3 weeks 3 weeks 3 weeks

Hi there! Today marks 37 weeks into the pregnancy. This means that if the baby were born RIGHT NOW, he would be full term! Hallelujah! This also means that the little guy's due date is exactly 3 weeks away. I think today was the first day that Todd and I both became super impatient. We just want him to come right now. You'd think that after 37 weeks, 3 weeks would seem like nothing, but au contraire. Now that we pretty much have all of the essentials, we're ready, and so excited for the little bundle of joy to enter this world.

In honor of making it to the 37 week mark, I had to take a couple pics of course. As usual, the tight black shirt makes me look more normal-sized for how far along I am. However, I'm still much smaller than you'd expect at this point. I am finally starting to appreciate it though, as my back has been really painful lately. I just know it would be so much worse if I were bigger.

Just for contrast (or a different perspective), I have the pic I took today, and a pic I took just 3 days ago in a normal (not tight) shirt.

So there you go! From this point forward, I'll probably hope that when I take a bumpie, it will be my last. 

You know how in my last post, I had that picture of our room, and how crazy and chaotic it was?? Well, we've finally got everything unpacked, and all of our baby necessities in order in our room. I promised a pic of our room once we had it done, so here it is!

Found this nifty little changing table/dresser for only $45!

The drawers were so big, and I wanted to organize his clothes a little, so I made these drawer dividers. I was quite pleased with how it worked out.

The hardest decision we had to make was what type of chair to get. We eventually found this awesome recliner on ksl. We saved a bunch of money, and we can use this in a nursery, or in a living room!

The last thing we'll be adding to make the room complete, is a little bookshelf to go on the wall. Todd is going to make it for me :). I've been really pleased with how well we've shopped for things for the babe. For every item, we researched a ton, and were able to find really good deals online, and extra extra good deals on used stuff.

While we have all of the "things" we might need for our little champ, we are still really struggling to pick a name. We're having real commitment issues. It seems too permanent to just choose one! We had our list down to just four, but it has expanded drastically because we couldn't commit to any of those four. So now we have about 13 to choose from, but maybe 5 or 6 that we are considering more seriously. We'll see how it goes... he very well may be nameless until the very last moment (however many days after he's born). But if we can help it, it would be really nice to have one picked out ahead of time. I just want to start getting to know him, and it seems like a name is a really good place to start :)

A few weeks ago, we had the pleasure of attending the Brooks Family Reunion #2. The whole fam went out to St. George, and we got to go hiking, sight seeing, swimming, and boat riding. It was so fun to get away, and spend so much time with everyone. I sure love this family :)

Here are some pics from the trip.

That's about all everybody! Hopefully next time I post, we'll have a little one to brag all about :)

So Long, Vegas

Happy happy day! We're in Utah! I'll go into details later... but it's been amazing so far, and we're loving getting to see some green.

So to start from the beginning...

We're done with work!!! Hallelujah! I almost felt this day would never come, but it has... and it is wonderful. Now don't get me wrong, I am so sad to be away from the amazing people I worked with, and I'm especially going to miss those sweet students I got to be around every day (even the ones who drove me crazy). On my last day, I told on of the classes that I was leaving, and was so surprised by their reaction! I thought most of them had already known that I was leaving, so it was also surprising how shocked they were. As soon as I said it was my last day, an uproar started. I didn't even get to explain why or where I was going before a group hug ensued. Not everyone in the class came up (thank goodness, because that class has close to 60 students), and it also made me feel super claustrophobic, but it was really sweet. A bunch of those students wanted to get a picture with me, so I took the opportunity to get a picture too. 

Deisy and Christina

This is Amara, who I had the pleasure of teaching last year as well. She was one of the few who didn't make me want to rip my hair out in that class, haha!

Zoe and Alicia

Rose

Perla

Sweet sweet Brianna. I have a special place in my heart for this girl!

This was actually the day before my last day. These girls are SO sweet, I couldn't believe it!

Joseph and Eddie

Brooke, Makenzie, and Daryana

Selfie with Skylar and Aerionna. I caught these girls on my way out. So glad I did!

I also worked with some wonderful people. At the high school, there was a group of us, all close in age, and we all got along really well. I loved working with those guys, and became good friends with a few of them. On Friday, we had a little dinner so we could have one last time as a group before I left. Even the administrator who hired all of us came out to the dinner. So nice!

The gang. Minus Christian

Gladis! Had to get a pic with this gorgeous girl. 

My preggo buddy! Kim and I are pretty much due at the same time. We're also both having boys, which made it even more fun!

So I guess it's mostly a sad thing to be done with work, but I am mostly just happy because it was becoming so hard on my body. In particular, my back. Pretty much anything I do, besides laying down, makes me so sore, so fast. When I'm at home, it's not that big of a deal, cause I can still get things done, as long as I lay down in between. When I was working, though, it became really hard because with my two jobs, I would go 8-10 hours straight without getting a chance to rest my back. Then, each day would just be worse without having a day off to recover. I'm optimistic that now that I'm done working, my back pain won't be as bad. At least I hope! I'll let you know how it goes :)

I'm mostly thrilled that Todd is done working! I at least had amazing people around me, and got to do what I love. Todd's job, on the other hand, was just day after day of overwhelming stress. The demands on the employees of Grifol's are so high, and Todd would always work so hard to meet those high standards. I don't know how he got out of bed every day, and went back to that job. He is so amazing for hanging in there as long as he did, and thank heavens he is done forever! We were going to see if he could get transferred to a plasma center here in Utah, but no one will take him since we're only here a few months. It really is a blessing though, because I don't want him to go through that much stress ever again. So for now, our plan for this summer is to relax, enjoy our baby, and go on adventures. Todd might work part time, just so we don't have to dig into our savings, but I'm excited that we'll get so much more time to enjoy our time together before PA school starts. 

Speaking of PA school, still no word from Pennsylvania... we're not waiting or expecting to hear anything. If we do, however, things could get crazy. For now though, we're just planning on going to New York. Which would give us that nice relaxed summer I was talking about, so it's a great thing. 

So this weekend, we moved. And let me just say... if you or a loved one plans on moving when 8 months pregnant, I wouldn't recommend it! I don't know what else we would have done, but still... not the most fun. Todd was amazing, and did soooo much more than I did. But I still tried to do and pack a lot. I didn't do any heavy lifting or anything like that, but I would still load up boxes. It really took a toll on my back. It was especially hard for me to take my much needed rest breaks because I would just lay there, thinking of all of the things that needed to be done, and then I wouldn't rest long enough. Once everything was packed up, I felt a ton of relief. Some amazing friends from church came the day we moved, and helped carry everything down. So that day, I just wandered around the apartment and directed traffic. Thank goodness they were there, because otherwise, I know I would have tried to do a lot more. 

Also, thank heavens for Todd's amazing parents! They were so generous, and drove down all the way from Utah to help us move. With their trailer, our trailer, and our 3 cars, there was plenty of room for all of our stuff. Todd's angel mother was also a life saver, because she offered to drive one of our cars, so I wouldn't have to drive. It was a sore, but manageable 6 hours in the car. But, had I been driving, I know it would have been so miserable. I got more than just a wonderful husband my marrying Todd. I'm so blessed to get to be a part of such an amazing family. 

I'm also so blessed to have so many amazing friends! The day before I left, Pamela and Alexa, good friends from church, threw me a little going away gathering. I don't usually make friends at church as easily, so it really meant a lot to me. 

Pam and Michael! These guys are having a baby girl and are pretty much due at the same time as me. I'm so sad our babies won't get to be buddies! But hopefully they'll get to meet each other!

Group pic from the little party

Alexa used her new selfie stick to take group pics from the move!

Most of the gang! Todd and his parents were out packing the trailer

The Cruz family! Love them!

Definitely going to miss Alexa. We had a lot of good times together in this ward.

We didn't take very many pictures when we were moving, but here's the one Todd snapped before we drove away.

So now that we're here, we finally get to start thinking about baby stuff! We have a vision for our room, and where the rocking chair and changing table/dresser will go. Now we just need to get those things! I was pretty stressed our first night, cause it just seemed like we had so much to do and unpack. I had a little break down about the point when our room looked like this:

If there is anything that will stress me out, this is it. Todd is amazing, and was able to calm me down by explaining to me his plan and vision for the room. I don't know how he saw it through the clutter, but he did. We worked hard yesterday, and it's starting to coming together. I can't wait till we have our baby gear and can show off the after picture. It'll be a humble little space, but I'm excited for it. All we really need now is the baby furniture! Mostly a dresser so we can unload all of his clothes.

So I started this post on Tuesday I believe, and I still haven't posted it... but in the days that have passed, Todd and I got a dresser and a car seat/stroller combo! I'm much less stressed to have some of the big things taken care of :)

Those are about all of the updates I've got for now. To bid you farewell, I'll leave you with a belly pic (which is about a week old now).