Calling all mommies!!

Okay, so I have registered for most everything, I think. I was hoping you could give me some pointers on your "must haves", things you wished you had, etc. Also, breast pump help??? I am clueless and man oh man those things are EXPENSIVE!!!!! I want to make sure that I register for everything I may need because whatever is left on my registry list, I can get for a discount. Thanks in advance for you help!!!

An Ear of Corn

Today I am 24 weeks and apparently this baby is about the size of an ear of corn. Kind of crazy/interesting to think about! Not really much has changed, Deegan is still a good little mover which I love. He has yet to move enough for Eric to feel him. One time a couple weeks ago I thought FOR SURE he was kicking hard enough for Eric to feel but no dice. I was kinda sad but I know soon enough that will happen. Anyone remember about how far along you were when your baby's movements could be felt from outside?

He is the most active in the afternoon and late at night (starting around 9:30-10). Of course I feel him pretty continuously throughout the day but these times seem to be his "busiest". Sometimes it is a little difficult to fall asleep but it just makes me smile! I am trying my best to stay on my sides but I often wake up on my back. Maybe one day my brain will be trained. My hips are sore a lot of morings from sleeping on them so much!

I am still feeling great. My belly is getting bigger (sorry, no pic this week!) and I am already starting to see how before too long it will be pretty impossible to trim and paint my own toenails. Eric is up to the challenge though so we will see how he does. Maybe it will be a good time to start getting pedicures!!

I don't know if this is coincidence, if I am just starting realize it, or if it is from being preggo, but my hair is so dry and lifeless!! I have never had fabulous hair but man oh man. I think at my next hair appointment I will get a little more than a trim and see if that helps. My feet have started swelling a decent amount especially by the end of the day or if I am on them a lot. I am sure they will get worse. I am drinking lots of water and putting my feet up for a while each night. I think I will invest in a step stool to put under my desk at work.

So here we are, 16 weeks to go and overall I am feeling GREAT. Sometimes I think this cannot last or if I have a great pregnancy does that mean a horrible delivery??? I know it doesn't necessarily mean anything but I think if I plan on a horrible delivery, maybe I will be surprised!! :) Thanks for listening to my ramblings. I want to remember these things.

Bucket Truck

The school had a bucket truck there offering rides up to get an overhead view of the campus. We waited until the rodeo was over and then had him climb to the top and me and Marty (Eric's dad) went up for a ride to get some good pics!

Here he is at the top of a 35 foot pole. So we were about 40 feet up in the air. It was pretty cool! I wished we had 2 cameras so Suzy could have taken a pic of us up in the bucket.

No hands! :)

This is Suzy (Eric's mom) being a party pooper. ha ha. Not really, she just didn't feel to good about going up that high. I just thougt this pic was funny.

Now I can say I have gone up in a bucket truck! It was a little bouncy up that high and Marty had to grab me once as the bounce almost knocked me over. ha ha. What a fun day!!!

Scrumptious!

I don't know about you but I always seem to have brown bananas on hand. Probably because I can't stand to eat them once they have ANY brown at all on them. Sometimes I make banana bread or banana bars with cream cheese frosting but those get old. So I was excited to try out this recipe when I came across it.

Banana Brownies


3/4 cup butter (soft)
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 ripe bananas (mashed)
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
chocolate chips (I did about 1/2 of a bag of mini chips)

Mix everything together, put in a 9x13 pan and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Let cool and enjoy! I took mine out right at 25 minutes and they were perfect!!

The pic doesn't do them justice.

They are a little more cakey then brownie-y but oh so good! Lucky for me I still have FOUR more bananas. You do the math. :)

Lineman Rodeo-Part 2!

Here are a few more pics from the rodeo.....

This is Eric loading the dummy for the Pole Top Rescue.

Pole Top Rescue (Not Eric)

This is a pic of one of his team mates changing out a cross arm.

And Eric (in the white) loading up the new cross arm to haul up to him.

Housting (dunno if that is the right word...) it up.

Hanging out with his crew.


Getting instructions on the "Mystery" event. They had to tie all the knots they learned blindfolded.

Getting ready. The 2 guys in the pic are his instructors. Funny guys!

He did it in no time at all!

It was pretty fun to see all they had been learning. Some pretty crazy stuff to learn in only 3 1/2 months! He loved it but is glad to be done!

Because you asked.....

I have been a little hesitant in posting this. I don't really know why. Some times people can be VERY opinionated in what you choose to name your baby. But we are excited about it and love the name so I decided it doesn't really matter if everyone likes it. We know it is a little different and that makes us like it even more. So here it is, and if you don't like it, don't tell me! ha ha.

Our little guy is going to be............

Deegan Eric

Unless something drastic changes, but I don't think it will. We have both liked this name for a long time before we even thought about having a baby. We did have other options, but this one still came out the winner! So there you have it. We can't wait to meet you Deegan!!

23 Weeks and Baseball!!

I have more graduation pics to post but I thought I would give you a break.

Yesterday was 23 weeks for me and baby boy. I am starting to have a love/hate relationship with the belly pics. Maybe they can start to not include my face. ha ha. And for the first time, I feel like this pic makes my belly look HUGE! Maybe it is the style of the shirt or the stripes, I dunno. Does it look like my belly is high? Cuz really it is LOW! At least I think (and so does my bladder).


I actually HATE this pic but out of the 3 shots, believe it or not, this was the best one. Let's blame it on the photographer and not my total lack of being photogenic. Yeah, that sounds good.

Thursday we went to an Ogden Raptors game. It was a lot of fun. Nope, didn't get any pics of me and Eric. I am lame.......

Aren't the mountains pretty?!

The people sitting behind us were season ticket holders and let me tell you, they were into it! They knew all the players and their stats. You would have thought we were a a MLB game. It was funny.

See the temple in the back? Notice all the 0's on the scoreboard? It was 1-0 until the 7th inning I believe. Then we scored 4, they scored four and we managed to hold them off and win by one! we even saw one guy break the bat when he hit the ball. the piece of bat went flying in to the crows and hit someone. ha ha. It really is not funny but they should have been paying attention sitting down that low! It was a fun night for us! And of course we had some yummy hot dogs and delicious garlic fries! We want to go again and also to a Salt Lake Bee's game.

Excited Does NOT Describe It!! :)

Oh boy I am so super freakin excited. It looks SO SO good! thanks for the link Ash!

Lineman Rodeo!--Part 1

August 14th, 2009

I have a TON of pics from this so they will be in 3 different posts........

The Lineman Rodeo is several different events where the different teams compete for the most points. They started in the early 1980's. There is a huge one held in Montana every year and I am pretty sure I can plan on us being there next year. :)

Each team starts with 100 points and points are taken away if events are done over the time limit or incorrectly. The events were, Speed Climb (or Egg Climb), Change Out an 8' Single Crossarm with 2 Pin Insulators, Operate Disconnects and Chang Out a Fuse, Pole Top Rescue and the "Mystery" event.

This post is mainly on the Speed Climb, which is the one Eric participated in.

Here he is with his team, waiting for the rodeo to start.

Tesla Power doing their chant before the rodeo.
"Rain, Snow, Blistering Heat, Tesla Power Can't Be Beat!"

Here is Eric heading up the pole. He had to carry that little bucket in his mouth with an egg in it.

Once he got to the top of the 35 foot pole , he had to hang the bucket up there, and remove the egg and put it in his mouth....

And make it back down with the egg still in tact, and in 30 seconds or less!

Eric made it in 32 seconds and was pretty disappointed. He fumbled with the egg a little bit which cost him a couple seconds. Only one guy made it under the limit. But at least his egg didn't break so he was only deducted 2 points. There were some people sitting behind us saying "Wow, he is fast! Look how little he is!" Ha ha. It was pretty funny. Several of the instructors said the smaller guys are always the best climbers. Makes sense to me!

Stay tuned for more...........

Northwest Lineman College

The wind was blowing So much all day! Hence the lovely hairdo. This is right before graduation!!!

This is where Eric spent a huge chunk of the last 3 1/2 months! It was a very nice campus.


The "Pit". This is where the rodeo took place on Saturday before graduation. Not your typical rodeo. :) There will be a post on this later.


This is the Transmission Lab.

Eric showing us some of his skills.

Free Climbing. (No belt)

He didn't go very high to do this since he is still not super comfortable with it, (thank goodness!!!) but there may be times when he has to do this at the TOP or near the top of a pole to lean out and reach to do maintenance. Ahhh!!! I thought it looked pretty cool.

This is an aerial view of the larger pit where most of his work was done. This pic was taken from a bucket truck. More on that later!

It was really neat to see where he had been and what he had been doing. I got to meet his instructors and some of his buddies, who I know he is going to miss. It was a fun afternoon!

All is Well, All is Well!!

This could turn into a lengthy post BUT it has a happy ending AND pictures. I know what you are thinking, and yes, you are lucky. ha ha.

First off, I FOUND ERIC'S BIRTH CERTIFICATE!!!!!!!! I was so happy and relieved!! The only bad part is that I found it today instead of on Friday. But you know what, it didn't even matter. Let me start at the beginning.........

There is a company in Utah called Mountain States Line Contractors. They do a lot of hiring for Apprentice Lineman which is just what we want for Eric. We started our application for them back in June. You have to start it online, they email you an application number, you enter some basic info online and then you have to mail in your driving record, copy of drivers license, copy of birth certificate, resume, high school transcript (in a SEALED envelope from the school.....) and I think that is it. So we got all the paperwork and mailed it off around the 6th of June or so.

Eric waited a week or so and called to make sure they got everything. They said it takes 3 weeks to process. He waited about 4 weeks called back and they told him it still had not been processed. He called once more, same answer. One of his buddies at school is doing the same thing but on Wednesday last week, he tells Eric he got an interview set up. So Eric calls the office to check on his status and is told they have not received his driving record, copy of driver's license or copy of his birth certificate. What?! And you couldn't tell us this one of the 3 other times we called???

This is where the panic sets in for me. I KNEW I had mailed all of those things and surely going from here to Midvale (it is about 1 3/4 hour away) it did not get lost in the mail. Eric got his driving record and copy of his license again and faxed them over to them immediately. This is when we are told if we get the birth certificate in by Friday we will be good otherwise there is no guarantee. I was at work and was not able to search high and low at home for what I had possibly done with it.

Fast forward to today. We have a PO box and so I only check our mail every other day or so. I went to get it this evening and there is something from Mountain States Line Contractors. Hmmm....what could this be? I open it up and it is a letter saying "We have received all of the necessary paper work and your interview is tentivly set up for August 18th. Please call our office to recieve your scheduled time and to confirm you are still interested." The date on the letter is August 7th. FRIDAY! This can only mean one thing, they found the paperwork I had sent in over 2 months ago and orginaly claimed they did not receive.

I thought about being mad for a half of a second but then realized I was just SO releived they had everything and that Eric had an interview!!!!! Yes, my Friday was full of panic, tears and stress but that was then and now I am so happy, AND Eric still has a birth certificate. (It was immediatly placed in the safe:)

Now, onto something totally different, for those of you still here.
I am 21 weeks!! I kept forgetting to take a pic so before Eric left, I had him take one quick. I am not looking my best but I decided I didn't care. :)

Please tell me you can see a difference from 3 weeks ago? I swear this pic doesn't do my belly justice. I am sure it seems bigger to me.

Notice the lovely iron wall hanging behind me? I bought them while we were building and it has taken me this long to convince Eric to hang them for me. He is not a fan of hanging heavy things on the walls.

What do you think? (Don't mind the unmade bed) I had not totally decided where I wanted them in the bedroom but I came home one day last weekend and Eric had surprised me and hung them up! I was just so happy they were no longer leaning againts the wall that I didn't care. They really are pretty cool!! Thanks babe!!!

And lastly, here is what is going on with me at 21 weeks.......

*NO HEADACHES!!!!!!! I have had ONE, yes ONE in the last 3 weeks or so!
*Last I knew, I have gained about 13 pounds. Hopefully this is not too excessive! But really, I don't care. :)
*My "inny" belly button is slowly (but surely!) disappearing.
* This little guy is still a mover. I am going to be sad and probably paranoid when he slows down.
* Sleep is starting to get slightly uncomfortable.
* Still no cravings or sensitivity to smells. Is this weird?

I think that is about it! Oh yea, and this is Eric's LAST week of school!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bluck!

Remember this book? Well today it needs to be called Brooke and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

I guess it really is not THAT bad. I think my extreme lack of sleep this week is making it worse. But you know, who cares if you don't get home til 10 at night and still need to shower, you HAVE to watch the finale of So You Think You Can Dance. (P.S. I LOVE Jeanine. Yup.)

Anyways, back to the crappy day. Let's see......

First off, its Friday. Fridays at work are SLOW!!!!! Pretty much no one works and those that do are gone by noon. But I GET to stay til 4:30.

Second, (and most importantly) I lost Eric's birth certificate. Yup. Don't know where it is. Normally this might not be a huge problem but seeing how he has to have it faxed in TODAY or else he will not get a certain interview, it sucks. Thanks to the state of Utah, all government offices are closed on Friday so I can't get a copy of it. ANYWHERE. Believe me I tried. I called the hospital, the school district, the school he is currently going to, nothin. So thanks to me, he may not get this interview or else may have to wait a MONTH to try again.

Third, it is the Cache County Fair. Most people like fairs. But when your family is in the "business", you don't usually get to enjoy them. So yesterday, today and tomorrow, you will find us working at the fair. I know it is money, and I am very grateful for it, but working all day at your regular job and then going to the fair til 10 o'clock or so at night, does not make for a happy Brooke.

This really is not meant to be a "poor me" post. I just want to attempt to make myself feel better. If we can just get a copy of his birth certificate, I will be ALMOST all better. I have started crying like 3 times at work about it. ha ha. Don't laugh. It is not funny. :)

Oh yeah, and someone put the leftover smoked, hamburgers from the company BBQ in the fridge UNCOVERED and now EVERYTHING in the fridge and freezer has a lovely "smokey" flavor added to it. Yum! ha ha

There. All better. Well, hopefully.

Giveaway!!!

So I just found about this giveaway for a Tungsten ring! If any of your husbands are like mine, he needs a new wedding ring! Eric lost his a couple years ago and we have not gotten him a new one yet. So go HERE and read how to enter to win! Jenna is such a fun girl with a cute cute little boy. Go check her out and maybe you will win! (But no offense, I really hope I win!:)

2 Fabulous Blogs!!

For those of you who don't know, my dad is a Chiropractor. He has just started a new blog/website with TONS of helpful info on everything from headaches, back aches, Carpel Tunnel, whiplash and tons of other stuff! Check it out! click here!

Also, did you notice my cute new header?! Of course you did! Wish I could take credit but my wonderful sister in law Chelsie did it for me! She can match them to just about any background. She does such cute stuff! She also does cards, announcements (wedding, birth, etc.), invitations and everything! Oh, and did I mention they are a screamin deal? Check her out at CS Cards. (Click on it to go there!)

There you have it! Check them out! Thanks bunches!!

And your hair is what color?

About a week ago my little brother Dylan (he is 14 and really is a smart kid!) asked my mom what an EMP was. She said, "Do you mean EMT?" He said no, EMP. So she got to thinking and gave him a very smart explanation on what an Electromagnetic something or other was. He said okay but still seemed a little confused. It all became very clear as my parents and Dylan were driving shortly after this and passed this sign and Dylan says, "See, EMP!"

Click on the pic if you can't read it but I am sure you can figure it out. ha ha. My parents started laughing at him and told him it was an abbreviation for EMPLOYEE! Poor kid. ha ha. He does have blonde hair!!! I had to snap a pic as I passed a few days later to document this VERY IMPORTANT event. Love you Dylan!!