Out and About

Well, I've finally been able to get out of the house a little bit the past week...and boy have I enjoyed it! You don't realize how much you enjoy something until you can't do it for awhile! Last Saturday, our entire family went up to the Solomon Center in Ogden to celebrate Greg (my brother-in-law) and Dan's (my future brother-in-law) birthdays. They wanted to try the flowrider (the simulated surfing machine). Mike surfed a little when he lived in Hawaii years ago, so he was so excited! I won't go into a lot of detail because Ashlee wrote about it on her blog, so you can check it out there, but the boys had a blast!

The boys got to surf and boogie board for an hour for $30. Mike was hurting on the way home from a few hard falls, so I told him that the next time he felt like getting beat up, I would do it for free...none of this $30 crap! :)

On Tuesday, it was my monthly girls night. Chantele was in charge this month, and she chose to go see a singing/

comedy group from Jackson Hole called the Bar J Wranglers. I'll admit, I was a little nervous at first...especially when they asked all the people in the audience with "large hats" on to remove them and then they started in on several EXTREMELY twangy songs. But, as the night went on, their little program got pretty good. The "comedy" parts of the show were HILARIOUS and I found myself laughing so hard that my abs hurt several times! So, overall, it was a pretty fun night!

Last night was our ward's enrichment. For those of you that don't know, I was called as the enrichment leader in our ward about two months ago (along with still teaching the marriage and family relations class with Mike). This was my first big enrichment. I'm supposed to write a brief summary of each quarterly enrichment, so I figured I would just do it on my blog (it's much more fun than doing it in word). Then, I can share all our fun ideas with those of you who are on enrichment committees too (and I expect the same in return. I need all the help I can get!). Once again, I was having too much fun and forgot to take pictures...sorry! This quarter, we did a PJ's Party. "PJ's" stands for prayer, journal, scriptures. We did a party like this for the primary several years ago, but it was so much fun to do with the women! We all gathered at Mary Arnett's house for the party. We decided to do it at a house because we wanted the night to have a slumber party type theme...and we thought a house would do that better than the church gym. Mary has a huge family room in her basement and it fit everyone pretty nicely! All the women wore their pajamas or comfy clothes. We started out the night with "breakfast for dinner". We had breakfast casseroles, muffins, doughnuts, fruit, juice & milk. After dinner, we began the program. Our relief society president, Trisha Hart, spoke to us about how to make our prayers more meaningful. After she was done, Kathy Alonzo spoke to us about journals and the importance of recording spiritual experiences so that we can go back and read them at times when our testimonies might not be at their strongest peak. After she was done, we made "faith journals". We took those little test booklets that you use in college and modge podged paper, ribbons, etc. on them. These books will be specifically for spiritual experiences that happen in our lives...kind of like our "small plates". Nephi had large plates where everything was written & then he had small plates that were reserved for just spiritual things. That's how this little journal will be for us. It was a lot of fun and we had a hard time pulling the girls away from their projects when time was up. After the journal making, we listened to Danielle Dimond speak to us about scripture reading and how to really apply them to our daily lives. She gave us a step-by-step process of picking scriptures apart so that we really understand what God is trying to tell us today. It was really great! In fact, the whole evening was great! After the program ended, we actually stayed for about another hour and kind of made a "girls night" out of it. We ate all sorts of bad food (M&Ms, chocolate dipped pretzels, cookies, etc.) and sat around talking. It was so much fun! I think the night was a success!

So, those are my exciting outings for this week! My body has handled it all pretty well, with just a few small setbacks...so hopefully, that shows that I am toward the end of this little ordeal! Let's keep our fingers crossed! --Lindsay

And Baby Makes 3...Kids That is!

Yes...the rumors that you all have been hearing are in fact true...I am pregnant! We were trying to wait until I was showing a little more to tell people this time around, but several "sources" (i.e. The "Relief Society gossip chain" which showed it works extremely quickly & efficiently; a certain co-anchor--lets just call him "Rissa Carnita"--who felt the need to tell the whole world on television a few weeks ago; or my bulging belly speaking for itself)...thought it would be cool to spill the beans a little early. (It's okay, I still love all of you anyway...except my growing tummy.) I am about 14 weeks along. My due date is August 24th. We are so excited and are already pretty attached to this little guy/gal (no...forget the gal part, it's most likely another boy)! Pregnancy has always been a cakewalk for me. Or at least that's what I thought...this pregnancy has been anything but! Let me tell you about the roller coaster ride we have been on the past three weeks. *Disclaimer: It's a little on the long side, so if you're not interested (or you don't want to hear about blood and "womanly parts"), skip to the end!*

Three weeks ago on Monday (February 4th--a date I will never forget), I sent Connor off to school with his carpool, vacuumed my house & then sat down on the floor to play with Aiden. We had been playing for about 3 or 4 minutes when I started to bleed...a lot! I totally freaked out! Nothing like this had ever happened to me with my other pregnancies. I ran to the phone and grabbed the phonebook to find my doctor's number. After five minutes of searching with shaky hands, a clouded mind, and tears streaming down my face, I finally found the number and called them. The nurse told me that it sounded like I was miscarrying and that she would call me back after she talked to the doctor. I hung up the phone totally in shock! I had never gone through a miscarriage before and I was totally freaked out! I tried to call Mike, but got no answer on both his cell phone and office phone. I called my mom next (she and my dad work about 15 minutes away from my house and I knew that they could get to me faster than Mike could). She said that she and my dad would be right over. At that point, the nurse called me back and confirmed that the doctor thought I was probably in the process of miscarrying. He wanted me to come down for an ultrasound to verify the miscarriage and then they would figure out if my body was going to do it on its own or if they would have to perform a D&C to clean everything out. I hung up with her and went back to trying to get a hold of Mike...still no answer! I decided to keep calling his cell phone and office phone over and over again...thinking that someone in an office nearby would hear it ringing repeatedly, figure out that someone REALLY needed to get a hold of him, and go find him. This went on for about 10 minutes before someone finally took his phone to him and said, "Don't ever leave your desk without this again...someone obviously needs to get in touch with you!" He answered the phone and I started rambling off everything that had happened in the previous 20 minutes. He said he would leave right away and meet me and my mom at the doctor's office. At this point, I just sat around and waited for my parents to get there. My mind was going a million miles a minute & I thought I might go insane. I decided to call my friend, Amanda, just to talk. She really helped to calm me down, so big "thank you's" to her for that! :) At that point, my parents arrived. My dad gave me a blessing and then my mom and I headed for the doctor's office, while my dad stayed and watched Aiden and waited for Connor to get home from school. Mike met us down there and they sent us right into the ultrasound room. My mom's friend, Robyn, was actually the tech who did it...so it was nice to have a familiar face in such a crazy time. We started the ultrasound and saw the baby right away. She looked for a minute at it and said, "There's a heartbeat...and a pretty strong one too! Your baby is alive and is doing pretty well!" I started bawling!!! It was the best news a mom could hear in that situation! Then she went on to explain that it looked like part of my placenta had ruptured...that's why I was bleeding. I was in a daze at that point, but I remember her saying that the baby had originally implanted itself too low in my uterus and that part of the placenta had grown over my cervix. When that happens, that part of the placenta can rupture very easily, and that's exactly what had happened. You can actually see the rupture in the ultrasound photos above. (It's the little tear-dropped shape area to the right of the baby's head that is a lighter than the rest of the placenta.) At that point, the doctor came to talk to us. He put me on complete bed rest for a week. He said I could sit up to eat & I could get up to walk to the bathroom, but he wanted me to lay down the rest of the time. After a week had passed, they would do another ultrasound to see if the placenta was healing & we could decide how much activity I could do from that point on.

At first, it didn't seem like it was going to be that bad! Lying around for a week actually sounded like fun! Boy was I wrong! My OCD/ADHD self needs to be doing something at all times! That week was the longest week of my life! I read the rest of the "Twilight" series & watched movies/TV. By the weekend, I was so sick of Dr. Phil, Oprah, game shows, & soap operas that I could have screamed! In fact, I did scream...quite often in fact. I was seriously losing my mind! In fact, I TOTALLY had a breakdown moment and started crying because we ran out of baby wipes! HEAVEN FORBID!!! Poor Mike! I think he thought I was seriously going crazy!

The following Monday, we went back for another ultrasound. They said that the placenta was beginning to heal itself, but that I still had to take it easy for the next few weeks or I could rupture it again. They said I could try to slowly increase my activity everyday as long as I didn't start bleeding again. The two weeks since have been full of ups & downs! It seems like I'll be doing pretty good, so I start doing more, and then I start bleeding again...so we have to go in for a heartbeat check and then it's back down for more bed rest! I do seem to be doing pretty good the past few days, so I'm hoping that is a good sign!

I have another ultrasound in two weeks, and at that point, the doctor expects the placenta to be completely healed and the rest of the pregnancy to be pretty normal. So, that's what we're hoping for!

I just have to say "thank you" to everyone who has helped us through these past few weeks! To my mom, who has been at my house almost everyday to help clean, do laundry & whatever else I needed. To my sister, Ashlee, who has come down several days to help out as well. To Mike's parents who took the kids several days & brought us dinners. To Tami & Ashley who also brought us dinners and told me not to fight them on it. To my friends who called to check on me constantly (and let me talk their ears off). To my news director & assistant news director who were totally understanding about the situation and gave me time off during February Sweeps. To Aiden for always making me laugh...even when I was crying. To Connor...who totally stepped up to the plate! The day this all happened, Mike told Connor that he was going to have to kind of be the daddy when people weren't around to help. This little five-year-old AMAZED me! He got Aiden dressed, got cereal out for breakfast, and even CHANGED DIAPERS! I was totally blown away by him and his willingness to help! He didn't even complain about it much. In fact, the only complaint I heard was about 5 days in...I asked him to do something & as he walked off to do it, I heard him mutter "I'm sick of being the dad around here!" Haha! I had to laugh! And, last but certainly not least, I need to thank Mike! If you want to know what a "knight in shining armor" looks like...just look at him! He took a lot of time off work...even though he had a huge proposal coming up which I know he was nervous about getting done on time, and he kept up on his school work too...all while trying to be both dad AND mom to our boys. This has been his schedule for the past three weeks...5:20-6:00 get up, get ready and clean the house; 6:00 leave for work; 7:00-5:00 work; 6:00-10:00 school; 11:00-Midnight get home and clean the house again. Then get up at 5:20 the next morning and do it all over again! If that isn't true love, I don't know what is! I love you more than you will ever know Mike!!! Thank you!

Anyway, so that's been our life for the past three weeks! Hopefully, all this will be resolved in another couple of weeks and life can go back to normal! I guess it's a small price to pay to have a healthy, happy baby six months from now! And, hey, at least I'm going to have a plethora of ultrasound photos to show for it all! So, there you go. You know it ALL now...and not through the rumor mill or television, but straight from the horse's mouth! --Lindsay

Earthquake!

Well, after living in Utah for almost my entire life (minus a 3 1/2 year hiatus to Louisiana and Reno), I have finally felt an earthquake. I woke up this morning around 7:15 am to my bed shaking. It felt like one of the kids was shaking my footboard or something. I sat up fully expecting to see Aiden's smiling face at the foot of my bed. Surprisingly, no one was there. I thought for a second that it COULD be an earthquake, but as I looked around the room and realized nothing else was shaking, I quickly discounted this theory. My next thought was that maybe one of my kids was underneath my bed and pushing on one of the legs or something, so I jumped out and looked under the bed...nothing there. At this point, my bed had stopped shaking. I was so confused. I thought that maybe I had woken up dazed and imagined the whole thing. I jumped back in bed...worried about my sanity...and went back to sleep.

My kids woke up about an hour later and we went through our daily ritual of turning on cartoons and eating breakfast. Then, a few minutes later, I got a call from my sister, Ashlee. She said, "Will you tell me a little bit about your earthquake insurance...because we are getting it after the earthquake this morning!" All the sudden, I remembered my bed shaking and everything came together...there HAD been an earthquake...I wasn't crazy! My sister told me that the earthquake was a 6.0 and was centered in Wells, NV. (Ahhh Wells...I have so many fond memories of that little town from my "commuting to Reno days"...good times...ummmm no, not really.) Anyway, I turned the TV onto the news...much to the dismay of two little boys...to learn more about it. They started showing pictures that had come in from viewers in Wells and when I saw the picture of the Flying J (that is at the beginning of this post) I totally had a flashback moment. I can not tell you how many times I have stood at that counter waiting to pay for my refill of beef jerky and diet coke at 4:00 am...hoping it would help me make it back to Salt Lake City alive. Anyway, it hit me that next time it could be us...in fact, next time it probably WILL be us...and it won't be just my bed shaking, it will be the entire house! It's a scary thought...I just hope I'll be ready for it when it does happen. --Lindsay

Yes...I'm Still Alive

Hey everyone! No, I haven't died, fallen off the face of the planet or become a hermit. I've just been really sick the past few weeks (is it Spring yet?) and therefore, haven't had any good "blog stories" to tell you about. But, thank you for your emails and phone calls! I appreciate them so much! --Lindsay

Tagged...Twice

Okay well, I have been tagged twice...for two different things, so I decided to combine them into the same post, but I have tagged different people for each, so check to see where your name is...

I was tagged for the first one by Melanie. You are supposed to show a picture of your purse & then a picture of all the crap inside it. Well, this is my purse. My sisters gave it to me for my birthday and I absolutely LOVE it!!!

And, here's all the crap inside my purse. I found my cell phone, wallet, tide-to-go pen (one of my new favorite things), an old "to do" list & three old grocery shopping lists.

The lucky girls that get to do this tag are...Kristy (haha...got you back), Kelli & Rachel.

The second tag was sent to me by one of my old college roommates, Kristy. It was a flashback to college life for me!

10 Years Ago: I was in my second semester at BYU. I was living in Wells Hall with 5 girls...3 of whom became some of my best friends on the planet. I was trying to get my hands on one of the twenty available slots in the Broadcast Journalism program and working my butt off to do it.

5 Things on My To-Do List Today:

1. Hang out with my sister, Ashlee, who came down to visit

2. Hang out with my mom who decided to also come over to visit

3. Send out a gazillion and one emails for my calling (since I've been slacking this past week)

4. Make a gazillion and one phone calls (again with the slacking)

5. Cry...because Mike has three classes for the next five weeks. I'm never going to see him.

5 Snacks I Enjoy:

1. Ding Dongs

2. Kit Kats

3. Spicy V8 Juice

4. Grapefruits

5. Chips and Salsa

What would I do if I were suddenly made a billionaire:

Pay off my house...travel the world & pay for my whole family to come along too (but we would only be visiting the warm parts of the world)...pay someone to work on Mike's VW bug for him (although he would whine about it)...pay someone to finish our basement (although Mike would complain about that too)...buy Mike his porche(so he'll stop complaining about it)...that pretty much sums it up. Everything else would probably stay about the same.

5 Places I Have Lived:

1. Provo, Utah

2. Orem, Utah

3. Lake Charles, LA

4. Reno, NV

5. Eagle Mountain, UT

5 Jobs I Have Had

1. Customer Service Manager--Seven Peaks Waterpark

2. Weather Anchor--KBYU

3. Chief Meteorologist--KVHP (Fox--Louisiana)

4. Weekend Meteorologist--KRNV (NBC--Reno)

5. Weekend Morning Meteorologist--KUTV (CBS--Salt Lake City) & Weekday Soccer Mom

5 Things You Don't Know About Me:

1. I once went on 32 dates in one semester (one of my roommates kept track in her Biology book...good ol' Melissa...although I do debate her on some of them--She said some of them were dates when I said they weren't)

2. Mike & I HATED each other for about a year (long story). Then we were forced together through a lovely BYU FHE group and then we both decided that the other person wasn't so bad.

3. I started dating his roommate (good ol' Jason Stephens), but decided I liked hanging out with Mike much more than Jason.

4. The first time Mike asked me out, I didn't realize it was a date & I asked two other guys if they wanted to come with us.

5. Mike & I had only dated for two months when we got engaged (yuck--I know! But, if it makes it any better, we had been good friends for about a year and a half).

**I just realized that whole section was about my college life. I guess since Kristy tagged me, I have my BYU years on the brain!

OK, for this one I'm tagging Amanda, Melanie (got you back), Ashlee Swenson, Summer, & Tara...

I Can Finally Have a Conversation with My Friends Again

Well, usually my life is pretty crazy and I'm lucky if I can find a few minutes to read now and then. But, this week, I haven't been feeling very good so I ended up with a lot of free time on my hands. I decided to put that free time to good use and finally read the remainder of the Twilight series, so that I can actually have a conversation with my friends again.

I actually started "New Moon" back in December, but had only read about half of it as of the beginning of this week...partly because I just don't have a whole lot of free time; partly because I didn't like it very much. Yes, I know...I am bringing the wrath of every "Twilight" lover upon myself by saying that, but it was just too depressing and slow for me. So, when I picked it up on Wednesday, I'll admit that I wasn't too excited to read it...but that all changed at about page 300 or so. I couldn't put it down for one second! I had finished New Moon by about dinnertime that night. The next morning, I started on "Eclipse" and loved EVERY SINGLE PAGE OF IT from start to finish! I think it is my favorite book of the three. By Thursday night, I had read the first 400 pages of it & I finished it around lunchtime on Friday.

So now, I can finally have a conversation with people in the outside world again...and, like everyone else, I can not wait for #4 to come out later this year! --Lindsay

One Very Sleepy Boy!

Hello Everyone! No, sorry to disappoint you, this is not Lindsay, it is just Mike. For those of you that are frequent visitors to our little site, you would know that this is only the second time I have written a post. Lindsay is definitely the better writer, and does such a good job that my contributions would only bring the quality of our blog down. Though, every once in a while there are some things worth posting, and this little video is one of them.

My mom often tells me little stories about my childhood. One of her favorites is when I would fall asleep at the dinner table because I had played so hard all day. I always thought this was funny, but never knew how funny until tonight. Our little “wild one” Aiden, takes a lot after his dad when I was young, and is simply a ball of energy all the time. He plays every second of the day, and plays hard. He climbs on everything, and runs every where he goes.

Today was one of those days that he played hard, but refused to take a nap. He is getting to that age where it is really hard to get him to take a nap, and he usually just lies in bed for three hours, amusing himself with what ever little thing he can find. Today, we didn’t even try to force him to take a nap, and this wonderful little video is the result. I hope you enjoy this as much as we did.

"Brilliant Ideas" for Cleaning Up a Federal Disaster Area in Your Own Home

Yes, it's true, I finally gave in and cleaned the playroom! Now, I know what you're all saying...
"And, WHY is this a big deal?" Well, I'll tell you why this is a big deal...because I haven't done it in, oh...probably six months or more! It was a complete disaster! Actually, the word "disaster" probably doesn't even come close to describing it...it was more like a (pick your favorite word) calamity, catastrophe, tragedy, etc. The President of the United States could probably have classified it as a Federal Disaster Area...it was that bad! Hey, don't you get Federal Aid for that? Hum..I'll have to check into that! It looked like Armageddon had taken place down there amongst the army men, train tracks & action figures.

I have a love/hate relationship with this room. I love it because if the kids make a mess, I can just not think about it. Out of sight, out of mind, right? But, I also hate it because everytime I go downstairs, it's no longer out of sight and, therefore, no longer out of mind. There it is...staring me in the face...my failure...the chaotic, disorganized mess that we call a playroom. I really truly had just given up on this room. I didn't even know where to start. And even if I did find a place to start, could I ever finish? I started thinking, "If I died down there, they wouldn't find me for days!" And, even if I did survive, it wouldn't matter because all my hard work would be ruined within minutes as my children began their daily ritual of creating chaos in our house. Then I'd probably be so devastated that I would go into a manic depression, start talking in a British accent, begin a habit of running over the toes of paparazzi, have a stand off with police for several hours & be sent to a padded room in the State Hospital. Hum...maybe Britney Spears had a playroom!?!

These thoughts kept me satisfied for several months, but then the organizing bug began to bite again. I kept pushing it off saying it was a waste of time since my hard work truly would be ruined within minutes. Then, I had an idea...I could clean the playroom and then lock my children in their bedrooms for the remaining years of their childhood. Hey, it might just work! But then, they would just destroy their bedrooms...so maybe that idea wouldn't work. Idea #2...maybe I could clean the playroom and then lock the basement door. That idea could work very nicely! But, then, what's the point of a playroom? They would just mess up the family room instead. Hum...maybe not such a brilliant idea after all. Then, I got it...the perfect plan...childproof (and almost mommyproof) Rubbermaid containers!

This one may actually work! I stopped and bought a bunch of them at WalMart on my way home from work this morning. Then, armed with my handy dandy childproof buckets, the four of us headed down into the biohazard area to get to work. Three hours later, all the toys were divided into their respective containers and we snapped the lids on! At that point, we sat the kids down to talk about the new rules of the playroom--one container of toys at a time...if you want a different one, you have to clean up the toys from the first container...then mommy will come and open another one. They both agreed. My brilliant strategy was working out perfectly! I had contained the problem, but still allowed limited access. I was feeling pretty smart...and pretty powerful...afterall, I had command over the "childproof containers". And then it happened...Aiden opened one! Heaven help me!!! Britney...do you need a cellmate? --Lindsay