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Coming Up For Air!

It's a miracle. Miracle. Happening to every day peeeeople.

Please tell me know you know that theme song.

Basically, it's miraculous I'm alive right now. I have been DYING this week. Half self-inflicted, half not.

About a month ago I filmed my sister's class to make an awesome video for her.

(Yes, she did have parents sign release forms for their bebes.)

I've been sick & really exhausted the past couple months, but honestly, I was putting off the video making until I felt better, because I was really excited to make it good.

Memorial day weekend was great & we definitely had a good time with Weston's family.
We came back Sunday for him to teach Elder's Quorum in our Salem church.

That afternoon we took it easy. By that I mean that I slept the entire 3 hour drive back to Salem from his parents house. I then went to church & slept through the first hour. I then went home because I couldn't stay awake and slept the last 2 hours of church & a couple more hours. I made dinner for Weston & I. I ate a little bit. We went for a drive & I tossed my dinner right into a storm drain. Then I went home & he watched Independence Day while I slept the rest of the night. 

Is that insane or what? Have I mentioned I've been pretty busy with my photography business in the evenings & apparently 3 hour road trips knock me out.

I don't remember the last time I slept that much to catch up.

Monday was the first day Weston & I have both have had off work/clinicals in forever together.

We decided we were going fishing.

Folks, that day was insane & I will post about it later.

I swear I felt like "If You Give A Moose A Muffin" Road Trip/Fishing Excursion Edition. 

Seriously.

Tuesday night when I got home from work I planned to crank out that video. I knew it would be a quick make & I could spend time making it cute w/ good menus, etc.

I tried to use Windows Movie Maker. That program has progressively gotten worse over the years.

It crashed over & over.
I got almost completely finished editing about 3 of those times. I was ready to throw the program out the window.
Today was her last day of school & was determined to have it done so her kids could watch it. They were so excited for this movie.

Wednesday night I had a couple people visiting me at 6 & my house was a disaster from neglect from the previous 2 days.

I got home from work at about 5:30, cleaned like a mad-woman. Had them visit at 6, then I ran over to the church building where I was in charge of the youth activity that night. I was there from 6:45-9p.m. & then I was determined to finish that movie for this morning. I used Adobe Premier & cranked out the movie. It took me 3 hours. Just to get a rough edit. I was so exhausted I kept falling asleep while moving clips around in the video.
I just had to burn it just so the kids could see it. I can touch it up later.
Begin burning & my Adobe Premier is requiring me to register my serial number.
SLJDOIHEGIJEGIj.
Fail.
Epic failure.

This morning I brought my laptop to work & registered my serial number & burnt the disc.
Sean & I met in a parking lot at 11:10 a.m. to do the disc exchange & her school lets out at 11:30.

Wow. A whirlwind doesn't even come close to the past couple weeks.

Also, this baby bump is growing. I took a picture the other day, but looked disgusting. 

Sorry, I'm not that shameless. I'll put up a picture soon, though!

Baby Gear

Collectors items.

We will be moving to Tennessee just when our baby is a couple months old, so for it's bedding arrangements I had a few requirements:

+Something I will want to keep

+Something affordable

+Something nice or re-finishable

+Not a crib (we don't have the space)

+Something small we can fit in our bedroom (Our bedroom is huge but shaped weird, because it has a plant ledge around 2 walls & windows, also. It leaves us with one way to arrange our bed furniture.)

So, I began my hunt. Everything I found was more than I was willing to fork out or just not what I was looking for.

I was convinced by good friends that a crib is worth buying new, because you keep it forever. I decided that I like that plan, but we don't have the $$ to buy one worth keeping forever. So, I started looking at cradles. I really wanted a wooden cradle, not one that sat on the floor, though, because I wanted to keep it next to my bed at night so I can tend the baby.

Everything I found looked like it was from the Amityville Horror house.

No, thanks.

The nice wooden cradles cost a few $'s.

I finally found this absolute prize.

It is being modeled by our Build-A-Bear baby bear swaddled in a manly fleece blanket.

Courtesy of my mom & dad when we told them we were pregnant.

It was $30.

It will be refinished.

 Here's our gliding rocking chair we got about 1.5 yrs ago when we were trying to rub pennies together for good luck to have a baby.

I finally refinished it in January, giving up hope that we'd get pregnant anytime soon and figured I should just recover it to match our bedroom, since we wouldn't be needing a nursery.

It is a great chair, just has a lot of ugly patches on the wood. We were going to refinish it for the nursery.

 (please excuse the blurriness)

It was $25.

Such a steal. Especially because it has the rocking ottoman as well. That is hard to find on the cheap.

I found this chair later for $30....it is in great condition minus some chipped parts & baby scribble all over the ottoman, but the structure of the chair is perfect. I HAD to get it...because the cushions looked much comfier & I was dreading sanding down the tiny bits & pieces of our above Goodwill chair.

We are waiting to find out the gender of our baby before refinishing this, because I have different nursery ideas for the two different genders. I am so excited though & can hardly wait to find out! We'll hopefully find out in 3 weeks as long as our little peanut isn't being a tease! I will post some finished pics of this chair down the road!

Anyways, we love our new chair and our old one is up for sale! If you know anyone looking for an old glider!

We also got a Boppy w/ a tray for $20 bucks. Good finds everywhere, folks. Any other suggestions for "must-haves" when having a baby?

I am trying to find them on KSL before we move to TN & don't have awesome classifieds anymore!

Growing my little bean to 13 weeks.

 

Because of my history with blood clots & with my anatomical issue of the uterine/cervix septum, the pregnancy is high-risk.

Which, meant I got to go get an ultrasound at 6 weeks. This was so wonderful.

I was subconsciously a complete ball of anxiety & I couldn't sleep at all the night before the ultrasound.

If you know me, you know this is not normal. I am a sleeping professional.

The anxiety didn't necessarily come from me thinking there wouldn't be a heartbeat. Though that was on my mind. I also thought this was probably all one giant mistake & there probably wasn't really a baby in there.

My number one fear was that the baby would be implanted on the uterine septum. 

Which is a big issue.

Aka the baby will NOT survive.

 I asked the tech 100 times over if it was implanted on the septum & she said no...Oh my goodness.

Best news ever.

Then, there it was, the most perfect little ball of cells I'd ever seen.

Our baby had a heartbeat. And we got to hear it.

I honestly thought this is when it would REALLY be real.

Nope, I still left all nervous.  I don't know what my deal was.

As though the complete exhaustion, constant nausea, & constipation weren't constant proof enough.

It just really didn't sink in. I don't know how it sinks in for people, really. I mean, I'm now 3 months & I think it just sunk in. JUST.

It may be, because I wasn't talking about it openly or screaming it from rooftops.

Or because it was something we'd tried for & been wanting for over 2 years.

Or maybe it's just normal for it to take a long time to feel like it's all real.

I'm not really sure what it was, but it didn't sink in!

We went in for our 8 week appointment w/ my doctor & it was a whirlwind. 

He called me back the next day with tons of information.

The perinatologists (specialized maternal-fetal medicine obgyns) I'm going to also be seeing throughout the pregnancy. He also told me that my favorite drug. Lovenox. Is coming back into my life.

This is the shot I had to do twice a day for a month in my stomach after my blood clot back on December 1st That was the longest week of my life. Maybe because I had to lay flat on my back. Or maybe it was because I was nauseous 24/7 from the Lovenox. Or maybe it was because I was dehydrated & had to go get my blood drawn every day for a few weeks equaling about 5 needle pokes & lots more digging to find veins.

That was my memory of Lovenox...no, please!

But yep, I get Lovenox again. This time it's prophylactic.  Pregnancy ups the chances of blood clots. And since apparently I'm prone, they're taking precautionary measures to thin out that blood.

 SO, I get to do a Lovenox shot in my stomach every night. Weston would always do my shots because he likes medical stuff.  The first week I just wanted to cry. That stuff burns. Then I had to start doing it because Weston is away for days at a time all summer doing clinicals at fire departments & hospitals. Aka I'm home alone & get to stick myself!

I've got it down now & I've really gotten used to it. Thank goodness. It was going to be a terrible 8 more months with that being painful every time.

At yesterday's appointment it was funny because the doctor pulled out the Doppler machine & said "Okay, there's the bellybutton...there's the Lovenox..hahahah my stomach has red/purple needle dots all over it & it's black & blue around all those marks. 

Who knew needle holes take so long to heal, I have at least 10 showing at all times!

I've been so happy that all the pregnancy sickness has seemed so insignificant, though it's made work significantly more miserable. Some days I don't even smile at patients.

"What's your birthday? K, what's your last name? K, what do you need to see a doctor for?" This person better talk faster so I can run to puke in the bathroom AFTER their call & not in the middle of talking to them.

I've felt really sick at various times with some different things, but it's getting better, maybe because I've found treatments that work better than others! But hallelujah today I haven't gagged or thrown up at all so far. No matter how this day ends, it's already a success!

We are so so happy!

We're part of a study called NuMom2Be that's put on by the NIH.  We got to get an extra ultrasound around 10 weeks. It was AWESOME & so good to see our little bean flourishing!

It looked like this then:

It was just a little frog at that point! This picture wasn't of the clearest view, but you get the idea!

Yesterday we had another appointment w/ our OB & he said we don't do an ultrasound that day but they do use the doppler to hear the heartbeat! I was so excited! Weston had been so nervous leading up to the appointment.

I did not know why he was nervous & told him to chillax, it'll all be good!

The doctor pulled out the Doppler & couldn't find the heartbeat  he pushed harder & in all directions & still couldn't find it. My heart was sinking. Seriously, I haven't had fear of miscarriage the past couple weeks & was feeling good about everything. My heart just sank. My eyes started welling up & wanted to grab is scrubs & say "FIND THAT HEARTBEAT!"

But he beat me to it, "Uh...looks like I was kidding, we ARE going to do an ultrasound today."

He went & got the machine & wheeled it in. 

Longest 30 seconds of my life.

I was just waiting for the horrible news. He puts it on my belly & there's the little baby's bubble of fluid.

He narrows in on it and sure enough there is our baby's profile. The cutest little baby I've ever seen. Even though their head is still ginormous. Then all of a sudden the baby was gone he said "Whoa, that wasn't me, that was the baby! He's doing flips." (No, we don't know the gender, Weston & the doctor kept referring to the baby as a he.)

Then all of a sudden the tiniest little leg kicked & then the arm punched and then the baby flipped again.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is when it felt real.

Weston was jumping out of his skin excited.

He was jumping up & down w/ excitement!

The baby is flipping & punching & kicking inside of there. Which totally caught me by surprise, because I can't feel a thing, but oh my goodness. It was amazing.

 The baby is measuring back at 12.5 weeks, so that's where we're at now (it was a little ahead of schedule based on size at the last visit).

I can't believe something so small (the size of a peach) can be moving so much! Our baby is just bigger than Weston's big toe (he has a big big toe) & it's flipping & moving around like Free Willie!

It was the best day!

Then we went & used a voucher we had for Sub-Zero & the day went down a couple notches, Weston & I were both sick from that! I haven't had that fatty of dairy in a long time, it tasted good, but we had serious stomach aches after!

If you're curious about my cravings they've all been for savory foods.

I can only have my Cafe Rio salad on the first day.

The other half of the salad goes to Weston, the leftovers smell makes me gag.

I can finally eat vegetables again.

My first throw up item was a green smoothie.

My mom said "Ew, those are gross before they even go down!"

I have also thrown up green beans. And then I got smart & have stayed away from vegetables that weren't in salad form for the past 8 weeks. 

I also don't take prenatals anymore. Only folic acid & Vitamin B-6.

Miralax is my best friend. And also makes me toss my cookies.

Fresca is my other best friend.

(catching the trend?)

It's so awesome to have constant reminders that there's a little human growing in there!!

I'm not sure if you were able to read through all of this info, but folks, if you can't tell. I'm so so very happy.

I will also post belly pics soon! It's very subtle & mostly just bloating, I'm sure, so once I'm definite it's not just a food baby, I'll put some up!

I know I haven't mentioned Weston much in these posts, I've basically been exploding my thoughts & feelings out there, but he's totally awesome.

He's great & going to be a great dad! He's as excited about this baby as I am.

I just hope the baby isn't the same size he was when it's born...

Baby Surprises!

Well, it's crazy and miraculous, but we got pregnant!

We found out the day before we were supposed to fly to NYC for the IVF clinical study.

Don't know what I'm talking about?

Check it out HERE.

Saturday night after I wrote that blog post Weston & I went out for his birthday dinner at Tucanos.

I had been feeling REALLY tired for a couple weeks.

That night I was seriously wiped, but for no reason. At dinner we were chatting, but I could barely keep my eyes open. I ate a few bites of really well cooked meat & then basically sat there trying to act awake & alive while Weston chowed so that it was a good birthday celebration for him!

The whole week was an absolute whirlwind.
Sunday morning, I was depending on my cycle to start at an exact day. Everything with that study was seriously dependent upon days in my cycle. Which makes it highly difficult, because I had to schedule the study appointment at least a week in advance of the first day of my cycle. Sunday was the LATEST day my cycle could have started. It did start & then abruptly stopped.
I was so frustrated.

All day Monday it didn't start up again, either. I went to my cousin's wedding reception that night & my sister & I stopped at Target. I picked up some pregnancy tests at Target, because every time I take a pregnancy test it's negative & my cycle starts up RIGHT after that. For those people who don't believe mind's affect the body. They're wrong. I've never been late in my cycle ever. I've never had certain pregnancy symptoms when I'm PMS-ing. Until we started trying to get pregnant. All of a sudden I developed pregnancy symptoms that other people have as pms symptoms, but I never had & my cycle would be late. I'd get so excited, take a test, it would always be negative & I'd start my period that night or the next morning. It was a cruel, cruel trick my body was playing on my mind.

Anyway, I called my mom when I was driving home from Dani's that night & told her how I bought the tests to take to jump-start my cycle up again. She told me to call her if it was good news. I got irritated & told her "Seriously, Mom, it's not going to be. It never is."

I got home around 11, the same time as Weston.
I didn't even tell him about how I bought them, because I was just going to throw the negative tests away & start packing for our NY trip which we were leaving for on Wednesday morning.

I take the test then brush my teeth & start getting ready for bed.

I glimpsed down at it and saw the little +.....
Uh... Whaaa?

"Uh....Wes...."

I walked into the room while he was getting on his PJs & showed him the test.

"?????? Wait... what does this mean?"

"I'm not sure. I think it's a false positive."

We went & sat on the couch for a while &  kind of just sat there in silence. There was no celebrating or screaming. I was not about to get my heart crushed by this false positive.

The next morning I took 3 more tests. All positive..

Okay...maybe this is real.

I told my best friend at work, Jen. She freaked out. I mean, the kind of awesome freak out only a great friend can give. I still hadn't gotten excited yet, because I didn't believe it.
This is the first time I got more excited, because if she thought it was real, maybe I could too.

When my OBGYN's office opened I called Denise, Dr. Drewes' nurse, & she started screaming. I mean REALLY screaming in her office. All the nurses I work with also screamed. Seriously, folks, I have the greatest group of friends/coworkers surrounding me.

I was starting to believe it more. I told Denise how I don't know if it's real & that I need to cancel my NYC trip if I am pregnant, "We're supposed to leave tomorrow!"
(There's no way we could afford this trip, but the baby was worth it to us...if we had our baby we couldn't go to NYC!)

I went into the office & she did another pee test. Hers did not show a line.

That's exactly what I thought.

She sounded really deflated & said "...do you drink a lot of water?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, let's do a blood test, because maybe your pee was diluted"

I went over to the hospital, did the blood test & had to wait until about 3p.m. when Denise called me & told me "YOU ARE PREGNANT!"
I was dying with excitement.

I didn't tell Weston, though, I wanted to surprise him!
I told him all day that I hadn't heard back from Denise yet. He was down at UFRA for the paramedic program. I snuck up to Target first & bought a little baby outfit. I just wanted an excuse to buy a baby outfit. hahah That's what I surprised him with when I picked him up from school! He was so excited! He picked me up & spun me a million times, every time hitting my ankles on the door frame  "Ow, ooh, ouch...okay, ow, put me down!"
That describes our relationship perfectly...or maybe more-so Weston! hahaha

Anyway,  we were really excited & went to Cafe Rio to celebrate!
The only real place to celebrate is Cafe Rio.
(Plus, we had about 400 different gift cards from my friend & my parents gave us 2 for Christmas & then another one to Weston for his bday. And we get half off there, because Weston is an EMT. Awesome.)

I ordered these mugs for my parents, but my mom was in Michigan, so I knew it'd be a while till they got to them. 

So, I called her that afternoon and told her really sadly that, "We're not going to New York anymore"

"What?! Why?"

"We can't do the study."

"Why not?!!"

"Well, because we're pregnant."

I thought she was going to die. 

She made me call back after the free hotel dinner to announce it on speaker phone to my Grandmother, Aunt Julie, & little brother.

They were all so excited! It was such a good day!

That night we went over & surprised my sister. & told her we weren't going to NY, also. She was so sad for us, until I showed her that same little outfit I'd shown Weston.

The next morning I called & told my cousin Kristin who after having her first little girl was having problems getting pregnant again. We had just been talking the week before bc we were expecting our cycles to start at the same time, but I was really nervous to call & tell her, because I knew she wanted to be pregnant, too.

I called her on my way to work & she screamed & screamed & told me she's pregnant, too! 

We're due the same week. How awesome is that?

We decided since we'd told all our close family & friends. Except Weston's family.

I seriously love good surprises & I was really dying to surprise his family since I couldn't keep my big mouth shut enough to decently surprise my family!

So, I made us these shirts.

I thought my printer was an ink-jet printer. Until I melted the iron-on glue all over my laser printer. Thanks for helping me, Dad. I'm sorry your daughter is so tech-dumb! "Dad, it melted everywhere!" "That's because you have a laser printer!"

After a 2 a.m. run to Wal-mart for a new printer, I was able to finish the shirts at my dad's hotel in Provo at about 3 a.m. 

I felt absolutely destroyed. 

But I had spent so much time & $$ on these shirts that had way more road blocks than I've even mentioned that I was not going to go to bed without shirts to give them. 

So, we went to bed at 3a.m. on Easter morning & told his parents we were coming home early from NYC, because the study didn't work & we were depressed.

Yeah, we kept them thinking we were in NYC all week! All it took were vague texts & they thought we were there. Amazing!

So, we drove down wearing hoodies over our shirts & I rolled Joan & Dave's shirts up &wrapped rubber bands around them like souvenir t-shirts. Below is us giving them the shirts at their family Easter dinner! It was fun & everyone was so shocked & happy!

We went to visit Weston's grandma who was in the hospital after having blood clots that week.

She bawled when we told her!

The due date is the day after their 50th wedding anniversary. Pretty special :)

All in all it was a GREAT surprise. 

This baby will be well spoiled w/ it being the first grandchild on both sides. We don't mind.

cowbombed

I'm so sorry I've been such a bum & haven't posted about something REALLY big going on! I promise that's coming.

For now, PLEASE enjoy this amazing picture....

I was taking more engagement pictures of Danielle & Sean last night. I dragged them over to the field by my house for some pictures with my favorite cows.

& there it is. Photobombed by a cow.

Hilarious.

I laughed so hard.

I love that 27-toothed man!

We had to go back into the dentist last night because Weston thought his bone graft was failing.

Everything looked A-Okay, though!

You're looking at one expensive mouth right there!

Youch!

He's been doing alright & LOVED his first 48 hr shift with the Sandy FD. 

He goes up to IMC in Murray today to work in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU). He is so excited. He loves the cardiac system & learning about the heart. That shift is 3p.m. to 11p.m.

I can name drop.

I met Ziggy my sophomore year at a halloween party. He & Andrew, pictured above, were obsessed with "Ting 1 & Ting 2."

Ziggy & Andrew are both from Ghana.

Ziggy is possibly one of the sweetest people. With a killer memory. Throughout the rest of college we ran into eachother at the library a lot. He remembered me every time. It was easier for me to remember him, because let's be honest, it's BYU. There are not a lot of 6'5" Ghanaian men around here.

Anyways, that's my name drop for this week.

For those of you who don't know who Ziggy is, he just joined BYU football recently & this year was the #5 pick of the first round of the NFL draft. It was awesome.

Also awesome is this video Syd & I made that night after the dance party we sweated like nasty animals at.

That was our sophomore year.

Something I love about Weston.

He actually takes and sends pictures like the one in my last post. The last thing I'd be doing at the dentist is taking snapshots. He is so cute. & he had quite a terrible weekend.

Thursday he got cavities filled an Friday morning went in for a root canal.

His tooth was too far gone & the had to REMOVE it. Hillbilly status right there.

Anyways, I was home sick & the Camry was in the garage on jacks from Weston working on it the night before. He was at the dentist for 5 hours on Friday & then had to drive himself home with gauze packed mouth & tons of pain to boot. I felt so bad for him. He barfed all over himself & the dentist & now only has 27 teeth!

I doped him up on narcotics all Friday & early Saturday. Then he weaned himself off onto otc stuff.

He left 5:30 Sunday morning for his clinicals with the Sandy Fire department. This is his 'home-base' station. He has 2 days with them.

He can only eat soft foods for 2 weeks & cannot exercise or do any physical activity for 2 weeks either. Weston's always one to push himself so I was sure to give him lots of scary scenarios before kissing him goodbye Sunday morning & sending him out the door with enough Greek Yogurt to feed an army for the next 2.5 days.  

He's loved his clinicals so far & has had a good attitude about it all. Apparently his tooth damage was from when he got hit by a car when he was 9! The dentist said he's only seen that kind of tooth trauma one other time. I felt so bad for him.

On another note this has been an action packed weekend! In other news my best friend got engaged! 

Yay for Jenna & Garrett! I'm excited for their wedding in July! 

My cousin Jake also got married & we went to his reception Saturday night!

Yay for Jake & Kate!

I also was stupid with a complete lapse of judgement buying a carton of strawberries at Walmart on Friday.

Trying to convince myself "THIS carton won't go bad, I've thoroughly inspected it & there is no mold! 

Just to open them this morning to pack for work and they're all molded.

I forget Walmart produce lasts for 5 minutes a home.

Oh yeah, that's why I never buy produce there.

paoiwvjehg

My parents finished their deck this weekend!

I love them!

My dad has worked SO hard on their home.

Unless you were there & lived at home while he was building that home you won't understand what I even mean by that, so I won't try to explain!

I'm too sexy for my gas mask.

hahahahahha.

Watsername

I have worked at the same job now for coming up on 5 years.

2 employees that have been here for that entire time & who once new and called me by my name, Rachel, have decided within the past year to rename me.

One of them who I talk to EVERY day, but we're not bff's passed me in the hall after I'd been married for a year & said:

"Pretty ring! Did you get engaged?!"

"Thank you! Actually...I've been married for a year"

That coworker has started calling me Brittany.

My other coworker that has renamed me now calls me Heather.

There used to be a Heather that worked with us in reception but left a couple years ago when she had her baby, so I'll cut that coworker some slack.

I didn't realize at first that they were referring to me.  It's very strange learning to respond to a completely different human-non-nickname name. But, give me a Nobel Peace Prize or something, I've done it!

My other coworkers say, "Why don't you just correct her?"

"Uh, because we've known eachother for so long & that's awkward!"

So, call me whatever you want.

Or just "Watsername"

Guilty Pleasure

I love America's Funniest Home Videos.

I am the person that still watches that show. My family watched it every week when I was little! I remember laying on my belly on our blue carpet in our family room with wet hair after a bath watching that with my family! It always brings back sweet memories!

I always watched it whenever I was at the Peach's house, too! 

Such good memories!

Anyways, this show is still one of my top 3 favorites. I watch it alone & laugh extremely loud. BY MYSELF.

That show makes me so very happy.

I felt so guilty when my Child Development professor in college said that was the most violent show on TV when it started.

Tom Bergeron is the best host AFV has had. Remember Daisy Fuentes & that guy co-host. I liked them hosting even less than Bob Saget. That's saying something.

Anyways, Sunday I saw this clip & laughed so hard I cried, I called Weston out & then he laughed so hard, then we replayed it OVER & OVER.

Maybe I love this video so much because the boy reminds me of Weston in all of his home videos when he was little. Except Weston had bleach blonde hair!

My Best Friend's Wedding....Errr... Engagement!

I am so sucky & have not yet posted some VERY exciting part of my life that has developed recently.

Sean, that pretty awesome fellow my sister was dating, put a ring on it!

They are now fiances!

I'm so excited for them!

But mostly I'm excited for me! I get a fun, BETTER YET, awesome brother-in-law that I know is crazy about my sister & treats her like an Indian princess! 

She's a lucky little Sacajawea!

Danielle's such a great sister & a really caring person over-all.

I love her so much & honestly it's been annoying watching lame boys flow in & out of her life.

I knew she'd get a real catch, because she's a total TEN.

After a little bit of time, & a whole lot of experience, she found the one that really strikes her fancy!

He's also crazy about her.

I knew that this boy she was dating was a REAL keeper when I heard about all the sweet things he did for her.

He surprised her with a Christmas tree.
We're talking real deal Christmas tree here, folks.
He decorated that sucker, too. I knew from then on out that they were made for each other  She loves to do things for the important people in her life. The only problem is, the other guys she dated never liked to return the favor. They were leeches of her love & home-baked goods.
Sean is a smart dude & he has his head on straight and she loves him a ton!

I'm really really excited about this marriage.
Like, surrrrrously.

She's been pretty stressed in her wedding planning, because she has a little bit on her plate.
She's teaching fourth grade full-time, searching for a new job in Arizona for the fall, house hunting, oh yeah, & planning a wedding!  I need a nap just after typing that.

 They are happier than two humpback whales finding a patch of plankton!

I'm so excited for Deej & excited to have something to help me pass my time at work as I try not to rot here :)
Thanks for having a wedding, Deej,I know you're doing it for me. It'll help the beginning of my summer pass so much faster!

Sean proposed inside the Opryland hotel! Uh, total winner proposal. Nice work, Sean. The civil wore proposal also would have been an A+.

He proposed with his grandmother's ring, & it's so gorgeous. 

I can't wait to see the one he bought her, either!

Pictures stolen from here.

She'll be a beautiful bride!

I predict they will look like cake-toppers on their wedding day.

VIA

Congratulations, Danielle & Sean!
6.28.13

I love the weekend.

We were planning on going down to visit Weston's family this weekend, but found out this clinicals start this Sunday & so we wouldn't be able to go. So, as soon as I got off work I headed home and we got all packed up to go visit his parents last weekend instead!

We had so much fun &, as always, got too little sleep, ate a little too much & had so much fun.

 We had a great time at Kellie's boyfriend's homecoming!

I was feeling really sick & conveniently was able to go because it was closer than driving all the way up in one long route.

I told Joan she's starting to look like Cruella DeVil with her tons of dogs running around! hahah

Saturday night there were 4 puppies hanging around! 

 This is Gizmo, the world's second cutest puppy (no one tops Bella-boo!)

 I kind of went a little crazy w/ Joan's iphone.

Toddler style.

 He's such a cuddly little guy!

 This is Sadie.

Tasha & Devin brought their new Great Pyranese to Bicknell with them, too, but I didn't get pictures of her! She's such a cute puppy, too! 

We layed around in our pjs all Saturday. It was amazing. 

 We got to FaceTime with my mom in Europe, too!

I was holding the phone while Weston squatted down to talk for a minute and laughed so hard when I realized his new antlers!

I was so happy to get to talk to my mom! 

We've been e-mailing, but haven't been able to talk for a couple of weeks because she's out of the country! I miss her!

We had a great time and I did not feel very good all weekend & slept a lot of Saturday & a lot of Sunday, too! It was a nice recharge & I feel great back at work this a.m.

Weston's Hard Work!

I AM SO PROUD OF WESTON!

He got B averages & above in all of his paramedic courses & is MOVING ON!

Basically, moving on means he can actually graduate as a paramedic & test in the national registry exam in August! He had to have a B average so we were very nervous & was feeling the pressure this semester. It was a very quick moving program & he was busy all semester.

His instructors said on the last day of his finals, "Gentlemen, you can now re-introduce yourselves to your wives & then in a week when clinicals start, you can say goodbye again!"

Weston's base department is Sandy, he's so excited, because apparently that's where the "tough" guys get sent, he's so excited!

I'm so proud of him for working SO hard. His classes were Monday-Thursday 8-5 & he had 2 exams EVERY WEEK. One was 100 questions & the other was a pharmacology test on 6 or 7 different medications (& I mean EVERYTHING about these medications).

He worked so hard & was so very dedicated. He worked 2 days a week & studied every other second from Monday morning to Saturday night at midnight.

I was very bored, yet our house was very clean this semester!

He will be doing rotations in Labor & Delivery, ORs, ERs, Fire Departments & at in Intensive Care Units.

He is so excited.

Ultimately, Weston wants to get on with Lifeflight. This has been his goal & I know he will work very hard to get there.  I am so proud of him & his progress in school & his level of dedication is most impressive! 

I couldn't be more proud of Weston! He's busted his bum and it has really paid off!

I'm excited for graduation in August!

We graduate in April 2014. My goodness. I'm so excited. He only has a few credits he needs after December. I'm so HAPPY.

xoxolightattheendofthetunnel

Dove Knows What's Up.

I love this message!

A great reminder for all of us! 

Like our appearance, we may view the negative things of the world.

Yesterday innocent lives were taken scarred from the attack in Boston.

I know evil people exist. I also know that most people are really, really good.

Though the times are getting rougher & there seems to be a grand canyon between people's political beliefs let us all focus on something far superior to all the horrible things we can see.

There is a kind & loving God who is always watching out for us.

No matter how lonely we may feel, He is always on our side.

Remember, the Savior, Jesus Christ, has been there.

He has felt everything.

& He is our constant companion if we invite Him in.

There is a lot of bad in the world.

There is war.

There is racism.

There is prejudice.

There is hatred.

More than that I can influence the world for good.

I can love.

I can respect.

I can accept & support.

I can stand up for morals.

I can keep the Lord's name sacred & show others that I love Him.

There are some things out of my control.

But I can do my bit.

When I was little my friend & I went to the grocery store & passed the Santa w/ the coin bucket ringing his bell outside.

I remember her mom said "If everyone just donated a quarter, 

they would have a lot of money at the end of the day!"

All of us can give a "quarter" of good & make a HUGE impact.

Always remember that!

I love that Dove is always making such a great stand for natural beauty & doing their "bit" to help bringing body image in the media a little closer to reality.

That's just my two cents!

Thanks for dropping by my blog & I promise to do better & keep you updated w/ my thrilling life.

xoxoprayforboston

ZZZZzzzz

Ever have those days where you feel like you need a spatula to scrape you out of bed? 

That has been me!

Honestly.... But luckily Tuesdays we have the BYU University devotional. 

I took a 20 minute nap this morning & feel 1000% better.

THAT much better.

I have a serious napping gift. I was unaware that it was a gift until some of my friends told me they can't nap. What?!

I'm not a pretty napper, though.

Really, think guppies.

Anyway, I'll blame it on the snow.

This is tomato soup & grilled cheese weather.

Furreal. 

I believe that is what we will have for din din tonight!

xoxobrainless

Fat Kid Diaries

Ever have a fat kid moment?

Yeah, me, too. 

Lately, I have done a terrible job packing a lunch to bring to work.

I have packed oranges & an apple.

Well, the other day I resorted to a bagel from the vending machine at work, which I consider to be a very low place.

I went back to the dietitian's office with my bagel. My WHITE bagel, not even whole wheat, folks. The irony is thick. And that the dietitian wasn't there. Her lazy boy in her office is my favorite lunch-time nap spot.

Anyway, I eat the bagel & go back to work. It's probably 3p.m. by this time.

After work I climb into the Geo & start driving over to UFRA to pick up Weston from school. I looked in the mirror at a stoplight & just about died. I had bagel residue crusted to my face. HONESTLY, this hasn't happened to me in a long time (or maybe it happens all the time & I'm always unaware? Equally horrifying.) I had talked to a ton of patients & other people including my coworkers. Whaaaaa? I guess it didn't cross anyone's mind to say "Uh, you look like a fat kid with all that food residue on your face." 

Dangit. I'm usually pretty good at checking my teeth & corners of my mouth after eating. I failed. 

Miserably this time.

GSA: Grammar Snobs Anonymous

I am a grammar snob. 

Not to the extent of posting a big Facebook status about all the wrong grammar usages you see on Facebook.  That's too much pressure, because I make grammatical errors, too.

Aka: I constantly use the wrong tense of words. That is my grammatical Achilles' heel. 

& then there are just plain accidents, which is why I don't think it's appropriate to publicly humiliate people because of their grammar mistakes. (Plus, I am not one to talk, I don't proof-read my blog posts, as most of you have come to realize.)

However, if they make the same mistakes, go ahead & barbecue them for it. 

That is very appropriate!

Since I've been humble for most of this post, I can brag for a second.

I rock the whole they're, there, their deal. 

I also rock know & no. knew & new. two, too & to, too (you get the idea).

Something that I did not know is when the spelling of certain words changed.

Definitely definitely used to be definately.

At least used to be atleast.

Each other used to be eachother.

All of those old school spellings are currently underlined in red chevron. How hip.

Definitely could have always been with all the i's, but I remember when my friend, Diana, taught me that it's not. Where have I been hiding out my whole life & why didn't I realize UNTIL COLLEGE that it doesn't have an a?

This "at least" business is new, it's gotta be.

And don't even get me started on "each other"'s non compound formation.

xoxowhoknowswhentouseaffectandeffect?

iWants

Well, my birthday is 3 months from today.

So, is our phone contract renewal.

I told Weston that for my birthday I just want an iPhone 5. He laughed so hard.

"Oh, you just want an iphone 5, huh? Anything else?"

Such a goober. 

I don't mind being high maintenance when it comes to the important things in life. 

Like a cell phone.

But seriously, it's $200 for the 5. Which, I hear, is a total steal.

I've never had a smart phone. 

As the only two people in Weston's & my entire family (minus my brother eating rice & beans in Mexico), I'm feeling left out.
Weston couldn't care less.

Not to mention all of my friends that are getting skinny from "this app" & sleeping better because of "that app."

See, dear? It's good for my health.

 or love Hobby Lobby? Download the coupon app.

Uh, how about I bring in the print copy like all of your customers did back in 2001?

I see a whole new lifestyle coming on for me. I'm so excited.

Also, thanks to my awesome sister for lending me her iPhone when I see her, 

I already have Instagram.

Now that you're lucky enough to know that, you should add me. 

So, that when I get back on in a week when I see her, I can follow you, too.

I'm roobrink on there.

I can be funny sometimes, so it should be good entertainment.

And since I don't mind posting embarrassing pictures of my husband, it should also be even better entertainment. 

At his expense.

Who wants to give me a tutorial on how to use an iphone? Seriously, I am skill-less.

I don't even know how to use iPhones, iTouch, iPads. Any of it.

iDumb.

In fact, I think I might be the only person left on this planet that still caps the second letter in iThings anymore.

Is that still how they're written?

iDon't even know.

Anyways, I'm going to go eat some canned tuna.

I know half of you just cringed, permission to cringe. I love tuna. I could have a tuna fish sandwich once a week.

Anyway, have a great day, y'all! Also, if I get an iPhone for my birthday, anticipate a much more exciting blog.  It will be easier & less touristy to document my life now. Therefore, I will be more apt to taking pictures again. So, you can hear about all the new automatic bathroom supply dispensers at my work & other wild things like that.

xoxofeedme