Earrings Galore!

Last Saturday, before the Relief Society General Broadcast, our stake had a get-together where the women displayed their talents and had dinner. I guess my jewelry making skills are making the rounds, because they called me up to see if I would demonstrate at a table. I agreed, and had a great time! I decided to only bring pearls and crystals and make earrings, since there was no way I could have brought enough stuff to do more. And- seriously- it was insane how much stuff I had to bring anyways! They gave me one of the banquet tables, and it was totally full of drawers of chain, findings, beads, other jewelry I brought to display (but a very small area. I brought a ton, but had no space to display it all...) and tools. It was crazy! Everyone seemed to really like the jewelry, and I really enjoyed seeing what jewelry caught people's attention. The one that got the most was one Julie helped me design- chain and blue and brown lampwork beads. (Julie- I wonder if you remember it?)
Anyway- here are the earrings I designed while I was at the thingie. I thought I would get more done, but I felt rude making jewelry while people were talking to me, so you only have like seven. I enjoyed the challenge of using pearls in different ways, and I hope you will enjoy them too!

This is the first pair I did, and it is simple, but cute. Or at least I think so! I liked the bright yellow, and thought they hung well on the square jump rings.

This pair made me step out of the box. I don't usually like using colored wire as well as silver, but I thought it made these barbie pink pearls less girly and a little more party-ish. The pearls really are Barbie pink. It's hard to tell because of the flash.

This shade of green really reminded me of a Granny Smith apple, so I decided to make wire leaves for them. As a side note- most of these earrings are very short, which is not at all the norm for me. Most are less than an inch long- including the fishwire!

These earrings are actually a very vivid purple weird shaped pearl, with sky blue pearls as spacers. Nothing fancy- but the purple really is incredible.

These earrings are the longest I made, and I liked the idea of repeating the circles. I tried to find perfectly round pearls, but I guess real pearls just don't come in shapes like that. So this is the best I got. I have worn them a few times since then.

This pair kept trying to get designed while I was working on the other cream colored set. I ended up making one earring for each set, and then the other one. I love the simple elegance of the gold and pearl combination.

This last pair is my favorite, and got a few comments- mostly because everyone was so surprised that those are pearls! I love the color, and I love stick pearls. And I love that they are asymmetrical. I am just drawn to that. One of the ladies said they have a very southwestern feel to them, and I agree- to a point. They look more Indian to me (India, not Native American.) But the stick pearls do kindof remind me of chiles.

My Twilight Playlist, as requested!

So, for those of you who don't know me, I am a little obsessed with Twilight. In a healthy kind of way- I don't have cardboard characters or posters, so it can't be too bad, right? Anyway, my cousin Maegan asked me for my Twilight Playlist. It is freakishly long, and has some of Stephenie Meyer's songs as well as some I found on my own. It is in chronological order, and I have tried to split it into books, although some of the end songs can go on either book. Breaking Dawn is the shortest, as I haven't had as much time to find songs for that one. Plus, the themes in Breaking Dawn are harder to find songs about than the other books. Enjoy! PS- I put stars next to the ones that I think were practically written for the books and are amazing songs too!

TWILIGHT

Why Does It Always Rain On Me?- Travis
Sunburn- Muse
I Don't Know- The Mitch Hansen Band
I'm Not Okay- My Chemical Romance
By Myself- Linkin Park
Wait- Something Corporate
In My Place- Coldplay
As You Sleep- Something Corporate
Here With Me- Dido
Number 3- The Mitch Hansen Band
Please Forgive Me- David Gray
With You- Linkin Park
Vulnerable- Secondhand Serenade
MakeDamnSure- Taking Back Sunday**
Tremble for My Beloved- Collective Soul
Prelude 12/21- AFI
Lullabye- The Mitch Hansen Band
The River Flows Through You (Classical)
Awake- Secondhand Serenade
Stolen- Dashboard Confessional
Run- Snow Patrol
Twilight Hour- The Mitch Hansen Band

NEW MOON

She is Brighter- The Mitch Hansen Band
She Paints Me Blue- Something Corporate
Papercut- Linkin Park
Drag- Placebo
I'd Hate to be You When People Find Out What This Song is About- Mayday Parade**
Apocalypse Please- Muse
Tautou- Brand New
Keep Breathing- Ingrid Michaelson
Time Stands Still- All-American Rejects
The World has Turned and Left Me Here- Weezer
Pain- Jimmy Eat World
Over My Head- The Fray
Best I Ever Had- Vertical Horizon
Addicted- Kelly Clarkson
My Immortal- Evanescence
Breath- Breaking Benjamin
Unwell- Matchbox 20
Like A Stone- Audioslave
Be My Escape (acoustic)- Relient K**
Ride- The Vines
Crash and Burn- Savage Garden
Fix You- Coldplay
She Will Be Loved- Maroon 5
Near to You- A Fine Frenzy**
Never Let You Down- Verve Pipe
Animal I Have Become- Three Days Grace**
Going Under- Evanescence
Everything You Want- Vertical Horizon
Run to Me- Clay Aiken
Time is Running Out- Muse
Change Your Mind- The All-American Rejects
Unintended- Muse
Stab My Back- The All-American Rejects
Sing For Absolution- Muse
DOA- Foo Fighters
Ya Mamma- Fatboy Slim
By You- The Mitch Hansen Band
The Scientist- Coldplay
Stay With Me- The Mitch Hansen Band
The Truth About Heaven- Armor for Sleep
A World Without You- The Mitch Hansen Band
Sound of Pulling Heaven Down- Blue October

ECLIPSE

Someday You Will Be Loved- Death Cab for Cutie
Sun's Lament- The Mitch Hansen Band
Mexican Standoff- Elbow**
Hamburg Song- Keane
Starlight- Muse
Overweight- Blue October
Newborn- Muse
Love Me Like You- The Magic Numbers
Hysteria- Muse
Uninvited- Alanis Morissette
Infra-Red- Placebo
The Boy Who Blocked His Own Shot- Brand New
Thorns- The Mitch Hansen Band
Luv- Travis
This is How I Disappear- My Chemical Romance
Sleep- My Chemical Romance
Worst to December- Sugarcult
Mr. Brightside- The Killers
Jacob Black- The Mitch Hansen Band
The Last Thing- The Mitch Hansen Band
Vindicated- Dashboard Confessional
Blackout- Muse
The Third Wife- The Mitch Hansen Band
Shine On- JET
Miserable At Best- Mayday Parade**
You Be The Anchor That Keeps My Feet On The Ground (etc)- Mayday Parade**
Falling Away With You- Muse
Accident and Emergency- Patrick Wolf
The Well and the Lighthouse- Arcade Fire
Sign Off- Sugarcult**

BREAKING DAWN

Wouldn't It Be Nice- Beach Boys
Your Guardian Angel- The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
Congratulations- Blue October**
Take Me Away- Plain White Ts**
Dark Blue- Jack's Mannequin
Hemorrhage- Fuel
Twisted Transistor- Korn
Wolf Like Me- TV on the Radio
The Sharpest Lives- My Chemical Romance
Today- The Smashing Pumpkins
I'm Too Sexy- Right Said Fred
Pts. Of Athrty- Linkin Park
Take a Bow- Muse
Assassin- Muse
I Will Follow You Into the Dark- Death Cab for Cutie
Half Alive- Secondhand Serenade
Invincible- OK Go
No Cars Go- Arcade Fire

Bob Loblaw's law blog lobs law bomb?

So... You know how sometimes you have something that you want to blog about, because it is on your mind all the time, but then you don't have time to do it? And then all of a sudden it's been over a week, and you realize that you don't really care about documenting that particular thing anymore? Consider it done. But since I don't want nasty comments about how dare I keep you all in suspense, I will give it a much shortened time slot.

About two weeks ago, our bathtub faucet started leaking. I mean really leaking. It was driving me nuts! You could hear it all over the house (even with the TV on) AND it was hot water, so it was like living in a sauna. Ugh. I seriously thought I was losing my sanity. (As a side note that I find somewhat humorous, I took a video of it to show you all how annoying it was, and turned my camera sideways so it would fill the screen better. I guess I forgot that you can't rotate a video!) Anyway, our landlord came to fix it the next day (Thank Heavens!) but had to cut a hole in the wall and it turned into this massive two week project. Mainly because he would come over for a few minutes every day, but still! It was annoying. Now it is fixed, but way too difficult to turn the water on or off. Joy.

Anyway... I spent yesterday doing lots of cooking, and remembered how much I love it! I am ashamed to admit that I have not been doing much (okay, really any) cooking since I got preggers, since I am just tired and unmotivated. I have been living off of cereal, produce, and peanut butter. Jason had been bugging me to try my hand at making panna cotta, which is a delicious dessert that's a cross between jello and creme brulee. So I decided to do me some cooking. I made panna cotta (which was surprisingly easy) as well as bread, since I had been craving some ollies. Those who don't know what ollies are- shame on you! They are like homemade lean pockets, but eight million times better. Hard to describe. The panna cotta was good, but a little too gelatinous for me, so I will be tweaking it before I post it on the Sautee blog.
But the bread!! Mmmmm, I had forgotten how delicious it feels to have your hands in warm bread dough and feel the flour in it. It's the best kind of therapy, and it tastes delicious too! I have decided I need to mend my errant ways and show my kitchen love again. If I start now, I may just have enough energy to do some meals before I have the baby, right? Haha!

On another side note, I finished reading Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, and all I can say is "Ahhhh!!! When is the next book coming out?!??@??!?" It's an awesome book, and I don't think I will be able to bear the suspense! What's going to happen! AHHHH!!

PS- Bonus Points to those who get my blog title allusion!

The Belly is Growing!

So, I am now 22.5 weeks, and thought I needed to post some more belly photos. I am getting so big!! I don't feel so big, until I see the photos, and then I am really surprised!
The baby is kicking me all the time. It's really kindof annoying, honestly. Sometimes it's really cool, but usually it is just weird and keeps me awake and uncomfortable. I can't imagine it will get much better in the time to come, though!!

This one is one that Jason wanted, so he could have a cool picture to put on his facebook. I have to say, it does make my legs look really thin!

Ultrasound Pictures!

So, I had my 20 week ultrasound today! It was incredibly cool! I will admit, I woke up in the middle of the night, and I was just sure the baby had a major problem. Namely, I was thinking that since Jason and I wanted a surprise, we would have a hermaphroditic baby, and they wouldn't tell us about it. Not the kind of surprise we were thinking! Luckily, everything is going well. Good on all counts, which is a relief. No twins though. I think Jason is pretty disappointed. Oh well.
The baby was moving around like nuts. The tech was laughing about it, because she'd be looking at it and it would just start to flail around. A couple of times when she took a screenshot to measure things, an arm or leg would end up in the shot and she had to try again. I figure we are in for a workout come December!
This is the profile of the head. The head on the left. This shot took us a long time, partially because the baby was breech, but also because it moved around a lot, and seemed to like facing the wand.
This is also the head. Head on the left. We can't figure out if it's another profile, that's just not as good, or if it's a face shot. Harder to tell on the computer, but in the actual printout, it looks like there might be eyes, a nose and a mouth. Or it could be grey blobs. Not like I am good at reading these things!!
This is a good shot of a leg. You can also see where the feet are almost touching. No, you can't tell the gender from that angle. You will just have to wait in suspense! You can also see where the cord comes in, just to the right of the knee and thigh.
This is Jason's favorite shot. This is a disembodied arm and leg. The arm to the left and the leg to the right. He thinks it looks like the MotherBrain from Metroid...
I can see the similarities. Sadly. Luckily, our baby will not be made out of brain. Right?

Wyoming and Other Activities

I recently got back from a trip to Wyoming, which was somewhat crazy, but somehow fun. I got to see my cousin Mariah. Not for very long, but I hadn't seen her since before I was engaged. So, it's been a while. She is married and has an adorable little girl! Jason and I slept in my Grandfather Cook's sheep wagon, which is super cool, in every sense of the word! I should have taken some pictures of it, but I didn't get around to it. Maybe I'll dig some up in the not-too-distant future.

On the way home, we decided to take it a little slow and go through Yellowstone National Park and make it a two short days trip, instead of a one long day trip. Here are some cool photos.
This is a warning illustration depicting why you should stay on the wooden trails near the thermal areas. We thought the kids expression was pretty good!
This is called "Dragon's Breath" and was super cool! You could hear water bubbling around in that cave. The whole thing was boiling. It was really neat.
This is a not-so-attractive picture of me outside the "Mud Volcano." It's really gray water/mud and it was also cool.
I can't remember exactly what this is called. Sulfur Springs, maybe? Also cool. Very blue, no?
This buffalo caused the most excitement/frustration of the trip through Yellowstone. It was just off the side of the road when we first saw it. The whole road was blocked off with everyone stopping and getting out of their cars (all of which is stupid) to take pictures. We saw it charge a few people, but no one got hurt. Then the buffalo decided to take a leisurely stroll down the middle of the road. The worst part about that was the RV in the front, although they had been there when the buffalo charged would not pass it, even when it was on the other side. It just stopped and stared. Very annoying. But cool. Jason was pumped to see it charge. Random Fact: Buffalo make the most injuries and deaths of anything else in the park.

Once we got out of the park, we decided to stop at Bear World, just outside of Rexburg. We were disappointed that we only saw a few buffalo in Yellowstone, and Jason really wanted to see a bear. It was expensive ($16.50 each) but soooooo cool! We loved it!
This is a black bear. Note, most of the photos aren't so great because you're not allowed to roll down your windows. Most of the bears were really close!
This is a pair of Grizzlies. They were really cool looking up close. Definitely not as cute as the Black bears. Much more menacing.
This is a white wolf. We almost didn't see it. The bottom left corner is part of the road. It was SO CLOSE!
This is another wolf, taking a snooze.
Right by the end of the park there were probably about eight bears. These two were hanging out in the middle of the road. It was neat!
This is us driving by the two in the middle of the road. It looks like they are farther than they were. Our mirror ruffled the left one's fur.
This is in their petting zoo. This fawn was only a month old. It was surprisingly soft!
Me with an older fawn. I am just not as photogenic as Jason...
Here's Jason with the older fawn. It's actually licking his fingers. I got it to lick mine too, which was pretty wild. Felt like a velvety dog-ish kind of tongue.
This was my favorite entry in the petting zoo. We almost didn't see this pig. It was sleeping, and everytime you touched it, it would let out a soft grunting noise. Too cool! Plus, it had bristles for hair, that were spaced out quite a bit. It's ears were really leathery too.

We stayed in Idaho Springs and got a nice hotel room. It had a second floor that was just an ENORMOUS tub! Seriously, I am sure we could have fit at least six people in it. We decided that since our five year anniversary is coming up on the 24th, and we have nothing planned, we might as well do the nice hotel thing a little early. We'll probably do dinner or something on our anniversary (or more likely near it) but at least this was something bigger.

And, for the end of a too-long post, I though I would post some belly photos. I am 20 weeks tomorrow, which is all coming a little quickly for me. I can feel the baby move now, in a weird round-a-bout way. I can't feel it if I am looking for it, but I can always tell where the baby is, so I must be feeling it somehow.

My ultrasound is next Monday, so you can all look forward to photos from that! And, in case you are wondering, Yes- we are still planning the surprise! I am getting too much enjoyment out of guessing to give it up.

When did blogging become a chore?

So, I don't know when it happened. I used to be always planning blog posts in my head and getting super excited about them. Now, I don't even think about it. Ever. And I keep telling myself: Geez, you should post at least once a week! But no, I can't even manage that. It's sad. So sad. But, to be fair, I have had a cold for the last week, so I haven't been up for anything at all.

Here's the news:
Preston got accepted into BYU, so he will be living here in Provo in January!! I am really excited to have him nearby!

I am now at 16 weeks. I have my ultrasound on August 10th, so I am really REALLY looking forward to that. Still haven't had any morning sickness. I don't think it will be showing up at all now, guys. Sorry that I got the good genes! (Well, okay, I'm not really sorry. But I am sorry for all of you!!) Sleeping is going better. Well, except for the fact that...

Our air conditioning isn't on. It's miserable!!! It's got to be at least 80 in here all the time, and all of our windows are stuck shut. Plus the heater was on until June, which doesn't help things much. I keep asking Jason to talk to the landlord about it, but he's hardly home, so I don't think he thinks about it much. I have been roasting, though. Ugh. I hate being hot.

I am a mostly-widow for July and part of August. July is a very busy month for scouts, so Jason has his hands full. He works Mon-Tues and then has scouting stuff Wed, Thurs, Fri, and Saturday. I get to see him on Sunday. And this week he had to leave for work on Sunday. Yuck. At least he is having fun on the campouts and canoe trips and hikes. He'd better be, anyway!