Workin' hard (or hardly workin')

These are the people...

This was the job...


The results...

Kitchen Cabinet:

Before:
After:

Kitchen Eating Area:

Before:

After:

Kitchen Patio:

Living Room:

Before:
After:

Curtains:

Baby Room:

We did a "unisex" color of lime green; but bought this stencil just incase Spud is a girl... sorry if your a boy Spud; we didn't buy anything for that scenario.

Stuff we did when we weren't working:

Took walks: Ate: Took in a Royals game (they lost)

I just have to thank my fam for coming. I know that Kansas city is the funnest city to come and visit and I'm sure they were super ancy to go out and party (ps that is sarcasm) but they worked so dang hard! I have such a dedicated and loyal family. My mom won the award for work horse. She is crazy, she never stops... we were spent! TC wins the award for best painter. Anything she would suggest I would take because I have no clue what looks good! My dad won the most random. He went and bought a paint buy number picture at the craft store and colored it during the down times and then bought a frame and put it in our basement... Shoot I need to get a picture of that! Travis won the award for best studyier. He had to take his boards that week and was way stressed! I won the award for most improved. I think I have an ounce of confidence now. Oh and Anabelle won the award for cutest.

Its a...

Okay. I apologize profusely for not updating my blog. I do have an excuse though. My mom, dad and sister came to help paint our house so I was not working and very busy; also we still haven't hooked up the Internet. I felt like a pioneer to be without it for so long. I am flattered that people actually are annoyed that I haven't posted yet, he he! So thanks for your threatening comments! So the answer is... ... ... it is a... ... IT! Spud once again was shy. You can't really blame Spud though. Apparently the baby is sitting very deep in my pelvis and they can't get a clear picture. We kind of think it is a girl because you could clearly not see a little wiener, but the doc said there was no conformation on girl parts either. We will just have to wait for next time! Does anyone have tips on how to prepare for the next ultra sound? I have heard of drinking lots of water, drinking carbonation and other stuff, and I will be honest, I haven't really tried. But I am getting desperate! I have no patience!

Lots to come...

I feel like there is so much going on! I'm super anxious for the next couple of weeks. Let me tell you why!

1. Family Chores

As I said before, we have moved! We are in our roomy three bedroom townhouse. I cannot even believe the difference in space. There are some drawers that I haven't even used yet, and I feel like it is a sin to not fill them. The coolest thing about our home is that is is straight from the 70's. My friends that live in the same co-op have all new tile in the bathroom and new appliances, but I have a bright yellow and green bathroom floor. My thoughts are if you miss the toilet, it will blend right in with the floor! We also have a puke yellow stove that I am hoping will break so it will be replaced with the newer models. I don't know why we have been skipped but I might just go with the 70's and decorate the bathrooms with disco balls and psychedelic patterns. My mom and TC are coming (with Anabelle) on Saturday to help paint because I am very retarded in the home decor department. I'm way excited for them to come (since I haven't seen them for a whole 10 days... he he). I love that they are flying all this way so they can do chores. I love family.

2. Board Brains

Travis is studying for boards like a mad man! He takes one test next week, and another in 2 weeks. Some symptoms of too much studying are: he will ask me really obvious things; for example we were packing one night and moving the next day, and he saw me looking in the fridge and said, "your not packing the food right now are you? We aren't moving till tomorrow." Duh Trav. Other symptoms are: forgetting to shower... wait is that new? Forgetting to eat, I am doing all I can to remind him! This is one symptom that I am very surprised at; he is being very responsible. He was so organized in the move, he has helped others move, he has arranged for services we need for our new home (one was the direct TV, so there might have been other motives). He has been amazing! I sometimes get home from work and I feel sorry for myself because I am so tired and I just think things should be done when I get home (us to be 100% moved in, laundry, dishes) so then I get ornery that I have to do some of the things. I forget that Trav has to study his guts out. I'm 100% sure he will pass, but he wants to get a really good grade so that we will have more choices for residency and where to live. I'm grateful for his motivation! He's cute.

3. Dilemma
We are finding out for real what the baby is going to be on Monday. He/she better cooperate this time or I may have a seizure. This entry is getting long, but I have a lot to talk about in this area. I have always wanted a boy since I was young because I grew up with all girls, and I'm sick of them (no offense sisters, but you understand). This whole time I have been pregnant I have had a strong intuition that Spud is a girl. I was pretty dead set on it in fact. Then I got hit by a call from my sweet Grandma Gladys. She has been known to have very impacting dreams. She dreams of the sex's of babies and has been dead right on all. She called me and said that she had a dream we had a curly haired boy. So now I'm totally confused. Do I trust my pregnant woman instincts, or do I listen to the voice of wisdom?

Side story: My mom told me that last summer there was a dove in their backyard that lived there the whole summer while Sadie was pregnant with Anabelle. She said the bird was beautiful and very sweet. When Anabelle was born the bird never came back and Anabelle has the characteristics of that bird so she said that the bird was Anabelle's spirit. She said that this year there is a bluebird in the yard that has come to live. She is assuming that this is Spud's spirit. One day she left the door open and the bird flew in and crapped on the table. This is what I have to look forward to!

4. Wedding Bells

Lastly I am looking forward to flying home next Thursday for my brother-in-law, Wes's wedding. I know, I was just home 2 weeks ago, but lay off, I'm being supportive! This time we will only be in town for 12 minutes! I'm so excited for Wes and Rachael. Wes is 36, and has never been married. I promise he falls in the 1% of normal Mormon men who have never been married and are 36. Just couldn't find the right one (no offense if you are 36, Mormon and have never been married). He is a handsome guy with the funniest sense of humor, and his pocket book doesn't seem to be hurting either. He is marrying a fun girl named Rachael. She is my age, so he is robbing the cradle! Anyways, we are excited to see them so happy; and for him to finally take the plunge!


Whoa, that was a lot of stuff. I won't feel bad if you had to take naps in between reading. Just had a lot on my mind! I will post pics as soon as my home computer is up and running!

Anabelle Jane

I had the opportunity to go home for about 15 minutes to Utah this past Memorial weekend. The reason I was able to go home was because my niece Anabelle was getting sealed to her cute family. If you don't know the story of Anabelle then go to this link. I don't think I could sum it up better. All I have to say is that the spirit was very strong in the temple. I have never experienced an adoption sealing before. I am so proud of TC and Jon for doing this and preparing their family. And I'm also proud of Sadie for being so supportive and making this whole situation work out the best it possibly could. Seeing Brayden and Jack in the temple wearing all white was another very neat thing to see. The crazy little boys didn't act all too crazy, of course they had the bribe of going to Chucky Cheese if they were good... who wouldn't act like angels with that in mind? All in all, it was a really neat experience for not only me but for the Jolley family. Words can't describe.
If you think he is being funny, he is not. This is honestly how he smiles... so beautiful
Could do this everyday!
Cute family
Sadie and her friend Devin
Cutest baby at this moment... wait till October; mine may cut it close :)

Keep your eyes out for more pics... I have more, but couldn't post all of them because we moved and all the pics were saved on my other computer.

Highlights of the trip:
The temple
Pedicures
Massage
Seeing Allie and Stacie
Shopping
Hanging with my niece and nephews
Family time
Seeing Tiff and Dave and Rian
Seeing Niki and Byron and their awesome new ride
Grandma Jin's grave
Breakfast with Charles'
Seeing my grandma and grandpa everyday
Watching (or falling asleep... Me and TC are wusses) movies in my parents basement with the sweet sound system
Of course all the eating


Lowlights of the trip:
Not seeing everyone I wanted to
Leaving my cute husbie
Being sick
Trying to sleep during the LOUD movies in my parents basement
Having to leave
Regretting all the food I ate

The Great Outdoors

We went on our second annual camping trip down south near Branson, MO (where all the old people flock to... no offense Travis's parents, I know you enjoyed it). We went with Jim and Brandi Hastings for the second year in a row.
Probably the funniest/most frustrating part of the trip was when we found out that Brandi's mom had a fishing boat she said she would let us borrow. She had never used the boat and it had been sitting outside for years, but hey, we were going to save 65 bucks, so we didn't care. We thought the fixing up job would be pretty easy, 3 hours later we realized we were wrong. First of all it was covered in green mildewy water. The boys had to tip it over and let it drain, the girls just encouraged the boys from a distance. Secondly the trailer we were going to use had bad tires. We took it to a tire shop and bought new tires. Thirdly, we realized that the lights on the trailer weren't working because the hookup wasn't the right size; so we had to go to the store again and buy the right cord. Fourthly, we had to run it through the car wash to get the nasty out of it. Fifthly, we had to go and buy gasoline and oil and fishing licenses. At one point, the boys realized that there was a lot of water in the inside of the boat. Hmmmmm... was it going to float or not? This didn't stop us, we invested way too much time to quit. When we finally got to Branson the boys tipped to boat over to let the inside drain for the night. The next day was the big test.

The sea was angry that day my friends... just kidding, it was a beautiful day. We got in the boat and it didn't sink. The sticker on the boat mentioned that it had a 410 pound limit, we were silly to even consider all four of us in the boat, but we are poor med school students, and we were going to get our money's worth on this trip. We all fit in the boat even though if one person moved an inch the boat would sway heavily. We were pretty stoked when the engine worked too. We set off for an amazing fishing adventure and we came back with... .... .... absolutely no fish. Maybe next year! Here is the rest of our trip!

Oh and earlier that week we went to our first official royals game of the season.

Two stadium tickets: $18



Parking in Kaufman stadium: $9


Hot dogs: $12


Sneaking down to the $40 seats and only getting busted once: Priceless



Oh and the Royals beat the Tigers... boo yeah!

One last thing... we had our first ultra sound to see if Spud is indeed a Spud or a Spudette, and the verdict is... Spud is very shy! We will have to wait a couple more weeks!

YIKES!

Gosh, there has been so much going on and I haven't been posting anything!!! I'm going to try to post pics and lay off the writing... can be hard for me at times!
Last weekend was pretty fun... we went to a dueling piano bar with our friends Brandi and Jim. I'm sure the waitress was pretty stoked when we all ordered diet cokes of course with grenadine (we are crazy!) Trav was stoked that they were using the same piano that we have!



The next day Trav's school had a fun BBQ. I don't know if I have mentioned this before, but his school is in the biggest ghetto. There were a couple of sketchy cars that would be parked by the field, then would quickly drive away. We also got some really mean looks by passerbys. Why do they have to be so mad, we would have let them join us.
Some of the crew

They had a fun softball game going on, so of course I had to show my mad skills (I'm getting rusty!)

Here are the boys playing, and a cool shot of the city right behind us.










Ahhh my sister is forcing me to post pics of me and my belly in different stages, and I'm a little embarrassed, but this one is for TC.
13 weeks here. I'm getting a little pooch!










I have to mention something about the biggest storm I have ever been apart of. Last Thursday there were tornado's! The sirens actually went off... so what do you do when the sirens go off? Do you duck and cover or do you turn the news on or do you go outside and look at the sky? We chose the latter and watched the amazing storm (probably not too smart but hey we survived). The worst part was at 2 am when we heard the loudest pounding on our windows from the rain. We looked out and the sky was full of lightning. I've never seen anything like it! We turned on the news and our area was clear for tornado's, so we went back to bed. But when we woke up, this is what happened about 20 miles north of us.



Lastly, we are starting to pack up our boxes. See that picture above? Well we are moving about four miles from there into a townhouse. We will probably move the first part of June, so we are getting some things put together. We will really miss Overland Park, but its only 25 minutes away so we will visit often. We are looking forward to Riverside, it is in Missouri, so we will soon be Missourians.

"pack it up pack it in, let me begin... ..."

PS I stole a lot of pictures off of Brandi's blog, she is always prepared with a camera... I felt guilty not admitting. Thanks Bran!

SPUD

Remember a couple months ago when I was whining that whenever someone who is married says they have news, people just jump to conclusions and say... "are you pregnant?" Well you can go ahead and jump to those conclusions...
We have news... .....
To answer your question, YES! We are having a baby!
This blog entry has been a long time coming. I have known for about two months and have kept it a secret to most people. This week has been great because we told our parents and some friends. It has been a range of emotions to tell people because it doesn't feel real to me. A) I still look like I am in high school (and sometimes feel like it) so it doesn't feel like I am old enough to have a baby B) Travis still looks like he is in high school so when I start showing people are going to "assume" things C) I seriously don't feel motherly right now. Don't get me wrong because this is exactly what we wanted (this was no accident). It just feels weird to have that title. But we are really excited!!!

If you are wondering about the title of this blog; we call the baby Spud right now because Trav thought it was cliche' to call it a peanut or anything like that. Here is the first picture you will see of Spud.



Trav said it looks like a cockroach on its back; how sentimental.
So ever since I have been telling people about the baby I have been getting the standard pregnancy questions. I will go ahead and answer some of those questions. If you don't care than stop reading:

Q) Have you been sick?
A) Surprisingly enough I have not been sick at all. I did get nauseated here and there, more right before bed actually. I really never felt that sick though. The biggest thing is feeling extremely tired and Trav will probably say that I'm moody too. Whatever dude.

Q) How far along are you?
A) I actually just started the 12Th week yesterday. I am due on October 29Th. I love that it is so close to Halloween because seriously think about the fun birthday parties this kid will have.

Q) Are you fat yet?
A) I feel a little fat, but you can't really tell yet. My clothes are getting a little tighter and Trav says he can tell that my body is preparing. What does that mean? Are my hips widening or something?

Q) Will Travis deliver the baby?
A) I have strict orders that Travis will stay north of my belly button for the delivery. He has other ideas... I'm not a science experiment! And I don't want him to see that side of me... it isn't pretty in that situation.

I think I have covered the basics so far. I'm sure you got more than enough info. But now I may need some info from all you mothers out there. K how the heck do you know what you are doing when the kid comes? (see I sound really motherly) I have the book "what to expect when your expecting" but I'm not really concerned about the pregnancy part... take your prenatals... don't smash the kid... can't be too hard. What do you do when they are out and you have to raise them. If you have any good book recommendations or web sites please tell me. I figure I should probably start educating myself while Spud is cooking. Thanks for every one's support! We miss a lot of you and wish we could be closer!

Green races, eggs, pelvic exams and Sid

Did I grab your attention? Well I have a couple little things to talk about and the above title outlines the agenda...

We are going to go on a trip back to St. Patricks day. I realize that was almost a month ago, but things have been busy (and I was waiting for Trav to write about our wonderful getaway to Arkansas, so its mostly his fault). We (that is right "we" meaning TRAVIS and me) ran in a four mile St. Patties day race with our friends Sarah and Jim. It was a pretty cold day, in fact it snowed earlier on, but the die hards all made it out. I was kind of glad it was cold because Trav and I sure didn't want to fork out 30 bucks each to run in a race anyways, and the cold meant people would be wearing lots of layers which would hide the running numbers that you pin on that we didn't have. So, maybe we are cheap? Anyway it was a fun day, it was in a cool part of town, and we finished. Then we accidentally partook of the free food for the runners after, again don't judge, we were spent and there was plenty!


There are always freaks at each race.



Changing topics, I wanted to mention a fun tradition we have going on. This was the 2ND annual egg dying contest. For the past two years we have dyed Easter eggs with our friends Alisha and Orson Bangert and Rob and Britney Graham. I'm so mad I didn't take any pictures (I have been such a slacker) but it was a great night. My egg won for being the ugliest, Trav's won for being the most suck-up to the judge who was Orson (Trav painted a muscle guy on the egg and called him Orson) and Britney won for the best overall. Its funny because none of us have kids which is usually the reason people dye eggs... we just enjoy it! The next Sunday was Easter and the Easter bunny made a killing. I dropped many subtle hints that all I wanted was mini cadberry eggs, I even bought two bags just in case the Easter bunny forgot, but he didn't and we ended up having two huge freezer bags full of candy. Gross!

The next thing and probably the thing that really grabbed your attention in the title is pelvic exams. No, I'm not sharing a personal story that happened to me. Since the day Travis started school we have heard about this day that would be coming... the students call it "vagina day." This is when the students perform their first pelvic exams on real women. The day finally came and Trav made it through. He said he survived but is wondering if he needs to talk to his bishop now?

Last but not least my dad, Sid, came to visit us this past weekend. It was a fun little visit we had with him. We mostly ate a lot of good food, watched some conference and watched a little basketball. Its funny how you want to impress your parents by showing that you are all grown up with your own clean place and your life in order; when in all reality they lived with you your whole life and know that deep down you are a slob! We had a lot of good talks and laughs. Its really fun seeing family and friends (hint hint, come and visit!)
They are intently listening to conference.

Eureka Springs, Arkansas

So yeah, it has been a quick two years. A couple of months ago, Milli realized that we haven't been on a trip just the two of us, for....two years! So we decided a trip was in order. It just so happened that my spring break was the week before our anniversary, and since our first honeymoon burned down, we felt we deserved a second try.

Milli found out about a nice place nestled in the Ozark "mountains", called Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Now, if you can somehow manage to reconcile the fact that the natives here pass off these glorified rolling hills as mountains, if you look around, you might find that the Ozarks are indeed beautiful. I guess you could say it felt a bit more like home than Kansas City.

So we hopped in the car for our uneventful trip to Arkansas, and when we arrived, we checked into a cozy little cottage for two. It's name was "A Taos Sunset". If it looks small in the picture, don't be decieved.... it's smaller. But it was perfect for us.



We stayed for a day, and had a great time. On Saturday night, we had decided to enjoy a little bit of southern cookin' (Milli wouldn't let me eat at Pizza Hut), and we ventured to "Grandma's Cornbread and Cobbler". When we walked in, we immediately saw the only two employees in the place hunkered over the cash register, trying to figure the thing out. Maybe Grandma just found out about cash registers? We stood in front of them for a long moment before finally being noticed by the older employee. She explained to us that they couldn't make it work, but she would take our order and when they got the "dern" thing working we would get our bill. Of course, I had to order the cornbread and beans, which ended up tasting like it had been cooked by some outlaw in the wilderness about 150 years ago. Good thing I got that hotdog, because I would have been miserable without it, what with Pizza Hut only just across the street and all.

Nearing the end of our meal, our nice old waitress brings up our bill (they got that dern thing working finally), and apparently we owed them 24 dollars for some nasty beans and cornbread, a hot dog, and a salad. By my count, we owed them about twelve. So, after the meal, I asked her to itemize that bill, and they realized their folly. So she went to work on this calculator (the cash register couldn't add, but neither could she). She comes out with a new wrong number, and after a few tries, I volunteered to walk her through all of the calculus. We finally got the right number (it was twelve something)!

Here comes the best part. I then mentioned to her that we wanted two orders of cobbler (which actually turned out to be quite good), and asked if she could add that onto our bill. So she whipped out her trusty calculator again, and quickly added up the new numbers , and she said, "OK, that brings your total to $8.50." Are you laughing yet? I almost payed her right then and there, but I ended up doing the right thing and re-working the bill with her to a nice round number of $15. As I prepared to pay her with my debit card, she told me that their debit machine wasn't working, either. I ended up paying the lady everything I had in cash, which was $10 even. So we caught a break on that nasty cornbread. Is that what southern cornbread is supposed to taste like, anyway? They should just stick to cobbler I think.

And that was just the beginning of our evening! After we left the grandma's place, we went to an ole' fashioned Ozark Hoe-Down, complete with some seriously cheesy comedy and impressive musicians. I mean, we're talking keyboard, guitars, steel guitar, banjo, harmonicas.... it was my kind of show. Of particular note was the coolest version of the "Dueling Banjos" I have ever heard and an awesome keyboard version of Lionel Richie's "Stuck On You". It turned out to be a great program, and I highly recommend it to anyone that finds themself wandering the Arkansas wilderness.

I must stop, this post is getting ridiculously long. We had a great time in the Ozarks. Milli is a great road tripper when she doesn't have the scoots. I wouldn't have any other navigator before her. The only bad thing about our trip was that we forgot to take our "dern" camera! So sorry about the lack of real pictures, but you've seen us before, and we still look the same, so stop complaining.

If you are still reading this, I applaud you for your stick-to-it-edness! Good night, all.

Two Years!

We have made it to two years and counting! It has gone by so fast and it still feels new. I just quickly want to list ten reasons why I am still married to Travis :)
10) He has mad baking skills. He makes the best desserts. I don't even compete with him in this category so therefore I don't bake.
9) He tickles me more than I tickle him. What can I say, I'm kind of needy!
8) He is so endearing. If anyone watches LOST, Travis is like Sawyer in the nickname department. He is always coming up with cute little nicknames for me and I love it.
7) He is so passionate about sports. I love this about him most of the time except when he gets in the "zone" and totally ignores everything I am saying.
6) He is amazing at the piano. It is one talent that not a lot of people know he has but he can sure play.
5) If anyone knows Trav you know he is amazing with kids. He loves them and sometimes I get jealous when we are around kids because he ignores me and gives them all the attention :) He will be an awesome dad!
4) He is so smart! He is in the top 30% in his class.
3) He makes me laugh. He is goofy and corny and sometimes perverted and I love it!
2) He loves to surprise me. He is always so coy with upcoming birthdays and events. I am a very anxious person, so usually I am not up for surprises but he won't change and its kind of cute (and most of the time I figure out that something is going to happen... I'm a detective)
1) He still looks at me the same as the day we got married and I hope that never goes away because I love that!

Love you Trav!

Some Funny Stuff!

Not too much has been happening around these parts so I don't have a lot to blog about; however, there have been a couple of funny little things that have come my way that I'd thought I would share:

1) Travis had a really tough week last week. He had a couple of finals that really drained him. He actually looked like a real 30-year old man instead of his young boyish looks. I don't even think he shaved, showered or changed his scrubs for that whole week come to think of it. So his finals are over and and its his Spring break so he gets a whole week off from school. So what does he do? You may be thinking sleeping in, breathing fresh air, easing your mind. No. He woke up at 6:30 am on Monday morning so that he and his school mate buddies could have a Lord of the Rings marathon.


They watched all 3 movies in one day. These aren't just the normal DVD's, these are the director's version which means it adds another hour to these never ending movies anyway. I got home from work and he didn't return till about eleven that night. They are seriously the biggest dorks I know! I guess I'm sort of a dork myself though because he called me a couple of times to check on me and every time I would answer, I would say "my precious" in Gallhams voice and then laugh and think I was really funny.

2) At work I just found out that Dwight and C-Spark also got disinvited to the obesity conference because the doctor realized how expensive it would be for him. What a freakin' cheap wad! I did have to laugh because I guess I'm not the only one who gets the shaft. Love the drama!

3) I never really realized how gifted my husband is at Dance Dance Revolution. He could almost be a black man! OK I'm going way too far but seriously the guy can really move. I'm not going to say he looks the most graceful, but he killed everyone on Saturday night by a huge margin boys and girls included. So that is another thing he has going for him if the medical school thing doesn't work out.

These little funny things keep me entertained and happy and I think in order to keep my sanity I have to look for them everyday.