wow so i'm really bad at updating...but i swear i have a valid excuse!! i have possibly THE most ghetto computer in the world and it decides whenever it feels like it to turn off soooo unless i'm near my mom's computer or my sister's i don't get a chance to have uninterrupted time on the computer. Today just happened to be a special day cuz i got to mad at mine so i stomped into katie's disgusting room. i just hope i don't get eaten alive by fleas while i'm in here...

SOOO it doesn't seem like that much has happened in the past month but i guess there has been a lot going on.

I went to maui for a day. that was fun. I was just glad to get home though because I was having contraction ALLLL day long and i was afraid that i was going to have the baby there...good thing i made it home and another 2 weeks farther! ugh.

I had my baby shower last week. That was fun! there was a pretty good turn out and of course all women love to buy baby clothes so i got a ton of clothes for the little one....NO i don't have a name picked out yet..apparently children are supposed to have their own names..i wasn't aware of this fact beforehand...ok. i'm kidding. but names are hard! i have it down to 2 choices so i'll see once he's born what he looks like...unless of course its a girl...then..i don't know what i'm going to do. She's gonna be wearin blue for a while! lol. BUT yeah back to the baby shower. I was really happy to have all those people there to share with me how happy they were for me and my family. It was a fun night. I don't have a lot of good pictures but i'll see what i can do.

I've been kind of boycotting pictures for the past few weeks because my face has decided to be around the same size as my stomach! i swear...people are always saying OH you have ONLY gained in your tummy...nope sorry people...definitely gone to my face. Then i hear of people who have had their baby's and say OH don't worry I was back down to pre-prego weight like 2 weeks after...HA. not gonna happen for me. buuut i can always hope right??

lets see...so i'm almost 37 weeks. Full term! yay! I'm so glad that we made it here cuz the doctor seemed pretty sure that i would have to deliver on oahu...which i actually would have liked more than hilo's icky hospital..but i'm glad that i made it and he's all developed and we're gonna have a healthy baby! now if he would just make his appearance..i'd be even more happy! i go through days where i'm scared out of my mind...wondering what the HECK i'm doing. Then days where i just can't wait to be a mom and meet him. today is an "I can't Wait" kind of day. mostly because I've been having contractions for about a week now and they are super painful and then just stop. so i'm a little frustrated...but he'll come when he's good and ready.

other than waiting for baby, i got all domestic and made a few blankets! the first one is light blue with dark blue and lime green electric guitars with lime green satin edging. It turned out so cute. then the other one is a little pooh bear receiving type blanket. I cant believe i actually was sewing. And of course keeping everything super clean and having this crazy nesting instinct to organize EVERYTHING!!! it makes for a long day when you have a 4 year old behind you pretty much undoing everything that you do! hah. but that's life.

k so i'm dying here in katie's room and i'll try to post soon. If not before baby is here then definitely after! the countdown is on!



here's all the ladies CHEATING at the game we were playing!




I was admiring something....




Little Ethan and the blanket his mommy made for me :)




here is Ashly and her mom. There were FOUR ashley's at my shower!! haha. Ashly is pregnant too :)




my cake. i loved it. it was yuuuummmy





my sis obviously loved it too! lol.



and me in all my 36 week hugeness.

10 things i took for granted.

10 THINGS I TOOK FOR GRANTED BEFORE BECOMING PREGNANT

1. being able to do things without people telling you "no" you're too pregnant to do that!

2. being able to eat in small portions and be satisfied

3. Not EVER having heartburn in my life

4. Never being uncomfortable while i sleep

5. Never getting up 15 times a night to pee.

6. Being able to bend down to reach things at my feet.

7. Being able to take any medication i needed to make me feel better!

8. Being able to twist and pop my back..or just being able to twist in general

9. Being able to walk at a faster pace than a snail

10. Being able to fit into a gosh darn size 10!

These are a few of the things that i miss. I know i know be grateful that you are pregnant and are having a miracle and yeah i know. but still...i think i took a lot for granted when i wasn't pregnant. maybe thats why i had to get pregnant...i know far fetched huh? oh well. i still miss my old clothes. a lot. and being able to dress up and feel cute once in a while! now i just feel HUGE. i guess rightly so...i am a whale right?? (see previous blog)


OK so this past week has been quite eventful! i was planning on blogging a lot sooner but, as usual, life got in the way!

yesterday I finally broke out of the hospital. Although i DO have to say that it was a little relaxing being in there and just kind of "chillin." but when i got out yesterday it hit me that i hadn't been able to do anything productive for the past 3 days and it all came crashing down. oh well. i sat around again today so OBVIOUSLY i care a lot huh?

so the story of the hospital- i had a kidney infection starting last wednesday and i was given antibiotics..didn't work. So friday i had another scheduled appt and he sent me to the outpatient surgical center to get IV antibiotics....didn't work. Saturday i woke up feeling like i had been run over by a train. I tried to shake it off by making pancakes for the little bro and taking him to get his haircut since he started school today and also i took him to get hotdog musubi and to the underwater museum place that we have downtown here. I guess that was a bad idea. I just hate making him sit at home and watch tv all day when there are more educating things he could be doing OUTSIDE of the house. So i overdid it and came home and was NOT feeling well. So i called the doc and he told me to go into labor and delivery and they would check me out. So i went in and got stuck till yesterday. and of course the whole weekend my contractions were so few. I was so happy i thought maybe the antibiotics cured something and i was ok...nope.. i always think too fast. Last night i suffered from some painful ones!

to make matters worse, a part of our water pump (we are on catchment water cuz we live in the booneys) broke sooooo we had no water. no water + a pregnant contracting woman = not good. soo i just tried to stay hydrated with other things. For once i wanted really badly to take a shower...or even flush the toilet and couldn't!! but thank goodness mark actually did something with himself and went in and got the part and replaced it. So now we have running water again.. I swear. only in hawaii.

Oh i never did tell yall- last friday i went to this breastfeeding class that every pregnant woman on WIC (a really great food supplement program through the government) has to take. So i went in and sat down and in walks this man. I thought it was SUPER strange that a MAN was teaching a breastfeeding class!!! like he had any idea REALLy what he was talking about. THEN he whips out his detachable breasts!!! oh i couldn't stop snickering. i felt like a 5 year old boy sitting there cuz he just kinda kept laughin at me! oh well. it was silly

so lets see. anything else to report....hmm...my cousin steven is coming thursday i'm kinda happy bout that. just to have something else to do and someone else to talk to. I kinda got a little sad after i got out of the hospital just cuz its not like i had anything to get out for! i don't really have any friends here besides my mommy of course and little eddie who i spent hours with in his little pool today. Funny part about that is that i ONLY got sunburned on my feet. and ONLY in the part where my flipflops have made my feet white haha. so it looks like i'm wearing red flipflops. i tan in the weirdest spots i swear. but EDDIE on the other hand got freakin black!!! i'm so jealous! that kid tans like no other! i'll update with some pictures later.

anyway i'm sure there's a lot more i could write about but i'm gonna go take advantage of running water and shower!!

so here is my most recent update-

last week on monday, i decided that my baby is very impatient. He wants out NOW. But it is still too early so i had to go to the hospital and get some medicine that helped to stop the contractions BUTTT i thought i was going to die because they said the dreaded words. COMPLETE BEDREST. kill me now. so all tuesday i was dependant on katie and my mom to do things for me. I even felt bad because at one point eddie was dancing on my bed and i have a duvet cover on it and he slipped off the end of it....luckily i could laugh hysterically because he fell into a tub of clothes that i've been accumulating for the baby so he fell butt first into that. He whined a bit but i had to call for katie to get him out cuz i technically wasn't even supposed to get up to make sure he was ok. I couldn't stop laughing. He hated that.

so thankfully wednesday was my doctor's appointment and despite the fact that i've gained ANOTHER 4 pounds my doctor told me that i didn't need COMPLETE bedrest as long as i was keeping the contractions under control. YAY! so that day we packed up and went down to laupahoehoe point and went camping. We had originially planned only on staying till friday but we were having a lot of fun. I did a lot of fishing..i only caught a really cool eel though. It was purple with white polka dots. and I got sunburned. reallllly sunburned and unfortunately i think the baby is taking all my nutrition so its having a hard time healing. but i'm really hoping that it may just show my hispanic roots a little bit more than my pasty white skin was showing before. Utah is just NOT good for the skin.

So today our little Eddie is 4 years old. Crazy how fast time passes when they are little. he's gotten so big and says some of the craziest things. this week he's talking nonstop about the "croc-o-pile" on peter pan. lol. sometimes i just wish i could hear what he was thinking. we are going to dinner with his old foster family who are really nice and the kids still love him to death. We also got him a finding nemo cake (something that I love of course :) ) I honestly don't know what i would do without this little boy in my life. he teaches me patience EVERYDAY! i know its going to be worse when my little boy comes into the world but for now, just having a little brother that tries your patience is such a great lesson. He brings happiness into my life that i never had before. He can put a smile on my face on the darkest days. Times when i'm crying and he can just run up and wrap his arms around me and simply tell me to stop crying, everything else just melts away. I love that i can share everything with him. He really is my best little friend. We could hang out and watch tv all day (if i had nothing else to do in life) and i'd be so satisfied. anyways. happy birthday little guy. i love you so much!

So i found out today that Chris is leaving on MONDAY for Iraq. I hate the dumb military and their short notice on just about everything! he had planned to come see me one last time before he left but i don't know if that's gonna happen now. I'm sad cuz he's such a good friend and i'm scared for him to go AGAIN. It seems silly to mess with fate like that. He already came back safe once but who says he'll come home safe again? and its not like he's got the easiest and safest job either. it was so different when dale went cuz i was scared for him but not really cuz i knew he was at a SUPER safe base and he wasn't going out on convoys all the time or putting himself in the line of fire ya know? i don't know. I know i have to be positive but it just Sucks! but i'll get through it. i just pray he does too.

So this week is gonna be really focused on school...i hope...i broke down and did something that i really never wanted to do. I read twilight. Yep. i gave in. and i freakin couldnt put it down!!! it was really annoying cuz i had so many other things i could have been doing but reading about bella and edward seemed to be so much more important at the time! silly me. so of course my sister has the other books too so now i'm tempted to start the second book but i SERIOUSLY have to do school work. Now i'm just mad at myself for starting it at all! but my sister rachel told me that everything else i do in life will never compare to reading the twilight books.lol. i think she may have been right haha. i'm pathetic. i know.

anyways. speaking of school, its calling my name to try and finish these worksheets before dinner tonight cuz i probably should shower before too. So anyways. i'll update soon. probably with pictures of the little party. bye!

kids say the darndest things

so my little 4 year old brother has come up with some pretty funny things that he says lately. I always love listening to him talk because he has the most crazy ideas about some things. he also likes to take parts of what we say and use it COMPLETELY out of context. it makes for very interesting conversations.... some of his latest funnies are:

suckway-AKA-subway.

flea-mangoes-AKA- Flamingos

japanda-AKA-Japan Airlines

fly-g-AKA- a flag

hippo-ma-potum- AKA hippopotamus


I have now vowed never to eat again. We were sitting at the dinner table last night and he has this obsession with ocean animals so he was going around telling everyone that they were hammerhead sharks...then when he gets to me he says "And youre the BIIIIIIIG WHALE ASHLEY!" i wanted to cry. But i was laughing to hard to get any real tears out. Little kids are so honest sometimes. I guess i really am as big as i feel! we were all hysterically laughing over it though. thanks eddie for helping me to the realization of my true identity. a big. fat. whale.

in other news, we're planning a camping trip this week. it should be fun. we're going to be camping up at laupahoehoe point. this is what it looks like:



and yes. i took this picture. i've got mad skills, i know.

and i am FINALLY for real in my 3rd trimester. 7 months! it seems so crazy! and here i am in all of my whale gloriousness



i also have another anatomy test this week as well as a doctor's appointment. Which is something that is TOTALLY stressing me out. My doctor is an idiot. So i've been trying to get a hold of my primary care doctor to see if they will give me a referral to another doctor that knows how to do his job..but no one will call me back. UGH. why i want to work for the health care system is beyond me. all i know is that it will NOT be on this island. anyways..i really need to go study i just thought i'd share with everyone how silly my little brother is and also if you see me whither away to nothing in the next few months..you'll know why ;) jk jk. food holds too high a value in my life. anyways. talk to everyone soon.

just an update

so i guess now is as good as any of times to start writin on this thing. I've been having people hassle me to do it now for a while and just haven't had time to actually sit down and write. SO the update is that everyone is doin great over here. I'm just gettin ready for my little one to come soon. October 11th is when he is due and it is SO crazy that it is coming up so soon! here's one of the 3D pictures i got with my ultrasound.



i just got back from a trip to oahu with the girls from my branch young women and we had a lot of fun. They went to EFY at BYUH and I was able to just travel around oahu and hang out with old friends. Man i miss it there! I'm planning on coming back to finish my degree not this fall but the next. So everyone keep a look out. Plus i'll have my little boy by then so you can all oogle over him :)

I finally sold my car which i ended up selling for a lot less than i wanted to but i just wanted to get it out of there so i didn't have to keep paying on it. Unfortunately no one will hire a 7 month old pregnant lady (rightfully so) so i don't really have a job right now. But I am doing odd jobs for a few merchandising companies over here in hawaii. The pickins are slim but i do what i can.

My mom just signed the official adoption papers for my little brother eddie 2 days ago so he is OFFICIALLY ours! we are so happy. We love him so much. The other family that wanted him is still trying to appeal the adoption but the judge was pretty much on our side and we know that whatever the Lord wants is what will happen. We hope that everything works out though.

Katie is going to be a senior this year. Time flies so fast. I can't believe my little sister is already going to graduate.

I finished my EMT training while i was in Utah and i just talked to the firechief yesterday and so i'm hopefully going to start working there a few days a week till after i have the baby then possibly get on the rig full time. I really hope that works out. Trauma medicine is my passion in life (i'm weird i know). I am also taking an anatomy class online to finish the set since there are 2 classes required to graduate and i already took the 1st so now i'm on to the second one. I really hate it but i can't wait to just be done with school.

So i had an ultrasound yesterday and the doctor said the baby looks good. He's turned and in the canal now so he's gettin ready! I have been having contractions so my doctor gave me some meds to try and help that so he doesn't come TOO early. I'm in my 28th week and JUST starting my 3rd trimester. Life is complicated and crazy but i can't wait for my little boy to come into the world.

here is a recent pic of the family...eddie looks really mad..he didn't know what to make of mickey yet....


in order- Mom, Katie, Leah, Eddie, Mark, ME

it looks like marks hand is really close to my butt but he had it resting on something behind me....haha.

So i guess that's the update for now. i'll try and keep up on this thing. we'll see how good i do though....