What Happens in Vegas...

Well, we're back from Vegas...sad. It was fun! We left Thursday night and spend the night in St. George and finished our trip on Friday morning. It was sooooo much fun going on a short road trip with Brian since we were able to chat and laugh and just have a good time together. When we got down there we picked up his parents and headed to the M&M store. I've loved M&M's for quite some time now, and it was an M&M paradise really. :) Four stories of everything you'd ever want to buy. Of course I swooned over the baby clothes, but Brian insisted that I buy something that I would use instead since I'm the one who likes M&M's. I got a candy jar instead and it's pretty cute. :) I had to at least take a picture of the cute little onsie I wanted to get.

We got to eat at the Rainforest Cafe, which was super fun. Brian LOVES fish...well, all animals, so he was super excited and it was a fun little place to eat. We always have to go around and look at all the cool fish to appease Brian. Someday we might have a fish tank that he loves....someday.

So, quick recap. We went to Vegas to celebrate Brian's grandma's 90th b-day party. We didn't go to have tons of fun on the strip necessarily. We got to spend a lot of time getting to know the extended family, which was a lot of fun. Brian and I got a couple of extra hours to do whatever we wanted, so we decided to run to the strip to have a little fun. We only had two hours to do it though, so we got there and had to run down the ginormous blocks just to get to the Bellagio. We didn't know we had parked so far away, so my pregnant booty got quite the workout trying to run all that way in the crowds and blazing heat. Ok....it wasn't THAT hot, but I felt like I was getting sunburned the whole way.

My little brother was also in Vegas for a work convention, so he came down to see us for a whopping 15 minutes while we were trying to steal a few hours away. I felt bad that we couldn't spend more time with him, but I'm so glad we at least got to bump into him. He's such a cute little brother! We got to see the fountain show and the conservatory in the Bellagio lobby and we had to skedaddle back to the party and run back to the car.
I've always wanted to see the Bellagio fountains. Unfortunately I wasn't able to see them at night, but they were still SOOO cool! We got there right on time.

These were really cool glass flowers on the ceiling. Crappy picture. Sorry.
Pictures from the lobby conservatory. That little fact thing says that the bee is made from using dried chrysanthemums and sunflowers. So cool!

We love these. :)

Daisies are my favorite flower. "Daisies are the friendliest flower."

This is Grandma Lewis, for whom we came down to see. She's the sweetest 90 year old woman ever and we love her. Happy Birthday, Grandma!

IRS- Gotta Love 'Em

I have to share my wonderful conversation with the IRS that I had today. They're winners.

S0, I filed an amended tax return for 2006 since my wonderful brother is doing accounting, knows what he's doing and was able to get us some extra money back this year. We mailed the return to the IRS in February, so we've just been waiting and waiting. Anyway, so I called the IRS to see if they knew any sort of time frame of when I should receive it. After verifying all of my information and stuff, this is how it went:

Me: I'm trying to find out the status of my amended 2006 return.
IRS lady: Oh, I don't see that we ever received an amened 2006 return.
Me: Uh.....That's a concern! I sent it in early February so you should have received it a long time ago. Can you please find it? (Mind you, we've been NEEDING this return to help pay for our baby, so I was kind of freaking out inside).
IRS lady: No, I'm sorry, we didn't receive it. It's past the tax deadline, so you will not be receiving any refund from 2006.
Me: Well, I sent it in February, so you better find it!
IRS lady: No, we cannot do anything for you. Nothing has been processed for you, so there is currently nothing we can do.
Me: Ok, so there's nothing I can do if your people lost my return and didn't process it on time?
IRS lady: That is correct. You will not receive anything for 2006.
This is where my blood starts to boil and I want to punch her in her big fat IRS face. She could at least be slightly apologetic and/or check some other resources. I work in customer service for goodness sakes and know how to be helpful. She definitely was not.
Me: Well, that's just not going to fly. I had a refund for 'X' amount of money and I really need you to find that refund.
IRS lady: Oh, I see that you have a pending refund for that 'X' amount of money, so it does look like we received it and it's in processing.
Please fire her now...
Me: Uh....ok.....so you did receive it after all and I will receive my refund.
IRS lady: Yes ma'am, it appears so.

Now, I don't hate the IRS like some people do nor don't hate a company because I feel that one person is incompetent. She may not even be incompetent, but come on! Please tell me the correct information before you get me all worked up with the wrong information! Goodness!

Sunday Lovely Sunday

We all need wonderful, lovely Sundays!!! Yesterday was definitely one of them. We had Stake Conference, so we got out of church 2 hours early. :) Brian made me watch cartoons when we got home from church, so we popped popcorn and watched Pokemon (yes, you read that right) and Batman. I have to say that Batman was really good, but Pokemon wasn't anything to write home about. I also made cupcakes because I, of course, crave sweets lately. YUM! After that we went for a bike ride around Provo, which was way fun. Brian made me go up all of these hills. With my crappy bike and my rounding belly....I was tired and sweaty, but it was nice to enjoy the sunshine and get a little sweat in there too. :) We came home and lounged again before going on a walk. I don't get out of the house much since I work inside all day, so it's like I crave sunshine and outside weather whenever I can.

Then.....I caved. We've had this crib matress in the back of our car for over a month now just because we don't have anywhere to put it. Our storage unit/closet was full, we don't have any closets, and I can't stand things leaning against the wall for long periods of time just looking crappy. So, I set up the crib. It was so fun!!! :) I put all the bedding on it since I"m going to have to wash it in 3 months anyway, but I just wanted it to look all cute. I may get sick of it since it's taking up all this space that we could have had for a little longer, but for right now I just like to look at it. I think my favorite part was when I got all finished putting the bedding on it and the teddy bear inside, Brian came in and said, "Oh.....I want a baby right now. Can you please just have a baby?" Haha. Sure honey! I'll just start popping babies out right now. :) It was so cute though because he would come in the room and look at the crib, sigh, and look at me with a sheepish smile and say that he is really really excited now. For some reason I think it's A.D.O.R.A.B.L.E when men get all mushy about having kids.

Here are the pictures that everyone asked me to put up. I think it's cute. :)

Anyway, that was our Sunday. Sorry it's kind of journal entry-ish instead of anything really interesting. :) It was a good day.

VEGAS!!!!!

So, Brian and I get to go on a road trip next week to Vegas! I'm excited! It's not going to be the most fun-filled trip since we're going for Brian's grandma's 90th b-day party, but I am way beyond excited because we get to LEAVE Provo! I need that. I need some hot, dusty air in my hair and 7 hours of talk-to-my-husband time. I can't wait. 5 more days of working and we'll be gone for 2 1/2 (see it's short) glorious days in ugly, dusty, deserty Las Vegas. Wahoo! Thanks Brian's grandma for having a big 90th b-day party so we can leave town. It will be really really nice since Brian will be done turning in his compounds (hopefully), his tests will be done, and his final projects for the semester will be finished, so we can just talk and laugh all the way there!

I will be sad though, because that means that Lindsey will have moved to San Diego already. :( Boo!

Motherly Thoughts

So, I love conference as I'm sure most of you do. I'd have to say that I'm still thinking about Elder Ballard's talk on Mother-Daughter relationships for obvious reasons. I loved it. Ate up every word. So, as I will soon be a mother of a sweet little girl, I kind of wanted to jot down and share some thoughts I had about my wonderful mom.

• First of all, my mom is wonderful! I love her. These are some points that I have been truly grateful for her.
• As Elder Ballard brought up: If mothers are thrifty, so are their daughters; if they are modest, so are their daughters. I love that my mom has taught me so well by her wonderful example.
• My mom is the most wondeful visiting teacher. Unfortunately this is not something that I have yet picked up from my mom since I am horribly inconsistent at visiting teaching. Some of my mom's best friends have come from visiting teaching and she has a great testimony of it. Hopefully someday I'll have as much dedication for it as she does.
• Elder Ballard also brought up teaching sexual purity. My mom told me that if I ever got pregnant, then she would kill me. I'm glad that she set me straight at an early age that I would die if I ever broke the law of chastity. Being alive was obviously important enough that I made it through until I got married. :) I'm also very grateful that she was so open to talking to me about the subject as he directed in conference. I think that is super important.
• SOAPBOX: One of the BIGGEST things that I'm so grateful for is my mom's opinion about weight issues. This has been a big thing for me lately. I know we as women struggle with our body image (I have yet to meet a woman who doesn't) even if it's only slightly. In a world where we are bombarded with how we should look, if we're skinny or not, there seems to always be something that we should alter. If we're skinny, then our boobs aren't big enough. If we're normal size, then our hips are too large. If we're heavier, then we weigh too much. If we're pregnant, we're expanding too much and will never look the same afterwards or we have to get that "aweful" baby weight off. I can't even tell you how sad this makes me. Being a psychology student I've studied eating disorders over and over again and they break my heart. It makes me sad that no matter what phase of life we're in, we're never happy and we always are working to be something that we think is more beautiful instead of feeling beautiful the way we are. Now, I was always one of those, I'm normal size with really big hips girls. I was always complaining about how big my tush was or how wide my hips were. Everytime I would mention anything negative about how I looked my mom would always reassure me that I was beautiful! Every. Single. Time. She wouldn't really leave it at that, she would encourage me to say positive things and make sure that I knew that being a normal size was okay and beautiful. Not everyone can be ultra skinny, nor would we want to be. She encouraged me to be active and healthy (and yes, she would hide the chocolate chips so I wouldn't eat them all…..if we ever did have chocolate chips in the house.) Being a teenager I didn't really "listen" to her at the time since I always complained, but looking back I am so so soooo grateful that my mom never said, "Looks like you're getting pudgy there. Let's go on a diet" or "You need to start running" or "Don't eat those carbs, they're not as good for you. Here's some celery." All my friends that I know who had something like that happen in their lives all have weight issues and it makes me sad. Why can't we eat healthy and exercise just to be healthy? Why does it have to reflect how beautiful we are or have it be a goal of always losing poundage? URG! It makes me upset! Now, call me crazy, but I LOVE being pregnant. I think it is a miracle and who the heck cares what you look like or how much weight you're gaining as long as you're being healthy and happy. Don't get me wrong, I understand the importance of being healthy, but it can easily be taken to extremes. I just don't get it. Maybe some of you can enlighten me, but what is so wrong with women getting bigger when they're pregnant? I, for one, wanted to look pregnant right away because I think people look adorable pregnant. Being happy and excited about being pregnant is such an important thing to me. Anyway, (back to my point) I hope that I can be just as helpful as my mom has been to me. I hope that my little girl can grow up with confidence and feel happy no matter what she looks like. I'm glad that my mom made our home somewhere where I could escape the images portrayed at school, the movies, and other media and be a beautiful daughter of God. Thanks mom!
• I'm also very grateful that my mom and I can listen and learn from one another. She really is my best friend. No other person would be so wonderful as I call her in the middle of the night to make sure my pregnant body is functioning properly and laugh about it. I call her for the dumbest reasons and she always is happy and excited when no one else will be. She is also so level headed and is always teaching me how to be a better person when I call her and vent about something stupid.

As I'm sure all of your mothers are too, but my mom is the best. :)