Another Month Gone By

Seems like time is moving in a weird way for our little family while we are trying to get to the next step and are stalled out in this basement. We both have started to hate talking to other people about what we are waiting on and trying to do to get a move on with life. Luckily, Claire is still enjoying life in a big house that she can terrorize and explore so we stay and try not to be impatient.

Projects

Another thing I'm trying to do while living here is be productive! It has been a long time working an hour or two a day on the storage room of my in-laws, but I am so proud of how awesome and organized it looks! Whenever my mother-in-law goes in there she has to look around to find what she is looking for, but that effect will fade in time. Now there are like things next to each other and the floor is clear of all the random stuff we used to have to step around or over. If it was my own storage room, there would probably be even more things cleaned out, but I don't want to over stay my welcome by throwing out what others find useful. It was actually quite fun cleaning and organizing, but the project is over and now I'm looking for more to do when Claire is down for her naps.

Claire

Speaking of our little sunshine...she is still as cute as ever! Sometimes she is a butt about what foods she will eat and if she doesn't like it she will throw it on the floor, but she eats things from most food groups. I don't know if she is my daughter though because she doesn't like carrots but can eat a full serving of peas...weird child. I recently found this picture of her first meals with baby food and it seems so long ago that she would even eat the stuff! Amazing how time flys. She loves when music is playing so we are searching for movies and TV series that have music she can dance to when she is bored. I think she is getting bored of some of the things down stairs when they are already spread out, but if I have cleaned up and put toys away, her favorite thing is to spread them as far and wide as she can.

Reading

Still going strong on reading the Book of Mormon and reading my 3 chapters a day has put me a little ahead since the calculations I did said you only need 2.66 chapters a day. Hopefully I'll finish before Christmas...or really before the craziness of my brothers wedding the weekend before New Years and get to take some days off. Honestly I don't care about taking days off though because it has been such a delight to be reading so much again. I like getting to know the story again instead of reading segmented chapters as a family and have to try to remember what just happened the previous day. We are finishing up Jacob today for anyone keeping track!

P.S. Sorry I was bad at taking pictures this week...be prepared for our Halloween pictures next week though!! Very excited to share our costumes with you.

Creating Memories

Claire

Of course she is still the most adorable baby on the planet and we love to go play outside in the back yard while the weather still allows. I make it a point to go out when it is warmest outside so she doesn't have the coat in her way of fun because she loves the trampoline. She can't bounce herself but she likes when others are bouncing her and she can enjoy the ride. Her hair likes to stand straight up, too, not that we don't do that as her hair style other days on purpose. Chris calls it a water spout and loves to point it out to everyone.

2nd Pregnancy

I'm now in my 20th week of this pregnancy and really can't hide this stomach anymore even if I tried, which I still sometimes want to. If it was a little colder I could wear hoodies, but I honestly just need to get over my aversion and accept my bigger belly. It is only going to get bigger after all and I've been lucky enough to not have any more sickness so far. We are planning for the future and very excited to meet our new little girl when the time comes. I've now felt her move two times! Little flurries of kicks right as I am lying down to go to sleep was her most active time and now I look forward to it. I want to meet her and get to know her just like we've been getting to know Claire, but only time will tell how different or similar they will be!

Reading

Still on schedule with my reading of the Book of Mormon and we are in the Isaiah chapters of 2nd Nephi for anyone reading with me. They are the ones harder to understand, but they have as many mentions of Christ as the rest have had. It is truly a testimony to how the Lord is in every part of the world's history and really cares about His children. Keep up the reading!

Update for Fall

Future

Another week closer to finding out where we will be going after this time in limbo between schools. I haven't had a fun time not knowing what to expect in our future and having half of our stuff packed away too. Chris went to Tacoma for an interview at the University of Washington for their PA program on Saturday in the middle of his drill in Boise. He flew out for a full day at the school and found out information and interviewed with several of the professors. We hope to hear back soon on their decision so we can start our planning soon and prepare ourselves for the future.

Claire

With hair that is getting longer every day, I can finally start making little piggy tales and might even soon have to trim her bangs. She loves to play outside in the crunchy leaves of fall and seems to be overwhelmed with how many leaves there are to play with usually. With the cold weather coming in, we have carried around her coat all the time since she moves to much to get any fat on her body. She is still our little girl and will probably always be that way because this is the same coat she got for Christmas last year! Still fits and is nice and warm for fall.

She came on a shopping trip to DI as I was looking for parts of our Halloween costumes and I was crazy enough to walk towards the toy isle. She reached out for the stuffed animal and we found this very fuzzy, bright pink bunny that she then wouldn't let go of the entire time we were there. Lucky it was a cheap thrift store toy and it made her happy so we spoiled her just a little for coming along for the ride. As you can tell, I still love dressing us up to match for Sunday's and members of our new ward took notice and of course I told them I do this on purpose. It is just too fun to match each other!

Work

In an attempt to save money when life starts picking back up with school for Chris, he has applied to work at the ER. He is very excited to extend his experience and knowledge in medicine before he starts PA school and we hope he starts soon. I'm still working early mornings for VIPKid and trying to up my classes to make a few extra bucks as well. I'm not looking forward to daylight savings because it will make me get up an hour earlier just to teach the same class times as before. China doesn't observe daylight savings and doesn't accommodate for us who have to deal with it either, I'm thinking about starting to work in the evenings instead. I have faith it will all work out though.

Reading

As I mentioned before, I want to make myself accountable in my reading of the Book of Mormon and I'm proud to say I am still on track reading 3 chapters a day. I will be entering 2 Nephi tomorrow and I am reminded of when I read the whole book in 40 days for a project when I was in Young Womens. We did a challenge as a group that was called "Closer to Christ" and I feel that now as I am learning about the overall story instead of reading separated chapter to chapter. I've been focused on finding when the Lord is mentioned and He is quite often involved in the life of Nephi and his family as they traveled in the wilderness.

Weekend of Happiness

Several wonderful things have happened this past week and I'm excited to share them with you. First is our doctor's appointment where we found out the gender of our baby due in March 2019 (look down to find pictures). Next we were able to have a good time with family when they came over to find out the gender and enjoyed a meal together. Lastly, was the wonderful spirit brought by enjoying the sessions of General Conference for the Church of Jesus Chris of Latter Day Saints. I always feel so uplifted by listening to modern revelation for the Church and taking upon myself the challenges and impressions I had.

Claire

Although she is as cute as can be and wonderfully destructive, she doesn't understand that she won't be alone for much longer. She goes along with whats happening around her very easily and always seems to be happy to just keep moving. She enjoys the days that are still beautiful weather outside and we go for walks in the yard. She LOVES bouncing on the trampoline and dancing to music. Her non stop walking around to find more toys and more books only makes her frustrated when we limit her to playing only downstairs where there isn't anything she can ruin too much. Hopefully we can have her stop putting things that are found on the floor into her mouth so we can trust her upstairs on the dirty floor.

The New Girl

That's right, you heard it! We are having another girl join our family next year and we are over the moon excited that Claire gets to teach a little sister the ropes. Mom is excited to use all the cute outfits again and dad is excited because we let him made a sparkler bomb and blow up the pumpkin to reveal the gender to everyone. The bomb was a little too effective and ended up going off with him only a few steps away! There weren't a lot of big pieces left to show off the pink jello that was inside and we hope he learned that a small pumpkin doesn't need such a big boom.

The Conference

I have grown to love General Conference weekends and not only because I get to stay in PJs all day, but because I learn so much! Ever since I started preparing myself for conference before hand by having questions and then taking notes on my impressions, I have enjoyed a better spirit. Just like my love of the scriptures grew when I learned how to love them personally, my love of General Conference has expounded as I have personalized my experience. I am so happy for the speakers thoughts as they shared what was inspired of them to share and look forward to taking upon myself the challenges set forth by the Prophet. I will be recording my progress in the scripture reading here at the end of the blog post to keep myself accountable and hopefully share how it is blessing my life. I am pleased to say I have already started by reading the Introduction and the testimonies of the witnesses so I am ready to start 1 Nephi tomorrow. I'll be reading 2-3 chapters a day and marking every time I read about the Savior and how he has shown love for the people. I hope others will join the call and feel closer to God because of their seeking to know Him.