16 Weeks

I am now 16 weeks along! Yay! I can't believe how much better I feel. It was like a total 180. Man, am I happy to be in my second trimester! Everything with the little tyke is going great and we're both healthy. So far so good.

For Halloween Dan and I dressed up as the Phantom of the Opera and Christine. Most people didn't really understand what I was, unless I was standing next to Dan, but that's okay. We went to our ward's Halloween party and had a blast. I am actually on the activities committee, so I was doing stuff for the party all week and spent most of Friday at the ward building getting everything together, but it was totally worth it in the end. Everyone had fun and there was lots of spooky games to be had.






Halloween also happens to be Dan's birthday, so happy birthday honey!! Unfortunately, all of my awesome birthday plans were thwarted by the vet school, the activity, and our stake conference. I had this amazing weekend planned out for the two of us to celebrate his birth and Halloween, but none of it happened. Instead, we will have to celebrate next week. I was pretty disappointed and more than a little upset by the change of plans, but what can you do? Life goes on. When we actually get to celebrate, I will take pictures and update. He did get to open presents from his family today and he was so excited about it! It was adorable. Also, I made him a fancy dinner and gave him free reign to pick whatever movies/games/video games he wanted to watch/play today. So, all in all, it wasn't too bad, just not as epic as I had imagined.

Dan is on a MUCH easier rotation now, Necropsy, so he gets home around 5 or before everyday and doesn't have to work weekends. I am LOVING how much time I am able to spend with him. It's been glorious. Other than that, life has been pretty much the same. I can't wait for Thanksgiving!

Thankful

Today and the last couple of days have been really crappy, so instead of focusing on that, I am going to focus on all the things I am thankful for.

- Dan, of course. What would I do without him?
- Tylenol
- Gilmore Girls
- Gatorade
- My mom and dad
- Great friends
- Warm showers
- Fuzzy socks
- Ugg boots
- Wireless internet
- Stretchy pants
- Clean sheets
- Classic romance movies
- The Gospel

A little bit of this.... A little bit of that

Gilmore Girls, check.


Assortment of candies, check.


relaxing in bed while watching Gilmore Girls and eating said candy, check.

Dear Husband

I love you, dearly. But, please, stop treating me like I am made of china or glass. Yes, I am pregnant, but I assure you I am not breakable. Baby is safe inside and no amount of walking, errand running, or cleaning will change that. I appreciate how protective you are, but I would appreciate it if you would tone it down a little. I am perfectly capable of taking care of me and have done so for many, many years. Even though I am pregnant, I am still me. I love you and the fact that you want to take care of me, but not allowing me to do anything only enables my lazy habits. Thank you.

Your loving, devoted, durable wife.

Thinking...is tricky

While we were in Dallas I had great opportunities to talk with Jill and catch up on things. It's really a lot of fun to have a sister that is so much older because that means she's also much wiser and has been through everything I am going/going to go through. She married Kyle when she was 21, and I married Dan when I was 21, so that's kinda fun. She's been married for 10 years and so I really respect her advice and insights. Jill gave me her old maternity clothes, which is awesome, so at least I have a bit of a head start in shirts and capris, but I still have nothing to wear in the winter. Oh well, future Britany can deal with that.

So, as I was talking to Jill it hit me just how differently my life is turning our from the way I planned it. Not in a bad way at all, just totally different. When I was in high school I made a five year plan for myself that consisted of graduating college and either continuing on to graduate school or scoring an amazing job at a publishing house in some major city. I had no intention of getting married until I was at least 26, if at all, and had no real desire to have children. Boy, has that whole thing changed a lot. So here I am with these big dreams and big plans and BAM! here come Dan. The moment I met him I knew he was different and I knew I was going to date him. Dan ruined all my plans and I couldn't be more thankful. Now I know that I want a big family and I want to be a stay at home mom that my kids can rely on. What I've learned from this is that obviously Heavenly Father knows us far better than we know ourselves and if we go forward with faith and do what He has asked of us, we will be so much happier than if we do whatever we want.

Vacation Week: Wednesday-Friday

Wednesday:

We started the day like any other, by sleeping in, eating breakfast and watching a movie, and then we decided to get out and do something. So, first we went

to this Halloween store. We thought it was going to be huge and have lots of costume options, but alas, it was not and did not.


Then, we went to Sublime Chocolates. Delicious. It was a lot of fun to see all the different things they do with chocolate and all the creative concoctions they come up with. Dan bought me a box of chocolates.


After that, we went to dinner with Lianne and Derek and had this GIANT booth all to ourselves. There were many jokes made.


We went back to their apartment and played phase 10, talked, and hung out.


Izzy and Pippin were very excited to have guests.


Then, we went back to Jill and Kyle's and went to bed.


Thursday:

We went to the Dallas temple in the morning. It was wonderful. We walked around the grounds and took pictures for a while afterward.


We went straight from the temple to the Texas State Fair. There may or may not have been some changing action in the car.


This giant cowboy greeted everyone in the entrance to the fair. Literally. It talked. I was a little creeped out.


The fair was a lot of fun. I got to educate Dan on a few Texan traditions and we got some great food. Yum. After that, we had dinner with Jill, Kyle, and Eli at Watters Creek. Eli and Dan love each other and it's really fun to watch them together. After dinner, the boys went home and Jill and I did a little shopping. Pretty amazing day overall.

Friday:

We drove. All day. Back to Wichita. Ugh.