Working Once Again

After about a 3-week process, I'm going to be starting work again! I decided to apply as a photographer at Target because A) I love photography and B) you don't need any experience! It's taken a while because they're changing managers and things, but I have finally completed the background check and drug test (good thing I passed! :D ) and will be starting my training on Friday! I'm excited because I need to get out of the house sometimes and the only reason I have to do that now is for shopping or doing things with Preston once he gets home. The problem with that is I don't really want to go grocery shopping all the time and I really shouldn't go baby shopping all the time, and once Preston gets home I'm usually just happy enough to see him that I don't care where we are. I've begun to be re-acquainted to an emotion I haven't experienced for a while ... boredom. Now, I'll be able to satisfy that boredom and need for some purpose to my day with taking pictures of kids and families. I'm pretty excited! I used to think it would be so nice to have all the time in the world to do all the things that I've always wanted to but didn't have time for, but I've discovered that I actually seem to get more done when I challenge my time a little. It has been great in many ways to have this long vacation from basically everything, but the grass is not always greener on the other side ... just different. I am now happy to say that I will be working once again!

Hopfully it will be flexible enough that I can continue once my little angel comes!

28 weeks

We're officially 28 weeks along in our pregnancy today! Woohoo! That's 7 months! but, 7 months sounds so deceiving because we still have 3 months to go (or 2 and a half) , not two. So, I guess it's time to only go by weeks. So far I've gained about 17 pounds, I'm barely starting to wear maternity clothes (I still fit into most of my normal pants when I wear them under my baby gut), and I've been feeling great! I am starting to get that third-trimester-sleepiness, but the plus side to that is that I can usually sleep better because I'm so tired when we go to bed. The tricky part is getting up in the morning :)

I went to the doctor again yesterday and everything still looks good! Yay for Baby Brown!

Birthdays! I LOVE Birthdays!

Yesterday was the big day! (and now the new countdown begins :) ). Here's an outline of how the day went:

• sleep in - but of course I didn't want to sleep my special day away, so I still got up around 8:30.
• read scriptures so I didn't forget once I started birthday activities.
• had my favorite birthday breakfast (waffles, warm cherry pie filling & ice cream)
• got ready so that I could feel cute for MY day!
• painted my nails ... haven't painted my finger nails for years and it's been a while for the toes.
• planned a meeting that we had before church about our calling as the Young Single Adult Advisors.
• played a game (Lost Cities), which Preston forgot he was supposed to let me win for my birthday :)
• left for our meeting/church
• announced in our relief society good-news-minute that it was my birthday!
• came home to yummy smells of my soon-to-be birthday dinner.
• Mom & Dad Brown brought over a cute card and beautiful cake (oatmeal ... my favorite!)
  
• played some more games outside in the sun with Preston while Mumsy made me my requested dinner of Chicken Cordon Bleu (thanks Mom!!).
  
• talked with Preston about baby names while I had "birthday power"
• Steve (my only family left in the area) came over for dinner, which was absolutely FANTASTIC!
• Opened presents - maternity clothes, "The Lost Symbol," a non-burning candle that smells yummy, a portable make-up mirror, a gold purse, a bag full of reasons why I'm special from Preston, a slideshow of mine and Preston's summer adventures, and a SOFT SERVE ICE CREAM MAKER!! and of course some birthday money for me to spend on ME. woohoo!
• Talked to Kim, Trip and Dad on Skype through a video call so we all got to be together as a family for a while. They got to participate in singing and blowing out my candles through skype.
• ate cake, pie and ice cream.
• went to bed full and happy.
• slept better than I've slept in a LONG time!

It was a great birthday! Thanks for everyone who took time to wish me happy birthday through text, facebook or the blog too! You helped to make my birthday special!


me being excited it was my birthday!

painted nails

birthday puppy loves

The cake that Momma Brown made


Yummy birthday dinner


Presents!

reading a sweet card from Steve

my face when Preston told me I had to try and guess what was in this big, red, Santa-looking bag (I had NO idea)

Pulling out the first item from the bag and realizing that they were all things that were already ours. Preston proceeded to tell me how each one represented a reason that I was special to him :)