Girls Camp Madness!

Well, I should have taken pictures with food all over my house, or my stuffed fridge and freezer. But I was too busy. But you can imagine, as I start to paint the picture for you!
Girls camp is finally here! I was in charge of the food, which is no small feat!! The worst part about it is that you can't do anything in advance. So, on Saturday I went shopping with the first-year girls. It was INSANE!! We had a total of five completely stuffed grocery carts, and $530 worth of food (which is really quite good, budget-wise). It was two completely full cars worth of food. It covered the floor of my living room. It filled up my fridge (which had only condiments that belonged to me) and my freezer, AND I still had to take about a backseat load to someone else's house to keep refrigerated. It was nutty. Monday I cooked twenty pounds of hamburger and ten pounds of chicken. (my house still smells like beef!) I also made two cookie sheet sized fruit tarts. Why? you ask? Because, I am crazy. I thought fruit tarts would be easy to do. I didn't take into account that the cookie sheets wouldn't fit into the cooler...
Total, I ended up with 7 big rubbermaid bins of non-refrigerated food and 7 coolers. All stuffed as full as their lids would allow!
Needless to say, I am not sad that the event is over. Although I am really bummed that I didn't actually get to go. It was hard watching all those excited girls get into their nice, big, air-conditioned tour bus and not get to go yourself. Oh well. Honestly, I probably need that time to recover and get my house cleaned. Maybe I will just hire a maid...

New News!

Well, I guess we have been pretty busy lately. Here is a quick little rundown:

We bought a car. A Subaru, in stick, which I cannot drive.
Having a baby. Which is still surprising to me!
Working on the business. Hopefully we can get it going this summer.
Workplace drama with Jason's job. We'll know if he gets laid off or not in a few weeks.
I am super stressed about Girls Camp. I am in charge of the food, and Camp is next week. I can't even go grocery shopping until Saturday, so it will be a high-stress weekend. I just can't wait until it's over!! I am thinking I need a bit of a vacation afterward, but we will see if I get one or not.

Honestly, even with all the drama, I feel like things are going really well for us. We have been in to discovering new places lately, and we have gone to oodles of canyons and other places we have heard there might be caves. It's really fun, and is a great time-user.
Sometime I may have Jason take a video of me trying to drive stick. I can do just fine, except for starting out. It makes me feel like I am riding a bucking bronco!! (no pun intended, as one of our other cars is a Bronco...) I am sure I will get it down eventually. In the meantime, I guess it's a weekend only car!

Amanda is... !!

Yes, it is really true!! I am pregnant, and we are really really excited about it! Here is what we know so far:

Due Date: Christmas Eve (I am not too thrilled about having a Christmas baby, and am really hoping I deliver early. Like somewhere between the 11th and the 18th would be great!)

Weeks along: Eleven, currently. I just had my first appointment on Monday, which was super cool! I loved hearing the heartbeat!! 150 BPM, if anyone wants to know!

Sex: We are not planning on finding out. That is the plan, but it is easy to stick to when you don't have a choice. It will be harder when we could know RIGHT THEN!

Other information- Jason is really shooting for multiples, but we won't find that out until the 20 week ultrasound. We were hoping that we would find out yesterday, but they said when they are that small it's impossible to know from the heartbeat if there is more than one baby.

I have been feeling really good. I don't have any morning sickness at all, which is really surprising. I guess you just always expect to get all the bad symptoms! Other than that, I am super tired, and I can't sleep at all. Not on my stomach, not on my back, and I have to wake up about every hour to flip sides. Not so fun. I am also extremely weepy and emotional. We went to see UP last night, and I cried at least six times. It was WAY too sad for me! Although, I haven't cried at a commercial yet, so that is good!

My Mom, Dad, and brothers are all way excited. I got some funny reactions out of them- especially out of Logan. I told him I was pregnant, and he was like: That's cool! I need a girlfriend! And then he said the same thing to my mom when she talked to him about it. I laughed. My mom has become a baby quilting machine. She even has a broken wrist, and she has already embroidered 6 and the partial squares (from the last time she gave me a count which was more than a week ago) and every time I talk to her she tells me about some new cute blanket pattern or fabric she bought. It is really quite funny! And my dad is way excited. He told my mom that he thinks about the baby ALL the time, if he isn't thinking about anything else. He has always talked about being a grandpa, even when I was little. Needless to say, it will be a very spoiled baby, no doubt!
Me at 9.5 weeks. I think I am already showing. I wish I had a good comparison photo, but I lost all that weight, so I didn't have a current one.

Amanda is...

tired of trying to answer questions about the business quickly, so she has decided to so a whole post about it. I know you are all so curious!

So, in order to kindof understand what the business is, you have to understand what Jason does now. The easy explanation is as follows:
When oil and gas companies need to drill wells, make roads, or place pipelines, they have to have someone come and check the paleontology of the area, to make sure they are not destroying anything amazing. That is what Jason does. (Side note: I find it ironic that they also have to watch the bulldozer do its thing. I mean, seriously, do they think they could salvage anything that it turns up anyway?)

So, Jason got the idea to start a business doing basically the same thing, only for environmental requirements. Such as littering, dumping, and if they are growing or planting any non-native species. I am not 100% clear on these specific details. Jason has them well in hand. I just have the general idea. Anyway, he would go out and make sure they are complying with all of the rules.

We are thinking this is a pretty good idea, since "green" things and businesses are really taking off. Especially since oil and gas companies are not really known for their environmentally friendly ways, we think they will be pressured into it sooner rather than later. Another thing that is really working in our favor is the fact that the government is offering incentives to businesses to do environmental compliance, so we can use it to offset our costs. Again, things that Jason is better equipped to explain.

We have been going to the UVU Small Business Development Center, which is free and they do one-on-one training things to get your business going. All of the people who work there have successfully started a business, and they really know what they are talking about. We are getting tons done, although it doesn't really feel like it, because they always give us a bajillion things to do that we can't quite manage in such a short time. But we did apply for our business license, and we are just waiting to get it through the mail. And we registered our name and are getting our website set up. So, it's going really well. We will hopefully have it up and running soon after Jason loses his job for real. And that is the scoop!