II

The demolition. The blackish ugly part is what was behind the paneling, it was put on with adhesive 50 years ago, so when we removed it it tore off plaster with it. and left it looking really ugly for awhile.

Tearing off the casing around the doors and starting to mud the wall...

PHASE III Mudding and Painting.

PHASE IV

Finished! We put up new bead board, baseboards, casing around doorways, got new doors and matching doorknobs, and a new light fixture (not pictured).

Something Old, Something New

I realize I've been a bad blogger lately, I blame it all on my hectic life. School is ending in two weeks and I've already mentally disconnected myself from it, although that doesn't mean the homework stops coming. I have a 1,000 word paper due tomorrow night that I haven't even started. And then my calling has been busy lately as well, the stake sprung a huge service project activity for the youth and gave us exactly 8 days notice for it. Its not easy to encourage YW to go to service projects altogether, but when they give you short notice its even harder to drill it into their brains, then make them realize that its good to go. The project was held yesterday morning at the Church Distribution Center filling sand bags in case of flood. So if any of your areas are ever hit with a major flood and you see sand bags from the LDS church, I, along with my other comrads, filled them.

Mike on the other hand is staying busy with work and trying to squeeze in fly-fishing when he can. He and his buddy went yesterday morning and he caught 0 fish, his friend caught 8. Poor Mike, I think he might be doing something wrong. At least he still enjoys it.

We also are thilled to say we finally got a new stove. I know a lot of you aren't aware of the stove we used to have, because I'm not exactly proud to show it off. But the whole thing was kind of funny. (I can say that now because its GONE). I took some pictures

It looks like your typical old stove, but actually, the springs on the door were broken which caused the door to lay flat open, unable to shut unless it was latched.

This is how it worked: Mike is showing you the 1st step of grasping the stove top.

Step 2: Lifting the stove top completely up and grabbing the latch (that you can't see very well) and twisting it to open the door.

After the latch is twisted, the door pops open. You have to repeat the same procedure to shut the door again as well.

Here is our beautiful new stove.

I love my new stove.

We had to do this with the old stove for about 6 months. I finally got to the point and told Mike until he bought me a new one I refused to open that stove door anymore. Needless to say that didn't always happen. But Mike did open it a lot more than I did.