SHE's HERE! Part 4 - Recovery

Once we were settled, we had a slew of nurses come in to introduce themselves. The "mom nurses" came in and showed me/us the things in our room, the restroom, and how I needed to rinse down-there, etc. And how to make (what I like to call) my Pizza-Pad. I was going to take a pic of it, but decided against it. :) hahaha... basicallly, I had a pair of soft crochet-like granny-pants that I wore with a HUGE pretty-much-a-diaper-Pad, with: a small ice-pack placed inside; two witch-hazel Tuck-like-sheets on top of the ice pack; on the sheets, I needed to add two small dollops of prescription cream AND two small sprays of anti-itch-whatever. Phew! Tim had to help me out a couple of times... until I found a simpler combination for myself to use.



Also met the Nursery Nurse that would help us with olivia that night, and the technician...or whatever.



After a nice dinner (which i already posted pics of), some relaxing, and some time with Olivia, we had some friends stop by.



Let's see...I don't think i'll necessarily do a day-by-day recap...



But we had some more friends stop by the next day.



And some photos shot by Our369.com. Tim bought the 8 pics on a disk.

Here's a pic of my point-of-view of our room. It was nice!

Here's Olivia and our doctor the day after birth.

Hmmm... anything else that was eventful during my recovery? Not that I can really remember... The second night, I had Tim sleep with me in my hospital bed b/c his poor back was all out-of-wack after sleeping on the small cot. We kept Olivia in the room with us until late in the evening, then had the nurse take her to the nursery.

The lactation nurse came in a couple of times to work with me on the breastfeeding bit. Too bad I hadn't read-up more on breastfeeding BEFOREHAND b/c after Olivia was born, I tried having her latch on. She didn't latch right. And NO ONE TOLD ME YOU HAD TO PRY THEM OFF WITH A FINGER FIRST!!! Hahahaha... So I think the most damage to my boobs were done THEN instead of later. Sigh... oh well. Asked for (and received) some nipple covers...we had called them something else, and it took the nurse a little bit to realize that we were talking about two different nipple-things.

Olivia's pediatrician stopped in to say "hi" and to give her her first checkup.

Tim got me an AMAZING 30-min massage...it was only $30 bucks or so... it felt SO NICE!! And it turned out that the lady giving me my massage was also LDS. We had a nice convo with her about immunizations and waiver forms.

Doh! See, now I've waited TOO long to finish up this post, and I don't remember what else I've been wanting to post about.

On the last day of my hospital stay, our friend Lilian helped us pick up my fam from the airport. They came to hospital to "pick me up", and we carpooled back home. It was cute to see my niece interact with Olivia...she was a bit nervous and didn't really know what to do about her.

Wedding

Last Saturday--a day before hitting the "safe zone" (meaning 36 weeks)--our friends got married. It was nice to REALLY get out of the house and go do something. :)

It was a really good wedding... the bride was gorgeous! Here are the bride and groom "at the altar" of their Methodist church:
*Note: The organist was a Korean girl... she played well, but was off-tempo a LOT! ESPECIALLY for the bridal song at the end! Maybe I should practice my organ... I hear you can make buko-bucks playing it...

Here I am outside of the church after the ceremony:
(Look how huge my belly is!!!)


We then headed over to the reception. Here's my place setting:

Here's the bride and groom entering the room:

After lunch, the bride and groom made their way around the room. Isn't her dress beautiful?

It was quite refreshing to attend such a traditional reception. (With so many people not wanting to have a "traditional mormon reception", you end up attending some very interesting "non-traditional-mormon" AND "non-NORMAL-traditional" receptions.)

The wedding ceremony was also very nice.

Hahahahaha...

So an intern (from BYU) at Tim's work told me about a blog...

I guess it's become quite a hit recently... apparently some girl was tired of reading "stereotypical mormon blogs" and started this one as a joke. It is hilarious! And so true! There are so many posts this lady writes that are TOTALLY like other peeps' blogs that I've read... And I must admit, there are even some that *I* am guilty of (like a Couponing Post that she recently posted).

I guess there's a TON of people that LOve her blog, and a TON of peeps that get offended by it (probably hitting too-close-to-home??). Hahaha... anyway, if you've got a minute, check it out:

Seriously, So Blessed

Baby Shower with Ward Friends

My friend Jan threw me an awesome baby shower with ladies from church a couple nights ago. Lots of good food! Lots of good people to mingle with!

The "gift table"...

Pics of me opening gifts. :) Not posting other pics of peeps sitting on couch watching me b/c you probably wouldn't care too much to look at them anyway. :) (But I've posted them on facebook).

Got some great things! Already wrote out 20 Thank You cards that I'll send out soon...

Baby Shower with Tim's co-workers

This past weekend, our good friends (from Tim's work) threw us a nice baby shower. It was so much fun! About 12 people showed up (mostly couples... and mostly peeps that had interned with Tim a couple summers ago). Our friends Karen and Andrew went way out on this shower!

Below: Baby Food Taste Testing game... the person who guessed the most correct flavors won a prize.

Some of the food that they had for the party. The cake came later...

Our friend Stephanie won a prize for guessing (the closest to) my current pregnant waist size. It was funny to see how some of the guys guessed WAY too large! :)

After eating and playing some of the games, everyone sat around as Tim and I opened our gifts.

And here's the cake our friend Stephani got for us... Italian Cream cake.

These are the gifts we received... we laid them down outside of our door so I could take a pic.

Girls Night Out

So the other night, I went out with my friend Jan for her birthday, then we met up with some gals from church at a nearby chocolate shop that only sells chocolate desserts. Yum!


This is what we all bought/shared.

Puppy!

Our puppy-friend Murphy is growing so fast! Here are some pics of Tim playing with him this past weekend...

Take me out to the ball game...

One of Tim's colleagues/clients/customers(?) invited us to a baseball with him and his wife. What fun!

We ended up getting there late, and didn't have any cash on us for parking, so we had to drive around until we found an ATM, find a parking lot, and walk about 5 minutes to the ballpark.

Because it was a "business meeting", we were able to expense our dinner/treats. Boy was it expensive! I got a hot dog, a salad, and a small brownie.

Ooh! And Tim and I were put up on the BIG SCREEN during the "Kiss Me" portion of the game. Tim said it took him a little while to realize that it was US on the big screen...I told him that I noticed my "turtle neck" right away. haha...

Before the game started, three helicopters hovered over the open stadium. It was chilly outside, so they closed the top soon after...

Babysitting

Tim and I babysat my friend's kids one night. While some of the kids played upstairs, Tim and the youngest girl played the Wii (while I sat on the couch and watched). It was cute to see the girl grab Tim's hand and was ready to play. So cute!

Moroccan Food!

Last night I went with some ladies from church to Saffron Moroccan Cuisine. Yum! Tim and I had gone there once last summer with some friends and were greatly impressed.

I head up a "Restaurant Group" with some of the ladies at church, and have scheduled a dinner every-other-month on the 3rd Thursday of the month.

So this month, we ate Moroccan. These are some of the dishes I (and the other ladies) ordered.

From top left, and clockwise:

1. Dej Medfoun - Sauteed chicken breast with onions and ginger tossed in egg noodles.


2. Couscous Malaki - Served with lamb, merquez sausage, and seven vegetables.


3. Azizia's Tagine - Braised sweet potatoes, sweet peas, tomatoes, raisins, and onions in cilantro ginger sauce. (This is what I ordered).


4. Djej Msharmal - Marinated and roasted cornish hen with olives and preserved lemon.
   
   
   Peggy and I. She has a seeing-eye-dog (Nelson) that Tim loves... it's the main reason Tim will go to Sunday School. ;)

Some of the ladies that were there...

We arrived at 6:30p, ordered at about 7:00p. Finished eating at about 7:50p, and sat and chatted until the belly dancer came out at about 8:30p. Left at 9:00p. What a late night for me!

The belly dancer was really good this time! (Last time, the belly dancer wasn't that good...but then again, this is coming from a pregnant lady that can NOT dance at all!) The gal was really nice, and let Peggy "see" her finger-cymbals (sp?) and the embroidery on her skirt.

Here's a short video some of her moves. Nelson the dog seemed to like her too. (Sorry, it was dark).

Dinner with friends

Here are a few pix from us hanging out (aka eating dinner) with friends.

With the McQuays at Barnaby's Cafe.


They brought us a cute little outfit for the baby.

At a Mardis Gras Grill with some friends...

Our friend Matt enjoying his raw oysters. :P

Yee-Haw!

Tim and I finally made it out to the Rodeo. Some of our friends called us up, said they were headed over, and invited us to come along. So we did! It was a rainy day, so we had some fun with our huge umbrella.


Tim getting some cashola out of the ATM.

We went and watched some herding dogs "herd" some sheep. SO COOL! I'd LOVE to have a dog and some sheep one day. :)

Then we went and grabbed some grub... My $5 corndog, and brick of fries (which we shared with our friends), and Tim got some BBQ. Yum!

We walked around and looked at some shopping booths and livestock. We did a LOT of walking! (By the end, my hips/legs were SORE!)

Here we are with some cows. (Aw man! My cowboy boots got cut out of the frame!)

Me and a smiling pig. :) Ooh, and you see the toe of one of my cowboy boots. Did I mention that a shoe shiner at Tim's work fixed the soles and heels of my boots (and polished them) for $18! Awesome!

Tim LOVED petting the pigs. But it's not like they were very soft or anything!

In line for some FUNNEL CAKES!! We shared one. Yum! And we didn't stand in line for 3 hours for it! (Remember our 4th of July experience last year??)

Tim's parents will be driving through town again at the end of this week...so I think we'll go again. Maybe we'll go watch some bull riding this time!

Pictures from this past week

Here I am on a "cute day" (last Friday). I LOVE LOVE LOVE that shirt! And skirt! Oooh! AND a clean house! :)

This was a Tuesday... we went to eat Hot Pot with some friends before they moved out to California. :( But it was gooood hot pot! At a GREAT price, too!

This is me two Sundays ago...Stake Conference (but really felt like Regional Conference b/c it was a broadcast from SLC).

Valentine's Day

My cute husband made me breakfast for Valentine's Day. My favorite! Bacon, Egg, Potatoes. Yum! I guess it was more of a lunch, though, since we didn't wake up until about noon.


Later that day, we went to the temple, and then ate a nice Chinese dinner with friends from the ward. Tim insisted that we wear matching pink. Lol! j/k.

To Florida and beyond!

Tim and I just returned from an AMAZING trip to Florida. Needless to say, the flight there was MUCH more enjoyable than the LAST time we flew to Orlando! :)

Our flight was delayed a couple hours...but it actually worked out well because my family had enough time to pick up the rental van and grab some food for the kids.

After "checking in" to get the key to our rental house, we hung out a bit, put the kids down, made a grocery list, then headed to Walmart for some grocery shopping! We were just part of a small handful of peeps there shopping late at night.

We got SO MUCH FOOD! (Here's my sis and bro-in-law coming out of the store with the 2ND shopping cart, and Tim loading up the van with food from the 1ST shopping cart).


After a restful night, we awoke the next morning ready to hit the town! We went to the Magic Kingdom first and rode many rides (well...*I* didn't, b/c OBVIOUSLY I'm pregnant). There were quite a few (kiddie) rides that I was able to get on.

(Left to Right: Tim and I, Tim and my parents, The Fam, little nephew and niece that LOVED the Pooh ride...we rode it twice! That's a pic of them with their fastpass tickets).
While the bigger kids went on the bigger rides with the adults, I followed my mom and sister to get autographs from some of the "stars". :D It was a ton of fun just chillin with the girls.

(Left to Right: After the first day of Disney, Tim and the kids enjoyed a nice warm swim in the pool in the backyard. Day 2, niece and nephews and mom with some not-quite-so Little Ensteins. Day 2, eating our packed lunch at Hollywood Disney...mmmm...those picnic lunches we made were YUM YUM! Day 2, mom, kids and I sitting and watching the Toy Story Block Party).

After a couple days at Disney, my other sister came into town and we headed off for our Disney Cruise. Woo hoo!

1. Family at Disney dock after unloading luggage from van.
2. Us adults during the emergency drill.
3. Checking out the kids' clubs after signing the kids up. So cool!
4. All of us girls on deck!
5. Tim and I in front of one of the "smoke stacks".
6. Early morning workout at the gym. (My sister is taking the picture).
7. Early morning breakfast after our morning workout.
8. Day in the Bahamas. Bought some cute jewelry...and ice cream. :)
9. Me and some of my favorite nieces. SO excited to have a girl! :)
10. Playing Taboo in the Promenade Lounge.
11. Tim and I (with my family) eating at PALO, an adults-only restaurant.
12. Pirate Party! Tim always ends up having SOMEONE on his shoulders!
13. Sitting down to watch a movie! We watched two movies while on board...this is when we went to see Beverly Hills Chihuahua.
14. After disembarking, we headed to nearby Coco Beach to play in the sand. (Unfortunately, the temperature had dropped, and it was COLD!)
15. Heading back to the cars and dusting off.

Some more pics from the ship...

1. Tim and I at our first dinner spot--Animator's Palate. We had missed this the last time we cruised with Disney, so it was cool to see the walls change!
2. Tim and I enjoying some Room Service after dinner. hehehe...
3. Family and I at Triton's for dinner.
4. Ditto...
5. Three of Triton's desserts. So lately I've been on a Creme Brulee kick...so I ordered one. And I had had a sundae the night before, and it was good...so I ordered one. And I just HAD to try the orange-ginger crepe suzette...so I ordered one. Mmmm...

On the first day on board, there was a launch party on deck. Tim was asked to go on stage during one of the dances. He got a free virgin strawberry drink afterwards.