As of late...

What a week at the Gleed home! We had Cameron's first big actuary test, his birthday, and Thanksgiving all within three days and on top of my schooling and being pregnant. Perhaps all the stress and craziness is the reason I'm documenting this from bed because I'm sick. I think I've learned my lesson that my body is a little less invincible when I'm pregnant. I can still do a lot, but obviously not all at the same time. The past two days I've had a throat that feels like it is on fire, a cough (always makes for a great sounding man voice) chest pain (heartburn perhaps?) and just aches and pains in general.

About Exam P. To be an actuary you have to take a bunch of tests. You don't finish these until you are working in the field. The first one to take is a probablilty test called Exam P. They give you 3 hours and you have to get 18 out of 30 to pass. This was a $200 test but there was a BYU alumni that set it up that you would get reimbursed if you pass. No pressure right? Cameron has been working so hard to study for this test. He's got a class this semester that is geared specifically for that exam on top of spending countless hours in the actuary lab on campus going over practice exams. He was scheduled to take it Tuesday the 22nd at 1:00 in Lindon. Going into the test he talked to four other students in the class that had taken it and none of them passed. One of those students was the TA for the class! He dropped me off at school, went out to the test then picked me up afterwards. I got in the car and handed me a paper with the words a the top CONGRATULATIONS, You've passed Exam P! I could have cried I was so happy for him because he really had worked super hard for this. He said it was a lot easier than the practice exams that he'd been taking. He said there were 2 questions that he wasn't completely sure he got correct, but other than that he said it was easy. We have to wait for his official score for 8 weeks, but just knowing he passed is good enough. Since he passed, we get the 200 back and he automatically gets an A in his class for this exam. What a man! Good thing I have a wide open Saturday to do nothing but be lazy in bed.

The next day was his birthday. I didn't realize how much stress and pressure planning a husbands all day birthday would be. Gifts were easy to get for him since he told me what he wanted, but as for what to do, I was clueless. That morning I made him breakfast of eggs, bacon, hash browns and toast. We got ready then went to Alpine spinal somethin' somethin' to get half hour massages. After we came home and I finished up his birthday cake while he opened his gifts and watched his favorite youtube videos. After we were all packed we went to Sandy to Chuck-E-Cheese for lunch and games. After that we went shopping at Old Navy and Target for him to get new jeans since his only pair were pretty holy. After shopping we went to the dollar theater to see "The Help." It was really good. After that, we went to dinner with Jamie and Theron at Bucca de Beppo. (Jordan and Joanna gave us a gift card there.) Dinner was great, Jamie and Theron are a lot of fun to be with. When we went out to our car, the battery was dead. Luckily, Jamie and Theron were still there so they jumped us. My favorite part of the day was coming up. I had reserved a room in a hotel a few days ago. I got a super good deal and was so excited. I love staying in motels. We went to the motel and just hung out and watched Inception. Well, Cameron watched it, I slept. The next morning we were headed up to Bear Lake for Thanksgiving. We got out to the car and again, it was dead. We knew something was wrong because we didn't leave any lights on, there was no reason why it would be dead. I found these nice people (from Jackson) to jump us. Right when I put it in gear, it died again. They jumped us a second time and that got us enough battery to get to Jamie's house. It died again as we were pulling into their driveway. Jamie jumped us again and we got down the road about a mile when it died again. I called dad and he said to buy a new one or we wouldn't make it home. Jamie took us to Walmart where we got a new one and Scott changed our battery for us. What would I do without a kind and helpful family? I'm so blessed. After that, it worked great. We made it home just fine. We were supposed to take Grandma Sorenson home from the hospital since she had shoulder surgery on the 23rd but she didn't want to go home so we just went straight to Bear Lake. It was so good being home. Mom had the tables set so nice. We had, Mom, Dad, Emy, Morgan, Cameron and I, Trice, Phil, Colton, Wynden, Krystal, Sean, and Griff all at our house. Taylor was going to come but he broke his arm that morning snowboarding so he was home. I took up a salad that is tradition in Cameron's family. It was a jello salad.

1 box lemon jello (not sugar free)

1 can crushed pineapple

1/2 cup sugar

2 cups half and half

1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese.

Make the jello. In a saucepan mix sugar with pineapple, barely bring to a boil. Mix pineapple with jello and put in fridge. Wait until it's almost set up. (not to soupy but not hard jello) Fold in half and half and cheese. Refrigerate.

I'm pretty sure that is the recipe. It was his great grandma Brown's recipe. After dinner we played games with the Wards. Dad was super kind and changed our oil in the freezing cold. What a great dad I have. After that we watched UP as a family since Dad and Morgs had never seen it. Then we played more games and went to bed. It was a good day. Yummy food and good company. Friday we went to town and shopped for a bit before mom was nice enough to buy us the best food ever....Studabakers Pizza. Y.U.M!!!! After that, Cam and I took a nap then drove home. We stopped at Darci and Joels do drop off some stuff. All I can say is that I have the cutest nieces and nephews EVER! Love them! Then we stopped at Grandma and Grandpa Gleeds in Layton. They are the kindest people. They always feed us and I've never left there empty handed. She's always giving us canned goods or something wonderful. I do love spending time with them. For Thanksgiving, they wrote us a letter. One thing she said really stuck out to me of writing how I feel throughout the pregnancy. Here goes...

The other day I had just finished doing "Yoga Mama." At the end of the workout the instructor lady says how important it is to talk to your baby starting in the 4th month which is where I am. I sat in my big red chair and did just that. I told my baby all about my family and Cameron's family. It was kind of emotional when I was talking about what cousins it will have and how it's probably already met Kanatha. I hope so. While I was chattin' away, I thought I felt it kick but it wasn't because what I felt was way to high on my belly and way to fast. I am looking forward to the time when I can feel the baby and know for sure that is what it is. It's exciting to think that it could happen any day! Woo! Being pregnant is fun and I'm excited to know what we are having. I've had dreams that it is a boy and I read yesterday in a magazine that your dreams are often correct. After we find out the gender it's onto finding things for it and picking a name! EXCITING!

Cameron and I go to the temple every Saturday which is a wonderful opportunity since we live less than five minutes away from the Provo temple. Today when we went I decided that I needed to make some goals. I did so well with my goals last year that it must have burnt me out because I have had basically zero goals this year. I think I'm a little backwards now that it's past Thanksgiving and I'm just making my goals. Wow, maybe punctuality should be a goal! :)

* Graduate--April 26-27, 2012

* Write Gram and Shezzy at least once a month.

* Finish Doctrine and Covenants

* Bake something with my pumpkins

* Stay within grocery budget

* Stay within Christmas budget

* Read 3 books next semester

* Keep up cleaning Mondays

* Exercise everyday from next semester on

* Crochet something

* Make something (blanket, hat, clothes) for the baby

*Organize coat closet

*More journal writing

* Find car to buy

* 100% Visiting Teaching

That's all I can think of right now. I'm sure I'll come up with more once I talk to Cameron. He's got lots of good ideas. I think that's about all for tonight. I suppose I should look over my philosophy since I have a test this coming Thursday.

Enjoy the pictures all from Cameron's GOLDEN birthday!