Garage Sale LOVE

So recently I have been LOVING garage sale deal hunting!!! It even gets me out of bed early on Saturday mornings...yeah...it's a big deal. I used to like garage sale-ing when I was a student, always looking for something for the apartment or whatever, but NOW I LOVE it so much, because people are practically giving away their junk for pennies! I have found so many baby clothes at garage sales, good stuff too, I'm talking Gymboree, Children's place, baby Gap, old Navy, you know the GOODS!!! All for like nothing! This baby is going to be stylin'...and I don't have to spend much money!!! PLus, the thrill of finding just the right item, and at such a STEAL is priceless...it's an addiction!

When I go garage sale-ing i usually scout out the ads on KSL or craigslist Friday night, and I make a list of addresses of garage sales that look promising, and that aren't too far away, like multi-family yard sales, neighborhood yard sales, fund raiser yard sales et...I figure I get more to choose from with more people combining all their junk in one place :) Then I make a set of directions on Google maps, print it out, and then I am ready on Saturday morning. I always bring my change jar with, and when I approach a sale, I always have a few bucks in quarters in my pocket, in case all I want is something small...plus I feel like I'm not even paying anything if it came out of the change jar! :) Do you think I am ridiculous yet??? LOL!!! My Grandma Ruth would be SO proud!!!

So this week was especially rewarding, so I wanted to share some of my favorite finds :)

Vintage golden books, I ADORE vintage books, and other things, but especially books! The Bambi was printed in 1941, and the Pinnochio (tiny in the bottom left corner) was 1939!!! The Pooh was in the fifties, and I forgot to look at the Saggy Baggy Elephant and Tawny Scawny Lion, but those two were some personal favs of mine...

Color stacker, a bit sad on the scratches, but worth .50 cents to me!

Wooden Blocks!!! These babies are SO expensive to buy new!!! I remember playing with these very kind at the Arnolds house growing up! I LOVE them! I didn't even mind paying 2 whole dollarsfor all of them!

Red cowboy boots, I think they'll fit the little buckaroo when he's 3 or 4...too cute! 1.00

This play gym is BRAND NEW, still in plastic! It was only $2.00...only thing is, they never used it, but did manage to lose the toys that attach to the arches, I think I might make some...any ideas???

Baby Swing, 5 bucks....which totally rocks because I REALLY didn't want to buy one new at the store for like 80 bucks, you never even know if your baby is going to even like the swing!!! SO I'll be fine if he doesn't but thrilled and proud of my find if he does! It's also missing some hanging toys...

I don't know if I had one of these doctor kits, but I have fond memories of playing with one at the Jolleys...only .50 cents :)

Okay my next find is truly a treasure!!! I played with these little people for hours when I was little! I remember my family had the circus set with the elephant and giraffe, and the Jolleys had the farm I think, and I know the Arnolds had them too....classic. I might've had a litle too much fun reminiscing with my new friends today....

The entire set....1.00 :)

(They sell for a lot of cash on ebay, like 4.00 for one person! I'm not going to sell these though...)

SO fun right??? I am really attracted to wooden toys and vintage toys, so I just can't pass these up! I didn't even take pictures of everything I got either! Lots of clothes, a Rocking Elephant (think wooden, like a rocking horse) for a buck that needs some restoration...going to paint and fix it up! Can't WAIT!!! I brand new Johnny Jump-up, a gaint wicker clothes hamper, brand new still in the box AVENT bottles, tons of board books on the cheap....ahhh so much!

Note: When I get home, I WASH everything, even the books, like the board books...I know my baby will be gnawing them and slobbering them, I take them page by page with a clorox wipe and let them dry, I scrub all the toys in soapy water with a bit of bleach, the clothes I throw in the wash, things like the swing, I ripped the cover off, threw it in the wash too...

I do love finding great deals, BUT I do not like the potential germies that come with used toys and such.

Can't wait till next Saturday!

PS, the baby is measuring BIG and farther along than we thought I was, by 11 days...oh boy...please PRAY that he won't come before John gets home!!!

Baby Shower

WARNING: PHOTO OVERLOAD

Don't say I didn't warn you....enjoy!

So I had 2 baby showers, on the same day. One was with the ladies in my ward, and one was for my students!!! I'm not gonna lie, the one with my students was my favorite! It was so fun....take a look at the pictures...see for yourself! :)

One of my Young Women, McCall, is a Fantastically talented photographer, she just graduated from high school, and she already has a great business going! She took all these photos and edited them for me! Thanks McCall! (Check her out on Facebook: McCall Parrish)

Made this adorable banner, and I LOVE the colors, these are the colors I am using for his room :) CUTE!!!

The decorations :)

My little girls are like shadows, if I moved seats, they would all move to where I was sitting, and they ALL wanted to feel my belly!

LOL...my profile here is so funny!

Did you notice the martha tissue pom-poms??? Thanks Steph!

The boys....there were about 25 kids who came, and 5 of them were boys :) They are so cute! (The shirts they are wearing are our class t-shirts, I had them made..they have everyone's self portrait printed on them, we wear them every friday:)

Opening gifts, reading cards, trying to give everyone my undivided attention :)

Please ignore triple-chinny-face, notice the many pairs of hands on the belly...this was after I said "ooh, I think he's kicking me!"

Lot's of baby fun goodies :)

HUGS...can never have too many of these!!!

Is this not the CUTEST bunch of happy little girls, i LOVE these girlies!!!

John, he put it all together for/with me :) Such a prince!

I told my students that all I wanted was some advice on how to be a good mom, and i had them write it on a card and pin it up on the line...they were so cute! Some were practical, some were hysterical, one little girl said "If you want your kid to be a good kid, listen to him, teach him how to pray, and to always do the right things" ...too cute right??? And one boy wrote: "If you want to be the best mom in the world, give your kid lots of candy and video games...that's it." LOL....love it! I'm going to put them in the baby book :)

We played a baby food feeding game, it was so funny! I paired up students with their parents, and I had mom's sit down with their hands behind their backs, and the students behind them blindfolded, and feed their parents vanilla pudding with a baby spoon...LOL!!! On a whim I picked up some poncho's at the dollar store...good thing I did too, there was pudding everywhere!!! Click on the photo, so you can see their faces up close :)

For refreshments we had a seriously stellar ice cream bar, it was a huge hit (for BOTH showers :)) DELISH!!!

The activity for the ward ladies shower was to make an ABC book for the baby, there were baggies of all the supplies needed separated by letter...they turned out adorable!

As a party favor for the kids, I had these licorice ropes tied with matchy polka-dot fabric and a really CUTE poem my mom wrote (THANKS MOM!) In case you can't read it, it says: "Little Boys make lots of noise with cars and trucks and tinker toys, cowboy ropes and paper planes, choo choo tracks and wooden trains"

Cute no? She wrote that because I needed something cutesy to go with licorice ropes, I mean ahem, cowboy ropes, the kids LOVED them!

For the ladies, they got a bag of 2 brownie chocolately cookies, and a cute poem on the back...

Anyway, it was SO fun, and like I said that night, I feel SO sufficiently showered!!!

And John and I will be eating left-over ice cream for a couple months...YESSSSS!!!!

37 Weeks and Catching Up

Well, I have no rational excuse for disappearing from the blog front, other than exhaustion. I am tired! :) In the past six weeks since I last blogged, the rundown looks like this:

-teaching school

-sleeping

-resting my swollen feet

-trip to Las Vegas with family

-Baby shower

-Sleeping more

-Moving my classroom junk out

-watching season 3 of Burn Notice, a current obsession

-crafting a LOT for the baby:)

-ending a fantastic school year

-now resting more:)

So, it's not that I haven't had anything to blog about...I just haven't done it!

Here is my large belly, I can't believe how big it is, only 3 more weeks to go, and I'll get to meet our little man!

Stephanie took these pictures of me last Sunday...some friends gave me a gift certificate for maternity photo's from a really well known photographer in Salt Lake, but when I looked at the gallery online, I laughed out loud. I'm sorry if this offends anyone, but I don't see how posing naked, swaddled in some sheet or fancy fabric, laying down admiring your belly is appropriate, or naked just holding your boobs, or some other naked concoction to show the beauty of your belly. I couldn't bring myself to do it, I just couldn't! I can see maybe the bare belly, but the rest is just too much, I'll be using the gift certificate for when little man is out and a little older, maybe 6 months. (I have my wonderful SIL Jenny taking newborn photos already:)) SO, long story short, I did want to document my enormity, and I'm actually pleased with the way they turned out...it will be fun to have this documentation to look back on and show him a picture of me carrying him...at almost full term.

John sent me flowers. He's so dreamy. So, for those of you who don't know, John is at a military training right now, for three weeks, he left June 5, and he'll be back June 25th. I am Due July 1. :) Now he never would have gone without my blessing, and we both felt good about him going even though the baby is due so close to his return, and could come any day really. The doctor assured me at my last appointment I haven't even begun dilating, and often first babies come late more than early. Still I am prepared to give birth without him here if I have to, but I really don't feel like I will, I am totally calm about it, I just miss John. His training lasts three weeks, but I don't get to have any contact with him whatsoever...so that's tough especially if I do have the baby and he's gone, there's no way to contact him until he's done. But like I said, I really don't think the baby will come till he gets home. If you still think I'm crazy for letting him go, we decided it would be better to have him go now before the baby is here than have him leave in August when we have a six week old infant, and leave me alone then. ANYWAY, I'm really proud of him, and he totally sent me these gorgeous flowers, what a man!

So now that school is out, I am visiting Ben and Kris in Santaquinn for a week, and Amy and the kids are here visiting, then I'll have two weeks to get my craft on before baby comes, which is good, I have so much to do!!!

Master

I know this post and last post are kinda boring with no pics, BUT I have to share...

I'm DONE!!! I have my Master's Degree!!! My diploma is in the mail!!! I am SO relieved I am done :)

I'm not going to walk or have any kind of ceremony, so this is pretty much it, a hoop-lah on my blog. :) YAY for being done!

You know how in college some of your professors insisted on being called "Dr." so and so because they had their doctorate degree, I always thought that was so dumb and funny. What would you think if I requested to be called "Master Lance"? Lol. I think I'm funny.

(((I got it through Western Governors University, one of the rare accredited NCATE online universities, (if you are an educator, that means something ;) and I loved the WGU experience, if any of you teachers are considering online masters, ask me about it, I will tell you all about how great it is!)))

Pee'd my pants

Yep.

I pee'd my pants.

At School.

Everyone said it would happen, they were right.

I have become accustomed to crossing my legs TIGHT when I sneeze. Well today (LUCKILY before school started) I had a sneak attack sneeze. I wet my pants enough that I had to call John to bring me some new pants and undies. Nice. That was a fun conversation too..."Hi honey, um....I had an accident"

LOL...the JOY.

Tell me I'm not the only one!

Preggo update

Well, we got back from our California trip yesterday, and it was so delightful! I'll post more highlights later, and trust me, there are MANY :) But I wanted to log a few pregnancy details...

At 28 weeks, I am bigger than I feel like I should be...I nicknamed myself Shamu...it's amazing how much effort is required to do things like put my shoes on. LOL. I am amazed that there is this human growing inside me, he is getting more and more active, in fact he woke me up last night....weird. I hope that's not an indicator of future habits...

John is so good to me, he rubs my feet and loves to touch my belly and see if he can feel the baby. He's always telling me how cute I am, which I feel like I can't hear enough, I don't always feel cute.

My feet...holy smokes, I took some photo's to document how incredible they become. Not only do I have Cankles, but they are so swollen that if i press into them, my fingerprint stays... John calls it silly putty syndrome lol...it's actually called "pitting".

pressing my finger into the swollen cankle...

Leaving a nice fingerprint :)

In other news, camping while pregnant was no problem at all! I slept GREAT, in fact John and I were both worried about how well my body would fare on the ground, so he provided me with all the comforts I could imagine, I mean, who wouldn't sleep like a baby with this set up? All the comforts of home, minus the matress, but I did have a nice sleeping pad :) PS, camping without a sleeping bag rocks, I would choose sheets and blankets any day.

Well I went to the doctor today and had my glucose tested, I lucked out and had the "good phlebotomist" draw my blood, didn't feel a thing :) Baby is growing GREAT, and his heartbeat is strong, and I am measuring normal

I love being pregnant, even with the fatness and the swelling and the frequent pee stops (I'm pretty sure I tried every single potty in Disneyland in one day), it really is amazing! I'm so excited for the little one to make his grand entrance into our lives!

A funny sidenote, I am SO clumsy these days...when you go to the doc (mine anyway, it's probably standard procedure) you have to pee in a cup every time and dip this colored stick into it, and bring it out of the bathroom and show the nurse. Well since I had to fast before the glucose test, and only drink like eight ounces of this sugary junk, I didn't have to go that bad...so I'm sitting on the toilet...waiting...ready with my special pee cup, and as soon as I start to finally pee, I DROP the cup! CRAP! So I try super hard to stop the flow, and rather than rescue the drowned cup, I frantically grab a new one and stick it "down there" barely in time to catch the last few driplets of pee...whew. A close call.