35 weeks

As we were walking back to our car from the Cadet Chapel Mark noticed that there was a planetarium/observatory across the parking lot so he thought we should take a comparison picture so here is my belly compared to the dome in the back, its white so a little bit hard to see but you get the idea.

I like how I have to wear flip flops even on a not so warm day. It is totally worth it to have the cooler weather though! My feet have stopped swelling so much because it is getting cooler but not quite to the point where regular shoes are comfortable. What is great is that my allergies are gone for another year and I am sleeping so well at night because it is getting down into the 50's. The last 3 nights I have slept for like 4-5 hours without having to get up and I love it! It makes all the difference in the world. So now I am feeling great and enjoying the beginning of fall.

We also went out and bought a car seat for Jared so should he come early we would be able to bring him home from the hospital. We also bought some really cute storage containers and I am going to unpack the Jared boxes from Greeley. It will be fun to set it up and see what we have. I met my new doctor and like him just fine. He seems really flexible and nice and quite competent. Less than a month to go!

Air Force Academy

Saturday we were finally feeling better and Mark wasn't swamped with school work so we took a short drive over to the Air Force Academy. We got up to the gate and Mark made friends with the guards, its not like he had to they would have let us in (unlike some places in Egypt where the hassle is quite excessive or we couldn't go in unless we had an escort) but Mark is just that likable! And suddenly we were in the mountains. It so fun that we can drive 25 minutes and be at the base of a large mountain range.
The Air Force Academy has an incredible campus. Its not real fancy or anything it just has the most amazing setting. We wanted to go and take a tour of the chapel and enjoyed walking around the campus. It just makes you feel respectful and patriotic. The chapel architecture is quite aeronautical to me, it reminded me of Star Trek or like a spaceship from Star Wars but the stained glass was really pretty and it was fun to sit inside and look out at mountains. (It would probably remind lots of BYU Provo students of that campus at least with mountains right there.) It was interesting too because the upper level is a typical Protestant Denomination Chapel and downstairs there is a Buddhist, Jewish and Catholic sanctuary. The even hold Friday Prayers there for Muslims. It was nice to be out and about.

Its not quite like chapels in Eurpoe but still very nice.

The view could be slightly distracting during a sermon.

The Ceiling of the Cadet Chapel

If anyone is in the military and now living in the States Colorado Springs is so the place to be. There are military discounts on like everything! We are really excited to go out and explore more of the Springs.

THE Hospital

Mark and I went on a tour of our hospital today. And while I do not have any hospital experience whatsoever to compare it with I am pretty darn excited to deliver here. It just opened in August 2008 and is so nice! It is a 7 minute drive from our apartment so very convenient. I figured I should take some pictures today while I am feeling fine and still presentable. The tour was quite full and it was interesting to see all of these other pregnant women. It is amazing how each individual carries their baby so different!

This is one of the Labor and Delivery rooms, all the rooms are private and really spacious. I was really happy to hear they are all private. I have had many flashbacks to the Friends episode where Rachel is having her baby and like 5 women get to deliver before she does and she has to wait for hours. They have huge walk-in showers and most of the recovery rooms have jacuzzi tubs and while I do not know how soon an individual could use one after delivery it would sure be nice too because I haven't had a nice, long, hot bath in a long time! It certainly does not seem like I will be spending much time in one of these rooms assuming all goes well, since you leave in like 36 hours or so but I do hope to make the best of my time there.
It was interesting to hear about all the different things that people do for comfort while they are waiting to deliver. The tour guide did mention how amazing the bed is that you wait in. She said you can raise it all the way up so that you can be standing up and lean against it and that it supposed to be really helpful. Its really just a big mystery to me, I am not sure what I will want to do for "comfort" because I do not have a clue how I will be feeling. Birth balls, massage, breathing techniques? Its all a big question mark to me. From the get go I have been pretty "pro" Epidural, but any suggestions would be welcome. I am going to my new doctor Monday and will have to talk about it with him and then make a Pre-Admit appointment with the hospital. Maybe next week I will pack my hospital bag, I can't wait to meet my doctor and get to the one month point!

Happy Fall!

I know Fall doesn't really start until the 21st but I am so happy that August is over. By the time we get to August I am so over summer! I am not a huge fan of it to start but by August I just can't wait for September. Here are our fall decorations for this year.

Then I have pretty fall leaves scattered all over. When we lived in Egypt I missed the fall so much and was so sad to not have decorations out. When I went home for the summer of 2007 I made sure to buy some packages of fall leaves to bring back to Cairo. Silly but worth it! Its the small things that make the biggest difference. In just a few weeks Halloween decorations and pictures of fall drives! I spent some time looking up fun holiday activities to do around Colorado Springs and hope we can get some in before Jared comes.

Things have been pretty quiet around here. Mark and I did get callings, we are teaching the 10 year old's in primary so Mark's students next year. Its not so bad but I am not sure how helpful I will be come mid October-November. But I will try. Mark got a really bad cold about a week and a half week ago and is still recovering from it so we have been laying low. I thought I escaped without getting it but it struck me last Friday or so. I seem to have a bad mix of allergies and his cold. I hope it goes away soon. Not only am I not getting any real sleep because of Jared (so its not exactly his fault) but allergies and colds don't help. I used to be such a morning person, the alarm would go off and I was as awake as if I had been up for hours now it takes me a good 15 minutes or so to be really awake some days even longer. I miss it, maybe in like 8 months or so it will come back, maybe. Other than the lack of real sleep I feel pretty good. My hands and feet swell up and Jared is pushing up against my ribs all the time but it could be much worse, I hope it doesn't get there! I am going to my new doctor next Monday and I signed up for some pregnancy classes. I signed up for Infant CPR, New Baby Care and a Breastfeeding Class. I know that these things will really come with trial and error but I think these classes will help me feel more confident. I really feel as if I have no experience with newborns and really very little with babies in general so I need some serious confidence boosters. We also signed up to take a tour of the hospital for this Saturday. I didn't sign up for an actual labor and delivery class but at least I will know what to do with Jared once he gets here! I went to Babies R Us today also to register. The oh so nice sisters in our ward are planning a baby shower for me which I think is super thoughtful. I told them I had one in Greeley but they thought it was a great idea and who am I to argue? It will be nice to get to meet more people too. Hopefully we will feel better and get out this weekend to enjoy the amazing weather and see some of the sights of our new home.

New Recipes!

I love trying out new recipes! Having the time to look through cookbooks and try new things has always been something I wanted to do be able to do but never did while working full time. Since Mark has started working and I am not then I have had some fun trying out ideas. Unfortunately I tend to be more enthusiastic about trying out new desserts more than anything else and it wouldn't hurt us to have some new dinner ideas so I will try harder to get interested in those. The fun thing is that since I don't want to have all kinds of desserts around the apartment I send them to school with Mark and it cheers up the other teachers days although they might not really like having desserts around all the time either. Oh well.
Today I made a Lemon Pudding Bundt Cake and put a Raspberry Glaze on top of it. Mark really likes these Lemon Raspberry muffins that I make so he suggested the raspberry glaze and it tastes great. It it so light and I think that cakes in a Bundt pan are quite fancy. While we lived in Egypt a good friend lived across the street from us and I always asked to borrow her Bundt Cake Pan. I am happy to say that I now own my very own Bundt Pan and look forward to many more Bundt Cakes.

We were just really excited to eat it so I took the picture after. Aren't Bundt Pan Cakes so fun?

The other day I went into Hobby Lobby to look for some stuff for Mark's classroom and had so much fun walking down the cake decorating aisle. They had bundt pans shaped like football stadiums and castles and cupcakes. The ideas out there for all kinds of cakes/cupcakes/candy are endless. I love stores like that! They had also just put up all the fall decorations so they were so fun to browse through! (I can't wait!!!) I have always wanted to be the mom who had the cool snacks for her kids when they got home from school, I know I won't have much time and wouldn't want to serve cake for snack anyway but its fun to see what is out there.

I also found this really cool website today that has great tips for baking. http://www.baking911.com/