Texas

My sister already blogged about our fun trip to San Antonio here, but I can’t leave something THIS BIG without a little of my own input.

First of all, girl trips rock! Only a girl could really appreciate…
1- How funny it is to know you are blocks from your hotel and yet can’t quite find a way there.
2- Aaaaw, the magical smell of Pottery Barn.
3- A guy with long chunky blonde highlighted hair that’s wearing a way too low v-neck shirt and tall black boots rubbing your feet while chatting about Chet on the Real World and Utah stereotypes.

4- Helga the navigation system on my sister’s phone.
5- The joy of shop after shop, sale rack after sale rack, day after day.
6- Trying to shove all our purchases into carry-ons that were way too small and bulging out everywhere.
7- Strolling around the same riverwalk night after night and never getting sick of it.

8- A chicken duck. Really, his name is Chuck. Why am I so intrigued?

9- Scary murder stories told by the river late at night.

10- All of the amazing hours spent at the Alamo, the fun things to do there, and the high expectations well exceeded. ;)

This is exactly what I needed. Thanks girls! Let's say we do this again very very soon!

My "nemesis" left me a note

If you know me at all you know this isn't my style, but I almost left this reply on the board for my Spencer/Ben night time enemy. I erased it just as I was walking out the door. I guess I either have a conscience in there somewhere or I figured my reply wouldn't necessarily get me anywhere...

but one day I'll be the type of person that says whatever I feel and actually leave it around for people to see.

You want to play that way do you?

As childish as it gets, I won’t lose. Ask anyone, I am a Christensen and deep down being stubborn runs in my blood.

All I ask from you stupid college classes that come in my room at night is to not erase ONE of my four sliding whiteboards, just one. I know it’s not convenient for you, but it’s not convenient for me to rewrite my board every stinkin day either. Do you know how long that takes? Nor is it convenient for me to bend my big fat pregnant butt over and pick up all the textbooks off the floor that you "somehow" dropped out of their bins, but that’s another rant.

So let’s make it clear. The first time you erased my entire board I was bugged, but you didn’t know the rules so I forgave you and hung a sweet little note in pink and brown polka dots on the board saying pretty please. The second time you did it, you even went so far as to move my sign and erase away. This time I got a little mad.

Now that it still isn’t stopping, I’m seeking revenge. I’m hiding every single dry erase marker in my room so now YOU have an inconvenience just like me. Go ahead and find your own markers. Oh ya, and I’m unplugging my Airwick every night too so now you won’t even get a swoosh of harvest spice greatness every 36 minutes either. And as soon as I can think of something else mean, I won’t hesitate to do that either. I bet the evil perpetrator looks like one of these two...

Sometimes people ask me if I can see a change in my moods now that I am pregnant. I simply smile at them and politely answer, “not at all.”

It's your birthday

It's your birthday so shout hooray. We want to sing to you today. One year older and wiser too…happy birthday, to you!
Okay, so I really wish I could go back to primary sometimes just to sing songs again, but an ordinary "happy birthday" won’t work for someone like Chris...so, he gets a song!

What a sweet week it’s been for my hubby. Not only is it his birthday today, but he also started a new job that is exactly his style. I can’t think of another place that Chris would love to spend his days than a golf course, so he is officially the new assistant golf pro at Eagle Mountain. Whoot whoo!

Without writing some gushy love poem, I just wanted you all to know what kind of a husband I have. I came home last night from work as sick as I've ever felt. Every single time I’d stand up, I’d lose my balance and almost black out. Throughout the night things just got worse as my head stuffed up, heartburn flared, body ached, and temperature flew over 100.

Finally, after an entire night of tossing, turning, and staring at the alarm clock, I decided to go downstairs. Just as I’m on the verge of tears from exhaustion, Chris came down and magically made everything all better, just like he always does. Along with some sweet words, he put my pillow in his lap and tickled my arm until I fell asleep. When I woke up in the morning and realized he had slept sitting up all night just to make me more comfortable, I was reminded that I am married to a pretty great guy. I’m lucky to call Chris my husband and our baby will be so lucky to have such a great dad!

Happy Birthday!

Week 26

I talk to myself. Does that make me weird? Fortunately, most of the time I don’t end up actually saying the words out loud, but instead repeat them over and over again in my head. What’s the dialogue lately? “Dear life, you win!” or depending on the day it could morph into “Dear life, slow down I can't keep up!” Surprisingly, talking to myself isn’t the weird part at all. The weird part is how frequent the talking is.

I think I need professional help. The more I have to do, the more I don’t want to do it (and the more I just tend to complain). My poor husband. My to-do list is overflowing with boring work things and instead I just want to surf the internet to find a name for our little baby. Now that we are officially counting down the days in the two digits, I am starting to feel the name pressure.

3 months of teaching left this year. 59 actual teaching days. 30 “A” days or planning days before spring break and hopefully maternity leave will come right after. 13 weeks. That’s all I have to survive through. Just 3 more months.

Happy 2009!

We celebrated by doing what we always do...

playing games and goofing off!

A glimpse of our Christmas

A Christmas twist at the Treehouse Museum

Christmas morning at Kami's with my dad

Mom's family

Chris' family

Service

This was one of my favorite parts of the holiday season! Every year our family and friends get together to serve some of the less fortunate in the community. We collect as much clothes and toys as possible and head down to Mound Fort Middle School to sort all the goodies and give them to the needy. Days like this make me fortunate for how much we really have.

Isn't he the cutest?

Highly emotional pregnant moment #753...and #754

#753 - I’m not quite sure when I cried harder, at dinner or after. The crying started when my aunt Meri asked me how work was and before I could even attempt an answer the tears were streaming. I guess she didn’t need an explanation at that point anyway. Dramatic, I know. I couldn’t hide the river flowing over my cheeks as my mind filled with all the things on my to-do list and the hours of correcting I had before parent teacher conferences the next day. Teaching English is overwhelming, so I just cried.

At this point most people would have responded with a simple, “that sucks Mitzi” and maybe even felt bad for me for a minute and went on their way, but that’s not my family. Instead, they all jumped up and started helping out.

After I got home that night I was thinking about my sister, husband, and aunt sitting there on the front room floor with their red pens in hand and I was so overwhelmed with gratitude. The tears started streaming once more and just the thought of my family's love for me brought me to my highly emotional pregnant moment #754.

What happened to me?

Meet my picture-less blog. The funny thing is that I love pictures. When did I become one of those crappy bloggers that never posts any pictures? Well, here goes a little catching up. Let's take it all the way back to our amazing trip to Hawaii in October with Lisa, Brian, Dax, and Kami...

Halloween

Thanksgiving

and just a few random ones for fun, well not necessarily that much fun for me. Want to know ackward? Try taking a picture of only you just standing there. Anyway, here is my fat progression.

Go ahead, laugh it up. I know your just jealous you aren't getting fatter everyday too!

Necklaces!

A little while ago Kami and I decided we were going to make these necklaces for ourselves. Maybe it was just her ravishing neckline, but when Kami wore hers people asked where they could buy one. So we thought to ourselves, “why not sell them?” So that is exactly what we are doing.

$30.00

We could do almost any name or saying that you'd want, as long as it fits. If you don't want names or a tree, here are a few short sayings you could use that are kind of cute:
· Life is beautiful
· Carpe diem (or "seize the day")
· Love, dream, hope
· Cherish the journey
· Be true to yourself
· Blessed beyond measure
· Love with your whole heart

We could do other shapes like this too, but it might take a couple weeks to order the metal and finish them. We have little stamps now that would probably fit a name on the small tag.

This one is available, but out of stock for a few weeks! It will be $35 when it get's back in!

If you want one (or five) let us know early so we can make them before Christmas comes around. You can e-mail me at mitziray@yahoo.com or kami at kami_nels@hotmail.com or just give us a call.