What to do about DST

I know it's not quite time yet, but today I started thinking about Daylight Savings Time (here-out known as DST).

I was hoping DST would be after I stopped working (on April 3!), but I googled it today at work and was sorely disappointed. Much to my chagrin, DST falls in early-ish March. The thing is, I have a love/hate relationship with DST:

LOVE

Winter and I don't get on particularly well. I ache for longer days, warmer days, sunnier days. I know they reside just around the corner, but DST gives a glimmer of hope into the coming of Spring. It extends the days so that when I leave work, I don't feel like I live in darkness. This sunshine-increase gives me ample opportunity to get me daily need of Vitamin D!

HATE

There are few things I love more than sleep. These few things include Sam, Baby, and Girl Scout cookies ice cream (Samoa). Come DST, that hour loss is tragic, traumatic, tormenting. This is exactly why I was hoping DST would come after I stopped working: I don't think babies are in tune with DST. I am not so lucky. Come early March, I will have to sacrifice the hour of sleep and probably be late to work for a while until I catch up.

LOVE
But speaking of sleep, we do get an extra hour of sleep when DST ends in November. That, I must say, is glorious. But by the time DST ends, I will have a six-month old. Like I said, I don't think babies follow time changes. So really, I don't even get to enjoy it this time.

HATE
And in November, the days get shorter. Which means the dreariness of winter has begun. No one will see the sun until mid-April, and we will all live in perpetual cold and darkness.

Thus, I feel torn about DST. But re-reading through my love-hate details, I think I lean more towards hate than I do towards love. I just don't think it's all it's cracked up to be-- even if I am thrilled for the days to start getting longer. Let's just say this: I can't wait for spring! This dreary Utah weather is getting on my nerves: I've had about all I can handle!

Directing and Diabetes

Things are going well in the Mangum household. The above picture gives a fun view of my ever-expanding pregnant belly. My sister Whitney came to Provo the day before she moved back to California, and we were just laughing at how huge I am getting. You might also see that I dyed my hair back to brown. I could never get around to getting highlights again, and my roots were starting to look like some serious white trash, so it was time to just go back to brown.

Sam is busy directing his first short film: Lair Lords. It's about some dorky high school boys who are obsessed with a Dungeons and Dragons type of video game. It's a fun script, and Sam is really enjoying exploring his creative side. I don't particularly love the all-night film shoots, but I know Sam is having blast, and he has worked so hard on this project. Filming will end this weekend, and then he will have some more time to dedicate to his classes before he wraps everything up in April! I can't believe we are already in his last semester of school. It is so exciting.

I found out last week that I have gestational diabetes, so that hasn't been very fun. It has made me feel increasingly apprehensive about the upcoming task of delivering a baby, but I met with the diabetes counselor at the hospital today and she gave me some really helpful tools to maintain a healthy blood glucose level. I have to test my blood sugar seven (!) times a day at first, but if that works out, then I think I can go down to four. I am also following a meal plan. She actually said I already had a pretty healthy menu that I usually follow, but I was eating too many sugars at the wrong parts of the day. So now that I am equipped with all the tools I need, I am feeling more confident about everything, and I think everything will turn out all right. I am just so thankful for science!

Thanks for all your input on book suggestions for my book club. I think we are going to read The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho for February-- which I definitely recommend for those who haven't read it! It's a very easy read, and I like to think about the issues it handles.

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!