You may or may not know that Matt has his own podcast, "Mormoncast." Lately it has been on hiatus, until this last week. Matt received a screener copy of a new movie called "The Errand of Angels." He did a movie review on his podcast. Go ahead and check it out. The movie was really good! I have included the movie review, but if you are interested in the podcast go to www.mormoncast.org
(Check out my other post for today, it is really important!)
Voting starts August 13th, and you can vote as many times as you want. I will put the links up, and periodically will remind everyone to vote! Good luck Holly!
To view all the finalists go to the Sonicbids website, and scroll down to the bottom of the page. Click on "Holly Jones" and a profile window will pop up. Click on "video" and you will get to see a short video of Holly singing.
Here is the official website for the competition. Starting on the 13th, go vote as often as you can! The winner gets a walk-on appearance in "Wicked!" Pretty exciting!!
Happy, happy birthday Tanner dear! Today is our nephew, Tanner's, birthday! Hooray! He is 6 years old today. This is the most recent picture I have of him, but I love it because it really shows his personality! He is a fun little boy, who is also very smart. It has been so much fun seeing him grow and learn. Some of my favorite memories of Tanner are him telling me that he has new teeth (he just wanted to let me know, because he "knew that I liked teeth" HA! And then one other time when he was about 4 years old, we were playing with a stethoscope. He was listening to my chest and then after he finished I asked him, "what do we do now?" His response was so hilarious: "We call another doctor!" I thought, oh dear, he is 4 years old and he thinks I need a 2nd opinion! EEP!
Well, he is spending his birthday up in Utah with my mom, so I am sure that she is loving having her grandson there. So, this is a long distance, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Ok, so most of us Californian's know that there was an earthquake today, that is no longer news. The earthquake originated in Chino Hills, but was felt from Oxnard to San Diego...strangely enough I have spoken to people who were in both of those cities. I was in Placentia, which is only 15 miles away...so we were rocking pretty good. I was working in a dental office. I had left my patient in the chair for a minute to go get her x-rays when it happened, so unfortunately my patient was alone, reclined in a dental chair. She got a little freaked out, luckily she was the last patient of the morning, and we had already finished her cleaning. So were you doing anything interesting when the earthquake hit?
So now, let me transition to a little question. Why are people so scared of earthquakes? I am not talking about the enormous ones that take down buildings and kill people, I am talking about the ones like today. 5.4 magnitude, no damage, no serious injuries, just a few things getting knocked down. I understand that if you aren't from an earthquake-rich part of the world that it can be a little scary, but if you have lived in California then you know what they are like, and you should know what to do. And any building built in California after the 1930s is built strong enough to withstand minor quakes, unlike buildings in small undeveloped countries where an earthquake can be devastating.
Today I had a lady spaz out on me. She grabbed my arm with her claws and like a death grip, did not let go! She left a mark. She was running back and forth like a crazy person during the earthquake and shouting (doesn't help that she is one of the employees at this office and her priority should be the safety of the patients). She actually thought an airplane was landing on the building. Then, we have to listen to non-stop coverage of the earthquake on tv, on the radio, etc. Can anyone explain to me why earthquakes are scary? Logic says: move away from anything that might fall and hurt you, and just hang on. That is really all there is to do (duck and cover!). *sigh*
P.S. I actually think earthquakes are kind of fun! I would have enjoyed this one if that lady hadn't been skewering my arm!
My dad is in the hospital right now. Lately he has been having some kind of terrible abdominal pain and after 3 visits to the emergency room and a consultation with his gastroenterologist, they elected to remove his gallbladder. They weren't sure if the surgery would fix the problem, but when they got in there they did find that his gallbladder was pretty inflamed.
So, after this usually simple procedure, my a portion of my dad's right lung collapsed. YIKES! He is fine, but still, it isn't that much fun for him. The crazy part is that this procedure is usually outpatient, but he is still in the hospital 2 days later, going on three.
I am not sure what the point of me blogging about this is, but I just wanted to put it out there. Get well daddy-o!
This last Wednesday was not only Matt's birthday, but it was also the end of 20 weeks of my pregnancy. Woohoo! Half-way done, and just about 20 more weeks to go! I am loving my pregnancy. I have heard a lot of different stories about pregnancies (the good, the bad, and the ugly). I am lucky enough (so far) to be having a great pregnancy. I realize that it may not always go so smoothly, so I am just enjoying every minute of it.
I thought I could just write out a little update about my pregnancy thus far. Yes, I am 20 weeks, yes I am having a boy, no we don't have a name picked out. However, since everyone and their brother seems to want to know the baby's name I sometimes pick a strange name like "Cornelius Morpheus" or "Curly" to rhyme with our last name. HA! My bump is starting to really show, there are times I think I might just look like someone that ate too much, then other times I think, "yeah...I look pregnant." Here is a picture from today, what do you think? 
My little boy likes to move. I first started noticing him moving when I played some music for him. So, every day I like to play a little mixture of classical, The Beatles, They Might Be Giants, and I think the Star Wars' theme song (Matt made the mix on my iPod). I know he can hear the loud noise because he always kicks right underneath the headphone. One night the little squirt wasn't really moving too much so I asked Matt to put his hand on my tummy, and within seconds that little guy really started dancing! He just wanted to play with daddy! Cute!
I have no aversions to food or smells, and I am hungry constantly. The baby likes to sit low, like on top of my bladder, so I have to pee constantly too. He even can get in the way when I am sitting down, or try to cross my legs, etc. But my mom gave me the good advice of getting on my knees and putting my head to the floor so my bum is in the air, that way gravity will get him to move up a little bit.
I am no longer having sciatic pain. I found comfort in the form of massage! :) In fact, I got a massage and then a few days later I went to girls camp and the pain was gone! HOORAY! So, I am just keeping up with the massages once a month.
At night I am sleeping with like 50 pillows. I don't think there is room for Matt on the bed anymore! I keep the pillows all around me. I have been thinking about buying a big pregnancy body pillow, but they cost $50-60, and I can't decide on which one I want. Does anyone have an opinion about these? Do I really need one? Which one should I get?
On a medical note: I do have placenta previa (or at least that is what the last ultrasound showed). So I go in for another ultrasound at the end of August (hooray, more pictures!) to try to see if there are any changes. My doctor didn't seem to think it was that big of a deal, and after doing some research I have found that it isn't uncommon for placenta previa to be present early in the pregnancy, then as the tummy grows the placenta is pulled away from the cervix. (I officially apologize to any male that might be reading this).
Other than that, life is great! I am having a wonderful time! I get so excited every time my little boy moves, it just gives me the warmest feeling in my heart (no, not heartburn--which I am not having either by the way). Matt has fun with the baby too. I just know he is going to be a great dad. I can't wait to meet my little guy, but until that day, I will just keep enjoying being pregnant. (I will let you know if my attitude ever changes!)
Matt wanted me to add a picture to my previous post, so read on if you haven't seen it yet. But just remember that this picture is Matt's own addition to the post.
