I have a half hour while my persimmon spice bundt cake is in the oven, so we'll see how much I can cover in that time period. For Halloween, Stephen and I didn't do much. We watched Charlie Brown's Great Pumpkin special, and I introduced Stephen to the childhood glory of Halloween Town from Disney Chanel. If you've never seen it, add it to your holiday traditions, because it's a cheesy classic. We didn't have any trick-or-treat visits, but that doesn't surprise me living in an apartment complex of newlyweds, surrounded by housing for college students. Next year will be much more fun to take Paige out for events like trunk-or-treat and just show off cute baby in a costume. Not that she'll be eating much candy next year, but it will at least be more exciting than this year's holiday.
Stephen's been swamped with schoolwork. He's had a lot to do for group projects and other assignments. He only has a few weeks left, though, so we're starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. He's such a hard worker. In his little down time, he's normally helping me out with one thing or another. The other day, he sent me to bed to take a nap and cleaned the kitchen while I was asleep. He's helped me a lot on hard days by knowing when I need a break and he's willing to just give me attention to make me feel better. We got some frozen yogurt last week and had a date night like we use to while we were dating because he wanted to cheer me up. Little things like that make all the difference--he makes me feel special and important to him, even when he's busy with schoolwork. Thanks, Sweetheart!
With the end of the semester nearing us, I've been looking for housing up in the Salt Lake area. Stephen's work is in South Jordan, and we knew it would be nice to live close enough for him to bike to work. We were looking into basement apartments and townhouses because both of us were ready to be done with complexes and live like real adults (kind of). I had been doing research for months, trying to get an understanding of the area and the market and what we could afford. We made two trips up to valley, one last Saturday and one yesterday, and toured a handful of places.
Yesterday we found a basement apartment in Draper that's about two miles from Stephen's work. It's updated and big (1700 SqFt) with two bedrooms and a gorgeous kitchen. It's under budget for us, too, which is a big blessing. The landlord would be a young single guy who just recently bought the house knowing he wanted to rent out a basement. We're probably going to sign the contract for it tomorrow, so it's not a done deal yet, but hopefully it will be, and our search for housing will end. It hits almost all of our wishlist items and has few negatives. I can see myself living there, as can Stephen, and starting our family in that home. Cross your fingers for us that all goes well there.
In other news, we gave talks in church today. In non-Mormon lingo, it's like we gave mini sermons to the congregation. Our topic was the atonement, which is near impossible to do justice to in ten minutes each (granted, my talk ended up being more like twenty minutes, but that made everything work out perfectly). I shared some insights from a recent General Conference talk by President Packer and Brad Wilcox's books, The Continuous Atonement and The Continuous Conversion. (My Mother-in-law gave me the second book after hearing about how much I liked the first one. Thank you, Teresa!) After sharing some quotes and thoughts, I felt the need to share my umbrella story. If you've known me long enough, you've probably heard that story at least once or twice. It basically is how I gained a testimony that God was aware of me and my needs. Stephen pulled out all the scripture stops and shared a lot of really powerful verses about the atonement. He's much better at the studious, scriptural side of the gospel, and I'm fond of the emotional and heart-warming stories, so between the two of us, I like to think we do a good job.
Pregnancy-wise, we're doing well. Paige is active a lot throughout the day and night. Sometimes she just seems to push against one spot and not really move. It's like she's sitting on me, putting a lot of pressure in one area, but not really kicking or anything. Other times, she definitely is working out her arm and leg muscles. We also already discovered that Paige is a Daddy's girl. Stephen has the ability to calm her down almost instantly. She could be kicking repeatedly, but as soon as he puts his hand on my stomach, she stops. While it's slightly disappointing that she doesn't perform when we want her to, I've used this technique to my advantage. Last night, she was very active as I was trying to sleep, so I asked Stephen to put his hand on me. It worked like a charm--Paige held still for him. Anytime he would pull away though, she would go back to wiggling. I guess she just wants Daddy's attention. But hey, if he has the ability to calm her down, I will be taking advantage of that in the months to come.
My due date is only three months away. Can you believe how fast this pregnancy has gone? The first trimester was the hardest, but the second one seemed relatively easy and quick. We've had a lot of fun milestones in this trimester. One more week and I'll officially be in my last trimester. My back has started celebrating early by giving me a lot of lower back pain, and heartburn happens most days. Still, I get happy every time I feel her move, which keeps me happy a lot of the time. I've enjoyed having this one-on-one time with her, though there are still moments where I want to tag-team the burdens with Stephen (it has yet to work though).
Overall, life is good for us. Things are working out. We had a ward temple trip this last week, and Stephen commented it'll be one of the last times we can be with our whole family in the temple for many years. I'm grateful for my little eternal family, and how our adventures unfold. Stephen graduating, moving, Stephen starting his job, and having Paige join us outside of me all can be counted down to in weeks now. Changes are coming fast, but they're going to be good to us.
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