|{ Thoughts On Having A Unique Name }|

I love my name.  I have met one other person with my name in my life and there have been a few times where people say they have met someone with my name. BUT, I have never met someone with my same spelling.  I'm not saying there aren't because I know there are, I've looked my name up on Facebook and there are plenty of people. :)

As I have looked on the internet for baby names or heard about people talking about naming your kids with a unique name, the feedback is often (though not always) negative.  People say things like, "No one will be able to pronounce it", "They will get made fun of", "They will always have to correct people and they'll hate that", etc.

However, as someone who has a unique name, I don't agree.  Yes, people say my name wrong, though as the years go on and more and more people have unique names it happens less often, I think people are getting used to it.  I have never been made fun of.  I don't always correct people, only when I know I'll see them again, and I don't really mind.  I don't get mad when people say it wrong.  It really doesn't bother me.

Most of my conversations go like this, "How do you say your name?"- "Shalay"- "Where does it come from? Is it Irish?"- "No, my Mom made it up actually."- "Well it's absolutely beautiful, I've never heard that before."

My Mom did make up my name, I asked her how exactly she did that because I can't even imagine just making up a name and she said that she was just putting letters together one day.  I had my name picked out before my parents even met.  My Mom even wrote me a letter, with my name, before she had met my Dad.

I'm proud of my name, I like that it's unique!  So I say, if you want to name your baby something unique then go for it! :) (Just don't let it get too out of hand, there are some crazy ones out there! Haha!)

|{ WE'RE HAVING A BABY!! }|

Hello lovely readers!!

I wanted to share some awesome news today!! Jonathan and I are expecting our first child!!!! We are SO EXCITED!!!

Here is our story!

On Sept. 25th I was supposed to go to the dentist to get my surgery started to get my tooth implant (woohoo!)! I hadn't taken a pregnancy test in a few weeks so I figured I should probably make sure I wasn't pregnant before my appointment (due to chemicals and such).  I was SURE that I wasn't pregnant! I was feeling cramping every once in a while so I was sure that I wasn't.  But I took the test first thing in the morning and then snuggled with Jonathan in bed for a few minutes.  When we got up he came with me and I walked right over to the test and picked it up, sure that it was going to negative.  To my immense surprise there were 2 lines!!! 2 VERY solid pink lines!! I couldn't believe it!

So, I called my dentist and had to cancel my appointment until I'm out of my first trimester and then called the doctor to schedule my first appointment! We had NO idea how far along I was, due to my cycle being so irregular so they had me come in as soon as they could fit me in (the following Monday and again on Tuesday).  On Monday (October 1st) I went in and just met with the nurse and we talked as she gave me lots of information.  Then on Tuesday I came in and saw the doctor and they did an ultrasound to figure out how big the baby was!

We found out I was 6 weeks and 1 day pregnant and my due date is MAY 27TH!!

It was so cool to see the little spot on the ultrasound.  Jonathan and the doctor even got to see a little heart beat flickering (I was too far away).  SO AWESOME!!

After that we spent the next few days cleaning out our spare room, which will now be a nursery!! We cleaned and painted and even went out and bought a few things (stroller and carseat, crib, and dresser to use as a changing table).  I REALLY hated the spare room before but it looks so good now!! It's awesome!!

(Ugly gray walls with our sample paint)

(Painting it white)

(All white! Even the ceiling to match!)

(Yellow stripes)

(Gray stripes plus putting together the crib!)

Then on Saturday the 6th we called our families on Skype and told them we wanted to show them our Halloween decorations and then said we had one more.  We put a sign on the nursery door that said "Get Ready!" and then showed them the room where we had put up a sign announcing that we were pregnant!! Their reactions were AWESOME and we recorded them! Once we put the video together I will definitely post it here! :)

So yeah!! We did it!! I'm pregnant!!! I'm feeling pretty good.  A little nauseated when I get hungry and I am REALLY thirsty for water ALL the time!! But I'm feeling great!! :)  I plan to start taking bump photos starting at 10 weeks! :)  The following photos were taken the day we found out! :)

|{ My Researcher }|

Things have been very busy over here in the Peterson household!  The hubby was about to start his 3rd year of medical school, in which he would get to start with rotations, when life threw us a curve ball.

Though it was really hard to go through at the time and left us feeling frustrated and angry I think that it turned out for the better!

Jonathan found a great lab to do research in this year instead, postponing medical school until next year! He is already having a lot of success, he is getting paid for it, and he will get MANY publications out of it which will help him to get into a really good residency!

He has been VERY VERY busy!! Definitely more busy than his classmates who did get to start their 3rd year! He spends every day in lab, even the weekends, and is there from around 8-10 in the morning to 8-12 every evening! I don't get to see him much so when I do I try to take advantage of it.  Usually the weekends are less busy when he only goes in for a few hours.  He has had a few days off, mostly for things like birthdays and my graduation, and those days are always awesome!

I am so proud of him for all the work that he has been doing and I'm excited for our future! He's so amazing!!

|{ Julie & Julia }|

I just watched this movie on TV and no matter how many times I see it I just love it!  It reminds me of when Jonathan and I were Italy because I saw it for the first time on the plane on the way there, then I bought the book (I believe it was in Rome), and read it while we were there.

I came home with a plan to start my own cooking project, which I did for a while until I just stopped, like I always do.

I think I like the movie (and the book) for multiple reasons:
1- I really do LOVE cooking and watching it always gets me in the mood to start cooking again.  I have definitely been in a cooking slump and I think I'm ready to get out of that!
2- I LOVE blogging and I can relate to how she feels about blogging and how exciting it is to get a comment (even if it is from someone you know)! And though my blog never has been nor ever will be as big of a deal as hers turned out to be, I still love my blog!
3- I feel like I can relate to her character a lot, we have a lot of the same temperaments and I feel like I would react in similar ways as she does to things going wrong.
4- And of course you can NEVER go wrong with Meryl Streep and Amy Adams is so adorable (and was in The Office!)

So, I'm feeling the need to try this project again. Yeah, laugh it up, you're probably right, it won't last long.  I need to take the time to figure it out exactly what I want to do and to make it a realistic goal.  No 524 recipes in 365 days. I'm not that motivated.

But first on my list:
Make Boeuf Bourguignon- Julia Child's Boeuf Bourguignon

Because it looks way to delicious to not taste!!

|{ Purple Shampoo }|

I've been lightening my hair for a while now and I think I may have hit the point where I'm okay if it doesn't go lighter. I am loving the platinum blonde!

When I got my hair done this last time my stylist asked me if I was using purple shampoo. I had NO idea what she was talking about and she told me to just go to a beauty store like Ulta and get purple shampoo because it would help to my hair keep the platinum rather than going yellow.

I took her word for it and walked into the store. "Uh, I need purple shampoo...?" I felt so silly but the sales associate simply smiled and walked me right over to the shampoo.  I grabbed a bottle and felt happy that I had accomplished the task.

It wasn't until I actually used it that I decided that having this hair color ROCKS!! I get to use the coolest shampoo!! I didn't realize they meant it was actually PURPLE!!! (And it smells good too!)

(Not sure where this photo came from, do you?)

|{ Little Hand Prints }|

After our get-together this weekend to celebrate my graduation/watch the Michigan football game I found these little hand prints on our desk cupboard doors.  You can't even see them unless you get done to their level.

I know you might think I'm crazy but they just melted my heart! I can't wait until it's my children who are making little hand prints everywhere!

|{ Certified Massage Therapist }|

Yesterday, September 8th 2012, I graduated from the Ann Arbor Institute of Massage Therapy!!

I'm a massage therapist for real now!! I can't believe it!! I got a job about a week ago at a place called Vibrant Touch.  I'm helping out a lady who has a private practice and needs help with her clients! I can also use her room for my own clients (which I will soon be working on getting! :) )

Graduation was amazing! It was surprising emotional, there were lots of tears knowing that we won't get to see each other again and that we've all been such an integral part of each other's success.  I gave a short speech which I think went pretty well, if your lucky I might post the video sometime...if your very lucky! :)

There was a lot of laughter and inside jokes as well, it was an all around amazing experience and now I'm a massage therapist!!! WOW!!!

Here were some of my favorite photos! I'm so glad my hubby was able to take lots of photos! :)

We get to put our hand prints on a canvas when we graduate!

I put an orange heart in Michelle's print and she put a pink one in mine!

|{ The Day I Turned 24 }|

The first thing I want you to know...my husband is AMAZING!! I don't know how I got so lucky but he is absolutely incredible and my birthdays are always so much fun...until his birthday comes around and then I just feel guilty because I cannot replicate his awesomeness!

Secondly, I want to apologize for the lack of pictures.  We just didn't end up taking many. *shrug* Oh well.

So, first thing in the morning we got up and went to breakfast at Angelo's, which is a popular restaurant in Ann Arbor and is on the medical school campus.  We got our favorite things to eat, mine is an omelet with ham, cheddar, and avocado and Jon's is Eggs Benedict! SO yummy!! Then, after breakfast Jon gave me this:

"Please don't hang me on this tree, I do not want to die you see! 

If I survive, guess these words three, I'll take you on a Shopping Spree!!"

It also had a few papers with directions for a random address and a note that said that I had an appointment at 1:00.

So, we played hangman at the table and I did NOT want that little dude to die so I took my time.  I never hit that moment where I knew what the answer was and Z was the last letter I had to guess! It was pretty hard!! So I finished the puzzle and it was not helpful.
Me- "What is that?"
Jon- "The place we are going shopping!"
Me- "Ok cool! I've never heard of it..."
Jon- "Yes you have! It's your favorite place!"
Me- *Looking confused at the paper* "Oh! H&M?!?!"
Jon- "Yeah, I definitely had to Google that one."

So, off to H&M we went.  I asked Jon what my budget was, he said I had a little over an hour before we had to leave for my appointment, that was my only limit! WHAT!? Awesome!! It was really fun to walk around the store knowing I literally could get whatever I wanted!! And I did, and it rocked! How cool is he?!

Jon's original plan for my birthday present was going to be a surprise.  In the room that will someday be the nursery for our child there is wood paneling on all the walls and it's all painted this weird gray-blue color.  He knows I hate it and was going to put up drywall in the room and paint it and then surprise me on my b-day! Aww!! But there were complications and our landlord doesn't want us to do that, so we'll have to come up with a new plan instead. Oh well, it's the thought that counts! :) He's so sweet!

Anyway, so after shopping we headed out to my appointment.  He refused to tell me where it was we were going or what the appointment was for but about 45 minutes later we ended up at the dentist...on my birthday... I looked at him and glared and he just laughed.  The appointment ended up being a consultation to put an implant in so I won't have the space in my teeth anymore!!! YAY!!!!! I am so excited!!! I have always been self-conscious about the space and now we are finally getting it taken care of!! I have an appointment on Sept. 25th to get the first of 4 appointments done and it's gonna be the big one where they do all the surgery. I'm a little nervous but excited! The ONLY downside is that I've waited too long to get it done so the roots are starting to grow towards each other so I have to get the tooth behind it pulled and get 2 implants, which means that for a few weeks I will have a bigger space there until the implants actually get placed, but it will be SO worth it!! I can't wait!

Wow, this post is getting long, so let's summarize the rest.
After that we went home and got stuff ready for dinner. We were having people over to make sushi!! It was so yummy and so much fun! We always love making sushi!! Then after that we had more people over and had brownies instead of cake (Triple Chocolate Ghirardelli brownies)! Then Jon got liquid nitrogen and we made homemade mango Dippin' Dots and raspberries! It was delicious and so much fun!!

It was an AMAZING birthday and I have my incredible husband to thank for it! I could not be more blessed!!

|{ Do Blondes Have More Fun? }|

I had the most lovely day yesterday! I went and got a massage (because it's a graduation requirement) and actually felt good results afterwards!! You would think that being in massage school would mean I get massaged all the time, which is partially true. I do get massaged, just not nicely. We're just bodies for other people to work on so our issues are not actually focused on, so it was nice to get a massage where and how I actually needed it for once! :)

Then I got to go and get my hair done! I REALLY needed to touch up my roots and I wanted some bangs too.  I also got my eyebrows shaped, which I have never done at a salon before, so that was cool! I have been working towards going lighter and lighter and this is wear I am right now. It's such a cool color! I really like how light it is! :)

I saw this photo on Pinterest today and I can't get enough of how awesome that color is!!!!

|{ The BIG Test }|

Since before the first day of massage school we have been hearing about the dreaded NMT (Neuromuscular Therapy) exam that is at the end of the year! It's no surprise that the whole class was scared out of their wits! Honestly, if the teachers wouldn't make such a big deal about it and keep any actual info about the test a secret until it's almost there then it would NOT be so scary!

Anyway, I took this big test which included writing the attachments for a routine of my choosing, doing said routine, writing down the attachments for 10 muscles that I pull out of a bag, and working on 6 extra muscles that are not in my routine but are giving randomly by the tester.  The only thing I really had a hard time with was the attachments of the 10 muscles.  They were ALL really hard for me!! There was only 1 that I even sort of knew.  I really should have studied harder! BUT, I PASSED!!!! You have to get 75% to pass, guess what I got???..... 76%! BOO-YA!!! Haha! I don't even care, I'm just glad I passed!! Especially considering that my tester was the school director! Yikes!

Now I just need to do a few more clinic hours and tie up a couple of loose ends and I'll be ready to graduate from massage school!! How crazy is that?! I can't even believe it's been a whole year!! WOW!!