Trisha Shelley Blog

Here’s just a little update on our lives! Christmas break was wonderful (but we have a suprising lack of pictures from our escapades though L ) We were able to visit my family for the week before Christmas and Christmas day. Jake got to see how my family does Christmas….can’t really tell whether he loved it or hated it when my little 11 year old sister got me to go look at presents at 3 AM or when we woke the whole family up at 6 to start the present opening, but we had a lot of fun.

My gifts were more homemade for him this year. Scrubs for dental school with a  secret message.

Stocking stuffer onesies with funny dental school/daddy sayings. (Designed them and got them printed and put on the onesies secretly).  It’s hard to be sneaky with Jake. I’m not a very good liar J

Kudos to his brother Tommy for coming up with this gem.

After the festivities at my parents home in Rigby, Idaho, we flew down to Arizona to see these love birds get married. It was a beautiful wedding and we're excited to have some more married friends to hang with! (Not that we didn't already party with them enough as is :) )

Silver City was beautiful! Driving in, I could just not get it out of my mind how unique this place is. Just seeing tons of rolling hills with houses built on them surrounded by mountains. Not to mention the beautiful weather. I can see why people retire here.  Other favorite thing? No crazy Utah drivers. Driving around Silver City was like taking a relaxing stroll in the park compared to Utah. Whew. Life just moves a little slower, more gently, and to me, more peacefully. Made me miss it.

Spending a week with Jake’s family was amazing too! I married very well my friends, my in laws are fantastic. We had a fun week, and I wished I journaled so I would remember everything, but lets see, just to touch the basics, skiing (not me, don’t worry J ), lunch with friends, blanket tying, movie watching, learning new things, and …..ah! I know there was a bunch more but pregnancy brain strikes again!

Also during Christmas break my mother in law gave me/baby some very beautiful gifts for the nursery. All handmade by her and all gorgeous. Car seat cover, changing table bag, adorable little owls, a hand tied quilt we did together, strap protectors, and a beautiful quilt that probably took her weeks to do! 

We recruited the help of Nelda Brown, who graciously shared her time, to show us how to do this special quilting.

I’m excited to see everything put all together! After Christmas break I must have been all hyped up by getting those baby things that when we got home I could not get baby furniture out of my mind. Within the next 4 days we accumulated ALL our furniture—crib, dresser, changing table, and rocking chair. And all of them were found on KSL and at the DI (Utah’s version of Craigslist and secondhand store). I literally hunted those places nonstop until I found what I wanted.

Our main problem during all this? We own a little 2 door Honda Civic. I think you would all be impressed by what we accomplished.  We fit both our crib and rocking chair in there! (not at the same time) The crib was a little sketchy driving down the freeway with our trunk open and tied down with a thin rope and twine….. but we made it!

Other kind souls helped us out with the dresser and changing table. There are some really good and amazing people in Utah.

Okay, on to my latest pregnancy related obsession. I really wanted to have all my furniture match! But my rocking chair ($20 steal!) just wasn’t fitting in…..white vs. golden oak. Not quite what I wanted. I thought I could update it, and with some gentle nudging (incessant pregnancy nagging is probably more accurate) I got Jake to cave and go along with me.

before

Let me tell you. This was definitely a labor of love.  Emphasis on the labor part. I based my idea/designs off of this chair I found on pinterest. 

Making the new cushions was easy—cutting foam and sewing them together. Now creating the pattern for the covers was another story. (If you’ve never done this, it is NOT fun—matching my not so perfect cushions, adding seam allowance, and taping newspaper together) Cutting out the fabric took even longer. By my calculations it turns out I needed 30 feet of bias tape (2 inch wide strips)! Uuuggh…. (But thank you to my mother in law for teaching me how to do that!)

Sewing the cording into the bias tape....all 30 feet!

Then for the sewing! It’s a good thing my mom came down and brought her machine too!

Everything went pretty well. She helped me put in a zipper for the first time! Scary! But it turned out okay…hers was definitely more beautiful than mine J

Then she helped me pin together. I sewed  almost everything, and made her do the not so fun part. Sorry mom L --pinning!

And Jake did a great job at sanding and painting…..as much as he would have preferred to not do that in the freezing cold. My husband loves me! And I’m so grateful for him. Thanks you Jake!

Everything finally paid off though! Now I have a beautiful chair that fits really well into our nursery that’s much more modern! Just need to make a little pillow to tie in my coral colors.

Having everything pretty well setup really makes me start day dreaming about our little one and the memories we’ll build there.  Only 10 weeks away from my due date! Let’s hope she comes on time, I’m getting antsy! Feeling and seeing her roll around in my belly is magical, uncomfortable, and a little scary sometimes.

I’ve realized that there are three main reasons that pregnant woman hold their hands on their bellies. (You know what I’m talking about.)

11.  To feel the little baby move

22.  To make the kicks a little less painful

33.  To not scare people when they see HUGE punches coming out.  Really, the other day it was kind of freaky how far out those kicks were coming.

Reminds me of this shirt I saw at the store the other day. I almost bought it because it was so fitting!

In other news, we’ve officially chosen Mesa, Arizona as the dental school we’re headed to! The school was just too good to pass up with the quality, new facilities, small class sizes,  amount of clinical experience Jake would get, service to under-served populations,  and location…..well, moving to Mesa, Arizona in July isn’t exactly ideal, but we’re really looking forward to it! The weather around Christmas time in Provo was hovering right around zero. That made the decision even easier!

We are excited for our new adventure! His first day is July 14^th and that’s when his white coat ceremony will be as well! Fun to hear those words being said about Jake. He has worked so hard and deserves every bit of this.

In other news, I’m loving health coaching! Got my shiny BYU degree/diploma  in Exercise and Wellness in the mail a few days ago. Needless to say, that felt pretty great.  I’m excited to make a difference with the program I coach. There’s a lot of power in it for lasting change, and seeing just the mental shifts my clients are making and their self-efficacy being shot through the roof has been so rewarding.  I’m excited I get to help facilitate that change in their lives, and let the things I’m learning change mine too.

Thank you everyone for showing and sharing so much love, care, and support to us! We're so grateful to all our family and friends!

Love,

Trisha & Jake