YUKON!!!

Well folks, I am in the YUKON! I can't believe that I am actually only a few short hours away from Alaska. If Andrew had his PR card and passport then we could go...but we can't :( I might just get him to drive me to the border so I can go across but that might be a pricey trip seeing as gas is $1.36 here! WAHH?? it was $1.12 when I left Lethbridge. Anyways, monday I got all packed up and ready to go. I cleaned the house and made sure to take out the garbage, packed my scrapbooking stuff, a couple books, some tv shows and my warm clothes. I knew I was going to miss Brock really bad so we had a sleepover on Monday night and I took him to school on Tuesday morning....let me just say...if Scarlette is my only girl I will be completely happy. It took me 15 minutes to feed, dress, brush teeth, do hair and pack up Brock to take to school. BOYS ARE THE BEST! So I took Brock to school and my Grandma and Grandpa picked me up at 10:30. Can I just say I have the best grandma and grandpa EVER. Honestly, they would do anything for me, they would drop whatever they are doing to help me out and I love them for it! We got to Calgary and picked up my Aunt Sheryl and then headed to Chinook mall for lunch. We did a couple errands and then my grandpa dropped my grandma and I off at the airport at around 3ish. My grandma REFUSED to let me carry my luggage through the airport even though it has wheels (haha) so she took me to baggage drop off and then we said our goodbyes. I got to my terminal and read my book while waiting to board. Can I just say I always get nervous before flying!! My first flight took my to Vancouver and then my next flight flew me all the way up to Whitehorse. The flights were alright but I doubt I will ever want to fly again pregnant. Even though it was a pressurized plane, I definitely felt a lot of pressure on my belly and it got very hard for some reason. I felt like I was a balloon ready to pop but I prayed a lot ( A LOT) and I knew I would be ok. I walked around between flights but I only had about half an hour before we boarded again so I don't think I had adequate time to stretch and get the blood moving. By the time I got to the Yukon I was pretty tired. Andrew came and got me at the airport and then took me to McDonald's for some dinner because he has no food. We then got to our hotel...which is literally right across the street from McDonald's and decided we would chill out. I chatted Andrew's ear off and then fell dead asleep haha. The next morning I was up at 7:30 because it was technically 8:30 my time. Andrew and I got ready and then looked out the window to see a winter wonderland LOL!! I laughed at myself because I have been saying all winter that I cheated it.....but it has a way of getting back at me. I took pictures but I don't have the right cord to download them right now. Andrew showed me around the Yukon and told me all the places that we are going to explore further when there isn't so much snow everywhere. Since then Andrew has drove me around Whitehorse but due to his schedule we haven't done much yet and he promised to teach me how to drive the car so I could get around during the days but he says he doesn't trust me. SO I have already read 2 books, watched the last season of OTH and had plenty of naps :) Tomorrow is Sunday so we will go to church and then maybe go do some sight seeing. Hope this post wasn't too long for anyone ;) I will take some pics of our hotel room and upload them to facebook perhaps.

Wednesday update!

MY LIFE---Well it looks like I'm heading up to the Yukon next week!!! I'm sooo excited! More so to see Andrew but it will be a fun little adventure to explore the Yukon. I am planning to pack my suitcase with my scrapbooking stuff, books and all the things I usually don't have time to do. On Monday I have a check up with the doctor and I will be 29 weeks!!! When I get back I will be 32 or 33 weeks ?? I'm not sure. Anyways the past week I have just been working at MVO and getting the house ready for the baby as I will be gone for the next month. It's not fair that Maggie gets to be in Florida during selling season and I am headed up to the Yukon lol!

MY PREGNANCY--- This week the baby has definitely been putting on weight, at approximately 2 lbs and 4 oz. I have been feeling the extra weight on my internal organs ( specifically my bowels ..sorry if that is too much information lol). I've noticed that when I get up I immediately have to pee, even if I JUST went. I have had no heartburn or indigestion that they speak about in the 3rd trimester. I have also been able to see the baby move CRAZY amounts recently. I will sit down and it will be like my belly is having a seizure because she is kicking up a storm...soon it will be too squishy for her to do this.....gwahahahhaah. My belly button is ALMOST level with my belly which is really quite creepy but as long as I don't see stretch marks I am extremely grateful. Overall I have feeling absolutely GREAT. I honestly have been so blessed in this pregnancy. I look back and feel that I have had an ideal pregnancy, obviously there is going to be some negatives but I have definitely had a great pregnancy compared to others. I'm really starting to get excited about getting to meet my little girl. My friend Brittany had her baby at 36 weeks so even though I'm not expecting a birth that early, I am aware that sometimes babies surprise us! I have approximately 8 to 11 weeks left :)

Church--I was called to primary chorister and this week I did a pretty bad job lol!! I was super prepared but I didn't feel like the kids were very receptive to me...maybe because it is primary singing time. If anyone has any good ideas for mother's day PLEASE COMMENT! I was thinking about singing songs about love and helpfulness??

Anyways have a great week everyone!!!

School is OVER!

I am so excited that school is over!! Of course my last set of exams had to follow suit of every other exam week I have ever had and land on the last days of exam week. I had one exam on Saturday night from 6pm till 8pm.....honestly who sets an exam at that time?? I kept checking the website to make sure I was reading it right...I even googled 1800-2000 because I swore it couldn't be 6 till 8. Then I had an exam yesterday at 2 till 4:30. What a nice feeling to walk out of the UofL and know that I had accomplished my goal! 4 years of school....is long....but short in some ways. I also ended up getting all my grades back today and it was A's all around! I am so blessed to have been able to keep it together during this semester while being pregnant and all. Even though the first little bit was rough I didn't really notice it was rough till I got into my second trimester and realized I was feeling A LOT better. One of the greatest blessings I feel from going to school is that my children will be able to have an educated mother. Some of the best skills I picked up from the UofL were not typically what I would have thought I would have walked away from University knowing. Firstly, I learned that you need to do your research!! Just because someone educated tells you something doesn't mean it is true, you need to go off and do your own research about it and find out if it actually is true. Secondly, I learned to work well with others....yeah we all know about those group projects and members who aren't pulling their weight. Well, life is like that!! So you have to learn how to positively motivate people to pull their weight, even if it means dividing the project into parts that everyone has strengths in (computer spreadsheets, speaking parts, research etc). Thirdly, you can get a University degree without being that smart. LOL I am honestly not that smart but I grew up with a bunch of girls that had parents who were really educated and pushed them to be the best they could be. My parents are very smart as well but sometimes I feel that they may lack confidence in themselves due to how people may look upon their career paths. University is not about being smart, it is about working hard! I worked my butt off to get the grades I did and I learned to work my butt off from my parents! I probably don't say this enough but my parents are so awesome!! Sometimes I look at people around me and think...wow....my parents really taught me how to be self sufficient and how to work hard for everything I have. Andrew and I are both very blessed but we definitely are not handed things like other people in the world. Whilst doing my taxes this year I realized that I have paid $40,000 in tuition fees in the past 4 years (keep in mind I switched majors and bought a lot of textbooks). I have a $5000 student loan and $4000 already saved up from that past couple months of working that is going towards that. WHEW!!! some people are in a lot more debt then that after they are done with University (my husband is also grateful he didn't have to bail me out of debt hehehe).

Anyways, I guess this post was just something that I can look back at and remember the way I was feeling after graduating. I am so grateful for Gordon B. Hinckley and the way he encouraged girls to get an education. I now have the ability to support our family if anything every happens to Andrew (I hope it never does). It also gives me the ability to go back to work after my youngest is in grade 1 so I can further increase my skills :) Well, time for bed! I gotta go to work in the morning ;)

Summer

Well I swore we would never to Vivint again and here we are a year later doing Vivint. Plus the biggest surprise of all is that I convinced Andrew to go lol. I figured he is so talented at it and it is such good money for a little family that doesn't really have anything tying us down that we might as well. This summer Andrew has headed up to the North West Territories.....yeah....that is a far ways. We have decided to just do two months to make some money and then he will come back and get a normal job while we await our little one to come. I have talked to my doctor and he says that I can even go visit him which is awesome!! I will probably go up half way through May and spend a couple weeks up there seeing the sights and spending time with Andrew. It will be a nice little adventure before the baby comes so we are pretty excited. I am a bit nervous that I will get lonely down here all alone because my love language is quality time but I'm sure the next few months will go fast and I will find some things to do in the mean time.

Today I took a final exam and got 100% so I got an A+ in the class and left feeling pretty good about myself. I have two more exams, one on Saturday and one on Monday....yeah I know....the very last exam!!!! I am just working at MVO and Thriftway for the time being and trying to bank enough hours to get maternity leave...does anyone know what you have to do to get maternity leave???

Baby is doing great, she is growing everyday! This past week I have been having a lot of back pain..I can only sit for about an hr before my back starts throbbing. I then have to get up, walk around, do some stretches in the office lol..it is quite the site to see. My ribs are also getting sore due to the fact my uterus is expanding. I have also realized that the heat of the summer is not going to be my friend. Today it was 30 degrees in Lethbridge and I was starting to feel the "I don't wanna be pregnant anymore feeling"....I'm only 26 weeks haha!

Anyways, that is all from the Maclean family! Hope I have a more exciting post next time :)

Sick Sick Sick

This week I got sick. I honestly thought I was invincible since beginning to take prenatal vitamins. I use to get sick 3 or 4 times a year but I haven't been sick since I began taking vitamins in September (almost 8 months!!). It was easter weekend though, so you how family get togethers always speed up the process of a sickness going around. I called my mom to tell her I was sick and ask her what I could take and surprise surprise, everyone except for Ciara and Austin are sick in my house. My mom told me I really couldn't take anything and I might just have to suffer through it. So my routine has consisted of hot water and lemon juice (only soothes for about 30 minutes before you need some more), tylenol every 4 hours, lots of water, polysporin on the nose, vicks on the chest and my fuzzy blanket. Andrew has been an absolute amazing husband. He got up about a million times yesterday to get me water, groceries, blankets, magic bag and he even rubs my back when I need him too. He is currently sleeping right now because I think I kept him up all night last night. Did I emphasize how much I HATE being sick. It is so hard for me to have a soar throat, especially since I can't take any meds.

Anyways, I have 3 more days of school and then 2 final exams and I am DONE SCHOOL! I am sooooooooo excited! Baby is doing great and she is moving like crazy this week. She moves throughout the day now and I usually just felt her at night time. I have even got to the point where I can lift up my shirt and see my belly shifting every which way. Last night after I had drank my lemon hot drink the baby was going crazy. Andrew got to feel her for like 10 minutes lol.

Hope everyone has a great week! And stay healthy!!

Quick Update

Well, not too much news this week. I'm apologizing in advance for people who find this blog boring now due to the fact that most of my posts are about the baby haha. I am kinda using this blog as a pregnancy journal because I never do too well when it comes to a pen and paper journal. This week Scarlet has been kicking up a storm and I can tell she is getting stronger each week. On saturday when Andrew went to the priesthood session I was doing homework and had the lights off when all of a sudden my macbook got bumped. I realized that Scarlet was kicking my macbook!! I think it was because the bright light from the screen was shining in her face or something. By the time Andrew got home she had stopped so he didn't get to see it but just a couple nights ago we were laying in bed and I told him to put his hand on my belly. I wanted it to be legit so I told him to keep it there and I wasn't going to tell him when she kicked. Sure enough she kicked and he said "I felt that!" and I knew it was a legitimate kick! Anyways he felt a couple kicks but then got freaked out hahah. Anyways next week I have to go for the infamous "orange pop" lab to test for gestational diabetes. I'm pretty sure that I just have low blood sugar but we will see.

As for school, I am absolutely swamped! This is the first time I have really sat down and done something recreational on the computer. I have had 2 huge groups projects and 1 huge position paper which have taken up all my spare time. After this week I have a couple more quizzes here and there and a bunch of presentations and then I am HOME FREE! Unfortunately I have 2 exams on the very LAST day of exam week but fortunately I only have 2 exams haha. After that it will be summer time for me! I figure I probably can't find a job for 2 months anyways so I am going to use my spare time learning to sew/DIY projects haha. I have never had enough time in the past 4 years to do any recreational things consistently so it will be a nice break before baby.

Anyways hope everyone is doing well :)

Lately/Abortion

So I haven't blogged in a week and thought it was about time to update the world/2 followers. School is really starting to pick up so don't be surprised if you don't hear from me as often until May. Baby Scarlet is doing great and kicking up a storm!( she is even kicking up a storm right now!) She has tons of new clothes as Grandma Hendry is dead set on spoiling her and it just so happens that all the clothes that I bought last summer were girl clothes lol! Everyone told me I was crazy for buying baby clothes early but they were cheap and I had a 50/50 shot right?? Anyways onto other news. Andrew and I moved last weekend and holy man do we have a lot of stuff... I didn't realize how much stuff we had until we had to box it all up. When we got it into our new place it all fit perfectly and it even seems like we don't have that much stuff. Regardless...I don't want to move again for a while! We got our cable set up and our wi-fy working as well. Which as some of you know was being stupid in the apartment.....the guy just turned it on and it worked here...I set it up right and everything...apparently I'm not an idiot at technology! Now were all settled into our new house and our new ward and I even got asked to sing in church in a couple weeks...Sister. Steed is in my ward so she caught me lol!

Another thing that has been going on lately....I have become super sensitive to abortion. I have always thought that abortion was wrong and I have always thought that people who were stupid enough to have unprotected sex should have to carry the baby to term and then put it up for adoption if they didn't want it. Btw I will note before I go any further that I do believe that there are circumstances were abortion is appropriate such as rape or the life of the mother being in danger. BUT since being able to feel my baby move and throughout the pregnancy being able to read up on how big my baby is getting every week and what she can do it has been hard knowing that babies as big as mine can be aborted. I have done some research and laws are different all over the world but I don't know how abortion can even be allowed?? These are living human beings....their hearts start beating at 5 weeks!!! There are even some countries that will abort a baby up till 9 months. It is called partial delivery abortion. I know that everyone is entitled to their own opinion and trust me I have read some ignorant comments on the subject such as the babies don't feel it or they are just a ball of cells...etc. but shouldn't that be true of the unborn baby?? Don't they get a say?? It just seems so hard to wrap my head around the fact that if you get pregnant you can just kill the baby...and people do this multiple times!! There are sooo many families out there looking to adopt a baby of their own. There are so many loving homes where women were not able to have their own children and are dying to be mothers. If you made a mistake and don't wish to have a baby don't you think it is the least you could do to sacrifice and carry the baby for 9 months??? I mean...I've been pregnant for 5 months already and it feels like I JUST got pregnant. Anyways....sorry for the rant...must be a 1st time pregnancy thing.