Trevor and I traveled up to Boise, Idaho to be with his family over the Christmas holiday! We stayed with Jen, Trev’s sister, in their new, gorgeous home. It was so nice to be able to get away, enjoy some time with the family, and celebrate Christ’s birth. My favorite gift…being 6 1/2 months along! What a blessing!!!
Trev and I started trying to have a baby six months into our marriage. When things didn’t occur as planned we started seeking medical help. After 4 years of no success we decided to go the adoption route but the process of getting in all the paperwork to be approved took us a year and a half as I was flying back and forth for training in California every other month. Then, last summer we found out that we were pregnant. We were so surprised and excited that we told all our friends, sent care packages announcing the pregnancy to my family and planned to surprise Trev’s family at his upcoming family reunion. Unfortunately, two weeks after we found out, I miscarried. It was the most horrific thing I’ve ever had to go through. Trevor was absolutely amazing through the whole thing and was really the rock I needed. I never want to go through that again, but the silver lining was that we became closer and stronger as a couple than we ever were before. I am grateful for that. Over the next year I thought I was pregnant several times. My hopes would sore just to come crashing down when all the pregnancy tests came back negative. I learned to hold off on taking a test for a couple weeks when the symptoms came on and my period would usually come or the symptoms would just go away. Meanwhile we were feverishly trying to get our adoption papers finished so we could finally be approved. We felt really good about this route so we continued forth. In May we got word that our file was in order and that we were approved and on the waiting list! We were so excited. Then, the last week in July we got a call we’d been hoping for! Our case worker had a baby who was due in 5 days and wondered if we wanted him. There were some complications with the birth and the baby would probably have some problems due to the birth mother’s drug use and hereditary health problems. The baby was also coming from another agency so the fee was more than double what we were planning on and we’d have to come up with the money by the time he was induced. We would have done it all, though, if it was right. Trev came home from work early and we prayed like crazy and even consulted both of our sets of parents. But we couldn’t get a good feeling. We tried and tried but when it came down to it, this was not our baby. So we called up our case worker and had to tell her no. Thankfully we had complete peace about the decision we made. The thought that kept coming to my mind was how could I take someone else’s baby away from them because he did belong to another family who was waiting just like us. Well, a week after saying no, we found out we were pregnant. I’d had some symptoms but by this time I knew that it was probably just my period. I hadn’t had one since March so it was about time. Trev and I were preparing for a 3 day Youth Conference Trek/campout and as the time grew closer and the symptoms weren’t going away I figured I’d just take a test so I could go on the Trek without worrying. So two days before we were to leave I got up and took the test. I had no hopes whatsoever because I just new that test would come back negative, just like always. You can imagine my SHOCK when I looked at that stick and it clearly said PREGNANT. I couldn’t figure out how this could be true. I went and woke up Trevor. I couldn’t even talk. I just showed him the stick, turned it over and sat there stunned. We both were speechless. It still surprises me. Well, as you can imagine, I went to Youth Conference but didn’t go on the 6 mile hike. I had miscarried the year before after going on the Girls Camp hike so I took the safe road and stayed in camp. I’ve had several weeks of morning sickness which actually visits in the afternoon but am hopefully getting better (knock on wood). It’s longer between visits to the ceramic throne, at least. This last week we had a bit of a scare. I woke up and noticed blood. I was spotting. Luckily, I had my scheduled doctor’s appointment that afternoon so I took the morning off, stayed in bed until my appointment and then Trevor took me to the doctor. My doctor is really great and called in another doctor to do an ultra sound. The first one didn’t show a heart beat. At that point I was bracing myself for a miscarriage but when he went in another way he found the baby right away. I started crying from relief and awe that we could see the baby so well. The baby kept stretching and moving while we watched! It was absolutely the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. The doctor measured the baby again and moved my due date up 3 days which means I’m now 12 weeks along. He said that the miscarriage rate drops to 5% now that we’ve seen a strong heartbeat! Keep praying for us, though. We’ll need all the help we can get from above to get this baby here safe and sound.
This year, Teacher Leader Institute was in Arlington, Virginia. I wasn’t too thrilled about the location as last summer was in Florida and my colleague and I went out several days early to play at Disney World! We had a blast. I didn’t see how Washington, DC could compare. Boy, was I wrong! Trevor got to come with me this trip and we had the very best time, EVER. Just wish the conference could be in DC every year. Every possible second outside the conference was spent touring all the national monuments and sites and yet, we still only skimmed the surface.
My most favorite Smithsonian was the Museum of Natural History. Thanks to the Payne’s tip, we went on a Tuesday and the butterfly exhibit was free! I could have stayed in there for hours and hours. We learned all about different kinds of butterflies, how they long they live (some butterflies metamorphous without any mouth parts and only live as long as their energy lasts while others live two weeks or longer), and where most butterflies come from!
This one hitched a ride for quite some time!
Later that night we went to the movie “Night at the Museum Battle of the Smithsonian” at the Smithsonian! It was so cool to have seen the places that were in the movie and be right there where the movie took place!
We took a bus tour that stops at each of the monuments. It was absolutely amazing to see these places and feel the patriotic feeling that engulfs you. We were awestruck!
Waiting for the tour bus.
What a handsome guy!
At Arlington Cemetary we got to watch the changing of the gaurds. Such a sobering experience to witness and see all those who have given their lives for our freedom.
My favorite monument…the Lincoln Memorial!
While we were on the bus tour we tried to get off to get tickets to the Printing and Engraving tour and thought we’d look around the Holocaust Museum while we waited for the next bus to come around. We raised our hand to get off at that particular stop but the bus guy didn’t see us and drove to the next stop. We were fine with that since we had tons to see. Later that day, we found out that had we gotten off the bus we may very well have been in the Holocaust Museum when a shooter entered the building shooting 3 people. We could have been one of those three people. But, fortunately were watched and protected in a major way.
There were magnolia trees all over DC. The flowers smelled so very good and the blooms were the size of my head! Huge and gloriously beautiful.
For the past 2 years I’ve been working on my Master’s degree and it’s FINALLY finished! I actually walked in May but finished my courses this summer. My mom, dad, sister Megan, and of course my hubby drove down to Cedar City to watch the event. President Monson was the key note speaker. I was actually on the 2nd row…the closest I’ve ever been to the prophet! Very cool. I’m really just relieved to be finished! Phew!
Yes, it’s true. I’m now three decades old! It’s been a crazy busy week with taking over my colleague’s training class because of her surgery, my training class, the Girls Camp Fundraiser on Friday as well as an all day training on Saturday and Stake Conference meetings this weekend that I figured this birthday would go by like the last few birthdays but Trev surprised me on Tuesday by coming home really early (I actually thought someone was trying to break into our house since he was home so early) and took me out to dinner, gave me a birthday card good for a new bed for our guest bedroom that I’ve wanted for quite some time, and even bought me a cake. On my real birthday he gave me the game Ticket To Ride which I’ve wanted ever since we played it at the Payne’s house a couple months ago! It’s been a week full of birthday celebrations! My brother and his girlfriend sent me the funniest card and a huge gift card to Borders (can’t wait to get more books!) and I got calls all day long from family and friends. Nikki brought be over a really pretty Lily and my Mother-in-law sent me a beautiful Hawaiian necklace that I just love!
Gosh, this makes me look ancient! No…the fire department didn’t show up.
And the celebrations will continue into next week. My parents are coming up for my Master’s degree graduation (I’m walking on May 2nd!) and we’ll celebrate the two together.
I’ve heard it said that bad things happen in 3’s. I’m cringing for what may come next. First the car accident and now our basement flooded…what’s next? Three weeks ago I came home to a very eerie sound. It sounded like the white noise you hear when a channel isn’t working on TV. As I walked further into the house it sounded like someone was taking a shower in the walls around my stairs. It was then that I knew that something was terribly wrong. I ran downstairs to my basement and…splash-splash came the sound my feet made as I took the first step off the bottom stair. This is a just a small sampling of what I found…
We later found out that the pressure valve that maintains the water pressure from the city to our house went bad. Our water softener couldn’t take the pressure and blew the seal which sprayed water not only into our basement but up the walls which then seeped through to our front room. Our carpet is so light that you really couldn’t tell where the water came out so I didn’t include those pictures. After frantically calling Trevor to find out how to turn the dang water valves off and to come home quickly, we called our insurance company. They had us call in a clean-up crew who came in and tore all our carpet up, suctioned up as much water as possible and then infused our house with massive fans and de-humidifiers for the next week to dry the walls and remaining carpet. Luckily, since we’d caught it in time there wasn’t too much damage. We lost all of our 500 lbs of wheat since we hadn’t put it in buckets yet, our front room carpet had to be torn out since it wasn’t salvageable, and we lost a few other minor food storage items but that was it. After clean-up costs and the outrageous cost of fixing the water softener the insurance company’s check allowed us to break even minus new carpet. We’ll have to foot the bill on that one. They said that the basement carpet was “re-useable” and that it could be stretched and re-tacked. They’d only cover the cost of the front room. If we chose that option, though, we’d have 3 different kinds of carpet throughout the house and that just isn’t going to happen. Trev and I have wanted new carpet since we moved in so I guess this is just the push we needed to get it done. Now it’s just a matter of painting the whole house with the old carpet still in before we get the new. The basement living room is complete (I’ll upload pictures another day). Now we just have to find time to paint the rest! Wish us luck…lots of luck so a 3rd catastrophe won’t occur.
