Hello, 2016!

Why, hello world. I realize it has been a long time since I've last posted, so let me share how we are doing in a quick update.

Scott: Last year, we made a big decision to let Scott stay home and focus on school instead of work. He has been doing classes at UVU and is still doing flight training. We have switched his flight classes up to South Valley Regional Airport with a company called Leading Edge Aviation (which we love!). He is currently working on his Certified Flight Instructor (CFI) rating. Once he has his CFI, he can get a job as an instructor and start building up all those hours required for bigger and better jobs! It's been slower progress than we would have liked, but we are still optimistic and continue to push through!

Nancy: Because Scott stopped working last year, I changed my schedule to full-time. It has been tiring and very difficult at times, but we know it is what I need to be doing right now for our family. All of these big changes have been a blessing in disguise. Because Scott was not tied down with work all summer, we were able to do a lot of things/family outings that we normally would not have been able to do, least of all in the same summer! I really enjoyed our summer last year because we finally had a summer together. Likewise, Thanksgiving and Christmas were wonderful because Scott didn't have to work! This was the first time in 6 years that he had both holidays off!!

Hailey: Hailey can be described in a few words. Diva. Strong-willed. Chatter-box. And my, has she grown up! She somehow managed to go through a growth spurt last summer without us realizing until her clothes were all too small! She talks ALL the time. She is full of fire and energy. She LOVES pink. Anything pink. And anything princess. She will fight you on anything you tell her to do, but she will also love you unconditionally and give you the sweetest hugs.

Leo: Leo is a mama's boy. He loves to be held. He loves to snuggle. He is so sweet and gentle-natured. And boy, does he have a high-pitched scream! He started nursery and while he was hesitant at first, he loves it now and looks forward to going in each week! He has started to say more words and phrases, so it is getting really fun trying to communicate with him!

We are a busy family, but things are good and we're happy! We have a firm testimony of the Gospel and of Jesus Christ. The Spirit has blessed our lives this last year more than ever before! And hopefully I will try to post a little more often as this spring and summer rolls around and we start to do more fun things!

Happy Birthday, Hailey! {Feb 28}

You know what I love about celebrating Hailey's birthday? It means winter is almost over and spring is just around the corner. I love everything about the date of Hailey's birthday. Once Christmas is over, her birthday is not too far off, and after that, everything warms up. It brings hope and warmth and sunshine and of course, an adorable little girl that is one year older (...and wiser, too!).

This little baby is THREE years old now. Three years doesn't seem like a very long time, but it is really neat watching the development of a child in three years. I think back to when she was in the NICU, and when it took her 8 months to sit on her own and 16 months to walk. She was always a talker, and very bright and intelligent. And now she is three years old and knows so much! She is so smart, so quick to learn and remember. Not saying she is always perfect, but she is a pretty good little girl. I just love watching her turn into a little girl. She is no longer a baby.

She still eats like a bird, and is still very petite. She is fully potty trained, although she will have the occasional accident if she plays too much and holds it too long.

I still remember the day she was born with every single detail. I still remember every day going to the NICU, and pumping, and waking up so much in the night. Those feelings are still so fresh. I will always cherish those special memories of my first baby.

So Happy 3rd Birthday to this rambunctious, happy, smart, little girl!

And here's a message from her:
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Leo: 6 Months

I haven't been as diligent in posting monthly updates on Leo as I was on Hailey. I figure if anything, I ought to at least get his 6 month update in!

I love love love watching my little boy learn and grow. I have always loved watching my children grow and I never get sad when they learn a new milestone or "grow up too fast." Here are a few things about Leo at age 6 months:

Sleep: Leo's sleep habits are not picture perfect, but we're working on them. He has been very frustrating because he only catnaps (like, an average of 30-40 min naps) and lately, he has decided it is fun to stay up until midnight and play. I have very recently decided to brave the cry it out method (please, let me do it my way and you can do it your way) and what a difference it is already making! I think it is tougher on mommy than it is on baby, but I feel confident this will help us out immensely!

Eat: I've made it to my 6 month goal of breastfeeding! Leo has been getting a bottle/formula for a couple months now, but I have continued to nurse at home and pump at work these 6 months. It has been difficult but I feel really good about accomplishing my goal! We are now almost switched completely over to formula and I just nurse him at night when he wakes up. Leo just has a hearty appetite and I was never able to keep up with him while strictly nursing. Once I started supplementing, Leo just grew and was happy! So I feel really good about this switch as well.

We have also done some solids. He likes sweet potatoes and any little tiny pieces of bread or Cheerios that I give him. He doesn't like squash or rice cereal. I obviously haven't branched out yet and tried a ton of things yet. But he sure does eat a lot better than Hailey did so far and I am so happy about that!

Motor Skills: Leo has some pretty impressive hand-eye coordination. He can pick things up, bring them to his mouth, and even turn them around in his hands to get the end of his toy in his mouth. He likes to hold his bottle sometimes, too.

He likes to roll and roll and roll. He loves to spend time on his belly and is so close to crawling. Right now, he gets up on his hands and knees and then goes backwards. It makes him so mad! He can also sit on his own and he loves to sit and play with toys!

Diapers: We are still going strong with cloth diapers! We are not fully 100% anymore. He started peeing through his nighttime diaper when we started supplementing, so to be safe, I still put him in a disposable at night. I also keep disposables on hand in the diaper bag for when we go out, but I try to use cloth as much as I can! And yes, I absolutely love it!

Other: He loves to blow raspberries and coo. He loves to look at anyone in complete adoration and gives you the biggest smiles. He loves to reach up and touch your face. He LOVE his jumper and walker.

While Leo has been a very most difficult baby, I love him so much and feel a different relationship with him than I do with Hailey. Hailey was so independent as a baby and didn't need much attention or positive stimulation. Leo, however, requires a lot more attention and thus, I feel I have developed a special bond with him.

How fast these 6 months have flown and I look forward to see what these next 6 months have to bring for Leo and us!

Summer Recap: Hailey's Hospitalization

{DISCLAIMER: There may be photos or descriptions that are a bit graphic, so if you are squeamish, you might want to just skip over this post! This is also a very long post :)}

If you couldn't figure out in my last post's pictures, Hailey was not feeling well. She was trying her best to have fun, but you could just tell she was miserable. All she wanted to do was sleep on the couch. She had a fever off and on, and she wouldn't eat anything. Here is her story of what happened.

We decided to potty train Hailey near the beginning of June. I knew she was ready, so I just put panties on her one day and we never looked back since. Very shortly after we put new panties on her, though, I started noticing some pimply bumps on her bottom. I didn't think much about them because I had seen bumps like those on her bottom before and they went away just fine.

On Monday, June 9, Hailey's babysitter mentioned to me that Hailey was not acting her normal self. She seemed to get upset over the tiniest things and was crying a lot. On Tuesday, she wouldn't leave the couch and had a bit of a fever. Liz also mentioned that Hailey was not acting herself. On Wednesday, I opted to stay home with her and take her to the doctor's. But that morning, her fever was gone and she seemed to have more energy. Maybe she was OK and maybe I didn't need to take her to the doctor after all.

So that day, we decided to go swimming. Hailey had a fun time, but when we got her into her carseat, she was just crying and crying in pain. I started to think that maybe her bum was bothering her more than we thought. That night, Hailey was standing on one of the kitchen chairs. She took a step and lost her balance, making her fall off and bump the other chair. She was hysterical with pain and started asking to go to the bathroom. I thought she was being a little dramatic, but I took her into the bathroom helped pull down her underwear. Inside, her panties were covered in blood and puss. I looked at her bum and saw that her fall had caused one of the "pimples" to burst. There was much more inside and I squeezed out as much as I could, but Hailey was in so much pain that I just had to stop. I knew then that she needed to see the doctor.

Thursday morning, I took Hailey to the dr's office. I was a bit disappointed with the visit and the only reason I felt the only thing that was worthwhile from the visit was a prescription for antibiotics. I told the doctor that I had tested positive for MRSA a couple months earlier, but he didn't bother to swab Hailey. He didn't even lift the bandaid to see what the actual sore/boil looked like. He just said it very obviously looked like staph and here's your prescription. I wasn't very happy, but oh well. We had our medicine.

The pharmacist said to make sure she takes it with food. The only problem was, Hailey wasn't eating! We gave her some fruit snacks because we figured she'd at least want those, but when we gave her the medicine, she threw everything up and refused to take any more medicine (Tylenol included) or food. I was upset and stressed and worried that this infection would get worse because she couldn't keep her antibiotics down.

Friday morning, I still had to go to work. The sitter still took her and to my surprise, even said she got Hailey to eat her breakfast and take the medicine! (Come to find out later, they had to use two people and really force her to take it). When I went to pick Hailey up, she wasn't eating again and only wanted to be held. Which of course made it difficult because you also couldn't touch her bum. Try holding a child without touching their bum!

Saturday morning, like I mentioned earlier, I decided to sacrifice going to see the hot air balloons because Hailey needed her sleep. She still wasn't eating, though. I figured she would at least drink juice, so I tried to slip some medicine in her juice. She must have known, because she barely touched her juice either. We were unable to both feed or medicate her and despite trying to have fun, she was just miserable. At the parade, she fell down backwards and just cried and cried from the pain.

Sunday morning, I didn't feel well and Hailey didn't feel well, so we stayed home from church. Scott helped her to the bathroom and I took one look at her bum and said, "That's it. We're taking her to the ER." It was so big and dark, it almost looked like a dark bruise. I knew there was a lot underneath the skin that needed drained and I would not do that at home. I also knew she needed antibiotics and since we couldn't give them orally, she was going to have to get them intravenously. Plus, we were going to hit and exceed our deductible anyway with Leo being born, so I don't care if we take her to the hospital. So we called my parents to meet us there, and off we went!

I am so grateful for our decision to take her to the hospital. They wanted a surgeon to look at her bum and they suggested they admit her overnight to get her started on IV-antibiotics. It was a hard decision at first, but I am glad we chose to stay. The hospitalist sent a picture to the pediatric surgeon. A short while later, he came back and said the surgeon took one look at the picture and was coming down that night to do the surgery! My baby was going to have surgery!

Dr Cook was an excellent surgeon and he removed 30ml (that's equivalent to 1 fl oz) of puss from her abscess. If you think about a child's little butt cheek, that's a heck of a lot of fluid!! He packed the wound and said they'd keep her at the hospital for a couple nights while they wait for the cultures and make sure she is getting antibiotics. Surprisingly, they said these types of abscesses are pretty common in kids Hailey's age. Hailey's just happened to be a pretty big one!

Hailey slept that night and had her wound repacked in the morning. Sedation is a funny thing on a 2 year old!

But boy was she just night and day different from last night! She was happy again! She only cried when they had to change her diaper because of the wound on her bum (and she wasn't happy about being back in diapers to begin with). But every time something hurt her, we'd just say "Bye bye, owies! Doctors nice! Nurses nice!" and that really seemed to help her out.

Hailey ended up staying at the hospital until Wednesday after they found out she had MRSA and made sure she was on the right antibiotics and that she would tolerate taking oral antibiotics at home. Which Scott had to force her to do it once and then we never had a problem again.

We joked that it would have been really convenient if I went into labor while Hailey was in the hospital because all I'd have to do would be to go up just one floor. In reality though, we were grateful that I didn't. Scott didn't need his wife and his daughter in the hospital at the same time.

This hospital experience was fun and good, and I was grateful it turned out to be so positive. But boy will this little girl end up costing us! First the NICU, now this. I'm not looking forward to what else she has in store for us!

Summer Recap: Art City Days and Summerfest

June 14 was a big day and I was looking forward to it for a long time. Since I knew I was going to be having a baby pretty close to the 4th of July (probably my favorite holiday after Halloween), and would thus miss out on the festivities around then, I had to make sure I was going to get some sort of parade/summertime fair fun! I even meticulously planned my weekend out to ensure that this would happen: Art City Days Fair Friday night, bake muffins, wake up early Saturday morning to watch the Hot Air Balloons and snuggle in blankets and eat muffins, then watch Art City Days Parade at 10:00am, then go up to Orem to finish out the evening at Summerfest and watch the parade and fireworks there. I just love parades and fair food and the whole atmosphere of fairs and crowds. I was so excited!

However, things didn't really go as planned. Hailey started getting sick earlier that week. She lost her energy and her appetite. All she wanted to do was sleep on the couch. Poor girl was miserable and wouldn't/couldn't even take her medicines.

We were able to make it out to the fair Friday night and have dinner. She decided she was well enough to play in the splash pad a little bit, so we let her do that. Saturday morning, I knew I needed to let her rest rather than try to wake her up for balloons. So I sacrificed the balloons that I was so looking forward to. Then my mom and Heather came down and we sat at the end of my street and all watched the parade together. It was fun, but you could tell Hailey really wasn't feeling well.

Scott went to work and we went up to Orem. We set up at our spot for the parade and got food for dinner. It was so much fun and I was so glad that I got to hang out with my family celebrating a tradition we have had every year since we were kids! And even Hailey, despite feeling awful, had fun too and even ate a lot of chicken!

 

 

After the parade was fireworks! We hauled all our stuff over to the baseball fields and set up camp and just hung out. It was a lot of fun! Scott was even able to join up with us!

She LOVES bubble gum and always makes this face when my mom blows bubbles!

Me and Oy. Yes, these are all phone pics. :)

So despite being 36 weeks pregnant and very swollen, I had a very enjoyable weekend and was able to enjoy one of my favorite summertime pastimes before I had the baby.

I'm Still Here!

It's been a busy summer! I know you all are so eager to hear about our fun adventures! Here's a teaser. :)

Baby Ready

Despite the MEGA downhill turn tonight took, I can't help but feel blessed for the things that happened today.

First of all, I am grateful for doctors (especially doctors that can get you in same day), modern medicine, and very understanding bosses at work.

Second of all, I probably have the best sister-in-laws in the world. I don't know who's idea it was, but they decided to come up with "Cousins and Cleaning" where one day each week, we will go to one person's house and clean while all the cousins play together. Good bonding time for cousins and sisters, plus we get some good deep cleaning done that we otherwise would probably never have done by ourselves. I, for one, could not have done what they did for me today by myself. I am so, so grateful for their hard work and effort in helping me finish getting things ready/put together for baby and for doing some deep cleaning that my poor house lacked these last 4 years. I couldn't have asked for better family.

So after an exhausting trip to the Wally World and what we did here at home, I can probably say we are pretty much good to go for baby. The bassinet is ready and washed, the car seat is ready and washed, his clothes are cleaned and sorted, and *gasp* I packed my hospital bag!! It felt so strange putting little baby outfits into the bag, like I am actually planning and hoping on taking my baby home with me. I don't want to jinx it, but it sure does feel weird! Now the only things left are to vacuum/wipe out the Magnum (cuz it's pretty bad!) and bleach the diapers since I'm sure Hailey has had a yeast infection at least once during her diaper wearing days.

Oh speaking of! I think it is safe to say that Hailey is officially potty trained. I had two criteria before I could claim that, and I believe they have both been met. #1: Poo in the potty consistently. #2: She had to tell us when to go bathroom, not the other way around. And she has done so great! The only hold back to being 100% potty trained is the nighttime, but that's understandable and I am willing to give that one more time. But she does naps fine, and drives in the car fine (she held her pee from Orem to Springville - good girl!), and I'm not afraid to take her out anymore because I am pretty sure she'll be able to hold it long enough for us to get to a bathroom. So I am grateful for that and just in time for the baby!

And I won't really mention tonight except that briefly, Hailey has a staph infection on her bum (I'm REALLY hoping it's not MRSA, they didn't even bother to swab since I had my MRSA only two months or so ago), and she's had a fever off and on and been really lethargic and not feeling well at all and can't sit on her bum because it hurts and, well, pretty much she threw up her medicine and I don't know how much Tylenol she was able to get into her system for the fever but she won't let me give her more, and we'll try the antibiotics tomorrow morning when she's eaten something. But boy I just want my baby to get better! I just really hope I don't go into labor while she is this sick!

Then also the toilet started leaking today, so Scott looked at it and it needs a new rubber something-or-other and so he's run to the store to get one of those thingies. 9 months pregnant + newly potty trained toddler + no toilet = disaster. Hopefully we get this thing fixed.

And we'll just end with something fun because we can. Scotty loves planes. We are having a boy. That means everything is airplane-themed! Hooray!

Pregnancy Update

It feels good to be blogging again! And I apologize for not keeping you better updated on us and my pregnancy. Here's a brief overview of the last 8 months:

I found out we were pregnant right before Halloween. We had so much fun telling my mom because she didn't believe us at first and then got really really excited when she finally realized we were telling her the truth. That was pretty fun.

I had a lot more nausea, it seemed, with this one that I did with Hailey. I feel like as soon as I hit 12-14 weeks with Hailey, the nausea went away and the rest of the pregnancy was a breeze (besides the last week of it) and I honestly didn't mind being pregnant at all! This time, I feel like I've spent a lot more time on the couch much farther into my pregnancy. Probably up until about week 20 or so, I still had to lay down to wait for food to settle (still no throwing up though - that's a plus!), and I had only gained 5-7lbs the whole first half of the pregnancy.

Then something switched and I've been starving ever since! I know I've gained at least 20 more pounds since then, which is really sad for me to accept. I'm carrying much more forward and I feel so much bigger with this one that I ever did with Hailey. I also feel him move CONSTANTLY, which is different from Hailey because while I felt her move, it was just small, tiny little pokes. This boy MOVES. It's fun to watch and feel, and Scott says in one night, he felt Leo (that's his name :) ) move more than he ever felt Hailey that whole pregnancy.

However, from day one, as we discovered in our first dr apt, I've had high blood pressure. When I had to be induced with Hailey, it was because my blood pressure had gone from 120's/80's (very average) to 135-140/mid 80's (plus other pre-eclampsia signs). This time, I started out at the latter. I felt very strongly that I needed to see an OB specialist instead of just my GP for this pregnancy, so I switched over to Valley OB, where they have treated me so well and I have felt like I've really gotten the attention I've needed.

My BP did go down slightly during my 2nd trimester, but as I guessed it would, it has gone back up and it hasn't been pretty. A while ago, we bought an automatic blood pressure cuff so I can monitor my BP at home. Both my home readings and my appts started measuring really high, so they started having me come in every 2 weeks around week 28. I am now at week 33, I have to do weekly Non-stress tests (to make sure the baby is getting enough oxygen because high BP can constrict the flow of oxygen to the baby), and I am now on a BP medication called Labetalol. I've only taken it a few times, but I can already see a difference in my readings. Let's hope it stays good!

Because of my high BP, they had to do a growth ultrasound at week 32. I got to see my little baby! Wait, did I say little? I meant HUGE! His head and femur both measured on target at 32 weeks, but apparently his belly was at 34 weeks, or 95%!!! I asked the tech how much she guessed he weighed and she said about 5lbs according to the measurements. Oy vay! I gave birth to Hailey at 5lbs 10oz at 36 +6 weeks. I can only imagine how much huger this baby is going to be! And yes, I did say huger!

So I'm really tired and I feel huge and I get very hot, and I can't sleep anymore, and I go pee constantly, but I am still very very grateful to be pregnant and we just can't wait to meet our little boy in less than 2 months. We're almost there!

And I'll try to keep you better updated, too. :)

30 Weeks

Thoughts...

...Why is it I can only ever have one part of my house clean at a time? Sometimes it's the kitchen and it stays gloriously clean for several days! Sometimes it's the living room. But no matter what I do, it is ever only one area at a time and the rest of the house is a disaster! It's just something funny I've noticed lately. Someday, I'll get back to a full clean  house. Maybe? Ever??

...Baby must have gone through a growth spurt this week. I have felt more FULLER than I ever have, like I just ate a huge buffet. I could be starving, but I'll still feel too full to eat. And it only gets worse from here :) I am also feeling his kicks a LOT more pronounced than they were even last week. I guess I can enjoy that!

...Cleaning out one section of a room really makes a huge difference! I finally cleaned the disaster corner in the living room where everything gets shoved ,and suddenly, the living room just opened up more. It was amazing. I actually vacuumed (don't judge!) and I felt the floor was clean enough to finally get myself to fold some laundry. Again, don't judge.

...I keep dreaming about cloth diapers. Like, crazy nightmare dreams! I just can't wait to get my diapers and see them in person and know that they are real and more importantly, start using them!!!! I can't wait!!

...Scott is taking his Multi-Engine Stage 1 Check today. I can't believe how fast his instructor is getting him through Multi-Engine! I am very pleased.

I will now share with you a couple photos from late:

23 Weeks

1. She LOVES dresses. 2. New bike for her birthday! 3. She's just so darn cute!

Part 2: "Operation House: Overhaul"

As some of you may know, our house is small. I've seen apartments bigger than our house. We have one bedroom, a room just big enough for washer and dryer, and a storage room that technically can't be called a bedroom but we put Hailey back there anyway because that is the only space to put her. To give you a better idea of the smallness of our home, we have one inside door. And that is the bathroom.

Over the years, we have definitely filled our space. We had a baby, and with baby comes junk. We've been married here for 4 years, and with that time, comes junk. And sometimes it's not even junk - sometimes it's stuff you actually do need.

Many, many times, we have come upon opportunities to move. Once was to another home outside our ward, but we felt it was not time to leave our ward yet. We still don't think it is time to leave our ward yet. So we looked at another home for rent in our ward.

And I LOVED it and I so so badly wanted to move into it. It was just around the corner from our house, it was in the ward, it had THREE actual, real, legit, not-closet-sized bedrooms! Rooms that fit beds! And other stuff! There was space, and lots of it, and it was TOTALLY, easily within our price range.

So why didn't we take it?

I think this time, the Lord gave us a choice. He didn't say we had to do one way or the other. This time, it was up to us if we wanted to move or not.

So after weighing the options, even though we could afford the house, we wouldn't be able to start paying off our debts. Was it worth the extra space, or could we make do for just one more year where we are to save the money and get out of debt??

We made our decision. We decided not to move. We decided it was worth more to us to save our money, and pay the debts. And I told Scott that if we stayed, he'd have to majorly help me overhaul our house to make it work for 2 kids. So we're staying, and we are commencing "Operation House: Overhaul" to be completed before the baby comes in June/July!

The first step was to buy shelves and set them up in the laundry room. We will move our food storage off the built in shelves in the storage room and onto the plastic shelves, creating a TON of space to move things off the floor and onto the shelves. This will then allow us to set up a toddler bed in the storage room, with the crib. Oh, it's been done before. Trust me. The people here before us, when we looked through the house, they had it like that. So yes, it is possible.

I also plan to completely de-junk the storage room and get rid of everything we don't absolutely need at the house. Thank goodness for helpful parents who have offered up their storage rooms for things we don't need to store here.

Once the storage room is done, I will start in the kitchen and work my way through the house. I will empty out and re-organize each cupboard and cabinet, making sure the things inside are only what we need and get rid of or pack up what we don't ever use. After 4 years of living here, I can tell you there are quite a few things I haven't ever touched that I unpacked after the honeymoon.

I'm debating on moving furniture around, only to give the place a feeling of change, but that isn't a necessity. My goal is to basically go about as if we were moving, but re-moving into our home again. We are going to make our home brand new and start over. We can make the space work. I know we can, and I know others have, too.

My poor landlady, I don't think she expected us to stay this long, especially into 2 kids!

But we feel good about our decision, and while sometimes I'll pass that other house and dream of days when we could have had a bigger space, I know we can make do with what we have here. I love this stage in our lives. And hopefully, so soon, Scott will get his commercial license this summer, and we will be on our way looking for jobs.

And of course, things never go according to plan, but we feel good that we at least have a plan, and we feel the Lord approves, and that's good, and we just kind of go from there!

Also, here is a picture of Phase 1: The Gateway. This shelf alone represents so much more that we can do now in our storage room.

Happy Sunday! 

Part 1: Tax Return

Sometimes I think of all these things that I would like to share on my Facebook status, but then do you ever stop and think that it might sound a little boastful and prideful, some things you want to put? And you don't mean it that way, but I guess some people would take it that way. Anyway, then I remember that I have a blog and that I really haven't been taking advantage of it like I ought to. So listen to me while I update you on our life!

Tax returns came in. We have been SO SO blessed to have the size of tax returns that we do (I won't go into detail). Each year of our marriage, and even me before I got married, we have been blessed with just the amount we needed for whatever we needed at that time.

In college, it was just enough to pay for rent and stay up in Logan over the summer. And what an amazing summer that was.

Our 2nd year married, we gave our tax return to my dad to help with his diner. We never once regretted it.

This year, we had a couple loans that we so desperately wanted to pay off and just be rid of. One was a car loan - Sally the Sentra is now paid off!!! She is OURS and we should get the title in the mail in the next few days. The second loan was a signature loan that we had to take out to finish Scott's instrument rating last summer, and which we hated from day one. I am so relieved to say that is paid off and out of the way. We never have to think of that blasted loan again.

How amazing it feels to be free of some debt. It's definitely not all debt, but we are that much closer to being free. What remains now is Hailey's hospital bill (what do you expect when you have a crappy insurance plan with a $10,000 out of pocket and a NICU stay that met and exceeded that criteria alone??), one auto loan, and student loans. We feel so blessed to only have students loans and one car to pay on. Granted, our student loans are probably more than what 2 or 3 normal students combined would pay for their education, but that's ok! We know this is the course we need to take.

Next , we will snowball. We take the payments that previously went toward Sally and the signature loan and we apply them to our next lowest balance. Once that is paid off, we take that total and attack the next one. And the next and the next. Getting debt free IS possible, even if it takes a few years. Also, I know we will have plenty more bills to come, especially with a baby coming in July, but I trust, and we will be taken care of.

Now you can see why I can't quite post this stuff on Facebook! It would most certainly come off as boastful and prideful, but I only wanted to share with you our gratitude and how if you put your hands in the Lord's and continue to pay your tithing, you WILL be blessed.

For My Family

For those who may not remember, a couple years ago, my dad decided to open up a restaurant. It had always been a dream of his to own and operate a diner, and he felt very strongly that now was the time. He found a perfect spot, and he got to work! It took about a year to build/put together, but we were all so excited and really anticipated this great event. We had really high hopes for this diner and things felt good.

Well, they didn't turn out so good. The restaurant struggled to open and struggled to stay open. It barely made it 3 or 4 months before we had a family council and decided to close the doors forever. Some family members were OK with it. Some accepted this as the Lord's will for our family. Some didn't question why we were supposed to build a restaurant to only see it fail.

 

But some did.

 

Anyway, I came across this article in the January 2014 Ensign the other day. It brought me a lot of comfort as I read it, even though I have long come to accept this trial my family had to go through. I thought a lot of my dad as I read it and I really wanted to share it on here that Sunday, but I got kind of side tracked and forgot! Lo and behold, the very next day, my loving mother had sent us all an email with that very article attached, telling us how much she loved us and how she knew the diner was meant to be a part of our lives as a family.

 

So now that I'm thinking about it, I am posting the portion of the article that really stood out to us!

This is by Elder J. Christopher Lansing, Area Seventy, North America Northeast Area, from a devotional address to BYU-Hawaii on Oct. 30, 2012. The talk is called "Enduring Well."

 

"What We Become Makes All the Difference"

The business I own today was founded by my father nearly 60 years ago. He died in 1980, leaving me to take the helm of the company at the young age of 30.

In those early years, situations came up that required me to make decisions that affected the future of our frail business. I worked hard to act as my father would have acted, and I spent a great deal of time on my knees, trying to discern what to do. In all those decisions, I never felt a calming influence or any direction one way or another. I ultimately did what I thought was best and moved on. But I was disappointed I had not been able to get any confirmation of my actions.

One night my father came to me in a dream. I began to chide him for not helping me know what to do. He said he was aware of my situation but he was busy where he was and his former business was not terribly important. “Chris, we really don’t care about the business up here,” he said. “What we care about very much is what you become because of your business.”

That was a great lesson I hope I never forget. What we get during our life is inconsequential, but what we become in life makes all the difference.

Sometimes we forget that in premortality we fought alongside the Savior in defense of the Father’s plan of moral agency. And we won! Lucifer and his followers were expelled, and we received the opportunity to experience the life we fought for. The Father’s plan included the Atonement. Our job is to face our challenges and endure them well. As we do this, the Atonement has meaning in our lives and we fulfill the Lord’s work and glory: “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39).

Like I said, this article really touched me and I felt like sharing it today. I know the Lord gives us trials and makes things happen in our lives for a reason. I know we are supposed to be here on Earth to learn and grow, otherwise, what's the point?

 

Let me know what you think!

Chicken!

How many of you moms out there are just like me and are starting to get frustrated that you can never remember to take out the chicken in time to thaw for dinner and end up just not cooking anymore? Ok, well that's me. My husband works and I work, so I have a limited time frame when it comes to making dinner. If that meat isn't thawed, I pretty much have to scrap my meal plans and come up with a Plan B. And yes, that has been our life for the last few months, and I've gotten frustrated.

I was on Pinterest the other day just browsing, and I saw the one pin where, you know, the mom makes a whole month's worth of meals or crock pot meals all in one day and stocks them up in her freezer. I'm sorry, but who has that much space in their freezer?? Unfortunately, I just skip over those and don't even bother to check for any good recipes. This time, I actually did open up the link and was really glad I did. I found the idea of cooking all my chicken for the week ahead of time!!

This might not seem huge to you, but it was to me.

Now, I am kind of sort of a snob when it comes to cooking chicken. Ever since I found better (and yummier and juicier) ways of cooking chicken breast, I've kind of stopped poaching/boiling my chicken. It seems so bland and flavorless, no matter how many onions and celery pieces you put in there. But at this point, being as exhausted and sick as I am, I have decided to let go of my pride and just BOIL THE HECK out of the chicken if it meant having fresh chicken already cooked and not from a can. Again.

So basically I went to the store today and I bought a 3lb bag of frozen breasts for $6.98 (at the lovely Walmart) and when I got home, I threw it in the stock pot with a few other pieces of frozen chicken breast filets I had in the freezer, roughly chopped half an onion that I had in my freezer, threw in some bullion cubes and some bay leaves, and let that sucker boil for about 30 min whilst I, tired mama, took a nap.

When the chicken was done and cooked, I drained the broth (which I totally wanted to keep and totally forgot!!) and gave those chicken pieces a good chopping and sorted them out into bags. I did 2 cups per bag of chopped chicken because that's about 2 breasts, ish. I was able to get 6 cups out of my 3.5-4lbs of frozen chicken.

I was kind of disappointed though to see that it only made 3 bags, which meant really 3 meals. However, cooked chicken is cooked chicken and I am really still pleased with the results and sooo looking forward to having chicken/cooked meals again. I still put the bags in the freezer, but at least now I can just stick them in the microwave for a quick warm up, or just throw it frozen in the casserole and let it warm in the oven.

Next time, I'll actually do some math and put forth a little more money for some more chicken. Now that I see how easy it is, I really am not daunted to try this again another time. If I'm especially feeling up to it, I may even brown some hamburger and sort those out, although I really don't mind thawing hamburger in the microwave as much because it doesn't get those tough/rubbery edges that chicken does and it's looser (since its ground) and thaws more evenly.

So I feel really good about this and slowly but surely, and definitely not all at once, will I try to be better each week about prepping my food for the week so that when I'm in the hustle and bustle of things, I don't feel so stressed and frustrated.

If you have any ideas or try this out, let me know how it goes! Happy Cooking!

New Computer!

First of all, Happy 2014, everybody!

I can honestly say I didn't really care much for 2013. Sure, there were some really good times, but overall, not my favorite year. I know 2014 will be a much better year, but as to why, well, that secret will have to wait just a bit longer!

But we did start out the new year pretty good already - we got a new computer!

It's a Dell, again, and I feel like it is the newer, better sister to my old Dell. All you Dell-nay-sayers, I don't really care. We have really liked our Dell and we got this computer for a good price ($350 - can't beat that!).

So likes and dislikes:
Likes:
Brand New
Faster
Built in camera - ooh!
10-key pad!

Dislikes:
WINDOWS 8. I mean, really??

That's pretty much about it.

So today's tasks are to contact Norton and find out why they did not extend our subscription to April 2014 like they told me they would a year ago. Also, uninstall a search engine hi-jacker that has ALREADY found its way onto our computer. I mean, seriously?? That was our problem with the other computer! But this one apparently isn't so bad and I've already got it uninstalled and just need to find anything else it affected and fix those. Hopefully after Norton is all good, that will help.

Viruses anymore. They are buggers!

Also, we are doing pretty good. Scott is taking 2 online classes, one Aviation ground class at the airport (the other aviation class is one of the online classes), and his MULTI-ENGINE flight instruction. WOOT! Can you believe we are almost there?? After multi-engine is commercial, and after commercial, he can finally start looking for jobs. Not like super-amazing jobs yet, but jobs none-the-less. However, if he wants to be an instructor, he'd have to keep doing instructor courses. Blah. We'll see where the Lord takes us though.

Hailey is almost 2 and talking like crazy and has too much energy for her own good and I can barely handle her sometimes! Just kidding, she's really a good kid, just likes to get into everything! I love her though and it's amazing to watch her grow how she is.

I am doing good. Still working at Central Utah Clinic. I have a calling in Cub Scouts over the Wolf Den. I teach piano lessons to a little girl in my ward on Saturdays. I crochet and knit, and sleep in my spare time.

That is all for now. Have a great day!

Delicious Dinner!

Here is something you may not have known about me: I have a thing with rice. I also have a thing with Cream of Chicken soup. Both entirely unrelated, but also both kind of a big deal to me.

I think the Rice Thing started back when I had Hailey and we were still receiving dinners from the neighbors. This one sister made her famous curry and I don't know if it was because anything at that point that I didn't have to make tasted amazing or if it really was that good (which I don't doubt!), but that was probably the best dish of curry I had ever eaten in my entire life. Besides the fact that the curry sauce itself tasted so wonderful, the sticky rice inside was cooked perfect and soft. Ever since that day, I made a goal to make rice just like hers.

I did have a few issues. That included I have a BUNCH of long grain rice, which makes for horrible sticky rice. I didn't want to go out and buy special rice because I really had that much long grain rice in my storage. I felt sort of guilty, like I was betraying the rice I already had. Number two, my rice cooker has a mind of its own. More often than not, the rice still comes out crunchy (eww!!). I tried the stove method over a dozen times, each with a new recipe from the internet, but they all failed. My quest for perfect rice continued.

And the Cream of Chicken Soup Thing, it's just fake. That's the only way I can describe it. It doesn't matter which brand I get, it still tastes fake. You can mix it with mayo or sour cream or milk or cheese...and it still tastes fake. I hate it and I avoid it at all possible.

This brings me to my delicious meal tonight. We had a ton of leftover chicken, so Scott said Why not Hawaiian Haystacks? I sort of groaned inside, knowing that I'd have to face the rice AND the cream of chicken for another unsuccessful dinner. But I turned positive and started my search online for a SCRATCH recipe. And guess what? I found it!!

No Cream Of Soup Hawaiian Haystacks

Real Mom Kitchen is the bomb-dot-com. And you know what is so great about this recipe? It uses everything one would usually have as a staple in their kitchen anyway. That is why I like these white-sauce/roux/milk or cream sauce things so much! They are SO versatile and you don't realize how much the "quick and easy" world has pushed it aside and made their own canned version to make dinner time come faster. But this scratch recipe (along with many others that I already use this same method for) is SO worth that extra 20 minutes.

So Cream of Chicken Soup Thing was checked off my list. I had finally conquered the soup!

Next was the issue with rice. I had remembered once seeing a quick "recipe" for rice in a cookbook that we got for our wedding.  "Mormon Pantry: Cooking for Two" by Debbie G Harman is the name and I have actually taken a few recipes from that book and already dubbed them as "family favorites." I decided to give this rice a try.

1 cup long-grain rice (me me me!)

2 cups water

1 tbsp butter

1/2 tsp salt

Bring the two cups water to a boil. Add rice, salt, and butter and stir well. 

Reduce temperature to medium-low and place a tight-fitting lid on pan. Simmer 20 minutes. 

Remove from heat and fluff with a fork. Serve while still warm.

I wonder if the salt helped do the trick because I had never added salt before. Whatever it was, I liked it! The rice actually came out SOFT. Did you hear that? S-O-F-T. Even my husband was surprised (poor guy having to endure all that crunchy half-cooked rice). Would you blame me if I told you I sat down and ate the left over rice straight out of the pan? Yum!

Combine these two elements together, plus some delicious toppings like pineapple, celery, cheese, and who can forget chow mein noodles, this was probably THE best Hawaiian Haystacks I have ever had.

The End!

The Good News!

The Good News is...my computer is back! Healthy and fast as ever. I am so, so very happy. It feels like the very first day I turned it on.

But that's the bad news. It's because it IS like the very first day I turned it on. Wiped the whole thing...and factory reset it. We backed it all up on my external hard drive, but I know that is going to take a good, long time to upload everything back onto my computer.

You know what, though? It feels really good, this starting new thing. True, it may take some work to get things back to where they were before (re-install the printer, put all my pictures and files back on, get all my settings the way I like it) but it is totally worth it.

Sort of feels like baptism, or the Atonement, wiping this all clean. Love it!

Anyway, I thought I would start a new thing. Try to write every Friday or Saturday to tell you about our week. Today is Tuesday, but this is making up for last week. And sadly, no pictures right now.

Last Monday, school started for Scotty and my mom. It also meant Hailey started at her new babysitter. She loved it!! The new sitter has 2 kids, one Hailey's age, and she came home happy as ever!

We are still trying to adjust to Scott's new schedule at work. It keeps him away til 8pm, which we are very much not used to. For two years we've had our evenings together, every evening! But I feel like this is good to shake things up a bit and get us working on our toes again. I think this will also encourage us to go to the temple more since before, we felt like we could go anytime, and thus, didn't. Now, we really have to plan it and stick with the plan. I think I am going to like this.

Friday was Scott's cousin's wedding. It was in Manti and it was beautiful. They both have such great families and I was very pleased to be in the their presence all day. We spent the afternoon/evening in Richfield for the luncheon and reception. I like Richfield! Small enough that it's in the middle of nowhere, but big enough for a Walmart! It was a great, but long, day.

Saturday, I went to my sweet little piano student's baptism. She got baptized with her two best friends. What a wonderful moment that was. It was crazy to see these young girls getting baptized. They were so little when we moved into the ward 3 1/2 years ago!

Sunday was our nephew's baby blessing. We spent more time with Scott's family and had a nice breakfast/luncheon. We spent dinner at my family's house where my tech-savy brother helped clean my computer.

Monday was great because my dear sister Oy decided to watch Hailey for me while I deep cleaned my house!! I did the kitchen/fridge and the storage room and it feels SO sososo great to be able to have space in the storage room again. I love that everything is organized again. I am happy.

And so that brings us to today, where I am yelling at my daughter to stay out of the garbage and stop eating those old carrot peals, and to stop climbing up on the rocking chair and tipping it over backwards, and, oh yeah, where I am avoiding the DISASTER in my bathroom where the toilet may or may not have flooded the floor...I am going to have fun cleaning tonight. Oy vay.

That is all! Hope you enjoyed!

I Should Explain.

My computer is on the verge of death unless he gets this life-saving procedure done by two surgeons named Dad and Brother. In the meantime, I can't post on my iPad (lame) and I never think about it at work! Also....the iPad is just so easy for internet access that we haven't even opened our poor computer all summer long! No wonder he's almost dead. Lack of love and nurturing. Anyway, that is why I haven't kept you up to date on all our fun summer adventures.

So let me sum up, minus pictures (sorry!)
1. Seven Peaks!!! I am SO glad we got a Pass of All Passes. On sale...totally worth the $20.
2. Hailey is walking...FINALLY!
3. Hailey is a jabbering-jabber-er.
4. Hot. Hot hot hot. Bought a fan. Still hot.
5. Hailey is walking...FINALLY!
6. Lazy. House bum. I seriously do nothing. I've been wasting my summer!
7. Flight to Logan!
8. Still working on Instrument Rating...
9. Fun trip to Nampa, ID.
10. Hailey is walking...FINALLY!

Haha so that's mostly the gist of our summer so far. I've also been reading a bit and crocheting a lot. I also still work and teach piano. I read in a book that "Good times make for poor stories" so I guess that's us in a nutshell. Good times, folks! :)

A Couple Things I Have Learned As A Mother - The Hard Way.

A Couple Things I Have Learned As A Mother - The Hard Way
by a mother who is currently beating herself over the head.

I say this all in good nature, but seriously! There are just those things in life that you apparently just have to learn yourself, and also that people are never, ever going to let you live down.

So we begin with Number One:
Never, ever think you are good enough to cut your own child's hair.
No matter how many YouTube videos you watch (or, don't watch...) you just have to face the fact that you were never meant to cut hair. You already have no sense of fashion or style, so don't trick yourself into thinking you were born to also cut hair. By yourself. With no one to help or guide you.

It just doesn't work out.

Thankfully, hair grows fast and we'll be over this fiasco in about 2 weeks. In the meantime, I'll just put paper bag over my daughter's head, and mine.

Number Two:
The good sippies are expensive. The cheap sippies don't last.
As much as I hate it, I have bought waaaay more sippies for my one child than I ever care to think. But that's because I bought the cheap ones first, and they all started leaking. Not to mention, you have to go back and buy a different one for their age (not really, but I've noticed that Hailey likes the new sippies I bought better because they have a higher flow than the other sippies we wasted money on). Also, the better sippies that don't break (ahem) and don't leak (double ahem) and don't clog or whatever else, a) cost at least $2 more than the average sippy and b) are NOT gender neutral! Those darn companies knew what they were doing when they started making sippies only for girls or only for boys. You're gonna bet my future sons (if any) are going to be drinking from flowered/pink/purple sippies. It's just ridiculous to have to buy new sippies for each child.

Anyway, I'm done with my rant. Some things are just frustrating, and sometimes I just want to go lay down and cry. But I know wallowing in my own pity isn't going to change what has happened (I'm mostly talking about the hair) and we just have to accept it and laugh about it and move on.

And maybe eventually get over myself and post a picture. In a couple weeks...after her hair has grown back.

Crafting?!?!

I have been in a major crafting mood. Like, hu-jah! And I don't mean crocheting. I always want to crochet. I mean things like sewing and gluing and cutting and just non-normal things that I don't ever usually do! But I want to do it and I'm going to do it while I've still got the motivation!

So here's what I really really really want to do:

Plastic-Grocery-Bag Crochet-Bag

Sewing a swimsuit cover-up dress out of....an old sheet??

DIY Reusable sandwich baggies!

Fun Gerber Cloth Diaper Burp Cloths

Sippy Straps (attaches sippy to stroller, high chair, etc.)

DIY Lip Balm/Lip Gloss

Sounds like a lot...but I've already got 3/7 underway and the other 4 are not far behind.

I can't wait to show you pictures!

Catch Up

I've only allotted myself 30 minutes to work on blog stuff. That means I have to hurry pronto because it's already taken me 15 minutes just to sort out all the pictures that I want to use.

Prepare for a photo bomb. Oh, and a word bomb.

I don't know if I will catch everything, or keep you caught up on everything, but we'll just try.

This morning, Hailey ate her cereal with a big girl spoon. No pictures, sorry. My big girl is just growing up!
Yesterday, we went to Seven Peaks with our BRAND NEW Pass of All Passes. Hailey LOVED the water. Again, no pictures. We were too busy having fun!
Back in April, I cleared a small space and planted myself a little garden.

Hailey helped, of course.

I did peas and spinach.

Look, a couple weeks later - sprouts!

As the weather has been getting warmer, we have been taking Hailey to the park. She loves the swings!

She also loves her sunglasses.

Summertime has been good so far. Isn't she adorable??

Also, there is an awesome splash pad just a few blocks away at the city center. It is designed like a stream and flows a lazy "S" through some boulders. I think it is awesome! And free!
In February or maybe January, some of Mrs. Mathews' past students decided to throw her a surprise concert because she is retiring this year. I unwittingly volunteered to be in charge of my year. Talk about stressful!!! But we made it work out and the concert really was beautiful. My group sang "You'll Never Walk Alone" from Carousel, a musical that is special because she was in that once upon a time. She talked about it all the time.
This is Deb, Mrs. Mathews' daughter. She was really the mastermind behind the whole thing and was able to get this concert even happening. She flew out from Colorado just for this. She is truly amazing. She and I got to know each other a few years back (2007) when I did the Institute for Young Dramatic Voices with Dolora Zajick. I really like Deb and was happy to see her again!

I will always look up to Mrs Mathews as my mentor and the one who helped me discover not just my voice, but the music in everything. Thank you, Mrs Mathews, for everything you have ever done for me!

Mrs Mathews invited us alumni to come to her last choir concert the following week and sing "Come Thou Fount" with the choir. Kates and I stood together, and all the memories of us singing together so many times up on stage came rushing back. I'm not going to lie, I did cry a little. I'm grateful for best friends that I still keep in touch with from high school!
Speaking of best friends, we had a fun baby shower for Whitney, who is due in June with Baby Girl! We did a "Bee is for Baby" theme. Katie and I had lots of fun putting together the decorations and yummy food. It was so great to see everybody!

And coming up to Memorial Day, we had a great weekend. I am sad Scotty had to work yesterday, but we were able to spend time with my family in the evening eating outside and roasting marshmallows. It was relaxing and very nice to sit and talk and laugh.

I hope you had fun reading this and I hope you had a fun Memorial Day as well! Remember all those who came before you, as well as all those, past and present, who have fought for you. I am grateful!

Also, I will try harder to keep updated on the blog. We got our iPad mini's and we never turn on the laptop anymore. But today I have hidden the iPad mini and I am going to be better about not being on it so much.

Have a nice Tuesday!