160 bpm

Today Jason and I went to our first baby doctor's appointment. I didn't really know what to expect. I love my doctor and I'll be sad when we move to Logan and won't be able to see her anymore. But she wanted us to ask questions, anything. We couldn't really think of many, but then she said, "well, you want to listen to your baby's heart beat?" So she placed the doplar "machine" (thing) on my belly and we could only hear my heart beat for the first 3 minutes or so. She kept reassuring us that it sometimes takes a little while before its found, and even if it's not found, it doesn't mean that it's not there or alive or whatever. Well, Jason and I were VERY relieved when she found it and stopped on it for a little minute for us to take it in. I could've listened to that all day! I didn't cry, but how beautiful it is to be able to be a part of something so special! I am so blessed to be an entrusted vessel from our Heavenly Father. He entrusts us with His little ones...We are so blessed!

July 19th!

I guess I neglected that small detail. I'm due July 19th. And yes, I'm announcing it kind of earlier than most people might, but being our first, why not?! I would rather everyone be excited with us than having to wait to tell people...I couldn't even wait four days, let alone 3 months!!! Anyway, y'all are great! Thanks so much for the congratulatory gestures. :)

Two Little Pink Lines!!!

If you haven't heard already from either my mom or Jason's mom, I'm totally PREGO!!!! We are so excited! We found out on the Friday before Thanksgiving (November 20, 2009). I know, I know, I waited that long before putting it on here, but I guess it's better late than never! So here's the story:

We were going to wait to tell our parents on Thanksgiving since we would see both parents during that weekend. But after going out shopping with Julie that same Friday night, it was too much for me to handle waiting more than the three days. So we ended up inviting the parents over for a dinner ("just to catch up", "it's been a long time") or so we told them. We put out little nut cups and put a pacifier in each of the mom's cup, an arrow in the dad's cup pointing to their respective wife's cup. The reaction was so perfect. They looked at Jason and I, then looked at each other and started crying! (The mom's that is :)). Since then I've been less sick than I thought I would be, but more sick than I would like to be... I'm excited for the second trimester so that I can look pregnant and not just feel pregnant!

80's Day!!!

It's Red Ribbon Week (Drug-Free Week/Spirit Week) at Canyon Elementary where I work. Today was 80's Day...it's just so funny how the decade I grew up in is now not only a "new/trendy" fashion statement, it's being used as part of spirit week in schools! I don't know about the rest of you, but I hope to never really relive the true fashion of the 80's! Here's another teacher at my school and I trying to relive our 80's days! (I do have a side ponytail, you just can't see it)...

Moving...Again

On Wednesday (two days ago), the Sherman's called and said that they were coming back about 1 1/2 months earlier than originally planned. So they gave our eviction notice: September 20th! Aaaggh! That wasn't part of the plan...but it will be nice to move into our own place!

That evening I made a few phone calls to different apartment complex offices and individuals, however it was after office hours...Dang! I was in "project mode" and nothing to do about it. I couldn't gain any ground, get any answers, look at any apts, or make any progress...

The next day, yesterday, I arranged 5 showings of apartments that evening. There were two in Orem, two in American Fork, and one in Pleasant Grove. (Why was I looking in AF and PG? I'm actually not quite sure...)

The two in Orem were nasty and gross and definitely not worth what they were asking for. We crossed those off our list

The two in American Fork were about the same in construction (what were they thinking in the 70's?) but one was priced better than the other, so we crossed off one of those. Okay, great, we're making progress! Since we were up in AF we decided to visit the Baddley's for a little bit. We left there around 7:00pm and drove to PG to see the last apt for the evening.

We were in a nicer neighborhood, which was nice for a change. We saw one house on the whole street that had the red brick outside and thought for sure the address on our paper would match the address on the house...It didn't! It was the really nice house next to it, the one with the boat and SUV and stone siding, and built more recent than the 70's!

Right then and there we both looked at each other and pretty much decided that that's where we wanted to live. We looked at the apartment, in their basement, and fell even more in love. It's quite small, only 800 sq. ft., but it's all that we need and in far better condition than any other of the apartments we had been looking at. We knew we had been guided directly to this apartment.

Anyway, I'll be getting pictures soon enough. We're planning on moving out and in as soon as possible, so within 2-3 weeks! Yay! Our own home where we can decorate the way we want and organize the kitchen the way we want! I'm SO excited and humbled by the beautiful blessing we have just been given!

School starts again in 1 1/2 weeks!

Does anybody else think that that's super crazy?!

My New Office!

My old office used to be the dining room table! My laptop, cords leading to the outlet and leading down to the foot pedal cut across the entryway making it difficult for those walking in to avoid everything. Also, I was putting the keyboard on my lap and typing like that, which actually made it more difficult and slowed me down in the long run. So, Jason and I decided to go to IKEA for FHE this week and buy a desk that would last us a while and be beneficial in keeping our house neat and orderly! Julie came over yesterday and helped me put it together while Jason was fulfilling his calling, out with the EQ Presidency. Here's a picture of our setup, so far it's working great! (Now we just need to get Jason one!)

Bear Lake

The Lewis' (Jason's mom's side) had a family reunion at Bear Lake this last weekend. We were able to hang out with 8 (out of 14) siblings and their kids. It was so much fun! We went to the lake Friday and had some great fun with a JetSki and the sun--everyone forgot to put sunscreen on! Right when we got there, though, Jason wasn't feeling that great so we started throwing the football around. And about the 5th catch, I decided to not open my hand all the way and jammed my finger. It wasn't until Jason's dad pointed out the fact that I would now have a more difficult time typing that I realized just that. It's like we're just falling apart! Between Jason's ER visit for his gall bladder and my finger, hopefully we'll stay healthy for the rest of the year! Here's a picture of it now. It looked 10x as bad before...



The next day, Saturday, we stayed while most of the others left. We had fun playing volleyball and just chillin in the great outdoors. That night we built a fire and made s'mores and different variations of them (people were getting creative).

Wishopy.com

We need everyone's help! Please write a comment telling us which logo you like better and why. This is for Jason and his brother's business that they are going to be kicking off this Fall so we would like this post to be an interactive one where you get to help pick the logo for a potentially nationally/internationally known business! Here are the logos. (There are only slight differences between the two, so look closely and far away to get a good look at them.)

Logo 1:

Logo 2:

One week down...

Well, I have completed one week of my new job. And I'm still not entirely sure that we'll make good money off of it, however I have improved over this one week alone, so I guess there's potential for me to go faster. But so far I have typed claims from California, New York, New Hampshire, and Texas. The material that I'm typing isn't that exciting, but it's fun to see my progress even while I'm typing, to notice that I'm not stopping and rewinding the tape as much! So, I guess overall, there is slow, but steady progress. I just wish that I could type as fast as my mom (over 100wpm) already! :)

Minimum Wage at age 26!

So back when Jason and I were engaged I found out about a great opportunity to type on the side and at home via the internet. It didn't pay as much as my mom's transcriptionist job does but since it would be my first transcribing job, I went for it. I've begun now and let's just say I'm probably the slowest transcritpionist ever! The company gave me a manual that is about 50 pages long of formatting issues that may come up, and do. Just like every other job out there, there's a steep learning curve in which you really aren't an assett to the company yet since you don't really know what you're doing, but you still get paid a fair amount per hour, depending on the type of work. However, in my new job, not only am I learning at a great rate, but I'm getting the least amount per hour that I have ever received, even working at Burger King back in 1997! I hope I will get faster and that it will be worth it...if not, I guess we can say we tried! :)

Any tips on getting faster?

Back from traveling...permanently!

Our first month of marriage has been great, but it seems as though we're always planning for our next trip! Our lives calmed down for a bit, just to get busy again! Jason is still in school and in accelerated classes which makes his workload pretty intense. I'm working part-time through Nebo District for the ESY (Extended School Year) program. I work with kids who have severe problems who would regress during the summer if they were not in school and getting the constant feedback and direct attention that they need. So all in all, it's been fun, and in ways difficult. Anybody who has worked with children with autism knows what I mean.

Jason and I spent our one month anniversary in Michigan among wonderful friends and "family". We had the most wonderful open house sponsored by the Sheehan's. Everyone did so much for us without us even asking for half of what we received. Here are some pictures that I took of our trip. Gwen, I think we did pretty good!

Here's what my hair looked like for the open house, which happened Saturday evening. I was worried that it wouldn't work out so well because Stephanie wasn't there to see me through each step, but Gwen helped and made it look 10x better than I would have on my own!

On Monday, we had some time during day while Gwen and Zach were at work so we made our way over to the Holland, Michigan Dutch Village, where we tried on wooden shoes, saw how they used to make them, and tried authentic (pretty disgusting) dutch food.

We also got to see how they make ornate candles. It's an amazing and exact process! It takes someone one whole year to train to do these candles.

After the Dutch Village, we went to Lake Michigan for Jason's first time. We walked out on this pier and were looking over the horizon and all of a sudden a massive wave crashed against the side leaving us soaked! This picture was taken after that happened--notice Jason's shorts, do they seem a little wet to you?

Monday evening Jason and I went to the Pandl's house for some in-land surfing and dinner afterwards. The dinner was great! But we didn't fully catch on to the whole surfing thing...(although Jason did get up for a second. Good job babe!)

We had an absolute blast! Thank you to everyone who helped in big and small ways! And thank you to Gwen and Zach for letting us crash at their place every night! We love you and hope to be able to see you again soon!

Michigan, here we come!

Jason and I are going to be leaving for Michigan Friday morning to see all of our wonderful friends at an open house held in our honor at the Sheehan home in the great city of Caledonia! I am so incredibly excited to see how my old stomping grounds have changed, if at all. It's so fun being married and going back to Michigan, since almost all my friends are married, now I won't feel so much like the 3rd wheel. And it'll be really fun to show Jason where I grew up and have him meet all those who influenced my life while in Michigan. I'm taking my camera so that'll be the first step in taking pics...we'll see just how many we remember to take. Gwen, you and I need to remember to take lots of pics! :)

More pics are coming, I promise!

Hey everyone! I know that everyone what's to see more pics, I'm working on a powerpoint that condenses everything so you don't have to go through each one...However, if some of you are too impatient :) to wait for that then you may go online to heatherclarkphotography.com. Go to "HTML site". Click on "Client Proofs". My password is "naomistewart" (all one word, no spaces or caps). Pick whichever ones you would like to view! I hope you all enjoy! And Gwen, we're going to be bringing a video to view during the open house at your mom's, so you'll be able to view some footage there as well. :) I love you guys! Thank you so much for being so dang excited for us. We're so happy being together finally and can't imagine our lives without each other!

Aren't we cute?!

As you can see from my other blog, the preparations for our wedding day were so much fun. I absolutely love our families. Each person helped us so much in so many different ways. And now that it's done and we're back from our honeymoon, reality hits! Jason is back in school and I'm home creating and updating this blog for all to see! :) Since I will have more time on my hands than before, hopefully this blog won't suffer nearly as much as my other one. I'm planning on starting a couple of different projects this summer that will keep me active and busy, two things I love being! So be sure to frequent our blog so you can keep up on what we'll be doing next!