almost 28 weeks

i know i haven't posted in a while...pretty much skipped december. oops. but we did, um, move, so i think that's a pretty good excuse. we are now in our new place, which i like much better. it's not even 100 additional square feet, but it's enough to feel significantly roomier. and now we have two bathrooms! now that we entirely need that at this point in our marriage, but it's nice to not have to worry about when guests want to use the bathroom.

we like our new ward so far. we're actually in another stake, if you can believe that...only in the western US would you move 20 min away and be in a whole different stake.

i have to go take the glucose test sometime this week. i said i would come in last week, but it didn't end up happening. i went to the doctor a week and a half ago, and i had forgotten that they were going to do that, and i was really feeling ill, so i asked to come in another time. let me tell you, i'm thrilled about taking this test. from what i've heard, it sounds like great fun! anyway, so after the appt, i had lunch with braden and then went home and threw up again (i had thrown up my breakfast about 10 min after eating it). must have been some kind of virus. i didn't eat anything until much later that night, and then i was on fluids until sunday. i couldn't keep anything down.

we watched "the notebook" last night. it was good; i give it an 8 out of 10. the end made me cry.

braden started school again last week. he'll have regular labs and clinics this semester, which is more conducive to his learning style. we're both hands-on learners.

so the nursing calendar that i got for braden for christmas is a bust. think family circle-type humor...need i say more? oh, well. when braden opened up one of his presents, he said, "I hope it doesn't suck", and i said, that's the kind of thing you could only say to me. to everyone else, you'd just be like, thanks! so that's become one of our jokes...i hope it doesn't suck.

we cleaned our old apt on thursday and saturday, so everything's done there, EXCEPT for the fact that i can't get the stupid bike lock off the two bikes out on the porch. i've tried every combination i can think of, and nothing works. i tried WD-40-ing the crap out of it, and that didn't work, either. so now i'm looking into renting a bolt-cutter or something, b/c it will cost $55-75 to get a locksmith to take care of it, which really makes me mad!!! all this for bikes we never even used, b/c we never found anyone to fix them up (where's dad g. when you need him?).

i should be getting some freelance work sometime this week. a friend/former classmate of mine hooked me up with a job as a typesetter (foreign languages and such) for the translation company she works for. the client is a major manhattan bank, so i'm hoping the work will be pretty steady. this job will allow me to combine my graphic design/desktop publishing skills with the foreign language skills, so i'm pretty excited about it. what a blessing!

in other news, we announced our baby's name on christmas: Jenna Marie. it was my compromise, since we had already decided on it, and i didn't want it to slip out accidentally. the caveat was: no poopy comments! but the responses were all positive, and if people pooped on it, they did it in private, which is just where that kind of thing should be. :) Go Jenna!

i am still fighting the ever-constant battle of dehydration. i really wish that i was a water-bibber, but i never have been, and even my attempts to drink more don't even bring me remotely close to where i should be. it is a constant source of frustration. i need to eat better, too, but that's another battle. i have said before, that i would almost rather just be hooked up to a couple of IVs that feed and hydrate me at acceptable levels!! ah, the joys of pregnancy. :) but, on the positive side, the baby is very active and healthy, in spite of her mommy's shortcomings. we just do the best we can, right? i HAVE become a cocoa-bibber to try and get some fluids in me....i drink at least two big mugs-ful a day for that purpose alone.

we're still working on unpacking, of course. ISIABS: i saw it in a box somewhere. that's what happened to the knives: ISIABS. so there was no tomato in the pasta the other day, even though i really wanted it...what am i gonna, cut it with a plastic knife? :)

bonuses about the new apt: washer/dryer in unit (YAY), close to work, so i can drive braden and have the car all day, plus have lunch with him. more room, and we can set up the baby's room how we want from the get-go, the office is out in the living room to make room for baby, bonus bathroom, close to the mall, so i can walk around inside if it's raining, close to a lot of stores/restaurants that i consider essential (olive garden, thank you very much, even though they always think we're cheap b/c we only ever get soup).
downsides: the walls are like cardboard...and the peeps above us are young guys who like to party (loudly) every fri and sat night. we can hear them peeing! braden finally went up there at 2am on sunday morning, and they were like, oh sorry, we've never seen jackass 2 before and it's really funny. they seem like nice guys, but they like to get wasted on the weekends, and when they do, they get really loud. i can learn to deal with everyday apt noise, even though it's not ideal, but i really wish they would quiet down...drink your beers quietly and don't pee ever. :) we will probably put in a noise complaint if it happens again this weekend. we're currently 2 for 2.

we have discovered an excellent mexican restaurant just down the street from us. $6.12 for an entree with chips and salsa, a "salad" (read: taco innards) with ranch dressing, spanish tomato rice and refried beans, plus an additional homemade tortilla. it fills us both to bursting. not bad for $3 each...not many people share their food all the time like we do, but we can afford to eat out more precisely b/c we do that. plus we're cheap, and get cheapo (albeit good) food. so this mexican place has a freaking drive-thru! it's all made fresh while you wait, and it only takes about 3-5 minutes to get your food, if that. and it's way authentic...taco bell ain't got nothin' on authentic mexican food.

i'm now going to end this post b/c it's way long. chao!