8 Weeks Alone

Ja will be traveling for 8 straight weeks. Luckily he gets to come home on weekends, but I'll be Ja-less during the week. I won't be really alone because there are 5 other people living in the house with me.

However, to help me get over Ja being gone I decided to make a quilt for our little baby. Here is the pattern I found online and it looks fairly simple. I went to JoAnn's on Labor Day and got a great deal on fabric so I'm hoping this won't be an expensive project.

I found the pattern on the Taffy Talk Blog and it's titled Speedy Baby 2 so I'm hoping it is easy. I may take a week to make so I may be making many quilts :)

One question: Should I wash the fabric first since it's for a baby quilt?

Wish me luck! I'll post the final project when it's finished.

Driver's License Picture

I thought about showing my license picture, but now that I've received it there's no way I'm showing it! I look like a criminal! Absolutely worst license picture. I hate the no smiling rule!

It's Official!

I am now a Virginia resident! I have a Virginia drivers license (well now it's just a piece of paper, but in two weeks it will be the real card). Now I can get a library card, register and title our cars, the list goes on. Funny thing about Virginia drivers licenses: you can't smile in your picture. They recently got new licenses and now they have a no smiling policy. Apparently when you smile it changes the features of your face. Yeah, but does smiling really change my face that much that people checking my ID won't recognize me? I can only hope I don't look tired and ridiculous in my picture.

The lady at the DMV who was helping me asked if I was pregnant and told me that she was expecting too. She told me she has an 18 year old daughter so she is starting over again with another child. Then she told me her 18 year old daughter is also expecting next month. Can you say Father of the Bride 2?

In baby news: I can really feel her kick and move around now. It doesn't hurt yet so it's fun (and weird) to feel this little thing inside of me move. Some days she's more active than others, but she moves a lot in there.

My baby shower

My homeward was nice enough to throw me a baby shower before I moved. They figured I may not get one in Virginia since I'll be so new. Of course I got tons of cute pink girly outfits! I also got a lot of books. Multiple people told me that was good because books are expensive.

My sister-in-law won cutest home-made gifts. She made these cute burp cloths, hooter hider, and shirts, and pacifier holders!

Here are some of the other cute gifts our little girl got. Everything was cute, but I didn't want to bore you with so many pictures.

This is the family picture of everyone at the shower. It's so nice to have family close enough they could come.

Here is everyone else. We had a great time visiting, thanks to all who came!

My Gift from Grandpa

My Grandpa Seymour is a master carpenter. He has built so many bookshelves, desks, entertainment centers, etc for our family. Everything is expertly done and would cost a fortune if it was sold in a store. I grew up with a bookshelf and 2 different beautiful desks in my room. When I moved into my own room we asked grandpa to build me a desk so I could do my homework. When he came to deliver it, it was a huge wall unit with selves, a pull down desk, and drawers. It was much more than we expected or asked for. Whenever building something for us he always went beyond our expectations.

One special thing he built was a bassinet for his grandkids to use when they were babies. Now that the grandkids are grown up no one is using it. I'm really sad that grandpa's great granddaughter wouldn't be able to use it because we moved so far away. I thought it would be special to have something made my grandpa since I always did growing up.

To my surprise grandpa did make me something special to take with me. He's made every woman who has kids in the family a wooden statue that he designed and cut out. It's a woman holding up her little baby. He even added a pink ribbon since it's a girl. It means a lot to me that my grandpa would make something for me a my little girl.

Now that I'm writing this, I've realized grandpa has made me something else for me. He made a wooden mirror for all the women in the family that has our initial carved in the back. It's so well made I don't think it will ever break so I can always have it with me. Thank you Grandpa!

Car-go Auto Transport

Ja wanted me to write about our car shipping story in case anyone reading needs to ship a car and wants to know the details.

I did an online search for car shippers and found the company Car-go Auto Shippers. I paid the mother company who was very helpful and I had good communication with them. I choose the dates the car could be picked up and waited to hear from the driver picking up my car. A local Glendale company called and said the driver would pick up the car Saturday night. So I waited by the phone all Saturday night, Sunday morning and afternoon, with no call until 6 p.m. Sunday night. The driver (who was hard to understand) wanted to pick up the car Monday morning. I don't think Saturday was even an option for him. Since he couldn't drive up Angeles Crest someone had to help me drop off the car down the hill. The guy picked it up and I hoped it wasn't a scam and that I would see my car again one day. The driver said it should take about a week. I wasn't expecting much since he was supposed to pick up the car Saturday night.

I called the mother company and told them I was told the car would be picked up Saturday and it wasn't until Monday. The once helpful company said "Well we do give a 3 day window for the car to be picked up." Yeah, I understand that but why did they tell me Saturday then?! It was a definite day. She wasn't very nice about it. I was really stressed for those two days that someone stole my money. The lady said it could take 7-14 days for us to get the car again.

Then only 5 days later I get a phone call from the Glendale company saying my car would be delivered. I swear the guy asked, "Am I the winner?" when I answered the phone. I could hardly understand a word he said he had such a strong accent. He said he would call when he was closer to our house, which would be around 1:15 p.m. It's now 3:30 and he hasn't called so Ja and I left to run errands because I figured he wouldn't come for another day like the last guy. As soon as we get to our errand location I get the phone call. He can't make it to our street because the trees and power lines are too low. So after making him spell the street names where he is (because I honestly couldn't understand what he was saying) Ja and I go pick up the car. Thankfully it was pretty close to our house. The car was fine and everything we had in the trunk was still there.

So, all in all, when they say they'll pick up the car it doesn't mean it's really going to be picked up and dropped off at your house because the roads or trees might not be good for big trucks. Communication might not be the best either. But at least our car arrived earlier than expected and in good shape!

My growing belly

I am now 20 weeks, or 5 months pregnant! I'm halfway there. Here are my two belly pictures I've taken. You may say I don't look pregnant, but believe me, I am!

The top picture is 5 months and the bottom is 4 months.

Kenny and Ja

My brother Kenny and Ja drove from LA to Virginia in 7 days. It sounded like they had a good time together and had good spiritual experiences on their church history tour. Kenny learned a lot about Joseph Smith and the early Church members. Kenny was able to stay with us a for 2 days in Virginia before he flew back home. While he was here he went kayaking down the Potomac with Ja, went to the Air & Space Museum, got a sandwich at Potbellys, and went to Nielsen's Custard. It was nice to have him here and we can't wait until he comes again.

Good Bye Table, Couch, and TV

We left our first kitchen table and chairs, couch and TV in California. This made Ja a little sad so I told him I'd take pictures of them to remember them by. They were good for us but now it's time to move on.

We made it!

I am posting from our new temporary home in Virginia. We've been busy this week trying to get settled in. All but one of our FedEx boxes came! They weren't in very good shape so hopefully not too many things are broken.

It's been pretty crazy the minute we got here. My sister-in-law Holly had her baby at 28 weeks, so Greg has been at the hospital a lot. It was a pretty traumatic birth for Holly. The baby has no bleeding in the brain (which was the biggest concern) so now he will stay in the hospital until he's at least 6 weeks old. He was 3 lbs 9 oz when he was born and seems to be doing really well.

We are here trying to help with the kids, yard work, and the house. We originally thought I would be helping more with the kids since Holly was in the hospital on bed rest, but she'll be coming home in a few days. I'm sure her own kids will love having mommy back (after she's fully recovered from not walking much for a month and a c-section).

We are now on an apartment search. We said we would stay at this house until Holly had her baby, which we thought would be in October so now that he's here we have to hurry! We don't really have to hurry, but it would be nice to settle somewhere soon.

Ja starts training for his new job on Monday! Wish him luck!

If anyone cares, my baby is now the size of a banana at 10 inches long. She can swallow now, as well as kick me!

Moving!

I can't believe it's getting so close! Ja leaves on Monday to drive across the country with my brother, Kenny. They will stop at church sites along the way. Then I fly with my mother-in-law and three nephews the next Monday. Our house is a total mess, but we can't wait to be in Virginia!

Devin & Deeanna's Wedding

On July 24th my brother-in-law Devin married Deanna. It was a fun pioneer celebration, minus the pioneers. They got married in the Sacramento LDS temple. The temple was beautiful, the grounds were very beautiful as well. It was as if the builders and landscapers wanted good pictures to be taken there. Unfortunately these are the only pictures I took.

The reception was at an amazingly beautiful home that looked like a botanical garden. There we took plenty of family pictures and ate lots of food and dessert. We are so happy for you two!

Only one more DeVore wedding to go...

Coldplay Concert

We were lucky enough to go to Coldplay's second Viva la Vida tour. Neither time were we planning on going to the concerts. This time someone asked us two days before if we were going. We said no, then she said, "My sister has extra tickets that she'll sell to you at a discount!" That was the end of that. Although our seats weren't as good as last time, we still enjoyed the music and the atmosphere.

Coldplay puts on such a great show. The lighting was spectacular, the back drops were cool, they walk off stage and sing on a little stage in the way back. I bet those people who thought they had bad seats were so excited when Coldplay came to sing right next to them. At this part of the concert they improvised a little and sang non-Coldplay songs, one being Billy Jean. I liked their version. At the end of the concert Chris Martin informs everyone they are giving us all a free CD, Left Right Left Right Left. It's the live version of a few of their songs. The crowd went wild.

Lovers in Japan was still my favorite song. I was so glad they still shoot tissue paper butterflies into the audience during the chorus. The air was filled with them!

For the encore they played Life In Technicolor, the version with words. Ja loves this song and I think it was his favorite part of the concert. We had a great time!

The concert was at the Home Depot Center in Carson. If you ever go there parking is horrible so you need to go two hours before the event starts. We ended up parking at a Panda Express parking lot and walking almost a mile to the center because the line of cars was not moving at all. We did make sure that the lot didn't say "Panda Express Parking Only" before parking.

News from the Doctor...

We are having a little GIRL! It came as a surprise to us all! 

Here is the "girl" picture. See the crescent thing and that there's nothing in the middle?

Her cute spine and ribs.

She was being camera shy and wouldn't let us look at her face. In this one she is putting her hand to her face.

Everything looked great; mom and baby wise. We are VERY excited!

12 Week Ultrasound

I forgot to post these pictures! I'm now 15 weeks and will get another ultrasound next week to determine the gender! 

This is a 2D ultrasound.

This is my favorite 3D ultrasound. Quite a difference isn't there? There's actually a baby in there!