Jayne is Four!

Last Friday was Jayne's 4th birthday.  We spent Thursday celebrating because Nate had to work all day Friday.  At Jayne's request, we played at the park, had lunch at McDonald's and then had a movie and pizza night at home along with cake and presents.  Jayne received lots of phone calls from family and birthday cards and packages in the mail. 
A few fun things about our Jayne....

• She loves to wear dresses and skirts and put on fashion shows
• Jayne loves to sing!  Right now she really likes to belt out Beyonce's song "Single Ladies" while we're driving in the van.  I need to videotape it one of these days.  
• Jayne loves preschool and is always so excited to go every day
• She "reads" to me every day and likes to play school.  
• She recently developed her first crush on an 11 year old boy named Connor who is in our ward.  He helped all the kids with their lines for the primary program and she hasn't stopped talking about him for the last two weeks.
• Jayne is a great helper around the house.  She loves to do the dusting and help me clean the bathrooms.    

                    Jayne is such a spunky and happy girl!  Our family wouldn't be complete without her.

Happy Birthday Jayne!

37 is almost 40, isn't it?

Today marks the end of our 37th week of pregnancy.  It's also the beginning of the longest part of pregnancy.  While, in reality, we're so close to the end, this is the time when actually giving birth seems farthest away.
 Everyone you meet asks you when you are due and makes comments about the size of your belly and how you're obviously "ready".  You start to see the doctor once a week whereupon they check your cervix and give you the good news that you've started to dilate and labor could be "just around the corner".  From experience, I know this to be total bull.  How much I've dilated really means diddly squat at this point.  With Jayne I was at 3cm for 3 weeks.  I tried all of the little tips and tricks for starting labor because my doctor kept telling me that I was right on the brink.  All I needed was that little extra push.  Three weeks later, she still came via induction. Who knows when my body would have gone into labor on it's own.
 I think doctors should really be forbidden from telling a very pregnant woman that it could be  any day now.  For all they know, it could be weeks.  I'm finding that these weekly doctor appointments are little more than an annoyance and that the lovely cervix check just makes me feel like crap the rest of the day.
This being my fourth pregnancy, I've noticed that each pregnancy brings with it one new symptom that I never had with the previous pregnancies.  With Lilly, it was near-crippling sciatica.  With Jayne it was heartburn spawned from the fires of Hades.  With this pregnancy, it is pregnancy induced carpal tunnel.  I didn't even know this symptom existed.  It reared it's ugly head with a vengeance over the last couple of months.  My hands are numb and tingling most of the time and usually reach the painful, can't-grip-anything-if-my-life-depended-on-it stage during the night.  Combine that with at least hourly trips to the bathroom and sleep has become a thing of the past.
Wow.  This post has really turned into a pregnant lady vent fest, hasn't it? Oh well.  Pregnancy is no picnic and I for one and so very ready to hop off the train.  

Excited About Extension

For my senior capstone project this past summer I worked with the Utah State University Cooperative Extension Program in Salt Lake County.  Extension is a program that has been around for over 100 years and works to extend the university to communities throughout the state.  USU has an extension office in every county in the state of Utah.  The program offers educational classes and activities for little or no cost to the communities it serves.  The goal of these programs is to help enrich and improve the quality of life for individuals, families, and communities.  Some of the projects I was able to help with over the summer included:

• A Money Camp for an elementary school in a low income area.  We taught the kids about earning, spending, saving, and borrowing.  Then they got to participate in a marketplace where they were given a career and an income and had to go to different stations and purchase necessities as well as entertainment and recreation while staying within their own income. 
• Aging Services Fair---Getting the word out to seniors about services and classes offered by Extension
• Babysitting Day Camp---A three day camp for youth that taught babysitting skills such as child nutrition, child development, safety and first aid, infant care, and games and activities to use with children when babysitting.  All of the kids got to make their own babysitter kit to take home with them. 
• Conflict Resolution for Couples Class---This was the class that I designed and taught in my own community.  It focuses on helping couples recognize that conflict within a relationship is perfectly normal and learn how to manage and resolve conflict in a healthy way.  

Extension also does nutrition and cooking classes, gardening classes, sewing classes, and much more.  
I was very impressed with the Extension program and loved working with them.  Before this past summer, I really had no idea that this program was out there.
Last week I contacted the head of the USU Extension program here in St. George to see if I could get involved in the program here.  As you probably know, I'm not in the market for a full time job, but I was hoping I could help them out on a sort of flexible, part time, volunteer basis.  
Yesterday I met with Carolyn, head of the program here, and she said she'd be thrilled to have me teach a marriage enrichment class once a month and help plan and teach a workshop at their marriage celebration day that they are holding in February.  She had contacted my supervisor up at the SLC Extension and apparently she had nothing but great things to say about me and the work I did with them this summer  (Phew! I confess I always worry about what others think of my work). 
The marriage class is held every Monday night and dinner and childcare are provided free of cost.  There are a few different people who take turns teaching the class, and I'm going to be put into the rotation.  I don't teach my first class until January.  Carolyn is having surgery on both of her knees around the first of November and so she's cleared the program's calendar from now until January.  How perfect is that?!  With our baby due in the next month or so, I'll have a couple of months to heal and adjust and then dig right in.  Plus I can just develop my curriculum from home and attend a meeting once in a while.  I will be compensated for the nights I teach, but not much, which is fine with me because I'm more interested in simply being involved and keeping my skills up to date. 
Anyway, sorry for the extra long post, but I'm really excited about how this is all working out.