The One with the Disney Couple

Have you taken a silly Facebook quiz? I like to see other people's results, but I (almost) never take them myself. One of the more popular quizzes this summer was the "Which Disney couple are you?" Back in July, one of our mutual friends took it (she got Aladdin and Jasmine) and Justin saw the link on her page. He took the quiz and then told me to take it to see if we got the same result. What do you know, we did!! We're super cute :)

We are Mickey and Minnie :)

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The first day of the college football season further cemented our "classic/stable" relationship status. Justin woke up early and went on a bike ride. I slept in and then started cleaning when I got out of bed. Here's our text conversation from that day:

Me- "I think we're soulmates. I'm flipping channels between the UCLA-Virginia game and LOTR. Love you!!"

Justin- "We are definitely soulmates!"

You would think that Justin has just rubbed off on me in the past 6 years, but honestly I would have been flipping between those two channels if I was single. That's why we'll look like this when we're 90:

disney.wikia.com

Oh yeah, and yesterday was 26 weeks for Baby Cora!! We're in the third trimester people. Parenthood is about to get real!!

The One with the Bump

Who's been waiting for belly pictures? I definitely look pregnant now. My advisor was out of town for a few weeks and when she came back and saw me she said "Wow! You're getting big!" Yep, I guess a few weeks is all it takes.

We started taking pictures at 9 weeks because that's when I noticed my pants were tight, but I can't find that picture :( I really wasn't that big yet then anyway so we'll start at 12.

12 weeks

16 weeks

22 weeks

(um, things got a little busy and we skipped a few there)

 

I have such a short torso that Cora has nowhere to go but straight out. I think I'm going to have a weird, egg-shaped belly, but at least it won't be for long :)

The One with Chem 1210

This summer has been super busy! Obviously because I'm growing a human and Justin passed his PhD defense (yay again!!), but also because I taught my first university-level course! Last Spring my advisor forwarded an email to me that the Chemistry dept. was looking for summer instructors. My career goal has always been to teach at the university level so I jumped at the chance. I found out a few weeks later (and a few weeks before the class actually started) that I was expecting, which made preparing and lecturing... um, interesting. Thank goodness it was just first semester general chemistry and didn't require too much thought on my part. I definitely spent time putting lecture powerpoints together (I usually finished the ppt ~2 am and then presented it at 10 am, not the best schedule for a prego), but I'm pretty solid with the material by this point :)

Thankfully I've had some interesting experiences with my undergrad and grad research as well as work at the copper mine which helped a lot with teaching basic concepts. Students were especially interested in what I did at the copper mine. Because this was a summer class, I only had one actual chemistry major. The majority of students were engineers and I had a lot of geologists as well (which is where a lot of interest in the mine came from). I tried to maintain interest with a few demonstrations and references to pop culture. I think most of the students aren't entirely sure how old I am because I used Paula Abdul's "Opposites Attract" to illustrate electrostatic attraction. It went right over their heads! Some of them didn't even know her as a judge on American Idol. Other musical references included "London Calling" by the Clash (intermolecular forces), "Glycerine" by Bush (viscosity), and "White and Nerdy" by Weird Al (just for fun).

Overall, it was such a good experience. Justin put up with some venting the first few weeks of class; I am not a fan of the administrative side of teaching, but hopefully it will be better in the future now that I've had some experience. I also had some really good students who almost became friends (I can't say friends because we're really not supposed to become too involved). That was really hard with some of them though. I held office hours right after class and developed a little following who would hang out after class and ask for homework help or just random science questions. These students were some of the first to learn that I was expecting and that I ate pretzels in class in the hopes of not throwing up on the first row (true story). I also "inspired" one of them to add a chemistry minor to his computer science degree. So no full converts to chemistry, but I'll take it!

The final exam was last Friday and it was honestly bittersweet for me. It was physically hard for me to stay up late preparing lectures and sometimes harder to stand in front of the class lecturing for an hour and a half. I am apparently one of the lucky few who may have morning sickness my entire pregnancy. Awesome. In the end though, it was very rewarding to have many of the students hand their final in and thank me for my efforts in the class or congratulate me/wish me luck with my baby. I have also received a few thank you emails, throughout the semester as well as Friday afternoon. It's amazing how many bad emails one good email can cancel out. I've got my fingers crossed for some good evaluations which will help me out in the future.

*Tangent: I revealed to the class that this was my first time teaching and that I was pregnant the second to last week of class. I'd had several students ask me if I was going to teach in the fall and told them probably not because I'm pregnant. The last day of class I held a review for the final and the first question was this:

                      A                                                                           B

www.driversgeneration.com

minicooperpink.wordpress.com

The students were confused until I told them that I call my baby a "Mini Cooper" and that B was correct; it's a girl. Both times I mentioned my pregnancy in class (the initial announcement and the gender reveal) my students actually applauded. It was super cute!! I wasn't sure how much they'd care, but apparently they did, enough to share in my excitement. I also cancelled my office hours the day that Justin defended so I could make it to his presentation on time and at the beginning of my next lecture several students raised their hands to ask if he passed. I had some really good students!

I have applied to teach at all of the local colleges here in SLC, but unfortunately none are looking for fall instructors :( This is mostly my fault for waiting until what now seems to be too late to have applied due to my indecision about teaching while pregnant this fall. On the one hand, this may be a good thing as I'm due during finals week and could miss the last few weeks of class if Cora comes early. I did get an offer to teach next Spring, but had to turn it down since I know I will definitely be on maternity leave then. On the other hand, there's still a chance I could get a call in the next few weeks which means I will have something to keep me busy until my due date. In the meantime I'm still doing some research and preparing for the sweetest baby girl to arrive.

The One with the Announcement

I can't believe I haven't posted this to the blog yet!! It's actually the reason I haven't posted much recently.

I guess I let the cat out of the bag with the last post anyway. We find out the gender today. Super excited!!!

The One with the Big Ol' Tree

The weekend after Girls' Camp was our ward Youth Conference.  I had actually been released for a while so I didn't participate much in planning it and wasn't planning on going but the girls wanted me to and it was at Bear Lake so I convinced Justin to go with me.  We drove up a day late with our friends Kristian and Bonnie.  I was pretty excited to finally use my wakeboard that has been collecting dust in the spare closet for 3 years now.  Sadly, it was not to be.  Literally minutes after we arrived at the lake the boat the youth had been tubing behind all day broke down!  I put my wakeboard in the water just to say it got wet but I didn't get to use it :(  Bear Lake is still beautiful and a lot cooler than the valley was at the time so it was still a good trip.  We played midnight Missionary Tag with the YM and YW on the golf course behind the cabin we were staying in and the youth thought Justin and Kristian were so fast.  Apparently they've never seen me run either because I was included in the "fast old people" group.  This was a surprising inclusion because my flip flops had broken at the lake and I was wearing Justin's Chaco sandals.  Not exactly running shoes.

The real reason I was able to convince Justin to go on a youth trip with me was the opportunity to mountain bike in Logan Canyon.  We usually stick to the several, easily accessible canyons near our house so this was a fun new adventure.  We decided to do a ~5 mile trail that ended at the Jardine Juniper, the oldest living tree in Utah.  The first few miles of the trail were pretty exposed and it was hot so I didn't think we were going to make it.  At one point I honestly stopped because I thought I was going to throw up.  Physical activity is hard in the sun.  Eventually we got under some trees and the trail leveled out which made it much more enjoyable and we made it to the tree.

The Jardine Juniper!

There were some beautiful views from the tree platform.

This sign says the tree is over 1500 years old.  Crazy!

A few more landscapes.

And Justin :)

The One with Campfire!

I almost forgot to include these stories from camp!

Thursday afternoon when it started to get stormy Shelyse and I were at our site warming garlic bread for dinner that night.  The storm came up so suddenly it started blowing our 5 star camp apart.  We'd never staked the canopy over the hammock down so we could move it for optimal shade.  This was a bad idea and it was lifted right up and into some trees!  We couldn't get it down ourselves so Shelyse ran for help and I tried to prevent further major damage.  While she ran to the pavilion, I ran to the fire to put chairs away.  I was too slow though and had a perfect view of the "pharoah chair" falling into the fire!!  Remember this thing?

Umm yeah, it no longer has an awning.  It melted.  The worst part is for some reason there was a balloon in the chair, which got trapped by the awning when it blew over into the fire.  As I ran to try to save the chair the balloon popped from the heat and scorching plastic landed on my legs and feet!  Thank heavens it was a small balloon!  The storm was a blessing in disguise as we packed up most of our camp that afternoon and saved ourselves some time the next day.

Way back when we were still making blankets, Gabby and Ryann discovered that when you throw a ball of yarn, it unwinds.  Much like toilet paper.  See where I'm going with this?  They invented "yarning," the much kinder and more attractive version of the TP prank.  I told them they could prank all week if they wanted as long as it was never malicious.  They brought so many supplies but didn't use them until the last night.  They "yarned" the pavilion, which I thought actually looked really cute.  Somebody else must have disagreed however because this is what we woke up to the next day:
 

They also made the mistake of tying our leader tent's zipper shut with the yarn.  Initially I thought it was our own girls so I returned the favor and both of their tents looked like this:

Now that's how you lock someone in a tent!  The dual tie technique.  Seriously, the girls couldn't get out on their own and had to convince me they didn't prank my tent before I let them out.  I think I forgot to mention that I realized our own tent was tied shut when I woke up early to go to the bathroom.  I was not happy.  Thankfully I had my pocket knife with me and it was just yarn so I got out quickly.

However, if it had been my girls who'd tied the zipper pulls together they were sitting ducks in their own tents waiting for this!!

I was prepared.  And lesson learned- don't mess with Texas!!  Or Cindy Cooper.

The One with Craftiness at Camp

What's Girls' Camp without a few crafts?!  In addition to their personalized blankets we leaders gave the girls a little gift each day.  We gave them these monogrammed laundry bags right after the hike.  They were necessary!

I love the glitter!!

"Hike" is much too organized sounding for the bushwacking expedition Mountain Man Joe took us on.  This guy may be crazier than Justin!  But the girls love him.  Just to give you an idea, he scaled these aspens to hang a swing and set up a slackline.

Our campsite was used for 1st year certification.  Probably because half of the 1st years came from our ward.  Here they are learning some new knots that I'm pretty sure they've already forgotten.  Who needs a sheepshank when a square knot will do the trick?

Ward pictures!  Our camp shirts all had stars on their bellies- like Sneetches.  I'm pretty sure leaders were supposed to wear blue but we all liked pink better.

Back row: Shelyse, Melissa, me, Bonnie, Camilla, Danielle, Anne Marie

Front row: Gabi, Ryann, Josilyn, Sophia, Gabby

These are included in the "crafty" post because Danielle didn't want her camp shirt to conform.  I ordered some iron-on vinyl and we used my Cricut to personalize her t-shirt.  I love it!

Closeup

 The girls also got a little crafty with their fire-roasted snacks.

Starburst and Vanilla Wafer sandwich anyone?

Kim actually wasn't a big fan but I love her crazy eyes!

Stake craft time- making picture frames.

Ok, not so crafty but one of the spiritual activities was sending each girl on a mission.  They each received "calls" and were sent to different states and countries where returned sister missionaries from that area talked to them about serving missions.  It was really cool.  Amazing idea.

Kim, Gabby, Anne Marie and Penny

Josilyn's call.

Sister Anne Marie.

One of my other favorite experiences with these girls was hanging out around the campfire every night.  I think we were always last to go to bed.  Usually Gabby would bring out her ukelele and the girls would sing.  I taught them a few that I loved growing up (Eddiegutchacatchagamma, Pink Pajamas) and they taught me some as well (anyone ever heard of The Cat Came Back?).  We also sang more spiritual songs.  I forgot how pretty "I Heard Him Come" is.  It is awesome with ukelele accompaniment!

Also awesome around the campfire- tin foil dinners!

The One where Camp is Funny!

As is to be expected, we had some pretty funny moments at camp.  By far the biggest photo op was during the Minute to Win It challenges.  Check these out: (the girls are going to LOVE me for posting these!)

Gabby & Anne Marie picking penne up with spaghetti.

I think Gabby wanted to win! The focus!

 

Danielle & Anne Marie

Bonnie & Gabby

Ryann competing in the stack-nuts-on-a-popsicle-stick challenge.

Bonnie participating in the eat-the-cookie-off-your-forehead competition.

Gabby wanted to see if she could do it.

Or maybe she was just pretending to be a pirate :)

The next challenge was using a tennis ball inside a stocking to knock over 10 cups.
So much harder than it looks!

 The girls thought the nylons were hilarious!

 Because they are!!  Anne Marie looks like a spider!

And Ryann looks bald!

Balloon balancing.

You can always catch a funny facial expression during Minute to Win It.

Hopefully not seeing the future too soon here!

Other funny moments:

Ryann competing in the ninja challenge after skit night.

She actually made it to the final although this seems a bit unfair.

I love this picture of Gabby's face!

 Why is she freaking out?  This little guy right here.

Poor Ryann got dehydrated the second day of camp,

which gave her some pretty severe nosebleeds :(

Thank heavens Melissa the Nurse was prepared!!

She recovered in time for the 1st and 4th year nature hike.

It was so long Gabby had to carry me back to camp ;)

Champion cheese griller!

 
It started to rain really hard on Thursday so we gathered in the pavilion during free time and played games.

Beehives!

Photo bomb!

We played Pass the Pigs...

...and Bang!  We weren't allowed to bring face cards to camp but they

never said we couldn't shoot each other or drink beer to regain hit points!

The hand slapping game.  We used to play this game in high school before volleyball matches.  Aww the memories.  Also note the tarps we had to hang up to keep the eating area dry.  It was sooo windy!

 

Shelyse had just gotten pregnant right before camp (it's ok, she's married :) and was pretty tired all week.  Seriously, what a good sport.  I can't believe she made it sleeping on the ground all week!  One afternoon though I thought something was wrong with the tent and looked inside to find this.  I'm not sure if it was for shade or she was just too tired to close the umbrella :)

Another random moment.  I couldn't stop laughing when I got

home and realized I'd taken this picture getting out of the tent!

Silly Ryann.

Silly Danielle.  She wanted to see how many rocks she could put in my lap.

Let me tell you- a lot.  It was so heavy!

Helping Ryann get a hit on the volleyball court.

 
The last night of camp the ward bishops and stake presidency came up.  They played a running scavenger hunt game that was hilarious!  Ryann (far right) was chosen to participate as was her dad (third from right, he's our bishop).

And guess who won!  Actually, Debbie did.  Haha!  But Bishop knocked his own daughter out of the running.  Ruthless I tell you.  (I'd probably do the same thing!)

TBC again....