happy holidays

Happy Holiays from these guys!

our charlie brown tree

 

These past 4 years of moving from state to state, apartment to apartment, it's been wonderful. New adventures everywhere we go and making a home where ever we've ended up. And as much as we've enjoyed sharing small quarters together, that time is coming to an end very soon. The time has come for us to purchase our first home and the time I've spent on Pinterest will finally be used.  All those ideas for decorating will be copied now as I'm purchasing our own furniture and throw pillows and frames and lamps and rugs and all those little things that we don't have in our little apartment now. And even though this new stage is exciting, I will always cherish our first 4 years in small apartments together.

 

Our first apartment, we lived 4 months with no furniture. We ate dinner in our camping chairs we received as wedding gifts.

And in our second apartment---a basement apartment, not having any kitchen appliances besides a mini fridge or put our milk out on our front step in the snow. Oh the memories.

The third apartment, that was a huge step-up for us. We bought our first couch and we had a washer and dryer IN our apartment.

And for our last Christmas in an apartment, we have a beauitful tree for the first time. It isn't real, and there's no twinkling lights on it, but it's our christmas tree and it's perfect! With our collection of yearly christmas ornaments. I was excited for this year's.... See the cute couple and the expecting mama? That's us. :)

24 weeks

i was so sure that once I got pregnant that I would be a blogging maniac. Posting every single update and all, but this blog has been on the back burner. Not even the back burner because the back burner is still visible while i'm cooking. More like a lonely sock under the bed. Out of sight--- out of mind. So here is my 24 week photo, which was 2 weeks ago and let me tell you, 2 weeks has made a huge difference. These past few weeks have been a burst in belly size and it's official.... the belly button has gone from an innie-to-an-outie. I'm the creepy pregnant lady who keeps touching her belly button. I haven't felt an outie before and it's freakishly addicting to touch. Only those who have been pregnant would understand.

and this baby boy of ours is a soccer player. yep. quite the kicker. i've never been a soccer fan, but for  my boy, I will be his biggest soccer fan. and it will be more pleasant watching him kick a soccer ball than my ribs. regardless, feeling our boy moving is the best. i just want to take everyone's hand and place it on my stomach and say, "did you feel him?!!?" I'm bragging about my son and he's not even in my arms yet. The bragging has already begun...

13.1 miles and 21 weeks

Ever make a commitment to something because at the time the idea sounded awesome!..... but the feeling quickly died as the date got closer? Plus, other people knowing about this commitment makes backing out very difficult. Yeah, that happens to me all the time. But everytime it turns out perfectly and I'm so grateful I stuck to it. Well, before I got pregnant, my biff and I decided to sign up for a half marathon. Once our baby blessing came along, she gave me a way out saying I didn't need to do it which was very tempting to use as an excuse, but nope.... the commitment was made and I was sticking to it.

I ran a half in March and have been running ever since. I've read and talked to many people (especially the doctor) about running while pregnant and I came to my own conclusion that as long as I 1.) wasn't picking up running for the first time----which I wasn't and 2.) didn't push myself--- ha, I didn't even push myself before I was pregnant, that running throughout my pregnancy would be very helpful and I must say, running has been in more than one way.

To this past weekend now, I decided to run the half at 21 weeks pregnant. The run went surprisingly well, even though I had to pee the first 1/2 mile. I thought, even with my slow paced jog, that I would never come in last, but I was pretty dang close. There was even a point where this crazy speed walker passed my slow jaunt. Ouch, shot to my pride. But there's a saying runners refer to which helped ease that pain-- "It's very hard in the beginning to understand that the whole idea is not to beat the other runners. Eventually you learn that the competition is against the little voice inside you that wants you to quit." --Sheehan.

Anyway, it was one of my favorite runs I've done and I had my mom running beside me. This was our boy's first 1/2 marathon and all he had to do was relax while mommy did all the work.

half way milestone

There's a lot of new developments and here I am playing catch-up on my day off of work. Woke up this morning at 5:30, so much for sleeping in, and I'm in my robe watching the news and eating my homemade banana oat muffin--- which needs some work. Once the recipe is perfected I'll share. :)
We had our last ultrasound last week and all is well with baby boy. We saw everything in detail-- and I asked the doctor to count all his toes and just to confirm, he has 10 toes. A small mother's concern relieved. And finally... the moment I've been waiting for since that positive pregnancy test.....
Our boy is kicking like a mad-man! Last night we were laying in bed talking and I happened to have my hands on the right spot to feel him kick! We thought singing would make him kick again and it sure did. Probably him wanting me to shut-up but regardless, it worked. And out of impulse, I grabbed Ryan's hand and we just stared at each other wide-eyed until he says, "I felt him too!" We're all smiles. What a stellar feeling.

 

something about free food

We went to the Sun's game this week with David and Brittany--- on a work night too, we are so hard core. We had tickets in the loge section with a buffet dinner and ice cream. To be honest, and I can only really speak for myself and Ryan, we didn't care if the Suns won or not. We were just happy about eating all the food. And that attitude was a good one to have because, unfortunately, the Suns didn't win. :( The food and company made up for it though. :)

dinner theater

A few years ago Ryan and I went to a dinner theater. They are the best!--- eating dinner while being entertained by a show... is there really anything more you can ask for? Yes actually, having your husband be in the show.

Turns out a dinner theater we went to down in Tucson had tons of audience participation and Ryan's height made blending into the crow a little more difficult. He became the Frankenstein and practically stole the show. :) I've never been more proud of my Frankenstein. He was probably a lot happier with this get-up than last year's costume of Sonny and Cher, Ryan being Cher of course because he's a lot taller than me. :)

quarter century

Ok first off, a quarter century sounds a lot older than mid-20's so I'll be using the latter to refer to this year's birthday milestone. :) And how lucky were Ryan and I to both get Friday off for a weekend get-away. Original plans were to head to Sedona, but last minute change took us to Tucson where I got to see this lovely girl, my best friend for 10+ years, thank you very much. My birthday weekend wouldn't have been complete without seeing this stellar girl and hearing her blunt honesty of how much more pregnant I'm looking. Only she can get away with telling me that. After all, that's what best friends are for. :)

mother's intuition

I've heard it from my mother growing up that mother's...... just...... know-- it's the "mother's intuition". She would lovingly scare us how mother's know everything about their kids and we wouldn't be able to hide anything from her. She always knew what we were up to before we even had the time to get into trouble. Mother's intuition--- this made it very difficult for me to be sneaky growing up...Sigh....

I always wondered... How did she know??? I figured it out. It's a special power a woman receives ONCE she has a child... no wait.... once she is WITH child. I figured this out because I received the mother's intuition when i was about 10 weeks along.

I had a dream, actually two dreams, and both were very distinct. And in both of my dreams I saw our baby. And in both of my dreams, our baby was a precious little boy. Weird? Nope. Mother's intuition? Yes. We went in for our 2nd ultrasound at 13.5 weeks. We weren't expecting to find out this early, but the doctor got the clearest shot and before he could announce, we said, "It's a boy!" I was very humble and didn't say, "I already knew that."

Ultrasound picture looking between his legs.

Our doctor confirmed saying, "He isn't shy..."  --- Just like his father I thought. I'm in for a real treat if he's anything like his daddy. :)

Expectant Mother here!

Saturday morning Ryan and I are still laying in bed when we start to discuss plans for the day. "I'm too lazy. I don't want to do anything" I say, and luckily he agrees. Why feel bad for doing absolutely nothing? I don't. Once baby comes things will change drastically. But for now, we do what we want, when we want to. The thing is, we just don't want to do much which is perfectly fine by me. Our days of sleeping in and afternoon naps are close to an end...we're taking full advantage of this time.

- I do feel bad though, just a tiny bit, for the complete lack of interest I have in my appearance. I'm sticking with my yoga pants and baggy tshirts for now and as long as Ryan believes I look like a supermodel, why mess with the wardrobe? Thank goodness the peak of my pregnancy will be during the winter months. Right when I'm feeling like a giant blob, I will attempt to conceal myself with the oversized clothes. YES! Which is why whenever I take a belly shot, it will be on the one day I put about 75% effort into my appearance......Sunday's for church. :)

Let's just say I'm pretty stoked the bump is finally here. Ryan and I went to the grocery store the other day and I told him to park in the 'Expectant Mothers' parking spot. He refused since I wasn't showing yet. Pfff. We need to take advantage of that spot!!!! Next time, I went by myself and pulled into that parking spot with a huge smile on my face. I'm sure the customers in the grocery store parking lot think I'm a complete phoney. I made sure to rub my not-so-pregnant looking stomach as I walked into the store. Oh well. I only have 9 months to enjoy prime parking at the grocery store and this girl will take advantage of the situation.

baby & I growing

Wednesday was our 2nd doctor's appointment and when I thought nothing could top the first ultrasound of verifying a baby really inside growing, apparently every ultrasound is special in a new way. We went from a tiny blob that we had to look very carefully to see "what-was-what" to clearly seeing our baby's head, nose, hands, and feet. How does a mom-to-be really express the joyful and humbling experience of having her child develop inside of her? All I can say is I'm in love. <3

And here's the first belly shot. I even put my hand on my hip like I'm carrying a large load. I'm practicing the pose for the much larger belly soon to come. :)

lions tigers bears and views

Our anniversary weekend was a weekend of enjoying the beauty and history in Arizona. And I wish my stellar skilled photography captured the real beauty of the Grand Canyon, but I did my best. And that's all that matters right? As an born and raised Arizonan, this was my first time seeing the Grand Canyon (crazy right?) which was probably my favorite of all.

We headed up north for cooler weather and stayed in Flagstaff. We were able to sqeeze quite a bit over the weekend: Wuptaki National Monument, the Grand Canyon, Out of Africa Wildlife Park, and Montezuma Castle. There was quite a bit of driving between all these places, so we had plenty of time to talk and laugh and sing and eat in the car. We probably enjoyed our car time a little too much. :)

happy and awkward times

Happy 4 years and almost 2 weeks to this blissful marriage....which happens to be our last wedding anniversary without kids. This time next year we'll have a little Shideler crawling around the house naked and giving us new reasons to be up late at night and tired in the morning. Haha.

Speaking of the pregnancy, is it just me or is it an awkward time when the belly is just beginning to show a little bump. Not enough to say, "Oh, she must be pregnant" but enough to look like "I think she's putting on some weight." That's the stage I'm at. And now when I'm around people who know I'm pregnant, I can't help but laugh when they ask me, "Do you think you're showing yet?" Almost as if they want to hear my admit it first before they say anything about the stomach bulge. Ok people! I'll come out and say it, "I'm starting to show." No more beating around the bush. :)

surgeons and music

What is the best area for a nurse to work? I'm not really sure. I've only worked as an operating room nurse and although trying something else intrigues me at times, I'm sure I would come running back to the OR after doing what some nurses on the floor have to do.

One aspect of being in the operating room that makes things really interesting/entertaining, is being in tight quarters with the doctors. Don't get me wrong, a majority of the doctor's are very sweet and easy to talk to. However, there are those surgeons that make my eyes pop out and make me stop in my tracks to stare. It's hard to believe that a grown adult could fold their arms and stomp the ground like a little child... literally. Or have a tourrette's episode and start shouting profanities out of NO WHERE and then go back to talking about themselves. Very eye popping. I'm sure you can guess how my day was at work. :) Just a little pet peeve at work, dealing with adult-children.

We do listen to music during surgery. We try to keep it professional, but let's be real here, a majority of the time it's not. And we try to keep the music off when we bring the patient back, but sometimes it just doesn't happen.

I'm going to keep track of songs playing when the patient comes back that you have to run over and shut-off because it's just down right inappropriate. First song on the list:  Knockin' on Heaven's Door by Bob Dylan. Not exactly what you want to hear when you're going in for surgery. Great work week and it's only Tuesday.

baby's first ultrasound

 

The pregnancy test didn't lie.

We had our first doctor's appointment and our first ultrasound and even after sitting here trying to think of the words to best explain what we felt.... there are no words. We saw our little grape-sized baby's heart beating away and heard baby's heart beat. All I can say is, my heart smiled.  

 

Ryan has been quite the trooper, but he still has until the end of March to put up with me and my complete lack of energy. This girl loved her sleep beforehand, but 13 hours is just down right ridiculous isn't it? Don't even get me started on my lack of appetite.  I'm just super grateful that cereal sits will with me because pregnancy would be very difficult if I couldn't eat my cereal.

 

On another note:

 I think it was the day after we found out I was pregnant and I asked Ryan, "Do you want to do the dishes, or take out the trash?"

 

Without ANY hesitation what-so-ever he said, "Is this a trick question? ...... I'll do both"

 

:)

 

Such a sweetie. And quite the quick learner too.

I made some labels to the cutest, smallest, blurriest ultrasound. :) Cute baby huh!!!!

can we not go to work tomorrow?

So the day I pretty much knew I was pregnant and decided to take a pregnancy test, I thought I would record each of us finding out. It's all about documenting this stage in our life right? I love pictures, but there's something about watching a video down the road and this is a video I'll love watching many years from now.

I actually did the pregnancy test before Ryan woke up Sunday morning. We've had a few scares in the past and it's come to the point where I don't even mention I'm late. I figured I would take the test, and if it was positive, I would do something nice to share the news with Ryan.

I do have a video of me reading the pregnancy test, but I'm more interested in showing the daddy's reaction because it is BY FAR the SWEETEST and most PRICELESS video I've ever seen. I'm not bias.

Every time I watch this video I can't help but chuckle. Ryan is never speechless, but in this video, he's SHOCKED. Seriously, there's a good 10 second pause where he just STARES at me while I'm crying. Ha ha :) He's been ready for awhile to have kids and probably never thought this day would come. I'm just so glad I recorded this.

Oh, and I chuckle at the very end when I ask him, "Can we not go to work tomorrow?" Because finding out you're pregnant means you get a day off, didn't you know that? :)

it's positively positive. :)

Tonto Natural Bridge State Park

Costco was the highlight of my day. Up and down the aisles throwing whatever the heck looked good in my cart. It helped that Ryan wasn't there to supervise or add up the bill while shopping. :)

Anyway, I had a pleasant conversation with a family in front of me while checking out.

I wonder if that's a characteristic people will say about me at my funeral because I've been told that more than once. That I am quick to talk to strangers and carry on a conversation like we were neighbors. Hmmm....

Back to the family.

I asked where they were from (they were African) and ended up impressing them with my Swahili. The grandmother was so excited she waved her daughter and grandkids over. Yes, I can say a few numbers in Swahili (they may not be in numerical order though). I told her how my husband and I went to Tanzania and picked some up while we were there. They were so impressed. And after talking with them, their sweetness and friendliness made me miss the African culture like crazy. But one thing I'm trying to work on (one of many) is being grateful for what's going on in my life at that moment. And this is the beauty I saw this past week.

And there were many comments from other hikers on my husband completing this in his slippers. That's my husband for you. Impressive huh?

Payson, AZ

It's Monday and I'm feeling it.

I went in to LA Fitness after work to open a membership. I thought I would ease into it by getting a guest pass for the next three days. Today was day one. I worked out for 15 minutes. ROUGH!

Did I really run a half marathon just 4 months ago? Because no one, including myself, would believe it. Use it or lose it I guess.

 Thursday night before falling asleep, Ryan and I are in bed talking. When I think about things in life that are THE BEST, this is one of them. He tells me, when you get off work tomorrow, we're going to drive up to Payson and stay the night. He's taken care of a hotel and already has an itinerary planned. I love my husband's surprises and our spontaneous weekend trips. And not to brag, but look at what beauty I got to see. Tons of pictures, of course, in the process of being uploaded.

I would say it's crazy, but after talking with others who have similar experiences, it's not that crazy I haven't seen a lot of the national parks in AZ. Being born and raised, I've seen very little really. Technically I have been to the Grand Canyon, but I was maybe 2 years old. Does that really even count? Didn't think so.

However, with Tonto Natural Bridge State Park, Check!

javelina

Wouldn't it be cool if we shared "what did you see this weekend?" highlights and see who could top who. I'm crowning myself the winner for this weekend when we saw a javelina right stinking in front of us, charge towards us, and then the dang little piggy ran all the way home... or at least away from us. It would have been a hilarious video of me shrieking and running away, but photos will just have to do.

Oh, and this sucker was from our Payson, AZ trip. You can see it was such a romantic weekend getaway for the two of us. :)

1/3 mexican girl posole

You know what is a great invention? the Crockpot. Yes. A device that you throw a bunch of a food in, turn it on, leave for a few hours, come back and it's all ready for you to eat. A complete life saver, especially for my husband's sake.

A tid-bit of information about myself, i'm 1/3 Mexican. Grandpa was full, Grandma is half, which leaves me about 1/3. Do I know how to cook Mexican food? Unfortunately no, other than the chicken enchiladas my grandma taught me. But other than that, the extent is a cheese quesadilla. :)

Ryan served his LDS mission in Mexico and one of his FAVORITE dishes was posole. For his birthday last year, I thought I would find a recipe and try and make posole for him. And I so happened to come across a recipe for posole made in a crock pot. Now give me one second to defend the crockpot posole, because I got a good rationing for cooking posole in a crockpot from a full-blooded mexican I work with. :) I have never tasted posole IN Mexico, but my husband has and as far as he remembers, he says this recipe is very close. He loves it, I love it, and it's easy. SO, without furtrher ado, this is my 1/3-mexican-girl posole crockpot recipe. :)

4 large boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 small can of diced green chiles

2- 8oz cans of chicken broth

1/2 yellow onion chopped

1-2 jalepeno chopped *depending on how spicy you want it

1- 8oz can chopped tomatoes undrained

1/2 green cabbage shredded

2 green peppers chopped

Approx. 50 oz hominy

1 tbs cumin

1 tbs chili powder

salt and pepper

Here's the really hard part.

Throw everything in and cook high for 3 1/2 hours or 5 1/2 on low.

I add the shredded cabbage last hour.

When it's ready, get two forks and shred the chicken. It usually just falls apart on its own when stirring. Serve with warmed corn tortillas and lime. And maybe a dallop of sour cream. :)

* We usually have pork. If so, have pork chopped up in bite-size pieces when thrown in.

Friday welcome home

The husband came home early from work today sick. So it was a double surprise coming home at 3:30 and having him there, as well as a gift to celebrate a new holiday Ryan just made up, "wife's day".

airing out dirty laundry

I remember when Ryan had gone camping one weekend last year. Before leaving town, I specifically told him, "CALL ME WHEN YOU'RE GETTING BACK INTO TOWN!" I was very specific and I made sure to mention it to him several times before he left. I was hoping he would think my request was because I'd miss him and wanted to be home when he got back.... which there is truth to that. But most of the truth is, I wanted to make sure our apartment was picked up. I can be a bit of a slob and if the hubby is out of town, there is no way I'm going to be cleaning up while he's gone.

How does this story end? Monday morning, bright and early, a few hours before he was supposed to get home, he SURPRISED me and showed up without a phone call. He thought he was being sweet by surprising me with an early arrival, but the surprise was not wanted. The place was TRASHED! And I mean, so trashed that I was actually embarrassed. Cereal and junk food all over the counters, dishes piled up, clothes all over the floor; I had just woken up and my eyes were blood shot red and my hair was a bird's nest.

From that time forward, Ryan learned something about me. I'm a MAJOR SLOB up until 10 minutes before he gets home. So today, now that I'm home from work, I should be picking up. Instead, I'm sitting in our recliner, my bowl of Life cereal on the armrest, blogging, and staring at the piles of clean clothes over our living room floor that need to be folded and put away. Luckily, Ryan has gotten in the habit of letting me know when he's leaving work; my que to start cleaning. :) Muah haha. I can have my dirty secrets right? Please tell me I'm not alone on this.

13

I'm not a very superstitous person, especially when it comes to friday the 13th. But today, the superstition set in. I went in to work this morning and SURPRISE! I was off orientation and on my own without warning. I have nursing experience and don't need much orienting to my new hospital, but still, give me some heads up why don't ya.

That was only the beginning...

my first case, on my first day off orientation, I had someone from quality control sit in on the case to observe us all. this rarely happens but of course it happened to me. These people stand in the corner with their clipboard, staring you down, and give you the evil eye as they ding you a point every chance they get. She said I did well when she left. Hopefully she wouldn't lie to my face. I'll find out how honest she was in a few weeks.

Ok, quality control is gone. Things should be better right? Wrong. Second case of the day, i have someone from INFECTION control come and say they are sitting in on this case. WHAT THE HECK??? TWO OF THESE PEOPLE IN ONE DAY??? Is this my painful initiation to the operating room? Bring it on!!!!!

Let's just say the curse broke at 3pm when I clocked out and ran out to my car to drive away-- not before grabbing a free cookie from the lounge though. ha. There's something about leaving work on a friday knowing you have a short few days of freedom. I have a big smile on my face right now just thinking about it. :) :) :) :)

Hope you have a grrrreat friday the 13th and a happy joyful weekend of no work.  

retiring

Here's my china cabinet!!! Remember what it looked like before? Like this! My first project will be the longest.project.EVER! And it will stay in my parent's garage for probably another year. But at least it's not such an eye-sore to whoever parks there car in there. It has some work to be done but I'll get around to it when I get around to it.

So I just got off the phone with Grandma. The one-sided conversation was me venting about having to work SUCKS and how Ryan and I want to retire ASAP and grandma laughing hysterically the entire time. She was able to get a few words in every time she would gasp for air saying, "oh my poor baby." Let's just say I'm not feeling much better about things.

Last night was a late one. We were viewing some houses and had car problems. So it was Ryan and I hanging out in a QT parking lot with an AutoZone employee working on our car until 1130pm last night. Ryan had to get up at 4 this morning and I was up at 5:20am. I'm typing this with my eyes closed right now; THAT'S how tired I am. Blah blah blah. Elizabeth, stop complaining. Ok. I guess we can't just be billionaires magically. And Grandma's tough love taught me, "Be grateful you have a job." And reality is, we are grateful for our jobs. But still, early mornings and running low on sleep SUCKS.

Anyhoo.

So, here's dinner for us tonight. No idea where I got the recipe but its got the perfect KICK. BOO YA! And it will be an early-bird dinner for us so we can get in bed and have a 12 hour sleep to be well rested for Friday's work day. :)

20-24 raw shrimps;

1 finely chopped small onion;

1/2 cup olive oil;

1 tbsp lemon zest;

3 gloves garlic, minced;

1/2 cup lemon juice;

2 small red chillies, seeded and finely chopped;

1 tbsp grated ginger;

1 tsp turmeric;

Mix all the ingredients other than the shrimps together in a bowl, add the shrimps and cover over night. When ready to cook, remove the shrimps from the marinade and stir-fry them until crispy with clarified butter or coconut oil. Once ready, add the marinade to the wok and bring to a boil while tossing.

goodness

The other day we went to Subway. It's been a usual dinner for us with all the house hunting going on and because  the sub of the month is wicked good.

Anyway, just wanted to share a nice lil experience when we were there this weekend. There were three guys, in their late 20's maybe, who were in front of us in line. By the time we finished placing our orders and were walking to a table to eat, we noticed these three guys, eyes closed, hands clasped, saying a prayer together. We happened to be at the table next to them so we heard their humble prayer.

It was one of those moments where you stop and reflect: there are good people in the world. Yes, there is wickedness and evil; but don't let that belittle the abundance of goodness there is.

My sleeping baby

Saturdays Ryan likes to sleep in. And it's not really sleeping in, I just say that when I'm awake before him and patiently and quietly go eat breakfast and wait for him to wake up. Last Saturday I thought I'd clean up a little bit before he got up and when I went into our bedroom to take a pile of shoes in, this is what I saw. A 6'7 body hidden somewhere under the pile of blankets and one big and bare foot.

Our weekends have been booked with house hunting. We have had mostly terrible luck and have been in a few homes we would like to have never stepped foot in and have completely erased from our memory. I won't go into details but it pretty much involved a middle-aged pastey-white creepy man that left our realtor, Ryan, and myself speechless leaving his home. Ryan and I stopped at a gas station afterwards to go wash our hands. Our new rule is to not view homes where people are still living in them. Vacant homes ONLY!!!!!!

On a brighter note, we did find one in particular we have our eyes set on. Ryan says I shouldn't get my hopes up incase we don't get it...... too late.

fireworks

Last night was probably one of the coolest experiences of watching the fireworks display. It may be difficult to read about what we did without getting jealous, so just try and be happy for us. TOTALLY KIDDING. but seriously....

Some friends invited us to go on a hike to overlook all of the Phoenix valley fireworks! We hiked up a mountain in central Phoenix and were able to see the fireworks shows in Scottsdale, Tempe, Chandler, Biltmore, Central, and some out in Glendale. We had no radio with us so we sang our patriotic songs acapella.... And we sounded very patriotic if I do say so myself.

And afterwards, with our group shot, I had a Braveheart moment with the whole "FREEDOM!" pose. Nice touch right?? :)  

gone fishin'