Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Things to remember during the first trimester...

The first trimester was rough for me. I was nauseous all of the time. It wasn't the type of nausea where you throw up and then go on with your day, but rather the type of nausea that feels like you have the stomach flu. My entire body ached and I couldn't eat or drink anything. Water...I would throw up, Ginger Ale...I would throw up, toast...I would throw up and I got no relief from throwing up, instantly afterwards, I would feel nauseous again. I would wake up in the middle of the night and run to the bathroom to throw up but because I couldn't eat anything, it was that horrible stinging kind of bile throw up. I rarely brushed my teeth during the first trimester because simply sticking the toothbrush in my mouth made my throw up.

Things that made me very nauseous were Japanese noodles, Chinese food and Scrubbing Bubbles cleaning products. The only things that I seemed to have any luck with holding down were bean and cheese burritos and El Pollo white chicken meat, with no skin.

I also got used to throwing up in public places. I remember one day I was leaving work in Century City and I was stopped at a red light on Ave. of the Stars right in front of the crosswalk at 5:00pm...at this time of day, that crosswalk is packed. As I was waiting at the light, I look up and see two Asian girls walking across the street and I immediately started to think about Japanese noodles and just that thought alone made me throw up outside my car door, right in front of the crosswalk and all that passed by. It was disgusting! I threw up so many times in the work bathroom, twice in the side bushes by my apartment, once in the trash can outside the elevators at work and once while driving in rush hour traffic on my to work, I threw up in my brand new yellow/tan leather purse and ruined it.

I remember just lying in bed and being miserable. I was so tired because I literally wasn't eating or drinking anything for days at a time and I was still throwing up and my body was aching, I would get the chills, and couldn't stop shivering and Jon came to me and said, "Mercedes, it's just nausea, you're just going to have to get over it." I was so mad, it was not just nausea, it was this horrible debilitating sickness that I hope I never have with any of my other children.

My doctor was concerned because every time I went to see him, I had lost weight and I also threw up during my first visit with him, so he gave me a prescription for Zofran, and suddenly my life was great again. That is quite possibly the best drug on the face of the planet. I ended up being nauseous for 6 months of this pregnancy and that is the only thing that helped me keep food down and restored my energy.

During this trimester, I developed a super power sense of smell. I could smell lettuce that had begun to rot and grow brown from our front door even though our refrigerator door was closed. Also, after Jon was done riding his bike, he would come into the house smelling of metal, iron and dust, it was just the strangest smell, but it was so strong.

My favorite part of this trimester was hearing our baby's heartbeat. I remember thinking that he was so small, and just a blob but had such a strong, fast heartbeat. It was amazing. It was such an odd feeling at the time to know that my body was working so hard to create this baby inside me and the only thing that seemed real to me at this point in time was his heartbeat.

Friday, June 4, 2010

Baby Boy Hoeveler

Due on November 1, 2010.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

A Quick Update

January was spent at the San Diego zoo...



December was spent at home this year.



We visited with friends...


and their significant others...





October - Apple Picking tradition.


September...Lama contest..hands down, the best contest at the Antelope Valley Fair.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Vote on Jon's T-shirt design for Hurley!



Click on Green Hurley Link Below:

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

San Francisco











After Marshall and Amber's wedding, we spent a quick night and day in San Francisco. We drove from UC Davis to a Bart station in Oakland (next time we might not choose Oakland as the Bart station to leave our car at overnight) and took the Bart into San Francisco. I usually hate cities but San Francisco I love... there is just something about San Francisco that makes me feel that I am in Europe every time I visit.


Sunday, September 13, 2009

Marshall and Amber's Wedding






Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Goodbye City Life


Goodbye:


Stinky elevator that had an expired 2005 certificate of inspection proudly on display.

Mushrooms growing from the cottage cheese ceilings.

Water damaged bathroom walls and cardboard ceiling.

Yellow hot water.

Smells of Indian food cooking on Sunday mornings.

View of neighbors balcony, kitchen and neighbor smoking her 80+ cigarette for the day.

1970's yellow and white kitchen tile - the same tile they had in our church's bathroom growing up.

Tandem parking and waking Jon up early in the morning to move cars.

Death defying left turn onto Barrington Street.

Crazy Brian and his need to borrow our car for "emergencies," his unfulfilled promises to fix our ever rundown apartment and his delicious Italian meatballs and sauce.

View of the Pacific Ocean...from our roof.

Consistent 70 degree weather.

Beautiful, antique dinning room chandelier...I wish that I at least tried bribing Brian into letting us take it.

Brentwood zip code and the 3-times its worth rent that went along with it.

Tall blue and white building with its awkward attempt to look French and its huge blue tower acting as our no fail landmark for all our visitors.


I don't quite miss you yet, but I have a feeling one day I will.



Thursday, July 30, 2009

Vote now!

Dear friends, family, and fans of Threadless,

My Threadless design titled "Head Space" has been approved and now it needs your help!
I need as many people as possible to vote on it for me.
Please take 2 seconds and vote for it.
I really need and appreciate you help!
Spread the word!
-Thanks, Jon

You will need to setup an account with Threadless....it will take 2 minutes!

We have a deadline of 7 days to vote :)

Vote here:

http://www.threadless.com/submission/223606/Head_Space


Friday, July 17, 2009

Redwoods Camping Trip

This summer for Jon's birthday and the 4th of July, we went camping in the Redwoods. Our plan was to leave Thursday and drive to UC Davis to stay with Marshall and then all three of us would drive to Crescent City (which is right on the CA/OR border) the next day.

Thursday morning Jon was in the parking garage packing our car with all of the camping supplies when Brian (our building manager) came out of his "make-shift" workroom to speak to Jon. As they were talking they both started to smell smoke but they figured it was from somewhere outside of the apartment complex. They continued to talk and then Jon started noticing a lot of smoke in the air and all of a sudden the fire alarm in the apartment complex starts going off. It turns out that Brian's workroom had caught on fire because his American flag fell onto an exposed light bulb which caught it on fire and then the flag lit his work chair on fire. This in turn set off the water sprinklers which literally flooded the entire workroom and parking garage. From where I was on the 4th floor of the apartment complex, you could hear the alarm but it wasn't too loud, in fact, I thought it was from the apartment complex across the street (which is a little concerning to me). Once I stepped outside however, you could smell the smoke and see it in the air. Brian was pretty bummed because all of his equipment was damaged due to the water but at least everyone was okay. So with the smell of campfire already blanketing our car and belongings, we headed on our road trip. I am going to miss these types of wacky stories when we move.


We lucked out and got the best campsite in our campground. We were surrounded by Redwoods with no neighbors near us....just how I like it.

We went to "Trees of Mystery" which is pretty much a tourist trap, but it was still fun. They have paths that you can take in the redwoods with stops along the way that point out different facts . They also have a sky rail/ski lift that you can ride and really get the "feel of being amongst the redwoods" it was actually really fascinating and breathtaking being up that high.






We visited Jedediah Smith State Park. It was beautiful there. They have a beautiful lake and a lot of paths through the redwoods that you can wander around in.


For the fourth of July we headed down to the beach where tons of families and friends were setting off their own fireworks. I am assuming fireworks are legal in Crescent City because the amount and size of fireworks that were going off right above our heads by amateurs was both overwhelming and amazing. The city also had their own fireworks show. It didn't start until 9:00pm so by that time, the fog on the beach was really thick and we basically heard but didn't see the "official" show...but they sounded good :) Overall, it was an excellent trip.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Disneyland Adventures




Friday, May 29, 2009

For the Love of Fridays

I love that when we are done with work tonight, we are going to plan our trip to:

We will definitely visit here:

I love that we are going to go during this season:

I might actually get to see one of these:
I love that I will definitely get to see and spend time with him all weekend long:
And I love that we will be spending our time together here:

No School = LOVE

Friday, May 22, 2009

Otis Senior Show and GRADUATION!


The Otis Graphic Design department did a really great job at their senior show this year. Jon's project was awesome. He spent practically all semester and all day and all night working on his project. He designed music posters with fictional line ups. He used both his hand drawn art, graphic design and screen printed everything by hand. He lived in the screen printing lab this last year.





The cool thing about the senior show was that the seniors owned everything...they designed the layout, setup, locations and did all the man work involved as well. From the looks of it, he had fun too.
Jon's senior project: ( I will hopefully get a better picture..the lighting on this one doesn't do them justice)

Close Up of two of the posters:



Next day was graduation!

Standard walking shot right after receiving his diploma.

They had the CEO of Nike (Nike hires a lot of Otis students) speak at the graduation. His talk was very good and reminded us of President Hinckley's "6 Be's" and as it turns out, the CEO of Nike is a member of the Church...so that made sense. They also played the Indiana Jones theme song as the graduates exited...I thought that was really funny, but the entire time they were playing the song, I thought it was the Stars Wars theme song :)


Goodbye: Otis
Hello: Graphic Design Job at Eyerus!

I recently asked Jon if he missed going to school and he instantly said "No"...I guess it is still too soon :)