Nightmares, Reality and Blessings

This semester is kicking my trash! I literally feel sick every time I think about school. Good news is I only have one month of class, clinicals, tests, assignments, etc. left...bad news is I don't have what is deemed by the Maricopa Nursing Program as a "passing grade" at the moment so I am beyond stressed!! I'm constantly going back and forth between having a positive "I can do it" attitude and a miserable "it's over, I'm a failure" attitude. Seriously, it changes by the minute and Mike has to be on his toes to be supportive, compassionate, etc. depending on what mood strikes and when. I think he might actually be more ready than I am for this to all be over!

Time for new scrubs!

The best thing about all of this stress is the person I get to go through it with! I look back and think about what life was like when our future was so unsure and realize that THAT was a nightmare!! It's so comforting to know that in all the rest of the trials that will come my way in life, big or small, I'll have Mike to help me through. When you look at the reality of the situation in the big scheme of things, I'm whining and complaining about a tiny drop in the bucket. I'm still super stressed (and will be 'til the end of the semester) but I am also overwhelmed by how blessed I am.

Mike and Chase during a recent trip to Eagar

My family came down for a few days last week. It just reiterated how lucky I am to be surrounded by such wonderful people! We got to see Sal who came home for fall break and celebrate Zacky's birthday. Family is really what it's all about!

Zack loves to play this Tire Fishing Game-
Mel texted me the other day and said he told her it was 'getting on his nerds'...
he is beyond cute!!

Zack LOVES pirates right now so we got him this pirate hat for his b-day.
Here's my little bro. Chase modeling it-he's getting SO BIG!

Lastly in this giant post, I want to say how excited I am for our little guy to get here! NOTHING can top it!!

This is an AWFUL picture taken about 3 weeks ago that I decided I wasn't going to post
but then decided to since I don't really have any others and I look MUCH worse now!
I really hate how I've gained just as much mass EVERYWHERE else besides my belly!
Definitely transitioning from the 'cute pregnant' stage into the 'miserable, EVERYTHING is swelling' stage!

Sunday Dinner

Mike's family has decided to do a Sunday dinner once a month. The first one was last week at Jen and Nate's house. It was great to see everyone and we had some great food!! We didn't get very good pics 'cause all we had were our cell phones but oh well.Nate made a fire and the kids got to play in the yard and go swimming.

Ry, Jen, Tam and me (stuffing my face).

Nate, Jenna, Tam, Ry and some of the kids.

We're excited to keep getting to see everyone once a month! Thanks Jen and Nate! We'll host it someday...:)

Also see Ryan featured in this month's issue of

Small Time Living.

Skype

As many of you know Celina has moved Mississippi, and because she is so far away she got us using Skype. I like it so much that I got everyone I could think of using it. Here are some pictures of my first meetings with them:

Emily introduced Trace to us again.

Chase tried attacking the computer

Cord Surprised me when I found out he already had Skype, and then Avery wouldn't say a word to us and just stared.

My mom of course freaked out about it
And Andy played us a song.
Anyway Skype is awesome and if you have it you should use it and add us to your list.

Family in Utah

This trip was crazy to me. Watching Emily with her new baby Trace was really sinking in this whole pregnancy thing. I'm getting pretty excited and nervous. It was nice seeing how good Emily and Nate are doing, they're making great parents.


I think one of my highlights of our trip was getting to go horseback riding with Nate. It was about the only thing we took pictures of. I haven't been riding in way too long and this little taste made me long for it. I really hope to own a horse someday soon. Nate seemed to be pretty consumed with thoughts of becoming a dad too because we kept bringing up how fun it would be to do this stuff with Trace and Grant (That's the name we have picked out for our kid by the way).


The absolute best thing though was just hanging out with everyone for the week. We spent the whole trip with Josh, M.Jay, Emily, Nate, and of course Trace and it went by way too fast. We did take some more pictures of Trace with our nicer camera but we're going to let Emily post those.

p.s. we also all watched the movie "The Switch" which I really liked, two thumbs up.

Sex?

I'm of course talking about the gender of our unborn child, and
it's a boy!


The baby is due to be here mid January which will be right after Ashley Graduates! Ash has had a pretty big plate lately with the pregnancy, nursing school, our recent move and to top it all off a broken foot, but she has been handling it so well. We're really excited to get this all behind us and start the next chapter in our lives!