I'm Going to Be a Mommy!

So yesterday I went to my first doctors appointment at the Avenues Women's Center. I did all the usual stuff: pee in a cup, get weighed, and change into a lovely paper gown. I guess Cyndi didn't realize I was her next patient because when she opened the door and saw us she said to another lady in the hall, "Oh my gosh, it's the babysitter's daughter!" At first I thought it might be weird to have her looking at me in such a personal way, but I just tried to ignore that and listen to her blab (she sure does like to talk!). It was also wonderful that she knew our family's medical history so well.

I was told that I'm actually nine weeks along--one week further that I had thought. The due date they gave me was August 1st: Switzerland's national holiday. The coolest part of the visit was that we were able to listen to our baby's heart beat. Up until now it really hasn't felt like I'm really pregnant; I just feel like my tummy is getting fat and occasionally I feel like I need to throw up. After hearing its heart beat, it's beginning to feel more real. What a crazy thing that a little human being is growing inside my tummy!

Hmm...a certain person should call me...

So tonight I tried to call Rachael, but she didn't even have the decency to answer her phone! If she wants to hear some exciting news, she needs to call me back sometime between now and August! Happy birthday Joseph Smith!

Christopher is back!

After a long absence from the blogging world, Chris is back! However, he had to create a new blog because he couldn't remember his user-name and password. His new blogs can be found at www.topherbillyboy.blogspot.com. Enjoy!

Mission Calls

As many of you know, I am the head cheerleader for sending out missionaries. I feel sorry for those who never get the chance to experience so many things that others will never completely understand unless they become missionaries themsleves. I have been home almost two years and I still think about the people and lessons I learned on a daily basis. It was such an amazing gift to be able to go serve the Lord all day every day for 18 months. Besides the wonderful joy of helping others come unto Christ, a mission prepares you to work hard in school, to start a career, to become a good spouse and parent, etc.

Just last week I found out that one of my ex-coworkers has decided to not go on a mission. It broke my heart because I know that he is a good kid, but at the same time, if you don't go into it full-hearted, then it's best that he not go at all. I just feel sad for him because of all the wonderufl experiences he's going to miss out on. Who knows, maybe he'll pull a Derek: he will be turning 24 next week and he just left on his mission this year.

Last week I was invited to go see Gregalo (Greg Sanderson--Mary's ex-boyfriend and my ex-coworker) open his mission call. I was touched that he invited Chris and I. He has become like what I imagine a little brother would be like: likable, but really obnoxious at the same time as he knows all the right ways to push my buttons! Anyway, Chris, Mary, and I went over to his house as did another 30 of his friends to watch him open his mission call. He is going to the Riverside California mission (I guessed California, so I won $4!). A mission will be great for him, and I think he'll do a great job.

My sister-in-law Lara is planning on a mission too. When she announced that she wanted to go, I was extatic! She will make a wonderful missionary. She has already been doing a great job here at home; one of her good friends Zeb, who is pretty much part of the family already, will be baptized this Saturday morning! Last night she opened her mission call. She will be going to the Canada Alberta mission. How exciting! I just hope all the elders don't fall in love with her. She is absolutely gorgeous and super friendly.

Sometimes I get a little passionate about this sort of thing, but seriously, if any of you are thinking about it, just do it! You won't regret it!

The Spiders Go Marching Two By Two...

So it's finally starting to really feel like fall. The leaves have all fallen from our trees and I get to wear sweaters everday! I love sweater weather!! The one thing I don't like is the fact that all the bugs are trying to find refuge from the cold and come inside our house! We've already had a mouse problem. We set out tons of traps and poison, but our mice are so smart and moved the poison blocks around and ate all the peanut butter off the traps withouth setting them off. We're finally seeing fewer of those annoying devil bugs, aka boxelder bugs. I am scared to walk around the house barefoot because their dead bodies are all over, and live ones are still flying around. But the absolute worst thing in the world are the spiders! Last Saturday we cleaned up our house (we've been so busy that cleaning is the last thing we want to do), and the next day I found an enormous spider on my wall! Luckily I have a wonderful husband who doesn't mind killing spiders for me, so he got rid of it. The next day, there was another nasty one in our big bathtub! When I found it, Chris was at work, and we're out of bug spray that kills them from a distance (that's my favorite way to kill them!), so I just left him there. While I was at school later that afternoon I called Chris to have him kill it, but it had disapeared! Luckily when we got home that night he was back in the tub where I had seen him the first time (or was it just another spider and the original is on the loose somewhere in my closet?!) so Chris killed it. Then this morning I got up and found another big spider in the bathtub and a second one on the wall! Don't they know that they are in our house and they don't belong?! I'm really getting tired of all these creatures moving in! Grrrr.... I know all dogs go to heaven, but I hope that spiders go elsewhere!

Too much on my plate?

Ok, so I'm sitting here at the U's Marriott Library thinking about maybe starting my midterm paper I have to write that's due at midnight, but I just don't want to do it. I feel like my entire life is homework, and as soon as I finish one project or paper, I have a whole stack more waiting to get done. I'm taking 21 credits, working 10ish hours a week, and somehow I'm still alive! We're more than half way done with the semester; in fact, we only have about five more weeks to go! If I can make it through to the end, my reward is a nice relaxing cruise to Mexico in January. We're going with Chris' family as a last Taylor family fling before Lara goes on her mission. Anyway, I think I'll survive. Actually, my classes aren't incredibly difficult. Come to think of it, my last terribly difficult class I had was my first semester in Virginia: Biology at 8:00am. I guess I'm doing alright now because I'm into my major and enjoy all my classes.

Next semester will be another heavy load: 19 credits. However, I will be taking two telecourses and one online course, two of my other courses are only once a week, and then I just have two others twice a week. That means that I only have to go to campus Tuesday, Wednesday evening, and Thursday. It sounds like a fabulous schedule to me! My plan is to finish all my classes by the end of next fall semester, and then in the spring I will be doing my student teaching (that is if I get into the teaching program). So that's the plan! Just call me Wonder Woman!

An Unexpected Meeting

So today I was coming out of the Marriott Library after leaving my last class of the day, and as I got to the doors, I saw a girl I thought I recognized sitting on a chair talking on her cell phone. I didn't want to stare, but I wanted to know if it was her. She looked up, stared at me for a second, and then smiled. It was my old friend Andrea Campbell from Mueller Park Jr. High--you know, the one with the huge smile. I haven't seen her since I randomly ran into her when Ditka played at that one place quite awhile ago. The weird part of it was that just two nights ago I had a dream about her. I told her that today, and she said that she was just thinking about me yesterday. How weird is that! Kinda spooky! We couldn't talk long because she was on the phone and I had to go catch my bus, but it was cool to run into her.

I'm the Worst Blogger in the World!

So, that last post was written by Mary, just so you know. I thought that I should probably blog since I haven't done it in forever! I would do it more often, but I just don't think about it. I don't even write in my journal as much as I should either. So here's my excuse: I'm taking 21 credits at the U and my life consists of homework and sleep. Only 2 1/2 more months and then it'll be all over!

I guess I could blog about all the crazies I meet on the bus. The other day there was a guy who claimed to have met this random girl in a vision he had, and during his vision he recited a poem to her. He asked if she remembered it and then continued to recite it all over again; I was pretty impressed to see a guy so high on something recite a super long poem! Anyway, it was pretty funny! Another time a homeless looking man sat next to me on the 55. Apparently he has died and come back to life 27 times thanks to Jesus! Another time a drunk couple stood up at the front of the bus and yelled out to everyone, "We're gettin' out of this place! We're going to Arizona! We've had enough of those crazy mean Mormons!" I kind of feel bad for these kind of people, but at the same time, it makes for an entertaining bus ride!

In other news, my French-Teaching major that I declared last winter apparently doesn't exist anymore as I found out from a guy in some of my classes. I thought it was weird that nobody from the school bothered to tell me. I went and talked with my advisor, and it's actually better that I am now just a plain French major...this way, I only have three more classes to finish my major! But I won't be graduating till Spring of '07 because I'll have to go through the teaching program. Anyway, the end is in sight and I'm happy!

Well, I guess that's all for now. I'll try to be a better blogger. At least I'm not as bad as my boyfriend; he's only blogged once!

my idol

hi my name is Camilla Taylor and my favorite sister is Mary Elizabeth Cleverly. She is with out a doubt the prettiest girl I have ever met or even seen (Anna Jo is a close second) and she is pretty funny and awesome. I wish I could be more like her.

The Mary Phenomenon

Occasionally I have dreams that I am at the mall shopping and I have an unlimited budget and in every store I enter, everything fits me perfectly and is cute. Ahh...I love those dreams. Then I wake up and realize that no, I don't have unlimited funds, and no, not everything out there is going to be cute on me.

This evening I decided to go up to Laton Hills Mall since Chris was at work till 10pm. Even if I don't intend on buying anything, I do enjoy taking outfits to the dressing rooms to try them on, but tonight I went through a dozen stores and didn't find one single thing that made me want to go try it on. All the stuff that looked cute was way too expensive;I didn't try them on because I didn't want to fall in love with it and then be depressed when I would have to put it back on the rack.

So basically I have a testimony of what I like to call "The Mary Phenomenon." No matter where or when I go shopping, as long as I have Mary with me, I am guarenteed to find something that's cute and cheap. I don't understand why, but that's how it always is. It's very strange!

We are the Trivial Pursuit Champions! (almost)

So last night we had a Great Harvest party. We went out to eat at Chili's on 4th South in Salt Lake and then were planning on playing volleyball at our house afterwords. By the time we got done eating, however, it was too dark to play, so we decided to just go play games chez nous. We gave everyone our address and a bunch of people said they'd come, though by the time we got there, everyone but Jeff and Emily had pooped out on us. Come on people, if you really don't want to come, you can just say "no" and we won't be offended.

Anyway, a bit later Joe and Mandy came and so we decided to play Trivial Puruit-Pop Culture. Normally when we play this with Mary and Anna, we all cheat like crazy because it's pretty tough, but last night we were good and played by the rules (for the most part). There were three teams consisting of the three couples. Jeff and Emily know everything so they were the expected winners, no contest. One of the questions we got was "What was the name of Uncle Jesse's band on Full House?" Do you guys know it? Easy one, huh! They were all impressed at how quickly the answer came flying out of my mouth! I guess a childhood spent watching Full House can be a good thing! Chris and I played very well and made for some good competition for Jeff and Emily. Both teams were at the "For the Win!" (said in a very enthusiastic gameshow host voice) question and kept getting stumped. We knew the answer for one of their questions, but we had to know our own. The question was something like this: "What was the name of the boy Angela Chase was in love with on the TV series, My So-Called Life?" I know that a small handful of you would be able to spit out the answer as fast as I did with the Full House one, and usually I would be able to as well, but my mind for some reason was completely blank! On our winning question that I should know, I blew it! How sad is that! We were so close to winning! Oh well.

For those of you wondering the answers to those two questions, Uncle Jesse's band is called The Rippers, and Angela Chase was in love with Jordan Catalano.

Adventures in Babysitting

So most of Chris' family is in Texas right now, so they've asked Chris and I to stay at their house while they're gone. Jordan is the only one who didn't go because of football practices and such. He's a big kid (literally) and really doesn't need us babysitting him. It's actually the dogs who need the babysitting the most. I swear, those dogs have psychological issues; maybe it's just separation anxiety, but either way, they are crazy dogs! Last night I lost my chapstick (yes, again for the second time in less than a week). This morning Jordan found it all chewed up and destroyed. Thank you Maggy and Noel!

Anyway, on with my story. So this morning we were happy to go back to our old ward: Mueller Park 2nd ward (though according to Sis. Orchard who gave the opening prayer in sacrament meeting, it is the Bountiful 39th ward. Although she has lived in this ward for a very long time, she slipped up in her prayer. It was pretty funny!). I fell in love with that ward for those six months we lived there, and it has been hard to get used to our new ward in Farmington. We had a very good sacrament meeting. A couple in our ward was asked to move to Singapore for his work with the church for a couple years, and they both gave very good talks. Sunday school was good. But the meeting most note-worthy was our combined Priesthood and Relief Society meeting. It was on helping your loved ones be prepared for your own death. We talked all about death letters and wills and everything else necessary to ease your family's experience after you pass away. What's going to happen to the children if both parents unexpectedly die in an accident. How will you disperse all your personal belongings in a non-confrontational way. In the Mueller Park 2nd ward live about a million lawyers who all gave some good advice on how to be prepared. All good stuff, but kind of weird for me to think about. If both Chris and I were to die unexpectedly, we really don't have that much stuff to divvy out. For the first two years of our marriage we won't even need to own our own furniture since we've always lived in furnished places. All we really have is our keyboard, my guitar, our laptop. We do have a bed, kitchen table and chairs and that's about it. If any of you would like any of these things if we were to die, just let me know before hand and we'll keep it in mind. :)

Good advice, but I think it'd be kind of silly for us to write out a will just yet. We'll try to stay safe in order to avoid this situation all together.

The House Fairy Comes To Visit

The other night Chris and I were coming home from a session at the SLC temple (the Bountiful temple is closed for two weeks. And if you're interested, every third Thursday at 6:30pm is the ASL session--very cool!) and we got a phone call from the Hadleys, the couple who is letting us live in their house while they are on their mission at Martin's Cove. They asked us how things were going for us in their house. The agreement was that they would be back late October/early November and we would find a new place to live either buying a home/condo/whatever, or finding a new cheap place to rent. However, when they called on Thursday, they asked if we would mind staying in their house an extra year until Fall 2006. The directors at Martin's Cove asked them if they would extend their six month mission to an 18 month mission. Um, heck yes, we'll stay! I'm tired of moving every six months, and the thought of doing it again so soon was exhausting. The rent we are paying right now is so low that we plan on saving lots for next year when buying a place becomes an option again. Thanks to Becca and Cade for helping us learn about buying houses so when it comes time to really doing it maybe in a year, we won't be so clueless! So anyway, we're happy! We get to stay in our nice big house by the bus lines for another year! Hooray for nice couple missionaries!

is it a sin?

Along the same lines as Rachael's TMI and Anna's Cycles (I hope I linked those correctly), I have a few words to say on the same subject. The other day I was working with Mr. Gregory Sanderson, aka, Mary's ex-boyfriend. He has become what I imagine a little brother would be like: extremely annoying at times, especially when he knows I'm already not having a good day; he knows all the right buttons to push to drive me absolutely nuts. Well the other night I was feeling especially irritable, and I snapped at him a bunch of times. I couldn't help it. I'm sure some of you understand how difficult it is to control your emotions when you're being hormotional!

So here is my question: is it a sin to be hormotional? Last Sunday I wrote Chris a note asking this question during our sacrament meeting. Later in our Marriage and Family Relations class we're in during Sunday School, we were learning about responding to challenges and conflicts in marriage, and someone in our class brought up the point that sometimes it's hard to control your emotions, but you can control the way you react to them. For example, in my case if I were feeling hormotional I would never snap or yell at my manager Curt, but it came so easy for me to snap at Greg. So I guess I can't blame my outbursts on the fact that I'm a girl. Maybe I should just warn Greg to stay as far away as possible during certain times of the month; that would make it so much easier for me! He's pretty much the only person that makes me angry. I guess that's what little brothers are for.

I Can't Believe I'm Doing This

Okay everyone, you got me. Are you happy? Michael made me really curious what his Christmas present was going to be, so Mary showed me. I didn't want to be the only sibling not included, so here I am. I followed the crowd.

As many of you know, I'm kinda weird about people reading stuff I write, but I guess I should just get over it. Last semester I wouldn't even let Chris read one of my French papers I wrote because, well, I don't know why. I'm just weird like that. In any case, I'm here, and I'll try to be a good little blogger!