It's in the Blood

It's official. I have the cutest nieces and nephews ever.
Girls: Kaylie, Gabbie, Baby Grace. Boys: Adam and Mario.
By middle of February we will have three new babies in the fam!

And of course shout out to niece Kate in her gift from Uncle Curtis:

I love her big smiles. Heyman or Ray, they're the cutest!

Blogworthy

Not to post too much in one day, but I actually went to the gym today. This is so blog-worthy if you know how long I've been trying to get there. Unfortunately I could only fit into Tim's shorts. I didn't let the fashion woes stop me!

Here I am at almost 5 1/2 months before making the trek to the gym. It cuts off my head because I'm using the computer's camera.

Here one minute gone the next

We had our appointment for the cyst in Baby Boy Ray's brain. It was interesting to say the least. We first had another ultrasound done by an ultrasound technician. She found the cyst, measured it, and said it had grown a little. Five minutes later we are getting an ultrasound done by the "specialist" who claimed he couldn't even find the cyst.

Now, we've been told they sometimes disappear on their own...but within five minutes? Something seems weird. Either way, the "specialist" was confident that the baby would be fine due to other test results, his detailed ultrasound, etc. Great news!

Even better news is that he is measuring for Dec. 31st now. Wohoo! He kicks me all the time and I can watch my stomach and see him move. So weird.

If only we had a name...

Busy Bee

Life has now turned extremely busy...but I actually like it. This past weekend we went to AZ for Tim's mom's wedding. I flew in and out. Unfortunately we didn't have our camera during the reception but my dear sister Bubby took some pics.

She likes to laugh when she sees my growing belly.


Happy siblings reunited.

We look so tired!

On another note, I have started student teaching and love it! I told a group of 7th graders I was pregnant and one girl said "I just thought you had a belly!" Oh the sweet honesty. I work with a lot of kids who are struggling in English. Half of 2 of my classes are these kids. It's challenging sometimes but so fun. I am learning a lot every day. I love telling them stories from my life. It's like i have my own little audience who can't leave until I dismiss them. Hahaha. poor kids.

Our Piano

We recently had some new people move into the apartment below us. At the moment I can hear them playing the piano. I was getting a little irritated at first until I realized in the beginning of January we will have our own "piano" full of tunes that sound like baby cries for them to listen to. Life somehow works itself out to be fair...

He's Still a Boy! 20 weeks

Today was a neat ultrasound day. We got to see pretty much everything in our baby boy: four chambers of the heart, diaphragm, spine, bladder, face, both feet and hands, umbilical cord, etc. He sure is growing and sure likes to move around a lot. I have been feeling him more often the last two days which excites me!
On the above picture you can see his ear and his spine running down from his neck.

He looked like he has long legs. One was stretched out and the other bent underneath him. Here is a foot:

He's still a boy! And this time I could even tell!

Next Tuesday I will be seeing a perinatologist to check on a cyst in his brain. She said that most of the time the cysts disappear on their own. Hopefully everything will turn out o.k. Besides that, the u/s lady said he looked great!

Update: Next stop, Jim Rome

I have an update on the previous post. Last night Tim and I were getting ready to go to bed and i mentioned that I should write the radio and thank them for fixing Tim's bad breath. I wrote a dramatic email and sent it off. This morning we were listening and heard them start to talk about MY email! I checked my inbox and Hans, the host, had emailed back asking me to call in so we could laugh about it. My 15 minutes of fame happened!

I called them on the way to a teacher meeting this morning. We'll see if we can post our conversation that aired, but for now here are our emails to each other:
From: Mrs. Ray
To: hans@1280thezone.com
Sent: Sun, 12 Aug 2007 22:15:51 -0600
Subject: Hans changed our marriage

Dear Hans,
My husband is a faithful listener to your station,
and I tend to like it too when you guys aren't talking
about girls. On Friday you changed our marriage.

My husband was listening in on the story about your
horrible breath. For some reason my husband too never
knew that you were supposed to brush your tongue. He
has suffered from horrible bad breath. I have even
turned his kisses down.

He is a new man now and we have a new marriage. Thank
you.

Jennifer Ray

Here is the response:
Jen please call in and come on the air. I would love to talk to you about it and have a good laugh. what an inspiring message of learning you sent, to know that I have changed a marriage for the better, it almost brings a tear to my eye.

With love
Hans Olsen

A New Awakening

I'm going to be honest. Tim has bad breath. Well, now I can say he had bad breath. On Friday he was listening to Sports radio and the announcer was talking about his problem with bad breath...that is, until his friend told him about the importance of brushing your tongue. Brush your tongue? A novel idea! Tim somehow had never heard that you're supposed to brush your teeth AND your tongue.

I live with a new man. We will no longer have to make Costco runs to buy gum in bulk.

The Happy Couple

After 17 years of being a widow, my mom is marrying her fiance Roger. They are getting married on the 25th of August. We are so excited for them!

Does the floating baby to the left freak you out? It kind of weirds me out. Who knows if it'll stay...

4 1/2 Months

I can't fit into my old clothes. I'm still throwing up. My stomach feels like it is stretching daily. A guy asked me if I was planning on having a child soon and then told me that was his way of saying it looked like I had gained some weight.
I love being pregnant.

A Few More

Here are a few more pics from the AZ vacation. Bubby works at the clubhouse restaurant across the street from us and hooked Chris and Tim up with some tee time.


If you look closely you can see the driver (Taylor) reading Harry Potter. :)



I already miss Kate. It's rare to see her with her pacifier and not be going to bed.

Chris thought he was funny by suggesting that Tim was better with Kate than I was. It was good to see Tim so good with her. Prepping for the near future!

Cute cousin Colin

I loved how he tried to comfort Kate when she was crying.

Kate spit up and somehow got it on her head. Hilarious!

Life Changing

I no longer feel like I can march in Feminist parades if there ever were any in Provo. I braved the Social Security Office--I stood next to the man all in black, I tried to be friendly to the man just out of jail who was hoping for a better check, and I kept my nausea created by the thick smell of cigarette smoke coming from a fellow ward member to a minimum. I changed my last name. I am now, officially, a Ray! I've tried changing my name once before (June 2006) but was left in tears and sent all over Provo. It was stressful. Now, over a year later, I am a Ray. This is so life changing. Now, if I can only get myself to the gym...