This Delightful Weekend

So, this weekend I graduated from BYU with a degree in English language (think of it as linguistics with an English emphasis) and a minor in editing. I also achieved honors through the honors program by completing honors classes; completing the Great Works requirements by watching certain movies, reading certain books, attending certain plays, viewing different art exhibits, and attending certain music concerts; completing the honors portfolio by writing about these experiences and my overall educational experience; maintaining a certain GPA; and completing an honors thesis. I never really doubted that I would graduate from college, although graduating with honors was a little questionable at times; that means that the really most wonderful thing about this weekend was having family in town. And we really had a lot of fun.

Above is me at the honors luncheon, crossing the stage and shaking hands with Dr. Madison Sowell, the director of the Honors Program. I also received a fancy medal that everyone "oohed" and "awed" over, but I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it now. Dr. Sowell had put the medal around my neck just before this picture and he whispered, "missed the glasses" because he'd managed not to get it hooked on my glasses, but I thought he'd said "missed the classes" and for a second I was pretty confused. Oh well!

Above is my massive pile of theses, compiling these at the last minute turned out to be an ordeal (which you can read about in a previous entry). They looked a lot bigger individually before they were bound.

Here is my thesis advisor: Mel Thorne. He heads the editing program at BYU. (This picture also gives you a glimpse of my growing belly.)

Here are the members of my supporting cast who attended the honors luncheon: Aunt Pattie, Patrick, Dad, and Mom. Poor Dad is cut off by me. But they all look good anyway. Below is Pattie again as well as Aunt Jennifer who came into town to watch l'il ol' me traipse across that stage. She was also in town when I was born 22 years ago, so she's been around for some pretty important events in my life.

You can see me in my cap and gown here. I forgot clips to hold the cap on, I couldn't figure out how to attach the stupid collar and when it was attached my hair got stuck on it, and my zipper malfunctioned on the second day. What a hassle! Anyway, below is me and Patrick. I have to post this because I can only get him to be in pictures with a pleasant smile on his face when there are big events going on, so it could be awhile before we get another one like this.

The picture below requires a definite explanation. So I got a video camera for a graduation present from my parents, partially to capture our cute little rugrat when he's born. Patrick experimented with it quite a lot. Here we are at dinner at the Marriott Jennifer was staying at and Patrick is recording the inside of his mouth while looking at the viewfinder; he's trying to see if his wisdom teeth are growing in. Very classy!

Below is my friend Christine. I have known her since she moved in when I was in eighth grade (I think that's right). She is graduating and moving out of the state to go work for an up-and-coming company who sought her out because she's brilliant and great. I'll miss her, but I'm glad we got to celebrate our big day together-- lucky for me she sped along and got out a year early.

These are my parents. I like this picture because this is how they look when they're happy-- they're very genuine smiles; probably, Patrick said something funny to help encourage them to be so natural. Anyway, I'm so grateful they came out and spent the weekend with us.

Finally, me and Patrick again. He's holding my arms back so you can see my belly. So, yeah, apparently there's a baby in there. Pretty crazy!

There's more to say about everything that happened this weekend, but I thought the pictures would be a nice touch and I don't want to bore you with the details right now . . . we'll save that for later.

The News Is . . .

Well, for one thing, I am 99.9% finished with my undergraduate education! I have a few small things to do tomorrow and then . . . victory is mine!

But really more exciting is that we are having a healthy baby, viewed by ultrasound. We're a little farther along than we thought with a due date around September 2ndish, but they don't change your actual due date based on such a small change. It's probably better that I think it's coming later and then I'll be pleasantly surprised if the baby is a few days "early." We were excited to hear that the baby is healthy and to see the child sucking and to see the heart beating. And we were excited to learn that we're having a boy! (We would have been excited either way, but it's awfully fun to know one way or the other.) The woman doing the ultrasound (I don't know the name for that job) said that she usually doesn't take pictures of the front of the face because at this point they look like little aliens, but she said our munchkin looked quite good. He was fairly active throughout which made Patrick a little nervous-- like father like son? But we wanted him to be active; it made it much easier for the woman, so we'll look on it as a good sign of high energy mixed with obedience. Also, he's clearly handsome already. It's all very promising. He's gonna be a winner! Of course, we both rather think his genes guaranteed it.

Waiting

For the last several days Patrick, Pattie, and Bethany have all been gone to Grandma Taylor's funeral. Without any housemates I've had to learn how to entertain myself again. I went for a walk by myself on the Friday that Patrick decided he would go before he had made the decision and I remembered how much I enjoyed keeping myself company when I was a kid. I could go in my room for hours and read or write or play house with my dolls or reorganize my room (even when it was pretty much the size of a cubby) or I could go outside and pretend I was a princess in a castle or jump on the trampoline. I spent a lot of time thinking when I was a kid too.

For the last four years, however, I haven't really gotten a lot of chances to entertain myself. There were always people within a few feet of me--inside or outside. During my freshman and sophomore years I lived with five other girls and during my junior and senior years I've lived with Patrick. This is the first time in nearly two years that we've been separated for any length of time and it was only three days. In any case, my imagination is still somewhat in tact because the first day he was gone I imagined horrible things happening and that he was never coming back. I also imagined horrible things happening to me whenever I heard an unexpected noise. The rest of the weekend was okay, but that first day I cried a ridiculous amount (something I am blaming on pregnancy hormones). Fortunately, he'll be home in the next couple hours (he just landed in Salt Lake)--yay!

While Patrick was gone, his mom's sister Roxy sent me three packages, two with movies and one with a puzzle. That was appropriate and extremely helpful because I did watch several movies, though I'm not going to admit to how many. I was so touched that she thought of me and did that for me. Besides movies, I also tried to keep busy by making plans. On Wednesday night, the teenage girls at church had an activity that I attend every week because I teach the twelve- and thirteen-year-olds. On Thursday, I visited Pattie's mother-in-law who lives around the corner; when I asked if I could stop by if I wanted company, she said she would be hurt if I didn't. She's very nice and it was a pleasant visit. In the evening, I planned to hang out with some girls from Wisconsin. Two of them couldn't make it, but one of them did so we ate ice cream and cookies and talked. On Friday, I attended a rock, paper, scissors competition with our good friends Dan and Michelle and then came home and watched movies and scrapbooked. On Saturday, I went to the Ballroom Dance performance on campus with two friends. I was disappointed that it was so many of the same numbers as last year, but I guess that's just practical. I did also make progress on my school work over the weekend, though it wasn't as much as it should have/could have been.

This next week is a busy one. Monday and Tuesday are our last days of class; Wednesday and Thursday are reading days; and Friday and Saturday are exams which go into next week for some people as well. Besides school, two of my professors are hosting parties this week (one on Monday and one on Thursday) which we are going to attend and then we are having the ultrasound on Friday. Yes, we are going to find out the gender if we can. Unlike the previous generation, we tend to think "why not do it?" rather than "why do it?" After all, we still have four months to anticipate actually having a baby. Our thought is that it's a boy, but we're not that committed to that feeling and won't be surprised if it turns out we're wrong. We don't care either way; we just hope he or she is healthy.

The week after that, we have some things we need to do in the beginning of the week and in the latter half of the week my mom and dad and my aunt Jennifer are coming for my graduation. I'm so excited to see them all!

Soon after they leave, Patrick will be starting spring term. He's decided to go through spring and summer so he can graduate in December. It seems pretty intense to me, but he feels good about it, so that's what he's going to do and we'll make it work. And then . . . back to Wisconsin whenever the opportunity arises.

Well, perhaps I'll take a walk and stop blabbering on. That's all for now!

The Wonderful World of Pregnancy

(Clearly, I lied when I said I wouldn't write for a couple weeks. I admit it, and I don't care.) I was thinking about this blog this morning, and the title was going to be ironic. I don't feel bad compared to many other women, but there are some definite frustrations. Lately, my biggest is clothes. When I first started getting completely uncomfortable at work after sitting for two hours straight, Patrick and I went shopping. I have two gift cards to Gap (one of which I've been saving since my birthday) and a friend told me that they had really comfortable maternity clothes there. I went and found that they didn't have anything that really fit me well. I could have made do by rolling up my pant legs, but if you're going to spend $50 or more on a pair of pants, I think they ought to fit even if I am using a gift card. So I decided I'd save the gift cards for post-pregnancy when I wanted nice things and when they'd probably have more options.

We next went to Wal-Mart and I actually found a pair of jeans for $20 that was comfortable and I liked and that only need to be rolled up a little or not at all (depending on the shoes). They didn't have a lot of options either so I went and bought a pair of sweat pants that are super soft and comfortable. Later, Patrick's mom sent a pair of exercise pants, so I have three pairs of comfortable pants total. I felt okay with that at the time and figured I'd get something more later. Frustratingly, after about a week the stupid jeans ripped on the stretchy part around the waist and the sweat pants are torn on a seam. They're probably both easily fixable, but I think maternity clothes ought to last on their own for the duration of the time a woman needs to wear them-- after all, it's only six months or so.

As for shirts, I looked at Shopko when we were there for something else and came to the conclusion that there is a perception that pregnant women have less concern with modesty than non-pregnant women-- all the shirts were super low-cut and I've given up on most of my undershirts as straining across my belly too much. Otherwise, I did pick up two maternity shirts at DI that are fairly classy, but they're looking at the seventh or eighth month and not a woman in her fourth month. I wore one, which I felt was pretty flexible and which Patrick and I both thought looked good, but we agreed at the end of the day that it screamed, "In case you didn't know, I'm pregnant!!" So I've reshelved it for now.

So, I have become pretty well content with T-shirts lately. I decided today (and this is when I started picturing this blog) that I was sick of T-shirts and would wear something nicer, especially since T-shirts no longer conceal my growing belly. I pulled out a button down and found that it strained awkwardly and emphasized the growing feeling that this excess belly is fat and not baby. So I threw that onto the discard pile and pulled out something else that is more flexible but still nice. We're going to Patrick's mission reunion tomorrow night, so I'd like to dress nice, and we're watching General Conference on Saturday and Sunday which I like to dress nice for even if we just watch it at home since it helps me pay attention. And then there's a banquet on Tuesday for my department that I'd like to look nice for. Clearly, I'm going to have to remedy this situation in my free time or start doing laundry more often.

Furthermore, even though I know a woman is supposed to gain 25-35 lbs through her pregnancy and that my belly getting bigger is a good thing (in moderation), it's still hard to accept that this is okay. I know that this is completely unfair to a lot of people, but I can't remember growing out of my clothes due to increasing width, only increasing height (and that stopped awhile ago). This new kind of growth is a little scarry. It doesn't help that I know my diet isn't amazing. I drink milk, eat yogurt, get fiber from bread, have protein in eggs, peanut butter, and meat, and I eat fruit well too, but I also eat sweets and I don't have very many green vegetables. It's just hard to know if it's me causing the weight or it's the baby growing. I've been telling myself that when I feel the baby move and I really feel like there is a child growing inside of me, I won't feel so self-conscious, but I recently went to a baby shower for a girl who is very petite and eight months pregnant and she kept describing herself as a "whale" (though she looks very cute and pregnant) which makes me think that you could pretty much feel this way and worse until the baby's born. It makes me suppose that I'm going to have to get a grip and accept this or I'm not going to enjoy this period of my life as much as I should. After all, I know that it is pretty incredible.

It was particularly incredible today when I felt a sort of tic inside my stomach. I thought it was weird, but then it happened several times, and I thought, "Maybe that's the baby!" Other people have described it as flutters or strange-feeling gas, but this felt like a tic. At first I thought I wouldn't tell anyone except Patrick since I don't know for sure, but then I thought, "What the heck. Who's to tell me it's not the baby anyway." So I've come to the conclusion (deluded or not) that I felt my baby move which I have been hoping for since my last doctor's appointment when the nurse and then the doctor asked if I had felt any movement and told me I could feel it any time. Thus, while "the wonderful world of pregnancy" came to me with gritted teeth this morning while I looked at my wardrobe, this afternoon it seems completely bearable and, yes, even wonderful and amazing after all.