Sunday, February 12, 2012

Grandma Clean

In my house growing up we had a lot of funny sayings. We would "meow" each other when someone was mad or the parents would threaten to get out "Uncle Richard" the wooden spoon and spank us if we were bad or my dad would "give us a gift" by making us do chores or homework. These things are so special to me now and bring back such fond memories but at the time were like a death sentence. One of the worst things was when my dad would say it was time to clean the house "Grandma clean". If we were given the chance, we would have all run away crying as soon as those words were out. But my parents were too dang quick. Anyway, the saying came around because every time my Grandma Joyce (dad's mom) would come and visit us, we would spend about half of the time cleaning our house with her. She is an amazing woman and loves to work and so on our precious Saturdays, when Grandma was with us, we would clean our rooms, the bathrooms, kitchen, closets, carpets, windows...you name it, we cleaned it. And it wasn't just a "lets pick up this room and vacuum clean" it was a "get on your hands and knees and scrub this floor with a toothbrush clean". Looking back I am so glad for being taught how to clean and clean well but as a kid growing up it was the worst form of punishment.
So the point of this is that Grandma cleaning has struck again only at my very own apartment. Yesterday was the first day I had had off in a very long time. Our house was a disaster and I was full of determination. I spent all day cleaning and scrubbing and dusting and vacuuming and shining and folding and now my house is absolutely BEAUTIFUL. I cannot explain how much better it makes things when there are not piles and piles of laundry to be done and dishes from here to Sunday in the kitchen. As a girl, I swore to myself I would never use the words "Grandma clean" in my house but alas, it cannot be helped. I have turned into my parents. Every day I find myself doing something else that my parents did that I promised myself I would never do. Dang it.
I just think it's funny how much I find myself growing up and doing exactly what my parents did. I am so glad I had such good ones to turn into. And even my new parents are rubbing off on me now. I'm just so lucky to have such good examples to look up to and be like when raising my children.


AND...lucky for my husband, a clean house and kitchen always brings out the baker in me. This morning it was delicious lemon poppy seed muffins topped with slivered almonds and a sweet glaze. Oh so yummy.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Its a Boy!!

So the whole world knows now, but we are proudly growing a little baby boy in this tummy! We couldn't be more excited. Our thoughts and purchases are consumed with celery greens, pale yellow and baby blue. Time is just FLYING by. Every time we go to the store I start to have small panic attacks thinking about all we still need to get and how little time we have to get it. My life has become taken over by this thing they call education. (Who said that was a good idea anyway?) And so time to plan and prepare the nursery is limited. But never fear, things are coming along. We have curtains and an oh so cute little rug and I have my eye on a crib...I just have to force myself to actually buy it. Maybe sometime I will post pictures of the baby room progress.

I am officially 24 weeks but I feel like I look more like 36 weeks. It seems that everyone else that is pregnant around my week barely has a bump and here I am waddling around campus eating everything in sight. Oh well. I am a woman born with hips to bear children so those skinny girls can just be jealous when my baby slides right on out when the time comes. Speaking of child bearing hips...have I told you about the miracle of pregnancy pants? They are absolutely amazing. My fantastic husband dragged me into a maternity store (I HATE spending money by the way) and made me buy some jeans that I can breathe in. (I think he was getting embarrassed by me walking around everywhere with my pants unbuttoned or in nasty sweat pants. Either that or he was tired of my morning tantrums when nothing would fit) But it is seriously the best thing I have ever done. Supportive, comfortable, cute, breathable, stretchy...bliss. Who could ask for anything more?

As far as names for this little tater-tot we are keeping it a secret. We are struggling with agreeing on one and so have made a deal to not tell anyone what we are thinking of until we have the official name. Mostly we just don't want everyone's opinions on what we come up with. This way when we announce the name, people won't be able to make a comment but will have to say it is fantastic because that is what it will be. We'll see how well that works out.

Other than baby all I have time for lately is school and school and more school. The mountain of homework never seems to get smaller and I becoming increasingly stressed out thinking about how I graduate in less than a year and have to actually be ready to be a nurse by the time I'm done. I feel a little behind and like I should be so much more prepared than I actually am at this point. I am in no way ready to be a nurse on my own yet and time is running out. Ever since this semester started these thoughts have been weighing on my mind and majorly cramping my style. Today was particularly bad and I was on the verge of a total meltdown but thankfully, Sky and I had decided to go to the temple. While in there I was able to think and put my life in perspective. There are things that matter in this life and things that really don't (like grades). I am so happy to know that the Lord provides for the little things as long as I take care of the ones that really matter in the long run. I don't need to worry about the things I can't control (like how much homework I have). As long as I do my best to prepare, the Lord will step in and make me able to do the things I need to (like being a good mom, nurse, wife etc). Why do I keep forgetting that? He has come into my life countless times and filled in when I couldn't and I am still getting stressed out about things that don't matter. I am so dumb but thankfully, the Lord still loves me and overlooks that. So moral of the story is I am now at peace with my crazy life. I will do my best and everything will work out no matter what. *relief*

As for Skyler he is working so hard to get ready to apply for the Marine officers program. It is his lifelong dream and he can't be distracted from his goals. He inspires me. Not to mention he is working out like crazy to get in shape and is becoming quite the hunk of burnin' love. He is so good to me too. He takes care of almost all the house chores while I am in our room freaking out about homework or how my pants don't fit. He loves to feel baby kick around and loves even more that my boobs have become small mountains. I am a lucky lady.

So life in the Barger house is good. Can't wait for our little man to be here too.

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Fertile Myrtle...and other things

Well hello again!
I realize that it's been what, almost 6 months since I added anything to this little blog but today I decided I need to push through and just do it. Skyler and I have a lot of exciting things that just need to be told to the cyber world! And blogging about myself sounded much more fun than doing homework...or anything productive. So anyway, lets start with the biggest news...BABY!

Sometime around the beginning of September I found out I was pregnant. After a minor (nope, it was major) freakout about money, school, and life I was jumping with joy. This is what I have wanted my whole life and now I am starting a family!

It was funny how I found out because I really had had no symptoms of pregnancy. I just had been feeling tired but I attributed that to the starting of a new semester. One day I was doing dishes and the smell started making me dizzy and I felt like I had to sit down or I would die. So the next trip to WalMart I bought a test and did the deed. I didn't really think I was pregnant but thought I should check just in case... 4 tests later I am absolutely pregnant. (YAY!)

So for the next 2 months or so mostly I would go to school, sleep, eat, sleep, and then go to bed for the night. Skyler was amazing and basically did everything while I tried to get energy to get dressed that day. love him. So other than the debilitating tiredness...I had it easy.

Since then I have been feeling so great! Energy is back and everything in my house is clean because of my new found obsessive compulsive cleaning habits. I am definitely showing now which I can say because people stare at my stomach all the time. The only problem is they are still too afraid to ask me if I'm pregnant because it half way looks preggo and half way looks like I just have more to love in that region.

The latest development is that I can feel the baby move! Let me tell you, it is the best feeling ever. I had no idea what it would be like but it is great and I feel closer to the baby already. Skyler loves to talk to it and to everyone else about the conception story. Way too much info there dear.

Other than baby our life is great. We are both working; Sky at a home store and I am working at Deseret Book. They are just temporary jobs but help us get through the ending and starting of semesters which are always so dang expensive. Can I just say that graduation could not come sooner? I am DYING. Ok, not really but still.

I have been getting into the spirit of Christmas since about October and was so happy yesterday when I FINALLY got to put up my Christmas stuff. We decided to save money and not get a tree this year. So instead we have a Christmas bush..more like a Christmas weed but it is still pretty. I am lovin the music on the radio and the lights and the snow...ah it is the best time of the year! I am so lucky to have such a good life!

More to come on the baby and Christmas and Barger life later!

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Hiking the Y...or not.

These past few weeks Skyler and I have come to a rude awakening. We are getting really fat. We realized this when we were walking in target dream shopping just looking at things we would want to get for our very far off future house. We were walking down the home decor isle when we came to the mirrors. A 360 degree isle (of torture) where you can see yourself at every angle. We both stopped, stared and then ran out of there as fast as our chubby little bums could take us. So the next day we decided that enough is enough and we NEED to go on a diet or we WILL die. The honeymoon is OVER! (As my wonderful stepmom Cheryl would say) We have been so happy these past seven months in our blissful little married wonderland eating anything and everything in sight without even thinking about exercising. Basically we have become the marshmallow couple. (hmm..thinking of marshmallows is making me want a smoore!...SEE this is exactly what I am talking about!) Anyway, since being married both of us have gained about 20 pounds a piece. Daaang. So we decided that we are going to eat better and be more active.

So in my efforts to not be fat anymore, I decided to go hiking with my friend, Devery, up Y Mountain. I've done this hike before a couple times and it is strenuous, but not really THAT hard and I've always thought it was fun when you do it with friends. It had been maybe a year or 2 since I had last done it so I decided to do it again. This was the WORST idea I have ever had. Someone tell me WHAT was I thinking? I have gained almost 20 pounds in the last seven months and probably could count the times I have gone out to exercise on my fingers. What makes me think that I could just go walk up a mountain without wanting to DIE??? We didn't make it to the top to say the least and this morning I felt like I had been run over by a truck. It was awful. Not to mention embarrassing. So I've decided to start slow for now. I've looked up some good hiking spots online that are rated as "easy". (Anything more than that for now might kill me.) BUT..turns out Utah is great if you are looking for walking or hiking trails! I tried to go to one today with my sister in law but that didn't work out too great either. I think it would have been fine had we actually found the trail. My sense of direction is notorious for helping me get to where I do NOT want to be. After driving for half an hour looking for the trail ( I had even written down directions from mapquest...hello, how could I not find it?) we gave up and decided to try another day. I will have to convince Sky to drive me so that I will actually be able to reach the trail.

So anyway, better luck next time. Devery and I have decided to meet once a week and do some fun exercise thing together and on the days between, we will exercise on our own. So we'll see how this all works out and one day I will again be able to hike the Y (to the top).

Friday, July 8, 2011

Hello, World!

Hello, Everyone...
So I decided to get into this blogging buisness. Everyone and their mom seems to have a blog nowadays and I think that it is time that I be part of this lovely adventure. After taking an hour just to figure out how to get started...I finally have created my BEAUTIFUL (if I do say so myself..) blog page! Yay me. It's the little things in life, ya know.

So, now what to blog about...I hadn't really thought about it yet. Skyler says I should tell the story of "us". And he says he's not a mushy, romantic kind of guy, ha! It's a good idea, but who really wants to hear that story besides your mom and little sister? So how about I start with the basics.

I am Mary. I am enrolled at BYU nursing school and can't wait to be done. It is a six semester program to get my bachelors degree and it feels like an eternity. I have three semesters left and somehow that seems to give me a light at the end of the tunnel..a very dim little thing. I am planning on working as soon as I graduate and can I tell you how excited I am to have a real job? The job I have now is at Vivint alarm system. I work in the call center as a customer support representative. Basically, I get to sit on the phones all day and listen to the most interesting people. Today I had one lady talk to me for half an hour about her knee surgery. Thank you lady, that is just what I wanted to know about. Then there are always the angry people. The ones that start yelling at you before you can even finish saying hello. Oh, yes. I am excited to graduate. After graduation, we have lots of fun plans. First on the list..BABIES!! I can not wait! But unfortunately, I have to. Bummer, man. Skyler will graduate at the same time that I will. Then it is off to law school and the Marines for us. The future is lookin' bright. Right now, Skyler is currently working at Furnish It selling and making furniture. He is basically awesome at it. Can I just say how much I love my Skyler? Especially when he brings home that bacon baby! Our current new obsession is furniture mostly because Sky gets awesome deals at his store...we are all about the new mattresses, beds, couches, you name it and we want it. This job is gonna make us go broke. Good thing we don't have money to buy the stuff in the first place or else we really would have a problem. Other than school and jobs and wanting things we can't have right now (new furniture and babies) Skyler and I are pretty much happy as can be!

So that is us in a nutshell. Our life is pretty great I have to say. So until I find something else to write about besides myself...have a great weekend!