Pregnant with my bike stolen.

You really shouldn't steal a bike from a pregnant woman.

The other day, I got up to ride my bike to campus. This hadn't happened in a while because Tanner's bike broke and we walked to school together.  I also wasn't really supposed to ride my bike/engage in physical activity. Well, my beautiful cream beach cruiser was gone.

Stolen.

I texted Tanner and was sad. But I wasn't angry. I was really calm and just thought to myself, oh dear, that is sad. But it's just a thing.

It didn't really bother me the rest of the day. When I got home I called to report it to the Provo police. They were awesome and sent someone over to get the rest of the information about the bike. Luckily, I had this picture to show him:

The nice police man said he would let me know if he found it. I was hopeful but not expecting much. He called me about an hour later saying he found it at a pawn shop.

This was a good and bad thing.
Good because it was found.
Bad because the person who stole it also scammed the pawn shop. They have to identify themselves through finger print and with their address and everything, verifying that the item they're selling is theirs.

She lied and so now there were two cases.

The police man told me I could come pick it up but I would have to pay the $30 to get it back. P.S. my bike is worth WAY more than $30. Poor stealer.

So I went to go pick it up. I was a little annoyed that I had to pay for my stolen bike, but the pawn shop didn't want to press charges and wanted business still. Whatever, I wasn't going to fight it, especially because the police man had probably already tried to reason with them.

I go in...the nice teenage boy working there tells me he's sorry for this big mess. I'm fine about it. They wheeled out my bike. It doesn't look like my bike. But it is. The basket was broken and I was worried I was going to take the wrong bike home.

Then I take out my card to pay and the girl says, "oh no, we only take cash".
That was the straw the broke the camels back.
I then said to the girl, "so you're making me pay $30 cash to get my stolen bike back from you, because you're not going to press charges?" I didn't say this meanly but just like...hello I'm paying for my stolen bike.
She went quiet and told me again they would only take cash.

I didn't have cash.

By this point, most of the employees were around. And yes, I started to cry silently. The nice teenage boy asked me if I was okay. I told him, "yes but I'm pregnant so tears come very easily to me."

I started to walk away, crying of course. The rest of the employees starting going in the back awkwardly.

This is the dramatic part.

I stop and say, "This is why choices matter". They turn around and stare and this silly, crying pregnant woman. I continue, "because they affect other people". I turned and walked out of the pawn shop with them all staring at me.

At least if any of those employees ever think about stealing a bike or something they'll remember me standing there crying, trying to teach the world about choices.

I still haven't gotten my bike back. I don't have cash. The police man went to arrest the girl who stole my bike but I haven't heard anything about it yet.

So next time you think about stealing a bike from a pregnant lady...think about who your choices are affecting. :)

Cheating

You know, there are a lot of bad things out in the world.
Drugs, pornography, immorality, infidelity, murders, etc.

Bad.

There's just a lot of bad.

But do you know what scares me more than those things? People's lack of integrity and character.
I just read this article and it's long but it's well worth the read and you might as well know more about what's going on in schools rather than the blogs you're reading, right?... I know you have the time.


This makes my skin crawl. Just really really crawl.

I remember one time down in my basement doing a group project. It was a simple assignment and I was sitting there, writing things on the poster board. Everyone else in my group was talking (not a big deal...you know how group projects are). Then we got on the subject of cheating. Everyone starting talking about the best ways to cheat. I was completely caught off guard. I asked them if they all cheated on assignments and tests. Their responses were that of, "duh, doesn't everyone?"

Um, no. Not everyone cheats. They asked me how I cheat on things. I told them I hadn't since second grade. They were shocked. SHOCKED.

So then they said, wow I bet you and so and so (a boy from my grade) are the only ones in the school who have never cheated.

Um, hey. I went to high school in Utah Valley. 99% of my classmates were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  I'm pretty sure more than just two of us in the class hadn't cheated before. But I was shocked. I looked at all those people in my group and just sat there dumbfounded. What was the world coming to?

Indeed. What is the world coming to.

In second grade I remember cheating on a test. We were sitting there with two manilla folders around our desks, taking a little test. I looked over initially to look at the boy next to me (he was cute, okay?) and saw his answers. I thought it would be so easy to write down what I just saw, so I did. Then my teacher caught me. She caught me and pulled me aside and talked to me about what was going on. I remember crying, realizing that what I had just done was so wrong. I knew that I was unhappy, my teacher was unhappy and ultimately it made the Lord unhappy. Was a temporal test worth that? No. It never is. I decided then to never cheat. And I was honest with myself.

So as a teacher, what do I do? What do I do when I know this will be happening? I will of course take away all phones at the beginning of classes, rewrite tests and such but what do we do? How to we stop this moral decay?

Standardized testing is for another day...

Read the article. Tell me what you think. And please, remind yourself that it's easier to be obedient 100% of the time than it is to be 98% of the time. And teach your children ahhhhhhhhhhh.

Contractions

Today has been an interesting day.

I have been having contractions all day. No, not just Braxton Hicks. Yes, I'm 26 weeks....Not quite ready for our little girl to come yet. So to say I've been slightly stressed and paranoid is an understatement. But let me just say one thing.

The Lord is so watchful and takes care of His children. He puts people in our paths and in our day to day activities for real reasons. Like the nursing student who was just there while I was at work. And the professor who I T.A. for who knew exactly what to say. And good midwives who are careful and calming. And a mother who listens to the spirit and comes to take care of me. And a wonderful husband who is too busy for his own good but had class out early today. Really, things are good.

I'm fine, the baby is fine and I'm on a "modify your lifestyle" prescription. This means I will no longer be able to dance like I want to....I'm really only taking a half credit country western class (line dancing...really?) and I'm teaching a Russian dance to the back up folk dance team. Looks like those girls won't be able to see me turn full out. Darn.

But life is good. I'm calm, the baby is not (she will have to be doing the dancing for the both of us), and everything is happy. But you know, I thought I should keep record of the blessings and scary-ness in my life somewhere.

My favorite part of the day was a conversation I had with my mom.
Me: "You know, these contractions are not that awful. If this is what contractions feel like during labor...I'm going to be fine."
Mom: "Oh my dear, your contractions during labor will be much worse. Don't worry."

Haha I love my mom. And I don't really love contractions...just give me 14 more weeks okay baby?

Food Blog

I just started a food blog... I know you probably all want to check it out :)  I think it's much prettier than this blog. And I like the name better too soooo maybe I'll just combine them. We'll see. And no, I don't have pictures yet and when I do post pictures, don't expect them to be fancy.

Happy weekend! :)

www.sonofpears.blogspot.com

Upstairs and Downstairs

We live in a yellow submarine. Actually we don't. We live in the upstairs of an adorable old home and we love it. We have so much room and a second bedroom to get ready for the baby (probably won't happen without my mother...school has taken over).
Last year, we lived in the basement of this home. We feel very very lucky to have found this place and to have such amazing landlords.
We were always really quiet downstairs. I think we were at least. We always made people leave around 9 because of the children upstairs and tried to be courteous.
So we have been nervous about having a baby come December. New borns are not quiet, especially at night when you're trying to sleep. :/


Since living upstairs, we've realized that you can hear a lot that goes on down there.
We hear singing ALL THE TIME. We hear yelling quite often. We hear conversations that we don't want to hear.
We've still been trying to be quiet up here. The downstairs tenants say they can't hear us at all...and I really hope that's true.

We just heard another yell....at 10:40pm.

That being said...I may not feel as bad come December.
This is the part where I feel bad for thinking that, let alone writing it here. Judge away.

Weekend of Fun

It's been a lovely weekend.
Friday I got to watch my cousins adorable girls. We had lots of fun playing with bubbles, play dough and burying ourselves with pillows. Tanner came home and played with them which just melted my heart. He's going to be such a good dad.

That evening Tanner's brother, his wife and their adorable son came to stay with us. It was so fun. We sat up talking and Saturday went to the MOA where we saw a very nice exhibit. Then we went shopping at Plato's closet (first time-I was overwhelmed and will probably never go back).

Then Tanner and I made a lime cheesecake-heaven. REALLY. The recipe is on my sweets board on pinterest. Best cheesecake I've ever eaten. Sigh. I wish I could eat it everyday. That evening we went and saw Arsenic and Old Lace at the Hale Center Theatre. It was so so fun. We were on the first row and were quite sucked into the comedy. We love this story and it was just perfect. Tanner had bought the tickets for me/us way back in December for Christmas and it was really fun to have a pre-paid date 8 months later. I think we'll do it again this year.

Sunday was lovely in our new ward and we enjoyed spending time with our guests and then went up to Highland for my birthday dinner with the family. A lovely summertime walk, the adverb game and the cheesecake were just AMAZING.

Life is good. Really good.
And yes, we had hard times this week too. Don't just read this post and think that our lives are great and perfect. It's not. Have a happy week,

Weeks 22 and 24

Here are some more lovely belly shots!!! Yay for being pregnant! 

Also...being pregnant in classes is really fun. The first day I want to pass out half way through my two hour class. I need standing/walking breaks! It is going to be so much fun. The RB stairs are more fun this semester as well. I pant more, and I have to walk up slowly. Biking to school is also more tiring. Can I tell you how happy I am that this is my last semester of classes?

22 weeks in my totally awesome striped dress. 

Yes, Tanner took this picture from down below so the angling is a bit off.

24 weeks! Quite the difference eh?