Purchases, Easter etc.

Ok so here's our crib tale:

I bought a crib and mattress off of KSL for 40 bucks. It was a convertible crib, which is what I wanted (converts to a toddler bed) and with the mattress I thought it was a good deal, even if it wasn't the cutest thing in the world.

My mistake!

Turned out our crib had been recalled! Yikes!! But we did some searching online and found out that because the company had gone out of business, retailers who had sold the crib were accepting it and giving either a refund, in-store credit or a replacement crib.

So we spent like over 2 hours total on the phone with Babies R Us, hearing different things every time. We finally heard from one person we could take it in so we loaded it up, got there...and they said they wouldn't take it. ARG! We were pretty annoyed that we'd spent so much time on it for nothing. But Walmart was down the street so I suggested, even though neither of us like Walmart, that we try there...and SUCCESS! That time it worked. Wahoo! We got a little less than $140 in cash, after waiting only like 5 minutes!! SO awesome.

We chose a crib then and there in the store, since we wanted to be done crib shopping and were using my parent's vehicle that was big enough for a crib for that reason anyway. So we chose a nice one and just made up the difference. Yay!!!! Here's a pic of me showing off three things-my baby bump of the time, my hat from Sam and the crib:

Next, I got a little crazy with looking for baby stuff on KSL and we bought a ton of mostly used baby girl clothes that are way cute. Our crib is basically full of them, seriously.

Then, I got this cute froggie bedding and a tub for 30 bucks from a lady on KSL who was moving. I'm excited about this particularly because I can use it for our next baby, boy or girl, since it's gender neutral.

The more stuff I get the more excited I get about her arrival. It's funny-you'd think her moving around like crazy would do it, but even though I know that's her and she's a person I still sometimes have a hard time making the connection. It just makes it more real when I think of dressing her up or putting her to sleep in her very own crib, etc. I love her so much and really can't wait for her arrival. :)

Anyway. Enough baby mushiness. Easter FHE this year was a real treat. We were going to be hosting this single mother and her two girls, ages 7 and 5, so Sam prepared something really awesome that his family usually did. He had 12 Easter eggs, and in each one along with some jelly beans was an item that represented something about Christ's life. Ex. He had a nail in one, a rock in another (I forgot what scripture went with the rock), a little cotton ball to represent a cloud in another, etc.

It really was wonderful. Probably the best thing about it was the focus on Christ's life and the fact that he was resurrected: we only used a couple of eggs on his crucifixion. I always get so sad and depressed when I focus on how much pain he was in at that time, rather than the fact that he conquered it and WHY he was willing to go through that. I love my husband. :)

Birthday!

So, I didn't write at all for the rest of March or April. My bad!

I had an awesome birthday weekend-we celebrated Thursday-Monday. I loved it :) I took advantage of a lot of free deals I'd signed up for with restaurants and such, and we had some good food and good times. So I'll document!

DAY OF (March 16th)

First: Bowling! I called ahead and found out that FatCats would let me bowl for free on my birthday. Whoopee! So we took advantage of it.

"Cool guys walk away from explosions"

Second: we went to Wendy's. This one we weren't actually going to do, since on the day of my birthday I had class/'lab' which meant I'd cooked a full meal (cooking class, remember) and eaten at 4, but I'm prego so I got hungry again.

Third: Coldstone. I got a free 'like it' (small) size, but a medium was twice as much ice cream and only cost a quarter, so I seized the chance. mmm!

Fourth: After stopping by my parents' place, we went home and I opened my presents from Sammy. So fun! He'd wrapped them in paper bag wrapping paper since that's all we had at the time. :) It was fantastic.

DAY AFTER (March 17th)

Fifth: We went to Tucanos for lunch, because they sent me a free meal card and lunch is like 7 dollars cheaper than dinner for the same thing. Holy yummy! It was incredible-I loved it. I just wish I'd been able to fit more down there! Sam ate a lot more than me, but he stayed full for like a full 30 hours and I was hungry again in 3.

Oh that reminds me, this was hilarious to me: we were around like, 5 other pregnant women where we were seated. Seriously! It was so weird. I just kept laughing more and more when I realized another one was pregnant. What, is that where we congregate now? It was so weird but funny.

2 Days After (March 18th)

Sixth: We went to Red Robin, because

they sent me a free burger certificate in my email. This was perfect, since Sam and I almost always split burgers when we go to Red Robin. :) yay! The only lame thing was our table-they stuck us in this place that looked like they'd just gotten a table in the back and pulled it out since it was so crowded. It was basically where the drink servers are, like behind the scenes. Can you say college students? They knew exactly who we were...a little lame...but it was still good food. So no worries!

Seventh: We didn't have any discounts on this but I think we went to a movie at the dollar theater...I just can't remember which one. Ah well...

5 Days After (March 21st)

Eighth: I got a free ice cream cone at Baskin Robbins. Yay!

Thus ended my birthday madness. OH! Except for with the family: we had the Christensen birthday dinner in early April, because I wanted a combined one with Sarah so she and their family could be there. So we had ice cream cake, and later Sarah and I went shopping with birthday money at Motherhood Maternity and got some cute stuff. :)

Holy crazy weekend

Ok so last week we had some major changes/discoveries.
1st: I received a call on Thursday from Suncrest Apartments. In case you don't know, that's the only place in Provo that does subsidized housing by living in a specific spot. There's another kind but it'll take too long to explain so I'll leave it at that.

I'd basically forgotten all about them! I applied way back last April, right before we moved down to Provo. The people who were managing at the time told us we only 'qualified' for a 1-bedroom, anyway, which I'm not really interested in at this point in time.

BUT! The current manager called, saying we were at the top of the list now and she could actually offer us a 2-bedroom place in about a week. With some questioning we found out if we didn't take it now, we'd go back to the end of the list meaning about another year before the opportunity would arise again.

Yikes!!! So Sam and I talked about it, went in and talked with her about it, saw some apartments and...we decided to move. Insanity! So now we will be moving on March 10th (it got moved back a bit from the original date) into a different apartment, making this our fourth move in 15 months.

Oh. And did I mention it's in my home ward? Yeah. That'll be weird. But worth it I think.

SELLING our contract to the place we're currently at was what Sam was most worried about, and justly so-what a disaster that would be if we ended up having to pay rent at two different places! But it turned out our worries were un-necessary: we took some pictures of our place and listed it on KSL on Friday night, and literally two minutes afterward the calls started coming. We had it sold within two hours, and that was WITH a couple coming to check it out.

I'm so happy about it! I'm really sad to be leaving our place, but other than subsidized housing it's gotta be one of the best deals in Provo (Pretty large 2 bedroom for really cheap and you don't have to pay gas). So I almost feel like we've done them a service. :) How goofy.

Probably the news that some will be most interested to hear though is about the second ultrasound we had last friday! Ahem....

So I was still going back and forth on deciding if I wanted to know what it was or not. I'd always wanted the first one to be a surprise...

...but I couldn't handle the suspense and when I was in that room and had the possibility of knowing, I told her I wanted to find out.

IT'S A GIRL!!!! :D :D:D:D:D

woo hoo!!!! Looks like the Christensen's won on this one! (If you don't know, I had 3 Hatch sisters pregnant all with boys as of December [two have had them now] and 2 Christensen sisters pregnant with girls. So we weren't sure which we'd end up being like, but now we know!)

We're fairly set on a name: Marjorie Beth Hatch. We'll call her Jori. It could change of course, but we both feel good about it for now.
The ultrasound lady (not my regular doctor) even said she was very photogenic: she gave us a nice profile picture, and when the picture was taken to find out what she was, we got one right inbetween the legs. It's like she knew exactly what we were trying to do and wanted to assist. That's my girl. :)
I also just barely started really feeling her move regularly on Friday, actually! I'd been a fair bit concerned about this, but in the ultrasound the tech said it's cause our little girl has to kick through the placenta in order for me to feel it, with where it's positioned. So nothing to be concerned about.
But I've actually been feeling her quite a bit on the right side for the past five days, particularly lower down.

I'm so happy I can't even say it enough. Last week was basically a perfect week. :) Heavenly Father has blessed us a lot-we have a new place to live that should save us a good chunk of money, and were able to find out that as far as they can tell so far, our baby is healthy and without defects. The church is true!!! (It would be even if this weren't the case but come on now. Tender mercies.)
-Ariel Hatch

Cloth diapers and other happy things

So most people probably don't know...we're planning on using cloth diapers. I just have made the decision gradually over the pregnancy, and think it'd be a good idea. Am I a tree hugger? No, not really...they are great for the environment and all, but I'm in it for the moolah. :)

Ever since we got married, I'm always conscious of the things that we will ALWAYS have to spend money on, and very regularly. Gas for the car. Toilet paper. Groceries, particularly staples like milk, cheese, bread, fruit etc. I wish there was a way to cut down on these significantly!!! That's why I've gotten more interested in canning, cars with really good gas mileage, food preservation and even making our own cheese (haven't tried it yet but I'd like to).

I realize that soon, diapers could be added to this list. And I don't want them to!! So I'm going for the other option: spend a lot more money up front, save money in the long run. With the baby looking super cute, I might add. These are my favorites. If you are my friend, and want to buy me something for the baby, buy me a Fuzzibunz one-size diaper. Check 'em out. :)

In other news...my parents have been very very generous with me for a long time, particularly since we've been married. If I haven't said already yet, I will now: when they found out I wasn't having any luck with my job searching, they offered to let me come clean/organize their house for them for 10-15 hours a week, and they'd pay me for it. And they have! It's been great! But particularly this week.

This week, I started a big project with the books. I really like how things are changing/looking, and I hope my parents do too. I get such joy out of organizing/re-organizing things!! I'd forgotten!! I really really love making things more functional/'user friendly.' I may not have any idea how to decorate things well, but if you need me to de-clutter for you I would be only too happy to.

I wonder why this is? I'm not sure, but seriously there is little I can do in a work-way that makes me feel more proud and pleased with myself. I just wish it was a more legitimate career!! Plus maybe I'd be horrible outside of my parents' home: I know what they use regularly already, after all, so have a head start with how to organize things.

But if 'organizing' were a major, I'd be all over that.

Valentines weekend!!!

If I could plan it, Valentine's day would ALWAYS be on a Monday. I had no idea how perfect that would make things. It felt like we were celebrating for four days straight! It was glorious.

THURSDAY: The festivities (for me) started. Work was particularly glorious that day-fewer kids, meaning less crazy and more one-on-one time. Everyone seemed happy the whole time-no fights really, no crying, no hitting etc. And we frosted cookies! What fun!!! I love doing stuff like that with kids-its such a treat. I probably enjoy it as much as they do. :)

FRIDAY: I did laundry during the day, which wasn't the most exciting of activities. But then we doubled with my little bro and his chika for dinner at Red Robin, which was really yummy and fun. I haven't chatted with her in a while, so it was good to see her again. She's such a

sweetheart. Then we went to the nearest Redbox, where I had reserved the movie 'Knight and Day.' We actually bumped into some friends there, too, and it was nice to chat a bit. Then we watched the movie. Sam fell asleep (of course-he always does), but I thought it was a wonderful Friday night.

SATURDAY: Saturday morning I got to see two of my favorite old roommates, Emily Deweese-soon-to-be-Brown, and Sydney Jackson. We had brunch together at Gandolfos. It was so nice to talk and catch up! I only wish I'd insisted on taking a picture with my camera-Emily took pictures with hers, but I look gross in all of them. I didn't think to check very closely though.

Dang it.

Saturday afternoon, Sam and I had another date. :) We were going to go test drive cars, but it was right when the BYU basketball game was about to start, so traffic was terrible. So instead we chose to use up the rest of our second gift card for the weekend (we'd also had one to Red Robin) at Cold Stone. Then we wandered over to ShopKo just to look around, particularly at baby clothes. It was so much fun :) I don't know why but so far, I swear every time Sam and I go to ShopKo I have such a nice time. What a dork.

Saturday night Sam had to work, and took the car. I wasn't feeling so great so re-scheduled plans I'd made with another friend for this upcoming weekend.

MONDAY: The actual day!! I started it out with cleaning everything up really nicely for when Sam got home. He's always happy to come home and discover everything is neat and tidy.

He got home after work at 11, and I

was delighted to receive flowers and chocolates!!! What a great husband I have. :) He knew I wanted flowers this year, and he even got me purple tulips which I really love.

We had a nice lunch together.

Then we went to Bicentennial Park and played Frisbee golf. It was great-other than hailing for a little bit, it really was a great day Monday-it felt very Spring-y. I'm awful at

throwing frisbees so that part wasn't so amazing, but I still had lots of fun with my honey.

After Sam went to class, I got to finish the mystery I'd been reading for the past week. SO good. I really like Mary Higgins Clark-I can follow her much better than Agatha Christie. I loved the dramatic ending to this one (Two Little Girls in Blue).

When Sam got back, he'd gotten a few goodies at the close-by grocery store, and he cooked me dinner. It was so fancy! We ate by candlelight. Ah! Here's two pictures:

After the lovely dinner of elk steak, asparagus, corn, french bread and juice, we made fondue! It was our 'breaking in' of our little fondue pot-we got it for our wedding, but up till now we hadn't used it yet. It really went wonderfully. Here are pictures:

We had pineapple, bananas and of course Strawberries to dip into our yummy chocolate. mmm!!!
Dashing man: This is actually a really really genuine smile. Maybe it looks weird though cause I rarely feel this carefree:Sam says this should be on the fondue box.

I did this one because strawberries in chocolate are supposed to be so sexy. Yowza

We finished off the night with watching the movie "RED", which I had rented from the Redbox at Smith's (with a free code). What a lovely Valentine's Day/weekend! I really can't even say enough how happy I was to get to do all this with my Sam. Lucky for us, it was also like a perfect day with how we interacted-we were just happy to be together, and nothing could rain on our little parade. That's the best-it's so frustrating when something is off and neither knows what. I'm so happy the day was so perfect-I'm really blessed.

Valentine's madness at Smith's! And drug dealing

I wanted to make a post primarily about Valentine's day, but I can't resist before getting to our fun events of the day mentioning the madness that was the Smith's grocery store at 6:10 pm this evening.

Holy tomatoes!

I have NEVER seen a grocery store so crowded. It felt like trying to find parking on campus (BYU or BYU-Idaho really), but worse because not only was every spot taken, people were everywhere. Prancing around busy in their own little lives, cutting off the cars. And the cars cutting off the cars. Including mine, eventually-I was stuck for so long! Oops.

But this was perfectly logical when I went inside, and seriously my whole time in Smith's I could not stop giggling. Out loud. Alone.

It was insanity!

Men were literally everywhere. Right when you first go into the Smith's on Freedom Blvd in Provo, there's this area where normally there are all these bins with discount items. But instead, there was this HUGE square area set up with lady workers in the middle, frantically cutting off and arranging flowers for men of all shapes and sizes. There were pre-made bouquets too, and chocolates and other Valentine's-related merchandise ready to be grabbed.

The further I went into the store, the harder I laughed. Old men! Young men! Polynesian men! Mexican men! Causasian! All there for one purpose: to buy gifts for their Valentines.

It was hilarious. Wish you could have been there. I should have taken pictures! Next year.

So the drug dealing part...

as one of our activities for Valentine's day, Sam and I ended up at a park in Provo with frisbees. We were passing it around right in front of where we'd parked, and first this one guy drives up and parks and then another. It was kind of weird to me-one in particular looked rather scruffy, the other just a normal Joe. But I was curious why they were meeting up at an almost unpopulated park in the middle of the day on a Monday. When it's kind of rainy.

So the scruffier looking guy first went around to the drivers side of the other car, like he was just going to talk to him through the window. We're glancing at them the whole time: we're right in front of them, seriously.

Then that guy goes around to the passenger side instead and opens up the door, like he's going to get in.

Then finally the other guy actually gets out of the car, and they wander off together with cigarettes in their mouths.

Right before they wandered off, the scruffier looking one (who we hadn't heard the whole time) says loudly "I gotta meet here or I'll get in trouble with the Mrs! She gets mad when she smells [cigarette] smoke on me! Gotta come to a park!"

Ok. What? Nuh-uh.

So you can make fun of me if you want, but I seriously doubt they were only there to smoke cigarettes together. I think he just said that cause he knew we were right there listening. And I don't think they would have wandered off together if it weren't for the fact that we were right there, clearly in view of whatever they would have done in the second guy's car or exchanged out of it.

About 15 minutes later they came back, got in their separate cars and took off.

So anyway. I wish I'd gotten their license plate numbers!!! Because the whole thing seemed so sketchy to me. I did call it in an hour later, but they were just mad that I didn't call right away and get the license plate numbers. ARg.

Anyway. Made for a fairly exciting turn of events on Valentine's day, eh?

a few pics

Well hello again!

It's been almost a month now since I last posted, so I thought I should give a brief update of the happenings in our lives in January. With some pictures. :)

1-I used the little crock pot we got at our wedding (over a year ago) for the first time!! I made this thing called...Chicken enchilada...something. Anyway we had it with chips and a "Mexican cheese," and it was pretty good. (I'd say really good but my stomach or the baby was being picky that day and didn't like the enchilada sauce. Lame.)

Evidence:

Second, I started flipping out (unnecessarily) about how much the baby was going to cost, including preparations for the baby. The most immediate seemed to be maternity clothes. Now I used to really love shopping and probably still do, but clothing is so expensive!!! I could buy so many treats with what it costs to buy a dress!

So. I got on ksl.com, and looked in the maternity wear section and low and behold, a petite lady like myself was selling these TEN items for 50 bucks. 50! That's 5 bucks a piece! Steal of a deal. :) I'm rather proud of my find.
Next, Sam had been looking on KSL since August for an entertainment center. Our good friends James and Jenna were nice enough to give us their old TV, but we didn't have anything really to put it on other than this honking...I still am not sure what it is, actually. Table cabinet thing. So Sam had been on KSL for ever, keeping an eye out...and found this!
A really nice, cherry wood entertainment center that our TV would fit in perfectly for...well. Super cheap-I'll keep it at that.


Joy! :)

Those are our main spending stories: besides those, we've been busy enough. Sam's taking 6 credits (that's a half-time student) and working right now, and he also goes snowboarding every chance he gets. These are some pictures of Sundance he took for me, where he has a pass. Beautiful.

I really don't have that much to report, other than I think I may be done with school for a while when the baby comes. Some amazing ladies are able to go to school as well as having babies to take care of, but I'm so tired of it anyway...I think a break will be quite welcome. That might help me figure out what it is I'd like to do career-wise, anyway. But we'll see-I change my mind pretty easily.

I've been working for the Provo School District still, but not as supervisor any longer and have LOVED the change. I still get to watch and play with the kids, but without quite as much stress. I don't feel like the responsibility of discipline lies solely on my shoulders anymore, so that has been really nice.

Still, because that's only 8-9 hours each week my mom has been very generous and has let me come and work for her doing cleaning and organizing in my parents' home. I sure do love to organize, so I was only too happy when she offered.

All of us kids and our spouses also gave my mom the gift for her birthday of some money for photo albums, and our time to help her fill the albums with all the photos that were in boxes. I reminded my mom of this gift in late December, so she went out and bought a ton of albums and I've spent a good deal of time filling those, too. I've filled up 9 1/2 of the ten, with lots more photos still left but it still feels good to have done this much so far.

Changing the subject completely: I got a double-yoker for the first time ever a week ago! So I took a picture so I could prove it:

Look! It's the two that are much smaller and connected than the other. Awesome!! :)

And that picture I took today, evidence of my growing mid-section. I hadn't realized how much it's grown in the past five weeks until I looked at the pictures I took from before-sheesh! I'm kind of dreading stretch marks, but perhaps they're inevitable. Ah well-it's all worth it!

Oh! Duh! I should have said this earlier: February 25th we'll have the second ultrasound, and probably find out if it's a boy or a girl. I say probably because I'm not sure if I want to know or not, but I'm pretty sure I'll break down and have to know when we're actually in that room and my belly's all gelled up.

Oh, and last night I had some old friends over for a 'girls night' while my husband went skiing with a couple buds. (He skiied for the first time Monday, and the second time yesterday and loved it!) I'm so grateful for good friends-they certainly bring light to my life.

That's it for now. Toodles -Ariel Hatch