Failing a Mom test all ready?

Seems like a bunch of Moms I know can think of something to make for dinner and whip it up real quick, no problem. Being short on time (like always) I have been attempting to cook on the fly. I'll think of something that I want to eat, then make up a recipe in my head and make it thinking it will be good. WELLLLLLL Not so much. I have discovered I don't have a talent for making recipes up, namely Chicken Pot Pie was my recent casualty... Runny and Doughy not a good mix. I am especially bad at beef. I never know what kind to buy or how to cook it right. It's always chewy or too salty or raw in the middle and charcoal on the outside. I blame that on the lack of BBQ. I know how to BBQ...that reminds me maybe I should get one of those little camper grill things that run off propane.

Regardless, I am good at following recipes and I can make some very yummy dinners from those recipes, but it's when I make up stuff that I mess up. I hear it takes time and that it comes with age to perfect your own recipes... Trial and Error they say... well with more errors then anything I might just stop with the trials for a while...OR call my Mom or Kristin to help me fix it. I think that's the only way to do it. Bottom line? No Gourmet Chef here ever....

Pain, Lots of Pain...

So I have joked around with a few people about how much Ty is like his Dad all ready. Pictured above is Little Ty stretching out his legs COMPLETELY. How many babies do that in the womb? I feel that this is a very common position for him considering I feel him kick around 5 AM (kindly waking me up) and 10 PM almost every day. Little reminders through out the day as well that I may have drank enough water and he needs more leg space. He's just following suit! Matt always likes to sit on the outside, or the end of a row, just so he has room to stretch out his legs. A seat where he doesn't have stretch space is pretty much the first thing he informs me of when we sit down somewhere. I on the other hand can stretch out my short little legs anywhere and these things never even cross my mind.

Also when Matt gets too hot it hits him very suddenly, and he'll throw the covers off himself with a seizure like motion often accompanied with a little yelp. When we were first married I had never encountered it and I start laughing after one "episode" of it...It is pretty funny. Immediately afterward a fan is turned on or a window is opened. Ty does pretty much the same thing when I get too warm and cozy (like when I take a bath or have a blanket over my lap with sweats on for too long) he'll just freak, I find it pretty funny because it's like I mentioned above all of the sudden and seizure like. Once I take the blanket off my lap or get out of the bath it stops.

Up until about 3 days ago these things were just entertaining to me. Mind you I have had (and probably still) have had the EASIEST pregnancy anyone could hope for. Very little to no morning sickness, have not even been close to yakking, not much EXTRA moodiness (the usual), no foods disgust me that hadn't previously, no weird cravings, no problems with smells (except for the burnt tortilla incident and I think pregnant or not that smelled awful). I took the picture for my cousin Melissa to put on our header on Thursday, check it out, barely showing and 20 weeks along!? I wear maternity shirts on and off and still don't fit into maternity pants...

WELL it started Friday afternoon with pressure and pain in my lower abdomen, as usual I wonder is this normal or something I should worry about? I took some Tylenol (for the 2ND time the whole pregnancy) and the pain didn't subside much. Later that evening I took more, with no luck relieving the pain. I felt like my ovaries (or where they used to be) were put in a clamp and were slowly being squeezed until they popped! It was uncomfortable to stand and to sit. That evening I slept not so great switching from side to side and moaning in my sleep from pain. I woke up on Saturday morning feeling "so so" but I am the YW Basketball coach so I had to "Cowgirl Up" as Matt tells me and go coach. He was also the ref of the game. That's another good story for another day. He had a game following my game. So I made my way up the the church to watch him. Still not feeling so hot we went home and I got in the shower. I could barely stand there long enough to even make it worth it! Afterwards I went straight to bed. I called Kristin about some plans we had to meet up and she urged me to call the doctor... I said nah... then about 10 minutes later I was calling the doctor. Of course mine wasn't there but an on call doctor called me back. I told him of the pain I was feeling and how it hurts to walk, sit, stand, etc. He said "Well these sound like growing pains to me! The ligaments that connect your abdominal muscles to your hips are stretching very quickly to catch up with your growing baby. They are normal but can be painful, take some Tylenol (that didn't work) take a hot bath ( again Ty freaks in the tub and I didn't want to have him kicking me in all that pain) and just rest no walking around just lay down for as long as it takes."

TORTURE, if you know me making me lying down for an extended period of time is not cool. I had plans to go to a fancy schmancy dinner thing with Matt that evening but had to cancel those. I took two 3 hour naps but after 7 hours of being a putz Matt and Ryan were DYING for something to do. So I took more drugs and we went to the BYU Basketball game. It was a good game, hard for me to enjoy but good. I got home exhausted and slept this morning until 10 am when the pain woke me up again.

PLEASE PAIN JUST GO AWAY!! STRETCH ALL READY!!! Needless to say, today has been another nap day, the pain is going away I think (maybe just wishful thinking) but I cant take sitting around anymore. Matt has been so kind as to give me piggy backs everywhere, which still isn't THAT comfortable but it sure beats walking up the stairs! Hopefully tonight's sleep will be great and I'll be good to go in the morning. Only time will tell, as for now I am convinced my waist line measurement has increased about 6 inches in the last 3 days as I feel like my innards are about ready to be on the outside...My abs feel like I had a good 2 hour laugh fest and are SO SORE. Ty is probably LOVING the new space. Let's hope I'm not like a gal back in Medford I know where her abs actually split apart during her pregnancies...Yikes!!

I FOUND HIM!

Through much determination I, Matt, have found a picture of the client that called yesterday. (Referring to the previous post) I think this photo will greatly help us determine the native origin of his last name. It's all so obvious now...

Marked down?

Every once in a while Matt gets evaluated on his calls that he receives at work. He speaks with different financial advisers and people wanting to know questions about their system, etc. Yesterday he e-mailed me and said he scored a 97% on his last review. Now most of the time that would be great but he has been scoring 100% for quite some time now and he was disappointed about it, this was the e-mail.

"I was marked down for not using the clients name. His name is WOJCIECHOWSKI. Rip off right?"

HAHA I laughed so hard! That evaluator should have tried to say the name themselves before they marked him down for it right? Does anyone know how to say that? I mean what language is that even? Sorry Matt you should have attempted at least "Okay Mr. Whicha-dija-chowski, I've found a solution for you" Ha Ha Better luck next time.

Draper Temple Open House

Suzanne invited me to go with her on Tuesday night to the Draper Temple Open House. It is the 129th LDS Temple. It was so cool. The temple is SO beautiful inside and I really did feel closer to Heavenly Father while inside. You can feel the spirit so strong there even with TONS of people walking through like cattle. This one is three stories with the Celestial room at the very top. It was spectacular to see. If you ever have a chance to go to a Temple open house in your area, (or this Draper Temple) I highly recommend it! Especially if you have young ones that want to know what is inside, it really is amazing.

We went with a group of people from Suzanne's work, all of which are all older gentlemen. It was funny because at one point Dale said "Look, Suzanne we're in the Marriage Waiting Room have a seat..." Ha Ha very funny, really the room is for those invited to the sealing to wait there until the couple to be married is ready. That's what she gets to work with every day :)

Weekend with Braden

This last weekend Matt's youngest brother Braden came down from Rexburg to visit! Matt was pretty excited. Friday evening the boys (Ryan, Matt, and Braden) went to Boondocks, the local family fun center type place. They bought the unlimited pass. It was actually ridiculous because they wanted what's called the "Umbrella Pass" where you can do everything inside at a cheaper rate but the workers wouldn't sell it to them because the go-karts were open outside. I am pretty sure the temperature was some where around 10-15 degrees. Anyways so the boys played about 5 or 6 games of lazer tag to get all sweaty then they ran out for go-karts. It was still a very cold ride!




They went back inside and played more lazer tag. It got to the point where I was seeing people come and go and comment on the way out, "Those three guys have been playing for hours!" It was true we were there for hours. They had the workers as boondocks going in to check on them and switching it up, at one point the boys had them turn on tons of fog and turn off the music so it was silent. Apparently it gets pretty intense. They played a few arcade games as well and we left at around 11.

On Saturday we had basketball games in the morning. Then in the afternoon we headed down to Will and Kristin's to meet up before the Men's Volleyball game. The kids weren't feeling well so Kristin stayed home but Matt Will Suzanne Braden and I all went over to the Smith Field House at BYU to watch the game. Matt LOVES those games. He gets so into it that I just have to start laughing out loud at him half the time. He comes up with the funniest things and gets everyone around where we are sitting to "cheer" the same way...At one point Braden turned to Matt after a good volley and said "Man I am spitting everywhere!" Good thing we were in the front row :)

Unfortunately Braden had to leave early in the morning on Sunday because a friend of his that he drove down with was called into work. Regardless we had a great Sunday, Suzanne came over after church and we watched a DVD that Matt got from the library called "Joseph- exploring the life and ministry of the prophet" too bad we didn't watch it before church because then we would have known ALL of the answers in Sunday School!

Monday Matt had work off and I had the ultrasound in the morning. Matt mentioned on Sunday how he didn't have as much time to hang out with his little buddy so after the appointment we went down to pick up Jason so Matt could take him to Kangaroo Zoo for the afternoon. He even got to sit in a booster seat for the first time. It was too big but we forgot to grab the car seat from Will when he was home for lunch.I stayed home with the girls. They played for about an hour before Jason was ready to come home. So Matt took him home and put him in his bed for his nap. The little guy woke up with a 102 temperature, no wonder he didn't want to play that long! But he had too because it was with uncle Matt... pretty soon I don't know how much little buddy time he'll get so soak it up Jason! Apparently the poor little guy is still feeling sick though! Get well soon little guy! :)

The story behind the Ultrasound...

Okay so before I went in for the ultra sound my OBGYN told me to have 32 oz. of liquid down before going in. So I started to drink water at about 9:30. I slowly drank it and finished it just before walking into the radiologists office at 10:15 am. My appointment was at 10:30 and I had to register before hand. Well for a while I was preoccupied and excited about seeing our kiddo on the ultra sound and trying to guess if it will be a he or a she for about ohhhh 10 minutes. Then it hit me.

WOW!!! I have to go to the bathroom REALLY bad. Mind you, all you pregnant women can second this, your bladder is about the size of a thimble, which you get used to and just go to the bathroom frequently. After about a half an hour, I ask the front desk lady how much longer, because it was getting painful to even sit down. She responded with "about 10 minutes". I sat down again thinking okay I can do ten minutes. About 2 minutes later I was SURE I couldn't do ten minutes. By now about all 32 oz. were in my thimble sized bladder and I was POSITIVE that it was going to explode. Well instead of exploding I think it start leaking out my eye balls... okay I was crying. I couldn't help it!

So I ask again "how long" they said "are you dying?" I said "YES!" they said "go to the bathroom but just a TINY BIT because you have to have a full bladder for the appointment. If you empty all the way we'll have to re-schedule."

I knew we couldn't re schedule because this was taking long enough and luckily Matt had the day off work because of the holiday. SO I went to the bathroom relieving just a TINY BIT. I went back and sat down then stood up then sat down then stood up... then I went to the bathroom a LITTLE bit more... then I sat down and start to cry again. Matt, who was reading a magazine looks over at me and said "What do you want me to do?" (by now it had been about an hour PASSED my appointment time) I said "Go ask them how much longer please..." He asked again how soon we would be going back. The front desk lady said "when a room opens up." At this point I am starting to sweat... so I think about taking off my hoodie but then I realize that its probably a lot of sweat and my pits are probably soaked... GROSS I know!

OH and by now my kidneys are starting to hurt. Yet again I decide to go a LITTLE bit more and THANKFULLY about 15 minutes later a doctor calls us back. As we're walking (very slowly and painfully) I am explaining that I still have a full bladder but it's VERY full and I just might get a UTI from this ordeal. The Doctor Julia says "okay" in a hurried manner and lays me down. She then started the ultrasound and said, "HOLY COW GIRL!!! That's ALL bladder your poor little baby is squished and I can't see a thing! (it's true the ultrasound was allll bladder) Go to the bathroom but not all the way...." ( I was VERY happy she said that because it was somewhat validating to Matt as well as myself that Yes Mickie you should be in pain because of this, your not just a baby who can't hold it...)

So I went again but not all the way. I get back in there and she starts pushing around she shows me the babies legs and how they are crossed so we couldn't tell at that point the sex... ( then in a matter of seconds everything that was just waiting in my kidneys has gone into my bladder) and I fill up again. After about 3 more minutes Dr. Julia says.... "Okay this isn't helping anything, and there isn't much room in there in the first place. GO and let it ALLL out, just go."

I was so HAPPY! I let it ALLLLL out. MAN it was great!!! When I got back she said, "Do you normally drink a lot of water?" I said "Yes! I do" she said "Okay for the next go round, just drink about half of what they tell you about 15 minutes before and you'll be fine." She started pushing around again and the next shot was of our little guys legs completely stretched out but his hand was covering himself... then she moves up to the head and his mouth was wide open. (Pretty sure he was saying "THANKS MOM I WAS DYING IN HERE ALL SQUISHED LIKE THAT!!!") Then she went down by his legs again and we could tell for sure it was a boy. Matt's comment was "Well he needed to stretch out, and his hands were cold so they were on the warmest place!" If you know Matt he can't take not having space to stretch out his legs he has a mini panic attack if he doesn't have that room.

But let me tell you I was pretty tired the rest of the day because it took every ounce of me to "hold it" for that long. I almost fell asleep during the rest of the ultra sound...

So now to all those who ever plan on being prego in the future, DON'T DRINK THAT MUCH WATER IT WILL START LEAKING OUT YOUR EYEBALLS BEFORE THE APPOINTMENT EVEN STARTS... This appointment is no different then any other doctors appointment they will be running late and you will be waiting at LEAST an hour. Next time I may go as far as to not even start drinking water until I get there. It will save the pain and tears...

Tomorrow's post will be of the weekend. Matt's younger brother Braden came down and they had loads of fun together.

Did you guess?

Well there is some debate as to which one is the male reproductive organ, but either way, it is a boy. It took some time for the doctor to find the private part, but in order to protect Ty's confidence level, once he moved his hand (he has big hands), it was easy to see his "member."
The name of our first born will be Ty Matthew Spence. You can see in the second picture the face of Ty. Even though the eye thing is really creepy, I'm sure he will look like an old man, and then a baby soon enough. The expected date is set for June 15Th. Mickie and I are certainly excited to have a pooping, crying, helpless, immobile, needy, hungry, and pooping baby in our home. It has been a great run, but the days of sleeping in are coming to an end, so I hear.

I don't worry about Mickie one single bit about being a parent. She is a wonderful women and will be a great mother. I have every bit of confidence in her. Myself, on the other hand, could use some parenting classes. Mickie is certainly going to have her hands full with two kids (me and Ty) running around.

I guess this is the first official blog post about Mickie being prego, because I was a little sceptical. But after photographic proof, it is true, she is pregnant. "Now that I have seen, I believe. Blessed are those of you who have not seen and yet believe." Wish us luck with this new stage of life that we will be beginning.

Is it that time, again?

Yep, School started this Monday and I think Matt and I have seen each other for about 3 or 4 waking hours since. Back to the old days of not seeing one another until the weekends. I now start work every morning at 8 am and go until 6 pm. My school is smack dab in between up at the U so that makes for a whole bunch of driving and going from office to office. Thank goodness gas prices are still down or else we might be in bad shape. I did get my Trax pass renewed so that will come in handy quite often. Also, In each of my classes I am required to do student observing/teaching, I think about 60 hours all together. Where and I going to fit that in? Yeesh.

Also I started coaching our Girls Basketball at church. I'll have one Laurel (16+ years) and the rest are all Beehives and YOUNG Miamaids (12-14 years). So what was our first practice like last week? Defense and BOXING OUT. Next practice is tomorrow where I'll review the defense and then touch on offense. Our first official game is on Saturday. We'll have to see how that goes, I don't think any of these girls have played a game in their lives so it should be a good learning experience for both players and coach!

In other news, I changed my background to a nice cheery Valentine's Day one. I am SO tired of snow and cold weather let me tell you! I am ready for SPRING. I'll have to wait about 3 more months and a whole bunch more snow though before I see any real signs of spring in these parts. I'll have to think positive thoughts and suffer through it I guess. OR I could go on vacation for three months.... that sounds really nice about now.

Pretty In Pink

So to preface this Matt didn't mean any harm nor offense to anyone. It was a joke and I thought this was more funny myself then anything else.

Here is how our conversation went:

Matt: "Mick, your hair is a little crazy today"

Mickie: "What? I did it today, I just put it in a ponytail." ( It was later in the evening)

Matt: "It's not that... I don't really like brown and blonde, your pony tail part is blonde but the top is brown" (Speaking of my ohhh 3 or 4 inches of re-growth. It had been since August that I last had it colored.)

Mickie: "I thought you wanted me to go more towards my natural color"

Matt: "No I think I like it better blonde"

Mickie: "All right, I'll call Trish sometime and see when she can do it."

Matt: (he sits up and notices my toes sticking out under my blanket) "Look at your toes.." (I hadn't done them for about 2 months they had little pieces of brown sparkles on them)

Mickie: "Yeah I need to do them again don't I"

Matt: "Okay well you need to get all this done soon because you are about two weeks away from me calling you white trash. "

Mickie: " Suzanne give me your phone so I can text Trish maybe she can do my hair tomorrow..."

HA HA HA. So because of that fun little conversation, I now have pretty little pink toes (Matt picked out the color) and my hair is now blonde on top as well as the bottom. Thank you Trish!

Since Matt is a Texan...

It's only appropriate that we root for the Texas Longhorns every once in a while. Did anyone else catch that game last night? We were yelling and cheering. It was great, when we went upstairs to go to bed poor Ryan who was doing some homework said, "What was going on? You two we're cheering pretty loud!" Well when it comes down to the last minute... wait 39 seconds... no wait 11 seconds... things get a little intense. So Way To Go Texas for pulling it out in the end! At least one of our teams won in a bowl game... even though we did cheer for those Ute's as well. We do go to the school it would be silly not too.... But don't fret all we still bleed BLUE.

BYU vs WAKE

On Saturday evening Matt, Suzanne, Will, Kristin, Jason, Sierra and I went to the BYU vs WAKE FOREST Basketball game. BYU is not a ranked team and Wake is ranked 6th in the nation. It was a GOOD GAME. Both Matt and I had headaches by the time we got home because we were cheering so loudly. BYU wanted a "White-Out" so there were tons of shirts on the seats when we got there. Again, Our favorite player Jimmer Fredette played AWESOME. He was tearing it UP in the first half. He was smoking these guys, taking it to the hole and making those crazy long three pointers. Poor guy had to guard Jeff Teague, the best guy on Wakes team. He played 38 minutes and boy you could tell he was tired by the end of the game. He ended up being the MVP of the game. BYU was ahead for most of the second half but ended up loosing in the last few minutes. I am not going to lie the officiating was TERRIBLE. So terrible that after a streak of bad calls and no calls the fans got so out of hand (not us we werent over there) started throwing stuff on the court. Dave Rose BYUs Head Coach had to stop the game and say "Let the players play and the Refs call the game guys" Sorry I forgot to rotate the picture... Check out Matts face... It was a serious game! Anyways, after Coach Rose said that then then it seems like the Refs didnt feel like calling anything! BYU had 3 players foul out... not because they were playing bad in the least! I feel we would have won the game if Chris Miles our big guy in the middle didnt foul out with about 4 or 5 minutes left. It was the most intense Basketball game I have ever been too and I still get a little fired up thinking about the officiating. At one point BYU had shot the ball and one of the Wake guys jumped up and grabbed the rim, pulled it down making the shot miss and the Ref didnt call it! WHAT??? Crazy like I said... It ended BYU's 53 home game winning streak... I guess that means its time to start all over.

Sunday we went to church 11-2 (love it) and just hung out (we needed to relax after Saturday night), it was so nice! Now on to a busy week before school starts on the 12th. :(

Happy New Year!!!

BOWLING! Hey we went bowling on New Years Day. It was fun! I was horrible but that is okay. Matt played pretty well. Jason was a peach, Sierra had a bit of a rough time. She was so upset that she couldnt go anywhere there she wanted when ever she wanted.

Matt thought it was funny so he thought maybe he should be having a hard time as well. Sierra didnt think it was funny at all...
Whelp back to work for one more day then on to the weekend.

BYU is playing #6 ranked Wake Forest this Saturday, we are excited to go cheer them on, Go Cougs!