I’m new to the blogosphere. Sort of. I’ve read plenty of blogs, but now is the time to jump in. No better time than President’s Day! I’ll warn you, I’m not as good of a writer as Marisa, and sometimes I can be dry, but I figure it’s time to start sharing my testimony and perspective of all these adventures Marisa blogs about.

A few weeks ago, Marisa and I watched a T.V. interview of President George W. Bush. Of course I enjoyed it because I’m a nerd like that, but Marisa was uncharacteristically interested too. She consented to let me buy his new book Decision Points.

Out of all my undergraduate classes, I probably enjoyed my class on the Executive Branch the most. The office and administration intrigue me. Amidst all the political books or articles I’ve read on the presidency—and I would have to say comparatively it’s not a lot—I recently finished one of the greatest books about one of the greatest men that lived in one of the greatest periods of history. The book is on the six-foot-six, admired President Abraham Lincoln. The title: Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. The daunting 754 pages seemed like it would never end. But for all you Harry Potter fans, you haven’t read anything until you pick this brick of a book up.

Lincoln’s genius was unprecedented. Although his presidency was flooded with mistakes, he never gave up. At the end of his life, as the war ended in1865, his worry for both Union and Confederate soldiers leads me to conclude that he had Charity—the pure love of Christ. Mathew Holland, in his essay With Charity for All and his book Bonds of Affection, describes how Lincoln’s charitable attributes saved the Union, holding it together amidst a war stricken nation of brother fighting brother. As I finished the book, I came to love Lincoln and his example. He makes me want to try harder, care more, write often, and love broadly. His tall stature isn’t the only thing I’ll remember about him; his character was just as big as the nation itself.

Now it's our turn to develop the sound thoughts, firm characteristics, and loving attitudes that Lincoln and many of our past presidents have exemplified.

Happy birthday presidents of the United States of America!

Date Night

(us in Santa Monica)

Recently Danny and I have been making more of a concerted effort to have a meaningful date night each week. The key word there is meaningful. I think our re-dedication to actually planning a meaningful date night was in part due to the fact that our date nights out are soon going to be limited as well as encouragement from our ward leaders to make time for one another.

We decided to begin switching off responsibility to plan our date nights every other week. It has actually worked out quite nicely. One week you get to decide the evenings activities and the other you get to just kick back and enjoy what has been planned! I have really, really enjoyed the time with Danny and I am truly cherishing these last few date nights before our dating strategy is going to have to change.

Since our re-commitment to dating we have...

• picnicked in our front living room
• attended a "Hoosiers" b-ball game via our T.V.
• put together a crib & a dresser (we make a great team!)
• saw a screening of a movie at the LDS film festival
• tried The Chocolate & enjoyed Olive Garden on a GC

Every date has truly been wonderful. I am coming to love Danny more and more and I appreciate him more everyday. He is the love of my life and I can't wait to experience all that life has in store for us walking side by side, hand in hand as an eternal companionship.

I Do Not Heart the Burn

I am going to try and keep these types of posts to a minimum but this one just has to be written.

One of the worst pregnancy discomforts that I am feeling currently is heart burn. I have always had a sensitive stomach and I was not a stranger to heart burn prior to pregnancy but this…this is like nothing I have ever felt before. Let’s just say there is a reason acid needs to stay in your stomach and not in your throat. Feeling like your throat is being burned from the inside out is not a pleasant experience.

I am slowly figuring out what causes my heart burn and how I can prevent it. Tums are my new best friend and I am getting quite good at sleeping sitting up. I really think I can master this beast with the right kind of diet, exercise and smart choices (i.e. no eating at least an hour before bed).

The other downside to all of this…I recently read that it is an old wives tale that having a lot of heart burn means your baby will have lots of hair. All this pain and they can’t even give me a baby with a nice full head of hair. Sheeesh!

I think all the “old wives tales” are made up by pregnant women to help them cope with all the miserable things they have to experience. Helps us to mentally push through. Makes total sense to me.

As for my heart burn, it is totally helping my baby to have a nice full head of hair I don’t care what “they” say.

Blog Idea List

I have been dying to write numerous blog posts and I am keeping a very nice list of all my ideas. I am beginning to believe that as I add an idea to the list and mentally contemplate what I might write, I think subconsciously I consider the post already written. Too bad that isn’t reality. I would have been a much better blogger the last few months had mind blogging been taken into consideration.

Because much of my world has revolved around “baby” the last 6 months of my life many of my “blog ideas” surround musings on my experience in pregnancy. Since I am all about consolidating and working for efficiency I am going to combined a few of my blog ideas into one, large (much like I feel at the moment) and in charge post.

My journey through pregnancy has been a most lovely ride thus far. It really has. I have been so lucky that many of the adverse side effects of pregnancy have slipped right past me.

The first trimester was a bit, well emotional to say the least. Literally. I think that was my biggest challenge. So many things hit you emotionally during those first 14 weeks.

The second trimester was bliss! They aren’t kidding when they say that it is the honeymoon trimester. I felt awesome and had just enough bump to be recognized as pregnant. So fun!

I have now entered the third trimester and boy did it feel like someone flipped a switch. I have found the third trimester thus far to be much more taxing on the mind, at least for a worrier like myself. All of the sudden I realized that we have only 2 ½ months left to “get ready” for the baby to come.

I have worried more that something might happen to the baby before we can get him here safely. I also worry about the "getting him here" part. I am definitely more uncomfortable and hear that it only gets worse, lucky me. However amidst it all the third trimester has a silver lining of unexplainable excitement that randomly overtakes me and I can hardly wait to hold our sweet little one and that day is drawing near quickly. This makes it ALL worth it.

One of the contributors to this excitement is getting “baby things.” It has got to be the most fun thing you will ever experience. I love just looking at our car seat and imagining our tiny little baby nestled there and of course buckled safely. I was so lucky to have a baby shower recently with a few of my close friends and it was absolutely delightful! What fun it was to talk girl and baby and to be the recipient of so much love and cute baby things! It was fantastic.

The only other frightening part (you will quickly understand why it is frightening as you read on) of the third trimester is this phenomenon they call “nesting.” Now if you are even somewhat familiar with my, let’s say tendencies then you know that adding nesting into the equation has made me a little crazy. I have a good feeling that there will not be one inch of our apartment that isn’t de-junked, organized and completely clean by the time baby Leavitt arrives. I have joked with my mom that I may even get done early and have to come release the need to nest at her nest! (It is the grandparent’s house so it is totally justified.)

Overall, pregnancy has been a wonderful journey and I just pray that both baby and I can make it to the end of the beginning safely and in good health.

I have put off posting prego pics mostly because I think I am more self-conscious of my pregnant body than I realized. But here are a few just to give you a glimpse of the evolution of both I and baby Leavitt.

( I was humming the song for the Brady Bunch the whole time I was making this collage. I am afriad it is going to take some killer good song to uproot it from my brain!)

P.S. I am already a huge fan of Picnik