Last night we bought a crib. I picked it out myself during a quick scoping-out trip to Baby Depot (part of Burlington Coat Factory).

I have to say that the price of cribs is astonishing. On average, they cost about $200-400. Spending $400 on some wooden slats just seems enormously outrageous to me, especially when you consider that you have to purchase the mattress and bedding separately, at additional cost. And if you want to buy a themed bedding set (like “Bee My Baby” or “Day at the Zoo”) you should be prepared to dish out at least $150. And, of course, if you get the themed bedding set you’ll probably be tempted to buy the matching lamp, mobile, pillows, baskets, nursery organizer, stuffed animals, etc., for hundreds of dollars more. What’s wrong with a couple sets of plain sheet sets and maybe a blanket?

Anyway. Back to the crib. It’s Simplicity Chelsea in honey and cost $159.99 plus tax.

It’s a simple crib compared to some of the other models, but that’s probably why it was only $159.99. I feel like it’s a good size and not too over-the-top like some other styles I saw. The next day I showed John a picture of the crib online and he said, “Why not?” So I went back and picked it up last night. The box barely fit into my car’s trunk (I scraped up my elbow, knee, and ankle trying to cram it in). And it’s still there because I need John’s help to pull it out again.

So. We’re officially People Who Own a Crib. For a baby. Every piece of furniture or clothing we acquire that was formerly foreign but now normal and necessary reminds us that we really will be having a baby in two more months.

My birthday was last week and I received five electronic birthday cards, all from people I work with. Number of real-life cards received: Zero.

It’s not a big deal to receive birthday salutations via email, but since e-cards are inherently impersonal I think people should at least try to make the e-card seem like it’s personal.

E-card Do’s and Don’ts:

1. If you’re going to send a birthday e-card to an employee on behalf of the entire department, please be courteous enough to remove the birthday person’s name from the generic list of employees on the card.

2. While you’re at it, please also correct the typo in “From your friend’s at [name of organization].”

3. If you’re going to create a birthday card in Microsoft Publisher, instead of emailing the Publisher document to the birthday person and letting her open it in Publisher (assuming she has the program installed) and scroll through the card’s four pages in draft format, why not just print it out and give it to her the old-fashioned way?

Besides being baffled by the sense of e-cards, I had a good birthday. My parents came into town and we ate very good ice cream cake from Cold Stone (courtesy of my sister). Another year down!

Last year when I was in Madison for work I found the greatest blue Dansko Lolita sandals–but they were all sold out of my size because their mega end-of-season sale had been the week before. I was totally bummed, and this year I was determined not to miss any more end-of-season shoe sales. I’ve been thinking of getting some new Birkenstocks, since my wonderful blue suede ones from my high school days have definitely seen better days. (Although I still love them and forever will.)

So a few weeks ago I contacted a local comfort shoe store and found out when their end-of-season sale would be and put the dates on my calendar. I didn’t know the details of their sale, but I knew it started today at 9 a.m. and was called their Three-day Door Busters Sale.

I took an hour off work to go. I got there about ten past nine and already it was a madhouse. The store is small, and it was cramped with tables piled high with boxes and narrow aisles and women, women everywhere, their purses dangling off their elbows, carrying three shoe boxes at a time and precariously balancing on one foot to try on a fourth pair. Crazy as it was, I felt kinship with them. These were my people–people with an eye for good, comfortable shoes at a good price.

I beelined for the Birkenstock table, which was a good thing because they were featured in today’s Door Buster sale and the boxes were being eaten away quickly. I followed the example of the women carrying three boxes at a time: If I found something I liked I picked it up and held onto it, even if I wasn’t sure I would buy it. As kinsfolky as I was feeling, it’s still every woman for herself at a shoe sale.

I finally decided on two pairs: One Cozumel Navy Blue Silky Suede

and one Orlando Golden Brown Birko-Flor.

The Cozumel was $60, marked down from $110, and the Orlando was $40, down from $80. So I saved about 50% overall.

I haven’t told John yet, but I know he’ll read this blog post and hopefully he’ll take note of how much money I saved in the long run and possibly remember that it’s my birthday next week.

Who knew Stewart Falls had so much history to it? I don’t mean the history of the falls. I mean relationship history.

We hiked up there this morning with my brother Josh and his wife Hannah and their boy Logan. Turns out that Josh and Hannah’s first date was hiking Stewart Falls. And another lady I met there today had her first kiss (pre-current husband) at Stewart Falls.

John and I have our own history with Stewart Falls, which is:

In August 2001 I had only known John a short time. He was my home teacher and we had some mutual friends in our BYU ward we would watch movies with. The more I talked with him the more he reminded me of my old roommate Melissa, who was one of my all-time favorite roommates. It so happened that my brother’s roommate Clint knew Melissa, too. As Clint and I talked about John and Melissa we contrived that it’d be awesome to set the two of them up. But we weren’t sure if John already had a girlfriend. So we asked a close friend of John’s, Carrie Grant, and she said she thought he was single.

And thus our first hike to Stewart Falls was born.

We arranged a group to go up there one evening later that week. It was a large group, but I know it included me, my brother Josh, his roommate Clint, Carrie, and, of course, Melissa and John.

I’d never been to Stewart Falls and thought it was beautiful. Josh had a lot of fun jumping underneath the waterfall so I could take his picture. I really enjoyed getting caught up with Melissa, since I hadn’t seen her in a while. We had a blast walking and talking together.

The hike was great. But the contrived set-up between John and Melissa?

Well . . . let’s just say I remember hiking with Melissa at my side and John being just behind us. Melissa and I talked loads. John and Melissa, not so much.

The plan failed.

But, on the bright side, within a week John and I were dating each other and four months later we were engaged.

So even though the plan didn’t work, it kind of worked better than expected. Brillantly, in fact.

Today when John and I hiked it again my brother Josh asked us if we had already started to like each other during our first hike six years ago. My answer: “Nope.” John’s: “A little.”

The rest is history.

This past weekend marked a monumental event in my life: The day on which I first set foot in the state of Idaho.

Really. I’ve never been there, even though about half the population of Utah was born there or has family there. But I’ve seen Napoleon Dynamite, which was filmed in Idaho. From the movie I remembered lots of fields and small towns, and that’s what we saw a lot of. Some parts reminded me of my home state, Iowa. Only browner.

We drove up with my in-laws and stopped off in Twin Falls. The city is built right next to a beautiful natural canyon with the Snake River running through it, and a beautiful non-natural golf course built into it.

Then we drove over to see the Shoshone Falls. As the sign we passed on the way there said, “The Snake River falls in thunder 210 feet over a rocky ledge higher than famous Niagara.”

I’ve been to Niagara Falls (twice), and Niagara’s definitely more impressive. But these were still nice.

On our way out of Twin Falls we passed a number of wildfires. The temperature has been so hot and the land so dry, and the lightning storms we saw and the wind we felt didn’t help. Here’s a picture of the smoke near Twin Falls. Notice the American flag near the Days Inn. It’s sticking straight out; that’s how strong the wind was.

Later that night my sister-in-law’s family got stuck near Twin Falls on their way to Boise because they shut down the freeway due to the fire jumping the interstate.

In Boise that night we met up with John’s oldest brother’s family and had dinner at Goodwood and hit the (very cold) hotel pool where I got to break in my new maternity swimsuit.

On Saturday morning John and I had breakfast together at our hotel (which I’m proud to say was a nice three-star place that we booked via Priceline for $45/night when it retailed for $90), then we spent the day together with John’s family at the Boise Discovery Museum. I wish I had taken my camera. John and I walked through a nice downtown park and discovered the campus of Boise State University along the Boise River. We also saw many, many geese and trod carefully over their droppings, which were underfoot everywhere. That afternoon we saw the movie Ratatouille and that night we opened John’s birthday gifts back at our hotel.

Everyone listening intently to John’s brother Robby’s wisdom.

Alec, Tiana, and Jared playing while the adults chat.

Abby and Aidan camping out by the TV while the adults talk.

Overall it was a good trip. I set foot in Idaho, our baby is 27 weeks along, and John turned _ _!

One last photo of us in Idaho:

So I was just thinking tonight about how things have changed since last year. Today we’re a year older. Today we’re expecting a baby.

Yet, some things never change.

Want to know what John and I did tonight? To find out, check out last year’s post.

I guess consistency can be refreshing.