How to Not Look Like A Victim of Domestic Violence

So, I'm clumsy. And I bruise fairly easy. Sometimes, I look like an abusee. Yet I still have this small child obsession with bruises. I want to poke and prod and sometimes I wonder how much blood is under there; it's gross. But I also wanted to know if there was anything I could do to make my bruise go away faster. It's rather unsightly and Cass felt bad about the bruise, family even teased him about hitting me & I kept saying I "walked into a door."  It going away would be good all around. Plus, it was deep so it hurt. 

My internet research said to ice it initially, then heat it. So I iced it a few times (remember the rule when icing: 20-30 minutes, no direct contact with skin), saw a little change in it, and then did some heating on Monday (follow your heating pad's instructions!). Warm showers help, but it's not a direct enough contact to help the bruise. If you don't have a heating pad, a warm wash cloth would help a little; it's better than nothing! And a little over a week, my bruise is healed! All gone! 

And that, my dear friends, is how to stop looking like a victim of domestic violence without awkwardly layering on the clothing even though you're pregnant and think it's too hot every where and really just don't like long sleeve shirts anyway! 

Initial Damage: bruise is so fresh it looks red, black, and purple

After Ice & Heat, a day or two later: Visible change

A few days: Starting to fade around the edges & lighten in color

One Week: Blood flows down. Bruise is darkest at the lowest point, and fading a ton.

A week and a few days: hardly visible. 

It's a Girl!

awwwww . . . isn't my child an adorable little thumb sucker? 

We went and got the ultrasound done on Monday afternoon. I had a feeling, not super strong but still there, that it would be a girl. Cassidy had no predictions either way, but thought I was being ridiculous in thinking it was a girl. Well, I may be ridiculous but I was right! 

We skyped with our families that night and everyone is way excited for our baby girl!

Now, if you're not into alien-esque fetus photos, feel free to leave now. 

But I just think my alien is adorable! 

Red Ribbon Week

This past week at CMS was Red Ribbon Week. It's a big deal, because all faculty and staff can dress up too. And some times dressing up equals jeans, and since I have two and a half pairs of pants that fit, and one is jeans . . .  I'll let you do the math :) 

The best part of Red Ribbon Week? This poster ---

(She probably would have gotten first place if she could spell 'girlfriend'!) 

"Undercover Day" as "Where's Waldo?" 

College Day

Pajama Day

My super cute slippers

Thursday was "Career Day" and Friday was "Best Dress Day" so . . . I just wore my normal work clothes. Hope your week was as fun as mine! 

Pink Day!

supporting one of our cancer survivors! 

In case you didn't know, October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Last school year, two of the ladies in my department at CMS were diagnosed with Breast Cancer. They have both already had their surgeries and are back at work on the road to full recovery. Two other teachers have battled breast cancer in the past few years. This month, to support them, we wore pink on Fridays. We even got special shirts (you can see how we all match!) with a pink ribbon with their names on it, as well as "CMS is stronger than cancer!" 

Yesterday was our Lee's Denim Day. We all donated & got to wear jeans. It was really neat to see everyone in their pink shirts and show their support for these special ladies. They have been so strong inspiring through their journey and a great example to me! 

Spectra Point and Ramparts Overlook Hike

Last Saturday, Cassidy and I went for a Hike up Cedar Breaks. We did the Spectra Point and Ramparts Overlook Hike. I checked the weather beforehand, but only checked for Cedar, not for the mountain. My bad! It was a little chilly and windy, but I said we'd get warm once we got moving, plus the sun was out. (Luckily, Cass still brought his hoodie on the hike! I needed it on the way back!) 

The trail was super muddy, so our shoes got very gross, and there was some snow on the ground. It was a tough hike, but the view was amazing! The contrast of red rock, snow, and the bristlecone pines was pretty neat. 

View from the trail head, no hike required!

all muddy! And this was just the beginning!

a lookout point along the trail

I tried to climb the tree . . . no dice

Spectra Point

Soaking in all that is Spectra Point

more Spectra Point

Cassidy's Video, with even more of Spectra Point :)

Yes, he climbed over the protective railing . . .  

Back on the trail towards Ramparts Overlook

Bristlecone Pines

See? Totally cool! Not what you'd think at all!

I made it! But just barely . . . can I blame my tired legs and lack of balance in the mud on the baby? 

Ramparts Overlook

Squirrel got so angry at us! He was yelling and hissing!
He was right over head and I was nervous he was going to jump on me! 

You can't really tell, but the backs of my legs were all muddy too!
But I was so glad to be back at the car and done hiking! It wore me out!

Antelope Island

Last weekend, Cassidy got a scholarship to go to a conference about student affairs up at SLCC, so we jumped at the opportunity to head up north and get a quick visit in. The conference was Friday, so I got a sub for work and planned to have my mom come up to Salt Lake so we could play. Turns out, that was the day Jenn was flying back home from Louisiana and my mom already had plans to be in Salt Lake to pick her up. How convenient! 

Mom and Jordyn picked me up and we headed to the City Creek Mall. Despite the rain, we had a lovely time! 

We did some window shopping and had gyros for lunch before heading to the airport to get a very pregnant Jenn. While waiting, we saw some cute missionary homecomings as well as a marine meeting his baby for the first time. Tender! 

Saturday we went up to Antelope Island. Grandma Carma wanted to go after she found out that her great-great grandfather Briant Stringham was sent to Antelope Island to tend cattle. His father-in-law Fielding Garr was originally sent their by Brigham Young. There's a ranch on the island that was the Garr family ranch. The original house and other buildings are still there and open for the public. I had never been their before, so it was fun to see all the historical sites as well as the animals. 

Since I took so many pictures, I'll just let them show you our day! 

Dylan, Whitney, me, Cass, Pyper, and Morrell outside the Garr Ranch House

Dylan trying to rope a "cow"

 

Pyper "roping" hers! 

Cassidy roping Pyper

Pyper on the horse, trying to throw the rope

Pyper loved feeding the horses!

Cheese!

Pyper and the "buffalope"

Climbin' Rocks!

Cass and Morrell

I got so close the buffalo! er . . bison!

See?? Close! I was scared to get closer though

See all that white? Cass thought it was salt from the lake, but he went down and touched it, it was just foam! Salty, salty foam! 

After our fun, we got a late lunch, and then a much needed nap! All that fun and walking wore me out! 

my new toy!

I have always wanted one of these balls and am so excited that I finally got one! I like doing crunches on it a lot better than flat on the floor. It even came with a booklet of exercises which has been helpful! I've used it a few times already, hopefully I can keep it up! 

Best Tip Ever!

So this week and last week, I've had a part-time gig of driving around the patrons of the Shakespeare camps for the Shakespeare Festival. 

And this morning, I got the best tip ever!!

Yup. That's right. I get to see Merry Wives of Windsor, Scapin, and Les Miserables.

For free!!

Pioneer Day

SUU Athletics put on "Thunder at the Beach" up at the res for Pioneer Day, and Cass and I thought it would be fun to go and get out of the house. Plus, they were giving out free shirts with a picture of Cam Levins, an SUU athlete who gets to run in the Olympics this summer, on them to the first 500 attendees. 

We left early, expecting a big crowd, but when we got to the res, there was hardly anyone there. We got out of the car and it was super windy! 

It wasn't quite noon yet (starting time) so we read our books despite the wind and the very cloudy sky. 

"Thunder at the Beach" turned out to be quite a foreshadowing name. Within a few minutes we were making a mad dash to the car & deciding if we should leave or if the rain would let up. The rain quickly turned into a torrential downpour. We decided to head home. Lame day! 

Trafalga

Since we were already up north for Michael's homecoming, we made plans to see Morrell 

and Carma on Monday night for dinner. We ate at Z'Tejas and it was delicious! And then, since we were already that far up north, we figured we could meet up with Cass's

friend Forbes. We decided to to meet at Trafalga, and since it's only in Lehi, Cass thought we

should invite Jordyn, because it's so much more fun with a kid! Jordyn thought it was a

great idea, too, and had a blast playing with us!

(and I just used "since" waaaaay too many times in this paragraph!)

We raced go-carts, played mini-golf while we got to catch up with Forbes and Jenni. We had a great time, even though we all suck at mini-golf. But I did beat Forbes at the go-carts, or, at least, run into him and almost pass him, so we had a fun day!

we raced in the batmobile go-cart

"I'm Doctor Gregory House!"

trying really hard to get the balls in the hole!

Forbes and Cass doing the same thing as the kiddos!

Jordyn just got a little nervous on the frog hopper,
 but she rode it three times!

The Forbes Family had to head back up north around four, but we stayed and played a little bit longer. We rode the go-carts again, went on the water-spraying boats, played some arcade games, and made a 10x return on our tokens for tickets, which we used to get "sticky hands." Jordyn's choice, obviously. I would have picked candy, but they didn't have anything good!

Jordyn almost always gets upset when I leave, especially when she doesn't know when I'm coming back up. So when we were getting read to leave my mom's house and head back to Cedar for who-knows-how-long, we had this little exchange:

"We had such a fun day today, don't ruin it by throwing a fit."

"Don't ruin it by leaving!"

I couldn't help but laugh, especially when she followed it with, "Ooooh, burn!"

We had a great day at Trafalga and loved playing with Jordyn and the Forbes Family!