Hmmm. Long Time and I'm Really Hot

I haven't written in forever and all I want to do is complain. I don't like how Utah is continually stuck under a ridge of high pressure. High pressure is evil! High pressure equals nothing but sunshine! Nothing but sunshine equals hot!!!

And I guess I'm with the rest of the western US when I start ranting about this considering it was 94 in Alaska. I don't know anything about Alaska really, but citing that always makes me feel cool. (No pun intended....because really, I am not cool at all, I'm really hot).

We tried to run away from the heat over the weekend by going up to the High Uintas Wilderness to go camping. We were not the only ones with the idea and we followed a LONG line of cars into the canyon. The campsites were all PACKED which is why I was glad we were backpacking. I was nervous about that too since the trailhead was packed but once we got to our destination we only shared the lake with about 4 other camping groups and we were the only ones on our side of the lake. It was REALLY nice, but I learned  a few things.

Backpacking is TOTALLY doable when you are pregnant, but there are a few things to remember. (This is probably going to be TMI, but I'm just being honest here)

1.) You have to stay hydrated...which means that when you have to pee every 5 minutes NORMALLY, it is not uncommon to have to pee every second. This can get annoying.
2.) Even if you DON'T have to pee, you will feel like you have to anyway because your pack will press on your bladder from one side, and your baby from the other. Once you go through the effort of taking off your pack, you'll be annoyed to find out you don't actually have to pee and all that work was for nothing.
3.) Once you put your pack back on, the whole cycle will start again. =P
4.) If you're going to hike to a lake, expect mosquitos. You'll probably shower in bug spray but inevitably (and understandably) you won't spray your butt. This will become painfully apparent the first time you have to take a bathroom break.

Now that I've probably scared everyone out of ever trying to backpack while pregnant, I'll tell you it was easily the best experience I have ever had in my life and totally worth it (especially since it was like 70 degrees). :) Coming back to the un-airconditioned house, was not the best experience that I've had in my life.

Also, make sure to remember your swimsuit. Or you'll end up swimming in your pajamas. =P

Nothing...

Surprisingly, I feel like I have less to write about these days. You would think it would be the opposite.

Still hardly any symptoms...but I'm practically in my second trimester so I've kind of given up looking for them. Cravings are all the same as they ever were and fish aside (which a lot of it I conveniently am not allowed to eat anyway) no aversions either...but who is really surprised at that? By the way...some old wives' tale says that craving spicy food indicates a boy...

What if you crave Thai food every day, even when you're not pregnant? Those poor old wives. They probably didn't have the plethora of delicious food available to us on every corner.

If you really want to talk about cravings though...I have a SERIOUS craving to go to Japan and eat food. The exchange rate is like 103 yen to the dollar (up from 79 to the dollar) so going now would be like a party of all things delicious.

I should probably stop talking about Thai food and Japan now...it's making me hungry.

I saw Star Trek. That was good.

I managed to make birthday dinner for Andrew on Saturday. I made blueberry pie and then was actually glad that Andrew decided he wanted fish instead of chicken pot pie because 1 double crust pie was about all I could handle. Fish only takes 10 minutes. And it was fresh enough that it didn't stink up the house...which is good because fish smell is gross.

That's about all there is to report. Just a quiet birthday at home.

Oh and also I'm really tired...so I fell asleep in the bathtub. My bathtub doesn't actually hold water very well so it was empty when I woke up. I think I bruised all my vertebrae. But I guess I can officially say I can sleep anywhere. =P

I Lied

Final grades are in and I got a B- in stats. That's even better than a C+ (in case you didn't know =P)

Also. I have the hiccups. grrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Also also, I was reading a couple posts back and I said that my finals would be done early. That was also a lie...I put off my last final until the last minute and was consequently left waiting in this:

For those who have never been to BYU, that was the line for the testing center from my office in the SWKT,  about halfway across campus. Andrew and I got into that line and it took 2 hours to get into the testing center. Rumor has it that the line at some point actually stretched all the way across campus to the JKB. Glad I wasn't at the end of THAT one.

A Plethora of Happy News

My grades aren't in yet, though I believe they are due tomorrow. Luckily I can look most things up on Learning Suite so I only have one class I don't know about, and considering I got at least a B on all the tests, I think I'm ok.

The happiest news of grades came in yesterday, I got a C in stats! I would normally be unhappy with a C (in this major anyhow, normally if I can scrape by with a D I'm good =P) but this was stats. It was a C, actually a C+ to be exact. Considering I was shooting for a 70 even (yes, I did go through the trouble of thinking "I can get a 17/150 on this final and still get a 70"), I'm pretty darn happy with my grade. We're still on track for graduation.

Speaking of graduation, is it even going to happen? Maybe not in December as planned, some people might get in the way of my finals. And by "some people" I mean Baby Powell, who put on a wonderful performance at the doctors yesterday and was wiggling away on the ultrasound and had a very good heartbeat.

That was the happiest news of all, especially since I was TERRIFIED to go to the ultrasound in the first place. I could seriously be on "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant" (except for the ever obvious sign of pregnancy, a missed period) because I've had absolutely no symptoms. I spent the last 4 weeks thinking I had somehow killed the baby because I was forced to sit through a 5 hour final with no food or something. Ok maybe it wasn't that dramatic, but I did think something was wrong.

One might think that a nausea free pregnancy is a dream, but it's not. At least not until after you are SURE that the baby is alive.

But seriously, I feel totally normal despite the apparently healthy baby. Go figure. Well, I'm glad everything is fine.

Anyhow, Baby Powell is due on December 4th. That's two weeks before finals. Of course if the baby comes much earlier than December, I'm going to miss a LOT of school, not just finals so I'm hoping to at least make it past Thanksgiving (which is really only a week before the due date anyway). After Thanksgiving the semester is pretty much over anyway. Luckily I go to BYU; they're well equipped to deal with people having babies before finals.

But we'll deal with that when the time comes. Right now everything is peachy. I don't ever have to take a math class again, summer is here (wonderful weather lately), and Baby Powell is as healthy can be!

Curses...

So I thought I was being clever by graduating in December and then walking in April when Andrew graduates. (Since there is no ceremony in December). But BYU threw a wrench in my plans. I'm not sure yet if it's a real wrench but as of this year the Family, Home, and Social Sciences college (my college) is scheduled to walk at the same time as the School of Engineering (Andrew's college). So whether or not it is a real wrench depends on if everything stays the same next April...but I'm still relatively upset.

I had thought we'd walk at the same time and then both our families could come out once to see us graduate instead of coming out for one ceremony and then coming to another one 6 months later. Unfortunately, I was also hoping that Andrew and I would walk at different times during the day. -_-

Both our families can still come out at the same time, but Andrew and I can't see each other walk. That's super lame. If it comes to that, I might not walk. It'd be cheaper anyways cuz we'd only have to buy one cap and gown that would only be worn once. 

But on the other hand...I WAS looking forward to listening to someone attempt to say my middle name in front of a huge audience again. =P

Well That Was Rude, Semester

Usually I can't wait for the semester to end. Andrew usually dreads it. When I mention the end of the semester he tells me to be quiet because its too scary. I never understood that sentiment until now.

This week I haven't had any homework, it's been really relaxing. I even checked out a book from the library (which I usually try to avoid like the plague, during classes) It was the calm before the storm.

On Wednesday my climates teacher announced that we would be presenting our research projects on Monday. The original instructions for the paper were kind of vague and so my group hadn't actually DONE anything because we thought we were going to get more instructions. Now we have 3 days to throw together a research project. Luckily, one girl in my group is already involved in a study about avalanche prediction methods so the rest of us just need to come up with some good background information. I'm still stressed out.

Then I found out that we have to present our stats project on Tuesday. We HAVE been working on that steadily over the semester but we still have a LOT to do.

Then I found out I have a test that is open between Monday and Wednesday that I have to take and if I take it Wednesday, I have to pay 5 dollars. Wait...I said I have presentations to worry about on Monday and Tuesday? Guess I'll be taking it late night Tuesday to avoid late fees.

To add to the issues I'm having, I had a map due in GIS today that I THOUGHT was due NEXT friday. I even had it written in my planner that it was due next Friday! Augh! Well, there goes 20 points... =/ But I still have to do the project so that I know how to do some things for the final project which is due NEXT Friday. ...and it looks like I'm going to have to write some extra credit papers to make up for my lack of a map today which will also be due Friday.

At least my finals will be done with early...considering ALL my classes are scheduled for the first day of finals. Oh, did I mention that the first day of finals is a Saturday? And my first final starts at 7am? And my last final ends at 5pm?

Whose bright idea was that?

"Looks like I chose the wrong week to quit sniffing glue"

Brain Dead and Ashamed

Oh man, this week killed me. It's like my brain went on vacation without telling me. What a jerkface.

So we had 2 weeks to finish this project in my GIS class. It was due on Friday and the only real instructions were to do something new and different from the other projects we've done so far. We could pick anything to do the map on. Well obviously I went straight to trying to make a map of Japan. My original idea was going to be to make a map of my mission and mark all the areas that Andrew and I served in. Simple right?

Well I have since learned a few things about the great country we live in, the USA. Number one being that our military likes to develop new technologies and then put them out for public use. GPS anyone?

Japan is not like that.

In America, I can download any number of GIS applications and files for free and super easily. Can't do that in Japan.

I spent the first week of the project just LOOKING for the files. Then I finally found them and downloaded what I needed and started working on geocoding the churches in my mission. Then (this was Wednesday) I found out that all my files were in Japanese and my GIS program couldn't read them. The font was a bunch of squares. Not helpful.

So fast forward to Thursday, day before the project is due and I have no project because it just isn't going to work. I can't find ANY more Japan files so I can't attempt to map a watershed area or do an elevation map, nothing. I have to start from scratch. So at 10 pm Thursday, I download a bunch of files of Rainier National Park.

Well, in the US, there are different levels of available free information. In Utah, because Mormons love collecting and storing data (insert your last R.S. lesson on journaling and family history here) there is a plethora of free information for use. In Washington, most of that information belongs to University of Washington and LOOKS downloadable, but only if you have a U-dub ID. DANG IT!

So finally, midnight on Thursday I finish the crappiest map I've ever made because I just don't have information. It was a really sad map and I am very ashamed of it but I had been at the computer for 8 hours that day (not counting the 4 for work) and I was tired.

Friday, I slept through my first class and then typed up the essay that had to go with my map. One of the questions I had to answer? "Tell me why you deserve full points on this assignment"

"Honestly, if I looked only at my map, I would give me 2 points MAYBE, and that is being generous...but hear me out." That's pretty much how I started. Maybe he'll give into my sob story?

But in the meantime, to add insult to injury, I work really hard on my maps. I try so so so hard and my LAST map if you remember was featured on the board as an example of a good map. So when my teacher sent out an email to the whole class saying how proud he was of all of us and how he wants to keep some of the maps for future classes as examples, I died a little inside because my map sucked and I knew it.

Good thing I had easter weekend at Andrew's aunt and uncles to unwind and hopefully get my brain back. Nothing like 2 year old dyeing easter eggs to cheer you up. =P

POST SCRIPT: It's ok, by some miracle I ended up getting full points on the assignment. :)