Zavoral Villa!

We finally did it! We accomplished our goal to redo the shower/tub/floor in our bathroom before the baby gets here!! Before- Our nasty, moldy, grimy, plastic tub/shower. Eeeew. After demolition, we found out it was actually only 4 years old! Oh well, it was time for it to go! During- 4 full days with one plumber, two tile guys, and a bunch of dust. We don't have a second shower, so Jeremy used the gym (once!) and I showered at the neighbors (thank you Barry and Lisa!!). After- 12X16 Porcelain shower tiles with decorative glass tile. Neat alcove for soap/shampoo, brushed nickel hardware. Ameri-cast Porcelain coated tub. 12X12 Porcelain tile floor. The granite counter top was already there. We celebrated the successful week by going out to eat. Jeremy had to take a pic of me before we left 34 weeks, 6 days. Woohoo!! Now that I am so wise on the subject (ha!) here is another one of my lists! Things I learned about remodeling something in my house: Whenever someone is giving you a bi...

Last weekend we took the afternoon to drive up to Lake Arrowhead. It's a place in the mountains about 1.5 hours from Huntington Beach. It was foggy on our way up, but soon everything cleared up and we were able to enjoy the nature! We took a boat tour on the little Queen Arrowhead. The lake is completely private, so this was our only chance to be on the water. We saw tons of mansions and rich people's homes, including Shirley Temple's old home, a guy from the Beach Boys' home, and the owner of In&Out Burger's home. Some of the places were on sale for 14.5 million dollars and up! Here is the awesome view from the road to Lake Arrowhead. You can see all of San Bernardino County and into Orange County and beyond!

Here is a little tradition we are starting with some family members. At 32 weeks of pregnancy, we wear this blue shirt, stand in the ocean, and get our picture taken. I'm the third one to do this so far! 10 more things I like about being pregnant: I started taking DHA/Omega 3 fatty acids with my prenatal vitamins back in January. Within 5 days, I noticed a HUGE difference in my facial skin. No acne of any kind, no blemishes, everything is beautiful and smooth. And I know it's from the DHA pills because if I forget to take them 2-3 days in a row, I start getting pimples. Without being pregnant, I never would have discovered this! Today at church I discovered that I have a good excuse to get up during the church service and walk around the halls. Honestly, my feet kept falling asleep because things are getting harder to circulate, but once I stand up, I feel great. So I got to have a little "wake-up call" during church...

I am sick and tired of people telling me that "When you have your own kids, you'll understand, you'll think differently." And "Believe me, as a parent, I'm telling you this is the way it is." As if my opinions/feelings/beliefs aren't valid until I have children! As if I'm less capable as a teaching professional because I'm not a parent yet. I know I have a lot to learn in the realm of parenthood, and I know that some of my ideas about things will change. But I do work with 570 children 9 months out of the year, I've been teaching professionally for over 4 years, nannied for multiple families, worked with children all over the world in various circumstances, etc. etc, so I don't think I will be too surprised about things, esp certain issues that have come up lately. And I don't think my opinions on those certain issues will change much. It would just be nice to be respected enough for who I am now, rather than who I'll be later...

Easter is my FAVORITE holiday (along with the 4th of July). Unfortunately, Easter is horribly under-celebrated by the vast majority of Christian folk. Most of us agree that Christ's death & resurrection is the reason why Jesus came to earth in the first place, so it baffles me that people don't go more crazy for Easter than they do for Christmas, or at least give the two holidays equal importance. Even among members in our church, I feel that the holiday does not get the attention it deserves. So I am trying to start a few special traditions that will help our future children understand that Easter marks the time when our Savior accomplished His ultimate mission on the earth: to save us from physical and spiritual death, and is therefore the MOST important Christian holiday ever. Here's what I've come up with so far. How the JermaLynn Zavorals will celebrate Easter: Play lots of Easter hymns and songs on the piano/stereo several weeks leading up to Easter. Isn...