Simply showing off

My favorite surprise since I've moved here to Boise is that we got a knock on our door with a special delivery. Woo hoo! My cousin, Sylvia, who lives in Boston, had sent us a changing pad to transform yonder dresser into oh-so-convenient changing table. I set it up and got it screwed into place, and then to try it out, I decided to buckle one of my cats into it. I grabbed Toby and strapped him onto the changing table.
He didn't seem to notice.
He stayed there the rest of the afternoon, and now that's one of his favorite spots to hang out-- although he doesn't buckle himself in for some reason.

Toby is really a sleek, adorable cat. It's just that in pictures, all you can see is the angry green eyes glowing out from a black hole. I promise he's not that mean in real life.

And this corner of our house (this dresser with the blank walls and empty space all around it) is the baby's nursery. We still have some work to do, I guess.

I finished this baby quilt a couple days ago. Here's my horrible confession: I made it for a friend who is also having a baby girl shortly after I am. However, once I finished it, I decided to keep it for myself. Mwoo ha ha ha ha! I'm so evil and selfish.

But it's so cute!
Most of it is made of scraps from other projects I've made.

And then if you look at this bottom picture, you can see the way-cute flowers I quilted into the plain section. See, that's why I decided to keep it. I've never made anything cute through actually quilting designs into the fabric, and since I really liked how it turned out, it's mine.

And then today we have company coming to visit us. I should probably get dressed and clean up the house a bit. But that hasn't happened yet. What HAS happened is that Howie kicked over a glass that shattered all over and behind the kitchen table. So I got that all pulled apart and swept up. I decided to vacuum off the dining room chairs, but the vacuum wasn't working so well. So I pulled THAT apart. After cleaning out a couple parts, it still wasn't working so well, so I decided to rinse out the filter.
Boy, was that dumb.
I think I'll just leave the house how it is (dining room scattered throughout the house, vacuum parts scattered throughout living room) and just pretend not to notice when they come.

My apartment

I still haven't taken any pictures, but I'm over it already. Maybe someday I will. Actually, we're having people over tomorrow, so I may clean up the house all the way. If that's the case, I might take some pictures-- as much for your benefit as for the fact that it will never happen again.
So we moved into an apartment in Boise. Three weeks ago, but whatever. From our window, we can see the top of the Boise State Stadium, which, for all you football fans out there, is where the Smurf Turf is. I think there's something going on there right now, because I can kind of hear the announcer every once in a while. I can also hear the yappy little dog downstairs named Isabelle. I think she's a Yorkie, and she's super tiny and cute. But she likes to yap and run out whenever anyone walks by (and of course she lives on the corner apartment right on everyone's way to the parking lot). Then once she's run out, her owners yell at her to get back inside. Um, she's a yappy dog-- that's what she does.
A lot of people here smoke. I guess that's because the apartments are rather cheap (less than $650 a month, and that includes all utilities), and in my experience, poor people smoke more. That's probably both an effect and a cause of their poorness, since cigarettes are so expensive. One thing that's kind of sad, though, is how many people are home during the day. There are a lot of people out of work who I know want to be working.
Our apartment itself is pretty straightforward. There's a large living room, which we've kind of divided into an office area and a sitting area. Then there's a dining area and a tiny kitchen. I was really sad to leave my glorious, spacious kitchen in our last house, and I had to part with several of my awesome kitchen things (that I never used but whatever). I think, though, that I kind of like the closet-style kitchen. When I'm cooking, I hardly have to move anywhere, and I can reach everything! I just reach and grab, and there it is.
Then there's one bedroom. I know it's kind of strange to downsize into a smaller apartment right when we're upgrading our family, but it will do for a year. One end of the bedroom we are able to use for Penny. There's a large closet, 2/3 of which is her stuff already. And then there's a dresser/changing table right by the closet, and there will be a crib at the end of our bed. I also have an old rocking chair that's been in our family forever. I re-covered the seat with some fabric that matches our living room chairs. Unfortunately, there's no room in the living room for it, so it doesn't really match anything right now. Oh well. Again, it's just for a year.
Like any place, this new apartment has some quirks. We have central air-conditioning, meaning there's one giant AC in the center of the complex, and it cools the entire place. Unfortunately, I think that's also the case for the hot water heater. You have to turn the water on for several minutes before it begins to get tepid, luke-warm, and then finally warm. By the time I'm finished soaping and scrubbing, the water is finally comfortable, and it's really hard to want to get out.
This place has a dishwasher, which is awesome. But it's one of those dishwashers that doesn't work so well, which is not awesome. We finally figured out (see above paragraph) that you have to prime the hot water before running the dishwasher if you want it to wash the grease off. And then it likes to leave chunks of gunk on our dishes, which is not my favorite. We're still working on it, and soon we'll get it figured out.
Also, our refrigerator sounds like it has squirrels in it. It doesn't, but it makes some weird chattering noises. Ahh, the joys of a new house.

Community feel

So far I really love Boise. There is so much to do!
This doesn't mean that I didn't get bored to tears yesterday from sitting at home and doing nothing. Just because there's a lot going on doesn't mean it all happens every day. And it turns out that Tuesday was a very boring day for this childless stay-at-home mom.
And some of this "stuff to do" requires a bit more energy than I can summon at 8 months pregnant.
But going back to the fun stuff:
On Saturday, some friends we met (actually the guy Kevin's taking over for as law clerk and his wife and daughter) went to the Farmer's Market. It kind of reminds me of the market you see in You've Got Mail where they stop and buy flowers. There are all these stalls set up, and you just stroll along tasting free samples and (theoretically) buying fresh farm-y things. We actually did buy some cherries, and there are a few more things we may go back for once we have money. At the end of the street of famer stalls, there is a courtyard with a fountain in the middle. The courtyard has stalls of artists selling their artwork (craft-fair style), and the fountain is one of those that you can run through and play in. So that's what the kiddos are doing.
Then tonight was the Live After Five concert in that same courtyard. They have a band come play, and then the kiddos play in the fountain while the whole community mingles or sits and watches. It reminded me of a Gordon's concert, except on a much larger scale. The band tonight was Ryan Shupe and the Rubber Band, which is a Utah-based band that I never heard until I moved to Idaho. Go figure. They're super fun, though. Then we stood in the oppressive heat and watched all the crazy people dancing. That was the best part. Kevin wanted to go dance too, but I was worn out from just standing around so long. Plus, big pregnant lady dancing would fall in the category of "crazy weirdos we saw dancing at the concert" for many people.
My favorite crazy people were the old Asian lady who was dancing very much like the old Chinese ladies do in the park. And there was a man in plaid shorts and a gardening hat with lots of big ol' tattoos (so many people have tattoos here!). Then there was the man in the white dress and sunhat with fringe on his skirt, leg warmers, and bare feet. He was the craziest, I think, and he was fun to watch until his man-sweat drenched the entire front and back of his dress. Then I got to watch the hula-hoop ladies. They were really really into their hula hoops. Very expressive along with the music. And they required a lot of space.
After the concert (we left at intermission, as we hadn't brought chairs or water) I was incredibly warm, so I went swimming. It's nice to have a pool when you're a big pregnant lady and it finally begins to feel like summer.

What to do...

Since coming up to Boise, I've had the unfortunate joy of having a TON of paperwork to do. There was some involving wrapping up our account at our last house (summarizing the yardwork we did on the house, calculating the pro-rated rent amount for the 6 extra days we stayed there, sending everything to our landlord, etc.). That's something I'm terrible about procrastinating but doesn't take too long once I sit down and do it.
Then I had the joy of re-applying to Medicaid. One thing I learned this year teaching (ahem) government is that the state government is in charge of health and welfare. This also means that Medicaid doesn't transfer state to state. So having moved to a new state 7 1/2 months pregnant, this was at the top of the to-do list. And as of today (I think) I have finally finished it. The stupidest part of the whole ordeal (besides that arming myself with all the paperwork and information I'd needed for Utah's application process and finding myself still lacking most of the necessary documents) was that they needed proof of income for the month of June. Well folks, I applied on June 8th. I HADN'T GOTTEN PAID FOR JUNE YET. Well, even after kindly explaining this to them, I still got a letter in the mail saying I was lacking the documentation of my June income. THIS IS BECAUSE IT COMES AT THE END OF THE MONTH! Stupids.
Stupid stupid stupid.
Anyway, I spent a few hours today faxing forms to Kevin's and my old employers, asking the HR departments to fill out these forms I'd been given and fax them to the Idaho Medicaid office. And then there were the oodles of follow-up calls and more follow-up calls to and from various parties.
And I HATE calling people. But today I just sucked it up and did the calls.
And you know what? I think I'm finished.
For now.

Mooooo!

So I know my "next" blog entry is supposed to be about how lovely Boise is and how we're all moved in to our apartment. But I haven't taken any pictures, and that's a picture post. So I'll just briefly write about what we've been up to.
Tonight we went to the dairy parade in Meridian. It was a fun little hometown parade in honor of Meridian's dairy heritage. So before we got there, people had handed out little half-pints of chocolate milk, and in the parade, people threw candy and string cheese! There were coupons for ice cream and frozen yogurt, and general cow-ness amongst all the floats. It was fun.
We went with some new friends, Ammon and Sarah. Kevin is taking over as law clerk for Ammon, and they had us over to dinner earlier this week. That's where we learned about the dairy parade, and we met up with them to watch it. They have a 3-year-old daughter who was super fun to watch the parade with. People throw you more candy when there's a cute little girl standing and waving. Actually, when she's the only little kid for a few feet on either side, all the folks on either side all hand her the candy they pick up. So this little girl is set for quite some time in terms of candy.
Earlier today, there was a court hearing for a case Kevin will be working on, so Kevin and I went to attend it. It's a capital case, meaning the guy is up for the death penalty. It's kind of a gruesome case where the guy killed his wife and tried to kill his kids, and there is a TON of details about it (like almost a thousand pages) that Kevin will have to read and go through. Today's hearing was just basically a technicality about the jury, and I wouldn't have wanted to attend if it were the actual trial.
At the beginning of the hearing today, I was kind of blown away and lost in all the legal jargon and academic language everyone (the lawyers for both sides and the judge) was throwing around. Then as it progressed, I realized that the lawyers and judge were confusing each other too, and by the end, they were speaking more normally and actually communicating. Now I know that I usually fall on the opposite extreme, saying "like" and "you know" more often than I should. And lately, combining that with being pregnant, I can't usually even complete a coherent sentence. I usually get stuck trying to think of a word and just let the sentence hang, nodding and hoping the other person can guess what I meant. But when I'm at my normal state, sounding a bit like a dippy teenager, I think I'm glad that people can at least understand what I'm saying, even if I don't amaze them with my articulation. I'd rather be understood than thought smart. Although both would be nice.
And tomorrow we'll be going to the farmer's market in downtown Boise. We need some fruit anyway, and it will be something fun to go see and do.

New Doctor

So last week I went to the doctor (another new hobby of mine), and since we've now moved, it's a new doctor. Kevin came along, and we both really like this guy.

When we got there, he decided he wanted to see what the baby looked like, so he did an ultrasound. We learned that yes, she is still a girl. That's always good to know. Otherwise he'd be wearing a lot of pink, as we don't have the money to replace everything we have. And I've already washed most of it.

And we got a couple prints of her face. Now I think these 3D ultrasound pictures are kind of bulbous and weird looking (I was going to say creepy, but I guess it's not that bad), but it's still pretty cool that you can see what the baby looks like.

So here's the picture. On the top, it's a picture with her eyes open, and in the bottom picture her eyes are shut. And in both pictures she has chubby little cheeks-- just like Sarah did. Hee hee hee.

Goodbye Provo!

I am really happy to have left Provo in the spring. If I'd waited a few more months, I don't think I would have any pleasant memories-- they would have all been erased by the oppressive heat!
But on Friday we packed up the moving truck (and by "we" I mean Kevin, my parents and Daniel, and a few folks from our ward). I went and bought treats/breakfast for everyone. By the time I got back about 30 or 40 minutes later, the whole truck was packed! It helps that a lot of our furniture (i.e., the nice stuff) actually belonged to our landlord, and so we only had to move our small things.
Then while we (i.e., my family) helped finish up and clean the house, Kevin and I went to buy a mattress set. Dave, my brother-in-law, used to work at this place on State Street called All the Great Rooms (next to the kick-boxing place), and in addition to beautiful, new, expensive furniture, they sell nice used mattresses. We got one that had probably been in someone's spare room, and we got an AWESOME deal on it. Thanks Dave!
Then after a lot of cleaning and finishing up, we finally departed on Saturday.


And above you can see the rose bush I tied onto trellises last year. It reminds me of the part in Alice in Wonderland where they're painting the roses red.
And this one (above) is a picture of our pond. On the right, behind the blue delphiniums, are some hollyhocks, which will be BEAUTIFUL in just a few weeks.
And above is my amazing white rose bush. It's the first year that it bloomed, but holy cow! I can't believe how gorgeous it is! I had tied some branches of it onto the fence, and it continued for another 6 feet or so. But back when the YM and YW came to work on our yard, someone (for some reason-- couldn't they see I had carefully tied it!?! Not still angry/bitter or anything...) cut off the trailing branch. Booooo!!!!
But it is still beautiful. Just not AS beautiful.
And this final picture is how my cats spent most of the drive to Boise. They NEVER cuddle up together, but after about an hour of pitiful, pathetic yowling, they finally both settled into the cat carrier. It must have comforted them to have the other one there, because they were both content the rest of the 6-hour drive. :)