A quick review

May 11th?!?!?

What happened?

Apparently, being buried in finals for grad school makes you forget the days and it makes for the mushing together of many-a-day sitting in the same chair, in front of the same computer screen, thinking/writing/analyzing the same things.

But, we made it.  

Baby girl made it through the stress of her first finals week.

I know she was feeling it because she was incredibly restless.

One day, she was so restless and incredibly active that it felt like my whole stomach was bruised.  

I couldn't even touch it without horrible pain.  

I guess she was letting me have it for procrastinating.  

I spent a couple hours laying on the floor with my legs and arms being stretched in odd positions by the dinner table and chairs.  

My husband walked in the door to find me on the floor, stretched out with one leg over my head and one straight out to the side with my arms holding on to whatever objects I could find.  

This was honestly the only way I could find to ease the pain.

He thought I had finally lost it.

Honestly, I thought so too.

Moral of the story...there's not one.

Better luck next time.

The night before this shenanigan we spent with our lovely new friends Noe, Cynthia, Abner, Kaleb, and Camila Garcia. 

They were baptized members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Friday, May 4th.

We were lucky enough to be apart of it.

Javi spoke at the baptism and then he was able to baptize Noe.

Once Noe had been baptized, he stepped out of the baptismal font - dripping wet - and was given the gift of the Holy Ghost and the Priesthood.

Noe then stepped back into the font and baptized his two sons Abner and Kaleb.

Javi then was able to baptize Cynthia.

I had never seen anything like it before.  It was a truly fantastic Friday night!

The next day - the day my daughter was beating me up from the inside - was Camila's 3rd birthday party. 

You have never seen such a grand party!

The church was truly transformed into the castle of the Beast and Belle and the Beast actually showed up.

They danced their beautiful dance to "Tale As Old As Time", took pictures with all the children (and us), made bracelets with the little girls, cut the cake (that looked like a castle), and much more.

It really set the standard for birthday parties!

Super grainy, but you get the idea.
Why is the Beast holding up his arm like he's Lumiere?
I don't get it either.

And now, the microwave.

Since moving to New Mexico, we have been very blessed by the outpouring of love by complete strangers.

We have been invited to countless dinners, been helped with our three moves by people we hardly knew, and baby girl has been completely outfitted with bags and boxes of clothing, receiving blankets, shoes, accessories, and even a beautiful crib.

The goodness of people is fantastic.

On Tuesday night, our microwave (that has served me well since moving out of my parents home seven years ago) finally quit.  

We lived without a microwave in our first NM home and the convenience is just too wonderful to go back to living without one.

Anyway, I was doing the grocery shopping Wednesday night and I knew that I couldn't go home without a microwave.  

There was ONE red microwave left and I just knew we were meant for each other.

Since it was on a high shelf, I was able to let it softly fall into the cart without much trouble. 

(You see, last Saturday I had a scary night of contractions and I knew that it was my body telling me that I had to slow down somehow.  The next day my MIL told me that she lost a baby at the same point I am at in the pregnancy all because she kept going full speed ahead with no consideration for the little person who was trying really hard to survive inside.  I knew that being a full time student, YW president, and working three jobs were likely putting baby girl at risk...so I've been trying to be more careful.)

Back to the story:

I finished my shopping and was REALLY feeling the lovely aches that come with pregnancy. 

I got out to my car and realized that I would not be able to get the microwave out of the cart.

In my trying to be creative, I ended up ripping the box and I was close to tears.

Before I even knew it, a car pulled up behind me and a couple about my parent's age jumped out.

The husband said "you shouldn't be trying to lift things like this" and he and his wife proceeded to load up my car with my purchases.

I was no longer close to tears...they were happening.

The wife asked "do you have someone at home who can help you to unload all this stuff?"

I told them that my husband would be off work soon and he could help me.

They smiled, got back in their car, and through my incessant "Thank you" "I really appreciate it" "I can't thank you enough" they drove away.

They were angels to me that day.

Normally, this would seem incredibly insignificant but to those who have been 33 weeks pregnant, you can imagine how much it meant to my little waddling self.

I promised myself that for the rest of my life I will look out for other little waddling persons who might just need an extra helping hand.

There is goodness all around.

It is too bad that we are bombarded by only the "bad news" and negativity because there is much goodness to be shared.

To those people who I'm sure I'll never see again,

Thank you times 1,000.