Baby Emmitt is almost here!

Name: Emmitt Thomas Jenkins
Due Date: July 24th
Favorite things to do: Grow, Hiccup, and Kickbox
Tom and I are so excited to be parents. It will change our lives up completely, I'm sure, but what an adventure! If you'd asked us a year ago, "Where do you think you'll be in one year?" Emmitt might have been a thought, but I don't think either one of us really knew we'd want kids so soon.


I hope Emmitt is just like his dad. Tom is such a good guy. Aside from being smart and handsome, he works like a maniac (in schooling and employment), he's responsible, he's kind, he's positive, he loves basketball, and he's going to be a great dad. Here's a funny side note about Tom and Emmitt. I was talking to my dad once and he said, "You know, when that boy turns about 14, if he grows to be as tall and big as Tom, you're going to have to keep lots of food on hand." I don't know why, that just made me laugh.



All throughout my pregnancy, I've been looking up websites that tell me all about my baby in the week of pregnancy I'm experiencing. Right now, Emmitt's almost 5 pounds and he's trying to pack on the fat instead of adding to his length. The first trimester, I probably looked these sites up once a month. Now, I do it twice a week. (: 

I really don't know how you can know anything about bringing a baby into the world and not think of it as a miracle. I'm so grateful to my Heavenly Father for this beautiful blessing. It has been a wonderful experience. I've been pretty lucky, too. There are a lot of horror stories out there, but so far, my biggest complaints are behind me in the 1st trimester with the morning sickness. Bleck! Don't worry, I know there's this really painful thing called birth coming up. I also know I have no idea what I'm getting into, so you don't have to burst any bubbles. I'm sure we'll find out.

I'd say the coolest thing is feeling him wiggle around. He's so active and big now that we can even see his movements. I've been asked if that "freaks me out", but nothing could be less accurate. It's so good to know he's alive and well.

Here are the scary parts. Like I mentioned, Tom and I have no idea what we're getting into. I'd say every parent I've talked to has said that being a parent is the hardest job they've ever had. I don't doubt it. I've never had anybody be completely dependent on me before and to go from that to being responsible for someone full time, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous about my capabilities. 
Also, there's so many things that could go wrong with a pregnancy. On many occasions, I've told Tom I thought something was wrong because I hadn't felt the baby move, I felt "weird", or a myriad of other things. Maybe I'll be less paranoid with my other kids.

Well, Tom and I have one more month with just the two of us. Here are some fun things we've been doing (lately and not so lately).

 We took a day trip to Mesa Falls. This was almost a year ago, actually. We were still engaged, so I guess these really aren't recent enough to be considered relevant...so sue me.

 Perfect weather, perfect company!

 Apparently, he was too cool to wear his hat the right way today.

 Here are a few pictures from our Honeymoon to Lake Tahoe. It was so beautiful there! I hope we get to go back someday.

 

Houses right on the Lake. LUCKY!

 I didn't quite outguess the timer on this one...but Tom looks nice.

 We saw this life-size llama made of rusty metal scraps and Tom needed a picture. It was standing guard at the gate of a big fancy summer home. Quite fearsome.

 

 This is where we stayed. HA! Just kidding. There were so many beautiful homes there...I was kind of sad to see that most of them were vacant for a good part of the year.

We took an awesome bike ride on a trail that went past all these fancy houses and an occasional lake view. The weather was perfect all week: not too hot, but bright and clear.

Not too far into our marriage, the mustache emerged. Tom said it would disappear after Halloween, but then he got attached to it. The day he shaved, he found out where I was on campus without telling me he was there too. When I looked up and saw him coming, I didn't recognize him for a good two seconds. He said the look on my face was pretty funny.

At Porter Park in the Fall

 

 

 This gap in the pictures could probably be explained by morning sickness on top of my great talent at forgetting to bring my camera to photo-worthy events.

But here we are today. These are shots on Father's Day evening in the campus gardens. Probably one of my favorite spots.

These are from a Saturday night. It started out as just a walk, but we ended up doing lots more. First, we saw some new fountains that have been recently built on campus.

Then, once again, we visited the gardens.

 Mr. Thomas found Mr. Tumnus. Tom's either mourning that Mr. Tumnus has been turned to stone or he's singing. Not sure.

 We enjoyed a really pretty sunset that night. 

 Then we happened to find a competitive league baseball game at one of the playing fields. Tom loves baseball and I have to say it's become one of my favorite things. We went to a game when we were engaged and I just like the atmosphere. The reason we stopped is because a batter had gotten nailed in the head with the ball and Tom's paramedic instincts got him interested. He didn't know whether or not to step in and ask if he could help, but somebody had already called the ambulance. The guy was fine, but he definitely needed stitches. Yikes! 

To finish off the night, we grabbed some ice cream and the movie "Stardust". I think we were up till 2 AM, but definitely worth it!

Sock Change

For Father's Day

 

I have this memory from when I was a little girl of my dad coming home from work. He had a routine. After coming through the back door, he'd grab a chair from the dining table and sit down to unlace his boots, caked with mud or laced with dust, depending on the trenches he'd been digging in and whether the pipes in them were whole or broken. Next, he would stand and remove his belt so he could take all the gadgets off of it (cell phone, radio, pager, leatherman, and keys). Finally, he would empty his pockets. After chap stick, random bits of paper and wrappers, any change he'd accumulated throughout the day would come out. If I wasn't at the door when he came home and he couldn't give me the pennies and dimes right then, I found the piles of change on my dresser. I never really spent any of it. It just all went into a piggy bank. After several years, I had too much to fit into the bank, so I transferred it to some gold, knee-length socks my mom had given me for my birthday (Normally, I would have worn them proudly, but the gold ones had thread in them that made them too itchy). The socks stayed at the bottom of my closet through high school and were left there when I left for college. 

My dad has a new job now. I'm sure he still brings home spare change, but I'm not sure what he does with it. I'll forever be grateful that he was willing to jump down in those trenches to provide for our family. I'll always love the home that he built with my mom and older brothers. I'll never forget the sacrifices he made to be a wonderful husband and father in our family. 

......................

After Tom and I were married, we still went on lots of dates. We soon realized that going out to eat wasn't always affordable and going to see the latest movies was expensive too. We resorted to walks, visits with friends, and hitting up the cheap or free entertainment on campus when we had time away from homework.

On a visit home, my mom reminded me of the gold socks sitting on the floor in my closet. I took it with us back to school and it sat on the floor of our apartment instead. Not long after that, our local grocery store expanded and added self-checkout stands, which accepted quarters, dimes, nickels, and even pennies! Dating revolution! Now, one of our favorite things to do is head to Broulim's late at night and buy a carton of ice cream, popcorn, or Popsicles with change, then top it off with a red box movie to watch on the laptop.

I don't know if Dad knew all of his little "contributions" would make much of a difference to me, but I'm reminded of home every time we get to go on a "sock date".

Happy Father's Day!

Pleeeeeeease take my survey!

Ah, the joy of call centers.
Boredom drives you to do things you never thought you'd do. When I found I'd no longer be employed by the school during my off-track semester, I hunted for jobs for at least two months. Eventually, I had to come to terms with the fact that not many employers are going to put the resources into training you if you can only give them a few months of work. 

Finally, I applied at a call center. They're plentiful in college towns. They expect high turnover and they don't require much experience. Don't get me wrong, some people are cut out for this kind of work. The reason I took so long to apply was because I just didn't think I had thick enough skin to be hung up on or cussed out over and over if I had to call people who didn't want to be called.

Sure enough, I got a call for an interview a short time after I applied. I was accepted for the job and started right away. Yup, I'm one of those people who calls you and asks you all sorts of questions from politics to how you liked your service with so-and-so.

Here are the things I've learned.

-People are pretty cool. I haven't been cussed out at all. The people who don't want to spend the time to take the surveys are usually pretty nice about it, especially if I don't talk over them and push too hard. If you're sincere, most people aren't going to be rude.

-I judge people waaaaaay too quickly. As I'm sure you're aware, telemarketers and survey solicitors such as myself don't always get a connection right away and I'll often hear the second "hello" when I start a call. One call in particular started with a guy yelling a long "HEEEEELLLLOOOOOOO" into the phone, so I immediately apologized, thinking "This guy is going to chew me up and spit me out." However, after I told him what I was calling for, he took the survey. Incredible!

*Let me interrupt to explain something so you grasp the gravity of that last story. There is a base pay for this job and bonuses if you finish so many surveys. It's good incentive, yes, but that's not the main point. The majority of the calls I make, people hang up or say they don't want to take the survey. If I go a long time without getting a survey, I just start missing having human interaction. The minutes drag on and I become aware of how annoyingly loud the beeping in my ear is each time someone picks up the phone, how the bright computer screen is hurting my eyes, or worse, I start watching the seconds tick away at the top-right corner of my screen. I imagine the people who take my surveys have a good laugh at the delightful surprise in my voice when they say they'll take the survey.


-Honesty is the best policy. Time is worth a lot and that's the biggest reason people refuse me. I try to make it a point to tell each person how long the survey takes before we even get started. I get a lot of refusals for doing that, but a lot of people tell me they appreciate it and take the survey just because I told them. I feel better throughout the survey, since they know what they agreed to, and they're more relaxed and more fun to talk to. Everybody wins!


I guess you can learn something from every job. I'm afraid I underestimated this one.


I'm sorry my blog is so lacking in visuals right now. Soon, I'll get some pictures up and make sure my posts are illustrated.

Blessings

It's kind of hard to know where to start, but I guess the best day of my life is good. Tom and I were married on September 2nd, 2011. We are married for time and eternity and our life together thus far has been just a big string of blessings, the biggest being that we're expecting a little boy at the end of July. But, I'm getting ahead of myself. I'll post about the joys of expecting a baby at a later date. I'll start out with the gooshy stuff and tell the story of how Tom and I met.

Set: My second year of college, Tom's third. 
Place: The apartment complex where we were both living.
Date: Ummm...I don't remember that one. Shame on me.
Time: About 7:30 AM

Aaaaaaand, Action!

Girl walks out her apartment door and finds herself awkwardly positioned to walk down the sidewalk next to tall, dark, handsome stranger. To turn around and enter the apartment again would be too obvious and to change her pace to mismatch his would be obvious and rude. Besides, she doesn't really mind the awkwardness anyway. After a few paces side by side, stranger says, "Well, this is awkward. I guess I better say hello." 


Cut. (Because I'm sick of writing like a movie director. Sorry for the cheese.)


Strangely enough, we had the same route around campus for another five minutes or so and we found it easy enough to talk to each other for that time. When we parted ways, I thought "Hmmm...I wonder if he'll ask me on a date." After all, we did live across the parking lot from each other. Later, I found out he was thinking, "Hmmm...I'll probably ask her on a date." How nice.


So we went on the date. It was fun. And then....Nothing. For the whole semester. I barely even saw him because he was so busy with work and school, but I got to know a few of his friends and we were friendly enough when we did bump into each other. He saw me go on dates with other guys and I saw him go on dates with other girls. No big deal. 


Then one day, he made an appearance at my apartment with two of his friends for a friendly visit to my roommates and me. I found myself sitting next to him and asked him about a girl I thought he'd been in a relationship with, just to see how it was going. Of course, nothing says jealousy better than that, so that grabbed his attention and he and his friend discussed it later that night and decided it was time to take action. So, on the last day of the semester he and said friend showed up to invite a roommate and me to dinner. By this time, I'd been doing lots of thinking and I'd decided I was glad we were both coming back to the same apartment complex after Christmas.


New semester comes, we go on another date and hold hands. We go on another date and he puts his arm around me. Someone asks how long we've been dating, and my face flushes because we're not "dating"! But now Tom has to ask. I say yes and we're off on a great adventure. We date from the end of January till the end of March. And then...I break up with him. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Why? I still wonder that myself. Probably just scared it might actually go somewhere. 

You have to listen to this while reading the next paragraph. Don't worry, it's a good song.

I go home in April, lonely and sad and my mother tells me I'm not as happy as I used to be. Hmmm. So I do something I've been thinking about for the past 4 weeks and finally get the courage up to call Tom (at 10:30 PM, no less) and ask him if I can come for a "talk". "Sure...?" he says. I drive half an hour to his apartment, we take a walk, I make a fool of myself trying to explain why I'm there, and finally get to the part about asking forgiveness and all that. Phewf. Moment of truth ends with his arm around me again and all is well. That moment right there is when we both knew we were probably going to get married.

The next few weeks contain the first "I love you", the first invitation to meet the family, and the first talk about the "m" word. By the end of May, we're engaged and set to be married in the Fall. 

Being engaged over the summer was fun, but exhausting. I worked two part time jobs and Tom worked full time while going to school part time. We lived about half an hour apart and made lots of trips to see one another and make plans for our life together.

We were both so blessed to find that we were marrying into wonderful families who were supportive and happy about our decision. We've really enjoyed getting to know them better over the past few months. 

And so begins our story.

Here Goes...

Well, it's past midnight and Tom's on another Paramedic Clinical until 4 AM, so the last thing I want to do is go to sleep, because that would just be too logical. No, I've wanted to start a blog for a while, so I figured this is as good of a time as any. Besides, a certain someone groggily knocked my heartburn relief (currently a staple before bedtime) behind the dresser this morning while reaching for the alarm. Since the same someone chewed me out today for lifting a bag of flour, I figured moving a dresser isn't in my best interests. I guess I'll just have to wait for someone to get home.

For the first post, I guess I'll just explain that this is going to be an assortment of goings-on, favorite recipes, cool songs, yada yada. Lots of stuff that may or may not be interesting. The reasoning behind this is to get me to be better about documenting things, make sure my writing skills don't go completely down the tubes (Aspiring Accountant), and make myself take more pictures. I could be better about writing in a journal, but it's funner to have pictures and other things to complement the writing. Plus, I like reading about how my family is doing in their blogs and I think it's a fun way to communicate. 

So there you have it.