I'm back. Again. Truth be told, most days I forgot I had a blog. The days I didn't forget, I felt guilty but just didn't seem to find the time to fit it in. I'm a terrible person. No news there.
Well today marks the very first Hailey Halloween! I love Halloween. The dress up, the free candy. I mean honestly, what's not to love about any of that!? Anyway, this year we have our little bundle of Hailey joy to help us celebrate. And we aren't even really celebrating... I don't know why really, but the excitement of the whole thing dwindled a bit for me. We aren't taking Hailey trick-or-treating, Ryan isn't getting home until after festivities have started (generally just before Hailey eats and gets ready for bed anyway) and we aren't dressing up as anything. For fear of sounding like a complete Halloween Scrooge, I will say that I am putting Hailey in a "costume" if only to get a few pictures and say that we actually did something. Don't worry, I'm also passing out candy to the cute little ones :)
I made Hailey's costume, as I do all my costumes (I'm too cheap to actually buy one). She is going as a troll! I can't remember who but someone gave me the idea months ago when her hair naturally stuck straight up. People would say she reminded them of one of those little troll dolls from the 90's. Yeah, I totally had some :) Anyway, I thought it was cute, easy, and most importantly funny, so that's what she will be. In truth we aren't even leaving the house and I will have to miss a big chunk of candy duty to get her fed and ready for bed but all in all this Halloween won't be a total bust! Next year should be more fun, you know, when Hailey isn't just a 7 month old and can actually eat the candy :) Thanks Hailey! And like I said earlier, lamely, Ryan and I aren't going as anything. We somehow got old and boring between last year and this year and didn't even have a single Halloween party to go to. We did however carve pumpkins like we do every year and that was really fun! I love carving pumpkins. Although I always end up breaking something off my design... I'm still a rookie. We never really carved pumpkins growing up in my household. This year I made a Disney princess castle and Ryan made the Batman logo. *Tip* If you lube the carved edges up with vaseline, it won't rot and become dilapidated before the big night! I'll have to post a picture of our pumpkins and some of my little monster, I mean Troll, later tonight when I get some. Can't wait!
Even if we aren't doing anything grand this year, I still love this day. Growing up I always had trouble deciding if Christmas or Halloween was my favorite holiday. Now that I am older, I still don't know! So Happy Halloween to everyone! Make it a good one :)
...Then comes marriage
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Friday, September 7, 2012
A Dollar A Day
If an apple a day keeps the doctor away, what does a dollar do? Well keeps the flab away of course!!
Ok, let me explain. I saw an idea on Pinterest for a self "tip" jar. It basically said everyday you do something you need to do or want to do (that you don't normally do) you "tip" yourself a dollar. One of the suggestions was working out. (Thank you Pinterest! Not only are you making me fat from all your delicious recipes, but you are helping me get skinny now too.) HELLO! Perfect for me! I am horrible at consistently working out and even worse at keeping with it. And I don't have a paying job these days.... And the seed of a beautiful plan was planted.
I marched up to Ryan (marching sounds much cooler) and told him my master plan and he of course gave me stipulations. Ok, fine. It is "his" money after all... He said I can't just do pilates for it to count. If I'm going to do pilates I have to walk, run, Zumba, or pretty much anything else with it, for it to count. So I have taken up my long, long, long ago frenemy (for those of you that don't know what a frenemy is, it's a friend-enemy) running. We have a love/hate relationship. Most days I'm lucky to do a full on run workout. It is generally a run/walk workout but hey! At least I'm doing something EVERYDAY...minus Sundays and one other lazy day I took. Turns out money is a great motivator for me :)
I have currently earned 15 whole dollars and still going strong! It doesn't sound like much but for me, it's a big freaking deal! Today I even ran for over 30 minutes straight, which I have never, ever, EVER done in my whole 23 years of existence. Seriously. -Lay off me, I was a cheerleader. We didn't need to run a bunch.-So needless to say not only am I slowly getting rich, making my husband poor, and getting a rockin' body....kinda... I'm honestly making myself proud! Even Ryan has said he has seen a difference. Yay!!
On a side note. I am never making fun of Ryan again for being an old man and breaking down. I apparently am an old woman and am falling apart now too! Knees, hips, feet... you name it! I am having problems with it all these days. I guess what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Or an amputee :)
Ok, let me explain. I saw an idea on Pinterest for a self "tip" jar. It basically said everyday you do something you need to do or want to do (that you don't normally do) you "tip" yourself a dollar. One of the suggestions was working out. (Thank you Pinterest! Not only are you making me fat from all your delicious recipes, but you are helping me get skinny now too.) HELLO! Perfect for me! I am horrible at consistently working out and even worse at keeping with it. And I don't have a paying job these days.... And the seed of a beautiful plan was planted.
I marched up to Ryan (marching sounds much cooler) and told him my master plan and he of course gave me stipulations. Ok, fine. It is "his" money after all... He said I can't just do pilates for it to count. If I'm going to do pilates I have to walk, run, Zumba, or pretty much anything else with it, for it to count. So I have taken up my long, long, long ago frenemy (for those of you that don't know what a frenemy is, it's a friend-enemy) running. We have a love/hate relationship. Most days I'm lucky to do a full on run workout. It is generally a run/walk workout but hey! At least I'm doing something EVERYDAY...minus Sundays and one other lazy day I took. Turns out money is a great motivator for me :)
I have currently earned 15 whole dollars and still going strong! It doesn't sound like much but for me, it's a big freaking deal! Today I even ran for over 30 minutes straight, which I have never, ever, EVER done in my whole 23 years of existence. Seriously. -Lay off me, I was a cheerleader. We didn't need to run a bunch.-So needless to say not only am I slowly getting rich, making my husband poor, and getting a rockin' body....kinda... I'm honestly making myself proud! Even Ryan has said he has seen a difference. Yay!!
On a side note. I am never making fun of Ryan again for being an old man and breaking down. I apparently am an old woman and am falling apart now too! Knees, hips, feet... you name it! I am having problems with it all these days. I guess what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Or an amputee :)
Thursday, August 30, 2012
My Little Monstah
Hailey Update! It's been a long time so I should probably update everyone (and myself 5 years from now) on how my little monster is progressing. Life these days is getting much easier. I remember the days of "Oh my gosh, will this ever get better... or stop... or find normal again?!" And I can say yes. Yes it does.
Hailey is about five and a half months old now and just the happiest little girl ever. She laughs a ton more and smiles all the time. She lights up whenever she sees her daddy. It is very precious and melts my heart every time (and secretly makes me jealous!)
She still isn't growing very well which is the only hiccup in her progression. Hailey was born at 6lbs. 3oz. and gained weight perfectly for the first two months of her life. She spit up a ton but because it didn't make her fussy or have poor weight gain the doctors pretty much said "oh well." She weighed 10lbs even at her two month check up and was 22 3/4in long. At her four month check up she only weighed 10lbs. 8oz. and was 23 1/3in long. She only gained a half a pound and not even a full inch in two months!! Aka Hailey was now in the 4th or 5th percentile for height and weight. And the red flag went up... we went back nine days later and she had gained another half a pound so the red flag was slightly lowered but Hailey was still on the radar. We went back right at 5 months and she had only gained 6oz.... And the red flag is flying high again. -Hailey's saving grace is that she is doing great with hitting all her milestone marks on the developmental charts.- Hailey's weight gain problem is two fold. She spits up a ton, so she isn't keeping the calories down that she needs. Also, because of her spitting up, she hasn't allowed her tummy to expand to the size it needs to be. She was only comfortably holding down 3 oz when she is supposed to be holding twice that amount or more (about 6-8oz. a feeding). So the doctors think she has acid reflux. Our pediatrician at the time (we didn't like him so we just switched) prescribed her Zantac for acid reflux and to start purposefully over feeding her to expand her tummy (talk about spit up, yuck). So twice a day I give Hailey her medicine and pray for improvement.... which we haven't seen yet. They just upped her dosage so I'm REALLY praying it works and that she doesn't have to be subjected to a bunch of tests to figure out what is wrong with her. Any and all prayers are welcome. But I will say that Hailey takes medicine like a champ. I was always a big pansy when it came to taking cough syrup or anything like that.... Also, they recommended that I start Hailey on rice cereal twice a day. She LOVES it. Seriously. I can't get it in her mouth fast enough before she starts yelling at me for more. She really loves the baby oatmeal. I can't wait to start giving her baby food. It should be fun :)
Other than her poor weight gain, she is doing great. She is "talking" up a storm. And what I mean by that is that she says more than vowels now. She can now say mamama (usually when she is mad and crying). I have heard daaa a couple of times. But her #1 favorite is "geeeeeeeeee!" (pronounced like glee but without the L) which is her mad yell but usually just turns into "EEEEEEEEEEE!" It's very funny and is usually accompanied by a Chris Farley face, otherwise known as the "Farley Face." But yes, we hear "geeee" all day. Especially when she doesn't want to take a nap or just wakes up from one. Or I'm not feeding her fast enough... You get the idea. But dang! She is a cutie! We hear more that she is starting to take on my features but mostly she is still her daddy's baby. She is becoming a nice split between us though. She is more on a schedule than she was a month ago but wow! I tell you, that baby is sneaky! Every time I think I am getting her on a nap schedule, she tricks me and refuses to conform to it, fighting the falling asleep part, and then waking up after a short time. I will say that she is taking one good solid nap a day now. I couldn't say that a month ago. Some days are much better than others though and she does have a set bed time that works great. She still sleeps fabulously through the nights so I won't complain. The no nap thing just makes getting house work done a bit tricky. Oh darn :)
Other Hailey favorites:
Hailey is about five and a half months old now and just the happiest little girl ever. She laughs a ton more and smiles all the time. She lights up whenever she sees her daddy. It is very precious and melts my heart every time (and secretly makes me jealous!)
She still isn't growing very well which is the only hiccup in her progression. Hailey was born at 6lbs. 3oz. and gained weight perfectly for the first two months of her life. She spit up a ton but because it didn't make her fussy or have poor weight gain the doctors pretty much said "oh well." She weighed 10lbs even at her two month check up and was 22 3/4in long. At her four month check up she only weighed 10lbs. 8oz. and was 23 1/3in long. She only gained a half a pound and not even a full inch in two months!! Aka Hailey was now in the 4th or 5th percentile for height and weight. And the red flag went up... we went back nine days later and she had gained another half a pound so the red flag was slightly lowered but Hailey was still on the radar. We went back right at 5 months and she had only gained 6oz.... And the red flag is flying high again. -Hailey's saving grace is that she is doing great with hitting all her milestone marks on the developmental charts.- Hailey's weight gain problem is two fold. She spits up a ton, so she isn't keeping the calories down that she needs. Also, because of her spitting up, she hasn't allowed her tummy to expand to the size it needs to be. She was only comfortably holding down 3 oz when she is supposed to be holding twice that amount or more (about 6-8oz. a feeding). So the doctors think she has acid reflux. Our pediatrician at the time (we didn't like him so we just switched) prescribed her Zantac for acid reflux and to start purposefully over feeding her to expand her tummy (talk about spit up, yuck). So twice a day I give Hailey her medicine and pray for improvement.... which we haven't seen yet. They just upped her dosage so I'm REALLY praying it works and that she doesn't have to be subjected to a bunch of tests to figure out what is wrong with her. Any and all prayers are welcome. But I will say that Hailey takes medicine like a champ. I was always a big pansy when it came to taking cough syrup or anything like that.... Also, they recommended that I start Hailey on rice cereal twice a day. She LOVES it. Seriously. I can't get it in her mouth fast enough before she starts yelling at me for more. She really loves the baby oatmeal. I can't wait to start giving her baby food. It should be fun :)
Other than her poor weight gain, she is doing great. She is "talking" up a storm. And what I mean by that is that she says more than vowels now. She can now say mamama (usually when she is mad and crying). I have heard daaa a couple of times. But her #1 favorite is "geeeeeeeeee!" (pronounced like glee but without the L) which is her mad yell but usually just turns into "EEEEEEEEEEE!" It's very funny and is usually accompanied by a Chris Farley face, otherwise known as the "Farley Face." But yes, we hear "geeee" all day. Especially when she doesn't want to take a nap or just wakes up from one. Or I'm not feeding her fast enough... You get the idea. But dang! She is a cutie! We hear more that she is starting to take on my features but mostly she is still her daddy's baby. She is becoming a nice split between us though. She is more on a schedule than she was a month ago but wow! I tell you, that baby is sneaky! Every time I think I am getting her on a nap schedule, she tricks me and refuses to conform to it, fighting the falling asleep part, and then waking up after a short time. I will say that she is taking one good solid nap a day now. I couldn't say that a month ago. Some days are much better than others though and she does have a set bed time that works great. She still sleeps fabulously through the nights so I won't complain. The no nap thing just makes getting house work done a bit tricky. Oh darn :)
Other Hailey favorites:
- Spitting (thankfully she is already doing this less)
- Spitting rice cereal on me
- Playing with bubbles- she loves bubbles!
- Going for walks
- Playing in the bath
- Reading books- Yay!! (She really can't get enough of them)
- Trying to crawl, yikes! (thankfully she just can't figure it out yet)
- Rolling over on her belly... especially when she is supposed to be taking a nap....
- Chewing on everything! Clothes, toys, paper, wash cloths, my arm, hands and wrists.... you name it
- Laughing and getting tickled
- Playing with her feet (she just recently found them)
- EATING!
- Playing with cups. Seriously, she goes nuts for them.
- Resisting nap time... Hailey, one day you will love them and beg for them
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Blog Help!
To anyone out there... mainly Sara... How the heck do I change my blog background? I'm stumped. I have tried and can't figure out. Any and all tips welcomed.
Our Boston Brigade
The trip I have been counting down for close to 3 years now, finally came! We took a family trip out to Massachusetts and spent a full week being tourists. Ryan served his mission out there and lived out there for a summer working and still has quite a few connections out there.
Ryan went out 5 days before us because of a conference for school. Hailey and I came out the last day of it and hit the ground running as soon as Ryan picked us up from the airport. I think in 7 days we went to at least 6 or 7 (probably more to be honest) different cities. My trip started off with Ryan surprising me with a coxinha (cosh-e-ha) aka fried cone shaped deliciousness with a surprise center of chicken and cream cheese. Even cooled down it was so good! ~I should go ahead and tell you now that this post is going to be mainly about the food. Other than the amazing people I met, it was the best part of our trip!~ Since Ryan served in Boston and Cambridge, he knew his way around everywhere and took us to the good places :) After the airport, we drove around a bit and walked around Harvard and Harvard square. That's when we decided to get something to eat and headed for the famous Mr. Bartley's Burgers.
Oh... My... Heck... SO GOOD! This burger joint deserves its own paragraph. I heard about it from the food network (I think from Man vs. Food) and have wanted to go ever since then. Let me just say that those burgers where certainly TV worthy. I got the Mayor Mumbles Menino and Ryan got the Skip Gates. The burger... so big... so juicy... with the best bacon I have ever had... are you drooling yet? I am all over again! They were seriously so dang good. But just for the fun of it you should read the menu. The names and descriptions of the burgers are really funny. http://www.mrbartley.com/mrbartleys-menu.html but seriously, it is worth your time. And on top of all of that, it was a PERFECT day in Boston. No humidity, perfect temperature. Just simply a perfect day. But enough about that. I have MUCH more to recap.
After Mr. Bartley's we went to Richard and Cherise's place in Quincy and stayed. It was so nice to finally meet Richard's lovely bride and see them interact with each other... oh to be young and in love :) Just kidding, I still am! But they really were fun to be around. We got to hang out watching the Olympics and talk and just get to know one another. It was really fun.
The next morning Ryan and I decided that we would do a tour of Boston. Other than it being a blistering hot and humid day, it was a great day to go sight seeing. *side note* no one and I mean NO ONE has central air, in what I figure, all of Massachusetts. Seriously... except Richard and Cherise... anyway back to Boston. We started the day off by going to the Public Gardens and seeing all the duck ponds with tons of big, beautiful ducks and swans. Those gardens truly are a sight to see. I LOVED it there. But we had a busy day ahead of us so we didn't stay long. After we were off to a little pond? I guess you would call it... splash area? I don't know. This little water place that tons of kids and parents were splashing and swimming around in. It was really cute and fun to put our feet in. We even met another Haley!
After the splash pond area we started our main day's expedition and did the freedom trail. History truly does come alive in that city! I learned so much and had a blast doing it! The freedom trail really is a red brick trail going through all of Boston taking you to all of the historical spots. It was great. We got to take a tour of Old North Church and learned about how Paul Revere came up with the idea of lighting the lanterns up in the bell tour. We learned that only MIT students ring the bells now because it is so complicated... They have to memorize literally over 1,000 bell combinations. Yikes! And then we went down into the church's Crypt. Not really creepy at all to be honest. It was really a cool experience though. We ended the freedom trail at the U.S.S Constitution, which I learned is the oldest Naval boat still in commission, and toured around it for a bit. It truly is a beautiful ship. We also learned that people in the navy actually get stationed there. They don't hire people to work it. I thought that was pretty cool.
Next on our agenda was the North end of Boston. The part I had been waiting for. Italian time!!! We walked all around and saw what there was to see then headed in for some dinner. We picked a little Italian restaurant that was just perfect for us. So quaint and decorated to the max! I'm sad I didn't get a picture of it. The food was a amazing, the atmosphere perfect and the staff was so friendly. I loved it. Then it was time. Time to indulge in the #1 reason why I couldn't wait to get to Boston. Cannolis!! Apparently the north end of Boston is home to one of, if not THE best pastry shop in the U.S. Everything in that shop is worthy of eating. The place was PACKED. I sent Ryan in to do the dirty work of fighting his way to the counter and bringing home the gold... or at least the golden shelled cannolis. In one day, we ate 2.5 cannolis. And they were massive. Seriously as long as my hand, and I have big hands! We got a chocolate mousse, an oreo filled, and a florentine. I died. They were so good. I can't do them justice. Just go. Go as soon as work, school, or funds allow you to, but go. Go to Mike's Pastry and get one. Any one. Just get one. Ok. I'm done. I can't talk about them anymore or Ryan is going to come home from basketball to a note that says "Went to Boston. Cannolis called."
They next day we drove around Littleton and Groton, two places that Ryan lived and served his mission and killed time before heading over to stay with the Lachmann's for a couple of nights. Amazing family. I can think of no other way to describe them. I instantly fell in love with the whole family. The nicest, most loving, amazing people I have ever met. They opened their home and hearts to us (Hailey and I, they already had to Ryan) instantly. Bator is a Thai women who married a Hebrew man, Tal. I hope I spelled his name right... and they have 3 beautiful, fun, incredibly smart children. We stayed up and talked for awhile but it had been a long day of travel for them (they literally had just gotten back to the state from a month trip to Thailand that evening!) so we all headed to bed. The next morning after breakfast we kicked the day off right by grabbing some lunch and then Kimball's homemade ice cream. Wow it was good! Then we continued our journey through living history to see the Old North Bridge in Concord and explored the visitor's center there. Then we went to Lexington to see the Battle Green (literally a green grassy area, that's it) where the first shot in the Revolutionary War was fired or better known as "the shot heard 'round the world." Then we drove over to Waldon pond, which was HUGE, to see the beauty of Massachusetts there. Unfortunately the rain decided to see it too because we were there only five minutes before it caught up to us :( So we took our journey back to the Lachmann's where we ate the BEST Thai food I have ever put into my stomach. Everyone laughed at how much I ate, but I couldn't stop! It was so good. The conversation was even better though. Tal and Bator told us there hilarious story of how they met and fell for each other. And then we told ours where we all decided I was a crazy, desperate stalker :) But hey! It won me my man! And then Bator showered me with a night of trying on her custom designed jewelry and giving me two sets of earrings and a necklace. Did I mention she was the sweetest lady ever?!? Unfortunately we had to leave really early the next morning to head to Cape Cod so we had to end our night. The next morning we got pictures, said our good byes, and headed for the Cape to meet up with Richard and Cherise and go on over to Martha's Vineyard. It was another muggy, super hot day but that didn't stop us one bit. We ate at the restaurant that Ryan worked at the summer after his mission, The Seafood Shanty. So good! We then walked around Edgar Town and got some really good fudge and headed for Oak Bluffs. We saw the oldest carousel The Flying Horses there.... super creepy.... and saw the Ginger Bread Houses. The craziest little houses I have ever seen! They were all sorts of colors and seriously looked like ginger bread haha. It was pretty cool. We saw the famous bridge that Jaws saw under in the movie and went sight seeing. Literally, all the mansions were a sight to see! I seriously couldn't believe how big and pretty they were.
Now for a funny story. The island is really small. We kept seeing the same people we came over on the ferry with throughout the different towns. One family I kept seeing was a little Indian family that had commented of how cute Hailey was when we first arrived at Martha's Vineyard. Right as we were loading up in the car to call it a day, the daughter called out to the family saying "Hey, there's that cute baby again." This is not an exaggeration of the story at all. The mom, dad, son and daughter all gathered around Hailey oohing and awing at how cute she was. The dad then turned to me and asked me if he could get a picture of her. I was so caught off guard I started stuttering "uhhh, ummm, yeah, I guess..." and then proceeded to look at Ryan really confused haha. The dad then starts taking picture of his daughter with mine, shoving his son in a picture with her (not joking, he shoved him in haha) and just clicking away while mom is asking me her name, how to spell it, and her age. They thanked me and told me again how cute she was and started to leave. They the daughter (I'm guessing early teens) asked me if I put her in beauty pageants. I quickly say no, because her daddy would kill me. She laughed and off they were. SO FUNNY! You would have sworn that I had made their day from that. I can't wait to tell Hailey about that one day.
Back to our travels. We said our good byes to Rich and Cherise for the last time and headed our separate ways. We went to the Dimavich's (I know I butchered that one but I tried) to stay. The next morning was Sunday and we had church bright and early. Let me start by saying the church is true no matter where you go, but it isn't always the same size... Smallest. Branch. EVER. Not only was it small but it wasn't even in a church building. It's so small that they hold church in a store front that is converted into the meeting house. It was so nuts! I wanted to giggle every time they called the room we were in the chapel because it was so different to me. There are only about 3-4 families in the branch, a set of missionaries and a few others (mainly summer vacationers) that make up the branch. We actually met someone who came to Bloomington to go to Indiana University for school 13 years ago which is were he joined the church. Small world! The Boston temple president? or a counselor, I can't remember, and his wife were the speakers for both sacrament and Sunday school. From what I hear and the parts I actually heard, it was a wonderful meeting (I was on Hailey duty, in and out feeding and changing her.)
After church we went over to the Pertili's where we sent time with Barb. As Ryan describes her she is a spaz with a heart of gold. He couldn't have been more spot on. She LOVED little Hailey and fed us lots of organic apples :) I had a lot of fun getting to know her and hearing about how much she loved Ryan when he was serving out there. She was an investigator that Ryan taught that wanted to join the church but wasn't able to due to family conflict. It was fun to put a face to the name finally. Next we drove around the island and headed towards Menemsha. Menemsha is known for its breath taking sunsets. The beach fills up with people who sit and wait to watch it go down and when the sun disappears over the horizon, everyone claps. Unfortunately for us, Hailey was hitting her limit and we had to leave before the sun went down. But we did get to see everyone setting up for the big show. One day when we go back I'll see it :)
The next day was beach day. We headed to State Beach in Oak Bluffs around 11 and didn't leave until 3 or 3:30. Hailey was an angel the whole day. We got to play in the ocean with her which was really fun and of course I took a million pictures of her that day. *side note* don't change a diaper on the beach if you can help it, and definitely don't do it if you forgot the wipes....Sand gets everywhere! And if you do change it, recruit an extra pair of hands to help. But we had a ton of fun at the beach and actually got some color on our pasty white Indiana skin. Ryan got A LOT of sun. Aka he turned into a Martha's Vineyard lobster :) I got the smallest of burns but I was in the shade a lot with Hailey so I wasn't out nearly as long as he was. After the beach we headed over to the Polley's for dinner where they cooked us some BBQ. Again, we couldn't stay too long because we had to get Hailey in bed and we had told the Dimevich's we would have dessert with them. The Polley's were so sweet though. They had some awesome Ryan as a missionary stories and gave me the dirt on him :) They own a duplex where they live on one side and the missionaries used to live on the other. Ryan was one of them so they all spent a lot of time together. Dessert at the Dimevich's was fun where I got to know them a bit better. Brenda (the mom) was so sweet and her husband Lou was really funny. I really enjoyed the time we spent there.
The next morning, Tuesday, was our last day there and also the day we were coming home. We kicked the morning off with a Belly Bomb. Holy heaven of donut deliciousness! The biggest, baddest, best donut ever! It was massive! It was a Boston creme filled donut with chocolate frosting on top that I had been waiting the whole trip for. Yum... so good. I took a picture and posted it on Facebook and a couple people thought they were steaks! haha nope. Just huge donuts. We caught a ferry back to Cape Cod and then headed to Plymouth to check out Plimoth Plantation (no, I didn't spell it wrong. That's the way they spell it.) Ryan has 18 relatives that came over on the Mayflower so we wanted to check it out. It's a living museum. It's all set up to be 7 years (1927) after the Mayflower landed at Plymouth. Each person is really a person that lived back then and they talk and act like they are really them. They never come out of character. It was pretty cool. Ryan met some "relatives" and talked to them a bit. It was smaller than we thought it was going to be and there weren't many people around. A lot of the houses were empty. It sounded like we came of a day were a lot of the men were out fishing for dinner. Then we headed over to the Mayflower II (a replica of the Mayflower). Ryan explored it while I waited in the car with our sleepy little Hailey. He took pictures of it and of Plymouth Rock. Plymouth Rock...What a let down! The rock is just that... a rock. Nothing special or grand about it. Just about a five foot long rock.
After Plymouth we headed to the airport to end our trip. Because of Hailey (our little meal ticket!) we cruised right to the front of the mile long security line. And just like that our Boston trip was over. It seemed to fly by but we packed every minute of it with tons of fun and learning. I would do it all over again and actually hope to again some day. At 5 months old, Hailey is already a very well traveled and cultured little girl. Ryan was right at home and loved every minute of being there. I gained about 5 pounds and don't even care! Hallelujah for the world's best baby that made it possible to see and do everything we wanted to on our jam packed trip. We couldn't have asked anymore out of her and she exceeded our expectations. It was a perfect vacation to end our summer :)
-I'll post pictures tomorrow morning of all our fun. It's too late tonight.
Ryan went out 5 days before us because of a conference for school. Hailey and I came out the last day of it and hit the ground running as soon as Ryan picked us up from the airport. I think in 7 days we went to at least 6 or 7 (probably more to be honest) different cities. My trip started off with Ryan surprising me with a coxinha (cosh-e-ha) aka fried cone shaped deliciousness with a surprise center of chicken and cream cheese. Even cooled down it was so good! ~I should go ahead and tell you now that this post is going to be mainly about the food. Other than the amazing people I met, it was the best part of our trip!~ Since Ryan served in Boston and Cambridge, he knew his way around everywhere and took us to the good places :) After the airport, we drove around a bit and walked around Harvard and Harvard square. That's when we decided to get something to eat and headed for the famous Mr. Bartley's Burgers.
Oh... My... Heck... SO GOOD! This burger joint deserves its own paragraph. I heard about it from the food network (I think from Man vs. Food) and have wanted to go ever since then. Let me just say that those burgers where certainly TV worthy. I got the Mayor Mumbles Menino and Ryan got the Skip Gates. The burger... so big... so juicy... with the best bacon I have ever had... are you drooling yet? I am all over again! They were seriously so dang good. But just for the fun of it you should read the menu. The names and descriptions of the burgers are really funny. http://www.mrbartley.com/mrbartleys-menu.html but seriously, it is worth your time. And on top of all of that, it was a PERFECT day in Boston. No humidity, perfect temperature. Just simply a perfect day. But enough about that. I have MUCH more to recap.
After Mr. Bartley's we went to Richard and Cherise's place in Quincy and stayed. It was so nice to finally meet Richard's lovely bride and see them interact with each other... oh to be young and in love :) Just kidding, I still am! But they really were fun to be around. We got to hang out watching the Olympics and talk and just get to know one another. It was really fun.
The next morning Ryan and I decided that we would do a tour of Boston. Other than it being a blistering hot and humid day, it was a great day to go sight seeing. *side note* no one and I mean NO ONE has central air, in what I figure, all of Massachusetts. Seriously... except Richard and Cherise... anyway back to Boston. We started the day off by going to the Public Gardens and seeing all the duck ponds with tons of big, beautiful ducks and swans. Those gardens truly are a sight to see. I LOVED it there. But we had a busy day ahead of us so we didn't stay long. After we were off to a little pond? I guess you would call it... splash area? I don't know. This little water place that tons of kids and parents were splashing and swimming around in. It was really cute and fun to put our feet in. We even met another Haley!
After the splash pond area we started our main day's expedition and did the freedom trail. History truly does come alive in that city! I learned so much and had a blast doing it! The freedom trail really is a red brick trail going through all of Boston taking you to all of the historical spots. It was great. We got to take a tour of Old North Church and learned about how Paul Revere came up with the idea of lighting the lanterns up in the bell tour. We learned that only MIT students ring the bells now because it is so complicated... They have to memorize literally over 1,000 bell combinations. Yikes! And then we went down into the church's Crypt. Not really creepy at all to be honest. It was really a cool experience though. We ended the freedom trail at the U.S.S Constitution, which I learned is the oldest Naval boat still in commission, and toured around it for a bit. It truly is a beautiful ship. We also learned that people in the navy actually get stationed there. They don't hire people to work it. I thought that was pretty cool.
Next on our agenda was the North end of Boston. The part I had been waiting for. Italian time!!! We walked all around and saw what there was to see then headed in for some dinner. We picked a little Italian restaurant that was just perfect for us. So quaint and decorated to the max! I'm sad I didn't get a picture of it. The food was a amazing, the atmosphere perfect and the staff was so friendly. I loved it. Then it was time. Time to indulge in the #1 reason why I couldn't wait to get to Boston. Cannolis!! Apparently the north end of Boston is home to one of, if not THE best pastry shop in the U.S. Everything in that shop is worthy of eating. The place was PACKED. I sent Ryan in to do the dirty work of fighting his way to the counter and bringing home the gold... or at least the golden shelled cannolis. In one day, we ate 2.5 cannolis. And they were massive. Seriously as long as my hand, and I have big hands! We got a chocolate mousse, an oreo filled, and a florentine. I died. They were so good. I can't do them justice. Just go. Go as soon as work, school, or funds allow you to, but go. Go to Mike's Pastry and get one. Any one. Just get one. Ok. I'm done. I can't talk about them anymore or Ryan is going to come home from basketball to a note that says "Went to Boston. Cannolis called."
They next day we drove around Littleton and Groton, two places that Ryan lived and served his mission and killed time before heading over to stay with the Lachmann's for a couple of nights. Amazing family. I can think of no other way to describe them. I instantly fell in love with the whole family. The nicest, most loving, amazing people I have ever met. They opened their home and hearts to us (Hailey and I, they already had to Ryan) instantly. Bator is a Thai women who married a Hebrew man, Tal. I hope I spelled his name right... and they have 3 beautiful, fun, incredibly smart children. We stayed up and talked for awhile but it had been a long day of travel for them (they literally had just gotten back to the state from a month trip to Thailand that evening!) so we all headed to bed. The next morning after breakfast we kicked the day off right by grabbing some lunch and then Kimball's homemade ice cream. Wow it was good! Then we continued our journey through living history to see the Old North Bridge in Concord and explored the visitor's center there. Then we went to Lexington to see the Battle Green (literally a green grassy area, that's it) where the first shot in the Revolutionary War was fired or better known as "the shot heard 'round the world." Then we drove over to Waldon pond, which was HUGE, to see the beauty of Massachusetts there. Unfortunately the rain decided to see it too because we were there only five minutes before it caught up to us :( So we took our journey back to the Lachmann's where we ate the BEST Thai food I have ever put into my stomach. Everyone laughed at how much I ate, but I couldn't stop! It was so good. The conversation was even better though. Tal and Bator told us there hilarious story of how they met and fell for each other. And then we told ours where we all decided I was a crazy, desperate stalker :) But hey! It won me my man! And then Bator showered me with a night of trying on her custom designed jewelry and giving me two sets of earrings and a necklace. Did I mention she was the sweetest lady ever?!? Unfortunately we had to leave really early the next morning to head to Cape Cod so we had to end our night. The next morning we got pictures, said our good byes, and headed for the Cape to meet up with Richard and Cherise and go on over to Martha's Vineyard. It was another muggy, super hot day but that didn't stop us one bit. We ate at the restaurant that Ryan worked at the summer after his mission, The Seafood Shanty. So good! We then walked around Edgar Town and got some really good fudge and headed for Oak Bluffs. We saw the oldest carousel The Flying Horses there.... super creepy.... and saw the Ginger Bread Houses. The craziest little houses I have ever seen! They were all sorts of colors and seriously looked like ginger bread haha. It was pretty cool. We saw the famous bridge that Jaws saw under in the movie and went sight seeing. Literally, all the mansions were a sight to see! I seriously couldn't believe how big and pretty they were.
Now for a funny story. The island is really small. We kept seeing the same people we came over on the ferry with throughout the different towns. One family I kept seeing was a little Indian family that had commented of how cute Hailey was when we first arrived at Martha's Vineyard. Right as we were loading up in the car to call it a day, the daughter called out to the family saying "Hey, there's that cute baby again." This is not an exaggeration of the story at all. The mom, dad, son and daughter all gathered around Hailey oohing and awing at how cute she was. The dad then turned to me and asked me if he could get a picture of her. I was so caught off guard I started stuttering "uhhh, ummm, yeah, I guess..." and then proceeded to look at Ryan really confused haha. The dad then starts taking picture of his daughter with mine, shoving his son in a picture with her (not joking, he shoved him in haha) and just clicking away while mom is asking me her name, how to spell it, and her age. They thanked me and told me again how cute she was and started to leave. They the daughter (I'm guessing early teens) asked me if I put her in beauty pageants. I quickly say no, because her daddy would kill me. She laughed and off they were. SO FUNNY! You would have sworn that I had made their day from that. I can't wait to tell Hailey about that one day.
Back to our travels. We said our good byes to Rich and Cherise for the last time and headed our separate ways. We went to the Dimavich's (I know I butchered that one but I tried) to stay. The next morning was Sunday and we had church bright and early. Let me start by saying the church is true no matter where you go, but it isn't always the same size... Smallest. Branch. EVER. Not only was it small but it wasn't even in a church building. It's so small that they hold church in a store front that is converted into the meeting house. It was so nuts! I wanted to giggle every time they called the room we were in the chapel because it was so different to me. There are only about 3-4 families in the branch, a set of missionaries and a few others (mainly summer vacationers) that make up the branch. We actually met someone who came to Bloomington to go to Indiana University for school 13 years ago which is were he joined the church. Small world! The Boston temple president? or a counselor, I can't remember, and his wife were the speakers for both sacrament and Sunday school. From what I hear and the parts I actually heard, it was a wonderful meeting (I was on Hailey duty, in and out feeding and changing her.)
After church we went over to the Pertili's where we sent time with Barb. As Ryan describes her she is a spaz with a heart of gold. He couldn't have been more spot on. She LOVED little Hailey and fed us lots of organic apples :) I had a lot of fun getting to know her and hearing about how much she loved Ryan when he was serving out there. She was an investigator that Ryan taught that wanted to join the church but wasn't able to due to family conflict. It was fun to put a face to the name finally. Next we drove around the island and headed towards Menemsha. Menemsha is known for its breath taking sunsets. The beach fills up with people who sit and wait to watch it go down and when the sun disappears over the horizon, everyone claps. Unfortunately for us, Hailey was hitting her limit and we had to leave before the sun went down. But we did get to see everyone setting up for the big show. One day when we go back I'll see it :)
The next day was beach day. We headed to State Beach in Oak Bluffs around 11 and didn't leave until 3 or 3:30. Hailey was an angel the whole day. We got to play in the ocean with her which was really fun and of course I took a million pictures of her that day. *side note* don't change a diaper on the beach if you can help it, and definitely don't do it if you forgot the wipes....Sand gets everywhere! And if you do change it, recruit an extra pair of hands to help. But we had a ton of fun at the beach and actually got some color on our pasty white Indiana skin. Ryan got A LOT of sun. Aka he turned into a Martha's Vineyard lobster :) I got the smallest of burns but I was in the shade a lot with Hailey so I wasn't out nearly as long as he was. After the beach we headed over to the Polley's for dinner where they cooked us some BBQ. Again, we couldn't stay too long because we had to get Hailey in bed and we had told the Dimevich's we would have dessert with them. The Polley's were so sweet though. They had some awesome Ryan as a missionary stories and gave me the dirt on him :) They own a duplex where they live on one side and the missionaries used to live on the other. Ryan was one of them so they all spent a lot of time together. Dessert at the Dimevich's was fun where I got to know them a bit better. Brenda (the mom) was so sweet and her husband Lou was really funny. I really enjoyed the time we spent there.
The next morning, Tuesday, was our last day there and also the day we were coming home. We kicked the morning off with a Belly Bomb. Holy heaven of donut deliciousness! The biggest, baddest, best donut ever! It was massive! It was a Boston creme filled donut with chocolate frosting on top that I had been waiting the whole trip for. Yum... so good. I took a picture and posted it on Facebook and a couple people thought they were steaks! haha nope. Just huge donuts. We caught a ferry back to Cape Cod and then headed to Plymouth to check out Plimoth Plantation (no, I didn't spell it wrong. That's the way they spell it.) Ryan has 18 relatives that came over on the Mayflower so we wanted to check it out. It's a living museum. It's all set up to be 7 years (1927) after the Mayflower landed at Plymouth. Each person is really a person that lived back then and they talk and act like they are really them. They never come out of character. It was pretty cool. Ryan met some "relatives" and talked to them a bit. It was smaller than we thought it was going to be and there weren't many people around. A lot of the houses were empty. It sounded like we came of a day were a lot of the men were out fishing for dinner. Then we headed over to the Mayflower II (a replica of the Mayflower). Ryan explored it while I waited in the car with our sleepy little Hailey. He took pictures of it and of Plymouth Rock. Plymouth Rock...What a let down! The rock is just that... a rock. Nothing special or grand about it. Just about a five foot long rock.
After Plymouth we headed to the airport to end our trip. Because of Hailey (our little meal ticket!) we cruised right to the front of the mile long security line. And just like that our Boston trip was over. It seemed to fly by but we packed every minute of it with tons of fun and learning. I would do it all over again and actually hope to again some day. At 5 months old, Hailey is already a very well traveled and cultured little girl. Ryan was right at home and loved every minute of being there. I gained about 5 pounds and don't even care! Hallelujah for the world's best baby that made it possible to see and do everything we wanted to on our jam packed trip. We couldn't have asked anymore out of her and she exceeded our expectations. It was a perfect vacation to end our summer :)
-I'll post pictures tomorrow morning of all our fun. It's too late tonight.
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Jena (and Hailey) Go West
So much to catch up on! So here we go...
*Note* For fear of this post being 20 pages long I will only write about the big stuff...
As crazy as I am, I attempted, and survived, my very first trip- ALONE- with Hailey. Needless to say I was terrified, stressed, freaking out, all of the above... But I did it.
We left bright and early Friday, June 22 for Salt Lake City. Ryan drove us up and dropped us off at the Indy airport. As soon as we got up to the desk to drop the luggage off I noticed Hailey had pooped. ALL OVER THE PLACE. The biggest blowout to date. Seriously, more of it ended up in her pj's than in her diaper. It was such a mess. The lady at the desk was so nice though. She told me to go and take care of her in the bathroom and she would look after all my stuff. After I started to clean Hailey off in the bathroom she gave me another surprise. I had just taken her diaper off to put a new one on and she peed all over the place! I have the world's leakiest baby! So needless to say I stuck her in the sink and rinsed her off. I literally was almost in tears. Within the first 5 minutes of our trip everything had gone wrong already. I called Ryan to fill him in and he reminded me that it was better this was all happening now instead of on the plane. SO TRUE! I finally got Hailey clean and realized that I left her clothes with all my luggage. So I carried naked (well in a diaper) Hailey through the airport to finally check our luggage in.
After I got some clothes on her, we were off to security. Thankfully the airport wasn't busy at all so we got through security just fine and quickly. As soon as we got to the gate it was time to board. Everyone was so nice and helpful. Unfortunately the flight was full so there were no empty seats to spread out our stuff. After the fiasco in the airport everything went smoothly. Hailey did amazing. She ate right before we took off and fell asleep for almost the entire trip. I'm so thankful too because that was the part of our trip I was most terrified for. I was so scared I was going to have a screaming baby the whole way there. Which is just crazy. Hailey is such a good baby! But still, I was scared.
Once we landed I did what any "southern California girl" stuck in Indiana (don't judge me, I will forever claim it) would do and that was go straight to In-N-Out. So delicious! All the delicious food is probably my favorite thing about Utah, or traveling in general. We then hung out at Grandpa Gottfredson's and got settled in.
The next day we woke up early and headed to the temple to witness Sadie's wedding. It was so nice to be able to attend a wedding because I sure don't remember a thing that was said in ours! The sealer made the comment that at a funeral there is only one person that doesn't remember a thing said, but at a wedding there is two! Sad, but true! The sealer was really funny but also really good. I learned quite a bit! We then proceeded to have a very busy day running from the luncheon to the reception and then to Aimee's that night to stay. It was really fun to catch up with Aimee and her family and see my cute nephews and niece. They are growing so much!
Then the next day Melissa came up and we all spent the day together. Later that night I went to my Grandma's and spent the night with Taylor who came from Vegas. Her girls loved Hailey! I had so much fun staying up and talking with Taylor. I really wish we lived closer. We always have so much fun together. The next day we went to a park and just hung out while the girls played.
Taylor then dropped me off at my friend Sara's house. As always, it never seems like any time has passed when we get together. I got to (almost) spend her birthday with her. It was so fun seeing her! She is so stinking cute as a preggo. She is 6 months pregnant and way cuter than I was! We stayed up way too late, as always, just talking and catching up. She didn't have air conditioning so we went out a bunch to stay cool. We got to go to the pool which was so fun! We got Hailey's feet in the water and she seemed to like it after awhile. I wish we would have had the bathing suit I got for her earlier so she could have really gotten in. We also made necklaces and did a "spa" day. Which basically means we put masks on. Just like old times! We attempted to watch the Newsies once and actually succeeded once, while pigging out on Oreos! My kind of night :) I wish we could have had more time together. But unfortunately our time together always has to end too soon :(
Thursday Ryan's sister came and picked me up to go to St. George. I had never been before so I was really excited. All of Ryan's family went down there to spend the weekend. Gary and Eric even took off work and played with us!
Friday we went out to Gunlock Lake and went wake boarding. Between Gary, Ben, and Nate all teaching me, I was actually able to get up! It was awesome. I sure didn't look cute once I was up and I didn't stay up long, but I got up none the less :) That night my dad came to St. George to drop my little brother Will off with my step-sister, so I got to see him for a few minutes. It was nice being able to give him a hug and get a little time with him. He surprised me by telling me he gave Jay the day off that Sunday so he could come spend a few hours with me. I hadn't seen him, Cali, and the boys in such a long time!
Saturday we went to the Big Rock Candy Mountain, which yes, it really did look like rock candy. There we went zip lining and white water rafting on the Sevier River. SO FUN! It was a bunch of class 1 & 2 rapids with two class 3 rapids and a 4 foot drop. The class 3 rapids were so fun! I'm such an adrenalin junkie. I want to take Ryan and go through some bigger rapids next time!
Sunday we went to sacrament meeting which was fast and testimony meeting... All I'll say is that it was the most awkward meeting of my life! Old people need to not tell childhood stories... at least when they aren't church appropriate! Enough about that though haha. After, Ryan's sisters and I left and went back to Gary and Gina's to get dinner started. Jay, Cali and the boys came over and spent a few hours with me. I miss them so much! I wish they hadn't moved away. The boys have gotten so big! Westin is so big now. The last time I saw him he wasn't even 1 yet and now he is almost 2! Gavin was a little scared of me but he somewhat warmed up to me by the time they left. I'm grateful that they were willing to drive and say hi to me. Cali just LOVED Hailey!
Monday we went to Zions to go hike the Narrows. It was a really pretty hike. Unfortunately it didn't start off the way I would have liked. I forgot the wipes back where we were staying and I forgot Hailey's bottles in the car... almost an hour away from where we were hiking. Smooth move mom... So I had to nurse Hailey in public which I'm SUPER uncomfortable with. But you gotta do what you gotta do. Hailey started crying as soon as we started so I had to carry her up which wasn't too bad. The Narrows hike is partly through a river so once we got to the river Hailey stayed with Gina and off the rest of us were. It was so pretty but unfortunately you are looking down almost the whole time (so you don't slip on a rock in the river, which I did anyway) that you miss most of the scenery. Everything worked out just fine that day though. And I only fell in the river twice! :) When we got back to Gina, she told me a baby squirrel was trying to go home with us... it had climbed in my diaper bag and she had to scare it off! When we weren't having fun outdoor excursions we were just hanging out and playing games. That's where all the quality time together happened. Tuesday bright and early we left and headed home. This is an adventure all on its own... my leaky child decided she had to poop... all over the back seat of the car while I was changing her. I did have a changing mat down thankfully but a bit still got on the seat, on my shirt sleeve, and all over Hailey. It was SO GROSS. The girl can poop haha. But we did manage to clean her off, finally. The rest of the car ride went smoothly after that.
The next day (the 4th of July) we had to leave. Before we left Hailey surprised us by rolling over for the first time. She rolled twice from her tummy to her back! I'm so proud of my big girl. Almost right after that we had to pack up and head out. Hailey screamed the whole way to the airport but was an angel in the airport and on the plane. THANKFULLY. Again, I was stressed but it all worked out.
We were so exited to see Ryan again. Two weeks without your spouse and as a single parent is a really long time! We definitely miss everyone in Utah and definitely miss all the fresh raspberries Grandpa picked for us! But there is nothing like being home and sleeping in your own bed. And being back with your husband! Next time he's coming with us so we can have fun together as a family :)
*Pictures to come later... I'm too lazy to load them all now.
*Note* For fear of this post being 20 pages long I will only write about the big stuff...
As crazy as I am, I attempted, and survived, my very first trip- ALONE- with Hailey. Needless to say I was terrified, stressed, freaking out, all of the above... But I did it.
We left bright and early Friday, June 22 for Salt Lake City. Ryan drove us up and dropped us off at the Indy airport. As soon as we got up to the desk to drop the luggage off I noticed Hailey had pooped. ALL OVER THE PLACE. The biggest blowout to date. Seriously, more of it ended up in her pj's than in her diaper. It was such a mess. The lady at the desk was so nice though. She told me to go and take care of her in the bathroom and she would look after all my stuff. After I started to clean Hailey off in the bathroom she gave me another surprise. I had just taken her diaper off to put a new one on and she peed all over the place! I have the world's leakiest baby! So needless to say I stuck her in the sink and rinsed her off. I literally was almost in tears. Within the first 5 minutes of our trip everything had gone wrong already. I called Ryan to fill him in and he reminded me that it was better this was all happening now instead of on the plane. SO TRUE! I finally got Hailey clean and realized that I left her clothes with all my luggage. So I carried naked (well in a diaper) Hailey through the airport to finally check our luggage in.
After I got some clothes on her, we were off to security. Thankfully the airport wasn't busy at all so we got through security just fine and quickly. As soon as we got to the gate it was time to board. Everyone was so nice and helpful. Unfortunately the flight was full so there were no empty seats to spread out our stuff. After the fiasco in the airport everything went smoothly. Hailey did amazing. She ate right before we took off and fell asleep for almost the entire trip. I'm so thankful too because that was the part of our trip I was most terrified for. I was so scared I was going to have a screaming baby the whole way there. Which is just crazy. Hailey is such a good baby! But still, I was scared.
Once we landed I did what any "southern California girl" stuck in Indiana (don't judge me, I will forever claim it) would do and that was go straight to In-N-Out. So delicious! All the delicious food is probably my favorite thing about Utah, or traveling in general. We then hung out at Grandpa Gottfredson's and got settled in.
The next day we woke up early and headed to the temple to witness Sadie's wedding. It was so nice to be able to attend a wedding because I sure don't remember a thing that was said in ours! The sealer made the comment that at a funeral there is only one person that doesn't remember a thing said, but at a wedding there is two! Sad, but true! The sealer was really funny but also really good. I learned quite a bit! We then proceeded to have a very busy day running from the luncheon to the reception and then to Aimee's that night to stay. It was really fun to catch up with Aimee and her family and see my cute nephews and niece. They are growing so much!
Then the next day Melissa came up and we all spent the day together. Later that night I went to my Grandma's and spent the night with Taylor who came from Vegas. Her girls loved Hailey! I had so much fun staying up and talking with Taylor. I really wish we lived closer. We always have so much fun together. The next day we went to a park and just hung out while the girls played.
Taylor then dropped me off at my friend Sara's house. As always, it never seems like any time has passed when we get together. I got to (almost) spend her birthday with her. It was so fun seeing her! She is so stinking cute as a preggo. She is 6 months pregnant and way cuter than I was! We stayed up way too late, as always, just talking and catching up. She didn't have air conditioning so we went out a bunch to stay cool. We got to go to the pool which was so fun! We got Hailey's feet in the water and she seemed to like it after awhile. I wish we would have had the bathing suit I got for her earlier so she could have really gotten in. We also made necklaces and did a "spa" day. Which basically means we put masks on. Just like old times! We attempted to watch the Newsies once and actually succeeded once, while pigging out on Oreos! My kind of night :) I wish we could have had more time together. But unfortunately our time together always has to end too soon :(
Thursday Ryan's sister came and picked me up to go to St. George. I had never been before so I was really excited. All of Ryan's family went down there to spend the weekend. Gary and Eric even took off work and played with us!
Friday we went out to Gunlock Lake and went wake boarding. Between Gary, Ben, and Nate all teaching me, I was actually able to get up! It was awesome. I sure didn't look cute once I was up and I didn't stay up long, but I got up none the less :) That night my dad came to St. George to drop my little brother Will off with my step-sister, so I got to see him for a few minutes. It was nice being able to give him a hug and get a little time with him. He surprised me by telling me he gave Jay the day off that Sunday so he could come spend a few hours with me. I hadn't seen him, Cali, and the boys in such a long time!
Saturday we went to the Big Rock Candy Mountain, which yes, it really did look like rock candy. There we went zip lining and white water rafting on the Sevier River. SO FUN! It was a bunch of class 1 & 2 rapids with two class 3 rapids and a 4 foot drop. The class 3 rapids were so fun! I'm such an adrenalin junkie. I want to take Ryan and go through some bigger rapids next time!
Sunday we went to sacrament meeting which was fast and testimony meeting... All I'll say is that it was the most awkward meeting of my life! Old people need to not tell childhood stories... at least when they aren't church appropriate! Enough about that though haha. After, Ryan's sisters and I left and went back to Gary and Gina's to get dinner started. Jay, Cali and the boys came over and spent a few hours with me. I miss them so much! I wish they hadn't moved away. The boys have gotten so big! Westin is so big now. The last time I saw him he wasn't even 1 yet and now he is almost 2! Gavin was a little scared of me but he somewhat warmed up to me by the time they left. I'm grateful that they were willing to drive and say hi to me. Cali just LOVED Hailey!
Monday we went to Zions to go hike the Narrows. It was a really pretty hike. Unfortunately it didn't start off the way I would have liked. I forgot the wipes back where we were staying and I forgot Hailey's bottles in the car... almost an hour away from where we were hiking. Smooth move mom... So I had to nurse Hailey in public which I'm SUPER uncomfortable with. But you gotta do what you gotta do. Hailey started crying as soon as we started so I had to carry her up which wasn't too bad. The Narrows hike is partly through a river so once we got to the river Hailey stayed with Gina and off the rest of us were. It was so pretty but unfortunately you are looking down almost the whole time (so you don't slip on a rock in the river, which I did anyway) that you miss most of the scenery. Everything worked out just fine that day though. And I only fell in the river twice! :) When we got back to Gina, she told me a baby squirrel was trying to go home with us... it had climbed in my diaper bag and she had to scare it off! When we weren't having fun outdoor excursions we were just hanging out and playing games. That's where all the quality time together happened. Tuesday bright and early we left and headed home. This is an adventure all on its own... my leaky child decided she had to poop... all over the back seat of the car while I was changing her. I did have a changing mat down thankfully but a bit still got on the seat, on my shirt sleeve, and all over Hailey. It was SO GROSS. The girl can poop haha. But we did manage to clean her off, finally. The rest of the car ride went smoothly after that.
The next day (the 4th of July) we had to leave. Before we left Hailey surprised us by rolling over for the first time. She rolled twice from her tummy to her back! I'm so proud of my big girl. Almost right after that we had to pack up and head out. Hailey screamed the whole way to the airport but was an angel in the airport and on the plane. THANKFULLY. Again, I was stressed but it all worked out.
We were so exited to see Ryan again. Two weeks without your spouse and as a single parent is a really long time! We definitely miss everyone in Utah and definitely miss all the fresh raspberries Grandpa picked for us! But there is nothing like being home and sleeping in your own bed. And being back with your husband! Next time he's coming with us so we can have fun together as a family :)
*Pictures to come later... I'm too lazy to load them all now.
Friday, June 15, 2012
The Luck of the Irish
I won't go into full blown detail but, I have terrible luck. If it can, it will. Always. That is just how things happen to me. And since my husband already posted this on Facebook, I might as well tell the story for memory's sake.
What actually happened to me this time, you might ask? Well poop happened. And not Hailey's poop. No that is expected and not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. No, a bird's poop happened. On me. ON my belly button. Not NEXT to it. ON it.
So here's how it went down. I am leaving for Utah in a week and wanted to get some sun before I head out so I don't FRY like I did last year. So I went outside on our deck to enjoy the sun. I had just laid back and closed my eyes. I even started to smile because the sun felt so good when all of the sudden I felt the plop on my belly. My first reaction was OH MY FREAKING GOSH a HUGE bug just landed on me. *Note* I am TERRIFIED of bugs. Just ask Ryan about "The Beetle" incident of 2011. We don't bring it up... Anywho... I quickly flung my hand across my stomach to hopefully scare the "bug" away before I opened my eyes and ended up screaming and/or crying when I see this "bug." Because it really did feel monsterous. Nope. Instead when I finally work up the courage to open my eyes and face the "bug" I am faced with a monsterous bird poo all over me. It not only was on my belly button but had also splattered up to my chest and on my thigh. So. Freaking. Gross. While I was momentarily relieved that it was not a huge bug, I'm not sure which one was worse.
Literally my jaw dropped. I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to touch it, obviously, and I didn't want to stand up and have it drop down me (touching more of me), so I did some kind of funky crab walk and stood up while carefully leaning over to make sure no more poop spread over me. I then went inside to clean up and decide whether or not I wanted to tell Ryan. I knew I would suffer some form of punishment for it if I did. And yet, I still told him. Together we laughed. I laughed so hard I cried and he laughed AT me while assuring me he was laughing WITH me. I'm no dummy. Either way my punishment came moments later when I received and email from Facebook saying "Ryan Gottfredson has tagged you in a message..." And so it came to be that the whole Facebook nation, or at least mine and my husband's Facebook nation, learned about my misfortune.
And what is really the icing on the cake is that my misfortune didn't stop there. I later (after I cleaned up) took Hailey to the mall. When I was getting out of the car I didn't notice that my keys fell out of my diaper bag until I shut all the car doors... after locking them first. Don't worry Hailey was already out. But still, chalk another win up for me that day. I then reached in my diaper bag to call Ryan to bring me my spare set of keys and guess what? I left my phone at home! And put another point on the board for me! So I had to go in the mall and use an employee's cell phone to call Ryan to bring me my keys. Good thing I have such a good sense of humor :)
All I gotta say is thanks mom for giving me the luck of the Irish. I think I could have done without though.
What actually happened to me this time, you might ask? Well poop happened. And not Hailey's poop. No that is expected and not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. No, a bird's poop happened. On me. ON my belly button. Not NEXT to it. ON it.
So here's how it went down. I am leaving for Utah in a week and wanted to get some sun before I head out so I don't FRY like I did last year. So I went outside on our deck to enjoy the sun. I had just laid back and closed my eyes. I even started to smile because the sun felt so good when all of the sudden I felt the plop on my belly. My first reaction was OH MY FREAKING GOSH a HUGE bug just landed on me. *Note* I am TERRIFIED of bugs. Just ask Ryan about "The Beetle" incident of 2011. We don't bring it up... Anywho... I quickly flung my hand across my stomach to hopefully scare the "bug" away before I opened my eyes and ended up screaming and/or crying when I see this "bug." Because it really did feel monsterous. Nope. Instead when I finally work up the courage to open my eyes and face the "bug" I am faced with a monsterous bird poo all over me. It not only was on my belly button but had also splattered up to my chest and on my thigh. So. Freaking. Gross. While I was momentarily relieved that it was not a huge bug, I'm not sure which one was worse.
Literally my jaw dropped. I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to touch it, obviously, and I didn't want to stand up and have it drop down me (touching more of me), so I did some kind of funky crab walk and stood up while carefully leaning over to make sure no more poop spread over me. I then went inside to clean up and decide whether or not I wanted to tell Ryan. I knew I would suffer some form of punishment for it if I did. And yet, I still told him. Together we laughed. I laughed so hard I cried and he laughed AT me while assuring me he was laughing WITH me. I'm no dummy. Either way my punishment came moments later when I received and email from Facebook saying "Ryan Gottfredson has tagged you in a message..." And so it came to be that the whole Facebook nation, or at least mine and my husband's Facebook nation, learned about my misfortune.
And what is really the icing on the cake is that my misfortune didn't stop there. I later (after I cleaned up) took Hailey to the mall. When I was getting out of the car I didn't notice that my keys fell out of my diaper bag until I shut all the car doors... after locking them first. Don't worry Hailey was already out. But still, chalk another win up for me that day. I then reached in my diaper bag to call Ryan to bring me my spare set of keys and guess what? I left my phone at home! And put another point on the board for me! So I had to go in the mall and use an employee's cell phone to call Ryan to bring me my keys. Good thing I have such a good sense of humor :)
All I gotta say is thanks mom for giving me the luck of the Irish. I think I could have done without though.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Sugar and Spice- it doesn't always make everything nice
Sooooooo this stay-at-home mommy thing... I'm digging it. It lets me "explore" my womanly skills of being a homemaker. What I really mean is that I get to try my hand at being the next Betty Crocker. Don't worry Betty. Your reign is not at all in danger. I don't really make it a secret that I'm kinda not a fan of cooking, or baking. What I mean is that I kinda don't like it. And what I really mean by that is that I REALLY don't like cooking at all. And I have finally figured out why.
I never grew up cooking. The most cooking or baking exposure I got was being forced to make blueberry muffins for my older brother John (still awesome at making those I will say) and baking pies with Grandma Lillywhite. Both things I am pretty dang good at making. Because I was TAUGHT at a YOUNG age how to make them. My mother loved to cook and was a pretty good cook. But she always kicked us out of the kitchen so she could do it her way and because we always had small kitchens and we just got in her way.
But here is the real reason why I hate making food that requires more than a microwave or boiling water... There is so much time and work put into preparing and making a meal. This generally creates stress on me, one because I don't know what I'm doing, and two, because I don't know what I'm doing, it takes twice as long to get a finished product. It is a risk every time because I have no idea if it is even going to taste good. When we finally sit down to enjoy the finished product, it NEVER meets up to my expectations. I always feel like I have been cheated. That for how much time and ingredients that I put into it, this meal that we are eating should be 10, if not 20 times better than what it really is. And whatever I cook, no matter how exact I follow a recipe, never ever cooks the way the recipe says it is supposed to.
For example... yesterday I slaved away in the kitchen all day. I decided to get bold and make lemon curd. It was a easy level recipe and all the reviews raved about how easy and delicious it was. Not only did it take more than 3X the time it was supposed to, it didn't turn out AT ALL. I ended up with sweet lemon soup. It was good, but useless. After my failed attempt I still had enough drive- and not really a choice haha- to cook dinner. I tried a recipe I found on Pinterest-also supposed to be "easy." It too took 3X longer to make and cook than it was supposed to. And again, I was not as fully impressed as I had hoped and dreamed to be with it. It seems that after everything I make I find Ryan and I talking about all the things we would change and do different to it to make it better the next time. AHHH, the next time?! Which means I have to go through it all again to MAYBE get a better result the next time. It's very exhausting.
Ryan always teases me when he has to leave for awhile because he knows I basically eat frozen food or cereal. He thinks it's because I'm too lazy to make a full dinner for myself and I might have agreed with him until now. Now I know that it isn't because I'm lazy. It's flat out because I don't feel like I get out what I put in. I feel cooking to be a waste of my time. I know exactly what I'm getting out of pouring cereal in a bowl and find that the costs are equal to the rewards. Whereas cooking a full out meal, for only one person, is a lot of cost for little or less of a reward. High costs for little rewards is a terrible business plan. And to be honest... I really do LOVE cereal.
So take that Betty. You go ahead and spend the hours preparing gourmet food that looks, smells, and better yet, tastes delicious. Just know that you are a far greater woman than I probably ever will be. And I'm ok with that. For now, I shall suck it up and continue butchering meals until the day comes that Ryan puts a ban on me from entering the kitchen alone. Fat chance... but I can always dream :)
And if you read this far, I will reward you with embarrassing proof that I really am a pretty bad cook...
I never grew up cooking. The most cooking or baking exposure I got was being forced to make blueberry muffins for my older brother John (still awesome at making those I will say) and baking pies with Grandma Lillywhite. Both things I am pretty dang good at making. Because I was TAUGHT at a YOUNG age how to make them. My mother loved to cook and was a pretty good cook. But she always kicked us out of the kitchen so she could do it her way and because we always had small kitchens and we just got in her way.
But here is the real reason why I hate making food that requires more than a microwave or boiling water... There is so much time and work put into preparing and making a meal. This generally creates stress on me, one because I don't know what I'm doing, and two, because I don't know what I'm doing, it takes twice as long to get a finished product. It is a risk every time because I have no idea if it is even going to taste good. When we finally sit down to enjoy the finished product, it NEVER meets up to my expectations. I always feel like I have been cheated. That for how much time and ingredients that I put into it, this meal that we are eating should be 10, if not 20 times better than what it really is. And whatever I cook, no matter how exact I follow a recipe, never ever cooks the way the recipe says it is supposed to.
For example... yesterday I slaved away in the kitchen all day. I decided to get bold and make lemon curd. It was a easy level recipe and all the reviews raved about how easy and delicious it was. Not only did it take more than 3X the time it was supposed to, it didn't turn out AT ALL. I ended up with sweet lemon soup. It was good, but useless. After my failed attempt I still had enough drive- and not really a choice haha- to cook dinner. I tried a recipe I found on Pinterest-also supposed to be "easy." It too took 3X longer to make and cook than it was supposed to. And again, I was not as fully impressed as I had hoped and dreamed to be with it. It seems that after everything I make I find Ryan and I talking about all the things we would change and do different to it to make it better the next time. AHHH, the next time?! Which means I have to go through it all again to MAYBE get a better result the next time. It's very exhausting.
Ryan always teases me when he has to leave for awhile because he knows I basically eat frozen food or cereal. He thinks it's because I'm too lazy to make a full dinner for myself and I might have agreed with him until now. Now I know that it isn't because I'm lazy. It's flat out because I don't feel like I get out what I put in. I feel cooking to be a waste of my time. I know exactly what I'm getting out of pouring cereal in a bowl and find that the costs are equal to the rewards. Whereas cooking a full out meal, for only one person, is a lot of cost for little or less of a reward. High costs for little rewards is a terrible business plan. And to be honest... I really do LOVE cereal.
So take that Betty. You go ahead and spend the hours preparing gourmet food that looks, smells, and better yet, tastes delicious. Just know that you are a far greater woman than I probably ever will be. And I'm ok with that. For now, I shall suck it up and continue butchering meals until the day comes that Ryan puts a ban on me from entering the kitchen alone. Fat chance... but I can always dream :)
And if you read this far, I will reward you with embarrassing proof that I really am a pretty bad cook...
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| Yep. Raw in the middle and totally burnt on the edges. Don't even ask... |
Monday, May 14, 2012
In Da Club
Yep. I made it.
I made it into the exclusive mother's club.
Not only am I now allowed to give unwanted advice to any and all pregnant women, not only am I now allowed into the elusive mother's room at church, but I am now officially allowed to celebrate Mother's Day. It's like having two birthdays a year! Both celebrate you, give you presents, and end with cake!-or at least with a desert. The only difference is that Mother's Day doesn't tack on another year to your age and give you new signs of aging (boo on wrinkles).
My very first Mother's Day was quite the success I must say. I think I'll do it again :) It only had one minor hiccup... If anyone sees a gray and white husky running wild and free please contact me... More on that later though...
It started off as any Mother's Day should. With some sleeping in and a gourmet breakfast. Hailey got me up at 6:45 to eat but then went back to sleep until 10. Thank you Hailey girl! Ryan made me eggs even though he really isn't a fan of them and... get ready for this... brown sugar bacon waffles! They were so good! They really did have bacon chunks in them. I very much recommend these, so go look up a recipe for them! During breakfast Ryan gave me my presents. I got a book called "Plant A Kiss" from him and the book "Love You Forever" from Hailey. Very cute! I love the book "Love You Forever." My mom used to read it to us, and the book "Plant A Kiss" is just a cute little book. I can't wait to start reading them to Hailey. Thanks Ryan for helping me on my path to becoming a better mommy!
After breakfast Hailey and I got ready for church (Ryan has to go up early for meetings). When we got to church, our Mother's Day present was that all the women got to go to Relief Society. So those women with callings that take them out of Relief Society got out of them. And, we got to eat some delicious food. I'm always a fan of that! I made it through most of the lesson before Hailey woke up and demanded that I go change her bum... by this I mean she started farting up a storm. It was pretty funny.
After church we went home to get dinner started. We had our version of Cafe Rio pork burritos. So good! After dinner Ryan kicked me out of the kitchen so he could clean up. Literally, he told me to get out of the kitchen, sit on my butt, pick what I wanted to watch on TV and just relax and do nothing. I have an amazing husband :) And after all that he made me dessert! We had homemade oreos. Oh how delicious those little cookies are. Again, I highly recommend them!
During dinner I got a nice little surprise. My next door neighbor, Ashley, and a couple ladies from church gave me flowers and a card to say Happy 1st Mother's Day. They are so sweet! They picked flowers from their gardens and made a beautiful bouquet for me. I am so loved!
After dinner Ryan and I decided to listen to his mother's funeral that they had recorded on a CD. Since I wasn't able to make it to the funeral, I was really glad I was still able to listen to it. It was beautiful and Ryan gave an amazing talk. There may or may not have been a tear or two shed while listening to it. It was really nice to honor Ryan's mom on Mother's Day though. I honored mine by reading "Love You Forever." :)
After we listened to the CD we decided to go for a walk because the weather was so nice. And a walk we did... just not the one we were wanting. Unfortunately, when I opened the door when my neighbor came over, Hoosier ran out. This normally isn't a big deal. He usually plays with the neighbor kids and then comes back inside. This time though, I was out there so long I forgot that he ran out and forgot to call him back inside. So he ran off... and we couldn't find him. We searched everywhere. All around the neighborhood and the one behind us and finally ended up posting signs all over the place. I will say that it is the next day and we got him back! Heavenly Father answers prayers yet again. Thank you again to the wonderful lady who took care of him for us and got him home safely.
All in all I had a great 1st Mother's Day. I can't wait for the next ones! I love being a mommy to my beautiful baby girl. She has taught me so much already and I am excited to see what else is in store for us.
I made it into the exclusive mother's club.
Not only am I now allowed to give unwanted advice to any and all pregnant women, not only am I now allowed into the elusive mother's room at church, but I am now officially allowed to celebrate Mother's Day. It's like having two birthdays a year! Both celebrate you, give you presents, and end with cake!-or at least with a desert. The only difference is that Mother's Day doesn't tack on another year to your age and give you new signs of aging (boo on wrinkles).
My very first Mother's Day was quite the success I must say. I think I'll do it again :) It only had one minor hiccup... If anyone sees a gray and white husky running wild and free please contact me... More on that later though...
It started off as any Mother's Day should. With some sleeping in and a gourmet breakfast. Hailey got me up at 6:45 to eat but then went back to sleep until 10. Thank you Hailey girl! Ryan made me eggs even though he really isn't a fan of them and... get ready for this... brown sugar bacon waffles! They were so good! They really did have bacon chunks in them. I very much recommend these, so go look up a recipe for them! During breakfast Ryan gave me my presents. I got a book called "Plant A Kiss" from him and the book "Love You Forever" from Hailey. Very cute! I love the book "Love You Forever." My mom used to read it to us, and the book "Plant A Kiss" is just a cute little book. I can't wait to start reading them to Hailey. Thanks Ryan for helping me on my path to becoming a better mommy!
After breakfast Hailey and I got ready for church (Ryan has to go up early for meetings). When we got to church, our Mother's Day present was that all the women got to go to Relief Society. So those women with callings that take them out of Relief Society got out of them. And, we got to eat some delicious food. I'm always a fan of that! I made it through most of the lesson before Hailey woke up and demanded that I go change her bum... by this I mean she started farting up a storm. It was pretty funny.
After church we went home to get dinner started. We had our version of Cafe Rio pork burritos. So good! After dinner Ryan kicked me out of the kitchen so he could clean up. Literally, he told me to get out of the kitchen, sit on my butt, pick what I wanted to watch on TV and just relax and do nothing. I have an amazing husband :) And after all that he made me dessert! We had homemade oreos. Oh how delicious those little cookies are. Again, I highly recommend them!
During dinner I got a nice little surprise. My next door neighbor, Ashley, and a couple ladies from church gave me flowers and a card to say Happy 1st Mother's Day. They are so sweet! They picked flowers from their gardens and made a beautiful bouquet for me. I am so loved!
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| These are my fresh cut flowers |
After dinner Ryan and I decided to listen to his mother's funeral that they had recorded on a CD. Since I wasn't able to make it to the funeral, I was really glad I was still able to listen to it. It was beautiful and Ryan gave an amazing talk. There may or may not have been a tear or two shed while listening to it. It was really nice to honor Ryan's mom on Mother's Day though. I honored mine by reading "Love You Forever." :)
After we listened to the CD we decided to go for a walk because the weather was so nice. And a walk we did... just not the one we were wanting. Unfortunately, when I opened the door when my neighbor came over, Hoosier ran out. This normally isn't a big deal. He usually plays with the neighbor kids and then comes back inside. This time though, I was out there so long I forgot that he ran out and forgot to call him back inside. So he ran off... and we couldn't find him. We searched everywhere. All around the neighborhood and the one behind us and finally ended up posting signs all over the place. I will say that it is the next day and we got him back! Heavenly Father answers prayers yet again. Thank you again to the wonderful lady who took care of him for us and got him home safely.
All in all I had a great 1st Mother's Day. I can't wait for the next ones! I love being a mommy to my beautiful baby girl. She has taught me so much already and I am excited to see what else is in store for us.
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| Hailey and I celebrating my 1st Mother's Day. We got a little smile out of her for this one |
Thursday, May 10, 2012
In this little white dress...
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| ...Both Mommy and I were blessed |
Ok, so this is two (almost 3) weeks late (leave me alone! I have a new baby...) but Hailey had her first real, big day! We blessed Hailey in church on April 29th. It was such a beautiful turn out and a beautiful day. Hectic, but beautiful.
It started off the Thursday before with Ryan's dad flying in. Ryan's brother Gary was also in Indiana for a medical conference that weekend. We had fun showing Hailey off to them and, to be honest, it was really nice to have extra pairs of arms to help hold Hailey, when she would let them that is. Grandpa G. was with us the longest so he definitely got to spend the most time with her. I think he really enjoyed it. We spent the weekend doing a number of things. We introduced Ryan's dad to our home cooked french dip sandwiches (so dang good!) on Friday night, then we met up with Gary and his co-worker in Indy for dinner at the Spaghetti Factory on Saturday. We had a lot of fun with them even though Hailey kinda screamed for most of dinner. It was the first time we had ever taken her out and it actually went fairly well. After she finally fell asleep :) It was fun though!
On our way to Indy though, I got a special phone call. My dad called to tell me he was in town. He and Deborah surprised me! It was so nice and fun to see him. I was really grateful he was able to make it and be apart of Hailey's blessing. Other people who came to be apart of her big day were, Uncle John, Aunt Addi and cousin Sandy, Aunt Tracy and Uncle Jim, Michael and Jamie, Aunt Olivia, (Uncle Dallin was sick that day), Bob and Connie, the Craftons, McQuays, Taylor Wells, James Klatt, Tim Maynes, Bishop Frances, and the Woodwards. We also had some non member friends come support sweet Hailey. Kelsey and Michelle from my work came and Ryan's co-doctoral student Harry came. It was so nice for all our friends and family to be there.
Ok, now for the real story on how the actual blessing day went down...
Ryan and his dad left around 10 o'clock to go pick up Gary and Gary's co-worker Scott. I was left to get Hailey and I ready which actually went fairly smoothly. Ryan and I decided to use my blessing dress to bless Hailey in. 1.) Blessing dresses are freaking expensive! and 2.) we had mine and it is still in fairly good condition so I thought it would be really cool to use it for Hailey too. My dress had yellowed due to age so I spent 2 days soaking it to turn it white again (oxi clean is my new best friend!). It worked and was ready to be worn again. I waited until the last possible minute to put Hailey in the dress because she spits up so much. Luckily once in the dress she kept the spit up to herself and we were able to get a few pictures before we headed off to church. Just our luck, there was an enormous amount of traffic which caused us to walk in right on time and the rest of my family to be late. (Tracy, Jim, Michael, and Jamie were actually so late they missed the blessing altogether and rolled in right after sacrament. They felt so bad!)
As we walk into the chapel-as church is JUST starting- Hailey starts screaming. I mean full on screaming. So I quickly run out and start roaming the halls trying to get her to sleep. Finally I get her to sleep like 5 minutes before she is to get blessed- just my luck we didn't have any announcements or sustainings to stall and buy me some more time. So the moment comes and Ryan takes Hailey and what does she do? Wakes up. Waking up = crying. Yep, Hailey cried through the ENTIRE blessing. I felt so bad for Ryan who must have been nervous. But the blessing was beautiful and the spirit was so strong. Ryan never gets emotional but he did during the blessing, which of course started the water works for not just me but Addi as well, and I'm sure more people. The blessing ends and Ryan hands Hailey back to me and what does she do? She stops crying instantly and falls back asleep instantly... Yep. She is a little stink. It got a few people to chuckle. Ryan's brother had to leave right after sacrament to catch his flight back home so him and his dad left for the airport.
After sacrament tons of people came up to congratulate me and see Hailey. James Klatt was so nice and actually wrote down the blessing for me and found me to give it to me. I was so happy to have it in writing! So I put it in a pocket of the diaper bag for safe keeping...
Then it was time to chat with the family and tell everyone thanks and all that fun stuff. Deborah wanted to hold Hailey so I handed her off. A little while later as we were trying to decide if we should go home and start getting dinner ready, Deborah announces that she could tell Hailey was pooping. We decided to go home to get stuff ready and I take Hailey to put her in her car seat and what do I see? POOP. All over the back of the dress and the blessing blanket Aunt Aimee made for her. Of course she decided to poop all over it at church and before I could get pictures of her in it with the rest of the family. I rushed off to the mother's room to change my poopy girl. In the process of changing her I must have dropped the copy of her blessing because when I got home to read over it again, it was gone. Heartbroken! So before I forget more of it I will say that it talked about how she will be blessed with the ability to love and she will be a light to us and her siblings. She is a special little girl. Honestly I don't remember the rest but those were the parts that really stood out to me and both Ryan and I felt the spirit so strong when he said that.
Dinner went smoothly (which is really shocking when you put all my family in one house) and we had a great time. It was a funny, hectic, beautiful, special day and I'm so thankful Hailey was sent to our family. Can't wait to see what the next baby blessing will bring... ok, maybe I can... :)
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| Grandpa Gottfredson |
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| Uncle Gary |
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| In this little white dress, Mommy and I were blessed |
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| Papa Hoss holding Hailey for the first time! |
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| I went a little overboard with the pictures but I couldn't stop snapping the camera! |
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
8 Weeks.. What?!
Holy cow! 8 weeks ago today I had Hailey. It feels like time has just flown by! What have I been doing for the last 8 weeks you ask? Well, in no particular order I have been: changing diapers, getting spit up on, pooped on, and peed on (yes, all of those), walking- and rocking when she lets me- Hailey to sleep, turning myself into a human pacifier, getting less sleep than I ever did in high school (I'm not as young as I once was!), and enjoying my sweet, beautiful, smiley Hailey girl. It has been the hardest 8 weeks of my life, trying me and pushing me farther than I ever thought I could go. But, Heavenly Father has blessed me so much. I have been blessed with patience which I never thought was possible. Ask Ryan!
I have also been blessed with this new ability to love. Don't get me wrong. I have always been a very loving person. But this is different. I love Hailey unconditionally. Even through the screaming and crying, the pooping and peeing, the spitting up on EVERYTHING! and the physical pain that giving birth and nursing has caused me. I would still do anything for that little girl. But I have also found a new love for Ryan. I see him as my husband but also as a father now. Now before you go thinking to yourself, well duh Jena, of course because he is a father! I mean this differently. Any man can be a father in the biological sense. Then there is a man who can be a father by being the "man of the house" and providing for his family. But I'm talking about the active father. Not only is he the provider and protector, but he cares. He is the man who wants to be involved in his child's life. Who sincerely loves his family. This is most certainly Ryan. He wants to, not asked to, hold and play with Hailey. It brightens up his day when Hailey smiles at him and recognizes him. He is willing to change a diaper and back when nursing wasn't going well and I had to pump, he got up in the middle of the night to help me feed Hailey. He has always been there through my emotional break downs and has offered to help me with what he can. He truly is amazing and I am so lucky to have married him. I'm also grateful for the opportunity I have had to learn and develop this new kind of love. A strong father figure for my children was a VERY important quality for me when I was picking my husband and I was lucky enough to see that potential in Ryan. I honestly hope he knows how much I love and appreciate him and all his hard work.
So that's what I have learned in the last 8 weeks. Hailey on the other hand has just been growing and getting so big! This is what she has been up to the last 8 weeks.
I have also been blessed with this new ability to love. Don't get me wrong. I have always been a very loving person. But this is different. I love Hailey unconditionally. Even through the screaming and crying, the pooping and peeing, the spitting up on EVERYTHING! and the physical pain that giving birth and nursing has caused me. I would still do anything for that little girl. But I have also found a new love for Ryan. I see him as my husband but also as a father now. Now before you go thinking to yourself, well duh Jena, of course because he is a father! I mean this differently. Any man can be a father in the biological sense. Then there is a man who can be a father by being the "man of the house" and providing for his family. But I'm talking about the active father. Not only is he the provider and protector, but he cares. He is the man who wants to be involved in his child's life. Who sincerely loves his family. This is most certainly Ryan. He wants to, not asked to, hold and play with Hailey. It brightens up his day when Hailey smiles at him and recognizes him. He is willing to change a diaper and back when nursing wasn't going well and I had to pump, he got up in the middle of the night to help me feed Hailey. He has always been there through my emotional break downs and has offered to help me with what he can. He truly is amazing and I am so lucky to have married him. I'm also grateful for the opportunity I have had to learn and develop this new kind of love. A strong father figure for my children was a VERY important quality for me when I was picking my husband and I was lucky enough to see that potential in Ryan. I honestly hope he knows how much I love and appreciate him and all his hard work.
So that's what I have learned in the last 8 weeks. Hailey on the other hand has just been growing and getting so big! This is what she has been up to the last 8 weeks.
- eating
- sleeping
- pooping
- growing a ton! (8lbs 9oz two weeks ago! so around 9lbs now)
- still in newborn clothing but threatening to outgrow that stage (she's getting too long)
- she just found her hands consistently and is trying to become a thumb sucker- occasionally she is successful
- smiles ALL the time now- it melts our hearts and makes the 5 a.m. feedings totally worth it
- started "talking" or better known as squealing and cooing (so cute!)
- getting great control of her head
- she occasionally will put herself to sleep (yay!)
- blowing spit bubbles
- and is just getting really fun to be around and play with :)
Saturday, April 7, 2012
The Name Game
So as it turns out, naming a child is much harder than I ever anticipated. This would be because it's not just up to me... there is another person I never factored in... my husband. Unfortunately, we don't exactly have what you call the same "taste" in names. In fact, we really aren't even in the same ball park when it comes to names. As Ryan put it, I like "trendier" more unique (not weird) names and he likes "safe" more traditional names. For example, I liked Blair and Blake whereas Ryan liked Claire and names such as Kate and Emily. Let me explain... every girl I have ever known who was named Brittney or Ashley hated it because there were a million other Brittneys and Ashleys. I didn't want my baby growing up thinking the same thing. With all of that being said I will say the things that Ryan and I did agree on when it came to what we wanted in a name. We wanted something classy and sophisticated and we wanted something age appropriate no matter what age she was- aka we didn't want to give her an old lady name, and that it needed to be no more than 2 syllables-because Gottfredson is such a mouth full. It was also important to Ryan that the meaning of the name was something good (turns out Blair and Blake both have super lame meanings). So how did we end up with Hailey you ask? Well let me tell you. Early on in my pregnancy with her Ryan threw that name out and I quickly turned it down. I thought it was too common. So we let it go. Instead we kept making lists of names that were our favorites and comparing. I will also say that Ryan felt like he couldn't name our baby without meeting her first. He wanted to go to the hospital with a few names, see her, and then decide what name would fit her best. I'm actually really glad we did this because the name we thought we were going to name her just didn't fit once we actually saw her. But I'm getting ahead of myself. So months passed and we still couldn't agree on anything. I was still stuck on Blake and Ryan was stuck on Claire. Then in January Ryan went out to see his parents. He told his dad about the name Claire and THANKFULLY his dad shot it down. Turns out he didn't like a guy with that name at all. And I didn't like it because I wasn't on the friendliest of terms with a girl named Claire in high school... So thanks Grandpa Gottfredson for putting that name in the grave! But unfortunately for me he also shot down Blair and Blake... I kinda saw that one coming though. So in all reality we weren't any closer to getting a name. I will say that another criteria for the name was that it had to flow with the rest of her name. Ryan didn't care about a middle name, and in fact was ok not having a middle name. I think that's kinda odd and I wanted to give her something in remembrance of my mom so I picked to have her middle name Eileen. That is my mom's middle name as well as mine. Around January, Februaryish we started making some progress. I can't remember how or who came up with the name Avery but one of us did and we BOTH actually liked it. It was not something we were sure about though still but I was pretty set on it for awhile. Then in February, while Ryan was in Utah for his mom's funeral, I think one of his siblings threw out the name Emory. Again, surprisingly enough, we both liked it. We now had 2 names that we could both agree on. But let me back track... one day while sitting in church I was super stressing over the fact that we didn't have a name picked out for our baby. With so many people, family mostly... ok my side of the family mostly, harping us constantly about a name, I was really feeling the pressure and feeling like we would never come up with anything. A few weeks earlier Ryan sent me a blog post from a friend of his telling all about how he and his wife picked the name of their baby girl. Basically they say the name just popped into both of their heads and they think the baby decided what her name should be. I needed this to happen to me! I needed my baby or Heavenly Father to put her name in my head because we weren't making progress on it on our own. So I said a little prayer and basically begged Heavenly Father to tell me what her name should be. Then I did a totally appropriate Sunday sacrament meeting activity and got my phone out. Yep, I did. I googled top 100 baby names and started reading through them. I read through all of them and nothing stuck UNTIL... I got to the name Hailey. Totally cliche to say this but it is true. I got this feeling that I honestly don't even know how to put into words. I had this really warm almost enlightening feeling once I read that name. I thought this really odd since I had thrown that name out already and so early on in this process. After my enlightenment, I handed my phone over to Ryan and told him to pick out his favorite name on the list. When he was done reading the names he told me that he had actually picked out 4. The first one was Claire, but that name was already thrown out so he said his next first favorite would be Hailey. That was it. At that point, deep down, I had a feeling that we needed to search no further and that Heavenly Father had answered my prayer. There was only one hang up. I didn't want the name Hailey. Like I said before I thought it was too common. I thought it was cute, just not different enough. But we kept it around and added it to the list. About a week before baby got here Ryan gave his class their midterm. The very last question on the test was "what should we name our baby?" with a list of 5 names: Hailey, Emory, Avery, Hadley, and Blake (oh, we threw around the name Hadley too). Ryan got the results back and they are as follows: Hailey was the favorite, Emory and Avery were tied, Blake and then Hadley. I was pretty shocked actually that Hailey was the favorite. Fast forward to delivery day. When she was born neither one of us said it at first but we both had the thought that she just wasn't an Emory. And then another weird thing happened to me. I remember just minutes after she was born looking over at her getting weighed and cleaned off and thinking to myself "that's my daughter, Hailey." This SHOCKED me! I had been trying to resist the name Hailey and we definitely hadn't named her yet. So why the heck did I think that?! I can only think of one answer and that is that she knew what her name was supposed to be. Throughout the next 2 days at the hospital I would randomly have thoughts that referred to her as Hailey and each time I would have to remind myself that we hadn't picked a name for her yet. My brother and dad also threw in their opinions and voted for Hailey. If I remember correctly some of Ryan's family liked that name too. But finally on Thursday, the day before we were leaving the hospital I asked Ryan what he thought because it needed to get done. Kinda casually discussed it and I finally told him all of the weird times the name Hailey kept popping into my brain. And we just basically said ok, Hailey it is. I wasn't about to argue with divine inspiration! I will say that I fought it long and hard and tried to resist the name but now I can't imagine a different name for her. It fits her perfectly and I think it is very cute. And it fits all of our criteria! I'm glad we... or she... or Heavenly Father, or whoever it was, picked that name for her. I love you Hailey Eileen Gottfredson! Now if you don't mind I'm going to start making a list of boy names and girl names so we have a head start next time...
Monday, April 2, 2012
A Princess is Born!
Once upon a time, in a land far, far away in the Midwest, in the wee hours of the morning, a princess was born. Like all other fairy tales, this one starts off with a king and queen in their castle... ok I may be stretching the truth a bit on the king and queen part... and the castle part, but just go with it :) If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm writing about Baby G, now known as baby Hailey, being born. It's a well overdue story but better now then never. Turns out it is really hard to find time to do anything when you have a new born! For real though, it really all did start at home in the wee hours of the morning. I woke up at about 3:30/4 in the morning Tuesday, March 13th, exactly 39 weeks pregnant with contractions. They weren't super strong or regular or anything like that, but they were stronger than my Braxton Hicks that I had been having and strong enough to wake me up and be EXTREMELY annoying. After laying in bed for what seemed like forever I finally got up and went to the bathroom thinking this would help them go away. WRONG! They didn't go away so I continued to lay in bed wishing for sleep. I must have finally fallen asleep because around 8 my alarm went off telling me to get up and get ready for work. I was STILL having contractions and thought that maybe a shower would help me feel better. It didn't really help if I'm being honest. I will say that I didn't really think I was in labor because they really weren't that bad but I did find it pretty weird that they wouldn't go away. Anyway, after my shower I climbed back into bed with my semi-awake, just getting up husband. Semi-joking I said to him "Um, be prepared to have a baby today" which produced a look of "WHAT?" followed by voiced "Why do you say that?" I told him everything that was going on and then asked him what I should do. Remember, I was scheduled to work that day, in like an hour from then. We both decided that I should ask my neighbor what to do. This sounds really funny and random, but she just so happens to be a labor and delivery nurse at our hospital. She seemed like a good resource. So I walked over there and had a little chat with her. She basically told me that there was no way of telling if I was in labor or not unless I got "checked" and that I should probably call my doctor and not call into work. And that is exactly what I did. I made the call to my doctor and they told me to call back later if I wanted to come into the office to get checked out. They weren't too interested because I wasn't having regular contractions and my water hadn't broken. Then off to work I went. I had called my manager to let her know what was going on before I got to work. When I got there she was all over me! Asking me how I felt, what were my contractions like.. blah, blah, blah... it was actually really annoying but I should have been used to it. Fast forward to noon that afternoon. My manager took me out to lunch because she was so excited for me and on our way over there I felt this little "gush." I have never had a kid before so I didn't want to jump to conclusions and say my water broke. It wasn't like what happens in the movies so I just kinda let it go. We got to the restaurant, Casa Brava (a Mexican restaurant that I love) and chowed down. I wanted spicy food because I hear that induces labor...? but little did I know I was already in labor. After lunch we walked back to work and again I felt this little gush. At this point I was thinking ew gross and seriously what is going on? So I ran to the bathroom and called my neighbor to figure it all out. She thought there was a good chance my water could have broken and told me to make an appointment with my doctor, which I did. I went back to work and at about 1:30 I was waiting on one of our regular customers who just so happens to be hilarious. He was asking me when I was going to have my baby and if Ryan was going to catch her. Then he started acting like a quarterback yelling down, set, hike (as if he were catching a baby) and I started laughing. Helpful tip to future moms out there: If you think you are in labor and think your water may have broken, DO NOT LAUGH! Lets just say at that moment Niagra Falls let lose. Yes, while waiting on a customer. No longer was I in doubt that my water had broken and that I was in labor or not. Thankfully he was now leaving and I blew off the next customer to run to the bathroom. I then told my manager what had happened and she freaked out. She started telling EVERYONE, customers, coworkers, anyone who came near her now knew that my water had broken and that I was in labor. Again, SUPER annoying but it is what it is. For the next half and hour I waited on customers. That's right, I deserve employee of the flipping year for that one. My managers didn't really know what to do and we were short staffed and had a long line of customers so I stuck it out and waited on them. Around 2 I finally got to leave and drove home. When I got home I found Ryan finishing up some nursery projects. I was home early so he asked me what I was doing home already... he pretty much already knew though. So I told him all the fun I had had that day and made the call to my doctor to let them know that it was a done deal. My water broke for sure. They told me to just get to the hospital, so naturally, we took our time :) Ryan finished his project, I went around packing my bag and stuff for the baby, Ryan showered, I showered, Ryan kinda packed a bag, I fixed my make-up and THEN we were on our way to the hospital (the hospital is like 5 mins away from our house). We got there around 4 p.m. and checked in. I got in my really attractive hospital gown that they make you wear and we were good to go. Actually, we had no idea what to do. Luckily nurses are coming in and out, hooking you up to random monitors, checking blood pressure, asking you a million questions and just talking to you, that you stay fairly occupied. Oh, and they really do bring you ice chips haha. At about 5:30 ish my doctor came to the hospital to check if my water had in fact really broken and to give me a game plan. At that point he told me I was only at a centimeter dilated which did not make me happy. I thought for sure I would have been farther along. He predicted that I would need to go on pitocin to get me moving along but he would let me go until 8:30 that night to see if I would progress. Long story short, I didn't. Oh, and my next door neighbor was my nurse! She got called into work that night and so I was her patient. Actually not as awkward as I thought it would be. To be honest, at that point I didn't even care anymore. So at 8:30 she started me on the pitocin. No joke, that stuff works FAST! Almost immediately my contractions were getting stronger and closer together. Oh, so it turns out that I am not normal. Big shocker, I know. But seriously, I don't have contractions like a normal laboring woman does. Mine never got regular and what's just extra special for me is I get "double" contractions. Usually contractions are shaped like a bell curve. They have a peak at the top and come back down... not mine... Mine start, peak, barely start to come down, go back up and peak again, and then come back down. Super not fun. I do not recommend those to anyone. My "birth plan" going into the hospital was to do whatever the nurses and doctors recommended and to get an epidural. My doctor told me whenever I wanted my epidural I could have it. Which meant that I could have had it at 5:30 that afternoon. But no, I wanted to get to 4 or 5 centimeters first because I hear getting one too early can slow down labor. Turns out it wouldn't have mattered because I was on pitocin already! So I suffered until about 10 ish before I asked for one. At about 10:30 Dr. Brown, the anesthesiologist, came in to give me the goods. Wonderful woman she was :) At that point I was 3-4 centimeters dilated and really ready to not feel anything anymore. Dr. Brown was so nice and did a great job! I'll be honest. Leading up to the delivery day it was not uncommon for my prayers at night to include asking Heavenly Father to bless the anesthesiologist that she would do a good job on me. Heavenly Father answers prayers. When I was fully numb and feeling good Dr. Brown looked down and realized she still had some medicine left so she looked at me and said "no point in good medicine going to waste" and shot me up with the rest of it. Again, what a wonderful woman :) Later that night, at about midnight, my nurse came in and checked me again. I was 5-6 centimeters and she predicted Hailey being born at about 4 in the morning. She told us to go ahead and get some sleep so that is exactly what we did. Next thing I know though I'm being woken up. It was about 1:45 in the morning and Ashley, my nurse, was waking me up to tell me she was going to check me because the monitor indicated that the baby's heart rate had dropped. I was a little loopy from being asleep and just said ok. Next thing I know Ashley is asking me if I'm ready to have a baby because I'm fully dilated. I think my response was "oh, really?" haha so I woke Ryan up while she went and called the doctor. When she came back she had me start pushing. Apparently Hailey was "right there" because the Ashley said she could already see her. The next contraction came and I pushed again. This time Ashley started commenting on how much hair she had. I apparently thought this was really funny because in the middle of pushing I just started laughing. I told you I wasn't normal. Ashley told me that I was the first patient she had ever had that laughed through pushing. I think that I deserve a medal :) On the third contraction, Ashley told me to push again and then quickly told me to stop! She then ran out of the room asking the other nurses if my doctor, Dr. Crooke, was at the hospital yet. They said he should be there any minute. I remember a nurse telling us that if a nurse has to deliver a baby they call it a "code pink." So naturally, I started yelling "Code Pink! Code Pink!" just to be funny. I heard my nurse start laughing and say "my patient is yelling for a code pink..." It just so happens that Dr. Crooke has a reputation for literally walking in and catching the baby. He just always seems to show up at the last possible second and deliver the baby and that is what happened. Dr. Crooke got there right as I was having another contraction and he told me not to push- he was still putting his hospital gear on. He sat down and on the next contraction he told me to push and Hailey was out. At 2:13 a.m. Hailey Eileen Gottfredson was born at 6lb. 3oz. and was 20 inches long. We FINALLY decided on a name for her the next day, Thursday afternoon, after I couldn't deny it any longer that her name was supposed to be Hailey. Maybe I should have told that story as well, but I'll save it for the next blog post. This one is already nice and long... Hailey barely had a cone head because she came out so fast and it was gone within no more than a couple of hours. She definitely looked like me, but she is looking more like her daddy now that she is getting older. Sorry Hailey, I think you are stuck with mommy's chubby cheeks though. Turns out that Hailey did in fact have a lot of hair which Ryan said he told me so because I had so much heartburn while being pregnant with her. It was super dark when she was born but it already is getting lighter in color. It's also nice and poofy like her daddy's haha. We think she is going to end up with blue eyes, but honestly it is too early to tell. She has mommy's long, skinny fingers and unfortunately her long skinny "bird" toes as well. She already has her daddy madly in love with her and slightly wrapped around her finger :) He changed not only the first diaper but almost every single diaper while we were in the hospital and he still changes quite a bit of them now (this all coming from the same guy who said he would never change a diaper). She is an absolute angel and we love her very much. She really is worth all the late night feedings/diaper changes and the pooping and peeing on me. Yes, she has done both of those on me quite a few times... But I still love her! She is perfect and has totally melted my heart. I love you Hailey girl! I can't wait to watch you grow up... but don't grow up too fast!
Just a couple hours after Hailey was born
About a week and a half old
I love you Hailey!
Friday, February 24, 2012
When A Door Closes
We all know the saying "When a door closes, another one is opened." Now I don't pretend to have a harder, more difficult life than the next person, in fact, I would say my life is pretty dang good. I have been so blessed in so many ways. But the fact of the matter is, is that bad things happen to us. Heavenly Father has to let us have trials in our lives. From these we learn and grow and become stronger people. Without sorrow we would never know joy.
Apparently my trail in life is to see my loved ones suffer from cancer. Who knows, maybe one day I will have to battle the disease myself. Cancer is by far my least favorite word in any language. It is a disease that can strike even the youngest person. It apparently does not care about age, color, ethnicity, or how many children you have or are raising. It discriminates against nothing. It can take the most gentle of souls to the foulest. And we have to sit and watch, helpless to really do anything, while our loved ones go through endless amounts of chemo, radiation, surgeries, and the never ending supply of horse pills that must be taken daily, sometimes multiple times a day. We get to watch our moms lose all their hair, sometimes more than once, and our dads become weak and sick from the harsh treatments. Sometimes, we even have to sit by and watch as these people lose an organ or body part. Cancer has affected so many people I love it hurts my heart greatly to think about it. It has not only affected many people in my life but claimed the lives of 4 of my family members. My first experience with this cruel disease happened when I was in the 6th grade. My grandpa Bob was diagnosed with liver cancer and unfortunately it was quick to act and claimed his life. Next came the diagnosis of my mother's breast cancer the summer before I turned 10. My stepmom was not long after and also diagnosed with the same. Both were caught semi late in the game but my stepmother was the first to succumb to the long battle. Almost exactly a year later in the spring of 2008, my mother lost her fight to the disease. And now, I get to add the last mom to the list. It breaks my heart to write this, for so many reasons, but my mother-in-law passed away Sunday night, February 19, from her own battle with breast cancer. I just want to express that while I only knew her for two incredibly short years, of which we never lived close, I truly did love her and respect her for all she has done in her life. Cheryl, you raised an amazing son who has truly blessed my life and made me a better person. He talks about you all the time and how great of a hands-on-mom you were. I know he hopes I can be as great of a mother as you were to him. He tells me about the summer schools you held for him and his friends, the field trips you would take, how you made all of his clothes until he was 10? I think... and he still has every single scrap book you have ever made him. He tells me about how you shouldered the burden of being the new wife and mother to 3 teenagers (not an easy job!) after Lynn's first wife passed away. And he tells me about how you could make friends with everyone standing in a 10 ft radius of you. I loved how you always seemed to know everyone and their story. You were such a giving women and fabulous example to Ryan. Your love for people has left its mark on me and I hope that I can learn from you and share my love unconditionally to those around me. I will never forget the first time I met you and how nervous I was. I wanted you to like me so bad! I never imagined how much love you would give me from the second you saw me. I have never stopped feeling that love from you. Thank you for excepting me. And I'm sorry if I ever fell short of the love you deserved back. I am truly sorry I wasn't able to spend more time with you and get to know you even better. But I am even more sorry that I can't be there now to celebrate your life and mourn your passing with the rest of the family. I really would do anything to be there.
This is obviously where the part in the phrase about the door closing comes into play. But what about the second half? Another one always opens right? I am not in Utah right now because I am too far along in my pregnancy to travel. At 36 weeks pregnant, my doctor just didn't feel good about me going and told me I needed to stay here in Indiana. That was devastating news to me, but the time alone has given me a lot of time to think and find the silver linings in this situation. At first I was completely crushed. Crushed that I couldn't be there for Ryan (I feel like I'm abandoning him in a time of need) and crushed that my baby would never get the chance to meet her grandmas. Not one. I felt this to be a HUGE unfairness to all of us. But then I got to thinking and realized that not just this baby, but all of our kids are up in heaven right now getting to know their grandmas far better than if they had just met here on earth. I can just picture all three moms fighting over them! Ryan jokes about how his mom needed to get up there so she could undo all the bad habits my mom is teaching our kids (probably true...) I also have had the chance to learn more about faith and patience with the answers we receive to prayers. I have a strong testimony of prayers being answered. I have never felt that a prayer of mine hasn't been answered. I was praying that I would get the answer from my doctor that I needed to hear about traveling and sure enough he said no. I didn't like nor want that answer, but now I can't help but feel that maybe Heavenly Father answered my prayer through my doctor. It was just an answer I wasn't looking for. I will never know what would have happened if I had made the trip out there for the funeral, but I will just have the faith that Heavenly Father sees the big picture and is protecting this new life that is about to enter the world in a few short weeks. I have a strong testimony of the Plan of Salvation. I am so thankful that because of the choices I have made to be married in the temple, that one day, no matter what sickness or accident or whatever thing takes us from this life, we still get eternity together as a family.
Tomorrow is Cheryl's funeral and also my baby shower. How ironic right? At first I felt so wrong about going to a party when my family is going to a funeral. But then the phrase popped into my head. A door has closed on a beautiful life that will be remembered and celebrated tomorrow. At the exact same time, in a state across the country, we will also be celebrating a beautiful new life that will be arriving soon. We can't wait for this new door to be opened! Life is short whether you live a few short years or a hundred. Make the most of it and realize that when life gives you a trail, learn from it. Make yourself a better person. Remember the good and learn from the bad. We all have things that feel impossible to live with, but I know with the help of Heavenly Father and some good perspective, a silver lining can always be found. Just look for the open door.
"Promise me you'll always remember...
You're BRAVER than you believe,
and STRONGER than you seem,
and SMARTER than you think."-Christopher Robin to Pooh
Apparently my trail in life is to see my loved ones suffer from cancer. Who knows, maybe one day I will have to battle the disease myself. Cancer is by far my least favorite word in any language. It is a disease that can strike even the youngest person. It apparently does not care about age, color, ethnicity, or how many children you have or are raising. It discriminates against nothing. It can take the most gentle of souls to the foulest. And we have to sit and watch, helpless to really do anything, while our loved ones go through endless amounts of chemo, radiation, surgeries, and the never ending supply of horse pills that must be taken daily, sometimes multiple times a day. We get to watch our moms lose all their hair, sometimes more than once, and our dads become weak and sick from the harsh treatments. Sometimes, we even have to sit by and watch as these people lose an organ or body part. Cancer has affected so many people I love it hurts my heart greatly to think about it. It has not only affected many people in my life but claimed the lives of 4 of my family members. My first experience with this cruel disease happened when I was in the 6th grade. My grandpa Bob was diagnosed with liver cancer and unfortunately it was quick to act and claimed his life. Next came the diagnosis of my mother's breast cancer the summer before I turned 10. My stepmom was not long after and also diagnosed with the same. Both were caught semi late in the game but my stepmother was the first to succumb to the long battle. Almost exactly a year later in the spring of 2008, my mother lost her fight to the disease. And now, I get to add the last mom to the list. It breaks my heart to write this, for so many reasons, but my mother-in-law passed away Sunday night, February 19, from her own battle with breast cancer. I just want to express that while I only knew her for two incredibly short years, of which we never lived close, I truly did love her and respect her for all she has done in her life. Cheryl, you raised an amazing son who has truly blessed my life and made me a better person. He talks about you all the time and how great of a hands-on-mom you were. I know he hopes I can be as great of a mother as you were to him. He tells me about the summer schools you held for him and his friends, the field trips you would take, how you made all of his clothes until he was 10? I think... and he still has every single scrap book you have ever made him. He tells me about how you shouldered the burden of being the new wife and mother to 3 teenagers (not an easy job!) after Lynn's first wife passed away. And he tells me about how you could make friends with everyone standing in a 10 ft radius of you. I loved how you always seemed to know everyone and their story. You were such a giving women and fabulous example to Ryan. Your love for people has left its mark on me and I hope that I can learn from you and share my love unconditionally to those around me. I will never forget the first time I met you and how nervous I was. I wanted you to like me so bad! I never imagined how much love you would give me from the second you saw me. I have never stopped feeling that love from you. Thank you for excepting me. And I'm sorry if I ever fell short of the love you deserved back. I am truly sorry I wasn't able to spend more time with you and get to know you even better. But I am even more sorry that I can't be there now to celebrate your life and mourn your passing with the rest of the family. I really would do anything to be there.
This is obviously where the part in the phrase about the door closing comes into play. But what about the second half? Another one always opens right? I am not in Utah right now because I am too far along in my pregnancy to travel. At 36 weeks pregnant, my doctor just didn't feel good about me going and told me I needed to stay here in Indiana. That was devastating news to me, but the time alone has given me a lot of time to think and find the silver linings in this situation. At first I was completely crushed. Crushed that I couldn't be there for Ryan (I feel like I'm abandoning him in a time of need) and crushed that my baby would never get the chance to meet her grandmas. Not one. I felt this to be a HUGE unfairness to all of us. But then I got to thinking and realized that not just this baby, but all of our kids are up in heaven right now getting to know their grandmas far better than if they had just met here on earth. I can just picture all three moms fighting over them! Ryan jokes about how his mom needed to get up there so she could undo all the bad habits my mom is teaching our kids (probably true...) I also have had the chance to learn more about faith and patience with the answers we receive to prayers. I have a strong testimony of prayers being answered. I have never felt that a prayer of mine hasn't been answered. I was praying that I would get the answer from my doctor that I needed to hear about traveling and sure enough he said no. I didn't like nor want that answer, but now I can't help but feel that maybe Heavenly Father answered my prayer through my doctor. It was just an answer I wasn't looking for. I will never know what would have happened if I had made the trip out there for the funeral, but I will just have the faith that Heavenly Father sees the big picture and is protecting this new life that is about to enter the world in a few short weeks. I have a strong testimony of the Plan of Salvation. I am so thankful that because of the choices I have made to be married in the temple, that one day, no matter what sickness or accident or whatever thing takes us from this life, we still get eternity together as a family.
Tomorrow is Cheryl's funeral and also my baby shower. How ironic right? At first I felt so wrong about going to a party when my family is going to a funeral. But then the phrase popped into my head. A door has closed on a beautiful life that will be remembered and celebrated tomorrow. At the exact same time, in a state across the country, we will also be celebrating a beautiful new life that will be arriving soon. We can't wait for this new door to be opened! Life is short whether you live a few short years or a hundred. Make the most of it and realize that when life gives you a trail, learn from it. Make yourself a better person. Remember the good and learn from the bad. We all have things that feel impossible to live with, but I know with the help of Heavenly Father and some good perspective, a silver lining can always be found. Just look for the open door.
"Promise me you'll always remember...
You're BRAVER than you believe,
and STRONGER than you seem,
and SMARTER than you think."-Christopher Robin to Pooh
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