How I Somewhat Knew We Were Having a Boy

Before we found out we were having a boy, I told Spencer a couple times that God was preparing us to have boys.

The first event that tipped me off was when Spencer and I taught five very energetic boys at church ages 5 to 7. We didn't have any girls on the roll, and we rarely got to teach any visitors that were girls. Since I'm the youngest  that had all sisters, I had no idea how I was supposed to teach and handle these rambunctious boys! Thankfully Spencer was there every step of the way.

Those boys had so much energy...

The second instance that tipped me off was our next church assignment. We were the Wolf Den Leaders for the cub scouts. More boys, but just a little older than our Primary class. We combined with all of the cubs, so I got to experience many ages. Once again, I didn't have much experience with boys that age, but Spencer was there for every activity.

The last occurrence actually happened within two weeks of Spencer and I dating. We were babysitting my niece and nephew. As Spencer was singing a Tongan song to rock Cooper to sleep, something happened. I saw in my mind Spencer rocking and singing in Tongan to our baby boy. I didn't think much of it since I wasn't sure if it was just my imagination. I even thought it could have been our second child instead of the first when I thought about it later. But once we found out it was a boy, that memory came to my mind.

I may not know how to perfectly raise a boy, but I'm glad to know that Spencer will be there with me.

When a pregnant woman wants a slurpee on Sunday...

As Spencer and I were on our way home from my sister's house, we drove by not one, but TWO 7-Elevens.

Pretend this is a slurpee machine. GIMME SLURPEE NOW.

It was torture.

As we went by the first 7-Eleven, I told Spencer, "I wish it wasn't Sunday..." Then he finished my response, "since we'd go to 7-Eleven."

As some of you may recall, slurpees are one of the things I crave most (probably once a week). But I refuse to go there since we have a plethora of otter pops in our fridge. (This has nothing to do with the fact that the 7-Eleven closest to us has less than satisfactory flavors recently.)

No blue raspberry and cherry for me to mix together?! Unacceptable.

By the time we get around to the second 7-Eleven, we're toying around with the idea of taking Gatorade and ice, and putting it in the blender. (Mind you, we've thought about doing this previously.)

BUT... Spencer realized that the ice would water down the Gatorade flavor, so it would be best with Gatorade powder. Which we don't currently have...

But not all hope was lost. We got the idea of making an otter pop slushie in the blender! At first we thought about doing just one flavor (each otter pop is 1 oz, so eight would be an 8 oz slushie). But we mix flavors anyway, so we could just mix a bunch of otter pop flavors together!

Did two blue, orange, red, and pink!

I got me my slurpee on Sunday! It was quite good.

 Look out 7-Eleven, we're comin' for you!

*whistles*

Earlier I was in this mood where I had this song stuck in my head and I was singing and acting like the rooster in this song. 

For those of you unaware on where this song originates, it's from the Disney movie Robin Hood.

I was sauntering up and down our hallway like the rooster, while Spencer was giving me these questioning looks.

I told him it was from Robin Hood and he told me he's never heard of this song, or seen the movie. (I, in fact have shown him this video earlier in our marriage.) I gasped and proclaimed that we needed to watch this movie at once! A classic!

I told Spencer this was my favorite part as a kid.

I quickly pulled up YouTube and triumphantly showed him that the video has a red bar across the bottom of the video before I click on it, meaning we've watched the video before.

I click on the video and I continue merrily with my singing and sauntering.

Then when it got to the real good parts, I began to jump up and down to the beat, flailing my arms when the notes went up and down.

Then after the song was over, we went to bed and I read my new weekly update on Baby Hoffman and how he/she is developing.

"Listen up: Tiny bones in your fetus' ears are in place, making it likely that the baby can hear your voice when you're singing in the shower. In fact, studies have found that babies who hear a song while they're in the womb recognize the same tune when it's sung to them after they're born (so choose your lullabies with that in mind.)

I joke to Spencer, "Baby Hoffman can hear me singing this song! I wonder if the baby will want this song as a lullaby!"

He did not find the joke funny.

Instead, Spencer sung us a Tongan lullaby as we fell asleep, which I think is a much better lullaby than The Rooster Song.

"I smell syrup"

Preface: One of my most recent cravings has been pancakes. Now I know this is a craving because I haven't wanted pancakes in a long time and waffles are clearly superior. But, I've been eating so many pancakes recently!

A couple Saturday mornings ago, I got out of bed and saw Spencer on the couch. I walk over and immediately start cuddling with him since I was tired.

Me: "Did you eat pancakes for breakfast?"
Spencer: "No, I didn't have any pancakes."
Me: "I smell syrup on your breath."
Spencer: "I haven't had any syrup today."
Me: -squinty eyes not believing him-
"I could smell syrup as I walked out of the bedroom!"
-silence-
Me: "So how was this morning helping someone move?"
Spencer: "It was all right."
Me: "I want pancakes... No, I want toast... No, I want pancakes... But I don't want to get up."
Spencer: "I brought something home for you."
Me: -eyes widen as I run over to the table-
Me: "A maple donut!!!"
 -is overjoyed with glee-
"No wonder why I was smelling maple syrup!!!"

Spencer is the best, since he used the gift of discernment and tried to feel for what kind of donut I wanted, since there was a variety. He got the EXACT one I wanted!

Looks like my nose is working just like any other pregnant women would! #supersniffer

Pregnancy dreams are weird.

Just the other day I had this SUPER cool dream. It had the adventure, the drama, the mystery! I'm pretty sure during the dream I thought to myself, "This is going to make a GOOD blog post!

But then I woke up and I had literally forgotten everything. I tried all day trying to remember bits and pieces of it and nothing came to memory.

So instead I'm going to tell you the first and a recent pregnancy dream that I do remember.

The First Dream

I was sitting at a table with my three sisters, my Utah aunts, and a few female cousins. This was before we had told anyone but parents. So what did my mind think in my dream?

So I blurt out to them excitingly that I'm pregnant!

...But then I realize I'm only 4-5 weeks pregnant and that it was probably a bit too soon to tell them.

I laugh it off and tell myself it's fine as my sister Heather comes up to me. She pats my stomach firmly and pronounces, "Yeah, I could tell that you were pregnant. You look like it."

Ouch. Did she just say that to me?

I woke up out of embarrassment. 😂

(No, Heather would have never said that in real life!)

Next Dream

I had just gotten back from a Faulk Family Reunion and I was thinking about cub scouts. I was also scrolling through Instagram and saw this specific slide:

All of these things made me have this... interesting dream.

We were still in California at the reunion while I was trying to seclude myself into a bedroom, hoping to take a nap before the next activity started.

But before I managed to get to bed, my niece and nephews barge into the room looking for snacks (smart kids). Then all of our cub scouts herd into the adjacent room! What?

I could hear the scouts on how excited they were and how they were so pumped for the next activity! It sounded like a zoo.

Just as quickly as everyone arrived, we were shuffled to a large river nearby. At the river shore, were all of these floating metal tables lined up in the water.

For some reason, the cubs scouts and I began to fight a mighty battle in showing team spirit by stamping team logos onto the table. I was too preoccupied with dominating the table with my rainbow-y stamp, I don't even know what the scouts stamp looked like!

I didn't like that I was outnumbered, so I jumped on over to another table while Spencer stayed behind with the scouts. I was on a table with Uncle Daniel, Aunt Shauna, my Mom, and I can't remember who else.

The race was about to start down the river on our metal tables.

My team and I sit on the table bench so our legs are in the water, but our torso and up is still dry. (Apparently realistic gravity doesn't exist in this dream.) We all grab our paddles and we wait for the gun to be fired.

We start paddling as fast as we can down the river!!!

But Uncle Daniel was not satisfied with our efforts... He turns to the rest of us and remarks, "It's time for the secret sauce," as he presses a hidden button.

The 'secret sauce' made the table go at not actually lightning speed and made it the same angle as the slide previously mentioned. Practically straight up in the air!  (We did not have seatbelts in this dream, but I think we needed them on this flying table.)

The wind was blowing through our hair as we left all the other teams behind!

Then I woke up... but I assume we won. 

The Oreos Kept Me Going

Spencer and I have been wolf den leaders ever since we moved at the end of July last year. We did a planning night where we got some good ideas from the scouts on what activities they would like to do.

Finally, we got around to hiking the Y last Thursday.

For those who don't know-- this is a 1.1 mile hike up the Y Mountain with 13 switchbacks. Which basically means you're zig-zagging your way up the mountain.

The elevation difference is 1,074 feet once you get to the top, which was making this California girl huff and puff the entire time!

We had six scouts come with us, along with a few other adults besides Spencer and I. My doctor recommended me getting 20-30 minutes of light to moderate exercise each day. But once morning sickness had hit full swing, it's an accomplishment to get out of the house once a day... much less exercise.

I hadn't hiked the Y since 2015... It's been four years. So to say I was nervous for this was a bit of an understatement. I had already had a headache (which I tend to already get when I change elevations), and my nausea wasn't going away.

At 7 p.m. we get to the beginning of the trail and we start our ascent to the top! I was trying to go at a steady rate, but I was in the middle to the last of the pack.

I noticed that one of our smallest, newest cubs who had turned 8 not even two weeks ago was somewhat by himself but in between two adults. I slowed my pace and started to talk to him.

As the hike progressed, Spencer and I were the last ones in our group with him. I used to be able to hear or see the other scouts, but they were long gone.

I picked up my pace, hoping that we all could be at the top at the same time and take a picture.

While I didn't want to leave both of them behind, I felt like the longer rest breaks made me not want to continue at all. I sucked it up and continued my journey up the mountain by myself.

By the the 6th and 7th switchback, I wanted to give up, sit on one of those benches, and text everyone to leave this fallen soldier behind! I was much too tired and my headache was not getting any better.

But, I persevered, for the Oreos! Spencer and I had them in my snackpack for everyone at the top. I couldn't let any of the scouts down, even though they didn't even know about the Oreos!

I got more hope with each switchback achieved. I didn't care that everyone else in front of us probably thought I was ridiculously out of shape (albeit probably worse than I expected). I was determined to finish this hike!

I got to the top, stoked to have made it with minimal cramping (my doctor said that if I started to cramp up while exercising I should stop). I had made it in about 1 hour and 10 minutes!

The scouts were VERY excited to get the Oreos! It was fun since I had also brought pretzels and the scouts and I were switching snacks from our snackpacks.

The scouts began to descend from the Y as they had been to the top a lot longer. We didn't get the picture I was hoping for, but I did win brownie points loading up the scouts on sugar! I waited for Spencer and our youngest cub to get to the top. Once they arrived I continued to eat more Oreos with them.

One of the cute things that the cub scout told Spencer while hiking was that I'd be pregnant soon. If only he knew!

Pro tip: Don't hike the Y while pregnant and out of shape. Your ankles, calves, thighs, and hips down will extremely hurt after (and you struggle to walk)  and you can't take ibuprofen. 2/10, do not recommend.