My Husband is a Stud

     My phone is 2 1/2 years old.  It's a basic old school flip phone that calls and texts, nothing else.  Recently it began messing up and I knew it was on it's way out.  About 2 weeks ago it finally bit the dust.  The display screen went out and sometimes I could get it to turn on, other times I couldn't.  I went without a phone for about 2 weeks and during this time I got a new battery to see if it was a simple fix (it wasn't) and then tried to figure out how to proceed.  I was on my parents' family plan ($5 a month!) but my contract had been up for 6 months.  If I got a new phone through T-Mobile it would renew my contract and I would be sharing minutes with my family for the next 2 years.  Not exactly practical being the head of household with no land line.  However, we weren't sure we were prepared to budget in adding me to Jackson's plan either, it would be quite a bit more each month, plus we'd have to buy a phone.  Not to mention Jackson had told me that they wouldn't let him add a line anyway because of his credit/late payments or something.  That didn't make any sense to me because our credit is perfectly fine and a few late payments shouldn't make that big of a difference.   So, renew on a family plan or get my own line through Sprint unless we could strike some sort of deal to get on Jackson's plan.
     Enough background story.  So, Friday my phone randomly started working again for a solid 2 hours.  Long enough for a T-Mobile customer service guy to call just to check in on our satisfaction which gave me the opportunity to start discussing my problem and potential solutions.  On my way out from work my phone suddenly told me I had no service.  No matter how much I turned it off and back on again, I still didn't have service.  Ridiculous!  First the broken phone, and now that it was finally working temporarily I didn't have service!
     I went to the mall, called Jackson from a kiosk and asked if he would meet me there and we could just talk to Sprint and T-Mobile, figure out our options, and decide on what we were going to do.  I had reached my wits end with not having a phone (it was more than just a "need to be connected"  it was inconvenient and impractical not to have a way to call anyone, not to mention unsafe being this far along in my pregnancy with no way to call for help if I needed it).  However, Jackson was in the middle of something and didn't feel like coming over (2 miles away).  Besides, our house was a mess and he'd rather us just get everything in order at home and worry about phones tomorrow.  "You can survive one more day".  I protested and eventually settled on just talking to T-Mobile to find out my options and waiting to talk to Sprint until Jackson was with me.
     While talking to T-Mobile I'm informed my only option is to renew my contract and actually it showed that my line had been cancelled.  I told them that was impossible, I've had my line for 2 1/2 years.  The kiosk guy gave some line about "well, sometimes we have things wrong on our end".  At this point I'm thinking "You incompetent people!  My phone breaks and now you don't even show my line as active!"  I returned home frustrated and annoyed but humbly willing to wait one more day to sort it all out.
     I walked in the door, looked around, asked Jackson if he had vacuumed.  He said "I did lots of stuff, I put a bunch of papers for you to go through in that Target bag over there, can you go through it please?" I was slightly incredulous that the moment I walk in the door from a long day at work and a frustrating phone situation that he wanted me to immediately go through collected clutter he put in a bag for me.  But, it wasn't worth debating and I went over to the bag.  I opened it and instead of a stack of papers and mail, I found a box with a Sprint logo on it and a picture of a rather beautiful smart phone.  I looked at him completely confused and asked what it was.  I opened the box and sure enough inside was a fully charged and activated Nexus S phone, the first phone Google has ever made.
     My sneaky husband had spent significant time the day before and on Friday setting me up on his phone plan.  He'd even made up the story about Sprint saying he couldn't add a line.  And he was trying not to freak out when I was so insistent at the mall at talking to customer service people because I was about to ruin the surprise!  So, T-Mobile is not incompetent, my line had in fact been cancelled just an hour before I headed over to the mall.  Jackson had collaborated with my mom, cancelled my line, and switched my number over to Sprint.  What a great surprise!  And me being the emotional pregnant woman started crying because I was so relieved to have it all worked out and so grateful for his fantastic surprise.
     Here's my old phone (notice the white screen of death) next to my intensely upgraded new phone:

Jackson enjoyed showing me the ropes and teaching me all the cool tricks I can do.  I love my phone already!  Here we are together with our sweet phones, connected on our very own family plan: 

Moral of the story:  Jackson is a stud.  

Jackson + Scrapbooking = Kodak Moment

     Jackson's mom is one heck of a scrap booker.  She has all the supplies, photos, and dedication.  Once upon a time she started a mission scrapbook for Jackson.  As part of his Spring Cleaning a couple of weeks ago, he pulled out the items that needed to be added and went to work.  He forbade me to post a picture but hey, he's not home right now so I'll carry on!

     I believe he added some talks he gave on his mission and stuck some stickers on pages.  Don't worry - no cutesy stuff, not from my husband, but he was scrap booking nonetheless!  I love that you can see the tool box in this picture, who knew you needed a toolbox for scrapbooking?!  Apparently getting the scrapbook apart to remove the pages is quite the ordeal.  

     Don't worry honey, you're still a guy and I thought it was the cutest thing in the world to watch you scrapbook on the floor.  Totally worth whatever sort of consequence comes from posting this picture on our blog.  

Circus Freak

     I'm 32 weeks pregnant!  Woohoo!  5 more weeks and he'll be full term and I would love for him to come right then.  I'd prefer not to wait until 40 weeks or even longer.  I'm really starting to feel the effects of the 3rd trimester.  I feel my birth canal widening so my whole pelvic area is sore.  My lower back is sore as always.  I'm not sleeping as well (but a friend of ours let me borrow her pregnancy pillow and it has worked miracles!).  And, if you can believe it, the swelling in my feet has gotten worse.  It's now moving up my legs as well, although the majority is in my feet (something my Dr. says is very uncommon).  The swelling has gotten so bad that any time we're out with friends I temporarily turn into a circus freak as Jackson shows all the cool tricks he can do by pressing on my feet and ankles (the deep indentions that don't away when he lifts his fingers, the bubbles he can create under my skin, etc).  I don't mind, first of all it feels good any time he presses on my feet and second of all, I'm still pretty intrigued by it!  However, the swelling is not as fun as it used to be.  It's worse, a lot more painful, and I miss wearing cute shoes.  But it is what it is and at least it makes for some entertainment.  Here are some pictures of what we can do, although the pictures don't do it justice!

The picture above is especially good at showing the bubbles we can create under my skin.  There's so much blood to push around!  

Below is Jackson massaging my feet.  He does this every night, sometimes multiple times a day.  It hurts the same way it hurts to work out a knot.  So it hurts but feels sooooo good at the same time.  He tries his darndest to squeeze the blood up out of my feet.  He's such a sweetheart. 

Below are the impressive effects of wearing a pair of Jackson's socks to bed.  I took the socks off in the morning and discovered these!! 

The other day I was feeling like such a swollen pregnant woman that I just had to show Jackson what my legs looked like all through college.  

There I am on the left.  Jackson's "WOW" was enough motivation by itself to get those legs back after I have this baby of ours!  I haven't always had swollen cankles and waddled.  :) 

Besides the swelling, I also sometimes have some crazy hot flashes.  The other night I started "breathing like an alien" (Jackson's words) and Jackson turned to look at me beside him on the couch and exclaimed, "what on earth is the matter?!"  I faintly replied that I was hot and didn't feel good as I sank further and further into the couch.  This had happened once before at church and this time he was prepared.  He jumped right into action.  As I sat there feeling faint, dizzy, extremely hot and wanting nothing more than to pass out to make it stop he quickly grabbed an ice pac from the freezer, stuck it under my armpit, grabbed another for my forehead, and shoved a glass of ice water in front of me.  Disaster was averted.  He asked me why I didn't speak up and say something and I tried to explain that it happens really suddenly.  I don't think he believes me.  But it's true!  Anyway, I began feeling better within a few minutes and regained my energy and normal body temperature.  Below is me in the midst of the hot flash.  Jackson says I look like a sad lost puppy. 

So there you have it.  Some of my pregnancy woes.  They weren't kidding when they say being pregnant in the Texas Summer isn't fun.  But as long as my baby keeps growing and getting ready for his debut I can make it through.  He's worth it.  We are so excited to meet him!  

Tie Onesies

     Recently I saw an infant at church wearing a tie onesie.  I thought it was the coolest and cutest little outfit for a boy and upon googling it discovered tie onesies are all the rage right now.  I jumped on the bandwagon and made some of my own this past week.

     They were really simple.  All I did is iron the fabric onto wonder under (which I got on sale for $1/yd), cut out the shape using a pdf file from a blog, iron it onto the onesie and then I sewed around the edge as an insurance policy on the wonder under.  It seriously took no time at all.  Here's me after finishing the first one: 

    I'm super excited, not only because they are darn cute and our little guy is going to be such a stud at church, but because this is my first crafty project for our baby boy.  Making something for him makes it so much more real!  It's one thing to buy things and start stocking up on hand-me-downs and baby furniture (note the Pottery Barn crib in the background that I got for free off of Craigslist... Jackson surprised me and put it together the other day so we could make sure all the parts were there.  The parts were there and the crib makes me smile) it's another thing to dedicate my time, energy, and creativity to making something for our first child.  Here's the 2nd completed one: 

     You better believe I'll be making more.  They are so cheap to make and an easy way to dress our son up for church.  And maybe I'll try my hand at making some and selling them on Etsy... people are charging $12-$20 for these things!  

     Anyway, happy 31 weeks, the time is winding down!  Baby Calame will be here before you know it! 

Why I Hate Pre-Washing Fabric

This is after using the gentlest cycle my washing machine offers.

Enough said.