Dolphins Game (And Karen's birthday!)

I thought I'd FINALLY blog about something fun we did. There's a few of them I need to catch up on, but here's what we did last night!

So about a month ago, Brandon told me there was a Barry fundraiser where they had tickets to the Dolphins game for cheap. So why not? We didn't really have the desire to go to a Dolphins game normally, but for a deal sure!

It happened to fall on Karen's birthday, and so he made a poster for his mom's birthday. Seriously cute.

(it was 70 degrees, but I crocheted a teal beanie. It was just too good to pass up on.)

I just told him he needs to just teach our boys to love their mom this much.

When we got to our seats, we saw why the seats were so cheap. Second row from the top... what a hike.

Luckily, we could see the whole field from where we were. It was quite the show! I read that the baby is just now beginning to be able to hear, so I wondered what it was thinking with all the fireworks and loud music at the beginning of the game.

 We did NOT get on TV with the poster, but it wasn't for a lack of trying. There was plenty of dancing and jumping around (from him, I can't do much right now).

Lots of good food (they don't allow purses at all in the stadium, so my usual snack supply was at home), which we are now on a cleanse from. Only fruits and veggies today. So who knows how many NFL games we ever go to, but it was way fun while it lasted. And happy birthday Karen we love you!

Pregnancy is NOT dignified.

I think that whoever said "Pregnancy is bliss" was never actually pregnant.
Or if they were, they never had a "typical" first trimester.

They didn't struggle with food aversions, when something as simple as peanut butter brings up awful memories of vomiting and you can't bear to look at it.

They were probably able to continue their exercise regimen, because their pregnancy didn't come with a warning label that moving faster than a snail's pace might cause... yep, throwing up.

They never had breakdowns because they were SO hungry and yet so nauseous, and weren't sure if they could even keep a baby alive like that.

They never had to swallow their guilt as the only thing that helped them feel better was a Taco Bell soft taco (my current craving).

And a million other, much more horrifying and TMI things that have happened.

So many people have said, "Just be grateful that you can get pregnant at all", and to that I just roll my eyes. I can be grateful for the miracle happening, but still miserable over what it is doing to my body right now. Nobody beyond Brandon, myself, and Heavenly Father knows what it took for this to happen. So I am very grateful, but losing 15 pounds is nothing to cough at.

AND I know it could be worse. And at the very least, so many other women go through what I have, and don't always have the support system I do. Which does help me feel a little better. My mom told me now I can see why a mother will do anything for their child, because the "bonding" begins right away, for better or worse.

In closing, here is a picture I found online and laughed really hard at. Because that's how I feel right now.

I'm just waiting to get to the part when people say they love being pregnant.

Halloween 2014

Halloween came at the end of a LONG month. Besides my being sick, Brandon had about 16 tests to take.. Poor guy. Plus he doesn't really like to dress up (SHOCKER), so every year it's a back and forth on what we should be. So this year was super laid back, because I told him next year we are definitely dressing up with the baby!

So, I went to WalMart on the 30th and started looking. Here is our final product:

Pumpkins!

I saw the pumpkin maternity shirt last year and thought it was adorable. But they didn't even have an orange shirt available, so I made a face out of orange felt and glued it onto a black shirt. Suuuuper crafty, right?

Brandon went to school, and I finished my "costume" and went out to get a flu shot (and almost got denied BECAUSE I was pregnant... What the heck?! I was so mad. Anyway.) and we went to the ward chili cook off/trunk or treat. I am SO glad my morning sickness is pretty much gone because I had a LOT of spicy chili. Soooo good. Major heartburn but totally worth it. And the trunk or treat quickly turned into a free for all as kids came to our car 4 or 5 times. But little Ezra even got into the spirit of things- he would say "blalalalala" and hold out his bag for candy. We were dying laughing... But then he got mad when I took a few Butterfingers back later. (My favorite.)

We had talked about watching a scary movie for Halloween, but I didn't want to watch a horror movie. My body doesn't let me sleep well as it is right now, and a horror movie would make it worse. So we watched "World War Z". It's a zombie movie, which I usually hate. But this one wasn't bad. The mass hysteria reminded me of how the U.S. is freaking out about Ebola and thinks we're all going to die. But if there was a disease that turned people into zombies I'd definitely run!

Not very adventurous Halloween, overall. We're too old for that nonsense. But I'm stealing this picture of Dane for last- because he's SO cute. Can't wait to dress up this tiny being next year!

Grateful.

This pregnancy has been rough thus far.

I've lost a ridiculous amount of weight, and been presented with more interesting health challenges than I could have guessed.

But all I'm feeling is grateful right now.

Why?

My doctor has been wonderful. He doesn't sugar coat what he says, and he's willing to admit when he doesn't know something. That is so important to me, because I tend to be a nervous person, especially with pregnancy. Plus he has monitored the tiny one, and assures me that nothing has hurt the baby.

I'm so grateful for Brandon. Have I mentioned that before? I think us getting married and blending our personalities has prepared us for this point. Because he has been a ROCK. And today, when he could tell I just needed a little TLC, he came home and took me out to dinner rather than study right away. Just so we could talk. (And I kept it down, thank you very much.)

My family has been fantastic as well. I have complained a LOT over the last few months of sickness, mainly when I was so miserable. I'm so glad that they put up with it, and gave me advice while not belittling my feelings. Because I know I'm a tiny bit of a drama queen.

Right now I am just so grateful for the peace of mind that Gospel living brings. I've been so nervous this whole pregnancy that I've been doing the right thing, eating the right thing, not starving it, etc. But I've also had a sense of peace, knowing that this is what was meant to happen. Whatever happens is meant to. Brandon blessed me last year on my birthday (among other things) that I will know the Lord's will with our children, and that we will have them in the right timing. This is the right timing, and God will not abandon me now. That is not who He is.

So, I celebrate the successes and wait for the end of the trials. 

And happy second trimester! This is my teeny tiny baby/nachos bump.

It looks massive from my perspective... oh well!

Out of the loop

In case you're wondering why I haven't been good about blogging for a while, it's because of this:

(I took this picture because I literally thought I was seeing things... I was home alone and Brandon was at school, I couldn't believe it. PREGNANT?!)

And this:

(Nope I can't see the baby either. Which is why hearing the heartbeat was such a relief.)

And this:

(My dad came into town about a week after my morning sickness hit so I had to tell him!)

And this:

(I've never felt love so quickly as when I saw that turkey kicking and dancing around. There's a BABY in there!)

And this:

(Ice, Ice, Baby- how we announced it to the world!) and no, I don't really have a belly yet. Losing weight does that to you.

So to back up: I've felt like we should have a baby for a while. But we both got the feeling that I needed to focus on teaching last year. I taught, we moved, I looked for a teaching job. Couldn't find one.

On their first day of school, I dropped Brandon off for his first day of orientation and went downtown to talk to the school district about substitute teaching. I grabbed a bagel from Einstein's (so good) and as I was walking out I saw the CVS and the thought came to me, "Grab a pregnancy test." Umm, why? Sure, whatever.

As you can see, it turned up positive. I LOST MY MIND. I was hyperventilating and freaking out from excitement. Me? Now? Really? But there was also a lot of fear. I didn't want to get too excited in case I went in and they  couldn't find a heartbeat.

But at the same time, AHHHHHHHH! So I thought of how to tell Brandon. I went to Target to buy a onesie to give to him after his white coat ceremony, and then waited. And waited. Longest wait of my life!

After his white coat ceremony, I came out and took pictures of his class. My hands were shaking so much. He hugged me and asked to see the pictures I took, so I gave him my phone. He went one too far and saw the test and I said "NO you weren't supposed to see that!" And yanked my phone out of his hands. He said, "Wait, seriously? Are you?" I nodded and my eyes filled up with tears as I realized this made it not just my hallucination anymore. He hugged me and said, "I'm so happy for you!" "Me?! US!!" His face went a little pale and he said, "Oh yeah, I'm going to be a dad... I think I need to sit down." A lot to take in for one day.

So I scheduled my first appointment, and unfortunately Brandon couldn't come. I was so nervous… What if the heartbeat wasn't there? What if the food poisoning feeling I had had for the last week was just food poisoning and not morning sickness? I had only been able to keep down wheat thins and ginger ale for a long time. When the ultrasound tech pulled up the picture of the baby, it wasn't there. I got a little bit nervous until they showed me a flash of movement, and said "see that? It's the baby." Then they pulled up a heartbeat and they said it was perfect. So my fears started to go away.

And we told my dad at just 7 weeks the day after that first ultrasound, because I had been feeling so badly and couldn't keep anything down. He was so excited and happy to be the first person we told.

And the rest is history! Brandon and I feel so blessed to have this little tiny person joining our family. We aren't entirely sure what we want to have. Brandon wants a girl, but we will be so excited no matter what happens.

At the ultrasound Thursday, the baby wouldn't roll over for the technician. They wanted to get a cute profile picture, but it wouldn't give it to them. When the tech pushed on my stomach to move it around, the baby just turned so its back was to us. So we saw its spine for the rest of the ultrasound. She said "Seems like you have a baby with strong opinions." That didn't surprise us at all. Just dancing and kicking away! Wiggling its bum, just like its dad.

Estimated arrival date: April 28, 2015.

PS: morning sickness is the WORST. As much as I tried to look at it from the perspective of "just a reminder that baby's still there!", it got way annoying to eat one bite and then throw up. So I feel for all women with morning sickness... And hopefully I will stop losing weight!

"Their mothers knew it."

So, I've been trying to have personal scripture study this year. I haven't been good in the past, so I thought it would be fun to follow an Instagram account called "BofM365" that has passages so you can read the whole Book of Mormon by the end of the year. I haven't been 100%, and as a result I'm behind so I've been reading big chunks at a time.

I just read the story of Helaman and his stripling warriors. I remember the animated movie we had a long time ago, and I LOVED it. There's the part when they all stand up and say they know they'll be ok in the heat of battle, because their mothers knew it. Their mothers had been responsible for their learning in the Gospel, and because of that upbringing they were confident that they would survive the battle.

I've always loved that. I mean, I always knew MY mom knew the Gospel, and I know Brandon knew his mom did too. We have grandparents who are great examples of Gospel knowledge. But that leaves me wondering... what about ME? Am I going to be the kind of mother that raises a "stripling warrior" who can go off to battle and know that he (or she) will come back unshaken in their faith?

I've told Brandon that I'm terrified of bringing a child into this kind of world. We are in a world where religion is seen as "weak", and not swaying my beliefs because my beliefs might hurt someone's feelings is seen as "closed minded". Same sex marriage is seen as beautiful and natural, while monogamy is seen as unnatural. Affairs happen rampantly now, and out in the open! The idols people worship, aka celebrities, have a "long lasting marriage" if they last 5 years. This is madness! How much worse can it get?

I was raised in this time of change. My children will be raised when it is normal, and has been part of history. How can I tell my children that even though the law says it's normal, we still believe otherwise? And hope that they believe what the Gospel and their parents tell them?

What I've decided is this... I've heard that parents who have children who fall away from the Gospel can bring them back in the next life just from their righteous examples and living worthily of the Celestial Kingdom. And so if Brandon and I continue to live our lives the best way we can, and just teach our children the Gospel principles and encourage them to make their own choices, but to know that they have parents who will always love them, then we can trust that they will come back someday. This is easy to say with adult children being so far off in the future now, but I really want to believe that we will be able to raise righteous children who will follow the Gospel principles and the prophet's teachings.

Our first visitor- Dad!

I just found a TON of old posts that I haven't posted yet, so stay tuned for some major flashbacks!

So my dad has a business trip in Atlanta about once a year. For the last few years he has taken a day after that and flown up to North Carolina to see Alyse, Tommy, and Dane. Since they were now out of NC, he decided instead to fly down to Miami and spend about 24 hours with us. Little did he know that was the day after our first ultrasound, so I had a little surprise for him:

(I didn't know that I should have written "3.0", because Alyse hadn't announced her pregnancy yet.)
I needed to tell Dad because I had been so sick that I figured he would want to know why I was throwing up constantly... go figure I didn't get sick in front of him once. And that is how we announced to my side of the family! My dad sent the picture out to everyone and they called or texted. I know he liked being first though.
I had just been "let go" from my tutoring job (blessing in disguise), so I was waiting for my final payment that day. We got back to our apartment to drop off my dad's stuff, then went to pick up Brandon. We took him to Haulover beach, where we had seen the manatee a few weeks earlier. We didn't see any manatees... but my dad did get stung 3 times by jellyfish. Sorry!
The next morning we brought Brandon to school, then my dad and I set out with our guide to South Florida in hand. The book recommended going to Coral Gables, so we set off in that direction.. and got totally lost. I felt bad taking my dad everywhere without having a real goal in mind, but I found this place in the book called "Palacio de los Jugos" that sounded good. On our way there, we found:

YES! And it was in a not so nice part of town so we KNEW it had to be good. And we were not disappointed.

My dad counted and I think it was 15 cities that he has had pupusas in, so I'm glad I was able to add Miami to his list.
We did find the Palacio de los Jugos, and it was DELICIOUS. I have to be careful with what I eat right now, but the fresh pina colada was excellent.
We love having people come into town!

Happy 3 years of marriage to us.

Brandon is at school and I'm going to pick him up in about an hour and a half, so I'm writing this now.

Today is our wedding anniversary. Has it really been 3 years? Wow. On the one hand, that doesn't sound that long. On the other hand, it's felt like forever since we got together. And since that day in the Newport Beach temple when we were sealed for forever.

This anniversary has made me think a lot about selflessness, and just how important it is in a marriage. The statistic now is that half of marriages end in divorce, and while I haven't been close enough to one to know all the details, there have been a few where I have seen glaring instances of selfishness. It's just sad to see people my age get divorced. I mean, marriage is definitely hard work. But it's also so FUN! But we've both had our instances of selfishness. I've had more... as you can guess. That's why I love Brandon. He is not only more selfless than I am, but he is willing to forgive. And while the same habits are just so easy to fall into, we really do promise each other that we will try harder to break those selfish ways.

Well, here's 10 things I've learned to love about Brandon... since it's better than saying 3.

1) Brandon is ridiculously devoted to his school work. It is what helped him maintain above a 3.9 at BYU-I, and is going to help him not only get through PA school, but thrive there.

2) Brandon's compassion knows no bounds. As a teacher last year, I wanted so much to be able to work like him, and never show my frustration. I was far from his example, but I tried.

3) Brandon thinks I'm hilarious. Which is good, because otherwise he'd get annoyed with me so quickly! And luckily he thinks it's funny that I think I'm funny, because sometimes I accidentally hurt him and then laugh super hard because I can't control myself. Like when I accidentally pushed him into the closet wall the other day... It was funny and I was not trying to be mean I promise. But I do apologize eventually and he forgives me. And laughs about it later.

4) When Brandon sees something on TV that he thinks is really funny, he laughs and repeats it OVER AND OVER again. It drives me cuckoo when we're watching something, but then I think it's funny after the fact.

5) Brandon is so dedicated to the church. I remember my mom telling me to find a man that I know would never leave the church. At the time I liked this guy, and so in conversation I brought that up and asked him. He said, "Eh, I don't know". That's pretty much when it ended. And guess what? He's inactive now. But I do not need to worry about that with Brandon. He was a stellar missionary, and will be when we are off serving somewhere in Latin America when we're retired.

6) Brandon is ambitious. He has had his goal of PA school for about 4 years now, and he has done it! There have been many of our friends who have had ambitions and then abandoned them along the way for an easier and more convenient route, but not Brandon. He is a hard worker.

7) Brandon loves his family. Well, he loves OUR family, both sides. He has a soft spot for the women in his life... and for Dane. Which is good because Dane LOVES him. As much as he teases his sisters, I know he'd do anything for them.

8) Brandon is thoughtful. Today, before he went to school, he told me he had a surprise. I came out to 6 red roses and a note. It said, "There are 6 other roses hidden around this apartment, each with a note with something I love about you". I found them, and they were sweet. Also, he bought me 2 liters of Inca Kola which is my FAVORITE soda ever! Score one for Brandon.

9) Brandon is hilarious. He is willing to make himself look like a fool to make me feel better, by doing various ridiculous dances or singing. We had so much fun on our road trip being weirdos, just the 2 of us.

10) Brandon loves me. He hasn't stopped showing that since day 1. As much as I love the 2 of us being together, I know that when Heavenly Father expands our family Brandon will love our kids just as much as he loves me. Maybe even more, as I don't run over screaming his name every day after work.

So happy anniversary, Brandon. As I said in my tribute this morning, it's been a lot of trust, hard work, laughter, tears, loyalty, selflessness, caring, and love.

How we celebrated 3 years of marriage.

So this is going back a ways, but I thought I should share this!

In the past we've gone on overnight trips to go see a different state or city for our anniversary. Logan then Billings. This time we decided that since we had just driven through 9 different states and many different cities, we would just stay local. Luckily, everything's new to us in Florida!

We had heard about the airboat rides on the Everglades, and thought we would check it out. We went to Sawgrass, which is about 30 minutes away. Imagine our joy when we found out that since we are now Florida residents, we get a year free! (Now we just need to get our Florida licenses before we go back.)

I was amazed at the airboats. I expected us to avoid the plants, like they do on regular boats. Nope, we just drive straight over them! It was a weird feeling.

A few minutes in, the tour guide turned off the boat and we all took out our earplugs. And there we saw it... A big old gator! He was HUGE.

It's a little disconcerting to look an alligator in the eyes.

I got this and the next picture as he was swimming away. He was easily 8 or 9 feet long... big boy.

Part of the Sawgrass park was a reptile exhibit. As soon as we walked over there, I saw a sign that said "Hold a baby alligator!" HECK YES. So we ran over and asked when the next one was, and they said about 10 minutes. So we ran over to the tour group. We also saw some newborn alligators, which were actually cute and tiny.

The alligators they had us hold were much bigger. The mouths were taped shut, so we got into the spirit of it without the fear of our mouths being bitten off.

See how happy the alligators are? One of them pooped all over someone... luckily not me.

New rule- whoever comes on an airboat ride with us must kiss the gators! Or at least pretend, then wash your mouth off with hand sanitizer.
We saw some other alligators that we will not be kissing any time soon.

Those things were mammoth, easily over 12 feet long. No thank you!

Peacocks roaming the grounds... hopefully not food for the gators.
There some other amazing animals there, including a black panther (not the group). You can barely see it here, but it was pretty impressive.

Of course they had a skunk to pet... named Chanel. It's a little scary when its tail is facing you.
On our way back, we tried to find some new place to eat, and ended up at Little Havana restaurant. It's Cuban, and delicious! Brandon was excited to eat fried yucca again.

Overall a low-key and pretty inexpensive anniversary trip, which made it great!

Wow... we are here. And I have SOOOOO much to catch up on.

But for now, I will say we are here and are LOVING it.

Ok, one picture.

Yes that is the beautiful Atlantic Ocean behind me. It is a block and a half behind our apartment, and I LOVE it. Even though the purple flag flies a lot, which means hazardous animals in the water. It is still beautiful and WARM.