Hooray! It's a Long Weekend!

It's Thursday night, and I am starting my long weekend! Sam is in class right now, so I am going to do the dishes and start some Amish Friendship Bread. Tomorrow I have work off and we have an appointment with the midwives (with another ultrasound!). I am so excited to have Martin Luther King, Jr. Day off on Monday, too!

I have been thinking a lot lately about book club. I am in charge of our the book club at church, which means that I have to pick the book each month. I first picked C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia-- mostly because it held off having to pick another book for about nine months (I missed two months of book club when I got really busy). This month we are reading the final Chronicle, which means I have to start choosing books! As a graduated English major, you may think this a fun task for me, but I am more than a little intimidated. My favorite literature is postmodern, which is not exactly what I think they have in mind for Relief Society book club.

I would love any suggestions on good books to read that would be appropriate for this church-sponsored book club. I want to read books that are interesting, and I would love to read books that aren't over-read (the typical book club choices). I also need to be careful not to offend anyone. Since we are finishing the Chronicles of Narnia, I don't want to read any more C.S. Lewis (at least, not for a while). So, please, suggest away!

Also, you are welcome to suggest books for my own personal reading. I need a new book to read, and I'm not sure what my next pick is.

Some Resolutions

Since January is a third over, I thought I could write about my New Years Resolutions.

1. The first is to become a more positive person. Now, if you know me well, you may think I am already a positive person. The truth is, I have always been a generally optimistic person, but lately, this hasn't been as true. I'm really struggling with my job, and I have become much less positive and much more complain-y. I don't like that very much. I am trying to implement some things into my life to make my life happier. It has already started working, and I feel much better than I did in the few weeks before Christmas.

2. Be more green. I have a bunch of re-usable grocery bags, but I always forget them! I really need to get in the habit. We have been slowly replacing our light bulbs with the energy saving ones. I usually buy non-toxic, environmentally friendly dishwashing soap. Tonight I was buying more and I think I stared at and studied the soaps for about five minutes before I bought the earth-friendly kind I bought before. Here are some problems I need to work out in order to be more green: cost! Most items which are environmentally friendly are more expensive. This does restrict some of my abilities to be green. For example, I would love to use gDiapers for Baby Girl Mangum, but I just don' t have that kind of cash. Second, some cleansers just don't work as well. I have been using Seventh Generation dishwasher detergent, but it just doesn't work as well as the toxic, earth-killing kind. I don't know what to do about that.
Anyway, I would like to find more ways to be green this year. Maybe that will include rehashing some aspects of our budget.

3. Get in shape. I was doing really well at becoming more fit and healthy before I got pregnant. I injured myself doing yoga when I was about 8 weeks pregnant, which prohibited me from doing more exercise (don't ask me how yoga can be so dangerous. I don't know what happened). But I have really been feeling the itch to get out and go jogging or biking. I was so inspired by my friend Maren's marathon run, I may just make this year the year to become a runner. I really want to start running again after Baby Girl is born. I don't want to overwhelm myself, so maybe I'll just make a goal to run a 10K by Thanksgiving. (I know that might not be that impressive, but I have never run a 10K before.)

4. Lastly, I want to finish Sam and my wedding scrapbook and start Baby Girl's so I won't fall behind.

P.S. I would just like to point out that the pregnancy countdown is under 100 days! YEA!

Holiday pictures

Here are some recent pictures.

Sam, Hayley, and Trevor at this place in Houston that's like Chuck E. Cheese



Me and Sam at Thanksgiving.


I made these apple pastries for my family at Thanksgiving. I don't actually like cooked fruit, so I thought they were gross. But everyone else loved them.

Me at the baby shower.


Sam with the baby blanket his grandma left behind for him when he had his first child.

Post-Christmas Post

Sam and I have both arrived back in Utah, though we came in several trips (including our selves and our luggage). And we seem to have survived-- only time will tell, however. There's no promising that we won't fall into a million bits sometime tomorrow or Tuesday.
Let's-Call-It-Funniness-For-The-Sake-Of-Our-Sanity from our trip to Houston:
--My flight home was delayed, meaning I was scheduled to arrive at 2:00 am. I called Continental and begged them to put me on a different flight. When they said everything was booked until New Year's Eve, I started to cry and said "I'm six months pregnant. I can't sit in an airport and I have to leave before New Years." I think the last thing anyone wants on their hands is a crying pregnant woman. The Continental person talked to his supervisor and they squeezed me on a flight on Saturday morning.
--The next morning, I woke up with the flu. That was interesting.
--I'm pretty sure I have a cold now.
--Somehow, somewhere, someone lost Sam's luggage on his return flight. It was quite the experience getting it back, but we finally did (after numerous calls to the airport, my storming up to the Delta baggage desk, and some very nice SLC airport employees).

Everything else from our trip was great. It was so fun to be with Sam's family and to see our nieces and nephews (who are getting so big). Sam is a fun uncle, and he really enjoyed playing with the kids.
Sam's family also threw us a surprise baby shower! I don't think we'll need any more pink clothes! It was so nice and so thoughtful. We haven't bought anything for the baby yet, so it was really fun to look at everything and start to build up our store! I am so grateful to have such wonderful in-laws. It really meant a lot to me and Sam, and it was really fun too.
After a long day of traveling yesterday (and baggage retrieval today), I am glad to be home. We're looking forward to celebrating New Year's tomorrow night with my sister and her husband. We hope you all had a Merry Christmas and enjoy the New Year tomorrow evening!

Christmas Card Post

I've been wanting to do a Christmas card post because we didn't send any Christmas cards this year. I thought we could take a nice picture and post it and write what we would have in a Christmas card. Well, we haven't taken a nice picture (our camera is on its last leg), and I have no idea what I would write in a Christmas card. Oh well. Here are a couple of thoughts anyway:
Sam finished up fall semester yesterday with his last final. We celebrated with some imitation Martinelli's that tasted slightly odd, but was still fun to drink. He is looking forward to having the next few weeks off school so he can rejuvenate before the last push of his college career. It seems a little surreal that he has just one semester left; when we got married, he had three years left.
Sam has finished up editing Food Boy and now it is off getting sound and other stuff added to the final copy. Sam actually admitted to me that he has really missed editing since he finished Food Boy. Sam is looking for a job to start after the New Year-- we hope he will be able to do some editing here and there throughout the semester.
The last few weeks have been pretty interesting for me. I have been feeling really great, except for my back. I have always had a bad back, but this whole pregnancy thing is definitely exacerbating my sad spine. I am a little concerned about what the next four months of an increasingly large belly will bring, but at least I have a sympathetic husband.
Work has been very stressful, lately. I still love my friends at work-- in fact, they are the ones who keep me sane-- but I am really struggling with the poor management of the practice. Those who know me can attest that, while I may be an impassioned and dramatic person, I am not a stressful, agitated person. I am trying to learn to let irritating work things go, especially while I am at home.
All in all, life is great right now. We are heading to Houston on Sunday to spend Christmas with Sam's parents. We are excited to see two of Sam's brothers, his sister, and their respective families as well. I hear Sam's sister may even bring Guitar Hero for Sam to play-- which means I may not see much of him over the next week.
We wish you all a merry Christmas. We are very grateful for all our friends and hope you have very happy holidays!

BabyRock

I think this speaks for itself.

This One's for You, Maranda

My friend Maranda pointed out that I hadn't blogged in a while, so here is a blog just for you, Maranda.

The truth is, everyone, that I am at work right now. Don't tell! I don't think I am really supposed to be blogging while I am at work, but it's just one of those days. Sam and I went to bed late because we were at a friends' house watching a movie. I try to be in bed by 10:30 at the latest, but I didn't get to bed until about midnight. So I'm a little tired (and grumpy!) today.

We watched the movie Amazing Grace, which we had never seen before. It was a nice evening, with homemade popcorn and cinnamon crumb cake (albeit from a box). I had heard that the movie was well worth seeing, and I have to agree. While Sam and I had some obvious critiques of the way the movie was made and the character development, I thought it was well-made, overall. 

I never knew the story behind the abolition of slavery in England, so I am very glad to know the history behind that. William Wilberforce is a truly inspiring character.

I don't have much else to say about the movie, except that I definitely recommend it. It does make me very grateful that slavery was finally abolished in America as well. I am so grateful I do not live in a time of slavery-- though there are still many problems with slavery around the world, I am grateful that it is illegal and people are fighting to end it. 

I think it very important to note God's guiding people like Wilberforce (among many others) to put an end to slavery. Knowing the history behind the song Amazing Grace is very moving. I am very glad they didn't attempt to hide or undermine the hand of God in the movie.