Friday, July 27, 2007

Our Trip to MT

I have been meaning to write about this for awhile, but have been so busy with getting everything taken care of here that I haven't found the time. Before Jeff and I came out to Kentucky, we visited my family in Kalispell, Montana for one last time...We are not sure when we will make it out again. It is SOOOO expensive to fly out there and days of driving and we are in dental school. That means we are poor! :)

We did tons of stuff! We went fishing to Moose Lake again and caught about a million fish. Here is a pic of my cousin's girl Ashlen fishing. It was her first time and she loved it! Mainly she just wanted to row the canoe. Jeff let her on the way back but we weren't getting anywhere, so he explained that we needed to take turns rowing. Eventually we made it back. I fished on the way back and caught maybe three fish just in that ten minute period. It was fun!We also spent a day at the Lake Mary Ronan. It was fun there as well. Jeff had a blast because he got to wake board, which he LOVES! Anything with water is fun for him. When he graduates from dental school, he has informed me that his first big purchase will be a boat. I am crossing my fingers that he will also want to buy a house at that point and hopefully move that up as first priority. He plans on practicing dentistry everyday of the week except one. That one day he will be out on the boat or golfing. He is really excited we are having a boy so that he can take him out on the boat too and start him young. Then maybe he won't be afraid of the water like I am. :) I do still tube and have wakeboarded too, but the water really scares me for some reason. Here is Jeff wakeboarding.
Here's my cousin Whitney and me. Not the best picture, but you get the idea.
This is my brother, Brian, and one of the twins I used to nanny for, Katey. Brian is now 17 and Katey is 5. So old! Brian is also afraid of the water, but not as afraid as me. Here is kind of a funny story. When Brian was growing up, my sister and I used to chase him with the vacuum when we were "cleaning." He would scream and cry and hop on the couch and yell until my mom came to get him. We thought it was hilarious and he was afraid of the vacuum for a long time...maybe until he was 12 or so. Now he just says he is still afraid so he doesn't have to vacuum.
Here's my sister making a funny face. Her husband Zach and Jeff are laying on the floor. They are cleaning their ears out. You buy these hollow wax candles at the store, stick one end in your ear, light the other end on fire, and as the candle burns, the pressure changes and sucks all the wax out of your ear. It is kind of wierd. You can feel the wax coming out of your ear and hear it too. You blow the fire out about three inches before it gets to your ear. This is gross, but we then cut them open and you can see the burned wax. It smells bad, but we have contests to see who has the most earwax. Jeff won by a long shot out of all four of us. He had to do one ear twice. What is funny is that a couple weeks ago Jeff had gone to the doctor and the doctor said his ears were full of wax and he needed to get them cleaned.

Here is my brother Brian with the twins Abbey and Katey. I think they are watching the Little Mermaid. Can you tell he wants some siblings? He is the last child. My sister is 6 years older then him and I am 8 years older than him.
I jut got Photoshop, so I was playing around with the features, trying to remember everything I learned. I wanted to make some zits on my sister's face, but I couldn't remember, so you will have to settle for a deformed face. I am sure she won't like this. :)Here we are at the Amazing Maze (and other attractions). There is a human maze (in the background) that you can walk through. We did it boys against girls and the girls won, of course. It didn't help that we have done it a million times and the boys had never done it besides Brian, who ended up leaving Jeff and Zach because they were taking so long. He made it out within minutes of leaving them. It took Jeff and Zach another 20 minutes or so to get out. Here we are playing mini golf. My Dad, Zach, Jeff and Brian.
Here's a better pic of my sister.
My sister and me.
Here's one of Jeff, happy as can be. I think he won or tied with my Dad.
Here's Jeff and I doing bumper cars. I had the SLOWEST car out there. Every single person passed me! Here is Jeff passing me. I let him because I felt bad for keeping him behind me smelling my gas the whole time. :)
Here are all of us doing bumper boats and right after that. We were all soaked, but it felt great. It was so hot outside! Yes, Montana does get up to 100 degrees!
Another of my brother with Abbey just because I love him!

The last day we were there, we got to watch my brother pitch in a baseball game. He is VERY good! It was the championship game and the team they were playing 10-runned them last time, which means they scored 10 runs more than my brother's team and so ended the game early. My brother wasn't there to pitch that game, so I was really impressed when he did pitch and they still lost but he held them down to 2 runs. The final score was 2-0. If only they played 9 innings, I think they would have won! The problem was the other team has a guy who plays in college on their team. He is HUGE! The only way I can think to describe him is he is like Hagar in Harry Potter compared to "normal" people. They call him Moose. He is their pitcher and throws 90 mile an hour pitches...only he doesn't have the best control, which is his weakness. He hit the ump twice and a couple batters. They were in PAIN! After the game, everyone came up and congratulated Brian and said that was the best game they have ever seen him pitch! I am so glad I got to see it!
After the game with the star!
One last pic of MT so everyone can see how beautiful it is! This pic does not even do it justice. Can you tell I love it!? I am a little biased, but it really is a beautiful place to visit/live. This is Flathead Lake, which is 35 miles long and takes an hour to drive the length.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Our Apartment

We have moved in to our apartment and unpacked everything. I only lost a couple things, that I can remember...my measuring cups and spoons and a couple really nice spatulas. I am sure there were other things in the box with them, but I can't yet remember, so I hope they weren't too important!

Our apartment is...nice enough. We have brand new carpet, which definitly makes up for the other problems, such as wallpaper in both bathrooms, dining room, and kitchen. I wish the pics I took with my camera would have turned out, but the photos just don't do it justice, so I will describe it to you. This will also give you a taste of Kentucky decorating techniques (nonexistent). First, everyone here LOVES wallpaper, as previously noted by the fact that four out of the seven rooms have wallpaper on every wall. The kitchen is my favorite though. It it green and white striped. The thing that gets me is that the person who put it up didn't really care that it was all going the same way. They laid some vertically and then right next to it were horizontal stripes. Can I say tacky and lazy and UGLY?

We confronted management about this little problem, how we were promised white walls and they said they would come and paint, only they would not take down the wallpaper first. Again, tacky! So Jeff and I have been taking wallpaper down the past couple days. If you ever have to tackle this project, please let me know because I am an expert! The secret is apple cider vinegar! Yes, that is all. Just fill a spray bottle and spray the wallpaper, let it soak, and it peels off in huge chunks. We only have one bathroom left and we are "done." Then there's still sanding, caulking, priming and finally painting. Needless to say, we are still pretty upset about the whole situation, but are trying to work through it. I will post some pics when we are done.

I forgot to mention that cleaning in Kentucky means something totally different as well. Clean here means that you don't have to sweep or mop, clean toilets (yes, they had black mold in them when we moved in), wash counters, clean fridges, vacuum, wash blinds caked with years of dust, wash window sills with dead spiders/bugs, clean spiders out of the showers, fix leaky faucets, fix windows that leak and don't open more than 4 inches, clean ovens, clean mildew/mold in the bathroom, and you don't need a bar for the toilet paper to spin on. We listed all these on our move-in sheet and management said they would fix it all tomorrow. Well, 10 tomorrows later we still haven't heard anything or seen maintenance doing anything but driving around in their stupid gold cart! Jeff is going to go talk to them today. I will keep you posted on how it goes!

Comparison Shot

So I thought I would post a couple pics of my progressing belly. Although I am considered by most people to be really small still, I am starting to feel huge and I still have four months to go! I finally gained a couple pounds and expect them to start coming quickly over the next month or two. Jeff said that I actually look pregnant now and that people would be able to tell. What do you think? The first pic is of me at three months pregnant. I already noticed a small swelling in my lower abdomen, but when I saw this pic I realized I would be the only one to notice. The next pic is me now, about five pounds heavier and five months pregnant.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

It's a...

Well, we found out today what we are having...a baby! Just teasing. We are having a bouncing baby boy! The ultrasound tech said things look good, so hopefully that means everything really is good. The doctor still has to look at it, but he measures exactly on for his size and was moving all over the place! It was really neat to see.

We are off to Kentucky tomorrow for dental school. Wish us luck and think of us on our long drive over there. 55 mph with a 26' Penske truck pulling a car behind. I will post pics when we get there and have internet access again. We just got back from MT yesterday and tomorrow we are leaving Utah forever! Can you tell I am not sad?

I also definitely feel the baby move now. I have been feeling it for two weeks now. It is really neat.

Monday, July 2, 2007

Our Story

I am going to take a friend's challenge to write about how Jeff and I met. This is a confusing story, but really soap opera-like. It would be much better if Days of Our Lives told the story, but all you have is me, so bear with me! Also, this is really long and probably too detailed, but I wanted to remember all of it for me because I haven't written it down yet. Here goes!

It all begins before Jeff and I even met at my Freshman year of college here at BYU. I had some girlfriends that I hung out with. One was named Crystal and another Maria. I also had a boyfriend that I hung out with quite a bit. We were as serious as you can be before a guy's mission and planned on getting married when he got back from his mission. His name was Joseph. During that year, I was Relief Society President in my ward and so met quite a bit with the bishop. During one random meeting, the bishop gave me a blessing as I was struggling to balance school, friends, and my calling. In the blessing he said that I haven't yet met the person I was going to marry. I freaked out! I was in love with this kid and was very very upset. I didn't tell Joseph for awhile, but then finally told him right before we split the end of our Freshman year and he went on his mission. He was as distraught as I was and we just interpreted it to mean that it could be he isn't the man I am going to marry...YET. :) But I later asked the bishop about it and he said although he couldn't remember giving me the blessing, he felt to tell me that I had interpreted it correctly...whatever that means! Anyway, Joseph went on his mission and I continued going to school, faithfully writing him every week and not dating pretty much anyone for about 23 months into his 24 month mission.

Joseph was scheduled to be home July 2nd. A couple months prior to that, I was visiting my uncle and aunt in St. George, Utah. I was pretty sick physically at that point in my life and asked my uncle for a blessing. In in he said I would be healed and more importantly, he said that my eternal companion was within arms reach and Heavenly Father had prepared and chosen someone for me to marry. Of course at the time, I thought it was Joseph because he was coming home in a couple months.

Meanwhile, this whole time, my friend Maria from Freshman year and I were meeting for lunch every week and hanging out. I would always ask how Crystal (my other friend from Freshman year and roommate of Maria at the time) and her boyfriend (Jeff-my husband) were doing. She would tell me that they just needed to break up, that Crystal was a mess and they fought all the time. About the end of April, they did break up and Maria and I moved in with each other for Spring term. So then Crystal's ex-boyfriend and all his roommates would come over to our apartment Spring term to watch cable TV (ESPN).

When I met Jeff, he had just broken up with Crystal, who was my friend, I only had two months before Joseph got home, I was still smitten by the memory of Joseph, and I assumed I had already been told in a blessing that I was going to marry Joseph.

Back to Jeff: I was not interested in Jeff at all when I first met him. My guess is this is because he and his roommates were all really cute and I never thought I would have a chance with any of them and cute boys are always stuck up and think they are too good for you, plus Joseph got home really soon.

One day he asked me to hang out and go to the mall with him, then get something to eat. He said he had a couple shirts he wanted to buy and wanted a girl's professional opinion, so I went and we had fun. Then we went to Cafe Rio to eat and shared a burrito. It was yummy and I was confused...I was starting to look forward to him coming over to hang out with my roommates and me. He would even skip out on watching ESPN with his roommates at my apartment to play Phase 10 with me or help me cook in the kitchen. And I found Jeff coming over more and more and more. In fact, he did not play those dating games at all. When he was not at work, he was at my house. If he got off at 11:30 p.m., I could count on him being there at 11:35 p.m. One time I was so confused because I realized I was starting to have feelings for him that I turned off all the lights and pretended I was not home so he wouldn't come over after work one night. I needed time to think. I could tell he was home because of his 1972 Chevy Nova that drove by my apartment before heading on to his.

But then I knew I liked him "for reals" when I went on a date with a boy and made sure I was home by 11:30 p.m. so I would get to see Jeff when he got off work. We held hands during the movie "School of Rock" for the first time. I was so excited and felt butterflies galore! Then we kissed after watching "Pirates of the Carribean" on my laptop one night. The kiss kind of killed things though...We both talked about it later and were like, "Hmmmmm...that wasn't really that good." Which is why I broke up with him the next day. By that time his roommates hated me. They thought I was stuck up and mean. But then we got back together again on conditions that we wouldn't kiss and get serious and then I broke up with him again and then we got back together again and stayed together...until I broke up with him again a couple months later!

Then Jeff decided to go home for the summer and me too. He lives in Portland and I have family there who I nannied for, so I decided to go with him, as well as one of my girlfriends. It was on the way out there that I decided to break up with Jeff again and for good. Joseph was coming home and I didn't want to lead him on and my feelings were so jumbled up and confused. I even told my girlfriend about this while Jeff slept in the back seat. Then I met his family and we spent time together and had so much fun and then I realized that I was actually starting to really like him...

I went home to MT and he stayed in Portland to work. Joseph came home and called me. Oftentimes I would be on the phone with Joseph and Jeff would beep in and when Jeff beeped in I found myself annoyed with Joseph for wanting to keep talking. I would find excuses so I could get off the phone with Joseph. I eventually told Joseph about Jeff and Jeff already knew about Joseph. I continued to talk on the phone with both of them. Joseph sent me flowers and bought a plane ticket to come out to visit me in MT. I was excited but nervous as I realized that I liked both of them and didn't want to hurt either.

Joseph and I drove back to Utah together for school the beginning of August. He said I love you and held my hand and even kissed me and it felt nice but I was so confused. Joseph was there with me but Jeff was in Portland. I decided about the middle of August that I had to make a decision. I was feeling tremendous guilt over the whole situation and got absolutely NO ANSWER when I prayed, so I chose Joseph because he was familiar and there at the time. I called Jeff and told him and he was very supportive and didn't say much on the phone. I felt nothing at all when I got off the phone with him and nothing with Joseph. This part makes me sick to my stomach whenever I think about it.

I continued to break up with Joseph and get back together with him like I did Jeff for two weeks. Then Jeff came back to Utah and I saw him. I called him to see if he would like to go shopping with me. He said okay. We went and had an alright time. I could tell he was very distant. Then we went back to my apartment and watched a movie. We held hands. I broke up with Joseph that night. Joseph was mad, and I felt bad, but I just needed some time to think.

A couple nights later, I called Jeff and asked if I could talk to him for a minute. It was late and right after a football game. He said sure and came over to talk. We went for a drive and I told him then that I loved him. I spent my time at the football game with Joseph and Josh together (wierd, huh?) and realized then that I loved him. Jeff told me he needed time and that I should date other people. If I was still around when he was ready to date, then maybe it would work out then, but he didn't know if he still liked me anymore. I was devastated.

This went on for two months, him avoiding me and me crying. I was so confused! I knew that I didn't love or like Joseph, although he was still coming around. Then one night I lost it and told Joseph that I didn't love him, that I loved Jeff but I couldn't have him and I was sorry, but he (Joseph) needed to move on. I really hurt him that night, but he said something to me that really made me respect him even after all I had put him through. He said that if Jeff doesn't come around then it is his loss and he doesn't know what he is losing. Joseph never spoke with me again after that but he did get married to a girl in March who he met in November.

I turned my attention to Jeff then. We studied in the same place and I knew he still had to like me at least a little because he would have left that study area in the library if he didn't want to see me. Whenever we would see each other, Jeff would always ask me if I still felt the same way. I would always say yes. He would then ask me if I was dating anyone. I would say no. This went on for a couple months. Sometimes Jeff would let me in a bit, only to put up a wall again. All in all, if it wasn't for Jeff's roommate, Viddy, Jeff and I may not have gotten back together. He would always tell Jeff when he saw me on campus, that I still liked him, that I was a good girl and why doesn't he take me on a date? One day Jeff got so fed up with it that he told Viddy to date me himself!

Eventually, by some miracle, Jeff did come around and slowly but surely we ended up at the same parties and ended up sitting next to each other or talking together the whole time. By Halloween of that year, we had once again kissed. He told me that part of the reason he was so hesitant to date me again was because he knew it wouldn't just be for fun. We had already done that. When we kissed I was in heaven and it was definitely a 180 from our other first kiss. Fireworks must have gone off! We were married six months later and have been happy ever since!

Telling this story has been really nice. It makes me love him all the more!